Chapter 6: Call Me Papa
After making sure that their slightly air-headed son wasn't exaggerating, a smile spread on the faces of both Laura and Alfonse as they continued to listen to Nicholas babble on about their daughter.
"Emilia, you did so well!" Laura said, excited for her daughter's future. Emilia smiled at her mother, a wave of tumultuous emotions rolling around in her stomach. Such simple praise had managed to throw her off, this was probably a good indication of how her childhood was. Her previous parents never really cared for her as much as they cared for her sister. In fact, she found out that they had a legitimate reason as to why that was later on in her life. That reason didn't make her parents any better as people but it explained why she was always ignored as a child.
They hadn't blatantly done anything to her. No physical or verbal abuse, just mental torment. The amount of damage that lack of attention and love can do to a child (and even adults) is immeasurable. It affects everyone differently but it causes a deep impact on anyone that has gone through it. She was lucky to have her grandfather to help her get through that phase without being affected too much, but even he wasn't this expressive. She knew he loved her dearly, but he hadn't been with her throughout her younger years, so by the time she started performing well in his eyes that was what was expected of her.
But here... here her parents didn't expect her to be exceptional. They were surprised that she was. Of course, she knew that she'll be raising the expectations now, but at least she was doing it with the knowledge that it was happening.
The fact that she was being treated differently in this family, gave her hope for a different future. And possibly... to treat them differently. She knew that her current family wouldn't betray her just because the old one had. There was a chance, but right now it seemed small, so maybe... maybe she'd try to trust them more.
"I agree, you did very well." Her father spoke up, interrupting her thoughts.
Emilia looked at him and replied. "Thank you father. I have another request..." She trailed off.
Alfonse was a little disappointed to hear her calling him 'father' again. He heard from his beloved wife that their daughter had never once called her 'mama' either. Both their sons, even Raymond when he was younger, had called them mama and papa but it seems like Emilia never would. It made them feel like she was keeping them at a distance, and they didn't like that.
The reason that Laura hadn't ever told Emilia to call them anything else was because she was technically correct. In Alfenheim polite society, formality between family is also required. But she still didn't like it. Especially since this wasn't the case in her home country, Floren. Honestly, now that she was thinking about it, her reasons for not correcting her daughter were completely irrelevant and stupid.
"Go on?" Alfonse encouraged.
"I-Is it possible for us to have dinner together like this everyday?" She questioned. As she saw the surprised looks on their faces she hurried to continue "I-I could manage our schedules so that work doesn't get neglected and- and it doesn't have to be everyday, maybe just once in a while? Like every week- no every month? I-I just think it would be nice-" She stuttered out.
Never would she have known how vulnerable she got when trying to form bonds. In both lives, she had behaved coldly, building a wall around herself to prevent any more hurt than she had already suffered at the hands of her family. How great that turned out. In the end she was still betrayed by the people she trusted most.
All these experiences collated to form a massive fear of vulnerability and yet she still managed to relatively calm herself down enough to take another chance. It may have seemed like she was fumbling about, and she definitely was, but taking into consideration what she had been through, this was much better than not trying at all.
While she was stuttering and fumbling trying to get her thoughts out in coherent sentences, her family was watching her. Her parents were stunned that their seemingly too-mature daughter had asked for something so simple, and incredibly happy that she had because this proves that she does care about them. Unknowingly, they had begun to think that she did not care for them as her family but these words helped soothe their worries. Her brothers, however, had very different reactions.
Poor Nicholas had no idea why the air had suddenly turned stiff and why his perfect sister was so nervous. Wasn't it perfectly natural to want to spend time with your family?
On the other hand Raymond was feeling perplexed. He really disliked his sister. She had taken his mother's attention and lately his father's as well. She had even made all his hard work seem useless! ...But had she really done those things? It's not like his mother or father had stopped seeing him. And for all the time that he didn't have his mother, she didn't have her father. And it's not like she had purposely undermined him... or undermined him at all. He had just thought too much into it.
All in all, suffice it to say that her family had found a new adorable and completely age-appropriate side to Emilia.
"Hold on!" Alfonse cut her off. Emilia looked at him, expecting a big fat 'No' but what she got instead was a "Of course it's possible. But on one condition.". She was a little surprised but then she became calmer.
Hearing her husband's words, Laura looked at him with a brow raised in question. Why would he require a condition to agree to her request? What sort of condition? Her husband just threw her a look that said 'Trust me, I've got this.' and turned back to Emilia.
"What condition?" She asked, expecting something like having to take on part of his work so that he can free up time.
"You have to call your mother and I mama and papa from now onwards." Alfonse said, his wife gave him a thumbs up at his thoughtfulness. Raymond was just sitting in his chair, watching his cute little sister go red in the face. She was so pale as it was and her blush had her blending in to the red cushioning on the dining chairs.
Emilia was blushing like crazy because she had never, ever, called her parents mama or papa. In neither of the lives. Even when she was actually a child she was always taught to address them as mother and father. She didn't even know the words mama and papa were used to refer to parents until she started middle school because she was homeschooled until then. She thought that it would be really childish to call them mama and papa, but honestly, being back in a child's body had started to affect her mind as well. She had started having some childish tendencies but usually refrained to act on them. And since that was the only condition...
"O-okay... papa." She said, her face practically flaming now. Alfonse practically melted at the sight of his incredibly cute daughter looking down at her lap, trying to hide her face that was burning red. He turned to his wife and found her already looking at him. Laura hated the look on her husband's face. His smug grin was clearly saying 'Look she called me papa first!'. Oh how she felt like smacking him.
Nicholas and Raymond had completely missed the exchange between their parents because they were too busy watching their sister being absolutely adorable. So this was how it actually felt to have a cute sister, they only experienced it almost 6 years after her birth. Never mind that, now Raymond was determined to not have her go back to how she used to be. He wanted this cute sister and he was going to do whatever he could to keep her as she currently was.
"So... what about your schedules?" Emilia asked, feeling like she missed the part where they went over this already.
"Oh, don't worry about that. Your father can make time. Can't you darling?" Laura responded, shooting a very threatening smile to Alfonse.
"O-of course I can! There's not much training to be done since there's no war, all that's left is management of the fief... and Jaeger Corp... and household affairs..." He was about to continue when he noticed his wife glaring at him "B-but it's fine, I can definitely make time!" He corrected at the last minute.
The patriarch of the family generally handled everything or divided tasks up between his aides but that left a lot of room for uncertainty which is why Alfonse had decided to do everything himself. It seemed that in this world the concept of having the matriarch take care of the household tasks was not yet introduced. It may sound like a sexist role but in practicality it made sense to suggest this compared to the alternative.
"Yay! We're going to have dinner together everyday!" Nicholas celebrated at his father's confirmation.
Raymond hadn't noticed his mother's look and thoughtlessly said "But papa there's a lot more work to be done, those three are a lot of work themselves. You don't even have an assistant-"
"Raymond, that's enough." Laura cut him off. Finally Raymond realised the mistake he'd made.
After all that it would be impossible for Emilia to not notice that her request was a bit much but she didn't feel bad at all. In fact she was extremely happy. She knew that it was going to be really hard to match up all their schedules but they were so willing to try. Maybe this life would be different. She decided that helping to sort out the problems would be the least she could do to repay their efforts.
"Can I make a few suggestions?" She asked.
"That would be welcome." Alfonse said, wiping the sweat of his forehead with his sleeve. For some reason he felt quite reassured when Emilia said that she had some suggestions.
"Mo-" She was about to call her mother but then noticed her pointed look and changed her words "Mama, don't you get bored often?" She asked.
Her mother was too happy to hear her daughter calling her 'mama' to see where the conversation was going and so she thoughtlessly replied "That's true."
"Would you like to have something to do?" Emilia asked again.
"Sure, it's better than being bored all day. There's only so many books I can read." She said, now seeing where it was going.
"Then the household management could be handled by you and I. I can handle the financial aspect, my math is good enough, as Nick mentioned before. And m-mama you can handle the interactive part. Managing the staff, guests, and relationships. I know that you love talking to and interacting with people." She said.
"Hmm... That sounds like a good idea. I'll have to test you on handling finances first but if you pass then we can go ahead with it. Of course, that is if your mother agrees." Alfonse said.
"I don't mind, I think it sounds fun!" Laura exclaimed.
"This will significantly reduce the load. Thank you Mia." Alfonse smiled at Emilia.
After that the dinner went by smoothly with a lot of talk and laughter. Emilia had her perception changed ever so slightly and she was looking forward to the days to come.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
NimbusK
NimbusK Should I make the chapters shorter so I can update faster? Hmm it's hard writing around 2000 words per chapter. Or should I stockpile the chapters and release them regularly? That might take some time though.
Also this is not one of those books where the character stays 5 forever don't worry. She'll grow up soon, just laying down some exposition.
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