Rose nodded and headed towards the house. Already, she was relaxing. She loved it when she got to visit The Clan. The next few minutes ended up being kind of a blur of hugs and greetings from her family. Before she really knew what was going on, sleeping arrangements were decided.

At least she got to volunteer for the gazeebo this time. She figured Damien would appreciate being able to escape without anyone else noticing, and the gazeebo was the perfect place for that.

"You can go first, if you'd like," Taylor replied. He was already starting to relax and unwind from the flight in.

Damien did indeed appreciate that they'd be out in the gazeebo, but he didn't say that outright. He just shot her a quick, grateful smile. He handled meeting all the family very well, greeting them all with smiles and handshakes, polite as he could be.

"I'm okay." Sera set her things down and moved over to him, hugging him briefly. "Sorry. I didn't realize that was going to be so unpleasant for you."

The initial family meeting had gone really well, actually, and Rose was pleased. Now they just had to survive dinner and things would go much more smoothly.

Taylor pulled her closer to him and gave her a kiss.

"I'll be alright," he said. "I can deal with it."

Damien grinned briefly at her. "See? I can handle the family," he teased her with a brief grin.

Sera nodded, rubbing his back briefly and kissing him again.

"If you're sure you'll be okay..."

"That's good," Rose replied, leaning up to give him a quick kiss before the rest of the family could catch her doing it. Being kissed senseless by Damien wasn't something she wanted her relatives catching her doing. "Now we just have to survive four more days here."

Taylor returned Sera's kiss.

"I will be," he replied. "Now you should go relax." He grinned teasingly. "Unless you wanted a bit of help with that..."

Damien chuckled quietly. "I hardly think it will be surviving," he teased gently. "You never know, you may actually enjoy yourself."

Sera laughed quietly and kissed him again. "Hmm. We'll see about that."

"Well, when you go running off into the woods, make sure not to get caught," Rose teased softly in return. "I'm not explaining to the clan why my boyfriend turns into a giant cat." Yeah, THAT would go over well with the family.

She glanced over when she heard the door open. Huh. Apparently they WEREN'T the last to arrive... Of course, she hadn't seen all of her cousins yet, so it was possible she missed someone. She grinned a bit when she saw the next youngest cousin after her, Brandy, although she raised an eyebrow when a tall, almost effeminate man followed her in. Well. That was unexpected.

"We have all the time in the world now," Taylor teased. He kissed her one more time, then let her go. "Go ahead and take a hot shower or something. You could use the relaxation after that flight, too." How people could stand to be on such crowded planes for ten or more hours was beyond him. He was just grateful it wasn't longer than that.

Damien stiffened slightly when he smelled another shifter, and his head whipped in that direction, focusing his attention on the other shifter. Oh this was going to be interesting.

Sera nodded and smiled a little at him, stepping back before going into the bathroom to turn on the shower. She was half-tempted to not even lock the door. They did deserve a treat after that infuriating flight, after all.

Rose noticed Damien tensing next to her, and followed his line of sight to where her cousin and that cousin's 'date' were standing. Then she understood.

"I think I need to go have a chat with Brandy," she said. She looked at Damien. "No causing a scene." Okay, so she was only teasing him a little.

Taylor went and flopped over onto the bed. It felt good to just stay there and do nothing for a bit. It had only taken ten minutes on the plane for him to remember exactly why he didn't fly well. Traveling was all well and good, but being trapped in a flying tin can for that long with a hundred other people? No.

Damien nodded briefly and slipped over to go have a quick chat with the other shifter. Just so they wouldn't have any problems later on. Or at least they better not have any problems.

Sera finished her shower and slipped out of the bathroom, dressed in sweatpants and a big old t-shirt, still toweling her hair dry.

"Relaxing now already? I guess someone needed a vacation." She grinned teasingly at him.

Rose's chat with her cousin quickly turned into girl-talk. Not that Rose really expected anything less with this particular cousin, but still.

"Have you slept with him yet?" Brandy asked slyly.

"Brandy!" Rose replied indignantly. Her cousin grinned.

"You have!" she said. "You're such a prude, Rose. Was he good?"

Rose just turned red, but that seemed to be all she had to do.

Taylor cracked an eye open and looked at Sera.

"You look like you're more relaxed, too," he said. "Feel better after the shower?"

Damien and the other shifter took a few moments to size each other up before Damien snorted.

"Well. Looks like we're both unconventional."

The other shifter shrugged. "Humans are more entertaining sometimes."

"I know exactly how you feel." And they both grinned briefly.

"Much. I hate flying." Sera pulled a face. "I always feel so icky after I get off the plane."

And then she promptly flopped down next to him.

Brandy grinned.

"Well, I'm off to go secure the gazeebo," she said. Rose smirked just a bit.

"Too late," she said. "I claimed it already for Damien and I."

"You suck, Rose," Brandy pouted.

"You're the one who showed up late," Rose replied. "Not my fault."

Brandy just rolled her eyes and went to go see if she could reclaim her date. Rose rolled her eyes back and went to find Damien.

Reaching out, Taylor hooked an arm around Sera's waist and pulled her closer.

"I don't blame you," he said. "A flying tin can full of irritated people. Not my idea of a good time."

Damien and the shifter both looked over when the girls approached.

"You never did mention what you turn into," Damien said casually.

The other shifter shrugged. "I'm from a bird family. We shift into owls."

Damien paused for a moment at that. Mmm.... Owl.... He hadn't hunted owl in a while...

Sera laughed quietly and scooted closer, so she was right next to him. "Well, we both know what your idea of a good time is," she said with a teasing grin.

"Whatever you're thinking," Rose said as she came up next to Damien, "don't." She knew that look by now, and she was much more bold around The Clan than she was anywhere else. The Clan was family: one big, happy Scottish family. And even if she'd never seen that look on Damien before, she'd definitely seen it on the other side of the glass of every enclosure of the cat exhibit at the zoo. It was a look of 'I've found something interesting and potentially delicious.'

"And what a very good time it turns out to be," Taylor teased back. Leaning over, he gave Sera a kiss.

Damien pouted a little at her but didn't try anything else. He just grinned at the other shifter before focusing on Rose again.

"What now? Any special family thing going on or are we still in the greeting stage?"

Sera chuckled and let him, winding an arm around him. Then she pulled back a little.

"Go take a shower so you don't smell like airplane."

Rose shook her head even as Brandy dragged the other shifter off to meet the rest of the family.

"No, now we get to relax for two days, go to the wedding, then relax for two more days before going home," she said. "Dinner's not for another couple of hours, so we have time to do whatever we want until then."

Taylor chuckled and got up.

"Yes, ma'am," he replied, a little teasingly, as he dug into his suitcase for his shower supplies.

"Good." Damien grinned. "Shall we go investigate our sleeping quarters, then?"

Sera grinned at that. She could get used to that, no problem.

"Better be careful what you say," she teased, relaxing back against the bed.

Rose grinned as well.

"Sure," she said, nudging him towards the sliding glass door. "Out back, up to the gazeebo."

Taylor chuckled and disappeared into the bathroom to shower.

Damien nodded and headed out in that direction, looking around, getting used to the new place. At least it smelled good here.

"You won't be too cold?"

Sera relaxed, waiting for him to finish and grabbing one of her books to flip through while she waited.

"No, it's warm enough around here this time of year," Rose replied. "There shouldn't be any problems. We'll drag a spare mattress in from the garage, grab some blankets from inside, it'll be fine."

Taylor didn't take long at all to shower, and came back out in a pair of lounge pants and a t-shirt.

"It's things like that that almost make me want to say that showers fix everything," he commented.

Damien nodded. "Well, lead the way and I'll get everything set up." He had extra energy to work off, anyway. Sitting in a car all day tended to do that to him.

Sera laughed quietly and shook her head. "Yeah, I know the feeling." She put her book aside, stretching briefly.

Rose nodded and went to open the garage. Her grandparents never changed the code to open the garage with, and she and all of her cousins had memorized it a long time ago. She gestured to a neat pile of mattresses in the surprisingly clean garage. There were five or six mattresses there, ranging from a few twin-size to one queen-size. Once Damien grabbed one to take to the gazeebo, Rose would go inside and get sheets and blankets and such for it.

Taylor went and flopped back down next to Sera.

"So, now that the vacation has officially started, what would you like to do first?" he asked her.

Damien grabbed the queen mattress and carried it easily over to the gazeebo so they could set up in there. Then he went back to the garage to see what else they'd need, like pillows and blankets and sheets.

"Hmm... Well, there's the bar downstairs, all sorts of attractions we can go to. There's ziplining not far from here. There's the ocean, so we could go swimming or something." She shrugged.

"Or we could lay here and relax and watch bad sci-fi movie."

Rose was already inside grabbing bed linens and such, since she went in to get them as soon as she saw which mattress Damien was getting. It didn't take her long to grab what she needed and take them out to the gazeebo. She grinned slightly when she saw Damien carrying in the mattress.

"Now you're showing off a little," she teased him, going over and giving him a kiss.

"Then how about this," Taylor suggested. "We can stay here and turn on a bad sci-fi movie, and I work on giving you a back and shoulder massage?" It seemed like a good enough idea to him, but he would go with whatever Sera wanted to do.