"And that's why you don't need to have problems about being so different from each other. If anything it makes your relationship a lot more interesting."

Mr. Small finished his long speech with the brightest smile he could manage. He and his co-counselor –slash- girlfriend Leela Winters had just been explaining to Alan and Carmen how the fact that they were so unlike each other shouldn't affect their feelings, going to the point of giving examples from other people throughout history, all this resulting in an almost half-an-hour-long speech. The balloon and the cactus looked at each other, seemingly uncomfortable with the position they were in.

"Actually we never had problems about that." Alan declared as he and his girlfriend turned back to the counselors.

"Our question was about HOW we could make it work, being that just sitting too close to Alan puts his life at risk." Carmen added with a sad sigh.

Leela leaned back a bit and tapped her chin, cocking an eyebrow as she took a minute to think. After a few seconds she snapped her fingers and sat back up with a smile.

"Have you tried bubble wrap?" she asked the two youngsters as she pointed towards them. The young couple perked up almost instantly.

"Of course! How come we didn't think of that?" Alan exclaimed in glee.

"It's so obvious!" commented Carmen. The two hopped off of their seats and quickly headed out the door.

"Thanks!" they said in unison before closing the door behind them.

"And that's how it's done." Leela remarked as she leaned back on her chair, her arms crossed and a victorious smirk across her face. Mr. Small gave her a quizzical yet humorous look, which made her question his thoughts. "What?"

"Did you seriously just tell a cactus to cover herself in bubble wrap?" he asked, letting out an involuntary chuckle. "She's going to look ridiculous!"

"Says the man who wears a hat made out of tin foil to protect himself from some sort of force which deletes people's memories." She snorted. He, on the other hand, became almost scarily serious.

"That is no laughing matter. If I didn't wear my tin foil hat most of the time you can bet I wouldn't remember half of my life. Maybe I wouldn't even remember you."

He kept staring at her, squinting as if to intimidate her, yet she didn't even flinch. After a moment she burst out laughing, grasping her sides as she chuckled wholeheartedly at his statement. He let out an exasperated sigh but his expression immediately turned into worry as he noticed she had stopped laughing and was clutching her chest, wheezing in pain.

"What's wrong? Is it your heart?" he asked concernedly, placing a hand on her shoulder.

She slowly nodded and weakly stretched an arm towards her bag, which was sitting on a corner of the room. He easily understood what she meant and quickly headed towards the object in question. He rummaged through its contents and retrieved the one thing he knew she needed at that moment: a small cylindrical box of pills. He walked back up to the female lemur as he popped the top of the box and poured a couple of pills into the palm of his hand. He carefully took the pills to her mouth and grabbed a nearby bottle of the water to help her wash the medicine down. After a few gulps she started to calm down, exhaling sharp breaths as the pain started to wither away.

"Better?" the cloud man asked with a warm smile as she managed to look up at him.

"Yeah… I think…" she replied, her voice still weak. "I'm gonna… go to the bathroom."

She rose from her chair with some difficulty and dragged herself out the door. As soon she left Mr. Small let out a worried sigh. He was used to her cardiac episodes by now; they had been dating for four months. He took care of her whenever she needed, but he always felt like what he did was never enough. He worried about her. A lot.

Nevertheless, his feelings towards her could cancel out any hint of worry in his mind. Even if she didn't share his beliefs, he still loved her like nobody else. And that was one of the reasons he always felt the need to keep helping her however he could.

He was still staring at the door when he heard a vibrating noise coming from Leela's desk. He looked at her phone, which was showing she had received an e-mail. Reading the name of the sender, he thought who it could be. It seemed vaguely familiar, but he just couldn't put his finger on it.

"What's up?"

He jerked up when he heard Leela's voice at the door. She seemed to be back to normal, a warm smile adorning her face.

"Oh, you just got an e-mail from an…" he squinted as he looked down at her phone to read the sender's name again. "… April Jablonski?"

Leela's smile dropped into one of the most vicious scowls he had ever seen on her. She seemed to tense up again as she stomped towards her desk and abruptly dropped onto her chair, yanking her phone up and opening the e-mail. Not too seconds later she scoffed at the screen.

"Can you believe this?" she asked crossly, almost shoving her phone onto her boyfriend's face as she showed him what that person had written.

Mom says you should come home for Thanksgiving next Monday. So yeah, do it.

April

"Not much of an invitation, if you ask me." Mr. Small commented as he pushed Leela's hand away from his face.

"Well, that's my sister for you." Leela groaned. "She's been a major pain in the ass since we were kids."

"Oh right, your sister!" he exclaimed as he remembered what she had told him about her step-sister. "You didn't mention she was married."

"She is. To our old High School quarterback, as she always insists in reminding me!" she buried her face in her hands and groaned again, this time more annoyed. "And now I have to spend a whole day with her."

"But it's October, Thanksgiving isn't for another month."

"Not in Canada." She rested in head on her hand and tried to smile. "Thanksgiving's celebrated on the second Monday of October up in the Great White North."

"So are you going?"

"I guess… I can't really disappoint my parents like that. Plus my grandfather will be there, that's always fun." She let out a frustrated sigh. "But I just know April's gonna give me hell…"

"Well, what if I went with you to support through your struggle?" he suggested, to which Leela's head perked up and she looked directly at him with eyes as wide as saucers.

"You would go all the way to Canada just so I wouldn't endure my sister's torment on my own?" she asked, incredulous.

"Of course! That way you'll feel better. Besides the kids would notice that you weren't here and then they wouldn't want to come in here as much. They're crazy about you!"

Leela's smile grew to an almost unbearable level and she threw herself at the cloud man, holding him in the tightest of hugs.

"Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!" she squealed in joy as she squeezed him tighter.

"No… problem…" he gasped, his lungs compressed by her unusual strength.

"I must warn you, though…" she released him and adopted a serious demeanor, pointing a finger at him. "My family can get quite crazy. Especially my mom, who's the most overprotective person I've ever met."

"Can't be worse than my mom." Mr. Small commented as he rubbed his sides. "She would never let me go out in the rain because she thought the humidity would make me swell up."

"Well, I can totally see that happening." She chuckled. "That reminds me, you might wanna pack some winter clothing. Canada can be quite chilly this time of year."

"No need to worry about that. The cold doesn't affect me. I'm pretty well insulated." He patted the fluff on his arm to prove his theory.

"OK then, but don't say I didn't warn you!" she said as she turned to her laptop. "I'll book us some tickets. Maybe we can take an early flight and still make it there in the morning."

As she tapped away on her keyboard Mr. Small couldn't help but smile. This was the first trip they were making together, and to her homeland, nonetheless. This would be the perfect opportunity to learn more about the woman who had made him so happy. More happy than he had felt in years.

Oddly enough, he could feel a hint worry creeping through his mind as he realized something that he hadn't before. He was about to undergo something every man dreaded when dating. Something that would put him to the test, especially in terms of manhood.

He was going to meet her parents.

AUTHOR'S NOTE (PLEASE READ)

Well, looks who's back! It's my precious baby Leela! :3

I'm glad I was able to write this so fast, even if it does feel a bit rushed. I had already written this first chapter before, but the same thing happened to it as it did to the last chapter of Mommy Pie, which was when I dropped my USB Flash Drive and it died on me. Still, I think I managed.

I'll try to update soon, but like I said before, three jobs, limited time, yadda yadda. By the way, don't be surprised if some crazy stuff happens along the way. This week I discovered Grojband (took me long enough!) and after watching Kin and Kon do the Booty Pow ten times in a row I think my brain has turned to goo…

Anyway, any thoughts on this first part? Feel free to share! Oh, and for those wondering, the cover image is Leela's family. Feel free to use it as a reference for when I describe them later on.