fourty-one.
[meeting the family.]

"Mom, he's going to be here soon, hurry up."

Aria rolled her eyes in annoyance at her mother, whom only just remembered to go out and buy ingredients for dinner one hour before Matt was arriving.

Least to say, she was nervous. Although her mom had heard the countless stories about Matt that Aria had endlessly went on and on about, and had seen him a couple of times when Aria would FaceTime her, she had never met him face to face, even after almost a year of her daughter and Matt being together.

Her sister, was a whole other story. Much like Aria her self, she was fandom and book obsessed. Together, they bonded over Supernatural and Teen Wolf, crying over ships together and the occasional show binging. However, her sister, Sarah, was on a complete other level of fangirl. So one can imagine her reaction to finding out that her very own sister was dating one of her celebrity crushes.

"Have you ever asked him how it was like to kiss a guy before?" Her sister asked from the couch opposite her.

Aria rolled her eyes and sighed. "Yes."

"And what did he say?"

"He said it's no different than kissing a girl."

Sarah hummed in content, the her mind reeling with more questions. "What's Alexandra like?"

"She's hot." Aria simply replied again, lazily flicking through the tv channels, finding nothing interesting except documentaries about meerkats and elephants.

"What's sex with him like?"

"Okay, that's enough." Aria said finally, her head snapping to her sisters direction, whom had a cheeky smirk etched onto her lips. "I'm not answering any more of your questions."

The 15 year old shrugged and stood from the couch. "You didn't deny doing the dirty with Matt." She sing-songed, trudging up the stairs and to her room.

Just as Aria was going to snap back a retort, her phone buzzed from her front pocket. Fishing it out, she quickly picked up without checking the caller I.D. "Hello?"

"Hey, Baby, so, I'm kinda lost." Her boyfriends voice echoed through her ear. She smiled and ran a hand through her hair.

"How can you even get lost? Aren't you taking a cab?" She asked him, momentarily checking the living room's windows for any sign of him.

"He's kinda lost too." He quickly mumbled, then started arguing with the driver. "Can you just get me to this address please? How hard can it be, Jesus Christ."

"Baby, calm down, you'll make it." She chuckled.

"I just want to make a good impression on your mom, you know?" He said, nervousness laced in his town.

Aria laughed at the fact that he was worried about being late, when the woman wasn't even here. "Don't worry, my mom decided to go out for groceries last minute and now she's MIA. You'll be here earlier than her. Which I think is best to be honest, because I'm pretty sure my sister wants to interrogate you."

"Should I be afraid?"

"Yes, yes you should. She's worse than me."

"Okay, it's official, I'm afraid." He said once, making Aria laugh. "Hey listen, I think I'm almost there, so I'll see you in a bit okay?"

Aria bit her lip. "Yeah, okay. I love you."

"Love you too baby, bye."

And at that, he hung up. The brunette sighed and looked around her, seeing if the place was neat enough. Once sorting out a couple of pillows here and there, she straightened up the same time the front door bell rang.

"I'll get it!" Her sister shrieked, flying down the stairs like a hare.

"Sarah, no." Aria shouted after her and ran, attempting to reach the door before her sister met Matt first and scared him away. "I swear to god, Sar- Oh it's just you."

From the doorway, her mother raised a perfectly ached brow. "Oh it's just you? Well, I'm pleased to see how excited my daughters are to see me."

"Don't you have your own keys? You made me run." Aria asked as she panted slightly. The run was literally only a few meters, but considering she was seriously out of shape, she was practically out of breath.

"Do you not see the mounds of grocery bags I'm holding? You think I would manage to get out the keys and unlock the door? No, so shut up and help me get them in." Her mother retorted with the same level of sarcasm and bluntness as her two daughters.

"You know what? I just did my nails and I really don't want to-"

"Sarah, get back here and help. Aria's boyfriend will be here any minute."

And at that, the doorbell rang for the second time in the last 5 minutes, this time for sure it being Matt. Before her sister could react, she held out her arm and stopped her. "I'll get it."

She quickly hurried to the front door and swung it open, to reveal her boyfriend, holding flowers with a grin on his face. "Hey, baby."

Aria grinned and threw her arms around his neck. Instinctively, Matt wrapped his arms around her waist, head buried in her neck.

"I missed you." She mumbled, loud enough for him to hear.

"It's only been a week Aria."

"Shut up you know you missed me too."

"Yeah, I did. More than anything."

x x x

After they had finally calmed down her sister — whom promised to stay calm when she encountered Matt, but instead, totally freaked out, — Aria's mother, Eleanor, had begun to make dinner, where she refused to let neither Matt nor Aria help her, but instead put them on table duty instead.

"Your mom's nice." Matt silently commented as he placed a plate infront of a chair. "I think she likes me?"

Aria rolled her eyes. "Matt, of course she likes you. Why would you think that she wouldn't?"

Matt shrugged, "I don't know. I mean, in all of the year that we've known each other and the 10 months that we've been together I've never met her? Maybe she would think that I don't care about your family, which I do by the way, they're awesome, but," He cut himself off and sighed shakily. "Yeah, I don't know."

The brunette placed the cutlery down and rounded the table to where Matthew stood. She took his large hands between her's and looked up at him. "Matt, seriously. She loves you. She knows how much I love you so that automatically makes her love you even more. It's not often when men come into my life and they don't turn  out to be douchebags. She already considers you family. Whether she's met you before or not."

"Are you sure?" He asked again, doubt still clouding his judgement. "This matters to me, Aria. I want your family to like me, and not just pretend to just because you're happy and they don't want to hurt your feelings."

"I'm as sure as Dean Winchester was about making a deal with a demon to save Sam." She said firmly, before bursting out laughing at his annoyed expression.

"Must you bring Supernatural into everything?"

"Of course. You would understand my references too if you didn't give up on it after season two." Aria waved absentmindedly, turning back around and placing a fork beside a plate.

"I love you." He said out of the blue, directing her attention to the adoring smile on his face. "So much."

She grinned back at him. "I love you too."

x x x

"So Matthew, how long are you staying?"

The sound of cutlery against China echoed throughout the fairly empty dining room, the occasional banging of glass against wood sounding out here and there. Matt cleared his throat and turned to the elder woman, whom was happily eating her food.

"Just a couple of days. I'll hopefully go back to LA when Aria does. If that's okay, I mean." He quickly added on, still feeling the need to be the perfect golden boy and impress Eleanor.

"Of course it's okay, Matt." She shook her head and put her wine glass down. "Stay whenever, and how ever long you want."

Aria gave him a pointed look, "I told you so." She mouthed at him. In return, Matt stuck his tongue out at her without Eleanor seeing.

"I've got to tell you though, you're so much more good looking in person." Her mom suddenly blurted out, making Aria's eyes widen and Matt's cheeks going red.

"Mom! Look you've embarrased him!" She hushed her, then turning to glare at her sister who was laughing non stop.

"Honey, I did not." She then leaned forward in attempt to be quiet, but of course, she said it loud enough for the entire table to hear. "If you weren't with him, I wouldn't mind getting some of that."

"Mom I swear to god!" Aria said appalled, face as red as a tomato in embarrassment for not only her and Matt, but for her mother too.

"You and every other teenage girl, mom." Her sister commented, adding fuel to the fire.

"Matt are you tired? I'm really tired. Let me show you the guest room and we can go to sleep..." Aria hurriedly got up from the table and grabbed Matt out of his seat.

"It's only eight-" Matt protested, but was cut off.

"Gotta wake up early if you want me to show you around town!" She said again, trying to get as far away from the dinner table as possible. "Mom, thanks for the dinner, but like I said-" Aria paused and let out a fake yawn. "I'm super tired."

"I-" Matt started, yet again getting cut off.

"Good night!" She finally said, before hurriedly dragging Matt up the stairs by the hand. Once they reached the upstairs landing and burst through the guest room door, Aria instantly slammed it and locked it, back resting against it. "Oh my god." She breathed out. "That was so embarrassing. I'm sorry."

Matt laughed out loud, face still slightly reddened from the comments from her mom. "It's fine, Aria."

"Jesus fucking Christ," She ran a hand down her hot face, then sighed. "I am so lecturing her tomorrow morning. I expected it from Sarah, but her? No." Aria mentally shuddered as her mom's words replayed through her mind again, before quickly deciding to shove that disturbing memory out of her mind.

"I wasn't lying though, I am kinda tired." Aria finally said after a few moments of silence.

Matt was already stripping his shirt off, preparing for sleep. As usual, Aria removed her top and jeans and grabbed the plain black shirt Matt was wearing before and slipped it over her head, the shirt swinging over her thighs and stopping just before her knees.

Matt plonked and patted the space beside him. "Come, let's sleep."

"I really should just get back to my own room.."

Matt rolled his eyes. "Come on, Aria. Your mom knows we're not going to try anything here, not with her and your sister around at least."

Aria sighed in compliance and layed down beside Matt. Her body naturally curved into the shape of his like a jigsaw puzzle, the warmth radiating through the thin shirt and to her bare body. His large arms wrapped around her waist as he nestled his head in her neck, breathing in the scent that he loved.

"Good night, baby." He whispered before placing a kiss on her forehead.

No reply came, instead the soft and quiet snores emitting from her lips reached his ears, her eyes fastened shut, looking as peaceful and as beautiful as ever in Matt's eyes.

With a smile, he shut his own eyes, not long before he himself, drifted off to sleep.

[a/n: soo sorry I haven't updated in quite some time. my phone and laptop got taken away and therefore couldn't write. enjoy these multiple updates as an apology :)]