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The plan had been so simple. Reserve a table for two at the Pizza Palace, bring his sister as moral support (and because she'd insisted on meeting Sam), have a nice meal... and honestly, just see Sam again at the first possible opportunity the next day.

Now, how on earth did a simple plan like that escalate in the entire family barging into the Pizza Palace with a lot of noise and swagger, pretty much taking over the entire place?

Aleksei literally facepalmed when Stepan decided the table wasn't large enough and promptly shifted another two-person table against theirs with a loud scraping. He left his hand resting on his forehead in embarrassment as he saw the waitress who let them in look on in horror.

Please, Sam, for the love of God, pretend you don't know me.

To Sam, it had been a quiet evening at work. Not too many customers, mostly couples who weren't too loud or high-demanding, or older people. So, when he heard a group of loud people enter the restaurant while he was in the kitchen, he was curious to see what kind of group was disturbing the peace.

At first he saw no familiar faces, and he noticed his coworker Renee was feeling awkward because one of them had moved tables around. But taking a second look, he found Aleksei in the midst of it all, looking as if he wanted to disappear.

Sam jumped into action—knowing Renee would probably serve them if he wasn't quick enough—and hurried towards the table. He gestured towards his coworker that he would take their orders, thinking she might actually be glad he would be serving them.

"Good evening," he greeted them with a smile, thinking this had to be Aleksei's family. "Hi Aleksei." He added happily.

Sam's presence was met with a chorus of cheerful and grumbled "Hey's," and "Hi's!" from the table. Aleksei muttered 'hey' too, slumping a little in his chair as if that would make him invisible. Sam hadn't listened to his silent pleas.

Damn it, what if his family scared him off? He wouldn't blame Sam - they were quite something. If Aleksei had a say in it, his date wouldn't get to meet his family until they had been married for at least two years.

Sam tried not to look at Aleksei too much. He didn't want it to be obvious that there was something between them.

"Welcome to Pizza Palace. My name is Sam and I'll be your waiter for the evening." Sam kept smiling, while repeating the words he had been using all night already. "Can I get you all some drinks while you take a look at the menu?"

"Beer."

"Same for me!"

"Can I have a white wine?"

"I'll take the gin tonic."

Aleksei inwardly groaned. Great, they were all taking alcoholic drinks. That was going to help a lot with the noise.

"Just a glass of water," Aleksei quietly added.

Mark gave him a loser-cough, and Aleksei rolled his eyes.

"Hey, you know each other, though?" Mom suddenly asked, just when Aleksei thought Sam mentioning his name had gone unnoticed. "Where do you guys know each other from? School?"

"Uh, no... not— not school?" Aleksei brought out, looking at Sam for help since his brain refused to make up an excuse on the spot.

Sam cleared his throat, shrugged a shoulder and kept his smile on. "We met in the park the other day. You know... Pokemon Go." Sam lied, since something about Aleksei made him think Aleksei didn't want his parents to know too much about them.

"Right, Pokemon Go," Aleksei repeated, relieved that Sam was able to think under pressure, contrary to himself. He shot him a small, grateful smile.

"That's nice." Aleksei's mom rubbed his back. "You finally found someone else who still plays that game."

"Yeah, anyway," Aleksei hastily replied before his brothers would get into it. "I'll have the Quattro Stagioni."

Sam, still a bit giddy because Aleksei had shot him a smile, wasn't paying full attention. That was until he noticed half of the people in front of him staring at him while waiting for him to write down their orders. In an attempt to not look like a brainless fool, he turned to Aleksei with a bit of a cheeky smirk and ask; "Do you want that swimming in grease, sir?"

A chuckle escaped Aleksei's lips before he could stop it at their inside joke - it was probably partly nerves, too. He stifled it quickly, but the damage was already done.

Aleksei didn't easily laugh. A fact his family was well aware of, and much to his horror, Aleksei could almost literally see the wheels in Stepan's and Mark's heads turning.

Two pairs of eyes started twinkling devilishly as they glanced from Sam to Aleksei and reached a conclusion.

"Huh. You're taking the Quattro Stagioni, Aleksei?" Stepan asked too innocently. "Funny, I really thought you'd go for the American supreme meatlover."

Mark snickered. "Or the spicy sausage pizza."

"Or the pizza creamy bacon," Roman, Aleksei's younger brother chipped in.

"Yeah, I get the point," Aleksei snapped, feeling his cheeks reddening.

Natalia, who was only ten year old, blinked at him confused while Sofiya rolled her eyes.

Mom and Dad pretended they didn't notice, or maybe they actually didn't notice since Mark and Stepan were always crude and they were focused on their menu card.

Sam felt like Aleksei's older brothers would continue to tease Aleksei, and in an attempt to get them to stop, he tried to joke back himself.

"Such a shame I can't serve you two a pizza innuendo."

Both Mark and Stepan laughed heartily.

"That's alright," Mark replied. "I'm sure you can expect a large tip from Aleksei anyway."

"More like Aleksei can expect a large tip from Sam," Stepan corrected him with wiggling eyebrows.

Sam couldn't help but laugh. That was until he realised what they actually meant. His face heated up and he almost dropped his pen when he hurriedly wanted to write down the rest of the orders.

It was time for him to get the hell away from them before they would 'out' him in the middle of the restaurant, in front of people who knew his parents.

Aleksei didn't understand the joke, but he did get that it was an innuendo. He didn't even want to look it up, you know, out of fear of dying of embarrassment. He couldn't believe his brothers' behaviour. What if Sam never wanted to see him anymore after tonight?

"Yeah yeah, stop pretending you're funny and order already. You're wasting his time," he bit in the direction of his brothers.

This probably wouldn't have worked if the family hadn't already been hungry - nobody ever listened to anyone really and they were all stubborn - it was one big chaos at home.

Aleksei breathed a sigh in relief when everyone finally cooperated, said what they wanted to eat, and Sam could leave the table.

He got up, hurrying after Sam with the excuse of having to use the bathroom. He ignored Roman muttering something along the lines of 'yeah, I bet you have to 'use the bathroom' now.'

"Sam!" he called after Sam, jogging until he caught up to him.

Sam turned around surprised, noticing Aleksei was jogging up to him. He stopped walking, still feeling a little embarrassed because of his brothers. "Hey." He greeted him, trying to sound calm.

"I'm really sorry about those three," Aleksei immediately apologized. He rolled his eyes. "They think they're so clever."

"Oh, it's okay." Sam smiled shyly. "I guess that's just normal for brothers amongst each other."

"Yeah, I guess. But still..." Aleksei took a deep breath. "They didn't scare you away, right?"

"No! No, they didn't." Sam quickly replied. "I have thick skin, I'm used to a lot worse. Besides, it's not your fault they have terrible humour."

Aleksei breathed a sigh in relief. He'd have to murder his brothers if they had ruined this. "Okay, good. Because I was hoping we'd—"

"Aleksei!" His mom's voice sounded behind him. "I thought you were going to the bathroom, too?"

Aleksei jolted up at hearing his mom. "Yeah, I just ran into Sam on the way there."

The skin next to his mom's eyes crinkled as she shot Sam a kind smile. "Your Pokemon Go friend."

Sam shot a polite smile back, but didn't say anything. He just wanted to know what Aleksei was hoping they'd... do?

"You should come over for tea some time," Aleksei's mom promptly invited Sam, while Aleksei was inwardly panicking all over again.

Too soon, way too soon. They weren't at the meet the parent stage yet... despite Aleksei already having met Sam's parents, too. Huh, this was actually weird now he thought about it.

"Oh, eh..." Sam lamely replied. "I eh—" He glanced at Aleksei, hoping he would let him know if he wanted Sam to come over or not.

Sam coming over was one of the things Aleksei hoped for. Actually, he hoped Sam would be coming over many times. Aleksei felt Sam's gaze on him, and gave a small nod with upturned lips.

Sam saw the teeny-tiny smile and turned to Aleksei's mother with a bright smile. "I'd love to come over for some tea." He replied, happy that Aleksei wouldn't mind for him to come over and actually get to know his parents. That was huge, right?

"Great! Just come over whenever you'd like." Aleksei's mom gave Sam's back a friendly rub, before moving on to the bathroom.

Sam stiffened a bit as soon as Aleksei's mother touched his back, but relaxed as soon as he noticed it was a friendly gesture. He just hoped she didn't notice his initial response.

"Are you sure you know what you're getting into?" Aleksei muttered, half-joking, half-serious, once he was sure his mom couldn't hear him anymore. He had noticed Sam flinching for a second, and wasn't sure what to make of it.

"Yeah, I'm sure I'll be fine." Sam smiled. "As long as I get to spend some time with you I'll survive."