Aureliana Abercrombie deserves a drink (perfectmother) wrote in neeps, @ 2017-12-27 21:35:00 |
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Aureliana was often hard pressed to name her favorite time of year. Just as she loved the gentle summer days, the crisp autumn air, Christmas was just something else entirely. She loved the glittering decorations, the way the tree smelled, and all the sweet treats so associated with the holiday. Or she usually did, but it seemed that this season she had to sit that part out. Who knew that pregnancy could make the nose so sensitive?
Well all the books told her that, but Aureliana hadn't wanted to believe them until the scent of balsam had her running from the room before she lost her lunch. Since then, she had relied heavily on charms to clear the air of any strong scents. Being pregnant was becoming much more of a hassle than she originally imagined. How people went through this more than once, Aureliana would never know.
She was nestled in a wingback chair with a throw tucked around her middle, since she had begun to show people seemed take that as an invitation to forget about personal space. While that was not so much an issue with her family, Aureliana had taken to covering up her midsection every chance she got just to ward off those people of an impolite nature. It was hard to think that by this time next year she would be celebrating Christmas Eve with a little boy or girl in her arms.
"I promise I'm not going to touch. Or make any aethonan breeding jokes," Mel said as he came round the chair with his hands up in the air. "Can I fetch you anything before I sit down?" He didn't know much about pregnancy, not in people anyroad, but he did know he should offer to bring pregnant women what they wanted, moreso as they got bigger and rounder. While Aureliana was still pretty slender at this stage of things, he could remember Mum looking like a house when she'd been pregnant with Lex.
The nice thing about being home was she did not expect anyone in her family to forget about her feelings regarding personal space. The jokes about breeding she could do without, but with her father running a successful aethonan stable they were inevitable by the less sensitive members of the family. "Ginger tea?" she asked softly. It seemed to be the only thing she could drink that didn't make her physically ill at the thought. The healer was a bit worried about her continued nausea, but as long as she was able to consume enough food to sustain her and the baby there was no action they needed to take yet.
"Of course," Mel said, and went off to find an elf to fetch it for her. One day this house, and all within it, would be his. The house-elves were happy to please him, and he thought they doted a bit on Aureliana, which was fine with him. Between himself and Lex, his parents were often a bit short on attention for their middle child. He came back and pulled an ottoman over so he could sit with her and she could see him easily without having to shift. "How are you holding up, other than liking ginger tea, and maybe not so keen on dinner?"
She had picked at dinner, hadn't she? But as was as her wont, Aureliana had not raised much of a fuss and ate what she could, moving food around with her fork and quietly banishing bits off to the rubbish bin when she thought nobody was paying her any mind. Looking at her brother, she gave him a soft smile. Even when he was sitting on the ottoman and a bit lower than her chair, due to their height differences they were pretty much eye to eye.
"Honestly? I can read the highest regarded books on pregnancy and I still find myself woefully unprepared." It sometimes felt like her body was not her own, but her brother didn't need to know that.
"I'm sure we'll get you through it, even so. You're doing the hard part, so the least the rest of us can do is pick up the slack around you." The truth was that Mel had no idea at all what he could do to help--his position with Montrose was such that he was usually run ragged even in the mid-season break--but he was certainly willing to try. "Just let me know what you need me to do."
Aureliana wasn't exactly sure how carrying a child was hard work, but a selfish part of her rather liked how everyone around her doted upon her, despite the sudden lack of personal space. "I certainly will, but right now I could really use my big brother." What that meant, Aureliana did not precisely know, but she knew there was tension at dinner and it was not because Uncle Corban was saying things unfit for polite company.
Uncle Corban was saying things unfit for polite company again, and Mel wasn't too sorry to be in here with Aureliana where Corban would at least avoid being too awful about words like 'mudblood' and 'mongrel', especially about her. Also he really wasn't in the mood for a lecture about his own lack of love life (or at least the sort he could talk to Uncle Corban about) from Aunt Crescentia, nor a discussion of the merits of her niece Sabine Burke. "I'm glad to be here for you. Have you thought about what you're going to do about a nursery yet? Are you and Jamie going to want one of the house-elves to go with you so you can have help after the baby is born?"
"We haven't settled on a design," she answered truthfully. Aureliana had plenty of thoughts for the nursery, each more detailed than the last. They, well she, had already picked out which room the nursery would be in. Unlike the Manor house at Macmillan Park, where the nursery had been on a completely different floor from the rest of the private family rooms, the nursery at Little Wood was right next to the room she shared with her husband.
The question of house elves was another matter that they were also in the midst of discussing. She had grown up with them and Jamie had not. For Aureliana there was almost no question about accepting an elf if her parents offered one. She wasn't so sure that her husband felt the same way and so it was not something she had yet to bring up. "We haven't decided about the elves." Though it would be rude to not accept a gift, but she would save that argument if it came down to it.
"I hope you'll take one, at least the loan of one for a little while. You'll need all the help you can get once the baby comes. Even if you have family around." Mel was used to living without an elf these days but he was a bachelor and there simply wasn't that much cleaning to do, especially since he'd learnt how to cook a little and enjoyed making simple meals as a relief from the stress of the day. He'd even learnt to feed breakfast to Lex on occasion.
The idea of managing the sort of cleaning he'd need with a baby without an elf was terrifying. The diapers alone would be awful.
Aureliana wasn't exactly sure how much she wanted her family around after the baby was born. She liked having her own space with her husband. Parties and family dinners were all well and good, but those were a handful of hours at most. Aureliana did not fancy the idea of all of those people with all of their opinions crowding into the sanctuary of a home she'd created. "I will certainly discuss a loan of one," she agreed. Elves were a different matter entirely. They, for one, did not presume that Aurelina was wrong in her thinking just because there was a difference in opinion. And she simply loved the creatures.
"Just don't let yourself get overworked. Even if you don't want a house-elf initially, you might change your mind and want someone to help a bit later." Aureliana was always so organised, which Mel would have envied if he had more things that needed organising in his life, but even she had to have a limit. Even if Mel couldn't figure out what it was.
“I promise I won’t let myself get overworked.” It took some shifting, but Aureliana leaned forward to pat her brother’s knee reassuringly. That wasn’t exactly the truth, but she had the best of intentions to delegate and not micromanage, but it was simply in her nature to do it all herself.
One of these days she would learn that fact, but it didn’t look like today or any day in the near future would be it.
"If you need someone to give you a hand that isn't a house-elf," Mel said, reaching for her hand, "I hope you know you can always call on me."
Squeezing her brother's hand, Aureliana nodded. That she always knew. Using her free hand to sip her tea, as soon as she swallowed her mouthful she could feel her stomach turn over. Not even ginger tea was safe anymore. She let go of Mel's hand. "I'm sorry, if you excuse me, the tea is suddenly disagreeing with me." Shooting her brother an apologetic look, Aureliana stood up and made her way to the closest water closet before she got sick all over the place.
Mel started to follow but quickly realised he wasn't needed. There were some things even a big brother couldn't help with.