inevitable entanglements » a.i. + l.h.

29

While Gabriel was off taking care of Calum's siblings, Luke and Ashton spent their time watching over the boy himself. Their presence wasn't really necessary because Michael rarely left his side, but the couple had grown fond of him over the past few days, especially now that Michael had drugged him. Calum had finally asked him for pain killers and despite the side effects that were bound to occur, he'd went out and found him some opium. After all, what could be worse than having to lay in bed all day without moving an inch and still suffering from unbearable pain?

“I like your curls, Sir Ashton.”

Calum mused, lifting his hand in the air as if he was twirling the boy's curls around his fingers. It seemed like there had been a filter taken off of his mouth, but nobody minded. Quite the opposite actually, they were glad that they could finally hold a conversation without having to worry about reassuring him that they meant no harm. It was a great achievement, especially since they were alone with him for a moment.

“Would you like to touch them?”

Ashton asked, trying his hardest to suppress a giggle. Calum nodded vigorously and his eyes widened when Ashton lowered his head to let him stroke the locks. “So soft,” he muttered, gently petting him like most would do with a cat or a dog.

It was a little bit sad, because the only reason why his hair was that soft was that he had been a member of the high society all his life and could therefore wash his hair with expensive soaps coming from the other side of the world.

“I like your hair too, Sir Luke. How did you make it do the thing?”

The thing, as Calum referred to it, was making his hair stand up, making it several inches high. It was a very uncommon thing and he'd never met anyone with hair like that before.

“I ran my hand through my hair over and over again. Now it's kind of stuck that way, I think.”

Luke explained in amusement. He himself had never taken any opium, the side effects would have been worse than his pain. Ashton just smiled fondly at him, admiring his blond hair once again. When they had only just met, when he still had to roam the castle t find him, it had always been the first thing that came to mind when he thought of the other boy. His blond hair was the only thing that made him stand out in a crowd.

Now when he thought of Luke, so much more things came to mind. His smile and his laugh, that had stayed hidden for so long, his tender touch or the taste of his lips.

“I like your hair, Calum.”

Ashton said, studying the dark locks that he kept wanting to brush out of his eyes.

“Not as much as Sir Luke's though,” Calum smiled brightly, “because you love Sir Luke.”

“Yes, I do love him.”

Ashton agreed and he gave Luke a chaste kiss on the lips. Even though Calum was older than Luke, and therefore not a child anymore, and was probably more experienced than any of them, Michael had explicitly forbidden them to do anything sexually. He was afraid that it might trigger him, which was understandable. So despite the constant desire to touch and kiss one another, they didn't mind following his rules. They had already upset Calum once after all.

“And I love him too,” Luke grinned. “But I have to agree with Ashton. Your hair is really cool, it's a little wavy. It reminds me of the sea. Have you ever seen the sea?”

Calum shook his head, his hands softly touching his temple to feel his hair and try to imagine what waves were like. He'd only ever seen oceans on paintings.

“That's too bad. Maybe we'll take you there some day. We should all go to the sea and watch the waves and the ships. I used to love watching the ships, I could do it for hours on end. Some were small, some were large. And the horizon is so beautiful, almost as beautiful as Ashton.” Michael hadn't said anything about being mushy. Besides, Calum's eyes seemed to light up every time the two did something couple-y. “Sometimes you can barely see the difference between the sky and the sea, it's one big blue mess.”