Since When Did You Become a Romantic?

Chapter 17: Toothless

They bring the baby to the Way's apartment first because Hayley insists she has to go out of town for a few days. At some point, Mikey decides to move into the apartment across the hall to give Frank, Lindsey, and Gerard space. Everyone assumed that Hayley came back from her trip and took the baby. But actually, Mikey is raising him because Hayley never came back. Oh it's a journey. Brendon is the first to figure it out.

It has been a week since the baby was born. Mikey has been juggling different books to figure out what to do. Right now all the baby does is sleep so Mikey thinks he can handle it. He fashioned a sling for James out of a pair of pants and he has been carrying him around in it. He walks over to the fridge with James tight against his chest.

"Do you think that you can eat honey?" Mikey asks the baby. James just blinks back with his fingers in his mouth. "Yeah probably not." Mikey starts rummaging through the fridge. "What about some carrots? You're always trying to suck on my fingers and your own, carrots might help." A voice in his head tells him to stop. "God, I'm an idiot, you can't eat carrots. You can eat baby carrots." He takes one and puts it in James' mouth. Mikey then realizes that he doesn't have any teeth. He takes him out of the sling and holds him up in front of his face. "Wait you don't have TEETH!" Mikey leans in closer. "HOW IS MY SON GOING TO SURVIVE." After a quick internet search he is relieved.

At around noon Mikey decides to take a nap. He heard that babies aren't supposed to have any blankets in their crib but since James doesn't have a crib, he just lets James fall asleep on his chest. He is woken up ten minutes later by James trying to gnaw on his shirt. He pulls the baby off himself only for James to start crying. "I'm not your mother. I'm sorry I don't have boobs. I wish I did too!" But the baby keeps crying. Mikey sets him down on the table wrapped tightly in a blanket.

"Oatmeal?" He holds it up. "No, Mikey, that won't work," he tells himself. "WAIT Brendon will know what to do!"

"Brendon!" Mikey nearly shouts into the phone.

"Yeah, Baby Way?" Brendon answers confused by the muffled screaming in the background.

"What do small children eat?"

"Like newborns?" Brendon asks.

"Yes! Whatever the tiny ones are!" Mikey balances the phone on his shoulder while trying to calm the baby down.

"Well, obviously formula."

"Great! Can you bring me some?" Mikey asks hopefully.

"I don't know."

"Please for the love of god," Mikey pleads.

Brendon arrives a half an hour later. He hesitantly knocks on the apartment door because all he can hear is rock music blaring. The door cracks open and there pops out Mikey's head. "Bring the shit," he whispers.

"Yeah?" Brendon holds the paper bag up.

Mikey sticks his arm out. "Okay hand it over."

He pulls the bag away. "Not so fast, Jack. Tell me what the hell is going on."

At this point, Mikey doesn't even care so he just swings the door all the way open. There a very small baby crying on the coffee table. Brendon looks to the baby and then back to Mikey and then back again. "Wait what?"

"I will explain after you get him to shut the fuck up."

In ten minutes, Brendon is sitting on the couch with James in his arms drinking from the bottle. Mikey flops down next to the two with a loud sigh. "God, children are a lot of work." Brendon nods in a agreement. They sit quietly together for a while.

"I admire you for doing this," Brendon smiles at the Way.

"I'm afraid I'm going to kill him," Mikey replies.

"You'll be fine. Call me if you need anything ever."

"Can we do shopping for this baby stuff together? Because I'm pretty sure he only has one outfit and I used my old shirts as diapers," Mikey doesn't even hide his failures.

"Definitely. We can call Lindsey and Gerard up and we can all go together."

Mikey sits up quickly. "Woah woah woah. Gerard can't know about James."

Brendon looks confused. "But why?"

"Because I'm not exactly... I'm not clean yet," he avoids eye contact. "If my brother knew about James he would take him and raise him. It puts too much stress on him. He already has a kid on the way that is actually his. He doesn't need an extra."

"Here," Brendon sets the baby in his arms. "I'm going to teach you some key skills about tiny humans," he stands up and goes into full on teacher mode.

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