Work Text:
Flashes: Meeting Them
by Chi Shiro
The expansive, ancient farmhouse seemed to rise up from the Earth as the truck neared it. A weather beaten white barn slunk somewhere off to the side, looking as if it had seen better days. Fields stretched on as far as the eye could see, ripe with what would be the new harvest. A large Rottweiler bitch rose from the shade of the porch as the vehicle drew nearer, her brood of Rott/Sheperd pups tagging along clumsily on their puppy feet.
Her hackles raised and she crouched, ready to defend her offspring to the death. The door opened and seemed to slam almost instantaneously. The driver's side door opened with a bit more leisure, the occupant smiling at the ferocious dog. She happily wagged the stump of her tail and bounded towards the blue beast.
"Hank, what is that thing," Bobby called warily from his spot behind the locked passenger door. Mutant hunting sentinels, the brotherhood, rabid FOH members, he'd rather face any of them than the happy, slobbering creature jumping around his fiancé.
Hank simply smiled as he picked the hundred and fifteen pound dog up with ease, his fur being laved in doggy kisses as he did so, "This thing, as you call her, is my parents' dog, Alecto. I gave her to them a few Christmas' ago when she was just a pup. Speaking of offspring, you've been quite busy, haven't you old girl."
Bobby eased out of the concrete old Ford to see what Hank found so amusing. A smile crept across his face at the picture of nine wriggling bundles of fur converging at his love's feet. The runt, upon noticing him, let out a tiny, challenging howl and bowled her way over. He chuckled merrily as he scooped the brave little howler up.
"Now I thought we taught you better manners than that, Henry McCoy," a hearty laugh boomed across the yard, "Your mother's been waiting all day for you to get your furry hide down here and what do you do when you get here? I'll tell you what you did. I find you out in the yard wrestling around with Ally. You can take the boy out of the farm..."
"...But you can't take the farm out of the boy," Hank agreed cheerily as he sat Alecto down. The mother dog gave Bobby a courtesy sniff to determine if he was a threat to her pup. She seemed satisfied and marched the eight on the ground back up to the house.
"Land sakes alive, child," Helen McCoy breezed out of the house, an aging goddess in a seersucker apron, "It's about time you brought some of those nice friends of yours to visit us."
Bobby silently wished his own mother was this vibrant and full of life.
Hank worriedly watched his mother appraise his life mate. Telling them was going to be no easy task. As the only child he was expected to provide grandchildren. He only felt remotely safe telling them because Bobby was at his side.
"Mother, father, I'd like you to meet my fiancé, Robert. He and I's ceremony is scheduled for sometime next year," Bobby grabbed his hand in steady reassurance as his breath began to hitch.
The McCoys stared at their son in something a kin to shock. Hank took one involuntary step backwards as they approached. His father's hand rose and slapped him heartily across the back. His mother clutched Bobby warmly.
"I've always wanted another son," Edna smiled brightly as she led them into the house, “Welcome to the family, Robert."
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