Babysitting
What happens when Logan’s teeny baby girl needs babysitting from Rogue and Gambit? More specifically, what happens when they ignore Logan’s explicit instructions not to give you sugar? Turns out, even the Wolverine’s little kit has a berserker mode.
In this one, the reader is Logan’s baby girl who for the sake of the story has claws very early for the X-men universe. (Think an X-23 style origin story). No adamantium though. Reader is called “Princess”, “Chere”, “pumpkin”, “sweet pea”, “darlin’”, “angel”, “pup” and “little one” and is referred to with she/her/hers pronouns.
Author’s Note: I know I normally aim to do gender-neutral reader terms, but I had a procedure this morning (which went great) and I’m being a little self-indulgent. If anyone wants a gender neutral version, I can post one though! I just really wanted to put this idea on paper and thought it was a silly, fun one. Hope you enjoy!
warnings: threat of claws, resulting fear, and damage to furniture. No ouchies for anyone! Your sitters just dodge you until Daddy comes back and reminds you who’s in charge (no punishment though)
“Let me at that little pumpkin, Shugah! Auntie Rogue is on the job!” A bubbly Rogue reached out her arms toward Logan, who held tiny you in his own. You were groggy and still waking up from your nap, but the warm, smiley woman with the bright auburn and white hair had definitely grabbed your interest.
“Woah, woah, don’t forget about her Uncle Remy, Chere. Logan, make sure you tell her I get a turn at some point, huh?” The man speaking in the thick Cajun accent had caught your eye for a moment, but upon looking his way and seeing his red eyes, you whimpered a bit and buried your face back in Logan’s shirt.
“It’s up to her Shugah, and it looks like she’s as keen to play with you as a field mouse with a tom cat” Rogue laughed.
Logan was beginning to feel reluctant about this whole babysitting thing. He needed to go on a mission with Charles, and his first choices of caretakers—Jean and (reluctantly) Scott—had to go too. So did Storm. Jubilee was sitting this one out, but half the time, Logan still felt that she needed a chaperone herself. He conceded that Rogue and Gambit would have to do.
“Alright, listen carefully, the both of ya.” Logan started. “She’s already had her nap, and she don’t need to eat again for a few hours, but when you do feed her. No sugar. You got that, Gumbo? That means no beignets, no sneaky candies, no nothin’ sweet.”
Rogue rolled her eyes incredulously, “Yeah right Logan, like we’re gonna babysit and not give the kid anything fun to munch on. You can’t be serious.”
“You wanna give it to her that bad? It’s your funeral. She don’t do well with sugar. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya.” Logan looked about as serious as the plague without a single hint of a smirk.
“So lemme get this straight, mon ami. What do you feed her when you wanna make her…I dunno…happy?” Gambit smiled with a smug look and cocked his head. He was working on something in the kitchen and wouldn’t stray too far from the oven.
“She’s perfectly happy with healthy food, Cajun. She won’t miss what she don’t eat.” Logan replied, frowning and raising an eyebrow.
By now you were starting to fuss a little in your daddy’s arms, getting curious about the new, vaguely familiar grown ups around you.
“Alright, alright, little one. Daddy’s gotta go, love.”
You rubbed your eyes and giggled a little as your daddy planted a kiss on your cheek that was a bit scratchy from his stubble. Then he put you down on the rug and headed out.
The next thing you knew, the pretty southern lady with the red and white hair was in front of you on the floor, laying on her belly.
“Alright sweet pea, why don’t you and Auntie Rogue have a little fun, huh?” She asked, her eyes sparkling and mischievous.
You regarded her curiously for a moment, before you were scooped up and flying—literally flying—around the room in Rogue’s arms! Your giggles absolutely filled the air, as did Rogue’s.
Then came another voice from the kitchen; and with it and incredible smell on the air. The man with the red and black eyes then appeared from around the corner.
“You know Logan’s gonna put us both through a wall if a single hair on her little tête is out of place, don’t you Chere?” He asked, smirking.
“Yeah well I reckon you’ve got a better chance of being run through for what you got in that kitchen than I do for playin’ super-baby with her, Shugah.” Rogue grinned. “Don’t think I can’t smell those treats you been workin’ on in there.”
“What? Like I’m really gonna pass up the chance to give little chère her first beignet?” Gambit said, pouting with puppy dog eyes.
“I hear you! What kind of monster looks into this face, sweet as pie, and then says no to anythin’ sweet!?” Rogue booped you on the nose as she asked the rhetorical question, and once again, you were smiling.
The smell wafting from the kitchen was intoxicating to you—especially with the enhanced senses you’d inherited from your daddy—and before long, your uncle Remy stepped into the living room with a plate of warm, fluffy beignets.
He held one out to you and winked at Rogue, “Wolverine never gonna know, ain’t that right chère?”
With a little hand outstretched, you grabbed one of the warm beignets, held it to your mouth, and started chewing on a corner. It was as if your entire world changed with a single bite. You gnawed your way through the soft pastry, with your chaperones chuckling at the sight of powdered sugar all over your chubby cheeks. You smiled ear to ear and clapped your hands, still clutching the bitten up beignet in one.
“Well, lookie here!” Rogue grinned. “She loves it!”
“Everyone love Gambit’s beignets, Chere.” Remy scooped you up in his arms and gave you a raspberry on your cheek, once again causing you to smile wide. “Who’s your favorite uncle in the whole wide world, ma princesse?” He tickled your belly with his fingers and you squealed in a fit of laughter.
Rogue and Gambit spent the rest of the afternoon feeling very self-satisfied. Each was confident that Logan would never find out they’d fed his precious daughter a sugar-bomb pillow of fried dough. Or how much she loved the taste.
The two little tasks to do around the house, and Rogue set you up in a playpen in the living room before joining Remy in the kitchen. The couple went about their business, sure that you were just about the happiest little thing they’d ever encountered. You’d be fine with your toys and some calming cartoons on the TV.
In the kitchen, your sitters were chatting; cleaning up and washing dishes.
“Chere, don’t you think it’s a little funny that something so sweet came from–”
“Logan?” Rogue finished, a smirk plastered on her lips.
“Well…yeah.” Gambit said with a laugh.
“Maybe a long time ago, before–you know–everything…maybe Logan was somethin’ like her.”
At this Gambit looked at the woman he loved as if she had three heads; suppressing laughter and starting to fail.
“Alright, I know. Ah’m just sayin’.” Rogue responded, trying to cut off his stifled laughs.
After about half an hour of tidying up and speculating about the Wolverine’s layered, foggy past, Remy said, “You should probably check on the little one, non?” He was starting to tackle the dishes in the sink.
“Yup. I’ll see what she’s up to.” Rogue agreed.
She walked back into the room she left you in, to an eerie level of silence. There was no giggling, no cooing, not even the sounds of your noisy toys. Hi Even more unsettling? She didn’t see you anywhere.
“Uh…Shugah?” She called. Maybe you were curled up in the playpen asleep? But Logan had said you’d already had your nap, hadn’t he? Walking up to the little enclosure Rogue noticed something terrifying.
The mesh wall of the playpen was completely ripped apart. There was a massive hole in it, and you were absolutely not inside.
“Oh no.” The words fell out of Rogue’s mouth as she looked around the room in a frantic panic.
There were claw marks on the wooden bookshelf in the corner! There was a chunk missing from the couch, and one of the throw pillows had been completely obliterated!
“Remy!” Rogue called. “Get in here! She’s gone! She’s…loose!”
The red-eyed Cajun came running into the living room looking around the room and taking in the carnage. “What d’you mean, Chere? Mon dieu, what the-!?”
Before he could finish his thought, a tiny little missile came careening at high speed from behind the shredded drapes over the window. You were charging across the floor at Gambit with 6 pointed claws at the ready, and was that a snarl coming out of you?!
“Woah-!” He jumped to the side dodging the draggers coming from your little hands.
The demeanor you arrived with was completely gone. You looked downright predatory now! You crawled across the rug with as much speed as you could manage, determined to skewer whichever babysitter got in your way first.
“Grab her, Chere!” Gambit yelled to his girlfriend.
“Ah can’t! She’ll gut me like a fish! How could she have those already?! She’s way too young for a mutation to show up!” Rogue observed, staring in shock at the little claws protruding from you.
“Must be because they cooked her up in that lab. Guess normal mutant rules don’t apply, huh?” Gambit reasoned, climbing up on a table to get out of your reach.
You could see him up there, and you began circling the table like a wild animal. Gambit could just about hear a nature documentary narrating your hunting behavior in his head:
“With bold aggression, the predatory wolverine circles her prey, preparing to use her razor-sharp claws to scale the tree her meal is hoping to find refuge in.”
“Why is she so angry?!” Rogue demanded, floating as close to the ceiling as possible to avoid your raging swipes.
“Because you gave her sugar, didn’t you?” A gravely voice came from behind Remy and Rogue, making both of them jump.
“Am I right?” Logan was standing in the doorframe of Gambit’s living room, arms crossed and looking none too pleased.
“Uhh, non! Of course not, mon ami! She took a beignet from me! Just swiped it right out of my hands!” Gambit smiled, desperately lying through his teeth. As scary as the little clawed pup on the rug was, she was nothing compared to her papa.
“Oh give it up, Remy! Alright Logan, maybe we gave her a little somethin’ sugary. You didn’t tell us she’d turn into a little mini berserker-mode you if we did!” Rogue spat, more annoyed at him than scared of you at this point.
“I warned ya.” Logan replied. “More’n once, darlin’. I oughta let her rage at you both til she runs outta steam. Maybe then you’ll listen next time.” His arms were still crossed, and he was looking very sternly between the two guardians he’d reluctantly chosen that morning.
“Fine! It won’t happen again, Shugah, just call her off before she eats mah man!” Rogue pleaded.
Logan rolled his eyes and knelt down on the floor.
“Alright pup, enough.” He barked in your direction.
You weren’t having it. All that saccharine energy was fueling your animalistic rampage, and your daddy was now trying to slow you down? You turned your attention toward him with a little growl escaping your lips, bearing your little claws at the ready.
Just as you were about to reach your daddy? He stood up and then his claws came out. Much longer than yours and coated in adamantium, they glinted in the light and stopped you in your tracks.
“I said, enough darlin’.” He snarled.
You came to a halt, blinked a few times with a quivering lower lip and retracted your little bone claws. You whimpered a bit, only to be scooped up right away by your daddy, who cuddled you close and planted a kiss on your forehead. “That’s my little one.”
Meanwhile on the other side of the room, Gambit and Rogue were staring dumbfounded at the Wolverine and his little girl.
“What the heck was that?!” Rogue demanded, mouth agape.
“What?” Logan asked, skeptically. You had completely settled in his arms, where he was now bouncing you gently.
“Pretty sure you can’t show your sharps to your child, Logan!” The stunned woman shouted.
“Were you two gonna handle her then? When she gets like that the only thing that works is a show of force.” He explained while you cooed on his chest.
“A show of force?” Gambit repeated through a palm over his face.
“Takes a wolverine to stop a wolverine, Bub.” Logan smirked. “Maybe next time you’ll listen to me about the sugar.”
He looked down at you in his arms just peacefully sucking your thumb and clinging to your daddy’s flannel.
“Can’t believe you two had so much trouble with such a little angel.” He smirked.
“Next time maybe you should ask Jean and Scott, Shugah.” Rogue sighed.
“You’re right. Then I can tell Scott to give her ice cream.” Logan winked.
