A World Enchanted

Kennedy was dimly aware of being awake, but she wasn't willing to open her eyes just yet. With a soft mumble that was sort of meant to be a good morning, she rolled over to throw an arm over Tara and snuggle into her.

"Why're we even awake yet?"

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"I'm not sure," Tara admitted, as she set her book aside and snuggled back in. "Because we don't know how much we're enjoying being in bed when we're asleep?"

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"You have a point." Kennedy blinked a couple of times and gave her a sleepy, unfocused smile. "But sleep is nice too, so... huh. Dilemma."

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Asher and Miraya Maclay had gotten out of the portal together, as they so often were. And -- as was also typical -- Miraya served as their spokesperson after they'd tracked Tara and Kennedy to the room.

"Mom, Mommy," she whined from the outside of the door. "Get up. We need pancakes."

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Tara blinked at Kennedy even as she eased herself out of bed.

"It's not time for this," she complained. "Wait, is it?"

She was already going for the door.

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"No, no, no, wrong dance," Kennedy objected as she got up, hastily throwing her shirt from yesterday back on as she trailed Tara toward the door. "I had plans, and..."

It was probably a futile objection.

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Definitely futile, from the way Asher and Miraya launched themselves through the door the second it was pulled open.

"We looked all over," Asher said, as if it were Tara and Kennedy's fault. "And finally I had to use magic, Mom, but just a little bit. Where are the pancakes?"

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"We ... I can make pancakes," Tara said, glancing from one child to the other. They were cute, and looked a little like Kennedy, but neither of them had been there the year before. "Wait, you came together? I don't understand."

The possibility of twins was not exactly on the tip of her mind.

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Miraya seemed to have her restless energy, Kennedy noted, given the way the little girl was bouncing. But Asher talking about using magic...

"We'll have to hit the common room for pancakes," she explained to the kids, resigning herself to a drastically revised set of plans for the weekend. "You, um. You were looking for both of us?"

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Asher looked like he was about to say something if he could work his way up to it, but Miraya beat him to it, and he was used to that too.

"Well, duh." She bounced over to grab Kennedy by the hand. "Who else would we be looking for, Mommy?"

She glanced at her brother and added on his behalf, "Asher did good with the spell, Mom," and that was clearly directed at Tara, in an overeager attempt to make sure he wouldn't get in trouble.

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"They have two moms," Tara said, almost flat from shock. "They have two ... us-moms?"

Well. That was a little more of a long-term commitment than she'd known about. Not bad, exactly, just not what she had expected to spend their very long Valentine's Day weekend doing either.

She glanced from one child to the other. "Okay, you're going to have to be really big and help us out here," she said. "Do you know where you are?"

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"Fandom," Miraya said, because duh. "But we went through a portal so it's a long long time ago and you aren't old yet."

"It was a safe portal," Asher added, defensively. "I checked."

Not that he knew exactly how to do that, but he'd tried!

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Okay, that was definitely more of a long-term commitment than they'd been thinking about.

"And you found us all by yourselves," Kennedy said slowly, squeezing Miraya's hand-- and raising both eyebrows at Tara. "Smart kids. But you know? Since we aren't... old yet," and that was weird to think about too, by the way, "we're sort of meeting you for the first time before, you know, having you?"

"You did that, Mommy," Miraya interjected, tugging on Kennedy's hand.

Kennedy had been about to ask what her name was, but she ended up just sputtering helplessly instead. "Wait, that was me?"

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"Seriously?"

Tara wasn't helping the situation, no. She shot Kennedy a helpless look; it wasn't that she'd ever put a lot of time into thinking about how they might or might not theoretically have kids in a decade, but it made sense for the one who wasn't a Slayer-in-training to be pregnant.

But apparently not. Hmmm.

"I mean," she said, to the children, "you were really smart and really brave to find us, even though we don't exactly know you just yet. What do your other moms call you?"

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Asher perked up visibly at the praise. For her part, Miraya looked at him expectantly; she was the more talkative one, but she knew how much her brother liked being the informative one, and she'd let him take the lead. They had an understanding between them, after all.

"Asher Tomaso Maclay," he said as he took his glasses off and started to clean them. (It was something Uncle Giles did all the time, and he'd taken to imitating it even though he didn't know why Uncle Giles did it, and everybody thought it was adorable.) "'s me. An' my sister's Miraya Thalia Maclay."

"You don't call us by the whole thing 'less we're in trouble," Miraya put in.

Asher nodded, smiling sheepishly, and crept over to give Tara a hug. Miraya tended to instigate the trouble, more often than not, but he somehow managed to get into it right along with her.

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There might have been people who could resist hugs from small, earnest bespectacled boys who called them Mom, but Tara was not among them. She folded Asher into her arms like he'd been there a thousand times before.

"You aren't in trouble," she assured them. Their other moms could do the lecture on not going through portals. "Either of you. We're just a little surprised. You both have very nice names, too."

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Watching Tara wrap Asher up in a hug like that just... Kennedy had to pull Miraya into a hug of her own to deal with the serious sense of warm-if-slightly-scary fuzzies it gave her.

"They should, if we named them," she said, unable to stop herself from laughing slightly out of nerves and confusion and feeling a little overwhelmed. "They're kind of..."

And she had to stop and swallow hard, there. "They're kind of ours."

Just because she still wasn't ready for this, it didn't mean she didn't-- tentatively-- like the idea. You know. Someday.

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"Not kind of, Mommy," Miraya said, wriggling happily within the hug. "We're gonna be yours. Promise."

She wriggled away a little to ask, "After breakfast, will you take me out to train? Please?"

"And can you bake with me?" Asher added, to Tara. "You usually do that or magic when they're out working out, 'cause once I went with them and my glasses almost got broken."

Miraya, looking guilty, said, "It was an accident and I was really little." Like, practically a whole year younger.

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"I can bake," Tara promised, wondering why this was making her feel so sentimental so quickly. She released Asher from the hug, feeling his phantom warmth against her. "The training is up to your ... Mommy."

Oh, lord, it was weird to say that.

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Training hadn't been high on Kennedy's priority list for the weekend, but it had, apparently, just been bumped up a few notches. She trained with her kid? Really?

That was pretty cool, even if the 'Mommy' thing was still a complete head trip.

"Yes," she said quickly, ruffling Miraya's hair. "We'll hit the gym after breakfast, totally. And no broken glasses this time."

They had a little fighter and a little bookworm. Why was she somehow not surprised?

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Miraya and Asher both looked satisfied with this turn of events. Then again, it wasn't exactly hard to get their mothers to agree to do stuff they wanted to do anyhow.

"You should put on real clothes and then we should go," Miraya declared, in the tone of one who usually knew best. (Possibly because she thought she did.)

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"Uh huh, 'cause pancakes," Asher added, nodding importantly. "It's a thing. Can I help you make the funny shapes, Mom?"

The funny shapes were practically a tradition.

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"I make funny shapes?" Tara said, sounding rather terribly pleased. To Kennedy, she explained, "It's -- my mom made funny shapes. Kind of a family thing. That, uh, Asher is going to help me with."

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"I remember. You did that last year," Kennedy replied, turning away to rummage through the drawers in search of a change of clothes for both of them, since apparently a good number of her things had just taken up residence here.

Miraya looked rather pleased; she and Asher could still talk their mothers into things, and they hadn't even been born yet!

"I guess that leaves me and Miraya on cleanup duty, huh?"

Yes, she was actually volunteering to help do dishes.

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"I'm not washing the ickiest things," Miraya said quickly. "And we have to have bacon, too, right?"

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"If I have to do it, you have to do it," Kennedy said sternly, handing Tara a clean pair of jeans and a shirt (she'd taken the liberty of picking out one of her favorites) before hurriedly getting dressed herself. "Also? Definitely bacon, if your mom says yes."

...and she would sit there and look hopefully at Tara just as much as Miraya would.

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