A few weeks later, Iris was at home preparing for her friends' visit. Basil was out working at the clinic for a few hours, Fern was teaching classes, and Hazel was managing the three workshops, but her other mates were all comfortably relaxing at home.

The inner city stone masonry, carpentry, and the brand new pottery workshop had been set up in preparation for the cold season a few months back. Lots of supplies had been stocked up on both in the workshops' storages and in the warehouse areas on the underground floors of the mountains. Well, it was enough for a few months of work, but it wasn't exactly so much that it could last several years or anything.

The workshops weren't used every day and there weren't nearly as many people working in them. It was mostly just a matter of Hazel experimenting with the various mediums there were to work with and then teaching those who wanted to learn more about the various crafts. Since there wasn't much need for things to be created during the cold season, Hazel was even allowing people to pay a small fee to learn the trades. This was useful since not everyone wanted to work in the workshops year-round, but they might want to make their mate custom trinkets for a special occasion or might be curious about the pottery, but weren't quite ready to pull the trigger and sign a long-term contract.

Regardless, Iris was proud of her hard-working mates, but she also found it quite inconvenient to have neither Fern nor Basil home. Ember kept glaring at her as she paced back and forth in the kitchen, anxiously glancing at the hearth, wishing she could cook. Meanwhile, Ash couldn't seem to stop getting under Ember's skin as he made regular remarks to make fun of his overprotectiveness. Finally, making up her mind, Iris insisted

"It's not right to invite them over and not provide refreshments. We're supposed to be playing games together and socializing for most of the day. If they have to go without anything to eat for that long, they'll end up leaving sooner and I'll be disappointed."

Ember glowered at Iris as he reprimanded

"You know you can't cook right now. You're already having a hard time because of the children. The last thing we need is for you to pass out and fall into a raging fire."

Ash scoffed, rolling his eyes as he stepped forward from where he had been leaning against the doorway. In a rather unimpressed voice, he said

"Is this really what you've been standing there looking so sour about? You know, if you're going to restrict our mate from doing something, you should, at least, be able to make a reasonable compromise. Come on, I'll help you to make something. I can't guarantee I'm the best at cooking, but we should be able to figure something out between the two of us."

"Our mate? She was my mate long before you came along..."

Ember grumbled under his breath in complaint. Ash pretended not to hear Ember's dismissive comments and Iris rolled her eyes, smiling at her mates' shenanigans. Those two were always disagreeing, but both had been reasonable enough to not get unreasonably violent with one another. Well, they did, at times, come home from morning training covered in the occasional scratch marks or bruises, but they certainly hadn't managed to kill one another, yet.

Iris pursed her lips as she dug through her dimensional space bag. She had ensured that the food storage had been filled with some ingredients so that her mates could still cook, even if she, and thus the dimensional space bag, wasn't available. The cubs had matured a good bit in the year they had been with them, but they could still get fussy at times, especially when they were hungry.

"I think it would be good to make a few varieties of cookies and some tea. That should be simple enough to make and it isn't like Fern or Basil won't try to make something for lunch when they return home. So, tea and cookies should be enough to tide us over for a few hours."

Iris didn't bother pointing out the fact that Ash still wasn't the best at cooking. He was trying his best to learn what he could and had even been reading the various recipes Iris had written down. However, Fern still wasn't eager to share the kitchen with anyone he didn't have to. Only Basil seemed to get a free pass since he had been the main one to cook before Fern came along. While Ash could likely intimidate his way into being able to use the kitchen, he seemed to be behaving in an effort to respect Iris's wishes for them to all get along. Besides that, he had the feeling the rather weak rabbit would break all too easily.

Working together, Iris and Ash happily whipped up some hazelnut butter cookies, snickerdoodles, and some lemon shortbread cookies. The hazelnuts had to be chopped very finely before being ground even further in a mortar and pestle with salt and oil. Then, it was just like making peanut butter cookies where some powdered sweet root and egg could be used to make three-ingredient cookies or some butter, flour, and baking powder could be added for a more stable recipe. The snickerdoodle cookies were really similar to sugar cookies, but required some additional cinnamon. Then the lemon shortbread cookies were a pretty simple twist since they just needed some finely chopped lemon zest and lemon juice.

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Fern and Basil would likely get a bit jealous about Iris showing Ash how to make these cookies first. However, they would have to make do with the written recipes and her saving them a few cookies for them to enjoy. It wasn't like they hadn't learned the basic versions, anyway, and she wasn't exactly about to let them monopolize the knowledge. Some of the cookies ended up a tad overcooked, but they ended up successfully making a few dozen of each type of cookie.

With four of them, it was likely that this amount was unlikely to be enough for them all. However, it couldn't be helped that they couldn't provide a feast every time people visited. Iris had tons of flour between cattails, bark flour, etc. and there was plenty of dairy products, but sugar was still something that had to be reserved. Honey production was a slow process and it couldn't be harvested in the cold season. Meanwhile, the sweet roots had been able to be successfully cultivated, alongside quite a few other herbs, by Basil and Birk earlier that year, but it was still a slow process.

Basil actually hoped to ramp up production a bit and try some other things to see if he could increase the production of things like garlic, ginger, and black pepper. Apparently, there were a lot of medicinal herbs that he hadn't thought to use before in the new "Ancient Medicine" book they had received as well. So, there would be new types he wanted to test out as well. Regardless, that didn't change the fact that the growth process was slower than the crops that originated from Iris's system, which meant they had to be conservative about how many sweets they made in the cold season.

However, Iris's worries ended up being pointless. Holly showed up, looking quite happy, yet shy as she explained

"I had my mates make a few dishes for us to all enjoy. I hope you don't mind. I know you, usually, like to make refreshments for everyone, but I figured I could help out this time. I know you've complained a few times that your mates don't like to let you cook whenever you're pregnant."

Iris averted her eyes, as she heard the last part. It was mostly Ember who tended to be overbearing about her safety, but it was still embarrassing to have something she had told her friend in confidence said aloud where her mates could hear. Nevertheless, Iris gratefully smiled as she said

"Oh! Thank you! That's really nice of you. Basil and Fern are a bit busy today so they can't help out until lunch, at the earliest, but Ash helped me make a few cookies and tea for everyone to enjoy. What did you bring? Whatever it is, I bet it's delicious!"

Holly flushed as red as a tomato as she explained

"It's nothing that special. We mostly just made some items off of our tea house menu. There are potato latkes, cornbread muffins with butter and jam, and some seasoned jerky. Most of our ingredients are dried and we don't have a lot of sugar or dairy products, so there weren't a lot of great options to work with. However, I figured it would be better to bring something rather than to risk having to go home early when I get too hungry."

Iris couldn't resist the urge as she hugged her friend. Holly had always been sweet and thoughtful, really just the best friend she could ask for. However, she was hardly the only one to bring something as Fawn showed up not much later with a few of her mates trailing behind her.

"I brought some dried fruits, pickled veggies, and some thinly sliced smoked sausages for us to snack on. I also had my mates bring along a few jugs of chilled water. I had them melt down an extra pot of snow for us to drink and then added some dried raspberries and mint leaves to it before refrigerating it. I figured some flavored water would be a good way to make up for the lack of sweets. Well, the dried fruit is a bit sweet, but you get my point."

Fern always had been very direct and to the point. Still, Iris chuckled as she embraced her as well. When she pulled away, she could see her friend was frowning. Iris made an awkward expression as she said

"Sorry, I know you aren't big on such displays of affection. Thank you for the thoughtful gesture. I actually made us some hot tea and cookies with Ash's help. It seems Holly also brought us some yummy things to snack on as well."

Fern smiled amusedly as she heard that. Iris felt a lot better about things now that her friends were here and she happily led everyone to the living room to sit and relax. Her friends' mates either went home or found somewhere else to sit, leaving the couches for them to monopolize. Ember switched from guarding at the kitchen doorway to their home's entrance. However, Ash was perfectly happy to join in on the fun.

Birk was still upstairs watching over the cubs, but Caspian slowly made his way downstairs. Rather than forcing his way into joining Iris and her friends, he was more than content to watch from the sidelines, making friendly conversation with the various males present. Iris didn't really mind what choice her mates made so long as everyone was comfortable.

Ash actually had plenty of interesting stories that both her and her friends enjoyed listening to and he wasn't half bad at checkers either, which made him a challenge to play against. Holly and Fawn didn't like to socialize with a ton of people, but they quickly became comfortable around Ash. However, Alicia, who showed up a few hours after the others, was more than a little bit uncomfortable. She didn't seem to enjoy being around males who weren't part of her family and that went doubly so for males as powerful as Iris's mates tended to be.

Iris didn't even have to ask Ash to give them some space. He took the initiative himself and only returned after Alicia left once more. She always showed up last and left first, but, at least, she had warmed up to Iris and her friend group. Iris didn't exactly like the idea of making any of her mates choose between her or their families. Still, Iris was quite happy to have a day to spend with her friends.