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Sonic grabbed North’s arm to keep him from surging forward to snatch their niece from Way and assured their friend, “Don’t worry, P’Way! North and I will take good care of her!”
“Yeah! She’s gonna have a blast with us today.”
Way hesitated on handing over the baby, taking a step back and holding his daughter protectively. “No. No ‘blasts.’ Just keep her safe for a few hours. Pete will come get her after he picks up Martin from school.”
“Relax, Phi. Babe’s kid has always had a great time with his favorite uncles,” North told Way. It didn’t do anything to ease his worries. “He’s alive and well, you know!”
“I… suppose. Prince is somehow fine. But no losing Sally the way you lost Prince!”
North and Sonic felt like they would never live it down, that they’d briefly left their nephew in an elevator once. Nothing bad had even happened, and Charlie had been there when the doors opened so the baby had never truly been in danger, only alone for just a minute. Prince had been perfectly safe all the times they’d looked after him. Sally would be just as safe with them. Way could trust them.
Even if he was being forced to do so because everyone else was busy but them and he needed to go see a client at his showroom.
“We’ll bring her for a walk in the park later. We can’t lose her if she’s in a carrier.”
Knowing that the baby would be kept in the garage or physically strapped to North or Sonic’s chest finally seemed to do the trick. Way sighed and let North take the pup.
-
The pup wasn’t too keen on being with them once Way left her line of sight, starting to fuss. Sonic tried to cheer her up by giving her a cute jacket he found in her bag, but it seemed she wasn’t receptive to fashion. When their standard tricks for calming down Prince and Martin, the only other babies of the pack they were either allowed or formerly allowed to take responsibility of didn’t work, they decided to go ahead with the walk in the park. They got her into her carrier and headed out.
Being able to look around at everything calmed the pup down. She didn’t seem particularly happy about the walk, though.
“Man, she’s really nothing like Prince was when he was this little,” North noted after pointing out a dog failed to get the baby excited. “He doesn’t care who holds him as long as he knows them. Sally only likes Way.”
She of course also loved Pete and Martin, her father and brother who both adored her, but it was Way who was always the one holding her.
Sonic had to agree. Their niece was a mama’s girl through and through. “Yeah, I guess she does. Oh, hey! It’s Kim!” Sonic pointed across the park towards a playground. North whipped around and sure enough, their friend was sitting on a bench next to the playground, his daughter in his lap.
They headed for him, North calling out to him and making Sally wave. “Say hi to P’Kim and your cousin, Sal!”
Kim waved to them as well, and moved his bag so North could sit next to them and have the two babies close to each other. North pulled Sally out of the carrier and set her down. “Look, Sally! It’s Sam!”
Sam looked happy to see her cousin, eyes going wide as she stared at her, reaching over. Sally just looked perplexed, unused to being around kids other than her older brother. With Pete always busy with his company and Way with his showroom, and Kim and Kenta busy with the team, it wasn’t often that the two youngest members of the pack got to meet.
“They’re the same size!” Sonic realized, absolutely delighted. Kim and Kenta had announced they were having a baby not too long after Way had, and Sam had been born just shy of two months after Sally. With both pups being so young, the two months should have given them a big difference in size. But Sally was a bit on the smaller side, and Sam seemed to be following the same route as their cousin Prince.
Prince, who got fed very well by Babe and had become a very big, chubby, round baby very quickly after his birth. With Sam being fed by Kenta, it was no wonder that she was also rivaling Prince’s roundness at that age.
So she had already reached the same size as Sally.
After taking pictures of the two together, Sonic took off Sally’s jacket and put it onto Sam to see how she would look with it on. “Aw! She’s so cute!” Another round of pictures was taken, and then the babies were brought over to the sandbox to play together. Sam just sat propped up against Kim and looked around, while Sally, able to sit on her own, reached for different toys so her uncles would have to get them for her.
“Sam, do you want to build a castle with P’North?” North leaned in front of Sam. She tilted to try to look past him. “You just want to look at Sally, huh? I’m more fun than her!”
“North, you know she loves people watching. I literally only brought her here so she could stare at other babies.” Sam had definitely taken after Kenta more in personality, quiet, already introverted, and seemingly copying how her Pa was always aware of his surroundings. Only instead of it being because of how Kenta was on guard and alert, she simply liked observing other people.
North pulled her onto his lap anyway to play with her. He and Sonic didn’t often get to hold Sam. Kenta was very protective of his pup, the Omega almost always being the one with her when she was in the garage.
She was fine for a minute, but then started to fuss, reaching for Kim. North pouted as Kim took his daughter back.
“It’s alright, Sam. Appa’s got you.” Once the threat of tears was dissipated, he set her back down in front of him. She resumed watching Sally.
After letting the babies play for a bit, Sonic wanted to take a picture of the two right next to each other. He moved Sally to sit next to Sam in front of Kim. When they both stared at each other, Sonic waved his hand to get them to look towards him. He snapped the picture, and his phone dinged with a text message.
“Gah! North, we never finished fixing that thing Lhung asked us to do before he got back!”
“Oh, sh-”
The two of them scrambled up. North reached down and lifted up a baby to put into the carrier, so they could hurry back to the garage.
“Bye, Sam! Bye, P’Kim!”
“North, Sonic, that’s not-”
“Bye, Sam! We love you! See you tomorrow maybe!”
As the two disappeared with their niece, Kim sighed. He looked down at Sally, who was dragging a toy truck closer to herself. The pup had never been given back her little jacket, so he assumed that was why North had grabbed Sam instead.
Kenta would have killed them. Kim didn’t mind. For all that Babe and Way complained, North and Sonic were fine with looking after their nieces and nephews. They were much more aware of keeping the kid in sight after the whole elevator incident.
Even if they’d grabbed the wrong niece.
“Your uncles took the wrong baby, huh? I guess you’ll just have to stay with me for a while. We can stay here for a bit more, but then I have errands to do. You’ll have to come with me, pup.”
Sally seemed to have no issue with her change in babysitter, focused on the toy truck. Kim lifted her up and pulled out his phone. He wasn’t sure when exactly her father was supposed to pick her up from the garage, so he took a selfie of the two of them to send to Pete, letting him know where his daughter actually was in case North and Sonic never noticed or freaked out.
-
Blissfully unaware that they’d accidentally swapped their nieces, North and Sonic simply assumed that Sally’s quietness and insistence on more feedings than they expected throughout the rest of the day were a result of her missing Way.
“Don’t you worry, Sal!” Sonic told Sam. “You’ll get to see your mama later. And your papa and Phi will be here soon.”
She seemed to perk up a little bit at the word ‘papa,’ which surprised them.
“Oh! She misses Pete!”
Unbeknownst to them, Sam had actually just been excited to hear a word that sounded like both Appa and Pa, which were what her parents were trying to teach her to call them. She had no use for the word mama or Phi, being that no one had ever called Kenta that, and that she was an only child.
But they still thought she was Sally, so that didn’t occur to them.
In the afternoon, Pete and Martin arrived. Pete was in his usual business attire, a perfectly fitted suit with a tie and watch to match. North was already prepared to hand over the baby carrier, which Pete had no issue putting on over his suit if they were going to stick around for a bit. Martin had his school uniform on, a little sailor suit the whole team thought was adorable on him. They were both smiling, Martin cheerfully swinging his arm as he held hands with his father.
But the six-year-old didn’t look nearly as excited as he should have been to be seeing his half-sister after a day at school. Martin absolutely loved Sally, and every other time they’d seen him go along to pick her up from somewhere, the boy was usually trying his hardest to escape from his parents’ sides to go rush over to his baby sister. He’d loudly greet her and start telling her all about his day and asking her about hers, saying he missed her.
Martin was calm, though. He waved to them as he got close, saying hi, but didn’t try to pull away from Pete.
North and Sonic exchanged a look. Martin must have had a tiring day at school, perhaps, to dampen his enthusiasm about seeing his little sister.
The baby also didn’t seem as excited as she should have been. Sally vastly preferred her parents and brother to be the ones holding her or near her than anyone else. She’d practically fight to get back in their arms as well. But the baby wasn’t even reaching for Pete or Martin, simply looking at them curiously.
Sonic took it upon himself to hype things up. He bounced the baby in his arms and cheerfully said, “Look who’s here, pup! It’s Martin! See? Are you ready to go to P’Martin?”
His niece just stared at him instead. Sonic tried again, this time crouching down in front of Martin to hand over the baby to him. “Here we go, here’s your sister, noo! There we go, isn’t that better, Sally?”
Martin looked up at Pete, a confused expression on his face. Pete was still smiling, but oddly enough, the smile had the barest hint of a smirk. North couldn’t believe it. Sonic didn’t notice, making sure Martin had a good hold on the baby.
Then Martin looked down at the baby. Sam stared right at him. To Sonic, Martin said, his voice having a hint of a disbelieving whine in it, “P’Sonic. This isn’t Sally. This is Sam.”
Pete patted his son’s shoulder. “You’re right, Martin. It’s just like I told you when I picked you up. We’re getting your cousin, not your sister.”
Sonic and North both froze.
“How come P’Sonic said Sam was Sally? Sally is with P’Kim, not him and P’North.”
“Huh?” North managed to get out. Sonic was speechless, realizing that the father and son were right. The baby in Martin’s arms wasn’t his sister at all.
“And how come Sam has Sally’s jacket? Sally doesn’t like sharing, Sam. You’re both too little to learn to share.”
Pete brought out his cellphone and entered his passcode. He clicked and then turned the phone so that North and Sonic could see the screen. His messaging app was open, and on display was a selfie from Kim at the park, holding a baby without a jacket, but one that looked far more like Pete and especially like Way than the one that was currently in the garage. Under it, Kim had included a text that read: North and Sonic just took Sam and left Sally with me. I don’t think they’re going to notice for a while. Bring my kid around before Kenta gets back and we can trade.
Pete put his phone back in his pocket when they finished reading. He reached down to take Sam from Martin, lifting up his niece. Then he reached over to take the carrier and diaper bag from North.
To his son, he said, “Let’s go get your sister now, little one.”
It hit them all at once what had just happened. “Wait, wait! K’Pete!” North cried out, trying to stop them from leaving.
“K’Pete!” Sonic begged, horrified. “Please don’t tell P’Way!”
Martin gasped, eyes going wide. “Mama’s not gonna be happy!” he told his father.
“That’s right. Mama will not be happy. Not at all. Let’s get to the car. Sam will have to borrow your sister’s car seat.”
Way was going to be furious with them. Sonic clung to North’s arm in despair, groaning. North stepped forward, reaching out for Pete.
“No! Please! K’Pete!”