Shin had finally taken Lee up on her offer to babysit baby Michael. Him and Kealey were going out…somewhere.

With the tangents and stories Shin had told, Lee wasn't entirely sure what their plan for that night was, but that wasn't the important part. Lee didn't need to know where they were going. She just knew that they were and that she was watching the baby.

Something that Tarin had seemed very apprehensive about when Lee had told him about babysitting. Not that it was overly surprising with history.

And Lee herself had been even more apprehensive during more than half of her own pregnancy.

But Shin had already come to drop Michael off and left again before Tarin had made it home from the shop. Which left Lee sitting on the couch with Michael on her lap as she waited for Tarin to get home.

Tarin was apprehensive. There was no point in denying it. Lee had offered and agreed to babysit Shin and Kealey’s baby. It wasn’t that Tarin had a problem with the kid. In fact, Tarin was absolutely sure that the baby was adorable. The problem was that it was in the living room of the apartment where he lived.

With the exception of a few times when he had been a literal child, Tarin couldn’t remember a single time that he’d had more than a passing interaction with an infant of any kind.

So, as he walked home after a relatively normal day at work, Tarin was apprehensive. Nervous even. Lee had assured him, multiple times, that she would do all of the proverbial heavy lifting associating with the care of the baby…but still.

Finding himself outside the apartment building, Tarin opened the door and made his way to the stairs because it just didn’t feel like the day to take the elevator.

Soon enough he was at the door, unlocking it, and heading inside. From there it was a simple matter of dropping off his backpack and making his way into the living room where Lee was sitting, with the baby on her lap.

”Hey….how are you guys doing?” he said, standing behind the couch and looking down at the squishy little human. He really was cute.

It seemed like in no time, Lee was hearing the key in the lock and feeling Tarin walking into the apartment. This was pretty good timing for him to get home actually, Lee thought. Michael had calmed down after being upset when his dad left, but hadn't gotten fussy about being hungry or tired yet. A happy baby was always much easier, especially when you were already anxious and unsure like she knew Tarin was.

When Lee felt Tarin come to a stop behind her, Lee leaned her head back on the couch to smile up at him. "Michael's doing pretty good now," Lee told him as she continued to look up. "He was only upset for a few minutes after Shin left."

"Myself…" Lee sighed slightly as she looked back at the baby sitting on her lap. "I'm trying to figure out how Kevin was ever this small…"

Lee looked up at him and smiled, and Tarin just couldn’t help but smile back.

Michael had been upset after Shin left, and Tarin supposed that made sense. Lee had met the little guy before, but he didn’t know her all that well.

Tarin looked at the baby again and the baby looked back. Was it old enough to do that? Michael had big brown eyes and his little baby hair was a curly little mop on top of his round little head.

Lee looked back down at the baby and it finally stopped staring into Tarin’s soul to smile at her. Tarin couldn’t blame the kid a single bit.

It really was hard to believe that Kevin had ever been this small. It wasn’t that Kevin was a particularly large child, but he seemed to be all arms and legs. Michael was a little beach ball with fat little arms and legs and a head that looked far too big for his body.

”Was Kevin chubby like that?” Tarin asked, still standing behind the couch.

Lee shook her head slightly with a smile as she watched Tarin just staring at the baby. At least he was smiling, though he still looked uncomfortable.

Rationally, Lee knew that Kevin had been this small as a baby. He had been smaller than this. But that was 13 years ago and it was hard to remember her teenager being this size.

"He was chubby," Lee said, glancing up at Tarin before looking back at Michael. "Not quite this chubby except for just before a growth spurt, though."

Lee shook her head again as she turned to look up at Tarin. "You can sit down, you know," she told him. "You don't need to keep me and a piece of furniture between you and the baby."

Tarin just nodded when Lee explained that Kevin hadn’t really been this chubby when he was little unless he’d been about to have a growth spurt. Tarin thought maybe he’d heard that somewhere before. That babies got fat before they grew.

If that was the case, Michael would be growing a great deal very soon.

Lee looked back up at Tarin and he shrugged a little bit as Lee pointed out that he didn’t need quite so much space between himself and the baby.

”He was looking at me a minute ago…” Tarin said, still not quite budging from his spot behind the couch.

As soon as he spoke again, Michael looked up and Tarin found himself in a somewhat intense staring contest with the infant. After a moment, the latter bounced a little bit and took to flailing his arms as he made little baby noises.

Sighing slightly, Tarin made his way around the couch and sat, keeping a fair amount of distance between them.

’So is this what they do at this age? Does he have toys or anything?”

Tarin didn't say anything about her comment to sit down. Instead he told her that Michael had been looking at him.

Instead, Lee smiled with a small laugh. "Yeah, he's probably wondering who you are and how you suddenly appeared," Lee replied.

At least Tarin was moving around the couch at this point to sit down. With more space between them than there had been in a while

I'm pretty sure Shin sent some toys, in the diaper bag there," Lee said, indicating the bag under the coffee table. "But yeah, a lot of it is this."

Tarin supposed that it made sense that a baby would wonder who someone was. Babies were tiny people after all. This, Tarin couldn’t help but think, was why he was so apprehensive about the whole thing.

Surely these were things that normal people just knew or had learned through experience when they were growing up or just being around people.

This was like one of those silly sitcoms where a person with half an ounce of common sense should have known how to do something but bumbled through ineffectually and to great comedic impact.

Tarin didn’t find it particularly funny though, just uncomfortable and kind of sad.

Mostly just this, huh? The baby seemed happy enough and was currently gnawing on his own fist with a great deal of drool.

”He seems like a happy little thing…” Tarin said, ”How long did Shin say they were going to be gone?”

Tarin didn’t want to sound peevish or eager to be rid of the baby…but he just didn’t know what to do or say.

Sighing and for lack of anything else to do, Tarin reached out and grabbed the strap of the bag to pull it closer and open it.

”Well this is cute….” he said, pulling out a little jellyfish looking thing with lots of bright colors and little rubber bits that crinkled and had all sorts of textures and things.

At the sound, Michael turned his slightly wobbly little body and half reached, half lunged for the toy. ”Must be a favorite…” Tarin said, holding the thing out for the baby to take.

Lee shrugged when Tarin asked how long Shin said they would be out that night. "A few hours," Lee told him. "Probably similar to when we've been out."

"But you're right, he does seem to be a happy baby," Lee continued, lifting a hand to gently poke Michael's nose.

Tarin still seemed to be a little lost as to what to do, but when she told him that there were likely toys for the child in the bag, Lee saw him reach forward and pull it closer.

It really didn't take long for him to find something in the bag, and almost as soon as it made the first noise, Michael was trying to reach for it.

"Sure looks like it's a favourite,' commented as Michael grabbed for the toy and immediately brought it to his mouth to gum as it crinkled in his hands.

"Kevin had something similar, but not quite as fancy," Lee informed Tarin after a few moments. "I had to buy him a second one because for some reason he liked to chew right behind the rubber on the cloth and the fabric there started to wear out and fray."

A few hours. That wasn’t terribly long. Just about as long as a baseball game and they watched baseball games all the time.

There was a game tonight too. Tarin thought he could remember something about TV being bad for baby brains though... Did baseball count?

Michael really did like that jellyfish toy thing and was absolutely going to town chewing on it and squishing it with his fat little hands to make it crinkle. A moment later the thing was out of his mouth and he was kind of flailing it around and making louder more squealey baby noises. Then it was right back in the mouth.

Lee said that Kevin had possessed something similar when he was a baby and Tarin supposed that with babies when something worked the basic design stuck around. Only Kevin had apparently gummed his into oblivion and had to have it replaced. Tarin had heard people talk about the pets in a similar way but assumed it would be a less than polite thing to point out so he just nodded instead.

“Is it okay for babies to watch baseball?” Tarin finally asked, a bit sheepishy.

”Unless there’s something you need help with….” he added hesitstbtky.

Tarin seemed to be relaxing slightly in that he had handed over the toy to Michael easily and was still sitting on the couch in the general area.

That was good, and Lee turned her eyes back to watch Michael playing and babbling with a small smile on her face. Not that there hadn't been things wot like about every age, but Lee had loved when Kevin was this age; he had become far more active and was showing his developing personality more while it had been before he had really become mobile and started getting into everything.

The fact that he had started following a more socially acceptable sleeping schedule by that point had helped too.

Tarin then asked whether it was alright for babies to watch baseball. It seemed like a strange question at first, but after a moment Lee realized that it likely had to do with the fact that he must have heard something at some point about screen time not being good for babies and children.

"I'm sure one baseball game won't do any harm," Lee assured him. "Kevin got plopped in front of the tv most mornings in Toronto while I drank my coffee before we'd go out."

She had done that every single day that Kevin had been awake before she had been ready to go outside because it had by far been the easiest thing to do when her energy had been so low. And, while he was just as obsessed with his phone and computer games as other teenagers, he had still turned out good.

Lee didn’t seem to think that a single baseball game would cause any lasting harm to Michael and even explained that she’d had to put Kevin in front of the TV in the mornings before they could go out when they’d lived in Toronto.

God that had to have been hard Tarin couldn’t help but think. Mornings were really tough for Lee and definitely wouldn’t have been any easier on her own with a baby.

Lee took a minute to answer his baseball question and Tarin couldn’t help but feel a bit silly for asking in the first place.

”Sorry…dumb question…” he said, leaning forward and grabbing the remote from the coffee table to try and find the game. ” I really wasn’t exaggerating when I said that I don’t know a thing about babies.”

It didn’t take long to get the game on, and Tarin looked thoughtfully at the screen for a moment, then looked at the baby, then Lee.

”Hats or no hats?” he asked, ”Too bad we don’t have one for Michael.” His round little head sure would have been cute in one.

Lee shook her head when Tarin apologized for asking a dumb question. "Not dumb," Lee argued gently. "The only things I really knew about babies when Kevin was born was what I read while I was pregnant, and that wasn't good preparation at all."

Tarin asked about whether they should wear hats or not while watching the game that night. And commented that it would have been nice if they'd had a hat for Michael.

Lee smiled as she looked back at Michael. "That would have been so cute," Lee said softly as she looked at the baby's head with a smile. "Robert of course got Kevin a few Leafs hats over the years, but I normally put him in hats that covered his ears and neck better."

Lee smiled as she continued to look down at Michel who was still going to town on his jellyfish. "But a baby in a Mets hat would be adorable."

Lee didn’t think his question was dumb and even suggested that she had been similarly clueless before she had had Kevin. Tarin was skeptical and was sure it was written on his face when she said it.

” Kevin is great, there is absolutely no way you were nearly as clueless as you say…”

Tarin looked at Michael again and frowned a little, ” I legitimately think that this may be the closest I have ever been to a baby.” Tarin had been the youngest in his family and hadn’t really had any younger cousins. Once he’d left home…yeah. Less than zero experience with anything having to do with an infant.

Lee did however agree with him about the baby Mets hat. Apparently Robert had gotten Kevin hockey themed hats when he was a baby, and Tarin had to begrudgingly admit that Robert had the right idea there. Babies in baseball hats had to be a thing. Their heads were so big it was like they were begging for a hat.

The idea had definitely grown on Lee and Tarin had to grin too, ”I mean, I’m sure they sell them. We can have one for him the next time we babysit.”

If there was one thing Tarin fully supported, it was more Mets hats in existence.

”Game hasn’t even started yet.” he said as he settled on the correct channel and put the remote down.

Though all of this, Michael was still gnawing dutifully on one of the little rubber pieces on his jellyfish. ”I didn’t think they had that kind of attention span…”

Lee smiled over at Tarin when he pointed out that Kevin ahd turned out great so far. So far because Kevin was still only 13, but Lee didn't see anything major changing. Kevin definitely seemed far more self-aware than she had been at his age, as well as knowing who he was and who he wanted to be.

Damn. Lee had tried to do her best, but she hadn't realized that she had done as good of a job as she appeared to have done. "Thanks."

And Tarin thought that this was the closest he'd ever actually been to a baby. Other than random children on the street or in the park, Lee couldn't think of any times she had been around a baby before Kevin had been born either. Yes, her youngest brother Doug was 5 years younger than her, but Lee didn't have many memories of him being really little, never mind him being this young. And even now, none of them had any children. Even Josh hadn't had his first kid until almost a year after Kevin had been born.

"I did read a lot of books," Lee admitted. She still read a lot of books about parenting and the different stages and issues that Kevin went through. But there had been no preparing for some things. Like your child being told by a classmate that they thought you should have been killed in a concentration camp .

"Kevin was the first baby I remember ever holding," Lee continued, smiling wider when Tarin mentioned the next time they babysat Michael. That was definitely an improvement to the uncomfortable almost anxious feelings she'd sensed coming from Tarin from the moment she mentioned that she was goin to be babysitting.

"They definitely don't for anything you would want them to focus on," Lee answered. "But it's possible that he's starting to teethe, or will be soon, and it feels good on his gums."