#I'm cleaning through my drafts and wow. this has been here forgotten since like. last year. I think I made it for elain week but forgot?

[josiesparklelove]

"I'm going to be a father?" Pick a ship, any ship. :D

@labyrinthofleah & @spyoflove

It took 12 years. But here…

——–

The Baby Caper

It all started out so innocently, one has to question how everything got so out of hand. Well, looking at the participants, one needed wonder too hard. The events all began one day when Victor had been working on some of his paperwork in the living room of the Saint Germain’s mansion where thanks to Leah, a rag-tag bunch of criminals, thieves, mad scientists, kings and knights had assembled. No, really… that’s not an exaggeration in titles for this mansion’s inhabitants, but that’s another story in itself.

This one begins when Victor Frankenstein wrote two simple words on a paper and left it out in the open for curious minds to find. Well, not to say it was poor Victor’s fault. He had been searching over his notes carefully and for quite a long while. When he had been summoned to dinner perhaps it had been the draft that let loose the offending piece of paper to slide itself under the lip of one of the ornate couches and to be forgotten when the doctor came back to clean up his workload.

That evening’s meal created by Impey, as usual, had been delicious and as had become quite commonplace a very loud and boisterous affair. Impey had called out to everyone in his loud voice when the meal had been prepared and everyone slowly began to trickle into the dining room. Van Helsing had been the first to arrive, as he usually was - he may grumble at Impey’s personality but he could not deny (even as much as he wanted to) how good he was at cooking. He took his seat and pulled out a newspaper he brought with him - he was usually early to this affair after all.

As Impey was bringing in more dishes from the kitchen, Lupin and Victor walked in together having met in the hallway outside of the dining room. Once inside Lupin quickly eyed his new target… well, Van Helsing, and flew to his side to pester. Victor offered Impey some help, who rejected his offer on the basis that he lived to serve! Leah and Saint Germain were the next attendees, of course arm in arm Impey noticed with a softness around his eyes… he wished he could do that too.

His stare must have been seen as Leah gently disentangled her arms from Saint Germain and bounced over to the red-head inquiring if he wanted any help with the plates. Impey flustered a bit wishing he hadn’t been caught staring, it wasn’t for improper reasons, he wanted to shout, but waved off the smaller girl and escaped to the kitchen for the final dishes. Leah shrugged her shoulders and went back to the seat next to Saint Germain who pulled it out and had remained standing until he could push the chair with her in it to the table.

The final guests appeared with a bit of an uproar as Delacroix II threw open the dining room door and stomped in with Josie flustered and rushing in behind him with the dog Sisi clamoring in her arms lapping at her face. Delly made it to his chair and sat in a huff arms folded as he glanced away from his trailing servant. Impey walked back into the dining room with the final platter in time to watch Josie try to pry the still licking pup from her arms and into his own designated pedestal which Delly requested to be made. Impey had to calm his own heart to not be jealous of a dog who was covering her face in smooches when he didn’t even get to.

Finally, Josie took a seat on the other side of Sisi away from Delly, seems her position as Knight had put her lower than the dog in the little master’s world, something he never failed to impress upon her. But she didn’t give up. After placing the final platter, Impey took his own seat between Josie and Lupin then Saint Germain led the table in a word of grace.

The dinner went off normally, well, sort of normally. Neither Josie nor Leah finished their meals claiming that they didn’t have much of an appetite. Which did alert some of the more wary members at the table. Impey fretted that maybe his meal didn’t turn out well.  Josie assured him that it was really delicious but that she just… wasn’t hungry. Though the fact that she actively avoided his gaze with a guilty look was a bit curious. Luckily Leah was able to avoid too much explaining verbally at least. Saint Germain’s imploring stare spoke just as much worry as Impey with a gentle touch to Leah’s gloved hand.

Thankfully, the meal didn’t last too much longer and everyone went to retire. Josie escorted the grumpy Delly and Sisi back to his room. Victor volunteered to help clean the dishes and Leah joined along. Saint Germain went to join Leah, but she shooed him away saying that he was the host of the meal, he didn’t need to clean. Well, she was so cute when she said it, he acquiesced and retired to his study to wait for her. Van cleared his plate and wasn’t seen again - probably went to his own room. And Impey and Lupin went to sit down in the living room.

The two men commented on the pile of paperwork that Victor had stacked up on one of the tables, both careful not to disturb it. Lupin sat down in one of the large chairs and began to regale his most recent conquest. Impey listened as usual, but his attention was caught on the slip of paper that was underneath the couch he was walking towards. He bent down to pick it up, afraid it was something that Victor would need for his work. As he picked up the paper his eyes absently scanned the paper before he was frozen solid.

Lupin noticed Impey’s behaviour and paused his story to inquire as to his friend’s state. When he looked he saw the tall red-head as he stared at the paper in his hand and suddenly his hand began trembling. Lupin jumped in alarm worried about what was written on the paper but as he approached he noticed that not just Impey’s arm, but he was trembling all over. Lupin feared the contents of the offending paper until he glanced at Impey’s face which held a smile he could barely contain.

“No way.” Impey whispered, and then repeated. “NO WAY!” He said with a shout. He placed the paper down and grabbed at Lupin who was within arms reach and brought him into a hug.

Lupin’s surprise came out in a yelp as he was a little helpless against Impey’s superhuman strength. “W-What is it, Impey?”

“She’s pregnant!” He said with a gigantic grin.

“What? Who?” Lupin inquired.

“Who? Josie, of course! That’s what Victor wrote on the paper! He said she’s pregnant!” Impey said tightening his grip.

Lupin barely noticed as his mind was too busy swirling around the new information. “W-wow! Impey, we need to go ask who the father is!” He said matching Impey’s enthusiasm.

“Yeah, we need to- Hey! Lupin that’s not very nice!” He pouted, freeing Lupin from his grasp. “Of course it’s me-” He gasped. “It’s me?!”

Lupin couldn’t stop himself from laughing at Impey’s inner turmoil as he jumped from excited to nervous to worried in the span of a few seconds.

“I-I-I… I have to go see her!” The red-headed engineer finally declared and went to rush out of the room, thankfully Lupin had anticipated this reaction and firmly planted himself in the way causing Impey to stutter in his movements.

“Wait-wait!” Lupin exclaimed trying to reach out to stop his friend. “What if she’s trying to surprise you? You don’t want to ruin that for her, right?”

“Surprise me?” Impey asked.

“Of course. Maybe waiting for the right time to spring in on you? Surprises don’t exactly seem like her strong suit with the whole knight in shining armor thing, but she’s a little softer around you, right?”

“Yeah! My Princess in Armor is both super strong and super adorable.” Impey boasted, his chest puffed out with pride.

“Great. So, you wouldn’t want to take her satisfaction of being able to surprise you away, right?”

“Well, then…. What can I do? Lupin, this is such big news!”

“Certainly a shock, anyway.” He mumbled then with a shout, “Ah! I’ve got it, Impey, maybe she’s nervous.”

“Nervous? My Josie? Nothing could scare her!”

“Well, nothing physical anyway, but Impey, we’re talking about delicate female emotions here. Have you two even discussed having children?”

“N-no, not that I can-”

“So how does she know that you’re okay with it?”

“But of course I’m okay! I’m going to be a father-”

“Right, but maybe she’s nervous about what you’d say since you’ve never exactly expressed interest.”

“So what should I do, Lupin? I can’t let my adorable little knight feel scared!”

“I have some thoughts on that actually…”  As expertly as any one of his heists, Lupin whisked Impey away back to his bedroom to lay out his newly concocted plan to the engineer who readily accepted any help from the (who he regarded as) more experienced man.

Some time later Saint Germain felt as though he had not seen his cute little Leah in too long of time so he went off in his search.  As he prowled around silently through the mansion he happened to pass by the kitchen where he quietly peeped through the slightly cracked door to see Victor hunched over with one hand placed ever so slightly Leah’s tummy. Initially, his jealousy peaked, even after intellectually telling himself that he should trust Leah and his friends, however he was still somewhat of a man. His jealousy rather quickly, however, turned to intense curiosity as he overheard the two in the kitchen.

“Leah, are you sure you’re okay?” Victor said worriedly

“I’m fine, Victor.” Leah assured him with a calm smile adjusting her glasses.

“You really must be careful, especially, in your condition.” The rest of Victor’s words seemed to fade out completely as Saint Germain’s brain was suddenly more than preoccupied. He slipped away just as quietly as he had arrived and walked the hallways back to his room so that he could think more on the scene which was now burned into his memory. In his journey, he very nearly ran into Van Helsing as he was leaving the living room.

“Ah, my apologies, Van Helsing. My my must have wandered away from me as I was walking.” Saint Germain said with the slightest bow of his head. Van Helsing merely huffed at his gesture.  “What brings you to this side of the mansion? I rarely see you outside of the Dining Room unless it pertains to a mission.”

“Yeah, well who could relax with those two idiots running about being even more stupid than usual.” Van Helsing replied with a brief glance behind him lest he was suddenly surprised with an ambush from his aforementioned colleagues.

“Haha. Well, they are very lively, I would agree.”

“No. This is more so than usual. Giggling and carrying on.” The former vampire-hunter paused giving the count a quick sizing up before he continued. “Sure you don’t know what it’s about?”

The count shook his head, his normal smile plastered on his pristine face. “I’m afraid I do not-”

“No idea?” Van Helsing finished his sentence while thrusting a piece of paper towards the count, it’s words ‘My findings show that indeed she’s pregnant’ written in Victor’s handwriting. It was only for a quick second that the count’s eyes opened wide with surprise before they returned back to their normal position. “It seems you have more than a hand in the reason, right?”

“Ah. Well, as crude as that description may be, it would not be outside the realm of possibility I suppose.” He said with what could be described as his version of a smirk. “However, seeing as though we gained this piece of information prior to the woman in question telling us, I would hope for your secrecy. This is a very delicate time for a young lady, of course.”

“You’re very calm about finding this out, I would think you’d be more happy.” Van Helsing said as he folded his arms over his chest.

The count chuckled lightly. “Not at all, I am beyond thrilled at the news. Forgive me if I don’t act as giddy as the other two.”

“No. If you were acting as stupid as those guys, I’d have put a bullet in you.” Van Helsing huffed.

“Ah, so you do care about us, hm?” Saint Germain smiled wiley as Van Helsing huffed again and went back into the living room to put the paper back.

——————-

The following day went as normal as possible, Leah went out with a walk through the city with Saint Germain. As the couple walked arm in arm Saint Germain quizzed her on all the information he had taught her in the several months together. Nothing out of the ordinary as far as Leah was concerned, though she did note that he would stop to gaze towards walking couples with a pram. Maybe he was nostalgic, perhaps?

And suddenly, Saint Germain’s questions turned much more… strange, ranging from her taste in colors, her preferences of linens, Impey would know better about her food preferences, and finally what she thought of particular names. All this was such a startle, she could do little else than answer whatever came to the top of her head at the time. Though the names were a bit odd, she had to admit. She quickly dismissed the day as just another in a long line of his eccentric quirks and thought nothing more about it.

Back at the mansion, however, Josie had been dealing with a more than clingy Impey all day. Delacroix was outside in the mansion’s garden playing with Sisi, so naturally Josie was standing nearby on attention. Recently, Sisi had made a new friend from a neighbor’s dog so Delly had two pups to play with raising his spirits a great deal. Josie smiled fondly at her master’s mirth, though her smile dropped as she felt two arms snake around her.

“Impey.” Josie started. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Josie~ I came to see you- wait!” He wailed and quickly began to pull at the straps holding her armor in place. “This is too tight! You can’t be wearing all this!”

“W-What! IMPEY STOP IT!” Josie clamored trying to pry his hands away - oh how the tables had turned.

“Hey!” Delacroix called out and both Josie and Impey stopped moving. “If you two gross lovebirds don’t stop making out in front of me I’ll have both your heads!” He firmly stated then picked up both dogs one under each arm to walk to the other side of the gardens.

“Y-Your highness! This isn’t making out-”

“She’s right! I’m just trying to get her out of her armor!”

“IMPEY! STOP IT!” She yelled as she finally wriggled out of his grasp and with a final exasperated and confused look she ran off towards Delacroix trying to explain what happened.

Lupin, who had witnessed the entire scene came up to Impey who was still seated on the ground. “Never thought I’d see her playing hard to get, especially after she was already got.”

“Lupinnn!” Impey whined. “Do you see how much armor she’s wearing! That’ can’t be good for the baby!”

“Impey she’s hardly-”

“Unless! It’s to PROTECT the baby!”

“Impey, I really -”

“That must be it!”

“It doesn’t look any different than her normal armor though.”

“You only say that because you’re not looking close enough, like me!”

“I’m not sure- oh well, anyways Saint Germain and Leah just came back and the count said he had some questions for you about meals.”

“Oh! Sainty G needs me, eh? Well, I’ll be right there.” He said assuredly then yelled out to Josie on the other side of the gardens. “I’ll be right back, Josie, wait for me!” He said with a wave and then jaunted back inside. Even from that distance Lupin could hear her exasperated sigh.

—————————-

A few weeks went by in much the same manner, but slowly, the girls realize the house was beginning to house a few rather strange items. Stuffed toys and rattles began appearing in boxes and piling up in rooms. Some boxes they were not allowed to see, but Leah thought she spied very teeny tiny socks one day before it was snatched up by Saint Germain who only responded with his usual grin. Each meal was more than carefully scrutinized to each tiny detail about being nutritious - much to Van Helsing’s grumbling.  And both Impey and Saint Germain had become almost insuferable in their clingyness.

Even Leah, who quite enjoyed Saint Germain’s presence had become a little suspicous of his efforts. And while she realized that she did enjoy pampering her, sometimes she was barely able to lift her own finger for herself. She took all this in silent strides smiling back to Saint Germain’s eager face.

Impey on the other hand got quite a different reaction what with Josie nearly having to threaten him with her sword to keep him away. First the armor was too tight, then her sword was too sharp, and she didn’t need to be walking all that much, she needed to rest. Which just annoyed her even more - he was impeding on her royal duty causing her to eventually lock him out of her own room in retaliation.

Yes, the mansion had certainly become much more alive with emotions high on anticipation. Even Van Helsing joined in his own way. He had overheard someone in the city mention very soft blankets, and well, it’s just a coincidence that one just so happened to appear in the mansion the very next day. Victor on the other hand, was a little, no a lot suspicious of all the new traffic and garb around the mansion. Though before he was able to address the situation with any of the others, he would be hounded by Impey or Saint Germain with very random but specific questions which he answered quite succinctly.

It all came to a head one evening around the dinner table when Impey kept trying to spoon feed Josie all the while Leah had some difficulty trying to eat while one of her hands was being held hostage by Saint Germain. It just happened to be this time when the doorbell rang and Lupin ran to answer it. Just then, Sholmes came in through the door pushing a baby carriage with Lupin following behind him fussing at his insolence to just invade someone’s house.

“Settle down, Lupin. I only came here to take a quick peek around, besides. This lovely little pram was sitting outside the door. I figured I would do you the benefit to bring it inside.”

“Then why did you ring the door bell if you were just going to intrude anyway?”

“Intrude? No. I thought it would be rude if I just walked on in, but since you came and opened the door for me I took your invitation. And now I’m all finished since I have solved the case.”

“And which case might that be?”

“Indeed.” He said with a smirk and raised his hand as he waved his farewells taking him out of the room. Delly got up from his chair at one point and took a curious look at the pram.

“This is for a baby, right?” He asked quizzically. “Who’s pregnant?”

“Josie, of course/Miss Leah.” Impey and Saint Germain answered at the same time.

“Huh?/ What?!” The girls responded in kind.

“Wait. You’re both pregnant?” Delly asked.

“Both? Leah, you’re pregnant? You didnt tell me!” Josie shouted across the table.

“Me? What about you?” Leah asked almost hurt at the thought.

“I’m not pregnant.” Josie said and Impey’s arms went slack.

“You’re not?” Impey whimpered at the thought.

“Of course not, Impey we haven’t even… No nevermind. LEAH! How could you not say something to me?”

“About what? I’m not pregnant either!”

“Miss Leah, there is no need to hide such a momentous occasion.” Saint Germain said pulling her into his lap. “I am sure that a child of ours will be raised with love and-”

“B-But I’m not pregnant, I said!” Leah blushed hiding her face from the count.

“How is that so, I saw Victor’s paper in the living room which said-”

“A-Ha! I saw that paper too and it said that Josie was pregnant! So Josie it’s okay you don’t need to hide it from me I’m sure that- Ouch!” He grabbed his arms where Josie had just pinched him to get him to stop hugging her.

Finally amongst the clamor from the couples, Victor stumbled into a standing position and fished a slip of paper from his pocket producing the evidence to the table. “W-Was it this paper you were referring to?”

“YES! That’s the one, Josie! See it’s okay - OUCH! Stop pinching!”

“O-Oh. I… I’m very sorry. There seems to be a great misunderstanding.” Victor announced

“I fail to see this misunderstanding, as it says very clearly-” Saint Germain was cut off.

“Ah, no. You see. This was not for Saint Germain or Impey-”

“Josie, you cheated! Ow!”

“Shut up, Impey.” Josie huffed after popping her whining boyfriend on the head with a spoon.

“This was actually for Delly.”

“Delly?” The remainder of the voices at the table responded in unison.

“Y-yes. He had asked about little Miss Pearl from down the street. And after some observations and a few tests, I had discovered that she was pregnant. And our very own Sisi is the father.” Victor said happily with a pat on Sisi’s head. As if he could understand the conversation he let out a very triumphant bark.

And after a while, the house returned to it’s normal non-baby-stuff-explosion state as the men returned all their gifts. The only pitter patter of little feet that came around was when little Miss Pearl visited bringing along Sisi’s new little family of pups. Though Saint Germain did say he would certainly improve his and Leah’s chances of their own family causing Leah to blush as bright as Impey’s red hair. And Impey, once he learned the actual workings of making a baby, his skin matching his hair as well, also vowed to make an effort.

At least for now, the mansion with its long list of characters residing within would stay baby-free. But, not for long. ~

#labyrinthofleah #vampknight!josie x impey #cr!leah x saint germain #code: realize #josie writes #josie did a thing #maker bless. #the Baby caper #cr!leah #cr!au