Fool's Holiday ☾Malum

01

A/N: I'm a sucker for a good Christmas fic and All Time Low songs :^) you can call me Christmas traaaash.

"Yeah, one room for the night please." The boy smiled, giddy for what was to come in two days already. He was going home to his family for Christmas after what felt like forever of college, he was happy to take a break but he was ecstatic for the Christmas decorations. He'd already seen quite a few on his way here where he'd be taking a small break before going back on the road tomorrow.

The inn keeper, a nice looking blonde smiled, the boy's cheery mood had clearly rubbed off on her. He often had that effect on people. "You're lucky, we'll be closed by tomorrow."

He payed cash and quickly accepted his room key without hesitation, all he needed was a good night's sleep. He unpacked his clothes for tomorrow when he found his room and laid them on the small table provided in the room. With his thick knitted sweater stacked on the very top.

It was a Christmas sweater if he'd ever seen one and he wore it on Christmas Eve every year with pride, it basically looked like the holiday had vomited on it and the dark green background displayed several gingerbread men across it's itchy exterior.

Calum decidedly changed into his holiday inspired pyjama pants, cartoon candy canes scattered down his legs in patterns. He took the time to put on whatever Christmas movie was playing on tv--this time it happened to be Elf.

He fell asleep with little trouble, late night thoughts turning to the presents he'd bought for his loved ones. It was nothing too big, he preferred thoughtful gifts, the kind that made people surprised at how much he knew about them.

He couldn't wait for Christmas dinner either, he loved the giving but he also loved receiving the food. His mouth watered at just the thought of ham and cranberry sauce, gravy and mashed potatoes.

* * * *

Calum awoke with a groan, his phone blared the twelve days of Christmas from the nightstand and he didn't exactly feel a hundred percent alive just yet.

With a sleepy yawn, a few slow blinks Calum was finally aware that it was Christmas Eve at last, an later today he'd be with his family all sharing in the spirit and joy of the holidays. They'd decorate the tree as a family, thankfully waiting for Calum to return home to do so.

The drive wouldn't be very long, a couple hours at most, Calum decided to use up the free breakfast offer that the inn had.

Maybe his Santa Claus hat wearing dog slippers were a bit over the top but there had to be like one person at the inn other than him, Christmas was too close to be eating breakfast at a small town's inn.

As it turned out, the inn had a meager buffet that consisted of mainly over ripe fruit and defrosted waffles. Calum wasn't complaining though, the thought of seeing the Christmas lights guiding him home was erratic.

There were two people in the small dinning area that seemed to converge with the main sitting area. There was the girl who worked here that he'd met yesterday, Jessica maybe?

Then there was someone else, sat at a table with his head down toward his steaming cup of coffee. Calum couldn't make out much about the guy, a toque was pulled down over his skull and a pair of sunglasses hung loosely on his nose.

"Morning Mr. Hood." Came Jessica's chirpy voice, to which Calum smiled in greeting. "You're off today?"

"Uh yeah, do you know how to get to highway one-oh-two? It's my first time passing through." Calum asked politely, more to make conversation than to really find out directions, if he was really curious he would have checked with Google.

"Yeah, you just go up the main road, take a left on seventh, and the--" a low chuckle cut her off and Calum felt a chill run up his spine.

The stranger, still bent over his cup, was laughing quietly but in the nearly empty room, it sounded like the guy was sitting only a couple tables away.

Calum wanted to dismiss the guy as a little crazy and move on, he opened his mouth to ask Jessica to continue when the guy got up and walked over to them.

He unceremoniously pulled out a chair and all but slammed his mug down on the table as he took a seat in front of Calum. "The roads are closed."

"What?" Calum asked in disbelief, there hadn't been a speckle of snow when he got here. He half expected it to be a green Christmas, which was odd for Canada in his opinion but it was stereotyped as always snowy.

"The roads are closed, no one's going or leaving today. I couldn't even make it to work because the plows can't even get through it. Looks like your snowed in, stranger." The guy said, removing his sun glasses to reveal his pale green eyes. Calum finally got a good look at him, a few strands of bright blue hair poked out from under his black toque, he wore a jean jacket that seemed to be the only source of colour on him apart from his hair. He had a small amount of stubble on his jaw that indicated he hadn't bothered to shave this morning.

In the midst of analyzing this stranger's appearance, he realized that the guy hadn't been drinking coffee, the hot beverage loosely held in his grasp looked to be hot chocolate of all things.

"Oh no," Jessica whispered, looking really concerned suddenly as she looked from Calum to the stranger. "What are you going to do? Everything's closed today, where are you going to sleep?"

Calum finally realized the gravity of the situation, where would he sleep? He car was filled with presents and a few articles of clothing, there wasn't enough room for him to sleep comfortably.

"I don't know,"