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]

"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.

[mitochondriaaya]

"We've seen you guys leaving when he's wearing it," Aya admitted, unabashedly leaning her chin her hands, listening, rather than peeling. The uniform tended to come out for non-children events so far! "Were you scared for him? Did he get any medals?"

[sliceitwithwind]

"No, dear." Elcy said, smiling, "We'd met, in passing...or at least he swears we had! I don't remember it. We didn't meet again, and get married, until much later."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Oh, that makes sense," Aya grinned. "Else Braig would be a lot older huh?" Because even with maybe not wanting kids immediately they probably would have Braig before the eighties!

"He says you met? You don't remember?" There was something like shocked glee in her voice when she asked that.

[sliceitwithwind]

"Yes, he would." Elcy said, smiling, "All in all, I'm glad I had him when I did." then she dimpled again, "Apparently it was when I was fourteen, at a dance my parents took me to. I just remember being so overwhelmed by everything that the night is entirely a blur...you'd have to ask Yinsi about that night!"

[mitochondriaaya]

"I will when he gets home!" Because story time was totally low impact! "Was it your coming out ball that you want me to have? Is that when you met?" Because talking with Elcy made it all seem so romantic!

[sliceitwithwind]

"No, it was just after my coming out." Elcy said, "We had them younger, when I was a girl. I'm sure we can find photos somewhere, if you'd like to look."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Yes! I'd love to look!" Aya laughed. Halloween that year might end up being a period piece. "I bet it was a lot of fun. Lenna was there when you met Yinsi?"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Yes, she was." Elcy smiled, a little sadly, "I remember her pinching my arm and telling me that if I didn't marry him, she would!"

[mitochondriaaya]

"Did she do that a lot?" Aya laughed. "You guys were fourteen! And I bet there were a lot of guys there!"

[sliceitwithwind]

"No, dear, that was when I was twenty...when I remember meeting him." Elcy said, shaking her head, "There were always a lot of men around...I just wasn't very good at picking them. Lenna was the beauty."

[mitochondriaaya]

Blink. Blink. "But you're beautiful!" Elcy looked like one of her favorite people! And didn't come that far behind in favorites either!

"Did Lenna really try to marry Yinsi?"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Oh, I'm good enough looking...more handsome than beautiful, really. Don't get me wrong, dear, I don't mind my looks at all; Yinsi loves them and that's all that matters. Lenna did not, not really. She was teasing because of how handsome he looked."

[mitochondriaaya]

"You're beautiful!" Aya reiterated, then grinned. "Good, cause Lenna and Yinsi married would be weird! I like things the way they are!"

[sliceitwithwind]

"I rather do, too." Elcy agreed, "We wouldn't have either Braig or Dilan, and that would be a crying shame."

Braig drifted into the kitchen to watch his mother cook, and found himself tugged in to a hug, and kissed on the forehead. "He's a pain in the ass, but I do love my son."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Yeah, things wouldn't be good at all." Aya agreed. There wouldn't be a Braig or a Dilan, and Aya wouldn't be sitting in the kitchen either. She'd probably be back in New York.

When Braig got tugged in for a hug Aya giggled. "Yeah, he's lovable!"

[sliceitwithwind]

Braig scrunched his face up, but hugged her back. "I love you, too, mom. We got the living room back in order."

Elcy let him go and went back to her stew. "Thank you. What's Dilan doing now?"

"I told him he could dust for fifteen, then we were going to go wander around the neighbourhood."

"Aya, you can go with them if you'd rather."

[mitochondriaaya]

Oh, that wasn't even really a contest was it? But..."I'll go out until my feet hurt again? Then I'll come back and mash the potatoes and see how the dough is doing?" Responsibility, she had it sometimes!

"Did you know there's kittens in the old barn?!" Granted, they might be gone a while.

[sliceitwithwind]

"Well, work with me until Dilan's washed his hands. If you don't get back before food is ready, it'll be okay."

Braig said, "No! We should go and check on them. Has anyone taken them to the vet yet? You better keep watch so that they can get spayed and neutered, and their mom too."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Okay! I'll try to be back though!" Because she probably would end up with hurting feet or legs if she wasn't careful!

"And no, I don't think so! I haven't seen anyone else around the barn lately! I've been checking on them though and left one of my shirts so they'd get used to my scent!"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Have fun." Elcy said.

A bit later Dilan came in and washed his hands, "I heard something about kittens?" he said, hopefully. Cats liked him.