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Morrigan took a deep breath. She was stressing for no reason whatsoever. It wasn’t like Jupiter was going to react badly. The literal worst outcome was him joyfully declaring to all the hotel staff: "Mog has a GIRLFRIEND!". Very humiliating, but she had faced much worse.
That being said, her nerves seemed more reasonable.
She and Cadence had talked about it the day before. They wanted their parents to know about them. (It had been six years since Mog had left her birth father, and at this point he didn’t even cross her mind when Cadence said 'parents')That warm fuzzy feeling that Morrigan had long associated with her now-girlfriend rose in her chest. The two had been together properly for two weeks now. Morrigan recalled fondly the clumsy kiss shared between the two that quiet night in the light of a campfire. It had been a treat for the whole unit, sleeping out under the stars in the wilderness of the Highlands.
Morrigan, Hawthorne and Cadence had shared a tent for the week. While Hawthorne got up to some kind of hijinks with Thaddea, Arch and Lam on their second night, the pair got talking.
A couple little words. That was all it took. She had just mustered up the courage to walk into Jupiter's office when she realised there were voices coming from the room. Loud, raised voices.
Morrigan's gaze met Martha's across the corridor, and the maid gave Morrigan a subtle shake of her head. Morrigan remained where she was while Martha maneuvered her trolley past the room silently. She reached the lift that Morrigan had backed into, and neither said a word until the doors slid shut.
Martha let out a deep breath. "He does love to rile up the politicians, huh?"
Morrigan gave a small snort. "He really, really does."
"Did you want to talk to him about something?"
"Um," Morrigan hesitated. It wasn’t that she didn’t want Martha to know per se, it was more that she had hyped herself up to tell Jupiter and right now, she wasn’t certain how to put it into words for someone else. "No, nothing in particular. He just hasn’t been around much lately and I wanted to spend a bit of time with him."
Martha nodded sagely. "Father-daughter bonding," she sighed. "What I wouldn’t give to spend more time with my father."
Morrigan bit her lip and gave Martha a hug. It had been two years since Martha's father had passed away, but Morrigan knew how close they had been. Every now and again, she would catch the maid sobbing silently in a corner, but it was getting easier.
"Anyways," Martha brushed her tears off. "He'll probably be a while. But's Jack's back, if you want to go see him."
Morrigan brightened up at this. "I thought he wasn’t coming home this weekend!"
"Surprise!" Martha cried, spreading her arms wide.
Morrigan huffed a laugh as the doors pinged open to the lobby. And there, sitting in the lobby, was Jack. She shouted out to him, and he turned in surprise.
"Mog?" He seemed confused for some reason. "I saw Cadence outside with her mums, she said you were having an important conversation with Uncle Jove?"
Morrigan halted. Should she tell Jack? Before she told Jupiter?
He gave her a sly grin. "About a certain development in your relationship?"
Oh. So Cadence had told him. "Shush," she chided him. "I didn’t get a chance to talk to Jupiter."
Jack's expression turned serious. "Why not? Is something going on?"
Morrigan shrugged. "Shouting at politicians."
"Ah." Jack paused for a moment. "So? Cadence? Want to tell me more? Like how 'she'll never like me'?"
Morrigan punched his shoulder. "Kindly shut up."
A wide smile took over Jack's face. "Oh, not a chance. You wouldn’t listen to a word I said and now look where you are. I am owed details."
Jupiter remained tied up through dinner, and Morrigan was seriously considering just waiting til morning to talk to him, when he finally came down the stairs, giving a weary handshake to the latest stern-looking person in a suit.
He turned to go back up the stairs, but when he caught sight of Morrigan hovering by the reception, he waved her over.
"Moggers! Finally, someone with an actual, functioning brain! Question for you, if we were to remove ourselves from the country, do you think the politicians would still find a way to bother me about their election campaign?"
"Definitely."
He closed his eyes, clearly imagining just what lengths these people would go to in order to improve their chances at another term. "I don’t like your opinions very much right now. If you have a different conversation topic, I suggest you employ it at once."
"Well," Morrigan started, falling into step with her patron as they made their way up the staircase. "There was something I wanted to tell you."
Jupiter raised an eyebrow. "Shoot."
"So… you know Cadence, right? You remember her?" Why was it only now occurring to Morrigan that there might be an entirely separate issue here?
"She's over here enough," Jupiter joked. "I should hope I remember her."
Funny. "Yeah, so, uh, we were on that camping trip last week-"
"Mog, the longer you stretch this out, the more time I have to imagine the worst case scenario, so if you would please just tell me what the issue is…?"
"It's not an issue!" Morrigan squeaked.
Jupiter gave her a small smile. "Okay. That narrows things down. Any chance of some specifics?"
"Cadence is my girlfriend," she blurted.
Jupiter stopped at this, considering for a moment. "You're dating Cadence?"
Morrigan nodded fiercely, having used up all her words for the time being.
Jupiter continued to stare at her for a moment, as though his brain was computing. "You've got a girlfriend?"
Morrigan just nodded again.
Jupiter began hopping up and down excitedly. "A girlfriend?"
"Please don’t overreact…."
"I'm reacting the normal amount. Do I get to bring her fishing now?"
"You don’t fish."
"Too bad." And with that, he flounced back down the stairs to share the good news.
Morrigan rolled her eyes but couldn’t quite hide the smile that crept over her features.