The Bass Player » [cashton] √

3.7

[25th of January - San Jose]

It was Calum's birthday. They'd gone to bed at a somewhat reasonable hour the night before, and when he'd woken up, Michael and Luke had just been arriving back with McDonald's for breakfast. Ashton had climbed into his bunk while the others were out, and he'd managed to shove him out and onto the floor, as the others pulled the curtain back.

Ashton griped out something about 'where's the Calum from last night', but took a seat on the bunk opposite and smiled as he watched Michael and Luke hand off the food and presents.

"It was kind of hard to get anything good, you know 'cause, we don't exactly have a postal address," Michael explained lamely, handing Calum the McDonalds bag and then turning to rummage through his own bunk. He reappeared with a black piece of clothing in hand and thrust it into Calum's lap.

Ashton and Luke watched on as Calum unfolded what they soon saw was a hoodie. It had the European and North American tour dates on the back; he recognised the back font as one of the individual hoodies, there were three (originally four) each variations with a different band member on them.

"You bought me your own merch?" Calum asked, feigning anger.

"Stole, you my own merch," Michael corrected, grinning at him.

"I swear to god if this has Ashton's face on it," he groaned, before turning the hoodie around to find it had a photo of Michael on it instead. He started chuckling, "okay, that's actually pretty great, it's going to be my new pyjama shirt,"

"Please, especially when you're at Ashton's," Michael laughed happily, moving out of the road so Luke could step forward with a carefully wrapped parcel.

"Mine's less narcissistic, I promise," he laughed, pulling Calum into a one-armed hug from his spot on the bed, "that's from Si,"

"You guys really didn't have to get me anything, I do appreciate it though," he smiled warmly, slowly starting to work on the paper.

"You didn't say anything like that to me?" Michael said, faking offence.

Calum scoffed, "You stole my present from the merch booth last night,"

"I stole it two nights ago, thank you very much,"

He ignored him and continued working on the parcel Luke had handed him. Once he got the wrapping paper open, it became clear immediately what was in the box, and Calum tore the box open and set his eyes upon a pair of platform Doc Martens.

"Luke, this is too much! You-"

Luke interrupted him, "I've had them since you saw them in that store on Melrose, if you don't accept them, you'll break my heart," he told Calum, sighing dramatically.

"I- well okay then but it's still too much,"

After that, they got ready for the day and headed to the venue, which also involved a round of happy birthdays from Rockknot and a few of the backstage crew he'd gotten familiar with. Then came the disgustingly large bouquet of flowers that were delivered before they went on stage. They came with a note that said,

So, everyone knows you're taken.

Gross old man x

Calum rolled his eyes fondly, appreciating Ashton's attempt at feigning jealousy. Everyone oohed and ahhed at the bouquet as Calum tried to hide it in the dressing room with bright red cheeks.

Zahair made a comment that he knew not to ask Calum out now, and he had to hold himself back from pulling an awful face at the thought. Then they were on stage and the boys were asking everyone to sing happy birthday to him and he was grinning and blushing, again.