Riley was resting cross-legged on the uncomfortable airport chair, nervously sipping his orange juice through a straw. His treacherous eyes darted around quicker than he may have liked. He hadn’t quite realised until now just how worried he was about flying, Riley had never flown anywhere in his life before. He’d never been on a plane before at all. Lars on the other hand, was apparently quite the frequent flyer for this route in particular. Technically, a fur could drive from the university to the Johansen home…but after the hiring of a car, petrol costs and one overnight stop it was simply more efficient to fly. Riley was at least glad to sit back and let the tiger be the brave one for once.

The two furs were sitting at the airport departure lounge, bored and waiting for their flight to be called for boarding. Riley jumped a little as he felt a paw squeeze his thigh, looking to his left he saw his adorable boyfriend smiling sweetly.

“Relax, flying is fun Riley, we can watch a movie and then we’ll be there. It’s barely a two-hour flight.” He said, trying to reassure the nervous fox.

“I know…I’m not scared, just haven’t done this before.” Riley said unconvincingly.

“Right. I think you should be more concerned with my family…I have no idea how they’ll react.” Replied the tiger, looking forwards again.

Hi Mum! His email had begun. Uni break is happening next week, and I was thinking of flying home. Hope that’s cool with you guys? A typical email so far, then he tried to subtly mention Riley.

Also, I was wondering if this time it would be okay if I brought someone with me? I think you guys will really like them, and we make a cute couple! It had been tricky to use gender-neutral terms, and Lars hoped they didn’t question his use of ‘them’. He’d been sure to work in ‘couple’ somehow, so they knew it was a dating thing and not just a friend. The email waffled a little more before wrapping up.

After two hours of waiting, he had been pleasantly rewarded with a cheerful reply.

Hi Lars!

Of course you can come back, you’re always welcome in your own home! We’d LOVE to meet this special fur too, I’m sure she’s wonderful.

The email naturally went on a little longer, and was mostly all good, but he had cringed at the use of ‘girlfriend’. There was nothing to be done about it though; he’d prefer not to come out as gay via email, if possible. Lars replied and the two had worked out a date for the flight, which ended up working out well for him because he chose a day when the family wouldn’t be home until the evening. He’d be able to arrive home, show Riley around and get comfortable, then introduce the fox to his parents and siblings.

He was still nervous though.

Resting deeper than his fear of flying was Riley’s fear of meeting the Johansen family. He’d never been introduced to a family before, and his own wasn’t exactly a good model to go off. Plus, Lars’ parents were both Danish, so what if he made some kind of cultural mistake or error? He began to regret not reading more about Denmark. Trying to distract himself, the fox elected to annoy his partner.

“Do you speak Danish?” He asked the tiger. Lars shrugged, giving a ‘kind-of’ gesture with his paw.

“A little, enough to follow small talk. I used to know more but I let it drop in high school. I still know more than my brother and sister though, but none of us compare to our parents. They speak the most fluently.” The only language Riley understood, besides English, was computer.

“Do…uh, do you think they’ll like me?” He asked shyly, the two had had this conversation a hundred times, but they both chose to have it again anyway. “I’m not exactly good boyfriend material…”

“Ridiculous.” Said Lars, snorting. “Of course you are, that’s what makes you so good at it. They’ll love you, after, of course…the lifetime drama scene of them walking in, demanding to see the new ‘girlfriend’ and then you walking out.”

“You don’t think springing it on them like this is a bit too dramatic?” Asked Riley, still wondering if they should warn the Johansen’s.

“Nah, it’ll be funny. One day…” Lars swallowed anxiously; trying to be brave for his nervous fox, poorly attempting to conceal how tight the knot in his stomach was growing.

With that, the two heard a voice over the loudspeaker announce their flight was ready, so paw-in-paw the couple made their way to the boarding gate. Riley was surprised he was this nervous, once they had found their seats on board he couldn’t get comfortable at all. The plane was hot, the noises were loud and the other furs obnoxious. Typically, he was calm and collected, with very little of the outside world concerning him. He sighed to himself, wondering if the whole ‘boyfriend’ thing was going to totally destroy him.

As the plane boarded, Riley continued to ask inane questions.

“What are your parents names?” He asked, fiddling with his tail, which was resting comfortably in his lap.

“Henrik and Clara.” Answered Lars absentmindedly, he was messing around with the touchscreen on the headrest in front of him, seeing if any good movies or shows were available for the flight.

“Brother? Sister?”

“Marcus and Esther.”

“What kind of house do you have?”

“Well I don’t live there, not really. Despite what mum likes to pretend. So I don’t technically have a house.”

“Well then what kind of house do your parents have?”

“Um, a normal one? Two storey, kinda open and usually pretty neat. My parents don’t like mess…come to think of it; make sure you keep that in mind. You’re messy sometimes, it won’t exactly impress them.”

“No I’m not. Well not always. Is there a spare bedroom?”

“Worried you’ll be on a couch?”

“Something like that.”

“Riley, there’s a spare bed it’s fine.”

“Do we have to sleep in different rooms?”

“Oh…I didn’t think about that. There’s the spare room, with a double bed, and my room with the single. I guess we’ll see? I can always sneak over to visit you at night I guess. It’d be kind of silly though, I mean I’m twenty, doubt they’ll be trying to protect my innocence.” Both the furs blushed at that, laughing awkwardly. They’d been dating for a good couple of weeks now, and Lars had spent more than a few nights at Riley’s. However that didn’t stop the fact that it still felt weird to talk about it so openly in public.

Riley paid dutiful attention when the safety instructions were explained, Lars and the other frequent-flyers ignored them as per usual. When the engines started, the fox gave a little jump. He was in the window seat, and couldn’t help but look out as the plane began to move. He felt like a little pup again, being amazed so easily. Lars just watched him affectionately, calmly holding his lovers paw. Riley felt his ears pop as the plane took off, and fidgeted a little in his seat at the awkward sensation of first lifting off the ground. He felt himself be pressed into his seat, wondering how the tiger could so calmly continue to flick through movies. Eventually it was decided nothing good was on, so the two just chatted quietly to themselves, looking through various airline magazines.

During the flight both of the furs managed to relax some more. They were quite happily giggling away with each other when the pilot announced they were about to begin to descent. That’s when Riley’s first bout of stress began, he wasn’t scared per se, but he was worked up. He began to sweat and talk faster, unable to let go of his tail. He would deny it later if asked, but he jumped a little and squeezed the tiger’s paw for reassurance when the plane touched the ground. Lars just smiled at the fox’s apprehension, he hadn’t seen the fur out of his comfort zone before and even though he hated to admit it, the show amused him a little.

Lars’ own bout of stress began when the two got outside the airport. They had their bags and hailed a taxi. Everything was beginning to feel less like a university thing, and more like a being-home thing, the obvious exception being that Lars had his boyfriend in tow. The two barely stopped talking in the taxi, both being hopped up on nerves. Just as Riley began to regain his calm, the taxi stopped outside Lars house and it came sweeping back in a wave of adrenalin.

Climbing out of the car, he looked at the tiger’s family home. It was a nice two-storey building, with a light pastel colour scheme. Connecting to the left side of the house was a two-car garage, with an empty driveway in front of it. Riley breathed a sigh of relief; the Johansen’s really were out for the day, hopefully that would make this a little easier.

“So are we gonna actually go inside, or just look at it?” Asked Lars playfully, taking the fox’s paw in his own.

“Yeah okay, lead the way.” He allowed himself to be pulled inside; smiling to himself as he examined at the place his partner had grown up in. Lars hadn’t been kidding about mess though; the house was neat like he’d said. There were neatly organised shelves and bookcases everywhere. He even noticed there was a tiny rack for shoes next the door. He briefly wondered if he should remove his own and place them there, but then thought better of it when he saw Lars had not done so.

“Come on upstairs, I’ll show you the rooms.” Riley followed Lars through the lounge room, it was obvious the tiger felt comfortable here, he barely took notice of anything as they climbed the stairs. Riley couldn’t stop himself from looking, floating shelves, hanging pictures, knick-knacks. At the risk of sounding somewhat culturally insensitive, the home looked suspiciously similar to an Ikea display room.

Reaching the top of the stairs, Lars strolled down the hallway to the last door in the stretch. He casually walked into the room, allowing the door to swing open and invite Riley in. Stepping into the end room, the fox saw it was a fairly open room that featured a double bed pushed up with one side against the window. This room also featured several floating shelves, and a small bookcase with room on it’s top for guests to store things.

“Uh…your family sure likes…books.” Riley commented lamely. Lars just laughed.

“Yeah the house is filled with stuff, my parents are secretly hoarders. Mum especially.” He chuckled again, almost to himself. “They’re just neat enough that nobody actually notices how much stuff they have.”

“Oh.” He didn’t really know how to reply properly. Riley had always thought homes like this really only existed inside movies and television, after all his own home was much different. Neither he nor his father was neat naturally, organised maybe, but not neat.

Pushing his thoughts aside, Riley moved over to a wall that sported a framed photo that had caught his eye. In the photo two tigers, which Riley guessed were probably in their early thirties, cheerfully held a chubby young kit between them. The fox snuck a quick glance over to his boyfriend (who was fiddling with their bags or something) and then back to the photo.

“Is this you?” He asked, since there was a fairly distinct resemblance. Lars looked up from his ‘busy’ work, saw the photo in question, realised what photo it was from memory, even though he couldn’t quite see the finer details.

“Yeah, I was about two there I think.” He said nonchalantly.

“You were so cute.” Replied Riley.

“Were?” Shot back the tiger coyly. Riley walked over and sat on the bed, next to where his boyfriend was kneeling and now untying his shoes.

“Hmm, what happened?” Said the fox sarcastically. Lars fired a look of mock hurt.

“You’re so cruel.” He then laughed at Riley’s feet. “You uh, might want to take your shoes off. Nobody will yell at you or anything, but if you have bare paws it might be a good start. Like you’re already part of the family.” He explained. Riley nodded, beginning to slip off his worn shoes. As he did, his nose alerted him that all that stress-sweat had taken a toll.

“I might just change completely.” He said, stripping his shirt off. With his shoes now successfully removed, Lars simply sat back and admired the fox as he removed each article of clothing. He clapped when finally Riley was standing there in nothing but his underwear. The fox blushed, even thought the two had spent more than a few nights together, he was still a little unsure of himself. This romantic intimacy was mostly new, sex was easy, but the casual closeness was foreign territory. It was a comforting thought however, that were their positions reversed Lars would be equally as uncomfortable.

Laughing about their youthful awkwardness, aware of how silly they’ll think themselves in the future, Riley began to redress himself. He’d briefly flirted with the thought of trying to seduce the tiger right then, but thought that in his parent’s house, at a time when they could arrive home theoretically at any minute, was not the best decision. He put on loose-fitting, dark cargo pants and a comfy red cotton t-shirt. He started to reapply the signature zip-up hoodie, but Lars stood up and stopped him.

“Not this.” He said, taking it from the fox.

“Wh…why not?” Riley asked, since the hood has always been an item of safety for him. A small-scale lair he could retreat to.

“You look nicer without it. More friendly.” Answered the tiger.

“But I’m not friendly.”

“Which is why you need to do everything you can to look friendly.”

“Does your family have a problem with…” He allowed his paw to answer the question, self-consciously touching the piercings in his upper ear.

“Good question. I don’t think they’re fans of them, but they’re not gonna hate you for it. They’re not monsters dude, they’re just my parents.” Replied Lars.

“Dude? How affectionate.” Retorted the fox. Lars just rolled his eyes.

After their brief exchange, the two furs made their way downstairs to the kitchen at the rear of the house. Lars poured them both a glass of cold water, while Riley examined even more family photos.

“So…are your parents worried they’ll forget what you look like or…?” He joked absentmindedly. Lars laughed.

“Very funny.”

“I try.” The fox walked over and accepted his drink, savouring the ice-cold liquid. It was incredibly refreshing after the hot flight and minor panic. Both Lars and Riley were existing in a state of calm right now, like the inevitable was about to happen and they’d each accepted it. They were still worried, but not as much as they had been.

Riley set his glass down, taking his boyfriends paws in his own.

“ I’m really glad we came Lars.” He began. “I know everything will go fine with your family too. I just hope they don’t hate me too much.” Lars leaned forwards and kissed his fox briefly, but sweetly.

“They won’t. They’ll love you. Especially Marcus, a cool, punk, outcast black fox that even has piercings? Are you kidding? You’ll be his hero, guaranteed. He’s kind of starting to branch out on his own, big into skating now apparently. Being rebellious.” He shrugged, as if this was very normal.

Riley stepped forward and embraced his partner again, gently nuzzling his neck.

Riley was siting upstairs, relaxed and reading a book on the double bed in the Johansen’s spare room. Lars couldn’t quite calm himself, and it got worse only as the time grew closer and closer to five o’clock. That was the time his parents had claimed they would be home, and since four he’d been pacing restlessly. He tried watching T.V to relax, it didn’t work. He tried to go cuddle with Riley and daydream, which also didn’t work. He even took a quick shower, but all the while was so worried they could come back and he’d be held up by having to dress himself he got out quickly and returned downstairs.

Every now and then he amused Riley by poking his head in and asking if the fox was okay. The response was always the same, ‘fine’. The tiger would make him promise to call if he did need anything, and then left. Fifteen minutes later he’d be back. By four-fifty, Lars was just sitting in the lounge room, alternating his eyes from the clock to the window, and checking to see if any cars appeared.

At four fifty-eight, Riley heard the tiger yell upstairs. The fox put his book away, checked his reflection once more in his phone and then patiently waited. They had decided this was the best way to reveal Riley, one step at a time. When they saw the obviously male fox walk down the stairs, the family would hopefully clue in quickly.

Lars stretched out on the couch, trying to relax as best he could. He could hear his family’s voices from outside, laughing and joking with one another. He attempted not to look stressed. He thought casual, chill, laid back thoughts; the entire look he was going for. Despite this he nearly screamed when he heard the key turned in the lock, and the door open. He turned his head, looking back into the entryway as first his Dad stepped in, followed by the two younger kits and then their mother. When Henrik Johansen saw his son sitting there he beamed at him, rushing over and hugging him from behind the couch.

“How ARE you Lars?!” He asked, laughing. Anyone who would describe Henrik would likely use the word ‘warm’, or ‘friendly’.

“I’m good Dad, I’ve been here for like three hours now.”

“Yeah…sorry about that.” He heard his mother say, walking into the lounge room. “Couldn’t be helped, the tickets were already paid for and…”

“Mum.” Lars cut his parent off. “It’s fine, really. We’ve been relaxing, it’s actually ended up being nice.”

“LARS!” He heard Esther yell as she toppled over the couch, falling forwards onto the carpet. She stood up, looking very serious. “How are you?”

“Good.” He replied. Looking up, he saw Marcus walk past and sit down across from him on a couch. “And how are you Marcus?” He asked jovially. He grinned as he watched the sixteen-year-old tiger attempt not to smile, to be cool, but ultimately fail to resist the urge. Eventually Marcus gave in and beamed at his older sibling.

“I’m goooood Lars, how are you?” He said, drawing out the ‘good’ weirdly.

“Good.” Replied Lars, for about the fourth or fifth time. He saw his parents sit down on a sofa opposite himself, looking around expectantly.

“So.” Began his Dad, barely able to contain excitement. “You can’t pretend, I heard you say ‘we’! You haven’t even told me her name yet, where is she?” Obviously referring to Lars supposed ‘girlfriend’.

“Um…upstairs.” He said.

“Is she coming down?” Asked his mother, also trying to contain her excitement, but doing a better job of it. Swallowing his nerves and anxiety, Lars answered them.

“Yeah I guess so.” Esther had run off to the kitchen, thirteen year olds cared more about snacks than girlfriends/boyfriends, but Marcus and his parents were still present, although Marcus was already flicking through his phone.

“RILEY”. The fox heard his name called out and began the fearful walk downstairs; he’d listened anxiously to the quick reunion, flinching when he caught the word ‘girlfriend’ in the air. Lars parents probably hadn’t worked it out from his name alone either, since Riley itself was a unisex name. Inhaling deeply, trying to remember techniques Llewellyn had taught him to relax, he walked down the stairs.

When he got far enough down to see into the lounge room, he panicked even more, even though there wasn’t really any major reason to do so. Lars was sitting on his own on one side, twiddling his thumbs and staring at his bare feet, while a teenage fur (Who Riley assumed was Marcus) flicked through his phone, apparently uninterested. On a couch that was almost directly opposite Lars sat two older furs, also tigers.

One female and one male; the female had slightly darker fur patterns, a rich orange with deeper and wider blacks than her son. The male looked more like Lars himself, with lighter mixes of grey and black inside the orange. Interestingly, the younger brother had patterns closer resembling his mother.

When the Johansen parents saw him, Riley saw the mother (Clara) put a paw onto her husband’s thigh, who put his own over it. Henrik glanced quickly over to Lars, who was seemingly determined to look anywhere but at his parents. He was currently staring straight up at the roof. When Riley got to the lounge room, he stood just behind Marcus, looking at the group. The teenager turned around quickly, almost doing a double take as he noticed this was definitely not a girlfriend. They all just stared at him; nobody knew what to do first. It was painfully awkward for all parties involved.

“This is Riley. My…uh, err….boyfriend.” Said Lars. He confirmed it, sent the message home to his parents. No, the real girlfriend hadn’t cancelled and Riley had come in her place, and also no, this was not a joke.

“Uh.” Said the fox, rubbing the back of his neck. “Nice to meet you.” He felt naked without a hood on, like he was exposed and vulnerable. Searching desperately for reassurance, he glanced at Lars, who was looking at him with equally pleading eyes. Unsure exactly what he should do, he walked over and sat down next to his boyfriend.

“Are you gay?” Asked Marcus bluntly.

“Marcus!” Clara almost shouted, breaking the silence.

“What?”

“That’s….um…rude.” She kind of stammered a little over her words. Henrik was just watching the fox, almost studying him, but not with hostile eyes…just curious ones.

“Yeah, I am. Well we are…we both are. I mean, yes. I am and so is Riley.” Said Lars, awkwardly.

“So you’re Marcus then.” Riley said to the teenage tiger, who simply nodded. “Nice to uh…meet you.”

“Yeah.” Was all he gave in response. Riley was worried, clearly Lars was not going to say anything, he was practically frozen, so it was his job to speak or it was just going to get worse.

“You guys have a really nice house.” He attempted, addressing the parents.

“Oh, thank you, Riley…” Said Clara. The fox heard a faded, slight Danish accent in her voice, certain letters being said slightly higher than the rest.

“Are you a student, what are you studying?” Asked Henrik directly, blinking himself out of a stupor.

“Um…yeah. Science…. cyber security.” He blushed, realising how silly it sounded.

“Oh, cool.” Said Henrik. “It’s not usually this awkward in our house, but this is the first time Lars has come out as gay…we’re not exactly used to it.” Riley stared at him for a moment, then turned his head to look at Lars, who was also staring, his mouth open.

“That’s a really weird thing to say Dad.” Lars said, finally speaking.

“I’m just trying to break the ice, this is really uncomfortable.” Replied Henrik.

“I’m aware.” Riley noticed Clara was also glaring at her husband, again not in a hostile kind of way, just shock.

“Sorry if this is a big surprise.” Filled in Riley, finally getting comfortable. He already liked Henrik. “But we uh…. didn’t know how else to do it.”

“It was a little dramatic.” Said Henrik, now looking at the young fox.

“Yeah…sorry.”

“Oh no, I’m okay with it.” He said, waving a paw flippantly. “How long have you guys been dating then?”

“Just over three weeks now.” Said Lars. “I met him at work.”

“Oh, that’s cool.” Said Henrik, now at a loss.

“Riley.” Said Clara, looking directly at him with her pale blue eyes. “Do you enjoy cake?”

“Uh, what?” He asked, afraid he’d misheard.

“Cake? We have some cake, it’s a butter and blueberry thing.” She continued. Lars obviously found some more confidence, because he leaned over and whispered into Riley’s ear.

“Say yes, she made it, Danish cake is wonderful.” At his boyfriend’s instruction, Riley nodded.

“Yeah, sure, thank you…uh, Mrs Johansen.” The tiger mother frowned.

“No, no.  It’s Clara, Riley. Honestly.” He heard her mutter something about kids these days (Whatever that meant) as she walked into the kitchen.

“These cakes tend to be so nice, that furs who visit drop crumbs everywhere out of sheer joy. So maybe we’d better eat in the kitchen.” Suggested Lars. Riley just nodded, following his boyfriend into the kitchen.

For….cake.