What's Next? || Ant x Stephen

Parent's Meeting - Chapter Seventeen

Today was the day that Stephen was extremely nervous about. His parents and Ant's mother were coming over for dinner this evening. He'd been worried about this dinner forever, he hopes this dinner goes well, but he can't lie, he doesn't trust his mother not to say something to ruin the night. He wants to trust her, he wants to be able to have dinner with his parents without worrying that his mother will say something and mess the night up.

Stephen was cooking dinner tonight, he was planning on doing something kind of easy and quick that everyone liked so he thought maybe he would make some pasta, Ant always says he makes pretty good pasta.

Whilst Stephen was out shopping for stuff for tonight, Ant was tidying up a bit around the house. He knew how nervous the younger man was about tonight, he knew he wasn't 100% looking forward to it, but he was proud of him for trying, for not cancelling or anything like that. Since the other night, when Stephen admitted he was scared for his mother to meet Ant's, and the older man completely gets why, but he's met Stephen's mother quite a lot now, so he knows how hard she's been trying, and he understands that maybe there are small things happening, like maybe the odd judgmental look, that only Stephen could see, or that Ant didn't notice, but all in all, she has been a lot better.

Stephen got back from the shop around 2:00pm, and started putting the shopping away instantly, the dinner was at 6:00pm so he did have a bit of time, but he wanted, he needed, tonight to go as smoothly as possible. Ant followed the younger man into the kitchen and just as Stephen was about to walk over to the fridge Ant grabbed the top of his arms, and forced him to look Ant in the eyes.

"You need to take a breath, Okay?" Ant said as Stephen sighed, "Everything will be fine, I promise" Ant reassured the younger man, with a comforting smile on his face. Stephen just dropped his head onto Ant's shoulder, and let out a deep breath. "What if it doesn't go well though? What if your mam hates my mam? Or what if my mam says something wrong...?" Stephen had been asking himself these questions the last 2-3 days, he knew there was a possibility that tonight could as well as a house on fire, and as much as he tried to not think about all the bad case scenarios, he couldn't help it, it's part of his thinking now, since he was 13 years old, he's been going over every bad case scenario for every social event he's had to go to, he didn't know how to stop though.

"Stevie" Ant said softly as he pulled the younger man into a hug, rubbing his hand across Stephen's back, he knew what his thinking pattern was like by now, the last 2 years or so, he's noticed the small, minor things about Stephen's behaviour, and that if you didn't know him or you didn't spend practically everyday with him, you almost certainly wouldn't notice. Like when he's nervous his hands form a fist and he will dig his nails into the palm of his hand, or maybe when he's talking about things that really interests him, for example magic, his eyes light up, he's got this massive grin on his face, and he talks with his hands all through the conversation. There are so many things that over the last 2 years Ant has noticed about the younger man, some of them make him smile other's make him worry about him, but he couldn't help that he loved him with his whole heart.

Stephen eventually pulled away from Ant, but was instantly missing the touch, Ant was one of the few people who could calm Stephen down by just the touch of his skin against Stephen's whether it was a hug, or a kiss, or Ant playing with Stephen's hair, or even just his hand grazing against Stephens, it calmed him down instantly. "I need to get cooking" Stephen said, he could hear the uncertainty in his voice, and he knew Ant could hear it too. But Ant didn't say anything he just smiled faintly and allowed Stephen to start cooking without the interrogation.

*TIME SKIP*

Ant and Stephen were doing finishing touches, making sure everyone had a set of cutlery, checking the house was tidy, and Stephen kept an eye on the food.