Aisling had, for the moment, retreated to a quieter corner of the room to watch and enjoy her drink. The crowd at the event was large varied enough that she could, at least for a time, fade entirely into the background of it. That her clothing rather matched the decorations did not hurt in that matter.

A small respite, but still one she was glad for. She could catch the occasional glimpse of Tarron among the crowd, and there was a certain appeal to watching the masses of people ebb and flow, shifting about the room, the buffet, the musicians.

It was all enough to make her feel rather tired, and after the Yule Ball she was not feeling too compelled to push her limits.  There would be two excitable young women to deal with in the morning, after all. "It's a lovely sight," she mused, to no one in particular.

This auction was tiring, but how could Maiko not go to a benefit for St Mungos? She had worked there before focusing completely on psychology and her schooling-- plus, St Mungos saved so many lives, and any funding they could get would be put to good use. She had no doubt about that. Still, these social affairs were draining to her. Being a social butterfly and being a socialite were two different things, and the latter was something she was not accustomed to being around. They tended to be so proper! Bleh! Sure, Dolly was a bit of a socialite, but she did it so easily and she was just so Dolly that it worked.

Maiko pulled away from the crowd and tilted her head when hse heard someone make a comment. There was no one in the immediate area, so maybe the person was talking to her?

“What’s a beautiful sight?” The counselor inquired, standing next to Aisling. “The crowd? It looks a bit stifling to me.” Maiko didn’t say it in a negative way-- she said it like it was a s simple fact, like the grass was green.

The woman who approached was rather young, and not someone who Aisling recognized. She smiled at the other witch, and bowed her head. "The decorations, more so. Though the crowd seems more beautiful from here." It was easier, when you weren't surrounded in the middle of it, unable to see some whole of the pattern swirling about.

"Ah, but I forget myself. Aisling Knight. It is good to meet you." She shifted a little, to face her companion, and offered her hand.

It was easy enough to push the exhaustion away for the moment, to focus on the people and things around her. She could rest later.

Much later.

Mai took a good look at the crowd from a distance, and she couldn’t help but agree. Physical distance allowed her to people watch in a much more objective fashion. There were patterns to it, yes—but to her, it looked stifling. For some people, she acknowledged, it wouldn’t be. She had never been too fond of being in a crowd, being stuck in a crowd. Speaking to a crowd and interacting with a crowd was much more different than being part of one, or worse, trapped by one.

“Maiko Biladeau-Yukawa.” She replied,  shaking Aisling’s hand firmly at first, but mid handshake her grip loosened and her hand fell to her side. Her eyes usually had a curious, lively, almost mischievous sparkle to them. In this moment, the sparkle was gone. She was in this state for at least ten seconds. Unblinking, not moving. Her breathing was soft and shallow—and then Mai was back. She rubbed her eyes almost groggily and gave Aisling a curious look.

Babies. The woman didn’t look too far along, especially since she was carrying multiples.

She didn’t want to say anything—not here, in such a public setting. And what if Aisling didn’t know she was pregnant? And if she was early along, there was still a chance of miscarriage. Mai didn’t want to get her hopes up too high, only to have them dissolve away. Once she had that vision, she was able to recognize the faint signs of exhaustion in the way Aisling carried herself. It was subtle. It was hard to notice, but once she saw it, she couldn’t unsee it.

“Are you feeling alright? It’s getting late, and you look tired.”

Aaah, the Hogwarts counselor. Aisling's smile grew a bit warmer, then froze as the other woman seemed to just...pause. And to do so long enough to cause worry. But then she was back, and Aisling forced herself to take a deep breath, to release just a little of the tension. "I wouldn't mind sitting down for a moment, if you would be so kind as to join me."

There were a few chairs set at the edges of the room. She motioned towards them, but did not start to walk yet. "You're the counselor at Hogwarts, are you not? My daughters just started there this year, and it was reassuring to know that they now had a counselor there." Such was a rather Muggle thing, she supposed, but also a good one. Especially remembering her own school years.

She managed a smile, though it did not hide the exhaustion as well as she might have liked. Sometimes she was so tired of the consequences of growing older.

Usually, Maiko was the one suggesting that people sit with her! This was strange and new! Also, this woman—she was actually glad that there was a counselor at the school. Mai was not used to being well received based on her career; it usually took people a conversation or two with her before they started to actually… See her as someone who wasn’t a complete idiot. Mai welcomed jokes about her job—even in the muggle world, there were people who were very, very hesitant about counseling and psychology in general.

 She very gladly sat down in one of the chairs and waited for Aisling to sit down before responding. “I am.” Mai replied, “I’m glad it’s a reassurance to you.” She leaned back in her chair and crossed her ankles. “Who are your daughters?” Daughters, both of them who started. Either they were ‘Irish twins’[1] or they were actual twins. It seemed that Aisling was rather predisposed to having multiples in a pregnancy. There must have been some sort of genetic influence there.

1.	A term used for siblings who are born within the same year, but are not twins.

"I know that they're both having a far easier time at school than I did when I was their age, but I'm still grateful for any reassurance." Aisling leaned back in her chair and looked up, a faint smile playing over her face at the thought of her girls.

“Who are your daughters?”

"Rowena and Sophia. They are in Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, respectively." She looked back down and over to Maiko. "I suppose that I worry about them too much, but they are so young still." So young for her to be so old, it seemed. The wizarding view of time, of the meaning of a decade or half-century, was never something she had quite absorbed.

She toyed with the spider pendant around her neck, caught up in thought. "Sophia seems to have inherited the talent for worrying. About her grades, mostly."

“You are their mother. It’s your job to worry. Nothing anyone says is going to change that. As soon as you stop worrying about one thing, you will worry about another. You love them, they’re your babies. It’s only natural.” Maiko replied,  resting a hand on Aisling’s shoulder gently. “Your girls are lucky to have a mother who cares about them so much. No matter what happens, you’ll be there for them. And sometimes that’s all anyone can do.”

A Ravenclaw worrying about her grades? That seemed oddly typical for someone of that house, though Mai remembered worrying about her grades when she went to Hogwarts. She had been in Hufflepuff house, but there were plenty in her year who were bright and studious, who were not Ravenclaws. With being in University on and off since graduating Hogwarts, worrying about her grades was a very recent occurrence. But as a first year? Mai supposed there were worse things to worry about.

“Sophia is a first year, correct?” Aisling had mentioned that they just started, but she felt the need to clarify. “Why do you think she worries about her grades so much, specifically? Not that it isn’t normal for a student to worry about their grades.” 

“Your girls are lucky to have a mother who cares about them so much. No matter what happens, you’ll be there for them. And sometimes that’s all anyone can do.”

That was the rub. She hadn't been there, hadn't been able to be there for those months. And even afterwards, her thoughts had been pulled back so easily, mind still half-trapped in the cell her body had left. She managed to keep the thoughts from her expression, though muscles tensed in her neck and shoulder.

But she had enough focus to push those thoughts away, to smile softly at the questions of Sophia. "Yes, they both are. And Sophia wants to follow in her father's footsteps, to serve on the Wizengamot in time. And so she has very high expectations of herself."

She leaned a little, into the hand on her shoulder. "And perhaps she's realized that my background may make it more difficult for her. She wants to fix so much."

Aisling’s background? Maiko’s eyebrows furrowed together carefully, but she wasn’t sure if it was appropriate to pry. After all, they were in a public setting, and it sounded like this woman’s background was a bit of a sore spot. Mai could relate—there were certain aspects of her past that were still sore today, though she accepted them as her own, and accepted it as history that she simply could not change. Instead, Mai decided to focus more on what Aisling seemed comfortable talking about; her daughters.

“Member of the Wizengamot? That’s ambitious.” Maiko grinned easily, “Many people don’t know what they want to do until they’re a bit older.” At that age, it was common for them to want to be things like aurors, healers, the typical heroic careers. “Working ‘ard, it is a good way to make your own life go the direction you want it to go, but there are some things you can’t fix.” She shook her head and removed her hand from Aisling’s shoulder, though her body language remained open. “Sophia will learn that in time. Maybe quicker than most.” Hell, Mai herself hadn’t grasped that until she had graduated from Hogwarts! She wasn’t going to mention that to Aisling, though.

"What does Rowena want to do?" Mai inquired. Sophia seemed so proper, while Rowena seemed as vivacious as her mop of red hair.

"With Tarron's position I think it seems a bit less out of reach, but yes, she's so ambitious. She's so much like him, at times." Which was usually a good thing, but not always. Her muscles relaxed a little, and her shoulders fell. She waved a glass of water over from a nearby tray and it floated to her hand.

"And Rowena, Rowena has so many ideas. Some days she wants to study tailoring under Darian. Or to play Quidditch, or study dragons, or a host of other things she cannot decide between. Most of which are rather unsafe, it seems." She took a sip, then looked back up with a soft smile. "When she was little she'd come in with her hands full of dirt and plants and creatures from the garden, so excited to show them to me."

It was a good memory, that grin on Rowena's face. "She tries so hard to be proper at times. I almost wish she didn't. That she didn't think it was so expected of her." She didn't want them to just live in this world, in Tarron's. They were her daughters as well.

“They’re at the stage of development where there is a natural focus on doing good and doing right.” It was the stage that was full of new social and academic demands. Feelings of inferiority were common if they failed in school. “They’re aware of social expectations, trying to follow them is sometimes the best way to feel accepted and fit in.” Maiko smiled, “But your daughters sound like their own people. It’s funny,  how others can expect twins to be so similar when often they are two totally different people.”

There were people who assumed just siblings would be just alike, just for being from the same family! It was amusing how often she had to convince her grandparents that no, Kohaku was not the loud and boisterous sort, and no, he was not just a younger, male version of herself. They assumed that part, they had gotten from their father—even when Mai knew the bulk of her traits had been from her mother—a mother that she and her brother did not share.

“Did you grow up in an environment where you needed to be, er, proper?” Mai inquired. In a way, she had—but only when visiting the grandparents. Over time, they had grown to become much more lenient about whether or not she was proper.

"I think they're both aware of how different social expectations can be, and they're not sure which to follow. But I am glad to see them both finding a bit of their own paths. Or at least considering them, it's not a simple process." Aisling tipped her head back, still feeling a bit tired from the festivities. At least she had a seat, that was most helpful.

“Did you grow up in an environment where you needed to be, er, proper?”

She didn't even try to stop the soft, amused laughter at such a question. "No, not at all. You should see my father trying to explain Rugby to Tarron, he's never quite succeeded. And yet he still keeps trying, he's stubborn that way. I suppose he thinks that it will bridge something if he can manage it."

It was sweet, all things considered. The way her father tried to pull Tarron into the family, to welcome him with all the differences between them. Sometimes Aisling wondered at times if it was one that could be bridged, if the two worlds had been pulled too far apart. And yet there she was, still between them.