Author's Note: Tickling The Tiger is sort of like a nursey story, and it has a catchy title as well. And while Ryan is mostly in many of my Lilly one-shots, I thought Chad would be the perfect baby-sitter for this, considering it'd be cute that he would have a temper, but learns to soften up when he's around Lilly. Enjoy, and happy reading!

Chapter One: Tickling The Tiger

Chad Danforth wasn't all that excited to baby-sit Lilly Jacobs alone.

Especially that one time when Lilly wanted to go outside, and they ran into Anthony and Dennis.

But, like the rest of the Wildcats, he loved Lilly to death, and treated her like a sister.

It was a Sunday afternoon, a day where Chad could be shooting hoops with Troy, but then again, he wasn't that selfish to only think of himself.

Lilly was off doing something else, so he had some peace and quiet to work on his schoolwork: dreaded science, no less.

About an half-hour or so, he heard a voice ask:

"Wanna play?"

Of course, it was Lilly, sitting by him, and pleading with her eyes big as plates.

Chad shook his head as he showed her the textbook.

"Sorry, Lilly. I'd love to, but I have science to do. What do you normally do when you are baby-sat by everyone else?"

Lilly shrugged, and Chad had a feeling he wasn't going to get anything done.

Not unless he plays a game with Lilly.

"Well, what does Ryan do when he's here?" Chad asked, refering to Lilly's favorite baby-sitter, Ryan Evans.

"Plays 'Don't Tickle The Tiger'." Lilly replied, and Chad raised an eyebrow.

Ocean And Rivers was one thing, but Don't Tickle The Tiger?

"Lilly, I don't.."

That's when Lilly pounced on him, and started to tickle him, but Chad got Lilly off of him as soon as she climbed on his lap.

"Lilly, listen to me. I don't have time to play games."

But, he knew he made a mistake when Lilly started to cry: hard, long, and loud.

And that excate moment, Chad felt guilty.

Stubborness was always a given in the Danforth household: Mrs. Danforth believed that Chad gotten it from his father, and sometimes Chad needed to learn to control it, and his temper.

Lilly got off the couch, and Chad sighed, pushing his text-book aside, and ran to catch up with her.

"Lilly?" he asked, knocking on her door.

"Go away! I don't want to see you!" Lilly called from the other side.

"Look, I'm sorry...but, you need to realize that I won't have to time to play with you if I'm doing my homework."

He looked as Lilly opened the door just a crack, and he could feel her glaring at him.

"Your not sorry! Your mean!" Lilly stated, and Chad sighed.

"I'm not mean. I just have too much stuborness, as well as a temper. Sometimes I need to control them every once and while, and I'd never slash out at you for no apparent reason, or would I want to hurt your feelings." Chad said, and Lilly opened the door little wider.

"Really?" she asked, and Chad gave her a smile.

"Really." he said, and extanded a hand so Lilly could take it.

Once Chad and Lilly got back downstairs, Chad had Lilly sit on the floor with a coloring book and crayons, and he settled back down on the couch, getting back to science.

Every once and while, his eyes would wander to Lilly, who was busily humming a tune that Kelsi Nielsen had taught her, and for the second time that day, he smiled.

Just like Ryan, Chad wasn't too crazy about taking care of little kids.

Heck, he was only seventeen years old!

How was he suppose to know about taking care of a little girl?

But, Lilly wasn't hard to take care of: you just couldn't get mad at her, and she wouldn't show a sign of tears.

It was also that while she was easy to take care of, she had a case of Asperger's Sydrome: a type of autism that makes her afraid of people.

So it was perfectly understandable for her to be mad at Chad awhile ago because she was afraid of him: to see one of your baby-sitters mad at you was a terrible sight for a little girl of only four years old.

Chad sighed, and gazed down at the worksheet that was due tomorrow, and if he didn't get it doen, Taylor McKessie would be all over him, but he would have to tell her that why he didn't get done was because he was baby-sitting Lilly.

And even that was a full-time job, and the Wildcats knew how it was.

Chad smiled, and set aside the worksheet and textbook, and slowly made his way to the carpet, and crawled over to the little girl, who was unaware of what was happening.

The curly-haired jock's smile turned into a grin as he whispered in her ear:

"Don't tickle the tiger."

And as Chad tickled her, laughter rang in his ears as he contuined to tickle her, while Lilly said, "No! No!"

Finally, Chad sat up, and Lilly was still laying down on the ground, the last of her tears of laughter snaked down her cheeks as she grinned up at him.

"Your not a tiger: your a lion! A bushy-haired lion!"

Chad shook his head like a lion, and that made Lilly laugh even more.

"So, were switching animals, are we? I thought I was a tiger?"

Lilly sat up then, and went over to sit on his lap as she thought about it.

"What's that word that Taylor taught me...between a tiger and a lion..."

Chad chuckled as he gave her a kiss on the head.

"A Liger?" he asked, and Lilly nodded.

"Yeah, that's it!"

She was only four years old, and she knew what a liger was, but Ryan said something to teach her things as much as possible: Ms. Freeman, the kindergarten teacher, would never teacher enough, and Chad thought it was stupid to hate a teacher.

But, of course, this was Ryan: Lilly held a speical place in their hearts, but Lilly was pretty important to Ryan, and Chad couldn't figure out why.

"Aren't you going to finish your science?"

Lilly's question made Chad look down at Lilly, and he smiled.

"I can always do it later. Right now, it's all about you."

"What if Taylor gets mad at you?"

Ah, the little romance guru!

"She won't as long as I tell her I was baby-sitting you."

"Isn't that called lying?"

Wow, they taught her well!

"Yes, but the baby-sitting part is true. So...it's a half of a lie."

He wasn't good at teaching her morals.

What he was proud of was teaching her learn how to play baseball.

When Mrs. Jacobs came back home, Chad was getting ready to leave.

"Did you have a nice time?" she asked, and Chad nodded.

"Yeah, of course. We had a blast." Chad explained, and Lilly came running from the livingroom to give Chad a hug: around the legs, of course.

"'Bye, Chad!" she replied, and Chad laughed as he picked her up.

"'Bye, Lilly. I'll see you later."

"I love you."

Of course, she says I love you to every Wildcat, but Chad just grinned as he gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"I love you too, Lilly."

Nothing made this afternoon better than seeing Lilly smile and laugh.

And he didn't care that he missed shooting hoops with Troy, or hanging out.

Basically, baby-sitting Lilly was the highlight of his Sunday afternoon, and he couldn't ask for anything better.