Arrowverse One Shots

Brainy and Nia - Babysitting

"Janie, put that down," Nia said as she scolded the little girl. "You don't want to-" She was interrupted by the sound of her phone ringing, it was Brainy. "Hey Brainy, everything okay?" she asked.

"Yes. Everything is fine. I just, uh," Brainy stammered.

"You what? Brainy?"

"Well, I miss you, Nia Nal. I was calling to see if you wanted to maybe go get dinner with me."

Brainy was still getting used to having human emotions, fortunately Nia found his awkwardness cute.

"I'd love to," she answered, "except I'm babysitting right now."

"You are sitting on what?" he said with confusion. Nia laughed.

"No, babysitting," she answered. "I'm watching my neighbor's daughters for her while she's at a meeting."

"Aha. Children are such a complex species. Everything is so simple, yet so convoluted in their small unformed brains." Brainy replied.

"You could come over if you want, I could use a hand." Nia suggested.

"Alright, I suppose I could help you," Brainy said with doubt in his voice. He had never taken care of a child before, he wasn't sure how helpful he could actually be. However he was grateful for any time that he got to spend with Nia. He arrived at Nia's apartment an hour later and could hear the squeals coming from inside before he even opened the door. Nia was on the floor with a baby in one arm while playing monopoly with the other. Across from her sat an older girl who looked about six, and running in circles around them was a third girl who looked no more than three. All three kids had fiery red hair and snow white skin dotted with freckles. Brainy started to wonder what kind of chaotic mess he had just entered.

"Brainy!" Nia said, noticing him in the doorway. "Come in! Girls come meet Brainy." They all came running over, the middle one immediately stopping to inspect his sparkling legionnaire ring. "Brainy, meet Evelyn," she said motioning to the oldest girl. "And this is Janie," she continued, "and baby Emma."

"Hi. Are you Nia's boyfriend?" Evelyn said inquisitively.

"Oh uh, hello, yes I am." Brainy struggled with deciding how to address these children. He could handle robots, time travelers, and even alien species that hadn't yet developed language skills. Children were the hardest one yet.

"Where did this ring come from?" Janie said, grabbing his hand and holding the ring up to her eye.

"I, uh, well." How do you explain a task force of intergalactic time travelers to a three year-old?

"Brainy, we were just about to have dinner." Nia said, saving him. "Come help?" The girls skipped off to the kitchen happily. "Hey babe," Nia said blushing, leaning over to kiss him. Emma, still in Nia's arms, reached out in an attempt to grab Brainy's hair. "No no no, don't do that," Nia cooed, gently pulling her tiny arm back. Brainy had never seen Nia like this, she seemed to be a natural at taking care of children.

Brainy followed Nia into the kitchen where Evelyn and Janie were anxiously waiting around an unopened box of pizza. She made sure that they had cleaned up their toys and washed their hands before sitting them down and serving them each a piece, cutting Janie's into tiny pieces.

"And for you," Nia said with a smile as she passed Brainy a plate. "How was work?" she said calmly.

"Nothing too intriguing," he answered. "Alex and I just prepped alien prisoners for transport to various facilities," he replied.

"YOU SAW ALIENS?" Evelyn gasped. "COOL!"

"Why, uh, yes," Brainy said. "I work with them."

"Wow," she sighed. "I've never seen an alien before."

"Ev, we've talked about this," Nia said with a laugh. "I'm an alien, I just look like a human on the outside."

"Oh yeah. I forgot," the girl said with a smile.

Brainy watched as the group ate their dinner, Nia asked each girl about her day and listened to their stories so intently. The girls immediately went back to playing as soon as they were finished.

"Want to play Monopoly with me?" Evelyn asked Brainy.

"Alright," he said, sitting on the floor next to Nia, who was bouncing Emma on her knee.

"She likes to make her own rules," Nia whispered. "Just go with it."

She was certainly right. Evelyn's version of Monopoly involved building card houses, creating neighborhoods with the tiny plastic houses, and singing a special song every time someone passed Go. Brainy was thoroughly confused, and yet admired how broad this little girl's imagination was. She came up with ideas on the spot without ever questioning or doubting herself. Eventually Janie got upset that they were playing without her, so Brainy had her join his team. She sat on his lap while he helped her count out paper money and move game pieces around the board. He was beginning to realize that kids weren't as complex as he thought, it was actually nice to just play and be stress-free for a while.

When it was time for the older girls to go to bed, Nia passed Emma over to Brainy. He sat on the sofa while the tiny baby lay peacefully curled up in his arms, she was so small and fragile that he was afraid to move. He watched Nia help each girl get in their pajamas and brush their teeth, before getting them tucked into bed. Before she left, she brushed her hand over each one's forehead and Brainy saw a small blue glow emit from her fingertips. Nia carefully shut the door on her way out before realizing Brainy had been watching her.

"I just like to make sure that they have sweet dreams," she said with a smile. Nia took Emma and got her settled in her crib before returning to Brainy. "Thanks for coming over," she said, "You were really good with them."

"Nowhere near as good as you," he replied. "How do you do that?"

"I don't know, I guess I just love how simple and innocent children are, everything is so magical. I wish I could live like that."

"Well I think that might be one of your most impressive super powers, Nia Nal," he said, leaning over and pulling her in for a kiss.

I feel like the writing of this was really chaotic but I loved the concept :) Makes me feel a little better after the last couple Brainia episodes...

Any ideas for other stories? Characters you want to see? I'll literally do anything.