she slipped ; malum

past

Michael dusted the flour on his hands off and gave his sort of (boy)friend a confused look, but followed him out the back door. They sprinted down the street and up to where Calum's apartment was.

Ashton was on the bed still, hugging himself as he looked at Calum's wall. The other two rushed inside, and Calum shut his window. That was when he knew it was serious.

"What's going on?"

"Luke was planning to ambush us. He heard about us kissing."

Calum looked like he was on the edge of an anxiety attack, so Michael sat him down and held his hand, kissing his cheek softly. "Come on, baby, we're fine now. Nobody's going to hurt us."

The boys jumped when there was a loud knock on the front door. Calum looked in the peephole and saw that it was exactly who he didn't want to see. Luke.

Calum had to give it to him, he was pretty game to show up at his apartment, but still stupid. He stepped away from the door and went back into his room, closing his door to Luke yelling, "open up, faggot!"

Michael winced, rubbing his arm. "How long will we have to sit here?"

"Not long. I'll just call his Dad." Calum shrugged, having the number at the top of his calls constantly. "Yeah, hi, it's Calum, your son's being a fuckhead."

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, he's standing at the door of my apartment, planning to ambush me because I kissed somebody else." He didn't see Michael's gender relevant in this situation, so, he didn't say anything at all about it.

Andy hung up on him, and Calum listened to Luke talk to his dad in the corridor. He smirked when he heard them argue, and then – finally – Luke left. Calum looked at his stressed out friends, and gave them a reassuring look.

"It's okay now."

They wanted to take his word for it, but they couldn't.

In order to try and distract them, he put on Finding Nemo. Ashton grinned and mocked Dori al throughout the movie. When all of the fish got stuck in the net, he looked over to see Calum holding Michael's sleeve. He furrowed his eyebrows at the action, and then went back to what he was doing.

Michael fell asleep soon after, getting flour and the smell of dough all over Calum's sheets. The other two went out into the kitchen, and Calum made them hot chocolate.

"I saw you two before, you know," Ashton tried to say as casually as he could. "Why do you hold his sleeve?"

Because Michael's hand will not feel like a hand if I'm holding his sleeve.

"Uh, no reason. Accidental."

The wavy-haired boy rolled his eyes as he leant back on the kitchen island. "Come on, Cal; for real, this time."

"Whenever I hold his hand I feel weird."

Calum was visibly uncomfortable with his confession, but tried not to be. Ashton pressed on, though, tapping his mug a few times. "In what way?"

"Like I have a crush on him and stuff."

Ashton was confused. "Well, you do."

"I know but I don't want to go too fast." Or something like that. "And I don't wanna . . . don't wanna be called a faggot again."

Ashton raised his eyebrows. "That shouldn't stop a relationship. You can always like each other in secret."

Ashton made it sound so easy to hide a relationship. It was hard to hide something that was almost always so blatantly obvious to most. Calum didn't think he could do it. But then again, he had before.

"I'll talk to him later."

"Seriously?"

Calum nodded, and sipped his hot chocolate. They stood there in silence, not knowing what to say. They hadn't talked to each other properly in so long that they had forgotten how to.

"I should go." Ashton said. "I'll see you later."

Calum sighed as the door slammed shut. He checked the time. Mali and Jersey had been at the hospital for a long time. Maybe something had happened.

He shrugged. He shouldn't worry so much. Jersey was always in hospital, and this was no different.

He went into his room and laid down on the bed next to Michael, staring at his face, unashamed. He didn't care if Michael woke up and thought it was creepy. Calum liked Michael's face.

"Michael," he whispered. "Wake up."

The redhead groaned without opening his mouth, scrunching his eyebrows up. "No. Shut up and cuddle." He stated, making grabby hands.

The Maori rolled his eyes, pulling him closer, nearly sneezing at the amount of flour on his shirt. Michael put his head in the crook of Calum's neck, his lips against the boy's collarbone. The tanned boy put his hands under Michael's shirt, the skin tones contrasting completely.

Michael shivered. "What are you doing?"

"My hands are cold."

Michael didn't say anything, only breathed hot breaths onto Calum's collarbone. Cautiously, he pressed a kiss against it, scared that the Maori would get angry at him. When he didn't hear any signs of protest, he kissed his neck.

"Mikey, stop."

Michael blushed, the nickname still getting him embarrassed. "Sorry."

"Your lips are cold, that's all." Calum said, not wanting him to worry about the fact that he'd kissed him.

And there they were, two soldiers hiding in a tent, in each other's arms in attempt to forget about the war.

***

Calum didn't see Michael the next day during lunch and walked around. When he saw the smaller redhead leaving the front office, he walked over. Had he gotten in trouble? He wakled beside him for a couple of minutes, and then decided to speak.

"What happened?"

"Nothing, Calum. I just had to take the roll. You should chill."

Chill?

Michael walked off quickly, and Calum didn't want to be seen caring about anyone, so he walked in the different direction, only to walk back the other way to see what was wrong with the redhead. Sometimes he couldn't help himself.

He went in the direction Michael headed, looking around until he found him talking to the enemy. Calum had a sniper in his hands. Calum had a sniper and he was considering whether or not to aim it.

Calum turned around, startled. Gun down, considering who he should aim it at. Who had betrayed him more? With Luke, he couldn't exactly be surprised, but this was Michael as well.

He knew he shouldn't have trusted a new recruit.

He grew angry at himself. How could he be so stupid?

He watched the teacher that was supposed to be on yard duty walk inside, and Calum walked out the front gate. Easy. These were the perks of having a small, shitty school.

He went home and ignored Mali asking him questions. He locked himself in his room and got some charcoal. He scratched and scratched at his page until everything was black. He turned on some of his music, blasting The Pretty Reckless.

He got a snow-globe off of his bedside table and threw it at the wall. He was so fucking furious. Michael was talking to Luke? How fucking cute.

He started to cross out Michael's hand is not a hand, because it's not, it's a gun. Michael's hands were guns. So dangerous, that he never put the safety on. He could've killed any one of them. Just like Calum. They both had guns for hands.