We stayed out for a while longer, me answering questions for a while until Percy suggested we go inside and eat dinner.  I hadn’t realized it was that late already, but the sun was starting to go down so that made sense.

Dinner was nice and simple – Gwen and I ended up doing most of the cooking while my kids decided to turn their questions to Percy and ask him all about being a Vist, so we went with quick, easy options that would feed all seven people.

After dinner, the kids were put in charge of washing the dishes and I went outside to find Gwen reclining on a lounge chair, looking up at the stars.

I paused for a moment, then took the chair next to her.  “Thanks for today, it was nice for all of us.”

She folded her hands across her stomach, still looking up at the stars.  “You really don’t have to thank me.  You all came all the way over here to help me when I was freaking out, then helped deal with the whole Agnes situation, and Sterling was pretty pushy about seeing your dragon form, so I’m pretty sure I owe you a thank you, not the other way around.”

I considered that.  “Call it even?”  I suggested.

She laughed lightly.  “Sure, we can, I suppose.”

She seemed to be wanting to watch the stars, so I fell into silence and turned my attention to them as well.  Percy’s house was at the edge of town, so he had a lot fewer lights to interfere with the stars.  I’d been to places where civilization was even further away and even more stars could be seen, but this was beautiful, too.

“Today was nice,” Gwen interrupted my musings.  “Not just seeing your dragon and Elyse’s gryphon forms, but just – just being part of supernaturals.  I always have been part, but people didn’t know.  Back before I met you, I had these two girls who’d been friends with me for forever.  But in junior high, one time they were talking about supernatural history and I tried to interject something Dad had told me and they basically said I wasn’t a part of the community.  I was ‘just human’ and this wasn’t something I could understand.  Thing is, even if I had been human, my father and brother were still supernaturals so I would still have felt deeply connected.”  She sighed.  “Lately, though – when we went to help Riven with his thing back in Avenglade, there were all these people who knew what we were, accepted us, and then helped keep us a secret.  Then when we told Morgan’s family – Alex’s family – well, they’ve been friends with us for years, so having other people in the area who know has been…nice.  Sometimes I wonder if unicorns made the right choice with disappearing completely and instead if we shouldn’t have just found the right communities that would accept us and protect us.”

“Human family members of supernaturals and protected humans are definitely a part of the supernatural community,” I agreed quietly.  “They’re involved, they’re invested or they wouldn’t have agreed to be protected in the first place.  I’m glad you’re finding more people whom you trust and can be yourself with.  I’m sorry I wasn’t one of those back when we were kids, but hopefully things will be different now.”

“I think they will.”  She sounded confident.  “You’ve already proven that.”  She was quiet for a while, then suddenly sat up and looked at me.  “Wait – I have seen your dragon form before, haven’t I?  Right before we met, I was out in the middle of the woods, yelling about how frustrated I was with my so-called friends and their petty high school drama – I used to go out in the woods to yell my frustrations all the time – and I got surprised by a dragon walking through.  We just kind of looked at each other, then it went on as if nothing happened.  But that was you, wasn’t it?”

She did remember!  I tried not to feel too pleased about that.  “I looked you up afterwards and made a point of introducing myself,” I confessed.  “I thought you were interesting, out in the middle of nowhere, ranting about school stuff, and then you didn’t seem surprised at all to see me.”

Of course, I’d thought at the time she was a protected human, but even protected humans didn’t usually see dragons often enough to be cavalier about it.

To my surprise, Gwen actually blushed.  “I can’t believe you heard me yelling all of that!  I was more shocked that someone had heard me than that the someone was a dragon.  But you used to go wandering around in dragon form?”

I shrugged.  “I was doing the same thing as you, really – letting off frustrations where no one would hear me.  My parents were riding me hard about accidental magic and threatening not to let me stay in high school if I couldn’t control it, so I’d started going out deep in the woods to try to let off as much magic as I could.”

She raised one eyebrow.  “So you’re the reason for the rumors about the random scorched clearings people would find?  Guess it’s a good thing it wasn’t alien activity, after all.”

“Ha ha.”  I rolled my eyes.  “Silly unicorn – aliens aren’t real, don’t you know that?”

She shook her head at me, amused.

“By the way,” I shifted topics again, “we do have to get back tomorrow, but I’m glad my kids got to meet you – and you them.  Elyse doesn’t always like meeting new people but she seems to have hit it off with you, Sterling, and Percy, so I’m glad for that.”

Her eyes got a little softer.  “I’m glad I got to meet them, too.  They all seem like good kids.”

I wholeheartedly agreed with her.  “They are.  They can be complicated and chaotic at times, but I wouldn’t trade that for anything.”

I hesitated, suddenly feeling extremely nervous, but sitting here under the stars, talking with her – somehow I felt like this was the right time to ask.

“Gwen,” I said slowly, “if I were – if I were to ask you out on a date, would you be interested in going?”

She tilted her head to one side, her face betraying none of her feelings.  “Are you asking me on a date?”

That – was fair.  I was trying to find out her feelings on the subject first, and it seemed only fair that, under the circumstances, I make it clear what my own were, first.

“I am,” I confirmed, trying not to fidget too much or make it obvious how nervous I was.  “I’ve always cared about you and regretted not dating you, but since getting to know you again, I’ve become even more impressed with you and admire who you’ve become and I know I’d regret not trying.  I know you were with Bruce for a long time and I’m not trying to replace him.  I think we could be our own thing, though.  I can understand if you don’t want to open that door, but I hope if you don’t we can still be friends – ”

She put a finger on my lips, stopping me before I went full-on rambling.  “I still like you, too, Tony, and I have to reflect that back at you – who you are now is so much more amazing than who you used to be.  I would like to consider starting something with you, but….”  She trailed off uncertainly.

I was filled enough with hope that I took a gamble on what she wanted to say.  “You want to take it slow?  That’s understandable – starting a new relationship after being with someone else for so long can be a big adjustment.  And I am fine with that.  I’m not going anywhere unless you want me to.”

A slow smile started to cover her face and then, to my surprise – and delight – she reached out to take my fingers in hers.  “Then I think…yes, I would like to go on a date with you.”

I couldn’t help the smile which broke across my face in response, but she seemed to be happy about that, so for a while we just sat there, smiling at each other like idiots, until Sterling stuck his head out of the door, looking around until he spotted us.

“Hey, come inside!  Elyse wrote an awesome poem about a Queen Gwenevere and Sir Percival finding an injured dragon, guarded by two unicorns, and seeking the help of a witch and a gryphon to heal it.  I think she might turn it into a full adventure series because what she did so far is too good for just the few pages she did.  Also,” he added as we neared him, “Mom, do you remember what color paint Uncle Percy’s hall walls were?”

Gwen started to ask why, confused, while I groaned, realizing what that meant.

Sure enough, when we got inside, we discovered to my consternation that Elyse had started her poem on the walls of Percy’s house until Jace had managed to find a notebook and had her resume it on paper.  Percy was clearly taken aback, but seemed almost amused, too, shrugging slightly when I mouthed a “sorry” at him.

“Okay, okay!”  Sterling announced.  “We’re going to have a dramatic reading of Elyse’s poem now.  Everyone sit!”  He ordered.

We obediently sat, and as we did, I couldn’t help but think that trying to date Gwen with us both having young adult kids might be complicated – such as getting dragged out of a conversation to listen to a poem, as a random example – but I thought it was totally worth it.  Sure, it might be complicated with Sterling pestering me for updates and my own kids adding in their own thoughts about the relationship, but even complicated family was fun.

I’d made a terrible mistake as a teen and had regretted it most of my life, but now…now I found myself glad that it was now when Gwen and I were starting to date.  Not back then.  If we’d dated back then, Sterling might not exist and I probably never would have adopted my own kids.  My family, hers – it might be complicated, but that made it all the richer.

And I’d gladly embrace the chaos that was this family.