Ignihyde - When your future children turn up all at once (omegaverse)
Based on this post
Walking up to Ignihyde, you tried to convince yourself that things would be totally fine. After all, there was only going to be one child here, the lowest of any of the dorms, and that had to mean something for preserving your peace!
But with every step, your attempt at holding onto that delusion was faltering. If Jamil or Vil had the skills needed to keep a hold on the current situation, then Idia had whatever the opposite skill was.
And that meant you needed to get over to Ignihyde as soon as possible.
[[MORE]]
Walking through the halls, you were struck with a sense of unease. It wasn’t uncommon for Ignihyde to feel like no one lived there if you walked through at the right time, but today felt especially off, like you’d suddenly entered a horror film without realising it.
It was that feeling that made you shriek like a banshee when a pair of hands suddenly lunged from the darkness and grabbed you by the shoulders.
The person that grabbed you shrieked at your shriek, letting go of you like you were too hot to touch. You both stood for a moment, shrieking at each other before you registered the situation.
“Idia!” you hissed, pressing a hand to your chest to try to calm your heart. Idia was standing hunched in a darkened alcove, hands clutched to his chest too, watching you with red cheeks and a frazzled expression. “You can’t just grab at people like that!”
“Sorry, sorry,” he muttered, tugging on the strings of his hoodie. “I saw you coming on the cameras and I needed to add you to my party ASAP. This is a level 100 event that I couldn’t beat even with years of grinding.” There was a manic glint in his eyes as he grabbed you again. “You have to help me, I need your strength!”
Although Idia frequently looked panicked on the rare days you saw him face to face, you had never known him to be so physically forward. He must be really desperate, and you had a feeling you knew the cause.
“Is your kid badly behaved? Do they need a nappy change?” You gasped. “They aren’t hurt, are they?”
“No,” Idia whimpered. “Even worse.”
“Worse?” You stared at him blankly, trying to figure out what could possibly be so bad.
“He’s…” -he gulped, looking both ways as if to make sure no one would overhear- “an extrovert.”
What? There was a world where Idia birthed and raised an extrovert?! That was shocking, true, but also-
“Is that it?” you asked, unimpressed by his dramatics. “That’s why you grabbed at me like some kind of pervert.”
“I am not a pervert!” he squeaked in protest, the tips of his hair going pink. “And what do you mean, is that it? You don’t understand! He’s been talking nonstop since he got here and even when I put on a film to keep him quiet, he just talked through it! He didn’t even watch to the end, he wanted to go and have a tour of the dorm instead. He cried when I wouldn’t take him outside!”
Idia was getting more and more hysterical, so you held up a hand to stop his tirade. It seemed Ignihyde did have one child for you to parent, just not the one you expected.
“Take a deep breath, Idia, it’s fine.” He took the least convincing and shakiest breath you’d ever heard. You rolled your eyes. “Where is he now?”
“Ortho’s watching him in my room…”
“Right. Come on then.”
Idia trailed meekly behind you as you took the familiar path to his room. When you reached the door, he faltered, looking around like he might flee.
“Maybe I should just-”
“Oh no,” you disagreed, grabbing his arm with an iron grip so he couldn’t run. “You’re coming too.”
He started muttering about facing the boss level too early, but you ignored him. He was not abandoning you with this.
When you opened the door, your son was instantly obvious. He stood out like a sore thumb in the blue room with his pastel yellow dungarees and an equally sunny smile. He had Idia’s signature cursed hair, which licked around his face in cute curls. At around age five, he looked like a child born to be frolicking in flower fields, so seeing him in Idia’s room felt out of place.
“Appa!” The boy ran over and clutched onto your clothes, beaming up at you with a sharp-toothed smile. “You’re here! Oma wouldn’t tell me where you were, he just said he didn’t know and his hair kept going pink all the time!”
There was a humiliated whimper from beside you. Ortho giggled and went to his brother’s side.
“Oh, I’m sorry, but I’m here now,” you soothed, letting go of Idia’s arm, confident that Ortho would stop him from escaping, and crouching down to the boys level. He really was too cute, but you could already see what it was about him that had sent Idia into a doom spiral.
“It’s okay,” he grinned. “Uncle Ortho explained that you and oma are younger here and that you haven’t had me yet, so I don’t exist.” A pondering look passed over his face. “When are you and oma going to make me?”
You could feel heat rushing to your cheeks and from behind you Idia made a noise like a dying balloon.
“Oh no, no, no, no. What kind of fanservice event is this? It’s way too on the nose,” he muttered. “Ortho, I think I’m gonna pass out.”
“Your vitals read as fine to me, but your heartrate is abnormally high.”
“Not yet,” you said, clearing your throat and trying to ignore the heat in your cheeks. “Um, I imagine it will be quite some time.”
“How do you make a baby?”
“Let’s not talk about that now!” you said, trying to sound chipper. Quick, you had to change the subject before Idia really did pass out. “Have you had a fun day?”
He nodded, seemingly happy to embrace the new topic. “I’ve seen oma’s old dorm, and we played some games, and I told him all about school and my friends and what our house is like and everything! Even though oma said I couldn’t go and play outside today….and… I’m a bit hungry, appa, can I have some food?”
You turned an accusing glare at Idia, who was still bright red and had trouble meeting your eye. “You didn’t give him lunch yet?”
“I tried!” he squeaked. “I made him some cup ramen but he didn’t like it. What kind of child of mine doesn’t like ramen, there must have been some kind of glitch, I’m telling you!”
“You can’t give a small child cup ramen! Do you know how much salt is in one of those?!”
“1,550 mg,” Ortho cheerfully told you. “That’s already over the daily recommended limit for a five-year-old.”
“And you let him do that?” you accused, turning to the young robot. “This is your nephew, you know.”
“I know,” Ortho replied cheerfully. “He’s wonderful, but the other food options were just as unhealthy, so I decided that something warm was the best option available.”
You took a deep breath in through your nose and let it out through your mouth.
“Okay, this is fine. Everyone, we’re going down to the kitchen for lunch and then we’re going outside to play, no exceptions.” You kept your tone firm as the little boy cheered. “Ortho, don’t let Idia escape.”
“I won’t!”
…
After you’d fed your future child with what you could scrounge from the Ignihyde kitchen, which amounted to peanut butter and crackers with some fruit, you all went outside. Idia acted like he was being marched to his death as your son, holding onto one hand from each of you, skipped and swung, nattering something about homework and his favourite toys.
Ortho hovered alongside you, seeming happy. You wondered if he enjoyed playing uncle that much or if he was just thrilled that there was any possible future where Idia had a romantic partner and a baby.
While your little boy was eating, you’d cooked up a plan to make him and Idia bond, and it was time to put it into action. From out of your bag, you pulled two water guns that you’d filled moments ago and bestowed one to the oma and son.
Idia blanched, but his son lit up.
“Water guns!”
“Brave fighters,” you began, putting on a dramatic voice. “The time has come to fight for the true question of the universe: Does cup ramen taste good or not?”
“It doesn’t!” the boy argued. “It tastes yucky!”
“It does not!” Idia argued. “Cup ramen is the best thing for a quick HP boost!”
“Whoever lands the most shots on the other, will have their argument proven right!” you said loudly, interrupting their disagreement. “Good luck esteemed fighters! On the count of five, it shall be begin!”
You took Idia’s tech from him as you counted down, and the little boy ran to take cover behind a bench. Idia hesitated, but behind his anxiety, there was a man who hated to lose, so he ran to find cover too.
“4, 5! Fight!”
The fight began awkwardly, as both tried to get a feel of their tactics and opponent, but before long, smack talk was flying just as often as shots of water.
“I have more EXP than you! Give in now, or face being sent back to level one!” Idia announced, his shyness melting away.
“You’ll never hit me, oma, nanananana!” the boy mocked, sticking out his tongue.
“Tch, my energy drinks keep my HP at 110%!”
You watched them play together as Ortho flew over to your side.
“Sorry I picked something you couldn’t play too. It was the only thing I could think of.”
“I have waterproof suits, but I think it’s better that I just watch anyway.” He smiled at you. “Thank you for helping my brother.”
“Oh, it’s no problem. I figure it would be awkward over night if those two didn’t figure out how to understand each other. We don’t know how long the kids are even going to be here, anyway, and I didn’t want Idia to accidentally traumatise him or anything.” You watched the boy hit Idia square in the face with a beam of water. “At least he seems like the resilient sort.”
Ortho only looked up at you with a considering gaze. You laughed nervously at his uncharacteristically intense stare.
“What? You think I shouldn’t have intervened? Because Idia seemed overwhelmed just trying to feed the child. Why didn’t you step in there by the way? I know the food in his room is unhealthy and he doesn’t like to leave, but you could have grabbed something better from the kitchen.”
Ortho shrugged. “I wanted to give my brother chances to bond, just like you. If I fed and entertained the little boy, he would never get to know him.” There was a tiny pause before: “Do you like my brother?”
You choked on your own saliva at the sudden question.
“He’s an interesting person,” you said neutrally, pretending not to hear the romantic undertones of the question. “He seems to struggle a lot, but, underneath, I think there’s someone who has a lot of talent and who wants people to care about him.”
Ortho hummed. “Your son is pretty cute, wouldn’t you say?”
You blinked at the change of topic.
“Uh, yeah, he’s adorable. Hard to believe Idia raised a child this sunny, though.”
“So, you agree that it would be a shame if he never existed, right?”
“There’s no way you just asked me that.” You glared at the sweet smile you got in return. “You wingman-ing for Idia isn’t going to work, so you can stop right there.”
“But there is a reality where it worked, even if it’s a statistically improbable one.” He gestured at the proof, who was currently drenched and gleefully laughing as he jumped on Idia to stop him from getting off a shot.
“Yeah, well, that reality probably didn’t start with you trying to talk to me on his behalf.”
“It probably did,” Ortho disagreed. “My brother is quite shy around you, after all. I was surprised when his future child turned up, as it’s difficult imagining him being close enough to another person for that.”
“Don’t bring that up,” you muttered, flushing from the implication of exactly how ‘close’ you would have had to be to make a baby.
“I think you’d be good for him,” Ortho continued, unrepentant. “You’ve already been good for him and you’ve only been here for an hour.”
You hid your face in your hands, feeling the warmth from your skin. Having one of your friends try to convince you to date another one of your friends, while your future child that you might one day conceive ran around in front of you, was too much.
Thoughts of conceiving with Idia popped up with your train of thought, and you couldn’t cope with this anymore.
“I have to go!” You suddenly announced, trying desperately to get bad thoughts out of your head. “Still got more kids to see before it gets dark,” you said, patting Ortho on the shoulder and starting to flee. It was hard to keep your voice steady when you were so embarrassed. “Don’t let Idia starve the child, good luck!”
“Wait! Don’t go yet!”
Ortho did make an attempt to follow you, zooming above you in a way that once again made you feel like you were in a horror game, but while he was fast enough to catch you, he seemed reluctant to actual restrain you, so you made it to the hall of mirrors in record time, heart pounding.
You hoped the sunny little boy wouldn’t be too sad that you’d left without saying goodbye, and that Idia could handle some kind of bedtime routine on his own. It was getting on in the day now, after all, and it would be dark in about an hour and a half.
It was a good job you only had one more set of children to visit.