Anya is Bad at Moral Support (Short) (Patreon)

This was it. This was her one and only chance. If she missed this strike, Yor’s life was over. Just remain calm… aaaaand…

*THUNK!*

“Awww! Mummy killed my new friend!”

Yor breathed out a massive sigh of relief as she watched the fly she’d speared with a fork from across the room struggle for a moment before falling limp. Yes! No fly would be landing on her specially made dinner tonight! The black-haired beauty smiled warmly at her step-daughter, who had grown strangely attached to the fly for some reason. “Sorry, Anya, but that fly was going to eat all of our dinner! He needed to… take a break to think over his actions.”

Anya, from her place at the dinner table, crossly avoided Yor’s gaze. “He was my friend because he was gonna eat the dinner…”

Yor flinched. “M-My cooking has gotten better recently, hasn’t it? Mummy’s cooking is a lot better than it used to be, right? It doesn't need to be eaten by a fly instead of you, right? Anya?”

The pink-haired child didn’t respond. She just continued to avoid Yor’s eyes.

“I… I see…” Yor whimpered. She sniffled as she brought some of the food she’d made to the table. She really did think that she’d been improving… maybe she still wasn’t cut out for all this ‘mother’ stuff anyways…

“Ah!” Anya said suddenly. Yor looked to her quickly to see her staring worriedly at Yor. The child put a shaky smile on her face as she said, “B-But mummy is great at cleaning! And makes me feel safe! So it doesn’t matter that daddy is better at cooking than mummy!”

Once again, Yor’s heart was stabbed by Anya’s words. The fact that they were being said by a child made the  words all the worse… “Daddy’s better at cooking than mummy, huh…?”

Anya pursed her lips. “M… M… Mummy teaches me how to protect myself! I really like that!”

“And so many problems were caused because I didn’t teach you properly…” Yor sniffled.

“Mummy does all the shopping perfectly!”

“I dropped all of the groceries last week and wasted so much money and food…”

“Mummy protects my food from nasty fly guys!”

“You were just pouting that I did that…”

Yor really didn’t seem fit for this after all. She just couldn’t seem to do anything right…

Anya, eyes wide, glanced desperately around the room. “You… you, uh… you… Oh! You make daddy really happy!”

“Wh-What!?” Yor blurted out in response. Her heart skipped a few beats.

“Daddy wasn’t very happy before!” Anya continued, eyes gleaming. “He only ever thought about work! Then he thought about Anya and work! Now he thinks about Anya, mummy, and work! And- And he gets happy when he thinks about mummy!” Anya quickly glanced down at her lap. “Sometimes…”

Anya’s small afterthought didn’t quite reach Yor’s ears, though. She was too busy holding her hands over her brightly blushing face. She squatted down, feeling a strange need to make herself as small as possible. She made Loid happy? Really? Truly? Even when she was doing such a poor job at being a wife?

A small hand reached out and patted her head. Yor peeked through her fingers up at the patter, Anya. “Mummy is a great mummy! Even if her food is the worst!”

The… The worst? Yor’s lip trembled.

Anya froze. “Uh-oh.”

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Loid, who had finally finished gathering the intel he would need for the plan for the day, was worried. He hadn’t left Anya and Yor alone together for too long in the past. What if Anya let slip about not being his real daughter? What if Yor did something improper that would lead to complications with the plan, such as teaching Anya how to fight again? Loid had never been so unsure about one of his plans before.

Finally, the master spy reached the door to his ‘family’s’ home. He turned the lock, stepped inside, and…

Yor was curled up on the floor with a dead look in her eyes, muttering, “I’m sorry I’m such a bad cook… I’m sorry I’m such a bad wife… I’m sorry I’m such a bad mother…” while Anya was sitting next to her and patting her head tiredly.

Upon seeing Loid walk in, Anya looked at him with tears in the corner of her eyes and just said, “I’m sorry, daddy. I broke mummy.”

Loid’s eye twitched. His faith in this whole operation dropped yet another notch lower.

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Here's one of the two shorts from last month's poll! Yor is so pure and precious and Anya is such a gremlin. Love these two a whole bunch <3.