Title: Miracle Girl
Author: World-63-Prime
Summary: For though they were superheroes with great abilities beyond human comprehension, Superboy and Robin had no business raising babies. Or even one. One week, thirty little moments. "Connor, I'm not equipped to be a mother."
Rated: K+
Beta'd: Nope
Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice, any of its characters. It's all owned by DC.
Author's Note: By popular request, I am going to do my best to continue this series of 30 moments in the lives of surrogate parents, Robin and Superboy with baby Mari.
Remorseful
In Which There Are Apologies
Mari hadn't stopped crying since Conner left.
The baby couldn't help the sobbing she'd done at Superboy's abrupt departure. Did she sense the tense air? The unhappiness left in the elder male's wake? Was it possible for a child this young to know it had done wrong?
No, of course not. Not really, Dick mused, still trying his best to calm the baby down. But a child did understand that if it didn't like something they should voice themselves verily. Such turmoil had occurred just from someone making their departure.
God damn it, Conner. She's just a baby.
Dick stewed about it for a while, intent on finding ways of being angry with the other male – just fume and slowly grow more and more frustrated with each passing sob from the baby. Mari's cries were getting on the teen's last nerve. But the boy was trying, he really was, but for the love of everything that was aster, his patience was wearing thin. There were times when he'd spent nights without sleep, wired up and ready to kick butt and take names, however none of those things truly helped the Boy Wonder in this awful and terrible situation.
Dick really wanted to be angry at Superboy. A part of him told him to tell the guy off for running away and leaving him alone with their baby – the baby. The.
Dangerous territory there, Robin. Dangerous.
For the first time in a long time, Dick just wanted to cry. There was no bad guy here. No villainous deeds to stop or avert. No end of the world scenarios that required the populace of Earth to be saved by a bunch of ragtag heroes and their younger counterparts. Just a boy and this tiny squalling baby. And he felt small and useless – and he was never useless, he was Robin, Boy Wonder for crying out loud – and there was no stopping the infant from continuing her racket. And just when the boy felt the first cracks within his psyche, he felt a presence within the mountain.
Or rather, felt the rush of wind and debris that came with the arrival of the one and only Superboy.
Part of the Boy Wonder wanted to shout at the Boy of Steel, to lay into Mari's other surrogate parent, demand where he had gone and to call him the greatest clone of a prick that ever walked the Earth; another part of him was relieved (and secretly wanted to sob out of relief, but like heck he was going to start sobbing like a little girl in front of Conner). But nothing happened. Conner hadn't even moved from where he was, staring at Robin and Mari with a blank expression.
And the little girl's sobs did not ebb. Perhaps they increased at a frequency that was enough to make Superman wince from wherever he was currently – Conner there didn't seem to enjoy little Mari's cries.
At the movement there, Robin could feel that moment of paternal fury building within him once more. He was ready to make his statement – rush forward with indignation and anger on behalf of the child Supey had left behind, causing her (and Robin) no small amount of distress.
Oh, heck yes. He was going to open up a can on Superboy.
But faster than he could blink – metas were so unfair – Superboy was in front of Robin and Mari, hands gently lifting the baby from his own and suddenly Robin's anger died, soon to be replaced by an odd sense of dread.
Superboy wasn't ready. Conner wasn't ready to hold Mari and what if he pressed too hard or she slipped and she dropped to the floor and – and – and –
Mari was held carefully in Conner's arms, secure and safe. The babe looked up at the older boy, baby blues still watery and turning red from all of her crying. Her lip quivered as she quieted down, sniffling as she waited to see what her newly appointed 'daddy' would do now that he was here, with her. Leaning close to her, Conner smushed his lips to her forehead in the clumsiest of ways possible, mumbling his apologies to her.
"Sorry, Mari," he whispered, assured she could hear him.
For many moments, the baby just stared up at him, eyes wide, little face showing nothing. Robin was sure that the kid could give a poker player a run for their money, because that was the best poker face he'd seen in a long time. And he worked with Batman!
Eventually, it seemed like the baby accepted Superboy's apology in the only way she knew how.
Grabbing a fistful of his dark shirt, she stuffed the material into her mouth and sucked on it. And then all was well in the world again.
Robin, unbelieving, stared before he sagged tiredly. With the emotional rollercoaster he'd suffered the last several hours, could anyone blame him for being so...exhausted? Not even facing the Joker for the first time ages ago was as traumatizing as taking care of a baby. How had he wound up with this again?
One look at Conner and Mari being all chummy swiftly reminded him why.
Oh, yeah. The baby blues. And the shirt sucking. Huh. Maybe we should think of weening her from that...
But first...
"...You're on baby duty, Supey. I need sleep."
Superboy gave Robin a bit of a dumbfounded look before nodding, face suddenly unsure as Mari continued to suck on his clothes, starting to wriggle as she could not quite sit still.
"Ah, Robin...you're not seriously going to leave me alone with Mari...Robin? Robin?" The calmness from moments earlier in which the Boy of Steel had apologized to the baby had disappeared, leaving behind solely the boy that was Conner who was awkward and had no idea how to deal with babies without someone else supervising them. There was alarm in the poor guy's voice whilst he watched his friend leave him to fend for himself.
"You can handle her for an hour, right? Night Supey!"
And then, like that, he was gone. Off to his room most likely.
Superboy stared at Mari.
Mari stared up at Superboy.
The male heaved a heavy sigh.
"...Guess I better start doing right by you, huh? Um...so...you like TV?"
