"I really don't want to go." Parker whined, stopping his foot down on the ground.

"But Park, it's Christmas!" Michael said, trying to remain excited even though he was getting annoyed with Parker's stubbornness.

It was Christmas Day and Parker was supposed to be going over to Beth's house for the next two nights, but he was, yet again, not cooperating and wanted to stay with Michael. Beth was in the living room waiting for Michael and Parker while they argued with each other in Parker's room.

"So? I want to stay here." Parker giggled. He hopped up on his bed and made himself comfortable, as if to say that he wasn't going to leave.

"We hung out all last night and all this morning, Pac-Man, don't you want to go hang out with Mommy for a while?" Michael said quickly as he grabbed some of Parker's clothes and shoved them in a backpack, anxious to get back out to the living room. Melissa and Katie were over there too, trying to keep Beth company while she waited, and Michael wasn't sure how he felt about that.

"Only if you and Kitty and Melly come with." Parker said, getting up and standing on the bed.

"You know that's not going to work." Michael chuckled softly. "Come on, bud, you'll get to go to your Grandma and Grandpa's house and see all of your cousins."

Beth was planning on taking Parker to her parent's house later that night, that's what she'd done the year before and what they'd all done together years before that. Usually Parker loved going over there, but clearly something was different now.

"Grandpa doesn't like me." Parker shook his head, crinkling his nose up.

"He loves you!" Michael argued, reaching forward and trying to grab Parker. He only jumped to the other side of the bed, and Michael wasn't able to grab onto Parker in time.

"He's boring." Parker said, giggling again.

"Well you don't have to talk to Grandpa the whole time." Michael said, rolling his eyes. He was finally able to get ahold of Parker and Michael threw him over his shoulder, restricting Parker from jumping around anymore. "Come on, Parker, Mommy's waiting."

"You can't come with?" Parker questioned, trying to hold back his laughter as Michael carried him upside-down out of the room and down the hallway.

"No, I can't come with. I'm going to do boring adult stuff tonight, anyway, you'll have much more fun without me." Michael nodded to himself, almost accidentally hitting Parker's head on the wall as he walked.

"But it's Christmas!" Parker gasped. "You can't doing boring adult stuff on Christmas!"

"Yes I can. I am an adult, I kind of have to do boring adult stuff all the time." Michael chuckled. He set Parker down on the ground again when they reached the living room, where everyone was waiting for them. "Enjoy being a kid while you can, bud, because soon you're not going to be able to just play whenever you want."

"Okay." Parker rolled his eyes and took his backpack from Michael, walking over to Beth. "I guess I'm ready."

"Alright, great." Beth said, quickly standing up from the couch. "Do you want to say bye to everyone, Park?"

"Yes! Kitty!" Parker turned around and headed to where Katie and Melissa were sitting together on the other side of the couch, leaving Michael there with Beth.

"Make sure he takes his medicine tonight." Michael reminded Beth, wanting to make sure that she knew that Parker needed his medicine no matter how much he tried to argue about it.

"Got it." Beth nodded.

"Don't let him run around too much tonight, his chest starts to hurt when he runs too much." Michael added. He just wanted to make sure that he covered everything with Beth, just in case something happened to go wrong.

"Okay." Beth chuckled, nodding again. Michael really didn't need to tell her all of this, he knew that Beth new perfectly well how to take care of Parker on her own. He was just worried, that's all.

"If he starts to cough really bad just have him sit down and give him some water to drink, he usually gets pretty worked up after running around a lot." Michael instructed, trying to think of anything else that he might need to tell Beth.

"Michael," Beth laughed. "I know how to take care of him, it's okay."

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Michael said quickly, nodding to himself as well. "I just want to make sure that if anything happens you know what to do."

"Nothing's going to happen, everything's going to be fine. It's only two nights." Beth gave Michael a soft smile, patting him on the back.

"I know, I'm just paranoid." Michael laughed at himself, feeling stupid at the fact that he was suddenly so nervous. He didn't feel like this a few minutes ago, Michael couldn't figure out what had changed.

"Yeah, you always are." Beth laughed again, folding her arms across her chest. "You don't have anything to worry about, though, Parker's fine."

"Yeah." Michael nodded.

His eyes traveled over to Parker, watching him as he talked to both Melissa and Katie and gave them quick hugs goodbye. Parker finished up his goodbyes and ran back over to Beth, taking her hand in his.

"Bye bye Daddy." Parker smiled up at Michael, waving to him as he walked towards the door with Beth. Michael followed behind them, walking Beth and Parker out of the apartment.

"Bye Pac-Man, have fun tonight." Michael said, ruffling Parker's hair once as they walked out of the apartment.

Michael shut the door behind him and went into the living room again, where Katie was sitting on the floor and playing with a new toy she'd gotten that morning and Melissa was on the couch looking down at her phone.

"Hey." Michael took a seat next to Melissa and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her into his chest.

"Hey." Melissa looked up at him and smiled, setting her phone down next to her. She seemed a little off about something, even though she had no reason to be. Michael didn't think he'd done anything wrong that day.

"What's up?" Michael asked, hoping that he was imagining the look on Melissa's face and that she wasn't actually upset about anything.

"Nothing." Melissa shrugged. Michael didn't buy it, and apparently Melissa could tell, because she sighed and spoke again. "My brother just texted me and asked if I was coming by my mom's house for dinner tonight, her whole side of the family is going to be there. That's all."

"Oh. Is that a bad thing?" Michael questioned. He and Melissa hardly ever talked about her family life, mostly because Michael knew that Melissa didn't get along very well with her parents. He tried to avoid the topic to refrain from starting any arguments.

"No, not exactly. I just haven't talked to my mom or really any of my family in a while and I feel kind of bad about it." Melissa explained and Michael nodded in understanding. He had a hard time staying in touch with his parents as well and sometimes felt bad about only contacting them when he needed money.

"Do you want to go over there for dinner? I mean, I know we were planning on going to Ashton's place tonight, but we can go see your family, if you want." Michael said, sitting up straight.

They'd all made plans to go over to Ashton's house for dinner tonight, but Michael was sure that his friends wouldn't mind if they decided to go have dinner with Melissa's family instead.

"That's the thing, I don't want to go." Melissa sighed. "I feel bad about not staying in touch with them but then I don't want to see them."

"I get it." Michael nodded, trying to do his best at understanding what Melissa was going through. "You don't have to go if you don't want to, I just thought that you might feel better if you went to see them."

"Yeah, I know." Melissa gave Michael a soft smile, grabbing onto his hand and intertwining their fingers.

"If you want to stop by there for a little while tonight just let me know, my friends won't mind us coming over later." Michael said, leaning in and quickly kissing Melissa on the forehead.

"Okay." Melissa nodded, still seeming a little upset. Michael decided that it would be best to just let Melissa sit and think to herself for a while, so he moved off of the couch and sat down on the floor next to Katie, who really wasn't paying attention to what was going on around her.

"Do you like your new toy?" Michael asked, catching Katie's attention. He'd bought the toy for her and hadn't gotten a chance to ask her if she liked to or not yet.

Melissa and Katie had gotten to spend Christmas morning with Michael and Parker because Katie's mom had conveniently gone on a business trip of some sort right before Christmas and wouldn't be returning until the next day. Of course it wasn't the ideal situation for Katie or Melissa, but Michael kind of liked it this way. He liked that they all got to spend Christmas together.

"Yes, I love it." Katie nodded, looking up at Michael for a brief second. "Thanks."

"I figured that I had to get you a good present since you got me that awesome bear for my birthday, right?" Michael chuckled, poking Katie in the stomach.

"Yeah." Katie giggled and backed away from Michael, which just let him know that she was ticklish there.

"Do you like the gift that Parker got you?" Michael asked her. Parker had bought (well, he made Michael buy it) a different toy for Katie that she'd apparently really wanted. Katie screamed when she opened it that morning.

"Yes." Katie nodded quickly.

"He picked it out all by himself." Michael said, reminding Katie again that Parker had really put a lot of thought into her present.

"I love it!" Katie laughed again, waving her hands around in the air.

"Good, I'm glad." Michael smiled, amused by Katie's happiness. He stood up and walked over to the couch again, sitting back down next to Melissa.

"You're back." She joked and wrapped her arms around Michael's torso, resting her head on his chest.

"I'm back." Michael laughed. "Do you like your present?"

"Yes I do." Melissa nodded. Michael (and Parker, too) had gotten Melissa a really nice necklace for Christmas. It was Parker's idea, actually, he said that girls loved 'pretty stuff' like necklaces and that Melissa would definitely want one.

"Parker helped me pick it out, went spent almost two hours in the store." Michael said, laughing a little as he remembered their last minute Christmas shopping that they did only two days before. "We took a break halfway through and got a snack from the mall food court, though."

"Well, I really love it." Melissa smiled and leaned up to kiss Michael, pulling him closer.

"I love you." He mumbled against Melissa's lips. She quickly pulled away from Michael and stared back a him, a confused look on her face.

This was the first time Michael had said that to Melissa and she was obviously taken by surprise. When Melissa first said that she loved Michael about a month ago he hadn't responded, because he was still unsure of how he was feeling.

But Michael was sure now, and even though he hadn't known Melissa for that long (only 5 months), he knew that he loved her and Michael could honestly see them having a future together. He'd loved someone before, Michael knew how it felt and he knew that he was in love with Melissa.

*•*•*

"Lacey, please don't touch that!" Calum begged, running after his daughter as she continued to terrorize everyone at the party.

They'd just arrived at Ashton's apartment and so far it seemed that only Calum and Lacey were there. Ashton hadn't answered the door, Lacey had managed to pull it open for them, followed by Calum who was scolding her for answering the door when she didn't know who was behind it.

Michael carried Katie in his arms as they walked through the apartment and into the living room, knowing that Katie was shy and didn't always like to be around a lot of people. Melissa followed behind them, holding on to Michael's free hand.

"Ashton and Emily are in their room, they'll be out in a minute!" Calum yelled from the kitchen, where it looked like he was trying to cook something. "Luke and Sara will be here soon!"

"Okay!" Michael yelled back and sat down on the couch. He made Katie sit on his lap and rested his chin on the top of her head.

"I feel awkward." Melissa said, scooting closer to Michael.

"Why?" He asked. Sure, Michael felt a little awkward too, but that was only because no one else was there. He was sure that one everyone else arrived Melissa would feel more comfortable.

"I don't know." Melissa shrugged, letting out a small laugh.

"I feel awkward." Katie spoke up, covering her mouth with her hands and giggling.

"Katie, do you even know what that means?" Melissa asked. Katie was always saying big words that she didn't quite known the meaning of yet. She was just proud of the fact that she knew how to pronounce most of them and wanted to show off.

"Nope." Katie laughed, shaking her head.

"Oookay." Melissa nodded slowly. She obviously didn't want to explain to Katie what the word meant, she was probably tired of having to do that all the time.

"I feel awkward." Katie repeated. She turned around so she was facing Michael, still giggling about her use of the word awkward.

"You can go play with Lacey if you want, Katie." Michael suggested. He didn't know why, but Katie seemed to not like Lacey very much, which Michael found strange because he thought that all little loved playing with each other no matter what.

"Yeah, I'm sure she'd love to hang out with you." Melissa agreed. She turned and gave Michael a look, and he knew that she wanted Katie to leave them alone for a while.

"No." Katie pouted, shaking her head.

"Why not?" Michael asked.

"I don't like Lacey." Katie said, giggling again.

"Katie!" Melissa scolded her. She reached over and tucked a piece of Katie's hair behind her ear. "Why?"

"I don't know." Katie shrugged. "Park likes her."

"That's why you don't like her?" Michael asked. He could understand Katie not liking Lacey because she was mean or she'd done something wrong to her, but Lacey wasn't. She was two, she didn't do anything.

"She's a baby." Katie shrugged.

"She's not that much younger than you." Melissa said, laughing a little at how stubborn Katie was being.

"She's a baby." Katie repeated, folding her arms across her chest.

"Katie, it's not nice of you to say that you don't like someone when you don't really know them." Michael sighed. He'd had this same talk with Parker at some point before and it went almost the same way.

"I don't like her." Katie said again. She curled herself up into a little ball and rested her head on Michael's chest, forcing him to wrap his arms around her.

"Hey, sorry we kept you guys waiting, I spent all morning cleaning the place up and I forgot to shower and get myself dressed and all that." Ashton said quickly as he entered the room, sounding out of breath. He sat down on a chair facing Michael and Melissa, a big smile on his face.

"Oh it's fine, man." Michael said, giving Ashton a shrug. "Where's Emily?"

"She's in the kitchen." Ashton said, nodding in that direction. "We asked Calum to help make some sweet potatoes and I think he's having a little trouble."

"Oh my God, I love sweet potatoes." Melissa mumbled under her breath, making Michael turn and laugh at her. She'd been eating really weird foods lately, the day before she asked Michael to go to the store and pick up, like, four frozen pizzas.

"Really?" Michael asked, crinkling his nose. He wasn't really a fan of sweet potatoes.

"What are sweet potatoes?" Katie asked, looking up at Michael.

"Uh, they're potatoes that are sweet." Michael said, even though he was sure that there was more to sweet potatoes than just potatoes that happened to also be sweet.

"They better taste good, because, I swear, Em has been going on about wanting sweet potatoes for the last week and a half." Ashton said, laughing to himself.

"I'm sure Calum will do a good job making them." Michael laughed. He didn't understand why every girl seemed to like sweet potatoes.

"So." Ashton said excitedly, changing the subject. "How are you guys?"

"We're good." Michael nodded, answering for Melissa. He was sure that she'd answer the same thing, anyway.

"Good. Are you ready to get married yet?" Ashton joked. He liked Michael and Melissa's relationship almost more than they did.

"Not yet, Ash." Melissa laughed. She moved closer to Michael again and brought her legs up on the couch, crossing them over each other.

"You have to get married, Melly, and then you have to let me live with you." Katie said, sitting up and smiling at both Michael and Melissa.

"I agree." Ashton said, reaching over and giving Katie a high five. "I like her."

Katie giggled and buried her head in Michael's chest, hiding her now red cheeks from Ashton. Michael almost opened his mouth to say something else but was stopped when he heard the front door slamming shut and Luke's voice echoing through the apartment.

"I just don't understand why you're being so stubborn about this!" He yelled, obviously speaking to Sara.

"I'm not being stubborn, it's a very valid reason!" Sara yelled. She pushed past Luke and sat down on another chair on the opposite side of the couch.

"It would be so much easier if we just knew!" Luke groaned, following Sara into the living room and taking a seat on the couch next to Michael and Melissa. "What's going to happen when it comes time for us to decorate their room?"

"We'll decorate it with gender-neutral colors!" Sara said and let out a very annoyed sigh, probably having told Luke this same thing more than once.

"But what if we have a boy and a girl? They're not going to want to share a room!" Luke argued, coming up with yet another point.

Michael actually understood why Luke was so frustrated about this, he didn't see why every women he'd ever known insisted on not knowing the gender of their child. Wouldn't it be easier to just find out what it was? It'd be easier to prepare.

"They're not going to care for the first few years of their lives!" Sara groaned, throwing her hands up in frustration.

"What's so wrong about knowing what gender our children are going to be? Luke questioned.

"Hey, why is everyone yelling?" Calum asked as he entered the living room, carrying Lacey in his arms.

"Luke and Sara are fighting again." Ashton sighed, rolling his eyes.

"Dammit, again?" Calum chuckled. He walked over to the couch and squeezed in between Luke and Melissa, sitting with Lacey on his lap.

"Calum." Everyone groaned as he sat down, making them all even more uncomfortable than they had been a few minutes before.

"Swear jar." Katie whispered, looking up at Michael.

"Right." Michael whispered back, nodding at Katie. She looked at Lacey, who was sitting on Calum's lap and sucking her thumb, and glared at her for a moment before turning back and resting her head on Michael's chest again.

"I just don't understand why you can ask the doctors to tell you what genders the babies are going to be!" Luke continued.

"It's nice not knowing what the gender is, then you can be surprised when the baby is born!" Ashton spoke up, trying to end this argument. Emily had also joined everyone else in the living room and was now sharing the chair with Ashton, despite the fact that she was really pregnant.

"Alright, alright, but then you have to, like, come up with a name on the spot. If you find out what your baby is before you have it then you have time to pick a name." Calum added, bouncing Lacey up and down on his knee and trying to keep her entertained.

"You just pick a few names for each gender and you choose from those after the baby is born." Emily argued and Ashton nodded quickly, agreeing with her.

"Or you just pick a name that could go for either gender!" Ashton continued. They were all getting a little worked up now and Michael could tell that they probably weren't going to eat for a while and he should just make himself comfortable for the time being.

"What if I don't want to do that?" Luke questioned, sitting up straight.

"Can you stop being such an asshole about this? You're not the pregnant one, I am!" Sara yelled, clearly done with the way Luke was acting.

Melissa somehow got up from the couch, even though she was completely squished between Calum and Michael. She looked down at Michael for a brief second before walking out of the living room and into the kitchen, not saying a word to anyone.

Michael didn't know why Melissa was acting this way. She'd seemed a bit off since earlier that morning. He figured that she was just a little upset about what was going on with her family and how she hadn't seen them in a while. Michael figured that he should go talk to her instead of staying in here and listening to everyone argue about baby names.

He sighed and got up from the couch as well, setting Katie down in the spot that he was previously sitting in.

"I'll be back in a minute, Katie." Michael said quietly, hoping to slip out of the room unnoticed just like Melissa had.

"No, don't leave!" Katie whined, reaching out for Michael. She grabbed his hand, trying to pull him back onto the couch.

"It'll only be a minute." Michael chuckled. He found it funny that Katie loved him so much now considering the way she acted when they first met each other.

"No." Katie pouted, shaking her head. She really didn't want to be left alone with Lacey.

"Just stay here, I'll be back before you know it." Michael said and Katie finally let go of him, allowing him to walk away.

Michael entered the kitchen and found Melissa sitting on a stool at the kitchen island, scrolling through her phone.

"Hey, are you alright?" Michael asked.

"What? Yeah." Melissa nodded, looking up from her phone. "I'm just really hungry."

"Well I'm sure that after they're all done fighting about this baby thing we'll start to eat." Michael laughed softly, taking a seat next to Melissa.

"I didn't know that people could get so worked up about baby names." Melissa said quietly, looking back at her phone again.

"Well, Calum and Luke always get worked up about stuff and Sara and Emily are both pregnant so they're all hormonal..." Michael trailed off, trying to make sense of the whole thing. "They're crazy."

"Yeah, they are." Melissa said, nodding again.

"I'm surprised no one has started crying yet." Michael continued laughing, still nervous about the way that Melissa was acting. He knew that she got moody sometimes and wouldn't want to talk to him, but this time it seemed a lot different. It felt like no matter what he did she was still upset about something.

"Everyone's pregnant..." Melissa laughed quietly to herself, still staring down at her phone instead of at Michael. "I almost feel left out."

"Left out?" Michael scoffed.

"I don't know, it's just that everyone either has a kid or is expecting a baby except me." Melissa shrugged.

"Do you want to be expecting a baby? We were literally just talking about how crazy pregnant women are." Michael laughed, feeling even more nervous than he was a few seconds ago. He and Melissa had joked about having kids together before but the way she was talking now made it seem like she wanted to have a baby right now.

"No, I never said that." Melissa said quickly, shaking her head. "I just meant that I feel like I have nothing to add to the conversation when I'm with your friends because they're always talking about having kids and...stuff."

"You have Katie." Michael shrugged. "She's technically your child, right? I sometimes forget that she's not actually your daughter, you take care of her just like you're her mother."

"Well, I'm not." Melissa said, rolling her eyes. "It's different when I'm talking about a little girl that I babysit every day and they're all talking about their own kids."

"I mean, if you want a baby then I can arrange that..." Michael said sarcastically, hoping that Melissa wouldn't take him serious. He wanted to have another kid or two eventually, but he knew that now wasn't the right time.

"Are you crazy?" Melissa scoffed, scowling at Michael. She set her phone down on the island and folded her arms across her chest. "We do not need to have a baby now."

"You seemed like you wanted to have a baby 30 seconds ago!" Michael argued, wanting to know why everything he said seemed to be wrong.

"Of course I want to have a baby, I just know that now really isn't a good time!" Melissa groaned. She was blinking back tears now and even though Michael didn't know why exactly, he felt bad because Melissa obviously had something going on that was making her so upset. "Everyone's having a baby now, it'd be stupid to have a baby now!"

"Hey, why are you crying?" Michael asked, getting up from his stool and pulling Melissa in for a hug, letting her bury her head into his chest.

"I don't really know." Melissa cried, her words muffled by Michael's shirt.

"Aw, baby, it's okay." Michael chuckled, stroking Melissa's hair as she cried softly into his chest. He didn't know what was going on but he felt that it was better to just not ask about it right now.

"I seriously don't know why I'm crying." She said, crying harder now. She was kind of laughing and crying at the same time, and Michael really didn't know what to do.

"It's okay. I don't know why you're crying either, just let it out." Michael said as he rubbed her back, trying to comfort Melissa.

"I'm just really emotional and I'm fucking hungry. I thought those sweet potatoes would be done by now." Melissa sniffed, looking up at Michael. She wiped under her eyes, trying to hide the fact that she was just crying.

"You'll get some soon, I promise." Michael laughed, wrapping his arms around Melissa and hugging her again.

*•*•*

"Do you want to watch a movie or something?" Michael asked. They'd just gotten back from Ashton's apartment and weren't very tired, but Katie was asleep in Parker's room so they couldn't do much.

The rest of the night had gone by pretty smoothly. Michael was right, everyone stopped fighting about baby names after a while and they all changed the topic of conversation to something that didn't involve children. Melissa also didn't start crying again, so that was good.

"Not really." Melissa shrugged. She silently changed out of her clothes and into some pajamas, taking a pair of Michael's sweatpants and one of his shirts from his drawer.

"Are you alright?" Michael asked, getting changed out of his clothes and into something more comfortable as well.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Melissa nodded. "I'm just tired."

"Okay, I was just wondering." Michael said hesitantly, not believing Melissa when she said that nothing was wrong.

They both silently got ready to go to sleep, both of them trying to stay quiet so they didn't wake up Katie, who had fallen asleep before they even got back home. Finally they got into bed, cuddling up with each other under the covers.

"If there's something bothering you then you can let me know, okay?" Michael whispered, rubbing Melissa's back again.

"Okay." Melissa nodded, her voice soft.

"I don't like seeing you upset like this." Michael continued, "It makes me upset too."

"I'm sorry. I just had a bad day, I guess, I'll feel better tomorrow." Melissa sighed, tracing patterns on Michael's chest with her fingers.

"Were you upset because of what you were talking about earlier? You know, with your family?" Michael asked. He didn't want to pry and seem nosy, but he also really wanted to know what was bothering Melissa like this. Michael felt that he had the right to know, and he just wanted to help Melissa.

"I don't know, maybe." Melissa sighed. "I think it was a lot of things that just bottled up over time."

"Alright, that makes sense." Michael whispered, nodding again.

"I didn't mean to start crying like that, that usually doesn't happen." Melissa said, laughing at herself.

"It's alright, everyone needs a good cry sometimes." Michael laughed with her, glad that they were both finding some humor in this situation.

They both laughed quietly to themselves for a few minutes before Michael finally suggested that they calm down and get some sleep, considering it was already really late.

"I really do love you." Melissa said after a while, wrapping her arms tightly around Michael's waist and resting her head on his chest.

"I really do love you too." Michael whispered, happy that he could say that and really mean it.

-

THIS IS A REALLY BORING CHAPTER IM SORRY IT TOOK ME SO LONG TO UPDATE IVE JUST HAD WRITERS BLOCK BUT I THINK I KNOW WHAT IM DOING NOW OKAY