April 1991
"Come on, you two!" Síomha called from up ahead, with Damhnait and Éimhín. "You keep falling behind we're going to lose you back there."
Violet looked up, and saw they were falling behind — she and Lasairín were playing around avoiding the cracks again, she wasn't paying attention. "Sorry! Come on..." Gritting her teeth, she skipped ahead, speeding up to close some of the distance, trying to ignore the tension in her shoulders. It always felt funny to stop avoiding the cracks, felt like she was doing something wrong.
"Hey! You're cheating!" Lasairín caught up, gave Violet a little shove, pushing her to the side a step.
Violet pushed her back, giggling a little. "We're falling b-behind, though!"
"Like we don't know the way home..." She kept grumbling under her breath a little, but Lasairín jogged alongside Violet to catch up anyway. They did know the way home, they were only a couple blocks away, but Síomha told them to catch up — Síomha would get in trouble if she lost one of the kids, so.
As they came up behind the others, Violet going around the left side of a group of grown-ups talking about holiday preparations and Lasairín looping around the right, Síomha turned to call back to Lasairín. "Éimhín tells me you lot are going to Sicily in July."
"Yeah! Some Caoimhe people are doing a thing, some politics stuff or whatever, I don't know what exactly? But everyone's going to Sicily to stay for a week, it's going to be so cool!"
"So cool!" Violet echoed. She knew that was kind of a big deal for Lasairín's family — actually, she didn't think Lasairín had ever been out of the country before. Or, the magical country, that is, she'd definitely been in parts of magical Britain that were technically in the UK. "I've been to– been to– b-been to Sicily, it's so hot but super pretty!"
In a low grumble, Éimhín said, "You've been everywhere."
...Um. Violet was just gonna ignore that. "Pack a nice floppy hat and stuff, it's very sunny. But, but it's nice, Syracuse is so cool! Everything's so p-pr-pretty there, um, I think I have pictures..." Not things she drew, or at least not anything good (they were there a while ago), but Síomha brought a camera sometimes.
"I don't think we're going to Syracuse. Áodhán Ó Caoimhe said something about some place called Tarde?"
"Taranto, that's on the mainland, in...Apulia or Lucania, I'm not sure. A good five hundred kilometres from Syracuse, I think."
"Really? Is it that big? I mean, I guess if you take Ireland and tip it up against the bottom of Sicily... It's kind of cheating, though, that bit at the bottom is so thin and long."
"Calabria."
"I don't care what it's called, it's cheating."
A few minutes of their walk from there was very silly, Lasairín talking about how Sicily was cheating, being so long and skinny, so the distances got stretched out and funny. Violet didn't think Sicily — as in the magical country, which included the island and the southern bits of mainland Italy — was that much bigger than Ireland? A little bigger, probably, but not by as much as it seemed, with how super long it was from one end to the other. Ireland was pretty round, not the same size in all directions, but relatively even, so the distances on a long skinny peninsula like Italy were going to seem kind of funny sometimes.
Lasairín made a face at Violet when she pointed out Ireland was pretty small, actually. Apparently that wasn't the point, not that Violet could tell what the point was supposed to be exactly. There probably wasn't a point, Lasairín was just silly sometimes.
They went around a corner, coming up to their block. Violet could see their house! You could tell because their apple tree was blooming again! Big white flowers with little blotches of pink on them, all over the place there were so many. They got apples last year, more than she really expected, they had to make a bunch of appley things that autumn to use them all up, but it looked like there'd be even more this year.
...Except Violet was going to be at Hogwarts this autumn. Oh, um. She better ask Mum to save a bunch of apples — they could do that with preservation spells no problem, she was pretty sure? She thought making applesauce and bread and biscuits and stuff was really fun last year, it'd be sad to miss it.
They didn't go all the way home, instead cutting through another house on their block to get at the courtyard inside. (Violet didn't know this family as well, their kids were too old.) There were some people hanging out here, Violet spotted Éimhín's mum right away — it was kind of hard to miss her, because she was pregnant and big and all. Everyone's dads (and some mums) were out working right now, and other people were busy for holiday-planning reasons, so, Síomha had volunteered to take some of Violet's friends for the day, to give the parents a break. Not a total break, because there were still baby siblings and chores and stuff, but making it a little easier, anyway. They left before lunch, even, they ate on the Hill, and the sun was already drifting down in the west, it was getting to be about dinnertime.
Mum was also out, she had a meeting or something. A politics thing, maybe? She was the Lady of the Family and everything now, Mum did have to deal with politics stuff sometimes, so that would make sense? Violet didn't know, Mum said she'd tell her about it later. If it was a politics thing, she didn't really have to — Violet hadn't stopped thinking politics were boring.
They came up closer to the group, the mums and people asking how the day was. The plays were neat! There was a kind of pre-holiday thing going on up on the Hill — Violet suspected at least partly as an excuse to occupy children so parents could prepare properly — and they had a stage set up where they had plays going on. Most of them were silly things, to entertain little kids, but one of them Violet thought was cool...if kind of freaky at times. It was a part taken out of the story of the gods coming to rule in Ireland — not the story of the war against na Fomhóraigh specifically, but a bit that happened in it. Since people had magic, they could do a lot of neat effects and stuff, it was really flashy and colourful.
It was kind of connected to the holiday, sort of. How it started, there was a funny rule that the king had to be whole of body, with no bits missing or anything, so when Nuadha lost his hand in battle he couldn't be king anymore. But the king of na Fomhóraigh was mean, enslaving the people and stuff — and even the gods themselves, because the Gaels meant "gods" in a very different sense than Violet heard from other people — so they had to do something about that. Nuadha's missing hand was replaced with a magic silver one by the gods' healer, an Céachta, which was super cool magic! but it didn't count for their funny kingship rules. But his son Miach, who was also a super special healer person, learned some advanced blood magic from one of na Fomhóraigh, and used that to make Nuadha a new hand of flesh and blood. That meant he could be king again, which started a big proper rebellion against Eochaid Bress, where they would win, but Nuadha would be killed, the big Lúgh bloke that Violet knew about taking over as king of the gods after.
That's the way the story normally went, but the side story split off with Miach healing Nuadha's hand. See, Miach being able to do what an Céachta couldn't made him very very jealous, and afterward he killed Miach in a rage. That scene was super bloody and freaky, actually? Since Miach was such an awesome healer, an Céachta kept trying to cut off his head, but Miach just healed himself, once, twice, three times, but then the fourth one worked — and with each hit of the sword, the kids watching the show were sprayed with red stuff, everyone screaming and laughing. (They weren't at the front, thankfully, but Violet still got a little on her, turned out it was just redcurrant jelly.) When Miach finally fell, fwoosh! he dissolved into a bunch of pretty colourful sparks of magic, instead of leaving a body behind a bunch of plants blooming up out of the ground. Before the magic could fade away, Miach's sister Áirmidh appeared and caught all of it, collecting all the plants before their father could destroy them. The plants were all the herbs and stuff used in healing potions, and the magic was healing spells! and Áirmidh remembered them all, and would later teach them to mortals — Áirmidh was the Gaels' goddess of healing and also potions and some kinds of witchcraft now, that was a name that came up a lot, her priesthood was actually super important. The clinic Violet was told to go if she was hurt and Mum or Síomha weren't around was run by them, that kind of thing.
And the god of healing wasn't an Céachta anymore, for a good reason: he was dead. See, killing your own son was a big no-no, it was enough of a big deal that his was the first judgement the new king Lúgh made after the war with na Fomhóraigh. Lúgh decided to get clever with it, and left his fate up to Bríd. For a second, an Céachta thought this was basically letting him off easy, because Bríd happened to be his sister — he thought Lúgh was giving him a slap on the wrist, basically. But see, Lúgh was being tricky: he realised that Bríd had doted on Miach, and was still mourning the loss of her own son during the war, and also she took the duty of a parent to their children super super seriously. The Gaels called Bríd the Mother for a reason, you know. So, Bríd did not let an Céachta off easy.
She had him burned alive — because Bríd was also a goddess of fire, you see, seemed the thing to do.
But a funny thing happened, like when Miach died, and it was one of the coolest things in the whole play. Bríd, looking super scary in shiny metal armour and her eyes glowing and her hair made out of fire — illusions for effect, Violet's fairy magic meant she could tell it was fake just looking, but it was still very cool — built the bonfire over an Céachta, and for a minute Violet thought they were going to do the whole thing on stage, with the killing him. The actor would be fine, of course, but, she was pretty sure burning alive hurt, and there should be screaming? which didn't seem necessary. But instead of screaming or anything, when the fire got going the actor rang out with a high, long, wavering sung note, the other actors joining in after a couple seconds, vibrating in the air all intense, and then the fire shimmered over with sparkly rainbow colours, and then it exploded! Little bits of fire were flung all over the audience, some of it coming right at Violet, she ducked—
But the fire didn't hurt, it clung onto her for a little bit, flickering and dancing and wavering between all the colours of the rainbow, and it felt nice! Like a cool breeze on a hot summer day, or silk on her skin all smooth and soft and shimmery, not just outside but inside, flowing through her kind of like doing a change, but not quite the same. It was light magic, Síomha explained later, that's why it felt so good — people aligned to the dark, like Cassie, wouldn't think so, but that was pretty rare for complicated magic theory reasons (and even more rare for children). As the magic fire flickered all over the place in the crowd, Bríd (that is, the actress playing her) explained that the fire burned away the jealousy and the rage in an Céachta's heart, but it consumed his warmth and his love and his healing-ness (worked better as a word in Gaelic). Ever since the gods' first healer was consumed by fire, all flame has held a sliver of his spirit, and that was why it could ward off bad luck and evil spirits, and why it could purify the dead (apparently zombies and stuff were a thing), and why it could protect people against curses, and even burn curses out of you, if you were willing to pay the price. And so Bríd tended the spark of an Céachta in the flames ever since, keeping some small part of him alive forever, so mortals could harness a sliver of his power for themselves.
It was a cool story! She knew from her witchcraft lessons that fire was magically purifying, but she was pretty sure that was just because fire broke things? For a lot of spells, they were bound to one thing, and if you changed that thing so the spell couldn't recognise it anymore, then the spell broke — the same idea worked with scary curses and stuff too, it was a whole thing. But even if there was a more science-y reason that made sense, the story the Gaels had was as good of an explanation for why it worked as any. And the play was neat, with the special effects and all, it was cool!
Were plays like that all the time? She heard some on the radio before, but... Some of the adults said it depends — plays were mostly fancy people stuff, and they thought having too flashy of special effects was crass. The really fun complicated stuff was usually more for kids. If they were doing the same story for adults, there'd probably be more long poetical speeches, and fewer neat special effects, especially flinging things over the audience, that wasn't the sort of thing they normally did. She would have guessed the poetical speeches part — she had listened to plays for adults on the radio before — but it was sad that they didn't do the effects and stuff as much. Adults deserved to have fun too...
(Violet wondered if she'd get so boring when she grew up too. It was hard to imagine.)
Anyway, they all had things they had to do — everyone said a quick round of see you tomorrows, and Síomha and Violet started toward the back door of their house. On the way, she asked Síomha if that was a normal story for Bealtaine? Violet knew there were bonfires and stuff, it would make sense if it was a Bealtaine story, just she'd never heard it at previous holiday things. Apparently it wasn't specifically a Bealtaine story, but it was appropriately thematic, what with the fire and all, so it wasn't a weird story to tell, with the holiday coming up. Besides, it was just fun, playing around being all dramatic on stage and the effects and stuff, yeah, that was so cool! They should go to plays and things more often. She knew Mum didn't really like that sort of thing, but.
Oh well, Síomha and Violet already went to the dance parties and stuff people had sometimes without Mum, this could just be another thing they did together, right? Yeah! that was a great idea! Or, if Síomha didn't want to get stuck with Violet all the time, she could just go with her friends when she was old enough to use the floo on her own or apparate or whatever, but until then...
Mum suddenly appeared in the kitchen through the door to the dining room, startling Violet a little. She was dressed nicer than usual — one of those dresses with the corset and everything, in the deep rich red and silver used in some Black stuff, the whole thing glittery with silverwork, the changing angles of the light almost making the patterns seem to move — because you were supposed to look nice when doing politics. "I can look into catching shows while you're out of school — maybe in Paris, or Venice, or Prague. It wasn't really thinking of it, when we started going out I figured you were too young for that sort of thing, but you're getting older now. Though, I don't like stage plays so much myself, I prefer ballet. Maybe the occasional opera."
"Opera? You mean, you mean with singing and stuff?"
"Sure. The instruments are magical too — it doesn't carry over the radio at all, though, only works in person. You remember some of the musicians at holiday parties and the like over the years?"
"Oh yeah!" When they played, they kind of made the air around them all sparkly, and Violet could feel...things. Like, the feelings the music was supposed to make, you know, what the musician wanted you to feel hearing it. It made her mind magic ring kind of tingle — she couldn't remember perfectly, it was a while ago, but she thought Mum explained that it was mind magic, not the kind that the ring was made to block but close enough that the enchantment turned on to try to block stuff? Whatever. Anyway, the holiday parties and stuff she saw this at before were normally all super happy excited kinds of things, with happy excited music, it was really fun. "How, how, how many p-people do they have playing? D-D-Does the magic get, get stronger with more people?"
"Mm, stronger maybe isn't the right word. The effect on you hearing it is mostly the same, but it certainly is more energetic with more performers. An entire orchestra will colour the character of the ambient environment, until the whole space rings with it, it's very neat. I'll check if there's a show at a convenient time over the summer in Venice or Tuscany — could you remind me if I forget?" she asked Síomha. "I have a lot on my mind these days, sorting out the affairs of the House and, well. Making plans."
A funny look came over Síomha for a second, going still for a blink. "And...how is that coming along? Plans."
"Ah... Well, I was going into the Ministry today, you know, and— Actually, here." Mum reached back, half leaned over into the dining room. After a second she started walking closer to them, some papers in her hand that hadn't been there a second ago. She came to a stop a couple steps away, held the papers out to Síomha. "See for yourself."
Síomha hesitated for a second, suddenly seeming weirdly nervous, before reaching to take the papers. Violet was still too short, couldn't make them out very well — the first one was printed English text on the fake 'parchment' used for a lot of formal letters and stuff, the second one handwritten Gaelic on plain paper. That was all she could see, caught a couple words here and there, but not enough to make sense of it. They were both pretty short, it only took, like, maybe a minute for Síomha to read both letters. "So... You mean...?"
"I mean. We still have to work out the paperwork and plan the event itself, but yes, the legal side will come through whenever we're ready. Unless you've changed your mind, of course." That part sounded like a joke, a bit of a bouncing drawl to her voice, Mum smirking a little.
"Of course I haven't chan— Bloody impossible, here you—" Instead of finishing that thought, Síomha stepped up, grabbed Mum's dress over her hips, the letters still in her hand crumpling up a little. Mum was kind of yanked in the rest of the way, and then they were kissing.
Smiling to herself a little, Violet watched them for a second, and... Oh, wait, they were still kissing. Um. Going on for a while this time, looked like. That was okay, she wanted to go change into lazing-around-at-home clothes anyway, maybe have tea before dinner. If kissing was what Mum and Síomha wanted to do right now, okay then.
Violet lingered there watching for a moment longer than she probably had to, a little... Snogging seemed...kind of gross, honestly? Having someone's mouth right up on yours like that seemed like it'd be awkward to begin with, and the actual kissing part seemed...wet. And stuff. It didn't gross her out to see Mum and Síomha do it — if anything, it was just kind of nice that they obviously liked each other so much, even if she didn't really get the kissing thing — but the thought of doing that with someone herself, that just seemed, you know, kind of gross.
She'd been thinking about that more, lately, and she was a little worried that might be a problem when she was older. Doing the whole family thing people did felt like something she wanted to do — eventually, when she was grown up and stuff — but the having babies part might be a little difficult if even just kissing was gross. It wasn't something she was super worried about all the time, just, a thought that came up now and then. She didn't know...
Anyway, putting her shoes away, yes. Violet started off, but she didn't even make it all the way out of the kitchen before Síomha called, "Willow, wait! We, um..." She glanced back over her shoulder — they weren't still kissing, obviously, but they hadn't split up either, Síomha's hands still on Mum's hips and Mum's on her arms. "Is it still too early to tell her?"
Mum glanced up at Violet, and then back at Síomha. With a funny, crooked, awkward little smile, "I think this is the time to do it, actually. We can start telling people now, and we should probably start with her."
"Right." They let go finally, slipping a step apart. "Willow, lovely, we wanted to, ah... Unless you wanted to," she muttered, glancing back over at Mum.
"...It doesn't really matter. We should all sit down, I think."
"Good idea, yes — ah, right over there, maybe..."
Not sure why they needed to go sit down for whatever they needed to tell her, but okay. They moved over into the sitting room, Violet quick leaving her shoes by the front door on the way. Síomha sat on the sofa, so Violet plopped down next to her. Instead of taking the other spot, Mum conjured a short little stool with a sharp snap of her fingers, the thing appearing with a funny clunking like an echo — she knew enough about magic by now to know that Mum just wandlessly conjuring things was ridiculous, but she'd been practising magic for decades and decades, so. Síomha sidled up close to her, Mum on her stool facing them, their legs all bumping into each other's, and...
...They were acting like this was important, whatever it was. Violet just thought they were being silly, at first, with whatever they were going to tell her about, but... It was big news, she was getting now.
Honestly, she was getting a little nervous. They weren't acting like it was a bad thing, just, Violet didn't know what was happening, was all.
"So, um." Mum was leaning forward on her arms, folded across her legs — and she looked uncomfortable, weirdly nervous, her eyes bouncing away to the sides like Violet did when she was talking sometimes. "Síomha and I have been talking about, er..."
In a low teasing drawl, Síomha asked, "Would you like me to take over?"
Mum sighed, somehow looking annoyed but relieved at the same time. "Yes, please, save me from myself."
"I believe I did that already."
"I suppose, but you could stand to be more smug about it, one could hardly tell."
Síomha just smiled at Mum for a second, Mum giving one of those fake exasperated shakes of her head, her lips twitching — Violet had the feeling there was some silent joke there she wasn't getting. "Anyway..." Shuffling closer to Violet, their legs pressing together, one of Síomha's arms snaking around her back, pulling her in close. Her voice quiet and soft, "We've had a lot of fun these last few years, haven't we?"
That sounded like one of those questions that weren't really asking for an answer, but she got the feeling Síomha was waiting for one anyway. "Yeah?"
"And we've gotten really close, you and me and your mum. Especially since I've moved in, like our own little family we've got going on here. I don't know about you, but I love living here. What do you think?"
"Yeah! It's g-grr-gr-g– I l-love having you here." A little flustered by the stammering, she leaned a little closer into Síomha, to make the point while her words were being stupid. She couldn't see Síomha's face from this close, but whatever.
"I love it too." The arm around Violet hugging her close, warm and smelling faintly of roses and honey from the candy up at the Hill. Muttering low over Violet's head, breath tickling through her hair, "Do you want to know a secret? Something else happened, the day we decided I was going to move on, but we had to wait to figure things out before telling people. Only my parents, my great-uncle, and your uncle Arcturus know about it."
"Um, what?"
"Your mum asked me to marry her."
Violet twitched. She leaned a bit away from Síomha, enough to make out her face — she was all smiling, bright and happy. Mum was too, but she still seemed a little nervous, for some reason, Violet wasn't sure why. "Rr-really?"
"Really," Mum said, nodding. "A couple days before Christmas, months ago now. I wanted to wait to make sure it was going to work out before saying anything."
"I... Hey wait, is that allowed? I thought you said..." There was that whole thing about the law saying Violet was a boy, so she was only allowed to marry a girl? She could swear that came up at some point.
"Well, they can't stop us from having a party, can they?"
...Um.
After a second of smirking at her, Mum actually answered the question. "It won't be legal, no. At least in Britain — there are countries that will recognise this sort of marriage, just not ours. How we'll make it work is, I'll adopt Síomha, so she'll be a Black, and we'll have a normal wedding like everyone else, and just tell people we're married, even though the law won't strictly agree. If people are polite, they'll play along. There were a few things I had to sort out to make sure that will work, with the family law. And I had to ask the Master of Síomha's clan for permission, and I requested a pre-judgement from W.A.S.—" Wizengamot Administration Services, Mum meant, the people who ran the magic parliament and various things to do with the noble families. "—as to the legal status of our children. That's what those letters were, earlier."
Violet blinked, glanced between Mum and Síomha. "You're g-ger-g-g– cheh, children? Ugh, w-words..."
"Oh, oops," Mum muttered. "Didn't mean to just...drop that. Er."
...It was still weird how obviously nervous Mum was about this, Violet had no idea what was up with that. "How?" Unless Mum had forgotten a very important bit when explaining about sex and babies and stuff, that wasn't how that worked at all.
Since Mum was still kind of beating herself up for babbling and accidentally mentioning the children part before she meant to, Síomha said, "Ah, the usual way, I imagine." Oh, right! Stupid, Mum could just make herself boy parts whenever she wanted, she forgot. (Being a metamorph really was very convenient sometimes.) Her arm squeezing a little around Violet, "So, Willow, want to give being a big sister a try?"
...
...
Bluh.
That was all, her brain just did a big fuzz, too many thoughts at once and none of them making sense, she couldn't...
She couldn't make heads or tails of the sister part — it kind of sounded a little scary? Like she might do it wrong and be bad at it, and her baby siblings — sisters, they would all be girls, because Mum could make the boy parts but it was just transfiguration, she couldn't change her DNA at all— Baby sisters, that was a mad thought, wasn't it, and Violet never did sisters before, and people normally didn't like her much, and she might do it badly and make her baby sisters hate her, and that would be very sad, but the feeling that people didn't like her and she never did anything right was an old thought, from when she was still Harry and with the Dursleys, she had lots of friends now! and she had cousins, which was kind of just a step removed, and she got on fine with them, and she was going to try really hard to be a good big sister, obviously, because, the only sibling-like stuff she had before was Dudley, and he was mean to her, and she definitely didn't want to be like Dudley, she didn't want them to—
That was all a mess, kind of giving her a headache, even. But the thought that was coming through clear was, "Does that, d-d-does, does that mean you'll be m-mmy mum, for r-rr-real?" If she was going to be having sisters, that meant they had the same parents, and if Síomha was marrying Mum, she was pretty sure that was how that worked? right?
Síomha laughed, bright and sharp — but not in a mean, laughing at her way, more in just an excited, happy way. "Yes, Willow love, I'll be your mum for real. If that's what you want."
"Yes! Yes it's, it's ah, it's w-w-weh– Mm!" Her voice was being dumb, so Violet just latched onto Síomha instead, hands fisting in her blouse. Her head actually might have hit Síomha's chest a little harder than was comfortable, but she wasn't really thinking about that. Just, her voice wasn't working, hugs, hugs would do.
She really wanted that. She didn't even know this was an option before right now, she never thought of it before, but now that Síomha asked she wanted it really really bad.
Síomha was great, and her living with them was great, and she loved her and she loved it and ah! Much less getting her voice to work, it was hard to even think straight, just, hugs, that was all.
(When she was little, she didn't even have one mum, but now she had two. That seemed like cheating somehow? Like it was too good to be a thing that was allowed.)
While she was trying to make sense of her brain being all scrambly, she felt Síomha's arms wrap around her, pulling her in tight — it was actually kind of uncomfortable, but she didn't really care at the moment. All warm, and soft, and smelling like roses, she felt Síomha's face turn into her hair, a pressure she thought was a kiss against the top of her head. "I love you, Willow, so much. Thank you."
...Violet didn't know what Síomha was thanking her for, but okay. Her voice definitely wasn't going to work right now, feeling too fuzzy and warm and full, so she just nodded against Síomha's chest.
One of her arms lifting away, Síomha said, "Come here, you." Violet was confused for a second — she was already here, she couldn't come any more than she already had — but then there was a warm body coming in from the right, an arm going around Violet the other way. Oh, she was talking to Mum, right that made sense. Mum must be kneeling on the floor, or on something to make her conveniently tall, leaning over the couch and wrapped up in the hug. She thought she heard Mum and Síomha kissing for a second, but just for a second, then just leaning into the hug, warm and tight and soft and aaahhhh...
Wait, Mum was Mum, she couldn't call Síomha mum too, that would be confusing. Er...
Different languages, maybe? Síomha could speak English just fine — and French, sort of — but it was very obvious that she still preferred Gaelic, slipped back into it all the time. (This whole conversation had been in Gaelic, it usually was at home since Síomha moved in.) Then, Cassie could be mum — ooh, or maybe mum in Cambrian? That was her first language, like Gaelic was Síomha's, that felt appropriate. Violet thought that was just mam, but she wasn't sure, she should ask later. Then Síomha would be máthair, problem solved.
Like it was even a problem, it was a great problem to have! Needing to figure out two words to call mums because you had two of them was the best problem!
She couldn't even, just, this was awesome, feeling all full and hot and jittery, she couldn't—
"Mm-mm!" She forced her hands to let go of Síomha's shirt, tried to scoot away a little — Síomha and Mum must have noticed, their arms loosening from around her, letting her sit up. It was just so exciting, she felt so twitchy and aaahhh, her feet tapping against the floor, trying to let out some of the energy, but that wasn't enough, she scooted a bit to the side so she could get up to her feet, bouncing on her toes and, "Aaaahhhhh!"
"Is this good random yelling?" Mum asked, her voice wiggling a little like she was trying not to laugh.
"The best r-rrrandom yelling! I'm only– I c-c-c– Aaahhh!" It was too much, simmering away in her chest, like a pot of boiling pasta or rice or something, her head all colourful fuzz that she couldn't make— "We should d-do a thing! To celef-celeba-celerrr-cel– stuff!" That word didn't finish the thought but she couldn't even care right now, practically vibrating, she was still bouncing on her toes, she couldn't stop...
"Oh? What were you thinking? When your mum asked me she brought me to a very fancy, very French, very romantic restaurant, because she can be sweet like that sometimes."
Violet just let out a pfff noise — obviously they wouldn't bring her with them to a very romantic place, but also this was celebrating her having two mums now, that was a different thing! — before she could figure out what to say Mum was talking. "And that time I even did it on purpose, usually I stumble into it accidentally, like an idiot. And if you're her mum for real now, I'm not sure referring to me like that will work anymore — just your mum can get kind of confusing, you know."
"Sure, come to think of it, ah..."
Whirling back around on her heel, she pointed at Síomha. "Máthair! I d-decided already!" Her finger moving over to Mum, "C-C-Cambrian?"
Mum was trying to do the you're-being-silly single eyebrow raise, but it wasn't quite working right, her mouth curling into a half-grin. "For mother? Mam."
"Okay. Fy mam—" She waited a second for Mu– Mam to correct her Cambrian (Violet only knew a little), but she didn't say anything, so her finger moved on to Síomha. "—mo mháthair. Like that, settled."
Her smile turning more to a smirk, Mam turned to Sí– Máthair, it was Máthair now. Or, should Violet wait for the wedding first? She should probably ask... "Looks like Violet's got this all figured out for us."
Síomha didn't respond with words at first, just let out a little up-down agreeing hum. There was a shimmer of wetness in her eyes, she covered her mouth with the back of her free hand — Mu– Mam had the other one (that was going to be hard to remember). "Ach, I'm sorry, I– mm..." She sniffed a little, her fingers moving up to her eyes.
"Are you okay?" The giddy bouncy crackly energy filling her up dimmed a little. Part of her was kind of wondering if Síomha felt that badly about Violet calling her that, but that didn't make a lot of sense, she was pretty sure, that seemed like it was one of her stupid thoughts. She was much better with this stuff than she used to be, but occasionally it was still hard to tell...
"I'm fine, Willow, just, ach, happy, that's all." She cleared her throat, and dropped her hand again, smiled up at Violet. Right, yes, that was definitely happy — she could be kind of bad with faces sometimes, but she was hardly likely to mess that one up. "You're the one whose got it all figured out for us, any ideas what you want to do to celebrate?"
"Um, um, um—" Not really, no, she was just excited, she was still bouncing on her toes, it just felt like they should do something, her skin tingling and— "Beach! Can we g-g-g— Um. Picnic?"
They both looked at Mum, who was kind of the expert at putting things together like that, and was more likely to know places they could go on such short notice. After a second of thought, she said, "I suppose I could apparate us down to Valencia. I know of a place outside Alacant we can go. It will be a little cool — it is still April — but warmer than it is here, at the least."
"Yes! Let's do that!"
"Sure, that sounds nice," Máthair agreed. "Perhaps take a bottle of wine, and pick up pizza on the way?"
"Ooh! M-m-mmagic pizza! Yes!"
Mam laughed, shaking her head. "All right, we can do magic pizza. The usual for Violet, and whatever seems interesting for us?"
"Keep it somewhat light — I have a feeling we'll be stopping through Valencia to find some sinfully rich sweets on the way back."
"Well, of course. We're celebrating, you know, can't do that properly without dessert."
"Yes!" Violet chirped, pointing at Mam again. "Fact!"
"See, Violet agrees with me, and she's the one who's got this all figured out for us, so."
"I can't argue with that logic, I guess."
"Go out back and pick a bottle, I'll go put in the pizza order. Okay?" Once she got a nod back, Mum stood up. She went all straight and tense like she was about to apparate — but instead she leaned over, her hands cupping up under Sí– Máthair's jaw, and kissed her. Er, started kissing her, that is, Violet thought it was going to be a quick goodbye thing, but she guessed wrong (for the second time this afternoon). Again it went on, Máthair's hands coming up over Mam's hips, and...
Okay, really, you two, they were supposed to be doing a thing!
Eventually, Síomha let out a hum, her hands moving over to Mam's arms. Mam leaned up again, Máthair said, "Didn't you say something about pizza?"
"Right, of course, got distracted. Back in a minute." She took a step back, and with a soft little crack! she was gone.
Shaking her head to herself a little, Síomha looked over at Violet. "You know, your mam is very silly." She used the Cambrian word all of a sudden, but she said it like it was Gaelic, do mham.
Violet grinned, bouncing on her toes some more, couldn't hold it in. "Mhmm!"
She smiled back up at Violet some more — green eyes practically sparkling, still a little watery from almost crying a minute ago — before moving to stand up. "Right, I should go get that bottle of wine, then. Did you want to bring soda or tea?"
"Mm!" That was a silly question, obviously soda went with pizza. She should have some strawberry stuff sitting around still. Síomha went back toward the kitchen, to go out to the cellar outside to get the wine, Violet following her without really thinking. "A Mháthair, a Mháthair, a Mháthair a Mháthair..."
Glancing over her shoulder back at her (still smiling), Máthair asked, "What is it, silly?"
"It's fun to say! This is so cool, I l-l-love you, it— You're g-ger– You're g-getting married!" That wasn't quite she wanted to say, but aaahhh, she couldn't...
"I am!" Máthair chirped, bright and grinning. "That is so cool!"
"Aaahhhh..."
Máthair started bouncing on her toes too, flicking her hands— Oh, Violet didn't even notice she was doing that, hmm. "Aaahhhh..."
"Aaaahhhh..."
"AaAAHHhaaahhh..."
Violet broke into giggles, she couldn't help it, grinning as her máthair hugged her and dropped little fluttery kisses on her head.
(This kind of was to good to be allowed, since it wasn't even properly legal and they had to cheat, but Violet was way too happy to care at the moment. If the law didn't allow this, then the law was stupid, and nobody should listen to it anyway. Fact.)