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“Muhduh.”
At the sound, Rose and Luisa froze, their gazes snapping to the toddler on the floor.
“Was that-”
“Did she-”
Luisa slid from the couch, kneeling beside Mia on the floor. “What?”
Mia turned and leaned haphazardly on her mother. “Muhduh,” she repeated.
The brunette took a beat before looking up at Rose on the couch, her nose scrunched in confusion. “Does that count?”
“I mean...is it a word?”
Luisa turned her attention back to the wriggling toddler currently trying to climb her. “What are you trying to say, little one?”
“Muhduh,” the little girl repeated.
Luisa glanced at Rose. “Mother?”
“But why that and not mama or mami?”
“I don’t know,” Luisa replied. Looking to Mia who had settled her head against Luisa’s neck, she said, “Mother? Me?”
With a small shake of her head, the little girl wiggled out of Luisa’s arms and flopped onto her butt with the momentum.
“I’m at a loss,” she sighed.
“Do we count it?” Rose asked.
“So our little girl’s first word will forever be, ‘we weren’t really sure but it could have been mother’?” Luisa replied.
“Moodah.”
Luisa’s back stiffened.
“What?” Rose asked.
“Is she saying ‘Mutter’?” she asked, her voice low.
“No!” Rose said, quickly kneeling beside them on the floor. “Absolutely not. Mia, look at me.”
Mia rolled over, giggling.
“What are you trying to say?”
The little girl let loose a string of nonsensical babble, nothing remotely close to whatever word she had been trying to say before.
“That’s not helpful,” Rose said exasperatedly.
“Rose, she’s one.”
“Well she clearly wants to talk!” Rose snapped as Mia used Rose’s knees to pull herself up and threw herself into her arms.
“Merdah,” she mumbled into Rose’s shoulder. Rose’s eyes flicked to Luisa, a hint of panic in them.
“What? What did she say?” Luisa asked.
“Nothing. I think it is ‘mother.’”
Luisa narrowed her eyes. “No you don’t.”
“I do,” Rose said, pushing to her feet, Mia on her hip. “I think she just picked up on all of those ‘your mother is infuriating’ comments you keep making.”
Standing, Luisa said, “Well do you blame me? Look at you.”
“Look at what?”
“For someone who literally faked her own death, you are a terrible liar.”
“Yeah well you believed I was dead, so that’s your problem.”
“That’s really the argument you’re going with?”
“Yes,” Rose responded, a hint petulance in her tone.
“You want to tell me what she’s actually saying?” Luisa said, crossing her arms.
“You can’t figure it out, why do you think I can?”
“Because I know you.”
Rose just stared back at her stubbornly.
In the silence of her mothers’ stare-down, Mia let out a loud, “Murdah!”
Luisa’s jaw clenched as Rose winced.
“She’s saying murder isn’t she?” Luisa hissed.
“I-” Rose hesitated.
“Are you kidding me?!”
“I-”
“What the hell were you thinking?!”
“I just got so frustrated!” Rose said sharply.
“You were so frustrated that you threatened to murder our child?” Luisa replied.
“Of course not,” Rose said, exasperated. “It was that goddamn car seat.”
Luisa paused. “You threatened to murder the car seat?”
“Not so much the car seat itself as whoever invented it,” Rose said.
A hint of a smile quirked the side of Luisa’s mouth despite her attempts to remain stern.
Rose’s shoulders relaxed at the sight. “I know you hate it as much as I do.”
With a roll of her eyes, Luisa said, “At least I’m able to keep my threats to myself.”
“Have you heard the way you talk to that carrier wrap when it gets tangled? Because I beg to differ.”
“Yeah, well, difference is I threaten to burn it, not kill it,” Luisa responded.
“Is that all that much better really?” Rose asked, trying to keep an increasingly wiggly and displeased Mia in her arms.
“Yes!” Luisa exclaimed. “If you burn something it’s not the same as killing it.”
“I mean, it is if you do it right.”
“Rose!”
“What?” Rose said with a grin.
“No, this isn’t cute! If you don’t take this seriously I’m going to kill you .”
With a squeal, Mia let them both know that she did not appreciate being ignored. “Keel!.”
Rose gave an undignified snort of laughter as Luisa’s face turned red.
“What was that, kid?” Rose asked, shifting Mia so she could look at her.
“Keel,” Mia said.
“Kill?” Rose said.
“Rose!”
“Kill,” Mia repeated obediently.
Luisa groaned as Mia giggled and started repeating the word again and again, bouncing in Rose’s arms.
“That one’s on you,” Rose said, laughing, letting the toddler slip to the floor, holding onto her hands to keep her upright.
“It is not,” Luisa snapped. “This is all because you can’t control your temper.”
“Is it?” Rose said with a smirk, leaning in to kiss the other woman’s temple gently. “Or is it because you should have known better than to let me raise a child?”
With a sigh, Luisa reached out and rubbed at Rose’s slightly smudged lipstick. “I guess I should have seen this coming.”
Mia took that opportunity to break away from Rose’s grip, her wobbly toddler legs carrying her ungracefully out of the room and down the hall, her repeated chant of “kill kill kill kill kill” echoing behind her.
“God, it’s like I gave birth to Chucky,” Luisa said, covering her face with hands.
Rose slid her arms around Luisa’s waist and pulled her into her firmly. “Well, I for one haven’t been this proud of her since that time she spit up on the cop.”
Luisa dropped her head to Rose’s shoulder, a defeated groan rumbling in her chest.
“Oh come on, it’s not that bad.”
“I guess not. After all,” Luisa started, lifting her head, a smirk firmly in place, “I get the satisfaction of knowing that I turned Sin Rostro, international criminal mastermind, into a woman that yells at a car seat.”
Rose glared at her. “Don’t start.”
“I guess she’s still in there somewhere,” Luisa replied with a fond smile.
Rose raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah, you still don’t scare me, cupcake. Go fetch the child before she scares the neighbors.”