Dear Diary,

One of the oddest things about being a parent has to be how no matter what the fuck else is going on in my life, when it comes to my girls everything else gets set aside to take care of them. That's not even a complaint or in any way a negative thing, either. Seriously, given the past couple days, I needed the fucking break, I needed to focus on something other than death and torture and nausea. Needed to focus on something clean and wholesome and good like taking one of my daughters out into the wilderness and playing around with pup tents and shelters and cooking food over a campfire.

Yeah, somehow in the middle of dealing with Muscogee and Celeste I did not, in point of fact, miss my own daughter's birthday. I didn't even fuck up the whole 'day starts at sunset' thing.

So at the end of lunch yesterday I pulled Lachlan aside, said, "I've got something to do for the rest of the day. Can you have them do some Squadball with the lancasters?"

So funny, somehow the big himbo wound up not turning that into some kind of comedy routine. He just nodded and said, "yes, Commander."

Of course, somehow that reminded me of something else. "Hey, does Liam like camping?"

"Camping?"

"Yeah, you know, going out into the woods with a tent and setting up a campfire and maybe doing some fishing or something?"

He just stared at me, at first confused, then the oddest combination of wistful and boggled. "That sounds oddly nice."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, but would Liam like it?"

He muttered, "I think I'd enjoy it."

I laughed. "Okay, okay. I can take a hint. I'll be by to pick you up at sunset, okay?"

"Yes, Commander! You can count on me!" He jogged out toward the Practice Yard, and I collapsed that me back to the Homestead.

Meanwhile, down in the kitchen in the basement, I turned to Marie. "You wanna go camping with us?"

"Who?"

"Me, Lindsey, whichever of the girls want to."

She grinned at me. "Yes, please!"

"Can the Maids take care of things for the next day or three?" She nodded, and I took her hand and stepped her back to the Homestead kitchen.

Up in the suite, I nuzzled Saffron. "Can you take a break?"

She hummed a little seven note tune, and I nipped at her neck as I shuddered. "Someone's in a mood today, I see."

I shook my head without letting go of her neck. Time for Lindsey's camping trip.

"Oh, well. I guess we'll have to wait, then?" We didn't, but then we had to wait for her to wrap up a few things at Alliance HQ before we could go home anyway. Totally the only reason we didn't head home right then.

Speaking of Alliance HQ, the treaty had gotten to the point where Rabbit and Lily were going over things with the Council in person. It seemed a little weird to have them doing the negotiating, but then I'd done part of it myself, and the various villages represented by, under the protection of, and supporting Muscogee didn't really have anything like a central government. On the other hand, they all respected Lily and Rabbit, so hopefully that would be enough.

"Hey, Lily, could I borrow you for a bit?"

She gave me an arch look, but followed me out of the main Council chamber into one of the nearby small meeting rooms. I'm not quite sure how I wound up with her pinned in a corner, me with one hand on the wall above her shoulder. "I keep telling you, I like men," she whispered before doing some oral spelunking with that tongue of hers.

I chuckled when she pulled away. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. How's it looking for my daughter's camping trip?"

Trust Lily to look disappointed. Put out, even. "I'd ask you not to hunt in those lands yet, but fishing should be fine."

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"Thank you! Did you want to come?"

She rolled her eyes. "Men, you demon." Somehow the word didn't seem as harsh as it might have.

I slipped a hand around the back of her neck, pulled her ear down to my mouth as she froze. "So then, anything else I can do to thank you for your help?" Yeah, that woman may be the single most confusing and confused person I know here and now, but she's as beautiful as she is perplexing, and that tongue of hers erased a lot of fucks which might otherwise be given about that.

I collected Liam along with Larry, Bonnie, Raven, and my tinker's packs and camping gear before collapsing the rest of me back to the Homestead, then led him down to where the girls were attending to their Nightmares. "Hey, girls!"

Menace saw him first. "Wiam!" She darted over, and if Alex and David were a little slower, with the rest following in their wake, Liam wound up surrounded by my girls in short order. I realized then they hadn't really had a chance to see him for a bit.

Lindsey noticed my cargo first. "Tonight?"

I smiled, nodded, and said, "we're heading out as soon as we pack some food." When she frowned a little, I shrugged and said, "none of us are really experienced woodsmen, and Lily tells me hunting is a no-go for the moment. I've got no idea if we'll fish up enough to feed everyone who wants to go along, so we'll be taking some simple raw stuff we can cook wherever we decide to camp."

The rest of them caught on by that point. Ria looked up from where she'd just put her curry comb away. "Will we be taking our Steeds along?"

I looked at Lindsey, who frowned. "I don't think so, not this time. For today let's stick to hiking?" Lindsey nodded, and I waved for the kids to follow. "C'mon, let's go see what Marie has for us to take along!"

It turned out that part of what Marie had for us to take along was Marie herself. She had some of the ubiquitous bear meat, cuts that would cook well over a campfire. She also had some potatoes and a shallow covered metal pan to cook them in, which I blessed her for thinking of. Saffron decided to stay home with Siobhan, both because Darling herself wasn't in any condition to go camping, and Saffron summed up her own thoughts on camping with, "I believe I had enough of that during our second Season at the Academy, love. Maybe next time."

I'm not sure if she said that to mollify Lindsey or what, but by mid-afternoon all of us trooped out of the house, along with Devorah, who'd come along to chaperone a couple of Lindsey's friends from the Homestead. Her party, her friends, her decision, and Devorah said something about wanting to look for hives while we were out.

"Are you gonna try to collect them while we're out? Don't you need, like, a box for that?"

She smirked at me and said, "oh, no. That's for after." Yeah, she's got a good sense of humor about it, at least.

We walked for like two hours, almost straight north to a spot I'd scouted with Panther. It wasn't the only potential spot he and I had scoped out, and it wasn't the first one I led the girls past. I'd pointed the others out to Lindsey, suggesting we could come back to them if we didn't find better, but when we got to the final spot her eyes lit up. A small river or big stream ran across our path, broad and deep enough to have plenty of room for fish. Our path led up to it through a wide meadow, but trees lined the side of the river, both huge old ones big enough to build a tree fort in and smaller ones I'd learned how to shelter under back during the Lancaster campaign.

The biggest surprise of the afternoon had to be Alex. While Marie took Lindsey, Liam, Menace, and Maze to the water to show them how to fish with nothing more than patience, speed, and bare claws, Alex snagged me and dug into the packs for the pup tents. Which, to be clear, were really just the super old fashioned waterproof canvas tarps, ropes, and poles. Instead of setting up four little pup tents, she showed us how to use the tarps to make two big tents between two of the bigger trees. She led the other girls in gathering up firewood, clearing an area downwind of the tents, and setting up a little rock and dirt firepit.

"Where did you learn how to do all this stuff, kiddo?"

She just looked at me like I was joking with her. "My Yule present, Mama."

Yeah, my little Hero-to-be wound up getting maybe a little more weepy Mama attention than she expected, but it was adorable and cute and I'd almost completely forgotten about those books. By the time Marie and the other girls got back, we even had a few different spits and sticks set up to roast stuff over the campfire. Which Lindsey lit with the help of the survival gear in the handle of her big old buck knife, not to mention some help with the whole 'flint and steel' thing from Alex. I had not realized those books had that kind of stuff in there, but I really shouldn't have been surprised. The US Army had been collecting institutional knowledge since the eighteen hundreds, and 'how to survive when your high tech shit breaks' seems like something they'd keep around and show Infantry how to do just because.

So, fish for dinner. Lachlan and Lily both joined us right around sunset, and if Lily was more interested in the potatoes than the fish, much like Lachlan she wound up surprisingly good with the kids. We all bundled into the tents; Marie and Lily in one with about half of the kids, and Lachlan and I with the birthday girl and the other half. I didn't really sleep, although I settled down and just enjoyed the sounds of nature around us, not to mention the kids all sleeping the sleep of the stuffed with fish.

Lachlan is not nearly as sneaky as he thinks he is. Neither is Lily. Both of them, however, were sneaky enough to get out of their respective tents without waking any of the kids, which is all I could ask of them. 'I like men' and 'it is my duty to serve ladies in need', I should have figured something like that was gonnna happen from the moment she showed up. Okay, that wasn't all I could ask of them, and it most certainly wasn't going to be, but that could wait until after the camping trip.

Look at me, being all grown up and delaying gratification and shit. Next thing you know I'll be...

Uh. Shit. I can't think of anything 'oh, look, I'm adulting' shit that I don't already do on the regular.

Fuck it, if this is what adulting is like when it goes right, sign my ass up.

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