Casmir’s Family

In order to test if Rose was pregnant, Gloria needed a urine sample. The sample was used to test for certain hormones that women start to release in the early stages of pregnancy.

Rose, somewhat awkwardly, agreed to provide the sample.

Afterwards, she and Casmir moved to a different room so that Gloria could test the sample.

Casmir brought Rose into a small side room with a comfortable sofa and a small balcony looking over the back Garden.

"Again, thank you for doing this..." Casmir said to Rose as they sat down.

"Don't worry about it, it didn't cost me anything..." Rose replied calmly yet she was clearly slightly annoyed.

Suddenly Rose realised something as she turned to look at Casmir.

"Did you actually want a lesson? Or did you just say that so that I would come over here and take this test?" she asked accusatorily.

Casmir didn't know what to say, he did genuinely enjoy her teaching but after telling Elena everything, he didn't want Rose's presence to upset her.

"*sigh*.. I don't know. I did enjoy your lesson but it's a bit awkward here, with Elena..." He said honestly.

As Rose heard Casmir's excuse she realised that it wasn't as straightforward as Casmir trying to manipulate her.

Hiring a lady to teach you, who is known as a prostitute, with your girlfriend in the same house, wasn't an everyday occurrence.

"Sorry, you're right. I know my job is a bit.. odd... people aren't very accepting of someone like me." Rose said coldly, clearly aware of how people saw her.

"Ah, no no. I didn't mean it like that, it's just that..." Casmir quickly said, believing that he had insulted her.

Rose smiled as she saw Casmir's flustered appearance, just from this she knew that he didn't mean any harm.

"Don't worry about it. You know, there aren't many young people like you out there Casmir, most people end up making mistake after mistake before they actually try to be honest and understand other people." Rose said.

Casmir felt happy at being praised but he didn't think he was very special.

"I'm sure there are lots of people like me out there.." he said humbly.

It was at this point that Gloria walked into the room with a frown on her face.

"Casmir! You idiot, why didn't you just wear protection!" Gloria shouted at Casmir as she entered the room.

Casmir was taken aback for a moment but only because of Gloria's shouting, he was well aware the Rose was pregnant so the hidden meaning in her words didn't effect him much.

Rose on the other hand was clearly shocked and confused as she questioned Gloria.

"What do you mean... You.."

Gloria calmed down as she looked at the confused Rose, Gloria was clearly worried about her as she walked over and explained everything to her.

"Your urine has some clear chemical traces showing that you are... pregnant. I can walk you through it if you want and we can visit someone else if you want to make sure..."

Rose didn't know what to think.

"Are you sure? Can you repeat the test with me to make sure?" she said softly.

Gloria nodded, she helped Rose up and lead her to her workroom, as they left Casmir wanted to follow them but Gloria didn't even give him a chance.

"Casmir. You stay here. You.. you.. You're going to have to explain this to everyone!" She said strictly, she had no intention of comforting Casmir.

Casmir wanted to go with them to comfort Rose but apparently he wouldn't be of any help and Gloria was clearly angry at him so he just sat there waiting for them.

After 15 minutes Rose and Gloria came back, as Rose looked at Casmir she smiled excitedly.

She quickly walked towards Casmir and hugged him, even going so far as to kiss him.

"What? What are you doing?" Casmir said in confusion.

"Haha.. I'm pregnant Casmir!... I'm PREGNANT! Hahaha..." Rose exclaimed joyfully as she hugged him.

Casmir hadn't expected Rose to be so happy, if anything he thought that she would be shocked and worried.

"Why are you so happy? Aren't you worried?" he asked.

Rose suddenly realised that she was a bit too excited, she broke her hug with Casmir before she explained to him.

"Casmir, thank you so much. I've always wanted a child, it's the only reason I still work at the Golden Flower House. Thank you so much." She said sincerely.

Casmir wasn't expecting this but he very much welcomed it, his greatest fear was that Rose didn't want to have a child and that he was bringing her harm.

"You do?... Hah...Thank god..." He said in relief as his relaxed his shoulders.

At this point Gloria quickly pulled Casmir over and whispered to him quietly.

"You better take responsibility, she needs to stay here. I don't want your child growing up in a bad environment. You go convince her, I need to tell dad and mom about this..." she said harshly.

However even though she said it harshly she was actually quite happy inside, her only concern was how to explain this to her parents.

Gloria left the pair alone as she went to find her parents, Casmir took this opportunity to sit Rose down and talk to her seriously.

"Rose, come live here with me, there's plenty of room and it's a good environment I.."

"Ok." Rose said before Casmir could say anything else.

"What? That was to easy, why did you say yes already?" he asked in confusion.

Rose looked at Casmir with a smile, she was very smart and knew that living here with Casmir was a good choice.

"Casmir, at the moment I'm living at the Golden Flower House. I'm not going to stay there if I'm pregnant. I've been saving up for years to buy a good house for when I get pregnant, I had it all planned out. I never even intended on even knowing who my child's father was, I just wanted a child."

"But having met you, talked to you and seen your house. I would be stupid if I didn't say yes, I know we don't know each other that well but we still have time..."

Suddenly Rose realised something.

"Oh right... you're the only person I've been with in the past few weeks and from what Gloria told me, I'm only in the first week or two of pregnancy so it must be yours. I understand if you don't trust me completely so we could get a paternity test in the future if you want."

As Rose explained her thoughts to him, Casmir felt strangely unprepared, he had thought about what to do for so many different scenarios but apparently all he needed to do was ask Rose one simply question.

"Anyway, all I want is the best for my child and you can definitely provide that. If in the future I feel like I should live somewhere else, I can still move." Rose explained.

Casmir smiled as he looked at Rose before speaking.

"I promise I'll give you whatever you need, Gloria knows a lot about biology so she can recommend a diet for you and if you ever feel like anything's wrong don't hesitate to ask. We have a hot water system so you can relax if you need and.. and we can renovate a room for the baby if you want.."

As he started to think about everything he began to ramble on.

"Hahaha." Rose laughed, causing Casmir to stop talking.

She smiled as she spoke "See, this is why you're a good guy. You don't need to worry about a baby room for months and yet you still are. Hehe.. Calm down a bit Casmir, we have plenty of time to worry about this."

Casmir nodded with a smile.

"You're right Rose, thanks."

"My names Ava Rosaline, people just call me Rose for short." She said correcting him.

"Oh, well do you mind if I still call you Rose?" Casmir asked.

Rose smiled and nodded before Casmir began to ask her about when she wanted to move in.

Casmir insisted that she move in a soon as possible and they eventually settled on this Friday, he explained that his granduncle had an old cart that they could use to ferry Rose's luggage.

It was as they finished talking that a group of people suddenly entered the room, in the lead was a short old man who seemed oddly filled with energy.

"Haha, you must be Rose, pleasure to meet you. My names Alonso, Casmir's my grandson." He said in a gravelly old voice as he excitedly looked Rose up and down.

He then leaned over and nudged Casmir saying "Oh, you've done well here son. How come you didn't tell me about any of this before? I only just learned about it from Gloria."

"Stop it Alonso, he doesn't need to tell you about everything." An older woman said sternly as she followed in behind Alonso.

This older woman was Barbara, Gloria's mother and Alonso's wife.

She walked over to Rose smiling before she introduced herself.

"Hello dear, I'm Barbara. Sorry about my husband but he got a bit too excited over this whole pregnancy thing. So tell me about yourself? How did you meet Casmir?" She said warmly intent on learning everything about the poor girl.

It was at this point that Casmir noticed Gloria standing in the doorway wearing an awkward expression, behind her was a young couple, Felicity and Hiraka.

Felicity being Gloria's younger sister and Hiraka being Felicity's husband.

Apparently the rest of Casmir's family had somehow found out about this whole affair not half an hour after Rose did.

Casmir quickly walked over to Gloria and asked her what had happened.

Apparently Gloria had told her parents that Casmir was dating someone and that said person had gotten pregnant, she didn't tell them that Rose was from a brothel or anything like that.

During this short conversation Rose was basically being interrogated by the overly excited old couple, Casmir realised he needed to quickly extricate Rose from the situation before someone, 'put there foot in it' as it were.

"Ok, Ok. Pap, Granny, I need to talk to Rose privately for a minute, you can talk more in a little while." He said to them.

Rose latched onto this lifeline immediately, she was clearly overwhelmed by the old couple and didn't want to be rude to them.

"Yes, I need to talk to Casmir about.. a date, yes a date." She said awkwardly. From what the old couple had said she assumed that they believed that her and Casmir were dating.

Alonso and Barbara reluctantly let Rose go as they promised to talk to her further later.

As Casmir and Rose left the room, they passed by Felicity and Hiraka.

Felicity looked similar to Gloria, only younger, however her husband Hiraka, was from a different race. He was from one of the Lion race's, he had a similar stature and build to a tall human the only noticeable difference was a lion like face surrounded by a thick light brown mane.

They couple greeted Rose as she passed them by.

"Hello, I'm felicity, nice to meet you. Sorry about my parents." She said having watched Rose be harassed by Alonso and Barbara.

Hiraka meanwhile, spoke in a very deep and authoritative voice as he gently greeted Rose, "It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Felicities husband. I'm glad this young lad found someone."

Rose quickly greeted them both with a smile, "Hello, I'm Rose. Nice to meet you, I'll have to talk to you more later, sorry."

Casmir nodded at the pair before he and Rose finally managed to leave making there way towards the back garden.

"Ahh... Sorry about that Rose. I didn't expect Gloria to tell my whole family immediately..." He said apologetically.

Rose smiled at him, she wasn't bothered by it however she didn't know exactly what to tell Casmir's grandparents.

"Don't worry it's fine but what do you want me to tell them, I imagine you don't want me to tell them I'm a 'lady of the night'." Rose asked

Casmir nodded, he hadn't put much thought into this aspect but for now he simply told Rose to tell them that they met through mutual friends and that she worked for the UNC.

Hopefully his family would be placated by finding out that he Rose worked at the UNC as an Information collector and enforcer.

As Rose and Casmir made there way into the back garden, Elena who was simply doing some gardening notice them.

Looking up at Rose, a complicated expression appeared on her face.

As Rose noticed Elena she innocently called out in greeting thinking this was another one of Casmir's family members.

"Hello! I'm Rose." she said with a smile.

Meanwhile, Casmir's heart dropped as he screamed 'SHIT!' in his mind....