Ery 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 mont 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 Ery and embraced her from behind. She angled her head to the side a little and kissed Ery's temple before settling in to watch the fire's glow from the window as well.
"Not really, no." Ery 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 an."
"But also I wish Stena would've told what she was planning on doing with the kids before I cooked a full size al. And she stole a bunch of at from the Ice Array without telling ." Ery said sourly.
"Oh…" Avuri said guiltily. Ery turned to face her awkwardly from their position, an eyebrow raised. "She told that she was going to take so beef and chicken. And I told her that was fine."
Ery 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 what her plans were." She added hastily.
"You could've at least told , Avuri." Ery said, her voice dipping into lower tones as she spoke threateningly.
Avuri t Ery's gaze for a mont before dropping her hands. "I could've. I'm sorry, rri."
With a big, over exaggerated sigh, Ery 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 so of that food off your hands." Avuri's eyes focused back on the firelight outside again. "Especially once they've eaten so relatively plain fire-roasted beef. That stuff needs seasoning, and I sohow doubt Stena thought to bring so out with her."
Ery snorted. "You're probably right. I'll pack so up and bring it out to them later. In the anti, I'll go get the food set out for everyone else."
Avuri nodded, then stepped back in to give Ery a hug and squeezed her tight. "Sorry again. If you want help with anything, let know."
Ery 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 an 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 ti before dinner."
Avuri laughed and gave Ery 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, Ery 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 Ery 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 so of his energy settle. "We're hungry. When's dinner?"
"Soon." Ery 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 sll 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 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." Ery said, probing.
Arek just shrugged. "Stena mostly gathered up the older kids, so I figured we'd just co 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.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
"And Enrik is there, so Ritz is too. Not to ntion, Shara and Ritz are nearly inseparable, so they'd probably both be there anyway.." Arek muttered. "I know." He turned away, his ears red.
Ery 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 rciless.
"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 mont, but he eventually turned back to face his parents and sighed. "Cierra promised 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?" Ery 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." Ery said pointedly. "Star, did you want to go back out to the campfire?"
"No, that's okay." She said, shyly.
Ery considered what to do with her youngest for a mont. 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, Ery, 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 ti to get accustod 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 bead and nodded vigorously. "I want to do that!"
Ery and Avuri both chuckled at the girl's exuberance. "Alright, well let's get dinner situated first, then we can worry about what cos after, okay?"
"'Kay!" Astra intoned.
"That goes for you too, Arek. Go get cleaned up so you can eat before you go et 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!" Ery 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." Ery 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 sotis I'll walk away from a conversation to attend to the task. You've done it to plenty of tis, too."
"Well, there's just always sothing that needs to be done around here."
"You don't need to defend yourself to , Ri; Like I said, I do it too."
Avuri eyed Ery from the side. "By the way, did you ever get around to fixing the hole in the fence between the baths?"
Ery 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 ti."
Avuri took a step toward Ery and gave her a side hug. "It's fine, don't worry about it. It'll get done."
Then Astra all but tackled Ery's other side with a hug. "It's fine, Mom." She echoed.
Ery gave Avuri a quick peck and ruffled Astra's hair. "Thanks for trying to make feel better, you two."
"Anyti." Avuri said, and she winked. Ery smiled back, contemplating the aning 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 so well-flavored food off their hands once they had eaten their fair share of campfire food. Ery was pretty sure that the sll of her freshly cooked and well seasoned dinner wafting over toward the playground probably also had sothing to do with it.
After dinner was finished and everyone had cleaned up, Ery, Avuri, and Astra went to have their bath. Ery nailed a piece of wood over the hole in the fencing as a stopgap asure for the anti, as she was annoyed by its continued existence but didn't want to take the ti 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 bedti story tonight, Star?" Ery 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…" Ery said, trying to think of a good story.
"How about I tell you about the ti rri and I got in trouble for breaking the bathhouse?" Avuri said with a grin. She glanced at Ery with a sly smile.
"You're never going to let forget that, are you?" Ery 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 Ery 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."
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