Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

BREE

Hey Calore

CAL

Hey Bree

BREE

I saw that post on your Instagram this morning. You and my sister.

CAL

That one.

BREE

Thats my sis ur cuddling up 2

CAL

right.

BREE

Don't worry Calore, my father will love it.

...

MARE

Why is Bree so happy?

CAL

He may have seen my post from this morning

MARE

The one of u and me?

CAL

That one

MARE

So??????

crap. He showed dad. Bastard.

MEANWHILE AT THE BARROW RESIDENCE.

“MARE MOLLY BARROW!”

    And then a phone was shoved in my face, I eyed the screen, already knowing what I would see.

    Cal and I, sitting on the floor in front of his bedroom mirror. Him wearing only loose sweats and me a short silk nightgown. I’m the picture I’m sitting in his lap as he leans back on his palms my bare leg crosses over his hip and my arms are wrapped around his neck. Oh, and my lips are firmly locked on his.

    I remember telling Cal what to write in as the caption just this morning. It took us WAY too long to get ready. 😉

  My bastard brother Bree was standing over my dads shoulder, laughing. Gisa was craning her neck to see what was so incriminating. When she saw the photo, she gasped. And then Trammy started laughing, too. Shade stood there with a sly smirk. And I braced myself for a lecture. I was going to go to Cal’s tonight. In the morning we’d take another incriminating picture.

Chapter Text

Mare POV

I rolled over lazily, nudging my head against Cal’s chest. I rested a lazy kiss against his collarbone, fully intending to go back to sleep. Cal stirred, his eyelashes slowly fluttering open. How had I come to have a boyfriend that could strategize and read and workout and fight for hours, but hated waking up? I laughed softly.

    “What?” He asked sleepily, blinking. 

    “Nothing. Just wondering why you could take down fifteen muggers by yourself but can’t wake up.” I respond, softly playing with the curly strands of his black hair. His grandmother had left town a couple weeks ago, which meant his hair wasn’t cut every week and he didn’t shave perfectly every other day. His grandmother practically wanted him to be king of New York, I could settle for him just being king of my heart.

    “I can wake up,” Cal replies indignantly. 

    “No, you can’t,” I reply, smirking. “You’re much more active at night.”

    Cal gives me a look that says, much more active at night my ass. I raise an eyebrow. Prove it to me.

A dark glint comes to Cal’s eye, one that he normally forbids from taking up residence. And then he’s flipping us, so that I’m under him. His head bows down, lips against my neck, sucking softly. My fingers curl into his soft hair and then—

    My bedroom door opens, my older brother Shade walking in, he’s halfway through my name when he sees us—Cal on top of me with his lips pressed to my neck.

Shade POV

never have I ever wanted to unsee anything more then when I walked into my little sister’s room. Her underneath the oldest Calore brother with his lips pressed against her neck. Both naked. Both completely and utterly naked. Eighteen, Mare is eighteen. Calore is twenty. The same age as I am.

    “Shit,” Mare cursed, pulling the sheets up to cover her chest. 

    I take a calming deep breath. “Sorry, didn’t realize you’d be underneath a guy.”

    The cold bluntness of my voice surprises even me, and Mare more. Calore flushes, color spreading across his entire face and neck. Mare just flushed an angry red, cutting a viscous glare at me. 

    “Don’t act like I throw myself at every boy that comes my way Shade Barrow,” Mare says coldly. She and I have always been close. Doesn’t mean I want to know about her rendezvous with certain bronze-eyed boys. 

    “I’m not suggesting that. Just a heads up Dad is back.” Dad has been gone for a week, off to get surgery for a prosthetic leg. “Mom said no stress. If you thought my reaction was bad, don’t stick around to see his.”

    With that I turn around, closing the door behind me quietly. 

    Never barge into Mare Barrow’s bedroom. I shudder. Have before, never will again.

Chapter Text

I watched out the window, smiling as a weak flame sputtered to life in my daughters small hand. Not orange flame, but royal gold. The color of House Jacos, the colors of the Singer Queen she was named after.

    Cal’s face lit up in a crooked smile, grinning from ear to ear. The loss of the mother he’d never had still stung, as did the memory of the brother that didn’t exist. The pain was still sharp, but not a blinding, not as fresh as it used to be. That had been washed away by Cal’s arms, marriage, and children.

    Outside, Cal turned to Shade. Both our children were Newbloods. It had been frightening at first. A girl who could create flame out of nothing and a boy who could replicate abilities with a glance. Shade held up his hand with a smirk. God, why did he have to act like me? Sparks jumped from his fingers, his brows furrowed with concentration and fire roared to life in the palm of his hand. Flames of bronze, like the famous Calore eyes. 

    Bronze and gold. My children. 

    Coriane’s flame grew, gold licking her palm and steadily growing down her arm. Cal sighed, but his smile remained. He shot me a look from outside that said, they didn’t get that from me. 

    I held up my hand, letting purple sparks grow, swallowing up the electricity of the path light closest to him, making the plastic shatter and the light die.

    Opening the door, I stepped outside. Coriane and Shade’s flames were growing, it was going to burn their clothes if we didn’t stop it. Cal raised a hand, taking the flame back before it could burn their sleeves. 

    “Daddy!” Coriane shouted, turning a glare on Cal. I laughed. Shade turned an equally withering glare on Cal. We’d have to teach them when to step away from a fight. 

    “It was mommy,” I say, feeling my scars tug even more as my smile turns sweet at the sight of Coriane’s face. I barely notice the tug of scars anymore, it’s just another part of me now. I let lightning form in my hand, morphing into the shape of a rose. 

    I’ve developed more control over the years, not nearly enough to do brain lighting, but enough for parlor tricks to amuse my children. I almost didn’t have enough when I gave birth. I remember every second of that day. The hospital lights sputtering and dying; not being able to have pain killers or sedatives in fear that I’d loose control; purple lighting running along my skin; Cal pleading me to control it, kissing my forehead desperately; almost electrocuting Sara Skonos; the fear that I’d killed my babies. It had been hard to say the least.

    I shuddered with the memory, watching Shade and Coriane now.  Bronze lightning flickered in Shade’s hand, Coriane pouted, her bottom lip jutting out. Cal came to the rescue, kneeling next to her and letting orange flame flicker to light in his hand. She beamed, golden flames enveloping her hand. 

    I nodded to Shade, and he gave me a serious nod in return, filled with purpose. I send a weak spark his way, and his bronze spark meets my purple one. A small trick we’d been practicing. A small explosion went off when the lightning hit, sparks flying everywhere with a sizzling pop and burst of color. Coriane shrieked, her flame dying as her concentration broke and jumping into Cal’s arms. 

    I still couldn’t believe this was our lives. When Cal’s eyes met mine over Coriane’s shoulder I could tell he was thinking the same thing. 

    “Dinner time,” I announce, still staring into Cal’s eyes. Coriane jumps up, running to the door. Shade chases after her, yelling. They both stumble over their own legs. 

    Cal gets up slowly and I think I hear his knee pop. “You’re getting old for twenty-seven,” I joke, looking up at him. 

    “I’m keeping up with the Lightning Girl and two five year-olds, I think I’m doing fine,” he responds, his arms wrapping around me.

    “Keeping up with me is not that much of an accomplishment. I had two babies.”

    Cal laughs. I laugh with him when I hear Shade and Coriane yelling from inside the house. It is dinner time after all.

I kissed Coriane’s head softly, pushing back a curl of black hair.  “Sweet dreams, baby girl.”

    Coriane smiled, she had Cal’s smile. Crooked and heartwarmingly sweet. I smiled back, but her eyes had already fluttered shut. She had a childish roundness to her face, but through it I could see the brief structure of Cal’s cheeks and jaw. She and Shade have similar coloring, but I have a feeling Coriane will have my smaller form and Shade Cal’s. 

    I turn to Shade, who is laying down, watching me. His curls are going wild, more so then any Calore I’ve ever met has. Maybe somewhere distantly in my family? 

    “‘Night mommy,” Shade says, his voice rough with sleep. He knows the routine. I push back the curls, raking them back softly with my fingers. Soft, thick black curls. 

    “Night, sweetheart,” I respond, kissing his forehead before getting up to walk back to Cal and I’s bedroom. 

    I close the door of their room and our room softly. Cal’s Already in bed when I slip under the sheets with him. 

    I curl in next to him, enjoying his comforting warmth. I’m almost asleep and I think he’s asleep when he speaks softly into my ear. 

    “What happened earlier?” he asks. I tense. No more lies.

    “I was thinking about when the twins were born,” my voice cracks. I feel Cal tense behind me. 

    “I remember,” is all he says. 

    And then my mind is racing, sprinting back. Remembering that night.

Chapter Text

”What happened earlier?” he asks. I tense. No more lies.

   “I was thinking about when the twins were born,” my voice cracks. I feel Cal tense behind me.

    “I remember,” is all he says.

    And then my mind is racing, sprinting back. Remembering that night.

I scream as a contraction rips through me. The lights flicker overhead, before the glass bursts, screaming as purple electricity flares. 

    Cal sits next to me, and I squeeze his hand hard enough that I fear I might break it. 

    My mother paces, not being able to do anything. “Can we not give her anything to help with the pain?” she asks desperately. 

    Sara keeps her focus on what’s she’s doing while she replies. “She’s too close. And we can’t risk her loosing control.”

    We all hear the unspoken words. We can’t risk her loosing control and killing the babies.

    I scream as another painful contraption rips through my body. It feels like somebody is trying to tear me apart. I try to focus, to keep control on my lightning. For once I wish I was Silver, my powers limited to my surroundings instead of coming from my blood and bones. We’re in darkness now, the lights having gone out minutes ago. I feel my control slipping as lightning races along my skin. I grunt with the effort to keep it in. This will not kill my babies. 

    When Sara speaks again, she sounds nervous. “It’s time to start pushing,” she says softly. I want to scream, I want to cry, I want to break something. Because my control is getting no better. The more tired I get, the less I have, but lightning seems to be coming from me in waves.

    My mother grabs my hand. Cal kisses my forehead, used to the shock coming off my skin. “Control,” he breathes. “In through your nose, out through the mouth.” 

I remember the Montfort nurse that had been in here before Sara took over had tried to get Cal out, but he had refused to leave. He had refused to go. He wouldn’t leave me, he wouldn’t give up on me. So I won’t now. I breath, trying to even out my breathing, but the screams that break through really aren’t helping. It feels like hours of pushing. 

    And then a final shock of lighting pulses through my body and its over. 

    The room is silent. I can’t here them. Coriane and Shade we had decided. I can’t hear them. I killed them, my babies are silent, my children are dead. I killed them.

    The only sound in the room is my ragged sobs, tearing through my chest. Animal and pained. A mother without her children. A wounded animal. A survivor without a home to go back to. Hot, ugly tears stream down my face; sobs heaving through my chest; my skin sweaty and flushed and wet from tears. I feel Cal’s tears against my hand. He’s quiet, I wouldn’t know he were crying if I couldn’t feel his hot tears.

    And then we hear it. The most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard: a cry. It starts from one baby and then another, a loud wailing sound like sirens. We’re alive, they seem to say, we’re not gone. We’re here. We’re survivors. 

    Cal lifts his face, his pale face indeed streaked with tears and flushed silver. I see myself in the reflection of his eyes, my scars pulling, my brand smarting, but happy. It floods me. Overwhelming. Too much. 

    Neglected and ignored tears from over the years stream down my face as Sara comes around with a smile. 

    “Twins, a boy and a girl.”

    She hands me the boy, Cal the girl. I cradle him against my chest. He still looks odd, but I can finally see something I didn’t—couldn’t—see when Clara was born. Something only a mother could see. How beautiful the baby truly is, how I can see bits of Cal and I in them. 

    My mother watches us with a smile. “What are their names?”

    “Meet Shade Barrow-Calore and Coriane Barrow-Calore.” 

    I smiled. This was a new chapter, a new beginning. And I was ready to see it. With Cal, with my family, and with Shade and Coriane.

Chapter Text

Cal lays back heavily against the mattress.

   “We’ve still got it,” he smirks. I raise an eyebrow.

    “We’ve still got it? I’m only 25, you’re 27. I’m at my prime and I gave birth, to not one, but two babies. You’re three years away from thirty and already have creaky bones.” He sticks his tongue out at me.

    I lay down against his chest, lowering myself down. I nuzzle my head against his neck, tracing my finger along one of the hickies I gave him. His fingers play lazily with my hair. 

    “For a person at their prime, you sure do seem to have a lot of gray hair,” Cal jokes, twisting a long strand of gray around his finger. 
    It’s my turn to stick my tongue out at him. “Don’t pretend you don’t like it,” I respond. 
    “I do,” he says, his voice growing husky. “But I also like a few other things about you.” 
    I turn my head up to him, scooting up his body. “Like what?”

    “For one,” he says, kissing my jaw, “your fire.” He kisses my nose softly and I wriggle it. He laughs softly. “That.” My cheekbone is next. I flush. “How you blush when I do things, like it’s the first time every time and the fact that I love you is a new fact.” I smile and he kisses my lips softly. “Your smile and your laugh. I could get drunk on your happiness.” My eyelids flutter shut. Cal kisses just above my cheekbone, next to my eye. “How genuine you are.” My eyelid. “Your unwavering devotion.” My forehead. “Your beauty, your determination, your love, your trust, your heart, every part of you, Mare. I love every part of you, the good and the bad. I want it all. Because I love you, Mare, and if that isn’t what love is, I don’t know what is.”

    I look at him with the smile he claims to love so much. “I love you, Cal, every soft hearted inch of you.” And then I stick my tongue out.