Sword and Snow

Emery looked out the window from the second floor of their house. She had dinner cooking in a variety of pots and pans, but for the moment nothing required her actual attention. Instead, she had walked to the window to stare out at the slight glow of the fire from the playground.

“Can you even see anyone from here?” Avuri said, her voice carrying a slightly teasing lilt, as she slipped up behind Emery and embraced her from behind. She angled her head to the side a little and kissed Emery’s temple before settling in to watch the fire’s glow from the window as well.

“Not really, no.” Emery said, holding Avuri’s arms against her in the best approximation of a hug she could manage from the front. She did nuzzle her face against Avuri’s, though. “I was just lost in thought, but not actually thinking, you know?”

Avuri chuckled. “That makes no sense, but yes, I understand what you mean.”

“But also I wish Stena would’ve told me what she was planning on doing with the kids before I cooked a full size meal. And she stole a bunch of meat from the Ice Array without telling me.” Emery said sourly.

“Oh…” Avuri said guiltily. Emery turned to face her awkwardly from their position, an eyebrow raised. “She told me that she was going to take some beef and chicken. And I told her that was fine.”

Emery slipped from Avuri’s embrace and half-heartedly glared at her wife. Avuri, in turn, held up her hands in surrender. “She didn’t tell me what her plans were.” She added hastily.

“You could’ve at least told me, Avuri.” Emery said, her voice dipping into lower tones as she spoke threateningly.

Avuri met Emery’s gaze for a moment before dropping her hands. “I could’ve. I’m sorry, Merri.”

With a big, over exaggerated sigh, Emery waved it off. “It’s fine. But we’ve got enough dinner to feed an army and only half an army to feed.”

“I know it wasn’t part of her plan, but I bet the camping group out there would be more than happy to take some of that food off your hands.” Avuri’s eyes focused back on the firelight outside again. “Especially once they’ve eaten some relatively plain fire-roasted beef. That stuff needs seasoning, and I somehow doubt Stena thought to bring some out with her.”

Emery snorted. “You’re probably right. I’ll pack some up and bring it out to them later. In the meantime, I’ll go get the food set out for everyone else.”

Avuri nodded, then stepped back in to give Emery a hug and squeezed her tight. “Sorry again. If you want help with anything, let me know.”

Emery wiggled around in her wife’s grasp to give her a kiss, but kept it brief in case any of the kids walked in. “If you actually mean that, I wouldn’t be opposed to a hand getting it all out to the dining pavilion.” Then she smirked and added, “With the two of us working together, I might have a bit of free time before dinner.”

Avuri laughed and gave Emery another kiss. “I’ll be happy to help, but I don’t think we’ll get that break.” And she nodded toward the stairs that led down toward the first floor.

With her attention called that way, Emery heard the echoes of footsteps approaching the bottom of the stairs, followed by the distinct beat of younger kids barreling up the stairs on feet and hands. Avuri and Emery both smiled as Arek and Astra more or less tumbled out of the stairway before they straightened up.

“Hey Moms.” Arek said as he let some of his energy settle. “We’re hungry. When’s dinner?”

“Soon.” Emery said with a smile. “Ri and I were about to take it down to the pavilion.”

“We’ll help!” Astra nearly shouted, excited, as her hand shot into the air.

“You’ll help, maybe.” Arek said. “I need to clean up before I go anywhere near food.”

Avuri nodded. “You do that. I can practically smell you from here.” She smiled brightly before continuing. “How’d your practice go?”

“Pretty good, I think. I was able to convince Briar to help me practice a bit today, but he’s over with the camping crowd now.”

“I’m surprised you two aren’t over with them by the campfire, actually.” Emery said, probing.

Arek just shrugged. “Stena mostly gathered up the older kids, so I figured we’d just come eat with you guys.”

“But Ritz and Shara were there.” Astra said, confused. “So were Cyrus, Quinn, and Marche.”

Avuri laughed. “The Alder kids really do all stick together.” Cyrus, Quinn, and Marche were nine, ten, and ten years old respectively, and followed Briar and Kord almost everywhere. And if the five of them were all together, you could bet that Shara, who was eight years old, would be carried around with them like their little princess.

“And Enrik is there, so Ritz is too. Not to mention, Shara and Ritz are nearly inseparable, so they’d probably both be there anyway..” Arek muttered. “I know.” He turned away, his ears red.

Emery and Avuri shared a quick look, silently wondering if Arek had a crush on one of his not-quite-sisters, but shrugged it off for now. They wouldn’t tease him about it. Not yet, at least. And even if they didn’t, they were pretty sure if one of the other kids caught on they would be merciless.

“So why don’t you want to join them all, then?” Avuri asked.

Astra just looked at Arek, waiting for an answer. It took a moment, but he eventually turned back to face his parents and sighed. “Cierra promised me a special lesson after dinner, so even if I went over to eat with them now, I’d be leaving after anyway…” He said, sounded rather dejected.

“And you just dragged your sister away with you because you didn’t get to stay?” Emery asked, her gaze moving between Arek and Astra; the latter of whom sounded like she wanted to go stay with the campfire group.

“I didn’t drag her anywhere, she followed on her own.” Arek said petulantly. When he heard his own tone, he quickly added, “Which is fine. But I didn’t drag her.”

“Uh huh.” Emery said pointedly. “Star, did you want to go back out to the campfire?”

“No, that’s okay.” She said, shyly.

Emery considered what to do with her youngest for a moment. She was still relatively new to their family, having only been adopted a little more than four months ago, and she was still adjusting to the larger extended portion of the family. In contrast, she was already very attached to their smaller family unit, especially Arek, Emery, and Avuri.

“If you’re sure, then that’s okay.” She said, deciding not to force the issue yet. She’d give the girl more time to get accustomed to all of her new extended family. “Would you like to take a bath with Momri and I after dinner?”

Astra looked up, suddenly excited with stars in her eyes. “Yes! Can I?”

“Well, since everyone else is busy, we’ll treat you like a princess tonight.” Avuri said with a warm smile. “How’s that sound?”

Astra beamed and nodded vigorously. “I want to do that!”

Emery and Avuri both chuckled at the girl’s exuberance. “Alright, well let’s get dinner situated first, then we can worry about what comes after, okay?”

“‘Kay!” Astra intoned.

“That goes for you too, Arek. Go get cleaned up so you can eat before you go meet with your sister later.” He nodded and trotted off down the hall. “And make sure you take a bath after your training with her later!” Emery called down the hall after him.

“I swear, that kid loves to run off in the middle of conversations.” Avuri muttered.

“Yeah, well, I’m sure he gets that from one or both of us.” Emery said, as she started making her way to the kitchen to gather the food. Avuri and Astra followed her to help transfer things to storage rings to carry them down to the dining pavilion.

“...Do we do that?” Avuri asked as she began transferring bowls of soup and vegetable platters into her ring.

“I don’t know if we do it often, but I know if I get distracted by a new task sometimes I’ll walk away from a conversation to attend to the task. You’ve done it to me plenty of times, too.”

“Well, there’s just always something that needs to be done around here.”

“You don’t need to defend yourself to me, Ri; Like I said, I do it too.”

Avuri eyed Emery from the side. “By the way, did you ever get around to fixing the hole in the fence between the baths?”

Emery sighed. “Nope. I completely forgot.” She looked up at the ceiling, avoiding a muttered curse with Astra in the room. “After Vale left this morning, I went to clean out the chicken coop and muck the barn. Then I went straight to cooking dinner.”

She laughed dryly as she got the last bit of dinner into her storage ring. “If I had known I wouldn’t be feeding everyone, I probably would’ve had time.”

Avuri took a step toward Emery and gave her a side hug. “It’s fine, don’t worry about it. It’ll get done.”

Then Astra all but tackled Emery’s other side with a hug. “It’s fine, Mom.” She echoed.

Emery gave Avuri a quick peck and ruffled Astra’s hair. “Thanks for trying to make me feel better, you two.”

“Anytime.” Avuri said, and she winked. Emery smiled back, contemplating the meaning of Avuri’s wink, as the three of them made their way to the dining pavilion.

As it turned out, most of the food did get eaten. As Avuri had suggested, the camping group was more than happy to take some well-flavored food off their hands once they had eaten their fair share of campfire food. Emery was pretty sure that the smell of her freshly cooked and well seasoned dinner wafting over toward the playground probably also had something to do with it.

After dinner was finished and everyone had cleaned up, Emery, Avuri, and Astra went to have their bath. Emery nailed a piece of wood over the hole in the fencing as a stopgap measure for the meantime, as she was annoyed by its continued existence but didn’t want to take the time to properly fix it that night.

After taking a nice long bath all together, the three went back into the house to dry off and settled in Astra’s room. They all laid out on the bed, which was more than large enough to accommodate the girl and her mothers comfortably.

“What did you want to hear for a bedtime story tonight, Star?” Emery asked, as they all laid cuddled up with Astra in the middle.

“I don’t know.” The girl said, thinking.

“What kind of story, then? Funny? Cute? Romantic?” Avuri asked, trying to give Astra a little direction.

“Funny.” She answered.

“Hmm, okay then…” Emery said, trying to think of a good story.

“How about I tell you about the time Merri and I got in trouble for breaking the bathhouse?” Avuri said with a grin. She glanced at Emery with a sly smile.

“You’re never going to let me forget that, are you?” Emery sighed.

“Nope.”

“That sounds fun!” Astra said happily.

“Alright.” Avuri said. “Then get tucked in and I’ll start.”

All three of them shuffled around to get comfortable, and Emery and Avuri made sure to get Astra tucked in and ready for bed before she began.

“Well, let’s see then. It started with Cierra getting a little too excited while we were baking.”