Welcome

[Erick Gilbert]

Erick smiled. Evelyn was way too nice to him. In some ways, he felt he didn’t deserve her, because he could be pretty annoying at times. But she tolerated him, laughed at his most awful jokes and made him feel more like a man than any other person could ever do. He loved her because of how she made him feel, and how amazing she was as a person. Her money was, literally a tiny bonus in any of these factors. Not ever a necessity.

“I’ll still look at houses, and I’m sure we’ll find one that we can deem perfect for us and our future family.” Erick blabbed. Then he realised something weird about his sentence. But he tried to brush it away by smiling and kissing Eve again, then he quickly started packing away the picnic blanket and the cups and everything away, then he stood up.

“Okay! Cool! Yes, yes, a house. That’s really cool, let’s go see it now. Yeah, that’d be good. Then we can check it out and stuff. Let’s go. Okay, yeah.” Erick was trying to keep Eve from thinking about what he’d said, the implications behind it more specifically.

[Evelyn Stark]

Future family?

Erick may have babbled over those words but Evelyn still caught them. She felt a flicker of shock. Future family...She had never really thought about having kids, only when Zoe had brought it up at their party. Maybe one day when they were older and...much older. She wouldn't bring attention to his slip up however. She could tell he was embarrassed about it.

She gathered her things and led him out of the shop, locking the door behind them. Taking Erick's hand, she led him down the street.

"Now...before you see it, I do want to warn you, it's not exactly in the best condition. I will definitely need to be fixed up. But, I think it has a lot of potential and would make a great home..."

She wanted to give him enough warning. She had seen it and immediately knew she had wanted it. They turned a corner and walked down a dirt road which led to a house that was set out of the way. It was dilapidated, falling apart with the foundation and skeleton of the house still perfectly in tact. It looked as though it had been a great estate, but years of neglect had left it to the mercy of the wild. Evelyn was already picturing how they could fix it up. "It'll take some time. But, I figured we could make it just the way we want. The property itself doesn't cost much...well?"

She fidgeted nervously, waiting for Erick's reaction.

[Erick Gilbert]

Erick was extremely glad that Evelyn hadn't said anything about his slip up. With a nervous smile, Erick stood and held the lunch bag awkwardly as they walked around to the house. Erick didn't even know why he'd said anything about having a family with Evelyn; he hadn't put much thought into it himself. But becoming a father... Now he looked at it, he figured he wanted to have kids at least some time in the future. There were couples who had children at sixteen, but he still thought that eighteen was too young as well. After all, it's hard to bring up kids in daily life, there was so much work involved. But Erick shoved those thoughts aside for a conversation that would come far later on in the distant future. He hoped.

For now, Erick snapped back from his thoughts to the present and looked at the house Evelyn had led him to. It was... Not beautiful, but the potential was definitely there, like she said. He could see that it was a very nice house in its time, and it was quite saddening to see it in such bad condition. He smiled and squeezed Eve's hand, and he was already imagining ways that this house could be renovated and changed to fit their needs. He knew that everything he wanted; a big bedroom, a smaller guest bedroom, a modern kitchen and living room and two bathrooms would cost a lot to install, but he could work hard: he'd already proven that to himself. If he could get a few more jobs around town, the dream could become a reality.

"Wow, yes, it's perfect. Seriously, I love it. I mean sure it's in pretty bad condition right now but that's what I expected. A lot of work to be done, but it looks perfect." Erick grinned at Eve and put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into a hug of sorts, but still looked at the house that could, potentially, become their own. He sighed happily and kissed the top of Eve's head.

Their life was all coming into place.

[Evelyn Stark]

Grinning, Evelyn wrapped her arms around Erick, glad he liked what could potentially become their new home. She knew it was going to be hard work, but she was ready for it. She could picture them (well, her mostly since Erick would probably be too excited to sit still and tell people what they needed to know) telling the contractors which room was going to be where and how it should be arranged. Then she pictured them trying to pick out furniture for the living room, kitchen, bedroom, nursery...

There it was again.

Why did her mind keep going there? She didn't want to think of children for several years. In the past she had never even considered having children. Any child of hers would probably have her ability. It's not that she didn't like her ability, she just didn't want her child to struggle like she had. Though, the child would undoubtedly still struggle as life was hard. She supposed if Erick was at her side, it wouldn't be too hard. She looked at Erick and realized she must have spaced out because he was giving her a weird look. She gave her head a little shake and gave him a quick kiss on the lips.

"Sorry...I was just thinking about...never mind. Why don't we go back to the manor and watch a movie or something? Dad isn't home. We could have more alone time."

[Erick Gilbert]

Erick was trying hard not to ask Eve to elaborate on what she had been thinking, only because she hadn’t mentioned anything about his own slip up. He held her and when she kissed him quickly he felt the sensation linger for a little while, and then he squeezed her hand. Looking at the house in front of them, he was already imagining them walking around inside, Eve complaining about the dirty plates on the coffee table while Erick nodded slowly, watching TV and pretending to listen. The kids ran around playing with their toys, asking mommy if they could help her in the kitchen.

Wait, what?! Erick blinked a few times. What the hell? Zoe had seriously gotten to him the other day at their engagement party, now all he could thinking about was children. He blinked a couple more times, but the images were still there. That was creepy.

“Alone time, sounds great,” Erick smiled, but he was still a little freaked out by that vivid daydream, “Let’s go I’ll drive.” He swung his keys around his index finger.