A/N: Haha so I know I should really be working on my other fic – but it's 5 am and I couldn't resist writing a father-daughter fic of Gajeel. Who, in my mind's eye would make one kick-ass dad.

"Daddy daddy! Come quickly I need your help with something," called the voice of his little daughter Emma.

Gajeel who had been busy cooking pancakes had to make a quick decision over whether he'd charge Levy to finish up the pancakes– not a very good option unless he'd felt like spending the rest of the day cleaning up the inevitable ash from his kitchen – or alternatively ask his daughter to just give him a few more minutes whilst he finished up – also not the best option as she'd inherited both his impatience and his slight attitude problem.

Parenting was tough.

But he'd decided to bite the bullet and take his chances with his daughter. "Just give me a few minutes sweetheart."

Levy shot him an amused look from the other side of the kitchen counter, "you sure that was a good move hun?"

He was about to reply when he heard a loud crash from the upstairs bathroom.

He cursed allowed, quickly turning off the heat from the pan – ruining the pancakes in the process – and doing his best to wipe away the mess from his hands before dashing up the stairs to his little troublemaker.

On his way up, Levy gave him a quick peck on the cheeks before heading off to the guild. After all the time she had spent away from the guild during pregnancy and then for the first months of their daughter's life, Levy was eager to get back in the field and wrap her mind around new runes and puzzles to solve, but it had been tougher than they'd anticipated with a young Emma who constantly needed their attention. So that's when Gajeel had offered to step in and take over the duties closer to home.

At first, it had been difficult for Levy to get over the guilt of not being there for the first step or her daughter's first words. But it did get easier, and just seeing how much Gajeel had fallen in love with his new role at his daughter's side took a lot of stress off her. Plus, it also helped a lot that Gajeel was an absolute whiz in the kitchen and so much better at changing diapers than she was – apparently it was no different to changing dirty bandages which he'd had plenty of experience with.

By the time Gajeel had made it up the stairs of their small household, there was another crashing sound from the bathroom. What the hell could that kid be up to?

Opening the bathroom door, he took a moment to process the crime scene he had stumbled into.

There was crap everywhere. A bottle of his expensive shampoo lay half emptied on the floor, along with pins and coloured hair ties and bandanas. The top shelf of the vanity was opened where even more bathroom products had been happily discarded, and he cringed when he saw the work of art the little devil had created with Levy's make up – the masterpiece of Lily seemed to stare back at him tauntingly. And finally, his eyes found the culprit of this whole mess, perched on her bathroom stool with a brush in one hand and a pair of scissors in another.

Moving at a battle-like speed he quickly snatched the scissors from her small hands, "just what do ya' think you're doin' with that little miss?"

She peered up at him innocently with those big brown eyes, "well Mrs Evergreen said that all girls should put their hair into a nice hairstyle to look pretty… But I tried to, and I don't know how to do that so I'm just going to get rid of my hair." She explained.

Oh, he was going to kill that woman. Ever since Levy had enrolled her into that woman's ballet classes their daughter had come home with more and more of that women's nonsense ideas.

First, it had been converting her whole wardrobe to pink- he'd been on the verge of tears when she'd thrown her little black punk rocker clothes to the back of her closet- and then she had replaced their father-daughter jamming sessions with teacups and princess parties. If he hadn't seen the look in her eyes when she was dancing with all the other girls in her little tutu, he would have pulled her away from that she-devil's influence long ago.

"Let me do it for you then," he said. To think that this was how his life would pan out. If somebody had told the rough n' tough punk he had been in Phantom that he would someday be bent to the whims of the little girl in front of him, he'd have punched them in the face.

"Okay, then Daddy but promise that you'll make it pretty okay."

He grunted in response, grabbing the brush out of her tiny hands and running it through her hair. Unfortunately, she had also been blessed with the same unruly mop that he had, making his job even more difficult as she squirmed and complained that he was pulling too tightly.

"Alright what do yer' want me to do with it?" He questioned impatiently.

"Uhm well all the girls at ballet always put their hair up into two little buns," she replied enthusiastically. "Oh, and can you put my pink ribbon in it."

He nodded and started by first splitting her hair down the middle to get two even sections, securing them with a hair tie each. He started on the left side and twisted a bunch of hair together to make a bun and secured it with another hair tie.

It didn't, however, seem to stay put and as soon as he had let go of it, the hair had unfastened back into its previous state.

"Silly daddy, you're meant to put it into a braid first," giggled Emma.

He grumbled again, getting frustrated with this whole ordeal. It was infinitely more difficult working her hair into a braid given how large his hands were and it took an incredible amount of focus on his part to ensure that he didn't accidentally yank her head off in the process.

When finally, he had woven her two sides into something that resembled braids, he tried again to wrap the pieces of hair around each other to make his daughter's requested hairstyle. This time – thankfully – the hair had stayed and even more surprising was that it didn't look half bad if he'd say so himself.

"Done!" He said with accomplishment and he watched happily as she inspected her new hairstyle with a smile on her face.

"Hey Daddy," she giggled.

Here comes trouble. He mentally scowled.

"Yes, sweetheart?"

"You forgot about my pink ribbon."

A/N: This was so much fun to write and I'm thinking of turning it into a series of one-shots, but let me know what you guys think :D

~Zarlia