"Wil's going to want to steal him away and have him perform with him when he's older."
"Don't get ahead of yourself." Noah said. "Could of just been a one-time thing, but I think he's got natural talent even if we were just doing some chords." Noah complimented, smiling softly.
"Could you imagine? Zeke auditioning for... Got Talent or something?" Cailen asked, half joking, half serious.
"Who knows? Maybe he will." Noah agreed with a small nod of his head.
Cailen reached out then, grabbing Noah's hand and giving it a squeeze.
"How are you holding up?" Cailen asked.
Noah shrugged, not meeting Cailen's eyes.
"We started fighting a lot when we moved in together." Noah explained.
This surprised Cailen because Noah had never told them but then again, they had kind of gone AWOL for a while there, having to deal with Ezekiel and all. Now Cailen felt kind of horrible.
"I guess we're actually really not all that alike. We would fight about everything, Cai. Like, really fight about who does the dishes, who cleans up, who makes dinner, just stupid things, and I- I couldn't take it anymore and I guess neither could she." Noah explained sadly, looking down at the table.
"Hey, things could still work out." Cailen said optimistically. "Relationships are all about compromise. You guys just have to learn how to do that." Cailen explained but Noah just shook his head, pausing for a moment before continuing.
"I'm moving back to Scotland, Cai." Noah said, his gaze remaining on the table.
Cailen's mouth actually fell open in surprise because Noah couldn't do that. He couldn't move back to Scotland. His life was here now, with them. He had friends here, not in Scotland.
Well, he supposed he did have friends in Scotland too and his family was there as well but... They were his family too and he couldn't just leave like this. Not because things with Camille didn't work out.
He couldn't just run away from his problems like that.
"It's just better, Cai. I have family there, I - I don't have a place to stay here and I can't afford one on my own and finding a new roommate is going to be impossible a-and I haven't been home for a while and to be honest, I'm a little home-sick and-" Noah was rambling, going on and on with poor excuses to move back there, every excuse but the truth.
He was hurting and wanted to get away from Camille.
"Noah, you can't-" Cailen began, cutting off Noah's rambling only to be cut off himself with a heavy weight throwing itself into the seat beside him and by default, Cailen himself.
"Cailen, Cailen, can I get ice cream?" Ezekiel asked as he settled himself next to Cailen.
Cailen gave Noah a stern look, letting him know he was not happy with this and that this talk wasn't over before turning to Ezekiel.
"No, love, you've had enough of that stuff lately." Cailen said, trying to sound apologetic.
Ezekiel pouted and immediately turned to the seat where Asher was settling himself in beside Noah, throwing an arm around the now even more upset Scottish.
"Asher, can we get ice cream, please?" Ezekiel asked, dragging out the last word in a plea.
Asher turned to the boy, his face looking as though he was ready to say ‘no’ but then, he made the mistake of looking at Ezekiel and Cailen could actually see his resolve crumbling before him.
Asher's eyes flicked over to Cailen, Cailen giving a slight shake of his head to warn him but it was to no avail when Asher looked back into the pleading brown eyes of the little boy.
"We could share one?" Asher more asked than answered, making Cailen shoot dagger at him with his eyes.
Cailen could tell Asher knew what he did was wrong because he avoided looking at Cailen for the rest of the day.
Both Noah and Asher avoided Cailen for the rest of the day, only speaking to him when they had to and only looking at him when they thought he wasn't paying attention.
He was going to talk to both of them the very first second he could.
Asher had to stop giving into Ezekiel and Noah couldn't run away.
Running away doesn't help, he learned that when he was younger and he would have thought Noah would have learned from him as well, but apparently not.
He wondered if he was the only one who knew this. Maybe Noah told him so he would tell everyone else so he wouldn't have to.
Well, Cailen wasn't going to be his escape route.
If he wanted to run, he would have to man up and tell everyone himself.
*****
"Zeke!" Cailen called out into the flat from where he and Asher sat on the couch.
Noah had gone back to Cailen's mom's place about an hour ago, claiming that he had taken up enough of their time. Cailen gave him another look to remind him that he hadn't forgotten about what he had told him to which Noah just ducked his head and left the flat.
Now, Asher and Cailen were planning on confronting Ezekiel about these nightmares before they had to put him to bed.
"Come here, buddy!" Cailen called out again and listened as Ezekiel made his way down the hall, bounding around the corner and running straight over to the couch.
He hopped up in between them, snuggling down into the couch to get comfy then looking up at each of them with curiosity.
"Did you have fun today?" Asher asked as Cailen ran his fingers through the boy's hair.
They really needed to get him in for a haircut.
"Yeah! Noah is fun and I like playing his guitar." Ezekiel replied, leaning into Cailen's touch.
Cailen was very pleased with how comfortable Ezekiel had gotten with them but still couldn't help to be a little disappointed about the 'Dad' thing.
"That's good." Asher smiled down at him for a moment before it faded into a slight frown. "We need to talk to you, buddy." Asher said softly.
Ezekiel's smile faded as he glanced between the two of them then hung his head as if he were ashamed of something.
"I'm sorry." He mumbled, confusing the both of them.
Asher and Cailen looked to each other in confusion, not knowing there was something for him to be sorry for.
"Why are you sorry, love?" Cailen asked, pushing his hair back and making him look up at them.
"I'm trying to be good." Ezekiel started, dropping his head again. "I don't want to go back there, I like it here." Ezekiel continued, making Cailen's heart ache at the way he truly thought he was going back to the orphanage.
Cailen remembered feeling that doubt. No matter how much everyone said otherwise, it would never go away.
"Ezekiel," Cailen said softly, gaining the boy's attention. "You're not going anywhere. No matter what you do, no matter how much trouble you get in, you're not going back there. Do you understand?" Cailen asked.
Ezekiel remained silent, his eyes getting a bit shiny.
"We love you, Zeke. We wouldn't give you up for anything. You need to forget about all those other families and just focus on this one because this family loves you and wants you to be a part of it." Cailen said and was honestly shocked when Ezekiel leaned over and wrapped his arms around Cailen's torso, burying his face into his stomach.
Cailen immediately wrapped his own arms around the boy, looking to Asher to see him smiling at them. Ezekiel broke away from Cailen but only to turn and do the same to Asher, obviously catching the man off guard.
"We love you, buddy." Asher said softly, returning the hug as best as he could with the awkward angle.
"We just wanted to talk to you about last night." Cailen explained as Ezekiel pulled away from Asher.
"Last night?" Ezekiel asked in a small voice.
"Yeah, what happened, love?" Cailen asked, keeping his voice gentle. "What'd you dream about?"
Ezekiel hung his head, looking into his lap. He only shrugged his shoulder in response, refusing to look up again.
"Zeke, it's okay to get nightmares. Everyone gets them but talking about them can help it go away. We just want to help." Cailen explained, trying to persuade the boy to open up.
"I don't really remember." Ezekiel admitted.
Cailen wasn't sure if he should believe this or not. Ezekiel could just be saying this to get out of talking about it, or he could really just not remember.
"You don't remember anything?" Asher asked.
"I- I just-" Ezekiel stuttered, his voice shaking and Cailen immediately pulled him into his lap, holding him close and trying to comfort him in any way he could.
"It's okay, Zeke. Everything is okay." Cailen assured, kissing the top of his head.
"I just remember parts." Ezekiel admitted.
"What parts?" Asher encouraged.
"I don't know." Ezekiel said, his voice sounding strained.
Cailen held him closer, sending Asher a look that hopefully told him to ease off because although it didn't seem like it, they had made progress tonight.
"It's okay. If you don't remember, that's fine." Cailen said, shifting the boy in his lap so he could meet his eyes. "We just don't want you to be embarrassed about having them. We want you to know you can come to us when you have one, you can come to us about anything. We'll always be here for you. Do you understand that?" Cailen asked, needing the boy to nod his head.
Ezekiel took a moment before nodding his head and that was enough for Cailen right now.