A/N: hi guys, if you are ever interested in seeing some moodboards for my next gen babies, you can find them on my tumblr @mochidom xoxo
In which, Asuka is once again victim of this scam called babysitting.
It was supposed to be a quick trip. Enter the guild incognito, say hello to her mother and father who are now retired and lounging daily at the guild to avoid another sermon about being a bad daughter, rip a mission ad from the paperboard, get it approved by an administrator and be out before anyone else noticed her presence.
Asuka Conell repeated the steps in her head as she made her way from Magnolia Market to the guild. It was easy, chances of anything going wrong were slim. It was going to be okay.
So she let herself relax, slowed down her step which had been very stiff and robotic until then and smiled.
In fact, she was just about to buy herself a few pastries to celebrate this beautiful day when a multitude of goosebumps took over her, her body taking note that she was followed before she could register it herself.
"A-SU-KA!" A familiar voice behind her shouted.
She shuddered, not willing to turn around. Maybe if she ignored it and kept walking, she could get out of this. After all, she had the latest generation Crima-Buds on her head and she could claim she did not hear anything. The noise canceling was so good with that one, everyone knew that.
"Yeah, this will work" The girl thought, dropping the pastries and walking away as naturally as she could.
To her utmost disappointment, the person behind, not discouraged in the slightest and not caring a bit that all the attention of the busy market was now on her, continued to shout the Conell daughter's name.
Asuka was just about to turn the corner and hopefully lose her pursuant when she was stopped in her tracks by another one of them.
He was quite tall, his long blue hair was up in a messy bun as if he had left his home in a hurry and a red birthmark adorned his left eye.
"Asuka!" He said, smiling, almost giggling. But the green-haired girl wasn't impressed, there was something wicked in that smile. Something that promised her a fate she wouldn't be able to escape.
"Don't you hear us calling you?"
The girl laughed nervously. "What?, no!!"
She pointed to the device on her head and took a few steps back. "You know I can't hear anything with these on. Noise canceling and all…."
The man advanced as she walked back, his smile getting larger by the minute. "You know, we've been waiting for you. You were away for so long."
Asuka could hear her heartbeat thumping in her head. She had to get away. This couldn't end like this.
Her eyes spun in their orbits, looking around for an escape, help, or anything really that would get the man and the other pursuant that was closing in on them away from her.
Unfortunately, no escape was found but Asuka realized that she was now surrounded.
At her left, two of them were jogging towards her, the big bags they were holding doing nothing to slow them down. At her right, two women and a long-haired man were also getting close.
Behind, the white-haired woman who first called out her name was walking slowly, waving at her with a big smile on her face. And in front, the smiling man, still smiling at her.
It was so so over. There was nothing to do and nowhere to go.
Asuka sighed, tears swelling up in her brown eyes and fell to the ground. The last thing she heard was the shrieky voice of a woman yelling. "JELLAL, WHAT DID YOU DO ? SHE CAN'T BABYSIT THE CHILDREN IF SHE'S UNCONSCIOUS!"
—
Asuka had just turned 18 years old when the first grand-child of Fairy Tail was born. She remembered being so delighted at the news. Finally, she would not be the youngest anymore, she would be considered like the adult she was.
Plus, Asuka loved children and had every intention to fight to death to be the chosen one to babysit the heirs.
Until she actually met the said first grand-child and decided that the babysitting career was not for her. Edelweiss Green-Strauss was quite literally the worst person on Earth and that was a known fact since the white-haired baby was two days old.
Asuka still remembers the abnormous amount she spent on food at the guild since Weiss would take a lot of fun in changing hers into rocks everytime Asuka was at the guild at the same time as her. And she would always do it with a smile on her face.
Evil.
Then came along the B. twins. Alisea ? Insufferable. Alistair was her favorite for a reason.
Alisea was somehow worse than Edelweiss.
Weiss was annoying, yes but Alisea was just dangerous to be around. Another chubby white-haired toddler that somehow also had something against Asuka's meals and would make them float out of Asuka's reach.
Also evil.
Then, another child came and Asuka hoped, prayed that this one would be better. Makiva Dreyar ?
Also evil but better than her cousins.It was the best she had, she would have to work with.
Asuka reminisced the days when she had to wrestle with the other members to be the one chosen to babysit her when her parents would go out on missions. She remembered the one day she won being quite a happy day but now she could only see it as the beginning of her demise.
Because after that day, Mira and Laxus decided that she was the only one capable of babysitting adorable Makiva.
And because Erza could not stand Mira having "the best babysitter ever", she also decided that the Connell daughter was the only one that could take care of her kids.
And because what is two without another thousand, every single parent in the guild decided that SHE was the only babysitter in the whole city of Magnolia.
Years later, it was still the case.
Sat on the couch of her humble apartment with a pack of ice on her head, she watched and listened as the parents in front of her gave her last minute instructions.
"Seriously Asuka, don't give him any juice, he will not sleep!" Gajeel insisted.
"He will need help in the bathroom but I SWEAR, he is potty trained" Lucy assured.
"..." Jellal's smile was all the warning she needed. Asuka knew to expect her roof to be missing by the end of the weekend.
"Thank you again for this, we'll see you in 2 days." Juvia concluded.
And just like that, Asuka Connell was now the guardian of Atlas Dragneel, Storm Fullbuster, Kiera and Kaen Redfox, Siegria Scarlet-Fernandes and Gideon Groh-Alberona.. She just hoped that her apartment would still stand at the end of this even if she didn't.
"Okay kids!" She called them a few hours after their parents ran out of the door, abandoning them to her. Or abandoning her to them, she couldn't say. "Time to eat!"
It took less than twenty seconds for the whole group to abandon whatever they were doing in various rooms of the apartment and come sit down at the humble wood cubes that served as dinner table.
She waited for them to settle down before setting their plates in front of them and frowned at the empty chairs. "Guys, where's Gideon and Atlas ?"
She took another look around. Wait, she has six kids, where are the other three? "And Storm too ?"
The three other children glanced at each other, silently arguing whether to tell on their friends.
They seemed to agree on the positive since 7-year-old Kiera Redfox turned to her and sighed. "We don't know."
"But!.." She continued. " I want you to know I had nothing to do with this. I wasn't even there!"
"And where were you ?"
The girl frowned at her. "You just lost three kids, where I was should be the least of your priorities"
Asuka thought about jumping the table to strangle her but she settled on asking through gritted teeth. "What do you mean, lost?"
The group glanced at each other again.
This wasn't going anywhere. The sniper has had more facility getting information from a group of hardened spies.
"Whoever tells me exactly where they are gets ice cream and no curfew for the weekend."
"Deal, if you add 1000 jewels" Kiera said.
"Sure!" Whatever made them talk. She'll tell them later, she didn't even have 1000 jewels herself. She was dirt broke and that is the only reason why she accepted to babysit her and also the fact that they cornered her. She needed to put food on the table after all if she survived.
"Atlas and Gideon said they wanted to show us a magic trick." Kaen started, his fork violently punching through the grilled fish in front on him.
"They said they could teleport candies from that one store in Oka to here, in your bedroom!" Kaen continued very enthusiastically, his mouth full.
"No candies appeared but.." He did a poof motion with his hands. "THEY did disappear and Storm went after them to bring them back."
Great, she had three kids somewhere in the kingdom of Fiore. Very nice. Very very nice.
Asuka turned to Kaen and Kiera to ask how exactly Storm went after them but decided against it and instead walked to the other side of the table where Siegria was.
The girl looked like she did not want to be there at all. "Sie, how did Storm go after them ?"
Siegria looked around, seemingly very annoyed at the fact that Asuka was talking to her, looked again at Kiera then sighed. "She said she would get to Oka faster by water so she merged with water and went down your sink"
"It was actually the toilet bowl!" Kiera chimed in, way too happily.
Amazing. Asuka tried to rationalize with herself. There was no need to panic. She would find them easily enough. She was an adult and they were kids, they could not outsmart her. She'll find out where they are in a matter of minutes and get them back here before Kaen finished his plate.
And even if she did really lose them. So what ? Those kids were catastrophes waiting to happen. In fact, the fact that she lost them is a favour she's doing to the city of Magnolia. Scratch that, to the kingdom of Fiore.
For Mavis' sake, let's not forget that Gideon and Atlas took a literal river out of the kingdom map.
She was a hero.
Asuka walked away from the dinner table, deep in thoughts.
"Yeah, I am a hero". Asuka mumbled to herself as she paced the living room. "and Auntie Lucy will be understanding. Cana might try to kill me but the government will protect me because I just saved the future of Fiore, yes!"
Flashes of a very angry Gray busting through her front door demanding to see his daughter made her shudder in the midst of the spiral. Well, maybe she could try to find Storm.
Kaen Redfox looked at his babysitter worryingly, mouth still full. "She's spiraling, maybe we should tell her that they're not really lost." He eyed his sister's plate. "Are you going to finish that ?"
Kiera wrinkled her nose in disgust but still pushed her untouched plate towards him. " Absolutely not ! She has to give us more than no curfew and ice cream before we call off the plan."
She rubbed her hands against each other, a smirk creeping up on her face. "Next step is to tell Suka that Sie.."
"It's Siegria for you, weirdo" Erza's daughter hissed, her forehead wearing that permanent frown of hers. " And I never said I agreed to be a part of this."
Kiera rolled her eyes. " You're not, you stuck-up monkey. I am just using your name."
"As I was saying next step is to tell Suka that SIEGRIA.." She sent a pointed look to the girl sitting in front of her. "... can localize them for the modest sum of 3000 jewels that we will share between us."
Her twin looked at her pensively and then looked at Asuka who was now pulling up old maps out of her closet and dialing numbers on her Lacrima Mobile. "I don't know, she looks like she's going to die of stress. Maybe we should just call it off now and enjoy the ice cream."
Kaen took another glance. "Does she know that these maps are outdated ?"
Kiera shrugged. "We'll tell her in a bit. For now, let's just go discreetly make sure the three idiots followed the plan and are actually hiding in the basement."
Siegria's eyes closed and opened suddenly, a strange black hue colouring her pupils. She smirked at the Redfox's daughter. "No need to go down, they're not there anymore."