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“What’s for dinner?”
Jack Burns jumped; the hunter uncharacteristically caught off-guard by the question that overshadowed the music blaring through the speaker on the counter.
He made short work of turning the tune down and abandoning the wooden spoon before rounding on his daughter who was looking at him expectantly. At the same time, Talia strolled into the kitchen area to grab a glass of water as her husband replied, “Since when do you care what’s for dinner, Cal?”
Unimpressed, Calliope Burns gestured vaguely in the direction of the dinner table and said, “You know that tonight is different!”
Jack hummed and turned to take back up his spoon to swirl his signature cheese sauce, “Oh yeah, and why’s that?”
Cal looked to her mother in time to see the matriarch roll her eyes and then said, “Juliette is coming over, mom said you agreed?!”
“He did,” Talia reassured after a sip of her water.
It had been a couple of weeks since the ‘feeding incident’ and things had reached a kind of tentative equilibrium between the Fairmonts and Burns families.
Most importantly, their daughters no longer felt the need to lie about their whereabouts and they’d agreed to the limits of what the vampires could do without earning the ire of the guild. It all worked surprisingly well, even if not everyone was content with the arrangements.
Jack agreed over the phone that Talia’s ‘one chance’ system made sense, but upon returning home a couple of weeks later, it was obvious that he’d changed his mind.
Obviously, he did not expect Juliette Fairmont to make it this far as his daughter’s girlfriend.
Having experienced her more respectful side, Talia was slowly changing her opinion of the young vampire, hence the inexplicable invitation to dinner
Jack didn’t really understand the explanation that she didn’t want Cal to feel like her relationship had to exist as a separate part of her life. Frankly, it sounded much nicer to him, but then, he was also of the opinion that their little star-crossed situation was bound to run its course soon, which his was dubious of.
If it was because of the forbidden love angle, their relationship surely would have ended soon after it was outwardly sanctioned by both families, right?
Jack continued to stir the sauce until Cal prompted, desperately, “dad?”
He dropped the utensil again and said, “Vamps don’t eat normal food, what does it matter what I’m making for us humans?”
“Jack…” Talia admonished, but Cal beat her mother to it:
“You know that Juliette isn’t a normal vampire, she can eat and drink as we can! Why else would she agree to come for dinner?” Cal demanded.
“I’m not going to pretend to understand a vampire, Cal,” her father snapped.
“You don’t have to!” Cal replied, sharply, “I understand her perfectly fine. This isn’t about her being a vampire, this is about me asking if you’re making something my girlfriend would like for the dinner that mom invited her to!”
“Calliope…”
“Jack,” Talia said, cutting off her husband’s impending tirade, “What are you making for dinner?”
Jack’s nostrils flared but when he looked at his wife, he thinned his lips and said, “Is lasagne okay?”
Cal nodded, smiling at her mother appreciatively. They were still some ways from Talia caring outright about a vampire, but it was good to know that she was no longer liable to grab a shotgun upon being faced with a Fairmont.
“Lasagne is great,” she replied and swiftly left the kitchen area, though she wasn’t far enough away to not catch her parents’ exchange:
“Jack, Juliette is a teenager, I know that you can be civil? For Cal?”
After a pause, Jack replied, “I can try for Cal.”
Calliope rolled her eyes and pulled out her phone as she made it to the stairs to shoot off a text message.
‘Are you sure that you want to come tonight?’
The response came when the hunter reached the middle step.
‘Only if your family are still okay with it?’
‘Of course…they’re excited.’
A doubtful emoji was folly-ed back and Cal released a sigh at the top of the stairs.
“What’s wrong?”
She jumped but relaxed upon finding her brother looking at her, he was her next stop anyway.
“Apollo!” she said, approaching his bedroom doorway.
“Calliope?” he replied questioningly.
“You promise to try tonight, right?”
Apollo rolled his eyes and fell against the doorframe, “How many times do I have to answer that question?”
“When I forget that my girlfriend was impaled on a silver spear,” Cal bit back.
“You know, no one ever mentioned how good my aim was…” he said, almost pouting, which became a scowl as his sister continued to stare him down, “How many times are you going to bring this up?! You haven’t been snarking at Theo!”
“Theo hasn’t been joining in on dad’s comments,” she said, pointing accusatorily, “I’ll stop when you prove that you can be nice to Juliette.”
“We know how to act around people, Cal,” Apollo replied, crossing his arms over his chest, “besides, mom already warned us…”
Cal’s shoulders deflated and she continued down the hallway after saying, “Good.”
Apollo rolled his eyes and went towards the stairs, trying to remember why it was that he’d stood up in the first place.
Meanwhile, Cal entered her own room and pressed the ‘call’ option on her phone. After two rings, her girlfriend’s voice passed through the device.
“Hey Calliope,” Juliette said as Cal sank into her mattress, though the softness was not the reason that all the anxiety seeped out of her muscles.
“Are you nervous about tonight?” Cala sked, turning on her side and playing with her pillow.
There was a silence before Juliette replied, “I’m looking forward to seeing you.”
Cal blew out a breath and nodded in agreement before she prepared to change the topic. If she kept the vampire on the line, she was confident that she would survive until the meal.
S
Juliette Fairmont understood this was a terrible idea even before she descended the stairs to find worry on her parents’ faces.
Not that she could blame.
If they knew what happened during the night that led up to their shaky truce, she was certain that they wouldn’t even entertain the thought of her having dinner with the Burns family.
As it was, she’d convinced them that Cal wouldn’t let anything happen to her and reminded them that no one in the Guild knew how to permanently hurt a Legacy. Both seemed to be of little comfort to them, but she was still allowed to leave wearing the outfit combination that she hoped would most loudly scream ‘innocent vampire’.
As she approached the front door of the house she’d grown accustomed to sneaking into, she tugged at the collar of her polo shirt, reconsidering the red piping around the edge of it.
She couldn’t justify running home to spend another hour on her clothes, so she forced her feet to finish taking her to the door. As surreal as the mundanity of it was, she knocked against the wooden structure and clasped her hands behind her back.
That’s what a respectable girlfriend would do, wasn’t it?
She held her breath right up until the door was yanked open and she involuntarily shrank, not expecting to be faced immediately with Jack Burns.
She had yet to witness any willingness on his part to have a vampire in his home and Cal’s worried assurances had hardly helped.
Remembering that she was incapable of death had her wetting her lips to say, “Hello sir. We haven’t officially met, I’m…”
“I know who you are,” Jack deadpanned and Juliette clamped her mouth shut.
His tone made it clear that he wasn’t happy about the turn of events in the least and it definitely went beyond being protective of his daughter.
“What are you waiting for? We all know you already have permission to enter my home,” he said and Juliette swallowed hard.
“I…I’m sorry…” she stuttered but was saved by the appearance of the house's other leader.
“Jack, what are you doing?” Talia asked.
“Welcoming our guest,” Jack replied staunchly.
“So why does she look terrified?”
“I didn’t do anything.”
Talia held up her hand and her husband shut up, crossing his arms childishly.
Though it obviously took a lot of effort, Talia smiled at the vampire and stood aside to gesture inwards.
“Please come on, Juliette, dinner is almost ready.”
Juliette bowed her head and slipped past the pair, her vampiric hearing picking up a light smack to Jack’s arm and a scoff as the door was closed.
Her mood instantly brightened upon also hearing footsteps on the stairs and she looked up in time to see Calliope Burns hopping down the final step.
“Hey,” she said with a wide grin and Cal stepped up in front of her, also feeling immense relief after her day of anxiety.
Before either of them could do what they really wanted to do, Jack cleared his throat and Cal moved backwards reluctantly to scowl at her parents.
Silence overtook the living room, during which Juliette looked around the room, determining that no one was armed.
She lingered on Apollo for a second later and he narrowed his eyes to be elbowed by his older brother.
“Hey, Juliette,” Theo announced over the awkwardness, “How about we show you to the table?”
“That’s a great idea,” Talia added, clapping her hands together and Theo gestured for Juliette to follow him.
Cal gave her an encouraging nod and smiled gratefully at her eldest brother, who led the vampire through the house.
Once they were far enough ahead, she turned to block the path of the rest of her family. Honing in on the remaining men, she said, close to a growl, “What happened to ‘trying’?”
“What did I do?” Apollo asked in a voice that was a slightly higher pitch than usual.
Unable to pinpoint precisely what his wrongdoing was, she instead stared straight at her father.
“She hasn’t done anything wrong. Mom promised her one chance. It’s not fair if you don’t give her that,” she said desperately and Jack deflated.
“You’re right,” he sighed, “we’ll get the food, you two go and get settled?”
Cal made sure that her mother’s nod was well-meaning and then went to do as she was told, Apollo only a few steps behind.
At the table, she found that Theo had placed her girlfriend in the seat beside hers. Despite presenting as a perfectly normal girl, the young vampire couldn’t look more out of place at the Hunters’ dinner table and Cal never felt more grateful for the effort that she was putting in.
“Hey,” she said, slipping in beside her and quickly checking that the cutlery wasn’t from their pure silver collection, “you okay?”
Juliette nodded, biting her lip as she glanced between her girlfriend’s brothers.
Theo was being nicer than expected, but she couldn’t think of a single topic that they had in common to strum up a conversation. On Apollo’s part, he sat opposite Cal and gripped his knife, stabbing ineffectually at the air without looking up at anyone.
It was certainly better than the end of their last interaction.
“I’m okay,” Juliette replied, taking her hand under the table, both of them visibly relaxing at the contact while Cal looked between her brothers hopefully.
Theo ran his tongue over his lips, but obviously had nothing to say, so he cleared his throat and looked expectantly at Apollo, who abandoned his knife to give the vampire real eye contact for the first time.
“What?” he asked.
“Have the two of you been officially introduced?” Theo prodded.
“Not officially,” Apollo admitted, finding it difficult to maintain his defensive air as Juliette smiled at him apprehensively.
If she only cared about his sister as a source of blood, what reason did she have to be so nervous?
He had promised his sister to try and a civil introduction seemed like a good place to start.
“You probably already know this but…I’m Apollo,” he said, awkwardly.
Juliette nodded and replied, “it’s nice to meet you, Apollo.”
Encouraged by the first positive expression on his sister’s face since their mother suggested this meal, he added, “I’m sorry for…you know…”
He gestured vaguely at her chest.
“It’s okay,” Juliette said before he had to recount the painful events, “I was impressed with your aim anyway.”
Apollo’s awkwardness melted and he genuinely brightened.
“Oh look, Cal, your girlfriend is nicer than you,” he said with a short laugh, not flinching as she threw a scrunched-up napkin at him.
“Calliope!” An admonishment came as Talia entered, holding a serving dish.
Cal shrank in her seat, still holding Juliette’s hand under the table, the vampire smirking at her. It was quite funny to see the hunter told off by her mother for something as mundane as throwing a soft projectile at her brother.
“Sorry mom,” Cal mumbled while the older woman placed the tray at the centre of the table.
Satisfied with the response, Talia said, “Juliette, I hope you like lasagne?” as her husband put down some extra plates with additions to the main attraction.
“I love it, thank you, Ms Burns,” Juliette replied, placing her plate into the woman’s outstretched hand.
“Er…dad?” Apollo said as he took a seat at the head of the table, “is that garlic bread?”
All present looked to the innocent plate stacked with oily goodness.
“Dad!” Cal shouted and the man held up his hands defensively.
“I’m sorry, it didn’t do it on purpose!” He replied under his wife’s narrowed eyes.
“I don’t believe that…” Cal started.
“It’s okay, Calliope, I love garlic bread,” Juliette said reassuringly, picking one up as if to prove that she could actually touch it.
“Really?” Jack asked, his hands dropping to his lap while Talia finished dishing out a serving of lasagne to the vampire, who readily accepted it.
“The garlic thing is a myth, no idea where people got it from,” Juliette explained, waiting for Talia to finish giving out the food before she picked up her eating utensils, unfortunately having to let go of Cal’s hand to do so.
“Are there any other myths?” Jack asked eagerly.
“Well…we don’t sparkle," Juliette replied and Cal snorted into her food but Jack frowned as Talia silently sat next to him, also smirking like her sons, but not bothering to explain the reference to her husband.
She was eager to move in the direction of the topic that allowed Jack to maintain eye contact with their daughter’s vampiric girlfriend.
“Is there anything else?” She asked.
Juliette bit her lip until inspiration struck and she said, “werewolves aren’t actually weak to silver.”
Jack raised an eyebrow and Talia had to nudge him to get him to start eating.
The group settled into a comfortable flow after this, discussion of types of creatures soon branching out into other things of interest to all parties.
Calliope largely remained quiet throughout due to the strange absence of vampire-related jabs.
Watching her family talk to Juliette as if she wasn’t some unstable supernatural creature was surreal in the best way possible.
She knew that everyone involved was putting in extra effort for her benefit and the fact that it was for her only accelerated the warm feeling in her chest.
Though the Burns not yet being willing to allow Juliette into her room (even with the door open) did sour the night slightly for her, it still had a perfect ending.
They allowed her to walk her girlfriend to the bus stop and nothing was stopping them from taking the long way.
It was just enough time to thank Juliette Fairmont for being so perfect with a kiss.