Ash, Lucky and Dai didn't know what was happening.
It made sense they didn't know, the trio were only nine.
They had been playing in Ashton's small room with a few toys his mother had bought for them when they heard the front door open, the three boys had rushed downstairs to greet Cecilia.
Instead, they had stumbled across something else.
Inside the living room, the boys froze near the stairs, they could see Ashton's father in front of Cecilia. They couldn't see Cecilia, just her legs were visible through his father's wide spread legs and they were trembling. Her shoes had been thrown haphazardly to the side, her ankles bruised.
The boys could hear him yelling, though his words were incoherent.
Ashton was counting his knuckles, trying to distract himself. He turned to see the two boys doing the same.
They could smell him from here, Ashton knew it was alcohol.
Cecilia screamed at him. He yelled something about her cheating on him, she wasn't. A loud thunk caused Ash to look in that direction, once again.
His mother was on the floor, holding her cheek with her right hand. She locked eyes with Ashton, shaking her head slowly.
Ashton looked up, his father's shadow looming over him. Ash could hear his mother yelling at him to get away from them, but it seemed so distant, all Ash could hear was the loud ringing in his hear.
Ashton swallowed his fear down, locking eyes with his father. He couldn't show fear, it was what his mother had drilled into him, to never show ever show him fear.
"Are you okay, dad?" he asked, keeping his voice steady.
Ash was grabbed by the arms.
~*~
"Wake up, idiot!" Ash startled awake, his eyes darting around the room, looking for the source of his nightmares. He wasn't there, of course he wasn't.
Ashton's eyes landed on his best friends, Damon and Luke. The duo looked at one another, a frown evident on their face.
"Ash, are you okay?" Lucky's voice cut through. "Was it-"
"I'm fine," he snapped. Lucky nodded, playing with his fingers.
Ash saw the small gesture and guilt began to eat him up. "Sorry," he grumbled. "It was just a nightmare."
Ash grabbed his pillow, scowling as he through it at Dai. "You ass, why do you have to be so rude when you wake me up?"
Dai laughed as he dodged the pillow. "I always seem to forget you're not a morning person."
Ash looked aroubnd, frowning. "Where is my mother?"
"I think you mean our mother," Lucky said, a smile on his face.
Ash groaned, rolling his eyes. "Fine, where is our mother?"
Dai shrugged. "She left for work, something about absolutely destroying someone and winning the case."
Ash hauled himself out of his comfortable bed making his way to the adjacent bathroom. He didn't bother looking in the mirror as he turned the shower on. He was sweaty from the nightmare and he wanted to wash it all away.
Ten minutes later, he dried himself off, wrapping a towel around his waist. He wiped the steam off of the mirror and looked at his reflection. Hi brown hair, looking darker than it was, sat on his head. His eye bags were ever so obvious, his brown eyes a little red. He groaned quietly as he tried to rub the sleep out of them.
Walking back inot the room, the duo were sitting on the bed. Ash was sure they had gone down, preferably to make breakfast, but no. He skulked over to his closet, grabbing the white button up shirt, the black pants with blacj shoes and the bluey-purple tie.
The trio might have been the reason the school had recently become so slack with their uniform. At first, they just liked being little shits changing it to suit their own styles, Ash liked to keep his headphones around his neck, Dai seemed to have a new scarf on every day and Lucky liked rolling the arms up to display his collection of bracelets that littered both arms, as well as the rings he liked to wear.
The teachers had given up, as long as they wore the basics, and their tie, they could go crazy. Ash remembered that one particular cold day, a girl had come to school wit neon pink leg warmers on over her tights. He found it to be a weird fashion choice, but whatever rocked her boat.
Once changed, Ash hauled the duo down. They walked to the kitchen, to see a note stuck to the fridge with a magnet from the UK, their mother had gotten when she went there for a case.
'Hi boys, I'm sorry I couldn't be there when you woke up. Something clicked in my current case and there's a chance for the victim to get justice, and I had to rush to the office. You better not get in trouibole at school. And for the love of god, be there before 10 xx'
Ash sighed as he grabbed the pen and drew a thumbs up. Turning around to see if the boys had read the note, neither of them were there. Ash walked to the door.
"Let's go!" he yelled. "Or I'm leaving you here!"
He waited a minute and when he opened the door, both boys came running. Afraid, they'd be left behind and have to walk to school. It would be difficult since they lived fifteen minutes by car. And they knew Ash would do it, since he'd done it before.
He closed the door, turning to eye them both. Lucky shifted his weight form his left foot ot his right, and Ash narrowed his eyes. That was Lucky's tell for when he was nervous, why was he nervous?
"What were you two doing?" he asked.
"Nothing," they both said. That made Ash a little more suspicious, but he decided he would interrogate them after school.
"Let's go to school," he said, turning around and walking to the car in the driveway.
"Never thought I'd hear those words coming out of your mouth," Dai said, as he followed behind. Ash could practically hear the smirk in his voice.
Ash mocked him. "Oh, you think you're so funny."
"I know I'm funny," Dai said with a grin on his face as he kissed Ash's cheek. "And, Lucky thinks I'm hilarious. Don't you?"
Lucky stared blankly at the two of them. "Don't drag me into whatever this is."
"See. He agrees with me," Dai said, wrapping an arm around Lucky's shoulder.
Ash threw the keys to Dai and he and Lucky stared at one another before they cried 'shotgun'.
Lucky managed to get to the car first, but Ash used his butt to slam him, clumsy little Lucky crashed to the floor.
"Oh, that's not fair," he groaned, standing up. "You have a large ass." His eyes widened as he realised what he said. He looked away, a pink tint on his pale face.
"You think my ass is big?" Ash asked, turning around trying to get a look at his ass. "Really?"
Lucky scowled, not saying another owrd as he got into the back. Only Dai could drive, as he was the only one of age, so Lucky and Ash could take turns in shotgun, but Ash felt like sitting shotgun today, even if it was Lucky's turn.
They arrived in the school car park at 9:59, well, at least they could tell their mother that they did technically manage to get to school before 10.
Ash got out of the cra, stretching a little. They walked into the class they shared. Well, they all had the exact same timetable, Ash may have had something to do with it, but I'm sure you could get what I was trying to say.
The three walked into science, expecting to see Miss Williams, who Ash may or may not have found very attractive. She was very stunning, with dark skin and long hair which she kept box braided. But instead, there was a caucasian male standing there, a frown on his face.
"Who are you?" Ash said, stopping in his tracks.
"He is very hot though," Dai said, keeping his voice low, so only Ash and Lucky could hear him.
"I'm Mr Carter. Let me guess, you're Damon, Luke and Ashton." He had looked down on a yellow post-it note.
Ash was severely creeped out by that, there was no need for havig their names on a post-it note.
"Yeah," Ash deadpanned.
He eyed the trio, and scoffed. Ash's eyebrows shot up. He tensed a little when his eyes lingered on Lucky a little too long. He peeled his eyes away from Lucky when he felt someone's eyes on him, Ash had been starring at him, eyes narrowed.
"How dare you walk in 45 minutes late, disrupting my lesson when everyone else wants to learn. And then not showing an ounce of regret."
Ash stared at him. Eyed him from head to toe, eyes landing on the fake rolex, the way he carried himself, saw him look at the students who had been here before them. Ash clicked on to what he was doing.
"I can't believe you think you can tell us what to do," Ash deadpanned. "With your fake rolex, fake Gucci shoes. You're all talk." Ash would start of slow, if he escalated, seeming to get angrier then he would stay calm and rile him up further.
"I can't believe you think it's fake," he snorted, though his neck was slightly red.
"I can't believe you think it's real. I know what a real rolex is. That is not one, I can see its cheap build from here."
"I can't believe it's not butter," Dai said, trying to ease the situation.
The class went from deathly silent to everyone's laughter.
Mr Carter seemed to give up, as he told the trio to sit down, and told them to see him after class. Ash watched him throughout class, whenever Carter's eyes landed on him, he would shiver.
Those blue eyes held more darkness than any dark brown eyes he'd ever seen.
The class ended when the bell rang, the trio were two feet away from the door when someone cleared their throat. Ash audibly groaned as he turned around.
"What?" he deadpanned.
"Where do you think you're going?" he asked, eyebrow raised.
"I told you," Ash said, a small smile appearing on his face. "You can't tell us what to do."
"And, according to the law, it is illegal for you to jeep us behind after class," Dai added.
"What would you know about the law?" he hissed, glaring at Dai.
"My mother's a lawyer, and Dai wants to become one," Ash replied.
Carter dragged his eyes away from Dai to look at Lucky, both Ash and Dai tensed.
"And you?" he asked. "What do you want to be when you're older, Luke?"
"A doctor," he said, slightly timid.
"I expect you three in detention after school."
Dai rolled his eyes, muttering whatever as he pushed Ash and Lucky out in front of him.
"I'm going to go get my things from my locker, I'll see you in the next class," Lucky said.
"Bye, Lucky," Dai said, as he watched the smaller boy leave.
The moment Lucky was out of sight, Ash turned to look at Dai.
"I don't trust Carter," he hissed, keeping his voice low.
"You don't trust anyone besides me, Lucky and mama Cece," Dai said, patiently.
"You know what I mean, asshat!" Ash hissed.
"I still don't know what asshat means."
"I'm telling you, he's not normal. We need to look at his records."
Dai sighed. "Do what you want, just don't get me or Dai involved. We always get caught and then mama Cece gets mad at all of us, even though it's always your doing."
~ 15 Minutes Later ~
"I can't believe you got us involved!" Dai hissed, scowling at Ash.
"I don't mind," Lucky whispered back, a smile on his face. "Ash's plans, no offene, always fail and I like saying 'I told you so'."
15 minutes ago, Ash had devised a plan, and the moment Lucky agreed, Dai agreed. Now, the three of them were in front of the headteacher - Mr Lay's office.
Ash nodded, and Lucky snuck past the duo to distract the secretary while Dai picked the lock to get inside the office.
A few minutes later, Dai still hadn't done it and Lcuky was getting ansgty.
"Hurry up!" Ash hissed at Dai.
"It's not easy. Now, shut up. I need to concentrate."
"Just jam that thing in and jiggle it around!"
Ash exhaled as he heard the click and Dai pushed the door in. The two snuck in. Dai texted Lucky letting him know they were in.
Ash made a beeline for the computer.
Of course, it was password protracted.
"What do you think the password is?" Ash asked, trying to think of everything he knew about his headteacher, which unfortunately wasn't a lot.
"Try 'May', his wife's name."
"Incorrect," Ash said. He knew he should have brought his own laptop in, he had created a software that could have done this for him in 30 seconds.
"Try Matt," Dais said. "His elder son's name."
It beeped once again.
"Try Mark."
Once again, it beeped.
Ah looked at the flashing pop-up. 'Password is incorrect'. He shrugged, there was no chance it would work, but you know, maybe. Ash typed the word 'incorrect' in. Ash'a eyebrows shot up as the computer opened up, revealing a picture of his family.
"What was the password?" Dai asked.
Ash rumaged around Mr Lay's desk, trying to find a pen and paper. He went through the drawers, and scowled as he saw a piece of paper. He leaned down, picking it up, and slipping it into his pocket.
"The password was-"
"Incorrect."
Ash snorted. "Nice impression," he said, still looking through the drawers for anything else. "You sound just like Lay."
"Ash?" Dai said.
"Guys! Lay is coming!" Lucky yelled running into the room, he shot up but froze when he saw that Lay was already in his office.
Ash nonchalantly stood up and walked over to his friends.
"What are you three doing in my office?" Lay asked, sighing.
"No, the question is," Dai began. "What are you doing in your office?"
"That doesn't work on me," he deadpanned.
"RUN!" Ash yelled.
The trio ran as fast as they could, not even slowing as they reached bends. They ran all the way outside, to hide behind large trees. All three were out of breath, hands on their knees trying to talk but not being able to form full sentences.
Once the three had caught their breaths, they stood up straight, Lucky snickered and soon all three were laughing. Ash looked at his friend, no, his brothers and a wide grin grew on his face.
"What did you get?" Lucky asked, an arm around his stomach.
"Just the passwords for all the school software," Ash replied, taking the piece of paper that he had stuck into his pockets.
Lucky pulled his phone out, frowning. "We're half an hour late to the next class."
"We should just skip," Ash said, and Lucky frowned.
"But it's English," he whined. "I like English."
Ash rolled his eyes, but nodded and the three somehow managed to get to their english class without being seen by Lay.
Ash groaned when he saw another new teacher. "What's it with new teachers?"
Lucky smiled at the female teacher, she was pretty. Long blonde hair, in a suit. She frowned when she heard Ash's comment.
"I'm sorry about him," Lucky said. "We had a new teacher last period and he gave us detention."
Ash scowled at him.
"Well, that's okay. I'm Miss Kerry, please take a seat, boys," she said, as she smiled.
Ash eyed her, he didn't mind getting into her pants. But the question was, would she stoop low enough to sleep with a student. It happened more frequently than you would think.
Their lovers wouldn't pay any attention to them, or they were cheating and they wanted to get revenge.
"All right, class. I know it's monday, but I am going to have to give you homework," she paused as the groans erupted. "But," she said, a smile on her face. "Once the homework has been handed out, you can just speak to your friends for the remainder of the lesson."
But then terrible Tom spoke up. "I like my girls homework like I like my girls, easy." Terrible Tom got his name because he was terrible. He did this thing where he tired bringing sex and girls into any conversation.
"Yet," Lucky whispered. "You don't do either of them." It had mainly been meant for his friends, bu the lass went trwally quiet at an awkward time and everyone heard.
Of course, everyone laughed, Ash did too. He expected this from Dai, but Lucky. Terrible Tom didn't like this as his face went bright red.
Someone walked through the door, but that wasn't what caught everyones attention, no it was the fact that Terrible Tom had stood up, his chair squeaking as he pushed it back.
He stormed over to Lucky, instinctively both Ash and Dai stood up.
Dai stood in front of Lucky, glaring. "You even touch a hair on his head, and i'll stick this table so far up your ass that you'll throw it up."
"That's not how biology works," Lucky whispered.
Dai was tackled to the ground by one of Tom's friends. Another one of Tom's friends moved to strike at Ash.
However, Ash was distracted by Tom as something had reflected from the suin in the window. Ash froze.
"Dai!" Ash yelled, panic in his voice. "Knife!"
Ash punched the male in front of him. He hit his nose. He heard the sick crunch of it break. Distracrted by the opain, Ash grabbed his arm. He twisted it behind the boy until he heard the crack.
Ash turned to see Dai fighting one of Tom's henchmen. Lucky was dodging swipes from Tom.
Why was no one helping?! They all saw the knife. Ash's paranoia kicked in as his breathing began to quicken.
Dai kicked the guy in-between his legs as he roughly pushed him to Ash, who once again broke his arm with ease. Dai rushed over to Lucky.
Ash ran towards Tom, taking him to the ground. He punched Tom, over and over again. Tom brought his arms up to protect his face, his eyes landed on the tattoo on his underarm and continued punching.Until he was physically pulled ff by two of the students.
Now, they helped.
Ash's eyes landed on a bleeding Lucky and he felt his stomach lurch, and legs shake as he stumbled over to his friends.
Ash crashed beside the duo, placing his hands on top of Dai's trying to stop the bleeding. Ash panicked, oh, there was so much blood.
The world around Ash turned to a blur, he looked up through tears to see Carter smirking, Kerry panicking and Lay was on the phone to someone.
Ash turned his gaze back to Lay as he humg up. "They'll be here in two minutes."
"Why the fuck was he allowed in school with a fucking weapon?!" Ash hiseed, glaring at the three teachers in front of him.
Lay stared blankly at him. "You're excluded for three months."
"Oh, that's bulshit!" Someone hissed. Ash's head automatticaly turned to find the source of the voice. "It was all self-defence. Terrible Tom had a fucking knife!"
Ah, it was Julie speaking. A fairly plain girl, her brown eyes hidden behind huge black-rimmed glasses, her hair done in a ponytail.
"I see that it was self-defence," Lay said through gritted teeth. "But they tresspased through my office, vandalised and broke bones. And one kid is unconscious."
"The unconscious one had a knife!" she snapped. Ash tried to figure out where he remembered her from, then it clicked. He'd helped her when Terrible Tom and his friends wouldn't let her go.
"And that's why he's expelled and being taken into police custody," Lay said.
The paramedics arrived, they took one look at Lucky, brought a gurney in and took him to the ambulance. Both boys wanted to go, but Dai seemed like he needed to beside Lucky more, so Ash let him go. He would follow behind in the car.
As Ash walked past Carter, he stopped.
"I know you've got something to do with this and when I find out what, you're gonna regret it," he threatened. Ash knew It wasn't a coincidence that Lucky got stabbed when he just happened to have walked in.
Ash watched as Dai got inside the ambulance, his face streaked with tears.
Ash got inside the car, he followed the ambulance out and on th e drive to the hospital he rang his mother.
"Siri," he whispered. "Ring Psycho woman."
"Ring-ing psy-cho wo-man." It rang. She picked up.
"What did you do now?" she said, instead of hello.
"Mama," he said, trying to keep his voice from breaking.
"Ash?" she asked. Panic evident in her voice. "What's wrong?"
"Lucky, mama. Terrible tom stabbed him. Oh, mama what if he dies? What if-"
"Ash, love. You're spiraling. Go to the hospital. I have a meeting with the CEO, let me just tell him I can't come and I'll meet you there."
Ash nodded, even though she couldn't see him and he hung up.
The entire drive there, Ash let himself spiral.
Ash parked, running over to the paramedics. The machines Lucky were connected to were beeping and they shouldn't have been beeping like that.
Dai stepped out. Watching the doctors fuss over Lucky, and watching Dai cry, Ash couldn't help but let the tears that welled up out. The duo silently followed in behind, where Cecilia was waiting for them.
How she got there before they did was a mystery. But traffic laws were broken, a lot of them.
She walked over, embracing the boys. When she pulled away, she had tears in her eyes. Ash grabbed her face inbetweem his hands as he used his thumbs to wipe the tears away.
"Your mascara is too expensive for you to cry. Suck it up, he'll be fine," he said. Cecilia laughed a little as she wiped her son's eyes.
The three of them went over to the receptionist, Ash was the one who spoke. "Where's Luke? He was just brought in with the ambulance, he was stabbed."
"And who may you be?" she asked.
"His family. Now tell me where he is."
"No."
Ash was irritated enough and this was not heling in any way.
"Why not?" he asked, trying to keep his anger in check. Maybe there was a logical reason.
"You haven't given me your number."
Ash was about to lose his shit, but his mother came to the rescue.
"I could have you fired with one phone call," she snapped, moving her son so she was the one who was looking at the lady. "I may be his mother, but I am also his mother. Did you know he's a minor, and you just openly flirted with him. I could have you convicted."
Her eyes widened.
"Ma'am, I'm so sorry. I thought he was of legal age."
"What about him makes you think he's of legal age? Do you not see the high school uniform? Just give me the number of Luke's room."
"Luke's in the ICU. There are doctors waiting for your arrival."
"I'd say it was nice meeting you, but it wasn't. Good day," Cecilia snapped, storming away.
The trio followed the signs to the ICU. They waited outside until the doctor came out.
"Are you here for Luke?" she asked. Everyone nodded.
"We've scanned him, and treated him. Surgery wasn't necessary. He was lucky, however, there was internal bleeding. We've stopped the blood, and set him up for blood transfusion, to make up for the amount he lost. He's asleep right now, we had to put him under as he wasn't cooperating and we needed him calm. The drugs should wear off soon, but it depends on him, now." She excused herself.
Dai let out a quiet sob as he slid down the wall. "He can't die."
"He's not going to," Ash deadpanned.
"No, Ash, you don't understand, he can't die. He can't leave me alone, I won't -" he didn't finish that sentence.
Ash ignored the pang, Dai wouldn't be alone, he had him and his mother.
Ash found it was weird seeing him like this, the ever so stoic Dai who never showed emotions, a hot mess. Dai mumbled something incoherent.
"Huh?" Ash asked, as he walked over, taking a seat beside him on the floor.
"Lucky and I are together, we've been going out. We have been for nearly 6 months. He promised that we'd be together forever," Dai said, his voice barely above a whisper.
"You've been going out for 6 months and I only just know about this?" Ash asked, frowning. He wanted to know why they hadn't told him. Did they think he was homophobic? Or that he'd hate them?
"Yeah, we're sorry, we didn't know how you'd take it. Lucky was scared," Dai said, not making eye contact. He felt guilty, Dai never made eye contact when he felt guilty.
Ash sighed, he could be mad at them for not telling him later, right now, his friend needed to be comforted, not made to feel worse.
"Thank god, I'm not crazy. I knew there was something going on between you two," Ash said, forcing a smile on his face as he lied through his teeth. He was upset, of course he was. But this wasn't about him.
The three of them sat quietly on the chairs made for the ICU unit for four hours. The doctors, not letting them go in to see him.
"Excuse me, are you here for Luke?" A different doctor asked, as he came out of the ICU. The trio nodded, quickly standing up. .
"You may go in, we are keeping him in for observation. Just to keep an eye on the bleeding. But he has woken up and is asking for you," he said, a small smile on his face.
Dai didn't hesostate to practically run through the corridor leaving Cecilia and Ash behind.
"Sorry," Mama Cece said. "He was terrified."
The doctor gave a small smile, but nodded as he walked off.
Mother and son walked down the hallway, Ash stopped his mother just before she went in.
"20, they're making out," Ash said, a grin on his face.
"Deal," she replied, shaking his hand. "Lucky was stabbed, there's no way they're making out."
The duo walked in, they went to the bed with curtains drawn and Ash was correct, Dai was sitting on the bed, his lips attached to Lucky's. A gentle hand on Lucky's face.
"They're teenage boys," Cecilia grumbled out. "Even if he was stabbed, they'd be making out."
They stopped, a small blush appeared on Lucky's face when he realised they'd been caught. Ash was going to tease them, but he smiled.
"I need an explanation. I sent you to school, why are we in the hospital because Lucky was stabbed?" Cece deadpanned.
"Basically," Ash began. Dai raised an eyebrow.
Ash had an interesting way in explaining situations.
"We had a new teacher, we got homework. Terrible Tom said that he likes his girls the same way he likes his homework, easy. Lucky said yet he doesn't do either. Tom got up to hit him and we defended Lucky. We all got into a fight and Tom decided to go stabby stabby in Lucky's belly belly."
"Damn," she said after a minute.
"Really, mama Cece? My boyfriend gets stabbed and all you say is 'Damn'?" Dai said.
"Well, he'll be okay," she said, shrugging.
"Right, so now all three of you are excluded for three months and I am not leaving you at home, when I go to work, not after last time anyway." She shuddered, probably remembering the last time.
She was quiet, very quiet. She was thinking.
"All three of you will start coming to work with me when Lucky's allowed to leave. That decision is final and no, you won't change my mind no matter how hard you try. And I'm saying it when Lucky's out is because I know Ash will bitch at me if he has to work more than you do. Because samesies!" In the end, when she said 'samesies' her voice went ridiculously high as she did jazz hands.
"But," Ash said, she held her finger up and continued.
"And if any of you do anything and I mean anything, that gets you into trouble, whether it be here or there I will not hesitate to castrate you," she said, happily. "I mean it."
"Mama Cece is the devil," Dai deadpanned.
"Hush up, you love me," she grinned as she kissed Lucky's head. "I'm glad you're okay hun."
"Mum, I love you, I do. But, please stop. We've got it covered. Thank you for coming. I'll see you at home, wouldn't want to keep your CEO waiting," Ash said, a smile on his face.
"Ash, I mean it," she said, pointing a manicured finger at her son." You're coming to work with me. All three of you are."
Turning on her heel, she sauntered away, the double doors slamming shut behind her, the echo slowly fading out.
~*~