The morning after the quiet, romantic intensity of the night before, the "Monster" of the Watson Empire was about to face a tactical challenge he wasn't prepared for: Solo Parenting.
I had made a strategic retreat to the Section E medical wing to help Ci n with some research, leaving Keifer with a very awake, very mobile, and very "Savage" eight-month-old.
9:00 AM: The "High-Stakes" Grooming
POV: Keifer
I stood in the center of the master suite, which currently looked like a bomb had gone off in a toy factory. Jay was gone. Alexander was at "Ninja Training" with Keigan. It was just me and the tiny, strawberry-scented hurricane sitting on the rug.
"Astraea," I said, my voice authoritative. "We are going to get dressed. We have a 10:00 AM video call with the London branch."
Astraea looked at me, tilted her head, and let out a sharp, "Da!" Before I could reach for her, she launched into a high-speed crawl toward the bathroom.
"Astraea, halt!"
She didn't halt. She reached the bathroom, grabbed the corner of a hanging towel, and pulled it down over herself like a ghost. I reached down to scoop her up, but she did a tactical roll out from under the towel and headed for the walk-in closet.
10:15 AM: The Zoom Meeting Disaster
I sat in my home office, wearing my black silk shirt—minus the tie, because Astraea had hidden it somewhere in the laundry chute. I had her strapped into a lap-carrier, thinking she would sleep.
I was wrong.
"The quarterly projections for the European sector are—" I began, looking at the screen filled with twenty nervous executives.
Squelch.
A cold, wet hand slapped onto my cheek. Astraea had managed to grab my espresso spoon and was now trying to "feed" me.
"Mr. Watson?" one of the directors asked, his eyes wide. "Is... is everything alright?"
"The projections are fine," I growled, trying to keep my face stoic while Astraea began to rhythmically kick the underside of the desk. Thud. Thud. Thud. Suddenly, she reached out and hit the "Spacebar." The screen muted. She then hit the "Esc" key. The meeting disappeared.
"Gah!" she cheered, looking up at me with Jay's exact 'Savage' smirk.
"You just fired the London board of directors, Princess," I sighed, leaning back. "Your mother is going to be so proud."
12:00 PM: The Security Breach
I decided to take her to the garden for some air. I was carrying her on my hip, feeling relatively in control, when Percy (Blue Eyes) walked by.
"Hey, Boss. Hey, Tiny Boss," Percy waved.
Astraea's eyes locked onto Percy's sunglasses. She didn't make a sound. She waited. As Percy leaned in to give her a high-five, she lunged with the speed of a cobra, snatched the glasses off his face, and threw them into the koi pond.
"MY DESIGNER SHADES!" Percy wailed, looking into the water.
"Ma-ma!" Astraea pointed at the pond and laughed.
"She's roasting you, Percy," I said, patting her back. "Go fish them out. And tell Rory I need a new keyboard. This one has been compromised by applesauce."
2:00 PM: The "Monster" Defeated
2:00 PM: The "Monster" DefeatedBy afternoon, I was exhausted. I was sitting on the floor of the nursery, my $3,000$ dollar shirt unbuttoned and wrinkled. I had a sticker of a yellow duck on my forehead, and I was currently being forced to hold a pink tea-cup for a "party" Astraea was hosting with her stuffed animals.The door opened, and Jay walked in, looking refreshed and annoyingly beautiful.
"Well, well," she said, leaning against the doorframe, her arms crossed. "The Great Mark Keifer Watson, feared by the underworld, currently serving tea to a duck?"
"She's a tyrant, wifey," I muttered, trying to maintain my dignity while Astraea tried to put a headband on my head. "She doesn't follow the Geneva Convention. She's used psychological warfare, property damage, and biological leaks to break me."
"Pa-pa!" Astraea crawled into my lap, exhausted from her day of destruction, and tucked her head under my chin.
I felt my heart soften instantly. My hand instinctively went to her back, rubbing small circles as she finally started to drift off. I looked up at Jay, and I knew I looked completely whipped.
"She's a Watson-Mariano," Jay whispered, walking over and sitting beside me on the floor. She leaned in, kissing the duck sticker on my forehead. "She was always going to be the only person who could boss the 'Monster' around."
"I'm keeping the sticker," I murmured, closing my eyes. "It's a badge of honor.
...
Jay pov
The morning after Keifer's solo parenting defeat, the Black Box didn't just wake up—it went into full-scale tactical retreat. Astraea Solene, now nine months old and possessing the speed of a cheetah and the mind of a criminal mastermind, had decided that today, the entire family was her playground.
Except for me. For some reason, I was the only person she treated like a queen, while everyone else was treated like a footstool.
08:00 AM: The "Blue Eyes" Ambush
I was sitting in the breakfast nook, sipping my coffee and enjoying the rare peace of a morning where I wasn't being used as a jungle gym. Across from me, Percy (Blue Eyes) was trying to eat his gourmet avocado toast.
Astraea was in her walker, "drifting" around the kitchen island. Suddenly, she stopped behind Percy's chair.
"Ma-ma?" she whispered, sounding like a literal angel.
"Aww, you want Uncle Percy?" he cooed, leaning back.
In a flash, Astraea reached up, grabbed the hem of his expensive silk shirt, and pulled with all her might. At the same time, she used her other hand to snatch his toast and chuck it across the room like a frisbee.
"MY BREAKFAST!" Percy shrieked. "JAY, SHE JUST SNIPED MY AVOCADO!"
"She's just criticizing your carb intake, Percy," I said, not looking up from my tablet. "Keep your eyes on the target next time."
10:30 AM: The "Hacker" vs. The "Crawler"
I wandered into the tech lab to find Erdix and Rory frantic. They were supposed to be monitoring the security perimeter, but they were currently on their hands and knees.
"Where is she?!" Erdix hissed into his comms. "She was just here! She's bypassed the motion sensors!"
I looked up. Astraea was sitting on top of the server rack, having been hoisted up there by a very guilty-looking Alexander. She was currently holding Erdix's high-end mechanical keyboard.
Clack-clack-clack-clack.
"Gah!" she cheered, hitting the 'Enter' key.
"NO! SHE JUST WIPED THE FIREWALL!" Erdix wailed, diving for the rack.
Astraea looked at him, let out a sharp "No!"—her favorite new word—and dropped the keyboard right onto his head. She then reached out her arms to me. "Ma-ma!"
"My sweet girl," I cooed, picking her up. She snuggled into my neck, looking back at the devastated hackers with a smirk that was 100% Savage.
01:00 PM: The "Horoscope" Sacrifice
Aries (Horoscope) thought he could "calm" her with a meditation circle in the garden. He had lined up his crystals in a perfect formation around a fountain."Connect with the earth, Astra..."Astraea watched him for a minute. Then, she crawled into the circle, grabbed his $1,000$ dollar obsidian sphere, and rolled it directly into the koi pond. Splash."MY FOCUS!" Aries cried.
She wasn't done. She crawled over to his meditation bowl and used it as a drum, hitting it with one of Alexander's toy daggers. BONG. BONG. BONG.
"She's clearing your chakras, Aries," I shouted from the veranda, sipping my iced tea. "The vibration is very 'cleansing'."
04:00 PM: The "Monster" is Not Exempt
Keifer came home early, looking every bit the cold, powerful CEO. He walked into the living room, ready to reclaim his throne.
"Where is my daughter?" he rumbled.
Astraea appeared from behind the sofa. She saw him. She saw his pristine, custom-made Italian suit. She let out a war cry and launched herself at his legs, but not for a hug. She had a half-eaten, very sticky mango in her hand.
Smack.
The mango juice smeared across his trousers. She then used his leg as a ladder to climb up, leaving sticky handprints all over his white shirt.
"Pa-pa!" she shrieked, grabbing his tie and trying to use it as a swing.
Keifer stood frozen, his arms out, looking like a man who had just survived a drive-by fruit attack. He looked at me, pleading for help.
"Wifey... she's destroying the silk. This is a limited edition."
"She's just rebranding you, hubby," I laughed, walking over. The second I got close, Astraea let go of his tie and reached for me, her face instantly becoming angelic. "See? She's a perfect lady for her Mamma."
07:00 PM: The Aftermath
The Black Box looked like it had been hit by a localized hurricane. Section E was scattered in the lounge, looking physically and mentally broken.
Percy was mourning his shirt.
Erdix was rewriting code.
Aries was trying to fish his crystals out of the pond.
Keifer was sitting in a bathrobe, his suit currently being professionally burned.
I sat on the sofa, Astraea curled up in my lap, peacefully drinking her bottle as if she hadn't just dismantled a multi-billion dollar security team.
"I think," Ci n whispered, leaning against the wall with a tired smile, "that we should have let the 'Monster' keep his name. Because this one? This one is the real 'Savage'."
"She's a Watson-Mariano," I said, kissing the top of her head. "She doesn't do things halfway."
Keifer sat down beside me, pulling both of us into his arms. He looked at our daughter, who was finally drifting off, her tiny hand still clutching a piece of his bathrobe.
"She's terrifying, Jay," he whispered. "I love her so much it's actually a security risk."
"Welcome to the club, hubby," I replied, leaning my head on his shoulder. "The 'Savage' club has no exits."