Ashton's not used to the weight of a child on his body. Hasn't been since he left home, and even then, it had been years before then that his younger siblings would horse around with him like that. So, when he wakes up to Neo bouncing on his back and chopping up his breaths, he briefly panics and has to refrain from leaning to his side and dumping him onto the floor.
"Neo, what are you doing?" Ashton groans, trying to push himself away from the mattress. Fortunately, Neo stops crushing the man and lets him up.
"It's time to go to see Mickey!" He shouts, raising his small arms up towards the ceiling. Ashton chuckles, amused by how excited the boy is to see a rat. Glancing around the hotel room, Ashton finds Mellony's bed empty and immediately wonders where she is.
Though he knows she'd never leave Neo alone without getting him up first, or even leave without taking Neo with her.
"You ready to go?" He asks, throwing his legs over the edge of the mattress. Neo nods like a bobblehead and Ashton smiles at him as he finally abandons the warmth of the comforter.
Ashton lifts his suitcase onto the bed and goes through it until he settles on a plain black t-shirt to go with his black jeans, because, really, what do you wear to Disney World? Ashton doesn't know why he even started overthinking what to wear to an amusement park, but he's got his outfit out, along with a fresh pair of boxers, and he's ready to shower.
As he places his hand on the bathroom doorknob, it twists from the other side. The door opens with a fully dressed Mellony on the other side of it. She nearly runs into Ashton on her way out and braces herself against the frame of the door.
"Sorry," Ashton apologizes, though he didn't really have to, and receives a smile from the girl. He should have guessed that she was in the bathroom before he'd wondered if she'd left. "You ready to go to?"
Ashton looks her over, without staring too long in certain places and can clearly see that she isn't wearing the clothes she went to sleep in. This Mellony is back to the regular Mellony, in a slightly oversized t-shirt and jeans, unlike the dressier version he saw last night. He kind of prefers the regular Mellony, not that it matters.
Mellony's gaze drops to her own body, as if she'd forgotten what she was wearing. "Oh, yeah. I was gonna wake you after I was done." She drags a strand of hair behind her ear and Ashton sees her eyes go wide as she steps out of his way. He thinks that she just remembered that he was trying to get in there.
"Well, I'm up now." Ashton says, a smile playing on his lips. The corners of Mellony's mouth twitch and she ducks her head, leaving him to get dressed.
It doesn't take him—nor would it take anyone—long to pull his shirt over his head and embarrassingly shimmy around the toilet to get his jeans on, after he's taken a short shower. Once he runs a hand through his hair a couple of times, while staring back at himself in the mirror, Ashton quickly brushes his teeth and uses the complementary mouthwash.
He feels ready enough and flicks off the light as he exits the bathroom. His shoes are conveniently by the door and all he has to do is shove his feet into his boots.
"We all set?" Ashton asks, clapping his hands together. The action felt very dad-like and he mentally reminds himself to never do it again.
Neo doesn't really answer, so much as he screams with a grin that looks impossibly big on his little face. Ashton and Mellony titter at his response and the girl grabs her son's hand as Ashton opens the door.
He'd found a hotel that was within walking distance from the park, so like the money saver that Ashton strives to be, he insisted that they make the journey on foot.
It took just under ten minutes for them to approach the ridiculously long lines—Ashton wouldn't call them lines, really, because with all of the lumps of people grouped up throughout the queue, it looked more like a snake that had eaten a lot of small animals.
Neo, being a child, doesn't necessarily see the line, so much as he sees the attractions beyond it, and he makes that known by eagerly pulling on both Ashton's and Mellony's fingers every thirty seconds to point something out.
♡
"I'm just saying, he checked me out a little." Ashton jokes, referring to the guy dressed up as Peter Pan that they'd passed. Mellony laughs, glancing back at the worker as she takes up Neo's hand.
"Can we go on the cups now?" Neo grabs Ashton's hand and tries to pull both him and his mom towards the ride.
They both find it funny and give to the boy's tugging, Ashton glancing up to make sure they were at least headed in the right direction. "You wanna ride the teacups?" Ashton's not against the ride, but they'd all eaten a bit by this time and he didn't know if going in circles was a good idea on a full stomach.
"He's always wanted to. He says he wants to ride in each cup, even though no cup is different from any other cup." Mellony says, fondly staring at the back of her son's curly head. Ashton smiles just from her warm tone.
Here Ashton goes with the staring again, but he can't help it. Mellony's incredibly beautiful to him and her face lights up when she talks about Neo and her soft gaze is really something to look at and he's gotta stop. Especially now that Mellony turns her head and matches his stare.
Honestly, one of them should be paying more attention to where they're walking, but Ashton can only think about what a woman had said when they'd stopped near the Regal Carrousel.
"See the stars in each other's eyes when you join the merriment,"
Ashton is definitely seeing stars.
"Come on, we're almost next!" Neo's voice sounds way farther away than the foot away from Ashton that he actually is and he and Mellony blink away from each other to see Neo jabbing a finger at the air in front of him.
He's right, there's only a couple of people ahead of them in the line. Ashton chuckles, stepping up behind Neo and playfully snatching his arm.
"It's not polite to point, Nemo." Ashton giggles and dodges Neo's hand that was reaching to tap him.
"Hey!" Neo scrunches up his face at Ashton, which Ashton tries to mirror back. He laughs when Neo changes his expression, carding his fingers through his hair and looking up at the line.
"Oh, his eyes are so gorgeous." A woman coos, leaning closer to Neo with a smile. Mellony's lips curl up, but not with the usual I-love-talking-about-my-son happiness, as she puts a hand on Neo's shoulder.
"Thank you. He gets them from his father." Mellony says, hesitant for the briefest moment.
Ashton did notice that Neo's eyes don't look anything like Mellony's. Hers are deep and warm and dark; amber in the sunlight when it shines just right and a void that Ashton falls into time after time when the moon's out. Neo's are more similar to his, hazel, but more green, like stained glass, and definitely not like Mellony's.
He's never really wondered who Neo's father was, never really cared because, hey, it was that guy's loss as far as he was concerned. Whoever he is really missed out on two great people. Though now that Mellony's actually brought the guy up, his curiosity is clutching onto that small mention and doesn't seem like it's letting go without being sated.
The woman moves on and the line moves up, but Ashton stores his questions away for later.
Neo picks out a yellow cup and once it's their turn to board a saucer they get on that exact one, for Neo's sake.
After four rides, Ashton's not necessarily tired of the spinning, especially since with every teacup Mellony sat closer to him and tried to make more conversation through her and Neo's shrieking. He just doesn't know about going on this ride fourteen more times, because, that sounds like a horrible idea to his arms and stomach.
He doesn't want to tell Neo that they surely won't be fulfilling his dream of sitting in every cup today, but he knows someone's got to, at some point.
Neo chooses a pink teacup and the three of them clamber into it, Mellony grinning almost apologetically at Ashton as they get comfortable. He shrugs, to wordlessly say that he's not bothered by all of this.
He's mainly happy to see her happy, considering how reluctant she was to let Ashton take them. He would probably ride the cups more than fourteen more times, if Mellony said it'd make her happy.
As they're stepping off of the ledge, ready to take a break after their fifth go around, Neo stops walking. Mellony turns around when she feels his hand slip from hers, just in time to see him throw up. She and Ashton hastily get to him and Mellony repeatedly asks him if he's okay while brushing his fringe back from his forehead.
"Was it all the spinning?" Ashton asks, crouching a bit, but being mindful of where he's putting his feet. Neo nods and Ashton does too, standing back up and leaning closer to Mellony. "We should get back to the hotel, let him chill."
In the very back of Ashton's head—the very back, where he keeps thoughts like, "I'm glad my sister's hamster ran away, because it was always running on that dang wheel when I was trying to sleep,"—he's not totally complaining about having an out. Though he and Mellony sat the closest that they've probably ever sat next to each other and they had been laughing at Neo trying to tell a joke while the teacup swung, his arms ache from turning the wheel.
Mellony nods, scooping Neo up off of his feet and starting for the exit. Ashton gives the few people that look at Neo with a sympathetic pout a small smile and catches up with Mellony before he loses her in the crowds.
♡
They'd (read: Mellony'd) given Neo a warm bath and laid him down for a nap and settled down themselves.
Mellony sighs, tying her hair up and flopping down next to Ashton on his bed. He glances up from his phone—he's texting Calum and currently trying to tell him to knock it off with his so-called love advice—and smiles at her. Ashton locks his phone when Mellony lays beside him, the same way he is, on her stomach.
"Thanks for—"
"No, nope, don't do this." Ashton shakes his head. She doesn't have to thank him for anything that's happened today.
Rolling her eyes, Mellony turns to face him and rests her cheek on her hands. "Why are you like this?" She says, teasing tone bringing a bigger smile to Ashton's face.
"Because," Ashton says, smile edging on a smirk. Mellony drops her gaze down to the comforter and props herself up on her forearms. He thinks for a moment, then licks his lips and decides to go for it. "You said something about Neo's father earlier."
Mellony's eyebrows come together and she warily eyes Ashton as she sits all the way up and crosses her legs. She checks on Neo over her shoulder and turns back to Ashton, clearing her throat.
"He has green eyes." She doesn't look at Ashton when she talks, finding a spot on the carpet to stare at.
Ashton gets himself into a sitting position and crosses his own legs, facing her. He doesn't want to make her upset or any other feeling her ex could induce, but he really wants to know more about him.
"What happened with you two? If you don't mind me asking." He makes sure to add that last part, because, obviously she doesn't have to tell him anything.
Mellony shakes her head, sniffing. She makes her eyes meet Ashton's for about a second before it's back to the carpet stain. "It's fine." She takes a breath, then another, and Ashton displays that he's ready to listen by intently staring at her.
"I was, like, extremely stupid when I was younger," She starts, lifting herself from the bed and shifting to be face-to-face with Ashton. She doesn't look up from his shirt, though. "When I was fifteen, I made the dumb decision to let my seventeen year-old boyfriend sweet talk his way into my pants." Mellony tells him, a bitter twinge in her words.
"And after I told him I was pregnant, he told his parents and they made him stop talking to me," She continues, rolling her eyes at the memory. "I had Neo when I was sixteen and I raised him for four years without Michael and I'll keep raising him without Michael." Mellony angrily fixes the strap of her tank top and Ashton reaches his hand out to catch her wrist.
"Hey, Mel, relax." His voice is as gentle as his grip on her. Ashton's fuming inside, wondering how this Michael can live with himself. He understands not wanting to be a parent that young, but when he was eighteen he could have done something. They're adults now, he could have at least tried to become a proper father.
"I'm sorry." She apologizes, averting her gaze and Ashton notices how shiny her eyes are. Frowning, he opens his arms for her.
Mellony seems to ponder over whether she should go into them, and ultimately decides she should, scooting to his side and leaning into him. Ashton definitely has an urge to make Michael kiss his knuckles now, as he feels Mellony's tears seep through his shirt.
"I'm sorry." Mellony says, again, swiping a finger over her cheek to dry it. She feels Ashton's chin rub over her head as he shakes his.
"You're fine, Mel. I'm not gonna think you're any less of an amazing woman just because you cry when you're hurt." He murmurs, softly squeezing her middle. And he doesn't. He still thinks Mellony is an incredibly strong person for raising a child by herself, while balancing a job and having her own apartment and car. He doesn't think any less of her.
Pulling back, Mellony gazes up at Ashton. She keeps her arms loosely around his torso and Ashton's eyes flit to her lips before he can stop himself.
He didn't know that he had this much self control, because the voice in his head screaming at him to kiss her is somehow being overshadowed by another voice saying something about how she's in a vulnerable state and he probably shouldn't. Though that voice is louder than the other, Ashton still finds it hard to hear since the other voice's idea has to do with the mouth that's inches away from his own.
Ashton hardly registers what's happening, his mind shooting to static and holy crap the moment Mellony puts her hand on his thigh to push herself up. She presses a fleeting kiss to his cheek and Ashton dumbly blinks while Mellony leaves his bed and joins Neo in theirs.
The skin she'd brushed over—with her lips!, he reminds himself—tingles, which Ashton thinks is just ridiculous. Mellony grabs her phone and switches the bedside lamp off, then gets comfortable under her blanket.
Smiling to himself, Ashton pops his brows and does the same, immediately texting Calum about what had happened.
A/N: okay i'm convinced that every chapter of this fic that i write is gonna be long (for me at least bc i don't usually write over two thousand words a chapter for a fic) and i'm not even mad. hopefully you guys aren't either lol
anyway ashton and mellony are so cute that it hurts and we got some cheek kiss action
also ashton is such a boy, excited to tell calum the news sigh
but oh yeah MICHAEL IS NEO'S DAD WOW OMG GUYS I ALMOST FORGOT THAT I DROPPED THAT BOMB
if you enjoyed this chapter (that took longer than i wanted it to and i'm sorry about that) then please please vote and comment if you wanna but if you don't wanna then don't worry about it okay okay
love you loads xoxo