Dynasty Decapitated

Summer is Over (Summer is Over)

((Title from Come Under the Covers by Walk the Moon because I would die for them))

When Luke wakes up, it's by no fault of his own. It's because there's something cold and wet shoved into his cheek and hot breath on his ear. He squirms on the hard concrete, noting vaguely that's he's dressed again, and scruches his eyes shut tighter. Pain pulses hot on his face from the small action.

Everything comes flooding back at once, Michael and Calum busting in, the alarm blaring, the guards kicking him and hitting him with batons, a shoe connecting with his face. He remembers his jaw hanging open and refusing to shut, remembers watching Michael get shot in the chest and seize as the bullet affected him in a way that nothing had before. Remembers watching Ashton turn into a bumblebee.

Ashton had turned into a bumblebee.

Luke whips his eyes open and comes face to face with a long, beige snout. There's a little black nose attaches at one end, and a corgi attached to the other. The dog smiles at him, tongue lolling out happily, and prances forward.

"Oh my god," Luke sits up and grabs his temples in both hands. "Oh my god, no."

He closes his eyes, but the corgi is still there when he opens them again. It's fur is almost the same color as Ashton's hair. His little butt wiggles with the force of his tail wagging, as he stumbles towards Luke excitedly.

Luke blinks at the dog. "Ashton? Please don't answer me."

The corgi yips at him.

"No, oh my god," Luke repeats. "Ashton, you have to be human for this, what the fuck. I can't go through this place with a puppy."

The dog- Ashton- shuts its mouth and tilts its head at him.

"Can you understand me?" Luke asks.

The corgi barks.

"Okay," Luke says slowly. "Can you.... turn back into human Ashton?"

The dog barks again.

Luke is mad he knows exactly what that bark means. "No? Why not?" Ashton barks twice and Luke's brain translates it. "What do you mean, you don't know how? How did you become a dog from a bee?"

Ashton growls at him suspiciously, and Luke knows damn well he's wondering why Luke can understand his barking.

"Don't be mad," Luke holds a hand out and flinches at the bruises along his arm and the blood vessel broken in his inflated pinky. "I may or may not have stabbed you with the same needle that you stabbed me with. And then also stabbed myself again. A little bit. If you had any diseases, that's a we thing now."

Ashton's barks and growls intermix until he's launching his tiny body at Luke and bitting angrily at his arms and legs. Luke yells and shoves him away.

"Stop!" He pushes Ashton back, then decides to use his brain and wraps his hand tightly around Ashton's little snout. Ashton growls and stares at him with intense hatred, but Luke just smirks. "No bite. Bad dog."

All of a sudden, the corgi is shifting and growing, bones snapping as he grows and the fur falls onto the floor. He grows until Ashton is sitting in front of him on all fours, staring down at his paws turned fingers, in complete fascination. Ashton looks up, then slaps Luke's knee.

"You're so stupid!" He yells. "Why would you use the same needle three times?"

"Well I couldn't find a new one the first time,"Luke shrugs. "And then the second time, I thought I deserved to die so I tried to kill myself, but." He shrugs and gestures vaguely around him to show that it hasn't exactly worked.