Who: Archie MacMillan and Izzie Egg
What: Archie is a very old-fashioned kind of man and Izzie is torn between being annoyed and super-annoyed.
Where: Archie's place!
When: Last night

Life had certainly taken a few odd twists and turns in the past few months.

Not that Archie was complaining, of course. For a man that hated unpredictability and loved consistency, he found it shockingly difficult to really think of anything even remotely unsatisfactory about his life at this moment in time, as he eyed Izzie from across the table.

Well, that wasn't strictly true. He didn't find anything wrong with their relationship, exactly, but it seemed like she was very determinedly avoiding one aspect of it, which Archie was just as determined to get out of the way. On the very few occasions that family was brought up, Izzie shot daggers out of her eyes at nothing in particular and changed the subject quickly. Archie felt he could relate, given the oddities of his own family, but most discussions even broaching the subject suddenly found another topic very interesting. And he felt that it would only be right to meet them! He might have been forward-thinking in other aspects of his life, but this was not one of them.

"Er, Isobel," Archie cleared his throat, propping his up with one hand, the other stretched across the table. "How long would you say we've been together, now?"

"Errrhmm---"

She had to think back to after she got out of that bloody little cell. Sure it had only been for a few hours, but it was still more of a jail record than she'd ever have liked to have. Archie asked her on a date a few days after that, and that had been..."We've been sexually active since the end of July, if that's what you mean."

Isobel smiled in an overly sweet manner, causing her eyes to scrunch up. When was their official 'anniversary'? Hell if she knew. She probably should, because that's what a girlfriend was supposed to do, know all this stuff, but if he was asking about dates and things, then why should she know?

Taking a drink, Izzie pressed her lips to the glass for a moment before pulling it away, her other hand resting on Archie's. "Why?"

"Well, I just-- I feel--"

Truthfully, it was really just curiosity. Not that he didn't want to meet her parents, or anything, but he didn't have to meet them for a little while longer if he still wanted to remain in the bounds of propriety. And Archie liked to do things right! He was just... being cautious, to remain firmly ensconced in propriety! That was appropriate, wasn't it? And he wouldn't dream of going behind Izzie's back in order to engineer a meeting, which meant he just had to do things the non-manipulative, sneaky way.

"I think it's time I met your family, don't you?"

He lifted his fork to his mouth, hardly daring to look at Izzie's face.

Izzie let out a deep groan, nearly dropping her glass to the table so that both of her hands (no way she was going to touch his hand right now) could cover her face. Why, why did he have this deep desire to meet her family? They sucked! Honestly! There wasn't one nice thing about them---well, Ulrich, Ulrich was the only nice one really, but other than that.

Her father was stuck up. Her mother was snotty. Her oldest brother was an ego-maniac. Her sister was a bitch (that was putting it nicely!). Her little brother was obnoxious, and Ulrich was Ulrich. That was it.

"Why, there's nothing interesting about them at all!" she whined, slouching in the seat. Never mind that this made her think about meeting his parents, but was there a real need for it?

"Because I want to!" Archie protested, looking slightly sulky. "They're your family, Izzie, and I think I have a right to meet them!"

Her reaction was definitely an improvement from what he'd been expecting, which had been things thrown at him, possibly. Or a sonic screech that involved her storming out.

So all things considered, this was actually rather pleasant! Archie could talk her into it, couldn't he? He was a logical man. With a deep-seated curiosity which, alright, made it slightly harder to think logically, but that was okay! She was probably over-exaggerating, right?

He thought of his family.

Okay, maybe not completely over-exaggerating.

"They can't be that bad! They produced you, after all," he looked at her hopefully.

"As sweet as that is," she started, not able to stop her face from heating up or her heart from pounding just that much faster at his words, "I can be quite the rotten apple, if you haven't noticed. Which I'm sure you have."

Izzie smiled sarcastically acrossed the table, still slouched low. Why didn't she want him to meet them? Well. Well. Did she have to even say? It was a really ridiculous request, she'll have you know. They would benefit nothing from this meeting, in fact it would just---it would make him---She wanted to sink lower in her chair, but that would mean sliding under the table, so Izzie just looked away, arms crossing tightly over her chest.

She couldn't remember a time when she'd brought a boyfriend home and her parents hadn't embarrassed her completely. And not with baby pictures, but with actual---'don't you think Isobel needs to lose some weight?' or 'Her grades are horrid, you should find her a tutor' and a bit of 'What's a fine boy like yourself doing with Isobel?'

"They're just wretched people," she muttered, taking a breath. They would definitely question Archie's sanity for dating her, "Kind of want to save you the headache."

Archie was finally relieved that he didn't have to feel sheepish for being outraged, because she was his girlfriend and didn't, for the most part, hate him. Which was actually a very nice feeling (not that she was upset, of course, but being able to be outraged), because he'd never really had the opportunity to expend much boyfriend-like emotion.

"Hmm," he said taking a sip from his glass and cocking his head, eyebrow raised as he studied a slouching Izzie from across the table. Archie had never seriously pried for details regarding her family life before, and he now realized he actually had no clue about what kind of family life she had come from. He personally saw nothing wrong with her, so he found it very difficult to imagine that her own parents and siblings would.

But his parents weren't exactly the sanest people in the world.

"Maybe... I could save you from them," Archie said, brightly. "I could defend your honor and everything. I'm going to have to meet them sooner or later, wouldn't it just be better to do it sooner?"

He shouldn't be allowed to do that. He shouldn't--say things, things that made her stomach twist and jump with delight and her heart pound straight through her chest. Izzie knew he couldn't actually read her mind, but some days she was so very grateful that Archie had the ability to understand her as well as he did.

"So first you're the bad guy," she started out slowly, sitting up only to lean across the table, "and now you're my knight in shining armor?"

Her smile couldn't be contained, and she itched for Archie to come close so she could start the snog her body had been aching for since he so happily announced he would defend her against the evil ways of her family.

"I'll owl my mum in the morning.."

"I have many personalities," he assured her with a grin, trying very hard not to sound the least bit gloating or triumphant. "And if it isn't terribly forward of me, Miss Egg, there is a sofa that looks incredibly lonely just in the other room..."