(F)lawless [lashton] ✔️

Sixty

Michael sighed, dragging his hands down his face with a disgruntled sigh as his television screen displayed his sixth Game Over in the last ten minutes. His mind was too far away to focus.

He couldn't stop his head from spinning, ever since Calum had been brought back to the Ziam household he hadn't been able to stop thinking about his queen; no matter how many times Liam kept them apart.

A knock on his door barely warranted his attention, his hands removing themselves from his face as Ashton took a seat next to him; a gun seemingly useless in his hand as though he had come from a business call.

"So," Ashton barely started and Michael already knew what was coming.

Michael let out a groan of dismay, flopping back against his bed and letting his legs continue to hang over the side while his arms draped over his eyes.

"No, I didn't do anything." He grumbled and Ashton snorted; nudging him in the arm.

"I wasn't gonna say you did."

"Then why're you here?"

"Can't I come see how my brother's doing?" Ashton humoured.

"Not when you've got a gun and you've spent the last few weeks on my ass 'bout bullshit mental stuff."

With a sharp exhale through his nose, Ashton's demeanour shifted to a slightly more serious tone. "That you still refuse to talk to me about..."

"Because I don't need to." Michael sat up with a scowl. "What do you want, anyway? It's almost midnight last I checked."

"Eight AM actually." Ashton commented, taking a glance at his phone he pulled from his pocket.

"Jesus, what are you doing here then?"

"Got back from a meeting, there's a hit I need to make and I thought you'd like to tag along with me." He handed the gun over, "ya'know, like we used to?"

Michael mindlessly examined the weapon in his hands, a blank look on his face as he said "you mean before everything went to shit?"

Ashton frowned, "what'd'ya mean?"

"You know what I mean." Michael spat. "If Luke and his bullshit excuse of a friend hadn't fucking come up to us that day we'd be perfectly fine. None of this stupid shit would've happened."

"I mean, technically it's been good." Ashton pointed out, scratching a hand through the back of his hair. "The town's never been cleaner, Luke's stopped selling drugs, Calum's getting back on his feet—"

"No. It's been good for you and good for Luke, but the rest of us have been fucked in the ass!" Michael exasperated. "I can't get a fucking job since you wiped out Big D, no one wants to take a crim and the bakers fired me weeks ago. Calum's half dead, doesn't even wanna fuckin' talk to me."

"If you want a job I can get you one?" Ashton offered.

"Oh right, 'cause you're the big boy on campus now huh?"

"Alright," Ashton stood up, crossing his arms over his chest as he furrowed his brows into a harsh look, "what's the real problem here? What animal crawled up your ass?"

"None." Michael slouched, fidgeting with the weapon. "I'm just tired."

"I don't believe that for a second. What's really going on?"

"Look, I don't know, okay?" He switched conversation. "So what's this hit I'm supposed to help with?"

Though he shook his head, Ashton still followed through with Michael's shift. "Couple of Big D's informants are running around tryna get some dirt on me. I plan on taking them out."