waitress // lrh

17 // baby

// luke //

Just because he was mates with Michael and Ashton didn't mean they weren't irritating to the point of insanity.

Currently, Luke was sitting against his headboard, Cate leaning against him with a cautious arm draped around his waist, fiddling with the buttons on his open shirt. Michael was sitting on top of his desk, and Ashton took a seat on the floor, a carton of chocolate milk in his hand.

"How tall was he?"

"Can we not talk about it?" Luke grumbled, his hand resting on Cate's lower back. His thumb was absentmindedly drawing slow, deliberate circles against her clothed skin, which he didn't know was driving her insane. A different kind of insane than the point of what Luke was getting to, but insane nevertheless.

"Well, we need to know what he looks like in case we see him," Ashton piped up, wiping froth from the milk off of his upper lip.

Michael grinned, showing all of his teeth. "Exactly. We were sent here to protect you, not keep you company. That's Tiny Hood's job." He gestured at the little girl sitting on Luke's mattress.

"Also, why are your pants halfway down your legs?" Ashton frowned.

Luke groaned, throwing his head back. "It was so she could clean up my leg."

"What was wrong with your leg?" He frowned further.

"Oh, it's not like I was stabbed or anything," he quipped sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

Michael furrowed his brow in confusion. "Really? I thought Calum said you were."

"Maybe he imagined it-" Ashton started to say, Mikey nodding in agreement.

Catelynn just giggled.

"Do you like want a pair of sweatpants or whatever? If Calum comes back anytime soon..." Ashton trailed off, his eyes widening with a slight shake of his head, as if to gesture what might happen. They all were aware of how bad it would look for Calum's baby sister to be sitting right next to him without any pants on.

Luke exhaled heavily. "Yeah, yeah, you're probably right. There's a pair in my dresser, third drawer I think."

Ashton and Michael didn't move to go get them, so Cate slipped out from Luke's comforting grasp and kneeled in front of his small wooden dresser.

She returned with his grey sweats held gently on her hand, holding it out for him to take. As he went to bend forwards and untie his beaten up Converse, he bit back an obvious yelp of pain, freezing where he was.

Cate bit her lip, unsure of whether or not to help. However, Ashton and Michael had leapt up the second he groaned, so they took care of it. She really wanted to help- it hurt to see Luke in pain- but she wasn't sure how she could.

"I want the left one," Ashton whined, before getting whacked on the arm by Michael.

"Too bad, milky, too slow," he quipped, already untying the laces.

"Milky?" Ashton gasped. "Milky?"

Michael laughed, tugging the shoe off of Luke's abnormally large foot and tossing it on the floor. Ashton grumbled, taking longer to pull the shoelaces apart than Michael.

Once his shoes were both off, they went to tug his jeans off, but Luke stopped them.

"Please stop, fucking Christ, you guys are violent," he held out a hand, clearly exasperated.

They backed off, resuming their seats. Luke awkwardly tugged them down his legs, clearly in pain but not wanting any help. With a rough exhale, he wrenched them off of his ankles, setting them on the bed beside him.