What Matters Most

Maya Santos drummed her fingers on her desk irritably, looking at the email in front of her. It was from her younger sister, Terra, inviting her to come on a family vacation. While she'd love to spend time with her family, she was rather busy lately, and couldn't afford to do such a thing. "...Yumi, I thought I told you to hold all personal messages and the like until I was finished going over these files.."

"Ah, yes, you did." The shorter woman smiled, adjusting her glasses. "But I felt this one was important. You should go."

"...Yumi, I'm too busy. You know this. So-"

"Just let Arveru take over for awhile. She can handle things for a few days. Actually, she could handle things for a few weeks or even months if she needed to, so a small family vacation if perfectly fine for you to take, Maya. Come on, go. You work too hard. You could use a break." Maya simply sighed, massaging her temples.

"Yumi..." She was right, of course. She did work to hard, and she could definitely use a break. Besides that, she wanted to see her family. She hated that Terra had moved to Earth and had a family there. She wanted her to be happy, but couldn't she have been happy on Alus? She never got to see her sister, or her niece, Monica. Hell, she hardly ever saw her nephew, Emanulle, anymore either. "...Yumi, I appreciate the thought, but I cannot just toss this on Arveru selfishly like that. Please, drop it..."

"Hm. Time I brought in the big guns." She went to the door, and opened it. "You can come in now."

Xelena was beginning to worry a bit about her mom. She was working too much and sometimes the stress was getting to her. That was why she wanted her to take a vacation for some much needed time off. She knew Terra had sent something but knowing Maya, she wouldn't have accepted it so easily. That was why she had decided to 'hinge in' to persuade her mother that a vacation was sorely needed. Arveru was already in on it, they had talked to her earlier about it and she fully agreed.

That was why she was waiting for her turn to come, and sure enough Yumi called for her.

The Alpha stepped into the room. "Mom. you seriously need a vacation. Even Arveru thinks the samething when I talked to her. It doesn't even have to be for a really long time. Just a week or a bit more at the most. Please?" She added the last part as pleading; hopefully that would do the trick and get Maya to crumble. If not, she'd just continue. Xelena was nothing else but persistent when she earnestly believed in something.

Maya frowned, and glared half-heartedly at Yumi. "You turned my daughter against me? That's low..."

"Whatever it takes to get you to take care of yourself, Maya. Now, Arveru already agreed, so you have no good reason not to accept." She smiled, ignoring Maya's irritated look. Finally, the Arkon woman sighed.

"Fine, fine... I can tell when I'm beaten..."

Xelena couldn't help it, and gave her mother a hug, pulling away. "Don't worry, I promise you'll have a good time. I'll be back, I have to get everything else ready." Xelena didn't wait for a response, a gust of wind and the young woman was completely gone as if she had never been there. She was actually very excited about going once the details of where came to play. The Shiel Islands on earth was a place she always wanted to visit but never had a chance to.

She entered through her room, preparing to get the rest of her things. She wasn't leaving right away but still. Though everyone had their own rooms by now, it wasn't uncommon for Xelena's sisters to stay in hers for a bit, or Aurelia. Xelena had no way of knowing when they came or went, or if any of them were around before she entered the place.

When Xelena arrived, Aisis was simply sitting and looking out a window, something she was known to do back on Ateth, but did even more nowadays. Aurelia was reading a book, and Nilona was shadowboxing. Varia wasn't there at the moment, but that wasn't too odd; she tended to go for walks and wander about.

Xelena wasn't that surprised to see Varia gone, that was her usual thing. She could be doing something or spending time with Aliel, you never knew with Varia.

"It didn't really take too much. I just had to ask and mom ended up caving in. So she'll finally take a vacation to take care of herself." Xelena sat down on the bed, dangingly her feet on the edge. The others would already know what she was talking about since she mentioned it earlier. "I still worry about her though."

Aurelia looked up from her book, smiling, while Aisis looked over. Nilona kept up her routine; she was not one to be distracted. "That's good. I haven't known her as long as you have, but even I can tell she's wearing herself thin."

"Yeah... she's also hiding something. Something has been bothering her, but I can't tell what."

Xelena nodded slowly. "I know. I've been knowing for a while. Whatever it is, she won't open up about it. I've tried to get her to open up about what was bothering her but haven't been able to get anything. I'm hoping with this vacation if nothing else will take her mind off. If just for a moment. Other then that, I don't think there's much else I can do."

* *

Before Xelena knew it, she and Maya found themselves on earth for their vacation. Or more specifically, the Shiel Islands. Terra had set everything in advance ahead of time; all of them would be staying in a private suite, each with their own rooms and enough space not to feel cramped. Due to Shiel Islands in essence being a resort Elves made, there was a bit of touch of that in the buildings. They were definitely more 'modern' but there was a nature flavor added to them as well. To top it off, there was also a pool and a private bar they could go too; though it wasn't as if much of anyone in the family drunk too much.

Monica had gotten a room by Maya, unsurprisingly. Everyone else had been scattered to the various rooms, Karin and Ignis being part of the family were naturally along for things as well. It seemed Monica had wanted to talk to Maya about something, but she always seemed to lose her nerve, so what whatever it was remained a mystery. Either Monica would go to Maya, or the other way around. Xelena spent time taking care of Chris when Terra and Damon needed some time to themselves, she seemed to really enjoy it.

"Ah, that's not good."

Xelena wiped Chris' mouth with a napkin gently, bottle feeding him but he ended up spitting some of it out. He was hungry, but he didn't seem to want the milk at the moment. She placed the bottle to the side of the counter in the large room, Ignis was currently with her. "Ignis, could you hand me the baby food in the cabinet please?"

Ignis chuckled, and did as asked, returning quickly. "You know, sometimes I think he's a future pervert, cause he never spit up when he was being breast fed. He just wants the breasts back. Terra stopped producing though, so he'll just have to make due. Won't you, Chris?" She ruffled his hair just a bit, grinning.

Maya came into the room then, trying to calm down a bit. She was worrying over her missed work, but was trying, for her family's sake, to relax.

Chris had a completely innocent happy expression as if to say 'who me?' but of course that was impossible since he was a baby. It still did almost look that way from Xelena's point of view. The Alpha set Chris down in a feeding chair, taking a small spoon after opening the cap, feeding Chris.

"There you go. See, doing much better." Xelena praised, carefully feeding the young half-demon while making sure he didn't make too much of a mess. "Come to think of it, I don't think I can either. Not that it matters for a long time probably." She gently dabbed the boy's chin, he was making a bit of a mess.

"Hey." Monica came inside the room, holding a bag of something. "I just came back picking a few things. I don't normally like shopping, but there's some cool things here. How's my little brother?"

"He's fine. Just a bit picky, aren't you?" Xelena noticed Maya come into the room and greeted her. "Hi mom." She was still stressing herself worried about work but Xelena was hoping she'd relax.

Maya glanced up, and managed a smile. She really was happy to be there, for the most part. "Hello, sweety." Another glance to Monica this time. "Usually the souvenir shopping is saved for near the end of vacations, dear."

"Well, since when is anything about this family 'usual'?"

"Point, Ignis."

Monica shrugged a bit. "We'll, yeah. But I was there and couldn't help it. They even have things from other realms laying in there. It's a family owned building, the person who founded it was a traveler who went to a lot of places. So it was passed down until it ended up with their great granddaughter. It's really interesting."

"What happened to Emanulle? I didn't see him."

The half demon blinked at Xelena's question. "Uh..not sure. He went for a walk or something, he'll be back."

Maya just went back to drumming her fingers on the table, and looking out the window. She wanted to relax, but being around certain people tended to put her on edge just a bit. Mostly because she wanted to avoid doing something 'stupid.' As such, she was never relaxed, except in the bathtub.

Monica could tell something was bugging Maya more then normal, but she just wasn't sure what it was. She decided then she may as well get things over with; talk about her problem and maybe see what was bothering her. "If you're not doing anything, I want to talk to you later tonight about something." She said to Maya.

Maya glanced up, and smiled warmly. "Sure, Monica. Love to." Both the truth, and a lie. She loved spending time with Monica. She also hated it. Double-edged sword, really.

Monica smiled a bit at that. "Okay. I'll talk to you and the others later. I need to take care of something. Take care." She grabbed her things on her way out and left the group for now. Xelena wandered what it was about but left it alone. She had learned long ago that something's were just more comfortable talking about with certain people and Monica likely wanted to get something off her chest. Whatever that might have been.

* *

Even as the evening rolled around, Monica still felt a bit indecisive about coming to talk to Maya. But she couldn't back out. Not again and not this time. So getting her nerves together, she knocked on the door and waited.

Maya opened the door shortly, still a bit wet from having taken a shower recently. She was wearing a robe, but other than that, there was no indication of other clothing. She opened the door wide, smiling at Monica. "Come in, Monica. I can tell you are nervous, but it's okay, you know you can talk to me about anything. So come, sit."

Monica made herself in and sat on the couch. She looked a bit more timid then normal, as well as quite. She fidgited with her hair for a moment, then got her nerves together enough to talk. "It's..uh..about someone I like." Then another pause and she continued. "I..Really like Manny, but he's my cousin so not sure if I should do anything. I know cousins being together isn't as frowned on but I'm not sure what he'll think.."

Maya just looked at Monica for a moment, face passive, before she smiled again, even as she felt a stabbing pain in her chest. She sat next to Monica, sighing. "Ah, Monica.... dear, I was expecting you to take interest in someone eventually... I'm surprised you didn't go to your mother with it, but I'm not complaining. But, to start, I'll tell you something important. Romances between family members... it's not exactly the rarest thing in Arkon culture."

Monica's eyes widened a bit, just slightly at that. "..Really? I had no idea. I guess each culture is different and I've never been around our my mother's homeland so I really had no idea.."

Maya shrugged. "It's just how we are. The point is, while other cultures and races tend to have issues with it, our race, and the Alusarian's as well I might add, don't care. They'd be happy for you." She chuckled a bit. "As for it being Manny... to be honest... you should go for it. You two would be cute together." She turned more toward Monica, looking at her niece lovingly. She reached out, and gently ran her fingers through Monica's hair. "Is there a chance he might say no? ...Yes, but I doubt it. Even if he did, you can't possibly think he would hold it against you..."

Monica relaxed a bit under Maya touching her hair. "..I guess so. I should go ask him just I was so nervous at first..about a bit of everything.." It would take her a minute to get the courage to work herself up to do it, but she would eventually.

Maya raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, 'a bit of everything'? Is there something else that's worrying you, Monica?" She didn't stop running her fingers through Monica's hair. She enjoyed doing it, even if she couldn't tell Monica that.

Monica shook her head a bit, enjoying Maya playing with her hair. "No. When I meant a bit of everything, I was referring to the things I mentioned. What Emanulle might think, how my friends and family might see it. That kind of thing."

Maya nodded a bit. "I understand. But... you need to understand, Monica, your family will obviously support you if you are happy. As for your friends, well, if they are really your friends, they'll support you as well." She pressed her forehead to Monica's, smiling still. "And you know that no matter what, I'll always, always, be here for you, no matter what you need or want."