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Ashton comes back to the house early after training. He’d cut the session short, unable to find the motivation to work out for too long without the other idiots he calls bandmates. Michael, Calum and Luke had all chosen to stay at the house, claiming they were too tired for exercise after a day of writing and recording.
Ashton dumps his gym gear by the door and goes on a quest for company, pouting when his search of both the kitchen and the living room yields a total of zero bandmates. There’s no one in Luke and Calum’s room either so he tries Michael’s.
The sight that greets him when he opens the door is not one he ever expected to witness.
Luke is lying on the bed in just his boxers, moaning softly as the topless Michael above him sucks kisses into his neck while Calum works a hand down Luke’s chest and under the waistband.
Ashton stays where he is, paralysed, until Calum catches his eye and immediately stills. “Shit.”
Michael and Luke both turn to look at Ashton, eyes wide and twin blushes colouring their cheeks.
“Ash, we can explain,” Calum starts.
Ashton shakes his head violently. “No. Umm, no need. I seem to have opened a door to another dimension.”
He slams the door behind him, grabs his phone, keys and wallet and runs out of the house, not stopping until he reaches the nearest pub. Alcohol seems to be the only feasible solution to this problem.
When he stumbles home blind drunk a few hours later, he’s incredibly pleased to find that the other boys are all asleep and he promptly faceplants his pillow. His last thought before he passes out is why am I always late to the party?
****
Ashton turns up late and more than a little hungover to recording the next day, his normally cheerful demeanour slightly tarnished due to his pounding headache but otherwise fully functional. He elects to act as if absolutely nothing happened. He jokes with Calum, teases Luke, and play fights with Michael. The others are visibly relieved that Ashton still wants anything to do with them but Ashton can see the worried glances they occasionally share when they think his attention is elsewhere.
Michael reaches to help Ashton tune a guitar and Ashton flinches so violently when their hands touch that he sends the guitar clattering to the floor. Calum and Luke look up from their respective instruments worriedly and Ashton rapidly excuses himself to the bathroom. He’s not sure he’d be equipped to deal with this situation if he was fully sober and healthy, let alone with an ache behind his eyes that makes him feel like a small family of woodpeckers have taken up residence there.
He spends the next two weeks kind of avoiding his bandmates. He spends as much time as possible out with the few other mates he’s found in LA, sightseeing, or working out. It’s the loneliest he’s ever felt.
Calum eventually manages to corner him on his way out for an early morning jog, successfully blocking his path to the front door. “We need to talk.”
“Are you breaking up with me?” Ashton tries to joke, but it falls miserably flat. “Can it wait until later, Cal? I’m on my way out.”
“No it can’t. You’ve been avoiding us for two weeks and I need to talk to you.”
Before Ashton can protest, Calum is gripping his bicep rather more forcefully than is strictly necessary, and steering him towards the sofa.
“Sit.”
Ashton hasn’t seen Calum this serious in a long while so he quietly complies.
“We need to talk about what you walked in on.”
“No, we really don-”
“Ashton. We do.” Calum sighs and perches on the coffee table opposite Ashton. “That was only the third or fourth time we’d um, done that. We really wanted to tell you about it. Hell, we wanted to invite you but we didn’t want to freak you out. We want you to be a part of it with us.”
Ashton swallows thickly and stands up, he’ll never admit it but the thing that stings the most is that he wasn’t included from the offset. “I- I can’t do this Cal, sorry.”
He tries to go out and jog but ends up collapsing onto a park bench after five minutes, thoroughly miserable.
Michael is sitting quietly on Ashton’s bed when he comes back from his run, fiddling with his phone nervously.
“Everything alright?” Ashton asks as he toes off his trainers, shutting the door behind him.
It takes Michael a while to speak but Ashton can see the thoughts racing behind Michael’s eyes, see the slight dip of his brow and downward twist of his mouth.
“I know you said you’re not interested,” he says quietly, eventually, setting his phone on the bedspread as his eyes search Ashton’s, “but I wanted to let you know that Luke, Cal, and I are uh… getting together tonight and we want you there. It doesn’t feel right without you there.”
Ashton sighs and scrubs a hand across his face. “I’m not sure I can, Mike.”
“We want you to be a part of this. What if we just go slow to start? You can just sit and watch and if it gets too much at any part you can leave or we can stop.”
Ashton bites his lip, considering. “Ok,” he says quietly.
“Ok?”
“Yeah, ok.”
Michael grins and tackle-hugs him, squeezing him tightly. “I’m so glad you said yes.”
Ashton nods against Michael’s shoulder. “Can I ask you something, Mikey?”
Michael pulls away enough to let Ashton speak but stays close. “Yeah, ‘course.”
“Why didn’t you tell me? I mean, why was I the last to know? Would you have even invited me if I hadn’t walked in on you?”
“Of course we would have invited you,” Michael says, “we wanted to from the start but we didn’t want you to freak out and run a mile.”
“How did it start?”
“Luke kissed me one night after he’d had a few and Calum walked in and didn’t leave.”
“That’s it?”
Michael smirks at him. “Yep. That’s it.”
Ashton nods, his inner jealous child mostly mollified. “You really want me there?”
Michael gives him a small, honest smile and presses a kiss to his forehead. “Of course we do, you big prawn.”
****
They watch TV for a while after dinner that evening, curled up in a 6ft+ boy pile on one sofa.
Just when Ashton is starting to wonder if anything is actually going to happen, Calum leans to his right and kisses Luke. Luke groans and shifts to get closer to Calum, knocking Michael into Ashton.
Michael sits up next to Ashton and slowly raises a hand up to cup his cheek, giving him plenty of time to back away if he wants to. “Can I kiss you?” He breathes.
Ashton nods, panting slightly, and Michael seals their lips together. Kissing Michael isn’t all that different from kissing a girl. The scratch of Michael’s stubble adds to the sensation and Ashton finds that he likes the slight roughness, likes that Michael fights for control of the kiss, pushing Ashton back against the cushions.
Calum coughs politely and Michael pulls away with one last nip to Ashton’s bottom lip.
“Shall we take this to the bedroom?”
“Whose?” Michael asks, slightly breathless.
“Luke and I pushed our beds together earlier in case Ash said yes.”
Luke smiles at Ashton reassuringly and takes his hand. “You ok with all this?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I think so.”
Luke squeezes his hand and pulls him off the couch, following Michael and Calum to Calum’s room.
Ashton hesitates when he gets to the bedroom, standing mutely in the doorway as the others begin to shuck their clothing and get settled on the bed.
“Do you want to join us over here? You don’t have to.”
Ashton looks at them all offering him soft smiles and nods, taking a deep breath as he walks over to them.
Michael offers his hand and gently pulls him down, kissing him softly. Luke lets out an impatient huff next to them and Cal pushes him down against the mattress, drawing more noises out of him as he grinds his hips, their cocks rubbing together through the thin cotton of their boxers. That seems to bring Ashton out of himself and he pulls his t shirt off, throwing it haphazardly behind himself before divesting himself of his jeans.
Michael gives him an appreciative once over before rolling Ashton onto his back. “Can I suck you off?”
Ashton nods so violently that he’s sure he gives himself whiplash and Michael kisses him once, firmly, before sucking a line of bruises down his chest. Ashton lifts his hips to help Michael slide off his boxers and groans loudly as Michael’s breath ghosts over his rapidly hardening cock.
Michael bites at his hip and at the sensitive flesh of his inner thigh before swallowing him down. Ashton’s hips stutter upwards when Michael’s lips meet his pubic bone and he lifts a shaking hand to give Michael’s hair an apologetic stroke.
Calum slides off the bed momentarily to root around in the top drawer of the bedside table. He shoots Luke a grin as he locates the lube and a condom and jumps back onto the bed with his prize. Luke spreads his legs in anticipation and Calum helps to settle a pillow under his lower back, thumbing his hipbone soothingly.
Ashton tears his gaze away from Michael’s perfect lips as Luke lets out a choked groan next to him. Calum has two fingers buried inside Luke and is scissoring them gently. He catches Ashton watching them and curls his fingers in just the right way to make Luke curse loudly and arch off the bed.
Annoyed at the sudden lack of attention, Michael pulls off with a wet pop and sinks his teeth into Ashton’s hip. Ashton yelps and pulls at Michael’s hair in retaliation, not expecting the appreciative moan it elicits. He tilts a questioning eyebrow as Michael rubs his full lips teasingly over the head of his cock. Satisfied that Ashton’s full attention has been captured once more, he takes his cock back into his mouth and sucks firmly, cheeks hollowing.
Ashton is dimly aware of the bedsprings creaking beside him as Calum sinks into Luke and starts up a punishing rhythm. Luke’s whimpery moans on every thrust tip Ashton ever closer to the edge.
He’s not entirely sure what the etiquette is when you’re about to come down your best friend’s throat so he pushes weakly at Michael’s shoulder. “Mike, Mikey, I’m gonna-”
Michael looks up and meets Ashton’s eyes, sucking harder.
Ashton lasts all of three seconds longer and comes. Hard. Michael laps at his cock through the tremors of his orgasm and then crawls up his body to curl on his side next to Ashton. Ashton can feel how hard Michael is against his hip and he reaches down to touch him. It’s odd touching someone else’s dick, Ashton finds, but not at all unpleasant.
Michael moans loudly and peppers kisses over Ashton’s neck and collarbone as encouragement.
Luke comes next to them with a shout of Calum’s name and sinks bonelessly into the mattress as Calum’s hips jerk, rhythm becoming sloppy as he chases and then finds his own orgasm.
Michael rocks up into Ashton’s hand and buries his face in Ashton’s throat, spilling over his long fingers and toned stomach. Ashton stares at the come on his hand for moment, internally debating whether he’s grossed out or turned on before he shrugs and wipes it on the duvet.
Calum rolls off of Luke and leans over to lazily kiss Michael, tongues duelling languidly.
Luke reaches over to squeeze Ashton’s hand again. “You ok?”
Ashton nods. “Mm, more than ok. That was amazing.”
Michael presses a kiss to his bare shoulder. “So you’d be up for this being a regular thing then?”
Ashton grins at him, his cheeks dimpling. “It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.”