Avuri and I had simply not been prepared for the awkwardness and general chaos having both of our families around would entail.
In the week that had passed after my family’s arrival, things had gone relatively well, outside of the constant awkwardness. We had two days left until the wedding itself, and had managed to avoid any major incidents. It worked out nicely for us that once my family arrived, Avuri’s seemed content to live mostly in their accommodations.
At first, I suspected that Ieji’s initial appearance scared them into staying hidden. The day after they arrived, though, the teenager group emerged again and spent time with us. Most of our days at this point were spent coordinating wedding related things or just daily chores, but they were happy to help.
They were convinced, though, that the Mephra family staying out of our way for the most part was a choice on their part to allow them to ‘work’. Not that any of us had any idea what they could do so far from Bouquet. The teens were convinced that they were scheming something and kept warning us to keep an eye on them. We told them that we were, and they were more than happy to spend their days with us instead of with their family. They did take another day to work on school work, though.
That status quo held for a week. Avuri’s family did offer to watch Cierra and Stena more than once so we could get work done, which, after the last time Severa pushed for it, left a bad taste in my mouth.
As a sort of peace offering, Avuri and I actually considered letting them take the girls one day, but Cierra and Stena weren’t interested and wanted to work with us instead. We didn’t really have any good reason to force them to spend time with their new family, so we just let them be. Severa seemed to be a little annoyed by us not fighting it, but otherwise let it go.
On that second to last day, however, Avuri’s family decided to emerge and engage with us. With the wedding so close, we had decided it would be best to put off the regular household chores for a bit. The few crops that we had planted would be fine for a few days; we just had to make sure the animals were fed, which was easy.
And it was after taking care of the smaller than normal list of chores in the morning that things started going downhill.
My family was still in the main house - where they had been staying in the extra bedrooms - and working on lunch with Talya and Vale. As we had done for over a week now, Avuri and I approached her family to offer to eat lunch all together. We had set up a small pavilion beside the house with some large open tables with chairs just in case we ever needed to host a large gathering.
When Avuri’s father, Dain, accepted our invitation to eat for the whole Mephra family, we told them to meet us there. There was certainly not enough room at our kitchen table to seat twenty two people. He was gracious enough at the time, and we bowed and left to get things situated.
It didn’t take us long to let everyone know we would be eating lunch outside. In fact, Cierra and Stena seemed very excited to be eating outdoors. My family had prepared a massive pot of rice as well as enough pulled chicken for everyone to have some alongside the rice. There were the standard sauces for flavoring, as well as a whole mess of in-season vegetables. Once things were placed on the tables, the spread really looked quite good.
The Mephra teens had helped us prepare the food, and left during set up to retrieve their family. Avuri’s family began to trickle in then, behind the teens. Hoping to keep the air friendly and welcoming to everyone, Avuri and I sat side by side in the center of one of the long tables. Cierra immediately jumped into the spot to my left, while Stena climbed up into Avuri’s lap. I scooted over a little, just in case she wanted to move Stena off her lap into the space between us.
As our families approached, I motioned for my family to sit on my left with Cierra, while Avuri tried to direct her family to her right.
After dishing out their plates, my family came and sat around my half of the table. There was the normal happy chatter as Kota and Rylie ribbed each other good-naturedly. Ieji sat in the middle of everyone, seemingly as bland as ever. Demi, Talya, and Vale sat across from us while talking about how Demi’s tastes in vegetables had changed recently.
The majority of my attention, though, was on Avuri’s family. My family had just about finished getting their plates together when Avuri’s arrived, and I could immediately hear the grumbling begin. Cove, Glenn, and Mica took care of their plates without breaking their chatter, and sat directly across from Avuri and I - I thought that was good. They could bridge the gap a little.
But immediately following that, Leon stepped up to the spread and said, “How novel, plating for ourselves.” Avuri made a face but hid it rather well as Leon turned to us all sitting at the table and asked, “Is the buffet at the wedding going to be self-serve as well?”
“Yes, it will.” Avuri said politely. I was impressed how friendly she made it sound, given the look she had on her face just a moment ago. “The buffet will be manned by the Celestial Dragon Pavilion, but they won’t be filling plates. The workers will be moving between refilling the buffet dishes and making rounds among the guests.”
“How fun. I’m sure the guests will all enjoy it.” Leon said sweetly.
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“Most of the time,” I said, trying to sound sickly sweet, “people like being able to put exactly what and how much they want on their plate.”
“If you say so.” Leon responded blandly. Avuri’s family went down the line and plated their food, clearly unenthused with the whole concept.
“Surprising absolutely no one,” Avuri whispered as quietly as she could in my ear, “my family usually has workers for everything.”
“I like doing it!” Cierra said happily.
“That’s nice, dear.” Amalia said condescendingly. The patronizing tone immediately soured my mood. I turned away from the group before they caught me sneering. I really didn’t like the way they treated the girls when they weren’t actively trying to play nice. Judging by the look on Avuri’s face, she wasn’t thrilled by it either.
As her parents made their way over to the tables we were sitting at, her mother grimaced. Avuri cleared her expression before raising an eyebrow in question. She stopped just short of asking what was wrong, knowing she would likely receive a snarky answer.
The older members of her family walked up and made a similar face. Severa was the one to say, “Benches?”
I turned away and rolled my eyes so hard they hurt. My own family saw my expression and tried not to laugh.
“Yes, benches.” Avuri said, her voice calm and controlled. “We made the pavilion for large gatherings, and benches were the obvious choice for large groups.”
“You could have at least built them with backs.” Her father said sourly. “Sitting on benches isn’t good for people our age.”
“You’re not that old.” Avuri said flatly. “And you’re all Cultivators. Your bodies can handle it just fine.”
“And if they can’t,” I added, “you may want to get yourself checked by a doctor.”
Dain shot me a look, but it was gone as quickly as it appeared and he didn’t actually say anything. Instead, he lifted his leg over the bench and sat down. The others followed suit, with Solana sitting next to Avuri, Dain next to her, and Severa across the way.
I wasn’t particularly excited by having Severa sitting so close, but I nodded at her in greeting with a polite smile. She did return the nod, but her expression was placid.
“So,” Kota began, as everyone started to eat, “I’ve heard that you’re a pretty well known merchant family in Bouquet?” Eyes from around the table turned toward him as he did his best to be friendly. “I’ve been through the city a few times; it’s a really nice place.”
“Yes, well, we do our best to maintain the city.” Lark said, a polite smile plastered to his face.
“It’s really a beautiful city.” Severa chimed in. “It’s run nearly entirely by merchants, even in the upper echelons of the populace. I suppose it just goes to show how well a city could be run with money instead of might.”
I could nearly feel my entire family twitch at the indirect shot at Cultivators. I took a deep breath around the food in my mouth to try to calm myself before I said anything stupid. Or smart. I just wanted to keep the conversation light while we all shared a table.
“Mortal money can definitely produce some amazing results.” Vale said, trying to meet halfway. “Bouquet is a great example of it at work. The entire city is easily one of the cleanest because they pay their cleanliness workers well. And the shops are almost universally well respected, simply because any non-respectable business can’t manage to stay open long there.”
“Wise words from an old man.” Leon muttered to himself, but loudly enough for all of the Cultivator ears to hear.
“Indeed.” Dain agreed with Vale, trying to pick up the conversation. “The way money travels through our city is a marvelous sight. It’s really too bad that more cities don’t follow suit.” He spoke between bites of the stir-fry. “In fact, from what we saw in Flowing Dragon City, I would go as far as saying that even they would benefit from having us take a look at their city.”
Solana nodded along, as did Aster and Mint. Severa looked pleased as well.
“I’m sure the Elders would be interested in hearing your thoughts.” Vale said. And I turned toward him, wide-eyed, just in time to see a playful little smile. I wasn’t sure whether his aim was to annoy the Elders with Avuri’s family as a weapon, or to have her family roasted alive by the Elders, but either option probably led to a bad outcome.
Avuri evidently noticed it too. “Oh, I’m sure the Elders wouldn’t be that interested. They’re all business people too, and I imagine they have their own ways of doing things.”
“All the more reason for us to talk with them!” Severa interjected, suddenly excited. “I’m sure, if nothing else, they’d be interested in setting up trade between our cities.” She glanced at Avuri, disapprovingly. “And if they really are merchants like us, I’m even more sure that they would be interested in learning how Bouquet operates, given it’s basically the shining star that guides merchants in our corner of the world.”
I had to bite back a retort for that one, and instead began to fuss over Cierra and the rice stuck around her mouth. Avuri placed a hand on my thigh under the table, recognizing how tense I was. I glanced back at her to smile for just a moment before continuing to fuss over Cierra.
“You might be surprised.” Rylie said. “My understanding of the Elders here is that their monetary pursuits are merely hobbies for them.”
“Oh, you know, Avuri did mention something along those lines.” Mica perked up, excited to have something to add.
Her family’s eyes turned on her, Avuri cleared her throat. “Well, yes. At the very least, Lyn and Cyril don’t seem to take their businesses too seriously. They both love to cook, so they opened a restaurant. The fact that it is simultaneously the best and most expensive food in the city seems to be a secondary concern.”
I noticed several faces go through a multitude of emotions, once again noting that Avuri used first names without titles for the Elders.
Severa seemed to wave away Avuri’s whole point. “I’m sure you’ve misunderstood them then, Avuri. People don’t end up in charge of a city with one of the most influential businesses in said city by accident.”
“I think you’d be surprised.” Rylie muttered again, this time too quietly for anyone else to hear.