I picked up the book to start reading again, when I heard a knock on the door. I blinked in surprise and put the book back down, yet again.

"Um… come in?" I said unsurely, hoping it was someone I knew.

Thankfully, the door opened to reveal Max's grinning face. He closed the door behind him, looking mischievous, before coming and sitting on the bed with me.

"Hi, Princess! I've got a surprise for you!" he announced in a sing-song voice.

"What?" I asked.

He turned to the door, whistling through his teeth sharply which apparently caused it to open. I blinked in surprise as a head popped through the door, looking slightly annoyed. A body followed the head as a person entered Ivan's room, closing it behind her as she rolled her eyes.

"Don't whistle for me like a dog," she scolded the cheerful Demon. "Stupid sorcerer."

The young girl didn't look much older than I did but she – as was everyone else – dwarfed me and she had a body to die for. She wasn't as thin as me but she was well-curved and could have easily have become a model in the Mortal Realm. Thick, natural golden hair was gathered in a ponytail at the top of her spine and flowed to the bottom of her shoulder blades. A pair of bright blue eyes, the same colour as Max's, stared out from a finely featured face and studied me as I did the same to her.

When her analysis was done, she broke out into a wide grin and my eyes widened with realisation. The blonde hair and blue eyes were a bit of a give away but the smile made it undeniable; she was obviously a relative of Max.

"My gosh, aren't you the cutest little thing!" she squealed, making me jump slightly. "Well aren't you in a predicament? An adorable thing like you stuck in a house with four guys… no, no, that simply will not do."

"Sophie, don't coo over her like she's a puppy or something," Max told her, looking thoroughly embarrassed. "She's not a small child."

"Why not? She's a human which means I bet you she's no older than twenty," Sophie argued, completely ignoring the fact I was still in the room. "There's no way they develop fast enough-"

"Um… who are you?" I managed to pipe up, interrupting her in mid-insult.

The girl blinked before turning to me.

"My name's Sophie," she introduced herself, holding out her hand. "I'm Max's little sister."

"I'm Mia," I replied, cautiously shaking her hand.

Suddenly, she tugged my arm. My eyes flew wide opened as I was pulled clean off the bed and struggled to keep on my feet as I landed next to Sophie. The stronger girl gasped as she tugged me back and forth, examining me with apparent horror.

"My gosh, how can you weigh so little?" she squealed, picking me off the ground as if I was no more than an over-sized feather.

"Leave her alone, Soph," Max scolded her, taking me from Sophie's arms with equal ease. "You're being patronising. Mia's just as capable of thoughts and feelings as any Demon, Angel or any other race. You're insulting her by treating her like she's some kind of new toy."

Max placed me beside him and I looked up to see that he was frowning for the first time since I had met him. He seemed like a different person: far graver and far older as well. For a few moments, I could truly believe that Max wasn't just the cheerful eighteen-year-old he appeared to be.

I turned to Sophie just in time to see surprise flicker across her face before guilt and shame replaced it. I gathered that Max was not often so serious and I was glad of that, this unsmiling Max scared me slightly.

"Sorry," Sophie said, turning to me with a sheepish expression. "Sometimes I can be a little oblivious. You're also the first human I've ever met."

I blinked, a little unsure of what to do. Though her treatment of me had stung, I decided it wasn't wise to hold it against her. Besides, she did seem genuinely sorry. Therefore, I smiled shyly and mumbled that it was okay. She immediately burst out into another smile and hugged me tightly, enough to bruise my arms.

"Oh you're so sweet!" she squealed in my ear. "I know just how to make it up to you; I'll take you shopping tomorrow and get you everything you need."

She pulled away and I could finally see the look of bewilderment on Max's face.

"You mean you're staying?" Max asked.

"Of course I am," Sophie replied, rolling her eyes. "There's no way I'm leaving a fellow female in a house with only men. Even if she were a Demon like us, I'd still stick around to make sure she doesn't get too much harassment from you guys. I thought you would have figured that out for yourself, you are the famous doctor of the family."

Though the sarcasm in Sophie's voice was unmistakable, I still looked to Max in timid curiosity. His cheeks tinged slightly pink as he started to fiddle with the various pouches and vials attached to his belt. Seeing that I wasn't going to get an answer from Max, I glanced at Sophie who sighed.

"Max isn't too great at magic – most Demons can blow up the odd city or two – but he excels at potions so he trained as Doctor, a profession that knows how to heal without using magic," Sophie started to explain. "Most Doctors around here are either Elves or Angels that wanted to further their knowledge in healing. Neither of the races are on particularly friendly terms with we Demons so Max was snapped up by the most prestigious client there is among our race almost immediately. No one needs a Doctor without political obligations like the Demon Prince does."

With every word, Max's blush seemed to grow deeper and deeper until it was more the colour of his actual blood than a shade of pink. Before anything else could happen, the door opened again to reveal Ivan holding a tray. Shock played over his features before he smiled, if a little awkwardly, at the gathering in his room.

"Hey Max, Sophie," he greeted the ones he had not expected. "What are you two doing here?"

"I wanted to introduce Mia to Sophie," Max offered, recovering from his earlier embarrassment. "She says she's going to be staying a while."

"Ah," Ivan replied with an almost mischievous smile forming on his lips. "For how long?"

Sophie simply shrugged. "I hadn't really thought about it but… indefinitely, I suppose."

“I see,” Ivan replied, the smile remaining as he set the tray down beside me. “May I ask why?”

“To look after Mia,” Sophie replied promptly. “She’s going to need another girl around considering how thin on the ground we are.”

The last statement caught my attention. I opened my mouth to say something but I was cut off by Ivan so I stayed quiet. Everyone’s concentration appeared to be centred on the banter between the Angel and Demon so no one noticed my questioning expression and my shyness forced me to let it pass.

“So this has nothing to do with Luciar?” Ivan asked; the mischief I noticed earlier was now blatantly obvious. “Or the Child’s Moon in a few days?”

Suddenly, Sophie went very red and flustered. She opened and closed her mouth repeatedly, grasping at straws in her mind as she tried to formulate a reasonable answer. Eventually she took a deep breath as she apparently found a leg to stand on.

“A-absolutely not,” she denied fervently, although it was fairly obvious she was lying. “I’m simply trying to show a little female solidarity. Being taken to another world is confusing as it is; being surrounded purely by males won’t help the matter.”

As she spoke, Sophie seemed to become more composed and her blush started fade until it was almost completely invisible. Oddly, her voice took on a superior tone as she occupied the moral high-ground, making her sound a little arrogant. She held her head high – her nose pointed up slightly – and pulled her shoulders back, fully correcting her poor posture while she talked.

This caused Max to smile. He was still seated beside me on Ivan’s bed and he lent down so that he was level with my ear.

“You can always tell when Sophie’s lying,” Max whispered. “She starts acting really formal.”

She’s a fairly poor liar anyway, I added silently, nodding nonetheless.

“I am not lying!” she shrilled, her blush returning with renewed vigour.

Max and Ivan started laughing as Sophie continued to protest. Her voice rose higher the longer she argued until the pitch began to aggravate my ears; then, a little suddenly, I could no longer hear her voice at all. However, Max and Ivan laughed all the harder, occasionally saying something which lead me to believe that they could still hear her voice.

Max got up, still laughing, and pushed Sophie out of the room. His little sister kicked and thrashed but Max seemed accustomed to it and simply fended off the blows with minimal effort.

“Come on, sis,” he said as he led Sophie out of the room. “Time to calm down.”

With a final push, he removed his sister from the room and turned cheerfully to Ivan and me who, unlike Max, had ceased to laugh at Sophie’s misfortune… whatever the misfortune was. I hadn’t quite figured that out yet.

“I’ll see you two later,” Max said as he too left the room.

The lively Demon shut the door behind him, leaving Ivan and me to sit in silence for a few moments. The silence grew awkward so I looked down to the food on the tray to find some simple ham sandwiches. I smiled at the normalcy and ate it all without any complaint even though I felt a little full by the end. All the while, we never spoke a word and the silence began to feel uncomfortable again.

“W-what…” my voice trailed off as I struggled to gain the courage to speak.

I looked to Ivan who now watched me expectantly. I turned my eyes back to the bed sheet and fiddled with a lock of my hair as I tried to figure out what I wanted to say. Eventually, I resorted to the only half coherent question I could come up with.

“What just happened?” I mumbled, not even sure if Ivan could hear me.

“Ah.”

I raised my head to see Ivan come and joined me on the bed like he had when he was explaining my new ‘situation’. I peered at him from underneath my short fringe saw the same smile on Ivan’s face as when he’d first started talking to Sophie. He shuffled around, making himself comfortable, before finally speaking.

“This could take some explaining,” Ivan responded.