All my life, I've been waiting for moments to come

Where I catch fire, and watch over you like the sun

I will fight to fix up and get things right

I can't change the world, but maybe I'll change your mind

"Crystal!"

I was forced to set Danny down to keep my balance as a small girl with Togepi hair ties in her pigtails squeezed my knees in a hug. She peered around my legs to blink up at Gold.

"Hello mister," she chirped, waving. Gold dropped into a crouch, patting a hand on the girl's head. She glanced up from under his palm, curious hazel eyes peeking at him.

"Hello, munchkin," he said back, grinning. She smiled widely.

"I'm taller than Jian!" She told him happily, pointing at a silver-haired boy behind her. He stood just behind her shoulder, a watchful—and silent—guardian. He looked curiously at her and she slowly repeated what she had said—in sign language.

"Jian's deaf," the girl announced to Gold, gripping his hand. "An' I'm Hazel."

"Hey, Hazel." She clambered up Gold's back until she was settled comfortably between his shoulder blades, shouting "go, horsey, go!"

He shot a bewildered look at me, only to find me laughing. "Go horsey!" I told him, kicking him lightly in the butt. He smirked slyly at me before grabbing tightly to Hazel's tiny calves and running in circles around the room.

Danny and Jian looked at me expectantly; Jian, however, kept shooting his glance at Hazel.

"Don't worry," I said, smoothing his hair. "Gold won't hurt her."

Danny wrapped his arms around my neck once more so I could haul him off the floor. The teacher, a short woman with neatly styled grey hair smiled warmly as I approached with Danny hanging like a necklace.

"Good morning, Mrs. Gladends," I greeted her as normally as I could with a kid hanging from my throat.

"Good morning, Crystal. I'm glad you're here, and the kids seem happy to see you." Her warm brown eyes crinkled at the corners. "Even the troublemaker seems to be getting along quite well."

We both glanced over to see Gold sitting with Hazel perched on his lap, a semi-circle of seven year old girls sitting around them in rapt attention. With one hand, Gold gently swayed the rocker just within his arm's reach, soothing the toddler inside; with the other he made wide gestures, obviously telling a story.

"He is, isn't he?" I murmured, half to myself. He would be a great dad someday, I thought suddenly, my cheeks flaming.

"He's welcome to stay as long as he behaves—and it's art time, so I'm going to need your help with the cleanup."

"Of course. Danny, go find your seat!" I said quickly, making sure he had scooted off to his chair before Mrs. Gladends clapped her hands together.

"Okay, boys and girls, it's time for art! We're going to do some finger painting today!"

"I love finger painting!" Gold shouted, startling the baby in the rocker into crying. The class full of children giggled at his carelessness.

"Yes, well..." The teacher pursed her lips, trying not to smile. I set about passing out cups of water and laying newspapers across tables while Mrs. Gladends prepared the tables with paint.

"Gold, come paint with me!" Hazel hung from his hand with large eyes boring into her new hero's face.

"Is it okay if Crys paints with us, too?" I looked up at him in surprise, Hazel's curious gaze flicking to me.

"Okay! Jian, come on!"

I glanced again at Gold, who smiled and waved me to his side. "What kind of date would it be if I didn't spend any time with you?"

I settled myself in the chair beside him, Hazel and Jian on the end. "What are you going to paint, Hazel?"

"My Happiny. And Jian is gonna do a super cool Pokemon gym!"

"How do you know?" Gold teased her lightly.

"'Cause he always does that. Right, Ji?" Hazel nudged her partner playfully.

A mop of silver hair nodded as Jian bent himself over his paper. I had no idea how he knew what she said, but he seemed to agree nonetheless. The room filled with shrieks of laughter and flecks of color as small hands dove into the paint set in front of them. Danny, across the room, had purple racing stripes on his face. Mrs. Gladends had bright green splotches on her art smock.

"Hello, Earth to Super Seri—"

"Gold, if you call me that one more time I'll push your head into the paint."

He only laughed, reaching across me for the red and filling my nose with the smell of his cologne. The urge to bury my face against his shoulder had to be forcefully squashed underfoot as I nudged him out of the way to get the yellow.

"What are you painting?" He asked conversationally, specks of red paint on his nose as he concentrated. I'd never noticed the light dusting of freckles on his nose before; I'd never gotten close enough to him to see. A shock went down my spine when he turned to look at me, melted-honey eyes focused intently on mine.

"Crys?" His voice was soft, and he moved to touch my hand. I jerked it back, my skin still tingling from just looking at him.

"Don't get paint on me!" I scolded, turning back to my own artwork. "And don't peek, it's a surprise."

"Whatever you say, mom," he shot back, a lazy grin on his lips.

"I hate it when you call me that."

"Why? Because you know I'll say you're a total MILF?"

I choked at the same time my hand spasmed and splattered a yellow handprint on the front of Gold's shirt.

Hazel giggled beside him, fingers stained bright pink. "Paint fight!" She cheered, smashing her hand against Jian's cheek. It clumped in his hair and across the side of his face like a scar. Instead of reciprocating, he simply sighed and drew racing stripes under Hazel's eyes.

Danny, who had heard Hazel's shout, picked up his paint and sloshed it on the student next to him, who began crying abruptly. All around the room, young children grabbed paint and began flinging it at each other, even hitting Mrs. Gladends.

"Gold!" She shouted furiously; a ball of purple crashed into her at high velocity and toppled her over before she could continue.

#

"If you can't keep yourselves out of trouble, I'll have to ask you to leave. Honestly, Crystal, you're such a good girl—there's no need to hang around hooligans!" Mrs. Gladends slammed the door to the nursery behind her as she stormed away, a riot of color smeared over her face and apron.

I turned to reprimand Gold only to find him sulking.

"You know, I'm not a bad person for a hooligan," he said quietly, glancing into the cribs around us. We'd been banished to the nursery to care for the Day-Care kids, where we would make a "significantly smaller mess."

"Well, then, don't cause such a big fuss all the time! I mean really, Gold, do you always have to do something like this wherever we go?" I whispered even as I tried to be fierce. He gave me a look like a scalded puppy.

"I didn't mean to make a mess, I swear. I was just trying to make you laugh. You're so serious and uptight all the time, I wanted a teeny, tiny reaction." He crossed his arms unhappily, scowling at the little ones bouncing in their cribs. Decorations of Clefairy, Togepi and Azurrill hung from the ceiling in a cheerful array, the walls painted a pale, neutral green.

I sighed heavily, reaching up to tap the brim of his hat.

"I know you're not a bad person." I grinned in spite of myself. "Did you see when Danny dumped the orange over that little girl's head?"

Gold stifled a snort of laughter. "I was too busy watching Mrs. Gladends run around like a Zubat out of hell."

We both wheezed in mirth, desperately trying to keep quiet.

"You're going to give that woman an aneurysm," I accused, coughing on restrained giggles as I bent to scoop a tiny little girl from a cradle.

Gold watched me, still smirking. "I like when your reactions are laughter," he said sweetly, touching my shoulder and walking past to coo at another baby. "The shouting is too repetitive." He neatly dodged my kick, lazily spinning the mobile over another crib. 'Pop goes the Weasel' played almost mournfully. "I don't mind the kicking, as long as you put it to use in the bedroom."

I covered the baby's ears, fully aware she couldn't hear or comprehend anything. "We are in a nursery!"

Gold snickered in response.

"Pass me one of the bottles on the changing table you pervert."

He handed me one right off the warmer, and wrinkled his nose in distaste. "Ugh, Arceus that reeks."

I sniffed delicately, adjusting the infant in my arms. "One of them made a mess, Gold."

"How do I make the smell stop?"

I giggled in spite of myself. "You grew up with all those Pokemon and don't know how to even change a diaper?"

He shot me an incredulous look. "Pokemon don't wear diapers, duh."

"What about Vullaby?"

"She's Unova, not Johto!"

"Happiny!"

"Sinnoh."

One of the babies squalled in unhappiness—the source of the smell, I was certain. I quickly made sure the nipple of the bottle was between Baby Girl's lips before glaring at Gold.

"Unless you want to feed her, you need to change the baby."

He moved as if to reach for the infant in my arms, but I backed up quickly, careful not to jostle her. "Nice try."

Gold grumbled good-naturedly (I think) and gently scooped the child up, his expression one of disgust. "How do people want these?"

"I imagine that's what people used to say about you." My lips quirked.

"Ha, ha. Just talk me through this, would you?"

Keeping our voices low, I led Gold through the steps of changing the diaper, cleaning the baby and wrapping him back up. When he was done, the baby continued to scream.

"Sit in the chair," I whispered. "I'll find you a dummy."

"What did you call me?" Gold joked, settling himself and Baby Boy into the rocking chair. I placed the little girl I'd been holding back in her bassinet and hunted for a pacifier, nearly shouting in triumph when I finally found one underneath the changing table.

I washed it off quickly, noting that the baby had gotten very quiet. When I turned, Gold and Baby Boy were fast asleep in the chair, the baby sucking on Gold's hat, which it held in its tiny fists.

Feeling a lump of emotion build in my throat, I bent to brush Gold's hair from his forehead. His hand caught mine, and he cracked one eye open to grin lazily up at me.

"I guess it's true—the ladies can't resist a man with a baby."

I swatted at him, still smiling. "I like you better when you don't make noise."

"You like me anyway." His fingers folded through mine.

"Yeah, I do."

Oh. My. Gods. It's been way too long since I've updated, and I'm so sorry for that! I've been working on this chapter for months and just slow as molasses due to a lack of inspiration and a lack of time. This was actually one of my favorite chapters to write, which is why I don't understand why it was so slow in coming. I'm very sorry! To my faithful reviewers: thank you so much. You really make me want to keep going, and give me inspiration every time I see a notification. I love you all! This chapter was inspired in part by Catch Fire, by 5 Seconds of Summer, who own the lyrics at the beginning. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! much love xoxo