Sword and Snow

Once the dishes were all clean, the group of adults made their way back to the main house. It wasn’t too late yet, but all the children were off doing their own things.

Stena was off with some of the older kids sparring. Cierra and Arek were in the training room for what had become their regular after dinner training, which they did a few times a week. Emery was quite proud of Cierra handling her younger brother so well.

Astra was probably in the room watching or taking part as she saw fit, as she’d been doing for a few weeks now. She was settling into the family nicely, and was beginning to feel like she’d been there for more than just half a year. She was developing a bit of a competitive streak with Arek which was what drove her to take part in those training sessions, even if Arek was solidly more advanced than she was.

In any case, it left the adults alone for at least a while in the evening, and they were going to take the time to relax. With everyone gathered around the smaller kitchen table in the house, where the immediate family used to all eat together, Avuri handed out drinks for everyone.

For the four who weren’t pregnant, she brought some rather expensive liquor which she had chilled with her Qi. The bottles were covered in a slight layer of frost and icy-cold to the touch. And with apologies, she offered a similarly chilled bottle of sparkling fruit juice to Talya, who accepted it gracefully, despite eyeing her husband’s liquor.

Once everyone was settled into their seats and enjoying the cold drinks, the conversation flowed freely. Emery and Avuri were both more than happy to talk to adults that weren’t their adult children, and Talya and Gray seemed more than a little excited to talk about things that weren’t work related; although asking how work was going was the first topic.

Eventually, the talk turned briefly to Talya’s pregnancy and how things were progressing on that front. She assured them all that she was healthy, and more than capable of making the trip here.

“Well, it’s good that everything is going well.” Emery said between sips of her drink. “If you were jeopardizing anything, we’d have to lock you up here and treat you like a prisoner princess.”

Talya laughed. “I’m not sure I’d mind being waited on all the time.” She raised her hand in the air as if she held a bell and swung it back and forth. “Servant, another bottle of grape juice, if you would?” She asked, taking on the haughty tone of a rich young mistress.

Avuri hopped up to her feet and bowed, playing along. “Yes, of course, your ladyship. Would you like this one chilled as well?”

“Of course. Your ability to chill beverages such as this is why you’re here after all, is it not?” Talya waved her away dismissively. “Now off with you.” She said, then added, “Thank you, Avuri,” unable to keep herself acting as the haughty master.

“Of course. We’re not letting you move more than you have to.” Avuri teased as she walked back into the nearby kitchen.

Gray cleared his throat awkwardly to gain everyone’s attention before he spoke. “On that topic, Emery, we had something we wanted to ask you.”

“Yes?” Emery prodded. Gray and Talya shared a look, then Talya just spat it out.

“I know it’s maybe a lot to ask, given everything that’s happening around here, but we were hoping that you would let us stay here until the baby is born.” Once Talya started, she just plunged right on ahead, “We know that Avuri isn’t a trained midwife or anything, and we would go into Flowing Dragon City for the actual birth. But we’d like to have reliable family nearby and you two were the first that came to mind for this sort of thing.”

Avuri popped back around the corner, a new icy bottle in hand. “I don’t mind. I can help keep an eye on you with regular check ups, too, though they won’t be as thorough as a real trained doctor.” She smiled wide as she handed off the bottle to Talya.

“I’m in agreement as well, Talya.” Emery said, leaning forward on the table. “It’s no problem at all. We’ve got plenty of room, and I’m sure Cierra and Stena miss having you live with us. Arek and Astra may not know you well yet, but this is a great opportunity for them in that case. The same goes for everyone else.”

Emery shrugged. “And that’s not to mention that you’ll have somewhere in the realm of twenty-five people to help you out. Really convenient, that.”

Talya looked down at the drink in her hands, and idly poked at the bottle with her fingers. “Thank you both. We had planned to stay in Green Vine, but after being invited up here and thinking it over…Well, this seemed like a better option than not having any family around.”

“We’d love to have you.” Avuri said with a decisive nod, then her eyes slid deliberately over to Gray. “And while you’re both here, we’ll get to grill you two about your relationship. We didn’t get the chance when we were at Green Vine for your wedding, but now…”

Talya looked over at Gray for a moment, then sighed. “I suppose that’s fair. I know pretty much every step you two took, so I’ll be nice and spill the tea.” She placed a hand on Gray’s shoulder and massaged it affectionately. “Let’s save Gray from the girl talk though, okay?”

Emery snickered. “Sure, that’s fine. We’ve got a few months to bother you with it.”

“Now, hold on.” Gray said, putting a hand up. “You’re more than welcome to spare me from the longer girl talk, but I’m actually rather curious how you two met and ended up together. Or who proposed to who? Talya never told me.” He said, narrowing his eyes accusingly at his wife, who tried to look innocent.

Avuri and Emery laughed together as Avuri moved to stand behind her wife and rest a hand and her drink on Emery’s shoulders. “She doesn’t like to talk about our proposal because she kinda ruined it.” Avuri said, pointing at Talya with a finger from the drink-holding hand.

Gray turned fully to Talya at that, and acted appalled. “How could you ruin a marriage proposal?” He asked, holding a hand over his heart. “And here I thought you were romantic…” He muttered, shaking his head.

“To be fair to her,” Vale said, speaking up for the first time in a while, “she did it because Emery was dragging her feet so badly.” His sly smile peeked out from behind the bottle at his mouth. “It was actually embarrassing, watching her-“

“Dad!” Emery said, interrupting him.

Vale took the chance to point at her and laughed. “See? She’s turning red.”

Emery let out a breath, defeated, but still struggling not to let the blush of embarrassment spread. “Yes, I took way too long to ask her. I’m sorry that I-”

“Oh, you asked Avuri, then?” Gray said, interrupting her. The smug smile on his face told her that he had done it entirely on purpose.

Emery narrowed her eyes at him, trying to look a little angry. “You’re going to fit in just fine around here, Gray, but I’m not happy about it. Yet.” She let a little of her faked anger seep into her words like venom. “But yes, I asked her.”

“It only took her, what?” Avuri said, looking up at the ceiling to avoid Emery’s glare turning her way. “Two weeks of acting awkward around the house?”

“Three.” Vale corrected, and Emery’s glare snapped to him.

“And a half.” Talya added, then similarly looked away from Emery’s simmering glare.

“All three of you are dead to me.” Emery said petulantly as she crossed her arms and huffed. “Gray, you shouldn’t take after these three idiots. Be nice to me and maybe I’ll make you something special one night.”

“She’s right.” Avuri said, all the while swaying side to side and acting like a ghost. “When she goes all out on cooking, her food is magical.”

“I appreciate that, but you’re still dead to me.” Emery muttered.

Gray looked around the room, met eyes with his wife, then turned back to Emery with a smile. “Three and a half weeks is a really long time.” He was visibly trying to hold back a laugh. “I think once I made up my mind to propose to Talya, it took me like three days. What in the world took you so long?”

“Dead!” Emery said, shooting up to her feet. “Dead! Dead! Dead! Dead! You’re all dead to me!” She said, then slammed her bottle on the table, holding back her strength enough to just make a decent thud. “Now who needs a refill?” She said angrily.

Hands went up all around the table, except for Talya who was already on her second. “Avuri, you’ll have to chill them when I get back. Thank you.” She said sharply then walked into the kitchen. Laughter erupted behind her.

When she finally returned, three bottles floated behind her and one was in her hand. The floating bottles landed on the table neatly in front of Avuri for her to touch and chill.

“So…” Gray began, trying to continue the conversation, “how exactly did Talya mess up your proposal?”

“She was impatient, after waiting for three weeks.” Avuri said, as she froze each bottle in turn. “So was I, so I can’t really get mad at her.” With a flick of her wrist, Emery sent each of the frozen bottles to their recipient.

“She had been asking me for a few days at that point if I had asked her or not yet.” Emery said, her slight glare aimed at Talya. “Eventually she just asked me at the wrong time and Avuri happened to overhear her asking me.”

“So naturally, I started to ask her about what she was going to ask me.” Avuri said, with a distant smile as she thought back on it. “I was already, like, ninety percent sure what it was all about, so I just kept pestering her that day.”

“You would not just leave me alone.” Emery said, thinking back. “I was even considering denying the whole thing and just not asking at that point.” She glanced at Avuri and laughed. “In retrospect, if I had made that decision, I would probably be dead now.”

Avuri nodded. “I would’ve killed you for sure. After three weeks of waiting, I was about ready to ask you myself if I didn’t think it would’ve upset you.”

“You practically did just ask me in the end!” Emery laughed. “Just not in so many words.”

“How’d that work out?” Gray asked.

“Well, in my feeble, pointless, and perhaps misguided attempt to throw her off the scent, I confirmed that Talya was right, and I did have something to ask her about but didn’t want to yet.” Emery sighed. “You know, I wanted to set a nice atmosphere and such.”

“So I kept bothering her about it.” Avuri said with a devilish grin.

“Avuri, I love you, but there really is such a thing as being too persistent.”