Drinking with the Girls

Underworld, Gremory Territory, Gremory Estate.

While James and his group were cleaning and subsequently playing in the pool, in the lounge at the Gremory Estate, Venelana was once again standing behind the bar. In front of her sat Leona, Rhea, and Grayfia as they sipped their drinks. Because her request to sing Karaoke was denied, in Leona's eyes, swirled a much brigher mischievous glint than her usual. Although Leona told James that she would be singing Karaoake with the girls, because they were not ready for the damage listening to Leona's singing could inflict, Venelana, Rhea, and Grayfia did all they could to stop that plan. Eventually, they ended up in the Gremory Estate's lounge

"So, Parents' Day is coming up again~." Leona said in a sing-song tone. "Are any of you coming?"

"I should be free this year." Rhea said as she sipped her cosmo. "I think I'll accompany my husband this year."

"You're not gonna tell Sera?" Venelana asked.

"No, Sona might faint from embarrassment." Rhea said with a smile. "That wouldn't be good for her image as Student Council President."

Hearing Rhea's reasoning, the three other women all nodded in agreement. Unfortunately, Venelana, Rhea, and Grayfia missed the increasingly mischievous glint in Leona's eyes.

"What about you, Lana?" Leona asked after taking a sip of her tequila sunrise.

"I'll be going this year, as well." Venelana replied as she mixed a margarita for herself. "I'll replace Zeo on this trip."

"Oh~! I bet he was heartbroken to hear that." Leona said while imagining the constipated face Zeoticus must be making at not being able to see his little girl in school.

Hearing that, the other ladies, even Grayfia, laughed. Then, Rhea asked.

"But why did you decide to go this year?" Rhea asked as she wiped away a tear from her eyes.

"Because... *Sigh* Rias came to me nearly in tears." Venelana said with a little giggle. "Her brother and father were a little too much last year. At least if what she had to say is to be believed. But I don't put it past them to act like that."

Leona, Rhea, and Grayfia's eyes lit up at the potentially embarrassing story they could get to hear. But before Venelana could continue, Rhea turned to Leona and asked her a question.

"Why do you look so excited to hear this story?" Rhea asked with confusion in her tone. "Weren't you there last year?"

"*Sigh* No, I wasn't." Leona replied before downing the remainder of her drink. "Cassiel got me to let him go last year."

"How did he manage to do that?" Grayfia asked, also curious about Leona's absence from a prime opportunity to tease James in front of a crowd.

"He rocked the boat like Aaliyah for a whole night." Leona said with a smile. "Even with my devil physique I couldn't walk until evening."

Collectively, the three other women gasped. Then, they looked at Leona with envy.

"I wish Zeo was more interested in having sex." Venelana said with a bit of a grudge. "But we both know that we're no longer in love with each other. And it would feel weird to have sex just for the sake of it after all these years."

"It's not like he's stopping you from looking for someone new though, right?" Rhea asked curiously.

"That's true." Venelana replied. "But I haven't found anyone, yet."

"Well, if you ever get divorced, you could try for James." Leona said with a slight slur. "You'd have to be able to handle being part of a harem though."

Once again, Venelana, Rhea, and Grayfia gasped. Venelana and Rhea could also still remember the killing intent Leona released that one time Venelana joked about trying out James.

"What's up with your change in attitude, Leona?" Venelana asked skeptically. "You were ready to kill me when I joked about that two years ago."

"No, no, no." Leona waggled her finger as she refuted Venelana. "I was ready to kill you for joking about cheating on your husband. I actually think a woman like you would be good for James."

That was when realization dawned on Venelana and Rhea.

"Now that you mention it, Sona said something about that after their school trip that I dismissed." Rhea said while trying to remember the term used.

"Leona hates NTR." Venelana said with a giggle. "It seems obvious now."

"Yeah, it does." Rhea giggled along.

Although Grayfia did not participate in this conversation, she smiled through it all. Noticing this, Venelana turned toward her.

"It really seems like Leona is the only one who can make you break that stoic mask you always wear." Venelana teased. "Last time you were here to drink you stayed expressionless the whole time. Even after you got shit faced."

Grayfia blushed slightly at Venelana's teasing. Instead of retorting, she chose to take a large gulp of her drink. This, of course, caused the other three to laugh once again.

"Anyway, maybe getting together with James might not be such a bad idea." Venelana said, placing a palm on her cheek with a light blush.

The laughter immediately stopped as Leona, Rhea, and Grayfia looked intently at Venelana.

"From the stories I managed to get out of Rias, James has inherited the talent that Leona spoke of from Cassiel." Venelana said with a smile. "Apparently, he was able to leave both her and Akeno unable to walk for half a day after their last night together."

"Oh, my." Rhea said as she covered her mouth elegantly.

Grayfia did not say anything, but her face flushed a little. Leona, on the other hand, smiled proudly.

"That's my boy" Leona said before downing the rest of her drink.

"I think you've had enough, Leona." Venelana said with a smile as she looked over the intoxicated Leona.

"Yeah, I probably have." Leona said with a silly smile on her face. "So, why don't you make me another?"

Knowing this was coming, Venelana only smiled and began to make another drink for Leona. One with a markedly reduced amount of alcohol in it. The quartet continued to gossip about their sex lives for a few more minutes. Eventually, Rhea realized they had veered off topic.

"As fun as this is, I still wanna know what happened at Parents' Day last year." Rhea said with a smile. "How did Zeoticus and Sirzechs embarrass Rias enough to make her come to you in tears?"

Once again, Leona's eyes lit up. Turning to Venelana, she was also clearly interested in the story. Seeing that the story had returned to its original topic, Venelana smiled and then told them about the series of events at last year's Parents' Day event. Grayfia was also interested. Although she was also at the Parents' Day event last year, accompanying Sirzechs, hearing about it from Rias' perspective was interesting.

After a few minutes filled with smiles and laughter, Venelana finished her retelling of the events, from Rias' perspective.

"Although she embellished a bit." Grayfia said before sipping her drink. Then, after setting it back down on the coaster, she continued. "But that's more or less what happened."

"Really?" Leona and Rhea asked in unison.

"Mhmm." Grayfia replied with a nod.

"If you were there and you saw this going on, why didn't you stop it?" Rhea asked as Leona laughed hysterically.

"Because I am only a maid." Grayfia replied with a blush.

Noticing the blush, Leona stopped laughing.

"And what's the real reason?" Leona asked, rolling her eyes.

With that, Grayfia's blush deepened. Then, covering her face with her hands, she answered the question.

"Because it took all my concentration to not laugh out loud myself." Grayfia said while giggling behind her hands.

Not expecting that response, Leona, Venelana, and rhea all froze. Eventually, they all laughed hysterically, with Leona slapping her hand on top of the bar repeatedly. After laughing a few minutes longer than they should have due to the alcohol in their systems, they all finally got their laughter under control.

"Well... I guess that's as good a reason as any for you to replace Zeoticus for this year's Parents' Day." Rhea said while catching her breath and wiping the tears from her eyes. "Unfortunately, that's not the most important part of that day, right?"

"Right." Venelana said with a nod and a solemn expression. "They're finally going through with the peace treaty discussion with Heaven and the Grigori that Sirzechs has been pushing for."

Grayfia shared a solemn expression with her mother-in-law as well.

"This should be a good thing." Rhea said while shifting her gaze between Venelana and Grayfia. "So, why do you two look so unhappy?"

Making eye contact, Venelana and Grayfia had a quick, silent conversation before they both nodded. Then, Venelana turned to Leona and Rhea.

"*Sigh* What I'm about to tell you can't leave this room." Venelana said in a serious tone.

Noticing how serious the issue was, Leona and Rhea both nodded with solemn expressions on their faces. Seeing their expressions, Venelana touched a spot under the bar before the walls of the lounge lit up and the door was covered with a barrier. Once everything was in place, Venelana looked at Leona and Rhea once again.

"Leona, I especially hope you can keep this a secret from Cassiel." Venelana said solemnly.

"Don't tell me this information could mess up the dynamic between Cassiel and Sirzechs." Leona said, her drunkenness seemed to disappear instantly.

"Indeed, it could." Venelana said with a nod.

Instead of answering verbally, Leona nodded to indicate her agreement. Then, Venelana took a deep breath and made eye contact with Grayfia once more before speaking.

"*Sigh* Leona, I'm sure James told you about that raid on the fallen angel base to rescue the kidnapped yuki-onna, right?" Venelana asked.

"Yeah, he told me about it." Leona replied with a nod.

"By now, everyone should know about that." Rhea said with a tilt of her head due to confusion. "What does that have to do with this."

"I'm getting to that." Venelana said without changing her expression. "When James and his peerage entered the facility and confronted the fallen angels, one of them made an offhanded comment about the Devil Council sending young devils there on missions. Only to inform the fallen angels to have them disposed of."

Hearing that, Rhea froze from shock.

"That's not true, is it?" Rhea asked in shock. With her eyes trembling, she continued. "No, that can't be true. That had to be the fallen angels trying to demoralize them."

"Rhea, calm down." Leona said as she placed a hand on the panicking Rhea's shoulder. "I think there is more to the story."

Nodding in response to Leona's assumption, Venelana continued. She explained how Grayfia contacted someone to investigate the claims. Then she explained how Grayfia found evidence in her room the evening after Rias and Riser's engagement was officially cancelled. And finally, she explained what happened when Grayfia took the evidence to Sirzechs. After her explanation was over, silence fell over the room.

"*Sigh* His pride is going to lead to his downfall one day." Leona said with a sigh. "More importantly, I get the feeling that James is gonna have to clean up this mess. I mean he ends up cleaning up all his other messes, right?"

"Even though the only mess he's created recently was the spoiling of Rias, I suppose you aren't wrong." Venelana said with a wry smile.

"How can the two of you joke around?" Rhea asked incredulously. "This is a big deal."

"Yeah, it's a real big fucking deal." Leona replied with a smile. "But what do you want us to do about it?"

Rhea had no response to Leona's question. Because of that, Leona continued.

"Since we can't do anything about it, there's no point in stressing over it."

With the combined efforts of Leona, Venelana, and Grayfia, they were able to calm Rhea down after a few minutes. Then, Venelana spoke once again.

"What makes this more annoying is that Sirzechs is making alliances with outside forces before cleaning up in his own backyard." Venelana said exasperatedly.

After that, the group of four women decided to discuss some less serious topics so they could simply enjoy their drinks.

Underworld, Satan Territory, Capital City, Lilith.

While Leona, Venelana, Rhea, and Grayfia were drinking, Serafall was finishing some paperwork that she had allowed to pile up. Until she received a phone call from Leona. When she answered the call, Leona did not respond. However, she could hear the four women talking about something she found rather interesting.

"Parents' Day, huh?" Serafall said to herself with a smile. "If Sirzechs-Chan is going, then there's no reason that I can't go, too."

And for the next while, Serafall listened to and laughed at the conversation her mother and friends were having without her. Just thinking about them having fun without her made her begin to pout. However, she was surprised when the call was cut off suddenly. Understanding that Leona was trying to secretly let her know about Parents' Day, though, she decided not to call back. It would be bad if she exposed Leona.

"Don't worry, So-Tan, I'll be there to see you soon."" Serafall said with a smile as she returned to working on her paperwork.