Project Motherhood: Valentine

Chapter 4

Valentine slept harder then she realized, meaning she lost any and all sense of time until she suddenly snapped awake with the sun mostly risen already. Groaning, she pulled herself up and looked around the room, seeing Fukua not on her bed, Robo not in the corner, but thankfully, Crona still asleep in her arms.

She smiled down at him, then sat up, popping her muscles with a soft grunt before climbing out of bed. Now where were those daughters of hers? She received her answer when she heard noise coming from the kitchen.

"...I dunno, I don't that that would improve it."

"Sister. I am hardwired to over seven million recipe websites, this is what they suggest more often than not."

"Yeah, it's just... I dunno. What's IN this stuff? That's what concerns me. I don't want Crona eating stuff if he can't pronounce it."

"Fukua, Crona is a child. I am uncertain if he is capable of reading in general." Robo replied. "Furthermore, the ingredients are not as dangerous as other things he could eat."

Valentine tensed up at Robo Fortune's words and tightened her hold on her son, squeezing her eyes shut. "Oh, Robo... You don't know just how true that is..." She whispered softly, remembering the tortures he had been through.

"However, I understand your want to keep him healthy, in a rare instance, you and I share a similar goal. Yet I believe I can say with certainty I know what I am doing."

"Pfft. Sure. Whatever."

"If you had been cooking, Crona would've been woken by the sounds of the smoke alarm systems, as well as your meal going up in smoke."

"Enough with the puns... please..." Fukua groaned.

"Why would I want to quit engaging part of my pun-sonailty?"

A long suffering groan from Fukua and a barely audible snicker from Shamone brought a smile to Valentine's face.

She was lucky to have children that were willing to cook for her.

She really didn't like cooking, not in the least. It was a tedious, time-consuming task and she was no good at it.

But Robo felt the exact opposite.

So there would be no more burning boxed macaroni for her.

Valentine was just fine with that. She really, REALLY didn't want to expose Crona to her cooking, it was - for lack of a better term - horrific.

"Mrgh..."'

With a smile, Valentine looked down at her son, stirring in her arms, letting out an audible yawn as his eyes slowly opened to look up at her.

"Hi mama..."

She smiled down at the boy and kissed his forehead gently. "Hi, Crona. Did you have a good sleep?" She asked.

He nodded his head.

"I had nice dreams... I usually have bad dreams or I don't have any dreams at all..." He mumbled, rubbing his eyes sleepily.

Valentine bounced him somewhat in her arms, playfully shaking him awake with a smile.

"Well, I'm very happy to hear that." she said with a smile, having that warm feeling well up from within her again. Crona really was magical in an odd way, he hadn't done anything, and she already felt happy.

He stretched his tiny limbs, and Valentine noted how... odd his movements seemed. Almost like a puppet on strings...

It didn't do anything to diminish his cuteness in her eyes, but it was a bit concerning. Was this another result of Medusa's cruel machinations? Was Ragnarok's presence hindering his movement somehow?