Chapter 35: 35. Settling In

"So this is home," I said as the three of us emerged from the Underground.

I gestured broadly, "This part of London is known as Bloomsbury. After my untimely death I woke up in a hotel room near here, it's where me and Eva became friends, and where I first met Marianne. A lot happened in that first week, and this part of town became my new home I guess."

Lucas grimaced, "I'm sure it's a nice place sis but forgive me if I'm not impressed right now."

Before I could respond he added, "Sorry but I'm tired, hungry, I have a headache, and having to stand for forty-five minutes on the subway after spending all night on a plane really hasn't helped my mood any."

"How can you possibly complain about the flight?" I asked with a frown. "The seats in first class were amazing!"

He just grumbled quietly before asking, "How much further is it to your apartment?"

"Not far Lucas," Marianne replied. "Only a few more minutes."

I smirked as I added, "And it's a flat, not an apartment. And it's not called a 'subway' here, it's the Tube."

My brother rolled his eyes, "Yeah I know. Lift not elevator, crisps not chips."

I grinned, "And our flat is on the first floor which is not the ground floor. So yes, there will be a flight of stairs when we get there."

"Have you been here before Lucas," Marianne asked. "To London I mean, or Europe?"

He stifled a yawn then nodded, "Twice, but not in a long time. Most recent visit was in the late nineties, when I was here with Lexi's mom. She'd just lost her parents and we spent some time visiting with her sister."

We didn't have time to delve into that story as we reached our place. Me and Marianne led Lucas up the stairs, then I opened the door and felt that little surge of joy at being home once more.

"Eva are you around?" I called. "We're here!"

Our demon emerged from the guest room, she was dressed in nothing but a nightshirt as she greeted the three of us with a smile. "Lexi, Marianne, Lucas, welcome home! How was the flight?"

"It was fine," I replied, while Lucas grumbled to himself. I ignored him and asked, "How are you doing? Did you miss us?"

She'd seen the three of us off at the airport in Toronto about twelve hours earlier, then spent a bit more time with her demon family before teleporting here ahead of us. On the other hand it was probably the longest and definitely the furthest Eva and I had been apart since we first met four years earlier.

"Of course I missed you," she replied with a smile. "And I'm doing well. I've made myself at home in the guest room, I hope that's going to be ok?"

Marianne insisted, "Not the guest room, it's your room Eva. This is your home too."

That put smiles on my and Eva's faces, while Lucas remained grumpy.

Rather than let that get any worse I gave him a very quick tour of the place. Kitchen and bathroom were probably the most important things for him to see at first, then there was the master bedroom Marianne and I shared, the second bedroom that we used as our office, and the third bedroom which was now Eva's.

"If you need sleep you can take the sofa for now," I told him. "If you want food first we'll have to go out and get it, since we left the fridge and pantry empty during our trip to Canada."

After a half minute he decided, "I'll crash on the sofa while you find food. Wake me when it's time to eat."

That made me roll my eyes, "I'll let you get away with that this time, because I know you're jet-lagged. And four years ago I was just as bad, but Marianne and Eva helped me get over that. So get some rest, we'll see about food around lunchtime maybe."

"Thanks sis," he mumbled as he literally collapsed onto the sofa, and in under a minute he was snoring softly.

Eva commented, "I imagine I'll need to do some shopping today or tomorrow? Now that I have a living body again I'm going to need more clothes. And I suppose I'll have to get my own phone, among other things."

"Lucas will want to do that too," Marianne pointed out. "Along with everything else we have to do to help him start his new life here."

I grimaced, "Right. We should make a list or something, there's a lot we're going to have to do."

And so began the second-busiest month of my life. It was almost a repeat of four years earlier, when I was scrambling to get myself established as an international student in London. The one big advantage was having already been through the process once, Marianne and Eva and I actually knew what we were doing this time around.

First and formost was getting my little brother a place to stay so he didn't have to live on our sofa. Eva took care of that the following day, she set him up in the same hotel where my new life began. It was convenient since we were all familiar with it and the place was only a couple blocks away.

At the same time Lucas got himself a new phone and a laptop, and spent most of that first week getting himself acclimatized to life in London while also touring nearby campuses and trying to pick what college and which program he wanted. Meanwhile Eva did some shopping of her own, and her room quickly evolved from our guest-room to something with a lot more personality.

I didn't really know what to expect there, but it turned out our demon's tastes were fairly modern, if slightly eclectic. It definitely wasn't what you'd expect from a bronze-age demoness anyways. More like what you'd expect from an intelligent and well-travelled young woman in her mid-twenties. Which to be honest described my girlfriend just as well as my demon. In fact it probably fit me too for that matter.

You are reading story Missed Connections at novel35.com

On top of all the Lucas and Eva stuff, Marianne and I were both still getting accustomed to our recent changes. Being more demon than human now actually wasn't as big a shift as we might have expected, but there were still some things we needed to get used to. For me the biggest difference was my new ears and tail.

I made a point of not hiding them while I was at home, which meant I also got the experience of forgetting to hide them a few times when I went out. Fortunately most people ignored them, or assumed I was doing cosplay for some reason or another.

And whenever my fuzzy cat-demon attributes were visible my girlfriend got into the habit of scritching my ears and stroking my tail any time the two of us were relaxing together. I wasn't sure how much that actually helped me in terms of getting used to things, but Marianne definitely enjoyed the effect it had on me when she did it.

Meanwhile another time-consuming issue was we both had to update our wardrobes. I found myself some tail-friendly clothes while my girlfriend needed new work-appropriate outfits that fit her increased stature.

There was probably a lot more demon-related stuff the two of us needed to talk with Eva about, but we had so much else going on that would have to wait.

It took Lucas about a week but he finally made all his education-related decisions. He wanted to attend my alma mater, where he'd be majoring in a graphic design course. Once again we relied on Eva to pull some magical strings to rush the paperwork and registration stuff through, while me and Marianne helped search for some better accommodations for my little brother. Not that the hotel wasn't nice, but it wasn't ideal as a long-term residence.

We were already into the second week of August by the time we got most of that sorted out. Lucas's registration was accepted, he had a student visa, and we even found him a few options in terms of housing. Marianne and I accompanied him as he toured a couple places, and he ended up picking a nearby flat that he'd share with two other international students.

Klaus from Germany was studying for a maths degree at a London university, while Jules from France had enrolled in a history program at the university where Marianne taught. In fact it turned out he'd be in one of her classes. Despite the three of them attending different schools they all seemed to get on well with each other, and I was happy to see my little brother making friends.

Lucas having new friends to spend time with had other benefits too. Primarily it meant we didn't have him dropping in to hang out with us every other day because he was lonely or bored. And Marianne thought it would be good for him in other ways too. Like having international roommates would broaden his horizons and stuff like that, which was probably true.

With the last of my dad-turned-brother's issues sorted out it meant all four of us could finally settle down and relax a bit.

And that meant it was time for the three of us to focus on arranging another visit with Eva's family. Except with the summer already half over it meant we were scrambling yet again, to try and figure out the best way for everyone to get together.

"As much as I'd love to invite them over here there's no way we could fit them all into our flat," I pointed out. "If Lily does what you said and restores herself then we're talking about three people. I'm assuming Lily would share your room, but that leaves Mira and Mara. I doubt they'd be happy with one of them on the sofa and the other on an air mattress or something. And I can't even imagine what it'd be like trying to have six people sharing our little bathroom."

Marianne pointed out, "There's a dozen hotels in walking distance. Mara and Mira could get rooms at one of them, while Lily stayed here with Eva and us?"

Our demon grimaced, "I'm honestly not sure we'd want to leave the twins unattended like that. Three millennia ago my daughter had a penchant for getting into trouble, and from what Lily's said our girls are still like that now. Mara more than Mira, but apparently when they're alone together Mara's a bad influence on Mira, rather than vice versa."

"And anyways if the twins were visiting they'll want to bring their girlfriends too," Eva added. "So we're not talking about three people, but six."

"So we definitely won't be putting them up here then," Marianne frowned. After a pause she asked, "We could always go back to Canada again? Our original trip was cut short, so perhaps we could do some of the sightseeing we didn't have time for last month."

I frowned as well, "Except the whole point is to get together with Eva's family, not travel around seeing sights. Unless Eva stayed with Lily and the twins while you and I did some touring? But I'd kind of like to get to know the in-laws better as well."

Eva nodded in agreement, "Perhaps we could go back to Canada again next summer and do some touring, but for now I'm hoping to spend all my time with Lily and my girls. Unfortunately their home is going to have the same problem ours does? They have five people living there now, six once Lily restores her demonic body. There's only three bedrooms so it's a tight squeeze as it is. Trying to fit the three of us in there with six of them will probably be just as uncomfortable."

"So we're really looking at a hotel no matter what," I sighed. "If they come here the DLP will need a few rooms someplace, even if Lily does bunk with you. And if we go there, me and Marianne will be at a hotel while you're with Lily at her place."

Our demon nodded, "Either way it's not ideal. They could get a nice hotel here in walking distance from our flat, but they'll probably need three rooms? If we go there we'd only need the one room for you two, but there's no hotels close to their home. It'll feel like you two are off on your own, rather than part of the family."

The three of us were quiet for a bit as we all thought about the impracticalities and logistics of trying to get so many people to meet together at the same time.

After a few more minutes Marianne suggested, "What if rather than trying to meet at their home or ours, we picked a completely different venue? That way instead of one group or another feeling left out or separate, we'd all be in hotel rooms. We could find a nice resort on a beach somewhere, and ideally we'd book all the suites together on the same floor. Then everyone would be in one place, and it would be a vacation for all of us instead of one group having to play host to the other group."

That put smiles on both my face and Eva's. Our demon asked, "Rather than a group of hotel rooms, perhaps we could rent a big home or something? Surely there must be an option along those lines?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "I'm sure I've seen ads for that kind of thing? Like I know some beach resorts have sea-side cottages or little private villas or something like that. We just have to find one that's big enough for everyone."

Marianne cautioned, "It may not be possible to find something on such short notice, but if we're not picky about where we go we might get lucky."

"I'm not picky," I replied. "How about you Eva? Any preference where we look?"

Our demon had a thoughtful look on her face for a few moments, before she smiled. "Yes. And needless to say, money is no object. Marianne, Lexi, I'll leave this in your capable hands? See if you can't find us a villa to rent, something large and luxurious. With enough bedrooms that nobody will feel crowded."

She gave my girlfriend and I a few more requirements, along with her first and second choices of destination. And if we couldn't find something where she wanted, we'd find someplace else. But we'd check her top picks first.

Then as the two of us got started on that, Eva pulled out her phone and got on a lengthy long-distance call to let her lover know what the three of us had decided.

If everything went according to plan, we'd all be seeing each other again very soon.