Family (It's What You Are) | Port Orthos 2

chapter 18: fawn's peace

chapter 18: fawn's peace

~fawns~

       Marius pulls the minivan into the driveway of my parents' house and honestly, part of me is regretting agreeing to have a family dinner with them. It's not that my relationship with them is strained. It's just that I never really enjoy any dinners we have together.

       The only reason why I do agree to it is mainly for my nieces and nephews' sake. I love the four of them more than anything, and I don't think it's fair to involve them in the family drama that still happens from time to time.

       Besides, they all love Fern and Harlow, and I want my daughters to have a good relationship with their cousins. 

       And at least I'm not going alone. Marius always comes since he is part of the family, and Mary-Anne does as well. Those two are not afraid to stand up for me if they need to.

       Marius, Mary-Anne, and I get out of the van before Marius and I help the twins out. Once we're all out, Mary-Anne looks at me and signs I will fight anyone if you need me to.

       "Try not to start any fights," I say as I sign back to her. Mary-Anne just shrugs before the five of us head inside. 

       The moment we walk into the house, Madison hurries over to us. "Uncle Marius, can you buy me a PS5?"

       Before Marius can even reply, Charlotte sighs heavily as she says, "Madison, what have I told you about asking Marius to buy you expensive stuff?"

       "Yes, and we just told you that we'll be able to buy you one," Travis says. "You just have to wait until my next paycheque, which is just in two weeks. You can wait."

       Madison huffs. "But all of my friends have them now. They want me to play online games with them but I can't if I don't have one." Madison looks at Marius, completely ignoring what her parents had just told her. "So can you buy me one?"

       "You know, whenever I do buy you something, I always run it by your parents first to make sure they're okay with it," Marius says. "And since they just told you they'll get you one in two weeks, I think the answer to me buying you one will be no."

       Madison scowls like she normally does now that she's in her moody pre-teen phase. "Uncle Fawn, what's the point of dating a rich man if he won't buy me anything?" She walks back to where she was sitting beside her mom on the couch and sulks. 

       I know she's not actually mad that Marius won't buy her the PS5 right away. She's just at the age where everyone at school tries their hardest to fit in and if you don't have what everyone else has, you'll either feel left out or be teased.

       Thankfully, Madison doesn't pout for too long since Harlow walks over to her to say hi. Madison loves her little cousins after all, and it's hard not to smile at Harlow and Fern. I might be biased because I'm their father, but they are the cutest little girls ever.

       Charlotte and Travis's youngest son, three year old Skylar, walks over to Fern, wanting to play with her. Fern immediately walks over to Skylar, then follows him to where he has a bunch of toys set up.

       Marius leans over towards me and asks in a quiet voice, "Are you going to tell your family about our engagement?"

       I nod. "Yeah, I think it's the best time to do it if my family is okay with us announcing something." It's good that this is just a normal family dinner, otherwise Marius and I wouldn't have been saying anything. There's nothing that bothers me more than someone taking the opportunity of a family gathering for someone's birthday to announce something about themselves, taking the spotlight away from the other family member.

       It's one reason why Verity and my relationship is still quite strained after everything. She decided to announce that she was pregnant on my twenty-third birthday even though she knew it was hard enough for me to be with my family that day since we were still mending our relationship.

       I didn't say anything, but Charlotte told me that Travis gave her an earful later on.

       At least Travis has been trying his best to fix our relationship even after he was the most supportive of Quentin before the truth came out.

       When we're all sitting at the table for dinner, I make sure that everything on Fern's plate is something she wants to eat. Thankfully, almost everything made is something she will eat. The only thing that was made for dinner that she won't eat is salad, but not because she doesn't like it, but because she always struggles to pick it up with her fork and ends up having a meltdown instead.

       A conversation between my family breaks out, so I wait for it to die down before I ask, "Is it okay if I announce something?"

       "Of course," Mom says with a small smile.

       "Okay, so Marius and I are engaged," I say. "We're going to be getting married."

       "Oh! That's wonderful," Mom says. "I'm so happy to hear that!"

       Everyone else says their congratulations and while our family is still strained, it does make me happy to hear that they all support my relationship with Marius now instead of being hung up over Quentin.

       Once the congratulations are over, they all start asking questions about the wedding. We have to tell them we don't have too much planned and we don't even know when it's going to be, just that we'll slowly be planning it.

       "Can I be a part of the wedding?" Madison asks.

       "Actually, while we are still planning out who's going to be a part of the wedding, we did decide on you already," I say. "I know you probably don't want to be a flower girl, but how would you feel about being a junior bridesmaid that walks down the aisle with Fern and Harlow?"

       Madison smiles. "I like that idea."

       "Can I be your best man?" Darwin asks.

       Before I can even reply, Mary-Anne signs No, I am. He already asked me.

       "Huh?" Darwin asks. "That's not fair. You were his best woman at his last wedding." He then sighs heavily. "I shouldn't have said that. Sorry, Fawn."

       "It's okay," I say. "But Mary-Anne is right. I already asked her. But you can be one of my groomsmen, if you want."

       "I'll take what I can get."

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even though, like fawn said, the family is still a bit strained, both of his parents absolutely love marius and love how happy he makes fawn <3 

also i agree with fawn. please don't announce things at someone else's birthday or event thanks. (my oldest sister, though i love her dearly, almost announced her second pregnancy on my birthday. she was planning on doing it on my birthday but accidentally let it slip that she was pregnant)(i would have cried if she announced it on my birthday since it's one of the few days a year that makes me really happy)