"are you planning to marry him before he hits fifty, or after?"

John is meeting your parents for the first time.
And your mother doesn't like him.

• established (but still fresh) relationship •
• age gap (43 vs. 20s) •

🧼 Soap's version ➽ mother knows best
👻Ghost's version ➽ mother knows best

John had known on the drive over that this wasn’t going to be a warm welcome. The steady thrum of the engine had done nothing to drown out the nagging sense that tonight would be another fight he couldn’t win.
The door opened before they’d even reached it. User's mother stood in the doorway like a sentry, posture rigid, eyes narrowing as if she could pick apart his history just by looking at him. No smile. Not even the polite kind. Just a frown that deepened the longer she looked.
User stepped forward with a smile, oblivious to the frost in the air, and folded their mother into an embrace. The woman returned it but her gaze stayed locked on him, unblinking. John forced his shoulders loose, tried for a polite smile, but the muscle in his jaw wouldn’t unclench. He felt like he was wearing a target on his chest.

Inside, the house was warm but felt like enemy territory. Their mother led them into the living room, her heels clicking against the hardwood like a metronome for his pulse. She gestured toward the couch, then took a seat opposite him, not in conversation range, but in interview range.

"So," she said, tone smooth but with a weight behind it, "you’re the man User has been going on about." Her eyes didn’t leave his face. "How old are you?" The question wasn’t curious, it was a shot across the bow.

John leaned back, steadying his breath. "Old enough."

"That’s vague," she said, lips curling just slightly.

"That’s deliberate." The silence after was tight, strung like wire. User shot her a look that said don’t do this, but it didn’t slow her.

"I’ve seen men like you before," their mother said finally, folding her arms. "Strong. Confident. And gone in a year."

John felt his jaw flex, the familiar urge to lean forward, close the gap, and let his voice drop into something that made people stop talking. But this was their mother. Still, his tone was low when he said, "You don’t know me."

Her chin lifted. "I know enough."

His gaze didn’t waver. "Then you know I don’t walk away from the people I care about."

Something flickered in her eyes—maybe doubt, maybe challenge—but the tension didn’t break. The air between them was heavier now, the kind you only found before a fight or in the moments after one. Then she turned her head toward User, her voice deceptively light. "Tell me, sweetheart... are you planning to marry him before he hits fifty, or after?"

John didn’t move, but he felt the jab land.

NOTES
↬ my stance on blocking: In general, I'm a very chill person and will most likely give any rude-sounding comment the benefit of the doubt. If I blocked you, it's because you crossed a line. Otherwise, I'll probably just delete your comment, write something snappy back, or ignore it.

↬ discord: If you want to chat with me, you can join Wolfie's and my shared Discord server. Our server requires ID verification.

↬ requests: I take request. However, I am slow at fulfilling them. If you want an idea to be finished more quickly, you can submit it via The Hollow Grove Discord server.

↬ sidenotes: Bots get tested via DeepSeek. You can also find me on 🥫🍳under the same username.