24.2 Packing Up

'Something's up.'

That was Natalie's thought as she exited the vehicle and led the duo into the three-story building. She knew something was up for a while now, but that story more or less confirmed her suspicions.

'They're hiding something.'

Natalie really didn't want to think like this. Her brother was finally getting his act together, and despite only knowing her for a few hours, she really liked Ezraphel. She would even say that they made a great couple. They say opposites attract, but that kind of stuff doesn't account for diametric opposites. There needed to be a middle ground, a mutual commonality for which both sides could come together to make the relationship stick; otherwise, it would collapse.

So far, Ezraphel and Stanley were diametric opposites who didn't seem to have anything in common. At least Ezraphel didn't seem to have anything in common with the Stanley she knew. Her abridged (and obviously censored) retelling of their time together as well didn't present anything that would point to either of them having a commonality on something. Stanley was a simple man with simple pleasures when all is said and done, and unless he developed new interests in the year since they last spoke, they ultimately boil down to a few things: airsoft, videogames, movies, and TV, with a sprinkle of internet meme culture.

She could cross airsoft off that list of commonalities. Just from the way Ezraphel spoke about it, Natalie could tell the woman did not like airsoft.

'No shit' she thought bitterly, 'who the hell shoots someone with airsoft after they just woke up from a drinking bender?'

Fucking Stan, that's who.

And speaking of which, they arrived at her apartment room, and after entering, the man himself finally deigned to speak.

"This is where you live now?" spoke Stanley as he looked around, obviously not liking what he was seeing.

Natalie turned a glare towards the shorter man, but only briefly, for she could not muster any heat behind it. She knew why he had such a reaction, and she couldn't really blame him for it.

"I had to do a downgrade after I quit my job," she informed.

Natalie had dragged Stan to her old apartment a few times in the past. He wasn't happy about leaving his suburban haunt, but she was determined to have him stretch his legs. In any case, while she wouldn't go so far as to call her current abode a filthy hovel, it was still a significant demotion from her old apartment.

"You quit your job?"

"Well, I wasn't going to keep working nine to five while my impending death was on the horizon."

He didn't wince at her words; however, she could see the tension ramp up in both his body language and expression. She really shouldn't be so flippant about her death, but that's how she's choosing to cope—by making other people uncomfortable. The more obvious or visceral the reaction, the more the individual cares…at least that's how she rationalizes being a bitch about it.

"Let's just get this over with."

Not at all a difficult prospect considering there really wasn't much to pack, something that was quickly noticed.

"What happened to all your stuff?"

"I gave away some, sold the rest, but kept the most important stuff in storage."

"Why?"

Natalie rolled her eyes at the suspicious tone. "I had to find a way to fund my globetrotting tour, little brother."

"Globetrotting tour?"

The question came from Ezraphel, who turned away from fiddling with Nataie's kitchen appliances to give her a curious expression. A curiously cute as fuck expression:

'Dammit woman, focus!' She mentally shouted.

"Yeah," she said, turning away from the other woman, "I'm going to travel the world and check off my bucket list... or die trying." She added.

"Tch, no, you're not," scoffed Stanley.

This caught Natalie's attention as she turned towards her brother, who had his back turned away. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're not going to die."

"…" Natalie pursed her lips, a pit beginning to form in her gut.

She opened her mouth to say something; however, a side glance towards Ezraphel saw the other woman gain an uncomfortable expression that took the wind out of her sails. Following this exchange, the rest of their time was spent packing in silence, which became uncomfortable as time wore on. Thankfully, this oppressive silence did not last terribly long as Natalie caught sight of Ezraphel unceremoniously dump some of her stuff in a trash bag.

"Whoa-whoa-whoa, what do you think you're doing?"

"Taking out the trash," Ezraphel answered as if it were obvious.

"I can see that," Natalie scowled. "Why are you throwing out my stuff?"

She noted that some of her kitchen appliances and utensils

"Oh, did you want to sell these too?"

"What? No!"

"Then does it matter if I throw these out?"

"I need these to make and eat food with," she explained.

"Nonsense" Ezraphel waved her off easily, "Since you'll be living with us, you won't need them." She then rested a hand against her ample chest, "I will take care of everything."

"But-"

"Unless," Ezraphel interrupted, "you don't want me to."

And as she said this, Ezraphel's expression became sad and uncertain, causing Natalie to flinch.

"No, I mean…" Natalie began to trail off.

The longer she stared into Ezraphel's big blue eyes, the more she felt at a genuine loss for words until...

"Uuugh…proceed…"

And with Natalie's reluctant blessing, Ezraphel's expression immediately brightened, and with a peppy "excellent!" she practically skipped away, humming a tune with the widest smile on her face.

Natalie watched the other woman go about her business for a while with an expression of incredulity.

"What just happened?"

"You fell for it."

With a jolt, Natalie turned to find her brother standing right next to her. "Jesus Stan!"

In response, he rolled his eyes. "You have poor situational awareness."

"I don't want to hear that from the guy who gets so locked in to his games that he doesn't even know when someone's coming into his house."

Stanley scowled. "That only happened once, and you had a key to my house."

Natalie 'snuck' into his home once and basically jumped scared him when he went out of his office to use the bathroom. After that, he changed the locks on his doors, added additional ones, and installed HD security cameras all over the house, whose feed can be accessed from his phone and tablet via an app that is hidden behind a security scanner. It would be several months before Natalie got the key to the new locks, but regardless, Stanley took his security very seriously after that.

"What do you mean I fell for it?" Natalie cut through his thoughts, "What did I fall for?"

"The oldest trick in the book," he answered "the puppy dog pout."

Natalie paused before glancing at the oblivious girl, thinking back to their brief interactions before narrowing her eyes.

"Clever girl."

"When she wants to be," Stanley agreed.

"How long did it take for you to find out?"

'When she flashed her tits to make me drop my guard and tackle me to the ground' he thought, 'so...''

"The same day I met her."

Nothing of note happened afterwards as they managed to pack up Natalie's meager possessions, though not without some protest.

"Look, I get why you don't like them, but why throw away perfectly serviceable utensils and cutlery?"

She was, of course, speaking of Ezraphel's insistence on discarding her collection of admittedly cheap kitchen utensils. The woman was oddly vehement on this, which actually threw Natalie for a loop. Stanley, on the other hand, could only roll his eyes at his girlfriend's actions.

"She's a food snob."

That was his excuse for her, which begs the question of what Stan's kitchen looked like since, as far as she knew, he had the same idea she did about kitchenware. The idea being that as long as it gets the job done, then who gives a fuck?

As for Ezraphel, the woman answered in a rather prim and, dare she say, snobbish way, "serviceable? Hardly," she scoffed before holding up the trash bag. "In any case, I shall not allow them anywhere near my kitchen."

Once again, Natalie found herself at a genuine loss for words and looked to her brother for aid. Stanley gave her a look that practically read, "You're on your own."

Instead, she sighed, letting the issue go: "meh, it's not like I'll be needing those things anyway."

"Of course not," Ezraphel nodded, "for I will be taking care of your meals from now on."

"Are you sure you up for that?" Natalie smirked "I am very particular about my food."

"Hmph, I will have you know that Stanley is so taken with my meals that he has stopped eating food delivered to him."

"Wait, you managed to wean him off of takeout?" Natalie asked with a smile while looking at the man.

Ezraphel smiled triumphantly as she turned her nose up. "Of course! Now he constantly sings the praises of my cooking and cannot live without it."

"I wouldn't go that far," the reticent man scowled.

"That's not a denial though," Natalie noticed, and Stanley's silence once again confirmed it. "Well, damn, now I'm feeling hyped for lunch."

"As you should be," there was a glint in Ezraphel's eyes. "I can promise that you will never taste anything better in this world."

"Well, I don't know about that."

"Stanley can attest to it."

"It's true," he admitted begrudgingly before glaring at his girlfriend, "but you don't need to be so smug about it."

Natalie couldn't help but chuckle. "No offense, but I'm not so sure Stan here is the best metric to measure your culinary skills." thumbing the man, she continues, "this guy will literally eat anything so long as it tastes good."

"That is also true," he admitted.

"So I'm not that surprised he got hooked on your home cooking."

"Are you doubting my culinary skills?" Ezraphel asked with a flat expression.

"No, I'm just saying-"

"That I'm not as good as I think I am?" The woman interrupted with a clenched fist and a narrow-eyed glare.

Natalie suddenly felt a touch of nervousness—the sense that she was poking the sleeping bear. She knew there was danger afoot, but god damn if she wasn't curious to see where this was going.

And so, with that in mind, she dug her heels in, stood up a bit straighter, and answered "yes."

A beat of silence followed, and then Ezraphel drew up to her full height, drawing attention to the fact that Ezraphel was very tall, taller than Natalie herself, who was actually tall for a woman.

Then the blonde spoke the words "challenge accepted."

The words rang with a heavy feeling that had Natalie instinctively swallowing her apprehension and instead giving the other woman a smirk.

"Don't disappoint."

With further narrowing of her eyes that had Natalie internally cringing, Ezraphel strode off with a huff, picking up two heavy suitcases as easily as she did the garbage bag before leaving. Now left alone with her brother, Natalie's bravado collapsed like a house of cards.

And as she slumped she couldn't help but ask "what just happened?"

In response, Stanley walked up next to her and showed his phone screen. "Hey, see this?"

When Natalie turned to look at the screen, all she saw was the digital clock face. "What?"

"Take a good long look, Nat, because that's the exact time you fucked up."

"What?"

But he said nothing in response to her query, merely chuckling in dark amusement.

And so, following a conversation with the landlord and her abrupt move, the trio left the apartment building and drove towards home. Unlike before, there was a clear divide between Natalie and Ezraphel, the latter of whom steadfastly ignored the former's presence, having clearly taken great offense to her insinuation. The silence was getting awkward the more time went on, and it hasn't even been five minutes yet.

"Ez, you know that I didn't mean to."

"I have nothing to say to you," the woman interrupted.

That shut Natalie up but also gave the other woman an incredulous look:' she's that offended!?'

It was ridiculous, and even then, her reaction was almost cartoonishly over-the-top, to the point where Natalie was almost convinced she was doing a bit. Unfortunately, her brother would be of no help here if the shit-eating grin he sported when their eyes caught in the rear-view mirror was any indication.

It looks like I'm on my own'. She mentally sighed, 'now, how do I fix this?'

It took another minute before she found a possible solution, and in a moment, she turned to rummage through the back of the car where her belongings were stored.

"What the hell are you doing back there?" questioned Stanley.

"Eyes on the road and off my ass" was her only response.

Eventually she found what she was looking for: an old digital camera, but unfortunately, years of neglect saw its battery without power. That was okay, however, as the real prize was the memory card, or rather the smaller chip slotted into the memory card, which she slipped into her tablet.

After a minute or so, she smirked in triumph and said, 'it still works.'

At that moment, the car stopped at a traffic light, and her eyes left the tablet screen to look at Stanley's via the rear-view mirror. As if sensing her gaze, Stanley met it, and the smirk she sported grew ever wider as his expression went from curiosity and confusion to realization and indignation with a hint of apprehension.

Not taking her eyes off of him, "hey Ez~"

"I'm still not talking to you."

The words were ignored as Natalie soldiered on: "Wanna see baby pictures of Stanley~?"

Ezraphel's head moved so fast that Natalie feared she might have gotten whiplash from the movement. That concern, however, was immediately forgotten as she beheld the abnormally intense gaze Ezraphel leveled at her.

"What did you just say?"

"I found the memory card for a camera I used to take pictures of little Stanley with when we were younger." She paused. "Now that I think about it, it's less baby pictures and more kiddy pictures." Natalie admitted

"Gimme!" Ezraphel practically lunged across the seat, scaring the hell out of Natalie.

By some miracle, Natalie managed to keep the tablet out of reach of the larger and stronger woman.

"Tell you what. We can go through this together, but first you have to forgive me. What do you say?"

At this, Ezraphel paused, looking from her to the tablet and seemingly weighing her options. Suddenly the car came to a halt at the side of the road, and as both women glanced to the front, the tablet was swiftly swiped from Natalie's hand.

"Hey!" Natalie yelled, bewildered.

"Aw~" whined Ezraphel.

Stanley said nothing as he exited the vehicle with a tablet in hand.

"Shit, gimme a minute," Natalie cursed as she left the car on the opposite side, careful of any oncoming traffic.

Once outside, she saw her brother going through the pictures, not even sparing her a glance as he spoke, "Why do you have this?"

"What, I can't have pictures from a camera I bought?" She questioned him, walking around the car towards him.

Stanley grunted but said nothing as he continued to finagle with the tech.

"What are you doing?"

"Editing," and as he spoke, his fingers flew across the touch screen with the speed of fingers on a keyboard.

"Don't delete anything!" Natalie panicked as she went to swipe the tablet.

In one smooth motion, without taking his eyes off the screen, he avoided her attempted grab and stepped a few paces away.

"I'm not deleting anything," he grunted. "I'm doing damage control."

"Damage control?"

This time he did spare her glance, albeit a brief one: "Did you even think about what's on this thing before you started sharing family secrets?"

He showed her a full-screen picture that had the woman wincing something fierce. "Oh."

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I'm not the only one with secrets on here."

Natalie recovered well enough. "I don't think it matters at this point unless Ezraphel has a problem with-"

"She doesn't," he interrupted. "Trust me, she doesn't have any problems with that. Besides, that's not what I'm really getting rid of anyway."

"Is it mom and dad?"

"…"

"Does she even know what they look like?"

"…"

"You seriously going to pretend they don't exist?"

"You want these left in or what?" he asked, completely ignoring her question.

Natalie stared for a moment before answering, "just put them in a separate folder or something."

After a few more minutes of this, he handed the tablet back. "I hid the other stuff in a folder in the trash."

She gave a sardonic smirk "naturally."

Stanley said nothing as he re-entered, leaving Natalie alone for a brief bit.

Behind her, the car window wound down, and Ezraphel stuck her head outside. "Are you okay?"

'No.'

"Yeah, don't worry, I'm coming in now."

Ezraphel pursed her lips but nodded "okay," but before the other woman could walk around to re-enter, Ezraphel stopped her and said, "Oh, and Natalie?"

"Yeah?"

The blonde smiled, "I forgive you."

Natalie stared for a moment before chuckling though even Ezraphel's beatific smile could not cast away the gloom she felt at the conversation "thanks"

Moments Later…

"HEEEEE~"

Ezraphel's excited squeal made things better as Natalie showed a picture of a toddler Stanley holding a balloon while giving a wide smile to the camera.