It was decided.

Aria was going to be a problem.

Especially if we actually started to get along.

The snarky attitude I could handle, it helped me remember she was off limits, but this almost friendly tone she had just used on me had to go, it made me feel things that I had no business feeling.

"Daddy?"

Darcy's tiny voice pulled me back into reality. "Yes love."

"All done." She smiled proudly, holding her hands out for me to see the empty plate her sandwich had been on.

I returned her smile and made my way over to her to pick her up out of the stool and perch her on my hip. "That's my big girl. Would you like to play outside?"

She nodded her little head, curls bobbing around her rosy cheeks.

"Alright you go on outside and I'll meet you there."

As soon as I placed her on the ground her little legs had her out the door that led to the garden.

I stood in my spot watching her run to the little play house Liam had bought her for her birthday.

She was my world.

For the longest time I thought music was my life, that it was all I ever needed. It provided me with everything I could ever want and a never ending line of woman that wanted a piece of me.

My life back then was any single guys dream.

And then Darcy came into my life and all that changed. Everything else became secondary.

Music had given me everything I wanted but Darcy was something I never even knew I needed. She changed me.

She changed us all really.

We had been getting arrogant with our fame around the world, thinking that nothing could touch us. Then one night of partying a little too hard and I was reminded I was just a man who could make mistakes, that I wasn't untouchable. It put everything into perspective for us all.

At first I was scared, I barley knew Darcy's mother at all. I even questioned if she was mine, which I eventually confirmed.

Rachel, Darcy's mother, was a bit younger then I was, she had no idea what to do with a baby.

It wasn't until she said she would ‘take care of it' that I started to really think about what we were doing.

The more I thought about it the more I liked the idea of having a child. I always loved children and I had wanted my own.

Rachel invited me to one of her doctor's visits, the one where they let you hear the heart beat, and from that moment on I was lost. I was a father the second I heard the rapid little patter of my baby's heart.

Rachel was a little more skeptical, always asking if I was sure. I was so set on being a daddy and living in my happy little world were everything was sunshine and roses that I didn't notice Rachel's apprehension to parenthood. I even move her in with me and we began a tentative relationship.

It had been decided early on that the whole thing would be kept privet. No one besides family, the boys, our management and a few very select friends. Publicly, nothing had changed; privately we were a boy band preparing for the arrival of a baby girl.

The night Darcy was born we were supposed to have a show. I had just finished changing when Paul burst into our dressing room, beaming at me shouting that Rachel and my mum had just checked into the hospital under a false name.

The official story that the press circulated was that we had all contracted food poisoning earlier in the day and couldn't perform. We made up the show but at the time I couldn't have cared either way.

Sneaking us into the hospital had been quite a feat but as soon as I had the pink bundle in my arms, looking down at the swollen, beautiful face of the center of my universe I knew it was all worth it.

We all changed that night. I went from Harry Styles, pop star, to Harry Styles, Darcy's daddy.

The boys seemed to have something shift in them as well, one of us was a father and seeing
as we had been through everything else together up until that point it was like watching the birth of four uncles as they cooed and awed over my daughter.

Rachel changed too, she had always been hesitant about being a mother but it seemed like once she lost the physical connection to it she detached herself completely.

I had begun to confuse my excitement and happiness for my child's arrival with love for Rachel.

I had convinced myself I was in love with her, and in a way I suppose I do love her. She gave me Darcy after all, but I had this foolish idea we would all be a happy little family after that, that Rachel actually seeing Darcy would change the way she acted about it all.

It didn't.

In fact, as time went on Rachel spent less and less time with Darcy and with me. Our misguided relationship began to fall apart and it killed me because I didn't want to lose my little family, even if I had built it up in my head to be something it wasn't.

Then one night, after a long night of recording, I came home expecting to see Rachel sitting on the sofa where she had taken up residence. She wasn't there or anywhere else in the house.

I began to panic as I raced through the house looking for, not only Rachel but Darcy as well.
I froze when I saw the note at my bedside table attached to a folder.

In Rachel's handwriting she informed me that it was all too much for her, she didn't like hiding away and she wasn't ready for motherhood. She promised to keep quiet and not tell anyone about our daughter because even if she was lacking the maternal instinct she still loved Darcy and didn't want anything to happen to her. She wrote that she knew I would be a good father and for that she was signing away all legal rights to our daughter to me and that she would never see either of us again.

I was devastated and angry and frightened because I still had no idea where my baby girl was.

A few hours into a mental breakdown there had been a knock at the door, the older woman from next door stood carrying a crying 5 month old Darcy. The fear had been relived slightly but all the other emotions still flooded me.

Credit had to be given to my bandmates, they really were the best friends anyone could ask for because as I fell apart they stood by me, making sure Darcy and I were taken care of.

Louis would watch Darcy while Zayn would watch me. Liam would clean while Niall would cook. My mum was called in and she oversaw everything for me.

When it was time to get back to work, they all made sure Darcy was top priority to not only me but them as well.

It turned out that I had my little family in the end and it was worth fighting for. Aria was a threat to it right now, she could change everything and I wasn't convinced yet that it would be for the better.

"What's that look about?" Zayn's smooth voice pulled me back to the present.

I snapped my head in his direction before looking back out the window and nodding at Darcy.

Zayn followed my line of sight and smiled. "She's getting so big. I remember when she was just a little thing."

I nodded at his words still lost in my memories.

"So Aria?"

Again I snapped my head in his direction.

He smirked at me. "She's fit as, Hazza."

I frowned and let my eyes drift towards the doorway she had walked through earlier.

"She's a menace."

Zayn's eyes widened, something in my tone must have intrigued him as his lips twitched up into a smirk again. "She seems nice to me."

"Yea well..."

"Niall seems to fancy her as well."

My eyes shot away from the door frame and to Zayn's face. He found that highly amusing.

"Niall needs to keep his hands to himself."

Zayn pursed his lips trying to hide his smirk and nodded his head. "I'll let him know that someone has already marked that territory."

"What is that supposed to mean?" I snapped, pushing away from the work top of my kitchen and walking towards my friend.

Zayn lifted his hands in surrender and chuckled. "Nothing mate."

"I don't like her. I don't even want her here. She's nothing but trouble and Niall would be smart to keep his distance." I knew I was being harsh but I didn't like the way Aria made me feel.

Zayn went to open his mouth to speak but his eyes slipped past me and towards the door.

"Daddy?"

I spun around to spot Darcy looking at me in curiosity.

"Yes baby?"

She just stood there for a moment, playing with her tiny fingers and biting her lip before speaking. "Are you coming to play?"

"Yes angel. Right now. I was just on my way out." I turned back to Zayn and lowering my voice so only he could hear. "She works for me and nothing more. We aren't even friends."

Zayn didn't say anything as I backed away, he didn't say anything as I reached down for my daughter and began to head out for the garden. It wasn't until the door was about to shut that I thought I heard him say something that sounded vaguely like ‘Things change'.

Notes

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