tattoos || c.h.

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɴɪɴᴇᴛᴇᴇɴ

mia

i sit in front of a small pond in the park and take pictures of it with the trees in the background and the sky making its view in there too.

mother nature is one of my favorite things of all time. it's always changing, yet stays the same. it's hard to explain in words.

i get attacked by arms around my shoulders.

"mia!" i laugh at how it's julian who's attacked me with a weird hug. "can you take a picture of me?" julian asks as he notices the camera in my hands.

"only if you can tell me who you're here with and where they are." i make a deal with julian. i don't know if calum would take off work this early.

"dad's over there." i follow the direction where he's pointing and there stands calum with a smile. "can i get a picture now?"

"depends. will you give me a big smile?" i raise my eyebrows and he eagerly nods his head. i laugh at him and take the picture he wants. "want to see?"

"yes!" he comes to my side again and i show him the picture of himself. "thank you." he hugs me for the second time in less than five minutes.

"anything for my favorite kid." i ruffle his hair as calum decides to join us by sitting in front of me. "nice to see someone's decided to join us."

calum shakes his head with a smile before looking at me and his son. the adoration you can see in his eyes when he looks at julian is one of the most amazing things you could ever see.

"can i see the picture?" calum asks me and i hold my camera in front of him to see his kid, smiling wide. "handsome as usual." he looks up to meet his eyes with julian.

"i know." julian's confidence could be in a war with june's. june's the most confident adult i know and julian's the most confident kid i know.

julian decides to lay between my legs and rest his head on my chest. yeah, this kid is now officially my favorite one of all time. until julian and calum get fed up with me, i'm forever going to enjoy the presence of this kid.

"can i see the other pictures?" julian questions as he taps my camera. he's one curious kid, gotta hand him that.

"of course." i put my camera in his lap and scroll through the photos i've taken today. i walked to the tiny park, so on my way here i took pictures of the city, the cars in traffic and driving through street lights right as the light turns green, the people walking who could care less about the others around them. also took some pictures of the buildings before i got here and took pictures of this scenery.

"you're very good." julian looks up at me with the smile that hasn't left his lips since he ran to me. "can you take a picture of me and dad?"

"that's a question for your dad." i turn to calum who lets out a nice laugh. "do you want to take a picture, dad?" i joke with calling him dad like julian calls him because he's his actual dad.

calum opening his arms for julian answers the question. when julian gets settled in calum's arms i take a picture of the two. i show the father and son their photo and their smiles grow wide.

"i can print it and give you the two pictures." i offer calum and julian. julian jumps on me and wraps his arms around my neck in a hug while calum continues to laugh. "i'll take that as a yes." i wrap my arms around julian.

"thank you." calum tells me and i give him the very well known look 'really?' "sorry. you've just done a lot of nice things."

"and you've said enough thank you's to last you more than five years." i make a joke and julian doesn't move from his position. "you okay?" i ask him and he doesn't respond. worry takes over me and calum. i feel my shoulder become wet and i realize he's crying. "he's crying." i mouth to calum and his face drops. "hey, what's wrong buddy?" i rub his back and i want to hand him to calum, but he's got a good grip on me.

"you're the mom i never had." julian lets out before more tears leave his eyes. my eyes go wide and when i make eye contact with calum he has the same expression as me. how the hell do i respond to that?

"hey, i'm gonna hand you to your dad, alright?" julian slowly lets his grip loosen around me and i hand him to calum who swiftly takes him in his arms. julian wraps his arms around calum like he did with me. calum closes his eyes and rubs his son's back. this feels like something calum's going to deal with and i don't think it'd be good for me to be present. i try to quietly stand up, but calum grabs my hand and looks at me with pleading eyes. well fuck. i sit back down and calum let's go of my hand to go back to rubbing his sons back.

i mean yeah, i do hang with julian and watch his shows with him, explain my tattoos whenever he asks about them, and the one time i took care of him when he was sick, but that doesn't really make me a mom. it doesn't, right? fuck.

i don't know if calum will stop talking to me and not let julian near me again or if he'll still allow me to see his son whenever he wants to see me and i'm free. i really hope he does because this is my favorite kid of all time. shit. i sound like a parent. i sound like my dads.

what's going to happen now?