Moira
Eventually, Moira managed to negotiate with Katie that her children would stay the remainder of Friday night, Saturday night, and even Sunday night, and go to school on Monday while returning home from school, and if it went well they may even repeat this process.
When Katie was going to ask how to deal with their homework and changes of clothes and stuff, she was surprised to find that apparently she had brought all three of her children's bookbags and multiple changes of clothes for each. She didn't remember doing so, but she had no idea how else they could have gotten here.
Little did she know that the inane greeting, "You are welcome in our home any time!" Offered by Yulia was not meant to be responded to in kind unless you wanted a vampire freely prowling around your house. Katie responding with "likewise!" was an unfortunate choice. One that Yulia took full advantage of.
Of course, her only skin in this game was keeping the little girl around so they could binge watch more anime later. Gathering up the children's school supplies, homework, and clothes was merely a means to enable this. Of course, vampires were stupidly good at finding things, so poor Hunter who had already fallen victim to his ability to lose things was suddenly saddled with all the homework he had forgotten already this year. Unfortunately, his teacher accepted late work and expected all work to be done by the end of the year. He had planned to make his excuses then and hope he was not held back. It was likely for the best that he was unaware of this development, as he and his sister were still tidying up the gym.
Moira was admonished to make sure the children got plenty of sleep and showered every day. Moira wondered briefly how she had supposedly become the responsible one when Yulia looked to be in her early 30's while Moira was clearly an early teen. Moira chuckled evilly at how she would be accomplishing both tasks in one go with the 2 elder children.
Moira invited Katie to stay for lunch, but Katie declined, saying she needed her sleep.
When she got home, Katie had mixed feelings about this situation. It all made sense when she was talking it over with Moira, but she now realized she had left her children with a surprisingly serious 14 year old and a wildly irresponsible 30 year old, both of which she knew very little about.
However, she could actually get some sleep tomorrow, and that would be absolutely amazing.
For Moira's part, she started making lunch. Since two of the kids had done a lot of exercise today, and all three of them were likely growing rapidly, she decided to make a meal featuring salmon and potatoes. What exactly became ingredients for the dishes she served was entirely at her whim, but it somehow always turned out alright, and most of the time even pretty good.
She selected several types of vegetables, including her perennial favorite, broccoli. Just as she was reaching for the onion to begin dicing it, a potential issue suddenly occurred to her, and she was dialing Katie within seconds.
Katie answered the phone, guilt and anxiety already mixing together inside of her belly, and she quickly asked, "Is something wrong?"
"Not yet." Moira replied. "However, I forgot if your children have any allergies or food sensitivities before I began preparing the food so I may have to start over depending on how you answer."
Moira learned that Hunter had a weird reaction to oranges and Ashley was fairly allergic to bananas, but nothing else as far as Katie was aware of. Moira balanced her phone between her shoulder and her ear as she quietly replaced the orange sauce she had pulled out for the stir fry back in the cupboard while she began looking for a viable alternative. "Alright, how are they on spice?"
"Well, Sarah loves it, Hunter pretends to in order to impress his big sister, and Ashley downright hates it in most things."
"Okay, and any foods they absolutely will not eat?"
"Well, they all think they hate broccoli for some reason, despite never having actually given it a chance, and brussel sprouts of course. Sarah thinks she is vegetarian and it's not really worth fighting with her to feed her meat. Hunter thinks Ketchup goes on everything and when it doesn't he throws a fit. Ashley's fairly normal, however."
"Unfortunately, I do not possess Ketchup. Do you think I could throw him off with sriracha and teriyaki sauce?" Moira despised Ketchup with the passion of a thousand burning suns and had strongly considered terrorist actions against places it was manufactured whenever she found some in her burgers.
"Good luck with that one." Katie laughed, reassured that Moira was making every effort to make sure her kids were taken care of. "Well, I can see you have it covered, so unless you have any more questions I am going to try to get some sleep."
Moira blinked, wondering why somebody would be sleeping while the sun was still down until she suddenly remembered that mortals were like that. Most of them, anyways. "Alright. Goodnight Miss Flannigan."
"Goodnight Miss Belladori."
For the first time, Moira realized that Katie might just be teasing her for her overly formal address.
The call was disconnected before she could call her on it, and Moira was somewhat distracted by changing the way the various parts of the meal would come together.
Moira had finally made a stir-fry, with teriyaki and sesame oil. She had made a well seasoned salmon marinated in lemon juice with coarse pepper and some cajun seasoning. Finally, as a concession to one of her house guests, she julienned the potatoes and fried them in avocado oil. After she removed them from the oil, they were of course seasoned with salt and pepper. Finally, she made a dip for the fries out of sriracha and mayo. Yeah, it was basic, but at least slightly less so.
Hunter and Sarah found their way back in the living room, and Moira raised an eyebrow at how close they had made the timing. Her eyes focused on their hands and she rolled her eyes. "Go wash your hands, and then we can sit down for dinner together."
Yulia paused her show and picked up the little girl who was excitedly watching, and soon she and Ashley were in the bathroom cleaning up. Before Moira could react, a series of comfortable chairs materialized around the island they used for dining. Somehow, they were all sized for the children. Except Yulia then pulled Ashley into her lap.
Hunter asked innocently if they would say grace before they ate, and Moira raised her eyebrow.
"I will not offer prayer to the Great Usurper. However, allow me to create a blessing before we begin." Moira ignored the looks she received from her wife, as this behavior was new.
"May the consumption of this food bring us strength, and growth, and healing, and may it bring with it fellowship and learning. In the name of the Mother of Night, the Mother of the Earth, the great Moon Goddess, and the Warrior, so mote it be."
A surprising amount of divine power flowed through her and out of her, mixing with a natural green healing light, and she felt that each of the goddesses she had mentioned had been surprised to receive her regard. Including the Warrior, who literally inhabited her body. She was confused that they each reacted so positively to her prayer, and sent a silent thanks their way as well.
Nyx, Gaia, Selene, and The One Who Provides. Each of them were powerful spirits who had deep connections with witches and vampires, werewolves and warriors. They were all more than willing to offer her their power, most especially the Warrior. She sensed dimly that none of it came without responsibility, but she already knew that power was never free.
Hunter looked confused at her pagan prayer, which to him probably seemed to be sacrilege, but Sarah looked in wonder at the power. Some of which rather blatantly flowed directly into her. She wasn't a vampire, or a werewolf. She certainly was not a warrior, at least not yet. So clearly, Gaia had identified her as a witch.
Which meant that Sarah was now her responsibility. She was somehow the senior witch in this relationship, despite the fact that she was just exploring her powers herself. Leaving this junior witch untrained wasn't an option. Depending on magical potential, the power within her could build up dangerously, and if she doesn't find an outlet it can either be released in an emotional outburst or literally blow her to pieces from within. So, in short, she would either take out one of her siblings, her mother, a schoolmate, or herself. This was now an even higher priority than teaching her punches, but Moira knew that getting her to go with it might be trickier.
So she did what she always did and tried the direct approach. "Would you like to learn how to use power like that?"
"Can I?"
"It depends on your magical potential and the favor of the spirits you are connected to, but I can absolutely teach you witchcraft."
"Wait, is witchcraft evil?"
"No. Not specifically anyways. Are your fists evil when you use them to defend others? How about when you use them to enforce your will on others?"
"Witchcraft is much the same. It is not inherently good, or evil. It grants access to magic, which is itself a tool that can be used for whatever purpose you can think of. It is also incredibly dangerous and has major risks. The more you ask of it, the more it might ask of you. I will teach you how to mostly stick to things that primarily just ask for mana as their cost, first, but there are certainly other demands that are more complex and more costly for certain types of magic. Most notably, these are matter creation, resurrection, and time control, but there are others."
"Wait, Sarah can control time?" Hunter asked.
"Likely not. Without an affinity for nature or fate, it is difficult to get a firm grasp of time, and even then when it works correctly it can be quite awful and when it goes wrong it can go more wrong than you could possibly imagine." Moira replied.
"Anyways, I have blessed the food, feel free to serve yourselves what you feel you can and will eat." Moira had made a lot of food, and she fully expected the addition of 3 children to be mostly irrelevant in comparison to the enhanced metabolism and appetite of Yulia's human form, let alone her own appetite. So twice as much food meant that everyone should be satisfied.
Sarah noticed the broccoli in the stir fry and wrinkled her nose, but she served herself some all the same. Hunter refrained, and Ashley let Yulia serve her. No matter what they ate, they found it both incredibly filling and fairly delicious.
"Sarah, since you are vegetarian would you like me to make you something with a more vegetable based protein?" Moira asked.
Sarah looked at her wide eyed. "I thought you were just going to make me eat the fish."
"Why in all the hells would I do that? I don't take offense if I make something you didn't want, as my gifts are not obligations. Also, being vegetarian isn't a preference, it's a lifestyle. It would be the height of incivility for me to fail to acknowledge that."
"Oh." Sarah looked at her wide eyed.
"What exactly would you like, as I unfortunately have very carnivorous preferences most days and did not think of this in advance?"
"Umm, I'm good actually. Maybe some beans or tofu in the next meal?"
"Ugghhh, tofu." Hunter grimaced.
"Tofu is amazing, when it is properly prepared. Definitely still prefer meat but it is more than satisfactory." Moira defended Sarah's choice, and made notes for what she would prepare for her next meal. Maybe a simple rice dish would be a good accompaniment, with steamed vegetables and various sauces…or maybe something that would go well with the addition of cheese. Perhaps a simple chili? There was no actual need to add meat to chili, and properly prepared tofu sliced relatively finely would add enough of a texture difference for palatability. The resulting meal would not be low in either fat or protein, but she didn't sense any real risk of obesity from her three charges.
She didn't necessarily like the idea of also making a meat option, because she wanted Sarah to understand that it was more than possible to eat well without it. Except, unfortunately, for Yulia, who needed meat in her diet or needed to intake significantly more blood. Moira had no intention of starving her wife and so continued pondering these things as they continued their meal.
"Okay, so how does this work?" Hunter asked, almost confrontationally.
Moira noticed he had finished the food on his plate but decided to make no assumptions. "I am afraid I do not quite understand your meaning." For a moment, she envisioned wrapping her fingers around his throat before she shook the thought from her head. Children were to be protected, even when they were annoying.
"I meant staying here in general." Hunter replied more softly. As Moira had suspected, he instinctively reacted to her politeness that was anything but kindness in turn.
She noticed that he was also caught in a baleful stare from Yulia, who seemed more than willing to make Moira's brief and bloody daydream a reality. Moira subtly signaled to her wife that she was handling it, and Yulia backed down a little bit.
"My wife and I are nocturnal, and also creatures of some habit. That means we have meals at 6pm, midnight, and 6am. We are usually awake by 5pm, and asleep by 7:30 am, hopefully. We wake up again at noon, only to make any important business calls or attend any appointments we must meet, before returning at 2:00 pm at the latest to return to bed for a small nap. Usually, after I have finished my sessions with your mother, I tend to my garden, and then swim a few laps in the pool. After that, I practice spell and potion craft before it is time for me to take my medicine and go to bed." Moira frowned at how boring that sounded, and monotonous.
"However, while you two are here, you will join me for these activities. It is surprisingly useful to learn how to nourish a garden, and it is important that Sarah start practicing spellcraft soon enough. All 3 of us could stand to gain some endurance, so we will all do a small workout in the pool. Around 4 am, you will be free to do as you wish, provided you did not make any crucial mistakes in setting the gym to rights. I understand that the three of you typically keep a diurnal sleep schedule, so I will cast a spell that will allow you three to follow our schedule while you are here while not disrupting your sleep while you are home. Perhaps I will make some amulets."
Hunter broke into a grin. "Wait, you mean we can be up all night and sleep during the day?"
"Can is certainly a way of putting it. Another way of putting it is that it will be an essential requirement of your training here. Otherwise, my waking schedule would have almost 0 overlap with yours, and there would hardly be any point to you remaining here." Moira pointed that last bit out in a tone she hoped was not too unkind."
"Your little sister has grown somewhat attached to my wife, so I will leave whatever they choose to do together between them. You two, on the other hand, will be joining me as we tour the gym. If all is well there, then we will go to my personal gardens. I hope you guys like roses."
Yulia had somehow convinced Ashley to eat a full helping of the stir fry, and she was loving every minute of it. Both of them were. Moira supposed she should be happy the little girl loved her cooking so much, even if she had to be convinced by a powerful vampire royal in disguise to even try it.
Once the children were done and were no longer returning for additional helpings, the food was basically gone. Moira was surprised by this, but decided it wasn't that big of a deal. She showed each of the children to one of the guest rooms, telling them they had 15 minutes to get their things put away before reconvening outside the gym. There was literally no way Ashley could have met those requirements, but Yulia accompanied her and no doubt did most of it for her while letting her think she was doing it all herself.
Inside the gym, the first thing Moira did was examine the buckets. It seemed they had avoided mixing the rags with the towels, but had somehow managed to fill the rags bucket with towels and vice versa. Moira decided to let that one go as long as anything else egregious wasn't messed up.
Unsurprisingly, all the weights were put away, cleaned, and sanitized, because Moira had hardly used any. All the benches were also cleaned and returned to where they go, with a few very minor alignment errors. The mats had been sanitized and propped up to dry rather than fully put away, and a few pointed looks from Moira had the two unfortunate children rushing to fold them up and return them to their rightful place. The two heavy bags were where they had been left but had obviously been cleaned. However, she stopped and sighed when she noticed that underneath one there were the remnants of a few drops of blood. Now, if that blood belonged to the children, this was probably harmless. If it was her blood…Moira guiltily shifted as she thought about these two children coming into contact with it.
She rushed to the cleaning closet, and as a minor miracle the children had not managed to go through every single cleaning rag or use up the bottle of sanitizer. She very quickly returned and knelt down, scrubbing furiously. Eventually the crimson was no longer visible, and Moira relaxed.
"I know I told you two to clean up in here today, but in the future if you find blood, do not touch it or try to clean it up. Come and get me or my wife immediately." Moira said quietly.
Sarah and Hunter both frowned in confusion but nodded anyway.
Moira supposed the ethical thing to do was to confess to them why she had this rule, but she would really rather not be judged for a medical condition she basically incarnated with. There was also a slight chance that the vampire in her blood was contagious, but that was hardly her principal concern.
Supposedly, as long as she kept taking her meds with perfect regularity, the viral load in her blood should be basically nonexistent. However, there was no point in putting the two children at risk on a "should".
Everything else was surprisingly orderly…except they didn't clean any of the doorknobs. A relatively petty point, but a valid one all the same.
"Alright, good enough, I suppose. Follow me and we will go to the gardens now."
She had been kind to them, as technically they had managed to mis-sort every single towel and cleaning rag. Or maybe just kind to herself, as she didn't want to have to supervise the punishment she had threatened. Since the spirit of the threat had been upheld, she let it go. She would just have to hope that if Yulia got to them before she did later tonight then she would notice the difference.