The first time Luz and Harry traveled to London with the intention of staying there for more than a week or two was something of a hectic one. So excited to share his life in England with his girlfriend, Harry packed the first few days with activity after activity. He took her all around London to see everything there was to see even though she'd seen them already- he claimed that it was different now since she would be a temporary resident- he took her shopping at all his favorite stores, which was mostly just him shopping and her watching, but she'd become very good at it over the years, she even enjoyed how he would come out of a dressing room to show her a pair of pants or a shirt with beautiful embroidery on it and ask her what she thought.
His biggest plan for her though was a weekend trip to his hometown. To meet his family.
Now, she'd met his immediate family before—Gemma and Anne, his father, Des, his step siblings and a couple of his cousins—but the way Harry described the weekend, he made it sound like nearly everyone in Holmes Chapel was coming to his childhood home to meet her. Luz's eyes widened when Harry told her about the "little party" his mom had planned for them, feeling like every time he mentioned it, another ten people were coming.
It wasn't that she wasn't accustomed to big family parties, that was pretty much all she knew when it came to her family getting together. But that was her family. She knew her family and their quirks, knew what kind of food would be served at dinner and the kind of music that would play when the dancing began. She didn't really know anything about Harry's family outside the people she'd met, or his whole town, for that matter.
There was also a small, irrational fear the size of a pea in the back of Luz's mind, one that realized that she was a far cry from some of the women he'd dated in the past and perhaps brought home. It was never really something she thought about before, and if she wasn't about to meet every single person who had been a part of Harry's childhood, she wouldn't. But she felt insecure for some reason, like she was suddenly aware of how short she was, the size of her waist, the way one of her front teeth was slightly on top of the other one, and—and had her boobs always been that small? She didn't want to, but late at night, the night before her and Harry were going to drive to Holmes Chapel, every teeny tiny insecurity she'd ever had came bubbling to the surface. Even worse, she felt painfully aware of her ta skinn, which had darkened a little from spending so much time at the beach before coming to London, of her name, which was unusual even in her own family. She thought back to how she stopped introducing herself as Lucero in high school. It's what everyone at home called her anyway, but the first couple times she tried it her first week, some people gave her funny looks, and teachers kept mispronouncing it, so she just made it easier on herself and everyone else.
It was silly, how she was feeling, but she couldn't close her eyes and fall asleep and forget about the tension in the pit of her stomach. Harry was not at all the kind of person she was worried about, and neither were his parents or sister, or any of the other family members of his that she'd met. But it was like the later it got and she still hadn't fallen asleep, the more her thoughts continued to spiral, as they often did if something was bothering her. She thought about the stories she'd heard growing up about her mom meeting her dad's family for the first time, the questions they would ask her, the assumptions they had made because she was different.
Harry could tell something was up with Luz the last day or so, but he didn't ask her what was wrong, trusting that she would come to him when she was ready. And while Luz desperately wanted to confide in him, she felt like she couldn't, not this time. She didn't know how to tell her boyfriend that she was worried his family wouldn't like her because she feared they might be ignorant. Who wouldn't be offended by something like that?
Luz squirmed in bed next to Harry, hoping that if she was tucked against his chest she might finally fall asleep. When ten minutes had passed and she still didn't feel the least bit tired, Luz wiggled around and faced away from him again, then five minutes later she moved onto her back to stare at the ceiling. When she made to move again, Harry sighed and slung an arm over her waist.
