[Luxanna Cross]

There was one thing for her father to propose a dinner. It was a whole different to be late to the same dinner. It didn't help much that her brother had run off somewhere, refusing to take part in whatever this was supposed to be. And Lux couldn't help but to cringe at the whole thing. It was such a terrible idea. She was almost tempted to call Jack so he could come over to release some of the tension and take the spotlight as his own.

She would have felt a lot more comfortable with that. In fact, she would have felt a lot more comfortable with a lot of things. This, though, this was not on the list of things Luxanna wanted to do. Every fiber in her body screamed, telling her to run. She had tension running through every muscle, and she couldn't quite rid herself of the scowl caressing her usually gentle features.

There was a ball of repressed teenage angst boiling at the pit of her stomach too, but that only made her feel overly dramatic.

She usually didn't mind her father nudging at her. This wasn't nudging, though. This was pushing her off a cliff and leaving her to drown in the water.

Instead of waiting inside, it felt better to sit on the porch underneath a blanket with a book in front of her. She always felt better when she wasn't confined by a tighter space. It made it easier to breathe and there was less of a chance for her power to kick in. That rarely ended well.

[Carter Chevalier]

This was a momentous night for Carter, perhaps even more momentous than the night he managed to get the girl asking him to dinner into bed in the first place. He had never been asked to go to dinner with someone's parent. At least, not like this. They usually knew about him already for one, and when they didn't, they could find out about him pretty quickly. He should have counted himself lucky that he left for so long, or that the school moved. He still wasn't sure where his reputation ended.

He made sure he looked his best, but that wasn't strictly for a parental benefit. No, that was just life.

At least she gave him her address; after New Years, there was no way he would have remembered where they were. He didn't even remember where the bar was.

Pulling up to the familiar place, there was a rush of memories. Stumbling out of her car with a potentially bruised eye wasn't how he expected a reunion to occur, but it had, and perhaps it was better if it was completely out of his hands. Fingertips ran across his hair lightly, ensuring its perfection before he left the safety of his car. Rolling his shoulders back, he stood tall as he rounded the vehicle and caught sight of her waiting for him.

For him? Maybe, yeah.

"Luxanna," He greeted, the second he was close enough. But he didn't reach for her. His hands stayed steady in his jacket pockets. "Taking in the pleasant night air?"

[Luxanna Cross]

In truth, Luxanna would have preferred her father being the first to arrive. There would have been a small comfort to be found in someone else leading the conversation. She could easily do this anywhere else, or so she claimed, but a dinner seemed personal. It didn't feel the same way it did whenever Jack came over. Maybe that was the worst part; She didn't know what it felt like.

The approaching steps had her lifting her gaze immediately, disappointed to see it wasn't her father. She held onto the book tighter, her knuckles growing white from the pressure. "Yeah, was waiting for my dad to come home." She didn't see any point in hiding that fact. She had a sneaking suspicion her dad wouldn't show up for quite a while, if ever.

Putting the book down then, she leaned forward, resting her elbows against her thighs. "Hey."

[Carter Chevalier]

Nothing about the walk to her home felt familiar for Carter. Though he remembered the night they had shared, he couldn't say he'd taken much notice of this part. He'd been far too focused on what her room looked like these days to care.

The little greeting she gave couldn't drown how the noise that came with her initial statement. It wasn't enough that disappointment clearly clouded her eyes, she felt the need to drive the knife in a little deeper. Well, of course, he had to comply. He couldn't let her totally get away with it.

"Waiting for your father, but not for me." Carter denoted quickly, holding his arms out at either side, as if giving her a clean space to take the shot. Or perhaps he was welcoming the dig with open arms. Either way, he was wearing that familiar grin; "I'm wounded by the forgotten sentiment."

[Luxanna Cross]

She was tempted to roll her eyes at him just to make a point. Instead, she rose and folded the blanket, putting him in a position where he had to wait. She made sure it was folded nicely, too. The corners all met and it looked rather nice, actually. It also allowed her a moment to collect her thoughts.

Finally, she turned to look at him. "You don't look very wounded, so I'm sure you'll forgive me." Eventually. She didn't add that part, though. Grabbing the book she'd been reading, the brunette moved towards the door. She started opening the door, only stopping as a lump of white fur and dark eyes peeked through the crack.

"I hope you're not afraid of dogs." She turned her head, looking at him with raised eyebrows.

[Carter Chevalier]

She wasn't wrong; given the smug look on his face, Carter mustn't have looked very wounded. He raised a hand to his mouth, covering the grin he couldn't really help around her. When he removed his hand, it was as if he'd wiped it away, and all that remained was a profuse frown. If only he could have filtered the sadness into his eyes, but even he wasn't that good.

So he watched her stall at the door. Did she not want him inside? It would have been odd, considering she invited him here tonight. It wasn't as if he'd forced his way into her home like last time.

Both hands indicated to his chest as he laughed deeply. "Me?" He asked her. Afraid of dogs? "I'm over six foot and physically built like bricks, Luxanna." It was she who should be scared. "I'm not about to start shitting them over a ball of overzealous fluff."

[Luxanna Cross]

She realized something that made her curious; he smiled more than he had used to. He seemed... less weighed down and serious. She wondered what, or who, had brought such a change.

"Fair enough." He made a good point. Though her dog, Fenrir, was a larger breed, he wouldn't appear nearly as large to the blonde as he did to her. After all, Carter had always towered over her feeble 5'2".

She opened the door so that the curious white shepherd could take a look at the guest. Stepping past him, she gave the back of his head a scratch before holding onto his collar. "It's okay, baby," she cooed softly to the dog starting to shake with excitement; he'd always loved meeting new people.

"Come on in."

[Carter Chevalier]

The second there was a dog in play, Carter had to keep his eyes on it. He watched the way it practically wiggled with excitement; such was the way with hyper animals and complete strangers. At least he wasn't barking ma at Carter. Not yet, anyway.

Luxanna looked like she had a pretty good hold of him, so Carter took her verbal cue and stepped past her. Nothing about the house felt familiar either. Surely, that opinion would change if he set foot in her room. But given the company they were supposed to keep tonight, he doubted that would happen.

"You're stronger than you look, Luxanna." He pointed out. Or perhaps it was just that she knew how to handle this particular animal.

[Luxanna Cross]

Her mouth quirked at the familiar statement; He'd told her the very same thing at New Year's, though, back then, it had been filled with mockery. "So I hear." Rising, she kept a hand still on the dog's collar. He was too obedient to run off or do something stupid, but she liked having him close.

The hallway was lined with family photographs and at the end, by the stairs, Fenrir's bed. She moved him towards it and he laid down without much complain.

Perhaps it would have been smarter of herself to keep him close by, if only just to keep herself busy with something else.

"I hope you're not too hungry." She looked over at the blonde; She wondered then, how long would it take her father to arrive, if he'd arrive at all? And how long would it be appropriate to wait with the food? 

[Carter Chevalier]

Carter let his eyes wander the hallways. Family pictures seemed strange to him; he furrowed his eyebrows at their mere existence. It might have been how candid they were, but they caught his eyes and amongst his movements, he settled before the lot. Briefly, his thoughts left Luxanna and the dog she cared for so obviously. His hands slid into his pockets, and he calmly gazed upon them all individually.

"Why do you ask?" He glanced at her briefly as the question came out of his mouth before he looked back to the frames again.

[Luxanna Cross]

Her eyes briefly moved towards the photographs lining the walls; She rarely looked at them anymore. "Because my dad's not back yet." As she rose to her feet, she offered the dog another scratch behind his ear. 

Looking around for her phone, she briefly wondered if her dad had left her message, though, knowing him, he probably hadn't. Either he hadn't shown up intentionally or he'd forgotten. Both plausible reasons for him not being here right now. Maybe she should have been the one calling him.

"So, are you?"

[Carter Chevalier]

Of course. Carter should have figured that by now given there was no other man in the house. He nodded his head once to the notion, keeping his mouth shut to stop himself from digging any kind of grave.

"What?" He asked then, turning his gaze towards her, "Oh, no, I'm fine to wait. Really."

Then he looked back again, his blue eyes dragging over the face of the man he was set to meet tonight. He was an easy figure to pick out from all these. "You know, I've never met anyone's parents before. Parent. You know what I mean." He offered, the corner of his mouth dragging to a smile. It couldn't have surprised her, right? Given who he was.

[Luxanna Cross]

She studied him for a moment: He seemed almost enraptured with the pictures before him. Was the idea of having family pictures really that strange to him? She supposed it was, in its own way. She looked over the framed pictures lining the walls; It seemed that these days, most people who passed them made an effort to ignore them.

She looked at him again and though it didn't surprise her, it wasn't because of the reason he probably thought. "Me either."

The pictures were at least five or six years old, and even older than that. Her mom had been the only one interested in taking photographs and as the children had grown older, Lux and her brother, they'd found the idea of memorizing everything through photographs silly. "Don't you guys have pictures like these at your home?"

[Carter Chevalier]

Carter glanced at her as she admitted the thing they seemed to share. It did surprise him to hear that she'd never met anyone's families before. Surely she had good enough friends that that wasn't true. Then again, most families weren't even in the area. She truly was an anomaly.

He let out a laugh as he shook his head; "Of course not." He replied. Surely that much was obvious, given who he was.

"We had a few, I think, when we were quite young." Carter offered then, his voice purposefully low. Like a secret she deserved to hear; "But people grow older. Families draw apart... I think Dom would never sit for them, and so neither would I."

[Luxanna Cross]

She couldn't really claim it was a sad thing, because it wasn't. Pictures were nothing more than memories captured on a paper. It didn't make them more, or less than that. "Hm." She mused. "Too bad." She would have loved to see what he'd looked like before what he looked like now.

She looked at him as he continued. She wondered briefly what it was like to have a twin; Though Dom and Carter were completely different people, they'd always seemed to move in tandem. She wondered if he missed him. "Yeah." She looked at the pictures again. "I guess you're right."

Moving away from the wall, the brunette absentmindedly started looking for her phone: Where could it be? Why could she never seem to keep track of it?