This choice: "...keep giving her food. Better be showered in love than rejected." • Go Back...Chapter #9Keep Giving Her Food by: TheCoop   "...keep giving her food. Better be showered in love than rejected. The poor girl had a difficult life, and I would hate to think that the three of us did anything to prolong that."
"But what about her weight?" Michiru said.
"She still appears to be within a healthy weight range for her age, and she's a growing girl," Haruka answered. "If she wanted to lose weight, I would certainly help her, but as long as she's comfortable with herself and her weight isn't causing any health problems, I'm with Setsuna. Our princess deserves to be spoiled a little."
Michiru frowned. She agreed with the other two in principle, but she was worried about the consequences for Hotaru. Their daughter wasn't a very sociable child to begin with, and kids could be so hard on anyone who was different. If Hotaru started to become overweight, things could only get worse for her. Any child who would pick on someone as sweet as Hotaru obviously wasn't worth listening to, but she wasn't sure if Hotaru would see it that way.
"I'm just worried about how the other kids will treat her..." she said. Haruka smiled.
"If any of the other kids says one bad word about our daughter, so help me..." she shook her fist. Upon seeing Michiru and Setsuna's shocked expressions, she burst out laughing. "I was kidding! Though, seriously, at the very least I'll give their parents a stern talking-to. Michiru, Hotaru knows that we love her, and that's what matters. Kids can be cruel, but what's more important is that she has an accepting, loving family."
"You're right," Michiru conceded. "I'm worrying too much. The important thing is that Hotaru knows how much we love her."
Haruka wrapped an arm around Michiru and kissed her on the cheek. "Worrying is just another way of showing love, as long as you don't go overboard."
The issue decided, Setsuna went back to do very serious, definitely-non-soap-opera-related things in the privacy of her study, while Haruka and Michiru went upstairs to see Hotaru. Haruka knocked on their daughter's door. "Come in!" she said, barely loud enough for her parents to hear. When Haruka and Michiru entered the room, she heaved herself into a sitting position with her back against her headboard. Her stomach bunched into two thick rolls. Haruka thought she may have been slightly exaggerating when she said that Hotaru was still in a healthy weight range. On the other hand, she was used to Hotaru being unhealthily skinny, so she was probably just overestimating how overweight the girl was in comparison to a normal child.
"Honey, your papa and I want to apologize for feeding you so much." Hotaru stiffened. Had all the love she thought her parents were showing through food been a mistake? But Michiru continued: "We love you no matter what, and you can still eat as much as you want, but we don't want you to feel like you have to eat everything we put in front of you. We're trying to take the absolute best care of you that we can, but we make mistakes sometimes, too." As she talked, Michiru rubbed Hotaru's stomach in slow, soft circles. It felt wonderful to Hotaru, and helped relieve some of the pressure on her stomach.
"I know, Michiru-mama," she replied. And she did know, at least intellectually. However, deep down, there was still a part of her that inexorably associated love with food, and that part was terrified that her parents would stop feeding her.
"Good. We love you so much, sweetie," Michiru said, kissing her daughter on the forehead. She set her sandwich down on Hotaru's night table, and Haruka did the same with the bag of candy. "Like I said, you don't have to eat these if you don't want to, but they're here if you do. Dinner's in a few hours." She stood up and, along with Haruka, left the room, closing the door quietly behind them.
As soon as they were gone, Hotaru grabbed the candy and started stuffing it into her mouth. She had gotten a bit of a shock, and even though she was still pretty full, the food-is-love part of her needed reassuring. The sandwich met a similar fate, though, since it was bigger and more substantial, it took longer. Soon, Hotaru was lying flat on her bed again, massaging her bloated stomach. She groaned from how full she was, but really, she felt better now that she was full of her parents' love.
At dinner, Hotaru ate as heartily as ever, and when questioned about the food her parents had brought up, she said that she hadn't eaten the sandwich. To cover her tracks, she volunteered to do the dishes and washed her empty sandwich plate along with the dishes from dinner. While she was drying the last bowl, it occurred to her that she was alone in the kitchen. Hotaru knew her parents kept it full of the kind of food she liked, and even though she was full from dinner, she was tempted to sneak some treats, because more fullness meant more love, right?
Ultimately, though, she decided against it. Food was only a comfort when people she loved made it for her. Besides, she was pretty full from dinner, so instead she went into the living room and flopped down on the couch, not wanting to go upstairs again until she'd digested a little. Her belly was huge, rising above her chubby form like a big hill. Hotaru ran her hands up and down it, enjoying its warm pliability as well as what it represented. She didn't miss being stick-thin at all.   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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