#for the record my usual pace is like 300 words a day lmfao

[blacktofade]

Please I need to know what Etho told his mum about Gem before she showed up

“What’s her name?” a voice asks from the doorway of his kitchen, and Etho startles enough that he fumbles his phone, dropping it on the table.

“What?”

Without thinking, he turns his phone face down as his mom steps into the room.

She’d warned him she was coming over, but he hadn’t heard the door, too busy messaging — 

“What’s her name?” his mom repeats, stepping closer to hang her bag on the back of the chair opposite him before sitting down, a smile on her face.

Under the table, Chowder snuffles around, on the prowl for any crumbs Etho may have accidentally dropped in the days since her last visit.

“It was just a work thing,” he tells her, keeping his expression neutral, but her smile doesn’t waver.

“Work doesn’t make you smile like that,” she laughs, and Etho feels two tiny paws pressing against his thigh.

Chowder’s apparently realized he swept the day before and there’s nothing for her to scrounge, and instead wants to sit in his lap.

He glances down at her, thankful for the excuse to break his mom’s knowing stare. Gently, he scoops Chowder up with one hand and eases his chair back to make room for her.

He doesn’t share a lot about what he does — doesn’t really see the point when his family doesn’t understand it, but when he looks back over at his mom, her expression is softer.

On the table, his phone dings with a new message and he knows that his ears are turning red because he can feel how warm they are.

He looks back down at Chowder, who’s quietly panting her hot stinky dog breath all over him, staring with love in her eyes.

“Taylor,” he says quietly, maybe the first time he's said it aloud, and across the table, his mom hums in thought.

“I’ve always liked that name,” she declares, which is absurd, because he doesn’t think she’s ever had any opinions about names before. She’s the one who gave him the blandest name in existence.

But he knows her, and understands that it’s her olive branch. He also knows without a doubt that she has a million follow-up questions she's dying to ask.

Though instead, she lets them sit in the silence of his admission, and Etho’s the one who cracks first.

“She’s coming to visit me,” he admits, and makes the mistake of looking at her again, because her expression is knowing.

Etho’s never introduced anyone to his family before. He’s had flings and one night stands, and even a relationship that lasted almost a year. But he’d never found it in him to take that next step to tell anyone. He’s never really wanted to.

Before Gem.

And they’re not even a thing. She’s just an ache in his chest that he can’t seem to shift.

“Soon?” his mom asks, and Etho nods.

“Next month. Just for a weekend.”

She nods back at him. “Is she nice?”

It’s an automatic response for him to nod again, but he thinks about her fiery attitude, how she’s not afraid to call him out, how she pokes at him just to see how he’ll react, and a laugh slips out of him before he can stop it.

“Yeah,” he says, “you’d like her.” 

His mom’s grin sharpens, like she knows exactly the kind of woman that would make Etho want to let her in.

“You better be good to her,” she warns. “Polite.”

He snorts without meaning to. “I will,” he promises, but she continues as though she hasn’t heard him.

“I raised you with manners.”

“Mom,” he insists and his phone dings again.

She falls silent, but watches him closely, folding her hands on top of the table.

“Don’t fuck this up,” she says and Etho laughs, tipping his head back to stare at the ceiling, praying for strength.

He takes a breath and then looks back down, his mom seeming more serious than she should.

“I’ll try not to,” he tells her and she nods, as though it’s settled.

In his lap, Chowder yawns, making a noise as though she wants attention, and Etho gives her a scratch behind the ears.

His fate’s in Gem’s hands, though he’s not sure she knows it yet.