A Growing Family

[Kaalia Pavanos]

It made no sense to be this nervous. This hadn't been the first time and if it was up to Ishana alone far from the last, but Kaalia had already come out of the bathroom and made her way to the living area without being able to muster the courage needed to look at the pregnancy test she clutched in her left hand. Her heart was racing, her mind shot from one place to another and she began pacing nervously, but she was glad that at the very least her wife was in upstairs with Xariah and Xarielle instead of here seeing her have a near-nervous breakdown. The redhead sighed heavily as she crashed down onto her usual spot of the couch, then nodded to nothing in particular to instill some level of confidence in herself.

Kaalia, deep down, already knew the test result. She felt it in the Force and it had never lied to her before. A small spark of a presence went wherever she did, it small and weak but the bond she felt with it was incredibly powerful. This really was no more than a confirmation of something she already knew, yet it was also something more. This was Ishana's way of knowing.

With the test still in her clutched fist she held it in front of her, the result obscured by the fingers that wrapped around it. Another sigh. "Fine. Let's just do it," she said to herself as her fist slowly opened up. What she saw made her heart skip a beat. Two lines. Positive. Although it wasn't truly a surprise, the feeling of shock that would quickly turn into excitement washed over her all the same. An uncontrollable smile took hold of her as she let out a small sequence of happy noises that nobody was ever going to know about. The first thing that came to mind was rushing upstairs to show Ishana, but she stopped herself after shooting back up onto her feet. One look at the small white stick later the woman had devised a plan.

---

---

With the pregnancy test no longer on her person, Kaalia made her way up the stairs and followed the sound to get to where her wife and daughters were. The three most important people in her life, she would often call them, and nothing could have been more true. And soon another would join them. She slowly opened the door to make sure she wasn't a sudden interruption and with a soft smile she walked over towards Ishana to give her a kiss before picking up Xarielle and holding her in her arms. "What are we up to here? Ready for sleep?" Out of the two mothers Kaalia was the one who was more strict about bedtimes, but she tended to be the more worrying one in general.

[member="Ishana Pavanos"]

 

[Ishana Pavanos]

Ishana held Xariah along her hip and reached over to grab the bottle. "Hey, hey listen this is the same stuff mom gives you, alright? Just from a different sorta nip, ok?" Apparently her toddler was not having it, and she had hoped that this would be easier. Unfortunately the twins tended to do things well, together, so if one didn't like it. The other one was definitely not going to do it, even if they happened to actually like the thing. She sat down in the rocking chair that had been placed in the girl's room and put her feet up on the ottoman, "Xari, no stay in your crib, no climbing."

Xarielle just giggled.

"That's not funny," Ishana replied with a smile as she settled Xariah in her arms and managed to the toddler to take the bottle. Toddler was probably being generous, the twins were just over a year old and everyday they seemed to astound their parents with the little milestones. Standing for example, and now they both liked to stand, plop down and then scoot/crawl around as fast as possible. "See, look at sissy she's got the bottle, yeah? Yeah look at her."

Xarielle wasn't impressed.

And then in walked Kaalia, "we're trying." Ishana quipped with a smile, "she's not been fed yet but her bottle's still in the warmer over there." She gave a small inclination of her head toward the bottle and the warmer. "See, there's mommy, hi mommy." Xariah might've waved but the baby was quite happy with her bottle right now.

[member="Kaalia Pavanos"]

 

[Kaalia Pavanos]

Kaalia looked down towards the child in her arms, her child, and like every time she looked at either of the twins she was reminded of how special they were to her. It had taken some time to get used to the fact she was a mother, but even after that had worn off it didn't make either of her daughters any less wondeful. Even through the sleepless nights, the stress, and the headaches. There was plenty of all of those things. No longer did she just want to create a safe home for Ishana and herself, she wanted to make sure her children had a safe and happy home as well and give them childhood she never got to have. Both for the twins, and the one on the way. Kaalia hoped she was doing it right.

"Do you want your bottle? Yes, you do," she told Xarielle without waiting for much of an answer. The way the toddler had been looking at Xariah's bottle had been enough of an indication. After having walked over to the warmer, Kaalia took out the bottle and held it against her skin to make sure it wasn't too hot. She concluded it was the right temperature and went to take a seat in the other rocking chair. With Xarielle nestled into her lap she gave her the bottle. A little moment of peace and quiet for as long as the twins were both occupied.

"Oh, miella," Kaalia then said, as though she had just remembered something, "could you do something for me once these two are finally sleeping? I'm still a bit wrecked from giving all those guest lectures today and I want to crawl into bed with the book I've been reading." While talking, she slowly rocked back and forth, keeping her eyes on Xarielle. "But I'm a bit too lazy to go back downstairs to grab it, could you get it for me once this is done? It's on the dining table, I'm pretty sure."

[member="Ishana Pavanos"]

 

[Ishana Pavanos]

Ishana looked over at her wife and was caught a little off guard. "oh, okay sure."

She turned her attention to the baby in her arms, Xariah was very close to dreamland. Her little hands fell to the side while Ishana held the bottle and so the Balmorran waited until she was sure which even then wasn't guaranteed. Until she was sure that Xariah was asleep, and very carefully she put the bottle up on the dresser. Gently she moved Xariah up so she could burp the little one, and when that was done she felt Xariah curl into the small of her neck and grab at her hair. The twins were both miniature versions of Ishana with a lot of Kaalia's spunk, but if you asked Ishana she would tell you they looked like Kaalia. Ishana had to pinch herself sometimes she wasn't sure that any of this was real. Even as she lowered Xariah into her crib and waited a few more moments before turning away from the crib. "You said it was a book, yeah? Okay, I'll be back."

Quietly she left the girl's room and headed downstairs and about halfway down Ishana had forgotten where Kaalia said the book was, "she said the kitchen... no, living room... wait that doesn't sound right." She muttered to herself as she stepped onto the first floor. A quick look to her right as she scanned the living room, no - no book just a set of baby wipes and the playpen, toys nothing that stood out. Ishana entered into the dining room and looked at the table, "ah, here it- wait." Ishana's brows furrowed a moment as she approached the table and the book. She pulled the book toward her and reached for the device atop of the book, a pregnancy test... and... "And ..." The Balmorran took a seat at the dining table and stared at the test. Happy tears welled up and she set the test down as she wiped her eyes and then picked it up again.

[member="Kaalia Pavanos"]

 

[Kaalia Pavanos]

When Ishana finished feeding Xariah and told Kaalia she'd be back with the book, the redhead shot her a grateful nod. "I'll be in the bedroom, just going to put this one to bed as well," she explained as she carefully got up with Xarielle being held gently along her shoulder. Small hands gripped her shirt, causing the woman to chuckle a little. "Come on now, it's time for sleep. I'm not taking you with me downstairs." Before leaving the room herself she got the little one to burp and laid her down into the crib next to Xariah's. "Night night." Despite often not agreeing with her bedtime, it rarely took long for the toddler to fall asleep. Xariah was a bit more difficult though and had dragged Xarielle along with her nighttime antics on a few occasions now. Hopefully it wouldn't become a trend.

When Kaalia stepped out into the hallway, she did not do what she had said, however. Instead of crawling into her own bed and take it easy for the rest of the evening she slowly and quietly made her way downstairs, making sure Ishana wouldn't notice. While in the living room there wasn't any audial queue that the pregancy test had been found, but that didn't deter Kaalia from sneaking towards and into the dining room. Ishana sat on one of the chairs, her back turned towards her wife while she quietly moved up behind her. The motion that looked like Ishana was wiping away tears had Kaalia get a little emotional herself, but she quickly replaced it with a bit of a cheeky smile.

The brunette would then suddenly feel two arms wrapping around her while Kaalia leaned in. "You've been taking a while," she said as though she knew nothing of the pregnancy test in Ishana's hand, "so I went to check up on you. What's that you got there?" The grin on her face betrayed her intentionally thinly veiled false ignorance. "I wonder who left that there laying around in the dining room. A bit odd, if you ask me." At that point she couldn't hold herself back and a wide smile broke out onto her face. "Well, what does it say?"

[member="Ishana Pavanos"]

 

[Ishana Pavanos]

Ishana felt Kaalia's arms wrap around her and smiled when Kaal asked about what was in her hand, she answered that with a chuckle. As her wife kept talking the Balmorran could hear the smile in the Kro Varian's voice. "It's positive," she managed as she put a hand over her wives' hands. Ishana settled into the back of the chair and looked up at Kaalia then back down at the pregnancy test. "It says we're having another baby, holy chit," Ishana said with a laugh and then took a moment or two to carefully slide out of her wife's arms so she could stand. Another look at the test and then a careful look at her wife as she then set the test down on the table and shifted the chair back under the table.

"I think we're a little crazy, we can barely get these two down - and we're on for round three, mhmm?" She leaned over for a kiss and placed her hands along Kaalia's waist, "so glad to be on this journey with you, Kaal." Life it was said was a journey, and Ishana had never lived it not truly, no not until she happened upon the redhead in her arms. Now here she was unafraid of the future, having now felt what it meant to live life to the fullest. "Thank you, habibti." Another kiss, this one deeper and slower than the last and while Ishana had always known that this could be possible... The Balmorran still had to pinch herself sometimes that here she was living this holonovel fairy tale.

[member="Kaalia Pavanos"]

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSHUVcVjdgg[/media]

 

[Kaalia Pavanos]

[SIZE=10.5pt]"Sorry, the surprise isn't as grand as last time," Kaalia responded as Ishana went to settle into the back of the chair she was sitting on, the redhead's arms still loosely coiled around her. Having her hands joined with her wife's was one of the things that made Kaalia truly feel at home- in those moments, she would be able to temporarily forget the hostility the galaxy was filled with and the eternal battle that was to be fought in order to protect all she and her loved ones had built. Tender moments were the little stars in the sky, surrounded by the black night sky that symbolized the harshness of life. Topping the way she revealed her pregnancy the previous time would've been quite the feat, but it was doubtful Ishana was too bothered by how she found out. The news itself was what mattered. [/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]"I do hope it doesn't ruin the moment," [/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]she jokingly added with a smirk.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]Kaalia took a small step backwards to allow Ishana the room to stand up from the chair, casting another quick glance at the pregnancy test while it was being set down on the table. [/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]"It was your idea, miella," she remarked in response to the assertion that having another child was perhaps a bit crazy, though dismiss the claim entirely she did not. "But like you said, we'll be just fine. Hopefully you can survive another round of my hormones, though." She placed her hands behind Ishana's neck, her arms resting on the Balmorran's shoulders. How her wife had made it through the first pregnancy perplexed the redhead to this day. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]The 'thank you' came as a bit of a surprise to Kaalia, but she did know how to respond. "And thank you. For helping me see there is more to life than just struggle, that there are things worth fighting for as well." The Kro Varian also leaned in for a kiss herself.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]Kaalia's face then lit up as something crossed her mind, filling her with amusement. "I just realized," she suddenly said with a matching tone, switching the subject matter just that small bit as she continued. "We'll have the girls' reaction to look forward to as well. That should be fun."[/SIZE]

[member="Ishana Pavanos"]​