Chương 643: Day Six Hundred And Forty-One

Dear Diary, Some days you just gotta remember to take life one day at a time. That the bad stuff will pass, you just gotta endure it, and so will the good stuff, so you'd best enjoy it. That even if as adults we have stuff we have to do every day that might not be our kind of yum, it still needs to get done so everybody gets to eat, wear clean clothes, and be sure that the little ones are safe and growing.

Yeah, that kinda shit always struck me as somehow glurge, but maybe even if way too often it gets used as glurge, maybe it's not wrong. I don't enjoy doing laundry. I really don't. I don't even begin to have the skills to do anything more than making ordinary dirty clothes not dirty. I might, maybe be able to get stains susceptible to 'lots of scrubbing' out, but I sure as shit wouldn't have a fuckin' chance of getting Hole Spawn stink out of something.

Also, if the mending can't be done with a Mineral Bond, I'm not the bitch to be doing that shit. I'm not gonna say something so cliché as 'I don't know how Marie does it', because the answer is obviously 'lots of hard work, which I can do, coupled with lots of hard won skills, which I do not'. I'm not sure if Marie enjoys the 'making things clean' part of it, but she's literally turned down sex to do her needlepoint or whatever, so I'm assuming she likes her stitch witchery.

I think I'm kinda starting to like cooking. I might like it a little more if I were a little better at it. Not, like, super high Skills or anything. Or, y'know, any Skill. Fuckin' weird assed broken 'Juvenile' status. Anyway, I kinda enjoy the prep work, I enjoy chopping and mixing and seasoning. I enjoy taste testing as it's cooking, or watching as stuff turns from a semi-solid lump of goo into a loaf of bread, or a pie, or even that savory jello stuff which is apparently a fancy treat here and now.

Then again, I guess it just makes sense that if I love eating, I'm gonna have some kinda positive feelings toward the preparation of stuff to be eaten. Oh, shit, maybe that means I'm not all that attached to the concept of clothing. Which, frankly, given how much I've loved wearing The Dress in public whether it's appropriate to show my southern shrubbery or not, ought to surprise no one. Dinner got a little hectic, what with the kids being a little rammy from being inside all day.

Nothing terrible, but the food involved gravy again, and it got everywhere. Like, I kinda wish we had dogs, because they'd have had a field day cleaning up the floor. And the walls. I'm actually low key terrified that our horde hoard will learn the term 'food fight' and its meaning. If my little hellions can't give the students at Beacon Academy a run for their money, I'll eat...

Y'know, that whole idea about eating inedible or unpleasant things gets really way less impressive or weird when I have, in fact, eaten a whole assed dragon. Raw. Alive, even. The way people in some equatorial countries eat bugs. I saw that on the internet back in the day, and the internet wouldn't have lied to an impressionable youth, would it? Yeah, I'm really glad my kids don't have access to the internet. Pretty normal day today. Brought home Academy meals I helped make for Marie and the kids.

Took their gravy soaked clothes to the Academy laundry and did them along with all the slacks and shirts. Jackets get their own laundry, which just kinda makes sense, since they've got metal in them. Not sure how they get them clean without rusting them. Then again, maybe that's why they're red. Y'know, the old, 'bring me my red shirt' thing. Then again, I'm pretty sure I got dirt and food on my jacket way more than blood. Okay, maybe not by volume, but by instance.

Played with the kids, including letting them know I'd be picking them up for school in the morning. That got them all running around doing what a house full of girls will do when told school starts tomorrow; what to wear. Okay, a stereotypical house full of girls, because I absolutely did not give a single shit about fashion back in the day.

To be fair, Lindsey didn't give too much of a shit, it took Menace all of point two seconds to decide on her Academy uniform, and despite the looks I gave them Ria and Maze both settled on their Novice dresses. I didn't even want to think about them doing it entirely because of the looks I'd given them, which to be fair was not only possible, but likely. They are, despite everything, my kids. At that point, with three of them going in their Wedding Day best, the rest all went with their onesies.

Fuck it, I still think of onesies as pajamas, but I've seen weirder fashion trends. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. Three more of me accompanied Siobhan in the Infirmary, Saffron in the Academy Suite Office where she'd been working to revamp some of the Shape she'd be using to update Identify. The last of me sat there atop Treachery Rock, tryna catch a glimpse of Saffron's cleavage.

Seriously, that woman's breasts are magnificent, and that would make for stunning cleavage in a fuckin' peasant blouse. Glowing Midnight, with its undergarment support and plunging neckline, just, I dunno, put a hat on a hat, but in a good way. Like a beautiful lily that somehow looked twice as good with some gold trim added. I could get lost in that cleavage. Right about when I was considering Mimicking something the size of a fashion doll and literally doing just that, Headmaster Miles found me in the Infirmary.

"Pardon, Champion, but do you have a moment?" I stepped over, stepped him up to my office above the Bore, and said, "sure. Whatcha need, Headmaster?" He smiled, although I'm not sure why.

"You've got your own office now?"

"Yep. Like it?" I ran my hand across the top of the desk one of the women had made for me. He just kept smiling and said, "it reminds me a little of my own." When I head tilted, he said, "very little in the way of embellishment."

"Oh. Huh. I guess so. Did you want to go talk back there?" He shrugged.

"It's a bit chilly here, but honestly I find it bracing. Also, there's a nice breeze coming from... oh, my, that's quite a drop." I laughed.

"Yeah. Goes straight down to our house. That's why I originally built this little shack, to keep the rain out of it."

"Practical on multiple levels then." He nodded, then sighed.

"I'm sorry, Champion, but I need to know, will you be returning to teach your classes?"

"Classes? Oh, shit, I, uh, didn't realize you still needed me to teach PT!" My face warmed.

"Sorry. I guess I just didn't think." He just nodded.

"I understand. I also understand that you've taken on additional duties with Maid Marie on her honeymoon. I'd understand completely if you chose not to resume teaching." I thought about it for like half a second. Then shot him a look that was half smirk, half self deprecating frown.

"Who's been teaching them with me off doing other stuff?"

"Hero Lancaster."

"Oh, shit! Lenny's been filling in for my delinquent ass? Fuck. I'm never gonna hear the end of this." He froze for half a second, then smiled and shook his head.

"No, not Lord Lancaster. His son, Lachlan." My heart started beating again.

"Oh! Okay. Yeah, that makes a lot more sense." Then I remembered things I'd forgotten.

"Uh, any chance I could keep Lachlan on as a teaching assistant? Both because I never know when shit's gonna go sideways, and because honestly he's a lot more of a technical fighter than I am?" He shrugged and nodded.

"Of course, Champion. I'll let him know. Will you be returning then?" I nodded.

"Yep. I'll be there Saturday for PT. Still Saturday, right?"

"Yes, and Sunday for Combat Training. This won't interfere with your... ah... other duties, will it?" It only took me half a second.

"Yeah, if it does, we'll burn that bridge when we come to it. But mostly that's a nighttime thing." He tilted his head, then smiled in sudden understanding.

"Oh! Yes, I suppose there must be a great deal of night time preparatory work to feed the entire Academy." I froze for a second, then said, "yeah, let's go with that. Anything else, sir?" He smiled that same smile he had earlier, chuckled, and said, "not at the moment. Although... if you could take me back to my office?" As I dropped him off, I dropped off of Treachery Rock to land in front of Lenny's desk. He didn't even flinch, just continued writing whatever he was writing.

Without looking up, he said, "I take it you've need of me for something?"

"Kinda hoping you could maybe help me out with something tomorrow?" He nodded and kept writing.

"That depends entirely on what and when, but I have no particular reason to decline." I explained what I wanted, and he nodded and said, "for a few hours after breakfast?"

"Sounds good. Thanks, Lenny."

"Think nothing of it, Tabby. You've certainly helped my sons often enough." After that, I touched base with Karen again. After getting her permission, which she still seemed to think was silly of me, I spent most of the rest of the day chilling on the Seeking Tentacle as it closed on Compton Harbor.