19.3 Reap

There was an awkward air as everyone helped set the table and Amelia couldn't even say that she wasn't partly to blame. As much as Amelia felt that Stan was an asshole mistreating Ezraphel she's the one who went and instigated a conflict in front of everyone. She couldn't help it however because whatever he said or did to Ezraphel had put the woman into a depressive funk. The vibrancy with which she carried out her tasks was now replaced by anxiety she was barely able to keep under the surface. Ezraphel explained somewhat why she was worried, she told her of Stan's rules and his expectations.

Admittedly she got the reason why he would be angry, really she did but it still pissed her off seeing Ezraphel like that. She would like nothing more than to lay into him but unfortunately she also knew that antagonizing him wouldn't make Ezraphel feel better, at all. She was unequivocally in love with the bastard in a way that Amelia would never be able to fully comprehend. Worst case scenario she would just end up alienating her new friend. The only way forward now was to reconcile with Stan and she found an opportunity when the dinner set up was close to being completed.

"I will retrieve Stanley" Ezraphel spoke and went to do just that only to be halted by Amelia.

"No, I'll get him."

"You don't have to-"

The redhead interrupted "look, I'm really proud of what we accomplished in that kitchen and I'd really like to enjoy the food without the weird awkward tension."

Now she had Ezraphel's full attention and the blonde met her gaze for a while before nodding "alright then."

Amelia nodded and made her way out of the kitchen bypassing the dining room so as not to alert everyone else specifically Liam and headed towards the back porch. By this point it was raining again and she found Stan standing near the edge of the porch looking up at the grey clouds as the sky became progressively darker as night approached.

"Hey," she called out after a moment.

"What do you want?"

"Dinner's ready."

"I'm surprised you bothered to come out for that, was expecting Ez."

"Look, I get why you're acting like even more of an asshole right now."

"Do you?"

Amelia paused looking over her shoulder before stepping completely outside and closing the door behind her "Ezraphel told me everything."

In response Stan scoffed "everything?"

"I know about her being a Lilim, the Monster Girl Encyclopedia, Mamono, everything."

At this Stan turned fully to give her a once over "do you also know what's happening to you?"

"Monsterization" Amelia nodded with a sardonic look "yeah she explained that too and I read about it on the wiki."

"Oh good you did your homework" he quipped "and you seem eerily calm about the situation."

"Ezraphel isn't manipulating me."

"Are you sure about that? Because I don't think most people would be so calm about turning into a monster."

"First of all I'm not most people and second they're called Mamono you ignoramus."

"And you're fine with becoming one of them."

"So what if I am? You have a problem with that? Not feeling so special since you won't have a monopoly on a sexy monster girl waifu?"

"Hey it's your decision. I don't give a shit what you want to do with your life. I'm not your keeper but I am Ezraphel's and the last thing I want is for her to go around looking for every weirdo who won't mind being turned into Mamono. That would be a fucking disaster."

"Oh most definitely" Amelia agreed "so are we done here? You gonna stop giving Ezraphel the third degree or what?"

Rather than answer her he looked to the side "I'll consider it after she stops hiding."

Before Amelia could comment there was a visible ripple in the very fabric of reality itself that Ezraphel suddenly stepped through. She was in her true form making it hard for Amelia to take her eyes off her and it wasn't necessarily due to the effects of her supernatural charm.

The Lilim still anxious spoke "you were both taking long so I took the liberty of transporting us to a pocket dimension."

'What?'

Amelia looked around and now that she was taking a closer look she saw that the current world around her looked different, as if looking through a glass window. Rain fell but the sound was muted, wind blew but she could not feel its touch and no doubt the temperature was dropping but she could not feel it.

Stan's words cut through her thoughts "what did you do?"

"I…made a mistake" Ezraphel began her ears and wings drooping "and Amelia became corrupted."

"I'm having a hard time believing you corrupted someone by mistake. How the hell does that even happen when you've been so careful after all this time?"

At that Ezraphel hesitated as she tried to find the words so Amelia spoke it for her "it was the milk."

That caused Stan to turn his gaze back to her "what about the milk?"

"Uh…" now it was Amelia's turn to hesitate because behind him Ezraphel was shaking her head.

He quickly turned to Ezraphel however the woman had gone back to looking down at him with even more anxiousness.

His eyes narrowed "what did she mean by the milk?"

"I…"

Before she could muster up the words he turned back to Amelia "how did you get corrupted in the first place?"

As he said this Stan repositioned himself so that he had both women in his sights.

Amelia now found herself under the unenviable scrutiny of the couple for separate reasons. On the one hand there was Stan glaring at her with enough force that she feared she might spontaneously combust. On the other hand there was Ezraphel giving her a pleading look she was inclined to agree with but knew that the woman was floundering and would drag this out unnecessarily because of it.

So without any more preamble she spoke the truth which essentially boiled down to her drinking a whole picture of milk she found in the fridge last night which turned out to be milk Ezraphel left 'unattended' that was apparently meant for him.

"So what you're saying…is you got corrupted…by milk Ezraphel left in the fridge?" he asked calmly though the tension rose exponentially.

"…yes" Amelia confirmed.

"Ezraphel…"

"Y-yes Stanley?"

"This is the part where you debunk her words to give me the real reason that while may be worse than the one she gave is also infinitely less retarded."

"…" Ezraphel silently swallowed.

"Any time now" he lightly urged.

Finally mustering up the courage Ezraphel spoke "she speaks the truth Stanley."

"…"

There was a long silent pause before it was broken by Stan placing his head in his hands and giving a very Vader-esque "nooo~"

"I made a mistake" Ezraphel continued.

In response Stan turned away from them both half staggering to the hand rails. Then like Peter Griffin after hurting his knee Stan sucked in a long hiss-like breath through his teeth before letting out a long suffering groan of pain.

"HSSS-AAAH!"

Amelia deadpans at the overdramatic display however a cursory glance at the other woman revealed the Lilim to have the opposite expression. Ezraphel looked shocked and pale with anxiety.

*CRACK*

Amelia jumped as the sound of splintering wood reached her ears. Stan had just broken the wooden handrails but more concerning was the fact that he was still making those frankly ridiculous sounds. She opened her mouth to comment when her words died to a gasp when on one particularly loud exhale black miasma began leaking off his body like thick smoke. At that point he's finally done with the dramatic sounds but now he was hyperventilating and the miasma was pouring out of him at a faster rate to the point where it was forming a legitimate aura.

It was getting thick too, to the point where his form was being obscured.

"Stanley…" she heard Ezraphel mutter whilst taking tentative steps towards him.

Stan abruptly stopped hyperventilating and as he turned around Stan was no longer visible, more like a shadowy façade in a sea of murky black save for the two shining orbs of red hidden within.

"Grk" Amelia's breath hitched, she had never been so terrified in her life.

'Stan' ignored her completely and put all his attention on his still advancing girlfriend. When he spoke it was not with a single voice but multiple voices of the same but spoken in different tones and emotions.

"YoU fUcKeD uP!"

She heard his normal tone spoken with a scathing edge, a scream of rage and a snarl with vitriol all in one breath. It sounded unhinged and went a long way to showcase just how angry he was at the moment.

Strangely enough Ezraphel did not seem as affected by his words as she seemed to have been before. All she did was to nod her head in affirmation while still approaching him until he embraced his shadowy form in a hug.

"I know" was her only response to his accusation.

In the next moment the dark aura disappeared from Stan's body taking the heavy tension with it. Amelia gasped as her body seemingly remembered to breathe.

"What just happened?" asked a confused and mildly alarmed Stan as he attempted to separate from Ezraphel only to be pulled back into his embrace.

"Your mana went out of control."

"My mana" once again he tried to separate himself "how?"

Ezraphel pulled him back into her embrace once again "it is a reaction to your emotions."

"Knock it off."

Reluctantly Ezraphel allowed him to slip out of her grasp.

"Are you feeling alright?"

"I'm fine."

"I was speaking to Amelia."

Both Stan and Amelia jumped slightly at the latter's name being called with the former looking to her "I almost forgot you're still here."

Amelia ignored Stan to answer Ezraphel "I am not fine. This weekend is making less and less sense as it goes on. I feel like the plane I was on yesterday actually crashed and I got Isekai'd into another reality."

"Welcome to my world" Stan grumbled before turning to Ezraphel "and you."

Ezraphel straightened up ready for her punishment when the unthinkable happened "do whatever you want."

"U-um excuse me."

"I've been thinking really hard about what I was going to say or do to you after such a colossal and asinine fuck up but you know what? I don't see the point. Despite your constant attempts to prove me wrong" he shouted the last part before calming down "I know you're not an idiot and like you said earlier today you are a grown woman. You already know what I'm about so I won't go beating a dead horse" he paused "so go nuts I guess."

"Oh" clearly Ezraphel did not expect this and the anxiety lessened "then…does that mean…we are okay?" she asked tentatively with some renewed hope.

Stan almost replied only to glance at Amelia and reconsider "let's talk after dinner."

And with that he headed to the door.

Ezraphel raised her hand to snap her finger only to come up short when Stan grabbed the door handle and with a flex opened it. As he did so there was a glass shattering effect and Amelia's senses were assaulted by the sound, smell and feel of rainfall.

For his part Stan opened and closed his hand "I can get use to this."

After he left the two women alone Amelia had to ask the question "does that usually happen?"

A glance at Ezraphel saw the woman shaking her head with what must have been the same look of -what just happened?- Amelia is no doubt sporting as well.

"No that is not how it usually goes when he gets angry."

'Oh goodie' Amelia thought as she strode forward.

"Let's go eat."

"I'm already in the dining room."

"What?" she looked over her shoulder to find Ezraphel no longer there.

'Did I just get Batman'd?'

Ignoring that thought Amelia made her way to the dining room where everyone was already seated and ready including Ezraphel who was in her human guise.

The moment Kendrick saw her he announced "she's still alive!"

"Of course she is" Stan commented "as if I would risk a murder charge for her" he looked to Liam "no offense Liam but your fiancée isn't worth jail time."

"Noted" Liam responded dryly before turning his attention to his fiancée "you didn't go too hard on him did you?"

Stan scoffed at the question however he was summarily ignored as background noise when Liam held her hand. For some reason that single gesture practically washed away the anxiety induced by prior events.

In response to his question she gave him a peck on the lips "me and troll boy came to an understanding."

That seemed to pique both his and everyone's interest "really?"

It was Kendall who asked the question "does that mean you two will stop antagonizing each other?"

"Hell no!"

"Fuck that!"

"I don't even know why I asked that" the woman muttered.

Ezraphel chose that time to clear her throat "I think that is enough preambles for the moment. Amelia and I worked tirelessly to prepare this meal and will be happy to have you all partake" at the expression given Ezraphel added "that means you can start eating now."

"Ain't got to tell me twice" Kendrick stated as he started plating up.

Jamie was right behind him in assorting his own portions.

As Ezraphel promised tonight's dinner was even more phenomenal the night prior. The banter amongst them flowed freely as it did yesterday and everyone generally had a good time. After dinner they all settled in to watch a bad Netflix movie, laughing, joking and taking turns picking it apart all the while enjoying dessert.

All in all despite all the bumps and hiccups that occurred plus the rain coming down outside harder than ever the day was overall fantastic.

But it wasn't quite over yet.