xxxxxxxxx Yor POV
"Anya, it's time to wake up," Yor prompted, sitting on the little girl's bed where she was face down in the crack between her pillow and the bed.
"Mmph. Scratch my back," the girl pleaded sleepily.
Obligingly, Yor began scratching her adopted daughter's back. Slowly at first, then increasing speed. The pink haired girl grunted happily and contorted beneath her hands, luxuriating in the stimulus and arching her back like a cat.
When Yor stopped, she didn't whine or complain, she merely sighed happily and lay still for a moment, but immediately started climbing out of bed as soon as Yor stood up.
It was quite early in the morning, and Yor found it interesting that, while the girl positively delighted in sleeping until quite late in the morning, she was also happy to get up and join Yor in her morning exercises.
Yor had work to go to, and did require a fair bit of time to bathe, dress, and apply makeup, but to keep herself in shape she also usually needed about an hour and a half for a proper morning exercise.
Loid, too, had been joining her, proving to be both capable of keeping up with her and similarly devoted to his exercise regime. Although if left to his own devices, he'd generally do it much later in the morning, he was perfectly willing to adapt to her schedule. He didn't require the same amount of primp time she did.
Mindful of her new family, she kept herself to a light workout. A good pre-workout stretch, followed by two hundred each of handstand pushups, inverted situps, and a series of slow ballet moves which trained strength, balance, and endurance, all followed by a thirty minute run, which usually worked out to be about five kilometers since she was just jogging.
Loid actually kept up with her through all but the ballet moves, which was both surprising but also extremely gratifying. She'd never noticed it before, but working out could be lonely. Having someone there with her as a partner felt good.
Little Anya couldn't come close to keeping up, but did her best to at least follow along with easier pushups and situps, starting with an easy twenty each. Unlike Loid, who moved on to a more traditional martial arts exercise, Anya did her best to follow along with the ballet moves. Although it cut into her own exercises, Yor didn't mind taking the time to help Anya begin the training to start ballet.
Her morning run was also easily adapted to the company. She and Loid did wind sprints back and forth on the block while Anya did her series of sprints, then a cool down jog. At first they often had to carry their daughter back to the apartment, but as everyone learned how to work together, they judged things more accurately. Anya would go back inside and clean up first, then start breakfast prep while they finished their runs.
Loid would then take over and cook breakfast while Yor bathed. The lies they told during the school interview notwithstanding, Yor's culinary skills were limited to bakery bought goods and simple fixings like muesli with milk. Loid was incomparably superior, though Yor had been making efforts to learn.
They'd eat together, then he'd quickly clean up while she and Anya washed the dishes, then Yor went and dressed. He generally even had time to shave before he had to finally surrender the bathroom to the goddess of fashion, at least until Yor left for work.
Anya was perfectly okay with the early morning efforts, especially since she generally had the time to grab another hour or two of sleep after breakfast.
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It was the weekend, and Anya glanced around curiously from her position in the passenger seat of the rented car. She had a couple of maps stacked beside her, and was trying to follow their route as they passed street signs.
Yor smiled faintly as she drove.
Ordinarily, Loid would be the one driving, but even though he didn't have any work related tasks to do this weekend, Anya had requested to go with just Yor, and make it a mother-daughter day.
They were headed to an area bordering the Miriquidi forest in lower east Ostania, an area pointed out by Franky as a good place to hunt for old, near-rotten stumps, which her step-daughter Anya needed for… some reason. It was just over 180 kilometers away, and Anya intended to bring back some things, so Yor had needed to rent a car with a sizeable boot in the back.
While there were doubtlessly closer places to look, removing natural features from a park would be a crime, as would be trespassing. But the area Franky had found was a large bit of hilly land near the Ore mountains that had been used for timber for generations, and the owner lived in Berlint, so it was a simple matter to get permission to visit.
Anya was decently helpful as a navigator, not that Yor really needed the assistance, but it was appreciated. Mostly, they spent the approximately three hour trip in a mix of conversation and contemplation.
"…That's why you must be careful with light colors," Yor explained. "While they certainly feel cool and summery, the least little thing can leave an embarrasing stain."
"Wouldn't pure white be better than pastels or brights, then?" Anya asked. "Because then you could just use bleach."
"That's true, but it weakens the fabric if you use it very much. That's okay with some things, but not with others," she replied. With how active she had to be in combat at times, any weak spots in her clothes had an awfully embarrassing tendency to tear.
"Oh, yes. You do move like a superhuman gymnast," Anya said, out of nowhere. "I can see how rips would be a problem. But what about other stain removers? I've heard hydrogen peroxide is good on blood stains."
Yor glanced at the girl in surprise before turning her eyes back on the road. They'd been talking about dirt, grass, and ink stains beforehand. Sometimes it seemed like her stepdaughter had very morbid thoughts. "Well, yes," she agreed, a touch awkward. "Peroxide is good at removing blood stains, but it does cause bleaching on many colors."
Anya's face lit up in realization. "Oh, yeah, the oxygenation! I suppose that would mess with many dyes."
They sat in silence for a while, Anya clearly thinking hard.
Yor left her to it. Anya's thoughts, while often seeming to come out of nowhere, were frequently interesting, at the least.
Still, it nearly startled her into a swerve when Anya suddenly yelled:
"MEAT TENDERIZER!"
"Hah?!" Yor replied, her heart pounding.
"Bromelin! It's an enzyme in meat tenderizer used for cooking. It breaks up proteins, and I'm pretty sure it breaks up some other kinds of chemical bonds, too. I think it would work for removing blood stains, and should be safe for fabrics, too," Anya gushed excitedly.
Yor had never heard of anyone using meat tenderizer as a stain remover, but Anya was a genius, after all. "So how would you use it?" she asked, smiling at the excited girl.
Anya opened her mouth. "Ah… Hmm. Probably just use it as a paste. But you have to let meat soak it in for a while. That might just be to let it actually get into the meat, but it might be a reaction speed thing? Hmm. Well, we'll just have to experiment, also known as just messing around, but you write down the results. SCIENCE!" Anya cried, her tiny fist shooting up.
"Science!" Yor echoed with a smile.
They ultimately had a very pleasant day driving out to the forest lands. Once there they prowled around, hiking through the hills and valleys. Anya had several botany books, and Yor carried a bag full of tools.
It took a while, as Anya was searching for something specific according to her own inscrutable standards, but near a small creek flowing between two hills, they finally found a small tree stump she liked.
It was about 30cm across, and the wood had turned black with age and rot. It also had a coating of green moss, and several shelf mushrooms growing on its side, which Anya had, after some effort with her books, identified as either blushing brackets or a particularly brown example of mossy maze polypore.
Neither species was edible, unlike the several clusters of sulphur shelf mushrooms they had collected during their hike.
The stump was somewhat rotten, but still firm enough to not crumble under their touch. It had several spreading roots, but was reasonably compact overall. Anya loved it.
By herself, she couldn't have done much with it. But while Yor was no ditch digger, neither a shovel nor a saw was hard to use, and she plucked it from the ground with less than thirty minutes of work. Most of the time was spent just being careful.
Once they had it removed, they bagged it up in a large canvas sack and carried it home.
Anya nattered about her plans for it as part of an art piece, and Yor drove.
'This motherhood business isn't so bad,' Yor thought happily to herself.
Anya leaned over from the passenger seat and gave her a hug.
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AN: Kinda short, but Yor is hard. Next chapter is a bit longer, and features Franky. It's on my Patreon.
Note: I am writing again. I had stopped my patreon about a year ago, because I got a new job and didn't have much time for writing. Things went well for a while. New insurance helped me pay for my meds, things looked good.
Then I got sicker. And sicker. And lost the new job.
I am now unemployed and on medicaid. I'm broke. I'm also pretty sick, and it doesn't look good for getting better. This is probably the downward spiral.
So the Patreon is back up. I can't promise a rigid schedule due to health reasons. But I AM writing as much as I can. There's new chapters of both Then Be Batman and Ice Pie on my patreon.
Nugar | creating Original Fantasy and/or Scifi, and occasional fan proje | Patreon
Some other new stories and new materials are also incoming. Your support is appreciated!
Edit: I forgot the link. I have a new story up,
Then be Batman. Let me know what you think.
