Chapter 68: Meeting the Father

Soon the small group of devils were back inside the schools main hall, where Adrian spotted his mother, Isseis' parents, and a man dressed in a black dress shirt, a white suit jacket with gold trim and buttons, white slacks, and dress shoes. He also had a short beard and long hair, noticably red enough to match Rias'.

"Ahoy Issei!" Shouted Isseis' father, waving him over.

"Hey dad," said the Red Dragon.

"I've been looking for you Rias," said the red haired man.

"Hello father," Rias greeted, causing Adrian and a handful of the others to double take.

That man is Rias' father?! He thought to himself, He looks deceptively young The group then approached the group of parents, and Rias father looked directly at the Devil Virus,

"You must be Adrian! I'm Rias' father Zeoticus, but you can simply call me Zeo." He held out a hand to Adrian, offering for a handshake, which Adrian accepted,

"It's an honor," said Adrian, hiding his nervousness.

"Thank you for taking care of my daughter," Zeo said.

"My pleasure," Adrian turned to his mother, "Mom, what's going on?"

"Zeo, Isseis' parents and I all ran into each other in the halls," said Victoria.

"And here we are still talking to each other in the hallway!" Said Isseis' father.

"Thank you for stating the obvious!" Damon muttered sarcastically, shaking his head at the invisible wall.

"You know, if Adrian doesn't mind, we could all go back to his place so we can sit down," suggested Victoria. Zeo raised his eyebrows in surprise,

"His place? Not your place?"

"It's a long story," said Victoria, "And I wouldn't mind telling it on our way their, so long as Adrian doesn't mind." She turned to her son, who simply nods to her,

"Just leave out the unimportant parts this time," he said, giving her the secret keyphrase they came up with numerous times before.

"Then it's settled!" Said Isseis' father, "Should I stop by the liquor store on the way there and get some whiskey?" Zeoticus laughed, giving his approval, while Victoria gave a stutter,

"I-I'm a bit more of a wine drinker myself," she said with a nervous chuckle. As the grownups left, Adrian sighed, while his friends looked to him,

"Are you alright?" Asked Rias.

"I'm fine," answered Adrian, "It's just my mom and whiskey have not mixed well in the past. That's why she said that bit about the wine."

"But what was that about the unimportant parts?" Asked Issei.

"It was a keyphrase me and my mom came up with, meaning 'No telling of the Blacklight in me.' No disrespect Issei, but it seems like your parents would be the type that would scare easy."

"Good point," said Issei in agreement, "Hell, they still don't know about me being a devil or having Ddraig in my arm." Soon the group of devils heard a laugh from the stairs close to them, seeing Sirzechs himself approaching them,

"This's brilliant!"

"Why are you laughing?" Asked Rias suspiciously.

"It looks like we will be having a family get-together with father at Adrians house," said the Devil King. Rias brought a palm to her face while Adrian raised an eyebrow. Issei sighed as well,

"Well since my parents are going to be there I may as well come try to keep them in check, especially since my dad is going to get faced with Rias' dad and Adrians' mom." Damon sported an evil grin,

"Yeah and I'm coming too!" Adrian threw his arms up in disbelief,

"Why are you inviting yourself? Huh? Are you just getting off to this?"

"Oh please, I'd sooner get off to Isseis' statue...which...I actually probably would now that I think about it..." Damon said, thinking as he spoke.

Some time later...

Zeoticus, Sirzechs, Isseis' parents and Victoria were all seated on one side of the dinner table, while Adrian, Rias, Issei, Asia, Katrina, Akeno and Damon were all set on the other end, the table itself was set with a variety of delicious Italian foods, which everyone was grateful for.

"This is splendid!" Said Zeoticus.

"Everything looks delicious," said Sirzechs with a smile.

"Well, my restaurant didn't get as many stars as it did for nothing," Victoria said proudly. Isseis' father then proposed a toast, and the sound of clinking glasses could be heard on the adult side of the table, while the younger side simply quietly watching, except for Damon who was busy stuffing his face with the food made by Victoria.

Before long the adults were seated in the living room, watching the tapes recorded by Isseis' parents, and the Red Dragon himself brought a palm to his face, clearly embarrassed.

"Oh! You also managed to catch Adrian on video!" Said Victoria, almost spilling her wine when she pointed out her son on the shakey camera. Adrian pinched the bridge of his nose, his turn to be embarrassed.

"I have some footage of Rias too once we are done with this one," offered Zeoticus. Isseis' father looked to him with a drunken grin,

"You got video too? Let's see it!" Soon videos were swapped, and an image of Rias sitting at her desk was seen on the screen, followed quickly by her turning to the camera and waving her hand, trying to shoo the camera away.

"It's Rias in class!" Stated Issei.

"No shit," retorted Damon. Zeoticus chuckled, clearly buzzed from the whiskey,

"The way I see it, it's part of a fathers duty to embarrass his daughter at school!"

"Pretty sure it's just a universal thing for parents to embarrass their children at school," said Adrian, trying to keep Rias from moping as much, and clearly failing as she rested her head on her folded hands.

"I feel like I'm in the lowest level of hell right now!" She whined.

"Isn't that sweet," Zeoticus said, looking over to Sirzechs and pointing to the television screen, "Our little Ri-ri is answering the teachers question. Oh and she got it right!"

"'Ri-ri?'" Laughed Damon, looking to his club president and master, "Didn't realize you had a nickname...Ri-ri!" Damon laughed some more, until Rias stood up, unable to bear the humiliation.

"I've had about enough of this! I'll be in my room! Stupid jerks!" She then ran away from the table and everyone around her, while Adrian tried to chase after her,

"Rias wait-!"

"Hold on there sonny!" Adrian felt his hood snagged, forcing him to stop and turn around, seeing Zeoticus had stopped him, "I was needing to talk to you when you had the chance." Adrian sighed, and looked to Damon,

"Did you seriously have to poke fun at Rias' name?" Adrian then saw the bottle of whiskey that Isseis' father purchased was sitting next to the white haired devil, mostly empty. "WERE YOU DRINKING AGAIN?!"

"Bitch please! I never stopped!" Laughed Damon. Adrian then snatched the bottle from Damon, handing it to Zeoticus, and he turned to Issei,

"Will you make sure that idiot doesn't do anything else?" Issei raised his hands,

"What do you want me to do?!" Adrian ignored the question and turned to his remaining friends,

"Asia, Katrina, Akeno, can you three check to make sure Rias is doing okay?" The three girls nodded and ran after Rias. Finally, Adrian turned to Zeoticus, who had passed the whiskey to Isseis' father, "Well, Zeoticus, what would you like to talk about?" Soon Adrian and Rias' father were out in the backyard, so they could talk in private.

"Didn'r realize you had a hot tub," said Zeoticus, gesturing to the in ground hot tub in the far right corner.

"It hasn't been used in a while," said Adrian, "but I trust you didn't want to talk to me about that. What's on your mind?" Zeoticus shook his head,

"Oh nothing really, I'm just curious on a few things. Like for example, what intentions do you have for my daughter?" Adrian paused, and shrugged his shoulders,

"The same any devil has for their master, to protect and serve them however they see fit." Zeoticus nodded his head,

"Nicely put...now what are your real intentions?" Adrian paused, longer than before, until he finally gave up,

"More than anything, I just want to make her happy." Zeoticus smiled,

"Okay, that's all I needed to hear." He then began to walk inside the house, leaving a confused Adrian in his wake,

"Wait, that's it? No 'hurt my daughter, I hurt you' warning?" Zeoticus turned back to Adrian with a smile,

"I saw the rating game you and Rias' house had against Riser, and while some if your tactics were a bit unorthodox, you managed to beat Riser into submission and keep Rias from marrying him. You already proved your worth." He then made his way back inside, passing Rias as she made her way out to Adrian.

"Hey," greeted Adrian, "you okay?"

"I'm fine," said Rias. "How about you? My father didn't try to scare you, did he?"

"Actually, he seemed pretty laid back." Rias sighed in releif,

"Good, because I just got done talking to my brother. He said it's time to release my other bishop..."