Parenthood

Chapter 4

When they arrived back at his apartment, Laxus wanted nothing more than to go find another bottle of liquor and down it. But he had Mirajane and the kid with him.

The kid. His kid.

Ugh.

"Okay, so I think he's getting sleepy," Mirajane announced softly once they were there. She'd taken to not being so forceful with Laxus since they'd left Porlyusica's place. He figured that she was trying to be courteous of his feelings. "So do you want him to sleep in your bed or should I make him a little bed here, on the living room floor?"

His blank stare gave her enough of an answer.

"Okay, Nate. Stay in here with Laxus, huh?" Mirajane sat the boy on the floor. "I'll be right back. Laxus, I need to go into your room to get some blankets and a pillow. Is that fine?"

Nothing. He only went to sit on the couch. As she took that for a for a yes and went off, Laxus only took to resting his head in his hands.

What was he going to do with a kid? He wasn't someone that could be a father. He wouldn't even be able to care for one of those damn cats the other slayers had. He'd probably forget to feed it or it would talk too much and he'd kill it.

No. Laxus Dreyar was not someone that could care for things.

But okay then. Alright. So that meant that he had to do like Mirajane said. He had to find someone else to care for the kid. He'd agreed with her not to just drop it off at some orphanage and forget about it. Okay. There had to be tons of nice families that wanted a baby, but couldn't have one.

Right?

Something about being left alone with his now confirmed father upset the little boy. It probably had more to do with the fact that Mirajane, the person who'd been caring for him for the past day and a half, had disappeared. Either way, he threw his head back and began to wail.

"Mira," Laxus called immediately. "Something's wrong with it."

"Mama," the toddler was screeching, stomping his feet. "Mama."

"Oh, no." Mirajane came rushing back, arms full of his blankets from his bed and a pillow. "What's wrong, baby?"

"I think it's dying."

"Laxus," she groaned as she dropped what was in her arm when she was close enough. Reaching out, she took the toddler into her arms, snuggling him close to her. "Are you okay, baby? Huh?"

He didn't wanna be calmed down that time though. He'd had enough. He wanted to go home and see his own mother and sleep in his own crib and be far away from the horrible people Mama had left him with.

"Mira, get to him to shut up," Laxus finally growled, annoyed. Getting up from the couch, he headed off to his bedroom, slamming the door behind him.

She only rolled her eyes though. She'd deal with him later. At the moment, all her attention had to go with the actual child, not the man acting like one.

It took making that pallet for him on the ground and laying down on it with him to get the toddler calmed down. She only laid on her side next to him, gently rubbing his tummy, and singing to him until he eventually drifted off.

She was in the kitchen, fixing lunch, when Laxus poked his head in.

"It didn't die, did it?"

She was busy making sandwiches and hardly glanced at him.

"From now on," she said simply, "we know not to skip naptime."

"All that to get it to go to sleep?"

"Stop calling him an it."

"I can call it whatever I want," he grumbled, coming further into the room. "And what are you doing in here, Mirajane?"

"Keep your voice down, unless you want to wake him again," she told him with a sigh. "And I'm making lunch, Laxus. I did just sacrifice my entire work day to be here with you, so the least you could do is spare some lunchmeat."

"Well-"

"Here's yours," she said, holding out a plate to him when he got close enough.

"You made me-"

"Well, it's your house, isn't it? What would I look like, not making you anything to eat?"

He only narrowed his eyes at her, as if suspicious. "Why are you being nice to me? Huh? Mira? I ain't ever been overly kind to you. So why-"

"I don't care about you, Laxus," she told him. "I think you're in a bad situation right now, but honestly, I don't care. I just care about the baby getting somewhere that he can be well taken care of. You're only a byproduct of that."

Snort. Then, glancing down at the plate of sandwiches, he said, "So what now? I'm the father, fine. What do we do now? You said that I need to find him a family. How do I do that? I can't…sell him. Or can I?"

"Laxus-"

"Just tell me what to do."

She let out a slow breath. "I don't know. If I had a baby, there'd be no way that I'd give it away. So-"

"Well, do I have a deal for you."

"Laxus-"

"I don't know anybody that would want a baby," he told her then. "I mean, if it's a product of me, you'd think that everyone would want it though, right?"

"I'm not in the mood, Laxus. This is serious."

Growling, he went to take a seat over at the kitchen table. "Are you gonna help me out then? To find someone to take the baby? I mean, you work in modeling. Do any of your people there want a baby?"

"I can ask around," she said slowly. "But-"

"And what am I going to do with him tonight? Are you going to take him back up to the guildhall with you? Or something? Because I can't… Mira…"

"I'll stay," she told him softly then, still not glancing over at him.

"You'll stay?"

"Here. With you," she told him. "Just for the rest of the day. And I guess the night too, to make sure that he's fine here."

"Mira-"

"But I am not a babysitter, Laxus. I work at the bar. That is what I do. So you need to start calling all your women to find one that wants to take care of this baby for you," she told him.

"But all the women that I hookup with are…I dunno. I wouldn't think they'd be any good with kids."

"I don't care," she told him. "I really don't. This isn't my problem. Not really."

"You've made it your problem up until this point, so-"

"But I have to work, Laxus. I need money. It's just me and my brother and sister in that house. If I'm not making money-"

"Can I pay you?"

That made her pause. "Pay me?"

He shrugged. "You're the only woman I know that isn't a whore."

"Laxus, that's a really derogatory word. And just because a woman sleeps with you, I mean, yeah, she has horrible judgment and taste in men, but that doesn't make her-"

"You're annoying me," he warned then, just to get her quiet. Once she was, he went on. "How much does Gramps pay you at the bar?"

"It's not about the base pay, Laxus. I make so much more in tips and-"

"I'll double what he pays you."

"Laxus-"

"Triple," he said, shutting her right up once more. "And extra when you spend the night. Please, Mira? I don't… I don't want him, but I can't just ditch him either. So...help me. I'll give you the money for the rest of this week up front. Just let me go to the bank and-"

"But what about the bar? And-"

"Tell your sister to watch it. Or Kinana. Or have them do whatever the hell they did while you were trapped in Tenrou. I don't give a damn," he said with a shake of his head. "I need you here. You know how to…make it shut up when it starts screaming and change it's diaper and I mean, hell, Mirajane, other than Ever, you're the only woman in my life that I actually remotely thinks is kinda okay. I mean, I guess I could ask Erza, but she-"

"Erza?"

"Well, if you say no and I know that Evergreen'll say yes because I'm asking, but won't be good with it, I really don't have a lot of-"

"I'll do it," she said without thinking. The mention of Erza possibly taking care of the child instead of her was something that made Mirajane feel funny inside. It wasn't like she and Erza were still rivals or something. Oh, no. They were friends. Great friends.

But still…

"Really?" Laxus asked, as if in shock.

"Mmmhmm," she said, nodding her head slightly. "But you're going to have to keep looking for someone, Laxus. This isn't a permanent fix. This is only-"

'I know," he said. "And I'll pay you too, Mirajane. Just let me finish eating and I'll go down to the bank, huh? Pull out the jewels?"

She shrugged. "It doesn't all have to be right now."

"But I'll pay you for today, at least."

"Well, you also need to get a few things for Nathan."

"Huh?"

"He needs more diapers, Laxus," she told him with a sigh. "And some things to play with. He only has a few toys in his diaper bag. And-"

"What if I give you some cash and you go get all this?" he asked. His tone was one that she'd never heard from him before. Almost…panicky. Or maybe as if he were begging. Groveling.

He must have been really afraid to be alone with the baby.

"Not the money I'm paying you," he went on. "I'll give you some jewels just to buy him things. Do you know what he needs?"

"Well, yeah, I guess. But-"

"I'll go get the cash. Then when he wakes up or whatever, you can-"

"Yeah, Laxus. That's fine."

"Okay," he said, letting out a slow breath. "I-"

"But this isn't going to be cheap," she told him. "He needs, most importantly, some actual blankets and pillows. Or, better yet, a playpen would be nice. I could make him a little-"

"Mira," he cut her off, his tone taking that his usual swagger once more. "Money is no problem with me."

Rolling her eyes, she said, "Fine. Then I guess we're in business, Mr. Dreyar."

He only cocked his head to the side. "Guess so."

"Laxus, are you even looking at the price tags?"

He only tossed another stuffed animal into the basket. "Should I be?"

"Well," Mirajane said slowly as Nathan, who was holding onto her hand, started to pull away. He was really interested in all the different things around the toy store. "Toys aren't exactly inexpensive. And we don't know how long we'll be keeping him. Not to mention, we still need to hit a store to get his diapers, playpen, some food-"

"Did you not hear me tell you money was no object?" He put a set of action figures into the cart Mirajane was pushing. "Besides, if these will all keep him quiet and get him to leave me alone, he can have whatever the fuck he wants."

"You can't curse in front of-"

"You're the hired help now," he reminded her. "So shut up."

Mirajane only frowned as they went to store after store, buying more and more things. By the time they got back to Laxus' apartment, he had to have spent more on the child than she made in a month.

She dropped all the bags with toys inside of them while Laxus, who'd had to carry the box with the playpen in it, went to put that in the corner. Nathan was overly enjoying pulling all his little stuffed animals from the bags though and paid the rest of them little mind.

"We still have to go back out," Mirajane told Laxus. "We only came to drop stuff off. Remember? We still need to buy some food."

"I got food."

"Not things a toddler can eat, Laxus," she sighed. "And we need a few more changes of clothes for him."

Grunt. He'd pulled a pocket knife out of his pocket and began cutting the tape around the box before opening it and peeking inside.

"I gotta put this thingy together," he told her. "Then we can go back out."

"Or you could give me some jewels and I could just go out. Me and the baby."

Nathan didn't seem like he was planning on going anywhere, honestly. He was living the high life at the moment and was busy snuggling all his different stuffed toys to him.

"Whatever." Laxus reached into his pocket before tossing his wallet at her. "Take it, if you wanna."

When they left him, the slayer was optimistic. No way a silly little thing like a playpen could get the best of him, he insisted. Whatever. Mirajane only took the whining Nathan who insisted on at least carrying one of his stuffed dogs along with him back out of the apartment to go back shopping.

First though, she stopped off at her own home.

"Mira," Lisanna complained when she walked into the living room. "Where have you been? I waited up at the guild for you to come back, but-"

"The baby is his," Mira sighed as she closed the front door behind her. "And he is not happy."

"What?" Lisanna, who was sitting on the couch reading a magazine, sat up. "Are you-"

"Hi," Nathan, who had been holding onto Mirajane's hand, called out. Lisanna frowned before waving at him slightly.

"Why do you still have him?" she asked, getting up then to go pick up the toddler. Nathan only shoved his stuffed dog in her face. "Mira?"

"I have a new job venture," she said simply. Lisanna only stood there, waiting for an explanation.

"I'm a nanny."

"Mira-"

"He's paying me more than I could make at the guild in a week, Lisanna, just for a day. And for what? Taking care of a cute little baby?" She gave her sister a look. "You know how we've needed to get the guest bathroom sink fixed forever? By the end of the week, I'll have more than enough to do that. And we can finally buy Elf a new bed. You know he needs one. And you can go shopping. I mean, if I stretch this into a month, I could buy myself that new living room set I want."

Lisanna only stared at her. "Laxus has this type of cash?"

"Supposedly. And if he doesn't, then I guess he'll be taking some S-Class missions to make up for it."

"Hmmm." She took to staring at the little toddler in her arms. "So I guess I have to be making up for you at the bar?"

"Just for a little bit. I'm sure Kinana will get most of the work done. You know how efficient she is these days. As good as me."

"Not quite, but-"

"And look at him," she said, gesturing to the child in her sister's arms. "He's an angel. This is going to be the easier money I've ever made."

Lisanna only stared hard at her sister. "Is he keeping him then?"

"No," she sighed. "He's going to be looking for someone to take him. A family that wants a baby."

"Then you better be careful, Mirajane," she sighed as she sat the wiggling baby back down on the ground.

"Careful of what?"

"I know you," Lisanna told her. "You get attached to things far too easily."

"Oh, Lisanna," she said with a roll of her eyes. "I won't."

"Uh-huh."

"Seriously," she insisted. "I would love to have a baby. My own. But this is just Laxus' kid. Laxus. Who I'm not even close to. I'm just going to babysit for him until he finds a more real solution to the problem."

"Alright," Lisanna sighed. "It's your gig, not mine."

Mira only let out a soft breath. "This is going to work out fine. Trust me."

Then, in a more teasing tone and with a glint in her eyes, she said, "You know what they always say about the father and the babysitter."

"Lisanna-"

She only giggled. "Don't fall for the employer, Mirajane."

She only made a face before going to find where Nathan had run off to.

"Trust me," she said simply. "That won't be a problem."