uncle calum •cth•

uncle calum: halloween

Calum was jolted awake by his phone ringing at full volume. He was facedown on his couch with a headache that his phone made him aware of. When the phone stopped ringing, he let out a breath of relief, but then it started ringing again. He sat up and rubbed at his eyes before scanning the room for the small black device. He noticed it sitting on the kitchen counter. He made his way to it, somewhat hoping it would stop ringing before he got to it but no luck. He slid his finger across the screen to answer and shoved it to his ear not bothering to read the small letters on the screen.
"Hello?" He gruffed out before clearing his throat.
"Oh, shit! You sound awful, man!" Michael's voice came through the speaker.
"Fuck off. Only had two drinks."
"Two drinks? Shit! To be fair, you haven't had more than a beer in months," Michael laughed.
"Yeah, yeah. What do you want?"
"Oh, right. Little bit wants to go trick or treating, but the wife and I will be out of town, so we were wondering if you could watch her." Calum's ears perked up at the nickname of his favorite (and only) niece. He would do anything for that little girl.
"Of course. How long will you be gone?"
"We're coming back the afternoon of November 1st. Oh, she also needs a costume because, uh, you know, Halloween is tomorrow. I'll drop her off in an hour. Thanks. Love you. Bye."
Michael spit out the last words very quickly and hung up before Calum could process them. Once he did, he cursed to himself as he lay back down on the couch rubbing his hands over his face.
He was woken up for the second time that morning by a noise that was no less annoying than his phone: the doorbell. After hearing it ring for the second time and realizing it wasn't someone that would give up and leave, he slowly recalled the phone call from earlier. He made it to the door just as the bell rang for a third time and his phone started going off from across the room. He swung the door open to find Michael with his phone at his ear, and a three-year-old with her hands on her hips with an unhappy look on her face.
"You were takin' forever, Cawum." She said, using her hands to help convey her sass.
"My apologies, princess. How can I ever apologize for making you wait?" Calum paused for a moment to act like he was thinking hard about it, "How does chicken nuggets for lunch sound?"
"Oh my gosh, Calum, you can't give her everything she wants all the time." Michael scoffed.
"Shut up. I'm the uncle, I do what I want."
After more conversation and a reiteration of how to care for the child, like Calum hadn't watched her for years at this point, Michael was on his way to get his wife and head out of town.

"I dont wanna be a pwincess!"
"But you love playing princess!"
"Not for Hawwoween!"
Calum had been around the little girl long enough to know that her tantrums came about once a day, but they were usually easy to solve and fix. Today he was being met with a new side of her: fashion tantrums. He never knew a three-year-old could be so opinionated when it came to a Halloween costume. The girl who never passed up an opportunity to play dress-up and be a princess wanted nothing to do with being a princess for Halloween. He watched as she crossed her arms to walk away from him in the Target aisle. She sat down on a low shelf as he looked around the emptied out aisle. There was a dinosaur, princess, and a pizza, none of which the young girl enjoyed. He scooped her up, much to her dismay, and walked to the next costume aisle. Her little fists tried to beat against him in anger, but the light taps she was inflicting didn't phase him. He saw only two costumes left in his size: Mike and Sully from Monster's Inc. and immediately called Luke.
"Got any Halloween plans?" He asked once Luke answered.
"Uh, yeah, actually. Going to a bar for karaoke and drinks. Why?"
"Yeah, not anymore. Change of plans."
"Oh, okay. What ya got?" Calum kept the plans vague.

Luke had never regretted agreeing to one of Calum's plans more than now. He knew he had fucked up when the little girl answered the door with half-done pigtails.
"Uncle Wuke's here!"
Calum came around the corner in a fuzzy purple and blue onesie that matched the character. Luke looked at him and back at the small girl in her purpley pink oversized shirt, teddy bear, and pigtails.
"Aw shit. No, mate. Fuck you." Luke rushed out.
"Wuke said not nice words!"
"I know, sweetie. He's a bad man for saying that, but he also said he didn't want to be Mike." Calum explained to her. Her face dropped as she turned to look at the tall blond. Her face dropped and eyes got teary.
"Who teaches her to be this adorable?" Luke wondered out loud. "Just give me the damn costume, mate." The tears and sad face were long gone as she jumped in the air. The way she had her uncles wrapped around her finger was unbelievable. She barely had to ask to get her way.
An hour later, Luke was a tall, green, one-eyed monster, Calum was covered in colorful fur, and Little bit was on some sort of pre-candy high. She had been bouncing on furniture for the last thirty minutes as the men tried to figure out how to get Luke into the confusing, or confusing to them, costume.
She had insisted that she get the biggest candy bucket in the store, and she made it clear they couldn't stop until the bucket was full. Every time they were mistaken for a married couple, Luke glared at Calum. It didn't take long for her to get tired of walking, and it didn't take long for her to fall asleep once she was in Calum's arms.
"I'm sorry I was so annoyed earlier. I haven't had a night out in ages, but this was so much better than having a hangover in the morning."
"You think we can steal some candy without her knowing?" Luke laughed at Calum's question.
"She's Michael's kid, she probably counted every piece."
"It's candy, not chicken nuggets. I don't think she'll care too much." They both laughed as they reached Calum's front door.
Calum walked into his guest room, which was now a home to a new twin-size bed, to put the little girl down for bed. She stirred as he sat her down before her small hands rubbed at her eyes.
"Uncle Cawum," her groggy voice said. Calum sat on the edge of her bed as he pulled the blanket on her.
"Yeah, sweetie?"
"I had the best day ever," the little girl said as a yawn escaped. Calum smiled widely before kissing the little girl's head.
"Me too, me too."