FORTY-TWO
"Good evening, Maria. Happy birthday," Miku greets her while Hibiki is almost overwhelmed by the number of Kazanari in the hall—her wide eyes are a definite tell.
Maria would like to commiserate, but then she'd end up antagonizing pretty much everyone on Tsubasa's side of the family… which isn't something she wants to do, thank you very much.
Shaking their hands, she says, "Welcome! Thank you for coming."
Hibiki holds up the box in her hands, teasing, "You know you're just in this for the presents." She even shakes it a little, and whatever is in the box rattles. "And if I had a ton of relatives, I'd totally be the same, too!"
"Hibiki," Miku chastises.
"It's fine," Maria winks, "just set your gift down at the table over there, where Tsubasa is. Dinner will start in a few minutes."
Miku smiles, and as she passes by she murmurs, "You're doing wonderfully, Maria."
The reassurance from Miku reinvigorates her enough to endure the next few people, and, right when she's beginning to tire again, one of her favorite of Tsubasa's family comes in with her own wife—and the most. Adorable. Baby. Ever.
"Oh, aren't you the cutest!" she squeals, clapping her hands. Turning back to the parents, she begs, "Can I hold her?"
Unfortunately, Tokaku only eyes her suspiciously, her body shifting slightly in front of Haru and the baby.
"Play nice, Tokaku," Haru coaxes her wife, while Maria continues to look pleadingly at Tokaku.
Rolling her eyes, Tokaku mutters, "Fine." She steps aside to let Maria come closer.
"We named her Madoka, and she's forty-two weeks old and she loves to talk and her teeth are starting to grow in—it makes her very tired, that's why she's asleep right now, and hopefully she'll stay asleep for most of the party, but for the most part she's very well-behaved," Haru gushes, and Maria nods along eagerly at each piece of information.
Behind Haru, Tokaku rolls her eyes, but doesn't stop from assessing everyone and everything in the dining hall. She does, however, take a moment to glare warningly at Maria when Haru transfers the baby to Maria's arms.
The baby, Madoka, remains fast asleep despite her mother's excitement and the general hubbub of the other guests; which is probably for the best, if she's teething. Her soft pink hair looks so fluffy on her head, and her chubby face looks so peaceful. It looks like she has most of Haru's features.
Cooing over Madoka, she doesn't realize that a line has formed behind the couple until Tokaku grits out, "Where do we leave the present?"
"Oh!" She straightens up, glancing sheepishly at the guests waiting more-or-less patiently, and points, "Over there, where Tsubasa's standing. Dinner will be in a few minutes, but in the meantime, help yourselves to refreshments!" She regretfully returns Madoka to Haru.
Haru beams, once again cradling her daughter, "Thank you! And happy birthday, Maria!"
Maria's still kind of suffused with the delight of holding a baby in her arms by the time she's done greeting all the guests—something that Tsubasa brings up as they meet up at the main table.
"Why is it "forty-tw0 weeks" instead of ten months?" she murmurs. "And you look very pleased."
She shrugs at the question and replies, "Madoka is an angel."
Tsubasa interjects, a hint of fear in her voice, "I hope you do not plan on giving Elfnein siblings any time soon."
"Oh, we'll see about that~"
a/n: To be clear, this is a time skip from the last chapter's Wednesday (or Thursday, I don't remember what day it was in the story).
Heheh, let's just say the Kazanari family is an offshoot of the Azumas -shrugs.-
Also, itty-bitty, minute appearance of Miku. Whelp. She... probably won't get much screen time. But, that's why I'm writing a whole different story that looks at Miku through Hibiki's [unreliable narrator] eyes, and an HP AU that features Miku through Carol's [unreliable narrator] eyes, too! Unfortunately... neither is likely to be published any time soon, lol.