It had been a normal day at Cat's Cradle, I mean, as normal as it could be; Lilith and Ava had argued, like always, Camila and Ava had played videogames while Beatrice and Lilith "practiced" and May and Mother Superion simply watched them, just to make sure they didn't cause any trouble. So it had been a normal day, and that's all they needed right now.
Ava had been trying to get Mother Superion to teach her her shield technique, back from when the oldest woman was the Halo bearer; the young woman had insisted so much that Mother Superion agreed simply to get her to stop, so they started training. It was "Fucking hard", as Ava said, to keep the shield for more than a few seconds, and that was only keeping it visible, it wasn't resistant, at all; they knew this after Lilith threw some rocks at Ava and they hit her, which just made Lilith laugh so much she had to sit on the floor and take deep breathes.
So Ava kept training, she trained until her body was tired and not responding anymore, just to go back to train as soon as she got her energy back. It took a few hours, she started training in the morning, and she was able to hold the shield in the night. As soon as she could hold it and it resisted Lilith's rocks, she jumped excited, quickly running to Mother Superion, who simply looked at her with eyes full of pride, "You saw it?", asked Ava excited, not being able to be still, Mother Superion nodded and smiled at her, "I did, good job Ava", answered Mother Superion in a soft tone.
As Mother Superion was answering Ava, Ava had started to walk to the mat she was before to pick up the hoodie she dropped after sweating so much her whole body was sticky; she quickly grabbed it and started to walk towards Beatrice, "Thanks mom", said the young girl without looking at anyone, too focused on walking straight; after a few steps she felt everyone's eyes on her, so she looked up to see her group of Sisters.
"Why is everyone staring at me?", she asked confused and a little uncomfortable, maybe she did something wrong; Lilith looked at her and chuckled, "You just called Mother Superion 'mom', you said 'Thanks mom'". Ava's face got so red it was embarrassing, "No I didn't, I said 'Thanks man'", said the short girl trying to defense herself, she soon felt a hand on her shoulder and was met with her girlfriend's disapproval look, "That's actually worse Ava", said the taller girl, everyone there chuckled at the scene. "Do you see me as as mother figure Ava?", asked Mother Superion, she already knew the answer, but she enjoyed seeing the young woman so nervous and embarrassed; Ava was NOT enjoying this, "No, if anything I see you as a bother figure cuz you're always bothering me", answered the Halo bearer, Mother Superion simply hugged the girl and chuckled when she felt Ava hug her back, "It's alright my child, we're just playing", she said, feeling Ava relax a little bit, it took a few seconds before Mary talked, "We all know you see her as a mom, trust me, we all do; and if you guys deny it, you'll be fucking liars", the Nuns simply laughed at this, they wouldn't deny it, they couldn't; if they did, they would be lying, and Mother Superion knew this, which was why she called all of them "her girls".
Mother Superion was a mom.
Their new lives were calm, sure, there were still some demons in the world, and yeah they obviously had to fight them, and of course they still got hurt and kept training and everything, but it was a calm life; everyone now seemed so much better, and with their new free time, they had started to fix some stuff, for example, Mary and Lilith had talked and promised not too fight too much anymore, it didn't seem like a real promise, and knowing the girls, that promise wouldn't last long, but what mattered was the intention; and Mary had started to somehow feel Shannon's death, with everything that had happened, the poor woman hadn't had the time to deal with her lover's death, so now she had the time she needed, and she was slowly starting to heal.
Also Beatrice, who was now more free, letting herself enjoy more things in life, like love, with her amazing girlfriend Ava; and Camila, well, she is perfect already, but she did start training more, an improving in her tech abilities, if that was even possible. And then there was Ava, who for twelve years hadn't had a life, nor a family, nor a friend her age or similar, but she now had everything, she had love, and friendship, and even a mom, well, not really, Mother Superion was the woman in charge of the Nuns, and the Halo bearer, she wasn't her real mom, and Ava knew this, but, she still liked to think Mother Superion was her mom, after all, the older woman had given her permission to call her that, so it must meant that Mother Superion kind of was her mom. Right?
Well, not really, Ava always thought of that, of Mother Superion actually being her mom, since she was the only parental figure in her life, but then she remembered Mother Superion's vows, they aren't allowed to be moms, so Ava wasn't sure about any of this situation. She liked thinking that the oldest Nun was her mom, and she wanted it to be truth, but she always remembered it wasn't possible, she remembered the vows, and she knew Mother Superion didn't think the same as her.
Well, Mother Superion did; like Ava, she had thought about it a lot, of course she knew she couldn't really be Ava's mom, the vows she took wouldn't allow her to, but with everything that she lived, she knew one thing, God, who is love, wouldn't oppose to her love for her girls. So she came up with an idea, an idea that Mary and Camila would help with, an idea she knew would make the Halo bearer happy.
It happened during a rainy day, Ava was happy watching the rain, sitting on the floor, right behind Cat's Cradle's door, which was open so the young girl could watch the rain since she was told not to go outside while it was raining since they had to train in a few minutes, so all the Halo bearer could do, was to sit, watching the rain. She had watched the rain for long minutes before Mary stood next to her, also watching the rain, "Camila and Mother Superion need you, in the Superion's office", she said, not looking down at the girl, they would do this a lot, talking without looking at each other, both got lost with a lot of things, so when they talked, they would often get lost in the same things, which was something they both liked, it made them feel closer. Ava simply sighed and smiled before standing up, "You know what they need me for?", she asked, slowly walking to the office, with Mary next to her, "I think some translation stuff, I think Portuguese, they just want you to be multilingual", answered Mary. They kept walking until they reached the office and entered, Mother Superion and Camila were talking in Spanish.
"¿Estará lista?" (Is she ready?), Camila asked, leaving some papers on Mother Superion's desk before walking to stand beside the oldest woman, "No lo sé Camila, pero si no está lista, esperaré hasta que lo esté" (I don't know, but if she's not ready, then I'll wait until she is), answered the old woman, who was sitting in front of the desk; as soon as the young women entered the room they quickly went back to talk in English, Camila smiled and Ava happily with that sweet smile Ava loved. "Alright, so, you guys need me to be bilingual?", asked the youngest woman in the room, a little confused, Mother Superion simply nodded her head before starting to explain, "Yes, all of us", she stopped to look at Mary, who simply smiled sarcastically, "well, most of us, know at least two languages. Now, I know you know some Portuguese, so this is just going to be a little test, to know your level", explained the oldest Nun, handing Ava some papers, "I would like you to read it and tell me what it says, please".
Ava took the papers confused before looking at them carefully, understanding a lot of the words easily, but not all of it; she knew Portuguese, but that was when she was little, before her accident, so she hadn't seen, read or heard anything in Portuguese in more than twelve years, it was expected that she was going to be a bit rusty at it. Still, she was able to understand more than what had been expected, "...adoção.. ..mulher jovem.. Ava Silva..", she stared a little more at the papers before giving up, "Yep I can't read anything else, you don't have any of numbers or colors? Um, dois, três? Branco, azul? Anything like that?".
The three older women just stared at her, Mary completely amazed by how dumb Ava could be sometimes, Camila chuckling a little bit, and Mother Superion waiting for the girl to react, they were silent for a few moments before Ava quickly looking at the phrase she read, checking if she read right, she quickly stood up and started to pace around the room, papers in hand, her eyes and mind completely focused on the papers.
She looked at Mother Superion, then back to the paper, then back to Mother Superion, then back to the paper, "Is, is this, true? What does, if it's a joke, it's not funny", she said, the oldest woman stood up and walked to her, smiling softly, "It's not a joke, Ava," she started, stopping a few steps away from Ava, "of course they aren't, official, or legal, since well, as a Nun, because of the vows I took I cannot have children, but," she looks at a picture of her and her girls, smiling even more with a few tears in her eyes, "that vow was broken time ago".
Mother Superion looked at Ava again, noticing a few tears in the young woman's eyes, "That's why, I would like to adopt you, I know I can't replace your real mom, an if you don't like it or-", she was cut mid sentence by a hug, Ava tightly hugging her, her sobs were barely audible since they were muffled by Mother Superion's clothes, the older woman simply hugged her back, feeling the Halo's warm on her hands. After a few moments, the young woman pulled away, quickly wiping off her tears while nodding her head, accepting to be adopted, she had that bright smile on her face that light up the place more than the Halo. "You're still gonna share her, y'know? She's still our mom", warned Mary, who had an arm on top of Camila's shoulder, who was smiling even more than before, completely amazed by this moment.
Ava quickly signed the papers, even if it wasn't necessary, while doing so, Camila reminded her that she still needed to learn Portuguese or any other language, the younger woman just laughed and nodded, before hugging Mother Superion again. The whole time, the Halo was shinning more than usual, at first they thought Ava was going to blast them, but they realized that the girl was just really, really happy, and since the Halo reacts to her emotions, it was shinning a lot.
The rest of the day was great, Ava had more energy than usual, which meant more training, which meant more draining the Halo, so by the end of the day she was exhausted. She was already on bed when Mother Superion entered her room, wanting to speak with her, and apologize for not being able to really adopt her. "It's okay, I understand, I'm happy just with you wanting to be my mom, that's enough', said the young woman, which only made the older woman smile, she gently kissed her now daughter's forehead before leaving the room after saying goodnight.
Both of them slept really happy that night, for stuff like this, is why Ava loved being alive.