Emery

Once Emery, Avuri, and Kord had finished their Dragon-Kin Bond ceremonies and the additional week's worth of extra learning, Emery felt like life had started moving forward again. Despite making huge strides during training and having a constant metric of improvement, she had felt that the training itself kept them at something of a standstill.

On the other hand, she knew exactly why that was - having such a regimented schedule with minimal time for just being alive left her feeling stagnant. Her days were too similar and blurred together in an awkward way, leaving her feeling entirely unfulfilled.

In direct contrast to that, the first day that she was able to spend at home with her family felt more hectic and exhausting than any of the training days had.

On the final day of their lectures regarding the use of the dragonblood, the whole group was allowed to return home early for a nice family dinner. Emery had told everyone that she, Avuri, and Kord would be mostly home again starting the following day, which the kids were all very excited about.

She had entirely underestimated just how excited.

The next morning, while Cierra, Stena, Cove, Glenn, and Mica all headed off for training, Emery tried to get an early start on food prep for the day because she had genuinely missed cooking a lot.

Instead, she had ended up with basically the entire culinary team basically climbing all over her for attention. Some work was getting done - mostly courtesy of Emery's flying weapons - but by and large, the kids working in the kitchen were all jockeying for attention while trying to do their work.

Marche and Quinn were fighting over who got to use the cutting board nearest to their mother while chopping vegetables. Elise, who had brought Evin with her to keep an eye on the little one while working, kept interrupting with stories about the shenanigans the little seven year old had gotten up to while Emery was training.

Elena, Elise's younger sister by blood, had simply plopped her own cutting board down on Emery's side opposite Marche and Quinn and refused to move while she peeled various veggies for the boys to cut.

Karn had started as the least disruptive when they had first arrived, and asked Emery point blank what they should work on. With the younger kids on top of the veggies, Emery asked them to prep the protein for the day. Karn had opted to stay on the other side of the kitchen, out of the way of the others, while diligently getting their work done.

It didn't take Emery long, though, to notice that they were clearly sulking, probably because while they hadn't complained outright, there was also definitely no room left on Emery's side of the kitchen for them to work at. She made a mental note to spend some time with them one-on-one later.

And then there was Lia. Emery had honestly expected Lia to be one of the more disciplined of the crew, who would do her work diligently like Karn. Instead, when Lia had arrived, seeing the others already crowded around Emery, she simply didn't even put in a token effort.

The thirteen year old girl had simply come up behind Emery and hugged her mother from behind, not wanting to let go to actually do the culinary work. She didn't even say anything in the mess of a kitchen or try to interject over all the other chatter. She just kept a fairly tight hold around Emery's waist, cuddled up against her back.

It took around two hours of cooking and prep work before their little team was ready to plate and serve breakfast. Scrambled eggs, rice, fried fish, and some toasted baked goods went onto platters and were carried to the family's dining area, ready for the morning meal. Once most of it had been served and a solid chunk of the family was serving themselves to eat, Emery recalled the culinary team to the kitchen.

With everyone arrayed before her - save Evin, who was playing in a corner with art supplies - she let out a heavy sigh.

"Okay, you six. It took us two hours to get breakfast out there when it should've only taken an hour, tops. You all need to get focused, okay?"

Elise and Karn, the older members of the group, drooped their heads and apologized in quiet mutters, while the younger kids said sorry but looked far more upset.

Emery sighed again, "Now, we have several hours before lunch needs to be ready, but a lot of the prep work is already well on its way. We shouldn't need the full time to cook it. So." She stepped up to Karn, who had clearly done the most work over the course of the morning, as well as been shunted to the side. Despite their heights being almost equal, Emery picked them up off the ground with a big hug.

"You all get to do the prep work without me. Instead, I'll spend some time with each of you one on one, alright? Starting with Karn."

The kids brightened up at that, despite the fact that they had just lost their most efficient cook by a wide margin. Emery's ability to keep metal moving without being physically involved let her do multiple people's worth or work at one time. But since they clearly were more concerned with her finally being home than the workload, this seemed like the better option.

"Now, make sure you all eat before you get back to work. Grab a plate and join everyone else."

Taking the dismissal at face value, the team slipped away to the dining area where the rest of the family already was. Emery dropped Karn back onto the ground, and they landed lightly on their toes.

"I just want you to know, Karn, I wasn't ignoring you. I saw you getting your work done well, and felt like we needed at least one of you to working like that."

Karn smiled a little bashfully. "It's okay. I'm glad we got everything out on time, considering Lia wasn't helping at all."

"Did something happen to her while we were gone? She was never that clingy before."

Karn nodded, "Yes, but I don't think it's my place to say anything about it. It was recent, too, so she may still be a little embarrassed."

Whether or not she was right, Emery did immediately have an idea as to what may have happened. She nodded. "I understand. I guess I have a lot to catch up on, huh?"

"You and Momri both, yeah."

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"So, I'm all yours for now. What would you like to do?"

"Can we go join everyone for breakfast, eat together, and play a game of chess?"

"Oh? And just when did you learn how to play, hm?" Emery asked, despite remembering that Karn had been bothering Cierra to teach them the game before the Dragon-Kin training had begun in earnest.

"Cierra left me a scroll with the rules. Fia, Briar, and I have been trying to teach ourselves and have been playing a lot at night. I wanted to see how I do against you." Karn's smile seemed unusually confident for them, which was honestly a nice surprise for Emery. Karn was often sarcastic and a little down on themselves, despite also being quick to anger and frustration. It made for a volatile combination sometimes, so seeing them confident about their skills in a thinking game was hopefully the start of a positive step for them.

"Alright, then. I'll take you on - let's go get some food, first, though."

"I'll meet you at the tables. Gonna go get the board." Karn excitedly turned on a heel and sped off toward the kids' houses.

"Make sure you get an older board!" Emery called after them. "I don't want the nicer ones around the food."

"Okay!" They called back, never turning around. Emery chuckled to herself and walked off to the dining pavilion.

When Emery stepped into the breakfast pavilion, she couldn't help but smile. When they had initially woken up that morning, she and Avuri had discussed what they were each planning to do today. Avuri had said she was going to walk around with the floater team to see how their plans had gone in implementing the team. But it seemed like Avuri's morning had been much the same as her own, as the entire floater team - Enrik, Cyrus, Wrynn, and Kaili - had surrounded Avuri at the breakfast table, and the group's conversation was lively.

"I see your morning went as well as mine." Emery reached out with her Qi to touch Avuri's. Her wife looked up and met her eyes and smiled brightly.

"You also got accosted, did you?"

"Sure did."

"They've been good. Enrik and Wrynn had a whole bunch of stuff to talk about regarding the floater team, so they've been in idea mode all morning."

"Oh yeah? Get a lot done today already, then?"

"We did. They've blown through laundry, deep cleaning one of the houses, and checked in with the husbandry team to see if they needed anything. They're doing really well."

"That's good, then. The culinary team was clingy all morning and we only just managed to get breakfast out on time."

Emery could feel Avuri's amusement and gentle appreciation through the link and the woman smiled beautifully.

"Wonderful to be home, isn't it?" She asked.

Emery just barely bit back a delighted chuckle. "It is."

Emery took her time to gather up two plates of food, her own and Karn's, before taking a seat a little off to the side of one of the lang tables, making sure there would be enough room for the game board when Karn returned with it.

It wasn't long before they came around the corner of the houses, the thick wooden board under an arm, in a nearly full-on sprint back to the tables. Some of the other kids noticed and got a solid laugh out of Karn's sprint. When they noticed the laughter of the younger kids, they decided to lean into it.

Karn had always been the squirrelly, athletic sort. As they approached the dining pavilion, they pivoted into a rather impressive set of backflips and cartwheels without using their hands, still clutching the game board. After the spinning and flipping, they landed squarely on their feet at the entrance to the pavilion, a huge grin on their face.

Just about everyone who had seen the display whooped, clapped, and cheered and Karn took a couple bows and stepped into the dining area and walked right to where Emery was sitting.

"Those were some very nice flips." Emery said as Karn placed the board between them on the table and opened the built-in drawer to retrieve their pieces.

"Ieji is a good teacher." Karn said, a little distracted. "They're very good at picking out what each of us accels at and honing in on those skills. For me, that was apparently flexibility and dexterity."

Emery nodded as they set up the pieces. "That's true. You were always very light on your feet."

"Mhm!" Karn nodded, excited. "And Ieji taught me how to use my weight to my advantage while doing maneuvers like that. I was shocked how much easier it is to do midair movements when you throw your weight around the right way."

"Wait until you're able to regulate that sort of thing with Qi, too. It gets crazier."

Karn's whole expression lit up at that as they took the chance to make the first move on the board. "I'm looking forward to it. But for now, I'm just going to focus on winning this game."

Emery smirked. She knew she wasn't the best at chess, but she wasn't about to let one of the kids beat her that easily. There was definitely a chance that Karn would win, but she was going to make them work for it.

Once breakfast was finished and Emery had solidly beaten Karn four times, they finally got up and began the process of cleaning up. That mostly meant washing dishes and adding the leftovers to the rest of the food for the day.

The rest of the culinary team was already elbow deep in soapy water, scrubbing the various dishes and tableware clean. Karn jumped right in alongside everyone else, fully satisfied with the long game time, despite the losses. Their scrubbing of the plates even looked happy.

Emery, once she dropped off her armful of dirty dishes, walked over to Lia, who had been solidly second on her list to spend time with.

Lia was just as deep into the cleaning as everyone else and was so focused on the work that she didn't even notice Emery's approach despite Karn having joined their team again.

Emery scooped the younger girl up in one smooth motion; she fought against it at first until she realized it was her mother.

"Your turn!" Emery declared, spinning her around once and placing her right back where she had started. "What would you like to do, Lia?"

"Can we go for a walk?"

"Of course. Where would you like to go?" Emery said, offering the girl her hand.

"Can we go around by the Array? Maybe a little outside it and see the mountainside?" Lia asked, taking her mother's hand.

Emery smiled, tugging the girl quickly from the massive kitchen washtubs. "Sure, let's go."

Deftly, Emery untied Lia's apron and tossed it back into the kitchen, using a small bit of metal to carry the apron to the hooks for hanging it. Lia looked happy, but there was still a sour spot in her expression, that Emery could see as clear as day. She would wait until they were away from everyone else to ask about it, but she had a pretty good idea of what might be bothering her at 13.

Especially when Karn had said it wasn't their place to talk about. Their family wasn't one for secrets, so that meant something a little more personal. And there weren't many things that fit into that list among teens beyond the normal bodily functions that started around their ages.

Emery suspected Lia's blood sister, Fia, had probably already had a nice long talk with her sister about everything as they were very close. But even Emery had to admit, sometimes you just wanted your parent.

She thought back to her own early teenage years, and the look on Vale's face when she had talked to him about all that 'girl stuff'.

Mostly, she was just glad that she had sisters to rely on at that point.

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