Just posting this here to hold the story and serve as a reminder to myself to finish it at a later date.
Part of a larger project headed by multiple authors, if you're curious about it go check 'Blizzard of the Red Castle' thread on Space Battles forum.
Right now, the whole Blizzard of Red Castle is currently fleshing itself out, and this side-story might be included if I feel like fleshing it out, tying plot threads together and eventually finishing it.
Anyway, enjoy~
Enterprise leaned against the door frame, sipping her cup of freshly brewed Joe as she kept a watchful eye on the living room's other occupant.
Said occupant was waddling around, shirtless and clad in an overly large white Pampers diaper, clumsily touching the room's contents.
Enterprise let out a breathy sigh from the blissful caffeine infused liquid, coffee was indeed a gift from the shipgods. But that paled in front of-
"Mommy! I foun'!" The toddler scrambled towards Enterprise, holding a toy F4F Wildcat airplane up high.
Enterprise quickly put down the coffee mug on the nearby end table, lest her baby smash into her legs and get hot coffee spilled upon her. "Oh my. You found your airplane!"
The blond carrier knelt down to the toddler's level, giving a motherly smile.
"Give you!" The toddler offered the plane to her mother, smiling widely and showing off her baby teeth.
Enterprise could only smile even more as she ran her hand through the toddler's blond curls. "Why, thank you, Elly."
Really, her child was surprisingly intelligent, because when Yorktown bought toy airplanes for her niece, it was a bunch of random navy planes: F-18's F-14's F-8's F-4's, F4F's and F6F's and so on, Elly seemed to prefer the toy jet planes while handing off the toy propeller planes to her mother.
It was almost as if the child instinctively knew her mother used those planes.
Also, Enterprise suspected her baby was an shipgirl aswell, mainly due to two things: her inbuilt 'shipgirl sensor' was yelling at her, and when Elly was born, Enterprise named her 'Enterprise' out of nowhere.
Enterprise simply couldn't explain why, just the name forced it's way into her mind and demanded to name her child so.
Her elder sister, Yorktown came up with the nickname 'Elly' to avoid confusion between the two Enterprises, and that name stuck ever since.
Enterprise wanted to be doubly sure on her baby being a shipgirl, but the testing equipment simply wasn't built to handle newborns, until now.
Vestal dropped by the other day to inform Enterprise, the testing equipment built with babies in mind was nearing completion, now funding and technical help was flowing into the project since it was confirmed shipgirls could give birth. Beginning with Akagi but that was years ago and buried deeply until recent events came into light, regarding Akagi's child, and subsequently forced the secret to resurface.
Akagi. Who knew her old foe ended up being the one that blazed the way and proved shipgirls could have children?
"Hun'ry!" Elly pulled on Enterprise's sweatpants, snapping her out of her thoughts.
The blond mothership quickly scooped her child in her arms, fixing her piecing icy blue eyes with Elly's equally blue eyes, "Oh, so you are. Let's get some breakfast in you, my little escort ship!"
The kitchen was relatively small, intended for no more than two people, but that didn't deter the Yorktown sisters and their fairies from moving in the house the Navy offered, when Enterprise went on her maternity leave.
Specifically, the house was located in the officer's housing section for the officers with families on the base.
Even more specifically, the house was procured by Elly's birth father.
Yorktown was sitting at the dining table in the kitchen, reading the daily newspaper and sipping her freshly brewed coffee, she was a holdover in the internet age when every news in the world was at the tip of one's fingertips, but Yorktown preferred old fashioned printed paper, she just felt more comfortable that way. That was what Yorktown was doing when Enterprise swept into the kitchen, holding a giggling, spreadeagled Elly above her head while Enterprise herself was making piston engine noises.
"Scout plane to base! We've arrived in the kitchen, beginning our scouting for the most exclusive... breakfast!" Enterprise reported in her most business-like voice.
"Brea'fast!" Elly repeated, giggling.
Yorktown looked up from the newspaper with an amused smile, "Oh! Um, base reports the exclusive breakfast is..." She never finished her sentence when Enterprise placed Elly in Yorktown's lap.
"Enemy fire! Emergency landing!" Enterprise declared, while smirking.
That would keep Yorktown busy and away from the oven, or anything related to feeding Elly.
Enterprise did not trust her elder sister when it came to food, for Yorktown was a walking culinary disaster.
Enterprise's cooking was nothing to sneeze at, not to beat her own drum, Enterprise was particularly proud of her culinary skills.
Hornet on the other hand...
"Elly! Morning, good!" The elder blonde stumbled over her words. Enterprise's smirk broadened even more, Yorktown had two major weaknesses in her life, fear of torpedoes, and absolute adoration of her niece. Really, Yorky was nothing but a puddle of goo whenever she was around Elly.
Elly squirmed on the name-ship's lap and pointed a chubby finger at her aunt-ship, "Old aunty!"
Yorktown simply cracked and shattered into pieces. She pouted, "Soooo mean, Elly! I'm still young and pretty!"
"Old aunty!" Elly stubbornly repeated.
Yorktown's pieces crumbled into even smaller pieces. "Sooooooo mean!"
"Hey sis, where's Elly's bottle?" Enterprise cut in to their interaction.
Yorktown reassembled herself in the metaphorical sense, and pointed at the fridge "I put it there, it's by the egg rack."
Enterprise scowled as she flung open the fridge, she stopped herself from cursing in front of Elly. "Dang it, sis! I just milked myself, you know Elly doesn't like cold breast milk!"
Yorktown raised her hands in front of her, in a placating manner. "In my defense, I didn't know how long you'd be playing with Elly!"
Enterprise snatched the baby bottle from it's place and quickly sprinkled some milk on her upturned wrist. "Luckily for you, it's still warm.."
The blond carrier turned from the fridge and caught sight of a bewildered Elly about to cry, presumably from the sudden and tense exchange between sisters.
"Oh no, no!" Enterprise rushed and snatched her child from Yorktown's grip, her mother ship mode running at Full Ahead, "It's okay, Elly, Mommy's here."
"I, uh, I'll see myself out." Yorktown glumly said as she started to stand up but was forced back into her seat by Enterprise's free arm.
"Sit, sis. I have something I wanna talk to you about." The legendary carrier-mom fixed her gaze with Yorktown's while cradling Elly.
Yorktown raised her brows, "Something to talk about...?"
"Yeah," Enterprise motioned at the toddler in her arms, "I'll tell ya after I get my lil' Ace all calmed down and fed."
After getting Elly to calm down, Enterprise offered the baby bottle, "You still hungry, my precious little carrier ace?"
"Un!" The toddler nodded and opened her mouth.
"Okay, here it comes! Purrrrrrrrrrr" The piston engine noise again.
Yorktown rolled her eyes at the silly Enterprise. Who knew the legendary carrier was such a softy when it came to motherhood.
"Oh no no, he's being waved off!" Enterprise cried as she slowed the bottle's approach.
Elly giggled softly "Ares' cable!"
"Yes a perfect first cable landing!" Enterprise popped the bottle's teat into her daughter's mouth and after ensuring Elly had a firm grip on the bottle, the carrier shifted her attention to her elder sister.
Yorktown cleared her throat, "So, what did you want to talk about?"
Enterprise seemed to deflate a little. "We're having a guest today."
"A guest...?" The elder sister furrowed her eyebrows.
"Not just any kind of guest," Enterprise petted her daughter's head. "The other half of my baby."
Yorktown gasped and leaned forward. "You mean...?"
Enterprise grimaced as she eyed her elder sister. "Yes, Yorky, her father is coming by."