Definition [ot4]

Sixteen

((PSA: if you have a fic that includes 5sos with various genders and/or sexualities, or if you know of any, please comment them.

Also, if they're yours, tag them with #queersos.

I'm gonna try to read all of them, because I need more queersos in my life, let's be real here.

Okay, awesome, this has been a Personal Service Announcement with Mel have a nice day))

The door creeks open, making Calum glance up from his phone. He notices huge blue eyes peeking around the white wood of the door. His lips tilt up as he locks his phone and sets it into his lap, shifting around in the hotel bed so he can sit up a bit straighter.

Luke gets one foot and elbow through the door before he trips and stumbles the rest of his way into the room. His arms go swinging as he tries to catch himself, making everything in his hands go flying. Tiny slips of paper spring free from his previously tight grip on them. They flutter up and float to the ground, while Luke catches himself with the small table next to the door.

Calum raises his eyebrows and smiles in amusement, while Luke stares at the scattered notecards in horror.

"Shit, fuck," he hisses, instantly ducking down and scrambling to gather them together again. He's shaking now, fingers trembling while he attempts to get the red and white papers together as quickly as possible. Calum watches him fondly, until Luke stands up again with his hands full of the cards.

"Hi, sorry, shit," Luke curses when a card slips between his fingers and drops to the floor.

"Hi," Calum echoes. Luke steps forward and dumps all the paper onto the edge of the bed, then bends down again to pick up the ones he'd missed or dropped. Calum sits up a bit more, then crawls forward and picks up one of the cards.

It's a nametag, one of the ones that say "Hi! My name is", with a large white space for a name. Except, "name is," has been scribbled out with what looks like black sharpie, and "pronouns are," has been substituted in, barely legible in Luke's handwriting. There's probably at least two hundred name tags on the edge of Calum's bed by the time Luke stands up straight again.

"You- you can put your pronouns in," Luke explains, reaching forward to point to the blank space.

"I figured," Calum's smiling. He feels this unexplainable swell of pride in his chest, but he's not sure whether it's from the nametags, or the fact that Luke sat down and made hundreds of these, specifically for Calum. He figures it's the latter.

Luke hands over a sharpie, so Calum writes in "he/him" and peels off the back. He slaps it onto the left side of his chest, right over his pounding heart, and grins over at Luke.

"Hi! My pronouns are he/him!" Luke's lips tilt up and his eyes start sparkling in excitement. "Do you like them?"

"'Course," Calum responds easily, flicking his eyes down to start gathering the tags up into a neat pile. "I love them, Lukey. They're really helpful."

Luke fucking beams.

"Okay good!" He breathes out a sigh of relief and laughs nervously. "I just- I figured, you know. Mike and Ash always seem to know what your pronouns are, and I never know, and I didn't want to fuck up and make you uncomfortable, so. You know. Now I'll know how to address you, and, like, so will everyone else. Like, everyone that you see will know what your pronouns are and no one will fuck them up, or anything bad like that."

Luke is probably the most endearing deer Calum's ever met.

"Right, Luke," he smiles. He knows people are still going to fuck up his pronouns. He knows people are going to be uncomfortable with him wearing a sticker that claims he's a female, and they're still going to use his male pronouns. But it's the thought that counts, especially since Luke looks so fucking proud of the stickers.

Calum gathers them up and snaps a quick picture, then tweets it out with the caption of "Lukey made me some pronoun tags!"

He closes the app immediately after, not quite in the mood to see the shitty responses that the picture is bound to get, and zips the tags into the inside pocket of his suitcase for safekeeping.

Luke shifts nervously at the edge of the bed while Calum tweets, frowning slightly and watching, until Calum looks up at him again.

"Where's Ashton?" Calum asks, because he worries, and Ashton's trying his best to withdraw from them, As much as they'll let him.

Luke shrugs a bit and makes a vague gesture towards the door that separates Calum's room from Michael's. "In there, I'm like, pretty sure they're playing strip poker. Or uno, I don't think Michael knows how to play poker, and Ashton was getting frustrated while trying to teach him.

Calum laughs at the thought, and pats the bed next to him. "No reason we can't spend the day together, then. I think this hotel has Cinemax."

Luke makes a face, scrunching up his nose and baring his teeth in disgust. "Can we watch nickelodeon instead? I'm not in a porn mood, especially not straight porn."

Calum rolls his eyes and nods in agreement, reaching for the remote while Luke crawls into bed.

----

Calum walks into the middle of an argument. Which he'd completely expected, honestly.

"Well, all I'm saying, is that penguins don't have hollow bones, so they can't fly!" Ashton's saying, throwing his arms around. "Besides, their wings are too small!"

"Okay, but why?" Michael asks, leaning across the table while Ashton leans away. they're both only in boxers and socks, with a pile of uno cards in front of them, so Calum figures Luke was right about them playing strip uno. "Everything happens for a reason, right? So, like, how did penguins evolve into flightless little bitches? How the fuck was that an attractive trait? Where did penguins come from?"

"Jesus Christ, Mike-!"

"No, no, I'm atheist," Michael waves his hand dismissively and Ashton scoffs.

Calum clears his throat loudly and they both turn to him, instantly lighting up with smiles and various forms of welcome.

"Hiya," Calum waves a bit. "Luke and I are going out to dinner and wanted to know if you'd be joining us?"

"Sure!" Michael says happily. His nose is still bruised various hues of purple and blue. Ashton nods in agreement, eyes zeroing in on the tag still on Calum's shirt.

"What's that?" He blurts before Michael can say anything else. He squints, but apparently can read it from that far away, so Calum explains.

"It's a pronoun tag," he says with a smile. "Luke made it. It just says what my pronouns are, because he didn't want to fuck them up!"

Michael and Ashton are both quiet at that, inspecting the tag closely, then glancing at each other with raised eyebrows.

"That's so fucking cute," Michael says finally. "Luke made you a sticker so he didn't fuck up your pronouns, that's so adorable." Ashton giggles a little and nods along, while Calum feels his cheeks heating up with hot blush.

"He made, like, two hundred," he says softly.

Michael makes a squeaking noise and leans forward to set his chin in his hands, smiling with his eyes closed happily. "That's so cute, Cal, oh my god!"

"I think Michael's fangirling," Ashton smiles at him fondly, and Calum continues blushing.

"It's not a big deal!" He defends. "Luke just wanted to make sure he wasn't misgendering me, and the world wasn't misgendering me!"

"Luke is so endearing," Michael huffs a little and grins again. Ashton rolls his eyes and stands up to grab a shirt off the floor.

"Yes, Luke is endearing, Luke is great," he agrees dismissively. "Let's just get dressed so we can go."

"Right," Calum remembers neither of them have fucking pants on. "We'll meet you downstairs so you can scream about Luke to Luke's face."

"It's my dream," Michael says dramatically. Calum rolls his eyes.

((THIS IS SO SHIRT UM

-Mel(yn)