Babysitting

In which I give Adrien a lil cousin for no real reason other than making Ladrien happen.

This is one of the stories I wrote for Ladrien June this year but you know, why not post it separately.

...

Adrien just couldn't believe that he had somehow ended up babysitting a four-year-old child.

Especially since this particular four-year-old was his... cousin?

Adrien hadn't even been aware that he had a cousin until a lady who was apparently his aunt had shown up looking for his mother. When she had learnt that his mother was not there and hadn't been for a while she had gotten upset and, deciding she would go out for a while to talk to Gabriel, had pushed her child towards him and had left with only a simple instruction to Grace Hadson to "behave". Grace, contrary to what her name suggested, was anything but an angel. As soon as her mother had left, she completely abandoned the polite, quiet demeaner she had been showing and had grinned cheekily at him and had started chatting. It had been at least half an hour - or had it been more? - and she was yet to stop.

It was like the kid was determined to keep talking and telling him every little bit of information that she knew until her mother returned. She had almost revealed his identity twice, and Adrien didn't even know how she had managed it, but he was certainly feeling exhausted. Grace was currently demanding that he give her a piggyback while running around the room in pointless circles and he didn't know how to refuse her. Especially not when she pulled well-practised puppy dog eyes on him. So he simply knelt down and let her clamber onto his back with a cheer. "Let's go!" She exclaimed and he stood up. "Let's go outside!"

He did as she instructed, heading down the stairs and out of the house. No one bothered to stop him and he was soon wandering down the streets, Grace on his back. They had only been walking for a few minutes when she suddenly screamed loudly in his ear and wriggled. "Look!" She shrieked, pointing at the rooftops. "Look, look, look! There's a person up there!"

Adrien looked in the direction she had pointed and saw that there was indeed a person on top of the building. Ladybug had stopped at the scream and watched him for a second before swinging down and landing in front of them. Grace gasped. "How'd you do that?" She asked, and Adrien could hear the awe in her voice.

Ladybug smiled at her. "That's a secret."

"Woah..." Grace breathed out dreamily. "I wish I could do that too."

"I could take you for a ride if you'd like." Ladybug offered, then glanced at Adrien shyly. "If that's ok with you."

"Sure." He agreed and Grace let out a loud cheer before jumping off his back and landing on the ground.

Before she moved any further, she grabbed his hand and tugged it. "You're coming too." She said stubbornly.

He pulled his hand back gently. He wasn't sure that Ladybug would be up to taking him as well. "I better not." He trusted Ladybug completely with Grace and knew that she'd stay relatively in sight.

Grace pouted. "No, you're coming too." She demanded.

Adrien gave Ladybug an apologetic look but she simply smiled at him, her cheeks turning pink. "You can come too." She said, ducking her head. "I don't mind."

He took her offered hand and let her pull him into her, her arm wrapping around his waist. Grace was already clinging to her back. "Hold on tight." She reminded them before taking off, going as gently as she could.

Swinging with an extra child on her back wasn't too much different from rescuing Adrien from an akuma, but she still wanted to be careful just in case. Adrien was clinging to her and it was a little difficult to keep her thoughts straight, but she kept jumping over the rooftops of Paris. Grace was laughing and thoroughly enjoying herself and Ladybug was glad she had been able to do this for her. She wasn't sure who Grace was to Adrien, but she was in his care right now so she wanted to help with whatever she could.

She landed carefully on a building with a good view of Paris, turning her head to look at Adrien and reluctantly letting go of him. "So who's this?" She asked a little breathlessly, gesturing to Grace.

"My cousin. I somehow ended up babysitting her for the day."

Ladybug was slightly surprised that Adrien had a cousin as he had never mentioned one until now, but she didn't mention it. Grace, however, did want to comment on it. "He's my cousin but I only met him today!" She exclaimed. "Can we go down now? I want to play!" She started running towards the edge of the roof to look over but Adrien quickly grabbed onto the back her shirt to stop her from getting there. He was not going to let his cousin fall off a roof on his first day of babysitting her. How would he ever explain that? "I want to go back to your room!" Grace cried.

Ladybug crouched down and let Grace climb onto her back again, then glanced at Adrien. "Ready?"

When he nodded, she took off into the air, heading back towards his house. They soon arrived and Ladybug swung through his open window, letting go of both Adrien and Grace then took a step back towards the window. "I should probably go now." She paused and gave Adrien a shy wave. "Bye."

She turned to go, but stopped when Grace grabbed onto her hand. "You can't go yet!" The child exclaimed and Ladybug looked down at her in slight surprise.

"Why not?"

Grace crossed her arms. "You haven't given us a goodbye kiss yet." Ladybug squeaked and her face turned pink. "My mummy always says that it's polite to kiss someone on the cheek when you leave. She always kisses me goodbye." She explained somewhat haughtily. "It's epit- etipe- etiquette."

Ladybug blinked at her for a moment before leaning down and kissing Grace's cheek. "And Adrien too." Grace reminded

Turning even more red, Ladybug rose up and pressed a quick kiss to Adrien's equally red cheek, before turning and fleeing. Grace have Adrien a smug look. "You liiiike her! She exclaimed loudly.

Adrien turned away. "So what game would you like to play now?" He asked instead of answering her. He didn't miss Plagg's snickering from his pocket.

Grace wasn't ready to drop the subject, though. "Are you gonna marry her?" She asked innocently.

He simply grabbed a few pieces of paper and some pens from his desk. "How about you draw some pictures, ok?" He suggested.

Grace huffed but took the offered paper and pens anyway. "I'm going to draw what your wedding will look like." She declared, settling down on his floor and ignoring the blush that spread over his face again.

"You do that." He muttered, sitting himself down on his desk chair. "Show me when you're done."

...

This is so self-indulgent haha I love it. It wasn't even supposed to turn out this way but oh well.