A dull thunking noise sounded as my knuckles rapped against the heavy wooden door of the house. A few moments later there was a call of 'One second' coming from somewhere in the house. The door opened slowly to reveal a plump woman with her silvering hair pulled back into a bun. Her bright blue eyes twinkled slightly as she saw who was at her door.

"Well hello there Nicolas, come in, come in," She said, leading me to the left in side the door where a room I had never been in sat.

Ellis always said it was his momma's private study kinda thing. I never questioned it further.

"Well isn't this a nice surprise," She said.

It really wasn't a surprise at all of why I was there at all. Ellis and I had been going strong since we started this relationship near the end of the apocalypse. When the four of us made it to the CEDA camp, Ellis was overjoyed to have found his ma and even Keith. Both of them were a bit weary of me, and who could really blame them. They both did eventually come around though. That was nearly 3 years ago now and I realized I wanted Ellis in my life for a lot longer. So for a while now the idea of marriage had been bouncing around in my head. I was really never one to do the right thing, but I wanted to ask permission to marry the male. Though Ellis's pa didn't make it through the attacks and all so his mom was the one I was going to ask. She knew it too.

"Oh my the cookies might just be burnin' now, I'll be right back," She said, her accent coming out a bit heavier in her haste as she left.

Looking around I realized why she left me waiting in this particular room. There were lots of pictures of a young Ellis ever where.

The first one made me laugh lightly as Ellis was in a pink dress and looking none to happy about it. From what I could see the person that was supposed to be Prince Charming, was Keith.

Next to it was a picture of him on a bike that had obnoxiously big training wheels on it. His helmet was a dark green that looked a size to big for him as it was sitting a little side ways on his head. It didn't look like he was wearing knee or elbow pads, but the smile on his face was huge.

There were a few books and things between that one and the next, the picture made me chuckle lightly again. Ellis looked about twelve and was standing on his bed, that had Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on it. In his hand was a plain white pillow and he was holding it up looking about to pillow fight with it. The Power Ranger PJ's made me snicker a bit as well.

The next one was him in blue and white swim trunks soaking wet. In the back a sprinkler was running and another person, I would guess Dave, was running through it. Ellis was smiling at the camera with purple all over his lips and cheeks. The dripping grape popsicle in his hand was the cause of that.

The last one that was on that particular shelve looked like they were at some kind of wedding or something. It was of him and his mom, her in a simple dark cream colored dress and him in a little tuxedo. They were dancing what looked like a slow dance, him barely taller than her shoulders. The look of love and adoration on his face was nearly too much for me to handle since I never did have that kind of relationship with my own mother.

"He really is something isn't he," The soft voice of Ellis's mother came from behind me.

"Yea, he really is quite a great man," I said turning around.

There was a small look of something on her face as she shrugged a little and sat down in one of the soft looking chairs. Sitting down across from her as she looked across the pictures on the wall, I realized something. To her she would never see her son as an adult, she would always see him as the kid that was in those picture. So if she ever gives me a hard time about dating, and marrying her son, I can really blame her.

I'm the one that's trying to steal the Price Charming of her life.

"Nick I know why you came by today," She said, her eyes moving back over to me.

"I kind of expected you would,"

"And I give you my full acceptance to marry my son,"

"Thank you Mrs."

"Ah ah ah" She cut me off holding up her hand and putting it on my own. "Please call me mom,"

A smile broke onto my face. "I'll do that then, mom,"

The front door lock clicked open and then shut a moment later. "Momma you home?"

"In here baby," She called.

He walked in and smiled wide when he saw me. "Hey Nick,"

"Hey Ellis," I smiled at him.

"Well I'm going to go start lunch," She smiled and stood up.

Ellis smiled and hugged him mom tight for a second and in that moment I can see that he will always be her little boy.

And in her eyes I'll the one stealing Prince Charming.

~*~*~*~*~Authors Note~*~*~*~*~

More Nellis

This came from the song "Stealing Cinderella" By Chuck Wicks.

So that is who owns the song.

Valve owns the boys.

I will eventually get back to The Outsiders, since I do still have the ideas and what not, but for right now, the Nellis bug has bitten me again, so here the stories are ^^