"So this is your house?" Carter asked, looking at his girlfriend. "Looks nice." The house was simple, with yellow wallpaper, and it appeared to have two floors. His heart however wasn't having an easy time.

"Just so you know," Teri said, her voice sounding like a concerned person who knew she was about to step into a forest fire. "My Mom's probably going to be extra hard on you. Like, extra extra hard."

He shrugged. "I was expecting that, after all, all parents need to be hard on their child's potential husband." Just hope she's not going to stay mad at me forever.

"Your parents weren't." She teased, before sighing. "Ok, let's go in." she then opened the door, and a wonderful smell wafted in, warm and comforting. Someone was cooking brownies. In the living room to the left, there was a gate, and two girls were there.

One was a toddler, holding a giraffe toy and repeating what the other girl was saying. "Gir-aaafee. Giraffe like to eat leaves!" The toddler had brown skin and brown hair. She wore a sea green shirt with a pink flower on it.

"That's right!" The older girl said, a big smile on her face. She looked about ten, and had a lighter shade of brown skin, and reddish-brown hair. She had a sky blue shirt with a yellow flower on it.

There was also a middle aged woman sitting near them, giving a small smile as she watched them. She had brownish-red hair, with a pointy nose like pinocchio, and tired lines under her eyes.

The girl then turned her head to Carter and said. "Your Carter right? Teri's told us so much about you!"

The toddler turned around and cocked her head at him quizzically. The woman on the other hand, narrowed her eyes at him. "Yes, this is Carter." Teri said, taking his hand and walking into the area. "Carter, this is my Mom," She gestured to the woman. "And my sisters, Brownie," she pointed to the older girl. "And Darcy." she pointed to the toddler.

"It's very nice to meet you all." he said with a slight bow, and the mother narrowed her eyes.

"It's nice to meet you too." Brownie agreed, a polite smile on her face. "I got brownies cooking, they should be ready in a few minutes." So far, not good, not bad. "And no worries, they're not spiked brownies."

"Who are you?" The toddler asked, staring at him. "You my daddy?" Whoa! Carter's jaw dropped and the other Homondoller girls sucked in a breath. Talk about awkwardness!

"No." the woman asserted before anyone else could say anything. "He is not your father." an awkward pause passed between them as she glared at Carter.

DING! In the silence, the ding of a timer done cut through it like a knife. "Oh." Brownie said. "The brownies are done," she promptly used the moment to bail.

"Want to have some?" Teri asked, and he nodded, before spotting her giving a sharp look to her mom as he left. "Mom, we have to have a private talk upstairs."

"Yeath," Brownie said as she put the brownies onto the stove. "You might want to stay out of that talk." she then looked at him. "How much did she tell you? About our family?"

"I just know that your dad wasn't the best." Carter replied. "She promised to tell me everything after I met you all." Brownie nodded, as she grabbed a glass.

"Yeath, trust me." She said, filling up the glass with tap water. "Mom's behavior makes a lot more sense afterwards." she then sat down, and took a sip of water. "Just, hope you don't think any less of us afterwards."

He decided not to ask. Teri would tell her on her own time, and Brownie clearly wasn't going to spill. "So, what do you like to do?"

"Well, you already know I love to make brownies." She said. "They are my namesake after all. But I also enjoy just trying to bake other foods, and my best friend is Cookie."

Carter chuckled, and sat down across from her. "Name theming huh? Very edible names if I do say so myself."

"We are part of the Food Troop." She replied. "Everyone has a theme name. Like there's Ice Cream, Chocolate, Sugar, you get the idea. I'm just the only one who doesn't have it as a nickname."

He blinked. "Wait, seriously?" he asked. "Brownie is your actual name? Like your legal name?" she nodded.

"Brownie Laurie Homondoller." she recited, and they fell into a brief lapse. And here I thought Brownie was a nickname. He thought.

"Who's your second best friend?" he challenged. "You already told me your best friend, what about your second best friend."

"If I had to pick a best friend of mine that isn't Cookie, I get along pretty well with Paige, but also get along decently with some other girls, but we're more like casual friends than friends. So I guess Paige is my second best friend."

"How'd you meet?" Carter asked, wanting to keep the conversation going. Hopefully, he could at least get one of their approval.

"Well we ran into each other in the arcade." Brownie said. "Turns out there was a situation at her house, and we sort of bonded from the fact we both were hiding from situations in our houses. We never really shared what they were, but we sort of just bonded from there. And we sort of hang out with each other a bit more than I hang out with most of my friends, minius Cookie."

"My best friend is Tad." Carter said, "And I'd say Joey is my second best friend. Poor dude's got a lot on his plate."

"Like what?" Brownie replied, getting to her feet, pushing in her chair and walking away to the living room.

"He's the oldest boy in the Fox Family." Carter replied, getting up to follow her. "Poor dude's got to try to keep them under control every now and then."

"Yeath," Brownie scooped up toddler Darcy, and they sat down on the couch. "five little siblings?" she whistled. "Extreme."

"Actually, he has six." Carter corrected. "The Fox Quintuplets, and his oldest youngest brother, Benny."

Brownie's jaw dropped. "And here I thought the Louds were the only crazy family in town." Carter chuckled at that.

"Honestly, you haven't seen anything." he said. "The Gurdle Family? Three out of five are convinced that aliens are going to invade, or that the government is going to do something, or whatnot."

"Dang." Brownie said, before laughing up a storm. "I'd be super embarrassed if I was there kid! Ha ha!"

The laughter was cut short by Darcy asking Carter with the innocent tone that only a toddler could muster. "Who are you?"

"Carter." he said, awkwardly, looking at the little girl. He was good with people but not with toddlers.

"He's Teri's boyfriend." Brownie helpfully clarified. "He may become a forever part of our family."

"Huh." Darcy said, looking straight at him. "So," she tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Do you love her?"

That was an easy question. "Yes," he confirmed, looking her straight in the eye. "very much."

"So." she said in an oddly cold as she narrowed her eyes at him. "We're competing for her love."

"What?!" he exclaimed at the toddler. Where did she get that idea? "Competing? What? How?"

"Darcy." Brownie groaned. "We already told you, love is not something you fight over." she looked apologetically at Carter. "She seems to get this idea in her head that love is something like a toy to fight over. For a normally happy go-lucky-kid, she really can't get that idea in her head that love is infinite, and we should share it." her eyes darkened like storm clouds. "But only if both sides are willing to share it."

This just got heavy. Carter noted, but then Teri walked into the room with her mom in tow. "How did it go?" she asked and Darcy suddenly sat up straight.

"Nothing too eventful." Brownie replied. "So, how'd you meet your boyfriend? You never did tell us."

"I needed help studying for an italian test, and she was my tutor." Carter said. "We hung out more and more, until we eventually started dating."

"Hmm." Ms Homondoller said in the same cold voice Darcy had used. "So he's a freeloader." Teri groaned.

"We just had this conversation." She said. "He's a good person, and he works very hard. Ok?" The mom sighed.

"So what's your opinion on kids?" both their eyes widened. "And would you prefer a son or daughter?"

"Mom!" Teri exclaimed. "We're still just dating right now! We both want to get through college before we decide if we want to marry or not! And that's before any kids enter the equation!"

"You can never tell." Ms Homondoller said suspiciously. Brownie leaned over to Carter while the two of them talked.

"It's not you," she whispered. "Don't worry. Mom is always going to be like this whenever one of us gets a boyfriend. Especially about kids. It's not your fault."

"Does she want grandkids so bad?" Brownie shook her head, and the fight was wrapping up pretty quickly.

"Ok." Teri said. "Sorry about that, my Mom needs to keep her nose out of our business. I know the risks, and I'm willing to take them." Carter's harm was both warmed and cooled by that.

"Yeath," he said, getting to his feet. "but you shouldn't get in trouble for me. I do want your mom's approval."

"No worries," Teri said. "Once she sees how great and good at keeping your word you are," she emphasized to her mother. "it'll be good."

"I'm good!" Darcy interjected, oblivious to the atmosphere. "And I'm very good at being honest!"

"And for what it's worth, he seems good." Brownie said. "Not sure about marriage, but he seems like a good guy."

"They all seem like that at first." Ms Homondoller said, and Carter now really wanted to know about her husband.

"Mom." Brownie said patiently. "We're never going to know if they're good or not if you keep acting so hostile, you'll just drive both of them away."

Teri nodded."She's right Mom, not every man who wants to date us is Dad." Ms Homondoller sighed.

"Fine." she spat, glaring at Carter. "But I will not hesitate to subvert the law shall you hurt any of them." he gulped. They saw Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, well a mama's fury is close enough.

"Got it ma'em." he said, and Teri sighed, obviously not happy with how the event had turned out.

"How about we get some brownies?" Brownie asked, breaking the silence. "They should be cool by now."

"Sounds good to me." he said with a smile, glad for the break in tension. They then headed to the kitchen, and all ate some brownies, even the toddler, who seemed to be on her best behavior.

"So," Teri said slowly after they ate the surprisingly delicious brownies together. "what do you think of my family?" "

Your sisters are nice," Carter was happy to report. "though your mom clearly doesn't like me."

"She'll come around." Teri reassured him with a small smile. "It'll just take her a very, very, long time."

After that, he left for home, with Teri promising to tell him tomorrow.


So some notes:

1. This is mostly self-indulgent.

2. It's Canon to Miraculous Louds, but is not from any of the previous authors I have referenced, as this one I came up with on my own.

3. The big family secret? Read Miraculous Louds to find out! In the meantime, I'd love to hear your theories.

4. I know the cannon name is Hemdoller, but I heard and fell in love with Homondoller, and it is an AU so...