catchacold | Babysitter's Club

"It's Barry and could you just drop me off near Jitters?" He could find his way home from there but he wasn't telling these strange people where he lived. It was all weird enough as is. Here he was, in a criminals car, who spoke so casually about kidnapping him while a baby chewed on his finger and -- "Ow!"

He had tiny little teeth coming in and he bit pretty hard down on Barry's finger. He whimpered and yanked it free and as he did so, Teddy's lower lip wobble, whining. "Twink sta! No! Dada!" His very limited range of words got his point across and Mick turned around, growling angrily at Barry until he was too scared to do anything else but hold his hand back out.

And Teddy put it right back into his mouth.

"Teddy, what did I tell you? Food's for biting. People are not." Leonard scolded Teddy, if still in a soft tone. it was Teddy, it was difficult to be harsh with him. "Sorry, he's excited to finally have teeth. We got him this plastic chew ring and he uses it nonstop." It was cute, but it sure wasn't when he was biting innocent fingers. "Anyway, we can do Jitters. Pick up something nice. No muffins or we won't hear the end of it if Axel finds out."

"Lalalalala!" Was Teddy's response to that as he continued to keep the finger in his mouth. At least he stopped chewing it, he just drooled all over it instead and mumbled at a very confused Barry, who watched him with great fascination.

Mick crossed his arms and glared straight ahead. "We'll get coffee and donuts then. He's driving me nuts with that anti muffin thing."

"Axel... huh. Do you mean Axel Walker?" Barry asked curiously, squinting a little. It wasn't a common name, he took a shot in the dark.

"You know he only wants people to eat the muffins he's making, especially when he's experimenting." It was pretty great on the whole, although it could be really weird to bite into a muffin expecting something sweet and then find out that Axel was experimenting with curry flavour. It tasted good, but still. "The other day Hartley mentioned having bought one at Jitters, you should have been there."

Leonard glanced at Barry and frowned. "How do you know Axel?"

"Yeah, well, I ain't his lover boy. I should be allowed." Mick complained as he leaned forward to play around with the radio. Barry watched Teddy chew his finger and smiled at the kid, much happier not the little thing wasn't biting him. It was mostly all soft gum except for two baby teeth.

"Yeah, he's the kid that spray painted a dick on Joe's car." Barry remarked as he playfully bopped Teddy on the nose, making him giggle. "He used to do it to all the police cars. Joe busted him for it while I was in the car, he rode in the back. He called me a pussy." Lovely experience. "Do you just run exclusively with criminals then?"

"I didn't hear you complain when he made those muffins with... what did he call it? Chocolate ganache? That." Those had admittedly been delicious. Maybe he could convince him to make them again. He glanced behind himself to check on Teddy, but of course Barry liked him. It was Teddy.

"Axel's legal these days, actually. So's Mick. All very upstanding citizens. Axel's a baker. Cake decorator. Cake artist? I don't know, he changes what he calls himself every day." The other day it had been Pastry Punk. Axel had been on a sugar high.

"Then former criminals. Whatever." Barry shrugged and moved his hand away so he could send a quick text to Joe, just to tell him he's okay and, you know, his money got stolen. But so did everyone else's so that only seemed fair. While he did that, Teddy started to whimper and whine for his twinky. Apparently he'd really taken a liking to Barry, he was cute.

"Stop making my kid cry." Mick growled because he was very papa bear when it came to Teddy. Barry looked up from his phone, confused. Why did people keep yelling at him today?

"Teddy's less high maintenance usually, he just doesn't like car rides so much, so he needs all the attention." Leonard rolled his eyes at Mick and reached out to put a hand on his thigh. "Also, come on. Spraying a couple of dicks is hardly criminal."

"Oh. Okay, sorry." Barry apologised and slipped his phone away before turning to give all of his attention to the baby. Yep, he was a good kid, look at that. "Hey, mister." He reached out and playfully tickled his tummy. "No but he also tried to steal the car and he was pretty high. He only narrowly escaped juvie. Joe was kind to him."

"Axel's a good kid." He spent so much time trying and failing to convince Mick or Axel of that, he didn't need to add his new friend to the list of people that applied to. Leonard waited at the red light and looked over his shoulder at the two of them. "I'll buy you a coffee and we can forget the whole thing."

"No, I believe you." Barry said without hesitation. Joe believed it so Barry could buy it too. He didn't believe that anyone was that bad, not really. "Like you said earlier, people who do bad stuff aren't always bad people. There's lines and stuff, it's hard to define." Barry pretended to take Teddy's nose and then put it back on him, grinning at how excited the kid was over it. "What do you think? Are your daddies good people?"

"Yes!" Teddy insisted, throwing his hands up.

"Thanks, kiddo, loving the enthusiasm." Leonard smiled at Teddy and then focused on the road again, letting go of Mick to have both hands on the steering wheel. Almost at Jitters. "You got any celebrations coming up? Birthday or whatever?" Hey, he was always ready to get Axel baking jobs.

Babysitter's Club

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