Heeey, I got it posted in under a month woo! Truth be told, this chapter wasn't 100% ready, but up to the point it was was a good ending point. So I cut off the last bits (including a touching scene with Keith and one of the kids) and moved it over to the next chapter. I just wanted to get something posted tonight because it's my birthday week and I wanted to give you all a new chapter for it, and I also know I'm probably going to be stupid busy for the rest of the week. So here it is!
I wanna give a huge thank you to everyone who has read and faved, and followed, and reviewed this story. Honestly, you guys leave the nicest comments, I almost cried a couple times. I'm so glad you are enjoying this cute little story as much as I am enjoying writing it. (At last, I can put my 13+ years of childcare experience to good use in my writing, lol)
I hope you all like Chapter 2 as much as you liked Chapter 1!
Thanks again for reading!
-Becks
Chapter 2
Unfortunately for Lance, he didn't get the sleep he deserved. The baby woke up in the middle of the night and refused to settle again. Lance suspected that whatever they had given him for dinner hadn't quite agreed with him. So he took to roaming the halls with the baby, avoiding the others' rooms, and whiling the night away. He did find the supplies Coran and Pidge had procured in the lounge and spent some time organizing them.
Proper diapers in both the baby's and the toddler's sizes – Lance immediately changed the baby and it made him a little happier. A couple bottles and infant formula – which the baby refused. Some appropriate sized clothing for the baby and the toddler. Other myriad supplies he had asked for just in case of emergency. And something not on his list, what looked like the space version a baby sling – 'Guaranteed to fit all limbed species'. At least he wouldn't have to use the towels anymore.
And that was where Hunk found Lance the next morning. Wandering laps around the lounge, cradling the baby to his chest, talking quietly.
"Shhh… Pobre bebé. No llores, Mijo… Eres el bebé mas bonito en todo de la galaxia. Sí, es verdad... ¿Ya te sientes mejor?"
"G'morining, Lance." Hunk called out from the doorway.
"Buenos días, Hunk."
"Oh, uh, Inglés, por favor, Lance."
"¿Que? Oh, lo siento… sorry." Lance stifled a yawn and rubbed at his face.
"Long night?" Hunk asked, wandering over. "I haven't heard you get stuck in Spanish since that midterm week when you tried writing four papers in two days."
Lance shrugged. "Hey, I ended up getting C's or better on all those papers. So it worked out. Mijo's not feeling well. He's been up all night and won't eat anything. I think he liked the way Spanish sounds though."
"Mijo? Oh, Lance did you name him? You know you get too attached to things you name."
"He's a baby, Hunk, not a stray dog. And it's not really a name, more of a nickname."
"Well here, let me hold him for a bit, Allura and I are first on babysitting duty today. You should go get some sleep."
Lance yawned widely, and handed the baby over. "What time is it anyways?"
"A little past six."
"The other kids will probably be awake soon; I should go check on them."
"Allura's already on it."
"The baby hasn't eaten since last night, I tried giving him the bottle a few times, but he didn't want it. You might want to try again though. He seems to be feeling a little better."
"Yes, Lance, we've got this covered. Go sleep." Hunk practically pushed Lance out of the lounge.
"Come get me if you need anything!" Lance called over his shoulder.
"Go to bed, Lance." Hunk waved him off. He waited until Lance had disappeared before he held baby up and cooed. "Well, should we get you some breakfast? I bet you're hungry."
The baby gurgled back at him, and scrunched his face up looking quite uncomfortable.
"What's that face for?" Hunk asked, laughing. A few seconds later he had his answer as the baby filled his diaper. Hunk's face fell, but the baby smiled. "Yeah, I bet you're feeling much better now," he grumbled.
He tried not to breathe too deeply and half considered going after Lance. Instead, Hunk decided that this was something for Allura to take care of. He found the princess and the other kids in the kitchen. She was less than pleased when he held the baby out.
Allura stepped back, pressing a hand over her nose and mouth. "Oh no. I am not taking care of that, Hunk. You do it."
"I can't! Not unless you want a baby freshly coated in vomit."
They both shared a horrified look as the baby began to cry. The toddler joined in, sensing an equally uncomfortable soul. Allura tried to comfort him as well, to little avail. Over the cries, Hunk heard one of the older kids make a comment before the three of them dissolved into a fit of giggles.
"Maybe you should go get Lance," Allura suggested, less than pleased as the toddler wailed in her ears.
"Good idea!" Hunk was still holding the baby out at arm's length, like he was a bomb about to explode. He turned to chase after the blue Paladin.
"Wait, take the toddler too!" Allura held him out for Hunk.
"I don't have enough hands!"
"Well, carry them how Lance was."
Hunk hurried over, and tried to tuck the baby into the crook of his arm, like Lance had done yesterday. The baby was kicking and moving too much for him to get a good hold on him. "This isn't going to work!"
"What's going on?"
Hunk and Allura whipped around towards the door.
"Oh, Shiro, thank god!" Hunk rushed forward and pressed the baby into his arms. "Please take care of him, because we can't."
"Can't what?" Shiro asked, very confused. He caught a whiff of the baby and his mouth pressed into a very thin line. "Oh." The kids broke down into another fit of laughter. "What about Lance?"
"He was up all night and just went to bed…"
Shiro looked in between the crying babies, the laughing kids, and the incredibly uncomfortable adults. "Okay, fine, I'll change them. Allura, can you bring the toddler?"
"Oh thank you." Hunk snapped Shiro a salute. "Good luck, Captain."
Shiro rolled his eyes at Hunk but he and Allura made a hasty retreat from the kitchen.
Crisis averted, Hunk turned back to preparing breakfast for the older kids. They faced their breakfast food goo with much less enthusiasm than the night before.
"This again?" Lekan asked, pushing his goo around his plate.
"I know it's not very exciting. But it's tasty, and good for you, and it's this fun green color," Hunk offered weakly.
The kids were still unenthused.
"Also… you can make it into fun shapes," Hunk suggested. He took his own plate of food goo, made three little balls, and then stacked them on top of each other. "Look, it's a goo man."
The kids giggled. "Matrons never let us play with our food," Rylen commented.
"Well, you can play with this goo, so long as you don't make a big mess."
"Really?"
"Sure. Have fun with it." Hunk had a feeling he would be regretting this decision, but if it got the kids to eat breakfast then it would be worth it.
When Allura came back with the toddler and the baby the kids were still in the middle of creating goo sculptures. "Hunk, you were supposed to get them to eat breakfast, not play with it."
He immediately jumped to his own defense. "They'll eat it. It doesn't mean they can't have a little fun with it."
"Fine, but you're cleaning it up when they're done."
"Fair enough." Hunk plucked the baby out of Allura's arms. "If you want to feed Squirmy, I'll get the baby some breakfast. I bet you're hungry now, aren't you? Aren't you?" he cooed as the baby.
The baby smiled, kicked the air, and happily took to the bottle Hunk offered him. Hunk was pleasantly surprised when the kids left a much smaller mess than he anticipated. Giving them free reign to play with their food was a dangerous edge to walk if one didn't want to spend two hours scrubbing down the kitchen. He, honestly, had been expecting something on the scale of the goo dispenser malfunctioning again. The goo was mostly contained to the table… and the kids' hands… and their clothes.
Fortunately, Shiro and Coran wandered in just as the kids were finishing up their breakfast. Allura was quite happy for the extra hands as she roped them into finding clean clothes for the kids again. Hunk was left to clean the kitchen given that it was mostly his fault it was in that state. He didn't mind too much. It gave him time to think. He wasn't sure they'd be able to convince the kids to eat the goo again without another mess. Maybe they could swing by an inhabited planet and pick up some groceries. It would make things much easier for the next few days.
XXXXXXXXXX
Pidge was really glad she had gotten the easy job. The others were playing with the older two somewhere else in the ship. She was in charge of supervising nap time. Which meant she got to sit in a dark room with her laptop, and work while the younger three kids took their post-lunch nap. It was great. Shiro could get kicked and tackled while he wrestled with the older two to his heart's content. She just had to wait.
Lance had been iffy about whether Rylen would nap, but the little girl had curled up quite happily in her bed when it was declared nap time. She, the baby, and the toddler were currently fast asleep.
Lance and Hunk were still cleaning up the kitchen from the kid's lunch. It had been a lot messier than breakfast had been when Hunk gave the kids free rein to play with their food in an attempt to get them to eat the goo one more time. When she and Shiro had walked in for their turn on kid duty she thought the goo dispenser had gone haywire again. She was pretty sure Allura and Coran were trying to find a place to go and get some real food for the kids to eat. The goo was getting exponentially messier every meal.
Pidge stretched and checked the time. How long did kids nap for anyways? A few hours?
Her heart nearly stopped when a pair of eyes shone at her in the dark. It took her a second to realize that Rylen was awake and had snuck over.
"What're you doing?" the little girl asked, craning her neck to peek at Pidge's screen.
Pidge shushed her instantly; afraid she'd wake up the other two. "I'm programming a virus," she whispered back.
"Can I help?"
She blinked back at the little girl. "I… I guess. I'm not sure there's much you can-"
Rylen didn't wait for Pidge to finish before she climbed into her lap. Pidge awkwardly waited for her to get comfortable and stop moving around before she started working again. It was more than a little uncomfortable, trying to get her arms around Rylen to reach the keys. Pidge couldn't help but curse her short arms again as she craned her neck to look over Rylen's head and stretched her fingers as far as they would go to reach the more distant keys.
She got a few more lines of code in before Rylen sat forward, her small hands reaching for the keys. "Can I try?"
"Wait!" Pidge quickly covered the keys, her heart flying in a nervous flutter. Rylen jumped and drew her hands back at Pidge's outburst. "This is too important."
"Oh, okay."
Pidge could feel Rylen wilt a bit in her lap. Her ears drooped a bit and she hung her head, staring at her hands. She didn't have to see her face to know that she was really disappointed. She could picture the down cast puppy-eyes, ears pulled low, lip quivering look of dejection that was most likely on Rylen's face at the moment. She felt awful for snapping.
"Let me just save this. Then we can start something new together," she suggested.
The child brightened instantly. "Okay!"
Pidge pulled up a blank page and entered a short line of text. Then she pulled the laptop closer so Rylen could reach. The little girl happily entered in a line of gibberish. When she finished she went down to the next line.
"Your turn," she informed Pidge.
The paladin smiled and entered another line of text before giving Rylen another turn. They went on, back and forth, taking turns. Rylen snuggled deeper into Pidge lap, and Pidge found herself resting her chin on Rylen's head.
So maybe it wasn't as productive as having time to just sit and work, like she thought nap time would be like. But… maybe little kids weren't as bad as she had thought.
XXXXXXXXX
"Really, Lance, you didn't have to come." Hunk muttered as they walked down a city street. "And you didn't have to bring Mijo."
"One," Lance began counting reasons off in his fingers, "he wouldn't settle with anyone else. Two, you couldn't pick boring, kid friendly food if your life depended on it. And three, he's part of our disguise."
"How exactly?"
"Nobody would expect the Paladins of Voltron to be grocery shopping with an infant in tow." Lance nudged Hunk with his elbow. "Besides, the chicks dig the baby sling."
On his left, Pidge scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Yeah right."
Lance straightened his back and huffed defensively. "Hey, I got more dates when I took my siblings and nieces out to the park than I ever did anywhere else."
"Oh, so you had one date?" Pidge quipped back with a smirk.
Lance scowled at her. "Remind me why we brought you along."
"Coran and Allura were busy and I'm the only one who can really read the food labels."
"Plus you have the diaper bag," Hunk reminded her.
She scowled up at him and readjusted her shoulder straps. "Yes, and you commandeered my backpack for the diaper bag."
They stopped briefly as they came upon the store they were looking for. Neither of them had to understand the sign to know it was a grocery store. Somehow they still looked the same no matter which corner of the galaxy you were in.
"Remember, Hunk, the kids will eat simple things. Like chicken nuggets and tater tots and peanut butter and jelly. You know, stuff Pidge would eat." Lance explained, ignoring the affronted "hey!" from the Green Paladin.
"I don't know, Lance. Not all kids like simple stuff like that." Hunk countered as they stepped through the doors.
Lance rolled his eyes. "Not all kids have a professional chef for a parent either. The kids were in an orphanage, I doubt they were getting five-star quality meals."
Hunk shrugged and conceded. "True."
They stopped just inside the doors, taking in the sprawling expanse of the space-grocery store. The place was huge – even compared to the Earth superstores that they were all familiar with.
"Should we divide and conquer?" Pidge asked.
"Probably not the best idea. Remember what happened at the mall?" Hunk said pushing forward. "You two came home with a cow."
"We'll promise not to buy any livestock this time," Lance offered weakly.
Hunk shot him a disbelieving look, and took both him and Pidge by the shoulder and steered them off into the store. "You're not going to have a chance to."
It wasn't long before Lance and Pidge realized they were going to have to be the voices of reason in this trip. Hunk couldn't get two aisles into the produce section before he got sidetracked. They couldn't really blame him. Aside from goo, the fresh food they got their hands on was whatever they could forage from their current hiding planet, or whatever rations they could trade with non-hostile people. Even Pidge had to admit she was excited to get a look at alien groceries. But they were kind of pressed for time and on a budget.
As much as all of the Paladins would lament missing out on amazing meals, they had to buy for the kids. The grown-ups would have to such it up and eat food goo.
"Come on, Hunk, we've got to buy for the kids." Lance goaded him, pushing him away from the unappetizing smelling, spiny, oozing fruits or something Hunk had been eyeballing. "I see something that looks like apples. The kids might like those."
They walked over to a display of apple-sized fruits that had turquoise skin and hot pink flesh. They were certainly colorful, and looked much more appetizing than whatever Hunk had been looking at before. Fortunately there was a tray of slices for sampling. Each Paladin took a piece and popped it into their mouth with varying degrees of hesitance.
Lance liked it. The fruit had the consistency of watermelon, with a crisp snap in the skin. They were slightly sweet, and reminded him of a mixture of plum, carrot, goat cheese, and nutmeg. Not a hateful flavor combination; certainly better than some of the concoctions Coran had whipped up. Even Pidge seemed to like it. They bagged up a bunch for the kids and moved on.
Despite the expansive selection in the store, and the completely alien labels, they ended up finding food for the kids much easier than they expected. Pidge helped a lot, but it seemed that even aliens advertise their products for kids just as aggressively as they do on Earth. Cartoon characters, bright colors, fun names, and low placement on shelves made their job so much easier.
Though… they still had to trek through five miles of store to find what they were looking for. Even Hunk was losing his enthusiasm by the time they hit what appeared to be the middle of the store. Mijo had finished his nap and needed a break from the sling, and a diaper change. Hunk was so glad Lance was here to take care of him this time. He wasn't looking forward to a repeat performance of this morning.
But they had to find that bathrooms somewhere in the massive store. It only took ten minutes. Lance immediately went to take care of Mijo. Hunk and Pidge took turns watching the cart while the other made a pit stop as well. It wasn't like they wanted to hunt down the bathrooms again. They were both done before Lance was, and were left to wait awkwardly outside of the bathrooms.
Suddenly, Hunk gasped and jumped behind Pidge. "Quick, hide me!" he whispered shrilly.
"What's wrong now?" she snapped.
"It's Sal."
"Who?"
"Sal, the guy who tried enslaving me at the space mall."
"Maybe he won't recognize you."
"Can't recognize me if he can't see me!" Hunk gripped Pidge's shoulders and dragged her down a random aisle.
Pidge was helpless but to be hauled through the store as Hunk took turns at random to avoid Sal. "What about Lance? We're supposed to wait for him."
"We'll go back and meet up with him. I just want to make sure we lose Sal."
Pidge rolled her eyes and dug in her heels. "How are we going to find him if we don't know where we are?"
Hunk finally stopped in an aisle full of what looked disturbingly like various animal (she hoped) body parts pickled in different colored juices. Pidge quelled her gag reflex and looked around, gesturing with wide arms. "And where exactly are the bathrooms?"
"Easy, they're that way!" Hunk pointed over her shoulder. His hand fell a bit and he looked around. "Or… maybe this way?" he dropped his hand to his side with a sheepish "Oops."
Pidge rolled her eyes and tossed her hands in the air in exasperation. "Great! We're lost in the middle of Grossville, in an alien grocery store, with Lance, our money, and the baby nowhere to be found. And you know what else?"
Hunk was afraid to ask. "What?"
"You left the cart behind."
Lance was quite confused when he walked out of the bathroom with a very happy baby only to find very absent teammates. He reclaimed their abandoned cart and peeked into the closest few aisles. Maybe Hunk had seen something interesting and went to check it out.
Nothing.
He hadn't been that slow. They couldn't have gone too far without taking the cart. He was so preoccupied with looking for his missing teammates that he accidentally bumped into someone else's cart.
"Oh, shoot, sorry, my bad." He looked up at a large and rather unhappy looking Galra scowling down at him. He looked somewhat familiar, but Lance wasn't sticking around to get a better look. He ducked his head and backed away and found a different aisle to looks for his friends.
After ten minutes of fruitless searching, Lance was getting desperate. Had something happened to them? Or were they just lost? He was almost ready to turn back towards the bathrooms, just in case the others had doubled back when he caught sight of a kiosk a little ways away. Hopefully he could make an announcement.
He walked up to the very cute Unilu girl manning the counter, put on his most charming smile, and leaned in close. "Excuse me, I've lost my friends. Do you know where I can go to make an announcement for them?"
The girl smiled back, flashing pearly white, sharp teeth. "Right here, actually." She picked up a rectangular device and handed it over to Lance.
"Thanks." The Paladin flashed her another winning smile. He picked up the device and found what he hoped was the microphone. He cleared his throat and made an announcement. "Hunk. Pidge. Good luck you little shits. I'm taking the baby and the food and leaving you two behind. You can walk home."
The kiosk girl stifled a laugh behind her hand and took the microphone back from Lance. "That's one of the more entertaining announcements I've heard."
"Well, my friends had very simple instructions, stay together. Instead they went and got lost."
"They sound pretty hopeless."
"They'd be lost without me," Lance lamented.
The girl stifled another laugh. "If they're that bad, we can light the beacon."
"Oh?" Lance raised a curious brow. "You probably should. They'll never find us otherwise."
The Unilu flipped a switch and suddenly series of blindingly bright lights flew up from the roof of the kiosk and crawled up a skinny tower where a larger series of lights flashed on and off.
Lance shaded his eyes and laughed. "Yeah, they won't be able to miss that."
"People always seem to get lost around this area of the store." The girl leaned farther over the counter and reached a hand out for the baby sling. She pulled the fabric back a couple inches and looked Mijo right in the eye. "What a cutie," she cooed at the baby. "Is he yours?"
"No, no, not mine. I'm just watching him for a friend." Lance lifted Mijo out of the sling so she could get a better look at him.
"You're a caretaker, huh?" she asked, reaching out to slip a finger into Mijo's hand.
"Something like that, yeah." Lace held Mijo towards her. "Would you like to hold him?"
"I shouldn't." The girl's eyes darted around. "But I will. He's too cute to resist!" She plucked Mijo out of Lance's arms and began rocking him gently. "It's nothing to be ashamed of, you know, being a caretaker. In this day and age, everyone works for the Galra. The only difference is whether a family hires you privately, or you fall under their corporations."
"I guess I'm still getting used to it," Lance shrugged.
"Recently assimilated planet?"
"Something like that."
It took ten minutes for Pidge and Hunk to finally get to Lance. They were less than pleased to see him flirting with the girl at the counter, sitting Mijo on the counter between them. But the baby was laughing and seemed quite happy. Hunk and Pidge had agreed to not tell Lance why exactly they got lost, nor mention the moment when Hunk cried because he found space truffles as big as his head and they were dirt cheap and they couldn't get any. By this point, everyone was ready to finish up this trip and go home.
"Ah! My children, you have returned!" Lance called to them as they approached. This drew a laugh from the Unilu girl at the counter. Lance tucked Mijo back into the sling – first giving the girl an opportunity to say good bye to the baby – thanked her for her help and the good company, and steered his friends back into the aisles.
"You didn't manage to find out anything useful while you were flirting, did you?" Pidge grumbled. Her feet were tired and her legs were sore from trekking all across the store.
"I know where to go to get the rest of the food we're looking for." Lance bragged. "I don't suppose you two found anything for the kids while you were exploring."
"No, but we definitely need to come back here one day," Hunk insisted. "So where are we going?"
"Let's see," Lance stopped and looked around.
Pidge scoffed. "You didn't forget already did you?"
"Actually," Lance dug into his pocket. "I wrote down the aisle numbers." He waved the scrap of paper in Pidge's face. "Aaaaand, I got her number! Score one for the baby charm!"
If you want to know how exactly Shiro's experience changing the babies' diapers went, just look up funny videos of dads changing diapers. Like Shiro went full out protection in his Paladin armor and helmet fully sealed just so he didn't have to smell anything (and he still walked away traumatized and resolved to leave all the changing to Lance) maybe one day I'll get around to writing up a shirt bit about the ordeal. We'll have to see how well my muse cooperates.
Thanks again for reading!