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This wasn’t a conversation that Mirajane ever wanted to have, but she understood that it was necessary. Akatsuki turned ten next month, and Eva was already eight; they were beginning to ask questions, and lies tasted too bitter on her tongue. Erza agreed. It made sense to just tell them the truth, no matter how painful that may be.
“It’s important to know how much we love you.” Mirajane began before cutting a glance at Erza. “How much we both love you.” She amended, and Erza hummed quietly, too nervous to speak. Mirajane could understand that; Erza had the most to lose.
“Did we do something wrong?” Akatsuki’s eyes were wide, and his voice trembled. Erza reached over and cupped his cheek with one hand, using the other to smooth back Eva’s wild curls.
“No, honey. You did nothing wrong.”
The two children still seemed nervous, and Mirajane felt guilty that they were dragging this out. Her eyes locked with Erza, and the redhead nodded slowly. There was no more avoiding this. It was time to be honest.
“Your mother and I will always be your parents. Nothing in the world will change that.” Mirajane looked both of her children in the eye, treating them as equals instead of vessels which needed to be filled. Even at their young age, they had their own experienced, their own concerns, and Mirajane respected that. “But it usually takes a man and a woman to make a baby.”
“Mom and mama are both girls, right?” Eva wrinkled her nose in confusion, and Mirajane couldn’t help but smile. She loved her children and her wife and the life they were building so much that it sometimes became a physical pain. She felt it then too, an ache in her gut, a yearning for a future which would soon come to pass.
Mirajane tapped Eva gently on the nose. “That’s right. We’re both girls.”
Akatsuki, already used to not being related by blood to his two adoptive mothers, took Eva’s hand in his own. He grew up on the streets, and had matured quicker than most children his age. Still, he didn’t know what to say when people asked about his sister, and how they were all related.
“Mama carried you inside of her.” Erza offered, but that did little to aid the confusion clouding Eva’s face.
“So we’re mama’s babies?”
“We’re both of their babies.” Akatsuki blurted, eyes wide, staring at Erza. He was trying to protect her, and somehow that hurt the worst of all.
“Of course.” Erza whispered around a crack in her voice, and Mirajane fell down onto her knees, looking into the face of their little girl.
“I carried you, but mama loves you just as much as me.”
There was a moment of silence as Eva chewed over the words, and then realisation parted the clouds of confusion and she was crying, always such an emotional child. To Mirajane’s surprise, Eva charged past her and threw herself onto Erza’s lap.
“I love you too, mama.”
Mirajane could see Erza choking back the tears, so she went to stand behind her wife, rubbing small soothing circles into her back. Akatsuki settled at Erza’s feet, hands reaching tentatively to hold hers, and Erza kissed his palm gently.
“You mean the world to us.” She said, and Mirajane nodded in agreement.
Eva fell asleep soon after, exhausted after crying to long, but every day after that she went to Erza first, hugged her mama a little harder; kissed her a little longer. If Erza noticed, she said nothing, but Mirajane was left wondering if her heart would ever expand wide enough to fit all the love she felt for her family. They had been lucky, finding each other and this little pocket of happiness, and Mirajane would not have given up a second of it for anything in the world.