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Calum yawns loudly as he walks into the kitchen, rubbing his eyes tiredly. He walks over to the fridge and opens it, and reaches in the fridge to grab the carton of orange juice. He stops when he sees the little pink sticky note on it, and immediately knows that Ashton put it there.
‘ you love orange juice, but hate when I drink straight from the carton, sorry babe x ’
Calum chuckles, and he shakes his head. He takes the orange juice and sets it on the counter. He walks into the living room and places the sticky note in the pile of other sticky notes Ashton has written for him.
It’s been exactly three months now since Calum has lost his memories due to a horrific car accident. They’d been on break from touring for a few days when it happened.
When Calum woke up after the accident, he couldn’t remember anything. He couldn’t remember that he was in a rather famous band with his two best friends from school, and he couldn't even remember his own husband. That was probably the worst part. Ashton has been such a trooper, but Calum can tell when certain things get to Ashton, because he’ll go quiet for a few days, and Calum absolutely hates seeing him like that.
Ashton has been trying to help him bring back his memories ever since he got home. They’ve watched a ton of videos online, and listened to all of 5SOS’ discography. It’s helped quite a bit, but Calum can tell that he still hasn’t gotten all of his memories back. So, Ashton’s been leaving little sticky notes all over their house to help him remember certain things or remind him of little things.
Calum glances up when he hears talking outside, and smiles when he sees Michael and Luke walking up to the house. Calum huries over to the door, and opens it before they can even knock on the door.
Michael blinks as he looks up at Calum. “How-?”
“I saw you through the window. That sounded creepy, but I promise I wasn’t being creepy,” Calum says.
Luke snorts. “Can we come in?”
“Yeah, yes please,” Calum says, and opens the door further so the two can step inside the house. “Ashton went out earlier so I’ve been going crazy by being myself in the house.”
“Where’d he go?” Luke asks curiously, looking over at Calum.
“Grocery shopping, I think. I could have gone with him, but I didn’t want to chance running into fans, because I’m still worried that I’ll freeze up in front of them and won’t know what to say,” Calum admits.
Luke nods. “That’s understandable, Cal, and the fans know you’re still working on it,” he says.
“I know, and I appreciate that they’re being so patient, I just feel bad,” Calum mumbles.
“Well, you shouldn’t feel bad. It’s not your fault by any means, and we’re going to allow you as much time as you need to recover,” Michael says. “The fans know that, we’ve made it clear.”
“I know,” Calum says. “You wanna go sit in the living room? I need to get a drink. Want anything?”
“No, I’m fine, thank you,” Luke says, before walking to the living room.
“I’m good too,” Michael says, and gives him a smile before following Luke. He stops when he instantly notices the pile of sticky notes on the coffee table in the living room. “So many sticky notes.”
“Looks like they’re from Ashton,” Luke says, glancing over at Michael.
“That’s cute. How come you don’t leave me sticky notes around the house?” Michael asks.
Luke chuckles, and he looks over at his boyfriend. “I mean, I can. Do you want me to start doing that?”
Michael shrugs his shoulders, before bending down to grab one of the sticky notes.
‘ Our first date was at the movies. I can’t remember the name of the movie we saw, but it was really bad. But, it was cold so you gave me your jacket. That was nice x ’
“Oh, shit. This is for Cal’s memories,” Michael says. He looks over when he hears footsteps, and sees Calum walking into the living room. “What’s all this, Cal?”
Calum looks over and smiles a little when he sees Michael holding one of the sticky notes. “They’re from Ashton. He’s been leaving sticky notes everywhere to help me regain my memories,” he explains. “There’s a whole pile of them, and I’m still finding them everywhere. He really went all out with these.”
“Shit, that’s… really cute,” Michael says, setting the sticky note down.
“And thoughtful,” Luke adds. “Have they been helping?” He looks over at Calum.
Calum shrugs his shoulders. “I can’t tell. Sometimes they do, but… I know there’s still a huge gap between my memories, and it really fucks things up,” he says.
Michael frowns. “I’m sorry, Cal. This shouldn’t have happened to you,” he says.
“It… It is what it is,” Calum mumbles. “I’m just trying to move past it, and focus on the future.”
“I’m sure you’ll have your memories back in no time,” Luke tries to assure him. “It just takes time.”
“I know, but it’s really fucking annoying when there’s so much shit we have to do,” Calum grumbles, before walking over and sitting down on the couch.
“Like Mikey said earlier… take your time. We don’t have to do anything until you feel like you’re ready,” Luke says, and walks over to him. “I know Ashton feels the same way too.”
Calum looks up at Luke and gives him a small smile, not knowing what else to say at that point. He hates being the reason that the band is on hold. He doesn’t know much, but he knows that they were about to release their fourth studio album, and now everything is on hold because of him.
But, they can’t really do anything when Calum has to relearn everything, including playing bass.
Ashton comes home about an hour later. Michael and Luke are still hanging out with Calum, helping him learn how to play bass again. Luckily, the four are all pretty good at the instruments they play, so it’s easy to help Calum learn to play bass again, which Calum is grateful for.
Calum startles when he hears the front door open suddenly.
“Cal, help, please!” Ashton shouts.
“I’ve got it,” Luke says, stopping Calum from standing up. He chuckles when Calum gives him a relieved look. He stands up and makes his way towards the door, and laughs when he sees Ashton with his hands full of grocery bags. “Jesus, Ash.”
Ashton looks up, surprised to see Luke. “Oh, hey. I wasn’t expecting you.”
“Mike and I came over to give Cal company,” Luke says. He walks over and grabs a couple bags from Ashton. “Why didn’t you just make a couple trips in with the groceries?”
“There’s still some in the car,” Ashton grumbles, and makes his way into the house. He glances into the living room and grins when he sees Calum sitting on the couch with Michael, his bass in his arms. He looks over at Luke. “How’s he doing?”
“A lot better this time around,” Luke says, following Ashton into the kitchen. “I really think he’s starting to get the hang of it now that we’ve done a few lessons with him. We got through Youngblood in full earlier. There were a couple hiccups, but that’s to be expected.”
Ashton nods, and sets the groceries on the counter. “That’s good. I’m glad he’s getting better,” he says.
“We saw the sticky notes,” Luke says, also setting the groceries on the counter. He looks over at Ashton. “I think that’s really sweet of you to do. It’s such a little thing, but I know it’s so impactful to Calum.”
“I’m- I’m just trying to help,” Ashton says. “And- And it’s helping me too.”
“I know. I’m sorry this happened,” Luke whispers. “I can’t imagine. If this happened to me and Mike-”
Ashton quickly shakes his head. “Don’t, don’t even think like that Luke,” he warns, though his voice is soft. “I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy.” He takes a deep breath. “Help me get the last groceries?”
“Yeah,” Luke whispers, and follows Ashton out of the kitchen.
When Luke and Ashton come back into the house again with the last of the groceries, they hear a shout.
“Fuck you! Fucking take that!” Calum shouts, before whopping victoriously.
Ashton raises his eyebrows and looks over at Luke. They both set the groceries down on the floor and hurry to the living room. They see Calum and Michael on the couch still, Michael laughing at Calum. “What happened? We heard Calum yelling.”
Michael looks over at them, a smile on his face. “Don’t worry. It’s a good thing. He finally got the bass part he was struggling with earlier in Youngblood,” he says.
Calum looks up at Ashton and beams when he sees the proud look on Ashton’s face. “Fuckin’ nailed it,”
Ashton laughs, shaking his head at Calum. “Knew you would, babe. Keep it up. However, I’ve got frozens, so we’ll have to celebrate a bit later,” he says, and grabs Luke to get the rest of the groceries.
Calum sighs softly, and finally sets his bass guitar down on the floor.
“Ready for a break?” Michael asks, looking over at Calum.
“Yeah,” Calum says, nodding. “Uhm, thanks for today. I really needed it.”
Michael smiles, and pulls Calum into a comforting hug. “We’ll get there. I promise.”
Calum sighs, leaning against Michael, taking in the comfort of his best friend. “I’m holding you onto that.”
The next few days pass by slowly, and Calum doesn’t really leave the house. He rarely does these days.
Instead, Calum busies himself by playing bass and relearning all the 5SOS songs for when they eventually go on tour again, because it’s bound to happen. Ashton told him they would.
One day, Calum finds himself sitting in the closet with boxes surrounding him. Finding one picture from him, Michael and Luke in high school led to him going through all of their pictures.
“Cal?”
Calum doesn’t look up or respond when Ashton yells his name, too focused on the photo album that’s lying on the floor. They’re photos of him and Ashton. Precious memories he’s forgotten.
“Calum, where are you? Babe?” Ashton shouts.
Finally, Ashton sees the closet door open, and walks over to it, slowly pushing it open further. He looks in and frowns when he sees Calum sitting on the floor. He instantly sees the tears in Calum’s eyes. “Cal?”
Calum’s head snaps up, and he takes a deep breath when he sees Ashton standing there.
“Cal, what are you doing?” Ashton asks, frowning.
“I-” Calum hesitates, not knowing how to explain this situation to Ashton.
“Is that our photo album?” Ashton asks, walking over to Calum and placing himself beside him.
“I just… saw a picture earlier,” Calum finally says. “I got curious, and found all these boxes.”
Ashton chuckles. “Yeah, we’ve certainly taken a lot of photos over the years,” he says.
“I hate it,” Calum says, shaking his head. “I hate that I can’t remember any of these memories.”
Ashton scoots closer, resting his chin on Calum’s shoulder, glancing over the photos on the pages. “Oh, that was the night of the VMAs. Taylor Swift didn’t invite me to her party. I was pissed.”
Calum chuckles. “Yeah, you were pissed. I didn’t want to go to the stupid party, but you forced me.”
Ashton gasps suddenly, earning a curious look from Calum. “Cal!” He shakes Calum excitedly.
“Ah, Ash! Dizzy! Dizzy!” Calum whines, grabbing a hold of Ashton as he tries to steady his blurry vision. That's another thing he hates about the temporary amnesia. His head is a lot more sensitive these days. He hates the random headaches he gets, and the blurry visions.
“Cal, you remembered something!” Ashton exclaims, smiling at his husband. “You remembered without me helping you or the other guys helping you! This is huge!”
Calum’s eyes widen as he stares at Ashton. “I- I did?”
“Hold on,” Ashton says, and then he leans forward, quickly flipping through a few pages before pointing at a random photo. “Look at this one. Anything strikes your memory?”
Calum blinks, leaning forward to look at the photo. He smiles when he sees it. It’s a cute picture of him and Ash hugging each other, with Luke trying to join the hug because he can get needy sometimes. “Oh, Luke and Mike had just gotten into one of their stupid arguments, and Luke was being needy.
“Cal!” Ashton shouts, throwing his arms up, and then pulling Cal into a hug, kissing his forehead.
Calum laughs, wrapping his arms around Ashton. “Ash, they’re just little memories…”
“But they’re memories!” Ashton pulls away, looking at Calum. “You’re remembering these memories without any help. You weren’t doing that before. I know this seems small, but this is huge.”
Calum takes a deep breath. “Okay, yeah- yeah… you do have a point,” he says.
Ashton grins. “Guess those sticky notes really have been helping, huh?”
Calum rolls his eyes. “Ash, they’re so annoying. I found one in my jeans the other day. Really?”
“Yes, really. Don’t fucking judge me. I want you to remember everything, even the little things. Shit, babe. Luke and Mike are going to freak the fuck out when they find out. I wonder what else you can remember,” Ashton says, grabbing the photo album with excitement.
Calum shakes his head as he watches his husband fondly.
The next day, Ashton invites Luke and Mike out for lunch with him and Calum. They go to a local cafe. Ashton has to convince Calum to leave the house, but he eventually gets him out.
Ashton and Calum make it to the cafe first. They’re sitting outside, waiting for Luke and Michael.
When they arrive, Calum instantly recognizes the shirt Luke is wearing. It says ‘You Complete Mess’ on it.
“Hey,” Michael greets as they walk up to the table Calum and Ashton are sitting at, but Calum isn’t paying attention to what Michael is saying, he’s just staring at Luke’s shirt.
“Hey, Cal. What’s up? You look-” Luke begins.
Calum shakes his head. “Nothing, it’s just… have you worn that shirt before?”
“This old thing? Yeah, I’ve worn it a bunch of times. Ash told us to wear something we’ve worn before, for whatever reason. He was being really weird on the phone earlier, so I-” Luke stops, and he looks at Calum, and his eyes widen when he suddenly realizes what’s going on. “Hold on-”
Michael frowns, looking over at Luke. “What? What’s going on? I’m so lost!”
“Shush, Mike. Cal, where do you recognize this shirt?” Luke asks with excitement.
Calum snaps his fingers, and points at Luke. “You’ve worn it on stage before! Fuck!”
Luke whoops in victory, and runs over to Cal, throwing his arms around him and hugging him tightly.
Michael’s eyes widen, and he looks over at Ashton. “His memories are back? Since when?”
“I- I don’t know. He was looking at the photo albums last night and the photos must have triggered something in his brain. He was able to remember a bunch of stuff whenever I pointed at photos and, yeah… that’s why I wanted you guys to wear old shirts. I thought Calum would recognize them.”
“You’re back!” Luke exclaims.
“I’m not all the way back yet. Let’s not get too excited,” Calum says.
Luke huffs, and stands up, grinning down at Calum. “So? This is huge. You should take this as a win, Cal.”
“That’s what I tried to tell him!” Ashton exclaims, before shaking his head. He reaches over and gently squeezes his shoulder. “This is progress. I know it doesn’t seem like it, but it’s something to celebrate.”
Calum takes a deep breath, and reaches up to grab Ashton’s hand. “Yeah, let’s celebrate.”