xp_logs | Doug and Duval Colbert

Set Wednesday morning, French time. Duval Colbert asks Doug a few pointed questions about his relationship with Marie-Ange. Doug blushes a lot.

The best part about traveling to foreign countries and staying with
natives, Doug decided, was the food. The Lyonnaise restaurant that he
and Marie-Ange had met Domino at had been amazing, and the small
boulangerie that he was currently sitting in was no exception to the
series of amazing eateries the Colberts had known about. It was a
shame that the trip to France had to end, but Doug was looking forward
to showing Marie-Ange some of his old haunts in Denver just as much as
anything else. He nibbled slowly at a croissant and took a sip of his
hot chocolate. Marie-Ange's father had been giving him a few odd
looks all week, and his body language fairly clearly stated that
something was on his mind. The two of them sat quietly, as Marie-Ange
and her mother had taken a quick trip back to the Colbert residence to
get the last of Marie-Ange and Doug's luggage for the trip to the
airport.

Duval Colbert was -not- a suspicious man. Laid-back and for the most
part, accepting that his daughter was smart enough to make her own
decisions without getting into vast amounts of trouble. Trouble seemed
to find her on its own well enough it seemed, these days. Marie-Ange
was growing up a little too far for his liking - she had left a year
ago shy, quiet and nervous, and seemed to come back poised,
well-spoken and sophicated. This was, he decided, just a bit
unsettling, despite his fatherly pride in seeing his little girl grow
up.

Duval Colbert was -also- not unobservant. He had noticed the glances,
and the quickly-suppressed appriciative look that Doug had given
Marie-Ange when the two had gone out for lunch earlier in the week. He
-had- been seventeen once, and while Douglas seemed like a perfectly
polite young man, and genuinely nice, he was a teenaged boy, and it
was the right - and duty of all fathers, everywhere to ask difficult
questions designed to make their daughter's boyfriends squirm.

"You and Marie-Ange do not seem to have a lot in common, on the
surface." he said, smiling. "She was never the type to look after the
young men in glasses with their faces glued to a computer.."

Doug traced a pattern idly on the table as he paused for a moment.
Marie-Ange's insistence that he learn how to assert himself and not be
so tentative aside, he still didn't quite understand what had drawn
her to him, what he had done to deserve the love of such an amazing
person. He chose his words carefully, because he had a hunch the
whole story was something that Mr. Colbert either wouldn't believe, or
would react badly to. Love potions, telepaths with other people in
their heads, and Manuel. Especially not Manuel.

"I'm not really sure I understand it myself, Monsieur Colbert," Doug
replied. "I've never exactly thought of myself as the sort that girls
would look after." He looked up, a smile on his face as he remembered
Marie-Ange's asking him if he believed in gender equality, and where
it had led. "Your daughter can be...forceful when she puts her mind
to something, though."

"I am afraid she gets that from her mother. They can be both quite
stubborn when they have their minds made up." Duval said, smiling
fondly. Watching his wife and daughter butt heads on the nature of her
gifts was an excercise in restraint. Stepping in to that particular
arguement would either earn him a night on the couch, if he were
honest, or guilt, if he were not. It would pass, and better that he
just let it go until it did. "Which, in a young woman lately, is
probably an admirable trait." He paused to look at Doug directly. "I
was your age once, with a girlfriend who was -very pretty. Do
Marie-Ange's mother and I need to have any reason for concern? If she
has made up her own mind, I doubt that any scolding on our parts will
change it." He hoped that his meaning was clear - the boy's gift, if
he remembered, was translation, and he was certainly fluent enough in
French - with a Lyons accent as well, which had seemed odd, until
Duval thought about it in depth.

Doug realized exactly what Mr. Colbert was intimating, and he blushed
rosily. Now was _definitely_ not the time to bring up Manuel, and the
fact that Marie-Ange had...experience, as it were. He shook his head
vigorously. "No, nothing to worry about," he said. "I mean, yes, I'm
a tennage boy, and your daughter is very beautiful, but I don't think
I'm nearly ready for that big of a step." He blushed again.

If the boy had not blushed - twice, Duval might have been suspicious.
He did raise his eyebrows a bit at the last statement. Douglas had
said -he- was not ready, which either implied that he nad not brought
it up, or that ... No, this conversation had already gotten far too
awkward and potentially embarassing. He definitly did not want to know
what his daughter thought she was ready for. If it had not been for a
nagging worry at the back of his head, he wouldn't have even brought
up the subject in the first place. "Good. In that case, I think I can
avoid embarassing you further? Marie-Ange will probably have words for
me if she comes back to her boyfriend looking nervous."

Doug chuckled in an attempt to dispel some of that lingering
nervousness. "I think she's used to it by now, Monsieur Colbert.
Nervousness and blushing is something of a ... constant state of
affairs with me." He smiled, thinking of Marie-Ange's insistence that
he start asserting himself. "I'm getting better with it, though."

"Still, it would not do for her to come back and find you nervous and
blushing here. She would jump to the obvious conclusion, and I would
never hear the end of it." Duval said. "I am not going to give you
the 'As long as Marie-Ange is happy.' speech. Unless you want to hear
it?" He gestured towards the pocket of his light jacket. "I did
prepare one..."