A step towards acceptance

"I hope you like my family." Rose said.

"Yeah, me too. Would be a shame, especially since, you know, my situation." Bit said.

Rose heart chuckled. "And I don’t think they would like your family either." They opened the door and were greeted with two smiling faces. The third was buried in a book.

"Hope you don't mind me staying here." Bit said, forgetting to introduce himself.

"Mom, Dad, this is Bitmaker. We are home early because of a little fight at the night restaurant."

"Oh my. Are you two alright?" Worriedly asked Rose's mother, standing up to inspect the two arrivals.

"Come on Buttons, they look alright. Must've been a fight with words." Her dad said.

"Well, what happened?" Her mom asked, backing off to return to her seat.

"Well, the thing is, me dad isn't, or ever will be on board with me seeing anypony. And he called on my little brother to spy on us. And we thought it might be best for me to stay here." Bit explained.

"Well, sure you can-"

"Don't trust him dad." He started then interrupted by Rose's big sister. Everypony stared at her for a minute. She looked up from her book. "What?"

"Yes, you may stay here with us." 'Buttons' finished for her spouse.

Later, when everypony slept. Rose and Bit considered their date not over yet. "Remember when I said you remind me of somepony?" Rose whispered, not to wake the others.

"Yeah why?"

"The pony you remind me of is my gramdmare." Silence followed for a few seconds.

"How?" Bit whispered.

"I don’t know. I think it might be your personality."

"Don’t quite know how to respond to that."

"Didn’t think you would. Also, you never answered my question. What is your family life like?"

"Better than yours. My mom left a couple months ago, my father comes home from work an angry, drunken mess. And I end up taking care of my brother and sister, while avoiding him. Hey, at least I know how to cook."

"I had no idea it was that bad. I thought you just didn’t have your dad's permission yet."

"Not having his permission might be sugar coating it a little." Bit looked up at the clock. "Wow. It's really late. Well, goodnight."

"Night."

The next morning, Bit as usual, woke up earlier than anypony, which is a habit created by his strict work and home schedule. So, what he would do like any bear waking up from hibernation, go downstairs and find the free breakfast. Which he eventually did find, and made some waffles and cereal for the others he was staying with. After he was finished with all this, he wrote a note to them as soon as they woke up. And it read: "Thank you all for letting me stay the night. My father must've forgotten about this by now. I returned home by the time you read this."

*    *    *

When Bit opened the door to his house, he was hit and knocked on the fragile wood floor. He looked up and saw his father, mad beyond what words can describe. "You..." *smack* "...went..." *smack* "...anyway!" *smack*

"And you should be at work!" Bit yelled, forgetting that it's Saturday. "

"Wake up pretty boy, it's the weekend!" Rose would be leaving later today. This fact punched him harder than his dad ever could.

"What? Did you think ya think would happen if you went along with this? I'd go easy on ya because you smashed?"

Bit received another beating and saw his brother sitting in the hallway, scared and actually looking sorry despite his actions. With this thought, he kicked his father and ran away.

Bit returned to the Inn and when Rose’s sister opened the door they saw a bloodied, bruised and tired pegasus. “I've thought about it, and I think that my home is no longer a safe place I can stay. So I might want to ride with you guys until I've saved enough to buy my own place.”

---The End---