Her smile was careful, spotting the obviously loaded question with ease. Elvish society had prepared her well for bitchiness, she reflected, a small wonder.Years of torment, but at least it was good for something."I don't, because that's not where my job is. I live in an inner-ring suburb, it butts right up against Bridgeton. I love the city, though. There's more to do on one block than there was in the entire town I grew up in." That wasn't remotely true, but the lie tripped off her tongue easily enough. She preferred the small-town feel of Cambric Creek; loved the quaintness of the town and the farm festivals and community fairs that didn't exist in Bridgeton, but she wasn't about to admit that to his sisters. "There are three different restaurants on his block alone that I think we spend more time in than his kitchen. So I guess you can say I'm city slicker-adjacent?"
"I suppose that's not surprising to hear. He never was one for simple home cooking."
There was a pit of fire in her belly, and with every small barb his sister lobed, it bubbled. At her sides, her fists balled, nails digging in. Not the direction she'd wanted to lead the conversation, but she supposed his sister Khel would have a retort for everything.
"I want to hear more about these houses built for specific species," his brother continued, not taking his older sister's bait, Lurielle was relieved to hear.
"Cambric Creek is a multi-species community," Khash explained, coming up behind her to sit at the back of the sofa, dropping a huge hand to her back. "Very few humans."
"We don't have any humans here," Khel shot back. "The centaur ranch in Aberdeen doesn't have any humans. Lots of places don't have humans, doesn't make 'em special."
Wow.Wowwowwow. She was going to haveso muchto rehash with Ris and Silva when she got back from her trip. For the space of several heartbeats, Khash said nothing, but she was nearly able to hear his teeth grinding in aggravation, could envision the hard look he sometimes had without needing to turn back.
"Well, I don't think anyone claimed anything about one place being more special than another, and like I said, it's amulti-species community. The centaur ranch in Aberdeen doesn't have any ogres living there. Last time I checked — and before you feel the need to point it out, Khel, I know it's been a while — but the clan here doesn't have too many elves. Or minotaurs. Or goblins, or satyrs, or trolls. I think there’s at least one each of them on her street. Am I miscountin', darlin'?"
She turned her head up, giving him a smile, feeling it tighten as she faced the room again. "No, I don't think you are." His brother leaned in, eyebrows raising in interest. "My neighbor is a minotaur, he's great. We've been good friends since I moved in. Goblins across the street, the kids grew up together, and actually, I think the teenagers are dating now. There's a valko, she’s a local business owner, a moth couple on the corner, Trolls down the block . . . it's a happening development."
Kesst whistled appreciatively. "And all them folks have houses specially designed for their species?"
"Not quite," she explained. "There are special build frames. Ogres, orcs, minotaurs — bigger species with the same sort of sizing needs, they'll all have the same build. The smaller tract is designed for goblins, elves, satyrs — again, all similar sizing requirements. I need the smaller tract, but the bigger one was all that was available when I moved in."
"Kesst, you should see some of these houses," Khash went on, his voice back to its normal warm honeyed tone for his brother. "They have generalized builds, but you can get anything,anythingadded on. Specialized flooring for hooves, accessible showers, the depth of counter and cabinets, sandpits in the front yard, water features for the amphibian folk. It would blow your mind."
His brother grinned hugely, looking so much like Khash that she felt her mouth respond automatically, splitting into a genuine Lurielle smile. "I hope to see it someday. Guess I'll have to come up for a visit."
"You need to," she heard herself saying cheerfully. "We’d love to have you visit. Any of you. All of you!" she added, stabbing herself in the arm with a nail, in an effort to get herself to stop talking before she had given up her house for the week.Shut up, shut up, shut up! You spent your teenage years hiding behind all your classmates with yournose in a book, and now you want to be the fucking holiday hostess?!
"How do you raise kids in a place like that?" another sister piped up. "No clan . . . how are they supposed to learn anything about who they are?"
She turned in slow motion towards the sister who had spoken, Keely, the sister right before him in the birth order. Even though she had a brother, a highly uncommon thing for an elf, owing to the fact that one did not have to scratch very deeply on her family tree to find a human, Lurielle still felt as though she'd grown up as an only child. She and her brother had never been particularly close, although she was able to realize now, as an adult, that he had likely felt the strain of their household just as much as she had, escaping after university, moving to the other side of the country and not looking back. Even so, she didn't truly understand sibling hierarchies.
Before arriving, she would have guessed that Khash's eldest sister would have been the one to give him the most grief, rather than it being the middle two. Instead, his eldest sister Kharna had been warm and friendly, setting her at ease when they’d arrived. It was her roof they were staying under, as all four of her own children were out of the house on their own, one having a small child of her own, leaving the house empty, save for her and her husband, a hulking giant of an orc she’d not heard utter more than three words since their arrival, only knowing that Khash liked him enormously. She had not yet met his other brother or youngest sister, but from the way he spoke of them, she knew she didn't have anything to worry about. The source of his familial frustration was before them — Khel, and to a slightly lesser degree, the sister he was closest to in age, Keely.
She felt the press of his thick fingers at her shoulder, digging in with a near uncomfortable pressure, but she did not flinch away. She may have been half the size of every other individual in the room, was dwarfed by these orcs in size and strength, and she was certain some of them probably had tempers . . . but none ofthemhad walked away from their families, from their communities. None of them knew the freedom that came from not needing to give a fuck about what anyone else thought, and the strength born from that freedom. She may have been plagued with insecurities, had carried the voice of her douchebag ex and harridan mother in her head for years, letting them chip away at her self-esteem, but when it had mattered, she reminded herself, she had picked up and walked away. Ended her bad relationship and went no contact with her toxic mother. Packed her belongings and moved away from everything and everyone she knew, and started her life over again. She may have still struggled with the voices in her head and the body she saw staring back at her in the mirror, Lurielle thought, the protective lava bubbling in her chest, but after a lifetime of being told what to do and how to look and what to think, her field of fucks to give was barren.
She would behisrock this weekend. Not a role she thought she'd be playing, but a partnership meant give and take. She wasn't as proficient in sunny, supercilious smiles as Silva; didn't possess her younger friend’s ease at serving up a backhanded compliments to people who were rude or crass, but she had spent most of her life in the same clubs Silva had learned her trade, and had watched her own mother and grandmother in action long enough to be able to hold her own if she had to.
"I can’t think of a better environment to raise children in, actually." She fisted the material of her dress, but her smile held firm.Be Silva."Everyone is welcoming and friendly. The folks who run the town don’t care where you’ve come from, only that you’re a good neighbor. I haven’t been made to feel out of place a single moment since I’ve livedthere." Her voice hung in the center of the room with no opposition until Khash continued a beat later.
"It's agreatplace to raise a family." She could hear the hard smile in his voice again. It was the same smile he reserved for Tate, on the nights she insisted he behave well enough to survive an evening sitting across from Silva's spiky fae boyfriend. She put up with his moaning and groaning every time she announced they would be meeting Silva and Tate for drinks or dessert in the resort's bustling little business district, but she'd never expected to hear that same edge in his voice here, in his beloved and lauded hometown. "It's a family town, and the schools are a big draw. Strong academics, highly inclusive. That's important to us."
"I guess that would have to be important. For you."
It was the first acknowledgment that she was an elf — more importantly, that she was not an orc — and even though she had come here expecting it to be thrown in her face at every turn, Lurielle couldn't deny that the barb stung. She felt Khash draw himself up at her side, but his rebuttal never drew breath. His eldest sister crossed through the room, bustling from end table to end table without raising her head, collecting empty glasses.
"For pity's sake, Khel. You're acting like you've never left the state. Different places are different, how shocking. Just because we're from the south doesn't mean you need to act like a bumpkin just because you have an audience. Lurielle, are you sure I can’t get you anything? I don’t want you to go wastin’ away on us while you’re here, suge."
The front door opened as she declined with a smile, his mother and grandmother arriving, accompanied by his two youngest siblings, and the sharp words spoken by his elder sisters were put aside, for the time.
"There’s my boy," the old orc crooned, her arms outstretched. He was already on his feet, having stood the moment they heard the door open, and as she watched him being folded in his grandmother's arms, Lurielle understood he'd not been just his grandfather's favorite. His mother was next, both women cooing and simpering, his smile big and open, and more genuine than anything she'd seen on his face since their arrival.
His sisters were jealous, she understood. Understood, because she had spent so many years of her life being jealous of her peers, and to add insult to injury, he had left. They were here to be judged every day, to have their life choices placed under the microscope of their family and clan, their bobbles and mistakes put on display by those closest to them, while he was far away, living his best life in Bridgeton, wearing expensive suits and eating pricey dinners. None of them needed to see when he was stressed at work or when they had minor arguments at home, none of them were privy to his bad habits and vices. It was easy to maintain his sheen as the golden boy from a distance, his fluffy black sheep wool hidden beneath his tailored suits and buffed nails and genial smile.
"Well, well. Here she is. Like a lovely little flower. Come here, sugar, let an old granny see you proper." She felt the slide of his grandmother's eyes down her figure, appraising her the same way she'd been appraised her whole life, her breath catching, waiting to be told she was too much, took up too much space, was lesser as a result. "Hmm, tiny, tiny thing. You’ve got some nice hips on you, though. That's good, that's important. Can't carry a strong orc son built like a little twig, he’d tear you in two, but I'll bet you know that already. You'll have to keep your milk up, an orc is going to need to nurse a lot more than one of your little elf babies, but you’ve got a headstart there. Lovely, just lovely. Khash, you picked the prettiest flower in the field. Can't say I expected anything less."
His grandmother's face crinkled with her smile, lines upon lines in her dark green skin, one for every year she'd been mothering this giant clan, Lurielle thought. She let out the breath she'd not realized she’d been holding, attempting to hold onto her composure, even though her cheeks had warmed, the spreading heat a sign of tears soon to follow.
"I'm very glad to meet you, Buna. I've heard so many stories about you and his granddaddy that I feel like I've known you for years." She could count the gaps in his grandmother's somewhat gummy smile, so very different from her own elder matrons of her species, one more difference between them. She was somewhat stooped, and Lurielle had a feeling she had been shrinking as the years passed, but the old orc was still significantly taller than her. She wondered if she would be the smallest individual in the room the entire weekend, or if perhaps there might be some orc children around her size who she could look in the eye.
