“I could skip class.” Luke hesitated in the doorway, looking uncertainly at Ashton. “Or you could go to class and trust your best friend with your child.” Ashton glanced over at Luke, sending him a little glare to emphasize his point. “Goodbye, Lucas.” Luke didn’t budge. “Okay, but what if I just got the notes emailed to me?” “Yesterday you called me freaking out because you have a lab in class and it’s mandatory and you can’t make it up and no one was able to watch Asher for you. I took off work for this. Get out and go to class.” Luke started to argue again so Ashton walked over to the doorway, pushing Luke into the building hallway and closing the door in his face. “Have a good class!” Satisfied with how well the morning was going already, Ashton went back to feeding Asher. The baby boy was just getting used to baby food now instead of formula and his fascination with the spoon was making it very hard to feed him. Ashton had attempted both the plane and the train and ended up with more applesauce on himself and Asher’s hands than in the kid’s mouth. Which was better than the floor where it usually ended up. Ashton was beginning to think Asher just really didn’t like applesauce. (That was an excuse. He ate it perfectly fine when Luke fed him. Not that Ashton would admit that.) It was while Ashton was changing Asher into clean, applesauce-free clothes that he noticed the fever. At first, he thought it was nothing to worry about, but then Asher started to cry, really cry. He tugged at his right ear, getting fussier and fussier the longer Ashton tried to soothe him. With no other option, Ashton took Asher to the hospital. Calum stayed on the phone with him, answering any questions that Ashton couldn’t remember. There was no way they were going to distract Luke with this while he was in class. It turned out to be a minor ear infection anyway. The doctors didn’t show much of a concern, just prescribed some ear drops and sent Ashton on his way. Luke called while Ashton was getting Asher ready to leave after the appointment. “You took my son to the hospital and didn’t even think about calling me?” Ashton sighed, leaning back once he’d finished buckling Asher into his stroller. “I didn’t want you to be freaking out about Asher while you were freaking out about the lab.” Ashton turned, almost bumping into a nurse. She giggled, stepping out of his way. He caught her checking him out before smiling at Asher and continuing to walk away. “Anyway, it’s just an ear infection. I’m taking him home now.” “Ashton—“ “I’ll talk to you later. I think I’m gonna go ask a nurse about this ear drop stuff I got. You know, to make sure it’s safe and all because I’m a great uncle.” Said nurse turned to look at Ashton, smiling brightly. “Ash—“ “Gotta go. Bye.”

He’d tutored her twice and so far Rigby had learned nothing. It wasn’t her fault that she couldn’t keep her attention on the task at hand, Luke’s voice got all monotone when he was focused and it was too easy to zone out. Plus, Rigby still hated math. No amount of time with Uncle Luke was gonna change that. Drastic times called for drastic measures. Luke needed something to redirect her attention and redirect it fast. The second grade had been a pain the first time and there was no chance of it being a walk in the park the second time. So at the next tutoring session, Luke came prepared. He had a water bottle full of a few coins set right next to Rigby’s practice math book. Rigby looked at it with uncertainty. “What’s that for?” “Nothing, let’s get started.” Luke opened to the last page they had been working on, going straight into the tutoring. Rigby did well for the first five minutes as they worked through review problems, but as soon as Luke began to explain the new thing, he could already notice her beginning to lose concentration. So, without looking up from the book, he reached over and grabbed the water bottle. And shook it in Rigby’s face, causing her to snap back to reality and her gaze to focus back on him. Luke gave her a pointed look. “Come on, Rig, you need to focus.” “That scared me!” she whined, pouting just slightly. “Focus and I won’t do that again.” Rigby let out an annoyed huff but nodded, turning back to the book. “Fine.” Luke smirked, going back to his explanation. This was going to work out.

“10 minus 3 is what?” Luke asked, pointing his pencil at the math problem Rigby needed to solve. She sighed, shaking her head. She was terrible at math. The entire concept of numbers was just beyond this five year old’s mind. Who needed math anyway? Someone had worked a very long time to create calculators. It would be a travesty to not use them to all of her advantage. Kind of like how this math was a travesty. Luke wasn’t getting an answer out of her. Not after spending an hour or so explaining the difference between addition and subtraction. (He might have made it worse when he tried to explain that subtraction was just addition for negative numbers. She was five after all, Luke.) Anyway, Rigby was confused and this homework wasn’t even remotely done. It was time for drastic measures. “Hold on.” Luke got up, going to the kitchen. He reached up to the highest shelf where they hid the M&M’s and set the jar down in front of Rigby. After he was sure he had her full attention, he counted out ten M&M’s and set them in front of Rigby. “How many are there?” Rigby counted them slowly. “Ten!” Luke nodded. “Take away three and eat them.” You didn’t have to tell her twice. M&M’s were her addiction. “How many are left?” Rigby counted again. “Seven!” Luke high-fived her. “You just did math, Rigby Clifford!” Her eyes grew wide. “I did? I did!” She gasped, turning back to her homework. “Again! Again!” She reached into the jar of M&M’s and dumped a handful onto the table. Luke sighed. Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea.

daddy!michael nudging uncle!ashton when a blink song comes on the store radio and ashton’s starts clapping and getting really into the song by waving his arms about enthusiastically while michael’s just bouncing around with his limbs flailing  in the women’s clothes aisle and teenage daughter clifford is literally mortified because the guy she has a crush on sees michael trying to get her to krump along with them and she’s so flustered because her cruch gives her a lil half smile to say 'i feel for you' before disappearing off with his mum, and teenage daughter clifford is so close to slapping them both upside the head because they’re so goddamn embarrassing