I woke up the next morning to find Abigail in my arms, her tail wrapped around my thigh. I hesitated a moment before choosing to wake her with a kiss upon her forehead.

“Mmm…?” she murmured in her sleep, her tail squeezing my thigh a little before loosening up as she stretched her arms towards the ceiling.

“Good morning, sleepyhead,” I told her, giving her a small smile as she blinked the sleepiness away. “I hope you don’t mind the chaste kiss, but I thought it best to ask before moving on to more… intimate areas.”

“You’ve been spending too much time with humans if you think I’d mind that,” Abigail replied. I got the distinct sense that she was rolling her eyes at me. Not that I could ever hope to prove it.

“They’re actually not as repressed as you’d think.” I informed her. “At least, not compared to those on Earth. I suppose it’s that world that’s influencing me, more than anything - my past self was always told to ensure consent before touching anyone inappropriately.”

“And you think kissing me on my tits is inappropriate?!” Abigail questioned me in shock. “Why? It sounds like a pretty good way to start the day to me!”

“Not everyone thinks like that, Abigail,” I warned her before frowning. “Or at least not every human thinks like that. I don’t think…”

“You don’t think?”

“Well, it’s not as if I’ve held a survey in this world, or anything, but so long as I don’t know I think it’s best to err on the side of caution.”

“That’s…” Abigail paused before sighing. “Probably smart, I guess? It just seems like a pretty big deal over nothing to me.”

“But it might be important to the other party,” I warned her. Of course, I had no idea how high or low the risk of that was among demons. To humans - or at least the humans of Earth - sex was considered something intimate, almost sacred. To us demons, it was simply a fun activity. Consent for it was little different than “consenting” to a game of cards. Yet, despite that, I couldn’t deny that forcing one was far worse than forcing the other. That was enough of a reason for me to consider asking prior to acting the best policy.

“I guess,” Abigail conceded with a shrug. “Guess that means I should be asking you what you’re okay with, then?”

“Pretty much anything, so long as it’s pleasurable,” I informed her. “Though I would hope you’d avoid starting anything you’re unable to finish.”

“Why wouldn’t I be able to finish?” Abigail asked with a teasing smirk on her lips. She reached for me as she spoke, but I caught her hand and shook my head.

“I have to get back to my tent before the others discover my absence,” I told her. 

“Right… The others. Grell and Dyona, right?” Abigail asked, no doubt thinking back to one of the discussions we’d had over dinner. She was as up to date on my adventures as anyone. “I don’t think you need to worry about Grell, but Dyona sounds like the sort who might cause trouble.”

“I think she has too healthy a respect for ‘the Heroine’ to start anything… It’s Grell who concerns me. If she did somehow notice something, I fear she’s liable to blurt it out without a second thought.”

“Blurt it out to who, though? Grell and Lucy are the only people with you, right?”

“Until we reach the city. Grell is keeping secrets about her own identity - poorly, I might add, - and while I’m hardly in a position to judge her for it, I can still be a little wary of it when it comes to this.”

“Fine, fine,” Abigail sighed before waving me away. “Go back to your girlfriend.”

“My other girlfriend, you mean?” I asked, arching an eyebrow. I tried to sound confident, but when Abigail’s only response was to blink at me I couldn’t keep the blood from flushing my cheeks. Apparently my body’s adaptability had some annoying limitations. “I-I mean, if you’re willing to accept such a label. I’d understand if you’d rather not-”

“No!” Abigail interrupted. “I mean, I just… didn’t expect you to come out and say it like that. Isn’t it a bit early?”

“It might have been our first date, Abigail, but it’s hardly our first meeting. While I may have never dared to think of you in a romantic light before, I have known for some time that I want you by my side. I treasure your presence in my life, Abigail. I want it to continue whether it be as lovers or friends.”

“So what? You want to be my girlfriend so that I’ll stick around by your side?”

“I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t a factor, but the main reason I want you as my girlfriend is because I care about you,” I told her, trying not to flinch. I knew that Abigail meant no harm. This was just her response to the same uncertainty and fear I myself felt - the worry that things might be ruined and that our current happiness would shatter. “I don’t entirely know my own heart when it comes to you. I know I treasure you. That I rely on you. That I care for you, and that I want you to remain forever by my side… It’s a type of love, I’m sure, yet as for whether it’s the love you seek… I’m still too inexperienced to say.”

“Inexperienced?” Abigail demanded. “What about Lucy?”

“You think I haven’t suffered the same problems there?” I asked her. “My desire for her presence is only matched by my fear of losing her, and yet at the same time some part of me wonders if I’m not just using her to make myself feel better until the day she abandons me. Another part of me even thinks that it’s fine if I am. Surely I’ll receive my comeuppance in due time when she sees through me and tires of my parasitic presence.”

“...Devilla…” 

I closed my eyes. The pain in her tone, the pity in her voice - I couldn’t face it. “I am the worst person I know, Abigail, no matter what everyone says to the contrary… and yet, despite it all, you both see something else in me. Something I desperately want to believe is there, if only for the sake of those who put up with me on behalf of its presence.”

“Devilla,” Abigail said, again, a bit more firmly this time.

“All I’m saying is that if you’re willing to put up with me… I’d be honored to be your girlfriend. Whatever pain might come down the line is worth it.”

“Devilla!” Abigail all but screamed in my ear, grabbing my shoulders and shaking me a bit as my eyes flew open. “For the love of Luci, stop using the fact that people fucking care about you as a reason to hate yourself more! Love isn’t something you have to earn, and it sure as hell isn’t anything you need to pay for with an ‘inevitable’ breakup or whatever other misery you seem to think you deserve! You are allowed to be happy!”

“But-”

“No buts!” she interrupted. “You want to be my girlfriend?! Fine! We’re girlfriends! I love you! You… maybe love me! And we’ll figure out the rest together! Alright?!”

Somehow, her pitch black eyes seemed to be telling me that there was only  one answer she would accept. “...Alright.”

“Good!” She released me, letting out a deep sigh. “Now go back to your other girlfriend, and try not to depress yourself or anyone else by dwelling on how you think you totally deserve to die alone and miserable, alright?”

“It’s more that I deserve to live miserably, actually, but… that’s… not really any better, is it?”

Abigail’s glare was more than answer enough, and after a brief hesitation I hugged her tightly before jumping onto the teleportation circle to teleport away, certain my face was flaming red once again.

Devilla could be… exhausting, sometimes.

…Okay, maybe more than sometimes. Like, all the time. I mean, the whole reason we’d gotten close in the first place was that she’d exasperated me to the point I couldn’t maintain my professional facade. Our relationship, if you could even call it that back when we were just maid and employer, started with her being a horrible brat of a boss, changed when she chucked everything I knew about her out the window, and then somehow grew to the point where I found myself missing her fat ass the moment she went and teleported out of sight. Back to her girlfriend.

Her other girlfriend.

“...I need a drink. A strong one,” I muttered to myself. I was seriously considering getting one, too. I mean, sure, I was technically on the clock, but it wasn’t like I actually did anything when Devilla was away. Outside of maybe meeting with Nivera and Chloe, anyways, but they were currently busy sorting everything out with Mellany for her  to usurp Alira’s position and influence.

Unfortunately, I was a little too professional to start drinking on the job… especially since Devilla didn’t actually keep any sort of booze in her bedroom and I preferred to stay in her bedroom during work hours if not otherwise busy. Mostly because I’d start to feel guilty if I saw any of the other maids actually having to work for their pay.

In my defense, though, the work I did do was way above my pay grade even after the considerable raise I’d gotten from becoming Devilla’s personal maid.

A squelchy knock at the door dragged me out of my thoughts and made me sigh.

“Speaking of work above my pay grade…” I muttered to myself. I shook my head and patted my cheeks a few times before opening the door with a fake smile on my lips. Remember Abby, you are a professional! “Sylvanna. How great to see you.” Totally professional.

“Really?” the foot tall slime asked me, beaming. “It’s great to see you, too!”

“Because it means you don’t have to see Devilla?”

“And because you are such a hottie!” the mini-slime agreed with frantic head nods. “Even if you are, like, totally a big dummy who actually likes Devilla for some reason.”

“Right…” I muttered, opening the door wider to let the tiny slime in.

“You’re naked!” the slime noted as the door opened. “Wait… Were you having sex with someone? Who?”

“I wonder,” I muttered dryly, wondering just how stupid the little slime had to be to not figure that out. “Look, why don’t you just tell me what you came here for so that we can get this over with?”

“What I came for?”

“Yes… The thing that brought you to my door?” I asked, gesturing to the entrance she’d come through. At the same time I started to pull on my panties. They were the same ones I’d been wearing last night, unfortunately - I probably needed to start storing clothes in Devilla’s room if I was going to be sleeping over this often. Something to talk about later.

“But this is Devilla’s door?”

“Not the point!” I snapped, snatching my breast band off the floor next.

“What was the point again?” she asked, her hand on her chin.

I sighed, deciding not to dignify her with a response until after I’d gotten my maid’s outfit on. Maintain your composure Abby, you can do this…

Thankfully, right as I was reaching for my stockings, the mini Sylvanna smacked her hand into her palm “Oh! Right! I know what I’m here for!”

“Let me guess,” I said, “you want to know about Devilla’s progress with the depetrification spell?”

“Uh-huh!” the mini Sylvanna nodded. “Big-me said she wanted to know if Devilla was keeping with her part of the a.. ag…. agg? Uh……. Deal! Right! The dealy thing they made! Which was… important?”

“The deal’s still on,” I replied, rolling my eyes at the idiot slime. I guess this was better than dealing with the full bitch, though, if only just. “Devilla’s sorta figured out a way to depetrify people, but-”

“Then she can depetrify the other slimes!?”

“But it’s not foolproof, and she doesn’t want to risk all the slimes on her experiment succeeding. She’s still working on getting the real depetrification spell so that she can do it right, though, okay? So tell… big you that, alright?”

“Oh, I don’t have to tell her anything!” Sylvanna said cheerfully. “She’ll know for herself when she absorbs me and gets all my knowledge!”

“...Right, because that’s not existentially terrifying, or anything.”

“It’s fine!” Sylvanna promised, cheerfully as she headed for the door. “I mean, we’re all Sylvanna! So long as we keep our memories sync… Syn... Sin… Uh….”

“Synchronized?” I suggested. At least mini Sylvanna could be amusingly dimwitted.

“Sink…sink-ron… Yeah, that!” Sylvanna agreed before stretching an arm up towards the doorknob. “Anyways, thank you, bye bye!”

“Wait!” I called out before she could leave. “I wanted to ask you something. About General Doll - do you know where she is?”

“Uh-huh!” Sylvanna informed me. “But I’m not supposed to tell anyone about it, so I won’t!”

“Wait!” I called out again before she could slip through the door. “Devilla wants to talk to her.”

“But I don’t know where she is!”

“You literally just told me you do,” I reminded her.

“That must have been a different me!”

“That’s-” I started, only to stop when she closed the door behind her. Instead, I just let out a sigh. Hopefully Devilla wouldn’t need Doll any time soon, because I sure as hell didn’t know how I was going to drag the information out of any Sylvanna. …Maybe the mini ones were just as infuriating as the big one, after all…

“Maybe I can ask Chloe for help with it…?” I mused, deciding to get up and exit the door - only to stop when someone knocked.

“What now?!” I griped, flinging the door open. Where I expected to find a one foot slime, though, I instead found several feet of kitsune. “Chloe?”

“Hihi!” She grinned at me. “I’m here to help you with your date!”

“Aren’t you a bit late for that? I saw Devilla last night.”

“Not that date, silly!” Chloe chided me. “That one was always going to go fine! I’m here for your other date!”

“Wait, what?! How did you-”

Chloe held up a finger to interrupt me, closing the door behind her. “Know you were going out with the Heroine? I didn’t, but it wasn’t exactly hard to guess, you know? Lucy’s the sort who wants to have it all, right? To make everyone happy? And you’re too unsure of yourself to say no and potentially make things awkward with Devilla, sooo… When’s the date?”

“...Tonight…”

“Great!” Chloe squealed in excitement, before pulling out a pair of red and black dresses out of thin air, and holding them up one up in front of me. “Let’s get you ready! By the time I’m done, you’re going to knock her dead with how pretty you’ll be!”

~~~

Author's Notes

Many thanks to FallingLeaf for the editing! I actually finished this chapter over the course of a couple hours - possibly a sign of my ADHD meds taking effect? Or maybe just a sign of how excited I was (and am) for the next few chapters...

Next up, we'll be seeing sort of a mirror of chapter 61 - we'll have Devilla and co arriving at the city, then transition to the start of Lucy's date with Abigail. It'll be pretty short, as chapters go, but 65 should make up for it, what with it being over 8k in wordcount. You'll be seeing that in 2 weeks - but if you can't wait, you could always head over to my Patreon and read 2 chapters ahead for as little as a dollar. Fair warning that FallingLeaf hasn't edited these chapters yet, though! (Those interested can also read two chapters ahead on Naughty Magic as a bundle for the same low price.)

Hope you enjoy regardless!