Alaska groaned as she rolled over in bed, the sun shining from the window burnt her eyes and she instantly regretted going to bed late knowing that she wouldn’t have enough energy to occupy Ava all day.

“Mama! Mama!” Ava shouted, throwing the door open causing it to bang loudly against the wall as she sprinted into her mother’s room, climbing on the bed and jumping on top of her mother. Alaska rolled over, hooking Ava under her arm and bringing her to her chest, hugging her tightly.

“Mama it’s time to get up!” Ava laughed poking Alaska in the face causing her to go cross-eyed in order to stare at the small chubby finger. This just caused Ava to laugh more, reaching up her hands to play with Alaska’s cheeks, making the funniest face possible.

“Let’s just cuddle for a bit, baby” Alaska said, playfully pushing Ava’s nose but the girl wasn’t having any of it, climbing out of bed and standing next to her mother’s side, gently pulling on her hand until finally she climbed out of bed, lifting the little girl into her arms as she made her way out of the kitchen.

She placed Ava down as she began to get breakfast ready, a mixture of fruit cereal and toast allowing them all to have a choice. The main reason Alaska was going out of her way to prepare so much food was because it gave her time to think about last night.

It felt nice to open up to someone, and Zack seemed to genuinely care about what Alaska had to say. But the pair weren’t exactly friends and Alaska was worried that the whole scenario would make it harder for them to even become friends in the first place.

She was fond of Lucy, after all she didn’t have many friends and Lucy reminded her of herself before she moved to Baltimore, and the guy’s seemed hilarious and they never ceased to make her laugh but could she really have these people around Ava?

It’s not that they were bad people, far from it, it was just they weren’t mature; they were acting their age, something which Alaska wished she could do. But would they act differently to her when they realised she wasn’t exactly what they thought she was.

Would they even stay friends?

Texas didn’t even know about Ava, neither did Tallahassee. By the time they had both started at O’s Ava had been born and was a couple of years old and Dip advised Alaska on not mentioning it to the others at the bar. It wasn’t really something she wanted one of their barmaids to advertise.

Zack groaned as he felt someone repeatedly poking him cheek. It was to early in the morning to put up with Jack’s shit. The boy was twenty three yet chose to act as though he was five, something that was fun at times but annoying at others.

“Jack stop it!” Zack muttered, rolling over and burying his face further into the pillow and trying half heartedly to waft Jack’s hand away.

“Who are you?” A voice asked, one that was definitely not Jack’s. Zack’s eyes flew open as he rolled over to be met with a pair of huge emerald eyes and a mess of dark hair. The girl began to pull at his hair slightly, trying to make it stick up as Zack continued to stare trying to figure out where the hell he was.

“Zack” he choked out, continuing to stare at the girl, she was vaguely familiar, as though her features reminded him of someone else but his was to groggy to process everything.

“Ava!” A voice called from the kitchen one that he recognised, and immediately the events of the night before came back to him. Going to the bar, the band and Lucy drinking at his house, Alaska having to leave, Zack giving her a lift, talking until the early hours of the morning about silly things.

“Come on, breakfast is ready” Ava tugged at his hand, pulling him from the couch and leading him out of the room and into the kitchen, not even allowing Zack time to make himself look presentable. Alaska was stood by the stove, one hand on her hip while the other was flipping a pancake out of the pan and onto the steep pile waiting on the plate.

“Ava your breakfast is going to get cold” Alaska called, turning around and placing the plate on the table next to the other mountains of food before her eyes surveyed the room spotting the young girl and Zack stood near the door.

“Come on” Ava tugged at his hand, leading him to the table before pulling out a seat for and beginning to eat at her cereal, stirring the multicoloured balls wildly in her bowl. Alaska collapsed in a seat, a steaming mug clasped tightly in her hands as she pushed another one towards Zack a small smile playing on her face.

“Nice wakeup call?” Alaska asked a small grin on her face as her eyes moved from his face to survey her daughter, now abandoning the bowl of cereal and moving towards a pancake pouring mounds of syrup on it in certain places so it now resembles a face.

“It was different” He stuttered, a small chuckle falling from his slip as he took a small sip of his coffee, black with one sugar just the way he liked it, “Actually I lie, it was just like being waken by Jack but without having his naked butt rubbed in my face”

That statement cause Alaska to laugh slightly, she could definitely picture skunk boy doing something like that and that was with only knowing him for a couple of weeks. Alaska helped herself to a blueberry muffin, picking away at the top before placing small bits into her mouth.

Finally Zack picked up a pancake and placed it on his plate, Ava instantly handing him the syrup, watching with an eagle eye until he poured himself a decent amount before turning her attention back to her own breakfast.

“Sleep alright?” Alaska asked, taking a sip of her tea while reaching for another muffin and picking away at the top. Throwing a small amount of the muffin at her daughter, causing her to pout as it hit her cheek, tearing a piece of pancake and throwing it in retaliation at her mother, Adelaide opening her mouth just in time for the pancake to land in it.

“Yeah, probably better than I would of at home” He laughed, running a hand through his hair as he put his knife and fork down on his plate before drinking the rest of his coffee, intrigued by he woman sat opposite him.