Penumbra

Little Monster

"Hazza!" she said, clapping in excitement as she began to wiggle in Luke's grip. He hated the fact that Sophia called Harry 'Hazza', it was too close to Dada for him. At least with 'Cow' 'Ath' and 'Mickey' the names were obviously different.

"Why do you always bring gifts?" Luke asked, standing and holding Sophia to his chest, who was reaching out towards her favourite uncle.

"How could I not? Have you seen this face?" Harry grinned, holding out his arms for the little baby who was practically screaming in excitement.

Instead of giving his daughter to Harry, Luke handed Sophia to Olivia, who was more than happy to immediately begin cooing and kissing the baby's face.

"So where are you two headed?" Harry asked, setting the present down on the kitchen counter.

"Just a date night." Luke answered absentmindedly.

Birdie grinned, "He's keeping it a secret."

Olivia gave Sophia to Harry, and Luke had to fight the need to go over and once more retrieve his princess. It looked so odd to see his new, shiny, precious baby in the arms of a tattooed gang member...

But Luke supposed he was being a hypocrite, about the gang part, not the tattoos. Luke had begun doing small jobs for the gang a few months earlier, and he'd been keeping it a secret from everyone but Calum, Ashton and Puppy.

If he told Harry, Harry would tell Olivia, who would tell Birdie... it was a whole ass mess. But... Calum hadn't been lying when he said he'd make it worth it for Luke. They were paying him tripple what they had before, and he only went in once or twice a month.

It wasn't the same though. Dove refused to torture with him anymore, and Luke missed that, he missed his murder bro, but he understood why Dove didn't want to get involved. She could keep her mouth shut, Luke was sure of that, but Dove had been hanging out at girl nights with more frequency, and it would have been added pressure.

Luke and Birdie left for their date night, and Olivia and Harry took Sophia to the living room, both of them sitting on the floor so Sophia could crawl between them and play with the toys scattered around.

Harry gave Sophia his complete attention and Olivia watched him play with the baby, letting her grab at his tattooed arms and hands, careful not to let her get at his rings that she could easily accidentally swallow.

Olivia didn't want to bring it up, she didn't, but they'd been together over two years and Harry had admitted he was looking at engagement rings a month into dating. She'd figured he would have proposed already but... she had told him that she enjoyed the just dating. But, again, that had been over two years ago.

She was confused, not wanting to bring it up, besides, they were practically married as it was. But seeing him with a baby... it made things a little different. She knew she'd have to talk to him about it sooner or later, but in that moment, she just wanted to enjoy watching her boyfriend play with a baby.

—-

Luke had thought he'd be prepared for the girl trip. After all, Sophia was almost two and she was a complete daddys girl. But Birdie had never gone on a trip without him or Sophia. It was the first weekend alone with his little girl and Luke was oddly terrified.

When the girls had gone that morning, Calum and Ashton had shown up to hang out with Sophia for a bit. Calum had a new obsession with making non alcoholic cocktails for Sophia so she felt like she fit in with the adults. Luke never drank around her, but Calum and Ashton both had a thing for having an interesting coloured beverage in their hands at all times.