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Finn brought flowers and a store-bought pie, because bringing wine seemed like it would only make the age difference between himself and Andrea seem wider. He was already aware that three years was sort of scandalous at their respective ages, but it was even worse when you factored in that they been dating for... pretty much forever, it seemed like. If there was anything he could do to minimize that, like not highlighting that he was old enough to legally purchase alcohol, he was going to do it.

On top of that, he knew that Andrea's family owned a winery overseas, so it seemed pretty blasé to bring a bottle of something else.

He showed up at one, which seemed really early, but Finn hoped he hadn't misread Andrea's text and rang the doorbell anyway. While he waited, he tried to play out in his head how the evening might play out. For one thing, he hadn't yet seen Andrea since being back in Destiny City. For another, he was about to meet his entire family all at once.

If Finn had a hand free, he would have checked that his collar was straight and his hair lying flat. Alas: pie and daisies.

Finn beamed at Andrea when he opened the door, but when he didn't receive any sort of physical affection at all - not even a peck - he started to wonder if he wasn't on the same page as Andrea about this evening. "Good to see you, too," he said, a bit mildly, handing Andrea the pie and the flowers. "I wasn't sure what to bring," he explained, shrugging off his coat, "but I couldn't just show up empty- handed. So first I thought flowers, and then I thought pie, and then I decided - why not both?"

He folded his jacket across his arms, and then, looking down at Andrea's bare feet, he asked, "Should I take off my shoes? Is that something you do here?" He'd managed to find an actual pair of dress shoes in the right size down at Goodwill, because he'd figured he needed to be presentable no matter what, but he wouldn't mind shedding them; they were starting to pinch.

Now that he was inside and not trying to keep both pie and bouquet upright, Finn took a moment to look Andrea over and see what a difference a year and a half could make. While he was of the opinion that he, personally, had not changed much at all, his boyfriend now stood something like an inch and a half taller than him and he sort of had to wonder what kinds of interesting repercussions that was going to have. He couldn't just ignore the lack of a hello kiss, though.

"Hey," he said quietly, before they could get any further down the hallway. "Am I here as your boyfriend? Or just some vagabond classmate with nowhere else to go?"

"Hello, sir," said Finn, giving James his firmest handshake. Well, that pretty much all the confirmation he needed about what Andrea had told his family about him. Fair enough, he supposed. Finn wasn't in the business of outing people, and he didn't know if Andrea's parents would take the news even half as well as his own had responded to an angry call about their fourteen-year-old son kissing a boy at boy scout jamboree. So he'd let that be.

After handing Andrea his coat, Finn shrugged. "It's fine," he said. "I wouldn't rush you into anything. Bombshell like that could ruin Thanksgiving." Although he didn't know them very well, he had the sense that Andrea's family was on the traditional side. "I'll watch the game," he said. "Macho American tradition and all that."

Glancing around, Finn observed that in their current position, they were almost certainly unobserved. He took a step towards Andrea and tilted his head towards him. "I really wanted to see you, too," he said quietly. "I'm sorry I didn't call you the instant I got back into town. I've had a lot to deal with - I'll fill you in. Patrol sometime?" He smiled hopefully at Andrea. "And I know I'm just here as a friend, but I've been thinking about almost next to nothing else besides kissing you every night for the last year and a half."

He held his breath. This might be pushing his luck.

Finn was glad that Andrea went for the kiss, for however long it lasted. He'd felt really lonely, between being separated from Andrea and losing Tate, and kissing his boyfriend was a nice moment of normalcy. Absence really did make the heart grow fonder, he thought. It was interesting, too, what a difference a growth spurt could make - having to lean up was almost like kissing someone completely new.

And then, of course, came the other shoe: "Oh my god, Andrea. This isn't Italy anymore you can't kiss people to say hi."

Finn bit his tongue in surprise and pulled away from Andrea. "Hey, Gabby," he said, turning towards the girl in the doorway. Act cool, he thought, and maybe she won't go running her mouth to everyone ever. He still didn't think he'd totally ******** this up - and if he had, it might still have been worth it for the kiss. "What's up?"

He didn't look at Andrea, because he didn't want to act like he'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar (or his tongue in his boyfriend's mouth, as it were).

"Um, yeah," said Finn. "I'm the guy from the toy store. Name's Finn." He'd break it to her later that he didn't work there anymore - technically he worked for an outdoor outfitter in Fairbanks, but he was on leave and if things here kept up then maybe he'd have to quit that... and go back to the toy store. That was all up in the air in a way he couldn't really comment on right now - he'd rather focus on the present and things like being here with Andrea, and Andrea's whole family by extension.

Saved by the dog show! Finn breathed a sigh of relief and settled into one of the empty chair. "Yeah, sure, I like dogs," he said. "Do you like dogs?"

Maybe if he could keep Gabby distracted and convince her that he was cool, she'd just completely forget that she'd seen them kissing. If she just thought it was a greeting, then maybe she wouldn't bring it up again. He tried to surreptitiously flash Andrea a thumbs up.

The working group was parading onscreen, and Finn's thoughts drifted to memories of sled dogs. "I worked with dogs like that husky that last semester in Alaska," he said. "Unit on wilderness transportation."

"I worked with them - I didn't have them," Finn corrected, but he didn't suppose it would make much difference to Gabby. The dogs he'd worked with belonged to a sledding kennel. They weren't show stock - they were half-wild animals that lived to run and couldn't be brought inside a house. Gabby was imagining fluffy dogs with bright blue eyes. "They shed a lot."

Andrea's finger's around his was a welcome gesture, even if it was a hidden one - Finn was fine with acting closet-y for the sake of a nice family dinner, but after so long apart, he needed reassurance that things were still on between them. The kiss earlier had helped. So did this. So did Andrea inviting him to sit on the couch. Finn nodded and moved over, settling with a good few inches of space between them, as not to scandalize anyone - at which point Lucas made his appearance.

Finn smiled gamely and got up from the couch for a moment, shaking Lucas's hand firmly. "No problem, man," he said - he knew Lucas's type, he figured. He'd be easy enough to get along with. "And yeah," he continued, not sure whether the hyperbole had come from Andrea or Lucas. Probably Lucas had added it. "I was like, fighting with grizzlies in my spare time. Kicking polar bears' asses. Punching them in the nose."

He flexed his bicep and flopped back onto the couch beside Andrea. "Grrr," he said. "And that's what I did on summer vacation. Nice to meet you, Lucas."

Finn rolled his eyes. He knew that Andrea wanted him to lie low and play straight tonight, but there was only so much he was willing to brush off in the name of not blowing their cover. Besides, he was pretty sure he'd passed all the bro tests and made it into Lucas's good graces enough to interject, "Hey, quit using gay as a pejorative." He'd concede that the dog totally wanted to die of embarrassment, but that was about all. "That poodle's haircut is bad and its groomer should feel bad, but it totally doesn't look like it wants to get all hot and heavy with, like, Mister French Bulldog or whatever."

Maybe he'd call his little sister and apologize later for having ever possibly been a jerkface of an older brother. Carefully, Finn reached over and tucked his fingers under Andrea's.

"A whole team of them," he said, changing the subject. "The school had an agreement with a local kennel. They had maybe twenty-five? Thirty adult dogs? And a couple litters of puppies. Those were cute. Little round puddles of fur. And haven't you ever seen Balto? A team of sled dogs can totally fight off a bear. They're temperamental assholes when they want to be, but they saved my life once or twice."

Which was a lie - Finn had never taken a dog team out for more than an hour or two, and with an instructor, but if he was building up a fantastic life for himself then it was going to be balls to the wall.

He gave Andrea's fingers a little squeeze. "I'll tell you more later," he whispered. Alone was, hopefully, implied.