...this does not become any less bewildering with golden eyed brain, the way he feels like whining when he lets go of Yvette and like wagging his tail like a puppy when he hugs James.

James loves his daughter very much but also Alexei was clearly Having A Time there and he wanted to comfort him too, so this is good.

He hums. "So Yvette got you a ring. And—you don't, uh... There's nobody you'd invite to a proper wedding, is there?"

It takes Alexei half a second to understand he's the one being talked to and then reprocess the words. "No?"

"Mine," hums Yvette smugly in a singsong, at a child inappropriate pitch. "That's the important part."

At a child appropriate pitch: "Hmmmmm, Aurene dear, your mummy is going to turn part of this bear into another meal, since it's gone and gotten killed already, does anyone else want any?"

Alexei blurs in place when she calls him "mine" and almost gives in to the impulse to hug himself but immediately grimaces when she mentions the bear. Those are not things that should go together, nice mate and bears.

"No thank you, dear." And back to their mate: "So... I think the thing I want for the two of us is, I don't really know what I mean by, that but I want to marry you."

...well if even James doesn't know what he means how is Alexei supposed to???

Even if it sounds nice. The words do, that is.

Yvette transmutes herself a cup, and then gets to transmuting various bits of bear to her own personal preference for fox blood being the least terrible nonhuman blood available, since she's going through all of this trouble anyway. The cup makes it easier to continue holding Aurene while she does this.

Aurene does not turn out to want any, extra food is no fun if she doesn't catch it herself, so it's just the newborn being (very reasonably) cautious about constantly being filled with as much blood as possible at all times.

The resident newborn fills herself to capacity, then puts in a little extra work to make the bear look a bit more naturally ripped apart. She's also careful to remove all traces of vampire venom, to avoid poisoning any local scavengers that want to eat it.

"Does Aurene get to be the flower girl to your wedding? Am I to be the officiant?" teases Yvette, as she finishes doctoring the corpse.

"I think a whole wedding is probably too much," James says with some amusement.

"All right, as long as Aurene's status as flower girl if there is one is assured."

"Nyeh," is Aurene's opinion of being the flower girl, apparently.

"Oh? Well, I suppose not."

She straightens up from her doctoring of the bear’s corpse; it looks very convincingly mauled by an animal, instead of an immortal.

“To the lake, then?” she invites, zipping over to her mates, small child on her hip.

To the lake! Alexei will teleport ahead then back to scout and vibrate excitedly because he's got TWO MATES and he will keep them FOREVER and and and. And!

Awwwwww, he's happy, but in a more thoughtful and intended way! This is wonderful to see!! She didn't realize that eating a bear would be so important to him returning to himself, but she's glad Aurene steered them towards it. And also towards him, vampire life has very obviously been hard on him (and she needs to stop thinking about this or she'll tackle him for mate activities to make up for it).

Instead she kisses her daughter's forehead and focuses on running. They reach 'the' lake soon enough; Quebec has quite a large number of lakes, and this one is only really notable for being the closest to their home. Yvette actually doesn't know its name, probably she should learn it at some point. Out of principle.

When they get there, Aurene is going to make the biggest splash! She will enlist her mummy's assistance, by which she means:

"Throw!! Throw!!!!!"

It feels really quite wrong to throw one's child like this, but, well, she's had time to get whittled down on this subject. Half-vampires are really rather durable. Getting past the inherent maternal instincts about child endangerment, it's pretty cute. Besides, if she refused, James would just do it instead. Yvette couldn't even blame him for it, she knows this is just a silly mental hangup of her own mind's creation, not any tangible risk.

"Yes, yes, all right," she sighs indulgently, and then she tosses her baby in the lake. Not as hard as she could, of course, but reasonably fast and aiming for height more than distance.

SPLAAAAASH!

Aurene is at somewhat of a size disadvantage, but she attempts to make up for it in enthusiasm.

And James shall plant a kiss on Alexei's hand and then jump up and SPLASH too! He's not gonna go as fast as Aurene does though.

Alexei blinks a couple of times at that then looks at Yvette.

He's so cute, and also clearly has no idea how on Earth to have fun. ... Besides the traditional mate activities. He's just fine at those. It's just everything else that seems to be a bit broken. When James mated to her it seemed a bit like his brain was broken, but with Alexei, it's... sort of like it's helping to drag it back into a state that's closer to fixed. Or at least something that's nicer for him to live in. It's a strange contrast.

Anyway, she's going to reintroduce him to the concept of fun. By tossing him into the lake, too.

!!!!!

He teleports behind her before he can hit the water and. Blinks some more.

Well she may be stronger than he is but she is also smaller and lighter and she can't teleport so unless her reaction time is very good she's the one who's going to find herself thrown.

Her reflexes are pretty good, being a vampire and all, but not ‘outmaneuver a teleporting vampire’ good.

She half squeaks, half cackles when tossed, clearly delighted with this turnabout. Splash goes his mate, into the water.

“I suppose I deserved that,” she giggles.

"You absolutely did," James agrees, swimming over to her.

Alexei smirks and vanishes.

Oh no. She's about to be ambushed, isn't she. The horror.