EVERYONE: Little Nest in the Big Crater

[Welkamo]

Sometimes family is a funny beret person, a ronk nerd, a woman who's literally in the clouds, and their 6-8 kids depending on the day, one of whom is a duck.

Spoiler: Context and Character Notes

Written for the Thousand Roads Anniversary Drabble Bingo event.

So yeah, this is a SabotageShipping fanfic, featuring SabotageShipping fankids. I might as well provide some context as to who's who, and what's changed for the trio since having kids. Maybe one day I'll do lil images and stuff for them. Will update as more updates come.

Babá/Wallace/Mikouri
Part time Coordinator, part time stay-at-home parent. Truly an "artist and lover of water". Often responsible for the children's education and offers emotional support.

Mamá/Winona/Nagi
Flying type Elite Four member. Lover of nature and birds, and makes sure to share their beauty with the children. Usually sensible and level-headed, but even she has her quirks.

Papá/Steven/Daigo
College professor-in-training, businessman, and spelunker. Travels far and wide, but always comes back with stories and treasures (rocks). The worst person to ask for math homework help.

Ferdinand
The eldest child... who just so happens to be a Quaxly. Abandoned on the Papadakis-Kimura-Stone doorstep, he's now happily growing up and doing his best to be a good big brother.

Robin
The first child born to Babá and Mamá. Bright, energetic, and curious. She looks up to her parents, and she wants to be a Trainer just like them when she's old enough.

Caspian
Adoptive child of Babá, Mamá, and Papá. Calm, clever, and a thinker, he has an affinity for the sea. He loves makeup and dressup, and sometimes he'll practice with the Pokémon of the family.

Sparrow
Second child of Babá and Mamá. Quiet and shy, she has a bit of separation anxiety. She likes to be cozy, be it through hugs, her blankie, or her hand-me-down Swablu plushie.

Peristeri
Third child of Babá and Mamá, and twin sibling of Koroneia. A gremlin from the Cave of Origin, chaos slumbering within and waiting to awaken... or waiting for finger paint time.

Koroneia
Child of Papá and Mamá, and twin sister of Peristeri. She loves her family, but she also wants to be independent and more than a twin, which can manifest as toddler angst. Other than that, she's generally pretty kind.

Spoiler: Content warnings

Generally none, though there may be mentions of mental illness and eating disorders. This story is meant to be more lighthearted in tone, and everything depicted is suitable for a G rating/EVERYONE.

Spoiler: Notes for reviewers

I ask that feedback be lighter on this series, but feel free to point out things like typos or grammar errors.

Special thanks to @lisianthus for beta reading these lil’ guys.

 

[Welkamo]

Sibling Scuffles

A dispute must be settled, and Steven is the tiebreaker.


“You’re wrong!”

“Nuh-uh!”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah!”

Robin ran downstairs when she heard Caspian and Sparrow arguing—those two never argued, and Sparrow especially never fought with anyone.

The two were in the living room. Caspian’s arms were crossed, and Sparrow’s hands were balled up into fists by her sides.

“What’s going on?” Robin asked.

“Caspian thinks that Flying types are stupid!” Sparrow pouted.

“I never said that!” Caspian disputed. “I said that Water types are better—because they are!”

So that’s what they were fighting about.

“Obviously Flying types are better!” Robin said triumphantly. “Because… Because birds!”

Caspian didn’t look convinced. “No fair! If you vote, then all of us have to vote!”

-

The three found Peristeri, Koroneia, and Ferdinand drawing on the kitchen wall.

“Didn’t Mamá tell us we couldn’t draw on the walls?” Sparrow asked.

“Babá said we can,” Peristeri said, “so it’s fine.”

“Peristeri, Koroneia, Ferdinand,” Robin said, “what’s the bestest type: Water, or Flying?”

Ferdinand quacked, (“Water types! They’re pretty and elegant and fabulous!”)

“I like them both,” Koroneia replied.

“I like rocks,” Peristeri said. “They’re silly.”

Robin puffed up with anger. “That’s not one of the choices!” She looked at Koroneia. “And you have to choose!”

“No I don’t!” Koroneia said.

“Your choices are stupid,” Peristeri huffed.

“You’re stupid,” Robin retorted.

“No, you’re—”

“Now what are you kids squabbling about to call each other such terrible names?”

Babá was leaning against the doorway, eyebrow raised. When he saw the kids frown and look down in shame, his expression softened into amusement.

“Well, there’s worse names to call others, I suppose.”

“Wallace, did you let the kids draw on the walls again?”

Mamá walked in the room, looking a bit more disappointed… with Babá, who held his hands behind his back and swayed side to side playfully.

“Maaaybeeeeee,” he said.

Mamá half-sighed, half chuckled. “Can’t you tell them to draw on paper?”

“Mamá,” Sparrow said, “what’s better, Water types or Flying types?”

At that, Babá and Mamá froze.

“Um…” Mamá began. “Well…”

“Don’t you kids think we’re a bit biased?” Babá asked.

“I think that’s the point of a question like that,” Mamá asked, smiling.

Caspian looked up. “Biased? What’s that?”

Babá tapped a finger to his chin. “It means favouring one side over another. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad.”

“Well… are you biased to Water types over Flying types? In a good way.”

Babá shot a mischievous grin at Mamá. “Well, I don’t want to admit anything in front of you…”

“You don’t have to.”

Wallace thought for a moment. “Why don’t we ask Steven?”

-

Calling Steven…

The little white dots on the blue screen jumped up and down for a few minutes, until Steven finally appeared.

“Hey there,” he said, waving to the others, who were all gathered around on the couch.

The kids immediately started talking over each other:

“Papá! Papá!”

“Have you found any cool rocks?”

“Papá! Look! I drew Metagross!”

Papá laughed. “One at a time, one at a time.”

Once the commotion died down a bit, he asked, “Wallace said you guys have a conflict I need to settle?”

“Yeah!” Caspian said. “We need to decide once and for all: are Water types or Flying types better?”

Steven chuckled. “Oh? Clearly Steel types are the best.”

“Why?” Peristeri asked.

“...They’re silly.”

 

[Welkamo]

Family Dinner

Wallace makes dinner. His children help.

Spoiler: Content warnings

Implied past eating disorder/self harm/suicidal ideation

For the first in… maybe two decades, Wallace felt… positive feelings towards food.

Not negative feelings, like the ones that kept him from eating normally in college. Not neutral feelings, like the ones he had gotten used to over the years. No, these were unconditionally, undoubtedly positive feelings.

There was joy when he went to the market and Caspian and Robin insisted on coming, helping Wallace pick out food and greet the neighbourhood of North Sootopolis. There was joy when Ferdinand joined them in the kitchen and made up little songs about the lemons they had brought home, mostly consisting of the word “lemon” in different languages, until Wallace and the kids joined in too. There was joy when little one-year-old Sparrow waddled in and out of the kitchen for a bit, her mother close behind so she wouldn’t fall. Winona, rising up from a Gym Leader to an Elite Four member, three months pregnant with two children—two. And Steven was off studying for his PhD. One day, he would get to pass down his love of rocks as a geology professor.

And Wallace? Wallace couldn’t be happier as a part time Coordinator, part time stay-at-home parent, and part time teacher. This was where he was meant to be.

There was a lot Wallace could teach the children in the kitchen. He taught the children how to say all of the different spices in Hinodego, Sootopolitan Chrysosian, Galarian, Paldean, Kalosian, and Balgeunese, and if he didn’t know the answers, he taught them how to look it up. He taught the children how to stay safe around ovens, stoves, and knives, and for the first time in years, he himself felt safe around them.

But most wonderful of all, he taught them about the cultures of his family—his father’s Sootopolitan heritage, and his mother’s mixed immigrant heritage, rest their souls. And his duty to preserve his ancestors’ legacy became… Well… Through something as simple as food and cooking, his duties became a pleasure. He laughed to himself as he tried to read his late mother’s handwriting, rambled on about memories of his family and stories that they had passed down to him, explained how things were when his parents were young… all because of food.

“Babá? Why are you crying?” Robin asked.

Wallace fell to the floor and held Robin and Caspian in a tight hug. He felt Ferdinand hug them, too. He felt… happy.

If he could go back in time and tell his younger self—so sick and fragile and full of despair, unable to see any sort of future—that his life would eventually be like this, with three beautiful children and two beautiful spouses and expecting two more beautiful children… younger Wallace would never be able to believe it.

“I know it's hard,” Wallace wanted to tell that younger self. “I know it feels like the world is going to end for you. But I've been across and made it to the other side, and... it's pretty beautiful. And it's worth living in order to see it.”

And then he remembered that he was that Wallace, that Wallace that had been hurt for so long, and now that Wallace—he was here, healing, living a life he only could have dreamed of.

“I’m glad you did live to see it.”

 

[Welkamo]

Nesting

Winona’s nest was a good idea, just not in the way she planned.


Somehow, Winona was the only person who never used the nest.

When Winona woke up in the morning for her turn to watch Robin, she often found Wallace asleep in the nest, as if they had thrown themself haphazardly into the pile of pillows. Robin would be in her crib, fast asleep like her baba. Winona couldn’t help but leave Wallace there; his neck didn’t seem cozy, but the rest of his body had to be. Being a new parent was all Winona had dreamed it would be, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t tiring.

When it was his turn to watch Robin, Steven would sit in the nest and do Devon work, or do online classes for his teaching credentials and PhD, or look up pictures of rocks. He’d even read his work and research and internet browsing aloud to Robin, as though babies could understand plate tectonics or radioactive half lives. Well, if Steven could teach a baby, then his teaching credentials were basically guaranteed.

Ferdinand loved the nest! He’d slept in the nest sometimes when Winona held Robin in the rocking chair. He’d sit and read stories to Robin. He would even tape his drawings all over the walls, which were decorated with a whole sky of painted Flying types, and draw even more from the nest on his clipboard—or “hard surface”, as he called it.

Sometimes, when Blue visited, he would hold little baby Robin in the nest. And, to Winona’s surprise, he held the baby like… a baby, and not like a football or a sack of potatoes or however Winona thought Blue would hold a baby. And when Wally visited, a little less surprisingly, he also held the baby like a baby, but what was surprising was that he seemed confident in his abilities. It was wonderful to see such growth from them both.

But most surprising of all was the fact that Juan, of all people, would sit in the nest. It was just a silly little pile of mismatched pillows, nothing like the formal and posh Water type Trainer and member of high society. Katy and Kabu and Joseph didn’t sit in the nest, so why did Juan?

“Los pollitos dicen

“Pío, pío, pío

“Cuando tienen hambre

“Cuando tienen frío…”

Juan was cradling Robin in the nest and singing softly to her when Winona came into the room. Robin looked so happy in her abuelo’s arms, cooing and giggling. He was singing her a song about baby chickens, a song Juan had learned to sing to Ferdinand, a song Winona had picked up on so she could sing it, too. And now… now little Robin would get to grow up with it.

Juan kissed the top of Robin’s head. “Tu mamá te hizo un nido maravilloso. Un nido maravilloso para un pajarito maravilloso.”

That gave Winona pause. If she was getting her Paldean right, Juan thought her nest was… wonderful? He thought her silly little pile of pillows was wonderful?

…Well, he was right. Winona’s nest was wonderful. Winona’s ideas were wonderful. Winona was wonderful.

Juan looked up. “Ah, mija. I didn’t realize you were here. How long have you been here?”

Winona smiled, responding with:

“La gallina busca

“el maíz y el trigo

“Les da la comida

“y les presta abrigo”

Spoiler: Translation notes

“Los Pollitos Dicen” is a Chilean children’s song first published in 1907. Juan, being from Paldea (Spain, did not grow up with the song, but… well, when your daughter in-law loves birds and you want to teach your grandkids Spanish, the solution is obviously to learn every Spanish birb song.

abuelo - grandfather

Tu mamá te hizo un nido maravilloso. Un nido maravilloso para un pajarito maravilloso. - Your mother made you a wonderful nest. A wonderful nest for a wonderful little bird.

mija - contracted form of “mi hija”, “my daughter”

 

[Welkamo]

It Takes a Village

Steven reconnects with the Hoenn Elite Four and realizes they have… interesting babysitting skills.


“Sidney, what are you doing with my daughter?”

Sidney looked up from his guitar. Robin began crawling to Steven, and the rock on her head fell off.

“I thought you were the rock guy. I’m exposing the kid to rocks and rock music and Rock types… Well, I still need a Tyranitar for that last part.” He smirked. “I’m raising a real Stone kid.”

Steven crossed his arms. “Sidney, my wife did not carry a baby inside of her for seven months just so you could put rocks on that baby!”

“Then why did she have a baby?”

Steven sighed, shaking his head. “If Wallace was coming, would you put fish on the baby?”

Sidney scoffed. “Obviously I would put a cup of water on the kid. Wallace is a Water type Trainer, not a Fish type Trainer.”

-

Steven was… frankly a bit worried about letting his baby daughter within ten feet of Phoebe. Not because he hated her—quite the opposite was true—but… well, leaving the child of three deeply traumatized people with a woman known for communicating with ghosts didn’t sound like the best idea on paper, at least in Steven's mind.

In practice, it wasn’t the worst idea.

Sure, sometimes Steven would find Robin floating from spectral magic, but other than that, Phoebe was a good babysitter. She fed Robin at the times Steven specified. She read to the kid and played with the kid and didn’t expose the kid to any evil spirits. And even the ghosts who Phoebe did let near Robin didn’t give any terrible, terrifying trauma or curses to the poor little baby.

A surprise! A pleasant surprise!

-

“Moja rybka, look how chubby your cheeks are! Oh, they’re so pinchable! Look here! Buscia made you a present! Let’s put it on before Tata comes.”

Steven sighed, smiling. Sidney must have handed Robin over to Glacia. He opened the door to Glacia’s office and—

Robin was in a knit Squirtle kigurumi. She seemed to like it… or at least, she seemed to like putting the tail in her mouth. Where was her teething ring?

Glacia beamed a smile at Steven. “Isn’t she adorable?”

Robin cooed at Steven, waving her arms until he picked her up. It was then that Steven noticed that the kigurumi even had a little shell-backpack, perfect for carrying whatever a baby needed to carry.

Steven had to laugh—Robin looked so darn cute.

-

Out of all of the Elite Four members, Drake was the most calm… no, that wasn’t the right phrasing. Out of all of the Elite Four members, Drake was the least chaotic with Robin.

He’d hold her in his rocking chair, singing her sea shanties about coming back home after months at sea. He always managed to calm her down, no matter how scared or fussy she was. It was almost like a superpower.

But also, whenever Steven came into Drake’s office to pick Robin up… the office was warm from the hearth as Drake whispered to Robin, who was fast asleep in his protective arms. She was at peace. She was safe. And then, seeing the two, feeling the warmth on his skin… Steven was at peace. Steven felt safe.

Drake never sold himself as a singer, and Steven wasn’t superstitious, but Steven swore Drake’s voice was magical.

Spoiler: Translation notes

Moja rybka - Polish, “my little fish”

Buscia - Polish, “grandma”

Tata - Polish, “Dad”

kigurumi - a Japanese term for a character-themed onesie

 

[Welkamo]

Bonds

Steven tries to teach the twins their first words.


"Mega Stone. Say ‘Meh-guh Stoe-nuh’."

Steven held the video camera in one hand and his Keystone in the other, waving the latter in front of Koroneia and Peristeri, closer and further from her face. They both seemed interested, but neither one would say "Mega Stone". Curious babbling, yes, but not words.

Steven really, really, really wanted at least one of his kids to have "rock" or something similar as their first word. "Yes, I’m predictable like that," he would frequently tell Wallace and Winona. "Sue me."

Robin’s first words had been "kwe kwe", the sound of Ferdinand’s quacks. Caspian’s had been "Papá", while Sparrow’s had been "Mamá". All beautiful first words for a baby, of course, but none of those words had anything to do with rocks… well, maybe "Papá," but not enough to count.

But with twins, Steven now had two chances.

Biologically speaking, each of the twins had a different father—Peristeri’s was Wallace, Koroneia’s was Steven. But those technicalities didn’t matter; they were both Steven and Wallace’s children. They were loved by both just the same. And gosh darn it, at least one of them was going to say "Mega Stone" as—

"Me… Me…" the twins said, a bit out of sync with each other.

Steven’s eyes snapped wide open. "Mega? Mega?!?!"

"Me… Ali," Koroneia said.

"Melli," Peristeri said.

Steven shut off the camera. His day was ruined.

-

"Wallace, how did our children learn about Melli?!"

Wallace was sitting on the sofa in the living room. He looked up from his book and shrugged.

"Maybe they read some history books."

That response only perplexed Steven even more.

"History books. HISTORY BOOKS?! They learned about the most notorious womaniser from HISTORY BOOKS?!?!"

"Well, he was a very prominent historical figure, even outside of his… relationships."

Steven crossed his arms. He was fuming. "Peristeri’s first word was ‘Melli’."

Wallace gasped and stood up. Tears formed in his eyes, and his smile quivered with pride.

"Did you get it on camera????"

"UNFORTUNATELY!!!!"

Wallace was unfazed by Steven’s hysteria. "Did little Koroneia speak, too?"

Steven huffed. "Ali. Her first word was Ali… Me-Ali."

A new type of joy formed on Wallace’s face, and he hugged Steven again. "Ali? Like Loukia’s Altaria? Isn’t that just wonderful?"

Now that Steven thought about it… "Me-Ali" sounded a lot like "Melli". Maybe Peristeri was trying to say Ali… or Koroneia was trying to say Melli.

"I wanted their first words to be ‘Mega Stone’," Steven mumbled.

"Well, we could always have another kid."

Sometimes Wallace had… really stupid ideas. This was one of them.

"Wallace, don’t you think we have enough children?"

"Steven, Steven, Steven, children are a wonderful thing. Children are miracles. Children—"

"Are you sure Winona wants to be pregnant a fifth time?"

"I could be pregnant again."

Winona was standing next to the two. How she had gotten there without Steven knowing… he would probably never find out.

"We’re not having another kid just so I can have their first words be ‘Mega Stone’," Steven said.

"What about ‘rock’?" Winona asked.

Steven let go of Wallace and began to walk out of the room.

"Okay you know what? I’m gonna do you something better: I’m going to the preschool down the crater and teaching the kids there the names of every single rock."

 

[JollyYoshi]

I really, really, really love me some good short stories! And these are absolutely top tier! They’re all extremely well-written and also really entertaining.

For the first story, I sort of felt like I was getting acquainted with the style and the way the characters interact with each other. Though, after the first story, the “lore” was not at all a problem.

Steven Stone is definitely the funniest character out of all of them. He’s always so obsessed with rocks which when out of context, sounds quite silly.

I loved how the Elite Four was represented in “It Takes a Village”. It’s I especially enjoyed the scenes with Glacia and Drake. Glacia just seems like that person who really likes babies and will do anything for them. Inside of Drake, he overall just seems to be a nice person even if you can’t see that. It kind of reminds me of how I and other people don’t appreciate our grandparents until we’re older and they’re starting to fade away.

In “Nesting”, I liked how Juan sat in the nest. It overall seems like something he would do in character as he’s being almost vulnerable. Also, the way Wallace was described sleeping in the nest where “his neck didn’t seem cozy, but the rest of his body had to be”. I feel like I sometimes sleep that way. I can have the most pleasant dreams even though my neck or my shoulder will be in terrible pain when I wake up.

I’m glad that you appreciate stories that has twists and turns and is written in an extremely majestic way. I think that these stories are just absolutely wonderful to read.