"Brim, can Fade please come with me?" Neon asked, probably the sixth time. "My whole family really wants to see her and it's getting borderline annoying with how they keep asking any time we talk."
"Neon," Brimstone sighed. "I've said this like a hundred times now. Fade's in a great spot to cover Western Russia in the event there's trouble there that we need to resolve. You're all on holiday, but you're still agents."
Neon glanced at the map on the wall of the briefing room. "But Killjoy and Breach are in good spots to cover that too," she argued. "And Sova's also going back, right?"
Brimstone rubbed his forehead. "We don't need more agents in Asia," he said. "Especially around Philippines."
"Come on, Brim, please?" Neon said. She could tell he was cracking, but she still needed a good reason to fully convince him. "You know Yoru and Jett probably won't be ready on notice. They'd probably get drunk on the first night. Killjoy's more responsible than that, right? And Sova's there, too."
Getting a brilliant idea, Neon added "And Kingdom will be more wary around Europe, anyway, since the incident at Venice still has everyone uncertain about them. They'd be more likely to do something around Asia where it's farther away."
Brimstone sighed again. "I don't know," he shrugged. "It also sounds like I'm saving Fade the trouble of having to attend what sounds like a very lively party, you know? I don't think she'd particularly enjoy having to interact with all of your cousins and aunts and whatever."
"Brimmm," Neon protested, knowing he was just fooling with her now. He'd probably already made up his mind, but she still needed his verbal approval.
"Alright, alright," Brimstone chuckled. "Fade can go, but only because you're being annoyingly persistent."
"Yes!" Neon cheered, pumping her hand into the air. "Thanks, Brim, I'm going to tell Fade," she called as she dashed for her girlfriend's room.
~~~
In hindsight, Neon probably should've told Fade what to expect before they landed. When Neon was younger, she'd taken part in several good bye and welcome back parties with tons of food and basically the entire extended family plus their good friends and the neighbours.
So when Neon and Fade finally made it to Neon's place, Neon was already tugging Fade forwards and greeting her mother and father and cousins and everyone that had come over.
There was a lot of people, food, noise, and even presents as everyone had pitched in and brought something. There was probably a total of seventy people crowded into their house, yard, and even spilling out into the street and next door neighbours' places.
"Tala! Tala's here!" someone yelled, causing everyone else to start cheering like they were celebrities as Neon hugged her parents in greeting. They started talking immediately, asking several questions, amongst which one was, of course, whether she was eating enough. Neon just rolled her eyes and said "Yes, mom."
"And this is your girlfriend, Hazal, right?" her father asked.
"Yeah," Neon said enthusiastically as Fade nodded less enthusiastically, looking a bit startled.
"Uh, hi," Fade said, smiling a bit, although Neon could see the apprehension in the way she fiddled with one of her rings with her thumb.
Neon suddenly realised how this must all feel for Fade, to be unexpected dragged to the Philippines then being greeted by nearly a hundred people, none of which she knew.
And Neon knew well enough Fade didn't do very well in social situations. She was even awkward in the group lunches they had during recon missions, mainly staying quiet and listening to the others talk. She rarely pitched in and, when she did, it was sometimes something weird or random that Neon found endearing or funny but left others unsure how to react.
Thankfully, Neon had already told her mother about how Fade was a quiet person that didn't really like company and she took everything in stride.
"Come on, come on, we'll introduce Hazal to your grandmother first," she said.
Neon's father seemed to pick up on what she was trying to do and yelled "Alright, move it everybody, you'll have time to talk to Tala later. Make way, make way, thank you."
They made their way to the house where there were significantly less people, most of them being close family.
"Tala, Tala!" Neon's cousins, who had been peeking out of the door upon hearing the cheers, started yelling in excitement as they ran back indoors. "Lola, lola, Tala's back! She's got a girlfriend!"
"Did you not tell Hazal we'd throw a party?" Neon's mother scolded as they entered the front door, slapping Neon on the arm and making her jump. "You said she didn't like big crowds! She looked so surprised when she saw all of us. What kind of a girlfriend are you to just bring her here without telling her? I raised you better than this."
"What-, oh, sorry," Neon mumbled, realising, indeed, that she should've told Fade.
"Don't apologise to me!" her mother said. "Apologise to your girlfriend!"
"Uh, it's ok," Fade said with a small chuckle. "I would've survived."
Thankfully, only Neon heard the 'I think' she added under her breath.
"No, no, Hazal, I'm so sorry," Neon's mother insisted. "If you'd like, you can stay here with my mother. She's very kind and I'll make sure the children and others don't come in. What kind of food do you like? We have adobo, of course, sinangag, pancit, some beef chicharon that Tala's uncle made—"
"You'll probably take an hour listing all the food," Neon interrupted. "You should let her try pancit, because I never had the chance to cook it."
"Hoy! You don't deserve to interrupt me!" Neon's mother said, gently slapping her on the shoulder. "Does pancit sound good, Hazal?" she asked, her tone immediately changing from half angry to what sounded to Neon like overly sweet and kind, losing all hints of the harsh tone she usually held.
She would've laughed, but that definitely would lead to another slap and Neon really didn't want that.
"Oh, sure," Fade just said. "Thank you," she added.
"No need to thank us, Hazal," Neon's mother said kindly. "Tala, go fetch her some pancit," she ordered.
"Yes, mom," Neon meekly said, glancing once at Fade to see her trying to hide an amused expression.
This wasn't exactly how she'd envisioned the return home to go. Well, Neon hadn't even tried to envision it, but she decided at least her parents had accepted Fade easily enough and Fade probably wasn't regretting coming with her too much.