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“Diana,” Akko was torn between amusement and exasperation, “she’s a baby.”
“You know there has been research on this,” Diana retorted. “Apel & Masterson, 2001; Smith & Gibbard, 2011, to name a few.”
“She’ll have time for that when she gets a little bit older,” Akko dropped her gaze towards their daughter and in exaggeratedly sweet voice chimed, “won’t you, baby?”
Sara, their first and so far only daughter, was sitting comfortably atop Diana’s stomach. The blonde witch was lounging on their couch, one arm wrapped securely around her child and the other holding up a book. She was so very tiny, with light brown hair and fiery red eyes—eyes were which were fixated on her toy rubber crow while she played with it.
The subject of ‘baby talk’ was a recurring debate between the couple. Diana—as expected—was adamant that children learned to speak earlier when ‘baby talk’ was avoided entirely. This was also a preventive measure to make sure they didn’t get used to mispronunciations and wrong grammar habits.
Akko, on the other hand, just thought their daughter was the cutest darned thing, oh my little wuvy-duvy Sawa-chan bibi booboo!
While her parents engaged themselves in another friendly debate on language register, Sara decided she was going to chew on her favorite rubber toy.
“Sara,” Diana softly hummed, “what are you doing to Alcor? I doubt that’s comfortable to him.”
Sara blinked up at her mother, pausing from her assault on the rubber toy to look up at her with those wide and wonderous eyes. Oh, dear, Diana thought to herself with resignation. Akko was hard enough to resist when she gave her that look, did Sara really have to take after her so well?
But resist she must, in the name of good parenting. She dropped her book to gently take Sara’s hand and save Mr. Rubber Alcor from her mighty, suckling, maw. Sara made a face, babbling out gibberish before pouting.
“No,” Diana replied as though in serious conversation, “he isn’t food, haven’t I told you that?”
Sara reached forward with her cute little hand to pinch Diana’s nose. She giggled again, squeaking in gibberish peppered with chuckles and laughs.
“Apology accepted,” Diana replied with a smile, and suddenly she pulled Sara closer to her so that she could blow raspberries against her belly. Sara was laughing again, and even clapping her hands together while Diana moved her assault upwards to kiss her button nose.
Akko could melt on the spot, smiling like a fool. The sight and sound of the pair of them playing was music to her ears. Sara suddenly stopped her giggles and started waving her arms, followed by another string of unintelligible babble.
“What’s that, my dear?” Diana perked up attentively, nodding and listening carefully.
What a dork, Akko thought with affection. She knelt down at the edge of the couch to be at eye-level with Sara. “What does her majesty require?” the brunette said in a dramatic and exaggerated voice. She turned to her wife, “speak, interpreter!”
“I’m thinking carrot porridge,” Diana said matter-of-factly.
“No way,” Akko laughed, “she hates carrots! Don’t you my wittle wuv wuv?”
Sara squealed in delight, arms reaching out towards Akko who happily obliged to take her. Akko looked over at her wife and tried to bite back a laugh, “are you pouting?”
“You’ve stolen her from me,” Diana said flatly. “And no—I do not pout.”
“Oh please, honey.” Akko grinned, “Sara got that sulky face she makes when we don’t let her have sweets from you.” She moved in to kiss Diana on the cheek before taking Sara away towards the dining room.
The blonde witch followed suit to make herself a cup of tea, and because she didn’t feel like having those two out of sight just yet. Akko had settled Sara into her high-chair, putting on the bib that Professor Chariot had made for her—by hand, no less! When asked about when she learned tailoring, she laughed nervously, ‘ten years of seclusion gets boring when you don’t pick up hobbies!’
“Nomnom time!” Akko announced in a sing-song voice, causing Sara to perk up.
“Eating time is what your mother meant,” Diana corrected. “And is that cucumber pudding? I believe Sara told us she’d prefer carrot.”
“Did she now?” the brunette raised an eyebrow, deciding to put Diana’s baby-deciphering skills to the test. She took out the pre-made carrot pudding.
“Isn’t that right, darling?” Diana reached down so that Sara could her hand around her pointer finger. She absolutely loved it when she did that.
Sara looked between the two jars of pudding which Akko held up, one was strikingly green and the other bright orange. She looked up at Akko and made a few noises.
“I told you, carrot.” Diana looked absolutely sure.
Then Sara began reaching for the orange jar, and Akko blinked in wonder and incredulity.
Diana started to laugh.
“No way!”