Project Motherhood: Valentine

Chapter 3

The next morning, before the sun had even begun had to rise, Ragnarok was awake and out of Crona's body. Medusa had a habit of waking her 'son' up in some truly painful ways, and Ragnarok had started waking up early to try and get the kid awake before things got painful. They still would get painful, but he could at least do something.

"Wait..." He muttered, remembering the past few days, or was it a single day? Regardless, he looked back to Crona, seeing Valentine fast asleep, holding him close. "Right..."

He took a deep breath and looked around the room. "Geez... Gotta get used to not being in those labs anymore... Man is it bright."

Ragnarok had grown accustomed to living in darkness, so being put back in the light had become slightly disorienting. He had to wonder what it was like for the kid... Crona had never seen a single ray of sunlight before in his life. He seemed to respond well enough to it yesterday, so he probably wasn's stressed out or anything.

There were a lot of things that the kid didn't know how to deal with. In fact, he didn't know how to deal with most things that didn't involve sitting in his corner.

One thing he wasn't used to dealing with was waking up being held by someone. As he slowly stirred, he began squirming about, trying to figure out where he was and who was holding him. The very few times Medusa had held him was when she was injecting him with things, stabbing him with things, or generally mocking him for his injuries.

"Mmgghmm..." He mumbled, turning about. This movement stirred Valentine from her sleep who blinked in confusion, then saw Crona seemingly having an anxiety attack.

"Shhhh...Shh shh shh shh shh shh shh shh shh shh..." She shushed him gently as she held him close to her breast. "It's only me, Crona... Only Miss Valentine... You're safe... I'm not going to hurt you..." She whispered softly. Crona tensed up only briefly at the sound of her voice before he noticeably relaxed as he recognized her presence.

"Miss Valentine...?" He asked softly. Valentine simply sat up and cuddled him close to her shoulder, rubbing his back to fully ease his fear.

"Oh... thank you..." Crona mumbled, nuzzling closer to his caretaker and letting her presence soothe him.

"Would you like to talk about it?" Valentine asked. Crona whimpered and didn't say anything.

"This is normal to him." Ragnarok remarked, making himself known. "Medusa... well, you already know. But waking up fearing the day is the kid's normal routine."

Valentine was going to comment on that, but when she saw Crona staring wide-eyed out the window, she turned and saw... the sun rising. Wait. Had he never seen THAT before!?

She frowned, then quickly smiled at how enchanted he was by the sun's golden glow... Then his face turned to one of discomfort and unease.

"The sun's spooky..." Crona mumbled, burying his face into her chest. Valentine blinked, then looked out the window to see what he was talking about.

Crona looked up at her with a small, proud smile.

Indeed, the sun had a face on it, just like the moon. Granted, it wasn't quite as disturbing, but it was still unsettling as it laughed.

"Great. No matter what time of day it is, I have to deal with a big creepy celestial body staring and laughing at me." The nurse muttered.

"Welcome to Death City... or whatever this place is called." Ragnarok remarked. "Where nothing makes sense and you can't do anything about it."

Valentine gave him an annoyed look, but knew that he was right. They were literally on a city with legs, so the sun and moon having faces wasn't too out of the ordinary considering their world, but it did bug her.