Nutella (Alternate Version)

. 67 .

Michael smiles as he watches the two boys color together in the play room. Luke woke up in headspace and has been fine so far today, and hes relieved. The past weeks been rough, lukes nightmares occurring frequently and stopping the boy from easily slipping into headspace when he pleases due to the stress.

The man cringes at his phone when it vibrates and he sees the caller id, stepping away from the boys and into another room before answering.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Michael? It's Ashton." The man answers, sounding a bit nervous.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Um, well, I'm out of rehab, I'm back in my apartment and everything... I was wondering if maybe I could talk to Luke? If... he's comfortable with that?" Ashton explains and Michael glances towards the boys thoughtfully.

"Lukes in headspace right now, he's... he's been having nightmares and so it's been hard for him to get in headspace, I don't really want to take him out right now, he's having fun with Calum. I'm glad you're out and settling in, though man. Next time I can get him out I'll talk to him about it and let you know." Michael decides after a moment of thought.

"Lukes having nightmares again?" Ashton says, sounding upset enough that Michael assumes the man can guess exactly what kind of nightmares Luke might be having.

"Yeah... yeah, I mean, he's fine but sleep and headspace are a bit rough right now." Michael sighs.

"Oh... well, if... if you think he'll be comfortable with it, let him know I love him and I miss him and I'm here whenever he's ready." Ashton says. Michael nods.

"Yeah. I'll let you know how Luke feels about talking to you, alright?" The caregiver says and Ashton sighs.

"Yeah, Thankyou. Thanks, really, for everything, Michael."

"Yeah, man. Good luck. Bye." Michael ends the conversation and makes his way back to the playroom, mood a bit gloomier now. He knows he should feel happy about the progress, about ashton getting better and wanting to make progress towards mending his relationship with Luke, but he just can't find it in himself to be happy about any of it. He feels dreadful and gloomy. He blames it on worrying about the rough transition, that it's not really that he doesn't want the progress to happen, that he's only dreading it because he knows it'll be rough on Luke, on all of them. But really, he's not sure if he feels like going back to Ashton is what's right for the blonde.

"Daddy?" Calum asks timidly and Michael glances to him.

"Yes baby, what's up?"

"Was that Ashton?" Calum asks, looking irritated. Michael sighs and glances to Luke, who seems to be in a very young headspace as he pays no attention to the twos conversation and babbles as he messes with some stuffies.

"Yes love." He answers quietly.

"What's he want?" Calum asks and Michael frowns.

"Honey, stop having such a bad attitude. He just wanted to let me know he's out of rehab and in his apartment and to see if he could talk to Luke on the phone, I told him it wasn't a good time." Calum sighs in relief and nods smugly and Michael rolls his eyes. The boy is horrible and concealing his feelings in headspace.

"Don't act this way about ash in front of Luke." Michael warms and Calum rolls his eyes.

"I'll act how I want."

"I mean it calum. Lukes feelings about Ashton are up to Luke, I don't want your attitude to affect him." Michael warns in a stern quiet voice.

"I just want what's best for Luke." Calum sneers and Michael clenches his jaw at the implication that he doesn't.