blondie [muke af]

seven

seven

Cyril was crying, a lot. Full blown tears were streaming down his face. He was pacing Michael's office, yelling at his older brother. "Mike, I don't get it!" He was referring to Algebra, but Michael was pretty sure it was something more than just his homework bothering him. 

Michael took a deep breath as he tried to rub his back, but he flinched away. 

"You can't just give up, keep trying. I know you aren't the type to just give up."

"You aren't allowed to tell me who I am and who I'm not! You're never even home, Michael! You have no idea who I am!" He collapsed his body into a ball in the chair next to the large oak desk. He had his head laying on his knees as his body shook with sobs. 

"Okay," Michael sighed, standing up. He packed up the papers, shoving them into Cyril's satchel. He took his coat from the back of his seat, wrapping it around Cy's shoulders. The younger boy sniffled, trying not to show just how much he was truly crying. He held the jacket closer, embracing himself in Michael's scent. "I have to do a few more things, then we can go home," he whispered, pressing his lips to the fourteen year old's forehead. 

Luke wrapped his ripped up denim jacket closer to his body as he roamed around his small studio apartment. He opened the fridge, the light illuminating his dark apartment. He was craving snack foods, yet hasn't had the energy to go grocery shopping in weeks. 

He shut the door harshly, angry at himself and his growling stomach. It was half an hour until midnight and he was bored to tears. 

Michael ran a hand through Cy's hair as they both sat at the office with sleepy eyes. Fast food bags were on the floor, surrounding them. Cy's heavy head was resting on Michael's desk as the older Clifford went through his website. Tech had told Mike that they added a new page, but he's pretty sure he just deleted it. 

He crunched on the pretzels in the bowl to his left, trying to figure out how to undo his mistake. He didn't know lots of technology-advanced people who'd be up at such a late hour.

Luke's cell phone echoed through the two hundred square foot apartment. He knew his neighbors were going to have a fit at Luke's quirks of not sleeping (at all). His pale, bare feet paddled across the floor as he belly-flopped onto his bed, reaching over to pause his music. 

He rolled onto his back, stretching his legs towards the cracked ceiling. "Hello?" He asked. He was frowning as he discovered a hole in his black leggings.

"Hey, Blondie, it's Mike. I need your help."

Luke quirked his head to the right, even though his boss couldn't see him. "With?" He took out a bottle of lilac nail polish, adding a top layer onto his chipping toe nails. 

"I think I deleted a page on my website."

"How'd you manage to do that?" Luke asked, keeping his tone mellow and calm. 

Michael's voice was more serious and slightly petrifying, "If I knew, don't you think I would've fixed it by now?"

The blonde wanted to call Michael out on his attitude. But, looking at his empty fridge, Luke realized that he can't afford to lose a paycheck. "Okay, fine. Go into the system, it should be under Jon's desktop sharing. In a folder, you'll find every page to your website. Export it as a PDF then movie it over to HTML format," Luke rambled on and on as Michael's head spun more and more. 

He rubbed at his green eyes, finally interrupting, "Can you just come in and help?"

Luke sighed dramatically, "Let me finish painting my nails."

"Are you seriously choosing your nails over me?" Michael laughed, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest. "You're a special one, Hemmings."

It took a half hour for Luke to get a few blocks over.

"Okay, now we just drag the exported file from the," he paused, searching the desktop, "Where is your downloads file?" Luke asked, looking back at Michael. The blonde was leaning over Mike's large desk, trying to whisper as the sleeping teenager snored beside him.

"Oh, I think I deleted that a few months ago," Michael answered, biting down on his bottom lip.

"Can you not press the delete button for, like, three seconds?" Luke scrolled back to the spotlight and started to search for the missing documents. 

Michael let his eyes wander to Luke's body. The black leggings were clinging to his skin so tight, he swore they were painted on. An oversized tee shirt fell to his mid thighs. The way he leant over the desk, his bum was on perfect view, and, wow, it was getting Mike uncomfortable. 

Luke's ripped denim jacket was hanging on the back of Michael's chair, he took it off after the fifth time trying to explain how to export a document to the older man.

"I still can't figure out how you deleted an entire page off your website, Mike, that takes real talent." Luke swayed on his feet, his knees aching from leaning over the desk for too long.

"Well, you know me." Michael pretend to flip his hair off his shoulder, causing Luke to break out into soft giggles. 

He turned back around, facing the computer as his head rested on his cold hands. Michael glanced over at Cy once more. He ran his thumb over the dry texture of his high cheekbones, they were stained with his tears and Mike hated that.

Luke watched from the corner of his eye as Michael soothingly rubbed his hands through the teenager's hair, a sad smile on his face. "Is that your brother?" Luke asked.

"Yeah," Michael sighed, "he's had a bad day."

"School?" Luke asked again, hoping he wasn't prying into family problems. He just felt bad, in all honesty. Michael was way over his head and everyone knew it. "I hated school, wanted to drop out so badly around his age."

"What did you do?" Michael looked over at Luke, who was now leaning against the desk. The dark-haired boy needed advice and had no one. Neither of his parents had siblings, leaving him without aunts and uncles and cousins. His friends didn't know how to take care of a fourteen year old, they were too busy getting high as a kite every night. 

Michael wishes his life was a little different.

"I went to an online school for a while, just to clear my head until I was ready to get myself together," Luke responded, running a hand through his hair. "Make sure your brother knows you love and support him, that you'll be there for him forever. That's all I really needed when I was growing up, I just didn't get it for a bit."

Michael looked at his brother again, his hand still running through the knotted brown hair. "I'm just scared," he admitted. 

Mike was showing a side to him that no one has ever seen. It was compassion, love, worry.