21.1 Relationship Advice For The Troubled Lilim

Instead of leaving with the others Amelia opted to stay behind with Ezraphel. It wasn't necessarily because she had more questions about her own situation but that she noticed there was something off about the other woman. Ezraphel was rather good at putting up a front but at the same time she was just too expressive for it to be perfect. That woman wears her heart on her sleeve and even in the limited time Amelia has known her she could tell something was wrong. This was showed to be the case almost immediately after the others left as Ezraphel dropped both the façade and her disguise before proceeding to lazily float over to the couch, conjure up a tub of ice-cream out of nowhere and began eating.

'This is so cliché' Amelia couldn't help but think to herself with a shake of her head even as she sat herself next to Ezraphel who conjured a spoon for her and the two began to sharing the tub of ice-cream 'but damn if it isn't a good one.'

She liked ice-cream sue her and besides Ezraphel looked like she needed a friend right now. After several minutes of silence Amelia felt enough time had passed for Ezraphel to get comfortable and they can get to talking about the obvious elephant in the room.

"So…"

But before she can even begin to string along a proper sentence Ezraphel abruptly broke down.

"WAAAAHHHH~" the Lilim wailed in sadness that was a combination of overdramatic yet completely genuinely.

Amelia jumped at Ezraphel's sudden outburst and in the next moment the Lilim was clinging to her.

"Whoa! Okay um…" she trailed off a bit as she recovered but began rubbing her circles on the Lilim's back careful to avoid the wings since those were erogenous zones and she was already feeling weird from the close proximity.

"Stanley hates meee~" she sobbed.

Upon hearing that Amelia closed her eyes and took a calming breath 'god dammit Stan.'

Her immediate reaction was to decry such a notion, insult Stan and reassure Ezraphel that she was too good for him with extreme prejudice. It only took a moment of consideration for her to adjust the intensity of her words. It was easy to fall back into insulting Stan even if she didn't really mean anything by it most times. Truth is Amelia didn't hate Stan and she's sure he doesn't hate her either. Their dynamic just ended up being playfully antagonistic and the insults was just them bantering.

Even if she gave him a hard time about it Amelia was actually happy Stan found a girlfriend and seemed to be getting his life together. She much preferred him now to the sad (and kinda pathetic) state he'd been in before. So with that line of thinking Amelia decided to drop all pretenses with her next words.

"That's not true" she spoke.

"It is~" the sniffled.

"No it's not and you know it."

Ezraphel looked up at her from her place in Amelia's chest and sniffled "b-but he chose not to share a bed with me. He said he needed space and stayed on the couch all niiight~"

And with that she broke down again crying into Amelia's chest which was awkward because Ezraphel was much taller, her horns were awkward to manage and the ice-cream tub was still between them. After getting the tub with the spoons inside on the coffee table Amelia frowned at the words. Liam already told her about Stan staying up all night on the couch deliberately keeping his distance as a form of punishment for Ezraphel. It wasn't just proximity either, Stan was basically a robot when it came to interacting with Ezraphel, literally giving the bare minimum of attention to her and using every and any chance he got to not even be in the same room as her.

Again Amelia's knee jerk reaction at the time was to confront him about it but she held herself back. She didn't like people giving their unwanted opinions on her personal life, she utterly despised any and every attempts of third parties inserting themselves into her relationship with Liam and she wasn't hypocritical enough to do just that especially to Stan. The man has made it clear through his actions that he wasn't someone who got involved in other people's business and she respected that about him.

So she kept her peace and after letting the problem stew for a while she came to a startling conclusion, for her. That conclusion being the she sympathized with Stan's position because to say that Ezraphel done goofed would be a major understatement. Things only turned out fine because Amelia ended up being the one who drank the milk. And just like in all the other times she thought of that particular aspect of the incident Amelia had to take a moment to reconcile that she essentially drank her friend's breast milk.

Life truly is stranger than fiction.

But back to the matter at hand, Amelia was the only person out of the group this could have happened to without it blowing up into something more…unfortunate. She was absolutely fine with becoming a Mamono but the others are way too opinionated to let something like this slide. Even Jamie as laid back as he was Amelia felt he would have the most visceral reaction out of them all if they sprung it up on him. Hell Liam wouldn't be cool with it even if she would be.

Not that she felt they would reveal this fact to them if they got corrupted since Ezraphel made it pretty clear she only gave Amelia the option because she felt and/or knew she would be fine with it. Meaning that for everyone else she would keep things quiet and simply halt the corruption process before it got out of hand. Whether Stan found out or not the guilt would eat at Ezraphel and she would be in an even rougher spot than now. Worse if Stan did find out about it.

'Focus Amelia you have a job to do.'

Having wasted enough time thinking about what if's Amelia went to work consoling her friend.

"I think you're looking at this the wrong way."

"H-how do you mean?" she sniffled looking up at her with those doe red eyes that look so adorably sexy.

'Don't look into her eyes stupid!'Amelia averted her gaze a bit before continuing.

"I-I mean…" she trailed a little attempting to put thoughts into words before sighing "the truth is I've been where you are before with Liam."

"You have?"

"A few times" she admitted with an uncomfortable look "just know that early in our relationship I was a lot more adventurous for adventurous sake and I uh, made it a habit of testing Liam's tolerance."

'And sanity.'

Thinking about it Amelia made a lot of impulsive decisions that she regretted now, like admitting that she seriously considered going all in on adult content (i.e. porn). She was woman enough to own decisions like that but in hindsight letting people know that was just unnecessary. Especially framing it as graphically as she did and now her friends thought she wanted to be a hardcore porn star.

'Ugh'

And don't even get her started on her 'Tik Tok phase.'

'Uuuuuggghhh'

"The point is what's happening right now between you two is just a setback. Like you said he says he needs space and in my experience the only thing you can do is give it to him and hope for the best."

"I already know that."

"You do?"

Ezraphel sat up and dried her tears "Stanley made it very clear last night that he will not give up on our relationship and abandon me."

'Can he even do that?' Amelia wondered since for all intents Mamono have a 'mate for life' kind of deal going on with their relationship and their partners usually don't want to leave in the first place.

"Not that I am worried about our relationship ending" she added which served to answer Amelia's unasked question "however…" her lips quivered "I fear that he will never trust me again."

"Ah, well…just give it time."

Ezraphel shook her head "even if the sting from this event dulls with time I don't believe Stanley will ever forget this."

Amelia winced "yeah he can be a vindictive little bastard when he wants to be" then she grinned "so I guess you'll just have to make him forget about this."

At that Ezraphel's expression turned sharp "I refuse to manipulate his mind."

"Whoa! I wasn't suggesting that!" she exclaimed "I was thinking more along the lines of copious amounts of earth shattering sex, five star meals and intense pampering."

"Oh…well I was already planning on doing that" she admitted sheepishly before becoming saddened "however I fear Stanley will not even allow me the attempt. He is well familiar with my tactics already" Ezraphel explained "and he will not allow himself to easily forgive me nor will he let me attempt to assuage his anger. He will drag this out for as long as he is able."

'That sounds like him.'

They say the opposite of love is not hate but apathy. Stan doesn't necessarily hold grudges he just ignores people he doesn't like or have a problem with. He's applying the same tactic with Ezraphel and it's clearly having a profound effect given how depressed she is after only a few hours of this treatment.

"I can't imagine he'll do that for long" Amelia said "you're both living together under the same roof and from what I can see you're the one taking care of him. I say give it a few days. He wants space then give it to him."

Ezraphel gained an uncomfortable look "is that the only way?"

"Yeah, there are just some things you can't help and letting him deal with it on his own is the best choice right now."

Ezraphel groaned as her entire body seemed to sag dramatically. Her pointed ears, wings and shoulders drooped, her tail went limp and sad puppies had nothing on her expression at this point.

"Is there nothing I can do to skip it?"

Amelia scratched her head to come with an answer "you could make this a learning lesson for Stan."

"Huh?"

"I mean right now you do all the domestic stuff and take care of his uh sexual needs right?"

"I do."

"That right there means that you're not as powerless in this as you might think. Stan needs you and I'm not just talking about the domestic stuff either. Thing about it is you've been coddling him for so long that he's gotten complacent but I'm pretty sure if you let him have a taste of his own medicine he'll come running back to you."

She had Ezraphel's attention now "what do you mean have a taste of his own medicine."

"Give him his space, keep your distance, don't talk to him much and just do the bare minimum to be in his presence-"

Amelia was suddenly interrupted by a loud high pitch keening noise that sounded an awful lot like some kind of wounded animal. She was further startled to find that the noise was in fact coming from Ezraphel whose expression was that of long suffering. She had her eyes pinched shut, her arms wrapped around her stomach and her body pitched sideways until the side of her head landed on the backrest of the couch.

Amelia had to take a moment after the sound tapered off to get her thoughts in order and eventually ask "what was that?"

That was the most inhuman sound she's ever heard come out of a humanoid. She didn't think humans were even capable of producing a sound like that.

'Is that a Mamono thing?'

It wasn't just the fact the sound was dreadfully inhuman in nature but that Amelia actually felt it as well. A brief yet intense bout of sadness that almost made her choke up with emotion the more she listened to it.

Instead of answering the question Ezraphel spoke or rather whined "but I don't want to distance myself from my Stanley~ I want to hug and smother and pamper him~"

'Man she has it down bad.'

Amelia already knew this but it really was off putting and concerning just how much Stan has her wrapped around his finger.

'And knowing him it's definitely by accident.'

Still Amelia found it more than a little disconcerting that a powerful interdimensional magical monster princess was beholden to a single man to such a degree. Seriously if Stan was the type of incel neckbeard weeb most people think he is then they (as in the human race) would be in pretty big trouble right now.

'Time for a different approach'

"It was just a suggestion" Amelia backpedaled "but honestly I think it would do both of you good to get away from each other."

"Hrrrmmmm"

"Not for long!" she added quickly then sighed "just…have you ever heard the term absence makes the heart grow fonder?"

"I can't say I have."

"Well think of it like this. Right now the two of you are going through a rough patch. Stan is being a stubborn ass and very unreasonable by not wanting to talk things through so you can overcome this like adults."

Not necessarily true but she's trying to cheer her up and from the way Ezraphel nodded at her words it was working somewhat.

'Time to drive it home.'

"I don't think forcing the issue is going to work here even if your intentions are good. He'll probably see it as a personal attack and double down with his stubbornness or something."

"That is what would happen, yes" Ezraphel answered easily enough.

"So instead of trying to force the issue you need to take a step back and let him cool off in solitude" again Ezraphel made a face but Amelia wasn't having any of it "trust me, sometimes people er-humans just need to be left alone with their thoughts. Stan strikes me as the kind of guy who is used to being alone with his thoughts."

"I knooow~"

"So you know leaving him alone for a while will probably work out for the better."

The Lilim let out a groan "but what am I to do if I'm not taking care of Stanley?"

"You can't let your whole world revolve around him girl."

"Why not?"

"Huh?"

"Stanley and I love each other very much" she said with confidence "even through this 'rough patch' as you put it I know for a fact that he still loves me. Why should our world not revolve round each other then?"

Amelia's mouth worked but no sound came out. That was truly the most outrageous thing she's ever heard uttered by a woman in real life. There are so many things she could say to that but in the end she took a step back from the brink and reevaluated the situation.

'This has to be a cultural thing' she thought to herself with a hint of desperation 'it just has to be…right?'

She could not accept that Mamono naturally think this way unironically. She loved Liam very much but the thought of having her world literally revolve around him seemed…unsettling to say the least. She certainly wouldn't want his world to revolve around her either.

"Okay…um…" she trailed off.

'How the hell can I convince her that it's okay to have a life outside of catering to Stan?'

"D-don't you have hobbies?"

"Well-"

"That has nothing to do with Stan!" she added with some aggravation.

Ezraphel remained quiet with an expression of deep thought which spoke volumes.

'Come on give me something to work with here!'

Thankfully Ezraphel's thoughtful expression gained enlightenment, sort of "well I do enjoy travelling."

'Oh thank God'

"I usually use my spare time to explore the wider city of our home" then Ezraphel's expression became dower "I originally wanted to find places where Stanley and I can go together."

'Oh dear God!'

Despite the thought Amelia latched on to something "you say originally?"

"Yes I understand now that the chances of us visiting these places are practically nonexistent for the immediate future but I still venture out to explore all the same. This world is…very fascinating and exciting" she ended.

"Well there you go!"

Did she sound too excited? Amelia felt that but honestly she was just happy her new friend wasn't that codependent on Stan.

"Now you have something to occupy your time when you're giving Stan his space."

"Oh…" Ezraphel looked down in sadness.

And we're back to square one again.

'No, I refuse to give up!' she thought with fire.

"Again I think you're looking at this the wrong way."

"How so?"

"When Stan eventually gets over himself and the two of you return to your regularly scheduled dynamic you don't want to pick up where you left off."

"Why wouldn't we?"

"I'm not talking about you with Stan I'm talking about you Ezraphel."

"Me?" she pointed at herself with a look of surprise.

"Yes you" she paused "I'm going to take an educated guess and say that you and Stan don't really leave the house much, right?"

"That is true."

"And I can see from your expression that it's really frustrating, yes?"

"…yes."

"So how exactly has he taught you about earth if you don't leave his house much?"

"Stanley gave me a laptop and taught me how to use the internet."

'Stan you hopeless son of a bitch.'

"He left you alone with a laptop…and access to the internet…instead of teaching you himself?" she spoke slowly.

"Stanley says that it would be easier to have my questions be answered by 'Google' instead of him because he doesn't know himself."

Amelia massaged her brow 'that absolute moron.'

He left an interdimensional magical monster girl princess to be taught about Earth…by the internet.

"Holy shit Ezraphel" she sighed.

"Is there a problem?"

"Yes, so much" she groaned "he half assed your education."

"Stanley acknowledged his own limitations and referred me to something that could answer my admittedly many questions" she defended and Amelia almost rolled her eyes "I'd say it worked out just as well."

Before she could have a blow out about this Amelia remembered how Stan was pretty upset about her taking selfies with Ezraphel and posting them on her socials. He even said he didn't want her exposed to social media so at least he has enough foresight not to let her be exposed to that.

'I'll give him the benefit of the doubt here and say he put safeguards in place or something.'

She couldn't imagine what Ezraphel's opinion on earth would be if she got exposed to the unfiltered internet.

"That's not the point" she answered "he should have stuck by you and diligently explained things-but I'm getting ahead of myself. The real point is that Stan is not going to make that push outside his comfort zone."

"You're wrong" Ezraphel countered "I think Stanley has taken great strides to go outside his comfort zone. Why when we first met he would not even dream of spending time outside casually."

"Right and how many dates have you went on outside?"

And this is when Ezraphel falters a bit "o-one."

Amelia gave her a dubious look "you've been together for half a year and you only went out on a single date outside? That's bad."

"I know but what can I do? I have already made and will continue to make a push for more outside excursions however Stanley is very reluctant at the best of times."

"I actually think you can make a better case for yourself here" Amelia spoke "see the problem is that Stan is a hermit with borderline agoraphobia-"

"What?"

"Fear of going outside" she explained.

"Oh"

"Right, so relying on a guy like that to act as your guide isn't going to get you many results if any."

"I see your point" Ezraphel admitted.

"So just don't rely on him and take matters into your own hands. You go out exploring different places by yourself and later convince him to go out to those places with you."

Ezraphel stared "you are suggesting I become Stanley's guide."

"Yeah, look I get that you'd want him to be the one to do it but in situations like this it's better to take the initiative otherwise who knows how long it's going to take before you make any progress following someone who is intent on dragging his feet."

For a moment Ezraphel stared at Amelia before a smile curled on her lips and she began to laughing. It was a measured thing and she even covered her lips with a dainty hand.