Butterfly Delivery - Adrinette

Babysitters and Sitting Up

Five months after Certified Baby

"Can I get that for you, Nathalie?" Adrien moved to take a box of papers from his father's assistant.

"No, Adrien - but, thank you." Nathalie lifted the box from underneath the desk, crossed the room with it, and placed it on a high shelf without any sign of strain. Adrien grinned, watching that. He knew that several months ago, Nathalie would have needed a moment to catch her breath after attempting that. Nathalie had become frail, but now her strength seemed fitting for a woman of her age. The seemingly preposterous ancient remedies were working wonders in the less severe cases; now if only they would prove as effective in his mother.

"You look like you're feeling much better," he commented.

"I do," she agreed. "Emilie is going to get better too, I know it."

Adrien was glad to hear her say that, not just for himself, but for her. Nathalie had a tendency to be rather inexpressive emotionally (which was probably why she and his father got along), but she had been working for his family since before he was born. He doubted she would have stayed that long if she didn't count his parents as friends. She'd even allowed physical harm to come to herself in her bid to save Emilie, and Adrien knew she must be excited by the prospect of seeing her friend again.

--

Six months after Certified Baby

"Open your books to -"

"Ba, ba, ba, ba..."

Miss Bustier stopped and looked at her daughter. Annabella stopped and looked at her mother. Miss Bustier waited in silence for a few moments before resuming her class. "Books to page -"

"Ba, ba, ba, ba..."

"I'll wait for you to finish."

Annabella was silent.

"Are you just going to talk every time I -?"

"Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba!"

At that, Miss Bustier had to smile. "Excuse us a moment." She carried her baby out of the classroom, only to return a few minutes later with the child asleep. "Let's put our textbooks aside for the moment; this has given us something else to discuss - weaning. For this long we've had little choice but to hold class with the babies, due to their need for regular feedings, but now they're finally at a developmental stage where it would be reasonable to begin weaning them. It's time we gave back a little more attention to your education so you can still finish on time. The butterfly children will have to be supervised elsewhere during class times, but I'm aware there is a problem with this. The several daycare centers I've already spoken to are not willing to take butterfly children as clients. Most are outright hostile, and the few who are sympathetic fear their other clientele would boycott them as soon as they find out. As a result, there's a side assignment for everyone, even me, to find somewhere we may leave the butterfly children under good care while class is in session."

Finding a public daycare that would accept butterfly children was pretty much out of the question - everyone knew that. Some people brought to mind family members who might be able to take a child during the day, but others murmured restlessly - unsure what they would be able to do for their kids.

--

"Of course we can watch Bridgette!" Tom scoffed. "We had you running around this place when you were little. We could even watch your friends' little ones if they need it."

"I doubt any of my closest friends will be looking for someone to babysit. Nora thinks she could manage all sixteen babies. That's not going to happen, but she'll most definitely be watching her own niece and likely Carl as well. Gabriel already decided that Adrien's bodyguard will be watching Felix while Adrien is at school."

"Oh, that's wonderful news! But surely one of your other friends could use a hand? We're right next to the school, so it should be easy for someone to drop off a child here before class."

--

"You wanted to know if any of your classmates were in need of a babysitter?" Miss Bustier clarified.

Marinette nodded.

"Well, Lila did tell me she was having trouble finding someone."

Marinette cringed. She'd asked; she could hardly take back the offer because she didn't like the answer, but - Lila? She'd rather help Chloe! Chloe had already arranged for her butler to watch Auriana and Zelda. In fact, most of the class had wasted little time in finding someone to care for their children; Lila was probably the only one who didn't care to put in the effort. Suddenly, Marinette felt awful for Ariel. This wasn't about helping Lila at all! It was about getting that poor baby away from her!

--

"Lila! Wait!"

"Oh, Marinette! Hey!" Lila grinned broadly and waved, then waited until no one else was within earshot. "What do you want?"

"I wanted to offer you a hand. Miss Bustier said you were having trouble finding someone to take care of Ariel during class."

"So what if I am? I don't need help from you."

"Oh, that's a relief. I'm so glad you have everything under control. My parents offered to babysit Ariel during school hours, but if you don't need that, that opens up room for them to help someone else instead. They couldn't possibly watch more than two children and run a bakery all at the same time."

--

"Um, Marinette?" Alya whispered as she sat down next to her friend. "You should probably know, Lila's telling everyone that your parents are going to watch Ariel for her during class. Is that something that... do your parents know they're doing that?"

Marinette grinned. "Good. It figures Lila would only accept if she thinks she's being a burden. She rejected the offer to my face, so I implied someone else would take the place if she didn't. My parents will be more than happy to look after Ariel, but I'll be sure to let them know to pretend they aren't - at least around Lila."

--

"And what do you think of this one, Bridgette?" Marinette held up the partially finished shirt. Bridgette reached out for it, smiling. Marinette always seemed happy when she was handling newly made clothes; Bridgette wanted to touch them too! "Settle down, it's not done yet."

Bridgette rolled herself to the side and braced one arm against the table she was sitting on, then she gave a mighty push. Well, baby might. She pushed her back up off the table, far enough that Marinette could have slipped her hand underneath, and immediately fell down once again. For more than a week now, Bridgette had been making noticable attempts to sit up, but that was the best one Marinette had seen yet. She put down her sewing and held out a hand to Bridgette, just out of her daughter's reach. "Do you want to try again, sweetie?"

Bridgette braced both feet and both hands against the table, then lunged forward. She wobbled, but caught herself in an upright position and began to laugh gleefully, realizing she'd done a big girl thing.

"Good job!" Marinette picked her up for a reward cuddle. She thought of the times she'd feared Bridgette would never hit any of these milestones at all. It all seemed like a bad dream now. Bridgette was making leaps and bounds, all metaphorical at this point, but the real ones promised to come before they knew it. Marinette would just have to keep up.