Greed God chapter 232

April 15th 2016 New Jersey, Rosewood, 9:00 AM EDT

The  whole rest of the day was just relaxing, trying to work on my  meditation exercises, sparring with Waylon and Sally (read, kicking  their asses), and by the time the next morning rolled around and it was  time for Amy, Barbie, and I to go, I was feeling much more relaxed.

Well...mostly.  "It's straight already." I groaned in annoyance as my wife unknotted  and reknotted my tie for the fifteenth time. I looked at Barbie. "Can  you tell her that it's straight? Because I agreed to let her pick my  clothes for this because I thought it would calm her down, and it  doesn't seem to be working." We were most of the way to Rosewood in a  limo I'd slapped together and was having Waylon drive. Sadly despite not  having arrived yet, my wife was acting like we were already there.

I'd  had a lot of experiences with Amy. The adorable sex kitten, the  romantic star struck princess, the manipulative politician, but the  version of my wife I hadn't seen was this one. She was nervous as hell. I  wasn't even sure WHY. We were going to a funeral, it wasn't like she  was meeting my parents. I didn't HAVE parents anymore.

Truth  be told I think my resistance was helping her calm down more than  actually going through the motions with this, and I was hamming it up a  little to help, but I was still genuinely perplexed about why she was  taking this so seriously.

Reaching out to catch her hands,  Barbie pulled her away from me. "I hate to agree with him on this." I  mouthed 'what the fuck' at my redhead, which she ignored, and continued.  "But it looks fine. You're looking for reasons to find problems here  Amy. Can you tell us why exactly you're so...worried."

My  wife's amethyst eyes watered as she stared up at us miserably. "It's  just...this is the my first time out here as his wife. I've been trying  my best to be supportive at home. Helping manage his women,  accomplishing tasks, but this...this is my debut as Amaya Lord." She  stared at me beseechingly. "I just don't want to make this worse for  you. But I don't know what my role is in this case. Your feelings about  all this are so confusing, what do you need me to do to make this work?"

I  just stared at her. "THAT'S what has you so flustered?" I reached out  and pulled her against me. "One of the best things about having my  humanity is being able to really appreciate how godsdamned adorable you  are sometimes. Listen. I may care about some people now, but I don't  care about MOST people much at all. I give zero fucks what these  assholes think. Spear them all with constructs and hang garlands on the  bodies if you want, I don't give a shit."

Barbie cleared  her throat. "For the record I very much give a shit if you start  impaling important people and decorating their corpses. Please don't do  that."

"Ok fine." I said, rolling my eyes. "Do whatever  you want EXCEPT for that. My point is, if anyone who meets you doesn't  think I'm a lucky son of a bitch for marrying such a hot piece of ass or  get blown away by your refined manners and brilliant mind, they can  kiss every inch of my hundred foot scaly ass. As cheesy as that shit  sounds, be yourself. Anyone who doesn't like it can eat a bag of dicks."

Amy  stared up at me adoringly. "Oh Nicky, you always know what to say." She  yanked me down by the tie she'd just finished fixing (which actually  needed fixing now) and kissed me soundly. I wasn't sure how telling her  everyone else could eat a dick was romantic, but if it worked for her I  wasn't going to complain.

Barbie cleared her throat, and  when Amy pulled back she rolled her eyes and fished out a wet nap to  wipe our faces, which were now smeared with a shit load of lipstick.  "Anyway, if you two are finished, we're here." She point out the window  of the limo at the sprawling estate. Reaching up to fix my tie for real  this time, she turned to both of us. "Are you ready?" She looked at me  sympathetically. "I know you said you don't care but this will be your  dad's funeral."

"Which has no bearing on whether or not he  stays dead or not." I was personally thinking not, but I hadn't brought  up my promise to Sally to bring back her kids. I'd been considering how  to do it and any proper resurrection method would most likely be A or  even S rank. Considering the pool used for Lilith had operated mostly on  her own power, resurrecting mundane people would be HARDER, not easier.

"You with us Nick?" Barbie asked in concern. She knew me well enough to tell when my brain wandered off into the dark woods.

I  shook my head a bit to clear it. "Sorry. I'm fine. Just thinking.  Anyway yeah, I'm ready. Like I said to Amy. I don't care about any of  these people. I'm here because..." Honestly I couldn't put that into  words. Because he wanted me here? Because it would probably end up being  fun? Both? Neither? "I'm here." I said with finality. "So let's get our  asses inside."

Amy nodded climbing over me to get out and  then taking up position next to the limo offering me an arm. "Alright.  Then let's go inside and take a look around. I want to see your  ancestral home so badly. Do you think your grandmother had pictures of  you as a baby?"

I shrugged. "Probably somewhere. I'm told I was cute. You can let me know what you think if you find any."

She  pouted at me. "You're supposed to be embarrassed at your wife seeing  your baby pictures." I rolled my eyes, still unsure how much of her  information on couples she got from bad romance novels and, based on  that scenario, possibly anime.

Barbie  climbed out and stood at my other side, and I took both their arms. We  followed the path up the winding driveway, gravel crunching as we walked  through the open gates with their black metal roses, through the  sprawling lawn, with the flower maze off in the distance, and past the  fountain in front of the house, before arriving at the door of the  mansion. Amy reached up and rapped on the wood with the rose shaped  knocker, and the door opened to reveal a tall, pale man with dark hair  that was graying at the temples.

His  eyes locked on me, and he smiled wanly. "As I live and breathe. For a  moment I thought Master Maxwell had returned to us anew. You're his  spitting image Master Nicholas." His voice was crisp and british, and I  remembered it even years later.

"Good  to see you Hobbes." I said with a nod. Hobbes had been my grandmother's  butler, and loyal as a hound. My grandfather, Albert Lord, had done  some favor for Hobbes when he was young, and the butler had dedicated  himself to my family after. He'd helped raise my old man, being the only  ally he had in the big house sometimes. "We were told there's a  funeral. I take it you arranged things?"

He  nodded. "Of course. Master Maxwell did so love those roses as a child.  Back when Miss Maxine and he would take walks in the maze. Before we  lost Master Albert." His voice was sad, and it wasn't hard to figure out  why. I was a born bastard, but my dad hadn't been. My grandmother had  been a softer person once too. But losing my grandfather had made her  hard, and she passed that onto her son. Seeing that happen was probably  pretty shitty for someone who cared about all of them.

Stepping  back, he gestured us in, and introduced my girls. "Well, if it helps,  these are my companions. Barbara Gordon and Amaya Lord." I felt Amy  stiffen at that proclamation, and Hobbes' eyes widened in shock. It was  understandable that he would be surprised. I'd never been the romantic  type.

To be  fair, my original agreement to marry Amy was more because I gave no  fucks at all about the concept of marriage and I was literally only  agreeing to sign a meaningless piece of paper. But now...well, I wasn't  head over heels in love with her or any dumb shit like that, but I liked  having her around. I didn't regret my marriage, which was better than  most people did.

Hobbes  bowed low to Amy. "I am...so very pleased to hear that. Welcome to the  family, Miss Amaya. It is good to know Master Nicholas won't be alone."  He glanced at Barbie a bit unsurely, and I had to choke back a smirk  because old men like Hobbes weren't really equipped for a man bringing  his wife and side piece to a funeral together, which was pretty funny.  Eventually he offered a hand. "And you as well Miss Barbara. It means  more than I can say to know Master Nicholas has friends such as  yourself."

That  got a wide smile from Barbie. "You know." She said with amusement. "You  remind me quite a bit of an old friend. Though admittedly you're much  younger."

"I  assure you." Said Hobbes placidly. "I look GOOD for my age. In any case,  you're not the first to arrive." He paused. "There is another early  arrival. A woman named Emma Deropalis. She's Master Maxwell's daughter."  He stared at me heavily. "You have a sister."

"Huh."  I said with interest. "Neat." They all just stared at me, completely  shocked at the lack of fucks I gave for finding out about a random  sibling my dad had hidden from me.

Then  Barbie just burst out laughing. "I have no idea why I expected some  dramatic reaction to that. Do you even care at all?" I just shrugged and  she rolled her eyes. "Fine. Well I'm sure it'll be nice to meet her."  She turned to Hobbes. "Is she around by any chance? It might be nice to  say hello."

"I...I  suppose she is." He said hesitantly. "But you should know. Miss Emma  didn't have the closest relationship with Master Maxwell, but she seems  to have become very attached to him in the short time since she was able  to track him down. She's...quiet upset by this entire ordeal. She may  be slightly...volatile."

I  shrugged. Crazy women with daddy issues weren't exactly new territory  for me. Worst case I could just turn that daddy fixation into a brother  fixation with a bit of effort. I was going to have to deal with her  later anyway, might as well have some fun with it, assuming she was hot.

Hobbes  sighed and led us into another room, where a girl a bit older than me  with short pink hair mostly hidden under a beanie was standing looking  at a picture of my dad with tears streaking her heavily made up face as  she pet a small gray rabbit. I used appraisal without thinking about it.

Appraisal  function activated. Treasure Detected. Emma Deropalis- F ranked  metahuman. A powerful psychic, Emma was raised by her mother, told her  father died of cancer. When her abilities manifested at a young age Emma  began to lose her sense of reality and was admitted to a psych ward,  where her treatments were heavily modified by her father Maxwell to  groom her into a weapon for his son. Due to the unfinished nature of her  conditioning her imprinting was mostly on her father alone, she  distrusts and is wary of her brother, though deep down she wants to get  to know him.

Wow.  Dad was training me a pet psychic. And she was his own daughter. That  was kind of badass. Speaking of ass, Emma had a nice peachy yoga ass  too. Not as hefty as some of my girls, but she had some junk in her  trunk for sure. I paused. Huh, was that a normal person thought to have  about a long lost sister? Oh well, who gave a fuck, it's not like I  wouldn't throw her a bone if the chance came up.

Until  then, I had so programming to try to activate. I stepped up and offered  her a smile. "Excuse me. Are you Emma? I'm your brother, Nick." She  turned to me, wariness in her still watering eyes, and internally I  clicked my tongue. Poor thing. Dad left her all mixed up. It was ok though, her little brother would make sure she was part of the family.  By the time I was done you wouldn't find closer siblings anywhere.