Comm: Motherhood and Madame Rouge 2

Summary: Laura De Mille, better known as the infamous Madame Rouge, has a change of heart, and fakes her own death, retreating to her former life. Dearly missing family life, she missed her husband, and her daughter most of all. Commissioned by Ninten.

[Story Listing]

[First Part]

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"Moooooooooooom... it's hooooooooooooooooot..."

It was summer vacation for a young pre-adolescent Gemini, and the stay-at-home Laura De Mille (more infamously known as Madame Rouge) could hardly disagree with her daughter's words. The air conditioning in their home had sputtered to a halt, and there was quite a heat wave baking the neighbourhood.

"Honey, don't melt on the carpet, you'll make a mess..." Laura, her cheeks flushed, was splayed out on a leather sofa. She looked like she was sweating buckets, her luscious skin dribbling away from her in paint-like streams.

Gemini let out a groan of frustration, unpeeling herself from the floor and flopping over to the hardwood floor with a wet shlorp. The wood provided just a moment of cool relief, before her practically bubbling body warmed it right back up again. She groaned again, more loudly, perhaps for attention.

"Why can't the repair guy come out nowwwwwwww..." She whined again. "I'm melting... MEEEEEEEELTING!~"

She cried out dramatically, writhing about the floor as her slowly liquifying body began to puddle around her. Laura massaged her forehead, leaving a distinct impression where her fingers pressed.

"Gemini, dearest, there's a heatwave. The repairman is all over the neighbourhood fixing other people's problems..." Laura explained wearily. "We'll have to make due for at least another day."

"But I'm gonna die-hie-hieeeeeee..." Gemini rolled around on the floor... rather literally at that, seeing as she was reduced to a flesh-hued blob.

"You're not dying, honey..." Laura glanced towards her own fingers; her manicured fingernails seemed off, and strands of melty ooze trickled between her outstretched fingers. "Get yourself a cold drink from the fridge, you'll feel better..."

"Fridge... fridge..." Gemini oozed along the floor, arching like an inchworm, as Laura reclined her head back.  She flattened her hand into the shape of an oversized fan, and began to air herself off.

One room over, she overheard the heavy down of the fridge door opening... and then closing... and then a muffled "aaaaaah~" of relief. Laura's eyebrows furrowed as she grumbled indistinctly to herself. She wobbled to her feet, patted herself all over to coax the streaks of melting skin to sink back within her, and paced to the kitchen.

Laura opened the door to the fridge, and spotted a large pitcher of what was supposed to be ice water... but instead, it was filled to the brim with a liquid substance the exact same colour as Gemini's peach-hued skin. And her face was pressed against the see-thru plastic from the inside, her smile twisted, her eyes closed in relaxation.

"Alright. Get out." Laura demanded casually.

"But it's so cooooooooooool in here~" Gemini stirred happily within her container, a look of blissful relief on her face.

"You should never ooze into the fridge; you can't open it from the inside."Laura folded her arms, tapping her foot. "You don't want to be stuck inside all day, do you?"

"Just five more minutes..." The liquified Gemini turned to face away from her mother. "Then you can let me out-"

"Now, Gemini De Mille. You'll suffocate in there." Laura didn't skip a beat in lifting the container holding her daughter from the fridge; the daughter let out a groan as Laura shut the fridge again.

"But I gotta cool off..." Gemini whined.

"...got that right..." Laura muttered under her breath. Her eyes drifted to the window looking out to the backyard.

...The mother got an idea all of a sudden. She had been so wrapped up in just getting through the day, it was a wonder she didn't think of it prior.

"Hey, Gem, wanna go outside?" Laura smiled.

"Outside??" Gemini stirred. "But that's where the sun is! It's gonna be even hotter..."

"Well, I was thinking, while your father's busy at work, why don't we make our own fun in the backyard?" Laura raised the water jug. "How does that sound?"

"...Sounds... fun." Gemini burbled slightly. Laura was already thinking of some fun things to do today...

"Okay, slip into your bathing suit, dear." Laura placed Gemini on the counter. "Mother will see to her own things as well..."

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FSHHHHHT! The sound of spraying water and Gemini's giddy, giggling laughter filled the air as the young girl darted left to right, trying to avoid the spraying of cold water.

"Cold, cold!" Gemini cackled, hugging her one-piece swimsuit. "That's not- AHAHAHA!~~"

Laura had done some morphing on her own to make the trick work; she had clasped her palm to the nozzle of a faucet, the metal head pressing through her skin. Water flowed through her hollow arm, across her chest, and through to her other arm, her other hand fashioned into a nozzle head of its own. Laura's skin writhed and wobbled as water flowed through it; she tensed her body to force the water through her arm in a pressurized stream, spraying from her hand (morphed into a narrow nozzle) as water sprayed forth in a jet stream, splashing against the wooden fence, the ground and, most importantly, Gemini herself.

"You'll have to be quicker than that!" Laura chortled, leaning into a long buried evil laugh. The sensation of cool water running through her upper body like this was keenly refreshing, but it was nothing compared to the sight of her rambunctious daughter performing acrobatic flips and twirls to dodge the stream of water.

Boingoing! Gemini curved her body into a crescent moon shape, raising one leg above her head to step longways over the stream of water and out of the line of fire... er, water. She cartwheeled in front of Laura and pressed a single pointed finger into the nozzle of Laura's hose-hand.

"!" Laura gawked, glancing up towards Gemini's triumphant expression.

"Ha HA!" She beamed. "I cut off the source of your power!"

"G-Gem, maybe you shouldn't-"

"Ihihi, that means I won! I... hurp... ooh..."

Gemini's head was feeling rather tight. It didn't hurt, but she did feel a little woozy... it seemed, to Laura, mainly due to how the water was flowing directly to her head, causing it to swell up like a water balloon. Her cheeks bulged slightly as if holding something in... Laura quickly turned off the flow of water from the house (her good arm stretching and reaching over to twist it off), before raising it back to Gemini.

"Here," Laura reached towards her chin. "Open up."

"Barblegarbleflargf!" Gemini burbled indistinctly, a torrent of water flushing out from her enlarged cranium. Laura withdrew her hose-hand, allowing the current to dribble; the young girl fluttered her eyelashes as her head wobbled back to its regular proportions...

"Are you okay?" Laura asked with a head tilt. Her daughter was pretty tough (practically indestructible, really), but the way her eyes bulged for a second there was concerning...

Gemini glanced upwards, and snuck in a cheeky grin, before splashing her mother with a squirt of water from between her lips.

"Hehehe!" She snickered. "Gotcha!~"

Laura gawked, before smiling goofily in response, and rustling Gemini's hair. "You got me good, sweetie..."

"Do you have any other fun games we can play??" Gemini bounced up and down. Laura rubbed her chin. She had a couple more she could think of...

"Well, this one won't take long to set up." Laura smiled. She reached over to turn on the water flow and hurried over to lie down parallel to the house; she brought her hose-hand up and nestled it between her upper shoulder blades. Laura lay to the ground, her entire body stretching, creaking with motion and softness as she extended across the yard, legs pressing and merging together as she flattened out like a mattress, or a blanket.

Her combined feet bubbled upwards as they melded into a cushion of sorts. Gemini covered her mouth as she recognized the shape from all sorts of toy commercials.

"A Slippy Slide!!" She exclaimed with delight.

"Don't get too much of a running start before you- G-Gemini!"

Laura's warnings fell on deaf ears as Gemini darted over, immediately bellyflopping into a slide at rapid speeds, her elastic legs giving her a bit more spring! As she cackled, Laura fretted about Gemini; at the speeds she was going, even if she hit her cushioned feet, she'd get launched over the fence!

Laura raised her lower body in an arc, trying to think quickly... ironically, this was probably worse somehow, as Gemini was launched upwards as if following a half-pipe jump. Gemini cackled with delight, her body twisting in the air like a snake as she reoriented herself back downwards for the returning slide.

Laura focused as she quickly morphed her body, arms lashed out at her sides at the ready to catch Gemini on the return; the young girl was quickly launched by the large cushioned base that was previously Laura's feet, and she ended up arcing high through the air, outstretching her arms to both sides like an eagle.

"I got you!" Laura's ropey limbs lashed upwards and quickly wrapped around her daughter, pulling back into her chest. She hugged tightly until her elastic body stopped wobbling, constantly squeaking all over as her seemingly waterproofed body rubbed against itself, as well as the ground.

"That was so cool!" Gemini raised her head, a delighted grin on her face. "Can we do that again!? Can we do a loop-de-loop!?"

"I... think that's enough excitement for one afternoon..." Laura huffed a sigh. "Mother is feeling a little light-headed after so much moving around."

"Oh! It's okay! Mom can relax!" Gemini, filled with energy, hurried off. "Lemme get the inflatey pool!"

"The what?" Laura blinked. "N-no, Gemini, you don't have to-"

But Gemini was quickly back with a deflated rubber doohickey; she took a deep, deep, deep breath—Laura gawked as Gemini's upper body seemed to swell with air. And then, with a fwooooooooooosh and a single, continuous exhale of air, the small, inflatable pool bubbled up to life!

Gemini hurried over, clasping one ropey arm over the still-flowing faucet head and allowing her splayed palm to hover over the pool; cool water began to flow from a hollow hole in her palm. Laura's mouth opened silently; she had spent so long practicing that trick, and her daughter took to it so effortlessly.

"I'll fill it up for you Ma!" Gemini beamed proudly. "Relax!"

"...I... thank you dear. That's very considerate of you..."

Her limbs limp and seemingly boneless, Laura pulled herself into the small inflatable pool, limbs twisting to fit in the space. As the water level rose up around her, the elastic woman eased her neck downwards, fully relaxing her malleable body.

What a refreshing way to spend a day, Laura thought to herself.