Miraculous one shots~

Four for a boy

Today was the day. Sitting from outside the delivery room, Emma Agreste was waiting impatiently at the side of her uncle Nino.

"What's taking so long??" Emma asked exasperatedly from her plastic cushion. Nino looked over at her from his own seat, and smiled at the girl softly.

"Babies take a long time to come around. As excited as we are, he or she could still not be ready until tomorrow." He explained, and Emma leaned her head back, swinging her feet from her chair quicker. Adrien, Alya, and obviously Marinette were in the delivery room, and while he of course wanted to meet the baby, Marinette requested Alya come in with her, and that really left either Nino or Gabriel to watch little Emma. It was out of pure love and mild discomfort at the thought of watching his friend in so much pain, that he offered to be the one to watch the little one. Although, they hardly had to ask, Emma and Nino had always been close and he saw this as just another chance to spend time with his favorite, and this far only, niece.

"They need to come now. Im getting tired of waiting." The girl complained. For their second child, her parents had decided to keep the gender a secret until birth, a decision that Emma had not entirely approved on, but her parents were insistent on it.

So to her dismay, she's still left to wonder whether she's going to have a baby sister or brother.

"Tell you what." Nino said, gaining her attention immediately, "If you can wait patiently until you meet him or her without complaining, I'll personally take you to Toys R Us and help you pick out their first plushy." He told her, and a smile spread on her face, only to falter a moment later, "Even if it takes a long long time?" She asked

"It won't feel like such a long time. After all, you do have the most amazing Uncle in the room with you right about now, so we'll play lots and lots of games to pass the time. How about that?" He offered, and she smiled again.

"Then it's a deal!" She agreed, and the two of them shook hands.

There was a short moment of silence before Nino spoke up again. "What are you going for?" He asks her, and her head cocks to the side.

"Like, a brother or a sister?" He corrected himself.

Emma looked up in thought. "I didn't know I got a vote." Shrugs Emma.

Nino chuckles at her, "Well, the baby's already made, so it's a little late to ask them to be one or the other, but what do you think they are?"

Emma's feet knocked together repeatedly. "Girl. But I wish it was a boy." She says.

"How come?" He asks, and his foot begins to bounce at the loud noises coming from the room beside them. Emma only glances at the door before looking back at him.

"I dunno," she says, "I just think it'd be cool to teach a little brother to do stuff, like tying a tie, or tying his shoes, or... Asking a girl out." She shrugs, truth is, she's been praying for months that she'll have a little brother. Not to say she wouldn't love a sister, but her parents already had a girl, she wanted something different.

"Well I think you're in luck," Nino said, a smile on his face, "I'm pretty sure it's a boy." He said, and Emma's face beamed.

"Yeah?" She asks with a smile.

"Yeah." Nino says, "And I know everything don't ya know." He says, knocking his shoulder into hers.

"I hope so." Emma replied, "That would be awesome."

Many hours later, after game after game, Emma was allowed to come into the room with her parents, and meet her baby sibling. Nino trailed behind her some ways and leaned against a wall as he watched his niece smile brightly at the baby.

She only needed one glance to look straight at Nino and say, "You were right, weren't you? He is a boy!" She beamed at him, and he chuckled as the eyes of everyone in the room turned to him.

"Yes baby, he's a boy." Mari cut in, patting the bed next to her for Emma to sit with her. Once she did, she set the baby in her lap and two pairs of stunning green eyes met for the first time. Emma could only blink at him as his hand darted out and found her own. In four heartbeats, he utterly stole her heart.

It seemed to go without saying to Emma, that from this day on, she would be this baby's protector. She would be perfect for him- at least, she would try to be.

And she wondered if perhaps this sensation was what her uncle felt the first time he held her. She looked towards Nino's soft gaze, and it felt like an answer to her unuttered question when he winked at her with a smile.