Chapter Text
Setsuna Meioh hated 20th Century computers. What would be an instantaneous data transfer of 900MB in Crystal Tokyo, was instead taking four and a half hours. Her computer, top-of-the-range as it might be had to focus entirely on that one task lest it crash. Or wipe itself. It had done that so many times that she was one step away from unleashing Dead Scream on that thing.
So instead, she was peer-reviewing. Her lecturers compared the task to cleaning toilets: necessary but downright ghastly, unless you were one of the odd few whom enjoyed it. And Setsuna was usually one of the odd few. When it was an actual scientific article and not just a bunch of first year projects. Takeuchi-Sensei owed her big time.
Her task was to mimic the usual style of peer reviewing so that the new batch of Chemistry 111 students could get a taste of ‘real’ scientific writing. There were a few excellent ones and most passable but some were just bad. The kindest thought she had for those was that they had a very long way to go before they were up to that level. Others she just put to the side after reading the first page to finish with a glass of wine later tonight. Sensei owed her double for those.
A howl stopped her halfway through one that she was a hairs breadth from placing on the liquor pile. Hotaru had woken to save the day. Her tolerance for stupidity and plagiarism was slowly dropping into the negatives.
She picked her baby up, holding her close and shushing her. The raven haired beauty calmed immediately and went back to sleep. Setsuna placed her in the bassinet. Must’ve been a nightmare. Could babies get nightmares? She have to ask the pediactrics department for some articles on the subject. Oh well, she had to do that when her computer wasn’t otherwise occupied. Speaking of, she left the room to check if there had been any progress with the download since she left an hour ago...
Only to have to walk straight back into the study as Hotaru started crying again. She picked her up again, held her until she fell asleep and put her down again. This time tucking in her favourite toy: a pink rabbit. Her daughter’s tiny fingers curled around its ear as Setsuna kissed her forehead. She took three steps into the hall...
And Hotaru began to cry again. She picked her back up and began to think of a solution. Hotaru has always begun to cry the second she left her. Rocking the baby back and forth it came to her.
Michiru had bought it last week, Setsuna had forgotten the exact name of it but it was a sort of pouch-thing that you could keep your baby close to your chest with, leaving your arms free. She fished that out of the cupboard, checked and fastened Hotaru in. Her little princess seemed to like this idea as she felt straight to sleep. She checked the download, 550MB to go and thought that she was now in a good enough mood to go back to marking.
Thankfully, after placing the last student she started to mark away from her, she came across a better one. She found herself occasionally asking Hotaru for an opinion, who cooed in response. Unfortunately, after three great ones there was another terrible report. And it was the last meaning she’d have to actually deal with the pile of seven papers next to her sober. She sighed and began to mark. The baby strapped to her chest had other ideas though and began to get antsy, squirming about and making it impossible to focus.
Setsuna stood up, took Hotaru out of the harness and paced around, trying to calm her once again. She left the study to get a drink. Hotaru was smacking her lips, a sign she was hungry. Setsuna looked over at the high chair, they’d started moving onto solids two weeks ago, but only for one or two meals a day. Formula it is. She made up the bottle. Hotaru drank greedily, her hatred of milk nonexistent in this new body. Setsuna laughed at the thought, then grew pensive as the memories of just over a month ago moved to the forefront of her mind. She was so cold to others back then, so lonely. Haruka and Michiru had trusted no one but each other. The little warm body snuggled closer in her arms, perhaps sensing her discomfort. Her heart warmed at the thought.
After feeding Hotaru, she really did not feel like marking any more so she laid on the couch, Hotaru on her stomach and started to watch TV. It was some kooky game show, which mesmerised Hotaru with its bright colours and spinning wheels. After it finished Setsuna really wanted to go outside, so she took a small walk to the beach, let Hotaru crawl in the sand and immediately regretted that decision when her little troublemaker decided it was food, as well as something to toss around. Setsuna bore the brunt of the onslaught but the both needed a bath when they got home.
After bath time Hotaru began to calm down and begun to sleep in Setsuna’s arms. She walked up to the nursery and just sat in the rocking chair, whispering sweet nothings until Haruka and Michiru waltzed through the door.
The second Haruka saw her she had this wicked grin on her face. She glanced over at Michiru.
“See, it’s not just me that prefers Hotaru over homework!”