An Angel's Whisper

Part 18: Babysitting

"We're taking care of Miyuki for the day?!" Neru shouted.

"Yes, Neru. Don't shout."

"I'm not changing her!"

"Fine, I will."

"I'm not bottling her!"

"Fine, I will."

"I'm not-"

"Jesus Christ Neru, you've gotta do something! You can't leave me to it all because 'You don't want to'!"

"I am doing something! I'll play with her!"

"Wow! Great! Watch out, that's an awful lot, don't hurt yourself!"

"DON'T TAKE THE PISS! Don't act so privileged!"

"Oh shut up, you fucking imbecile."

"Oh? OH? YOU shut up, you're pathetic! You're always moping about something or the other, and you only think about yourself! I hate you!"

"You- you don't mean that."

"I don't? Do I not? I hate you, Haku. I'm never going to talk to you again."

"Oh no! However will I live?!"

"Shut up! You love me and you know you do! I- I'll break your heart!"

Haku sighed,

"Yes, Neru, I love you and I know I do. We shouldn't argue. It's childish."

"You're childish."

"Yes, I know. I shouldn't have started it."

"Shut up."

"Come on. Give me a hug. Let's make up and forget about this."

"No."

"Why?"

"Shut up."

"Alright. Mei will be here with Miyuki soon."

"Cool."

Neru went upstairs to her bedroom.

"You better come down soon!"

"Yeah, yeah. I will. Don't flip out."

********************

"So, in the baggie, there's just some stuff like her bottle, and a note incase she does anything unexpected telling you what to do. Remember, keep her clean and fed, make sure she takes a nap at 1 and 6, and she's-"

"Okay, Meiko. She'll be okay. Promise."

"Okay. Thank you. I hope she won't be too much trouble."

"I'm sure she won't be. See you later."

"Bye, now."

"Neru! Come down!"

"Right, right, I'm coming."

Neru came down the stairs, and looked at the baby.

"So, what do you want me to do with her?"

"Hold her. Play with her. Feed her, later. Be her temporary mom."

"I can't. I don't know how to be a mother."

"Well, just keep her happy. If she starts crying she's either bored, hungry or her nappy needs changing."

"Sure. Is she sleeping?"

"Yes. So be quiet."

"I will."

Speak of the devil, Miyuki woke up. Realising she wasn't in her mother's arms, she started wailing and flailing her arms.

"Woah! Hey, hey. Shhh. Shh shh. It's okay. It's okay," Haku said, trying to hold the baby's arms.

"Neru, could you open the little bag? There's a note in there. Can you read it please?"

"Yes, I can. One sec..."

After an agonising long minute of screaming, shushing and fumbling around, Neru pulled out the note and began to read.

'Okay, I'm very sorry that Miyu is doing something naughty, but here's some things she likes:
• Her blanky
•Lay down and put her on your stomach - she'll fall asleep
•Laying her down and gently rubbing her cheek
•There's a small giraffe toy in the baggy - she loves it.
•She likes lullabies, too

I hope she'll be a good girl for you. Have fun,

Meiko

"Get the giraffe, for the sake of everything that's good-"

"Alright, alright, hang on,"

"DON'T-"

"Are you okay?"

"That's actually disgusting, I'm going to throw up, ew. You take her."

"What? I'm trying to get the giraffe, what happened?!"

"She vomited on me."

"EW! I'M NOT TAKING HER! Take her to the bathroom with you and clean the both of you up."

"Oh, it's dripping down me, ew."

"Hurry up then! Don't stand there dripping baby vomit onto my carpet!"

Running up the stairs, Haku said,

"Can you prepare her a bottle, please?!"

"I'M TRYING TO GET THE BLOODY GIRAFFE!"

"Just take it out!"

"IT'S STUCK! JUST GO AND CLEAN UP!"

"Alright, I'll- MIYUKI! NOT AGAIN!"

Neru continued trying to get the giraffe out of the bag. She put her leg against the wall, and pulled. She fell backwards when it finally came out. She twisted her ankle.

"OW! SHIT!"

She held back tears as she stood up.

"Ow. Ow. Ow," she said, with every step she took.

Coming back down the stairs with new clothes and a clean baby, Haku looked at Neru, who looked like she was eating a lemon.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"Yeah. Just... Fine. The fucking- sorry, flipping, giraffe is over there."

"Look, Miyu! It's your giraffe!"

Miyuki stopped crying, putting her focus on the little fluffy giraffe. She reached out her arms for it. Haku leaned down so that the baby could grab it. Miyuki's hands couldn't grip the toy, so she began crying again.

"Jeez, she cries nearly the same amount that you do," Neru smirked.

"Shut up. Look, Miyu, here's your giraffe. Please stop crying," Haku sighed, giving the plushie to the baby.
Miyuki put the giraffe in her mouth.

"Miyuki, don't eat Mr. Giraffe! Silly!"

With a happy burble, Miyuki took it out of her mouth and tried to stuff it into Haku's. Neru sniggered from behind.

"Oh, Miyu! I can't eat that!"

This set off more tears.

"Come on, sweetie. Let's give you a nap."

"What? I don't need a nap."

"I was talking to Miyuki."

"Oh. Right."