Family Obligations Part 1
The weekend was quiet for the most part. Hue, Ian, Briar and myself found a calm routine where we spent our down time together watching movies, consuming warm drinks and helping gift wrap. I would say the days passed without anything to mark the time except for a phone call.
Saturday night Ian received a call from his cousin Grace. We were all curled up in blankets in Hue and Ian’s room watching “A Muppet Christmas Carol” when it came through. I was very surprised when Ian handed me the phone with a shocked look on his face. “It’s for you, my cousin Grace called for you…”
I accepted the phone, pressing the warm screen to my ear. “Hello?” I asked, unsure what to expect.
“Hello Kat, my name is Grace and I’m Ian’s cousin. I need you to pay close attention and only answer yes or no to my questions. Do you understand?” I pulled the phone away from my ear to study it.
Glancing at Ian I answered, “Yes.”
Grace rattled on about Christmas with the Werewolves in Boston. She seemed unaware that we were no longer an item but I agreed to help get Ian home for the Holidays. Going back to the Northeast wouldn’t be an issue for me as my folks were there too. Considering the recent steps I had taken with Hue I knew it was time to take him home to meet the Human family. With little prodding on her part I agreed to help make sure Ian went to see the clan.
I hit the end call button and handed the phone back to Ian. “So what was all that about?” he asked.
“Oh, not much. It would seem we have Holiday plans. That’s all.” I shrugged in hopes it would lessen his obvious discomfort.
Hue leaned close to my ear. As he spoke the vibrations and heat of his breath on my newly acquired erogenous zone had a dizzying affect. “Are you really sure you’re ready to take me home to face them in person? Video chat was a HUGE step.” I nodded, unable to speak. Images flickered through my head of all the naughty things I wanted to do to him at that moment. There was a soft chuckle from him but he said nothing else.
Ian eyed us closely with a quirked brow. “Sometimes I think the two of you exist in a different world than the rest of us.”
“Perhaps we do,” Hue answered, pulling me back to lean against his shoulder.
Monday came all too soon. The heavy pounding on my door alerted me to some sort of shenanigans underway. Wiping the sleep from my eyes I rolled out of bed, tucking my robe around me. When I blinked away the morning blur and threw open the door I was surprised to see a short, annoyed looking Briar. “Good morning…” I mumbled in her direction.
“They left without us for breakfast!” Her lower lip quivered and large crocodile tears filled her eyes.
“Whoa… it’s early still. Maybe something just came up?” I offered a half-hearted, half-asleep excuse. When the tears overflowed I rolled my eyes and stepped back inside my room, motioning for her to follow. “Well, at least we know you’re really pregnant this time,” I muttered to myself.
Glancing at the clock I noted it was only six AM. I normally wouldn’t wake up for another two hours. I stared longingly at my bed but went to the fireplace where I knelt to add some logs and build up a flame. “Aren’t you concerned about them leaving us?” Briar’s voice was weak and made her seem fragile – a description I had never once thought to apply to her.
“If they were in trouble I would know.” I shrugged, leaning in to blow on the flame and fan it to life.
She sniffled behind me. “How can you be so sure?”
I stared at the flames. “Hue and I are linked. We can feel and hear each other.”
She paused. “So you fought over Ian and have a Soul Mate. I can’t decide if you are selfish or brilliant.”
I shrugged. “Briar, I’m thirty two. By the standards of either of our peoples I’m barely more than a teenager. Think back to when you were my age.”
She sighed. “You are so powerful and so much more worldly then most Otherworlders your age. It’s easy to forget you don’t have a couple hundred years under your belt. I was a handful at your age too.” Her sobs were gone. “Lady Dragon, I have sworn myself to you, and now more than ever I understand what sort of fulltime job that will be.”
I grinned before turning to face her. “Great, so I was thinking of going back to bed for a few hours more, BUT if you are hungry I will walk over to the cafeteria and fetch us some food to eat here in the room.”
As if on cue her stomach growled loudly, filling the air with its opinion. I looked pointedly at it before meeting her eyes. “Let me find my bunny slippers.”
