((this is probably the worst chapter so far bye

-Mel))

Michael's got a concerned look on his face. His mouth is tilted down and his eyebrows are drawn together, metallic green eyes cast on the floor near Calum's feet. His lips are pursed slightly, like he's biting the inside of his cheek, and his jaw keeps tensing and releasing every couple of seconds.

Calum watches him think for a minute or two, smiling slightly at the pure concentration on Michael's face, then decides to finally speak up.

"Alright?" Calum asks quietly, trying not to startle Michael. He jumps anyway and glances up with raised eyebrows and wild, flashing eyes.

As soon as their eyes meet, Michael grins and says, "You're so beautiful."

Calum flushes pink and glances down. "Shut up."

"Its true!" Michael protests. "You are beautiful."

"That's not a very mainly compliment," Calum replies.

"True," Michael agrees. He pauses while the bus rolls over a bump and causes them both to shift a little, then crawls off his couch to slot himself between Calum and the arm of the opposite couch. There hadn't been much room there to begin with, so Michael's practically laying in Calum's lap. Calum rolls their eyes, probably overdramatically, but doesn't make any move to shove Michael off. Instead, Calum's hands wrap around his waist to hold him in place.

"You know," Michael says quietly, Shifting a little to get more comfortable. "Luke likes you best as a boy, and Ashton likes you best as a girl. So, I suppose that leaves me with the in between days, doesn't it? Which makes sense, because Luke likes boys, Ashton likes girls, and I like everyone."

"What do you mean, "leaves you with"?" Calum scoffs. "You love me on my in between days."

"Very true," Michael smiles and leans back until his right shoulder is pressing against the back of the couch. He swings his right arm around Calum's neck and presses a loud kiss to Calum's temple. "Then again, I love you on all your days, I'm just generally the one you turn to on your in between days."

Calum's quiet then, because Michael's completely right. There's a reason Calum's sitting in the back room with Michael right now  instead of taking a nap with Ashton or eating a bowl of cereal with Luke. They feel better around Michael, because Michael is always soft and gentle. Michael always has gender neutral pronouns and compliments. Michael knows how to do these things.

Michael smiles softly and edges his way onto Calum's lap completely, then presses a soft kiss to Calum's mouth.

Calum loves him a lot, honestly.

°°°°

They're in a meet and greet, Calum's on the very end next to Ashton (because, as Ashton puts it, the rhythm section gets no love), while Michael and Luke are in the front part of their little line. Ashton's elbowing Calum and pointing out various people waiting in line to see them with side comments like, "I bet Michael's going to say something about her hair," "I bet she only likes Luke," He probably plays guitar."

Calum's finding the commentary amusing, honestly, because at least three girls have hugged Michael and Luke and walked right passed the other two like nothing. Calum's considering joining the line, just to see if anyone will notice him.

He glances down to find Michael gripping a girl's shoulder with one hand and pointing at him with the other. The girl's brown eyes light up instantly at the sight of him, and she twists out of Michael's grip to jog over to him.

"Hiya," Calum says, smiling at her and womdering why the fuck she's so excited to see him.

She wraps her arms around his waist and places her head against his chest without saying anything, just hugging him tightly and shaking a little. She's small and soft, probably only fourteen at the most, with dark jeans and a sweatshirt on, despite the hot weather in Miami. Calum's kind of curious as to why she's dressed so fall and darkly.

He hugs her back, though, setting his chin on top of her head and rubbing tiny circles in the middle of her back in the most comforting way possible. The line keeps moving, despite their tight embrace and the girl's tiny sniffles.

Its not unusual for a fan to cry around them, but this one tugs at Calum's heart for some reason. Maybe it's her attire, or maybe it's the annoyed look she's getting from the group of girls waiting fro their turn to hug Calum. Either way, he doesn't let go, and the girl doesn't seen like she's about to loosen her grip, either.

"Come on!" One of the girls in line yells. Calum's eyes find her in half a second, a tall blonde girls with a flower print dress on and soft pink lipstick. She's just finished talking to Michael and Luke, and her friend is chatting to Ashton about something while they wait for Calum. The girl hugging Calum flinches a little and buries her face further into Calum's flannel shirt. "There's more of us in line, you fucking man!"

Calum tenses. His eyes flick to the blonde girl, while the little one in his arms shakes and clutches onto his shirt. Ashton abruptly cuts himself off, jaw going slack as he flicks his eyes between the girl and Calum. Even the rest of the crowd quiets down at that, stretching onto their toes to see what's happening.

"Excuse me?" Calum says after a second, furrowing his eyebrows and staring at the blonde.

"We're just trying to move the line along," the girl scoffs. "He's screwing up the entire crowd! Fucking go, Charlie!"

Calum glances down. He's assuming the two know each other from school or something, the way the girl flinches at the shrill voice.

"It's Riley," the girl mumbles, but Calum doubts anyone's really heard her.

"She says her name is Riley," Calum relays.

"Right, sure," the girls scoffs. "His name is Charlie, he's been Charlie since he was born."

"If she says her name is Riley, her name is Riley," Calum responds sharply. His hands tighten around Riley's waist and back, while Ashton raises his eyebrows from next to him. "You're going to respect her and her name, or else I don't want you in my concert, or my fan base."

"Its not just your concert," the blonde girl reminds him, narrowing her green eyes and placing her thin fingers on her hips.

"We dont really want you there either," Ashton pipes up then, glancing over to Michael and Luke, who both nod in agreement. "If you can't respect someone else's gender, why should you be allowed to jam out to our kick ass concert?"

The girl looks speechless then, mouth dropping open in shock. She gapes at Ashton, then Calum, then Riley in complete shock.

"Fuckin' dragged!" someone shouts from the back of the line. Everyone gicgles and even Calum manages to crack a smile. The blonde huffs and clenches her fists, then storms off the platform, away from the meet and greet area.

Ashton grins and nudges Calum in the ribs with his elbow. Michael and Luke start up the meeting and greeting again, while Calum pries Riley off of him and smiles at her. She glances down and frantically wipes at her cheeks with the back of her hand, desperate to get the tears off. She has soft place skin and dark brown eyes with little flecks of green in them, along with soft pink lips and a small nose. Her black hair falls in her face, like a thin curtain to hide her tears from Calum's sight.

"Th-thank you," she sniffles.

"No problem, babe," Calum's still smiling. He feels warm and airy inside, like a balloon is set in the middle of his chest. He didn't know it would feel this good to protect someone. He's starting to understand Ashton. "Hey, listen, I'll have security get you a backstage pass for aftsr the show, alright? Come find me then, and we'll talk, sound good?"

Riley's head jerks up and her eyes widen at the request, like she can't believe Calum's being this nice to her. Calum nods to the question she didn't have to ask and flags down a security guard so they can keep the line moving.

°°°°

Riley does manage to find him after the show, luckily.

Calum finds her and her mother patiently waiting for him outside his changing room, clutching their passes tightly. 

They tell him about how Riley's father left, because he couldn't understand why his son would want to be a girl. They didn't have a lot of money after that, so they couldn't afford to put Riley on any medication to help her transition, or any surgeries.

Calum hurts. He gives them a check (after flagging down Ashton and asking if he owns a checkbook) to cover Riley's surgery and medication. Ashton gives him this awfully proud look, smiling widely and running a hand through his hair.

He feels incredible after they leave. He's on cloud nine. He almost cries.

It feels fucking amazing, knowing he's done something to change someone's life. He's so glad that Riley's going to grow up and live as someone she wants to be. She's going to be able to be herself, and she's going to be able to gain her confidence back, maybe more than what she'd had before her dad left.

Ashton hugs him tightly, then walks them backwards until they fall on the couch, with Ashton slotted between Calum's legs and huge smiles on both their faces.

"I'm so proud of you, Cal," he says softly, leaning down to rub his nose against Calum's. "I'm so proud of hou for standing up for that girl and helping her and her family. I'm so proud of you, baby."

"You know what?" Calum moves his face to allow Ashton to kiss his cheeks and chin. "I'm proud of me, too. I'm glad I did that."

"Me too," Ashton grins and clutches Calum's waist tighter, pushing his nose into Calum's neck.

°°°°

There's a few videos of the incident released onto the internet. Obviously. Calum figures there would be. It goes viral, getting nearly three million views on YouTube in a few days, and the band's popularity starts picking up.

They're album sales increase, their merch sales nearly double, and they gain followers on twitter like wildfire. But, of course, with good comes bad.

Tabloids start claiming Calum only said what he did to get attention. There's articles about Riley everywhere, exposing her from all angles and using the wrong pronouns at every given opportunity.

Calum addresses the situation exactly a week after it happens, in an interview for some radio station. It had been his idea, much to his manager's dismay, to clear the air and explain the real story.

Which means explaining why he feels so strongly on the issue of gender.

Which means coming out to the entire world.

He readjusts his headphones and glances over nervously. Ashton, Michael, and Luke are there, at Calum's request, even though this is hisinterview. They're not allowed to say anything, they're not even technically allowed to be in the studio, but Calum had been pretty stubborn on their presence. He's not doing this without them.

Michael and Ashton are on his left, with Michael holding his hand tightly and Ashton rubbing little circles into his knee. Luke's gripping his other hand from the right side, and touching everything on the table in front of them that he's not supposed to be touching. As a result, Ashton's using his free hand to slap Luke in a poor attempt to get him to stop touching everything.

"Can I dial 1?" Luke points to a phone on the desk, with a little sign taped to it that clearly reads, "Donotpress 1".

"No," the radio host, Nick Grimshaw, Calum thinks, responds without looking up from his iPhone. Luke pouts and picks up a pen, resulting in a slap on the hand from Ashton.

"Grimmy, we're back on in 5," one of the other people in the studio, a pretty brunette with soft looking skin, informs him. Calum doesn't know her name, but she probably doesn't know his, either.

"5 minutes?" Michael asks.

Nick Grimshaw smiles at him, he's got a huge soft spot for Michael, Calum's learned, and sets his phone down. He moves his chair up and leans toward the mic in front of him.

"Hello, London, good morning!" Nick says cheerily to the whole of the country, and anyone else listening. Calum can't believe he chose to come out on a morning show. "Today we have Calum Hood and his groupies in the studio, say hello Calum!"

"Hi," Calum says quietly into the microphone.

"Lovely, say hello, groupies!" Nick's grinning at them.

Michael and Luke practically trip over themselves in an attempt to get to the microphone. Ashton gets there first and says, "Hi, everyone!" Luke and Michael shout various greetings while Nick and the rest of his crew laugh at them.

"Wonderful, well, we're just talking to Calum today, so say goodbye groupies!" Nick says.

"Bye!" The three of them shout, still sounding just as excited to be on the radio.

"They're so cute, I love them," One of Nick's crew says into his microphone, earning a giddy smile from Luke and an eye roll from Ashton.

"They're all bigger than you, Finchy, pipe down," Nick responds. "Anyway, Calum, lovely to see you again."

Calum smiles shakily, then remembers the country can't actually see him. He leans forward and says, "Lovely to be back, Grimmy." Ashton's hand tightens around his knee reassuringly.

"Right, well, let's talk about what happened last week, there was an incident, wasn't there?"

Calum hums in response and says, "Uh, yeah, I suppose you could call it that."

Luke reaches across the table, towards a switchboard, and glances at Ashton nervously. Ashton's too busy watching Nick look down at the notes in front of him, so Michael reaches back and pinches Luke's waist until he retracts his arm. Michael leaves his hand wrapped around Calum's waist then, slipping his fingers under Calum's shirt to rub his skin softly.

"Alright, well, walk us through it, would you?" Nick asks.

Calum takes a deep breath, then sucks his bottom lip into his mouth. He leans forward until his lips are centimeters from the mic, and explains about Riley and what happened during the meet and greet. Ashton rubs his knee and Michael presses his fingers into his waist and grips his hand, while Luke squeezes his opposite hand in both of his. All three of them watch him with fond expressions and sparkling eyes, practically radiating love and reassurance. It kind of hurts Calum's chest.

When he's finished speaking, he leans back and glances over at Nick, sighing heavily and raising his eyebrows.

"That's amazing, to be honest," Nick admits. "I don't see the problem."

"Me neither," Calum shrugs. "Apparently the press has something against me."

"I can't believe that, you're such a nice, happy kid," Nick laughs a little. "But, I suppose I do have to ask why you stood up for her so quickly."

"Right," Calum swallows thickly. He's fidgeting again, of course he is. He's not ready to come out, he's not ready for the entire world to see what a huge freak he is. He doesn't want his secret to be out.

But at the same time, he does. He needs to be out, he needs to show the world that genderfluidity exists. Its a real gender, its a real feeling. He has to be a representative for the entire community, by showing the world he is who he is and there's no way to change that, regardless of what shirt he wears or how he presents himself.

He'd researched it, he's the nost famous genderfluid person currently out in the world.

Well, out as of now.

"I identify with her," he admits to the entire world. "She's trans, I'm genderfluid. We stand up for each other."

((A/N: Yes they flew all the way to England for Calum to come out. I'M SORRY I oNLY KNOW ABOUT BRITISH RADIO DJs I DON'T KNOW SHIIT ABOUT AMERICAN ONES. even though I'm American

Also, Ashton and Michael like Nick a lot okay (me too guys)

Anywho, what else do you guys want to see in here?? I'm trying to draw attention to all genders and sexualities, so if I missed one you want to know more about, or if you just noticed that one isn't here yet, just let me know! 

Or if you have an idea  for the plot because I am fresh out of iddeas haha I should have planned this better haha I am a joke 

Okay bye have a lovely day, I love you guys a lot 

-Mel))