Last Time
"He's our oldest son," Sirzechs said cutting off Serafall and dropping one massive bombshell on everyone.
This Time
Right before Serafall's comment, Grayfia had stumbled into the room making her way towards Sona and Issei, which caused Sona to wake up and her eyes to flash due to her glasses being crooked, before she woke up completely and relaxed when she saw who it was before jumping as Sirzechs said that Issei was their oldest son, waking Issei up right as Grayfia pulled him into a hug.
Issei, still groggy, and not having caught Sirzechs's words, was jolted awake from Sona jumping only to find himself being pulled into a hug by a sobbing Grayfia. "Sona, what's going on? Do you know these people?" He tried asking her, while also trying to get out of the hug, but he was surprised to see her with a stunned expression on her face till her mind caught up to what she'd heard and could speak.
"Right after you fell asleep, one of my sisters Knights came by to check on me and I sent her to request Grayfia here," pointing to the woman currently hugging him, "as I thought she could help with your ice magic and hopefully buy you more time," she stated, fixing her glasses, while thinking in her head, 'I had a feeling for a while there was a resemblance between the two, but this goes farther than even I thought it would. I should have done this earlier but it's too late to worry about now.'
Tsubaki, just having come back from her own shock, noticed it looked like Sona was still trying to wrap her mind around everything so stepped in to finish what she had begun to explain. "But as it turns out, these two are your birth parents Issei." Managing to get a shocked and stunned expression from him, as Sirzechs walked up to the three.
Blinking his eyes for a moment before her words registered, he woke completely up as the shock got to him. "Wait wait wait, if these two are my parents, why are they so happy to see me?" Shocking everyone, "I mean my adopted parents found me after a devil left me in an alleyway," he said causing Grayfia to start sobbing, Sirzechs's eyes to widen and Serafall and her peerage to grimace remembering the night that all went down. The Maous had been having a meeting and somehow, no one knows to this day still how they did it, but from what they could gather either a stray Devil had snatched him from his bedroom while they were in another part of the house.
"No, no I swear we never abandoned you. A stray devil grabbed you out of your crib when no one was looking and somehow hid you away from us, most likely using magic." Sirzechs got out while all the adults nodded their heads calming Issei down some, while shocking Sona and her peerage moreover what happened to Issei in the past.
"He's right, they never stopped looking for you after that night. Heck we've never stopped looking for you," Serafall stepped in to enlighten causing Issei to look over at her, making her realize he didn't know who she was to her sadness, "Oh, my name's Serafall by the way, So-tan's older sister. Nice to meet you." Thankful that her sister's fiancée was someone they had ties to already, even if no one had known it till today.
Getting a mischievous look on his face that the Student Council had seen before a lot of times, he was about to pull something, that even Sona ignored. Smiling , he decided to pull a little prank on her. "So your So-tan's older sister that she keeps telling me abou-" before he could say something, Sona's hand covered his mouth, probably because she realized what Issei was about to do. Sighing, she tried to tell him to shut up before her sister could do something that would likely be embarrassing for her, but unfortunately, it was too late.
Yelling with glee, Serafall jumped at Sona crushing her in a hug while Issei just tried to get out of the way laughing, while Sona tried to get out of it too but her sister didn't let her. "I knew you loved me Sona if you're talking about me." She said but Sona grew more worried for Issei than her family issues when another attack hit him, shocking the Council girls into action, rushing forward to help just as Sona finally got Serafall off of her to do the same. The older devils were too shocked to do anything; even though they were already informed about the attacks… hearing and seeing them were two different things entirely.
"I'm fine everyone, that was just a small attack really." He said as he moved his hand, and everyone saw blood on it.
"Issei, every attack is one to worry about," Sona admonished him, as she grabbed a napkin to wipe off the blood from his mouth, as the rest of the Council agreed with her. Sighing, Issei didn't attempt to argue it as Tsubaki brought him a glass of water which he thanked her for as he glanced up and noticed the shocked look on the adults faces that hadn't seen one of his attacks yet, causing him to sigh. "I hope seeing one of my attacks doesn't change anything," not sure how much they knew and not wanting to lose his birth parents now that he found them.
Knocked out of their surprise by his words, his parents were quick to stop his worries. "No, no, no. Even though we were told about the attacks it's different to see one in person than just hearing about it, Takumi," Sirzechs said, also just realizing something missed in the excitement, and pausing Issei's next words with what he said. "Forgive me for just now catching on but I don't think you ever heard my name. I'm Sirzechs, your father like was mentioned, and as Sona said Grayfia, the one who was hugging you earlier is your mother."
Nodding his head, Issei just had one more question for them, "Takumi?"
"The name you were born with, Takumi Lucifuge Gremory. You were born a month early, which caused Sirzechs to almost blow up the house in worry. You were born December first at 5 am. " Grayfia said, throwing a rare smirk at her husband, causing him to grimace at the memory, and getting a laugh from Serafall.
"I remember that night," Serafall said, "we had to have a meeting and as he didn't want to leave your side we all met up at your house. Since our parents were out on a date, I had to bring Sona with me and she loved feeling the baby kick. You were also a lot calmer than he was during the whole ordeal." She said, throwing a jab herself at Sirzechs. "Though the other two Maou's were just as bad. You were calm through it all."
"Now that you mention it, Sona seemed drawn to him, even at a year old, every time she was around during my pregnancy." Grayfia thought back with a contented sigh, leaning forward for another hug, and causing Sona to blush with her words.
Tsubaki stepped in at that moment to state, "Maybe that's why they've always been close. They felt a connection back then and it was still there when they met up again recently, without either of them noticing it." Getting a thoughtful nod from the adults at that point, not finding anything to dispute it. "I still remember what he did to a wrestler who tried to flirt with Sona, then grabbed her when she rejected him." Making both Issei and Sona blush at the memory.
Seeing a chance to make fun of her King, Momo said, "Are you talking about the time he cracked a wall by slamming a plastic knife into it, threatened to skin the guy, and then force-feed it to him while being lowered into a vat of acid? That was an interesting and fun day," she said laughing making the older devils look at Issei who had a sheepish looking smile at the time.
"Sona is very precious to me… of course I'd go to any lengths to keep her safe," he said getting Sona to blush and making everyone else laugh at that. "He's lucky Sona pulled me off of him or who knows what might have happened to him."
Shaking her head at him, Sona just had one thing to say, "You already had had one attack that day Issei, I didn't want you risking having another just to protect me."
"I don't care. Protecting you is worth an attack to me." He said back, making her blush.
"Why would you have to go and say something like that to me, idiot." She said lightly hitting him while blushing.
"Sorry forgot how much of a tsundere you are," he said laughing as her blush deepened and she tried to push him off the couch, but did start to smile at the end, causing everyone to laugh at both of them, but Sona's eyes started to widen at Sirzechs's next words. 'Crap, I forgot to let Issei know about that.'
Laughing, Sirzechs's next comment had Issei looking at him confused. "Hahaha, barely 16 years old, has many beautiful girls hanging off of him, and an ice queen as his fiancée? He sure takes after me." Before he looked over and saw Issei's confusion.
"Fiancée?" He asked, honest confusion written over his face as the adults realized that he didn't know about it yet.
Wanting to make sure he was right on Issei not knowing, he had to ask. "You've beaten Sona in a chess match right?" Getting a nod from him.
"Last I checked I was at 56 wins, 50 losses, and about 75 ties, with Sona," making all the adults become shocked at how good he had to be to win that many times, as he continued, "but what does that have to do with her being my fiancée?" He said before hearing Sona sigh.
"I've been trying to find a good way to tell you but the cats out of the bag now I guess. I made an agreement with my parents years ago that I wouldn't marry anyone who wasn't as smart as me and they had to beat me at chess to marry me and they agreed." She said seeing his eyes light up in recognition.
"So, the game last year right before school started…" getting a nod of her head, "I was the first person to beat you at chess." Getting another nod from her. Sighing he looked at her and said, "I'm sorry you had to be engaged to a dying boy," missing the shocked look all the adults had after he said that, getting pushed off the couch to his surprise.
"Idiot. I swear you're clueless. Marriage agreement or not, you think I would care for you as much as I do if I didn't love you? I've been trying to drop hints all year how much you mean to me, and you've been dense as ever about it." She said, glad to see the surprised look on his face at that.
Having a laugh at the two, Sirzechs had one thing to throw into the mix before Grayfia hit him on the back of the head. "He definitely gets the clueless side from his mother. I spent years trying to tell her I was interested in her, and then more time before I could take her on a date." But the hit from Grayfia wasn't too forceful as she couldn't disagree with him all that much on the point.
Having to agree with Sona after thinking about it for a moment, he could only nod his head at her. "So, I guess I should invite you out on a date now?" He said sheepishly as the rest of the Council laughed at the both of them.
"Sounds good, but it has to be something not school related." She replied, getting a nod back from him as he thought about it and made a suggestion she liked.
"How about a movie and dinner then. The new Pokémon movie just recently came out," he offered knowing how much she loved Pokémon, as she would often get drawings done from him depicting Pokémon. She would always pay him even though he said he would do it for free, but she never felt right having it done for free.
She agreed happily and they decided to meet up at seven at the theatre, and after her giving him a kiss on the cheek they both remembered that they weren't the only two in the room and blushed as the rest of the Council had one thing to say, which had all the adults laughing at the kids. "Fucking finally!"
Goddamn, this is so saccharine I can't help but giggle while reading it.