Luke jumps out of sleep when he hears an earsplitting scream sound from delilah, in bed next to him.
She starts sobbing, clinging tightly to her daddy as he rubs her back as tries to calm her violent sobs and shaking body. She's covered in a cold sweat and her grin on the blonde is terrified and deathly.
"Shh, princess, daddy is here, you're safe baby." He tries to comfort, but she can't hear over her own cries.
Luke worriedly glances over her, making sure she's okay, trying to decipher what's wrong.
Did something scare her? Did she have a nightmare?
Luke stands from the bed and goes to her nursery to grab momo, and tries to give the stuffie to her, but she won't release her grip on his shirt to take it.
"No momo? How about your dummy, baby? Want your dummy? Or a baba?"
"Daddy!" She cries.
"Daddy's right here baby, you're safe." Luke coos, deciding it was probably a nightmare.
"It was just a dream babydoll, you're safe." He tries to reassure, but Delilah only cries harder and tightens her fearful grip.
Oh no, Luke thought, it isn't hard enough to get her to bed as it is, now she's gonna be afraid of having bad dreams?
He glances at the alarm clock, flashing 4:00 am. He lays gentle pecks on Delilahs head as she buries her face in his neck and sobs her little heart out.
The comforting coos and loud sobs continue for too long for Luke to be comfortable with this being any normal nightmare.
"Did baby have a bad dream?" He asks quietly.
"Bad! Daddy, bad!"
"Yeah, something bad?" He sighs, despising the language barrier for a moment. "Daddy's gonna keep you safe babygirl, nothing bad will happen."
Luke carries the shaking girl to the kitchen and makes her bottle, kissing her head or cheeks or whatever he can reach whenever he can and holding her tight and comfortingly, attempting in any way possible to calm his baby down.
"Daddy!" She sobs heartbrokenly.
"Daddy's here. Daddy's got you." He frowns.
The little one isn't quite sure why she's still crying either, after so long of her daddy comforting her. The dream was horrible, but it was just a dream. She still can't seem to stop crying, even with this knowledge. She just wants her daddy to keep holding her and paying attention to her.
Her throat and her chest hurt from sobbing and her eyes burn from the tears, so she clings tighter to the tall blonde.
"Baby, look what daddy has for you? Look, baby. You want your baba?"
"Dada." She whimpers, glancing at the bottle as Luke sits on the couch and lets her lay against his arm.
"Cmon, babe. It's yummy, daddy put chocolate in for you."
Delilah accepts the bottle, calming her sobs and tears and shaking, but she keeps her tight grip to Luke.
"Yes, you're safe baby. Daddy's keeping you safe." Delilah pulls away from the bottle for a minute, looking at Luke with curious teary eyes.
"S-say-"
"Are you trying to say safe, babe? Safe?"
"Save." She says. Luke smiles and kisses her cheek.
"Safe. Good job, babydoll."
"Safe."
Luke hums happily and Delilah puts the bottle back in her mouth.
The bottle finishes quickly and delilah buries her self back into Luke.
"Aw, my poor baby. Can daddy have kisses?"
The raven haired girl pecks Luke's lips a few times, smiling gently as Luke begins to lay kisses all over her face.
"My pretty girl."
"Akko."
"Hmm? Are you trying to say thankyou babe?"
"Ankoo."
"Of course, my princess. Eh, it's already almost six. Musta been some dream, huh?" Luke sighs. "Let's try to go back to sleep."
"No nap."
"Yes nap, doll. Daddy is tired and so is princess."
"Delilah no."
"Delilah yes." Luke chuckles as he carries his doll up to his room and cuddles her as he lays himself and his baby in the bed under the covers.
"No daddy." She tries to get up, whining when Luke won't let her.
"Go daddy! Go!"
"No Delilah. Nap time."
"No daddy! Bad nap!"
"Baby, daddy will be right here keeping you safe from nightmares. Please go to bed baby? Please?" Luke pouts at Delilah.
"No daddy. Go."
"No. If daddy sleeps then you have to as well, so you don't get yourself in trouble, and daddy is going to get more sleep. You didn't let me go to bed until like, one last night, and woke me up at four. You have to be sleepy still. Daddy is letting you sleep with him, so lay down and sleep, or I'll put you in your crib."
The little one only whines and starts crying again.
"No, no no, no more tears princess. Fuck, come here. I should probably stop cussing around you." Luke mutters the last part to himself as he pulls the little one into his arms again.
"Doll, stop crying. Daddy is right here. Calm down."
"Daddy! Safe!"
"Yeah, you're safe, but we need more sleep or you'll be cranky. We're gonna go see a movie with your uncles later, doesn't that sound fun?"
"U-uckles?"
"Yes baby, but only if you go to sleep."
"No."
"Yes, or no uncles. Nap."
"Daddy!"
"Cmon babygirl. Come lay down with daddy."
The little girl reluctantly agrees, pouting up at her daddy.
Luke tries to stay awake until the babygirl falls asleep, but ends up drifting into sleep himself.
When he wakes up, Delilah isn't in the bed or the room anymore. Luke groans and calls for her.
"Daddy!" She calls back, seeming to be downtairs, s that's where Luke heads.
"What are you getting into? Did you sneak away when daddy fell asleep, naughty girl?" Luke asks as he sees the small girl sitting on the kitchen floor pouting.
She sleepily reaches her arms up and Luke scoops her up, glancing at the clock to see it's ten now.
"We're gonna meet uncles for lunch at one and then we're gonna go to a fun place to play. You better be a good girl, yeah? Even if you didn't get enough sleep."
"Good Delilah." She giggles, and Luke coos.
"Do you want breakfast, baby?"
"Baby."
"Yes, you're daddy's baby. Is daddy's baby hungry?"
"Daddy baby!" She giggles, enjoying her new names.
"Yes. That's you." Luke chuckles. "Does baby want num nums?"
"Baby num nums."
"Okay, what do we want? Pancakes? Waffles?"
"Nums."
"Lets do pancakes." Luke gets out the ingredients and the little girl begins wiggling in his arms.
"Baby Tuf?"
"Yes, you can go play, doll. Be good."
"Good baby." She agrees, and Luke can't help but think that her referring to herself as baby in third person is about the cutest thing ever.
After the food is all done and Luke is about to call his girl down, he hears a crash upstairs and take add running to the nursery.
He flings open the door to see Delilahs doll house has fallen off the table, the table is laying on its side, and her toys are all scattered everywhere as she sits on the ground crying.
"Daddy! Safe!" She cries, reaching for him.
"You're safe, daddy's got you. Are you hurt? Is my baby ok?"
He sets her on the changing table to see her knees scraped with rug burn, and decides she must've tried crawling on top of the table and fell off, knocking it over with her.
"You'll be okay, princess. You want some bandaids?"
"Dada."
"Alright, dolly, lets get you some pretty bandaids and eat breakfast."
Luke carries the raven haired girl to the bathroom and pulls out the first aid kit.
"Which ones, babygirl?"
"Boo!" Delilah giggles, though tears are still under her eyes.
Luke smiles. "Good job, baby." He says, opening the bandaid and sticking it on her scraped up knee, and then the other.
"Daddy has been slacking in teaching you words, huh? How about another color, yeah? Look, these bandaids are pink. Can you say pink?"
"Daddy!"
"Yes. Say pink."
"Pik!"
"Good girl. Pink."
"Pink!" She giggles.
"Yes. Let's go find some more pink things." Luke chuckles as he scoops the little one back up and carries her to her nursery.
"Do you want a pink skirt?" Luke asks, letting the little girl get down and look through her overflowing closet.
"Pink?" She asks, tugging on a purple dress.
"That's not pink." Luke chuckles.
"Pink?" Again, tugging on a light purple skirt.
"Nope. Do you wanna wear purple instead?"
"Pink!"
"Pink is like this, baby." Luke chuckles, taking down a striped pink and white dress and pointing to the pink part.
"Pink!" She giggles.
"Do you wanna wear this?"
The little one scrunched up her nose and shakes her head, tugging on a very fluffy ruffly light pink skirt, that has a sheer part and then a bralette on top.
"Erm, yeah. That's pink. But you can't wear that out of the house. Sorry princess." Luke chuckles.
Delilah crosses her arms, a frown appearing on her face. She plops down criss cross on the ground and lets out a loud whine of "NO!"
"Delilah, be good. You can wear that tomorrow, we'll play dress up. But for today, pick something a little less revealing." Luke picks the pouty girl up, balancing her small frame on his hip and kissing her cheek before pulling out a light pink skirt that has two think white stripes at the bottom. He also gets a white shirt with pink around the neck line and sleeves, and white thigh highs with pink stripes at the top.
Delilah remains pouting, but doesn't struggle as the broad blonde dresses her.
"Bad daddy." She grumbles.
Luke smiles, chuckling under his breath as he grabs a light pink pacifier with the words "brat" written in bold white letters, popping it between the pouty pink lips of his babydoll.
"Do you want to color while daddy packs you a bag?"
"Es dada." The little one reaches for her color books and colored pencils and Luke sets her down to play and color in a play pen while he runs around gathering snacks and toys and whatever else the princess might need.
"Daddy! Pink!" She squeals, and shows her daddy the giraffe she colored in bright pink.
"Aw, good job, princess! Such a smart girl!"
"Kissy!"
Luke chuckles, leaning over the bars of the play pen to peck the front of the paci, and Delilah giggles, taking it out of her mouth to kiss him back, and then immediately puts it back in her mouth.
"Let me pack those, doll." Luke says, grabbing the coloring book and crayons. Delilah whines as Luke puts them in her travel bag.
"Daddy, baby!" She calls, reaching her arms out for the tall man.
"You want daddy to hold you?"
"Daddy."
Luke smiles brightly and scoops her up, kissing her head before grabbing her bag and momo before going to the kitchen to make a to go bottle for Delilah.
"Uckle?"
"Yep, we're gonna go see uncles. Maybe you can learn their names today." The blonde muses. "Almost time to go. Baby ready to go get in the car?"
"Baby caw."
"Yeah. Go hop in the car. Get your shoes on first." Delilah plops down to put on her adidas with light pink stripes while Luke laces up his combat boots.
Once buckled into her seat, Delilah whines for momo and Luke raises an eyebrow.
"Manners, baby."
"Momo! Momo!"
"What do we say?"
"Momo daddy!"
"Say please, Delilah."
"Pees! Momo pees!"
"Okay, okay. Do you want juice too?"
"Es dada. Es pees." Luke hands back the items and Delilah takes out her dummy to play with Momo and drink juice.
The drive to the diner goes quick, and the boys are waiting outside the door.
"There's our girl!" Cal calls as he sees Luke fetching Delilah from the backseat.
The little one squeals and kicks her legs excitedly when she sees the three men, making it a difficult job for Luke to unbuckle her out of her car seat.
The second she's free from the response she gets out of the car and attempts to take off running, before-
"Delilah!" Luke barks, stopping the pale girl in her tracks, and she spins on her heel, looking up at Luke's stern expression with wide green innocent eyes.
Luke raises an eyebrow as the little one returns to him while he fetches her bag and the paci she left in the seat next to her, putting the plastic between her lips before scooping her up and carrying her across the parking lot, scolding her not to run off.
"Uh oh." Michael chuckles as Delilah giggles innocently, knowing she broke a rule, but also that Luke won't do anything more than sending her a bit of a warning look and scolding her.
She reaches her arms out for Calum, who happily takes her and gives her a hug, then passes her on so the other two can do the same, and she ends in Michael's arms, playing with his faded blue fluff.
"Booooo." She mutters, giggling.
"Yes, its blue. What color should I die it next? Has your daddy taught you any other colors?"
"She learned pink today." Luke smiles, greeting his three friends.
"Pink!" She squeals, right next to Michael's ear, and he cringes passing her back to Ashton.
"Can you say ash, Delilah? Uncle ashy?"
"Uckle!" She says around the paci, and Luke takes it, making the little pale girl whine in protest, and sticks it in his pocket.
"Say uncle ashy." Luke tells her.
"Uckle assssssyyyyyy." She attempts and the boys all laugh.
"Shhh, babe. Ashy."
"Uckle ashy."
"Good girl!" Ashton smiles, hugging the little one and kissing her cheek. "But you never say it when I ask you to." The curly haired man pouts.
"She doesn't like you as much as she likes me." Luke teases.
"Not true." Ash pouts.
"I want her, give." Calum takes her from Ashton's arms.
"Say uncle cally." Calum requests. The little one looks to her daddy, not understanding, and Luke repeats the words.
"Unnnncccle cooooowwwy." She giggles.
"Aw! Yes, I'm uncle cowwy." He chuckles.
"Lucky. Evidently, I'm uncle assy." Ash chuckles with a fake pout.
"Assy!" Delilah giggles.
"No, Delilah!" Luke scolds. "Don't say that. Ashy." He glares at ashton.
"Uncle ashy." She repeats, and Luke nods.
"Good baby."
"Good baby!" Delilah repeats, and everyone chuckles.
"Me too! I want a cute name!" Michael pouts. Delilah is handed to him and she giggles.
"Uncle."
"Uncle Mikey, say uncle Mikey Delilah." She just giggles at the request, and Michael has Luke repeat it, because evidently Delilah only understands- or chooses to listen to- her daddy.
"Say uncle Mikey, baby,"
"Uncle Mickey." She smiles widely.
"Cute."
"DADDY!" She squeals, injuring Michael's ear once again.
"Gah, this kid." He passes her back to her tall blonde daddy, who chuckles.
"Quiet, babydoll." He gives back the paci they stole once they started to try to get her talking.
"Nums, ada." She says around the plastic, and Luke pecks the face of the paci.
"Well, lets get food."
During their meal, Delilah sits on Luke's lap and the four men quick her as to who is who.
"Where's Mikey, baby?" Luke asks, and Delilah giggles, looking between the three, contemplating, and then-
"Boo!" She points at mike.
"Good job, doll. Now, who's cally?" She giggles and points at Luke and he rolls his eyes.
"Nope, that's daddy. Who's uncle cally?" She points to the Maori male and they chuckle.
"Mhm. And who's left?"
"Um, uncle... uncle... aaaaaaaaajjjjy."
"Yep, close enough, uncle ashy."
"Uncle ashy!"