A/N: I am very happy with the response to the first chapter! I'm glad you all liked it! Haha sorry it took so long for this update. I've been preparing for exams and all... And luckily they are now over! XD
Enjoy!
Beta: chococookie-mallow
Rated T: for slight language
Summary: "Why did you come here Sempai?" His voice cold as ice. Yuka stared back unblinkingly. "Narumi… I need your help." Three hours later, Yuka left. This time, she wasn't carrying the squirming bundle she had come with, tears streaming down her face. AU
OoOoO
Chapter 1: Put a Lid on It
"Ah... I'm sorry for waking you up," Narumi murmured when he felt Mikan shift in his arms and slowly open her eyes to look around the room.
He was sitting in his bedroom and attempting to create some sort of bed for Mikan to sleep in on the right half of his own king-sized mattress. Apparently all of the moving around he had done while piling together pillows and blankets had awoken the babe and resulted in his previous words.
He wasn't too sure why he was apologizing to her either. It's not like she could understand him after all...
He shook his head and watched emotionlessly as Mikan looked around the room with that innocent curiosity that only babies had and the blond stared as he tried to decide which features Mikan had of Yuka's and which ones came from her father.
She blinked at him as Narumi held her up under her arms and inspected her face with narrowed violet eyes.
Mikan had large, sparkling hazel eyes that were currently staring at him in wonder. A small, chubby hand with flawless skin both smooth and pale as porcelain reached towards him as a wide, toothless smile broke out onto her face. The small amount of honey colored hair the baby did have was silky and shined in the light. She had Yuka's nose and her hair was, as far as he could tell, a mix between Yuka's auburn and Izumi's blond. The wide smile was Yukihara-sensei's, but all in all she looked just like his Yuka-sempai.
'Sempai...'
Narumi choked slightly and his grip tightened on the baby before him as he pulled her to his chest and cradled her as Yuka had instructed before she... left. Silent tears ran down his cheeks in a show of emotions that he would never admit to having.
In all honesty... he wanted to hate this child. She was the daughter of his first love and another man; a child who had been dumped in his lap all because he was too idiotic to say "no". But, listening to said child's gurgles and coos and watching that innocent face and that bright smile of hers, Narumi found he couldn't.
'She's too... innocent to hate,' he thought softly to himself.
He flinched when a small hand found its way to Narumi's tear streaked cheek. Mikan looked up at him and tilted her head slightly to the side as she stared.
Don't cry, her gaze seemed to say, and the blond teen laughed slightly as he placed his much larger hand over hers and held it loosely in his grip.
Almost as if she understands, he smiled.
"Well..." he murmured to her, "I guess it's just you and me now: Yuka's child and I, a clueless teenager who's in way over his head."
Mikan just smiled.
He smiled back; he couldn't help it.
Narumi glanced over to his alarm clock. The glowing green numbers announced that it was eleven o'clock now and he sighed deeply, setting Mikan down into the nest of blankets he had put together.
"Time for bed," he announced and climbed underneath the covers. He flicked off his lamp and the room was submerged in darkness, the only sounds being that of Mikan's soft breathing and violent wind whipping around outside.
I don't even want to THINK about tomorrow, he sighed.
Mikan had fallen asleep once more beside him and violet eyes watched the snow storm raging outside his window with blank eyes before sleep overtook him and his mind was covered in a curtain of black.
OoOoO
Crying was what woke up Narumi that morning and he jerked up in surprise; twisting and falling out of his bed rather ungracefully onto the floor.
Any remains of fogged sleep that had been present before his fall were now swept away as his skin met the chilly morning air. The snowstorm had ended and the academy was covered in a thick layer of snow, leaving a wide expanse of white that stretched as far as the eye could see.
Stumbling out from the tangle of bedsheets and limbs, the teen ran to the other side of the bed where baby Mikan lay in a Narumi-made bed of sheets; wailing and screaming her lungs out. Said person winced, sure that the entire Academy would have been woken up by now if not for the fact that his room, like all 3-stars and higher, was soundproofed.
Clumsily, he picked her up and started turning her around, checking for injuries or whatever it was that had caused the tears. There were no visible wounds that he could see and the blonde was at a loss as to what was causing the waterworks.
"Ah!" he stumbled, panicking. "Uh- I mean-! What's wrong baby... er... Mikan? Mikan! Yes!" He said, disorientedly.
He stared at the infant as though expecting her to reply but her only response was another scream.
"Aw crap... what did Yuka say to do last night when this kinda thing happened...?"
He couldn't remember anything except that it had something vaguely to do with-
"Food!" Narumi shouted in triumph. "You're hungry, aren't you kid?"
Mikan just cried louder and the teen bit his lip, wincing once more at the volume.
"Uh... Right. I'll take that as a yes then..."
Baby in arms, Narumi ran to his kitchen and threw open the refrigerator door, searching for something to feed the babe.
"What do babies eat?" he asked himself but had no answer.
Searching the contents of his fridge, all that he saw was a half empty jar of peanut butter, two sticks of butter, some eggs, and...
"Ah ha!" he exclaimed and grabbed a white Styrofoam box from the fridge with one hand while slamming the door shut with his foot.
He sat Mikan down on the kitchen counter and opened up the box.
"Here! Eat this!" he ordered her and shoved a half eaten hamburger in her face.
Mikan went silent for a moment and Narumi internally cheered, thinking that he had done something right for once. The baby blinked large hazel eyes slowly before batting it away with a small, chubby hand. The crying resumed. Only it was louder than before.
Much.
Much.
Louder.
"Wait whaaaat? No! Eat it dammit!" Narumi shouted desperately.
But she wouldn't.
"Gah!"
He picked up Mikan again and almost screamed when she started squirming in his arms and he almost dropped her.
"Wah! Hold. Still!"
A tiny fist hit the blond in the face.
"Do you want me to drop you?" he questioned rhetorically, gritting his teeth and trying, but failing, to get a better hold on her. "This is so not working." He hissed to himself. "I don't know how to take care of kids! No one my age does! Except for a girl maybe. Or Misaki. He is weird like tha-"
He broke off then, violet eyes widening.
"That's it!"
And with that, the teen dumped Mikan into a large, clean cooking pot that had been sitting on the stove (because it was easier than trying to actually carry the squirming mess of tears in his arms) ran barefoot out the front door, baby in er... pot.
But not before putting a lid over it.
The sound of crying was muffled slightly and Narumi breathed a sigh of relief.
OoOoO
BANG BANG BANG!
"Oi! Misaki!" Narumi shouted at the top of his lungs. "Open up! NOW!"
His breath was harsh from having run up two flights of stairs as Misaki lived on the third floor as opposed to he who lived on the first; cheeks red from heat (oh the irony considering that is was freaking winter outside) as he waited outside his friend's door. He was holding the pot Mikan was in his right arm and attempting to break down the door with his left. Mikan was still crying loudly and the blonde cracked the lid open to shush her when the door slammed open.
"What the hell do you- is that pot crying?" Misaki, asked with wide eyes.
"Misaki!" Narumi cried in relief, shoving the shrieking pot towards the immensely confused raven. "Make it stop! Please make it stop!"
"Make it stop...?" he murmured in confusion, accepting the pot warily. It continued to shake and wail in his arms but something about the cries was familiar to him...
He cracked open the lid.
"Waaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!"
The piercing scream startled the Alice so much he almost dropped the pot before he could get a good look at what was causing the racket.
Inside was a tear-streaked, brown haired, hazel-eyed infant that was very very upset.
Misaki snapped the lid shut.
"Narumi..." he growled. The blonde whimpered in fear. "What have you done!"
OoOoO
Thirty Minutes Later
"And you accepted?"
Misaki was incredulous, watching as his friend nodded miserably, at the end of his story and miniature pity-party.
They were sitting in his living room, Narumi on the couch and Misaki in his favorite chair. A small coffee table separated them, where the shiny pot lay.
"I had to..." Narumi mumbled into a cup of tea and looked up from under thick lashes to where the now calm infant lay.
Baby Mikan was sleeping in the apparently capable Misaki's arms, peaceful and looking absolutely adorably innocent.
Narumi nearly laughed at the thought. That child was anything thing but adorable - not with the fit she had been throwing just twenty minutes before...
In the end, it turned out that Narumi's blind guess was right and she was hungry and apparently hamburger was not the correct food to feed the baby in the slightest. Milk was.
'How the hell does Misaki know this stuff anyway? And why does he have formula...?' he wondered.
He was probably better off not knowing.
"Narumi..." Misaki said slowly. "How are you going to do this? You- you're just a kid."
The blond sighed deeply and set down his cup, running a hand through his disheveled locks.
As brown eyes studied him, Misaki thought that his friend looked defeated.
"I don't know," Narumi admitted. "But I'm going to have to figure it out. Soon. I promised Sempai I would."
Misaki sighed loudly then and looked down at the sleeping infant in his arms.
"Well, you're going to need some help, obviously. I mean, really? A hamburger? And sticking her in a pot of all things? Who does that? Face it. You're hopeless with children. I pity that Mikan will grow up with someone like you as a father."
Narumi ignored the insults and looked at his friend with something akin to hope.
"Misaki...?"
"Idiot. I'm going to help you out. At least until you can learn to take care of her by yourself that is... But first things first we need to go buy all of the necessary things to take care of her. You said that you were going to have a meeting with Principal Yukihara soon?"
Narumi smiled widely.
"Yeah."
"Good. We can get him to give us money and order some things."
Misaki smiled lightly in return before looking at Mikan again.
"So..." he said eventually. "What do you know about babies anyway? Do you even know how to change her diaper?"
Violet eyes blinked.
"Babies have diapers?"
"..."
"..."
"Idiot!"
"Ow! Hey! I'm sorry! No reason to throw things at me! Ouch! Or hit me!"
"No reason to hit you? Your level of complete and utter idiocy is reason enough! How could you not know that babies need diapers anyway! I guess I should have expected this from you!"
"Tea burns you jerk! At least throw something not filled with boiling liquid! And I-"
"Waaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!"
"Not again!"
"Narumi you idiot! It's because you were shouting!"
"Look who's talking!"
"Waaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
"Turn it off!"
"I'm working on it! C'mon Mikan-chan... Shh..."
"It's not working!"
"Calm down..."
"Waaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!"
"!"
"..."
"..."
"Narumi?"
"Yes?"
"Go..."
"Hm?"
"Grab the pot!"
"I thought you'd never ask."
OoOoO
Somewhere in the world, an auburn haired woman laughed loudly.
"Yuka...?" Shiki asked softly. "Is something funny?"
"Ah. Haha- no I, uh- hehe! I just thought of something funny is all," she confessed with a small smile.
Shiki quirked an eyebrow at her.
"Care to elaborate?"
"Well, the image of Narumi and Misaki not knowing what to do with Mikan-chan just came into my head. She was crying and they couldn't get her to stop and the-" She cut herself off as she tried to muffle her snicker. Shiki caught only a few words more that sounded strangely like "cooking pot" and "lid" as Yuka was dissolved into giggles.
He was confused, but smiled anyway. It was nice to see her in a good mood. Ever since she had left her daughter in that place... well... she was depressed to put it simply.
"Oh," Yuka said suddenly, no longer laughing.
Shiki blinked at the sudden change in moods.
"What?" he prompted.
"If they ever did put my little angel into a pot at put a lid on it," she cracked her knuckles and glared, "I would kill them."
Back in Tokyo, Narumi and Misaki sneezed.
OoOoO
Narumi sighed deeply and was echoed by Misaki moments later.
Mikan lay asleep in the cooking pot, the lid for said pot lying on the coffee table.
"How can something so small be so loud...?" Misaki wondered incredulously.
The other teen snorted.
"That's what I'd like to know... I mean - she's the size of a stuffed animal but is louder that a freaking elephant! Don't they have mute buttons for them somewhere?"
"Amen."
Another sigh.
"So..." the raven said slowly.
"Yeah I'm not going to school today."
"... Me neither."
"That's what I thought."
Violet and brown stared at the metal pot.
"That has to be the best mute button we have," Narumi said decidedly.
"Indeed it is..."
"..."
"..."
"Shall we name it?"
Misaki grinned at the stupidity of it, yet nodded his head in agreement.
"Let's."
"How about... the Mikan Pot. Or something."
"The Baby Shutter-upper?"
They stared at one another.
"Misaki... that's a horrible name."
"..."
"Mikan Pot it is!"
"I feel like we should get it engraved now..."
Narumi laughed and tapped his fingers lightly across the metal surface of the newly dubbed Mikan Pot.
"I have a feeling that we are going to use this a lot in the next few months."
"Years."
"Years," the blond agreed. "Only..."
"What happens when she outgrows it?"
"Yeah."
"Hmm..."
"Say, Misaki..."
"What?"
"Do you think a toddler would fit into one of those big metal trash cans they use in the kitchens?"
"The one's with the locking lids?"
"That's the one!"
"... I think you might be onto something..."
They grinned at one another before the blond paused, wrinkling his nose.
"Wait," Narumi breathed, his face twisting into an expression of disgust. He sniffed the air. "Do you smell that?"
"Smell wha- oh! Gross. Where's that coming from- oh no..."
"What?" Narumi asked frantically. "What is it?"
Misaki looked at his friend gravely.
"You know how babies need diapers and all?"
"Yeah?"
In her pot, Mikan began to wake up, soft sobs that were slowly gaining in volume rising from its metal depths.
"Well..."
"Yeah...?"
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"Get ready Narumi!" Misaki shouted, lifting the baby out of the Mikan Pot and throwing her at a panicky blonde.
"For what!"
He caught the baby in his arms, grimacing at the foul smell surrounding her and wincing at the volume of her cries.
"To change your fist diaper!"
Narumi swallowed.
Yuka was so lucky that he said yes.
A/N: Yeah. Please don't ever put babies into metal containers of any kind no matter how annoying they are, k? ;D
Nahahaha...
Yeah. I really do think those two would end up doing something this insane - they're teenagers. What do they know about caring for children? ;D
And if Misaki (anyone know his last name btw?) was too OOC for you my excuse is that he is a teenager still. That and this is FanFiction so... ^^
Review if you want more~! ^^