discovery // calum hood & luke hemmings a.u

1

Calum always noticed him.

The young man sitting on the outside on the wooden bench in torn up clothes and messy hair always caught his attention.

Calum always found it strange that he saw the young man there in the morning at opening and late and night at closing.

It never made sense to him until he saw him holding a cup and begging passerby's for loose change, or anything extra they had in their pockets.

Then it finally did.

And one day, it all clicked in Calum's head that young man was homeless, looking for someone to help him, to care.

The young man held refuge at that bench day in and day out, just hanging out, sleeping, watching people walk by, watching cars drive past.

Calum noticed him sitting out there in the hot, in the cold, in the rain, in the wind but always contemplated in asking for him to come inside.

In this particular town it was always frowned up to be friendly with homeless people whether they were young or old, had a kid or an animal with them. Most of the time business owners or locals would call the police on these people claiming they were being harassed causing the city to take away a lot of the benches, causing them to put up no loitering signs, causing businesses on the street to refuse bathroom services to them.

Some of the restaurant owners went against the rules often letting these people come in after closing offering them leftover food that wasn't sold during the day, offering them free access to the bathroom but then people caught on basically scaring away the good hearted people.

Calum always wanted to help out the community but always got a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach and backed off, and he would watch from afar and that's how he came immune to the situation.

But it wasn't until a day in the summer when the air conditioning had broken and he came back to the restaurant to help the staff plug in fans and turn them on and he went outside to prop the door open hoping it would help with the air circulation to make it feel a bit cooler, he heard soft singing as he stepped out but when he started to look all around it stopped. It got him confused because every time he would walk in and out of the doorway the singing would start and stop.

It had him puzzled for hours until he went outside later on in the day to put out a sign saying "50% off all drinks tonight 5PM till closing" and this time he heard the singing again this time a bit louder than before and the young man at the bench caught his attention.

Calum stopped in his tracks for a moment, listening to the soft voice before walking closer. The man on the bench had his back to Calum and Calum approached him from behind trying to not startle him as he tapped his shoulder gently.

Calum gasped as the man jumped up from where he was sitting and he turned around looking at Calum all nervous and confused.

"Hi sorry, Uhh I didn't mean to scare you but uh was that you singing? You have a really good voice." Calum spoke softly trying to appear as nice as possible.

"Uhh Uhh yeah. Um sorry about that, do you want me to go? Cause I can go." The young man sighed he was shaking clearly afraid of Calum.

"No it's okay. Trust me, okay? I noticed you sitting out here in the heat all day and I thought maybe you could use something to drink." Calum offered and the blonde curly man stood still contemplating everything for a few seconds.

"Thank you for the offer but I only have a few quarters on me. I won't be able to afford it." Those words made Calum frown and he motioned for the guy to follow him into the restaurant.