hiatus : c.t.h.

"fat face"

"Holy crap," Calum breathed out, pausing in the door of the apartment abruptly. Ciara narrowly missed bumping into him, shifting the weight of the box she held in her arms to her hip.

"Cal, we have go into the apartment to see the whole thing," she prodded gently, laughing as he poked his tongue out at her and moved aside, allowing her to pass him and enter the main space of the apartment.

It was lovely, absolutely. It was rather small, but the one wall, all of glass, provided a sense of space, allowing a comprehensive view of the city's high street and the river that ran through it. The kitchen was connected to the living room, the small room's cabinets clear glass with white trim. Everything was pristine.

Ciara left Calum, still entranced by the large window, in the living room to explore the hallway that ran off the main space. There were two bedrooms, of course, each with a twin bed stripped of any sheets. A bathroom was opposite the bedrooms, directly in between the two rooms.

"I call this one!" Calum called, pushing past Ciara to enter the slightly bigger room, his bedding in a box in his arms. He dropped it carelessly on the bed and flopped onto the bare mattress, sighing. "This is really cool."

"It's nice," Ciara agreed.

He turned his head to look at her. "You should've seen my apartment in London. Hellhole compared to this." After a pause, he continued, his face looking concerned, "Are you sure your parents are paying for all this? I can help, I have some stuff saved up. I mean, it isn't a lot, but I don't need it, per say - "

Ciara cut him off. "They're paying for everything. Don't even argue."

His face wore a contented smile as he relaxed on the bed. "How did you even convince your crazy strict parents to let you have a guy as your roommate?"

"Wasn't hard," Ciara shrugged. "They just wanted someone with me so I wouldn't be all alone. Nice to know they worry 'bout me."

"Yeah, but I'm a street bum from Australia and I only met them the one time because they wanted to 'interview me.' "

Ciara shuddered at the memory. They had asked Calum maybe three questions and talked the rest of the time about how Ciara had never had a boyfriend and how they were so relieved that she was finally getting "male attention." Worst day ever, maybe.

"Yeah, well, they seemed well pleased with you regardless," she grumbled, leaning against the door frame. Calum's eyes sparkled, scrunched small by his all-consuming smile. His smile was always so encompassing - it was the most sincere expression of happiness she'd ever seen one human show.

"They seemed to be under impression we would be dating soon, hmm?" He waggled his eyebrows suggestively, and Ciara fake-gagged, pushing down the swirling in her stomach that rose when he mentioned dating.

"In your dreams, Hood," she dismissed, turning away from his room and heading for hers to put the sheets on the bed. Her parents would be heading over later that night to drop off every box she'd left piled in her room, and Calum's stuff was being brought over by his sister tomorrow.

"Aw, c'mon." She jumped a little, whipping around from where she was pulling bedding out to see that Calum had followed her. Now he was leaning against her doorframe, a cocky smile on his lips and his hands shoved in his pockets. "You can't say you wouldn't be thrilled to date me."

"Right," she scoffed.

He narrowed his eyes. "I'm a catch, dude! Look at me. I'm built, for one - " he made a exaggeration of flexing his arms, his laughter ruining the tough guy effect. "I'm hilarious, I play two - count 'em, two - instruments, and I have this ultra sexy Australian/New Zealander/ Maori charm."

"Maori?" Ciara laughed, completely not thinking about how seriously cute Calum was when he was laughing at his own dumb jokes. Nope. Not thinking about it. It was gross, in fact.

He made a fake-offended face. "The native people of New Zealand? My ancestors? You can't tell me that you, Miss I Have A Tumblr, are trying to whitewash me."

Ciara rolled her eyes, throwing a pillow at him that he caught easily. "Shut up, Hood."

"You cannot take away my heritage!" he protested loudly, tackling her to the bed and bracketing her body with his arms, grinning down at her but trying to glare. "Tell me what I am. Say it."

It was much, much harder to come up with a snappy comeback when he was literally laying on top of her, his glittering eyes looking her straight in the face. She managed, "You are the biggest white boy I have ever met."

"Hey!" he warned. "Are you ticklish, maybe? I will not hesitate to bring out tickling."

If there was one thing Ciara didn't do, it was be tickled. So when Calum shrugged like "your funeral" and moved his fingers to her sides, she yelled as loud as she could, "You're Maori, super exotic and not white, okay? No tickling!"

His face gave way to a shit-eating grin. "Someone's got a weakness, hmm?"

"I swear to God, Calum."

He huffed. "Fine. Princess."

After a few seconds of silence, they both seemed to notice Calum was still very much on top of her. He blushed a little, still looking her in the face, something kind of unreadable in his eyes.

To break the tension, she said lightly, "Are you gonna stop crushing me, fat face?"

Looking relieved, he rolled off of her and onto the floor, calling offendedly, "I am not fat, loser!"

"You're huge!" she retorted, jumping off the bed and over him, and flying out of her room and into the living room, looking for a place to hide.

And she wasn't thinking about how she had been kind of sad when he'd gotten off her, or how she thought she'd caught his eyes dart down to her lips for a second before he caught himself.

Not thinking about it.

(a/n)

this is TRASH and i am SORRY
i'm only here for roommate calum at this point tbh
follow me on twitter for high quality banter (i am sorry) @/lilacskyluke_