24.3 Moving On Up

It's been going on for what felt to him like hours now, and Stanley was starting to think that this might be his villain origin story.

"And this is when Stan dressed up as Negima for Halloween," Natalie explained from the backseat as she showed Ezraphel her tablet.

Next to her, Lilim let out another coo: "He looks so cute~"

"…"

'I will not kill my sister... I will kill my sister. I will not kill my sister. I will not kill my sister.'

Thankfully, thoughts of moving up Natalie's timetable to an early grave were stowed away as they finally arrived home.

After parking in the garage, Stan got out of the car with a grumble, "Come on, let's unpack your shit and get you settled."

"Aw, feeling embarrassed, Stanley?" Natalie teased me as she got out of the car.

'...for someone with a terminal illness and only a few months left to live, she's sure in high spirits.'

Which means that she already went through the five stages of grief.

'Thank fucking God.' he thought to himself

He loved his sister, but he will concede to her point about him not really being able to play the role of emotional support. It's a good thing then that she hit it off with Ezraphel, with the two women striking up a friendship as they animatedly talked to each other even while moving the luggage.

'If only this wasn't being done at my expense.'

But for all that he felt slighted by her antics, he couldn't really bring himself to air his issues out verbally. If anything, this is definitely proof that Natalie hasn't really forgiven him for basically ignoring her existence for a year, and that's fair, all things considered. So what if Natalie seems to have made it her mission to have her last act on earth be to humiliate him as much as possible?

What's a bit of humiliation to someone like him?

After a decade of being an opinionated dickhead on the internet, he's got the thickest skin in the game. Even if the method by which she chose to administer said humiliation ends up being particularly effective against him,

How did she do this?

By regaling Ezraphel, who happens to have a particular brand of obsession with him, with embarrassing stories about his past with visual aid. Ever had to drive while enduring someone in the backseat giving what is essentially a PowerPoint presentation on your embarrassing childhood?

'Why the fuck does she even have that!?'

A few years ago, Natalie bought a digital camera and started taking pictures and even a few videos throughout the years. Somehow Natalie not only saved the camera, but the memory card within was still functional. If it's any consolation, then at least they weren't pictures from your old photo album, as in the one with actual baby pictures. If Ezraphel ever saw those, they might just lose a couple of windows from her excitement.

'Speaking of excitement...'

As the two ventured into the house proper, Natalie couldn't help but pause and marvel at the interior.

"Wow~" Natalie breathed as she slowly spun around while looking around. "It feels like I just stepped into the Twilight Zone."

Ezraphel, who was still busy with the tablet, looked at the amazed woman with a tilt of her head and said, "Truly?"

At that, she gave her a look. "Girl, I know you know what this place was like back when Stan lived alone."

"It wasn't that bad."

"Yes, it was."

'Yes, it was' Stanley silently echoed.

Natalie continued, "For one, the room doesn't smell like stale takeout, and my feet aren't sticking to the carpet," she demonstrated by marching about in place for a bit. "If the rest of the house is like this, then it's no wonder he let you stay here. And I can see that's also not the full extent of your work either," she whistled while looking around further.

Seeing what the other woman meant and beamed with pride, "Stanley, let me indulge in some redecoration."

Stanley never really kept active stock of the extent of Ezraphel's redecoration effort. Sure, he knew about them but he didn't pay too much attention. Now that they were talking about it, he could contrast the current changes from what they looked like before and come to a conclusion.

'Ez did more than I thought.'

In actuality, the room and the entire house were virtually indistinguishable from how they were a year ago, when Natalie last visited. Stanley didn't really put much effort into aesthetic presentation nor was he one for change. Aside from the odd addition or replacement to his furniture or appliances, things have mostly remained the same in the past three years or so. Really, the only place that he put any kind of serious consideration for aesthetics into was his office.

Incidentally, it's the only place where Ezraphel's design effort hasn't touched beyond cleaning and only when he's also in the room. He's even allowed her to redecorate the basement where he kept his airsoft collection.

Shaking the thoughts from his head, he addressed the two conversing women, "You two mind picking this up after we get this stuff sorted?"

As he spoke, he gestured to the haphazardly placed luggage, to which Natalie replied, "Well, don't let us stop you."

"…" he said, saying nothing but glaring.

Eventually Natalie raised her hand in surrender, "kidding! Geez, and I'm supposed to be the one dying," she added with a roll of her eyes.

"You're not going to die," Stanley grumbled, turning away from both women.

As he turned his back, Stanley missed the twin frowns both women sported with various degrees of concern.

…

After putting away Natalie's luggage, Stanley declared his work done and locked himself in his man cave—oh, sorry, she meant his office, leaving Ezraphel with the burden of giving her a tour of the place. Natalie didn't need a tour, even though it's been over a year since she was last there, but with Ezraphel being so enthusiastic, she figured why not? Her tune about not needing a tour changed quickly enough as she became reacquainted with her brother's abode as well as the extent of the changes brought on no doubt by Ezraphel herself.

Natalie was seeing it, but she still could not quite believe it. Despite the exterior of the house looking more or less like how she remembered it, stepping through the garage door felt like she was transported to a whole other house. Right off rip, she saw the changes in the new paint, new carpet, new furniture, new drapes, and even a several new appliances. All of it was tastefully arranged and made the room look like somewhere a person with actual taste lived.

Then there were rooms that seemed to have been completely overhauled in ways that boggled the mind. One example is the bathrooms, where, much like the house, Natalie found that the rather humble exteriors did not match the almost extravagant interiors. It somehow felt larger and more grandiose than it should be, as if actual renovations had taken place.

Though those paled in comparison to the kitchen, she was absolutely certain renovations were involved considering the extent of the changes. The kitchen went from relatively normal to something she'd seen in a big YouTube chef's personal kitchen. The comparison seemed especially appropriate since Ezraphel admitted to getting into cooking from the start of her stay and has watched copious amounts of YouTube food channels and followed a number of certified chefs and professional cooks.

After everything was said and done, with Ezraphel going into great detail with the reasons behind her choices, there was still one unanswered question that Natalie posed immediately following the end of the tour.

"How the hell did you manage to convince Stan to let you do all this?"

Stanley is a frugal man, extremely so, to the point where it's sometimes ridiculous. Natalie understood why; having grown up in the same household, they both learned to appreciate the value of a dollar. It made sense all those years ago, but not now, not to such a degree at least. Stan is a legitimate multi-millionaire, making hundreds of thousands a month, yet his lifestyle is that of a college dropout living pay cheque to pay cheque.

You'd think, having struggled financially for most of his life, that the influx of cash, especially at such a relatively young age, would cause him to splurge, but he's never done that. The first things he did with his wealth was pay off his debts, buy a house, a car and hire a financial advisor. The only thing he's ever truly spared no expenses on that involved his hobbies. The largest scale spending he ever did that did not involve said hobbies, future investments or directly benefitted him was when he paid off Natalie's student loan debts, loaning their mother money which she uses to finance their youngest sibling through highschool.

The point is Stanley wasn't one for frivolous spending most times, not to the extent she's seen with the redecoration and certainly not for renovations done for what basically amounts to his girlfriend's hobby. That is simple behavior, and the Stanley she knew would literally rather take a taser to his nuts than partake in that particular degeneracy. So she had to know how Ezraphel managed to convince him to spend what must have been tens of thousands on her whim.

Ezraphel, for her part, took a long moment of consideration. Two minutes, to be exact, and the entire time she stared at Natalie unblinkingly, which was actually creeping her out.

Finally, she broke the silence. "Do you really want to know?"

"…yes."

Another moment of consideration, as before, Ezraphel looked about the area as if thinking Stanley would be there with a judgmental glare, ready to curse her out. Finally, she made a gesture and leaned forward into her personal space.

'Whoa, what the hell?' thought Natalie as she reflexively leaned back.

Her eyes caught a bounty of the other woman's cleavage, though her attention was diverted when Ezraphel got in close—really close—to whisper a single word in her ear.

"Sex~"

The single word said in such a low and sensual tone sent shivers down Natalie's spine, even as she momentarily blanked.

"Eh?" Ezraphel, now taking a step back from her personal space, smiled, and Natalie felt her incredulity rise. "Seriously? That's-" she cut herself off with a breath while collecting herself before ultimately sighing, "Of course it's something so simple."

Perhaps she overestimated her brother, but taking a look at Ezraphel, she couldn't find it in herself to be too disappointed. Frankly, Ezraphel looks like the type of person for whom wars were fought back in the olden days. Her thoughts were then interrupted by the subject raising a hand to her mouth and giggling. The sound was like legit music to Natalie's ears.

Swallowing a bit, Natalie couldn't help but ask, "What's so funny?"

"I'm sorry; it's just that I find your reaction amusing."

"You know, I notice that you have a funny way of talking."

She didn't want to bring it up but the way she spoke made it seem as if she's reading lines off a screenplay for a period piece.

To that, Ezraphel grinned, showing perfectly straight pearly white teeth. "I come from a very formal household," she explained. "This is how I am taught to speak."

"That right?"

'Now that I think about it, she never really talked about where she came from.'

"But I digress," Ezraphel unknowingly interrupted the other woman's thoughts, "what I said before is not the full explanation."

"I hope not!" she exclaimed with some amusement "though it wouldn't really surprise me."

Ezraphel shook her head "as much as I would love to say that my womanly charms were enough to gain Stanley's favor, the simple yet complicated truth is that I merely offered Stanley myself. That is, my undying loyalty, my eternal companionship, my timeless body, and of course, my everlasting love."

The words spoken by anyone else in real life would have been corny as all hell; however, when spoken by Ezraphel, Natalie could not help but take them seriously. There was power behind those words, even more than the previous times she has spoken about her love for Stanley. Not that she believed Ezraphel's love wasn't genuine when she said it those other times.

Natalie would have never believed someone could love another person like that, and even if that were indeed the case, she would have found the declaration to be so corny or cringeworthy that, on some level, she wouldn't have taken it seriously.

That was not the case with Ezraphel.

Natalie knew on an instinctual level that her love for Stan was real.

And the fact that you managed to convey this with a straight face and honest sincerity without coming off the least bit disingenuous or (God forbid) cringeworthy is a miracle of the highest order in today's modern age.

And this caused Natalie to take a step back and really think about the situation.

With how vehement her brother was against relationships and simp culture in all forms, including decrying marriage, she knew that he was on some level full of shit. Not the type of hypocrite that would spout one thing but would jump to do the very thing they claimed to be against. No, she pegged him as the type of guy that would almost immediately fold when presented with something that could get past his front.

There's a certain level of respect to be had for a guy to stick with his guns the way Stan did with his opinions on relationships. Unlike most of those manoshpere clowns or incel losers on the internet, it wasn't misogyny, delusion, or laziness that fueled his anathema towards relationships but rather a combination of unpleasant past experiences. She wouldn't go so far as to say trauma but it is her genuine belief that even if Stan looked exactly as he did now back then, he would still not have gone for a relationship after those experiences.

And all of it stems from several rather nasty experiences with relationships and certain women that, while it didn't turn one bad day, ultimately shaped his view. He never recovered from it despite her efforts to help him, though she recognized that she didn't do nearly enough for him. After so long with this mindset, it became something she thought he was unfortunately stuck with in the same vain as his adherence to a certain lifestyle. And unfortunately, there was virtually no way for him to overcome it, or at least that's what she thought.

And looking at this stunningly beautiful, incredibly kind, and not to mention patient woman, Natalie couldn't help but say...

"Thank you"

"Hm?"

"For taking care of my brother."

'For saving him.'

Ezraphel paused, then smiled. "You are welcome. Now I can only assume that there is a modicum of truth to the rumors about hospital food."

The change in topic made Natalie chuckle: "It's not a rumor, it's a fact."

It's not that bad, but let's just say she wouldn't actively seek out the stuff if given the chance.

"Regardless, it is approaching the hour for lunch."

Natalie looked at the time and said, "Well, I'll be damned."

"I'll go prepare something special."

"Sure." As Ezraphel turned away, Natalie's eyes veered in a certain direction. "I'll go have a chat with Stan."

It's time for another heart-to-heart.

'With hopefully a lot less angst this time,' she thought while making her way towards the man-cave he called his office, 'though that's just wishful thinking.'