1000

Baby duty was split evenly between the three executives; Petrel had mornings, Ariana had nights, and Archer balanced the midday. However the bookends quickly took to encroaching on Archer's time, Petrel would drop him off later and later each day, and Ariana picked him up earlier and earlier. Archer didn't really mind, it was one less thing for him to worry about, it gave him more time to focus in peace on his work, and the other two were certainly more enthusiastic caretakers than he. They were currently locked in a heated race to see who would be present for Silvers first word, and whose name he would speak first.

Archer however could not care less what compilation of sounds garbled out of the child's mouth first, he was much more focused on what one of his scientist's had dubbed a "Ditto Disaster".

For years now they had been dedicating research to cloning the ancient pokemon Mew, but only in recent years had they managed to create sentient life. The pokemon was christened Ditto for it's ability to imitate other creatures and they'd continued to experiment on them but apparently the incompetent grunts had left one of their jars open and it had gone off reproducing like mad around Cerulean. Now it was only a matter of time before someone noticed this new species and began asking questions.

With a sigh Archer placed down his pen on his desk and reclined deeper into his chair as the door to his office swung open.

Petrel sauntered in with a sleeping red bundle in his arms. "Hey Arch! Silv' is sleeping so-"

With a wave of his hand Archer cut his subordinate off. "I will never understand why you so thoroughly incapable of finishing names." He rose slowly and ran a hand through his short blue hair. "Anyways I suppose this a good time for a break from the paperwork."

He made a quick pass through the food court on the third floor to sweep past the soups and pocket a package of crackers.

With the baby balanced on his hip Archer began the long descent to ground level and stepped out onto the streets.

Carefully cutting through familiar back roads and alleyways he briskly made his way to the nearby park. Under the height of the skyscrapers the alleys were eternally in night, shaded from the daytime sun. Naturally the people lurking in the back ways were the kind who had no need for the exposing light of day. As Archer and his ward strode down the twisting streets their native inhabitants cowered. Thugs suddenly vanished into sidedoors and up fire escapes and scavengers disappeared into their piles of refuse.

One of the many perks of being concigliary to the most powerful boss in the city.

Archer only ever took this dirty path to save to time when he was carrying Silver, the "correct" way too three times as long and a baby could get pretty heavy pretty fast.

When they stepped back into the day Silver began waving his pudgy arms and squirming in excitement as he recognized their destination. Keeping a firm grip on the now wriggling baby Archer merged into the small group crossing the street to the quiet square of greenery in the center of the bustling city.

After a bit of a struggle to break away from this same group (which had in the short time they'd waited for the sign and crossed had decided Silver was simply the cutest child they'd ever seen and virtually refused to part) the duo finally arrived at their destination: the ducklett pond.

Archer sat down on the grass with his legs crossed, right at the edge of the water with Silver in his lap."Ariana has been nagging me to speak to you" he mumbled as he pulled the packet of soup crackers from his pocket. "She says it will accelerate the time it takes for you to start speaking." He looked down at the red haired child his lap who was much more interested in escaping the confines of the his legs than listening to what he said. With sigh them man opened his little package. "I'm not sure what I expected. It's not as though you'd suddenly start conversing simply because I'm talking at you, but I can understand the merit of the principal."

He laid the octagonal crackers in a line in front of them where the grass faded way into soft brown mud, and then into the still pond waters. "It's constructive for you to hear what you'll eventually be saying,"

Ducklett and Swanna began emerging from surrounding rushes and converging towards the offering. Silver flailing increased as the first ducklett approached nearly within his tiny arms reach, garbled noises escaping his mouth.

Archer bowed his back to lower down to the boys level and pointed. "Ducklett"

"Gucldgledgn"

"Close enough." Archer leaned back as the baby burbled and reached for the Pokemon.

He stared up at the sky as clouds lazed by wondering how long this would all last, raising a baby that is. A few years wasn't really that long of a time, but of course it certainly didn't feel that way day to day. Or more accurately night to night when the boy occasionally decided to scream for no apparent reason at the top of his lungs.

At last when the final cracker was gone and the birds retreated, Silver calmed. Then began to struggle to turn about from within his leg cage. A smile slipped it's way onto Archers face as the child flopped and twisted and babbled helplessly. "Needs some help little man?"

"Acher!"

He froze. For a second he thought the boys babbling sounded an awful lot like his name. But it couldn't possibly-

"Acher!" Silver whined precisely what Archer had heard the first time, proving it wasn't a coincidence.

Quickly he turned the child about in his lap seeming to satisfy him. Archer pointed at his own chest. "What's my name?" He demanded but received nothing but garbles for his efforts. "I know you said it before." He pressed but the child just stared back innocently. "You will not beat me."

Rising Archer carried the silent boy to the nearest bench, set him down, and walked away.

Silver sat for a moment waiting expectantly for his guardian to turn back to him, but the blue haired man kept walking. Although an avid crawler, he'd not idea how he might get down from the impossible heights of the two foot tall bench. Looking about for some escape and finding none the child began to panic as the man disappeared among the trees. He crawled frantically to the edge of the bench whimpering before wailing at the top of his lungs. "ACHER!"

"Ha!" Archer materialized from behind him scooping the crying child up. "I knew it." The boy balled his fists in the fabric of his shirt. Archer rocked the sobbing child, a little ashamed of the grief he'd caused him. "I won't be leaving you anytime soon. Ariana and Petrel wouldn't be having any of that." When Silver's wailing finally ceased he began the trek back to the office. "But then again, I doubt they'll be anymore excited that you said my name before theirs."

Author speakin' I'M SO SORRY it's been forever since I updated. School and jobs and college apps/acceptance/ect. So life has been good, but I just got behind in everything so this naturally got pushed aside. It's in no ways deserted and I'll be writing more often now I hope cause things are figured out… maybe haha. What is adulthood?

Anything specifically you'd want to see with baby Silv? (I need ideas)