This felt like a terrible idea. Nick kept telling himself that he never should have agreed to do this, but he was also in the habit of not denying Jeff anything that he wanted.
So of course, when his mom called him "just to check in" when he didn't come back home for Labor Day, Jeff was of course listening in, his head pressed against the other side of his phone until Nick finally just put it on speaker and set it down so that they both could here.
Jeff remained silent throughout the entire phone call, just listening and no doubt reacting visually to Mrs. Duval's words of concern. As soon as Nick ended the call and tucked his phone away in his pocket again, he announced, "I want to meet your family."
Which was how Nick ended up where he was now, about a week and a half later, driving through his (current) hometown, back in his own car, with Jeff excitedly staring out the window at the buildings passing by. He was chattering happily, asking questions about the things that he was seeing. Part of Nick at first thought that Jeff was being completely ignorant to his boyfriend's nerves, though as the drive went on, the solid hand in his reminded him that Jeff wasn't that kind of person and he was probably actually trying to distract him.
The thing was, he wasn't really sure why he was so nervous about Jeff meeting his family. It wasn't like he was worried about them disapproving or anything; he knew that they were anything but homophobic. And Jeff was one of the most genuinely nice and likable people that Nick had ever met, so it was very doubtful that he was going to make a bad impression. Maybe it was a bit fast for it, really, but if he were being honest he'd admit that it didn't feel that fast, anyways. Hell, Lacey had figured out who he was bringing home as soon as he had said that he needed to introduce "someone special," and she had sounded like she was practically going to explode with happiness over the phone.
So really, the more that he thought about it, the more it felt like all signs pointed to the conclusion that yes, Nick really should introduce all of them. After all, Natalie had never met his family and their relationship took a swift nose dive after that.
(Natalie, who, now that Nick was back closer up the east coast to where they were both from, he would probably have to talk to, but he was absolutely not thinking about that on top of worrying about what his family would make of Jeff.)
He pulled up at his family's house, he saw the other cars in the driveway. He let out a long sigh as he parked (parking in Charlie, who had parked Lacey in, so all was fair) and looked over at Jeff. "We're here."
Jeff looked up at the house with a smile before looking back at Nick. "I like the flamingo," he said.
Nick laughed, rolling his eyes fondly at him because of course he would like the big pink plastic flamingo standing solitary by the porch. "Tell my mom that," he said. "She always insisted on it making every move with us, even though it's so big and unwieldy and my dad is just tired of it."
"It gives the house character," he said, leaning forward and giving Nick a quick kiss. "Now come on, let's go inside."
He didn't give much of a chance for him to protest or stall any longer, throwing open the door and getting out. Nick got out after him, leading him up to the house and unlocking the door for them to go inside.
Just like when he had come home from college what felt like ages ago, Lacey immediately swept him up into her arms when he opened the door. "Nicholas," she hummed as she squeezed him tightly. "I missed you." She let go of him after a moment, her gaze moving past him to Jeff standing behind him. "And you!"
Jeff laughed softly, clearly not fully knowing what to expect when she came at him and gave him a bear hug just as tight as the one she had given Nick. When he brought his arms up to hug her back, she beamed at him.
"You're family now," she announced as she let him go.
"Does this mean I have another brother to compete with to be your favorite?" They all turned around to face Charlie when he spoke, Lacey laughing and nodding.
"Sounds about right, yeah," she said.
Nick slipped his arm around Jeff, pulling him forward. "Charlie, this is Jeff," he said. "Jeff, this is my brother Charlie."
"The someone special?" Charlie asked teasingly.
"Yes, the someone special," he said, rolling his eyes. "This is my boyfriend."
"Oh, Lace, what're we gonna do? He's all grown up and he's got a boyfriend," he laughed before offering his hand to Jeff to shake. "It's nice to meet you."
"It's nice to meet you, too," Jeff said with a nod, smiling at him.
"I'm not going to lie, I'm kind of sad about you two getting together," Lacey said with a laugh. "I fell a little bit in love with you myself from hearing my baby brother talk about you."
"You have a boyfriend," Charlie said, poking her in the side.
"Technically," she said, stepping back in closer and bumping her brother with her hip. "And unfortunately, our baby brother's boyfriend is gay anyways."
In another true testament to how Jeff really did belong here, he didn't seem fazed at all by this turn on conversation. He just looked at Nick and said with a grin, "You talked about me?"
Nick chuckled softly, shrugging. "I mean, I guess so."
"It was painfully obvious right from when you two first had your meet cute that he was going to fall in love with you," Lacey said, nodding.
"I'm not sure that I would call that a meet cute," Nick said with a raised eyebrow.
"Totally is. Super cute," she said. "Anyways, Nick, where are your manners? Go let your boyfriend sit down." She turned, gesturing towards the living room.
"Of course, of course, my bad," he said, shaking his head slowly as he took Jeff's hand and led him into the living room. They sat down side by side, Charlie and Lacey following after them.
"By the way, where are mom and dad?" Nick asked, noting the lack of his father sitting in his favorite recliner.
"Mom made him take her to the store," Charlie answered.
Lacey chuckled softly, nodding. "She had a little panic moment this morning when she realized that what she'd had planned for dinner just wasn't good enough for her baby's return."
"She didn't have to do anything special," he protested, shaking his head.
"Try telling that to her," she shrugged. "Besides, she thinks that meeting your new, well, I think she's assuming girlfriend, but I mean, same difference, she thinks it's a big occasion. There'll be no convincing her otherwise."
"Curse of the southern belle out of water," Charlie chuckled. "Any occasion where she can prepare a feast is actually an occasion when she must prepare a feast."
Lacey looked at Jeff, chuckling as she said, "Some people might have tried and asked what you would like to eat. Instead, she's likely making so many options that there is literally no way you can't find something to enjoy. And lucky me, I'm going to get drawn into it."
"It's not a sexist thing, I'm just useless at cooking," Charlie put in, grinning when Lacey gave him a shove.
Jeff leaned over and rested his chin against Nick's shoulder for a moment, a smile on his lips that Nick hoped meant that he liked them. Granted, he had already met Lacey, but it was one thing to meet Lacey on her own and as just a friend, but it was another thing entirely to come into her home and meet her and Charlie together as their brother's boyfriend.
They sat around and chatted for a bit, catching up on their lives since they had all last seen each other. Charlie was apparently dating someone new but he wasn't sure that it was going to work out, Lacey had gotten back to Pennsylvania a few weeks ago after spending a bit longer in Pasadena once Nick left, and Nick, well, obviously he had fallen in love.
Jeff easily participated in the conversation, the only sign that he wasn't as familiar with everyone else in the room being that occasionally he had to stop and ask for clarification about something one of them said. Nick was grateful for this fact, though also completely unsurprised. Right from the start, Jeff had clearly been the sort of person who could make a good impression on anyone and act like he had been best friends with someone for years after only a few minutes.
By the time his parents arrived back at the house, Jeff had evidently become comfortable enough that he didn't feel awkward showing affection to Nick, so the first they saw of him was him leaning into his son's side with his arm wrapped around him. As Mrs. Duval came into the living room and looked at them, her face turned to a mix of surprise and amusement.
"Oh," she said, giving them a smile. "So, this is the special someone?"
"Yes, Mom," Nick said with a soft laugh, getting to his feet and pulling Jeff up with him. He waited for a second as his father came into the room before saying, "This is Jeff, my boyfriend."
"It's nice to meet you," she greeted him brightly.
Nick's father stepped forward and shook his hand. "I'll just be honest with you," he said to Jeff. "I was expecting a girl." There was a moment's pause in which Jeff looked a bit concerned (but not too concerned, because somewhere in his life he had evidently lost the ability to actually take things seriously), and Nick could only imagine what his father looked like to an outsider, the tall, solid man that he was, until he continued with a smile, his voice lowered as if he were sharing a secret with Jeff, "But y'know, my son has had plenty of bad experiences with girls. So maybe this is for the best."
"Oh, stop," his wife chided with a laugh, giving his arm a light smack. She looked back at Jeff, giving him a smile. "I'd love to sit and chat with you, but dinner isn't going to make itself."
"Do you need help?" he offered.
"Oh, no, I couldn't ask for your help, you're a guest, sit back on down."
"No, really, I haven't been in a kitchen in a long time and I kind of miss it," he said.
She raised her eyebrows at him, looking at him for a moment before nodding in approval. "Well, alright," she said. Looking to Nick, she said with a wink, "I like him already. He's a keeper."
Jeff looked back at him, grinning as he followed her into the kitchen.
Nick shifted so that he could look through the doorway to watch the two of them cooking together while he talked with his siblings and dad, relating for the latter the story of how he and Jeff had met and their subsequent growing relationship. He knew that Jeff didn't need to be babysat – he was fitting in in the Duval house remarkably well (a fact that absolutely didn't make his heart flutter a little bit in his chest) – but he was just enjoying seeing him so at ease with his new environment. He was chatting with Mrs. Duval like they were old friends catching up, probably exchanging tips and recipes. At one point they stopped and Jeff pulled out his phone, and Nick listened closer to figure out what he was showing her; the words "Birdy" and "…elephants at the zoo once and that was it" told him that he was showing her pictures of his sister.
"Hey, lover boy," Lacey's voice brought him out of his reverie, and he looked away from the kitchen and startled at the realization that she was inches from his face. "Hi. We were talking to you. Prince Charming in there has had you to himself for a while, so it'd be nice to have you back for a bit, hm?" Her tone was light, so he didn't feel too bad for not paying her enough attention.
"Sorry, sorry," he chuckled.
"Better be," she said, slinging an arm around his shoulders. "Now, Charlie here was telling us all about his awkward first date, and it can't be missed."
"Alright, go on," Nick said with a soft laugh, gesturing to Charlie, who rolled his eyes at the both of them and carried on with his story.
Dinner was, as promised, a feast. Even with the larger number of people at the table than Nick's mother had been used to feeding, there was still far too much food for them to even think about eating all of.
"It didn't even look like that much food when we were making it," Jeff commented once they were done putting away leftovers and doing dishes after the meal was over (Jeff having insisted that Mrs. Duval—or Celia, as she had already insisted she call him—go and sit down and let the rest of them deal with it, goodness, how long have you been on your feet?).
"You didn't see ten pounds of green beans and think, this is a bit overkill?" Nick replied with a soft laugh, pulling him down to sit beside him.
"That's exaggerating," he said, shaking his head and poking his side.
"Maybe a little bit."
Nick laughed softly, leaning over and kissing his cheek. "Right. Just a little."
"You guys are gross," Lacey said to them brightly, settling in beside Charlie on the other half of the sectional.
"Oh, we're fully aware," Jeff said back to her, matching her tone with a grin.
"Nick, you do realize you're totally dating our sister, right?" Charlie said, chuckling. "It's honestly kind of frightening."
"Oh stop that," their mother chided, shaking her head. "They just have similar sense of humor. No harm in that."
"Is there a sibling version of the Oedipus-slash-Electra complex?" he carried on, making Mrs. Duval laugh in spite of herself.
Lacey and Charlie exchanged "keeping it in the family" jokes for a while, everyone else in the room pretending not to find it as amusing as they all did. Eventually the conversation died down and they all settled into relative silence as they watched the news, which turned into Steve Harvey hosting Family Feud.
"Alright, now, here's the true test of how our new addition will fit in here," Mr. Duval said, laughing softly as the families came out on screen.
"Ooh, true," Lacey agreed with a laugh, clapping her hands excitedly. "Maybe if he's good, he can be our brother in Charlie's place when we meet Steve Harvey."
"You're never going to meet Steve Harvey," Charlie said, shaking his head.
"I don't hear you right now," she said, shaking her head. "Family Feud is on, I don't hear you right now."
"She's pretty sure we're going to end up on Family Feud one day," Nick said to Jeff with a soft chuckle. "And, to be fair, as a whole, we're not too bad. But yeah, some families take board games seriously, we take Family Feud seriously."
"Noted," Jeff said, nodding.
The next hour passed with the family all paying rapt attention to the television screen, calling out any answers that they could think of and laughing at the contestants when they said ridiculous answers. When the show was over, Nick glanced down at Jeff, who had been leaning against his shoulder, to find him completely asleep.
"It was too much for you, huh?" he said softly as he looked at him, chuckling.
"He'll get there, I believe in him," Lacey laughed.
"Of course," he agreed. "It's been a long day for him, too, so he gets a pass."
His mother looked over at them, glancing down at Jeff with a small smile. "Gonna take him up to bed now?"
There was a few seconds of silence where Nick wasn't sure what exactly he should say, not having thought too much about what exactly their sleeping arrangements would be. He had known that they were going to be staying at his house with his family, but since they'd been sleeping in the same bed he hadn't really thought about doing anything else. But he was now realizing that he couldn't exactly assume that that would fly. So he just opened his mouth and then closed it again a bit awkwardly.
"Sweetie, you're an adult, and you've been travelling, alone, with this boy, who is also an adult capable of consent, for a while now," she said, her voice gentle as if she was breaking bad news to him. "I'd be lying to both you and myself if I tried to pretend I didn't know what you do behind closed doors. But that's your business."
That managed to leave him even more speechless than he was a moment ago, so that all he could think of to say was, "We don't, um, no. We haven't. Sex."
"Smooth," Lacey chuckled. Bumping his shoulder but being careful to not disturb Jeff sleeping against him, she added, "It's not because you don't know how to, right? Because I could—"
"Don't finish that sentence," Nick said at about the same time that their mother let out just a quiet but firm "no."
"I was just offering to help my brother," she shrugged, chuckling.
"Anyways," Nick said, shaking his head. "Jeff wanted to wait, and I am perfectly fine with that."
"And such a gentleman," Mrs. Duval hummed, smiling. "He just keeps getting better and better, doesn't he?"
Nick chuckled softly, nodding. "I like to think so," he said, shifting Jeff so that he could lift him to carry him up to his room. "Anyways, I am going to take him to bed now. If I don't, he'll wake up all stiff and cranky and we don't want that. Goodnight."
His family said their goodnights as he went to the stairs and carried Jeff up to his room, setting him down on his bed. He pulled Jeff's shirt off of him so that he would be more comfortable to sleep, stripping himself to his underwear before getting into bed. He wrapped himself around Jeff, pulling the blanket over them.
September was a lazy month, spent mostly with Nick's family as they got to know Jeff and appreciated having Nick back. And as much as Nick enjoyed being back at home with them, another big part of him was never happier than in the quiet moments with just the two of them.
On a Sunday morning, Nick woke up to find Jeff watching him, his fingers slowly stroking through his hair.
"Hi," he said, clearing his throat as his voice was rough from sleep.
"Hey," Jeff said softly, leaning in and kissing him softly. "I've been thinking."
"That's not a good sign," he teased, chuckling.
"Wow, okay," he said with a pout, feigning hurt. "Never mind, you don't get to hear what I've been thinking about." He sat up, making like he was going to get up.
Nick reached out, taking his wrist and pulling him to lay back down. "C'mere, I need my teddy bear," he said.
"I'm not a bear," Jeff said, shaking his head. "Definitely closer to a twink than a bear. Not hairy enough to be an otter."
"This needs to stop," he said with a soft laugh, rubbing his hand over his face.
"Want to hear what I've been thinking about now?"
"Alright, alright," Nick said, rolling over to get more comfortable and wrapping his arms around Jeff. "Go on. What've you been thinking?"
"Sweden," he said.
"That's a place, not a thought, I'm sorry, babe," he said. "Keep trying."
"Hey, no, I'm serious. Sweden. We should go," he said.
"Wait, what?" Nick asked, furrowing his brow. "You want to just… go to Sweden?"
"Yeah," he said. "Next month, we should go to Sweden. I've always wanted to—"
"Next month?"
"What better time than now? Or, you know, about as soon as we can get you your passport and also buy plane tickets that aren't ridiculous just because they're last minute," Jeff said, chuckling softly. "C'mon, I've heard that it's beautiful. We aren't done having adventures."
"What, is becoming domestic too fast becoming a problem for you?" he said, chuckling.
"Alright, I deserve that one for pressuring you into introducing me to your family. But all I'm saying is, I promised you beauty and excitement and—"
"If I wanted to be cheesy, I could just tell you that you are those things to me."
"That's very sweet, Nicholas, though we need to work on the whole interrupting me thing. That's not a good look on anyone," he chuckled.
"Ah, right, my bad, my bad," he said.
"Yeah, it is," he said. "But we're getting off topic. Sweden."
"Sweden," Nick repeated, nodding slowly. "Scandinavia."
"That's the one," he affirmed. "Land of Ikea. And fish."
"What did you decide Sweden? I think most people decide to go to, you know, London or Paris or something like that when they spontaneously decide to flee the country," he said.
"We can go to Paris and London and wherever else if you want," Jeff said. "Brussels, Copenhagen, I don't care. Hell, we could stay on this continent. Toronto or something. I will go with you anywhere you want to go. But right now, I want to Sweden and if it maybe has a little bit to do with Ikea, you can't blame me for that."
Nick laughed softly, pulling him in for a quick kiss. "I definitely can't," he agreed.
Jeff shifted away from him for just a moment, grabbing his phone before snuggling back in against him. He unlocked his phone and opened up his photos. "I saved a bunch of pictures of places around Stockholm," he said.
"Show me," he said with a nod, pulling him so that they were in a better position to look together at his phone.
He flipped through dozens of pictures, what had to be somewhere in the neighborhood of at least a hundred pictures. Pictures of old buildings, pictures of walkways by the water, pictures of the train station, pictures of the city lit up at night. Nick wasn't even sure that he wanted to know when or how he had found enough time to go through so many pictures. At the same time, though, even if he had spent a ridiculous amount of time on Google Images, he couldn't exactly blame him. It was a beautiful city, that much was for sure.
Jeff kept scrolling through the pictures on his phone until he finally ran out, a picture of the escalators at Rådhuset turning into a picture of Nick asleep.
"Hey, when—"
"Also," Jeff said quickly, grinning as he closed the photo app and brought up Safari. "I was looking at some things for us to do in Sweden."
"You're distracting me and it's not working," he protested, shaking his head.
"And I mean, there's loads to do. You know, Stockholm is a pretty big city. Less than a million people, so not huge by any means, but—"
"I'm not a cute sleeper," he said. "I didn't get to have a good look at it, but I am pretty sure I'd be willing to bet that that is not an attractive picture."
"That's your opinion," Jeff said, shaking his head. "Now, anyways, things to do. Apparently, there is a museum that has an exhibition right now on Swedish sin. So that sounds cool."
"Just show me the picture," he said. "And what does that even mean?"
Jeff shrugged as he looked at the page on his phone. "Mm… Pictures and stuff, you know, about drinking, sex, whatever."
"That does sound kind of interesting," he said.
"Oh, I know it does," he said with a soft laugh. "Also, do you know any Swedish?"
Nick laughed, shaking his head. "Look at me. Do I look like I know any Swedish?"
"I believe that you could have some hidden depths and skills I don't know about," he said with a shrug.
"Is there a reason I might need to know Swedish, other than just, you know, because that's the language spoken there?"
"Yeah," he said, nodding. He switched to another tab, showing Nick. "There's another thing, which, I'll admit, is a really long way from Stockholm. I looked at it before I realized how far it would be. But it sounds cool, so maybe we could check it out. It's like, lights. Some cool light displays and stuff in a town called, okay, Alingsås. What does that little accent mean?"
"I don't know," he chuckled, shaking his head. "It could mean… I don't know. Maybe the A is supposed to be long?"
"Maybe," Jeff said, nodding. "I guess we'll find out. You know, if you agree to go with me."
There it was again. Damn Jeff and his constant ability to get Nick to agree to anything, even if whatever it was didn't seem like it necessarily the best idea. And it wasn't like this felt like the wrong idea. He wasn't really doing much of anything anyways, so why not take a trip with his boyfriend, right?
Nick knew, of course he did, that this would put an end (at least for now) to the long stretch of lazy days spent just laying around with Jeff and his family. And while he was sure that he would miss it, at the same time there was definitely something appealing about getting back out there. Part of him wanted the mad dash to find his passport and book tickets and a hotel room and, eventually, have a hell of a time trying to find their way around the airport. And it made sense, after all; this sleepy stretch of time was the calm before the storm.
If he only knew how true that was.
"Yeah. Okay, yeah. Let's go to Sweden."