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The following is a fan-based
FICTION
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Chapter 18: What makes a Family
~Alej's POV~
She had initially regretted accepting Diana's offer to come and visit earlier than last time.
With her mind being a bit sluggish after waking up early in the morning, she had quite the difficult time getting herself prepared for the visit.
Despite a few small sacrifices on her part to make her surrogate mother happy, Alejandra felt glad that she was now resting on one of the pleasant couches in the woman's living room.
Tootsie seemed a little worse off than she was. With her body slumped quietly on the sofa nearby, the blonde had completely abandoned herself to some full rest after the tiring night the younger Prime had gone through.
With quiet snoring reaching out from the sleeping Mouse, the pleasant silence of the house was barely disturbed and… the Cow Prime mirthfully lost herself in memory lane while waiting for Randal to finish preparing some cups of coffees.
She could remember sitting on this very couch so many times in the past, either to read a book or to enjoy some happy time with the rest of the family.
Some of the memories warmed her up to how this simple rural life once was hers to enjoy to the fullest without having to suffer from any major problems.
Yet these fleeting moments were also coupled with a few moments when she wasn't sure how to label them to herself.
A large majority were seen as a catalyst of her discomfort being Mora, or rather, her current perspective of her former childhood friend.
It was just as Alejandra had decided to venture out to Prism Uni to pursue higher education that the real division started to happen between the two of them.
While there had been some dissatisfaction prior to that, even about some silly high school crush, the real issue stemmed from two general issues she had with the woman she once considered a sister. Stubbornness and simplicity.
In her eyes, Mora was so stuck in seeking happiness with so little that she had forsaken the fact that freedom could be achieved beyond mere familial bonds, that friends were important too.
In fact, if there was something that Alej was unable to truly explain about their past school experiences, was how the young Linda had never kept the same friends around.
None had stuck around after a couple of months after she had befriended them.
And while her logical explanation at the time had been that the girl's personality had messed up big time with many classmates, Diana had been the one to reveal quite the difficult truth to stomach.
It had been no secret to Alejandra that there were a few mean students at the local school. From elementary to late high school period, she had been subjected to an unfair degree of problems caused by some irritating children.
Some of them had been people that Mora would end up befriending early on and then prank them… badly.
Nothing too violent, there were plenty of possibilities for those to become bad, but it never went as far as to actively hurt people.
Yet what truly got Alej to stop and think back at the scene was how it all made sense with how Mora had cared for her.
It was like they were sisters, where the fellow Cow Prime would strive to make sure that she was fine and well away from any of the bullies.
This very thought kept hanging over her head for years, preventing her from giving a genuine understanding of the young woman…
Or at least that was until she had run away from home.
Before Alejandra could have dived back in that topic, her attention was taken back to reality as both Randal and Diana appeared out of the kitchen while holding the five cups filled with steamy coffee.
The very moment the cups were put by the table in front of the couches, Tootsie seemed to shift from her slumber. Her violet eyes snapped open as she quickly scanned the room, slowly recollecting the last moments before falling asleep and… then she settled on Alej's blue orbs.
An embarrassed blush ultimately settled as she finally got a full understanding of what was going on and where she had left off. The Mouse Prime moved quickly, adjusting herself on the sofa in a proper sitting composure before giving a quick nod to her boss.
Diana giggled at the scene, while Randy looked partly confused by that development.
"You know, Alej," The older woman mused quietly. "You could give the little dear some mercy considering that this is still a visit of courtesy."
She could do that, especially since they were there as 'friends' rather than 'leader and subordinate' as the young Cow Prime was accustomed to. In fact, she didn't even chide out the little situation that had been a thing up until now, knowing full well how draining yesterday had been for the blonde.
Not only did the Mouse Prime have to conclude some paperwork Alejandra had assigned to her, but she also had to go through a thorough check of the machines before going to sleep… which had been around midnight.
"I suppose I can ease up on her for today," The dark-white-haired woman conceded with a sigh. The words seemed to draw a giddy smile out of the blonde, but this was diluted by the fact that Alejandra decided to move her attention right at a detail she had noticed when the mother and son had returned from the kitchen.
"Is Matt going to join us now?" Alej inquired calmly right at Diana. "I thought he was still working out in the fields."
The older woman nodded, a small smile growing. "I think it will be alright if for this occasion he skipped his work."
"But would it be convenient to-"
"My farm, my rules," The fellow Cow Prime interjected with a hum. "Plus, it wouldn't be nice if he was working while you two are here."
Randal nodded. "I will be going to call him. We should be back in a couple of minutes."
The Collie Prime smiled a little before going by the entrance and running towards the human was quietly working on his own.
It was still surprising how someone as young as Matt was having an easy time braving through the numerous hardships of keeping such a traditional farm from collapsing as a workplace. To think that someone could just get his mind focused on the job and… go forward this determinedly.
It was familiar to Alejandra, reminding her of how she had started everything. From the first efforts in trying to become the CEO of an already-existing company, to creating a new one from just herself and Tootsie.
"You know, I didn't notice this before but…" Diana spoke quietly, her voice drawing the younger woman back away from her thoughts. "Have you been sleeping well recently?"
Oh right, the sleep bags. After hours of dealing with an increasing amount of paperwork, her body was having some trouble keeping up with the rhythm and… it was just a temporary instance.
Once the company managed to expand properly, she would just hire new people to further decentralize the burden of her growing organization.
"I will catch a full day of rest tomorrow," The Cow Prime replied with certainty. "I will stay in bed more than usual, maybe three or four more hours."
"That's good to know, but if you want to rest here, you should know that it will be fine by me and-" Diana sighed quietly and nodded to herself. "I really hope you aren't just driving yourself too deep in your work like Matt is doing."
Blue eyes widened at that comment. So the human was actually having some trouble keeping up with the burden? It wasn't much of a surprise, but what truly made this quite impressive was how long he had been going at it without showing any signs of fatigue.
Farm-work was nothing easy, especially with how tiring the situation would be for a lone man to go through so many roles at once to keep things running smoothly.
Maybe there was more than a simple connection between these two facts.
"That's why I think that it will do him fine if he spent some time away from labor and with us," The Cow Prime continued happily. "It will do him well if he rested a little while instead of burning himself up like this."
"I suppose that could be acceptable, considering how much sacrifices he's made for the farm," Alej conceded again, this time feeling that this was more appropriate for the young man.
"It would be a good thing to do," Tootsie agreed happily. "Plus, he would end up missing these delicious cookies if he continued working."
Another round of giggle ensued, lessening the seriousness of the situation.
"Oh why, aren't you the sweet flatterer~."
The Mouse Prime blushed brightly at that comeback, her jaws dropping low at the words. It was the first time the young Cow Prime saw her subordinate be this flustered by a comment… but considering whom Diana was and how much of a teaser she was, there was no reason to find any issues about it.
In fact, Alejandra let out a calm sigh, glancing with minor irritation at the now-smiling woman as she knew that this was just the beginning of some embarrassing escalation.
"Weren't you the one mentioning mercy?" She inquired carefully, hoping to keep at bay the crescendo of teasing from continuing after this.
"Uh? But teasing is something that should always be used to get the funniest of reactions," Diana replied eagerly. "In fact, I think it's been a while since I've last asked you about your current romantic situation. Any individuals you wish to introduce to me~?"
Now it was her calm to be shattered by the power of the experienced teaser, drawing a full-face blush on her face. This wasn't the first time this had happened, but it's been so long since she had to deal with this that she was caught off-guard by this response.
"I-I'm n-not-" She stuttered a little, unable to properly think for a moment while Diana graced them with more chuckling over these reactions.
"You both are so adorable," The older Cow Prime mused happily. "But I really do want to know if there had been any improvement on that front, young lady."
Alejandra squirmed a little at the pressure, gulping nervously over the fact that it's been more than a couple of months since she had tried out dating people.
"N-Not really - Work is quite draining and-"
"Ms. Alejandra is very active to make sure everything is fine at the company," Tootsie surprisingly piped in with a calmer tone. "S-She works really hard to keep everything afloat."
"Is that so?" The motherly woman poked a little more while narrowing her at the young Prime, getting her uneasy once again but…
Then she eased up and nodded. "I suppose that's something a good leader does. Make sure things are fine and well for their subordinates."
Relief washed instantly over the two of them as the disaster had been averted and now that the first wave of probing queries was over-
"But what about you, Tootsie?" Diana inquired once again. "Do you have someone in your mind right now?"
The next one came crashing down restlessly.
"I-I've been busy myself," The blonde tried to deflect, only to rouse even more the interest presented by the older woman.
"Work has to be tough to get the two of you stuck like this… maybe I should do something to-"
"No," Alejandra jumped in with a panicked note, then she quickly realized what she had blurted out and tensed up again. "I mean- there is no need for you to do anything about… that."
Green eyes showed faux naivety at that comment, but the older Prime huffed as a pout settled on her face.
"You know, I don't understand why neither you, nor Randy are willing to tell me about any recent relationships you might have developed," The old woman whined in irritation. "At least Matt got close to get a lovely one."
At this the younger Cow Prime frowned. "He found someone here in town?"
"Oh, from what I remember hearing from Matt, she reached town a little while after you had left," Diana started to explain. "She works at the local bar as a waitress and… nothing much happened from it."
There was something in that 'nothing much' that just left Alejandra as perplexed as suspicious. The tone used, the hint of embarrassment, and that certain glint of mischievousness in her surrogate mother's eyes giving her proof of that.
"Nothing much?" She inquired calmly. "That seems fairly vague, considering he 'came close' to have a relationship."
"They had a date," Diana admitted with a hum. "But things didn't develop towards that direction after a 'certain point'."
A blush emerged once more on her cheeks, forcing Alej to keep quiet to think well about what she had just heard. There was so much context missing from those words and… she wasn't referring to that. Or was she?
"Was it the girl that decided to keep things simple?" Tootsie pressed on despite how embarrassing the topic was much to her boss' confusion over it. "I mean, I don't want to sound too harsh on Matt, he is a good guy and all, but he is still a human-"
"Oh no, you are… you are missing the point by a long shot," The old Cow Prime admitted with some amusement. "In fact, that night went well beyond anyone's expectations."
Now, wasn't that just… odd? She didn't have any reason to doubt the words from Diana, but she found it difficult that a human just had the 'stamina' to go through with that situation. But considering how determinedly he was going through the tasks at the farm, it wouldn't be much of an absurd idea to see this more as a strange predicament.
"But what happened then?" The blonde continued with her inquiries, and the older Prime was happy to reply to all her questions.
"The two just decided that it wasn't meant to be, ending up remaining just friends."
"That's quite… sad," The Mouse Prime concluded with a huff.
"A pity for sure… but perhaps I will have some stories from Mora," The woman pointed out quietly as she thought about this, ignoring that her words had brought sudden tension right to Alejandra.
Blue eyes went wide open as the younger Cow Prime stared in confusion at the brunette, shock seeping in her expression as she blurted out the first question she had in mind.
"W-What?"
"Oh right, I should have told you these earlier than now," Diana apologized quickly as she answered thousands of silent questions at once. "But Matt has managed to get in contact with Mora and… he managed to convince her to return back home."
…
WHAT?!
"Forgive me for asking this, but isn't Mora the daughter that ran away from home?" Tootsie asked politely and minding her wording to not sound too insensitive and the older woman nodded.
"That is correct. And now she is returning home so-"
"We are back," Randal interrupted with a small grin. "Matt was quite far from where I had last seen him. He is changing his clothes since they got dirty while working-"
Before anyone could have said anything about this, Alejandra stood up from her seat, silently walking around Randy, and deep in the hallway.
Her blue eyes tried locating where the human was as fast as possible, her mind demanding answers from the source of this development.
Mora was coming back. How? How did he manage to convince her to come back? What did he tell her?
And the list went further and further… but her priority was all the same.
Finally, she found the place she was looking for and, slamming her it open, her lips parted to initiate what was meant to be a lengthy discussion about Mora.
…
But it actually ended up in a silent standoff since, much to her surprise and immense mortification, the young man had been in the process of removing his pants, his chest already naked and in display… with his incredible abs.
~Matt's POV~
Things continued being awkward for some time. For good reasons.
Despite the fact I was allowed to put on my shirt and I wasn't dealing with any screaming, the fact that we were sitting on Randy's bed right now, staring silently at the floor as barely nothing left from our mouths, was more concerning than anything else that could have happened out of that scene.
"I'm sorry," Alejandra blurted out again, her face still lost in a bright blush while I frowned quietly at the wooden texture of the ground.
"And I've forgiven you already," I repeated back to her, making this the… fifteenth? Fifteenth time I had to accept her apology.
Sighing at how irritating this silence was starting to become, I glanced to the side and hummed. "So, are you going to tell me why you barged in or is that embarrassing too?"
Her face displayed some activity compared to the previous panicked expression she had, yet Alej took a couple more seconds to properly ponder over my words before actually giving a better reaction over those.
"D-Diana told me that… you called Mora," She began with a tense voice. "And- and that she accepted to return back home."
The Cow Prime didn't continue from this, but I started to connect the dots between her unexpected entry, her current behavior, and Mora. It was quite simple actually, but there were some details I knew that needed some attention considering the context and the individual I was talking to.
So I eased up a little on my composure, and glanced at the ceiling.
"What do you want to know?" I finally asked with a calm tone, drawing a surprised look out of the young woman.
There was no reason for me to deny her the chance to know more about the situation, but I was fairly sure that I had told everything to Diana already and-
God please, don't tell me that she literally rushed to me to have more information despite the fact she would have had it all… without having to literally crash in the room so suddenly!
"Are you sure that's… fine?" Alejandra politely asked with a mix of surprise and confusion in her voice.
I shrugged at her. "At this point, I guess we could talk about it."
She gave a nod but she took some time before shooting right away. A couple more seconds passed and soon the inquiry began.
"Was Randal the one that gave you the phone number?"
"I promised him that I would try and reach her out," I replied quietly. "He gave me the number and I did my best with the conversation that ensued."
"You succeeded," The Cow Prime dryly pointed out and I huffed at her.
"Yeah, but that wasn't an easy thing to do, that is considering that other people, her family," I glanced once again at her. "And I think you too, failed to get her to return back home."
Alejandra sighed tiredly. "She is just too stubborn to listen to anything if she has a grudge on people… or if she is wrong about something and she doesn't want to hear someone call her out as such."
"Nah," I disagreed quietly. "Sure, I noticed that she was quite stubborn about some stuff, and she almost closed the call the moment I didn't tell her what was truly going on, but I think Mora is just dealing with her own batch of problems."
The young woman frowned at my words, but didn't immediately reject my comment.
"What made you think this?"
"During the call she sounded incredibly tense," I revealed while thinking back about that conversation. "The kind of tension people generally have when they feel rightfully paranoid about something. But I don't think it was her being worried about dealing with this situation."
"Like as if… she was in trouble or something?" Alej's voice showed some concern. "Do you think that there was something wrong about her words or-"
"I think it was something connected to the recent past," I interrupted her, knowing that fueling unnecessary worries was going to be detrimental at best. "I don't think she is in trouble right now."
My response seemed to calm her down a little bit, but we were far from over this discussion and I prepared for the next questions.
"So, did you tell her about what is going on with Diana?" She finally asked and I sighed.
"I did," I answered curtly, ignoring her chiding look. "It was the only way to get her attention, she was literally close to ending the call a few seconds in. Cutting me off at every sentence … eventually caused me to snap at her."
Her chiding look intensified and I gulped nervously.
"I just told her the truth, without sounding too harsh about it-"
"How far did you go with it?" Alejandra interjected cooly, and I hummed quietly.
"I told her that it would've been the least she could have done to Diana," I genuinely admitted, flinching a little at her dark frown. "But I was quick to point out that I knew that she actually cared, and that she would have made the right choice."
…
"How did she react to this?" She pressed on, knowing what answer she was expecting and-
"She was shocked, mortified even… and I think she cried -!" As I explained to her, Alej punched my arm, the strength put behind it making it sting. "Okay, quick thing, I didn't press on when I heard her cry, I made sure to comfort her through it."
"You still could have been a little more respectful about that," The Cow Prime commented with a sigh. "Telling someone about this kind of news, that she is going to lose her mother it's-"
She stopped there, she didn't continue and… she sighed.
"I'm sor-"
"Don't finish that sentence," I interrupted the young woman. "Since I've experienced that, I should've known how to actually tell her that without being too brash about it."
I bowed my head in shame, my eyes were now looking back at the floor while I thought about this and… that was something that I hadn't thought about. Despite having lost both of my parents, I had never been in the position to give the bad news to someone.
I never thought it to be even a possibility, especially with how dreadful that predicament was in itself . It had been the spur of the moment that had gotten me to give out that bad part of me.
It was instinctual, a reminder of how many regretful things could turn if proper focus wasn't given to these circumstances.
I remember the anger directed at myself for having done nothing to make their passing meaningful in my mind. It was all bleak, their death felt without reason, and I was lost in the echo for a couple of years.
It had been like the light that had guided me forward in life had started to flicker violently and madly, giving me little sight over where I was going and what I was doing. And then I started to pick up my own pieces when I felt that things were starting to get out of control.
"That… isn't true," Alejandra's voice brought me out of that thought and right into the conversation. "Losing a parent doesn't make people capable of sensibly dealing with people close to losing theirs. Sure, it does prepare you to know how to offer support, but sometimes, the memory is just..."
"Too much," I concluded for her. "You know of that pain too."
It wasn't a question, the fact coming directly from Diana's own tales of 'little Alej'. But instead of lingering in my mind, I kept my attention right at her as she let out a drained sigh.
"My father passed away when I was close to completing high school," The young woman said while nodding. "He was always busy with his company, the passing of my mother leaving him in a state of melancholic dissatisfaction with people."
The Cow Prime blinked and then gave a small smile. "Diana had been one of my mother's closest friends, and she offered me a place to eat, rest, and have comfort in the form of Mora and Randy offering me their attention and company."
She paused, before sighing in sadness.
"Dad tried his best to be present during important events, giving me his support and love whenever he could and… then he was gone."
…
"The fact you still remember him makes him live even now," I slowly commented, trying to ease up the situation. "He cared for you, and he will still do as long as you remember him with a smile."
She did comply, a tiny smile appearing on her face at that. "Thank you."
"Only saying the truth, Little Alej," I replied happily, getting a snort and a playful punch back.
"I refuse to be called 'little' by someone that is younger than me," The young woman huffed, shaking her head.
"Wait," I frowned at this. "I'm younger than you? I thought you, Mora and I were all the same age."
"Mora is three months my senior and you are two months my junior," Alejandra explained calmly. "That makes you the youngest."
I groaned, feeling like I've stepped on a land mine… connected to the rest of the explosives in that very minefield.
"I'm already dealing with this with Randal, I can't cope up if any of you decides to-"
"I wouldn't do anything but be correct with you as your senior," The young woman pointed out with a serious voice. "But I will, of course, have to tease you because of my 'senior status'."
Another groan, but this time it was followed by some chuckles I shared with the Cow Prime.
I sighed and nodded. "So, you had a brother and a sister back in your childhood," I mirthfully started about it. "I suppose that makes Diana your mother?"
The young woman was silent for a while but she eventually gave a slow nod.
"I wouldn't tell her this for… I actually don't know," Alejandra admitted nervously. "I feel like it would be intruding on their amily. Their real family."
"You wouldn't, as I know they consider you part of it," I replied to her with a confident smile. "I swear that if you started to call Diana 'mom, she would be the happiest to call you 'daughter'."
She lowered her sight to the floor and nodded again. "I suppose she would."
Knowing Diana, she wouldn't merely be 'the happiest'.
God knows what kind of stuff she would do once this is formalized. Most likely, she would try her best to get a 'proper family picture' done first, then perhaps arrange for more ambitious stuff.
With the fact that she had some 'mysterious friend' that had somehow managed to get hands over my childhood photos, I was confident that things would have escalated instantly the moment this happened.
But the joy the old woman would feel about this made all the dreadful drawbacks instantly disappear.
"Like seriously, why not give it a try now?" I pressed on. "Is there a reason to not really try?"
There was visible reluctance, enough to draw these quiet moments for a while so that the woman could have a proper response to this.
"Not truly, no," The Cow Prime replied. "But what about Tootsie?"
I blinked at this question, feeling confused about this. "…What about her?"
"She is still a subordinate under me," She explained. "And I don't know if it would be correct for me to-"
Did I fail to notice Tootsie being like this? I was quite sure the blonde was quite the farthest thing from a strict worker under her leadership, in fact I knew that she would probably feel happy for her boss if this situation was truly dealt with.
"Do you think Tootsie would think bad of you if you called someone that cared for you for a large part of your childhood 'mom'?"
The question itself felt stupid to even ask, and the blush that enveloped her face proved that her own resistance was silly to try and bring up in this situation.
"How about we go back to the living room and you try?" I asked quietly and I saw her nod.
Just as we both stood up, I noticed that I had yet to change my dirty clothes… and we've been sitting on Randal's bed for a long time now.
Hopefully, the Collie will not overreact about it- or maybe he will have me clean the entire bed as a punishment.
Still, I paused for a moment. "Actually, I should change my clothes and… if you want you can go there yourself and wait for-"
I stopped, my eyes narrowing at the uneasy look on the young woman, as if it was trying to protest about this and I frowned. "You don't want to go back alone?"
It was odd for her to ask for something like this, and I saw this more as a wild guess that ended up being validated as she gave a proper nod at it.
I sighed and shrugged. "Can you at least stay out of the room and offer me some privacy?"
"I-I can do that," At my question, she quietly reached the door and left the room, literally leaving me alone so that I could have started with that long-needed process.
Once I was done with getting a cleaner set of clothes, I proceeded to walk towards the entrance, returning to the living room with Alejandra and…
Then we were subjected to quite the interrogation from Diana about why it took us so long to return back there.
Truly an interesting day, between amusing insanity and new revelations.
AN
You still have to explain me where you have been recently.
Uh? What do you mean?
You usually come around to try and get me to write chapters earlier than planned, either that or pipe in with some of the other stories. What did you do?
Me? Why would I be doing anything- Okay, I might have been busy with some fun stuff.
*Reaches out and hands out a ticket*
...What kind of odd… stuff? Is that a-
You are thereby invited to Paraiso Island-
No.
But-
I know what happened a couple of years ago. I ain't going there.
Eh, what if this summer? Without tricks and all of that?
I will want more guarantees, but I will think about it.
Then I can start preparing things with Messiah-
No tricks.
No… tricks~… hehehehe.
REVIEW Q&A!
Ant0nius:
Oh oh, it will be glorious.
And another Crest I can use for a whole day? There are some I wish to try out… but I guess I will stick with the Water Crest. You know… wet clothes~.
Astrogamer:
Oh, thank you for the kind words!
He is never much of a lemon-kind of author, so this praise is actually pretty good to hear. Ain't it?
S-Shut up.
You forgot to add the final 'Baka' to that.
...Mph!
