Vert hated waking up.
Everything, even her eyelids, felt one hundred times heavier as soon as she opened them. Her body felt weak, her muscles sore and creaky, her brain frayed and tired...
Okay, she may have been acting overzealous, but she still felt quite miserable. Truly, the CPU just wanted to go back to sleep, but she was a morning person. Or whatever time of day it may be right now.
In truth, Vert was unsure about how long she actually had been asleep. Minutes? Hours? Days? That last one sounded like a stretch, but she didn't know!
The very last thing she remembered was passing out in the Sharicite Chamber, with Chika yelling her name.
Why had she passed out? Why were they in the Sharicite Chamber in the first place? And why did it feel like everything was at the tip of her tongue?
Vert had no idea. And that frustrated her.
'The moment before that feels so fuzzy, how distressing...' The Goddess was at least grateful that she had awoken in her own bed, clad in her nightgown and cuddling her green body pillow no less. She felt well-rested, but her head ached marginally. Most likely the blunt force of the metal floor hitting her skull. Any harder and she would have pulled a Neptune.
"Ooooh..." The woman groaned, sitting up and rubbing her head. She needed some aspirin, or perhaps an ice pack depending on how serious it actually was. Knowing Chika, of course, she would most likely overreact and request an immediate trip to the hospital.
'It has happened before... Hm?'
The woman noticed that, out of her peripheral vision, Chika was on the bed with her. The Oracle was sound asleep, sitting up and her head tilted to the left side, touching the wall. She was even drooling a bit.
'Chika accompanied me to bed... again.' Vert sighed.
She could only reminisce at that particular memory.
"..."
Okay, memories.
However, even as her mind was filled with several scenes which she would rather forget, the blonde woman still couldn't resist pulling out a green napkin from her hammerspace, reaching over and wiping the drool off the Oracle's chin, much like she regularly did long ago. Letting the silk disappear from her grasp, Vert then proceeded to pat the Chika's head, that action alone making the sleeping woman smile and giggle.
The CPU could only roll her eyes in amusement. 'It's incredible how she still manages to act like a child.'
Groooooowl... "Hm?"
It was then that the CPU's stomach interrupted her thoughts, clearly beckoning for food. Glancing at the clock, Vert realized it was well past the afternoon. 2:00 PM, in fact.
A shame, she didn't as much as eat lunch yet. Or breakfast.
'Chika always scolds me about skipping meals.' Vert gripped her borderline roaring belly. 'I should start listening to her, my stomach feels like it's sucking in on itself...'
Grooooooooooooowl...
"It seems I will have to settle for late breakfast again. I would wake Chika up, but this mood is so peaceful..." Vert didn't want to disrupt the calm atmosphere, but she was indeed very hungry... 'And I've always been a horrible cook. This is quite troublesome...'
Hug
"E-Eh?" Forgetting about her hunger for a moment, Vert realized that a pair of hands had wrapped around her waist. They were far too small to be Chika's, and the Goddess hadn't brought any guests over prior to her unconsciousness, so who-
"Big... Sis... Mm..."
...
...
...
...!
It took all of Vert's willpower to keep herself from screaming. She had to grip the bed so that she did not jump off of it. The moment those words were uttered, the second she felt a tiny body press up against her back, it all came flooding back to her like a dam burst. She now remembered why she had fainted.
A little girl.
A little girl who called her 'Big Sis.'
Vert covered her mouth, unwilling to let the doomungus amount of euphoria flowing within her to put a sudden stop to the serene mood.
'This... is this real!? Is this my reality!? I pray to the True Goddess that this is not a dream!'
She had to take several deep breaths. Her heart was racing and her mind was melting. It had felt like her world had been rocked to the very core.
If what she heard was true...
Vert felt a tiny form climb up on her lap, feeling a head-shape lay on her thigh. Shaking, she looked down, and nearly had a heart attack.
It was the little girl she saw earlier, the one that called her 'Big Sis' shortly before she entered the realm of dreams.
'Ahhhh...' She almost died from cuteness overload. The girl had a sleeping face most adorable. She was snoring lightly, her mouth only partly opened as rested comfortably on her lap.
'How... Oh, it doesn't matter!' She wanted desperately to give her a hug. Her sleeping form was just begging to be brought into a voluptuous embrace!
She was so adorable!
'Calm down... calm down...' Vert tried, she really did. 'Must... resist... urge... to... hug!'
"Mm...~" The girl snuggled against her sister's lap.
'GAH!'
The CPU had to calm herself down, otherwise she was going to absolutely lose it!
'In... out...' Vert forced herself to take deep breaths, doing her damnedest to steady her heartbeat and cease the shaking. It took quite a while, but the CPU eventually felt as if she wasn't about to explode gloriously anymore.
Only mildly.
'Okay...' Carefully, she reluctantly placed one hand under the girl's stomach, and the other around her tiny legs, and gently picked her up, then placed her on a far spot on the cramped bed. After the action was done, she sighed.
'Is she really mine? Is she the darling little sister I've dreamed of having for so long?'
It was hard to deny the stunning resemblance the small girl had to Vert. The memory of their first meeting was clear in Vert's mind. She looked exactly like how the woman had been as a child.
Blonde hair, blue eyes, a most innocent and adorable expression on her sleeping face... To say it looked like the little girl in Vert's childhood album would be a massive understatement.
'This little one... s-she may be far cuter than that of Rom...!'
Vert surprised herself with such a bold thought, but it certainly rang true! Rom was now far too old in comparison to Verna! The younger, the cuter!
And Verna was cute. Exceptionally so.
Not only that, but, she was Vert's little sister.
The Green CPU felt an enormous sense of pride swell inside her when she realized that.
'When Chika wakes up, I shall request a fine family dinner for later! A meal positively splendid for my new little sister!'
She could already imagine it. The time they would spend together, the games they would play together, the outfits she would have her sister wear...! She could see a princess, a nurse, a maid, a fairy...
Bunny.
Vert picked up her pillow and squealed hard into it.
'N-No...! Now is not the time to let emotions control me...' Vert hesitantly placed the pillow down as she reasoned with herself. 'There is a time and a place for everything. We will have plenty of time to ourselves eventually, but, for now... I believe a meal is in order.'
Yawning, the woman stretched her limbs and slowly rose from bed, heading towards the doorway with a trudge to her step. Perhaps she should go to the kitchen make some pancakes; those would be hard for even her to screw up, right?
In her sleep, Chika was calm. In her dreams, Chika was happy. No troubles, no worries, no unnecessary or unwanted arrivals to be found here.
It was so peaceful...
BONK
...and that peace was instantly ruined when she slipped and hit her head on the headboard.
"Ow!" The Oracle woke up instantly as she recoiled, a stinging pain now present on the left side of her skull. "Son of a- Ow..." Chika hissed as she brought a hand to the new bump in her head.
As if that wasn't enough suffering, it was then that everything came rushing back to her, and Chika's eyes widened.
That's right. That brat appeared.
The Oracle gritted her teeth at the simple thought.
Leanbox's Candidate was born; that was clearly a monumental occurrence. Needless to say, things were going to change, whether Chika liked it or not. As for what is going to change, that was beyond obvious to the Oracle.
Verna's very existence meant a competitor for the spot the greenette has always occupied.
A competitor who already started out winning.
Just like that, Chika's headache worsened tenfold.
"Ugh, I need aspirin..." She rubbed her head. "Honestly, why did that brat need to be born now...? It's like the world itself hates my whole being- Hm?"
It was then that Chika cut off her own rambling as her nose picked up something... weird. It was a strange smell, surprisingly strong even though it appeared just a moment ago. It felt familiar, almost like something was...
Burning.
'... Oh.'
Chika then glanced backwards, confirming that the only one in the bed besides her is that brat, now happily hugging the bodypillow.
'Oh.'
Slowly, the Oracle then turned her head forward with a deadpan expression.
A second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds.
The smell grew stronger.
'OH, NOOOOOO!'
Letting out the loudest of internal screams and forgetting about her headache for the time being, Chika leaped out of Vert's bed and dashed down the halls. "Ohnoohnoohnoohnoohno!" She skidded to a stop, nearly crashing into a wall as she approached the kitchen.
The sight before her was most heartbreaking.
There was Vert, wearing a sheepish expression, in front of the stove, where a blackened mass of what had once been pancake mix was burning in a pan.
"W-Well..." The nervous look that the CPU shot Chika right then could only be described as 'overwhelmingly guilty.' "What did I do wrong?"
"Dearest, if you're going to cook pancakes, flipping it helps!" An exasperated Chika approached the stove. "Also, the burner is on too high! Ugh, it's sticking..." Chika turned the dial on the Off setting, pulled out a spatula from a drawer, then tried to peel off the burned food with the utensil.
"I'm dreadfully sorry, Chika... I didn't want to wake you, so I sought to make myself something to eat."
"I would suggest cereal next time, dear. HNG!" The pancake-of-sorts was stuck to the pan, like it was super-glued. Even as Chika peeled with her all her might, a strained expression clear on her face, it simply didn't budge. "C-C'mon...!"
"U-Understand..." Vert muttered back apologetically, automatically averting her eyes in shame.
It was only after 10 minutes of prying and pulling, coupled with two breaks to get some water, that Chika finally managed to pull the pancake off the pan. Of course, 'pancake' would be the last word for the black mess she was eyeing.
Without a word, the wide-eyed Oracle raised the thing above her head...
CLUNK
... and bashed it hard against the metallic counter as if to test its strength.
CLUNK
Again.
CLUNK
Once more.
CLUNK
One more time.
CLUNK
And five more times.
CLUNK
"..."
Six hits later, Chika blinked.
There was not a single crack on the object which, in another word, would have been a pancake.
"Um..." The amount of embarrassment in Vert's smile could probably power a small village for weeks. "I apologize once again...?"
"..."
The shocked Oracle couldn't even find the will to respond at first.
"... How about I make some baked ziti, dearest?" Chika eventually offered with an obviously trembling smile. "It is something like lunch time, after all."
"T-That would be lovely." Still bearing a bashful expression, Vert sat on a lone stool by the marble counter, eyeing Chika as she reached for a black folded apron in a nearby stand and moved to put it on, only then turning walking towards the fridge and opening it to gather the ingredients.
That was when Vert saw it.
'Honestly...'
Clear to the blonde's eyes were the words Kiss The Oracle, quite shamelessly displayed in bold white letters on the front of Chika's new outerwear as she brought the supplies to the counter, only to turn away from the CPU once again as she began arranging the ingredients.
Deathly embarrassment hanging on her shoulders or not, Vert still couldn't stop herself from rolling her eyes at that.
'She is such a child...'
"Mm...~ Smells good..."
"Huh?" "Ah!"
At the sudden voice, two pairs of eyes pointed at the kitchen's doorway. As expected, right there was the little girl just barely awake, drowsily blinking as she clutched a small green pillow.
Then she yawned cutely.
"Hnnnng...!" Just like that, Vert's whole body trembled, the woman obviously resisting the urge to cry out in joy as her lips formed a wide, outright shaking smile.
"Grrr..." Chika, meanwhile, opted to growl instead as she turned back towards the counter, the sound far too quiet for either of the other two to hear.
'That little brat already has Vert wrapped around her finger! ARGH!'
"It's lunch, darling. We seem have slept too much..." The Oracle heard Vert say in a fond, soothing and unprecedentedly infuriating tone, undoubtedly because of the one she was addressing. "Are you in the mood for baked ziti? Not the best of wake up meals, but it is certainly delicious."
On the corner of Chika's sight, the small girl nodded. "Mmhm..." And then, without a word, Verna tottered towards the green-haired woman's spot and, without hesitation...
Hugged Chika's legs with her pair of short arms.
"E-Eh?!"
To say the Oracle didn't expect that would be an understatement.
'Kgh... Dammit...'
Reaching for a cutting board and a knife nearby, Chika immediately attempted to focus on preparing the ingredients on the counter, willing herself not to look down at any costs, for that was a sign of weakness.
Of course, that didn't change how she still clearly felt Verna's small body hugging her!
"Big... Sis..." The small brat mumbled, eliciting a twitch from the green-haired woman's eye.
"Kyaaaaa...!" And of course, from her place on the stool, Vert let out muffled squeal at the cuteness displayed before her. "Tell me, little one, what might be your name?"
"Ver... Verna..." The little girl responded slowly as she rubbed her eyes, drowsily leaning on Chika's thighs.
'Gah...' That Chika had to focus on not paying attention was quite telling.
"Verna... That is such a lovely name!" The blonde CPU happily declared, undoubtedly shooting the little girl a bright smile, Chika muses. "Why don't you come sit on your sister's lap? You look so tired."
"Mm..." Finally letting go of the Oracle, much to the woman's relief as scarlet eyes discreetly followed the little girl's movements, Verna sleepily hobbled towards Vert's location, stumbling quite a few times until she found her sister's body. From there, she crawled up and rested her head...
... right between Vert's breasts.
Chika almost choked on air.
In front of her, the blonde CPU was in a clear state of euphoria, completely focused on Verna as the little one treaded the fine line between conscious and unconscious while resting on her older sister's soft bosom.
'This kid...!' The Oracle grit her teeth, her fists tightening at the sight. 'I can't stand it...!'
"Zzz..." As expected, it didn't take long for Verna to fall fully unconscious, with Vert lovingly petting her head. Both were smiling, undoubtedly blissful and happy.
Chika, however, was far from that.
Slowly, her eyes fell on the large bladed utensil she was using to cut the beef.
It was quite the big and sharp knife.
A considerably big and very, very sharp knife.
...
'Take this, take this, take this, take thiiiiiissss!' The Oracle relentlessly massacred the poor ingredients in front of her, letting her anger out in a... mildly acceptable way.
A mildly acceptable way which was sure to traumatize anyone who actually decided to pay attention to her.
... Well, at least she wasn't using it on anything that was breathing.
'Why... that... little...!'
However, as much as it didn't seem like it, only half of Chika's focus was being utilized to relive the latest horror flick she watched with Cave by using the food supplies as victims. The other half was being used to occasionally glance at the Leanbox sisters every now and again, the sight only fueling her rage.
Vert hadn't noticed the bloodless carnage, and Verna was too sleepy to care, hogging all of the CPU's attention without even trying.
Chika hated that kid!
'Why has the True Goddess forsaken me? What have I done to deserve such torment?!'
If Cave were here, she would have smirked at the Oracle's pitiful situation.
And that annoyed her.
'Stupid kids and their stupid... stupidity! Argh!' The Oracle was honestly glad she didn't say that aloud. 'I'll get you when you least expect it, kid! You'll see!'
Chika convinced herself of that as she placed the desired tray filled with slaughtered and yet perfectly presentable in the oven.
The Oracle would surely deal with that brat! And she'd do it with the most efficient plan possible!
It'd be an amazing plan! A perfect plan to get rid of this interference without jeopardizing her future with her darling!
Chika didn't know just yet what such a plan would entail, but it'd undoubtedly be great!
'Little brat, your days of being an annoyance are counted...!'
A/N: Jealous Chika is jealous. Let us hope and pray she doesn't use that knife on anything that has a heart beat. XD
I do hope the reviews will be fixed by the time this goes up. Feedback is not feedback if you can't read it. -_-
-Yuri