After a few moments of Angel and his mom crying and hugging, Joan pulled herself together. "I think we should probably get going home now, we're gonna get an earful from your mother when we finally make it back."

Angel sighed, letting go of his mom. "Okay, just let me just grab my stuff from my locker."

He sounded melancholy for some reason, Joan wanted to know why, but she knew better than to push him. She was his mom after all.

He came back a couple of minutes later, his backpack slung over one shoulder. "Ready to go?" He nodded, smiling softly at her.

* * * Time Skip ~ At Home * * *

"And where have you two been?" Aishah asked indignantly, her dark skin seeming to glow in the warm front porch light.

Joan walked up to her slightly shorter wife, kissing her on the forehead gently. "We were just hanging out for a little while, Angel was staying after to make sure he had good grades. Apparently, he thought that if his grades weren't good enough we would send him back into care."

Angel turned slightly red from embarrassment, and Aishah walked over to him hugging him tightly, "We would never do that to you, baby. You mean more than the world to us."

Angel smiled, silently thanking every single experience he'd ever had. Because without those he would have never made it to the place he now called home. The place where he had first learned Latin and the first place he felt truly safe and welcome.

"Aish, we should get inside, it's getting cold out and nobody here needs to get sick. Least of all you," Joan said, kindly.

"Yeah Mom, we don't want the best cook in the neighborhood to get sick and make me cook, I would probably end up burning the house down." Angel laughed. "Now now Anj, you don't give yourself enough credit! You could be a better chef than me if you wanted to."

"Nope! Nobody's a better cook here than you and it'll stay that way as long as humanly possible." The three of them laughed wholeheartedly like the family they were, but it was soon cut short by a beaten up truck pulling into the drive.

"Umm, Mom? Were you expecting someone? Please tell me you were expecting someone."

"No kiddo, we aren't expecting anyone," Aishah replied, sounding more than a little bit panicked, her eyes flicking to Joan nervously.

A/N ~ Okay, another cliffhanger, but don't worry they will probably all be fine, probably. I have a chapter idea in mind, but I need to work it in smoothly so it doesn't seem forced....so I'm sorry for any and all grievances I provide you with in the upcoming chapters. Now, keeping with 'tradition' here are some more memes.

Word Count: 414