10. What if Noah (Owen and Amelia's son) brought someone home for dinner?

He'd checked a couple of days ago if it was alright for him to bring someone home for dinner, that'd had already aroused his parents' suspicions. Usually both he and his sister just brought people home whenever they felt like it, ignoring their parents' pleas for at least a little forewarning to make sure they had food and things in the house. This time it was different, if he was giving them a heads up than it meant that this was important. Wringing his hands nervously as he quickly checked that everything was perfect for tonight Noah ignored all of the looks and cheeky comments his family made at his expense. Finally the doorbell rang and he felt his heart leap into his throat, he was terrified about what was going to happen. Sure his parents had always been pretty cool and understanding but this was huge. Rushing to answer he ended up forcing his dad out of the way, earning him a confused look which he refused to focus on right now. 'Hey,' he smiled at the person on the other side.

'Hey,' came the response.

Stepping aside Noah let his guest into the house, 'Mum, Dad, Maddie this is Michael.'

'Hi, it's nice to meet you,' Amelia was the first to reply, shortly followed by Owen who stepped forward to shake his hand. 'Dinner's just about ready so do you want to make your way over to the table?'

Leading the way Noah indicated to Michael where they should sit, still finding it next to impossible to completely relax. Drumming his fingers on the table he let out a small sigh as some of the tension left him when Michael covered Noah's hand with his own. 'Sorry, it's just… well you know.'

'Yeah, I do,' Michael smiled sadly, remembering his own experiences of doing this. 'It's going to be fine, trust me.'

Setting the last things on the table the rest of his family sat down, all attempting to make some small talk; apart from his sister who was sitting moodily at the end of the table, she'd recently started acting out and hated when the attention wasn't all on her.

The meal went smoothly, his family actually relatively normal, well at least for them. He was surprised that it was happening so easily, it wasn't what he'd expected at all. Clearing the table his family left him and Michael alone to watch a film whilst they did the dishes. 'I can't believe it, that was so…how did they not?' he stuttered out, really not understanding how it all had gone so easily. Perhaps his parents hadn't understood? Perhaps they thought that Michael was just his friend? That had to be the answer, there's no other reason it could all have happened this way. Sure he knew both of them had pasts and they had friends who identified as gay or bisexual or any number of things, but he'd expected it to be different. Michael leant over and silenced him with a kiss before settling down to watch the movie.

Later on, after Michael had left, Noah approached his parents. He still couldn't quite believe it, where was the screaming and shouting that all his friends had told him about? Where was the moment of shocked realisation where they tried to take it all in? Perhaps they were waiting until they were alone to let him know how they really felt. Walking over to the closed door of his dad's den he hesitantly raised his hand to knock, surprised when his mum opened the door before he had a chance to. 'Hey honey, everything alright?' Amelia asked.

'I kind of wanted to talk to you both.'

'Sorry I've been paged to the hospital, but your dad's free alright? I'll catch up with you later,' giving him a quick hug she placed a quick peck on his cheek before dashing out.

'What's up?' Noah heard his dad call out from inside the den. Slowly Noah made his way in, sitting further away from his dad than he usually would. 'Noah, what's going on?' his dad asked again, the worry obvious in his voice.

'I was just wondering…tonight you all seemed so…' he trailed off, not really knowing how to continue.

'Seemed so what? I thought tonight went well,' Owen responded with a smile.

'Yeah it did, almost too well. You guys did realise what was going on right? Michael isn't just my friend dad, he's-'

'We understood perfectly what was going on,' Owen interrupted. He wanted to try and make this as easy as possible for his son. Leaning forward in his seat, elbows resting on his knees with his hands clasped between Owen continued, 'What exactly were you expecting? For your mum and I to go crazy, storm out of the room or something?'

'Well yeah.'

'Do you think this was a surprise to us? Noah I think we all realised when you were about four and you wanted to send a Valentine's Day card to a boy called Samuel in your class. Or when you asked Paul to be your date to one of your Tiger Cubs events. Or one of many other times that you did something like that. Even if this was some sort of issue your mum and I have had plenty of time to come to terms with it, but believe me when I say we couldn't care less whether you're gay, straight, bisexual or whatever as long as you're happy,' Owen was cut off by his son barrelling into him, his arms automatically wrapping around his son as they held each other tightly.

'Thank you dad,' Owen heard his son sniff against his shirt.

'Don't even think about it bud,' he replied, ruffling his son's hair.