They finally have working electricity in the house.
Construction workers were walking up and down the stairs, checking to make sure everything is working. JJ followed their every step, and the three men just let her. Meanwhile, the Red King was tasked with entertaining their baby so that the baby wouldn't accidentally walk into anything dangerous.
"What is that?" The teenage boy pointed at the picture in the alphabet book, and the toddler sitting on his right leg looked at his face, then back at the book.
"Apple." Jay said back with a smirk. He's been learning to talk a lot lately, and in no time, he'll hold a pencil and draw a giraffe.
"Good, good." His male caregiver was just as proud as the transmigrator. His finger moved from the fruit to another fruit next to it. "Now what's this?"
"Bababa." Jay clapped his hands, knowing full well that he didn't say it right.
A chuckle came from the teenage boy.
"Banana."
"Bababa." Jay beamed back at him. "Bababa."
The teenage boy shrugged before his finger moved to the next picture. "Close enough. What's that?"
"Coconut." The baby continued his lesson with a smile. It's going to get boring very soon because, apparently, Jay already knows all these.
Except whatever the hell "U" stands for. What's an ugli fruit? Or what's Ximenia?
At this point, he felt like the Red King also doesn't know what those things are, but he just went along with it. The next page of the alphabet book showed animals, and whenever they get to that page, the teenage boy seemed to light up.
"Okay, KJ, what's that?" The teenage boy pointed at the picture of a cartoon red ant. "You saw them outside the other day."
"Ants!" The baby clapped his hands, and he was waiting for his male caretaker to talk about the little critters again, but unfortunately, they had to move one.
It's a one of kind experience to listen to his caretaker's narration of wild life. "These bad boys are the back bone of the ecosystem 'cause they're food for birds and other insects, which are food for bigger bastards like foxes and coyotes," said the Red King before he's being scolded by JJ for using another slur.
So far, the baby can legally say these words:
- Fuck
- Shit
- Bastard
- Dummy
And blame it on his caretakers for cussing around him too much.
Just as Jay was about to drop an f-bomb on a picture of a duck, the manager of the construction crew approached the teenage boy.
The middle aged man wiped the sweat off his brows, and he smiled at the supposed father. "We're done with the generator. Your wife wanted a clean up crew. We can schedule that too. For a place this small, it'll be a hundred coppers at most."
"Alright." The Red King nodded. Then, he craned his head to look for his companion.
The teenage girl was measuring a space in the kitchen where a broken fridge used to be. Her eyes moved to meet her partner's after he stared at her long enough.
"Do you wanna prepaid half of the crew up front, too?" He called out to her.
"You don't have to ask her, man." The manager chuckled. "It's your house, so do what you want."
"Actually..." The Red King snapped his head towards the manager. His hand let go to the book, so Jay grabbed it before it fell to the floor. His male caregiver pointed at JJ. "It's her house. She inherited it, so she has the final say in everything. She's the one paying y'all, so go talk to her."
A frown graced the manager's face, and he nodded once. The baby looked at the middle aged man, and he smiled. That smile was enough to erase the frown from the man's face.
"That's a cute little mogger you got there." The manager changed the topic as he grinned at Jay.
"Honey?" The Red King's voice was rather sarcastic, as if calling his partner by anything other than her name was physically hard for him. "What do you want for dinner?"
JJ turned her head from the fridge space, and she sighed. "Anything is fine, darling. Did you feed KJ?"
"Bah!" The baby lit up when he heard his alternative name being called.
The two teens tried to solidify their cover, starting by calling each other pet names and call the baby by another name. Instead of being Jay Pleng, the recently declared dead villain, and Jay Pleng, a previous student of the Equinox Academy, they're TC Reth and Verena Reth, a pair of young parents from the other side of the continent who just moved here because they inherited a house in the mountains. They don't have the paperwork to prove everything, but no one really cared about the legal parts of anything as long as they get paid.
Even though the world was evolving backwards, at least it's working in their favor.
"Yeah, he just got milk." The Red King responded, and his hand gently patted Jay's back.
The two remaining men entered the kitchen from the back door, and they eventually made their way into the living room. One of them was a dark skinned man with brilliant blue eyes, and if Jay remembered correctly, he's the guy who could lift heavy things that may look impossible for a man of his small and skinny built. Taking a closer look, he doesn't look much older than the teen parents.
When the construction worker saw the baby looking at him, he grinned and he pulled on his own cheeks, making a funny face. Of course, Jay laughed and clapped his hands.
"Mr. Reth, I got a question." The other construction worker took a step closer to the couch. "Are you related to the Romanovs by any chance?"
"If I'm related to the Romanovs, I wouldn't be a house husband, kid." The Red King let out a laugh, which also shook the baby.
"You kinda look like that Wonder Soldier on the villain side of the war. Red King, was it?" The blue eyed construction worker continued talking as he bent down a little to play with the baby.
"I get that a lot." Another laugh rumbled from his male caregiver. "Hell, even my mom agreed. It's funny."
"Hell!" Jay clapped his hands, and the blue eyed construction worker's smile dropped. "Hell! Hell!"
New word added to his vocabulary list!
A pair of hands landed on the Red King's shoulders. His partner's fingers dug into his T-shirt as she leaned in closer.
"Darling," JJ's saccharin tone lowered. "What did I say about cussing in front of the baby?"
The Red King let out a nervous chuckle. "I'm sorry, my love."
"You guys don't have wedding bands?" The blue eyed construction worker's voice brought them back to him.
Their manager smacked the back of his crew's head, and he smiled at the couple. "Sorry. Our dear boy Malik can't shut up."
"KJ choked on my ring once, so no wearing small shiny objects until he's a bit older." JJ took her hands off her partner, and she reached for her wallet. "He'd steal coins, too."
To be honest, Jay was pretty impressed by how smoothly his caretakers could lie. Is it part of their training to be villains or something?
Playing along with his parents, as soon as the teenage girl pulled out a silver coin, the baby's hand slapped the Red King's chest to get his attention.
"Aaaa! Dada!" With his other hand holding the book, his free hand reached for the coin.
"Sorry, little buddy." A chuckle rumbled from his male caregiver. "You gotta promise not to eat it first."
As expected, JJ handed the silver coin to the manager, ignoring the baby's pleading. Jay strank back into the teenage boy's arms, and he pouted as he hugged the book to his body.
Once the construction crew left the house, JJ locked the front door before she dropped herself on to the couch next to her partner.
Jay dropped his book on the floor, and he crawled on to his female caretaker's lap. He stood up on her thighs and hugged her head. A laugh came from her lips before she planted a kiss on his cheek.
"Such a cutie pie." She mumbled as she hugged the baby back, then her dark blue eyes stared into her partner's. "Jay, let's get married."
"Let's what?" The Red King snapped his head towards her. His eyes were blown wide, and there's a faint hue of red on his ears.
The transmigrator babbled happy nonsense as he moved to sit on the couch, in the spot in between the two teenagers.
Hooray! His parents are getting married!
Wait... Oh, no. The teens are getting married.