Hiraeth [GxG]

Chapter 13

Mila's POV:

"Okay, love. I'll see you soon, be careful." I hung up and put my phone down on the counter. My mom looked at me with a curious look.

"Emma will be here soon." I leaned in and started whispering. "The kids' friend Asha is coming over, and I know they'll be very excited. Don't say anything though, Emma and I want it to be a surprise." She gave me a wink and set the timer for when the food should be done.

"Alright, everything should be done by the time they get here." I'm glad that the hard parts were over because making this dinner has me sweating.

The kids had already finished their homework and were upstairs getting ready for dinner when Emma and Asha walked in. I immediately went over to them and kissed Emma on the cheek. I then looked down at Asha and forced a small smile instead of a look of pity.

"Hey, there, little one. I'm glad to see you. The kids are upstairs right now. Did you want to go up there now and surprise me or wait till dinner and then walk in?" Her face lit up a bit, and she let out a small giggle.

"I'll sit at the table and wait for them to come down." With that, she took off to the kitchen, and I could hear her and mom make introductions.

"Hey, love. I missed you today." Emma bent down and kissed me.

"I missed you too. Any progress?" She shrugged her shoulders.

"Maybe? I'll tell you more later, okay? First, let's focus on family dinner." I kissed her on the cheek in response. Then she made her way upstairs to get ready for dinner.

"Well, Asha, you are so adorable. I'm glad I got to meet you." My mom's genuineness and how truly sweet she always brings out people's best side and happiness. I could tell this even stood true with Asha. Even though her smile was small, it was genuine. I'm glad we are able to be here for her. I hope she can continue to heal. I know she'll always have a piece missing from her heart that belonged to her mom, but hopefully, we can be the patch to stop the bleeding. I was brought out of my thoughts by the timer going off.

"I'll go get everyone else." I made my way over to the bottom of the stairs. "Emma! Kids! It's time for dinner." I shouted, projecting my voice in the direction to travel upstairs. I soon heard all of them say okay; with that, I headed back into the kitchen to help get the table set up.

"So, kids, I brought you back a surprise." With that, Asha stepped out from behind Emma. Alyx and Aleksey shot out of the chairs and zipped over to her bringer into a big group hug. Poor Asha almost fell over. Luckily Emma was there to catch her.

"We're so glad you're here. We missed you at school." They were starting to go off on a tangent about school, but I stopped them.

"Hey, let's eat; you can talk more after we get some food in our bellies." Everyone made their way to their seats and started filling their plates up.

Dinner went as usual. Conversations about each other's days, and Emma and I caught my mother up on what's been going on in our lives. Well, to an extent. The kids were off in their own world discussing everything from school to this weird new bug Alyx saw that she swears has never been discovered.

"So, my beautiful daughter. I know you and Emma aren't telling me everything. What's going on?" I cringed my shoulders a little.

"I was hoping your motherly instincts wouldn't pick up on that." I turned around to meet her eyes and found one of her eyebrows lifted and her hand on her hip.

"Right... Mila, you know I would pick up on it. What's going on?" She got a little closer to me. "Does it have to do with your's and Emma's sex life?" I shot backward fast.

"What? God, no! Mother." I practically shouted this. It felt like my face was on fire. "Even if it were about that, I wouldn't want to talk about it." I whisper-yelled. She looked at me, amused—the audacity of this woman. I just kept giving her a stern look. Finally, she put her hands up, showing she'd drop the conversation. But that smile on her face had me rolling my eyes.

"Fine, fine. So, what is it about then?" I sighed and looked down.

"I don't want to worry you." Her amused look was now replaced with a serious one.

"Mija, what's going on? This sounds serious." I leaned on the counter and sucked in a deep breath.

"Just don't freak out, okay?" She nodded her head, but part of me knew she was going to freak out anyway. "There's a virus going around." She looked at me, utterly confused. "It's only affecting supernatural creatures; that's why you haven't heard anything about it." She hummed. "Anyways... it's very infectious and, well, mom, it's very deadly. So far, no one has survived it, and unfortunately, the numbers of people becoming infected are growing rapidly." I could see in her eyes she was fighting with every ounce of strength that she had, not to show how badly she was freaking out.

"Is that why Asha's aura is so dark? She lost someone close to her to this, this sickness?" I could feel my eyes grow wide.

"What? How did you know?" She again looked at me like I should know this.

"Motherly instincts. You have them too. Even if you didn't know what was going on, you would be able to tell that the child is hurting badly." Well, she isn't wrong. I would have picked up on it, maybe not as specific as my mom had. "Who was it to her?" I turned away from my mom and gripped the sink.

"It was her mom." When I turned back around, I had tears in my eyes. My mom closed the distance and brought me into a hug.

"Oh, Mija. Don't worry. I'm not going anywhere. I hate that this has happened to her. She's too young." I let a few tears go but locked them down after that. I needed to stay in control of my emotions right now.

"I'm just so worried about the kids, Emma, our friends, and their families. They haven't made much progress." She squeezed me a little bit tighter before pulling away.

"Everything will be fine. You have to manifest the good outcomes, not the bad ones. I know you're stressed and worried. I'm always here, okay? If you can't sleep, if you need help around the house, help with the kids, whatever it may be, you call me." I gave her another hug. I am fortunate and grateful to have been blessed with the mom I have.

"Thank you; I love you." We broke the hug once again. She was looking deep into my eyes, searching for something, but I don't know what it was.

"I love you too, always. I'm going to say goodbye to everyone else, and then you can walk me out to my car." With that, she made her way out of the kitchen. I went back to the dishes and cleaned up.

"Okay, Em. Catch me up on everything." We both made our way into the soundproof room and cuddled up on the couch.

"Well, they confirmed Melissa's theory that depending on what type of supernatural creature you are, determines how fast the infection spreads. They didn't want to give me false hope, but they said if they can pinpoint what it is, that's different between each species' immune systems, then they can possibly enhance it and use it as a base for the cure." I lifted up and turned around to meet her eyes. I felt hopeful for the first time in a while. "No, Mila. Don't get your hopes up too high; this may not work." I sighed and turned back around. I leaned up against her and looked up at the ceiling. I think by how much I stare at the ceilings in my house, I could close my eyes and describe every little thing about them in detail.

"You're right. I'll try my best not to be extremely hopeful, but this does sound like good news." At least to me, it does. She says not to get my hopes up, but I keep thinking back to what my mom said. "I think we should believe that this is the key to curing people. My mom was talking earlier about how you have to manifest shit like this. I'm not saying get our hopes up, but manifest that this will help them find the cure." Emma kissed the top of my head and held me tighter.

"Okay, love. We can do that. Whenever they update me, you'll be the first person I tell. Let's head up and try to go to bed. Sound good?" I didn't want to get out of her warm embrace, but I knew soon enough that I'd be right back in it.

"Sounds good to me." I got up off of her and the couch and reached out for her hand to help her up. I hope we get some good sleep, like how we did with the kids.