"Hello, stranger, are you aware that you are an abhorrent minority."

"I'm used to people assuming I'm a sub," shrugs Renée. "I all but encourage it at work. But - yes."

"Ugh, why does he have to be such an asshole."

Isabella sighs and hugs him.

"Wouldn't blame you a bit."

"But then I wouldn't have the nurturing environment of Selene and, again, wouldn't have you."

"If he pulls you out of school you won't have me anyway, lovely."

"Unless I somehow make a new identity for my new shape and enrol again..."

"How are you going to do that?"

"I have no idea," he shrugs. "If I made myself younger and said I took a particularly long time to get out of the wilderness and that my parents are dead and that I don't have a birth certificate and I have a really common name...?"

"Risky. Suspicious. Try it if you want, but I wouldn't count on it."

"Yeah, no, I'm just musing out loud."

Pet pet.

"...yeah I think that's about as much brainpower as I'm going to devote to this before knowing more about how Tobias will react."

"Okay, pet."

"How about we move the conversation back to the part where I get to know my dom's mom and we pretend the thing didn't happen?"

"Oh, of course," says Renée, and between bites of leftover pizza and the last of the tuna salad she talks about her current hobbies and her job and her friends and asks Sadde carefully-delinated similar questions about school and interests and his library job.

And he answers those and asks a few other relevant or clarifying questions back and tries to be generally charming and friendly and it's really really obvious he really really likes Isabella and other than Tobias his life is turning out much okayer than he'd ever expected it to.

Sadde's perfectly fine taking the couch, he's spent years in the wilderness, he's not picky.

"'S all yours, then."

And Isabella kisses Sadde good night and goes up with her brother.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz