Work Text:
Yor often wondered how to be better. Not just a better mom but a better wife.
Even if it was fake she refused to just be someone in the way, that was why she had tried so hard and learned how to cook, even if it was just one dish, the smiles on Loid's and Anya's faces were all worth the cuts, bruises, and tears.
She wished to make them smile like that all the time.
"Loid?..." Yor asked slowly as he read the newspaper in the evening after Anya had gone to sleep.
She felt that this was the only right and acceptable time to ask such a question as the one she was about to.
"Yes, Yor?" Loid folded the newspaper so that it wasn't blocking his view from her.
Loid was very skilled in reading body language and he immediately saw that Yor was very nervous. "Is something the matter?"
"It's just... I've been wondering how to do better for you and Anya"
'She's still worried about that?'
Loid's eyes immediately softened. "Yor" he smiled. "I already told you, you don't need to—"
Yor didn't mean to cut him off, but she needed to get it over with.
"What was your first wife like?" She squeezed her eyes shut, scared to see the reaction on his face. "I think...maybe I'll be able to learn from her example?"
Loid's eyes widened but then immediately relaxed once more.
Of course, he had always suspected that Yor would ask about his wife one day, and of course, she didn't actually exist so he had free liberty to make up a fake identity, which he already had.
His first wife's name was Julia and she had worked at the museum where he'd met her and immediately asked her on a date. They got married 2 years later in May and she had no other immediate family except for a mother who died a few months after their wedding. As for her personality and quirks, he got most of that figured out as well, but Loid's throat was suddenly locked up.
He didn't like that Yor was trying to mirror someone else when she was perfect just the way that she was.
"Loid?" Yor peeked her eyes open when Loid didn't answer her, and she watched him stare into nothing, thinking of what to do and what to say, but Yor must've thought she hurt him by asking about his deceased wife.
"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to open any wounds I just—"
"It's not that" Loid finally got his voice back. "I'm just surprised that you'd ask, given that I think you're doing a very good job as Anya's mother and as my wife"
Yor blushed just slightly at the kind words, but Yor still believed she could do more. "Are you sure? Isn't there something she used to make that you'd like to eat again? I- I might be able to learn it" it was far-fetched but it was sweet. "Or is there a lullaby Anya would want me to sing her? I just... I know I can be better than this"
Why couldn't Loid just say something? Any dish, any song, anything just to give her the answer she was searching for, but he couldn't, something in him refused to give Yor proof that she wasn't doing everything that was needed of her.
He folded the newspaper once more and laid it on the table in front of him, he was gonna be completely invested in this important conversation.
"Yor... my wife" he swallowed once before continuing. "Was a great woman, but remember what Anya said... she gave us a perfect 100 points. There's absolutely nothing you need to do that you haven't already done for us" he was leaning forward and his eyes didn't waver from hers. "You're not just wife number 2, Yor" he didn't know what that was supposed to mean but it didn't matter, it seemed to make Yor happy.
She leaned back, their eye contact finally breaking. She wanted to thank him, but she was overwhelmed by his kindness.
Loid also had to look away at this point.
He hadn't just gotten invested in the conversation, he'd gotten emotionally invested, and now he was also blushing.
'Get it together Twilight' Loid willed himself to stop blushing.
"Thank you, Loid" her words forced him to look back at her, and he was once again mesmerized by her shining red eyes and her wide smile. "That means a lot... especially coming from you"
She was undoubtedly elated.
Loid didn't let the silence hang in the air for long this time as he coughed into his hand. "Of course" he nodded and stood up, feeling her gaze follow him as he did.
"Well, I think I'll be heading to sleep now, I've got an early start tomorrow" he announced and smiled her way.
"Oh right! Of course. I should be heading to bed as well" she nodded and stood up, still smiling widely.
They walked together to each of their rooms and bid each other Goodnight.
"Loid, I'm really happy we had this conversation" Yor thanked him one last time, with her hand resting on the doorknob.
"Yes, me too" Loid nodded and let a pleasant silence fill the air between them for just a few seconds. "Goodnight Yor"
"Goodnight Loid"
The early start the next morning that Loid had referred to did not regard his job as a psychiatrist, rather, he had been given a mission.
It was a simple and quick one, allowing Sylvia, his handler, to get to chat with him about the ongoing mission Strix.
That is when Twilight made the mistake of telling her about his and Yor's conversation from last night.
"I will assume you already made a fake profile for this "wife"" Sylvia stated rather than asking.
"Of course, I'm not some low-grade spy" he was almost offended. "I made the fake profile even before I met Yor"
"Good" She nodded. "However, Your wife asking questions is a bother, and we can't have her getting suspicious. How much did you tell her?"
Twilight became silent.
His handler was one of the few people that he actually feared, and he could never imagine himself confessing that he got tongue-tied. "Not much..." he mumbled.
His handler sighed once again and Twilight averted his gaze to anything but her.
"As of yet, she has no actual proof of this woman's existence" Sylvia pressed.
"Well, there's Anya..."
"As if that's good enough? Geez Twilight, you're getting sloppy!"
Now Loid Forger sat in his living room with his daughter watching cartoons, tabbing his foot on the carpet impatiently.
His handler had just told him to wait for a package that would be delivered today, and he was anxious to know what she had planned.
Finally, there was a knock on the door and Loid moved quickly to open it.
Behind it was an agent he knew disguised as a simple delivery man.
"Package for Loid Forger"
"That's me" Loid nodded and allowed him to set the package down just inside the entrance.
Then after signing a few papers that would confirm that he took the package the "delivery man" was off.
"Papa, what's that?" Anya curiously looked at the newly arrived cardboard box. Unbeknownst to Loid, Anya had already read her father's mind and knew about the conversation he and mama had had about fake mama.
"Nothing Anya, just keep watching your cartoons" Loid ordered gently and heard a simple "Okie Dokie" from Anya as he began to cut the box open.
Anya had decided she could just read his mind and figure out what it was later.
He opened the box and immediately noticed a bundle of clothes, a box with an old wedding ring, a few letters, an almost empty perfume bottle, abs lastly, a picture frame.
Loid got a strange taste in his mouth, and he felt deeply disturbed.
It was a picture of him, and a lady with green eyes and pink hair down to her waist, cradling a baby draped in a yellow cloth, clearly supposed to depict baby Anya.
It wasn't so much the content of the picture frame that made Loid feel sick to his stomach. He'd had lots of fake pictures before, some even worse than this, but it felt wrong.
They had made him brimming with happiness in this picture, and of course, it made sense since he was supposed to be looking at his newborn baby girl, but that lady was fake. She was not a part of this life he had created with Anya and Yor.
'Don't let your feelings get in the way of this, Twilight' he tried and failed to convince himself. What were these feelings anyway?
There was a letter addressed to him at the bottom of the box, and he almost ripped it open with sheer frustration.
It was instructions.
Apparently, he was supposed to act like his and Yor's conversation had stirred something in him and made him look through his wife's old stuff.
He was supposed to "accidentally" leave it where Yor would see it.
Loid, the spy Twilight, normally carried out whatever orders he got, but this time he packed everything into the box again and decided it could find a good home hidden in some storage unit, cause he was not gonna show this to anyone.
He had decided since taking a look at the "in love and happily married kit" for when they had guests over, that WISE didn't know a thing about romance.
"Oh," Anya whispered to herself as he read his mind. "Papa loves mama"