Chapter Text
“Kay, be quiet now, we don’t want to wake mamma.”
Yasha’s heartbeat settled down from thunderous to moderate as she heard her wife and two little ones sneaking into the house. Their voices were hushed and they quickly changed from boots into sock feet to sneak past her as quietly as possible.
Still, her heart was pounding from those few seconds when she thought something was wrong.
Nothing was wrong.
There was no one breaking in.
Well. Not everything was right either, not necessarily, but she let her hand fall back onto her chest instead of reaching for the Magician’s Judge hung above the sofa. How they managed to sneak past her on their way out was a little concerning.
Yasha sighed, disappointed in herself.
She was worse off than she thought, falling asleep here.
She didn’t let her eyes open just yet, though she felt guilty for it all the way.
She wasn’t exactly ready to face everyone, not without preparing herself for it. Mentally, physically, she couldn’t tell, but she definitely wasn’t ready. She wasn’t ready to get the laundry yet, or to make breakfast, or to clean the rest of the house, or anything.
The transition from being a cutthroat adventurer to a housewife had been lovely, but a bit jarring at times, and not in the ways Yasha was used to dealing with. Not that she ever dealt with her emotions very well anyways. But this wasn’t something she could get angry at until it went away, or a visible injury she could patch up herself, or even a curse that she could ask Jester or Caduceus to help fix.
It was hard not to feel weak.
She took a slow, deep breath.
Beau’d had to take the day off to look after Molly and Zu.
That wasn’t fair to her. Beau loved her job, and she was so good at it. She was so smart and so lovely, and she didn’t deserve Yasha weighing her down. She didn’t deserve having to take care of the kids and Yasha.
Yasha had to get up and do something.
Anything.
At least she could get up and tell Beau that she could go back into work. That might spur Yasha on to actually getting something done. The kids being up would help.
All she’d really meant to do was rest her eyes before they got up. There was still sun streaming in through the living room window, though the clouds seemed to be gathering just a bit, meaning that she hadn’t really slept that long. No more than an hour or so.
She blinked her eyes open to find Zu staring at her, shifting nervously on her feet and worrying her upper lip with her growing tusks.
“Hello, little one,” she whispered, not wanting to startle the quieter of the two twins.
Zu smiled a bit. “Hi, mamma. We got you something.”
“You didn’t have to do that,” Yasha said, forcing herself upright so she could pick Zu up and bring her into her lap.
But Zu shook her head. “You’re not feeling well. That’s okay. Like when Molly got sick and we all had to be nice to her.”
“A little like that,” Yasha conceded, still not liking showing weakness in front of the kids. It wasn’t like she got colds. She took a deep breath. She was still human. She could practically hear Beau yelling at her for being so mean to herself.
“Or when Uncle Caleb doesn’t like to play rough, or get out of his pjs, or leave the house,” Zu went on.
Yasha brushed Zu’s deep black curls behind her pointed green ears, being careful as they twitched towards the sound. “Yeah,” she sighed, “I suppose it’s a lot like that.”
Zu nodded and curled up in her lap more, tugging the blanket over them. “Uncle Essek let us. Aren’t they pretty?”
Before Yasha could worry about someone else’s life being inconvenienced because of her, she noticed what was different in the room. Peonies, daisies, tickseed, petunias, snap dragons, lobelia, poppies, black eyed susans, tulips, ranunculus—every flower under the sun had made their way inside her living room.
Every surface had been covered in a small bouquet. The room was practically a garden with all the old pasta jars and cans scattered over the coffee table, bookshelves, and mantel. The floral quilt Zu had pulled over them both helped complete the scene, still smelling a little like the Blooming Grove, since Caduceus had only brought it a few weeks ago.
“It’s perfect,” Yasha mumbled, kissing the top of Zu’s head as the girl giggled.
The giggles summoned Molly and Beau, both peeking carefully from the kitchen. Molly said, “Mamma? You okay?”
“Yes, love,” Yasha said, moving Zu to one side and lifting up the quilt. “C’mere.”
Molly scrambled up to cuddle in as well, Beau sitting beside them all on the arm of the couch, enjoying the strange perch in a way Yasha would never understand.
Yasha leaned over and kissed Molly’s head, then Beau’s cheek. “You didn’t have to do all this.”
“We wanted to!” Molly said, too loud for their whispered conversation.
Beau smiled. “She’s right, you know. It’s alright to need some help.”
Zu nodded with wisdom beyond her years in her eyes. Yasha was just grateful to see it at all. Any insight into what they were feeling felt like a gift. A year ago the twins refused to talk except to each other, and didn’t trust anyone for help.
She had wanted to be their rock.
But maybe… Maybe this could work out too.
“You help us all the time! We can help you,” Molly insisted, wearing the same wise, world weary face as her sister.
Yasha sighed softly and hugged the girls close. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. Nothin’ to be sorry for,'' Beau insisted, leaning up to kiss Yasha’s temple.
Yasha nodded, “Still, I’m sorry I kept you from work.”
“Oh no,” Beau said, deadpan as ever, “a relaxing day with my wife and two beautiful girls.” She fainted dramatically across the back of the couch, an arm splayed across her face like some fancy lady from the king’s court. “The horror. The atrocity. The absolute disgrace of it all. How will I ever survive a vacation day without paperwork or red tape or Dairon so far up my as-”
Before Beau could swear, Yasha covered her face in a pillow. “Alright, I get it. No more apologies.”
Beau was grinning under the pillow, softening a bit of the guilt resting in Yasha’s chest. “You feel up to eating something?”
Yasha’s stomach growled in answer, making the girls giggle once more.
Beau tilted her head up in the way she did whenever she got a message from Jester. But instead of filtering through a lot of inane information and trying to answer a million questions in just 25 words, she just said, “Oh shit, really? Thanks, man.”
“Caduceus?” Yasha asked softly, knowing that Jester would never be so brief.
A mischievous look overtook Beau’s face, one that meant fun and sometimes sexy stuff, but probably not with the kids around. “You up for a bit of a surprise?”
“Maybe?” Yasha said, certainly not up for any kind of party or anything.
“Just me and the kids, outside, some food, somewhere outside of the city?” Beau said, still alight with… with something. Something good.
Yasha looked at the excited faces of the kids. Maybe it would be good to get out of the house for a bit. “Okay. But it’s cold. We have to bundle up,” she said, standing up with a giggling, squirming girl under each arm.
Kids in thick coats and Beau begrudgingly covering her midriff a few minutes later, they were ready to go. Yasha put on her fuzzy hat from Eiselcross, even if it wasn’t really that cold. She liked that hat. It was the hat she was first wearing when she and Beau first got together.
It was a nice hat.
Sometimes she had to remind herself that she could have nice things.
“You up for some fun?” Beau asked, eyes still shining bright. Beau helped her realize that she could have nice things.
Gods, she loved her.
“Yeah,” Yasha nodded. “Yeah, what’s up?” The clouds were growing thicker, though it seemed like the cold fall air was changing to something thicker than the few flurries of snow they'd had recently, something strange for this late in the season. It felt good as they walked.
Then Beau swung a giggling Molly up on her back with a wink and said, “Race ya!”
With that, Yasha and Zu were left in the dust.
For the first time in what felt like weeks, Yasha laughed a real laugh that had Zu grinning from ear to ear. She cradled their picnic basket to her chest as Zu quickly clambered up her back, no words needed between them to know that they were definitely going to race, and if Yasha had anything to say about it, they were going to win.
If she and Beau were anything, they were fast. Zu was clinging to the fur of her hat as they sprinted through Rexxentrum, towards the river. As they ran, the air continued to change, growing thicker and warmer, as if it might rain.
That was strange.
It hadn’t felt like rain this morning.
It hadn't felt like rain all month, being too cold and too dry up in the northern part of Wildemount they'd settled down in. Though it was easier with Caleb and Essek nearby in Rexxentrum, and Beau needed to be near the Cobalt Soul, Yasha still missed chasing storms from time to time. Rain helped.
With each step away from the city, and the closer she got to overtaking Beau, the more alive Yasha felt, with Zu and Molly making silly faces at each other all the while. It was fun.
Just as they neared the river, the smell of ozone became present in the air and a flash of lightning split through the landscape. Only seconds later a deep rumble shook the ground beneath her feet, and the vice around Yasha’s heart seemed to unclench.
The storm was right overhead, grumbling and fierce and so utterly lovely as they reached the little gazebo on the edge of the water.
“Mamma?” Zu whispered.
Yasha turned to look at her. “Yes?”
“Are you okay?” Zu asked. She very carefully reached over and touched Yasha’s cheek, trying not to fall off her back as she did so.
Yasha was surprised to find her cheek wet. A tear or two had slipped out without her noticing. Rain began to sweep into the valley, making a soft pitter-patter on the roof of the gazebo.
Beau was heaving behind them, talking about Molly getting heavier and slowing her down all while Molly laughed hysterically. Yasha had no idea how Beau had actually changed the weather for her, but she assumed Essek had helped. It was hard to not feel loved when her loved ones had somehow called on a storm for her.
Yasha swallowed and nodded back at Zu. “Yeah,” she said, quiet enough for just Zu to hear, “yeah, I’m okay.”
Zu grinned and hopped down to open up the picnic basket while Molly tugged on Yasha’s coat and asked to hear the story of how she fought storm spirits and became the Champion of Kord again. They asked for that story during every storm, but Yasha found she didn’t mind the retellings.
And as each of them took a corner of the picnic blanket to spread out in the little gazebo while the storm raged above, she realized she wasn’t just lying about being okay for the girl’s sake. Another crack of lightning split the sky in two just as she described the slaying of one of the storm spirits, making the twins squeal in delight. Beau smiled fondly and leaned her head on Yasha’s shoulder, a fan of this story too.
Yasha grinned as she got to the good part, scaring the girls with how she died but just kept fighting just as the thunder shook the ground. Maybe she wasn’t always going to be their rock, but she’d always keep fighting.
Maybe she wasn’t at her best, but with her family, with a little help, she was okay.