#are the huldersons even normal people

[marmotsomsierost]

(i totally read this backwards at first, so this is instead 'death's family meeting regular mortal's family for the first time')

"Thane!"

"What?!"

He turns to see Suze staring pointedly and angrily at the table to his left where the massive bouquet of mixed yellow roses, white and purple anemones, and eucalyptus was carefully packed and waiting. The operative word being 'was,' as they were...well. Not dead, not yet, but definitely faded. Petals were already littering the burnished wood beneath the arrangement. He turned back to Suze with a wince. "...Sorry, Suze."

"Keep it together! For one dinner! Fuck!"

"Hey, I'm not the one who had to revive their neighbor's dog because she got a phone call from their girlfriend's dad and panicked."

"Oh, you want to star-" Roger stepped between them, folding his arms across his chest. Some variant of this dance had been repeating itself frequently since they'd been invited to dinner with the Huldersons, and he was beyond tired of it.

"I'm not listening to this for the fifth time in three days. Stop freaking out. It's just dinner." Laughter from behind him ruined the stern glower he'd been indulging in to cover his own nerves. Inge leaned out from the mudroom, kicking their boots off behind them as they waved hello, still chortling.

"You should see your faces, it's like a children's book. 'this anthropomorphic personification's smile is too small! this anthropomorphic personification's smile is too angry! this-" They had to dodge a wilted rose and sighed, picking it up off the floor. "C'mon, don't take it out on the flowers. you should've planned for that." They watched the head rise from its droop and the color return with a bit of focus before sticking it carefully through the clip holding their hair.

"Okay, not all of us won the personfication lottery like you did, sue me for thinking Thane could keep his-" Suze broke off in an aggrieved screech. Roger watched in resignation as his siblings once again devolved into a wrestle-slap-fight before turning back to face Inge properly.

"I assume you have some sort of plan, then, since you're over 30 minutes late and not dressed nicely and..." He blinked, looking more closely at their forearms. "...covered in dirt??"

"Yeah, whatever, it'll wash off fast. It took me forever to find some nice enough, it's totally the wrong season."

"For what? More flowers that are just gonna wilt in minutes because Suze is head-over-heels in happiness and none of us want to ruin it for her?"

"Yeah! Wait, no. Not like- hold on." Inge darted back towards the mudroom, returning to thump (gently) a large cardboard box on the table. "Flowers aren't the problem! Cut flowers, that's hard, they're already on borrowed time & highly susceptible to changes in just general environment, much less Thane being moody." Thane paused in his attempt at getting past Suze's curls for optimum noogie-strength to raise a rude gesture their way, leaving an opportunity for Suze to hook a heel around and drop him to the ground.

"That's why I found these!" They said proudly, lifting a shallow earthenware pot out of the box. It was filled with precariously shaped and piled dirt wrapped in some kind of silvery moss. A smallish green shrub stuck up out of the dirt, with five or six small yellow roses in varying stages of blooming tucked between the canes. Inge grinned at the three of them. "See? They're active, right, alive and growing and they've got their own dirt & water & sunlight, so not even Thane could make 'em wilt without actively meaning to. Plus if the Huldersons like 'em they can plant it right in their yard and I know where there's a whole bunch, they can have a whole hedge if they want!"

Suze was staring at the bowl with a bemused frown, distracted enough that Thane was able to shove her off, hopping gracelessly to his feet and straightening up his clothes. "Is that Grandma's lekanis?"

"Yes," Roger answered for Inge, closing his eyes as though that would change the view when he reopened them.

"What? All the pots at the store were too big or too boring or too fancy, and it's not like Grandma ever uses it, especially after she lost the lid. She's not gonna mind."

"Too fancy- Inge, that's almost 2,400 years old!"

"So? It doesn't look it, we've taken great care of it, it's fine." Suze was still staring at it as though it were some potential mimic waiting to eat their faces off. "I thought you'd like it," Inge added, a bit more quietly.

"Inge, that's a wedding gift."

"No, Grandpa bought it for Grandma after the third time they got drunk, ended up on Knossos, and needed rescuing by her parents."

"No, I mean- it's often a wedding gift," Thane explained, "The lekanis, not the roses."

The brief silence that oozed into the room after that sentence felt portentous, at least until Thane made a fist and banged on the wall behind him. "C'mon, Del! Stop eavesdropping! You're leaking again!"

The heaviness to the room cleared abruptly, followed by a muffled "It's not my fault y'all are loud and panicky! Keep your shit together, it's just dinner- which y'all are gonna be late for unless you leave now, there'll be traffic on the bridge."

Four gazes met, briefly united in a different kind of panic, before breaking away in all directions: Inge, to pack the plant back in the box carefully but quickly before grabbing a garment bag and box of wetwipes from the mudroom; Roger, to dash out the door to start the car; Thane, to run for the neoprene carrier containing two bottles of wine and sparkling pomegranate cider; and Suze, to indulge in a brief moment of silent contemplation about running the other direction until she ran out of landmass. Then she considered the level of 'i'm not mad, i'm disappointed'-face she'd get from Livia after she caught up with her, groaned, then flinched as her phone buzzed in her pocket. She fished it out, eyeing it warily until the contact appeared on the screen. Del's roommate? Suze answered it, but before she could speak they were already talking.

"You better get a move on, Del's muttering about yelling out how long til release and in what plot direction the next book in that series you like is gonna go."

"I'm gone, I'm going, I'm-" the line was already silent. Suze booked it out the front door, pausing only to check her reflection in the window on her way out. Thankfully Thane hadn't screwed up her hair too badly- a few swipes with her fingers and the streak was back to being neatly contained, an accent rather than a mad scribble-cloud. It'd be fine.

Assuming nobody realized Inge had stolen roses from the arboretum, again, and sent a basilisk after them. Was that still a thing? No, whatever, it didn't matter! It was just dinner with her girlfriend and her girlfriend's family and her family, like normal people do. In a normal restaurant, in public. With other normal people.

Oh, no.

No. Suze shook her head as she slid into the car, glaring at Thane until he scrambled out of the passenger seat into the back. It was going to be fine.

You’re a regular mortal with a regular family. After a very odd “meet cute,” you’re now dating the anthropomorphic personification of Death. You got to meet their family, and it went really well. Now they’re going to meet yours and they are terrified that they’ll make a bad first impression.