Traffic was backed up far more than usual on Randy's commute back home from his evening shift at Blight Repairs. It was just past 1 AM in the morning, and Randy had been dealing with sluggish construction congestion on his trek home since he had returned to work just two weeks prior. The young man of 28 years of age had taken just over two weeks off as he, and his girlfriends, baby girl had been born.
The unwelcomed obstacle to him getting home and in bed faster only made his exhaustion morph into nearly blinding frustration. Not only was he putting up with adjusting to a new baby, a new work shift, and taking on new responsivities in the shop, but now he had to sit around on the main highway and watch what little time he had to sleep tick away. Only today he had another dread creeping up on his mind. One that actually made him almost welcome the delay of cuddling up next to the woman he loved in their warm bed.
Mei's parents had arrived earlier in the evening and he'd have to interact with them for his next two days off. The squirrel had never met any of his feline lover's family as they all resided in England, where she was originally from before moving to The State for college, and then deciding to stay for good. She's told him a little bit about them, but mainly focused on telling him how to act around them, and things not to bring up about himself and his family. She was deadest on avoiding making them anymore displeased than they already seemed to be. As it sounded like they already gave her an earful about not being very happy with her choice in breeding partners, as they were stuck on the older generation bandwagon of not dating outside of one's own species. Hell, Mei had even mentioned that her youngest brother's wife had been met with less than a warm welcome into their family despite being a feline. And all because she wasn't closes enough to the breed of cat that most of her family had been for generations.
The male rodent worried that he was going to be far too tired to kiss his almost in-laws asses for the next two full day. He at least found comfort in the fact the everyone would likely be in bed at this late hour. That was unless Penelope had woken for a feeding, but Mei had plans on nursing in the master bedroom at night in the hopes of not disturbing her parents. So, he held out hope that he'd at least get a little rest in before the official meet. That was until he finally pulled his gray Honda Civic into his girlfriend's houses driveway. The Livingroom light glowed bright behind closed dark blue curtains as it was the only sign of illumination on the street, besides a dim street light at the end of the block.
"Shit." Randy mumbled as he exited his vehicle and light closed the drivers side door while holding tight to his lunch pail. The squirrel still held out hope that only Mei was awake. However, that hope fell right on the floor not long after the jingling of his keys went silent after unlocking the main entrance door and quickly moving past it. His attention quickly went to the mother of his child, sitting on her gliding rocker while breastfeeding.
The female looked as if she hadn't slept in days but still managed to flash him a slime that he returned right before turning his attention to the alarm lightly beeping in wait of a code to be entered so the full blow wailing of danger wouldn't echo through the house. By the time he looked back to his lover another woman had already entered the room, with a glass in her hand that she placed on a nend table, before taking a seat on the houses main couch. The older looking feline female seemed to completely ignore the new arrival in the house as she placed a hand on the younger woman's knee for brief a moment with a sigh.
"Extra ice, just the way you like it, sweetheart." The older woman spoke in a soothing manner as she leaned back and watched her daughter continue to feed the baby in her lap. Randy found it shocking how much the two adult females resembled one another, despite the obvious age difference, and the eldest sporting lighter blue fur near the tip of her snout and on her hands. Even the fact that the older mother had a tail, and the younger didn't, wasn't much of a striking difference, at least in Randy's eyes.
"Thanks, mum." Mei whispered before looking back towards Randy with an expression that seemed to bacon him to come further in the room and speak.
The lone male in the room hung his keys in their normal spot before placing his food pail on a table next to the front door. He cleared his throat trying to force a believable smile on this face. " Umm. Howdy there ladies." He realized he must have failed because once he spoke and got both women's attention Mei's smile slipped as she let out a defeated sigh. It also didn't help that he greeted them with the word "howdy" which was one of the things she told him he shouldn't do.
The older woman looked at him blankly and then blinked before letting out somewhat of an irritated breath. "Shouldn't you put that away properly?" She finally asked as he followed her line of sight to the lunchpail he had sat down on the decretive entryway end table.
"Oh." Randy said as he turned around and then picked up the item in quest. "Uh… yeah." He said apologetically as he hung his head a bit and made his way into the kitchen. He was so caught off guard he had yet to pick up on the fact Mei's mothers' accent had an Asian bite to it, unlike Mei full-blown British vocal flare. Randy got so distracted he just placed his pail on the counter, instead of the cupboard, and wondered back into the living room while fighting to urge to bypass anymore of the unpleasant encounter and just head to the master bedroom. He's loyalty to Mei was the only thing that pushed him to not retreat, or say something he'd regret. Silence was likely is best option for the night.
The male slouched a bit as he went back to standing in front of the two women as he looked at Mei as if begging for guidance on what to do. The female of only eight years hes senior didn't have a chance to speak up before her mother jumped in, while again avoided looking at the lone male in the house that was also awake at the early hour.
"Mei?" She questioned with more than a hint of agitation. "Could you please introduce me to your friend as it seems he was never taught the proper manners of doing so himself." The older women then glanced in his direction with disgust.
"What the hell do you want woman?!" Randy thought to himself no longer worried but actually angry as he clenched his jaw so that he'd keep his tongue in check. "Frist ya send me to another room, and den bitch that I did that before properly greeting your bitch ass" He continued to fume inside his own mind.
His expression wasn't lost on Mei as she quickly called out his name to start the introduction but also to grab his likely slipping aggression fueled attention. "Randy..." She started followed up by a brief pause until he made eye contact with her and then seemed to finally began to settle down as his body unclench. "This is my mum, Reina. Mum, this is Penelope's father, Randy."
Randy wasn't thrilled with the title Mei had pegged him with in front of her witch of a mother, but it was an honest one at least. The male squirrel nodded his head in acknowledgement of his lover's female parent and then spoke lowly, trying to hide his true first impression of the old woman before him. "It's nice ta meet ya ma'am." A soft cry caused everyone to turn their attention to the little girl in Mei's lap, and seemingly giving Reina the perfect opportunity not to respond to Randy's greeting.
Mei carefully propped her infant up so, the babies chin was on her shoulder, and then gently rubbed the half breeds back, while ignoring her exposed breast still hanging out of her shirt. "It's ok." The exhausted female feline reassured her offspring. "Your mum is here." She whispered again as the small child let out a small belch and stopped fussing as she nestled closer to her mother to find comfort and sleep.
"If only your two brother's wives were as good with their children as you are with yours." Riena stated in praise of her lone daughter while scoffing at the mention of her son's choice in mates.
"Mum, please." Mei begged with a pleading expression on her face that Randy had never seen before. " Haru, and Asahi, were far younger than me when they started their families. So, of course they've struggled more." The new mother than gripped her mother's hand tightly after the older woman embraced her with a hand placed, again, on her knee. "Not to mention that they didn't have such an amazing mother like you are." Mei started to tear up after her words of endearment to her mother.
Randy watched from afar now not sure at who he should be far more angry with... Mei's mother for being a total bitch before they even properly met, or Mei for allowing her mother to disrespect him before going on a rant about how amazing the woman was despite that fact it obviously, to him, wasn't true. "I'm going ta sleep." Randy finally spoke up ask taking in the shocked looks of both of the women seating in front of him. He didn't stop, or bother to listen, as Mei's mother's harsh word called loudly at him right before he shut the bedroom door.
"I know ya hate me now Mei, but if I'd stayed ya would have hated me more..." He thought to himself as he stripped out of this dirty work clothing and then jumped in the shower of the master bathroom.
