Marco yawned and adjusted his glasses as he stared at the computer screen, his fingers dancing across the keyboard periodically. An office job had never been tabled as his dream job before, and while he wished he could live the life of adventure he would have with Heckapoo and all the dimensions she would commonly have him go to, this one paid the bills a little better. Besides, it was boring but it was something he was good at.

"Marco?" a young woman said next to him.

He tiredly looked to the side at her and sat back in his swivel chair.

"Hannah," he said.

"You didn't look ready for work this morning."

"Had a rough night I guess. My roommate kept me up for hours just talking about random things," he replied. "Sometimes I'd rather work late so I could sleep in…"

"I couldn't say the same for myself. A little coffee, a little creamer, I'm good to go."

"Didn't have time to make coffee, barely had time to get out the door."

Hannah chuckled and said, "Well you still have time for dinner, right?"

"I…I guess I don't have to stay late tonight. Can I make a call before we leave?"

"Yeah, sure."

He began going through his tabs, saving progress and closing programs. He clocked out before turning off his computer and safely tucking it away in his briefcase. He took off his glasses and put them in their own case, which went on top of the computer, and closed the briefcase.

"I'll be back in a minute," he told Hannah.

He went over to the end of the room and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. He dialed his mother's number and held the phone to his ear. It only rang about three times before she answered.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Mom, it's Marco. Uh, could you do me another favor and pick up Rosie from school?"

"Of course. Is everything alright?"

"Oh, yeah! It's just, there's this girl at work…"

His mom squealed in excitement. "Bring her over!"

"No, Mom, it's not—"

"Oh, but we need to meet this girl! Oh! I know, I'll tell your father about…a-about…um…"

"Hannah."

"About Hannah! Such a beautiful name!"

"Maybe I'll bring her next week?" he said unsurely. "I don't know, it's not really that serious. We've only been dating for a couple of weeks."

A short pause from his mom.

"Honey, next week is Rosie's birthday…"

"Yeah, I-I know, and it's fine. I promise. I already put in a request to work from home that day."

"That's not what I meant, it's just, you've gone almost a full month now and…"

"Mom. I just need Rosie picked up. I'll talk to Hannah about coming over next week, okay?"

"Okay…" she said with a sigh. "I'll cook dinner tonight too, if you want any."

"Well. I'm kind of having dinner with Hannah… Call me if you need anything though."

"I will. Bye, honey, have fun on your date tonight!"

"Thanks, Mom. And thanks for taking care of Rosie…again."

"It's no problem, grandmothers love to spoil their grandchildren."

He laughed but honestly didn't mean it. His parents did feed her too much sugar and sent her back hyper but happy, and somehow expected him to get her down for bed that way.

"Bye, Mom, love you," he said as he hung up.

He lifted his briefcase and walked over to the office door, holding it open for Hannah, who had respectfully given him privacy during the call.

"Ladies first."

She smiled as she walked past and said, "Such a gentleman."

He had made every effort to keep Rosie a secret in the office. His employer knew, of course, but while most parents kept pictures and sticky notes on their desks here, he was well organized and pretty empty. There was a single magnet with the NHL logo on it that Rosie had gotten him for his birthday just last year. It was something she was particularly excited about and wanted him to show it off to everyone, even though it wasn't even the right sport. Instead of drawing a ton of attention to it, he stuck it to the side of his desk and turned down each question about the latest hockey game he didn't know anything about.

Rosie was generally just his "roommate." It wasn't a complete lie, they did live together. It allowed him flexibility to mess up and say "we" instead of only ever referring to himself. Her name or even gender was kept secret, except this time so people wouldn't think he was living with some young woman which would open a whole can worms he didn't want to open.

Finally, his appearance as a completely unattached young bachelor with his own place and no children was a front to protect him from having to deal with any potential rumors that would float around the office about why he was a single father in the first place. It also stopped anyone from asking about the mother's situation as well, assuming they were bold enough to.

Normally he would've driven his date but because this meant Hannah would have to leave her car at work, they agreed to just meet at the restaurant. She had already offered to pay before, but he had never let her pay for a meal and never planned to.

He pulled up to a hole-in-the-wall burger joint and sat listening to music on the radio, waiting for his date to park somewhere nearby. It took a few minutes—enough time for one full song to play—before he recognized her car pulling into the lot. Probably got stuck at a light or two.

He turned his car off once he saw her back into a parking space and waited for her just beside the doors. He hadn't actually been on a proper date with her, not yet at least. It was always going to a restaurant straight from work, because weekends were reserved for Rosie and because any other night was…also reserved for Rosie. He hadn't had much free time between work and a kid.

But seeing as he and Hannah were so compatible, maybe soon he wouldn't have to choose.

He held the door open just as she was tucking away her keys in her purse.

"Sorry," she said, "I hit a red light."

"No worries."

She went before him after he asked for a table for two and the hostess immediately walked them to a small table in the back corner of the restaurant. They were handed menus and she left. She hadn't said a single word to them the whole time, something he thought was a little odd for a hostess but maybe she'd had a long day and didn't want to risk conversation with strangers.

"So this place is supposed to be good, huh?" he asked.

"Yeah. Sometimes the service can be slow but I've never had a problem with the food here," she answered.

"How come I've never heard of it?"

"It's always been pretty small. One of those hidden gems," she said. "I actually found it when my dad decided to try to places we'd never been to before."

Hannah was the one who recommended this after maybe their first week of dating? They were only now getting around to going here though. There wasn't much of an excuse as to why, it just never really happened until now.

"So, about your—"

She was stopped by a waitress asking their drink orders—they both just got waters—and if they were ready to order their meals yet. Neither of them had actually opened the menu but Hannah looked like she already knew what to get. She didn't order anything, saying they needed another minute, and it sent the waitress back away.

"So, you were saying?" Marco asked.

"I was just going ask about this mysterious roommate of yours. Is he fighting with you over anything?"

He opened his mouth to speak but he didn't have much to say. Truthfully, he did want to give this relationship with her a shot. But she was still young and there was a good chance she didn't want to be involved with kids yet. If not for Rosie having actually been his baby, he likely wouldn't have taken kindly to being forced into parenthood. Granted, he was only 18 at the time Rosie was born, but Hannah was still in her early twenties which wasn't too much older than him when he first became a parent. Well…they both were still kind of young but at least he was used to it. He highly doubted she had a kid too.

"Why do you ask?"

"You've just been losing a lot of sleep lately and you said your roommate was keeping you up," she answered. "Sorry if I'm getting too personal about it though."

"No, no, you're fine, it's just um…" He had to take a quick breath before continuing. "It's just… Look…Hannah, I can see our relationship possibly going somewhere…and…" Might as well just rip the bandaid off, better than waiting until they were getting serious before dropping a kid on her.

"This might be a dealbreaker but my roommate, she's sort of…"

His voice trailed off when Hannah began to look concerned, and it was then that he realized she was probably getting the wrong impression upon finding out he lived with a girl.

"Oh, no, it's not like that at all—"

"Are things…you know, weird between you guys right now…?"

"No, really, it isn't like that, I swear! She's not… We're not together in that kind of a way, she's just…" He really liked this girl but still, who was going to handle this bombshell well? "She's my daughter."

"Oh…wow, you…you have a kid?"

The look on her face wasn't promising.

"Yeah," he sighed. "Sorry I didn't tell you sooner, I didn't know how you'd react."

"You never mentioned anything about a kid in the office before. I don't even see any pictures on your desk, why—"

"I don't like the idea of having to answer questions about her."

"Is everything okay? Did something happen to her?"

"It's not her, it's just the whole situation with her mother and I just…"

"Oh…custody issues?"

He felt his heart rate starting to pick up.

"Her mom never…"

In his mind he laughed bitterly. He had a kid with the dead magical princess from another dimension. Never told said kid anything about her mother except that she wasn't with them right now and had gone somewhere else. It would've been easier if Star had just not made the decision she made and not left them both alone. They could've been a family, Rosie could've had a mom the whole time, Star wouldn't have died. Yes, sure, protecting Mewni, but what good was it in the end if the king and prince were just going to kill her anyway? Because of a mistake?! No! She could've come through that portal with him and she knew it! But if he was in anyone else's shoes, except his parents and closest friends, he would be an absolute lunatic upon telling that story.

"Did she leave…?"

"Her mom died…" he muttered. "On…on the same day she was born."

Hannah looked visibly less comfortable when she heard him say that but her comfort was the least of his concerns. His entire chest was constricted now. It was getting harder and harder to breathe. He tried to even it out for show and picked up the menu.

"I'm really sorry," Hannah said. "That must have been so hard…"

He bluffed a smile. "It's okay. This was years ago."

He set the bottom of the menu on the table and rubbed a thumb on the table, focusing on the smooth texture of the wood while pretending to decide on an order.

Maybe just try to get over this more quickly and then move on to her domestic life. Things like her interests and hobbies and whatever he hadn't found out yet. He knew she liked art, maybe he could ask her if she'd ever been to an art museum before.

He tried to hold his breath but even staring at the menu, he felt her concern.

"Hey, I have to use the bathroom real quick," he said, excusing himself. "If the waitress comes back can you order me a plain cheeseburger and fries?"

"Oh…sure," she replied.

He slid out of the booth and power-walked towards the bathroom, conveniently located directly across where they had been seated so he didn't have to look around first. The moment the door closed behind him he drew a deep breath. And with that breath, the one that still brought him no oxygen, came many more. He holed himself up in a stall but it only seemed to make the heavy breathing louder and heavier. Focusing on the here and now wasn't working either.

But he didn't expect it to.

He held his breath, not to calm him or his heart down, but so that he could build up enough saliva in his mouth without it drying up. He pulled out a small plastic sandwich bag containing three pills from his pants pocket and popped one of them in his mouth, using his own spit to wash it down like a drink.

He allowed himself to breath again and air burst forth, like his lungs exploded and pieced themselves back together just in time for the next inhale.

He closed the bag and stuffed it back in his pocket. He didn't have to completely calm down before going back but he at least wanted to not pass out. Until his breathing began evening out, he closed his eyes and leaned against the stall wall. He smoothed his hand over it, the door, and the door hinge, identifying each object from memory and trying to focus on everything that particular hand touched. Eventually he moved to his shirt, focusing on the fabric, and moved up to his tie, focusing on a different type of fabric.

Star was out of his thoughts soon enough, maybe within a few minutes at most, and he washed his hands after touching all the stall walls and door and just…all the dirtiest areas.

He could confidently return to his date, much more relaxed than when he left.

"Sorry," he said.

The order had already come and was waiting on the table. He had obviously been in the bathroom longer than he thought. She hadn't eaten a bite of her food, which only made him feel guilty about leaving her.

"It's okay," she said. "Let's talk about something else. Um…what is your daughter's name?"

"Her name is Rosalind, but everyone calls her Rosie for short. Middle name is Sophia," he answered.

"Those are beautiful names. What does she look like?"

"Brown hair, blue eyes, and she's only six so she's still a little on the short side. And assuming she hasn't had a bath yet, usually covered in glitter or stickers."

"Maybe you have a little artist on your hands," Hannah laughed.

"If only you saw my refrigerator…"

"Bet it has a lot of pictures on it."

"You can't even see the door anymore."

"How do you hold that many on?"

"Lots and lots of magnets. I have a gigantic cupcake magnet there, it holds about three at a time, maybe more if I tried," he said.

"A cupcake?"

"Father's Day gift. Had to be extra sparkly. Came with a rubber duck tie I had to wear all day."

Hannah laughed at that last part and he couldn't help but smile—not at the fond memory of his family mocking him that day with sarcastic compliments that Rosie never picked up on, but because somehow making her happy made him happy. And maybe because she was so interested in Rosie that he wouldn't have to worry as much about rejection.

Which was actually a little worrying. Rosie didn't look like other children. Her wings were too small to actually fold behind her yet and occasionally they poked out from her hair, long as it was. And the star-shaped cheek marks, they weren't easy to pass of as a birthmark. Some people seemed ignorant and didn't care, they just accepted whatever he told them, but sometimes he had to make excuses on the fly and that wasn't always easy.

His usual go-to was a pair of temporary tattoos. He didn't always get a lot of respect for that one, with a ton of people saying he was setting her up for a gross rebel punk look in her teenage years, but it worked pretty well so despite the number of people questioning his parenting style, he kept using it.

Rosie was too young for makeup and probably wouldn't hold still long enough for him to cover it up anyway. Maybe if she knew magic she could hide all her abnormalities with some kind of spell or whatever, but aside from her hair, the one thing she didn't inherit from Star was magical ability. One side of him was appreciative of that because in no way was he qualified to train her to control it, and the other side wished she could brush her own hair and pick out her own clothes and instantly clean up all the messes she made.

"Would you, maybe, be interested in meeting my parents next week…?" he asked shyly.

She couldn't meet Rosie until he could figure out a way to hide the wings and cheek marks but he did promise his mom that he would talk to Hannah about meeting them.

"O-Oh…um, that's pretty—"

"I know it's big. I called my mom to pick Rosie up from school and she was really wanting to meet you and it was just a whole thing."

Hannah pushed some of her hair back behind her ear.

"I'm not doing anything this Saturday…" she mumbled. "I guess it wouldn't hurt…"

He would have to get a babysitter then. Usually it was his mom but if Hannah was meeting both his parents they couldn't do it. He couldn't leave her alone with them, that would be awkward for everyone. He couldn't let her meet Rosie yet and Rosie was too young to stay home alone.

Perhaps…he could call in Janna… She would definitely not be his first choice but Alfonzo and Ferguson both worked weekends and those were the three he trusted that knew about Rosie's…features. He could also ask Oskar but although Oskar had matured somewhat since his high school days, he still lacked the sense of responsibility required to care for a child.

Janna it was.

"Saturday sounds good, as long as you're comfortable with it," he said. "I don't want you to feel pressured."

He was too nervous to mention how good she was being about him having a kid. Diverting the conversation from Rosie to his parents was probably the best thing to do right now. Maybe the next discussion would go in a different direction. If there was one… There was a chance she was just being polite about all this but didn't actually want anything to do with Rosie or his parents.

"If I give you my Saturday, you have to give me something," she said.

"Uh, sure, what?" he asked.

She reached out to take one of his fries and he chuckled, not even attempting to stop her.

"Already stealing my food, huh?" he said.

"They have the best fries here," she replied.

He realized he actually hadn't touched his food, while she had been steadily nibbling on hers.

He bit into his burger while she took a fry or two at random intervals, despite having her own side of fries. Rosie took his food all the time—"sharing"—so having his food stolen from him was something he was used to.

Aside from that one…incident, the rest of the date went well. He didn't bring Rosie up again, deciding to tone it down so she wouldn't be overwhelmed or think that all he could talk about was his kid. One of those dads…

But she didn't bring up Rosie or his parents again either, which for some reason worried him. She had seemed interested in Rosie at first but…well, maybe it was just her way of being nice to him.

It was his phone ringing that pulled him out of a conversation about what they were both like as young children. When he checked, it was his mom.

"Excuse me for a minute," he said.

He stood up and walked off for the second time on the same date and answered it.

"Hi, honey!"

"Hi, Mom. Is everything okay?" he asked.

"Well, yes, sort of," his mom answered.

"What is 'sort of?' Is Rosie okay? Is she hurt?"

"She's fine but what do you normally do to make her stop this…uh, she keeps doing this thing with her wings…"

"Her wings…?"

"She keeps pulling her hair over her shoulder and she's constantly trying to jump off the furniture, and she's actually flapping them really fast. And when she took a bath they started splashing water all over the place," his mother explained. "She's never done this with us before."

He sighed and punched the bridge of his nose.

"She has this crazy obsession with flying lately…" he said. "I don't know why. I keep telling her they're not big enough to fly yet but she hasn't been listening. It keeps getting worse…"

"I-I hate to drag you away from your date but maybe you'll have better luck calming her down than us…?"

He heard a loud CLAP! in the background and his father yelling Rosie's name, followed up with an angry, shrill cry. Rosie responded with something incomprehensible.

"I'll be there in a few minutes," he said, trying to hide the tone of utter defeat.

He hung up and put his phone away. For some reason Rosie had taken a keen and unusual interest in flying since he had that discussion with her last week. It was like she seemed so determined to fly as well as any bird—or angel—that she just couldn't wait for her wings to grow big enough to support her weight. Although, trying to do this in the bathtub was new. It made him think that maybe this whole flying thing was less of a mental phase and more of an instinct she couldn't suppress. Like a bird…or an angel.

He walked over to Hannah and rubbed his arm.

"Something came up and I have to go, I'm so sorry," he said.

"It's no problem," she replied. "I should probably be heading out myself anyway. I'm more of a morning person than a night owl and it's getting a little late for me."

With a single phone call the whole date was over. He wasn't even sure if she wanted it to end yet…

Rosie's behavior was disappointing tonight, especially considering she was pretty good with her grandparents watching her, but he wasn't there to get the situation under control. Chances were, his parents had attempted to do his job when she got like this and she was only used to him settling these things down. Not the flight part of it but the bad behavior in general. And it wasn't the first time he'd had his romantic life interrupted simply by having a child.

He pulled into his parents' driveway and took a deep breath, not even to calm himself, just to prepare for a temper tantrum.

The moment he walked in the house, his father had just stopped Rosie from jumping off a chair.

"Oh, Marco, thank goodness!" his mom said.

"I can do it!" Rosie cried in frustration. "Let me do it!"

"Rosie!" Marco shouted.

She turned her head and froze in fear now that she had been caught red-handed.

He crossed his arms, tapped his foot, and stared at her intensely while his father brought her down from the chair.

"Now go to your father," his dad said.

"Rosie, have you been bad for Grandma and Grandpa?"

She slowly approached him, knowing she was in trouble and not wanting to get in any more.

"I can fly…" she mumbled. "They won't let me fly…"

"Rosie, we already talked about this! You were jumping off furniture! The only thing you can do right now is hurt yourself trying! Baby birds have to stay in the nest!"

"But I have angel wings, I'm special…"

"You're not ready ye—"

He took another breath. There was no way she was going to listen to actual reason. And it wasn't like he could explain the science behind tiny wings and liftoff being impossible for anything but a bug.

He knelt down to her level and held her shoulders. She immediately looked at the floor.

"Rosie, look at me."

She reluctantly turned her eyes up to meet his.

"Tell me why you want to fly so bad. You weren't interested in this before," he said.

She crossed her arms and scowled.

"Brandon climbed a tree!" she growled.

"Who is Brandon?"

"He's a boy in school and he always climbs all the tree branches!"

"A-And why, exactly, is him climbing a tree bad?"

"Because when I try to climb it I fall down, and he makes fun of me because I can't reach the top!"

Well it was a stupid reason to throw herself off anything, but at least it made sense why she was suddenly trying so hard to do something even she had to know she couldn't do yet.

"Ah, who cares about what Brandon thinks?" Marco said. "Boys are so dumb."

"His friends laugh too!"

She kicked at the ground.

"Well, are they all boys?"

"Yeah…"

"Then they're dumb too. Why is a smart girl like you listening to a bunch of dummies?"

"I just want to climb the tree too…" she muttered.

He bit his lip trying to think of some sort of distraction that might make this all better. He couldn't really blame her for being mad about being bullied in school and in the eyes of a child, he supposed she did have a good reason for her determination. Flying to a branch, or at least getting her wings to help her reach a branch, was her solution to her problem.

"Hey," he said, "you want to see how Daddy climbs a tree?"

"Okay…"

This was going to absolutely suck.

He stood back up and held her hand as they walked outside. There were only two trees in front yard but that was alright. They both had…sort of low-hanging branches. He let her choose which tree he would climb.

The one on the right.

"What if you show me how far up you can go?" he said.

"I'll fall."

"That's okay. I'll be right here to catch you. Promise."

She slowly moved towards the first branch and immediately everyone could tell it was too high up for her to reach, so he gave her a boost. He noticed the harsh fluttering, almost buzzing sound of her little wings. And he wasn't entirely sure if she was just pulling herself up or if, maybe, her wings were actually helping lift her…

She lifted herself on the first branch and reached out for the next.

As she did, he heard the same sound as before, and swore it looked slightly easier for her to get to the second branch. It also happened with the third.

It wasn't completely worrisome but it did catch his attention. He could compare her to a bird or even an angel all he wanted but she wasn't completely human. There was a chance that Earth's physics didn't always apply to her specifically. Or maybe she did possess some amount of magic and she was unintentionally channeling it in flight. What if she threw herself off furniture because she could feel herself grow lighter when she flapped her wings in full force?

Rosie finally fell when she was reaching for the sixth branch, upon which he noticed the sound hadn't been heard when she tried to get on it. He caught her easily, but maybe she had been too far up at that point…?

He let her take a few breaths before setting her down. His turn, and she was waiting.

"You got pretty high up," he lied. "But I bet I can do better."

She didn't have any specific expression that told him what she might be feeling, so he prepared to climb this tree too.

He started by lifting himself onto the first branch, letting one foot slip so she could see him falter. The next branch…well…

He looked back down at Rosie, who was watching him very closely, and tried to brace himself.

He accidentally failed to grab onto the second branch firmly enough and jumped anyway. His hand slipped off the branch and the next thing he felt was solid ground again his back. Rosie was laughing her little head off while both his parents, who happened to be watching from the doorway without ever telling him anything, cringed.

He slowly lifted himself off the ground and hunched himself over in pain.

"Looks like you win!" he said through gritted teeth—with a smile of course.

"I'm better at climbing than you, Daddy!"

"Yup!"

Brandon better cool it after this one. If Rosie flapped her wings one more time he was going to have a talk with that kid's father. He would definitely talk to the school principal.

A/N

Hope you're enjoying it so far, I know things aren't very action-packed right now, but next chapter promises to pick up slack. Right now I find myself needing a slower, more fitting pace for Marco's new life. This is also a sort of test for me, how can I make Marco a dad without absolutely destroying his personality? Anyway! Read, review, all that good stuff, and I hope you'll look forward to more updates! :)