#calum x mara

[roanofarcc]

PROJECT SUNSHINE CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE → ONE WEIRD NIGHT

summary: steve harrington x oc

when another product of Hawkins National Laboratory escaped a long-survived nightmare alongside her sister, she crashed into one unsuspecting teenage boy and dragged him deeper into the dark mysteries that made up their hometown.

word count. || masterlist

warnings: cannon typical violence, child abuse, horror, gore, and depictions of mental illness. parts of this story were written pre-season 4 release. cannon divergence.

previous chapter ← → next chapter

In the passenger seat of an old, beat-up car, Calum Miller drummed his fingers against his chin in thought. He was unable to let anything go or be; his mind was a tangled web of suspicion that his hometown wasn’t what everyone believed, and he was almost desperate to prove it. 

“You know, maybe the whole Pennhurst idea wasn’t too far-fetched. It’s possible Danielle and even Will ended up there somehow,” he thought aloud. The whole story surrounding Danielle Torres drove him mad. No printed article or half-assed story the long-lost teen uttered convinced Calum that there wasn’t more to the story. He had done his research and in nearly every kidnapping case, it was unlikely the victim survived a week, let alone ten years. Someone- Danielle, her family, the Hawkins P.D., and probably others- was coving something up. They didn’t want the public to know something and Calum wanted to know what. He also wanted to know- no, he needed to know- if it had anything to do with his dad. 

“Jesus Christ,” Tamera huffed. 

“Are you really still upset about the tutoring thing? I know we blew it, but we can think of something else-” 

A dry, humorless laugh sounded from Tamera, and her eyes remained glued to the road. “No, you idiot. I’m not mad you blew the tutoring idea. I didn’t even want to do that! I’m mad that you basically accosted Danielle. She hasn’t come around the library in days,” she said. “I liked talking to her. She’s nice and sweet, and you scared her off! Now I’m gonna be lucky if she ever talks to me again.” 

Calum frowned. He didn’t understand why she didn’t see how weird things were with Danielle’s story. Sure, she seemed nice and all, he wasn’t doubting that, but something wasn’t right about her or how she found her way back to Hawkins. 

“Come on, Mara-” 

She cut him off with a quick glare. “No. Just let it go, please.”

Once again, the friends found themselves trapped in the same loop of a conversation they’d been having for weeks. Calum had thrown almost all of his focus into scraping together clues that would lead him to his dad, and Tamera had helped him where she could. But with the dead ends they kept meeting and then Calum’s questioning of Danielle, Tamera was getting visibly annoyed with him. 

Maybe he was being annoying about it, but he needed to find his dad and fix things. He needed his mom to stop drinking herself into a coma each night because of her husband’s absence. The only thing he had was that Danielle Tores returned the same week his dad and Will Byers went missing. Will returned but his dad didn’t. 

With a sigh, Calum ran a hand through his blond hair and pressed the issue further. “I told you, Mara, I can’t let this go. My dad is out there somewhere, and I have to find him.” 

She shook her head but didn’t ignore him; she wanted to convince him his efforts were misplaced and useless, but it wouldn’t work. Calum was too stubborn for anyone to convince him he was wrong. “There is nothing but that week connecting Danielle or Will or anyone to your dad. You have nothing besides those insane theories with no proof. You’re trying to turn nothing into something.” She paused and her anger melted into something of guilt before she continued, “Your dad is gone. He left, Cal. That’s all there is to it.” 

Her words stung like a slap to the face, but he tried not to let them get under his skin. Tamera sounded like his mom. The woman had shut down every possibility of her husband being taken or vanishing. She insisted he left her, but her behavior told a different story. There were problems between his parents, mostly because his dad spent a lot of time away at work, but they loved each other. That could explain her unraveling in his absence, but something about the way she acted was wrong. She didn’t seem sad or heartbroken; she was relieved and enraged in the most confusing of ways. There was something he was missing; his parents were telling him something. 

His mom didn’t make a livable wage as a hairdresser in downtown Hawkins. The job was more of a side hobby that she used to make some extra cash. It was Calum’s dad who was the breadwinner of the family. He didn’t know what his dad did, but it was some government number-crunching job that he never talked much about out of fear he’d bored his son to death. All Calum knew was that he brought in more than enough money to support them, but when he disappeared, Calum worried he and his mom would sink without the income. He picked up extra shifts at the arcade and got a second job at the movie theater in hopes of making ends meet. 

Then, one night when he returned home late from work, he saw his mom dressed in the same clothes as the day before, not having been to work. Calum mustered up enough courage to ask her how they were going to support themselves without Dad’s money. She shrugged him off and told him not to worry about it and that it was “all taken care of.” That only made him more confused. How was it taken care of? Who were they getting the money from? 

“My dad wasn’t a bad guy,” Calum said, keeping his tone level even though he was screaming on the inside. “There was no reason for him to leave like that. He didn’t take anything, and he didn’t say goodbye. There was nothing, he just vanished.” 

If his dad was going to leave, he would have said something to Calum, that much he believed. 

There was more that occurred that week that only heightened his suspicion that something odd was going on. “You know, that night he didn’t come home there were power outages all over town. Mr. Robinson said it had something to do with that power company in the woods, the one with the military out front.” 

Tamera rolled her eyes. “Oh wow. The Department of Energy had trouble with the power in November. That obviously means aliens came down and abducted by aliens.” 

“I’m being serious!” Calum snapped. Power outages had occurred more than a week than they had all year, according to the Hawkins Post. He knew it was a stretch, trying to connect a series of weird power outages to his dad’s disappearance, but he felt in his gut that there was something weird going on.  

“Don’t you think it's a little strange that a bunch of vans from the Department of Energy were at Nancy Wheeler’s house?” 

“What?” Tamera asked. 

He explained to her what he saw. The Department of Energy was out and about that whole week; Calum recalled seeing their vans around town, but not once did he see anyone working on the powerlines. He was no electrician, but he knew that the Department of Energy vans never came around the summer prior when a wicked storm knocked the power out for three days in the dead of July. Men were out working on lines from dawn to dusk trying to get the power back. What was different that time? His curiosity and suspicion peaked when he saw a line of those vans outside Nancy Wheeler’s home. 

Calum had cut through the neighborhood on his walk home from work. He needed to clear his head in the wake of his dad disappearing. When he reached the top of a hill that overlooked the other half of the neighborhood, he saw the collection of vans at the Wheeler’s home and the series of men and women, dressed in suits, carrying boxes out of the home. It made no sense to him. Who were those people and why were they at the Wheelers? But then he mulled it over and little connections were made. Nancy Wheeler was best friends with Barbara Holland who had also gone missing and never returned during that week. Her little brother was best friends with Will Byers. And her boyfriend, Steve Harrington was supposedly childhood best friends with Danielle Torres. It seemed to perfect to a coincidence.

Tamera a quiet for a long moment before she said, “That is… weird.” It was more than that, but he was happy with her not telling him to give up his pursuits. 

“That’s not all, either. I skipped school two days ago because I didn’t want to play basketball in gym-”

“Which is ridiculous, by the way,” Tamera said. “But continue.” 

“I ran to the store and when I was talking home, I saw Nancy and Jonathan Byers together. They came out of Radio Shack with a bag full of stuff.” The pair was odd, but Calum had seen them together more since the start of the school year. “I couldn’t get close enough to hear most of their conversation, but I swear I heard them mention Barbra Holland.” 

Tamera looked unconvinced. “Barb and Nancy were friends. I’m sure she talks about Barb.” 

“I guess, but did you know Nancy and Steve eat dinner with the Holland once a month? I bet they also think Barb’s still somewhere out there just like her parents do. The Hollands are selling their house to pay for a private investigator.” 

“How do you know all of this?” 

Calum’s mother was still on the fritz, but she had resumed working at the salon, just not as frequently as she had before his dad vanished. Calum helped around the place when he caught a break from work. If there was one place someone could get any information they wanted, it was the hair salon. The mothers, aunts, daughters, and sisters of Hawkins liked to talk about everyone and everything. 

“I have my sources,” Calum said, smoothly. “And those sources confirmed that they saw the private investigator the Hollands hired talking to Danielle more than once. If all of this shit isn’t connected, how do you explain that?” 

“I don’t know.” She paused before glancing at him through slightly more sympathetic eyes. “Just don’t jump the gun on this, okay? I agree that all of that stuff is weird, but there’s still no proof it’s connected to your dad.” But it had to, Calum thought.

He wanted to make Tamera understand, somehow, but before he could get another word out, a car came barreling down the street toward them. 

“Shit!” Tamera yelled as she jerked the wheel to the side and narrowly avoided the speeding car. Bright headlights flooded Calum’s vision and he let out a matching scream alongside Tamera. Their car veered slightly off the side of the road, the right wheels in the grass, as the other car passed, they continued racing down the road. 

Calum clutched his chest, feeling like he just suffered a mini-heart attack. “Jesus Christ! Who the hell was that?” he asked. 

Looking in the rearview mirror, Tamera narrowed her eyes under her large, wire-framed glasses. “I think that was the new kid’s car.” 

“What an asshole.” 

→←

Steve was dead, he had to be. Dead, but in a lot of pain, which didn’t make a lot of sense but even thinking was too painful. Every one of his muscles ached and his head felt too heavy for his body. His eyes were still closed when he tried to move, but it was as if he was crammed into a small space that wouldn’t allow his limbs to stretch. With a groan, he forced his eyes open despite the pounding in his head. 

The world was a blur in front of him. He tried to rub his eyes and clear his vision, but someone grabbed his wrist. “No, don’t touch it.” Dustin’s voice filled his ears as the kid’s face came more into focus. “Hey buddy, it’s okay. You put up a good fight. He kicked your ass, but you put up a good fight.” 

Oh, God. That was the only thought that flowed through Steve’s mind as the events of the night rushed back to him. The feeling of glass shattering over his head, the screams from the kids, and the taste of blood in his mouth all came back to him. 

From right beside Steve, another familiar voice sounded. “Please slow down,” Sunshine groaned. 

“Don’t throw up in here,” Mike replied, his head popping up on the other side of Dustin. 

“Okay, you’re gonna keep straight for half a mile, then make a left on Mount. Sinai,” Lucas instructed from somewhere in front of Steve. 

Steve had no idea where he was. All of the voices pounded against his skull and there was a weird feeling like he was moving. The last thing he remembered was blacking out in the Byers living room, but he was sure he wasn’t there anymore. Why did he feel like he was moving? 

He tried to sit up, but he was in an uncomfortable and awkward position. There were too many people too close to him. All he could do was look forward and focus on figuring out what was going on. Then, it dawned on him that in front of him was the front seat of a car and he was indeed moving. Not only that but the car was being driven by a redhead who sat way too close to the steering wheel. 

“What’s going on?” Steve started to panic. 

“Relax,” Dustin said, in a lame attempt to ease Steve’s worry. “She’s driven before.”

Mike scoffed. “Yeah, in a parking lot.” 

“That counts,” said Lucas. 

On the furthest side of the backseat, pressed up against the door with his hands shoved in his pockets and his hoodie pulled up over his head, Luke shook his head. “No, it definitely does not.” 

Ignoring them, Dustin looked down at Steve with an expression that looked slightly guilty. “They were going to leave you behind, but I promised that you’d be cool, okay?” 

It certainly was not okay; Steve was in a car being driven by a child. “What is happening?” Steve’s words came out a little slurred. He tried to sit up again as he repeated, “No, no, no.” But a small yelp sounded from his other side as his elbow hit something that was not the door. 

“Ow! Steve, stop moving.” Turning his head, Steve noticed that Sunshine was wedged between the door and him. His elbow was jammed into his ribs and her arm was wrapped around his shoulder, holding an ice pack to his cheek that he hadn’t even noticed until that moment. The side of his face felt numb but the panic inside of his was red hot as he peered past Sunshine and out the window to see Hawkins fly by. 

“No! Stop the car! Slow down!” he yelled. 

“I told you he’d freak out,” Mike huffed. 

From the driver’s seat, Max yelled, “Everybody, shut up! I’m trying to focus!” 

“Oh, wait, that’s Mount. Siani,” Lucas said, looking between the map in his hands and the road. Max shot him a confused look before he frantically pointed to the quickly approaching turn. “Make a left! Make a left, now!” 

Max muttered a string of curse words and yanked the steering wheel as hard as she could to make a sharp left turn. Everyone in the car screamed as a mailbox bounced off the hood of the car and flew over them before landing in the dust the car kicked up from its veer off the road. 

The rest of the trip was a blur. Steve was squished in the backseat and his ears rang from his blow to the head the yelling that filled the car. Somewhere along the way, they nearly collided with another car that was unlucky enough to be on the road at the same time as them and Max nearly drove them all into a ditch. 

Steve squeezed his eyes closed and held onto Sunshine’s arm for dear life as he silently prayed for their trip to be over. It felt like an eternity later, but eventually, Max pulled into an empty field and slammed down on the break. The car lurched forward to a sudden stop, and as everyone fell back against their seat, a collective sigh of relief rang out. 

“Incredible,” Mike said, breaking the silence with a look of bewilderment and awe in his eyes. 

Max pulled the keys from the ignition and tossed a look to the backseat. “I told you. Zoomer.” 

Steve didn’t know what the hell she was talking about, and he didn’t care. He needed out of the car before he hurled. 

Everyone was on the same page and made quick work of getting out. Sunshine pushed open the door and nearly tumbled out of the car before she leaned heavily against the side of it. 

Steve rubbed his throbbing temples, but his effort to collect himself was cut short as the kids all started pulling supplies out of the trunk and placed them near a gaping hole in the ground. 

“Guys,” he said, trying to get their attention. “What do you think you’re doing?” His words were still a little slurred and he had to hold onto the car door to keep himself upright.

“Steve,” Sunshine sighed, but Steve couldn’t stop his anger from bubbling up at the kids as they continued to move and ignore him. 

“What are you, deaf? Hello! We’re not going down there! I made myself clear!” 

A hand grabbed his shoulder and forced his attention. Sunshine peered up at him. He couldn’t see much in the darkness of the field, but it didn’t make much to notice the tiredness that adorned her features. Her brows were furrowed and there was blood smeared against her skin; Steve wondered how they kept finding themselves in those kinds of situations, blooded and bruised and exhausted. 

“I thought we were on the same page?” he said, exasperatedly tossing his hands up in the air, causing her to lose her hold on his coat and step backward. “This is insane and dangerous!” He didn’t intend for his voice to come out as loud as it did, and it was more pointed at the kids than Sunshine, but she still flinched. A wave of guilt instantly ran through him. He closed his eyes once more and willed the world to stop spinning so fast.

“Steve, you’re upset, I get it,” Dustin said, approaching the two teens. Steve rubbed his eyes once more and settled his gaze on the kid who held Steve’s backpack and bat. Dustin wore a pair of swimming goggles and a bandana tied around his neck; he looked ridiculous. “The bottom line is, a party member requires assistance and it’s duty to provide that assistance.” 

Steve hated how loyal the kids were to each other; he’d never seen a group of friends so utterly devoted to one another, and if they weren’t standing at the edge of a hole that led into another nightmare or if Steve hadn’t just gotten the shit beat out of him, he’d probably think it was sweet. 

“Now,” Dustin continued, holding out Steve’s backpack toward him. “I know you guys promised you’d keep us safe. So, keep us safe down there.” 

Steve turned and looked at Sunshine, who was already looking at him. She brushed her frizzy hair behind her ears and wiped the dried blood from under her nose. “They’re going to do this with or without us.” Steve knew she was right, and he knew Hopper and Joyce were going to kill them. 

“Fine,” he said and grabbed his backpack. “Let’s go.” 

Tag list. @sattlersquarry , @echoing-oursong , @leptitlu

[nostalgiabones]

Finding Out // C.H

So, this is the first blurb in my new ‘second baby’ series! Following on from the responses I got in this poll, I decided to do this as a series of blurbs rather than one big fic. Thank you to everyone for sharing your thoughts! I don’t have a solid plan for this series yet so there’s still plenty of time if you want to have any input. I’m basically going to do a pregnancy and baby series! As always, feedback is appreciated so please let me know what you think💕

Word count: 3.3k 

Warnings: pregnancy & sickness (nothing graphic!) 

“Baby…”

Calum’s gentle touch on your arm rouses you from sleep, his fingertips lightly running up and down your wrist. Your eyes flutter in response, eyebrows furrowing in confusion when you take in your surroundings. You’re in bed, in the middle of the afternoon, tucked up under the duvet with Mara asleep in your arms. Calum is perched on the edge of the bed, wanting to make sure you’re feeling okay after falling asleep for a few hours with Mara.

It wasn’t often you fell asleep with Mara during her nap. Additionally, Mara didn’t usually nap in your bed; she’d be in her own bed, in her own room, down the hall. Yet today, she had wanted just one story to settle her, and with your own eyes ladened with tiredness, you decided to read to her in your bed. The plan was to move her when she fell asleep, yet it seems as though you didn’t make it that far. It was becoming less often that Mara would nap, now that she’s almost four; only sleeping during the day when she had been unsettled the night before. 

“What time is it?” You murmur, careful not to move and jostle Mara – even though it’s time she wakes up too. Mara stretches, pushing her hands against your arm as she wriggles before settling again. “I didn’t even mean to fall asleep.”

Calum chuckles at your confusion, taking your hand in his own and pressing a kiss to your knuckles.

“It’s nearly 4,” He replies, his free hand brushing Mara’s curls away from her face. She leans into his touch, a sigh slipping from her lips as she snoozes. “I thought it was about time Mara woke up. We’re in for some fun later if she sleeps any longer.”

You nod in agreement, knowing she had already slept too much. You move the arm that’s wrapped around her, rubbing your fingertips up and down her back to wake her. She yawns and rubs her eyes, realising that she’s still snug up against you, and that she slept in your bed. “Hi mama,”

You smile at her words, her voice heavy with sleep. She sits up and notices Calum is there too; holding her hands out for him so he’ll take her. He lifts her up, standing up from the bed and sitting her on his hip as she wakes up a little more. It melts Calum’s heart to see you nap together – reminiscent of the days where the two of you had no responsibilities, where you used to spend whole afternoons asleep together, sometimes waking up when the sun had gone down. It makes him realise how different things are now. “Hi, little moon. Someone had a good snooze with mum, huh? Is your tummy ready for some dinner?”

He chats to her absentmindedly as he takes her downstairs, giving you a few moments alone to come round from your unexpected nap. Sitting up, you notice how your body aches with fatigue, your lower back twinging as you stretch. Thinking nothing of it, you re-make the bed, before joining Calum and Mara in the kitchen.

The familiar scent of Mara’s favourite pasta flooded your senses; one that you’d usually enjoy too, yet it makes your stomach turn as you enter the kitchen.  Calum notices the scrunching of your nose as it hits you, wondering what caused it.

“You okay?” He murmurs, his hands resting on your hips as you stand in the cradle of his hips. You nod, taking quiet deep breaths through your nose to stop the sick feeling creeping up your throat. Mara was unsuspecting, the sight of you and Calum close in the kitchen not unfamiliar to her. “What is it?”

“I think it’s the food,” You reply, that being the only thing you can think of that’s making you feel queasy. Calum’s warm palms rub up and down your back as your hands rest on his chest. “I’m okay, though. I might just be coming down with something.”

“Mmm,” Calum replies, raising an eyebrow in suspicion of you. The fatigue and sickness are all signs that he’s seen before; specifically, four years ago. “We’ll have to keep an eye on you.”

“I finished,” Mara calls out, your attention diverted from Calum to your sweet daughter sitting in her chair at the end of the table. The plate in front of her is clear and Calum has already covered the rest, saving it so she can have it for lunch tomorrow. You’re grateful that it’s no longer in the room, not wanting to get sick in front of Mara. “Can I go play?”

You nod, helping her down from the table, accepting the sweet hug as she wraps her arms around your legs. “You have an hour until bath time, okay? I’ll come play with you soon.” 

“Okay.” She responds, running off to the lounge where most of her toys end up throughout the day. Calum’s eyes follow you as you clear up after her; you feel him watching you, like he knows something is going on.

“Stop looking at me like that,” You tell him, without even looking at him. You know the look he’s giving you. It’s a knowing one. He knows the thought has crossed your mind too. “I’m fine.”

He chuckles, taking Mara’s plate out of your hands so he can take over cleaning up. He brushes a kiss to your pouty lips, before setting the dishes down in the sink. “Go see Mara,” he murmurs, followed by another kiss. “We’ll talk about it later.” 

***

“Is mumma okay?”

Mara’s question takes Calum by surprise as he brushes through her unruly curls, following her bath. Her cheeks are rosy from the heat of the bath and the warmth of her pyjamas, perched on the edge of her bed as he gets her ready to go to sleep.

Calum tends to forget how old Mara is – how she’s not a baby anymore, and how she’s much more intuitive than he realises. She knows when something is different – always a curious child, much like he was, always asking questions when she thought something wasn’t right. He didn’t want her to worry though. He’s almost sure of what’s going on – that you’re not sick, and he doesn’t want Mara to lose sleep over it.

“Why do you ask, baby?” He replies, although he already thinks he knows the answer. Bath and bedtime is usually a joint effort; yet tonight Calum has sent you to relax early. He knows you won’t unless he forces you to, and he doesn’t want you to overwork yourself, especially if his suspicions are correct. Mara notices your absence though.

“She said her tummy felt funny earlier,” Mara informs him, looking down at her hands as she talks. Calum hums in acknowledgement, setting the hair brush down on the side of her bed as he gets her attention. Gently tiling her chin to look at him, he notices her big brown eyes are filled with worry, and it makes his heart ache.

“Listen to me, sweetheart,” He murmurs, settling her in his lap so he can reassure her. “No worrying, okay? She’s fine, I promise. I’m sure she’ll be in to say goodnight any moment now.”

Mara nods, trusting of him – he knows he hasn’t settled her completely, yet he hopes that once you say goodnight, she’ll feel better. He feels bad telling her that you’re fine when Mara has heard otherwise, yet he doesn’t know how else to explain why he thinks you’re sick. Not until he’s sure, anyway. “Are you ready to get into bed?”

He’s cut off by you joining them in her bedroom; the night light illuminating the room in a soft glow. She hadn’t quite overcome her fear of the dark; still needing the golden light from the lamp to reassure her that there was nothing lingering in the shadows. Mara’s eyes light up at the sight.

“There’s my sweet girl,” You greet her, kneeling next to where she’s getting into bed. “Are you ready for some sleep? Mumma is ready to go to sleep too.” 

It’s something you say to her most nights, that you’re going to bed, so she doesn’t feel as though she’s missing out on any fun with you and Calum. Yet tonight it makes her more anxious, that you’re going to bed because there’s something wrong. 

“Does your tummy still feel funny?” She asks, tucking her bottom lip between a teeth -- a sign of her nerves. Her sweetness makes you smile yet you can’t help but feel bad that she’s worried. You help to tuck her under the duvet, pulling it up around her shoulders so she’s snug in the bed. 

“No baby, I feel better now.” You reassure her, though not completely true. It’s not something you want her to worry about either. Mara seems satisfied with your answer, shuffling down in her bed so her head is on the pillow. You rub your pointer finger over her cheek, watching as her eyes grow heavier and flutter as she looks at you. “Have sweet dreams, okay? We’ll see you in the morning.” 

“Love you, mama,” She murmurs sleepily, snuggling into the bed as you kiss her cheek. Calum follows, brushing her curls out of her face and giving her a goodnight kiss.

“Love you, baby. You know where we are if you need us, okay? Duke is here too,” Calum assures her, gesturing to the sleeping dog curled up on the foot of her bed. It’s where he slept most nights, wanting to be near Mara -- sometimes ending up under the duvet next to her. “Sleep tight.” 

You leave the room and pull the door to so she can sleep, knowing you and Calum have an interesting night ahead. 

“So,” Calum begins, leading you to your bedroom, where you had previously been curled up watching Netflix. You sigh as you sit on the edge of the bed, looking down at your slippers to avoid his gaze. He knows where Mara got that habit from. “You’re thinking the same thing as me, right?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” You feign seriousness, taking a deep breath before looking up at him, a knowing smirk on your lips. “But when I napped earlier, the smell of your cologne on the pillow nearly made me throw up.” 

Calum raises his eyebrows -- another occasion reminding him of this time four years ago. He’ll never forget the time he came home from the studio and wrapped you in a hug, your face buried in his neck, but only for a second before you nearly threw up all over his shoes. He’d had to use something other than his favourite Calvin Klein fragrance for the remainder of your pregnancy, and he feels as though he’s about to have to do the same thing again.

“Do you still have those spare tests in the bathroom?” 

Your mind wanders to the stash of spare pregnancy tests in the bottom drawer of the bathroom cabinet, kept there always ‘just in case.’ It turns out to be pretty handy that you have them now. You nod, but make no effort to move from the bed in order to take one, and Calum wants to know what’s on your mind.

“Talk to me, honey,” Calum prompts you, sitting down next to you, his arm around your waist. You sigh and rest your head on his shoulder, trying to avoid his cologne once more in the worry of it turning your stomach. You sit for a moment, trying to work out what you’re feeling before articulating it to Calum. “What are you thinking about?”

A second baby was something the two of you had discussed; you weren’t necessarily trying to get pregnant, but you weren’t trying not to, either. You just hadn’t expected it this fast, and your mind wanders to the sweet girl sleeping down the hall.

“I’m nervous.” You reply, wringing your hands together in anxiousness, and Calum tries to soothe you by taking one of your hands in his. He links your fingers with his, gently squeezing to keep you grounded. “What if Mara doesn’t want us to have a baby? She’s so used to it just being her.” 

Calum nods, and he’d be lying if he said the thought hadn’t crossed his mind too. You were so settled as a family of three, always focused on Mara, yet you both know you always planned to have more than one child. 

“She’ll adjust, baby. It’s going to be new for us all. She has plenty of time to get used to the idea, and we can help her with that.” Calum replies, his hand rubbing up and down your arm as he speaks. “She’ll be so excited. You’ve seen how interested she is in talking to Luke about their baby when we see them.”

He’s right -- with Luke and his wife getting closer to the arrival of their first baby, Mara had taken a great interest in everything to do with her pregnancy. She had many questions whenever they visited, each time wondering when the baby would arrive. Her concept of time was something she didn’t quite understand yet. ‘Soon’ seemed to be her least favourite word. 

“I love how we’re doing this and we don’t even know if I’m pregnant yet,” You chuckle, followed by a laugh from Calum too. He pulls you a little closer and kisses your cheek, a smile on his lips.

“I’ll be very surprised if you’re not.” He replies, and you know he’s right. There had been little signs here and there; mainly the sickness and how tired you’ve been, along with a few other symptoms similar to that of when you were pregnant with Mara. You both recognise the signs. “Should we go find out for sure?”

You nod and follow him to the bathroom, closing the door behind you, as not to wake Mara. You go into the drawer and find the tests, pulling one out so you can use it.

“You’re really gonna watch me do this?” You ask, seeing as Calum had no intention of leaving the bathroom.

“I’ve seen worse things.” Calum replies, met with you rolling your eyes. “I’ll look away.”

He chats to you to take your mind away from your worries as you take the test. “Can you believe it’s been four years since we last did this?”

It doesn’t feel like four years. It barely feels like any time at all since you brought Mara home from the hospital. 

“Well, if you don’t count that one time after Mara’s first birthday.” You retort, Calum’s eyes widening at the memory before he laughs. That time you had definitely not been trying to have a baby. The test had been false, but you went through the motions all the same. 

“Oh yeah,” He murmurs, getting distracted by playing with his hair in the mirror. The bleach blonde look was starting to grow out, the dark roots no longer concealed. He made a mental note to get a haircut, not like he had more important things to think about in the moment. His attention is diverted by the sound of you running your hands under the sink, watching as the three minute timer began on your phone. 

“And now we wait.” 

Calum takes your hands in his once more and tries to get you to look at him, even though both of you are pre-occupied by the white stick next to the sink.

“Stop worrying,” He murmurs, like he can tell how fast your mind is racing. He knows it’s a big adjustment, that it’ll change your lives forever, just like Mara did -- yet he finds himself much less terrified than he was four years ago. “Whatever happens, we can handle it. We always do, don’t we?” 

You nod, feeling much better with him by your side. You think about how Mara will react -- will she be happy or upset? She’s so caring towards Duke, so you can’t help but think about how great of a big sister she would be. The thought of introducing a new baby to her makes your heart ache a little, just hoping that she would be happy. 

Time seems to stand still as you watch the clock on your phone -- the longest three minutes of your life. You press your face against Calum’s t-shirt, knowing that if his cologne did make you sick, you were in the right place. You’re both snapped out of your thoughts when your phone buzzes against the marble counter.

“I can’t look,” You tell him, facing away from the counter. As nervous as you are, now that you’ve thought about another baby, you know you’ll be disappointed if it’s negative. 

“Do you want me to?” Calum asks, and you nod, wrapping your arms around his waist and hiding your face against his shoulder. He picks the test up off of the counter and looks at the result, your heart pounding in your chest when he lets out a deep sigh. 

Pregnant. 

Calum pauses for a moment, his gentle touch on your lower back the only thing grounding you in the moment. 

“So... which room should we make into the nursery?”

You clasp your hand over your mouth, tears instantly slipping down your cheeks. Calum pulls you towards him, setting the test back on the side and wrapping both of his arms around your waist. He rests his head on your shoulder, his lips brushing the bare skin exposed from your jumper falling out of place.

“Really? I’m really pregnant?” You ask through tears, cupping Calum’s face in your hands so he’s looking at you. You see a shine in his own eyes, unshed tears just sitting at his lash line at the thought of your family expanding. Flashes of your pregnancy with Mara flood through his mind, as well as glimpses of the past four years of being parents. He can’t wait to do it all again. 

“Yeah, baby,” He chuckles, his tone laced with disbelief too. “Mara’s gonna be a big sister.” 

There’s so much on your mind, you don’t know where to begin. “Should we tell her?”

Calum shakes his head, one hand moving to rest on your stomach, your bump non-existent. His heart skips a beat at the thought of your bump growing and your body changing again, all to accommodate another baby. He knows it’s very early days and he doesn’t want to tell Mara until you know everything is okay. “I don’t think we should yet, honey. Let's at least wait until you see a doctor? Just so we know for sure.”

He sees a flash of worry in your eyes. He’s forgotten how scary pregnancy is; how you feel like everything is out of your control, yet you want to do everything you can to protect the baby at all times. 

“Don’t,” He murmurs, knowing where your mind is going. He cups your face in his hand, his thumb gently rubbing circles over your cheek. “Everything is going to be fine. We just need to be sure, okay?”

You nod, agreeing with his words. You reach up to peck his lips, savouring the serene moment of joy with him his fingers still absentmindedly brushing over your stomach. “Well, how should we celebrate?” 

“I just don’t know,” Calum chuckles, thinking for a moment. The word celebrate has a different meaning now that you’re parents; it used to mean getting dragged to a bar with his bandmates and not returning until the early hours, and then spending the following day in bed. Now, you’re lucky if you find the time to go out for dinner. “I think we should go all out. Ice cream in bed and Netflix?”

“Sounds like a plan,” You reply, brushing your lips against his once more. “But if you get ice cream on the sheets, you’re washing them tomorrow.” 

He shrugs his shoulder, nodding as he speaks, “fair enough. I’ll get the ice cream. I’ll meet you in the bedroom in 10.”

***

Ask-box

Masterlist

Taglist:  @irwinkitten @wildflowergrae @luckyduckydoo @letstaketheups-and-downs @jazzyangel242 @cashworthy @babylon-corgis @norawashere @monsteramongmikey @late-nightdevil @maluminspace @fluffsshawn @xhaileyreneex @flowerthug @calpops @youngblood199456 @aliencal @wokeupinjapanisabop @banditocth @cashtonasfuck @5-secondsofcolor @g-l-pierce @monsteramongmgc @calmlftv @mantlereid @treatallwithkindness @another-lonely-heart @calumrose @inlovehoodx @mermaidcashton @everydayimfangirling @b-easybreezy @ilumxna @malumsmermaid @opheliaaurora23 @talkfastromance4 @zhangyixingxing1 @everyscarisahealingplace @mateisit-balsamic @saphseoul @suchalonelysunflower @findingliam-o @castaway-cashton @megz1985 @notinthesameguey @calumscalm @karajaynetoday @metalandboybands @littledrummeraussie @vxlentinecal @itjustkindahappenedreally @queenalienscherrypie @xxxstormyninixxx @chicken-ona-stick @hoodhoran @harrys-shrooms @midnightash

[th0tpatr0ls]

IIIII NEED TO GET BACK INTO WRITING PLS SOMEONE REQUEST SOMETHING IM STRESSED

REQUESTS OPEN FOR

-Riverdale

-PrettyMuch

-5SOS

- Vlog squad

-Harry Potter

-Teen Wolf

[writingisbetterthandying]

Masterlist

requests are open!

Corbyn Besson (Why Don’t We)

- Tour early writing

Grayson Dolan (Youtube)

- Misunderstanding early work- originally on wattpad @salad-dols

Calum Hood (5SOS)

- Empathy relatively old but decently edited since

Tommy Shelby (Peaky Blinders)

- Regret   Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 discontinued(?) but angst in a headcanon-esque form

- I’m Not Her Part 2 Part 3 was originally supposed to be a blurb

Michael Gray (Peaky Blinders)

- Village Girl first attempt at fluff and a request! not that fluffy

Vinnie Hacker (TikTok)

- Movie Date! self indulgent fluff!

- [early] Birthday Boy another short fluff piece!

[lespcir]

for my love @ittybittylittlebit-hot

a list of our shipperinos

Alice x David

Alice x Elijah

Alice x Felix x Nora

Alice x Felix x Nora x Ria

Anderson x Vanessa 

Anderson x Sofia

Anderson x Jessie

Anderson x Niko

Arizona x Jace

Arizona x Ollie 

Astrid x Gio

August x Axel 

August x Micah

Beatrice x Chrissy

Beatrice x Niko

Benji x David

Cade x Jeremy 

Cade x Micah

Cade x Jax

Callan x Micah

Callan x Felix

Callan x Desmond

Cavlin x Isaac

Calvin x David x Micah 

Camden x Luke

Camden x Micah

Camden x Jax

Camden x Ollie

Carolina x Michael

Carolina x Jace

Carolina x Cason

Carson x Cason

Carson x Cameron

Connor x Micah

Connor x Axel

Dash x Jace

Dash x Ashton

Elian x Autum

Elian x Kennedy

Jinx x David

Elora x Gio

Elora x Bianca

Evanna x Luke 

Evanna x Andre

Evanna x Maverick x Charlie

Evanna x Alessia

Evanna x Jace

Rhett x Micah

Finn x Pandora 

Finn x Axel 

Forrest x David

Forrest x Michael

Forrest x Micah

Gray x Isaac

Gray x Felix

Harley x Ollie 

Harley x Micah

Harlynn x Gabi 

Jasper x Calum 

Jasper x Joshua

Jasper x Felix

Jasper x Bella x Vanessa

Jayden x Calum

Jeremiah x Micah

Jeremiah x Savannah

Jeremiah x Nix

Jeremiah x Desmond

Julian x Jamie 

Julian x Pandora

Kassy x Cason

Kassy x Veronica 

Kassy x Axel

Kinsley x Joshua 

Kinsley x Cason

Kinsley x Pandora

Kyan x Jace

Kyan x Micah

Kiara x Jax x Jace

Kiara x Greyson

Lavender x Jace

Lavender x Cameron 

Lavender x Andre

Lavender x Jax

Lavender x Jeremy

Lavender x Isaac

Lavender x Luke

Lilia x Avery

Mara x Andre

Mara x Jeremy

Mars x Luke

Maverick x Quinn

Maverick x Savannah

Maverick x Micah

Maverick x Layla

Matilda x Bella

Moxie x Greyson

Moxie x Cason

Nora x Micah

Nora x Johnny

Oakley x Jax

Olly x Felix

Olly x David

Olly x Nix

Ria x Felix

Samaiya x Greyson 

Samaiya x Axel 

Samaiya x Micah

Samaiya x Ashton 

Samaiya x Logan

Samaiya x Andre

Viviana x Avery 

Viviana x Ethan

Violetta x Alessia

Zackariah x Tori

Betty x Jughead

Simon x Bram

As of 3/18/2018 as far as i know we have 111 ships.

I’m going to update this since we add SO many, and also if i missed any pls let me know i know i posted u things lately and i cant remember if i got them all bc we havent started them all xxx

[roanofarcc]

PROJECT SUNSHINE CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN → MYSTERY INC.

summary: steve harrington x oc

when another product of Hawkins National Laboratory escaped a long-survived nightmare alongside her sister, she crashed into one unsuspecting teenage boy and dragged him deeper into the dark mysteries that made up their hometown.

word count. 1.7k || masterlist

warnings: cannon typical violence, child abuse, horror, gore, and depictions of mental illness. parts of this story were written pre-season 4 release. cannon divergence.

previous chapter ← → next chapter

Calum Miller stepped out of his best friend’s car and stretched his limbs. The winter air assaulted his face, and his old shoes squished in a pile of slush left on the curb. He cringed as his socks became wet and jumped onto the sidewalk. 

“She was cute, Mara,” he said, continuing their conversation from the car. “Can’t you let a man wingman?” 

With a roll of her eyes, Tamera slung her overnight bag over her shoulder. “Please, she was checking you out, not me.” 

“Whatever, she was dud anyways.” They both knew that wasn’t entirely true. The girl who worked weekends at the movie theater was cute, but she was more Tamera’s type than his. “We’ll find you someone who doesn’t over-salt popcorn, don’t you worry.” 

She laughed but cut herself off when her attention fell behind Calum, where his house sat. “Does your mom have company over?” Calum spun around quickly, nearly slipping on the icy sidewalk, and saw a series of shadowy figures that stood in the living room window. Calum couldn’t remember the last time his mother invited someone over, especially since his dad disappeared. 

“I don’t-” 

His mother’s silhouette threw her arms up in the air wildly. She yelled loud enough for Calum and Tamera to hear her outside and down the driveway. “Get out!” 

Worry flooded Calum’s chest and he raced inside with Tamera hot on his heels. The door was unlocked, and he threw it open with enough force that the doorknob on the inside smacked against the wall hard enough to leave a scuff in the paint. A series of strangers stood in his living room. Two tall men with their hands paused mid-reach into the inside of their coats, dressed in black suits. A shorter man stood closest to Calum’s mother, who looked a little less threatening in a blue sweater and a khaki-colored coat that almost reached the floor. 

“What’s going on?” Calum asked. 

Shannon Miller looked on the verge of angry tears as she glared at the shorter man. “You really want to do this in front of my son?” A nearly empty bottle of wine was clutched in her hands and her words came out a little slurred. 

The shorter man sighed and said, “Ma’am, please. I just want to have a conversation with you.” 

Tamera stood beside Calum with a stony expression as her gaze flickered between the men like she was studying them. “Who are you?” 

The shorter man extended his hand to Calum first, then Tamera. “I’m Dr. Owens. My friends here and I came to collect some old papers from your father’s office.” 

At the mention of his dad, Calum felt a surge of hope spring through him. “My dad? Do you know where he is?” His hope was very quickly squished by the frown on Dr. Owen’s face, and the shake of the man’s head. 

“No, son, I’m afraid I don’t. That’s why I’m here. He has a file here that we need to take back. I have a warrant to search his office.” He paused, flashing a piece of paper full of legal jargon that Calum didn’t understand. “Now, I understand he didn’t leave on the best of terms-” 

Calum’s mom laughed dryly. She clutched her wine bottle to her chest and made no effort to wipe the runny makeup on her cheeks. Calum hadn’t seen his mom in that state for some time. Normally, when Calum came home, she was already passed out or locked in her room. Maybe that part of her he was missing; he didn’t like it. He needed his dad back to fix it and make their family whole again. 

“He left because of you!” she yelled, swaying forward before Tamera caught her arm. More tears welled up in her eyes as confusion grew inside Calum. 

Dr. Owens shook his head once more. “I didn’t know your husband. I’ve never met him. And, if I did know about his whereabouts, I wouldn’t be here asking you for help.” He turned to Calum. “I am going search his office and get what I need. But I would prefer to do that with your cooperation.” 

It wasn’t like he could say no. Maybe whatever he needed was the key to finding his dad. “His office is down the hall, the last door on the left. But can I ask what you’re looking for, exactly?”

“I’m afraid I can’t disclose that information. But what I can tell you is that he was working on something very important and sensitive.” The man hobbled toward Calum, avoiding putting weight on one of his legs. He placed a warm hand on Calum’s shoulder and a scarily serious expression befell his face. “If there is anything you know about where your father might be, I need you to tell me.” 

Calum wished he did. “I don’t know anything.” 

“All right. Then, if you’ll excuse me, we’ll only be a moment.” The three of them disappeared into the home office. 

Calum turned his attention to his mom, who fell back onto the couch and muttered something under her breath over and over. “Mom, what aren’t you telling me about dad?” What could warrant someone with a warrant coming into their house? 

“He was a bastard,” Shannon whispered. “He was a bastard, but he wasn’t a monster.” 

“Why would anyone think that?” Tamera asked, but Calum’s mom said nothing. She just shook her head and finished off her bottle of wine. The three stood in silence as they waited for the men to finish searching. 

What could his dad have brought home that would be of such importance? Calum knew his dad worked for the government, but he never said much beyond that about his job. If his father was working on something, some file…oh. Oh, shit. Calum bit down on his lip to keep himself quiet. 

Oh, he was in trouble. 

A couple, of agonizing minutes later, Dr. Owens and the other men exited the office with a single box of papers. With a tight-lipped smile, Dr. Owens said, “Sorry for bothering you all. Have a nice night.” And then they left, just like that, with no further explanation. 

Once the door was closed and their car pulled disappeared into the night, Calum looked to his best friend with the calmest expression he could muster under his growing panic. “Mara, come with me.” He didn’t wait for her to answer before he took off down the hall and into his bedroom. He made a beeline straight for his closet and dug through his highest shelf frantically. 

“What the hell are you doin’? Are we not gonna talk about that dude? Or your mom’s freak out? What do you think they want from your dad?” 

Calum’s fingers touched a smooth stack of folders, and he quickly pulled them down and brought them to his bed. He searched through them until he found one that was thicker than the rest and held it up. “This, I think.” 

It took Tamera a moment to understand what he was saying, but when she did, her hand covered her mouth to muffle a surprised gasp. “Calum!” 

He cut her off and took a seat on the bed, letting the unopened folder fall to his lap. “Hush! Listen to me. When my dad was still here, I would go into his office all of the time and borrow office supplies for school. I needed some folders for class, so I took a couple I found in a drawer of his desk. I used a couple and left the rest in my closet until I needed them again. I thought they all were empty, but when I was cleaning out my closet a few weeks ago, I looked at them again and realized one was bigger than the rest. So, I opened it. There were some fancy-looking documents inside that I didn’t read. I figured it was old paperwork or something. I don’t know! But the more I think about it…I have a feeling it might be what those dudes were looking for.” 

He took a breath, drumming his fingers against the folder. “But the more I thought about the file, the more I wondered…I just had a weird feeling about it. I don’t know how to explain it. So, I flipped through a couple of pages of what looked like nonsense until I saw a page that had ‘classified’ written in huge letters across it. So, I stopped.” 

Tamera rubbed her temples like all of the information was painfully entering her brain. He didn’t blame her; he was feeling the stress pulse behind his eyes. “And you think that file is why those dudes were here?” 

He shrugged. “Maybe. It makes sense. Though, I don’t know how many classified documents my dad was hiding in his office."

There was a long pause, neither one of them quite sure of their next move. Calum had a feeling Tamera was going to tell him to call Dr. Owens back and hand the file over. That would be the right thing to do, maybe, but what if they thought Calum was somehow an accomplice or was trying to without evidence? He didn’t need any more trouble.

Much to his surprise, Tamera did the opposite of that. “Open it,” she said. 

“What? Open it? Mara, there could be anything in here. We could get in, like, a shit-ton of trouble.” 

She scoffed. “Oh, so now you’re worried about getting in trouble? This could be why your dad went missing. Whatever’s in the file could…” she trailed off, holding her head in her hands. “God, I can’t believe you sucked me into your bullshit investigation.” 

“You think so?” 

“I don’t know. But there’s only one way to find out.” 

Calum hesitated, wondering if he should protest, but his curiosity got the best of him. He held his breath and flipped open the file, right past the ‘classified’ page. 

Project 19-15-12-1-18

“Random numbers?” Tamera asked. 

“Unlikely. It’s probably code for something.” He continued to flip, but quickly realized most of the information was redacted. Whatever was in the file, someone didn’t want anyone to see. Calum wondered what his dad knew about the information. Was he the one who redacted it, or was he trying to figure out what the blacked-out lines read? 

He scanned the pages until he found a string of words that were on display.

July Twenty-Fifth, (redacted)…Project (redacted)...Test Subject Number 0-0-7…

Tag List. @sattlersquarry @leptitlu @echoing-oursong

[roanofarcc]

PROJECT SUNSHINE CHAPTER FORTY TWO → BREAK THROUGHS AND BREAK INS

summary: steve harrington x oc

when another product of Hawkins National Laboratory escaped a long-survived nightmare alongside her sister, she crashed into one unsuspecting teenage boy and dragged him deeper into the dark mysteries that made up their hometown.

word count. 5.4k || masterlist

warnings: cannon typical violence, child abuse, horror, gore, and depictions of mental illness. parts of this story were written pre-season 4 release. cannon divergence.

a/n: things are unravelinggggg 😎

previous chapter ← → next chapter

The backroom of Scoop Ahoy was perpetually cold and the metal chairs they were given to sit in during their breaks dug uncomfortably into Tamera’s thighs. She sat with her feet kicked up on the table, adding another tick to the number of health code violations she and her co-workers committed. Tamera was trying to focus on reading her book and eating the shared order of French fries with the girl across the table. 

Tamera probably should have been annoyed that Danielle Torres spent a lot of time at Scoops, but Danielle stayed out of their way while they worked, often brought them lunch or desserts from her mom, and kept Harrington occupied. That, and Danielle wasn’t bad company. 

However, a part of Tamera felt weird being alone with her because her name was tapped up on Calum’s bedroom wall and was surrounded by several facts on sticky notes. 

Last fall, Tamera was determined to shut down Calum’s pursuit of looking for his dad and tying Danielle and Will Byers disappearances to whatever happened to his dad. But, when they discovered the government file in their possession and a series of odd facts that were too close to one another to be a coincidence, Tamera stopped trying to get her friend to let it go and began helping him figure out what it all meant. Did she think they actually solved their web of mysteries? Not exactly, but she had come to like playing detective in her free time. Hawkins had gone from the bane of her existence to hiding something within. Tamera wanted to know just what business Calum’s dad had with Hawkins National Laboratory, and if it really was connected to just about everything. 

The place stuck with her, day in and day out. She swore she had heard something about it before, but as soon as she thought she had jogged her memory, it slipped out of her grasp. Calum had suggested they break into the Lab, but Tamera killed that idea right away. They didn’t need to get themselves arrested, not when they were so close to graduation and getting the hell out of their hometown. And if the build once held any sensitive information, it was probably removed before the place was shut down and locked up tight. 

“Did we get any deliveries yet, Mara?” Robin asked as she poked her head into the backroom through the window. Tamera shook herself out of her thoughts and met Robin’s eye. Somehow, Robin made their stupid uniforms look good, accessorized with a series of chain-linked necklaces, cherry-red Convers, and dazzlingly blue eyes. It was unfair, but Tamera wasn’t complaining about the view. 

“Uh, no, not till later this week, I think,” Tamera replied. 

Robin dramatically sighed and hung half her upper body through the window. “Well, if we run out of sprinkles and I’m mauled by sticky-fingered children, I’m suing the mall.” 

“I think you’ll have a solid case there, sailor,” Tamera laughed. 

“Hey, if I die, you have to avenge me. But write something cooler than ‘Death by Sprinkles’ on my headstone, m’kay?” 

“Sout’s honor.” Tamera gave Robin a mock salute. 

Robin ignored the annoyed look Steve threw from the front counter, where a line had formed, and eyed Tamera with raised brows. “Were you a Girl Scout?” she asked, curiously. 

Tamera closed her book, giving Robin her full attention, and discarded it on top of the table. She missed the way Danielle’s eyes darted between her and Robin curiously. “Oh, God no. My mom tried to make me join, just for the cookies, but Calum was a Boy Scout and I somehow managed to annoy his troop leader enough that he let me into their little boy’s club.” 

A smile stretched across Robin’s face, causing her eyes to crinkle and sparkle. “You are something else,” she said before she pulled her head back from the window and closed it to resume slinging ice cream with Steve. She went to resume her book, but she felt a pair of eyes on her and looked up to see Danielle staring at her. 

“What?” Tamera asked, clearing her throat as a nervous knot formed somewhere deep inside her stomach. That wasn’t a new feeling, but one she got often whenever someone aside from her best friend, Calum, caught her staring a little too long at a girl with a pretty smile and bright eyes. Their stares made her feel like an open, exposed wound. But, there was no look of malice or disgust on Danielle’s face, only a soft smile as she shook her head. 

Tamera sunk back into her seat and thought they’d fall into silence until Steve was done with his shift and offered to drive Danielle home. But Danielle had a different idea in mind. 

“Can I ask you a question?” she asked and worry instantly flooded Tamera. She hated that one, specific question that lingered in the air surrounding her in whispers. There were so many rumors built on her shoulders, and she knew it was only a matter of time before Danielle heard them. She didn’t attend Hawkins High with Tamera, not like Robin and Steve who she was sure already knew all the rumors about her but avoided bringing them up to maintain a civil work environment. 

However, the question Danielle raised was not what Tamera had expected. “Your friend, Calum, he’s been looking for his dad, right?” 

Surprised, Tamera replied, “Uh, yeah, he has been. Why?” 

Danielle spun a pencil around between her fingers as she said, “Has he found his dad yet?” Her tone was sincere like she genuinely wanted to know, but Tamera couldn’t shake the tension that slowly rose around them. 

“No, he hasn’t.” 

“Oh,” Danielle frowned. “I know how hard it is to lose someone like that-”

“His dad isn’t dead,” Tamera cut her off, a bit too defensively. She felt like Calum trying to reason his dad’s disappearance. “He’s missing, but he’s out there somewhere. We just haven’t found him yet.” In all honesty, she didn’t care that much about finding him for the sake of finding him, she just wanted Calum to stop blaming himself for the man’s vanishing. She wanted Calum to return to his old self. And she wanted to know what kind of shady business his dad had been dealing in. 

“Oh, n-no. I didn’t mean it like that. I just know what it’s like to not know, you know?” Tamera blinked in confusion. 

There were many odd things about Danielle, aside from her obvious magical reappearance in Hawkins after vanishing for ten years. Tamera didn’t know much about the effects of being kidnapped, so she wrote off most of Danielle’s behavior as that, but she couldn’t pin everything on that. She didn’t know why Danielle was so close to the police chief’s children, who no one in town knew anything about nor had ever even heard of them until less than a year ago. There was a closeness that Steve and Danielle shared that seemed to go deeper than their obvious crushes on each other or a reunited friendship; they always seemed to know what the other was thinking. And then there was the gaggle of children who were very close to Danielle and were odd friends with Steve. She didn’t know how all of them fit together; she was sure none of them were related. The only connection Tamera made was that Steve dated Nancy and Danielle was friends with Nancy, who had a little brother, Mike. The kids were all Mike’s friends, but that didn’t exactly explain everyone’s closeness or the way they all acted like estranged siblings to the younger kids.

Tamera didn’t know what to make of it. 

“I hope he finds him,” Danielle said after a beat, looking genuine. 

“Yeah,” Tamera said. “Me too.” For Calum’s sake. 

The door swung open, ending their conversation, and Steve waltzed in with something dangling off his fingers and the same stupid smile that he always wore whenever he was around Danielle. 

“Hey Sunshine, you dropped this.” He tossed a colorful bracelet that resembled one Tamera remembered making at summer camp and Danielle caught it with a sweet ‘thank you.’ He grabbed a couple of tubs of ice cream from the freezer and returned to the front counter. 

Tamera was about to resume her reading and soaking up the last couple minutes of her lunch break, but Danielle tried to tie the bracelet back on her wrist and was struggling. 

“Here, let me do it,” Tamera offered. 

Danielle hesitated but extended her hand across the table before handing Tamera the bracelet. Taking the red and pink strings, Tamera pulled them around Danielle’s bony wrist and started to tie it in the same fashion she had at camp a couple of years ago. Danielle always wore a lot of bracelets on her right wrist, and as Tamera began to wonder herself why, her eyes caught sight of something hidden underneath the beads and strings. Something was printed on her wrist, numbers to be exact. Three numbers in black ink.

007.

Tamera’s fingers worked in memory to secure the knot as her mind was thrown miles away. When she dropped her hand, Danielle pulled her arm back and smiled at her collection of bracelets, clueless. She said something along the lines of ‘thank you’ but it fell silent on Tamera’s ears. Before she was fully aware of what she was doing, she stood up so abruptly, nearly knocking her chair over. 

007. The same set of numbers sprinkled throughout the file in Calum’s bedroom were on Danielle’s wrist. 

Holy fucking shit. 

Danielle glanced up, startled at Tamera’s sudden movement. She tried to act as casually as possible, clearing her throat and forcing a tight-lipped smile. “I-I forgot that I promised to call my mom. Be right back.” Without waiting for a response, Tamera shot through the door and rushed out Scoops, not sparing a glance at Steve or Robin. 

Tamera weaved between the mass of people at the mall, trying not to trip over her feet until she reached the escalator. People stood stationary on the moving stairs, leisurely chatting with their friends, but Tamera had no time for that. She pushed her way up the stairs, earning dirty looks and scoffs, but she paid them no mind; the only thing she was focused on was reaching the payphone that sat in the far corner of the second story, away from the main strip of shops and crowds. 

She fed her change and picked up the phone. Her fingers shook as she dialed Calum, wired with a cocktail of feelings she couldn’t make sense of. The phone rang twice before it was picked up, and Tamera wasted no time on pleasantries or greetings.

“What is the first year recorded in the file, again?” she asked, believing she already knew the answer, but she needed Calum to say it aloud to confirm the insane but possibly true theories swimming inside her head. 

“What? Why?” 

“Just tell me!” 

“Okay! Geez! You know, you can’t just call me up in the middle of the day to yell at me.” 

Tamera tapped her fingers against the top of the pay phone, mentally trying to envision Calum’s insane board on his bedroom wall, connecting strings and places to events and information inside the file. 

“1973,” he replied. 

“You’re positive?” 

He huffed into the phone. “I’m looking at it right now; yes, I’m sure. And shouldn’t you know that? We’ve read over this thing a million times by now. I’m surprised you don’t have it memorized; I practically do.” 

“There’s a month too, right?” 

“Yeah. June. June 1973.” 

“The same month and year Danielle went missing,” Tamera said in a hushed voice, nearly flushed against the payphone to mimic some kind of privacy. 

There was a beat of silence that she read as confusion. “Yeah, we’ve been over this, Mara. You said yourself it’s a coincidence because there’s nothing else to connect the file to her.” 

A mix of nausea and disbelief filled her stomach as she clutched the phone tighter in her. “I think I found our connection.” 

“What’re you talking about?” 

“I was wrong, I think. I-I’m pretty sure I was wrong. The, uh, ‘subject’ mentioned in the file was referred to as zero-zero-seven, right?” Calum hummed in agreement. “Guess who has a tattoo of that number on their wrist?” 

“Who?” 

“Danielle.” Silence followed Tamera’s revelation. She could picture him standing in front of his wall, rubbing his chin and mulling it over. It made the most sense and no sense at all at the same time. Why would someone like Danielle have a file on her or at least be mentioned in one but not by her name, rather by a number? Secrecy, maybe? But she was only six when she went missing, why would a six-year-old be in a position to have a file and a numbered code on her wrist? And why would Calum’s father have it? How connected were the two of them? 

“Are you sure?” Calum asked. 

“Positive. I saw it myself. A coincidence is she goes missing around the same time as the file starts, weird but not enough proof to pin it to her. What’s not a coincidence is that number being tattooed on her wrist. I don’t know how she could have anything to do with Project Solar, but I don’t see a lot of people walking around with 007 tattooed on their bodies, do you?” 

“No,” Calum replied. “But 007 was referred to as a ‘subject’ as in a test subject. Danielle was only six when she disappeared. Why would a six-year-old be identified as a test subject?”

Tamera chewed down on her lip, unsettled. “The height and weight in the file would fit a six-year-old. But I don’t understand how, if it’s her, she got to Hawkins National Laboratory in the first place. Her parents and the police chief himself said that she was kidnapped. But if she wasn’t?” 

Could it be possible that everyone was lying about Danielle’s whereabouts for ten whole years? Even if that was the case, that didn’t explain everything. Hell, it hardly explained anything. It felt like the more answers they discovered, the more confusing everything got. 

“What? You think some six-year-olds volunteered themselves for a government project? That doesn’t make any sense. And if it does have something to do with Danielle…this file came from Hawkins National Laboratory. That would mean she never left Hawkins. There’s no way.” He paused, making more sense than he had in a while, but for the first time besides when Tamera suggested they open the file instead of giving it back, she was the one with the outrageous theories. Calum continued, “But if she was there, for some reason, that would confirm her connection to my dad. That would mean I was right from the start. And I don’t know of any other reason why she has those numbers tattooed on her.” 

Calum’s dad worked at Hawkins National Laboratory, fact. Danielle was missing for ten years, another fact. Could Calum have been right the entire time? Could his father’s disappearance be linked to Danielle? 

There were too many questions still unanswered, but everything seemed to come back to the laboratory. She had heard of the place before she knew that Calum’s dad worked there; the memory was somewhere inside her brain. She squeezed her eyes shut and thought hard about where she had heard that place come up before. 

Then it hit her. “Oh, my God,” she gasped. “Do you remember Mr. G’s freshman year study hall?” 

“We are in the middle of something here-”

“Just shut up and listen to me!” she snapped, letting her forgotten memory unravel in real-time. “Mr. G was a loon, we all knew it. He would spend most of the study hall going off on rants about everything, but there was one of his rants that he always came back to and blamed for almost everything bad happening here in town. Droughts, rigged mayor elections, and even that dad who murdered his family in that creep house a couple blocks from you. He blamed everything on that lab!” 

“He hated the government, and that lab is government-owned. Old people will blame anything they can on the government. I don’t know if he’s a great source,” Calum said, but Tamera wasn’t sure. Sure, the old man was a little bonkers, but the more she thought about his rant in relation to the file and the weird things that happened in Hawkins, maybe he wasn’t entirely off. The Lab did kill Barbara Holland, not intentionally but via a chemical leak. Who was to say they didn’t have more secrets? 

“Besides,” Calum continued, “he was paranoid. Don’t you remember how he said he doesn’t use his landline because he thought his conversations were being tapped? He was let go for a reason.” 

Tamara held the phone away from her face for a second, examining it like Mr. G probably had done. She doubted that was true, Hawkins had its share of weird and unexplained things occurring, but it probably took more than that for the government or anyone to wiretap an entire town. The old man was probably paranoid, but maybe he had a right to be. 

“Just because was a little crazy doesn’t mean he was wrong,” Tamera countered. “He said that place was opened in the sixties, and they were doing some kind of…study, I think. I don’t remember everything that he said, but I do remember that he talked about his wife and how she volunteered for something there. I think had something to do with psychedelics. Like a medical study. He blamed them for his wife’s death.” It wasn’t a question in the man’s mind or a theory, he was sure someone in that Lab had killed his wife. “What if they still were doing studies like that up until they were shut down last fall?” 

“You think they either kidnapped Danielle or her parents gave her up to the government at six to give her psychedelics and see what would happen?” 

Tamera groaned loudly. No, that was insane. She was starting to sound like Mr. G. “Probably not,” she sighed. “But it’s something we could try to look into. Regardless, Danielle has to be connected to the file and that file is connected to your dad. Now we have almost full confirmation on that. We’re one step closer to figuring all of this out.” Maybe. 

“Maybe,” Calum voiced her thoughts. “Maybe he stole the file for a good reason, like you said. Maybe whatever was happening was bad, bad enough to kill Barbara and make them try to cover it up. And maybe my dad wanted to give the file to Danielle’s parents or hand it over to someone who he thought could help. If she was kidnapped, maybe he was trying to help her?” Tamara had never been a fan of Calum’s dad, but she didn’t think he was a bad person, so maybe he was on to something. The good guys almost never win in a situation like this, and maybe that was why his dad went missing. 

“Danielle came home after ten years and after everyone believed she was long dead. Do you think your dad had something to do with that?” she asked. 

“I’m not ruling it out. Maybe that sunk him into even deeper shit and he had to go on the run until the heat died down.” 

Goosebumps rose on Tamera’s arm, and she felt like someone was watching her. She snapped her head around, but there was no one lingering around, only a couple of scattered shoppers moving to and fro. The mall was probably not the best place for that kind of conversation, but there was no way she would have been able to sit on what she discovered until after work. 

She checked her watch and groaned when she realized her break had ended three minutes ago. Steve was not going to let her forget it. “I have to go, but after you are out of work tonight, let’s take another stab at the file with what we know now. I think we may actually get somewhere and then we can figure out what to do next.” 

“Okay.” They hung up after a brief goodbye and Tamera took a second to collect herself. She did not expect her shift to turn out like that. She was relieved that they were getting somewhere in their stale investigation, but she was still worried about them getting in trouble. 

Trouble seemed to follow everyone in and outside of Hawkins; they couldn’t run from it, and no one knew that better than Calum’s father. Ryan Miller did not account for the nosiness of his son or the brains of his best friend. He never anticipated the scale of what he had done or it all goes south so quickly. But Ryan was in far too deep to turn back; there were debts he owed and scores to settle. 

And in Hawkins, as Tamera hung up the phone and Calum left his home for his shift at the arcade, sights were set on the little house at the end of Cherry Street. The home of the Miller’s was entered with a little fight given by Calum’s mom, but that wasn’t the only thing happening on Cherry Street that afternoon. 

…

Calum had gotten off early from his shift at the arcade. The place had been dead since the mall opened and summer began so he managed to get out after only a couple hours of working the front counter. Tamera had to run home after work, much to her dismay but promised to meet at Calum’s house as soon as she could to further unravel their investigation with the new evidence she had come across. 

The revelation the file could have been about Danielle opened up an entire, confusing, world of possibilities and questions. Calum wanted to see the tattoo for himself, not that he doubted Tamera, but the whole idea seemed too crazy. He knew that she and possibly Will Byers had some kind of connection to the disappearance of his dad, solely based on the timeline of events that had occurred, but he didn’t account for some secret government project to be thrown into the mix of things. He felt like he had to reevaluate everything. 

Upon entering his house, Calum peaked into the living room and expected to see his mom in her usual daze in front of the television after her shift at the hair salon, but she wasn’t there. 

The floorboards creaked somewhere in the kitchen. “Mom?” he called out. 

His mom stepped out of the kitchen and Calum couldn’t mask his surprise. Ever since his dad went missing, his mom had been on a steady decline. She stayed put in front of the couch with a different bottle of wine every night, her hair had been unkept, and dark circles hung under her eyes. She only ventured to work half of the time and spent the other half locked inside their house. She didn’t speak too much to Calum, only small talk here and there that he didn’t think she paid attention to. Calum thought the only way to bring his mom back to her old self was to find his dad. But, as she stood in front of him, she looked like her old self again. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a slicked-back ponytail and her face was made up. She wore nice clothes, ironed and everything, and even put on the little cross necklace that she had abandoned on her nightstand for ages. Instead of a bottle of wine in her hands, she held onto a cup of coffee. 

Calum stared at her for a long moment, before she broke the silence with a warm smile. “How was work, sweetheart?” 

“Uh, it was fine…” he replied, trailing off as he kicked off his shoes and tried to figure out exactly what was going on. “What is…you-” 

“We need to talk,” she said, cutting him off and gesturing toward the couch. 

Calum felt his stomach drop; he knew it was about his dad, it had to be. Maybe she was cleaned up and back to normal because they had found him, and he was coming home.

His mom sighed and sat beside him on the couch. Her slim fingers wrapped around the steaming mug. He noticed her finger was absent from her wedding ring. “I know what you’ve been doing. I know that you’ve been trying to track down your dad.”

“Oh,” he swallowed thickly. “I know that you think he just left but I-” 

“I know,” she said, quickly with a shake of her head. “I know I said that he just walked out on us, but I think you figured out enough by now to know that’s not the full story.”

Calum never believed he’d get a real answer from his mom, but for a moment, hope bloomed inside his chest. He waited for her to elaborate, but then she paused, and her eyes drifted down the hall toward their bedrooms. 

“I said it before, and I’ll say it again, your father, he was a good man, once. Was. But he…he met someone he considered a friend. They become partners at work and that man,” she let out a dry laugh, void of humor. “That man led your father astray.” 

Calum’s eyes widened. “Partner? Who? Who did he work with? What did they do?” His dad had never spoken of his work outside of answering questions like ‘How was your day?’ He never mentioned anyone who he worked with. 

His mom shook her head. “That’s not what we’re talking about now.” She tightened her grip on her mug, turning her knuckles white before she shifted her gaze from the hall onto him. “You have to stop looking for him. You have to stop digging around where you don’t belong, not only for your sake but mine too, and Tamera's. You guys are done. And I am done with your father, with his business, all of it. I am done with this place. We’re leaving.” 

Every word out of his mom’s mouth hit Calum like a punch in the face. He shot up, nearly stumbling off the coffee table in shock. By the glint in her eyes, she clearly knew more about what happened to his dad than she wanted to tell him. They couldn’t leave; he wasn’t done with Hawkins, yet. Sure, he hated their little small town, but it was all he knew. He hated the summer heat and the blistery cold winters, but everything he knew was in Hawkins, including his best friend. And he felt like they were so close to the truth of the file and his dad. He couldn’t just pack up and leave it all behind. 

“What are you talking about? We aren’t done with anything! Dad is still out there somewhere I have to find him. And I can’t leave Tamera. I-I still have school. I have one more year here!”

His mom shook her head. “Your father is not coming back! He’s gone and we’re better off because of it. And, God,” she sighed, wiping a shaky hand over her mouth. “This place. This damn place is the last town on Earth I want to spend the rest of my life in.” She stood up and began to pace across the living room, spending Calum spiraling deeper and deeper with each venomous word she spat about his dad. “I waited and stayed put. I didn’t even ask any questions like I should have. I tried to forget what I knew about your father and his work but it didn’t work. I want to…no, we have to be done with this. All of it.” 

“Done with what?” he pleaded, begging for the answers he had been searching for years now. “Mom, what did dad do for a living?” He was flushed with a horrible sense of dread and curiosity. But she only shook her head once more. 

“We’re done. And you and Tamera are done digging around in his business. After the holiday, we’re going to stay with my friend in Indy until I can get us a place.” Calum opened his mouth to argue, but she silenced him with a glare he had never seen her wear before. “It’s not up for debate.”

Calum was drenched in utter disbelief. Yesterday, his mom was basically comatose in front of the television, and now she was ready to drag them out of Hawkins by the end of the week. He couldn’t swallow it all, not when it mixed with the information Tamera had spilled to him over the phone a couple of hours before. 

Without uttering another word, he took off down the hall toward his room. His door was cracked, and he felt panic rise steadily in his throat, burning like he had just down cheap whisky. Ever since he found the file, he had started locking his door from the outside with a key he hid above the doorframe. 

He shoved his door the rest of the way open. It took everything inside of him not to fall to his knees. The wall that had held everything they had gathered over the last six months was gone. Nothing was left besides sticky residue on his wall and the strings that once connected things to each other were discarded on the floor. 

The next place he checked was to his bedside where he kept the file hidden under his mattress. When he reached under, there was nothing left. Calum staggered backward and bit back the urge to scream. All of their work was gone. The file was gone. Everything was gone. Gone, gone gone.

“Cal?” a voice came from somewhere inside the house before footsteps echoed down the hall. A short gasp sounded behind him. 

“Holy shit…” Tamera’s mouth hung open as she stood in his doorframe. 

“It’s gone,” Calum whispered. “Everything. M-My dad…” 

“This is for the best,” his mom said, appearing behind Tamera with her arms crossed tightly over her chest and a far-off look in her eyes. Tamera quickly rushed to Calum’s side, placing a hand on his shoulder. “You two are done with this.”

Anger ravaged Calum, suddenly. “Who did this? Why?” 

“I told you, we’re not getting involved in the same business that ruined your father,” she said, still not providing any information on what he did or why they weren’t to get involved. “Start packing.” She turned on her heel and walked away, leaving Calum and Tamera to the ruins of their investigation.

Pressing his palms into his eyes, Calum took in a shaky breath as Tamera shut his door. “What happened to your mom? What is she talking about? What kind of business? And why do you need to pack?” The question flew from her lips in rapid fire.

“I don’t know,” he replied. He did his best to explain the conversation they had just had, from his dad’s partner to them moving to Indy.

Why did it seem like the entire world didn’t want him to find his dad? 

“Whoa! Wait, you can’t leave,” Tamera objected. “We just had a breakthrough! We’re finally getting somewhere and now it’s just gone? We’re just supposed to drop it without any kind of answer?” 

Calum sat on the edge of his bed, quietly for a long moment as he mulled over their next move. His eyes darted to his discarded backpack on the bed and grabbed it. Inside was a notebook, the one he started jotting things down inside since ‘83. Whoever stole the file back didn’t search his room very thoroughly. 

“No,” he said with a shake of his head. “We’re still gonna figure this out. But we’re going straight to the source this time. You said, for a fact, Danielle had the 007 tattoo, right?” Tamera nodded. “Okay. Then we’re gonna put all of our eggs in that basket and hope to God that she knows more than we do.” 

He reached down and picked up a single string pulled from his wall. He thought of his dad and how, even if the man had done something wrong, he still owed Calum an explanation of where he had been and what happened. He was going to get answers one way or another. Clearly his mom wasn’t going to be any help, so Danielle was their best bet.

They had until the Fourth of July to get to the bottom of everything. 

Tagged. @sattlersquarry , @leptitlu , @drunkengodsofslaughter

[roanofarcc]

PROJECT SUNSHINE CHAPTER TWENTY THREE → A CODE RED (SERIOUSLY! A CODE RED!)

summary: steve harrington x oc

when another product of Hawkins National Laboratory escaped a long-survived nightmare alongside her sister, she crashed into one unsuspecting teenage boy and dragged him deeper into the dark mysteries that made up their hometown.

word count. 3.8k || masterlist

warnings: cannon typical violence, child abuse, horror, gore, and depictions of mental illness. parts of this story were written pre-season 4 release. cannon divergence.

previous chapter ← → next chapter

Steve had concluded that he had a bad habit of pretending that everything was okay when they were not, and because of that, he found himself walking through the streets of Hawkins to clear his head. 

Normally, after school, he and Nancy met Sunshine at the library, but Nancy was nowhere to be found and she wasn’t speaking to Steve. According to Tommy H., who Steve begrudgingly spoke to in the locker room after gym class, Nancy ran off with Jonathan. He tried not to think too much about that, and he hoped that Tommy H. was just screwing with him. 

Steve had no idea where his relationship with Nancy stood. She couldn’t tell him he loved him when they spoke briefly the morning after Tina’s Halloween party. That stung worse than he cared to admit, but they did not explicitly break things off, and he planned to apologize later that evening in an attempt to win her back. Then, they could put everything behind them, and try to move on from the events last year, together.  

Despite Nancy not joining him, Steve still made his way up the front steps of the library and spotted Sunshine at their usual table. She wasn’t alone, though. Seated on either side of her were Calum and Tamera.  

“Hey,” Steve greeted them as he dropped his backpack onto the floor beside his chair. “Sorry I’m late.” His walk and sulking went a little longer than he intended, but he had a lot on his mind.  

Calum nodded at Steve and said, “Hey, Harrington.” 

As Steve took his seat, he met Sunshine’s eye and knew the next words out of her mouth before she even uttered them. 

“No Nancy?” Sunshine asked.

With a sigh, Steve replied, “Not today.” He didn’t elaborate, mostly because he wasn’t confident he would do so without slipping back into wallowing in his self-pity.  

“Rumor has it you two broke it off,” Calum said, too casually as popped a piece of gum into his mouth and leaned back in his seat. Tamera slapped Calum’s arm and shot him a sharp glare. 

Of course, there were already rumors swirling around about Steve and Nancy since their pretty public argument at the party, but luckily no one heard the second half of their argument which included the death of Barb and the fact that drunk Nancy didn’t love him. All they saw was the spill of punch across Nancy’s sweater and the two of them fleeing to the bathroom.  

Yet, that was enough for people to speculate what happened between the two of them. 

Steve changed the subject, not wanting to disclose his dwindling love life with two people he hardly knew and Sunshine.  

“What are you guys working on?” He peered at Sunshine’s notebook, which was covered in notes with her messy handwriting. 

“History,” she replied. 

Tamera cleared her throat and shifted her eyes between the people at the table. “Yeah, we are just about done. We'll leave-" 

“No,” Steve said, with a wave of his hand. “You guys don’t have to leave just because I’m here.” 

He knew he wasn’t innocent when it came to mocking or pushing around kids like Calum and Tamera, and they had every reason not to want to hang around him. He also knew that Tommy H. and his new group of assholes had only upped their asshole-ery, and he was pretty sure Calum and Tamera weren’t excluded from their wrath. He could at least try to show them he wasn’t the same person he was last year and try not to ruin Sunshine’s chance of making friends.  

Calum eyed Steve for a moment before he slowly nodded. “Yeah, Mara, relax, we’re all friends here. I mean, it’s been a couple of years since Harrington’s shoved me in a locker.” Sarcasm dripped from Calum’s tone, and it caused Steve to cringe.  

“Knock it off,” Tamera hissed at Calum, which only caused him to flash a smile. 

Steve sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah, I was a little bit of an asshole back then.” He tried to joke, but it was the truth. He was still a little bit of an asshole, but at least he wasn’t hanging around the same crowd anymore. Steve was trying. 

Scoffing, Tamera muttered, “A little?” under her breath but Steve heard her. 

“Majorly,” he corrected himself. “I was a major asshole. But I am sorry.” Shifting uncomfortably in his seat, he desperately hoped someone would shift the direction of their conversation before the air grew more tense or he fled the library. He was genuinely sorry, but it felt weird to apologize. He didn’t even remember shoving Calum into a locker or talking to either one of them. Even if he hadn’t, his association with Tommy and that crowd was enough for them to lump Steve into every horrible thing they’d said or done and pin some of the blame on him. 

Tamera did not seem to fully believe his word, but she did stop packing up her things and rested back in her seat.  

“You’re full of surprises, Harrington,” said Calum. 

“So you are, Miller,” Steve said. “Ellie said you punched some kid at the Halloween party.” 

The stocky blonde didn’t strike Steve as a fighter. He sat with his shoulders slumped and a shorter stature than most boys in his grade. Yet, there was a certain glimmer of something calculating in his blue eyes. 

Tamera crossed her arms over her chest as she said, “Yeah, he broke your friend Tommy H.’s nose.” 

“Oh no, we don’t talk much anymore.” Steve shook his head as the memories of their fight last year flashed in his head. “We haven’t talked, actually, since last year.” Besides the jabs Tommy tossed Steve’s way when they crossed paths in the hallways of the school, at basketball practice, or in the locker room. Steve hardly acknowledged his old friend.   

Curiously, Calum leaned in toward the table at Steve’s words. “What happened last year?”  

Out of habit, Steve looked at Sunshine, who was intently listening to their conversation. At the mention of last year, her golden eyes widened just slightly, and she managed to say, “It’s a long story.” 

“Right,” Steve agreed quickly, probably a little too quickly. 

Tamera hummed in response and picked at the cracked nail polish on her fingers. “Well, now Tommy’s in the pocket of the new kid, Billy, who, I’ve heard is somehow an even bigger asshole,” she sighed and flickered her gaze toward Sunshine. Her brows furrowed and she frowned. “Cal’s punch didn’t do much. Tommy, Billy, and all their friends are running their mouths. Now they’re telling everyone that you’ve been locked up at Pennhurst for the last ten years, and people are stupid enough to believe them.”  

It took everything in Steve not to roll his eyes. Of course people believed some made-up story Tommy and his friend were spewing. It just didn’t make sense that, out of all of the people in Hawkins, they felt the need to involve Sunshine like she hadn’t been through enough. She didn’t even go to school with them; rumors had less effect if that person isn’t miserably moping around Hawkins High for them to laugh at.  

“I don’t even know what that means!” Sunshine groaned, running her hands down the length of her face. 

Gently, Tamera explained, “It’s an asylum, which is kind of like a hospital, for people with mental issues. It’s where they get help. But some people think it’s a home for raging psychopaths or people who are completely off their rocker and are dangerous to let mingle with the general public.” 

Sunshine sank further down in her seat and drummed her fingers over her sweater-covered wrist, where her tattoo was hidden.  

There was a beat of silence that passed between them in which Steve and Sunshine took in Tamera’s words and felt the weight of them. Sure, Steve wasn’t directly involved with the rumors about Sunshine, but he felt partially responsible. 

Calum shattered their contemplation. “So…you weren’t at Pennhurst?” He earned himself another slap from Tamera; Steve was sure the teen’s arm was going to bruise. “Ow!” Calum hissed through his teeth and rubbed the spot with his opposite hand. “I was just asking!” 

“I wasn’t,” Sunshine answered. 

“Well, maybe if you told people where you actually were, they’d get off your back.” 

Sunshine stopped tapping her finger against the fabric pulled down around her wrist and pulled her hands into her lap. While Steve couldn’t see her hands, he had a feeling she was doing what she normally did when she was stressed and scratch her tattoo. 

“Everyone already knows what happened,” she said, lying pretty convincingly. “It was in the paper.” 

It suddenly struck Steve why Tommy and his old friends pushed Calum around so much back in the day, and why they probably still did. Calum liked to push people’s buttons and dig under their skin as far as he could before they retaliated. 

“All the paper said was some bullshit article that the chief wrote. It hardly explained anything, just that you magically appeared back in Hawkins.” 

Steve stepped in, narrowing his eyes at the blonde who tried to get a piece of truth that he, in no way, was able to handle. “What’s your point?” Steve asked. 

“My point is that it leaves a lot up to interpretation and to the imagination. If you told people like Tommy what really went down those ten years you were gone, and maybe even who you were with, it would get people off your back.” 

Sunshine’s shoulders tensed and she struggled to keep her expression blank. “No,” she said. 

“Why not?” Calum pressed. 

“Because it’s none of their business, and it’s none of yours,” Steve butted in. 

The calm, peaceful air of the library slowly rose around their table and tension pulled between the group. Too many secrets sat at the tip of Steve and Sunshine’s tongues that they couldn’t let slip.  

Yet, Calum ignored the shift in tone and refused to back down. He wanted to know something, but Steve knew the blond had no idea what he was asking them to admit. 

“Why is it yours? I mean, out of everyone, why are you, Steve Harrington involved with…whatever this is?” Calum’s gaze was challenging as it flickered between Steve and Sunshine, waiting. 

“That’s enough, Cal,” said Tamera. She placed a hand on her friend’s shoulder before she started to shove her belongings into her backpack. 

Steve nodded his head. “Yeah, I think we’re done here.” 

Standing up from the table, Calum fixed his gaze on Sunshine and said, “All I’m saying is, people around here don’t like secrets. Sooner or later, they’ll figure it out.” 

Steve and Sunshine stayed quiet, watching as Tamera pulled Calum away from the table and out of the library until they were left alone.  

Once the coast was clear, Steve sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Jesus,” he muttered under his breath. “What is their problem?” 

Across the table, Sunshine did not look upset by what just happened, but rather her face was pinched in concern. 

“They’re trying to get to the bottom of what happened last year with Will and me coming back,” she answered, much to Steve’s surprise. 

“How do you know that?” 

“They left the table for a minute and Calum left his notebook. I just wanted to borrow a piece of paper, but when I flipped the page, he had lists of people…of us, all of us. I couldn’t read all of it, but they’re trying to piece something together about that last year.” Sunshine tucked a strand of her cropped hair behind her ear and was quiet for a beat. “What if they figure something out that they shouldn’t?” 

Steve gasped. “You were snooping?” he teased, and she smiled. “I wouldn’t worry about them. I don’t think anyone could piece together whatever the hell happened last year. Not the private investigator the Hollands hired, and not some teenagers with too much time on their hands.” 

Sunshine toyed with the pendant on her necklace and sighed, “You’re probably right, but that does mean they couldn’t figure something out. What if they start snooping around the Lab? They could seriously get hurt or in a lot of trouble.”  

There was not a whole lot that Steve remembered about Sunshine, about Ellie, from their brief childhood spent together; however, he did remember that she cared a lot about others. 

Last year she stuck around and help Nancy and Jonathan hunt down a monster that stole their best friend and brother. That wasn’t her responsibility, but she stayed anyway. She watched over Nancy’s little brother and his friends like they were her siblings. Hell, she even managed to drag Steve home, drunk, after the Halloween party when he was supposed to be the one looking out for him.  

Sunshine cared, a lot, about everything and everyone. That included two teenagers who were trying to pry into her past and the events that transpired last year. 

“We’ll keep an eye on them, okay?” Steve said. “If they do get too close to the truth or if they get into some real danger, we’ll tell Hopper. He’ll know what to do.” 

Steve had no idea why Calum and Tamera were interested in what happened last year, beyond the fact that it was the strangest thing to ever happen in Hawkins. The initial shock of everything had worn off and the rumors only came from petty teenagers instead of everyone and their mothers. No one had the slightest clue as to what really happened, and it was up to their odd group of a mother, a cop, teenagers, and scarily smart middle schoolers to keep that earth-shattering secret. 

Calum and Tamera did not want the full truth, Steve was pretty sure about that. 

Nodding her head, Sunshine closed her notebook and relaxed back into her seat. “Okay,” she said. “You’re right, there’s no way they could piece everything together.” 

Yet, Steve nor Sunshine knew the true extent of teenage boredom. Nor did they know just how unrelenting Calum Miller was. If he couldn’t shake a confession out of Sunshine, he’d find another way. He’d wriggle his way into her life through another, more complicated door if worst came worst, and in Hawkins, things always seemed to get worse.  

→←

At dinner, Sunshine dwelled on the spiral of events that began to consume her hometown once again. She felt heavier than usual but tried to push it away long enough to fool her parents into thinking she was on an upward climb.  

It was growing increasingly difficult, though. No one had heard from Hopper or Joyce in a day or two. Will’s condition remained unknown too, and Mike’s answers over the walkie-talkie were short and vague. She didn’t know what was going on, but something wasn’t right; Sunshine felt a pit grow in her gut, twisting around like a dull knife.  

“How was your day?” Sunshine’s father asked cheerfully. His mood was unrelenting, and it was rare to see him without his lips quirked upwards in a small smile. It made sense, Sunshine supposed. He, like most people in Hawkins, saw their town as a calm and kind place to reside. His opinion on that faltered during the time Sunshine was missing, but in less than a year he was back to the bright and positive personality he’d been before, according to Sunshine’s mother. 

After swallowing a sip of water, Sunshine answered with a simple, “Good.” She ignored the pit that pulled tighter in her gut and the guilt of lying to her parents that loomed over her like an unrelenting shadow. 

“Boring,” Sunshine added. 

“Well, boring is not the worst thing in the world,” Mary-Jane said. “You went to the library with Steve and Nancy, right? I’m sure that wasn’t boring.” 

Sunshine poked the food on her plate with her fork absentmindedly, avoiding her parents’ gazes. “Nancy didn’t come today. I met two other people there, who are in Nancy’s class, though. They helped me out until Steve came.” 

Mary-Jane’s brows furrowed in concern. “Is Nancy all right? She isn’t sick, is she? I heard that there’s a nasty bug going around the high school. Ms. White’s daughter was out all last week with it.” 

“No, I don’t think she’s sick.” 

Nancy and Steve were not on the best terms, to Sunshine’s understanding. There wasn’t much she understood about relationships, but she knew how upset Steve was after his and Nancy’s fight on Halloween. As for Nancy, every time Sunshine had tried to talk to her, all she received was Mr or Mrs. Wheeler’s voice on the other line or in the doorway telling Sunshine Nancy wasn’t home. 

“And who are these new kids?” Walter asked. “Do you know them?” 

“Tamera Willow and Calum…Calum Miller, I think.” 

Mary-Jane’s eyes widened, and she mumbled out a quiet, “Oh,” earning a confused look from both her daughter and husband. She wiped the surprise from her face almost as quickly as it came and shook her head. “That's nice, sweetheart.”  

“Do you know them?” Sunshine asked, unsure of how to take her mother's reaction. It wasn’t like Mary-Jane was there to witness how Calum acted at the library earlier that day. Yet, her reaction told Sunshine that her mother knew something about the two.  

“No,” Mary-Jane said. “No, I don’t know them personally, but my friend Kathy, from book club, is neighbors with the Millers and she says that no one has seen or heard from Mr. Miller since last fall.”  

Sunshine nearly dropped the fork in her hand, but her shock was ignored as her parents continued talking. 

“That’s right,” Walter hummed. “His son, the one you were just with, he has been pestering Jim down at the station. He thinks his father is missing, but Jim’s spoken to the boy’s mother, and she said Mr. Miller just up and left them with no warning.” The warm, nearly permanent smile on Walter’s lips flipped upside down as he grumbled into his water glass before he took a sip, “What a bastard.”  

“I don’t know,” said Mary-Jane. “I am not one to speak ill of someone, but that woman, she’s always been…odd. I don’t know if she’s telling the full story.” 

Sunshine hadn’t heard anything about Calum’s father. As far as she knew, Will and Barb were the only ones who disappeared last fall. It seemed too close to call it a coincidence but no one in their group had any connection to Calum’s father, as far as she knew.  

“Do you think she’s lying?” Sunshine asked her mother. 

With a sigh, Mary-Jane shrugged. “I really don’t know. The Millers have always rubbed me the wrong way, but who’s to say?”  

That was all they thought on the subject, but a mess of questions swirled around Sunshine’s head. It started to make more sense why Calum was so interested in her, Will, and what went down last year. She just didn’t know how his father was connected to it, but she wanted to. 

They finished up their dinner without any more mention of the Millers. After they were finished, Sunshine helped her father wash the dishes while Mary-Jane watered the plants that lined every windowsill in the living room.  

Quietly they worked through a routine they created. It was simple and extra ordinary, and Sunshine relished every second of it. It wasn’t often she felt normal, even in her home. And while her mind was always racing and spinning out about every little thing that had happened or was happening, the familiarity of routine was nice.  

That was, until it was broken by a crackle of static that screamed from her bag hung up beside the front door. 

Her father stopped scrubbing the dishes and glanced over his shoulder. “What is that noise?” he asked. 

Sunshine listened for a moment longer until she remembered she had left her walkie-talkie in her bag when she went to visit the boys at school.  

She stopped drying the plates and dug the device out, unmuffling the voice that came through. 

“Does anyone copy?” Dustin repeated over and over again.  

“I copy,” Sunshine replied. 

“Sunshine!” he shouted, sounding relieved. “Thank God. I don’t know where the hell everyone is, but no one is picking up and I’ve got a Code Red situation here. A serious Code Red situation!” 

Dustin Henderson was always one more dramatics, but there was a waiver in his voice that struck Sunshine harshly. He often made everything sound like a huge, monumental deal, but his tone sounded more scared than theatrical.  

“Where are you?” Sunshine asked, already slipping on her shoes and grabbing her sweater from the book.  

There was a pause; Sunshine held her breath as she tucked a hat over her head. 

“My house,” Dustin said. “Please hurry!” 

“I’m on my way. Do not do anything until I get there.” 

A Code Red was not a simple, pre-teen emergency. The party had agreed to save Code Reds for Upside Down and/or Lab-related emergencies. They hadn’t had to use their code words yet, but Sunshine felt worry take hold almost every time one of the boys spoke to her through her super-comm. She waited for the words “Code Red” to come through for nearly a year in anxious, awful anticipation for their newly cozy life to come crashing down again.  

“Oh dear,” Mary-Jane said, stopping her watering. “That didn’t sound good. Is everything okay?” 

Sunshine tossed her walkie back into her bag before she hung it over her shoulder. “Oh, yeah,” she lied. She chuckled lightly in an attempt to stop any worry from seeping from her parents at Dustin’s frantic call. “Middle schoolers, you know. Everything’s the end of the world. He’s fine, but I should go make sure.” 

Maybe it was all of them still adjusting to their new way of life, but her parents never really questioned the fact that Sunshine was close to a group of pre-teens who she’d drop just about anything for. She was thankful they never asked too many questions, even though she could tell they wanted to. But Sunshine finally had a family, and she didn’t want to ruin it by telling them the truth. Some things were better left unsaid and untouched. 

“I’ll be back in a little while.” 

Sunshine’s parents bid her a quick goodbye, seemingly not too concerned about her leaving, and she took off on her bike toward Dustin’s house. She peddled down the quiet streets quickly, racing against the sun as it started to fall from the sky. Pale yellows and oranges illuminated her way toward whatever awaited her at the Henderson household.

Tag list. @leptitlu @sattlersquarry @history-of-stories

[nostalgiabones]

Simple Sunday Afternoons // CH

This is just a random thing I wrote one day after talking to @calumrose as always lmao. I didn’t intend to post it but I think it’s a just a nice soft Sunday so, I thought I would! I also just wanted to make the point that the little moodboards I’ve made aren’t representative of what any of the ‘characters’ look like — they just represent the concept of the blurb! Let me know what you think, and as always, reblogs and feedback is so appreciated! ❤️

Word count: 4.2k

“Good morning,”

A warm smile rises on Calum’s lips at the words as he flips a pancake in a pan, clad in only his grey joggers and a messy mop of curls upon his head, along with the glasses he’s taken to wearing more often recently. He doesn’t hear the giggles or yawns of your daughter, just some of her usual sounds in the morning, and assumes you’re entering the kitchen alone without her.

He doesn’t have a chance to turn around and check before you’re wrapping your arms around his waist — his warm skin soothing against your own. It’s not often you get little moments alone like this — not without a baby in between the two of you, either resting in his arms or your own. Not that it’s anything to complain about; the two of you love Mara more than life itself. You just miss getting to hold Calum for a little longer in the mornings.

“Yes, it is,” Calum replies, taking one of your hands in his own, lifting it to his face and brushing his lips over your knuckles. “Where’s the little one?”

You rest your cheek against him, just wanting to be close, wanting your skin on his. “I just put her down for an early nap, she was kinda fussy. I think her teeth are coming in.”

He nods, pouting at the thought of his sweet daughter being in pain.

“We’ll have to keep an eye on her,” He states, and you nod in agreement. “She’s probably going to be asleep a while, isn’t she? Do you want to go back to bed?”

You take a sip of coffee from the mug on the counter, not caring whether it was his or one he made for you. Everything he has is yours, and vice versa — even something as insignificant as coffee. He feels the same way about your heart.

“We finally have some time together, I don’t want to waste it sleeping,” You murmur, your palm sliding down his back, the gesture familiar and soothing to him. Goosebumps break out over his skin.

“Okay, well..” He turns down the heat on the stove, moving the hot pan to a cold ring in order not to burn himself when he gets distracted by you. He spins around, a hand landing on either side of your hip, his nose brushing yours as he leans in. “I could just stand here...” he interrupts himself by brushing his lips against yours. “And kiss you instead.”

You sigh against his lips and bask in the moment, one that is so rare nowadays. He notices you pout and he chuckles — his warm palms landing on the small of your back.

“What’s up with you, pouty?” He asks, keeping your face close, his eyes searching your face.

“I miss kissing you,” You whine, and he can’t help but kiss you again with the way you’re looking at him. You think back to Sunday’s before Mara — it feels like a different lifetime, but it wasn’t so long ago. Now days are filled with tears, smiles, happy baby giggles and messy meal times — but you wouldn’t have it any other way. Even if the only time you got to be close to Calum was at bedtime, once Mara had gone down.

“You can kiss me whenever you want, baby,” He replies, his pointer finger brushing up your cheek as he furrows his eyebrows at you.

“I know, but we don’t get time anymore,” You remind him, and he nods. You know you both need to make more of a conscious effort to spend quality time with each other — instead of trying to clean the whole house whilst Mara is napping. “It’s nice to be close to you like this.”

“Maybe Mara should grow some teeth more often.” He jokes, and you slap his chest playfully as he laughs.

“Don’t say that! She’s in pain,” You scold him, your hands pressed against his chest as he holds you close. “You won’t be saying that when she wakes up in a bad mood and won’t sleep tonight.”

He knows you’re right. As much as he jokes, there’s nothing he hates more than seeing his sweet girl in pain — whether it’s her teeth or anything else.

“Touché.” He smiles, kissing you once more. “Do you want to eat? I made pancakes.”

“But that means we have to stop kissing,” You sigh, and he can’t help but laugh at you once more. Calum brushes his lips against yours, his hands rubbing up and down the tops of your arms as you stand there. There’s something about seeing you in one of his t-shirts that goes straight to his heart every single time — even after being married for several years.

“Come on, pouty. Let’s have one meal uninterrupted before we have to deal with a grumpy Mara.”

***

“Cal, I need to get up,”

The sounds of Mara’s cries fill your ears as you gently push on Calum’s shoulders; trying to get him to move from where he’s fallen asleep on your lap so you can get up to get her. The two of you decided to watch a movie (or as much as you can get away with) whilst Mara slept, yet less than halfway through, Calum had fallen asleep with his face pressed against your chest.

“Mara is crying,” You murmur, brushing your fingers through his hair to rouse him a little more as he wakes up. “I need to go get her.”

He shifts in your lap and leans on one arm so you can get up, almost face planting the sofa once you stand up and he’s left there alone. He yawns and listens to the soothing words slipping from your lips as you approach Mara’s bedroom, already knowing you’ll be met with her sad eyes and messy hair. Her cries slow down but your voice gets louder as you head back to the lounge, and he sits up so he can take her.

“Look who it is,” You kiss Mara’s temple as you carry her through to where Calum is, her tired eyes lighting up as she spots her dad. Her skin is warm and flushed from sleep, much like Calum’s — the similarity between your husband and daughter when they’ve both woken up makes your heart melt.

“Hi, honey,” Calum greets her, reaching out for her from his spot on the sofa as he wakes up a little more. She yawns and her lips curl into a small smile as you set her down in his lap, a hand coming to hold either side of her as he gets her. You sit down next to them, unable to stop yourself from smiling at their matching puffy eyes and flushed cheeks. “How was your nap, hey? Are those naughty teeth still hurting you?”

He gets an answer through her gestures — as he speaks, she presses her lips to his shoulder, like she was trying to find some relief for her angry gums. “Oh, my poor girl. Shall we get you something that’ll help, hey? I think some yoghurt might work better than my shoulder, little one.”

Calum stands up from the sofa with a dramatic groan as he lifts her, kissing her forehead as she whines in his arms, rubbing at her heavy eyes with little fists. He opens the fridge as he hums under his breath, picking out her favourite apricot yoghurt and a spoon in the hopes of soothing her mouth.

“Why don’t we go for a walk to the park in a bit?” You ask, watching as Calum sets Mara down in her high chair. He pulls up a chair in front of her so he can feed her - knowing he’s about to get as messy as she usually does. “It’s a nice day out, and we can walk Duke at the same time.”

Calum nods, coaxing Mara to open her mouth as he feeds her. “That’s a good idea. Although I think we’re gonna need a bath after this.”

“We?”

“Do you see how much yoghurt is on her hands?” He laughs, leaning forward to kiss Mara’s forehead. In the process, she reaches out for him, the sticky, dairy snack landing on his own skin. “I think there’s more on her than in her mouth.”

He’s right, she’s messy, but looks significantly less uncomfortable than she did when waking up — so it’s worth it.

***

“Watch her eyes whilst I wash her hair, Cal,”

Calum steps out of the stream of the shower so you can rinse Mara’s hair, after lathering a sweet smelling shampoo through her curls. Breakfast had been a messy affair, and in an effort to save both time and water, you decided to have a family shower together.

He cups his hand over her forehead as you gently rinse the shampoo away, your fingertips smoothing over her scalp as content noises slip from her lips. The smile on her face tells you how happy she is to have your joint attention; loving nothing more than being inbetween the two of you.

“What does she find so funny about showering?” Calum asks, laughing himself as he holds Mara, lips brushing her wet cheeks as she giggles. He grabs the sponge to clean under her chin, making sure all of the yoghurt is gone, the familiar smell of her lavender body wash a comforting one. She tries to reach for the sponge as he does — her eyes fixated on the purple object.

“I don’t know, actually.” You reply, watching her eyes follow you as you move to wash Calum’s hair, too, noticing how much the blonde has grown out and his roots have come through. “We need to swap places again.”

“We should let Mara shower with us everyday if it means you washing my hair,” He suggests, met with a playful eye roll from you. Showering together was something he’d do everyday if he could — it’s one of his favourite intimate moments with you, a wonderful way to start his day. It’s more difficult to find time for it with Mara now though.

“I don’t know why you’re acting like I don’t do it even when your hands are free,” You reply and he laughs, knowing you’re right. Having his hair played with whether you’re washing it or just running your fingers through it is one of his favourite things, especially now it’s longer — a way to instantly make him relax. “You’re just using Mara as an excuse today, isn’t he, honey? He’s using you to make me wash his hair.”

She giggles and gives you a sweet wide mouthed smile, one that you wish you could freeze in time and see forever. One that soon will be accompanied by the teeth that are causing her so much pain.

“She doesn’t mind,” He pouts as he looks at her, lips brushing over her forehead as she smiles. She follows your lead and reaches up to put her own little hands into his hair, tiny fingers grabbing the curls in an attempt to help you. You laugh at her action, with a “are you trying to help mum, sweetheart?”

Calum grimaces but can’t help but laugh as he feels Mara tugging at his hair, knowing she’s trying to help, but isn’t quite as gentle as you are. “I think you need some lessons in hair washing, my love, it feels more like you’re trying to rip my hair out.”

It hurts, but her smile makes him ache in a completely different way.

***

“Is her pushchair in the garage?”

Calum grabs a teething ring from the fridge with his free hand as he nods, Mara occupying the other as she clings to his shoulder. It’s been a few hours since her morning nap and he knows she’s getting tired again; evident through her rubbing her eyes and her little whines. He knows she’ll fall asleep on the way to the park.

“Yeah, it’s near the back, behind the car.” He replies, kissing Mara’s forehead as she leans against his chest. She yawns and he rocks her in his arms, resting his cheek ontop of her head and holds her close. “Are you tired, little moon? That shower has made you sleepy, hey?”

His voice is a soft murmur as he talks to her; the tone one that is reserved for when he speaks to her. He’s so gentle and loving whenever he speaks to her and it makes your heart melt.

“Here we go,” You open the door and push her pram into the entrance to the house, unbuckling the straps so Calum can put her in. “Do you think she’s wrapped up enough? I don’t know if it’s as warm as it looks.”

Calum lifts her in his arms and pats her back, rocking her on the spot as he judges the weather. She’s comfy in a little t-shirt, hoodie and leggings, complete with baby old skool vans that Calum got her, to match his.

“How about a hat, too? Should we get you a beanie to match dad, baby?” He asks, knowing it’ll keep her ears warm if it gets a little chilly. You smile and head to her bedroom to get one of her little hats; her collecting growing with every one that Calum buys. “Come on, sweetheart, lets get you all cosy.”

He moves her away from his body to put her down and she cries, little hands trying to hold onto the neck of his own hoodie. Calum knows she’s being fussy because she’s getting tired and her mouth hurts, yet it makes him sad all the same. “You’re okay, honey, shh.”

Calum manages to set her down in the chair without too much of a fuss; making sure she’s sat down properly, and has her little elephant in reach as well as her pacifier. He leans down in front of her and kisses her nose, making a little ‘mwah’ noise as he does to try and soothe her and make her laugh. It doesn’t though — she still tries to hold onto him so he’ll pick her up again.

“What’s with the tears, angel? What’s the matter?” He soothes, staying close to her and gently wiping her tears away with his thumb. She sniffles and his heart aches at the sight. “You can go to sleep when we get walking, okay? You’re alright, my love.”

It’s moments like these where he’s happy that her pushchair is back facing, so she can see the two of you whilst you walk. You join them near the door, Mara’s beanie in your hands, a pout forming on your lips when you spot Mara in her pushchair.

“Oh, baby, what’s wrong?” You ask, smoothing your fingers down her cheeks to soothe her. You tuck the hat over her head, making sure it covers her little ears to keep her warm. Calum hands you her soft blanket, and you tuck it around her knees so she’s snug — almost certain she’ll fall asleep as soon as you set off. “Your poor mouth is making you so sad, isn’t it? We don’t like having a sad girl.”

Calum grabs Duke’s lead and attaches it to his collar, handing it to you before he takes the handle of Mara’s pushchair. “Let’s go, my loves.”

You lock the door behind you before setting off; one hand holding Duke’s lead, and Calum takes the other — his calloused fingers slip between your own, warm and comforting. It’s such a small gesture yet it reminds you of the love between you both. Calum’s other hand pushes Mara’s pushchair at a steady pace. It’s a lovely spring afternoon — blue skies and birds singing in the trees, with just a slight breeze.

“It’s so nice to be out in the sun,” You comment, and Calum nods in agreement. His eyes land on Mara and he notices her squinting at the sun; stopping for a moment before he pulls the hood of her pushchair a little further up to shade her. “Is that better, honey? Can you see now?”

“It feels like we haven’t done this for a while.” Calum says, his thumb rubbing back and forth over the palm of your hand as you walk. He can’t help but feel a small amount of guilt nagging at his mind, knowing he’s spent a lot of time working recently. He’s always home for bedtime, but he’s always tired too — he knows you need to spend more quality time together. “It’s nice.”

“It is,” You reply, squeezing his hand in return. “When are you in the studio next week?”

Calum doesn’t answer for a moment as he thinks about the timing of you asking — like you also know that him being in the studio has meant less time together.

“I’m not going to go in,” He replies, and he knows it’s the right thing to do. “I miss you. I want to spend time with you and Mara this week, they can manage without me.”

It’s a small relief to hear the words. You never want to force Calum away from the studio, but he’s always in a different mindset when he writes. It’ll do him good to be away for a week — so you can spend more time wrapped in each other and with Mara.

You nod before speaking. “I’m so proud of you though, Cal. The songs are sounding great so far.”

A smile rises on his lips at the words, and he raises your joint hands to your lips so he can brush his lips against your knuckles.

“Thank you, honey. I know it’s a lot when we first start writing. I don’t mean to be distant, it’s just hard to get out of my head when I’ve been writing.” Calum explains, yet you don’t need him to; it’s a cycle you’ve witnessed several times throughout your relationship. You nod as he speaks.

“I know, Cal. It’s okay though.” You reassure him, leaning your head against his shoulder as you walk. “It’s all part of who you are, and I love you for you.”

Nothing else needs to be said.

It’s then that the two of you realise the gentle movement of the wheels of the pushchair against the pavement has sent Mara to sleep, and she’s tucked up under her blanket, fast asleep. Her cheeks are rosy red from the warmth and her sore gums, her little hands tucked up against her face. Calum smiles at the sight, reaching into the pram to push her curls away from her face.

“She’s so sweet.” He murmurs, his heart melting when she leans into his touch, even in her sleep.

“She’s all you,” You reply, watching as she wiggles in her sleep. From her wild curls to her full cheeks and pouty lips, every inch of her reminds you of Calum. He disagrees, though.

He shakes his head.

“No… she doesn’t get her temper and grumpy faces from me.”

Your mouth opens in shock and you playfully hit his arm as he laughs. “Hey! You know for a fact that her grumpy morning face is all from you, don’t try and put that on me.”

“Yeah, yeah,” He replies, leaning to kiss you in a silent playful apology. “Whatever you say, my love.”

***

“Should we sit down here for a bit?”

Calum nods and puts the break on Mara’s pushchair, where she’s still sleeping soundly, in between the two of you as you sit down.

“She’s been asleep for a while, there’s no way she’s sleeping tonight.” Calum tells you, and you fear he might be right, even though she needs the sleep with her teeth coming in. “Do you think we should wake her up?”

You gently push her curls away from her face as she snoozes, your heart melting at her pouty lips all smushed up as she sleeps. You realise it has been over an hour since she went to sleep, and that she’ll feel even worse later on if she can’t sleep.

“Yeah, as much as I don’t want to,” You pout, feeling how warm her skin is under your touch. “It’ll do her good to have some fresh air and wake up a bit.”

Calum gently moves the blanket from her lap and pats her tummy, slowly trying to rouse her. Ever since she was born, Mara had been a heavy sleeper - never one to be easily woken up. Maybe she did get that from you. There’d be times where Calum would take her outside with him in the morning to watch the sun rise and she’d happily sleep in his arms, undisturbed by any movement.

“Mara…” Calum murmurs, undoing the buckles so he’d be able to pick her up once she wakes up. He didn’t want to startle her, and knows she’ll just go back to sleep if he rocks her. “Wake up, sweetheart.”

He notices Mara twitch and start sucking on her pacifier — a sign that she’s a little more awake than she was. He brushes his thumb over her cheek and she whines, screwing her eyes up when she realises that she’s outside. She stretches, reaching her arms out for a moment and closing her eyes once more when she relaxes.

“I love watching her wake up.” You comment, chuckling as she very slowly comes round. Calum decides she’s awake enough to move her — carefully slipping his hands underneath her and pulling her up to his chest. “Hi, baby.”

Calum groans dramatically as he gets her settled in his lap and a few cries slip from Mara’s lips at the disturbance; fists lifting to rub her eyes as she wakes up. She sniffles and sucks harder on her pacifier, burying her face against Calum’s chest as he holds her.

“Good afternoon, my love,” Calum murmurs, rubbing her back with his fingertips as he cradles her. “Are you back with us, hey? You’ve been asleep for a long time, honey.”

You know she has no idea what he’s saying, but she loves hearing his voice all the same. He gives her a moment to wake up, brushing his fingers through her hair and cuddling her against him.

“Look how red her cheeks are,” You mention, pouting at the sight — rosy red from how sore her gums are. “Our poor baby.”

He lifts her up so she’s basically standing on his legs, her face in front of his - her hands lifting to cover her eyes from the light. There’s a few families around, children playing and birds singing — a lot of different sights and noises for her to take in. It’s a peaceful day — a feeling of contentment overcoming both you and Calum.

“Hi, little moon,” Calum kisses her pouty lips and gets her settled in his arms, a hand underneath her to keep her sat up. She yawns and her eyes land on you, a smile on her lips as she realises you’re there. “Oh, there’s a smile! We haven’t seen one of those for a little while. Should we get you home soon and have some dinner? How does that sound?”

Calum decides to carry her on the way home for a little while, and your heart melts at the sight — the way he points out different trees and her curious eyes take in the new sights. There’s no one else you want to discover more of the world with.

***

When Calum said Mara wouldn’t sleep that night… he was right. After an hour of rocking her in her room to no avail, you decide to let her join your movie night; there was no point in stressing yourself and Mara out if she didn’t feel like sleeping.

“She gets her stubbornness from you too,” Calum announces, kissing Mara’s temple as he sits down on the sofa next to you with her in his arms. Duke is curled up on one side of you, a blanket thrown over your knees as you waited for Calum to bring Mara down to join you both. “She is not sleeping anytime soon.”

Her big brown eyes look at you from her spot on Calum’s lap — evident that no sleep is about to take place. You laugh at Calum’s words and roll your eyes, shaking your head as Mara reaches out for you.

“Yeah, come here, sweetheart,” You take her and settle her in your lap, brushing your fingers through her hair. “Dad is so mean, isn’t he?”

Calum joins you under your blanket and throws his arm around your shoulder, pulling you both close to him. His cheek rests against your head as he looks at Mara, seeing so much of both you and him in her. He finds the discarded teething ring and hands it to her, hoping it’ll settle her down if it soothes her a little.

“Hey, don’t tell her that,” He replies, his free hand stroking her cheek as she yawns. “You’re meant to be on my side, sweetheart.”

“Sorry, we’re ganging up on you on this occasion, babe.” You shrug your shoulders, rubbing your hand down Mara’s back as she settles in his lap.

Mara finally falls asleep a little later that night curled up in Calum’s arms on the sofa — a warm bottle of milk managing to help her drift off. At the same time, you’re fast asleep with your head in Calum’s lap, and he decides that Sunday’s are his favourite day.

And that with his little family... every day feels like Sunday.

***

Ask-box — feedback is always so appreciated!

Masterlist

Taglist: @irwinkitten @wildflowergrae @luckyduckydoo @letstaketheups-and-downs @jazzyangel242 @cashworthy @babylon-corgis @norawashere @monsteramongmikey @late-nightdevil @maluminspace @fluffsshawn @xhaileyreneex @flowerthug @calpops @youngblood199456 @wokeupinjapanisabop @banditocth @cashtonasfuck @5-secondsofcolor @g-l-pierce @monsteramongmgc @calmlftv @mantlereid @treatallwithkindness @another-lonely-heart @calumrose @inlovehoodx @mermaidcashton @everydayimfangirling@b-easybreezy @ilumxna @malumsmermaid @opheliaaurora23 @talkfastromance4 @zhangyixingxing1 @everyscarisahealingplace @mateisit-balsamic @saphseoul @suchalonelysunflower @findingliam-o @castaway-cashton @megz1985 @notinthesameguey @calumscalm @karajaynetoday @metalandboybands @littledrummeraussie @vxlentinecal @itjustkindahappenedreally @queenalienscherrypie @xxxstormyninixxx @chicken-ona-stick @hoodhoran @harrys-shrooms @midnightash

[nostalgiabones]

:

[nostalgiabones]

x