A/N: I'll post again either the 20th or the 21st, I'm not entirely positive yet. I love Christmas time, even though it cuts into my writing time – and my posting schedule. ;)
Christmas gave way to the new year and the new year to the following semester and life picked up much the way it had been before. Al's daily schedules were color-coded in spreadsheets on his phone and laptop, and he'd come to rely heavily on them. The guarantee of fitting things in along with the flexibility to adjust when he needed to, left him feeling liberated.
It also left him with guaranteed time spent with El, which was always a good thing.
"Aunt Susan wants us to have dinner with them on Sunday again." Ellie flipped the page of the textbook in her lap.
Al opened his calendar app, and added a new event, "Sounds like a plan, what time?"
"Five," Ellie pushed the book from her lap to the coffee table, "but you can come over whenever you want to."
Al chuckled, "I really ought to just give you access to my calendar and let you enter in events. You'd need to set reminders so I see them, but it would make things easier."
Ellie rolled her eyes at him but smirked, "You sound like my dad. He just tells everyone to ask Mom if they can make it to something, and tells Mom to make sure she reminds him the night before of anything."
Al felt the familiar pull of anxiety over how close he was growing with El but pushed it away. He was determined to enjoy their relationship, not freak out about an uncertain future.
"Your dad's a smart man, El," Al forced himself be light about Ellie's comment, and even managed to chuckle.
"I really like that you get along with my family." Ellie's smile went soft and Al felt all his discipline to continue studying start slipping.
"Well, I have to admit, your grandma made me more skittish than a unicorn, and I really came close to hating Susan and Charlie there for a bit. But I'm learning to like your aunt and uncle. I don't agree with the majority of what they say, but I'm trying to remember that just because we don't see eye to eye doesn't mean that they're bad people."
Ellie raised an eyebrow at him, "And what about 'Nmi?"
Al chuckled, "I'm working on accepting that if she wants to know what I'm thinking, she's going to know. But your mum pointed out to me that Naomi doesn't use what she finds against anyone. And when I think about it more as a quirk, like my Grandma Molly's hugs, which are usually so tight you can't breathe, it helps take some of the discomfort and awkwardness out of the situation."
Ellie leaned back on the sofa and smiled. "Yeah, when you grow up with it, it doesn't seem weird at all. As a little kid, I thought all older women could read my thoughts."
Al laughed, "Were you young enough your parents could pass it off as make-believe?"
"I'm not sure if they ever needed to explain it away. But I was five or six, so that's probably what they did. Was that your parents go-to?"
"Yep, anytime we interacted with Muggles and one of us said too much, Mum or Dad would always lightly comment on what a vivid imagination we had."
Then Al had a thought. "El, are your mum's parents still around?"
Ellie nodded. "They've retired to the West Indies. I've met them twice, but they seemed nice. They send me a tenner for Christmas every year."
Al stopped breathing for a moment as he tried to remember that just because these grandparents had little interest in Ellie didn't make them evil people.
"Are, er, do you have cousins on either side?" Al asked more to distract him from his current freak out.
"On Dad's side yeah, most of them have moved away from St. John's but they usually make it back for Christmas since my dad's siblings all still live on the Rock. But it's just me on Mom's side."
Ellie pulled her feet under her and studied Al as he processed what she'd told him.
His initial emotion was rage at grandparents who didn't care more than a tenner once a year for their only grandchild. Then he felt guilty at having been in a relationship with El for nearly a year and only now just discovering that she had family outside of who he'd met thus far. But then his indignation returned at said family who he might never meet. And then the guilt returned as he remembered his immediate assumptions about Susan and Charlie, and how wrong he'd been.
"You need to calm down," Ellie's frown interrupted his internal monologuing. "I don't know what's going on in your brain right now but tell it to stop."
Al fisted a hand in his hair, "Sorry, emotional overload."
Ellie pulled his hand from his hair, "Talk it through."
Al really didn't like it, talking through his emotions. It was hard and felt incredibly awkward the whole way through. However, as much as he hated to admit it, talking it through usually helped, and so Al determined to keep at it.
"I guess first, I'm astounded that anyone could ignore you, that anyone could be capable of only caring a tenner a year about your existence." Al brought his hand up to his hair again. "And then I feel like a wanker because I've been your boyfriend for almost a year and I'm just now thinking of asking if you have family outside of who I've met. And then I feel guilty because maybe I'm judging your mum's parents too quickly the way I did with Susan and Charlie. And it's spinning in circles around all of that and it's overwhelming."
Ellie scooted closer to him. "Al, you're a good boyfriend. If you weren't, I wouldn't stick around."
Al shook his head, "You deserve so much more, El."
Ellie laughed, "Al, you're choosing not to see a lot of my imperfections right now, and trust me," she smirked up at him, "I don't mind. But remember that I have my own issues too. I'm not perfect."
"I know," Al groaned, "I guess I'm just protective of you, is all."
Ellie gave him a cheeky grin, "So this is not the time to tell you about one of the patrons that comes into the diner frequently and ogles me as I walk?"
Al felt his whole body grow hot before his logical brain caught up.
"I bet he's a gangly git whose hair can't seem to lay straight."
Ellie's smile grew wider before she leaned in and kissed him.
"He's the most handsome man I know." She murmured against him.
"He's the luckiest prat in Britain," Al pulled her back to him.
Ellie did eventually pull back, but she rested her head against his chest.
"Since we're sharing family stuff, when do I get to meet your siblings and cousins and the lot?"
Al pushed his head back into the cushions of his sofa.
"Why is it so bad that I want to keep you to myself?"
"You don't seem to mind sharing me with my family."
"That's an entirely different matter."
Ellie sat up, "Your parents are wonderful, you have nothing but good things to say about your brothers and sister, and you love me. What is the problem?"
Al looked away, "I don't like change?"
"Please let me in, Al, please let me be a part of your entire life, not just the parts that are easy to share."
What was he supposed to say to that?
"Can we get through midterms?" Al looked back at her. "I'll talk to Mum and we can plan a family dinner and I'll make sure Ted and Jamie and Lily know I'm bringing my girlfriend. They won't miss when I tell them that."
Ellie smiled, "Thank you. That sounds perfect."
Al pulled her back to lay against his chest again.
"How are you not nervous? I was terrified when I met your family."
"I am scared," Ellie said against his chest, "But fear blocks good things from happening. And meeting your siblings is a good thing."
"So you just let both emotions run simultaneously but give preference to one over the other?" Al mused.
"Exactly."
Al smiled as Ellie snuggled closer to him on the sofa. It made sense, what she said. He more or less did the same thing when he first determined to get her home. He was pretty sure he had felt a million things that evening, but he had given priority to the most important one.
And then it hit him.
The phone case needed multiple spells at the same time. And his work had been stuck in trying to find the right combination.
But what if he could give priority to the spells the way he could with code?
"El, can you hand me my phone?"
Ellie pulled his phone from the coffee table before looking up at him quizzically.
"Everything alright?"
"Yeah," Al made a note in his phone, "I just had an idea for the phone case I wanted to write down."
"You don't want to go try it out right away?"
"No," Al tossed his phone back on the coffee table and wrapped his arms back around El, "Right now, I want to be with you."
Priorities.