michael.

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Ice cream was very much well deserved. This morning started off stressful and to be honest, the fear of losing Melody struck me harder than I thought. But despite the horrible churning in my stomach during that one on one interview between Melody and the social services rep, we did okay-- more than okay. And for that, ice cream was needed in celebration.

As we all were gathering our things, I felt a light tapping on my leg. When I looked down to examine it, Melody stood there holding up a glittery hair rubber band with tiny flowers embellishing it. I knew what she wanted and for the first time in my life, a small, pink elastic made me very nervous.

"Help me daddy," Melody's soft voice filled my ears. Acknowledging me as her father made my heart melt; like gooey, cheesy pizza.

"Um, okay sweetheart," I hesitantly took the rubber band out of her hands and led Melody to the back room. She ran over to the couch, climbing on top and plopping her little tushy on the cushion. I sat behind her and nervously, I blew out air through puffed cheeks.

"What's going on? Why do you look so anxious?" Calum popped his head into he back room.

"Dude, I don't know how to tie a ponytail and Melody wants one," I told him, as I started to gather the dark hair in my hands.

"It can't be that hard," Calum declared, approaching the two of us.

With all of Melody's hair in my hand, I grabbed the hair elastic off of my lap and started to twist it in her hair. Melody's normally silky hair was tangling at my touch as several strands were chaotically sticking out. I cocked my head to the side, observing my amateur work.

"This is terrible," I cringed.

"Let me try," Calum enthusiastically said, as I stood up, giving him full access to Melody's hair. He sat down behind Melody, pulling out the elastic from her hair. In the same fashion as I, Calum gathered Melody's hair and proceeded to tie it.

"Ouch! Unca' Cal you're hurting my head," Melody winced, throwing her little hands to her head.

"Careful man," I scolded.

"Sorry Melody," Calum let out a soft laugh just as his hands let go of her hair. The hair elastic unwounded and dropped off of her head.

"We're hopeless," I sighed, plopping down on the couch next to Calum.

"What's hopeless?" Luke asked, walking into the back room with Ashton trailing behind.

"Ponytails," I grumbled. "You happen wouldn't be a master in little girl hair would you?"

"Unless Melody wants a quiff..." Luke's voice trailed, shrugging in uncertainty. "It'll look nice with her Nirvana shirt. I didn't even know they carried Nirvana shirts in toddler size."

"I don't know how to shop in the little girl section," I declared, shuddering in remembrance of all pinks, purples and butterfly fashion of the store. The little boy section however, felt like home.

"Hold on, I got an idea!" Ashton pipped up with a smile plastered on his face. "Wait here!"

Ashton ran out of the bus swiftly, leaving us all in utter puzzlement. Less than five minutes later, my curly-headed friend came sauntering back into the bus with someone following behind. As Ashton moved to the side, the trailing figure materialized before us and I couldn't have been anymore surprised.

"Of course you'd bring her in," I groaned, rolling my eyes.

"Annette! Annette!" Melody happily chirped, leaping off of the couch and hastily running over to the stylist.

"Hi princess!" Annette leaned down to pick up Melody in one movement, resting my little diva against her hip.

"We need your expertise," Calum stated.

"Daddy can't do my hair," Melody pouted, pointing to her head.

"Oh really?" Annette raised a brow, giggling at my expense. "That's not surprising."

"Can you help or not? There's ice cream waiting for us," I snarled. Annette rolled her eyes before carrying Melody to the floor.

She sat down with Melody sitting in between her legs. Annette slipped off the black bag on her shoulder and unzipped it, taking out a hair brush and some kind of spray bottle.

"How have you been Melody?" Annette sweetly asked as she sprayed some kind of liquid onto Melody's dark hair.

"My daddy's gonna get me ice cream," Melody answered, grabbing one of her dolls off to the side.

"That sounds fun. What's your favorite flavor?" Annette questioned, handing over the spray bottle to Melody, who knew exactly what to so with it. She sprayed her doll's hair and I found the gesture really cute.

"Ummm," Melody thought out loud, "I like strawberries and the rainbow kind and vanilla. But only, um only sometimes when my mummy put chocolate chips in it."

I felt my heart skip a beat at the mention of Carrington. This was the first time Melody ever talked about her mother and it only wanted me to pester her with questions. I wanted to ask her what Carrington was like as a mum; what they did together; and if she ever spoke to Melody about me.

"Okay sweetheart, you're all done," Annette gave Melody's hair one last stroke of the brush before giving her a small pat on the back. Melody stood up, leaning down to give Annette a hug.

"Alright awesome, ice cream time," I clapped my hands together, hoping it would motivate everyone to head out faster. I looked at Melody and held out my hand towards her, "let's go sweetheart."

Melody walked over, holding her hands up. Crouching down, I picked her up, resting her against my hip.

"Hey Annette, wanna come with us?" Calum asked and I shot him a glare. What the hell Hood?

"Umm," Annette was weary, as she looked from the excited and hopeful faces of Calum, Ashton and Luke to my unamused one.

"Yea! Come with us!" Ashton encouraged. "It'll be fun and Melody loves you!"

"Guys we can't force Annette into anything that she doesn't want to do," I quipped, a slight snark to my tone. "Besides, it's ice cream. It might go to her hips or something."

Annette's jaw dropped as did the boys, the 4 of them gawking at me with shocked expressions on their faces. I shrugged nonchalantly; clearly I didn't see anything wrong with my statement. I was merely looking out for the girl.

"Excuse me?!" Annette exclaimed. "That was a little rude."

"I was not being a little rude," I mimicked.

"Oh sorry, I meant huge meanie," she scoffed.

"Meanie?" I chuckled at Annette's choice of non-demeaning vernacular.

"Oh trust me Clifford, there's a lot I'd like to say to you, but in case you forgot-- which seems to be your problem, you've got a little princess attached to your hip," she shot me a satisfied smirk, crossing her arms above her chest.

"Whatever," I groaned with an irritated eye roll. I turned to face the guys, "you ready?"

"Yea," Luke answered and I smiled, "as long as Annette's ready to go too."

"Let it go," I dictated though gritted teeth. As Luke opened his mouth to rebuttal, probably giving some lame reason as to why the big diva should join us, my little diva spoke up.

"Annette comes too," Melody pouted, gazing at me with her brown eyes. That fùcking cute frown of hers had me wrapped around her finger and I knew it was the start of trouble.

I let out a drawn out, annoyed sigh before looking over at Annette. With an unamused expression, I haphazardly queried, "will you please come to ice cream with us."

Please say no.

"You know what," Annette raised a brow, a snarky little grin plastered on her face, "since Melody wants me to come and since you said please, I'll join you guys."

"Yes!" Ashton whooped. "Well then, let's get going, shall we?"

Ashton, Calum and Luke proceeded out the back room, through the bus and out the bus. Annette sent me a smug look, shoving past me and trailing behind the boys. I looked at Melody who looked back at me with so much innocence.

"Why'd you have to be so cute?" I questioned. This was obviously a rhetorical question, as I only asked because Melody was the deciding factor in Annette's decision to come with. I wasn't really expecting an answer, but alas, I got one.

"I don't know daddy," she replied with an exaggerated shrug of her shoulders. "I want my monkey."

"You want to bring your monkey to get ice cream?" I raised a brow and Melody nodded her head.

The two of us walked through the bus, grabbing the stuffed toy on our way out of the bus. Parked outside was was a black van with Melody's booster seat conveniently placed at the center of the middle row. I buckled her in before settling down myself, and soon enough we were on our way to a local ice cream parlour.

To say that Melody was excited would be an understatement. The amount of jubilance that exuded from every inch of her body skyrocketed the moment she stepped into the small, quaint ice cream shop. Her eyes grew wide and a tiny gasp escaped her lips as the bright florescent lights highlighted the homely vicinity.

"Whoa they have really different flavors here," Luke commented, his eyes trailing at the tags of the ten different ice cream choices offered. He was right-- Captain Crunch, Peppermint Mocha Fudge and Peanut Butter Chocolate Banana were just some of the flavors.

"I don't know what to choose," Ashton seemed to be just excited as my little diva, who had her face pressed up to the glass. I crouched down next to her, looking through the display case from her level.

"Do you see what you want?" I asked her.

"The pink one," Melody told me as she tapped the glass with her tiny finger.

After we ordered, and tucking a napkin into the shirts of both Melody and Luke as makeshift bibs, we enjoyed our creamy confection. All except for one person that is.

"Aren't you going to get anything?" I asked, observing Annette's hands which were preoccupied with her phone instead of ice cream.

She shook her head, "I'm lactose intolerance."

My jaw dropped straight to the fücking floor. She couldn't be serious; Annette was clearly messing around with me.

"You've got to be kidding me," I scoffed.

"Nope, not at all," Annette forced a sweet smile my way before grabbing a napkin leaning across the table to wipe the side of Melody's face. "I've been eating nondairy for the majority of my life."

"Then why the hell did you come here if you can't have anything?" I questioned.

"Oh come on Mikey, it's not like she's being a bothersome to any of us," Calum defended, taking a big spoonful of his ice cream.

"She's clearly here to get on my nerves," I sneered.

"Don't be so self-centered Michael," Annette began, "I'm not here for you, despite your stupid theories. I'm here for Melody and the other guys, of course."

"Yea, whatever," I grumbled, resting an elbow on the table top and setting my head down in my hand. I continued to eat my ice cream like a pissed off child after get the video games taken away. Though watching Melody happily eat the ice cream cone in her hands was enough to slightly ebb the irritation.

"Daddy are you sad?" Melody suddenly asked.

"What? No, why would you say that?" I questioned, wondering how she came to a conclusion.

"Because you're not smiling," she simply responded, poking my lips with her ice cream coated finger.

"I'll smile if you give me some of your pink ice cream," I hinted. Without hesitation, Melody brandished out the cone, hitting my nose in the process. I giggled, taking a lick of the strawberry shortcake cold confection.

"Is it yummy?" She asked.

"Yes sweetheart," I told her and I wasn't lying. That shit was awesome.

"Are you happy now?"

"I am, thank you," I mused. I did feel happy, forgetting about stupid Annette and her stupid lactose intolerance body-- how the hell does she enjoy cheesy pizza?

"Welcome daddy," and with that, Melody slumped back in her chair to continue eating her ice cream.

I guessed the boys were right the entire time; that Melody would come around. I smiled at the little girl who I didn't know meant so much to me. Maybe it was because she had my blood running through her, or maybe because I helped create such a cute little girl? Whatever it was, Melody definitely wasn't a mistake. She is my pride and joy and I although I had it in my head to let her go at the end of the summer, I couldn't find it in my heart to do so.

She is my little girl, my princess, my Melody.

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I think it's safe to say that I'm craving ice cream in this 30 degree weather. Anyway, hope you guys liked this chapter! To all my new & regular readers, hope you all are liking this story so far! Finally Melody has come around which means cute Melody-Michael moments!

Don't forget to vote, comment and share with your friends. Thank you so much! <33