"Are you absolutely sure that you can handle this?" Rita asked.
"Absolutely positive," Lio assured her, as he held Lily in his arms, "Lily and I will be just fine together, isn't that right Lilypad?"
"Booyah!" Lily exclaimed, raising a hand in the air.
"Alright," Lynn Sr. said, "just remember, make sure Lily gets her nap in, help her potty if she needs it and don't feed her any desserts until after she's eaten dinner"
"I've got it dad," Lio insisted, "you two have nothing to worry about. I'll be the best babysitter ever!"
"Oh and if Lily starts crying, don't forget that-," Rita said, only for Lio to finish the sentence for her "her favorite toy is upstairs in her toy treasure chest and her special blanket is hanging up in the closet."
"Nice to know that you've been paying attention," Rita said with Lynn Sr. saying "Alright, I think that just about covers anything. You two should be good to know."
"And if something does go wrong," Rita said, "don't be afraid to give us a call. We should be able to help."
"Got it," Lio said.
"It seems like you should have a handle on things so we're just going to head on out," Lynn Sr said, "we'll see you two later."
As soon as the door shut, Lio lifted Lily into the air and asked "So, are you ready for the best night of your life, Lilypad?"
Lily responded by gently poking Lio's nose and saying "Boop!" before giggling.
"I'll take that as a yes," Lio chuckled.
Today was a very special day for both Lio and Lily. For Lio, it was the first time he'd been allowed to stay at home without supervision as well as the first time he'd been trusted to babysit Lily by himself. The Loud Family was venturing out of town in order to visit the grand opening of a new science museum. Due to his own social anxiety, Lio had asked his parents if he could be allowed to stay at home from the trip. The surely large crowd of people who would be present at the museum would probably result in Lio suffering a panic attack so he was desperate to stay behind to avoid that outcome. Much to Lio's surprise, his parents had agreed to let him stay behind on the condition that he watch over his baby sister, Lily. Safe to say, Lio rather quickly accepted their offer.
While Lio had babysat Lily in the past, in those instances he was assisted by Lincoln and Chris. As mentioned earlier, this was his first time doing it solo. Under normal circumstances, Lio would've been nervous beyond belief and questioning himself over whether or not he could be a good babysitter. In this instance however, Lio was confident that he and Lily would have a blast together. As far as Lio was concerned, he had this in the bag.
"So Lily, what should we do first?" Lio asked.
"Fox! Fenton!" Lily replied.
"Oh, you want to watch the Fenton the Feel Better Fox show?" Lio asked, to which Lily nodded her head and said "Yeah!"
"Well your wish is my command," Lio said before carrying Lily to the living room to watch TV and quickly changing to the Fenton Fox show.
"Howdy boys and girls!" The eponymous Fox greeted the audience as Lily cheered! "We have a very special show for you today! But first, let's sing a little song!"
"Oh no…" Lio thought to himself, flashing back to the debacle with that horrifically obnoxious Fenton Feel Better Fox toy and what seemed like endless hours that Lily spent playing that song on repeat. Lio breathed an audible sigh of relief when Fenton began singing another song instead.
"She'll be coming 'round the mountain when she comes (yee-haw)
She'll be coming 'round the mountain when she comes (yee-haw)
She'll be coming 'round the mountain
She'll be coming 'round the mountain
She'll be coming 'round the mountain when she comes (yee-haw)"
"I supposed that this isn't that bad," Lio thought to himself, smiling as he watched and listened to Lily trying to sing along to the song. The otaku chuckled to himself before he felt Lily gently tugging at his shirt. "What's up, Lilypad?"
"Sing," Lily said, still lightly tugging Lio's shirt.
"You want me to sing?" Lio asked.
"Mmhmm," Lily said, happily nodding her head.
"Well, I'm not much of a singer, but I suppose that it's worth a shot," Lio said with a shrug.
"She'll be ridin' six white horses when she comes (whoa back)
She'll be ridin' six white horses when she comes (whoa back)
She'll be ridin' six white horses
She'll be ridin' six white horses
She'll be ridin' six white horses when she comes
(Whoa back)
(Yee-haw)" Fenton sang with Lio singing along as best he could. Lily seemed to be enjoying the show given how much she was laughing at her brother.
"One last time," Fenton said.
"Here we go Lily, this is our big break in show biz," Lio said before he began the final verse of the singalong.
"She'll be coming 'round the mountain when she comes (yee-haw)
She'll be coming 'round the mountain when she comes (yee-haw)
She'll be coming 'round the mountain
She'll be coming 'round the mountain
She'll be coming 'round the mountain when she comes
(Move over)
(Once upon a time in a far off land)
(Eww, yucky)
(Yo, what's up?)
(Whoa back)
(Yee-haw)"
"Yee-haw!" Lio said in his best western accent once the song was over. "Why that was the most rootedness tootinest ding dang song if I ever done heard one!"
"Again, again!" Lily asked him, cracking up from Lio's silly accent.
"You want me to sing again?" Lio asked. Lily nodded her head once again and Lio said "I guess that I can't say no to that. Just give me one quick second."
Lio left and returned a few seconds later wearing a cowboy outfit.
"I'm surprised that this still even fits me," Lio remarked, "but anyway, and a one and a two and a one two three four!"
"She'll be coming 'round the mountain when she comes," Lio sang, with Lily singing along this time with an excited "Yee-haw!"
"She'll be coming 'round the mountain when she comes"
"Yee-haw!"
"She'll be driving her old chariot, she'll be driving her old chariot, she'll be driving her old chariot when she-,"
"What?" Asked a confused Lily.
"Oops, sorry," Lio apologized sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his neck, "I sometimes get my versions mixed up."
Lily looked at Lio with confusion, prompting the latter to explain "It's a long story, Lilypad. Basically there are a lot of different versions of She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain and sometimes I get them mixed up."
"Okay," Lily accepted Lio's explanation as the Fenton Fox show depicted a scene of Cowboy Fenton riding horses with his friends. "Ooooh! Wio! Wio!" She said, frantically pointing at the TV.
"Cowboys and horses?" Lio questioned, "Well, this is new. I definitely wasn't expecting that!"
"Giddy up, giddy up!" Lily commanded Lio.
"Giddy up?" Lio asked, before turning his eyes back over to the TV where Fenton was triumphantly riding a wild horse, that bucked and reared back on its hind legs. "So you want to ride me?"
At that moment, many miles away at the science museum, Lincoln suddenly stopped dead in his tracks, causing Lynn to bump into him.
"Hey, what's the big idea Stincoln?" Lynn asked.
"I don't know," Lincoln said, "I sense… a disturbance."
"What are you talking about?" Lola asked, "What kind of disturbance did you feel?"
"As if someone accidentally said something that could be taken completely out of context and sounds wrong but is actually innocent," Lincoln explained, "yet somehow said in such a way that you'd question whoever said it."
"Huh?" Lynn questioned before realizing what Lincoln was saying. "Ahhhhh, now I know what you mean." She pat Lincoln on the back and said "It's probably best if you just didn't think about it."
"Yes! Yes! Yes!" Lily answered Lio's question.
"Well I supposed that it's less dangerous than riding the family dog," Lio said with a shrug, dusting himself off as he looked down and said "It's a good thing I'm dressed for the occasion."
Lio dropped to all fours and allowed Lily to climb on his back. "Where to, Lilypad?"
"There!" Lily said, pointing ahead towards the kitchen as she wrapped her arms tightly around Lio's neck. "Giddy up!" She said as she kicked Lio in the side.
"Ow!" Lio grunted. "Not so hard, Lily."
"Go!" Lily ordered.
"Uriiiiiiiiiii!" Lio neighed like a horse, rearing up similar to a horse before he began trotting into the kitchen.
For the first few minutes, Lio took it nice and slow, nice and easy. He didn't want to risk accidentally bumping into anything or causing Lily to bump into anything and get hurt. Lio took it slow so that Lily wouldn't fall off his back as he trotted in circles. The last thing he wanted was to injure his baby sister for the first time babysitting her. For Lily however, Lio was going to slow for her. Lily wanted to go fast and furious. Lily wanted a real cowboy experience. Thus, Lily kicked him in the ribs once again and proclaimed "Faster!"
The sudden kick sent a sudden jolt through Lio and he didn't need to be told twice to move faster. Lio neighed once again and reared up before picking up the pace. Of course, he made sure to move into a less crowded area of the house before speeding up and even then, Lio wasn't trotting at his fastest. That didn't matter to Lily however, who was laughing her head off while holding a death grip on Lio's neck.
"Weeeeeeeeee!" She said merrily as her trusty steed carried her where she needed to be. "Go! Go! Go! Go!"
Lio ran back into the living room where he ran in circles around the couch. Safe to say, at this point, Lily couldn't care less about what Fenton and his friends were doing. Lily grabbed a hold of Lio's hair and used it to steer him in a different direction.
"Yipe!" Lio yelped in response to his hair being pulled as he suddenly jerked to the right and then after that into the dining room.
"Jump!" Lily commanded, roughly pulling back on Lio's hair.
"Eep!" Lio yelped once again before jumping, managing to leap over and somehow clear four chairs and land flawlessly on the ground again.
"Cooooooooool!" Lily said before directing Lio back into the living room right in front of the couch.
"Heel!" Lily said, pulling on Lio's hair one last time to bring him to a halt.
Lio reared back on his legs once again before going to all fours again. The boy was a bit winded from carrying Lily on his back while running on all fours and his head was hurting a little from the hair pulling, but it was all worth it to hear his baby sister's giggling. Lily stood on Lio's back for a few seconds, balancing herself before she leapt off of it and cannonballed onto the couch.
"I'm guessing that you had a lot of fun, eh Lilypad?" Lio asked, taking a few seconds to catch his breath.
"Lily had a lot of fun!" Lily said happily.
"Great," Lio said before saying "Next time though, could you try not to pull on my hair so hard?"
"Sowwy," Lily apologized.
"Eh, don't sweat it, Lilypad," Lio said. "Hey, how about I tell you a story?"
"Story?" Lily asked before her eyes lit up with joy. "Do it!"
"Alright Lily," Lio said, holding Lily on his lap. "This is the story of the Man Who Chased The Sun."
"The Man Who Chased the Sun?" Lily repeated, sounding intrigued by Lio's story.
"Long ago, when the world was still young and mythical beasts still populated the earth," Lio's tarted, "and giants that towered higher than even buildings roamed the planet freely, there existed one giant who loved to play the day away."
"This giant was named Kuafu and he was known for being one of the biggest and strongest giants around."
"Kuafu?"
"Yes, that was his name," Lio said, "now Kuafu generally lived a carefree life, engaging in hunting and roughhousing with other giants during the day until the sun descended and the beautiful moon took its place. Now Lily, I have to ask, do you hate having a bedtime?"
"Uh huh!" Lily answered, nodding her head.
"Well believe it or not, Kuafu hated having a bedtime even more," Lio said, "Kuafu hated the arrival of night as it signaled the end to his ever so eventful days and hated the eternal hours he would have to wait until the sun eventually came back up. He grew bored during the long nights and longed to go on the grand adventures he went on during the day. Thus, Kuafu developed a plan."
"What was this grand master plan of his, you may ask? Why Kuafu resolved to chase after and capture the sun so that the days would never end. His family and his friends told him that it was a foolish endeavor and that he would never succeed in his mission to capture the sun. They told him that night and the moon was just as necessary as day and the sun. That they were too parts of the same cycle. Kuafu was a rather stubborn giant however. Too stubborn for his own good in fact. He wasn't going to let anyone stop him from chasing after the sun. And so, the very next day, as soon as the sun rose from over the horizon, Kuafu began his pursuit of the sun."
Lily was thoroughly hooked and engaged to every word of this story. She wondered how it would end. It helped that Lio was pretty good at telling a story.
"Kuafu thought that the task would be easy as he reached out towards the sun only for it to escape his grasp. Before long, Kuafu found himself exhausted from the chase so he lay down beside a well and drank from it until all of its water was completely drained. Once he had quenched his thirst, Kuafu resumed on his journey."
"The chase continued all day as Kuafu chased the sun around the world, endlessly trying to catch it. Along the way, Kuafu would grow thirsty time and time again and stop to take a drink. At first, he could satisfy his thirst by simply drinking from wells and drinking them dry. The longer he went on, the thirstier he got and eventually he went from drinking wells dry to draining small ponds to draining entire rivers to quench his thirst. And yet, no matter how hard he tried, Kuafu just could not catch the sun. Yet, the giant persisted. His stubbornness would not let him quit. The only thing that happened was that Kuafu got more and more tired and more and more thirsty until…"
"Until what?!" Lily asked, tugging at Lio's shirt.
"Calm down, Lily," Lio said, "I'm not just going to leave you hanging."
"Eventually, after draining one last river of water, Kuafu collapsed from exhaustion. He'd come so close to catching the sun that it was literally fingertips away. He reached out and grasped with all his might, but the sun remained just inches away. In one last act of desperation, Kuafu grabbed a peach tree branch and made one final swipe at the sun before drawing his last breath and dy-… umm…"
"Dying?" Lily asked, much to Lio's surprise. He hadn't been expecting to be so casual when it came to the topic of death. Then again, the two of them did live in the same house as Lucy so all things considered, it wasn't that surprising.
"Yeah," Lio said, "he died taking one last swipe at the sun, stubborn to the bitter end. But the story of Kuafu doesn't end there."
"Huh?" Lily asked.
"After dying, Kuafu's body transformed into a vast mountain range and the very peach tree branch he used to swipe at the sun grew into a giant peach tree, serving to provide food and drink to anyone else who desired to chase after the sun. The end."
"Wow," Lily said.
"So how was the story, Lilypad?" Lio asked. "Did you like it?"
"Mmhmm," Lily nodded her head before her stomach started growling.
"Huh, sounds like somebody's hungry," Lio noted.
"Ice cream!" Lily said.
"Now Lily," Lio said, "you know what Mom and Dad said…"
At that moment, Lily switched on the puppy dog eyes, immediately finding Lio's weakness.
"You're… not… allowed to have… ice cream…" Lio said, trying desperately not to look Lily in the eyes, turning away only for Lily to move in front of him so that he couldn't look away, "until after you've eaten…"
Lily was persistent in her attempts to persuade Lio, not breaking her gaze even once. Finally, Lio gave in and muttered "Yare yare, fine, I'll give you ice cream, but only because I'm the coolest big brother."
"Woo-hoo!" Lily cheered as Lio picked her up and carried her into the kitchen.
Lio stood on a chair in order to get the ice cream out of the freezer. He whipped out two bowls and made a bowl for both Lily and himself before putting the ice cream back.
"This is the good life, isn't it Lilypad?" Lio asked, eating a spoonful of delicious sweet creamy ice cream before raising his spoon in the air. "I propose a toast!"
"Toast!" Lily said, clinking her spoon against Lio's before shoving it into her mouth.
As they ate their ice cream, Lio suddenly got an idea of something that he could draw. The young boy pulled out his notebook and began sketching some doodles and other art. Once she finished her ice cream, Lily took notice of this and decided that she wanted to do some art of her own.
"Wio!" Lily said, getting her brother's attention as she pointed at the pages of his notebook.
"Hmm?" Lio asked as he looked up from his notebook.
"Lily wants to paint," Lily said.
"Ooh, I'm on it!" Lio said before running upstairs to retrieve paper and some fingerpaint. He came back quickly and laid them out in front of Lily before opening up each paint container. "Here you are, my liege."
"Wait!" Lily said, causing Lio to pause, "Paint with Lily!"
Lio smiled ear to ear as he sat in front of Lily at the dining room table and said "Lily, it would be my pleasure to paint with you."
Laying out the sheets of paper, Lily and Lio quickly got down to business with their finger paintings. Lio decided to paint a couple of flowers such as daisies, roses or even the type of flower he wore with the school uniform he liked to wear. A couple of times he peered over to see what Lily was painting, only for Lily to hide it from view.
"Don't look," Lily said, "no peeking."
"Okay okay," Lio said, "if you say so, Lilypad."
Lio continued painting his flowers as Lily continued working on her painting. Lio made sure to clean up everything so as not to leave any surprises for the rest of the family when they came back. Speaking of which, Lio was surprised when he suddenly got a text notification on his phone. Cleaning his hands, Lio quickly answered and saw that it was from his brother, Lincoln.
"Hey Bro, how's it going?" Lincoln asked. "You and Lily still hanging in there?"
"Yea Linc, we're doing great." Lio answered. "The two of us are doing some finger painting right now. I'm a little tired, but I'm still hanging in there."
"Lily takes a lot out of you, doesn't she?" Lincoln asked, sending a smirk emoji and a laughing emoji.
"Pfft, are you kidding me?" Lio answered back, "Why I'll have you know that Lily has been an absolute delight to babysit."
"Whatever you say, bro," Lincoln said, "we'll be back in an hour or two, do you think that you two are going to be okay?"
"We'll be fine, Linc," Lio said, "We'll see you guys when you get back."
"See ya bro," Lincoln said before ending the conversation.
"Lio! Lio!" Lily said excitedly, tugging at Lio's vest, ready to show him her finger painting.
"Yes, Lily?" Lio asked, putting down his phone and turning around to see Lily holding up a painting of him. "Oh my DIO, Lily, this is the cutest thing that I've ever seen!"
"You like it?" Lily asked, quite proud of the painting she'd made of her big brother."
"No, I don't like it," Lio said, causing Lily to frown, only to quickly smile and laugh again when Lio said "I LOVE IT!"
"I love the way you bring out my blue eyes," Lio said, taking a good long look at the painting, "I love how you get my multi coloured hair just right, I love the way you nail my freckles and I absolutely adore how you show off just how good I look in pink! Trust me, Lily, it's the most beautiful thing that has ever graced my eyes!"
Lio then lifted Lily up over his head into the air and, going full on Large Ham mode, proclaimed "Royal Lily, how we salute thee!"
Still having some paint on her hands, Lily poked Lio's nose once again and exclaimed "Boop!", leaving a green splotch of paint on Lio's nose.
"Awww," Lio said as Lily stared at the green paint on his nose.
"Lio, wait!" Lily said, getting an idea.
"Is everything alright, Lilypad?" Lio asked.
Lily nodded her head and told Lio "Sit down."
"Umm… okay," Lio said, sitting down at the table once again as Lily dipped her fingers in red paint.
"Stay still," Lily told him, to which Lio said "Okay" and did his best to stay absolutely still.
Starting at the top of Lio's forehead, Lily painted across half of his face with red paint, going over Lio's right eye and part of his nose in the process. Afterwards, Lily took a small amount of blue paint and traced it over Lio's face as well. When she was finished, Lily said "Done!"
"Yo, I've gotta see this," Lio said, looking around for the nearest mirror. When Lio found one, he was pleasantly surprised by what he saw. Much to Lio's delight, Lily had painted the Ziggy Stardust lightning bolt from the Aladdin Sane album on his face and it was a near perfect replica of the bolt too. "Lily, this is the single coolest thing that's ever happened to me! Thank you so much!"
Lio picked Lily up yet again with the latter giving him a huge hug. Internally, Lio was squeeing with delight and blushing brighter than a tomato. Externally, Lio was doing his best to keep his cool as he looked around and said "It's getting kind of late and the others will be back soon."
"No bedtime!" Lily said with a huff.
"I didn't say it was time for you to go to bed," Lio said, "just that it was starting to get late."
"Hmpf!" Lily huffed before yawning.
"Are you sure that you aren't getting sleepy, Lilypad?" Lio asked with a chuckle.
"No!" Lily said.
"How about this," Lio said, "I'll let you ride on my head as I clean up and then we can do whatever you want to do until Mom, Dad, and everyone else gets back? Deal?"
"Deal!" Lily said before Lio lifted her onto his head and shoulders and went around cleaning up where he and Lily had had their fun.
The paint was put away and the table wiped down, the chairs were put back in place, the ice cream bowls were thoroughly hand cleaned and placed back where they belonged. When he was finished, Lio walked into the living room and sat down on the sofa in front of the TV and yawned as he sat down. Lily was already fast asleep atop his head, prompting Lio to hold her in his arms as he kicked off his cowboy boots and reached for the remote.
"Goodnight Lily," Lio said, afterwards he heard a soft voice say "Lio…"
When the rest of the Louds arrived back at home, they returned to the rather wholesome sight of Lio fast asleep on the couch with a sleeping Lily laying on his chest. Both of them looked rather peaceful and had a soft smile on their faces. There was never any reason to think that something would go wrong.
END