Dear Diary,

I'm really not sure exactly how much I should ask my girls about their new friends. Don't get me wrong, I want to know, to make sure that... Y'know, all of them are kids. Like, mostly little kids. Yeah, Maze is a bigger kid, and Lindsey and Alex are coming along right behind her, and Ria is kinda Alex and Lindsey sized while being oddly mature, since she's older than any two of them put together, I think. But even Maze is, like, eight years old now? I think? I'm ninety percent sure? Which is really stupid, since we just had a birthday party for her, I know, but still, she's less-than-ten sized. None of the kids I saw hanging with my girls were even as big as Maze, and most of them were more Daya and David sized.

Little hard judging kids by Isnomi's size, because her size is, as I've noted, utterly dependent on her needs and feels of the moment. I do not envy the other Cadets when at some future date she enters the Academy and they're still playing Basketball and she straight up does a 'yeah, I'm eight feet tall with gorilla arms now' on them. Like, literally dunking on her classmates with that shit. Seriously, I know I've told her to be careful with that, especially with her sisters, but there's a time and a place to be nurturing and careful with your peers, and a time to go to town with the endunkeration, and shooting hoops in PT at the Academy for the first time is definitely one of those 'go ham' moments.

But yeah, I want to know who my kids are hanging around with, but I don't want them to feel interrogated and shit just because they're making friends. So I guess I gotta finesse that shit. Steer the conversation and hope I get lucky. Who knew motherhood would be so much like so many of my relationships back in the day. Fuck, I kinda did that with Saffron and Siobhan too, now that I think about it. Okay, I did a little more than 'steering conversation', but still, I think my point stands. Just flap my gums, don't be too bitchy, and hope for the best.

So yesterday after bringing the kids home, Marie and I brought out my latest import. Tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. I wasn't sure about them at first. Either one, really. The tomato soup is really more of a bisque, I think. We caramelized some onions and other onion-like root veggies. Shallots, I think, but don't quote me on that. For all I know they were just another kind of onion. Oh, and we roasted some garlic and some carrots, although those took like all fuckin' day. Mashed all that good good up into a paste, then did the same with a whole shit ton of tomatoes we'd roasted. Used some cloth to strain out the really chunky bits, although with Marie and me both squashing that shit to paste and the loose weave of the cloth, a lot of the pasty bit came through anyhow. Added some cream, salt, pepper, and some other kinda powder, I think maybe powdered radish, because it had kind of a radish taste to it when I put a little on my tongue. Set that to simmer while we sliced up some bread and toasted it with butter.

I was even less sure about the grilled cheese itself. I mean, this is one recipe I almost never fucked up into inedibility back in the day. Butter up two slices of bread, throw some pre-sliced cheese in the middle, and fry that shit up. Boom, grilled cheese. Even when I inevitably burned part of it and left some of the cheese cold and solid, it still tasted pretty good. But there's no pre-sliced bread here and now. Nothing that I've seen really qualifies as 'white bread' either. Mostly it's that thick black stuff like what the Academy kitchen makes, although I've seen some stuff that looks like wheat bread at Lancaster House now and then. Oh, and rolls. Rolls have shown up. But for the grilled cheese, Marie decided on the Academy loaves, although we nabbed them early after apparently letting them cook a little long to get crustier.

Okay, I think that's what Marie meant when she held me back saying, "More Crust." So we sliced them up into kinda oblong slices, a few out of each. Marie put some herbs and some of the roasted in the butter, mixing it all up so it spread on nicely. For cheese we had some feta looking stuff and a bunch of different maybe cheddars. Not sure. I know American Cheese is supposed to be kinda like cheddar when it's not mass produced and watered down into inedibility, I think. But these were, like I said, cheddar-like. Marie had me slice them onto the bread with Mana Blades, thus ensuring there would be no sad un-melted cheese in the middle, then she slapped them on the griddle for the only part of the process I recognized, the actual 'frying them into sandwiches' part. I have no idea how she managed it, because I still haven't figured out how to see the bottom of something that's frying yet, but every single sandwich came out that perfect crunchy crispness.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

I may have tried the first one. Quality control. Shared it with my Murder Mittens too.

The kids gave our dinner offering all the side eye. Apparently red soup is weird. Apparently cheese sandwiches are weird. Apparently fried cheese is weird.

Apparently my children are, in fact, wiser than I was at that age, because they set aside their culinary prejudices and let Menace take a test nom, then had to fight to retain ownership of their own sandwiches. Okay, that's not entirely fair; she didn't go after Daya or David's food. just the ones tall enough to hold it out of her reach. Which they did, except when they forgot, at which point she nommed bites away. What with her being able to nom an entire goat with one bite if she put her mind to it, I realized she was being playful with her bigger sisters and let it slide. Especially when they clued to the 'dip the grilled cheese in the tomato soup' thing, and wound up getting a lot more protective of their remaining sandwiches.

Yeah, I gave half of mine to her so she too could experience dipping her grilled cheese into her soup. The other half wound up split between my Wives and Concubine, because I loved the way their eyes slipped closed, savoring the flavors. Even Marie's, although the most adorable part for her was her running her claws over her belly as I fed her. Like she was already petting the kittens or some shit like that. Absolutely made me meltier than the cheese in the sandwiches.

All three of us gathered around Marie's belly in the Bath, crooning at the in progress kittens within, stroking her belly as much as she did. After a bit I scooped Siobhan up and lay her next to Marie in the water and did the same thing to her belly. The first time I ran my hand across it she froze, then kinda melted as she realized what I was doing.

"But I'm not really showing yet!" she protested.

"Doesn't matter. There's an in-progress baby girl in there, and it's important she knows we're all waiting for her out here. Waiting to love and nurture her and all that good shit."

Siobhan tilted her head. "What if it's not?"

"Not what? A baby belly? Your Blessing Sigil wouldn't lie, would it?"

She shook her head, laughing softly. "There is an entirely different kind of baby. One that isn't a girl." I played along, putting on my best 'confused' face. "What if it's a boy?"

I shrugged. "Hey, nobody's perfect. We'll love him just the same." I paused, took a deep breath, and said, "we'll even love him if he grows up and gets into... politics." Then I shuddered dramatically.

Then I lost my shit squirming as Saffron tickled me. "You realize I am a politician now, right?"

"Wait, is that what you do all day?"

She snorted. "You've watched me, Goof!"

I turned to look at her, carefully keeping my eyes pointed at her chest. "Wait, what were you saying again?"

Yeah, I kinda deserved it when she dunked me under the water and sat on my head. Face down, because kids in the Bath. Worth, just for the smile on her face.

Dreamt of my ladies tossing each other into my Maw with wild abandon, time after time.

The following day, just before lunch, the me playing seat cushion for my curvier Archmage nibbled Saffron's ear, then said, "so, how'd the whole negotiations go between Karen and Compton?"

She looked away from her coding for a moment. "Well. Very well, in fact. Should the first few shiploads of luxury goods in each direction arrive without incident, and our new watch towers begin construction on time, I'll want you to escort me down there to meet with the Mansa and the Yakky in person."

"Gonna try to con them into joining the Alliance?"

She smiled at me. "When have I ever done that? I simply let them know the option is available, give them a taste of what you've had me create, and then wait for the inevitable."

I snuggled her to me. "Putting me in a mood to have you create something else right now." I slipped my hands across her belly.

She snorted. "Not yet, love. Perhaps once Atlantis is secured. More likely once your family is free."

I froze. "You... yeah, of course you know about that promise."

She nodded. "I do. And I love you for it, and will help in any way I can." She twisted around, kissed me, then with her forehead still pressed against mine, asked, "so, when will lunch arrive?"

I snorted. "On the way. Kids wanted grilled cheese and soup again."

"Oh, that does sound lovely." I arrived from the kitchen again, and she patted her desk. "Right here, please." I set the tray on her desk, and she sighed. "So hard to get good help." Before I could reply to that, she pounced on me. The one in the Maid's outfit. Almost made me feel some kinda way. Almost.

"They're better when they're hot, y'know?"

She looked up at me, eyes fluttering, and smiled, holding out her hands to me. "So are you."

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