"Coochie coochie coo! Who's a good baby girl? Christy is!"
Christy squealed and giggled in delight as her mother gently tickled her stomach with her fingertips. The baby was being pushed in a stroller by her mother, but to where the baby didn't know. She never did. All the little thing knew was that she was getting a ride in her stroller, and Mommy was paying extra special attention to her. That in itself required no questioning.
"Oh, just you wait, Christy," Hilary crooned as she straightened herself out, continuing to push the baby's stroller down the side walk, "you're going to have so much fun today! I think you and Lin are going to become the best of friends."
Christy cooed and continued to stare back up at her mother. She had no idea what her mother was saying. After several more minutes of walking, Hilary finally reached her destination: Shinjuku Park.
It was a beautiful, spacious park, with bright green grass, black iron benches, winding sidewalks, and the most striking feature of them all: a white marble fountain set in the center of the park featuring sculptures of various aquatic animals.
It was one of Hilary's favorite places to come and relax. She had learned to love it even more after having her daughter. The park was a great place to bring young children to play. And that's exactly what Hilary was doing with Christy.
"She should be here…" Hilary murmured.
Christy began to whimper, squinting her eyes and flailing her arms. This immediately caught Hilary's attention, causing her to frown and lean back down.
"What is it, baby?" Hilary cooed. "Why are you getting fussy?"
Christy whined and placed her little hands near her eyes, trying to cover them as she squirmed in displeasure. Gasping, Hilary came to realize what was bothering the child. Looking up, she set her eyes on the bright afternoon sun, which was now shining right in Christy's face.
Hilary smiled sweetly as realization hit her. "Is that it, the sun is bothering you?" Christy gurgled in further irritation, her face contorting as she prepared to cry. "No, don't do that, sweetheart! Mommy will fix it."
Hilary pulled up the hood of Christy's stroller, and right away, the tiny girl relaxed.
"See?" Hilary giggled sweetly. "Mommy makes everything all better."
"Hilary! Over here!"
The doctor peeked up and found a pink haired woman sitting on a large, stretched out blanket several yards away, a same hair colored baby sitting next to her and patting her small hands against the ground.
Beaming, Hilary pushed her daughter's stroller over to the slightly younger woman, waving happily at her as she approached the pink tressed female. "Hi, Mariah!"
"Hey," Mariah greeted the former manager of Bladebreakers. "I hope Christy's in a good mood today!"
"My little baby is always in a good mood!" Hilary giggled, lifting the infant out of her stroller. As soon as Christy was out, however, she began to whimper and narrow her eyes, waving her little fists in the air.
"Sure doesn't seem like it to me," Mariah murmured, frowning sympathetically at her longtime friend.
Hilary held Christy against her hip and bent down to reach into her mint green baby bag. The infant whined the entire time, but stopped as soon as Hilary placed on the child's had what she'd been digging through the bag for: a light yellow sunhat.
"Christy doesn't like it when the sun is in her eyes," Hilary giggled. "Once you shield her from it, she's a very happy little girl." Settling herself down on the blanket, Hilary placed Christy in front of herself, facing her towards the magenta haired baby who sat next to Mariah. "Do you remember Lin? You've played before, but you were both a lot younger than you are now."
Christy peered up at the girl, her pouty lips forming a curious shape as she took in the image of this seemingly unfamiliar child. Lin, meanwhile, did almost the same exact thing, studying Christy herself.
"Maybe if we give them a toy, they'll start to open up to one another," Mariah suggested, reaching into the pink baby bag on her other side and pulling out a pink rattle ball. Placing it in between the two babies, Mariah smiled at them and cooed, "You two will have lots of fun with this thing! Lin loves it."
Lin squealed in delight and picked up the ball, shaking it so it made a gentle rattling noise. Christy, on the other hand, didn't seem interested in such things. Instead, she looked up at Hilary and turned to try and crawl into her mother's lap.
"What are you doing, sweetheart?" Hilary giggled, lifting up Christy and sitting her right back where she'd been. "Play with Lin!"
"Aw, is Christy crawling now?" Mariah fussed as she beamed at the little girl, who was making a rather displeased face.
Hilary nodded. "She's trying to. She seems to get better every day, though. Tyson likes to have her practice crawling; she moves right over to him now!"
Christy gurgled and got back on her hands and knees, once again trying to clamber into Hilary's lap. Sighing, the mother moved her baby closer to Mariah's, leaning down to give her a kiss on the head. Christy, however, didn't seem pleased with this as she reached up to swat at Hilary, who was surprised by the action.
"Well, someone is a little grumpy," Hilary mused.
"She's already rebelling against you," Mariah giggled. "She's not even waiting to become a teenager!"
"Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the crib this morning," Hilary remarked, gently grabbing onto Christy's wrist and lowering the baby's arm.
"Oh, but she's so cute!" Mariah crooned. "Your galpals must adore her, right? I know mine treat Lin like a little princess. They're so obsessed!"
"Yeah, they think she's like a little doll," Hilary sighed. "It can get kind of frustrating sometimes, of course. They're always grabbing her from me and stuffing her into these ridiculously girly outfits. The worst part is that I think Christy really likes them."
"You don't like to put Christy in girly clothes?" Mariah questioned with a frown.
"No, I do," Hilary murmured. "Just not things with so much lace and giant bows or flowers on her head."
"Gary and Kevin are the same way," Mariah assured. "They buy Lin all of these really royal flashy robes for their tea ceremonies. Seriously, they're like bedazzled and stuff. It's crazy!"
"It still amazes me how attached to kids those two are are," Hilary remarked. "They both need to find a girl soon!"
"We've been saying that for years," Mariah giggled. "Not that I disagree, of course!"
Having been forced to face Lin rather than her own mother, who she was more interested in, Christy was not the happiest baby in the world. She watched Lin shake the rattle ball with narrowed eyes, glaring at the happy little girl as she played. With a soft, very quiet huff, Christy crawled forward just enough to wrestle the toy out of Lin's hands and into her own. The little pinkette cooed sadly and began to sniffle, obviously upset about having her toy taken away. The child finally burst into full blown wails, which didn't seem to affect Christy. As Lin cried, the little brunette who was the cause of such misery smiled to herself and shook the rattle ball, giggling at the noise it made.
"Oh, Lin," Mariah sighed, lifting the baby into her lap and bouncing her up and down. "It's alright! Don't cry, sweetie."
Hilary groaned and looked down at Christy, who was busy playing with the snatched rattle ball. "Really, Christy? You had to steal Lin's toy and make her cry? That's not nice!"
"It's just fine, Hilary," Mariah giggled. "Christy didn't mean to make Lin upset! Besides, babies are just attracted to toys. She wanted to play too! Nothing wrong with that."
"I guess," Hilary sighed. "To be honest, part of me thinks Christy is acting out because she wanted to play with me, but I've been pushing her to play with Lin. Christy's been a bit clingy lately."
"Ah, that phase," Mariah trilled.
Hilary smiled at Mariah and picked Christy up to place in her own lap, the baby's lace trimmed yellow bodysuit glowing in the sun. "Is that better, sprinkle? You'll stop being such a brat now?"
Christy shrieked out of delight and dropped the rattle ball. It landed on the picnic blanket and rolled listlessly towards Mariah. Smiling, the young mother picked up the toy and handed it off to baby Lin, who beamed once the ball was back in her hands.
"I'm still sorry about her, Mariah," Hilary apologized. "I don't want you to think that my baby is misbehaved!"
"Oh, Hilary, I know that Christy is a good little girl," Mariah assured. "Babies are fickle! These two will be friends soon enough. They might just have to get a bit older first!"
"Older is one thing, but sucking Tyson's personality out of Christy is another," Hilary sighed.