The Parents -- and other subtle indications that something is afoot.

[azurelunatic]

His parents were having what amounted to a water fight last night. It was very cute, with a moose nightshirt figuring in the festivities, and a chortling Malfoy Senior evaluating his, erm, prospects.

Darkside hustled me out before things could get above PG-13. He was as embarrassed as only someone with parents can be. They haven't been (mis)behaving like that since ... well, ever, he commented, then mentioned how children often turn out just like their parents...

He seemed to mean it in a slightly-silly, semi-rueful sense. I smirked a little to myself and speculated a little, just for the sake of practice. The more I see of Malfoy Senior, the more I like him, and the more I think that Darkside's going to turn out pretty much all right after all.


I object, on general principle, to the concept (but, not, it seems, the actuality) of becoming quasi-girlfriend-by-default. I'm not courting him in an Epic Blaze of Glory: I'm courting him in simple, every-day ways. By the time the Good Little Midwestern Military-Industrial Complex Drone Male programming kicks in and he realizes that he is, in fact, thinking of nesting and starting a family, will something small within him have made that cognitive leap that connects "this woman is a good friend and she will stand beside me through thick and thin" with "I cannot imagine anyone else standing beside me forever"?

Only time will tell, eh?

I might say, "beggars can't be choosers," but he'd not want me to beg. I take comfort in that.

(Now, after roughly 23 hours awake, it's time to re-consider that unfortunate state, and seek gainful employment in sweet slumber. Coherent trains of thought are drifting in and out of the station, with the recurring theme of curling up beside him just within the reach of his hand. Not abject submission, no -- but an abandoned enjoyment of the cherished esteem I'm held in.)

I'd like to win him over in a campaign worthy of Miles, but instead I feel I'm more likely to become just a quiet fixture of life, the given that's barely considered until something external to both of us shakes things up some...

Comments

[amberfox.livejournal.com]

Given how the whole Miles/Ekaterin thing went, I'd recommend passing on any Miles-ian campaigns.

[azurelunatic]

So would my sane/awake side.

[sraun]

By the time the Good Little Midwestern Military-Industrial Complex Drone Male programming kicks in and he realizes that he is, in fact, thinking of nesting and starting a family, will something small within him have made that cognitive leap that connects "this woman is a good friend and she will stand beside me through thick and thin" with "I cannot imagine anyone else standing beside me forever"?

That almost sounds like (although exactly in reverse) how bernesemntdog got kosmickitten. They met when she was 8(?), he was a friend of the family for many years, about the time she was 16 they started spending more time together. When we asked him that Christmas, "What are you intentions towards our daughter?", he turned quite red, especially when his first reply (which he back-pedaled from very quickly) implied they'd been sleeping together! He said that he expected they'd be getting married sometime, presumably after she graduated from college. The next 2+ years were a long string of her claiming "He's not my boyfriend!" - the only person who agreed with her was him. There was much teasing going on - the way she draped herself over him was just so provocative!

The year she turned 18 (her birthday is in January), they were attending a convention the last weekend in February / first weekend in March, as were iraunink and I. We all ended up in the Minn-StF party at one point - we teased them, my fellow club members joined in, and continued the teasing for an hour after we left.

Seven weeks later they had their first boyfriend & girlfriend date.

In August he gave her a promise ring before she went off to college in Colorado - or, as iraunink likes to put it, "He tagged her and released her back into the wild."

She came home for Christmas vacation, and went back to school with a heavy-one-carat marquis diamond and a fiance back home. Less than nine months from "He's not my boyfriend!" to "He's my fiance!"

We were all vastly amused.

[azurelunatic]

*grin*

Allow me to firmly state for the record that Darkside is not my boyfriend. Although the people who know both of us tend to see us as a unit, and pretty much any invitation for me also includes him. The people who know him but see me around tend to treat me as his proxy, which is very amusing...

I know he has plans of settling down and starting a family. His schedule, circumstances, and personality don't lend themselves to meeting the ladies. His mother likes me.

[sraun]

You just reminded us (me and iraunink) of some occurences when kosmickitten was 16 and 17. There were any number of times when the store clerk asked them "How long have you been going together?" The worst, however, was when the clerk at a store at the Mall of America asked, "How long have you been married?"

kosmickitten really didn't want to tell us that one! But she can't hide a secret from her mother to save her life - there are times when we let her not tell us, but we know there's something going on!

Have you thought about the question 'how long are you willing to wait?'

[azurelunatic]

That's a cute one!

The sister-in-law of the bride at my friend Dawn's wedding asked me, after I caught the rose that the bride tossed, if I was still going with the same fellow I'd been going with at Dawn's college graduation. I was confused, as I hadn't thought that my boyfriend-at-the-time (yaksha42, who I actually didn't start dating until slightly after the graduation, but my time-sense was not quite on straight during the wedding) had been at that particular graduation. So I asked for some clarification. "You know, the blond one," she said, and went on to describe Darkside.

I've thought about that question, and thought about it in some depth. The current answer is "Indefinitely, but subject to re-thinking if I should ever meet someone I hit it off with better." I have had a few too many relationships doomed from the start because my connection with the partner did not measure up to the friendship I've got with Darkside.

Of the five people I've been involved with in the past five years besides Darkside, digitalambience had a fair start but quickly fell behind, yaksha42 was doomed almost from the start, Mr. Shallow was going in a different direction and declared himself unsuitable, sithjawa was going in a different direction and I declared myself unsuitable for the purposes of Courting a Monogamous Man, and figment0 and I have some fundamental religious differences making it impossible for us to maintain the level of connection that would have made him competitive with Darkside for my attentions.

The barriers to entry as a candidate to court me are pretty severe, but there is always the possibility that someone else is going to come along and turn out to be Absolutely Just Right, but I'd far rather spend the rest of my life without a partner than to have someone with less of a connection with me than Darkside.

All of this, of course, is automatically subject to re-thinking should Darkside get married to someone else.