[FIN] Good News

[Suudonym]

"Ah…" He lowered his head slightly. "We've never really gotten along… Not since I sneaked out to come to Kodo a few years ago and kind of… didn't go back for a year." Granted they hadn't really gotten along well before that, but it certainly hadn't helped their relationship.  

[Blood_Goddess]

"A rebel of sorts huh?" Bruce piped in. "Well good, at least you'll fit in with this family."  

[Suudonym]

"I don't know if it's really rebelling so much as it is just a reasonable reaction…" Luke considered. "He's never been especially fair or considerate."  

[Blood_Goddess]

"Whatever you wanna call it, Doing what you want to do in life instead of what your parents expect of you constantly." Bruce waved a hand dismissively "To some people that's a reasonable reactions, to the parents its rebellion and dissonance. Who cares, do what you want."

"He's overly proud of that fact, I think." Rodney added shaking his head "Sorry to hear about your dad, Do you think he'll come around?"

Rosie remained quiet, though paid attention to the conversation, She didn't want to say anything bad about Luke's father, she was sure her family didn't know the extent to what Luke's father said to them.  

[Suudonym]

The sentiment reminded him of Nicolette and, by extension, of her response as he declined their engagement. He assumed she was probably still with her family for the holiday season, but he worried about whether or not she would decide to return to Kodo - or if she would simply defer to her parents' decision and, what? Remain in Grande Ile indefinitely? Marry into some other family?

"I'm not sure," Luke replied, his thoughts drawn back to the conversation by the question. "At the moment I would guess probably not. He made a big show about how he wasn't approving, just not disapproving." Not to mention all the slurs and harsh remarks he had employed to get that point across.  

[Blood_Goddess]

Even Rodney furrowed his brow at that logic, pausing in silence for a moment before he continued eating.

"That makes... a lot of sense." Evan voiced after the pause, though it was apparent he wasn't being very sincere.  

[Suudonym]

Luke laughed lightly, though it was just slightly bittersweet, "I doubt his goal was to make sense. He didn't want to outright okay it, but he knew I would walk out if he outright rejected it."  

[Blood_Goddess]

"I'm sorry." Alex admitted with a sympathetic voice "I'm starting to get a better picture as to why you weren't so thrilled about the whole party back home."  

[Suudonym]

"It's not my favorite place to be," he admitted. He exhaled lightly, taking up a somewhat brighter expression, "But I don't have to go back all that often, so there's at least that."  

[Blood_Goddess]

The Ewell's clearly had very little idea just how the lifestyle was back in Grand Ile, and even less about the nobles. Rosie could tell from the looks on each of their faces and the way they asked questions, they were learning a lot more then they had about Luke in the past.
For her herself it was easy to forget that Luke was noble, and it still was a surprise when it dawned on her that he was now actually carrying the title of Lord.
To her he was Luke, her fiance, her best friend and the man she loved, what title he carried hardly had any impact on any of that.

It was nice though, seeing her family learn a little more about him, and she watched with a growing smile on her face, just happy to be listening.

"So I take it you're probably not going to bother moving out then?" Rodeny asked "Especially if you're staying in Kodo."  

[Suudonym]

"If that's permissible?" he replied carefully, looking from Rodney to Rosie. "My apartment lease ends at the end of next month, so if I'm going to renew it…" Then that was something better done sooner rather than later - though he would very much have preferred to let the lease expire and vacate the apartment altogether.  

[Blood_Goddess]

Rosie arched her eyebrows, glancing over at Luke to meet his gaze before she gave a little nod "Mmm-! you can stay." sounding like she very much liked the idea of his not moving out.

"Might at well." Rodney said with a shrug "you'll end up moving in eventually anyway."  

[Suudonym]

"I guess that makes sense," Luke agreed; put that way, it didn't really sound logical to renew his lease and drag his possessions back to the apartment only to cancel the lease prematurely and drag it all back again.  

[Blood_Goddess]

Rodney nodded seemingly proud of the logic that he had pointed out "Precisely."

Bruce again had a slight frown on his face, and that slight hesitance before he spoke "Well no need to rush things too much right?"

This cause an outburst of laughing from the others, Rosie included, it seemed Bruce was still trying to hang on to one little shred of protectiveness.
He lowered his fork looking across the table at the people laughing with an exasperated embarrassment
"I'm just saying!"

"Let it go already, I don't think its a matter of rushing anything anymore, so you're just going to have to get used to it." Evan poked back.  

[Suudonym]

Luke was beginning to understand that the most reliable way to distinguish between actual cultural norms and exaggerations or jokes was to evaluate how everyone else reacted. This time seemed to be the latter, but he was left with some concerns about misstepping in the future; apparently he had already missed something pretty standard with the absence of a ring. "In all seriousness, though," he said, "there's a lot of stuff that I don't know if it's normal not, so if I'm ever missing something or doing something wrong, feel free to… yell at me, or something?" He shrugged uncertainly.