The Best Present (An ACOTAR fanfiction)

Chapter 16

Rhys and I woke up super early to prepare the new house for the kids. Mor and Karshia were there in the sitting room to welcome them, and give them a tour of the house. Elain and Nesta were in the kitchen, helping the three kitchen maids cook a large lunch. Cassian and Azriel ran around, making sure everything was set up. Lucien and Raelia took care of Astria and Cayden. Amren had gone to drop Varian back off at the Summer Court. Rhys wore a button-down shirt and jeans. I wore a flowery top with leggings, and pulled on a coat over it. At exactly 9:58 am, Rhys winnowed us to Velafe, and once people saw us, kids started emerging from behind plants and from alleyways. Most couldn't have been older than ten, maybe twelve.

"Hey kids," Rhys said. "We are just going to wait for five minutes in case anyone else shows up, and then we will head to the house. Okay?" They all nodded, most of them not talking to us but they muttered to each other. There were five more kids who trickled in, making the group a total of around twenty children. I asked them to gather around. Rhys and I managed to take five kids each, so we winnowed ten, and then came back for the remaining ten. They were greeted at the door by Mor, who asked if they would like to eat first or shower first. Half said eat, and half said shower. Mor lead the kids who wanted to eat into the dining room, and I took the others to the bedrooms. We had expanded the house so that every room has a small bathroom and closet, and there was an empty plot of land to the left of the house, so we bought that and made into bedrooms as well. I brought the kids to that wing of bedrooms. I asked the kids their names as we walked. A boy who looked about Lukas' age spoke first.

"My name is Fox, and I'm five years old," he said shyly. I nodded, and said hi to him.

"My name is Lara, and I'm eight years old," a girl with brown hair and brown eyes said. We went around like that. There were three other girls, Hannah (9), Abbie (7), and Cana(9). There were five other boys, Kye (11), James (6), Liam (12), Eason (8), and William (6). I let the kids pick their rooms. They were all very similar, with neutral wall tones and plain wooden furniture. The children made fast friends and picked rooms next to each other. While they were showering, I used wrote each of their names in multiple blank wooden signs I had picked up. I hung them on their room doors so that that both they and we knew who's room was whose. After about fifteen minutes, I knocked on all their doors, asking if they were done. They all came out, looking fresh and in new warm clothes.

"Alright follow me!"I called, and we made our way to the dining room where one group of kids were waiting on the couches talking to each other, and clean plates and more food was set in the table. My group of kids sat down at the table.

"Everyone, before you begin eating, this is Aunt Mor, and she will be here with you, so if you could please introduce yourselves that would be great. Dig in!" I introduced Mor, and then walked over to the other group of kids, the ones who already ate. This group had five girls and five boys.

"Hi, boys and girls. Most of you know I'm the High Lady, but you all can call me Aunt Feyre. Now follow me to the bedrooms," I said, leading them to the same wing that the other kids were in. They also introduced themselves. The five girls were Kasey (12), Diana (12), Hali (7), Kara (8), and Sandra (9). The five boys were Alistair (8), Elijah (9), Thomas (10), Zayn (11), and Charles (10). I wrote their names in signs and hung them up. I waited for them to finish showering, and then I brought them to the game room where the other kids were waiting. They all had a lot of fun. The younger kids played with dolls, action figures, or other games.The older kids talked within their own groups of friends or played board games. Most of the games were made by Fae, so in a game such as chess, the pieces would move themselves. You didn't have to move them. It was pretty cool.

We shifted out, so now Elain and Azriel were watching the kids, while Rhys and I went to spend some time with Astria and Cayden.

"You know," Rhys said, while feeding Astria, her one tiny hand wrapped around his pinky. "We need to figure out which kids have magic abilities. Because the potential parents are going to want to know. And we also have to ask which ones would like to train. They lived on the streets, so they must be tough. If they want to train, we can do some light self defense classes until they get older."

"That's a good idea. They can learn that at school once they're adopted. Speaking of training, we should really train Karshia and Raelia. We saw that they can fight, and they live with us now, who knows when they will need those skills," I replied, feeding Cayden.

"That's true too. So our next week will be picking up kids every morning and bring them here, the parent interviews, the interview for the Court of Nightmares, and I forgot to tell you, but I may have to go up to the camps for a few days. Devlon still isn't letting the females train." Rhys rattled off our schedule. I wasn't sure we would get to spend any time with my children. I sighed and nodded. We spent an hour with our kids before heading back to the KK House (KidsKare) for our shift.

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