Both Sides of the Story [cake au.]

twenty

a/n: cake is as real as my fricking eyeball I WILL fight people about this

The sun had barely risen when Calum and Luke were woken up by a heavy weight on the bed and very, very excited screaming.

Opening one eye, Calum was face to face with Charlotte and Shael trying to wake the two of them up. "It's Christmas!" Shael exclaimed.

Luke stirred beside Calum, before blinking his eyes open and yawning, his nose scrunching up in the process. Calum smiled at that, before facing Shael. He pulled her down and started tickling her, causing her to laugh loudly while Charlotte squealed, hiding her face against her dad's chest so that Calum couldn't get to her, too. Luke laughed, and after a few seconds, Calum let go of Shael.

"So why are you guys waking us up this early, hmm?" Luke asked, brushing Charlotte's brown hair out of her face.

"It's Christmas!" Charlotte squealed this time.

"I don't think you girls are getting anything this year, though," Calum said, smiling when the twins began insisting that they had been well-behaved.

"Come on, get up!" Charlotte then urged, pulling at Luke's arm.

After a bit more of pulling and jumping, the girls managed to get the two of them to get out of bed. Calum yawned, following the girls and Luke out of the room and into the living room where Mali-Koa's kids were already excitedly sitting on the carpet. Mali, on the other hand, was half asleep on the couch, beside Calum's mum. Their dad was in the kitchen, probably making coffee judging by the whirring noise.

Calum sat down on Mali's other side, giving her a one-armed hug as Luke took a seat on the carpet, leaning back against Calum's legs.

"Were you woken up, too?" Calum chuckled, looking over at his mum since Mali was not going to give him an answer this early in the morning.

She nodded, and the two of them exchanged a knowing glass as Calum's dad walked into the room, a tray in his hands. "Goodmorning Calum, Luke." He smiled, setting the tray down on the coffee table which had been pushed aside.

Before they could answer, however, the kids started blabbering about how opening the gifts. "Santa came, we can't just leave him waiting!" Mali's son, the eldest of the four, exclaimed.

"Okay, okay!" Calum answered, chuckling. "Come on, who's going to distrubute them, then?"

The kids began babbling, passing around gifts. Calum smiled when Shael gave him a flat, rectangular gift shyly. "Thank you, my dear," he told her.

Once everyone had their gifts, they started opening them. Calum noticed how gentle Luke was with his, taking precautions not to rip the wrapping paper, which made the brunet smile.

The kids, on the other hand, were tearing through the wrapping eagerly, despite Mali's warnings to not make a mess.

Calum opened the one Shael had handed him first. It was wrapped in red and gold paper with a big bow on the top, causing him to wonder who it was from. He figured it was probably from his sister, but when he unwrapped it, he realised that it probably wasn't.

It was a thin sketchbook. On the front were the words "For Calum, with love" in swirly letters, causing him to smile. He opened it to find a black and white portrait of himself, and maybe he should've found it creepy but he was too busy being awed by the amount of talent Luke had. He couldn't believe he had spent time drawing him.

As he flipped through the pages, the drawings continued to fascinate him. There was one of Sally, then one of the restaurant they had their first date. Another one was of the girls at their birthday done in watercolour, making Calum smile.

While everyone else was chattering about their gifts, Calum leaned down and pressed a kiss to the side of Luke's forehead. "Thank you for the drawings," he murmured. "They're beautiful."

Luke blushed, turning to smile up at his boyfriend. "I'm glad you like them."

"I love them." Calum nodded, kissing his forehead once more before sitting back.

Everyone continued opening their gifts and talking a bit, all the way until the kids got too excited and took all their new things down to the basement, where they would probably stay until they got antsy or hungry. Mali-Koa ended up retreating back to her room not long after, claiming she needed more sleep, and Calum and Luke stuck around to help Calum's parents clean up. The kids had at least put all the wrapping paper to one side, making it easier for them.

Calum and Luke then had breakfast, making small talk with his parents, but ended up returning to their room afterwards. They ended up back in bed, arms wrapped around one another in attempts to keep warm in the frigid house.

"Why is it so cold?" Luke whined, pressing closer to Calum, who just laughed.

"It's not that bad," he murmured into Luke's honey hair.

Luke grumbled something before falling silent for a moment. The next time he opened his mouth, his voice was soft. "Thank you for the scarf."

Calum blushed slightly, out of embarrassment more than anything. "It's a bit lame compared to your gift."

"No, I love it," Luke insisted, propping himself up on his elbow so he could look at Calum. "It's really pretty and the colours remind me of you. Also, it has an L stitched onto it, which is pretty cool." Luke smiled. "I sound a bit dorky I guess, but... It's a gift from you. Anything from you is special."

Calum smiled, giggling a little when Luke kissed his nose. He wrapped his arms around Luke's waist and pulled him over so that he was laying on top of him, their bodies moulding together perfectly.

"Merry Christmas, Luke," Calum murmured, kissing his lips softly. "I'm so glad I have you."

a/n: mali means gardener in Hindi, so this chapter was a very funny one to write because I ended up imagining an old gardener lady instead of Calum's sister

Also I feel like this is going nowhere, for the first time in forever I'm going into a fic blindly and bleh this will most likely end soon