The following day as the human and demon pair left for work, they passed by Kathy, one of the downstairs neighbors, who sniffed them and said, "You two reek of demon. What have you been up to?"

"Oh no! I smell?!" Ivy exclaimed.

"Mind your own business, you incompetent witch," Azara said angrily.

"Azara! That's mean!"

"It's true though. She's bad at witchcraft. It's obvious she and the other one only do it as a hobby."

Kathy, the middle-aged, supposedly incompetent witch decided to smile and say, "I'm sorry, I don't believe we've met."

"We met once before, and you left a terrible impression. Do better next time."

"Okaaaaay," Ivy interjected. "Let's get out of here before you insult the nice witch lady even more." She grabbed Azara by the arm and pulled her toward the exit.

"Fine. She insulted us first, saying we reek and all."

"That doesn't mean you should be mean back! Plus she's a witch! What if she curses us or something?"

"Even if she tries it'll just rebound on them. I'm too powerful for petty curses to have any effect."

"What about me, though? I'm just regular human!"

"A human with a demon's protection. You'll be fine."

"If you say so. And... Is there really a smell?"

"Only to magically attuned people like her. Nothing to worry about. And it doesn't stink. Saying we reek was insulting. It's just natural demon magic."

"What if we meet someone else who can smell it?"

"Then we'll deal with it. It's unlikely, anyway. Humans with magic aren't exactly common anymore."

Ivy sighed as they got in the car. "I hope you're right."

"I am!" Azara smiled at her. "I know this stuff, okay? Now let's get to work! I'm excited."

"I think you're going to be quite disappointed. It's just a regular job."

"I'll decide that for myself."

After picking up some coffee at the shop directly across from the building they worked in, they made their way back across the street to work. Ivy sat down at her desk, while Azara went to talk with the manager to get set up. Ivy hoped she would be okay in there. After a while she and the manager came out and walked over to Ivy.

"Ivy, you'll be training her since you're already familiar with each other," the manager said. "Go in the break room and go through the basics with her first, then start on calls when you think she's ready."

"Okay."

The two made their way to the break room to begin training. As they sat down, Ivy noticed Azara had a sticker on her chest that said "Azara Knowles".

"'Knowles'? You took my last name? Are you trying to be my sister or something? We look nothing alike."

"Sister? No. You're my wife. Isn't that obvious?"

"WIFE!? What!? Ohhhhhh my god. What did you do?" It was lucky they were in the break room, so people probably didn't hear that shout.

"Is that a problem? I thought since we would be living together it made sense, and we saw each other on a regular basis for several months. Isn't that dating?"

"Your common sense is skewed. Did you think all those times you came to visit were dates?"

"Not at first, but it made sense in retrospect once I had human knowledge. Was I wrong?"

"Yes. I'm sorry but yes, you were wrong."

"So being your wife is no good?"

"Um... It's not that. It's just, we never actually dated, you know? I was repaying what you did for me and we just talked and had fun and... Maybe they kind of were dates now that I think about it."

"Haha! You're being silly."

"That doesn't mean we can just get married, though!"

"Why not?" She leaned in close. "We like each other, don't we?"

"Well, yeah. But..."

"And I know you're attracted to me like this. It's easy to tell, especially when we were in bed."

Ivy blushed as she remembered trying to sleep last night. "It's... That's... We'll talk about this later!"

Azara smiled knowing she won for now. "Okay~."

When they eventually left the break room to work on dealing with calls, everyone in the office turned to look at them. "Ivy! You never told us you were married!" One of her coworkers yelled.

Ivy stood stunned for a moment while Azara tried not to laugh. "Ah. Uh, yeah. It's... Pretty recent."

After that they had to deal with a barrage of questions, like "How did you meet?" and "What was your wedding like?". Azara let Ivy do most of the talking as she spun story after story, trying to keep it as simple and straightforward as possible. Things settled down after awhile and the manager made everyone get back to work after they had their fun.

"I'll make us some wedding rings later," Azara whispered with a smile as they sat down.

Ivy groaned. "This is too much too fast."

"...I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. It seems I still have a lot to learn about humans."

"It's fine. We can fix this, right?"

"Do you want to?"

"...It's just so sudden."

"I am asking you, 'Do you want to change this?'"

"...I guess we can see how it goes for awhile."

Azara smiled. She knew what Ivy was really like because of their second meeting, and with the current situation, knew that this would make her happiest. It made Azara happy too.

They got to work and Azara picked things up fast, and could demonically coerce people over the phone into doing what she needed them to do, which made her perform fantastically at this job. She received praise for it, which made Ivy slightly jealous for doing so well on her first day. Later, after arriving home, they found Slender waiting for them.

"Come with me," Slender said. "You're going to explain to your father what you're doing here. Ivy, you're coming with."

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

"O-Okay," Ivy stammered out. She was going on a sudden trip to the demon realm.

They gathered in a circle and vanished in a cloud of smoke. Ivy felt her stomach lurch forward as whatever form of transportation this was took its toll on her body. She staggered forward and nearly fell over, but Azara caught her.

They appeared in a cave, and before them stood a dragon demon, much like Azara's demon form, but a bit larger and a slightly deeper shade of red.

"Hi, father," Azara said, after returning to her demon form.

"Azara," he returned. "I heard you've moved to the human realm, and will no longer be a karmic balancer. Is this true?"

"Yes."

They were talking in a language Ivy had never heard before, but for some reason she could understand them.

"Human," Azara's father said, turning to her. "Can you understand what we're saying?"

"Yes."

"So you've been touched by her power then," He returned to Azara. "Does that mean you've taken her for a mate?"

"Yes."

He turned back to Ivy again. "Do you accept this, human?"

Ivy knew she could answer "no" here and be rid of Azara for good, but she didn't want that. Azara was her friend. She wasn't sure about the "wife" and "mate" stuff, but she definitely did enjoy her company and wanted her in her life. As she thought about it she realized she might like Azara more than she would care to admit. "Yes," she finally responded.

Azara and her father both smiled at that.

"Very well, then. Go live in the human realm with this 'Ivy'."

Slender, who had been silent until now, was dumbfounded. "This isn't what we agreed on!"

"We agreed on nothing. You came here complaining about my child and expecting me to control her. Then, after I made you leave, you even went so far as to come back here with her and her mate to as if to prove some kind of point. It's clear you disapprove of their relationship and wish to separate them."

"This is ridiculous! It's a human! And she's not going to balance karma anymore! How is that going to work?!"

"Karmic balancing is only necessary for some races. Our kind feeds off of it, but it is not required. As for the human matter... I admit it is strange, but I see no problem with it. The only problem here is you."

"This is unacceptable! I-" he was cut off as Azara's father cast some kind of magic to force him to leave.

"Well, you two. You are free to go. But come back sometimes, okay?" he said as he turned around and headed deeper into his cave.

Azara returned to her human form. "Well, my mate? Shall we go?" She offered her hand.

"Y-Yeah. I can't believe I went from not even knowing we were married to agreeing to it in the span of a single day," Ivy replied.

"Hehe. I knew you would."

"And how would you know that?"

"I saw your memories, remember? I know you. And I like you. Plus I can tell when you're lying, and you weren't lying when you said "Yes" to being my mate. And I know it's sudden but I can tell you like me too." Azara hugged Ivy and transported them back to their apartment. As soon as they returned home Azara said, "Now show me how to cook! I want good food!"

"Alright. Let's do something simple then since it's your first time cooking. I think we'll have teriyaki chicken and rice tonight."

As Ivy cooked the food, she carefully explained everything to Azara, including things such as how the stove worked as she wasn't familiar with it. They weren't sure yet how far her magically obtained common sense went. Azara studied carefully, and later when they were eating, she had to be taught what all the silverware did. Suddenly, midway through their meal, Azara started laughing.

"What's so funny?" Ivy asked.

A shriek sounded from below, followed by someone storming up the stairwell. Someone started pounding on the door, and Ivy had a pretty good guess as to who it was. Ivy opened the door to find Lily, the other downstairs neighbor staring angrily at them. "How did you do that?" she demanded.

"Do what?"

"Tell her it's none of her business!" Azara said in the background.

"Will someone tell me what's going on exactly?"

"You were rude to my wife this morning so we put a curse on you to scare you, but it rebounded somehow."

"Wait, you cursed us and you're the one who's mad?!"

"It was supposed to work! And how did you find out we're witches? You shouldn't know about that!"

"You want to know?" Azara asked as she got up. "I'm the demon you insulted several months ago." She suddenly returned to her demon form and dashed toward Lily while growling. Lily bolted back down the stairs and slammed the door shut.

"What just happened?" Ivy questioned.

"When we first met, those two so-called 'witches' downstairs first screwed up my summoning, and then they tried to sell your soul, when it wasn't theirs to give, in exchange for a wish. I got mad at them and fake attacked them as a warning just to scare them. Now they were coming at you again just now with a curse."

"They seriously tried to sell my soul?"

"Yeah. It doesn't work that way. You have to give up something of your own."

"Wow. Thank you for defending me."

"Of course. I'll always protect you," Azara said, giving Ivy a peck on the cheek. "Now let's finish eating."

"Y-Yeah," Ivy replied. Azara knew all the buttons to press to make her blush. It wasn't fair. "Let's look at moving out when we're done. I don't want to live by them anymore."

"That's fair. Sure you don't want to punish them somehow?"

"They were attacked by a demon. I think that's heavy enough. Though maybe we should report them to some kind of magical authority if such a thing exists? Mostly I just want to get away from them."

"You're such a nice person to not want revenge on them."

"Not wanting revenge makes me nice? Anyway, I don't think I'm even qualified to take on witches."

"Please, with how powerful I made you, you could take on anyone."

"...That worries me."

"It's just in case I'm not there."

"Okay. I'll trust you."

"It's really nothing to worry about. Now let's look at houses. Not to insult you but it's obvious this place is cheap."

"Yeah, no insult there. I'm incredibly aware of that fact."

They spent the next hour or so browsing places to live that they could afford on two people's salaries. They found a few places that might work and sent out some emails. They were still perusing when the doorbell rang.

Turning on the speaker, an angry voice immediately rang out, "Let me in!"

"Who is it? What's going on?"

"It's Claire! You know, your sister? The one you didn't tell about your wedding?" Ivy unlocked the building door for her and for the second time this night, someone was stomping up the stairs. When she came to the doorway she barged into the apartment and glared at Ivy. She was steamed. "Why didn't you tell me?! Why did you tell anyone?"

"I'm really sorry. It just happened so suddenly! How did you even find out?"

"You know Steven, the guy you work with? He told me. Or did you forget he exists, too?"

"Oh. With everything that's happened this last couple days I completely forgot."

"Why? What happened?"

"Um... I can't-"

"You can tell her about me," Azara interrupted.

"Are you sure? Is that really okay?"

"From what I know of her, I trust her. If things go south, I can fix it."

"This sounds really suspicious," Claire said.

"I understand, but let me explain," Ivy began. "Azara.... She's magic. And we were dating for awhile now, but to officially begin her life she had to change a few things, and one of those changes was a sudden marriage. But that doesn't mean I didn't agree to it."

"Magic. That's what you're going with? And a sudden marriage still doesn't sound like a good thing."

"Claire," Azara called out. "Watch this." Azara turned into her midform. She was now eight feet tall, and had horns, a tail and three eyes. "See? I'm not human. Ivy here helped me out by agreeing to be my wife. But believe me when I say she could have rejected me any time she wanted to, and that she's married to me because she likes me."

"It's the truth," Ivy said.

"So... Magic is real, then. Okay. Okay! Okay, yeah. That's new," Claire muttered to herself. Then she snapped back to reality. "Okay. Start from the beginning."

The three women sat down in the living room. Azara returned to her human form for Claire's comfort. Then Ivy began talking about how her neighbors were witches and wanted a wish granted but screwed it up. Claire laughed when she heard how Azara was basically bought with food at first, and Azara became indignant but couldn't deny it. Ivy also explained that she used to be a man. Claire still accepted Ivy, and realized that even with her altered memories, a lot of things from Ivy's past made a lot more sense now. They left out some of the more demonic details, because they didn't want to worry her too much. People still had a pretty negative view of what demons were, after all. At the end of the story, Claire had one request. "I'd like to make a wish."

"What is it?" Azara asked.

"I want my original memories back."

"What!? Why?" Ivy asked.

"Because I want to know the struggles you went through, Ivy. You're my sister. You always have been and you always will be, but I feel like I won't properly know you and be able to be there for you if I don't have those memories."

"I... Okay. I understand," Ivy said, tearing up slightly.

Claire closed her eyes as the old memories flowed into her head. Azara had granted her wish, consequence-free, of course. When she opened them up again, she said, "Wow. Now I understand why you struggled so much in your childhood. And your depression... All the signs of you being trans were there, but we never noticed. I'm so sorry, Ivy. I really am." She started crying.

Ivy went over and hugged her sister. "Don't be sorry. I mean, even I didn't notice. And had Azara not stepped in, who knows how long I would have been stuck being miserable until I figured myself out. I'm so happy now! And I'm glad you're here. Both of you."

"Don't think I'm not still mad about missing your wedding."

"But we didn't even have one!"

"Then have one! Oh, now I'm excited! I get to be a bridesmaid! Don't you want a wedding?"

"Well... Yeah."

"You're having a real wedding and that's final!"

"Hahaha!" Azara laughed. "I like you, Claire! And yes, Ivy. I agree. Let's have a real human wedding!"

The three stayed up late chatting a bit more and having a couple drinks, but eventually they were all tired. Tomorrow was the weekend, so that meant they didn't have to get up early, but that didn't mean they were going to stay up all night. Claire hadn't planned for this visit so she slept in her clothes on the couch. She woke up in the middle of the night and spied on Ivy and Azara holding each other in their sleep. Ivy was a lot more comfortable this night.

"Cute," Claire whispered in the dark.