Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Disclaimer: I do not own MIOBI.

I don't know what took me so long with this chapter, especially as it wasn't particularly long. It may be that I don't usually write Mark, so his head is a bit more difficult to get into. Finally finished though, and only a month after Thanksgiving.

Enjoy.

Summary: 16x8 Universe. Sasha had never actually celebrated Thanksgiving and his first experience was beyond memorable. What with crotchety old men, mischievous little sisters, and well meaning parents . . . all of whom believe he's in an inappropriate relationship with his most prized gymnast.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner – The Morning After

~ Black Friday, morning

Sasha Belov was an early riser, but not a morning person, as evident by the way he half-stumbled into the kitchen where Mark was making a pot of glorious coffee. He barely mumbled a 'good morning' to his host before pouring the hot liquid down his throat, the heat and caffeine perking him up enough to drink his second cup in a more restrained manner.

Mark gave a small chuckle at Sasha's expense and continued rummaging around the fridge, securing the best left overs for himself before the rest of the family got up. It wasn't often he got to see Sasha looking anything but unflappable, and certainly not in the last year, so he enjoyed it while he could.

"Did you have a good sleep?" Mark asked casually, flicking a glance over his shoulder before turning his attention back to the fridge. He was sure he'd seen some leftover sweet potato casserole last night it was just a matter of figuring out where Kim had hidden it.

Sasha nodded as he rubbed sleep out of his eyes. As his vision cleared, he glanced around the room, confused by its emptiness given the hour. "Payson's usually up by now," he noted, more to himself.

Mark gave another chuckle and then a triumphant 'ah-ha' as he found his prize. Taking the Tupperware container from the back of the fridge, he turned to face Sasha. "You must be a sound sleeper," he noted. "Payson and Becca were up all night gossiping. It was nearly two by the time they'd actually gone to sleep."

Like any concerned father, Mark had kept an ear out all night to listen for any movement from Becca's room towards Payson's. He felt somewhat guilty for not having more faith in Payson, but there must be some innate mechanism ingrained in all father's that put them on edge whenever 'the boyfriend' was staying over, no matter how much he trusted his daughter (boyfriends, on the other hand, were never to be trusted). In hindsight, it seemed sort of ridiculous to imagine Payson and Sasha sneaking off to her bedroom like teenagers, but in the dead of night it had seemed almost reasonable.

Sasha smiled gently, his expression one that Mark was familiar with. Payson was so extraordinary that finding her doing something as ordinary as staying up talking all night with her baby sister consistently brought a smile to his own face and Sasha was clearly having the same thought. It was easy to forget sometimes.

Realizing that they were the only ones up and would be for sometime, Mark seized upon the opportunity that had been lacking the previous evening. "Sasha, can I talk to you about Payson?" he said, although he was hardly asking for permission.

Sasha nodded with a smile that told Mark that he would humour him, for now at least.

"She really is doing fine," Sasha put in before Mark could begin his intended line of questioning. "I wish I could tell you that I'd been looking out for her, but it's all on Payson. She just takes it all in her stride."

"Kim can't help but worry," Mark answered him with a shrug. Mark wasn't concerned himself. He knew that Payson was capable of overcoming anything she put her mind to and settling into a new town and college life would prove no more of a challenge than anything she'd faced so far.

"I wanted to talk about you and Payson," Mark explained, words heavy with implication.

Sasha looked confused, which once again seemed off to Mark. "I suppose what I want to know here is what your intentions are towards my daughter," he said, wanting to laugh at his own words as he was fell back upon the tried and tested cliché.

The confusion morphed into something else – surprise, concern, and a slight edge of anger, albeit restrained by a cool façade. "You have nothing to be concerned about," Sasha answered with false nonchalance, although he offered no more than that.

Mark sighed. He hadn't wanted to get Sasha offside, and he could understand how his question could be taken badly, but as a father he needed these answers. Something just wasn't sitting right about Payson and Sasha, and he needed to know what it was so he could put any lingering concerns he might have to bed.

So he tried to smooth things over as best he could (words had never been his forte, always Kim's). "I don't mean to pry, Sasha," he offered placatingly. "I'm simply trying to understand where you and Payson are in your relationship." The words came out haltingly, sounding like something he'd read straight out of a practitioner's manual.

Sasha drew a hand over his face, looking more worn than he had moments earlier. "I thought we'd had this talk and dealt with it years ago, Mr Keeler," Sasha said formally, putting him at a distance. Mark could hardly remember the last time Sasha had referred to him in such formal terms. "I know that my relationship with Payson was never purely one of coach and gymnast, and while I understood such concerns while I was still coaching Payson, that time has passed and there is nothing untoward in our friendship."

And there it was. The thing that he was missing – the reason for the ease he saw in the way they interacted. "You're not . . ." he stuttered out, laughing at himself this time. "Kim and I thought . . ." He pulled himself together, forcing himself to complete a sentence and convey his meaning to a very confused looking Sasha.

"We thought you were dating Payson," he explained, laughing at the series of events that had led to this moment and Sasha's very polite suggestion that it was none of his business. They'd been working so hard at being okay with Payson and Sasha's relationship that at no point had they stopped to ask them about it or brought it up in a way that would have gotten them to this point sooner.

"I'm sorry, Sasha," he said, one last chuckle making it's way out before he could stop himself.

Sasha just stared back with wide eyes. "Why would you think . . ." he began trailing off with a befuddled frown.

Mark studied the man before him for a moment. Mark had his suspicions way back when he and Sasha had first discussed his relationship with Payson three years ago that it would eventually come to this. It was why he'd been so adamant about the inappropriateness of their friendship – his desperate, fatherly attempt to try and delay the inevitable. For a brief moment in time (just after the Olympics when they all went their separate ways) he thought maybe he'd been wrong, but then they found one another again and his mind had jumped to the logical conclusion that they were finally together.

But Sasha wasn't ready to hear that, so Mark choose his words carefully. "She's just been so happy since you arrived in Seattle," he said kindly. "And with how close the two of you are . . ." He purposely trailed off, letting Sasha fill in the rest.

"We're just friends," Sasha answered weakly, and Mark let it stand at that for now.

He knew his daughter well, after all, and he knew it wouldn't be long before Payson changed that. And he doubted Sasha would have any complaints when she did.

~ End ~

And this is the part where I remind you all of where this sits in the 16x8 Universe. A month from now Sasha spends Christmas in Romania where his dad, like the Keelers, assumes that he and Payson are seeing, and then the seed that Mark planted takes root (Chapter 16). When Becca visits Payson just after Christmas and they go to see Sasha, she notes that things have changed slightly (Chapter 15). And then in early January Payson makes her move, just as Mark predicted (Chapter 14).

I have no idea why I seem to have posted the whole thing in reverse order, but it seems to progress logically in spite of it.

Thank you all for reading.