He was in the zone.
It had been a while since he'd had the time to engage in this sort of activity. Generally speaking, he tried to stay in shape while they were on the road because having enough energy while he was jumping around on stage was critical, but when they were at home, he often found it more difficult to maintain a steady workout schedule. Although, running around after a four year old did seem to be an exercise regimen in itself.
The fact that they went to writing sessions in pairs was a huge help, because it meant someone was always available to hang out with Savannah, but it also meant that the two left over had their work cut out for them because she could be quite a handful at times.
Luckily, he'd figured out a way to keep her calm and at least somewhat occupied. Seeing as she was most definitely her father's daughter, she loved all music. So on days like today, when he was watching her while Jace, Ryan, and Liam went guitar and drum shopping, he would blast music from the speakers in whichever room he happened to be and keep an eye on her as she danced around or hummed along while he did other things. Jace normally wouldn't have minded bringing Savannah with him to the music store because she found all of the instruments fascinating, but they had a lot orders to put in and he was afraid he wouldn't be able to watch her the whole time and she'd end up getting bored, so Austin had volunteered to stay home with his favorite niece, saying he would update his bass at a later date.
Currently, she was sitting cross legged atop his bed and singing loudly along to the music playing from the speakers into which his phone was plugged and scribbling colorful shapes onto a piece of paper with crayons while she watched him do the workout regimen he'd come up with for when they were staying in hotels while on tour that didn't have gyms.
It involved a lot of squats and pushups and jumping jacks and the intensity of it all was doubled by the fact that every time he jumped to his feet, he was looking over to the bed to ensure she was still exactly where he left her. After Ryan had temporarily misplaced Savannah in a venue when she wasn't yet two, Jace had sat his three best friends down for a serious lecture in which he assured them that if such an incident ever occurred again, he would personally mutilate precious parts of their body.
And Austin loved all parts of his body, so he made sure Savannah was always in his sight.
"Uncle Austin?" she asked, pushing her lips thoughtfully against the end of her periwinkle crayon. He paused as he jumped up from his plank position, placing his hands at his hips, his bare chest heaving slightly as he raised his eyebrows at her in response to her calling out his name. "What's that mean? Run this town?"
Parting his lips, he thought for a moment as he caught his breath and allowed the Jay-Z and Rihanna collaboration to keep blasting through the speakers.
"It's like," he reached up a hand to tangle into his thick curls, slick from sweat. "It's like being really confident and knowing that you're going to do something really well."
That wasn't a particularly good explanation, but he didn't know how else to put it. Not for the first time, he was glad he didn't have kids of his own, because he knew he was nowhere near ready to be a father. Of course he loved Savannah to pieces and he'd always be there for her if she needed him, but if she ever had any sort of major crisis, she would more than likely turn to Jace, who was already on the track to become the world's best father.
Austin had always suspected that Jace would be excellent at the whole parenting thing and despite the fact that no one expected him to have to step up to the plate at such a young age, the bassist thought his best friend was doing a pretty fantastic job of proving his initial instincts right.
Savannah was vibrant and intelligent and curious. She questioned everything, a character trait that Austin loved, despite the fact that more often than not, he had no idea how to answer.
"And what's get low mean?"
He held in a snort at the mention of the song he'd been singing along to earlier as a part of his workout playlist. It was the explicit version, which meant plenty of mention of bitches and sweaty balls, but although he had been singing a lot of the song out loud, he had made sure to not emphasize those particular parts in hopes that Savannah wouldn't pick up on them.
"It means," he said slowly, figuring out the best way to phrase it. "Getting as close to the floor as possible when you're dancing."
"Okay," she shrugged, returning her attention to her masterpiece.
He was about ninety five percent sure that she had no idea what he was talking about, but seeing as she'd decided to let it go, most likely out of pity, he didn't push the issue.
The ringing of his phone caused the music to stop and he stepped towards the stereo system and pulled it out of the charging portal, swiping his finger across the screen and glancing towards Savannah as he answered the call from her father.
"Hey, man," Austin said, his breathing no longer staggered from the exercise. "What's up?"
He wouldn't have been surprised if Jace was just calling to check in and make sure the bassist hadn't run into some sort of catastrophe involving the four year old, but Jace sounded plenty happy when he replied, put in a good mood by looking at new guitars.
"Hey!" Jace replied and Austin could hear him grinning on the other end of the phone. "How's it going?"
"We're having tons of fun, aren't we Sav?" Austin grinned at the four year old, his heart soaring when she smiled in response and nodded enthusiastically.
"Good to hear," Jace laughed, though his tone still maintained a slight hint of worry. He was still a protective father after all. "The boys and I are about to be finished and we were thinking we could all meet up for lunch. I'm sure Savannah's hungry. Does that sound good?"
"Yeah, of course!" Austin replied, holding his phone from his ear to check the time. "Abuela's in half an hour?"
Jace agreed to meeting at their usual Mexican cantina before pausing and asking to speak to his daughter. It had only been a few hours since he'd kissed her goodbye that morning, but he missed her already.
Austin wasn't entirely sure he trusted the four year old with his phone, so he pressed the speakerphone option and lay the phone on top of his rumpled comforter beside where Savannah was enraptured by her drawing.
"Hey, Savi-licious," Austin said, taking a seat on the edge of the bed. "Your dad's on the phone. Wanna talk to him?"
"Hi, Daddy!" Savannah immediately perked up at the mention of Jace, leaning down towards the phone. "You come home soon?"
Daddy's girl as she was, she felt the separation anxiety just as much as Jace.
"Actually, sweetie pie, you're gonna come see me. Uncle Austin's gonna bring you meet us for lunch. See you soon?"
"See you soon!" she exclaimed excitedly, causing Austin to be unable to hold back a grin as he ended the call.
"Alright, shorty," Austin looked at Savannah with mock sternness as he placed the phone on his nightstand and his balled up hands on his hips. "I need to jump in the shower real quick, but I need you to do something for me. I need you to talk to me through the door so that I don't get scared."
He didn't particularly like the thought of leaving her alone, but he needed a shower badly, so the only way he could think of to make sure she was alright while he washed off was to make her talk to him the entire time.
"Scared?" she tilted her head to the side, placing her small hands on top of the yellow polka dotted skirt of the sundress her and Liam had picked out that morning. "Scared of what?"
"Just scared," he widened his eyes comically, his voice low and shaky. "Please, Sav?"
Sitting up straight, she looked straight at him, her blue eyes flooded with determination. "Don't worry, Uncle Austin. I'll protect you."
"Thank you, munchkin," Austin grinned, leaning over to press a kiss to the top of her head before digging through his dresser for fresh underwear and a change of clothes and heading into the bathroom.
She did as she was asked, sitting on the carpeted floor outside the bathroom and continuing her coloring as she told him stories about her friends in ballet and how much she loved her teacher and how excited she was that next week they were going to learn how to do leaps.
He smiled to himself as he washed himself off and ten minutes later, he stepped out of the bathroom fully dressed with his hair only slightly damp from being towel dried. Sharing a house with three other boys and a four year old meant that he'd learned how to get ready quickly, unlike Jace, who apparently was taught nothing by becoming a father and still took forty five minute showers.
Savannah put away her crayons and coloring papers as he pulled on his socks and Converse and he helped her into her little Mary Janes before swinging her into the air to make her giggle in delight and pulling her into his chest as he carried her down the stairs towards the garage.
She was strapped into her car seat after he found his wallet, keys, and phone and they were on their way to the restaurant around the corner within fifteen minutes of Jace's call. Austin was thankful that Savannah hadn't particularly taken to The Wiggles and although he'd probably never admit it to any of his bandmates, he didn't mind tapping his fingers against the steering wheel as he and Savannah sang along to some old school NSYNC.
Despite their hustle, they still arrived after the other boys and were pointed towards a table near the back window. As he wound his way through the tables, Austin happily soaked in the glances of appreciation he got from patrons and waitresses alike, because apparently the fact that he was carrying a cute toddler in the crook of his arm put people under some kind of spell.
The spell was broken, however, when they reached the table and Savannah saw her father and giggled and reached towards him, squealing out 'Daddy!' as she did.
Austin handed her over to her father, who promptly kissed both her cheeks before settling her atop the booster seat that the waitress had already provided.
"Nice table choice, boys," Austin pursed his lips, impressed as he slipped into the chair beside Ryan. Liam and Jace were on the other side while Savannah sat at the head beside her father. "This is the best seat in this place."
"Yeah, we got lucky," Liam laughed, crossing his eyes at Savannah to make her giggle as she picked up the crayons on the table and began to draw on the kids menu. Jace already knew to order cheese quesadillas for her lunch. "The tables by the windows are usually full."
Although this particular restaurant was a regular eating spot for the band, it was also popular for the general public and they often had to wait a good twenty minutes to get in. But seeing as today, they were having lunch at eleven on a Wednesday morning, the lunch rush hadn't quite hit and they were able to get a prime spot looking out at the main street of the shopping center.
"Windows?" Savannah asked, her purple crayon coming to a stop on top of the paper menu.
"Yeah, baby," Jace smiled softly, nodding towards the view they had of the shops across the street and the tree lined pathways. "It's pretty out isn't it?"
"Window!" Savannah said again, not appreciating the few at all like her father wanted. Instead, she turned her attention to Austin, her blue eyes wide with excitement as she repeated the word once more. "Window!"
Austin furrowed his brow in confusion, but before he could ask why the window had her so upbeat, seeing as it wasn't the first time she'd ever been near one, especially this one in particular, she continued to speak.
"Like the song!"
"What song, Savi?" Ryan asked, leaning forward to look at her.
"The song Uncle Austsin was singing!" she exclaimed, her smile growing.
Austin had an inkling of an idea that he knew what she was talking about, but he kept his mouth shut in hopes that she wouldn't be able to explain it properly. Unfortunately, he also knew that Savannah Russo was as persistent as they came, so she started humming along to the familiar tune before finally blurting out, 'til sweat drops down my balls'.
Being enthusiastic as she was about everything she said, her words came out at a volume just a bit higher than necessary, causing everyone at a table within a ten foot radius to turn their heads, wondering why they'd just heard a child's voice yell out about sweaty balls.
Perhaps this situation wouldn't have been extremely mortifying if Savannah hadn't followed up with, 'the bitches crawl' just as the waitress delivered four glasses of water and a plastic cup of apple juice to the table, shooting the toddler a confused look before wandering off to tend to another set of customers.
"Savannah!" Jace gasped, his eyes wide with horror as he clasped his hand over his daughter's mouth, wishing he was in the midst of a nightmare and he would wake up and not be in the middle of a restaurant where his baby girl had just yelled out curse words.
Confused as to what she had done wrong, the four year old's eyes immediately started watering because she wasn't used to being scolded by the father whose heart melted pretty much any time he laid eyes on her. Austin immediately felt guilty and he knew he would soon be in for a lecture of his own, but Jace was currently preoccupied with keeping his precious angel from bursting into tears, so he shot the bassist a glare that silently instructed him that they would be having words at a later time.
"It's alright, baby," Jace cooed, releasing his hand from her mouth and gently stroking her hair back towards her curly ponytail. "Don't cry. I'm sorry if I got upset with you."
Although all the boys' hearts were aching at the sight of Savannah on the verge of tears, Liam and Ryan were simultaneously trying to hold back laughs as they glanced in Austin's direction, realizing what had more than likely happened that morning while they had been shopping.
It wasn't as though they'd had a band meeting where they'd sat down and laid out ground rules for the dos and don'ts of behaving around a child – though Austin was fairly certain that was exactly what would happen as soon as they got home – but it was generally accepted that there were certain things they shouldn't say, curse words being one of them. This task had been particularly difficult for the first year that Savannah was in their lives, seeing as they were so used to having absolutely no filter between their brains and their mouths, but they'd eventually gotten into the habit of keeping things G rated.
Still, it hadn't occurred to Austin to keep his music censored as well. Mostly because he had assumed she wouldn't be listening closely enough to pick up on any swearing or innuendos. In retrospect, that was a stupid assumption to make. She was Jace's daughter, after all.
"What I do?" Savannah asked, hiccupping as her lower lip trembled.
"Nothing," Austin assured her, reaching out to squeeze her small hand, knowing he needed to take responsibility and explain the situation. "You didn't do anything wrong, Savi. It's my fault."
She turned her head to face him, her eyes still wide, but her breathing slowly going back to normal.
"That song you heard me singing?" he said slowly. "It has some bad words in it. Words that we shouldn't say."
"How come?" she asked, tilting her head to the side, becoming more calm by the second, aided by the rhythmic stroking of Jace's palm up and down her back.
It was a good question and one that Austin found difficult to answer because he loved swearing in general, but he knew that he had to be a good role model. Even if Savannah wasn't his own flesh and blood, she was currently the most important girl in his life besides his mother and sister and he wanted to do everything he could to make sure she grew up to be an incredible human being. There would be plenty of time for her to learn curse words later, but for now, all any of them wanted was for her to remain little and angelic and innocent for as long as possible.
"Some of them are mean," he admitted. "And we don't want to say mean things, do we?"
"No," she shook her head, her father having taught her that being nice and polite was a great outlook to have on life.
"Good," Austin smiled, glancing at Jace, who was nodding in approval, but the bassist was pretty sure that he was still in for a lecture at a later time. Leaning in, he kissed Savannah on the cheek and looked back at his menu, knowing that he'd gotten out of the situation fairly unscathed, but deciding that for his future health – because he never knew when he'd been in danger of being attacked by Jace for corrupting the lead singer's little princess – that he should stick to only buying the clean versions of songs.
At least for the next few years. He fully intended on being the person Savannah learned her first real curse word from when the time came.