You Don't Deserve My Love

First Steps

"We've got to get this place tidied, peanut. Daddy's left it like a disaster zone, hasn't he? Maybe we should just leave him to clean it up."

Lily watched intently as her papa rambled on, eyes wide with genuine fascination, though, it wasn't overly difficult to interest a 9 month old baby. Mitch sighed at the lack of response with a soft smile, and ruffled Lily's short blonde hairs before depositing her on the rug in the middle of the bedroom.

Scott had a habit of stripping his clothes off at night and dumping anywhere on his way over to the bed. A pair of jeans flung over the chair; a t-shirt dangling over the end of the bed frame; a snapback lounging on top of an unused lamp. Scott didn't have many habits that annoyed Mitch, but leaving everything wherever he pleased was definitely one of them. He would have him trained to put his stuff away one day, but at this rate, it was looking like it would be easier to train Lily.

"Daddy's very messy, isn't he?" Mitch asked Lily as she grabbed hold of an abandoned sock from under the bed that had been under there for God only knows how long. He took the filthy garment from the baby before she could stuff it in her mouth and replaced with a teething ring had been lying on the dresser. "This will taste much better, I promise."

Mitch started tidying the room up; putting away clothes, making the bed, he even briefly considered getting the vacuum out when he decided that that was way too much effort. Lily was quite content to sit on her little rug, chomping down on the cool plastic of her ring.

It was a relaxed Sunday for them, like most Sundays often were. They enjoyed having at least one day of the week where they could chill out and spend quality time together as a family. They usually just consisted of some much needed housework and lots of cuddles on the couch. They were simple, but they were very quickly becoming Mitch's favourite day of the week.

Mitch was finished doing what he had to do when he spotted Lily making a move towards the bed, using it to pull herself up on to mostly-steady feet when she was within reach. Lily had taken to standing about a lot recently, gripping onto the nearest piece of furniture, and bouncing up and down while giggling quietly to herself. It was terribly endearing to Mitch, and he couldn't help but to stop and watch her every time she did it. This time, however, was different.

There had been a couple occasions when Lily had taken to letting go completely, testing out the waters to decide if taking a step was going to be the right move. She had never done it yet, she usually just fell onto her diaper-padded butt and crawled away, distracted by one thing or another. But this time, Mitch could see her wobbling on her legs as she dared to lift one off the ground.

"Oh my God. Oh my God! You're really doing this right now. Okay." Mitch immediately dropped to his knees, a few feet away from her, with his arms wide open, encouraging her to come closer. "Come to papa, baby. You can do it."

Lily smiled wide at her papa but put her foot back on the ground, arms out to find her balance. Just as Mitch was about to beckon her again, Scott's obnoxious belting from the bathroom could be heard over the shower and the music playing, reminding Mitch that this was probably something Scott would want to witness, too.

"Scott, get out here! Lily's about to walk, I think!" Mitch called, eyes never leaving the little girl who was still standing unaided at the end of the bed.

"What was that, honey?" Scott yelled back. "Billy has a blue cock? Who's Billy?"

Mitch rolled his eyes and stretched his hands out to Lily, not entirely sure what to do. He wanted to encourage her to walk before she got bored and gave up, but he didn't want Scott to miss her very first steps.

"No, Lily, our daughter! Hurry up!"

"Mitchy, that is just inappropriate. I don't know what would possess you to say that about our daughter." Scott's voice was still muffled and the shower was still running, he was running out of time as Lily lifted her leg once again.