Title: -
Author: lurkinghere
Fandom: pokemon
Characters: prof. Juniper, dr. fennel, amanita
Prompt: encounter
Word Count: idk
Rating: K
Summary: aurea meets fennel's family for the first time.
Warnings: hints of shoujo-ai.
Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon or their characters.

... this is actually several scenes in one. i'm gonna have to fix this eventually, but w/e. here it is.

After all their time together, Juniper never actually met Fennel's parents. It isn't to say that she was never invited. In fact, it was often the opposite. There had been plenty of times when she was offered: the holidays, whenever she was in town, but she never stayed.

After all, if she were to accept their offers, she would be taking advantage of them. What if they were to ask who the mysterious "man" their daughter was dating?

You'll be fine, Aury. she remembered Fennel telling her on the phone earlier. Of course she would be. They weren't rocket scientists (at least not that she knew) and wouldn't be able to send her on the first trip to a black hole (or the distortion world). However, they were scientists. They could find away to get her back if all doesn't go well.

She took a deep breath and rang the doorbell.

Much to her surprise, everything was going well. Dinner was nice. They actually all got along. There wasn't an awkward moment until that one strange incident with Fennel's little sister.

"Hehe," Amanita giggled, watching her sister and her sister's friend.

Still somewhat nervous, Juniper looked over to her. "Is something funny?"

She shook her head but kept giggling; it only made the professor even more nervous. Had she seen their hands under the table? Fennel squeezed her hand again, and she was touched that even while having a somewhat heated discussion with her father (over medical equipment no less!), she kept track of Juniper's feelings.

"Don't worry, it's not bad!" The pokemon PC maker promised.

But she wouldn't tell Juniper what it was.

The night went out without a hitch. Fennel's parents were completely against allowing Juniper to leave for a hotel or even sleep on the couch. In fact they were pushing for them to stay in the same room. They claimed it would be like they were in college again, but they didn't quite share a bed back then.

After a bit of arguing over sleeping spots - Juniper wanted to stay on the beanbag chair while Fennel took the bed, but her girlfriend wasn't going to have any of that - they eventually fell asleep in their prospective areas.

Both were utterly persistent. Fennel more so, pretending to sleep until Juniper was. Eventually, she took advantage of the professor as she was sleeping by sneaking across the room and curling up next to her on the chair.

Fennel's mother found them in the morning, pressing her lips together as if wanting to say something, but eventually shook her head and went back to cooking breakfast.

Amanita was the one who woke them up, tackling them on the small beanbag chair so harshly that Juniper wasn't sure how the chair wasn't damaged at all.

"Thank you for taking care of our daughter."

"We're still expecting grand kids, you know." Juniper froze on the spot. Her hands were still covered in Fennel's mother's who only pulled her closer. "Just because you're both girls you're not weaseling your way out of it. I don't know how, but I want those grandkids."

"Y - yes ma'am."

Fennel turned around, confused.

"Now, now, dearie," like a personality switch, Fennel's mother acted as she did before the threat. "I told you to call me, Mom. You are practically family now!"

"R - right. Mom." She gave sheepish smile, practically signaling for Fennel to save her.

And she did, pulling her mother's hands away from Juniper. "Whoops!"

It helped that she was a bit jealous of all the attention her mother was giving her girlfriend.

"What was that about?"

"They knew."

"Of course they did, I told them before you came."

"WHAT?!"

"Okay, maybe I didn't tell them." Fennel admitted. "But, they did find out and asked me before you came over."

"Oh" She frowned. Her eyebrows scrunched up a little as she thought about it. "Are we that obvious?"

"Mhm ~ " Fennel leaned up against Juniper, pulling the professor's arm closer to her chest. "I don't think so."

Juniper seemed to accept that answer and thought back to the other thing that Fennel's mother had told her. "Do you want a child?" Her arm twisted, and she could feel claws practically digging into her skin. Juniper winced and stopped walking.

"I - um, maybe, do." Fennel fumbled with her fingers. "Do you want any?"

"I never really thought about it before." The professor answered honestly. Having those four trainers, who she'd taken to like almost like her own children, was completely different than having one of her own. After all, she wasn't the type of professor that stayed in the lab. Like Birch, she had taken to plenty of field research. Her father was able to manage with her, but she couldn't remember (or even imagine) how he was able to when she was a babe. "Your mom brought it up, just so you know. But... One might be nice, eventually."

Fennel squealed, hugging the professor even tighter than before.