This one was fun to write! Hope ya like it! :D
"Wendy!"
The said Dragon Slayer turned at the call, smiling at the green-haired woman approaching her, a small four-year-old toddling along behind her, clinging to her hand. "Bisca-san!" she greeted. "How are you?"
"I'm good, thanks for asking," the woman smiled. "I actually have a favor to ask of you, Wendy…"
"Sure! Anything I can do to help!"
Bisca's smile turned from kind to relieved. "Oh, God, thank you!"
"So what do you need me to do?" asked Wendy.
"Well…"
"Mama!" Asuka said suddenly, lifting her arms up to her mother. "Hold Asuka!"
Bisca complied, setting the toddler on her hip where the girl proceeded to try and take her mother's cowboy hat off. Leaning her head away from her, Bisca continued, "Do ya think you can handle a couple of hours watching Asuka for me? Alzack and I have been plannin' our anniversary dinner for months now but we can't find anyone with the time to watch our girl…"
Wendy's smiled tightened a bit. Watch Asuka? That was an awful lot of trust to put into a girl who just turned thirteen. But she'd already promised her, so Wendy nodded and said, "Sure!"
Bisca's whole face lit up. "Really? Do ya think ya can handle her for about three hours?"
Three hours? "No problem," Wendy lied.
"Oh, God, you are a life saver!" Bisca cried.
"Mama, Asuka's hungry!" exclaimed Asuka.
"Okay, sweetie, I'll go get'cha somethin'…I'll drop her off at your apartment around nine tonight, okay?"
"I'll be there," Wendy replied. Then she waved goodbye to the mother and child, watching them walk away with an expression that grew extremely worried. Wendy wasn't sure how to take care of a child. Carla had always been able to do things herself when Wendy had found her, so she had no experience from that, and what if she messed up something? What if she made Bisca and Alzack angry with her? What if Asuka got hurt—
"Something wrong, Wendy?"
Wendy jumped, startled out of her worries, and turned to face the boy standing behind her. Her smile instantly brightened. "Hello, Romeo!"
Romeo smiled back at her. "What's wrong?" he asked.
And Wendy instantly frowned. "Oh, it's nothing…"
Romeo rolled her his eyes. "Wendy, in case you haven't noticed, anyone can tell when you're upset. You might as well let someone help you."
Wendy's face flushed embarrassedly, and she ducked her head. "Oh…well, um, Bisca-san just asked me to baby sit Asuka for a little while…"
As she spoke, Romeo sat down in front of her. "I don't really see an issue here," he remarked, raising an inquisitive eyebrow at her.
Wendy's frown deepened. "I don't know how to take care of babies!" she exclaimed suddenly. "What if I get Asuka hurt and make Bisca-san and Alzack-san mad at me? What if—"
"Wendy," Romeo interrupted her, "you're great with kids! You play with Asuka all the time!" Not to mention you used to watch me…but thinking like that makes me feel weird…
Wendy bit her lip. "For maybe twenty minutes at a time," she countered. "And always with her parents around. Never for three hours by myself!"
"Well, where'll Carla be?"
"Her, Happy, and Lily are going to visit the Exceeds tonight," Wendy sighed. "They'll be gone until noon tomorrow."
Romeo sighed. There would be no consoling Wendy. Unless…and he smiled. "Well, how about I come by and help you?" he offered.
Wendy blinked, obviously surprised by the offer. "You? Come to…my house?"
Romeo nodded. "Sure. You'll worry yourself to death without someone to help you, and I've got nothing else to do."
Wendy had seemed to blush a bit more at the offer. But, with a smile, she said, "Thank you, Romeo! I'll see you at nine, then?"
"I'll be there," Romeo said.
Wendy smiled again. "Thank you!" And she hurried off, eager to get her house ready for Asuka…and, perhaps, Romeo.
At the table, Romeo started grinning. Three hours alone with Wendy? That sounded just fine with him.
There was a knock at the door at exactly eight-fifty-five. Wendy hurriedly jumped to the door, pulling it open. There stood Romeo with little Asuka Connell on his hip, smiling at her. Wendy almost giggled at the image. She'd never really thought of Romeo as being good with kids, but there was Asuka, smiling and laughing as she played with his scarf.
"Hey, Wendy!" he said cheerfully. "I picked up Asuka from the guild."
"Okay." She held out her hands to the little girl. "Hi, Asuka."
The toddler smiled and reached her hands out to the Dragon Slayer. "Hi, Wendy-nee!" she said as Wendy lifted her from Romeo's arms and into hers. "Can we play?"
"Of course. What do you want to play?" she asked as she stepped farther into the apartment so Romeo could come in and shut the door.
"Hide-and-seek!" Asuka said.
"Okay. Who hides?"
"Asuka and Wendy-nee!" The little girl pointed to Romeo. "Romeo-nii has to find us!"
"You bet I will," promised Romeo.
Wendy set Asuka down and she declared, "You have to count to one hundred first! And cover your eyes!"
"One hundred?" Romeo asked. He had a slight look of disbelief, like he couldn't believe she was going to make him count so high.
Asuka nodded. "Start counting!" she commanded.
And then the game had begun.
As Romeo closed his eyes and began to count, Asuka ran off to hide somewhere in the small apartment, hissing, "Hide, Wendy-nee! Hide!"
Wendy could only think of one place, though. The place she hid when it stormed or she thought someone was trying to get into her apartment (that always ended up being Levy sneaking off to find Gajeel and stumbling into her door in the dark).
The bathtub.
So, glancing at Romeo who had continued to obediently count to one hundred, she darted into the bathroom and, as quietly as she could, slipped past the shower curtain to curl up at the bottom of the tub. Then she listened to Romeo counting aloud.
"…ninety-seven…ninety-eight…ninety-nine…one hundred! Ready or not, here I come…"
She giggled softly as she listened to him roam about, probably looking in the most obvious places first. "Asuka~!" he called out in a sing-songy voice Wendy didn't know he could make. "Where are you—ack!" There was a loud crashing sound, him tripping over the leg of the coffee table.
Wendy giggled again, then pressed a hand to her mouth because that one hadn't been as quiet as the first. Romeo's mutterings of "Ow" and "Stupid table" faded, and Wendy heard him coming closer. Then it was all silent.
Too silent.
Suddenly, the shower curtain was shoved aside, and Romeo shouted, "Boo!" Wendy screamed, a sound that quickly dissolved into hysterical laughter from both kids.
"I haven't played that in forever!" Wendy said as she stepped out of the tub.
"Me, neither," Romeo said. "It's still surprisingly fun."
"I know, right?" Wendy agreed, still smiling. Then she paused. "Where's Asuka?"
Romeo shrugged. "I dunno. I found you first."
Wendy's ears twitched a bit. "But…I don't hear her…"
Romeo frowned. "Whaddya mean?"
"My ears," Wendy explained, her grin fading into a frown as she spoke. "I have advanced hearing, remember? I can't hear Asuka in the apartment…"
"Well, where else can she be?"
Wendy hurried out of the bathroom, shoving past him in an un-Wendy like way, desperate to see what she feared was true, Romeo right behind her. She ran into the middle of the living room and turned to the door. She felt her knees go a bit weak.
The door was wide open.
"Oh my gosh," Wendy breathed.
"She left the freaking apartment?" exclaimed Romeo. "How did I not hear her?"
"How did I not hear her?" Wendy's voice was high-pitched and most obviously panicked. "Oh…it's all coming true…"
"We have to find her," Romeo said, taking off out the door. Wendy ran after him and they tore through the halls of Fairy Hills, calling out, "Asuka? Asuka, where are you? This isn't a game anymore, please come out!"
Finally, they came to a stop at the end of one hallway, panting. "Where could she have gone?" asked Romeo incredulously. "It's not like the doorman would let her leave the building! Would he?"
"No, he's too afraid of Erza-san to let one of the Fairy Tail kids wander out with supervision," said Wendy. "So she's in the building somewhere…"
"Can you hear her?" asked Romeo hopefully.
Wendy shook her head. "With all the other girls here? No, I can't pinpoint her in all the chaos."
"Can you smell her?"
"No."
"Do you have any idea where she might be?" Romeo asked, his voice tinged with exasperation.
Wendy went quiet, pushing aside all her panicked thoughts so she could think. "Um…we've checked all the hallways…and none of the girls would've just let her into their rooms…so the only place left is…" And she snapped, her eyes brightening. "The laundry room!" And, without waiting for Romeo, she tore down the hallway.
"Pew! Pew!" Asuka said, wandering in between the large, lacrima-powered washing machines, pointing her forefinger like a gun and pretending to shoot imaginary bad guys. "Asuka will defeat you!" she declared to the ghosts. "For Mama and Daddy!"
It had been almost a half hour since she'd figured the best hiding place would be outside the apartment and found this place. She'd hidden in a laundry basket for a good ten minutes before her attention to the game faded and she decided she'd try a new game—her pretending to be a mage like her parents and fighting the bad guys. It was fun, because she always won.
"Pew! Pew, pew!" she muttered, pretending to fire her gun again.
It was around then that she heard Romeo and Wendy running down the hallway, calling for her. She quickly found another laundry basket full of towels and jeans and dove into it, burying herself in the fabrics. She grinned to herself as she heard them come in, certain that they would never find her here. She would win this game, too!
"Asuka!" called Romeo. "Asuka, where'd you go?"
"Are you in here?" asked Wendy.
Asuka's grin fell a bit when she realized how worried their voices sounded. Mama would be mad at her for making them worry…so she poked her head out of the clothes, resuming her grin, and asked, "Did Asuka win?"
"Asuka!" the two cried in unison, swooping down on her and fussing with her hair and clothes, asking if she was hurt. Asuka just kept shaking her head, laughing when Romeo poked her on the nose.
"You, missy, scared us half to death!" he said.
"You can't leave the apartment, Asuka!" Wendy scolded.
"Asuka is sorry," she said, still grinning. "Can we play again?"
Later, after Bisca and Alzack had picked up Asuka (and were untold of their little adventure for fear of making the couple mad), Romeo stayed a little while. He flopped down into one of the chairs, exhaling loudly. "Oh, Mavis, I've never been that scared!"
"See why I worry?" said Wendy as she closed the door, taking a seat in the chair opposite of the fire mage.
"About Asuka, yes. About every other problem in the world, no."
"I don't worry about everything," Wendy objected a little indignantly. "Just about…things that need worrying about."
Romeo grinned a little. "So you were worried Pantherlily was upset because his name was too feminine because that just needed worrying about?"
Wendy frowned. "Well, you worry about whether Natsu-san thinks you're too clingy!" she countered.
Romeo frowned, too, sitting up a little straighter. Then he raised an eyebrow. "Challenge accepted."
"W-What?"
"Last week you were worried about Erza eating too much strawberry cake when there's obviously no stopping that addiction!"
Wendy glared a little. "Yesterday you were worried you'd taken on too weak a job and people were going to think you couldn't handle tougher ones!"
"You worry about Happy saying 'Aye' too much!"
Wendy sat up straighter like Romeo. "You worry about getting your scarf dirty!"
"You worry about the guild falling down when it rains!"
"I-I…no, I don't!"
"Uh-huh. Sure."
It was about then they realized they'd leaned so close to each other while arguing that their noses were nearly touching. Instantly both their faces flushed scarlet, but neither moved away. For what seemed like the longest second in the world, they just stared at each other.
Then, quickly, Romeo touched his lips to hers. Then he fell back into the chair, his eyes locked on his feet, his face even more red than before. Wendy just, as if in a dace, brought her fingers to her lips, feeling where Romeo's had touched hers just a moment before.
That was the day they officially became a couple.
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