A/N: Here's the second of the requested pairings. I hope you enjoy it. Sorry that I'm running about a day behind in posting. I just got back from being out of town.
A Day Indoors XXVI
Evangeline set aside the book she was reading and sighed. Life was definitely more boring without the boy around. It was nearly as bad as it was before he arrived. Evangeline looked around the resort and started growing restless. She then got up and went looking for her puppet.
"Chachazero!" Eva shouted around inside the resort until she heard a loud crash in the direction of the liquor cabinet.
"I was just dusting it master! I promise!" Chachazero offered too quickly.
"Never mind that, I want you to go activate Hakase's latest project." The undying mage said looking around. It was her resort and nobody could possibly be watching, but she still looked around out of habit.
"But master, she said that…" The puppet pleaded.
"NOW!" The vampire roared impatiently. "I'll be down in my… special room."
Chachazero merely shook her head and set out to obey her commands while Eva cast a furtive look around one last time. She'd stolen Hakase away for an entire weekend, which amounted to nearly a month here in the resort. It had been worth it though. She'd wiped Hakase's memory clean every time she'd come here, keeping her at work, but never allowing her dirty little secret to leave the resort.
The child-like immortal moved swiftly past the traps she'd set in the halls within the lower reaches of the resort. She removed the illusions and all the spells that guarded her most prized possession. She hadn't even told Chachamaru about this place. Since watching her become more sentient and more attached to Negi by the day, she didn't dare allow the robot to find out about this.
Evangeline disarmed the last ward and stepped up to the simple looking door, where she produced a simple house key. She'd only recently added this since all her other precautions could keep out an army. However, all her magical traps were useless against one particular fifteen year old girl with magic canceling ability. She had therefore installed a simple lock.
The ancient mage stepped into the room and turned on the light switch despite the beautiful sunlight that streamed through a small window. Inside, the western kitchen looked exactly as she'd left it. It looked like a slightly more modern version of something out of an episode of 'Leave It to Beaver'. Sunlight illuminated her little flower garden growing on the windowsill above a neatly kept sink.
Evangeline chuckled. She could live with demons finding out about her exile to Mahora Academy, but if they ever saw what she was about to do, she'd be a laughingstock to beat all laughingstocks.
Evangeline quickly changed into a simple dress, and put on the little apron she kept. She then started cooking a light meal. It shouldn't be too much longer before Chachazero activated…
"Master, are you in here?" Negi said peeking in the doorway.
Evangeline whirled around to stare at the boy menacingly, finally though she eased her features. "I thought I told Hakase to program you differently."
"Master?" Negi said in stupefaction.
"I told Hakase to program you to call me 'Mom' in stead of 'Master'." Evangeline said in annoyance. She really didn't want to have to reprogram the robot since the suspension of disbelief was integral to any fantasy. Ever since she'd seen Chachamaru's new skin she'd been dying to see how real Hakase had managed to make her most prized dolls.
Negi stared at her in absolute shock until a tall man stepped into the room behind him. "Yes, boy, don't talk back to your mother."
Evangeline's breath caught in her throat as she looked up at the visage of Nagi Springfield. He was just as beautiful as she remembered. Shaking from the sight of the two of them, Evangeline was dumbstruck to realize Nagi was talking to her.
"Something smells great honey, is dinner almost ready?" Nagi said with his roguish smile that had captured her heart years ago.
"Yes! It's almost ready!" Eva nearly shouted with glee. "Negi, will you set the table?"
Evangeline then turned back to finishing the small meal she had been fixing. It was just like a dream. Ever since she'd met the boy, her nightmares had begun to ease leaving her to spend the night in dreams just like this where she could pretend she was with Nagi, and Negi was her son. Of course she'd had other dreams involving Nagi and even Negi, but for now she was satisfied with this one.
Evangeline finished cooking and turned to find Negi and Nagi looking at her from where they sat at the table. Three places had been set for them to have a meal together as a family.
Evangeline quickly served her surrogate family and then sat down to eat. She then looked at her two newest puppets. Hakase had outdone herself. Eva had been explicit in her design specifications but these were beyond anything she'd ever seen. They even made Chachamaru look crude by comparison.
Eva watched the two eat and felt the warm fuzzy feeling she always woke up with after having this dream. She had demanded that the robots be able to eat. She wanted to experience the illusion of being a mother, with her own family.
The three ate in silence until Eva decided to see how their linguistic programming was working. "So, how was your day dear?"
"Oh. It was a little rough. I've been looking forward to coming home to see you all day." Nagi said looking at Eva with the amused grin she always remembered him having.
"And how was your day, Negi? Are the other children at school treating you nicely?" Eva said turning to the smaller robot.
"Yes… mother." Negi replied formally. "I had a very good day."
"Oh, don't be so formal." Eva chided gently. "I'm glad you had a good day though. Here, I better clear these away."
"Let me help you." Nagi said getting up.
Eva was shocked at the offer, but didn't refuse. Hakase had obviously made an idealized version of Nagi. The real one would have never offered to help with dishes. He tended to be a bit lazy after all. Eva couldn't really complain though since she doubted that he'd ever have returned her feelings and started a family with her either.
"My, since when did you help with dishes?" Eva said turning on the tap to wash up.
"I just figured it was about time I showed you how much I appreciated you." Nagi said tossing a towel to Negi. "Here son, wipe off the table for your mother."
"Yes, dad." Negi said quickly hopping up to do as he was told.
Eva smiled and sighed as she set about the mundane task of washing dishes. How many times had she wanted this out of her life? How many times had she promised herself that if she could ever find a way to trade her magic for a family she'd do it?
Eva lost herself in the moment, when Nagi's warm hand touched her won as she passed him a plate to rinse. Eva looked up at the face she's dreamt about for years and couldn't stop herself from staring.
Nagi noticed her look and smiled broadly. "You're blushing dear."
"I am not!" Eva denied too quickly. "Well… maybe a little."
Nagi brushed his fingers against Eva's cheek and seemed ready to lean in for a kiss when Negi interrupted them. "All done!"
Eva turned quickly to look at the boy's beaming face and only smiled. She then went back to washing. Nagi only laughed. "Hey son, why don't you go play outside for a little while?"
Eva stared up at the man in open shock. THAT was the Nagi she remembered alright. "Uh, wait Negi, uh, well, uh, I thought we might do something together this afternoon as a… as a… a family."
Evangeline couldn't understand why she was suddenly so nervous. These were only robots, creations made by science and magic. She could turn them off in a heartbeat if necessary.
"That sounds like a great idea." Nagi said pulling Evangeline into his arms. Eva marveled once again at the feeling of the skin Hakase had created. It felt so real. She could almost believe she was really being held by Nagi.
She could almost believe except that even now she knew Nagi would never treat her this way. She was in her 'natural' form, and Nagi had never taken her seriously like this. Eva looked up to see Negi blushing heavily at the affection his father was showing to his master.
Eva smiled in spite of her melancholy. It might only be a dream, but it was her dream, and she'd hold on to it as long as she could. "Come here boya, mama wants both her men to hold her."
Nagi chuckled as Negi moved forward timidly. Eva pulled him into her embrace and she felt like she was in heaven. With the two men that meant the most to her pulled so close she felt like she could drift off to sleep and for once never have to worry about the nightmares returning.
Eva closed her eyes and imagined a fantasy where she and Nagi were asleep in bed, and Negi had been frightened by a thunderstorm and climbed in with them because he was scared. They would sleep together like parents and a small child as one true family. Eva dismissed her darker and more lascivious imagination, not wanting to corrupt such a beautiful dream and instead drank in the feeling of warmth around her and sighed.
"If only this were real." Eva said sadly.
"Who's to say it isn't?" Nagi said enigmatically as his broad arms wrapped his family close to his chest.
"The real Nagi would never settle down, much less with me. He was always more interested in running off on another grand adventure than he was in noticing the people around him. I tried to tell him how I felt, but it was hard for me. I wish… I wish I could go back and change the person I was, and maybe I could have at least stayed by his side instead of winding up here." The vampire said morosely.
"People change Eva." Nagi said seriously. "Just as you've changed from the person you were back then, so have I. I realize now how much of a fool I was to turn my back on all the things I had and I regret all the things that it has cost me. I never got to see Negi grow up, and I never got to let you know that I understood how you felt. I just wasn't ready to acknowledge anyone's feelings."
Sold your soul my rear; Hakase, you have the soul of a poet. Eva thought opening her eyes to look up at the simulacrum of her love.
The first thing Eva saw however was Chachamaru, standing in the doorway with Chachazero sitting on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry master, I tried and tried, but the robots Hakase created simply aren't ready yet." Chachazero reported.
"How?" Eva said as her heart sank.
"We got back from Wales this afternoon. It's been a while Eva." Nagi said in amusement.
"What?" Eva continued dumbstruck.
"Can I call you 'Mommy' instead of 'Master' now?" Negi said innocently pecking Eva on the cheek with a quick kiss.
Evangeline the Undying Mage looked back and forth between the younger and older Springfield that had their arms wrapped around her in astonishment not believing what she was seeing until realization began to dawn on her what she'd just shared with the two of them. Then for the first time in her abnormally long life, as embarrassment colored her face a deep crimson, she really, really, REALLY wished she could die.
A/N: I had really hoped for this to come out better, but what can I say, this is a rather hard pairing to write.