The lads of 5 Seconds Of Summer were fighting. They were fighting about something so small that to any other, normal, human being, there would be no point to the arguments of either side. But they are not normal. They were fighting, they were fighting about Ashton eating Calum's chocolate bar that he had left in the fridge.

To be fair, Calum never said it was his, like he usually would, so Ashton didn't know it was. The drummer just saw a chocolate bar and thought it looked good, so he ate it. But, of course, the other two sided with Calum on this one, leaving Ashton to fight for himself. 3 vs 1, not exactly fair, is it? One other problem. They knew exactly what to say to hurt Ashton most. They used that to their advantage, cruel as it is.

"You know, we could have used Jake for our drummer, he was free that weekend." Michael spat when the argument had risen above anything reasonable. There was a silence, no one expecting Michael to stoop that low.

"You know, I was already in a band before you guys came along, so I probably would have made a name for myself anyways. And also, Jake wasn't half the drummer I was, nor will he ever be." Ashton countered.

"Your old band, you say, you mean Swallow The Goldfish? What kind of name was that? At least 5 Seconds Of Summer was a good name." Calum argued, joining the fight once again.

"I hated you guys before you joined, you kept forgetting your lyrics. I only joined you guys because I hoped that I could help you actually learn how to sing, instead of just mumbling along." Ashton brought up. The boys hated that he had so many comebacks, but having 3 of them, they knew they could do better.

"Oh yeah? How could you of taught us to sing? You're not exactly Harry Styles yourself, are you?" Luke added, shocking Ashton because he hoped he would get support at least from Luke. And Luke brought Harry Styles into this. That just not... okay.

"What's he gotta do with this? And I can sing better than you, Hemmings." Ashton asked hotly. He knew that this was escalating far more than necessary, but if he backed out now, they would call him a baby. And worse.

"Luke is twice the singer you'll ever be. Jake is a much better drummer than you as well." Michael defended Luke.

"Hey boys, why don't we kick Ashton out and Jake in here instead? The band would be a lot better off." Calum asked, knowing how much that would hurt their current drummer. Ashton's biggest fear was being kicked out and replaced.

Ashton didn't answer. His face just dropped, tears forming in his eyes. He couldn't believe Calum would say that. They knew how that affected him. He'd woken up in the middle of the night having a panic attack over it. Calum had been the one to help him the first time, the one who had calmed him down. And to bring it back up, that just wasn't right.

Calum felt slightly guilty when he saw the tears forming in Ashton's eyes. As Ashton turned away from them, retreating out of the room, Calum could see his chest start to tremble with tears. Calum stood, with the other two, as they all tried to figure out what had happened and why the hell Calum had even dared to mention such a thing.

"Calum. What the hell?" Luke asked, moving so that he was standing right in front of Calum, stopping him from moving. "You are an idiot."

"Luke, leave him, he's probably..."

"Leave him? Did you just ask me to leave alone the person who has just brought up one of Ashton biggest fears over a BAR OF CHOCOLATE!!" Luke roared, turning and pointing his finger under Michael's chin, pushing his head up slightly.

"Yeah." Michael dared answer back. Luke balled up his fists, trembling in rage, and left the room before said fist ended up in Michael's face. He could hear Ashton sobbing in his room, and wanted to go and comfort him, but he knew Ashton was probably still mad at him. What he didn't realise was that Ashton had heard him shouting at the other two, and was silently begging him to come.

Luke headed outside, trying to calm his anger before he really punch someone. It was difficult though. How dare Calum threaten that for a bar of chocolate? How dare Michael tell him to leave Calum alone after that? As he thought back to the argument, he realised that he wasn't exactly an angel at the moment either, as he had done his best to insult Ashton as well. But he would never go that low. No matter what. He couldn't hurt Ashton like that.

Ashton felt horrible. He felt like he deserved that. For everything he had ever done to the lads. He'd hurt them so many times, he deserved to feel like this. He replayed all the times he had even remotely hurt any of the lads over and over in his head until he cried himself to sleep, exhausted over the day's events.

Once Luke had calmed down, he went back in the house, finding Calum and Michael asleep on the couches. He went up the stairs, going to check on Ashton. He listened outside the door, hearing Ashton's soft snores, telling Luke that he was asleep. He opened the door slowly, being careful as not to wake Ashton.

The sight was heartbreaking. There were tear tracks all the way down Ashton's face, the top of his shirt was also slightly wet, signalling that he had cried, a lot. He was asleep on top of the covers, so Luke walked over and moved him so that his head was on the pillows and then covered him with the covers. He then silently left the room, hoping that Ashton would be alright.

Feeling exhausted from the arguing today, Luke went to his own room. After pulling off his jeans and changing his shirt, he got into bed and laid there, staring up at the ceiling worrying about the drummer that was asleep one room along.

He must of fallen asleep himself at one point because next he knew, he was awoken by some more crying in the night. He was still half asleep, however, so just brushed it off as nothing. His sleepy mind didn't register the fact that one of his band mates- Ashton, in specific- was crying, alone in the middle of the night.

When Luke went downstairs the next morning, Calum and Michael was sitting at the table, chatting and eating toast- with vegemite, obviously. Ashton wasn't in there however, so worried, Luke began to interrogate the pair.

"Where's Ashton?" Luke asked, the two hardly acknowledging him. There was no answer. "I said-" He started to repeat, when he was cut off by Calum, who seemed annoyed by the mention of his name.

"We heard you!" Calum growled, though he still didn't answer the question.

"Answer me then!" Luke said, slightly angry already. Calum went to shout, but Michael got to it before him.

"We don't know. Why should we care anyway?" Michael asked, trying to stay calm.

"Because he is your best friend!" Luke shouted.

"Was. Was our best friend." Michael argued.

"Maybe he killed himself already." Calum muttered darkly. But Luke heard, and threw himself at the kiwi, yelling incoherently.

"What the fuck!" Calum yelled, scratching at the boy who was clawing at him. "Get off me!"

"How dare you say that! You monster!" Luke yelled.

"You're the one who jumped on me, you're the monster." Calum shouted.

"STOP IT!" Michael shouted, but it didn't work, Luke continued to harm Calum, even going as far as punching him in the face.

"WHAT THE HELL!" Calum shouted, finally pushing Luke off of him. Michael grabbed him, holding him away from Calum.

"Let me at him!" Luke screamed.

"No, you're going to stop this. I'm putting you outside." Michael informed, dragging Luek under the arms towards the front door.

"I'm not a dog, Michael, you can't put me outside." Luke countered, trying to get himself free from Michael's grip.

"Well you are sure acting like one!" Michael retorted as Calum opened the door and Michael pushed Luke to the floor outside.

"We're not letting you in until you learn your lesson." Calum seethed, slamming the door as Luke got up and started towards the door. Luke heard the click of the lock, signalling that he was not going to be getting back inside. They had checked him in the backyard, which had high fences and locked gates to prevent fans from getting in, so there was no way he was getting out. He didn't even have his phone. He sat down on the ground, tears pricking in his eyes.

Ashton had heard the lads arguing downstairs and had wanted to go help Luke, but that would have just caused more trouble. Ashton was now watching Luke as he sat in the backyard, curled in a ball as he sobbed. Ashton couldn't help but let the tears come to his own eyes, it was his fault after all. He had hurt Luke, he had put Luke in this position. Ashton went back to his bed, letting his own tears fall.

Michael and Calum headed out of the house about mid-day after much insulting of their two blonde bandmates. They headed out to go write, as it was their turn in the studio that day. Luke was still in the backyard, neither of them bothering to let him back in. Ashton was in his room, sitting on his bed. Both of them still had tears running down their faces.

Michael and Calum were out for 7 hours, by the time they were back it was dark, and cold. As they entered the house, they immediately spotted something that was off. None of the lights were on, like how it was when they left. But Luke and Ashton.... It hit them. They'd left Luke outside all day, and Ashton was probably in his room, scared of them.

They had fucked up.

Completely and utterly fucked up.

The first thing they did when they got back in was let Luke back inside. The boy was shivering and still crying slightly. Michael felt really bad for Luke and hugged him tightly, gasping when he felt how cold he was. Calum also felt bad, and went to hug Luke like Michael had done, but the blonde backed up, still not too happy at the kiwi.

"Why won't you let me? I want to apologise." Calum asked, slightly hurt at this.

"It's not me you have to apologise to. Go and say sorry to Ashton. Now." Luke spat, remembering what Calum had said about the drummer.

"He deserved it." Calum muttered, but then felt very guilty. He's holding a grudge against Ashton for nothing.

"Have you seen Ashton at all today?" Michael asked Luke stupidly.

"I was locked outside all day, dumbass." Luke answered, in a 'duh' tone. Michael sighed.

"Oh yeah. Sorry about that bro, but you were about to kill Calum, for nothing." Michael said, warily glancing at Luke, not really wanting to be attacked as well.

"The fuck? For nothing!? Did you not hear what he said about Ashton?!" Luke asked shocked.

"No..?" Michael said, though it sounded more like a question. He glanced from Luke to Calum, hoping for an explanation. All he got was a red-cheeked boy looking toward the floor.

"Cal? What did you say?" Michael asked, confused as to what Calum could have possibly said to make Luke mad enough to attack him. Especially as Luke hates violence.

"He said..." Luke cut himself off, not wanting to repeat it.

"I said that maybe he killed himself already." Calum whispered. Michael's head snapped towards him. " I didn't mean it!"

"It sure sounded like it when you said it!" Luke boomed.

"You weren't meant to hear, it was meant to be part of my morbid imagination." Calum defended himself.

"Whether you meant it or not, you should have kept it within your morbid imagination and not have let it even have the chance to cause any more issues than were already present." Michael countered.

"Yeah, I'm sorry." Calum lamented, hanging his head low.

"We need to go check on Ashton." Michael announced, pulling his two band mates up the stairs.

Ashton had heard what the lads had been saying since Calum and Michael had gotten home. He was upset to hear what Calum had said but kind of happy to hear them all sort it out. As they began climbing the stairs towards his room, Ashton pulled the covers over his head, not wanting to talk to his bandmates. He heard a knock on his door and he mumbled a quiet 'go away' but the lads entered his room none the less.

"Ash? Buddy, we're sorry." Calum, surprisingly, was the first to speak up and apologize.

"Yeah, we apologize for how we made you feel, for all the tears you shed because of us." Michael continued the apology.

"Ash. You know that we love you and that this is a bump, a hurdle, that we need to get over as a band." Luke added on.

"I'm sorry for everything I said to you. For calling you a bad drummer, for saying that we would replace you." Calum apologised. "I know that this doesn't mean that I didn't say it, that I deserve to be forgiven, you don't have to forgive me, not yet, but at least just accept that I am sorry and I know that what I did, what I said to you was not right, it was extremely bad and wrong. You didn't, you don't deserve to ever hear the words that came out of my mouth. You are an amazing person who deserves the world. I love you Ashton, and I am sorry"

Ashton stayed under the covers, thinking through everything that Calum said. He was right, what he had said was absolutely and utterly terrible and Ashton shouldn't forgive him, but Ashton had to say something.

"Thank you." Ashton came out from under the covers, looking directly at the kiwi.

"Huh?" Calum asked, confused.

"Thank you."