Chapter Text
The afternoon at Fëdor apartment seemed pretty normal.
Well… as normal as living with so many clones could be.
Kuromaku was in one of the rooms, working on a small device he had been building over the past few days. Fyodor was in the living room, trying to concentrate on his computer.
And Bapy was bored…
That never ended well.
—“What are you doing?” the green-haired clone asked, peeking through the doorway.
Kuromaku didn’t even look up.
—“Working…”
Bapy looked at the device on the desk.
There were cables, a small screen, and a red button.
Underneath the button was a very clear warning:
DO NOT ACTIVATE.
Bapy smiled…
—“I know what you’re planning to do.” Kuromaku said, finally looking at him.
Bapy raised his hands, pretending to be innocent.
—“Are you a fortune teller now, Kuromaku?”
The one with glasses returned to his work.
Bapy waited…
Five seconds.
Ten…
He looked at the button again.
Click!
The device began to vibrate.
Kuromaku’s head shot up.
—“Bapy!”
The culprit stepped back, laughing mischievously.
—“What did I tell you?!”
Kuromaku tried to scold him, but it was already too late.
The device let out a beep.
Then another.
—“It makes little noises! That’s crazy…” Bapy said with a grin.
A bright light suddenly filled the room.
—“Get the hell out of the room!” Kuromaku ordered, pushing him away.
Fëdor barely had time to get up from the couch.
—“What the hell…?”
The light spread throughout the entire apartment.
Fëdor opened his eyes.
—“Kuromaku?… Bapy?…”
Kuromaku was standing in front of the device.
He was still an adult.
Fëdor was too.
—“Are you okay?” Fëdor asked, placing a hand on Kuromaku’s shoulder.
The gray-haired man was about to say something when…
A small cry caught their attention.
Zontik was sitting on the floor.
He was tiny.
His eyes were filled with tears, and he was trembling, completely frightened by what had just happened.
—“Oh, no…”
Fëdor crouched down and picked him up.
Little Zontik immediately clung to his clothes, hiding his face against him.
—“Hey… easy, Zontik. It’s okay…” Fëdor murmured, awkwardly rocking the baby in an attempt to calm him down.
A noise behind them made Zontik whimper again.
Almost instinctively, Fëdor hugged him a little tighter.
—“It’s over. I’m here…”
Then he heard a giggle.
He looked down at the floor.
A small, adorable and innocent Bapy…
Was also a baby!
His tiny spiral glasses were crooked, and he was holding a spoon he had found somewhere.
He looked at Zontik…
And slammed the spoon against the floor.
CLANG.
Zontik flinched.
Bapy giggled mischievously.
—“Bapy, don’t-”
Kuromaku picked up the baby, carrying him in one arm while holding Romeo with the other.
—“That confirms he’s been an idiot since birth,”—. he sighed.
On the other side of the living room, Gabriel was crawling around a table. He had found a small piece of plastic.
He picked it up, turned it around, chewed on it for a moment, and simply dropped it.
Then he discovered something else and crawled after it.
Felix, meanwhile, was trying to approach Zontik to comfort him.
Every time Zontik cried, Felix made little gestures to get his attention and tried to give him a small ball of paper, apparently believing that it would make him stop crying.
Spade, on the other hand, didn’t seem willing to cooperate.
He was sitting against the couch, glaring furiously at everyone.
Fëdor tried to pick him up.
Spade immediately began growling and kicking.
—“Please, Spade! I’m just trying to move you so I can put Dante down…”—. Fëdor said, before looking at Kuromaku, who was already getting tired of carrying Dante.
For a baby, Dante somehow looked like he was still the same size…
And, for some reason, he was the heaviest one.
The baby struggled even more.
Clearly, he couldn’t stand being held.
Fëdor eventually put him down.
Spade immediately crawled toward the door.
—“Don’t even think about it!”
Fëdor caught him before he could reach it.
Meanwhile, Dante was sleeping peacefully on one of the cushions.
…The apartment could have been falling apart around him and he probably still wouldn’t wake up.
Romeo was different.
As soon as he saw Fëdor holding Zontik, he started reaching his arms toward him.
Fëdor looked at him.
—“You too?”
Romeo insisted until Fëdor finally picked him up with his other arm.
Romeo happily settled against him.
Zontik was still clinging to his clothes.
Fëdor looked at Kuromaku.
—“Now what?”
Kuromaku looked around at the disaster.
Bapy was still banging the spoon against everything he could find.
Gabriel was trying to crawl underneath a table.
Felix was holding onto Fyodor’s leg.
Spade was trying to escape.
Dante was sleeping.
Romeo was comfortably settled in Fyodor’s arms.
Kuromaku took a deep breath.
—“First, we have to figure out how to reverse this,” he said patiently, trying not to lose his temper.
The last thing he wanted was to hear seven babies crying at once.
Fëdor looked at Bapy.
The baby had just discovered that he could bang the spoon against a wall.
—“Before that, I think we have to survive Bapy.”
Kuromaku slowly nodded.
—“About that… I’ll have to get a box. Or one of those things you put babies in.”
—“A playpen?”—. Fëdor asked, adjusting Romeo and Zontik in his arms.
—“…Yeah. That.”
Only ten minutes later, the apartment had somehow gotten worse.
Kuromaku had tried to examine the device.
Gabriel was attempting to help.
Well… for a two-year-old baby, helping apparently meant sitting in front of the machine, fascinated by its lights.
—“Don’t touch anything,” Kuromaku warned.
Gabriel slowly pulled his hand away…
And then slowly reached toward it again.
Kuromaku stared at him.
Gabriel pulled his hand back.
For a few seconds, it seemed like he understood.
Until he found a cable.
Kuromaku reacted immediately.
—“No! Not that either!”
Gabriel dropped the cable and crawled away.
The adult sighed.
—“I need to work in silence…”
A loud thump came from the living room.
Then another.
And then a shriek.
Kuromaku closed his eyes.
—“God, Kuromaku, you’re so naive. That’s not going to happen.”
When he returned to the living room, he found Bapy sitting on top of a cushion.
Spade was standing in front of him, visibly annoyed.
The baby with the spiral glasses was holding a toy that Spade had claimed as his own three minutes ago.
Spade tried to take it back.
Waru lifted it higher every time Spade got close.
A mischievous smile appeared on his face.
—“Bapy…” Fëdor said, noticeably exhausted from taking care of them.
Bapy simply looked at him and hid the toy behind his back.
Fëdor held out his hand.
—“Give it to me.”
The little boy shook his head.
And here we go again…
Spade started kicking in frustration.
Felix immediately appeared and tried to calm Spade down in that strange language only babies seemed to understand.
Within seconds, the three of them were already making a small mess on the floor.
Zontik watched the scene from Fëdor’s arms.
His eyes began filling with tears again.
Fëdor noticed immediately.
—“No, no… they’re not even doing anything to you!”
Zontik hid his face against him.
Fëdor hugged him and let out a sigh.
—“Okay. It’s fine. Nothing’s happening.”
For the first time since the accident, Fëdor fell silent.
He looked at the little ones.
They weren’t simply babies…
They were still themselves.
Bapy was still looking for trouble.
Zontik was still fearful… even more so now.
Gabriel was still exploring everything.
Felix was still trying to make sure everyone was okay.
Spade still wanted to do things his own way.
Dante was still Dante…
Honestly, there wasn’t much different about him, except that he looked way cuter now. Lol.
And Romeo was constantly looking for affection.
Fëdor sighed.
—“This is going to be a disaster.”
Kuromaku finally came out of the room, carrying the device in his hands.
He approached them.
—“Yeah… about that…”
Fëdor looked at him.
—“Did you find a solution?”
Kuromaku shook his head.
—“Not yet.”
—“Then…?”
A small noise caught both of their attention.
Bapy was trying to reach the spoon again.
Fëdor took it away before he could grab it.
The little boy stared at him, then immediately made a pout.
Fëdor raised an eyebrow.
—“No.”
Fëdor began throwing a tantrum.
The brown-haired man looked down at him.
“I don’t care about your tantrum…”
Kuromaku let out a small laugh.
Fëdor looked at him in surprise.
—“Are you laughing?”
Kuromaku immediately returned to his serious expression and looked away, trying to hide it.
—“…No?”
—“Instead of helping me with the children… you’re laughing?”
Fëdor sounded genuinely annoyed.
Neither of them noticed that, somewhere along the way, he had already started developing a strange parental instinct toward the little ones.
—“…No?”—. Kuromaku repeated.
A smile betrayed him.
He couldn’t hide it anymore.
—“Just focus on the problem!”
Fëdor smiled too.
Despite everything that had happened, knowing he wasn’t going to deal with this alone made him feel a little better.
—“Sure.”
For the first time since the chaos began, the two of them simply looked at the little ones, completely unsure of what to do.
Zontik clung to Fyodor again.
Bapy was still throwing a tantrum.
Gabriel had discovered something else he wasn’t supposed to touch.
Felix was eating cereal that Fëdor had given him so he wouldn’t spend the entire day clinging to his leg.
Spade wanted to escape.
Dante was sleeping.
Romeo wanted to be held.
And Kuromaku had a broken device sitting on the table.
Fëdor let out a long sigh.
—“Well…”
He looked at Kuromaku.
—“I guess we’re… babysitters now?”
Kuromaku looked around the apartment.
—“Let’s hope it’s temporary.”
The gray-haired man picked up the device.
—“Tomorrow, I’ll start looking for a solution.”
Fëdor looked at the clock.
—“And tonight?”
Kuromaku fell silent.
He stared at Fëdor.
A second later, the two of them heard another tantrum.
Fëdor sighed.
“Got it…”
That night, neither of them was going to sleep.
And neither of them was prepared for what the next day would bring.