"Do not underestimate them…"
Nia raised an eyebrow at her brother as she held her nephews in her arms. He had passed them to her as if he was passing her two arms bombs she was supposed to disarm or something. "Don't you think you're worrying just a little too much. I'm pretty sure between the three of us we can handle two little babies," she said.
Dorado looked calm enough, though he did seem slightly concerned that it looked like his father was about to leave. While Lacerta was reaching for one of Nia's earrings. He couldn't quite reach it, but was stretching his tiny little arms as far as he could to try anyway.
Astro clicked his tongue. "Yeah, okay. You've never taken care of titans babies before. I mean it. Do not let those faces fool you. If you let your guard down, they will turn this entire castle upside down. Especially Lacerta," Astro said. As if on cue, the boy let out a burp, spitting out a small flame.
"Okay, gotta watch out when I burp him…" Nia muttered. "But seriously, we totally have this covered. There's nothing to worry about. You, Maria, and Amber just go and enjoy yourselves. We'll make sure the boys are safe, sound, and happy."
Astro hummed. He was pretty sure the boys would find a way to do the last part on their own. "Well, good luck," he said leaning down and giving his sister a kiss on the forehead. He patted both his sons and ruffled their hair. "And you two behave…" Dorado made a noise and shoved his fist in his mouth, while Lacerta let out a small growl at having his hair ruffled. "Again, watch them closely. They'll be there one second and gone the next if you let your guard down.
"Yeah, I got it. Babies are tricky, don't let them out of my sight. Now go and have fun now. Go on, go," Nia said shooing her brother off.
Astro sighed and took his leave, closing the door behind him, and then looked down at the two. "Well, you two are ready to have fun with your awesome aunts and uncle?" she asked excitedly. Dorado looked up at her curiously, while Lacerta smirked. Nia turned and made her way towards the living room. "Look who's here!"
Jia lowered the sword she had been practicing with, and AJ looked up from his phone. "Well hey, if it isn't the little rascals," AJ said getting up from his spot on the couch. He reached over and patted both boys on the head. "We've been waiting for you to, whoa-!"
He pulled his hand back as Lars snapped at him. The kid had a set of choppers on him, and AJ was pretty sure he could have taken a finger if he wasn't careful. "He's a snappy little thing huh?" Jia said giggling.
"Well, he didn't seem to like it when Astro did it either," Nia said as she looked at Lars, who was narrowing his eyes towards AJ. "Guess we don't touch his hair."
Jia hummed and looked towards Dorado, who seemed fixated on something. She followed his gaze down to her hand, and realized he was looking at her sword. "Um… is he staring at my sword," she asked, moving the weapon to the side. Sure enough, his little heart turned towards it.
"Gah!"
He reached out both arms, clearly wanting to get his hands on the blade. "Oh yeah, Astro did mention that he really liked swords," Nia said. She didn't think swordsmanship was able to pass down through DNA, but… well, even his cheek marks were swords. That had to count for something.
Jia laughed. "Maybe when you're a bit older, little guy," she said before tossing the blade back behind her. "Sol, can you put that away for me."
In a flash, the phoenix appeared from seemingly nowhere, grabbing the sword in one of his talons. Lacerta's eyes went wide as soon as he saw the creature. "Fire!" He began squirming in Nia's arms, trying to get loose and make his way towards Sol.
"Whoa, he sure got lively all of a sudden. He must really like Sol," Nia said, barely able to keep the boy in check. AJ took Dorado from her so she could focus on Lacerta.
Jia hummed. "Well, he is sort of linked to him. Hekapoo came from Sol's feather, Amber came from Hekapoo, and he came from Amber," she reasoned. "Then again, maybe he just likes things that are on fire."
"Well, looks like you got a new buddy Sol. Hope you don't mind-"
Before Nia could finish, Lars managed to break free from her grip, landing on the floor on all fours, and then running towards Sol. He leapt at the bird, who moved out of the way. "Oh crap!" AJ cursed as they watched Lacerta head right for the wall.
The infant's wings suddenly spread out and began flapping, slowing him down as he held out both hands and grabbed onto the wall. The three adults all stopped and stared at him as he began crawling up the wall and onto the ceiling. "Oh man, he really is like Astro…" Nia muttered. She was starting to have flashbacks to the time where she's accident reversed his age, and… oh no.
Lacerta chuckled as he made his way across the ceiling, his eyes still locked onto Sol. "Lars, why don't you come back down to auntie Nia before you get hurt up there?" she asked, trying to coax him down. "If you do I'll let you pet Sol!"
Sol chirped before suddenly turning and flying off, and Lacerta laughed again before scurrying out of the room after him. "Damn it Sol! He's just a baby! Take one for the team!" Jia yelled as she ran after them. Nia quickly followed her.
"AJ, look after Dorado!" Nia called back.
He gave a thumbs up. "You got it. Looks like it's just gonna be you and me for a while little- Oh shit!" When he looked down to adress Dorado, he saw that the boy was no longer there. "Oh crap! You've gotta be kidding me?!" How the hell had the kid slipped out of his grasp like that?
Crap, he had to find him. If Astro found out he lost his kid and something happened to him, he'd kill him. "Dorado, where'd you go man?!"
Nia and Jia ran down the hall after Sol and Lacerta. The infant was shockingly fast for someone with such tiny limbs, and every time he leapt in the air his wings brought him an extra few feet of hang time.
"Lacerta, please be a good boy for auntie Nia and Jia and slow down!" Jia said as she began gaining on the boy. "Or better yet, just stop running period!" She tried to grab him, but he jumped to the side and began running on the side of the wall. "Shénme?!"
Nia jumped and began flying after him, blasting air from her feet to speed herself up. Lars looked back over his shoulder and saw her gaining on them, but rather than looked worried, he smiled. "Fun!" he shouted before jumping up again.
Both of his aunts watched in awe as he began blasting flames from his feet, boosting himself forward. Between that and his wings, he managed to get quite a lot of distance, and when he landed he quickly jumped up and did the same thing again. "Did he just… did he just copy me?" Nia asked, looking towards Jia.
"I think he did…" Jia said wide eyed. Astro told her titans lived off their instincts, but she didn't think they could just copy stuff like that. "Wait, worry about that later! We still have to catch him!"
AJ had lifted every single thing in the room in the hopes that he'd find Dorado somewhere, after that turned out to be a bust he figured the kid must have snuck off somewhere else. He used his powers to try and track him down.
He could feel Sol's fear, along with Lacerta's excitement and Nia and Jia's panic rushing through the halls, so he knew to filter them out. He concentrated on other sections of the castle, and was surprised to find him heading towards one of Jia's rooms. The one where she kept all the cool looking weapons she collected from other dimensions.
"Oh god damn it!" AJ said as he rushed towards it.
A baby in a room full of sharp stabby objects? Just what could go wrong? He had to hurry up before the kid ended up getting shish kabobed.
He rushed down the hall and into the room where he saw Dorado standing in the middle of it. His eyes looked around the room, eyeing every single sword inside of it. He looked like a kid in a candy shop rather than one surrounded by dangerous weapons. AJ let out a small sigh. At least he wasn't as reckless as his brother.
"Alright kid, I think you got a big enough eyefull. Let's get back to… what are you doing?" He noticed that Dorado was looking up at the sword on the top shelf. It was the one Jia had gotten from the land of Ooo. "Kid, what are you about to do?" AJ asked. He really didn't like the look in his eyes.
Dorado crouched down and got into a jumping position, and AJ quickly moved forward to stop him. "Don't dang it! Don't!" Dorado shot off the ground, his tiny wings flapping as he reached up for the sword. "Aw crap!" He made it to the top, grabbing the handle of the sword, and causing the cabinet it was set upon to begin stumbling. Dorado didn't seem concerned about falling however, and just admired the weapon in his hand. "Okay little dude, just stay still and-!"
Dorado moved the sword, and AJ's eyes went wide as the cabinet beneath him was sliced right in two. "Oh shit!" he yelled running forward. He quickly used his powers, stopping the two halves of the cabinet from falling, and catching Dorado before he fell to the ground.
"Man, you've got to be kidding me. Just what the hell kind of kids did Astro-?" Dorado let out a laugh and began swinging the sword again, dicing up the two halves of the cabinet into bits. "Seriously?!"
Sol chirped as he continued trying to flee from Lacerta. They had gone outside and were making their way across the roof. Lacerta was still rocketing after the bird, having a lot of run using his new trick. Sol tried to cut and twist and turn to shake him, but the child was relentless.
The flame it sensed it shared with Lacerta was far different that the one it sensed from Hekapoo and Amber. It was far more wild and untamed, and he felt like if he got caught he was going to be in a much more rough time than he planned for. Eventually it just decided to take off towards one of the higher towers. Once he got far enough, he would give up.
"Fire!"
Sol looked back and then saw that Lacerta had indeed still come after him. The infant had jumped off the edge of the roof and grabbed onto the back of his tail. Sol dropped for a second from the suddenly extra added weight, but quickly pulled himself back up and looked down. Lacerta laughed as he kept clinging onto his tail.
"Oh crap!"
Nia and Jia both looked shocked as they saw Sol hovering in the air along with Lacerta. "Sol, bring him back over here right now!" Jia called. They did not want to have to explain to Astro that his son ended up a pancake because he was chasing Sol.
Before the bird could begin moving however, Lacerta shot another burst of flames from his feet, yanking them both in a different direction. "Are you kidding me?! Lars, stop!" Nia shouted. He was going to end up smashing them into a wall or something.
The demand fell on death ears, and Lacerta continued firing off blasts of fire, yanking Sol back and forth in the air. Eventually the bird seemed to have enough, and let out a cry before suddenly disappearing in a flash of light. "Where… where did he go?" Nia asked nervously. She really hoped Sol wasn't off trying to drop him in a lake somewhere.
"Probably back inside where it's more safe to fling him off his tail," Jia said, turning back around towards the entrance. "C'mon, we have to find them!"
AJ carefully carried Dorado back towards the living room. He had managed to get the sword away from the kid, but not before he had gone on a cutting spree, slicing apart quite a few pieces of furniture. To his credit, he had never pointed the sword towards AJ himself, but… at this point he didn't want the kid holding a plastic knife.
Better safe than sorry. He got back to the living room and then set Dorado down on the couch. "Alright kid, let's just chill here for a little bit and-" A familiar flash of light appeared, and both AJ and Dorado were surprised to see Sol, along with Lacerta. The bird let out an annoyed chirp before flicking his tail, sending Lars tumbling...
Right into the fireplace.
"SHIT!"
AJ rushed over to grab the child from the flames, while Dorado just sat and looked towards where his siblings had been tossed, unmoved. AJ knelt down and shot his hands forward, so panicked to rescue him he forgot to even put a psychic shield around his hands. Burns be damned, he wasn't about to let the kid burn alive.
Before he could however, the flames shot up in an intense burst. AJ stumbled back, and then looked up to see that not only was Lacerta fine, he was smiling. "Fire!" he cheered, holding clapping his hands as he rolled around in the flames.
"You've gotta be shitting me…" AJ mumbled.
Nia and Jia both rushed into the room, looking out of breath, and then looked over and saw Lacerta in the fire. "What the…?" They both turned towards AJ. "How?"
"Your brother spawned demon children, that's how…" AJ said bluntly.
Dorado laughed and clapped his hands.
Astro smiled as Dorado and Lacerta both made their way towards him. "Hey, there's my little monsters," he said, kneeling down to pat them on the head. "Did you have fun with your auntie Nia today? Did you behave?"
"Yes," Dorado said nodding.
"No!" Lars said, smirking.
Nia let out a nervous laugh. "Oh, he's just joking. They were both little angels. Hardly any trouble at all," the blonde said. "Right guys?"
Jia clicked her tongue. "Uh… yeah." She guessed they were easier to deal with one they'd found a way to get them to settle down. Lacerta had managed to keep himself busy with the fireplace, and by bothering Sol, who she had promised to make it up to later. And Dorado was surprisingly tame compared to his brother. Though AJ was tired from all the baby games he'd had to keep up while they distracted Lacerta.
"Your kids are just… how do you do it?" AJ asked, not even trying to go along with Nia and Jia. "How do you even have that much energy and still do the stuff you do?"
They both scoffed and looked at him, while Astro just smirked. "I figured they'd give you the runaround," he said chuckling.
Nia held her hands up. "It wasn't anything they couldn't handle though! We totally-!"
"Nia, it's fine. I didn't expect the whole thing to go perfectly. But they're both unhurt and seem happy. Were you guys happy to spend time with your aunties and uncle?" he asked looking down at the two.
Dorado nodded. "Yeah!"
Lacerta pointed towards Jia and Sol. "Fire!"
"If you guys can stand it, I wouldn't mind asking again sometime."
Nia and Jia shared a glance, and then smiled. "Well… they are a handful. But seeing as we're their new favorite aunties, how are we supposed to say no?" Jia asked.
AJ sighed. "Guess we don't mind. I mean, you deal with them every day. At the very least we can give you a break now and then. And they're not bad little dudes, just… excitable… seriously, how do you do it?" he asked.
Astro held his hand up. "I adapted. I learned to expect the unexpected at all-" Lacerta suddenly shot a blast of flames from his feet, ramming headfirst into Astro and knocked him to the ground.
The others all looked wide eyed and Lacerta sat on Astro's chest, smiling at having shown off his new trick. "Uh… guess what we learned today?" Nia asked nervously, holding her hands out.
A/N: Little Dorado and Lars spending time with Their Auntie Nia, Jia, and Uncle AJ! Titan babies are NOT easy to keep tabs on! You got to be on your A game if you're gonna try and deal with these kids!