Puppies and Babies

For better or worse, Athena Goyle was Mira Anderson's best friend.

But sometimes Mira couldn't help but be a little jealous of the other girl. It seemed silly when you looked at it from the outside. The two women seemed to lead remarkably similar lives. Slythirin's, same circle of friends, similar social status, same love of said social status, betrothal to the boys that they would unknowingly someday actually marry. Love. Really strange, but still somehow undeniable love. But now it felt like the their similarities were coming to an end and to Mira it seemed that Athena's life was branching off onto roads that wouldn't come for many years in Mira's life. A baby? At their age? She was mad. Mira would have never been so irresponsible.

When she had first found out Mira had been concerned for her companion. Kendall Rookwood wasn't exactly the winner of the Most Reliable class superlative. But as far as Mira could see he had come through.. Sorta-ish. But Athena seemed happy and that was all the the blonde could really ask for. A happy Athena meant a happy world. "How was Hawaii? I don't think I ever got around to asking." Mira asked her full-bellied friend. "You two obviously had fun." she waggled her eyebrows a bit, gesturing towards her pregnant torso. A laugh tickled in her throat but emerged as a smile.

Mira was seated comfortably in the kitchen of Athena's new-ish home. She had a simple teacup in her hand and was warmed by the tingling smell of ginger that wafted up from it. On days like today autumn was Mira's favorite time of year. When the leaves turned to gold Mira couldn't help but feel like a giddy little girl. She had strong urges to jump in passing leave piles and buys thousands of sweaters. It was lovely. Unfortunately (or rather, unfortunately, depending on who you are), Krum's wealth was letting Mira indulge her sweater addiction. Her dresser had a pile of unopened packages waiting for her when she got home. They would be sent back to the stores when winter came and her trance was broken. Probably.

Okay, probably not.

OOC: outfit

At just seven days shy of being half way through her pregnancy, Athena Goyle was beginning to grow somewhat anxious yet she was brimming with excitement that she could barely conceal. Two days prior to the arrival of her best friend, in a fit of sudden inspiration, Athena had enlarged the rooms in the upper quarter of the house so that she could then begin to renovate one of the many spare bedrooms into a nursery. She knew that something was no doubt being done at the manor – both Kendall’s and hers – but she wanted something more intimate. She wasn’t going to bring up her boys in an ostentatious house where you hadn’t the foggiest where anyone was. Athena had hated that aspect of her childhood. No, she wanted them right by her side at all times – which meant she needed a smaller home. She knew that she would not spend forever in the house she had taken residence in now (in fact, she had every intention of leaving once they were born) but she wanted it to be comfortable for them before she made her decision on where it was they were going to go. Athena knew one thing, though: they weren’t living in a cold manor. She absolutely refused.

When Mira arrived, Athena found it slightly bizarre considering the person she had upstairs doing the nursery. She felt it bizarre that she could source him at all considering the high powered profession she now kept but sure enough, Elijah Krum had turned up at nine o’clock that morning with a newspaper under his arm and a briefcase stained with paint filled with everything he’d need to get the room ready for carpeting and furnishing. And now, even as his wife-to-be and his friend sat in the kitchen, he was there working diligently to ensure that the boys had the best nursery possible, not quite realising that Athena intended to procure him again for the nursery when they moved to somewhere even more idyllic and even more peaceful than the home she already resided in.

Taking a sip of her tea, Athena shook her head at Mira, a small smirk coming across her features and a scarlet tinge rising to her cheeks. Her spare hand came to rest over her stomach and she tapped idly on the surface of it through the maxi dress she wore. A few nudges returned her probing and Athena’s smirk broke into an absent minded smile as she set the teacup down and leaned back in her chair, her legs stretching out underneath the table as she did so.

“You have no idea how proud of himself he is.” Athena rolled her eyes dramatically. “He keeps banging on about it too: ‘Hey, hey Thea...you know what I did?’” Athena scoffed and shook her head, mentally imagining Kendall as a bug and then being able to squish him like she so desperately wanted to. “Anyway, this disaster was pre-Hawaii. Not that it’s a disaster but, you know what I mean. He’s just so smug. I want to stab him in the eye with my wand.” Athena motioned her intention and smiled despite herself. “But Hawaii was cut short. His bastard Uncle or someone, Merlin knows who, told Raghnall where we were and we were forced to go back. Now that was a disaster. Everyone seemed to come out of the woodwork so they could sit there and bicker about what was going to happen to me, well, us. Thankfully it worked in our favour but even so...it was mad. I hadn’t seen my grandmother in years up until that point. Now I can’t get rid of her. Anyway, enough about me. How was Paris?”

Mira laughed at Athena's tale. Not that it was a particularly amusing subject (it sounded perfectly horrifying) but she could picture it ever so clearly. Mira had been involved in a few similar family brawls herself and was aware of exactly how terrifying they could be. But involving Kendall's family? Woah, back up. Mira had met Augustus on many occasions and she found his remaining beauty to make him all the more intimidating. Augustus had always reminded Mira of Kendall himself (or rather, Kendall had modeled himself after his father) and for that reason she couldn't quite imagine the two men going head to head. "Love family." Mira muttered sarcastically, sympathetic to her friend.

She watched the way Athena scolded her fiancees words and a sly grin crossed her face. Regardless of her words of irritation at the man-child her affection for him was visible in her eyes. Rookwood was an idiot.. but somehow he had managed to make his woman happy. Mira vaguely wondered what a cross of Athena and Kendall would look like in the child that she was carrying. Athena's harshness mixed with Kendall's humor? The little thing was going to drive everyone absolutely mad. But Mira couldn't wait to meet the little boy that would practically be her nephew.

Mira opened her mouth to answer Thena's question but at the mere thought of Paris she just grinned over at her friend and let out a little sigh of contentment. "Amazing." she shook her head, searching for the right words. "Just amazing." Mira shrugged and rubbed her temple softly. "I didn't realize how much I missed him, Thea. We just had fun. It was what we needed, you know? Just the two of us away from the Ministry and the kids." Mira let off a little laugh. It was happening more and more often.. She couldn't help but smile when she thought about her favorite Bulgarian.

"I didn't remember liking him this much." Mira groaned in fake exasperation. "If he gets tired of me I'm going to really be in for it." The idea of losing Elijah was quickly become far from bearable. Why had she ever left him? He was pretty damn perfect. Sorta. Kinda.

Reproducing in order to perform the duties expected of a Pureblood woman was not something that Athena had envisioned doing right out of Hogwarts; yet despite her initial insecurity, she now felt truly safer than ever. What she was doing was something that many women older and around her age had failed to do: to produce sons.

Even in the Rookwood family they struggled to gain the sons they all sought like manic, rabid animals yet within, if one was to be crude enough, ‘one hit’, Kendall had achieved more than his forefathers had over a twenty year period using countless numbers of wives. Athena was a success story whether Raghnall wanted to admit it or not and though she was not keen to be thought of as a broodmare, if that kept her safe then she was willing to make sacrifices.

Exhaling gently, Athena brought a hand to her belly and rubbed her palm across the surface, pressing gently against the foot of what she assumed was Kendall Jr. II – but for all she knew, at the rate they were going, it could have been triplets. The boy rumbled back in response with a jolt and Athena smiled a little to herself though could not quite keep herself from wincing at the pain of it.

“Don’t have children, Mi.” Athena assured her friend, nodding intently, unable to quite wipe the smile from her face. “They’re nasty little buggers that kick their mother. Though, granted. I do think I deserve most of it ... occasionally.”

Athena smiled at her friend’s gushing about the holiday she had most recently been on and raised an eyebrow, searching suddenly Mira’s person for a reason for such a response. “Merlin, are you getting married or something? I knew you were dotty about him but I never remembered it being this much.” Athena laughed, merrily at her old friend.