An unexpected love || Ant x Stephen

Meeting The Parents Pt 2- Chapter Twenty Three

Today was the day! Today Ant was meeting Stephens parents for the first time, for real. This wasn't like how Stephen met Ants mother for 5 minutes a few years ago, this was proper, Ant had never met Stephens parents and from what he's heard about Stephens parents, how he was feeling, well nervous was an understatement, but if he was feeling nervous, imagine what Stephen was feeling, he's spent the last three days worry over this dinner tonight, over how it's going to go and what things could go wrong. The scenarios he's made up in his head- well there's not many good ones.

"Stevie. You ready?" Ant shouted down the corridor as Stephen came from round the corner, reading over the little notes he made of sentence starters for his parents, to try and keep the conversation away from him and Ant so his mother wouldn't say anything too offensive, especially in front of Ant, after the incident where he had already heard homophobic comments. As Stephen walked into the hallway where Ant was, he was shaking his head and whispered "no.." as Ant looked at him with a sympathetic look on his face "Stephen. Everything will be fine, I promise." Ant said with a comforting smile on his face which did make Stephen feel less nervous even if he didn't believe it. "I know...but I haven't really spoken about...this to them since I was 19 when my mother kept trying to get me to go to conversion therapy. That's when I gave up trying to change her mind" Stephen said letting out a nervous sigh, as Ant walked closer to him and grabbed his hand and smiled at him "I know it's tough. I'm going to be right next to you the whole time, and if you want to leave then..." he stopped for a moment thinking "then tap my leg with your foot twice and I will make up an excuse as too why we need to leave." Ant said smiling, trying to calm the younger man down, Stephen didn't say anything though, he just nodded. They both grabbed their jackets and went to leave. When, as per usual, Stephen pointed out to Ant he forgot to pick up his keys.

*Skip time*

As Ant turned down the road that Stephens parents' house was on, he looked over to Stephen to see his hands in a fist, he knew what that meant, it meant Stephen was digging his nails into his palms. Ant moved his hand off the steering wheel and grabbed the other man's hand to stop him, he flattened Stephen's hand out and pointed out the marks "sorry" Stephen said quietly looking at the floor "why are you saying that? you don't have to be sorry" Ant pointed out to Stephen as he shook his head and turned to look out the window.

Ant parked the car and turned to face Stephen, he moved Stephens face so he was looking at him and said "it will be fine, and you know what to do if your feeling uncomfortable or you want to leave." Ant nodded to Stephen as Stephen nodded back. They got out of the car and made their way over to Stephens Parents house, the younger man took a deep breath in as he squeezed Ants hand slightly tighter as he knocked the door.

He could hear the footsteps on the other side of the door, getting closer and closer, when the door finally opened and the two men were greeted by Chris, Stephens dad, which left Stephen relieved it wasn't his mum, and Stephen greeted him with a smile. "Hey dad!" He said as he stepped into the house and gave his dad a quick hug "hey Stephen, how's it been?" His dad replied as he returned the hug "yeah, it's been alright I guess." Stephen said smiling as he pulled away "uhh dad, this is Ant. My boyfriend" he said as he pointed to Ant.

Stephen wasn't as nervous around his dad as he was his mam, because his dad accepted him from the moment he came out to them, he understood and even though he wasn't planning on having a gay son, he took it a lot better than Stephen ever expected him to, after his mam stormed off, dad asked one question too Stephen, before he asked the question Stephen was ready for his dad to half-ask him to 'get the hell out of my house' but that's not what he asked, he asked him "are you still the person I raised?" When Stephen nodded all his dad said after that was "well I don't care if your gay then!" Which made Stephen smile, and even though his mother didn't accept him, which did leave quite a big hole, so to say, in Stephens life, it was a bit easier knowing his dad accepted him.