This random fic was inspired by the film Baby's Day Out, as you can guess from the title. However, there are no kidnappings or multi millionaires.
Disclaimer: I do not own PoT, the pretty boys or the title.
Sanada was usually a very organised and disciplined boy, which was why he did not protest that he needed to go out with his friends when his mum informed him of his aunt's visit that weekend. He had made no comment when she had added that his aunt would be bringing her daughter.
He had been absolutely speechless when Aunt Hikari had shown up with an 18 month old toddler and his mum had asked him to babysit little Sorano while they went shopping.
By the time the message had gotten through to his brain and the warning lights started to go off, the car was already out of the drive.
Sanada blinked. He had tennis practice in 15 minutes. Damn.
Sanada switched his gaze to the couch where the toddler had been placed. It was empty. Crap.
Still remaining calm, Sanada scanned the room and started for the hallway in search of the missing infant.
And saw the just-starting-to-walk infant attempting to climb the stairs. Precariously. Striding over swiftly, Sanada was just able to catch her as her chubby legs gave way and she headed for the hard, wooden floor.
Setting the child down on the floor, Sanada made a quick decision. He couldn't miss practice; he was fuku-buchou. Sorano would just have to go with him. Woe behold anyone who made a comment about the strict fuku-buchou of Rikkaidai bringing a babysitting charge to tennis practice. Seiichi will understand, he thought as he hurried downstairs again with his tennis bag in tow.
The hallway was empty. Sanada wanted to swear as he peered into the living room quickly, once more searching for the elusive toddler. Nothing. Slightly worried, he proceeded down the hall. The study door was shut, thank Kami she wasn't tall enough to open doors yet. The kitchen; not in there either. Which meant...
Sanada gave an audible sigh of relief as he found the child attempting to walk in the dining room. He paused at the door; it was actually quite sweet, the plump child toddling a few steps before overbalancing and landing on her padded bottom.
Until she decided to pull the table cloth when trying to stay upright and the cake knife, which was already too close to the edge for Sanada's comfort, did exactly what he prayed against. It slid right over the edge, and plunged towards the ground and the child, the toddler oblivious and still trying not to fall over.
Clink.
Sanada found he couldn't move for a second before he hurriedly scooped his baby cousin up before she could find any other way to hurt herself. Glancing at the clock, he really did swear. He had to be at the courts in 2 minutes. And it was a 10 minute walk even when he was alone.
He tried not to think of what kind of welcome awaited him at Rikkai when he finally turned up, a baby in his arms. Instead, Sanada grabbed his tennis bag and the sky blue rucksack his aunt had left with the words "everything you need is in there". He stared hard at Sorano; the child was looking deceptively sweet and quiet. Perhaps she had decided she'd put her cousin through enough already.
When Yanagi Renji had said there was an 89 chance that Sanada was late due to an emergency, Yukimura Seiichi had heartily agreed with him. His mind told him Sanada could have been in an accident, a family member might have been rushed into hospital; the possibilities were endless.
What he had not imagined was Sanada walking into the tennis courts 15 minutes late and carrying a crying baby. All around him, Yukimura vaguely acknowledged that silence had descended the courts and Sanada's face was as black as a thunder cloud. Ordering the members to carry on their training, Yukimura called all the regulars onto an empty court to meet Sanada.
Niou was in heaven. Not only had Sanada come to practice late but he had brought a baby! Who would've thought the strict fuku-buchou would break so many rules in one day. If only he'd been more careful and not got Yagyuu's camera confiscated by Sanada earlier that month! What quality black mail material this would have made for the next time one of his pranks went wrong and he needed the prestigious presence of his fuku-buchou to get him out of detentions.
Sanada was nearing the end of his tether. What had started out as a quiet walk to Rikkai quickly took a down turn when Sorano decided to start screaming at the top of her lungs. Passer bys had given the teenage boy carrying a baby suspicious looks, as if they suspected him of mistreating the baby or even kidnapping her! It had taken all his self control not to run all the way to school but his logical self reasoned that would look even more damning, besides, it would be very difficult to run carrying two bags and a toddler.
By the time he reached Rikkai and was met by his fellow regulars, both his ears had pretty much given up working and his entire body was wrought with tension.
"There is a 94 chance the baby is crying because she doesn't like the way Sanada is holding her up just with one arm around her stomach and there is a 87 chance Sanada's temper is about to explode." Yanagi recited dutifully as their fuku-buchou's face took on an interesting shade of purple.
Yukimura decided the teasing could wait; handing his racquet to Yanagi, he held his arms out to Sanada.
Sanada blinked at him, the ringing in his ears distracting him.
Yukimura sighed as he realized Sanada was just not with it. Standing directly in front of Sanada, he gently plucked the child from Sanada's arm. Allowing the child to sit on one arm, he used his free arm to support the child's back and proceeded to calm the bawling infant down as he had seen mothers do back when he had stayed at the hospital.
Sanada watched dumbstruck as Sorano stopped crying almost immediately after Yukimura took her from him. Within moments, his little cousin was gurgling happily as the buchou talked to her softly and went to sit on a bench.
Sorano was happily playing with Yukimura's blue locks while Sanada explained the day's events to the team, oblivious to her older cousin's discomfort. While Sanada knew he would never hear the end of this and his team mates were probably laughing at him inside, he also knew that Yukimura wouldn't allow physical confrontations and his buchou would probably stop them from teasing him. For now anyway.
Yukimura decided they had to keep training as usual; the Nationals were around the corner, they had to improve quickly. So he and Yagyuu made an improvised playpen using their tennis bags as barriers and left Sorano with a few tennis balls to amuse herself with while they trained.
But as We and Sanada already know, Sorano tends not to stay in one place. When Jackal and Marui went to check on her after their game, they found that one of the bags had fallen onto its side and no toddler in sight. Marui went straight into panic mode and screamed for Yukimura while Jackal, more used to these situations after babysitting Kirihara so many times, scanned the surrounding area.
He blinked. No, that couldn't be happening. By this time, all the regulars were beginning to come over. Oh kami, Jackal thought as he raised an arm to point at the runaway. 7 heads snapped round to follow his finger. And 5 froze.
Of the two that managed to react, Sanada took off running while Yukimura called to the two players on the court closest to the regulars, one of which was about to trip over a small body chasing a rogue tennis ball.
The 3rd year player half turned to acknowledge his buchou when he caught sight of the fuku-buchou running straight for him, his eyes wide and terrified. The boy began to take an involuntary step back when his game partner also began yelling at him.
Omph. A heavy weight had swung at him and pushed him to the hard floor. The poor innocent blinked; he had just been randomly tackled by the stoic fuku-buchou and Yukimura was sprinting towards them. Kami, did Sanada know he had been staring at Yukimura for longer than necessary periods and dreamed about the beautiful buchou at night? Was that why he was being attacked? And was buchou coming over to save him and tell him everything would be alright?
Except buchou went straight past them and bent to the floor. As Sanada was helped up by Yanagi, the other 3rd year saw the reason for the chaos, happily shaking a mangled tennis ball in Yukimura's arms once again. Oohhh. The third year didn't know what was worse, being slammed into the ground by Sanada with pretty much no warning, or tripping over the child and risking both Sanada and Yukimura's wrath. Sanada would make him run laps till he was on his last breath and Yukimura, well, who knows what the beautiful but dangerous buchou would do; make him scrub the club room with a tooth brush, tidy up the school gardens with a pair of scissors, dig his own grave with his bare hands or...(shudder) make him take care of Kirihara for a day.
Sorano was vastly happy with herself and extremely content as she continued waving the bright yellow ball around as a soft voice spoke to her. She vaguely registered that some big people had fallen over as she went after her prey. Silly people, even she only toppled over once in a while, and never into someone else, that was just rude. So why was the pretty one with blue hair frowning a little at her? She hadn't lost the ball he had given her to play with and she wasn't dribbling, which mummy always frowned and said stop to. The child cocked her head as she tried to recall in her hazy memory any ways of making big people smile and stop frowning. Ah, there was one thing that always worked.
"Mama."
8 pair of eyes focused on the child. Well, 7 and a half because Yanagi was also glancing at Yukimura to gauge his reaction to the child's word.
Seiichi blinked. Did Sanada's cousin just call him what he thought she said? "Did she...?"
"She called you mama, buchou." Kirihara confirmed, staring at the child in wonder, even he didn't dare try it.
Sorano was confused. She had said the magic word which always managed to make mummy smile and fuss over her so why did this big person not smile? Well, at least he wasn't frowning anymore. She decided to try again.
"Bahl!" she waved the tennis ball at the one with messy black hair who was kneeling and therefore at face level with her.
"Huh?" Kirihara moved back to stop the semi-hard ball coming into contact with his nose.
"There is an 86 that she meant "ball"."
Oh. Truth be told, Kirihara rather liked the kid. Not only had she made the fuku-buchou late to practice and made a fool of him when he had tackled the other player to the ground, the kid also had a good taste in people, like him and Yukimura. Before today, Kirihara had thought that only buchou could get the Sanada to act all possessive and worried but here appears to be another candidate. Well, worried anyway. Maybe he could take her to the arcade after practice and teach her to play that new fighting game where you have to rip your opponent apart to win.
Yukimura sighed. Perhaps they'd better leave someone with her.
"We'd better take it in turns to keep an eye on her in case something else happens. Yanagi, why don't you stay with Akaya? Practice will be over soon anyway."
There was something about the way Kirihara was intently rolling tennis balls with the toddler that made Yanagi smile proudly. There, Akaya wasn't the vicious monster people made him out to be, he just needed the right kind of friend to bring out his softer side. Yanagi was brought out of his daydream by Kirihara calling him over.
"Yanagi-sempai. Something's wrong."
Yanagi got up slowly and went to kneel by the pair. Sorano was pouting, a faint frown settling over her chubby features. Hmm.
"Akaya, did you do anything different to how you were playing with her before?"
The second year ace shook his head.
"There's a 15 chance that she's tired, a 28 chance she misses her mother and" Yanagi muttered quietly.
"But sempai, she think's buchou is her mother!" Kirihara cut in.
Yanagi allowed himself a wry smile at the comment.
"Maybe she's hungry!" They were joined by Marui who was on his way to dispose of his now tasteless gum. "Here." and he held out a brightly wrapped piece of apple flavour bubble gum to the toddler who stretched eagerly for it.
"No." said Yanagi firmly, sweeping the child up from the floor and holding her away from the red head. "She cannot chew gum, there's a 97 chance that she would swallow it. The hunger idea does have its merits though." Kirihara sifted through the contents of the light blue rucksack Sanada had set down beside the "playpen" and triumphantly displayed a packet of rusks. Judging from the way the toddler was smiling again and clapping her hands at Kirihara, Yanagi allowed that Marui had been right. Just this once.
When Sanada and Yukimura returned to the "playpen" after sending all the other club members home, they found a strange sight. For one, Marui wasn't chewing gum. Kirihara was sitting docilely on the ground. Niou was quiet as he sat next to Bunta. Jackal and Yagyuu were having a peaceful discussion on grip tape.
They turned to Yanagi for an explanation as he seemed the only one who was acting normal.
"Well?" Sanada prompted.
"The children are eating."
Yukimura left Sanada to weasel the details out of Yanagi, meanwhile he wanted to make sure everything was as calm as it appeared. He relaxed as his keen amethyst eyes scanned the group.
Subject 1 - Sorano was present, albeit with messy soggy biscuit all around her mouth.
Subject 2 - Akaya was sitting, his eyes were normal, he was calm.
Subject 3 - Niou was really Niou because he could hear the Yagyuu that Jackal was speaking with use absurdly long words with 4 syllables in, just to avoid cursing.
Subject 4 - Marui was not suffering from withdrawal symptons like he does if he doesn't get enough sugar.
All was well at the Rikkai Dai tennis club.
For now anyway.
Yukimura picked up Sorano and grabbed a hanky that was hanging out of the blue bag and proceeded to wipe the messy substance from the child's face. She giggled and called him Mama again. Yukimura decided to ignore it. After all, it was easier to have the child call him mama a few times than try to explain to a toddler that her mother wasn't here and risk her crying unrestrained for the rest of the day. Sanada's sanity wouldn't last that long and although Yukimura sometimes wished his fuku-buchou was more expressive, a deranged Sanada was not good either.
Turning back, Yukimura frowned when the other three were still sitting, all staring at each other but none saying a word.
"Renji, what is going on?"
"They're having a contest."
"A staring contest?" Yukimura asked as he set Sorano down to pack away his tennis gear.
"They've each got a piece of Sorano's biscuit in their mouth. These rusks melt when they come into contact with moisture to make it easier for babies to eat. They're trying to see who can melt their entire piece first without biting into it."
Yukimura raised an eyebrow but refrained from commenting. "Well, they can watch Sorano while we shower and change and then take over from them." The regulars, excepting the three most child like at heart, headed for the locker rooms.
Yukimura was not pleased when he exited the locker rooms to find the courts empty. Niou had said that Kirihara had offered to stay with Sorano so his sempai could go and shower first but there was no sign of the second year or the child. He calmly asked Niou and Marui again, where they had left Kirihara and Sorano before adding that there was no one on the courts. This had the effect of emptying the locker room of the regulars who were dressed and decent, with Yagyuu calmly tossing Niou back inside after he almost ran out in just a towel. Niou threw on his clothes hurriedly before joining the others on the indeed empty courts.
"Oh shit!" he thought as he felt Sanada's glare burning in to the back of his head.
"There is an 86 chance that Akaya will not answer his phone and a 79 chance that he has gone to the Arcade." Yanagi calculated. He stopped abruptly, causing the others to stare at him. "There is also a 76 chance that Akaya will expose Sorano to a game of violence and fighting." Yanagi made a mental note to restrain Sanada when they finally caught up with the second year. Not only did they need Kirihara to carry on the team next year, Yanagi was also rather fond of the unruly younger player.
Kirihara was indeed at the arcade with his new friend but he would describe it as a mental development game that he was currently encouraging the child to take part in. Usually, Kirihara found it difficult to make it to the higher levels of the game, as to unleash powerful attacks one had to keep pushing different buttons. Now though, he had trained Sorano to continuously hit one button while he pressed the other and controlled the joystick, managing to get to heights he'd never dreamed of getting to before. It didn't cross his mind that an 18 month old toddler should not be playing a violent martial arts game that involved a lot of blood and gore. The people giving them funny looks were just jealous of their score.
Yanagi swore later that he could actually see steam rising from Sanada's head as the three emperors of Rikkai entered the fray of teenagers milling around so games. The noise level was extremely high and Yanagi knew on a balance of probabilities, the noise would only add to Sanada's irritation and therefore, Kirihara's doom.
"There's Akaya." How Yukimura could still stay so calm surrounded by chaos, an olivious Kirihara and a fuming Sanada was beyond Yanagi's calculations. Sanada strode purposefully over to where the second year ace was happily punching some buttons and mauling the creature on the tiny screen. Happily, Yukimura intervened to save Kirihara from Sanada.
"Akaya, where is Sorano?"
The younger boy turned to look at them, noticing for the first time that his sempai were here.
"Oh, buchou! You have to try this new game! It's sooooo cool! You have ..."
"Where is Sorano?" Yukimura cut in firmly.
Kirihara blinked. "She's there..." Kirihara frowned, confused, he was sure the child had been sitting on his foot a moment ago, so where did she go? "Well, she was there. Maybe she wanted to explore, there are lots of different games, she might have gone to play a different one." He frowned. "But I didn't give her any money to play games."
Sanada wanted to scream. No, scratch that, he wanted to throttle Kirihara, and he would, except that would make Seiichi unhappy. He glanced around in a harried manner; Kami-sama, his mother and aunt would kill him! Bringing a toddler to an arcade where so many delinquents hung around, and losing her!
All of a sudden, a loud wail alerted them to the position of their missing charge. Yukimura dragged Sanada away from the confused second year, towards the now familiar sound of an unhappy child. Yukimura hurriedly picked up the child as curious onlookers stared at the two boys in Rikkaidai tennis uniforms with a toddler. Sanada automatically picked up Yukimura's bag as the other tried to calm his cousin down.
"There's a 69 chance she wants one of the toys inside that machine." By this time, Yanagi had managed to drag Kirihara away from the game.
Sure enough, the now whimpering child was gazing longingly at the stuffed toys encased in the plastic box, a metal claw hovering above their heads.
"Aw, those things are impossible to work, the toys always fall back down again. No one can get anything out of them." Kirihara said knowingly.
Yukimura arched an eyebrow at that. Wordlessly, he handed the now quiet but sniffling Sorano to Sanada, who looked extremely uncomfortable with a child in his arms and Sorano immediately began squirming. Yukimura shushed her gently and turned his attention to the brightly coloured toys. Kirihara shuddered involuntarily as he saw that calculating look buchou used on the tennis courts directed at the little stuffed toys. Poor toys, he thought, you don't have a chance against Yukimura-buchou.
Yukimura kept his eye on his prey as he slipped a coin into the machine and the claw came to life. Manouvering the mechanical arm with the same precision and skill that he did everything with, Yukimura pounced on his target.
10 minutes and 4 coins later, the buchou and fuku buchou of Rikkai's tennis team were walking towards Sanada's house, each with an ice cream, and a silken himalayan plushie cat craddled in Sorano's chubby arms.
Sanada conceded that Yukimura really was brilliant at everything; albeit he only managed to get the toy on his fifth attempt, Kirihara, who frequented that...place most, had made Yukimura his idol, so now it wasn't just tennis that the boy looked up to him in. Yanagi had wisely bought ice cream for everyone when he sensed Sanada was still waiting to "speak" with Kirihara about this whole escapade, so in the end, Sanada had been too busy balancing his ice cream (which Yukimura had insisted he have) with two tennis bags and a smaller rucksack; Sorano was once again back in Yukimura's embrace as Sanada looked on with just a tinge of jealousy. He was thankful, however, that his buchou had offered to go home with him to help look after the child until the adults returned and had even took time to pick up a DVD at the shops before they headed back. On one hand, he could spend more time with his best friend and buchou, on the other, Sanada was completely convinced the child wanted to drive him insane. Sanada didn't know if Kami liked him or wanted him to suffer.
Sanada cracked a smile as he returned with the tea, to his younger cousin sitting on Yukimura's lap as his buchou sat on the floor and leaned back into the couch, both engrossed in the introduction to My Neighbor Totoro blaring on the TV. Yukimura flashed him a warm smile as he carefully set his tea on the low table, well away from their charge. Sanada settled himself on the floor beside Yukimura and turned his attention to the movie they had put on for Sorano, occasionally checking the other boy was comfortable. About an hour later, even breathing and no more giggles alerted them that the little girl had gone off to play with her dreams but neither boy made any move to get up or to change channels. Instead, they stayed where they were, side by side on the floor, watching the family in the film get reunited. It was just too comfortable and right.
That was how Sanada's mother and aunt found them a little later, both staring diligently at the screen as the credits rolled. Aunt Hikari had awwwed at how sweet it was of the two to watch the children's movie with her daughter and put her to sleep. Sanada didn't correct her; somehow, it probably wouldn't have gone down well with his mother if he said he had only watched it because Seiichi had taken the time to pick the film. After Aunt Hikari had picked up the slumber toddler, Sanada helped Yukimura up and walked him to the door as he struggled to find some words.
"Thank you for helping today." How lame, he scolded himself, but Yukimura's smile a moment later chased those thought away.
"Anytime. You know I'll always be willing to help you, Genichirou." he said softly as he turned to leave.
Sanada considered his options. Yanagi would say "just tell him the truth about your feelings." Marui would say "invite him to have some cake." Jackal would scratch his head and shrug. Kirihara would say challenge him to a game. Niou would..., well, Niou would say "don't say anything and kiss him senseless." Hmmm, the idea had its merits but his and Seiichi's relationship was nothing like Niou and Yagyuu so it probably wouldn't work too well. Especially as his mother was happily waving to the object of his thoughts from the doorway.
Sanada made a quick decision. "Seiichi." Yukimura paused and turned to face him, a quizzical expression on his face. "I'd do the same for you. Anytime." If he ever had any doubts about the appropriateness of his feelings towards his buchou, they disappeared as soon as Yukimura's face lit up in a dazzling smile. To hell with consequences, that smile made everything worth it.
So? what do you think? should i give up or work on my dubious skills?