Penumbra

Little Monster

Summary: domestic life for Luke, an ex gang member, is kinda rough some times

Warnings: none

Word Count: 5.1k

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Luke held his baby close to his chest as he entered The Luxury, eyes finding Puppy who immediately ran towards him, "gimme gimme gimme." she cooed, holding out her arms.

"Just... don't set her down anywhere. It's dirty." Luke said, scrunching his nose at the bar top.

"Of course I won't, I won't put the princess anywhere, isn't that right Soph, won't put you down anywhere." Puppy said in a baby voice, taking the one year old from Luke's arms.

Calum and Ashton watched their girlfriend beam down at Luke's kid, her fingers wrapping around one of Sophia's brown strands as big blue eyes looked up at her and Sophia giggled happily. Puppy played with the little pink scrunchie in Sophia's hair, a scrunchie that matched her mother and fathers. Sophia loved her aunt Puppy, almost as much as she loved uncle Harry which vexed everyone greatly.

Ashton and Calum wanted to come say hi to the baby but they had a mission.

"What do you guys need?" Luke asked, pulling his pink scrunchie out so he could run a hand through his messy curls. He'd been a stay at home dad for a little over a year, having completely dropped out of the gang at the begging of Birdie. The moment he'd seen his baby, he'd decided it was a good thing to ditch. He hadn't been at the Luxury in ages, and a call from his former gang leader had left him a little confused.

"We want you to start working again." Calum said.

"What?!" Luke practically yelled, looking around to make sure he hadn't disturbed Puppy or Sophia. Calum grabbed Luke and pulled him, making him follow them to a back room while Luke asked "are you two out of your fucking minds? I'm done with this shit. I've been out for a year-"

"It would only be once or twice a month." Calum interrupted.

"And you'd get a bigger cut." Ashton stated.

Luke looked between them and part of him itched to ask how much more but he pushed that to the side, "I have a daughter now-"

"Don't you want to be able to pay for her to go to university?" Ashton asked

Luke groaned. He had money. He did. He had a lot of money. But... more was always better.

Luke ran another hand through his hair, "how much more money?"

Calum pushed open the door to the interrogation room, "let's just say, we can make it worth your while."

—-

Birdie's voice was clear and perfect, getting every single tongue twister effortlessly as she read through the Doctor Seuss book. Luke's head was on her lap and Sophia was on his chest, looking up at her mama while Luke's hands kept her steady.

Luke watched his daughter, the way she was so bewitched by her mamas voice, just like Luke always had been. He still wasn't used to Birdie reading children's books out loud, but he definitely preferred it to the poetry she'd always used to read to him, although he'd never admit it.

The sound of the elevator doors opening drew everyone's attention, and Petunia went running, excited to see Harry, who immediately got to his knees to great the dog. Olivia laughed, also saying hi to Petunia before Harry stood up, brandishing a gift bag, "got a little somethin for the princess." he said, waving at Sophia.