Ashton pictured Mellony's room to be a reflection of her. Bright and welcoming, just like the girl herself. It's actually the opposite, which surprised him a great deal once he realized it.
He didn't get much of a good look around the night before, for multiple reasons, but now, as he lays in her bed, he gets to have a look. Mellony had gotten up without waking him and is making breakfast, according to the sounds coming from the kitchen, so he has a few minutes up his sleeve.
The overall scheme is a moody brown, paired with the lavender color on her walls. It gives off the vibes of an edgy college freshman's dorm room, but Ashton thinks it still suits her despite the dark atmosphere.
He smiles to himself, laying back and locking his fingers together behind his head. Ashton is completely washed over with the feeling of bliss, just from spending the night with her. After they'd gotten Neo and carried his already sleeping body to his bed, he and Mellony crashed together in her room, easily slotting into place with each other under her comforter.
The bedroom door creaks open and a sliver of Neo's face appears in the empty space. "Mommy says breakfast is ready!" He yells, fitting only his mouth in between the door and the doorframe.
Ashton grins, lifting the covers from over his torso. He jokingly groans as he pushes himself up to stand.
"Alright, I'm comin'," He says, waving his hands at the child, then chuckling when Neo takes that as a sign that he's being chased and takes off down the hall.
It occurs to him that Neo has seen him lounging shirtless in his mother's bed, but then again, he's almost five, so he shouldn't have any ideas besides mommy and Ashton had a sleepover.
He finds the shirt he'd shed last night where he dropped it, at the foot of Mellony's bed, and pulls it over his unruly bed hair.
The air in the hallway smells of Saturday mornings at his mom's house, pleasantly clinging to all of the areas surrounding the dining table.
Ashton sees Mellony at the stove, flipping what's most likely a pancake in a skillet. Focus wrinkles her forehead, which Ashton finds downright adorable.
He does a sweep of the living room with his eyes, making sure Neo isn't around the kitchen. He hears the tap run in the bathroom, confirming that the little boy is occupied with something else.
As quietly as he can, Ashton tiptoes across the tiles until he's close enough to wrap his arms around Mellony's middle, pressing his lips to the top of her head.
She startles, reaching behind her as she cranes her neck to see him. "Morning." Mellony greets, smiling warm and wide.
"Morning, Iron Chef," Ashton teases, repositioning his head to be next to hers as he leans forward to survey the food. "What did you make?"
Mellony titters, melting into him while managing to scoop another pancake out of the pan.
"I don't think it matters, so long as you get a free meal." Mellony smirks, gently elbowing Ashton in the ribs.
Ashton pretends to be hurt, clutching his side and backing away from her. "So, that's how it is?"
"Yeah," Mellony continues, licking a spot of batter off of her thumb. "The rule is one pancake per plate, by the way."
Chuckling, Ashton steps up next to her to dip his finger into the batter bowl. It looks particularly lumpy to be for pancakes, and doesn't give off the usual scent, so naturally, he has to taste it to figure out what's different.
It's definitely not regular pancake mix and water.
"Mel, what is this?" He asks, going back in for a second sample. The second one doesn't give him any more clues than when he first tried it.
"They're banana pancakes. And, yes, the batter is supposed to look like that." She levels him with a look that dares him to question her cooking skills, then breaks through it with a smile.
Ashton holds up his hands with raised brows. "Alright, don't bring out your taser." He jokes, resting his hip against the counter and lowering his arms.
Mellony's eyes go wide, as she gets her last pancake onto a plate. She made about seven of them, all stacked high and golden on top of one another.
"You remember when I said I have a taser?" She asks, while transferring the food to the dining table. She walks back over to open the microwave, revealing another dish of scrambled eggs and setting that down on the table as well.
"Um, of course," Ashton nods, deciding to help her set the table instead of watching her do it. "It was, pretty much, the wildest thing you've ever said to me."
Mellony laughs, continuing to set silverware and plates out in front of the chairs. Neo bounds out of the bathroom, wet hands sprinkling water all around the kitchen as he skips towards the dining area.
"Hands are clean." He announces, brandishing his palms. Mellony gives him a thumbs up and a pinch on the cheek as he claims his seat.
Ashton rinses his hands in the kitchen sink, drying them with a paper towel afterwards, then sits at the end of the table. Mellony sits across from her son with Ashton to her right, scaning over her breakfast with a satisfied simper.
"Everything looks good, mommy." Neo compliments, shifting from side to side on the chair with a fork and spoon in each hand.
Mellony coos a thank you at him, distributing the eggs among the three of them as evenly as she can. Ashton does the pancakes, giving two a piece and leaving the last one up for grabs.
A few minutes into their silent eating, Mellony nudges Ashton's leg with her ankle.
"So, I made plans for us today, if you're not busy." She says, a moment before putting another forkful of pancakes between her teeth.
Ashton thoughtfully chews, glancing around the room as he thinks. Not about whether he'd like to go, but if he has anything else planned. Calum texted him late last night that he's going to be taking care of a hungover Darcy all day, and he doesn't have work until tomorrow. He doesn't need to take the car for a tuneup, nor does he have to do any shopping.
"Nah, I'm not. What plan did you conjure up?" Ashton bounces his brows as he takes another bite.
"I'll tell you after we take Neo to school." She says, with her voice low enough for only him to hear. He nods, polishing off his plate, and putting it in the sink.
He tells her that he's going to get dressed, receiving an okay from both her and Neo. He calmly gathers an outfit for the day, shoes include, and the moment he gets the door closed behind him in the bathroom, he does a small victory jump.
He'll have plenty of time to be embarrassed about it later, but for now, he relishes in the fact that Mellony wants to go out with him. He should have figured that she would like to after last night, but they could have easily written that off as a one-time thing, which, thankfully they haven't.
Ashton takes a shower, gets dressed, and brushes his teeth all in the span of twenty minutes. Neo has to get to school within the next half hour, so he wanted to be sure he wouldn't make them late.
When he emerges, Mellony is scrubbing away at the sink. He can hear her humming to herself, a song that sounds vaguely familiar, but not familiar enough to name. Ashton softly knocks his boot against the wall to indicate his presence.
She peers over her shoulder, her lips curling up at the sight of him. "Hey, you ready?"
"Yeah. Is Neo ready?" He asks, ambling towards her and caging her in with his arms on either side of her own. She clearly hasn't gone to get herself dressed yet, in favor of tending to the dishes, but Ashton thinks that that goes without saying.
Mellony shakes her head as she cuts off the tap. "Mhm. I just have to throw something on, and then we can go." She tells Ashton, spinning around to face him. He nods, simpering down at her.
"Okay."
"...So, I have to go shower now."
"Okay."
Fondly rolling her eyes, Mellony folds her arms across her chest. "What do you want, Ashton?" He grins automatically, at the words alone, then refocuses on what he actually wants. Besides to be playfully annoying, because he definitely wants to do that, too.
"Can I get a hint on where we're going?" He raises his brows, lightly drumming his fingertips on the counter. He was the one to plan the other outings—excluding the field trip—they'd been on, and though he's not dying to know, it feels weird that he doesn't.
She narrows her eyes at him, keeping her dark irises trained on his lighter ones. Ashton's stare darts from her eyes to her lips, and have a great deal of trouble traveling back up. Usually he finds himself sucked into the void of her gaze, but now that he knows what her lips feel like on his, he thinks he's found a new obsession.
"No—"
Ashton interrupts her with a kiss, unable to help himself with her right there in front of him. He wonders how he'll fair in public, now that he can freely do this virtually whenever he wants. Surely he won't go crazy in front of people, but he's not so sure he won't go for it when they're more to themselves and away from any crowds.
"How about now?" He tries again, very satisfied with himself when Mellony follows his kiss with a peck before pulling away.
"Still no," She ducks out under his arms and rushes to her bedroom, not giving Ashton any opportunity to hold her back, which she knows he would have done if given the chance. Ashton lets off a small laugh, then sits on the couch while he waits for the two of them, so they can head out and officially start their days.
♡
"Alright, would you rather eat ten spoonfuls of mayonnaise or ten spoonfuls of horseradish?" Mellony asks, with the mirth of a child as she makes a left turn. She insisted that on their way to their destination, they play a few games, including the famous WYR. Ashton didn't think he'd enjoy it, but Mellony, of course found a way to make it a fun pastime.
"Mel, what kind of question is that?" Ashton gets out through his laughter, tilting his head back against the headrest. Mellony shrugs, a goofy smile stuck on her face.
She parks the car in the lot of the library Ashton remembers she works at. He sits up, noticing that there's only two other cars around them. He knows some people walk or catch the bus to the library, but this seemed exceptionally empty.
"Any particular reason we're at your job right now?" He shifts to face her, unclipping his seat belt in the process.
Mellony jokingly smirks behind her curtain of hair, removing Ashton's keys from the ignition. "This is where our date's gonna be," She stops herself short, pressing her lips thin as her cheeks start to take color.
Ashton almost doesn't catch on to what she's said, but after replaying her words a couple of times, he gets it. He doesn't smile like he's holding something over her; the smile that grows on him is genuine and almost too big for his face.
"So, this is a date?" He tries his best to have his voice as sweet as possible, so Mellony doesn't think he's trying to be funny.
Fiddling with his keys, she struggles to maintain eye contact with him. "Not if you don't want it to be."
"No, Mel, I do want it to be. I mean it." Ashton nearly overlaps her sentence with his own, quick to reassure her that this is what he wants. He's wanted this since his third day of knowing her, if he's honest.
Mellony's demeanor changes from tentative to astounded in two seconds flat. She recovers after a moment, tucking a few strands of hair behind her ear for good measure, then opens her door.
"Okay, then it is." She states, hiding a smile with her shoulder as she steps out of the car.
Ashton copies her, rounding the front of the car to grasp her hand in his.
"So, what, are we gonna sit and read?" Ashton gets a head start on bringing their normal vibe back into the picture. It seems to work as Mellony huffs out a chuckle.
"As fun as that would be, no, we're not. We're taking a free art class." She reveals, glancing at Ashton to get a sense of his reaction.
Ashton likes the idea of sitting down to draw and mocking themselves together, so his reaction is mostly a look of contentment.
"Sounds great, Mel."
♡
Hours later, Ashton and Mellony are both covered in acrylic paint that they're desperately trying to scrub off in the bathroom. They'd had to be careful to touch as few things as they could when their limbs were still wet with paint, but they managed to return to the apartment with only a few new stains to Ashton's front seat.
Ashton was surprised that they held the class with only them and two others in attendance, but the instructor faithfully stood and taught them how to paint a lake.
Mellony's resembled a body of water, but no amount of angles could make Ashton's anything more than a blue oval.
Nevertheless, they had a nice time, mostly spent having quiet—more like loudly whispered—sidebar, which is probably why their paintings didn't come out so great.
The minute they got home, they had to head to the bathroom to wash off the paint on their skin, per Mellony's orders, to keep it from getting smeared anywhere else in the apartment.
It isn't working very well, Ashton's discovering as he switches his method from rubbing to scratching.
"Is there an easier way to get this stuff off?" Ashton groans, letting his hands rest in the soapy water. Mellony gently shushes him, the way she shushes Neo, he notices, as she reads off of her phone.
"Here, it says to use oil and alcohol," She scrunches up her face, but locks her phone and heads to the kitchen to grab the oil. Ashton flicks the water on his hands into the shower, then gets the rubbing alcohol from the cabinet.
Ashton's eyes follow Mellony's movements once she comes back to the bathroom and starts mixing the liquids. He contemplated asking this in the car, but they had gotten sidetracked with reminding each other not to move too much.
"How was that for a first date?" He puts on a casual face, containing the nervous moths in his stomach. (Ashton was never one to say butterflies. According to him, they feel more like moths.)
Mellony is a tad caught off guard by the question, accidentally spilling oil on the edge of the counter as she looks up at Ashton.
She beams after a beat of silence. "It was amazing. We suck at art, but it was amazing." Mellony giggles at her own remark, prompting one from Ashton, too.
Ashton's shoulders feel ten times lighter with the weight of their first real date out of the way and with Mellony's happiness about the way it went. He'd hate to have screwed something up right after taking a step forward with her.
"Good. Plenty more where that came from."
A/N: HEY YALL
How is everyone doing today??? I literally wrote this a couple of days after I finished chapter nine because when there's a hurricane you buckle down and write as many things as you can to pass the time
Anywho MEL AND ASH WENT ON THEIR FIRST OFFICIAL DATE IM SO HAPPY FOR MY BBYS
I had so many ideas for this chapter tbh and the final product is extremely far from what I originally thought I was gonna write but I love it and I hope you loved it just as much!!
Also I'm on a roll with these longer chapters *high fives myself*
love you guys from the bottom of my big ol heart xoxo
5/21/2018 EDIT: wow i'm so sorry i neglected this story lol