Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 58th cycle. Now cycle 59!

"Not My World"
Beiste & Ewan (OC; Damian McGinty), Ewan/Sugar, Mottas
Beiste & Ewan series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

He'd had plenty to be nervous about, enough to fill him with dread, but this day was a whole another wall to climb. Today he was meeting Sugar's parents.

She'd dropped in next to him at the start of the week in Glee Club, asking him what he was doing on Friday night. He figured she wanted to go to the movies or something, so he said he was free. Then she'd told him those words that had sent an uncertain chill up his spine: My parents want to meet you.

It wasn't that he didn't want to go. He was sure they were lovely people, but he couldn't chase this feeling like he would make a fool of himself in their presence and he would end up losing Sugar. He wouldn't have that, not if he could help it.

His aunt must have sensed something was off with him. As he'd met up with her for the ride home, she had him sit down in her office. "Something wrong? Did you get a bad grade?"

"No, it's nothing like that," he assured her. In truth he was doing exceptionally well as far as grades, now that he'd settled in.

"Then what is it?"

"Sugar wants me to meet her parents," he explained, and the look on his aunt's face should have sent him running and hiding. "It's not funny."

"No, of course not. Ewan, they're not going to eat you."

"But they're sort of… well, they have a lot of money, and I…"

"That doesn't have to be a bad thing," she pointed out, then, "What, do you want me to come along?"

"Shouldn't I be able to stand for myself?" he pointed right back.

"That's entirely up to you. If you want me to come, I'll go. If you don't want me to go, then I won't." He considered it for a moment, but then he shook his head.

"I'll be alright."

By Friday night though, his nerves were right on edge. Sugar had wanted them to go straight from school to her house, but Ewan told her he needed to go change. He had showered, shaved, put on better clothes than he'd worn to school… He looked at himself in the mirror, wondering if it was too much or not enough, before deciding if he spent any more time agonizing over his clothes he would feel the need to punch himself in the face.

He made it to the Motta house and rang the bell. Sugar answered, and he found she had changed, too. "I had a feeling you'd go fancier, so I wasn't going to leave you hanging," she smirked.

"You… You look great," he breathed, and she leaned in to kiss him. He had this thought that one of her parents might walk in and find them there, but instead Sugar had taken up his hand and guided him toward the living room. He had been to her house before, but somehow his path had never crossed with either Al Motta or his wife. But then there they were, both of them, and Ewan took a deep breath while he still could. The couple stood as they approached.

"Mom, Dad, this is Ewan," she introduced, and his hand went out, ready to shake each of theirs.

"Ewan Healy, Sir, Ma'am, nice to meet you, your house is beautiful," he hoped he didn't sound like some rusty robot.

"Well thank you," Mr. Motta bowed his head, shaking the boy's hand. Mrs. Motta had foregone the handshake in favor of a hug, and now he saw the resemblance.

"Nice to finally meet you, Ewan," she told him with a smile. "Sugar told us you were from Ireland, she wasn't kidding," she laughed as they all sat back down.

"Yes, Ma'am," he nodded.

"She also said you were trying to go back, over the summer?"

"I am. I got a job so I could earn the money myself."

"Good man," Mr. Motta complimented. "How's that coming along?"

"I had a small hang up for a while…" he started.

"You don't have to talk about that," Sugar promised, but he shook his head.

"It's alright. There was a robbery, at the store where I work. I was framed by one of the other employees so they had to fire me, but after they caught him, I not only got my job back but a promotion as well. I have your daughter to thank for that, she helped orchestrate it all," he turned a smile to her, and she beamed.

"I told them about you inviting me, they said yes," she added.

"It's a beautiful country, I've been there myself, so of course we couldn't refuse her," Mrs. Motta went on. "You must miss it terribly."

"I do," he confirmed. "But I love it here as well," he assured them. He was afraid they would start talking about his parents next, but they hadn't, instead moving to the dining room to eat.

Things went better than he had expected. After the initial talk in the living room, his nervousness had greatly diminished, and he was able to enjoy the dinner itself, instead of being unable to hold anything down, which he'd been afraid of. When it was all said and done, he had gotten some time to stay with Sugar before he would leave. He let out a breath and she chuckled.

"Sounds like you've been holding that one in for ages."

"Probably since I got up this morning," he estimated.

"Why?" she asked.

"I thought for sure I would embarrass myself." She came up and wrapped her arms around him from the side, resting her chin at his shoulder.

"You did great, I was very proud," she told him, and he smiled, putting his hand at her arm.

"Do you think they liked me?" he asked, and she nodded.

"Next time, just leave the tie at home," she reached to loosen it, and he nodded to himself.

"That's fair."

THE END

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!