state of grace ✦ leon goretzka

s i e b u n d z w a n z i g

lol a filler whooooops

gelsenkirchen

WHEN THEY RETURNED TO GERMANY, they did not expect to find Grace's mom Hanna, her stepfather Anthony, her half-siblings Antoine and Mathéo and her cousin Jonas to all be sat in the living room, having tea, coffee and biscuits with her dad with the TV softly playing. While her father's relationship with her estranged mother improved over the time she spent in the hospital by Gale's side, the last thing she expected was her father to be on buddy-buddy, tea and coffee chit-chat terms with her. From what she saw, they tolerated one another with polite smiles and conversations only about Grace and Gale.

Grace had invited Leon in to her house to just prolong their date a bit more because they never wanted it to end and he was in no rush to leave either because for one, he wanted to spend every waking moment with this girl and two, he was staying at Max's anyway so he didn't have to drive back to Bochum. However, they were met by numerous pairs of shoes in the hallway.

"Weird," Grace frowned, leading Leon further into the house before she closed the door. She dropped their connected hands to get rid of her shoes.

While she was undoing them, she heard footsteps, causing her to look up to find a grinning Jonas who had his arms out, "So, how was the date?"

"Um, really good but what are you doing here at 10 at night? What are you doing in Gelsenkirchen, even?" she answered, bending up to hug him and letting Leon do the same.

"Everyone's here," he said, "Just having some refreshments before they jet off to Paris and I just felt like coming for the day," he said with a shrug, "You know, having a rich aunt really does have its perks. I can afford to fly between Berlin and Gelsenkirchen spontaneously!"

"Wait... by everyone, do you mean everyone?" she listened out for the voices but failed to pick any noticeable ones up, aside from her father's.

"Who else do I mean, silly?" Jonas rolled his eyes, "C'mon."

Grace looked at Leon, who was just as befuddled as she was, "Does he mean like your half-brothers too, because those are childrens' shoes?" he pointed at pairs of small trainers among the stack of shoes.

"I guess so," she nodded.

Leon had not met her stepfather or half-siblings before because the twins had only visited on two occasions before, and Anthony once, and all those times, he was unavailable to visit Gale, or claimed that it was time for Grace to spend with her family, not him. Gale was a lot more welcoming to his mother and her new family than anyone ever expected, but it was just that he was grateful to have his mother back in his life, and he had brothers with common interests.

Grace and Leon walked into the living room together, finding five pairs of eyes trained on them only. Jonas took a seat beside his little cousins.

"Hey guys! How was Amsterdam?" Elias piped up from the single armchair.

"So fantastic; we had a great time," Grace smiled up at her boyfriend, "Hi everyone. I didn't know you were coming today."

"Spur of the moment, type thing this morning," Anthony replied politely, "We got back from the hospital about an hour ago."

"Oh," Grace and Leon were stood up because there wasn't much space on the couches, "Um, everyone this is Leon. Leon, you know my mother and then that's Anthony, Mathéo and Antoine."

"Mats," Mathéo chimed the same time Antoine spoke, "Mars."

It was still a bit difficult telling the twins apart, but that day, they were both wearing the shirts of the team they supported, making it easier to tell who was who. Mats was clad in striped, sickly red, which Grace noticed made Leon crinkle his nose a little bit.