Spirit Albarn smiled at the child who was currently seated on the floor next to him playing with her dolls. Melody was growing quickly. The child was nearly a picture of Maka except for just a few details.
"Your sister's doing a really good job with you, every time I see you, you're smiling and giggling. I guess I was wrong about Soul too. You seem to really like him." Spirit said, Melody grinned, offering her father one of her dolls.
"Daddy, play." She requested shaking the doll in front of him. Spirit took the toy and began to make it hop toward the child.
"Hello Melody, what are you up to today?" attempting to imitate a female voice. Melody laughed.
"Funny Daddy." She said reaching out to him and was lifted into his arms.
"I remember playing with your sister when she was this small, she had a teddy bear, she always gave it to me. I do miss spending time with her." He confessed to his daughter.
"Mata?"Melody asked happily, Spirit chuckled.
"That's right Maka. Your sister's really something else, I'm so proud to be her Papa and yours. I know it didn't seem like it, but I'm glad Maka took you so we could have moments like this." Melody rested her head on his chest.
"That's not why we took her in, I didn't want to see her pay for your stupidity." Maka said entering the room. "You having time with her isn't even a factor in our decision." She moved closer to her father and sister. Upon hearing her sister's voice, Melody lifted her head and gave an excited shriek before wiggling out of Spirit's grasp and running to the young Meister.
Maka smiled, bending down to greet the child.
"Hey Sweetie, did you have fun today?"
"Mata!"Melody cried embracing her sister. "Mine."
"That's right Melody. We've missed you today."
"Miss...me?"the child repeated.
"Yeah. We missed you very much." Melody released her sister and began looking around behind her. The young girl frowned.
"Mata?" she whimpered softly.
"What's wrong?"
"All gone?" she asked pointing toward the door.
"No, Soul's waiting outside but he's here."Maka assured her.
"Didn't he have the-"
"I asked him to Papa. After what you did last time we dropped her off, I didn't want to expose her to any more." Maka narrowed her eyes at her father.
"That little punk shouldn't have been-"
"You started with him and when I got him to walk away, you followed him, you asked for it." Maka hissed.
"I play?" Melody asked still pointing the the direction of the door.
"Yeah, you can play with Soul in a few minutes, we just have to grab your things and we'll go see him."
"Yay!" The child shrieked, clapping her hands. Maka chuckled.
Spirit gathered the dolls and placed them in the bag where they had come from and handed them to Maka.
"Do you have anything coming up that I could take her again?"He asked hopefully.
"I can't stop you from seeing her Papa, though sometimes I wish I had that authority with the way you act. Soul and I were planning to go out for a while this weekend, I'll think about letting you have her then." Maka took the child's hand.
"Say bye-bye to Papa, Melody." Melody turned with a smile and waved to Spirit.
"Bye Bye Daddy, love you." the tiny voice called.
"Bye Melody, come see me soon." He said waving back. When they had disappeared from sight, Spirit sighed. He could hear Melody greeting Soul with an excited shriek.
"No matter what I do, I never seem to be any good with my girls." he thought out loud. He grabbed his jacket, there was only one thing to do now, his favorite place was calling him.
Just this one last time, then I'll get myself back on track...for my girls. He told himself once again, knowing it was simply wishful thinking.