XIV. Peter, September 23

Peter sat awkwardly on the couch in Tiger Lily's living room. In front of him was a low glass-topped coffee table and on the other side of it was another couch, where Mr. Lily sat straight-backed, with his arms crossed in front of him. His face was red as though he were angry, but Peter wasn't sure if he was actually mad or if that was just how his complexion was. He sure hoped he wasn't mad, since the man was rather large and definitely capable of kicking Peter's ass. His posture sure seemed to indicate anger, but Peter hadn't really done anything yet except, you know, date his daughter. If that was enough to set him off, Peter thought maybe he should just leave and quit while he was ahead.

It was just the two of them in the living room. Mrs. Lily was in the kitchen and Tiger had gone up to her room as soon as the two arrived at the house. After the long school day, she wanted to change into some fresh, comfortable clothes. And of course, it would have looked bad if Peter had followed her up to her room. So here he was, sitting across from Tiger's father, in complete and utter silence.

"So…" Peter said, but luckily he wasn't forced to make conversation as Mrs. Lily, a smiling, round-faced woman, came bustling into the living room with a silver tray.

She put the tray down on the coffee table and sat down next to her husband. The tray had a basket filled with cornbread rolls and a kettle of tea, along with some cups. The cornbread smelled delicious.

"Tea, Peter?" Mrs. Lily asked with a smile.

"Sure—I mean, yes, please, Mrs. Lily," he said, and she poured him a cup.

"Help yourself to the rolls as well," Mrs. Lily said.

"Thank you ma'am," Peter said as he took the cup from her.

He felt the mug and found the tea had already cooled a bit, so took a sip. There was some kind of unfamiliar spice in the tea that Peter didn't quite recognize and wasn't quite sure if he liked. He took a second sip—blech. Definitely not. He tried not to show it on his face, though. He put the mug down on a coaster. Tiger came skipping down the stairs that moment. Peter looked up and saw that she had changed into gray sweatpants and a plain white t-shirt and she'd let her hair down. He found himself staring, completely in awe of how she could be so beautiful when she didn't even mean to be.

I can't believe she's dating me, he thought.

She smiled and he realized he was staring. He shook his head and she came over and sat next to Peter, taking his hand in an innocent gesture. Mrs. Lily made an expression as though this was the most precious thing she'd ever seen. Mr. Lily's expression didn't change. Peter wasn't even sure he had seen the man blink yet, though he must have. Tiger seemed to realize how awkward things were in her absence, and she sent Peter an apologetic glance.

"So… Mom, Dad, this is my boyfriend Peter," Tiger said, although obviously introductions had already sort-of been made. "And Peter, this is Dad and Mom."

"Nice to meet you," Mr. Lily grunted.

Well, it was something. He decided to dive right in.

"I, um, came here tonight because I wanted to ask you if it would be okay if I took your daughter to the Homecoming Dance?" Peter said, sounding meeker than he would have liked to.

"Oh, isn't that darling?" Mrs. Lily said, putting a hand to her chest, and looking to her husband. "It's okay with me."

Mr. Lily didn't say anything for a few moments, and Peter was worried. Very worried.

"You may take my daughter to this 'dance' if, and only if…" Mr. Lily looked very serious as he paused for a few seconds—and then, for the first time since Peter had arrived, he smiled "…you come here beforehand and let me take pictures."

Tiger made an adorable little squealing noise and then bounced up and down on the couch clapping her hands. Peter breathed a sigh of relief. Apparently Mr. Lily was a nice enough guy under the macho tough-guy fatherly exterior. Tiger gave Peter a kiss on the cheek and he blushed, surprised at this sign of affection in front of her parents.

"Thank you, sir," Peter said.

"No, no, none of this 'sir' business," Mr. Lily shook his head and waved a hand through the air. "You may call me Wapasha, my first name."

"Uh…" Peter involuntary let out a sound of slight discomfort.

"Have some bread," Mr. Lily insisted.

"Um, yes, thank you s—uh, Wapasha," Peter said, taking a roll from the basket and taking a bite. "Wow, this is delicious!"

It was certainly a contrast to the tea. Mrs. Lily thanked him. This whole conversation seemed to break the ice, and they chatted about this and that mundane thing. Peter told them he did well in school when they asked—a little white lie, he supposed, but not something they'd ever find out anyway. And they didn't ask specifically in what aspect of school he did well. He did pretty well in lunch. So it wasn't a total lie. For the most part, Peter found the rest of the evening to be rather dull. Small talk of this sort wasn't really his thing. It was always the same questions, never things that he was really interested in talking about, and he was expected to sit still and be ultra-polite. Luckily he had learned a thing or two about behaving himself since his rambunctious childhood, but he was known to still slip up on occasion. He hoped he wouldn't slip up tonight. This was something he actually cared about for once. This was important.

He was reminded of the first time he met the Darlings, Wendy's parents. He and Wendy had known each other for a couple years, during which they had hung out pretty exclusively with each other during recess at school. Wendy finally invited Peter over her house to meet her family. Wendy was seven or eight. Her younger brother John was nearly four, and Mrs. Darling was pregnant with Wendy's youngest brother, Michael. Of course, as they were young children, the visit was more of a play date for Wendy and Peter than a chance for Peter to meet Mr. and Mrs. Darling, but meet them he did. As a tactless child, he made a tasteless comment about Mrs. Darling's large belly upon meeting her, and later, while playing a pirate game in the living room (rather than the nursery, where they were supposed to be), he knocked over both a lamp and an expensive vase.

Mr. Darling had been livid, and Peter was unable to erase the image of his angry read face from his mind to this day. But he knew a lot more than he did then now, and so far things were going swimmingly. There wasn't anything around that was liable to break, and he knew better than to comment on any physical abnormalities that Tiger's parents might possess, so he figured he was golden. Still, he kept himself alert. Even he didn't know when he might do something stupid.

The end of the visit couldn't have come quickly enough. Of course Peter was always glad to spend time with Tiger Lily, this didn't really feel like spending time with her at all. She was sitting next to him the whole time and often holding his hand, but he was mainly talking with her parents and even if he was speaking to her, he wouldn't have been able to speak his mind with her parents sitting right there. Having her next to him and not being able to kiss her was almost as bad as not being near her at all. Finally, Mr. and Mrs. Lily decided it was getting late and said goodnight to Peter before heading upstairs together.

Tiger walked Peter to the door and out onto the porch. As soon as they were outside, Peter turned and kissed Tiger, cupping her face in his hands. She seemed surprised for a moment, and then, after a moment, kissed back. It was like a drink of water after a long trek through the desert—or at least, what Peter imagined that would feel like.

"I've been wanting to do that all night," Peter said somewhat breathlessly.

Tiger opened her mouth to speak, blushed, and said nothing. She looked down at the floor shyly.

"You look beautiful," he smiled sincerely.

"What?" she scoffed. "I'm wearing—pajamas, practically!"

"I know," Peter said, wrapping his arms around her waist. "I don't know how you do it—you always look amazing to me."

"I never knew you to be so corny," Tiger said, but she was smiling.

"Neither did I," Peter laughed, shrugging. "I can't believe I got through that whole thing without saying something dumb."

"Daddy really liked you," Tiger said, looking thoughtful.

"I think this has been the most awkward night of my life," Peter said. "But… worth it."

"Thank you," Tiger said, hugging Peter and nuzzling her nose into his neck.

He held her close and looked off down the road. It was late, but the full moon illuminated the night, turning the sky a dark blue color and lighting the way back to Peter's house. He didn't want to leave this porch, though. He wanted to stay with Tiger for as long as he could manage. He hoped this feeling would never wear off—hoped it wasn't just the relative newness of their relationship that made everything feel so elating.

"You should probably go home soon," Tiger said, but she didn't let go of Peter at all.

"I don't want to," Peter mumbled.

"I don't want you to," Tiger said.

After a couple minutes more, the couple pulled apart reluctantly.

"I'll see you tomorrow then," Peter said.

"Yeah," Tiger forced a smile and said goodbye, going inside.

Peter pulled his phone out of his pocket as he started to walk to the sidewalk. He had felt it vibrate once while he was talking to Tiger's parents. It was from Wendy.

How did it go?

He pressed the "call" button. He figured it would be easier to do that than to send her a long text message attempting to summarize the night while properly conveying the extreme awkwardness of the situation.

"Hello?"

"Wendy! Hello!"

"Hi Peter… So what wound up happening?"

"Well, it was really awkward at first," he said. "But her parents both wound up being really nice, and her mom made tea—well, the tea was kind of gross—and cornbread, which was really good, but…"

He trailed off, thinking of how to put it.

"But you were bored out of your mind?" Wendy finished for him.

"God, yes," Peter said, and Wendy laughed knowingly. "I thought I was going to fall asleep, it was so boring… But I couldn't fall asleep, I had to pay attention, because otherwise I might, you know…"

"Knock over a lamp?" Wendy said, and he could hear the smile in his voice. "Or a vase?"

"Something like that," Peter replied, nodding even though she couldn't see it. "Anyway, I got their approval to take Tiger to Homecoming, I just have to go over and take pictures beforehand… A necessary evil, I guess."

"Are you on your way home now then?" Wendy asked.

"Yeah, I really didn't want to go though…" Peter said.

"I'm surprised you didn't climb in her window or something," Wendy said. "Like that time when—"

"Yeah, that's… You know what, Wendy, I'm almost home, so I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?" Peter said.

"Sure, Peter," Wendy said. "Goodnight."

"'Night, Wendy," Peter said.

He wasn't even halfway home, though. Instead, he turned around and headed back towards Tiger's house, texting her as he did.

Still awake?

He checked the time—it was just past ten. He stopped to call his foster mother and told her he'd be staying over a made-up friend's house. Most of his friends were girls, so he had invented a guy friend to use as an excuse for pretty much everything. His foster mother obviously couldn't check up on it since the guy didn't exist, and she wasn't too intrusive because, Peter suspected, she didn't want him to feel like she was overbearing or something. He saw the situation as it was and took advantage of it, manipulating it. The phone buzzed.

Yeah, missing you already. :(

He thought about letting her know that he was now standing outside her house, but instead he decided to surprise her. He was pretty skillful at climbing all kinds of things—rocks, trees, and, most importantly, houses. He knew which window was Tiger's from the times he had waved goodbye to her through it. He peeked inside. Tiger was laying on her bed looking at her phone. He tapped on the window and her head shot up. At first, her expression was shocked, and then she smiled wide. She came over and opened the window.

"What are you doing?" she whispered, but she was laughing. "You could get in so much trouble… for both of us."

"You can't get in trouble if you don't get caught," he whispered back.

"Peter, I—"

He leaned forward and kissed her and she didn't protest anymore. He continued kissing her as he climbed inside the window. They broke apart and Tiger closed the window back up.

"You're absolutely insane," she murmured.

"That's why you like me, right?" Peter smiled.

"I adore you," she smiled and gave him a quick peck.

Tiger went and locked the door, just in case one of her parents tried to come in the morning to wake her up before she and Peter awoke.

"I'll just tell them I'm getting dressed if they knock and wonder why it's locked," Tiger said. "Come on."

The pair climbed into her full sized bed and she turned off the lamp on her bedside table. Peter reached forward and brushed Tiger's hair away, then leaned forward and nuzzled her nose. She smiled, though she looked a bit nervous.

"Don't worry," Peter said. "We don't have to… do anything. I just want to be with you."

"Okay," Tiger said, looking a little more relaxed. "I just… I don't think I've ever had a boy in my bed before."

Peter smiled, "Well, if it makes you feel any better, I don't think I've ever been in a girl's bed before."

"It does a bit," Tiger smiled.

Peter lay back and Tiger snuggled in under his arm, resting her head against his chest. Peter thought it felt really nice. He wasn't ready to go any further than this anyway. He knew most guys his age would probably jump at the chance, but… this was enough for him, at least for now. If he was being honest with himself, he was a little nervous about the whole idea of it. There were just so many things going on there that he didn't quite understand yet, and he would need to be really comfortable with someone before he went that far. He could see it happening with Tiger Lily. In fact, he kind of hoped it would be with Tiger. But not now. For now, this was good. And he wouldn't want to spoil a good thing.