"Where we going?"
Savannah's voice rang out a few minutes after they left the house from the backseat of Jace's Range Rover, where she was securely fastened into a car seat between Austin and Ryan.
"To the suit store," Austin replied, tapping the four year old's nose with his finger to make her giggle and smiling widely when his mission was accomplished.
"How come?" she asked, a smile still stretching her lips as she tilted her head to the side.
They had never taken her to a fitting before, so it made sense that she was curious. Generally, they tried to switch out their fittings to happen while someone was babysitting, but between rehearsals for the award show at which they were performing and generally committing to their father and uncle duties, they hadn't managed to squeeze it in. So, upon realizing that they had a quickly approaching deadline, they had asked to stop by the store after hours for all of them to do their fitting and brought Savannah along.
"Because your uncles and I have to go to this fancy event where we need to look pretty and we don't have any clothes to wear," Jace replied, his gaze momentarily meeting his daughter's in the rearview mirror.
"Oh," she said, staying silent for a moment, contemplating this new information before her eyes lit with joy. "Can I look pretty and go too!"
All of their eyebrows lifted in surprise. They had never taken Savannah to a red carpet event before because they'd always thought that the lights and cameras and people would be a little overwhelming for her, but if she was showing a genuine interest in it, Jace didn't see why she couldn't attend.
"Sure!" Ryan responded, his eyes flicking to Jace to confirm that this was the right answer. "That means we need to find you something to wear. What do you wanna wear?"
She pursed her lips as she mentally went through her options before calling out, "A sparkly dress!"
That was roughly where Jace had assumed the conversation was going to go and although he adored seeing his daughter so excited, it was also a cause for stress. Mostly because it meant they had to go buy her a dress. The four of them could barely dress themselves, much less a four year old girl.
"Do you know any little girl dress stores?" Austin leaned forward to whisper over the center console.
Liam rolled his eyes and settled back into the passenger seat. "I'm pretty sure they're just called stores, Austin."
Sending a glare in the drummer's direction, Austin returned his attention to his favorite niece and smiled warmly. "We're gonna find you the sparkliest dress there is."
"Yay!" Savannah cheered, clapping her hands together excitedly as Jace parked the car in front of the suit shop, the only store still open on the street.
Ryan unbuckled Savannah from her seat, sliding out of the car before turning to help her out and set her on the ground. One hand held by one of her uncles, she was swung across the sidewalk towards the shop's front door, her soft giggles echoing down the empty street until she stepped inside and smiled widely up at the store's flustered manager.
"Hello," Savannah grinned, not at all intimated by the large man's large moustache. Being around her six foot plus father and uncles all the time meant she was used to being the smallest person in most rooms. "I like your fuzzy lip."
Ryan and Austin snorted, but Jace was horrified as he leaned down to scoop his daughter into his arms and whisper into her ear. "Sav, that's called a moustache."
Knowing that the man's bewilderment needed to be resolved, Liam stepped forward and clapped his hands together. "I believe you have some suits to show us?"
"Yes," the manager cleared his throat, gesturing towards the back of the store, "Right this way."
The next hour was filled with roaming racks for shirts and shrugging on blazers and tripping over the legs of pants as the boys tried on various suit combinations. Savannah wandered between the dressing rooms, watching in fascination as her father and uncles tried on outfit after outfit until finally settling on their suit combinations.
"What do you think, Sav?" Jace asked, fixing the lap of his black jacket over his white shirt in front of the arc of mirrors, looking over his shoulder at his daughter, who was sitting all the way back on a viewing couch, sipping apple juice from a straw and getting wary glances from the store manager, who was afraid she would spill some liquid on the pristine white cloth.
She continued her sucking as her eyes slowly traveled up her father's black trouser clad legs and dress shirt covered torso until they reached his patiently waiting expression, at which point she removed the straw from her mouth and tilted her head to the side and said with absolutely no emotion, "It's boring."
"Boring?" Ryan laughed from where he was trying on a gray suit to Jace's right, having the same opinion of the lead singer's outfit but figuring he was a big boy and could choose his own clothes. "What do you think it needs, Savi?"
Pursing her lips, she contemplated this for a moment before lifting both shoulders in a shrug. "I dunno."
"That's helpful," Jace chuckled, turning completely to face his daughter and pointing towards a rack of ties near the couch. "Sweetie, will you do me a favor and pick one of those for me to wear?"
Seeing as he was wearing black and white, he didn't think she could really go with any color she chose, so he watched with his lips kinked into a small smile as she pushed herself from the couch and skipped towards the tie rack, continuing to sip on her apple juice as she circled the options. A few minutes later, she emerged from behind the rack holding a bright blue tie with orange polka dots, a color combination which made Jace internally cringe, but the look of excitement on his daughter's face made his heart soar, so he didn't say a word.
"This one!" she said proudly, holding the tie out towards him when she came to a stop to his front, her smile wide and her blue eyes shining with happiness that she'd gotten a say in the process.
Always a sucker for his daughter's smile, Jace reluctantly took the tie from her hand and looped it around his neck, deciding that if he was going to wear what was quite possibly the ugliest piece of clothing ever on the red carpet, then he was taking his band mates down with him. "Sav, darling, you should pick out ties for all of your uncles as well."
The snickers coming from the other boys at the sight of Jace's tie were silenced almost immediately, and although they all sent poisonous glares in the lead singer's direction, they graciously accepted the brightly colored neck accessories that Savannah picked out for each of them.
She marched up and down the line of them when they all had their ties properly nodded, evaluating their work like a general inspecting her troops and nodding and grinning widely when she approved.
"You look pretty!" she announced to the four of them as a whole, her hands at her hips, her small fingers still wrapped around her now empty juice box. "We get my dress now?"
"Sure," Jace laughed, holding out his arms so that she would run towards him and scooping her into his chest when she did just that before turning towards the store manager. "You don't happen know where we can find a sparkly dress for this little lady, do you?"
The store manager stroked his large moustache for a moment before digging his cell phone from his pocket and holding up one finger. "Let me see what I can do."
...
The day of the award show, her eyes got wide with horror just as they finished their lunch of peanut butter sandwiches and baby carrots.
"Daddy!" she gasped, her small hands clutching the edge of the wooden kitchen table.
"What, what is it, sweetheart?" Jace asked, instantly the concerned parent, leaning over and stroking the back of his daughter's curly head, his eyebrows pulled into a deep furrow. The other boys leaned in as well, equal parts confused and worried about what she would say next.
"You didn't get your nails done!" she exclaimed as though it was the biggest travesty to ever occur in her short life.
The day after they'd selected their suits, they'd taken Savannah to a store in the nearest shopping center to pick out her dress for the award show. After hours of searching through racks upon racks of puffy child size dresses, she finally settled on a scarlet one with a sequined bodice and a skirt that fanned out when she twirled around. Taking a cue from what his mother often did before big events, Jace suggested they go the salon to get her nails done as well and the four boys had watched in fascination as the technician carefully painted Savannah's tiny nails bright red with a glittery silver overlay to match her dress. In her excitement at getting her first manicure, she hadn't noticed that none of the boys got them, and was now realizing that was completely unfair.
"Is okay!" she continued before Jace could reply, the volume of her voice increasing in excitement with each word she spoke. "I'll do them for you!"
Before any of the boys could comprehend what was happening, she had wiggled out of her chair at the end of the table and skipped out of the room, climbing slowly up the stairs and returning a few minutes later holding the box that contained the nail polish her geandma had given her for her fourth birthday. Setting the box on top of the wooden table, she climbed back into her chair as her father and uncles looked on in stunned silence.
"Daddy, you first," she announced, busying herself with setting out his color options before looking up at him expectantly. "Which color?"
He knew this wasn't a battle he was going to win and the more the thought about it, the more he realized it wasn't a battle he even wanted to have. Because Jace had learned three and a half years ago that all that mattered in the world was making his daughter happy. So if painting his nails for a red carpet event would keep that beautiful smile on her face and that sparkling excitement in her eyes, then he would do just that.
"The green," he sighed and nodded towards the small bottle of lime green liquid laying his hands flat on top of the table to give her easy access to his nails, figuring that if he was going to do this, he might as well go hard.
The other boys took his easy concession to getting a manicure a la Savannah as a sign that they should do the same, so they cheered Savannah on as she carefully painted her father's nails and stuck their own hands out eagerly when she was finished with Jace, each picking a different bright color for her to use.
The hours just before they left for the award show were so filled with chaos that they ended up forgetting their new stylized details and it wasn't until the band was doing a red carpet interview that their unique accessory choices and manicures were brought up again.
"You guys are making quite a bold statement with those ties and the painted nails," the interviewer pointed out, glancing down at their hands. "What was the thought process behind this?"
Jace laughed, glancing to the side where Savannah was perched on the hip of their publicist, taking in the spectacle that was the red carpet with wide eyes. "My daughter picked out our ties and painted our nails. She was very excited for tonight and wanted to make sure we looked our best."
"Oh!" the interviewer brightened, looking over at Savannah and wiggling her fingers in the four year old's direction. "Is she going to be making all your fashion decisions from now on? Because I honestly think she's got a pretty good eye."
He wasn't entirely sure if that was sarcastic, but he didn't care, lifting both his shoulders in a shrug as he smiled widely and responded. "I don't know. Maybe. All I know is I'd do pretty much anything to see my daughter smile."