Don't Focus on the Pastel {5SOS;MALUM&LASHTON}✔️

Sixteen- "Breathing Pretty Flowers."

Michael watched as Luke whispered to Ashton, the younger man seemingly not listening by the bored look on his face as he stared down at his boots. Luke looked almost desperate but Michael probably couldn't see him properly since he was hiding behind the wall. He strained to hear what he was saying, failing since Luke was talking so lowly.

Cautiously he stepped from where he was, out in the open for Luke to look at and making Ashton look up at Luke's sudden silence. He flickered his eyes between the two of them, waiting for one of them to speak but Luke looked more exhausted and Ashton looked to unamused to speak up. Swallowing roughly, he scratched the nape of his neck, directing his eyes downwards as he forced himself to speak up.

"Um, it's-it's the thirty...thirty first." He muttered out.

"I'll take Michael out since you're obviously not in the right headspace to do it." Ashton snatched the keys from Luke's grip, using the heels of his boots to turn around and stalk past Michael.

The blond only sighed to himself, swiftly walking past Michael in the opposite directing further into the house. He could hear a door slam, assuming it was either to Luke's office or the basement, before Ashton called his name and he left the spot he was awkwardly standing in to go outside. Ashton had heart shaped glasses on his face, fitting the rest of his black clothes that had the occasional red heart stitched into the design, and his arm hanging out of the window of Luke's black truck. He lolled his head to the side, looking to Michael and motioning for him to get in the car.

The younger scrambled into the truck, struggling a bit because it was higher off the ground than his jeep was but managed and settled into the passenger seat. Ashton was out of the driveway as soon as Michael's door slammed shut, tearing down the street till he bordered almost illegal. Michael fiddled with his thumbs, swirling them over the other as he held his hands together in his lap, wanting to ask what was going on but refraining since it was personal between Luke and Ashton.

The honey haired boy was focused on wherever he was taking Michael, the pink haired boy confused when they stopped at a apartment he didn't recognize. Ashton was out of the car with not a word, Michael climbing out as well and following after him into the unknown complex. They went up the stairs, Michael waiting back and watching as Ashton got on one knee and picked the lock of some apartment. The door slid open after a light click was heard, Ashton dusting his knee off from the small amount of dirt on his tanned skin before walking inside the broken into apartment.

Michael's green eyes flitted across the clean apartment, Ashton going into the living room and looking at the wall filled with pictures and different colored ropes leading and connecting to different things pinned in the wall. He picked up a picture of himself, lifting it slightly to see the worlds scribbled on the back of the ripped Polaroid, the other half that was at his own piece.

It was of himself, Luke, Calum, and another boy, the rip taking him from being scene but it was Michael. He licked his lips a little, taking his own half of the picture out, Ashton looked over his shoulder to where Michael was looking at a few pictures of Calum's family and friends on a desk and wall.

"Hand me those pins?" Ashton nodded at a box of red thumbtacks on a shelf filled with law books and photo albums that probably hadn't been open in years.

He thanked the fairy flossed boy when he got the thumbtack, sticking it into his picture that now aligned with the rest of the photo. Michael furrowed his eyebrows, biting on his pink bottom lip that slowly turned red from the pressure of his teeth in the soft skin. He pressed his finger to the picture, looking at Ashton, who's attention was on the photo as well.

"That's me?"

Ashton shrugged, putting his glasses back over his eyes as he spoke, "More or less. No need to worry, though. It'll all be explained soon enough."

Michael nodded slowly, dropping his hand back to his side and following Ashton out of the apartment, only glancing over his shoulder at the wall, though he couldn't see the picture. Ashton was silent as they drove again, Michael familiar with his surroundings because this was how you get you his shed and he memorized just in case Luke couldn't take him or another reason. He was confused still, wondering what they were doing and why Luke wasn't with them like normal, assuming it had something to do with Liz and that night almost a month ago because ever since they came back from seeing her and he carried Luke from the basement, Luke had been acting weirder than normal.

He was exhausted all the time, talking to Ashton in quiet tones. He hadn't yelled in a while;hadn't threatened, swore, slapped, kicked, cut, punched-acted like himself in forever, which worried Michael because he felt like Luke was just going to break over something small and lash out on Ashton or himself. Ashton slowly became different as well, more annoyed by whatever changes in Luke's personality and whatever Luke would say to him.

Ashton stayed to the corner of the shed, back against the wall and his eyes hidden behind his shades but the hazel orbs were on Michael as the pink haired boy worked like Ashton wasn't there. He raked his fingers through the brunet's hair gently, the man flinching from his pale hands as his green eyes swarmed with tears of despair at this being the last moment of his life.

He thanked Ashton quietly when he noticed the other man had brought his bag, taking out his sewing kit to sow the mans chest back up from his knife parting the skin. The man had passed out after a short cry, head lolling backwards as Michael cleaned his chest. He pressed his fingers to his neck, trying to find a pulse and relieved when he didn't, though he expected not to because of all the blood that was now on the floor.

Stitching him back up, putting flowers where his organs were with a smile, Michael took a step back to examine his work. The brunets hair polled around his shoulders, some falling into his face as his dark green eyes hid behind his eyelids. His chest was sewed back, holding the bundles of flowers in as the pink thread kept his stomach and chest from falling open.

Ashton helped him dress the man, a white button up that was left open as he laid in the casket and black slacks on his legs. They both carried the casket to the bed of the truck, Michael smiling softly when Ashton brushed a small piece of his light pink hair back, though it fell back into the place he moved it. They both got into the truck, Michael chewing at his lip as they drove, looking at Ashton from the corner of his eyes.

"Ashy?" He asked softly, the older boy humming in response as he turned the corner down a less lit road that had a few houses lined up, "Why am I in the picture with you, Luke, and officer Hood?"

"Because you were apart of us."

"What happened?"

"Calum happened and he broke your mind-" Ashton tapped his forehead lightly as they rolled to a stop, "-and he broke his own mind and Luke's."

"Your minds not broken?"

"No, but I wish it was."

{~~~~}

I sprained my ankle and it hurts a lot, but I got a really comfortable pair of socks as comfort from my cousin. So it's a win in my book.

Buuuuuttt thank you for reading. Have a question with your mango....(>~<)/ 🥭 . Michael's murder is quite interesting, isn't it? 😉.

Until next chapter, funky freaks. Adios.....