Kararn's an over excited person. He'd been like that since the first day I met him and I'm sure he'd continue on that way until his deathbed.

Work ticked by quickly as usual when we were working together. Our registers were once again back to back and we were chatting animatedly about his boyfriend finally giving him the time of day. To say he was singing and dancing all day with customers wouldn't even be an overstatement.

"We went on a date, it was beautiful. Henry got me roses, they were so beautiful. We went out to that new restaurant on the esplanade. There were flowers there too," Kararn let out an over dramatic sigh filled with happiness once he was done blabbing away. "I love flowers and he must of taken note of that too. There's no way he would of just thought to bring roses, like he obviously knows they're my favourites."

A smiled at how happy he was and turned around to face him when there were no customers in sight, him following suit. "So you're official now?"

A grin broke across his face and he nodded, excited and I gave him a grin back.

"That's so exciting. Still want a wedding on the beach?" I joked and he nodded again, still in glee. "Of course you do. How are you already planning your wedding?"

His eyes switched to behind me and I turned my whole body around thinking I had a customer. My eyes rested on Sebastian walking towards us instead. For the shifts I'd had that week, Sebastian managed to pick me up every one of them and it was beginning to become a routine that even Kararn was used to.

Kararn lowly spoke so Sebastian couldn't hear, although his eyes were still trained on him. "I've planned your wedding too."

When Sebastian reached us, my damn manager grinned. "Here's the groom."

Sebastian looked between us and my eyes widened as I choked on air. "What?"

Kararn just shook his head and patted me on the back, "go get your shit, you're off."

Following his instructions, I walked off, mouthing 'what?' to him again, resulting in a cheeky grin.

I went to the staff changing rooms and put a jumper over my uniform-clad body, packing all of my things into my bag and finally signing out and leaving.

As I walked towards the front of the store, Kararn and Sebastian looked busy in conversation and as I grew closer to them, they quickly quit talking.

"Can you guys stop talking about me?" I stood in front of them and rolled my eyes while Kararn looked sheepish.

"You ready?" Sebastian's had already said his goodbyes to Kararn and was walking to the automatic doors by the time I had a chance to answer him.

I turned towards the grinning man behind the register. "What were you talking about?"

His grin widened. "Goodbye Aubrey."

With a sigh, I spoke my final words to him for the night. "Bye."

I practically ran to catch up with Sebastian's long strides and finally rest in his car, sitting down and doing my seat belt up.

I turned to Sebastian, who'd already started the car and something I hadn't asked him came to my mind. He turned the car on and pulled out of the space, focussing on the road for a second before turning back to me, obviously sensing me looking.

"Hey?" He looked at me for a moment and I just kept talking. "Has Jack asked you to go to Surfers Sands this weekend?"

"Yeah, why?"

We pulled out onto the main street and I stopped talking, focussing on the road ahead of us, not knowing how to go about what I wanted to say. Sounding like I'm excited or wanting something has never been something I had been a fan of.

I focussed my gaze back on him. "Are you going?"

"I don't know." He seemed against the idea and I raised my eyebrows. Sebastian pulled into a familar street that I recognised as his sisters. I was still yet to meet her but she sure did seem like an important person in his life.

"Okay." I nodded.

We pulled into his sister's driveway and he turned to face me. "Did Jack invite you?"

I shook my head and he looked at me skepitically.

"Are you going?"

"I don't know." I realised what I was saying and just swallowed my pride, knowing I'd probably end up begging or something stupid. "I mean, I've already said yes. Can you come?"

He looked at me for a moment and just shrugged, "Okay."

"That easy?" I raised my eyebrow.

Sebastian shrugged again and opens his door, the car still running as he waltzed inside the house without knocking.

A moment or two passed and he finally came out, Marley holding his hand with a minnie mouse bag on her back like it was the first day I met her.

She looked up at the car and noticed me. A look of shock overcame her features and she raced up to the car. "Aubreeeeyyy!"

She ran around to my door, opening it. A wide grin spread across her face as she opened her arms just as wide. I slung my seat belt off and turned so I was facing the open door, giving her an over exaggerated hug and lifting her up onto my lap.

She giggled and looked up at me. "Are you staying at Uncle Sebs too? A sleepover with us? I can just stay at your house if you want."

"I'll stay at Uncles Seb's too," I said, laughing a little at how excited she was to spend time together. I'd never had a child actually like me before, and I was taking a liking to it. I had to admit that after meeting Marley, my view on having a kid was somewhat altered. Slightly.

I looked to Sebastaian who picked her up from my lap. "Don't you want to stay with just me? I thought I was your favourite?" He put her in the car seat that I just then noticed in the back of the car, doing the belt up.

Marley smiled and looked between Sebastian and me as he sat in the drivers seat, pulling out of the driveway. "Both of you are."

I'd discovered over the course of the week I'd been staying over that Sebastian was in fact a bartender that works at the two biggest clubs in Gold Coast, Hiding and Another World.

He worked a lot more than expected and that night just so happened to be one of them, leaving Marley and I to have fun, and up until that point we were doing an A+ job at it.

After being begged for a total of 20 seconds, I finally agreed to bake a cake with her. I walked up to the cupboard, searching around for the baking powder and flour, chucking them on the bench and grabbing eggs, vanilla essence, sugar and butter.

"Vanilla cake?" I asked, and she nodded excitedly and I smiled at her cuteness, it was impossible not to. 

"Uncle Seb said I could make this soooo long ago." Marley dramatically sighed at the idea of not making the cake before today.

I carried her to the stool and sat her on there, assuring her we could make it now. I preheated  the oven and spent more time than I should have trying to find all the mixing bowls and tins.

Marley showed me a thing or two when it comes to putting the ingredients into the bowl and I realised that she probably spends a lot of time doing it. Or she was just a hella confident kid.

"You're so good at this Marley, I think you could be a professional cake maker." I scrunched my nose at the ingredients sitting unmixed in the bowl. "But I prefer chocolate."

She giggled but gave me a mocking horrified look. "No way. Vanilla rules." Her expression changed to a grin that took over her face. "Mum bakes cakes, she has a cake shop."

"Really? Do you help her?" I helped her mix the ingredients in the bowl, and she looked up at me.

"Yeah, she made a ballerina cake and a car cake. She made a Doc Mcstuffins cake for me, it was vanilla on the inside," she rambled on, and then her grin turned to a frown. "Dad threw it but. He's mean."

I listened to what she said and scratched the back of my neck, not sure how to respond without storming down to her Dad and shoving a cake in his face.

"Oh. That's not nice."

Marley just shrugged, dipping her finger into the cake mix. Her expression turning back to a smile. "More flour.." She reached for the big bag of flour, trying to pour some into the mixture, not realising it was folding over and slightly coming undone. She swung her arm up to shake the powder a bit, obviously having seen her Mum doing it. She did it again and it splattered all over me.

Her eyes widened and she slapped a hand over her mouth, realising what she had done. "Oh no."

Suddenly a cheeky grin came over her face as I playfully glared at her, still standing in the same spot. She dripped her hand into the flour again and places a hand print on my cheek of it. She giggled and it took her a moment to jump off the chair.

I took a bit of flour into my hands and threw it on her as she ran away laughing. "You're on."

Soon enough, the flour in which coated our hair, clothes and skin turned into cake batter, after a very brave little girl decided to wipe it all over my face.

"Come back here, I don't have anything." Marley cane marching back to me, knowing fair well I had the mixture in my hands, and she grabbed it off me. I chased after her laughing and picked her up.

"I believe that's mine, kiddo." I laughed as she giggled along.

"Never!" She clutched it tightly and I began to tickle her.

I had Marley in my arms, tickling her when a loud knocking stopped us. Despite considering not answering the door and continuing to tickle her, the next lot of knocking came and I put Marley down, walking to the door.

I opened the front door, coming face to face, well, face to shoulders with a tall guy. I looked him up and down in confusion, taking note of muscles and tattoos, which just made him look frightening.

Although it was only 7pm at night, I still wasn't about to let a stranger in when I had no idea who he was.

"Sebastian's not here, sorry."

I  began to shut the door, inwardly groaning when he stopped it from doing so. He looked at me like an idiot and I came to the realisation that I was covered with powder and the cake mix over my face probably didn't suit me. I was sure it wasn't a great way to meet people, although I would have thought it'd have broken the ice. By the icy look still evident in the mans eyes, it hadn't done it's job.

"I'm not looking for that dickhead." My eyes widened in shock and I cleared my throat, ready to speak but I was cut off by this strangers obnoxiously deep voice. "I'm looking for my daughter."

My mouth dropped as I realised this was the same guy who threw poor Marley's cake.

"Who? No kids here." I spoke so fast a dead man would have been able to tell I was hiding something. "Never met her."

"If I find out you're lying to me you fucking bitch." He barged through the door and into the house, "Marley?"

I stormed up to him. "She's not here. Leave." Although I had no idea if I would wind up looking like an idiot for not letting his own daughter go with him, I definitely wasn't letting her go anywhere with a guy speaking like he was. I didn't care if he was her dad or not.

"Dad?"

My eyes fell from the man to Marley at her sitting on the same stool she had been before the cake war.

The man looked back to me, storming up to me. "What the fuck did I tell you?"

I gulped and looked up at the much taller guy I'd just allowed into the house. My voice was shaky as I tried to muster up as much confidence as I could. "Just leave."

My head whipped to the side as a loud slap echoed through the room. I brought my hand immediately up to my face and stared at the guy. I looked over his shoulder at Marley sitting on the stool, frozen in place, a look of shock covering her face.

"Get out." I raised my voice and he wrapped his hands around my wrists.

"Dare you to say it one more time. I won't mind snapping these like a twig." His grip on my wrists tightened and I tried my best to keep my mouth shut but as I looked  at Marley over his shoulder, I noticed her beginning to shake and  I couldn't help myself.

"You're scaring her." His grip went from my wrists to around my neck, tightening one of his hands as tight around it as he could.

"Dad. Stop. Daddy let go." I coughed and trier to breathe in any amount of oxygen I could as Marley begged  him to stop.

A door swung open and footsteps traced all around the house. "Mick. Where the fuck are you?"

The sound of Sebastian yelling out caused him to lose his grip, allowing me to slap his hands away from my neck, and he didn't fight against it.

A grin made it's way to Mick's face as Sebastian walked into the room that was now quiet. He looked from me to Rohan, and finally rested his eyes on a scared Marley.

With a look from Sebastian, I moved from the equation and grabbed Marley off the stool, carrying her to the spare room, shutting and locking the door behind us, trying to stay calm.

I heard the two yelling at each other and I was sure Marley could too. I gave Marley a tight hug and she began to cry, obviously now out of the shock.

"M-My Da-ad hur you," her words were incoherent for the most part but I knew what she was saying.

"I'm okay, I promise, but what I wanna know is if you're okay." I looked into her eyes in all seriousness and she cried harder, shaking her head. "Nothing bads gonna happen, I promise."

She was still so frightened over the unexpected situation and I continued to hug her until the fighting had stopped completely, along with her tears. I pulled away from the hug, looking at her. "When I was a little girl, my Mum was very scary, just like your Dad is to you. She would be very scary without realising." Marley still continued to cry but silently listened to me. "But I had people to help me, just like you have Uncle Seb, your Mum and even me. Girls like us grow up to be so very strong. I promise your Dad didn't hurt me."

The door to the spare room got pushed on and I quickly stood up. "Who is it?"

"Open the door." At the sound of Sebastian's voice I unlocked the door, letting him in.

He didn't even look at me and crouched down to Marley. "Are you okay, princess?" He wrapped his arms around her hiccuping body and hugged her.

She just nodded and looked up at me from over his shoulder. "Yeah, I'm strong."

A smile automatically came to my face.

Sebastian pulled back and looked from her to me. "Now it's time for me to be mad about what's all over you two, and the whole kitchen." His voice was playful and Marley giggled through her hiccups.

"How about you go have a shower and I'll clean up the kitchen." Marley just nodded and headed to the bathroom, obviously knowing everything to do.

I watched her walk away, biting the inside of my cheek before turning back to Sebastian.

He'd clearly got in a fight with the guy, judging by his split lip. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't of even let him in." I swallowed, feeling automatically bad for even putting Marley in that situation.

He looked at me for a moment and reached out, rubbing his fingers over my probably bruised throat, and a part of me wanted to tell him to keep touching me. "Are you okay?"

I just nodded, and he continued, "you shouldn't be the one apologising. You didn't do anything wrong."

I offered a small smile, "let's get this shit cleaned up."

Sebastian put Marley in bed and told me to have a shower. I didn't even bother to protest against it and jumped right on in. I was covered from the flour and cake mix, and I had  no idea how I was going to get it all out of my hair.

With much work, I was able to, and after forever I was finally stepping out of the shower.

I got dressed into my tshirt and shorts to sleep in and brushed my hair and teeth.

Walking out of the bathroom, I automatically went into Sebastian's room, finding him sitting on his bed on his phone.

He sensed me and looked up, "hey."

"Hi." I didn't even know why I was in his room, but I sat down on the bed either way.

"Hey?" My eyebrows furrowed and I looked into his eyes. "How'd you get home so quickly? I thought you were working late?"

"Mel called me, told me that guy, Mick, was trying to get Marley back." He referred to his sister and her boyfriend and I just nodded.

"I know you did it for Marley, but thank you for coming. I don't even want to imagine what would of gone down if you didn't." I thought back to his hands wrapped around my neck and I gulped.

"Well thank you for fighting for Marley." Sebastian gestured for me to come closer to him and I did just that. His green eyes traced over my neck and he rubbed it softly.

"You're a good person, you know that Aubrey?" His fingers moved from my neck down to my wrists and I tried my best not to wince as he traced over the bruises. I didn't fail to notice his beaten up knuckles and I moved a hand from his grip and ran my fingers over them. "You should never have to put up with anything like this. Let alone apologies for it."

My gaze fell on his eyes again, his matching mine. I suddenly realised how close we were to each other. I looked  down to his lips and he did the same.

I pulled back all of a sudden, realising what was about to happen.

"Thanks I guess."

A grin came to my face.

I lay down properly in his bed, getting under the doona, silently telling him I was sleeping in there.