The second Saturday of the year was awfully cold and Caelum, in honesty, was down with an awful cold and wasn't in his best physical strength. He was on the couch, nose all red and stuffy, and his eyes blinking slowly and tiredly at the flat tv screen that he could barely pay attention to because of his headache. He had no perception of time and he was five minutes close to drifting to sleep because of the awful headache that made the world seem like it was spinning.

The doorbell that rang caught his attention and he grumbled wondering who it was. The blankets dropped to the floor as he got off the couch and walked drowsily towards the front door. After a few tries of fiddling with the doorknob, he managed to unlock it to face someone he did not expect at all.

"Astrid?"

"Oh hey, Cal!" she smiled that bright sunny smile, "I just wanted to check in on you, you hadn't been coming to school for the past few days and no one had heard from you and- Cal, are you sick?"

"Wha- sick? Nooooo," he smiled charmingly and tried to maintain his charming expression, but his sneeze made it awful again.

"Oh, for fuck's sake, your timing is just awful," he grumbled to himself. "Yeah, I'm kind of down with a cold, but it's nothing at all really-"

Astrid's hand darted forward and shot out to touch his forehead as she told back, "Oh Cal, you're burning up!"

"It's nothing Astrid, completely normal for me," he replied back and let her hand fall. "Now, where are me manners?! Come on in, babe, mi casa es su casa."

After a moment of frantic panic where Caelum tried his best to clean up his shit he mumbled embarrassed, "Sorry, I wasn't expecting anyone at all, really."

"Oh Cal, where is your mum?"

He fiddled with the switchboard trying to find the one that turned on the lights in the house, "I- uh- she's outside right now."

But Astrid was no fool, she snapped back, "Since when and for how long?"

"That- uh- she's been out for a few years now," Caelum responded with a grimace and avoided her gentle eyes.

"Caelum, what's going on?"

He didn't want to tell Astrid the truth about it all and he looked around for a tiny moment trying to hide what he actually wanted to say. He peered into the fridge and told, "I have- er- ice cream, want some?"

"Caelum," she smiled in that tone of hers that made him want to tell her the truth about it all.

"I- My mother hasn't been home in years now," he told her as he took a seat beside her on the couch. "She is a cancer patient and well, she's been there in the hospital for a long time now."

"Oh, Cal," she looked at him.

And before he had anticipated anything. She hugged him really tight and held him, her head against his shoulder and he was a tiny bit puzzled. He did not mind that one bit and though he wasn't the more cuddly person and not even affectionate in the slightest, he did not mind it one bit.

He turned to adjust a bit and hugged her back. Her head was in the crook of his shoulder and he did not know how much he needed that hug until that very moment she hugged him. And he had been trying his best not to let tears out and trying to swallow the lump in his throat.

She began pulling away gently from him but still left his hand in between two of her own. She asked him truthfully, "And what about your father?"

Caelum scoffed instantly and then replied, "I don't even know if he deserves the right to be called my father, I haven't seen him around in almost a week which is honestly not even surprising at this point because whenever he's around, he's nearly always squandering money on alcohol-"

"Dear Christ," Astrid mumbled.

And Cal's blood was already boiling and a bit more and he would've exploded with mad anger. "Not to mention, he's always drunk, gets kicked out of jobs that Uncle Rick gets for him every week and yes, I understand that he's still recovering from losing his first son - almost ten years ago - and then his wife but God, he is still a father to another but he could not even care about it and I. Am. So. Fucking. Exhausted of taking care of his shit!"

"Oh, Cal," she whispered, hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry."

She pulled him into another hug which he very promptly returned this time, "God, I'm so sorry that you've had to go through that all by yourself."

"It's alright, ma chérie," he held her close for a moment. "It's completely okay, Astrid."

If it was up to Astrid Finlay she would have never let him. Out of her embrace or out of her sight, so young and yet having to have faced so many hardships. She was yet to meet another as strong as him but every hug had a habit of becoming a bit too awkward if held on got too long and she didn't want that, so she broke it apart a little too soon for his liking. But he didn't say a word.

"Come on," she coaxed him as she stood up from the couch and held her hand out to him. He took her hand and let her guide him almost as though it had been something they had been doing for a very long time by then.

She picked up the blanket that lay on the rug-covered wooden floor and then rearranged the papers and bills that were scattered all across the glass table in the living room.

And Caelum sneezed once more and that made Astrid stop her buzzing about as she looked at him and told him, "Oh Cal, I'm sorry. Let's get you to bed first, hon."

She didn't clearly know where his room was but she helped him anyhow as he guided her. She took him to his own bedroom and it was only the second male bedroom she had seen in her short life but it was completely different from Ryan's.

Caelum's bedroom had walls which were painted black and she smiled a tiny bit as she was reminded of the time they had spent together in the school library, passing notes in secrecy. His favourite colour was black because it was only when it was dark that the brightness made a difference.

You are the diamond sparkling star to my night sky

That was once what was written in an encouragement card and Astrid swore he was flirting with her. When she had asked him if that was the case, he had replied, "maybe, maybe not." Her heartstrings were tugged.

He wasn't a very organised person and she knew that because of the comic books he had stacked by the end of his bed on the floor. The white bookshelf on his wall was an array of self-help books and others on finance with a couple of books here and there. His table was filled with half-written assignments and school textbooks open wide open. His laptop - which was asleep - was dangling at the edge of the table.

The laundry basket had clothes almost falling out of it and there were cut-out clippings on the floor.

Caelum cursed, "They flew off again. Bloody bastards, I'll need to redo them all over again-"

She wouldn't let him collect those and she immediately lifted him up by his arm when he bend over to collect those, "I'll fix them up; you need rest, sunshine."

"Sunshine?"

Astrid smiled that smile of hers, "You call me nicknames like babe and sweetheart and honey. I believe I've earned the right to call you a few nicknames back."

"I guess it's only fair," he had chuckled back, his eyelids growing heavier.

And though he hadn't wanted to fall asleep, he could not help but fight off the exhaustion that came to him, washing over him like a tidal wave.