Detention (ASOUE)

Chapter Fifty Four

The sweet aroma of freshly cooked pancakes wafted through the air and invited Klaus and I downstairs and into the kitchen, where the table was already set and my family was ready and waiting. My father was sat at the head of the table, looking over some sort of paperwork, and Duncan and Quigley were slumped in their chairs, looking barely awake. Had they been woken up especially for this?

I took a deep breath before stepping into the room, tugging Klaus along with me. I could tell he was nervous since he had gone completely silent the second we left my bedroom. I had tried to make light of the situation when we had been upstairs, Klaus and I had even laughed about it, but now even I couldn't deny that I was nervous as well. But I had no other choice than to just go for it and hope that my mother's intentions were kind.

"Morning," I said quietly, garnering the attention of everyone in the room, including my mother who was dishing up another pancake as we came in. 

To my surprise she gave us a wide, inviting smile and then lightly whacked my father's arm. He jolted but then cleared his throat, stood up and held his hand out to Klaus, who quickly went to shake it. I noticed that when Klaus stepped in, my brothers sat up straighter and shared a look between themselves, but didn't say a word.

"It's nice to finally meet you, young man," my father said.

Klaus nodded. "It's nice to meet you as well," he said, "You have a lovely home."

I smiled to myself. In even a tense situation Klaus was still a gentleman.

My father cracked a grin. "Can you really say that after only seeing one room?" Then he burst out with a booming laugh that was native only to Dads and the occasional uncle, until my mother fixed him with a look and he instantly shut his mouth. But despite my father's attempt at a joke being so awful, it still made the atmosphere feel more relaxed, and I took a sigh of relief that my father's first conversation with my boyfriend didn't consist of him shouting and being annoyed that he had snuck into my room and stayed overnight without permission. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

We joined the others at the table and got stuck into the pancakes that my mother had prepared and, to my complete and utter shock, Quigley and Duncan stayed completely silent unless it was to ask someone to pass the syrup or other condiments. It made me wonder if my mother had forbade them from speaking or if they were just intimidated by Klaus now they were finally face to face. 

Klaus did well to make polite conversation and overall, everything went swimmingly. And after we had all finished, Klaus and I helped to clear up, something that I knew would put him in my parent's good books if he wasn't there already. Then, after a couple more bad jokes from my father, it seemed like it was an appropriate time for Klaus to go back home. He said some parting words to my parents, mostly just thanking them for breakfast and apologising again for sneaking in, before I saw him to the door and we had a moment alone. 

"Sorry that was so intense," I said quietly. 

Klaus shook his head and smiled at me. "It was fine, your parents seemed fine with everything, surprisingly."

"Yeah, my mum really changed her tune recently which probably helped. I'm just glad they didn't tell you off." I fell silent for a second before I thought about something else. "I wonder if I'll get the brunt of it when you leave?"

I said it half jokingly but Klaus still grabbed my hand, holding it tightly against his chest. I could feel his heart beating steadily through his hoodie. "Hey," he said softly, "I'm sure it'll be all be fine. But if anything happens just say the word and I'll come and get you."

He kissed my forehead quickly and then stepped away from me, reaching for the door handle. "Well," Klaus said, "I'd better get home before my parents report me as missing."

We said a brief goodbye and then I made my way to the living room where I assumed my family would be waiting. However, only my brothers were present, obviously waiting for me to come back so they could unleash whatever snarky comments they had been cooking up. No longer bound by whatever was keeping them silent, Quigley and Duncan immediately smirked as I entered the room. 

"Unbelievable," Duncan commented.

"Sneaking a boy in through your window?" Quigley said, "Who would've thought Isadora would be the first one to rebel?"

I scoffed, "As if you've never done anything bad."

"Me? I'm a child of god."

"Right," I said, "I'll believe that when pigs fly."

"Pigs have actually been taken on airplanes before so..." Duncan said matter of factly.

I rolled my eyes. Why did they have an answer for everything? "You know, it was nice to not have to listen to your stupid voices at breakfast, you guys should shut up more often."

"We were sworn to silence," Quigley explained, "Mum said she'd ship us off to boarding school if we said anything inappropriate."

"Huh," I replied, "in that case, I wish you'd spoken up."

"You're mean," Quigley complained, pouting like a child.

"So," said Duncan, steering the conversation in a different direction, "when should we be expecting the pregnancy announcement?"

I felt myself flush. "H-hey! We didn't- actually why am I explaining myself to you two cretins? Where's Mum and Dad?"

"Discussing your boyfriend's murder."

"I heard they're hiring the country's best hitman as we speak."

I gave them a look and Duncan sighed. "They're outside."

I made my way to the back garden and found the pair sat in the morning sunshine, talking quietly. As I approached, they both turned their gaze on me and I suddenly felt nervous, wondering what they were discussing. I thought breakfast had gone well, but was it possible that it had all been a front?

"Is everything okay?" I asked quietly, silently praying that they weren't about to tell me I could never see Klaus again or banish me from leaving the house unattended. 

But instead, they both just smiled.

"I was just saying what a nice young man Klaus is," my mother said. And as I looked between the two of them, I knew that it was the truth. There was no ulterior motives behind those words, none of the underlying passive-aggressive tones that my mother used to use so frequently. Her statement was genuine. And in that moment I knew I couldn't be happier.  

Author's Note: 

UM.... hi. I seem to apologise in every chapter but I feel like I really need to in this one. I had plans to write and get on top of posting frequently but then my life just got insanely busy for like no apparent reason. So I'm really sorry about that. I didn't want to completely abandon my account for that long but life got really stressful and I felt like I had to take a step back. That and, I can't remember if I mentioned in the last author's note but my laptop was broken so I was just writing on my phone and my old laptop which is really laggy, which made me pretty unmotivated to write. But I got my laptop fixed a few weeks ago so now I'm back in business. I would have posted something as soon as I got it back but, like I said, life has been really busy recently.

So yeah, I'm really sorry for being absent and making you all wait for so so long, but I hope you still enjoyed this chapter! There's only one left after this one and then the story will be over (right after I include a bonus chapter of deleted scenes and things like that) so we really are on the home stretch now ;-;

Anyways, I hope you're having a good day/night wherever you are, and I'll see you next time!! ❤