D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

Bruce trailed off, letting the silence hang in the air until, "Well go on? Where's the rest of the story?" except it wasn't Kat or Lily who said it, but Roxy.

Bruce turned to his wife and raised a confused eyebrow, "What do you mean 'the rest of it'? You where there for the rest of it. I went over my childhood, if briefly, into my teenage years where things started to change in regards for my feelings towards you, and even talked about my last girlfriend before we got together. Though, perhaps I could've been a bit clearer about the fact I broke up with girlfriend Tiffany years before we got together,"

"Yeah, but I'm talking about the other stuff I mentioned when I asked you to go over things," said Roxy with a grin, "Our wedding, our honeymoon, basically everything that we did together after we started meeting up. I didn't talk about it much, and I expect you to go over it now,"

"Roxanne, you where there for all of those events, and you also like to hear yourself talk. I'm perfectly happy to leave all of the recounting to you," insisted Bruce with a frown.

Roxy just shrugged and pouted at Bruce, "But I wanna hear you talk about it!"

Bruce's frown deepened as he realised that while it was true Roxy liked to hear herself talk, and would normally take the lead in pretty much all conversations she could… embarrassing him was still one of her favourite subjects. He was also pretty sure that Roxy was fishing for compliments a bit. It was a necessity when it came to talking about how they ended up together after all.

So a large part of Bruce wanted to brush her off. If it came down to it, Roxy would give in and tell the story herself. She wanted the grandkids to hear their story, and he was including Lily in that umbrella. Despite that though… while she would tell the story herself… it wouldn't really be winning. Certainly not the 'war'. So Bruce sighed again and pulled himself up, mentally readying himself to talk about how they got together.

"Right… well after my break-up I wasn't interested in dating anyone at all. I just didn't see it as practical anymore. I was busy, they would probably be busy… it just didn't seem worth it. During this time though I'd still see Roxy occasionally, both because we worked together and also because I'd see her when I was staying with my parents. Unlike me though, she managed to get her own place pretty early on into her career, taking a loan out for it and everything."

Roxy preened at this admission, clearly quite happy with the fact she'd moved out of home before Bruce, who was perfectly fine to stay with his parents. Especially after his relationship fell through. Despite the looks, nobody actually interrupted Bruce, "This meant that I didn't see all that much of Roxy in truth. Especially not compared to when we were back at school.

"Things started to change a few years into work. There was a period of… I think it might have been a full month? I can't quite remember if I let it go the full month before I said something. Every day that month Roxy was looking worse and worse. At first it was just little things that I only noticed looking back. Her hair wasn't quite done perfectly, then her makeup got a lot thicker… but also less expertly done. Then even that couldn't hide the fact she had large bags under her eyes. Finally, what tipped things over the edge for me, was that time she tried to chew out one of the interns for sneaking up behind her… when it was just a poster on the wall."

"Wait, we agreed never to talk about that!" interjected Roxy with an annoyed look on her face.

"Strange… I seem to remember, not moments ago, you insisting that I tell the story of how we met… could I be mistaken?" asked Bruce 'innocently'.

"Now hang on here. I wanted to hear you talk about our wedding! Not make me look bad!" retorted Roxy.

Bruce shrugged, "Our wedding was fine but honestly it wasn't anything special Roxanne. I loved you, and there was only one place we could've gotten married. My family garden that YOUR father spent his life working on. It was the perfect place and it was wonderful for the ceremony… but the day was standard and the fact we had to make space for so many people meant that it was the worst the garden has ever looked. The honeymoon was much better, and I'll touch on that… but most of it isn't for children to hear about," insisted Bruce firmly.

"Fine," admitted Roxy with a pout, throwing her hair as she pointedly didn't look in Bruce's direction for a few moments.

"So now that I haver permission to continue," said Bruce with a grin, "I saw that and I took a few seconds to really take it all in. It was late at night, I was working overtime I wasn't being paid for, even though I could've been… and so it was just the two of us in the office. I had this… moment of understanding that nobody else was going to help Roxanne, and she clearly wasn't going to help herself… so I asked her…" Roxy groaned, "I asked her if she wanted to visit her Mum and get some cookies,"

Roxy buried her face in her hands as Bruce continued, "and she said 'My mother's cookies taste like shit!' I asked 'how can you say that' and she replied with 'because she keeps leaving the sugar in with the manure' and I started laughing, she started laughing with me… we both laughed together… and then she passed out. Dropped right there in the hallway, straight onto the ground."

"Obviously knowing where her home is, or at least where her parents lived, I bundled her up in a spare blanket, chucked her in my passenger seat and drove us both to my parent's estate. I dropped her off, still wrapped up in a blanket, to Perenelle, and said 'She collapsed at the office. I'm forcing her to take a week off. You're responsible for her' and then left. But of course… being the nosy guy that I am… I kept visiting after work. Every day for that week I forced her to have off.

"Roxy pretended to be upset at the treatment for the first few days… but by the end of the week we were actually talking and that was the start of our friendship. It wasn't sexual yet, not in the slightest. I wasn't looking for love and… I was perhaps a bit bitter about how things ended even if I knew it was coming with Tiffany… as for things on Roxanne's end…"

"I hadn't dated anyone. I didn't think I had time. I only had eyes for money and what I could do to get closer to that goal. Thing is, I always wanted it to be MY money. If I married into wealth then it wouldn't really be mine… and if I was dating someone, I'd be spending that money… and eventually I'd be giving them half of everything. I was telling myself I didn't need or want a husband. Sure men were attractive, but did that knowledge actually get me money? Nope." Admitted Roxy.

Bruce nodded, and took up the retelling from there, "So between the two of us it took a while to move past that. Really our parents helped… and hindered. They joked about it for a long time, and we kept refuting them but eventually the truth of the matter won out. While our parents did joke around about it, they were quite careful to make sure it was never a pressure to get married to each other.

"Eventually we did date, and marry of course, but that's not a surprise. The honeymoon, other than the main activity all couples do, was also our chance to get out into the world. We'd never left the country before and my parents paid for the whole thing. We had a lot of money, and like… six months off. So we travelled nearly the entire globe, stopping wherever we felt like and really taking in the sights. Mostly superficial stuff but it was all just so… different,"

"It was during that trip that Roxy and I learnt what we wanted to do with all our money. Roxy of course, still wanted to be rich both for herself and for any children we might have, but I already had that money, in many ways, and I needed to know how to spend it. My parents used it on their garden and house, keeping them both looking exceptional and up to date through the years. I never realised just how much money they sunk into it, even while they were still making more money.

"For us though, we wanted to travel and buy places we liked, both to stay, and to rent out. It gave us a way to essentially 'excuse' the travel while also looking for wonderful places to set up houses. Sometimes we built, sometimes we bought, but always we picked great locations,"