Left to her own devices without magic training from Ezraphel, there wasn't much for Natalie to do. She could be sleeping, browsing the internet, watching TV, playing videogames, or taking a shot at annoying her brother. Unfortunately the latter was taken out of her hands by Stan leaving the house to go meet their mother.
And isn't that a sentence she thought she'd never consider unironically?
Natalie was pretty sure she would have to work with Ezraphel to stage an intervention and get him to consider calling her, let alone meeting her. Yet once again she underestimated her brother's capacity for change which was starting to become a problem. How many times was he going to break expectations for her to reconcile the current man that he is now with the past boy she knew and raised for a significant portion of his life?
Luckily she didn't spend the entire time pondering on the meeting between her sibling and parent. Instead she returned to what she had been doing before getting sidetracked by her brother's attempt at sneaking out the house behind his girlfriend's back. She got right back on the couch and went to sleep.
Meanwhile…
"Hehehehehe"
In the confines of the Demon Realm, giggles of a deranged sort could be heard.
"It's finally finished—kukuku—HAAAHAHAHAHAH"
As Lilim broke down into gleeful hysterical laughter that would make anyone listening question her sanity, she just couldn't help it. She's been at this nonstop for literal days on end, only taking breaks to fulfill her customary duties as a wife. Even then, it was never for long, and in that time she had to leave right after to get back on this project.
"All for the perfect birthday gift for my Stanley~" More giggles followed before silence.
Then…
*SLAM*
Ezraphel fell to her knees and began slamming her fist on the ground repeatedly, letting out all the stress and frustration accumulated over the past several days. Finally, she turned her head to the sky and let out an ear-piercing scream.
"AAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!"
The scream amplified by her mana echoed across the vast emptiness of the Demon Realm for seconds even after she stopped. Ezraphel stayed hunched over on her knees for what felt like an hour but was more like a few minutes before she was roused by a hand on her shoulder. Looking up she found A looking blank-faced as usual yet conveying her reassurance through her brand of magical telepathy.
"How much of that did you see?"
"…"
"All of it?" The Lilim sighed at the 'answer' given.
The Golem continued rubbing her shoulder silently.
"I'm alright just…frustrated," she leaned against the Golem "I haven't had sex all week. You have no idea what that's like."
And that's when the shoulder rub stopped and the aura of reassurance dissolved like smoke in the wind. Noticing the change, Ezraphel looked to see A's blank expression looking more deadpan than usual. Then she realized she was just complaining about the lack of sex to a Golem who has to spend most of her days isolated in a pocket dimension and winced.
"O-oh, um..." she winced then cleared her throat "ahem, I think we've both earned some quality time with our husbands."
A gave a sharp nod that betrayed her eagerness and helped Ezraphel to her feet. Then without her usual gestures she teleported out of the Demon Realm and into the house proper. The plan was to take a nice long bath, make a mid-afternoon snack for her Stanley, and then convince him to give her a snack. That plan all but fizzled out when she realized that her Stanley wasn't in the house at all.
Now as surprising as this was it wasn't exactly uncommon for her Stanley to leave the house without prior notice. Plus with how busy she's been Ezraphel didn't expect him to go out of his way to tell her about it if it was nothing of consequence. Except she had the suspicion that this wasn't like those other times, and it all started with a particularly not-so-smelly smell.
*Sniff* *Sniff*
That was the scent of one of three colognes she picked up for Stanley and convinced him to buy. Stanley only wore cologne when he's going to be around people for a prolonged amount of time. The type of cologne he wore depended on the type of outing and the importance he placed on the people he may or may not be around. In the case of this particular cologne he only wore it for their dates which says a lot about where he went and, more importantly, who he might be hanging around with.
"Hmm…"
With a hum to herself and furrowed brows Ezraphel made her way to the closet where she confirmed her suspicion. One of the pre-assembled wardrobe sets she had made for their outings was gone. This meant that this outing was not for business but was of a casual affair and a rather intimate one at that. In other words it was important and he didn't tell her about it which did not sit well with her.
With a scowl on her face she attempted to reach out to him through their bond. The key word being attempted as before she could 'connect' Ezraphel was hit with the telepathic equivalent of a hand being shoved in her face.
Recoiling from the action Ezraphel took a moment to blink.
"What?"
She couldn't believe this. He was blocking her.
Her Stanley was blocking her.
"…what?"
This has never happened before.
His magic training wasn't going as well as it could have been, largely due to Stanley not being receptive to Ezraphel's teaching methods. Despite the setback he was able to gain an understanding of magic as well as being perceptive to changes in mana and spell activation in his general vicinity. Now she could no longer sneak up on him but while he could tell when a spell is being cast or mana is being utilized in his presence he never showed that he could do more than that.
Being able to even resist her attempts shouldn't be possible let alone outright blocking her. And for a moment Ezraphel simply stood there in shock before grabbing at her hair and releasing a scream of frustration and stomping her foot so hard that it shook the room. Luckily this localized tremor did not carry past the room itself
For a moment the thought to simply overpower his block entered her mind, but that thought was easily swept aside. There was probably a good reason why he was keeping this from her and she would find out about it when he returned anyway.
On the other hand...
"I am way too curious to just let it be!" she groaned.
And luckily for her, there just so happens to be another person in the house who might know what was going on.
Meanwhile…
Natalie was enjoying her nap until...
*Poke*
Her brows furrowed at the disruption.
"Natalie~" the mesmerizing voice came into focus as consciousness seeped into her mind once again.
*Poke* *Poke* *Poke*
"Hrm?"
"Wake uuuup~"
*Poke* *Poke* *Poke* *Poke* *Poke* *Poke* *Poke* *Poke* *Poke*
Finally having enough, Natalie's hand reached up to slap the offending appendage, disrupting her sleep away with a growl.
"I'm up, fuck," she groaned.
Pale red eyes fluttering open to the closed-eye smiling visage of a certain Lilim that was way too close for comfort. The shock was almost enough to get her heart beating...but not quite. It did succeed in knocking the sleep out of her.
"Uh, hey there," the Wight said awkwardly.
"Hello Natalie~" Ezraphel sweetly asked "did you enjoy your nap?"
"Yeah…?"
"That's great~"
Natalie's lips pursed as she decided to extricate herself from close proximity to the other woman, who was decidedly not acting like her normal self. Sitting up on the couch and scooting away for good measure, the Wight was now fully awake.
"Did you need something?"
"As a matter of fact, yes," the Lilim stood up "did you happen to catch Stanley leaving the house earlier?"
Natalie paused for a bit "yeah, he said he was going to be out for a while."
"Did he by chance mention where he was going?"
Natalie was already a bit perplexed by the line of questioning, but now she was actually observing the other woman.
"Shouldn't you already know?" She questioned "since you have magical surveillance and all that."
"I was a bit preoccupied at the time, as you already know."
'So she's not omniscient inside the house. Good to know but...
"That still doesn't explain why you're asking me about it if you've got a literal magical connection with him."
At this, Ezraphel's brows furrowed "you're being oddly reticent about answering my simple question, Natalie."
"Well Stan did tell me not to tell you what he's up to."
She did find it weird he would even say something like that given they were both aware of the reach of Ezraphel's abilities through their shared bond. At least Natalie thought she did, but apparently her brother knew something that she didn't.
"Now I'm curious why you're not using it to find him."
Ezraphel looked away muttering lowly.
"What was that?"
"I said Stanley is blocking me!" She snapped.
Natalie's eyes widened "oh! Oh shit. He can do that? I didn't know he could do that." She paused at the annoyed expression on Ezraphel's face "and I'm guessing you didn't either?"
Ezraphel collected herself and schooled her expression "Stanley continues to exceed my expectations."
"If you say so."
"Now will you tell me what was so important that he is going through all this trouble to keep it a secret from me?"
"What's in it for me?" She asked, and at the unimpressed look Natalie rolled and scoffed, "come on you should have known I wasn't going to just give you this for free."
"And I assume the thing you want is to be taught magic spells without the wager coming into play?"
Natalie grinned, "you know me so well."
"Very well."
"Alternatively, you could have just waited until he comes back."
"Natalie" Ezraphel intoned testily.
"Right, so Stan is actually meeting with-"
Just then her phone started ringing interrupting whatever she was about to say. Ezraphel looked about ready to obliterate the thing as her gaze snapped to the device so fast she thought she heard a whip crack. As for Natalie fearing for her phone, she snatched it away using her spectral hands to retrieve it and held it up to see who was calling.
"Speak of the devil," she muttered and answered the phone "hey Stan, I was just thinking about you."
There was a brief pause before, "is Ez in the room with you by any chance?"
"Standing right in front of me actually."
"Put me on speaker."
She did just that.
"You're loud."
That was Ezraphel's cue to speak, "hello Stanley, are you enjoying your clandestine meeting?"
"If you're asking that then Natalie hasn't sold me out yet," was his dry reply.
"Your call literally interrupted," Natalie informed. "It was kind of weird actually; it's almost like you knew what I was doing and stopped it."
"You're imagining things. So Ez long story short I took your not-so-subtle advice the other day and reached out to my mom."
Abruptly Ezraphel's frown dissipated as her hands covered her mouth dramatically. Not that it seemed to do much since the gasp she released was very audible if nothing else.
Natalie for her part simply asked, "how's that going by the way?"
The question had Ezraphel leaning in with a grin of anticipation, "Yes, Stanley, how is meeting your mother?"
"It's... fine, I guess. We talk a bit—look, that's not important right now."
"I disagree but continue."
"So some stuff happened and I may or may not be inviting her over."
The news stunned both women, who met each other's gaze before looking back at the phone.
"How did that happen?" Natalie questioned.
"That's not important."
"Bullshit/I disagree, Stanley," both women said at the same time, one again meeting each other's gaze.
"Look, I just want to know if it's cool if she could come over for a few hours; maybe stick around for dinner."
"I can hold an illusion disguise, so I don't mind" informed Natalie.
"Oh, uh…"
"What?"
"I kinda forgot to mention you were staying with us."
Natalie's expression turned to mild disbelief "you're fucking with me."
"..."
"It's been an hour, and you couldn't even mention that I was staying at your place."
"Not my fault you never came up in conversation."
"No, it's totally your fault!"
He ignored her and instead switched to addressing Ezraphel with "you're being very quiet, Ez,"
Luckily for him Natalie was curious about Lilim's silence as well and saw that she had an expression of intense concentration.
"I am not against the idea but why invite your mother now?"
"…She may or may not think you're a gold digging thot manipulating me for my money."
Ezraphel sputtered, "e-excuse me!?"
Natalie went wide-eyed but nodded "yeah, that makes sense."
"Natalie!?"
The Wight shrugged though, "I thought the same thing too," she admitted, and upon seeing the Lilim's expression, she added apologetically, "no offense, but you getting with my brother under normal circumstances falls under the 'not in a million years' umbrella of unlikely scenarios."
"Ugh," Ezraphel face palmed.
It wasn't as if she wasn't aware of what people thought about her when they view her and Stanley's relationship from the outside looking in. She could ignore it, but that didn't mean she couldn't get annoyed with people assuming that she's some floozy taking advantage of an unfortunate man. It just hit a bit harder when people whose opinions she actually cared about think the same thing.
"It's your decision Ez. You want to meet mom today or wait until—I don't know—like next week or something."
Well currently she's mentally tired, horny as all hell, and quite a bit spirit energy starved. The smart thing to do would be to postpone the visit until she's in a better condition physically and mentally. On the other hand, she really wanted to meet with her mother-in-law, so...
"Yeah, you should put a pin on that for another day."
Ezraphel blinked as Natalie answered for her "Natalie?"
"Your girl looks stressed enough as it is without worrying about mom breathing down her neck."
The Lilim's mouth clicked shut, and together they looked at the phone as Stanley seemed to ponder the answer.
"Ez?"
Ezraphel's gaze flicked between Natalie's raised brow and the phone before gathering herself.
"It is as she says Stanley."
"Okay, I'm going to stick around for a bit with mom, so I probably won't be back for a while."
"Understood"
"And don't tell her I'm staying here."
"Weren't you just pissed about me not mentioning you in the conversation?"
Natalie rolled her eyes and retorted "hey if you want to be the one to explain the circumstances behind why I'm staying here; be my guest."
"Wasn't planning to talk about you anyway."
"Because it's all about you?"
Rather than a reply to her, Stanley addressed the other woman in the room, "have something ready for me by the time I come back, and I'll take care of that stress problem for you, Ez."
The Lilim perked up at that, "I shall make a feast and for desert."
"I'll have you."
Then he abruptly hung up, leaving a mortified Natalie gaping at the audacity, "what the fuck?"
Ezraphel paid no heed to the Wight's words as she teleported away in preparation for her beloved's return.
Meanwhile Natalie, now left alone, muttered "fucker did that on purpose."
She put the phone down and dropped back on the couch to stare at the ceiling with a scowl.
"I need to get the hell out of here and get laid ASAP!"
~To Be Continued~