Here, Darling.

Dinner was almost ready and Alaska was looking forward to the weekend, quality time that she would be spending none stop with Ava, not allowing any one to interfere on the bonding time that she needed to have with her daughter, paranoid that they were drifting apart and she wanted the pair to be closer than ever with Ava moving up through school.

Lucy had come barrowing through the house a couple of days before, apologise for Alaska spilling off her mouth as she rushed through the house, practically collapsing on the floor in front of the girls feet, as though she was praying to her for her forgiveness.

“I am sorry” She breathed, collapsing onto the pile on the floor, panting for breath as Alaska just looked down slightly bemused, wondering what on earth was going on or what had happened to turn the girl into such a mess.

“What for?” Alaska asked, standing up to offer her hand out to the girl to pull her to her feet, collapsing back on to the sofa as Lucy just stood in front of her, shoulders slumped as her face pulled into a small frown.

“I kind of let it slip to my parents that you and Zack were seeing each other. I specified that nothing was official but they seemed kind of excited at the mention of you” Lucy spilled, her lips moving fast, her tongue flicking out of her mouth now and again to slide around her lips nervously before continuing her eyes growing wider and wider with guilt. “I think they want to see you” she said sucking at her teeth, collapsing on the couch next to the woman, Ava still completely oblivious, eyes glued to the TV scream, giggling along to the grumpy old Grinch.

“Is this a bad thing?” Alaska asked, eyebrow slightly raised as she reached over to reach the popcorn bowl, scooping some into her hand as she turned to stare at Lucy who merely turned red, shrugging her shoulders slightly in embarrassment.

“Not usually, but my parents are quite out there. I don’t think I have ever found one boyfriend that could actually deal with them” Lucy trailed off, realising she was telling Alaska the wrong thing and tried to plaster a smile on her face but Alaska could see right through it.

They didn’t really discuss it again, Lucy collapsing on the floor in front of Ava, getting drawn into the Grinch while Ava began to play hairdresser on the poor girls brunette locks, attempting to plait them but instead just getting it tangled into one big knot.

Alaska couldn’t help but let her mind wander over the fact that Lucy seemed so worried and against the idea of Alaska meeting their parents. Was Zack going to be the same? Where they embarrassed of Alaska, the fact that she was a single mother would that be a mark against her in the parents book, making her seem like some kind of floozy that had nothing better to do than fornicate and get knocked up.

She had been having fun, watching Christmas movies with Ava but it felt like her mind was somewhere else, like she was the Grinch coming to ruin Christmas. Zack was meant to be coming around this afternoon for tea, seeing as the pair hadn’t been able to see each other recently, with the pressure of both of their lives keeping them apart.

Ava was now in bed, despite the fact that she had tried as hard as possible to be allowed to stay up, becoming mardy when Alaska was against the idea, seeing how tired her daughter was and knew that with how stubborn she was she wouldn’t admit that she was tired and would be a lot worse in the morning.

Alaska was tired, her body felt drained and she had felt it near impossible to sleep over the past two weeks, every time she felt like she was about to drift off she woke up with little worries or things she needed to sort for the shop.

She sighed, turning the pan off as she collapsed on the couch curling up into a ball, a small yawn escaping from her lips as she tried to focus on the film playing in front of her, though ‘Elf’ was one of her favourite Christmas films she couldn’t focus, not even chuckling along to her favourite bits.

When Zack arrived, albeit an hour and a half after they had arranged, he was tired but looking forward to seeing Alaska, and even though he wouldn’t definitely not admit it to Jack and Alex, he had missed her and Alaska since the last time he had seen the pair.

He couldn’t help but smile when he came across the sight of a sleeping Alaska, in a complete deep sleep, even thought he was a bit disappointed about the fact that they wouldn’t be spending time together know, he knew how shattered she was, sharing every aspect of herself between her daughter and her job.

He pulled his shoes off as he walked across the living room, trying to carefully scoop the girl up into his arms without disturbing her, knowing that if he did she wouldn’t probably be able to get back to sleep.

After checking in Ava’s room to make sure she was alright, Zack tip toed down the corridor, glancing down every now and again to check that the girl was still asleep before carefully pushing her door open, placing her on the neatly made bed, pulling the quilt up to her chin to keep her warm before he headed out the room.

Alaska couldn’t remember what had happened the night before, not remembering how she ended up in her room, or even falling asleep. All she could remember was getting dinner ready and waiting for Zack to arrive, it was as if the last few months had completely ran into one day.

With a slight yawn she headed out the room, the shirt she had worn the night before was completely covered in wrinkles and hanging limply from her shoulders, her eyes felt sore and swollen, making it hard to navigate through the house, barely making it to the kitchen in one piece, the banging of pots and pans causing her forehead to crease, wondering who on earth was in the kitchen since she knew for a fact that Chris wouldn’t crawl out of his pit until the middle of the afternoon after coming off nights at the job he was currently working in.

She couldn’t help but giggle at the sight in front of her eyes, Jack clad in nothing but his jeans with a apron wrapped around his waist, bit of food splattered around his body from, eyebrows puckered together from the amount of concentration he was focusing onto the job in front of him.

It was a well known fact in the group of boy’s that Zack was useless in the kitchen no matter how hard he tried. Even Alex and Jack could manage to cook some culinary delight such as toast or soup without managing to damage it like Zack could, this fact was immediately bestowed on Alaska when it came to light she would be a permanent fixture to the group, personally she thought the fact that she could bake helped sway the boy’s view on her.

“Whatcha doing here?” Alaska said, feigning anger but the bright smile on her face gave her way, Zack whipped around, sighing with a small smile crawling onto his face as he wrapped his arm around the petite girls slender frame, pulling her close to his chest as he rested his chin on her forehead.

“I came last night but you were passed out so I just crashed on the couch” Zack breathed as Alaska simply nodded, his skin warm against her cool cheek as she returned the hug, grabbing the whisk out of his hand and shooing him away, a playful smile toying on her face as she tried to attempt to save the disastrous breakfast.

Zack didn’t know how to bring the conversation up. Ever since Lucy had opened her big mouth to their mother she hadn’t been able to get the lady off of the phone, the woman crooning down the line to her son the importance of them meeting his ‘new lady friend’.

Just the word’s ‘lady friend’ managed to make the boy cringe, he hated bringing people to meet his parents. Not because they were bad people and he was embarrassed of them, but because of the fact they might not approve of the people he chose to date, after all they never seemed to approve of the people that Lucy brought home, though he couldn’t blame for that.

Zack really like Alaska and he did not want the version of Alaska he saw now to be shattered with her flaws clearly displayed in front of him where he had no where to look but at them, changing their relationship completely.

He could not even work out how Ava was going to influence the situation, not knowing if her parent’s would see the young girl as a positive or a negative, he didn’t want anything but his parent’s approval. They were important to him and he wanted them to be proud of him.

The fact that his mother and father loved Jack gave Zack hope, after all not many people found Zack’s witty banter and foolish activities funny or could put up with him, yet his parents always asked Jack to visit, never ceasing to laugh from his ridiculous tour stories that Zack wouldn’t dream to tell his parents about.

“So...” Alaska said, eyes narrowing in confusion from where she was watching Zack, her hands moving quickly to cut some toast up and place them on a plate next to the eggs that Ava was sleepily shovelling into her mouth, her eyes half shut as though she was still asleep.

“What’s eating you?” Alaska continued to prod, gently nibbling at a heavily buttered piece of toast in her hand, her eyes darting from him to his daughter before returning back to Zack, concern in her eyes.

“My parents want to meet you but I’m worried you’ll think it is too soon?” Zack mumbled, dumping a heavily filled forkful of scrambled eggs, chewing at them quickly as he averted his eyes from Alaska’s and onto the coloured table cloth, his finger tracing the pattern absentmindedly.

“Oh that?” Alaska mumbled as though it was nothing and she wasn’t already panicked and worried about the idea, trying to play it cool but already beginning to tell the facade was slipping. “Lucy mentioned it the other day when she came over...”

Zack’s eyebrows immediately shut up, the conversation immediately becoming easier than what he thought it was going to be.

“So are you okay with that?” he asked, quickly finishing off his meal and taking a big gulp of his orange juice, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand as his eyes burned into Alaska, trying to get the honest answer out of her.

“Yeah, well I guess it was going to happen sooner or later” Alaska tried to rationalise, turning her attention to Ava so that he wasn’t able to tell how worried she really was.