Everything Stays: In the Future

The Babysitter

Taking care of a baby is never really fun when you are alone. It's also never very fun when you were currently in grad-school trying to earn a PhD in history of all subjects. It also wasn't fun to do either while managing a classroom of teenagers from both 13 till 17 year olds and a girl in your latter class wanted to get with you. That was the scenario set in stone for Frederic Scorch. He loved being married. He loved being a father even more. He also loved that he could earn his PhD in his favorite subject.

However, Fred could go without the over stress that was some distractions. However, he pushed through and put up with the crap. Fred also had some chats with female and a few male students attempted to flirt and use their youth to their advantage. That alone pissed him off. But that shouldn't and couldn't be his top priority right now. Currently, Fred had a term paper due in about eight hours that he had to complete or he'd be kicked out.

It also didn't help much that he was done with half of it and watching his infant son at the same time. Now grant it, Fred could easily finish the paper within two hours, however, he took about everything word to look and watch Stark play on the floor next to him for about two minutes at a time.

Stark was on the ground playing with a stuffed animal. However, to Fred it was far from a usual stuffed animal Beowolf. It was the first gift he got Yang on their first date, a trophy of their time at Beacon together. Now, call him selfish, but Fred never wanted anything to happen to that gift. It was one of the few things he was able to salvage from Beacon that night. However, Stark just seemed to be playing around with it, no harm done. After working through the essay long enough, Fred glanced back down to Stark and saw him cuddled up to the Beowolf stuffed animal.

Fred glanced at his clock and shrugged to himself.

Fred: Eh, I got eight hours.

Fred got off and sat down in front of Stark. The baby turned his head over to face his father. Fred reached over and grabbed the Beowolf stuffed animal and placed it on his lap before picking Stark up and placing the child on his feet.

Fred: (Waves to himself) Come on. Come to daddy.

Stark turned one around two weeks ago. As a result, him walking was still something new to him. However, he got better and better as time went onward. Stark slowly began to walk forward towards Fred and the latter moved a hand behind the former to keep him from falling down. Fred kept waving towards himself, guiding Stark towards his own lap and more importantly (at least to Stark) the Beowolf.

Fred: Come on, kiddo. Come on. You got this.

Stark took a few more steps forward and finally was within Fred's grasps before falling forward. However, before the by could hit his father's knee, Fred caught him and placed him down on his lap and watched as Stark grabbed the Beowolf and and hugged it. Fred began to rub his back and watched Stark play around with the toy. Fred couldn't help but smile at seeing his son with so much joy on his face.

Fred got up and carried Stark over to a small play corner in the living room filled with some stuffed animals and some old toys donated by Tai from when Yang and Ruby were children. Fred watched with a smile on his face as Stark would get up and walk a few steps over a grab another toy and play around it. Just by watching Stark, Fred could tell he seemed to like puzzle based toys than anything else.

Fred walked around the corner to where a small ball and shape puzzle was at. He softly kicked it forward and got it to roll a few feet before hitting Stark's bottom. Stark turned back around a smiled and grabbed the ball. Fred watched with close intent as he saw Stark try to figure that the ball wasn't meant to be chewed on. The boy then saw the shapes and began to figure how to solve the puzzle.

Stark grabbed each piece and tried a few spaces before getting the correct one. Fred could easily watch the gears in his son's brain work and within around two minutes finished the entire puzzle sphere. Fred smile and reached down and picked up Stark again.

Fred: Yep. You got the Xiao Long looks but the Scorch brains. (Pecks his cheek) I love you.

Fred set Stark back down on the corner and grabbed his laptop and continued to work. Another two paragraphs in, Fred had finished around 6/8's of the mandatory length of the essay. After working tirelessly on paragraph 7, Fred closed the computer and returned his gaze back to Stark in order to keep an eye on him. Once again, Stark had the Beowolf animal in his arms holding onto it as he played with a plastic ring. Fred chuckled a bit at the sight but still actively decided to watch Stark have a fun time out today.

As he was watching Stark, he could hear the door open. He glanced over to the front door and saw Yang was walking inside the house. She had a few scraps and scratches but nothing overly concern. Fred picked up Stark and cradled him and the two made their way over to Yang. Fred and Yang smiled at one another and kissed as Yang took Stark from Fred.

Yang: You two looked like you were having fun.

Fred: Well, he was.

Yang: I take it you finished that paper already.

Fred: Not yet.

Yang: Really?

Fred: Well, I was busy being a dad first, student second.

Yang: Well right now it should be student first.

Fred: Don't worry about it. I got eight-(Sees clock) seven hours to finish it. You tired?

Yang: Little bit. But I can watch him no problem.

Fred: Then plop him down in front of the TV. I can work.

Yang: Sure?

Fred: Positive.

With that, Yang walked Stark back over to the living room and grabbed one of Stark's favorite toys and brought it back over towards him. After setting it down onto the ground, Stark glanced at it, got up and walked over to it.

Yang: Whoa! That's more than usual kiddo. (To Fred) Did you run him through drills?

Fred: Just once.

Yang rolled her eyes and laughed at the attempted joke before carrying on to watch Stark. While Fred worked on his term paper, he could constantly hear the sounds of laughter of his family close by. That alone made him smile like never before.