Wendy Mother's Day

(Disclaimer, this isn't the next Wendy chapter, this is just a one-off for Mother's Day. Make sure to tell your mom you love her today)

>6:30 AM. Wendy Bishop's day begins with a fading dream and the chime of her docking chair. Her optics click open as the dome of her chair raises off her head and retracts. Freed, she shakes her bobbed hair and running her mechanical fingers through her bangs adjusting them over her forehead, lazily eyeing the decorations in her tiny closet room: the children's drawings, the postcards of her favorite Beacon City landmarks, the monochrome photos of her and Nora from the arcade photobooth, the family portrait of all three of them in their Sunday best. She scoots off her chair with a huff.
>She pushes open her door into the kitchen with her hip, adjusting her belt and cramming the hem of her sweater back into her pants. She takes a few steps forward before she realizes how unusual her surroundings are— the windows are open and the curtains are drawn. Water droplets adorn the petals and stems of the blooming carnations and lilies of the valley in the windowsill, watering can to match placed haphazardly beneath. In the kitchen, the lights are on, the coffee pot gurgles and the toaster softly clicks. And to top it off, the holotape player quietly plays her favorite swing music.
>All highly suspicious, Wendy thinks. She stands upright in the kitchen unsure of what to do, with all her chores done, all done save for waking Nora up... something is afoot.
>Making her way to Nora's bedroom, Wendy notices the door to Mark's room is ajar and the bed empty. Chores done and Mark missing? She warily creaks open Nora's door, not knowing what to expect. "Nora...?"
>Suddenly Wendy is assailed by Nora and Mark, "Happy Mother's Day!!" they exclaim as they jump up from the bed.
>Wendy shouts and recoils back into the hallway. "—What?!"
>Nora reiterates: "Happy Mother's Day!"
>Slowly Wendy lowers her posture and her cheek lights flutter on. "Mother's Day?"
>"The surprise was Nora's idea, admittedly" Mark grins, "We could make a better go of it next time, huh?" he nudges Nora.
>"We have presents!"
>"Presents?" Wendy can hardly formulate a response. Mother's Day? Me?? Presents?? For me?? A mother??
>Nora lunges back over her bed and procures her present, shallow and wrapped in red and green Christmas paper. "This one is from me." Evidently, 'FROM NORA' is written in blue marker across the top. She pushes it into Wendy's arms.
>The present crinkles into her sweater. "Both of you are too sweet..."
>"Don't compliment a gift before you open it!" Nora urges.
>Wendy opens her mouth to speak but decides against it, then slowly begins unwrapping. Upon closer examination the present seems to be wrapped more with tape than the Christmas paper torn and smushed, but Nora's confident smile at her handiwork makes it impossible to be critical. Wendy has only ever wrapped presents before, never opened them, made ever-clearer when she begins peeling back the tape piece-by-piece like an onion.
>Nora's enthusiasm wanes as Wendy takes longer and longer to shuck her gift. Mark pipes up— "You can rip it open, dear."
>"Whatsie?" she shakes her hand trying to get tape unstuck.
>"You can just rip open the wrapping—"
>"Just go hog wild!" Nora exclaims.
>Wendy looks down at the present and the neat pile of tape stuck to her arm. "Oooh yeah..." she coos, nodding, "That makes more sense." with a short tug the thin wrapping shreds in half, revealing a thick knitted wool turtleneck sweater folded into a messy square. "Nora! You got me a new sweater?" she fondly asks as she picks it up and holds it to her chest.
>"Read it!" she presses.
>Wendy looks down, reading the knitted text aloud, "'This mom is MUM-believable'... guys..." her cheeks glow red hot. If she could cry in joy she would in this moment. "Mum-believable..." she sniffles.
>"It's pretty neat, huh?"
>"It's perfect!" Wendy excitedly pulls on the turtleneck over the sweater she's already wearing. She smiles, pointing at herself, "THIS mom is mum-believable! How do I look?"
>"Warm—"
>"Liquid-cooling comes in handy." she smirks, "it's perfect, Nora" she pulls Nora into a suffocating hug, "Thank you"
>Nora feigns disgust but leans into it. "Dad has a gift too—" she chokes.
>"Well, there's— this one is from both of us." Mark hands her a small box wrapped in brown butcher paper.
>She examines the box one-handed, keeping an arm around Nora momentarily, "Needed Nora's help picking something?" she chuckles.
>Mark runs a hand through his hair anxiously laughing, "Yes, that's pretty much exactly what happened."
>Wendy titters, unfolding the paper wrapping on her lap and pulling the top off the small box, revealing two coin-sized metal shapes, red spheres attached to chunky lightning bolts. She holds both up quizzically. "Mark? What am I looking at?"
>"Put them up here-" he delicately grabs Wendy's wrist and guides her hand up to the side of her head. With a ting the sphere clicks onto her nickel-plated microphone ears.
>Wendy shakes her head lightly feeling it stuck to her head. "Are these-"
>"Earrings!" Nora interrupts.
>Mark grins ear-to-ear, "Happy Mother's Day!" he repeats. Wendy attaches the other earring and pokes at the lightning bolts as they dangle beneath her ears.
>Wendy's cheeks explode with color as she realizes how they work, "They're magnets!" she pounces on Mark, slinging her arms around his neck and planting a kiss on his cheek, "Magnet earrings? You're a genius, Mark Bishop!" Nora mock-vomits at Mark wrapping his arms around Wendy's hips but smiles nonetheless.
>"I was pretty excited about it, I can't lie—" he chuckles, "You'll have to thank Nora for how they look, I deferred to someone with a fashion sense."
>Wendy leans back to face Nora. "Two gifts for one holiday, huh Nora? You'll have to top this next year and get me three gifts" she winks, "especially if dad's buying"
>"There's a lot of sweaters and fridge magnets to buy—"
>"These are fridge magnets?"
>"That's what dad called them to me-"
>"So you like it?" Mark gets her attention, still holding Wendy by the waist. "It, them— the gifts?"
>"I love it all, skipper" she gives him another kiss on the cheek, not wanting to offend Nora's adolescent eyes any more than they already have, "Thank you, both of you" she pulls Nora into their embrace. "I love you both-"
>"I love you too"
>"Love you too, mom"

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