***

Damon blinked at his parents. His parents blinked back at him. It was like the kind of movie scene where the protagonist and the villain meet eyes across a crowded room and get ready to rumble – except in this case, both parties were just confused. Damon was confused because his parents had given zero indication that they were coming home from vacation any time soon; his parents were confused because their son was laying like a dead fish on the couch while a handsome man stood over him about to feed him cut fruit like a servant with a pampered mistress.

So, to sum – no one knew what the hell was going on.

Poor Jun and Mark stood on the sidelines, waiting to see what was going to happen. Jun, Damon knew, at least was probably just as confused as Damon, because he'd never met Damon's parents. But Mark was clearly uncomfortable. His valiant efforts to protect Damon were a failure, so he eyed the door unashamedly, waiting for the best opportunity to bolt. Damon couldn't blame him. He wanted to run too.

Damon's parents weren't cruel, weren't abusive – and would probably be the picture of politeness towards Jun, personal feelings aside. But once Jun left, Damon could foresee that he was going to receive a lecture and possibly a powerpoint presentation on why Jun should never be let over to their house again – reason number one being Jun's status as the next Alpha of the Venus pack, reason number two being that he wasn't the son of their friends. Damon wasn't quite sure how his mom knew about Jun's background (and he was certainly going to ask at the first opportunity), but her blatant disregard for Damon's personal feelings about Malachi was probably going to be the subject of an argument in the near future.

All of this sped through Damon's mind in the few seconds he and his parents spent staring at each other in bewilderment.

Damon cleared his throat awkwardly, breaking the silence. "S'up."

Damon's mother attempted a smile, but it wavered. Damon's father, at least, didn't seem to notice any tension, and just nodded easily. Damon doubted that his father was in the loop on any of the Jun drama. He cared that Damon was happy and healthy. Beyond that, he didn't really care too much who Damon was dating – as long as he didn't have to hear about Damon's sex life. He might care that Damon had offended the pack leader, if only because he and Peter were buds, but otherwise? If Damon was happy, so was he.

Another awkward moment passed before Damon realized he was going to have to be the grown up in the room and introduce everyone. He stood up from the couch, ignoring the twinge in his lower back that persistently reminded him that he had just had sex twenty minutes ago in his parents' house – a fact that could be easily discovered should either of his parents decide to go upstairs and take a big whiff of the air around his bedroom.

Yeah...that lecture was going to be a doozy.

"Mom, dad – this is Jun Har – Harper," Damon said, choosing at the last second to use Harper instead of Hart. He knew his mom knew, but his dad probably didn't, and his mom didn't know that Damon knew. No need to go raising any red flags. "Jun, these are my parents."

Jun froze, eyes widening a bit at Damon like a baby deer, clearly thinking oh shit, what? At any other time, Damon would have found his fear hilarious. As it was, the way Jun scrambled to hold out his hand to shake and greet Damon's parents was both silly and sad because Jun had no idea that Damon's mother already didn't like him. She still shook his hand though, so Damon didn't go off on her like he would have if she snubbed him entirely.

Damon's dad, however, oblivious as he was to the tension, shook Jun's hand quite calmly and then clapped him on the shoulder in a very dad-like gesture. "Nice to meet you. I hear you and my son are courting."

"Yes, sir," Jun said, spine very straight (cute).

"Hm," Damon's mother hummed (not cute).

"Don't give me any reason to hunt you down," Damon's dad joked (cute. Damon's dad couldn't even hunt a rabbit).

Jun nodded very seriously. "Of course not, sir." (Super cute).

Mark chose this moment to make himself scarce, the coward. "Nice to see you again, Mr. and Mrs. Blackwell," he murmured, before practically sprinting outside. Damon wished he were able to do the same thing.

Damon's mom carefully set aside the rolling suitcase she'd been holding. "Well, Jun, I'm happy you've been keeping an eye on our son. If it's not too much to ask, I'd like to spend some time with him alone."

...Lecture time, here we come.

"Of course," Jun said, before coming back to Damon's side hesitantly to say goodbye. He didn't kiss Damon, of course, not with Damon's parents right there watching – even though Damon was a god damned adult and he could get his kisses goodbye from his boyfriend if he damn well wanted to – but he did briefly squeeze Damon's hand.

Before Jun could go to leave, Damon abruptly remembered something and grabbed his sleeve, tugging him back. Jun turned to look at him in confusion, and Damon used the cover of Jun's body to swipe up the copy of the heat agreement from where they'd left it on the coffee table, covertly folding it and shoving it into Jun's hand. He stared at Jun and hoped his gaze conveyed what he wanted to say, which was you hold onto it, because I'm not sure what my parents will do to it once they see it.

"I'll come see you later," Damon said quietly, hoping his parents hadn't seen him do that, and if they did, that they wouldn't ask about it.

Thankfully, Jun got the message and quietly stuffed the paper into his pocket. He left with one last glance at Damon, behind his parents' backs. It was a look that said that Jun knew something wasn't right, but couldn't figure out what. Damon watched him go with no small amount of envy.

For a long moment after he left, Damon's mom remained frozen in the doorway, something upset in the set of her mouth, something worried in the lines on her forehead, and Damon swallowed, wondering if there was some other issue he didn't know about – money stress, or something typical. Damon's dad gave her a strange look and went to take their suitcases upstairs without a word, but Damon had already figured that he probably only knew about as much about what was worrying his mom as Damon did. Once it was just Damon and his mom in the room, Damon went to sit back down on the couch and finish his fruit. Jun had put in the effort to cut it, after all, so Damon was going to eat it and save the dramatics for later.

Damon wasn't expecting his mom to speak up before his dad came back. Usually she waited for him as back up – especially if she knew Damon wasn't going to like what she had to say. His dad was kind, but he had no backbone.

"I'm sorry, Damon," she said softly, still frozen in the entryway. Damon stopped chewing. Sorry...for what? For disapproving of his and Jun's relationship? He turned to look at her in confusion.

She continued, something a little ashamed in her voice. Ashamed, but stubborn – as if she truly thought she was in the right.

"I had no choice. You'll be going down to the courthouse with me tomorrow."

The...courthouse? What? Why? The pack did have its own little courthouse for settling small disputes and other legal matters, but why would Damon need to go there?

"I already spoke with Haley and Peter to set it up."

"Set what up?" Damon finally asked. There was something...very wrong with this conversation. Why...?

His mom pursed her lips, unable to meet Damon's eyes.

"I dissolved your courtship. It's for your own good."