“Are you sure this isn’t too much?” Maria asked, looking down at her dress for the twelfth time. Edith and Maria had bought it earlier today at one of many clothing stores they visited. Maria’s head still spun at the thought of the price, even though she still didn’t have a good reference of monetary value here. Even when comparing it to earthly value the dress wasn’t horridly expensive. Maria had just been living with low standards for clothing before, considering her living conditions back then.

“Yes, Maria. You look beautiful,” Edith replied, giving her a large smile and looking over the black dress. It wasn’t something flashy, nor did it show too much skin. It wasn’t over the top formal, but it was just a little more than casual wear. Perfect for meeting a partner’s parents for the first time. 

Maria felt a little more at ease when her demon’s tail wrapped itself around her calf. It was already dark out and there weren’t many people around to see, so Edith’s guard was down. Though the demon realized that she shouldn’t be afraid to express her affection for Maria, she still felt shy about it.

Maria hadn’t asked about the tail grabbing onto her at all, really. She just accepted it as a sign of affection. One that made her jump at first, but a sign nonetheless. Still, she couldn’t help but feel for her demon, knowing that it’s comforting to her. But also made her self conscious in public. Maria was hoping that Edith would eventually grow more confident in that very intimate display of affection for demons, but Maria did also suddenly realize that in the near future she’ll be able to do it to Edith, too.

Would she wrap her tail around Edith’s calf like she does? Or would they maybe wrap their tails around each other? The budding demon felt her face heat up at the thought of it. Sudden feelings of embarrassment and a strange sense of perverse arousal came with the thought of the two having their tails wrapped together in public. Her tail gave a light flick under her dress.

Wait. Where were these feelings coming from? Maria hadn’t grown up in a society that tells her what to feel and think about what you do with your tail. So why would she feel like this? The feelings are almost instinctual in a way. No, wait, they are instinctual! Are these fucking new demonic instincts?! Ho—Unholy shit!

Maria stopped mid stride, her thoughts consumed by the fact that she’s now developing a whole new set of instincts. Edith noticed Maria’s now faraway look.

“Hey. Everything okay?” Edith asked, placing a hand on the budding demon’s shoulder.

The gentle touch brought Maria out of her cascading thoughts on her ever going change in species. “Uh, yeah. Sorry, I just kind of got lost in thought.”

“What about? You seemed pretty far gone,” Edith said with a light chuckle.

“I just realized that I have new instinctual feelings.”

“Oh?” Edith raised an eyebrow, as she continued to walk, pulling her dear with her. “Like what?”

Another sudden wave of embarrassment and excitement washed over Maria as she remembered the thought that triggered all this. Her small tail wiggled slightly. “Tail stuff.”

“Hm. Yeah, I guess you would need to develop that while you’re growing a new limb.”

“Wait, are tails really limbs or...?.”

“They are if they’re prehensile.”

“Huh. I didn’t know that.” Cool, limb count now at five. Maria looked up at her lover, a little nervous, but she really wanted to know what Edith would think about it. “So, um, I had an idea.”

“Yes?” Edith looked back at her.

“So, when my tail’s more fully grown.” Gods, why did this make her so nervous? Why did it also excite her so much? “How would you feel about instead of wrapping your tail around my calf, that we wrap our tails together?”

Edith stopped dead in her tracks. Her red slitted eyes grew wide as her already red cheeks turned darker. Maria could see that Edith’s mind was suddenly going a mile a minute as she stared somewhat blankly back at her.

“I—I—Um—it—” Edith just stuttered out syllables as she stared back at Maria. 

Oh my gods! Is Edith flustered? Did Maria just fully fluster her seemingly unflusterable demon?! Oh gods, she started to breathe heavily at the thought!

“L—like, just at h—home?” Edith managed to spit out still in shock. 

“Or out in public as well,” Maria admitted sheepishly, the thought of doing such a scandalous thing in public sending a shiver through her. Edith for her part just seemed to almost shut down. Though her tail was quickly becoming a vice grip on Maria’s calf.

Maria couldn’t help but giggle at the sight of her love. Blushing up a storm, eyes darting back and forth as she thought about their tails entwining each other. It was rare, but Edith could be fucking adorable sometimes, and it made Maria really happy that she could be the one to bring it out of the often-intimidating demon.

“Let’s uh... Let’s talk about this later,” Edith said, starting to bring her cool back.

“Like at your parents?”

“No!” Just like that Edith was flustered again, but quickly brought it back under control. “When we get home tonight, we can talk about it more.” It was clear to the budding demon that Edith was still reeling a little from the thought.

Deciding to let her lover get back to her usual confident self, Maria smiled and nodded, before cuddling up to her side as they continued on their path to Edith’s parents’ house.

~~~

“Alright,” Edith said. “This is it.”

The couple stood in front of one of many townhouses that all pretty much looked the same. They were all higher end of course, but still they all looked the same.

“You okay?” Maria asked as she felt the tail on her calf grip tighter.

“Of course. Why would you ask?” Edith did her best to put on a tone of complete confidence.

“Because your tail has a vice on my leg.”

Immediately the tail left her leg as Edith’s face let go of the confident look she was putting on. However, Edith’s arm did remain wrapped around Maria’s waist.

“Sorry, I’m—I’m just nervous... I’ve never brought anyone home before. I never had anyone to bring home, and I really don’t want to mess this up,” Edith admitted in a whisper and not making direct eye contact.

Maria gave her demon a gentle smile before hugging her. “It’s okay. I never brought anyone home either. I haven’t even been brought home to meet parents before,” Maria said with a little nervous laugh, letting her own feelings be known. “And now I’m about to meet my girlfriend’s demon and nymph parents, after only being with her for like two weeks.” Fuck, her life really had become crazy so quickly after that night. Everything she thought she knew had been turned upside down, and on top of all that she was now married to a demon and becoming one herself. Unholy fuck, that’s a lot of things to process in less than two weeks.

“Are... Are you sure you want to do this? We can go back if you really don’t feel comfortable with this. I don’t want to push you into doing anything you don’t want to...” Edith said worriedly, feeling that maybe she really had rushed things between them. At least the whole ‘meet the parents’ part.

“No, I want to do this. I mean it’s not like we are going to break up or anything considering we are literal soulmates, so I’ll have to meet them at some point. Might as well get it out of the way, right?” Maria said with a slightly nervous laugh.

Edith nodded and turned to the door. “Alright, then let’s do thi—”

“Edith!” a voice yelled

Before the scarlet demon could even step close enough to knock on the door, it swung open wide, the light from the inside spilling out and blinding Maria’s new eyes for just a split second before adjusting. Though before she could focus there was a flash of movement, and all of a sudden there was a woman hugging Edith tightly.

“Oh, how I’ve missed you, dear,” the woman said, not pulling away from the hug at all. The woman herself was a full head shorter than Edith, with luscious green hair that sported dozens of beautiful red flowers that were the exact same shade as Edith’s skin. Her skin looked to be the color of light bark, and in fact, looking closer, Maria could see some actual bark in places.

“Mitéra, it’s only been a month,” Edith said, hugging her mitéra back tightly.

“You know how she can be,” a new voice said from the doorway. 

Turning to look, Maria saw Edith’s other parent. She was a tall demon like her daughter, with horns nearly the exact same shape, though a little smooth looking compared to Edith’s. The thing that shocked Maria the most, which she didn’t know why it did, is that Edith’s mother was a dark navy blue, and not red like Edith. Maria wasn’t sure why she had assumed Edith’s mother would be red like her, but she did. Also how does demon coloring work? Is it just random? Or is it like a parent thing? Because the red flowers in her mitéra’s hair are the right color. 

Wait... Out of all the demons Maria has seen, which is a very small count but still, none of them have had a ‘normal’ human color range. So, if demon’s don’t fit in with human skin tones that means... Oh fuck! Maria’s going to change colors!

The realization hit her like a brick as her thoughts drew her attention inward and away from the people in front of her.

What color is she going to be? Will she be able to hide her color with glamour? (The answer is yes, but she’s not thinking too hard at the moment.) Will it make the glamour harder? Will her hair change color, too? Will she suddenly wake up one day with a completely new skin tone, or will it be slow? Will it be blotchy at first and spread or will it happen evenly?

“Maria?” a gentle hand landed on the budding demon’s shoulder, jolting her out of her cascading thoughts. “Are you okay?” Edith asked gently as Maria looked up into her eyes.

“A—am I going to be purple?”

Edith quizzically blinked down at her love before a gentle warm smile washed over her face. Reaching out, Edith cupped Maria’s cheek and said, “Oh, Maria.” The demon giggled lightly, a sound that made Maria’s stomach flutter. “We’ll just have to wait and see,” the scarlet demon said.

“Aww,” the nymph said loud enough to break Maria’s focus on her love. “She really does take after you dear.” The green haired woman was holding tightly onto her wife’s arm while looking up at her wife with pure adoration. The navy demon’s cheeks quickly grew darker as she looked away, not meeting anyone’s eyes, though Maria could see that she was trying to hold back a smile. Movement low to the ground also showed Maria that the blue tail was flicking around nervously, as if wanting to wrap around the nymph’s ankle but afraid to do so, similar to what Edith’s does sometimes.

Coughing lightly to grab everyone’s attention, Edith looked over to her parents with her arm around Maria’s waist.

“Mom, Mitéra, this is Maria. Maria, these are my parents. Anthe,” Edith said pointing towards her shorter and flowery parent. “And Bridget.” The navy demon gave a greeting nod towards Maria, while the nymph happily stepped forward and took Maria’s hand.

“It’s so nice to meet you, Maria,” Anthe said with a beaming smile as she gently shook the budding demon’s hand. Her leaf green eyes staring deeply into Maria, as if to look into her soul. “Edith and you really hit it off fast,” the nymph said, eyeing Maria’s little horns.

It took a second for Maria to realize what Anthe was saying, but the second she did her face lit up nearly as bright red as her lover’s. Did Edith’s mitéra really just talk about their sex life before Maria could even say a word? 

“Anthe, really? That’s the first thing you say to the poor girl?” Bridget stepped up and put a hand on her wife’s shoulder.

“What? I’m just happy to know that my daughter and her wife have a healthy sex life.”

The budding demon almost choked on nothing as Edith’s tail twitched around her calf. Oh, Edith’s tail was around her leg in front of her parents? Is she comfortable doing that around her parents? No wait, Edith’s mitéra literally wants to know about their sex life!

“Still,  that shouldn’t be the first thing you say to her.” Bridget turned to Maria with a gentle smile and held out her hand. A little dazed still from the nymph’s blatant approval of her daughter’s sex life, Maria took the offered hand. “Sorry about her, she can be a little too much sometimes.”

“Hey...” Anthe said with a pout.

“I’m not wrong.” Bridget gave her wife a smirk that was almost a mirror for the one Edith would give Maria. Anthe just scrunched up her face at her wife. “Well, it’s nice to meet you,'' Bridget said, turning back to Maria. “Come, let’s go inside and get off the street.” With that said, the four of them made their way inside.

Maria wasn’t sure what she was expecting the inside of Edith’s parent’s house to look like, but it was rather normal looking. Well, normal by the Celesque standards of Victorian with modern touches. Also, there were a lot of plants. Like a lot of plants everywhere. Not so big they were intrusive, but enough so that you would always see green wherever you looked. Except for the plants that were blue, or purple, or red... Wow, there were a lot of plants that definitely do not come from Earth.

“Bridget has just finished cooking everything,” Anthe said with a proud smile as she led Edith and Maria into the dining room. “She’s been a little obsessed with terran cooking since she was last over there. Don’t know what spurred her on to it, but my, if I haven’t had my fill of beef.”

“I thought you said you liked it?!” An ever so slightly nervous voice came from what Maria would assume is the kitchen. Anthe clearly had not expected to have her wife hear that and instantly looked a little guilty.

“I do. Just not for every meal...”

Edith shook her head with a gentle laugh at her parent’s antics before she helped Maria into a seat at the dining table. Maria wasn’t really sure how to act right now, since she was both incredibly nervous and had no prior experience of meeting her partner’s parents. At least not one that was planned.

“I better go to her before she starts pouting,” Anthe said, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. “I’ll grab a bottle of wine while I’m at it.” She quickly turned to head out of the room but stopped herself and looked back at Maria. “You do drink, don’t you?”

“Oh, um, yes I do,” Maria replied with a little nervousness to her voice. Anthe just nodded and headed off.

“You doing okay?” Edith asked, leaning over closer to Maria from her seat. It was comforting to the budding demon to feel her lover’s warmth. Though to be fair, even when sitting apart like this, Edith’s tail is nearly always holding onto her.

“Yeah. Don’t really know what I was expecting to be honest. Maybe not so many plants,” Maria said with a nervous giggle.

Edith chuckled. “Oh, we’ll be lucky if we make it out of here without a new plant ourselves. Mitéra nearly always has a new plant for me whenever I visit. That’s why my garden and terrace are full of them.”

Maria nodded along to her demon. She hadn’t asked Edith about the plants at home, she just assumed it was a thing Edith liked since there were a lot of them. Thinking about it now, Edith did take care of the plants with love and care, so it wasn’t like Edith wasn’t happy with them. Definitely got her green thumb from her mitéra.

“Duly noted,” Maria said with a little interest as to if they really would be bringing a new plant home. Then something else came to her mind. “Was Anthe really happy to know about our sex life?” The budding demon asked with confused curiosity.

Edith took a deep breath before saying, “Yeah. She’s always been very open about sex stuff considering that’s kind a of a racial trait. Not that it also isn’t for demons. Though I wasn’t expecting it to be the first thing out her mouth.” Edith paused for a second before letting out a small chuckle at a memory. “To put it into perspective, mitéra is the kind of parent who wanted to celebrate me losing my virginity.”

Maria just blinked, wide-eyed at her demon. The concept of a parent celebrating their child losing their virginity was a concept her brain had never even thought of considering her upbringing. Before Maria could even think of what she was saying, she suddenly spouted out, “Did you?” Still clearly in shock.

Edith laughed a little too hard before giving her girlfriend a nod. “Yes. We did celebrate it. Not the most common celebration in the multiplanes, but not really that unheard of for demons and nymphs.”

Maria was in complete shock. No clue how she was supposed to react or respond to that. The briefest of scenarios played in her head of her telling her own parents she lost her virginity. Maria just shivered doing her absolute best to shove that image as far away from her as possible.

“Alright,” Bridget said as she came into the dining room with her wife in tow. In her hands she carried a large bowl-like serving dish. “Dinner is served.” The navy demon wore a smile of pure pride as she set the dish down in the center of the table.

Maria’s nose was instantly hit with a wave of wine, cream and spices coming off of the dish. Leaning in a little, Maria looked into the bowl to find a pasta dish with creaming white sauce, chicken, bacon, and peas. Her stomach made an approving growl at the sight of it, and she could feel her mouth salivating at the thought of eating the pasta.

“Seems like someone approves,” Bridget said with even more pride as she nodded to Maria.

Maria blushed lightly before saying. “It smells so good.”

“Be careful,” Anthe started, “If you give her too much praise, it will be the only thing she ever makes for you.” The nymph chuckled to herself as she opened a bottle of wine.

“I would not,” Bridget corrected her wife as she started to serve.

Anthe just replied by saying, “I said I liked beef once, and I haven’t stopped eating it since.”

“That’s not fair. I genuinely thought you really liked beef.” The demon mother said a little sternly.

“I do.” Anthe smiled and side hugged the demon. “I’m just teasing you dear,” the nymph said, leaning up to kiss Bridget on the cheek. Bridget visibly stiffened at her wife’s kiss.

At first Maria thought that she didn’t like it, but then she saw the slight blush on Bridget’s face and realized that she did.She was just shy about showing affection in front of people. Which would make a lot of sense with what Edith had told her about demon culture. That it was a weakness to show love and affection for another person. Edith was always shy of showing affection while they were in public. Well, not completely. Edith happily had her arm around Maria and cuddled her. Kissing was typically for when no one else was looking. The tail on her calf was only when Edith truly thought no one was looking, or in a place she felt safe. So yeah, Bridget's reaction to her wife’s affection made sense considering she was brought up believing affection was a weakness. It was also sweet that you could clearly see that Bridget wanted to reciprocate her wife’s affection but was too nervous to do so.

“Alright, well there’s no beef in this pasta,” the navy demon said when her nymph finally pulled away, and she could get back to serving.

With meals served and glasses filled with wine, Edith’s parents finally took their seats. Maria wasn’t sure why, but part of her suddenly expected there to be a prayer before they ate. Which was silly because demons don’t pray. Do they? Edith never did. But there are many gods, so there must be demons who pray. And nymphs have  gods right? Hermaphroditus and all that. 

Wow, Maria just also realized Edith’s mitéra is the one with a dick, not Bridget, which feels weird for some reason. Does that mean Bridget is the sub? AAAAHHH! No! No! Stop thinking about your girlfriend’s parent’s genitals and their sexual preference! Bad, Maria! Bad!

“Alright, dig in everyone.” Bridget said eagerly.

Alright so no family prayer. Still not sure why she was expecting one. Maybe because when she was with her family there was a prayer before every single meal. Even when out at restaurants. So it was ingrained in her, but she never did it after being kicked out. Maybe it was just because this was a family meal. Something Maria had not had in a long time...

But this feels different from her family dinners, and not just because Bridget and Anthe weren’t her parents. Well, they are her parents-in-law now. Regardless, this is different. It’s not cold like how her parents were with her. It feels warm in a way. Comfortable, kind of. Like Edith’s parents aren’t holding themselves back, Bridget’s affection to her wife aside, or trying to keep distance from Maria. Them being open and enjoyable. Personable maybe? Maria has yet to feel judged at all, which was something she felt a lot with her parents. Shouldn’t you feel that at some point when meeting your partner’s parents? Shouldn’t they be judging who you are? But Bridget and Anthe aren’t doing that. In fact, they seem to just be happily accepting her. Maybe in part because she and Edith are literal soul mates. So of course, they would be good together, but maybe it’s just Edith’s parents being warm and nice with her. It... It feels really nice. Kind of like how movies picture a happy family meal.

“You okay, dear?” Edith said, pulling Maria out of her deep thoughts.

“Oh, yeah. I’m good.” Maria gave her demon a big genuine smile.