As You Grow, So Do I
is a Murder Drones fanfiction by polterskelter
. Taking place in an alternate universe where the characters are humans living in a modern-day New York City, the fic follows N and Uzi as they prepare for the arrival of their first child together.
Tropes in As You Grow, So Do I:
- Accidental Good Outcome: As early as the first chapter, it's clear that neither N nor Uzi intended for the latter to get pregnant. However, they're nothing but thrilled at the revelation that they are going to become parents.
- Accidental Hug: When Lizzy goes into labor, V, overcome with excitement at the realization that she's about to finally meet her baby, impulsively hugs J. J reciprocates for a second before they pull away, both women commenting that it was awkward and agreeing to never do it again.
- Accidental Truth: In chapter 2, Doll jokingly remarks that Uzi must be pregnant due to her adamant and uncharacteristic refusal to drink alcohol that night; turns out, she was right on the nose.
- Adaptational Upbringing Change: In the show's original canon, Nori passes away sometime after Uzi's birth/creation, later revealed to have faked her own death and spent the majority of her daughter's life in hiding. In the fic, Nori dies for real of cancer a few months after giving birth to Uzi, not getting to be present for even the first few months of her daughter's life. Or so we think.
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In canon, V and Doll utterly loathe each other, with the former having killed the latter's parents and causing her to seek revenge. Here, as V wasn't the one who murdered Doll's parents, they get along perfectly fine.
- Adaptational Romance Downgrade: To the extreme. In the show's original canon, N and V are shown to have had mutual romantic feelings for each other before the former got together with Uzi. In this fic, N and V are not only strictly platonic - they're also biological siblings, leaving no chance for a past, current, or future romance between the two.
- Lampshaded in chapter 50, when Uzi awakens from a dream about the show's canon and informs N that she dreamt of him and V being estranged ex-lovers as opposed to brother and sister. He, understandably, is weirded out by this.
- Adults Are Useless: Pretty much everyone in the main cast has some kind of parental issues. N, J, V, and Cyn's parents abandoned them as children, Uzi's father became neurotic and neglectful following the death of his wife, Lizzy and Thad's mother left them when they were younger and their dad became apathetic and emotionally detached from his children afterwards. The one character who actually had a good relationship with her parents, Doll, lost them to a murderer as a teenager.
- Afraid to Hold the Baby: J, in chapter 24.
- Affectionate Nickname: Lizzy gleefully refers to V as "Grumpy Bear," even though V implores her not to do so in front of other people to avoid embarrassment.
- N has an affectionate nickname for his daughter as well, calling her "little star" and "munchkin".
- All Lesbians Want Kids: Lizzy regularly alludes to wanting a baby with V, eventually saying as much outright after drinking excessively in chapter 26 - she also admits that she wishes to be the one between the duo to get pregnant, doing so through artificial insemination. This dream comes to fruition in chapter 30.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Done by Thad, twice.Thad: Doll's getting eye removal surgery, Lizzy's pregnant, and I think Emily wants to get married but I don't want to because I've been terrified of commitment ever since my mom left.Thad: Emily broke up with me because I waited too long to get serious with her and Chad was being homophobic to my pregnant sister and the omelette I had at that diner didn't even taste good and-
- Attracted to Humor: Both Nori and Uzi admit to being attracted to their respective husbands' ability to make them laugh.
- Baby's First Words: Uzi reveals that her first words were, predictably, "bite me". All her friends instantly agree that it checks out.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- The first instance of this is at the beginning of chapter 8, where Uzi is gently cradling a baby girl with dark, fuzzy hair and whispering about how happy she is to be the girl's mother. The baby in question? Her pet tarantula, Feiticeira.
- In chapter 9, N bawls while dropping his and Uzi's blonde-haired, brown-eyed "son" off for his first day of school; the son in question turns out to be their golden retriever, Biscuit, being taken to doggie daycare for the first time.
- Chapter 13 ends with N discovering that Uzi is experiencing vaginal bleeding. At the start of chapter 14, they seek immediate medical attention and discover that she is not suffering a stillbirth or going into early labor; the bleeding merely occurred due to a noncancerous growth in her cervix.
- Uzi does this to N in chapter 18, playfully pranking him by asking if she can tell him a "secret," then proceeding to belch directly into his ear.
- Chapter 23 begins with Uzi sobbing over the fact that N has left her, and assuring a young Nova and her unnamed baby sibling that it is not their fault their father walked out; this is then revealed to be a nightmare being had by N, who awakens in a panic.
- In chapter 27, V proudly announces to Uzi and N that she and Lizzy have adopted a "baby", whom she then introduces as her "son"; when the baby in question attempts to bite N and is admonished by V for doing so, he is revealed to in fact be a dog.
- N and Uzi's daughter's name may very well be an example of this. In chapter 14, N reveals to Uzi that the name he has selected for their unborn daughter is Aspen. They continue referring to her by this name until her birth in chapter 21, whereupon they realize that the name they've decided upon doesn't suit her, and end up naming her Nova instead.
- In chapter 30, after Thad takes N and Uzi's toddler out trick-or-treating, Uzi seduces N with the promise of doing something "that's only for grownups," that they can't do when their kid is home. The activity in question turns out to be smoking marijuana while playing violent video games.
- The most long-winded example of this is probably the birth of V and Lizzy's son. In chapter 36, the two's ultrasound appointment reveals that they are having a girl. Cut to six chapters later, Lizzy ends up giving birth to a boy instead.
- The Bet: Beginning in chapter 3, Uzi and N have one about the sex of their baby - Uzi believes they're having a boy, while N is fully convinced it's a girl. They agree that whoever is correct will get to choose the baby's name. The bet continues until chapter 10, where it is revealed that N was in fact the one to guess correctly.
- Lizzy and Thad also bet on the child's sex (Lizzy agreeing with N and Thad siding with Uzi), though the stakes in this bet are twenty dollars.
- Uzi's co-workers, Kelsey and Riley, bet on whether or not Uzi is pregnant at all, with twenty dollars being the stakes as well.
- Braving the Blizzard: After being broken up with by Emily, Thad does this, running all the way to her house in the middle of a snowstorm to reassure her of his feelings. Thankfully, it works, and she takes him back.
- Brooklyn Rage: Uzi shows a great deal of this in chapter 19 when, as she is already in the midst of a hormone-induced crying session, someone loudly speeds down her block in a sports car.
- This someone turns out to be none other than Khan, who reveals that the car is a gift for his future grandchild.
- But Not Too Bi: After Uzi learns of Nori's past relationship with Yeva, she is outright stated to be bisexual, reflecting on the fact that it is something she shares in common with her mother. However, Uzi's sexual orientation is only mentioned in this one chapter, and the only times she ever displays romantic or sexual interest in anybody is with her husband, N.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Uzi, jaded after a lifetime of being compared to her late mother and having to counsel Khan through his seemingly neverending grief, finally does this in chapter 11, after Khan expects her and N to name their daughter after Nori.
- The Caretaker: J is this to Cyn, sharing an apartment with her youngest sister and looking after her following the trauma that resulted in her odd habits and juvenile state of mind.
- Comically Missing the Point: After V calls out J for her workaholic tendencies, J admits that it would in fact benefit her to take some time off. However, she opts to only use one-half of a paid vacation day out of the eighty-eight she has saved up. How does she intend to spend it? Visiting the Museum of American Finance.
- Deceased Parents Are the Best: Out of the cast, Doll is the only one who had 100% Good Parents. They're also the only ones, outside of Nori, who died a few months after giving birth, to be dead, with Doll having lost them to a home invader in her teens.
- Department of Child Disservices: As children, N and his sisters are abandoned by their birth parents. When placed into foster care, their foster parents turn out to be both psychologically and physically abusive.
- Dramatic Irony: Uzi mentions several times throughout the fic that she does not believe in ghosts. As we come to find out in chapter 25, ghosts very much do exist in this universe, and Uzi's late mother, Nori, has been watching over her throughout her life.
- In chapter 26, the ghosts of Nori and Tessa are petting Biscuit, who can see them. N and Uzi comment on the fact that Biscuit looks oddly happy, and when N jokingly remarks that he must be getting pets from a bunch of ghosts, Uzi reminds him that ghosts aren't real.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Rebecca, upon meeting N, is instantly floored by his handsomeness and finds herself struggling not to ogle at him throughout the work day.
- Dumb Jock: Thad.
- Exposition: Used by N toward Rebecca when he first meets her in chapter 16. It's through this that N explains why he became a vegan, why he has his students refer to him as "Mr. N" as opposed to his legal surname, why he adopted Uzi's surname upon marrying her, and why Uzi has a very English-sounding surname despite being Japanese on her mother's side and Mongolian on her father's. This interaction also reveals that N has ADHD and is dyslexic.
- Eye Scream: In chapter 32, it's revealed Doll was assaulted and got stabbed in the right eye. She ends up losing it, like her canon self.
- Face Your Fears: V overcomes her fear of dogs after interacting with N and Uzi's newly adopted golden retriever puppy, Biscuit. Her interactions with the pup even end up inspiring her to adopt a dog of her own, and she just so happens to adopt a Doberman pinscher - the exact breed that had mauled her and led her to develop a dog phobia in the first place.
- Family of Choice:
- Nori becomes this to Tessa, horrified after learning of the abuse the young girl suffered at the hands of her biological parents and directly telling her, "I'm your mama now."
- After waking up in the hospital after her attack and surgery, Doll protests when the doctor mentions her family is there to see her, as her parents died when she was a teenager. The doctor assures her that the people there-Uzi, N, V, Lizzy, J and Thad-are very much her family.
- Feeling the Baby Kick: Happens several times throughout Uzi's pregnancy, first taking place at the end of chapter 12. Happens during Lizzy's pregnancy, too.
- Forbidden Love: Upon reading Nori's diary, Uzi discovers that Nori had once shared a romantic and sexual relationship with Doll's late mother, Yeva. She surmises that their breakup was fueled by society's negative attitude toward same-sex couples at that point in time.
- Foreshadowing:
- N and Uzi design their child's room to have an outer space theme, foreshadowing the fact that she has a space themed name.
- As explicitly stated by the author in a chapter note, there are several instances of foreshadowing throughout the second arc alluding to V and Lizzy's son's name, Ambrose. As Ambrose is a Greek name meaning "immortal," many of the imagery that appears throughout this arc is stuff that signifies immortality - the most common of which being fruit.
- Forgets to Eat: It is mentioned that Uzi often gets so absorbed in her work that she does this. However, once she gets pregnant, she realizes she no longer has the freedom to skip the occasional meal.
- Halloween Enthusiast: Uzi loves Halloween, and mourns the fact that she'll have to miss it due to her child's due date being just a few days before Halloween. Thankfully, N saves the day by suggesting she combine her baby shower and Halloween party into one event.
- Uzi later gains even more of a reason to love Halloween, as it ends up being the day her daughter is born.
- Happily Married: N and Uzi, as well as V and Lizzy.
- Hiding Your Heritage: Lizzy and Thad are of Greek descent, but Lizzy is embarrassed by her full first name being "Elisavet" (the Greek equivalent of Elizabeth), even going as far as to tell people her name is just Lizzy, not short for anything.
- However, Lizzy seems to have no problem telling people she is Greek, so it's really just her name itself that she's ashamed of.
- Insecure Love Interest: When her body starts changing as a result of her pregnancy, Uzi begins fretting that N will no longer find her attractive. Thankfully, N is there to reassure her that she is beautiful to him no matter what.
- Invisible to Normals: Nori and Tessa are unable to be seen by most humans, but can be seen by animals, as well as human babies until they reach the age of one.
- Last-Minute Baby Naming: Unintentionally. N and Uzi have a name picked out for their daughter, but change their minds at the last minute once they see her and realize the name they chose doesn't match her face.
- This happens yet again when V and Lizzy's son is born. Unlike N and Uzi, the two opt not to settle on a name prior to the birth of their child, as they realize they could very well, much like N and Uzi, change their minds at the last minute. When their baby turns out to be a boy and not a girl like the ultrasound technician told them they'd be having, their attempt to settle on a fitting name for him becomes even more complex. Thankfully, she comes up with the perfect name after she eats a burger and proclaims that it's "like ambrosia" to her - Ambrose.
- Lost Pet Grievance: In chapter 13, Feiticeira passes away from old age. Uzi is heartbroken by the loss, and copes by holding a proper funeral service for her, complete with a eulogy, burial, and even a gravemarker that she made.
- Love Epiphany: Thad, after being broken up with by Emily due to his apparent reluctance to get married, reflects on their relationship and realizes he's madly in love with her and does in fact want to marry her, even if it's not anytime within the near future.
- Maternity Crisis: While V and J are in the middle of a serious conversation and actually seem to be making positive progress toward reconciling with each other, Lizzy's water breaks.
- Meaningful Name: N and Uzi call their daughter "Nova," as in a supernova, due to their shared love of astronomy and N remarking that her eyes remind him of stars. The Benelli Nova is also a type of gun, relating to Uzi's own gun-based nickname.
- Mistaken Age: Despite being twenty-nine at the start of the fic and later thirty, Uzi is routinely assumed to be either a teenager or in her early twenties, due to only being four feet and eleven inches tall.
- Morning Sickness: The fic opens with Uzi experiencing this. She initially believes it to be food poisoning or a stomach virus until she starts to think about it a bit harder.
- My Secret Pregnancy: Uzi intends to keep her pregnancy a secret from her and N's friends and family until her first ultrasound, not wanting to have to explain in case of a chemical pregnancy.
- This ends up backfiring when Doll jokingly says Uzi must be pregnant only for Uzi and N's reactions to be a dead giveaway that she actually is, J uses context clues to come to this realization on her own, and Uzi is forced to tell Khan earlier than she had hoped to after she ends up hospitalized due to hyperemesis gravidarum. The only people who end up learning the news after the scan are N's younger sister Cyn, and Uzi's co-workers Sam, Kelsey, and Riley.
- Oblivious to Love: In chapter 16, Rebecca spends the day flirting with N. He interprets her advances as innocent attempts to make friendly conversation until she corners him and starts fumbling with the buttons of his shirt.
- Once N becomes aware of Rebecca's intentions, he shuts her down immediately, stating that he would never be disloyal to his wife and would not pursue Rebecca even if he was single due to their age difference and power imbalance.
- The One Guy: N is the only brother out of four siblings (five if we're counting Tessa), and his main social circle consists of mostly women, with Thad being the only other man.
- N continues to be outnumbered by girls when his and Uzi's first and second children both turn out to be daughters. He's extremely happy with this outcome, though.
- The One That Got Away: Nori and Yeva were this to each other. Though their breakup was amicable and they both went on to fall in love with and marry other people, their romantic feelings for one another never quite went away.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Pretty much no member of the main cast is referred to by their full first name.
- Uzi's real name is Uzume.
- N's is Nolan, V's is Veronica, J's is Jade, and Cyn's is Cynthia.
- Lampshaded in chapter 27.
Emily: So… does everyone in your family just go by their first initial, or…?V: Yeah, it's like a whole thing.- Lizzy's full first name is Elisavet, and Thad's is Thaddeus.
- Doll's is Lyubov; her friends opt to give her a nickname for ease of pronunciation, settling on "Doll" because it's what her surname, Kuklina, translates to in English.
- Nori's full first name was Noriko.
- Out of Character: Despite being your run-of-the-mill mean girl who bullies the protagonist in the show's canon, Lizzy is by contrast a good friend of Uzi's in this fic, and is actually very sweet.
- Panicky Expectant Father: N becomes this when Uzi goes into labor with their second child. Uzi even comments on how ridiculous he's being since they've already had a kid before and know what to do.
- Parental Sexuality Squick: Uzi reads Nori's diary, and becomes nauseous during the parts where Nori mentions her sexual escapades with both Khan and Yeva.
- Pillow Pregnancy: N does this in chapter 10, wearing a fake baby bump in public to make Uzi feel less awkward about all the attention her pregnancy is getting her.
- Pineapple Ruins Pizza: Uzi has some incredibly strong feelings about this, to the point where all her friends (and even herself) are horrified when she starts craving pineapple pizza as the result of her pregnancy.
- “The Reason You Suck” Speech: N finally gives J one of these in chapter 18 after she admonishes him for not bringing her a coffee from their local doughnut shop.
- Red Herring: N and Uzi's daughter's name.
- Relationship Reveal: Happens twice in chapter 27.
- At V and Lizzy's Christmas Eve party, J takes advantage of the fact that there is mistletoe on the ceiling and kisses Doll in front of Uzi, to the latter's initial horror but later indifference.
- Shortly thereafter, Emily does the same to Thad, despite the latter's insistence that they aren't a couple and instead just "hang out sometimes" - this can also be seen as a Relationship Upgrade.
- Schedule Fanatic: J, as revealed by Doll in chapter 41, creates a schedule of dates and times for the two to be physically intimate that she sends her every week.
- N and Uzi, as revealed in chapter 30, have also started making appointments to have sex, though granted that they have a toddler, it's more understandable.
- Secret Relationship: While visiting Cyn at her and J's shared apartment in chapter 18, N discovers that J and Doll have spent the night together. It's clear he wasn't meant to catch them, and Doll even threatens him if he tells Uzi what she's been up to.
- Seen It All: After waking up in the hospital after getting attacked, undergoing surgery and discovering she lost her eye, Doll remains calm. When the doctor questions this, Doll admits that, after losing her parents in a home invasion and being an oncologist for several years and having to watch people, children included, die, not much fazes her anymore.
- Sexy Discretion Shot:
- After N defends Uzi from a group of rude teenagers, she finds herself aroused and attempts to initiate intercourse in their car, but agrees to wait until they get home at N's insistence. The scene immediately cuts to them lying in bed together post-coitus - the actual sex scene between them is not written.
- Uzi reads Nori's diary, in which the latter had written about a sexual encounter she imagined having with her close friend and former lover, Yeva - but Uzi slams the book shut and throws it against the wall just when things start to get steamy.
- Shout-Out:
- Uzi's favorite band is Deftones. Several references to the band are made throughout the fic, including but not limited to Uzi naming her pet tarantula after one of their songs, Uzi having one of their album covers tattooed on her arm, and N surprising her with tickets to their concert for Christmas.
- Some of the other bands Uzi likes, including Alice in Chains, Tool, Coheed & Cambria, and The Cure, are also mentioned. In chapter 26, Uzi sings parodies of Tool's songs "Schism" and "Intolerance" to calm her fussy baby.
- In chapter 9, Uzi suggests naming their kid Tony Soprano Doorman, after the main protagonist of The Sopranos.
- In chapter 13, N and Uzi watch The Breakfast Club.
- Doll and J's kiss in chapter 27 is described as looking like it could be a scene in the notoriously campy 1964 French romantic musical film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.
- In chapter 30, Uzi and N play Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
- In chapter 34, V mentions her celebrity crush on Game of Thrones' Daenerys Targaryen, played by Emilia Clarke.
- In chapter 39, V starts panicking over the thought of her and Lizzy's child getting in contact with their sperm donor once they turn eighteen and the donor subsequently becoming part of their lives and homewrecking them. Lizzy reminds V that the scenario she is describing is the plot of that movie with Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo.
- Several real-life locations in New York City, such as the Met Cloisters, Central Park, the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, and the Brooklyn Bridge Park are featured.
- Sibling Rivalry: V and J.
- Stunned Silence: Khan, when meeting Nova for the first time, is so overcome with love for his newborn granddaughter that all he can do is stare at her wordlessly for a few minutes.
- Tall, Dark, and Snarky: J.
- She can also be seen as an example of the Took a Level in Smartass trope, as it's implied and later confirmed that her cruel, arrogant nature came about in response to the trauma of being abandoned by her biological parents and watching her foster sister die right in front of her.
- Teach Him Anger: Uzi is furious with N when she learns that despite warding off his new assistant's unwanted romantic advances, he declined to report her for sexual harassment and get her fired. When he seeks out comfort at V's place, V admits that she agrees with Uzi to an extent and would like to see N standing up to their older sister J every so often.
- The lesson clearly sticks, as in the chapter right after this one, he finally tells J off when she gets snarky with him for not getting her a coffee, despite him not even knowing she would be home and her having a ridiculously specific coffee order that he would not possibly be able to remember.
- Tears of Joy:
- In chapter 1, both N and Uzi cry tears of joy when they learn that she is pregnant.
- In chapter 4, N cries while seeing the fetus on the ultrasound for the first time.
- In chapter 5, Khan cries when Uzi breaks the news that he's going to be a grandfather.
- In chapter 6, Thad talks to the baby in Uzi's belly, leading to some joyful tears from the mother-to-be.
- In chapter 10, N becomes a sobbing mess after he finds out that he and Uzi's baby is a girl, and is quickly followed suit by Uzi. Upon waking up the next morning, he starts crying happy tears once more as the events of the previous night come back to him.
- At the end of chapter 12, N and Uzi both cry when they feel their baby's kicks for the first time.
- In chapter 14, N and Uzi burst into tears of relief upon finding out that their stillbirth scare was in fact nothing to worry about.
- In chapter 20, Uzi shakes N awake in the middle of the night, informing him that she is going into labor. He feels himself start to tear up, but the moment is cut short when Uzi experiences another contraction and demands he take her to the hospital.
- Chapter 21 probably has the most significant instance of this, when N and Uzi get to meet and hold their baby for the very first time.
- When Khan finally meets his grandbaby in chapter 23, he struggles to hold back tears of joy, not wanting to cry directly onto the baby's head.
- There are a few examples in chapter 27, namely when N realizes he and Uzi are about to celebrate their first Christmas as parents, when Uzi is gifted a new tarantula by N, and when Uzi sees the painting N has made for their child.
- Uzi and N do this at pretty much every milestone their daughter reaches.
- V and Lizzy, when their son is born. V is so overwhelmed, in fact, that she can't even speak.
- Threatening Mediator: Lizzy, desperate for V and J to finally start seeing eye-to-eye before the birth of her and V's child, tricks the two of them into attending an intervention with Doll's help. When V tries to leave, Lizzy threatens to handcuff her to her chair - J is horrified by the implications of V and Lizzy owning a pair of handcuffs.
- Wacky Cravings: Uzi's include brownies with ranch dressing, pickles with maple syrup, and drinking a straight-up glass of condensed milk.
