As the door opened, Nathan felt the nerves in his stomach grow.

With the eyes of every member of Lucas's family in him, Nathan felt the familiar urge to leave. He knew it would be easy to pull himself out of his boyfriend's grip and make up some excuse of why he had to leave.

The urge slightly decreased when most of the family continued their conversation. But with Lucas's mother still not taking her eyes off of him, he was unable to relax.

"You know Lucas, when you said you had a boyfriend, I thought you were joking," Lucas's mother admitted.

"Why would you think I was joking?" Lucas questioned. Nathan felt his boyfriend's grip on his hand tighten.

"Well, I just thought you would have completed school before you got into a relationship."

"He's a teenage boy Zena, he's going to get into relationships," Jason reminded his wife, sending her a disapproving look.

"I know." Sean sighed dramatically before focusing on Nathan.

As her eyes burned into him, Nathan felt the nerves slowly returning.

"So, you must be Nathan," she drawled, sending a smile towards him. Nathan could feel it was fake. As if the look of disappointment in her eyes wasn't enough, the way her lips were stretched just too far for it to be natural.

"Erm, yes ma'am," Nathan said, fiddling with the zip of his jacket.

Zena hummed and turned away from Nathan to start a conversation with Emily.

"Do you want to go back into the living room?" Nathan heard Lucas whisper.

"Yeah," Nathan responded, sending Lucas a small smile, ignoring the apologetic look sent him away.

Thankfully for Nathan, Lucas led him out of the kitchen quietly, so their departure wasn't noticed by the rest of the family.

"I'm so sorry, Babe." Apologies instantly fell from Lucas's lips as they were sure they couldn't be heard.

"It's not your fault," Nathan insisted, pecking Lucas's lips lightly.

"I'm the one that brought you here," Lucas reminded as Nathan fell into his arms.

"You didn't force me to come here, Luke; how would you know it wad going to happen?" Nathan questioned, resting his head on his boyfriend's shoulder.

"I know but-"

"No, Luke" Nathan interrupted, lifting his head off Lucas's shoulder to look him in the eyes. "You didn't know she was going to say that or be that way," Nathan whispered, placing his hand on Lucas's cheek and stroking it gently with the palm of his hand.

"I know your right, Nate. But I can't help but feel guilty," Lucas admitted, leaning into Nathan's touch.

"Don't It's done, there's nothing you can do now," Nathan reassured. "Is she always like that?" Nathan asked lightly.

"She is with new people. She'll warm up to you," Lucas promised, sending Nathan a small smile.

"How long do you think that will take?" Nathan asked wearily.

"It depends. Just try to be nice to her, then she'll warm up to you," Lucas assured.

Nathan nodded and cuddled back into Lucas.

Nathan remained wrapped securely in his boyfriend's strong arms for what only felt like five minutes to the teen. He only allowed Lucas to end their embrace when the sound of voices and the echo of footsteps reached the door.

Parting just as the door handle was twisted, Nathan sat down on the couch and pulled Lucas down with him.

The door opened to reveal Zena, followed swiftly by Emily and Josh.

Deciding their opinions on him were already made, he leaned over and pressed a kiss to Luca's cheek, before resting his head on his boyfriend's shoulder.. He ignored the disgusted look he received from Zena.

"If you wouldn't mind Lucas, I would like a word with Nathan. Alone. Take your siblings with you," she ordered.

"Sure."

Nathan reluctantly took his head off of Lucas's shoulder after he got a kiss on his temple and a whisper of promises of continuing this later.

Nathan watched with a scowl on his face as Lucas walked out with his siblings behind him.

"So, Nathan," Zena began, sending Nathan a wary look. "I just want to discuss a couple of things without being interrupted, if you know what I mean." Zena took a seat opposite the teen.

"What do you want to talk about?" Nathan questioned.

"I'm going to be honest with you. I wasn't expecting Lucas to get into a relationship, let alone one with another man. I just want to know a few things about you before I support your relationship."

Nathan nodded and waited patiently to continue.

"I know you work for my husband, but do you go to college or do anything else on the side?" Zena questioned.

"I go to college  for writing, I'm hoping to publish something one day, but I don't think I'm good enough for that," Nathan answered, keeping eye contact.

"So, do you have your own home? Or do you still live at home?"

"Erm, I used to have my own place...But, things happened and I couldn't pay rent so I'm living with my friend," Nathan answered, silently thanking his ability to lie easily.

"I understand that. Now, Lucas told me you have a child, is that right?" Zena questioned, her green eyes bearing into his.

"Yes. I have a son, Dylan," Nathan answered, eyeing Zena suspiciously, silently begging her to not ask anything else.

"If you don't mind me asking, what happened to his mother?" Zena questioned, her expression made Nathan question the honesty of her statement.

"She said she was on the pill and she lied. We got over it, but we just kept fighting about everything. Once Dylan was born, things got worse. One day when I was looking after him, she called and asked if she could come and pick him up. I refused, I didn't get to spend a lot of time with him. She came over despite me telling her not to and tried to take him. We got into an argument, she said she didn't care and that I could have full custody. I haven't seen or spoken to her since," Nathan admitted, feeling slightly better for getting that off of his chest.

"I'm sorry you went through that," Zena admitted, sending Nathan a small smile." What did your parents think?"

"I haven't spoken to them in years," Nathan snapped lightly as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Getting the message, Zena didn't ask any more questions. Instead, she stood up and smiled at him again before leaving the teen alone.

"How'd it go?" Lucas questioned as sat down beside Nathan and wrapped his arms around the younger's torso.

"Better than I thought it would," Nathan admitted, pressing a light kiss on Lucas's lips.

"That's good. Did she ask you anything you didn't want to answer?" Lucas questioned. Nathan saw the considered look in his emerald eyes.

"Nothing I haven't  told you," Nathan answered, pressing another kiss to his boyfriend's lips.

"As long as you were alright with it." Lucas said.

Nathan nodded, but he was focused on getting comfortable in his Lucas's arms, instead of giving his boyfriend a verbal response.

Nathan remained in Lucas's arms until dinner. It was a lot nicer than he was expecting, with Zena and Jason showing a lot of interest in his life and particularly his and Lucas's relationship, accompanied by some embarrassing stories about Lucas when he was younger, something that destroyed any tense atmosphere that remained.

After dinner, Nathan spent around an hour playing on Lucas's laptop with Emily. Shockingly the ten-year-old didn't come close to holding a grudge.

Despite the offer for Nathan to stay there for the night, he refused, saying he wanted to spend time with his son. Surprisingly, Emily ran up and hugged Nathan. She made him promise that he would come back and that she could meet Dylan next time.

After agreeing and saying goodbye to the rest of Lucas's family,  Lucas drove him home. After kissing Lucas goodnight, Nathan walked inside and greeted Ryan and Erin, before spending half an hour playing with his son, until it reached the boy's bedtime. After placing Dylan in his cot, Nathan remained in his room and unlocked his laptop to see his client had responded.

Nathan spent the next two hours editing the client's order, directly after Nathan logged off his computer. Despite it only being ten pm, Nathan decided to get some sleep.

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There's only a couple of chapters left in this story.