Nutella (Alternate Version)

. 72 .

"Calum, you're being an ass." Michael states as they sit in Michael's bed. Calum rolls his eyes. He's just told Michael about his and lukes conversation.

"He practically admitted he's only doing it because he feels guilty and feels like he has to. He doesn't want to Michael. I'm just trying to... make him make the right decision." Calum justifies. He cares about Luke and he will not see him be pressured into doing this because he feels like a burden to them.

"We don't get to decide what the right decision is for him, Calum. We can just be good friends by supporting him and helping him thrive with whatever decision he makes." Michael sighs.

"I'm not supporting him if he chooses to put himself in an unsafe and unhappy situation."

"You're being dramatic."

"How dare you." He says over dramatically and then sighs and grabs Michael's hands. "Really Michael, I think we need to talk to him more, if we can, about how he feels about everything. I swear I'm not being selfish- maybe a little bit, but I'm genuinely looking out for lukes best interest. It really sounded like he was only trying to go because he felt like he had to. He was talking about you paying for him and being a burden and us not being able to have sex and how he's supposed to be there for Ashton and... it just doesn't sound like he actually wants to Michael, I'm serious, and I'm not helping him do it, especially since he's doing it for all the wrong reasons. I mean, he can't even go in headspace he's so conflicted. We need to get him to talk more to help you both understand." Calum reasons calmly and Michael sighs.

"I understand where you're coming from babe. You might be right, Luke is very kind and considerate and even if we do our best to tell him he isn't he might still feel like a burden and push himself because of it, I don't want that either. I'll make sure to have a conversation with him, okay? You're welcome to join if you think you can help him be more honest and realize that we really want him here."

"I think I know exactly how to make him realize I want him here." Calum mumbles and Michael frowns.

"I hope that doesn't mean what I think it means." He warns and Calum looks at him and sighs.

"I genuinely have really strong feelings for Luke, Michael. I know you do too." Calum says shamelessly and Michael rolls his eyes.

"Luke is in a relationship and we'd be bad friends if-"

"Barely, Ashton doesn't deserve him. And we would not. Maybe to Ashton, but not to Luke. Why don't we let him make up his own mind about it, hm?" Calum throws Michael's words back at him.

"I don't think it's fair to add more things onto lukes shoulders to weigh or try to influence his decision that way, Calum."

"I don't think it's fair to let him make a decision without knowing all his options."

"Not to mention, something like that would be a huge change and transition for Luke that he might not be ready for emotionally right now and we dont want him to feel pressured into it, right?" Michael adds and Calum sighs.

"I don't know. Sure, I can see that." The Maori relents and Michael smiles.

"I'll talk to him when I can, okay? Don't worry."

"I think we should talk to him now." Calum interjects, standing to head to fetch the boy, and Michael sighs.

"Well, if he's up for it. Don't make him though." Michael warns and Calum waves him off.

"Hey Lukey!" He calls as he comes into their room where lukes just scrolling on his phone.

"Yeah?"

"Me and Mikey wanna talk to you, okay?" He says softly and Luke frowns but nods, standing and nervously following the brunette to Michael's room.

"Nothings wrong, don't be nervous." Calum soothes. Luke smiles at the reassurance as he follows Calum in and sits with him on the bed.

"Hey." Michael says and Luke smiles softly.

"Hi."

"Calum told me some things you said to him and I want to talk to you about it, okay?" Luke frowns and nods, listening.

"He said you were worried about being a burden on us?" Michael starts, waiting for the blonde to elaborate.

"I... I mean, another mouth to feed and person to dress... and time and... I mean Ashton seemed tired sometimes with just me so I can't imagine taking care not just Calum but me too is easy..." Luke awkwardly explains and Michael takes his hand reassuringly.

"I understand what you're saying, but financially, there is no stress at all, okay luke? I'm happy to buy both of you anything you need, alright? You don't need to worry about that. And you guys are not hard to take care of, I love having both of you, and in fact it's even nice that you keep eachother entertained. I think everything in that department is working out great, okay? Perfect even. I love having both of you here, okay? I love taking care of you." Michael explains. He tries to word it in a neutral way that doesn't make it seem like he expects Luke to stay forever if he doesn't want to but also doesn't expect him to leave. He tries to leave Ashton out of the conversation entirely. "Is there anything else?" Michael asks. Luke doesn't exactly want to talk about the sex thing with him, he keeps that concern to himself.

"I... I don't know. I - I feel bad, for Ashton. I know you always say I'm not responsible for his emotions, but... I just... I feel bad that I don't want to live with him." Calum can't help but smile small in victory at the admittance that Luke wants to stay here.

"I understand. But you need to do what's best for you." The caregiver says in a serious tone and Luke nods.

"The bottom line is, I don't want you to push yourself to go visit Ashton or work towards living with him for the wrong reasons or because you feel this way. You don't ever have to do that if that's not what's best for you. Okay?"

Luke smiles, awkward but sincere, and nods. "Thankyou." He whispers and leans into Calum who's next to him, smiling fondly down at him.

"So you don't want to go to ashtons for lunch Sunday anymore?" Calum asks presumptuously and Luke blushes bright red.

"Calum!" Michael scolds and Calum grins innocently and then looks back at luke, who shyly shakes his head.

"Don't wanna." He mumbles, looking with nervous eyes to Michael.

"Is dat okay? Not... not mad?" He mumbles and Michael smiles.

"Of course not honey. I'm glad you were able to slip back into your headspace again, baby." He coos and Luke grins, climbing into Michael's lap to hug him. It's almost funny how obvious it is that Luke being unable to slip was due to the stress from the whole thing by how quickly he's able to slip once it's done.

"Cmere Lukey." Calum summons and Luke grins and crawls into his lap and cuddles up.