Christmas at the Lang's: Book Four

2

A quick house tour followed, and after Stephen had put his bag in the guest room, Scott decided to stop delaying the inevitable and introduce them to the rest of the family and hope for the best. So he, Cassie (who had been following them around since they'd arrived), Loki and Stephen ventured into the living room of the crazily over-decorated house.

Maggie and Janet were still there, and they'd now been joined by Paxton as well.

And they were apparently in the middle of a heated discussion.

About Scott.

Ah. Talk about awkward.

"Why didn't you get him to get me for help?" Paxton was saying, unaware of Scott's presence. "You know what Scott's like, he'll end up knocking himself out with it!"

Cassie, Stephen and Loki all started laughing. Scott shushed them. He wasn't sure what was worse – that they were laughing at him, or how true that was.

Their laughing at least turned the attention onto them and interrupted their argument over him.

Maggie, Janet and Paxton all gave Scott an identical confused look and then he remembered he hadn't introduced them.

So he cleared his throat for no reason (he did that a lot; it was a nervous habit) and said, "Maggie, Janet, Paxton, meet Loki and Stephen." He pointed at Stephen when he said Loki's name and at Loki when he said Stephen's name by accident. "Loki and Stephen, meet Maggie, Janet and Paxton, my sort of not really family, friends. Um, other friends. Family-like friends," he corrected, realising that his girlfriend's mom, his ex and her husband weren't actually his family. Wow he'd made a total mess of that introduction.

Once they'd cleared up the awkwardness (Loki and Stephen really knew how to fix an awkward conversation, thankfully) Scott walked around his house with the others following him, trying to find Hank and Hope. Where the hell were they?

"I give up," Scott said after a while. "The house has like ten rooms. How the hell can they have disappeared like that?"

"Maybe it's you. They don't wanna go anywhere near you," Loki suggested, immediately and shamelessly.

"Gee, thanks Loki," Scott said grumpily.

"You are very welcome," Loki smiled, and Cassie and Stephen laughed, and Scott frowned at them.

"Well, I don't know what to do now, to be fair," Scott says, leaning against the hallway wall. "Guess you two can do what you want until dinner. Oh," he widened his eyes, struck with a very important thought he really should've asked before, "you guys do eat regular human food right?"

Stephen and Loki both stared at him like he was joking. Cassie had actually asked Scott that herself, so she looked between them in confusion.

After a pause that felt like nine seconds but was actually only eight, Stephen repeated, "Do I eat regular human food?"

"Yeah," Scott said, now feeling stupid.

"We literally went to McDonald's together a week ago," Loki said, rolling his eyes. "And I believe I had more fries than you two put together." He raised an eyebrow in an unimpressed fashion. "Did you really think we don't eat normal food?"

"Well, I had to check," Scott shrugged.

"I get asking Loki, but me?" Stephen asked. "I'm a human being you know. Just because I learned magic it doesn't mean I suddenly need a special diet of special wizard stuff."

"I asked him to ask you," Cassie admitted, and they turned their attention on her. "Because I read a comic where this wizard could only eat eyeballs to stay alive."