#35

"Mommy, Daddy!" Amelia rushes up and hugs her parents when they enter the house. "Sorry about the mess."

We moved inside after the movie, and the place quickly filled up with various prototypes. That and a few dozen miniature cars that Apricot had me make for her. Her favorite being the roadster that Stark was working on in the movie. All that, and a small jungle's worth of plants.

"Hi guys, I'll have this cleaned up in a minute." I sweep my hand to encompass everything.

"You look to have had a productive day." Turner says with a laugh. "What was that thing outside? It looked like that train device from the elephant movie."

"Oh, today was something alright." Amelia lets loose a long sigh. "We did get some really good news, though. Mage Long from the castle said that the lots we wanted in that neighborhood would be ready by next week. So, we should be able to move out once we get back from setting up the phone towers."

"That's not good news." Her mother cries out. "You don't have to leave, we don't mind a little mess now and then."

"Katey." Turner hugs his wife. "I know it hurts, especially after Rodrick. But, you have to let her leave the nest sometime. She's married now, and wants to start her own home. Not to mention that she's a Countess. How would it look if the kingdom's newest Countess still lived at home with her parents?"

"Argh." She groans into his shoulder. "I know, but she's my little baby Amy-girl. Nnn. Sorrel sweetie, please tell me you have some chocolate. I think I need some."

"I'll whip some up right now." I say after clearing the last of the junk, and most of the plants. "I need to make a big batch for System-chan, a few tonnes, at least." *Ding**Ding* "You earned it." I over-ride her protestations. A bar is in Kaityln's hands by the time I finish talking.

"Thank you dear." She mumbles out after taking a big bite.

"So, what else have you three been up to today?" Turner tries changing the subject.

"Well, after leaving the castle..." Amelia walks them through our day after snatching her own bar. "And then, when we were leaving the castle again Sorrel looked like he was about to break from strain of everything. So we forced him to relax and go to the Royal Gardens."

"You do seem.. lighter, I suppose is the best word for it." Kaitlyn says.

"Yes, well. I consider myself a Nature Mage first and foremost, and I just haven't been getting enough plant life being in the middle of a city." I try to come up with an explanation.

"Oh, you might as well tell them already." Amelia comes to stand beside me.

"You sure? You made a big deal about keeping it a secret. Okay. Well, I suppose I should just come out and say it." I take a deep breath. "I'm not human. I was raised human, and consider myself to be human. But, I am Plantkin." I shapeshift to my true form. "That's why I really need the plants around."

"Hmm? Oh, that's nice dear." Amelia's mother says nonchalantly.

"That's nice dear?" Amelia snaps. "I was so worried about telling you. And, that's all you have to say? That's nice dear." She bites off each word.

"Amy-girl." Kaitlyn rolls her eyes. "Did we say anything, or even bat an eye about Apricot? Who cares what species he is, so long as I can still get me some grandbabies."

""Hah!"" Apricot and I bark out laughing at the same time, while Amelia's mouth just hangs open. "I told you she wanted grandkids." I say to the stunned blonde at my side.

"At least someone could read the clues I was dropping." She shakes her head at her daughter's dumbfounded expression. "You Awakened may live an extra long time, but I want to see my grandchildren before I'm too old to play with them."

"Mom!" Amelia whines and covers up her beet-red face.

"Don't you "Mom" me. And don't make me go behind your back to that System-chan lady." She wags her finger. "I did some reading and learned she can turn off the whole baby making thing. I don't blame you for wanting to not deal with the bleeding."

"Mom." Amelia's nose scrunches up in distaste while Apricot and I are doing our best not to crack up laughing.

"Oh, hush. And, it's not just me and your father that want to see some babies. You're a Countess now. You need to provide an heir."

"Argh!" She looks like she wants to pull her hair out. "Sorrel, help me."

"I told you before that I'm happy to wait until you are ready." I put my arm around her. "But, yeah. I would like to start a family, and the sooner the better, as far as I'm concerned."

"Apricot?" Amelia begs her wife for support.

"Sorry girl, I'm kinda with Sorrel here. I love kids." She becomes human sized and helps me sandwich Amelia in hugs. "I don't even know if it's possible for me though. This skill makes me human sized, but I don't know everything works with me being Fae." A *Ding* from Temmie rings out. "Spoilers? Huh?"

"Temmie said the same thing when I asked if my special skills would be passed down. But I think her saying even this much was an answer in itself. I haven't read anything about Demi-Fae." I allude to when I was re-incarnated and given the option to pick my race. "But without her wedding gift it wouldn't really have been feasible before now."

"So, you're saying we can..." She trails of, too fearful of getting her hopes up.

"It seems likely." I nod. "But, you may need to stay human size throughout the pregnancy."

"That might be difficult, but worth it. Definitely worth it." A huge grin covers her face.

"You two are ganging up on me." Amelia pouts.

"Aww, babe. I know it's a big change, but we'll wait until you are ready." We squeeze her tighter.

"Grm." She grumbles. "You wouldn't be so blasé about it if you had to be the one getting pregnant."

"You mean like this?" I Shapeshift into a pregnant version of her. My extra mass going straight to the belly and making me look like I'm nine months pregnant.

"Hahaha" - "Ack! Don't do that." Apricot laughs while Amelia freaks out.

"Sorry." I shift back into my human guise with a chuckle. "I know Plantkin are weird, but we're not that weird."

"Alright." Turner steps forward. "Let's quit pressuring her. Amelia-" He stresses her proper name. "-will let us all know when she's ready to have children. So, no bugging her about it. That goes double for you, Katey." He stares at his wife.

"But did you see the way she looked with a big belly?" His wife pleads.

"Don't make me have Sorrel cut off your supply." He goes straight for the nuclear option.

"Hmpf. You don't play fair." Kaitlyn takes a big bit of her remaining chocolate bar.

***

"What are you working on now?" Apricot hovers in front of the projected Runescript I'm trying to get just right.

"Probably a baby making Rune." Amelia grumps. We're back in bed now, but she's been in a bad mood all night.

"You heard your father, we're not going to pressure you." I try to soothe her.

"I know, and I'm sorry for snapping." She apologizes. "It's just... Mom. She wants grandkids so bad, but I'm not even twenty yet." She sighs.

"That's how moms are." I commiserate. "Mine always thought I should be settling down and starting a family, but I was too busy with school to listen. It's a bit of a regret that I've been holding onto, and I'm sorry if I've been pushing it onto to you."

"No, you've been fine." she comes over and kisses me. "I'm just not ready yet. Maybe when I actually do turn twenty. I hope that's okay with you two?" Her voice turns up, making the last statement into a question.

"Of course." I smile and kiss her back.

"Yeah, I need practice staying big for long periods anyways." Apricot agrees. "I want to get pregnant at the same time too, we can raise them as twins." She has a goofy grin on her face.

"Good, we can tell Mom and get her off my back. For another year and a half, at least." She mutters. "Now, I'm curious about what you're working on too. It's not like you to diagram everything beforehand. You usually just think about it for a bit, and then tinker until you get it working right."

"Well, I had an idea during the movie earlier..." I explain my thought process and why I'm taking such precautions.

"As long you're sure it's safe, I'll trust you." Amelia's smile warms my heart.

"I just wanna see you fly like iron man." The orange haired pixie adds.

"Umm, I can do that with magic already." I levitate out of bed to prove my point. "Maybe not quite as high, or as fast, but still."

"Eh." She shrugs, unimpressed. "It's not the same."

"Fine, I'll build some rocket motors tomorrow." I grin mischievously. "If you'll promise to test fly on one, then I'll build an Iron Man suit."

"Don't trust him Apricot. I know that look."

"Show me a movie of one of these rocket things." Apricot demands and I comply with a model rocket launch. "That's like The Jericho. I'm not going to let you blow me up." She flies and hides behind Amelia.

"Hahaha. The Jericho is a missile, rockets don't explode. Well, not unless something goes wrong." I tease.

"And you want me to test fly one? Are you nuts?" She scoffs at me.

"You want me to strap them to my hands and feet." I counter.

"Oh." She goes flat. "Well, I guess if you don't want to, you don't have to."

"Maybe I'll find a good alternative with magic, but let's get my car working first. Then we can start on aircraft, and work our way up to rockets. We'll probably need one to get to the moon anyways."

"Are you still on about that?" Amelia sighs in exasperation.

"It's just waiting up there for us." I conjure an image of this world's moon. "Don't you want to go there, just to say that you did?"

"Why don't you master your car first, and I'll think about it." She rolls her eyes at me.

"Speaking of." Apricot joins in again. "What kind of car is it going to be?"

"Well, it's a summer road trip. So, It's got to be a classic muscle car with a convertible roof. Maybe a *Camaro* or something like that." I conjure images of a bunch of old cars.

"Ooh, I like that one, look at that big nose. It looks like it means business." She points and I instantly crack up. "What?"

"Sorry, but you just picked out a car named the Rocket." I crackup again.

"Oh, I think we've got a winner, sweetie." Amelia says with humor filling her voice.

"..." The pixie does not seem amused.

"How about we watch the Cars movie? It has a very similar one to the rocket, in fact this movie is the only reason I know what it's called. It came out when I was ten, and I spent a few weeks obsessing about all the cars in it." I start the movie up. "Too bad the phase didn't stick, or I wouldn't have had to reinvent the internal combustion engine from scratch." I grumble at all the wasted time.

"Grow some more plants, babe. You're grumbling again." Amelia laughs at me.

"Hush, it's starting." Apricot shushes us. "Ack. Why does it have eyes?"

***

"Mom took the news as well as could be expected, I suppose." Amelia says with a deep sigh after her parents leave for work the next morning.

"You're so silly sometimes." I reach my arm around her waist. "But, I wouldn't have you any other way. So, what are your plans for the day?"

"Well, since the books were a bust, I was hoping to pick some brains down at the guild." She smiles as Apricot races past in a toy car going "Kachow" every few seconds.

"I probably shouldn't have given her a whole mug of hot chocolate with breakfast." I shake my head. "You fine going on your own, or do you want me to come with?"

"You're willing to let me out of your sight?" She puts on an overly shocked expression.

"Yeah, yeah. Ham it up." I roll my eyes. "But, I'm never going to get past my control issues if I don't even try. Just take your phone with you, please. Oh, and if Mittens is going too, I've got a collar for the little danger magnet. It'll create a safety bubble if... when he gets in trouble."

"Aww, babe." She hugs me around the neck. "We'll be fine. What about you? You're not going to try making that thing are you?"

"No, I'll want you here as a back up when I finally get around to messing with that." I re-assure her. "For now, I'll be working on making magic versions of all the engines I made yesterday. Then I'll need to test for power and efficiency, while tweaking the designs to get the most out of them."

"Sounds... thrilling." She deadpans.

"Oh, like you haven't spent days on end perfecting one spell or another?"

"Point." She nods. "But, that's spell crafting. Enchanting just doesn't grab my attention like it does for you."

"What about you, my favorite little chocoholic?" I ask the pixie that just ran into my foot. "You going with Amelia, or staying with me?"

"What? Nooo!" She flies up to eye level. "You two can't break up already, we just got married."

"Ha Ha Ha." We both roll our eyes so hard they look like they're going to fall out. "Amelia's going to the guild to talk magic, I'm staying here to build stuff." She opens her mouth, but I cut her off before she says anything. "And, before you make the "He's letting you out on your own?" joke. Know that she beat you to it."

"Oh, you're no fun." She pouts. "I'm going with her, we're taking Mittens too. So, there." She sticks her tongue out at me.

"Remind me to only let her have half a mug next time." I tell Amelia while keeping a straight face.

"Maybe a third, or even a quarter." She plays along with me. "We may even have to stop her chocolate intake completely."

"Hey, come on guys!" Her eyes go wide. "that's enough joking."

"Oh?" I question. "So, you didn't just crash into my foot."

"That was on purpose." She starts.

"And you weren't chasing Mittens around so much that he had to run upstairs to hide on the bed?" I talk over her.

"Oh, look at her, Sorrel. She's wilting, that's enough teasing babe" Amelia squeezes my arm.

"Sorry, Apricot. I guess I'm more worried than I thought. I didn't mean to take it out on you." I apologize.

"No, I'm sorry. I do tend to go a little overboard when there's a new treat." She shifts to human size and gives us a hug. "And you're not the only one who's worried. I mean, what if you blow yourself up while we're out having fun?"

"That's not going to happen." I rub her back. "I'm just making Enchanted versions of the same engine I created yesterday. I won't mess with anything dangerous until I have your eyes, and Amelia's Magic to back me up."

"Damn straight, you won't." Amelia states. "I have no intention of being widowed less than a week after getting married."

"But if you do, well..." Apricot turns serious. "Try to at least save your dick from being destroyed. Losing that would be a real shame."

"You heard her babe, make a metal codpiece before you do anything that might explode." Amelia nods sagely, like she just solved a great problem.

"Would you two just go already, so I can freak out and fill the house with plants?" I only partly joke.

"Bet you a bar of dark that he tracks us with magic the whole way."

"Bet you two that we get back and the entire street has been turned into a forest."

"Only the street? Hell, if we stay out long enough he'll convert the whole Capital."