A Half-Baked Life 6 (Tamberlane Webcomic, Human!SI)

A month has gone by and... good news, Tamberlane has adapted well to school.

She was still struggling at times with speaking and writing, but she behaved less restrictively with Trissol/hand language. Her homework was coming along nicely as I would let Belfry take charge of that burden since I would then be the one grading her efforts.

The girl was also making a few friends and I would say it was the good sort of people- especially since Tamberlane acted as a 'calming factor' for one of the troublemakers at school. As the few weeks went by mostly uneventfully as the next priority, which was creating more clothes for the little girl, was thankfully solved through the expertise of Miss Avery and her skills of dress-maker, something else came up that the turning of the month: a holiday.

One that would turn a few days of expected 'freedom' for me to enjoy off from work with the family into me becoming a bit of a babysitter for my adoptive daughter and her two close friends.

The reason why I got lumped up with the chore was related to Belfry's own business with her family at the bakery- she had to be around to help with the surge of orders that were to come around. She was definitely going to mess things up here and there, but she is expected to put some efforts to make things 'work' somehow.

That being said, Tamberlane was to remain with me as the bat was stuck with that sort of chore, thus Tamberlane had the brilliant idea of mentioning this to her friends, who then reported to their parents and I ended up becoming the underpaid babysitter for three girls.

The first of whom was the daughter of Miss Avery herself so I had to pay extra care in being mindful of her... quirks.

"Yas! I got the cookies!"

"Get those back, you little rascal!"

The noise of giggles rumbled through the house as a certain little feline brat was bolting left and right while holding the 'forbidden jar of cookies'. To make a rapid introduction, the cute entity that bore golden eyes was none other than Piper 'Trouble' Averiton.

Yes, her middle name is indeed 'Trouble' and despite her innocent appearance, the little thing was the source of some chaotic energy at school and, now, in Oakewood's home. With the grumpy old wolf out to help with the local bookstore's own businesses, I was pretty much the sole adult taking charge of three peculiar girls.

Where Tamberlane was quirky but moderate about it, Piper was the spark that tended to detonate a degree of dynamite-worthy circumstances tied to 'thievery, piracy and other cool stuff'. The cookie-theft was indeed the newest of many situations I found myself dealing with.

And while the brat was indeed a pest through and through, she could be contained with ease through the help of Tamberlane's second friend, Marie Territon. A little skunk with precious and soft pink eyes, the girl was the oldest of the trio and, without a doubt, also the most responsible one.

Marie was the daughter of Miss Terra, the assistant nurse in Treehollow, and Miss Maya who was Terra's wife/mate. One thing I was told out of 'readiness' than else was that the little skunk was a trans girl. I saw nothing wrong with the concept on how it was introduced as the child just wanted to wear pretty dresses and be referred as a girl. Nothing too 'extreme' like it used to be back home about life-changing medical treatments and... I really didn't mind.

She was happy to be who she wanted to be and she was really modest and kind to the point that the kind of respect she implicitly asked for was easy for me to give. A big help during classes, she was also the second girl that Tamberlane became a friend of.

So, I was actually relieved that Marie would be around to keep an eye on Piper while I cleaned after the few messes around the library the curious brat tended to leave behind with each effort to cause mischief. And the first day was, by all means, the worst as I had to learn on how to gauge the kind of behavior I was dealing with.

Piper was a nightmare, but I was a bit mixed on the fact that Tamberlane tended to help her at times. I wouldn't say I wanted her to be a troublemaker too, but trying to get her to break out of her shell was going to take a while and I realized how Piper was, in a rather unorthodox manner, cracking her out of her comfort zone by being a pain in the butt.

Marie then acted as the 'sane girl' and brought the law when it was possible or when she felt the case demanded it.

After hours and hours of playing, cleaning, eating and then doing some simple homework to keep the three prepared for the upcoming days of school, it was nighttime and I was told by Briar that Belfry would be sleeping at the bakery for that day. She would be back tomorrow to check on things, but this was meant to last until things were done for the holiday spree.

Tired as I was, I kind of wanted to drop all responsibilities considering the implications of facing Piper for a few more hours but that's when I learned that Piper's battery had a limit, and nighttime made her sleepy.

Due to her young age (around a year or two older than Tamberlane) the little cat was easily brought down by tiredness, happily swallowed by a blanked I put around her as she snored happily beside Tamberlane, the toddler quietly resting as I took this chance to take a break and-

"Are you sure you don't need a blanket?" I inquired, with Marie shaking her head as she sat in the couch with me.

"I am not sleepy yet. I just wanted to sit down a little."

I nodded, relaxing a bit as I stared once more at the sleeping girls. "You have been quite helpful through today. Thank you."

"You... You're welcome, Mr. Bukharin."

I noticed the strangely sad tone, turning to look at Marie and I held back a surprised look in seeing the depleted expression on her face.

"What's up now?"

She sighed, holding her hands and kicking her feet a bit. "Mr. Bukharin, you... can I ask you a silly but very important questions?"

I was confused by the overall change of mood, but I nodded.

"Sure thing."

"You lived with your parents for a while, yes? Mom and... dad?"

I nodded. Albeit I had yet to fight back the amnesia that claimed so many details of my life before wounding up in Treehollow, I could remember general bits of it. "I did."

"And- and it is different than living with two moms... right?"

"That's without a doubt," I flatly confessed. "If I remember correctly, mom was the kind of lady that was rough but caring, while my dad was quite passive at times but could make his voice be heard when trouble came up in the family."

A mixture of love and coaching, affection and yet education. It was flawed at times, but it didn't need to be perfect for me to see it as 'good'.

"So, what drives you to ask me about it?"

"Before mommy Terra and mommy Maya took me in, I used to live with just daddy. He was nice but he was quite sick so he didn't live for long. I don't- I don't remember much of him."

She looked up at my face.

"I just..." Marie reached to rub her other arm. "I-I know this is weird but... I just wanted to know how it feel to... to have a dad again."

...I was a bit surprised by this admission as I always thought that Marie was adopted as a baby rather than having lived for a while with her father. Hell, the second alternative was a similar situation to Piper where her dad was a sailor that broke things off with her mother but still acted as a proper father due to how amicably things were with her parents.

To hear that the kid had this sort of desire felt surprisingly saddening but also perplexing on how this was supposed to manifest until... I smiled as I knew what words to use and what actions to employ.

"I thank you for telling me this, Marie. I understand it took a lot of you to be quite sincere about this and..." I paused reaching out to pat her head, with the girl leaned in and smiling at the gesture as she welcomed it. "And I think your father would have been happy to know how you are now. A young lady that is just now flourishing into a young woman. I think he would have been so proud of what gentle but resolute soul you have."

She smiled widely, then opened her eyes to reveal a few tears. "T-Thank you, Mr. Bukharin."

I nodded and fished out some blankets. "And now it's time for you to sleep. You may not feel like it but you need a few hours to rest so you are ready for tomorrow."

As I finished saying this, I patted at my lap and her eyes widened and she... nodded.

Without hesitation, Marie shifted to sit on the side by my lap, nuzzling on my chest as I wrapped the two of us in blankets and allowed her to squeeze against the warm spot she was in. Sighing quietly, the girl ended up snoring quietly about three minutes into that cozy spot and...

I was out a hour later as I couldn't stop staring at how cute the kids were in that moment. That, though, didn't stop for a bit of trouble to rise up the next few days as Piper spotted Marie's 'super-nice spot' and decided to hog the lap too with Tamberlane.

A very interesting turn of events... but that was about to change as a new occupant of Oakewood's Library was soon to arrive at Treehollow.


AN

Tamberlane gets the peas, Piper gets the spankies, and Marie deserves some headpatties~.