"Wake up big brother! Otherwise I will have to… kiss you!"

The alarm was going off in Issei's room, stirring him from his sleep. Issei lifted his arm up to turn it off and wiped his eyes afterward. He looked over to his side and saw Mash sleeping peacefully next to him. It had been a month since the Fallen Angel incident and everyone was adjusting to their new lives. Asia had gotten used to living in Issei's house, Mash had become more comfortable in their new relationship, and the servants had become accustomed to the town. School had been going good for everyone (besides the usual chaos) and the relationship with the devils had been steadily building. All in all, things had been relatively peaceful. Issei lay in bed for a while longer not wanting to wake Mash up but then there was a knock at the door.

"Issei-san, it's time to get up. Martha-san and Jeanne-san made breakfast." Said Asia through the door.

"I'm up Asia. Give me a minute to get ready. I will be down soon." Issei responded. He heard Asia walk away from his door and felt stirring next to him.

His voice had awakened Mash who was now rubbing her eyes. "*Yawn* Good morning Ritsuka." She said groggily.

Issei smiled at her. "Good morning Mashu. Sleep well?"

Mash smiled at Issei. "Yes, thank you. Sleeping with you feels much better than sleeping alone. It makes me feel safer." She said with a blush.

Issei blushed as well then turned away in embarrassment. "W-we should get ready before Asia comes to get us again. We also don't want our parents teasing us all morning."

""Our" parents?" Mash mimicked. Issei realized what he said and was about to correct himself when he was stopped by Mash. "I never really had parents before. Dr. Romani was a good caretaker but he was never really a father. But now, I have a family. It feels like a dream."

Issei looked at her a moment before bringing her in for a hug. "No matter what happens we will always be your family. My parents already consider you their daughter so you don't need to doubt whether this is a dream or reality." He said, a warm smile on his face.

Mash just continued to embrace him while responding "Yes Senpai." with happy tears flowing from her face.

After their moment the couple got ready and headed down to eat breakfast with the others. The Hyoudou parents started to tease them when they came down together asking them if they had another eventful night. Asia was lost as to what the pair were talking about. After a chaotic breakfast the three went out to school.

Since joining the ORC things at school had become hectic for Issei. All the other students started to freak out the first time he walked to school with the club. "No way! How did Hyoudou get into that club?!" "Rias-senpai, get away from that beast!" "He will taint them with his presence!" "If he does something to them I'll kill him!" It was the usual drama. Issei resolutely ignored the other students as he expected this when he joined. Mash had a dark look on her face from the student's reactions while Asia couldn't understand why everyone was mean to Issei. The members of the ORC knew about Issei's reputation but being in the middle of it was a different experience than watching it from the side. They didn't show it on their faces but they felt sorry for Issei.

His days were spent being haggled by others about how he got into the ORC and trying to get in themselves, he either ignored them or said the Rias decides who gets in or not. After a few weeks the other students more or less gave up but that didn't stop rumors and wild speculation from constantly spreading.

In the meantime, Issei, Mash, and Asia were spending time with the devils and learning more about devil society. The trio accompanied the group with fighting strays and even went on a few devil jobs with them to see how they work. It had been very informative for them and had built up trust between the group little by little. Issei had been paying close attention to Rias to try and figure out what her endgame was and noticed something slightly unexpected.

As time went on he noticed that Rias was becoming more and more stressed. He figured that the work she did kept her busy but he noticed that even when she wasn't working she seemed to be lost in thought about something. He found it slightly amusing watching her face change while she would be thinking to herself and the variety of emotions she would go through. He also noticed that when he or the other two talked to her it was like someone breathed life back into her.

Maybe Asia was right about her having some sort of issue and that's why she wants to recruit us. Issei thought to himself as he sat in the clubroom with the others. He was trying to figure out how to ask her without seeming like he was prying into something that he shouldn't. Suddenly Rias got a call on her phone which was usually the signal for a stray devil sighting.

"Everyone, we have another stray to deal with. Let's take care of this." Rias said stoically. Everyone nodded in agreement and went out to deal with the threat.

I know I said I was gonna wait until I was done with volume 2 to post more but I'm gonna post this to give a better preview of the characters and to address something I've been seeing in the comments. As entertaining as it was to watch four people argue about Rias' personality I'm just going to make this clear now. Rias will be part of the harem, she is not that selfish although I can see where the misunderstanding comes from, and she is currently in a state of desperation because of the engagement meaning she is not going to think clearly about what she is told. Also a lot of the argument against her that I saw was that she was a spoiled rich girl so she doesn't know the meaning of hard work, which I disagree with. I am reading the light novels that correspond with each volume I write and in them they explain pretty clearly that despite being raised with a silver spoon Rias is diligent and trains her self to be better in many aspects like cooking, washing, and cleaning. I think this whole idea of "she's a rich girl so she doesn't know what it means to struggle" is a load of crap. Although I do agree on the point of her relying too heavily on her peerage for fights. I will take that into consideration for the future chapters. Also as for Riser, for those who know that he gets better later on in the series, that only happens after his defeat. If Riser won and never got beat the second time he would not give Rias a chance to do anything. He openly stated that Rias shouldn't be in the human world in the original story so if he won Rias' story would just end. So yeah, not gonna let that happen but how it goes you'll just have to wait and see. ; )