Chapter 166: 130. Mending Fences

After we left Steph's apartment Kaylee and Willow headed back to our place, while I made my way over to the animal shelter. I met Nina there, and the two of us got to work doing our volunteer stuff.

It wasn't all cute cuddly critters, there was definitely work to be done. I had almost two dozen litter trays and cages to clean, and that many water and food dishes to clean and refill. I didn't mind though. In fact it helped get my mind off the not-me goddess stuff. And in between the cleaning I still got to pet and cuddle with lots of cute little kitties and other little critters.

After the work was done I had more time to play with the animals, to make sure they got lots of exercise and stuff. The only minor disruption to all that was when a couple people came to see the kitties, and ended up adopting a pair of adult cats. They were two of the calmer quieter ones, and we were pretty sure they were brothers since they got on really well with each other. I was glad to see they were staying together, I would have been sad if they'd been split up.

Meanwhile my sister was taking care of the dogs, she had the same sort of responsibilities as me but for bigger animals. She took some of them out for a walk, others she played with in the small enclosed yard attached to the shelter.

By the end of the day we'd both had good shifts, and the two of us headed out together at about five in the afternoon.

"Are you coming over to our place?" I asked as me and Nina headed across the parking lot.

She nodded, "I'm going to hang out with Sasha and Willow again. What are you up to?"

"Me and Kaylee have plans tonight," I replied with a grimace. "We're going to have dinner with her parents."

My sister grimaced too, "They know she's a tiny demonic foxgirl right?"

"Yeah, she came out to them about that two weeks ago," I sighed. "I'm pretty sure she hasn't actually seen them since then? She's talked with them on the phone, but that's about it."

Nina frowned, "Huh. I hope it goes ok. They're not religious are they? A lot of religious people are anti-demon."

I shook my head, "Not as far as I know. They were definitely freaked out when she showed them her new form though."

The two of us walked in silence for another minute or two before she shrugged, "Well I hope everything goes ok for you and Kaylee. I know her parents can't actually do anything against either of you, but it'd probably be really stressful and upsetting for everyone if they tried."

"Yeah," I grimaced again.

Kaylee Sasha and Willow were all hanging out in the living-room when we got home. The three were all talking about magic, and I got the feeling my cousin was probably helping Will with her sorceress stuff and teaching my girlfriend more demonic magic at the same time.

That came to an end the moment I got in the door though, as Kaylee jumped up with her tails all swishing about. "Cass! You need to get changed and ready to go. We have to be at my parents' place in thirty minutes!"

"Ok," I sighed as I headed for our bedroom, with my girlfriend right behind me.

It didn't actually take that long to get changed, then I quickly tidied up my hair and even put on a little bit of make-up. I almost expected Kaylee to suggest I teleport the two of us, but it didn't actually come up. Instead we set out a few minutes late, for the twenty minute walk to the Holt house.

Like before as soon as we were out of the house and walking along the sidewalks my girlfriend got lots of stares and attention.

After a minute or two of that I asked, "Does it bother you? The attention, the way people gawk and stare at you?"

"Not really," she shrugged, as her tails swished around. "I'm happy being your cute little demonic kitsune girlfriend, and I don't care who sees me or what they think of me."

"Anyways just by being me I'm spreading a bit of chaos around, right?" she added with a mischievous grin.

I nodded slowly, "I guess? Yeah. I just feel a bit guilty that you can't go anywhere without everyone staring at you. It's probably going to be disruptive when you go to university, right? Like in class and stuff?"

My girlfriend shrugged again, "Maybe at first? But I'm sure they'll get used to it pretty quickly."

"Ok Kaylee," I replied. "I guess if it does get to you, we can always figure out what to do about it. Like you can use the invisibility spell to hide your ears and tails maybe? Or once you know the transformation spell you could disguise yourself as a normal human. Or we could teach you some illusion magic too, then you'd be able to use glamours to disguise yourself without actually changing yourself."

"Sure," she smiled. "I'm definitely up for learning more magic. Transformation and teleport spells are at the top of my list, but illusions would be cool too."

We were quiet for a bit after that, and soon enough we were cutting past the high school which was about the half-way point between our place and her parents' house. And I stopped thinking about people staring at her and started worrying about how the evening was going to play out.

"How do you figure it's going to go with your folks?" I asked as we crossed the school yard. "Is this going to be all awkward and tense and everything?"

My girlfriend smirked as she twitched her tails around, "If they get too stressed I'll let them pet my tails!"

"Seriously though," she added after a couple seconds, "I have no idea. It was mom's suggestion? She said she missed having me around, she wanted me to come back for dinner and a visit. I told her I'd only come if you were invited too, she said that was ok, so here we are?"

That made me feel guilty for not insisting my parents let me bring Kaylee to dinner back on Monday, and I made a mental note to do that next time, if it ever came up again.

As we headed down into the ravine I responded, "All right. I hope this isn't meant to be some kind of intervention or something? Like they seemed pretty freaked out last time we were there."

My girlfriend shrugged and said almost the same thing my sister did earlier, "It's not like they can do anything to us. Especially not you. And hopefully they know better than to try. Like we told them last time, I'm part demon and you're a goddess. Unless they didn't believe us?"

I grimaced and shook my head, "I don't know? Let's just hope it's a nice quiet family dinner."

After we emerged from the ravine we walked along the sidewalk through our old neighbourhood till we got to her place. She knocked on the door rather than just letting herself in, and the two of us waited on the front step.

Mrs. Holt opened the door a half minute later. She only stared for a second or two before snapping out of it. "Hello Kaylee, Cassandra. Please come in. Why don't you two make yourselves comfortable in the den for now? Can I get you both a drink?"

"Hi mom," Kaylee replied as we stepped past her into the house. "If you have some orange or lemon-lime soda that'd be perfect? If not, water would be fine thanks."

"Hello Mrs. Holt," I greeted her as I followed my girlfriend. "I'll have water please."

We could smell something cooking as we continued on into the den, where Mr. Holt was sitting. There was a glass of wine next to him, and another next to the chair beside him for Mrs. Holt. He got to his feet and greeted us both as my girlfriend and I entered.

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"Hi dad," Kaylee smiled as she went to sit down on the sofa. She settled near one end, but she sat at an angle so her three tails weren't bunched up between her back and the cushions.

"Hello Mr. Holt," I added as I sat next to my girlfriend.

A few seconds later her mom came in with our drinks. She handed each of us a glass of water, then as she took her seat next to Mr. Holt she asked Kaylee "When did you stop drinking cola? If I'd known I would have got some other soft drinks for you."

My girlfriend shrugged, "Sorry I forgot to mention it. It's a demonic dietary restriction thing? I have to avoid caffein, so I switched to orange soda instead of cola."

"No coffee or latte either," she added. "But I can still have hot chocolate. I can't have really dark chocolate though, there's actually caffein in that."

Her parents didn't seem to know what to do with any of that information. I hadn't even been aware of that stuff myself, until after Kaylee became part demon. It didn't come up until Nina was teaching her what it meant to be a demon, that we found out the details. I'd known my little sister avoided soda, but she never told me why.

After a bit the silence in the room started to feel kind of awkward, until Mrs. Holt finally spoke up.

"So how have you been doing since you moved out?" she asked her daughter. "Are you all settled in at your new place? And what have you been doing with yourself?"

Kaylee shrugged, "I'm doing good. And yeah, I'm all settled in. It's nice being with Cass and the rest of the gang. We're pretty sure Willow's going to move in with us soon too? That won't actually be a big difference since she already spends half her time there anyways."

Mr. Holt frowned slightly as he asked, "How many people live there? How big is this house of yours?"

I replied quietly, "There's five of us there right now, and Willow will be the sixth. The house isn't too big, it's a three bedroom bungalow."

"Me and Cass share the master bedroom," my girlfriend announced with a wide smile. "You probably already figured that out, since I took all my furniture except the bed when I left."

She continued, "Cass's cousin Sasha is in the second bedroom, and Willow's going to move into the third bedroom. Melanie and Cerys have taken about half the basement as their own private space."

Mrs. Holt frowned, "I don't think I've heard any of those names before. What about your friend Paige? Or Brooke?"

"They're doing fine," Kaylee replied. "I had lunch with them the other day. They both have their summer jobs again, then come September Paige is moving out of town when she goes to university."

"Oh yes, I remember you mentioned that a while back," her mom nodded. "What about you? Are you doing anything to keep busy? And Cassandra, do you have a summer job?"

I shook my head, "I don't have a job as such ma'am, but I'm doing some volunteer work? A few days a week me and my sister volunteer at the animal shelter. She looks after the doggos, while I take care of the kitties and the other small animals."

My girlfriend added, "I'm not working or anything like that. So far I've been spending most of my time learning demonic magic, or just learning how to be a demon."

Both her parents looked uncomfortable hearing that. They exchanged an uneasy glance, then Mr. Holt sounded like he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer as he asked, "How does that... What does that mean? Learning how to be a demon?"

Kaylee shrugged, "Demons are a completely different thing. We're not just 'a slightly different kind of human', we're not even a different kind of primate. We have a completely different biology. Probably a separate evolution and development? Demons are supernatural creatures, but we're still part of nature, like we originate right here on Earth same as humans. It's really fascinating."

Mr. and Mrs. Holt both nodded slowly, but they both seemed a little overwhelmed by all that. And unsurprisingly, neither of them had any follow-up questions about Kaylee's demon stuff.

"So um, Cassandra, last time you were here you told us you were a um, goddess?" my girlfriend's mom asked me in an uncertain voice.

I grimaced but nodded, "Yeah... It's kind of a long complicated story, and I don't like to make a big deal out of it."

"That's my girlfriend," Kaylee grinned as she rolled her eyes. "She's an actual living goddess, but she doesn't want to make a big deal out it. As if that's not a big deal all on it's own!"

That made me cringe a bit, but luckily her parents didn't ask me any more stuff about being a goddess. I was actually a little surprised that my other self didn't show up to talk about that stuff, since it was her thing and she didn't seem shy about discussing it.

Something started beeping in the kitchen at that point, which was Mrs. Holt's cue to excuse herself and take care of stuff in there. Then only a minute or two after that she called the rest of us into the dining room. I noticed as we got seated that the chairs in there had gaps at the back, which Kaylee took advantage of. Her three tails slipped through so they could swish around freely behind her.

The table was set with two seats on either side, me and Kaylee were on the left while her parents sat together on the right. Dinner was a small roast, with baked potatoes and roasted vegetables on the side. There were some goodies for the potatoes, like sour cream and chives and stuff, and gravy for the roast. It was all pretty typical stuff, and felt like the sort of thing they probably had regularly for Sunday dinner.

As we got started on the food I politely thanked Mrs. Holt, "This is really nice ma'am. Thank you for dinner."

"You're welcome Cassandra," she smiled.

Everyone was quiet again for a minute or two as we ate, until Mr. Holt finally asked my girlfriend "So it's been two weeks Kaylee since you moved out and er, became a demon. Are you still happy hon? You don't mind being so small, or having those ears? Or the tails?"

"I'm very happy dad," Kaylee announced as her tails swished around happily. "I love my tails, and my ears. I don't mind being small, even if it means I have to use step-stools to reach stuff on high shelves. I guess you see this stuff as drawbacks? I don't. But even if I did, it'd be worth it for all the advantages."

She went on to list some of them, "I'm stronger and faster than I ever was before. I can't get sick, and if I got hurt I'd heal faster than a human. I have more access to magic now than I did before, and my magic's more powerful. I'm slimmer and healthier than I could have ever achieved on my own as a human. I'm not going to get old like a human either, and my lifespan is a lot longer. Also, my eyesight is better than twenty-twenty, plus I can see in the dark now too."

"So yeah," she smiled, "I'm really happy. And I have no regrets dad. None at all."

Her parents were both quiet for a couple seconds, as the two went from staring at Kaylee to sharing a glance with each other.

Then Mr. Holt smiled, "All right hon. I'm glad you're happy, and I'm glad you're comfortable like that. You're still our little girl, whatever happens, and your mom and I worry about you."

"We were more than a little shocked when all this came out two weeks ago," her mom added. "And along with the other surprise you had for us earlier this year, it's taken us a while to get used to all the changes. But your father's right Kaylee. You're our daughter, and your dad and I love you no matter what."

That put a smile on my girlfriend's face. "Aww, thanks mom, thanks dad! I love you both too!"