Chapter Text
“Heeey…wake up. Wake up. Wake up.” I felt a number of pushes against my body as a childish voice called out to me.
“Ouuuuugh,” I groaned as I was dragged out of my sleep. Someone had already done the job of ripping away my covers…but who…?
I looked around and found an uma child at my left side. She was wearing a white blouse and a green dress. When our eyes met as my vision returned to me, all she did was silently nod and rush out my bedroom door.
“Mama! Mom is awake!” I heard a voice squeak.
“Good work,” I could hear my sister out my door as well.
Oh yeah, that child. It’s already lunch time…?
Wait.
Mom?!?
I rush to the door and fling open my door.
“Good afternoon, Stego,” Su was placing down three plates of food around the table while she was wearing an apron. “Did you rest well?”
“I…yeah I did but, what the hell’s up with the calling me mom thing?!”
“We can’t both be mama,” Su explained. “I told her to call you mom to differentiate between her parents.”
“That is not the problem here,” I hissed. “I did not say anything about raising this kid.”
“So you wish to banish me to the life of a single mother? Would you truly be so cruel?” Su chided me as she took off her apron. “You are letting us sleep here, I don’t see how that doesn’t make you her mom too.”
“That’s…” shit. I did agree to that.
“Alright fine, but I hope you’re aware of how expensive raising a kid is. I don’t want to deal with any of that,” I grumbled.
“Of course, my winnings should be enough to handle that, especially if I find a job to keep myself afloat. And as I said, I’ll pay half of the rent too. A generous deal if I could say so myself.” Su nodded as she took a seat at the table. “Now go take a shower so you don’t stink and you’re not half naked in front of our kid.”
Now that the adrenaline had worn off, I did notice that I was feeling sickly and gross from sweat.
“I already know that…” I pouted.
-!-
After a refreshing shower and renewed in presentable clothing, I came back to the living room to see the child who, while she was keeping her hands to herself, I could tell from the look in her eyes that she was waiting to devour the plate in front of her.
Not that I could blame her, in front of the kid was a selection of sandwiches. Once I sat at my seat with an identical selection to Su’s and the kid, I saw that there were three types of sandwiches, egg and scallion with mayonnaise, ham and lettuce with basil sauce, and finally chicken and green pepper with sweet and sour sauce. Alongside the side of which were bowls of rice. However, the kid’s portion was bigger than mine and Su’s, where we each had three sandwich halves, the kid had 6 halves. Umamusume have a stronger appetite than humans, but due to our sizes, Su and I have a lesser appetite than most, which does work out for us both as it makes groceries cheaper.
“Can we eat now?” The kid eagerly looked over to Su, her legs kicking freely under the table.
“We first have to give our thanks. Follow our lead,” Su explained before the two of us clapped our hands together. “Thank you for the meal!”
“Thank you for the meal!” The kid followed suit before snatching the sandwiches and gobbling them down at a rapid speed.
“Ooh this is delicious,” the kid exclaimed, or at least I’m pretty sure that’s what she said—it was muffled a lot with all the food in her mouth.
“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Su chided.
“And don’t eat so fast, you might get hiccups,” I chuckled.
The kid slowed down and shallowed.
“What’s a hic—hyup!” She started to repeat but was interrupted by a gasp. She covered her mouth with her hands and her eyes widened in surprise.
“Knth,” I snickered before I smirked and smugly said, “That…is a hiccup.”
“Drink your water,” Su said.
The kid grabbed the cup of water at her side and chugged the entire thing. After letting out a breath from drinking a whole cup in one go, she hiccuped again.
“It didn’t work…” the kid whined.
“Ultimately it takes time, however, it will only become worse if you don’t take your time with your meal,” Su explained.
As I was amused by their conversation and the following pout from the kid, I began to dig in myself.
“Oh this is good,” I remarked as I took a bite out of the chicken sandwich. “Since when did you learn how to cook, sis?”
“It was something that I asked Super Creek about, and she gave me a multitude of recipes to learn,” Su explained as she refilled the kid’s cup with the water filter pitcher.
“Oh so that’s what you approach Super Creek about,” I said pointedly as I stared at Su.
“I sought this information before I was entrusted with a child,” Su placed the cup next to the kid’s plate and returned to her own seat. “Speaking of, since we are to live here, I will have to temporarily return to my own apartment and relocate my belongings here.”
“That is a good point, do you need any help with that?” I asked.
“No, I should be good to handle that on my own. I shouldn’t have much to carry. Besides, someone needs to look after her.”
“Bwuh?!” The kid looked up while mumbling with food in her mouth.
“Shallow.” Su instructed.
After a gulp, the kid tried talking again,
“You’re leaving me?” The kid looked like she was on the verge of tears.
“Don’t worry, it’s only temporary,” Su patted the kid on the head. “I need to leave for my own things so we can make this a real home for the three of us. Your mom will be here for you if you need anything.”
“Okay…”
“Hey don’t sound that disappointed you’re stuck with me,” I feigned offence. “You’re gonna break my heart.”
“What happened to you not wanting to raise a kid?” Su asked smugly.
“Oi.” I snapped. “If I’m forced to deal with this, I’m going to make the best of the situation I can.”
“So you say,” Su hummed as if she won something.
-!-
“I will return by dinner,” is what Su told us before she shut the door.
“Has your mama taken you around the neighborhood?” I asked the kid.
When the kid shook her head, I nodded.
“Ahright, I guess we should get yourself familiar with the block,” I said as I grabbed myself my black coat and also a smaller brown coat for the little one. I also packed bottles of water into my string bag. I wasn’t sure if the kid knew how to wear a coat, so I put mine on in front of her. Once I saw the kid zip herself up, I grabbed her hand and took outside with me.
When the two of us emerged out the door, the kid tightened her grip and put herself right by my side. Makes sense. Sis never gave me any details, but if she really was found off the street and was surviving out there, she would be pretty scared of getting lost without a loved one—or closely associated with a loved one in this case.
I decided to take her down the sidewalk. It was the late afternoon on a Sunday, so we didn’t get too many looks. We did get approached occasionally by someone asking why us kids are doing alone, but a quick flash of my ID generally turned them away. Can’t really blame them when my height makes us look less like a mother and daughter and more like kid sisters.
Eventually I could hear a bunch of kids yelling. The kid could definitely hear them too, given that she tightened her grip. It invited me to look back and see that the kid also flatten her ears.
“There, there,” I couldn’t help but pat the kid’s head, the poor thing was shivering. I stopped myself when I felt her grip loosing.
Looking back ahead, I could see a playground off in the distance. There were several umas running around the fort of stairs and slides. The layout of the playground was slightly above your standard fate. On one end I saw a set of platforms connected by bridges with their own underpasses for kids to run under. There were slides connected to the ends of two of the platforms for kids to slide down too. There was a second collection of platforms just like it over to the side, but this one was more elaborate—with multiple floors that were connected via stairs—and a slide that went all down from the top floor. Sprinkled around were a few of those pop ups that you would ride to move back and forth on.
“Figures there would be a bunch of kids here. It is a school free day,” I muttered.
“What is a school?” The kid asked.
Oh right…I guess she might not know that.
“A school is a place where kids like you and them go to learn about the world,” I explained as I turned my head to the kid. “It’s also generally your first time meeting kids your age.”
“Will I be going to school?”
“Do you want to?”
The kid didn’t respond, instead electing to look back at the kids running around on the playground. She was still too shy to not stick to my back, however I could see a flick in her eyes. She wanted to be out there with those kids too, to run, laugh, and smile like they are.
“Yes,” the kid nodded decisively before turning to me. “I would like to go to school.”
“Your mama and I can work on getting you enrolled. Unfortunately we’re currently in the last couple months of the school year, so you’ll have to wait until around when that ends before we can get yourself enrolled,” I explained to the kid. Currently it is the end of January, and the school year ends after March. “In the meantime, your mama and I are going to have to teach you some things ourselves to get you caught up with the rest of the kids your age. Then hopefully we can take you to a school when the next year rolls over. You got that?”
The kid nodded once. She looked seriously interested, it was very cute how earnest she looked.
“That’s good,” I smiled. “But let’s not dally anymore than we have. There’s still parts of the neighborhood I want to show you.”
I took the kid around for the rest of the tour, the highlight of which being the arcade. We didn’t have the time to go inside as it was close to evening, but I told the kid that this would be a place where we would return to visit in more depth.
-!-
Once the sun had started to set, the two of us made our way back to my apartment. When I opened the door, I saw a number of storage containers near the table as well as one outside of the bedroom.
“We’re home!” I called out as the kid and I unzipped our coats.
“Welcome back,” I hear Su say from the bedroom.
“Mama!” After hearing her mama, the kid bolted into the bedroom, and I could see her hugging Su through the open door.
“Do you need any help, sis?” I asked as I picked up the coat that the kid left on the floor. I placed the fallen coat onto the coat rack alongside my own.
“There isn’t much left to handle now,” Su said. “You can gather the boxes together and place them in a corner.”
“Got it!” I moved to gather the storage boxes through the apartment and placed them in a single corner. In doing so, I also passed by Su patting the kid along her hair.
“Additonally, once I have finished putting away the rest of my clothes, there is a game that I brought with me for tonight,” Su pointed with her eyes to something on the table.
I followed the direction of her gaze to find the box of a board game on the table. The word “Sorry!” predominantly showing on its cover. I opened the box up to get myself familiar with the rules before we played.
-!-
“Sorry, Mom!” The kid giggled as she moved a piece of hers over to one of mine, knocking it back to my starting area.
The game of Sorry is a board game where 2-4 players take turns moving their four board pieces by whatever number is labeled on the card they draw for their turn. With the goal being to make a lap around the board with all four pieces. However, there is a sorry card that lets you take a piece and place it at your opponent’s piece, which sends their piece back to the starting area.
“Just my luck,” I groaned as I hung my head down. This was a devastating blow for me as I was in the final stretch, which gives you protection from the sorry card in the last four spaces. However, I drew a four on my previous turn—which sends you back by four spaces instead of forward—taking me out of my safe space and leaving me vulnerable to the kid drawing the sorry card after my turn.
“My turn,” Su said as she drew a card, whiiiiiiich was a…2.
When she was two spaces away from placing her final piece onto the final line, because you can’t place your piece in that spot if you get an overshooting number, so it must be exact.
“And that’s game for sis,” I sighed.
“Awwwww,” the kid whined as her legs kicked the air. “Let’s play again!”
“Tragically, it is growing late,” Su said as she took a look at the time, 9:32 PM.
“Come on, Mama! One more, one more!” The kid exclaimed.
“As much as I commend you on your energy, kid,” I said as I broke into a yawn. “It would be good for you to sleep. The quicker you sleep, the earlier you can wake up later and have more time to play with Mama.”
“Oh, okay!” The kid nodded excitedly.
“Of course, first we will need to prepare you for bed,” Su said as she stood up from her chair and began packing away the board game. “I bought a toothbrush for you while I was out, so I will teach you how to clean your teeth tonight in the bathroom.”
“Okay!” The kid exclaimed as she leapt out of her seat and dashed into the bedroom that led to the bathroom.
“Cute,” I chuckled to myself.
“Yes, very cute.”
Su most likely thought I meant the kid’s energy. Not to say that I wasn’t charmed by her enthusiasm, but I was much more pleased at the smile that I could see my sister holding. A touch of warmth that I haven’t seen from my sister in a long while. It warms my heart up as well that this kid is able to melt away the ice that Su wrapped herself in during her rough Tracen days.