"Ugh"
Natalie woke up to the familiar feel of the oddly comfortable couch on her back and her brother hovering nearby with a bottle of water in hand. Almost immediately, she got a sense of déjà vu and furrowed her brows as she sat up.
"How are you feeling?" Stanley asked while holding out a bottle.
She accepted the bottle and pondered the question before coming to a stark realization. The minor aches, pains, and general discomfort she thought insignificant at the time were gone.
So in answering his question, she stated, "I feel pretty good, actually."
It turns out all she needed was a good power nap to work those kinks out.
"Great," Stanley nodded, "I wouldn't want you to faint again."
'Faint?'
"What?"
In response, Stanley simply said, "Ez, get out here."
Then, from out of the kitchen, Ezraphel came, except she was no longer the blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman Natalie had come to befriend and appreciate. Now she was the white-haired, red-eyed, bat-winged, horned, and spaded-tail demon girl who was a veritable stranger to her. Once again, Natalie found herself staring with a sense of déjà vu as the memories came back.
"Oh," she began, "that was real."
"Yeah."
Natalie swallowed "I was really hoping that was just some cancer-induced fever dream."
"You know I can empathize with needing to take a minute to let this sink in, but I really need to get this explanation thing going here, sis."
Natalie tore her gaze away to glare at her brother "you don't get to drop this bomb and try to rush me, Stan."
"Alright fine," he said while raising his hands in surrender before giving her a pointed glare "I mean, it's not like one of us is dying or anything."
Natalie almost flinched at that, but before she could get any deeper into yet another argument, Ezraphel, who had been standing just a few feet behind him, suddenly lashed out with her tail.
*Smack*
"Ow!" Stanley whirled around while rubbing the back of his head "what!?"
For her part, Ezraphel simply gave him a deep frown of disapproval and said, "stop antagonizing her Stanley."
"I'm not antagonizing her."
"Yes, you are." Natalie piped up, causing Stanley to give a side-eyed glare.
The same went for Ezraphel as well, and Natalie instinctively stiffened as those mesmerizingly deep red eyes bore into her.
"The same goes for you, Natalie," the woman demon lightly admonished before glancing at the two of them "honestly, if both of you cannot even exchange a few words without devolving into a meaningless quarrel then it really will be too late."
"Alright, I get it" Stanley huffed with crossed arms, looking every bit at the petulant child "I promise to be good and explain what's going on."
Ezraphel nodded and turned to Natalie with a meaningful gaze "and you Natalie?"
When Natalie found herself under the scrutiny of the demon woman, she nodded "yeah, I promise to listen and let him finish explaining."
Ezraphel nodded "good, now I have to go prepare dinner. Both of you play nice," she frowned "and I don't want to hear any shouting or swearing while I'm in the kitchen."
The "or else" went unsaid, and frankly, Ezraphel looked terrifying enough to Natalie that she didn't want to fuck around and find out. As for Stanley, having become desensitized to her antics, he simply had his head in his palm.
"Just go already," he groaned.
Ezraphel did so, but before she left, she snuck in a few pecks on the cheek, much to Stanley's chagrin, though to Natalie, it was a token effort of resistance if nothing else.
Natalie watched the other woman leave before turning to Stanley and saying, "mom is going to have a field day with her."
Stanley cringed in response, 'not if I have anything to say about it.'
"I hope you don't think you can keep her a secret forever."
"I don't want mom to know about Ez."
"About her being your girlfriend or about her being... you know."
"…yes."
"Well, we both know that's not going to happen."
This time, he scowled, "which part?"
"I'll let your imagination run wild on that one little brother."
Stanley scoffed in response and mumbled something unintelligible while glancing off to the side at nothing in particular.
After a beat of silence, Natalie broke with a question "so…Succubus princess from another dimension, huh?"
He sighed, already tired of the conversation "yeah."
Natalie too felt tired, and for once, it had nothing to do with the leukemia "Jesus Christ Stan."
"Why do I feel like you think this is my fault?"
"Isn't it?"
"I didn't fucking summon her, if that's what you're thinking."
"…"
"You were actually thinking that?" he said in mild disbelief.
"Why else would she be here?"
He opened his mouth to say something likely disparaging, but thought better of it at the last second and held his silence.
"You know that was a joke, right?"
"…yeah."
"So it is your fault she's here."
"Technically," he edged before scowling, "I didn't summon her; she just came here looking for me."
"Why?"
Translation: "what did you do?"
At that, he chuckled darkly " fuckle your seatbelt, Nat, because I am about to tell you a tale."
And so Stanley proceeded to give an abridged version of events, starting from the day he spent an entire night playing videogames and shitposting until the literal crack of dawn, where he went to get some sleep only to be woken up by the sound of something hitting his roof. He told her of their early trials, the distrust, the worry, the threats, and also of the triumphs, compromise, and evolution of their relationship to what it is today.
Intermingled with the retelling of the past year of his life was information on what exactly Ezraphel is, where she came from, what she is capable of, and what she wants to accomplish. This information also included the fact that Ezraphel and her world are eerily similar to a piece of fictitious media that, in itself, is a part of a niche genre that is primarily found in East Asian countries.
So basically, hentai.
If Natalie was being honest, she could have gone without knowing that last part. She made sure to inform him of this and in response, the little bastard replied with an empathic stare that screamed "I don't give a shit" with the absolute implication that he wanted her to share his misery. And so Natalie was burdened with the knowledge that her brother's girlfriend (and Natalie's sister-in-law in all but name) is not only a princess of a foreign empire that hails from a place that is for all intents a high fantasy alternate dimension populated by lewd versions of the typical tropes of that au but that she herself is a powerful sex demon with reality-bending magical abilities and the whose people are currently at war with the humans of that dimension and are known to routinely and aggressively assault, brainwash, and supplant humans.
And the kicker is that they do this all without maliciousness and purely with the intention of saving humanity and making their world a better place where both species can live and thrive together. He then directed her to the wiki page of the fictitious media that this fantasy world is based on. Once she got past the cringe of reading what is essentially niche fetish pornography and immersed herself in the lore, Natalie was not at all reassured of Mamono's intentions. She supposed they meant well, but their tactics leave a lot to be desired.
That's not even going into their overall culture and general disposition. At least now she knows why almost every other conversation with Ezraphel centered on her relationship keeps veering into sexual territory. It turns out it wasn't so much Ezraphel's quirkiness as it was literally what counts for normal conversation amongst her people. By the end of it all, some time had passed, and Natalie was splayed out on the couch with her palms rubbing into her eyeballs, trying to recover from staring at her phone screen.
"I hate you so much right now, Stan," she groaned.
"On the upside, Ez is…cool now."
Natalie paused and glanced at him "why did you hesitate just now?"
"I mean, don't get me wrong, she's still an insatiable nympho, and there might have been an incident where she subconsciously corrupted the fiancée of a friend of mine," he added in a mutter.
Natalie, however, caught that one and jolted upwards, wide-eyed "wait, WHAT!?"
"BUT," he powered through, "that incident was resolved, and we're working through our issues!"
"No-no-no, run that by me again" Natalie spoke loudly while making a rewinding motion with her hand. "Ezraphel did what now?"
It took Natalie much time to squeeze the information from him, but with great reluctance, Stanley explained the incident that occurred during their outing with his friends. To say that Natalie's confidence in their relationship was rattled would be an understatement.
"And you say she's 'cool' now?"
"Yes," and this time he said it with all the confidence of a man who knows what he's talking about.
With such confidence and trust on display, even Natalie couldn't find it in her to dispute him, so she acquiesced.
"Alright then."
This actually caught him off guard, as he was expecting her to put up more of a fight.
"That's it?"
"Yep."
"You're just going to take my word for it?"
"Look, Stan, I figure at this point either you have a handle on her or she has a handle on herself. Either way, if neither of you didn't, then I figure the global situation would be a lot different if what you and that wiki site say are true."
She's not wrong, and even Stanley, of all people, knew that much to be true.
Natalie sighed before smirking "I guess the only question now is when you're planning to have the wedding-HMPH!"
It was barely a moment after the word left her mouth that Stanley, in truly superhuman feet of speed, practically teleported the distance between them and clamped a hand over her mouth.
"Do not say that word," Stanley hissed with gritted teeth and a manic glare in his eyes.
Natalie wanted to ask why as well as give him an earful for covering her mouth when they were interrupted.
"Hey…"
It wasn't so much the voice as it was the feeling of being stared at that got their attention. In unison, the siblings turned to find Ezraphel standing at the doorway leading to the kitchen.
'When did she get there?' Natalie wondered to herself with some trepidation.
It wasn't as if the doorway was in their blind spot; she should have noticed even when talking to Stan, yet she didn't. One moment there was no one, and the next Ezraphel was standing right there.
"What are you doing?"
"Nothing," Stanley said, backing away from Natalie.
"It didn't look like anything. You two weren't fighting, were you?"
"We were talking, and Nat said something stupid, so I shut her up."
In response, Ezraphel's eyes narrowed "what were you talking about?"
"Catching her up on the incident with Amelia," he answered.
"Ah," with that, Ezraphel's body language changed: "speaking of Amelia, I forgot to mention she wants me to accompany her in a few weeks time to discuss some details of her wedding."
Stanley turned away from her "cool."
Ezraphel gained an unreadable expression as she began to leave, only to turn back as if remembering something "oh, I'm just about finished with dinner, so you can sit by the table if you wish."
"Okay."
In response, Ezraphel hummed and finally left, though her gaze lingered on him the entire time. For a while, there was silence as Natalie looked between Stanley and where his girlfriend left. Only an idiot or someone who is socially inept wouldn't figure out what was going on, and Natalie was neither of these.
"You know-"
"Shut up."
"I think she's trying to tell you something," she continued unabated.
"I know."
"Are you even planning on popping the question at some point?"
"We're already married in all the ways that count."
"Yeah, but not in the way that counts for people outside your circle," Natalie said "do you even refer to her as your wife?"
He didn't meet her eyes as he answered "we got bigger things to worry about right now."
"I'm pretty sure to her it's a big deal."
"Yeah, well, as much as I'd like to do the damn thing and get it over with Ez is gonna want to make it a big thing."
"Worried about the cost?"
"Yes," he said immediately, "but more than that Ez doesn't exactly have the credentials for all that anyway."
"What do you..." Natalie trailed off before coming to the realization "oh."
"Yeah" he grunted.
Technically, Ezraphel is an illegal alien and does not exist on any database. She didn't have any kind of official identification, documents or birth certificate so she wouldn't be able to get married. Or rather, her marriage wouldn't be recognized in the legal sense.
Natalie was brought out of her thoughts by Stanley's next words, "not that it matters right now since there's a more immediate concern."
"What's that?"
"You."
"Me?"
"Ezraphel can solve your uh, cancer situation."
Natalie was taken aback.
She wanted to say something, either to express her doubts about his claim, make an angry retort about accepting her situation for what it is, or articulate her worry about him clinging onto false hope. In the end, she did not act on any of the three immediate choices for a retort, and instead she swallowed. Her mouth suddenly felt dry enough that she almost took a swig from the water bottle. She didn't, which was unfortunate because her next word was interrupted by a cough, causing her to clear her throat before starting over.
"F-for real?"
"I wouldn't jerk you around with this, Nat," he said with the utmost seriousness, "and there's a catch."
"What's the catch?"
"Ez is going to have to explain that part," he answered before leaving the room.
As he exited the room, Natalie was left to ponder his words. It was a good thing she was already seated because she felt absolutely drained in that moment and would have likely collapsed. For a long moment, her mouth worked with no sound for a moment before her lips pursed. As her mind raced, she lost track of time until...
"Natalie?"
The woman blinked and looked to find the inhuman visage of Ezraphel once again standing by the doorway, having seemingly appeared out of thin air yet again.
"O-oh, hey Ez."
"We've set up dinner."
'Already?' She wanted to say, but a glance at the clock hanging on the nearby wall made her realize just how long she's been sitting there.
"Right," she said, standing up and finishing her bottled water.
For her part, Ezraphel did not immediately leave "Stanley informed me that he explained everything to you."
"He did," Natalie answered, then added with a rueful smirk, "though something tells me he's leaving out some stuff."
Ezraphel matched her smirk with a smile "of that, I have no doubt. I am willing to further discuss things after dinner."
Natalie's smirk turned into a grin "hell, let's talk about it while we eat."
Natalie hadn't forgotten about the series of events that led to her fainting in the middle of the living room. In retrospect, she blamed his pissy attempts as much as her condition.
'He deserves to squirm for a bit after that crap he pulled earlier,' she thought with a gleam in her eye.
At that, Ezraphel giggled, "well, we should not keep him waiting now."
"Yeah…" Natalie paused for a moment, a bit unsure of herself, before taking the dive to ask her directly, "can you actually cure my leukemia?"
The question gave Ezraphel pause as she regarded her, and Natalie felt a pit in her gut as she shook her head. "I cannot cure your affliction. Unfortunately, I do not possess a great enough expertise in Pharmacomancy to do such a thing."
Natalie had no idea what Pharmacomancy was exactly but understood the context and felt disappointed with the answer.
"Oh…"
She perked up when Ezraphel continued "I can, however, make it so that your illness becomes a non-factor."
As she spoke, Natalie felt those red eyes staring directly into her soul, causing her to swallow thickly.
"H-how?"
"By turning you into a Mamono."