Baby Steps

Chapter 1

Never once did Gajeel think that he would have a daughter. When the shrimp first told him that she was pregnant, he just automatically assumed it would be a son. And, while he wasn't exactly thrilled, he had to admit that any boy would be lucky to be the protégé of Black Steel himself.

So, when the time came and it turned out to actually be a, well, girl, Gajeel was more than a little…shocked.

As it turned out though, it didn't matter what the baby was. Because, as he came to realize, all babies were the same at first. Just a never-ending cycle of tears and diapers. He just left most of it to the shrimp to deal with, instead taking long jobs, falling back on the excuse that, well, technically, one of them had to. And clearly, it wasn't going to be her.

Levy wasn't stupid, of course, and caught on quickly enough. She clearly didn't like the idea of him purposely avoiding the child, but there was little she could do. Every time she brought it up to him, he'd only snort and blow her off. The kid wasn't going anywhere, after all.

And he didn't…hate the baby or nothing. Gajeel, if anything, was very possessive. If something was his, no one else was allowed to touch it! And the baby very much so was his. He didn't want no one around her that wasn't ran by him first. She was his. No one else's.

Other than, like, Levy's. And Lily was pretty fond of the baby. When she wasn't screaming her lungs out. But Gajeel figured no one rather liked those moments much.

The thing about him never being around though was that he and the baby never, as Levy said, bonded. At all. It got to the point where she didn't even like for him to hold her when he was around. Which, really, wasn't a loss for Gajeel. He'd never rather liked that anyhow. What if she, like, spit up on him or something?

So no, he wasn't too remiss to find that the baby didn't like him. It wasn't a blow to his ego or nothing. She was just a silly, little human who, he'd like to point out, he kept a roof over and clothes on. As far as he was concerned, he basically was doing all he should be for her as a father. He'd even bit the bullet and married the shrimp. How much more could the baby want from him?

That was how he felt too, right up through the baby's first year. She wasn't fond of him as much as she was more or less just used to him being around then. He felt about the same. Though, she did become of interest to him eventually. It was around that time, after all, that she began to learn things. Other than, like, how to sit up or crawl. Those were boring to him. Levy was excited, but, meh. And talking? His damn cat could talk. You'd have to do a little better to impress Gajeel.

It came on one of the days that he wasn't out training, on a job, or up at the guild. Levy had taken a job of her own, the first real one in a long time, and would be gone for at least two days. She was leaving the baby in the trusted care of her father and Uncle Lily. Gajeel wasn't so sure about it, but she insisted. And, well, he didn't rather like the idea, fine, but he knew the baby would be safe. He'd never harm her or anything. He just didn't like to take care of her.

So, when Levy left the morning with Droy and Jet, Gajeel was glad to find that the baby was still sleepy. And though Levy had warned him against breaking her routine, what could he do? She was yawning and just looked so tired and…he'd spent the night before drinking…so… More sleep sounded about right for all of them. Lily too.

It was probably noon when they got up and that was only 'cause the baby was hungry. Gajeel was glad that she'd gotten out of the formula phase, if only because he hated her scent, all intermingled with milk and stuff. Solids though weren't exactly great either. They were messy. And tedious. But Levy's rules…

He'd fed her before and knew the drill. Set her up in her high chair, feed her some disgusting looking mush, have her whine and complain some, then put Lily on clean up duty. They were a team, after all.

"Here ya go," the man grumbled as he held a spoon up to the baby's lips. She was just staring at him though, their red irises locking. He could tell that she really wanted Levy, but, well, tough luck. He wanted her too. "Gaia."

"Perhaps she does not like the food," Lily suggested as the baby turned her head from the spoon, whining slightly. He was standing over on the table, chowing down on some kiwis.

"Of course she doesn't like it," Gajeel growled. "It's mashed up…whatever! Why would she like it? It's not made to be liked. She doesn't know what it means to like something anyhow. And look. I got her some little pieces of toast too. And some-"

"Maybe she wants a bottle."

"She got a bottle for breakfast before Levy left," Gajeel said. "Now she has to eat this stuff. So she needs to get over it."

It took some doing, some whining, and some grumbling, but eventually Gajeel got enough food in her. Then, after washing her up some, he took her into the living room to play.

"Here." He sat her on the floor with some of her toys. She had plenty of them. Though he never seemed overly attached to his daughter, he never came home from a job without something for her. Above all else, she was always his kid.

Lily had taken off for the guild after getting her all clean again and Gajeel was alone. Nothing to do. Levy said that he could take the baby over to Lucy to play with her son, but there was no way that was happening. Because for all the Lucy that boy had in him, he also had way too much Natsu. And Gajeel wanted to keep Gaia far away from him for as long as possible.

Not to mention, while Lucy wasn't horrible to see, it wasn't like he ever went out of his way to do it either…

No. The baby was fine playing all alone. And he would be there too, watching over her, so they'd be fine for two days.

Across the living room, Gajeel went to work on his, well, work out. There wasn't much he could do, but he did start out with some pushups. If he had to be with the baby all day for the next few days, fine, but he wasn't going to be miserable the whole time either.

While he was busy with that though, the baby apparently got bored over with her toys and crawled over to him. She came to a stop right in front of him too, just sitting there, staring at the man.

"What?" he grumbled as she stared at him, one of her hands in her mouth. Gross. "Go away. Go back over there and play. I'm busy."

She started making noises at him then. She only really knew one word. Mama. Levy'd hammered it home enough to her. At that moment, she kept repeating it, apparently not happy with being left with him.

Growling, he just kept it up with his pushups. If she wanted Levy, well, too bad. It was his next two days with her and she was just going to have to deal with it.

But it was kind of hard to concentrate then. And, eventually, with a groan, he dropped back down and didn't push up again.

"You," he grumbled at her as he reached out to pat her on the head, "are annoying me."

That was probably the only amount of affection that he ever really gave her. He'd stroke the top of her head sometimes, usually when he first got home from a job or was leaving on one. She never seemed to mind it much.

Dropping his hand then, he rolled onto his back, pulling up his knees so he could start doing some sit ups. The baby was behind his head then and, bored, took to crawling away.

"Don't go far," he grumbled over at her. Silly baby.

She was fine for most of the day. Gajeel eventually went off to make himself something to eat, making her come play in the kitchen while he did that. Lily still wasn't back though and he was getting rather bored all alone. Which was stupid, he knew. He used to love being alone. He was always alone. He preferred it that way. But…recently…

When he had his sandwiches made, he took Gaia back with him into the living room, where he sat her back with her toys before going over to the couch to eat.

"What are you doin', kid?" he grumbled as, while he was enjoying his sandwich (though not as much as when Levy made it for him), the baby started to crawl towards him. "No. You can't have any. Go away. This is mine. I already fed ya!"

She stopped about halfway though, and when she started to reach up and grab at that coffee table, he groaned.

"No," he told her, setting his sandwich down next to him on the couch with a shake of his head. "You're gonna hurt yourself or- Hey, you can't do that! No!"

She started pulling herself up then and, well, he couldn't let that happen. Levy worked with her all the time on that sort of stuff. It was real important to the woman. Seeing the baby's first steps and stuff. She was getting better at walking, but it hadn't happened yet. And Gajeel didn't want it happening then either!

But when he moved to grab the baby, she let go of the table and, for a second, he feared that she'd fall over and hit her head or something. His breath caught in a way he never expected it to then as he didn't touch her, fearful of knocking her over on accident. Just like that though, she found her own balance and, giggling in that way that only she could, the baby started walking towards him.

No! She was supposed to do that for Levy. So that she could have another one of those stupid moments were she got all happy and excited over the baby doing something that most every single human ever has done. She wasn't supposed to do it for him! He didn't care. He didn't…he…well… Ugh.

She about fell too, when she finally got to him, but Gajeel easily caught her, lifting the baby into his arms a groan while he was at it.

"Why did you do that?" he asked her as the baby just giggled. "This was a you and your mom thing. Not a me and you thing. We can't tell her about this, you know. She'll be all disappointed."

But when he sat the baby down again, she just pushed right back up and tried walking some more. That time, she fell back on her butt before he could catch her, but she was giggling and clapping her hands, clearly excited.

He just stared down at her. "What? You think that's impressive, huh? Walking? What's so impressive about that?"

But he couldn't stop her. She kept trying to get up and walk. Even though she fell down rather quickly, he did admire, if only a little, her determination. If you could call it that.

"Fine," he gave in eventually, reaching down to grab her hands and help her along a little. "I'll help you learn to walk. But we can't tell the shrimp about this. It's a secret, huh? She'll come back, think she taught it to you, and we'll just go on with life."

Gajeel had to admit though that it was a little fun, teaching the baby something new. When he dropped his gruff tone and tried to sound a tad happy for her, it just made the baby that much more excited. It got to the point where every step she took, she'd fall right back down because she'd start giggling when he congratulated her. They must have worked on it forever, it felt like. Until the baby got sleepy again and, well, schedule be damned, he went to lay her down in her crib.

That was Levy's deal, anyhow. The whole doing the same thing every day to keep the baby regulated or whatever. Bah! He figured that you only got a chance to do whatever you wanted for a few precious years. Let the kid have them. She wanted to sleep? Let her sleep. Wanna eat? Eat! Why not?

She didn't nap for long. Eventually she woke up and, well, Gajeel would never admit it, but he kinda wanted to give that walking thing a whirl again. It was weird, but he had sorta been having fun with the baby when they were doing it. Which hadn't happened before. She was more like an object to him, one that he protected and kept safe, fine, but one that had no other purpose than keeping the shrimp happy. And gave Lily something to do sometimes. But Gajeel? Gajeel didn't play with the baby. He hardly even spent time with her. They liked it better that way, he and Gaia.

At least that's what he convinced himself of.

But teaching her to walk was something else. He kept telling himself that they needed to stop. That he wasn't supposed to care that much. Levy was the one that was going to teach her. She wanted to be the one. He wanted her to be the one. But…

Gaia was his baby too! And Levy could teach her everything else. How to talk, potty train her, and whatever else. He decided about then that he wanted to be the one to teach her to walk. It was something that she'd obviously use forever and that made it important. And she seemed to like it so much. What did Levy expect them to do for two days anyhow?

He spent a lot of time then, sitting on the living room floor, motioning the baby to walk over to him. She got better and better. She was a super good learner. He figured that she was way smarter than the Salamander's kid (he really didn't like that boy). She was probably the smartest baby ever. He wasn't sure, but he just had a feeling.

"You sure are more enthused than I expected," Lily remarked once, when he saw Gajeel clapping along with the baby at her accomplishment. She liked clapping and, well, if it helped her along, then he liked doing it. "For someone that did not even want to be left alone wit her for so long."

"Yeah, well."

"Gee hee," the cat snickered making the baby look up at him. "You finally feeling fatherly, Gajeel?"

"Get outta here, cat! We're busy."

But even his dead tone couldn't give away the fact that he was enjoying himself. It was written all over his face, no matter how hard he tried to conceal it. He and the baby had at last found something to do together. In fact, when Levy finally did arrive home, he wasn't really ready for it. He liked taking care of his baby. And he was sure she liked his non-schedule more than Levy's strict one. But what could you do?

"Anything fun happen while I was on my job?" Levy asked him not soon after she got home. It was late into the second day then and the baby was already sleeping. Gajeel had figured that when she arrived, he'd go straight down to the guildhall to have a few beers with Lily, but the shrimp wanted to tell him about her job and how could he turn her down?

"Meh," he said with a shrug as they sat on the couch together. "Lily ditched me a bunch, but that's about it."

"Oh. The baby was okay?"

There was a pause. Then he said, "She really seemed to wanna learn to walk. She kept trying to stand up and stuff."

"Awe."

"I helped her a little." He cleared his throat. "You know. Held her hands and walked her around. Let her come to me. Stuff like-"

"Really?'

"Don't sound so shocked, Levy," he grumbled. "I mean, she is my kid too."

"I know," Levy said with a smile. "I just know that sometimes you don't like to-"

"It wasn't anything serous," he told her gruffly. "I was just passing down my knowledge."

"Right. On walking."

"Shrimp-"

"Then you had a fun few days?"

"I've had better."

"Gajeel."

"What? It's true."

Levy batted at his arm and he grinned at her, if only slightly. It was good to have her home.

Still, before Gajeel left for the guildhall later, he popped into the baby's room to check on her. She was sleeping just as peacefully as ever as he went to the side of the crib and peered over at her. Reaching out, he gently stroked some of her dark locks, being sure not to wake her.

Maybe Levy would go out on more jobs soon. And maybe he could find new things to teach the baby. He had many skills that needed to be passed down, after all. And if it was as much fun as teaching her to walk had been, he couldn't wait to get started.

Felt like a Gajeel kinda day today. It happens. Five chapters at least.