🌼Before you Read🌼

🌼Part 2 of the 3 part story of when Raiden babysits his sister's kids.

🌼This thing was not edited at ALL! Because this is a side project, I don't care about a ton of phrasing issues as much as my main work, so I apologize in advance for all the weird stuff that could be found. It should still make sense and look like most of my writing (just...not as close to perfection as I'd like as I was excited to post).

🌼Not really much else to say, so I hope you enjoy!

🌼Play Time🌼

You'd think changing a baby's diaper was easy, yet all the ones I could find in Keiko's room were all defected. They weren't used, but they wouldn't stay together. Every time I picked one up, I realized there was no hole to slip onto Keiko.

What made matters worse was that this kid would scream on the top of her lungs that would put a banshee's screams to shame. Nothing I did could calm her down. Her face was all red while tears few all over her face. When I looked around the room—which looked as if a unicorn had puked pastel colors all over it—I couldn't find a pacifier or some sort of toy for her to distract herself with.

Even when I gave her one of the defective diapers, she just threw it back at me, kicking and punching her tiny fists all over the place.

After a while, it got to be too much.

"Just shut up!" I snapped at Keiko. "Crying gets you nowhere, so just stop, so I can get this thing figured out!"

Despite what I told Keiko, my comment only made her cry even louder. I looked down at the hundreds of diapers laying around me. Was Niko trying to make sure this whole babysitting thing was hell for me? If so, she was doing a damn good job at it.

Who knew what the triplets were up to‽

For all I knew, they could've been terrorizing Tami and making it hell for her too. If I left to go check on her, the small baby would've fallen off the small table I put her on. The last thing I wanted to do was tell Niko she had one less kid. She'd kill me if something happened to any of them.

"You need help?"

I turned around to see Tami standing in the doorway with the triplets. Both Hoshi and Eikō had plastic toy swords in their hands, almost acting like guards as they stood in front of her. It shocked me how similar those two look since they were all supposed to be fraternal triplets, or at least, I thought they were since Rin was a girl. Where Rin had Koji's pink hair and Niko's brown eyes, the other two had Niko's brown hair and their dad's red eyes. They were both the same height and looked exactly the same too. The only way to tell them apart was that they had their names written on their shirts.

While they all stood there, Tami held Rin in her arms. The little girl had some sort of stick with a star on the end of it, decorated with streamers. She waved it around, but it didn't seem to bother Tami as she looked at me.

"I don't know how much help you can be," I told her. "These diapers don't work."

Tami looked down at the diapers scattered around me before smiling a bit. "I think I can handle this. Why don't you play with Rin and the others while I get her diaper changed?"

She was about ready to take a step towards me when Hoshi and Eikō did something very unexpected. They dropped their toy swords and clinged onto Tami's legs. I could tell Tami was startled by this as she nearly tripped.

Why they wouldn't let her go was beyond me when Keiko continued to scream as loudly as she could.

"Don't go near the dragon!" the one exclaimed.

"He'll take you and trap you inside a dungeon!" the other one yelled.

I raised an eyebrow as my nephews talked nonsense. What in their right mind thought I was a dragon? Just before their parents left, Rin was hugging my leg and sounded excited to see me. Now, when I looked at her and her brothers, they all looked genuinely afraid for Tami. It was odd to see the little girl do that when I got in because they always seemed to hate me. I did nothing to them! This whole time I was trying to figure out Keiko's diaper, yet here they were claiming I was some villain from their imaginations.

Part of me wanted to knock them in the back of the head, so they could snap back into reality. Instead of doing that, Tami just knelt down and placed Rin between the two boys.

"You know what, I bet if you run away right now, the dragon will try to find you guys instead of attack me," Tami said, playing the little game of pretend with them.

Seeing her act just like them surprised me. I blinked a couple of times as I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It would've been so much easier for her to just take la chancla or even just threaten them to get out. Sooner or later, these kids were going to learn that not everything in life was a game.

Yet, her words seemed to put them into a trance, especially since one of my nephews held his sword high into the air. "Yes ma'am!" he yelled.

The other boy looked back at me, and pointed his sword at me. "Bet you can't catch us, stinky!"

They didn't say anything else as the three ran around Tami and out the door. I just stood there in shock, wondering how they could even come up with shit like that. More so, I wondered how Tami could even play along.

While I stood there, bewildered, Keiko continued her endless screams.

"Everything okay?"

I moved my head, realizing Tami must have walked over towards  me and picked up one of the broken diapers.

"What the hell was that?" I asked.

Tami's lips curled up into a small smile. Seeing it, I could feel the air growing hotter. It seemed impossible being that my sister kept her house as cold as Antarctica, but I could feel the goosebumps running down my arm. It all happened the moment she gave that small smile.

"Hoshi and Eikō almost ruined Rin's game of pretend that I decided to wrap them all into it, so they wouldn't get into a fight," she explained. "Trust me, for the next thirty minutes, they'll probably want you to just chase them around the house. It shouldn't be that hard to keep them out of trouble if you keep them entertained."

She made it sound so simple as she turned around and started making funny noises at Keiko. I watched for a moment as the cries that had been screaming for who knows how long had softened. Before I even knew it, Keiko started to laugh as Tami's free hand started tickling the baby's stomach.

How the hell was she this good with kids?

I opened my mouth to ask when there was a giant bang. I snapped my head back to the door, finding one of the triplets standing in the doorway, banging his toy sword on the frame.

"Get away from the princess, you stinky dragon!" my nephew ordered. "Or I will hurt you."

I didn't have to move my head to see Tami turning her head. I could just tell by the series of small giggles that escaped her mouth.

"Just go," Tami said. "I'll be fine, no worries."

That wasn't what I was afraid of. If I knew how to change Keiko's diaper, I would. Dealing with three kids, one of which had a Quirk of who knows what, I didn't want to do it. They were the reason why I didn't want to babysit. So much could go wrong.

Yet, they didn't seem to make Tami go insane. If my friend could deal with it, how hard could it have been?

🌼🌼🌼

I wish I had stayed with Keiko and figured out how to change her diaper. The moment I chased Eikō out of the room, things took a turn for the worst. Every single child my siblings had were absolute nightmares, but the triplets were the worst! I swear my sister, Nieko, picked up the wrong kids from the hospital as they were the spawn of Satan. To anyone else, they acted all sweet and innocent, but that changed the moment I was the only one in the room with them.

Like Rin had told me before, she had, indeed, developed a Quirk. I assumed it was lightening, which meant that her zaps weren't going to be that strong since she was three. It'd make sense if her Quirk was the same as Neiko. That was how Quirks usually worked. Most of my sisters inherited some version of Mamá's Quirk, while most of my brothers and me inherited Dad's, or at least, we inherited something similar to it.

Somehow, Rin had her own unique Quirk that was different from both Neiko and Koji's Quirk.

Once I followed Eikō outside, the other two triplets were nowhere to be found. That was fine at first. I just thought they had lost interest and decided to play with some of their toys or something. Kids were easily distracted anyways. I didn't think much of it.

Until Eikō, the triplet I had followed out into the family room, yelled, "now!" on the top of his lungs.

Rin popped out from behind the couch and latched herself onto my leg like before. Only, this time it wasn't like before. This time, she had a mischievous grin that slipped onto her face when she looked up at me.

"Freeze, dragon!" she screamed on the top of her lungs.

As if her words had the power to do what she said, I felt my body tense up, but not in the same way it would when I'd use my Quirk. No. I couldn't feel anything that was going on that I fell backwards, unable to move. My head couldn't even tilt to the side to see what any of the triplets were doing. All I could do was look up at the high ceiling of the room. My eyes watched as the blades of the ceiling fan whirled around in a circle. I wanted to tear my gaze away from it, but nothing would move.

Laughter filled my ears as I felt something slamming into my sides. It wasn't long until I felt one of the little twerps climbing on top of me and looked down at me with his red eyes. I wanted to push him off of me, but the little kid just grabbed my hair and yanked it.

"For the princess!" he screamed. "Now die!"

At the word die, something exploded from his hands. My eyes squeezed shut as heat flashed from his hands, scorching face. Something smelled burnt, but not like when my sisters would try to make toast using only their Quirks. No. This smelled worse.

Screams came out of my niece and nephews mouths just as I felt my body regain control. Rin was no longer using her Quirk, and the longer she had release me from her grip, the more sore I became.

Especially around my face.

I sat up, brushing my hand there to feel something stinging on my cheek. Wet liquid oozed onto my hand that I quickly pulled it away to look at it.

Red blood with black ash covered my fingers.

"What the fuck was that‽" I screamed, turning my head to see the three triplets huddling together, wrapping their arms around Eikō as he was shaking.

All three of them were terrified. Eikō wouldn't even look at me. Instead, he pushed out of his siblings' grasps and started running back into the room Tami was in with Keiko. I wanted to run after him, so he wouldn't do the same thing to her.

But his siblings stopped me as they wailed on the top of their lungs.

"Sorry Uncle Raiden," Rin sobbed as she ran up to me and buried her face into my chest. Her tears quickly seeped into my dark t-shirt as her tiny fists grabbed onto it as tightly as it could.

"Don't hurt Eikō," Hoshi begged. I glanced up from the pink haired triplet to look at the little boy. He held his toy sword close to his chest as he looked down at the ground. "He's—"

"What's going on here?" A soft voice asked.

Hoshi and I turned our heads to look at the blonde that had now come into the room. Rin refused to look up as I felt her hands tightening on my shirt. Meanwhile, her brother, Eikō was staying a good distance from Tami, staying closer to the baby's room than he did to the blonde.

While Tami stood there, I could see her face morphing from a confused to a worried expression as she saw me. Her brown eyes widened that she didn't take a second to think. Instead, she quickly placed Keiko on the ground and ran over towards me. She didn't do anything right away about whatever she saw on my face. Instead, she looked down at Rin, rubbing her shoulder to grab the little girl's attention.

"Hey, why don't you go and pick out a movie with your brothers. Find something you all like?" Tami suggested.

Rin's tiny hands let go of me as she nodded her head. Her brother, Hoshi, walked over and grabbed her hand, leading her somewhere else. I watched as Eikō didn't follow. Even when his siblings tried to get him out, the boy just kept moving out of the way, afraid of what he'd do to them.

I wanted to see what would happen, but I felt some soft fingers press against my skin. Once again, I could feel the temperature of the room starting to rise as I glanced back at Tami. Her brown eyes didn't meet mine as they were focused on whatever was on my cheek.

"Looks like he got you pretty bad," Tami observed as she tore her hand off my cheek to glance down at the red liquid covered with black spots. "We're going to need to get that cleaned up."

She glanced back behind her and motioned to whoever was there to come near her. I tilted my head to see Eikō's back to the wall. His red eyes widened as he continued to shake his head.

"I-I don't want to hurt you," he whimpered.

Part of me wanted to call out his bullshit. The kids literally had me pinned to the ground with Rin's Quirk to the point I couldn't move! Now, he was saying he didn't want to hurt me? It didn't matter if his Quirk developed unexpectedly. He was lying.

My words never came out as I heard Tami sigh. "It's going to be alright. It was an accident. I'm sure if you tell your brother you're sorry, he'll forgive you, right Raiden?"

Brother?

Luckily, Eikō didn't notice Tami's mistake as he glanced over at me, still keeping his distance. "I'm sorry Uncle Raiden," he apologized.

Tami glanced over at me, raising an eyebrow. It was as if she was expecting me to say something back to this kid. Normally, I wouldn't dare as he was the one who started this whole thing. He should have felt ashamed for what he did.

But seeing the stern look on Tami's face, something I didn't think was possible for a petite girl to do, well, I lowered my head and shrugged.

"It's fine," I mumbled.

"See, Raiden's going to be fine," Tami explained. "Now, why don't you help us? We know you didn't mean to hurt him, but you can help us by cleaning him up. Do you know where your parents keep the first aid kit? It's usually a box with band-aids inside."

Eikō nodded his head meekly as he carefully tiptoed near us. I stood up before Tami had the chance to offer her hand to me. While she looked up at me, I avoided her gaze, glancing over at Eikō's other two siblings. They were messing with the remote, loudly exclaiming which movie they wanted to watch, screaming at each other when one didn't like the movie that was suggested and pulling the remote away whenever the other strongly disagreed with it.

Despite their fighting, I felt Tami's fingers lace between mine, grabbing it, and tearing me away. My head snapped over as she followed Eikō out of the room. I had no choice but to follow. Rin and Hoshi's arguing continued to echo through the halls, but Tami didn't seem to mind. Instead, she pulled me into the bathroom where Eikō showed her the cabinet where the first aid kit was.

While she looked, I glanced in the mirror to see my face covered in ash. Blood was dripping off my cheek, gushing out in a slow manner. I leaned in towards the mirror tracing my fingers where the circular wound was initially at. My face burned at the touch, but it wasn't anything I wasn't used to. Pro Heroes got hurt all the time. The worst this thing was going to do was leave a scar, and honestly, I didn't mind. It wasn't like I needed a pretty face or anything.

"I'm really sorry," I heard Eikō continue to apologize. "I just got all sweaty and excited, and then everything just went boom!"

Tami chuckled. I tore my gaze from the mirror, noticing that she was bending down next to Eikō. Her hand gently brushed his shoulder as she rubbed it a bit. "It's alright. It happens all the time. You know, I have a friend, Sakura, who discovered her Quirk by breaking her moms' vases in their flower shop. She told me she got glass everywhere. You'll learn how to control it, I know it."

Eikō's eyes widened at Tami's words. "Wait, so I'm not the only one who destroyed things with my Quirk?"

The blonde shook her head. "Oh no, and surely enough, you're not going to be the last one either. Just try to relax for now. Your Quirk won't act up so much if you do."

My nephew tilted his head at Tami's suggestion. "But how can I relax? I-I hurt Uncle Raiden."

"And your uncle is a strong man. He's going to be alright. Be glad it was him and not one of your siblings," Tami told him.

"Hey!" I exclaimed.

She turned her head, looking up at me. "I'm not saying what he did wasn't bad, but you're a Pro Hero Student, aren't you? You should be used to this sort of thing."

I opened my mouth to say something, but stopped when I realized Tami was right. There was nothing I could really say about that. If I was going to be a Pro Hero, I was going to have to get used to the abuse people put me through. Besides, what Eikō did to me wasn't nearly as bad as the shit my dad put me through in training.

Niko never put her children through that. They didn't know what pain was at that age. At least, not the extent that they were used to it. If Rin, Hoshi, or even little Keiko was on the receiving end of Eikō's Quirk, things wouldn't have been good.

Eikō wrapped his arms around Tami after she said that. I wanted to tear him off of her the moment I saw it. It wasn't jealousy or anything like that. No. Tami just hated physical touch. It took her forever to open up to people to simply give them a simple handshake or hold their hands. I've only seen her hug a handful of people too.

Yet, the moment Eikō hugged her, the girl didn't hesitate to wrap an arm around him, reassuring him that everything was going to be alright. Their hug didn't last long as she suggested that he go to Rin and Hoshi and help them find a good movie to watch. As the little boy ran out of the room, Tami pulled the small white box from the cabinet and opened it. She pulled out a decent side bandage and a cloth that was inside.

She worked in silence as she dampened the cloth and held it up to my cheek, wiping away all the excess blood. The water might have been cool to the touch, but I could feel my body sweat as she did it. Tami didn't even seem to notice or care as she cleaned the wound, making sure the blood stopped seeping from my skin before she gently placed the bandage on my cheek. I could have done it myself, so Tami could watch over my nieces and nephews, but I enjoyed being alone with her for a little bit. I just wish I could say something when she was so close to me. Words just couldn't come.

Tami was so close to me as she helped. I could see each strand of blonde hair hanging on her forehead, parting in some places to give it some shape. Her brown eyes were darker than I thought they'd be up close, with specks of a lighter brown adorning them. Everything about her seemed so simple, yet—

"There," she said when she was finished, lowering down, so she was no longer standing on her toes to reach my cheek. I could have bent down a bit or grabbed a chair, but I didn't think about it as I realized I had been staring at her the entire time. Not wanting to say anything about it, I grabbed the side of my face, feeling the plastic band-aid sticking to it.

"Thanks," I muttered before a huge crash echoed in the distance. Tami and I exchanged looks as it happened.

Rin, Eikō, and Hoshi shouldn't have been able to make any sort of noise if they were picking out a movie. Besides, shortly after the crash happened, there was an ear-piercing cry screaming from a distance. It was much more shrill than any of the triplets.

It was then I realized the triplets weren't the only ones out and about.

"Didn't you place Keiko down for a nap already?" I asked Tami.

Her eyes widened in horror. "Oh no! The baby! I forgot! I—"

Before she could dash out of the room, I stopped her by placing my hand on her shoulder. "I'll find her. You make sure the triplets aren't complaining."

Tami simply nodded before we both walked out of the room, doing our best to make sure no more chaos unfolded in the Nishimura house.

🌼End of Part 2🌼

🌼Character Spotlight: Rin Nishimura🌼
Age: 3 years old
Quirk: Petrify

🌼Character Spotlight Eikō and Hoshi Nishimura🌼
Age: 3 years old
Likes: Playing with toy swords (or any kind of stick to hit people with)

(Just imagine those two boys with lighter brown hair instead of black, and you have 2/3rds of the Nishimura triplets)

Song: ZenZenZense from Your Name...I've used this one before for a different story, but it's just so upbeat and perfect for fast pace chapters!