Introducing Mirai Nai the Masked Babysitter...
[sub]Collab between [@sakurasan] and [@Viciousmarrow][/sub]
[hr]
[color=6ecff6]“You’re quitting? Seriously?”[/color]

Alban was on his phone, parked off to the side of the main road. He could hear the sound of Lucille’s babysitter gawking about how she was moving to Russia with her apparently hunky boyfriend.

[color=6ecff6]“Fine. Fine, I understand. It was a pleasure having you around and Lucille will miss you. Have a nice trip.”[/color] he mumbled, a bit stressed now. The blonde wasn’t angry at the lady, but it put a lot of pressure on him now. He absolutely needed a babysitter to take care of his daughter while he went to work and class, so losing her was a bit of a blow. Right now, finding a new sitter became an absolute priority.

With that he hung up his smartphone, breathing a heavy sigh. An unread text message from Shizuka popped on the screen, exclaiming she was all for going to the ball with him. His nimble fingers typed her a quick message back.

[i][color=6ecff6]‘I might be a little late, but hopefully not. I ran into some trouble. I’ll see you soon though!’[/color][/i]
[@Stern Algorithm]

Scratching his head, Alban tried to think of someone to take the role up of babysitting Lucille off the top of his head, but he didn’t know enough people. He doubted his parents could do it either since they were almost always working. In despair, he fell into the car seat, his head resting to the left. As if by chance, his indigo blue eyes spotted a much needed sign attached stapled to the utility post next to his car.

‘Babysitter for Hire!’ The words were posted up on a neatly organized flier with the phone number emblazoned at the bottom. Quickly, the man exited the car, making sure to be mindful of traffic and jostled over to the flier.

[color=6ecff6]“How convenient…”[/color] he whispered beneath his breath, typing the numbers in as he spoke. Silently, he crossed his fingers and hoped the person would answer.

Nai looks around her room to see a bunch of boxes occupying her room. [color=7ea7d8]“I should get started on those… I have no idea what’s in them though so it can’t be too important”.[/color] There may have been cardboard boxes everywhere but Nai had her house set up pretty well so far. A Tv there, a nice couch there, a desk, and other things anyone needed in a room. She had spent most of her time putting up flyers for her new babysitting business. Suddenly, she heard ringing and automatically put down her mask but chuckled to herself when she realized that it was only the phone.

[color=7ea7d8]“Hello?”[/color] she asked, not expecting it to be a business call at all.

[color=6ecff6]“Uh… Hi there, my name’s Alban Voclain, and I was calling to inquire about your babysitting service.”[/color] he spoke, half expecting an old crone’s voice to answer the phone.

...Oh! She was surprised at how quickly she was in business. Well, maybe. [color=7ea7d8]“Ah! Yes, my name is Mirai Nai, I moved in to Shine City recently. When do you need your child to be babysat? I’d be happy to watch them!”[/color] she smiled throughout the whole entire call, she knew how business interactions worked and even calling was a chance to make a good impression. 

Alban did a double take when he heard the lady’s voice. Not at all what he expected. [color=6ecff6]“My daughter is 4 years old, so this might need to be a Monday through Friday gig. Not for too long, but just so I can go to work and go to class. If you’d like, maybe I can meet you somewhere and give you more details?”[/color] 

She smiled brightly. She could tell that he was a proper father unlike some people she had to babysit for. Some parents had the nerve to drop their children off at the park for her to come get in hopes that she isn’t a murderer. [color=7ea7d8]“Gladly! I’m not busy at the moment but really, any time before 7 pm today would work. Where would  you like to meet?”[/color]

[color=6ecff6]“Let’s meet at the Mochavine Cafe, and I’ll buy you a cup of coffee or something. Is that alright?”[/color] he asked her, jogging back over to his car.

She glanced over at the time [color=7ea7d8]“I’m pretty close to that location so I will see you in 5 sir! Good bye!”[/color] With that, she hung up and threw her phone in her black satchel. She went over to the door and got out of the apartment, making her way to her car, a jaguar. She may live a simple life now, but she had her way before and money was something that she had a decent amount of.

She drove over to the cafe and managed to get there in exactly 5 minutes. Pulling down her mask, she headed inside the cafe and got a reasonable amount of stares from strangers around the store. Her clothes for the day was a cute and simple one piece white dress with black and white sandals. Nai sat down at a booth in the corner and took out a classic novel and waited for her soon to be employer to come.

Alban ran into a bit of traffic on his way to the cafe, so he ended up being just a smidge late. Parallel parking his mother’s car onto the curb, the Frenchman jostled into the building, looking quite strange in his masquerade get up. A nervous blush filled his cheeks, not entirely sure who he was supposed to meet up with.

[color=7ea7d8][i]Ah, yes, I’m still a complete stranger to this man![/i][/color] Nai picked up her cell and began to call the number once again, realizing that she had to explain what she looked like at the moment. However, that proved unnecessary when the man that had just entered the buildings phone began to ring at the exact same time. She lifted her arm to wave at him in attempts to have him come over to her.

When his phone started blaring the loud, screamo-esque sound that he called a ringtone, the flush on his cheeks grew bright. Fortunately, it didn’t last too long as he realized a...masked? woman was waving him over. Hesitantly, he headed over, although part of him had a bad feeling about this. Hopefully he didn’t get robbed.

[color=6ecff6]“Um.. Hi there. Are you the babysitter?”[/color] he asked, taking a seat in front of her. There was definitely a feeling of awkwardness that descended around them.

[color=7ea7d8][i]Ugh. I forgot, good father meant that he would have his doubts about a masked woman babysitting his child as he should.[/i][/color] Slowly, she lifted the mask and put it to the side of her head. Having a few strands of her bangs fall over her face. [color=7ea7d8]“My apologies.”[/color] she held out her hand for a handshake [color=7ea7d8]“Yes, I am, Mirai Nai. Nice to meet you sir.”[/color] Nai smiles sweetly while awaiting the handshake. [color=7ea7d8][i]God, I feel bad for him now…[/i][/color]

When the woman revealed her face, Alban nearly choked, again, not anticipating anything about this lady. She was quite gorgeous, much more than he had imagined. Regaining himself, he swiftly grabbed the hand she offered him, laughing anxiously.

[color=6ecff6]“You have n-nothing to be sorry about. I should apologize for being so awkward. I’m uh.. not the best people person, I suppose.”[/color] he stammers out, trying not to stare too intensely at her.

[color=7ea7d8][i]Hmm… He seemed to be nervous around new people.[/i][/color] She smiled happily in attempts to make him feel more relaxed. [color=7ea7d8]“No, no. I wouldn’t want my child around a random woman that had a mask over her face either.”[/color] chuckling, she released herself from the handshake [color=7ea7d8]“What are your daughters like and dislikes? Does she have any allergies? Are there anything that triggers tantrums?”[/color] she was about to go on but decided to compose herself, exhaling. Children always made her happy to be around. Around the cafe, she could feel stares surrounding her and felt like crawling into a hole at the moment. Just a bit longer. [color=7ea7d8]“Haha, let me start at the beginning,  what is she like?”[/color]  

[color=6ecff6]“Well, I think the people here think we’re both a little strange. I’m in this outfit, and you’ve got that mask, so at least we’re not alone.”[/color] he jested before moving the conversation along. [color=6ecff6]“My daughter’s name is Lucille. She looks… a bit like me. Blonde hair, blue eyes. She’s a sweetheart, really. She absolutely loves playing her violin, and surprisingly, she’s really good… Her teacher thinks she’s a prodigy.”[/color] he starts out, pausing with a hand on his chin. [color=6ecff6]“She’s very mischievous though. Like, she’ll steal your panties out from under you if you’re not careful. Also, I never give her sweets, unless it’s healthy snacks. Otherwise.... well, hyper Lucille will drive you crazy.”[/color]

She then looks at him up and down, realizing that his clothes were quite different. [color=7ea7d8]“True, very true!”[/color] After hearing that she played the violin, she put her hands together [color=7ea7d8]“The violin? How wonderful! I bet she is.”[/color] she smiles at the thought. Children were always capable of conquering the most in life. [color=7ea7d8]“Mischievous, huh? Haha, maybe we could do a bit of detective roleplay with that~”[/color] but then she heard the sweets bit of his speech. Well, she understood why sweets would be only on special occasions but only healthy snacks was a bit overdone for Nai. [color=7ea7d8]“I’ll keep that in mind and keep her away from sweets then!”[/color] smiling, she had written down everything that he said inside of a small notebook and went over it real quick.

For some reason, the words [i]“detective roleplay”[/i] made Alban think of something extremely dirty, but he quickly purged that from his mind. What the hell was he thinking? The blonde man trudged on. [color=6ecff6]“Oh! I suppose one important thing would to refrain from talking about her mother. She gets really upset at that. Uh… To make a long story short, her mother sort of abandoned her.”[/color] he added, hoping that didn’t put too much of a damper on things. He tried to think of other things to add, but nothing notable hit him. [color=6ecff6]“She doesn’t have any allergies, that I know of, but yeah… Lucille is relatively easy to take care of. Keep her occupied, and she won’t do anything to hurt herself.”[/color]

[color=7ea7d8]“No talking about her mother, got it.”[/color] she smiled before she heard what he said afterwards. [color=7ea7d8]“Abandoning, huh… That’s terrible… I know how that is…”[/color] However, for her it was more like her mother escaped from reality itself with suicide. A flash of her mother's dead body hanging flashed inside of her head and she quickly looked up, hoping that she still had a bright aura around her. [color=7ea7d8]“No allergies? That’s great! I’ll make sure to keep my eye on her at all times!”[/color] smiling, she returns to her normal self.

[color=6ecff6]“Okay! I think that’s everything. What’s the earliest you can be over? I usually work early mornings, like 4am to 2pm, but I can always change schedule.”[/color] he asked her, fairly sure this lady would be great for Lucille. Alban’s last babysitter hadn’t been too bad, but there was a feeling about Mirai that told him he could trust her.

[color=7ea7d8]“Nnn~ Well, I have classes start at 1:30pm for me… So that would be a bit problematic…"[/color] She pouted a bit, not wanting to lose him as an employer because of that.

Alban immediately waves it off. [color=6ecff6]“Don’t worry about it. I’m… not the boss? But I’m very close to my boss, so it won’t be a problem at all. I can get home around 1pm so you have time to get to class.”[/color]

[color=7ea7d8]“Thank you! Sorry about that. I look forward to meeting your little angel!”[/color] 

[color=6ecff6]“Oh, and here’s my address and my phone number! That would be embarrassing to forget those… But yeah, I live like… a couple blocks away from the Academy.”[/color] Alban tells her, sliding her a written note with all of his information on it. [color=6ecff6]“It was really great meeting you. Lucille will love you, I’m sure.”[/color]

She smiles, taking the note and pulling her mask over her face and reaching her hand over to him once again. [color=7ea7d8]“It was great meeting you as well! I may see you at that… ball, I think it was? I got a ticket from a former employer.”[/color] She stood up, getting ready to leave.

The thought of the ball struck Al like a bowling ball. He’d almost forgotten about that, talking about his daughter. [color=6ecff6]“Oh yeah! I’ll be there, for sure. You should be able to recognize me since you’ve already seen my outfit. So say hi if you want to!”[/color] he laughed, pulling himself out of the booth. He wondered how late he’d be to pick up Shizuka now. Hopefully not too late. 

She bowed and raised her head back up. [color=7ea7d8]“Yes, I’ll do that. Have a nice day!”[/color] she swiftly went over to the front and left the cafe. Sighing, she got into her car. Yup, masks are the best. With that, she drove back to her home to pick out her clothes.

Leaving after Mirai, the Frenchman practically threw himself into his mother’s Camry, igniting the engine while he held his phone in the other hand.

[i][color=6ecff6]‘I’ll be there in 5! Sorry for being so late! I had to meet with a babysitter.’[/color][/i] he texts Shizuka, hurrying himself over to the college. [@Stern Algorithm]