Chương 942: Day Nine Hundred And Forty

Dear Diary, You'd think that what with me being the youngest... Well, okay, that's a bit of a weird situation, but with Mimic's arrested development via box, I'm definitely the least mature of the mom collective. You'd think I'd remember that and maybe be a little less likely to fly off the handle when one of the collective does something that gets my panties in a bunch. I mean regarding the kids. That really ought to be obvious.

I can't think of much they could do that would put my panties in a bunch other than that. Plenty of ways they could disintegrate them, sure, which assumes I'm wearing any in the first place, which is generally unlikely. Okay, I've been wearing some on my last couple items, because I do have a couple pairs of nice silk ones, which I guess I could replicate if they get demolished, and the Phileo Heroic uniform is supposed to be worn with them.

Finally, and likely the only real reason I've been wearing them lately, I discovered that if I don't, and I sweat, I wind up with a layer of ice on my private parts, and that is not fun. Seriously, I don't shave here and now. Not too many people do. Fuck, now I kinda wanna see all my ladies hairless from the neck down. Okay, not Marie, both because she looks kinda like that when she's wet anyhow, and also because I like her fuzzy.

Funny, Siobhan wouldn't look much different, especially in the Bath, because her body hair is so fine it's hard to see normally, and it disappears when it's wet. Honestly between being strawberry blonde and not very hairy anyhow, Tallulah wouldn't really be that different. Which leaves me and Saffron, and yeah, you guessed it, I was thinking of her mostly.

Now that my imagination has that bit in her teeth and is running off like a naughty golden retriever puppy, I'm wondering how she'd look with any of the various stylings I'd seen women get. Obviously full on Brazilian was my first thought, but Bikini is always classy, and landing strip puts a smile on my face. Then there's all the novelty shapes. Back in the day I tried for a Brazilian once, couldn't cope with the pain, washed it all off, then tried to shave everything down to be even.

Yes, I tried to do that to myself. No, I am not... Okay, yes, I am an idiot. But I wound up with an exclamation point. Made me laugh every time I looked in a mirror, because it was like my cooch was all 'OMG! Shocked, I am shocked, I tell you!' and shit. But yeah, I haven't shaved or trimmed or anything, although I'm not particularly hairy down there it's pretty much au naturel.

In these temps, though, that means any accumulated dampness, which despite it smelling like pumpkin spice I do actually sweat, and it turns to ice even with me moving around. I've discovered that if I'm wearing panties, the ice forms on them and I can banish it when I'm back inside. If not, for whatever fuckin' reason I need to either melt it off in the shower or the Bath, or I gotta risk ripping my hair off in embarrassing patterns. Again.

Okay, the third option is 'punch myself in the crotch hard enough to shatter it', but I'm gonna eschew that one for obvious reasons. At any rate, I now return me to my previously scheduled contemplation of being the least mature member of the mom collective, and how I really ought to keep my cool better when one of them makes a decision I wouldn't. So after waking up in bed with Darling and the two kits who spend most of their day lazing around, I lay there for a bit watching Hailee watch Siobhan's belly.

"Anything interesting going on, Hails?" She blinked, looked over at me, and got the weirdest little grin before nodding.

"She's fascinating!" She went back to belly watching, so I dispensed gentle kisses to all in the bed, then rolled out to the shower, rinsed myself off, and stepped down to the kitchen to work on dinner. Kinda surprised me when there was nobody in the room. Mittens? You focused on the Spartans? Her reply came back a little distracted. Mostly. They didn't thaw or anything, did they? No. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

I shrugged as I started pulling out some meat, honey, sugar, and spices. Figured I'd do some slow-cooked barbeque for everybody, since that's something that scales up good and doesn't take a lot other than time, which I had. Lemme know if you need a hand. Will. Love You. I love you too, Marie Aetos-Diaz. I dunno how I knew, but I got a blush out of her with that.

Once I had the barbeque going, I slipped one of me to Treachery Rock, one to the Overlord's Court, and several to the Academy to start helping out with the shit Marie normally handled. Not like I took charge or anything, and shortly after I got there I realized I was in fact the only Maid in the building. Wound up doing some really mid pastelillos for dinner there. How many of you are down there? All. You gonna be there tomorrow too? Probably. I chuckled, despite the additional workload. Okay, Mittens.

Who fed the Cadets today? Me. Girls. I nodded. Probably for the best that they start learning to pitch in. Good thought. I Know. I should have realized then, but I didn't. When everybody got home, the kids came trundling in from outside, stripping off their cold weather gear in the entryway before heading up to the Bath to shower before dinner. The barbeque was a hit with most of the girls, and even Ria and Lindsey liked the sauce, but they weren't so much into the meat. They liked the baked potatoes, though.

I'd coated them in oil and salt, then let them cook until they were cronch on the outside and self-mashed on the inside. Crocks of butter and sour cream, plus some crisped up bacon and shredded cheese, and none of the three dozen potatoes I'd cooked survived as leftovers. The girls all zonked out pretty quick once we got to soaking. Sarah had joined us with little D, and she and Marie didn't last much longer than the girls. I carried everybody, and I mean everybody, down to bed after gently toweling them dry.

Spent maybe a lazy hour up in the Bedroom before Saffron and I were relaxed enough to sleep. Okay, I mostly had been before that, but I am absolutely not saying no when she gives me that 'please inundate my overheated brain with post-coital bliss' look. When we woke, I snagged Marie.

"You need me to fill in at the Academy again today?" She tilted her head, thinking, then exchanged a long, speaking look with Sarah, who shrugged. After that she turned back to me and said, "Lunch?"

"You've got breakfast then?" She nodded.

"Okay. Should I take the kids with me?" She glanced around at them, then shook her head. Yeah, I'm not the most perceptive person in the world. Especially when Marie plies me with piles of waffles, at last one of which I'm pretty sure was a Fae Grain waffle. Still kinda weird looking at the Mana flows and Shapes at the Academy and, y'know, seeing the ones that are less powerful than the fuckin' ley lines. As a sort of apology for yesterday's shitty pastelillos, I made the Cadets nice ones today.

What with most of the Academy kids still being sort of upper crusty, I kept them on the savory side rather than going spicy, but I did make some pulled pork ones. Those went over pretty well, honestly. I made a bunch for home, too, although there I had a half dozen cheesy egg ones and another half dozen stuffed with minced fish. I had that all laid out in the Dining Room when I realized I hadn't seen any of the kids except Hailee and Isadora, both of whom are basically permanent fixtures in the bedroom.

Stepped up to there and said, "lunch is ready, if you wanna come down?" Siobhan nudged Isadora, who helped Hailee help Darling out of bed. Stepped back down to the Dining Room only to see the girls and a whole assed pride of Maenads, led by Marie and Sarah, all shucking off their cold weather gear in the entryway. Each of the kids had some kind of trophy with them. Nothing gory, and it took me a minute to really grok why each of them had a pauldron, a shield, a weapon.

I smiled, stepped to Marie, took her by the hand, and stepped her to the Bedroom.

"Did... Did you take our girls to the Spartan Execution?" She just looked at me, confused by the anger leaking out of me.

"Educational."

"You put our girls in danger!" Her confused look slowly melted into a blank one.

"Frozen. Maenads." Then she snorted, shook her head.

"Danger." I wordlessly blasted my frustration and an image of what I'd seen coming in the door to my ladies. I did not expect the wave of savage approval that came back from Tallulah and Saffron. Shit, even Siobhan had kind of a resigned but positive emotional response. The fuck, ladies? Before I got any kind of response to my query, Tallulah's emotions soured a little, but it felt more like frustrated affection than any real disapproval. I told her she didn't need to collect inferior spears.

Still, I suppose none of the children are likely to be using any of that gear. I really had no idea what do say or do at that point. So I just shook my head, gave Mittens a perfunctory peck on the cheek and said, "the job's done now?" When she nodded, I returned her to the girls and went back to cleaning and cooking. Not sure if I'm wrong here or not, but I'm beginning to suspect I am.