Accidental Baby Acquisition
| Tropes and genres | |
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| See also | Kidfic, de-age, Accidental Marriage, Pretend Couple |
| Related articles on Fanlore. | |
Accidental Baby Acquisition is a trope found in a number of both canon works and fanworks. In the most common version, the fanwork's main pairing accidentally acquires a baby and they have to take care of the child together. Occasionally, an ensemble cast will be stuck taking care of a baby; a pairing may or may not arise out of that. Or a single character will wind up caring for a group of de-aged teammates; again, pairing is optional.
This trope is usually used to bring together a pairing through the joint care of the baby or child that they have found themselves in possession of, although sometimes, the story is more focused on the situation that resulted in them winding up with a child. While the child is usually found by one or both of the pairing involved, sometimes the child is given to them to tend by a friend or family member; in some cases, the baby is a friend or teammate who has been de-aged.
Depending on the situation, accidental baby acquisition can be short-term or long-term, leading to kidfic. Long-term fanworks usually involve an orphaned child that the pairing adopts. While the title of the trope says "baby," this can include fics with older children; the key aspect is whether the fic focuses on the accidental origin of childcare and unexpected parenting requirements.
Example Canon Works
- Bones, S03E12 'The Baby in the Bough'
- Castle, S06E10 'The Good, the Bad & the Baby'
- 'Life as We Know It'
- Sherlock Holmes ('54 TV series), E26 'The Case of the Baker Street Nursemaids'
- Steven Universe, S04E10, Three Gems and a Baby shows how the Crystal Gems wound up as unexpected caretakers of a (mostly) human child. This is the foundation of the entire series, but most of it doesn't focus on his infancy.
- M*A*S*H, S08E15, 'Yessir, That's Our Baby'
- A Series of Unfortunate Events, 'The End', with Violet and Klaus acquiring Kit's daughter.
Example Fanworks
- merry and bright by BerryliciousCheerio. Agents of Shield, Jemma Simmons/Skye | Daisy Johnson. Is there a better Christmas gift than a literal baby? or: how the johnson-simmons family came to be
- Thrown in the Deep End of the Parenting Pool by crystalkei. The 100, Bellamy Blake/Clarke Griffin. Octavia leaves Bellamy with her brand new baby while she goes out to find Lincoln. Clarke helps and their relationship finally progresses.
- Everyone Loves The Kitsune by rvst. Teen Wolf, Malia Tate/Kira Yukimura. Kira loved that about her girlfriend. Even if it ended with them babysitting for their friends more often than not, Kira still loved Malia's natural affinity with children. They hated Kira herself. Which made her current situation all the more strange.
- it takes a village by theyoungestzerogmechanic. The 100, Clarke Griffin/Raven Reyes. Clarke and Raven find a baby in the woods and the rest of the hundred are more excited than they should be.
- vignettes of domesticity by aghamora. How to Get Away With Murder, Laurel Castillo/Frank Delfino. “All he has in his fridge is leftover Chinese takeout and beer. Laurel sighs. She’s never seen anyone less equipped for parenthood than Frank Delfino.” Or, Frank suddenly finds himself responsible for a baby. Laurel is there to help.
- Nature and Nurture by earlgreytea68. Sherlock (BBC), Sherlock/John. The British Government accidentally clones Sherlock Holmes. Which brings a baby to 221B Baker Street.
- Lucky by earlgreytea68. Inception, Arthur/Eames. Arthur finds a baby.
- Darling Angel, Temper The Devil Within by sp8sexual. Daredevil (TV Series), Matt/Foggy. There's three day old pizza sauce smeared through Matt's hair from the pizza box he is—apparently—using as a makeshift pillow. He can feel the grime building on his skin. Filth coats his nose, his throat, his lungs. The air tastes like polluted rainwater, the metallic tang of blood, the beginning stages of decay. He gags. And then he hears it. Lost in his own thoughts, in the overload of information coming from all of his senses, he almost misses it. A soft, weak little cry. A pathetic noise, really. And he shifts, and listens closely, and realizes it's a baby.
- Otabek and Yuri Find a Baby by Euphorion. Yuri!!! on Ice, Yuri/Otabek. Otabek and Yuri find a baby. Takes place 3-4 years post-season one.
- Unexpected Doesn't Mean Unwanted by florahart. MCU, Clint/Coulson. Clint has an unexpected toddler. Phil has an unexpected toddler-managing skillset. And both of them have crushes on each other.
- A Nick in Time by tiranog. Harry Potter; Harry and Snape are both de-aged to about 7 years old, and married couple Ron and Hermione take care of them.
- That Baby Does Not Belong to You (But It Could) by multifascinate. Haikyuu!!; Alternate Universe. Bokuto and Akaashi are college students who find a baby Hinata in an alleyway and eventually adopt him. The second fic in the series also deal with Kuroo and Kenma adopting a 6-year old Akiteru and 2-year old Kei Tsukishima after their mother goes missing.
- Blade Born by Airawyn. Voltron: Legendary Defender; Sheith. Keith takes home the infant son of two deceased Blade of Marmora members, he and Shiro end up adopting the child.