A/N 1: I apologise for the delay in posting this - FFN was being rather uncooperative yesterday when it came to posting fics/chapters.
WARNINGS: Pre-slash Nick/Renard

"I still don't understand how you can make this taste edible!" Hank exclaimed, holding his hand out to grab the platter of tofurkey from Nick. "It's like a culinary miracle – I'm telling you, you could make good money if you ever opened a restaurant."

"Yes, but then he wouldn't be here to cook for us," Juliette replied, laughter in her voice.

"Good point. Forget I ever said anything."

It was over the sound of laughter that Monroe heard the doorbell ring.

"Rose? Didn't Bud and his wife say they couldn't make it?" he asked carefully as he got up to make his way towards the door.

"Yes, why?"

"Well, I know they were going to a Lodge thing instead, so I doubt that they've changed their mind and are at the door, and I know we didn't invite anyone else, so who just rang the doorbell?"

"Oh,, right!" Rosalee exclaimed, "I completely forgot to tell you! Nick and I decided to invite someone else to the party too. You'll see who it is."

The mischievous smile that accompanied her words did absolutely nothing to make him feel any better. When he reached the door and took a look through it to see who was standing on the other side – well, he could that one up as a win for his gut.

After all, the last thing that any wesen in the city expected to see on their doorstep on Christmas-eve was the Prince of Portland holding what looked to be a bottle of wine in his hands.

For a moment, all he could do was stand there and stare. He had met Sean Renard before, of course – but that had been in his capacity as Nick's consultant on all things wesen or as someone who helped Rosalee out in the spice shop, definitely not in any sort of actual social situation. As far as he was aware, there was absolutely no precedent on how to act when a Royal showed up at your doorstep for dinner on Christmas Eve.

It was only when he noticed the amused look on the Prince's face that he realised just how long he had been standing in the doorway, gawping at said Prince. Of course, Rosalee chose exactly that moment to call out from the table, "Monroe! What's taking so long?"

"Nothing, Rose," he called back, before turning to face Renard. "I'm sorry," he apologised, moving from the doorway, "Please come in."

As he entered the house, Monroe noticed that Renard's amusement hadn't seemed to diminish at all – in fact, his smirk had only widened at Rosalee's words and his own admittedly panicked reply.

For some odd reason, Monroe was strongly reminded of a certain Grimm he knew very well. He had no doubt that if it had been Nick in Renard's place, his reaction would have been exactly the same as the Royal's – the only difference might have been that he would have snarked at Monroe a bit, unlike Renard.

And wasn't that a downright frightening thought. He liked Nick, he really did – after all, the Grimm was his best friend. But he wasn't exactly blind either.

Nick Burkhardt could be an extremely frightening person when he wanted to be, and combining that power with the aura of a Royal- Monroe shuddered. It was probably best for his mental health not to think about the possibilities.

"Oh, hey Captain!"

The sound of Hank's cheerful voice broke through his thoughts. The sight that greeted him was just as terrifying as the one that had been waiting for him on his doorstep.

Somehow, he had unconsciously led Renard to the dining table, and he was being greeted rather cheerfully by Nick and Hank – both of whom had full knowledge of exactly who their boss was and what power he held. Worse, Rosalee and Juliette seemed to be almost too calm about the situation – it seemed as though he was the only one who could see all the possibilities for a train-wreck.

And then, to make matters worse, Renard gave Hank a chiding look and said, "It's Sean when we aren't in the precinct, Hank, you know that." Of course, that just led to the horrific realisation that it was almost certain that the three of them had done something like this before, maybe met up at some cop party or something.

The point was, regardless of the tension that had been caused by the revelation of who exactly Renard was, now that time had passed, Nick and Hank were rather comfortable around the Prince of Portland.

And Monroe was good friends with the two of them.

Yeah, that wasn't terrifying at all.

Surprisingly – at least, as far as he was concerned – the dinner actually went fine. There weren't too many instances when he wanted to cower away from the Royal sitting across him, so all in all, he counted that as a success.

But the real surprise came later, when Rosalee invited him to stay on and he accepted.

"What was that all about?" he hissed at her, pulling her away from where everyone else was sitting.

To his eternal irritation, Rosalee just smiled calmly. "I have my reasons, Monroe."

"Yeah, but you know what we had planned!"

"Yes, and I don't think there's any risk discussing wesen around him. After all, I'm pretty sure he knows as much as the two of us, combined."

Honestly, he loved Rosalee, but at times like this, he really wished she wasn't so calm about practically everything.

"Stop frowning, Monroe," she said, leaning up to peck him gently. "Nothing's going to go wrong, I promise."

"Can you at least tell me why you invited him?" he asked. As much as he didn't want to admit it, his voice was suspiciously close to a whine. "It's not like we actually know him, not like Nick and Hank do!"

Rosalee threw him a smirk over his shoulder. "I'm sure you'll figure it by the end of the night," she said, laughter in her voice.

Monroe would be the first one to admit that he needed to concentrate on something apart from the Royal in his sitting room. Roaslee had given him a perfect challenge to take his mind off of that fact – and he was going to figure out her motivations by the end of the night, or he was a bauerschwine.

So he kept a close on eye on everyone even as he participated in what seemed set to become an annual tradition – a yearly round-up of the worst wesen arrested or seen by Hank and Nick.

It took him some time, but it wasn't really hard to miss if someone was actually paying attention. The looks Nick was shooting Renard – scarily reminiscent of how he used to look at Juliette before Adalind decided to interfere – when the Captain wasn't looking were bad enough. To make matters worse, the looks were returned in equal intensity by the Prince.

A Royal and a Grimm. Honestly, Monroe wouldn't have been surprised if this was why his grandparents and parents had warned him to stay as far away from Grimms as possible – there was absolutely no wesen who would be comfortable in such a situation.

(Apart from Rosalee, obviously. But then, he was just as certain that Rose had some special, as yet undiscovered powers that allowed her to deal with this without freaking out.)

The two most powerful types of people in the wesen world, together. There was a reason that Royals and Grimms always operated separately, even when they had been allies – together, they were just too powerful.

And that was what was happening right in front of him.

He didn't know how long it would take for the two of them to get their acts together – he knew how Nick could get, after all – but it was inevitable that it would happen.

Suddenly, Monroe was certain that Portland was about to get far more interesting than he had ever imagined, even after meeting Nick.

…

Investing in a large bomb shelter would probably be a good idea.

A/N 2: So, this is where this collection ends. My favourite part of Grimm is the way they develop the minor characters, who usually only appear in one episode, in a way that I've rarely seen any other show manage, and I really hope that this collection - for all that it was often hijacked by our favourite main characters - showed that. The human angle of the show is just as important as the new supernatural revelations, and that is what I wanted to celebrate.

Thank you, all of you, who have reviewed, favourited, followed, or even just read this story - I'm really glad that so many of you liked it.

I hope you guys enjoy this last piece, and a belated Merry Christmas to everyone! Please don't forget to drop a review on your way out! :)