The cake was delicious, which was to be expected. Now it was time for the next order of business.
"Presents!" Ezraphel shouted with glee and with a snap of her finger three gift wrapped presents materialized on the table.
Stanley looked at the gifts laid out before him while setting his plate of half eaten slice of cake down.
"You didn't have to get me another present, Ez."
Seriously, Makailand and the service before, during and after it was more than good enough.
"Oh Stanley, you will receive my gift later~"
'So if the extra one wasn't from her then…'
Before his eyes could slide to Thera Natalie spoke up "oh yeah, one of them is from mom."
That made him freeze, his eyes flicking to his sister 'what?'
In seeming response to his implied question she did jazz hands while saying "surprise!" in a faux gleeful tone.
His gaze went back to the three presents yet he didn't move to pick one, instead he scrutinized each before picking out the one he was sure belonged to his mother.
"Stanley?" He looked to Ezraphel "aren't you going to open your gifts?"
He opened his mouth, closed it for a moment then answered with a blunt "I'll do it later."
"Why?" Ezraphel asked the obvious question.
"I just don't feel like opening presents right now" he grumbled with an irritated expression.
Everyone bar Thera looked amongst themselves with the outsider Lilim observing with some interest.
"Awe, looks like someone's feeling all embarrassed about opening his presents in front of other people~" Natalie cooed playfully with a grin.
Inwardly Stanley cringed because she wasn't exactly wrong. He never really thought he'd care much about unwrapping presents in front of an audience as small as this one. Actually it's better to say that he never gave any thought to it at all. But now that he was here, he couldn't help but feel self conscious about it. And yeah, it most definitely had to do with his mother's present, he didn't particularly care about what it was so much that it came from her, this would be the first birthday present he received from his mother in years and he wasn't exactly keen on sharing the moment with other people, much less an outsider like Thera.
Unfortunately his sister's ribbing hit a little too close to home and was familiar enough that he gave the automatic response of "fuck off" which he realized was a mistake with a guest here.
To make matters worse the Wight laughed it off as only someone who has been dealing with him for literally all his life could.
Ezraphel on the other hand was not amused as she tutted him "language Stanley, we have a guest."
"I don't mind," Thera half shrugged with visible amusement in her eyes.
"It is the principle of the matter Thera" the younger Lilim frowned, "there is no excuse for a lack of decorum."
Stanley bit down the retort on the tip of tongue, instead surging to his feet before slamming his hand on the table.
"You have anything else on the docket, Ez?"
"Well we were supposed to spend the rest of the evening together playing games-"
"Good then-"
"However," the Lilim interrupted, "I insist that you open the presents first."
Stanley looked between the present and her before asking a single word question "why?"
"It would be poor manners."
"What?"
"We all got you something for your birthday you doofus, the least you can do is show some appreciation " Natalie spelled it out for him eloquently despite the somewhat crass language.
Stanley's eye twitched as he gave Natalie a look'show appreciation? Bitch, you're living in my house rent free, eating food that my girlfriendmade using ingredients bought with my money. I show my motherfucking appreciation by not billing you!'
Of course he didn't say that, couldn't say that under the disapproving gaze of his girlfriend and the judgemental gaze of her sister.
Speaking of the sister 'why the hell is she staring at me like that?'
Thera had an interesting expression on her face as she regarded him. He thought it might have been judgmental and there was definitely judgement there (he can always tell when someone was silently judging him) but there was also something else mixed in, something he could not identify.
His gaze then went to Anastasia and she only gave a little half shrug to outwardly signify her lack of care for whether or not he showed so-called appreciation for her gift.
'...now I feel bad.'
"Ugh fiiine" he dragged his hands down his face before plopping down on the seat "and since you're so adamant about it, let's start with your present first."
Natalie scoffed, "you're the one complaining about getting presents, you weirdo."
Muttering under her breath Natalie picked out her present which happened to be a rectangular box in generic green and black wrapping.
"Happy birthday you ungrateful little brat."
She's lucky they have a guest right now.
"Oh joy" he said blandly ripping off the paper "it's a-" Stanley paused as he got a look at the familiar box underneath.
'No freaking way.'
He ripped the rest of the packaging off to reveal that his eyes were not deceiving him. The predominantly black box with green on the bottom face, above it was a picture of a GPU while emblazoned on the lower right side were the words 'GEFORCE RTX 4090'
'An Nvidia RTX 4090' his mind supplied clinically 'How? WHY!?'
Stanley stared at it for a moment before looking at his sister "what the fuck, Nat?"
"Stanley!"
"What!?"
She gestured at Thera to which he waved her off "she said she doesn't mind the cursing, Ez."
"I really don't" Thera chimed in once again with the same amusement in her tone.
"See? Now you," he pointed at Natalie then used the same finger to tap the box "explain this."
"I was snooping around your computer and saw you were running on old hardware."
"And how the hell did you manage to do that?"
He looked to Ezraphel with suspicion but the Lilim shook her head frantically "it wasn't me!"
Natalie rolled her eyes "I just snuck into your glorified man cave while you were using the bathroom. You didn't have your screensaver up."
Stanley was unnerved because he couldn't remember noticing any discrepancies with his setup after every time he came back from using the bathroom.
Unknowing of his thoughts Natalie continued "I'm surprised you haven't upgraded to be honest."
There was no hurry on his part to get a GPU upgrade, contrary to what those corporate suits would have you believe, you don't need the latest bullshit GPU to run most modern games. You especially don't need to see freaking sweat pores or individual nose hairs on character models to enjoy a game.
That said "I was waiting until Cyber Monday to check out my options" he informed her.
"Well I saved you the wait."
"Not really? Plus I was never going to go with Nvidia anyway."
"Why not?"
"Because their prices are fucking bullshit that's why!" He sneered.
"You're not wrong," Natalie muttered to herself before shrugging "oh well, I'm not too knowledgeable on bleeding edge tech. Though I thought this was one of things you wouldn't cheap out on."
"It's the principle" he informed then looked at the box "but thank you, you didn't have to do this sis."
"You're right I didn't have to" she confirmed before continuing "but I wanted to and unlike you I don't have to justify myself with any cost benefit analysis bull. Look, I didn't even add the receipt to the box."
"Probably did want me roasting you about how much money you wasted. You don't have much anyway-ow!"
He got a dope slap up the head for that comment.
"Idiot, I'm not that poor. You can consider it my payment for living here rent free for the past couple of months. Now you can't complain since I'm contributing to your work which helps to pay the bills."
Stanley snorted "we'll see but uh…" he looked at the box "once again thank you…for getting me an overpriced GPU because you needed a defense against being labelled a freeloading bum mooching off her younger brother."
He dodged another swipe to which Natalie scoffed "brat."
She retreated and he set aside the box to pick up another smaller gift, this one from Anastasia whose attention was laser focused on him. Stanley was actually very curious about what she managed to get him. Unlike the previous gift this one didn't appear to be in a box. It was soft and the wrapping looked homemade even if it was wrapped in a seemingly professional manner. This combined with the fact that it was from his current favorite person in the house that he wasn't sleeping with made him more careful with how he handled it.
Carefully he peeled the wrappings away via the tapes eventually revealing the gift to be…
"Huh…" he muttered at the sight, bringing the item up for everyone to see.
Judging by the expressions on the three women's faces Stanley wasn't the only one who found the sight shocking.
Natalie gave a low whistle "wow~"
"O-oh my~" Ezraphel gasped and why wouldn't she?
Thera was silent though her eyes did widen minutely.
He didn't blame them for the reaction because Stanley was shocked as well. Ana's gift was a pair of plushies in the form of a chibi Ezraphel and Stanley. The former was in her true form wearing her 'Lilim outfit' embracing the latter who wore a white t-shirt and jeans from behind. The Ezraphel plushie had a wide smile with pronounced dimples and a loving expression looking down at the Stanley plushie who looked disgruntled with lidded eyes. Both had noticeable blushes on their faces though Stanley's was less pronounced.
He looked at Ana "did you make these yourself?" When the Golem nodded in affirmation to his gaze went to the plushies "huh."
While he wasn't a plushie connoisseur he couldn't deny that the overall quality was definitely top notch. No doubt if he brought the thing to an appraiser they would say that it was made by a professional. At least he thought so, just the details of the clothing and their facial expressions were beyond anything he remembered from other plushies he's seen on the internet.
"This is amazing Ana, thank you."
He got a small smile in response as the Golem stood straighter.
He went to place the plushies down only for them to be swiped by Ezraphel.
"Gimme!" The Lilim held the plushies with twinkling eyes "look Thera, aren't they cute!"
"Quite" was the other Lilim's reply.
"Nice work Ana" Natalie commented "the resemblance is uncanny."
"You think so?" Ezraphel questioned before teleporting behind Stanley wrapping her arms around him.
"What the hell?"
Ignoring his complaints she levitated the plushie beside them.
"Ez-"
"Hush Stanley."
He groaned and she gave a wide smile of triumph. In that moment the trio looked between the couple and the plushie and as one their eyes widened.
"Like I said, uncanny."
"Indeed" Thera supplied with a subtle shake of her head "the quality is remarkable."
Ana for her part puffed out her chest at the praise she received.
Shaking his head Stanley decided that was quite enough shenanigans and shrugged out of Ezraphel's hold "alright, alright you can get off of me now."
She acquiesced though kept close to look over his shoulder while Stanley reached for the final gift. This one had a flat rectangular shape but was not in a box or any kind of packaging. Much like with Ana's gift he was careful in its unwrapping though there was an added layer of trepidation. Inside he found two things, a framed picture and an envelope. The photograph was of a younger Stanley and an older man both wearing faux tactical gear holding airsoft assault rifles.
Ezraphel looked at the photo and while she would have gushed about seeing a younger Stanley the emotions she felt coming from the man now were so heavy and layered under melancholy that she could not muster the
"Who is that Stanley?"
"That's…uncle Collin" he answered in a neutral manner devoid of any of the emotions she felt.
Ezraphel's eyes widened, she knew about Stanley's uncle from Natalie whose own eyes widened at her brother's words. Collin Berkowitz was Stanley and Natalie's uncle and according to the latter he and Stanley were close. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that the man was basically a father figure to him which was why when he passed away it affected Stanley greatly and was the final nail in the coffin that marked Stanley's decline into his self imposed exile from society and near nihilistic self destruction.
Stanley for his part didn't react to seeing the photo, he stared at it for a moment before laying it on his lap to open the unsealed envelope and take out the letter. He read it for a moment before upending the envelope to catch the key that fell out.
"What's that?" Natalie asked as Ezraphel kept quiet.
"A storage key" he answered in that same neutral tone "after he died mom put all of Uncle Collin's personal stuff in storage and she wants me to have it."
"So when are you going to go for it?" Natalie asked.
Stanley thought about it for a moment 'I want to do it as soon as possible but…' his gaze went to Thera. He didn't exactly want to leave her alone so…
"Dunno yet" he said before folding the letter back into the envelope as well as the key "okay now that that's over with let's go play some goddamn videogames."
.
.
.
.
.
Later That Night…
Stanley turned off the showerhead feeling remarkably light and fresh despite the stress attributed to the latter part of the day. Thoughts on the worries of Thera, her presences and future implications were momentarily discarded as he latched onto one immutable fact.
Thera seemed interested in videogames and not in the way Ezraphel did. Unlike her sister she didn't stay a spectator, granted Stanley did force the issue by literally shoving a controller in her hand while playing the patient mentor and teaching her the ropes but after that she started playing, even better she wanted to play and soaked up instructions like a sponge. Stanley didn't know if it was genuine interest or just a ploy to get on his good side but damn if it didn't work.
Watching her learn how to play and showing genuine interest in the game did more to endear her to him than he was willing to admit. Combine that with her just being genuinely a chill person the entire night and it was easy to like her. Didn't mean he was going to blindly trust her though and while he couldn't monitor her as she chose to reside in Makailand that place was Ezraphel's domain and literally nothing can happen in it without her knowledge so if Thera did something fishy or left she would know and he would be informed.
After drying off he went to put on his boxers only to find it missing. Knowing this to be a certain Lilim's work he wrapped the towel around his waist and exited the bathroom. Upon entering the room he was treated to the sight of Ezraphel laying on the bed wearing a stretch of oversized gift ribbon he'd normally see on the generic presents.
"Hello Stanley, are you ready to unwrap your final gift?"
Stanley stared for a while before chuckling "you know, I think I've gotten this one before, many times in fact."
Ezraphel started crawling towards him as she replied "well, you know me Stanley, I'm the gift that keeps on giving~"
"Not tonight" he informed as he closed the distance "from this point on you're gonna be taking."
"Oh, and what will I be 'taking' then?"
In response he dropped the towel revealing his erection "well for starters you can take this dick in your mouth."
Ezraphel's grin was wide as she lowered her lips to the already leaking tip.
"As you wish~"
-To Be Continued-