Leaning over the walkway guardrail, his forearms digging into the black length of metal in order to stop himself from tumping right over, Howard Lindon felt a warm smile form upon his face as he surveyed what lay hundreds of feet below. A mess of long black cables rested immediately below, splayed in just about every direction possible upon a light blue plain. Further beyond the reach of those silken cables stretched a fabric landscape of rolling hills and sharp valleys, all dyed a dark blue. It was a landscape that periodically rose and fell, a subtle (at this distance) reminder of what actually lay before him.

By Howard’s measure, in itself a quick glance at his watch, it had lain there for just a bit too long.

“Rise and shine, sweetheart,” he called down gently, and yet with a firm authority that he still hadn’t quite gotten used to over the past two and a half years. His voice, magnified by a wonderful little piece of technology, travelled downward and through the jungle of black hairs and into ears that were all too receptive to it. Ears he could stand in. Ears he had stood in. Almost immediately, their owner began to stir, the rolling hills taking on all manner of different formations as she did so. A small, sharp whine rose up from below, and the mess of hair began to undulate as the head it masked began to nuzzle into the soft pillow. Howard had to fight the urge to swipe a hand downward to stroke at that head, instead lightly simmering over what a futile gesture it would as one reality of his family’s makeup asserted itself upon him somewhat painfully. So he masked a sigh, and watched as the form below continued to slowly stir.

Then the head jerked around, spurred by sudden realization. The hair that had covered the face of the sleeping giant whipped around, giving up its role as a cloak, and allowed Howard to gaze downward into twin widened saucers hued with the darkest of browns, their black centers contracting by the second. Beyond them, thin lips began to crack in excitement.

“Daddy!”

The seven-year old Omega’s exclamation was paired with a quick, rough roll onto her stomach. For his part, Howard was somewhat surprised his step-daughter hadn’t managed to wrap the sheets around herself in the process of it. Then those rolling blue hills began to grow and steepen as the girl rose up, transforming from a landscape of hills and valleys as the comforter began to fall away and collapse in a heap behind the newly-sprouted mountain. Granted, a mountain clad in sky-blue pajamas, but a mountain nonetheless. One that easily dominated his vision, even while already resting on her knees and hunching over just a tiny bit. Had to keep her eyes level with him, after all, though that was more to keep him from resting below her nostrils. Speaking of which…

The Beta calmly held out an open palm, which promptly received a mass of skin and cartilage as the young girl gingerly brought the tip of her nose to bear against him in greeting. A few loving rubs punctuated with a quick peck, and the affectionate protrusion was suddenly on the move as the moon-like head before him began to rotate. A new object, then, began to press into his still extended hand, and his palm sunk lightly into the girl’s offered cheek. Another affectionate peck, then, one that earned him a pleased coo as the enormous wall began to back away, to be replaced by the return of Claire’s dark eyes that now glittered with the radiance of the morning sun as it finally peaked through the window from behind a cloud.

“Good morning, Claire-bear,” Howard stated softly, the use of his little nickname for his not-so-little daughter earning him a thundering giggle. He wasn’t sure where the name had come from, honestly. He supposed it had been from something he had seen or heard years ago. But upon his first usage of it over a year prior, the young Omega had instantly become enamored with the little name, and that was fine by him.

“Morning, Daddy,” Claire chirped with warm excitement, filling the air with a pleased rumble at clearly not having expected to be woken up by her tiny step-father. “What are you doing here? Where’s Mommy?”

“Taking your brother to soccer practice,” Howard informed, and he could see the beginnings of a pout in his daughter at being told her older brother was already gone for the morning, “and I think she’s going to sit and watch today. So I decided that since she’s spending the morning with him, I’d spend the morning with you.” Another pleased giggle erupted from below, eliminating that pout almost immediately, though it tapered off surprisingly quickly. Howard had an idea as to why when he caught Claire’s irises shifting slightly off of him – almost imperceptibly so – and instead focusing on the bicycle resting against the painted-while wall at his back.

“Daddy,” she started, in a questioning tone that suggested she already knew the answer to the question she was about to ask, “how did you…?”

“Pedaled my way over here after your mother left,” Howard informed her gently, putting special effort into applying the same firmness of tone that had accompanied his bid to awaken the young titan. It was important to do that in this case, as the orbs in front of him began to widen. Claire was…well, she was an immensely sweet girl. An immensely protective girl. And at times, that protectiveness could be a bit…

“Daddy!”

Overbearing, Howard thought, as his step-daughter’s concerned voice exclaimed from below, her rumbling voicing pitching just a bit higher. It amused Howard to consider the tone as an almost scolding one – but that was the point of remaining firm, after all.

“Daddy’s that’s…that’s really far! You shouldn’t have done that…you should have waited for me to get up and come get you…”

“Nonsense, it was just a little exercise,” Howard replied calmly with a shake of his head, that firmness being a bit harder to apply suddenly as the massive girl sitting in front of him gave voice to her concerns. Not out of any amount of intimidations, heavens no. That feeling had passed only a few months after being introduced to Abby’s daughter. No, he was simply trying not to laugh at Claire’s ever-present enthusiasm for helping her adoptive father and brother around the house in the wake of finally attaining her handling clearance. “Besides,” he continued, flashing a warm smile, “I think the trip was more than worth it.”

“It’s…it’s still far,” she murmured, though her voice now dripped with an adorable pacification of her worries, and a certain bubbliness was clearly taking hold of her if the tight little smile forming on her face was any indication.

“So did you have a good night’s sleep?” Howard inquired, taking the chance provided to shift the burgeoning conversation away from a matter he found rather silly. He meant what he had said, after all: It had been a long trip, sure. But seeing his daughter’s face light up at his presence had made it time and effort well spent.

“Um,” Claire started, still with that same pacified mumble, “not really.” As if to give proof to the answer, her eyelids slowly shut and opened again. Her initial excitement, it appeared, had worked to mask her drowsiness.

“I’m sorry,” How responded, holding his hand out once more in invitation. Almost immediately, his open palm welcomed the bridge of Claire’s nose as she arced it below the walkway, eagerly receiving the empathetic pats from her smaller parent. “Could you not go to sleep?”

“I kept waking up,” his daughter told him with a new tiredness in both her voice and her eyes, the brown surfaces seemingly losing their luster as the sun retreated once more behind a cloud. That wasn’t going to do.

“Hm,” Howard sounded, pulling his arm away, “how about this, then. Can I get a lift?”

“Yes!” came the eager reply, and the cliffside of a face pulled away to make room for a relatively slender fingertip to dock with his walkway. With practiced grace, he casually vaulted the guardrail, and landing amid the warm swirling flesh of his daughter’s fingerprint. “Where do you want to go?”

“Absolutely nowhere. For the most part,” he answered calmly, and the young Omega gave him a confused look at that. “Go ahead and lie down again, sweetheart. And then put me right here.” He gently tapped at his right cheek.

“Um. Okay,” Claire said, obviously a bit confused. Slowly, with all the care that had been taught to her by her mother and her instructors, she turned in place, her body descending back onto the bed as she continued to carefully hold her father aloft, eyes focused unwaveringly upon him. It took a mite longer that it would have taken her mother, but soon enough she was resting again on her side, and the finger that held Howard slowly approached her cheek before contacting with it. With that same grace as earlier, Howard calmly departed down the ridged surface, eventually leaving it behind for the smooth bronzed surface of Claire’s cheek. Her sensitive skin detecting his arrival, the digit and cheek parted ways.

“What are we doing?” Claire asked quietly, and Howard couldn’t help but marvel at her control. Not just of her voice – loud, obviously, but nowhere near what one might think it would be given his current position – she even kept her mouth movements to an absolute minimum, so as to disturb him as little as possible. She really was her mother’s daughter in her complete consideration, even at this young age.

“We,” Howard started, sitting down upon the cheek before shifting into a laying position on his back, hands behind his head, “are going to catch up on our sleep, because I had a late night and then an early morning. So let’s tuck in for a bit longer. Until your mother gets home, at least.”

“But Daddy,” came Claire’s immediate answer, and Howard snorted as he marked the return of her protectiveness, “I don’t think I should…should sleep with you right there. Something might-“

“Nothing’s going to happen, sweetie,” Howard stoically responded, already closing his eyes. “I’ll be perfectly fine. I trust you.”

Silence, then, as the momentarily panicked Omega processed that. Her breathing, which he had felt accelerate at his declaration of intent, began to calm itself over the proceeding quiet minutes, before that silence was broken again.

“Thank you, Daddy,” Claire murmured out, with a voice so happy that he idly wondered if the little girl might actually be crying.

“It’s nothing, sweetheart,” he stated softly, removing one hand from behind his head to gently stroke at the field of a cheek he rested upon, “I don’t want you to worry about a thing. Just rest.” It really was nothing, he thought. Certainly nothing he shouldn’t do for the little girl he had adopted, nothing a father shouldn’t do for his daughter. If he couldn’t do this, couldn’t trust his child, then that title was meaningless. If he couldn’t be here with his daughter and comfort her and look after her, then there was no real relationship….no family, not to him, anyway. He was Claire’s father. Wanted to be her father. And goddamnit, he was going to act like one, even it meant shouldering a little bit of risk.

“Okay,” came the tired, but ever so thankful reply, and he could feel the head he rested on begin to lightly dig itself back into the pillow, utmost care being taken so as to not jar him. ”Daddy?”

“Hm?”

“I want to play soccer,” Claire stated, voice low and even a bit dejected. Howard watched idly as the hand that had carried him returned into his vision, resting in front of her face upon the pillow, and he fingers curled and dug anxiously into it. “Like Corey does.”

“Oh? Why’s that?”

“It just looks…really fun, when we watch him,” she murmured, fingers now gripping the pillow tightly. “I want to play what he plays.”

“Well,” Howard started, resisting a snicker given some information he had been made privy to recently, “you just might get to someday, and then we’ll have two little stars in the house.”

“Really?” the Omega asked, voice pitching higher. “Would you and big brother come watch me if I get to?”

“Of course we would, sweetheart,” Howard stated confidently and truthfully. “We’d both love to.” The skin beneath him began to shift, tightening up as a smile began to cross his daughter’s face beneath him, her head nuzzling a bit deeper into the pillow.

“I really want to play, now,” she chirped, and Howard did laugh at that as he closed his eyes, delivering another loving pat to Claire’s cheek before returning wayward hand to the back of his head. “You and Corey and Mommy…that’d be so cool…”

Mommy.

Howard’s eyebrow ticked at the word, even as the sentiment behind it added to the already considerable warmth that surrounded him. Abby…

Howard shrugged with a defeated chuckle.

God, Abby was going to kill him when she found him here.