Upon Vestia: Chapter TWENTY

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Heny stood there and listened as the two spoke, her heart beat rising. She had visited him a couple of times but found it too painful with eveything going on.

Asher smiled reassuringly at the dragons. "It's okay," he told them, "We just got some exciting news, that's all."

"Ooh, which hat did you send?" Ellie asked delightedly.

"uh... " Matt tried to remember.

"All I recollect is it was extremely prone to shedding glitter." Web shook his head.

Matt snickered, glad for the distraction.

Kay pet Danika's head. It's alright little one. He didn't look like he totally believed that. our family is getting bigger, that's all.

Esk licked jam off his fingers. "So does this mean the wedding's getting pushed forward?" he asked.

Matt frowned. "Uh.. I... we never set a date..."

"So.. never then." Esk got up, doing a remarkably good job of biting back a grunt of pain as he picked up his dishes and took them to be cleaned.

"It'll happen!" Matt protested. "eventually... " Just, things kept getting in the way, bah.

Danika went to Kay, holding onto him and chirping softly. "More babies?"

Vela chose to go to Ellie and tried to curl up in her lap while Kerr did the same to Asher.

Ellie picked up Vela and snuggled her. "Well I kinda hope the wedding happens, I'd like to go to a wedding." And if Thalia wasn't an evil abusive jerk, then she had no reason to worry!

Asher held Kerr reassuringly. He looked to Web, "By the way, have you met the hatchlings yet?"

"I have not." Web came over to see the dragons.

Yes, another baby. Kay looked up at his eldest brother and indicated him to Danika. This is your uncle Web. He smiled tiredly to Web who crouched down so he could be on the same level at the babies.

"Hello." Web smiled. He'd never seen a star dragon, they were so small.

[This is Danika.] Kay wrote, then indicated the others. [Kerr and Vela.]

Matt nodded to Ellie. "yeah, it would be nice but right now... there's too much else to do." honestly having a celebration when a war was so close didn't feel at all right to him, it all just made him uneasy.
He pulled up a chair and forced a smile at the little baby dragons.

"They're adorable right?" He looked to Web.

Web nodded.

Esk grumbled something about domestic bliss and made for the exit, eugh, baby dragons and cooing over them, no thanks.

He went to find Dawn, mostly to confirm he hadn't said or done anything overly dumb yesterday. There were big gaps in his memory, something he wasn't at all used to, and it made him uneasy.

Danika chirped and looked to Web, moving to look up at him curiously. "Uncle Web, like uncle Matt?" She asked and looked to Kay again.

Vela purred contentedly in Ellie's arms, snuggling up close to her.

Kerr moved to Asher's shoulder, looking at Web curiously too. He was a lot more brave than the others though and jumped, wobbly gliding to the floor then bounding the rest of the way over to Web to sniff at him.

Ellie giggled. "Danika's basically drowning in uncles, it's amazing," she said. "It's okay, Vela, you might not have as many relatives, but yours are awesome too!"

Kay nodded.

Web chuckled. "Yes, we're twins." He didn't move to touch Kerr, keeping a safe distance and keeping still as the dragon sniffed him.

"This family is so confusing." Matt agreed.

Vela chirped and looked up at Ellie. "All family, all good."

Kerr stood on his back legs, reaching out to Web to be picked up

Danika snuggled Kay and chirped softly. "Family is good."

"At this point, the easiest way to make sense of the situation is to just assume everyone is somehow related to you," Asher joked. He went to start cleaning up the table from the dragons' meal.

Matt nodded. "yeah, that's probably the only way."

Web tentatively held out his hand to the dragon so he could climb up. "You're friendly aren't you?"

Kay nodded. Yes, they are. He held her, quite relieved to have her with him right now. She helped ease the stressful moments.

"So the other two don't consider you their parents yes?" Web clarified.

Kay shook his head. freeing one hand to write [Starr is mother to all of them, but then it all gets a little complicated.]

Matt worked something out in his head. "so.. like.. Asher's their brother, but also Danika's dad which means Starr's Danika's mom AND her grandmother?" Man, that just made his head hurt.

"That sounds... very complicated. Probably not worth thinking too hard about." Web conceeded.

Asher chuckled. "Starr became my unofficially adopted mother a few months ago, thus the complication. It's hard to explain without giving everyone a headache." He wiped down the table.

Kerr climbed up on Web's hand, sniffing it then looking over to Matt then to Kay with a dragon grin. He liked having so many big people around.

"Mom and my two dad's are great" Danika said then pressed close to Kay shyly.

Asher ducked his head and went to put away the dishtowel, trying to hide his smile at Danika's words. It felt so good to be accepted as one of that wonderful little dragon's parents. Funny how he had never imagined being a father, and how happy he was to have suddenly become one.

Ellie petted Vela happily, smiling at all the cuteness in this room.

Kay cuddled Danika. If it all gets too much, just tell me alright? She really wasn't as outgoing as her psudo siblings, not that Kay much minded that, he wasn't as outgoing as his siblings either, but he still couldn't help comparing them.

He was so relieved Asher had been accepted as Dad too, even if parenthood and that level of domesticity was never something either of them had considered.
It was... wierdly nice.

Web smiled softly at Kerr and sat very still so he wouldn't fall. "How old are they?"

"They're about a week old now," Asher said once he had gotten that smile at least somewhat under control (although he still looked pretty happy, despite his best efforts to be somewhat serious). He came back over to the others. "Star dragons learn very fast, they have a telepathic connection to their parents that helps a lot too."

"Wow, a week? that's impressive." Web looked down at Kerr admiringly. "It takes Kevali children at least 6 months to start being at all independent." He told the little dragon. He looked to Kay. "So I guess it helps you're psychic then."

Kay nodded.

"Sorry little dragons, you can't read my mind." Web smiled softly, and he was right, the mental barriers he had up were extremely strong, they had to be. At best the little dragons might pick up some emotions, but no thoughts.

Kerr tilted his head at Web. "Web quiet like Asher. Is good." He said then bounced a little "Web play too?"

Danika snuggled close. "I good, safe with dad, yes?"

"Play what?" Web looked a little wary, he wasn't nearly as fond of kids as matt.

"Quiet's good?" Matt asked.

Kay nodded. of course little one for now anyway. He knew he wouldn't always be able to promise her safety

Kerr looked from Web to Matt and back "Quiet not bad?" He wasn't quite sure how to explain what he wanted to say. "Still fun?"

Vela raised her head and looked over at the others "Play glde-chase?" She asked and chirped

Danika nuzzled Kay again, happy with what he told her, even if his emotions didn't match his words quite so well.

Asher smiled. "It's nice that they don't mind quiet. Makes things much easier for us," he said. It had worried him a bit that his silent mind might make the dragons not like him or trust him, but thankfully that didn't seem to be the case. Apparently it was no more bothersome to them than Kay's muteness was.

"I'll play with you!" Ellie told the hatchlings.

Vela chirped happily at Ellie and moved to her shoulder to hold on there. "We play!"

Web looked uncertain about the playing thing but he nodded. "You can already glide too? Clever dragons."

"They're awesome right?" Matt chuckled.

Web nodded to Asher. "It must make things a little awkward for you to communicate." He gestured to Kay. "The electronic device is a good idea."

Kay nodded back. [There's always solutions. ]

"Only problem I recall is you and Matt having little private discussions without the rest of us knowing." Web chuckled.

"So much better than passing notes!" Matt grinned.

"It was annoying, it allowed them to scheme. " Web explained. "And I was usually the one of the receiving end of their pranks."

Kay looked appologetic, but slightly amused too.

Matt cackled and looked back to the dragons. "So how do we play glide chase?"

Asher nodded. "Communication can be a bit inconvenient sometimes on this ship. One of the passengers here is deaf, and another one can't read well at all. Thankfully we've all found ways to communicate with each other, so it works out well." He smiled at Web, "I guess you probably got good at figuring out when they were talking telepathically? In my experience, prolonged staring contests usually mean two people are talking about something."

"Kind of glide, we learning, practicing." Kerr said and turned to face away, wriggling a little then jumping to practice gliding. He miscalculated and tumbled on the floor, yelping a little at that.

Vela raised her head at the yelp. She jumped back to the table then walked over to look down to Kerr where he was under the table now.

Danika hid against Kay though she looked down to Kerr also.

Web nodded, smiling. "Oh yes, Matt's also absolutely terrible at hiding anything. He has very obvious physical tells."

"HEY!" Matt protested.

"It also helps i'm an empath, so i can read their emotions. Whenever they got a little overly excited I knew they were scheming." Web continued, then gasped as the little dragon tumbled.
He crouched down to check on him.

"Are you alright?"

Kay jumped at the sudden fall and peered under the table as well, keeping Danika safely on his lap. Kerr?

"Woah little guy." Matt also crouched down to see if the dragon was okay.

Ellie looked at Kerr a bit worriedly and wondered if she should hurry over to hug the little guy, she knew baby dragons were pretty durable, but that fall looked like it hurt.

Asher stayed back, he didn't want to get in the way unless Kerr needed medical help.