You take a shaky breath and knock on your mother's door. Dan scans your face anxiously, and squeezes your hand reassuringly.
The door swings open.
"Sweetie!" your mother greets, pulling you into a tight hug.
You pull away after what you think is an acceptable amount of time, and give her a forced smile. "Hi, mum."
She smiles widely at you and turns to Dan, putting her hand out for him to shake. He does, giving her a small smile.
"Nice to see you again, Mrs L/n," he says.
She grins at him. "You too... Dan, was it?"
You clench your jaw in annoyance at her. Dan slips his hand into yours and squeezes comfortingly.
"Yeah, that's me," he confirms, chuckling.
"Hm, well, come inside!" she says, giving Dan a weird look, then turning away and walking into the house.
You roll your eyes at her and follow her inside, still clutching Dan's hand. She leads you into the kitchen, and a wave of nostalgia hits you.
Your mum looks at you with an annoyed expression on her face. "I was beginning to think that you weren't coming down at all."
"What?" You pull out your phone and check the time. You thought that you took only five minutes...
You took half an hour.
You cringe at the memory, and scrunch up your nose. Your mother sits down at the table, and gestures for you both to sit, too. You do.
"Tea, anyone?" she asks.
"Yes, please," Dan says, smiling slightly.
You nod, but more out of politeness than actually wanting a cup. Your mum is pretty bad at making tea.
She gives you a stern look. "What do you say?"
"Yes, please, mum," you say, with gritted teeth.
You're not five any more, for heaven's sake.
She gets up from the table and puts the kettle on to boil. While pulling the teabags out of the cupboard, she gives Dan another weird look, her eyebrows furrowed.
"I hope you treat my daughter right, Daniel. She deserves nothing less," she says firmly.
He suddenly looks serious, and nods. "I try my best, Mrs L/n. Y/n is the most important person to me."
At this point, he looks over at you, squeezes your hand under the table and smiles brightly. You look into his dark eyes and smile back, a genuine smile this time.
"I should hope so," your mother says from behind you, reaching over your shoulder and setting a cup of tea in front of you. You mumble a "Thanks."
She does the same with Dan, and he thanks her quietly, looking at it. It's streaky, and more of a grey colour than the normal 'tea colour'. You give him an apologetic look as he takes a sip.
His face screws up in distaste, and he starts coughing. You pat him on the back anxiously. Your mother watches both of you, not letting even a hint of a smile show.
"You okay?" you ask him quietly.
He nods quickly, coughing once more and straightening up in his seat again. "Sorry about that, I'm just getting over a cold," he lies.
She seems to take it as a genuine excuse, luckily. "Yes, I had a cold about a week ago, too. It must be going round."
He nods again, tilting his head sympathetically. You make eye contact, and he gives you an amused look. You grin.
"Anyway, I made a vegetable pie for tea, are you two hungry yet?" she asks, shuffling in her seat a bit.
"A little," Dan replies.
"Yeah, I'm pretty hungry..." you say, shrugging.
"Well, I'll put it in the oven to heat it up, and we'll eat it in about fifteen minutes," your mum decides.
She gets up, takes a the food out of the fridge, and puts it in the oven. Once she's done, she looks at Dan.
"Can I have a word with you?"
You look at her and do a 'bish wha' face. She ignores you. You turn to Dan, who looks apprehensive.
"Um... yeah, sure," he says, his voice cracking in the middle of his sentence. He clears his throat, reddening.
The chair scrapes against the floor as he stands up. He drops your hand and follows your mother out of the kitchen.
Dan's POV:
I give Y/n one last look before leaving. Her mum gestures to the kitchen door with her head. I shut it reluctantly. I expect her to start speaking to me, but instead she walks upstairs, beckoning for me to follow her.
"Uh, so, what did you want to say...?" I ask her.
She raises her finger to her lips. "Ssshhh..."
She keeps walking, until we're both inside her room. I raise my eyebrow at her. She gestures to the door with her head again, and I close it, again.
"Okay," she whispers excitedly. "When's the wedding?"
I almost choke on my own spit. Attractive, Dan. "Sorry, what?!"
She raises her eyebrow at me and crosses her arms. "You do want to marry her, right?"
"Well, yes, eventually," I reply awkwardly. "But we've only known each other for a few months-"
"And?" she interrupts. "I got married three weeks after meeting Y/n's father. A few months is more than enough time, surely?"
I stop myself from saying: And look how you and her father turned out? It's a good thing I didn't say that, really.
"I'd like to get to know Y/n better before I marry her, Mrs L/n," I say.
"What else is there to know about her, Daniel? I thought you would know everything about her by now."
"Not absolutely everything."
"Well, you need to try harder, then, don't you?"
I scoff. "I'm trying to get to know her to the best of my ability, I assure you. We want to take things slow; we don't want to rush into things. And I would much prefer it if nobody interfered," I say pointedly, narrowing my eyes at her.
She raises both her eyebrows. "You have quite a temper, don't you?"
"I'm just defending myself," I say. "Look, if you're going to throw insults at me the whole evening, Y/n and I will go back home."
Her expression softens. "I'm sorry, Daniel. I'm just trying to find the right person for my daughter."
Suddenly, she starts crying. "I don't want her to end up the way her father and I did!" she sobs.
I fiddle with the hem of my tshirt awkwardly and refrain from rolling my eyes. "Do you want a hug?"
She shakes her head quickly and dabs at her eyes with her jumper. "No, no, I'm fine."
A beeping noise sounds, and she jumps. "The pie is ready!"
She opens the bedroom door and runs downstairs, into the kitchen. I follow her slowly, inhaling and exhaling deeply, calming myself down. What the f*** is wrong with this woman?!
When I reach the kitchen, Y/n's mum is taking the pie out of the oven, her back to me, and Y/n is getting plates, cutlery, and glasses out. She looks up and gives me a worried look. I smile reassuringly.
Tell me later, she mouths.
I give her a thumbs up and smile again.
"Daniel, get the heatproof mat, will you?" Y/n's mother says, pointing to a cupboard.
I walk over to it and get a mat out, which I assume is the heatproof one. I set it down on the middle of the table, and Y/n's mum sets the hot pie dish on it. Y/n finishes getting all the eating stuff out, and sits down. I do, too, and so does her mother.
"How much do you want?" she asks me.
I look at the pie. "A medium sized piece, please."
Her mum serves it onto a plate and hands it to me. I take it, and thank her. Once we all have our food, we begin eating.
*le time skip*
I finish my second serving of the vegetable pie, put my knife and fork down, and lick my lips.
"That was delicious, thank you so much," I say to Y/n's mum.
She looks pleased. "You're welcome."
Maybe she isn't as bad as I thought she was.
Y/n finishes her food and takes my hand under the table again, placing her fingers between mine.
"How about we play a board game?" her mother asks, setting her cutlery down.
I nod my head politely, and so does Y/n.
"Great!" Y/n's mum says, clapping her hands excitedly. "I'll go set it up, then. Y/n, Daniel, load the dishwasher. Don't forget to wipe the counter, too. Oh, and wipe the table."
And with that, she walks off to another room. I look at Y/n.
"What the hell?" I whisper.
She shrugs and gives me an apologetic look. "She always used to make me do stuff for her - nothing's changed, obviously. Sorry she asked you to help, as well... you don't have to."
I shake my head. "I'll help you, it's okay. I just find it a bit weird that she's just setting up a game, and we have to do all the work..."
"Mhm," she says, opening the dishwasher up. "She's just like that, I guess."
A/N: Hello! I feel like this is a good place to stop writing...? I might upload two chapters at once, or with a one day gap, because this one's really boring tbh xD
Anyway, bye bye! xx :3