First Demonic Dragon

Chapter 1205: Outsourcing A Family Favor

Abaddon and Tatiana concluded their shower in relative silence.

Tatiana exited the shower first and turned around, expecting her husband to follow.

Instead, he was already gone, but she could at least tell that he hadn’t left the house.

Maybe that was a comfort. She worried about him a little bit less after she knew, though that didn’t mean she didn’t wish he hadn’t left.

She exited the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her figure.

Erica and Bekka were still in the living room, waiting for any news on how things had gone.

They thought they would see evidence of a poor or proper talk written on her face. However, no such thing came.

“So…?”

Tatiana could only shrug. “He’s… staring at a chasm he’s never come across before. One he wants to navigate, but has no idea how.”

Bekka felt her stomach turn as she put down her husband’s chips.

“So… on a scale of one to ten, how worried should we be?”

Tatiana rubbed the back of her neck.

“That…”

Suddenly, the door to their bedroom was thrown open, and Odessa rushed inside with her phone outstretched.

’Dad’s old high school is having a class reunion!!’

Bekka, Tatiana, and Erica all blinked in unison.

“…Wut?” Bekka burped.

Odie jumped into bed, showing her mother her phone.

There was a post on Facebook detailing the most unsettling brand of get-together imaginable.

’This is it, right?? This is the high school dad said he went to!’

Bekka read the flyer carefully. “In his first life, yes… but in this timeline, your father was not on earth much in the 2000s.”

“Not unless it was football season.” Erica rolled her eyes. “I hate having my husband go missing for two hours every Saturday.”

Odie looked down at her phone again. ’H-He still might go, right?? He should definitely go! He could sync up everyone’s memories in secret and then show up and do lots of face slapping and-’

“Has your older brother been talking to you about Xanxia novels or something?” (Belloc)

Odie pursed her lips. ’…Maybe.’

Her mothers chuckled in amusement.

“Well, as much as you might want to see your father get back at the young masters of his day, I can very honestly say that is the last thing in the world I can see him doing.” Erica ruffled her daughter’s hair.

Tatiana sat down on the edge of the bed and wrapped her wet hair in a towel. “Besides, your father’s got enough going on right now. Going out of his way to see people he doesn’t even like is the very last thing he’s going to be in the mood for.”

Odie tilted her head. ’What’s going on with dad? Is he okay?’

The wives glanced at each other as if they were unsure how to answer that.

“Just… love on him a little extra when you get the chance. He needs it more than you know.” Tatiana finished.

Odie nodded thoughtfully as she started to close the post. At the same time, the bedroom door began to open once again.

’I guess it was a bit silly of me to think dad would want to go to some old high school reunion…’

“Your father’s having a high school reunion?”

The girls looked toward Lailah, who stood in the doorway with Gandora in the form of a corgi.

Her lips spread into a wide, venomous smile that her wives knew all too well.

“Oh, what fun that will be…!”

Erica, Tatiana, and Bekka all had the same thought at once.

’…God damn it.’

–

Abaddon paced outside of Gabbrielle’s door.

Every step he took was uncertain. He continuously clenched and unclenched his fists to quell his nerves.

It didn’t actually work, but it helped to give him something to focus on.

After a while, he heard footsteps approaching from behind.

“Is there a reason why you’re out here instead of inside?”

Abaddon scoffed dryly.

“Is cowardice a good answer?”

“Any answer is a good answer provided that it is the truth. There is no shame in cowardice as long as you do not let it stop you from moving forward.”

Izanami interlocked her fingers with her husband and smiled at him. “So I ask again, what are you still doing out here?”

K’ael loomed behind his mother, watching his parents interact.

Abaddon seemed to notice his son’s gaze and turned towards him with a wry smile.

“..It must be strange to see your father like this. I apologi-”

“I have always felt… that father was uniquely different from me. And my siblings. Odie is entirely human, yet you are the one who has always felt the most mortal.”

“…And that means?”

“I suppose that, like mortality, you pursue a perfection that remains just beyond your reach. Just beyond everyone’s reach. I am aware that your behavior is derived from your love of us, but sometimes I wonder if you are not also trying to prove something to yourself as well.”

At some point, K’ael seemed to realize that he’d just said more in twenty seconds than he had in the last three days.

“…I am tired. It’s made me say unnecessary things.” The young boy swiftly turned around.

“I’m going back to-”

“K’ael-darling. Aren’t you forgetting something?” Izanami called in a sing-song voice.

The young dragon’s body tensed.

“…I don’t believe so?”

Izanami tapped her cheek.

“…”

Moving at the speed of sound, he planted a small kiss on Izanami’s cheek and tried to dart away.

He almost made it until Izanami grabbed him by his collar.

“And…?”

K’ael’s voice was so quiet it was barely a whisper.

“…I love you.”

“My sweet boy.”

Izanami released her son, and he bolted away so fast that he left flaming footprints on the floor.

Chuckling, Izanami turned back to her husband and gestured to the door.

“So… shall we go inside?”

Abaddon swallowed and tightened his hold on Izanami’s hand.

Together with her, he walked towards the door and raised his fist to knock.

–

Outside the house, Courtney paced back and forth on the lawn.

She was constantly checking her phone as she waited, sighing and cursing under her breath.

“What am I doing, what am I doing, what am I doing… this is crazy… I have to call it off. I can’t-”

Suddenly, Courtney felt a surge of wind pressure bear down on her shoulders.

Looking up, she found a familiar ship emerging from the clouds and making a landing right on their front lawn.

“Thank fuck.” Courtney sighed, her doubts already fading from her mind.

A ramp was extended from the ship and came to a stop right in front of Courtney.

A figure in a brown coat waved Courtney aboard.

“Nice to hear from you, madam edgelord! Come aboard.” Fiona smiled.

Courtney’s own smile threatened to break at the nickname she felt was undeserved.

“Yeah.. Hi.. Thanks for doing this.”

“No problem, it’s not like my outfit really has much else to do at the moment… but are you sure that this is what you want?” Fiona asked worriedly. “It might-”

“I’m sure. After being harassed by a Greek god who was also pining for my underage sister, I’ve never been more sure of anything else.”

“Gross…. alright then, come on.” Fiona waved.

The women made their way into the ship, and the ramp was drawn up behind them.

Fiona led Courtney all the way up to the bridge before the ship began to ascend again.

It rocketed towards the very clouds it had just pierced through and left the Earth’s atmosphere in less than two minutes.

Once they had left Earth, the ship began to power up a strange beam that Courtney found utterly fascinating.

At Fiona’s instruction, the beam was fired with no particular target in mind.

Instead of striking a target, the beam hit empty space. It pierced open the fabric of their current reality and opened up a hole to the realm in between.

Once the ship navigated through the hole, Fiona charted a course through the multiversal gates from her chair.

The entire journey took around twenty minutes.

Soon, Courtney was staring at a particular gate to an alternate dimension. Her chest tightened.

She could already sense him from outside the realm.

“Umm, edge princess..? You’re damaging my chair.”

Courtney looked down and realized all too late that she had effectively turned Fiona’s armrest into a mass of tinfoil.

“S-Sorry.. I was just..”

“It’s okay, I get it.” Fiona sighed. “…Actually, no, I don’t. All of this over my bonehead brother? I think you could do better, but-”

Courtney vanished from the ship.

Fiona looked outside and saw a dragon flying towards the portal at a speed even her scanners had trouble following.

But all of a sudden, the dragon paused just as it was about to enter the portal, and it turned around to come back to the ship.

Cournte reappeared on the bridge, her face marred with panic.

“… D-Do I look okay? Should I put on some makeup or a dress, or…”

Fiona blinked slowly.

“…I think your family are the most un-dragon-like dragons that I have ever met.”

“That doesn’t answer my question!”