Xaviers!

It wasn't long since the Aer Lingus plane had touched down on the runway at Dublin, and had taxied to the terminal. Public transportation was a bit of a chore since Tereza had turned. Too much noise. Too many smells. There was some relief after she exited the corridor into the terminal, but people were still swarming about her.

Tereza is fighting to keep the yellow out of her eyes. Too many threats to track, too many angles... She pauses and takes a deep breath. I'm here to meet her girlfriend's family, she thinks, trying to soothe the wolf. She picks up her pace again, ignoring the displeased looks of the people that her pause had stalled. They were all just sheep anyway... She frowns at that thought. That's not how we think about them. They're not pack, but we still protect them. Right. Sheep. She rolls her eyes and sighs, moving on through the crowd.

Several people around her start and seem to look at nothing in particular for a moment before moving on with confusion. They don't seem to be reacting to her though, so much as something Tereza can't see.

And then she gets the familiar sensation of birds nearby.

"Tereza?"

"No, I can come to you. She's decided they're sheep, so it's getting a bit easier." She continues to weave her way through the crowd, trying to get clear of the press headed for baggage claim, since all she had was her carry-on.

Sam catches that brief hint of panic before Tereza calms down again. "Okay. Assuming they don't give me grief at the security screening, I should be there shortly." She does her best to look normal as she gets in the screening line.

As Tereza goes through customs, things are relatively smooth. However as they go over her passport she's asked to wait off to the side while the customs agent makes a call.

Security doesn't seem to have been involved as of yet.

"Having to wait for them to call," Tereza relays to Sam, fidgeting as she sits and waits. She's conscious of people looking at her, wondering what her problem is.

"Everybody's looking at me. I can see the assumptions and I'm not even a telepath." She meets a few eyes and the people look away quickly.

The customs agent seems to be having an animated discussion with whoever is on the other end, but finally seems to give up and ends the call.

"Everything seems to be in order, then. Enjoy your stay in Ireland."

“Thank you,” she says, trying not to sound too impatient as she picks up her bag and walks briskly out of the screening area. She takes a brief moment to look for the cafe. As she spots it, she takes another deep breath and strides in that direction.

Near the cafe entrance is Sam, looking this way and that before finally spotting Tereza and waving.

"Hey there, everything good?"

"The security guy tried to have a serious talk with someone on the phone, but apparently his concerns weren't shared," she says with a shrug. "Not real sure what it was about other than, well, me."

"Might've just been a code he hadn't seen before or some shite."

Further in to the cafe were a woman and a girl sitting at a table. The woman shows more than a little resemblance to Sam, though her ginger hair was cut much shorter and had some grey showing in it. The girl has dark brown hair in a ponytail, but her eyes are much like Sam's. Those eyes are presently sullenly glued to a smartphone as her thumbs tap at it.

"I swear, this is going to be fine. I think my sister can even contain her remarks with mum here."

Tereza suddenly becomes even more nervous, fidgeting with the shoulder strap of her bag. "You know, I can just turn around and go back," she says, chewing on her lip, even as they take a step forward.

"If you don't do this, we're going to be stuck eating everything mum baked. The way she's been going at it I wonder if she thinks you're a swarm of locusts."

"You didn't tell her about the werewolf thing, did you?"

"No, absolutely not. That's up to you if you really want to tell them, but I wasn't going to spill the beans without asking you."

"Okay," she says, steadying herself again as they approach the pair in the cafe. "Hi," she says, waving slightly.

Having known her, Tereza can tell Sam is nervous too, though she's doing a better job of hiding it. Still, the tension playing in her limbs and the stiffness in her bearing is telling a story.

"Mum, Kat, I'd like you to meet Tereza," she says with a cautious smile.

Sam's mother gives a big, gracious grin. "It's lovely to finally meet you. Sam's said so much about you."

Sam's sister doesn't look up from her phone, but gives a clipped wave.

"Mostly good, I hope," Tereza says, making the same joke that everyone always makes in this situation. "I appreciate you letting me stay with all of you for a couple of days."

"Oh, it's no trouble. The more the merrier at Christmastime."

Sam and her mother exchange a meaningful look, and her mother turns to look at her sister.

"Kathleen Erin McManus, you can very well say hello to your sister's girlfriend."

Kat sullenly looks up from her phone.

"...hello, sister's girlfriend."

Tereza smiles and says reflexively, "Hello, girlfriend's sister." Paradoxically, Sam can sense there's some comfort for Tereza in the snark of the exchange.

"...okay I guess she can stay," Kat shrugs.

"I'm sorry. My sister's twelve. Very twelve."

"Everyone's twelve once. I'm not sure how the world survived me being twelve," she says with a chuckle. "It's not a problem, really," she says, trying to soothe Sam's nerves in turn.

"Also don't take it personal that Dad isn't here. We have a neighbor who walks his dogs through our yard whenever we're out, and he wanted to stay behind and catch them in the act."

"He's sitting with the lights out and looking through his old binoculars."

"It was all I could do to convince him not to hide in the bushes and spring out with a j'accuse."

"Personally, I would have let him hide in the bushes. But only if I was there to watch him jump out at the neighbor."

"I don't think his joints would take the cold as well as you do."

"Ah, of course, the cold," she says, nodding.

"Let me guess, cold is her thing?"

"It's not very polite to ask people about their 'thing,' dear."

"It's alright. Yeah, cold is kind of my thing. If you want, I can demonstrate, though probably not where I'll freak out a bunch of people."

"It's fine. At least it's not, you know, brain stuff."

"You know, there's still time for you to wind up like me, Kat."

"And if she did, we'd love her just the same, dear."

"It's all pretty awesome," Tereza admits, keeping it polite and even. She turns her focus to Sam's mother, "So Sam tells me you've been baking?"

"Oh, aye," Sam's mother beams. "What kind of hostess would I be if I didn't feed you right?"

"You always told me eating nothing but biscuits was bad for you."

"Perhaps, but it's Christmas."

"It's not bad for you at Christmas," Tereza grins, "Magic of the season."

"Hope you like soda bread. Even if you haven't had it, I haven't met anyone who'll turn their nose up at it."

"She's also going to stuff us silly for Christmas breakfast," Sam chuckles.

"I'm a pretty big eater," Tereza says, "Hopefully Sam warned you about that."