A/N to the Midnight Star readers: In my defence, I already had this written and just spruced it up a little! The months in between have been rough (as you can guess) and I am just now getting back to writing fics that won't cause immediate blindness to anyone unlucky enough to read them.

Anyway. To everyone else: This is (probably) my earliest headcanon about Callum's dad~

---

-x-

The grass yielded when he jumped and the balls of his feet squelched into the mud beneath. The air swelled and tickled behind his ribs and Callum didn't care to hold the laughter back, letting it wind up through the tall grasses and rain drops, up and up towards the storm clouds.

No birds flew when water fell. They hid in their homes away from the thunder and the light, waiting for the sky to stop crying.

Callum had once asked why.

"Because they do not get the joke and do not wish to pretend," had been his father's answer.

Not Callum though. He laughed with the sky, grinned when it grinned, and smiled even when it didn't. Its tears of mirth did not bother him like they seemed to do for Mom.

Lightning flashed and thunder bellowed. Callum grinned broadly and barked his laughter. The mud chased his feet out from under him on the next jump but he let himself roll, giggling by himself until the sky joined him with a crack of its own laughter and he rolled to a stop.

Callum didn't get the joke either in all honesty, but the joy still bubbled up beneath his skin and he figured that his heart and bones knew it even if his mind didn't.

He was still covered in mud, still laughing in the rain, when he felt fingertips press on his shoulder. The touch was full of familiar wind and lightning. The electricity caught in the water soaking him and jittered harmlessly over his skin — the bolts were alway too weak to do anything more than tickle him silly.

Giggling all over again, Callum squeezed his eyes shut and gave off delighted little screams as he twisted about. The tickling bolts of electricity still raced even though the hand had broken contact.

There was a familiar, warm chuckle in the air near him and the electricity faded, letting Callum catch his breath. Once he had, he scrambled about in the torn up grass until he found his feet.

"Dad!" The boy chirped through stretched lips. It was a grin too strong for his face and it scrunched up his eyes until they were little more than slits of green.

Dad was smiling, but there was a serious air about him that the sky's mirth couldn't drown out. "You shouldn't wander so far from home, Callum," he said and looked at the storm clouds. "This storm is going to be too rough for you to weather."

"You mean too funny?" The boy asked, following his father's line of sight. The sky was black in the distance and lightning struck somewhere beyond the trees.

Dad nodded. "Yes."

From previous experience, Callum knew that laughter could hurt when it was too strong and that some grins could blind. Mom's smiles — the big, rare toothy ones — always made Dad stop and his eyes narrow like he was trying to look into the sun.

Callum climbed to his feet, using the adult's leg for balance on the slick ground. "Do I have to go home?" he asked, squinting up through the rain at the blurred outline of his father's face.

"Mhmm. Before Mom comes looking for you."

Nodding glumly, Callum couldn't help but give the storm clouds a longing look.

His father laughed and settled a hand on his shoulder. Lightning once again danced over Callum's skin, but Dad pulled away before it could build into more than a warm, skittering of energy. "How about," Dad began slowly, "I take you to see the sky nexus-"

Callum lunged, wrapping his arms around the leg closest with a cry of: "really?"

Dad gave him a look and Callum quickly let go, rubbing at his chest until the tingling stopped. "In a few sunrises," the adult agreed, crouching down to eye level. "But you must hurry home now. As fast as you can, okay? I will see you soon."

There was a heartbeat in which Callum studied the green eyes he had inherited. They were dark in the evening light and strands of soaked hair hung around them in almost curls. Dad often wandered through thunderstorms and the boy had known better than to think Dad would go home with him, but he was still disappointed.

"Mom won't like you if you stay out again," Callum warned.

His father smiled. "I'll see you in the morning," he promised. "Now go home."

Callum hesitated, but nodded. He turned then and ran towards where home rested down the hill and at the far side of the field, visible in the flashes of light that filled the shallow valley. Grass and dirt and small rocks scattered as he slipped and skidded down the slope. When he reached the bottom, he breathed in a lungful of storm air and charged through the tall grasses, slipping and stumbling but not falling like he had earlier.

When he reached the pine door and had his palm pressing to the stones of the exterior wall, Callum turned around.

The black clouds had followed him and he couldn't see the tops of the hills anymore.

The following day, Sarai lifted Callum in her arms and took him to the shelter that housed their only horse. The gelding was saddled and the bags strapped to either side of the saddle were filled.

"We going to the market?" Callum asked as she propped him against her hip, placed a foot in a stirrup, and swung the other over the animal's back. His mother situated him in front of her and he tilted his head back to look at her face.

"We're going to see Aunt Amaya," Sarai said quietly, brushing the hair back from his forehead.

Callum frowned. "But Dad's taking me to the sky nexus. Can we visit after?"

His mother's eyes closed briefly and he felt her breath shudder. "No, sweetie," she said, wearing an expression he had never seen on her before, "I'm afraid we can't."

x

FIN.