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"alright, who's on their period?" ashton hears luke call out as he emerges from
the bathroom.
"what the fuck are you talking about?" michael asks, chuckling lightly.
"i'm talking about blood smeared all over the bathroom counter," luke explains.
"now who was it?"
"wasn't me." michael shrugs. "cal?"
"no. you know if there was blood i would've flat out died."
"true." michael nods. "ash, you're the only remaining suspect."
"yeah, sorry. i just had a nose bleed earlier," ashton explains, stretching the
truth quite a large bit.
"oh. sorry about the period joke then, mate," luke says, seemingly halfhearted,
continuing off into the living room.
{***}
"ashton?" there's a knock at the bathroom door.
fuck, who the hell is that and what does he want? ashton has a schedule-- a very
well thought out schedule, to be specific. at one a.m. calum and luke are well
into a deep sleep and michael is too engrossed in his video game to be aware of
his surroundings. from one to one thirty, ashton has his time. nice time to
watch thick, crimson liquid spill from his skin.
"ashton, it's luke." luke. what does that fucker want? "ash, i know you're in
there. will you let me in or at least answer me?"
"what is it luke? why aren't you asleep?" ashton struggles out from his dry
throat.
"i-i had a nightmare…" luke mumbles. "you're the only one not asleep or
oblivious to the rest of the world." well ashton /was/ oblivious to the rest of
the world until you appeared, thank you very much.
"go to my room. i-i'll be there in a minute," ashton tells the adorable boy
outside the door. it's his little antics like this that make ashton's heart
melt.
ashton wraps his raw wrist in toilet paper and conceals the paper with
bracelets. the paper isn't visible at all under the various bracelets and ashton
is satisfied with the finished product, so he heads off to his room where lukey
boy is waiting.
"you okay?" luke asks. ashton climbs into the bed next to luke and lays down,
making an unspoken request for not much talk and very much sleep.
"yeah, just another nose bleed," ashton replies. he does feel bad lying to luke,
but it's not like luke can do anything about it anyway.
"since when are you prone to nose bleeds?"
"it just started happening recently," ashton shrugs. "what was your nightmare?"
"i don't even know," luke quietly admits. "do you ever have those dreams where
you /know/ something bad is going to happen, even when nothing has happened yet,
so you try to wake yourself up even before the bad things happen?" damn. since
when does luke have such a deep mind? of course ashton hasn't had those kind of
dreams-- he dreams about meeting jessica biel or what it would be like to not
have a dick.
"no. it's possible to have those?"
"yeah, i have them all the time," luke quietly admits. "am i weird? is that
weird?"
"nah," ashton replies. "i'm a simple-minded boy; you're a genius boy. i bet all
geniuses dream about that-"
"ashton, why the fuck do you have toilet paper on your wrist?" luke is angry.
luke is so, so, so angry. luke is even more angry when ashton doesn't reply.
"answer. me."
"i- it must have gotten stuck in between my-"
"don't lie to me!" luke yells. luke can angrily yell? who knew.
"shh-"
"no! what the fuck have you been doing to yourself, ashton? take off your
bracelets before i do and, trust me, you do not want me to fucking take off your
bracelets." ashton sits up straight. he can't believe he's about to do this.
he's going to take off his bracelets and show luke his cuts-- his raw ones and
his scars.
he can't help but whimper. what will luke say? luke's going to send him away to
some mental health facility.
"don't cry," luke whispers. how the hell did he get so sympathetic in a matter
of thirty seconds?
maybe it had been a few minutes or so though. ashton is having such a mental
breakdown as of right now, he doesn't have a concept of much of anything.
"ash, stop," luke mutters, reaching out to wipe a tears off ashton's cheek.
"babe, i'm serious."
ashton's mind is too preoccupied to even notice the "babe."
slowly but surely, ashton removes each and every bracelet from his wrists. he
isn't quite comfortable with it, but he lets luke take off the blood-stained
toilet paper.
"this is what you were doing in the bathroom," luke states, and with that, all
the walls come crumbling down. "the blood in the bathroom this morning…" ashton
nods, ashamed. he doesn't want to be such a freak. he especially doesn't want
luke to know about this.
"i'm sorry," ashton chokes out. luke sighs and reaches out to pull ashton into
his chest.
"don't you dare be sorry," luke mumbles into ashton's hair. "i'm gonna help you
with this, okay? you won't do this again on my watch, got that irwin?"
"l-luke?" ashton stammers. he can't believe luke doesn't want to disown him
after this.
"hmm?"
"will you do me one last favor?" ashton says it so quietly, he can barely hear
himself.
"what's that babe?" luke asks, making ashton rethink his request.
"well maybe two…" ashton admits shyly.
"what is it ash?"
"first, will you not tell cal and mike about this? not now at least."
"sure thing. what's the other thing?"
"will you call me babe more often?"