"Yes, Ma, I promise I'll be fine!" Monroe exclaimed, forcing himself not to start screaming at his mother. "I appreciate the concern," he continued, voice softening slightly, "But I promise you, Ma, I'm perfectly fine here. It's probably best I don't come to the reunion anyway."

He waited for a few moments, listening to his mother chatter away about his life choices on the other side before he sighed. Cutting into what he was certain was going to be another lecture about his decision to turn wieder, he said, "You promised me you wouldn't start on this topic again, Ma!"

Another sigh. "I love you too, Ma," he said gently after a few seconds of listening to his mother sound contrite. It was all an act, of course – his family very much believed in the traditional way of doing things, and his lifestyle choices were anything but – but he knew she loved him, and besides, it was just easier to be the one keeping the peace instead of letting her draw him into another argument.

"I'll see you soon, Ma, I promise," he continued. "Yes, I love you, and feel free to give everyone my love," he finished before setting the phone down.

As soon as the call had been disconnected, he sat down heavily on the nearby sofa. "Finally!" he exclaimed with no small amount of relief.

"You know, you could just give her actual reasons backing your decision to stay in Portland," Rosalee commented, poking her head out of the kitchen, a wide smirk on her face as she took in Monroe's annoyed expression.

"Sure, as soon as you pick up the phone to tell your mother at the same time," he replied.

"Good point," Rosalee replied quickly. Her family might not have been as insane as his was, but it still wasn't going to be easy, letting them know that the two of them were in a relationship.

A relationship between two different wesen species wasn't something that was unheard of. Over the years, there had even been reports of the unlikeliest couples – a mauzhertz and a lausenschlange were undoubtedly the most memorable – but both the blutbaden and the fuchsbau were rather secluded communities. Had only one of them been in a relationship with another wesen, it would have been surprising. The two of them together was unheard of.

All of that, of course, meant that facing the families was going to be an uphill battle.

"Our families are going to go crazy enough finding out that we're not exactly dating members of the same species, and then there's everything with Nick…It's just best to let my mother live with what she knows at the moment," he explained, not sure why he was going into details that Rosalee knew as well as he did, but wanting to explain himself nonetheless.

"You don't have to explain things to me," Rosalee said. "The fact that my family have close ties to the laufer does not mean that they're too thrilled about Grimms – in fact, they view them as just a level higher than the verrat. And that's after they know about Nick's existence, if not the fact that I help him out whenever possible."

"Yeah, but at least your mother doesn't spend hours telling you how coming home will do wonders for you and your misguided decision to turn wieder," Monroe burst out. He hadn't planned on unloading his frustrations, but the talk about their families combined with his mother's phone-call meant that he couldn't stop himself.

"Even if this get-together didn't involve hunting humans – and I seriously doubt that, considering we're talking about my family here – I would still have to deal with my mother trying to get me to eat whatever bird she's cooked this year," he continued. "Honestly, if she just accepted that I'm not planning on returning home for Christmas anytime soon, I'd have a much lower blood pressure level than I do at the moment."

"So, I'll get the tofurkery then?" Rosalee asked innocently once Monroe was done with his rant. She knew the blutbad better than anyone else – considering the state he was in at the moment, the only way to calm him down was to take his mind off whatever had annoyed him, preferably by being more annoying herself.

Rosalee's laughter as she left for the spice shop rang in ears long after he had stopped scowling at her comment.

I hope you guys liked it! As always, please don't forget to drop a review on your way out :)