A continuation (Mini fic Ver.) fic of what I made for Rook, HERE
| Synop.: You and your lab partner make a mistake in your potion, one that comes out looking strangely like it's related to you.. |
Characters: Azul Ashengrotto, Malleus Draconia, Lilia Vanrouge, Floyd Leech, Sebek Zigvolt, (Rook Hunt) x MC
Warnings: Suggestive (Floyd), Angst (Sebek), implied light manipulation (Malleus)
Scroll Farther Alert! There's a narration cut for the second part of each fic after the first portion. Don't miss it! Each ends with fluff. Sebek's is long, fair warning.
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You're trying to make a simple transformation potion, aging up a tadpole to a frog, when you add the wrong ingredient, and use one drop too many on the poor tadpole. The result is a child that looks eerily like the two of you...
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"Holy-- great sevens, Azul, is that a child??"
He holds it up a foot away from him, equally baffled.
"Don't ask me! You're the one who insisted on using the wrong ingredients!"
"You were the one who picked those--"
"WAHHHHHH--" The baby flails its arms and fusses at your petty squabbles.
You turn your attention back to the small creature, looking disoriented from being held so far away from any solid ground.
Azul's watching too, as the child seems to scold you both with an oddly knowing glare that could kill.
You've seen that glare before--
"Azul, am I crazy, or does that thing look like you??"
"Weh." It motions towards you as Azul looks over it.
"Gracious, so it does. And it looks like you too. Look at its' nose and eyes."
You come closer to look, but the baby seems intent on having you hold it, squirming out of Azul's hands.
"Ahem, I believe the little one wants you--"
He pushes the wiggly baby into your arms, taking the moment to reposition his glasses, which had slid down with nervous sweat.
"I'll go talk to professor Crewel, there is undoubtedly something he can do about this."
"Child of man! What is that you're holding?"
"Um... it was supposed to be a frog...."
Malleus takes it from you, holding it cautiously. The little baby he holds has soft black hair, slit-pupiled eyes the same color as yours, and suspiciously familiar shorter horns. It coos at him and motions to his horns with curious, grabby hands.
"Whatever we did, we must have touched it at the same time, Tsunotarou... Because it looks like a mix of both of us."
He puts it on the back of his neck with his arms up to support the chubby infant as it grabs at his horns.
"Hm. It's quite cute, Child of man. We can keep it in Diasomnia if Ramshackle doesn't have the capacity to care for it."
You stare on in disbelief.
"It's... its a frog with a transformation potion... we can't keep it, Malleus!"
He frowns, taking the infant down from his shoulders and cradling the small bundle to his chest.
"The potion had birch seed in it. The transformation is permanent; so I don't see a reason to get rid of it."
Malleus smiles, tickling its chubby cheeks.
"There's no way it's totally permane-- Wait. Didn't you have me add some of those ingredients? Did you know this would happen?"
Malleus is suspiciously silent.
"Malleu--"
"I'll go ask professor Crewel if there's a reversal." He sighs, handing the baby to you and moping all the way to the desk.
"If you wanted a baby, precious, you could've just asked--"
You nearly slap him. So cocky, when there's a baby that looks suspiciously like you and Lilia on the table where a grown frog should be.
"Sevens, Lilia, this is not the time--"
He chuckles.
"In my defense, I told you not to use a sprig of pine."
You splutter, lost for words and flustered. The baby certainly seems to share Lilia's sense of humor, giggling mischievously at your flustered expression.
You pick it up before Lilia can, determined to barge straight into professor Crewel's office if you had to to get an answer on what this thing was.
"Heh, MC, the baby's smiling at you--" Lilia calls from a distance. You look down and find that the baby is indeed wholeheartedly excited that you're paying it attention, reaching its chubby arms up to feel your face and grab your nose.
"Aww.. so cute," You whisper, blowing a stray breath into its face for amusement.
"I heard that!" Lilia shouts from the table. "Don't go getting too attached now. I'm not raising another child, darling."
"Shush! I'm taking it to the professor right now, you have nothing to worry about."
"SHRIMPY, CAN WE KEEP IT---"
Floyd is whirling the baby around in excited twirls.
It's a very cute moment, but you're still baffled at the little creature's existence-- since it very much didn't exist about 10 seconds ago.
"Floyd, I'm pretty sure that's just an oversized tadpole..."
He stops in mock offense, thrusting the baby into your face.
"Does this look like a tadpole to you?? Unless you're suggesting that we both look like tadpoles, in which case, I'm taking offense because this baby looks like us."
He puts it down to play with its tiny legs.
"Look, shrimpy! It's going for a walk--" He pauses to think. "A sky walk!!" And continues to make the little one's legs 'walk'.
While Floyd is busy making baby noises to amuse the child, you're panicking. This potion had birch seed-- an ingredient known to make transformation potions permanent, if you remembered correctly.
"Floyd, c'mon, give it here, we need to take this to profess--"
"NOO we'll keep it!!!" Floyd holds the baby tight to his chest. "It's wayyy too cute!"
You pry the baby from him reluctantly.
"We cannot just keep a child, Floyd, it's not an animal--"
"If you take this one I'm just gonna make another one!!" He cries, moving to grab another tadpole from the tank.
"NO NO NO NO FLOYD--"
"Well don't take my little sea-star then!!"
You sigh.
"I'm almost 100% sure this is permanent anyway, but neither of us are in a position to care for this baby. We might as well take it to the professors and see if they can do something. We can't just hide the fact that we accidentally made a baby for our final project anyway---"
He mutters something about 'could've made a baby other ways, but it had to be the boring way', but allows you to go with the little one, who coos in your ear.
You hear a clatter.
"GET YOUR HAND OUT OF THE TADPOLE TANK, FLOYD--"
"Human, explain. Explain----"
The baby bites his finger, which apparently was pointing at it too close for its liking.
"Ouch--! What do you think you're doing, little tyke? Do you think that just because you're an infant that you have an excuse to bite a retainer of the great Waka-sama??"
The baby looks blankly at him.
"You can't scold a baby, Sebek." You scoffed, bouncing the child on your hip.
"Fine! But you still have to explain why this child has my hair and eyes and....-- isn't that your nose?" He looks momentarily horrified as he comes to the conclusion you came to minutes earlier.
"Oh NO NO NO NO MC THAT IS NOT OUR CHILD, TELL ME THAT CREATURE ISN'T OURS--"
"For goodness sake Sebek you're shouting right in our baby's ear--"
"'OUR'?? THAT IS NOT 'OUR' ANYTHING, THAT IS YOUR POTIONOLOGY MISTAKE AND NOTHING MORE--"
He's babbling nearly incoherently at this point, and you have to stop the baby from attempting to bite him again out of what you can only assume is annoyance.
"...I would NEVER have a child with a lowly, magicless human, this CANNOT get out---"
"waah...wEHHHHHHHH"
Sebek stops talking for a moment, ears ringing.
You, too, are shocked.
"Sebek.. if it's not your child then I have ANOTHER auditory atrocity of a person to avoid on this planet."
"..."
"I'm taking it to professor Crewel."
"I think that's wise."
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You/ your lab partner take the child to professor Crewel, who determines that it is in fact a permanent transformation, and that biologically the baby is as much yours as any other naturally born to the two of you.
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"Are... you ok, Azul? You've been staring into space for a... ahem, awhile."
The baby crawls around the the VIP Room of Mostro Lounge, bumping into walls. You suspect it may need glasses.
Surprisingly, the baby seems well-tempered, unless you have the misfortune of holding it the wrong way or otherwise inconveniencing it, to which it seems highly irritated.
However, it was one 'just like your father' comment that sent the already figity Azul into an unresponsive state.
"Was, um.. was that too soon?" You ask tentatively.
"..Yes.. yes, I think it was." He responds distantly.
"Azul, it's gonna be ok. We'll figure it out." You get up from the floor to hold his hand.
He meets your gaze, eyes sharp and calculating.
"Yes, of course we'll be fine, how could we not be? Finances are no issue and we could always hire a babysitter and.... well, it's not that. It's just a lot to take in."
"Today's been wild," You agree softly, gently picking up the baby to put it in his lap. "But I'm here for you."
You lean down to the baby's level.
"We're here for you, little one."
"I still CANNOT believe you knew, Malleus--"
You're still squabbling with him pointlessly, even though the damage is already done. You can honestly say you've well warmed up to the baby, and Malleus seems to be doing worse than you on the details, having apparently very little idea how to care for a child other than playing with it.
"I'm sorry, Child of Man. I didn't know it was permanent," He insists calmly, but you don't quite believe that.
You sigh. He can act clueless as long as he'd like, but the overly exuberant smile on his face while interacting with your child says more than words.
He picked up the baby and put it down on his bed, already having sewn little, special pillows for the baby to sleep comfortably with its horns.
"You better be a good dad, you hear me?" You say, less threatening that you thought it would come out.
He beckons you over to the bed to lay down next to your baby.
"I will, Child of Man, I promise."
You knock on his dorm room door, baby on your hip.
"So..um.. bad news, Lilia... it's perman-- Are you having a party?"
He shoos out at least 10 members of Diasomnia.
"I know, dear. Unfortunately I didn't realize what you had done in time to stop you. So I was having a little 'last moments of freedom party'. How sad, and Silver was essentially all grown up now.. Well, what's another 16 years?"
You're speechless. You had kind of forgotten that he was Silver's adoptive father.
"I'm... sorry, Lilia, I should've payed closer attention to the instructions and I screwed up--"
"Hush, it's fine. It's not the end of the world."
He takes the baby from you.
"I already brought in an old cradle and some food for our little one, see?"
He points out an old wooden crib next to his bed.
"Wow... you're.. so prepared, and I haven't even thought about that stuff.."
He smiled at you, nuzzling the baby's cheek a few times simultaneously.
"I'll admit, it got me a little excited. I didn't think an old man like myself would get the chance to raise a child of my own flesh and blood. But never say never, I suppose. You have nothing to worry about, precious. What you don't know, I have already experienced."
"...Thank you for being so understanding, Lilia."
"Of course, dear, after all, we're a family now."
Bonus the one stipulation is that you will not and will not ever share the cooking duties with him. Silver makes you swear by it to avoid his own childhood traumas for his younger siblings.
You brace yourself for the inevitable flurry of excitement before knocking on Floyd's door.
"WHERE'S MY LITTLE SEA STARRRRRR~~~~" You hear from the other side of the door before the door flies open. You hand the baby off to Floyd, who's more than ecstatic.
"It's permanent," you sigh, hoping he's listening. "We have to take care of the baby now--"
"WheeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEE" Floyd runs back and forth across the small room with the child, making faces all the while.
"Floyd!" You scold, finally breaking his stride.
"Ehh? I hear you, shrimpy, how can I not? It's ok, I have a plan. We'll love this baby with our whole hearts!"
"...That's the plan?"
"I spent two hours thinking of it, do you like it?"
"That child cannot stay here," A smooth voice cuts in. "This room is much too small for the two of us, let alone a third."
"Oh, hey Jade, didn't see ya come in," Floyd remarks casually. "And obviously I've thought of that. The baby will live in Ramshackle, because there's more space. It just needs some touch ups to be babyproof, is all."
"Touch-ups? It needs a whole remodel."
Floyd grins.
"Got an idea, shrimpy. Transfer to Octavinelle! Then the baby can share a room with you and we'll all be nearby!"
"Oh forget it, I'm asking Crowley to help me improve Ramshackle. Until then, you'll have to deal with the living arrangements." You put your hands on your hips and give Jade a look that means you'll raise hell if he doesn't agree to you and Floyd's half-baked plans.
"I suppose it wouldn't hurt, so long as it was temporary."
"YESSSSS!!!!!"
Floyd's excitement leads to him jumping on you.
"D'ya hear that, Shrimpy? That means you can stay here too. And we'll be one big happy family."
"Sebek?" You gently knock on his door, after having been told he'd been doing nothing but pacing around all evening.
"Sebek," you call again, a bit louder.
The door swings open violently.
"What?? Who dare disturb my-- oh. Human." He ushers you into his room swiftly.
"You still have the child? When does it leave?" He asked quickly.
"It doesn't," You said bluntly, putting down the freshly bathed and swaddled bundle onto his bed.
"Don't touch----! Ugh.. Besides... What do you mean, 'it doesn't'? It's leaving, I will not have that thing associated with the Zigvolt name just because of some lowly human's stupid mistakes!"
If you weren't so exhausted, you would be shouting at a decibel rivaling his own.
"Sevens, Sebek, it's permanent, no way around it. I can't go back in time and change this-! You were the one reading off the ingredients anyway, how dare you blame this on me?" You challenge.
"Ah-ahh.. Well, why didn't you check yourself?? Do I need to do everything for you!?" He crossed his arms.
"No, but you do need to do your task, and competently!"
That seemed to shut him up.
"W-whatever. I cannot be a proper retainer to--"
"Fine. Then don't raise the baby at all, I'll take care of it. I never said you had to involved."
"...I.. Human, I didn't say that." His tone seems to soften. You know he's got the weight of the world on his shoulders in his mind but you still find it hard to excuse his poor behavior.
He sits down next to the baby, picking it up at arms length.
"It's cute, just a bit. But I pity it.. it has even less faerie blood than me."
"Is that the heart of this?" You question gently, knowing it's a sore subject.
"Yes, I suppose so.."
"Sebek. Your heritage doesn't define you, and it won't define our child. You are an amazing, devoted person, and you've worked hard to be the person you are, and that's really all that matters. You have no reason to be upset, or worried. We can make this work, I promise. And I promise that I'll there to help you get through this. That is, if you're willing to."
He sighs, taking your hand.
"I fear I am diluting my sullied bloodline more than it already is. The Zigvolt family works with the royal family as their right-hand consults and guards. It's been that way for generations. But who would want a fae so adulterated with human genetics by their side?"
"I don't think that's true. If you really think that's the case, then why is Silver allowed to train as a protector as well? Malleus and Lilia are equally respectful of you both. You don't have to give up your family's title and honor just because of this."
He stiffens, a proud smile on his face.
"You are right, human! I shall not let this get the best of me. I will raise my child to be as dutiful as me!"
You laugh, relieved that he's warming up to the idea of having a family.
You kiss him on the forehead, giving him a hug that encompasses the baby in the middle.
"I'll work hard at being a good father, I swear on it."
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-June 30th, 2023
-Kaori