The Italian Honeymoon Chapter 7, an azur lane/碧蓝航线 fanfic

Part Seven – New Rules II

"Good night, my little princess." I whisper to the room as I turn out the light and close the door while slipping out of my daughter's room, it was hard to believe that she was already two. As the door clicked shut I felt the smile on my face fall as I tried to remember what day it was. With a sigh, I go towards my library, hopeful that it's Sunday of all days. The reason for me wanting it to be Sunday, was because it was the one day that I didn't have to remember whose bed to go to. I'm thankful that Zara and Weser had been able to figure out a schedule that seemed to work, Monday, Wednesday, Friday were Zara's, whereas Weser had Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

As I walked into the library I walked over to the massive glass doors and looked out over the grounds as the rain had rolled in for the late autumn weather, opening the glass doors and stepping out into the rain I took in the scent of the rain, The smell of the rain got me to start smiling and remembering how on a day like this Zara had stolen my lunch and that it was then, I think I knew Zara was the right girl for me; even if I hadn't fully realized it yet. Closing my eyes and tilting my face skyward I let out my breath before saying, "I hope I'm doing you proud, grandfather."

I almost jump out of my skin as I hear a voice coming up from behind me, "I'm sure he would be."

Turning I grab my chest over my heart as I say, "Weser! You scared me."

Weser runs a hand through her red hair and smiles at me as she steps out into the rain to join me. I notice her thin red silk housecoat going slick in the rain and starting to hug her curves and she says to me, "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to do that, Cristiano."

I shake my head and try to relax a little as I ask, "Is it your night tonight?"

She shakes her head and smiles a little before reaching over to pat my cheek as she says, "No, it's Sunday." Weser moves to stand at the railing in the rain and looks over her shoulder as she asks, "Why?"

I shake my head and shrug as I say, "The days are blending together, and if I'm honest about it, I kind of look forward to a day where I have a choice."

Weser gives me a shy smile as she says, "I know it's been difficult, but it really is the simplest solution to the reality of our lives."

I nod and rest my elbows on the railing as I look out over the grounds and sigh out, "I know, and I'm thankful that both you and Zara figure out this schedule."

Weser was about to say something just as I felt a hand on my other shoulder, turning to look in the direction I see Zara, in her green housecoat going slick in the rain, once she had my eye contact she leaned in to kiss me before saying, "I know it's Sunday, my love."

"And we know we have our rules for what does and does not happen in our respective beds." Weser said from behind me.

I nod and take a step back as I ask, "What are you two getting at?"

Both of them turn to face me and start walking towards me, each taking an arm and pulling me back inside as they say, "We want to give you an early birthday present."

XXXX

I feel something wet drip onto my face, waking me up, once my eyes open I see grey eyes looking at me and a grin goes on her face as she says, "Morning Pappa, Mamma, and Mamma Weser!"

Sitting up and looking around quickly I see the pillows and blankets that had been used as a makeshift bed last night and I see both Weser and Zara starting to stir on either side of me. Turning my full attention to Sofia I see that she has a sippy cup in one hand and her favorite storybook in the other. She had a massive grin on her face before she comes right up to me and hugs me tightly before saying, "Happy birthday, Pappa!"

Right, I'm thirty today.

Rubbing Sofia's back I say to her, "Oh, thank you. Did you sleep well?"

"Why are Mamma and Mamma Wesser naked, Pappa?" she asks from looking over my shoulder.

I feel a pang of fear in my guts before I pull her back and smile at her as I say, "How about you go get dressed and I'll meet you in the kitchen and I'll cook breakfast today?"

Her smile goes so huge before turns on her heels and sprints away, her long red hair flowing out behind her, I flop down onto my back and groan out, "We need to be more careful."

Weser snuggles in under my right arm and starts to draw a little circle on my chest as she says, "It was impromptu last night."

Zara snuggles in under my right arm and adds, "Besides, I don't recall you complaining last night."

With a laugh out of me, I say, "Fair point, but I don't want to have to have that conversation with Sofia when she's two about why both of you were naked beside me."

"Best to save that one for when she's older." Zara says as she kisses my chest.

It wasn't lost on me that Weser didn't say anything right away, so I asked, "Weser?"

I feel her head shake back and forth before she sighs out, "I'm getting questions, mostly from Bismarck about, things."

I nodded, I had a feeling I knew what they were about, they wanted to have a strong tie to my Empire, and the easiest way to get that was a child. I look to Zara and I see her roll her golden eyes before she sighs and says, "Fiiine."

Zara gets up, doing up her housecoat and leaves the library with extra sway in her hips, winking at me over her shoulder, as the door closes I look to Weser and smile at her as I say, "We can fix that, we just need to be less careful."

Weser sits up and brushes some hair behind an ear as she nods and says to me, "True, but I don't want to make things harder than they already are between you and Zara."

I close my eyes and take a deep breath as I recall Shinano's words to me almost three years ago now, about how I would have both a son and a daughter; Zara had given me a daughter, what if Weser gives me that son? After a moment I nod and say to Weser, "I can deal with Zara on that front, as much as it irritates her, she's gotten a lot better about the reality of our lives."

Weser nods again before getting up and pulling on her housecoat and starting to go towards the door as she says, "Then perhaps tomorrow night we should be less careful."

Once the door closes behind Weser I flop back down again and groan as I run my hands down my face and say, "My life is so complicated."

XXXX

After I got dressed and went down to the kitchen, I found my daughter already sitting on the prep counter and my chef looking in the pantry for something to occupy my daughter. The second my foot hit the floor, the chef looked around the open pantry door and asked, "What would you like, Your Imperial Majesty?"

Looking to my daughter she looked excited at the prospect of Pappa making breakfast so I put up my hand and said to my chef, "Don't worry about it, I promised Sofia I would make breakfast today."

The chef gave me this sideways look before she rubbed the back of her head and asked, "I mean no offence, but do you even know your way around a kitchen?"

I give a throaty laugh as I say, "Contrary to what you might think, I did live on my own without a staff for most of my life, so I did learn how to cook some basic things."

The chef shrugs and takes a seat at the prep station beside my daughter and I open the fridge, taking out some prosciutto, mozzarella, and lettuce before I grab some fresh bread, pesto and butter. The next thing I grab is a large iron skillet and get it warming up while I butter up several pieces of bread and lay them into the skillet. As those are toasting I slice a couple of Roma tomatoes, slice some mozzarella and tare some lettuce. As soon as the bread it toasted, I put the prosciutto into the pan to heat up a little while I get some pesto on the bread and lay down the lettuce, tomato, with just a bit of salt and pepper on the tomatoes, followed by a layer of mozzarella. Just as I finish doing that, the smell of the meat tells me that it's ready and I lay it down on top of the mozzarella. Putting a slice sandwich in front of Sofia, I see her poke at it a couple of times as she asks, "Is this breakfast?"

With a heavy sigh and some laughter from the chef before she tries it I say, "It is, I've made this dozens of times."

Lifting mine and taking a bite of it, I'm reminded of how much I actually enjoyed cooking before the weight of a country was on my shoulders. Sofia kept poking at it before she asked, "Can I have something else?"

The chef got up and started to get out various ingredients as she said, "Of course, do pancakes sound good?"

Sofia's face lit right up at the offering and I hung my head before taking my sandwich and heading into my office to look at the pile of documents for me to deal with.

XXXX

As I'm going through the documents in my office I come across another report showing that the kansen of the Eagle Union are depleting at a steady rate, faster than the ones showing up on my shores, but slow enough to go nearly unnoticed by the Union. It hurts me to a degree to see so little care for the kansen in the Eagle Union, but not nearly as bad as seeing what looks like the Eagle Union tearing itself apart along political lines. Dropping the documents on my desk I lean back in my chair and I notice that my door is open, tilting my head to the side I stand and look over the edge of my desk to see Sofia sitting on the ground with papers all around her, crayons and a sippy cup of some kind. I come out from behind my desk and sit beside her as I ask, "What are you doing my little princess?"

"Working, like Pappa does." She says in a matter-of-fact tone of voice.

I watch as she scribbles on some paper with black crayon, then switches to blue to make a scribble at the bottom of the page. With that done she sets it off to the side and takes a fresh sheet of paper, scribbles some lines on it like it should be a document, and then makes a blue scribble near the bottom and sets it off to the side again. I pick up that paper and I ask her, "So, what is this one about?"

Without looking at me she keeps working away as she says, "That one is about making it illegal to put pineapple on pizza." She pauses, makes a blue scribble on a page before adding, "I can hardly believe that they allow such a thing in the Eagle Union!"

Picking up the next 'document' I ask, "And this one?"

"To make the Empire a safe place for kansen of other empires to go if they want to get away from mean people." She says, pausing before adding, "Like Nonna Yorktown."

I nod, this sounded really good to me, I stand and move back around my desk and take out a fresh paper as I ask, "Do you think you can tell me what it says? I really like this idea and I'd like to take it to the Senate."

Sofia grins broadly and takes a seat in the chair across from my desk as she starts to tell me about it, then on to why unicorns are better than normal horses, before going on to why she should be allowed candy at bedtime. When she was done, I watch as she slips off the chair and skips off out the door, leaving it wide open, looking down at the roughed-out idea, it would take a lot of refining, but I put her name to it. When my eyes drift to her 'documents' I notice that the blue scribbles all look the same and I understood what that was, it was her signature. I move to pick up one of them as well as the same blue crayon and practice her scribble, a bunch before I put it down, beside her name that I had put on the rough idea. Slipping the document into a document pouch, my eyes drift to the lockbox book that I have that document from Shinano in and I whisper, "She will see the fruits of my labor."

Sealing the pouch with my wax seal I call down to the motor pool for a car to take me to the airfield so I can catch a flight to Rome.

XXXX

It was late by the time I had made it back to Taranto, even later when I stood in the hall outside of mine and Zara's bedroom, slipping in and stripping down I crawled into bed behind Zara, and placed an arm across her side to her belly, as soon as I touched her she asked me, "How was Roma?"

"Good. The Senate seemed to like the rough idea, they said it would take some refining, but it should be passable legislation." I say and I kiss Zara's shoulder before adding, "And I made sure it is Sofia's name on the idea, so she will get the credit for it."

Zara is quiet for a moment before asking me, "Are you going to try for a child with Weser?"

I sigh and kiss Zara's neck before I say, "Yes."

Again Zara is quiet before asking, "You still love me, right?"

"Till the day I die, my love." I whisper to her.

I feel Zara squeeze my hand before she rolls over to kiss me and stroke my cheeks before saying to me, "Then I hope for many years yet."

"Me too, my love, me too." I whisper back to her.

XXXX

A/N: I know a short chapter, but this one was taking a while to come up with, and I've got a few projects building that I want to start so I need to move this one towards the end, even if it means skipping over a few things here and there.