~ Mother of Little Bears ~
Mihawk couldn't believe what he was hearing. This girl really thought she could act as a parent to babies when she was little more than a self-centered child herself? (Although she liked to remind him of her age whenever he accused her of such, the number of years she'd been alive was hardly an indicator of her maturity level.) And already she seemed to have forgotten that she was a guest in his home.
Normally, Mihawk would be content to let this become a battle of wills, but there was more to consider than Perona's general lack of manners. The well-being of the children had to be his first priority.
Milk splashed under his boots as he stomped over to where the ghost princess was standing. She stood her ground, glaring at him defiantly even when faced with the warlord's apparent wrath.
Not bothering to try to make himself heard over the baby's crying, Mihawk reached out with his free hand. His scowl deepened when Perona flinched at his action. He took hold of her shoulder and gently yet firmly guided her over to one of the chairs. His hand dropped from her shoulder as he pulled the chair away from the table. Perona sat without waiting for him to physically guide her into doing so, for which Mihawk was relieved.
Once she was seated, he deposited the second baby bear in her lap. Damcyan, who had been sleeping peacefully until now, chose this moment to wake up. For a moment, Mihawk was afraid that the crying was about to become a discordant duet, but even with Teddy wailing vociferously next to him, Damcyan seemed far more interested in attempting to steal Perona's hat than in anything else that was going on in the kitchen.
Not bothering to clean up the mess, Mihawk returned to the task of preparing cups of milk for the baby bears - a task made much simpler by the fact that he was now able to freely use both of his hands.
Getting the baby bears to drink the milk was another trial. Damcyan was still more interested in stealing Perona's hat than anything else and showed no interest in the cup of milk, even after Mihawk settled the matter by taking the hat and putting it on the little bear's head. Teddy, who very much did want the milk, could not seem to grasp the concept of drinking from a cup and more milk ended up on both the kitchen floor and Perona's lap than ended up inside the baby bear.
"I think they're too little to drink out of regular cups," Perona said, trying not to get too upset over the copious amount of milk that was currently soaking through her skirt. "They need a bottle, or at least one of those kiddie sippy cups."
Mihawk sighed.
"Yes, so it would appear... however, I have nothing of the sort on hand." After a brief pause, and considereing that perhaps Perona knew more about caring for babies than he personally did, Mihawk added, "What would you suggest?"
"Well..." Perona said slowly. "We should get some of those things, so we can feed them properly."
The warlord tried valiantly to keep his temper after receiving this response.
"Yes, obviously that would be the solution. You do realize that we are on an island and it will take up to a week for one of us to make a trip for supplies. Even if I were to call and have them delivered from the next nearest island, it will be several days at the very least before the proper items are available to us. So, I am asking if you have any solution as to what we should do about this problem in the short term, until then?"
Mihawk silently congratulated himself on getting all that out without showing all of the frustration that he was currently feeling.
Perona's brow furrowed as she considered the situation and what could possibly be done about it. After a few long moments, during which Teddy began to whine and reach for the second cup of milk which Mihawk was still holding, she finally came up with an answer.
"We could try feeding them from a spoon?" she put forth uncertainly.
Mihawk wasn't certain of how viable a solution that would be, but he had no better ideas himself, so he decided it wouldn't hurt to try it. He went to get a spoon and also poured the milk from the cup into a bowl (for easier spooning) while he was at it.
While he was doing that, Teddy's whining escalated into cranky, impatient cries once more. Mihawk turned around just in time to see Damcyan throw Perona's hat onto the floor. It landed in a puddle of milk. At this turn of events, the second baby bear joined his brother in crying, and the ghost princess looked very much as though she might burst into tears herself at any moment.
~to be continued~