queenoflogs | Poor, poor egg.

Entry tags:

Poor, poor egg.

Characters: Katina and Akiha
Date: April 6
Summary: Katina and her eggbaby look for the other mommy.
Warnings: Ill-tempered women.

Crying is not the thing Katina expected to be woken up by. If it's not an alarm clock, then it's usually a headache - occasionally another person, but half the time she has a headache when that happens anyways. But crying, oh no, this is not what she expected at this point in her life.

It takes her about ten minutes to wake herself up, find the eggbaby, and realize that holy shit she has to take care of a crying egg with a face. The next ten minutes were spent trying to comfort it, and failing miserably until she realized the obvious - it was crying for another 'mama'. If she was wrong, of course, she'd at least get outside, but childcare? Generally seen as a thing couples do.

Her mood was already dark from frustration when she realized what she was heading towards as the cries lessened. Of course. Grumbling as she stomped up to the door of Akiha's mansion, she slammed her fist against it a few times, already at the point where Akiha could jump out the window in full-on demon AKIHA rage and it wouldn't faze her.

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If Akiha had known Kris had spilled her tsundere secret, she'd be upset. Though that tired grin and look made her frown in response before flipping her hair over her shoulder and opening her book again.

"Exactly. That is how these things work."

Katina's not giving it away. "But you're way too stuck up to want to be in someone else's debt, instead of the other way around. Don't you trust me to not mess with you?"

Not that Katina would trust herself in Akiha's shoes, at least not entirely.

"No."

That was the flat response to the idea of trusting Katina. Apparent black romance (as the Condesce called it) or not, Akiha wasn't planning on trusting Katina any time soon. Who knew when she'd decide to try to get Akiha back for her inverted attack.

"I'm already indebted to two people. That's two too many."

"Smart girl." Anything Katina did wouldn't be payback for that attack, though. If anything, it would just be messing with Akiha because she's fun to mess with, nothing nearly as vindictive as payback for that - at least as long as Akiha never speaks a word of how pathetic Katina was.

"You've got me in your debt as long as I'm staying here, though."

"Which is why you'll make yourself useful. How long are you going to stay--"

Akiha's words were cut off by the egg, suddenly not happy about being in the chair and pretty much ignored. Akiha shot it a glare.

"Hold the damn thing. Maybe that will shut it up."

Katina sighed, reaching out to the egg and rocking it absentmindedly. "Take it easy, we're not gonna scramble you or anything." Fortunately, the thing doesn't seem like it wants to be fed, if it could eat anything anyways.

Looking up, she shifted to try and get comfortable with the egg. "I'm staying until it stops making a racket when it's too far away from you. The Queen decided that we're its 'parents'."

"Then the Queen doesn't seem to understand that parents don't constantly spend time together around their children. That's what nannies are for," Akiha replied. It wasn't like Akiha was around her parents often as a child...

"I dunno, it's what's healthy for a newborn." Sorry Akiha, Katina came from a relatively poor family, at least when she was younger. "My mom made the most of her maternity leave, and she and my dad burned through their vacation days almost immediately after that. As far as I know they were pretty crazy."

"Do you even remember that?" Akiha assumed that was all stuff Katina had heard about. Though she was curious as to what childhood to poor people was like.

...and maybe the slightest bit jealous.

"My father didn't bother paying much attention to me until I was seven."

"My family isn't a bunch of liars. I can trust them on that." All of her memories of her family summed up to a pretty good childhood (at least until I get jossed in the next game or something :| ). Not an easy childhood, but a good one.

Of course, it only takes that one statement for Katina to cringe a little. "Er... sorry if I seem like I'm bragging or anything."

"It's alright," Akiha replied, and for once it mostly seemed she meant it. "There was little need for him to do so until he decided I was to be the next head and needed to start my lessons."

And that was the end of Akiha's childhood.

Just one more bit of information that explains why Akiha is the way she is, and another reason for Katina to at least try to not be a total bitch to her. "Parents who are gonna act like that shouldn't bother reproducing. I don't care how important their damned family lines are."

"That's how it always was," Akiha replied, her expression growing dark. "And I wasn't born to be the heir; my brother was. I would've had a normal life. My blood was weak and I would've been able to live without much fear of inversion. Married to one from a branch family or a family we want to bring into the Tohno."

She waved her hand dismissively. "It's not as if I ever had a choice, Katina. I was a child. What my father said was law. No one questioned it and when I rebelled against him, I was punished and sent to boarding school. Most of my extended family hates me for the things I've done since becoming Head. As if I cared what they thought."

Letting out a sound that's almost a growl, she starts stroking the egg while looking downward. Of course, it's not like she Akiha could have done anything, and getting frustrated won't help, but it's hard not to want to go find and punch a few particular people. "And then you would've been ignored all the way through. Nothing you could do about it, but it's still bullshit. Most of your family sounds like bullshit."

"I wouldn't use that term, but there are several reasons I removed them from the mansion after my father's death." Akiha watched Katina give the egg attention.

"The only family I care for is Nii-san. The Arimas aren't so bad, but they're the most human of us." Kohaku and Hisui were like family to Akiha, but there was little point in mentioning them.

That's because you aren't as crude as Katina. Katina though? She knows bullshit when she hears it. "Yeah, well, they can go stew in all that attitude and be miserable at each other."

She wasn't really paying attention to the egg, stroking it more out of nervousness and frustration than any desire to attend to it. Still, it seemed to be enough for the moment. "You're lucky you had him at least."

"Everything I've done has been for him. So that I could see him again..." There was an odd softness in that moment to Akiha's features. And then it was gone as she clenched her jaw.

"And the Queen keeps me from him."

On the one hand, a little on the obsessive side. On the other... at least it was someone who she could rely on a little bit? Even if she couldn't right now. That's what Kris and Lambda and Subaru and... maybe a few other people WHO KNOWS are for.

"So the one, most important person, and he can't even show up here as you know him because he's a guy. Real nice of her."

A little obsessive? At least Akiha had mellowed a bit and let Shiki go somewhat. She wasn't about to mention she was in love with him. People wouldn't understand.

"Mm. This is the first time I've ever truly been on my own, now that Kohaku has also left." It had been difficult adjusting. Akiha ruined half her clothing before she figured out how to correctly do laundry.

She finished her tea. "I'm getting more tea. I'll bring you some," she said, leaving the room to go to the kitchen. Really, she just wanted to know how far away from that egg she could get before it started wailing.

...not very far it seemed.

Not especially, but she also wouldn't be wildly judgmental about it. Not like suddenly being scandalized would do anything.

"I dunno how it was for you at first, but you seem like you're doing a decent job now, even if other people are doing more cooking." It's something Akiha better learn eventually. Even Katina is a pretty adequate cook.

Fifty feet is... sadly not very far at all. She patted the egg, standing up and walking just close enough. "At least we aren't handcuffed together."

"I think I might actually have had to kill you if that was the case. In case you forgot, I don't like you." Akiha stated.

In the kitchen, Akiha sighed at the mess someone had left - probably Kris - and rubbed her temple. It was sad that she was just reheating the tea she'd made earlier on the stove since it took her so long to make it. "Why do I even put up with her," Akiha mumbled to herself. "She needs to learn a cleaning spell."

"You don't happen to know how to cook Italian, do you?" Pause. "Does Italy even still exist in your time?"

"I'll still take that over dealing with this thing myself." Oh, uh, nice kitchen that's a bit worse than what Katina leaves behind. The muttering gave the culprit away, though. These two could really use some kind of live-in chef.

"Eh? Oh, yeah, it's not a sovereign nation but the culture's still intact." She shrugged. "I can make spaghetti sauce and figure out a few other simple things. Don't expect gourmet cooking though."

"I don't expect gourmet cooking from anyone that's not Kohaku." Yes, Akiha was truly spoiled by Kohaku's cooking. Even another gourmet chef couldn't reach her levels.

They'd had a live-in chef... but then Akiha inverted and drove Gal away. The mansion residents have been surviving on Subaru's generosity, Lambda's meager skills and, for a while, what Akiha had over at Reno's bar. Since she wasn't allowed there anymore...

"But just spaghetti sauce? I'll classify that as a 'no'." She let out a sigh. She hadn't had good Italian since Kohaku had tried to kill herself. It really sucked to not have some of her favorite food.

If Kohaku was really all that, Katina wouldn't even try to live up to her cooking. She knew she wasn't the best, just good enough to feed herself and a few other people and make it mostly enjoyable. Better than what she ate on duty, unless Elzam/Ratsel was around.

"Yeah, it's not... really my specialty. Not that I have much of a specialty at all." She shrugged. If there were cook books here, she could certainly teach herself, but that seemed unlikely to her. "Anything else you really like?"

"Quail egg... most European cuisine - French, German..." And, as mentioned before, Italian. "I suppose the better question is what can you make?"

Akiha poured the heated tea into her cup and then poured one for Katina. She then grabbed a small vial of dark glass out of the fridge and used the eyedropper to add two drops of something red to her own cup of tea.

"Cream or sugar?"

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