Hiraeth [GxG]

Chapter 11

I woke up again to the smell of coffee and blood. I don't remember ever falling asleep. I looked down at my phone and saw it was only six in the morning. I reached out for the cup that had blood in it, and this time, my hand wasn't as shaky. Emma gave a smile to this fact and actually let me drink on my own.

"Don't worry about breakfast. I already made it, and the kids are eating right now. I was just about to go wake up Julia if you wanted to head downstairs. I think it would be best if we were both down there just in case Julia decides to tell her now." I gulped the rest of the blood down and stood up. Once I was up, I traded the empty cup for the coffee she brought me.

"Let's head down." With that, we made our way downstairs. As soon as we hit the bottom stair, I grabbed Emma's hand to get her attention. "Did you want me to go with you to get Julia?" Emma lightly squeezed my hand, then kissed my temple.

"No, I've got it. I'll meet you in the kitchen." I reluctantly let go of her hand and headed into the kitchen.

"Hey, kids! How'd you sleep? How's breakfast?" I saw Alyx and Aleksey had finished their cup of blood and were almost done with the rest of their breakfast.

"It's good. Mommy is actually a good cook. I didn't think she would be." I chuckled, amused by what Alyx had said.

"I can see why you'd think that. She doesn't really cook. She's been alive a long time, though." I leaned over the table a little closer to the kids. "You didn't hear it from me, but your mommy is old, like really old." All three kids burst into a fit of giggles.

"What was that about me being old?" All the kids had stopped laughing and started shoving food into their mouths.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," I said, feigning ignorance. Emma just looked at me, amused. Then, she walked over to me and gave me a quick kiss.

I felt the whole energy in the house fluctuate when Julia walked into the kitchen. Her hair was in a very messy ponytail, and her eyes were still swollen and bloodshot. I grabbed a coffee mug and poured her some coffee.

"Here you go. Maybe it'll help wake you a bit." She grabbed the mug and gave me a small thankful smile. She took a seat at the island by Asha.

Asha looked surprised to see her grandma there. Well, at first, she was. Then when the look of realization crossed her face, she dropped her head down to the ground. I started to hear her sniffling and was just making my way around the island to comfort her when Julia beat me to it. She held Asha closely and rubbed her back as she cried. Alyx looked very concerned about her friend crying, and it even seemed to have a bit of an effect on Aleksey.

The room was quiet except for Asha's muffled sobs. That was until the alarm went off on my phone. Almost everyone except for Asha was staring at me. I felt extremely embarrassed and fumbled a little bit, trying to turn it off. I showed my phone to Emma so she could see it was time to take the kids to school.

"Alright, kids. It's time to go to school." I whispered out to them, not wanting to disturb Julia and Asha's moment any more than what my alarm already had. Aleksey got up no problem, but Alyx stayed in her seat, not taking her eyes off of Asha. I went over to Alyx and bent down to where we were more eye level.

"Come on; we have to go." She looked at me with glassy eyes.

"But momma, I don't want to leave her like this." I looked up at Asha who's sobbing had stopped, but she was still sniffling.

"I'm sorry, sweetie. She's with her grandma, okay. She'll be taken care of." She looked at Asha one more time before getting off the chair and heading towards the front door.