“And that’s when I said ‘I gave you exactly what you asked for, fifty thousand gold coins. You never specified that they had to be solid gold. Besides, the chocolate gold coins are much more enjoyable for a feast’.

Maria, her demon, and Anthe all let out a good laugh at Bridget’s story as they all sat down in the living room. The fireplace roared, keeping the room warm, and gave off just enough light for everyone to see. Well, really the light was mostly for Anthe, since she didn’t have ‘darkvision’ as Maria had dubbed her new enhanced demon sight.

The wine had been put away a short while ago as no one was planning on drinking too much tonight. Especially Maria, as she is apparently still not up to demon standards of being able to hold your alcohol yet. Edith’s parents had practically had a bottle of wine each and seemed perfectly fine. Edith had stuck to drinking the same amount as Maria. Whether that was in solidarity with the budding demon, or just to make sure Maria didn’t feel the need to drown herself in wine to keep up, she wasn’t sure. 

It didn’t matter now though, as they were moving onto sharing a pot of revdige, which was a new otherworldly drink Maria was excited for, as Edith had talked it up quite a bit. Maria was surprised with how much Edith seemed to like it,  and that they didn’t have any at home. Apparently Edith has a tendency to drink it too much if she has free access at home. So yeah, no revdige at home.

Still, Maria was excited for it, until she smelt it... And tasted it... Not that it was bad at all! It was just... Well, it was coffee. It was literally just a cup of coffee. Bridget even served it with cream and sugar. Or Celesque’s equivalent of cream and sugar.

Edith seemed personally offended by Maria’s lack of enthusiasm for the ‘coffee,’ but when Maria explained that this was a common drink on Earth her lover’s eyes went wide.

“What do you mean revdige is a common drink on earth? Isn’t it expensive?”

“No,” Maria answered a little confused. Why would coffee be expensive? Well, certain brands might be. “And coffee is really common. You can’t go three blocks in a city without passing at least four different coffee shops. It’s basically a societal norm for humans to drink coffee at breakfast.”

“What?” Edith looked flabbergasted at Maria’s statements.

“Probably shouldn’t have said that,” Bridget said, taking a sip of her revdige while Anthe chuckled.

“Why?” Maria asked, confused.

“So you mean, we could just pop over to Earth and get revdige like that, for cheap?” Edith asked, snapping her fingers. Edith’s eyes were wide with what seemed like both excitement and longing 

“I mean, yeah.”

“Edith.” Bridget’s voice had quickly turned to a motherly stern tone as the navy demon looked at her daughter's slightly crazed eyes.

“What? Maria said it wasn’t expensive on Earth,” Edith said in what sounded like an attempt to defend herself against her mother’s narrowed eyes.

“It’s not the expense that I’m worried about.”

Okay, there was definitely something going on here, and Maria was still a good bit confused by what it was exactly. Leaning forward, Maria quietly asked Anthe, “Is revdige really that expensive here?” while Edith continued to defend herself to her mother.

“Somewhat,” the nymph replied. “That pot we’re drinking probably cost about a hundred and fifty crem.”

Maria almost dropped her very expensive cup of revdige from shock. “A hundred and fifty?!” Anthe nodded, and suddenly Maria held on tighter to her cup, making sure she did not spill any.

“Edith. You know what happened last time you had too much revdige.”

“What? Getting a full months’ worth of work done in a couple of days.”

“You didn’t sleep for five days.”

“You didn’t sleep for five days?!” Maria blurted out, staring at her apparently coffee-addicted demon.

Edith suddenly looked shyly at her lover. Clearly embarrassed at Maria’s reaction to her caffeine manic work stinge. “It wasn’t the worst thing,” Edith said meekly in her defense.

“Then you slept for nearly two straight days, and could barely function for the next week,” Anthe added. Edith was no longer looking anyone in the eye, and just stared down ashamedly.

“Edith...” Maria was a little worried about her love and her coffee addiction, but she wasn’t going to be mad at her for it. Reaching out she gently rubbed Edith’s back reassuringly, though she had a stronger urge to wrap her tail around her demon even though her tail wasn’t long enough for that. Yet. The scarlet demon stiffened for a second but didn’t pull away.

“We’re not mad, Edith,” Bridget started, “but it really did worry us when it happened. Neither of us, and I would presume Maria as well, would like to see you like that again.”

“I... I know it wasn’t good.” Edith finally said after a minute. “And I know I shouldn’t do that again. I just... I can’t help but get excited about revdige.”

“And there’s nothing wrong with that,” Maria said looking up at her demon. “But moderation is a good thing.” Bridget and Anthe both nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, I know...” Edith sounded tired, but tired at herself not the topic. 

Maria realized Edith and her parents had probably had this conversation many times before, considering this could have probably happened anytime in the last seventy years. Fuck, the thought of how old Edith was still staggered her a little bit. But hey, it wasn’t like there was something she could do about it. And by the gods, Maria was sitting across from a couple with a two century age gape. Which of the pair was older though? Bridget or Anthe? Why did it feel like Bridget should be the oldest? Then again, she also felt like Bridget should be the one with the c— Nope, Maria is not going down that rabbit hole again. Never, ever again...

An electronic beep rang out from the kitchen, thankfully bringing Maria from her thoughts, as well as everyone else.

“Oh, that would be the dessert!” Bridget got up excitedly, before rushing off to the kitchen.

“Dessert?” Maria hadn’t expected dessert, so she had filled up on dinner. Oh well, she’ll just have to put up with it, because there is no way in the hells that she is going to turn down anything Edith’s parents give her on their first-time meeting each other.

“Oh yes, Bridget seemed really excited for this one,” Anthe said standing up. “I believe she said it was a magma gateau. I don’t know, something terran. I’ll go quickly help her with it.”

“What’s a magma gateau?” Edith confusedly asked quietly when her mitéra left.

“I have absolutely no idea,” Maria answered, just as confused as her demon.

“But it’s terran...”

From where she was sitting Maria could just peek through the gap in the kitchen door left by Anthe. She took a closer look to see if she could figure out what this dessert was but found something else. Through the crack Maria saw Anthe walk up to her wife’s side and wrap her arms around Bridget’s stomach. The navy demon tensed up for a second, like Maria had seen her do before, but then she seemed to melt into her wife’s arms, thinking no one was watching. Her head tilted down to rest on the nymphs, while a massive smile spread across her ever-darker growing cheeks.

Maria suddenly got the feeling that she was seeing something she shouldn’t. That what Bridget and Anthe were sharing was a private moment, only for them and Maria was intruding on it. Even if Maria couldn’t help but think it was cute. Quickly the budding demon looked away, only to find that Edith was watching her parents, too. A look of longing on her face, and Maria got a small glimpse into how Edith must have felt before she came along. But she was here now, and Edith didn’t need to feel that way anymore.

Scooting over, Maria wrapped her arms around Edith, pulling her demon into a tight hug while she buried her head in the crook of Edith’s neck. The scarlet demon tensed for a second, just like her mother did, but soon wrapped herself around her girlfriend, holding onto her tightly. The tail around Maria’s calf shifted to wrap around her waist, and the budding demon couldn’t help but want to do the exact same to her love. That day would come soon, and Maria very much looked forward to it.

“I love you,” The budding demon said into her soul mate’s neck.

Instead of responding right away, Edith cupped Maria’s cheek and pulled her out of her neck. Their eyes met and Maria could see that Edith was mulling something over in her head. She looked a little nervous to be honest, but then Edith leaned forward and brought her forehead to Maria’s. Gently, the scarlet demon rocked her head side to side, making her large horns knock against Maria’s little one. Even though Edith had never done this to her before or even talked about it, Maria instinctively knew that this was something deeply intimate between demons. Something on par with wrapping their tails together, but with less sexual implications. Maria’s cheeks lit up as she mimicked her girlfriend’s motions, feeling that somehow they had just taken another big step together. One that they could never go back from. One that neither of them would ever want to go back from.

“I love you, too,” Edith finally said in such a small gentle voice.

“Aww...” Anthe happily sighed.

The two demons instantly pulled apart, eyes wide with embarrassment at being caught in such an intimate moment. Looking up, it became apparent to Maria that Bridget and Anthe had come back just in time to witness that. Anthe had a massive beaming smile across her face, and honestly looked to be about on the verge of tears from joy. Bridget on the other hand, her cheeks were so dark they were virtually black, her eyes were wide in shock and she couldn’t seem to look at either Edith or Maria directly.

“Maybe I should get some horns so you can do that to me,” the nymph said looking up at her wife. Bridget for her parts just seemed to lose all ability to think and started sputtering syllables. The nymph giggled and then said, “Though maybe antlers would look better on me than horns.” That did not help Bridget at all. In fact, it might have made it even worse.

“Dessert?” Edith suddenly piped up, trying to save her mother’s sanity.

“Y-yes. Dessert.” Bridget finally snapped out of it, though the shock in her eyes and the blush on her cheeks didn’t go away. Maria hadn’t noticed, but both Bridget and Anthe were holding two bowls each. How did she miss that? Probably because her mind was focused on both being found knocking horns with Edith, and Bridget’s admittedly rather cute reaction to everything. “Lava cakes, with vanilla ice cream.”

“Oh lava cakes!” Maria said, suddenly rather excited.

“Lava cakes?” “Wait, humans can eat lava?” Edith and Anthe asked, both suddenly rather confused. Maria just blink a couple of times, rather taken by Edith’s question.

“No of course not, humans can’t eat lava. It’s... Well, you’ll see,” the navy demon said before handing the two bowls she was holding to Edith and Maria. The smell of chocolate and vanilla wafted up from the bowl and Maria couldn’t help but salivate at the rich smell alone.

“Gods, it smells really good.”

Edith chuckled as she took her own sniff. “Hmm. It does. Though I still don’t see why it’s called lava cake.”

“Well then,” Bridget said, sitting down and taking the bowl Anthe handed her. “Dig in and find out.”

~~~

“Oh, it was so nice meeting you,” Anthe said as she went to hug Maria. Maria hugged back, but struggled as she was holding a decently sized potted succulent in one arm. Still, she hugged the nymph as best she could.

“It was nice meeting you, too,” Maria said before pulling away, making sure she still had a good grip on her new purple plant. And yes, purple as in the exact same shade of purple as her eyes and horns. Not subtle there Anthe. Not that there really was a reason to be, she’s just trying to be nice. Or maybe it is pure fucking coincidence that Anthe got her a plant the same color as parts of Maria.

“It really was, and we would love to have you back again soon,” Bridget said before awkwardly going in for a hug as well. Not awkward as in the sense of she did not want to give the hug, more of that she does not have much practice doing that with people. The pleased and surprised looks on both Edith and her mitéra’s face definitely gave away that Bridget has not really done this before. The hug is short and quick, but still warm and motherly in a way Maria had not had in a long time.

“Yes ,definitely,” Anthe said, giving her wife an approving smile. “Maybe next week?” The nymph’s eyes lit up hopefully.

Edith chuckled but did not deny her mitéra the joy of seeing her child. “We don’t have much planned yet, so we will see,” The scarlet demon said with a wink that said they definitely will.

“Though don’t be upset if the two of them do get busy. They’re still a new couple, remember?” Bridget said, giving her wife a little glance. 

“What do you mean? Edith just said tha—” Anthe looked at her wife and caught the glance. “Ooooohhhh.” The nymph giggled, and Maria suddenly caught onto what the couple meant. “Right.” Anthe looked back over at the demon couple with a glint in her eye. “Don’t worry, we get it. We definitely blew off my dads a few times because we couldn’t stop fucking.”

Maria choked on nothing while Edith let out a slightly bemused cough.

“Okay, you didn’t have to phrase it like that, dear,” the navy demon chided as she bravely wrapped an arm around her wife’s back. Though it might not have seemed like much, it did actually mean a lot to Maria that Bridget was comfortable enough around her to be willing to show a bigger level of affection for her wife than when the night started.

“I was just being honest. It would have been an insult to your mom if we did not blow her off a few times too, you know,” the nymph said matter of factly. A slightly upset look washed over the navy demon and the nymph clearly regretted her words.

“I’d rather not talk about mother right now,” Bridget said plainly.

“Right, sorry, love.” Anthe gave her wife a gentle smile. “Anyway, yes, we would love to have you again soon, but don’t worry if you two get caught up in each other. Literally.” Maria would love to say that Anthe’s smile was suggestive considering what she had just said, but no, it was a pure, motherly smile. A pure smile about her daughter fucking her soulmate.

Edith let out a light, but slightly tired chuckle. “Yes. We will make sure to see you again soon.”

“Good,” Bridget said with a smile. “Alright, dear, I think it’s time we went back inside and let these two get on their way.” The navy demon gently tugged on her wife to get her to start moving back towards the door. Anthe clearly did not want to go so soon, but then again she’s the kind of mitéra who never wants to say goodbye to her child.

“Bye, dear!” The nymph gave a massive wave as the two finally got back inside their home.

“Bye, mitéra. Bye, mom.”

“Bye. It was nice to meet you!”

“Have a good night, you two,” the demon mother said before giving a gentle wave and finally closing the door, leaving Maria and her demon out on the street.

Edith took a slow deep breath, before turning to Maria. “Ready to go home?”

Maria gave her demon a big but tired smile. “Yeah, today has been a long day,” the budding demon said as she pushed up against her lover’s side. Edith's arm quickly wrapped around her and the scarlet tail found its usual place around her calf in the safety of the dark night.

“It really has. But you did have a good time, right?” There was a tiny hint of worry in her sultry voice. “My parents weren’t too much, were they?”

“No, not at all! It was really nice meeting them.” Maria smiled up at her demon. “Though, how open you guys are about sex with each other is still a little shocking.”

“Really? I know Earth can be a little stingy when it comes to sex, but still, is talking about sex really that much of a taboo?”

“Eh, it can be. Mostly depends on who you’re talking about sex with. Like you can talk with your friends about it, if you’re all comfortable with it that is. But parents? No, that’s not really normal on Earth. At least in most places.” The thought of talking to her own parents about sex flashed through the budding demon’s mind and made her shiver slightly. “Not that I think talking about that stuff with your parents is a bad thing! It’s just different for me. But it must be nice to be able to talk about anything with your parents. Sex included.”

Edith let out a small chuckle. “I guess it’s nice. I mean, I don’t really know anything different. At least when it comes to sex. There are still things we don’t talk about though. I think all families have at least one thing they all try to ignore or pretend doesn’t exist.”

“Kind of like that my parents tried to ignore the fact that they made a deal with a demon.”

The scarlet demon gave a smirk and a shrug. “Well, that deal was pretty good for us, maybe not so much for them.”

Maria gave a big nod. “Oh yeah. Kind of turned out really shitty for them.” That was a fact that made Maria feel warm deep down. It was strange to feel good about her parents misfortune because deep down there was still a little child in her that wanted her parents to love her, but then the rest of her just wanted to go off on her parents and then make out with her girlfriend in front of them just to piss them off even more. “But great for us.”

“Definitely great for us,” the demon said with a smile as they continued to make their way to the trolly stop.

There was a slight pause in conversation before Maria thought to ask, “So, is there anything I shouldn’t bring up in front of your parents? I just don’t want to say something in the future and make it awkward.” She probably should have asked this before meeting them for the first time, but better late than never.

Edith took a deep breath. “Um, there isn’t really much you can’t bring up. Maybe don’t ask about mom’s family. At least not with her around. It might have been a good while ago for her, but it’s still fresh and raw.” Okay, Maria had kind of put that together already beforehand, but at least she has confirmation on that. “Especially mom’s mother...”

Maria raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t Anthe just bring up your grandmother, like right as we were leaving?”

Edith scrunched up her face. “Yeah... Mitéra still finds it a little hard to grasp mom’s whole family dynamic and can forget not to bring it up. Especially when we are talking about family in general. Also... I’d rather you didn’t call her my ‘grandmother’. That woman isn’t anything to me.” Maria looked up at her demon, more curious about her girlfriend’s family but afraid to outright ask. Edith saw Maria’s look and decided to give in. “Alright fine, I guess I should give you the gist of it.

“Like I’ve said, mom comes from a family of succubi and incubi. All crazy about sex, with all the cultural aversion to romance and intimacy. Which I just have to say I find really odd because I feel like sex and intimacy go pretty hand in hand, but whatever. Mom, though not the first in the family to do it, decided she didn’t want to be a succubus. That already made mom a bit of a black sheep, but not outright disliked by everyone, just different. Then she and mitéra met. I would love to say that my parents have this whole big romantic typical love story meeting, but nope. They met at a tavern, both a little drunk and did what two horny beings do. The only difference is that it wasn’t just a one-time thing. So, it slowly went from just fucking every few nights, to going out to dinner and then fucking, to finally being able to go out for dinner and not having to use the excuse of wanting to fuck to do it. Still, I’m sure they fucked after every date regardless. 

“Anyway, some of the family caught wind that mom was going on dates with someone, and that started to really make mom the ‘freak’ in the family. They started talking behind her back, saying mean things, not inviting her to family events, all that shit. Still, mom’s mother hoped that this was all just a phase, and that mom would grow out of it. She even met mitéra a couple of times. But one day they got into a big fight about mom still being with mitéra after a couple of decades and it ended with mom’s mother saying that she can only come back when she ‘grows out of this romantic delusion’. I think mom’s mother still held out hope that mom would come back, until I was born... Me being a product of two women in love kind of sealed the deal that mom was fully outcast from the family...”

Maria didn’t know what to say to all that. She just looked over at her demon who had kind of spaced out as she told the story. So much so that Maria was sure they had already walked past the trolly stop, but she didn’t want to say anything. They just kept on walking to the next stop, which hopefully wouldn’t be too far away. Eventually Maria managed to say, “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” the demon said rather firmly. “If they can’t accept mom, mitéra, and I for who we are, then it’s not even worth calling them family.” Edith had so much conviction in her voice that Maria truly believed that that is what Edith believes, though she could still hear the hint of sadness. Not sadness for herself, but for her mom. “Besides, I do have great family on mitéra’s side of the family. My grandfathers are pretty fun, and all of mitéra’s cousins are pretty great. Nymphs throw insane parties.”

“Oh yeah?” Maria asked, hoping to keep this conversation going on the lighter side of family talk.

“I think there are some terran movies that remind me of some of the parties they throw. Though I only saw it once, and I didn’t understand a lot of the human references.”

“What was the movie called?” The pair finally found themselves at the next trolly stop and hoped that the next one would come around soon.

“I believe it was called ‘The Hangover’. Maybe?”

Maria raised her eyebrows at her soulmate. “So like, parties where you wake up the next morning and don’t remember a thing. Maybe find a tiger in your bathroom?”

Edith gave Maria a big smile. “That’s the one. Gods, if only I could remember half of the shit that goes down at those family reunions.” The demon paused and thought for a second. “Actually the next one should be in like a year or so. Mitéra will know when it is. Anyway, when it comes around, why don’t we make some fun memories that we may or may not actually remember?”

“Uhhh, I don’t know. I’m not really one for getting drunk, like ever...”

“Well, I’m not saying you have to drink. I would never push you to do that, and neither would any of the family. But the option’s there for you if you ever want to try. Though your alcohol tolerance will change with your transformation, so it might be good to occasionally test your limits. Just to know where they are.”

Maria shrugged. “Maybe. We’ll just have to wait and see.” Edith just gave her girlfriend a smile in return. “Oh, looks like the trolley is coming. Gods, I’m ready to get home.”

Edith chuckled and pulled Maria closer. “Me too.”