3 months later...

Milo's POV

I sigh as I'm looking at some papers on my desk. There's just so much piling up. There's a knock on the door and Amon sticks his head through.

"You busy?"

I smile at him. "Just a little, what do you need?"

He closes the door behind him and sits down on the desk. "Just wanted to see if everything is going alright. And I wanted to ask something."

I chuckle. "Uh, yeah, it's going alright. What about you?"

"Yeah, it's all good. Just learned a new potion." He smiles proudly and I smile back.

He's been working as a healer for the past three months and he's doing really well. It's a lot of work because it's a difficult profession, but he's a fast learner and I'm very proud of him.

"Hey, listen", he starts, "Thanksgiving is coming up. And I usually spend that at my parents' house."

"Oh, that's no problem. You can visit them whenever you want."

He chuckles and takes my hands. "Babe, that's not what I wanted to ask. I wanted to ask you to come along. I want you to meet them."

Oh. 

"If you want to, of course", he adds, "but... I'd love to introduce you to them, 'cause you're pretty amazing."

I chuckle and blush a bit. "Thanks. Uh, yeah... Sure."

"You don't sound convinced."

"I... I'm just a little nervous, you know."

He smiles lovingly. "Milo, they'll love you. There's no way they couldn't." He squishes my face and I chuckle.

"Thank you."

He leans closer and kisses me gently. "By the way, you're doing amazing. People are saying great things about you."

I smile. "Thanks. I'm really trying my best."

"I know it's not easy for you."

I sigh. "Some days it does get a little bit overwhelming, but I'm glad I have help."

"You know you can always talk to me about anything, right?"

I nod. "Yeah, I just don't wanna bother you with all of that."

He lifts my chin with two fingers and looks at me with a soft look. "Milo, please. I want you to tell me about it. You don't bother me. I need you to be okay, babe."

I smile softly. "Okay, thank you. I'm sorry, I just..." I hesitate. "Expressing and talking about your feelings wasn't exactly being encouraged while Caspian in power, so I tend to keep things in, I guess." 

Amon smiles. "You're expressing your feelings right now and that's great. I want to support you n every way I can, okay?" He moves a strand of hair out of my face. "And I can only do that if you're being open and honest."

I nod.

"Promise me you'll tell me about that stuff in the future? Please?"

"I promise." We kiss again.

He cups my face with his hands. "Thank you."

So on Thanksgiving morning, we get ready to visit Amon's parents. 

"You ready?"

I throw another glance at the mirror. "I guess."

He kisses my head. "They'll love you, I promise. They're all very sweet."

"I hope so", I mutter, "alright, let's go."

We walk outside with our backpacks packed. After walking for a while, Amon creates a portal, and we step through. We arrive on the street that eventually leads to his parents' cabin. We're surrounded by trees, and where they end, I can see mountains and a beautiful lake. 

"It's so pretty." 

Amon smiles at me lovingly. "I know, right?" 

We walk down the road hand in hand. I see a woman peek her head through the window. She walks up to us with a big smile on her face. 

"Amon!" She hugs him before she turns to me and smiles. "Hi, I'm Edith."

"I'm Milo, nice to meet you." 

She hugs me as well. "Come on in, you two. You must be hungry after this long journey!"

Amon and I exchange a smile as we follow his mother into the house. She goes on to introduce her family to me: Amon's dad Vincent, his brother Oliver and his sister Victoria. Oliver is the eldest and he's married, though his wife couldn't make it this year. Victoria - Amon calls her Vicky - is the youngest, and Amon is the middle child.

After a while, we're all sitting at the table, eating.

"Happy Thanksgiving", Edith says, "I'm so grateful for this family." She turns to Amon and me. "I'm so glad you two could make it!"

"Me too", Amon replies with a smile. He seems a little nervous.

"So, spill the tea", Vicky says, "how'd you two meet?"

Amon glances at me "Well... This is gonna sound a bit crazy."

Five minutes later, they're all staring at me and Amon after he turned a fork into glitter and put it back together.

"I'm sorry, what the fuck?", Vicky replies and Amon and I laugh.

"I know it's insane. Hey, uh, so the thing is, you can't tell anyone about this, so you need to make a vow," Amon explains. 

"A vow?", his father asks with his eyebrows raised.

"Yeah, like, a magic vow."  Amon turns to me and I nod. 

"Who wants to start?", I ask shyly. 

I do the vows with each member of Amon's family. Then we go on eating. It's quiet for a while and the atmosphere is a little weird. They have to digest the things we just told them.

"So", Oliver says into the silence, "you were never on that world trip, huh?"

Amon chuckles. "Nope. Just fighting some evil sorcerers."

He nods. "Cool. Casual business, hm?"

Amon glances at me with a smile and then looks back at his brother.  "Oh, yeah, totally."

The situation is getting a bit more relaxed again and Edith starts talking to me, trying to get to know me better. We finish the food and she gets up to start putting everything away.

"Is there any way I could help?", I ask.

Amon's mother laughs softly. "That's really sweet of you, dear, but you're our guest. You don't need to help."

"Oh, it's no problem. I don't mind helping."

"Don't worry, I got it. But thank you." She smiles at me.

I think she likes me and I'm very relieved. I know Amon's family is very important to him. 

We're gonna stay here two more days, so we're getting our stuff up to our room. When we put everything down, Amon turns to me. 

"What do you think of them?"

I smile. "They're all very sweet. I think they're great."

He smiles back. "I'm happy you like them. They like you too, by the way. My mom was gushing over how polite you are!"

I chuckle. "Aw, that's so sweet."

He kisses me softly and then puts his forehead against mine. "I love you." 

"I love you too", I reply softy. 

Later that day, we all play some board games. It takes me a while to understand them because I have never played any of them, but in the end, I had a lot of fun. 

Afterward, we're exhausted, so we head to bed very soon. I can tell from Amon's deep and regular breathing that he's already asleep. But for some reason, I just can' fall asleep. 

As nice it is to be surrounded by such loving people, it does make me sad that I don't have a family anymore. God, I miss my mom. How nice it would be to have a family like Amon's...

As I'm finally drifting off, memories and images start pushing into my brain. I see Caspian in front of my inner eye and hear him yell at me and for a second, I feel the pain of the morsus curse. I open my eyes and sit up, breathing in sharply. I take a few deep breaths to calm down again.

This isn't the first time this has happened to me. I have these dreams every once in a while, and I'm not really sure how to get rid of them. 

I know that Caspian is captured. He can't hurt me anymore. Things are alright. They're great, actually. The coven is doing well, I just met my boyfriend's family and they're very nice - I have nothing to complain about. 

But I'm still struggling. And that frustrates me so much. Everything is fine - so why aren't I?

I finally dare to close my eyes again. I try to think of nice things. Amon, and how cute he is when he's smiling, ramen noodles, Philo and Sophia who have been really happy recently. I smile a bit to myself and then eventually manage to fall asleep.

I don't feel relaxed the next day, but I pretend that everything is okay. I don't wanna ruin the happy atmosphere. Amon seems so relaxed and positive and I really don't wanna mess that up. 

We spend two more days at his parents' house and it's really nice. His family is super sweet and we spend a great time together. Edith pulls me aside one time to tell me that she'd love to have me as a son-in-law, which is adorable.

She hugs me very tightly when we leave again. "Take care of my son, will you? I know he'll take care of you too."

I smile. "I will, I promise."

She smiles back and nudges my cheek. "I hope I'll see you soon again, Milo."

"I hope so too. Thank you for your hospitality."

She chuckles. "You're very welcome, dear."

We say goodbye to the others and they ask us to use the portal here so they can watch. Amon looks at me.

"Do you wanna do it?"

"It's your family watching. I'm sure they wanna see you do it."

He chuckles. "Alright, fine."

I hand him a piece of paper with the coordinates, though we both almost know them by heart by now. He reads them out loud and then creates the portal.

I hear gasps behind me and chuckle a bit. I look at Amon and he smiles at me. "Ready to go?"

I nod and take his hand. We turn around one more time and wave at all of them before we step through the portal. Amon moves his hand to make it disappear.

As we're walking back, I start overthinking again.

Amon had a life outside the coven, something I never had, and I just tore him out of that. He had a job, great friends, and a loving family. A good life. He had to go through so much pain because I appeared in his apartment one day.

I still feel so guilty about that.  

"You alright?"

Amon's voice pulls me back into reality. "Yeah, why?"

"You're so quiet. Is something on your mind?", he looks at me concerned. "You promised to tell me, remember?" 

I sigh. "You know, seeing how happy you were with your family... I'm sorry for pulling out of your life. I-I thought I was doing the right thing, but you should have never..." I gulp. "I'm just sorry. You shouldn't have had to go through all this pain."

Amon stops walking and looks at me. "Milo, it's not your fault."

"But I played a part in it. I was the one who recruited you."

"Hey." He puts a hand on my arm. "I understand how you are feeling, but please don't feel bad. You did what you had to do. Besides, I wasn't happy. Yeah, I had good people around me, but... I hated my job. I didn't have a purpose in life. That changed. Now I can help people - but my other purpose is to make sure you're okay."

I just look back at him.

"You gave my life new meaning," he keeps going, "and I wouldn't change it if I could. Okay?"

I nod. "Okay."

He leans down and kisses me gently. "I love you so much. Don't ever forget that, okay?"

"I love you too. Thank you for everything."

He smiles. "You're very welcome." 

We keep walking. For a second, my thoughts drift back to Capsian and all those terrible things that happened and I try my best to focus on something more positive again. I look up and realize that we're almost back at the coven.

"I hope my desk isn't overrun with stuff", I mumble.

"I'm sure it'll be fine. You always have Philo and Sophia to help, and Jasper and everyone else. And me, of course." He smiles sweetly and I chuckle.

"You're right."

He puts his arm around me. "Everything is alright, I promise."