A Talk

Who: Oz and Sophie
When: Afternoon
Where: Their house

Sophie put down the phone, a little shell shocked. She hadn't heard from her aunt in getting on for years and now she calls up out of the blue and several hours later, after some industrious catching up there had been a suggestion made that would turn Sophie's world upside down. She just wasn't sure what to make of it. Shock alone had made her babble out that she'd think about it - when she'd been able to actually form words again.

She stood, alone, quiet in the kitchen for a few minutes, before going off in search of Oz. They'd need to talk about this.

Oz was outside. He'd known Sophie was on the phone with family, so he'd gone wandering around the property. This was to ensure he didn't hang around doorframes and eavesdrop as he was kind of want to do occasionally. He knew it would drive her nuts, so he removed himself from the situation. And he'd gone padding around the area before wandering back in wolf form, spotting his mate looking around for him. So he trotted back up.

Sophie didn't even blink when she saw the wolf heading towards her - she knew Oz by now and even if she didn't, their bond would never let her feel any less than safe around him, even on the nights of the full moon when most people would look at him and see a monster. She eyed him. "We - need to talk," he told him, before heading back inside - he'd want to get dressed, after all.

That was never a good sign. Oz's head of course immediately lept to the conclusion that something was going on with her family and she'd be leaving him straight away. So when he dashed through the house like a mad-wolf, he was doing it mostly out of a sick sort of worry and less to do something dumb like knock over a vase--which he did. He got to their room, and was back downstairs in no time, going to get the broom and dust pan. "Sorry." he said, wincing a little. "Talking. Right." Don't say you're leaving. Don't say you're leaving, don't say you're leaving...

When he reappeared with the dust pan and brush, Sophie was already picking up the larger pieces of the vase. She'd liked that one as well - it had been one of her favourites. But you just couldn't wolf-proof a house, though normally he was good about not haring through the place. They tidied up quickly and threw the pieces in the trash, before Sophie led him into the living room and took a seat on the sofa. "So - that was my auntie Vicky," she told him, realising that whilst she may have mentioned the name in passing in the past, she'd not done very much more than that. Sophie didn't really talk about her family much.

Oz was fidgeting terribly. He'd sat down, though his leg bounced with nervous energy, and he couldn't seem to sit still for the life of him. "Yeah..." he said, drawing the word out. He was trying not to blurt out something stupid, even if he was close to doing so. "You've mentioned her. Is she okay?" Are you leaving on the next flight, or finding one tomorrow?

Sophie wasn't great herself - in fact, she was wondering what the hell she'd not-quite-agreed to. She absently wrung her hands in her lap, couldn't quite look him in the eyes. And then she realised she was doing it and bodily straightened, looking at him. "She's fine - she says hi." She also says that mum still thinks you've stolen me away and I'm a bad daughter, but torture wouldn't get me to tell you that "She wanted to ask us a... favour." Oh, look, the reluctance was back.

Oh god. She's leaving. She looks really nervous and she wouldn't look like that if it was anything good and this is where she says she's gone again and sorry, J, it's just not working out and my family's finally decided to disown me if I don't go back home so see you later, it's been fun. Sometimes. Not being able to hack sitting still even in the remotest of senses, Oz hopped up and paced around, randomly straightening things in the room. Which really didn't need straightening, since Sophie kept the house pretty damn organized, but still. It gave him something to do that wasn't staring at her in a panic. "I--huh?" he asked intelligently as what she'd said sank in. "A favor?"

"Yes," Sophie said, looking up at him - and wondering why the hell he blow shit up with his mind? I don't actually think that you're going to have to talk around the subject of 'you know there's weird things out there in the world'," she snapped at him, losing her cool for a moment.

"In movies, they rarely portray people immediately finding pitchforks and torches to deal with a psychic of some nature." Oz shot back, frowning. "They kinda do with werewolves. You bring them up and people are already looking for grandma's silver to melt down into bullets." Which after he said it, he realized wasn't quite the point. So he clarified. "I don't particularly want to scare your relatives any more than I have to, and there's a whole host of shit that'll come along with that if he does show..."

"Like having to look after a troubled sixteen year old?" Sophie suggested. That was actually the part that was scaring her most in all of this. She was hardly that much older than that herself, neither was Oz. "I know - should I just have given her a flat out 'no'?"

He looked distinctly unhappy as he stared pacing again. "I don't know. I can't say that this environment would be terribly good for instilling stability, do you?" he asked. Though it was actually a question, not a pointed statement that expected a specific answer. "We're just settling down ourselves, and...wouldn't we just fuck him up more? Or more specifically me?"

"You? J - just because you're a werewolf doesn't mean you're going to fuck him up," Sophie told her husband, firmly. "To be honest, I think that's actually the reason they want to send him here. The way Auntie Vicky was talking, it seems that she and Uncle Keith think that half the problem is that they don't know anyone else who can do anything out of the ordinary and they just don't know how to handle him. Though what they think that we'll be able to do better is beyond me..." Sophie gave him a helpless little look. "She was remarkably persuasive on the phone."

He sighed, then walked over to her, flopping down next to her. Oz was quiet for a few long minutes, then spoke up again. "Do you want to do this?" he asked. His voice was quiet but even, really wanting to know if this was something she wanted. If she did...he'd figure something out. What, he didn't know. But he'd give it a try.

She curled up into him as he sat down, taking comfort from the contact. "Honestly? I don't know. Yes, I think. I'm not sure. I can think of it both ways. It's scary, thinking of taking on responsibility for someone. Especially a teenager. Especially one who sounds like he's not exactly wholy stable. I can think of a million reasons why we shouldn't. But I also know Dean - he's my cousin. He's a nice lad, though I haven't seen him for years. And if they think that he'd be better off here, how can I say no? He's family..."

She wasn't the only one who felt better from the contact. He put his arms around her, and sort of half petted her hair absently as he listened to her. "I always wanted us to have our own family. Ijust...didn't really picture us winding up with a teenager out of the blue. If he really needs people who know and can understand and not freak out over the weird though...that'd be us." He had to admit that much, because really. Taking even the tiniest bit of a glance at their lives would more than qualify them for anything Weird-Related.

She chuckled a little bit at that. "Yeah, I know what you mean," she admitted. "Okay, we could, I dunno - suggest a trial period or something? He could come for a while, see how it goes." She looked up at him. "I could tell Auntie Vicky about the werewolf thing beforehand - so he'd know when he got here. I think that maybe that would be better. They should know what they're doing."

He looked wary, though he didn't fight her on it. "...yeah." he eventually said. He was twitchy about it, and had tensed up, of course. But then again, he still wasn't sure how much her family knew about him period other than she'd left the country to get away from him way back when, then dropped everything to go back to him years later. Yeah. Not really the best of examples, now were they?

"Yeah? Just... yeah?" Sophie asked. "Not good enough - I want to know what you're thinking here, J. Want to be a little more verbose on me?" she sat up and turned to face him, reaching for his hand as she did so, not wanting to totally lose the contact - but she thought better when there was a little space between them.

"I dunno, it's just...I don't even know if your parents know what I am." he said finally, looking over at her. And while he maintained eye contact, it took work. "And I get why it would be better for them to know before they found out from their kid 'by the way, cousin Sophie's weird boyfriend happens to be a freaking werewolf'. I get it. It's just not so simple for me to think about. That's all. I didn't say it shouldn't be done."

"Mum and dad - they don't know," Sophie admitted. "My mum? She'd probably either have a nervous breakdown, or try and get me committed. Probably try and get me committed. She's - she doesn't beleive in anything she can't see. And if you turned into a wolf in front of her? Yeah, cue the nervous breakdown. It's best they don't know. And I would have said the same about my entire family, save for gran - until this afternoon. But apparently Vicky and Keith are more aware than I thought and apparently gran told them some stuff about me a few years ago. I think they can handle it. And maybe they can help us find a way to eventually tell mum and dad. Because they're going to ahve to know eventually - I just want to work it so that doesn't involve mental break downs and men in white coats."

That really didn't help Oz's disposition at all. In fact, it made him feel sick to his stomach, and he'd never been very good at hiding things like how he was feeling. Particularly with her. He gave it a shot, but failed spectacularly. "Oh." was what he wound up saying, though it was less a real response to her and more an automatic answer because he knew he was supposed to say something.

"Oh?" Sophie asked, raising an eyebrow. Some days she really wished she had some kind of insight into that brain of his. All she knew was that monosyllabic was bad. She looked at him, clearly wanting more than that.

A pained look crossed his face and he looked away, really wanting to get back up and go back to pacing now, but it was hard to pull back from her when she had his hand like that. It was always a difficult thing when they were in physical contact. "Oh. I don't know what else to say." he said, flat, unaltered truth on that one. "I guess I always thought that you hadn't told them it's just--it's different to hear it." he admitted.

Sophie winced slightly. "I'm sorry - but... You know my mum. Kinda." Though in all honesty, Oz and Mrs Young hadn't exactly spent any quality time together. There had been a couple of dinners and some passing meetings when they'd been originally trying to make a go of things, but generally, Sophie had kept her parents far away from the boy that she'd spent so much time either arguing with, or trying not to jump. Neither of which was good parent-y material when you were sixteen. "I think dad could maybe handle it better, but you can never tell. I just..." she trailed off, feeling like she'd let him down.

Having trouble looking at her, Oz's blue eyes were down on his wedding ring, and he twisted it around and around his finger. It was habit, something he tended to do when his mind was spinning too badly. While he realized he owed her a response, it was difficult to come up with one. Years ago, he wouldn't have been able to shut up, but that had changed. Oz had learned from a lot of experience that a lot of times he needed to not talk. Talking got him into trouble, worse than usual even. And he really was good at getting himself into trouble in the first place, he didn't need extra help.

His silence made her feel even worse and part of her battled inside that that was totally unfair, that he should understand - that she'd dropped everything, he entire life, to be here with him and that he just didn't appreciate that and he should. She felt a flash of anger at that fact, at the fact that he didn't see what she had given up - that nothing she ever did seemed to be good enough for him and it probably never would be. Ever since she'd come back, ever since she'd returned to him, Sophie had felt like she was making up, undergoing penance for what she'd done - for leaving him in the first place. And much of that had been self-inflicted, because she thougth she needed to atone for her past wrongs to him. But lately that need had been dying. They were stable now, they'd started to work through their problems - or so she'd thought. But now, here they were again and they felt the same, as if they had the same root cause - and that root cause was her. Rational or not, she didn't know - but that's what it felt like.

She withdrew her hand from his, sitting back a little.

He almost reached for her hand back but didn't. That was something else he wouldn't have been able to stop a few years ago, but he knew perfectly well now that she hated it when he chased her. He'd spent a whole lot of time trying to curb that as much as possible so it leaked into even things like that. Oz wound up standing up and starting to walk around the room. It wasn't pacing, though, not this time. He was back to straightening things, but it was slow. The nervous, bottled up energy thing he'd had going on before was gone. "I understand." he said eventually, voice quiet. And he did, really. He got it. There was no part of it he didn't understand on some level. That just didn't make it hurt any less. Understanding didn't take the sting away.

"I don't like it either, you know," she all but snapped at him, wondering if he actually did understand - he'd always had his family's total support. She envied him that sometimes.

He looked over, a frown flickering over his features at her snapping at him. He was surprised to say the least, and still hurt. "What did I do now?" he asked, instead of commenting on what she said.

She wanted to ask him, confront him with the fact that she felt like nothing she ever did would ever be enough for him. That she would always feel like she was trying but not quite reaching the mark, never quite there. Except he'd said that he understood, and so she couldn't start that without sounding totally fucking unreasonable. Damn - how had they got here, when everything had been seemingly okay? She could feel that warring feeling rising up inside her, that horrible, terrible, heart-wrenching feeling that always came when she was annoyed with him, with them. "Nothing," she said, rising and walking to look out of the window.

"Oh come on." Oz said, eyes on her back. "You don't just snap at me and then say nothing. What did I do? Obviously I did something. What was it?" he asked. One thing he always hated about the way she dealt with things was she didn't communicate. It was like she never trusted him with anything that was going on in her head. Why that was, he'd never know, but he wasn't a mind reader. This presented a problem sometimes when she wouldn't let him in on the secret.

"I'm never going to be able to do enough to make you happy, am I?" she asked, not looking at him, staring instead out at their back yard. My, wasn't that bush an interesting shape?

That left him staring at her. "...what?" he asked, blindsided. "What the--where did that come from?" he asked, starting to walk over towards her, but he stopped somewhere around the center of the room. To say he was rattled right now would be a massive understatement, and he just didn't have any idea what to do right then. All he knew was that things felt so amazingly knocked off course that he had a sick, hollow sort of feeling settling in his gut.

"From the fact that I'm not," Sophie said, less angry now, more a kind of resigned sadness. "You're still waiting for me to let you down again - and you always will be. You understand about my parents, but it's just more evidence for you, isn't it?" She looked back at him. "Isn't it?"

He looked about as confused as he felt, and he stared back at her. "I don't quite know where this is coming from." he said. "It...look, it hurts, okay? That's all. I get why you didn't say anything, because seriously, who would? It's not like you would have wanted to while everything was going on back home, and after...you'd left me. When exactly would be a good time to bring up the ex you never wanted to see again had happened to have been a werewolf? I can't imagine it coming up in casual conversation or anything. It's just different to hear it, that's all. I'm not blaming you or holding it against you, it just stings. I can't help that. Forgive me if I don't react amazingly well to being--" he cut himself off, since he didn't know how to word his thoughts there. A secret? He hadn't been. But in a way it was looking like he was. He was that black hole Sophie fell into. The guy who was supposed to be most important in her life yet her family knew fuckall about. How did one say that?

And this is why I said it was nothing - this is me being totally irrational, but that's how I feel and you don't get that. She looked away again. "It doesn't matter, forget it," she said, quietly. It was easier, she'd found - to just keep quiet than to argue. They'd used to argue so much and it never seemed to get them anywhere. Not talking didn't get them anywhere either, but at least she'd stopped feeling like everything was about to fall apart.

"No, it does matter." Oz said, now finishing crossing over to her. "Don't blow this off. You do that with everything, stop it. It's not--it doesn't help. It's not fair for you to sweep this stuff under the rug." They were total opposites on this sort of stuff. He was horrible at trying to do what she did naturally. She shoved everything off and didn't deal if she didn't have to, and he was much more straight forward hit everything head on in his head.

She deflated slightly and dropped her head a little. She didn't want to talk about this, but she knew she was going to have to. And knowing them, it'd end badly. "I feel like you're waiting," she told him. "Waiting for me to give up again, to go away again. Like everything is just..." She turned back to him. "Like me not telling my parents. You say you're not holding it against me, but your reaction when I said that they didn't know - that really long pause? That suggests otherwise. And, like, never once have you suggested that we find a way to tell them together or anything - just that you 'understand' - that it's on me to figure out what I do and don't want to say. Like it's not really 'us' at all. That I've been here for years now, I dropped my entire life, rearranged everything to be with you and still - still I don't think that's enough for you. I still think that sometimes, somewhere, you're still waiting for me to leave!" Her voice rose as she spoke - not shouting, but growing more expressive as she gained pace with what she had to say, as though she couldn't stop herself once she started.

That actually helped for him, seeing her get upset over things and actually talk. "Yeah, like I said, it hurt! So there was a pause, I'm not allowed to have feelings anymore? Did I say anything? No. Because I understand. So I wasn't going to give you shit for it when I understand why you didn't do it. Don't read into a pause like it's the end of the world when all I needed was to take a few minutes. As for the telling them together--Sophie, do you have any idea how utterly separate you've deliberately kept me and your family?" he asked. This last bit was wary as he eyed her, because he wasn't at all sure she did. So it was a real question. "I didn't even know if you had told them or not, how was I supposed to come up with a way to tell them together when you just--you don't talk about them at all, and I'm pretty sure they don't know anything about me...even moreso now. You've built up this wall between your family and your life with me, and what am I supposed to do about that? You don't..." he sighed and took a few steps away, just to give himself a second to think so he could line his words up better. "You made it perfectly clear that the reason you were gone was because I pushed you." he said, very quietly. "Is it really a wonder why I don't anymore?"

"I went because you pushed me when I needed time along to think, J!" Sophie told him, utterly frustrated - she'd thought that they'd been over this one. Several times in fact. "I was young. I had no idea what was going on. I was confused. I needed space. Then. Five years ago then. Not now, J! See - this is exactly what I mean. I feel like you're still treating me as though I was that same person I was then, like nothing's changed between us and I'm just going to disappear one day if you put a foot wrong! IS that how it's always going to be? Is it?"

"I don't know! I don't get how you expect me to just know how to deal with everything when you never tell me anything! It's like I'm supposed to be a fucking mind reader and automatically understand what's going on in your head and you know perfectly well I never have! Obviously, I always fuck it up, don't I? And yet you still expect me to know when to chase you and when to not! How am I supposed to know that? And I'm sorry but last time it had you leaving me for years, I don't really want to fuck up that badly again, okay? That's the last thing I ever want, so yes, I'm paranoid about it, because I never know what you want!" Now his own frustration was starting to override the hurt--though that was still clear and present. "You don't ever tell me what you want. You don't tell me how you feel, you don't--" he looked away, jaw setting for a minute as he fought back a wave of overwhelming emotions. When he spoke again it was quite and even. "Sophie, half the time I don't even know how you feel about me, or anything else, because you play it so clsoe to the chest that I can't fucking tell. You won't show it, whatever it is. So I have to go with my best guess and what I hope is going on."

"That's cos every time I try and talk to you about things, I immediately get the vibe that you think I'm leaving you," she retorted. "Like earlier on - I said we needed to talk. And you don't fucking settle down until I tell you I'm not going anywhere. That's your automatic assumption whenever we have to have a serious conversation! I've been here now for two years, I thought you would at least have... Okay. Fine, obviously not. How do I feel about you? I love you, if you didn't already know that. Totally, completely, utterly, in a 'never going anywhere, staying here with you no matter what' kind of way. Which is why I uprooted my entire life to be with you!"

"You don't have to sit down to have A Talk about everything, jesus, don't you ever just want to have a conversation with me? You can't seem to manage it. You know what? I don't even know if you miss home. I don't know if you miss your family or your friends, or even who your friends were. I don't know names, or places, or anything. You don't have to set things up like it's the end of the world, doomsday Having A Talk just to tell me what you might be going through. Or thinking about, or...you don't give me anything like that. And I don't know if it's because you have nothing to say, or you don't trust me with any part of your life that isn't directly related to me... I don't understand it, all I know is you specifically set out to make sure that me and the rest of your life don't mix. I don't know how it looks from your end, but from here it does look like it's a fallback. Like if you make sure you've got two lives, you can always drop this one and go back to the other one because it wouldn't make a difference, you wouldn't have to deal with anything related to me if you did." He sighed and dropped down onto the couch, arms resting on his knees as he stared hard at the floor. Talk about scraping up feelings he hadn't put into so many words even for himself. Unfortunately that didn't make them any less true.

Sophie was quiet at that for a long minute, and when she did speak, her voice was quiet and subdued. "How can I tell you that I miss home, or I miss my friends, or anything like that, when I feel like if I even mentioned that, you'd immediately jump to the conclusion 'she's leaving me, she doesn't want to be with me anymore'?" she asked, quite seriously.

"How can I prove I won't if you won't even give me the chance?" He asked back, just as seriously. "You're making just as many assumptions as you think I am, Sunshine." he said, sighing, voice sad as he stared at the floor. "I want to know. I've always wanted to know. I just...I've never known how to get you to talk to me. I've never felt like you really ever let yourself open up. Sometimes it feels like you don't trust me enough to let me in."

There was another pause and then she walked over to the couch and sat down. "I miss some of my friends," she admitted. "Sometimes. I've lost contact with so many of them. When I came here, I felt like I had to cut as many ties with home as possible. Like I was proving that I was definitely staying. Like I had to show there was nothing for me to go back to. But I never really settled back in England anyway - when I went back, I sort of always kept myself separate. There weren't that many people I actually called friends anyway. A couple, a few. But... it never really felt like home. Not really."

"...I didn't know that." Oz said, half looking back at her. Not fully, but partially. His voice was soft, he didn't really want to do anything that would make her stop. "I didn't...when you came back, I wasn't looking for you to be cutting ties. I noticed you didn't call home, or talk to people or anything, but I never--that wouldn't prove anything to me." he said. It hurt a bit that she'd think that. "If I were to go somewhere else, I'd be keeping in touch with Billy. And yeah, slightly different because he can just pop over into my dreams, it's not quite so expensive as transatlantic phonecalls, but...I wouldn't have held it against you." That part he wanted her to know. He managed to keep the fact that it stung that she thought that about him out of his tone, by some small miracle.

"It felt like you would have," she told him, not looking at him. "I didn't want to give you reason to think that." Yes, quite possibly she'd been being totally and utterly paranoid, but they'd been hard times and she'd taken to second guessing him. And she knew that on top of that, she'd been punishing herself. It had been something she felt she had to do to make amends.

Oz was quiet for a few moments, mind churning things over. "Do you really think I'm like that?" he asked, not looking at her. He also kept his voice even again, which he gave himself credit for. He wasn't snapping at her, and wasn't giving himself away on how bad that was hurting. It kind of made him feel hollowed out. How much of a bastard did she assume he was? And if she thought he was that awful...what was she doing with him?

She looked up at that and frowned slightly. And then thought about it - really thought before she answered. "I don't think you would have stopped me from doing it. And I don't think you would have ever told me I had to give up my friends. But I do think that, at the time, if I'd been on the phone to them and writing to them and everything like that, you quite possibly would have taken that as evidence that my life was there with them and not here with you. And I wanted to show you that my life was here with you. I felt like I had to do that, since I fucked up so very badly before."

He nodded, eyes on the floor again. He didn't know what to say to that. It wasn't like they could go back and test it out to be sure. About all he could say was he knew he was insecure. And he still was. But that didn't mean he wanted her to do things like that. Or expected it, or...anything like that. "I'm sorry you felt you had to do something like that." he said after a few minutes. "But if anyone knows how important your friends can be...I do."

"And my mum doesn't like you," she added, since she was spilling, she may as well go the whole way. "She sees you as the man who stole away her little girl and she blames you for me leaving the country, but she's never really forgiven me for leaving like that either. We... don't get on so well these days."

It was something he figured, but again, it was much different to hear it out loud like that. He sighed, and finally sat back, leaning against the back of the couch next to her, and he was back to turning his wedding band around his finger. "Is there anything that can be done about that?" he asked. He didn't know her mother. He didn't really think he had anything resembling redeemable qualities that would win the woman over. Yeah...really not. He was a posessive, insecure werewolf with only one good eye. Not really the sort of person anyone would choose for their daughters.

"Not really?" Sophie suggested. "Maybe go and visit them sometime. Or-" she winced slightly. "Have them come here." Which, her her opinion, was a stunningly bad idea - the cage in the basement just couldn't be easily explained, after all.

Oz's mind went directly where hers had. "Not thinking the cage in the basement will set her mind at ease at all." he said. "...but then, I'm pretty sure there's absolutely nothing about me that will. Beyond I have the money to make sure you'll never be desperate for anything, I can take care of you there, but you have money of your own too, so not even that's going to wind up in my favor."

"Oh, don't discount the money factor - my mum's kind of a snob," Sophie told him, rolling her eyes. She'd never been as bothered about that kind of thing as her parents had been, but then again, she'd never been in a position where she'd ever wanted for anything either - it was easy to discount the importance of money when you never had to think about whether or not you could pay the bills each month. "Mum will just have to deal with it. I think half the problem is that she's still holing onto the hope that I'm going to come home once I finish up at college. Which means in a couple of years time, we're going to have another big battle on our hands. She's not hearing the 'I'm not moving back to England' conversations, so I try and avoid them wherever possible." She was good at that.

"So the only thing about me she might be able to stand is something that has nothing to do with me." Oz said with a heavy sigh. "Well, I know what to do now if I ever start feeling like I'm a useless, horrible person or something. I can just think about your mom and that'll clear all illusions right up for me." There was sarcasm there, though it held a resigned note as opposed to the bitter sort one might expect.

She looked at him, then stood and went over, drawing him into a hug. "Don't worry about my parents, J," she whispered. "If they have a problem with us, let them. I don't care, it's not going to change anything."

He hugged her back, feeling instantly a little better just for the contact. "I care, though." he said. "I don't want you having to deal with strained family relations forever. It's not fair. I mean, you don't have to with my parents. They still love you. Or. Well. You know my mom does. Dad never was a big talker, but even so I know he always liked you." The way his values were set up in his head, the whole family not being there for her bugged.

"Your mum is a darling and loves the world," Sophie pointed out, not letting him go. "My mum wants me to go home and marry the boy next door - not that there is a boy next door, but you know what I mean. She wants me in spitting distance and she's not used to me telling her no. It's just something she has to learn."

Oz kept her close, because he could and it calmed him. "Still...it's not exactly viable that you don't deal with your family ever, or that kind of thing. I mean, I know you can't choose how they react to things, but what if...well, okay, what if we start a family?" he asked. This, his voice was tentative on, because he had yet to get her to agree to marry him, and he hadn't been stupid enough to bring up children before that.

Sophie dropped her head and sighed. "I'm not saying that I'm not going to deal with my family ever, but - I just don't see a way I can make my mum happy without giving up what I want. And I'm not prepared to do that. As to how they'd react if we had a family sometime in the future... I don't know. Maybe they'd come around. Or maybe mum would just bitch more about how she never got to see her grandchildren." Something suddenly occurred to her. "Oh god - or maybe she'd move."

That was fairly horrifying a concept. "You don't think---doesn't she hate America? Like y'know, everyone else in the world who isn't an American? It sure as hell didn't treat her well the last time she was here. Remind her of that!" God the last thing in the world their relationship needed was dealing with a mother in law that hated him.

"Who knows?" Sophie said. "She couldn't stay - please god she couldn't stay. She'd have to get a visa and a job and... No, no -s he couldn't," Sophie added, though she did sound a little like she was attempting to convince herself. "Anyway - dad's opened another gallery now and by all accounts it's doing really well, so I can't see him wanting to usticks and move again. I think we're safe. Joking aside though," she said, turning more serious. "I think they just need time. And... maybe if you happened to pick up the phone next time mum called, you could say a few nice words to her before passing it over to me?" she suggested, raising an eyebrow. "Yu know, you can be quite charming when you want to be..."

Oz looked at her. "Yeah?" he asked. "I could try that..." he said, sounding wary but he definitely would. "Okay, then we can give that a shot. I still worry though." And he would, but maybe having some sort of active thing to go with would help him out. It was a theory. "Maybe if we got married, it would show them that they ahve to start dealing." he added, smiling at her. Because that couldn't go without saying.

She'd been half expecting that - she always kinda expected it from him. Sophie wasn't a fool, she knew where he stood, she knew he wanted to marry her. Just like she knew that, eventually, it would happen. She just couldn't quite put her finger on why she could never commit to saying a definite 'yes'. No, that wasn't right, she knew why she hadn't said yes so far - she thought they were too young. She was barely twenty, he was younger than that - he'd been proposing off and on since they were fifteen - give or take the three years she'd run away for. She'd gotten into the habit of saying no, because they'd been too young. And now? They weren't quite so 'too young' anymore - and now it seemed like an even bigger step to stop putting him off. "Maybe," she said - as much as she could give him right now. But at least it was a firmer answer than she'd ever given him before.

And that firmer answer had him blinking. He'd been expecting her to say what she usually did when he randomly proposed, which was to give him the brush off. He'd actually gotten to the point where he kind of expected universally to be shot down, and there was a part of him way back and deep down that thought she never would say yes. That he'd always be left wanting more and never being able to have it. So, at something that wasn't a definite 'no', he was left staring at her in a bit of shock.

She leaned in and kissed him. "I think that first we should deal with the fact we're going to be taking on a sixteen year old," she told him, drawing back again. "And then let's see where we are. Okay?" she asked him.

He kissed her back automatically, and found himself nodding. "Okay." he said. It was possible that she could have asked for an internal organ and he would have agreed. He tried to keep up with current events, really, but it was difficult with her throwing him curveballs like that. He shook himself mentally. "When is he supposed to come here?" he asked. Look, see? He could keep up!

"Honestly?" she asked him. "I don't know. Auntie Vicky said she wanted him settled in so that he could start school here this autumn - so I guess since school starts, what? the end of this month? Sometime in the next couple of weeks. It'll all depend on flights and logistics." She frowned. "But if we wanted to have him stay for a trial period first, it'd probably be best to get him here as soon as - that way if it's a complete bloody nightmare, he can go home again before school starts over there, which is generally the first week in September..."

He nodded. Ohhh this was going to be happening fast, wasn't it. Oh well. "Okay then." he said. "As soon as possible. Right." Not that he was suddenly one hundred percent okay with it all, but he was willing to give it a shot if she wanted to. He always did have massive problems saying 'no' to her.

"I know," she said, reading his expression - which, to be honest, possibly mirrored her own. "It's fast. I really wish they'd given us more time, but... You promise me, if you change your mind - or have any problems - you'll tell me? Right? And I'll tell you?"

He nodded. "Promise." he said. Though really, with him, she would be hard pressed to miss it if he had problems going on. It wasn't as if he was well veresed in the ability to hide things. If it was going on in his head, more often than not there were about a million other cues to let people know about it even if he didn't want to. Now her...he needed her word on that one. She was the polar opposite.

"Me too," she reassured him, feeling a lot better for that. For all that Oz tended to wear his heart on his sleeve, occasionally, she felt she was blind to it. ON more than one occasion she'd proven without doubt that she just coudln't read him, not really, not past 'something's wrong'.

"Then we're good. If you wanna call your aunt back and try to set everything up, I'll...make sure the guest room is liveable." He knew it was already, but it wouldn't hurt to check, would it. No. Of course he was also thinking he was going to be giving Billy a call here soon, he hadn't seen his friend in a bit, it was time to have a bullshit session.

"Okay," she agreed, giving him one last kiss, then pulling back. "I'll go do that. Thank yo," she added, giving him a smile, before disappearing out of the room.

Oz watched her go, then drew in a deep breath, letting it out slowly. He sighed, then headed for the guest room. This is going to be interesting. he thought to himself. He just hoped it wasn't interesting in the Chinese curse sort of way. And it certainly had the potential to.