"Hi! You must be, uh, Monika! Come in!" Cat greets us with a smile, and we walk in. Sarah is just behind her, but through their smiles, I can see some badly hidden anxiety in both of their faces. I'm not surprised though - we have everything planned out to make sure tonight goes smoothly, but it's gonna be difficult. I can smell something nice from the kitchen, and walk through with my sisters. Mum and Dad are both in there, and Mum is lifting something out of the oven - a lasagne.

"Hey, nice choice!"

Mum turns around as I speak up.

"Hi Euan! Love to see you again! And you must be Monika! Hey, it's so nice to meet you."

"Hello ma'am. It's very good to meet you too."

"Ma'am? Oh please. You don't need to be so formal."

"Uh.. ok."

Mum starts slicing up the lasagne as Dad begins placing vegetables on all the plates, and the rest of us sit down. After handing out the plates, They follow suit.

"So guys, tell us… How did you guys meet? What happened?"

I had prepared for all the potential questions in advance with Monika, as so to ensure that Mum kept her head on. It would require minimal lying, but I felt it was worth it to ensure that I wasn't placed in a mental asylum.

"Well it was just online actually. We were talking about anime stuff online, and we kinda became online friends. It must've been about… I dunno a year ago? A year and a half?."

Dad did a bad job of trying to hide his shock, and ended up barely stopping himself from dropping his fork. Mum however was less successful, as she dropped her glass just as she picked it up. Luckily, it landed upright. Sarah and Cat looked surprised also.

"A year, really…. That's not too long, don't you think?"

Dad rather noticeably glared at mum for a second, and I laughed her comment off.

"I suppose yeah. But I thought that, as long as we know we love each other, it's fine right?"

There was an awkward silence for a second. Quickly, Dad picked up the slack.

"Guys, Euan didn't come here to be interrogated ok? Monika, what are your interests? Euan didn't tell us about you before tonight."

"Oh, well I suppose we like similar things… I like anime things quite a bit… But I really love reading a lot. We actually had our first date at the library. It was a really nice time."

"Oh? What sort of things do you read?"

"Well, um, I like lots of things. Fantasy stories and horror things…. I really like poetry I suppose, if I had to pick a favourite."

"Really? I didn't know you were into poetry Euan?"

"Well uh.. I wasn't really. But Monika got me into it when I met her, and now I'm hooked."

"Ahhh, of course."

"Wait, weren't you guys only together for like, 6 months before you got married? Glass houses and all that..."

Everyone at the table laughed a little, even Mum and Dad.

"Ok ok, fair enough. So Sarah, how's work been? You said you had a few late nights recently..."

After dinner was finished, we sat in the living room together, while Cat sat on her phone. I had managed to avoid the subject of Monika for a while before she stood up.

"Uhm, I need to use the restroom. Could you tell me where it is?"

"Yeah, It's just the first door when you get up the stairs."

After Monika had left however, Mum turned to me.

"Right Euan… We need to talk about this. Why are you marrying a girl you can't have known for more than… 6 months?"

I sighed. "Look, I get that you guys find this weird, but it's fine, I promise. You don't need to be worried."

"Well this is really big Euan! You bring home this girl we've never seen before, and tell us that you're getting married? How did you expect us to react to that?"

"Well… Look, you know I'm not the type to tell you everything. But she's a fantastic person. And if you're gonna try to… stop us or anything then... "

"We wouldn't do that Euan. And she does seem like a lovely person. But just… promise us that you're not rushing anything."

"Yeah, I know. But I… I really do love Monika, ok? So I promise this is thought out."

"Right. Okay...I just-"

Sarah suddenly spoke up;

"Hey Euan. How much do you love her?"

"What? I dunno, Completely? Overwhelmingly? How many synonyms do you know for 'a lot.'?"

"Ok, what's her favourite colour?"

"Green, why?"

"Ok sounds good."

Everyone stared at her for a few seconds before Mum spoke:

"Why…. does her favourite colour matter?"

"Ok, if we know one thing about Euan, it's that he doesn't share much yeah? Euan barely knows his best friend's birthdays. So the sort of girl he's… close enough to to discover something as inconsequential as this girl's favourite colour? That's someone he really cares about."Everyone went silent for a while as we contemplated what she said. Even I mulled it over in my head.

At that moment, before anyone could talk about it however, Monika walked back in, and we all turned to her. Mum and Dad then instantly looked down at their knees. Monika looked at me quizzically, so I smiled at her and gave a small nod in response.

"Hey, you want me to drive you guys home?" Dad said, grabbing the car keys off of the kitchen table.

"Uh sure, I guess that's fine, as long as it's not a problem for you guys?"

"Yeah, it's all good, just lemme get a coat."

"Ok cool. You coming mum?"

"Yeah, sure, I'll tag along."

Dad was surprisingly talkative on the car ride back, asking about our relationship, which I had mostly prepared for, so we were able to ensure that their minds didn't jump to "Came out of the computer." instantly.

After they dropped us off, I walked up to the flat, but before I could unlock it Mai opened the door.

"Hey lovebirds. Saw you outside, did you have fun?"

As usual, this caused my blush to appear.

"We were just at my mum's house, we weren't out… anywhere."

"Haha, awww you guys are so pure!, well, don't be too loud tonight and keep me up."

Monika started laughing loudly as Mai left, whilst I was blushed into silence.

"Come on Euan, she's just kidding."

"Well I… yeah."

Monika led me into the bedroom as I stammered, and we laid on the bed, looking at each other.

"Your family is really nice, you know Euan. It'll be nice to see them more."

"Well that's good. They can be a bit overbearing though sometimes. Especially now that they know I have a, well... A girlfriend."

"Just a girlfriend? I'm your Fiance remember?"

"Yeah… are we gonna have to set up a wedding? Oh god that's weird to think about."

"Haha, I'm sure It'll be fun doing it together."

"You're right, that does sound nice."

"Yeah… but tonight, can we just… snuggle? I don't wanna start right now."

"Sure, I'm pretty tired myself."

We changed and got into bed, Monika spooning me with her arms around my chest.

"We really are engaged now, you know Euan. We're gonna be married."

"Yeah… it's crazy to imagine. I'm kinda excited thinking about it."

"Well, perhaps we'll dream about it."

"Yeah… that'd be nice. Night night dearest."
"Night baby."