Milkshake Hearts

Chapter 37: What Would You Think?

A/N: More fun best friends' time! Also apologies for the delayed update I totally forgot what day it was this morning. December be like that. Enjoy.

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They order Thai food, and their conversation heads in a much less personal direction as they fire up Shayne's PS4 while they wait for the excessively long DoorDash delivery time. Damien wins everything they play (which isn't the slightest bit abnormal), but Shayne mercilessly makes fun of him anyway after their food arrives and they sit down at the dining table to actually eat their dinner, until they fall into comfortable silence for a moment.

"Can I ask something totally abstract that clearly isn't but you can pretend it is?" Shayne breaks the silence, pausing with a forkful of food halfway to his mouth.

"Go for it," Damien confirms, raising an inquisitive eyebrow. Shayne pauses for a moment, finishing his mouthful, before looking down and stabbing his fork into his food as he speaks.

"What would you think about a theoretical random youtube couple that got engaged less than a year after getting together?"

"Well..." Damien trails off, Shayne refusing to meet his eyes as he continues eating his pad thai, "I can only base a theoretical assessment on where I hear the most about youtube couples, which is like, drama-heavy beauty youtube and things like that, and it's not usually a good thing when they get engaged quickly because they usually break up before they actually get married."

"It never looks very good, does it," Shayne replies, trying to distance his tone from his emotions.

"It doesn't exactly look good when those particular couples do anything, it all looks pretty ingenuine and put on for show. As much as the engagement speed is part of it, it is just a piece of an overall bad picture," Damien replies, "and, you know, usually they get together as soon as they meet each other, and they're all over each other in front of as many cameras as possible, and basically they are nothing like you and Courtney."

"I talked to my Dad and Chris about it up in Seattle. I've got it in my head that I'm going too fast and I shouldn't be thinking so seriously about asking her yet, but..." Shayne sighs.

"What did they say?"

"They didn't really give me a direct response but they kind of said there isn't really a right time when I should be thinking about it and I'll know when I want to, which..." he trails off again.

"You guys had a pretty good time up in Seattle, didn't you?" Damien asks, again, "I'm guessing that drawing on the fridge is from one of Chris' kids?"

"Yeah, Rosie his youngest absolutely adored Courtney, and the third day we spent with them we got there and she'd apparently spent all morning drawing this picture of her favourite TV character and her and us. And... so Brian was kind of an asshole to Courtney, said some really inappropriate shit and really minimised our relationship – and the fact we're both actors –, and my parents stuck up for us pretty fiercely. Mum is extending her casual 'goodbye, love you' thing at the end of phone calls to Courtney too, and it's just... I love it, so fucking much. There's nothing I want more than for Courtney to be part of my family. I don't want it to be... Shayne's niece and nephew. They're her family too," he admits, twirling his fork through his food, "and I kind of want her family to be my family, too. As much as her family is almost scarily large and hectic."

"That all sounds really positive, other than Brian still being an ass, I'm glad you had a good time with your families," Damien nods, "but you don't sound totally positive."

"I am genuinely so, so happy that all of this is happening. I can't even describe how amazing it felt to have my parents defend us, for it to just be absolutely normal and expected that she was part of our family gathering and for me to be part of the stuff in Utah, too. I mean, some of her siblings thought we'd been dating for way longer because Django was all over me and we were talking about when I spent so much time with Django when Court still had him over here," Shayne grins.