'Strange,' Ezraphel reflected.
She was currently in the passenger seat of Stanley's car as the duo drove to the storage facility to clear out the storage space of Stanley's late uncle. Now the thing about Stanley's uncle, Collin Berkowitz, was that the man was obviously important to him. According to Natalie he played a major part in Stanley's development as a person and even in death his specter seemed to haunt him.
It was one of the major reasons why Stanley gave up on socializing with others and became a shut-in. Even years later just invoking his uncle's name brought out heavy emotions in him. Or at least that was the case before so you can understand Ezraphel's confusion with the current emotional state of her husband.
"By my count you've been silently staring at me for about ten minutes now" Stanley said without taking his eyes off the road.
"I am always staring at you Stanley," Ezraphel defended(?).
"Yeah, but you have the same look on your face as the time you picked up a rubix cube. Like you're trying to solve a puzzle."
"That was fun."
"Yes, you genuinely impressed me by figuring it out as fast as you did."
Ezraphel was very good at solving complex puzzle games, go figure.
"Heehee~" Ezraphel grinned as she leaned herself closer to him "praise me more!"
"Nope, the tangent stops there," he said, causing the Lilim to pout.
"It really is nothing," she said once again with emphasis.
"Has saying stuff like that actually worked with you when I do it?" He asked.
"...no," she answered in a low voice.
"Then why would you think it would work with me?"
Her answer was a groan.
"Seriously though, why are you being so cagey right now?"
"Because you seem content and I don't want to ruin the mood by…" she trailed off.
"By what?"
"By asking why you seem okay when we are going to be unearthing the contents of your late uncle's belongings whom I know meant a lot to you based on what I learned from Natalie." Ezraphel answered in a long diatribe of rushed words given in a single breath.
Stanley did not say anything for a long while as he seemingly absorbed her words.
Eventually he broke the silence with an unexpected question "do I seem that emotionally fragile to you?"
"Do not downplay this Stanley" Ezraphel lightly admonished "I felt your emotional turmoil when you first saw the picture of your uncle and read your mother's letter."
Stanley grimaced at her words before sighing in resignation. "Come on Ez, even you have to admit that calling what I felt an 'emotional turmoil' is a little much."
As he said this he gave her a brief side eye before focusing on the road. Ezraphel stood her ground without a change in her stern expression for a moment. Then it softened into thoughtfulness which collapsed into a small grimace before transforming into reluctant acceptance.
"Perhaps, but the point still stands."
"My uncle has been dead for a long while now" he said bluntly, causing the Lilim to flinch in shock.
It wasn't the statement so much as the emotions behind it or rather the lack thereof. She could sense a bit of flare up but not much and she could tell he wasn't suppressing it either.
"And I will admit that uncle Collin meant a lot to me, still does actually, and I took his death pretty hard back in the day but I got over it. There's no deep rooted trauma, suppressed grief or unexplored emotional issues as far as his death and how it affected me is concerned. I mean, thinking about it makes me sad and nostalgic sometimes but that's pretty normal I think. Does that make sense?"
Ezraphel had a pensive expression as she reluctantly nodded "I suppose..."
"Right, so don't worry about my feelings. It's not nothing but I think I'll be fine."
They stopped at a red light allowing him to look at her fully and saw that she held a complicated expression as she looked at him.
"What?"
"I did not know you felt that way."
"How could you?" He gave a half shrug, "it's not like I talk about this stuff with you."
This time her expression turned sad "how unfortunate."
With her piece said, Ezraphel looked forward again. Stanley's gaze lingered until the light turned green. Neither of them made small talk for the rest of the journey as they both stewed in their thoughts.
For Stanley he didn't need to ponder much on what Ezraphel was alluding to with her words. The fact of the matter was that he just did not talk much about himself, specifically his past before he became a shut-in and his family. They were both topics he made a conscious effort to avoid as much as possible, up until they couldn't be avoided for one reason or another.
Like now.
'This was a long time coming' he thought and with that acknowledgement all that was left was for him to turn the knob and open the damn door.
For Ezraphel this was one of the more frustrating elements of her husband that she had come to begrudgingly tolerate. For someone like her who grew up with the unconditional love and support of her family it was difficult to accept that herhusband had such a terrible home life that he avoided talking about his family.
It was one of those things that fell short of her ideal image for her marriage. Then again this was far from the only aspect of her husband that fell short of her expectations but unlike with Stanley's other deficiencies Ezraphel couldn't exactly fix it. At least she couldn't do it in a way that would be completely satisfying to her.
"...Okay." Stanley's voice broke through her thoughts.
Ezraphel blinked "hmm? What did you say Stanley?"
He pursed his lips "it just occurred to me that I've been acting unfair. You talk about your family all the time. You answer any and every question I have about them." His expression became partially strained "so the least I can do is answer a few questions you might have."
"Stanley…"
"And don't bother trying to deny that you haven't been curious about it."
"..."
"So…" he took a breath "go ahead, ask away."
There was a brief pause before Ezraphel muttered "Stanley…"
He braced himself.
"That is quite possibly the most foolish thing you have ever said."
"Huh!?" The shock almost had him take his eyes off the road.
Foolish? Him!?
"While I can approve of you making the decision to open up more about your family, you shouldn't do it because of some self imposed notion of fairness. That is just ridiculous."
He let out a short laugh of disbelief "s-seriously!?"
'Way to make a guy feel stupid Ez.'
"You shouldn't feel obligated to repay me in such a way, Stanley. We had different upbringings, I can speak freely about my family without issue but for you I know it is an emotional sore spot and that is fine. I can wait a bit longer to hear what you have to say but only when you feel ready to open that door."
It was a good thing he had his eyes focused on the road otherwise it would have been obvious he would not be able to meet her gaze. There wasn't really anything he could say after being called out the way he was. So it was a long stretch of silence before Ezraphel's phone chimed with a message notification.
Ezraphel fished her phone from her cleavage pocket dimension (just roll with it) and began to read the message. Normally it wouldn't have mattered but as the only thing of note to happen in a while it had Stanley's curiosity. Then he felt a spike of what seemed to be panic coursing through their bond and saw the wide eyed stare of shock on her face.
That gained his attention.
"What was that?" He asked while briefly giving her a side-eye glance as he kept driving.
Almost immediately following the question the panic he felt dissipated like smoke and Ezraphel's expression schooled into something amicable as she turned to him.
"Hm? What was what?"
"The message you got."
"Oh that? Just Natalie informing me of something."
Okay now Stanley felt concerned "informing you of what? Did something happen back at the house?"
"No, nothing like that. There is nothing to worry about there."
"Then why the hell were you panicking?"
"I was not panicking."
"Ez, are we really going to do this right now?"
"...I won't tell you what she said now but I will reveal it before we travel back home," the Lilim stated diplomatically.
Stanley inhaled through his nose to steady his nerves "just tell me it's not something that's going to screw me over."
"..."
The silence had Stanley glancing at the passenger's side to find Ezraphel wearing the wireless ear buds and locked in on whatever was on her phone.
Stanley stared at her for a moment while she steadfastly ignored him.
'...You know what? I respect it.'
Of course this meant that he would have to deal with whatever bullshit Natalie had in store for him later.
"Fuck."
"Language."
'This Bitch…'
He couldn't even call her out since he can actually hear the audio of whatever she's listening to.
Later…
Before last week Stanley's total knowledge of how paid storage worked came from watching early episodes of Storage Wars. Luckily for him they weren't dealing with that kind of situation. There was no auction and they weren't on a time limit to clear out the space.
He learned that after conversations with his mother whom he finally had a reason to call without feeling awkward about it. She explained that when his uncle died his assets got turned over to her and through her own discretion she placed most of everything he had in his house into a storage unit he already owned and used the money from his bank account (which was turned over to her) as the means of paying the fee.
Handing over the storage unit to him had been the plan from the start but she wanted to wait until he was an adult before doing it. Things obviously didn't pan out the way she envisioned, what with their falling out and becoming estranged. She never really bothered with the unit afterwards except to do periodic checks to ensure payments were going through and the facility was being kept up to code.
It meant that the storage unit had been sitting virtually untouched for years.
On a side note: if Stanley had waited another semester before breaking it off with his family then he could have gotten it back then.
'Missed opportunity but in hindsight it might have been for the best that I didn't get it back then.'
Stanley had some regrets about the way he parted ways with his mother but not the actual act itself. The storage unit would have added unnecessary drama to the situation while keeping him tethered. He didn't need that, he genuinely believed cutting off all contact save for his sister was the right call.
'Definitely for the best that I do this now.'
They drove into the parking lot and exited the car. The storage facility was a massive warehouse with smaller storage units inside. Stanley had his eyes on the warehouse while Ezraphel was looking around.
"Looking for something?" He asked half jokingly.
The Lilim flinched lightly before she answered "I wasn't expecting the area to be so empty."
"This is where people go to put the stuff they don't need but can't afford to throw away," he said. "Not the kind of place you'd see a crowd, especially on a weekday afternoon."
"And I suppose the lack of other people is preferable for you as well?" She added with a bit of teasing.
"Hey, it's not just about me," he defended. "If other people were here then we'd have a hell of a hard time explaining how we move the stuff out of storage without renting a truck."
"Ah," Ezraphel nodded, "that makes sense."
She said this with her usual casualness but he could see some nervousness entering her expression. His eyes narrowed suspiciously, something she picked up and he saw the nervousness increase a bit before she schooled her expression.
"Is something the matter, Stanley?"
"I should be asking you that," he retorted.
"What do you mean?"
"You're hiding something."
"..." She said nothing.
"And I have this gut feeling that it has to do with that text you got from Natalie."
Ezraphel kept a surprisingly impeccable poker face even while she was being heavily scrutinized by him.
"You gonna tell me what it is yet?"
"We should get started on your uncle's storage, Stanley" she suggested before walking towards the warehouse.
Stanley huffed, he wasn't even mad, just confused, curious and slightly worried about his immediate future. The duo entered the facility and were met with darkness initially before the motion sensors picked them up and the first batch of lights turned on. Rows of locked shutters became visible each with a number on them.
It took only a few minutes to find what they were looking for, a shutter indistinguishable from the others save for a different number engraved on it. Stanley used the key to unlock the industrial padlock and with a single yank of his superhuman strength pushed the shutter upwards to expose the contents for the first time in years.
Boxes of various sizes were stacked throughout the space along with some garbage bags, plastic bags, there was a small shelf to the side and…it was a lot.
'Yep, there's no way the two of us could clear this all out in a day.'
If he could, he would have Ezraphel just portal the entire content of the storage space so they could sort through it at home but he spied a few security cameras scattered about the facility, including one perched above at the edge of this very row of storage units pointed in their general direction.
"Where should we start?" Ezraphel asked.
Looking around for a moment he pointed on one side "you can start over there. Uncle Collin was a nerd so expect to find collectibles, we're keeping those" he added.
"He was like you?" Ezraphel asked as she went into the unit.
Stanley looked at her with a contemplative expression for a moment before going to his self assigned part "exactly, except instead of videogames he collected trading cards and toys and you might find some DnD stuff too."
"What about airsoft?"
Stanley paused his opening of a random box to look over at her only for his breath to hitch. Ezraphel was holding an airsoft rifle, a very familiar one that was part of a core memory for him.
"Where did you find that?"
"It was in that box," she pointed to said box.
Stanley made his way over towards her gingerly taking it out of her hands to inspect it. Ezraphel watched him in silence as she felt the emotions coming from him. After confirming its condition he then opened the large box to find some old airsoft equipment and gear.
"Huh, you found this on your first try" he muttered while looking around "what are the odds?"
There was a brief moment of silence as he simply stared before he seemingly shook himself from his reverie. It was at that point he noticed Ezraphel's curious staring and looked between her and the rifle before seeming to come to a conclusion.
"This is an Umarex Heckler & Koch MP5K."
"..." Ezraphel merely stared at him blankly, blinking slowly.
His shoulders seem to sag a bit "right, those words mean nothing to you I-" he shook his head and went to say more but paused again.
His brow furrowed in confusion prompting her to say "what's wrong?"
"Ez, did I…" he looked down at the rifle again as he continued "did I ever tell you how I got into Airsoft?"
"You did not."
'Of fucking course I didn't, I don't tell you shit about myself' he grumbled before pursing his lips as he contemplated.
"You said that I should only talk about my past if I felt ready."
The disguised Lilim's eyes widened as she tried her very best to enter her excitement "I did."
"Well, this isn't the most ideal place for spilling my heart out but you know what? Fuck it. I'm feeling nostalgic enough to walk down memory lane right now so it's as good a time as any."
After saying that he went on to talk about how his uncle got him into Airsoft. Years ago, around the time when he was in the middle of his high school loner outcast phase he discovered the joys of online gaming and decided having a social life sucked so he mostly stayed inside.
Of course his mother, being the worrywart she was, didn't like this but she couldn't really do much about it since his grades were still being maintained and so long as he did well in school her dickhead husband didn't really care. Natalie had moved out by that point and was going through her own phase in life that kept her busy and as for his younger sister…
Well, sufficed to say his mother found no allies within that household who cared enough about him…except for one person. So after a few failed attempts to get him out of the house and back to hanging out with real people she decided to ask her brother for help.
It was a hail mary solution since while Stanley had a pretty good relationship with his uncle, they weren't particularly close. And Collin didn't exactly make it better when he all but barged into his room one day and told him to get off the computer and dragged him out the house.
Collin's idea to get Stanley out of the house was to introduce him to an activity that he would want to do but can only do by going outside. And since he was playing primarily shooting games at the time naturally the activity had to involve that. But since his mother would literally hang him up by his entrails if he so much as showed her son a real gun he went with an alternative.
The options came down between paintball and airsoft and he went with the latter because paintball was messier and airsoft guns both looked and sort of operated like the actual weapons they were modelled after. So after making that decision they went to a sporting goods store. The salesman happened to be an airsoft enthusiast which was good because neither of them knew what they were doing.
Stanley paused in telling his story to hold up the MP5K "this is technically my first airsoft rifle. The guy suggested it for me because I was small and this gun is compact enough for me to handle along with having a high fire rate. He wasn't wrong but I didn't like that, I wanted a bigger gun because it looked cool so my uncle exchanged his M4 for this and a few days later we went to our first airsoft meet."
He started laughing because contrary to Ezraphel's expectations Stanley didn't immediately fall in love with airsoft. His first outing in particular was a miserable affair.
"It was a fucking disaster" he explained. "I had no idea what I was doing, my rifle handling was so terrible my shots were always off. I literally couldn't hit the broad side of a shed and I got eliminated constantly. The weather sucked with the summer heat making me sweat through my gear. I was uncomfortable for pretty much the entire time."
He was ready to call it quits after the first thirty minutes but forced himself to stick with it through sheer stubbornness.
"I wanted to hit at least one person before I left but I never did. It was the worst fucking game I ever played and I swore I would never do it again."
He paused and gave Ezraphel a blank stare while she raised a brow.
"...obviously that was a fucking lie."
Just then the sound of the storage facility doors opened alerting the two that someone else had entered the building.
Stanley clicked his tongue in mild annoyance "okay, that's enough storytelling for now."
"No!" Ezraphel shouted then winced as her voice echoed in the otherwise empty corridor.
"Use your inside voice Ez" he drawled with half lidded eyes before going back to the storage unit to continue his search.
"Sorry" she apologized "but I want to know what happens next."
The faint sound of footsteps grew a little louder causing Ezraphel to keep an eye out even as she tried to keep her growing anxiety in check. Stanley ignored the former and was oblivious to the latter as started going through another box.
"Not much there to tell," he grunted. "My uncle somehow convinced my religious conservative worrywart mother that going out and shooting guys while getting shot at by other guys with fake model guns was a better alternative than staying inside playing the videogame equivalent."
"Um, Stanley…" came Ezraphel's voice and he was now finally made aware of her anxiety.
In fact this was the most nervousness he's felt from her even when faced with his ire. Naturally this had him immediately look in her direction only to find the disguised Lilim looking elsewhere, specifically at the person standing a few feet away in front of their open storage unit.
"In my defense your uncle didn't quite frame it the way you did." The woman said in response to his earlier sentence.
"Mom?" Stanley said in quiet disbelief.
"Hello Stanley" Dana Berkowitz greeted her son with a warm motherly smile.
Then her attention shifted and while her smile remained her eyes sharpened with the Lilim standing straighter in response.
'Oh, no.' Thought Stanley as he saw where this was going.
"And you must be Ezraphel."
Why does she sound so foreboding?