Modern Family

Sidekick

He was on a mission. Days off were rare and he had been fully prepared to spend his sleeping and eating as much as possible. So after waking up, he brushed his teeth and then slipped back beneath the covers to lie in bed and answer emails and reply to tweets. After an hour, he had finally succumbed to rumblings of his stomach and rolled out of bed to find something to eat.

Wearing nothing but a pair of monkey printed navy boxer briefs, Austin stumbled out of his bedroom and down the hall, rubbing his eyes with the heels of hands as he headed towards the stairs. His trek came to a skidded halt just before the staircase at the sight of Jace's three year old daughter sitting in the middle of the hallway, in the midst of a tea party with her stuffed animals.

"Hey, Savi," Austin said, not bothering to feel self-conscious about his lack of clothing because he figured if Savannah never knew anything different, it would never freak her out. "Whatcha doing?"

"Tea party," she replied simply, keeping her gaze focused on pouring the water that Liam had filled her plastic purple teapot with earlier into the cup in front of the stuffed puppy Ryan had bought her in Madrid.

"I see that," he nodded, crossing his arms over his bare chest. "Where's your dad?"

He asked for Jace because it was the simplest. It wasn't as though the lead singer was necessarily the one who was supposed to be watching Savannah at the moment, because that was a task they all gladly took turns doing.

She shrugged, lifting her chin to look him in the eyes. "Unca Ryan was playing wit me but he left."

"Left?" Austin's eyes widened, his horror only partly exaggerated because he knew for a fact that Jace wouldn't at all approve of his baby girl ever being left alone. "Where'd he go?"

Her head turned again and she nodded towards the open doorway to her front which led into Ryan's bedroom, where the lead guitarist was in the midst of what looked to be a very animated phone conversation, but was glancing into the hallway to ensure his precious niece was alright every few minutes. He raised his hand in a wave at the sight of Austin, his expression indicating he was utterly annoyed with the person on the other end.

Shooting his friend a sympathetic smile, Austin turned his attention back to the three year old.

"I'm hungry," he announced. "Are you hungry? Do you wanna come to the kitchen with me?"

He figured Ryan could probably use a break from being Savannah's current parental figure, so he would happily fill in if necessary. Besides, he never minded spending time with Savannah. He absolutely loved her to pieces. Before she came into his life, he hadn't really thought much about having kids because he'd always been of the mindset that his early twenties were for exploring his options as much as possible, but the more time he spent with Jace's daughter, the more he started thinking that maybe being a father would be pretty great after all.

She wasn't particularly hungry because she had and Jace had sat at the breakfast table and eaten their usual morning meal of Cheerios in milk just an hour before, but she never passed up a chance to chill with one of her uncles, so she grinned and nodded, extending her arms upwards towards Austin.

Laughing lightly, he leaned over to pick her and pull her into his chest, knowing that she was perfectly capable of walking down the stairs with the help of the railing but that she enjoyed being carried nonetheless.

"What are you in the mood for?" he asked, stepping over her now abandoned tea party towards the stairs. "Maybe some toast?"

"Daddy and I alweady ate!" she replied proudly, her fingers automatically tangled into the hair at the back of Austin's head because playing with his curls was always entertaining.