Reputations Matter Most | Fedex Fanfiction

Chapter 37

"My dad's working all evening tomorrow."
Dex looked over at Fitz who was laying on his stomach on the bed.
Dex raised his eyebrows at Fitz.
"Okay...?" Dex said, getting up from his chair.
"And...why are you telling me this?"
Fitz smiled as he sat up and Dex made his way over and sat down beside him.

"My mother would like you to come over. We usually have a board game night or card game night when he's working so late as a way to bond. Plus, he doesn't like it when Biana plays card games since it's 'unladylike'." Fitz said, rolling his eyes.
"So, you can come over for dinner and stay afterwards for tea and uhm...seeing how unladylike my mother and sister can really be while I am imperfect."
Dex smiled and shook his head, laughing.
"Haha, well...I'm not skilled with card games, but if you were to help me, I don't think I'll mind." Dex said.
"Perfect." Fitz smiled.

"Uhm...so, is there a lot of shouting...?"
"Well, uh...it depends."
"Uh-huh..."

*****

"Dinner was lovely, thank you Della." Dex smiled as he walked alongside Della towards the living room.
"Oh, well thank you Dex! You're such a sweetheart." Della smiled at Dex, wrapping her arm around Dex's shoulders and giving him a quick side hug.
Dex felt a little embarrassed but he still smiled at Della.

"Our mother really does love him more than us." Biana whispered to Fitz, walking behind Della and Dex towards the living room.
"I know." Fitz sighed, watching how Dex and his mother seemed to be happily chatting.
"...Sometimes, I think about how our dad will react when he finds out about me and Dex when I see them so...close."
Biana slightly frowned at Fitz.
"You know he's not going to love Dex instantly, or even ever." Biana said quietly, rubbing her arm awkwardly.
"I know." Fitz said, shrugging.
"But, well...it's a nice thought, isn't it?"
Fitz weakly smiled at Biana.

"...I'm not falling for your pity! You're trying to make me go easy on ya when we play!"
"What?! No, I'm not!" 
"Oh you totally are!"
"Biana- what-?"
"SHSHSHSH! It won't work!"

Della smiled nervously as Biana and Fitz began to bicker.
"Dex, sweetheart..." Della said, looking at Dex.
"I hope you won't think of us any differently when you see how competitive we are with each other..."
Dex blinked in surprise as he looked at Della.
"Oh! Fitz already warned me. Plus, I think it'll be fine. My siblings are super competitive. So is my dad, so when we play games...erm...our house quite literally explodes and becomes a mess." Dex said, waving his hand at Della.
"Your poor mother." Della smiled.
"Yeahh...I help clean up at least." Dex mumbled.

"So! What shall we play tonight, my loves?"  Della asked as she came to a stop and glanced at Biana and Fitz.
"Fitz sucks at card games!" Biana exclaimed, running past her mother and instantly trying to search for some cards.
"What? I do not-!" Fitz exclaimed, quickly following behind Biana.
Della smiled at Dex.
"And it's already begun." Della playfully winked at Dex.
Dex's cheeks turned red and he smiled nervously.

He was definitely anxious about this.

*****

"Uhm...these don't look so good." Dex said, looking at Fitz and leaning closer to him with the cards in his hands.
Fitz looked at Dex's cards and he raised his eyebrows.
"Uh...we can make it work." Fitz nervously smiled.
"Hopefully when you pick a card from the pile, it'll...erm, work out."

"God Fitz, you did a shit job at shuffling these cards." Biana said, sorting out her cards and melding them in her hands.
"Hey-!" Fitz scowled.
"Sweetheart, you are not good at shuffling cards..." Della sighed as she set a card down on the table.
Biana grabbed a card from the pile in the middle of the table and picked one up.
"Ugh, maybe this'll work..." Biana mumbled, placing the card in her deck and picking one out to discard it.
Dex watched as Biana discarded a card and he picked one out from the pile. 
He furrowed his eyebrows and looked at Fitz.
Fitz set his deck facing down on the table and he shuffled closer to Dex and he placed the card next to what could be a sequence and he picked out a card and placed it on the pile of discarded cards. Dex blinked as Fitz picked up his deck and he picked up another card.