I opened my eyes as I woke up from sleep to see Nat was looking at me with her sad eyes. But that quickly faded to a happy face. “What happened?”

She shook her head to my question. “Nothing, I was just falling more and more in love with you.”

My heart told me there was something more. I hugged her before kissing her forehead. “You can tell me anything, Nat.”

I laid there with her in my embrace. “Do you think we are making a mistake by wanting to get married so quickly?”

I hugged her even closer as I heard her say that. “Do you know how much I wanted to marry you before we went apart?”

I asked her back causing Nat to shake her head. “It’s not that. It’s just that…”

She didn’t say anything causing me to look down at her. “Nat…”

I pulled up her face to see her eyes were slightly red. I understood her cause of worry at that moment. “I told you so many times that I don’t care about kids as long as I have you.”

She shook her head. “It’s easy to say that now David but…”

I stopped her with a kiss on her lips. As I slowly came apart I looked at her eyes as I asked her lovingly. “Do you want kids?”

She didn’t reply as her eyes turned red. “That was a bad way to ask. Let me rephrase my question, how many kids do you want?”

She smiled as she looked at me sadly. “I wanted to have lots of kids with you David but…”

I placed an index finger on her lips. “I promise that you can have lots and lots of kids.”

I moved my finger away from her lips as she looked at me in shock. “Really?”

Her expectant and longing eyes made me so grateful for my cheats. “If I can’t do at least this much for you, what use is all my knowledge and skills?”

I have waited so long to tell her this and it felt really good to say that she could have kids again when I knew she loved kids more than anything in the world.

She didn’t say or speak anything as she hugged me. She cried so quietly in happiness that it even made me cry with her.

Her eyes overflowed with tears both in happiness and gratitude. I coddled her in my arms. “I don’t like to see you crying, Nat.”

She smiled in tears as she replied with a smile. “I want to have lots of kids.”

I chuckled hearing her response as I wiped away her tears. “Well before that you got to meet my parents.”

She nodded with a bit of worry. “Relax they will like you. Even if they don’t, I will convince them.”

I comforted her. She smiled as she nodded before asking me. “What will you say for my past and job?”

I gave her an answer which satisfied her. “I am going to tell them I work for secret services and that I met you there. They are smart people to know, not to ask too many questions.”

She giggled hearing this. “You really have thought this through haven’t you.”

I laughed with her as I answered her. “I prepared for this since a long time ago.”

“I love you.”

She said before coming in to kiss me, but I stopped her lips with my index finger. “And I love you too.”

She smiled before laughing as we both kissed.

I picked Nat up from the bed and slowly carried her to the tub. My bots rushed off from me towards the bath before us. By the time we arrived the tub was filled with warm water.

I entered and slowly sat down placing Nat on top of me. “What time do we leave?”

I massaged her head gently as I replied to her. “As soon as you are ready we can go.”

We got out of the bath after a while and got changed. I opened a portal to her wardrobe so that she could pick whatever she wanted while I just wore simple blue shorts and a blue t-shirt. “How do I look?”

She wore a simple blue dress to match my colour scheme. I simply told her the truth. “Beautiful.”

“Really? You don’t think I am overdressed or anything?”

I laughed hearing this. “I have never seen you so stressed about something.”

She went back to looking in the mirror to spot any imperfection. “I don’t know. I feel more stressed now than in any mission or when I went to kill those aliens.”

I went and hugged her from behind. “Don’t worry about my parents. Nearly 2 decades of living with them taught me few tricks to convince them on the rare occasion that they don’t accept you.”

I held her hands. She sighed as she nodded in worry. “You are lucky you don’t have to do this.”

She made a joke at her own expense. “Well, I did meet your other family.”

Natasha turned around to look at me in surprise. “You did? What happened?”

She asked me in concern. “Well, they tried to kill me when I tried to explain to them. I had to restrain them before explaining about my relationship with you.”

Natasha looked at me worried. “They should be in Italy somewhere if you want to see them.”

I offered her. She sighed in relief before smiling. “No that is fine.”

She grabbed my arm. “Let’s go.” I nodded as we walked out of the room and checked out.

I led her to an alleyway after which we teleported directly toward Nat’s home.

We grabbed some belongings to make it look like we travelled by flight before I teleported us to my home town. We got out of the alleyway and grabbed a taxi to home. Natasha nervously grabbed my hands and began fidgeting with them.

I smiled seeing this and let her do as she wanted to remove her stress. “Here please.”

The taxi pulled up outside of our house. I passed him the money. “Thank you.”

He smiled as he received the money. “No problem.”

As soon as he took off I heard a shout from inside my house. “Julie, Davis is here!”

Natasha looked at me hearing my dad’s way of calling me. “I have so many names with him. Dave, David, Davis…”

I looked towards the door as Natasha giggled. I decided to give Natasha a quick warning before dad says anything that would be deemed racist. “Whatever he says about America just don’t mind it.”

Natasha grinned as we moved towards the door. “No problem.”

I didn’t bother ringing as I could hear my dad opening the door. *Click* “Hi dad.”

I smiled as I saw him only for him to hug me. “Next time call us before you proceed to do anything around in an alien invaded city.”

He told me off much to Natasha’s amusement. I hugged him back as I greeted him. “I thought mum would be worse, but you are on a different level dad.”

We came apart as mum came and hugged me. “You should have seen your dad. He has been staying in front of his window the whole day looking excited as each taxi went past our house.”

I sighed as I looked at my dad who was not at all ashamed for behaving like a kid. “This is so embarrassing.”

I told mum as I came apart. She laughed while my dad looked like he was ready to give me a lecture. Before he could I moved aside to introduce Nat. “Mum, dad meet Natasha. Natasha, my mum and dad.”

Natasha politely smiled at them. “Hi.”

Mum excitedly introduced herself as she smiled towards Nat. “Call me Julie.”

The annoyance on my dad’s face disappeared as he suddenly looked very professional. “Hi, I am Rob. This troublesome guy’s father.”

My mum turned towards me in slight surprise. “I thought you were bringing a man?”

My face went red as they laughed at my expense. “I am straight.”

My dad patted my shoulder. “Don’t blame your mum. You never showed any sort of interest for any woman while in school and Uni. We even talked about how to help you come out about your sexuality. But looks like it is a bit pointless now.”

He looked more regretful for having wasted time practising it than anything else. “Enough talking outside, let’s go in and talk.”

We moved in as per mum’s instruction. “Coffee or tea, dear?”

Mum asked Natasha without bothering to ask me as she knew my reply by now. “I am perfectly alright with anything.”

My mum nodded as she went to grab the drink. My dad grabbed my luggage from my hand and placed it aside. “So, what were you doing that made you so busy to call us?”

“Would you believe if I said I was helping around in Manhattan?”

He laughed as he heard that before shaking his head. “Tell me something more believable. As if you are kind enough to do that for someone else when you couldn’t even be bothered to help out in the charity events at school.”

‘Well laziness and being busy tended to do that.’ I told myself. Besides if I look at it this way I helped billions of people and the future generation by repairing the ozone layer and freezing up the Antarctic again. ‘No one needs to know I did it to create an untraceable base.’

I decided to tell the truth to my dad’s original question. “I was busy with Natasha.”

On second thought that choice of words really didn’t sound good at all. “Right after an alien invasion?”

‘Yep! Bad choice of wording.’ Natasha laughed as she heard that.

My mum asked me from the kitchen. “Are you that desperate?”

I corrected my mum on reflex. “No! Situation called for it.”

I suddenly realised I was making things worse. “No, I didn’t mean it that way…”

Everyone laughed as I began struggling to get my words correct. Mum walked in with 3 cups of tea and a glass of mango juice.

“Tea for everyone except the weirdo.”

My mum said as she handed me the glass of juice.

“Thank you, Julie.” Natasha smiled as she received her cup.

“You are welcome, sweetheart.” My mum smiled in reply.

My dad grabbed his tea before pointing it out to me proudly. “Even your brother needs tea in the morning before he can even start his days.”

It was around 2 pm and a weekday so it was understandable why my brother wasn’t here at all.

I began to warn my dad like always. “Using external stimulus to start your day is not a good thing dad. I told you this before. He will become reliant on it just like you both.”

“You and your science. Don’t let science and rules restrict you. Just enjoy life doing what you want.”

I glanced at Natasha as I heard dad. We both smiled hearing him.

My mum noticed this as she decided to go back to the topic at hand. “Alright, both of you stop and get back to the point. David, what were you doing to not answer us or to call us when we were worried sick about you?”

I shrugged as I told my mum. “I really was checking up on Natasha. Ask her if you don’t believe me.”

Natasha nodded. “It’s true David was checking up on me after which we kind of got lost in the moment and went on a date and other stuff.”

My dad spoke up. “It is not that we don’t believe you, but common sense dictates you run for your life or do something useful in an alien invaded city than having a date there. Most people will call you ruthless if you spend your time dating instead of helping around the city.”

I smiled awkwardly as I heard that. “My job dictated that I had done more than enough help at that time.”

Mum looked at me in confusion. “Your restaurant in Manhattan? How is that enough help?”

I decided to just say it out now. “Uhm… before that there is something, I need to tell you both.”

“That you are gay?”

I rolled my eyes at my dad’s overuse of gay jokes. My dad was really lucky this was 2012 and at home. If it was something like 2020 he would be arrested for being homophobic. “No! Stop with the thing about my sexuality I am being serious here.”

My mum chuckled as my dad immaturely giggled. They were only like this around me. When around others they are often very mature. I knew they did this from an early age to let me learn to be more relaxed, due to how serious and mature I was as a kid.

I re-emphasised. “Anyway, it is about my job.”

My mum asked. “Which one? Your restaurant or your consultant?”

I replied. “My consultant.”