Closed Girl Goss

[Taylor Blare-Edogawa]

It sometimes felt like way too much time had passed since Taylor had last been in the UK. She'd arranged to meet Ai at a local cafe not far from the manor. As much as Taylor would love to go and see Tizi and Kael, she simply didn't have time to spend hours there and she knew she easily would if she met her dear friend and sister-in-law at her home. As it was, training didn't start for a few hours and she figured she'd had some time to kill before the coach would start looking for her. She was glad she'd learned Japanese all those years ago, the new coach kept trying to catch her out since she was one of the oldest on the team and she knew he was just looking for an excuse to bench her. She wasn't sure why the man hated her, but he couldn't do anything whilst she was still fit as a fiddle and understood everything he'd say. Heading into the cafe, jeans and a loose fitting shirt, she took a seat on one of the couches and ordered a coffee for herself. She was a little early and she wasn't sure when Ai would get here as she'd been pretty vague about what time to meet. Still, she was sure that Ai wouldn't keep her waiting too long, it had been almost three years since they'd had time to really chat properly, both as busy as they were. The last time she'd seen Ai for any length of time was just after Mikael was born, and she'd just had Nata then.​

Taylor leaned back against the back of the couch and kept and eye on the doors for Ai's arrival. She hadn't indicated that she would be bringing any of the kids, but Taylor wouldn't mind if she brought either or both of them. She didn't get to see her nephews near as much as she should like. Letters just weren't the same. She looked up as she saw a distinct flash of black hair. She stood up and waved enthusiastically to her sister-in-law. "Ai! Over here, hi!"​

 

[Ai Nightray]

Ai had just come from a trip from her healer for her monthly checkup and was now standing outside of a cafe near Nightray manor, or at least, relatively near. She had left both Tiziano and Mikael with Liam at the office hours ago when she had told her husband that she would be meeting up with Taylor today. He didn't think anything of it and merely bid her to enjoy whilst he spent the day with their sons. She hadn't told him yet that they were expecting another child and well, with the chaos in the manor she supposed she just didn't manage to find the time to. She was planning to tell him tonight though, after she told Taylor. She'd need to run it by her sister-in-law first. Merlin, you'd think this was her first pregnancy! It wasn't that she'd thought that Liam would not be happy about it, he'd probably be ecstatic about it - well, after the initial shock perhaps. And besides, he had been so good with Jai and Tizi even when they weren't married yet, heck, even before they were even together! And with Mikael too! Ai sighed, she was going to end up standing outside the cafe for hours if she just didn't head in.​

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It was barely a minute of heading in to the cafe that Ai heard someone calling her name and the woman grinned upon seeing her sister-in-law. "Taylor! Hey!" she said rushing up to the girl as much as her outfit would allow. A modest and loose dress and a pair of flats. "I swear your hair just keeps getting more and more ridiculous whenever we see each other," the former Hufflepuff teased as she sat down.​

 

[Taylor Blare-Edogawa]

"What? What's wrong with my hair?" She asked, laughing. Of course Ai would comment on it, since Conan hadn't been brave enough to do so since the first time he'd suggested he didn't like how she'd done her hair. As a fellow member of the female unit, however, Ai was blessed with certain privileges that Conan, as both a male and her husband, simply didn't share. "It just feels more nature to have it short now, and the colour is nice!" She defended, wrapping her arms loosely around Ai and gesturing to the couch as he coffee arrived. "Ooh, thank you!" Caramel latte, yes, best drink ever. The former Gryffindor sighed into her cup as she sipped it. "Would you like something? My treat!" Ai looked good, she was glad to see. But then, Taylor hadn't strictly had to worry about her friend since Liam had stepped in and married her. Of course she remembered that Jeremiah had helped out a lot, when he could, but Ai was as stubborn as a mule at times and she often put her foot down where Jeremiah was concerned, thank god. Taylor didn't hate Jeremiah anymore, not like she once did, but after his marriage to Ariana, who Taylor actually happened to like somewhat, she'd felt it necessary to drop her dislike for her former friend. They certainly hadn't struck up a friendship or anything like that, but she could safely be left in a room with him alone at least. "How's things? Conan says hi."​

 

[Ai Nightray]

"Nothing wrong with it." Ai could only laugh with her sister-in-law as she asked what was wrong with her hair. The former Hufflepuff could clearly remember how Taylor's hair looked like when they were but younger, about a decade and a half ago and more actually. Both of them had worn their hairs long, well Ai's had been longer than Taylor and both of them sported dark-colored hair. While Ai's hair had been straight, Taylor's had been a little more wavier. Now she was sure that Taylor was sporting shorter hair than Conan, brightly-colored too. Yep, she definitely stood out in a crowd. "And sure, whatever you say," the woman snickered at her sister-in-law's defence of the chosen color. Ai grinned though at the offer and raised a brow at the free drink being offered. "Shouldn't I be the one treating you since you rarely visit? But I will not say no to a peppermint tea with a dash of honey," she told the worker that had delivered Taylor's drink. They merely nodded and left with her order before she turned her attention back to her companion. "Conan and you should visit the manor more often. It's a lot quieter nowadays," she commented. After the twins had gone off to Hogwarts this school year the manor had gotten quieter and Ai worried less about the place burning to the ground without at least her, Liam or Arianna at home. Well, that and the whole mess between Jeremiah and Arianna. And Jeremiah and Liam. And Jeremiah and Mikaela. Just... all the messes that involved Jeremiah really. "After the twins of terror left for Hogwarts there's barely any people around. And well, there's less shouting going on too after Jeremiah left the manor," she said just as her drink arrived and she thanked the waiter for it. Blowing her tea before taking a sip and deeming it satisfying, Ai settled her drink on the table. "Oh, and I'm pregnant." Well, that was one way to be out with it, perhaps not the best way to use on her husband later though, but something she could use if she couldn't think of a better way to break it to him.​

 

[Taylor Blare-Edogawa]

Taylor sipped her coffee and sighed again. Conan would never understand her obsession with the stuff, but she couldn't help it. It as especially good after a long day of training and all she wanted to do was curl up in a ball at home in bed. Not that Conan would ever let her, the butthead. She'd mellowed some as she'd gotten older and started refraining from proper curse words, since Corey had picked up a habit early on in his life of repeating every bad word he heard. But did he ever repeat the nice ones? Nooooo. She smiled at Ai. "You've such a lovely way of complimenting me Ai, why, I could almost be 12 again!" She said, harking back to their youth when they'd been on less than friendly terms. They were much closer now and had matured a lot, she liked to think. They had kids of their own and they were both married! That said something, right? "Don't worry about it, you know Conan would flip if he thought I wasn't looking after you," she shook her head, "I know, I know, you don't need it, but I don't need a moody Conan, so just take it." She said, nodding in appreciation as the former Hufflepuff ordered her drink. "I've missed you, Ai, it's been so lonely over there." She started, sipping her coffee again. "Don't get me wrong, I love Japan, it's beautiful, but there's no familiarity there, you know?" She knew Ai would know what she was talking about, as both she and Conan had experienced the same when they were at school, though she supposed it didn't matter for Conan anymore since they were living in his home, not hers. Taylor grinned. "I want to come visit more, but Nata doesn't like to travel via portkey or apparition and I won't take Jeri or Karu on a plane, you know what they're like." It was a sort of testament to her skills as a mother about raising all three of those kids, still, she supposed it was more to do with Conan's skills as both a mother and a father that really did it, since Taylor spent a bit more time than she would like training. "I hope Corey's enjoying himself, I keep telling him to write to me, but he's either ignoring me, or keeps forgetting, either is possible." She loved Corey, honestly she did, but he was more like her than she liked to admit when it came to writing letters to his family. Mostly he was like Conan, but he was Taylor where is counted, or didn't count, she supposed, personality-wise. She was about to take another sip of her drink when Ai dropped two bombs on her. One, Jeremiah was no longer living at the manor and two, she was pregnant, again! "Oh my gosh! Ai, are you really?! That's so exciting! What amazing news!" The part about Jeremiah not living at the manor was interesting too, but she was going to leave that for now. "How far along, do you know what it is yet?" She asked, leaning forward to see if maybe she could work out the answer to either of those questions on her own.​

 

[Ai Nightray]

Ai could not hold it her laughter at all at Taylor's words. Calming herself for a few moments, the former Hufflepuff tried to keep a straight face though it was proving very difficult. "Ohhh yes, for us to be both 12 year olds once more, wouldn't that be a treat?" she said with utter seriousness before prompting back to fits of laughter. They were much older now, calmer, wiser and definitely more mature than their pre-teen and teenager selves. Ai knew for sure that she had come a long way from the unpleasant girl she was that entered Hogwarts. One that was barely holding herself together after being orphaned and then abandoned by relatives. Years later, she found herself a family that loved her in England and even with Ryuuji-nii who was still in Japan. And now she was a married woman with three, soon-to-be four kids. Ai snorted though at the thought of her brother flipping. "Conan worries too much, seriously, I'm thirty, not thirteen," the woman said with an exasperated sigh as she took a sip of her tea that helped calm her stomach, the nausea in the mornings had just been starting to settle lately. Ai listened sympathetically to Taylor's plights. She could understand before when she had just been a fifteen year old that had moved into a whole new country with only knowledge that someone was willing to take her in. And even now, she could understand. "I know what you're talking about. I love England but Nightray manor can get a bit too much sometimes," the woman sighed recalling Liam's relatives. Some of them were really an unpleasant bunch. Thank Merlin that Sebastian and Francesca were long gone from the manor although that didn't really help in warming up the rest of the family to her. "A huge part of the manor is still dreary. Liam's grandparents are no closer to welcoming me now than they were when we first got together, not that they can do much about my presence there considering that Liam and I are the heads of the family now," she said with a small shrug. Years of being married to Liam and still the politics of a Pureblood family baffled her. Especially one that was well-off and quite old like the Nightrays. ​

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Moving from that slightly solemn conversation, Ai begun to think of the possibility of visiting her home country. "Maybe we'll visit during the holidays when the kids come back, it'd be nice to visit the old house and my cute nieces and nephews," she said with a grin. The woman had no doubt that she could convince Liam to arrange a trip for all of them to Tokyo, that and if she couldn't, well, he rarely did have the ability to say 'no' to the children for very long. And ah, yes, the woes of motherhood. Their little babies were growing up way too fast in her opinion. Jai was already on his second year and Tiziano would be joining him in school the coming year. Ai could only sigh, "Tell me about it, Jai barely writes to me - come to think of it, he doesn't. He writes to Tizi though and says hi through those letters. Well, all three of them write Tizi letters. Separately," she said with a shake of her head. She always knew when Jai or the twins would write to Tizi since he always needed a little help with reading them and the occasional reply, so at the very least she knew that Jai was still asking after her and Liam even though he rarely if ever wrote them letters. "Yes," the former Hufflepuff nodded in excitement. She hadn't actually told anyone yet about the pregnancy. She'd had her suspicions weeks ago but wanted the first trimester to be nearly or completely over before she told anyone else, including her husband. "The healer said I'm a little over 10 weeks along and not yet, I haven't even told Liam yet," she said with a small smile as she ran a hand through her midsection where she knew a baby bump would be forming soon enough. She really was hoping for a daughter this time though.​

 

[Taylor Blare-Edogawa]

Taylor couldn't help but chuckle at the now easy camaraderie between the pair, though there had been times early on when their ability to fall back into old roles had been strongly tested. Taylor and Ai had been enemies for a long, long time after all and sometimes it was only too easy to remember where they'd started and the long journey through school it had taken them to get to where they were now. Thankfully, neither of them were stupid teenagers anymore, and they could both appreciate they had been at fault for what had happened, though none of them, Conan, Taylor, Ai, Arianna, Liam or Jeremiah, really spoke about those days, if only to keep the peace between their highly dysfunctional relationships. "You know you'll always be thirteen in his eyes, Ai, the only reason I escape that is because we're married and I'm the mother of his children." She sometimes flashed back to those days herself though, where Conan was concerned. She couldn't exactly have said they were a functional year group. Past aside, they were all pretty close now at least. As Ai spoke about Liam and the Nightray family, Taylor started to get that familiar headache she always did when someone bought up Politics. She didn't get it, at all. It made absolutely no sense to her and Pureblood Politics was even worse! It was all just ridiculous problems they were creating for themselves and Taylor wanted no part in it. Especially since, even though Liam and Taylor had never been enemies, they'd never actually become friends either and he generally just thought it best to not talk to her at all, which was fine, since Taylor didn't much care about him anyway, when not in conjunction with Ai of course. "You know that stuff makes no sense to me... all blood purity this and head of the family that and such, it's bloody confusing." She knew they'd gone to school with quite a few Purebloods, Arianna and Liam had been the only two she'd known personally though.​

"They'd love to see you Ai, you know they would. Nata still doesn't sleep in her own bed, I have to be there with her, so she's been going to bed later and later as training drags on for the World Championships." She complained lightly. Ai had been giving her tips on how to break the habit, but so far nothing seemed to be working. "I'm afraid I'll have to wait it out, I just can't think of what to do and I'm not even sure why she's developed the habit, you know?" It was all just a bit stressful and often made her feel like a failure as a mother, but she knew she'd come a long way from when she'd not wanted children at all. The issues mostly lay with the fact that outside of Ai and Conan, and by extension, Jeremiah, Arianna and Liam, Taylor had no family of her own, since they'd all died years ago. She had no one to ask these parenting questions to, and she and Ai had to learn together how to make things work and it hadn't been an easy road, that was for sure. Taylor couldn't help but laugh again however as Ai started to complain about her own situation with her children not writing to her. Well, Jai, specifically since Felicita and Artemisa weren't hers. "Ah, the beauty of motherhood, they don't notice us when we're there, but can't live without us when we aren't." She sighed, shaking her head. Taylor already deeply missed Corey, and she knew he was off having his own adventures and fun and she knew this was her punishment for not writing to her family, but that didn't mean it didn't suck. "I am so happy for you, Ai, honestly I can't believe this!" She said, grinning at her best friend, her sister, and grabbing her hands in her own. "Oh, you deserve it so much, you've been through so much!" She carefully decided not to mention being part of some of Ai's past issues, those didn't matter any more. "I'm sure Liam is going to be excited, even with that cold facade he likes to wear, I see through it, I know." She winked, sitting back a bit and reaching to pick up her coffee before drinking some of it. "Kael won't be the youngest anymore, I wonder how he's going to take that." She asked allowed, excited at the prospect of several upset baby letters. When Kael got particularly upset, Ai let him send Howlers expressing his displeasure to Hinata, which were often returned in kind.​

 

[Ai Nightray]

Ai sighed as she knew that Taylor was right. It was Conan's own way of making up for the time they lost wrapped up in their own bubbles of anger and selfishness. Ai had her faults and Conan had his and they both lost years that they could have spent with each other because of it. "I know," she sighed, "Really gotta break that out of him eventually. Or at least lessen it." Ai could not help but grin though at the hopelessness of Taylor understanding the politics of a Pureblood family. Even she herself did not understand a lot of things but after having a kid with Jeremiah, eventually becoming friends with Arianna and being Liam's secretary for the better part of almost a decade, she learned a lot of things about the Nightray Purebloods. "It's really just a bunch of grumpy, old coots that are nearly impossible to deal with really. Twenty times worse than Liam on a bad day," Ai whispered conspiratorially. Okay, maybe she was just a tiny bit exaggerating considering her husband's frequent temper - one she had been subjected to a lot before they got together, especially in their younger years but really! His grandparents were impossible!​

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Ai nodded as she listened to Taylor talk about their youngest while she drank her tea. The former Hufflepuff could remember years ago when she, Jai and Tizi would share a bed in her one-bedroom apartment years ago when the boys were both very young. They didn't move to Nightray manor until almost seven years ago. Jai had already been six then, and Tizi was four. Both still frequently snuck into her bedroom until they got used to their own rooms. "She'll probably eventually break the habit. Nata's still young, she's the same age as Kael, isn't she?" she asked remembering her youngest. Though Kael already had his own room, he also spent a lot of night in their bedroom, but they were making progress. Ai smiled as she once more thought of the baby currently growing inside her. "Thank you," she told Taylor. "I'm just so excited that I can't even remember why I was so nervous in the first place," the woman chuckled as she took another sip of her tea. Perhaps, it was because Taylor was also family - it had been weird to think of the woman as that when they began to patch things up between them, but now, she knew that she would have no one else for a sister. Sure Liam's sisters were quite nice, and Arianna too, but they just weren't Taylor. "He'll probably be excited and frustrated at the same time, mostly because I didn't tell him as soon as I suspected," the woman snorted at being reminded of Liam's cold facade - one that took the Hufflepuff forever to decipher and get around. It had been worth it though now that they were happily married despite the occasional bumps. "Hopefully good, haven't gotten around to asking the kids how they would feel about another sibling since this little fella is a surprise," she said with a smile, she hadn't managed to tell Jai yet, though she had no doubt that as soon as they told Tizi, news would reach Hogwarts pretty soon.​

 

[Taylor Blare-Edogawa]

Taylor laughed at Ai. Despite everything she knew the twins loved each other and she was forever glad that she'd been able to get them back together after all the problems they'd had initially. To be honest, at the time she'd never believed she'd be able to do it. In the end, it had worked out and though things had essentially devolved from there, the fact that she was able to talk about it, though not a lot, showed her just how far they had really come. Back in first year, she didn't think she could have ever imagined something like this. Not in fourth year, or even sixth or seventh year if she was completely honest with herself. But, not Ai was both her best friend and her sister. They'd been through so much together. Taylor's struggles and Ai's own, Arianna's and Jeremiah's, they all had grown so much closer over the years. "I'm trying, trust me. But he'll always be your brother, older or not." Sometimes she thought Conan was a bit over protective, but given she had no family left, she really couldn't judge that by much. She liked Conan being protective of her because she never got it at any other time. Taylor snorted derisively as Ai talked about the state of the Pureblood elite. It didn't matter what people said, she'd never understand it ever. The only Pureblood's she ever had any contact with at all were Liam, Jeremiah and Arianna which didn't really do much to help her confusion since she knew nothing about their dynamics. "I'll never get it. Liam's the head of the family, so can't he do something to make all of this easier to understand?" She knew Jeremiah's brother was the head of the Raven family, but she didn't know anything about them apart from that, she'd never met any of them. Though they were clearly not as prejudiced as some, though since they had managed to be Pure for so long, there was obviously some prejudice there.​

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Taylor was glad they were able to have this little chat. They didn't get to do it often so she was definitely looking forward to it. She took another sip of her drink. "Yes, I hope so. I don't know if I can endure it for much longer," Taylor sighed. "I mean, I love her to death, absolutely, but I know Conan won't get any sleep the entire time I'm here." She honestly wasn't sure what Conan was doing to get their youngest to sleep, but she hoped he was being successful, he couldn't go so long without sleeping, especially since he had an office job and she was a Quidditch player, they both needed their sleep. "This really is incredibly excited, Ai, you're making me miss it." She said, laughing slightly. She'd thought five was her limit, which was a lot more than she ever thought she would have had, given she never wanted to have kids at all, but after Corey was born, she'd changed her mind pretty quickly. Though there was a bit of time between Corey and Yuki, they weren't too far apart and neither were the other four. "I wonder if I could convince Conan to have another baby, do you think I could do it?" She asked, grinning. She leaned back then, now that there was a slight lull in the conversation. "Going back to this thing with Jeremiah... What's going on there?" She asked. Though she wasn't normally one for gossip, this was definitely something she was interested in and she knew Conan would be as well.​

 

[Ai Nightray]

Ai could only nod. It had taken them both years to realize that, well, it was more of even though she and Conan knew that no matter what happened they would both be brother and sister - twins even, it took them years to acknowledge that fact. Ai with her grieving and loathing against the world had shut herself out and only managed to heal and improve with time as she grew and was thrust into more and more responsibilities. Conan with his stubbornness and his bullheadedness grew with anger until he was tired of it and began to question why he had ever been angry in the first place. They had been so immature during their Hogwarts years that when they graduated all they could do is make up for lost time. And now more than a decade after graduation they definitely came a long way from who they had been. Ai scoffed at the idea that Taylor had presented regarding Pureblood politics. "As if my husband isn't as bullheaded as the rest of them," the woman rolled her eyes. While she loved her husband dearly, she was in no way blind to his faults. "Please, Liam may have changed as much as the rest of us after graduation but he is still that grump we went to school with. And besides, it's because he's the head that he's not changing stuff up. Family tradition and all that boogaloo," she waved her hand as if warding the thoughts off. She could partly understand him though, their marriage had been an uproar in the family - especially with Liam being the head of the family and her being a woman with two sons - one of them was biologically Arianna's husband's -while not married. It didn't exactly help that she had nearly nothing to her name until she began working as Liam's secretary. If Liam was ever challenged and lost his position as Head, well, neither of them wanted to think about that possibility.​

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Ai nodded sympathetically and patted Taylor on the arm for comfort. She could remember the days of caring for Jai and Tiziano in their early years. How she could function with the complete lack of sleep from taking care of two boys and earning a living was something she couldn't remember, except for the fact that she had to. The woman laughed however at the thought that Taylor wanted to get pregnant again just because she was currently pregnant. "Taylor, you literally have five kids at home and didn't you just get back to Quidditch?" she asked but not really preventing the woman from completely taking hold of the idea. It was just too amusing and even she had to wonder what Conan would do when faced with this. "I think I'd like to see Conan try to refuse," Ai laughed at the image of Taylor cornering Conan to demand a baby. Yes, such an amusing situation. She was quickly pulled out of that thought though by her sister-in-law asking her about Jeremiah. "Right. So Arianna and Jeremiah have been married for a good while right even though their marriage kept on like getting postponed and whatnots. Anyways, I do know that it was because they had a huge problem after the twins were born," she said though she never really did find out what it was about. She knew that Liam knew, but Liam and Arianna were surprisingly shush about that one. "Anyways, so they got married right and apparently, Jeremiah went and got Mikaela pregnant some time after that. Mikaela Nightray - as in Liam's sister!" That had been a surprise when Ai found out, Arianna had been distraught and Liam had been absolutely livid. It had been such a mess in the manor back then, well, even now since Mikaela and her son, Arianna and the twins, she and Liam all lived in the manor with Jeremiah up until a few months ago. "So, Ria had been putting up with him for a couple of years, especially since the twins absolutely adored their father. They have been fighting more and more after that though and I'm not sure if Ria ever caught him again or if he ever dared to do it again, but she finally booted him out of the manor and split up with him officially after the twins had gone off to Hogwarts," the woman finished her tale for now and sipped more of her tea. Well, there really was more to tell, after all she and Taylor hadn't gossiped in so long.​

 

[Taylor Blare-Edogawa]

There were moments in time, like this one, where Taylor sometimes couldn't believe this was their life, her life. They'd spent so long in school hating each other and even though they had been friends now for longer than they had been enemies, those seven years had been very long indeed, right through their formative years, Ai and Taylor had almost been as opposite as fire and ice. It had really only been after the incident in the Forbidden Forest and subsequently the weeks that followed that they'd began to realise their own similarities. When she looked back on it now, though there was a lot of old pain there, it was usually more out of fondness and wondering what had really taken them so long to get over the pettiness and see each other for who they really were. These days, there was no one she trusted more than Ai, except Conan of course and even then, some things were best left between the two girls only. Of course sometimes Arianna was also involved in these discussions, but it was more for Taylor and Ai. They had so much history together that Arianna simply couldn't match. "Family tradition my foot, Ai Nightray, you and I both know this is about Jeremiah. He doesn't want to end up like him, which is ridiculous, mind you. I mean I don't know how any of this works, but that boy of yours likes power, I suppose in some way he's worried he'd end up powerless like Jeremiah." Which seemed kind of silly to her, since Jeremiah clearly never wanted any of it. But she wanted to stay well away from that. Purebloods and their rules were weird. As Ai commented on the fact that Taylor had five kids at home already, she sighed. "I know, I know, and when I was pregnant all I did was complain, I remember, I was there, but... I don't know Ai, maybe I'm ready this time! Besides, my Coach is annoying the living daylights out of me. I'm sure this would shut him up for a while, since he can't fire me for being pregnant, that's discrimination." She said pointedly, though she wasn't really going to use her pregnancy to make a point, that would be wrong... mostly. It was the information about Jeremiah that she found most interesting though. Particularly since she'd really heard nothing about any of it. "Wow, damn, I always knew Jeremiah had a thing but... that's crazy!" She said, thinking about the time she'd met Liam's sister. "Does he maybe have a thing for Liam and he's trying to piss him off?" She wouldn't put it past him, no matter how straight he tried to tell everyone he was, Taylor could tell.​

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It had been almost a year since Taylor had managed to make time to meet up with Ai again. Her hair was longer now and she was three kids more than she had been before. The start of the new year had come quicker than she would have liked and she'd had to ship Corey off again almost as soon as he'd arrived, which always pained her. She missed her babies when they weren't in the house, of course she still had four... seven others to look after, but that didn't mean she was happy to be one down. She hoped Ai wouldn't immediately ask why she'd been incommunicado for a year, though given she'd taken time off from Quidditch, which had been news, perhaps Ai would have already known about it, but then again. Perhaps not.​

 

[Ai Nightray]

The months had passed by quickly though Ai had barely noticed. She had been quite busy with her pregnancy and eventually the birth of Eurydice Nightray. Not to mention that Tizi had joined his siblings in Hogwarts New Zealand this new academic year. And so, the woman didn't immediately notice that her next meeting with Taylor had been about a year since their last. Of course, she exchanged letters with the woman - well, more of Taylor's husband than Taylor really - so it wasn't as if they were not that updated concerning each other's lives, but then again a meetup was so much more satisfying. Besides, it was just so much easier to exchange gossip when you're actually within the same place. And so, today found Ai with her 6-month-old daughter in her arms as she walked into the café that she met up with Taylor in the previous year. Seeing Taylor, the former Hufflepuff quickly approached along with her daughter. "Wow. You actually grew your hair."​

 

[Taylor Blare-Edogawa]

Taylor grinned as she saw her best friend and immediately, beelined for her, completely ignoring Ai for the six month old little cutie-pie in her arms. "Ohmygodlookather." She said, completely enamoured by the tiny babies little face. She looked up at Ai then, "pray she looks like you," she said, laughing slightly at the thought of a tiny Liam. She was sure he was taking all of it quite well though, and with Conan at home with her little ones, of whom she really would have brought with her if she believed in taking babies on planes, which she absolutely did not. She played with Eurydice's fingers. "Eury is so chubby and cute and ugh, honestly Ai you make such cute wittle babiessss." She said, moving away from the baby and giving Ai a quick one armed hug. "You look great!" She was wearing a black hoodie herself, so it was hard to see the baby weight she'd yet to lose, but she was athletic, so she would have it gone in a matter of weeks. "How's the fam, how's everything, I had triplets, how's things with Arianna and Jeremiah, have they patched things up yet?" ​

 

[Ai Nightray]

Ai could barely hold in a chuckle as her sister-in-law practically ignored her in favor of a baby. Well, Ai couldn't exactly blame Taylor either. Eurydice is a pretty cute baby and has a number of people wrapped around her tiny little finger. "I really do hope that she does," she said with a sigh. While both Jai and Tizi did end up looking more like her than their fathers, she thought that it was mostly her Asian genes at work. With Liam, since the pair of them both had Asian ancestry, it had been a little harder to tell who the children were going to look like. "She is such a darling isn't she?" she said as she cooed over her daughter while she took a seat. "I hope she's more like me this time around, I think I've produced more mini-Liams than I would have liked," the woman admitted with a sigh. To be honest, it was quite ironic and hilarious and sort of a headache that both Jai and Tizi had turned out to be miniature Liams, something that her husband was quite smug about. He had such a large influence on her older sons that it didn't even matter that Liam wasn't their biological father. While she didn't exactly have a sunshine personality in her early years, she did hope at the very least that little Eury would turn out less like her father and more like her, for her own sanity of course.​

​

"Oh you know, same old, same old. They kick a fuss every now and then about me and the kids and then remember that I actually hold some power in the family and they just stop for a while," the woman commented rather offhandedly. Nothing new really happened in the case of family politics, she and Liam were handling it quite well all things considered. Ai had barely kept track of the rapid fire questions that Taylor had been throwing her way so she didn't get to process the information as well as she had hoped. "Oh, that's nice and good as one can hope for the two of them, I suppose. It's all a little confusing. You remember Sergei? The one that kicked up a fuss in THE prefect meeting?" the former Head Girl asked her former co-prefect. The prefect meeting of their last year was something that was rarely discussed but since it was quite memorable, she was pretty sure that Taylor would have no trouble remembering some details. "Well, Arianna had gotten together with him and gotten pregnant. She's staying at New Zealand now. The twins aren't exactly happy about that and neither is Jai nor Tizi for that matter," Ai said as she bounced her daughter on her knee slightly to keep the young one occupied and happy. It was proving to be effective as the baby could only giggle and try to make small bubbles on her lips from time to time while Ai wiped it off everytime it would get to be too much of a mess. "And then I heard from Liam - who is very annoyed - that Jeremiah had been getting close to another one of his cousins lately. Aaren, this time," she said rather conspiratorially. She had met Aaren Nightray a few times. She was quite the entertaining and energetic woman though it was getting kind of annoying and old that Jeremiah was going through Liam's family as if it was his bucket list of sorts. "I don't know if you remember her but she was in Gryffindor. A complete chatterbox and was Head Girl a few years after we graduated," she said as she turned to call upon a waiter, deeming all of her sister-in-law's questions were answered before one of Taylor's questions processed in her head. "Hang on one second," she muttered as she tried to recall everything that the former Gryffindor had said since she had arrived. "You had TRIPLETS?!?!"​

 

[Taylor Blare-Edogawa]

Taylor listened to Ai as she talked through all the questions Taylor has posed to her, all the while smiling and waving at the little one on Ai's hip. Honestly Eurydice was such a cutie, she wished she'd been able to bring her three, only they were younger than Eury and she didn't believe in taking children on planes. Rose, Jonah and Elijah born only mere months ago. They were with Conan now, but she'd already gone back to training, which was how she'd already managed to hide most of the change to her body under her clothes. She would get right back into shape quickly she was sure, or at least she hoped she would. She nodded as Ai mentioned the Prefect Meeting, the one from their senior year. "How could I forget?" She'd had to step in after Preston decided to take it up angrily with Ai that he was partnered with Sergei. How they had been supposed to know about what had been going on with them was beyond her. It wasn't like Ai and Taylor hadn't been forced to work together for two years without anyone caring about how they'd felt about it but they hadn't kicked up a stink like that. Of course Raziel had not helped. "I remember the point cards, that's what I remember," she said, though she was surprised to hear about Arianna and Sergei and that they were already living together with a child. She couldn't imagine the kind of upset the twins would be going through, nor the boys too, who would have grown used to seeing Arianna about the manor. The one that really hit her was Jeremiah and Aaren. "Wasn't she really naive?" She asked, not sure if she was thinking about the right person. She'd never had a lot of interaction with Aaren, so this was news to her. Jeremiah really did have a type. Nightray. It didn't take long for Ai to catch on to what she'd done and Taylor sat back, guilt all over her face. "I'm sorry! After we met last year and you were telling me you were pregnant, well, I was a bit jealous you know and I told Conan that I wanted a baby and well, I only wanted one!" She said, shaking her head. "Then we had three and I could have killed Conan because it's definitely his fault and oh my god, I had triplets!" She took a deep breath. "I'm a mum of eight... can you believe it?"​

 

[Ai Nightray]

Ai had to snort at the mere thought of forgetting the prefect meeting. She didn't think that it would be forgotten by anyone involved. Maybe even the professors remembered that incident, she was pretty sure all houses suffered a major point loss then, and wasn't Slytherin in the negatives because of that? The woman had to nod though at the description of Aaren, it was pretty accurate. Ai liked Aaren, she was one of the nicer cousins that Liam had and she'd rather deal with her than her brothers any day. Or her mother. Ai shuddered at the thought of Aaren's mother, nasty woman that was. "She sort of is. I mean, to get with Jeremiah at this point, you'd kind of have to be I suppose?" she said with a shrug. It wasn't that she hated the man, they actually got along fine at this point really, but she couldn't really support him with his choices at this point in time. He was literally going through Liam's - and by extension, hers - family and well, it was sort of a headache. She didn't want to imagine that it was only a matter of time before Jeremiah targeted her husband. Ignoring that thought in favor of thinking about Taylor and her triplets, Ai had to break out into a grin. She really was trying to hold back from laughing as her sister-in-law complained about getting three kids instead of the one that she had been asking for. "You know you really can't blame this one on Conan, Taylor," Ai snickered because really, this was more of Taylor's. After all, didn't they plan to stop on five? "Okay fine, granted that multiples do run on our side of the family so there can be some blame," she said with a smirk before bursting out laughing at the thought of Taylor having eight kids. "Well, at least now you do get that Quidditch team and even have a reserve player to boot!"​

 

[Taylor Blare-Edogawa]

Taylor nodded. She couldn't imagine being with Jeremiah. After everything that had happened with all of them, it was hard to imagine he'd grown out of his childish antics and she was pretty sure the proof was in the pudding, so to speak. Still, it was better than nothing at all she supposed. "If it makes Aaren happy and keeps Jeremiah out of our hair, I suppose it's... well I mean it could be worse, couldn't it?" The whole thing was weird in her opinion, especially since it seemed like their Jeremiah had something of a weird fixation on that entire family. Maybe he really was a pureblood supremacist, as much as he used to say he wasn't, he had been with a number of Liam's family members. All of whom are pureblood as far as she was aware. Of course she knew next to nothing about any of that nonsense as she tended to try and stay well away from all of that, it was just so much easier. Ai always had all the best gossip because she was the one who had oodles of things happening, where Taylor didn't usually have much at all. "I can blame his however and whenever I want to, Ai, he is my husband, that makes him complicit in this. He shouldn't have indulged me!" She whined, leaning back into her seat, pouting, very reminiscent of her fourteen year old self after yet another fight with Ai and or Jeremiah. She hadn't changed much, just gotten older. Ai too. "I mean, obviously I love all of them, really I do, but I don't think I can do it, I have eight kids, eight! I'd barely ever even thought of having one!" She said, shaking her head. Corey had been an accident and after him she'd never wanted more... until she'd had more. She'd kept telling herself that was it, but she enjoyed being pregnant, that was the truth of it. She was definitely going to stop now thought, because holy lord eight was really eight too many. She couldn't keep it up, no way. She laughed lightly at Ai's comment. "That is true. I suppose if I can't get the Tengu's to give me what I want, I could always create my own team out of my kids!"​

​

 

[Ai Nightray]

Ai could definitely not deny that Aaren was happy with Jeremiah, but then again she was a naturally cheerful woman, and well, she was definitely not sure what made Jeremiah happy at this point. She wished him all the best really, but his antics had definitely gotten out of hand. "I mean, Jeremiah isn't really out of my hair," she said with a sigh. "He was for a bit when Ria booted him out but now that he and Aaren are getting together, well, he's probably going to be back in the manor in no time," the woman said as she adjusted Eury on her lap and made her bounce every now and then to keep her entertained. Jeremiah had been living in Nightray manor long before Ai had moved in and it certainly didn't help either that Mikaela, Arianna and Aaren were all staying at the manor too at some point. It was a miracle that the manor was even standing with Liam and Jeremiah in the same space and it was amazing how their mutual dislike for each other had not diminished over time. Ai couldn't really blame her husband though.​

​

The former Hufflepuff snorted as Taylor talked about blaming Conan regarding the set of triplets that they recently had. "As if you would have let him not indulge you. Probably didn't even give my poor brother a chance," the woman snickered. While at one point she would have certainly been horrified upon hearing a hint regarding her brother and best friend's antics, she couldn't really be bothered anymore at the age of thirty. "I certainly didn't expect you to pop out twice the number of kids I have," she said with a shrug and that was true. After having Jai and Tizi within two years, Ai wasn't really in a hurry to have more kids or get into a relationship, it had taken ages for her and Liam to even become an item. And for Conan and Taylor, with Corey being an accident, it had taken a while for them to have Yukiko. Not to mention the other kids. "Maybe you can let Jai and Tizi in that team too since I'm definitely not planning to have a Quidditch Team of kids running about," she commented though wasn't really sure. Even with four kids, Ai was pretty sure that she was alright with having more, though that could probably wait until Eury was a little bit older.​

 

[Taylor Blare-Edogawa]

Taylor honestly felt very sorry for Ai. She was stuck with so many issues in her new life and here was Taylor basically cruising along like it was all nothing. Granted, she had eight kids... possibly nine of her suspicions turned out to be correct. She hadn't even told Conan yet because she hadn't have the chance to see him, but she'd suspect for a little more than a month that it was true. She hoped Ai wouldn't judge her too harshly, after all, Ai had been witness to one of Taylor's big meltdowns about having one child let alone nine. It was crazy. Taylor enjoyed pregnancy though and the activities that led to it. She supposed she could have been more careful, but really, it was Conan, her husband and she never had been very good at that type of thing, neither of them had, that was how Corey had happened after all. They had been unmarried for the first two years of his life after all. "Yes, I do see your point," Taylor said, shaking her head. She couldn't imagine having to live with Jeremiah, well, she'd lived with him in the same dorm for seven years, so she could a little. "I did live with him for seven years, so I understand a little," though it was very different given they barely had to see each other. So maybe not then. Taylor grinned at Ai then and nodded. "You're right, you know me too well, Ai, I need to start being more of a mysterious enigma." She said, poking her tongue out. "I totally would, maybe we could make two teams with your kids combined with my nine..." she realised she'd slipped up as soon as she said it. "Uhm, I mean..."​