19.2 Between A Rock And A Hard Place

As he figured playing a couple rounds of Warzone helped with lifting his spirits. The first person shooter thrive where airsoft failed in this case because no matter how good he was physically or cognitively there will always be a limitation based on the gameplay. That's why even someone like him can die a bunch of ways such as: getting ambushed by rats, overwhelmed by sweats, scoped by a sniper trained by God Usopp himself, killed by a spawn camper, killed by a dickhead using the latest hacks and falling for a motherfucking claymore trap.

…there was a reason why Stan stopped playing Warzone besides having to play a deluge of other games and it only took him a couple matches to remember why. In any case even as he reacquainted himself with his past grievances with the game Stan found that he did feel a lot better with himself knowing that one of his main passions wouldn't be tainted by this new development. In hindsight he already knew this since he never stopped playing videogames and the only changes that his transformation gave him was that he became more efficient in his work.

I.e. he got objectively better at playing videogames, could play more videogames and for a lot longer.

Now as for airsoft there was no way he was going to let this minor setback prevent him from continuing to do it. He agreed with Jamie's advice that he would need to take a different approach to enjoying it. Then there was Jamie's other advice about finding something he and Ezraphel can enjoy together outside…that was also not sexual. That last part is important since he's not willing to go down the path of a true pervert.

Then just as he was thinking about the possible activities they can do together Amelia waltz in and her presence was like cold water being dunked on him.

Now whether Ezraphel was aware of this (and he is certain she was) Stan has been for the past several months developing sensitivity for mana and magic. Yes there was a difference and on his free time he has invested passively into further developing this sensitivity. This came following Ezraphel's habit for suddenly teleporting into his personal space. She's developed said habit because Stan was jumpier than a prison bitch and she liked his reactions.

His passive grinding ultimately resulted in him being more familiar with demonic Energy and even able detect when a spell is being cast in his vicinity. It wasn't the easiest thing to do considering Ezraphel has turned the house into a nexus of Demonic Energy fueled magical activity. Though now since they were away from there his sensory ability was even now more potent. For example he sensed when Ezraphel cast a spell in the kitchen before he was shut out. He could only guess that she put up a privacy ward (or something similar) since he couldn't sense what was happening in there anymore.

Suspicious but since Liam came running a moment later making a comment about it being a bad idea to bother the two ladies right now Stan figured the spell was used to prevent anyone else from interrupting her cooking process. She did that with him and he saw nothing wrong with securing her privacy in that manner. That line of thought changed when Amelia entered the room and it wasn't so much that Stan felt anything particularly wrong…but he did.

Looking at Amelia felt like looking at a camouflage used by the Predator. At first glance you wouldn't be able to see anything but the more he scrutinized her the more he noticed a subtle distortion effect. Said distortion stood out to his senses even if it's by the barest margins. He could tell that the distortion was magical in nature because in comparison to everyone else who had not a trace of magic on them it it stood out very much to his senses.

Then all at once Stan's suspicions about Amelia's off kilter behavior came to the fore. He knew Ezraphel was involved but he was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt here since he already expressed the importance of neither of them screwing up here. He took a leap of faith with introducing her to some of the few people in his life whose opinions actually mattered to him (and Amelia). He trusted her not to do anything stupid. He knew her and Amelia would hit it off and he also figured she wouldn't be able to help herself in some capacity.

He thought the worst she would do was to help the other couple have a weekend to remember which she accomplished on day one. Stan thought this was fine so long as it was just harmless fucking and nothing more. It's easy to say in hindsight that he should have seen this coming, that he should have known Ezraphel the Lilim wouldn't stop there.

'I'm jumping to conclusions.'

Are you though? Are you really?

…

'Aren't you going to say anything to defend her? Convince me that I'm overreacting?'

…I think we overestimated Ezraphel's self control.

Amelia caught him staring at that moment "what? Got something to say?"

He had plenty to say…but not to her.

Standing up with a scowl on his face Stan walked straight into the kitchen where Ezraphel had just finished putting the finishing touches on the presentation for the food. The moment he walked in he had her undivided attention however she flinched as she noticed his expression.

Still she put on a confused yet curious expression as she asked "is something the matter Stanley?"

He got right up in her face as he spoke "what did you do to Amelia?"

"I do not know what you are referring to."

There was a reaction, small as it was he still caught it and even then "Ezraphel. I already know you're responsible for the 'added spice' to Amelia and Liam's sex life last night. I don't really care that you did that, its fine" he pointed in the general direction of the others "Amelia's been acting like Liam's overly affectionate shadow all day, she reminds me of you. Know something about that?"

"…"

Rather than answer his question Ezraphel instead turned her back to him to continue what she was doing before "excuse me Stanley but I have much work to do."

Stan looked at her aghast as she ignored him. She's never done that before and admittedly it caught him off guard. Not enough to not realize what she was doing.

"Hey."

"…" she kept silent.

"Don't you fucking ignore me!"

He grabbed her arm only for it melt away into smoke as did the rest of her body before it reformed behind him.

Naturally this extreme means of avoiding him did not improve his temper one bit "are you fucking being serious right now!?"

He did not make another attempt at physically interacting with her.

But rather than ignore him Ezraphel instead turned from her work to look him in the eye, still nervous but steadfast "Stanley I understand you are upset."

'Fucking understatement.'

"I did not want for you to find out like this-"

"So you're admitting it."

"…yes."

"Ezraphel-"

"Let me finish."

"…" he held his peace.

"Yes I have brought Amelia into the 'fold' so to speak" there was an audible pop of Stan's knuckles as his fist tightened but Ezraphel ignored this and soldiered on "it isn't what you think and if you give me the chance I-we will explain to you exactly what is going on."

"We?"

"Hey guys."

So caught up in her words Stan didn't even notice Amelia until she popped up in the doorway startling him.

"What's going on?" the redhead continued.

Stan gave a very long look at the woman standing before him. Now that she was closer he could actually pinpoint where the distortions seemed to be concentrated and his eyes lowered to her stomach. Fun Fact: Ezraphel's mana seemed to be at its highest concentration around her stomach, specifically her womb. And just like that Stan figured out that the distortions are in fact some kind of concealment spell.

"You keep staring at me like that Ezraphel's going to get the wrong idea" her words caused him to avert his gaze to her face. She met his scowl with one of her own as she folded her arms "got something to say?"

Rather than waste his breath on her Stan turned to Ezraphel "we'll talk about this later."

As he walked away Amelia walked into the kitchen proper and words were shared between the two now close friends apparently. Stan ignored this to stew in his own thoughts.

'She did it. She actually fucking did it.'

Of all the things that could happen it just had to be the worst case scenario.

"Hey Stan-" Kendrick's voice interrupted his thoughts

"Not in the mood" he interrupted sitting as he took a seat at the table.

"Should I even ask?"

Stan opted not to answer as Amelia came into the room bearing plates and utensils and looking none too happy with him.

"You forgot to take the plates, dickhead."

His reply is as casual as it was venomous "my mistake, bitch."

That's about as much as Liam could take "okay, let's not do this right now."

Stan didn't take his eyes off Amelia as he spoke addressed Liam "your fiancée is a bad influence."

"That's rich coming from you."

"Enough!" surprisingly it was Kendall who shouted "I have no idea what's going on between you two but it ends now."

"I'll take those" Jamie muttered as he took the plates and made himself scarce.

The entire time Amelia and Stan never stopped glaring at each other.

"Amy…" Liam half pleaded only to be interrupted by Kendall addressing Stan.

"Knock it off."

The shorter man finally took his eyes away to glance at Kendall who glared at him in return. After taking a glance around Stan stood out of his chair and made to leave the room.

"I'm getting some air, don't wait up" he added.

As he made his way to the back porch Stan could not help but lament his current situation.

'How the hell did this happen?'

Obvious answer: Ezraphel corrupted Amelia when he wasn't paying attention and there were a lot of instances where he wasn't paying proper attention to her. Why would he when she's proven herself to be trustworthy when it came to people for the most part? He's already expressed to her the importance of not corrupting people especially people he knew. After everything they've been through the last thing he expected was for her to pull this shit!

On the other hand Ezraphel made it seem as if she actually had an excuse beyond 'it's in my nature' or some such bullshit. Part of him wanted to hold this against her and he certainly will for the foreseeable future. And this brought him to a dilemma because while Stan just couldn't let this go he did not really know how he should proceed.

'What am I supposed to do?'

That wasn't the right question however.

'What can I do?

This wasn't the first time Ezraphel had gone against his wishes. In fact it's become almost like a gag routine at this point for her to just do whatever she wanted regardless of how he felt and he could do nothing but accept it. Some might call him whipped, some may even go so far as to call him a pussy that can't stand up to her but in his defense those prior instances where she defied him were tame and inconsequential.

Stanley is a stubborn man but he was also aware of Ezraphel's intentions in the instances where she did defy him. Ezraphel does have his best interest at heart even in the instances where she was just being indulgent. It's all about perception and even if he found her actions to be annoying in the moment they generally weren't worth any kind of heavy punishment.

Did he sound like a pussy making up excuses?

Maybe, but here's another question: what the fuck is he supposed to do when his interdimensional, magical, reality warping, quasi demi-goddess and succubus princess girlfriend stops listening to him?

Stan could do a lot to inflict emotional damage but he didn't want to. Not necessarily because he's gotten 'soft' per se but because he needed to maintain something of an equilibrium. The last thing he wanted was to resort to verbal abuse (or really any kind of abuse) that was more intense than a scolding and upset the balance.

See while he and Ezraphel have built a certain relationship dynamic Stan remains cognizant of the fact that whatever control he had over his girlfriend was the amount she allowed him to have. Not to bring up his old fears that are admittedly valid but Ezraphel can still resort to mental manipulations to adjust his attitude if she felt emotionally cornered. Ezraphel will always have his best interest at heart but that could be twisted to fit a perception and she could use this to justify being heavy handed.

'Push too much and I risk setting her off but do too little and it sets precedence' he summed up in his thoughts.

The distant sound of thunder reached his ears as he looked up to the darkened sky signaling the end of Ezraphel's weather spell. And as the rain came down Stan gave a sardonic half smile that contained not a shred of mirth.

"So this is what they call being stuck between a rock and a hard place."