Olive could have died right on the spot when she'd seen that picture. She had wanted nothing more than to sink right through the floor and never come back up again. There was no stopping it now either. It had been circulated far too widely for that. Now she and Enoch might as well be walking around with a banner. She had been sure too that that was it now. There was no way Enoch would still want to see her now that that date at least was public knowledge to everyone. He'd want to salvage what he could and call it all a waste of time. She had been sure of it.

But, to Olive's immense relief and surprise. She had misjudged him. He didn't storm off and not talk to her at all, or tell her that whatever they had was over. If anything, he'd been ready to throw down for her. He'd been so angry she'd watched his fist shake and his fingers tap so hard on the bench in Biology it was as if he intended to drive right through it.

When he held her hand, it was like nothing that had happened even mattered. She could have argued with him for hours and told him not to react to Jack Bentham and his friends, but it would have done no good. Whether Enoch was being protective, or possessive, or even both, he was defending her. While his methods might leave something to be desired, Olive had to admit, it felt kind of nice to know it was for her.

She just hoped this didn't mean he would retreat completely back into that shell.

It would go away. The staring and the snickering would stop and so would the cruel, snide remarks about stooping as low as Enoch O'Connor, would pass and people would get bored of it. Gossip in London's schools was as common as the pigeons.

What would not pass was her parents insistence on meeting this boy she spent so much time with, staying later at school to study with, and meeting for movies. Olive was quite transparently transfixed with him, she was fully aware of how much she smiled to herself whenever he messaged her, which wasn't all that often really. When she'd gotten home and said goodbye to Enoch after their date, she'd been so lightheaded and giddy her dad had thought she'd gone completely mad.

They wanted to meet him. This "boyfriend" whom she hadn't even dared to call him that herself yet. Not to him, anyway.

Term was only two weeks away from ending now, and Christmas just three weeks away and they'd been asking to meet him for a week now. Olive just didn't have the first idea how to bring it up to Enoch. Of course, she wanted them to like him, but she could just see how the idea would go down with him.

Just do it, Olive. She scolded herself and drew in a deep breath as she looked up at the shop front of "O'Connor's Funerals". It was a very professional setup, as anyone would have expected, but no less a morbid place to work, Olive thought. She hadn't ever gone inside yet, had never had a reason to meet Enoch while he was working. But she'd been nearby anyway and he'd mentioned he was supposed to be there this Saturday morning.

It was a very strange feeling Olive felt as she pushed open the door. A little bell jingled as the door opened, a cheery touch considering the less than cheery nature of the business. Of all family businesses...funerals...

After twenty or so seconds a door opened somewhere and Owen O'Connor appeared from around a corner.

"Morning, can I 'elp you? Oh, 'ello..."

Olive turned around where she had been looking with a strange kind of curiosity at a coffin display and flower arrangement. She caught the surprise flicker in the man's eyes but before she could so much as open her mouth to ask for Enoch, he had said it himself.

"I guess you must be 'ere for Enoch. Won't be a minute, love."

"Uh-yes, thank you."

Less than a minute later she heard footsteps coming back from the back and Enoch appeared through the door his father had gone.

"What are you doin' 'ere?"

Enoch looked different here and it vaguely crossed Olive's mind that it was the first time she'd seen his forearms free of the long sleeves of his uniform or jackets she'd only ever seen him in. His long sleeves of the military green shirt he was wearing were rolled up to the elbows secure from touching the rubber gloves he was wearing and the plastic apron he wore over the top. He looked surprisingly clinical.

She smiled over at him as he stood there staring at her like he'd never seen her before.

"I was coming past and I knew you were working today so-is that...?" Her gaze fell to his hands, gloved and held out in front of him spotted with yellowish fluid and red that looked a lot like blood.

Enoch followed her line of sight ad she heard him sigh.

"Right...'old on."

He disappeared for a moment and came back rubbing his hands, now gloveless and clean, together as he walked towards her, arching a dark eyebrow. "What?"

"I just wanted to ask you something. You'll probably say no...but...I promised I'd ask-"

"My dad's right back there, get on wiv it, Olive." Enoch rolled his eyes and Olive blushed slightly.

She was rambling again. Trying to delay the inevitable 'no way' she was about to get.

She sucked in a breath, wrinkled her nose slightly and rushed it out. "My parents want to meet you."

"...what?" Enoch just stared at her and she looked up anxiously as he looked over his shoulder like he was making sure his father wasn't listening in. "What? Why?"

"They want to who know I'm spending so much time with. They know I went out with you after all?"

"Oh 'ell...seriously? 'ow much choice do I actually 'ave?" Enoch was looking more and more uncomfortable by the minute. She watched as he ran a hand through his hair, messing it up slightly in the way he did when he was stressed but she secretly found very attractive.

"I thought you'd say that." Olive sighed and smiled up at him. "Isn't that pretty normal though? They'll see you around somewhere eventually anyway, right?" She regretted it as soon as she said it and Enoch's sharp eyes shot to her ad his eyebrows disappeared into his hair. "I didn't mean how that probably sounded...I don't want to put any...pressure on you, you don't have to come for dinner."

"Enoch would love to."

A voice every bit as Cockney as Enoch's sounded and Enoch groaned and dropped his head backwards to stare at the ceiling as his father walked out and behind his son to the front desk where he leaned over to look for something.

"No I would not. Leave it alone, Dad. This is my freakin' life."

Olive took a step back uncomfortably as Owen O'Connor straightened up and stared at his son. Enoch's father had a good natured face, long and high cheekboned like Enoch's but she'd seen the stern expression he gave Enoch when Enoch's attitude reared its head.

"And I'm ya father, I'm sayin' ya need to go-"

"I thought I needed betta grades?"

"Really, son? Wiv this young lady in the room? Ya gonna speak like that?"

Olive turned pink and she could have sworn Enoch looked back at her slightly ashamed before it had vanished from his face and he said nothing.

Owen clapped his son on the shoulder and headed out towards the back again. "It's a decent fing ta do, Enoch."

The sound of a door closing marked his disappearance and Olive turned her gaze up to Enoch as she hastened to insist otherwise. He was only going to be uncomfortable.

"You don't have to, Enoch. I was just thinking even if we just studied at my house, at least they could meet you quickly-"

"Ya don' need my 'elp."

"No...but maybe...I mean, you might not find maths or English so bad if you're not on your own."

Enoch's face froze. Not a muscle twitched anywhere and all that moved were his eyes, scanning the room and Olive in turn. Had that been the wrong thing to say? He wouldn't ever admit to her helping him even if he wanted it.

"Okay..."

Olive blinked several times.

"I'm sorry, did you just say, okay?"

"Apparently..."

She almost couldn't believe it at all, and couldn't help herself bouncing on the balls of her feet in excitement. She didn't care if he was only doing it to get his father's hounding off his back, she just cared that he agreed.

"I'll let you get back to...whatever you were doing out there."

"Right, whateva..." He started to turn around and Olive called out to him again.

"Oh, Enoch?"

He turned back to her and Olive smiled, taking a few steps closer to him and standing up on her toes to press a quick kiss to his cheek.

"Happy birthday."

xxxXxxx

Olive could actually feel Enoch's tension radiating from every inch of him while he walked at her side up the front steps to her front door. He did not want to be here and that was plain as anything. It was probably a mistake to bring him home with her on a Monday, when her father was not down at the station. But that was why she wanted to, so they could both meet Enoch at once and for him it would get it over with, like ripping off a bandaid, at least that's what she had tried to tell him as he grumbled to her on the bus.

"They'll like you, Enoch." She shook her head in amusement up at him, paused with her hand on the door knob, a comment to which he just scowled. "...But maybe lose the scowl for a minute?"

"I don't care if they like me or not, I'm not comfortable..."

"I can see that. Thank you for coming anyway."

She watched Enoch's eyes snap to her hand as she reached out to touch his arm reassuringly and lowered it again to open the front door. "There are worse fates, Enoch, I promise."

"I dunno...I fink I'd know 'bout any..."

Olive giggled a little at Enoch's bad tempered muttering behind her and slipped her bag off her shoulder as she headed inside.

"Mum? Dad?" There was no answer as she poked her head into the living room and then the kitchen, with Enoch standing awkwardly behind her shoulder the whole time.

They were definitely home, both cars were in the drive.

"Olive? Oh, so this is..."

And then her father appeared in the doorway of the kitchen as she spun around.

Theo Elephanta had a head of thick auburn hair darker than his wife and daughter and being of Greek descent had skin a lot more tanned than that of most Londoners. He was a firefighter, and as such, unsurprising, was almost always on call. He had a good nature, if a little protective of his daughter but Olive had no doubt that he would like Enoch if Enoch could make a decent first impression. That was the hard part for him.

Olive smiled and looked around at Enoch who could not have looked more out of place if he were standing in a field of flowers.

"Dad, this is Enoch O'Connor."

Theo's eyes scanned the boy in his kitchen critically from his untucked shirt and loose tie to the dark rings around his eyes and stone faced expression. An unusual name for a fittingly unusual looking boy. It was kind of hard to imagine a boy who looked so thoroughly emotionless asking anyone out at all. Let alone his daughter.

"Enoch? Don't hear of many 'Enoch's' around..."

Olive smiled up at Enoch, who very awkwardly reached out to shake the hand offered out to him. She could have sworn she saw the shine of sweat on his palms which she'd never seen before. He was more nervous than he cared to reveal.

"...Yeah, get that a lot, sir."

"So you're this elusive boyfriend my daughter talks so much about?"

"Dad!" Olive's face went pink as Enoch's eyes snapped to her. She hadn't so much as called him that herself yet.

"Uh...I'm...somefin'." Enoch immediately looked ten times more awkward and she could see the uncertainty all over her father's face. Enoch was not coming off entirely well here.

"How old are you, Enoch?"

"Seventeen."

"And what do your parents do?"

"Ma family 'as a...undertakin' business."

Olive could see everything from surprise to uncertainty flicker across her father's face. Clearly that was not the job anyone expected to hear.

"Oh, is Olive home? Hello!"

Olive heard Enoch groan quietly beside her and she could see his foot beginning to twitch restlessly as he grew more and more uncomfortable when her mother appeared. It was like the time Olive had met his parents only magnified about twenty times.

Her mother, Hope, was very much like Olive with orange red hair and the same green eyes Olive had inherited.

"This is Enoch, Mum-"

"So I gathered, it's good to finally meet you, Enoch."

"Mm..." Enoch mumbled, looking down at his feet and making no secret of the fact he wanted to be anywhere else but there at that moment.

Her father was not impressed, and that was no secret. He had started to interrogate Enoch. She was sure he only wanted to assure himself that Enoch was good enough for Olive or at least treated her well but they didn't know him and he didn't do social interaction well. They wouldn't understand that he wasn't as entirely hard and cold as he seemed.

"And how are you at school, Enoch?"

Now that was a loaded question if ever there was one and a little too far for Olive's liking. Neither she nor Enoch was about to answer that as honestly they could. If he knew that Enoch frequently acted up in the classes he didn't like and was failing one and almost failing another, he'd dislike him much more.

"Dad, really? Enoch's helped me a lot in Biology, if you must know but how does that matter?"

"Nothing, nothing, I just want to get to know him, you talk about him a lot, Olive."

"Uh-" Enoch wasn't looking up at all now, his jaw stiff and then it happened. He evidently could not bite his tongue any longer.

"I don' see 'ow my school matters either, sir." An evasive, and not at all reassuring comment.

Olive wanted to rescue him from the interrogation, she could see plain as day on her father's face that Enoch's curt replies and apparent lack of interest in the conversation were not making a good impression at all. It wasn't entirely Enoch's fault and she felt awful for putting him in this position but a boy who was adamantly against meeting her parents at all would probably not have much a much better impression.

"Enoch and I were just going to study-"