"Alright Meil, let's go see our ol' pal Lee already!" Issei urged him to come along.
"I do not mind, but is it not rude to leave the rest of the guests in the house?"
"It's alright, I'm here, so I'll keep them company." Nelly proudly saluted, "I'll make you proud, daddy!"
"Nelly! Call him that one more time...!" I threatened.
"And...?" She tilted her head innocently, "What's wrong, papa? If you want, I can stop calling him that, but then I won't have to call you papa either. That's no good, papa."
Hrngg...! Dammit, stop blackmailing me with affection! Was she always this cunning!? Or no, rather, was I always this easy to manipulate? I don't want her calling Meil that because of the connotations commonly associated with the word, but I also really miss Nelly calling me papa! Heck, even Cene stopped calling me papa in favor of daddy. Wait...
"That's it!" I realized.
"What's up?" Ed asked.
"How did I not realize it before? The answer was right in front of me! Gah, I've such a dirty mind, I didn't even consider the other use for the word!"
That's right! It's only dirty when adults call each other 'daddy' or 'mommy', but when it's kids, then it's only natural! Just like I don't at all find it weird when Cene calls me and Cecily that respectively, I'm sure Meil, the forever naive and innocent man that he is, also doesn't at all think Nelly means it in a dirty way! I'm just overthinking, that's all!
"Err, no. You're way off, Grim." Ed chuckled upon Analyzing me, "You're underestimating this gremlin's sheer determination to get into that guy's pants."
"Who're you calling a gremlin!?" Nelly piped up.
"Wah, who is this guy you are talking about, Edward?" Meil fretted, "And what do his pants have to do with Nelly?"
Just like that, the room went silent, and everyone gave him an annoyed blank stare before Issei just silently dragged him out of the house.
"...Leeeeet's go see Lee."
"H-Hey, Issei! This is serious, if someone is preying on our Nelly, then we have to...!"
"Don't worry about it, dude." Issei reassured him, "I'm sure her uncle and father are doing the best they can to keep her safe."
As they left the room, we were now left to only 5 people in the room. Immediately, even before I could say something to break the ice, Eleanor angrily dragged Othelia into the other room by the wrist, presumably to chew her out for making those jokes. Well, let's hope they were just jokes...
"Sooo..." Nelly teetered on her toes, "You guys like, wanna play Monopoly?"
"Sit the fuck down." Ed ordered, "We ain't leaving this room until we get one thing straight - What are your intentions with our Meil?"
"Shouldn't it be the other way around?" She smirked, but still sat down, "Though I'm glad you're finally taking our relationship seriously."
"Relationship? Ugh, Nelly..." I didn't even know where to begin with this, "Please understand where we're coming from. Meil's the same age as us!"
"I've met people in University with bigger age gaps between them, and they're doing fine!" She slammed the table.
"Like?"
"Let's see, Tracy's 27, but her boyfriend Stan is 45!" She mentioned some people neither of us have ever heard of, "Stacy's 30, and she's happily married to her farmer husband who's 40. Granted, that's only 10 years, but you get the point!"
"Only 10 years, she says..." Ed looked ready to punch a hole straight through the couch, "But alright, let's use your bullshit logic to prove our point still stands. In both cases, these girls (if they even exist in the first place) are both way past the legal age of consent. It's different when both parties are adults, because you don't know their backgrounds."
"Yeah, like what if they got married because they were forced to by their parents or whatever." I shrugged, "They may look happily married, but you never know what goes on behind closed doors."
"Shut up!" She cupped her ears and screamed, "I don't care what you have to say if you're just gonna disapprove of it!"
"That's a rather ignorant way to debate." Ed smiled, "Look, give us 3 good, actually sound arguments on why you and Meil should be allowed to date, and MAYBE... We'll think about it."
"O-Oi, calm down now." I didn't really like his idea.
"No, I'm willing to negotiate if I see she's properly thought this out." He then winked at me.
What the hell is he doing, the idiot? Does he think she has no ammo to play with, or has he genuinely lost his mind and is just too tired to put up with her nonsense? Dammit Ed, you're my lifeline here, so don't go leaving me all alone now!
"Really?" Nelly uncupped her ears with a hopeful smile on her face, "In that case, number one...!"
"Stop!" Ed shouted.
"What now?"
"I just wanted to advise you in advance." He added, "Do think about each answer VERY carefully. I did say I want 3 sound arguments, but that also means if you give even one weak answer, then we're taking you straight back home and banning you from seeing Meil ever again."
"Huh!?" She jumped from her seat, "Y-You never mentioned that!"
"Oho~, I see!" I applauded him, "So that's what you were scheming. Gold star for you, Ed!"
"Heh, told ya'." He dapped me up, "So Nelly, we're not going to rush you. In fact, you don't have a timer at all on this. It can take weeks, months and even years until you properly come up with your answer, so as someone who wishes you all the best, I'm just trying to help you by advising you not to rush it."
"Right on, Ed." I nodded on, "Basically, Nelly - While you CAN just "follow your heart" and answer this very instant, we both warmly suggest you take your time and logically think up the best answer that'd almost guarantee you convince us to allow it. Though, personally, I think it's gonna take a helluva good answer, not to mention a TON of convincing."
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"That's..." She sighed as her shoulders fell, "Alright..."
"Oh, and another thing." Ed raised one final rule, "You can't date Meil until you get our blessings."
"What!?"
"Well duh, that point's obvious." I laughed, "Trust me, you don't want your family to miss your wedding day."
"Uuu, sorry..."
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"Alright, now that that's settled." Ed got up and clapped his hands to adjourn the meeting, "Let's go get some ice cream."
"Eh? Why ice cream all of a sudden?" Nelly looked wary.
"Don't give me that look. I just want some ice cream. It's hot as hell here."
"Oh yeah, now that you mention it..." I checked the slight tanlines under my sleeves, "It's summer right now, but even then it's way hotter here than it is in Centralis City."
"So?" Nelly raised an Eyebrow.
"So - Ice cream!" Ed pointed to the front door.
What's up with him? Because to me it just looks like he used up all his "dad energy" to curb Nelly's romance, so now he's reverted to child Ed. Still, I won't say no to ice cream. Before we walked out of the house and locked the doors, we just made sure Eleanor and Othelia didn't want to come along as well, though they looked like they were just at the beginning stages of their own dispute, so we told them where the keys were if they felt like storming off and promptly left.
"Oh boy, oh boy...!" Ed could hardly keep his excitement in check as we waited in line at a nearby confectionery.
"Bonjour. Que souhaitez-vous commander?" The ice cream lady asked.
"Ah, uhh..." Ed and I froze up.
"Oui, je vais prendre une glace à la fraise. Mon papa aimerait du chocolat et mon oncle de la vanille."
Eh? Is that Nelly's voice? Right, she's been studying here for over a year now, but still... She's gotten so good at speaking Simpletonese.
"There, keep the change." She handed the ice cream lady the money before turning to us, "What? Something on my face?"
"Huh? N-No, just... Wow." Ed was left speechless.
"Yeah, you really are our little polyglot." I praised her, "Wait, that makes 4 languages you're fluent in, right? Next you're gonna tell me you're fluent in the ancient Raamic language as well."
"Sí." She nodded.
"......"
"Bahahah! I'm just kidding, geez!" She almost dropped her ice cream from how much she was laughing at us, "Man, that's Meil's favorite joke, how come you never heard it!?"
"Well excuse us for not spending every waking day with him..." Ed got kind of pouty for being made a laughing stock.
"No, but seriously, the Raamic language is a thousand years old. They were an isolated bunch, not really interacting all too much with the rest of the world, so historians only managed to write down a few simple phrases like Yes and No." Nelly began lecturing us on the topic, "Since they all got killed by the Carmenians, there remain no more living Raamans, and thus no fluent speakers."
"So even Meil's #1 fan in the world doesn't believe he's of Raamic descent?" Ed chuckled.
"Hm? O-Oh, right!" She jolted, "N-No, we don't know that yet, right?! That's why I'm here in the first place, to figure it out!"
She got all jumpy all of a sudden, just like when Ed mentioned the Sun God Ouroboras. Looks like she's chock full of secrets she doesn't want anyone to know, but they don't really seem to make all too much sense for her to know. Well, I guess she IS researching the Raamans in order to help find out Meil's true identity, so maybe she found something truly horrible in her research. Who knows, but I'm not gonna pry too much if she doesn't want us to know.
"You're..." Ed read my mind yet again, "Way too lax with her."
"Stop that, come on." I jokingly punched his shoulder, "I just don't wanna force Nelly into telling me stuff she doesn't feel comfortable sharing."
"Papa?"
"Ed, you too." I warned him, "Let the girl have her privacy. I don't want you to read her mind until she properly tells us everything that's troubling her with her own mouth."
"But what if it's something important?" He asked.
"Then that's all the more reason to let her tell us on her own."
"That's... Thanks, papa." She looked down and smiled, "Ah."
"What's up?"
"Ehe, I just remember that one time we were eating ice cream with mom..." She returned me a devious snicker, "What was it that you made her do again...? Something to do with sticking her tongue out after eating her vanilla ice cream...?"
"H-Hey, that's...!" I blushed defeatedly, "Your papa was young and immature back then, Nelly..."
"Heh, nice." Ed recalled, "I didn't think you had it in you, Grim. Though the real deal's way better to witness than just some vanilla ice cream."
"Ew, uncle!" Nelly laughed, "Papa, tell him off! I don't wanna know, seriously!"
"...Yeah, your mom's way hotter when it's not vanilla..." I gave her a wry smirk after finding out what made her tick.
"Ack, you guys are the worst!" She stormed off, bright Red in the face, "Seriously papa, too much information! Yuck, now I'm imagining you and mom... Eugh!"
"Hey, where you going?" I called out to her half-heartedly, "Man, dunno what her deal is. If she started the conversation, then why's she getting embarrassed all of a sudden?"
"Maybe cause her dad just told her about the time her mother gave him the craziest head known to mankind." Ed shrugged as well.
"Hm, could be." I nodded as I took another lick of my ice cream, "Ah, it fell."