Chapter 13: Old Habits

"No! Why must we discard these!?" Cried the purple-haired mother. She held onto plastic bottles in her arms, with some practically spilling out of her arms.

Noire and Histoire sighed collectively from sheer frustration. That was not to say that they couldn't understand the dramatic nature of Neptune.

"Neptune, as much as you would like to keep bottling her, you need to come to accept the reality that she's too big for that now," stated Histoire.

"But- but… she likes it when I give her formula," urged Neptune with her bottom lip turned upward.

Noire stepped forward to throw her two cents into the conversation. "Yesterday, you gave her formula like usual, but she ended up grabbing the bottle with her hands, and she pretty much took over the drinking from you. That's a great indication that she's ready to fully transition to solid foods going forward."

"You might need to accept the fact that she no longer requires formula as a source of nutrition," added Histoire.

Neptune's sadness was immeasurable, and she looked locked in a steadfast conclusion in her mind. "I don't feel like I'm ready to let go of our little special mommy time," said Neptune. She hugged the bottles close to her chest, and silently cursed under her breath. A set of comforting arms wrapped themselves around her in the next instant.

Noire had moved forward to lend her caring support to her wife. "I know, sweetie. She's growing up too fast for us, especially since she's a CPU. We'll need to prepare for the future and to be there for her when she goes through those changes. No doubt that she's going to have it most difficult out of all of us."

Neptune sniffed and rubbed the tears away from her eyes. "True. Her brain's going to go all haywire from the sudden flood of information from the share energy when she hits her next growth spurt."

Histoire floated next to Neptune and wrapped her small arms around the head of the motherly CPU. "It will be all right. She's still going to have plenty of experiences to go through- even for you, Neptune. You still have her first walk, her first potty break as a big girl, her first angry pout when she gets denied something, and even that self-aware look of joy on her face when she gets a gift on her birthday."

A small radiant smile soon began to grow from the purple-haired girl. Hearing all those wonderful scenarios filled her with renewed happiness for the things to come.

An hour went by, and the old discarded baby bottles had been rested in the trash bin outside of the Basilicom. However, Neptune had managed to salvage one bottle that she felt had the most history with her daughter.

The hour before dinner time rolled around, Euri had been resting on the couch, with her mama Neptune's lap being used as her pillow. Euri wore blue overalls with a purple shirt that matched the purple D-clips that rested on top of her pink hair. They were going with new looks for Euri, seeing which one would grow on her in time. It was already decided that next week, they would try to style some twin tails for Euri.

Both mother and daughter burst out laughing from the cartoon that they were enjoying that filled the screen with color and wacky gag humor.

Neptune then felt her daughter lightly tug her sleeve to grab her attention. "Huh? Eu, what's going on, little bun-bun?"

Euri rapidly tapped on the corners of her mouth. "Et… Et." She worriedly uttered, in an attempt to form a conversation with her mama.

"Et…? Oh! Do you mean 'eat?'"

Euri could remember the pronunciation of that word from before and gave her mama a nod.

"Noire! Come quick!" Yelled Neptune.

Noire had been outside on the balcony with some of the light paperwork that she tried to get a leg up on when she heard Neptune from the living room. "What's wrong?" She asked when she raced inside.

"I'll let you see for yourself. Go on, tell papa- I mean, mama Noire what you said just a while ago."

The pink-haired girl locked gazes with her other parent with curious eyes as to why her mama had asked her to speak again. "Et. Et!" She feistily roared with flailing arms.

The black-haired CPU widened her eyes in amazement. "She's saying that she's hungry- I can make it out clear as day!"

"I know, right?" Well, let's get this little girl what she ordered."

It was one of those afternoons that they had decided on ordering out. One call later to a restaurant and the order had been delivered by the front desk of the Basilicom. They had ordered a large pizza that now laid on top of the living room table.

"Now that smells quite good," commented Noire with her arms to her sides.

"Indeed." Joyfully said Histoire.

Noire then blinked twice and looked around in confusion. "Hey, where's Neptune and Euri?"

Histoire now noticed the quiet atmosphere that should have been filled with the joyful cries of a little one and a purple-haired pizza lover. "D-do you think…?" The thoughts she had in her mind were quickly received by the CPU, who looked grumpy and bothered. "That Neptune…"

(Elsewhere in the home)

"Oh, I know I shouldn't be doing this, but you like it, right?" Neptune had taken Euri into one of the closets in the housing unit to feed her from the last baby bottle that she had. The room was dark with only a headlamp attached to the mother's forehead. Her daughter paid no mind to the weird setting of the room she was in as long as she had her bottle. In the end, she felt safe regardless because her mommy was there with her.

The mother felt happy that she was allowed one last time to absorb the moment that she and her daughter had forged together throughout soon-to-be empty baby bottles.

In the next second, the door opened to reveal a grumpy Noire and Histoire with heated gazes that could melt iron.

"Eek! H-hey, you two… um… yeah, I got nothing," she said with a nervous laugh, hoping that their punishment wasn't going to be severe.

What softened the blow that Noire and Histoire inflicted on the sneaky mother was the fact that Euri hadn't spoiled her appetite from the formula.

The little one had been taken out of the dark room and showed the pizza that they had bought. Upon initial glance, Euri expressed her content with the meal before her with a sniff to the air and a joyful clap of her hands. Everyone in the room, that included, Histoire, Noire, Neptune, and Euri took their seats at the table. Euri had taken her highchair with a pink plate in front of her.

Neptune inched her chair as close as possible to Euri's highchair. "I bet you're hungry for some big girl food. Now, this isn't good old formula milk, but let's not think too hard on that and just eat this big pie away," she said with sweet words that she hoped might help forget the others about what she did.

"Mommy makes all the sense in the world until she decided to lock herself in a dark room with a baby bottle," remarked Noire. The former CPU of Lastation wasn't traditionally angry with her wife but she was disappointed, especially after they had a heartfelt talk about growth and the future.

Neptune rubbed the back of her neck as she knew this was only the tip of the iceberg. Noire would hold back her thoughts toward her wife until later when they were alone in their room. In the end, Neptune had no regrets even if she had to sleep on the couch for the next week.

"Neptune, if I may, I have something for Euri," said Histoire.

"Oh, did you hear that? Granny Histoire has a present for you."

Histoire was taken aback by the sudden title that was bestowed onto her out of nowhere. She half gave Neptune a sour look for being labeled a granny but understood the deeper gesture too. "Euri, we apologize for disturbing your bottle time with your mommy, but it had to be done. As we get older, we must get used to new things and learn to put down old things that no longer benefit us."

Euri merely stood silent as she watched the little oracle continue to converse away. "So that you may not find this transition too disrupting, you are hereby promoted to… sippy cup." She placed a pink and teal plastic cup with a built-in straw along with side handles in front of the toddler CPU. The shape of the straw and bold colors made the toddler CPU produce an O shape mouth in astonishment.

Aside from Euri, Neptune was the one that looked beyond stunned with stars in her eyes. "This is super-duper awesomesauce, Histy! She's practically fallen in love with it," declared Neptune.

Her words spoke no lies as Euri hugged the sippy cup with both arms.

"Indeed, now you can fill your juice, soda, and water in it every time you have a meal. That way, your mommy can enjoy what she has with you just a little longer."

"Thanks, Histy," said Neptune.

"Don't thank me. Noire had helped me find the perfect one after she came to me about Euri being too grown up for a baby bottle."

Neptune comically began to cry at her wife's sweetness. Noire wasn't too receiving of her wife's emotions since she was still disappointed over her wife going rogue and feeding her daughter formula. However, she allowed a small smile with one eye open toward her wife. "Let's all eat for now and worry about nothing else. I'll get the juice and soda from the kitchen," she said.

Everyone accepted those words and had a wonderful dinner filled with laughter and joy. At the center of all that, Euri had been using her sippy cup to the fullest.

The next one will be an Ultra chapter. I was originally going to have this one be it, but I wanted to make this one that went along with the previous one. Until next time! Take care!