…Where…am I?

…What…is this place?

…Everywhere I look…there's only black…pitch black. It's as if I'm in a room with the lights off…and without any light entrances whatsoever. But…then…how did I…get in here? Where's…Sora? What…happened with…her? Urgh…I can't think…my head…feels foggy.

But…why? Is it…

"Sakura." …That…voice. I…remember it. That…voice that sounds as sweet as the sweetest candy. That…voice that seduces me with every word. That…voice that I…

…hate.

…Why…is it here? It shouldn't be……Ah…I see. This is a dream…isn't it? That's…the only explanation. That's why…that voice is here…and why…my head feels funny. Yeah…that…makes sense.

"Sakura." …Can't you shut up? I…hate listening to you. Listening to your voice…hurts. Even more so knowing…that it isn't the real you. You're gone…and you still decide to torture me in my dreams…no, in my nightmares? 

That's…so cruel.

"Sakura…I'm sorry." …Huh? You're…sorry? You're…sorry…? Ha…haha…hahaha….HAHAHAHA! ……Don't fuck with me. How dare you say that…when you are the one who left Sora and I behind?  When you are the one who…left us to fend for ourselves? You're…horrible……no, my mind is horrible, for showing me this. 

…I want to wake up. I want to see…Sora. I need her smile to…drive the bad feelings…away…

∆∆∆

"...What a nasty dream." Even after waking up, I can still listen to that voice echoing in my ears. It's a disturbing, raging, and saddening feeling. I hate how every time I remember what I dreamt, it's always things like these that I would very much prefer to forget the moment I wake up. I don't remember ever dreaming of happy things, like going to a fantastical location with Sora. It's seriously upsetting; can't I have just one single good dream? 

I open and close my eyes rapidly to clear my vision, and when I finally open them for good, what comes to sight is…huh? A paper? Hah? Why do I have a piece of paper stuck to my forehead?  I take it off, and turn it around. As expected, there is something written on it.

'You girls fell asleep, and I didn't want to wake you up, so I left. I cleaned the kitchen in thanks for the food, and locked the door on my way out. I'll come to pick you up tomorrow at 12:00, so don't be stupid and forget it again. - Rei.'

I see…so he's left already. Hmm, now that I don't have the paper on my face, I do see that it's gotten quite dark; there's barely any light coming through the windows. Hmm? Wait, did the paper say 'you girls'?

I lower my sight a bit, and notice two things. First, that I'm not on the bed, but rather on the couch. Second, that the pressure on my chest that has been bothering me since I woke up is thanks to Sora, who is quite literally sleeping on top of me. She's using my breasts as a pillow, with her head resting between them, while every other part of her body is more or less overlapped with mine. We just barely fit lying down together on the couch (if you count our current situation as fitting). We may be on the smaller side of the people of our respective ages, but the couch is also pretty small, so there's no other arrangement in which we would fit side by side or anything like that.

Now, I do remember Rei and I cooked something for the three of us and ate it together. And I also remember saying I'd lie down on the couch for a bit, and actually doing it. What I don't remember, however, is having this 30 pound sack of love going to sleep on top of me when I did. I'm pretty sure Sora was playing with Rei on the kitchen table when I went to close my eyes for a bit, so how did she end up on top of me? …Well, it's not rocket science; she probably just wanted to sleep with me, which is why she didn't get on any of the other—free—couches and got on mine instead, despite there being no space left.

"Mawma…Sora will…catch the…unicorn……Zzzzzzz..." 

"Pffff! Haha—Ah! Shhhh…shhh…" Sora shakes a bit in her sleep, maybe from how I was laughing, which makes me panic and start gently patting her back. A few seconds later, she seems to go back into deep slumber, and I breathe calmly once again. Wait…wouldn't it be better to wake her up? I mean, it's not like I want to, but… it's still not time for her to go to sleep for the day. 

Checking the clock to my right, I notice it's 6:32 P.M. at the moment. That means that we've been asleep for two, or maybe three hours. Sora's not much of a napper, so her bedtime is usually at 8:00. However, since she took a nap today…I could push back her bedtime maybe for an hour or two so I can have a chance of giving her a bath, and make something for her to eat before going to bed. Hmm…yup, that sounds like a plan.

With that, I turn to look at Sora's sleeping face for a moment, before placing my hand on her back, moving it gently in a circular motion.

"Baby…it's time to get up." 

"Ngh…" Hmm…it seems she's really asleep.

"...C'mon, baby…let's get up." I repeat the circular motion with one hand while brushing her hair with the other.

"Ngh……???...Ma…ma?" She sleepily opens her eyes and yawns in a cute motion. She slowly turns around until she ends up with her chin directly in between my breasts as she stares at me.

"Did you sleep well, sleepyhead?" I say without breaking eye contact. Fufufu, she still looks sooo dazed, with her eyes just looking around as if not understanding what's going on. I smile at her and just continue to rub her hair.

"...???...N…n……N………Zzzzzzz…" Wait, no! Don't go back to sleep!

"Baby…c'mon~, time to get up~..."

"...Mmmgh…???.........Ma…ma?"

"Yup. Good morning, baby."

"Goo…moning…" I giggle a bit at how her sleepiness disrupts her vocab, while I brush her hair behind her ear. She yawns a bit as she opens her eyes wider than before, and stares a bit at me before diving her head into my cleavage. Ah, wait, that tickles! Don't start trying to make bubbles there! You’re not underwater, you know?!

"Haha—c'mon, silly, we have to get up!" Saying that, and without waiting for her response, I turn around on the couch, lowering my feet to the floor and raising my head to the backrest. While doing so, I carefully take Sora in my arms so that she turns at the same time as I do, and so she ends up sitting in my lap while leaning on me.

"Are you awake now?"

"...Nn."

"Great. Did you sleep well?""

"...Nn! Nn! Sora saw a unicorn!" Sora excitedly raised her hands in the air and opened them wide while separating her arms. "It was thiiiiiiiiis big! Very very very big! And Sora hugged it!" 

"Haha, is that so? I'm glad." I smile before giving her a kiss on the top of her head. As I thought, there's no better healing than seeing my daughter go from zero to a hundred in seconds. It really makes me forget the nightmare I just had. 

"What about Mama?"

"...I dreamed that you and I went to eat cookies with Mrs. Green."

"Oooooh! Sora wants a cookie!" Hahaha, the moment she hears the word 'cookies,' Sora's mouth always drops as if she's about to drool, and her eyes start sparkling brighter than any star in the sky. Her hopeful expression shines so brightly that I nearly give in and go to the kitchen to grab a cookie for her. But no, no, no. She already had some for lunch today, so I won't give her any more until after dinner—at the very least. Yup, this is me trying to not spoil her.

"Maybe after dinner, 'kay?"

"...Nn…" Sora seems a bit disappointed, but nods nonetheless.

"C'mon, don't make that kind of face. You'll have your cookie…you just need to wait a bit." All to teach her the benefits of patience! …Just kidding. I don't know what I'm doing most of the time, and this situation isn't any different. I'm not really looking to teach her the virtue of patience, or anything like that. I just don't want her to eat too much sugar, that's all. Unlike me, she really loves sweet things, so I need to be careful with how many I allow her to eat. 

"...Nn." 

"How about we kill some time by taking a bath?" In this type of situation, I've come to learn over the years that the most effective way of diverting her attention is to just bring up another thing she likes equally as much. 'Cause yeah, she loves baths. 

"Ah! Nn! Nn! Bath! Bath!" See? Just as I expected, she replies very excitedly to the idea, to the point that she starts giving small jumps on my lap with her fists pumped. S-Sora, I get that you're excited, and you look very cute acting like that, b-but please don't jump on my legs, it kind of hurts.

"'Kay, let's go, then." Saying that, I grab Sora from my lap and stand up with her in my arms before starting to walk upstairs—to the bath.

∆∆∆

The bathroom on the second floor of this house is pretty different from those you’d see everywhere else. My father was a big fan of Japanese culture (guess who chose my name), and so quite a few years back, he decided to remodel the entire second-floor bathroom to be similar to those you can see in Japanese houses. Instead of having an area for showering and let that be it, the entire bathroom had been turned into a giant shower-like thing divided in two sections. The first and biggest one is a large washing area with shower heads and stools, where you are supposed to wash and rinse yourself before going into the second section, which is a rectangular bathtub that is built into the wall the furthest away from the changing room door.

I don’t really remember when it was remodeled this way, since I was very young back then, but growing up, I remember taking most of my baths here. And I guess that from that the habit just stayed, as I still very much prefer dipping into this room’s tub than taking a normal shower. And, I mean, Sora prefers it too, so as long as we have enough time in our hands, we always just bathe here. Though it does make up for a huge percentage of the water bill, I like to think of it as one of the few things I spoil myself with.

"Hey! What have I told you about running in the bathroom?!" Sora and I enter the bathroom already in the nude while carrying our towels, and she starts dashing over to the washing area. Geez, this girl. The floor isn't wet yet, so the chances of her slipping aren't all that big, but still, she's barefoot, and the floor isn't very anti-slippery either.

"...Sorry…." Sora apologizes as she lowers her head a bit in what I guess is disappointment, or maybe she thinks that I’m angry at her, which isn’t the case at all. 

"C'mon baby, don't give me that face. You know you need to be careful in the bathroom." I gently lay my hand on her head, as I try to soften my voice as most as possible. 

"I'm not angry, 'kay? Let's just be more careful from now on." Sora raises her head to look at me, and when she does, her expression brightens up a bit. See? I told you I wasn't mad. I'm just worried. 

Throughout my life, I've always been surrounded by parents who like to take a hands-off approach when it comes to raising their kids. Older cousins, aunts, they all followed the idea that kids should learn by allowing them to do whatever they want, and then having them face whatever consequences their actions caused. And I'm not talking about consequences imposed by the parents, but rather things like 'Oh, you decided to touch the stove? Well, too bad, here's a burn scar you'll have for the rest of your life, to remind you that you shouldn't touch it when it's hot.' Maybe it's just me, but I think that’s seriously stupid. 

I've long lost count of how many times I've done stupid things when I was younger because my aunts would be looking after me, and never warn me I was about to do something stupid. Things like, for example, the one I just reprimanded Sora for: running in the bathroom. I have a small scar on the back of my shoulder because of a time I did it and slipped when I was like six. I deserve it, 'cause it was stupid, but I would've at least wanted someone to tell me, 'don't do it, you're going to get hurt.' Hmm… Now that I look back on it, more than hands-off parenting, I guess you could say my family's raising methods were more akin to child neglect. My mom did get really angry at my aunt that time, though.

That's why unlike them, I like to take a more authoritative role with my own parenting—to prevent incidents like that. I know that people claim a hands-off approach is good 'cause they learn to be independent or whatever, and that might be true, but I think it also makes the kids feel lonely. And I prefer Sora being a little less independent, and a bit more reliant on me if it means that she won't be lonely. If you think that's stupid, then…fuck you! It's my life!

"C'mon baby, sit down."

"Nn!" Sora nods vividly before taking a seat on one of the stools, the smaller one of the two that are on the floor. Hahaha, look at her wriggle around waiting for me. Let's not keep her waiting too much, then.

"'Kay, here we go."

"Nn!" I grab one of the shower heads hanging from the wall, and turn it on, aiming it at my hand. Hmm… let's let it warm up for a bit…'kay good enough. Now aim…and shoot!

"Hehe! Hehe!" Sora giggles happily as the water splashes against her body, starting from her hair and going all the way down to her legs before falling onto the floor. She looks so comfortable, it makes me kind of want to hurry up so it can be my turn already. But nononono! I first need to do my job properly! It's not like being like this is too bad, anyway. I'm feeling a bit tired today, which is making the water look incredibly soothing and relaxing, but usually the thing I enjoy the most about bath time is watching Sora play around and do her own stuff while I wash her.

"'Kay. Baby, can you get me the shampoo, please?" Sora nods and does as I say, and once I have the bottle in my hands, I press on its cap once to get the shampoo out. "Close your eyes."

"Nn!" I look to confirm Sora's indeed closing her eyes, before starting to pass my hands through her hair. Her hair's short, so it only takes me a couple of minutes to spread the shampoo through its entirety. Having finished, I turn on the showerhead once again to wash all of the shampoo off.

"You can scrub yourself with the sponge, right?"

"Nn! Nn! Sora can!" Saying that, Sora starts washing herself with the most serious expression that I've seen her wear the entire day. She takes deep breaths as she goes, "Nn…Nn…" nodding at herself every time she swipes her body. 

Pfffft, it's kind of funny to watch when you know that there's a lot of spots that she's pretty clearly missing, even though she's giving it her very best. Well, it doesn't matter, I'll scrub her myself in a bit, anyway. This is just so I can win a chance to wash myself in the meantime, 'cause I can't if I'm busy taking care of her.

It takes me a bit to clean myself up, especially due to how long my hair is, but anyway, a few minutes later, I finally finish my care by rinsing my body with water, and turn to look at Sora who… 

"''Kay, baby. C'mere let me—…huh? Soap?" …Is completely covered in bubbles.

"....Nn?" Nonono, Sora, don't tilt your head like that, I'm pretty sure you're not as confused as I am. Like, how is it even possible to get yourself covered in soap to that point? Like, only your eyes can be seen, you know?

"Baby, you're a bit…soapy…"

"...Hm? …Ah! Nn! Nn! Sora went scrubby scrubby!" So you went scrubby scrubby...but that doesn't really explai—okay, no, you know what, let's just forget about it. I should just rinse her off before some soap gets in her eyes.

"'C'mere, baby." I turn on the water and completely shower her in it. And…tadaaa! She's back to normal! After this, I don't think there's much of a need to wash her myself anymore, right? Like, c'mon, if she still needs more soap than this, I'll eventually go broke just from buying soap. And that sounds stupid just by thinking about it, so yeah, let's avoid that.

"All done. 'Kay, let's get in." And so with that, I give the green light to get into the bathtub. Sora loves it, so she excitedly stands up before I even have a chance to react.

"Yay! Go! Go! Go!" 

"Wait! I told you not to ru—"

"Hiiiih?!"

"Wah! Be carefu—ouch?!" 

"?!"

"........." 

...Urgh…That was stupid. That's why you shouldn't run in the bathroom.

…Hmm? You're asking what happened just now? Well, I think it's pretty obvious, but the moment Sora stood up, she started dashing with all her might towards the bathtub…and slipped on the ground. She fell on her back…no, she almost fell on her back. In that small time frame after she slipped and before touching the ground, I somehow managed to react, and threw myself between her and the floor, managing to catch her. Due to that, she thankfully remained unscathed from the situation.

…Hmm? What about me? Well…the impulse from my jump made me slide on the floor a few meters, so I ended up hitting my head on the stone-carved bathtub. 

"...Mama?! You okay?! Mamaaaa?! Mamaaaaa!" 

"...Urgh…M-Mama's 'kay, baby, calm down…" I can't say that it doesn't hurt, but it definitely isn't an injury that I need to be concerned about. It's just like when you bump your shoulder into someone because you weren't paying attention while walking down the street. It's that kind of physical discomfort that tells you you've hit something, but that goes away after a couple of seconds or minutes have passed. It's definitely no biggie. 

I might wake up tomorrow morning with a slight bump on my head, though.

"How about you? Did you hit yourself somewhere?" Rather than my own condition, I'm much more worried about her. I'm pretty sure I managed to completely protect her from taking a hit, but I still want to listen to her saying it, just in case.

"N-Nnn…" Sora shakes her head, which finally allows me to breathe a sigh of relief.

"Baby…this is why you shouldn't run in the bathroom." Sora, who has been so energetic and happy a few seconds ago, lowers her gaze to the ground like a rejected puppy when I scold her.

"...Sorry…Sora's sorry." She starts fidgeting uneasily as she lays above me, which causes an awkward smile to spread through my face. Haaaah, this is so complicated. Part of me wants to pamper her and tell her it wasn't a big deal…but the other side of me is struggling with that sense of needing to scold her for her recklessness.

"...It's fine. Just make sure not to do it again." In the end, I just decided to go with the less scolding-like approach. It's been a long day, and I really don't feel like I have the energy needed to go into scolding mode. Honestly, I just want to enter the bathtub, get out, and go to bed. I feel like today's gonna be one of those days that I'm able to sleep like a log.

And I wasn't wrong.

After getting out of the bathtub and drying out our hair, Sora and I were hit by a wave of drowsiness. It was so intense that  we both fell into deep sleep the moment our heads touched the pillow.

In the end, Sora forgot about the cookie I promised she'd have after dinner.

Afterword

As always, before the start of the afterword, allow me to take a moment to apologize. Once again, I have reached the point of not having a chapter uploaded in three weeks. I'm sorry, and I'll make no excuses. It was my fault. I don't know why, but it seems like every time I say a new chapter will be uploaded next week, I always end up jinxing myself. But well, regardless, here is the new chapter, which if I'm not wrong, it's the longest chapter to date. Not by much, though. 

In this chapter, rather than progressing the plotline, I decided to take a moment to do some mother-daughter scenes between Sakura and Sora. What happened in this chapter might not be all fluff, but well, parenting is never all fluff either, right? Sure, I could just have Sakura spoil Sora rotten all day long, but then how would I explain that in the end, she grew into a responsible, and respectful adult? I mean, I could technically just say that the disciplining and scolding happened off camera, but that's not really my style.

Anyway, some details were revealed in this chapter, such as the origin of Sakura's name. Well, story-wise, at least. In reality, Sakura and Sora were named after two of my favorite characters of all time. Kukuku, can you guess who they are? 

To be honest, I think you might probably be able to guess who Sakura was named after, but…I don't think anybody will guess Sora's correctly. As a few hints, I shall say that both of them are from Light Novels that have an anime adaptation, and that their respective genres are romance/slice of life (Sakura), and fantasy/isekai (Sora). As an extra hint, I’ll say Sora was not named after Sora from No Game No Life. 

Now, can you guess who they are? I'll write the answers in the afterword of the next chapter, in case you are curious. 

Anyway, that's all for today. I will not try to set a date for the new chapter, because as I said at the beginning, I always just jinx myself when I do. So, the next chapter will be uploaded…soon.

Thank you very much for reading, as always, comments are always welcome, because, while it might sound dumb, they help me write faster, for they give me the motivation that someone is paying attention to what I write, and that I’m not just wasting my time. And so, please feel free to leave as many as you like. 

Now, that's all from me today, I hope to see you again next time, ciao ciao!