Chapter Text
Calum was sitting beside Ashton in his car. They were on their way towards Ashton’s mother’s house because he had to look after his siblings while she was gone and because Calum didn’t want to part just yet, he had suggested he’d keep him company. Of course Ashton had said yes.
They had spent the rest of their morning playing guitar hero and even though it hadn’t been easy, Calum had eventually won. Ashton had told him that if someone ever were to invent a drum game, he’d get back at him immediately.
It had been around three when Ashton had suggested they’d go surfing. Calum hadn’t been too sure, even though he had lived in Australia for all his life, he had never done anything like that before and he wasn’t too keen on making a fool out of himself right in front of the blonde.
The older boy had promised he wouldn’t laugh at him though and that he’d teach him and the idea of seeing Ashton in a wetsuit eventually was enough to convince him.
He had had the most amazing day ever and it wasn’t even over yet. Calum was seriously contemplating dropping out of school and spending the rest of his days with the older boy.
He was sure he was in love with the boy – as scary as it was. He knew it should’ve been too early to actually use the word love to describe his feelings but he couldn’t help it; no other word would do.
It wasn’t even scary because it was the first time he had feelings for a boy but because it was the first time he had feelings for (let alone was in love with) anyone at all. He had never had a relationship, he had never felt the need to get one of his one night stands to know better and he really didn’t know where he was supposed to go from the fresh friendship he and Ashton had. He hoped that if he’d just spend enough time with the boy, it would all just magically work out and maybe he’d figure out how relationships worked along the way.
“You’re going to love Harry, he’s the weirdest kid to ever walk this earth.” Ashton giggled when they pulled up in the driveway of his mother’s house and Calum couldn’t wait to meet the boy’s way younger siblings. He had told him quite a bit about them and they sounded almost as great as Ashton was. He didn’t have much experience with young kids, seeing he only had an older sister but he wasn’t too worried he wouldn’t get along with Lauren and Harry.
Calum got out of the car and followed the blonde towards the front door, fidgeting with his shirt since he was just a tiny bit more nervous than he’d admit; he needed to make a perfect first impression on the boy’s family.
A woman with the same blonde hair as Ashton opened and she smiled when she saw Calum awkwardly standing next to her son.
“Hello, I’m Anne Marie.” She said, hugging the boy and Calum relaxed into the embrace immediately while he usually would make sure to get out of it as soon as possible.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Calum.” The boy said as soon as the woman let go, already feeling comfortable around her.
“Come in.” she said, turning around and disappearing inside the house. Calum followed her with Ashton trailing behind.
In the living room were two children watching some T.V. show and at first they didn’t look up when the three adults walked in.
“Guys, Ashton’s here.” Anne Marie said.
“Hi.” The nine year old girl said, her eyes still focused on the T.V.
“And he brought a friend.”
Now two pair of curious, hazel eyes looked up to him and Calum waved a bit awkwardly.
“Who are you?” The youngest, Harry, asked.
“I’m Calum. Who are you?” He asked even though he already knew.
“I’m Harry. That is Lauren.” He said, pointing to his sister who just smiled at him.
“Great, now that that is settled, I really must get going.”
The raven haired boy watched as Anne Marie kissed her two youngest children on the top of their heads and Ashton on his cheek – she still had to tip toe to reach it.
“Bye mum. You look lovely by the way.” The eldest said and the woman winked at him before she left the house, leaving it to Ashton and Calum.
“So what are we going to do today?” Lauren asked. The boy had told Calum that he always tried to do something fun with his siblings whenever he had to look after them, instead of just watching a movie.
“Well, first we are going to have dinner and during dinner we’ll think of something to do because I am running out of ideas.”
“Do you like baking Lauren?” Calum suddenly said, remembering his babysitter used to bake cookies with him and his sister when they were Ashton’s siblings’ age.
The girl nodded enthusiastic and Calum looked at Ashton for reassurance. He was wearing this same big smile complete with dimples as Lauren and Calum couldn’t help but smile back.
“That’s settled then.” Ashton said.
“Great idea Cal, we haven’t done that in ages.”
“But first we’re going to eat. You guys just watch your series or whatever what it is you were watching, and we will cook yeah?” Ashton suggested and Harry scrunched his nose.
“Are you going to cook?” he asked.
“No. But Calum is.” The eldest said.
“I am?”
“You are.” Ashton nodded.
“You said you liked cooking.”
“Doesn’t mean I’m good at it.”
“I’m sure you are.” Ashton giggled.
“Okay but don’t blame me if we all get sick.”
After Ashton had showed Calum where he could find all the stuff he’d need, he was in the kitchen making spaghetti while Ashton was setting the table. The food was almost done and Calum was quite happy with how it had turned out.
He was currently at the stove, stirring in the sauce and waiting impatiently for the timer to go off when he felt two strong arms wrapping around his stomach and a chin resting on his shoulder.
“Smells delicious chef.” He muttered softly.
“Thanks I…”
“Is Calum your boyfriend Ashton?”
It was Harry, who had walked into the kitchen to see if dinner was ready already.
Before Ashton could respond, the six year old was running off, telling Lauren that Ashton had a boyfriend.
Calum could feel his own face heating up as Ashton started giggling but he didn’t let go and the raven haired boy sure didn’t mind. He sheepishly smiled when Ashton muttered an apology for his brother’s behaviour; he didn’t sound as if he really was sorry.
The blonde hugged him a little tighter before letting go after that, as if he was telling Calum he didn’t want to let go but had to after the timer went off and Calum turned off the gas.
The raven haired boy quickly finished up and carried the pan to the dining room.
“Really, candles?” Calum chuckled when he saw all the candles on the table.
“What? I like them okay.” Ashton giggled, a tiny blush on his cheek that Calum wanted to kiss.
He could’ve known the boy would be a bit of a romantic.
---
“He cooks better than you Ash.” Lauren said after just one bite.
“I like Calum. Can he come with you again next time?” The girl asked.
The two adults looked each other in the eyes, both wanting to make sure they were on the same level when Harry decided to answer for him.
“Of course he will come again, he is Ashton’s boyfriend remember?”
The kids giggled and Calum started blushing once again; Ashton saw it this time, winking at him with a smirk on his face.
“If you won’t be nice he won’t come again though, so I’d better listen to him very carefully for the rest of the night.” Ashton told Lauren and she stuck out her tongue at her older brother, who returned the favour immediately. Calum watched with an amused smile on his face; he could get used to this.
After dinner, the two kids ran off, despite Ashton telling them to help them clean up. He sighed when they didn’t listen and Calum wondered if he should try to get them to listen.
“Can I…?” he asked the blonde.
“Yes, please!” he dramatically sighed and Calum giggled as he stepped into the living room.
“Guys, how about we bake cookies first and then watch a movie?”
The two children cheered and Ashton raised his eyebrows at him. This was obviously not what he had expected.
“Well, we won’t have enough time for that if Ashton and I have to clean everything alone, so if you just help us out real quick, we can do both.” He really hoped this would work; he had never done anything like this before.
Harry quickly got up and ran towards the kitchen to help but Lauren seemed to have to think about it.
“We have toppings to decorate the cookies as well.” Ashton said and that was just enough to convince her.
“Nice work Hood. You can definitely come again.” Ashton giggled as they went to help the kids put the plates into the dishwasher.
---
The kitchen was an absolute mess. There was flour everywhere and both the countertop and the table were covered in cookie dough and all kinds of toppings. Lauren had some cookie dough on her cheek and Calum was pretty sure the flour would come out of Harry’s wild curls days later but they all had had so much fun, he didn’t really care.
“Can we please try just one?” Harry whined.
“Don’t you want mum to see the cookies Haz? You guys decorated them so pretty.” Ashton praised.
“Plus we’ve just had dinner.”
“I think mum should have the first bite.” Lauren agreed, but that didn’t stop Harry from whining.
“But they look so good!”
“They will still look good tomorrow morning. Maybe we can make some popcorn later tonight okay?”
The boy nodded.
“Why don’t you guys pick out a movie to watch and we’ll attempt to clean up this mess.” Calum said, feeling more and more confident in his role as babysitter.
“Are you sure you have never done this before?” Ashton checked once the kids were gone, even though he already knew the answer.
“Yeah.” Calum chuckled. He really was glad this hadn’t turned into some sort of awful disaster because it could have and that would’ve been awkward.
“You’re great with kids.” Ashton complimented him as he started collecting the dishes.
“They love you.”
“Of course they do.” Calum chuckled because he was an awkward idiot who couldn’t handle compliments very well.
“Everybody does.” He added, to make sure the other boy knew he was joking.
“True.” Ashton said instead of fighting it and Calum had not expected that; his smile grew so big it felt like his cheeks were going to rip and he’d have to walk around looking like the freaking joker for the rest of his life.
---
It was almost forty-five minutes later when the two adults finally were done cleaning the kitchen and they walked over to the living room to join the kids who were watching Tangled.
Harry and Lauren both had claimed their own chair so that the couch was the only place left. Calum didn’t mind. He made sure to sit down right next to Ashton, brushing his knee against his thigh every so often.
Soon enough they had made a game of trying to touch each other without Ashton’s siblings finding out. Ashton placed his hand on top of his leg, just above his knee and kept it there until Harry had to go to the bathroom.
Calum stretched and placed his arm around Ashton like in the movies after the boy had come back and was focused on the screen again but because it made them both giggle, he had to pull away right after.
After a while Calum didn’t care anymore; they thought he was dating their brother anyway, so they probably wouldn’t mind them cuddling a tiny bit. He shifted so he could let his head fall on the older boy’s shoulder.
The children didn’t notice it though; they were too busy singing along.
Suddenly the movie paused.
“Okay, time for bed kids.” Ashton sternly said and his two siblings started complaining right away, claiming they weren’t tired at all even though the raven haired boy had seen Harry yawning at least five times.
“We’re not going to do this again; it’s way past your bedtime.” Ashton said. He obviously had had this discussion before.
“But it’s not even late.”
“It’s Wednesday, you’ve got school tomorrow! Come on, maybe I’ll sing you a song.”
“Will you sing mum’s song?” Lauren asked, and after Ashton nodded, both kids slowly got up and disappeared upstairs.
“I’ll be there in five minutes okay?”
“What is your mother’s song?” Calum curiously asked.
“It’s the song my mum sang to me the night after my dad had left.” Ashton told him, and Calum felt like an idiot for asking the question while he could’ve known it was something special.
“She sang it for five years, every single night. Then she started dating my stepfather and I thought I was too old for lullabies anyways so we almost forgot about the song. After my stepfather left, she started singing it to Lauren and Harry again.”
“I’m so sorry Ash.” Calum said, leaning his head on the boy’s shoulder again.
“It’s okay, it’s a long time ago and I didn’t care for him that much. It’s just not fair towards Lauren and Harry I think; I know what they had to go through and it never really gets easier thinking you weren’t important enough for him to stay.”
The younger boy wished he knew what to say. He decided not to say anything, taking Ashton’s hand in his own instead and squeezing it softly. He could tell this didn’t weight as heavy as what the boy had told him the day before but he still felt bad about making him talk about something so painful once again.
“Come on, let’s put some kids down.” Ashton said after sitting there for about two minutes, pulling Calum up by their intertwined hands.
---
Goodnight my angel,
Time to close your eyes
And save these questions for another day.
I think I know what you’ve been asking me,
I think you know what I’ve been trying to say.
I promised I would never leave you,
And you should always know;
Wherever you may go,
No matter where you are
I never will be far away.
Goodnight my angel,
Now it’s time to dream
And dream how wonderful your life will be.
Someday your child may cry
And if you sing this lullaby
Then in your heart
There will always be a part of me.
Someday we’ll all be gone
But lullabies go on and on
They never die
That’s how you and I will be.
Calum listened and somewhere along the song he had forgotten how to breathe; the song was beautiful, especially when one knew the meaning behind it and Ashton’s voice was even more beautiful. Lauren sent a sad smile Ashton’s way and the boy kissed her cheek.
“I love you little sis. Goodnight.”
He kissed his little brother as well and Calum waved his goodbye to the two kids after having to promise Harry he’d come back some time. Ashton switched of the light, wished the two sweet dreams and the two boys went back downstairs.
“You know what I want to do now?”
“What?” Calum asked, not sure what was going to follow next.
“Finish that movie because I heard it’s not that bad and I have never seen it before.”
Calum giggled. He was glad Ashton was in a good mood, they had had enough misery to talk about the day before and even though Calum wanted Ashton to always come to him with his problems, he figured it would be better for them both to just forget about the world being unfair for now. They could always talk later.
They let themselves fall back on the couch, their bodies even closer to each other’s than before. Ashton instantly threw his arm around Calum and pulled him so he was resting against him; it was very comfortable.