A/N: Found families my beloved. This is both for the Pride 2022 challenge and May Mayhem Tropes (day 19). Part of the Jankie Parenthood Universe, featuring Lemon as a reluctant last resource babysitter, and Gigi as the judgiest kid ever. Some background about this universe: Lemon, Jan and Jaida are (step)sisters, Jan is dating Jackie, Jackie is Gigi’s mom. Gigi is five, and the sisters are all in their twenties.
Tags: rpdr fanfiction, may trope mayhem, lemon, gigi goode, jaida essence hall, jan sport, found family, kid fic, jankie parenthood au, mar-@duckprintspress
Summary:
“You can’t get a new babysitter?” asks Jaida.
“Not one we know. We can’t just leave a five year old with a stranger,” Jan says.
“Well, who else is left?”
A little notification chimes from Lemon’s phone. Both of her sisters turn to look at her, and Jan’s face lights up.
“No.”
“Lem, please,” Jan says, sitting down next to her sister as if to better plead her case. “I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important.”
“Wiping kids’ butts and feeding them beet puree is not my idea of a good time.”
“How old do you think Gigi is?”
“Alright. No, I– no, don’t worry, honey, feel better.”
Jan hangs up the call and groans, throwing her head back.
“What?” Jaida asks from the couch, where she and Lemon are spread in an unmoving pile. They collapsed on the couch after their respective dance classes and have not moved since.
“Freaking flu season.” Jan drops her phone on the table. “Both of our babysitters are sick, and now there’s no one to watch Gigi tonight. We’re gonna have to cancel.”
“No,” Jaida says, grunting as she gets up from the couch, ignoring Lemon’s protests. “You’ve had those tickets for months! You both need a night out, just adults. It’s healthy.”
“What else can we do? Pri’s busy, Jackie’s dad is sick too, and Shea and Sasha are still in Mexico.”
“What about Brita?”
“I already asked, she’s helping her sister paint the nursery.” Jan rubs her neck, thinking. “You are not free tonight, are you?”
“I would, you know I would,” Jaida says, taking her hand. “But I promised Nicky I’d model her dresses so she can finish them. You can’t get a new babysitter?”
“Not one we know. We can’t just leave a five year old with a stranger.”
“Well, who else is left?”
A little notification chimes from Lemon’s phone. Both of her sisters turn to look at her, and Jan’s face lights up.
“No.”
“Lem, please,” Jan says, sitting down next to her sister as if to better plead her case. “I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important.”
“And I wouldn’t say no if I could help.”
“We’ll pay you.”
Lemon rolls her eyes at the ‘we’. It’s like in everything Jan does lately, Jackie is included.
“It’s not about the money, Jan.”
“What is it, then?”
“Wiping kids’ butts and feeding them beet puree is not my idea of a good time.”
“How old do you think Gigi is?” Jaida says.
“Whatever, all kids are the same. I don’t even teach the tween classes because I don’t wanna waste my precious energy screaming at them to stop being little shits.”
“But this is not a normal kid,” says Jaida. Jan slaps her arm. “You know what I mean! Gigi’s special. Other kids, yeah, you gotta stop them from bouncing off the walls and covering your couch in Nutella, but Gigi’s different. She just wants to paint her pictures and read her stories. Maybe play dress up. You love playing dress up.”
Lemon uncrosses her arms, though her scowl is still present.
“Some conditions: I’m not playing any dumb game were I have to be a unicorn that poops rainbows, or whatever kids do.” She sits up and digs her pointer finger in Jan’s chest. “No games, no dumb songs, no letting her draw on my face. Got it?”
“Got it. And Gigi likes playing by herself. This is more supervision than care, really. At most, you’ll have to make her a sandwich.”
“I can make a sandwich…” Lemon says, her voice small.
“I know you can,” Jan smiles, encouragingly. “So you’ll do it?”
“Ugh, fine! But this is a one time thing, and you owe me.”
“Yes!” Jan engulfs her in a suffocating hug and they fall back onto the couch. “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!”
“Yay!” says Jaida, and piles on top of them.
Jan jumps up, knocking Jaida off the couch.
“I’m gonna tell Jackie. And pick out an outfit!”
“You get four hours, tops!” Lemon yells after Jan’s retreating back. Then she looks at Jaida, half panicked. “I’m going to survive this, right?”
“Lem, it’s just a few hours. You’ll watch a movie, have a snack and read a book. In and out. You’ll be fine.”
Lemon’s shoulders loosen, and Jaida rubs her back up and down.
The grown ups left less than five minutes ago, and she already regrets everything.
Gigi and Lemon stare at each other from opposite sides of the couch, two mirror images of crossed arms and distrusting stares.
It’s almost like Gigi is appraising her. Lemon does not care for that at all.
“Aren’t you gonna go play, or something?”
Silence.
“Are you hungry?”
Nothing.
“Your mom said we could watch one movie.”
Gigi seems to perk up.
Okay. Maybe they are getting somewhere.
“You wanna do that?”
Gigi nods and climbs off the couch to get the TV remote.
Lemon flicks through the movies available, losing faith in finding anything remotely tolerable and kid friendly.
“Okay, what do you wanna watch? Like, the Paw Patrol Christmas special, or something?”
She does not mean to sound so condescending in front of the kid, it’s just hard to turn it off. But she can try.
“Do you like Peppa Pig?”
“Ew.”
Lemon smirks, surprised. The kid is funny. She keeps flicking through the movies until she sees Gigi jump up in her seat.
“That one.”
“Frozen? You wanna watch that one?”
Gigi nods excitedly, and then remembers her manners.
“Please.”
Lemon clicks play.
“You have good taste.”
The first song starts and Gigi is already engrossed, her eyes wide, her lips quietly forming the lyrics.
The avalanche of questions and commentary that Lemon expected never comes. Gigi watches movies in silence, which suits Lemon just fine. She loves Frozen.
She finds herself dancing a little to Love is an open door, and it gets her the first smile from Gigi since she got there.
After the movie, they move to the kitchen to make peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Lemon lets Gigi handle a butter knife, which makes her feel like a one of the cool grown ups, and they bond over the need to cut the crust of all their sandwiches. Crust is gross.
Jan texts her every now and then, and when the three hour mark arrives, she tells Lemon they will try to be home soon. But Lemon stops her, and tells her to stay as long as they need. Jan asks if she’s sure, Lemon promises to call if there’s an emergency, and that’s that.
Gigi’s books are more fun than expected, and once she gets past the embarrassment, Lemon enjoys making all the silly voices for the characters. She changes some words here and there, but Gigi catches her every time, like she has them memorized. Lemon starts adding ridiculous sentences in the middle of the stories, making Princes fall on their butts from their horses and making the witches curse Princesses to sneeze spiders. Gigi laughs on the floor and eggs her on, and book reading turns into storytelling. They bring out every toy Gigi has to play characters in their game, and they take over the whole house.
For dinner, they order pizza, because Lemon draws the line at cooking. Gigi cleans up all her toys without being asked, which honestly stuns Lemon more than anything else, but she sits one stuffed animal on the table. He’s Flame the Dragon, Gigi explains as she sets a plate and a cup for him, and he joins all their meals. Lemon feels free to bring up the collection of plushies that live on the shelf above her bed, their names and their stories, and even dares to say Gigi can play with them sometime. It’s not a big deal, she’s a chill kid. Lemon will make her wash her hands first, maybe.
Lemon cleans up, Gigi brushes her teeth and gets in her pajamas. It’s early, and Gigi refuses to go to bed because her mom promised she would be home for her bedtime story, so Lemon still has a good hour to kill.
Drawing is the solution. Jan and Jackie find them like that, working on their drawings at the table, surrounded by color pencils and crayons.
“Hi, baby,” says Jackie, kissing the top of Gigi’s head. Gigi doesn’t look up from her picture, but she leans against her mom’s body, happy to have her back.
Jan kisses Lemon’s cheek in passing, then stands next to Gigi, scritching her nape.
“Did you have fun?”
“Mhm,” Gigi nods, still focused on the drawing. “We watched Frozen and made sandwiches with no crust and we made stories. I like Lemon. She doesn’t tell me to use my words, like the teachers in school. She understands.”
Gigi is too focused to see the impact her words have on everyone else. Jackie looks at Lemon with gratitude. Jan, with pride. Lemon, for her part, is dangerously close to getting emotional, and wants the attention off of her.
“Tell them what you’re drawing,” she tells Gigi, who lifts her pencil to show a page almost completely covered in blue.
“It’s the ocean, but inside the mouth of a whale. These are the teeth, this is the tongue, and these are the fish the whale eats,” Gigi says, pointing at the small dots of orange and red. “They’re swimming now, but they’ll be eaten.” She resumes her coloring.
“I made a picture too,” Lemon says, stupidly proud. She shows them a drawing of what is clearly Jan with a mustache and warts all over her face. “Do you like it?”
Jan frowns.
“Jackass.”
“No swearing in front of the kid,” Lemon says mockingly. Gigi nods in agreement.
“It’s almost bedtime,” says Jackie to Gigi. “What do you say you finish that drawing and we go read in bed?”
Gigi nods and starts painting faster. She’s done in two minutes and rushes to her bedroom. Halfway down the hall, she turns back.
Lemon gets an armful of child as Gigi crashes against her side.
“Thank you for playing with me today,” she tells Lemon.
Lemon can only pat Gigi’s head awkwardly.
“Sure. It was fun.”
“Yes. Come back another day.”
With that, she goes back to her room, leaving everyone stunned.
“That’s new,” says Jackie, smiling in spite of the shock.
“Gigi rarely hugs anyone,” Jan explains. “She must like you a lot.”
Lemon recovers quickly.
“Yeah, well, who doesn’t?”
She starts getting ready to leave, and Jackie asks how much she owes her.
“Nothing, don’t be stupid.” Jan scowls disapprovingly from behind Jackie’s back. “I mean, nothing, I had fun. Gigi’s… she’s actually really cool.”
“Yeah. She is.”
Jackie’s proud smile reminds Lemon of her own parents, of the way they talk about their three daughters like they are the best thing on Earth. When she sees that same smile on Jan’s face, all that she can think is that Gigi’s a lucky one.
When Lemon gets home, Jaida’s back on the couch, watching Survivor without her, like a traitor.
“I leave for one day…”
“How was it?” asks Jaida, already rewinding to the beginning of the episode.
“Good,” Lemon says, plopping down on the couch. “Though I feel exhausted, for some reason. We only played and watched a movie.”
“Yeah, kids will do that to you. Have you noticed Jan is less bouncy now?”
“I thought it was just old age.”
“Hey!” Jaida kicks her. “I’m only a year younger.”
“Yes, you’re both decrepit, and I’m young, gorgeous and thriving.”
“You know, with Gigi, you’re no longer the baby of the family.”
“What? No!” Lemon whines. “I never agreed to that.”
Jaida laughs at the pout on her sister’s face. Twenty-one and still a brat.
They watch the intro in silence, drinking the beers that Jaida gets from the fridge.
“Jai…”
“Hm?”
“Do you think Gigi would go with me to Build-A-Bear?”
