Blocking out all of the negatives, he couldn't help but beam at his sister's decision, no matter how reluctant it was. That didn't mean he wasn't upset enough to once again comment on Laura's love life.

"Laura, don't... don't just jump into a relationship because you feel like you have to. I went years without a relationship, and I turned out just fine. I'm not saying that you gotta dedicate yourself to the Lord, but maybe you could focus on something else but romance.
 
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"Why not? Everyone in town knows I sleep around. You don't think I know that? They've talked about me like that since I was 16, Ivan. I'm really becoming Mom's daughter, aren't I? I'm just like her. I'm a bitch," she grumbled, feeling that, given everything, she was entitled to feel a little sorry for herself. She was nothing like their mother, she knew that deep down, but she wasn't in the mood to look on the bright side right now. She wanted to down her troubles in some alcohol and greasy food, and then head out and find solace in someone's arms. She'd past caring what the town said about her sexual exploits.

"Look, I've said I'll come to church. Do we sing hymns and stuff? I was ace in the school choir when I was young, remember? I should have become a singer, joined a band or something. I'd have been good at that."
 
"Don't you dare compare yourself to her, Laura. You could burn a whole house down and you'd still be better than her. I know that you would never treat your kids the way she treated us." He insisted, his tone growing strained briefly, before he relaxed his tight knuckles.The mention of her joining the church, even for a day, definitely helped him calm down.

"You definitely could be a singer. Hey, maybe you could meet up with this young man in town? He usually plays guitar for special events at the church, and I'm sure you two could be friends. Wouldn't it be nice, for you to play at festivals? It's a lovely hobby, one I think you'd benefit from quite a bit."
 
"I'll even buy you a guitar. Can you play guitar? It'd be awesome to have you and Ethan play together at the events. He's pretty great, I've seen him play a few times, but he could definitely benefit from having you sing with him, I think," smiled Azaiah from the front, attempting to bond with his boyfriend's sister now the tensions had simmered down. "I mean, I love going to the church. Ironic, really, given what I am, but Ivan's fucking fantastic and it's not all boring like you'd expect, y'know?"

"...Does he compliment you like this all the time, Ivan? I see why you keep him around," laughed Laura, albeit not with any bitterness. For the first time since the colossal fuck-up of her relationship, she did sound genuinely upbeat, which was down to Azaiah, really. "...I can play guitar, sure. Ivan paid for me to have lessons when I was, like, 10. You think that'd be cool, Ivan? If I played guitar with this Ethan guy at church? I'm not going to become some super Christian, but I... well, I know God exists now, obviously. Makai's existence essentially proves it."
 
Glancing at her through the rear view window, he came to a shrieking stop at nearly being hit by a passing car. Taking a deep breath, he wheezed out said breath in horror. It wasn't surprising, though, for his happy moment to be ruined so easily by something like that, after all.

"Oh boy, let's... let's talk about this all when we get home, alright? I don't want to celebrate this all by ending up in Hell, huh?" He laughed awkwardly, though his paranoia did spike a tad.
 
Swearing abruptly, Azaiah's first reaction had been to throw his arms over Ivan in an attempt to protect him if they did crash. After all, whatever injury he incurred, he would heal up within an hour, whereas Ivan's injuries could last months... or be permanent. Azaiah, therefore, was happy to risk pain if it meant saving Ivan from the brunt of it.

Once realising contact hadn't been made, he sat back in his chair with eyes wide. "This... it has to be too much of a coincidence," he mumbled under his breath, biting on his lips. "You've never been close to crashing before, and... and Makai has form for this sort of shit. He said himself, he liked fucking around with people's cars and seeing them almost f-fucking crash."
 
Keeping the embrace for a moment longer, he glanced over at the road, only to grow terrified at the thought of being threatened by Makai without him even being there. He took in a heavy breath, and offered Azaiah a thankful smile.

"It's nice to know you'd protect me, but you don't need to do that. I mean, I love you, but i think I could handle myself." He reassured softly, before offering a careful kiss on his forehead.
 
"Yes I do! I'm not... likely to die from a crash, Ivan. You are," he reminded, though it didn't stop him from smiling and accepting the affection from his boyfriend. Of course, he was petrified. This had Makai's name written all over it, especially because of how coincidental this all was. Ivan had never even been close to crashing his car before, and suddenly he was close to doing so after pissing Makai off? Obviously, Azaiah was going to be a little wary, and he was even more so when Ivan began the car again.

"Just be careful, hm? Maybe you're just tired and this has nothing to do with him. Hell, I'm pretty paranoid at the moment. I could cough and think he's put some fucking curse on me, you know~? I... I'm sure we'll be alright."
 
After a moment of hesitation, Ivan started up the old truck once again. He was hoping Azaiah would be more reassuring, and insist that everything would be alright. Instead, he simply drove home in silence,

Once home, Ivan looked around for any sign of danger. If this was all true, what was stopping Makai from killing him with, say, s simple decorative plate?
 
"You're both being paranoid. Jeez, he left, didn't he? With his mother? I don't think she was very pleased with him being here, so there's no chance she'd let him out of her sight to pull off some pathetic revenge attack. Besides, if he did somehow get back here, I'm sure he'd come and kill me, not you guys," reminded Laura as she tiredly took a brief glance around the home, before sitting herself down on he couch, quite happy to settle to sleep there - she didn't have the energy to pull herself up the stairs. "He's not here, Ivan, I'd know-- you don't need to worry about it, alright? Seriously, just... you and Azaiah go get yourselves to bed, it's been a horrible day."
 
Ivan didn't need to be told twice. He took of his shoes, snapped his back, and headed up the stairs to his bedroom without second-guessing. He was a nice person, and wanted to comfort his sister, but he was too tired to even look at her.

Shimmying out of his clothes, he kept his floral-patterned boxers on before flopping down on his perfectly-made bed without caution. He was in no mood to be bashful, and glanced up from his pillow just to pat his side.
 
"...Hectic day, huh? I mean, it's been really shit for you-- and me. I can't ever go home now, which sucks I guess. I would have at least visited-- hey, this means that I'm reliant on you, so don't go dumping me. I'd have nowhere else to go," he laughed lightly as he collapsd into bed beside him, kicking his shoes off and tossing aside his shirt as quickly as he could. The day had been beyond hectic; it had been horrendous, but it was typical of Azaiah to try and lighten the mood, if only a little.

"Tomorrow will be better,w e can forget about all this. Makai's not gonna come back, your sister made a decent point. His mother won't let him out of her sight, she's protective like that-- which means we can relax~ Hey, I'll bring some donuts to the service tomorrow, that'll be nice. All the old folk like it when I bring treats. The amount of times I've been gushed over by those old ladies is at least in the double-figures at this point."
 
"Who would have guessed? Two men in a relationship, one being an actual demon, making friends with a bunch of ol' southern women? Our momma would flip if she knew. I can see her getting all flustered and blow up just from us holding hands," he admitted with his own light smile, all the while moving closer to offer a gentle peck on the lips.

"It's... it's nice to know that you'd protect me like that. I know I probably couldn't do the same to you, huh? As if it mattered, though, right? You're a supernatural being, you could get an arm chopped off and probably still be fine."
 
"I'm not invincible. I mean, fuck, Makai killed his father, and the guy was the strongest demon around, so... Hopefully nobody wants to poison me for awhile? I'm kinda enjoying life at the moment, I don't want it being cut short anytime soon," laughed the demon as he subtly took the other's kiss as an invitation to get closer. They hadn't had sex, which he was fine with (to an extent) but they at least were able to get somewhat affectionate with one another, and most nights were spent with the demon holding Ivan close, like any couple.

"Yeah? My mother doesn't even like me. She tried drowning me and my older sister when we were kids-- that's when she sold me to be a servant and Makai's mom sorta raised me. She really ain't that bad, you know? I guess I've burned every bridge I had with her now though, aha..."
 
"That's rough, buddy..." he whispered, albeit with a teasing smile. It wasn't funny, he knew that, but he wanted to at least poke fun at their iffy parental past.

Resting his hands on Azaiah's shoulders, he offered to lean in for another kiss, this one being a tad more heated. He deserved it, especially after what happened.
 
"Hey, come on now, aren't you exhausted? Surely you don't want to start kissing me if you're too tired. I know I'm devilishly handsome and all, but control yourself, Ivan," grinned the demon in response, which was a clear effort to move away from the stress the day had caused then. Typically teasing about with him and having a little fun helped to forget about the absolute shit time they had gone through.

Except, fooling around with Ivan -both physically and linguistically- meant that Azaiah remained oblivious to the disruption downstairs-- not that anything particularly destructive had gone on, but he would have been aware, if he wasn't distracted, of the demons arriving. Instead, he went unaware of it, leaving Laura sitting bolt upright on the couch while the two demons strolled about the living room, curiously picking items up off the mantelpiece-- though neither of them picked the Bible up, for obvious reasons. She would have screamed out, of course, if they hadn't threatened to rip out her tongue if she so much as talked without being asked a question.

"Considering my big brother thought you were his soulmate, I was really expecting you to be, like, drop-dead gorgeous," murmured one of the two: a six-foot tall woman who, unlike Makai and Azaiah, hadn't bothered altering her form to a more human one. She was quite happy to stand in the form she was born into, red skin, sharp, protruding horns and everything else completely terrifying to Laura. She had seen Makai in his real form once, and it had terrified her, so to see complete strangers like this was overwhelmingly scary.

The woman pursed her lips quietly as she turned away to put the vase in her hands down, her black eyes peering here and there, unable to settle on a single thing. Her hands, equally unable to stay still at her sides, began to smooth out the creases in her long dress. "See, it's awfully unfair that he's just come strolling back home, don't you think? Laura, sweetheart, don't you agree that it's very rude of him to come rushing back, just when my mother was paying me and my other siblings some attention? It's always been Makai this, Makai that. I'm not bitter, far from it. I just think that... well, he needs to realise that I'm not standing for it. What better way to do that than fucking around with his human buddies~?"

"Is that a question? Am I allowed to answer?" Laura replied as confidently as she could manage, the tone of her voice somehow sounding bored and disinterested... as though she wasn't currently conversing with Makai's fucking insane sisters. "...I dumped him, he doesn't care for me. If you think killing me is going to hurt him, then you're mistaken. He'd welcome my murder, likewise the murder of my brother. Killing us won't piss Makai off."
 
"Will you stop touching all of this garbage? It's all disgusting. Besides, maybe that priest set a prayer on it or something," the smaller of the two, who barely broke 5 foot, scolded. She, too, had no problem donning her own unnatural skin and her horns that easily helped her to a solid 5'6" if included. Instead of wandering about, she was perfectly content simply staring at Laura, clearly unimpressed.

"Hm... I agree. She's ridiculously flat-cheated, her hair is a mess, and that outfit? I don't know what you humans find fashionable, but if this is it, I feel bad." She scolded, all the while letting a devious grin spread. The demon was clearly younger than the other, so she had less qualms with being rude, especially towards some pathetic throwaway life like Laura's.

"It's really unfair. You just had to show up in to Makai's life and ruin everything. You took our best servant, too! Now we're left with some half-assed wannabe souls to take care of us."
 
"For the record, Makai bought me this dress. It's designer. It's utterly horrendous, but it's his fashion eye. If you hate it that much, I recommend you talk to him on why he liked it on me-- but that would mean acting maturely, wouldn't it? You seem incapable of that--"

"Is this why Makai liked you? Because you're feisty and stand up for yourself? Of course it is. He can't like you for your appearance," remarked the taller of the sisters, arms folded over her chest and finding it hard to differentiate between her utter disgust for the human, and the sudden amusement she had. Makai hadn't said much about his ex-wife (though he'd only had a few minutes to explain), so she hadn't really known what Laura was like. On meeting her, she realised why Makai liked her so much - she wasn't acting or sounding scared, even if she was bound to be.

Snorting to herself, she settled on an armchair and folded a long leg across her lap, tapping her similarly long fingers on her knees. "Oh, don't exaggerate, Azaiah wasn't superb. He was adequate. You only like him so much because you had sex with him when you were a teenager, hm? He wasn't at all fantastic at his job, darling... I would like him to return though. Mother would be happy with that."

Decidedly staying silent on where Azaiah was, figuring the news wouldn't go down well, she maintained the gaze of the others and refused to let any frown show. "So, are you going to kill me now? Must say, this is dragging on a bit. You like to talk, don't you?"
 
"We have no intentions to kill you - at least, I don't. I can't say for my sister, sadly. I'm not her keeper." She explained flatly, before deciding that she would at least check out the kitchen for a snack, despite her previous scolding of the other touching things.

"Personally, I wanted to see what his little love-bug was like, and I'm not impressed. Do you know the women he's been with? They can run miles around you. I'm going to totally tease him about this, to be honest. Marrying some whorish, plain loser? How pathetic ." The demon laughed, and wandered back out with an apple in hand.
 
"Oh, don't be so rude, she's not totally disgusting-- at least, she's not if you don't compare her to his other girlfriend. When you do that, she's very disappointing," sighed the other, pouting a little to herself when she didn't receive the rise she wanted out of Laura. She wanted an excuse to be able to hit her, make her bleed, and, given she prided herself on being a lady, she needed a reason to lash out. She wasn't prepared to hit Laura without that reason, and currently, the human wasn't giving her it: she sat flat-faced with nothing but a shrug to the insults. "...Doesn't it bother you that Makai's going to move on and get another girlfriend in days? Someone drop-dead gorgeous and far more worthy? I'd be pissed."

"Makai's a horrible person who treated me like a doll and fucked with my brother's life. I don't care if he gets himself ten women to date. What is it you want? To come and make fun of me? How mature. Won't your mother be mad at you for this? she was positively disgusted with Makai for stepping foot on earth," laughed Laura, her smile widening a little once the taller sister grimaced in acknowledgement. "Maybe you should stroll on back to Hell now, if you aren't going to kill me. It's been wonderful meeting you, really worthwhile."