Angel: I am so sorry that it took this long to release this, but with recent...unfortunate events with my Varian, Harmony, and the Seven Kingdoms story, I had found it difficult to write for that and for this, since both of them are from Tangled. If you're curious, a...fan basically harassed other artists on Deviantart for a comic for Sisters' Tangled Adventure, which I did not want, but she still persisted on asking people against my wishes. She did it no matter how many times I told her to stop it, especially since the artists she was harassing did not deserve it. And...her only favorite story was mine, literally the only one, and she kept asking me to write or draw stuff for her even though I said no. It just made me uncomfortable, annoyed, and fed up that I am now taking a break from Varian, Harmony, and the Seven Kingdoms. Which is sad, but I will be returning to this specific story soon. Probably in like a week or two.
Summary: Kiera and Catalina babysit Reid, Varian and Harmony's son.
Co-Queen Harmony is walking side by side with her sister and Varian as they walk down the hall together. Daisy, Pascal, and Ruddiger are with them, all of them over their owners' shoulders. "Mm, those croissants were really good for breakfast," Rapunzel hums a bit with a small smile. "The cooks are doing a great job!"
"And the pancakes were fluffy too," Harmony rubs her stomach in satisfaction. Varian is overlooking plans to make a plow for Old Corona. His father recently has had some trouble getting weeds out of the dirt, which inspired him to get started on this invention. "I just hope Reid didn't give Faith any trouble..."
Reid is the newborn of Varian and Harmony, who was born about a year after the two were married. Both of them love their son very much, and he seems to have already picked up Varian's intelligence as well as Harmony's spirit. But it does sometimes concern them whenever he wants to touch one of Varian's chemicals to the point where they have to baby-proof his equipment.
"I'm sure he's fine!" Rapunzel smiles optimistically at her sister. "Faith is great, and Reid is just perfect! Take it from his Aunt Rapunzel," She gestures to herself, earning an amused smile from the two.
"Yeah, don't worry," Varian assures his wife, kissing her cheek. "While we're both working, she's got it handled for the day."
They enter the room to find Faith panicking as she paces around. Reid is in his crib nearby, looking up and smiling at his parents.
"What do I do? What do I do?" Faith asks in worry and Harmony steps up. Varian walks off to go pick up his son.
"Faith, calm down. What is it?"
"Oh, your highness," She turns to the woman, holding her shoulders. "I've just been informed that my mother has been sent to the medic! I want to go see her, but I can't leave Reid alone."
"Oh no," She frowns a bit, turning to her sister and her husband. "We're all booked for the day. My sister and I have audience with the citizens, classes, and then a fundraiser for the local orphanage."
"And I have my current assignment from Eugene along with the plow to work on, the chemicals I have in there are too dangerous for Reid to be around," Varian gestures to the baby boy, cradling him carefully with one arm. Today, he was testing out various age creams for Eugene, which he finally gave into after much begging. He would be testing them with his father today.
"We understand, Faith. Go and visit the medic, you have the rest of the day off. We'll figure this out," Harmony tells her and she nods gratefully.
"Thank you. And again, I'm so sorry!" She runs out of the hallway, leaving them with a dilemma. They need someone, and they need someone now.
"Eugene's training with the guards today," Rapunzel rubs her chin. "Maybe Lance?"
"He's visiting Adira today with Max," Harmony reminds her just as Kiera and Catalina are walking down the hall. They hear the three talking and peek in to see them trying to find someone.
"And everyone else in town is busy," Varian murmurs in thought. "What about your parents?"
"They're going to Neserdnia to do some trading," Rapunzel sighs a bit. "We could get someone like Feldspar or Old Lady Crowley or Friedborg!"
"No, ahh, no," Harmony protests immediately, waving her hands. Rapunzel gives the couple a confused look as Varian sweats nervously. Reid starts tugging at Varian's glove, which he lets him do. "Not that we don't trust them, but I'm pretty sure that they're busy preparing for another holiday, aren't they?"
"Yeah!" Varian chuckles awkwardly; in reality, they don't want any of them watching their newborn child. Feldspar is...debatable, his behavior with Rapunzel during the Herz Der Sonne treasure hunt leaves a lot to be desired. Old Lady Crowley might scare Reid with her presence alone, and with Friedborg, they didn't doubt her skills but...well...they just couldn't get the courage to ask her. "W-We don't wanna bother them or anyone else in town, do we?"
"Well, the Gopher Grab is coming up in a few months," Rapunzel rubs her chin in thought. "And Cass and her father are too far away to get here on time. Same thing with Edmund or Hector. That's everyone we can think of. What are we gonna do?"
"What are you guys talking about?"
They turn around to see the two girls standing there. "Faith had to attend to a family emergency today, so we need someone to take care of Reid. But everyone, including us, are too busy to look after him," She gestures to Reid attempting to take off Varian's glove.
Kiera perks up at this. She and Catalina had yet to take care of him by themselves; usually they had guidance from either their parents or their friends. But they find this a chance to prove that they can be relied on to look after him alone.
"We'll babysit our baby bro!" Kiera offers eagerly, and the three glance at each other in surprise. They turn back to the girls.
"I'm not sure..." Harmony says truthfully after a few seconds. "You've only watched him three times, and you always had supervision then."
"Mom, we're not those little girls anymore," Catalina speaks up. "We've changed since then."
"We're not saying you haven't," Rapunzel holds up her hands in defense. "It's just that taking care of a newborn baby is a big responsibility. And Reid can be a little...stubborn. I guess he gets that from me," She chuckles a little.
"Definitely," Varian and Harmony agree in unison.
"He's a lot to handle, girls. It's not as easy as it looks," Varian states to them, and Reid just puts the glove in his mouth, sucking on it.
"If we can get away from the Baron and steal a psychic monkey, we can handle anything," Kiera smirks up at him. "And you guys really need someone to look after him, right? Let us make you guys proud! We wanna help you like you guys did for us."
The two pause as they glance at each other. They do make a good point; they were very busy and they couldn't look after the newborn themselves. Harmony and Varian smile at each other. The girls reminded them of themselves from when the storm hit. She wanted to be looked at as an actual authority figure to her people while he wanted to prove to his father that he wasn't always a screw-up.
"Well, okay," Harmony states to the duo, who high-five each other in victory. "But you have to follow the instructions to the letter," She gestures to a paper nearby. "When it's nap time, sometimes he'll just wanna play, so you'll have to find a way to get him tired. Usually a story or food will get him to sleep. And diaper-changing...is the most difficult thing you'll have to tackle."
"Feed him every 4 hours, and don't leave this room until we get back. So do. Not. Touch anything dangerous," Varian warns them and they roll their eyes. His warning felt a lot like the Rooster incident.
"Guys, go! We got this," Catalina gestures to herself and Kiera. "You can trust us."
"Well, okay. Thanks girls," Harmony says as Varian hands Reid over to Kiera. He kisses Reid's cheek and Harmony kisses his forehead, causing him to giggle.
"Have fun, girls!" Rapunzel waves to them as the three leave, closing the door behind him. "...You're gonna leave an hour early to check up on them, aren't you?"
"Well...yeah..." Varian admits sheepishly and he flinches. "Oh! We're running late, aren't we?!"
They then take off into a run, small panic in their eyes. Varian goes left while the co-queens go right.
"Are you sure we can do this?" Catalina asks her sister a bit skeptically as she looks down at their brother.
"We've gotta show 'em that we're responsible, Catalina! And I'm sure that he's not that hard to take care of. Let's go ahead and feed him," She places Reid in his high chair. He coos and laughs as Kiera opens a cabinet full of baby food. Reid sucks his thumb, his hair glowing blue and gold, the same colored bangs in his mother's hair. However, the girls are too focused choosing what to feed him to notice.
The glowing stops as soon as they turn around. "How about some yummy peaches?" Catalina gives him a spoonful of it and he easily eats it.
"See? Not so hard," Kiera smiles, hands on her hips.
Then they place down all sorts of instruments, blocks, a ball, a jack in the box, and a toy car around him.
"Why are we doing this again?" Kiera wonders to her sister as she takes out a trumpet.
"Rapunzel's been letting him pick his interests whenever she looks after him," Catalina holds up the notebook of instructions, and one of the pages says this as well. "Says it helps him with his individuality or something."
Kiera shrugs and starts playing the trumpet. A blue and gold aura appears around Reid, and he disappears out of sight.
"Alright Reid, what do you want to-" Catalina pauses and Kiera stops playing as they realize he's not where they placed him. They look around and find him crawling on the table where Harmony does her prototype building.
"Ah!" The two run over and Catalina smiles to get his attention.
"Where's the baby?" He crawls behind her toolbox and she moves it away to find him not there. "What?"
Kiera hears something and turns around to see him closing the door to the cabinet, holding a baby bottle full of milk. "How did he get over there?" She bends down to him in confusion. "Catalina, watch over him, I need to look at those notes they left us." She backs away, keeping a close eye on the baby while turning around to look at the paper. "This is so weird, has he ever been like this before?"
Catalina blinks in shock as she sees Reid turning invisible right in front of her, seeing the bangs glow from his head. "Uhh, Kiera?" Since they had grown up, Kiera had grown out of the 'call me Angry' phase.
She turns around and yelps in shock as Reid is completely gone. He then reappears a second later, playing with his baby bottle.
"Um...okay...just stay right there, Reid," Kiera slowly steps up to him. "Not to alarm you, but we have to keep you close." He looks up and holds up the bottle, squeezing it and spraying her with milk. Kiera gives him a blank look, wiping down her face with her hand.
They managed to get him into his crib, while also having it covered with a gate door (it wasn't their idea, Frederic insisted on it being implemented when the crib was built).
"This is...crazy," Kiera pinches her nose.
"Maybe it's got to do with Mom being both the moonstone and the sundrop," Catalina tells her, as this is the first time Reid has ever shown having powers like this. "What are we gonna do?"
"How should I know? There's nothing in writing about this! Let's just-" She turns around to the crib and yelps as she sees him crawling onto a table. "How did you get-?!" He's about to fall off and the two rush forward, diving and catching him in their hands. But he suddenly teleports out of them and they see him playing in the closet with Harmony's jewelry.
Catalina picks him up and wipes her forehead in relief. "Okay, baby bro. We're gonna slow it down a bit," She warns him gently. "Maybe something...simple! Like your books or some more milk. Won't that be fun?"
He blows a raspberry in her face in response.
They sit him down in his play area, handing him a stuffed bear. He then turns into a baby cub and they yelp in surprise. He coos as he walks around the room and they run around to catch him, but he either evades them or is too fast for them.
They corner him at the door and he looks up at them. "Nice...bear...baby," Kiera steps up slowly and calmly. "Time to sleep now!"
He simply roars at them and he screams.
Hours later, Varian steps into the bedroom, having gotten back first since Harmony is still doing audience with the citizens along with her sister. With the line he saw before he came back, she'd be busy for the next hour or so...
"Girls, Reid, I'm back~!" He calls out in the same manner he did when he got the spectrometric press for Rapunzel, closing the door behind him. "So, how was-" He falters as he sees the room a mess, both girls look like they're about to fall asleep. It had been tiring stopping their baby brother every single time...tables have been turned over, the mattress from the bed had been ripped up, and the window was smashed.
He hears a baby cry and looks down to see Reid simply babbling at him. The baby then flashes yellow and blue, disappearing right in front of Varian. Catalina simply turns her nose into a werewolf's nose and points to underneath the bed. Kiera looks underneath it and takes out the baby. She walks up to the shocked Varian and puts him into his arms.
"W-What in the world...?"
"Here, V. Hope you had a good nerd day," Kiera yawns and walks out the door. "Goodnight..."
"Bye..." Catalina slugs after her and Varian just blinks at them.
"B-But..." Reid disappears from his hands and he looks back at his hands. He whips around in a panic before Reid reappears on the destroyed mattress, giggling. "Ohh, Mona is not going to like seeing this..."