*Chapter 12: The Ten Wise Baby-sitters*

"So these are the songs you guys wrote?" Indalecio asked, grabbing a small stack of papers with one hand while holding Ronixis in the other.

"Yup," Marsilio said. "Thought you might want to look at them."

Indalecio looked over the various pieces of paper. At the top of each was the song title, followed by lyrics and guitar tabs.

"Hmmm..." Indalecio said, pondering the song titles. "BURN YOU SCUM...FRY, MAGGOTS...DOES NOT COMPUTE... Shigeo wrote these, didn't he?"

"How'd you guess?" Berle asked.

"I just had a notion," Indalecio said. Suddenly, his eyes got incredibly large as he lifted Ronixis off his lap, revealing a large wet spot where the child was sitting. "Wet baby!" he shouted at the top of his lungs.

"HAHAHAHAHA..." Shigeo, who was holding Kenneth, said. "RONIXIS MADE WET ON...YOUR...LAAAAAAA..." He then fell limp as the lights in his eyes went dim. Nicolus caught Kenneth before he fell to the floor.

"This one needs changing too..." he said, examining the diaper. "Any volunteers?" Before he could react, he was the only one in the room, now holding both twins in his hands. "Dammit..."

Filia walked down the hall, carrying two heated bottles of formula. Soon she met up with a rather moist Nicolus, who was making his way to the bathroom.

"The kids are changed..." Nicolus grumbled. "They're sleeping in the living room now..."

"Why are you dripping wet?" Filia asked Nicolus.

"I'd rather not say..." Nicolus growled, ducking into the bathroom. Filia thought a moment, and then burst out laughing.

"Screw you too!" an angry Nicolus shouted from beyond the door.

"Ahahahaha! Oh dear lord...too funny..." Filia cried out.

"What's so funny?" Vesper said as he met Filia in the hallway.

"Nothing...nevermind..." Filia said, struggling to recover her composure. "I need some help feeding the twins, wanna join me?"

"I guess so..." Vesper said.

"These little guys sure downed those bottles fast..." Vesper said, burping Ronixis.

"Yeah. They must have been hungry," Filia said, who was burping the other. "By the way, you did put a spit rag on your shoulder before you started burping him, right?"

"A what?" Vesper asked.

"Urp."

"Jeez, man!" Ruprecht said, meeting Vesper in the line to use the bathroom for the night. "You smell like sour milk!" Vesper decided not to speak, but to stew angrily for a while. Ruprecht, turning his attention to Decus, the person in line before him, said, "Is Nicolus still in there?"

"Yeah," Decus said. "I don't know if he's washing or just too embarrassed to come out."

"Well, you know, it is kinda embarrassing what happened to him." Just then, the door to the bathroom opened, and out walked Nicolus, wearing a paper bag over his head. A burst of laughter resounded through the halls of the Wise Men's house, directed at Nicolus.

"Leave me alone..." Nicolus said angrily. "Just leave me alone..."

A cry echoed through the halls, waking Indalecio up from his blissful sleep. He checked his clock, which proudly displayed the time 3:30 AM.

"Dammit, don't these kids ever sleep?" Indalecio said, thrusting his head back into the pillow. "I can't wait until morning comes..."

"Hey!" Claude said, opening the door to the Wise Men's house that morning. "How'd everything go?" The Ten Wise Men, sleep-deprived and worse-for-wear, stared angrily at them. Indalecio looked beside him towards Cyril, who gave a slight nod.

He then punched Claude in the face, thrust the twins unceremoniously into Rena's arms, and slammed the door so hard the foundation shook.

"What do you suppose got into them?" Claude asked, rubbing his swelling eye.

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