Marathon!

[mitochondriaaya]

Aya had trained faithfully, just like she promised (and despite her period starting a few months after that promise. Really? She didn't need that!). The weights had been added by about the second month of training and she was really, really proud of her stamina!

And the marathon they'd chosen as their first was coming up this weekend, with fund raising as done by Elcy...and yeah. "Don't tell me you have to cancel!" she said into the phone, pulling one foot up to stretch out her thighs. "Don't! I can't go and do this alone!"

Comments

[sliceitwithwind]

"Or I just like your cooking, Aya." Braig said, laughing.

The boys manhandled the couch out, then went up to the attic to refill the livingroom with furniture.

[mitochondriaaya]

"You just like food!" Aya listened to them bump around and set her mixing bowl on the far end of the table so she could watch the furniture arranging. "Where is that chair from? I've never seen it! Is it heavy? Why didn't we know it was in the attic?" Did they have a secret attic she didn't know about?!

She totally would have sat up in the attic on an old chair listening to rain and such if she'd known!

[sliceitwithwind]

"Guess you never got to that end." Braig grunted, setting the last chair in place. Dilan cheerfully went for the vacuum, the dusting cloth, and the lemon oil.

[mitochondriaaya]

"Yeah, I'll go up there soon to poke around though." Today just hadn't worked out! "Breadbowls or loaves?"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Whichever you want, Aya. Just make what you want." Braig said with a sigh, "We're a little busy."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Okay okay!" Yeah, going to slide back down the table now so she wouldn't bother them. Loaves was easiest and gave them something to take back to college if there were any left! Hmmm, if she peeled enough potatoes she could make some potato loaves too just in case!

Potato peeling machine after the dough was set to rise? Yep. "Elcyyyy! Giant pot or medium pot? Do we want enough for potato pancakes tomorrow morning?" She might already have enough? And peels for the compost bin!

[sliceitwithwind]

"Giant pot, dear." Elcy called back, "And that's up to you! I'll be right down." She had business clothing to get out of, and jeans to get into. When she was done, Elcy came downstairs and started the stew.

[mitochondriaaya]

Eh, well, potato pancakes were awesome so giant, giant potful! "Have we ever tried to grow potatoes here?" she asked curiously when she came across one that was budding. "Bet we'd need a really big garden for it but it could be fun!" Sadly, the soil was not very good for them in Georgia.

Especially coastal soil.

"Oh, we want to try to get to the mansion before we go to the Southern Continent this summer? We want to see the attics!" Because the person who remembered should ask!

[sliceitwithwind]

"They don't grow well around here, dear." Elcy said, shaking her head. "Oh? We'll see if we can manage a week or so up there. What do you want to look for."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Top hats," Aya laughed. "Or anything cool. We just haven't been up there yet? We watched videos of Braig and Dilan today!" Because it was obviously time to fill in Elcy about the day!

And poor little potatoes. The buds were going in the compost then! "We're going to make maps of the attics."

[sliceitwithwind]

"Ahhh." Elcy smiled softly, "They were adorable babies, weren't they?" she asked, laughing.

Dilan groaned a little out in the living room. "Mo-om!"

[mitochondriaaya]

"Cute!" Aya corrected cheerfully. "Braig was so serious though!" And Izards. IZARDS!

"It looked really hard to have babies though. It hurt a lot right?"

[sliceitwithwind]

"He was." Elcy agreed, "Such a sweetie, although he's still sweet. It was a lot of work, sweetie. Yes, it hurt, but it was worth it."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Yeah, he's still sweet. And worries about us all the time!" Aya laughed. "All the time." She shuffled over to the stove to dump a cutting board's worth of potatoes in the big pot.

"Braig and Dilan are worth it, yeah, but...I don't know. Hurting is bad."

[sliceitwithwind]

"So he does." Elcy agreed, chopping meat for the pot, "It's a pain in the ass, but really...it doesn't hurt as badly as you probably thought. It was a lot of work, mostly."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Okay. You were just cussing a whole lot." She leaned sideways to give Elcy a hug when she finished dumping the potatoes and grinned. "Thanks for having awesome guys!"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Well, yes dear. A lot of work, with muscles that aren't exactly used to it." Elcy hugged her back, careful not to get blood from the meat on her. "You're quite welcome, I feel very lucky in all three of you."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Hard to do weight training exactly right?" she wrinkled her nose cheerfully and peered into the stew pot rather than letting Elcy go immediately. "Even when we drive you crazy?"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Even when you drive me crazy." Elcy agreed, finishing up the steak and reaching for veggies, "My mother would say it is only fair, Lenna and I drove her insane."

[mitochondriaaya]

"You did?" Aya asked, surprised. Elcy was amazing! How could she drive people crazy?! "What did you do? Were there lizards?" Back to potatoes but!

[sliceitwithwind]

"Yes, actually, we went through a period of bringing lizards back home...and frogs, and bugs, and worms. We grew up next door to each other, you know. We tried to go on a cross-country trip when we were ten with our bikes and a backpack of food each...the police picked us up about twenty miles out and dragged us home. I thought my mother was going to have a heart attack at that! Then there were the boys I dated."

She laughed and shook her head, "Oh, I never made a good choice in my life, until I married Yinsi."

[mitochondriaaya]

"You need more than a backpack of food for a cross country trip," Aya noted, laughing. "We worked it out and we'd need a trailer. And really strong bikes." Because logistics were fun?

"And Yinsi was a really good choice! How did you meet?"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Well, yes." Elcy dimpled, "We had the idea that we'd tell stories for our supper when we ran out."

"Our parents introduced us." Elcy said, dancing around the heart of the matter. It would just confuse the children, "He was still in the Marines, then, and I was a little bit of a thing just into college...he swept me off my feet and we were married within months. Braig came quite a bit later." Several miscarriages and a period where they didn't try, before finally having their boy.

[mitochondriaaya]

"That would have been great! You'd have been like gypsies!" Aya grinned, picturing it. She could Elcy and Lenna dressed brightly and telling stories!

"Was Yinsi in any of the world wars? Or was he in the marine just after those? We saw a movie where a soldier got to come home to a ball and promised he'd marry the girl he met!"

[sliceitwithwind]

"He was in the second World War." Elcy said, "As a very young man, and only for the last year of it. He was always so dashing in his uniform...he wears it to some of the formals, still." And, oh, she loved that uniform.