(Remaster) The Ship of the Tempest

Mom-73

"Open..."

"No!"

"Marco, open your mouth."

"I don't wanna!"

Z73 sighed for the umpteenth time, frustrated with the complete lack of knowledge she has in this area. She asked 23 to whip up something for her to eat, and now she doesn't want to even take a bite of it.

It wasn't like it was baby food, it was porridge with some fruits in it.

"Marco, you have to eat real food, you're not just living off Caramel treats."

"But they're yummy!"

"They are, but then they wouldn't be treats anymore."

"Huh?"

Z73 put the bowl down and faced her without it, using the same stare she would give to anyone giving her issues. As you'd expect, it was quite good at scaring the girl.

"A treat is to be eaten only now and then, otherwise you'll get sick of it quickly."

"R-Really?"

Z73 nodded. "You eat candies and treats only now and then, not all the time. They'll lose their flavor and stop being so tasty, and will even hurt your tummy."

"Not my tummy!" Marco held her stomach, dreading the thought of having a stomachache.

"That's right, your tummy. So you should eat food that's good for you so you can grow big and strong."

After saying that, Marco looked her up and down, soon getting a smile on her face. "Strong like mommy?"

"...Yeah, strong like me."

Thankfully she complied with eating the Porridge after that, and she ate it with surprising gusto. The bowl was clean after only a few minutes, which was faster than she had ever seen someone eat a bowl of Porridge before.

"That was tasty momma!" Marco hopped from the chair and ran to her side, hugging her as she always did after everything.

Z73 had long accepted the girl's quirks since she was now younger, and one of those was the excessive amounts of hugs she would give her. The girl was extremely clingy, and even refused to sleep unless she was at least in the same room as her mother.

That was quite the blow to Z1 especially, who wanted to dote on her very first niece so badly only to be turned away for not "being old enough". Adding salt to the wound was when Marco tried feeding her instead of the other way around.

Back on topic though, the pair left the Dining area, which shared its space with the Kitchen, and went back into the now empty living room. Bismarck decided to give Z73 some off time from the smaller duties she usually did, "Maternity Leave" she called it, whatever that was.

"Well Marco, since everyone else is out, what do you want to do?"

"Uhm...whatever mommy does?"

"We're not doing that, absolutely not."

"Aww..." Marco put a finger to her chin, thinking over what she might want to do today.

Z73 was going to go along with what she wanted, within reason, since she had no idea what a kid would find fun. All she knew is they like toys and sweets, and even she knew not every kid was like that, which only made her job harder.

"Oh! I wanna see if I have any more aunties! Do I?!"

"Any more?" Aunts and Uncles, women and men that are siblings to your parents, simple concept.

"Well, you don't have anymore from the actual family."

"Aww..."

Marco felt a hand fall to her head, as Z73 gently ruffled her hair. "I wasn't done. You don't have anymore that are my sisters, but there are still others you can call Aunts."