Chapter 9

Ever since the arrival of Vanity, the deliveries were a faster than before, it was in Papa's perspective as he saw through his window another stork with a basket. But Vanity just came yesterday and it's normally like 3 or 4 day for the other to come along but maybe they want to deliver the remaining smurflings quicker so it can be done he thought to himself as he received the basket from the tall bird.

As it flew away he took a peek at the basket when he noticed the baby inside was starting to squirm under the blanket he was covered in. He must be tired from being in that basket too long that it'd be good to get him outta there now, he walked to the house and put the basket down and took the blanket off the frustrated baby quickly.

As he took it off, some baby smurflings crawled up to Papa to see what he had there. They soon saw another baby like them, but he had something different from them, it wasn't a big difference only that his hat was weird and not as 'smurfy' as theirs also. Papa looked at him and gave in awe since he was a bit smaller than the rest of the smurflings, he picked him up from the basket and bounced him trying to make him laugh and it worked. He giggled and clapped at Papa's affection towards him, but as his hat and his laughter was different too, they didn't know why he was like that, but it's nothing bad every smurf is different in a lot of ways.

The morning came quick and he had all his little smurflings outside so they could have some quality time together and in nature or the village that is, he saw how Brainy and Clumsy were playing with a snail crawling by and so on with the rest of them, but he spotted Greedy about to touch some poison ivy leaves and he dashed to him and picked him up before his little hands could reach the dangerous weed.

"Greedy NO! That plant is very dangerous!" he cried out startling Greedy.

"Food Papa?" he said pointing to the weeds.

"No, never try to smurf that again" he said putting him down with other smurflings.

But when he was distracted with Greedy, Alchemist and Nosey yanked his tail and made him yelp from the sensation he got through his spine and glanced to the 2 baby smurfs that were smiling at him with such an innocent face. He'd let it pass this time but next time they do it, now they'd be in trouble for doing it on purpose.

He completely forgot of the new baby smurf, he saw him crawling to the flowers and tilted his head as he saw every different one and at every new flower he saw he gave a giggle and a clap at them as showing his happiness. The way he was showing his emotions and his cute little face was actually competing with Vanity's own cuteness; he crawled to the rest of the bushes to see what other flowers or different things each one had.

At lunch time he set 5 smurflings on a high chair and fed one by one, it was hard to feed 51 little faces 3 times a day every year but it was a job he loved doing with a smile in his face. He fed Grouchy but with some difficulty, he never let Papa feed him for being such an independent little smurf but the elder smurf couldn't help it he loved him as much as the others. As he continued with the others he finally reached Vanity, Camper, Traveler, Fakir and the new one, but for some reason when he saw Vanity he had a very strange look on his face, he was glaring at someone but in the cutest way anyone could imagine. He looked at the source of his attitude and saw it was the new one; the baby emptied the porridge on the tray and started to spread it all over it with giggles and coos, but why would it make Vanity so mad?

As they ate their lunch Papa had to go to the nursery for a sec to get a clean towel to clean all the goop on the tray, as he left the kitchen Vanity took the opportunity to 'bah' at the baby next him and gave him a bigger and cuter glare that made the baby just stare at him with confusion of why he was so mad at him. Vanity saw that it didn't work and thought of another tactic.

"Me!" he said pointing to himself.

"…Bah?" said the baby tilting his head.

"Me-ME!" he yelled causing the other smurflings to watch.

"Meh?" said the baby putting a finger in his mouth.

"Hike?" whispered Camper to Fakir.

"Charm" Answered Fakir as they both had their attention on the 2 smurflings.

"Papa!" cried out Traveler before anything else happened.

Vanity was about to throw his spoon to the baby when Papa arrived and took it from him before he had the chance to prepare. Papa had a serious look on his face and wondered why he would do something like that, even Hefty didn't do that to Handy though he yanked his nose really hard those days but that was beside the point, he glanced at the baby and saw a confused and rather scared look on his face for what was going on now, all he did was just eat and play with some of his food.

"Vanity Smurf, why would you do such an unsmurfy thing to the new one?" he asked the baby not really expecting to get an answer.

"Me…" he said pouting.

"The little one doesn't know everyone yet and you're giving a bad impression to him. No more fights or trying to START one, got it?"

The only answer he got was a pout and another cute glare at the baby. Why would Vanity try to hurt him and look at him like that? As far as Papa knew, the new one hasn't actually interacted with the others so he never did anything to Vanity, the only thing he could do was just observe them in these days until the First word ceremony. And so he did, he had been watching the smurfling closely and saw nothing odd about him but only Vanity.

Hefty and Handy were 'wrestling' as the others watched and laughed, and the new one joined them as well to enjoy the moment, but again, Vanity followed behind and 'growled' at him for some reason. The new one was absolutely adorable clapping and 'cheering' for the 2 smurflings until Papa finally got the point of what had Vanity at the tip of his patience. He considered the smurfling to be cuter than he is and he won't let that happen. When the baby arrived those nights ago Vanity saw the expression on Papa's face and remembered that he had the same expression when he arrived only that one was more breath taking, so, he wanted to be the only 'cute' smurfling here and he wouldn't let anyone take his place.

Papa went and picked up the only smurfling with a flower on his hat and took him to his lab to show him something. He walked silently but with a smile on his face, he opened the door to Papa's room and sat him on his bed.

"Vanity, don't be so rough on him or yourself, he doesn't know how smurfy he is nor he does about you."

"Me!"

"I know you want everysmurf to pay attention to you so you can know how special you are but trying to make any other know that by trying to hurt them won't work. But if you want to know a better way to always know you're special and smurfy about yourself…see this"

The smurf picked up the baby smurf and brought him in front of something he'd never seen and always will look at from now on. It was a big wooden mirror that showed his and Papa's reflection and he couldn't help but stop breathing for a few seconds and blinked rapidly at the 'gorgeous' sight he saw there. Papa sat him on the floor as Vanity looked at him with curiosity as he bent down next to him.

"Whenever you want to smurf something special and smurfy or to know you're as smurfy as the others, you can always know by looking at yourself here and repeating it to yourself, little Vanity"

Vanity was too concentrated on himself, he did hear what Papa Smurf said but he couldn't take his eyes off the 'perfect' view he had. He was very glad that Papa showed this to him and told him what to do every time he saw his reflection, but for his luck, Papa then brought him a little hand mirror that was perfect for him. He snatched it from Papa's hands in a cute way and looked at himself in it with an amazed look, he just couldn't believe how 'smurfy' he was, it made Papa chuckle at how he was so vain being a smurfling, he just couldn't wait to see how he would grow up to be in the next 100 years.

As Vanity enjoyed the view of himself in the outdoors, Hefty saw the mirror and crawled to him so he could a good close look, he looked at the back of it and then he saw the front part that showed Vanity's face. He was freaked out at first but then he wanted to see if his face appeared there like his, he tried to take it from Vanity but he took it away from him and crawled some centimeters away from him.

"Exercise" said Hefty crawling up to him again.

"Me!" he said hugging the mirror.

"Now now Vanity, share" said Papa getting near them.

Vanity forcefully gave him the mirror so Hefty could look at himself too, but he didn't know the new baby was watching them with the mirror and wanted to make something special about it, he found some sheets of paper that Papa brought them in case they wanted to color and picked one up with a handful of crayons. He started to scribble on the sheet and left some other smurflings watching closely what he was doing. When he finished, he crawled to Hefty and Vanity, in some way he knew that Vanity didn't like him so he thought it would be nice to let him know that he DOES like Vanity and hopes he does too.

"Abah!" said the baby with a big smile.

The 2 smurflings turned and saw him with the paper in his little hand; he sat in front of Vanity and shoved the paper on his face so he could see what he made for him. Vanity took the paper and saw it was a scribbled version of him looking at his mirror with a smile, he looked at the baby and smiled at him as a 'thank you and sorry' that he gladly accepted, he gave him a hug and let him borrow his mirror…for only 10 seconds. But when Vanity took his mirror again, the baby laughed but in the strange way he always did, Papa couldn't wait for tonight to see what's the meaning of his strange laughter and blabs.

Papa was waiting patiently for the beam to strike the little baby clapping on the mushroom; he was amazed at the beautiful color of the moon and the shine it let out that covered the night until he saw a beam fall on him and made him feel a strange sensation that got Papa eager.

"M-ma-ma…"

"Yes Yes!"

"Masterpace!"

"Materpace? Doesn't he mean…masterpiece?"

"Masterpace!"

"Why does he say it like that...wait a minute…you have a French accent! *laugh* No wonder you laughed and spoke different"

The baby didn't understand what he meant but he clapped and laughed at Papa's reaction. The smurf picked him up and started to think of a good name for him.

"Well what I smurfed the past days you have an interest for colors and drawings, you try to make a 'masterpiece' of everything I give you" He said remembering what he did with the porridge. "So I think I have a smurfy name for you, you shall be named…Painter Smurf! Because I know you'll be able to smurf any smurfy paints"

Painter giggled and kissed Papa's nose as they went back home for another smurfy night.