It was snowing as Misha finally got dropped off at Maymont, Martin groaning from the driver seat as he watched his friend fumble with his jacket pocket and asked, “So you two that serious, huh?”

  “It’s been a good year,” Misha admitted with a small laugh, climbing out of the truck as he kept leaning in through the passenger window,“been pretty quiet for me, you know? I’m…actually liking it I think, I could get used to this domestic shit. I asked The Lady to let me tell Charlotte about me being a werewolf.”

  “Just don’t get too domestic, I still need you on that job week after next. Cursed objects don’t get broken out of the museum on their own,” the hunter told Misha, laughing as he started the car, “I need to head out, tell the girlfriend I said hi. You want, we can have a little get together sometime soon, it’s not a big family on either side, our boys are about the same age.”

  “Hey, If I’m allowed to tell her about the werewolf thing. Gotta go though, my sisters are here and it’s been too long,” Misha said, slapping the top of the truck twice as he walked into the park.

  Decorated for Christmas, and a thin dusting of snow gathering on the ground, Maymont was starting to look rather festive. A perfect place for a date, and to finally introduce Charlotte to his family, he thought it’d be perfect for the little week he had planned. Even still though, he needed to keep his cool and not get ahead of himself before everything was in place.

  Big ask, he knew.

  Misha did not find his sisters so much as the eldest found him, nearly propelling herself into him in a full sprint jump into hug that nearly knocked him on his ass. A laugh escaping his throat as he stumbled and caught her, dragging her into a dramatic spin twice through the air around him, and he thought she might have been taking too much advantage of the fact his ribs would heal quickly if broken.

  “How are you doing, Fox?” Misha asked, patting his older sister of a few years on the back before he finally kissed her cheek and pushed her away. Tall, standing at height with him, she had chin-length auburn hair she kept messily cut at the bottom, and four long and deep scars across her cheek from an ill-thought attempt at comfort during his first transformation. Her t-shirt and jeans hanging strangely loose on her body, not filled out as well as Misha remembered, “Christ, you look like you’re losing weight, not doing one of those shitty diets are you? Humans die a lot easier, you know, you can't starve yourself as long as we can.”

  “Got pretty sick at the start of last month, wasn’t able to eat much of anything until last week,” Fox groaned in annoyance, almost immediately making a bolt of panic shoot through Misha’s chest, “I was tempted to call and ask if you could come up or take custody a little early, but I knew you were pretty busy yourself and wanted her to make it till break. I’m excited to finally meet this girlfriend you’ve told me so much about though, I…you know, know she was just a friend before I left. I…I still wish you'd considered moving in with Aunt Raven though. I hate you being so far away, I hate coming down here again, feel like I’m gonna run into mom standing around here.”

  “Well, me and Charlotte are kinda serious, I thought it was a good idea she met some of the more important people in my life” Misha admitted with a sad smile, wanting to ignore the second issue as best he finally turned to his younger sister. A girl of sixteen and relatively short, she had messy auburn hair she had pulled into a bun and square black glasses she needed to clean a lot more often than she did. Misha offered a hug and she took with all the over dramatic reluctance of a teenager as he asked, “how’s it going for you, Gevaudan? I haven’t seen you since Summer, Fox still hovering?”

  “Going fine as long as I don’t get left home with nothing to do for you to go on dates again,” Gevaudan admitted with a small laugh, “honestly good enough, got my driver’s license last week and have a boyfriend Fox hates, so I know I’m doing something right.”

  “I raised you, and I’m your sister, I think I have a right to worry when you’re dating someone who looks like a stoner,” Fox muttered in annoyance, pinching the bridge of her nose in the gesture Misha and Gevaudan both had earned a hundred times each now over the years.

  “Misha looks like a fucking stoner,” Gevaudan countered, an accusation he hadn’t been able to shake even as he wore more button downs and nicer jeans or slacks these days. Maybe he did need to start considering getting a new hair cut again, maybe shave a bit more, would Charlotte have liked that?

  It didn’t really matter, and the two were already snapping back and forth as Fox snorted and replied, “are you really trying to make that argument? That he’s like Misha?”

  “Please, like you can talk,” Gevaudan muttered, crossing her arms as she turned from her sister, “I know your type, and the closest you’ve ever come to having a date was eating takeout and watching movies with Misha while you thought the constant laughing and giggling wouldn’t wake me up. Don’t go acting like you have any sort of personal knowledge to speak from.”

  Fox made an insulted noise, her face flushing in anger, and she looked ready to continue the argument as Misha took a few bills from his pocket and asked, “can we save the arguing for dinner like a normal family? Gevaudan, how about running to the stand down there and get us some hot chocolate while we wait? Make them large.”

  “I’m keeping the change,” Gevaudan declared, going along with Misha’s assumption of how she’d act with a broad smile. He wondered sometimes if she ever realized he tried to always give a good ten dollars more than needed for this sort of thing, and it filled him with some small warmth as Gevaudan walked off towards the stand.

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  Misha watched after her and, letting out a chuckle as she was finally out of earshot, told Fox, “That attitudes all from you, I hope you know,” his sister raising a questioning brow even as he continued, “I picked up an air mattress last night, and Charlotte invited all us to stay for the week at the last minute. You two can either split the guest room, or we can set one of you up in Charlotte’s office if she wants a little more privacy and doesn’t mind being a little more cramped.”

  “You really have moved up in the world Misha. You and I don't need to share a bed anymore, and your girlfriend lives in a house and not a two bedroom?” Fox teased with a snorting laugh, “This Charlotte girl doesn’t know about the family secret, right?”

  “Not yet, I…I asked The Lady for permission, and if Gevaudan starts showing signs of a transformation I’ll ‘run her to a doctor’ you know?” Misha admitted, chuckling at the thought as he gave a quick glance around. Making sure no one was looking he didn’t want, the man pulled the small box from his jacket pocket and only opened it a moment, letting Fox see the diamond ring within, gems shaped like a tiny crescent moon. “You think she’ll like it?”

  Fox shook her head, even as she gave a nervous smile at the sight and told him, “you’re a fucking idiot,” while he hid the ring once more.

  “She told me last month she thought she could see herself marrying a guy like me,” Misha said awkwardly trying to justify it, “and all month we’ve been watching shitty romance movies where girls get proposed to on Christmas, and last week she said she always wanted that three times across two days.”

  “I think you’re either reading into it, or you both are jumping into this too fast,” Fox countered, chuckling as she slapped her brother on the shoulder, “either way though hope it goes well, you deserve something good if you’re really staying down here.” The woman letting that sit for a few seconds before she finally retorted, “and I know the attitude’s from me. The problem’s the confidence is from you, so she can actually use it better.”

  He actually felt a little proud of that one, and wanting to keep up the confidence he decided to try and help a little. If he was going to get someone, maybe she deserved someone of her own.

  “Hey, if you’re looking for a little happiness yourself, I might be able to help out some,” Misha said, seeing Fox look at him curiously, Her smile almost growing, “you remember Martin?”

  “Yeah, class below me, kinda weird? He dated my best friend for a bit,” Fox said, already looking disappointed by the answer.

  “Turned out he’s from a hunter family, I’ve been working with him every now and then now he’s on The Lady’s payroll. Single dad, but cleaned his act up a lot and is pretty nice, I could set you up if you want, I um…” he couldn’t really bring himself to say it a moment, but did mutter, “I know you always wanted kids of your own, but you know.”

  Misha could tell from the look of utter disappointment and annoyance on her face it was a no, and he’d probably fucked up, though he didn't have time to save it before someone called for them. Looking up, he watched as Gevaudan came back up the hill, now with Charlotte and Timmy at her side. Everyone carrying two cups, except Timmy who carried a small one, and Charlotte bundled up in a cute looking purple jacket and hat with mittens that Misha would have loved to get under.

  “This your girlfriend?” Gevaudan asked, sounding almost on the verge of laughing about it as she passed off one cup to Fox and Charlotte handed Misha his own.

  “Recognized her from that video you showed me last week, the caroling thing for school,” Charlotte said, Gevuadan giving a complaint about showing that even as the older woman continued, “I was thinking of calling and seeing if you wanted anything, I just figured get some for everyone. Anyway, it’s nice to finally meet you all, Misha’s told me a lot about you.”

  “Yeah, I’m Fox, Gevaudan’s the gremlin of a little sister,” Fox said, smiling awkwardly as she shook Charlotte’s hands, “I mean, we were basically the parents growing up though, she used to like bragging about that. I don’t know how much he’s told you about all of us.”

  “Oh, not a lot, he doesn’t like talking about that. I mean, sounds like your mom was a right prick, and your dad didn’t stay around more than a couple years, but that’s all I know,” Charlotte admitted awkwardly, interlocking her arm with Misha’s as he sipped his drink, “you know, it really explained a lot though in hindsight. Misha was a natural with Timmy, not a lot of guys are good with kids like he was, especially younger ones.”

  “Yeah, he got to work the mistakes out on me,” Gevaudan said with a giggle, making Misha immediately know what she was jumping to, “he told you about almost getting CPS called on him when I was in middle school?” oh god this fucking story, don’t drop the secret Gevaudan. “These two were still together, before the family broke up, and were supposed to help me get some photographs of animals for an earth science project. Fox helped me get a few pictures of deer, fish, even some otters down at the park. Misha called in a favor with a zoo owner, got me some up close pictures of a bunch of wolves, and the teacher had some concerns about me being alone with them in the photos.”

  Charlotte laughed, covering her mouth in horror and amusement as she looked at the man and asked, “are you serious?”

  “It was safer than it looked,” Misha said, it being a better answer than ‘I got a few other werewolves together and didn’t think to ask Fox if it was a good idea.’

  “Can I hang out with the wolves?” Timmy asked, sounding overly excited about the idea.

  Fox and Gevaudan could barely hold in their laughter, and Misha shook his head as he told the child, “maybe when you’re older we can see about that.”

  Charlotte giggled and, gesturing us down the path, explained, “we have like an hour until the manor tour, plenty of time to go looking around the park. Have you guys ever been? You’ll love the Koi pond, sometimes me and Misha just go there to sit around and talk about our days for a few hours.”

  “We lived here until a couple years ago, Fox and Misha did the same thing. They made me do my homework by the water,” Gevaudan admitted with a shrug, smiling as she walked up to Charlotte and asked, “So why are you dating this loser? Or did you just want to brag about dating a guy half your age?”

  “You know, I was thinking about asking Misha the very same question,” Fox said, using the voice she always did when she was trying to tease a reaction out of the man, “you know she’s about mom’s age Misha, you do that on purpose?”

  “Yeah, Misha, did you? We didn’t need a new mom in the family that bad,” Gevaudan immediately joined in on the new track laid out, Charlotte nearly choking on her hot chocolate as the two girls kept walking in front of the couple.

  Misha held in a chuckle, and Charlotte looked mortified as she hid her face in his shoulder and he comforted her, “they love you. You just gotta ride out the next five minutes or so until they get bored coming up with new jokes and you’ll be in the clear.”