Hope turned one year old on a Tuesday and the alliance threw a celebration that was absolutely disproportionate to a first birthday but apparently when you're the bond-hybrid daughter of the Hybrid Queen who killed The Root and can detect dimensional rifts better than scientific equipment, your birthday becomes a political event.
Two thousand fighters showed up. The council gave speeches. Someone made a cake that was actually four cakes stacked to represent her four fathers and I had to stop myself from crying about the symbolism.
"Mama why you leaky?" Hope's question came while sitting on my hip watching the chaos. "Eyes doing water thing."
Eyes doing water thing. Right. Our one-year-old had vocabulary that would make most three-year-olds jealous but apparently hadn't learned the word crying yet.
"Happy tears." I tried to explain the concept. "Sometimes people cry when they're really happy. That's what Mama's doing."
