Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A/N: So I've been sitting on this one for most of two months now, and I'm super nervous to post it because it'll be my first longform fic in over 10 years XD But it's gonna be a WHILE before Season 3 drops, and even though we get shorts, I just want to know what happens to our silly little demon family next. So I made my own and when Spindle finally drops the real thing, I can see what I got right, and where I was trippin' on Delulu Sawce lmao

Gonna be a little slower posting this one, seeing as it's going to be a full-on multi-chapter story fic with an arc and everything(!!), and it'll take me a bit to edit and write each new installment. Probably going to do a weekly, Sunday update schedule, we'll see what Life decides lol

As usual, comments, concrits and feedback always welcome <3

ARCHIVE WARNINGS WILL CHANGE!! So if you're not gonna wanna read canon-typical descriptions of violence, explicit, on-the-page NSWF scenes, and more, this one might not be for you. Don't worry- I'll put all the CW/TWs for heavy stuff at the beginning of every chapter update :) We protecc in this house.

CW: We're comin' in hot this time; Explicit, on-the-page sex, dirty talk, office sex and Stolitz being adorable AF :) NSWF

Chapter One: Set the Stage

Help

That was all it said. A single word, no other context, messaged at 2:13am from-

Blitz squinted down at his phone. Who the fuck was Illiterate Strega? He narrowed his eyes and looked up across his office at the tall, stylishly casual owl prince sitting sprawled across a chair, book in hand, apparently absorbed in Flaming Hearts, another one of the stupid romance novels he loved so much. He had one knee casually, oh-so-deliberately propped up against the front of the desk, and Blitz could read the mischief in the action better than he could any book or text.

He grinned and Stolas’s top eyes met Blitz’s, a slow, impish smirk on the delicate features that Blitz hated to have to ruin. That smile meant his prince was about to say something filthy, and Blitz felt his jeans shrinking at the mere thought of what it might be, but the single word from the strange number had him more than curious.

He was worried, because what if-

“Darling, if you want a kiss all you have to do is sit in my lap.” Stolas invited in the soft, singsongy tease he knew Blitz liked best. “I’ve kept your spot warm for you.”

Blitz shook his head to clear it, eyes dreamy and full of all the love he carried for Stolas, forgetting the urgency of the text for a minute as he simply stared at his warm, happy prince in his new lavender dress shirt, the topmost buttons undone so that his glorious chest fluff could fall gracefully down over the slender front of the rest of him. Stolas had matched the shirt with his tight, cream-couloured fall slacks and his bare feet, leaving no obstacles between the curve of his calf and the beautiful line of his fabric-covered thighs.

The dark grey jacket that went with the outfit was slung carelessly over the back of the chair Stolas occupied, and Blitz couldn’t help but think how the coat would be the perfect cushion against his bird’s back if he climbed over this desk right now and got in between that single raised leg to-

No he told himself firmly. No, we have bigger shit to think about right now!

“Blitz?” Stolas asked with worry in his tones now. “Love, are you alright? Have I said something wrong? Are you with me?”

The knee came down from the desk as Stolas quickly tossed his book to the desktop, scattering a few stray bills in the process, and Blitz startled at how fucking fast his prince could be. It still took him by surprise, even after an entire year of watching Stolas go from a hollowed-out shell to this vibrant, determined man who told Blitz what he wanted in no uncertain terms, and got his hands dirty when the toilet backed up last summer, and learned to cook in less time than it had taken Blitz to teach him the three recipes he’d known.

The damn bird had gone to the public library for Satan’s sake. Checked out cookbooks, and theory books, and shit Blitz didn’t even wanna think about because of all the ten-dollar words n’ bullshit technical terms for things like ‘pan’ and ‘hot stove’. He’d watched Stolas rig an open book to the front of a kitchen cabinet with some rope, one of Loona’s elastic hair wraps and a dishcloth, and hovered anxiously as his prince cracked the first egg he’d ever held into a medium-heat pan and began to work.

The dish had been noodles of some kind, which Blitz didn’t even know you could put eggs in, but Stolas had insisted it was fancy and that Blitz would love it, so Blitz had eaten it with enthusiastic praise even though it had too much salt, and some of the cheese was disgusting, and anything called carburetor couldn’t be edible food anyway. Stolas had smiled so anxiously at him when he’d asked if he’d done a good job, his own plate of eggless cheesy noodles in front of him, and Blitz had given an enthusiastic thumbs-up even though he was barely choking down the weird dish.

“Blitz?” Stolas prompted again, this time from directly in front of him, and Blitz jumped a little as he realized he’d been drifting off into his own thoughts.

“That’s why they call it carburetor!” he blurted before he could think. “Cause it tastes like licking the inside of an engine!”

Stolas gave him a flat, suspicious scowl that warned Blitz his prince was about to put him in the bad time-out. “You said you liked my carbonara.” he accused. “The ‘best you ever had’, wasn’t it?”

Blitz waved his hands frantically in a vain hope of clearing his words out of the room. “It was!” he cried with the widest grin he could conjure plastered to his face. “I loved your weird egg n’ cheese thing! I-I was thinkin’ of something else, I swear!”

Stolas crossed his arms and hitched one hip up over the edge of the office desk. “Do tell.” he said with an edge to his words that told Blitz he’d stepped in shit this time and there was nothing he could do about it.

Unless…

Blitz pulled himself up to his full height in his chair, managing to just barely brush the underside of his bird’s chin with the very edges of his horns. “You’re so cute when you’re mad at me.” he said winningly. “Lemme kiss that pout, huh?”

He slid a firm, seeking hand up across Stolas’s chest and buried it in the soft feathers, letting the tips of his clawed fingers drag up the line of Stolas’s clothed body and watching his prince shiver despite himself at the feel of the imp’s touch.

“Only because I’ve spent the last hour waiting for you to notice I had my knee up on your desk for a reason.” Stolas relented. “Come here, you ridiculous idiot.”

Blitz smirked, unreasonably pleased with himself now that he’d deftly hauled his own ass out of the fire and convinced his prince to share delicious kisses with him, and leapt up out of his chair to balance a knee against the desk, pulling himself up high enough that Stolas could lean down and meet him halfway. His prince obliged with a fond, exasperated smile and bowed his head to press his lips to Blitz’s mouth in a low, slow kiss that made the imp melt into him even as one big, careful hand snuck up behind Stolas’s head to draw the owl prince in closer.  

“Mmhmm, that’s what I was thinkin’.” Blitz murmured against Stolas’s mouth on his. “Like a little sugar with my afternoon coffee.”

“You don’t have any coffee, Blitz.” Stolas laughed into their next kiss. “You broke the machine yesterday trying to cook ramen in the pot, remember?”

Blitz’s eyes darkened, and he smirked up against his prince’s mouth. “And by ‘coffee’, I obviously mean-”

His phone vibrated in his pocket, and Blitz swore as he remembered the strange text and the single word it had contained. He broke off the kiss Stolas was desperately trying to deepen, pulling an irritated little hoot from his prince as he turned his head away in favor of checking his phone.

“Come back here!” Stolas whined, grabbing for Blitz’s shirtfront even as the imp tossed him a fond, loving smirk back over one shoulder and kept an infuriatingly strong hand pressed into Stolas’s chest to keep the owl prince at bay. “Let me have my kisses, Blitz!”

“Babe you know I’d never tell my bird no, but I gotta take this” Blitz tried to reason, one hand fumbling at the cellphone he’d pulled out, the other trying to manage Stolas while Blitz firmly and sternly ignored the way all this struggling and wiggling did things to him that usually ended with both of them naked and satisfied on Blitz’s couch back home.

“You’re telling me ‘no’ right now!” Stolas wheedled, reaching one long arm up and around Blitz’s smaller form to creep a hand up along his imp’s chest. “Over a phone call? Who could be more important than me, willing to slide across this desk and slip a hand right down the front of those jeans…”

Blitz froze, heat instantly flooding him as Stolas did what he offered and slid himself along the edge of Blitz’s work desk, uncaring that the office door was half-open, focused only on getting to his imp, the soft, heart-shaped face flushed with pink desire as all four red eyes went dark and-

“Nah, you’re right.” Blitz relented, tossing the phone out onto his desktop and pulling his big bird closer. “What the hell was I thinking? C’mere, beautiful. Moxx and Mills aren’t here yet and Loonie’s out at the store. We can get a quick one in.”

Stolas slid his arms up around Blitz’s back as his imp slotted himself nicely in between Stolas’s spread knees and angled his face up to catch the kisses Stolas began to rain down on his imp. “It better not be quick. Make it linger.”

Before he could think, Stolas felt Blitz moving, heard the heavy, eerily precise whump of his book hitting the door squarely above the metal knob, sending the cheap wooden door slamming shut with the sort of finality that sent a thrill of anticipation right through Stolas’s entire body as Blitz raised himself up to the very tips of his toes and dragged his chest directly along the insides of Stolas’s thighs.

“Whatever my baby wants.” Blitz breathed against the underside of his chin, and Stolas absolutely melted, every thought in his head consumed by Blitz and the feel of his imp’s clever hands all over him. “Lean back, pretty bird. Lemme get you started with a quick bite.”

Stolas laughed out loud as Blitz punctuated his stupid joke with a gentle, mischievous nip at his collarbone, and Stolas obediently leaned himself back against the hardwood of the desk and slid himself forward with both knees opened wide for his little lover.

Blitz growled low, hooking a bottom drawer in his desk open with one deft foot and using the drawer as a step stool, bringing his hips almost level with Stolas’s as he pressed kisses to Stolas’s chin and cheeks and neckline. He dragged his sharp little teeth over his prince’s jawline, pulling a reedy groan from Stolas, who slid lower over the lip of the desk and braced himself on one elbow as his free arm wrapped up around Blitz’s lower back and lifted a little, coaxing his imp closer even as Blitz stayed exactly where he was, slipping and sliding his chest against Stolas’s, driving his prince absolutely wild with sharp, pointed kisses and nips at his exposed skin.

Blitz slid a hand down, towards Stolas’s waist and began to creep it up and under the neatly tucked-in line of the lavender dress shirt, and Stolas stopped him, breaking off a kiss with a breathless whine and guiding his imp’s hand back up to the buttons at his chest.

“This is my favourite work shirt, Blitz.” he panted, the words tumbling out all in a rush. “Be careful, it’s made of delicate material.”

Blitz laughed, leaning in closer as Stolas hooked a leg under his office chair and rolled it closer to give Blitz a higher point to straddle and help his imp close the height difference between them. Blitz took the wordless command and deftly sprang to one side, landing with one leg up on the chair and the other one bent at the knee over Stolas’s thigh.

“Mister Preen can’t have a li’l wrinkle in his fancy clothes, huh?” Blitz smirked with a wicked gleam in his dark eyes. “Let’s get it off slow then, hm? Nice and slow.”

He punctuated his words with a teasing, torturously casual glide of his entire body up along the soft, silky cotton of the dress shirt, grin widening as Stolas noticed the rock-hard front of his jeans sliding up his thigh. Stolas lost himself in the feel of his imp, raised both hands up to grab at his horns, and Blitz deftly caught his prince at the shoulders and behind his head to keep the bird from slamming backwards into the desk as gravity did its job.

“Lay back, beautiful.” Blitz instructed. “Put your head down and open wide for Daddy. I’m doin’ all the work today.”

“For a change of pace.” Stolas teased, letting Blitz move them both until he was flat against the messy paperwork all over the desk.

Stolas reached up as Blitz leaned in, raking the wicked curve of his beak up along Blitz’s jaw, ending at the nape of his neck and burying his face there, breathing in the smell of his imp, of gunpowder and spices and hot sauce and flowers.

The flowers were because of Stolas, and the way they shared showers often enough that Blitz couldn’t help but smell of lavender and peonies under his own duskier scents, but somehow knowing his lover was covered so completely by their union that even his clothes and skin had Stolas’s claim on them made it all the more endearing. Hotter and sexier, and so achingly romantic that Stolas had never encountered the idea in any of his cheesy romance novels or hellanovellas.

The novelty of it was intoxicating, and he kept his face buried in Blitz’s neck for the time it took his imp to begin thumbing open delicate buttons and gingerly pulling his shirt open, stopping only when he got to the firm line of tapered feathers that led the last few inches to Stolas’s waistband.

“You want it all, or you want my mouth?” Blitz asked as he crept his way back up the line of Stolas’s body with kisses. “We only got time for one or the other unless you wanna play sexy chicken and see who makes it first; Us, or one of the crew.”

Stolas blushed deeper, his heart racing, his breathing coming in hard and fast as he was sharply reminded that this was a working office and the others could arrive at any moment. He lay there too flustered to think for a slow handful of seconds, then Blitz shifted his hips against his thigh and everything including basic modesty flew right out the window.

“Ride me hard, cowboy.” he demanded, eyes dark and focused on Blitz’s cocky smirk. “Show me that wild mustang love.”

Even Blitz made a face at the ridiculous line, laughing warmly as he slid his hands down through the open front of Stolas's prized shirt and expertly handled the last three buttons, spreading the fabric open beneath his prince like a blanket before trailing his hand to the zippered pants without hesitation.

“We’ve gotta get you some better dirty talk, pretty bird.” Blitz laughed. “Good thing I ain’t too picky.”

His hands teased at the zipper, feigned pulling the metal tie down and Stolas watched hungrily as Blitz moved. The four wide, wine-dark eyes narrowed as Blitz whispered his claws up and over the neat little button right at Stolas’s hipline and utterly ignored it.

“Blitz…” Stolas warned in a low growl.

Blitz smirked up at him and slid both hands up either side of Stolas’s naked sides. “Gotta keep that shirt clean, don’t we?” he breathed in a low purr that rumbled all the way through Stolas’s chest and across his stomach. “C’mere beautiful. Gimme an arm.”

He picked up Stolas’s still-sleeved elbow with one hand, and slipped a gentle hand up under the prince’s inner arm through the open end of the sleeve. Stolas let Blitz move him without resistance, the feel of his imp’s hot, careful hands along the most sensitive areas of his body sending him absolutely aflame with arousal.

“Nice n’ easy, baby.” Blitz coaxed, tugging ever-so-gently at Stolas’s arm in an effort to extract it from the flowing sleeve. “Take all the time you need, I got you. Daddy’s here.”

Stolas allowed his imp to believe he was wholly in charge for as long as it took to languidly, maddeningly, achingly slowly extract his left arm from his shirtsleeve, then swiftly wrapped his free arm up around the small of Blitz’s back and jerked his forearm hard against the sturdy work shirt.

The movement forced the imp forward, making Blitz stumble just a little as his soft, submissive prince changed his mind mid-scene and took them firmly into mutual exchange territory. Blitz let himself tumble expertly down exactly between Stolas’s spread legs, the knee that had been braced across his prince’s thigh sliding over the old desktop and allowing Blitz to press all of his appreciation directly up against Stolas’s thigh while the rest of him landed with a gentle pressure and a cheeky little flick of his hips right over Stolas’s most sensitive area.

“Thought you wanted it slow n’ good?” Blitz teased. “Change your mind once I got my hands on you, pretty bird?”

Stolas drew Blitz’s eyes up to meet his across the fluffy rise of Stolas’s chest feathers between them. “I said make it last, not make me beg.”

Blitz grinned like a wolf at him. “What if I want both?” he challenged, his body moving in a teasing, easy motion over Stolas’s.

Blitz’s thigh was rocking right up against the still-clothed softness between his prince’s legs, and Stolas was beginning to breathe hard, cheeks pinking as Blitz kept his eyes on his prince’s and continued to do nothing more than hold on at Stolas’s sides.

“I’d have to be quite firm with you.” Stolas panted as Blitz flicked his hips and electric heat absolutely raced up his spine into every feather on his body. “Blitz, please! At least get these pants off me!”

“See? That so hard?” Blitz smirked as he moved one hand down the front of Stolas’s body and under his. “Ask me nicer, maybe I’ll give you what you want.”

Stolas swore, his eyes flashed wicked glee for a second, then he hooked both thumbs up under the cute little suspenders Blitz had on over his old work button-up. His imp sucked in a hard gasp, growling low as Stolas’s smirk widened and he drew out the act of sliding his hands up the line of the suspenders towards Blitz’s shoulders.

“Please, Blitzy?” Stolas singsonged with a pout in his voice and a coy catch of his lower lip aimed directly at Blitz’s wide amber eyes. “I know you want it. Take it, lover. Take everything. I’m yours.”

“Oh fuck…” Blitz breathed as he felt his heart begin to hammer and his vision blurring out. “Stols, y-you can’t-”

“I can’t what, Blitzy?” Stolas asked entirely too innocently, hands sliding first one suspender strap, then the other down across Blitz’s broad shoulders. “I can’t persuade you to take me right here, on this desk? Get you to do the job?”

Blitz felt himself beginning to sweat as Stolas slowly stripped him, getting the suspenders out of the way before moving to deftly thumb open the three buttons on his shirt Stolas had access to without Blitz having to separate their bodies at all.

“Stols, I-I’m not gonna make it.” Blitz breathed against the prince’s naked chest, face dipping down into the soft feathers and kisses tumbling from Blitz’s lips as he pinned his bird’s hand up under his chest. “I’m not gonna make it if you keep talking to me like that…”

Stolas’s grin widened further, and he gave his hips a single, commanding flick upwards into that delicious hardness pressed into his leg and Blitz’s thigh just brushing up between his open legs.

“Take your pants off for me, I’ll help you finish the job.” he purred. “Then you can reward me for a job well done, hm?”

Blitz stared for a moment, seemingly stalled out in the middle of moving his hand down towards the top of Stolas’s grey work pants, then growled low in his throat and rolled them both against the desk. Stolas yelped, taken utterly off-guard as his long, elegant tail swept some small, heavy object off the desk and it landed noisily on the office floor.

“Blitz!” he cried out as Blitz faced him and dropped one hand to free the button on Stolas’s pants at last. “Blitzy, yes!”

“Good boy.” Blitz panted as he thumbed open the fancy zipper and slid his hand right down the front of his prince’s pants. “Say my name. I wanna hear you scream.”

Stolas began to writhe and arch his hips up into the expert hand working him, and he fumbled to grab hold of Blitz’s belt without seeing what he was doing. “H-Help me, Blitz- Please!” he begged. “I need you, Daddy. I need you buried inside me!”

Blitz’s signature cocky smirk moved in as the imp drew his prince closer with his free hand and stretched up to kiss the open mouth. “Hold it.” Blitz commanded fiercely. “You come when I let you, right babe? Ain’t that what you like?”

Stolas nodded frantically, eyes gone practically midnight red with raw need. “Y-Yessir…” he agreed instantly. “When you let me, yes.”

Blitz nodded into another deep, hungry kiss between them. “And when I say the pants come off, they will.” he went on between hard little nips at his prince’s lower lip. “I tell you, don’t I, beautiful? Daddy’s in charge, isn’t he?”

Stolas nodded again, squirming and struggling to keep his attention on Blitz’s voice rather than the feel of those unholy fingers tracing pure lightning into his sensitive skin, rolling the little bundle of his most sensitive parts, hanging Stolas on the absolute edges of release the way only Blitz could ever give-

The hand withdrew, and Stolas almost whined his objection into Blitz’s mouth as the imp broke off their latest kiss and began to kiss down along Stolas’s neckline.

“Blitz!” Stolas howled in dismay. “Get back here! I was almost there, you complete motherfucker!”

Blitz laughed as he slid in closer to his bird and wriggled his hand up and under Stolas’s hip to move the soft grey pants completely out of his way. “Mmhm, talk nice to me baby bird. Show me who’s a good boy. Who’s my pretty bird?”

“It better be me.” Stolas shot back petulantly, the words only catching twice as Blitz slipped his pants down to his knees and moved in even closer. “Nobody else can have my sexy little Blitzy.”

Blitz smirked like a hunter up at him. “All yours, beautiful.” he confirmed a little breathlessly. “Come take my belt off. Or don’t you want this gorgeous cock inside you?”

“Yes please.” Stolas responded so quickly that Blitz couldn’t help but laugh. “Start the end for me, I need help.”

Blitz shook his head and took Stolas’s hand up in his. “Work for your reward, Stols. Nothin’ comes free in this world, especially not the boss.”

“But I thought I was your favourite employee?” Stolas teased back, moving Blitz’s hand with his down to the offending belt. “Am I not your top performer anymore?”

“Fuck you’re so hot right now.” Blitz groaned, almost breaking character but not quite. “Right here on my desk n’ all…”

Blitz let Stolas move his own hand over the belt buckle at his waist, using a thumb to pull the end of the belt out from its loops for his prince. Stolas grasped the end of the belt and tugged it once, firmly and deftly, and Blitz moaned into his prince’s chest as the action tightened his jeans up against the painful hardness of his rockhard cock.

“Stolas!” he gasped as the stupid bird shook with a wicked laugh, undid the belt and went straight for the button and zipper.

“Don’t be so mean next time.” Stolas chided loftily. “Making me see absolute galaxies and stopping me right on the edge like that.” He kissed his imp soundly, slid the zipper on the jeans down and slipped a seeking hand down under the tented boxers to cup his imp’s ass. “You complete and utter asshole.”

Blitz mirrored his prince and grabbed a handful of both feathered thighs in either hand, pulling their bodies closer as Stolas ground his hips up to meet Blitz’s. “If I’m such an asshole, maybe I’ll leave you like this.” Blitz mused in a clear bluff. “Let you spend the rest of this day wound up and frustrated, huh? What about that?”

Stolas moved like lightning and curled one long, strong leg up over Blitz’s calf, jerking the imp nearly flush against his naked body and tightened his grip on Blitz’s cock in his hand. Not enough to be painful, not enough to push his imp too close to the ending Blitz was so damn good at delaying.

But just enough. Enough to tease and command, and tell- not ask- for what he wanted.

Blitz nearly went boneless, his entire body arching up into Stolas’s chest, sliding over the lanky front, pressing his mostly-clothed hips up to meet his prince’s freely offered body.

“S-Stolas!” Blitz spat like a curse even as his hands grabbed at the owl prince’s hips and tried to line them up more perfectly. “Fuck me! You can’t do that! I-I’m gonna-”

“Going to tell me you’re sorry?” Stolas asked sweetly, his hand down Blitz’s pants everything but. “Going to be nicer to me because I’m your delicate flower and you’re my tender keeper?”

Blitz growled low and deep, the feel of his imp’s voice vibrating through Stolas like waves of pure agony as the prince struggled to hold still and keep his haughty, bratty mask on. Blitz’s hands snapped from Stolas’s hips to his own, wrenching down his jeans and boxers in one half-feral movement that expertly used Stolas’s hand around him as foreplay, pulling the throbbing cock straight through the long fingers and slamming it back into Stolas’s palm as Blitz finally shed the last of his clothes and fixed hard, hungry amber eyes on his prince.

“Oh I’ll keep you alright.” Blitz swore in a throaty whisper. “Keep you begging and squirming ‘til I tell you to stop. Gonna keep you breathless so you can’t talk back at me, princess. How’s that for delicate flower?”

“Make me scream, Daddy.” Stolas smirked. “Make this whole damn building hear me call your name.”

And Blitz wasted no time doing exactly what his bratty prince asked him for.

Chapter Text

A/N: Early update because I’m an impatient motherfucker :p After the first chapter being mostly shameless Stoliz love, we finally get the real story started! 

Mobile posting, so as usual if you see shitty formatting- No you didn’t XD I’ll fix it in post! 

Comments, feedback and general impressions always welcome in the comments! Updated tags Soon(tm)

TW: Brief panic, mention of blood

Chapter 2: Spill

It was after all had been said and done- twice, Blitz smirked to himself- and Stolas was splayed out across Blitz’s desk, hips pinned under Blitz’s knees on either side of him, the imp draped across his prince’s chest, both of them heaving for breath.

“Go again?” Blitz asked in a low, exhausted growl that did things to Stolas, who was so spun out he wasn’t sure he was responding with actual words anymore.

“Oh my Lucifer, no.” Stolas managed even as he tugged Blitz upwards by the armpits and kissed the cocky little grin on his imp’s stupid face. “What if someone sees us?”

“Door’s closed.” Blitz reminded him. “We could do anything in here and nobody but the office across from us needs to know.”

Stolas frowned, recovering a fraction as the ghost of conscious thought began to float back to him. “What do you mean, ‘the office across from us’?”

Blitz used one big hand on his prince’s cheek to turn the soft, flushed face to the right, where the huge picture window looking out onto Imp City stood uncovered and quietly transparent, allowing anyone from any neighboring building an unobstructed view of the occupants in Blitz’s office if they had the right angle.

“Oh for fuck’s sake!” Stolas cried indignantly, pushing Blitz down across his chest with one hand squarely planted atop the hard, stubborn head. “You couldn’t tell me before I let you bend me over the desk and have me like one of your stupid horse fantasies?”

Blitz kissed his way down through the fluffy chest feathers in front of him, slipping himself down Stolas’s naked chest to just above his stomach while his claws trailed themselves ever so smoothly down Stolas’s sides. His prince shivered, the red eyes flashed wanting, and Blitz’s smirk turned impish and fiery.

“You gave ‘em a great performance, beautiful. Real top-notch work for Employee of the Month.” he teased as Stolas sat himself up on his elbows and tried to keep up an annoyed scowl as Blitz continued to press kisses and light, delicious touches up along the length of him. “Made me look bad with how perfect you are compared to me, that’s for sure.”

Stolas felt his body responding almost against his own will, Blitz’s open legs pressing every measure of his appreciation right into one of Stolas’s thighs and brushing up along the part between them whenever his imp moved closer to the edge of the desk.

“Hurry up and get off!” Stolas snapped even as he heard his own voice tremble with arousal. “I want my pants back on! Honestly, how could you be so shameless?”

Blitz raised his head to look up at his prince and cocked an eyebrow. “First day knowin’ me, pretty bird?” he asked with a sexy little smirk on his face that had Stolas melting right there. “I’m a born performer, baby. If you wanted this to be a private show, you woulda made me close the blinds sooner. You’re too smart not to know I have ‘em.”

Stolas blushed at the catch. He knew his quick, observant little lover was right, that he’d registered the open blinds, the potential to be caught here, naked and tangled up with Blitz just like he saw in his romance novels and Blitz’s good gods awful horse serials, but part of him was still sheltered. Still tied up in courtly appearances, and proper behaviour, and Stolas was more put off at his own remaining hangups than with Blitz honestly not giving two shits who saw him- or them- doing what, public or private.

He frowned, momentarily at war with himself, and within seconds Blitz’s hand was on his cheek, gentle and inquiring, all traces of play gone from the golden eyes as his imp looked guilty and worried beside him.

“Stols, I-I was screwin’ around.” Blitz started in a rushed, anxious blur of words. “I thought you were flirting, I didn’t know it was serious. I-I’m s-”

Stolas grabbed his imp by the back of both horns, pulled Blitz up and over his hip and back on top of his chest, his mouth locked over Blitz’s in a hungry, passionate kiss.

“Mm, teach me stage presence, my impish little love.” he purred against Blitz’s teeth. “I was flirting. I don’t care if all of Hell sees- Let them see what only I can touch.”

Blitz grinned into their next kiss, Stolas hooked one knee up under his perfect lover’s ass and-

The fucking phone rang. The shrill, unmistakeable sound of the office phone demanding attention beside them pierced straight through Stolas’s sensitive ears, and Blitz reached a casual hand out to answer it without a second thought.

“I.M.P- What‘s your fuckin’ problem?” he said into the receiver, and Stolas felt his eyes widen as Blitz slipped his other hand down along one side of Stolas and began to creep it up and over the curve of his thigh.

“Yeah, we do the killin’.” Blitz answered whoever was on the phone. “Do it for cash though, no freebies. What kinda job is it?”

The hand trailing up along Stolas’s thigh slid over the curve, dipped down between Blitz’s open legs, a hot, seeking thumb asking Stolas for permission with a slow, tender slide over the barely parted legs, ending at the top of Stolas’s most sensitive parts. Stolas shocked himself by dropping his knees open, widening the gap Blitz’s hand was paused over, and as soon as he had, Blitz wasted no time sliding clever fingers straight down the line.

Stolas gasped and squirmed, the thrill of having to stay quiet igniting a fire in him he’d never known was there before. Blitz grinned wickedly during a pause in conversation, and quirked an eyebrow at him in clear warning.

Stay quiet, good boy.

Stolas felt his entire body go absolutely molten, and he rolled his hips down into Blitz’s working hand. His imp never missed a step as he talked pricing with the client and the hand warming his prince up shifted to real work.

Blitz’s fingers slid and rolled, claws trailing ever so perfectly along the outer edges of Stolas’s slick, ready body, and before Blitz had gotten to his usual ‘cash up front or we’ll find you!’ spiel with the client, Stolas was bucking up under the strong hips and panting hard.

“Blitz!” Stolas hissed in a strangled plea. “Blitz, I can’t- Blitz!”

Blitz’s smirk widened, his fingers stayed where they were, buried inside his bird, curling up against the clenching muscles and soft body around them, and Stolas thrashed under him, all four eyes dark and needy as Blitz kept his voice even and professional on the call and rolled his naked hips up along Stolas’s hot, perfect body beneath him.

He was rock-hard, pinned down across his prince with just enough room between them to let his hand keep working the soaking wet body in front of him. Blitz pulled the receiver up and away from his ear while the client talked about some shit he didn’t give two fucks about, and held the phone up as high as he could while he leaned in close to Stolas’s cheek and whispered into his ear.

“Keep quiet, good boy. Daddy won’t give you the finish if you scream.” he warned. “Lemme know if you need help with that.”

Blitz snapped his hips up along the lanky body, dragging his beautiful cock up and along Stolas’s stomach, and Stolas whimpered hard against his firmly clenched teeth. The hand was still working between his legs, fingers absolutely devastating him as the heat of the scene clouded his senses faster than anything else they’d done so far had, and Blitz licked a wicked stripe down the side of his neck as he seamlessly hooked the phone’s receiver up under his ear and kept it there with his shoulder as one big hand slid up across Stolas’s mouth to keep him quiet.

“Yeah, yeah- We do family rates.” Blitz was telling the client, sounding perfectly unruffled even as Stolas panted and pulled for breath as Blitz began to work him with a thumb across the button of hypersensitive nerves between his legs. “Yeah? What’d he do?”

The client kept talking, the call seemed to last years as Stolas writhed and moaned into Blitz’s careful hand across his mouth. Blitz slid his cock up against his stomach, Stolas whined as the sinful hands inside him found the perfect spot, and Stolas felt his entire body trembling with blissful agony as Blitz shook his head in front of him in a silent command to hold it.

“I-I can’t…” Stolas mumbled into his lover’s hand. “Blitz, I-”

His imp ground his hips down one last, fatal time and the feeling of Blitz’s release soaking through his feathers pushed Stolas right over the edge as his imp rolled his thumb just so over the bundle of nerves and the shameless fingers curled one last, rough time inside of him.

“Blitzy yes!” Stolas cried hoarsely, struggling to keep his voice quiet and low as instructed. “Yes! Oh Satan- Yes!”

The hand over his mouth tightened just enough to make Stolas’s eyes go darker than they already had, and Stolas lashed forward and bit the scarred hand with his sharp raptor’s beak, and above him Blitz tensed as the wicked curve cut into the side of his hand.

Stolas’s eyes widened as soon as he tasted the black blood he’d accidentally drawn and he jerked his head to one side, worried guilt plain on his expressive face, but before Stolas could start berating himself or apologizing about it, Blitz was pressing a tender, reassuring kiss to his cheek, the curve of his beak, and Stolas relaxed as his imp made sure he saw the smile Blitz saved only for his prince before Blitz sat himself up and took his hand back from Stolas’s face.

“So yeah. Come down tomorrow, we’ll kill ‘em good n’ dead.” Blitz said into the receiver, casually pulling his hand back up from between Stolas’s legs and wiping it carelessly against his own naked thigh. “Cash up front, ‘cause I only get fucked by hot owl secretaries.”

A pause while Blitz listened, then his imp made a face like he’d just eaten live maggots and pulled the phone back to yell down the end of it.

“You’re a depraved degenerate!” Blitz shot back hotly. “Fuck you- Take the offer or don’t! I don’t have an ex-wife suing me for millions ‘cause you fucked the pool boy! I have a boyfriend who loves me, fuck you unkindly!”

He slammed the phone down into its cradle, and Stolas watched his fiery little imp fuming for a few seconds, a barely-hidden smile on his flushed pink face, then Blitz turned back to him with a self-satisfied smirk on his cocky face.

“Did you like that, princess?” he asked as if his bitten hand wasn’t bleeding all over the invoices scattered across the desk. “Was Daddy good to you?”

Stolas nodded, still a little breathless beneath his imp, and moved to sit himself up. Blitz wriggled back to make room, leaning in to brace a hand behind his prince in case Stolas needed it, and they shuffled awkwardly for a minute as they both repositioned themselves on the desk.

“I bit you…” Stolas said with consternation in his wide eyes. “You’re bleeding, darling.”

Blitz lifted a casual shoulder and brought the hand up to wipe it on the tail of his work shirt. “I’ve had worse.” he shrugged easily. “Bite harder next time, beautiful. You know Daddy likes it rough rough.” He grinned up at Stolas and the owl prince shivered. “You won’t break me.”

Stolas’s eyes locked on Blitz’s, the smirk on his soft, heart-shaped features absolutely a challenge. Blitz returned the look with an answering lift of his chin and a grin that showed off his sharp little teeth and the mischief setting his eyes aglow. Stolas moved in closer to kiss him, anticipation already in his eyes, but just as their lips met, the loud, obvious sound of the main office door being unlocked and opened sounded, and Stolas practically shoved Blitz back and away.

“Put your clothes on!” he hissed in alarm. “There’s a client outside!”

Blitz frowned, trying to remember who the fuck he’d told to come by before official operating hours, then caught Millie’s voice telling someone he assumed was Moxxie to hurry up, and he rolled his eyes as he quickly located his pants and hopped directly into them without bothering to find his boxers first.

“I’ll buy you time, pretty bird.” Blitz called hastily as he buttoned his old work shirt at a pace that told Stolas the imp had done this a few times before. “It’s just M n’ M comin’ in early, I can stall ‘em.”

Stolas nodded, eyes wide even as he rushed to pull his own clothes back on and almost caught his own feathers in the zipper of his pants in his haste to not be caught naked in the office. Again.

“Get out there! Hurry up!” Stolas snapped impatiently. “This fucking button won’t work!”

Blitz gave him an absolutely filthy grin as he tucked the last corner of his shirt into his belt and put a hand on the office door. “Leave it open, princess. I might need the access when I get back.”

And without giving Stolas enough time to properly glare at him, Blitz was out the door and in the main office reception. He closed the door to his office with a quick flip of one hand, shielding his prince from anyone who might have been in the hallway beyond the open office front door, and frowned as he saw Millie, but not Moxxie, and Loona moving through the small space.

“Mills?” he called in confusion “Where’s Moxx? Are you two okay? You’re never more than ten feet away from each other.”

Millie sucked in an exasperated gasp and rolled her eyes. “We lost one of Maya’s blankets.” she explained with an irritated edge in her voice. “We can’t get her to sleep without it, it’s her favourite.”

“I’m just here because I got home and everyone was gone.” Loona supplied as she bent to look under her desk for the blanket. “Figured we were gettin’ an early start, so I came here.”

“Think maybe I left the blanket in your office?” Millie asked as she searched the office couch and came up empty. “I know it ain’t in the break room, there’s nothin’ there but chairs n’ that old table.”

“What about the meeting room?“ Blitz suggested a little too quickly. “You go in there a lot to feed her, right? The blanket’s probably in there. I didn’t see a blanket in my office, I was just in there, and-”

The door to his office opened behind him, Stolas stepped out, fully dressed and looking immaculate again, a tiny mint-green blanket that looked handknit dangling from one hand.

“This one, Millie?” he asked a little breathlessly. “She loves the green one, I remember. Or did you mean her purple one from the day you brought her home?”

Millie swore and rushed over to the prince, relief in her too-bright eyes as she pulled the blanket out of Stolas’s hands and sighed with absolute relief. “Yeah, this one.” she confirmed with gratitude in her every word. “We’ve been up all night with her. She’s so upset. Moxxie’s about to fall over dead, I swear…”

“Shall I come back with you and help?” Stolas offered at once. “Give you two some time to recover while I look after our little impling?”

Millie smiled at him and waved a tired hand between them. “We gotta learn to do this on our own sometime.” she said in a tone that told Stolas no amount of arguing or gentle reassurance that parenthood was a community thing could change her mind. “We’ll be okay.”

“It’s no trouble you know.” Stolas tried anyway. “I’ve missed having a baby around, they’re so sweet and uncomplicated compared to teenagers!”

“Oh for fuck sake, Stols.” Millie groaned. “She’s gonna be little forever. Don’t tell me that now!”

Stolas hooted a laugh and gave her a fancy little bow in the direction of the break room. “Can I make you a cup of tea before you have to go back? Spend a moment here, in the quiet before you go home to your husband and screaming child?”

Millie nodded, the exhaustion on her face plain for anyone to see, and Blitz knew then this parenting shit must really be kicking her ass. Millie never let anyone see her vulnerable or struggling, let alone a room full of her closest friends.

“Bring the little killer here.” Blitz suggested, carefully avoiding Loona’s extremely pointed look as Stolas turned to follow Millie into the break room for coffee and the untucked back of the owl’s shirt gave away their previous activities. “This’s a family business- We can handle a li’l family time at the office.”

Millie gave him a deadpan look, and paused mid-step. “Blitz. We sell murder here. Clients come in all the time. You really think I want my little girl here with Satan knows who walkin’ in n’ out all day?”  

“You let Moxxie around her all the time, and he’s so scared of babies he almost dropped her the last time I saw you guys.” Blitz shrugged as if his thing were way worse than exposing an infant to a company full of assassins. “She’d be safer here.”

Millie pinched the bridge of her nose and inhaled deeply. “Stols? Can you explain it to him? I’m too fuckin’ tired for this today.”

Stolas laughed and put a supportive hand up around Millie’s shoulders. “Ignore him, Millie. I love that man, but Satan knows he’s a complete idiot sometimes. Talk to me about Maya instead- Has she sat up unassisted yet? She’s about the right age for it, I remember when Via was small-”

Their voices faded back into the break room, and Loona rounded on her father.

“You two were totally fucking in the office.” she said bluntly. “Satan fuckin’ dammit, Blitz.”

Blitz gave her a completely believable look of shocked innocence. “What? Of course we weren’t! How could you-”

“His shirt’s not tucked all the way in. Do you think I’m stupid, Dad?” Loona said flatly. “Your buttons aren’t even done right, dumbass. The only reason Millie didn’t say shit about it is because she’s too distracted with the baby.”

Blitz looked down at himself and realized every third button on his shirt had been skipped, buttoned obliviously into the hole for the next button and leaving him looking like he’d dressed in the dark after a long night out at the bar.

“Well, fuck me. Thought I did a better job than that.” Blitz admitted with a laugh. “Least I got my belt on right this time.”

“This time?” Loona demanded. “Dad! I don’t wanna know! We’re buying bleach for the office, and you’re gonna pay for it!”

“Fair enough Loonie-Toonie.” Blitz said with a casual wave of one hand in her direction. “Pick us up some coffees while you’re out, mkay? I’m thirsty as fuck after workin’ so hard in there. Grab Stols his flowery whatever tea shit too- You know the one. It’s like, purple, and it costs way too much for ten seconds of liquid. Tastes like if candy was sad?”

Loona rolled her eyes, but marked the request down in the notes app on her phone anyway. “Yeah, whatever. Millie needs someone to walk her home anyway- I don’t trust her judgement right now. Not until she gets another couple hours of sleep in her.”

Blitz nodded as he fixed the last button on his work shirt and carefully checked his zipper was actually up this time. “Yeah, that tracks. Take as much time as she needs, you’re gettin’ paid anyway. Bring Moxxie something frappa-cappa double expresso. Sounds like he’s gonna need it.”  

Loona nodded shortly. “On it. I think they’re out of milk too. Y’know, for formula n’ shit. I’ll get them some groceries once I get Millie home.”

Blitz nodded enthusiastically and darted over to Loona’s desk. He rifled briefly through the locked bottom drawer that pulled open with no resistance for him, fished out a credit card and walked it over to his daughter. “On the company. We’ll call it a ‘business expense’ and get it all back come tax time.”

Blitz grinned up at her like the idiot he was, and Loona sighed, smiling fondly down at the imp she called ‘Dad’ as she took the card. “We’re gonna need to run that by Stols before we get ourselves rounded up by guys in hooded cloaks again, but I like where your head’s at.”

“What are we running by Stolas?” asked the owl prince himself as he stepped out of the break room and back into the main office with Millie in tow. “I’ve already told you Blitz- No more horse magazines! You’re cut off at sixteen subscriptions, and that’s final!”

“But how am I supposed to stay caught up with stable trends!” Blitz argued automatically. “I just need one more! I swear, I’m done after one m-” He shook his head as he caught himself being led down the wrong trail exactly like Buttercup the palomino did in Horse Adventures 7: Long Road Rodeo. “Wait! We’re not even talkin’ about horses this time! Fuck! I had a tax question, but not now.”

Stolas blinked out at him suspiciously. “You? Had a… Tax question?”

Stolas tried not to laugh as he said it, and Loona stepped in neatly between them to keep Blitz from saying anything further. Millie would never take their help if she thought it was charity. Wrathian pride was one thing, but Mama Wrathian pride was… Flammable and Loona could count at least six knives on the little imp assassin that made her not want to test if Millie’s hormones had settled or not.

“Anyway!” Loona cut in sharply. “We gotta get you home, don’t we?” she asked Millie. “Moxxie needs that blanket, and Maya needs feeding in an hour, doesn’t she?”

Millie looked like she’d rather be doing anything else, but she nodded once in Loona’s direction. “Guess so. I heard somethin’ about coffee on the way? I’m gonna need three to handle my two babies at home.”

Stolas laughed behind her, Loona smiled knowingly and Blitz grinned out at them all like he couldn’t believe this was his life, and Stolas tucked the question of whether or not his imp actually believed he was allowed to have a family for later.

“Go on dear.” Stolas said, giving Millie a quick, reassuring squeeze of one shoulder and exchanging soft, encouraging looks with the imp as she took a step towards Loona and the office door. “Call if you need us. We’ll come running, I promise.”

Millie nodded as if she’d be caught dead calling anyone for help about her own fucking kid, but her huge gold eyes were soft and grateful as she looked up at Stolas and smiled. “Thanks for listenin’.” She said a little more quietly, just for him to hear. “I needed that.”

Stolas’s smile widened and he moved to hug her, but stopped himself at the last second. Maybe they weren’t close enough for him to offer Millie physical shows of affection like this. Maybe the depth of their bond existed only in Stolas’s imagination. He always was prone to flights of fantasy, but they had usually involved Blitz and not strictly friendly interactions like this. Maybe he/ was the one who needed to be asked if he believed he was allowed family? It would make sense to feel undeserving after…

Stolas felt his chin trembling, his eyes burning almost without his awareness, and before he could move to cover his anxious backslide, Millie’s arms were around his waist and the imp was leaning up against his side.

“Hey, big bird. You’re okay.” she reassured him. “I don’t mind a hug if it’s from you.”

“I- Yes.” Stolas stammered awkwardly, slipping his arms down around Millie’s shoulders and returning the hug. “Of course. I…”

Millie jerked a thumb back over her shoulder at Blitz. “Now him- He’s not allowed to hug me unless I can see his hands.” Millie smirked as Blitz threw her a casual middle finger and grinned back at her like the asshole he was.

“It was one fuckin’ time!” he groused good-naturedly. “I told you not to slide your hands up my back like that- What the fuck did you expect?”

Stolas giggled as he immediately caught on to what had happened, and gave Millie a sympathetic look. “It’s disconcerting how easily he can go from normal conversation to horny teenager, isn’t it?”

Millie rolled her eyes as Loona made a disgusted face and pinned her ears back against her head in self-defense. “You shoulda seen him before he had you, mister. Couldn’t hardly get near ‘im without anglin’ my body and keeping our hands up. It was twice as bad for Moxx.”

Stolas turned to his imp with a raised eyebrow. “Oh? Should I be worried?”

Blitz sucked in a huge, annoyed sigh and rolled his eyes so far back into his head Stolas had the brief, nonsensical idea they might get stuck backwards like that.

 “Of course you don’t!” Blitz said like he was the most put-upon being in hell. “Moxxie’s dogshit compared to you, pretty bird! I mean he’s hot, and I’d still totally do him-” Blitz held up a hand in Millie’s direction as she smiled tolerantly at her best friend and waited to see where Blitz took this. “No offense Mills. He’s your baby daddy now, I don’t homewreck.”

Blitz looked out across the room at Stolas, then corrected himself. “Not unless I’m savin’ owl princes from piece of shit bitches who don’t treat him like the treasure he is.”

Stolas looked both hopelessly in love and completely exasperated by his imp, and Millie was laughing the longer Blitz kept talking, and Blitz balled both hands up into fists by his sides, frustrated at how shit he was with words. He darted across the handful of feet separating him from his prince, and grabbed the bird by the waist, dipping him so suddenly Stolas let out a high-pitched squeal of surprise as he suddenly felt the ground rushing towards the back of his head.

“Blitz! What the fuck- Oh!” Stolas yelped as Blitz’s hand slid up behind his neck and the bright, mischievous golden eyes flashed into Stolas’s line of sight. 

Blitz pulled his bird down into a hard, possessive kiss, and Stolas melted almost instantly, the memories of what they’d just been doing in Blitz’s office rising hard and fast as Stolas wrapped one long leg up behind Blitz’s knees and leaned up into his imp’s mouth with an appreciative sound of encouragement.

The office dropped away from them, time ceased to exist, nothing mattered but Blitz in his arms and the feel of his imp pressed up right along the center line of his body, and Stolas grabbed up at one of Blitz’s horns as he felt the imp dipping them lower, shifting them down towards the office floor, and the vague sense that they shouldn’t do this here registered somewhere in the back of Stolas’s mind.

“Dad! Fuck sake! I don’t wanna see this!” Loona’s hard bark of a shout slashed through the haze of arousal Stolas had been losing himself in, and he instantly jumped back and away from Blitz, completely forgetting that the only thing holding him upright was his imp’s arm at his lower back.

“Stols, no!” Blitz’s shout came too late, and Stolas managed to wriggle himself right out of his imp’s embrace, directly into thin air.

Stolas hit the office floor with a hard, messy smack as his shoulder dropped roughly onto the hardwood, landing right on his ass even as Blitz scrambled to grab hold of him and soften the landing. All the imp managed was overbalancing, and Blitz landed heavily across Stolas’s lap, one elbow slamming down directly into Stolas’s stomach and efficiently ending any feelings of fondness Stolas might have had lingering for his stupid, ridiculous imp.

“Fucking ow, Blitz!” Stolas gasped even as he caught the smaller body as the rest of Blitz’s weight tumbled down across his legs and tangled them together. “Get your elbow out of my guts!”

“Not my elbow I wanna get up in those guts.” Blitz grunted even as he struggled to sit himself up and check on his bird.

Stolas rolled his eyes and gave him an exasperated groan, shoving Blitz off him and onto the floor. “Darling, your daughter is right there.” Stolas reminded him. “At least make an attempt to be reasonable.”

“Yeah Dad-” Loona threw in with a scowl at her father, but not her Bird Dad. “Bad enough we had to walk in on you two post whatever the fuck goes on in here when you guys are left alone for five fuckin’ minutes. I don’t need a live replay.”

Blitz made to reach for his phone to make a terrible off-colour joke about needing props to do a ‘live replay’, and frowned as he dipped a hand into his pocket and came up empty. “Shit- Where the hell’s my phone?” he demanded into the room full of confused faces. “I can’t find it!”

Loona rolled her eyes at her dad and looked over the two idiots tangled on the floor towards Millie. “This is gonna get dumber the longer we stand here.” she said in her usual bored tones. “Let’s get your kid her blanket. I’m buying the coffees.”

“Satan’s shriveled balls I need it.” Millie agreed, following Loona out the front door without further prompting. “Feels like I could close my eyes for the next thirty years today.”

The good-natured back-and-forth followed the pair down the hall, cutting off as the I.M.P office door snapped shut on its hinge, and Blitz stayed down on all fours, patting at the floorboards even as Stolas finally pulled himself to his feet and turned to help his imp.

“Are you sure you didn’t leave it in the office?” Stolas asked as Blitz muttered darkly about this being his sixth phone in two weeks and needing it to live. “I remember you having it right before we-”

Blitz waved a hand at him. “Yeah, right before we got naked n’ nasty all over that invoicing shit. Probably ruined half the stack after you got done squirming, princess.”

He bounced up onto his heels as if he were boneless, and Stolas smiled as he watched his imp showing off his circus roots without so much as a blink in the direction of how difficult it was to keep a body balanced like Blitz could do without thinking, and Blitz looked up at his bird expectantly.

“Come help me look?” he wheedled with a winning smile on his cocky face. “I promise to make it worth your while when I get you home tonight…”

“After that phone call you took earlier, I think I owe you this one.” Stolas smirked back. “Lucifer’s wings, I’ve never done anything like that before.”

He leaned in over Blitz’s shoulder as his imp took a step towards his office in search of his phone. “We should do it again sometime.” Stolas purred into his imp’s ear. “I’ll be better at keeping quiet if we practice.”

Blitz shivered deliciously as his prince’s voice sent a hard thrill of anticipation straight down his back and into the tip of his tail. “I’m gonna sign up for every telemarketer.” he vowed as Stolas straightened up and made damn sure to brush that long, beautiful tail of his against Blitz’s side as he passed the smaller body into the office.

“It has to be a real client or the mood won’t be right, you complete nuisance.” Stolas teased fondly. “Listening to you be so professional while I was on my back under you, and your hands were…” Stolas closed his eyes as a dreamy little smile took over his face. “The only thing better is that thing you do with your belt at home.”

Blitz paused in the act of rounding his desk to look for his phone. “Which one?” he smirked. “The one where I use it to keep you in line, or the other thing, where I hook your wrists to your ankles and ride you rodeo style?”

Stolas shivered and braced a hand against the edge of the desk to steady his trembling knees. “Blitzy, please! If you keep teasing me like this, we’ll never get through the work day!”

Blitz snaked himself back around the desk and slipped up his prince’s front, taking advantage of the half-bent position to bring his face closer to Stolas’s. “Who said I want to?” he purred like silk and honey and deep, dark caramel all rolled into one. “C’mere beautiful, lemme give you a solid raise.”

Blitz raised himself up onto the absolute tips of his toes, brushing his lips up against his bird’s in a silent request for consent, and Stolas returned the kiss with interest. Their arms came up around each other’s shoulders, one of Blitz’s hands came up to cradle the back of Stolas’s head the way he always did, and Stolas picked his imp up. One strong arm hooked up under Blitz’s ass, lifting his little lover effortlessly up onto the edge of the huge desk in front of them, and Blitz took the added closeness of the motion as permission to deepen the kiss.

Stolas sighed into the open mouth, tilting his head to one side to get as much of Blitz as he could even as his imp nipped up at the sides of his mouth, and Stolas giggled appreciatively. The owl prince slid a foot backwards to leverage himself more comfortably, and the side of his foot hit something small and solid. Stolas frowned, the foreign sensation distracting him long enough to make him break off the kiss to look down at what he’d almost stepped on.

Blitz whined and tried to bring him back for more kisses, but Stolas laughed and shook his head at his ridiculous imp. “Darling you know I’d love nothing more than to spend all day, everyday tangled up with you, but I think we should at least pretend to clean up in here before the others come back. We do have a job to think about, after all.”

“Fuck ‘em.” Blitz said with absolute conviction, pulling at his prince’s fancy dress shirt and trying to cute his way back into Stolas’s arms. “I want my bird mouth back. You taste like flowers n’ honey.”

Stolas rolled his eyes at him. “I taste like gas station coffee and a blueberry muffin.” he corrected. “We ran out of the house so quickly, I couldn’t even get breakfast down me.”

Blitz threw up his hands in exasperation. “The bus only comes every half hour!” he repeated for the sixth time that morning. “We lent the van to Moxxie because of the stupid baby! Satan’s taint, you’d think after half a year you’d be used to being poor like us already!”

Stolas’s eyes flashed pain for half a second, and Blitz was instantly apologetic.

“Baby, no-” he apologized quickly, taking Stolas’s hands in his as they slid down from his shoulders in defeat. “Look, I’m sorry. That was a shit thing to say. I was kidding pretty bird- I didn’t mean-”

Stolas pulled in a heavy sigh and shook his head. “No, it’s alright.” he said after a moment or two when he wasn’t sure if he was about to cry or not. “I know you were teasing, darling. I-I think my meds are taking longer to work today is all.” He offered Blitz a small, shaky smile that softened his features and made Blitz slip down off the desk and slot himself up against Stolas. “It’s just a bit of a rough day, you didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Yeah, well, I’m sorry anyway.” Blitz said softly, gently, every word full of the need to take whatever pain Stolas felt and throw it directly into the sun. “I love you, okay pretty bird? No matter what. I never wanna be the reason you’re crying.”

The sound of Blitz’s protective, determined drive to keep the whole world away from his pretty bird so nothing could ever hurt him, or even make him vaguely uncomfortable, drew a  genuine smile out of Stolas, and he wrapped his imp up in both arms.

“I love you too, my beautiful Blitz.” he said softly. “So damned much. You’re the light of my life, and I will never, ever forget that you are.”

He kissed the birthmark dead center on Blitz’s forehead, and Blitz smiled up at him, nuzzling into Stolas’s stomach with his chin laid flat against his bird’s waist. The wide, honest golden eyes stared up at Stolas with naked adoration, and Stolas giggled like a schoolboy at the sight.

“What did I ever do to deserve you?” he murmured, brushing one hand back along the length of one of Blitz’s horns. “What could possibly be wrong when I have this face waiting for me anytime I need a pick-me-up.”

“I’d pick you up any day, big bird.” Blitz grinned like the idiot Stolas had fallen head over heels for that first night all those years ago. “Take you home, light some candles. Get your pants off…”

Stolas giggled again, the sound less innocent this time as a faint pink blush spread across the bridge of his nose and Blitz dropped one hand down to squeeze his ass.

“Talk real fancy to you, convince you to take /my pants off and let me get the heavy belts out…” Blitz went on with a filthy purr in his voice and an even dirtier smirk on his face. “Let me treat you right n’ rough the way you like it…”

“Blitz! Stop it, you shameless idiot!” Stolas laughed. “We cannot start another round of office sex, we just got caught as it is!”

Blitz lifted a shoulder and let Stolas move back a half-step now he had his bird laughing again. “I don’t care who knows it- I fuck like a champ. If you’re the shy one all of a sudden, that’s a different story.”

“You’re completely stupid, do you know that?” Stolas chided fondly. “Look for your phone, you terror. We have paperwork to clean up and invoices to balance.”

Blitz sighed as if the world were on his shoulders and rolled his eyes tolerantly. “Alright, fine. I’ll do my job, but only if you come sit on my lap while I sort paperwork later. Only way I’ll actually do it instead of makin’ Moxxie deal with it.”

“That’s reasonable.” Stolas conceded, sharp eyes sweeping the floor around him as Blitz went back to the other side of the desk to resume his search. “I- Oh! Here it is.”

Blitz peered up over top of his desk and saw his phone sitting by one of Stolas’s giant bird feet, facedown and forgotten. “Well fuck me, how the hell did it get down there?”

“I’ll get it.” Stolas offered with a smile. “I probably threw it down there when you-”

Blitz smirked in a self-satisfied way at him and lifted a casual shoulder. “Yeah, I remember. I’ve been known to make a bird squeal now and again. Bend over real slow so Daddy can watch, okay?”

Stolas rolled his eyes at his ridiculous imp. “We /just finished having cheeky office sex and you’re already hungry for more?”

Blitz rounded the desk and watched appreciatively as Stolas bent- quickly and without any particular sensuality to the movement- to retrieve Blitz’s phone and hand it back to the imp. He slid both arms around his prince’s hips as Stolas turned towards him, and gave his prince his coyest, filthiest look.

“Baby, when I look at you all I ever see is the love of my life, and I can’t keep my hands off that.” Blitz purred.

Stolas blushed a pretty, soft pink, his white, heart-shaped face full of fondness and both pairs of eyes dark with both love and lust for this stupid little creature who shamelessly loved him and never cared who knew it.

“Blitzy, be reasonable.” Stolas giggled even as he slipped his own arms up around his imp’s shoulders. “The others will be back any moment now!”

Blitz stepped in closer, his phone held between one of his own big hands and Stolas’s as he tangled his fingers in his prince’s. “I got a lock on my office door for a reason, and it ain’t ‘cause I give a shit about client privacy.”

Stolas shivered despite himself, already leaning in to meet the seeking mouth with his own, but before they could touch again, the loud, obnoxious ringtone of Moxxie calling on Blitz’s cell shattered the moment and Blitz swore viciously as he tore his phone away from Stolas’s hands and whirled away from his prince with a frustrated, annoyed growl.

“Fucking what, Moxx?” Blitz demanded loudly, phone pressed to one ear. “I was about to climb Stols like a real tall horse here!”

Blitz’s eyes went wide, his entire demeanor shifting from pent-up annoyance to sober seriousness in seconds, and Stolas leaned in to try and overhear what he could of the call without speaking. Moxxie’s urgent, rapid voice on the other end of the line said something too muffled for Stolas to hear, and Blitz nodded once as if the other imp could see him doing it.

“Okay. Okayokayokayokay-” Blitz answered all in a rush, his tones professional and serious now. “Moxx, get Millie and the baby-Get your asses over here. Call Loonie, bring what you need and-” Blitz glanced up at Stolas briefly, tried and failed to hide the action with one hand running up over a horn in a familiar self-soothing gesture. “A-and the other stuff. We’ll figure it out when you get here. It’ll be okay, Moxx, I swear, okay? We’re gonna figure it out.”

Blitz hung up the phone, and Stolas put a hand on one of the imp’s cheeks in gentle inquiry. “Love? Talk to me, tell me what’s going on.”

Blitz shook his head, pulled the hand off his cheek so, so gently and kissed the back of it before letting it slip out from between his fingers. “Stols…” he said quietly, distractedly. “Stolas, I…”

Blitz began to pace the room, back and forth in front of his comically overlarge desk, golden eyes dark with worry, hands running over and over his horns one at a time, trading sides whenever he turned to walk back the way he’d come.

“Stols, I…” Blitz started, then stopped again, and Stolas slid himself down into the chair in front of Blitz’s desk to wait for his imp to gather himself. “I…Shit, how the fuck do I- What the fuck d-”

He shook his head, tail lashing behind him as he turned on his heel again and kept himself moving, thinking. Running plans and possibilities, thinking about every angle, every hidden corner, every danger, everything that Moxxie’s words had boiled up inside of Blitz’s quick mind.

He had to tell Stolas. He couldn’t let fuckin’ Moxxie be the one to tell his prince. He had to grab his tiny red balls and imp up, tell his beautiful, unsuspecting prince-

“Blitz?” Stolas’s worried voice cut into his whirling thoughts. “Darling, please talk to me. You’re scaring me. I want to help, whatever it is. I can help you, just tell me what you need.”

Blitz felt his breathing quickening, his heart hammering in his chest. He stopped moving, closed his eyes, tried to steady himself for what he was about to do. He felt a soft, feathered hand slip under one cheek, and he almost screamed at how unfair this whole fuckin’ thing was. How much he hated having to dump this pile of new, terrifying shit all over his freshly-healed boyfriend who was still so broken up about-

“Blitz? Blitz, can you hear me? Are you with me?” Stolas asked in a clear, anxious tone. “Darling, breathe with me. Easy now, one, two, three…”

Fuck! And now his stupid bird thought he was having a panic attack! That Blitz was the one spiraling, about to fall apart on him. Which made sense, he guessed, since he hadn’t said two fuckin’ words to the owl for more than ten minutes now, and the pacing, and the-

Blitz shook his head hard and heard Stolas let out a muffled fuck! as one of Blitz’s horns clipped him in the side of the head. Blitz winced and looked up at his irritated-looking prince knelt down on the old carpet beside him so they could be eye-to-eye.

“Fuck, shit! Sorry, Stols!” Blitz apologized with a hurried little kiss to Stolas’s temple. “Didn’t see you move in so close. I was lost in my own head for minute there.”

“I could see that.” Stolas shot back with a petulant little bite in his words. “That hard head of yours is going to kill me one of these days.”

Tears welled up in Blitz’s eyes at the flip little comment, and Stolas moved to pull his imp close.

“Blitz, love- Please, talk to me!” Stolas pleaded. “Please, whatever it is, it can’t be more than the both of us. I can handle it, I promise you.”

Blitz began to tremble minutely, pulled his phone out of one pocket. He clicked the little thing to life, toggled the messages over to the mystery sender from this morning, and swallowed hard.

“Stols, what’s a strega?” he asked quietly, slowly.

Chapter Text

A/N: Back early because I'll be in the sky on Update Day this time! So, y'all may have noticed we kicked this story off with some fluffy, sexy dessert before I start on the main course.

That's because I'm going to Hurt these boys, and it could possibly be awhile before I stop :P As always, No Beta, We Die Like Men.

PAY ATTENTION TO THE TAGS MOVING FORWARDS! I cannot stress that enough- I'll do my best to add all the relevant ones, and as always TW/CWs go before the chapter starts :)

As always, comments, concrit and so forth welcome! Let me hear y'all if you have Opinions or emojis lol

** Magick is NOT a typo. There's a difference.

TW: A full-blown, extended panic attack is described and shown, with on-the-page dissociation and severe distress. Baby in distress described, Baby is Safe (I will never write infants in real danger; Normal crying only while Someone Goes Through It). Canon-typical violence, g-n mention and general discussion of assassin's work and tools of the trade. Idk what to tell you if you watch the show, but don't want the story to talk about their job. DV mention (Stella), and DV survivor reaction.

This is 100% going to be an Angst& Hurt/Comfort story, be forewarned. This is gonna be the softest chapter for a little while- Sorry not sorry, guys :P

Chapter 3: Spiral

Blitz’s amber eyes were huge, full of apprehension, and Stolas’s brows knit in total confusion as the expression clashed violently with the banality of Blitz’s question.

“It means witch. A witch who uses black magick, usually.” Stolas explained carefully. “It used to mean simply a woman who knew medicine and spellwork, but, well… Times change, meanings change, and now it essentially means you’re calling someone a bitch by implying they practice poor craft.”

Blitz nodded along, clearly no longer listening. “Okay… So uh, d-do… D’you know who this is then?”

He turned the phone towards Stolas, and all four red eyes went huge. Stolas tried to scramble back, his breathing coming hard and fast without warning, heart pounding against his ribs as he sank down to the floor and tears began to slide down his cheeks.

“Stella.” he forced himself to say. “Stella’s number. Via. My precious little Starfire… I- We…”

Blitz was there at his side before Stolas had registered he was sobbing. Crumpled in around himself, trembling and completely without control over a sudden, full-body panic attack that blacked out everything but the single word he’d seen directly under the hateful name he’d given Stella’s number in Blitz’s phone.

Help

I’m coming Via Stolas thought blearily. No force in Hell will stop me my little owlet

He thought it with fierce confidence he in no way felt, but his body reacted the way it had been conditioned to, leaving him paralyzed by fear and sheer overwhelming emotion. He could feel Blitz’s warm little body wrapped up under his chin, running the strong, scarred hands over his arms, over his shoulders, the sweaty forehead pressed to Stolas’s, right between his secondary eyes. He felt the tears dropping from the tip of his imp’s nose and losing themselves in Stolas’s own cheek feathers, heard the familiar voice speaking and registered none of the words.

Stolas heard someone else moving into the room, smelled lavender soap and wet dog. Someone gave a rough, decisive order, and heavy footfalls cut through the room ending in a slammed door. He heard a higher, fearful voice asking what he should do, how could he help? Another, clearly female voice with a heavy Wrathian accent answering back. Footsteps that clamored like cannonfire into the room, bodies pressing in around Blitz and Stolas, voices mingling together until all of them were speaking the same, unintelligible tongue and Stolas couldn’t breathe, and-

A much higher, piercingly distressed wail cut through absolutely everything like a thrown knife, and Stolas instantly forgot everything but the crying. Everything but the baby calling out for him.

“Via!” he cried in alarm, elbowing any body in his way out of his path. “Via, darling, Daddy’s here my love! I’m coming!”

Hands grabbed at him, pulled him back by his clothes, tried to wrap a full body around one of his long legs as Stolas made it to his feet and surged forwards.

“Babylove, Daddy’s coming!” Stolas called out again. “I’m here, I’ll always be here!” He aimed a vicious kick at the top of someone’s hard head, heard a satisfying oof as the body dropped back and the hands at his waist let go, allowing him to move freely.

Well, as freely as the entire deadweight of some imp or other clinging to his leg would allow, and yet. Nothing in any ring would stop him. He was going to get to his screaming, hungry baby girl and that was just the end of it.

Stolas dragged whoever and whatever thought it was stronger than a father’s love with him the agonizingly short distance to the crying baby laid safely and warmly down in her pram. He reached down, blind and deaf to everything but the baby’s cries in his ears, but before he could touch the edges of the blanket, a hard, pinpoint fist smashed right into the side of his face, and Stolas flew sideways with the force of it.

“Git yer fuckin’ hands off my child!” Millie roared as Stolas hit the hardwood of the open reception area and sat there stunned and shaking. “Moxxie! Git my good knife!”

Stolas blinked, suddenly aware of the room as pain pulled him back into sensible thought more quickly than soft words ever could have. He raised an arm up in front of himself in reflexive self-defense, Stella’s cold voice in his ears even after all this time, and flinched down into his own shoulders.

Blitz was between his prince and his best friend like a bolt of red lightning, flintlock pulled and pointed, the hammer conspicuously untouched even as Millie crouched down with a protective, dangerous growl.

“Mills, don’t make me choose.” Blitz said softly, calmly, eyes full of unyielding determination. “‘Cause I won’t kill ya, but you ain’t gonna like who gets to taste my bullet.”

“Millie!” Moxxie cried desperately, throwing himself in front of his wife (and directly between Blitz’s steady gun hand and his snarling bride’s wicked blade). “Millie, he’s not thinking straight! Put the knife away! Please!”

“The bird went for our baby, Moxx.” Millie growled, eyes pinned to Stolas’s curled up body on the floor. “If you’re not man enough to protect her, I will.”

Moxxie winced, but let the comment pass without response for the time being. His wife was worried about their child, he could understand that even if her words had cut him more deeply than any gunshot or knife wound ever had.  

“I know sweetheart, I saw him too.” Moxxie reasoned steadily. “I saw him. I don’t think he was going to hurt her- It’s Stolas, Millie. Stolas, the one who watches her while we get a few hours sleep? Date night Stolas, who knows her favourite songs, her favourite toys? How to soothe colic?”

Millie seemed to soften as Moxxie continued to list the ways in which Stolas had been supporting them through the birth and subsequent first five months of their child’s life. He’d been a steadying, reassuring presence to both of them as Moxxie panicked the first time the little impling had bumped her head and cried, as Millie sobbed her way through persistent feelings of doubt and fears that she was going to be a shitty mother, get her kid killed because of the work they did, because she couldn’t find the baby’s pacifier at one am, three weeks after bringing her home…

“Via!” Stolas croaked from his fetal position on the floor. “Please, she’s calling me- Please let me see to my daughter. You can do whatever you like with me, but let me help my daughter!”

“Stols- That’s not Via.” Blitz repeated gently, gun still leveled at Millie across the room. “It’s Maya. M n’ M’s kid, remember? She’s not yours, Stols, she’s theirs.”

Stolas shook his head, tears blinding him as panic began to blossom in his chest again, but this time because the baby’s cries had risen to angry little screams and he was terrified they were going to let the child suffer, leave the little thing screaming and starving while they batted him around like string, and-

“Via!” he screamed as the worry turned to molten anger and Stolas shoved himself up into a sitting position. “Starfire, I’m coming!”

Before anyone could move, Stolas shoved Blitz roughly out of his way, a shot rang out from the flintlock, Millie screamed and dove forward with her knife, and Moxxie hit the hardwood with an audible smack of the back of his head against the floorboards.

Stolas was beside the baby in a frighteningly quick instant, sweeping the crying child up into his arms and bundling her up against his shoulder the way all the good parenting books had taught him. He rubbed her back, cooing at the little girl, patting her tiny bottom under one hand while his other hand ran up her back, along the infant-sized, sharp little horns, through the downy white hair-

“Oh my stars, Maya!” Stolas cried in alarm, finally looking down at the baby and really seeing her this time. “Oh, no my love, no no no… It’s alright darling, it’s alright…”

He rocked the tiny impling, and spoke soft, sweet little words at her, hastily shoving back every emotion and thought that didn’t fully encompass the child, and felt a gentle push at one of his elbows. He looked down and startled as he found Millie there, wordlessly nudging at his arm with a prepared bottle of formula, and Stolas nodded at once, passing the baby over without argument.

Millie used an elbow to carefully redirect her baby girl towards Stolas, pressing the bottle into the crook of his right arm as she moved.

“Feed her, Stols.” she urged him gently. “May needs her Uncy Owl to help, doesn’t she?”

Stolas blinked down at the imp, confused and very, very lost in the sudden chaos the little office had become, but moved on instinct alone to reposition the squalling infant and bottle until he’d coaxed Maya into accepting the formula and she’d begun to suckle as if she’d never seen a single feeding in her entire time alive. Stolas smiled fondly at the tiny imp, eyes soft and still streaming tears, and Millie leaned herself up against his side.

“Sorry I tried to knife you.” she said a little too casually. “Bein’ a Mama makes me a li’l high-strung.”

“I thought she was Via…” Stolas apologized softly, his hands steady despite the quaver in his words and the shaky rush of adrenaline rapidly fading in every limb. “I… I lost myself. I was so afraid, I am so afraid… Oh Lucifer, Via…”

A strong hand guided him down to the floor, Maya expertly managed in one of Stolas’s long, solid arms and the bottle jostling only a little as Millie got him settled, helped support her daughter’s head until Stolas was comfortably sitting on the office floor, then slid down right beside the owl prince as they focused on Maya for another handful of moments.

The baby ate, oblivious to everything but her bottle and the security of Stolas’s practiced hands under her, and Millie said nothing else for a time as Stolas lost himself with caring for the infant. He waited for the impling to finish the bottle, her little face turning away from the rubber nipple while one clumsy hand pushed at his hand to signal him she’d finished rather than simply being distracted by something else in the room.

As Stolas carefully lifted the baby to his shoulder and began to pat her back, the sudden thought that it was just so damn quiet all around them hit into him, and he whipped his head around to look at Millie, who was sitting warily beside him, her eyes locked on Maya and every movement Stolas might make, deliberate or not. Almost as if she couldn’t quite trust him with Maya anymore, as if she were willing to risk his contact with the infant only if she could be directly available within seconds should she need to intervene…

“Millie?” Stolas ventured gingerly as Maya hiccuped against his shoulder and his hands moved automatically to wipe the spitup from her chin. “A-Are… Do you want May back? Should I move away from her?”

Millie’s eyes blinked back at him, hesitant at first, then softening to something more full of compassion and care than anxiety or anger. “I think the baby’s helpin’.” she hedged, her Wrathian accent back to its city-softened, casual sound now. “I’m right here with you, makin’ sure nothin’ happens if you take another wander.”

Stolas frowned at the imp, the tiny infant securely cradled up against his chest now, and slowly looked out at the rest of the room. Blitz sat on the receptionist’s desk, shirt off, one arm being cleaned  and wrapped up by Moxxie, who looked pink with fright, the freckles on his cheeks standing out starkly as he stoically worked on Blitz.

“Wh-What…” Stolas stammered incredulously, anxious worry sending his voice into the upper registers. “What the hell happened here?”

Millie laughed a little, the sound low and tearful as she watched the prince holding her child like a hawk. “You did, Stols. You didn’t mean to, but you really fucked us all up back there.”

“Hey! Don’t talk to him like that!” Blitz cut in hotly, jerking his arm roughly away from Moxxie so he could jump to his feet and take a half-step towards Millie. “I shoulda told him better- I fucked up! I wasn’t gentle enough- I scared the shit outta him!”

“I- Wait, the text from Stella?” Stolas asked uncertainly. “Was that what sent me senseless?”

Millie frowned. “You don’t remember?”

“Panic can be like that.” Moxxie piped up bracingly. “If it’s acute enough.”

“He’s plenty cute!” Blitz snapped, rounding on Moxxie. “I don’t see why the fuck that even matters!”

Stolas cracked a small, wavering smile at his ridiculous imp and waved his free hand at the heated words. “No, Blitz. Acute; Meaning sudden onset and intensely felt. Moxxie’s right- I think I may have lost some time. All I remember is you showing me your phone, the text from Stella,” His voice broke here, but the warm bundle of blankets sleeping across his left arm kept him solidly, firmly present in the room, and Stolas pushed ahead despite the tears that slid their way down his cheeks again. “A-And then the baby was crying. I thought it was Via, I must have been somewhere else…”

Blitz pushed his way past Moxxie’s protesting grabs for him, ignoring the smaller imp’s warnings that he wasn’t done with the wound, he needed to wash this or wrap that- Suck Blitz’s dick, as far as the stubborn imp was concerned. His bird needed him and it had been torture enough to have to listen to his prince’s tears and watch Millie handle him like Stolas was dangerous when Moxxie had directed him to let his wife deal with Stolas for the last twenty minutes.

“Yeah, Maya started bawling and you went into Dad Mode.” Blitz confirmed. “It was like nothin’ else even mattered. All you would say was Via’s name and that you were comin’ for her.”

Stolas gave his imp a soft, amused smile through tears, and leaned down to drop a simple, whisper-soft kiss to Maya’s little forehead. “You’ve never had a baby before, have you?” he asked without a hint of judgement in his words.

Stolas looked up at Blitz, who had a stupid, dreamy look in his softened eyes, and a faint pink blush across the bridge of his nose, and some distant part of the prince tucked that look back and away for when the time came again to ask his Blitz if he’d ever considered fatherhood.

“Can confirm.” Moxxie said directly into Stolas’s train of thought. “I can’t think of anything but my daughter when she needs us. I get it, Stolas. I do.”

Millie nodded beside the owl prince. “An’ I figured all you wanted was to pick her up and make her feel better, feed her or rock her y’know.” She paused here, and bit her lower lip apologetically. “After I got done losin’ my entire shit seein’ you reachin’ for her, lookin’ half-crazy like that.” Her expression softened, and she passed a soft, protective hand over her daughter’s head without waking the impling. “I knew it was risky, ‘specially after I saw you movin’ to her an’ you looked so out of it, but then Blitz got shot, an’ Moxx was on the fl-”

“Blitz got what?” Stolas yelped in alarm. “Who? How?” He hastily passed Maya over to Millie, who accepted the sleeping baby with cautious familiarity, and Stolas bolted to his feet. “Show me! Blitz, are you in pain? Are you alright? Who?”

Blitz grimaced in embarrassment that Stolas mistook for pain as the owl prince picked up his bandaged arm and began to look over the half-wrapped injury with a clinical seriousness that thoroughly unnerved him to see up close like this.

“Me.” Blitz grumbled in annoyance. “Fuckin’ gun went off by accident and the ricochet caught me in the arm.”

He gestured vaguely at a metal corner of Loona’s desk that now bore a spectacular dent dead center of the decorative metal cap, then tried to shrug his arm out of Stolas’s hold.

“C’mon Stols, it’s just a graze.” Blitz complained ”Moxx patched me up good enough, lemme go!”

“Absolutely not!” Stolas admonished sternly. “Moxxie- Bring me antiseptic and scissors! The job’s half-done here.”

“In my defense, Blitz never sits still in the first place.” Moxxie grumbled good-naturedly. “It was like trying to bandage a wet cat with a thorn in his paw.”

Stolas smiled and looped a hand down through the front of Blitz’s belt, jerking the imp up close against his taller body, and Blitz’s grin was wild as he not only went willingly, but slid both hands up under Stolas’s ass as he went.

“If you handled me like this, I mighta cooperated better.” Blitz quipped as Stolas anchored a knee behind his imp’s back and rolled his eyes as he coaxed the injured arm back up and between Stolas’s long-fingered hands. “Mm, what next pretty bird? You gonna kiss it all better?”

“You should be so lucky!” Stolas snapped in annoyance. “What in seven hells possessed you to pull a gun out with a baby in the room!”

Blitz’s features turned guilty almost at once, and he dropped his eyes as the rest of him went ragdoll and he let Stolas and Moxxie do whatever they wanted with him.

“I just… I dunno, Mills had a knife on you.” Blitz mumbled sullenly. “I saw red, okay? I was protecting my bird, I didn’t think about it. Wasn’t gonna hit the kid anyway… Fuck sake.”

He trailed off, guilty and worried, and anxious to be there for Stolas just in case his prince spiraled back down into panic once they dug into Moxxie’s backpack and really got down to business here. Blitz shifted his hands up around Stolas’s lower back, just over the long, elegant tail he loved so much, and pressed his face into his prince’s soft button-up in a weak effort to make the world easy and fair again.

A soft, tender hand passed down the length of one horn, down to Blitz’s back and began to move down along the length of his spines, comforting him the way only Stolas could with the old soothing motion his Mama used to use when Blitz was a kid. The feathery whisper of his prince kneeling to be level with him, pulling Blitz’s face up and into the bundle of feathers at Stolas’s throat while a careful, whisper-soft kiss landed on the top of his head, right between his horns. Blitz smiled at the feeling, so proud of how fast his bird was recovering, how well Stolas was managing his intense emotions right now.

Normally a shock like seeing Stella’s name on Blitz’s phone would have spun the owl prince out for an entire day, nevermind taking half an hour to freak out and then calmly picking up a baby as if nothing in the world could be wrong like that. Stolas had been working so hard on processing what he felt, all the grief and loss and helpless, bitter anger in healthier ways, a process he’d been at for a little over a year now, but Blitz had known from that first night after the trial that Stolas wouldn’t ever really heal. Not until they got Via back.

Not until their family was whole again.

Blitz sucked in a lungful of the lavender and lilacs smell of his prince’s freshly-washed feathers, let the downlike fluff tickle his cheeks and nose until he felt like he could be solid and stoic again, but before Blitz could do more than steel himself to speak, Stolas was doing it for him.

“Does it hurt, darling?” Stolas asked quietly. “Does your arm hurt? Shall I send Moxxie for some painkillers?”

Blitz smiled against his considerate, clever, kind, gentle, loving, idiot bird, and shook his head. He raised his face up out of the feathers he loved so much, just enough to be able to see Stolas’s tearbright red eyes looking down at him with such care and concern in them that it made Blitz want to kiss him and never stop.

“I think we gotta talk, big bird.” he said softly, the words heavy with everything Blitz knew that Stolas didn’t. “Gonna be a long day, lover.”

Stolas nodded, tears already slipping back down his cheeks. “Then it’s an especially good thing we began it the way we did.”

Blitz laughed through the weight of the world suddenly on his shoulders, and reached up to drop a quick, firm kiss to the underside of Stolas’s chin. “I always got time for you, beautiful. Always.”

Stolas giggled despite everything, and pulled his Blitz up into his lap. “I love you too, my impish little love.”

They kissed then, a fast, desperate thing that lasted no more than a minute as the world around them narrowed to Stolas and Blitz alone, then broke off as the office door slammed open and Loona rushed in wielding a violently pastel pink makeup bag in one hand, and a horse-themed, medium-sized duffel in the other.

“Okay! I got ‘em!” she called breathlessly. “Where’s my dads?”

Both Stolas and Blitz looked up sharply at the sound of her voice, and Blitz tripped all over himself (and Stolas) in his haste to rush to his feet. Stolas caught his stupid imp as the smaller body tumbled forwards in a clear faceplant, and easily set the imp back on his feet.

“Got what?” he called back to Loona. “What’s wrong sweetheart? I have your father right here, how can we help?”

Loona kicked the main office door shut behind her with a careless backswing of one long leg, then skidded down to the floor beside her two dads.

“Your emergency meds.” Loona said with wide, worried eyes locked on Stolas. She shoved the pink makeup bag at the bird, and Stolas took it without thinking. “Get a couple pills in you, it’ll help.”

Stolas blinked up at the hellhound, a little bit too disoriented to really track what was going on here and now compared to what had been about to happen not five minutes ago, and the text from earlier, and Millie with her knife, and his Blitz getting shot, and…

“Hey, hey- Breathe, pretty bird.” Blitz’s clear, steady voice cut into Stolas’s whirling thoughts. “Breathe with me, okay? I’m right here. One, two, three…”

Stolas started to pull in a few shaky breaths to Blitz’s count, felt tears on his face and dripping down into his already-soaked shirtfront, then stopped mid-breath as he realized he wasn’t panicking. Not now, not anymore. With Blitz in front of him, Loona to one side of him, and Millie with her husband watching quietly somewhere on his other side, Stolas didn’t feel the need to panic.

The crushing, overwhelming weight of anxiety, and uncertainty, and grief was still there. Good sweet Lucifer, was it ever right there, like a lead weight in his soft, fragile heart, but he wasn’t expected to carry this alone. He wasn’t forced to mask his true feelings, to hide his vulnerability. Hells, even Blitz had been openly displaying emotions in front of everyone, not just Stolas, and Satan knew his little love would rather pull his own eyes out before he let his family see him in pain like this.

He was safe. He was supported. His second daughter was here, ready and willing to help in any way Stolas or Blitz needed her, and despite their respectful silence, Stolas knew if he called for Moxxie or Millie, the other imps would be there too. He could do this, he could face this. He had the option to choose medicating his fears if he needed to, but for the first time in over a year, Stolas felt like he didn’t need it.

He toyed with the zipper on the old makeup bag, hearing the cheerful rattle of his as-needed prescription knocking against the daily antidepressants he took every morning with Blitz’s careful supervision.

 He laughed a little at the thought. His clever, protective, stubborn, gallant, stupid Blitz. The imp who never once forgot that once upon an eight-months-and-change ago, Stolas would try anything to get out of taking his meds, and from that day onwards found new and exciting ways to coax Stolas into taking them. Even if the prince had already intended to, or done it before Blitz had asked about them.

 Sometimes it was kisses, the promise of rewards once Loona was out of the house, or quick shower sessions that left Stolas gasping against the bathroom walls while Blitz anchored him securely upright and waited for his owl prince to recover. Sometimes it was secretly downloaded episodes of Stolas’s favourite hellanovellas, saved well after Stolas had fallen asleep the night before in preparation for the next day. Sometimes it was caramel apples, of all the ridiculous things Stolas had come to love best about being just another denizen of Imp City.

Sometimes it was a date, meticulously crafted to be Stolas’s ideal fantasy despite being the exact opposite of any romance novel or movie they’d ever shared. The last time Blitz had put on his nicest jeans and a clean dress shirt with a suspiciously new jacket over the outfit Stolas highly suspected was stolen from the shops they could never go back to anymore, and Blitz had taken them to the botanical gardens during the Midnight Garden special event. They’d gone at dusk, strolling gently through blooms Stolas knew by sight and scent alone, the prince excitedly naming them and all their known properties for Blitz, who clearly had no idea what was being said, but nodded along gamely, eyes focused on Stolas in the soft lamplight of the gardens.

They’d kissed then, under the full moon, in an off the path copse of tall, willowy trees that graciously hid them from the rest of the garden’s patrons as the kiss devolved into something more sensual, less clothed, and Stolas had found out later that evening that it was absolutely possible to lay back into poison ivy and not know it until they’d dressed themselves again and made their way back home up the back roads and up the multiple flights of stairs it took to get up to Blitz’s city apartment.

He’d made it to the front door that time, vaguely uncomfortable and beginning to feel an unpleasant heat on his skin just above the line of his tail, and Blitz had opened the door for them with a gentlemanly little bow, ushering his prince inside before he followed, whereupon Stolas had had the unfortunate realization that something was terribly amiss all across his lower back.

Blitz had gone from seductive lover to attentive nursemaid in about three seconds flat as Stolas voiced his discomfort, and Blitz had instantly pulled his prince over to the couch and laid him on his stomach in the small space.

“Oh yeah- That’s ivy alright.” Blitz had declared, carefully pulling apart Stolas’s messy feathers with one of Stolas’s fine-toothed combs and an old chopstick from the kitchen. “Strap in, pretty bird. You’re about to get on the pain train without a reservation.”

Stolas had held the comfort of Blitz’s ridiculous sense of humour like a security blanket all through the subsequent treatment of creams, one-by-one cleanings of each feather from calamus to the tips of their lovingly maintained barbs, and non-optional baths designed to draw out any trace of the poison ivy’s tiny barbs and irritating urushiol oils. Stolas had known all the science behind what was going on, known why the cures needed to be applied in the ways that they were being used, and could even break down and list everything that could go wrong (which it didn’t), or come next, or stubbornly stick to his feathered body in a way the plant simply didn’t behave with other hellborn skin types, but Satan’s flaming balls had it been awful.

It itched and burned, and his poor, beautiful feathers had come out in sad little patches around his long, graceful tail and made him absolutely hideous to look at for well over two weeks. Blitz had been such a gentleman about it all, rubbing calamine lotion and topical soothers into Stolas’s back anytime he even suspected his prince was uncomfortable, kissing Stolas’s hands and fingers when he caught his bird trying to scratch at the inflamed patches with the wicked claws Stolas just knew would tear skin and leave scars behind if he scratched the way he wanted to, but couldn’t be compelled to care about in the moment.

Blitz had endured blistering streaks of cursing, both generally and personally aimed, hours of sleepless tossing and turning, and even a full-on, knockdown, fuck you I hate you, fight that had been so bad, Loona hadn’t come home for two days, sending her father a clear ‘I’m not getting involved in that’ text once she’d been safely hidden away at Rex’s.

Stolas bit his lip as he thought back on that fight, and the way Blitz had put him to bed with a scowl all over his expressive features, looking like an absolute thundercloud even as he leaned in and dropped a tender, soothing kiss down on his fucking owl’s temple.

“I love you, you sonofabitch.” Blitz had said then, the words still angry and full of the bitter fighting they’d done most of the day. “I love you even though you piss me off and said horses were for pussies, and threw Mister Staples out the fuckin’ window and I had to go pull him out of fuckin’ midday traffic before some fuckin’ car wrecked my favourite horse plushie.”

He’d kissed Stolas quite firmly after that, and taken up his prince’s hands, sliding down along the edge of the couch to keep his usual vigil and make sure Stolas didn’t hurt himself in his sleep. If he slept.

“You’re a real piece of shit tonight, Stols, but you’re my piece of shit. Okay?”

Stolas had cried then, caught so off-guard by how sensitive and sweet the hard words were compared to the way Stella used to scream them into his face at any given opportunity, just for the hell of it. How Blitz was calling him a piece of shit while actively working to protect and care for him, after being called everything under Satan’s red sun and then some all day long, and enduring Stolas at his absolute worst, in pain and half-sick because he’d refused to take his meds, and food had had to be forced down his stubborn throat, and-

“-S’okay, I’m right here, pretty bird. I’m still here.” Blitz’s voice was saying here and now, quietly and gently as one big hand smoothed down the feathers at the back of Stolas’s head. “I got you, baby. I always got you…”

Stolas wasn’t sure when Blitz had tucked himself in against his side like this, bringing the prince’s head down to one shoulder and wrapping one strong arm around Stolas while Loona sat anxiously by and waited for someone to speak directly to her.

Stolas could feel that he was still crying, knew he would be for the rest of however long this ordeal took to resolve, but he wasn’t losing his mind. He wasn’t panicked and irrational and helpless. He was determined.

“Blitz?” he said in a voice that cracked and shook with emotion. “Do you know what I was thinking of just now?”

Blitz frowned, the hand behind Stolas’s head never pausing in its movements. “Huh? No, tell me pretty bird. What were you thinkin’?”

Stolas sat himself up a little, looked Blitz dead in the eye and schooled his expression into all the love he had for his imp, for his new family all around him. “I was thinking of the night I got poison ivy, do you remember that?”

Blitz made a face at him. “How could I forget? You threw Mister Staples out into the fuckin’ street for no fuckin’ reason you dickhead!”

Stolas laughed through a quiet little sob. “Yes, exactly. And I was a dickhead that day. I was the worst sort of asshole, and you never once let me get away with it, or made me feel like you might leave me even when you held me accountable. You told me you still love me, and that you’d be there, whatever it took.”

Blitz blinked up at him, confusion all over his honest face, and nodded shortly. “Meant every word, beautiful.” he confirmed. “I’d do it again in a heartbeat, every time.”

Stolas nodded and brushed a few tears off his cheeks with the back of one careless hand. “Yes, exactly. I know you would my darling.” He looked over Blitz’s shoulder to Loona, who looked uncomfortable and awkward, and reached a hand out towards her in silent invitation.

She took it, letting Stolas lead her forwards and into the previously intimate embrace of her two fathers. The hug now included her, and she felt a conflicted sort of warmth at the idea that the stupid bird prince could have her so attached all of a sudden when it had taken her years to even vaguely entertain the idea that Blitz cared if she lived or died.

Stolas was so different, so open and honest about everything he thought and felt. Loona wasn’t stupid, she absolutely knew that he’d been a courtly prince, that royals hid everything from everyone all the damn time, and that you couldn’t trust the motherfuckers for shit.

But Stolas wasn’t ‘royal’. Not anymore, and not just because Satan had literally stripped his power and titles away at the trial. It was because Stolas was Stolas, the man who argued with her father about throw pillows and why mealworms didn’t taste the same if they were in oat milk and not almond milk, and a hundred other ridiculous, fussy things that only seemed to matter to Stolas, and, by virtue of their relationship, to Blitz.

This stupid owl made her careless, sloppy, jackass of a dad softer. Better somehow. Made Blitz give a shit about expiry dates on the food in the house, about folding the blankets normally thrown down all over the living room, burying old laundry, spills and stains alike. This dumb bird made her father laugh more, care more about himself. Made Blitz whole instead of letting him keep existing as broken pieces inside an otherwise empty shell the way he had been.

Made her feel whole, like she wasn’t just the pity-pick from the pound Blitz had found her in. As if Loona mattered to Stolas too, not just her father’s dick.

Stolas had made a point to help Loona with makeup, bring her shopping with him in places that didn’t have pictures of Blitz hung by the doors with the words ‘Get the fuck outta here, Blitzø!’ on them. He’d gotten her a full set of expensive lavender soaps better than the ones he used for her birthday, on top of a new wardrobe of summer clothes when she’d been complaining that her old shit was falling apart and too ugly to wear anymore.

Stolas had stepped in as if he’d ever really known her before they’d started living together, and Blitz had been there between them at first, protectively buffering their interactions, but the longer Loona had spent around the once-prince, the more she saw him and not just his old titles and powers. The way Stolas was patient and careful, the way he loved to read- and not just hokey old romance books, real books, with titles Loona couldn’t pronounce and words like comparative studies and theoretical applications of transference in them. The way the bird seemed to understand when Loona was in a shitty mood and wanted someone to vent at instead of talk to, the way he knew she only liked the Spicy Fiesta puptreats the same way Blitz knew. The way he remembered where she’d left this top, that jacket, those specific boots the way Blitz never would or could.

Loona let the prince pull her forwards into the family hug, and put her arms up around both her dads. Bird Dad and Dad, owl and imp, the way it should be.

Chapter Text

A/N: I’m impatient and can’t keep a schedule, so here I am, early again lol Sorry for the random update days, I’m not actually home and have to do mobile updates in a weird timezone :p

We’ll fix typos in post (as in, after I post), and as always- Love to hear from y’all :) Concrit and comments welcome <3 How’m I doing so far?

TW: DV mention (Stella), talk of g-ns and active combat strategies, canon-typical violence mentions, and Big Anxiety (no panic attacks this time!) It’s all still very gentle and not worse than the show gave us, but if you’re sensitive to this type of content, tread softly!  

Here we go!

Chapter 4: It’s a Family Business 

“I’m about to ask you all something impossible.” Stolas said directly into Loona’s wandering thoughts. “You too Millie, Moxxie. Please consider carefully before you answer, because this is going to be dangerous, and I know you have the baby now, and- ”

“We’re gonna go get Octavia back.” Millie said simply, dropping the words like a bullet dead center into the fragile peace of the room. “I’m in.”

She turned to her husband, now holding little Maya in his arms with one hand coaxing a pacifier up against the baby’s little mouth. “Moxx?”

The imp grinned at her over the baby’s head. “Damn right we are, Millie. Tell me what you want me to do.”

“I finally get to kick that snowcock’s asshole through his ugly teeth?” Blitz grinned with a wicked gleam in his eyes. “Oh fuck yeah, I’m in.” He leaned over to look at his daughter. “Loonie-Toonie, you want the head or the ass? The ex-wife’s for Stols, he called it awhile back, so we gotta split the Ice Bitch.”

Loona returned her father’s fierce smile, hellhound teeth bared as she gave him a firm, determined nod. “I get the face. Can’t wait to put a bullet right between those crossed eyes after last time!”

“I’ll get you a better gun.” Blitz promised, both eyes huge and full of pride for his baby girl. “Make sure it’s winterized or whatever the fuck they call makin’ shit ice-proof.”

“I think it’s just a semiauto.” Loona said conversationally, as if all this were completely normal shop talk. Which, given what I.M.P did for money, it absolutely was Stolas realized with a start. “Any glock’ll do the job, but I want good bullets. Make sure they get through the back of that motherfucker’s eyes when I double tap ‘em.”

“Not the eyes, Loona,” Millie corrected pragmatically. “Target’s too small on a bird like that- Ya gotta get the neck, then the forehead. We’ll practice some later today.”

“Or we could use swords!” Blitz chimed in excitedly. “Get all medieval on these bitches- Never have to reload a sword, huh?”

“What about grenades? Should we bring the big ones?” Moxxie asked as he joined Loona and Millie on the floor in their improvised little half-circle. “And spiked shoes for our hooves, you think?”

“Definitely rappelling ropes.” Millie listed, pulling a pad of notebook paper out from under Maya’s stroller and beginning to write things down. “And snow goggles, so we’ll be able to see no matter what he throws at us.”

“What about a flamethrower?” Blitz again, loud and breathless as his imagination took hold and practicality went right out the window. “A fuckin’ jetpack full of fire! With rocket launchers strapped to either side of me! Oh fuck yeah! Gettin’ hard just thinkin’ about it! Write it down Mills- R-o-k-k-”

“That’s not how you spell rocket, Blitz!” Moxxie this time. “R-o-cee-kay- Oh crumbs, who has a rag or a tissue for me? Maya sneezed spitup all over my jacket!”

“We got radios?” Millie again, sensible and practical. ”Gonna need comlines, just in case.”

“What if we tried to get floor plans of the castle? Think Stols might know?”

That one had been Loona, and Stolas sat back in complete shock as the imps and the hellhound argued tactics, talked about equipment and generally behaved as if they’d already decided without deliberation that a rescue was going to happen.

He’d had such a good speech all planned out, such words of caution and candor, and a grand, sweeping declaration that anyone who chose to stay behind would be well within their rights, no judgements passed, but every member of I.M.P seemed to take it as a given that they’d be getting Octavia back from Andrealphus and Stella. As if they’d simply been waiting for an opening all this time.

Stolas sat there, his face pale and his entire body shaking, calmer than he’d ever felt, mouth half-open at the seamless way his family was discussing both baby Maya’s immediate needs, each other, and the impossible task of taking down a Goetic marquis and Stella in one ill-fated attack plan.

All because of him, for Stolas and his daughter’s sake…

“… And then I’m gonna rip that beak right off his face and shove it straight up his-” Blitz was crowing with an emphatic, full-body pantomime of his actions in the middle of their circled bodies. He caught sight of his prince and stopped dead, frowning. “Hey Stols? You good pretty bird? You need your meds?”

Stolas shook his head, feeling fresh tears hitting the back of his hands still wrapped around the little pink makeup bag in his lap.

“I… I just… How can you all be so cavalier about this?” he whispered, stunned and overwhelmed with deep, painful gratitude for these people who’d picked him up at literally rock bottom and carried him this far for no other reason than because. “Do you have any idea how dangerous this is going to be?”

Millie raised an eyebrow at him. “And you think our job’s any less dangerous?” she pointed out. “You think killin’ for hire’s just some walk through the flowers?”

Loona gave Stolas a playful, gentle nudge at one shoulder that rocked the owl prince to one side despite her clearly having pulled the hit. “Yeah, Stols. You think we don’t know the bastard’s got some serious firepower behind him? That your ex has her own bag of flaming dogshit Goetia tricks? Hell, we might even have that Striker fuckhead to deal with- Still doesn’t matter.”

“We’re gettin’ Via back, no matter what.” Blitz said firmly as Moxxie nodded along very seriously and rocked his infant daughter. “It’s been too long already, but she had to come to us. She woulda thought we were manipulating her any other way.”

Stolas nodded slowly, hearing the words but not quite processing them, and looked out at each of the assembled faces around him. At Loona, who looked smug and supportive at the same time somehow. At Millie, who was giving him an encouraging little smile while one hand rested easily on her husband’s shoulder while Moxxie handled Maya with all the love in the world in his soft eyes.

At Blitz, his brave, selfless, stubborn imp who was moving in towards him with a gentle look of reassurance all over his open features.

“We’re doin’ this.” Blitz told him firmly. “Your baby girl’s comin’ home with us, I swear on my soul pretty bird.”

“I’m going to get her back.” Stolas echoed faintly, tears smearing the image of Blitz carefully climbing into his lap and curling up under his chin just so. “We’ll plan it all out, and it’ll be the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but we’ll get her back. Even if she hates me and wants nothing to do with me, we’ll get my precious Starfire out of that house and away from those monsters.”

Blitz nodded against him. “That’s my baby. Good boy.” he purred against Stolas’s throat. “Daddy likey when you’re all brave n’ shit.”

Stolas laughed at his ridiculous imp, swiping tears off his face even as they instantly replaced themselves, and watched Loona scowling at them as Millie and Moxxie shared a meaningful look and a quick, loving kiss.

Stolas’s normally soft features turned iron, and he cuddled Blitz closer to his chest. “And I will.” he growled in a solemn promise. “Whatever the cost, I’m going to get my Starfire back.”

Blitz nodded shortly and dropped a quick, firm kiss on his prince’s chin. “We’re gonna get her, beautiful. I swear to fuckin’ Satan and whatever kinda power’s higher than that. Nobody’s gonna leave your daughter in that hellhole with your bitch ex-wife.”

He turned to look out at the others, pulled his phone out and opened up the Illiterate Strega text chain with its single line of text still front and center. “This is everything I got to work with.” he announced to his crew. “Moxxie- Bring the vanilla out.”

Moxxie made a face at his boss, paused for a moment to untangle Blitz’s version of Satan’s plain English, then rolled his eyes. “It’s manilla, Blitz. Manilla envelopes.”

Blitz nodded enthusiastically and scrambled to his feet, offering a hand down to Stolas as he went. “That’s what I said- Vanilla envelopes. You said you found something on the phone earlier.”

Moxxie shifted his daughter over one shoulder as he rose to pull the case file out of the diaper bag, and lay the sleeping baby down in her stroller. He opened his mouth to argue, then sighed fondly at Blitz instead. He retrieved the messy, hastily collected paperwork from Maya’s bag, carefully tucked Maya’s favourite green blanket up around the sleeping impling’s shoulders, and followed Millie into the meeting room.

Blitz and Stolas followed shortly, Blitz detouring just long enough to grab his forgotten shirt up off Loona’s desk where he’d left it, and Loona trailed after them with Millie’s forgotten notepad full of notes and rough sketches of plans. Within minutes they were all crowded in around the big meeting desk in the whiteboard room, Blitz at the head of the table and his crew seated at either side the way they always did during debriefs.

“Okay, so we know two things-” Blitz announced importantly once they’d all settled into their seats and Loona and Stolas had come back with a full teapot, a glass pot of instant coffee Loona had found at the back of some cupboard in the breakroom, and a fistful of mugs. “First, someone sent me that text from Bitchface’s number and I’m betting it wasn’t her.  Second- I don’t know dick all else.” He waved down the table at Moxxie like the showman he’d once been. “Take it away Moxx! Vanilla time!”

Moxxie pinched the bridge of his nose between two fingers and sighed, choosing to say nothing about Blitz’s deliberate misuse of the word he’d clearly just explained to the imp, and tossed the manilla envelope full of pictures and a pile of neat, concise casefile notes onto the table in front of him.

He pulled one of the pictures out, squinted down at it to be sure it was the right one, then nodded officiously. “About six months ago, just before Maya was born,” he started like a barrister reading court minutes out. “Blitz asked me to find out what I could about Elsa’s ice castle and Stolas’s ex. He wanted to put a hit out on her right then and there, but I convinced him to wait, to let me gather intel before we did anything stupid.”

He turned to look at Stolas, who was in his customary seat to Moxxie’s left. “I didn’t think you’d appreciate Blitz barreling in to kill your ex-wife without your consent, even if she does sound like she deserves it.”

“That bitch put her hands on my fuckin’ bird!” Blitz yelled in a hard, gravelly growl. “She’ll burn on the end of an angelic blade before I let her even think she’s gettin’ away with shit!”

Stolas smiled at his imp, eyes soft and full of love for how willing Blitz was to jump headfirst in front of anything that so much as breathed on his prince the wrong way. “Love, I know you mean well, but Moxxie was right to ask you to wait. Andrealphus may be a pretentious little prick, but he’s still a pretentious prick with power. Both political and literal- He’s a marquis of Hell now, the law will protect him before it ever considers us.”

“Considers us, you mean.” Blitz pointed out as gently as he could with a hard, pointed stare at Stolas. He waved around the table at Moxxie and his crew. “We’re imps and a hellhound. You’re still a royal in their eyes, you just can’t glow about it anymore.”

“That’s a fair point, sir.” Moxxie chimed in reasonably. “If we were caught doing this, if we can’t get Via out-”

“Talk real shit Moxx.” Blitz cut in loudly. “Ain’t no world where we don’t get Via out.”

Stolas felt a tension he hadn’t even realized he’d been holding in his shoulders fade slightly at Blitz’s utterly foolish confidence that nothing could possibly go wrong here. That a pack of imps and one ex-Goetia had the ghost of a chance here, that security wouldn’t be an issue, or the subsequent fallout, or-

“Listen, it’ll be hard,” Millie started, and rolled her eyes at Blitz’s automatic ‘Fuck yeah, hard!’ and emphatic hip thrust to make his point abundantly clear, then went on calmly, mostly addressing Stolas. “It’ll be- don’t say shit, Blitz- hard, but we’re professional assassins. We can take care of one spoiled bitch and her handler, even if the odds’re stacked against us. Let Moxx explain, I promise you’re gonna wanna hear it.”

Stolas turned his huge, anxious eyes over to look expectantly at Moxxie, and the little imp waited a beat for Blitz to add something ridiculous and impulsive, or lewd and inappropriate, or-

But Blitz was quiet for once, clever eyes locked on Moxxie as he leaned in over the head of the meeting table and waited for his friend to speak.

Moxxie cleared his throat, suddenly nervous, and picked up the picture he’d selected from the stack. “Okay, here’s what we know so far- About six months ago, Blitz asked me to look into the castle, and the icy prick. I reached out to an old uh… family friend.” The way Moxxie coughed delicately at the word family told everyone but Stolas that the imp meant his old mob connections, and a collective gasp rose up from I.M.P.

“Baby, no!” Millie cried in alarm. “You didn’t! Your dad’s a psycho- He’ll kill you if he finds out you’re usin’ his contacts for us!”

Moxxie reached out across the table and took his wife’s hands in his. “My father doesn’t need to find out. The contact I worked with is clean- He works for cash and he doesn’t resell intel unless you fuck him over. I…” He hesitated for a second, looked up at Stolas with a little wince of uncertainty, then plowed ahead anyway. “I- He had personal reasons to take this job, Millie. I swear on Maya we’re safe from him, but I can’t tell you anymore right now, okay? It’s a family thing.”

Millie put a knee up on the old table, leaning in as far as she could, until both her hands found Moxxie’s stupid, beautiful face and pulled him towards her by the cheeks. “You tell me everythin’ as soon as you can, Moxx, or I swear to Satan- If that ol’ peacock don’t finish you off, I will. Understand me? We got a little girl to think about. It’s not just you n’ me anymore baby.”

Moxxie took one hand off his cheek to kiss the back of it, his eyes never leaving Millie’s as he nodded shortly. “I promise, love. I promise over Maya’s sweet little smile, I’ll tell you as soon as I can. He’s safe, you can trust me.”

Moxxie and Millie held each other’s eyes for a long series of seconds, silently exchanging vows and promises the rest of the room wasn’t privy to, and Blitz slammed both hands down on the table in front of him impatiently.

“Fuck sake! Make out on your own damn time, Moxx!” he yelled in annoyance “We got a job to plan!”

“Yeah, we don’t exactly have unlimited time to fuck around here.” Loona agreed. “What did that text say, Blitz?”

She asked him because she’d seen it on her dad’s phone screen when he’d been waving it around earlier, the single word obvious and easy to pick out on the otherwise black background of her father’s phone screen, and the rest of the room (except probably Stolas, she acknowledged) hadn’t been told yet. The sense of urgency Loona felt hadn’t been impressed upon Millie or Moxxie yet, and the longer they drew this stupid recon meeting out, the more time they gave the royal fuckheads to screw with Via.

Blitz’s eyes went darker with anxious worry, and he ran a hand down along the back of one horn nervously. “All it said was help…” he said quietly. “Stols confirmed it was his ex’s number, and I’m pretty sure it was Via who sent it. Couldn’t really be anyone else, y’know…”

Moxxie’s eyes widened and he practically threw the manilla envelope at Blitz. “Oh my Satan! We gotta move!” he shouted urgently. “Blitz- This picture is of Striker!”

He waved the grainy, blurry snapshot in his hands in Blitz’s general direction, and Stolas snatched it away from the little imp so fast Moxxie’s hand came up in a defensive block on reflex alone.

“Via!” Stolas cried as his heart began to thunder in his chest. “They’re going to kill my daughter!” He was on his feet and looking out towards Blitz before he could think, before he could breathe. “Blitz, they’re going to kill her before she turns eighteen in two weeks- They want her power, my domains…”

“Way ahead of you, pretty bird.” Blitz said distractedly, pawing through the spilled case notes and more pictures of the Wrathian assassin he hated more than any other opponent shaking hands with Stella, cozying up to the snowcock. Scoping out the windows around the now ice-covered castle for the best angle to take a long-range shot from.

Blitz reached for another, slightly better quality shot of Striker sitting at a fancy looking café with Stella and the Elsa bitch, a long gun’s case clearly tucked up beneath their chairs here, and his hand jostled a stack of audio transcripts just enough that the words and my ex-husband too were visible.

He’d been doing so well keeping his shit together too. He’d been able to keep his conversations light and funny, to comfort his prince while Stolas went through every emotion under Hell’s own sun in a rapid cycle of shock, realization and grief. He’d kept his shit together after he’d shot himself, and Moxxie had dug his stupid little fingers into his arm by accident trying to fix it, because the baby was there and she was already so upset, and if the baby cried, so would Stolas.

 He’d held it together admirably, Blitz thought, all things considered. He’d been a model partner to his bird, and a great boss and friend to the others. He’d done all the right things, said all the right shit, and kept every scrap of fury at the idea of those fucking rich bastards with their hands all over his daughter locked firmly and professionally away. Via wasn’t really his yet anyway, not until she told him she was with her own mouth.

But now it was about Stolas too. Now it was his perfect prince on the line, and they were all in agreement that something had to be done about the cockbag thieves who’d brought his prince so low these past eight months, and nothing was between Blitz and finally taking out the fucking trash once and for all.

Something inside Blitz dropped like an iron nail over glass, shattering any shred of rational thought he was still clinging to.

“Moxxie?” Blitz called, suddenly calm and perfectly focused as he added two and two together and came out with whatever math that was. “Tell the rest of it. Now. Everyone shut up- I wanna hear it from Moxxie before anyone does anything.”

Moxxie shrank back, hearing the deadly seriousness in Blitz’s voice and trembling a little at what that might mean for them. He nodded quickly, swallowed hard, and went on in a voice that only shook when he was speaking.

“I… My contact heard them talking to Striker. A-About Via.” Moxxie confirmed what they already knew. “Something about inheritance, and coming of age- You’re right about that much, sir.” Moxxie said to Stolas. He turned back to look at a spot just shy of Blitz’s hands white-knuckling the edge of the table. “They were also planning to uh… T-To…”

Stolas put a hand on Moxxie’s shoulder and seemed much too calm for the discussion currently in progress. “To assassinate me. For the financial and political gain, I assume?”

He said it as if this were commonplace news to him, as if he couldn’t be bothered to care if Striker killed him or not, and Blitz bristled at hearing the practiced royal mask his prince barely wore anymore snapping back up as if the past eight months they’d spent together had never happened. As if Stolas were resigned to his fate and ready to die so long as they got Via back, and if it took his life to get it done, then it did.

Moxxie nodded and spoke again, but Blitz couldn’t hear anything past the awful ringing in his ears. Those royal fucks were after his family. His man. His daughter.

He saw red, his flintlock was in his hand before he could process he was moving, and Blitz jumped up out of his chair without a first thought. He felt his entire body jerked sharply backwards by strong, iron arms around his chest and Blitz growled low and mean at whoever thought they were about to stop him from doing whatever it took to protect his fuckin’ family.

“Loona, let me go.” Blitz said calmly, just the once, holding himself still with a heroic effort of self-control he wouldn’t have bothered with for anyone else. He closed his eyes to steady himself without turning to look at who had hold of him, and sucked in a hard, grounding breath. “I don’t wanna hurt you sweetheart, but your dad’s too pissed off to care about anything but puttin’ bullets into bitches right now. Back off and help me, or fuck off, mkay honey?”

“I most certainly won’t be fucking off.” Stolas’s voice said directly into his ear. “Not until you can hear reason again, Blitz. I am not going to let you run in blind and kill yourself, you stupid fucking idiot! Do what you like with me, I am going nowhere.”

Blitz struggled, trying to break the shockingly efficient hold locking his gun arm down against his side, lifting him bodily up off the floor as Stolas took full advantage of their height difference and dangled Blitz midair like some little kid and not the grown killer he was. He kicked and strained his shoulders, digging his recently shot upper arm into the sharp angles of Stolas’s arms and bucking his head back against the firm chest, but Stolas was better than his word as he rode out the frantic lashes of his imp’s entire body and hung on doggedly.

“I’m here, Blitz.” Stolas said again, dodging a spectacular backwards thrust of Blitz’s heavy horns by a whisper. “I’m right here, and so is your family. We’re doing this together or not at all. I’m not going to let you kill yourself for me. Do you understand me, Blitz? I won’t let you!”

Blitz gave him no answer, but twisted and pulled at Stolas’s hold on him, snarling with fury as he fought uselessly against Stolas’s unyielding hold. The owl prince dropped them back with a hard jerk of his hands around Blitz’s chest, the impact of their combined weights landing directly into the seat of an office chair jarring them and making Blitz drop his flintlock to the office floor with a loud clatter of metal on hardwood. Stolas quickly took advantage of the fumble to lace his fingers through his imp’s and tighten his hold.

“I said I won’t let you!” Stolas repeated in a voice like thunder. “You’re mine, Blitz! Mine, and I won’t throw your life away like this! All of us or none of us!”

“Lemme go!” Blitz yelled, and the way his voice cracked somewhere in the middle of the two simple words made Stolas do it despite himself.

Blitz whipped around in his lap, both arms flying up to wrap around Stolas’s chest, dragging the hand Stolas still held like a lifeline with him as he moved, and absolutely crushed his face to Stolas’s chest. Stolas’s hand slipped out of his, the familiar arms coming up to wrap up his imp and hold him as closely as Stolas dared, bewildered and worried as Blitz struggled to get himself under some semblance of control and keep himself there. He felt helpless, angry tears burning the corners of his eyes, and squeezed them shut against the soft cotton dress shirt his prince loved so much.

It smelled like lavender and flowers, and Stolas, and the soft chest fluff that tumbled out from the deliberately unbuttoned top three buttons of Stolas’s shirt ghosted over the top of Blitz’s head. He pressed his forehead into the feeling, working harder than he ever had to bind back the molten anger, the blackout, irrational need to get his gun back and fucking find anyone and everyone who thought they could touch his bird, touch Via. Take Blitz’s family from him with anything so easy as guns or knives.

His chest was heaving with the effort of keeping himself calm, Stolas was back to saying something Blitz couldn’t hear anymore, but his prince was there. Right in front of him. Holding onto him, passing a hand over his back and along his spines. Tears were splashing down across his temples from above and Blitz had to get hold of himself. Had to be better than this, do better than this…

“S’okay.” he forced himself to say, hearing his voice coming out in a tight, low growl. “S’okay, I’m good. I can handle it. I’m okay, Stols- You’re okay baby, I’m here too. We’re gonna get through this.”

“All of us or none of us.” Stolas repeated stubbornly, the words strong and clear despite the wet sound of them. “Say it, Blitz. Say the words and mean them. All of us, or none of us.”

Blitz nodded and eased his head back a fraction so his voice wouldn’t be lost among Stolas’s feathers. “All of us or none of us.” he echoed obediently. “I swear, I won’t cowboy it up this time. Together, as a family.”

“We’re right here, Dad.” Loona’s voice this time. “We’re gonna handle those Goetia motherfuckers, and we’re getting Via back to her dad.” A rustle and Stolas startled so minutely, Blitz was sure only he had noticed because of his closeness to the prince. “I mean, like- No offense, Stols. Technically you’re still one of those Goetic assholes, but you’re not… Y’know, like them. You’re our fancy asshole now.”

Something about the way his daughter sounded just like him in that moment made Blitz laugh and snapped him right out of the haze of blind anger and righteous indignation he’d been overwhelmed by, and he felt Stolas relax his grip around him, no longer constricting just in case Blitz lashed out again, and simply holding his imp now. 

“Hey- That’s my fancy asshole. Only I get to see it.” Blitz quipped unsteadily. “This bird’s mine, and the rest of you can just get in line, ‘cause I get first crack at any part of Stols’s ass, understand?”

He felt Stolas laugh around the clear sound of tears, and Blitz raised his chin to lay it flat along his prince’s chest and look up at the double pair of beautiful eyes just above him. “There’s my pretty bird.” Blitz smiled. “Got a laugh outta you, huh?”

Stolas smiled softly down at him and kissed the end of his imp’s nose. “Even though you gave me a heart attack not three minutes ago, yes. Somehow, no matter what else is true, you can always make me laugh.”

Blitz sat himself up so he could better face the room, and Stolas let him move now he was sure his imp wasn’t faking him out or too unsteady to hear reason anymore, and Blitz startled a little as he realized Moxxie, Millie and Loona had all crowded in around Stolas in the chair, apparently ready to jump in and dogpile Blitz if that’s what it took to restrain him.

Blitz winced at how easy it was for him to lose his damn mind over Stolas, and gave them all an apologetic look. “Listen, guys, I-”

“Really love your prince.” Moxxie said easily, Millie’s hands in his and stars in his eyes as he traded a doe-eyed look of utter devotion with her. “I’d do the same if it was Millie on the line. We get it.”

Millie nodded resolutely. “You saw what I did to Moxxie’s daddy at that fake weddin’.” she added with a wicked gleam in her eye. “And I’d do it again twice if anyone thought they could touch my man without my say-so.”

Stolas hugged Blitz around the chest, arms slipping up under his imp’s to bring them closer. “We’re a team, darling. We know you by now- I promise there’ll be plenty of opportunity for you to carve your name into Andre’s ass with a nice sharp knife.”

“Oh no you don’t!” Blitz shouted indignantly. “You get the snowcock! I called that bitch ex-wife’s ass two months ago!”

“And I said we’d discuss it when the time came.” Stolas said sweetly, a predator’s look all over his gentle face. “I’ve decided Stella’s mine. She spent so many years treating me like shit and causing me endless pain. It’s only fair I should get to return the favour, don’t you think?”

Blitz scowled at him. “Okay fine- But I still get to hold her down while you punch.”

Stolas laughed and rolled his eyes good-naturedly at his ridiculous little love. “Alright, deal. We’ll both kill her, together.”

“Does that mean Millie and I get Andrealphus?” Moxxie asked with a grin. “Because I have a new scope rifle I’ve been dying to try…”

Millie bit her lip. “Sorry baby, you won’t get to be there.” she said apologetically. “Someone’s gotta stay home with Maya.”

“I’ll do it.” Loona offered at once. “You and Moxx are better at fieldwork than me, and someone should be on the outside to run comlines anyway. You’re gonna need a getaway driver too, once you get Via out. I’ll keep May in the van with me, far enough away we won’t be where the fight is, but close enough to haul ass and pick you guys up once you call me.”

“There’s a BeezelBucks two blocks away.” Stolas offered helpfully. “I used to go there just to be away from Stella, and they make a simply divine peppermint latte.”

Loona made a face at him. “You would like those rich prince fancy coffees that cost ten bucks an ounce.”

“I’ll give you ten bucks if you get me one for after.” Blitz smirked at her. “Always love a good cup o’ brew after I get done stabbin’ motherfuckers. Makes me feel alive n’ shit.”

“I promise to pay you back for all the hard work, Blitzy.” Stolas teased, his voice lowered and his mouth pressed close beside Blitz’s ear as he said it. “My brave knight will have his soft, willing prince to come home to, afterall.”

“Goddammit Stols, my whole team’s in here!” Blitz swore. “That ain’t fair!”

Stolas grinned down at his imp, relieved to see Blitz back to joking and making innuendos instead of intensely, deadly serious and furious the way he had been. Truth be told, Stolas had seen Blitz on the job before, and fighting Andrealphus that one disastrous time six months ago, but his imp had never looked like that before. So cold, calculating. Like the assassin he hired out as, and nothing like the imp Stolas knew and cherished so dearly.

He kissed the cheeky smirk of a mouth, and Blitz leaned up and pulled Stolas’s head down towards him. “Mm, I thought I’d give you further motivation to come back to me whole and safe darling. Is it working?”

Blitz pulled back at his prince’s words and frowned, features soft and full of anxiety he in no way showed outwardly, but that Stolas could read in Blitz’s golden eyes as plainly as any library book. “Never needed convincing to come home to you, beautiful.” he said tenderly. “The hard part’s gonna be convincing the other guys to let me.”

Millie slammed her buckknife down into the meeting table behind them without warning, and all eyes instantly flashed to her. “That’s why I’m gonna bring ol’ Babygirl here.” she said cheerfully. “I gotchu, Blitz. Me n’ Moxxie’ll be there too, we so got this.”

“Not without a plan we don’t!” Moxxie finally piped up. “Loona, get the notepad- Millie, start running through your collection. We’ll make a list and see what the best options are.” He turned back to Stolas. “Sir? Can you draw us a map of the palace? Anything you can remember about the layout- Hidden passages, blind corners. Octavia’s room, if you can remember which window was hers.”

Stolas scoffed imperiously and swiped a quick hand up under his eyes to clear the last of his tears off his face. “I have an eidetic memory. Of course I remember- Give me the notebook.”

Loona handed it over as she came back to join them, Moxxie immediately launched into the world’s most boring monologue about strategic approaches, and weapons backups, and backpacks full of ropes and knives, and whatever the fuck else he thought mattered, and Blitz cut right into the other imp’s professional rundown with a loud, obnoxious ‘Fire melts ice! We gotta have a flamethrower! Write it down Stols- F-L-A-Y…’

“That’s not how you spell flamethrower!” Moxxie argued back. “And it doesn’t matter because we are not bringing one! Be realistic, Blitz!”

“Be less aggressively lame, Moxx!” Blitz shot back with a glint in his eye. “This is hero shit time! I’m goin’ all out!”

And on and on, until the day was mostly over, and there were open containers of takeout strewn around the meeting room’s table, and paperwork scattered all over the floor and chairs, and ink staining Stolas’s favourite shirt from where Blitz had excitedly pantomimed shoving a rocket launcher up the peacock’s asshole and smeared his open markertip across Stolas’s shoulder behind him.

The accident had earned Blitz a blistering dressing down from his prince, playful ribbing from his friends, and catcalls of ‘oooh! You’re in real shit now, Dad!’ from Loona, and Blitz had shrunk down so far into his shoulders that Stolas had sighed and forgiven him on the spot with a muttered ‘you’re buying me a new one.’ and a firm kiss to the top of his stupid imp’s head.  

They passed each other coffees, Stolas refreshed the tea in the pot for himself and Moxxie, and Loona slipped off to the bodega downstairs. She came back with sodas for everyone and sparkling water for Stolas, and by the time the sun was touching the horizon line, they’d just about solidified a plan of action.

“Okay, so we’re lookin’ great.” Blitz summarized as Moxxie rocked baby Maya and rubbed her back as the baby fussed and Millie hurriedly rushed back into the room with a fresh bottle of formula for her. “Everyone know where they’re gonna be?”

The room nodded, Moxxie looked up from his daughter long enough to nod, then passed the impling over to his wife for a feeding while Loona gave them a bored thumbs up.

”Everybody go home and sleep tight.” Blitz ordered with a short, directive nod. “Tomorrow’s a work day.”

Chapter Text

A/N: Early update because!! LVLUp this weekend, and ya boy gets to be in the room where it happens! Mobile updates are a huge pain in the ass, so y'all get the update in advance XD Sorry if it's a lil' messy- I've been working doubles to get Friday off and not miss a day at the con. We'll fix it in post! (after I post)

As always, love to hear feedback, concrit and general comments- Drop 'em if you got 'em! I definitely read them all even if I'm really bad at timely replies.

Chapter 5: At All Costs

They left the office just as the sun was beginning to set, Moxxie and Millie loaded down with baby Maya’s things as Blitz helped them pile into a cab back to their place.

“Call us if you need help with May!” Blitz reminded his friends as the cab door shut and goodbyes were exchanged over the happy sound of Maya babbling in her father’s arms. “Stols knows all her favourite songs, and I know how to do that one thing she likes with the horse rattle I got her!”

Millie laughed and rolled her eyes at him as the cab began to pull away from the curb. “We got this.” she shouted back through the open back window. “But if we don’t, we got Uncy Owl on speeddial!”

“Anytime you need!” Stolas called earnestly after the cab as it lurched forwards into traffic and Blitz stepped back over to him on the sidewalk. He watched the taxi disappearing into city traffic until he couldn’t see it anymore, then slipped his hand down into his imp’s.

“What are you thinking for dinner, darling?” Stolas asked him with a smile. “Shall I stop for fresh cream and make us that carbonara you love so much?”

Blitz’s eyes went wide and alarmed for a split second before he was able to cover it up with his usual brilliant smile and slid his arm up around Stolas’s back, shifting his prince’s hand in his to the opposite side.

“As amazing as that sounds,” he covered smoothly. “I was thinkin’ maybe we do something a little special tonight. Y’know, like a pregame, but with rats and hot cheese dip.”

He looked back over his shoulder at Loona, who was engrossed in her phone as usual, and raised his voice so she could hear him.

“You too Loonie.” he called back “A nice family dinner tonight, huh? Pick somethin’ you wanna eat- Literally anything. We’ll make it work, okay?”

Loona frowned as she sent one last text and looked up at her dad. She saw something on his grinning, open features Stolas had surely missed by virtue of not knowing Blitz as well as she did, and Loona stepped in closer to her dads. Blitz was looking up at her like he always did, as if she hung the moon and could do no wrong, wrapped around his bird and waiting for her answer, and Loona shook her head briefly to clear it.

She must have been imagining things. There was nothing in her dad’s eyes that triggered alarm for her now. No hidden plans, no secret mischief- Nothing but the earnest love and care he put into everything he did, but especially where his family was concerned.  

“Y-Yeah, sure Blitz.” she agreed easily, smiling down at him and nodding up the street at the nearby shops. “Whatever you say. We should hurry up if we wanna catch the market though. They close in like, half an hour.”

Stolas’s eyes widened and he tugged Blitz forward in a hurry with a horrified gasp. “Oh no! My good apples!” he cried in alarm. “I had the last one for breakfast- Hurry, Blitz! Hurry, I need them for caramel apples after dinner!”

Blitz’s grin was instantly sly and mischievous as he grabbed his prince’s hand and began to run. “Save dessert for after dark, beautiful. I like a snack after we-”

“Dad! For fuck’s sake!” Loona snapped directly into the end of her stupid dad’s shameless declaration. “I don’t wanna hear this!”

“Adults in love fuck sometimes! Sorry sweetie!” Blitz laughed like the maniac he was as all three of them careened around a corner at a dead sprint. “Charge your headphones and put them on ‘noise cancelling’ after dinner baby girl, your dad’s gonna show his big bird the best ride in town tonight!”

“Blitzy!” Stolas giggled like the shameless tease he was at the same time Loona pinned her ears back and yelled 'Dad!’

They ran together, shouting and laughing, Blitz making terrible, off-colour jokes the entire ten minutes it took to reach the market just in time to catch the last handful of vendors who hadn’t closed up shop for the night, and they fanned out across the little alley of stalls and shopfronts.

“Red delicious apples!” Stolas gasped breathlessly as Blitz stopped them in front of a bewildered imp vendor pulling a tarp up over the vegetable half of his display. “Please! It’s an emergency!”

The imp frowned up at Stolas with a sneer already on his face. “An apple emergency?” he echoed dubiously.

“Yeah, an emergency apple for after I get him home and take these damn clothes off.” Blitz cut in with a hard bluntness that made the shopkeep jump back and start bagging apples. “And none of those shitty bruised ones- I’m the only one handin’ out bruising around here.”

He smiled up at Stolas, who looked both resigned and mortified somehow, and smiled proudly. “Only with consent, right babe?”

Stolas nodded automatically, cheeks scarlet and his eyes wide with apologetic embarrassment as the imp behind the counter hastily tied the apple bag shut and practically threw it at them.

“Ten bucks.” the imp growled impatiently. “Cash or get fucked.”

“Threaten me with a good time eh?” Blitz quipped with a smirk that made the other imp recoil a little. “Ten bucks ain’t even cheap.”

He slapped the bill down on the old wooden countertop and the shop imp pulled it towards himself with a pointed turn of his back on them. Blitz grabbed the apples up in one hand, his prince’s hand in the other, and began to lead them away with an almost showy little skip in his step that made Stolas narrow his eyes suspiciously.

“You did that on purpose.” he accused point-blank. “You set that shopkeep up for utter humiliation talking like that. Not that I mind, I’m used to you by now, but why him Blitz? Why did you make a point to make that imp so uncomfortable?”

Blitz’s eyes narrowed and his hand in Stolas’s tightened protectively. “‘Cause he was about to make you feel the same way. Saw it in his eyes- He had you pegged for some shitty royal, and he was gonna make you sweat about it. You don’t need more shit to deal with tonight, so I handled it before it started.”  

Stolas sighed even as his eyes softened at how perceptive his Blitz was, and how ready his imp was to protect him from all comers. Even ridiculous shopkeeps who posed no threat at all outside of rough words and a bit of price gouging.

“I’m not made of glass, you know.” Stolas reminded him for the uncounted time since he’d first moved in with Blitz. “I can look after myself far enough to buy some apples and clap back at a rude checkout clerk you know.”

Blitz nodded along, clearly distracted by something inside his head, and passed the bag of apples over to his prince. “I know babe. You’re real good at clapping, I just didn’t want you to have to. Not tonight.”

The way Blitz said it made Stolas frown, worry touching all four of his eyes as he looked down and his imp and opened his mouth to ask if he was alright. Loona’s voice cut him off before he could, yelling down the nearly empty row of mostly closed market stalls for Blitz to bring her his wallet, she was missing four bucks for her dumpling order and the guy was being a real dick about four fuckin’ dollars anyway.

Blitz had instantly dropped Stolas’s hand and raced for his daughter’s side, a huge grin already back in place on the imp’s face as he yelled back that he’d be there in just a sec, keep the dickhead talking, and the vendor yelled back that he could hear them, were they fuckin’ stupid and broke?

The interaction had ended with Blitz flashing his flintlock when the stand owner implied Loona was just like the rest of her bitch race and hellhounds never had money because dogs only knew how to beg, and Stolas had bodily held his imp back in a failed effort to avoid confrontation as Loona leapt the small, low counter and decked the vendor fully in the teeth.

They’d run like hell after that, Loona howling with laughter as Blitz absolutely gushed about how great that punch had been, his baby had flawless form, and how he’d swiped three bottles of various sauces off the shelf before Stolas had been able to pull him back, and Loona grinned like a wolf back at him as she raised the stolen box of dumplings.

“That’s my girl! I’m so proud of you Loonie!” Blitz crowed as they ducked down a side alley and slowed to a jog, then a walk as no pursuers appeared behind them. “Don’t take shit from assholes.”

“Just from you.” Loona smirked, giving her dad a friendly punch on one shoulder. “Asshole.”

Blitz winked back at her and gave her one of his most charming smiles. “Love you too Loonie. Now what’re we missing for the perfect dinner?”

“Time to cook it.” Stolas remarked with a glance up at the slowly darkening sky above them. “At this rate we’ll be eating at midnight!”

Blitz raised an eyebrow at him. “If I’m eatin’ anything at midnight, it’s that perfect peach of yours.” he promised with a cheeky grab at Stolas’s ass.

“Blitz! Your daughter is with us!” Stolas laughed even as he blushed and leaned into Blitz’s hand on him. “Show some decorum!”

Blitz made a face at him. “Décor? Like decorate?” he asked with a perfectly straight face, and Stolas honestly couldn’t tell if the imp was feigning ignorance as he sometimes did to be cute, or if this was a genuine display.

“It means act like you understand public decency, jackass.” Loona supplied before Stolas could figure out which it was. “Once again, Dad, I don’t wanna see this shit!”

“Oh yeah, you don’t wanna see me love on my bird here, but we gotta watch you and Tony the Fridge suck face every time he drops you off, huh?” Blitz shot back with a smirk. “Real hypocritical of you there, Loonie Toonie.”

Loona glared at him. “First of all, his name’s Anthony, not Tony, and he’s like, five foot nothing, which is short for a hound.” she shot back petulantly. “Second of all, you guys have never walked in on me and Anthony fucking in the middle of the kitchen on a Saturday morning.”

“I told you to call ahead!” Blitz threw back with a smirk like a cat in the cream. “Not my fault you caught the tail end of that whipped cream fight.”

Stolas frowned as he thought back. “Mm, I don’t think that was the whipped cream fight, darling.” he mused idly. “That came before Loona walked in. I think it must have been the pancake batter debacle.” A coy, slow grin spread across his soft features, and Stolas ran a teasing hand down his imp’s back, down along the sensitive spines, making Blitz shiver deliciously. “Don’t you remember? When I accidentally dropped batter down your chest and I offered to clean you up?”

Blitz nodded enthusiastically, his entire focus on his prince now. “And then you licked it off me, and I put your head-”

“Dad!” Loona cut in before Blitz could force her to picture whatever had been going on in that kitchen before she’d walked in on them having vanilla-looking, if rough sex against the counter that fateful morning. “I swear to fuckin’ Satan, I’ll shove my foot right up your ass if you don’t shut the fuck up!”

Blitz gave her an impish grin and waggled his eyebrows at her. “And he was good at it too.” he finished with an obnoxious smirk on his stupid face. “Third best fuckin’ I ever had.”

Stolas frowned. “Third? What came first?” he asked curiously, oblivious to the perfect setup he handed his imp.

Blitz slid an arm up around his bird’s back, just above the long, beautiful tail and leaned up into Stolas’s side. “You did, if I was doin’ my job right.” he purred. “Remember our first time, after the park? I had you in that kitchen chair?”

Stolas shivered and nodded, and Blitz nestled his cheek up into his prince’s hip. “That time. Better than anythin’ I ever had ‘cause it was our first time after we said ‘I love you’.”

Stolas’s eyes softened, he pulled Blitz in closer and leaned over his imp to drop a sweet, tender kiss to the top of one of Blitz’s horns. “Oh darling, that’s the most romantic thing you’ve ever said to me.” he breathed like the hopeless poet’s soul he was. “I love you so much, do you know that?”

“Dads! I’m gonna puke in my mouth.” Loona complained into the tender moment. “Seriously- Five fuckin’ minutes without you two being ooey-gooey, syrup-sweet or Blitz describing bird sex in way too much detail. Is that such an impossible ask?”

Blitz smirked at his daughter, drew in a breath to answer something playful and obnoxiously explicit, but Stolas’s hand against his hip quieted him.

“I think we can manage the walk home.” he told Loona with a smile. “What about if you talked to us about things with Anthony instead? How’s that going?”

“Do I need to kill him yet?” Blitz chimed in way too cheerfully. “‘Cause I’ll do it, Loonie. Free comish, just call me and I’ll be there in ten.” He frowned, apparently thinking hard, then amended. “Twenty if there’s traffic. Fuckin’ traffic never lets up, it’s Hell- But I’ll be there as fast as the van can plough through a carpool lane full of kids!”

“Be serious, Blitz!” Stolas chided exasperatedly. “She’s not marrying him, it’s only a bit of dating and flirting.” He looked over Blitz’s head at Loona to check in, and she nodded a confirmation at him. “There, you see? Nothing to draw guns about.”

He leaned in over Blitz’s horns, a conspiratorial grin on his face as he addressed Loona instead. “So tell me- How long can he hold his breath? Is he a gentleman? Does he kiss gently, or does he make you work for it like Blitzy does with me?”

“Stols!” Blitz cried dramatically as Loona began to answer. “I don’t wanna hear this!”

Stolas arched a perfect brow at him and gave his imp his best courtly scowl. “Turnabout is fair play darling. Now shut up- I want the tea on Anthony!”

He giggled at his own stupid joke, and even Loona laughed as she circled around them to get to Stolas’s other side, and began to animatedly describe the way her hellhound not-yet-boyfriend kissed, and the way he took her to all her favourite smoke spots. They’d met at one of Bee’s hound parties, and-

Blitz groaned because this was torture, and he was pretty sure torture was illegal, and tuned them out as best he could. Which lasted about thirty seconds as his big dumb bird moved to clap his hands excitedly, the way Blitz always melted on the inside for, and slapped him right in the face with the full bag of apples.

“What the fuck, Stols!” Blitz complained as his prince neither noticed or apologized for the fruit salad assault.

He whipped his head back to glare at the owl, a blistering string of curses ready to tear a strip off his prince, but then Blitz caught sight of the look on Loona’s face as she spoke rapid-fire and animatedly with Stolas, her phone forgotten in one hand as she gestured and illustrated her words for her Bird Dad.

Bird Dad. Blitz thought as wonder replaced indignation and he felt his eyes stinging with pride and love for his patchwork little family. He’s her Bird Dad..

They made it home and up to the apartment just as the moon was cresting the horizon line, and Loona threw her box of stolen dumplings down on the kitchen table without ceremony as Stolas brought his apples to the fridge and came back out with leftover fish and rice.

“Which brick of cheese did you want darling?” he called to Blitz, who seemed startled to be addressed, and Stolas frowned at the uncharacteristic distraction his imp had been showing all night.

“Love?” he asked gently, crossing the kitchen to put a worried hand on Blitz’s cheek. “Are you alright? Do you want to talk about anything?”

Blitz frowned up at his prince, golden eyes darkening with concern as he faced Stolas and reached up to cover the long-fingered hand with his own. “I’m fine baby. Promise.” He brought his lover’s hand down and kissed the warm fingers. “Are you okay? I-I mean, it’s all shit about you and Via… D-Do you need to talk?”

Stolas shook his head, surprising himself by meaning his next words. “I’m alright, it’s fine. This is going to be difficult, and dangerous, but I’ve never felt so supported and looked after in all my life.” He leaned down to bring their faces closer together, and Blitz raised himself up to his tiptoes to help close the height difference between them as Stolas kissed him softly, lovingly on the lips. “I’m afraid, but not because I have any doubt we’ll get Via back. I’m afraid because it’s a terribly scary thing we’re about to do, and what if something happens to her? What if we don’t get there in time, i-if…”

Suddenly the mask of ‘I’m okay’ Stolas had somehow managed to sell himself trembled and cracked, tears rising in his open, honest red eyes.

“I could never forgive myself if anything happened to Via because of my choices…” he whispered, the words already full of tears. “I love her more than anything. I would do anything, be anyone…. I-I…”

He felt his knees hit the old tile floor of the kitchen, and Blitz was instantly wrapped around him like a warm blanket that purred softly, exactly the way his imp knew Stolas found the most comfort in, and Stolas laughed despite the hard knot of anxious worry sitting dead center in his chest.

“We can do this.” he said into the crook of Blitz’s neck. “I know we’ll get through this, I just have to get through tonight.”

He’d said it more to himself than to Blitz, and Stolas felt his eyes widen as he realized what he must sound like to Blitz. He waved a hand at the clumsy words, trying to clear them out of the air, and Blitz’s soft, tender kiss at one cheek quieted him.

“Nah. I get it Stols. You don’t mean it like it sounds.” he gave his prince a small, hopeful little echo of his usual teasing smirk. “Trust me, if anyone knows what ‘bad with words’ is like, it’s me. I speak dumbass like a third language.”

Stolas laughed despite the stray tears slipping down his cheeks, and Blitz brushed them off his cheeks with the back of both thumbs on either side of his face. “Third language? What’s the second?” Stolas asked reflexively, his curiosity much stronger than his good sense.

Blitz cocked an eyebrow at him and leaned in closer to his bird just in case Loona could still hear them from her place at the kitchen sink. “I’m a bird whisperer on the side. I can spell your name with my tongue, and it makes you scream like my own private concert.”

“Blitz, you ridiculous idiot!” Stolas giggled even as he pulled his imp down across his knees and leaned in to steal a kiss that deepened almost at once. “You complete asshole.”

Blitz’s answering squeeze of both his hips made Stolas yelp appreciatively, and Blitz grinned into their kiss. “Feel better, pretty bird?” he purred like warm butter, and Stolas shivered against him as he nodded. Blitz slid his hands up his prince’s sides and passed both hands over his shoulders. “Good. Ready for food dinner, or do you needs more snacks first?”

Stolas made to lean back in and steal another kiss off his imp, but as he moved he caught sight of Loona leaning back against the counter with her earbuds in, scrolling through her phone and waiting patiently for them to get their shit together, remembered the late hour and the long day before that.

“Let’s get dinner started.” he said instead, and Blitz nodded as he darted forward and stole that last kiss anyway.

“Yeah. Big day tomorrow, right?” he said with a kind, supportive smile in his words, and Stolas bit his lower lip as he ducked his head in a quick acknowledgement and let Blitz pull him to his feet.

“All of us or none of us.” Stolas said, some small, nagging bit of intuition making him say it despite everything in him screaming to keep things light and easy for Blitz, who was clearly struggling despite his flawless showman’s mask. “I love you, my beautiful Blitz. I need you to know that.”

Blitz came back down to one knee, drew his prince in tightly against his chest and pressed a soft, sweet kiss to Stolas’s chin. “All of us or none of us.” he echoed quietly. “Love you too, light of my life. Always, I promise.”

“Promised.” Stolas answered in a dreamy, smitten sigh. “Only mine, Blitz.”

“Can we eat before the fuckin’ sun rises?” Loona complained loudly into Stolas’s rapidly racing flights of fancy. “Dad- Suck his face later!”

Blitz was on his feet in a flash, pulling Stolas up with him as he went, a laughing grin already back on his face as he bantered back with his daughter and they set about laying their oddly comforting dinner of whatever-the-hell-they-wanted all over the crowded little kitchen table.

Stolas followed along and joined in on the jokes and good-natured teasing that was Loona and Blitz’s primary love language, but the worry never quite left his expressive red eyes as he watched his Blitz like a hawk and tried to ignore the nagging feeling that something was terribly amiss with his imp. Blitz showed no sign at all that he was even bothered by anything that had happened that day, or that he needed space to talk it out with Stolas, but Stolas knew by now that all the bluster and the increasingly sexual nature of his imp’s humour was hiding much deeper pain Blitz just didn’t want to address.

Stolas frowned between bites from a shrimp dumpling Loona had picked out especially on his account, and wondered if he could be doing something more to support his little lover. If he wasn’t masking his own distress well enough to let Blitz feel safe being vulnerable with him, if his loss of control in the office that morning was making Blitz treat him like spun sugar instead of the rock-solid partner Stolas had shown himself to be underneath all the tears and anxieties.

“Stols- Break out those caramel apples! I wanna try somethin’!” Blitz’s loud, eager voice cut directly into Stolas’s impossible thoughts, and the owl prince smiled at his ridiculous imp.

No point in refusing to be happy while he could be, Stolas told himself quite reasonably. Everything else would still be there in the morning, he knew (oh lords did he know), and hearing Blitz laughing and inventing new ways to give himself a spectacular stomachache come the small morning hours was actually helping Stolas keep himself level and grounded.

“You are not about to put that hot sauce into my caramel!” he cried instead, and Blitz looked absolutely scandalized at the idea.

“Of course I’m not!” he shot back indignantly. “I’m gonna get a spoon and put caramel on the cheese first. As nature intended.”

Then, despite himself and every shred of common sense that told him not to give in to the madness that was Blitz’s boundless imagination, Stolas found himself crossing the kitchen and retrieving the caramel for his imp while Loona pretended to vomit and cleared out another three dumplings from her stolen box.

“I’m not gonna take care of you if you puke.” Loona smirked at her father as he used a clean spoon to smear caramel from the jar over a jagged slice of aged cheddar cheese, then doused it liberally with Firebrand’s Fire Sauce straight from the bottle.

“I don’t need you anyway.” Blitz shot back with an equally obnoxious smirk that told Loona he was kidding and not at all serious with his hard words. “I got my sexy nurse right here.”

He grabbed Stolas across the waist with his free hand, pulling the prince up against his side, and Stolas rolled his eyes and made a face at the ridiculous idiot he loved more than anyone who wasn’t Via.

“Of course I won’t stay up with you if you make yourself sick.” Stolas warned entirely too reasonably. “You’ll never learn if I keep supporting your terrible ideas.”

Blitz lifted a mock-apologetic shoulder and gave his bird a dramatic sigh even as his grin widened into his signature ‘Hold My Beer’ look. He slid his hand out from around Stolas just long enough to catch the drops of hot sauce that streamed down over the sides of his masterpiece as he speared it with the end of a chopstick and raised his prize high between them.

 “Won’t learn if you don’t either.” Blitz quipped, and with a showy little flip of his wrist, he tossed the caramel cheese abomination up in front of his face and whipped his tongue out to hook it straight into his mouth like someone raised in the wilds of Wrath. “You know I got stubborn bitch disease.”

Stolas looked pained as Blitz chewed loudly and streaks of red sauce and sticky, melting caramel ran down his chin as the too-big bite crowded his mouth and pushed whatever didn’t fit back out again through the sharp little teeth.

“I can’t believe I still love you.” he huffed in disgust. “You’ll brush your teeth twice before you kiss me again, and it’s not a request. I’m telling you directly.”

Blitz grinned like the asshole he was at him, and Stolas thoroughly ignored the messy, sticky face he was still somehow desperate to kiss despite his warning to the contrary not five seconds ago. Nothing about his imp could ever make Blitz less kissable to him, Stolas thought idly even as Loona encouraged her father to cut another slice of cheddar off the block and stack the stolen dumpling sauces over the caramel this time, and Blitz did it because he had absolutely no sense of self-preservation in him if Stolas didn’t put his foot down to stop him.

He watched Blitz absolutely bury a sturdy chunk of cheese under every available topping the table had to offer, and Loona chanting ‘All-dressed cheese! All-dressed cheese!’ like a lunatic at her father as Blitz worked the whole damned plate up to his face and opened his mouth as wide as he could get it:

Love really must be blind, because Stolas certainly wished he were as Blitz downed the entire mess in one mouthful and showed off his skillful lack of a gag reflex to the whole room. The sludgy brown mix of sauces running out of his mouth this time joined the existing mess of caramel and hot sauce already on his chin, and Blitz chewed and swallowed so quickly Stolas only had to keep his eyes on the ceiling for three minutes as Blitz chased the whole thing with Stolas’s fizzy blackberry water, straight from the fucking bottle.

“Blitz! I’m not taking that back, that’s disgusting!” Stolas complained in a high, horrified squeal. “That’s your bottle now! I demand you buy me a new one tomorrow!”

“You sure?” Blitz offered, shaking the bottle in what he certainly thought was an enticing wave. “The blackberry really adds to the wasabi y’know. S’good shit Stols.”

Stolas made a face at him. “Blitz, if you don’t label that and keep it far, far away from my bottles, I will personally move everything you own to the hallway and leave you out there.”

“This’s my fuckin’ house!” Blitz challenged even as he grabbed a fistful of paper towels and started to clean himself up. “You get out on the fire escape.”

“No, I think Stols had it right.” Loona put in helpfully. “It’s my house too- He should toss you out for putting whatever this mess is into his fancy waters. You know he only drinks three things besides coffee and tap water.”

Stolas blushed at how accurate Loona’s assessment of his habits was, but raised his chin with great dignity anyway. “So there.”

Blitz rolled his eyes as if he were the most put-upon being in hell, but grabbed the mostly empty blackberry water and threw the contents back in a series of quick, fast swallows. Stolas felt the bridge of his nose blushing as he watched his imp’s throat working, Blitz barely even pausing for breath as he finished the water and slammed the empty plastic down on the table in front of himself like an empty beer bottle.

“There! Nobody’s gotta sleep anywhere but with me under my old blankets. Happy now?” He frowned, hearing himself speak before he’d properly thought through his words, then turned to his daughter. “Not you, obviously. You sleep in your room, my perfect baby. You’re not invited to Couch Cuddles with me n’ Stols tonight.”

Loona rolled her eyes and gave him the driest, most sardonic look she could muster. “Ew. Like I’d want to anyway. You’re probably gonna get naked as soon as my light turns off anyway. You do every other night.”

Blitz nodded along, perfectly at ease as Stolas’s blush deepened and he pointedly turned his thoughts away from a vivid fantasy of Blitz’s mouth on him the way his imp had been sucking on that water bottle’s spout.

“Yeah, we probably will.” Blitz answered cheerfully. “Headphones on tonight, Loonie! Me n’ my bird got adult content planned for later.”

Stolas wrinkled his nose at Blitz’s cheese-and-caramel-and-whatever else-covered face. “Not until you’ve had at least three baths.” he argued imperiously “You’re covered in mess!”

Blitz raised a cheeky eyebrow at him and grinned like a fox. “Thought you liked gettin’ messy with me, pretty bird.”

Stolas gave him a smirk that sent a shiver racing up Blitz’s spine. “Only if I’m the reason you need the shower,” he teased back. “Whatever this is,” He waved around at the sauces and cheese around them, “Has nothing to do with me.”

“Quitter.” Blitz teased with an airy wave of one hand. “Don’t worry Mister Preen, I’ll wash my face and brush my teeth before bed. You’re safe.”

“I think that’s my cue.” Loona said as she swallowed the last of her dumpling and looked around at the scraps and empty containers lining the table. “It’s hella late anyway, and we have an early wakeup tomorrow.”

Blitz’s smile slipped for a split second, and he hid it behind a napkin that wiped away the last of the sludge painting his chin. Stolas didn’t miss it, having been watching his imp as closely as he could get away with ever since they’d come home that night, but Loona didn’t speak to it, and so neither did Stolas.

“Alright. See you in the morning Loonie.” Blitz was saying to his daughter. “We’re gonna turn in too, soon as I get those three showers my princess here wanted me to take.”

He smiled over at Stolas, who returned the look, all four eyes soft with fondness and carefully masked concern as Blitz hopped out of his chair, heading for the bathroom and already pulling his shirt buttons open as he went.

“Damn it feels good to get outta these work clothes!” he declared to the apartment at large. “I fuckin’ hate button-ups. Dunno why I wear ‘em, honestly.”

Blitz stretched his arms up over his head with a huge yawn and an artful curve of his back that put every inch of the perfect, well-muscled chest and stomach on full display, and Stolas felt his eyes go hungry and dark.

Maybe he could find a way to get his hands on Blitz without finding out what secondhand cheese and caramel tasted like, he thought desperately. Blitz caught him looking, because of course he did- His stupid imp was more perceptive than Stolas was for fuck’s sake.

Blitz cocked an eyebrow at him and nodded towards the open bathroom door behind him. “Waiting for a formal invite?” he grinned. “Thought this was gonna be a teamup activity.”

Despite his own better judgement, Stolas picked himself up out of his chair and hurried over to his imp, a wicked grin already on his gentle features, and Blitz instantly pressed their bodies together as soon as his prince was within arm’s reach.

The sour, oddly not-bad taste of cheese and melted caramel, and spicy mayo laced with fish oil flooded his mouth as Blitz leaned up to kiss him. Stolas did nothing to protest and had the brief, hazy thought that this must really be serious for him to tolerate such a travesty.

“Stay quiet now.” Blitz purred against his beak, and Stolas trembled in anticipation as shirt buttons began to open from his waistline and moved upwards. “Give Loona some time to get her music on. I’ll make sure you do what I tell you, don’t worry ‘bout a thing pretty bird.”

Stolas giggled as the big, rough hands moved to support him at his lower back, and the one still opening buttons made sure to whisper Blitz’s sinful claws up the line from his stomach to his chest in a slow, maddeningly delicious tease Blitz knew his prince couldn’t resist.

“Let’s get filthy before we shower.” Stolas murmured against his imp. He nipped at Blitz’s cheek as he said it, and the answering hardness pressing into Stolas’s leg told him Blitz was more than game for whatever his bird had in mind.

“Whatever my baby wants.” Blitz agreed, and he flicked the last button open at Stolas’s ribs.

The fine cotton shirt flew open, Blitz took a half step back and let Stolas straighten long enough to carefully shrug out of his favourite fancy office shirt and hang it on the handle of the bathroom door, then the rest of the shower was a blur of hands, and mouths, and giggles from Stolas that were only quiet because Blitz had his hand firmly pressed over the shameless mouth.

By the time they made it back to their couch, now clothed in their usual sleepwear, save for the fact that Blitz was wearing an old Pink Pony Club Rider t-shirt Stolas rolled his eyes at where the imp usually slept shirtless. Blitz normally liked to press his entire body up against the down of Stolas’s chest feathers and the softness of the fancy threadcount cotton the prince insisted all his clothes come in, and the sudden change made Stolas frown as they settled themselves in for the night. Blitz immediately wrapped all four limbs around Stolas’s chest and hips like a small, purring backpack, and Stolas told himself he was inventing trouble that didn’t exist again. Maybe Blitz just wanted an extra layer tonight, or the horses gave him some measure of additional comfort, or-

“Love?” he asked carefully, not wanting to start an argument or ruin the comfortable quiet of the night. “Are you sure you’re alright? I can handle whatever you have to say, you know. I’m not fragile.”

Blitz nodded into his feathers and sighed happily. “Nothin’ could be wrong with my face pressed into your fluff, beautiful.” he mumbled sleepily. “Gonna be a rough morning, but lemme have a good night first.”

Stolas smiled, eyes soft and full of adoration for his impish little love, and wrapped his arms up around Blitz’s back the way they fell asleep every night. Stolas dropped a firm, loving kiss down right between both horns, and felt Blitz press a soft kiss to the V in his collarbone before the imp went limp against the warm chest and Blitz’s breathing evened down into sleep.

Stolas followed shortly, and the apartment went silent and still around them save for the ever-present flicker of neon city lights dancing across the floor from the somehow never-quite-closed curtains.

                                                                                                                             ~*~*~*~*~

It was dark and cold when Stolas startled rudely out of a deep sleep by the feel of Blitz slipping out of his arms and the soft, soundless noise of his bare feet clicking against the hardwood in front of the couch.

“Mm, Blitz?” Stolas called hazily. “S’wrong?”

“Gotta piss.” Blitz’s low, soothing reply came just as sleepily. “S’okay baby, go back to sleep.”

Stolas rolled his eyes almost reflexively as irritation briefly eclipsed exhaustion at the nuisance of sharing such a small bed with someone who needed to get up every three hours just to spite him, and immediately dropped back into sleep. Blitz dropped a gentle kiss to one of his cheeks, big hand passing over his forehead the way he often did when he accidentally woke Stolas at night, and the owl prince smiled in his sleep.

Blitz watched him in the faint, dirty light from the curtains he’d deliberately left half-open earlier that night, and when he was absolutely sure his prince was actually asleep and not just drowsing, he padded over to his old beanbag and pulled the sturdy jeans he’d stashed there up into his arms. He was careful not to drop the flintlock and gloves he’d hidden in the pooled waistband while Stolas had been locked in the bathroom fucking with his bedtime routine, and hugged the bundle to his chest like it could do a damn thing to steady his nerves.

It didn’t, obviously, but the heady rush of adrenaline at potentially being caught at any time kept him moving and quiet as he slipped into the bathroom and locked the door behind himself. He turned a tap on low to mask any clinking or rustles he might be making, just in case Loona got up to use the bathroom or Stolas decided to knock for him for some stupid bird reason, and climbed into his work jeans without a sound.

He strapped his flintlock down into the shoulder holster he’d hidden under the old t-shirt he’d used as cover, hastily pulling the old shirt off and unstrapping the empty leather holster long enough to re-fasten it over the tee once he’d dressed himself again. He’d squirreled the empty holster away under bathroom sink earlier, hiding it under the old horse shirt while Stolas had been busy looking for his pajamas out in the living room earlier, and hoped to hell his prince was still too rattled to notice the hard buckles and obvious lines of the thing when Blitz had curled up with him. Stolas hadn’t said a word, but Blitz had still held his breath when he’d asked if Blitz needed to talk like Stolas knew something was wrong, and just couldn’t tell what. Blitz pulled his gloves with the Asmodean crystal sealed to his right arm on, and sighed. He hated to lie to his boyfriend like this, but there was no other real choice.

It was this or let Stolas get hurt just because Blitz had crashed into his life and fucked everything up so bad Stolas had lost his daughter.

He took a second to stare himself down in the dirty bathroom mirror, told himself he had no better options and that there was no way he was gonna let his prince come anywhere near Stella or Andrealphus after nearly dying last time. He spared a minute to feel guilty for lying to his entire family all day the way he had, for blowing Stolas off every time he’d asked if Blitz was okay that night.

Fuck, was that bird smart. Blitz thought with a small, proud smile. Nobody else had any idea that Blitz was anything but his usual dipshit self, but not his bird. Not his clever, sweet prince who knew Blitz better than he did sometimes.

I shoulda left a note… he thought with a wince as he stepped back and away from the sink and carefully unlocked the bathroom door behind him. No reason to keep his roommates from the only working toilet in the place, after all.

He sucked in one last deep, bracing breath, then ran a slow, attentive finger down the middle line of the crystal, thinking of Stolas the whole time. The portal jumped open where the bathtub had been a few seconds ago, and Blitz stepped through and into the darkness of an unlit yard without hesitation.

                                                              ~*~*~*~

The hard crackle of magic snapped Stolas awake with a jolt, and he fumbled with the blankets momentarily as he tried to stand before his body had been fully alerted it was awake. The handful of seconds cost him the only time he might have had to follow as the bathroom door blew open in a stiff breeze that certainly hadn’t come from inside the apartment, and he watched Blitz’s tail disappear through the open portal that snapped shut neatly behind him.

“Loona!” Stolas screamed as he rolled roughly off the couch in his hurry and landed hard, right on his ass. “Loona! He’s gone! He’s going alone!”

He swore as he realized Loona was asleep with her headphones on, and threw himself to his feet. He ran to her door and pounded with both fists, screaming the hellhound’s name and trying to keep himself together well enough to tell her what he’d seen once she fucking answered him-

“Loona! Loona, please!” he sobbed hysterically. “Loona!”

He raised a fist to slam it back against her door and nearly punched the scowling face right in the mouth as Loona suddenly appeared in front of him.

“What the fuck is-” she started hotly, then saw Stolas’s face and stopped dead.

“Shit. He ran, didn’t he?” she asked at once, and Stolas frowned, suddenly furious at her.

“Of course he didn’t run!” Stolas snapped at her. “Of fucking course he didn’t! He’s gone to get Via, I know he has!”

Loona made a face at him, bristling at the accusation in the prince’s eyes, and shoved him to one side as she moved them both back out of her doorway and into the main apartment. “I didn’t say away, dickhead! Obviously he went to get Via back- That’s classic Blitz.” She waved back at the couch. “Get whatever guns or knives you can find on, I’m gonna call M n’ M. Guess we’re gonna fight royalty in our pajamas tonight.”

Stolas nodded, tears streaking down his face as he swiped harshly at them and tried to think what he could find in short order. Nothing much came to mind, but he knew enough to strip out of his pajamas and into whatever sturdy pants and convenient t-shirt came to hand from behind the beanbag.

He was standing in the middle of the open living room, now dressed in some type of long cargo pants and one of Loona’s old sweaters he’d adopted as his own, eyes huge and terrified, holding a duffel bag Loona had shoved into his hands at some point, when the front door exploded with loud, insistent knocking and Loona hurried over to let whoever was on the other side in.

Millie and Moxxie tumbled in almost as soon as the door had left the frame, little Maya strapped to Millie’s front. Moxxie was covered in baby supplies while Millie wore an entire arsenal of battle axes, knives, a stolen long gun bearing the Goetic seal of Stolas’s old dominions, and a backpack that rattled ominously as she marched herself towards Stolas and the other two followed grimly.

“We knew he might do this.” she said as if Stolas weren’t half-hysterical in tears and hopelessly lost for what to do next. “Now he did, and it’s up to us to git his ass back safe.” She pulled a sheathed knife out from a pouch by her side and held it out to the owl. “You comin’?”

The question flared bright, hot anger in Stolas’s chest and he grabbed the knife out of Millie’s hands without a moment’s hesitation. “Of course I’m coming. My imp needs me, and my daughter’s on the line.”

He looked down at baby Maya cooing softly in her baby backpack as her little legs kicked at either side of Millie, and his eyes softened briefly.   

“My baby needs me.” he repeated quietly, and Millie gave him a hard, brief nod of approval.

She wasn’t sure if Stolas had meant Blitz or Octavia that time, but it hardly mattered at all as she took the bird’s hand and led him to the kitchen table, where Loona and Moxxie had spread out their hastily drawn maps of the palace as Stolas remembered it (which was eidetically, barring any changes made by Andre or Stella), and they spent a few brief minutes arguing over best points of access, easiest escape routes and coolest explosion potential (because Millie was gonna light fireworks up all their rich asses if one single scratch was on Blitz or Via when they found them).

“You are so fucking hot right now.” Moxxie breathed as his wife delivered the blistering oath and even Stolas grinned viciously at the idea of murdering those pricks. “Being a mom looks so good on you baby, but murder’s really your best feature.”

Millie blushed, one hand rubbing little May’s back as she rocked the baby and studied battle plans. “Moxxie!” she giggled like a lovestruck teen and not the grown assassin she was. “Quit bein’ so sweet- We got killin’ to get done.”

“And then I’m gonna get you home, put our daughter to bed, and bring you-”

“Ew! Shut the fuck up, freak!” Loona cut in with a broad, fond smile that let the imps know she was mostly teasing. “You’re worse than Blitz and Stols- And last night I had to watch them suck face on the kitchen floor after Blitz inhaled like, six blocks of cheese with caramel. Make me puke.”

“It wasn’t so bad once I was used to it.” Stolas chimed in without thinking, his sharp eyes occupied with mapping the best route out of his old library and sleeping quarters. “The soy sauce really brought out the caramel, and the wasabi gave it a bit of kick.”

All three of his companions made horrified faces at him, and Stolas blinked out at them in total confusion. “What? Have I said something stupid?”

Moxxie rolled his eyes, one hand sneaking over to Millie and slipping his fingers into hers. “Not at all, Sir. We’ll get your imp back.”

Stolas nodded at him, not because he believed the imp, but because the alternative was leaving his Blitz alone in that palace against his ex-wife, a known assassin with a grudge against Blitz in particular, and his prickish once-brother-in-law with no qualms about freezing his beloved into a living ice sculpture on his stolen front lawn.

“Let’s hurry.” Stolas said by way of answer, and they all crowded in closer as Stolas began to mark blind corners, easy external access points and possible routes they should use once already inside.

All of it took less than twenty minutes, and the little family was out the door, crowding into the I.M.P van Moxxie had parked right out front of the apartment building, and tearing ass in the direction of Stolas's old palace uptown.

Chapter Text

A/N: I LIVE! After one HELLUVA LvlUp! in Vegas, catching some good ol'-fashioned Vegas lungrot, and sleeping through all of Monday- Update day! Well, early update day, because I'm extremely unable to keep a schedule! I'm kind of a notorious slow-burn kinda guy, and that goes for action and romance, so without further delay- WHO WANTS SOME QUALITY TIME WITH DADDY?

Good. Stay with me y'all, I promise Soon(tm) :P 

*Magick is not a typo. There's a difference.

CW/TW: Child Abuse mentioned (Via, by Stella), DV references (Stella), g-n reference, canon-typical violence implied. Nothing too intense, but if you have triggers, be aware these themes are present and will intensify in future chapters.

As always comments, concrit and feedback always welcome :)

Chapter 6: All 4 U

Blitz stepped out onto the dark lawn, the cool evening breeze pulling a shiver out of him he wasn’t sure wasn’t mostly anxious fear. What was he even doing here? This was the stupidest shit he’d ever done! Stolas was gonna kill him. Millie was literally gonna kill him. Loona was gonna call him every awful thing she could think of while hugging him so hard his ribs broke.

They were gonna be so pissed. He might not even have a boyfriend once all this shit was settled and Via was back with her real dad, and-

A loose pile of frost-coated snow crunched as Blitz crept forward along the petty layer of ice Elsa had absolutely covered Stolas’s once vibrant and green palace in, and he froze. Nothing moved, nothing changed. Nobody threw ice daggers at his head, the sheets of frozen water didn’t rise to block his way forward.

Blitz grinned into the darkness and readjusted his gun at his side. Stupid royal prick probably set the alarms to watch for Stolas, not some fuckin’ nobody imp like Blitz. Luckily, Blitz wasn’t just some asshole imp breaking into the royal palace- He was the asshole imp who’d done it so many times even the fucking staff greeted him by name when they caught him.

Blitz made a face as he reached an outside wall and began to climb for a window he knew would drop him directly beside Stolas’s old bedroom. The idea of thinking of other imps as staff made him kinda sick, but at the same time he didn’t know what else to call the little little guys, so he promised himself he’d come back for Pringles and the others after he put his family back together, and kept moving.

He scaled the wall for what felt like forever, belly flat against the old stonework, chin scraping against loose mortar and patches of random ice that threatened to shake his grip loose and send him plummeting back to the unforgiving ground now twenty feet below, and finally found the window ledge he needed. He pulled himself up over the lip of it slowly, carefully, listening intently for any sound of movement or alarm as his horns crossed the threshold of the sill before his eyes did, and peeked out through the frosted (this time in that fancy rich guys way, not the ice way he thought idly) glass.

A butler imp scurried out of Stolas’s old bedroom with a tray full of tea and some kind of beauty shit Blitz didn’t have time to untangle, and the poor guy looked absolutely terrified. His eyes were huge, the steps hurried and half-panicked as he rushed down the hall, and Blitz frowned. None of Stolas’s old servants had actively run from him, he thought. Sure they rolled their eyes a lot, and muttered judgmental insults at the bird whenever they passed Blitz, who had smirked at them and said nothing because he wasn’t some shithead snitch, but they weren’t afraid of Stolas.

These imps were absolutely terrified of their new masters. Almost as if Stolas had been the nice one, and now they lived with monsters who did worse things to them than treating them like stress toys during rough phone calls, or emptying the entire fridge out onto the kitchen floor just because they were anxious.

His phone vibrated loudly in his pocket, and Blitz almost jumped a mile, his thoughts scattering like roaches as he ignored the phone and focused back on getting himself inside. He pulled a long, thin piece of flexible wire out from a pocket, beginning to uncoil it to begin the obnoxious process of popping the old latch he knew so well, when a heavy click and the deafeningly loud sound of the old wooden frame in front of him swinging outwards a little bit caused him to scramble back and to the side, hanging off the ledge by his fingertips and thanking Satan for his circus training as he ducked low to let the window clear the curve of his horns and scurried over to the open end.

He nudged the window open further, just enough so he could squeeze himself inside, and as his head cleared the interior sill’s edge, a quiet little whisper floated up to him.

“Hurry, sir. We don’t have much time before the master will want his nightly brandy.”

Blitz frowned and leaned in further until he could just barely make out the shadowed form of Pringles, his old kinda-friend, maybe? Whatever. The guy who always slipped him the good snacks when he was stuck hiding in a closet from Stella or after a particularly rough session with Prince Stolas.

“Pringles?” Blitz called back in an undertone. “That you?”

“Yes, sir.” the butler confirmed. “Lady Octavia is down the hall. I’ll show you, but hurry.”

Blitz blinked stupidly for a second, mystified that he had an accomplice on the inside and ashamed of himself for not even considering the all-imp serving staff might care for their charges beyond the work they were forced to perform.

He dropped down from the window, landing soundlessly on his bare feet, and Pringles raised a single eyebrow at his unshod feet.

“Step lightly, your hooves will echo.” Pringles advised without inflection to his words. “This way.”

He began to scurry away down the hallway, and Blitz followed without a word as they navigated the unnecessarily huge palace. They passed hallways full of iced-over dead plants, huge crystalline structures built from white marble, carved from ice and snow, garishly huge portraits of King Cock himself and his weirdo sister. They passed portraits of Stolas someone had missed when they’d purged the palace of every trace of him, curtains hastily thrown over the old oil paintings and everything but the barest hint of purple and the familiar red eyes utterly erased from view.

His hooves clicked on the polished marble floor, exactly the way Pringles had warned him they would, and Blitz bit his lip as he tried to lighten his step and succeeded only in recreating the infamous Clown Walk his father always beat him for trying. He never could get the exaggeratedly huge steps right in those big clown shoes… Not like Fizz could, anyway. That’s what Cash always told him while he slapped him around- No good for nothin’, ain’tcha? Can’t even walk right!

“Sir?” Pringles’s soft voice broke through Blitz’s whirling thoughts, and he shook his head hard to ground himself.

“Yeah, I’m good.” Blitz answered. “What do I do?”

Pringles laid his hand on the bedroom door they’d stopped in front of and gave Blitz a grave look. “Master Andrealphus has sealed and warded this door. Only a servant of the House or the master himself can unlock it. He will know as soon as I open the door.”

“Fuck, okay. I got this.” Blitz ran a hand back over one horn in a weak effort to steady his nerves, and stared at his bare feet on the fancy floor for a series of eternal seconds. He looked up at Pringles and nodded resolutely. “Okay. Do it.”

“I’ll buy you all the time I can, sir.” Pringles promised as he turned the handle down and pushed the door open for Blitz. “Good luck, Blitz.”

Blitz clapped a grateful hand to the little butler’s shoulder, and felt the smaller imp wince at the friendly touch. Blitz felt a hard flare of anger in his chest as he registered the instinctive response Stolas had displayed for the first four months they’d lived together, and connected the dots between the back of Stella’s hand and Pringles’s face.

He was going to have to square that particular debt sooner rather than later, Blitz thought grimly. Right after he got his daughter back from these rich pricks. Pringles hurried him into the darkened bedroom, and Blitz scurried inside without a thought, hearing the door click quietly shut behind him as Pringles made good on his word and covered for them.

The room was huge, big enough that Blitz’s entire apartment could probably fit inside it without much of a wiggle, and everything in here seemed to be space-themed. Just like Stols, Blitz thought with a soft, fond smile, except that where his prince loved bright, vibrant shades of purples and galaxy blues, this room seemed to favour midnights and indigos, and purples that reminded Blitz of moonrise and those pictures of galaxy rings he saw in Stolas’s books sometimes.

Not that his prince had brought home many books on stars lately, Blitz reminded himself with a wince. The last time he’d tried, Stolas had spent three hours crying with the book hugged up under his chin, telling Blitz between sobs how he used to read that particular tome to Via as she’d gotten older. Taught her magick, and how to access her power safely, and-

Blitz shook his head to clear it, took half a step into the soft moonlight that was the only source of illumination in the room, and immediately felt stars explode in front of him as something sturdy and hard slammed into the back of his head. He stumbled forwards onto his hands and knees with a barely-muffled yelp of surprise, one hand shooting to the sharp sting of pain blossoming just above the curve of his neck.

He fell, his circus training kicked in without his having to think about it, and Blitz rolled back up onto his feet without missing a beat, flintlock sliding free from its holster as he pulled it with professional smoothness and cocked the hammer back, aiming as he came up onto one knee and gave himself a steady base to shoot from.

“Eat lead, you cocksuckin’ ice bitch!” he yelled as he whirled to face his attacker. “I let you live last time ‘cause the kid didn’t deserve to watch you die, but she ain’t here this time!”

“Is that a fucking gun?” came a high, shrill voice that in no way sounded gay enough to be the snowcock or obnoxious enough to be Stolas’s bitch ex-wife. “Are you fucking kidding me!”

A spark of dark, wildly uncontrolled black energy rolled off a smaller version of Stolas’s long, slender fingers and the light of the magic briefly lit up Octavia’s huge, frightened red eyes under her sleep-mussed hair.

“Via! Via, it’s me! It’s Blitz!” Blitz cried at once, shoving his gun back into its holster and raising both hands high, fingers splayed wide apart to show how empty they were. “I thought you were your uncle! It’s okay sweetie- I got your text!”

“The one I sent my dad?” she shot back roughly. “He got my text and sent you instead?”

Blitz shook his head, hoping Via could see in the dark the way Stolas could, and kept his hands high and visible. “No- I-I mean, he got it because I showed it to him, and he knew it was you because his ex-wife’s a total slag bitch, and-”

“That’s my mother!” Via cut in indignantly. “You can’t call her a bitch, only me and my dad can! When you do it, it’s shitty!”

Blitz nodded along, desperate to get to the rescuing part before they got cornered and caught by Andre or his bitch sister. “Yeah, okay, sorry or whatever- Point is, Stols got the message, and he doesn’t know I’m here. I…” His voice dropped a little here, and he saw Octavia frown in the dim moonlight pouring in through her gauzy curtains. “I lied to him so he wouldn’t follow me. I didn’t want him getting hurt because of me.”

“Because of you?” Via echoed incredulously. “He’s the one who abandoned me and my mum for you. I saw that trial, you know. It was on fucking TV.”

“Listen, kid, I know you and your dad got a lot goin’ on,” Blitz started awkwardly, guilt choking him as he remembered Stolas’s heartbroken sobs the last time he and Via had seen each other and his daughter had basically disowned him after calling her father a liar who didn’t love her. “But he only did what he did because I fucked up. I still dunno how I did it, but I must’ve if they sent Satan himself after me and went to the trouble of framing me-”

“Framing you?” Via cut in swiftly. “Like, the way my mum and uncle Andre keep telling all their stupid rich friends about how easy it was to get my dad thrown out of the royal circles?”

Blitz finally lowered his hands, but made an especial point to make his movements broad and obvious, just in case Via thought he might pull the gun again. “Yeah, kinda. Sorta. Look, I don’t know shit about shit, but I know two things for goddamn sure tonight- I got your text, Stols confirmed it was your mom’s number, and the second he lost his shit thinkin’ of you in danger was the second I started double-crossing my own team to keep them safe.”

He took a careful half-step towards the teenager, hand outstretched to her and golden eyes wide with urgency. “We can fight about it later, okay? I gotta get us outta here before-”

“Octavia?” came a familiar drawling voice Blitz wished he never had to hear again. “What the hell do you think you’re doing up at all hours? I said stay in bed! Don’t make me lash you down again!”

The doorknob to the bedroom rattled, Octavia’s eyes in the moonlight went wide and panicked, and Blitz swore as he moved before he’d finished thinking and dove for the open closet door.

He landed down behind a bunch of old boxes in the frankly palatial wing covered in Via’s clothes, shoes and whatever the fuck else teenage girls with loaded daddies kept in their walk-in closets, and buried himself down among the general chaos while he heard Via scrambling to hide something before the door swung open without warning and revealed Andrealphus’s tall, cocky form in the doorway.

The peacock was dressed in his usual icy blue and white robes, feathered ruff draped elegantly around both shoulders and trailing down his back like the world’s gayest drag queen in pale blues and ugly off-whites that were trying, but failing, to be pure whites. Blitz frowned as he caught the fact that Andrealphus was somehow still dressed in his courtly attire at half past midnight, and tucked the information away for later, when the detail might turn out to be useful.

“I was thirsty.” Via lied smoothly, as if she were used to it and accustomed to showing nothing but her familiar scowl to the world around her. “I can get a fucking drink in my own house if I want it.”

Andrealphus sneered at her and raised an eyebrow at the girl. “Your house, is it? Not for much longer, I’ll tell you that much. You’d better get used to tethers, girl, because as soon as your mother and I finalize the last bits of paperwork, you’ll be out on your ass with your father- If you’re lucky. In the meantime, I’d do what I was told, wouldn’t I?”

He smirked at Octavia, the smile cold and imperious, full of all the disdain in the world, and Blitz fought himself not to shoot the prick in the mouth point-blank from the closet. Via didn’t deserve to see violence like that, not unless he had no other choice, but the snowcock was trying him like nothing else had, not even watching his bird get swallowed by the ice dragon that one time.

Via, Lucifer protect her soul, played it off perfectly, flipping her long, loose hair over one shoulder the way only teenage girls could say ‘fuck you’ without speaking a word, and crossed her arms across her chest. “I want a fucking drink. Get one of the imps to bring me my sparkling lime water, or I’ll pace this room all night and your stupid wards won’t let you sleep either.”

Andrealphus narrowed his eyes for a second, rolled them dismissively, then waved a hand at Via’s general presence. “Alright, fine. I suppose we can allow some measure of comfort. We’re not animals after all. But I better not have to come back here before morning, or I’ll make you sorry. Do you understand me, girl?”

Via nodded and dropped her eyes to the floor, a genuine look of anxious fear in her eyes as her uncle pinned her with his icy gaze for a moment, then two, just to drive the fact that he had absolute control over her home, then nodded in satisfaction.

He laughed, the sound self-important and ugly, and Blitz pressed himself lower against the soft pile of old laundry he was hidden in as the shaft of light coming in from the hallway briefly widened, then disappeared again as Andrealphus swanned out of the room and Via stood statue-still in that same submissive posture until he’d slammed the bedroom door and the sound of clicking talons on the old marble faded away.

“He’s gone.” Via called in a careful undertone, and Blitz was instantly shaking off t-shirts and old hoodies as he rushed to his feet and ran to Via’s side.

“We gotta move.” he told her all in a rush. “How long can it take to get some fuckin’ water out of a fridge?”

Via smirked at him as if he were simple. “Fifteen minutes. Five to get the water from the kitchen, ten to walk it down here without spilling it. Uncle Andre likes to trip the imps so he can scream at them and make them start again.”

Blitz winced, thinking of poor Pringles getting an asskicking on their behalf but being unable to stop it without sacrificing Via. “I hate that, but okay. Whatever we gotta do.” he said, grabbing Via’s hand and beginning to pull her towards the balcony door. “Let’s get out on the balcony, your butler said this room’s warded against magic.”

“Only portal magick.” Via corrected, pulling a spark of purple flame up from the palm of her hand to illustrate her point. “I can still look after myself, I just can’t use anything that does real damage or opens portals. My whole room is cut off, and the palace is shielded except for dad’s old office.” She frowned then, and Blitz felt his arm reaching for her, trying to reassure the girl, but he forced himself to stop before he touched her. Just in case it was too soon, too personal.

“Th-They… Uncle Andre and my mum,” Via started uncertainly. “They keep talking about opportunities, a-and ‘finding the right moment’. I think they’re planning something bad. Like, very bad, Blitz. That’s why I sent that text to my dad…”

Blitz nodded, and this time he did put a hand on her arm to let her know she was safe with him. Octavia didn’t pull back or react to his touch at all, and some faint part of Blitz beamed that she was allowing the contact at all.

“Not to freak you out or anything, but I got intel that says the peacock and your mom got some real scary shit lined up.” he confirmed. “S’why I’m here alone. Didn’t want your dad or my team gettin’ caught in the crossfire while I clean up my own mess, y'know?”

Via made a face at him. “My dad’s an adult. He chose you over me, not you. What, did you force him to sacrifice his life at that trial, or?”

Blitz’s eyes widened, heart quickening as he saw Stolas’s grand gesture from Via’s eyes for the first time and realized she must have been terrified in a way that made his fears seem trivial and stupid in comparison. “Of course not! I…” He trailed off and ran a hand back and along one of his horns in an effort to ground himself.

He looked up at her shrouded form in the dirty moonlight, those red eyes hard and accusatory, and dropped his shoulders. “Listen, there’s a whole pile o’ shit to talk about where me n’ Stols are concerned, but I’ll tell you Lucifer’s own truth Via- Your dad loves you, okay? He loves you more than anything alive, and if I leave you here tonight, and somethin’ bad happens, I’d have to throw myself into that volcano in Wrath, ‘cause he’d just die.”

Blitz looked up at her, and Octavia seemed to soften just enough that he knew she was hearing him, so he plowed ahead recklessly.

“I don’t think he chose me over you, I think sometimes…” Blitz stumbled, afraid to overstep by speaking to Stolas’s daughter so candidly, then did what he always did and said ‘fuck it’ before speaking again. “I-I think sometimes it’s not ‘either or’ in this place. I think you weren’t gonna die, and he didn’t realize he could lose you chasing after me the way he did. Me? I had my head in a fucking guillotine for fuck’s sake. You know how soft your dad is, and how sometimes he’s too sweet to know the world’s such a bastard place out there. I bet he didn’t think they’d take his powers, or his titles. He thought the worst they could do was kill him.”

“And that’s so much better?” Via demanded angrily. “He’d be fucking dead, and it wouldn’t effect me at all if he was?”

Blitz bit his lower lip and wrung the hem of his old horse shirt between both hands. “Octavia, look… Y-Your dad- H-He takes those pills, right? The ones you found at Sinsmas?”

She nodded, and he rubbed at the back of his neck, unsure of how much he should tell her, how much she could understand given they had about five minutes to wrap this up and get the hell out of here.

“He takes them ‘cause he needs them, Via.” he told her in a messy, breathless rush of words. “His brain don’t make the right stuff to keep him safe, okay? He needs the pills to help, and it’s not ‘cause you’re not enough, or his life with you was so shitty or any other kinda horseshit rich prick propaganda. It’s just-”

He stalled out here, out of his depth and anxious as hell as the overwhelming need to run pounded at the back of his mind even as he tried to be as gentle as he could with Via and her sheltered understanding of her world.

“Look, I dunno the science shit!” he snapped in annoyance at his own ignorance. “Ask your dad when we get outta here, but I’m tellin’ you straight- Those pills help him be the dad you love. The fun dad who took you to LooLoo Land as a kid, and taught you magic n’ shit. The dad who could get outta bed and be a dad, okay? It means a hell of a lot more that he wanted to be your dad than it does he takes meds to do it.” He laughed then, bitter and harsh as he remembered Cash and his own childhood in the circus. “Take it from someone who knows from shitty dads, okay? Stolas loves you. Everything he ever did was for you. Just because he made one bad call, one time, in a high-stakes situation don't take that away from either of you.”

The room was quiet for a handful of seconds then, and Blitz winced hard as he saw her slipping away from his harsh words and rough delivery. How could he just dump that shit on Via like this? In the middle of his so-called rescue, when she was already so-

“Is that why he let her hit him?” Via asked suddenly, and Blitz stared back at her in complete astonishment. Via dropped her eyes as a few stray tears slipped out at the corners, and one arm came up to rub at its opposite in the same self-soothing gesture Stolas used when he was anxious and trying to look fine.

Blitz almost moved to respond to that gesture on instinct alone, but Via shocked him by growling low in the back of her throat and rallying as if she’d just told everything holding her back to fuck itself and it listened.

“She hits me too.” Via confessed much too casually. “My mum does. She says I remind her of him, and I deserve to suffer because of it. She says I’m weak like my dad, and she likes to watch me squirm since she can’t make him cry anymore.”

Blitz very carefully said nothing as molten fury threatened to overwhelm him as this literal child told him what her mother did to her without a shred of remorse or guilt for her monstrous actions. Listening to Stolas talk about Stella’s abuse had been hard to hear, but Stolas was a grown man. It was still awful, and Blitz was absolutely gonna shoot the bitch right in the gut and watch her bleed out in front of him for laying a finger on his pretty bird, but this?

This was his fucking daughter. This was Stolas’s pride and joy in front of him. His precious little Starfire, and something in Blitz just burned at hearing her confess so casually to him. Especially to him.

“Wow, uh, s-she’s a real… Piece of shit.” he hedged very, very carefully. “I think you should ask your dad about why he stayed, what he was thinkin’, but meantime-” He plastered a friendly, charming smile up onto his face and gave her his best winning look. “You don’t happen to have like, angelic steel, or some magic guns or whatever in here, do you?”

Via sniffled and wiped at her eyes with the heel of one palm, but nodded gamely. “Yeah. I started stealing them as soon as Uncle Andre started locking me up at night. I knew it would only get worse, and I wanted to be able to fight if I had to.”

Blitz grinned wildly at her, sharp little imp teeth on full display in the moonlight, and a wicked swell of pride blossomed up in his chest at how brave this kid actually was. How smart, and strong, and resilient. How much she reminded him of his big bird back home.

“Alright. Get your shit gathered.” Blitz said decisively. “We’re goin’ home sweetheart.”

Chapter Text

A/N: So the whole 'Weekend Updates' thing isn't working out so well on my end, so I think I'm gonna keep the Midweek Update (Wed or Thurs). Business handled; I had a ton of fun writing this chapter- Been awhile since I wrote some good, non-sexy action and heroics. Hopefully y'all enjoy it as much as I loved writing it :) No beta, we die like men.

RATING CHANGE! BE AWARE! We're finally graduating from Mild violence and g-n mention to full-out Fight Scene PG16, NO GORE. I don't do gratuitous violence or blood, but it *is* in there. Please read the TW/CWs, because I don't hold back when it comes to a good fight.

TW/CW: Domestic abuse mention (Via and Stolas, by Stella), child abuse referenced (Via), general abuse mention (Pringles/imp staff, by Andre and Stella). BLOOD, VIOLENCE and EXPLICIT PHYSICAL INJURY. MAJOR CHARACTER INJURY. On-the-page blood, injury, mayhem and general battle royale descriptions; G-n mention, canon-typical violence, some intense scenes that may not be suitable for all readers. NO gore; Yes major character injury (will update tags ect too). Canon-typical g-nfight and characters being shot.

As always, I love to hear from y'all :) Comments, concrit and general thoughts always welcome, and yes- I do read every comment! I'm slow to reply, but I See y'all <3 

Chapter 7: Give it All You Got

Blitz paced as he waited for Via to start moving, impatient and anxious as he tried his best not to pressure the girl too much. She was only seventeen, after all, and she'd been raised sheltered and fancy in a palace... She had no real idea how much danger she was actually in, and if Blitz spooked her now, she might freeze up and then they were both fucked.

He rubbed at his Asmodean crystal experimentally as he paced, and when nothing happened to contradict Via’s claims that her room was warded against portal work of all types, he swore.

 “Okay. Shit. Okay- Fifteen minutes?” he checked, and Via nodded at him. ”More like five or six by now,” he reasoned out loud, and Via was already moving as he spoke stream-of-consciousness to the room at large. “Okay, get a backpack with all your important shit ready. Paperwork, money, those knives you said you had... Whatever else you got. Your favourite dress- I don’t fuckin’ know, I never had shit.”

He gave Via a little push towards the closet. “Anything light, fast and easy to move. I’ll wear the pack and hide, you keep the imp who brings the water busy so I can knock him out when he shows up, deal?”

Via bit her lower lip anxiously, and Blitz winced as she reminded him of Stolas and he thought of his prince sleeping obliviously on the old couch, not knowing Blitz was up to his eyeballs in shit and about to dive deeper.

“I don’t want to kill any of them…” she said with a little quaver in her voice. “They’re just doing their jobs… They don’t deserve to die for that.”

“I didn’t say I was gonna kill ‘em, I said I was gonna bash him upside the head with the ass end of my gun.” Blitz reassured her. “Go, Via. Hurry up- I’m gonna watch for trouble, okay? You got this.”

Octavia pulled in a deep, steadying breath, nodded once, then started rushing around the room in earnest, shoving books and notebooks and pens and hairbrushes into a beaten-looking backpack printed with glow-in-the-dark stars. Blitz followed those stars around the room with one eye, the other scanning the darkness for hidden movement or incoming threat.

He was so focused on his work that when Octavia asked him a question, he completely missed it and she had to repeat herself at his belated ‘Huh?’.

“My dad.” she asked point-blank. “Was he really so upset about the text he was going to risk his life for me?”

Blitz blinked as if she’d asked him if the sky was gonna be red tomorrow morning. “I-I mean, yeah.” he said carefully, extremely conscious of the fact that Via was Stolas’s daughter, not his, and she had no idea how serious his relationship with her dad was now, or really anything about Blitz that hadn’t come from rumors or her own, brief interactions with him. “He panicked so hard, I think he lost his damn mind for a second there. He kept calling for you because the baby was crying, and he was convinced it was you…”

Via stopped dead in the middle of throwing a handful of random clothes into her pack after another old book. “Baby?” she demanded hotly. “You two have a fucking baby now? Am I a big sister all of a sudden?”

Blitz made a face at her and turned his head sharply towards the sound of her voice. “What? Satan’s taint, fuck no! M n’M- You know, those other imps I work with?- they got the baby. Me n’ Stols just help out with her sometimes. Y’know, at the office n’ shit, like good friends are s’posed to do.”

Via jammed the clothes into her bag, and picked up some random thing off the top of a box without looking, just to show how she was still busy in the closet and couldn’t move closer to Blitz. “S-So you two are definitely together now?” she asked softly, sadly, and Blitz tried his best not to let the guilty remorse show all over his expressive face. “Like, really together now?”

Blitz nodded hesitantly. “Yeah, it’s… I…” He sighed and turned to look at the glowing eyes in the darkness. “Look. It’s not like we jumped into bed right after the trial and stayed there while you put up with whatever bullshit Uncle Cocksucker and your bi- Y-your mom came up with. Your dad was off his meds half the time, he was so fucked up over losing you. It took him a long time to be okay enough for us to talk things out, and we’re taking things real slow and easy.”

He swallowed hard, and took a little half-step towards Via, golden eyes wide and bright with nerves and apology, and pure unmasked pleading for her to try to understand his clumsy words. “We can talk about it with him once we get you the hell outta here, okay? I know he’s dying to see you. He misses you so bad, all he talks about is his precious little Starfire some days.”

Via nodded again, clearly lost in thought, and as she did, a polite little knock came at the bedroom door, and the princess jumped a mile in surprise. Blitz was already rounding her generous bed to hide behind it, and Via heard the metallic click of a gun cocking before she went to the door and cracked it open just enough to confirm it was Pringles the butler outside it, carrying a clean silver tray with her requested water on it.

“Lady Octavia.” Pringles said in his most formal greeting. “I daresay your moment is now. Lord Andrealphus is occupied in his study just now. It should buy you about an hour, if I spill this water on the right paperwork on your behalf.”

“Holy shit, Pringles, I owe you three.” Blitz grinned, slipping out from behind the bed but keeping his flintlock conspicuously out and primed in front of him. “Let’s move, Via. Before someone sees us.”

He darted forwards to the bedroom door, checking the hall behind Pringles briefly to confirm it was empty and secure before beckoning Octavia towards him. “Hurry, sweet thing. We gotta do this real fast n’ quiet, okay? Gimme the bag, I’ll take care of it.”

Octavia shook her head at him and hastily slung the pack up over her shoulders, where it hung with an uncomfortably heavy weight as the grimoire her father had left behind and several other important tomes dragged the bag down across her lower back.

“I can do this.” she told Blitz with confidence she in no way felt. “Let’s go.”

He grinned up at her from his position as lookout in the doorframe, and Octavia felt herself smile back despite herself. “Good. Now let’s get you home to your dad.”

Octavia followed as Blitz led her down the familiar halls of her childhood home, hugging the walls and pulling Via down darkened hallways whenever they crossed imp staff hurrying about their jobs or running for whatever Stella had screamed for next despite it being nearly one am by now.

They made it as far as the old hallway outside Stolas’s old bedroom, the room itself now boarded up and sealed with icy sheets of frost and shards of sharp, menacing-looking ice all around it, and Blitz only faltered for half a second as memories both past and present flew at him thick and fast at the sight.

He and Stolas reuniting after twenty-five years, Blitz focused on the book and not the bird as he ripped strips off the delicate velvet bed hangings and tied Stolas to the four posters of his own bed while the prince enthusiastically told him every weird, clumsy act he wanted Blitz to perform on him while obviously and clearly having zero experience with anything but missionary style, utilitarian sex. The way Stolas had cried and sobbed the first time Blitz had tried to slap his ass with an open hand, and Blitz had sat there awkwardly and kind of… Patted at the feathered shoulder while Stolas swiped his hands over his face like the action could wipe away the obvious trigger response he was going through.

Blitz smiled a little as he remembered the moment, and the way he’d made an especial point to start weaving warnings and requests for consent into his dirty talk so Stolas wasn’t caught off guard and he didn’t have to actually talk to the bird about why he wanted everything so rough if he couldn’t handle a simple ass-slapping.

Satan, they’d been so stupid then. Blitz had been the world’s biggest asshole. So careless with Stolas’s fragile heart, so cavalier about maybe, possibly, just a little but not really… Catching feelings for the stupid prince and his boundless enthusiasm, his reckless optimism. The way those red eyes lit up like Sinsmas lights, just for him. The way they still did.

“Blitz! In here!” Via hissed behind him, and Blitz startled as he let her half-drag him behind a huge marble bust of Andrealphus’s ugly mug, and both of them crouched down behind the fancy marble pillar the bust was sat on as footsteps began to sound in the hall in front of them.

“Yeah, I’ll do it, but it ain’t gonna be easy this time.” A rough Wrathian voice was saying to someone Blitz couldn’t see just inside an open doorway. “He’s got that fuckin’ imp with him now. Blitz or whoever.” A pause, a muffled reply, and then the voice picked up again. “Yeah, yeah. I know- Do it or you fuckin’ kill me. I know your type, Ice Queen.”

Amused laughter in the next words. “I hope to hell you try your luck, peacock.” the voice growled without a hint of fear in his words, and Blitz swallowed hard as he recognized Striker, and a lash of the hunter’s long, flexible tail peeking out into the hallway confirmed his suspicions.

“Stay down, Via.” Blitz murmured in the softest undertone he could muster. “Stay hidden. I got this.”

He moved to shift his weight forwards onto his left foot, down into a low crouch with his flintlock ready and primed against one leg, muzzle pointing down at the polished marble floor. Behind him, Via pressed herself back into a shadowed corner of the cramped space, and Blitz reached blindly back to pat what he thought was one of her knees with his free hand.

Striker stepped out of Stolas’s old office and began to swagger his way down the hall, sharp eyes scanning the hall for trouble or listening imp staff, and Blitz tensed the closer the hitman moved to his hiding spot. He had to time this just right, angle himself just enough so that the taller imp wouldn’t see Via. Wouldn’t hurt his daughter, just him.

Blitz coiled his muscles, pulling back to pounce on Striker as his ugly snakeskin boots stepped into view and the heel echoed over the hallway walls as the gunman advanced.

One more step… Blitz told himself bracingly, grip on his flintlock iron as he tensed in anticipation of the oncoming brawl. Easy, wait for it…

Striker’s foot dropped, Blitz began to move, but before he could fully spring out to ambush his old nemesis, absolute chaos erupted from the office. The sound of shattering glass was quickly followed by high, loud screeches of shock, then pain as Andrealphus apparently encountered unknown assailants and they landed a few good hits before the peacock could react or recover.

“Get your filthy, low-class hands off me!” Andrealphus shrieked, the sound strangled and breathless as sounds of heavy books hitting hard marble and old wood rose up loudly enough to half-drown him out.

“What the hell have you done with my daughter!” Stolas’s voice roared like thunder, and Blitz stumbled as his heart froze and shattered in the same moment. “I’ll fucking kill you! I swear to Satan, if you touched one feather on her!”

“Dad!” Via shouted in the same second it took Striker to react to the intruders behind him. She was shoving her way out from behind the marble statue, Blitz was stuck mid-roll as his jump turned into a messy dodge, and Blitz swore viciously as Striker’s tail whipped a wickedly serrated blade out from the top of a boot, and his practiced hands pulled his gun out from the holster at his hip with the other.

The knife came flying at Blitz’s face as he came up out of his roll, Via cried out, voice high and frightened as Blitz lost track of her and focused on not dropping dead in the first five seconds of the fight.

“Stolas! She’s here!” he shouted even as Striker’s booted foot barreled for his face next. He dodged to one side, taking the hit squarely to his chest as Striker followed through with extreme prejudice and the knife in his tail forced Blitz’s arm up to shove the blade out and away from himself. “She’s with me!”

“Better hurry up n’ save her, Blitzy.” Striker grinned as his gun hand came up and aimed squarely at the back of Via’s head as she ran for the office and the sound of her father’s voice. “I ain’t never missed once I set my sights.”

“Via! Down!” Blitz cried in alarm, panic bright in his eyes as he lunged for Striker and encountered the fucking knife slashing for his chest again. “Stolas!”

“Git fucked, lizard man!” Millie’s voice snarled as she jerked Striker’s gun arm straight up, appearing behind the taller imp as if by magic, and shots rang out, deafeningly loud against the previously quiet halls. “Moxxie! The kid!”

“On it!” Moxxie’s voice answered swiftly, and Blitz felt his guts hit the bottom of his hooves as relief surged through him and he sank his whole fist into Striker’s teeth with a satisfying crunch. “Kick his ass, Blitz! We have Via covered!”

“Where’s my dad!” Octavia howled as Moxxie tackled her to the ground and rolled his entire body over top of hers to shield it. “Is he okay?”

“He’s busy with your uncle, Highness.” Moxxie told her tersely. “Hurry- Get up, we have to help him! Blitz has Millie- He’ll be fine!”

“More than fine! Your woman’s on fire!” Blitz crowed as Millie wrapped Striker’s tail up around one capable hand and immobilized the knife while Blitz kept the assassin’s arms busy with quick, mean punches and wild strikes with the muzzle of his flintlock to any part of the other imp’s face he could reach. “Get Via to her daddy- Stat!”

Millie pulled a heavy pistol from her belt, shoved it right up under Striker’s chin, and Striker swore at her, forced to let Blitz hammer a haymaker into his gut as he knocked the gun out of Millie’s hand with a hard palm-strike and she followed up immediately with a swipe of her razor-sharp knife at the assassin’s exposed chest. Blitz dropped low and wrapped his tail around one of the assassin’s legs, arms pulling Striker down towards the cold marble while Striker swore and struggled against Millie’s wickedly fast hands and deadly aim.

Black blood flew thick and fast, Via was frozen just behind him, half-knelt on the ground as her huge, terrified eyes watched Blitz, Millie and Striker trading knife wounds, gunshots and general mayhem in almost equal measure. Moxxie saw no better way forward as the princess began to tremble and the sounds of fighting from the office began to stutter and turn into angry, loud shouting instead. So he left his wife with Blitz, trusting her to know how to handle herself, and grabbed the stunned owl princess by the hand as he darted back for the office.

“This way, Octavia!” he cried sharply. “With me!”

She followed without question, and stumbled as Moxxie hauled her upright with a strength she hadn’t known imps could possess.

“My dad!” Via tried to say, but Moxxie was too focused on running her into the relative safety of the office as a stray bullet hissed past them and embedded itself in the base of an old stone statue just beyond them.

“You aim like a one-eyed hooker after dark!” Blitz quipped from behind them, and Moxxie grinned as the line was immediately followed by the hard sound of metal against horns. “Least make it hard for thirty seconds!”

“Why’s it always a sex thing!” Striker snapped even as the sound of bodies hitting the floor echoed back into the office as Moxxie finally pulled Via through the wide-open door and practically threw her to the relative safety of the righthand wall behind the huge double doors.

“Dad!” Via cried, relief and alarm both in her words as she stumbled backwards and watched her uncle slam a spear of ice down towards her father, who was sprawled out on the ground in front of Andrealphus, blood running freely from his nose and down across his chin and pale shirtfront as one long leg kicked up and scored his sharp talons down across Andre’s unprotected front.

The ice spear wavered as Andrealphus howled in pain, flinching back as the front of his icy blue robes shredded under Stolas’s assault, black blood seeping out to stain the soft fabric almost as soon as it split.

“I’ll fucking kill you, you lowlife piece of shit!” Stolas roared in a voice Via had never heard him use before, rolling to avoid the sloppy arctic assault and leaping up towards the peacock’s chest above him. “I’ll bury you in your own fucking ice before I let you near my daughter again!”

“Dad!” Via screamed as her uncle threw up an instant wall of ice and Stolas slammed into it with a heavy, hard smack of bone on ice. “Get away from my dad!”

Stolas startled even as he scrambled up off the floor, all four eyes huge with surprise and relief as he whipped his head around to face her. “Via!” was all he managed before Andrealphus hit him square in the back with a wintry blast of hard frost wrapped around sharp, jagged ice.

“I’ll kill you like that filthy firetoad never managed!” Andrealphus vowed, the smug smirk in his eyes only slightly diminished by the blood pouring from his beak. “I’m a fucking marquis, you common street trash! A marquis, and in two more weeks they’ll call me Prince Andrealphus! Once I kill you and my aggressively annoying niece!”

He aimed a hard blast of ice at Via as he said it, slamming Stolas back to the office floor as he struck out, and Via screamed as the cold, heartless barrage of winter flew directly towards her. She raised both hands as fast as she knew, muttering spellwork under her breath and hoping to hell she’d remembered it correctly as she gathered and summoned her magick in less time than it took to pull in her next breath.

“Not this time, you peacock prick!” Via threw at her uncle. “I won’t let you hurt me or my dad! Not in my own fucking house!”

A wall of liquid darkness roiled up out of thin air in front of her, rising from the center line of Via’s outstretched hands and blossoming forth like midnight waves. The darkness met the ice, the ice simply… Was not, and Andrealphus snarled like a caged animal and added power to his assault. More ice bombarded her, rushing at Via like a tsunami of cold, barren oblivion, and she screamed defiance at it, hastily shoving more of her power behind the simple defensive shield she’d conjured.

Octavia felt her arms beginning to shake, her body trembling at the intensity of holding the spell up, the surge of electric power lighting up every feather on her skin and every drop of blood in her body. Sweat began to slide down her temples, slipping into her hair, and suddenly Via wasn’t so sure she could do this. Wasn’t sure she could withstand the pressure of life or death stakes, couldn’t keep pouring herself into her spells like this-

“Starfire, breathe.” Stolas said directly into her ear, his familiar hands at the small of her back and right between her shoulderblades. “Breathe darling, just like we always practiced. There you are, my strong, brave girl. Control the flow of energy, that’s it… That’s my girl…”

His voice speaking rapid-fire into her thoughts calmed her, and Via nodded resolutely, swallowing hard as tears began to streak her cheeks, and in front of her, Andrealphus began to move forward one hard step at a time.

“She doesn’t have what it takes, Stolas!” the peacock spat mercilessly, ice crystals splaying out under his footsteps and the deep, liquid blue of his magick bright and harsh between them as he battered Octavia’s clumsy shielding. “You failed her the way you failed your entire bloodline! The way you were never good enough to be one of us!”

“Sir! Behind you!” Moxxie’s voice snapped from nowhere, and before he’d finished speaking, a gunshot sounded in Via’s right ear in the same moment her father jerked them both roughly to the left. Octavia felt her shields buckle and waver as her breath hitched in a hard gasp, and her focus slipped to fix on the imp with the gun instead.

She’d forgotten he was even in the room with them, and Moxxie had likely banked on the fact that Andre would too. Seeing imps as nothing but expendable resources and furniture, the stupid prick would have dismissed Moxxie as harmless. The same way Via had done without thinking, without meaning to-

“Moxx! Get your giant fuckin’ head outta my line!”

Blitz’s voice then, loud and unmistakable as the imp flew into the room followed by a screeching, snarling little red whirlwind with a heavy axe in one hand, a gun in the other and another, rougher-looking knife held between her teeth.

“Millie!” Moxxie squealed even as his bride rushed past Blitz to press her back to his and cover the office door while Moxxie let off shot after shot to keep Andrealphus hopping and slinging ice the wrong way. “You’re so beautiful sweetheart! Glowing even!”

“I love you baby!” Millie called back, leaping up onto a plush-looking chair and jumping straight onto Andre’s turned back. “Both eyes open when you aim!”

“I’ll fucking kill all of you!” Andrealphus howled, magick and ice flying so hard and fast around him that he barely had time to think as Millie crawled over his back like a feral rat, Blitz planted himself firmly across both Stolas and Via’s fallen bodies and crouched down low with his flintlock smoking as shot after shot thundered out from the twin cannons. Stolas covered Via with his entire body wrapped around his terrified daughter, and Moxxie surged forwards to help his team take the snowcock down.

It almost felt like they could do this, like they were winning somehow, but just as Millie scored a deep, ugly slash across the feathered ruff around Andrealphus’s chest, and the peacock began to sink towards the marble floor, towards Moxxie’s maniacally grinning face and waiting buckknife, a newer shot rang out from the office doorway and Stolas screamed as he saw it before the others could.

Chapter Text

A/N: Okay y'all, strap in and strap on, 'cause this is where the warnings and tags really come into play; If you're sensitive to violence or blood, just be aware they're both in here. I'm very Soft for Stolitz and this little family we're building, so just know the angst and hurt DO come with Comfort (eventually lol)

CW/TW: Blood, graphic violence (not worse than canon, a bit more intense because it's described), on-the-page fight scene, with direct hits and realistic injuries. Minor in Danger (nothing permanent happens to Via!), Main Character severe injury, g-n mention and references, injury aftermath & treatment. Hospital scenes incoming. Referenced child abuse (Stella & Andrealphus; of Via).

I'll run back and add anything I missed if need be :) As always, comments, concrit and feedback always welcome! No beta, we die like men- I'll learn to spell after I post lmao

Chapter 8: Loving You Costs Blood (I’ll Pay)

Striker stood in the doorway, angelic steel pistol smoking quietly in his hand, bleeding from seemingly everywhere, and looking absolutely ragged with his heavy leather jacket and sturdy riding pants torn and stained with black blood that wasn’t all his. His hat had gone missing, his gold tooth was conspicuously gone from the wide smirk he wore as he watched his bullet flying true and unobstructed straight to the back of Blitz’s head.

“Blitz!”

Three distinct voices shouted in alarm, but before Blitz could move, before anyone could do anything but suck in their next breath, Octavia was on her feet with a wall of shimmering purple moonlight spread up and over herself, her dad at her feet, and Blitz behind them.

“Not today you fucking embarrassing cowboy reject!” she yelled, her words hard and determined despite the way her whole body shook, her eyes spilling tears in rivulets down her soft cheeks. “Get away from my dad!”

“Don’t make me kill a kid in front of her daddy!” Striker singsonged at her, cocking the hammer back on his gun and letting off another shot that sang straight past Octavia’s cheek and buried itself in Andrealphus’s shoulder instead, missing Millie by mere whispers as she sunk her knife up into one of the peacock’s armpits and effectively immobilized his left arm.

“Not on my watch!” Blitz snarled, spitting blood and vitriol as he whipped around and fired on Striker before he’d been able to properly fix his aim. “Not my kid or my bird!”

He leapt over both bodies in front of him, vaulting Via with a strong, sure hand pressed to her taller shoulder giving him the lift he needed and forcing the girl to release her shielding once more. Via staggered, Stolas pulled her back down and away from the active line of fire, and Blitz landed on Striker with both bare feet straight to the taller imp’s chest.

“Fuck you, you fuckin’ cowboy piece of shit!” Blitz screamed into Striker’s face as he aimed the butt of his spent flintlock straight for the assassin’s nose. “Not my baby girl! Not ever!”

Striker moved to block, but the way he seemed to pause and let Blitz get the time he needed to readjust his aim made Blitz frown suspiciously even as he listened to Moxxie barking orders at his wife, and Via sobbing behind them, and Stolas’s strong, sure voice coaching his daughter through whatever it was going on behind him.

Striker grinned up at Blitz as they both tumbled backwards and hit the cold marble floor on their sides, Blitz’s head bouncing off the hard stone once and dazing the imp long enough that Striker could lean in close to his ear and whisper roughly

“I don’t kill babies in front of their daddies. I got lines even I don’t cross, Blitzy. Get ‘em gone and I’ll make it look like an accident you got away.”

Blitz almost fucked up immediately as he froze mid-swing and dropped his gun as Striker rolled them so that Blitz was sitting on his chest, looking for all the world like Blitz had gained the upper hand.

“I’m gonna shove that pretty little gun o’ yours straight through those teeth, Blitzy!” Striker growled loudly enough that Moxxie turned to intervene, and Stolas sat himself up in alarm.

“Blitz!” Stolas cried, blind terror plain in his high, frightened voice, and Blitz steeled himself against the instant need to go to his prince and reassure him everything was gonna be okay. “Moxxie- Help him!”

Three things happened then, and Blitz never could remember in what order because his head was spinning from smashing into the marble floor;

A blindingly bright flash of purples and white, starry lightning absolutely exploded from somewhere just behind him, narrowing to pinpoint arrows of pure light that sliced down from the ceiling without control or direction and struck whoever and whatever was unlucky enough to be under the wicked tips as they hit.

Striker dropped him with a hard, rough curse and a look of pure shock, scurrying away down the open hallway behind them as the lightning hit, eyes huge and terrified as he saw something Blitz couldn’t behind his turned back, and something cold, awful and jagged slammed into Blitz’s entire back like a hundred thrown knives at once.

A huge, electric wall of absolute black rose up from the floor like a tidal wave, sweeping across the entire room and blacking everything and everyone out as absolute chaos erupted all around them.

Screaming echoed off the walls through the vast office and off the high, ornate windows, voices blurred into one another, sounds stacked and overwhelmed each other, and Blitz rolled onto all fours with his eyes screwed shut to block out the incredible pain lancing up his entire spine and down to his heels.

“Octavia!” Stolas cried somewhere in the darkness, and Blitz was moving towards the sound of his prince’s voice like a hunting dog trained on a scent. “Octavia, pull it back! You have to pull back my love- It’s too much power! You’ll hurt yourself!”

“I can do this, Dad!” Octavia argued back through the noise. “Just let me do this!”

“Moxxie! Talk to me, baby!” Millie’s voice, high and frightened in a way Blitz had never heard before. “Lemme hear you’re alive!”

“Millie! Where are you!” Moxxie this time, sounding near tears. “Why is it so dark in here!”

“Everybody shut the fuck up!” Blitz roared into the confusion. “Who’s got the snowcock? Where’s Striker?”

“I think he ran!” Stolas this time, clear as a bell despite the obvious fear in his words. “I don’t see him! Andrealphus is down- Moxxie, on your immediate right!”

“You can see?” Blitz this time, heart jackhammering against his chest as the darkness began to flicker and ripple all around them. “What the fuck is going on?”

“Do I have him Stolas?” Moxxie now, on his feet and pointing his gun wildly at the ground in a triangle pattern. “Help me, I can’t fucking see!”

“Shut up- I’ll pull it back!” Octavia now, her voice sharp and strained.

Sounds of struggle sounded through the darkness, the wall of black stuttered and shimmered but never quite retracted, and the longer she fought to control the power she’d unleashed, the more Octavia began to realize her father had been right- It was too much, too soon. She couldn’t control it, she couldn’t stop. She was beginning to waver, seeing stars and pinpoints of light in front of her eyes the longer she struggled to contain the magicks she’d summoned without a thought.

“I-I dunno what I’m doing!” she cried desperately, her hands opening and closing at her sides now. “Dad! I-I can’t do this, you were right! Dad-”

“Breathe, Starfire- Breathe!” Stolas coached in a firm, steady voice. He put both hands on his daughter’s shoulders and gave them a reassuring squeeze. “With me now. Easy darling, easy… Pull back, like a rope and line now… Easy, slowly…”

Octavia nodded in the swirling darkness of the room, pulling in short, choppy breaths that wavered as she listened to her father’s voice and tried to do what he was asking. She tugged and pulled at the woven threads of magick and couldn’t make them move. She couldn’t make the magick listen, didn’t have the strength to bully it into compliance with her will. She was terrified, and exhausted, and her knees were giving, and-

“Octavia! On me!” Stolas’s voice cracked like a whip right beside her ear. “Moxxie- Hard step directly to your right! Pin him down! Via- Listen to me darling, only me, only-”

“Dad! The ice!” Octavia cried shrilly, her head whipping to look down the room at her uncle’s raised hand and maniacal grin.

A hard pillar of ice was hurtling towards her, propelled by Andrealphus’s power, the icy blue and hard whites of frost glowing with an eerie sort of beauty as they caught the moonlight streaming in from overhead and through the tall windows behind them all. Even with the lingering wall of darkness, the ice shimmered brightly, and Octavia screamed as she froze, her eyes locking on the oncoming ice as her mind stalled out with panic.

“Dad!” she screamed, blind terror in her voice. “Dad! Help!”

“Octavia!” Stolas shouted, already moving to shield his daughter with his own body. “Get down!”

“Stolas! No!” Blitz cried in a voice so high with fear that Stolas almost looked around for a new occupant in the room.

He only had about three seconds to identify the shout as Blitz barreled into his back, taking both Stolas and Octavia down to the marble floor as Stolas felt the nimble body above them use his strong shoulder to push Blitz airborne and forwards.

Right into the ice pillar. The imp’s hard head crashed into the ice with a heavy, ugly crash of shattering ice, the faint light of Andrealphus’s magick flashing streaks of black blood soaking through the back of Blitz’s white shirt into plain sight even as his head struck the pillar and Blitz dropped like a stone.

“Blitz!” Octavia screamed from under the protective shield of Stolas’s entire body curled over hers. “No, you can’t die here! Blitz!”

He couldn’t answer, the fallen body didn’t move. There was a sickening sort of crunch as Moxxie finally guessed correctly and sunk the heel of his workboot into Andre’s injured arm, the peacock howled with pain, her dad screamed Blitz’s name, anguish and fear arcing the single word into the upper registers, and something inside Octavia snapped.

Her hands moved before she could think, a blindingly purple light exploded from somewhere behind her, and in that new light, Octavia saw the room lit up clearly for the first time. She’d been able to see in the dark, just like her father could, but owls didn’t have perfect night vision, and everything had been shapes in shades of grey and not fully resolved figures or objects.

Now though, she saw everything; Millie motionless and eerily still behind Andrealphus’s prone form on the office floor, one of his arms weeping blood and mangled at the elbow, the other still pushing ice out in her direction as if in slow-motion. Moxxie turning in the brief, momentary light with his foot still planted on Andre’s ribs, just in time to catch sight of his wife sprawled out on the marble. Blitz, unresponsive and covered in blood on the ground between them, and her dad curled up around her as if his body alone could protect her from whatever Andrealphus had left to throw at them.

“Leave my fucking family alone!” Octavia snarled in a rough, furious sob. “If I have to kill you to stop you, I fucking will!”

And without leaving herself- or her uncle- room to so much as breathe, Octavia hammered the black wall at the motherfucker writhing on the ground. She pictured herself wielding ropes of thick vine, curling and snaking themselves over and around Andrealphus, wrapping him up so tightly his arms pinned themselves to his sides. His legs locked, his stupid blue eyes bulged as the constriction of the vines tightened past the point of reason and kept going.

“You’re making a mistake, girl!” Andrealphus gasped even as Via kept her hands steady and her face set in a look of hard concentration. “You have no idea what you’ve done! Who I know!”

“You won’t know anyone once you’re dead, you piece of shit prick!” Via yelled half-hysterically. “I’ll end you! See if I don’t!”

The vines crushed harder, the darkness roiled all around them, and Octavia pulled herself up onto her knees. Chains of hard, barbed obsidian added themselves over the vines, digging into Andre’s exposed hands, the nape of his neck, the gaps in the vines around his slender legs…

“This is for locking me in my room every night!” Octavia yelled, whipping her hands roughly to one side, and the vines moved with her as she commanded them to mirror her body, throwing the bound Andrealphus up against the hard marble pillars that lined Stolas’s old work area.

“This is for letting my mum beat the shit out of me!” She jumped to her feet, upright and strong as fury lit a fire inside her and refused to let her see reason or think anything through as she flung Andre up into the twenty-foot rafters, then hurtled him back down into the marble floor, face-first, with an awful, final-sounding thwack of living body against unforgiving stone.

“This is for Blitz! And Pringles, and every other fucking imp you’ve ever put your hands on!” she roared, and from somewhere behind her she heard her father yelling something she didn’t care to hear as she swung both arms left and Andrealphus’s battered body, firmly bound within the vines and the obsidian chains, followed obediently.

The peacock hit the heavy wall lined with Stolas’s old books, mostly heavy encyclopedias about plants and stars, or dusty old tomes listing out ranks and titles for noblemen Via never had cared enough to learn the first thing about, and as his beak ripped a messy slash into the cover of some old, red velvet-covered book, Andrealphus began to glow.

Faintly at first, and Octavia hardly noticed as she swung him back to the right and Andre went flying with the most satisfying limpness to his long, dangling legs and a dazed look in his hateful ice-blue eyes.

“You’re about to regret this, girl.” Andrealphus growled, a hard, haughty laugh in his cheesy words. “I’m about to make your father watch me kill you.”

Octavia frowned, the non-sequitur taking her almost completely off-guard, but before she could even begin to untangle what he’d meant, Andrealphus’s entire body lit like a stick of arctic magnesium, a hard, deeply blue light wrapping him up and melting Octavia’s vines off him like butter under an open flame.

She blinked, the instant snap of her power lashing back at her like a stretched elastic suddenly losing tension and rebounding at its holder knocking her back and sending her reeling as stars exploded in front of her eyes. Octavia instantly felt so sick she thought she might throw up then and there, and she staggered, her knees threatening to give as the darkness around them vanished. Steady arms caught her as she stumbled backwards and the darkness of the room began to fade away with Octavia’s awareness.

Octavia felt her knees buckling, Stolas’s warm, comforting hands lifting her up into his strong, sure arms, and that was the last thing she knew as she surrendered to unconsciousness and her dad held her safely wrapped up in his arms. Just like he always had, just like she wished he always could…

“Moxxie! We need a way out!” Stolas shouted like the general of armies he’d once been. “We have too many casualties!”

“I need to get Millie!” Moxxie yelled back. “She’s coming ‘round- Get Via clear! Go, sir, go!”

Stolas turned to run, moving without a second’s hesitation to get his daughter to safety, forgetting everything but his precious little girl in his arms as he fixed his narrowed gaze on the open office doors and bolted for them. He ran, Via was alarmingly still in his arms, and Stolas repeated to himself that it was only backlash that had struck his child. Only the powerful recoil of too much power coming back to slap Via full in the face, the way he’d often learned his limits at her age. The way he’d carefully, meticulously tried to prevent her from experiencing, but that she clearly had here and now, while Stolas was powerless to protect her. While she’d been defending him, and Blitz, and-

“Blitz!” Stolas cried in alarm. He turned to look over his shoulder, saw Moxxie hauling a dazed, bloodied Millie up onto her feet by one arm, and couldn’t find his imp where he’d last seen him.

“Blitz!” Stolas yelled, panic touching his voice even as he skidded past the office threshold and took his first step out into the familiar old hallway. “Blitz! Answer me!”

“Move, pretty bird! Get her home!”

The answering shout cracked with pain, broke with effort, and Stolas saw the flash of Blitz’s tail flicker past the doorway as Blitz himself traded fast, brutal blows with Andrealphus’s fully powered Goetic form. Ice-blue streaked red and black as Blitz drove his fists into Andre over and over, and nothing seemed to phase the snowcock but direct hits to that obnoxious mouth, or the dull smack of Blitz’s hard head bucking up under the arrogant chin.

“Go, Stolas! I got him!” Blitz screamed. “I got this prick covered!”

Stolas stumbled in the doorway, torn between his daughter’s life and his lover’s, seeing the black blood slicking the floor under Blitz as his shredded old shirt poured the stuff down the backs of his imp’s legs and pooled up anywhere he landed. Andrealphus’s equally demonic blood sprayed much more frequently as Blitz slashed with his claws, kicked with his bare feet, slammed the wicked curve of his horns up into Andrealphus’s clearly broken jaw.

Blitz rolled them again, and as they came back up something glinted silver in one of Blitz’s hands, his flintlock visibly curled in the fist of the other, and Stolas steeled himself to do the needful. He hefted Via in his arms, stepped for the hallway again, and Moxxie’s voice from the office behind him stopped him dead.

“Blitz! The crystal- Use the crystal!” the little imp yelled frantically. “Throw it to me!”

“Little busy here, Moxx!” Blitz snapped back even as he double-kicked the damn snowcock up and away from him with a hit to the chest that landed on sheer blind luck. “Get Millie! Go, go, go!”

Blitz hastily rubbed the crystal with the heel of one palm, the portal popped open across Stolas’s old desk, Moxxie swept Millie up into his arms and dove into it without missing a step. They skidded through just in time to avoid a spray of ice thrown by Andrealphus, and Blitz snarled with fury as the portal zippered shut practically on the spade of Moxxie’s tail, and he charged the peacock. He slashed down low with his knife hand, aiming for guts or balls, whichever one the motherfucker actually had.

“You don’t hurt my family!” Blitz roared like thunder, blood flying from between his teeth as he spat the words like poison. “I’ll fuckin’ end you!”

“As if an imp like you stood a chance!” Andrealphus taunted, his words badly slurred as he worked his broken jaw and blood made his words sound wet and muffled. “You’re lucky to have made it this far!”

A hard barrage of crystalline snow wrapped around icicles spat upwards out of the ground, and Blitz once again showed off his circus training as he tumbled and pivoted over the absolute tips of the ice, almost dancing across the deadly spearpoints as he plowed his way over them and tackled Andre down to the floor, landing with both knees square to the peacock’s gut.

Andrealphus wheezed as all the air knocked out of him, Blitz crowed in triumph and tried to spin back towards Stolas and Via with the Asmodean crystal aimed right at them, but the snowcock was stronger than he’d seemed the first time they’d fought, and Andre hooked his one working arm up around Blitz’s neck and squeezed, hauling the imp back with a strangled string of curses from Blitz following them to the floor.

“Go!” Blitz choked out around rough gasps for breath. “Take Via and go!”

“Not so fast, Stolas!” Andrealphus called out even as Blitz back-kicked him hard, right between the legs and just upwards enough that Andrealphus’s next words came out high and reedy, and his grip around Blitz’s neck slipped. “I’ll kill your imp! Don’t test me!”

“If you fuckin’ can!” Blitz, now free of the chokehold, shot back defiantly. “You cuck-lookin’ shitbag, I could take you out in my sleep!”

Stolas’s eyes went wide as his brave, relentless little lover bodily wrestled Andre back onto the floor, his knife flashing wildly as Andre flung ice in increasingly desperate waves that seemed to lose power the more blood he lost, the harder Blitz hit him as they fought and rolled around the open office under the starry sky above.

Stolas took a heavy step backwards, away from the thrashing bodies rolling on the floor in front of them. A stray bullet from Blitz’s flintlock ricocheted off a hastily thrown wall of ice from Andrealphus, and Stolas dove to one knee, Via’s exhausted body clutched to his chest as his daughter trembled and shook against him as adrenaline finally hit her full force and roused her just enough that Via was semi-conscious now. Stolas kept her head turned into his shoulder, desperately trying to shield his precious baby from the torrent of violence and wildly flung magicks streaking the room around them.

He screwed his eyes shut, heart hammering in his ears as Blitz yelled a string of hard curses and promises about shoving guns up assholes at Andrealphus. The huge, terrifying sound of ice forming and steel ringing out across its surface filled the room, Octavia flinched and tightened her arms around his neck, and Stolas gave the fingers cradling her head a gentle little squeeze of reassurance.

“Blitz!” he cried as no clear exit made itself known and Stolas felt his entire body heating up, practically glowing with anxious worry. “Blitz- I can’t see a way out! I don’t know what to do!”

“I’m comin’ baby! I’m comin’!” Blitz called back around a spectacular swing of his angelic blade that made Andre jump back to avoid getting his guts spilled by the wickedly sharp edge. “Keep Via safe!”

“Dad!” Via screamed as Blitz punched her uncle full in the face again, the sudden impact of Blitz’s fist causing Andrealphus to wildly misjudge his aim, and an explosion of spearlike icicles rose from the floor directly where they’d been ducking and covering.

Stolas had rolled them before the ice had even begun to form at their feet, having more combat experience than Via remembered him ever talking to her about, and Blitz roared with pure rage as he sunk the sharp heel of his hoof directly up between Andre’s legs again and the Goetia howled with pain.

“Stolas! Get Via!” Blitz screamed, his voice deep and hard with urgency. “Go! Take her and go for fuck’s sake!”

Stolas blinked, completely lost in the chaos, but hauled his daughter up in his arms as he scrambled to his feet anyway.

Blitz whirled in the time it took Stolas to make it fully upright, his eyes closed as he gently, carefully dragged his thumb down over the Asmodean crystal at his wrist and the brightly orange portal ripped itself open half a foot away from Stolas and Via.

“Hurry the fuck up!” Blitz ordered as Andre began to climb unsteadily to his feet and raised an arm in his direction. “Get gone!”

Stolas ran for the portal, his foot touched the threshold, and he looked back to check for Blitz, but the imp was nowhere near them. He was locked in a desperate grapple with Andrealphus, who sputtered and struggled as ice crystals crept up Blitz’s wrists and began to crackle across the Asmodean crystal.

“Stolas! Now!” Blitz ordered with every scrap of authority he carried. “Get her outta here!”

Stolas ignored the way his chest heaved with panic, the way his head spun, his heart thundering in his ears as his mind tried to stall out between choosing to protect his daughter or save his Blitz from what was certain to be a fatal conclusion to the fight.

“Dad!” Via screamed hysterically as the sickening sound of bone shattering echoed sharply across the high ceiling and marble floors now covered in ice.

Stolas was moving before he could think, and the feeling of hands grabbing his shoulders from the other side of the portal ripped his focus away from the office behind him and forwards onto to Loona, who looked terrified, but determined as she tried to pull Via out of his arms and Stolas refused to let her have his precious Starfire.

“She’s alright! I’m alright- Get to Blitz!” Stolas shouted all in a rush. “He’s going to kill Blitz!”

The sound of the portal sealing itself shut behind him as he stumbled forward into Loona’s waiting arms shattered Stolas’s heart in the same instant relief flooded him. They were safe. He’d done it… He’d actually done it.

His daughter was safely out of the palace she’d been held hostage in for the last eight months, and he was there to protect her now. Nothing could take Via away from him so long as Stolas held her, and Loona was right there on the pavement with them as Stolas sank to his knees. Loona’s warm, strong weight wrapped him up in one of her arms, Via curled up into the solid, warm fur of her chest, and Stolas wrapped his daughter up from behind as he hugged Via and Loona, tears streaking across his otherwise perfectly focused features.

“You’re okay. I got you guys, I got you.” Loona was saying quickly and quietly. “We’re gonna get you home as soon as M n’ M make it back here. We got this, we did it…”

“Loona- Blitz!” Via’s voice cried around hard, heavy sobs, her voice smeared with confusion and exhaustion. “T-They’ll kill him! They’ll kill him!”

Loona passed her free hand up along Via’s back as Stolas finally let his daughter sit up without him plastered to her back, and they all shuffled awkwardly on the sidewalk as Via slid out of her father’s arms and onto the pavement between them.

“Gonna take more than one frozen asshole to kill my dad.” Loona reassured quickly- too quickly, Stolas noted distantly. “Trust him. Blitz is stronger than he looks.”

She said it, and hard, urgent footsteps sounded against the concrete as Moxxie ran towards them with Millie in his arms. She was conscious, clinging to Moxxie’s neck like a lifeline, but one of her legs was obviously badly injured, black blood streaking her chin from a heavily broken nose and one arm sporting a wide, ugly gash Loona just knew needed stitches like, yesterday.

“Where’s Blitz?” Moxxie gasped as he skidded to a stop behind them and stood there looking around as if Blitz were about to pop up at any moment and yell ‘gotcha!’ at him the way he always did back at the office. “He opened a portal for us, but we didn’t see him follow!”

“He’s still back there!” Via sobbed “He’s in there with uncle Andre, they’ll kill him! We have to go back!”

Moxxie started to agree, but Millie groaned in his arms, and Loona was up beside him, helping the imp load Millie into the back seat of the van and lay her down as best they could with Maya’s carseat taking up the entire middle seat. They hadn’t planned on everybody coming back quite this fucked, Loona thought grimly as she tore a piece of her sleep top off and used it to wrap the bloody gash on Millie’s arm.

Last time had practically been a cakewalk compared to this…

“Dad!” Via’s voice cut through Loona’s whirling thoughts. “Let me go! I’m going back for him! I owe him, he saved my life!”

“Exactly!” Stolas argued hotly, his words no-nonsense and firmly parental now. “He saved your life! Don’t you dare make that mean nothing by rushing straight back into the prison we just broke you out of! Stay with Loona- I’ll go-”

Loona hastily shoved the prepared first aid kit towards Moxxie, who took it and stoically began stitching and bandaging his own wife in the back of the dirty van while his daughter somehow slept soundly in her little carseat and sucked her pacifier with soft, rhythmic little squick noises as she suckled the thing reflexively. She backed herself out of the van, back onto the sidewalk and faced the arguing owls in front of her, one stern hand on her hip, eyes fully on fire as she stared them down.

“Shut the fuck up, both of you.” she commanded roughly. “Stay here with the others and watch the baby- I’m going to rescue my stupid dad. He’s not gonna die, he’s too fucking stubborn for that, and if he isn’t, I am. Okay?”

Stolas nodded dumbly, pulling Octavia protectively towards him, and the princess went willingly into the comfort of her father’s embrace.

“Hurry.” Was all he said as Stolas looked back up the old street in front of the Beezlebucks, and Loona nodded once at him before shifting to her six-eyed wolf’s form and bounding off in the direction of the palace.

Chapter Text

A/N: Cheeky early update from Local Gremlin- Mind the warnings, this one's a little heavier on the Hurt/Angst side, but just remember; Everything Will Be Okay (eventually lol). No beta, we die like men, so on and so forth- I'll fix it in post!

CW/TW: Blood and on-the-page bloody injuries, Major Character Injury (major), hospitals and hospital talk, medical procedures described (NOT graphic). NO Major Character Death.

Comments, concrit and feedback always welcome! Halfway there already, what even!

Chapter 9: Only Death Can Rend Our Love Apart

The wait for Loona felt endless as Stolas helped Via into the van and quickly settled her into one of the two middle seats before leaning over into the back to help Moxxie with Millie.

The sturdy Wrathian woman was already up and talking again, most of her focus on her husband as Moxxie stoically dropped stitches into her arm in a neat, rapid little row, and Millie spoke quiet words of reassurance at him as he worked and she did her best not to flinch when her man passed over a deeper part of the wound with the needle, or pressed the seams closer together to make healing easier.

“You’re doin’ great, baby.” Millie murmured in a slur of exhausted relief. “I love you… I love you, we’re okay now sweet thang. We’re okay…”

Her free hand reached back to touch Maya’s warm little chest directly behind her, and Stolas guided Millie’s hand towards the impling with automatic care.

“Stols?” Millie asked shakily. “Where’s Via? She okay? What d’you need honey? Moxx- I can wait, let ‘im have the med kit.”

Stolas waved a desperate hand at her and made a quick check over his shoulder to make sure his daughter was stable and whole. “Via? Darling, are you hurt? Do you need help?”

Via shook her head at him, her eyes huge and full of tears as she stared straight through Stolas and out the back window of the van. Stolas winced, bit his lip, and made a quick mental note to check her over himself once Millie had been tended. Satan only knew what shock was hiding from him while Via came down from the rush of her very first active combat field.

“Alright. I’m right here if you feel anything changing.” Stolas said as gently as he was able with tension making his hands shake and his heart hammering against his ribs so hard, he felt like he might pass out at any moment. “I’m right here, my precious girl. Daddy’s never leaving you again…”

“I can take care of Millie, it’s not that bad now her arm’s been stitched up.” Moxxie piped up just as shakily. “Stay with Via. I’ll take care of Maya and Millie.”

Stolas didn’t argue, instantly climbing back up to the seat across from Via and leaning out over the aisle to wrap an arm around her shoulder in the way he knew comforted her best. She flinched badly away from him, pushing at his shoulder, saying nothing as she cried without making a sound, and Stolas bit his lip anxiously.

“Via? Love?” he tried carefully, softly. “What’s happened? Can you tell me where it hurts?”

“Leave me alone.” she choked out at him, and Stolas felt Millie sneak her hand up into his as his heart shattered and Stolas felt his entire world dropping out from under him at the simple words.

“Please, Dad…” Via forced herself to say, seeing him crumbling, wanting to reach out to fix things, but not knowing how. Everything was happening so fast, too much, too loud, too new, too, too, too…

“I love you, I want to be home with you.” she said slowly, painfully slowly, and her father’s face lit up with hope that was quickly overshadowed by fear and worry, and something that could have been pain as she watched blood trickling from his nose, the corner of his mouth, utterly unnoticed by Stolas as he focused completely on her and nothing else.

“I need time.” she pleaded desperately. “I... I just need time. I don’t understand, it’s all just so much, Dad… I…”

Octavia broke down completely then, and Stolas forced himself to squeeze Millie’s fingers laced through his instead of scooping up his child the way he wanted to and shielding her from the whole fucking world around them the way she used to think he had the power to do when she was small, and things had been simple, and easy, and-

“Start the fuckin’ van!”

The shout made Stolas jump and slam the top of his aching head right into the metal ceiling of the old van, and Moxxie whipped his head around to match the voice to a face as Loona came barreling down the sidewalk towards them with an eerily still figure held pressed to her chest.

“I said now!” Loona screamed, tears plain in her words as she never slowed and the limp body in her arms stayed still and silent. “He’s dying!”

“Moxxie! Lemme go- She means it!” Millie echoed, panic in her usually calm voice making her Wrathian accent thick and rough. “That’s Blitz she’s got with her!”

Moxxie’s eyes went huge and his face lost all colour as Loona got closer, and the blood-soaked front of her white fur and dark blue pajamas came into clearer view.

“I said start the fuckin’ van!” Loona repeated a third time, her feet pounding against the pavement as she aimed for the open side door of the van at a dead run. “My dad needs help!”

“On it!” Moxxie finally called back, scrambling to find the keys in the cupholder under the old dial radio system. He grabbed the old horse keychain, jammed the van key into the ignition, and Loona vaulted into Stolas’s lap as the owl prince scrabbled for the back seat and didn’t quite make it in time to avoid collision with her.

“Blitz!” Stolas screamed, tears blurring his vision as he saw the familiar face roll over the crook of Loona’s arm, expressionless and silent as the grave. “Lucifer’s wings- Blitz!”

“Drive!” Loona barked at Moxxie, slamming a hard fist into the back of the headrest even as Moxxie nodded resolutely and slammed the van into gear with a hard squeal of tires and pulled them out into traffic.

Stolas fumbled for a minute, mindful not to let any part of him touch Via as he clambered into the back seat and Millie directed him into the center space on the old floor. Loona carefully leaned down and lay Blitz’s head down across the prince’s long legs, head cradled in Stolas’s lap as Loona used her knees to keep Blitz’s elevated.

“He’s losing blood fast!” she called back to Millie and Stolas. “I need compression! Anything, I don’t care! He’ll die if we don’t do something!”

“I’m going to the good hospital!” Moxxie shouted into the chaos of ripping packaging, barked orders and whipping hands across Blitz’s ragdoll body. “They better fucking take our insurance!”

“They’ll take mine!” Via spoke up without warning. “I’ll kick their asses if I have to- Just get us there!”

“That’s my girl!” Stolas growled fiercely, wicked pride in his eyes despite the dire seriousness of their situation. “I’m so proud of you, Octavia! My brave, unstoppable princess!”

“Dad! Focus- Keep the pressure on!” Via snapped as she saw her father distracted by her words and Blitz beginning to pant under both of Stolas’s hands pressed around one of his arms, holding a hasty bandage over a bleeding knife wound.

“Right!” Stolas replied swiftly. “Can you count me from twenty, then start again? I need to monitor his breathing-”

“Watch it!” Loona this time, as they careened around a corner and everyone slid left with the violence of the maneuver. “He’s gonna-”

It happened before she could get the warning out, and Blitz threw up black blood all over Stolas as the prince quickly turned him to one side. Blitz blinked up at him, confused and disoriented, pain slamming into him from all sides as his head split straight down the line of his birthmark, his back sparked agony down into his spine, and his vision swam and-

“Stols… Think my leg’s broke…” Blitz managed to slur around another round of vomit. “S’so bad…”

“It feels worse than it looks. You’re okay.” Loona reassured, shaking her head at Stolas as he looked up towards her and definitely saw the foot turned a full three-hundred and sixty degrees in the wrong direction. ”It’s just a little broken, you’re okay.”

“Loona, he-” Stolas started carefully, numb with shock at just how bad things had gone, how awful this all was, how Via still hated him, how he’d sacrificed his Blitz for her and she still didn’t know if he loved her…

“Is going to be fine.” Loona repeated in a low, protective growl. “We’re bringing him to the hospital, and he’s gonna be just fine.”

“I…” Stolas felt his mind slipping away from him, felt Blitz throwing up the alarmingly dark blood against him, felt Millie reaching down over him to keep pressure on Blitz’s wounded arm.

He felt and saw and heard so many things, but nothing but the staggering reality that he’d sacrificed the love of his life without a thought in order to protect his daughter was registering anymore. The van swung wildly through traffic, all around him his family yelled things at each other, and in front of him Blitz’s eyes fluttered shut again.

Slowly, stubbornly, because his imp was anything but submissive even in the face of Death itself, but inexorably the clouded golden eyes disappeared under the heavy lids, and Blitz grabbed at the closest part of Stolas he could reach.

“Via?” he whispered faintly. “S’Via…”

“Right here darling, she’s safe.” Stolas said all in a rush. “You brought her home to me my love. She’s safe now, I swear it. You brought my daughter home to me…”

Blitz nodded so minutely Stolas mistook it for a jerk of the van pulling in hard to the emergency bay’s front doors.

“Worth it.” Was the last thing Blitz said as his eyes slid shut and stayed that way while the rest of him went utterly limp and his breathing slowed to a vague stutter.

“Moxxie!” Millie cried in alarm. “Moxxie we gotta be there now! We ain’t got time!”

“Loona- Take him and jump!” Moxxie commanded sharply, reaching back to shove the side door open as he threw the wheel all the way right and skidded the van in with the open side panel facing the glass double doors of the hospital. “Take Blitz and run!”

“Take this!” Via cried shrilly, hastily shoving her wallet towards Loona. “We’re right behind you!”

Loona nodded and gave the younger girl a quick smile of thanks as she carefully gathered up her father’s unconscious body and leapt from the still-moving van as if it were a barstool and hit the parking lot asphalt with a brief stumble and no other indication she’d jumped out of a moving vehicle at all.

“Dad- We have to follow!” Via cried as soon as the van skidded to a stop. “What if he’s dead? What if they won’t help an imp here! What if he dies because of me! I can’t do this Dad! Help me what do I do?”

“You stay with us, your highness.” Moxxie said firmly, steadily as he unbuckled his seatbelt and climbed over the seats towards his wife. “You take Stolas and Millie in there with you, and you make those doctors take Blitz.” He gave Via a hard, reckless grin that made the owl princess giggle nervously and suck in a hard, bracing breath to ground herself. “I’ll take care of the baby. You guys get Millie and Blitz the help they need, understand?”

Via nodded because she couldn’t speak around the hard knot of fear, and shock, and deep, painful raw emotions in her throat, constricting in her chest, choking her thoughts, and everything else, and reached back a hand for her father.

“Dad?” she asked shakily.

He looked up at her, his face lost and soaked with tears as one of his hands touched his thigh- The last place Blitz had been able to touch him while he was still conscious, and stared stupidly at the black vomit all over his legs and the old stained flooring of the van.

“Let’s get you inside.” he said as if by mechanism, and Via swallowed hard at how distant and broken her father sounded. “You need to be seen so I know you’re alright. No arguments, Via- Please, just this once, I promise.”

Octavia nodded because she didn’t know what to say, and she piled out of the van behind her dad, and Millie, who seemed to be dragging herself forward on one good leg and wincing hard to do it, but moved under her own power nonetheless. Stolas wordlessly slipped an arm up under one of the imp’s shoulders, leaned over into an awkward half-crouch to manage the maneuver, and Millie let him support her from her bad side as they hurried into the hospital as fast as Millie’s injuries would allow.

They got to the front desk, where Loona was already snarling and arguing with an orderly about insurance and bullshit while Blitz’s blood dripped down into a significant puddle on the white tiled floor at her feet.

“I said we’re good for it!” Loona snapped at the front desk clerk, who looked bored and exasperated as she calmly repeated ‘No papers, no service. Cash up front.’

“Do you know who I am?” Via demanded as soon as they were within earshot of the clerk. “They’re with me!”

Loona waved Via’s open wallet at the stupid clerk, her face speaking the loudest fuck you Via had ever seen anybody sporting as the orderly instantly bowed at the waist and wheeled a gurney over for her.

“Sorry, Highness!” the orderly apologized swiftly. “We thought she was lying! You know how hounds are scam artists and hustlers! Hop up here, we’ll take great care of you!”

“Him first- You treat Blitz the way you would me or my father, or I’ll have your jobs.” Via commanded imperiously, exactly the way her mother did with the imp servants at home. “You help my imp friends, then you help my dad. Then I might pay you. We’ll see how I feel about the service then.”

Via felt Stolas’s strong hand on her shoulder, his taller form drawn up to his full height, all four red eyes narrowed importantly as both royal demons stared down the intake clerk, the original orderly, and now the veritable army of doctors in plague masks that were swooping down around Blitz in the cot and beginning treatment as Via spoke.

A second set of more junior doctors collected Millie, one on either side of her as they hauled her up into a wheelchair and hurried her down one hall while the team of attendings whisked Blitz off the other way, down through a set of heavy doors clearly marked ‘HOSPITAL STAFF ONLY BEYOND THIS POINT’.

The hospital began to take them seriously then, and Via took her wallet back from Loona, who inconspicuously slipped herself up behind Via and lay a supportive hand at the small of her back as Via kept up the untouchable rich prick façade and scored Blitz a private recovery room, all the best treatments available regardless of what it took to make him well again, and Millie the best surgeons and orthopedists the hospital could offer.

“And you get her the best fuckin’ doctor you have ‘cause my girl needs a checkup.” Loona added as Via almost faltered mid-word and the desk clerk kept writing orders into her computer system. “Stat.”

“And for my father as well.” Via added swiftly, looking up at Loona to be sure she hadn’t missed anything else. “Him before me, I think his nose is broken.”

“It’s definitely broken.” Loona said with a wince. “He’s just in shock and hasn’t noticed yet.”

“Right away, Princess.” the desk clerk agreed without argument. “Anything else?”

“Make sure Millie- the lady imp they took to orthopedics?” Loona tossed back over her shoulder at the woman. “Make sure her room has an extra bassinet. Her husband’s coming in with the baby.”

“Yes ma’am.” the desk jockey intoned dutifully, and Loona smirked just like Blitz did as she led Via over to the waiting area and Stolas followed behind them without a word.

All in all, it was hours before the doctors had checked over Via (minor scrapes, backlash treated with an IV full of saline and a pill for the stomachache), Stolas (the suspected broken nose, multiple contusions, a split lip and a black eye with a single stitch above one eyebrow that traced dangerously close to his left upper eye), Loona, who was miraculously untouched, and Moxxie, who tried to argue he didn’t need help, they needed to focus on his wife instead, but had relented once the lead doctor explained that they were royals. They didn’t need to divide care between competent professionals, the hospital did whatever it took to fix them, no questions asked.

After all, the doctor told them flippantly, it wasn’t as if they were poor, even if some of them were imps. Octavia and Stolas had staked their claims on them, and that made Moxxie, Blitz and Mille royal property, which meant they got the royal treatment until Via or Stolas decided they didn’t deserve it anymore.

Moxxie had bristled hard at that, Stolas had been yanked roughly out of his own thoughts by the sheer audacity of the doctor’s remarks and almost made to tear him a new asshole right then and there, but Octavia had been wilting in her cot behind them, and Moxxie really did need stitches for the ugly gash across his stomach Stolas hadn’t even realized the little imp had been enduring this whole time.

He’d been so focused on Via, then Blitz, then Millie with all the blood all over her, and Blitz, and, well, Blitz, because he was dying, or dead, and Stolas had no way of knowing which it was, and he was absolutely sick with dread every time a doctor walked into their private rooms to report someone’s x-rays had come back normal, Moxxie was in no danger, but needed rest for at least a week. Millie’s injured leg had been a simple matter for an air cast and a few days on crutches.

Loona hadn’t had a scratch on her, but wouldn’t talk about what had happened when she’d gone back to get Blitz away from Andrealphus no matter how gently Stolas asked, or how politely Moxxie drew her aside and promised not to tell Stolas or Via what he heard. Baby Maya slept on in her borrowed crib, the nurses having wheeled a bassinet in from the maternity ward as soon as Moxxie had stumbled in with Maya in his arms.

Stolas sat at the end of Via’s hospital bed, now with a bandage taped across the bridge of his beak, his head aching in all the worst ways, watching his daughter like a hawk as she curled up against the plush pillow and focused on nothing in particular as she half-dozed in the bed. Loona was in a broad, comfortable armchair to one side of the bed, squarely between Moxxie in a hard plastic chair beside his infant daughter’s crib, and baby Maya, who was apparently Hell’s best baby as she slept peacefully and kicked her little feet under her prized green blankie.

A quiet, but efficient knock at the door startled them all, and before anyone could react beyond lifting their heads or turning to look towards the door, a nurse in pale blue surgical scrubs shouldered the door open and wheeled Millie in with her wheelchair.

The imp looked exhausted, disoriented and patched up with bandages over one cheek, wrapping her chest from shoulder to one hip, and her broken ankle casted and set. The leg of her pants on one side had been cut away, bandages wrapped firmly around her knee, but otherwise Millie was whole and untouched, and Moxxie sobbed as he rushed over to his wife as soon as the nurse had cleared the doorframe with her.

“Millie! Thank Satan, oh my gods-” he demanded of the nurse all in a rush “Are you okay? What can I do? How do I help?”

“I’m okay, baby. Really- I’m just fine, I promise.” Millie soothed as Moxxie bent down to pull her gently into his arms and cradled her to his shoulder like she was precious. Which she was to him, Millie knew, and felt her eyes sting at the thought of anyone loving her this much, so easily, without wanting anything but who she was and not what she did.

“I’m here, Moxx. I’m right here…” she whispered into the crook of his neck as Moxxie cried and ran one hand over the uninjured side of her head over and over, as if he needed to touch her to make sure she was still real and alive in front of him. “Just a broken leg and a couple good knife slashes, nothin’ I ain’t had before.”

“She’ll need a week off her feet to help the stitches heal correctly.” the nurse put in before either imp could say anything else and force her to stand there longer than she already had. “Keep the cast dry, don’t come back without the owl if you need followup. Pay the desk on your way out.”

“You could pretend to give half a shit, just this once!” Stolas barked at the nurse as Moxxie took the wheelchair from her and started wheeling Millie towards Maya still sleeping in her bassinet across the room. “Aren’t you supposed to be a professional of some type?”

The nurse shrugged. “They’re just imps, Highness. Hardly matters.”

Stolas’s eyes flashed fire, he half-rose from the end of the bed to confront the awful goat-demon, but behind him Via whimpered and he instantly forgot about everything but her.

“Let her go, Stols.” Millie said once the nurse had begun to sweep back out into the hallway. “Rather spend my time with my family anyway.”

Moxxie gently lifted Maya out of the cot, holding the impling up against his wife’s chest as Millie leaned in to kiss her daughter’s head. “Not that we don’t appreciate the support,” he added swiftly. “But I’ve had enough for one day.” He brushed his chin tenderly across Millie’s temple, and she lifted her head to ghost a kiss to her husband’s chin. “We all have.”

Stolas nodded, feeling nothing anymore as he settled back on the end of the bed and watched Millie and Moxxie sharing comfort and kisses, and tender touches that spoke everything of relief and support for one another.

He shouldn’t resent them, Stolas knew. It wasn’t their fault Millie had only come away with minor injuries, or that Blitz had been so effective a shield that Moxxie had basically gotten away without a scratch save for the gash across his stomach and a few cuts and bruises. He shouldn’t hate them for being whole and conscious, allowed to touch and kiss and reunite as if Stolas wasn’t in the room, living through a nightmare he’d feared since that fateful day at the trial.

Sitting here powerless and helpless, terrified but responsible for his daughter, and Loona, and the aftermath they all now faced, and-

“Stolas?” Moxxie’s careful voice asked, and Stolas jumped as he realized the imp was touching his elbow like it might burn him, looking up at him with wide, worried golden eyes. “A-Are you… D-Do you need us to get your meds?”

Stolas waved a hasty hand at the little imp, eyes darting back to Via quietly watching them just behind him. “I don’t know what you mean.” he tried to cover swiftly. “I’m fine.”

“I know about the pills, Dad.” Via said into the beat of silence that came next. “Blitz was trying to explain b-before…”

She trailed off, her chin trembling as she thought about Blitz, his open, earnest face begging her to listen, to understand what he was telling her. Pleading with her to trust him, follow him out of hell and back where he could keep her safe, to her dad…

Her dad who was staring at her now, his eyes huge and terrified, and Via hugged her arms around her chest.

“I… I want us to talk. T-Tonight.” she went on so softly even she had trouble hearing herself. “I want to understand. I need to know, Dad. Please?”

She looked up at him, tears dropping from her beautiful violet eyes, features afraid and nervous and so, so fucking young, and Stolas turned his resolve to iron as he nodded.

“Whatever you need, my precious girl.” he agreed. “I’ll answer whatever you ask.”

“No bullshit this time?” Via asked more pointedly than Stolas had been expecting.

He winced and nodded resolutely. “No bullshit.” he promised, all four red eyes locked on his daughter’s hesitant face. “Whatever you ask me, I’ll tell you everything I know- Nothing hidden unless it isn’t mine to tell. Is that fair?”

Via nodded and started to pull in a breath to ask her first question, but Moxxie cleared his throat delicately, and she jumped as she remembered the imps and Loona in the room with them.

“I’ll drive Millie and Maya home.” Moxxie told them all quietly. “I’m sure Millie would rather recover at home than in a hospital.”

“May needs diapers anyway.” Millie added gently, her eyes anxious but steady as she looked out at Stolas and his daughter across from her. “Been a hell of a day.”

“A fucking hell of a day.” Via agreed in a voice that trembled with emotion, exhaustion and all the confusion her teenaged heart was trying so hard to mask with almost-adult stoicism. “Call us if you need anything- I think Loona has a phone? I dunno where mine went… I think I left it back ho-” Octavia stumbled over the word ‘home’, caught herself quickly, and went on all in a rush. “I left it back in my room.”

She turned to her father. “They can call yours, right Dad?”

Stolas bit his lower lip and frowned. “I- I’m afraid I haven’t had a phone since…” He stumbled too, but recovered much more smoothly than his daughter had. “Since at least eight months ago. I’ve been sharing with Blitz, I-”

Stolas froze as the sound of his imp’s name in his own voice brought reality crashing harshly down around his ears, and Stolas sucked in a hard, bracing breath as he felt his entire body begin to tremble and he refused to let himself fall apart. Not before Via got her answers, not in front of her.

Not after everything, after all of this, and surviving the night, and needing to survive the morning in front of them, and-

“Hey. Hey, you’re okay Stols.” Loona’s voice, steady and somehow right beside him now, and he looked up sharply to find the hellhound half-kneeling on the bed beside him.

She took up most of the cramped space between Via’s slight form sitting up in the bed and Stolas curled up at the foot of it, and Stolas threw himself at her chest without thinking, desperate for anything that would stop the immediate panic Blitz’s name had triggered inside him.

“He’s okay.” Loona said steadily, firmly. “The doctors are gonna fix him and we’re right here until they do. We got him where he needs to be, okay? We’re gonna be here, like a family or whatever, understand?”

She looked over her shoulder at Via, who seemed uncomfortable and afraid, and reached a hand back towards the younger girl.

“You too, Octavia.” she said with a small, hopeful sort of smile at the princess. Via smiled back, hers hesitant and watery, but friendly and open nonetheless. “My dad would want us all to look after each other while he’s not here. He’s got this whole thing about family n’ shit, and I think we’re gonna need each other to get through a lot of really hard shit for the next little while. So you can talk to me if you don’t wanna talk to your dad yet, and you-” She passed a gentle hand over Stolas’s shaking shoulders. “Can cry, or talk, or whatever the fuck you need to do, and I’ll be here, got it?”

The barest hint of a nod from Stolas, and Loona turned to look back at Millie and Moxxie trying to make a discreet exit and leave the room whatever privacy a public hospital could provide them for such a sensitive moment.

“And you assholes- You call me if you need us.” she told the imps firmly. “I can still drive, or pick up groceries for you, or come watch the baby so you guys can get real sleep in, okay? Together or not at all, right?”

Moxxie nodded, tears in his honest eyes as he took Millie’s hand in his, and his wife smiled gratefully up at Loona.

“We’ll call if we need you.” she promised, and because it was Millie saying so, Loona believed they actually would. Millie turned stern and waved a bandaged hand at Loona. “Long as you call us the second you hear about Blitz. I don’t care if it’s three am, or the middle of May’s nap time- Call me, or I will fuckin’ end you if I gotta climb outta this chair on my bad leg to do it, y’hear me?”

Loona laughed, a few tears sneaking themselves out of the corners of her eyes as the dam she’d been so carefully keeping in check cracked a little and a few stray emotions leaked out with the tears.

“First people on the list after Stolas.” Loona promised. “He gets boyfriend privilege, can’t do you better than that.”

“I’ll be here until they let him leave!” Stolas corrected her fiercely from his place in her shoulder. “I’m not leaving him here alone!”

“You can’t help him if you’re falling apart, Bird D- Uh, Bird.” Loona said with a hasty cover of the careless ‘Bird Dad’ she’d been about to use with him. Stolas saw the gesture for the courtesy it was, out of respect for Via and how new this all must be to her, and he sucked in a huge, grounding breath, forcing himself to sit up and keep himself together.

“You’re right.” he agreed without further protest. “Of course you’re right. And Via will need somewhere to recover that isn’t full of nurses coming by every twenty minutes to see what these infernally loud machines say.”  

Almost to prove his point, a nurse barged right past Mille’s wheelchair, shoving Moxxie with Maya in his arms unceremoniously out of his way as he rushed in, checked a random screen, and nodded at it without once acknowledging anyone else in the room as he swept back out with a clipboard and paper chart in one hand.

“Git his name for me, will ya?” Millie asked Loona sweetly as she checked on her daughter and husband. “I wanna make his next workplace accident personal, y’know?”

Loona grinned back at the new mother and loving wife, and Millie traded soft, devilish smirks with Moxxie as he leaned in and let Millie see Maya’s unharmed, somehow still sleeping little body nestled snugly right up against his chest.

“I’ll write it down for you.” Loona promised as she waved at the pair of imps and watched them make their slow, careful way out of the room and down the hall towards the main lobby. “Call if you need us!”

Her shout echoing down the hall after the little family was the last moment of comfortable silence in the hospital room as Stolas finally managed to get himself under some semblance of control, and turned to look at Via in the bed behind them.

“When you’re ready, my love, I’ll answer whatever you ask.”

Chapter Text

A/N: Update! Not gonna lie y'all, this week's been a struggle writing-wise, and it's a good thing I prewrote as much as I did, because I finally hit the wall where I feel like everything is garbage and wanna quit :/ Big love to my regulars and the one-time commenters who drop a kind word, or leave me some feedback, because I definitely went back and reread every single one to hype myself up <3 You guys are the best.

As usual, no beta we die like men- Please be gentle if you see anything egregious, I was on the Struggle Bus bigtime this week.

CW/TW: Blood, medical talk (NOT graphic!), hospital scene, injury description (NOT graphic; Some specific medical terminology). Grief, anxiety and heavier Angst

As always, concrit, feedback and comments welcome! I love to hear from y'all, see what works, what I can work on, or just read a string of emojis and keyboard smashes when I make The Babies (Stolitz) Kith lol

Chapter 10: Quilting 101

It took another half-hour in which Via pulled her knees up to her chest and cried into them for the tentative quiet of the little room to break.

Loona had shifted up to sit beside Octavia, rubbing her back in a show of easy support that Via accepted gratefully and without protest. Stolas watched the hellhound interacting with his daughter, just barely managing not to jump to her side and scoop Octavia up the way he would have when she’d been his little owlet.

She still was, he thought with the thinnest ghost of a smile as he watched Loona and his daughter with their heads bowed close together, talking too quietly for him to hear. She still was his little owlet, it was just she’d gone and grown up somewhere between her first birthday and today, and Stolas must have blinked, because he’d never seen her doing it. He’d missed it, somewhere in the haze of his own misery and her teenage years widening the divide between them, and Stolas had fallen prey to the oldest trap there was- Loving his little girl too much.

So much so, that any hint of pain he could spare her, he had, and now she didn’t trust him to help her through this, to be honest with her. Tell her the truth, even if it hurt to hear, because she needed the temporary pain to heal much older, much deeper scars that his years of sheltering and hiding from her had laced her poor fragile heart with-

No. Stolas told himself firmly, watching as Loona made Via laugh despite the tears still streaking her young cheeks, and his daughter sat herself up a little bit taller in the bed. Not fragile. Young. Those aren’t the same.

“Dad?” Via’s voice came to him from almost a lifetime away, and Stolas instantly jerked his head up to look at her.

“Yes darling?” he answered at once, in what he certainly thought was a calm, even tone, but was actually a high, worried gasp. “What do you need?”

“Tell me everything.” she asked with fire in her violet eyes- her mother’s eyes, Satan damn genetics-, but somehow on Via, those eyes were beautiful and hopeful instead of terrifying and monstrous the way her mother’s were, and Stolas nodded resolutely.

“From the beginning then.” he agreed, and drew in a breath to start.

“Wait- One sec. Lemme get outta the way.” Loona cut in hastily, already moving to stand. “I’m sure you guys want some privacy. I’ll go get us a couple coffees, maybe some apples? I dunno, it’s a hospital. Food, or whatever passes for it anyway.”

Via’s eyes went huge and worried, the youth in her features stark against the nearly-adult body she’d grown into, and grabbed Loona’s hand. “No, please. Please… Don’t?” she half-begged. “P-Please stay? I-I know we’re not, like, family or anything, that I just met you that one time, b-but…”

Her chin trembled as she looked up at the hellhound, and Loona smiled kindly at her. “Everyone needs someone sometime, kid.” she said easily, and sat back down beside Via on the bed. “I’m here for you.”

Via nodded and wrapped one of Loona’s huge hands up between both of her smaller, more delicate ones. “You’ve always told me the truth.” Via said quietly, her eyes accusatory as she looked back out at Stolas. “I need you to promise me if he lies to me, this time you’ll tell me. Promise me, on your dad’s life.”

Stolas paled, both because his daughter had so casually dropped in the mention that Blitz was still hanging between life and death somewhere in this stupid fucking hospital, and Stolas could do nothing but sit here and wait for doctors who valued an imp less than used gum stuck to their shoes did whatever it was doctors did for someone torn up and broken the way his Blitz had been-

And because it hurt somehow more to have Via accuse him of lying to her. Not because she was wrong, but because she was right.

“I’ll tell you everything I know.” Stolas repeated like the broken man he was. “Loona will tell you if I’m missing anything, or avoiding details.”

Loona made a face at the teenager. “Well, maybe we let him leave out some details.” she amended reasonably. “He and my dad spent a lot of time doin’ freaky shit together on those full moons.”

Via wrinkled her nose at that and made a face of pure disgust. “Ew! I remember this one time, my dad was talking to your dad on the phone, and-”

Stolas sat there turning progressively pinker as his daughters traded stories of all the times they’d witnessed the absolute embarrassment that was their dads sucking face with each other, or Stolas’s over-the-top ‘flirting’ back before he’d learned a little went a long way further with Blitz and that the babytalk had been an utter turnoff for his imp. Loona laughed loudly as she recounted Blitz’s last office mishap, the way Stolas had tried to disappear into the carpet under the desk and Blitz had walked out into the rest of the office with his pants still wide-open and nothing but his suspenders holding them up, and Millie had had to tell him to zipper up and shut the fucking door if he wanted to plow his bird on company time.

To which Blitz had grinned and reminded her he was the boss around here, he could bone his bird anyplace he wanted, and Millie had responded with a headlock so fierce, Blitz had tapped out in less than a minute and immediately promised to be more careful around the baby.

“Wait- There really is a baby?” Via asked incredulously. “I thought Blitz was covering for them. He said something about a baby, and I thought they’d adopted one or whatever- The baby’s not even theirs?”

Loona smiled at Via and shook her head. “You met baby Maya tonight, remember? Those other two imps, Millie and Moxxie? That’s their kid. Stols and my dad kinda did adopt her, because it’s Blitz’s best friend’s kid, but they don’t have any kids besides us.”

Via bristled at hearing herself even distantly referred to as Blitz’s child. She knew Loona meant that Via was Stolas’s daughter, Loona Blitz’s, and part of Via even warmed a fraction at the idea that the man who’d risked his life for her without a thought could think of her as his family someday, but she was still so angry at her father for abandoning her for him. For leaving her with Stella for almost an entire year, not bothering to call, turning up once and never again after she’d called him a liar and thrown him out of her life…

Via sniffled, and Loona lay a supportive hand on her arm. “Maybe we let your dad talk awhile?” she offered gently. “He might be able to clear things up a little better.”

Via nodded and looked up at her father, who was still blushing furiously, but otherwise looked completely ragged and exhausted. “Dad?” she prompted, and he nodded.

“It all started at that stupid ‘Still Married’ party your mother threw, nearly two years ago now…”

Stolas told his daughter everything. About Blitz breaking in to steal his grimoire, about how Stolas had been so desperate to feel anything but misery that he’d positively thrown himself at Blitz. The way Blitz had had to coax him into continuing, no matter how willingly Stolas had gone with him, because Stolas had been just that naïve and inexperienced.

The way Stolas had felt alive for the first time in years after that first night with Blitz. The way other than Via, nothing about his old life had held any meaning, any life at all beyond scripted duty and heavy, crushing obligation.

“Never you!” Stolas added quickly, earnestly, all four eyes huge as he met Via’s narrowed glare. “Never you, my precious Starfire. I loved every second of time I got to spend with you. Raising you was the light of my life, and I love you, my precious girl. More than anything in all of Hell, I swear to you.”

Via looked to Loona, and part of Stolas died right then and there as his daughter asked a stranger if he loved her rather than believing him. He felt tears rising in his eyes, hot and bitter and guilty, but dashed them away under the guise of moving a stray feather out of his lower eyes. He wouldn’t break, not until his little Starfire was safe and well again. Not until she couldn’t see him do it. He had to do this, to endure whatever came, for her sake. Everything to keep his child safe and supported…

“…He cried every day for three months straight.” Loona was saying as Stolas tuned back in and began to process she was speaking again. “He wouldn’t get up off the couch for anything, not even food or water. Blitz had to practically force everything down him. It was…” Loona winced, acutely aware that she was talking to Stolas’s daughter, in front of Stolas, about Stolas.

“Uh, messy.” she finished lamely. “It wasn’t great. I was there.”

Via frowned and her eyes darted from her father back up to Loona. “Why would he do that?” she asked slowly, confusion obvious in her words. “If they were broken up, not even friends yet, why would Blitz do all that for my dad?”

“How do you know they were broken up?” Loona asked, her words and expression open and carefully free of any judgement or accusation.

Via heaved an annoyed sigh and rolled her eyes. “My stupid mum was going on about it the night after the trial. How happy she was now that Dad was miserable. How his little imp toy left him desolate and powerless even after he sacrificed himself for the bastard. How pathetic my dad is and all that.”

Stolas winced a little at hearing Stella’s ugly words being repeated in his baby girl’s voice, but kept his features neutral and receptive anyway. Lucifer forbid Via think she had to hide things from him… More than she already had…

“Anyway, who cares about my fucking mum.” Via huffed angrily. “Why would Blitz give a shit about my dad, even as friends?”

“Because he’s a stubborn son of a bitch.” Stolas spoke up suddenly. “Blitz never knows when to give up, even if things seem hopeless, or common sense dictates he should. I wasn’t worth his time or effort, but Blitz never saw it that way. Not since the trial.”

Stolas laughed a little and thumbed at a few stray tears on his cheeks. “He always commits full-force, no matter what he does. Nothing is as hopeless as it seems where Blitz is concerned. I don’t think he knows how to give up.”

Loona bit her lip and traded a meaningful look with Stolas, one arm coming up to hug herself across the chest the same way Via often did when she was anxious. “I… Maybe he doesn’t.” she hedged as Via frowned and looked like she wanted to ask about the obvious dodge.

Loona sighed and put a hand on Via’s shoulder. “He never gave up on me either.” she told the younger girl. “Satan knows I gave him every reason to, but he just wouldn’t quit. Called me his daughter no matter how many times I told him to fuck himself, how many times I punched him in the gut, kicked him in the balls… No matter what.”

Loona’s eyes turned soft, and she dropped her eyes to her lap. “I knew he gave a shit about me, but I couldn’t understand why. My own fuckin’ parents left me at the pound when I was twelve- Who could want me, right? Who would give a shit.”

Loona smiled fondly and brushed back a stray lock of Via’s messy hair. “Blitz could. He does. I dunno what makes him the way he is, but he is, Via. He’s a stubborn sonnuvabitch and he won’t give up on you once he decides you’re family. I think it’s a circus thing? I dunno… But when my dad tells you he’s on your side, he means it. To the wall.”

Via locked her eyes on Loona’s bright, open gaze for a handful of seconds, sharp violet searching the gold-ringed black for any signs of deception or avoidance, then she nodded. “Okay.” she said slowly, clearly processing everything at once and struggling. “Okay, I think I can believe that. I… I need some time, but I think I understand.”

She looked back up at her father. “Tell me the rest.” she asked, and Stolas drew in a bracing, steadying breath and picked up where he’d left off.

He told her about everything that wasn’t intimately personal between Blitz and himself. Stolas told his daughter about the fight after the full moon, the Asmodean crystal, the time he spent alone in the palace, crying and drinking whatever the staff brought him, trying to forget the way Blitz had broken his heart without a second thought. The way it had been somehow worse than hell to survive that, to keep going despite every fiber of his being wanting nothing more but to curl in on himself and give up.

“But there was always you to think about, my precious girl.” Stolas told Via with a smile. “Every time I thought the pain might kill me, the loneliness might swallow me whole, you were there. Asking me for silly little things like advice on which shirt to wear out that day, or how to get the chords right in some new song you were learning.”

Stolas leaned forward and automatically tried to pick Via’s hands up in his, and miraculously, she let him do it this time.

“The only bright light in my life during that awful time was you, my beautiful little owlet.” he said softly, tears slipping down into his collar as he watched her familiar eyes flashing confused, rapid emotions that spoke everything of how suddenly overwhelming this must all be for Via, how hard it was to process while experiencing directly.

He wished he could reach out and simply take it all away from her, make the world fair and easy for his little girl again with a smile and an offer of ice cream, or a trip to LooLoo Land the way he had when she was tiny and fit in his lap without gymnastics.

“Blitz was gone, but you were all I needed.” Stolas told her quietly. “But then… Then the trial, and he was about to be killed, and dammit all Via- I really do love that idiot. I always have, I suppose. The thought of allowing Blitz to die simply because I offered him an unfair bargain…”

“I think I get that…” Via said slowly, uncertainly. “I-I’m not sure I can like, understand right now, but I get it. Like, I wouldn’t have wanted to watch Blitz die in front of the whole fucking world on TV, like some kind of bad reality television special.”

Stolas gave her a small, hopeful smile full of worried tears, and Via pulled her knees up under her chin and snuck her hand closer to Loona’s resting on the bed between them. Loona laced her fingers up between Via’s and very carefully pretended not to notice the trembling chin and huge violet eyes full of anxious worry beside her.

Stolas watched her, struggling to keep back the instinctive need to go to his child and make the world fair and simple for her, hold her until everything made sense again, until he was her loving father who got to hear her talk about Stylish Occult, and bands he’d never heard of, and monsters from her nightmares, and everything else she saved for only him. Over breakfast, over his office work on particularly slow days. In the middle of the night when she called for him and knew without question her dad would be there for her.

“Via? I-” he started carefully, but before Stolas could get past the first word, a trio of medical staff swept into the room with clipboards in their hands and bored looks on their collective faces.

The leader of the trio, an obvious doctor in her white coat and a surgical scrub cap covered in cheerful red chili peppers and lightning bolts tied around her short little horns, strode forwards while the nurse in his purple scrubs clutched the thick file folder he held to his chest, and the second nurse looked like she was considering leaving the room altogether.

“Sir? Highness?” the doctor called out officiously. “Who’s the most immediate superior for the imp with half his blood spilled all over my OR floor?”

“His name is Blitz!” Stolas corrected fiercely. “And he belongs to himself- Is he alive? Is he recovering? Where is he? What’s happened?”

Loona put a bracing hand on Stolas’s arm as she half-rose and leaned forwards towards the hospital staff. “That’s my dad- He’s my dad!” she told the doctor. “Tell us what’s going on- Can we see him? Is he awake?”

The doctor shook her head gravely and held up a hand towards them. “He’s alive, he’s stable, but he lost a lot of blood. He needed extensive surgical care to get his fractured leg back into a shape he can heal from. His back was very, very badly injured. He might need skin grafts, but he’s a surprisingly sturdy little thing, for an imp. The sutures we put in took shockingly well, and I think we need to give his body a few days to do its job. We’ll check his progress then, and go from there.”

“Can we see him?” Loona demanded roughly. “Can I see my fuckin’ dad or not?”

The doctor sighed as if Loona were bothering her, then spoke to Stolas as if he’d been the one to ask. “We’ll be monitoring him in ICU for the next few days, it’s best not to have too many bodies in the room at once. Pick one person, and we’ll take them up.”

“You go.” Loona and Stolas said to each other at the exact same time.

Stolas gave Loona a grateful smile that shook with tears, and shook his head as she tried to repeat herself and urge him towards the doctor. “No sweetheart, I think it should be you. You’re his daughter, after all, and besides-” He looked back to Via with a trembling, anxious look on his exhausted face. “I have my daughter to think of.”

Via almost looked surprised that he’d remembered her, violet eyes wide and uncertain as her father tried to reassure her with a smile, but the effort was wasted as tears slipped down his feathered cheeks and soaked into the bandages taped across the bridge of his beak.

“Y-Yeah, I get it.” Loona said before Via could find her voice. “I’ll call you when I get up there- Show you he’s alive and whatever, okay? Text me when you get Via home.”

Stolas frowned and shook his head at her. “I-I don’t have a phone anymore- Blitz, h-he had…”

Loona reached into a pocket at her hip and fished out Blitz’s cracked, but somehow still functional phone. “Here- I grabbed this off the floor back at the palace. W-When I…” Her previously steady words shook and nearly broke here, and Via slipped a hand up onto the hellhound’s knee in a silent show of support. Loona covered the smaller hand with her own, gave the younger girl a quick smile of thanks, and held the phone out to Stolas in front of them.

 “When I got him out.” Loona finished quietly. “Battery should get you home. He keeps his charger in the kitchen drawers, with the spoons n’ shit… You already know, I-I mean…”

She faltered then, tears blurring her huge, frightened eyes as Stolas slipped the phone out from between her fingers and nodded professionally at her.

“I’ll be here.” he promised her with a confidence he in no way felt. “I’ll be here when you call. Go with the doctors my darling, I’ll look after Via. It’ll be alright, we’re here together. We’ll get through this, I promise.”

Loona slipped off her side of the bed and rounded the thing in record time. She scooped Stolas up against her, her arms around his thin, strong chest, and buried her face in his neck for a second. His arms slid up around her broad, strong shoulders automatically, holding the hound the way Loona had seen him hold Via, holding Blitz after hard days at work and long nights that ended with rougher mornings.

The owl prince murmured soft little words of support and care into her long, messy hair tumbled around her shoulders, and Loona squeezed her arms around him so tightly, Stolas gasped as he felt a few ribs shift with the intensity of the hug.

“You put Via in my room, Bird Dad.” she whispered in an undertone. “I love you, we’re gonna bring Dad home in a couple days. You’ll see, okay? I promise you.”

Stolas nodded, his hand behind Loona’s head drawing the hellhound closer against his shoulder for a moment as he nodded and did everything in his power not to fly apart in her arms. Loona let him go, Stolas sat himself back up with a brave attempt at stoicism for his daughter’s sake, and they both watched Loona follow the medical team back out of the room and into the hallway.

A beat passed, then two, and Stolas toyed nervously with his fingertips in his lap as he gathered the courage to face Via now they were alone in the room.

“Dad?” she asked quietly, uncertainly. “C-Can we go? I heard someone say we could go home, and you said you’d take me, a-and it’s not that I don’t care about Blitz, or Loona, b-but i-it’s like… Hospitals kind of freak me out, a-and I just want to be home, b-but I…”

She started to cry again, heartbroken, frightened sobs that shattered whatever was left of Stolas’s broken heart, and he moved without thought. Stolas slipped up into the bed beside his daughter and gathered her close, tucking her head down against his shoulder the way he always had since she was a tiny chick asking him for her nightly sippy cup of juice, or telling him all about a scraped knee, or bruised head from a nasty bump she’d gotten.

“I know my precious Starfire. I understand…” he soothed. “Let’s bring you home. Loona said you can borrow her room, hm? A nice shower, a warm bed? Does that sound better? I’ll make you some nice cereal? Half an apple with sugar and cinnamon, the way you like them?”

Via nodded, then shook her head. “I’m not hungry.” she sniffled, letting him guide them both towards the side of the bed closest to the door. “I just want to be… Not here?”

She looked up at him, all four eyes wide and trusting him to know what to do where she was at a total loss, and the whole world narrowed to his little girl. Stolas hugged her to his side, slipped a bracing hand up under her elbows as he helped her stand, then slipped himself off the bed and onto his feet next.

He guided Via towards the hallway, casting a quick glance back over his shoulder at the bed, the chairs, the bassinet still left in the room to be sure nobody had left anything that mattered behind. Nothing but bloodstains and mussed blankets presented itself, and Stolas turned his attention back to the only thing that truly mattered to him; Via.

In the days that followed, Stolas had vague memories of talking to the front desk staff, giving his insurance information to the bored-sounding attendant and forcing her to sign sworn statements that Blitz’s care would be billed to his royal holdings and not I.M.P. Of shielding Octavia with his entire body as he ordered a cab at a phone set into the lobby wall, and both of them waiting in the dirty light of a spectacular sunrise for the car to pull up.

Loona called just as they’d pulled out of the parking lot, and Stolas took the video call while they drove. Loona showed them Blitz lying in his hospital bed, covered in wires and bandages, one leg up in a traction swing with a heavy metal brace wrapped from ankle to knee keeping the limb stable. The imp was asleep or unconscious, Stolas couldn’t tell the difference in his exhausted, dissociated state, and Loona told them something about transfusions, stable for the time being, painkillers and something Stolas hadn’t been able to hold onto to.

The point had been that his Blitz wasn’t coming home anytime soon, that Loona had broken her promise by virtue of having made it before she understood the severity of her father’s condition, and that Stolas was going back to an apartment full of empty silence and none of his family. Well, no family besides Via, but she hardly wanted his company at the moment, let alone his grief and his pain.

Stolas paid the cab driver automatically, helped his daughter upstairs and showed her the bathroom, where they kept the towels, Loona’s bedroom and the closet where Loona kept her clothes. Stolas was sure Loona wouldn’t mind Via sharing her clothes given the emergency, he’d tried reassuring his daughter, and anything she was missing, he could get for her at the shops downstairs once they opened in a couple hours.

Via had shrugged at him, showing him the backpack she’d never once taken off throughout their entire ordeal at the palace or in the hospital, and turned her back on him to shuffle off towards the bathroom.

Stolas had left her alone after that, listening to the shower turning on and the sounds of Via beginning to clean the last few hours off as he pulled the fresh bag of apples out of the fridge and started cutting one up for her automatically. Via had said she wasn’t hungry, but she might be once she’d showered and dressed in her clean clothes, and even if she wasn’t, Stolas knew it was better to have snacks ready in advance, just in case his little girl asked for a meal and he had to ask her to wait while he cooked or called in a takeaway.

He shook his head to clear it, catching himself thinking of Octavia as a small child again when she was obviously old enough to wait twenty minutes for a pot of pasta to boil, and Stolas focused on the apples anyway. He cut them into slices, powdered them with sugar and cinnamon, snapped them into a sealed plastic food saver, and slid them back into the fridge.

His eyes passed over the open jar of fancy caramel smeared with Blitz’s messy fingerprints from the last meal they’d shared together here, and Stolas covered his mouth with one hand to stifle a sob at the memory.

Not now, not yet. Not with Via in the next room, needing him to be strong for her, to be her father and not the lost, heartbroken soul he was. Stolas felt his heart racing, the room spinning, tears stinging at his eyes, and willed them to stop. Demanded his body cooperate and his mind submit to him as he crammed down everything he felt, all the overwhelming pain of the night, the grief of leaving Blitz in the hospital alone while he had no choice but to look after his daughter first and foremost…

Satan knew how he got there, but Stolas found himself on the couch the next time he’d gained awareness of where he was or what was around him. The apartment was quiet and still around him, the fresh scent of lavender in the air telling him Via had finished her shower and holed herself up in Loona’s room. Hopefully she was asleep- Lucifer knew she needed it, his poor, brave Starfire…

The whisper of fleece against the back of his hand startled Stolas so badly he nearly fell off the couch, and he whipped his head around to see what had touched him. The soft blue blanket printed with horseshoes lay half-off the couch beside him, knocked off the end of the cushion when Stolas had shifted his knees up under himself.

He picked it up, smelling lilacs and lavender, and hot sauce and gunpowder, feeling his heart breaking all over again as the scent of his Blitz on the blanket reminded him sharply that he was alone on the couch now, no warm little imp was going to climb up into his lap and kiss him until they both fell asleep. Nobody was going to crack ridiculous jokes and make Loona groan at the thought of her dads getting naked on the couch after she’d gone to bed. No horse plushies were going to pile themselves mysteriously all over Stolas while he slept, the smell of burnt pancakes wouldn’t be there in the morning.

The sound of Blitz snoring, the warm little body pressed into his chest, fingers buried in the feathers Stolas kept deliberately uncovered at his throat so his imp could nestle into them. Nobody was going to have his coffee ready before Stolas was properly awake, no sharp knees were going to dig into his sides, no tender whispers in the dark to remind him he was loved, cherished, protected when Blitz thought Stolas was asleep…

Stolas curled up around the blanket, buried his face in the arm of the couch and the fabric of the blanket, and sobbed.

Nobody gathered him up against the familiar, fast little heartbeat and warm arms did not completely encircle him, and Stolas felt the world drop out from under him for the third time in less than fourteen hours, and this time he let it go.

Anything was better than feeling this. Anything was better than living in a world without Blitz.

Chapter Text

A/N: Short n' sweet for the first week of Pride- Y'all who's still hanging in there don't have much longer to wait for the Comfort part in Hurt/Comfort XD Some of you are getting what you've been waiting for TODAY! Excitement, intrigue, horses! Well, maybe not the horses. Yet. Anything can happen when we say PRIDE out loud in this house! (Aka I might be planning An Surprise, barring workplace fuckery lol)

No beta, we die like men, I'll fix it in post and so forth.

CW/TW: Mention of hospital/hospitalization

As always, comments, concrit, emojis and feedback always welcome :) I felt the love on that last one, you guys are the greatest <3

Chapter 11: Down Goes Up

The days spent in the aftermath of the rescue were slow, interminable things. Via was traumatized, hardly speaking at all as Stolas hovered anxiously a respectful distance from his daughter, trying his damnedest not to pressure her or force her into conversations she obviously wasn’t ready for yet.

Loona came and went, splitting her time between the house and the hospital where Blitz still lay semi-conscious, covered in bandages with a cast over his broken leg and a stabilizing brace around the arm where he’d been shot twice. The pain meds kept him sleepy and disoriented, but Loona swore he called her by name and focused his swollen eyes on her each time she entered the room, and Stolas chose to think of it as an encouraging truth rather than the comforting lie it really was.

He hadn’t even been to see his Blitz, Stolas lamented as he sat at the kitchen table and watched Via curled up on the couch, face buried in someone’s borrowed phone. She hadn’t said anything beyond ‘where’s the spoons?’ to him for the last three days, and Stolas was practically climbing walls to keep himself from falling at her feet and begging forgiveness until she granted it to him.

She’d been so brave at the palace. So strong and capable, full of spiteful clarity that made her wicked with her spellwork as she’d batted Andre around like he was nothing more than a ragdoll from her childhood bedroom. The way she’d stood over Blitz’s fallen, bloodied body and Stolas’s helpless, disarmed figure and faced down not just that bastard assassin Striker, but a fully-fledged Goetia marquis with all of Stolas’s domains and Andrealphus’s own power at his simple command.

Andre had been woefully outclassed, and Via had so neatly dispatched him into a forest of shadowy vines and chains made of obsidian smoke that tightened the longer the peacock struggled. Stolas had certainly never taught her that, he thought with a hard, proud smile at how far his little girl had come in just a year without him.

A hard, painful pang of guilt lanced through him at the thought. A year away from him had done her such good. How could he ever hope to win her back, to get her to talk to him? Trust him, even as far as a conversation went? He’d gotten his daughter back physically, but he’d never get her back after all the shit Stella had dragged her through, after the lies and the manipulations, and the-

“…Dad?” Via called in a small, careful little voice.

Stolas was instantly on his feet and across the apartment, standing by the arm of the couch and wringing his hands nervously. “Y-Yes Via?” he answered shakily. “What is it my little owlet?”

She tucked a stray bit of messy hair up under her toque, pretending to adjust the sleeve of her borrowed shirt over one shoulder as she hugged herself for comfort, and Stolas felt like he might die not being able to swoop in and scoop her up the way he had when she was a chick. The way he had that day at LooLoo Land, when he’d finally realized she might still be his little Starfire, but she was also just a year shy of adulthood. Of true independence. Of the age he’d been when he’d been forced to marry Stella and started a family he’d had no interest in creating with the shrill, cruel bitch he’d been told was the only love he’d ever know.

Via shifted a little, Stolas held himself carefully in check and made no move to get closer, or reach for her, or anything, and after the longest eternity in the known cosmos, Octavia finally looked up at him.

“I… I think I understand.” Via said quietly. “A-About him, and the fake marriage, and Mum being… You know.” She waved a hand expansively at the tiny living room, and Stolas all but held his breath as he waited for Via to go on. “Like, it’s still very, very weird, and I’m not sure I’m completely over everything yet, but I can understand why you cheated with him. Why you hated her so badly…”

Stolas very, very deliberately forced himself to keep quiet and nodded gingerly. Via dropped her eyes to her hands clasped tightly in her lap, and pulled in a huge breath to finish what she’d almost been too afraid to say. “I-I can understand how badly she must have treated you, and how amazing it must’ve felt to have him around to… To, I don’t know! Just exist with, I guess. Have someone actually want you around. Have someone give a shit, I guess. I-I don’t really know…”

She trailed off here, apparently at a loss for words, and Stolas moved a half-step closer to her without thinking. “I suppose it did feel nice to be wanted by someone.” Stolas said softly, hesitantly. “To know someone I care for quite deeply wanted me, even if it was only transactional at first. It was probably the novelty of genuine connection that made me keep seeing him, had me dream up our little deal in the first place. I… I’d never had anyone who cared about me. The only person in my life who cared if I lived or died was you, Via, and you were so young… You are so young, I just…”

Stolas cut himself off here, feeling the tears slipping down his feathered cheeks and not wanting Via to see him so upset. He hastily swiped a hand under both larger eyes and sucked in a quiet, steadying breath.

“Why d’you do that?” Via asked abruptly, anger in her words now. “Why d’you always think I can’t see you crying? Am I too selfish to care? Is it because you think I shouldn’t see my dad giving a shit about anything?”

Stolas’s eyes went wide and he quickly dropped his hands, letting his daughter see everything he felt plainly painted across his soft features for possibly the first time in her entire nearly-adult life. “I-I- Of course I don’t think any of that!” he protested weakly. “I thought I was doing the right thing! Protecting you from all the shit I was going through, that I am going through- Things that have nothing to do with you! You have so much to handle already my precious little Starfire, I just…”

He sighed in defeat, his shoulders dropping forwards like the broken man he was, and turned to go back to the kitchen. “I’m sorry, Octavia. I keep forgetting you aren’t the little girl I see when I look at you. That you’ve grown into such a strong, powerfully capable young woman, and that you don’t need me to protect you anymore. I saw that quite clearly when we took you back from Andre and Stella- I should have been better for you. I don’t know how to change that now.”

A soft, hesitant hand dropped on his shoulder, and Stolas froze, knowing at once who’s it was and not daring to hope she was this clever, this compassionate, this forgiving… Not to him, not to the monster that had abandoned his daughter to chase after some imp who was dying in a hospital bed on his account right now, because of him and how weak he now was. Always had been, and-

“Dad?” Octavia ventured carefully. “Dad, can you hear me? Are you okay? Sh-Should I get someone?”

Stolas turned to face his daughter standing not two feet away from him, her beautiful eyes huge and full of anxious fear he’d more often seen himself wearing. She had tears that weren’t yet falling in those starry, wonderful eyes, and all Stolas wanted to do was gather her up to him, tell her it would be alright. Pick up the world and tell her she never had to carry it ever again, her Dad was here now. Stolas would do it for her, she was safe until the end of Hell. She never had to face another second of pain or fear-

But he couldn’t. Not least of all because he didn’t think Via would accept so much as a hug from him right now, but also because he wouldn’t be doing her any favours if he did. He wouldn’t be teaching her how to survive without him if he did everything for her. He’d be doing his little owlet serious harm by sheltering her- Had done her serious harm.

Satan even knew what he was supposed to do to atone for that. If Blitz were here, he would know how to handle this. What to do, what to say. How to help Via. If Blitz-

Stolas felt his chin tremble, his entire body beginning to shake as he stood there mutely in front of Via and watched the worry in her eyes shading to genuine fear- for him, not of him, thank Lucifer. If she’d been afraid of him now, Stolas didn’t think any force in Hell could save him from his own hand. If his own daughter, his only priceless treasure couldn’t forgive him, then he didn’t know what he’d do, but the only reason he hadn’t done it yet was standing right in front of him, hands reaching towards him-

Stolas startled as he registered the thought, the sight. Via was reaching out towards him! Was this a beginning, was she going to let him near her? Could he do something, say something, be anything to make sure she didn’t pull away again? To keep her with him always and-

Her hands slipped up under his arms, and Stolas wrapped his arms around his daughter for the first time in over a year.

“Via, I’m so sorry!” he sobbed into the top of her toque. “I should have talked to you sooner, I should have been a better father! I should have protected you by telling you everything as soon as I knew how instead of putting it off and avoiding the responsibility. I should have trusted the wonderful, brave, smart soul that you are and told you… I’m so sorry my darling, I can never make it right, but please- Let me try? Let me try and be better for you- I’ll do anything you ask of me! Anything, I swear it! I can be anything you need, but please Via, please-”

His words abruptly cut themselves off, her arms around his chest so tight that it hurt now, and Stolas gathered his little girl up in his arms, drawing her up into his chest, head down against his shoulder the way he’d done when she’d been a tiny chick in the middle of the night. He rubbed her back, rocked her shoulders. He kissed the top of her messy hair, her temple, ran his hands over and over her back. Anything he could think of to soothe her, reassure her, tell her she wasn’t alone, Daddy would always be there-

“Dad.” she said firmly into the rapidly spiraling fog of his thoughts, and instantly everything else never mattered as he listened for her.

“Dad, I don’t hate you.” Via said softly, the words strong and clear despite the tears making them tremble. “I thought I did, but I was just angry. It felt like my fault that you and Mum never got along, that the marriage couldn’t last. I thought you always fought because of me, that I was the problem and all you ever did was lie to me about giving a shit-”

“Oh Via, no my precious thing!” Stolas started quickly, his hold on her tightening with what Via could only assume was Dad Love. “Never you! It was-”

“Her. I know, Dad. I listened.” Octavia said with a faint, brief smile against her father’s shoulder. “I was there when you fought for me and she couldn't even be bothered to put her head out the door of her rooms to see what all the noise was about. When Blitz… I… I’m sorry it took so long to see through them, Dad. I thought I knew everything, understood what was happening, but she’d lied to me so many times. They manipulated me, and I was too stupid to get that, and now…”

Her chin trembled against his shoulder, and Stolas scooped up his precious treasure and carried her to the beaten old couch that was his bedroom now.

“Listen to me, Octavia.” he said fiercely, protectively, anger bright in his words that anyone could make his perfect daughter feel less than that. “You are not, and never have been, stupid. You are my clever, strong, perceptive little princess and those people are professional motherfuckers.”

He felt her laugh against his chest despite the way she still clung to him, and Stolas’s eyes softened. She still saw him as a safe haven. She still thought he was strong enough to protect her. She was still his little Starfire. He steeled himself and ran a hand down the back of her head, kissed her soundly at one temple.

“They used you the way they used me.” Stolas said softly. “Goetic families are all like that. They use people as tools for courtly politics and clout. None of them are sincere. How could you have known? I tried so hard to keep all that away from you, to give you the happy, normal life I never had…” Stolas sighed again, deeply and tiredly, and kissed the top of his daughter’s head. “I failed you by keeping you too safe, my precious Starfire. You weren’t ready for them when they came for you.”

“Neither were you.” Via pointed out fiercely. “They targeted Blitz and used him to try and kill you. To steal our home, your power.” Her voice softened and she snuggled in closer to her father’s shoulder for security. “To take me and turn me against you.”

He hugged her tighter, and Via curled up into him.

“And it worked, Dad.” she admitted quietly. “For at least six months, it worked so well I thought I hated you. I thought you lied to me and didn’t love me at all, and Mum… Sh-She never said two words to me directly. Treated me like I wasn’t even there until I confronted Uncle Andre at dinner that one time. I could hear them, you know- Planning and bragging about how they stole your power, your house. The way they were going to hire Striker to finish the job and find you so that you’d never make it to the end of that hundred years… So that I wouldn’t…”

She broke down sobbing here, and Stolas reacted purely on instinct. He gathered up his frightened, crying child, pressed her right up against his chest and laid her head down on his shoulder the way he knew she liked best, and poured every inch of love and support he could into all the cracks and chasms of her young heart.

He rocked her, kissed her head, put his forehead down against hers, mindful of both their sets of double-eyes and let her cry for a time. He joined her, quietly and sadly, grief much lighter than it used to be mingling in with the new reality that he’d gotten his child back. He’d brought her home the way he’d sworn he would, and she’d been so brave, so powerful. So much more than he’d hoped she’d become.

She’d been everything he couldn’t be at her age and then some, and Stolas smiled despite himself.

“You know I love you, don’t you?” he asked quietly, gently. “That I’m your father, and nothing in any of the seven rings could keep me from finding you, no matter where you are, and reaching you when you call for me?

Via nodded miserably and put her arms around his neck the way she hadn’t since she was five years old and waking from nightmares in the dark. “I love you too Dad.” she sobbed. “I really, honestly do, but it all got so messed up, and I fucked up, and now… And now…”

She dissolved into tears again, and Stolas held her until her warm weight sank into him, leaned against him in a reflexive, well-learned habit that told her he would always be there to catch her. That her dad was her safe place, even still, and he carefully readjusted them along the old couch to minimize the back pain she’d surely wake with sleeping on this old thing. He knew he would, the way he did every morning since Blitz had taken him in.

Blitz. The thought of his imp startled Stolas out of the brief lull in panic he’d been drifting along in. His Blitz laid up half-dead in a hospital room right now, alone and covered in wires and machines and bandages, nobody beside him except for when Loona was able to visit…

Stolas kept his daughter safely ensconced in the crook of his neck, made no movement at all that might disturb her, and dropped his head back against the arm of the couch. His eerie flexibility meant he was nearly upside down along the old fabric, the world reflecting back at him from a 180 degree flip for half a second before it blurred and tears began to cascade down over the top of his head from all four eyes.

I’m coming, my love he thought blearily, acutely aware of Octavia still held in his arms. As soon as she’s alright, I’m coming to you Blitz

It was the last thought he knew before the world dropped away and he too fell asleep, exhausted and spent.

Chapter Text

A/N: Surprise! Happy Pride y'all- Extra update because it's high time we got Soft Babies and Found Family, and- Well, maybe not all in one chapter, but I think I put enough in there to give at least some of you some of what you've been waiting for :) Don't worry- Regular update schedule maintained, we get Moar Soon lol No beta, we die like men, I'll fix any issues in post (after I post :P)

CW/TW: Full-blown panic attack, high emotional distress shown and described on the page. Strong themes of depression and depressive spirals, grief and intense emotional processing. Everything Will Be Okay, but it isn't now, so read carefully if you have a hard time with these themes and/or realistic Angst. Hospital/Hospital procedures mention, nothing shown or described. Graphic injury described; blood mentioned.

As always, comments, concrit, feedback, emojiis- Whatever y'all got, welcome :) I'm kinda slow and sporadic at replies, but I see you all! Y'all make writing this so much fun with your theories and comments, and seeing all the little details I leave that you guys pick up on! Shoutout to all my readers- We do the work for you (and also because I cannot wait for S3 lol)

Chapter 12: Picking Up the Spare

“Dad?” came a soft, careful call in the voice of his little owlet. “Dad, are you awake?”

“Mm, yes Via.” Stolas mumbled in a voice that clearly said otherwise. “What do you need my darling?”

“Give him a minute.” a newer, older voice said in a familiar drawl. “He takes a second to get himself functional after he’s been crying. Y’know, like a really slow app lags sometimes.”

Via’s soft little hoot of laughter made Stolas’s heart soar as he shifted, realizing his daughter wasn’t asleep on his chest anymore and that his neck hurt, and that something hard and deeply unpleasant was stuffed up under the back of his head.

He blinked, slow and disoriented, with his head full of cotton and his mouth tasting of iron and ashes, and carefully sat himself up on his elbows. A kitchen chair scraped the old hardwood beneath it as he lifted his head, and he frowned as he noticed it for the first time. Who had put a Satan-forsaken chair up under his head? Didn’t they know owls had flexible spines, and that sleeping with his neck curved up along the couch would have hurt less than falling asleep against the awkward curve of a wooden chair like that?

He blinked the sleep out of his eyes with a soft groan, rubbing at his neck and shoulders with one hand. “Via? What did you need my love? Do you have clean clothes? Shall I do a laundry run?”

Via shook her head above him, taking a half-step to one side to show him Loona standing with her arms crossed behind the younger girl. “I’m alright Dad. Loona’s been helping me. I… I wanted to ask you something, but take your time. Wake up first. D’you want some coffee or whatever?”

Stolas was instantly sitting up, smoothing down the wrinkled old t-shirt of Blitz’s- one he’d deliberately bought three sizes too large and slept in for a solid week before gifting it to Stolas- that had ridden up his stomach while he’d slept.

The stupid thing was still too short, because imps weren’t taller than five foot three at best, and Stolas was a compact eight feet tall for a Goetia prince, but the huge, baggy sides made him feel warm and safe anyway, and the point of the thing was that it smelled like Blitz even when his imp was far away. Even on days when Stolas couldn’t follow his lover into a job, or fathom leaving the couch, Blitz was with him, and here and now the stupid shirt bearing an obnoxiously cheerful, violently pink horse and the slogan Pink Pony Club was an especial comfort.

If he couldn’t be with Blitz when his imp needed him the most, at least he could wear the stupid horse shirt. At least he could do the bare minimum…

Via’s hand on his cheek startled him, and the wetness of her palm made him jerk back in alarm.

“Via! Oh, no, my precious girl- I’m so sorry! Nevermind these.” he hastily brushed back the tears slipping from his eyes and gave her a shaky, waterlogged smile. “What do you need Starfire? Did you get a meal in you? Shall I make us some cereal?”

Octavia shook her head, glanced back over her shoulder at Loona, who nodded encouragingly, and took her father’s hands in hers. She sat down on the couch beside him, and Stolas waited patiently for her to speak, his expression drawn but soft, eyes focused only and always on her the way he’d done since she was-

Well, probably since she was born. Via could only remember as far back as three, and he’d looked the same then as he did now; Comforting and safe, like she could tell him anything and he’d hum and find some way to bring her the moon. Literally, once, she mused with a smile.

Her dad would and had done anything for her. He’d risked his life and sacrificed Blitz to save her. She was still so conflicted and confused about this whole in-love-with-an-imp thing, and her place in the world now that everything she’d ever known had crumbled and been ripped away in one fell blow from her own mother and uncle, but she knew right from wrong. Her dad had taught her that too, and how to lead with her heart and not anger.

She wasn’t perfect at that last bit, but she was working on it with Loona, who was probably the angriest person she’d ever met other than Blitz. Her Mum could scream and yell and be the world’s biggest bitch, even throw things and break furniture, but Stella’s wrath was shallow and quick, like a candle in a strong wind. Blitz was a raging inferno in comparison, and Via had only ever seen the imp actually angry twice- The last time had been the day he’d thrown himself in front of Stolas at Andre, spitting curses and wielding his stolen knife like a dire promise.

Blitz had driven that fury right through Andrealphus, point first in the form of the angelic steel knife he’d plucked off the office floor, and even though Via knew it wouldn’t kill her uncle, the blood and the violence of the fighting had still shocked her. She’d never seen true combat before. Never been in a conflict that cost anyone more than hurt feelings or broken dishes. Never seen anyone lose as much blood as Blitz had when Andre shattered his knee and kicked the imp’s entire leg backwards, bones snapping out through the heavy black jeans like macabre little knives, sharp and jagged, and covered in black blood…

“Via?” Stolas was saying gently. “Starfire? Are you with me? Can you hear me?” The sound of bodies shuffling and a chair being displaced. “Lay her down, I’ll stay with her.”

This last was clearly being spoken to someone else, and Octavia hastily shook her head to clear it and ground herself. She wasn’t going to run from any of this. She wasn’t going to let her dad down, not again. Not about this.

She pushed her father’s gentle hands away from her, whipped her head up to look him dead in all four eyes, and squared her shoulders. “Dad. I want to see him.” she said firmly, a little too harshly. “Let’s go see your imp.”

Stolas sat straight down on the living room floor, missing the couch and barely managing to miss the kitchen chair Loona had positioned beside the head of the couch. His eyes were instantly full of shock and tears, his entire body trembling as he heard his daughter asking to see Blitz and realized he would have to see Blitz. See his lover battered and broken, full of blood the way he’d been at the palace, and be faced with the reality of Blitz on life support if any of what Loona had been telling him was true-

You will be okay, when I’m gone you’ll be okay

The old lullabye in Via’s voice. The smell of lavender soap and brimstone as Loona’s larger body wrapped him up and held Via against one side of him while his daughter pressed her face into his shoulder and sang the lullabye for him. His family, so close to being whole, surrounding him, supporting him.

Stolas sat there with his fingers buried in Loona’s fur, Octavias’s shirt, and sobbed. It was all he knew to do in that moment, overwhelmed and terrified as he finally finally let himself process what was happening to Blitz now that Via had spoken to him, told him she still loved him, that it was going to be alright with time…

“I can’t lose him!” he cried brokenly, unsure if it was Via or Loona running a hand over the back of his head while he buried his face in someone’s shoulder and sobbed his soul out. “I can’t! I’ll die without him, you don’t understand! Y-You…”

He dissolved into grief and terror and loss, and both his girls held him like lifelines, and Stolas lost total track of everything but his own heart shattering.  

                                                                                                                                   ~*~*~*~

By the time he’d sobbed himself half-sick, apparently into Loona’s strong shoulder as Octavia sat by with an anxious, pale look on her young face, Stolas felt ragged. His throat hurt from crying, his eyes swollen and tender as he wiped surreptitiously at tears that formed again the second he’d wiped them away. He felt his stomach rolling as he vaguely remembered he’d skipped his meds that morning, and Loona rubbed his back in slow, even circles.

Octavia nudged at his elbow and offered him a hopeful glass of water, and Stolas took it because he wanted her to feel useful and needed, and not because he thought he wouldn’t vomit up anything he put down his throat right then. He sipped the water, barely lifting his head off Loona’s shoulder, handed the glass back to Via, who watched him with a strange mix of determination and uncertainty in her expressive eyes, and tried to smile at his daughter.

“I’m alright.” he lied with a watery little half-smile in her direction. “It’s alright Via, I’m just exhausted and too sensitive. You haven’t done anything wrong darling, I promise.”

“Take your meds, okay?” Loona said in an undertone beside his ear. “They’re gonna help. I can tell you’re sick- I’ll cover for you, just get them in you, okay? My dad would want me to make you take ‘em.”

Stolas’s chin trembled at the reminder of his sweet, attentive Blitz who was laid up in an intensive care unit all because Stolas hadn’t been demon enough to get his own fucking daughter back from his fucking bitch ex-wife and her pompous fuckhead brother, and he’d given Blitz up like a sacrificial offering instead, and-

“Dad?” Via asked in a small, tentative little voice that instantly jerked Stolas out of his own head and pinned his focus on her. “I-I’m sorry… W-We don’t have to see him if you’re not ready. I can wait, I-”

“I don’t want to wait any longer.” Stolas said loudly, a bit too harshly, and Octavia flinched at the rough words. Stolas forced himself to soften his tone, let go of the whipcord tension in his shoulders, the crushing weight across his chest, and took a deep, steadying breath before he spoke to her again.

“I think we should see him, together.” he tried again. “I think if you say you’re ready to see Blitz, then I’ll be there with you my little owlet. Whatever you need, Daddy’s here for you.”

Octavia almost rolled her eyes at him, but caught herself at the last second and sighed loudly at him instead. “Dad. I’m not five anymore- I don’t need you to hold my hand just because things are hard to do, okay?”

His eyes softened, and Via leaned in to hug her dad and give him a fast, gentle little kiss on the chin. “You’re going to need me, I think, and I can do that.” she said softly, strength in her words despite the gentle worry in her voice. “Me and Loona- We’ll be with you, the whole time. I swear, okay?”

“Yeah- Blitz is awake most times I go in now.” Loona added encouragingly. “He asks about you when he’s not completely fucked up on the pain meds the hospital gives him. I know he misses his bird, and he’d be so glad to see Via too.”

Loona smiled across at Octavia as she said this last, and Via bit her lower lip anxiously at being addressed directly by the hellhound.

“A-Are you sure?” Via asked a little timidly. “I won’t like… Upset him or something? He wants to see me? Even though this is all my fault and everything?”

“Absolutely not!” Stolas said at the same time Loona said “Yeah, he does.” and tried to lead into a reassuring reminder that Octavia hadn’t caused this.

Via flinched back at the fierceness in her father’s admonishment, and Loona gave Stolas a hard look.

“Go wash your face off in the bathroom.” Loona told him extremely pointedly. “You need it.”

Stolas made a face, catching on immediately that Loona was telling him to take his fucking meds without outright saying so in front of his daughter, and smothered the knee-jerk impulse to argue back that he was fine the way he was.

My dad would want me to make you take ‘em

Loona’s earlier words echoed through Stolas’s whirling thoughts, and he nodded at her even as he got his shaky legs under himself and began to stand.

“We can go right after I’m finished in the bathroom.” Stolas offered Via. “Or tomorrow, if you need more time- Anytime you like, Starfire. You tell me. I’ll be there with you, I promise.”

“Can we do it today?” Via requested quietly. “I… I want him to know something, and I don’t want it to wait.” She turned to Loona and gave her a hopeful, shy look as one arm came up to squeeze the shoulder opposite in a telltale anxious hug across her own chest. “I-Is that allowed?”

Loona smiled at her even as she watched Stolas like a hawk and made sure he actually went into the bathroom instead of swerving into the kitchen in an effort to dodge his meds.

“I’m sure it is.” she told Via with more compassion in her voice than Stolas had ever heard her use before. “Blitz wants to see you safe and whole- It was like, the first thing he asked me after asking me who died in the fight. He just wants his family safe, and that means you too Via.”

Via nodded and said nothing, all four eyes locked on her knees in the soft grey lounge pants she’d managed to sweep into her go-bag back at the palace. She lifted them just in time to watch Stolas slip into the bathroom and close the door behind himself, then waited a beat to be sure he’d be occupied with whatever he needed to do in there.

“I’m so sorry, Loona…” Octavia said softly, guilt heavy in her words as she kept her eyes down and couldn’t look up at the hellhound who’d been looking after her ever since they’d left the hospital that fateful day. “I-It’s my fault your dad’s in the ICU. I sent the text to his phone because I didn’t know who else to call. I couldn’t see another way out, I… I didn’t think it would get this bad, I just…”

She began to cry again, and Loona scooped the slighter form up into her lap and held Octavia close. The owl princess hugged her arms around herself, trying and failing to let her long hair hide her face from Loona’s softened eyes, and Loona put her forehead down at Via’s temple.

“Bad people do bad shit. That’s not your fault.” she told the younger girl with a tremor in her words as she thought of Blitz’s blood staining her fur, the way it had taken three showers to get it all out, and a fourth and fifth just to feel remotely alive again instead of numb and dissociated after they’d come home and Blitz wasn’t there to crack awful jokes, or throw horses at Via in some misguided effort to comfort the bewildered princess, or help Stolas navigate repairing the rift between him and his daughter the way only Blitz was so effortlessly good at, or-

“It’s not your fault.” Loona repeated to cover for her momentary distraction. “Bad people do bad things, and we kicked their asses about it. Hard.” A streak of wicked pride coloured her next words and Loona grinned at Octavia in front of her. “Your uncle looked like a bad Hallow’s Eve costume- He had stripes all up his arms and head from those vines you tied him up in. Blitz and your dad told me about the fight, and you kicked ass Chicklet. You should be hella proud of yourself for that, anyway.”

Via sniffled and wiped the back of one hand under her eyes. “D’you mean that?” she asked quietly, the careful hope in her voice not lost on Loona. “Like, actually mean it?”

Loona nodded and hugged Via around the shoulders. “I honestly do. Satan knows I woulda shit my pants at your age if my uncle started flinging ice at my head while my dad got the shit kicked out of him in front of me. You’re stronger than you think, kid. I know stuff, trust me.”

Via smiled up at the hound and wiped the last of her tears away. “I do.” she told Loona. “Trust you, I mean. You’re good people, and I think our dads are probably gonna get married someday, so like… I-I guess, y’know, someday… I-If you wanted… W-We… I’d be, like…”

“You can just say little sister.” Loona said as if the words held no weight to them at all. “I’m adopted- All my family’s chosen family. I could make room for a little sister.”

Loona’s eyes widened, her cheeks blushing pink as she heard what she’d so casually dropped into the conversation, and she hastily held up her hands as if the simple action could ward her words away from the younger girl. “When you’re ready! If you’re ever ready! No pressure, okay?”

Via slipped out of her lap onto the couch beside Loona and lay her head down on the hellhound’s strong shoulder instead. “I think I’d like that.” she smiled “When you’re ready.”

Loona didn’t press the issue by telling Via she’d been ready since that first day they’d met at the observatory in LA, and instead draped a casual arm up around the owl princess’s shoulders.

“You wanna get a snack in you before we leave?” Loona offered instead, and Via shook her head.

“I’m pretty sure I’d puke if I ate anything right now.” she admitted with a frown. “M-Maybe we could make like, a smoothie or something? Trick myself into drinking my breakfast?”

Loona smiled at her and pulled the younger girl up to her feet as she hopped up off the couch. “You like apples like your dad, or you more of a blueberries n’ banana girl?”

Via beamed, explaining her favourite smoothies to Loona as she followed the hound to the kitchen. They busied themselves making breakfast for Via, putting coffee on for Loona and Stolas, and Loona packing them all a lunch for the hospital later since the food there was both expensive and tasted like shit.

“I know you can cover the cash,” Loona was saying to Via as they lay cold water bottles down at the bottom of a messenger bag and began to stack simple PBJs on white on top of the water bottles. “But trust me- You’re gonna want something that tastes like home.”

Via frowned and bit her lower lip. “Is it that bad?” she asked nervously. “Sh-Should we warn my dad? He’s a bit… Um… He’s kind of…”

Loona’s ears pinned themselves back against her head and she winced. “Kind of a mess? Completely unhinged without Blitz?” she suggested. “Yeah, I noticed too. Let’s try and ease him in, okay? Take it slow.”

“Take what slow?” Stolas asked from behind the girls, and Loona mouthed ‘fuck’ at Via with her back to the prince, and Octavia giggled.

“Are you already talking about me while I’m not in the room?” Stolas teased, giving Via a cheeky little wink that made his daughter roll her eyes and heave an exasperated sigh at her stupid lame dad. “I don’t mind. Shall I step out to the balcony and let you continue?”

“First of all, if we were- which we weren’t,” Loona shot back with a glare. “Giving us permission ruins the fun, and second of all, is that what you think you’re wearing out of the house today?”

Stolas looked down at himself, blinking as he noticed his stained shirt, three-days-slept-in grey sweatpants and the general miasma of neglect clinging to him like a humid summer’s day. He’d showered that first day they’d come home from the hospital, washing the dried black vomit off his legs and standing under the hot water for the better part of an hour until the shower had run cold and icy water had chilled him to the bone, but not since, and it definitely showed that he hadn't. Stolas could hardly bring himself to care as he moved through the world like amstranger in his own life, and he frowned down at himself as he tried to process Loona's words and find one single fuck to give about the state of him.

The shirt he wore now was the same old t-shirt Loona had quietly handed him after she’d coaxed him into that shower in the first place. Some faded old tee of Blitz’s, printed with a Pink Pony Club logo complete with a luridly pink horse in a stupid cowboy hat on the front, but Stolas refused to take it off. It smelled like his imp, and between the old blankets on the couch he wrapped himself in at night, and the old t-shirt, he almost felt like he could survive the next hour without knowing if the love of his life would ever make it home again. Almost.

“What’s wrong with this?” he said with a completely straight face, and Loona’s ears practically disappeared against her skull as she heard the wooden sound of Stolas’s voice and knew everything but getting the bird to the hospital would be a fight.

“First of all, you look like unwashed laundry-” Loona started sternly.

“Dad- I made you a cup of coffee.” Via cut in quickly, holding out a mug emblazoned with one of Blitz’s favourite logos on the side. “More milk than coffee, right?”

Stolas smiled bravely for his daughter’s sake as he nodded and accepted the cup of coffee with his hands shaking. “Thank you, Starfire. I… It’s perfect.”

He took a sip to show her he meant it despite the tremble in his chin as he watched Blitz waving this exact mug around the table while he spoke animatedly about a job they’d recently been on, or his dreams of opening a private horse farm out in Wrath someday. Watched a thousand versions of Blitz drinking coffee, making meals, talking and laughing at the kitchen table with him…

He took another sip of the coffee to try and cover up the tears that welled up in all four eyes, but he was in the wrong company for lies and courtly masquerades. Loona had an arm around his shoulder before he’d lowered the mug, Via hurrying over to the counter to pick up a second glass of smoothie so she could press it into his free hand.

“The internet says it’s better to have food with SSRIs?” Via offered hopefully. “I never want to eat anything when I’m upset- It’ll be easier if it’s a liquid?”

The way she spoke each sentence as a question made Stolas smile for his daughter’s sake and nod encouragingly even though he felt like he might actually be dying every second longer they stood here in the fucking kitchen instead of leaving for the hospital.

“Tell you what,” Loona said with a smile over in Via’s direction. “Let’s let your dad take a few mouthfuls of breakfast, he’ll get some clean pants on- don’t fucking argue with me. You’re doing it-” Loona warned as Stolas made an angry, annoyed noise at her and threatened to protest.

The owl glared at her, but Loona countered with her best fuck around and find out face, and Stolas grumbled a handful of curses at her, but moved towards the beanbag where his spare pajama pants were anyway,  

“And once he’s ready, we’ll head out?” Loona said to Via.

The teenager nodded, taking a few small sips off her smoothie as she watched her dad jerk a pair of soft purple pants out of what looked like a dirty laundry pile behind an old beanbag in the living room and stomp into the bathroom with them like a sullen middle schooler.

“Is he always like this?” Via asked once the bathroom door had slammed shut behind Stolas and Loona had heaved an exasperated sigh as she watched Stolas moving around the apartment and just knew he hadn’t actually taken his meds earlier.

The rapid cycle of tears, hair-trigger irritation and barely-masked anxiety told Loona they were bringing Stolas to his imp just in time. One more day, and she was sure they’d have to start locking the balcony door at night and sleeping in shifts to keep the owl safe from his own damn brain.

Loona shook her head at Octavia and picked up her own glass of fresh smoothie. “Only when he’s having a really rough time with his meds. It’ll be a lot better once he sees Blitz.”

Via nodded slowly, watched Loona shotgun a full glass of blueberry apple smoothie like her dad used to throw back glasses of wine at dinner, and looked up at the taller hound. “I-Is… Does he have bad days a lot?” she asked with a hasty check over her shoulder for her father. “Like, when he isn’t freaking the fuck out because of an emergency I mean.”

“Not usually,” Loona hedged, not willing to start any truly serious conversations that might delay them leaving. “He’s been doing really great, actually, ever since Blitz got him back on his meds and made sure he stayed on ‘em…”

“Can we fucking go now?” Stolas’s voice demanded as the prince himself shoved open the bathroom door and stepped back out into the living room, now wearing the purple pajama pants, but still defiantly in the dirty old horse shirt. “Are you happy now, or shall I find a pair of cufflinks and a tie to impress the hospital staff with?”

Loona forced herself to say nothing to the sharp little dig intended to bait her into a fight neither of them would win, and nodded. “Yeah.” she sighed, nudging Octavia towards the front door with a gentle hand at the younger girl’s back. “Let’s go.”

She picked up the messenger bag full of snacks and water, picked up Stolas’s abandoned smoothie, just in case someone needed it later, and began to usher them all towards the hallway with her hands full.

Octavia hung back as Loona held the apartment door open for her, waiting until her father was past her and reaching forwards to slip her hand into his in silent support. He paused mid-step, looked back at her over one shoulder, and Octavia gave him a tentative, shaky little smile.

Stolas returned her smile with a genuine, if muted smile of his own and squeezed her fingers into his palm. “It’ll be okay Starfire.” he reassured automatically. “I’ll be here the whole time my owlet.”

Via shook her head at him and fell into step beside him as Loona locked the apartment door behind them and nodded them towards the apartment stairwell.

“No dad- This time I’ll be there with you.”

Chapter Text

A/N: Triple-hitter this week! Two-chapter oneshot, because PRIDE MONTH! means we get Treats, as a consolation prize for like... *gestures broadly outside* Y'know, alla That. Anyway- I'm late because that's just the kinda man I am this week, but I would never forget my readers despite everything in the known universe conspiring against me! So here we are, in a big hurry but still out here, making Stupid Soft Idiots Kith on the mouth and finally giving y'all what you really want; Another chapter where we don't get to see Blitz!

Just kidding. Can you imagine? lmao No beta, we die like men! Mind the warnings if medical stuff freaks you out- We Went There, but not excessively. Angst, drama, no gratuitous blood! Always remember I'm Very Soft, and I cannot possibly hurt my babies without someone (Stolas) kissing it better eventually. Everything Will Be Okay <3

CW/TW: Full-blown panic attack described on the page, high intensity emotions, unmedicated depression/panic disorder. Bigtime hospital themes. Injury description, medical equipment shown and described. Wound care described, on-the-page medical care and medical terms used. Do NOT- I am so, so serious here, DON'T Google 'degloving' without Safe Search. It means having skin removed in a traumatic, graphic way I'm not going to describe in the foreword notes. Trust the guy with odd research hobbies- Wiki without images ONLY. Unless you're unbothered by The Horrors, IDK I'm not your real dad :P I cannot possibly stop you. Medical abuse, racism/classism, shitty hospital staff- Mild, but definitely present and depicted, so tread light if that's a trigger for you. Stay safe babies- Let me know if I missed a major warning here <3

As usual, comments, concrit, feedback and keyboard smashes of all flavours welcome! I read every one and treasure them <3 If you see any weird typos this week, no you didn't lmao Ya boy's down a fingertip on his typing hand, and it Be Like That. I'll fix it in post (once the finger heals)! 

Chapter 13: He Ain’t Heavy (But This Could Kill Me)

They arrived at the hospital a little over half an hour later, opting to drive rather than portal in both because Loona hadn’t had the heart to bring Blitz’s salvaged clothes and the Asmodean crystal home without her father yet, and because Via was still too unpracticed with her magicks to reliably get them somewhere she’d only ever been once.

Stolas clung to his daughter’s hand as he let the girls lead him past the front desk, who stopped them and tried to argue they couldn’t be allowed up to the trauma ward with more than three people in their party, and Loona had growled low and rough that they were, and security could fight a goetic prince and his princess daughter if they felt like dying for their principals.

The hospital staff seemed much less inclined to argue as Via put on her hardest, most imperious glare, and Stolas pulled enough regal presence out of his ass to draw himself up tall and imposing beside her. Combined with Loona’s obviously ready-to-brawl scowl, nobody else stopped them as the front desk waved them forwards and scribbled Blitz’s room and floor number onto a scrap of spare paper for Via.

The elevator brought them up to the thirteenth floor, the trio made their way down the hall to Blitz’s wing, then hunted for his room number with Via in the lead despite Loona having been there more often.

Loona smiled as she watched Via dutifully checking her paper scrap against passing room numbers, her father’s hand still tucked securely under her long fingers. She was trying to give father and daughter as much time and space as she could to reconnect and bond with each other after being apart for so long, and watching Via take charge of Stolas, supporting her clearly overwhelmed and spiraling father without missing a step lit a fierce, warm pride in Loona.

It was hard enough being seventeen, Loona thought, nevermind dealing with divorce, and courtly politics, and psychopath uncles trying to kill you, and having your own mom hire a hitman to help him do it, and-

“Dad? I think this is it.” Octavia’s voice cut suddenly across Loona’s wandering thoughts, and all three of them froze dead in place.

Stolas’s eyes went huge, his pupils shrinking to tiny little pinpricks as he reflexively stepped in front of his daughter to shield her as his heart began to race, and Loona lay a supportive hand on his arm.

“Take your time Stols.” Loona told him gently, her voice bracing and steady as Stolas began to tremble minutely. “We’re right here with you. You’re okay.”

“I-I can go in with you, if you want?” Via offered just as softly. “O-Or you can go in first, and we’ll give you two some privacy? O-Or-”

“Together.” Stolas said firmly and clearly. He reached over and picked up Loona’s hand in his. “Together or not at all.”

Loona smiled at him and nodded shortly. “When you’re ready.”

Stolas steeled himself, his fingers squeezing both his daughters’s hands in his, and sucked in a deep, steadying breath. He turned to Via beside him and gave her a gentle look of inquiry. “Do you need more time, darling?” he asked her gently. “Take the time you need, I’m alright.”

He clearly wasn’t, and Via shook her head quickly, already reaching for the sterile metal door handle to Blitz’s room. “Tell me when you’re ready. I’m good, Dad, I promise.”

Stolas pulled in another deep, bracing breath, squared his shoulders and tightened his grip on his girls. “Ready.” he said before he could fall apart right here in the damn hallway.

Via turned the handle and pushed the door open, slowly at first, watching her father like a hawk, and from behind Stolas’s shoulder Loona gave the owl princess an encouraging little smile.

“Okay.” Via murmured mostly to herself, and fully opened the door.

She stepped into the room first, her father quickly crowding in just behind her and Loona waiting patiently for both owls to fully take in the sight of Blitz in his bandages and hospital bed in front of them.

It was a private room, thankfully, which meant that Blitz was the only occupant, but also meant that his room was a smaller version of any other private room because Blitz was considered ‘staff’ and not an actual royal. There was a huge picture window set along one side of the generous twin bed, blinds pulled down low and keeping the lighting in the room soft and low with only the buzzing halogens overhead providing any sort of definition to the figure curled up in the bed.

Blitz was propped up on three pillows, one arm supported fully along a fourth pillow tucked up under the heavily bandaged limb. His eyes were half-closed, awful dark burgundy bruises painting his entire forehead, the unscarred half of his face, and the thin strip of bare shoulder Stolas could see between the end of the cast and the rest of Blitz’s arm. One eye was practically swollen shut, the swelling giving the imp a lopsided, comical asymmetry that Stolas would have joked about under any other circumstance. Thin, flexible medical tubing ran from the back of Blitz’s uncasted hand to a tall metal IV pole beside the bed, hung with bags of clear and strangely-coloured liquids that dripped steadily down into the catheters and disappeared under Blitz’s skin the way Stolas knew they were supposed to if the medicine was expected to work correctly.

Blitz’s right leg was suspended in a traction swing set up at the foot of the bed, casted from hoof to mid-thigh, making it difficult to tell if Blitz was fully awake or not as he awkwardly curled in on himself and his tail snuck up under the hem of the blankets pulled up under his arms so that the spade laid itself across one cheek like a security blanket.

“Hey Stols.” Blitz offered gingerly, voice rusty with disuse. “I… uh, I lived?”

All the air in the room suddenly left his lungs, Stolas felt his vision blacking out, and his heart jackhammered against his ribs so intensely the prince thought he was about to go into cardiac arrest right then and there. His hands dropped Loona and Via’s, his body moved without his consent as his knees gave out and all eight feet of him began to sink towards the cold hospital tile.

Quick, rough hands grabbed him under both armpits, Loona hauled him back upright and signaled Via to grab his other side, and together his daughters half-dragged Stolas’s frozen, shaking body forwards to the bedside.

“Hey- Hey, baby, hey…” Blitz’s voice called anxiously, reaching for his prince despite the pull of fresh stitches in his back and the uncomfortable drag of his casted arm. “C’mere, pretty bird, c’mere…”

Stolas felt the girls move him in closer to his imp, vaguely realized Loona was helping him sit on the edge of the bed, and Stolas was throwing himself at Blitz in the bed before he could think about common sense or minding Blitz’s clear injuries, or anything but the explosive relief of seeing the love of his life alive, and safe, and-

“You’re okay, baby, you’re okay…” Blitz was whispering into his neck as Stolas sobbed into his chest and hugged his imp to him for all he was worth. “I’m so sorry Stols… I’m so fuckin’ sorry baby bird… You’re okay, I’m right here sweetheart….I’m right here.”

“Don’t you ever fucking do this again!” Stolas howled, both arms wrapped tightly around his imp’s back and squeezing with all the strength he had left to him between messy, overwhelming tears. “Don’t you leave me here without you, you stupid, thoughtless, wonderful sonofabitch! I can’t do this without you! I just can’t!”

Stolas dissolved into tears, gasping and pulling for breath as he listened to Blitz repeating words he couldn’t process anymore, felt his hands passing over and over Blitz’s spines, over the broad, sturdy shoulders, and breathed in the antiseptic scent of surgical wards, and the tang of sweaty imp mixed in with the faintest hint of iron and bad pennies as the dried blood at Blitz’s collar pressed into Stolas’s cheeks and chin.

Stolas scooped up the smaller body and lifted, sliding in under his Blitz and cradling the injured body as if he’d never see Blitz again. Blitz hissed a sharp, pained little breath in between soft words, but otherwise let his prince do whatever he needed to feel better, know Blitz was safe. That he was alive, and here, and he loved him, and…

“I fuckin’ love you Stolas…” Blitz told him fiercely, the words slurring as tears began to slip down his cheeks, guilt burning his chest as Stolas held on for dear life and absolutely fell apart in front of him. “I’m so fuckin’ sorry baby… I’m here, I love you… I love you…”

“Sorry for what?” Stolas demanded wetly. “What the fuck are you apologizing for? Saving my daughter’s life?”

“Sorry I lied to you.” Blitz shot back more roughly than he’d intended. “Sorry I went alone, got my ass handed to me, and ended up in here, n’ left you out there alone to deal with the fallout, and-”

Blitz felt his shoulders shake as Stolas grabbed him roughly by the back of the head and wrapped a possessive arm up around his back. Blitz’s eyes slid shut as Stolas seized his mouth with his in a clear declaration of claim, and Blitz slid his good hand up into the soft feathers at the back of his prince’s head.

Blitz melted into the softness under his fingers, the familiar feel of his bird’s fingers wrapped around the base of one horn, the way Stolas smelled like lilacs and lavender, the feel of his lover’s quick, shameless tongue in his mouth, the way Stolas held him like he was worth a good goddamn, and-

“Fuck!” Blitz swore as he tried to get closer to his prince and his broken leg shifted the wrong way in the sling, sending white-hot agony racing up into the back of his skull. “Fuck me, this fuckin’ leg…”

Stolas instantly shifted Blitz back down to the bed, one hand up and under his imp’s knee to help brace the casted limb and help his Blitz back into a more painless position.

“I-I’m sorry! I wasn’t thinking!” Stolas apologized in a whirlwind of breathless anxiety. “I’ve been so worried, so afraid Blitz, I-”

This time it was Blitz reaching up and grabbing his prince by the shoulders, pulling Stolas down towards him and lifting his chest so they were pressed together. “Shut the fuck up.” Blitz whispered with his lips brushing his prince’s chin. “Shut the fuck up about you’re sorry. I’m the fuckin’ idiot who went off on my own and got my dumb ass kicked by that icy bitch.”

He kissed the soft, feathery cheek in front of him, Stolas sniffled as he nuzzled down into Blitz’s chin, and Blitz’s heart ached at the desolate grief and worry in his prince’s gaze as all four red eyes looked at him as if Blitz might disappear.

“I don’t care that you lied.” Stolas said softly, quietly. “I know you were trying to protect us, trying to keep your family safe and together the way you always do. Lying to me and doing whatever it took to make sure your family was protected isn’t what hurts…”

He trailed off, wincing as he looked down at Blitz and actually saw his imp without the haze of shock and overwhelm clouding his vision. Under the tears and the huge, anxious golden eyes, Blitz was trembling and pale, his features exhausted and drawn even as his entire being focused only on Stolas and the words his prince next spoke.

“I… I don’t think we should do this right now.” Stolas said with a worried frown. “You’re in the hospital, Blitz. You need to heal, not have serious conversations with me while I’m unmedicated and exhausted…”

Blitz shifted back on his pillows, leading Stolas down against his side as he went, and Stolas let his imp move him, completely on autopilot as his head buzzed with heady, conflicting feelings of relief and deep, resentful pain as he thought about waking up to find Blitz gone, the portal closing behind his imp and cutting them off from each other. Gathering knives up in his pajamas, strapping guns he had no beginning idea how to use across his chest as Loona and Millie directed the room and Moxxie hastily showed Stolas how to load a basic pistol and cock it for live fire…

“I need to know you’re still mine.” Blitz said firmly, gently, snaking an arm around Stolas’s back and settling one big hand up behind his prince’s head. “I ain’t gonna feel any better ‘til I know I didn’t fuck up the one good thing I ever had that’s not Loonie.”

“I’m here, aren’t I?” Stolas snapped more harshly than he’d meant to. “Of course I’m not leaving you!”

“I know you’re here.” Blitz echoed patiently, rubbing Stolas’s back in short, easy little circles as his prince curled up into his chest and Blitz did his best to wrap the slender body up in his. “I wanna hear what’s wrong. What I need to do to keep you here. With me…”

Tears redoubled in Stolas’s eyes and he pressed his cheek down into Blitz’s rough hospital gown as memories of the blind terror, the unknown, nebulous anxiety of fighting Andre as Blitz fought Striker off in the hall beyond the office flashed back across his exhausted mind. He wrapped his arms more securely around his imp, and Blitz leaned in to drop a reassuring little kiss at his temple.

“You scared the shit out of me, Blitz.” Stolas said in barely more than a whisper. “You left me behind and went where I couldn’t follow. If it hadn’t been for Loona, and Millie and Moxxie… If they hadn’t been expecting you to play the idiot hero the way you did, I would have… Y-You… I couldn’t have gotten to you in time, a-and…”

Stolas felt his body giving out, shaking badly as panic dumped useless adrenaline into his blood, his mind blanking as words stuttered and died before they’d reached his lips, and he turned his face into Blitz’s neck.

“If you’d fucking died and I wasn’t there to protect you, what the fuck do you think I’d have left to live for!” Stolas howled miserably. “I don’t care about the lies, or the aftermath, or the fight, or anything else, but how fucking dare you pretend you don’t know you’re everything to me, Blitz! Everything!”

Stolas knew he should stop, knew Via and Loona were somewhere in the room hearing him, watching him absolutely unravel as he cried into Blitz’s chest and held his imp as if Blitz would cease to exist the second they broke contact with each other, but he couldn’t, and Stolas went on in a breathless rush of raw, unfiltered emotion.

“You’re the whole of my heart, the one face in Hell I look for that isn’t Via’s! I can swallow you playing cowboy, I can forgive the lying, hell- I can even pretend my nose isn’t broken and that I didn’t nearly lose an eye to that frozen bastard’s ice spears, but the one thing I cannot abide, Blitz, is the idea that you still think you aren’t worth protecting! That I wouldn’t rewrite the stars themselves for you, that I… Th-That… Y-You… I…”

Stolas trailed off, too upset to form words anymore and dissolved into heaving, painful sobs. Blitz was speaking, soft little rumbles of his low, resonant voice vibrating through Stolas’s chest as he went ragdoll across his imp. Stolas couldn’t hear the words, barely felt Blitz speaking even with his entire body laid out right across his imp’s. All he could do was squeeze his arms around his beloved, cry into the familiar scent of gunpowder and hot sauce underneath the antiseptic smell of hospital work, and repeat Blitz’s greeting words into his terrified mind like a prayer; I lived… I lived…

The cold, steady trickle of tears as Blitz sobbed right along with him was the last scrap of awareness Stolas had before everything but Blitz dropped out from under him. Blitz’s one good hand burying itself in Stolas’s hair at the back of his head, the nimble tail wrapped up around Stolas’s hips like a grounding anchor in the storm of their combined grief and relief, and the sudden pressure-valve release of nearly a full week of not knowing, not seeing each other, not being able to hold each other, or speak to each other, or-

                                                                                                                             ~*~*~*~*~*~

Stolas had no idea what time it was, where he was, or how he’d gotten tucked up under a soft, well-used blue blanket clearly of hospital origin. He didn’t remember having fallen asleep either, but he must have because he was waking now, feeling wrung out and disoriented, and more than a little sick.

He pushed himself up on one elbow, blinking blearily out at the room still bathed in bright, unwelcome halogen lighting, and the chirp of some machine or other reminded Stolas sharply that he was still in Blitz’s hospital room.

“Mm, Blitz?” he called in a careful undertone, sitting up a little higher and trying to pretend he didn’t feel like he could vomit at any moment. “Are you awake?”

A cautious hand fell across his lower back, and Stolas turned his head to look back over his shoulder at Blitz’s timid little smile and open golden eyes.

“How you feelin’ pretty bird?” Blitz asked gently “You need me to call the nurse for you? Get you somethin’ for your head?”

Stolas winced, suddenly aware that he did have a raging headache on top of the stomachache skipping his meds for the past few days had earned him. “I’m alright.” he lied easily. “How are you feeling, my love? Shall I get you some water? A painkiller?”

Blitz laughed and shook his head at his stupid bird.  “You’re a shitty liar, Stols.” Blitz teased with a hedge in his words. “You look like the last time I chased tequila with Beezlejuice, then got into two-week old tacos at the house. Lay back down baby, I’ll rub your back.”

Stolas shook the last of the sleep out of his head and smiled at his ridiculous imp. “You aren’t looking after me, Blitz. I’m here to look after you.”

Blitz rubbed his good hand up across the shoulder of his injured arm, fidgeting with the short sleeve of his hospital gown. “Even though I’m a piece of shit who didn’t think before I hurt you?” he asked quietly.

Stolas blinked, trying and failing to call back any memories after hearing Blitz asking him what he needed to do to make things up to Stolas. “I don’t remember what exactly was said…” Stolas admitted softly. “But I remember telling you a hospital room was perhaps suboptimal for serious discussion, and that I’m very unmedicated at this time.”

Blitz nodded, toying with a frayed end of his cast, eyes dropping to his knees as his expression fell, and Stolas instantly felt like a monster for being so short with his imp.

“I love you, Blitz.” Stolas tried again, much more gently this time. “You scare the absolute shit out of me sometimes, and I’m still not sure I’ve entirely forgiven you for running off to get killed on my behalf without bringing me with you,”

He turned himself onto his other side in the bed, slipped an arm up and around Blitz’s seated waist in front of him, and lay his chin flat across the firm stomach. Blitz smiled down at the four wide eyes, the delicate, heart-shaped face staring up at him with a goofy little half-smile and fondness all over his prince’s soft features.

“But I do love you, my Blitz. I always will, no matter how recklessly stupid you are.” Stolas leaned in a little closer and pressed a tender, careful kiss to Blitz’s stomach. “I know who I fell in love with.” He dropped another kiss up the line, closer to the gentle dip in Blitz’s chest where his ribs tapered down into his abs.

“You saved my daughter.” he continued earnestly. “I’ll never forget that, you know.”

He dropped another kiss down, this time over his imp’s solar plexus under the old yellow gown. “The way you sent Andrealphus running like the scared little bitch he is. Protecting Via and I.”

He crept his way up to just under Blitz’s chin, and his imp grinned down at Stolas kissing his way up the battered body. “All sexy and wild, like the stallion you are.”

“Yeah?” Blitz teased, the words hesitant and cautious even as Stolas pressed another tender kiss to the nape of his neck and began to lessen the distance between each new touch of his lips against Blitz’s body. “You gonna ride me ‘til I break once these damn casts are off me?”

The way he said it was flirty and flip, clearly trying to make jokes and diffuse the tension of the room the way he always did, but Stolas froze at the sound of the word ‘break’, and his chin trembled against Blitz’s jaw.

Blitz sobered at once, gathering his prince up and holding him closer as Stolas threatened to cry again. “Hey, you’re okay. I’m okay. I’m right here baby, I’m right here.”

He cuddled his bird up against his chest, and Stolas automatically slipped his arms up around Blitz’s back and hid his face in Blitz’s neck. Stolas felt his imp flinch hard, but Blitz said nothing and started rubbing Stolas’s back with his good hand.

“You’re good sweetheart, I’m here… I got you…” Blitz murmured soothingly. “Lay your head down baby, there’s my good boy…”

Stolas frowned, feeling an oddly out of place friction under his fingers as the hospital gown rubbed up against something plastered to Blitz’s back. Stolas’s eyes widened as his mind slowly, sluggishly connected Andrealphus’s wall of ice, the black blood he’d seen coating Blitz’s back that night, and the dissonant feel of fabric on fabric as his hands moved against his Blitz’s back here and now.

“Blitz! Your back!” he cried in alarm. “How could you let me put my hands all over the stitches like that! Do you have any idea what could happen if I opened one? If I tore an infected wound open? If-”

“If I sat here like an asshole and let you think I can’t take care of you?” Blitz cut in sharply. “I’d rather lose all the skin off my back- again- than let you feel like you’re not worth takin’ care of for one damn second.”

Stolas felt his eyes filling with tears and his chest filling with indignant irritation at his ridiculous, stubborn imp, and slid his arms higher up, to Blitz’s shoulders instead. “If you don’t behave yourself and fucking tell me if I’m hurting you, I will never let you get your hands on me again. Not for one bare second, do you understand me, Blitz?”

Blitz shrugged a shoulder as if nothing mattered, the brief flash of vulnerable fear across his eyes that was quickly smothered by his old mask of cocky indifference telling Stolas his imp was keeping things from him. Stolas felt his eyes soften and he touched a careful, ghostlike hand to his Blitz’s cheek.

“Darling?” he prompted so, so gently. “Love? Please talk to me. I’m here, love of my life. I’m not particularly grounded, but I am listening. I still love you. Please, let me help you?”

Blitz shook his head and tried to hitch a wide, obviously forced grin up onto his face. “S’nothin’.” he lied smoothly, seamlessly. As if he did it all the time, and part of Stolas distantly registered that Blitz probably did tell that particular lie more often than any other.

I’m okay. Doesn’t hurt. I don’t care

Stolas heard the past echoing through his already overfull head, pressing the pressure of the headache up into all four of his eyes, closing around his bleeding heart like two hands threatening to choke the breath right out of him.

Blitz was in his arms before Stolas could think. He sat up so quickly his head spun, lifted his imp up into his lap, mindful of the leg still suspended in the traction sling, one arm cradling Blitz’s casted arm in the crook of Stolas’s. His longer, taller body helped Stolas avoid most of Blitz’s back and reach his imp’s wrist on the far side of the smaller body as Stolas absolutely covered his precious imp with his entire body.

“Of course I still love you.” Stolas repeated firmly, conviction in every word even as his voice shook and cracked with emotion. “One selfless act of heroism isn’t going to be the end of us my love. I’m much too flighty not to see what you did as hopelessly romantic and a clear demonstration of our commitment to each other.”

He kissed the horn nearest to him, and Blitz wrapped the fingers of his good hand up around Stolas’s borrowed t-shirt. Tiny wet patches blossomed on Stolas’s chest as Blitz reflexively turned his face towards the chest fluff just under his chin. The t-shirt wouldn’t let the imp access the comforting feathers, but Stolas slipped a hand up behind his imp’s head and drew him closer anyway.

“You brought my daughter home to me.” Stolas said softly, steadfastly ignoring the way all he wanted was to dissolve back into tears and have Blitz tell him everything was alright, he was still alive, they’d figure it all out…

His Blitz needed him in a way Stolas had never seen in the year they’d been living together, during or after all their full moon escapades, even that one disastrous first ‘date’ at Ozzie’s they both laughed about now.

So Stolas steeled himself and poured all the love and care he held for his imp into his words, held the warm little body as close as he dared without tightening his arms or touching the bandaged back. He’d be whatever it took to care for his imp, the way Blitz did for him.

“You gave me back my precious Starfire.” Stolas said again, choking on the words only momentarily as he forced himself to steady his voice. “You risked your life to make our family whole again. To give me back my daughter. I was never angry at you for that, do you understand me? How could I hold the bravest, kindest, most selfless act anyone’s ever given me against you?”

“Y-Yeah?” Blitz asked in the smallest voice Stolas had ever heard his imp use. “Y-You’re not like… Y-You don’t hate me for lyin’ to you? For running off and scaring the shit outta you?”

Stolas smiled despite the tears steadily slipping down his cheeks. “I could never hate you, my Blitz.” he whispered fiercely. He leaned in and pressed his forehead up against Blitz’s horn and kissed the temple just beneath it. “The way you fight to protect your family, protect me, keep us all safe and whole and happy… It’s one of the things I love the most about you my darling love. You wouldn’t be who you are if you didn’t jump without thinking into every danger and discomfort any of us ever had to face.”

“Nothin’ hurts my family.” Blitz said with hard, steely conviction in his words. It was a truth he was speaking, not a condition or a possibility; A fact, and Stolas felt a little better at hearing his imp sounding exactly as he did when he wasn’t laid up in a hospital and injured.

“Exactly.” Stolas agreed with another quick little kiss against the curve of Blitz’s forehead. “I’m not particularly impressed that you cut me out of the equation entirely, but I do understand you meant it to be an act of love, not a statement about my inability to protect my family.”

Blitz nodded and touched Stolas’s chin with the back of his unbandaged hand. “We don’t have to talk about it.” he said softly, worry clear in his golden eyes. “You said you’re not in a great place to talk. I don’t need you to hurt yourself for me.”

Stolas leaned his imp back in his arms so they could look each other in the eye, and raised one perfect, stitched eyebrow at him. “You need me to remind you that our love is written in the stars. That what I feel for you is more than moments, or mistakes, or what my stupid asshole mind whispers in the dark when I haven’t taken my meds.”

Stolas eased closer, and Blitz inched in towards him as his prince brought their lips as close to touching as they could be without actually doing so.

“I can’t give you the conversation you’re asking me for,” Stolas apologized quietly. “But if you’ll forgive any hard words I use in place of tact this one time, I can meet you in the middle and tell you that I love you. That I was terrified to lose you, I am afraid to hurt you, of doing the wrong thing while you’re so injured and still healing, but none of that changes that I love you, you stupid imp. Every thoughtless, reckless, impulsive inch of you.”

“S’more than an inch and you know it.” Blitz quipped, and Stolas laughed against the sharp little teeth as Blitz grinned up at him and dared him to push back. The way his Blitz always did.

The way he had before all of this, and would again after it was over, and apparently even grievous injury couldn’t stop his imp’s ridiculous sense of humour. Wouldn’t keep Blitz from looking out for him, looking after his prince. Showing, not telling, the way his Blitz always did.

Stolas jerked his mouth the short distance into Blitz’s and kissed him soundly, possessively, and Blitz went practically liquid against his chest. Stolas kissed him as if he’d never seen his imp before, and Blitz completely surrendered to him for perhaps the first time in their entire relationship, and Stolas felt himself crying all over again at the feel of his strong, confident Blitz giving up the walls he used to keep the whole world away from his tender heart. Giving over the fragile whisper of his naked soul, only to Stolas, only in this moment. Only for this kiss, this singular, perfect moment-

“I love you, you complete idiot.” Stolas said into the open mouth in front of him. “I will never go where you cannot follow. You’re mine, Blitz. Only mine, always mine. I lost you once, and I’ll never make that mistake twice, d’you hear me? Never.”

He sounded so fierce, so strong, so fearless in his watery little warble of a voice. Everything about him wrapped up and covering his Blitz in all that Stolas wasn’t, and all that he was, and Blitz nodded against his beak and pressed himself more deeply into the kiss.

“I’m sorry, pretty bird.” Blitz breathed into the next meeting of their tongues. “You’re comin’ with me from now on. S’you n’ me, no matter what. Promise.”

Stolas nodded in place of answer, unwilling to break the kiss off again, and cupped the back of Blitz’s head between both hands, grabbing hold of the base of his horns as Blitz practically defied physics in an effort to turn his body towards his prince’s.

Before either of them could forget where they were, what had happened, the stitches across Blitz’s back reminded them quite pointedly, and Stolas swore as he felt the telltale taptap of something liquid and viscous soaking through the knee of his pajama pants.

“B-Blitz- Stop, y-your stitches…” Stolas gasped even as his imp growled at him for breaking the kiss off too early and made a desperate grab at the front of Stolas’s shirt with his only good hand. “Stop, darling- We have to…”

“Fuck ‘em.” Blitz started to argue, then froze as he shifted, and something more than just stitches popped in the knee of his broken leg.

He paled, Stolas physically held the imp back and away from him in an effort to force Blitz to hear reason, and Blitz went ragdoll in defeat.

“Okay…” he panted roughly. “Okay, yeah- Call a nurse or someone.”

Stolas fumbled for a moment, trying to orient himself in the foreign setup of the hospital room, and pressed the brightly red call button as soon as his eyes had fallen on it. A nurse came sweeping in minutes later, Blitz told her he thought he fucked his knee up worse and that his back was bleeding, and she tsked at him as if he’d done it on purpose to create work for her.

They sort of had deliberately injured Blitz, Stolas thought distantly. Both of them had known it was risky to move the imp around the way they had been, but neither had bothered with caution beyond Stolas’s initial gentle maneuvering of his imp.

Neither of them had seemed bothered about it either, Stolas reasoned with himself, at least not until the blood had appeared, so really the nurse may have had a point, but he certainly wasn’t going to tell her what they’d been up to in here to cause Blitz’s re-injury.   

He listened as Blitz spun a shockingly believable cover about trying to reach for his phone on the bedstand and having made a bad movement, and the nurse rolled her eyes as she scribbled down a few notes on Blitz’s chart, then briefly left the room and returned with a metal tray full of medical supplies and a little paper cup full of pills.

The nurse set her tray down on a rolling table she pulled to her side, kicked Stolas roughly out of the bed, then made Blitz turn over onto his stomach. Blitz barely made it onto his side with the full leg cast and the traction sling hampering his every move, but he got himself awkwardly into a half-curl with his back to the nurse, and she flung open the imp’s hospital gown without so much as a warning. Blitz felt the cool hospital air breezing over his naked ass and Stolas blushed furiously in his stead as Blitz looked more irritated than embarrassed about being undressed with the door wide open behind them. The nurse pulled the gown fully clear, revealing Blitz to be completely naked underneath save for the broad, tiger-striped forest of white standing out starkly against his red skin.

His scars were the only thing that muted the damage those bandages were covering, and Stolas felt both hands come up to cover his mouth as tears blurred his vision at the sight. The burly, middle-aged goat demon of a nurse rolled her eyes at him and began yanking bandages away from Blitz’s back, again without a warning or a word, and Blitz ground his teeth together as the harsh movements lanced absolute agony up his entire body.

Not that he was about to tell her that. The same way he’d learned not to make a sound when it was Cash backhanding his younger self, the way he refused to scream or cry when it had been bullies in back alleyways before Blitz had learned to throw a real punch or shoot a gun. Giving them the satisfaction of seeing him flinch, hearing him whimper was something Blitz would rather die than do, especially in front of his sweet, soft prince who already looked like a half-dead ghost with a clinical anxiety disorder.

So Blitz turned his head towards Stolas waiting anxiously by the foot of the bed, and gave his prince a broad, reassuring grin. “Three more, pretty bird. She’s only gonna drop three more stitches and we’re good. I’m okay.” he managed without once fumbling a word, even when the stupid bitch nurse jammed the suture needle in too deep on fuckin’ purpose, and blind agony screamed through Blitz’s every nerve.

“Be more careful!” Stolas commanded sharply, watching as the nurse seemed to dig through Blitz’s keloid-marred middle back as if the imp couldn’t feel real pain and Blitz doggedly kept himself still and silent despite the way his cheeks paled three shades at the sudden pain. “I’ll have your job if he suffers- I know people, you mark my words!”

The nurse rolled her eyes at him too, and lifted the bandages off the next wound with fresh blood seeping through the bandage. “I got tenure.” she drawled. “Call whoever you want, they won’t touch me.”

“I fuckin’ will if you don’t ease up…” Blitz growled as the nurse jerked another strip of bandage away from a clearly difficult area of his back and the action shot pure electric fire up Blitz’s spine. “I’m raw-doggin’ this shit as it is, bitch! Least you could do is pretend I’m alive in here!”

“I got the shitstick shift.” the nurse shot back sourly, slapping a wet pad of antiseptic down over the newly uncovered wound and wiping another pad roughly across her fresh work in quick succession. “Have your fancy royal sugar daddy do this if you don’t like my work.”

Blitz sucked in a huge breath to tell her how he really felt, Stolas took a hard step forward to defend his imp, but before either of them could say or do anything meaningful, the room door opened and Loona shoved her way in.

“Dad!” she cried at once, hastily dropping her armful of bags down on a convenient chair by the little bedside table as she moved. “What the fuck happened in here!”

“Man Hands Mandy here is gonna finish degloving my back for minimum wage is what’s goin’ on!” Blitz shot back with a pointed sneer back over his shoulder at the nurse, who shot him a middle finger and stuck a corner of medical tape directly over an open gash with a smirk.

“My name’s not even Mandy.” she countered smugly. “It’s Mabel, and I’m debriding, not degloving mister Grade-School Dropout.”

“I don’t care how many divorces you got on your card, lady!” Blitz shot back hotly. “Get your serial killer hands off me- Loonie, call someone else! This bitch is killin’ me and liking it!”

Mabel rolled her eyes and stood up even as Loona moved in to physically pull her away from her dad if she had to. “I’m done anyway. Clean him up and keep those stitches clean- It’s not exactly sterile in here with an imp and a hound in the room.”

Loona lunged for her, but Mabel was already halfway out the door, and Loona chose Blitz trapped facedown in the bed with half his back covered in streaks of blood and badly misapplied bandaging instead of pursuing her.

“That was absolutely disgraceful behaviour for a medical professional!” Stolas cried furiously. “How can they let her keep working here when she treats patients like this!”

Blitz bit his lower lip and exchanged meaningful looks with Loona as his daughter pulled the blankets up to his hips for basic modesty’s sake.

“I-It’s fine pretty bird. I’ve had worse.” Blitz said instead of giving him a real answer. “Loonie’s gonna finish up, it’s okay. I’m okay baby, I promise.”

Stolas shook his head and moved in to join Loona at the bedside as she began to carefully lift up the deliberately misplaced tape and Blitz buried his face in the crook of his good arm as even his daughter’s careful hands ripped open the healing wounds.

“It’s not okay! I was bluffing about taking her job, but I do know people in higher circles than Sloth!” Stolas cried indignantly. “I could ruin her life if I felt like!”

Loona very carefully said nothing, eyes on her work, and Blitz cast about the room for literally anything to distract his prince with to avoid having the ‘Racists are Racist’ conversation in the middle of being forced to ask his daughter to bandage his ripped-up back instead of giving her the break he saw she so clearly needed because the hospital staff couldn’t be assed to do their fuckin’ jobs.

“Uh, hey- Where’d you stash Via, Loonie?” Blitz tossed out quickly as he saw his bird about to storm out of the room and give some bored orderly an earful that wouldn’t change shit. “Wasn’t she right behind you when you guys came in?”

Stolas startled and froze at the sound of his daughter’s name. He’d forgotten she’d been with them in the chaos of his own overwhelming emotions, and he immediately felt like a deadbeat for losing track of her so soon after promising her he’d never leave her again.

“Took her downstairs for coffee,” Loona explained as she squinted down at bottles, trying to find the antiseptic Blitz had told her hurt the least last time. “We figured you two would need a minute after… Uh, y’know, since it’s been awhile, and you’re pretty beat up. She’s gonna bring her dad some strong tea once I text to let her know it’s safe to come up.”

Blitz nodded along, wincing hard as Loona passed over a particularly tender area near the freshly done stitches from Nurse Lecter. “Good thinkin’ Loonie.” he said proudly. “My baby’s so fuckin’ smart.”

“You can say that it was because I lost my entire shit when I saw him.” Stolas said more petulantly than he’d intended. “You can just say that it was because you were sparing my daughter the sight of her broken father falling apart.”

“Shut the fuck up-”

“You’re not broken.”

Blitz and Loona said in near unison, and the sound of both of them correcting him so fiercely, so confidently brought fresh tears to Stolas’s eyes. He looked back into Loona’s steady, grounded eyes as she paused in her work long enough to fix him with one of her signature are you stupid? glares, and a weak, shaky laugh pushed past his best efforts to stop it.

“I know you don’t believe us right now,” Loona said gently but firmly. “But that’s the brain worms talking. Listen to your boyfriend and your adopted kid, Stols. Store bought’s just as good as homemade when it comes to brain juice.”

Even Blitz winced at the intense visual that called up for both of them, and Loona grinned at her two stupid dads.

“I’m not sorry.” she smirked exactly the way Blitz did. “Call it even for all those times Blitz makes me listen to your dirty sexcapade stories over breakfast.”

Stolas giggled, Blitz looked back at his prince with a suggestive wiggle of his eyebrows and a shit-eating grin on his pale face, and suddenly everything was going to be alright. Everything really was going to be okay.

He had Loona, he had Via back. His Blitz was laughing with them, talking and cracking stupid, off-colour jokes the way he always had, and Stolas felt like he had solid ground under him again. He could finally breathe again.

He took a step towards Loona and reached for a package of gauze at her elbow. “Show me how to do this. I want to learn how to take care of him.”

Loona smiled and made room for him beside her. “Okay, so these big ones are nonstick gauze pads, the smaller ones are bandage strips…”

Stolas dutifully watched and listened as Loona explained everything to him, Blitz made at least six ‘hot nurse with benefits’ jokes that made Stolas blush, and his daughter groan and roll her eyes at both of them, and by the end of the twenty minutes it took to get Blitz patched up and blood-free again, Stolas found himself actually smiling.

His chest was looser than it had been when they’d first come here, his breathing easier, and when Loona leaned in to show him how to safely roll Blitz back onto his other side, Stolas didn’t hesitate to reach down with her and move his imp. His head still hurt, but it hardly seemed to matter as Blitz brushed his casted fingers up over Stolas’s arm and gave his prince a soft, goofy little smile of gratitude that Stolas instantly melted for.

And when the seven rings collapse, although the day could be our last

You will be okay- Now you’re mine, you’ll be okay…

The old lullabye came to him unbidden, the words shifting seamlessly as Stolas thought of Blitz and the lifetime they had left to live sprawling out in front of them. The family they were building, the home waiting for them as soon as Blitz could be safely released…

His face must have said something Stolas didn’t because the next thing he knew, Loona was slipping her hand into his and gently coaxing him towards Blitz’s worried features looking up at him from the bed.

“I’m alright.” he reassured them both as he let Loona sit him down on the bed beside Blitz. “Let Via know she can come up, sweetheart. I think it’s about damn time we had some time together as a family, don’t you think?”

Chapter Text

A/N: Update day again, and here we go! We finally get to see Blitz and Via in the same room! Plus also, this one's kinda special because I got to play with some fancy wordin' I haven't explored before (Via's scene- You'll see!) and I hope it lands the way I want it to for you guys :) As usual, no beta we die like men- FAMBLY! At long last!

CW/TW: Medical procedure, physical injury description, child abuse referenced (Via; very mild, not shown)

As always, comments, concrit, feedback keyboard smashes and emojiis welcome! Love to hear from y'all even if I'm complete shit at responding in a timely manner.

Chapter 14: Give It Time, Give It Grace

Loona smiled at Stolas as he delivered the line, relief heavy across her shoulders as the owl prince seemed to rally and gain more stability with every passing second he was able to see and touch Blitz. Helping her care for her father seemed to have given Stolas greater focus, and Loona pulled in a quiet sigh of relief as she watched him pull Blitz’s battered old cellphone off the side table and hold it out to her.

“Do it yourself, lazy asshole.” Loona teased with a smirk, and Stolas gave her a tolerant smile back.

“Who’s phone does Via have?” he asked as the thought occurred to him that his daughter hadn’t had a phone since they’d brought her home with them. “Hers was lost, wasn’t it?”

Loona shrugged a casual shoulder at him. “Gave her mine for the day. Help her keep her mind off all this heavy shit y’know?” She considered for a moment, then acknowledged. “That, and I wanted her to be able to call us if anything fuckin’ weird happens, or some rando tries to start shit with her. She’s only downstairs, but…”

Loona trailed off, and Stolas heard the unspoken ‘Striker could be anywhere’ she held back for his sake. Oddly enough, the idea of the assassin lurking somewhere in the shadows like the last specter of Stolas’s old life didn’t phase him. There’d always been a target on him, for as long as he could remember, and it was much less terrifying to know he could teach Via to use her spellwork to defend herself if it ever came down to it. Hell, he’d seen his baby girl whip Andrealphus’s sorry ass so thoroughly that the Goetic marquis had practically been begging for Via’s mercy by the end of it.

“I’m sure Octavia can look after herself for a few hours.” Stolas said easily, a proud little smile tugging at one corner of his mouth. “But I do feel better knowing she can call us if she needs us. We’ll have to get her a new phone once the hospital releases Blitz.”

He tapped out a quick ‘ready for you, darling xox Dad’ and sent the message to Via as he spoke, and when he’d finished, he leaned back over the pillows and slid an arm around Blitz’s shoulders. His imp gave him a tired smile and leaned into Stolas’s side, and Stolas dropped a whisper-soft kiss down onto the birthmark dead center of Blitz’s forehead.

“Do you need anything, love?” Stolas asked as Loona busied herself clearing the used medical supplies off the bed and moving the rolling table out of their way. “Shall I ask Loona to find us some pain relief for you?”

Blitz shook his head. “Nah. I don’t want them fuckin’ druggin’ me. Last time they told me they’d let Loonie stay if I took ‘em, but they tossed her out on her ass once the fuckin’ pills were down me, and…”

Blitz trailed off, his eyes dark with something he wasn’t saying, and Stolas frowned, making a mental note to ask about it if they got another moment where Loona and Via weren’t in the room.

“Anyway- Tell me what all those bags are, Loonie?” Blitz pivoted without missing a beat. “You camping out here tonight?”

Loona shook her head and bit her lower lip anxiously. “N-No, I… I cabbed it home earlier. I thought I should bring Stols his… Uh… y’know… Like, his…”

“My meds?” Stolas offered just as Via pushed the door open and stepped into the room.

“D’you need them, Dad?” Via asked quickly, already moving for the soft blue duffel Loona had tossed into the chair by the side table. “Loona brought them, i-in case you felt like taking them…”

“He can’t take the morning meds in the middle of the afternoon.” Blitz cut in quickly, the words harder than they needed to be as he jumped in to protect his prince from everything the world could throw their way. “He’ll just puke ‘em up.”

Stolas bit his lip and reached out for Via’s hand. “I’m so sorry my Starfire- He’s right. I’ve really been fucking it all up lately. I haven’t taken my dailies in…”

He trailed off, unwilling to speak the truth that he hadn’t been looking after himself beyond basic survival for more than a week now and see Blitz’s face turn worried and disappointed in him.

“Hey now baby bird, s’okay.” Blitz reassured as if he could read Stolas’s mind. Stolas honestly wasn’t sure Blitz couldn’t read his mind at this point, and he turned reflexively into his imp’s shoulder, hiding his face in Blitz’s neck.

“S’okay.” Blitz repeated gently, rubbing Stolas’s shoulder with one hand. “It’s been a rough week, huh? I’m not mad sweetheart, I’m not gonna yell at you. You’re okay baby, you’re okay.”

Stolas sniffled at the grace his imp was giving him, feeling incredibly stupid and strangely angry at not being dressed down when he so clearly deserved it. He pressed his face into Blitz’s shoulder, and a warm, light weight fell across his back. A weight he’d know anywhere, and Stolas turned just enough to open one arm for her.

“I’m alright, Starfire.” he said shakily. “I’m just a little unbalanced. I’ll be better tomorrow, when I start my meds again.”

“S-So even when I wasn’t here, when you were away from Mum- You still needed them?” Via asked slowly, moving in to hug her father, but pointedly not moving any closer to Blitz than she absolutely needed to.

“I have a chemical imbalance darling.” Stolas explained, shifting over in the bed to give her slight form room to sit on the bed with them.

He felt Blitz shuffling awkwardly closer to the window, his suspended leg making every new movement painful and difficult, but the imp never said a word about it, and Stolas knew better than to try and reason with his stubborn little lover.

“My body doesn’t produce the right chemicals, that’s all.” Stolas went on gently. “I need the pills to help me stay healthy and be all of myself. The version of me who isn’t completely irrational and overly emotional. Who doesn’t snap at every little irritant.”

He risked a smile for his daughter, and she returned it with an anxious look in her wide violet eyes.

“It was never you, my beautiful girl.” Stolas told her earnestly. “It was always the brain worms.”

Via’s eyes widened and she made a disgusted face at him. “I thought you said it was chemicals or whatever! What the fuck d’you mean ‘brain worms’?”

Blitz and Loona smirked at each other, and even Stolas laughed as the little family traded knowing looks and Loona put a familiar hand on Via’s shoulder.

“It’s a thing my stupid dad said once.” Loona offered lightly. “Said all the big words confused him, so he was gonna call serotonin the brain worms so he could spell it.”

“And ‘cause they tickle!” Blitz added enthusiastically. “Stols said it felt like electric zaps once, when he skipped his meds, and worms tickle when you hold ‘em- It makes perfect sense!”

Via giggled at him despite herself, and Stolas held his daughter closer against his side. He dropped a fatherly kiss down on the top of her head as she tucked her head up under his chin and curled towards him the way she’d done since she was a chick.

“I’m so sorry, Via.” Stolas apologized quietly. “I wish I’d understood myself better before all this. That I could have been brave enough to explain, to help you understand before you got the wrong idea. I’m so sorry my darling…”

“It’s okay Dad.” Via said into his shoulder. “I get it now. I get a lot of things I couldn’t understand before. I’m sorry too, Dad. I wasn’t fair to you…” She raised herself up high enough to be able to see Blitz over Stolas’s chest.

“O-Or you, Blitz…” she added softly. “I… I’m sorry. I’ve been so stupid. It was always my mother fucking things up for all of us, not you. I… You saved my life and you didn’t have to do that, and like… I’m not sure what to say to that, and here you are y’know, bleeding for me, a-and…”

Blitz’s good hand fell on Via’s shoulder, and she looked up at him with huge, tearbright eyes. He gave her the shadow of his usual grin, and cocked his head the way Stolas could never stay mad at. “Hey. You don’t owe me shit. I did it ‘cause you needed help, that’s all. End of story.”

“I…” Via dropped her eyes to her lap and sat back on the bed. “I…”

She trailed off, and Stolas put a gentle hand on one of hers in her lap. “I think Via has some questions for you, Blitz.” he said quietly. “She may need some time to ask them, but-”

“I don’t need more time!” Via cut in angrily. “I just… I…”

She looked to Loona standing just beyond the trio in the bed and bit her lower lip.

“You want me to step outside?” Loona offered with a smile. “Talk to these two assholes without me here? No problem, I’ll be downstairs with those sandwiches we packed.”

She picked up Blitz’s phone from the bedstand and waved at her two dads in the bed. “Via still has my phone. Text me when I’m good to come back up.”

Via jumped up, hands already fumbling in her pockets for Loona’s phone. “Here- Swap back. You can at least have your phone back. I’ll keep the broken one.”

Loona traded phones with the younger girl and pulled her in for a quick, sisterly hug. “Thanks, Chicklet.” she grinned. “Gonna update my Sinsta and catch up on some AppleSnaps while I hurry up and wait. I’ll bring you up some mousebutter cookies later, okay?”

Via beamed and nodded shyly at her. “I’m not kicking you out.” she explained even though Loona hadn’t asked, and didn’t seem mad at her for banishing her from her own father’s recovery room. “I just… S-Some of it just feels kind of… Private? Like, I want to hear it from Blitz and my dad? A-And they can tell you after, o-or I will, b-but some of it is just… It feels-”

Loona’s arms wrapped around her again, cutting Via off abruptly. “Hey. You don’t need to explain- Some things are between you and them. That doesn’t mean you don’t trust me, or you’re cutting me out of anything, it just means sometimes people need privacy. Even if they’re family.”

Loona squeezed the thin shoulders and Via returned the hug with a grateful smile.

“Even my dad doesn’t know every little thing about my life.” Loona said with a smirk back at Blitz, who looked completely scandalized, but wisely said nothing as Via swiped a hand under her eyes and nodded.

“I’ll text you.” Via promised, letting Loona go and moving back towards her dad and Blitz in the hospital bed. “Save me some cookies, okay?”

Loona barked a laugh as she moved for the door and stepped out into the hallway, grabbing the messenger bag full of water and snacks as she went. “That’s all you, Via. Mousebutter sounds disgusting, and I’ve watched Blitz pound back caramel cheese with wasabi on top.”

“It wasn’t even bad!” Blitz called after her as his daughter pulled a face and left the room, closing the door behind her.

“It wasn’t!” Blitz insisted, appealing to Stolas this time.

“It wasn’t.” Stolas agreed with a fond, exasperated sigh at his imp. “At least not secondhand.”

Blitz smirked. “Because you weren’t complainin’ when I had my tongue in your mouth.”

“So this is actually real?” Via cut in suddenly, instantly shifting the mood from light and easy to serious and tense. “You two are together, and it’s serious?”

“Via, darling, we don’t have to-” Stolas started anxiously.

“Yeah, we are.” Blitz said directly into the middle of his prince’s fumbling dodge. “It’s as serious as Stols wants it to be, but I ain’t gonna leave him. Not for anything. I’m in this for as long as he’ll let me have it, and I know that’s not exactly what you wanna hear right now, but-”

“Do you love him?” Octavia demanded point blank. “D’you actually love my dad, or is this all just some… Some fucking game to you? Some trick, or a con, or…”

She trailed off, at an obvious loss for words, and Stolas put a gentle hand on his daughter’s shoulder. “Via, I’m not sure-”

“No Stols. It’s okay. I got this.” Blitz said softly, as gently as he knew how. “I owe her words if nothin’ else.”

Via bit her lip anxiously, suddenly acutely aware of all the medical tubing and gently cheeping machines monitoring Blitz from all over the imp’s bandaged body. He looked so beaten up, utterly exhausted, both eyes swollen and sunken with fatigue, and ugly, healing bruises all over his face, that Via almost took a breath to tell him she hadn’t meant it. He didn’t have to answer, it was fine, she was okay-

“You wanna know if I love him?” Blitz echoed quietly, struggling himself into a more comfortable sitting position on his pillows. “If I want Stolas, or if I’m just here for a quick fuck and a cheap thrill?”

He leaned forwards towards Octavia, golden eyes as wide as his injuries would allow and he looked squarely into those four huge eyes that looked just like his prince’s, only hers were full of teenage insecurities and the shadow of fear where Stolas’s were always so full of love and boyish mischief, and the romantic idiot he was deep down inside.

Blitz pulled in a deep, bracing breath and held Octavia’s eyes with his, trying to show her how serious he was as he next spoke. “Via, I love him more than I love horses, and if you understood why I have so many around the apartment, that might mean somethin’ to you, but I’ll tell you this much- I wouldn’t do what I did for anyone else. Not for free, not for money. That was practically suicide, kid, and you know what else? I’d do it again right now if it meant gettin’  you home to him.”

Blitz smiled at his prince then, a small, watery thing full of anxious fear and deep, barely-masked grief so full of pain it hurt to look at, and Stolas felt his heart breaking at having to hold himself back from his Blitz while his daughter listened quietly and his lover answered whatever she asked him.

“If it meant savin’ your life and keeping my bird alive, I’d take bein’ dead any day.” Blitz finished quietly. He looked up at Via and his honest, open eyes begged her to understand even though he was so shit with words, and probably slurring by now, and-

“I love him, Via. I honestly do, and if you need us to slow down and back things up until you can be on the same page with us, then that’s okay too.” Blitz ran a nervous hand back over one horn and winced hard as he touched open wounds to bandages, shifted his torn up back muscles. “It’s a family, kid. That’s what I want us to be, whatever time that’s gonna take. Okay? I’m here no matter what it takes. Always.”

She threw herself at him with a hard, strangled sob, and Blitz caught her with a muffled grunt of pain despite the added weight sending sparks of sheer agony through every fiber of his being.

“I dunno what I think anymore,” Via sobbed into his shoulder. “Everything’s so fucked up all the time, and I’m so scared, and you’re so hurt, Blitz- B-But I know I trust you. I dunno if I want another dad yet, but I know mine wants you, and that my dad would leave you if I asked him to, but I don’t want that, okay? I don’t want you to lose him, or for him to lose you. Not because of me.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa there sweetheart- Easy, easy…” Blitz soothed, his strong arms wrapping themselves up around Via’s shaking shoulders while one big hand came up to cradle her head in his palm the same way he did for Loona when she was upset. “Nobody’s leaving you anywhere. You’re with us now, I swear to Satan. Doesn’t matter what else comes up, you’re mine, okay? My family. Stols’s kid, but my d-”

Blitz stopped himself short, catching himself too late to fully correct course on the word daughter, and Via raised her head just high enough to give him a shaky, watery little smile.

“You know I heard you call me your daughter, back when you were kicking uncle Andre’s ass at the palace.” she told him almost casually. “I know you think I’m like, your kid or something, and I…” The smile faltered as she bit her lip and dropped her eyes. “I think I’m okay with that. I don’t think I’m gonna call you ‘dad’ anytime soon, but I think I don’t mind if someone like you wants to be my dad.”

She sat herself up beside him, and Blitz automatically moved to help her, keep her steady and upright just in case she was too shaky to sit up by herself, and the imp bit back a hard curse as every injury on him flared at once. Stolas flinched as if he were about to reach out and lay his Blitz back down in the bed, but Octavia beat him to it.

“You’re amazing, Blitz, and not just because you saved my life.” Octavia told him quietly. “My dad’s different now- Good different!” she clarified quickly, “And I know that’s your fault. You made him braver, and stronger, and I can trust him not to lie to me anymore, even if he thinks it’s to protect me.”

Blitz smiled up at her, tears in his eyes, arms still loosely at Via’s sides as he looked up at the nervous, resilient teenager in front of him and saw everything she couldn’t about how strong she was, how perfect. How beautiful, and kind, and forgiving, and-

“Oh shit, I’m gonna puke.” Blitz said instead of the sweet confessions of mutual care he’d been about to deliver.

Via giggled, thinking he was trying to break the tension with a joke, and wiped the heel of one hand under her eye. “Fuck off, dickhead.” she laughed.

Blitz shook his head, and Stolas saw Blitz’s cheeks pinkening, and Octavia’s eyes widened as she caught on to what was about to happen.

“No, I-I mean I’m gonna-”

He did it as he said it, and Stolas was right there with him, slipping his slender body up into the bed between his daughter and his imp, a cardboard hospital bowl rushing up under Blitz’s chin as he vomited twice in quick succession and curled up into Stolas as pain seared through his stitched-up back and up the shattered femur of his broken leg.

“Get someone!” Stolas told Via sharply. “Get someone, he’s in pain!”

Blitz shook his head at him, trying and failing to keep himself together as his whole body lit like a stick of fireworks on Sinsmas, and tears poured from his eyes in hard, fast little rivulets.

“S’okay!” he managed to grind out “S’okay, I c’n do this! No drugs- I ‘on’t want drugs! Th-They’ll make you leave! They’ll make y-you leave me- I-”  

He coughed roughly, black blood slipping down his chin from one corner of his mouth, and Stolas wiped the stuff away with his thumb almost as soon as it appeared.

“Via, listen to me darling.” Stolas said firmly, fixing his eyes on his daughter the same way he had when he’d been scolding her as a child. “Nevermind what he says- Listen to me. Get someone, Starfire, please. Quick as you can darling.”

“I said no!” Blitz yelled even as his words trembled and his body shook as he pressed himself as close as he could get against Stolas’s warm, steady chest. “I don’t want the drugs!”

Octavia wavered, caught between Blitz’s clear wish to push through whatever was happening to him without medical intervention, and her dad’s equally obvious worry, then startled as she suddenly remembered her lessons.

“Dad- I can help him!” she said quickly, looking up at him for permission and support. “I-I think I can heal some of this, I just need you to help me work the magicks. I can do this, Dad, please.”

“Octavia, I’m not sure-” Stolas started, worry clear in all four of his expressive red eyes, and Blitz nudged his prince’s arm away from him with the back of one hand to get his attention.

“N-No Stols- She said she can do this.” Blitz said between hard, laboured pulls for breath. “Let her try. Worst she can do is fuck it up, and s’not like I’m leavin’ this place anytime soon anyway.”

Octavia’s eyes widened in a clear indication she hadn’t thought about what might happen if things didn’t go right, and Stolas frowned at Blitz in a way that told Via he definitely had considered failure an option.

“Magick isn’t some simple game or a toy you can pull out whenever you don’t like being mortal!” Stolas admonished sharply. “She’s barely eighteen, Blitz! She could seriously hurt you, or herself! What if-”

“You gonna let her?” Blitz asked point-blank into the middle of his stupid bird’s big lecture.

“I- What?” Stolas stammered as he stumbled to a stop and blinked at the sudden question. “I beg your pardon?”

“You gonna let your daughter hurt me?” Blitz repeated, locking his golden eyes on Stolas’s familiar heart-shaped face. “You gonna sit there and let your baby girl hurt herself on my account, or are you gonna be her dad and teach her how to keep herself safe usin’ her own power?”

Stolas’s cheeks went pink with both embarrassment and anger, and he sucked in a hard breath before answering to keep his next words mostly friendly. “I don’t think you understand exactly what she’s asking me!” he argued hotly. “What you’re asking of me- I-”

“You gotta let her grow up sometime.” Blitz said softly, entirely too reasonably. “She’s gonna be eighteen in a couple weeks, Stols. You know you can’t help her by keeping her away from her own life.”

Stolas bit his lip, tears already in his eyes, and looked back at Via over one shoulder. “Darling, it’s not that I’m sheltering you this time.” he pleaded with her since Blitz was clearly going to be no help at all. “It’s that this is dangerous. You’ve never used power like this, not since the night we… We…”

He trailed off here, and Via put a hand on his arm to sooth her dad. “Not since we fought uncle Andre.” she finished with more strength in her words than Stolas would have given her credit for.

She looked up at him, dark eyes serious and full of conviction. “He’s right, Dad. I’m not five years old anymore- I have to learn how to be a Goetia sooner or later, and at least if we do it this way, I can help Blitz. I can try.” She dropped her eyes to her hands gripping the hem of her shirt in her lap.

“He saved my life, Dad.” she pleaded softly “Please. Let me try…”

“You don’t owe me shit.” Blitz cut in as loudly as he could without being able to pull in a real lungful of air around the pain lancing through every part of him. “I didn’t do what I did ‘cause I wanted payback.”

Via rounded on him, and her features hardened. “I don’t owe you, but I want to help!” she snapped before she could think about where they were and what condition Blitz was in in front of her. “I give a shit about you, Blitz! Shut up and let me!”

Stolas winced, made to gently scold his daughter, but Blitz smirked into the middle of his prince’s next breath and nodded at Octavia.

“See?” he said with a laugh that sounded more like a whimper. “Kid’s ready. She’s got this, Stols. Let her show you who she is.”

Stolas wavered, and Blitz exchanged sly glances with Via as they both recognized the inevitable capitulation.

“The magick is quite difficult…” Stolas started slowly. He held up a hand to quiet Via’s immediate protest, and she let him go on. “But I suppose we could try, if you really believe this is a better solution than accepting pain management from a licensed hospital.”

He looked down at Blitz, who was beginning to shiver with adrenaline from enduring his injuries so long without relief, and put a delicate, careful hand under his imp’s chin.

“This could all go very badly, my love.” Stolas warned seriously. “If Octavia’s control slips, it could set back your recovery by months. I need your informed consent before I give my permission.” 

Blitz struggled to sit himself up a little straighter, and Stolas put a ginger hand under his elbow to help him. “So we’ll start easy!” Blitz suggested with the ghost of his usual bravado in his breathless words. “Via- You want a leg, or a wing?”

Via wrinkled her nose at him. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

Blitz raised his bandaged arm a little and immediately regretted the action. “Wing,” he waved his fingers at his fully casted leg in its protective sling. “Or a leg?”

He grinned like an asshole at Via, and she rolled her eyes at him with an exasperated groan at his ridiculous sense of humour. 

“Oh my god, Blitz. You’re so embarrassing.” she giggled, and Blitz seemed to lose ten years off his face as his eyes lit up at the sound of her laughter.

She grew serious and thought hard for a minute or two, then nodded resolutely. “Leg.” she told him decisively. “That way you’ll be able to walk out of here and flip these fucking racist doctors off with your whole chest.”

Blitz grinned at her and nudged Stolas with his good arm. “You raised this one right Stols.” he approved. “Help me lean back on these pillows here so you can help your kid without worrying about my dumb ass fallin’ over.”

“Wait one minute, Blitz! I never gave my permission for this!” Stolas said with a worried frown. “So much could go wrong here- You don’t understand what you’re asking me for!”

Blitz blinked at him. “Your kid says she can do this with your support.” he said simply, easily. “She asked us to trust her, and I’m game. Don’t see where all the talkin’s gonna change my mind.”

Stolas felt his eyes soften and tears began to gather in them as he smiled down at his perfect, wonderful, earnest, ridiculous imp and gave him a watery nod of assent.

“Alright.” he conceded. “We’ll try. You have to promise me you’ll do as you’re told. That you won’t impulsively try to help, or move away, or do anything without my express instruction. Can you do that, Blitz? Can you do as you’re told?”

Blitz raised a cheeky eyebrow at him and gave his bird a gentle cuff under the chin with the curve of one horn. “I’m usually on top when we roleplay, but I guess I can bottom this one time if you remember to call me your good boy after.”

Via made a face as her father giggled, blushed a soft, boyish pink and leaned in to drop a whispered kiss to Blitz’s cheek. “Dad!” she cried in disgust. “I’m in the room.”

“Old enough to do some fancy healin’ shit, old enough to hear about adults fuckin’ sometimes.” Blitz quipped entirely too reasonably. “Can’t have it both ways, Princess.”

Via leveled a hard glare at the imp. “First of all, I can set any boundary I like, whenever I want it, and second- I’m not a princess! It’s just my stupid family title. I don’t want to be called by my titles!”

Blitz held up his good hand in self-defense. “Loud n’ clear sweetheart. I gotcha. Still gonna make kinky sex jokes in front of you, fair’s fair, but I won’t call you princess even if I’m not serious about it.”

“Perhaps we could back away from explicit mentions of our adventures for now, hm darling?” Stolas asked a little timidly. “Just until this is less new for Via, alright? Let her have some time to adjust.”

Blitz was instantly serious and attentive, and he nodded quickly. “You’re her dad, whatever you tell me she needs.” he agreed swiftly. He looked back across at Via and gave her a nervous little smile.

 “Unless you tell me different, then I’m gonna listen to you first.” he added gently. “Your dad loves you real hard, but you’re still a wholeass person in there. Sound good, Via?”

Via blinked, confused and delighted to be directly asked her opinion and input about things that involved her, and gave Blitz a small, shy smile in return. “Very fair.” she agreed. “Now let go of Dad and shut up- You look like you’re about to pass out, and I want to help if I can.”

She hugged one arm across her chest in her signature self-soothing squeeze, and dropped her eyes to the faded hospital blanket underneath her. “Please?” she added softly. “I can help, just let me try.”

Stolas made sure Blitz could stay seated upright unassisted, that he wasn’t in more pain than he’d started in, and pressed a soft, tender kiss to his imp’s temple. Blitz winced at even the light touch, and Stolas’s eyes softened.

“Alright Via, are you sure you’re ready, Starfire?” he asked his daughter. “It’s going to be very intense to perform healing magicks like this, and Blitz’s injuries are quite severe for your first time-”

“It’s not my first time healing.” Via cut in irritably. “I can do this Dad, I promise you I can.”

“Of course you can.” Stolas echoed with an encouraging smile. “Gather your focus, darling. I’m coming to sit behind you so I can keep you steady and coach you through the hard bits.”

He did it as he said it, and Via shifted down the bed, towards the casted, suspended leg covered in metal braces and pins at the joint, and-

Via swallowed hard, pulled in a slow, deep breath to ground herself, and carefully wrapped both hands around Blitz’s leg. One hand beneath the immobilized knee, one hand resting palm-down on the edge of Blitz’s thigh where his knee began to bend in the cast.

“Alright now, Via.” Stolas instructed calmly and clearly. “Take your time, call up the magicks you’ll need. Like choosing thread for a sewing project, remember? The way we used to do when you were small.”

Via nodded, all four eyes squinted in deep concentration as she focused on gathering and directing the wispy, ethereal feathers of magick her secondary eyes unfocused to find. She found the threads of iridescent, gossamer energy as easily as she could find her phone in her pocket, or a spoon in the kitchen drawers at home, and her fingers over Blitz’s knee twitched a little as she began to pull them out of the intangible and down into her very real, very solid fingertips.

One finger brushed up against the side of Blitz’s kneecap, and the imp hissed in a low, muffled gasp of pain that startled Via into hesitating. The purple magick that had been gathering under her palms flickered and wavered, and Via felt sweat break out across her forehead as she struggled for a moment to regain control and focus.

“Via- Hold the line.” Stolas said directly into her ear. “Hold the line, darling, that’s it- Pull like you mean it. You’re the conduit, these forces listen to you. Only to you. There we are, there you are…”

She focused on her dad, on his practiced, professional hands covering hers as he coached her and trusted her to listen as he taught her. He had no magick of his own anymore, Via knew from watching the trial, but he’d been the master of stars and prophecies for her entire life- He knew things she couldn’t hope to understand at only seventeen years old, with one real fight under her.

He knew, and he’d tried to warn her, and she hadn’t listened, and now she was going to lose control over her healing, she was going to slip and do Blitz serious harm in front of her father, and-

Everything will be okay- When I’m gone you’ll be okay

The old lullabye in her ear shocked Via out of her anxious spiral of self-doubt, and she leaned her back into the gentle resonance of her dad’s chest, letting the comforting sound of his beautiful singing voice take her back to when she’d been a little girl and he’d taught her music too.

How to cook a pot of pasta, bake cookies. Look after his humongous, carnivorous plants in every room and hidden hallway of the palace. How to comb out her feathers so they didn’t tangle and hurt, how to look into the ethers that were her birthright, how to touch and feel and ask the magicks she found there for help, permission, support…

“I need you to find and repair what’s broken.” she whispered to the purple light that had begun to darken and shade into a deeply royal indigo and purple spiral arm. “I need you to fix his leg. I’m telling you.”

The magick flared up, bright and fierce and wild, and Via set her jaw as she felt it expanding and pushing at her direct control over it, threatening to break free of her hold and do as it willed. She should be able to speak the commands as thoughts, because it was dangerous to announce her intentions to an unsecured room like this, she knew, but Via needed the extra reassurance this time. She needed to hear herself asking and taking what she needed from her power, to feel the magick responding to the sound of her voice and reminding her she was the one directing it, helping Blitz, protecting her dad…

“No- I said fix him.” Via demanded harshly of the wavering light. “Do it!”

The magicks seemed to snap to attention as she directed them more firmly, the swell of determined heat in Via’s chest forcing back the pushback of wild power and shaping it to her needs instead of the other way around.

“Start weaving the threads…” Stolas reminded softly as he watched Via murmuring the commands he’d whispered to his own magick so many times before that his thoughts automatically became iron and immovable as he watched Via practice hers. “Left over right, left over right, smallest to largest…”

Via nodded against his chest, her lower lip caught between her beak as she reached deeper inside of herself and did as he instructed. She wove the magicks like a tapestry, into a single, thick line of ‘rope’ that could be wound up and around Blitz’s injured leg.

Her hands began to move as she solidified the single strand of powerful magick, infused with her firm intent to heal and repair what wasn’t right in the imp even though Via hadn’t the beginning of a clue what imp anatomy and bone structure was even supposed to be. She didn’t need to know- The magick did, and she knew magick.

She redoubled her efforts, focusing as hard as she ever had on getting this right, on healing Blitz. On giving her dad back his imp, his boyfriend. Giving Loona her dad back, whole and safe and healed. On giving Blitz a second chance to be more than just her dad’s shitty old boyfriend from before this mess had started. To be Blitz to her and not That Fuckhead, and-

“Via- Keep focus, darling. Hold the line.” Stolas cued her as the magicks leaked and began to expand too broadly. “Focus on his leg, not the whole room. Don’t burn yourself out my love. There we are, nice and controlled…”

Via nodded even as she felt his hands mirroring hers as they circled Blitz’s suspended leg. He never touched her, but the whisper of air his hands created in the drafty old hospital room tingled over the backs of her hands as channeling the raw power of the cosmos electrified her skin.

Back in the bed, Blitz gasped and they heard the sound of his good hand clapping down firmly over his mouth to keep himself quiet, and Via smiled a little at the gesture. Here he was in agony, letting her basically use him as a cadaver doll while she performed her second-ever healing attempt on him, her first ever attempt on a complex being that wasn’t a houseplant, and Blitz was more worried about distracting Via than for his own safety.

He was still more worried for her than for himself…

Worth it…

That had been the last thing Blitz had been able to say in the van. He’d asked about her, said she was worth his life, then passed out from blood loss right in her father’s lap. They’d done everything for her, both of them, and Via felt tears stinging her eyes at how much that meant after nearly a year of Stella’s cold neglect. Her violent, willful demands that came with thrown objects, open-handed slaps across Via’s face, hard shoves over furniture, into walls-

“I don’t fucking need you!” Via yelled into the memories threatening to pull her attention away from the task at hand. “I don’t fucking need you, I need him- I need my dad, and his stupid new boyfriend! You’re going to listen to me and I’m going to help him!”

“Via? Starfire, we need to stop this.” Stolas was saying quickly and worriedly. “Pull it all back darling, up under your palms, the way we practiced-”

“No Dad! Let me do this!” Via snapped roughly. “Let me do what I can!”

She flung the order at him like a general leading her own armies, and Stolas felt a hard, proud smile blossoming over his features as he watched his little owlet bear down over the magicks she controlled, seamlessly weave the unruly wisps down into a single, shimmering braid of raw power and snake them up and over Blitz’s shattered leg in front of them.

He pressed his chest into her back, following her hands with his as he watched his daughter like a hawk for signs of distress or stumble, but other than that brief moment when she’d seemed to talk to ghosts Stolas couldn’t see in the room, Via was magnificent.

Powerful, in full control of herself and her abilities. Her back rigid and straight as all four of her eyes narrowed to her work and only her work. She moved like liquid starlight, shaping and tumbling the woven rope of pure energy, infusing the magicks with her clear, unwavering intent. Moving as if she’d done this for years and eons, and not just the once Stolas knew she’d used her skills on one of his old plants back home at the palace.

He smiled as he remembered the guilty look on his daughter’s face as he’d walked past the clumsily repaired clay pot that contained his most prized carnivorous plant and said nothing as eleven-year-old Via practically danced in place with nerves, waiting for him to yell at her or punish her for the obvious, sloppy mess she’d made of fixing the broken pot and salvaging the plant it had held.

He’d smiled at her, gentle and forgiving, and asked her if she might like to learn to repot his flowers. He had some time that afternoon, did she perhaps wish to join him for a lesson? The relief on his little girl’s face as he’d said it, forgiven her without mentioning the mishap that had surely led to the broken plant, and the subsequent lesson where he’d taught her how to safely repot his snapdragons, then how to use magick to encourage regrowth and repair had been enough to tell him she understood the importance of what they did, how he chose to address her.

She couldn’t understand the full scope of what he’d been teaching her at eleven, naturally, but Via had seen him lead with grace, with compassion. Give her room to make mistakes and learn in, and here and now, when he’d heard his precious Starfire telling the specters of her own self-doubt that she needed him- him and Blitz- Stolas was sure she’d been listening that one fateful day.

“I want him to feel no pain!” Via told the magicks in front of her. “I want this leg perfect- Better than it was, got it?”

The magicks offered no response, because they were only as alive as their wielder could command, but Stolas watched the dark, purple-blue light flare and move faster as Via directed them.

It took an entire five minutes more for Via to begin to slow, for the light to begin to ebb back and dim as the teenager tired, and Stolas watched her work with fierce, glowing joy filling his chest and making him absolutely float with excited parental pride as his child showed him how wrong he’d been when he’d told her she couldn’t do this, that it was too much-

That she wasn’t the strong, clever young woman in front of him, who could love so fiercely she defied even him and did the needful, just like he’d always taught her. Stolas felt tears stinging at his eyes and steadfastly ignored them, keeping his entire attention on his flagging daughter as she pulled back on the magicks at last and began to wind down the spell.

It took a moment or two more, then Via gasped and dropped her hands, swaying on the spot as the hard rush of retreating power and draining energies momentarily made her head spin and her stomach flip. Strong arms caught her as Stolas looped an arm across her chest and held his daughter steady, and Via smiled shakily at the bedspread.

“I’m okay.” she reassured him. “I’m fine, Dad, honestly. I’m just a little spun out. I can handle it.”

“Are you sure?” Stolas asked worriedly. “It’s alright if you need help my love, I’m right here. I can give you some breathing techniques, and grounding support, and-”

Via rolled her eyes at him the way she’d been doing since she was nine years old. “Dad.” she complained. “I’m fine, I promise! You can let go now.”

Her father pulled in a deep, steadying breath and nodded shakily as he slipped his arms back and away from her, and Octavia sat herself up and stayed sitting tall and proud without his help in front of him.

Stolas waited a beat, then two, watching his daughter like a hawk for signs of backlash or exhaustion or worse, but Octavia remained unharmed and began to recover much quicker than Stolas ever had when he’d first been learning the healing arts.

There again, some distant old part of his memories reminded him, Via was built to remove barriers and create possibilities, and he was built to pull prophecies and map stars. It was entirely fitting that healing used Via’s primary skillset, and that he himself had always been clumsy and hopeless at the art because he was too busy dreaming and reading probable outcomes to focus on correcting the problems in front of him.

He smiled behind one hand and laughed a little at the irony of having such a practically-minded daughter who so loved his ephemeral stars that she’d asked him to teach her their dance while she’d still been a fluffy little nestling he could scoop into the crook of one arm while he went about his more mundane duties in his office.

How far she’d come since then, Stolas thought fondly as Via continued to show no signs of distress and he began to move to check on Blitz.

“Stols- I-I think…” Blitz said directly into Stolas’s train of thought. “I think…”

His words cut themselves off as Blitz doubled over with his good arm curled tightly around his stomach, and Stolas was with him before he could think, before he’d had time to register he was moving at all.

“Via- Go get a nurse!” Stolas directed smartly as he slipped in behind his Blitz and slid a supportive hand across his imp’s shoulders. “Quick as you can, darling. Hurry now.”

Blitz shook his head and curled towards his prince. “Nah- No nurses.” he said between tightly clenched teeth. “They’ll make you leave…”

“So what if they do?” Stolas argued “I’m not going to leave you in pain like this! I knew we should never have tried this! We’ve made things worse! Who knows what damage we’ve caused interfering like that! How could I let you two talk me into this, I-”

“Dad- Look!” Via cut in before Stolas could get a proper lecture rant going. “Look, his leg!”

Blitz nodded into his bird’s shoulder and tightened his grip on Stolas’s borrowed shirt. “Y-Yeah,” he managed to force out between hard pulls for breath. “M-My leg feels like nothin’ ever happened. It hurt like a motherfucker before Via healed it, now it doesn’t.”

Stolas frowned and looked down at Blitz’s casted and suspended leg, which was moving now instead of being held absolutely still the way it had been since they’d gotten here.

“You can move the leg?” he asked incredulously. “And it doesn’t hurt at all?”

Blitz nodded and tried to wriggle out of the sling keeping his leg suspended at an unnatural angle. “Yeah, not at all.” he confirmed with a growl of sheer frustration as the sling refused to release him, and he refused to let go of Stolas long enough to use his one good hand to help himself.

“I know because my back feels like it did the night I came outta the circus fire.”  Blitz told his prince. “It got so much worse once I wasn’t focused on the bone stickin’ up outta my leg like that. Now my back is the main issue.”

Stolas startled and hastily shifted his hand at Blitz’s shoulder up higher to avoid touching the mess of open and healing wounds across his imp’s entire back. “I’m so sorry Blitz! I thought I was being careful- I didn’t realize-”

Blitz shook his head as sweat broke out across his forehead and began to slide down his temples. “Nah, nevermind Stols.” he said dismissively. “Don’t care about that. Get my leg outta that damn swing before I rip it off that fancy doctor hook.”

Stolas moved to do what his imp asked, but Blitz wouldn’t let go of his clothes to let him, and Stolas felt his brows knit with worry.

“Love?” he started softly, gently. “I’m going to need you to let go, just for a second…”

“It’s okay Dad- I’ve got it.” Via said quietly. “Stay with your boyfriend. I’ll handle it.”

Stolas jumped guiltily, having forgotten his daughter was in here at all while he had all his focus fixed on Blitz, but gave her a grateful smile as Via gingerly lifted Blitz’s casted leg up and out of the traction sling with both hands and very, very carefully lowered the newly-healed leg to the bed.

Blitz sucked in a shaky breath, relief crossing his open features as he immediately used his new range of motion to pull both legs up under himself and curl in closer to his prince and the soft chest fluff he loved so dearly. His old Pink Pony Club t-shirt covered most of the downy feathers, but Blitz didn’t care. The closer he moved to his bird, the more of Stolas he could breathe in and focus on instead of the searing pain lancing up his back from all the stitches and bandaging, and whatever the fuck else had happened between the time he’d blacked out in the van and waking up in a surgical ward with wires and tubing taped all over him.

“S’better.” he forced himself to tell Via. “Thanks, kid. S’better now. Y’did good.”

She beamed at him, and Blitz gave her a shaky, lopsided grin back before turning his face back into his prince’s shoulder and closing his eyes.

“What if we lay you back down again?” Stolas asked gently. “On your stomach, so your back would be clear of everything for awhile? Hm? Let’s try.”

His bird was talking to him like he was six years old, Blitz noted with a grim sort of humour. It must really be bad if Stolas was treating him like he was fragile in front of his kid like this. His prince knew Blitz would never want to be seen as vulnerable by Octavia, not when everything was so new and uncertain, that Blitz would want his boyfriend’s daughter to view him as another available support, a friend, maybe even a trusted adult someday… But not broken. Not messy, or needy the way he was now, and Blitz was sure he must look worse than he felt-Which was like a fresh pile of warm shit put through a fuckin’ weed-eater, so he was willing to let the babying slide just this once.

His pretty bird must be losing his damn mind if Stolas was outright coddling him like this in front of Via. Blitz brushed the end of his nose up under Stolas’s chin, his prince leaned in closer to touch their foreheads together, and Blitz felt his heart contract painfully inside his chest at the thought of being the reason Stolas was so worried and upset, even if it wasn’t Blitz’s fault shithead royal pricks like Andre existed, or that bitches like Striker were such good shots with a knife, or-

Besides, he thought wryly, Stols had a point this time. The longer Blitz spent sitting up, the more his head spun, the worse it made him feel, and he curled his bandaged hand up against his stomach with a wince.

He nodded at his bird, shifting a little to help Stolas get them both down flat against the old hospital mattress. “Y-Yeah, that makes sense. Let’s just get it over with, okay?” he ground out.

“But you stay with me.” he added swiftly, a little hesitantly. “I… I don’t want you to leave yet, okay? It helps if you’re here…”

Stolas passed a soft hand over one of Blitz’s horns as he shifted them both down to the bed and Blitz kept his face pressed tightly into his chest the entire time. Blitz rolled towards his prince, Stolas fumbled to help him without touching any part of Blitz’s back, but the imp swore softly as Stolas accidentally brushed the heel of one hand against a bandage and the whole thing tugged and dragged over the open wound beneath it.

“S’okay.” Blitz reassured as Stolas froze and pulled in a breath to apologize. “S’okay… C’mere, s’okay…”

Stolas went without question, slipping in against his imp’s curled body in front of him, one arm wrapping up around Blitz’s hips, the other cradling the strong, broad shoulders as Blitz wormed his way as close as he could get to Stolas’s chest.

“I love you, my beautiful imp.” Stolas whispered against Blitz’s forehead in front of him. He pressed a quick, whisper-soft kiss to the unmarred birthmark tucked in safely under his chin, and Blitz purred faintly for the most wonderful five seconds of Stolas’s life.

“Love you too, pretty bird.” Blitz murmured faintly. “No matter what. Always.”

The low, mechanical buzz of a phone against the nightstand followed, and Blitz hissed a hard breath in between his teeth as he tried to lift his head to see what had made the noise. Stolas shushed him and rolled back just enough that he could reach the stand with one long arm, and picked up Blitz’s recovered phone.

The battered old face held an alert for one new message from ‘Loonie’, and Stolas smiled as he swiped the screen to life and unlocked Blitz’s phone with automatic memory of the password.

Lucifer’s wings, had it been long enough now that he knew silly, everyday things like this without thinking? Stolas smiled to himself. He felt his Blitz craning upwards into his shoulder to see what Stolas was reading, and Stolas obligingly angled himself back towards his stubborn little lover who couldn’t mind common sense no matter how hard Stolas tried to get him to care about his own well-being.

“I heard Loona’s ringtone- What’s it say!” Blitz interrupted impatiently, already grabbing for the phone while Stolas held it firmly just out of his reach. “Lemme see- What’s it say!”

“Hold on, hold on- Let me-” Stolas laughed tolerantly. “Here- There we are. Settle back down now, there we are. There’s my good boy.”

Blitz shivered and froze mid-reach, his eyes darkening a shade despite everything else happening to and around him, and he narrowed his eyes at his stupid bird. “That ain’t fair, Stols.” he complained a little breathlessly. “I’m all wrapped up like a Sinsmas present you can’t open, and you’re droppin’ lines like that?”

Stolas smirked at his ridiculous imp and snuggled in closer with the phone still in hand. “You see? Now you have a reason to keep still and heal.” He kissed the curl of Blitz’s horn and helped his imp settle in more comfortably against his chest. “The sooner you’re all better, the sooner I can take you home and be your sexy nurse.”

“Fuck you…” Blitz whined as he shifted uncomfortably and his big dumb bird grinned down at him with those huge, dark eyes full of nothing but love and concern for Blitz.

“Hurry up and read the text.” he groused instead of acknowledging the deep, painful swell of sudden emotions threatening to overwhelm him at any moment. “What’s my daughter need?”

Stolas tapped the phone screen a few times, the smile slid off his face as his quick eyes took in the handful of words, and his features paled. “I-It’s from Via- I completely lost track of her! I can’t believe- I-I have to call her! For fuck’s sake, we just patched things up and now- I-”

“Starts with four.” Blitz reminded him calmly, gently. “Four, nine, three-”

Stolas startled out of his rapidly spiraling thoughts and realized Blitz was listing numbers from Loona’s contact info for him. He nodded, smiling despite the tears already welling up in his eyes. “Yes, of course. I know that, thank you Blitz. I-I was a little lost for a moment there, but I’m alright. I’ll just call her, I’m sure everything’s fine. She’s clearly with Loona, I-”

Stolas kept up his rapid-fire stream of consciousness narration even as he tabbed into Loona’s contact info on the phone and pressed the ‘call’ button under her name. The line rang once, twice, then Loona answered and Stolas hastily asked if Via was with her (yes), and if she’d be willing to speak to him (also yes).

A beat passed in which Stolas assumed the phone was trading hands, then his daughter’s voice said “Dad?”, and Stolas felt his breath catch in his throat.

“Via? Starfire, are you alright?” Stolas said into the phone. “Here, I’ll put you on speaker.”

 He tapped the button, and the sounds of Imp City traffic and a busy main street floated into the room along with Via’s annoyed sigh.  “Yes Dad.” she grumbled at him. “Everything’s fine. Didn’t you read my text?”

“I-I did, but I thought it might be better if I called to check in.” Stolas stammered nervously. “T-to be sure you’re alright, that you don’t need me for anything, or-”

“Dad.” Octavia said squarely into the middle of his anxious apologies. “I told you- I chose to leave with Loona. I want you to have as much time as you can with Blitz. He needs you, okay? I’m fine, I swear, okay?”

Stolas’s eyes widened even as he felt Blitz’s good hand around his shirtfront tighten incrementally. “B-But darling, what about-”

“I said I’m fine, Dad!” Via repeated with signature teenage exasperation in her words. “Loona’s going to take me to Stylish Occult after lunch so I can have more than three fucking shirts to wear. It’s fine, for fuck’s sake!”

Stolas nodded along, mostly for his own benefit as his heart pounded in his chest at how normal and easy this all was all of a sudden. As if she were any other teenager, and he were any other hovering father trying to be a little bit too involved in his child’s life, and none of the previous weeks had happened, and she didn’t hate him, and he wasn’t absolutely crumbling under the relief of having his precious little Starfire home with him, and holding his beaten, recovering Blitz to him in a hospital room, and-

“Dad?” Octavia’s voice cut right through Stolas’s whirling thoughts and he was instantly focused on nothing but her.

“Yes darling, what do you need?” he answered at once. “How can I help?”

She laughed at him, the sound like the first nice breeze from an open window on the very first day of spring, and Stolas smiled despite himself.

“Dad- Stay with Blitz.” she told him again. “All night if you want, I don’t care. As long as he needs you, okay? I want that for you. For him…”

She trailed off, and Stolas caught the cleverly hidden hint of tears in her voice as she refused to acknowledge them and tried to pretend nothing was wrong.

“Starfire, you know I’ll come home this second if you ask me to.” he said softly, gently, and Octavia sniffled on the other end of the line. “I’ll be there in twenty minutes, alright? Meet me at the diner on the corner near your store. Do you remember where it is? Shall I explain it?”

“Dad!” Via cried angrily, her words strong and hard despite the clear sound of tears in them. “I said I’m fine! I want you to stay with your boyfriend! I don’t need you feeling guilty and worried about him the whole time you’re with us, thinking you’re doing it to protect me, because you’re not! I know he loves you, and you love him- I’m working on what that means to me right now, but that doesn’t mean I don’t give a shit about you! About him!”

Her voice lowered, and Stolas could practically see his anxious little girl hugging herself around the shoulders the way she always did when she was nervous. He wished more than anything he could be there with her, that she’d said something before she’d left the hospital, that he hadn’t been so wrapped up in Blitz and looking after him that he’d forgotten his daughter. Again. After everything, and all he’d been through, what it had cost Blitz-

“I want you to stay with Blitz because it’s the right thing to do.” Via said as if she could read his mind and see every fear and worry Stolas had laid bare in front of her. “I want him to have you there if it hurts, if he needs someone to help him through this. All I could do was heal his leg for him, but Dad- You’re his everything. You’re what he needs. I can see it in his eyes, okay? Please, just like… Just listen to me for once, okay? Dad, please…”

The way she sounded so desperate for him to hear her, for her father to take her seriously as an adult for once completely shattered any whisper of resolve Stolas might have had to argue with her, and he was about to relent and tell Octavia he believed her, he would stay at the hospital, but call him if anything came up. Tell him, and he’d be there for her-

But beside him in the bed Blitz pressed his face right into his shoulder, features screwed up with pain, shoulders jerking in tiny micromovements that told Stolas his imp was about to vomit and was trying his level best not to.

“Via? Via, darling, I have to go but I’m right here if you need me!” he shouted down the phone all in a rush. “I love you, my special little Starfire! I’m so fucking proud of you, I- Shit!”

And without hearing her final words to him, Stolas had flung the phone to one side, pulled a cardboard bowl down off the nightstand and rushed it up under Blitz’s chin as the love of his life threw up and trembled with unspeakable pain in front of him.

Chapter Text

A/N: Living in a place that gives me Mandatory Paid Time Off means y'all get an early update! Sometimes love hurts, but don't worry- Everything Will Be Okay <3 We're almost at The Secrets, which means we gotta get these idiots home so they can be a Fambly!

But not this time, for Reasons :P I promise, Soon(tm), just hang in. No beta, we die like men, as per usual.

CW/TW: Hospital setting, medical procedures described and mentioned (mild, no blood); Do NOT Google 'debridement' unless you're real cool with explicit medical images. It means scraping damaged or dead skin off. Blood mentioned, nothing graphic. Panic attacks described, mentioned; Anxiety, neglect and general MH symptoms shown and described

Comments, concrit, strings of emojis and all feedback welcome, as always <3 Y'all always leave such fun, insightful reactions, and I read every one!

Chapter 15: Unconditional Means Without Conditions

It was hours after that phonecall with Octavia, the hospital room was dark and silent around them save for the steady whine and cheeps of monitoring equipment. The blinds had been drawn sort-of shut over the broad, tall window at the far side of the bed, dirty moonlight spilling in over them in faint slivers as the sole occupants of the room lay still in the single hospital bed, oblivious to everything around them.

Blitz was asleep against Stolas, his face buried in the owl’s chest and his one good hand wrapped loosely up around the side of Stolas’s t-shirt. He’d spent the last couple of hours writhing in pain, throwing up about it, and arguing fiercely with Stolas about calling in help of any kind while his prince did everything he could think of including tearful, heartfelt begging, and calling Millie to knock some sense into Blitz over the phone.

None of it had budged the imp a single inch, Stolas sighed as he watched his stubborn lover finally asleep and staying that way. No amount of threatening, pleading, talking to or outright ordering had moved Blitz past the obstinate refusal to let the medical team near him, even after Stolas had pushed the call button multiple times against his imp’s wishes, summoning nurses and doctors who swept in with pain relief and syringes full of sedatives that Blitz whipped straight out of their hands with his free arm, or the lash of his tail, and a string of violent, furious curses that chased out even the one nurse who actually did her job in this fucking place.

Even she, the one nurse Blitz liked and seemed most willing to listen to on any other day, had been subjected to the roughest possible treatment by Blitz, and in the end, after Blitz had yelled for the sixth time that he gave no consent to drugs or anything else that was going to knock him out, she’d sighed and given Stolas a helpless sort of look.

“We can’t force him, your highness.” she’d said with genuine regret in her eyes as Blitz flinched hard at some newer wave of pain and sat there, wrapped firmly around Stolas and shivering so hard Stolas felt his own bones aching at the intensity of the reaction.

“Can’t you use my consent?” Stolas had pleaded desperately. “I can’t stand watching him do this to himself! I’ll pin him down, you deliver the shot!”

The nurse had shaken her head gravely, told him that unless Blitz slipped into unconsciousness or suddenly lost all awareness, Blitz’s consent was the only kind that mattered, and swept from the room with a quick, but sincere ‘I’m so sorry’.

Stolas had rounded on his stupid imp then, in tears and sick with worry as Blitz glared up at him defiantly and generally looked like he expected an apology from Stolas for having a single shred of common sense about what needed to happen here.

“Why!” Stolas had shouted in exhausted bewilderment. “Why won’t you take help? If not for yourself, then for my sake! Can’t you see how much it hurts me to watch this? To sit here and listen to you suffer and not be able to help because you’re too fucking proud to let me? Why can’t you just let the hospital do its job! I’m right here, Blitz! Right. Here. I won’t let them hurt you, you must know that by now?”

Blitz had set his jaw, silent and sullen, his face turned away from Stolas but both hands still clinging to the old t-shirt at either side of Stolas’s chest, and Stolas had felt blind anger bubble up and boil over at the utter lack of regard Blitz was showing him. For the stone wall of a face he thought he’d never have to see his Blitz wearing again now that they’d been together for nearly a full year.

“What the fuck is this!” Stolas yelled, his voice hard and accusatory despite the clear worry and fear in his expressive red eyes. “Why are you doing this to yourself? Is it guilt? Do you think this was your fault somehow? That Via was stuck in that palace with Andrealphus and her mother because of you? Because that’s bullshit, and-”

“Shut the fuck up, okay!” Blitz had lashed out in equally rough tones. “Shut the fuck up, it ain’t anythin’ like that! They’ll make you leave if I take those fuckin’ meds!”

He’d looked up at Stolas then, golden eyes huge and full of panic and a fear so deep Stolas could have kicked himself for not connecting the past to the present sooner.

“If I let those docs knock me out, or fuck me sideways with drugs, they’ll make you leave…” Blitz whispered, tears sliding openly down his face now. “They’ll say it’s for my own good and they’ll kick you out like they did that first night! I’m gonna be in here alone again, a-and I don’t want that, Stols. I need to know where you are okay? I… I just…”

He’d broken down into full-bodied sobs then, and Stolas had wrapped his imp up as closely as he dared without touching any part of the injured back, or compressing the still-broken arm, and Blitz had grabbed hold of Stolas as if his life depended on it, ignoring all of it as if he couldn’t feel pain at all.

Stolas had held him while Blitz threw every square inch of pain and guilt and fear at him, and Stolas caught it without another word as he dropped fast, comforting kisses against the birthmark in front of him, at the base of both horns, to Blitz’s temples and the top of his head, and Blitz pressed himself up into Stolas’s chest as if there weren’t bandages and fresh stitches covering his entire body.

It had taken an hour to sooth back the panic, and comfort his imp to the point where Blitz could hear him again, understand what was being said to him, and Stolas winced at the memory of how stupid he could be when he was sleep-deprived and off his meds.

Of course Blitz was afraid of the doctors sending Stolas away. Of fucking course his imp didn’t want any mind-altering medications to interfere with his awareness, make him less than lucid and unable to keep track of what was around him, who was with him. Where Stolas was…

Blitz had told him about the fire in his youth practically within the first week of their relationship. Had completely fallen apart in Stolas’s arms and spent the better part of two days clinging to him and refusing to let his bird out of his sight. Blitz had tried to hide the anxious way he snuck glances across the apartment at Stolas, the way any time Stolas stepped out onto the balcony for a smoke, or left to the shops, Blitz appeared at his prince’s elbow as if by magic, a casual grin on his face and a flip comment waving away any questions Stolas might have tried to ask about it, but Stolas had known almost immediately that something was wrong. His Blitz never hovered like this, didn’t crowd him, didn’t make Stolas feel as if his every move was monitored and measured the way it had been at the palace, or when Stella was glaring at him from across the kitchen table.

No, it had very clearly and obviously been a lingering trauma response, and Stolas had let it pass then without pushing, reasoning that Blitz would talk to him when he was ready, and that if the behaviour persisted past a few days and Blitz still hadn’t said anything, Stolas himself would. But the anxiety and the need to have Stolas within eyeshot at all times had faded by the afternoon of the third day, and Stolas had allowed Blitz his privacy around what was obviously an extremely delicate subject. Here and now, that same trauma seemed to be playing out in front of him, but Stolas had been too overwhelmed and exhausted to catch on without Blitz’s direct telling.

Very little about Blitz was direct right now, the imp seemed deadset on hiding any scrap of emotion he might be experiencing, downplaying the physical pain he was in, and Stolas was at his absolute wits’ end with guessing and playing twenty-fucking-questions with every new flinch or grimace Blitz couldn’t suppress.

At least Blitz had agreed to hold still for the last doctor brave enough to do rounds in here, catching Blitz just after he’d been able to stop sobbing, but not get himself fully back under control. The tall, stone-faced physician had taken in the distress Blitz was in, saw his still-casted leg laying unsupported on the bed and incorrectly connected the two observations. The doctor had called a nurse in without asking Stolas or Blitz if they’d mind, given the state of Blitz at the time, and the surly Nurse Mabel had wheeled in a portable imaging setup that had shown the doctor such a confusing set of x-rays, that he’d tried to have Blitz forcibly taken out of Stolas’s arms and wheeled off to radiology.

The blistering string of curses and hard swings of his casted arm Blitz had offered up to Nurse Lecter had been nothing as Stolas lost his utter and complete shit on the both of them, throwing out curse words and actual Goetic curses he’d learned reading forbidden books from his father’s library as a child. Stolas had taken every scrap of fury, of exasperation at Blitz’s refusal to be cared for, of his worry and guilt and fear, and the irrational, unstoppable spiral of emotions Stolas couldn’t even name being unmedicated cycled him through out on the racist, uncaring pieces of shit who thought they were going to touch his imp without his say-so.

He’d been so upset, so loud, that security had been called, and it was only the threat of Stolas calling in The Law that had made the doctor call in a different, kinder nurse with a handheld rotary saw to remove the cast and unscrew the pins from Blitz’s knee with only Stolas’s word to go by. Task completed, the doctor had ushered everybody out of the room, warning Stolas that one more stunt like that on his watch would get their asses thrown in the street, Goetia prince or not.

Stolas sighed at the memory, pulling his imp closer under the rough hospital blanket, and Blitz startled awake with a groan.

“S’wrong?” he mumbled blearily, and Stolas could feel the quickening heartbeat against his chest. “Stols?”

Stolas winced at his fumble, and ran a gentle hand down along one of Blitz’s horns. “Nothing’s wrong darling, I was rolling over. You’re alright, we’re alright.”

Blitz nodded slowly, his hands fisting up at Stolas’s back as he shifted to give his prince more room. “C’mere. I got you…”

“No, love- I’ve got you.” Stolas corrected quietly. “I’m here to look after you. Please let me. I love you, Blitz.”  

“Love you too Stols.” Blitz answered automatically, his voice so faint Stolas smiled as he recognized the absolute edges of consciousness in his imp.

Stolas moved to rub the broad, strong back out of habit, and Blitz sucked in a hard breath as Stolas’s fingers ghosted just a little too closely to a particularly deep wound near his shoulder.

“Shit! I’m sorry Blitz!” Stolas apologized at once, his voice still soft and low, moving his hands to Blitz’s upper arm instead. “I’m sorry, here- We’ll try this instead. Is this better?”

Blitz nodded and curled up into his prince’s chest. “Don’t feel good…” he admitted quietly. “Feels sick. Hurts in my back…”

Stolas felt his eyes softening sympathetically, knew Blitz wouldn’t take help even if Stolas called for it, and braced himself to have another brutal argument with his boyfriend at three am. “Blitz?” he started carefully, hesitantly.

“Call someone…” Blitz asked faintly. “Don’t let ‘em make you leave. Call the good nurse.”

Stolas blinked, caught utterly off-guard as Blitz practically burrowed underneath him in an effort to get them closer, and curled a hand up behind his imp’s head. “Are you sure, darling?” he checked incredulously. “I know you’ve been very clear about medications and sedatives-”

Blitz shook his head roughly. “Nothin’ for sleep. Nothin’ that fucks with my head.” he said with as much strength and conviction as his cracking voice would lend. “Jus’ somethin’ to make it feel less shitty. Don’t let ‘em make you leave. Promise me, Stols. Promise me.”

Stolas nodded, tears slipping from all four eyes as he drew Blitz in as tightly as he dared and reached back to push the call button set into the wall. “I swear on my daughter’s life.” he vowed fiercely. “On my soul, Blitz. On my daughter, on my life. I won’t leave you my precious thing. I’ll be here until I can bring you home again. I promise, Blitz. I promise…”

Blitz nodded, the front of Stolas’s thin t-shirt began to soak through as the imp cried into his chest, and seconds before Blitz could draw breath to speak again, an orderly swanned in and demanded to know what they needed at this hour of the night.

“He’s not crashing- I was watching my Voxflix,” the orderly huffed in annoyance. “I’m not about to get my ass kicked in the middle of the night for some fuckin’ imp.”

“You’ll have my goetic foot up your ass and out through your teeth in a minute if you don’t bring us Kaity in the next thirty seconds!” Stolas demanded in his best courtly sneer. “Now, orderly!”

“And a better blanket!” Blitz called from his place buried in Stolas’s chest. “My bird’s freezing in here!”

Stolas heaved a sigh and almost argued with him, but a sudden shiver ran down his back as the orderly turned and swept back out of the room, and Stolas realized he was cold. Well, chilled, most likely as a result of sleep deprivation and prolonged stress, but whatever version of cold it was, he felt it now that Blitz had pointed it out, and he laughed a little at his ridiculous imp.

“You’re always looking after me.” he complained with a smile in the moonlight. “Let me have a turn.”

“You’re still my bottom.” Blitz quipped with a smirk up against Stolas’s chest. “Daddy’s gotta look out for his princess.”

“Your princess is more than capable of looking after himself.” Stolas said firmly, dropping a gentle kiss down on the top of his Blitz’s head. “I’ll still be here when your belt hand heals.”

“You’re gonna be here while it does.” Blitz said with a brave attempt at confidence in his shaky words. He looked up in the darkness, and Stolas’s eyes went soft and filled with concern as they locked eyes. “R-Right? You’re gonna be here?”

Stolas kissed the end of the cute little nose and touched his forehead up against the familiar birthmark. “Always.” he promised. “I’ll kick their asses if they try to make me leave. I promise, my Blitz.”

Blitz tried to smile at him, but his chin trembled, the honest golden eyes filled with anxiety, and Stolas gathered his beautiful imp up and wrapped his legs up in Blitz’s recently de-casted one.

“I love you.” he murmured softly, with every scrap of conviction he could muster. “No force in Hell could move me my darling. I promise you.”

“Stols, I-”

“Sirs?” Kaity’s professionally cheerful voice called in a considerate undertone. “I was told you asked for me?”

Stolas instantly looked up at the nurse. “Yes! Please, come in! We’d like to request some meds? F-For pain, and for his stomach.”

“Nothin’ for sleep!” Blitz instantly added. “Don’t fuck with my head- I just wanna stop feelin’ like I’m gonna puke, got it?”

“And to reduce the pain.” Stolas said firmly as Kaity made her way over to the bedside, pulling a cart from the hallway along behind herself.

“I understand, I can do that.” she said in the calm, even tone all competent medics used. “I’m going to need to check you over first, Mister Blitz. It’s protocol, okay? I have to.”

Blitz’s fingers clenched around Stolas’s back and his breathing quickened. “You’re not gonna make him leave!” he yelled hotly. “I’m not gonna let you take him!”

“Nobody’s going to take your boyfriend.” Kaity reassured. “It’s only a quick physical, to make sure you’re stable. Ten minutes, tops.”

“I’ll be here, my love.” Stolas reassured, running his hand down along one of Blitz’s horns and tightening his arms around his imp’s shoulders. “I’m not going anywhere. You’re alright darling, you’re safe with me.” 

“I need you to roll over, facing me please.” Kaity asked kindly. “I know it must hurt, but I’ll help you. Okay? Only for a second.”

Her hands reached out to do her job and slip themselves under Blitz’s shoulderblades and hips, but the second the nurse touched his arm and began to move him, Blitz lashed out with his good arm. His big hand curled into a hard fist as he swung back in a rough, sweeping arc, and Kaity dodged backwards with reflexes only years of medical experience could give her.

She was almost as fast as Blitz, Stolas thought for a wild, unfocused second before he took Blitz’s hand up in his and kissed the back of it.

“Don’t fight her darling, she’s trying to help us.” Stolas said softly, soothingly. “I know she put hands on you, and you’re a bit upset, but she needs to do her job. She needs to make sure you’re medically stable. We have to, it’s not a choice.”

“She’s gonna make me let go so she can kick you out!” Blitz howled furiously. “I said don’t let her make you leave!”

Stolas brought the shaky hand down to his chest and pressed Blitz’s curled fist into the t-shirt until he felt his imp’s fingers loosen and begin to splay out across the well-loved fabric. “I’m here.” Stolas said steadily, loudly enough that the nurse would hopefully hear and catch on to what he was doing without Stolas having to spell it out for her. “I’m not going anywhere my love. You know I’m not.”

He shifted onto his side, Blitz let him without a word, and Stolas gave Kaity a subtle little nod of the head to signal her to get into position.

“Shall I help Nurse Kaity?” Stolas narrated gently, calmly, and Blitz looked up at him with wide, panicked golden eyes and nothing at all of fear on his stubborn features. “Would that be better?”

“We’re just going to turn you over, okay?” Kaity tried again, this time looking to Stolas for guidance as she waited in position by the beside to be able to help Blitz move without injuring his back. “Stolas won’t leave. I’ll fight anyone who tries to make him, okay Mister Blitz?”

“Just Blitz.” Blitz corrected with a shakier version of his usual winning grin at her. “I’m not ‘mister’ anythin’, I’m just some imp with a bad case of blood on the outside.”

“I think you’re Mister Helluva Boyfriend.” Kaity teased even as Stolas began to shift Blitz’s hands down to his own and Blitz moved with his prince without question. “His highness here seems pretty determined to get you home ASAP, don’t you think?”

Blitz smiled at her and reached up to brush the back of one hand up against his bird’s cheek as Stolas tried to be subtle about turning Blitz’s shoulders towards Kaity’s waiting hands, and Blitz felt the familiar thrill of blind panic ebb back a little as his fingertips carded through messy, somehow still-soft feathers at three am.

“Yeah. He does kinda give a shit, doesn’t he?” Blitz agreed, and the fact that Blitz hadn’t gone for the obvious joke about taking home a body like his, or needing the cast to come off his good hand first, or any sort of humour at all told Stolas something beyond the physical symptoms was wrong with Blitz.

He couldn’t ask in front of the nurse, no matter how good she seemed to be at keeping Blitz distracted and calm while Stolas did the rest through touch and familiarity, but the owl prince frowned anyway and tucked the question away for later.

Together with Kaity, Stolas got Blitz turned over onto his right side, his casted arm bent at the elbow and tucked up under one side of his head to keep the limb mostly out of the way while Kaity checked breath sounds, heart rhythms and pressed her fingers down along Blitz’s sides and chest looking for bruised or broken ribs.

“Couldn’t tell ya.” Blitz said almost apologetically when she asked him if anything she touched hurt more, or less than before. “I break a rib every third day and get back to work. No insurance makes it hard to get every li’l thing looked at.”

Stolas frowned at him. “I thought you said I.M.P had employee insurance? I’ve heard you reminding Moxxie and Mille more than once after they had May.”

Blitz looked back over his shoulder at his prince with a raised eyebrow. “Yeah- You guys are covered. Gotta keep my team healthy n’ whole, and ‘course I got Loonie the hellhound package so she can get her shots n’ shit. Costs more, but nothin’s too good for my baby girl. Didn’t have enough on the books for all five of us, so I cancelled mine.”

Stolas sucked in a hard, annoyed breath and leveled a stern look at his imp. “The very second you’re well again, we’re going to talk about that.” he promised, and Blitz smirked up at him like the asshole he was.

“Better learn to talk with your mouth full.” Blitz teased. “Cause the second I can move again, I’m gonna-”

“Blitz!” Stolas squealed, a smile on his brightly pink features. “We’re not alone in here!”

“Tell me about it.” Blitz winced as Kaity moved a bandage to check the stitching underneath and a corner caught on a patch of dried, caked down blood. “This ten minutes is lasting ten fuckin’ years!”

“Almost done.” Kaity encouraged. “Show me your back- Lean forward a little, okay Blitz? We won’t move his highness-”

“Stolas.” Stolas corrected gently. “I’m not royal anymore. You don’t need to address me like that.”

Kaity nodded in acknowledgement of his words, but very carefully pretended not to have heard him. “You know, I never did follow the news.” she said as if to herself, and at first Stolas frowned in confusion even as Blitz grinned at Kaity and gave her a brief, conspiratorial chin nod.

“Hospital policy for the uninsured is we don’t treat them.” she said to a roll of bandages she pulled from her cart. “But royal demons get carte blanche. Full service care for themselves, and anyone under their mantle. Partners, children. Staff. That sort of thing.”

Kaity bent to pull a bottle of something that looked like it was about to burn like a motherfucker out from another drawer in the cart, and Blitz’s quick eyes scanned the hallway beyond her turned back for anyone passing by the room.

“Did I answer your questions, highness?” Kaity asked brightly, and Stolas’s exhausted mind finally registered what it was she was doing for him. For them. For Blitz.

Stolas pulled in a trembling, tearful breath and nodded as if he were back in a goetic meeting hall. “Yes, of course. Thank you for your professionalism.” he intoned dutifully.

He thought for a moment as he watched Kaity lay out her supplies on the old blanket beside her, then raised his head over Blitz’s shoulder in front of him. “As a goetic prince, could I command my own staff here? Handpick my care team? To ensure my imp recovers swiftly and correctly?”

Kaity nodded, and smiled up at him. “Of course, highness. Who should I mark down as your preferred staff?”

“You.” Blitz said in an undertone. “We want you for a nurse. And that one guy who talks to me about horses when he changes the IV lines. Alejandro? I don’t fuckin’ know. He’s got like, seven earrings and a bitchin’ ‘Ride Hard’ tattoo on his left arm.”

Kaity giggled. “Oh, you mean Alexander. I think we could manage that.” she said with a wink and a smile down at Blitz. “He’ll be on for day shifts- I usually pull nights. Junior hire shit detail, right?”

Blitz winced before she’d moved to touch his back at all, and Kaity frowned down at him.

“Does it hurt?” she asked seriously, all medical professional again. “Where and how?”

Blitz shook his head and turned his head to look back over his shoulder at her. “Nah, not me- You. Night watch is worse than any other kind. Fucks up your whole life and feels like you’re the living dead during the day no matter how much sleep you get.”

Kaity shrugged and gave him an empathetic little smile. “You do what you gotta do in this place.” She leaned in and began to work one of the dressings on Blitz’s back loose. “Deep breath, Blitz. This part might hurt a bit.”

She ripped the bandage free before she’d finished talking, the short, rough tugs unsticking the bandage from sticky patches of what Stolas could clearly see was some sort of infection mingled in with dried blood, and Blitz swore roughly as Kaity ruthlessly, but somehow still gently got the thing off him.

“One more.” she encouraged a little breathlessly, hands already moving to pull off the next bandage. “These are the trouble spots, the rest should be much smoother after this.”

Blitz nodded shortly and gritted his teeth, his cast-bound hand curled up tightly around one horn, his good hand clinging to Stolas’s hand like a lifeline. “Yeah…” he ground out tightly. “Yeah, sure, whatever…”

Kaity jerked the last stubborn bit of bandage up and away from Blitz’s skin, and Blitz curled in towards his knees with a harsh, indistinct cry of pure agony. Stolas was there with him instantly, murmuring quick, simple reassurances and ‘I love you’s into Blitz’s ear, dropping whisper-soft kisses to the sweating forehead as Blitz screwed his eyes shut and struggled to keep his breathing even and steady.

“Fuck!” Blitz gasped “Fuck, I hurt… This hurts…”

“I know, I’m so sorry Blitz.” Kaity apologized even as her hands whipped from dropping the dirty bandages to the floor at her feet to applying the liquid from her bottle to a fresh sterile wipe. “Big breath for me, let’s do this quick…”

Blitz screamed as the nurse patted the disinfectant-soaked pad against the open and healing sutures stitched into his back, and Stolas swore softly as the strong hand closed around his long fingers and something in Stolas’s hand creaked and shifted.

“Almost done, you’re so close…” Stolas encouraged, letting Blitz crush his fingers as Kaity dropped the spent pad and prepared another for the nastier-looking wound. “On me, darling, that’s it… That’s it Blitz, you’re doing so well…”

Kaity wasted no time patting the green and black mess of infected stitches clean with her fresh gauze, tore the packaging away from another sterile pad, and locked her violet-ringed eyes on Stolas’s wide, worried red ones.

“Hold him tightly.” she warned, and Stolas barely had time to loop an arm around Blitz’s shoulders and pin his good arm against Blitz’s chest before Kaity began debriding the infected areas of the wound with the rough gauze.

Blitz howled as the hard, professional pulls tore skin off his back, tugged at the healing stitches, lanced pure fire up his back and into the back of his head. He began to cry as Kaity did her job, the room began to swim in front of his eyes, and Blitz screwed his eyes shut as Stolas held him tightly and securely between both arms.

“I…I can’t do this…” Blitz sobbed. “I-It hurts… I c-can’t… I-”

His words broke off suddenly, and Stolas knew before Kaity did what was coming.

“Kaity!” he tried to warn, but the nurse had her hands busy with the last of her work and Blitz threw up right down the front of her pale blue scrubs.

“S-Sorry…” he gasped harshly. “Sorry… Couldn’t help it…Don’t feel good, hurts…I-”

Blitz tensed, and this time a cardboard bowl rushed up under his chin as Kaity moved with the speed and precision of her profession and caught the last of Blitz’s stomach contents as he vomited roughly.

“I can’t do this…” Blitz sobbed. “I can’t do this… It hurts so bad…Fuck me, it hurts…”

“Give me three minutes.” Kaity encouraged quickly, one hand under the bowl, the other already reaching for her supplies on the bed beside her. “The worst is over honey, it’s just the bandages now. Come on Big Red, come on, you can do this- Your bird’s right here with you, hm? You have Stolas here, he’s right behind you, isn’t he.”

“That’s right darling, I am.” Stolas chimed in gently, quickly. He smoothed down the front of Blitz’s hospital gown with the hand holding Blitz’s, and put his forehead down against the back of his imp’s head. “One last thing, hm? Nearly there my love, focus on me… There’s my big, brave Blitzy… Here I am, there you are…”

Kaity’s hands blurred as she wiped down the exposed stitches with disinfectant again, leaving the cardboard bowl on the bed in front of Blitz so both hands could be free to rip open packaging, tear off strips of medical tape and secure clean bandaging to Blitz’s back. She finished with the messier work, swiftly and efficiently changed out the bandages covering more minor injuries, but left the better looking ones uncovered and exposed to the cool hospital air.

“Are you fuckin’ done yet?” Blitz growled, voice low and full of pain as he clung to Stolas and tried to focus on the smell of lilacs and lavender behind him instead of the harsh antiseptic smell of hospital and pain.

“One last corner!” Kaity reported swiftly. “Riight… Here… There!”

She thumbed down the edge of the last strip of tape, and the second her hands left his body, Blitz flung himself over and crushed his face into Stolas’s chest. He sobbed and shook, and Stolas instantly blanketed his imp with both his arms, hooked a knee up behind Blitz’s legs, pulled his trembling, hurting lover up into any soft place Stolas could think to offer, and Blitz fell apart entirely.

“I’ll get him something for his stomach.” Kaity told Stolas as if she couldn’t see Blitz losing his entire composure in front of her. “Keep him awake for me, hm?’

Stolas nodded at her, barely paying the nurse any mind at all as she gathered up her things, kicked the mess of used medical supplies off to one side for maintenance to deal with later, and hastily left their room.

“Blitz?” Stolas called softly, carefully. “Blitz, darling, can you hear me?”

Blitz nodded against him, but didn’t raise his head, and Stolas risked a ginger squeeze of his fingers along Blitz’s forearm. Blitz flinched, but Stolas couldn’t tell if it was pain or the clear emotional reaction his imp was experiencing that caused it.

“Kaity’s coming back with your meds.” Stolas told him gently. “It’ll feel better soon, hold on my love. I’m right here, I promise…”

Stolas squeezed the trembling shoulders between his arms and put a hand up behind his Blitz’s head as he dropped quick, soft kisses down at one soaking temple. “I know my darling, I know… Do what needs done, I’m right here. I’m still with you. I’ll always be here, I promise you my precious thing. My beautiful imp, I’m here…”

Blitz nodded without knowing what he was agreeing with anymore, his eyes screwed tightly shut against the fast, overwhelming surge of everything happening to him at once. He fisted both hands up behind Stolas’s back, the cast making it hard to get a decent grip with his right hand, and Blitz just lay there, sobbing and disoriented, sick as hell, clinging to his prince while Stolas kept up a steady, comforting cascade of soft words and gentle kisses.

Kaity came back into the room at some point between a third round of vomit from Blitz and Stolas shushing his imp back down into a semi-calm doze that kept Blitz just awake enough to take the meds Kaity swept in with, but not awake enough that he didn’t immediately fall asleep the second she’d pulled the spent syringe out of the IV line taped to Blitz’s good hand.

“I’m gonna leave the sleep aid here, on the bedside table.” Kaity told Stolas as the owl prince waved her off and nodded his brief thanks at her, his focus instantly dropped back down to Blitz in his arms. “If he feels like he can take it later on, he should. He doesn’t sleep very well, and it’s important to give the body time to repair itself.”

“I’m sure we can manage.” Stolas told her with a quick, brief smile as Kaity set the little paper cup with the pills on the bedside table.

A soft, weighted drop of fabric on fabric fluttered by the top of Stolas’s head to his right, and he frowned.

“Some spare clothes.” Kaity explained shortly, but kindly. “He’s a little sick, isn’t he?”

She very deliberately did not point out the state of Stolas, covered in conspicuous streaks of yellowed vomit, patches of dark black blood where Blitz had pressed his recently uncovered injuries back against his prince in an effort to keep himself grounded enough to take medical help, or the obvious smell of adding body mess to what Stolas could barely remember as three or four days without a real shower.

Or his meds, or a proper meal, or…

He nodded vaguely at the nurse as Kaity busied herself cleaning some of the aftermath of her care efforts off the bed, the floor or whatever it was she was actually doing anymore, and Stolas put his forehead down to the top of Blitz’s head, squarely between both horns.

His shoulders heaved and jerked as he did his damndest not to outright sob. Not to lose his entire shit about everything that had happened, how afraid he’d been, still was, not just for Blitz, but for his daughter. His family. His entire life shattered in the span of a single evening, in a way Stolas could do nothing but scramble to repair.

The way his entire world had crumbled and dissolved into pain and nothing but blind terror when Octavia had pushed him away, the way his heart had soared when she’d told him she didn’t really hate him, she still wanted to be his little owlet. The way he’d been allowed to hold her as if she were still young and things were still easy…

The way the ecstatic joy of that reunion and reconciliation had melted off him like so much smoke the minute they’d walked back into this hospital and seen Blitz, bandaged, casted, curled up in agony. The way his imp was breathing too quickly, sweaty and shivering in front of him here and now, and all Stolas could do about it was hold Blitz closer and keep telling him there was an end to this, the pain wasn’t permanent.

All he could do was bear witness to it all, and remind himself that his Blitz was alive and whole, and that stitches healed and breaks would mend, and-

A hard sob pushed its way past Stolas’s best efforts to keep himself quiet, and he curled in closer around Blitz, who startled and instantly moved to slide one big hand up behind Stolas’s head, fingers carding clumsily through the soft feathers he found there.

“S’okay… S’okay baby, m’here…” Blitz slurred, half-asleep and more than half sick in his prince’s arms. “S’okay pretty bird, I got you… I got you…”

“No! I’m supposed to have you, you stupid imp!” Stolas cried desolately. “I’m the one who’s here to look after you, but all I’ve done is fall apart and wake you when you should be sleeping, and- Fuck it all, Blitz, you almost died! I’ve been terrified this whole time, and now here you are telling me it’ll be okay like I can’t see you covered in bandages and starting a fever in front of me, and-”

Stolas’s words cut off abruptly, Blitz’s mouth sealed over his in a sloppy, possessive kiss that tasted like secondhand vomit and a week’s worth of dry mouth, but Stolas could hardly bring himself to care as his eyes slid shut automatically and he leaned down into the kiss with every scrap of tender care he possessed. Blitz’s hand behind his head nudged his prince closer, Stolas tilted his head to one side to give his imp better access to him, and Blitz pressed up into Stolas’s chest, ignoring pain and illness alike to bring their bodies as close together as he could get them.

Stolas melted into the touch, starved for it the way a man in a desert was starved for shelter, fresh water. Life itself. Stolas let his Blitz coax him backwards on the narrow hospital bed, rolling slowly, in tiny micromovements until Blitz was kneeling beside him, one leg across his thigh, chest to chest with his bird as Blitz climbed up on top of him without once breaking the kiss.

Blitz made it to a shaky straddle across Stolas’s hip, breathless as he finally broke off the kiss and felt the fever Stolas had been yelling about beginning to burn him up. Blitz couldn’t give less of a shit about any of it, both golden eyes locked solemnly on all four tear-filled red eyes in front of him.

“This’s all I need.” he said in a low, exhausted growl that sent shivers racing up Stolas’s back and made the owl’s cheeks flush deeply pink as Blitz gave him the shadow of his old smirk and pressed a soft, gentle kiss to his prince’s trembling lower lip. “Li’l kiss o’ sugar, and my pretty bird right here with me. Just like we do at home.”

“J-Just like at home..” Stolas echoed a bit deliriously. “Except that you’re covered in bandages, and the machines keep telling me your heart is racing, and-”

Blitz slid his entire body up along Stolas’s reclining figure, and Stolas felt himself responding against his own better judgement. Blitz brushed his lips against Stolas’s, coaxing his prince into another sweet, lingering kiss until Stolas felt his shoulders relaxing, his back unwinding from the coiled tension it had been carrying for the better part of a week now.

“I’m okay.” Blitz told him steadily, gently. “I love you, beautiful. You’re right here, s’all I need. Okay? Promise me you’ll stay. That’s all I want.”

Stolas nodded along, exhausted and relieved to have his Blitz back to acting more like himself than he had been, and overwhelmed with a slurry of raw emotions and the warm, heady pull of arousal Blitz never failed to call up in him, and he pressed his forehead up against the warm birthmark in front of him.

“Promise me you’ll let Nurse Kaity help that fever.” he countered, and Blitz gave him the ghost of his usual cocky laugh.

“Anything you want babe.” he promised easily. “Long as you’re with me, they can do anythin’ but put the good drugs in me.”

Blitz winced, suddenly uncomfortable, and Stolas drew an arm up under his imp’s knees to hold him in place as Blitz draped himself across Stolas’s chest like a particularly warm blanket.

“Shall we get the sleeping pill down you?” Stolas asked gently, softly. “Kaity left you one, in case you needed help staying asleep.”

“Nah, think I might puke if I tried it.” Blitz said tiredly. “Still might, but I got my hottest nurse right here, huh?”

He gave Stolas his best smirk, exhausted and pale, with his eyes smeared with dark patches of sleepless nights previous, and Stolas smiled down at his stupid imp.

“Ridiculous man, close your eyes.” he whispered as Blitz snuggled into the exact spot Stolas’s chest fluff would be beneath the dirty old horse shirt. “I love you my Blitz, more than anything.”

A soft kiss pressed into Stolas’s chest as Blitz briefly turned his head to deliver it, then the imp went ragdoll across Stolas, and he sighed. “Love you too, pretty bird… Always…”

Blitz was asleep again before Stolas could finish the smile that crept up his cheeks despite the tears still in his eyes, and Stolas gave his little love a handful of moments to get a head start. He listened for Kaity, who seemed to have slipped herself out of the room at some point during their heartfelt confessions, and when Stolas couldn’t hear her in the room, and Blitz hadn’t woken up to be sick for at least ten minutes, he finally let his own eyes slide shut.

The little room was still and silent for the first time since Stolas had arrived at the hospital, and not even the nurses coming in to change out IV bags, or add antibiotics to the stand, or any other hospital noise woke them.

Chapter Text

A/N:  I'm not a real patient guy, and I'm excited to see what y'all think, so- Sneaky update! Happy Canada Day weekend, global neighbors! No beta, we die like men! Magick is NOT a typo, that's the correct spelling for natural and ritual power. No spoilers, but one of my niche hobbies so-happens to include rituals, magick and iconography through storytelling and myth :P

CW/TW:  Major character illness, hospital talk (setting, minor descriptions of injuries. Nothing graphic)

As always, comments, concrit, feedback, strings of unintelligible letters always welcome :) I read 'em all even though I'm awful at keeping up with replies!

Chapter 16: Magick in Your Touch

As it turned out, Stolas had been entirely too correct about Blitz developing a fever and the next time he woke, it was because he was overheating and the feeling of sweat rolling down his temples and into his feathered cheeks roused Stolas far before he felt ready to be awake.

“Mm, Blitz?” he called in a careful undertone. “Love? Are you awake?”

No answer came back to him, and Blitz shifted across his chest, sighing in his sleep and curling up closer against Stolas’s feathers for comfort. Stolas automatically made to rub the warm back, stopped himself at the last second as he remembered Blitz’s injuries, and put his hand up behind Blitz’s head instead.

The sudden heat of fevered skin made Stolas wince hard, and he felt his eyes soften as he thought of his Blitz having to stay in this infernal place longer in order to address it. Maybe they could talk to Nurse Kaity and convince her in-home care would be better, Stolas thought hazily, trying and failing to keep his eyes open as the short handful of sleep he’d managed reminded him sharply of all the ways he’d been neglecting himself these past few days.

Blitz mumbled something Stolas couldn’t quite catch into one of his shoulders, and Stolas shook himself awake with a little start. The tiny movement jolted Blitz completely out of sleep, and the imp rolled to one side with a groan, curling one hand across his stomach.

“You good Stols?” Blitz mumbled fuzzily, and Stolas smoothed down the back of one horn to sooth his imp.

“I’m fine darling, I’m sorry.” Stolas said softly, bracing Blitz along one side to keep his imp from rolling backwards on the mattress. “Go back to sleep, I’m here. I love you.”

“Love you too...” Blitz echoed faintly.

They would have fallen asleep that way, Blitz safely cradled along Stolas’s side, Stolas twisted up into an impossible tangle of long limbs that focused solely on comforting and protecting his imp. Blitz managed three steady breaths and one sharp, rough gasp that had Stolas instantly wide awake before the fragile peace of the room shattered.

“Stols-” Blitz tried to warn. “Stols, I-”

Stolas was rolling them both onto their sides, Blitz facing him in the bed so Stolas could keep their foreheads touching whenever possible, reminding his imp he wasn’t alone, Stolas was still here with him, and Blitz threw up like clockwork squarely between them.

He heaved and shook while Stolas held him securely on his side as he squeezed the broad shoulders, dropping quick little kisses to Blitz’s temples as his imp began to cry. Stolas watched the muscles in Blitz’s back tensing and tugging at the half-healed stitches, little pinpricks of black blossoming across the otherwise white bandaging taped over the wounds. He watched sweat rolling down his imp’s face, tears chasing beads of fevered pain down the beautiful cheeks, sliding into the mouth screwed up into a grimace of agony, and all Stolas could do was nothing.

All Stolas could do was watch, and be there, and force himself not to panic while his stupid, too-clever mind presented him with every worst-case scenario he could think of- which was all of them, apparently- and his lying bastard of unbalanced chemical cocktails of a brain whispered that Blitz was dying, Stolas was letting him. Nobody would help an imp in this place, he was losing Blitz, there was nothing a powerless piece of shit ex-prince could-

And then it happened.

The room lit up like moonrise, purples and brilliant streaks of blues; Galaxies of stars spilled out of him from every feather on him, and a light so bright Stolas had to squint to see past it lit the room like magnesium under a lit match. The light was blinding, so bright that all Stolas could do was tightened his grip on Blitz in front of him and remind himself Blitz was somewhere in the middle of the brilliant, warm core surrounding them. He pulled his imp to his chest, hands wrapping themselves up around Blitz’s back without thinking, and Stolas felt Blitz suck in a hard gasp of pain that quickly shifted to something closer to awe as Stolas absolutely covered the imp in nothing but feathers and his prince’s heartbeat in his ears, and the blinding, comforting purple light that overrode everything else around them.

Somewhere too distantly to matter, machines screamed and sounded high-pitched, urgent alarms that summoned running footsteps and the tinny sound of the hospital loudspeakers announcing some sort of emergency crackled overhead. The room around them exploded with movement that didn’t register as Stolas screwed all four eyes shut and wrapped both arms securely around his Blitz. His knees came up to tangle in Blitz’s legs, Blitz’s big, strong hands slipped up behind his head the way they always did when Blitz was comforting his prince, and Stolas had the distant memory of the roles being reversed.

Wasn’t it Blitz who needed him to be the strong one? he thought through the haze of sudden, full-body exhaustion the light pulled out of him. Wasn’t it Blitz who needed care? Needed his prince to do better than this? Didn’t his imp need him to be the brave, unshakeable one, just this once?

“No matter what.” Stolas whispered fiercely against Blitz’s birthmark in front of him. “Heart, body, soul. I love you, my Blitz. I love you.”

The light expanded, pulling in every scrap of warmth and healing Stolas could find to feed it, suffusing the stars with the iron determination to fix his imp, take the pain away from him. Close the bleeding wounds across his back, make the broken arm whole, keep Blitz safe and loved and protected…

Somewhere in the noise of scrambling medics, Blitz vomiting down Stolas’s front as the strong, scarred hands tightened up around the prince’s shoulders, the screaming of monitor devices, hospital alarms wailing-

Somewhere in all of it, Stolas recognized that he was causing the light. He was commanding and directing it, and because he was so unfocused and exhausted, it had got away from him. The magicks he knew so well, was so disciplined about containing and hiding behind his courtly duties and the old mask of calm, composed goetic son were unleashed, wild and directed in only the loosest sense of the term as Stolas repeated the idea of protection, safety and healing to them like a prayer and an order they could not ignore.

He wasn’t supposed to be able to do this. He’d been stripped of his rank and his powers at the trial all those months ago. He was supposed to be a hollowed-out shell of himself, of his old station, but clearly the magicks said otherwise as they flared and ebbed at Stolas’s scattered thoughts and rapidly changing emotions.

He was crying, Stolas knew. He was sobbing and clinging to Blitz, and the light was doing as it was told, laving over bandages and broken skin alike, soothing back injuries and illness, and knitting bone to bone, but Stolas was flying apart. He was coming undone as fear and worry while the vast, unknown possibilities this new development represented began to chip away at the rock solid focus keeping his imp safe had given him.

“Stols- Baby? Sweetheart, listen. Listen for me, baby bird. Listen to me, okay? Just me. That’s it, that’s it… Good boy, come to Daddy, c’mon now…Right here…”

Stolas could hear him, could feel Blitz’s heart hammering against his chest and the warm arms wrapped tightly around his back, but couldn’t pull the light back.

“B-Blitz- I-I can’t…” Stolas forced himself to say through the thick, heavy fog of confused exhaustion around him. “I-I’m not… I can’t, I…”

Blitz nodded against him, said something to someone Stolas couldn’t see, heard movement and yelling in the room beyond his eyes screwed tightly shut against the sudden swell of overwhelming power surging through his entire body. He tugged weakly at the electric wisps of magick, the fabrics of the cosmos itself as they bullied him out of their way and leapt for freedom from every inch of his body, and Stolas truly began to panic as the realization that he was losing control of himself hit into him like a bag of sand.

“Blitz- I-” he tried again, the words heaved from his throat like so much bile before they died on his lips and Stolas began to pull hard for every breath he took.

“On us.” a newer, softer voice said directly into his ear from behind. “On me, Dad. Listen- He’s right here. Blitz is right here, okay? So am I. Stay with us. Breathe, right? The way you always tell me.”

“I can’t control it…” Stolas gasped raggedly. “Via, I can’t pull back, I-I…”

He coughed roughly as the magick started to burn his lungs, make his skin heat up, and Stolas just knew burnout was going to hit him like a moving truck. Knew he couldn’t keep draining his power like this- The power he wasn’t supposed to have anymore, that had somehow materialized exactly when Stolas needed it, when Blitz needed it, and-

“Dad! Breathe!” Via repeated in a tone that bid no argument. “Breathe, and let me help. We can do this.”

He tried to do as she asked, tried to pull the explosive, overwhelming power back down into the carefully locked box he’d trained his whole life to maintain. Tried to command the light, direct the energies of the wild, stubborn magicks, but Stolas was powerless- Satan himself had stripped his rank and domains away from him.

Whatever this was, whatever was happening, Stolas had no more agency over it than the tides had over the moons, and he began to tremble, afraid that he could kill someone- Hurt Via, or Blitz in his sorry condition, and absolute terror at the thought blacked out everything but blind panic.

“Via- Sorry about this, but lemme try somethin’.”

Blitz’s voice, quick and steady and strong despite the waver of exhaustion in it. Stolas clung to it like a lifeline, hauling back on the light and the energy bindings he still knew so intimately despite not being their direct conductor this time, and he pulled with every scrap of command left in him. He wouldn’t hurt his Blitz. Wouldn’t bring harm to his daughter.

He wouldn’t-

Blitz’s mouth pressed down into his with a hard, passionate authority that Stolas instantly submitted to. Stolas felt Blitz’s chest slide up against his old t-shirt, felt the sharp little teeth scraping up along the sides of his beak, shivered and leaned into the feeling of his imp’s next breath slipping down across his tongue, and Stolas felt his eyes slide shut as everything else in the world stopped existing.

Time froze, the panic dissolved like sugar in a full glass of hot water. The stars exploded behind his eyes, galaxies fell back into step at his fingertips as Blitz pressed their bodies into each other, curled a big, protective hand up under the back of Stolas’s neck the way he knew Stolas melted for.

Stolas groaned, his entire being seeking the familiar comfort of his imp, his cocksure, confident Blitz telling him what they were doing, how he was going to like it, asking if Stolas was okay, if he liked this, did he want-

The kiss went on forever, for always, until Stolas was breathless and the purple haze of light was ebbing back and away from the room, creeping back up under Stolas’s entire body and fading until it snuck back up into his chest, then his palms, then flickered out entirely.

Stolas blinked, utterly spent and completely enthralled under his Blitz, who had shifted to a low kneel across his hips, one knee between Stolas’s eagerly parted thighs. He slid a hand down across Blitz’s jawline, fingers trailing as he struggled to bring his focus back to the room and his imp in front of him.

“I…How did you know to do that?” Stolas whispered vaguely. “How…”

Blitz shrugged a careless shoulder, flinched as his stitches pulled hard against his back, and dropped a firm, soft kiss down on his prince’s lips. “You told me about body memory once. Like your body knows shit your brain forgets about sometimes. There was a bunch of twenty-dollar words, I don’t fuckin’ know- Just thought if your body was gonna remember anythin’, it’d be mine.”

He smirked down at his bewildered prince with both arms reflexively wrapped up around Blitz’s neck, and Stolas whimpered as his chest arched up into his Blitz’s and they shared another easy, comfortable kiss while Stolas tried to orient himself.

“I could have hurt you…” Stolas said quietly, his voice shaky and clearly exhausted as his whole body gained a thousand pounds all around him and his muscles screamed at even the smallest movement. “I-I couldn’t control-”

“Love wins.” Blitz whispered breathlessly, the end of his nose brushing up against the tip of Stolas’s curved beak. “I got you.”

Stolas frowned, confused and disoriented, and ran his hand automatically over one of his Blitz’s horns. “What?” he gasped “What do you mean?”

Blitz brushed his teeth up over the curve of his prince’s cheek and dropped a gentle, tender kiss down at the delicious feathered face. “Love wins.” he repeated in a low, possessive growl that had Stolas boneless and wanting without them even touching.

“Love wins.” Blitz said again, pulling back a fraction so he could look Stolas in all four clouded red eyes. “Whatever the fuck that just was, whatever happened, it’s not bigger than us. Not more than the way I love you, pretty bird. Nothin’ can take you away from me- Love wins.”

Stolas nodded slowly, vaguely, the room wavering above him as Blitz carefully lay him back against the pillows and someone Stolas could only distantly remember as Via shifted on the mattress beside him.

“Love wins…” he heard himself mumble into the blackness that wrapped him up like a newborn, and Stolas knew no more.

Chapter Text

A/N: Well, well, well. If it ain't me again with a micro-update to go with yesterday's short chapter :P I'm trying to catch myself up because I have a longer trip coming up where I'm not sure I'll have internet access- Gotta keep my readers fed! I hear some of you can't wait to get Stolitz home to their daughters- Might could be It Is Time! Maybe :P No beta, death by men, ectect 

Cw: Major character illness, pretty much out the gate. But In A Good Way lol

Comments, concrit, emojis and all welcome, as always <3

Chapter 17: Little, And Broken, But still Good

Stolas woke into the sudden, jarring need to be sick, and he rolled like lightning to make it to the side of the bed before he vomited across the silky sheets. Again. For the third time that week, and the servant imps would dutifully clear it away later, but not without those judgmental, awful looks of disapproval Stolas could feel burning absolute holes into his dignity and sense of fair play-

“…Keep him on his side. Yeah, like that- You’re doin’ great sweetheart!”

Stolas frowned, felt himself vomiting without quite being aware of the action, and the strong, shaky hands at his back held him securely on his side until he’d finished. The bed here was low, much lower than he’d remembered, and Stolas frowned, blinking rapidly as his whirling thoughts began to catch him back up with reality.

This wasn’t his old life at the palace. This wasn’t the aftermath of some ill-advised session of absinthe and self-pity, this was Blitz’s apartment. His Blitz’s apartment; He could smell the faint scent of wet dog, the heady draw of gunpowder and amber and, adorably, candy apples that meant his imp was nearby, but not quite with him.

“B-Blitz?” he called shakily, trying to roll back to look for him, but the hands holding him on his side kept him firmly in place. “A-Are you here? What’s happened?”

“Right here baby bird, easy now.” Blitz called back in a soothing, steady voice. “Via’s got you, okay? She’s gonna take great care of you, right? Via- Tell your daddy you got his back.”

“I- Yeah, I’m here Dad.” Via’s voice answered Blitz’s call. “You’re a bit sick. Backlash, I think? F-From the magick? A-At the hospital?”

“Hospital?” Stolas echoed faintly, then remembered the chaos he’d created when the wild purple magicks had ripped out of him.

The sounds of yelling voices, running feet, screaming mechanical noise from all the medical equipment…

He put a hand down under himself, intending to push himself up onto his elbows and sit up so he could see Via and Blitz beside him, but when he applied a bit of pressure to his palm, the whole floor shifted and slipped, and Stolas squeezed his eyes shut as his stomach heaved and he nearly threw up again.

“Easy, big bird. Easy…” Blitz soothed as Via’s careful hands guided Stolas back onto his side and rubbed his shoulder. “We’re gonna take things real slow, okay? Nice n’ easy, we’re right here, okay?”

“Th-The floor moved…” Stolas told them unsteadily. “Have I hit my head? Are we not where I think we are? I…”

He rolled himself onto his back, Via’s hands guiding him so capably Stolas felt a wicked swell of pride almost eclipse the heady feeling of backlash, and confusion and worry for his Blitz tangled up in the fog of having just woken up.

“Y-You have the couch cushions under you.” Via offered a little uncertainly. “We brought you here, and Blitz wouldn’t let us lay him down unless you had some support under you, f-for your back. He hit Loona with his cast-”

“By accident!” Blitz cut in loudly. “They were gonna leave you down on that hard ass floor all alone n’ with your back- I wasn’t gonna let them treat my bird like some piece of shit who don’t matter!”

“I’m sure he does matter to me!” Via shot back indignantly, her wide violet eyes hard and defensive. “That’s my dad!”

Blitz winced, bit his lower lip and his voice snuck closer as the rustle of fabric and the squealing of the old couch springs told Stolas his imp was on the beaten thing. Stolas turned his head, tried to sit up again, and this time he planted his hand down firmly on the hardwood beside his makeshift cot.

He made it to a shaky sitting position, Via slipping in right behind him to keep her shoulders behind his just in case her father wasn’t as steady as he thought he was, and finally looked out at the room.

Blitz was laid out across the couch on his stomach, the hospital gown still up around his shoulders and open at his naked, bandaged back, but thankfully someone had thought to give his shameless imp a pair of his old sleep shorts to cover his lower half with. The expressive, flexible tail was flicking nervously from side to side despite the comforting, easy smile Blitz wore as Stolas passed his eyes over his imp.

Via was behind him, Stolas knew, and she seemed steady and whole as he looked down at himself and found an absolute rainbow of dried vomit, sweat stains, the coffee he’d spilled down his front four days ago… The entire spectrum of filth he’d collected after not changing his clothes for an entire week, and having worn them to the hospital where Blitz had been sick all over him, and-

Stolas shook his head roughly to clear it, swallowed down a whimper as one hand curled up around his stomach, and gave Via a soft, grateful smile over his shoulder as he moved away from her and towards his imp. He slid himself over to the side of the couch and lay his head down just under Blitz’s chin. His imp dropped a soft little kiss down onto the top of his head, and Stolas smiled, bringing his hand up to close automatically over one of Blitz’s.

“You’re okay pretty bird.” Blitz said softly, his free hand slipping up around Stolas’s shoulders and holding the slight figure close despite the couch between them. “I got you.”

Stolas nodded distantly, his eyes already full of tears, and a second, smaller body crept up under his left side. Blitz shifted to make room, and Stolas automatically put his arm up around Via’s shoulders and hugged his daughter. If she minded the state of him, she never said a word as her head settled up along Stolas’s shoulder. Blitz swapped positions so he could circle Via up in his arms too, and Stolas smiled as Octavia relaxed into the touch rather than shaking it off or away.

He let them stay like that for a moment, quiet and comfortable even with Blitz’s injuries, and Stolas’s clear discomfort, and the way Via’s young face was so uncertain and anxious. The point was they were together, with nothing to take any of them away from each other for once. No courtly plots, no tactless nurses or careless doctors, no blood, no bullets… No strange magicks Stolas shouldn’t have access to-

“Tell me what happened.” he asked them quietly. “I remember the light, not being able to control the magicks- A lot of noise, and movements… Not much else.”

“You blew up, I think.” Blitz told him, amber eyes wide with admiration and awe. “You turned purple, and the whole fuckin’ room went white, then it was like the stars were inside us, n’ my arm’s all better.”

Blitz waved his recently uncasted hand at Stolas from behind Via’s back to show it off.  “Loonie sawed that fuckin’ cast off with a breadknife. Took fuckin’ forever, but hey!” Blitz waved his freshly healed arm. “Two hands, Ma!”

He grinned out at Stolas like a little kid expecting a big laugh from a parent during an impromptu ‘talent show’ display, and Stolas gave his imp a small, tolerant smile. Blitz’s tail waved proudly behind him as he squeezed his fingers against the back of Stolas’s head, then grew mostly serious again.

“My back still hurts, but Loona says it’s ‘cause some of those gashes were deep as shit.” Blitz continued “S’kinda hot too, like that fever ain’t goin’ anywhere, but who the fuck cares! Holy shit babe- You were made of stars!”

Via rolled her eyes at the ridiculous imp. “Of course he wasn’t made of stars.” she said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “He called up magick. His entire job used to be reading the stars, don’t you know anything?”

Blitz drew in a breath to answer, his face full of curious wonder, and Stolas winced hard at the thought of reliving his past while he felt like complete and utter shit.

“He doesn’t, Via.” Stolas reminded her gently. “He isn’t royal- Imps don't study magick the way we do. You’ll have to be patient.”

“I’m not fuckin’ stupid either.” Blitz cut in hotly. “You think I had that book for an entire year and I never looked through it?”

Stolas blinked, taken off guard at the imp’s words and his own stupidity at having thought exactly that; That Blitz couldn’t possibly have read any of it beyond the marked page with the portal spell. “I- You can read Goetic script?” he asked in absolute shock. “I had no idea, Blitz-”

Blitz waved an impatient hand at his words. “It had fuckin’ pictures, didn’t it? I can’t read all that fancy chickenscratch, but I got two eyes and at least three braincells. I saw all them stars and the maps n’ shit. I can put two n’ six together!”

“And what’s that make, darling?” Stolas asked sweetly, the ghost of his usual tease in his words. “Shall I hold up both hands for you?”

Blitz nudged the curl of one big horn into Stolas’s chin, giving his prince a challenging little smirk that told Stolas he’d landed the joke correctly and Blitz wasn’t offended, and gave Via a short little nod of acknowledgement.

“So tell me more about this ‘reading stars’ shit.” Blitz asked her interestedly. “Keep it simple, my head hurts kinda bad and your dad’s lookin’ real rough here. He might puke all over us if you don’t get it done in five minutes or less.”

Stolas rolled his eyes at his stupid imp, opened his mouth to protest, then winced as his entire body rebelled at being forced to be awake and alert while sitting up.

“I was charged with the duty of prophecy.” Stolas explained with a heavy sigh. “I used the grimoire to project myself forwards, into possible futures, into potential outcomes and certain, pivotal events. The entire point of my work was to guide the stars and see to cosmic order.”

Blitz nodded along, understanding about half of what Stolas was telling him and running with it full-force. “That tracks.” he said easily, carding his fingers up through the back of his prince’s messy headfeathers. “That’s why you’re always so nervous- You can’t see what’s comin’ anymore. Gotta be rough on you after an entire lifetime of knowin’, huh?”

Stolas startled at the unexpectedly insightful remark, then laughed at his own idiocy. Of course his Blitz- his observant, deceptively intelligent, loving, compassionate Blitz had seen what Stolas himself had passed right over for the entirety of this endless year. Of course he’d seen what Stolas was trying so fucking hard to hide from even himself.

“I- Yes, I suppose that must be true.” Stolas admitted finally. “I’ve never really considered the loss of my grimoire as another source of anxiety, but I suppose it was.”

His eyes flickered down to Via listening quietly, still leaning across his chest with her head down on his shoulder.

“I had so much to lose.” he said softly, passing a hand across Via’s back and giving her a small, watery smile. “It was always so much worse knowing I couldn’t know anymore, couldn’t even try to find the right threads without my magick to lean back on.”

He smiled then, hugged his precious girl closer, and turned his face on the edge of the couch so that he was nose to nose with Blitz. “You taught me how to be comfortable with a bit of chaos, my love. How to adapt, to use all this ancient knowledge I still carry to get what I wanted out of this world, whether it was willing to give it up or not. I lost the certainty of knowing, but I gained the gift of agency, and I think the trade was fair.”

Blitz smiled at his prince, eyes soft and full of pride in just how far Stolas had come in a year. Here he was, Satan only knew how many days out from his last SSRI dose, smiling and talking in complete sentences while Via snuggled up against his shoulder and Blitz watched his bird like a hawk for any signs he might be too sick to continue, or need to lie down, or anything at all…

“Proud of you, baby bird.” Blitz said against Stolas’s mouth in front of him. He snuck a quick, gentle kiss in between breaths, hoping Via wouldn’t mind too much, and the younger owl did exactly what Loona always did when she caught her dads kissing;

“Ew! Dad! Can you not?” she complained loudly. “Blitz, can’t you keep it in your pants for five fucking minutes? We’re having a serious conversation!”

Blitz raised his head a little and smirked at her like the cocky asshole he was. “Oh, no. Not at all. You’re gonna have to get used to a little casual PDA around here if you really meant what you said back there about wanting me n’ your dad to be together. Couldn’t keep my hands off this hot piece of ass if I tried.”

Blitz leaned in and kissed Stolas soundly on the mouth as he said it, causing Via to squeal a protest like a ten-year-old just learning their parents had had real actual sex to make them, and Stolas held himself in check for all of three seconds before the heady pull of his imp’s slow, coaxing touch had his eyes closing and the rest of him melting into the kiss.

Blitz broke the kiss off before Stolas was ready for it to end, the reflexive whine his prince gave him telling Blitz exactly how much he’d missed Blitz’s mouth on his while they’d been separated. Blitz nosed at Stolas’s beak and nodded at Via still held securely between both her father and Blitz, although she’d sat herself up now and was giving both older demons an absolutely murderous glare.

“And I’ll do it again.” Blitz teased with a cheeky, unrepentant wink over at Via. “I love this asshole real hard, emphasis on h-”

“Blitz!” Stolas yelped before his stupid, shameless imp could scar his poor daughter for life. “Behave yourself or you’ll never have my kisses again!”

Blitz arched a playful eyebrow at his bird. “Wasn’t kisses I was thinkin’ of, once I get these bandages off.”

“Blitz!” Via shouted at the same time as her father, and Blitz laughed that reckless, mischievous laugh he broke out on occasions where he was especially proud of some fuckery or other he’d pulled off.

“Keep your mouth clean around my daughter, you unpolished reprobate!” Stolas scolded firmly. “She’s only seventeen!”

“Eighteen, in a week!” Via corrected indignantly. “I’m not a little kid anymore, Dad!”

“Yeah- I can make horny jokes around her if I wanna!” Blitz chimed in with a grin. “Tell ‘em, Via!”

Via gave the obnoxious imp an exasperated, annoyed sigh and rolled her eyes so far back, he actually saw the whites of them for a second or two. “Not what I meant!” she huffed, and Blitz smirked into her face too.

“Kidding!” he laughed, eyes bright with a joy Stolas had never seen there before despite the haze of fever still clouding them. “I’m joking Via, I can tone it down. Don’t want my new roommate pissed off at me all the time.”

“But you’re fine pissing off your old one?” Came a newer, much more annoyed voice from across the living room. “What the fuck are you assholes doing out here? I heard you through my headphones for fuck’s sake!”

“Talking about Stols bein’ magic again.” Blitz said at the same time Stolas said “I’m sorry darling, we’ll keep it down.”, and Via flinched down into her shoulders as if she expected an argument or a physical fight to break out over their misstep.

Blitz was the first one to speak again, his tone kinder and more compassionate now as he struggled to look back at his daughter and check on her. “You get enough sleep Loonie?” he asked her solicitously. “I can keep these loudass losers quiet with a movie, if you need more sleep.”

“Wait!” Stolas called before anyone could say anything more. “Wait, I- I have questions and Blitz doesn’t seem willing to answer me- What the fuck happened after I lost control of that light? I have no memory of anything before I woke up here with Via taking care of me.”

Loona nodded over at Via and lifted a non-committal shoulder at him. “Ask your badass daughter, Stols. She’s the one who did all the work. I just carried Blitz’s sorry ass through the portal once Via kicked all the damn doctors and nurses out.”

“They were hurting Blitz!” Via protested indignantly. “They kept trying to separate him from Dad and they weren’t being careful of his back at all!”

“They weren’t great with you either, Stols.” Loona confirmed. “One of the bigger ones was gonna haul you off to a psych room, but I kicked his ass into the hall, then security dogpiled me and…”

Via bit her lower lip and gave her father a pleading, apologetic look. “I’m sorry I was fighting, Dad, but you don’t understand- They were trying to make things worse! They wouldn’t let Loona near Blitz, or me near you, and the way they had hands on both of you, and-”

She was tearing up just talking about it, hot angry tears of pure defiance and righteous indignation slipping from both eyes as she spoke, and Stolas forced himself to sit upright despite the instant roil of his insides, and gathered her up to his chest.

“Oh no, Via, no no my precious girl… My brave, strong Starfire.” he soothed as she hugged him fiercely around the shoulders and he tried not to vomit down her back. “It sounds like you did what needed done. I’m not angry with you my love. Thank you, for being so quick on your feet and getting us home where we could recover.”

“Those people were so awful Dad!” Via cried indignantly, outrage clear in her words. “They were so fucking mean, and they kept calling Loona rabid, and talking about how imps don’t belong with civilized society, and-”

“Yeah, racists are fuckin’ racist. Welcome to Hell,” Blitz cut in with a hard scowl. “What else is new?”

Via blinked and turned her face towards him. “They’re always like that to you?” she demanded, more upset at the world than with Blitz. “People are just… like that? And everybody just lets them be?”

“Yeah, it’s called the class system.” Blitz spat like bitter medicine. “Imps and hounds ain’t worth shit to anyone but each other.”

“You’re worth more than shit to me.” Stolas said fiercely, and Blitz’s sour face wavered as his prince’s clumsy words accidentally said the opposite of what he’d been aiming for.

“Thanks Stols.” he smirked obnoxiously. “Always glad to be better than shit, but still not as good as you.”

Stolas heaved a tired sigh that had nothing to do with backlash and rolled his eyes at his stupid imp. “Oh fuck you. You know what I meant. I’m so fucking tired- You’re lucky I can string words together anymore.”

“Not surprised. You passed out and slept for about seventeen hours.” Loona said with a wince as she moved in closer to her family and dropped down beside Via on the floor. “Me and Via walked into that light show, got both your dumb asses away from the hospital workers, and used Blitz’s crystal to get us all home. You hit the pillows and it was game over.”

“It feels like game over.” Stolas complained irritably. “Everything inside of me is looking for the closest exit point, and my head is splitting. I’m not sure the two aren’t related.”

Blitz shifted closer to his bird and smoothed a soothing hand down over Stolas’s messy hair. “Put your head down here pretty bird. I got you.”

Stolas did so, closing his eyes and letting his spinning thoughts about magick, and grimoires, and racist hospital staff go in favour of breathing in the familiar hot sauce and candy apples scent of his Blitz, and relaxing into the familiar touch of his imp’s big, strong hand passing over his head the way Blitz knew Stolas liked best.

For a handful of stolen moments everything seemed better than it had been. His head hurt less, his stomach felt a little calmer, and the warm, furry weight of Loona leaning in to complete their patchwork family dogpile drew a sleepy, warm smile out of Stolas.

He slipped his spare hand up around the hellhound’s shoulders, Blitz wriggled up the length of the couch to get his arms around all of them as best he could, and Via snuggled in against her dad’s shoulder and Loona’s strong chest in front of her. Nobody said a word, nobody complained about the smell of vomit rolling off of Stolas and Blitz. Nobody minded that the edge of the stripped couch was digging into hips and ribs and armpits, and nobody said a damn word about the sweaty touch of Blitz’s fevered skin against any of their bodies.

None of it even mattered. They had each other, they were home, and the rest of the world could fuck off into the sun if it thought it was bigger than the love this home carried.

Loona nodded off sometime after Blitz, her head pillowed on one arm slotted up along the length of Blitz’s horns, but before Stolas, and Via dropped off as soon as her dad had gone still and silent, his heartbeat steady and comforting against her cheek as she relaxed into him and finally closed her eyes without worrying he wouldn’t be there when she next woke.

Everything was perfect, because it wasn’t, and that was all anyone could ask for living in Hell.

Chapter Text

A/N: Another minisode, because I'm such a sucker for Soft Babies and any excuse to add sickfic to an existing piece is good enough for me tbh lol. They just needed the time together, and I thought it was about time to have some Stolitz bonding and Family Time on deck before we get into Story! At this point, I cannot guarantee the final chapter count won't be higher than listed, because I am King of Pants, but I promise not to make y'all wait two more months to see what happens next (after Kith, obviously :P). Next update is for sure a full-length chapter, never fear!

CW/TW: Physical illness, described and shown on the page. Risky medication use described; We're in Hell, the antidepressants work differently. Do NOT do this with your pills without asking a pharmacist/doctor first! Coated pills and time-release meds work differently and can be rendered useless if dissolved!

As always, comments, concrit, keyboard smashing welcome and appreciated! No beta, we die like men :P

Chapter 16: That Sinking Feeling

The apartment was quiet, the sun dipped low over the horizon line, and not a soul inside the home noticed the way the warm light streaked directly into their eyes from the wide open curtains because that’s how soundly asleep they all were.

Or they should have been, but Blitz was moving towards wakefulness against his own will and his stomach was doing backflips to help him get there quicker. He groaned, dislodging his arm from under someone’s shoulder and someone else’s long hair, and curled the limb up around his middle with a frown.

“Mm, Blitz? Are you feeling sick?” Came Stolas’s half-asleep, worried voice. “Shall I get the bowl for you?”

Blitz shook his head and blinked out at his prince’s four half-open eyes looking back at him from way too close and somehow still not close enough in front of him on the ledge of the couch.

“S’okay baby. Go back t’sleep.” Blitz apologized. “Sorry I woke you.”

“Do you need some ginger?” Stolas asked softly, clearly not buying Blitz’s bullshit. His gentle, loving hand passed back along one of Blitz’s horns, and Blitz snuck their foreheads closer, desperate for a cuddle he couldn’t have given the current logistics of everyone. “Perhaps a bit of that awful pink chalk you gave me the last time I wouldn’t take my meds and made myself sick?”

Blitz nodded slowly. “Yeah, maybe ginger. I dunno… It just don’t feel great. Mostly this.”

He nosed up against the tip of Stolas’s curved beak, asking for closeness in the singular way Blitz had of making nonverbal requests loud and clear, and Stolas moved in as close as he could to his imp. They shared a quiet, intimate little kiss, Blitz smiled up against his mouth, and Stolas shifted his creaky, locked-up legs in some misguided effort to loosen the stiffness settled into his bones.

Via whimpered against his shoulder and Stolas froze, having forgotten exactly how close they all were to one another for a moment, and, as Via curled up closer to his chest, behind her Loona startled awake, sleep-smeared eyes slipping open almost at once, the way Blitz’s did when Stolas woke in the middle of the night.

“S’okay…” Loona soothed the younger girl, one hand coming up to rub the slim shoulders and brush a lock of long, loose hair up out of Via’s eyes. “You’re home now, we got you. We got you…”

Stolas kept himself still and quiet by the grace of luck alone, his entire heart melting at the sound of Loona treating his daughter as if Via had always been with them, always belonged to their household. As if he hadn’t just forced Blitz and Loona into accepting a fourth body into the already-cramped space of the little apartment without so much as a conversation beforehand, when everything hadn’t been quite so spectacularly fucked.

“I am so fuckin’ proud of you Loonie!” Blitz whispered into the quiet, pride and tears clear and obvious in the muted voice. “Takin’ good care of Bird Dad’s girl like that!”

Loona rolled her eyes at him but never stopped rubbing Via’s back. “Shut the fuck up, dumbass. She’s probably awake and can hear you.”

“I am,” Via answered faintly “And he called my Dad your Bird Dad.”

Loona bit her lip anxiously, jerking her hand back as if she’d been suddenly burned, and shot Blitz an absolutely murderous look. “Thanks a lot asshole. Now it’s awkward.”

Via laughed and turned her face towards Loona’s worried golden eyes. “So he’s like, another Dad for you?” she asked Loona curiously. “Does he do that thing where he thinks you’re still three and cuts up apples with cinnamon and sugar for you? Or tucks you in when he thinks you’re not looking?”

Loona smiled back at the princess and shook her head. “Nah. That’s real Dad stuff. He only does that shit for you, ‘cause you’re his baby girl.”

“I do consider Loona family,” Stolas added carefully, a little hesitantly. “She calls me her Bird Dad sometimes, as a joke I think. It doesn’t mean I’ve replaced you, my precious Starfire. No soul in Hell ever could, you know that.”

Both hands slid away from Blitz to gather his daughter up into a firm, protective snuggle, and Via hugged him back for a few seconds, her face hidden in his shoulder. She swiped a hand over her tired eyes and smiled out at all of them.

“I’m not like, mad about it.” she told them as Blitz looked guilty and anxious, and Loona started to grin back at her as the hound understood Via’s words in a way Blitz just couldn’t. “It’s a bit weird to hear, but if that’s how you see him, you should call my Dad whatever you want.”

She sat herself up a little higher, sneaking her face up onto her father’s shoulder, bringing herself eye-to-eye with Blitz, who had begun to fidget nervously, his tail flicking up along his back in short, rapid bursts of nervous energy.

“But I’m the only one he makes cinnamon apples for.” she told him sternly, mischief bright in her expressive eyes. “That’s just for us.”

Blitz grinned like an asshole up at her. “Deal. Stols makes caramel apples for me anyway, and that’s only when I’m Daddy.”

Via made a face at him as Stolas went scarlet and made a noise last heard after a cat’s tail had been shut in a car door.

“Blitz!” Both owls howled at the same time, and Loona lost her complete shit laughing at the pair of them, which completely broke whatever lingering tension had been left in the room. Via snuck an arm down to Blitz’s shoulders, Loona moved in to circle anyone she could reach with both arms, and they were just… Happy, for the first time in over a year.

Happy, and together, and mostly whole, and everything was perfect-

Until all hell broke loose just as the family group hug ended and Loona was saying something to Via about finding them some dinner as she helped the owl princess to her feet.

Via’s elbow slipped across her father’s back as she moved, she elbowed Stolas roughly in the side as he moved like lightning to catch her stumble, and the prince paled.

“Dad!” Via cried in alarm. “Loona- He’s going to be sick!”

“No, no- I’m fine!” Stolas lied even as he thought he really would lose whatever was left inside of him at the sudden shock of rough contact. “It’s alright Via, you didn’t do anything wrong!”

Stolas curled up as he said it, looking ragged and awful, and Blitz tried to move in closer to comfort his prince, but the fever and the infected line of stitches in his back reasserted themselves loudly as he moved, and Blitz went chalk-pink behind Stolas’s shoulders.

“I- I think I’m gonna puke…” Blitz warned, and Stolas went three shades paler as his eyes flew automatically to his Blitz while Loona pulled a metal kitchen bowl from somewhere in the couch cushions and shoved it up under Blitz’s chin just in time for the imp to hurl down into it.

Stolas swallowed hard, trying his very best not to force Via to look after him the way she had been earlier, feeling like the worst piece of shit excuse for a father when he couldn’t help himself, and he vomited into the bowl Blitz had used right along with Blitz, who was at least two rounds ahead of the prince crowded in beside him.

Via helped her father move over to a new bowl when Loona brought it to her, Loona looked after Blitz, and things devolved into a messy, awful sort of chaos in which both recovering bodies set each other off in uneven intervals.

Blitz would finally grow still, nod at Loona that he was done, but Stolas still had more in him as the backlash and heavy energy drain beat the hell out of his sorely neglected body, and the minute Stolas began to vomit, Blitz’s stomach flipped and he followed shortly after.

Or vice versa, with Stolas finally laying on his side against his cobbled-together cushion cot, and Via passing a wet washcloth over his face and neck the way he’d done for her when she was a child, and Blitz couldn’t hold back the dizzy, awful squirm of his stomach as the fever kicked the shit out of him on its way out, and he puked so hard he felt something behind one eye actually shift.

Which sent Stolas flying for the bowl Via held steady for him, and the both of them lost their entire stomach contents for the better part of an hour until Loona finally got angry and frustrated at this fresh new pile of shit they all got landed with and hauled Stolas bodily to his feet with a growl.

“Via- Hold his bowl.” the hellhound ordered smartly “We’re walking him to the other side of the couch- Dad, I swear to Satan, put those fuckin’ Bambi eyes away. It’s happening!”

“But Loonie, I need him! He makes me feel better!” Blitz whined like a little kid having his favourite stuffed animal taken away to wash. “I just got my bird back, you can’t-”

Whatever it was she ‘couldn’t’ do got cut off by the sudden push of yet more puke coming back for a sixth encore, and Loona rolled her eyes as her father threw up into the bowl hugged up between his arms on the stripped-off couch.

“Yeah, I know.” Loona sighed with an exasperated roll of her eyes. “But if I gotta wash this entire fuckin’ couch tonight, I’m gonna be so pissed off, okay Dad?”

Blitz couldn’t answer or argue for once since he was busy trying to get his shit back together, and Loona nodded at Via as she picked Stolas up in both strong arms before he could be sick again.

“Follow me, Via- Quick. Before-”

“I don’t think moving me was-” Stolas warned, and his daughter was there beside Loona, sliding the half-full bowl up in front of him so he wouldn’t add still more mess to the unwashed, week-old horse shirt he still wore. Together with Via, Loona carried him around the couch carefully and slowly, Via’s huge eyes fixed on Stolas and a solemn expression of deep focus on her young face as Loona carried the prince behind the couch and gently lay him down on the floor.

“I know it’s not exactly comfortable,” Loona started to apologize, and Stolas waved her off before she’d finished.

“No, I don’t mind.” he said raggedly. “I could sleep in the volcanoes of Wrath right now and be perfectly at ease.”

His eyes softened, and he put a hand on the hellhound’s arm as she began to move back from him. He took Via’s hand up in the other and looked from one daughter to the other with a small, exhausted smile peeking at one corner of his lips.

“You’re both amazing.” he told them. “I’m so sorry I’ve been such a burden, we don’t need more mess in this place…”

Loona gave him a glimmer of her usual smirk and nodded her agreement. “Tell me about it. I think I found caramel cheese under those couch pillows when we brought you home. I almost died when I put my hand in it.”

“I was saving that!” Blitz yelled from his side of the couch. “Did you put it back after you moved it?”

Loona gave Stolas the most disgusted look he’d ever seen her wearing, and Via giggled beside them.

“That’s the boyfriend you almost died for?” Via teased her father. “The one busy puking his guts out and worrying about moldy cheese he keeps in the couch?”

“It wasn’t moldy!” Blitz protested as if that was the main problem with his genius storage system. “The caramel protects it!”

Stolas winced and gave his daughter a long-suffering look. “Unfortunately.” he sighed. “Love truly is blind, darling. Do remind me of that the next time he keeps a petri dish in our bed.”

Via blinked at him. “Y-You guys sleep on that couch?” she asked incredulously. “I thought it was like, a depression thing while Blitz was in the hospital?”

“How many rooms are in the apartment, Via?” Loona asked with a bite of edge in her words she hadn’t meant to put there. “Where the hell else would they go?”

“Maybe there was another apartment somewhere, and we just haven’t been yet!” Via shot back hotly. “I’ve only been here a week!”

“Alright- It’s alright.” Stolas cut in before the girls could start bickering while his head was threatening to split right down the middle. “It doesn’t matter, loves. Why don’t you both get some rest in Loona’s room?”

Loona looked guilty as Via glared at her sullenly, but the owl princess softened almost immediately at the apology in Loona’s eyes.

“D’you need some water, Dad?” Via asked him to cover up a sudden swell of anxious uncertainty in her chest. “If I get your meds, will you take them?”

"He can't take them, Via-" Loona told the younger girl with a gentle sort of patience Stolas had never heard her use before in her words "It's too late in the day. They'll just make him sick."

"I'm already sick." Stolas complained sourly. "What's another layer of awful to the ones I'm already soaking in?"

Loona raised a suspicious eyebrow at the owl prince. "Okay, fair enough. Your body, your choice, but are you actually gonna take them if I get up and get them?"

“Hell yeah he will!” Blitz answered as Stolas opened his mouth to tell his daughter he was worried he might throw them back up right now. “Take your fuckin’ meds, pain in my ass- Don’t make me get up n’ get ‘em!”

Stolas winced. He would, too. That was the most infuriatingly wonderful thing about his imp, he thought with a silly little smile on his lips. Blitz truly would do anything it took to protect his family, even if it cost him pain to do it.

“Can we bargain, darling?” Stolas called back reasonably. “I promise in ten minutes I’ll try. I’m not sure I could keep them down right now.”

“Could you handle some water?” Blitz asked in a gentler tone this time.

“I think so, yes.” Stolas relayed. “Why?”

“Loonie- Can you get a shot glass of water for us?” Blitz called to his daughter, and the hellhound made a face, but got herself up to dig one out of the kitchen cupboards anyway.

Blitz watched her moving, and shook his head hard enough to keep himself focused as he narrowly avoided falling face-first into the full bowl of his own puke in front of him.

“Via?” he said to the teenager, and she answered with a ‘Yeah?’ at once. “Go into the bathroom, okay? Third shelf in the medicine cabinet- The purple bottle with your dad’s name on it, remember? Bring it out here and meet Loonie behind the couch with your dad there.”

Via frowned, exchanged a brief, confused look with her dad, who looked equally bewildered, then did what she’d been asked. She came back and met Loona with the tiny glass of water back down on the floor beside Stolas, and Blitz waved a hand up over the curve of the couch at them.

“Okay Loonie- Get his dose from the bottle and stick ‘em in the water.” he shifted uncomfortably and raised his voice so his pretty bird could hear him. “Let ‘em melt a bit before you drink it, okay Stols?

“I- Oh! To release the active ingredients and let them be absorbed more quickly!” Stolas cried as the logic behind the strange instructions finally dawned on him. “My clever, thoughtful Blitzy!”

“Don’t call me that in front of your kid!” Blitz complained, and Via laughed, which told Blitz she was definitely going to use that stupid nickname against him someday. “Did you drink your pills yet or what?”

“I’m doing it now!” Stolas replied, clear amusement in his words. “Help me up, Starfire. Slowly now, that’s right.”

Via slipped an arm up behind her dad’s shoulders and helped him sit up high enough to swallow safely, and Loona handed him the pill-laced glass of water. Stolas scowled at the cloudy, chalky liquid, made a face and steeled himself. He took the shot of water with a grim sort of determination, quickly ran a finger down along the residual pill bits that stuck to the bottom of the shot glass and popped the coated finger into his mouth while most of the water was still in there to avoid the bitter aftertaste of pharmaceutical chalk.

He didn’t quite manage, and Stolas almost threw up directly after swallowing down the slurry, but he kept himself in check and breathed down into his diaphragm the way he’d been taught as a child to push down any feeling that wasn’t one he could safely display in front of the goetic courts. Here and now, he was pushing back his body’s insistent demand that he wanted to vomit again, and he told his body quite firmly to fuck off as Via rubbed his back and Loona’s voice told her dad to keep his ass down on the couch, she could hear him sitting up.

“I took them!” Stolas gasped out for Blitz’s benefit. “Stay where you are darling, I’m alright!”

His eyes flew open worriedly, he waved Loona back over to her father, and Via helped lay Stolas back down against the deliciously cool hardwood flooring behind the couch. He gave her a soft, worn smile, and she nodded shortly at him with a smile of her own back at him.

“Promise me you’ll look after that idiot for me?” Stolas asked her in an exhausted mumble. “I can’t be awake any longer, I think I…”

He fell asleep mid-word, and Via’s soft hand passed over his forehead as she brushed the messy feathers back and out of his eyes for him the way he’d always done for her as a child when she was sick.

“It’s a family Dad.” she murmured right before the world fell away from Stolas entirely. “We’re together and nothing else matters.”

Chapter Text

A/N:  Back again! Gonna try to get more than one update in before I leave for The Sea and never return. Well, come back in two weeks, anyway, which is the same thing as Forever if you only have two weeks left to live! Fictional mortality aside, who's ready for Stupid Soft Idiots in love? Now we're all home and recovering, did y'all really think these two could be kept apart for long? :P

CW/TW: NSFW :P I actually mean it in the fun way this time; On the page, explicit content. Nothing wild, but also nothing subtle so don't say I didn't warn y'all :P

As always, comments, concrit, feedback, emojiis ect deeply appreciated. I really do read every single one even though I'm terrible at replying on time (or at all XD) <3

Chapter 19: Stars in His Eyes

It was pitch-dark in the apartment the next time anyone in it was awake and aware. The living room had been cleaned up a little, full bowls swapped out for clean ones, the mess of clothes that had been thrown randomly across the space all shoved hastily back behind Blitz’s old beanbag. Loona had laid blankets across Blitz’s shivering back and Via had done the same over Stolas’s too-warm body curled up on the floor behind the couch. The cushions had been shifted over to his side of the couch, Loona had lifted Stolas’s ragdoll body while Via slid them up under her dad, and once he’d been still and quiet for more than ten minutes, Loona had lifted Blitz up so Via could change out the bedsheet they’d had Blitz on so he didn’t have to sleep on the disgusting bare couch under him. Blitz had been awake for it, but hadn’t said a word for once, his eyes closed and face drawn as his daughters worked.

Stolas hadn’t stirred once when it had been his turn, not even when Via had fumbled his head as Loona asked her to help her lay the owl prince down on the makeshift cot. Via had been mortified about the accident, but Loona had been quick to laugh it off and remind her about freaky owl bones and how flexible her father was, trust me, I know. And Via did, wholly and in such an easy, natural way that it brought tears to Loona’s exhausted eyes at how healthy and well-adjusted this kid was compared to her at Via’s age.

Hell, compared to her now, Loona had thought wryly. After that, the hellhound had dug out whatever food was easy and to hand, anything neither of them had to cook or defrost, or assemble, or-

So the two of them had had cereal, sliced apples and Mystery Rodent that had been about to go bad in the fridge for dinner, cleaned up the kitchen afterwards, then checked on their respective dads still asleep in the living room. They took turns in the bathroom with their nightly routines, and Loona made sure Via had everything she needed for her feathers and sleep routine. Via was still borrowing Loona’s soap and shampoo, and Stolas’s feather comb, but Loona had assured the teenager that they’d get her her own stuff as soon as she’d had a real night’s sleep and five minutes to breathe between the owl prince and her stupid fuckin’ dad taking turns falling apart on them.

Via had smiled, told her it was okay in the same way Stolas said ‘I’m fine’ when he meant ‘I don’t want to be a problem’, and Loona had wrapped an arm up around the slender shoulders to reassure her.

“It’s a family, Chicklet.” Loona had told her “We do for each other because nobody else will.”

That had made Via cry somehow, and Loona led the princess to her room and wrapped her up in the softest blanket in the house while Loona rubbed Via’s back and let her process whatever it was until Via was calm again.

“Can we just watch stupid animal videos on your phone?” Via had asked timidly. “I just want to like… Shut my brain up for a while?”

Loona had smiled at her and pulled out her phone, opening her arms in a silent invitation for hugs if Via needed them. The younger girl had sniffled, given her a shy, watery little smile and crawled right into the crook of her arm as if she were much younger than seventeen.

Which she kinda was, Loona thought with a sigh. Growing up rich and sheltered did that, she guessed. She had no idea- She’d been a pound puppy until Blitz had shown up to bring her home no matter how angry or sullen she was, or how many times she’d outright kicked the crap out of him in a fit of sheer blind anger at the world.

The last thought Loona had had was that she owed her dad an apology for those early days, sometime when he wasn’t sick or busted up, and nobody else was home to hear her admit she had more than three kinds of feelings inside her.

The mindless video of two whiptail kittens with forked tails and razorsharp claws fighting over the same pull toy played on, Via already asleep against Loona’s shoulder, and she eased the both of them down to the bed, where Loona had barely enough time to click her phone off and drop it to the bedding beside them before she fell asleep and stayed that way.

That had been hours ago, Blitz knew, because he’d listened with his eyes closed to his girls moving around the apartment and disappearing into Loonie’s room without coming back out.

He shifted uncomfortably against the rough hospital gown he still wore and wished he could reach the ties behind his shoulders to get the damn thing off. He couldn’t raise his arms that far, not without ripping at the still-healing stitches in his back, and at least one line of them burned like a motherfucker all by itself, even when he didn’t do shit to deserve it, so he couldn’t risk it.

His stomach growled threateningly at him, and Blitz willed himself to keep its contents where it was. Two hours with his head in a bowl had been enough for one day, and besides- If he threw up, Loona would hear it and come back out to check on him, and he couldn’t have that. Satan knew she’d been at the hospital with him all week long, not to mention she’d been taking care of Via and Stolas both before the weird light show and afterwards. Blitz loved his bird, but Satan knew the prince could be the biggest brat in Hell, and not in the fun way when he wasn’t taking his meds and had hit a spiral.

Blitz could handle him- Blitz could handle any version of his sweet, soft, demanding, kind-of-a-dick-sometimes prince. Blitz would love the bird if he walked right up to him and kicked him straight in the balls for no reason, if he threw every horse he had out the window. If he-

Blitz sniffled in the dark and curled a hand up around his middle. He felt like shit, and now he missed Stolas. He was only a few feet away behind the couch, but still. He missed his big dumb bird and all he wanted was a cuddle and maybe a couple kisses to help him feel less like ass.

“Hey Stols?” he called in a raised whisper. “Baby bird? You awake?”

“Hmm?” came the sleepy, confused reply. “Mm, Blitz? Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m good.” Blitz answered a little bit louder this time. “C’mere. I wanna put my face in your feathers. I can’t get up to get to you.”

A soft, tired laugh and then the sound of Stolas moving in the dark as the prince hauled himself upright and shuffled over to Blitz’s side of the couch. He dropped down to the worn wooden flooring like a lead weight was in his ass, and passed a gentle hand over Blitz’s horn.

“Are you sick?” Stolas asked kindly as Blitz reached back for his arm. “Shall I make you ginger?”

Blitz shook his head. “Nah. I want my pretty bird. Come up here n’ lemme have my boyfriend.”

Stolas giggled like a schoolboy at the reminder that Blitz was well and truly his now, and carefully picked up his imp, sliding his legs up under Blitz as he went, back braced up against the arm of the couch behind him. Blitz curled up in the warm lap as soon as his legs touched Stolas’s, and his prince wrapped him up in the old horse blanket and both his arms as if the action alone could take away every awful thing Blitz felt.

It did, for a minute or two as Blitz sighed into the t-shirt covered chest and turned his face into his favourite spot in Stolas’s chest. But then the smell of old puke, hospital antiseptic, days-old sweat and worse hit him like a truck, and even Blitz made a face at how ripe his prince was.

“Stols?” he said carefully, knowing how sensitive Stolas could be when he was tired and unmedicated.

“Yes, love?” came the patient reply. “Tell me.”

“You… uh, you smell like the dumpster behind Rat Alley after a full day in the sun.” Blitz said without a single trace of tact in his words. “Kinda makin’ me sick here.”

Stolas arched an imperious eyebrow at him in the dark and made an annoyed noise at his stupid imp. “You don’t exactly smell of roses yourself.” he countered loftily. “I haven’t complained once, and I’ll have you know this is your vomit all over me, so I might tread carefully if I were the ungrateful jackass complaining to me about the smell.”

Blitz knew he shouldn’t, but he couldn’t help himself- He laughed at the arch, royal way Stolas told him to fuck himself with flowers all over the words and the scathing reproach buried under well-tailored words.

“I don’t see what’s funny!” Stolas bristled. “I can just as soon go back to my cot on the other side of the couch you know.”

Blitz hugged the disgusting old shirt closer, both hands fisting up around the back of Stolas’s arms as he held on tight, just in case the bird meant it.

“No- I’m sorry baby, honest.” he apologized swiftly “I’m not laughing at you, I swear.” He felt Stolas snort at him, and Blitz rolled his eyes. “Okay fine, I was laughing at you, but it’s ‘cause you’re so fuckin’ cute when you’re all pissed off and the old brat prince comes out. It’s kinda hot y’know, the way you talk so pretty n’ tell me to fuck off without sayin’ so outright…”

Blitz wriggled closer, and Stolas gave him an annoyed huff as their clothes crunched between them, and Stolas felt his feathers trying to stand at attention on their own merit all over his body.

“Absolutely not, you utter nuisance.” he grumbled. “Not when both of us feel like shit, and both of us smell like a cheap bar after closing.”

“What about if it was practical?” Blitz bargained. “Get these nasty clothes off, got us into a nice warm bath? Huh? You could help me wash my back? Keep the stitches clean like the nurses kept sayin’?”

Despite himself, and the late hour, and everything else weighing down on him, Stolas felt himself giving in without much protest, and he leaned Blitz back in his arms a little.

“Promise me you won’t do anything stupid?” he asked seriously. “No kinky shower sex, no splashing around. No throwing me under the bathwater- Just a nice, easy wash, alright? Just this once.”

“Just this one time.” Blitz agreed swiftly. “Just a bath to get us cleaned up some. I’m sure Loonie and Via will thank us in the morning if we don’t smell like unwashed assholes.”

Stolas sighed into a warm laugh in spite of how ridiculous his imp could be and relented. “Alright, hang on to my shoulders. I’ll pick you up.”

He eased one arm up under Blitz’s knees, securing his elbow up under the curve of Blitz’s ass as he moved first one leg, then the other off the low side of the couch and steeled himself to actually stand again. It took a minute or two, and a stumble as Stolas stood himself up with Blitz’s added weight in his arms, but he got them moving soon enough and carried Blitz into the bathroom in a slow, exhausted shuffle.

Once they were in there, Stolas sat Blitz on the edge of the bathtub and pulled the ties at the back of his imp’s neck free so Blitz could undress himself as Stolas finally, finally peeled off the dirty old horse shirt that would surely never be the same again after this week.

Blitz swayed unsteadily as Stolas’s hands behind him briefly left, and the imp made an uncomfortable noise that told Stolas Blitz was still feeling sick as he doggedly kept his balance until Stolas had his shirt off. The strong arm slipped back up around his imp’s shoulders, keeping Blitz securely balanced on the edge of the tub, and Blitz slid his hands to Stolas’s naked sides.

“Lemme help you outta those.” Blitz offered with a sly smirk on his face as his hands slipped to the waistband of Stolas’s pajama pants in front of him. “Since I’m right there anyway.”

“Blitz…” Stolas warned in a low, appreciative hiss of breath as Blitz began to tug his pants off without waiting for his permission. “Remember your promise.”

Blitz leaned in closer and his thumbs ghosted over the curved lines of Stolas’s thighs directly in front of him, the tips of his claws whispering down along the tapered line of feathers that led straight between his prince’s legs.

“I never promised you shit.” he countered with a hungry grin. “I said we’d take it easy, not that I wouldn’t appreciate the view.”

Stolas rolled his eyes at his stupid, ridiculous imp as he swallowed hard and felt his entire body shiver as Blitz got his pants to his knees and the fabric dropped soundlessly to the old bathmat under Stolas’s feet.

“Eyes only.” Stolas told Blitz sternly, his voice pitched an octave higher than it should be as those wicked hands brushed over the curve of his ass and trailed down over the back of his thighs. “I’m serious, Blitz! I’m exhausted and I don’t feel well!”

“So?” Blitz countered with a dark-eyed smirk up at his exasperated prince. “Me too. Lemme help you feel better, pretty bird.”

Stolas expected some sort of sexy, bold move where Blitz ‘slipped’ down the side of the bathtub and so-happened to land with his nose buried between Stolas’s thighs, or for a cheeky nip at his hips to come next, but Blitz simply swung one leg over into the tub and reached back with a wince to turn the water taps on.

“Probably better if we start a shower.” Blitz told his bird entirely too reasonably. “We can sit under the water without marinating in puke soup.”

Stolas pulled a face at the unwanted imagery Blitz conjured with his blunt words, but nodded anyway. “I think that’s a good idea.” he agreed ruefully. “I think I might faint if I stood here any longer.”

Blitz held out a gallant hand to him and arched an inviting brow. “Got the water nice n’ warm the way you like it.” he offered coyly. “I’ll help you wash your back, huh? Then you do mine?”

“Yours is substantially more delicate a task.” Stolas shot back with an edge he didn’t mean to put into his words. “We’ll do you first.”

“Baby you can do me anytime, anyplace.” Blitz quipped with a smirk, and Stolas heaved a sigh at the ridiculous creature as he climbed into the bathtub and carefully lowered himself down into the tub.

“You complete menace.” Stolas groused, but the way he giggled mid-word told Blitz he wasn’t really mad, just tired and irritable. “You aren’t going to convince me, you know. I said no.”

Blitz turned serious in an instant and looked his prince directly in all four eyes. “I don’t touch my bird without his consent.” he said soberly. “I don’t want nothin’ you’re not givin’ me freely, okay? I promise.”

Stolas shifted to one knee, the hand at Blitz’s shoulders giving his imp a gentle nudge forwards into Stolas’s waiting arms. “I trust you, Blitzy.” Stolas whispered fiercely, dropping a quick, careful kiss down over the birthmark on Blitz’s forehead. “You could never hurt me.”

“Not unless you ask me nice.” Blitz teased, the mischief back in his golden eyes almost instantly, and Stolas eased them both down to the floor of the tub so the water was hitting Stolas’s back, his taller body shielding most of Blitz from the gentle spray of the shower. Tiny rivulets of water and rogue splashes trickled softly over Blitz cradled in front of him, and Stolas cupped a hand under the stream of the shower, and began to rinse off Blitz’s chest.

“Mm, give me a day or so.” Stolas promised. “We’ll send the girls out for the day, buy a new jar of caramel… Maybe some strawberries…”

“Goddammit, Stols…” Blitz complained as his sleep shorts mysteriously shrunk three sizes, and Stolas smirked like an asshole at him. “You’re gonna make me sweat this whole time, aren’t you?”

“Consider this shower my repayment for what you just put me through.” Stolas purred against his imp’s ear. “Don’t touch. Eyes only.”

Blitz whimpered, and for the first time in a week it wasn’t because his leg hurt, or his back, or-

Stolas’s hand picked up a washcloth and began to move the soapy cloth down over Blitz’s chest, across the firm, well-toned abs, and Blitz leaned back against the feathered chest, his eyes sliding shut with a quiet, needy sigh as he surrendered entirely and Stolas washed him.

The washcloth ran over Blitz’s chest, over his arms, across the uninjured parts of his back Stolas could reach without moving Blitz out of his relaxed, easy lean against his chest. His touch was light, careful, and deliberately, deliciously sensual, and Blitz seemed to be turning liquid in his arms the longer Stolas lingered over a shoulder, across the imp’s stomach. Leaned in across the smaller body to give himself the reach he needed, dragging feathers over Blitz’s too-warm, hypersensitive skin and making his imp shiver with anticipation for more intimate touches that never came.

Stolas kept them hanging on the absolute edges of lust, trailing his claws down and over Blitz, who squirmed and reflexively raised his chin to catch kisses that didn’t land because Stolas knew exactly where those would lead, and he wasn’t prepared to deliver- yet.

Stolas turned the faucet behind them on briefly to rinse off his cloth, paused long enough to gather more soap into it, then moved to Blitz’s chest, across to his shoulders, up the line of his neck, and began to pass the cloth along the line of his scarred cheek. Blitz whimpered, cheeks deeply, darkly pink with clear arousal, eyes still closed as Blitz let his bird do whatever he wanted with him, and one hand tugged absently at the front of his shorts while Stolas smirked and dragged his washcloth further up, to the curl of one horn. He followed the spiral of first one, then the other, painfully, awfully slowly, and Blitz reached up with both hands like a silent plea until he found Stolas’s upper arms to hold onto. Stolas kissed the back of one big hand, Blitz tugged at his arms in a gentle request for more touching, and Stolas wrapped both hands around the big, sensitive horns.

He lingered at their base, trailing his thumb in tiny, whisper-soft circles over the spot where Blitz’s skin met the hard, sturdy horns, exactly where Blitz liked best, and his imp rewarded him with a barely-muffled groan, back arcing up into Stolas’s chest as the owl prince laughed softly and pulled back just enough that Blitz couldn’t get what he wanted. Yet.

“Hold still, Blitzy.” Stolas reminded him softly, one feathery cheek brushing up against Blitz’s as he said it and pulling a low, heady growl out of his imp at the tease. “Eyes only. Don’t think I’m letting you off easy.”

“Fuck me…” Blitz breathed as his hips worked in tiny, jerky pulls and his breathing began to deepen, quick, hard gasps clipping into his words even as Stolas moved his hands back to rinse out the washcloth again. “Fuck you… Lucifer’s balls Stols…”

Stolas smirked and pinned a neat, chaste little kiss to Blitz’s jaw that sent pure fire running through his imp’s blood if the sudden tension in Blitz’s hands on his arms was anything to go by, then ran the fresh washcloth down Blitz’s other side, making Blitz suck in a hard breath as the imp focused on steadying his breathing and keeping his dick firmly, well, unfirm.

It wasn’t working, and by the time Stolas had rinsed the washcloth out a fourth time and slipped his hand down the line of Blitz’s chest, across his stomach and down towards the imp’s waistline, Blitz’s shorts were leaving absolutely nothing unseen. Stolas smirked as he leaned in over Blitz’s shoulder and raised an appreciative eyebrow at the display.

“Are you enjoying our time together, Blitzy?” he cooed in a low, quiet singsong, “Are you sorry you ran off to get yourself killed like a man who didn’t have the likes of me waiting at home yet?”

Stolas’s hand ghosted the line of the shorts, and Blitz groaned, somehow guilty and hornier than he’d ever been in his life at the same time. His eyes flew open, met Stolas’s darkly red eyes, took in the impish smile his owl prince wore and his head jerked upwards, towards the smirking mouth almost against his own will.

“Stolas…” Blitz whined. “This ain’t fair…”

Stolas leaned in closer, the freaky flexibility in his neck and their substantial height difference even while seated making the feat easier as he brushed the tip of his wicked, curved beak over his Blitz’s mouth and did nothing more.

“I said are you sorry yet?” Stolas purred, and the hand at Blitz’s waist grabbed a handful of wet fabric and gave a little tug upwards. “Use your words, Blitzy. I know I haven’t left you breathless- yet.”

Blitz’s hands twitched at Stolas’s sides, desperate to move and grab his bird by both hips, wrap his arms around his prince and pin him up against the bathroom wall. Run his hands through that soft, fluffy hair- Anything but sit here and want the beautiful prince without being able to touch him.

“Y-Yeah- I’m real sorry.” Blitz apologized with his eyes half-clouded over and his voice rough and ragged with undisguised wanting. “You win, baby. You win, I-I’m sorry… Please, Stols, please- One kiss. One good kiss, I-”

Stolas’s hand at his shorts slid itself down under the waistband, touching nowhere near Blitz’s diamond-hard cock, but toying idly with the shorts and the string tie at the front anyway. “Hmm, I can see you’re sorry, but what if I wanted you to beg me?” Stolas said like a silken glove over fresh honey. “What if I said I’ll only forgive you if you ask me nicely, the way I like to be spoken to.”

“Satan’s fuckin’ taint, Stols…” Blitz swore roughly, hips squirming and twitching up towards the long, delicate fingers that were doing everything but touching him under the line of his shorts. “Fuck me, I-I can’t do this forever… Y’gotta let me touch. You gotta lemme kiss you, beautiful. Gimme somethin’ here…”

Stolas brushed his lips up against Blitz’s, the imp surged forward, expecting a kiss, only to have Stolas pull back and away before Blitz could get more than a shiver of raw need off his prince.

“Show me you’re sorry. Speak to me like the treasure I am.” Stolas demanded imperiously. “Sell me on your remorse, Blitzy.”

Blitz squirmed, felt his back searing with pain and the fever heating his skin, but nothing else mattered as his eyes went a hard, deep amber and Blitz grabbed Stolas by the back of both cheeks and yanked his prince to him. Blitz flipped himself over in Stolas’s lap with one deft, clever flick of his tail and one knee, straddling his bird with his knees down on either side of the slender hips, jammed up against both sides of the enamel tub, and seized his prince’s mouth with his.

The kiss was slow, sensual, a thing of gentle, seeking tenderness as Stolas’s eyes fluttered closed and his free hand slipped up around Blitz’s shoulders, ginger and careful even as Blitz pressed all of him straight up into Stolas’s naked stomach and their heads tilted to opposite angles as they both deepened the kiss. Stolas slid the hand still down Blitz’s shorts up over the curve of his imp’s perfect ass, and Blitz’s tail lashed down to curl possessively around his forearm as Blitz nudged and coaxed at Stolas’s mouth to get him to open wider.

Stolas obliged, heat and exhaustion and complete, soul-deep relief washing over him in alternating waves as his Blitz pressed in closer to him, nipped up along the sides of his mouth, raked his sinfully delicious claws up against Stolas’s neck and through the back feathers of his hair.

“Mine.” Blitz growled low and fierce. “My pretty bird. Only mine. Love of my fuckin’ life…”

One big hand slipped down to Stolas’s lower back, jerked the bird forwards, into the throbbing cock absolutely straining at the shorts by now, and Blitz pulled himself up along the line of Stolas’s entire body until he was on his knees for his prince.

“I’m sorry, pretty bird.” Blitz breathed into their next kiss. “Sorry I scared you,” He dropped his hips a little, and Stolas moaned into his mouth at the feeling of Blitz sliding down across his naked, soaking wet body. “Sorry I left you behind.”

Blitz raised himself up again, rolled his hips, and Stolas’s claws sunk into Blitz’s ass as the owl prince began to whimper. Their tongues tangled, Blitz pressed his entire chest up into Stolas’s, and his pretty bird bit his cheek with that wicked beak as Blitz grinned up at him and wriggled a little closer.

“Sorry I made you cry, and got you beat up, and sorry I didn’t listen when you told me don’t touch.”

Stolas frowned, their heated makeout session pausing briefly as the prince was momentarily baffled by the last of Blitz’s words, then he practically squealed with surprise as Blitz’s hand dove down between them and clever, experienced fingers curled right up against Stolas’s body, but didn’t do more than apply a gentle, steady pressure around the outside.

“Satan I missed you…” Blitz murmured as he shifted the hand buried in Stolas’s hair to the back of his bird’s neck. “All soft n’ warm n’ ready for me…”

“B-Blitz…” Stolas gasped, the single word needy and high with a barely-curbed keen as Stolas tried to press himself up into Blitz’s palm and the imp wouldn’t let him get closer.

“Say the magic word, princess.” Blitz smirked into another slow, hungry kiss. “Tell Daddy you want his hands or I don’t do shit but linger.”

“Then neither will I.” Stolas challenged, wrapping his hand up under Blitz’s wide-open legs to cup the rock-hard cock in his long-fingered hand.

His taller body made the maneuver easier than it should be, and gave Stolas the added advantage of having his entire forearm up against Blitz’s most sensitive areas, adding friction and heat to his hold, where Blitz only had the one option of where to take them next.

Blitz hissed with raw need, arousal absolutely burning him alive (or was that the fever? Who even knew anymore. Who cared so long as Stolas got those damn hands moving…), and teased his middle finger up along the line of feathers in front of him.

“Consent is sexy, lover.” he reminded Stolas just before they kissed again. “Gimme the green light, baby. I know you want me bad.”

“Lucifer’s balls do I ever…” Stolas groaned as he leaned himself back against the bathtub walls and gave Blitz more room to work. “Gently, darling. I don’t want anything to spoil this moment for us.”

“You know I’m tailor-made for you baby.” Blitz breathed as his fingers began to move and caress Stolas’s soft feathers and his mouth rained kisses down on his bird’s mouth, his cheeks, the neckline where he saw Stolas swallow hard and grinned at the sight.

“What’s your safe word?” Blitz asked in a sexy little purr. “Tell me you know how to stop us if I get carried away.”

“Jelly sandwiches…” Stolas said at once. “I won’t let you hurt me my love. I won’t let anything happen to you or me, I promise.”

Blitz smiled up against the feathered chin and kissed it soundly. “Good boy. That’s what Daddy likes to hear.”

His hand between Stolas’s eagerly parted legs stroked his fingers up along the ready, wet line of Stolas’s body a few times, almost as a reward for his good behaviour, but Stolas knew the tease was just a sneak preview. His imp could deliver much better than that, and almost as if Blitz had heard his thoughts, the practiced fingers slipped up and into Stolas, claws dragging across the sensitive skin and the rigid, hypertactile little button dead center at the very top.

Stolas sucked in a hard breath and swore as a week away from his imp left him absolutely electric under the subtle touches of Blitz’s hand on him. Stolas tightened his grip around his imp’s cock without meaning to, and Blitz let out the filthiest, neediest moan Stolas had ever pulled out of him as their mouths opened to deepen another hungry kiss.

“Not gonna last much longer…” Blitz half-apologized. “I fuckin’ missed you baby…”

Stolas nodded into a laugh as Blitz’s fingers rolled over him and slid inside of him, curling up against his inner walls and making stars pop behind his eyes. “Better this way.” he gasped as Blitz flicked a single claw along the inside wall of him, and Stolas almost came right then and there. “Couldn’t take more than a quick round…”

Blitz nuzzled up at his chin, pressed a soft, tender kiss to Stolas’s neck. “Know what you mean, pretty bird. I jus’ want you so fuckin’ bad… I need you. Need you all over me…”

Blitz’s hand flexed over Stolas, Stolas flicked his thumb up over the twitching head of Blitz’s cock, and both of them tightened up together as Blitz grinned up at his prince and Stolas dipped in to nip at Blitz’s cheek before they fell into another slow, easy kiss. Blitz’s thumb rolled the little button between Stolas’s legs against the pad of his rough thumb, Stolas dragged his sinful claws up along the hard length in his palm, gave it a quick, hard pull and a rough squeeze, and Blitz gasped.

The imp’s hand jerked up against Stolas, his thumb and forefinger accidentally slipped and scrabbled his claws down against Stolas’s most sensitive parts, and Stolas cried out, his entire body tensing as he came faster than he ever had with Blitz. Blitz’s big hand slipped over his prince’s mouth to stifle the cry, hoping to hell neither of their daughters heard it and came barging into the unlocked bathroom, and a second later every thought in Blitz’s head was smoke and stars as Stolas slid his hand down his cock and finished him off in ten seconds flat.

It was like freefalling into a blackhole. Like licking a battery, or touching a live wire. It was electric, and overwhelming, and Blitz was on actual fire, but he remembered to stay quiet and sunk his teeth into Stolas’s shoulder as he came hard while Stolas rained kisses down along his horns and the back of his head. Blitz’s hand fell away from the prince’s mouth, Stolas swore softly as Blitz collapsed forward against his chest, and for a handful of moments they stayed sitting up like that, propped up against one another, breathing hard and waiting for their respective climaxes to fade before they moved again.

“You’re alright, I have you.” Stolas was whispering in a ragged, breathless rush of words as Blitz’s hearing slowly came back. “I have you my darling… I’m right here.”

“I got you Stols. We’re together, I love you…” Blitz whispered back. “Love you, pretty bird… I fuckin’ missed you, baby bird… Satan’s fuckin’ balls did I miss us…”

“I love you too my perfect love.” Stolas panted. “I can’t believe you’re here, home with me… After all that time…”

Blitz nodded hazily and fumbled for the abandoned washcloth that had gotten stuck under his knee and Stolas’s seated ass someplace. “I’m not goin’ nowhere.” Blitz promised as he tugged the old cloth free and waved vaguely at Stolas’s chest with it. “Hold still princess. Let Daddy take care of his bird a sec.”

Stolas smiled, spent and wrung out in the best way, and leaned himself back a little to let his imp have better access to him. “Be quick, alright darling? I’m falling asleep.”

Blitz nodded faintly and gave his prince a tired, worn little smile. “Know what you mean.” he agreed. “Maybe that wasn’t the smartest thing we coulda done, but hot damn was it worth whatever comes next.”

His hands passed the soapy cloth up and over Stolas’s ridiculously tall body, and Stolas helped by soaping up both hands and running them along Blitz’s arms, his back wherever the bandages weren’t, and when both of them got to each other’s waistlines again, they took turns kneeling up under the spray of the shower to get themselves clean.

Stolas’s giant, stupid fan of a tail almost knocked Blitz right on his ass as the bird turned and asked for help reaching the base and lower areas of it, and Blitz kneed Stolas right in the gut as he tried to angle himself so that the water wasn’t directly pounding into his back, but also was washing the soap off his ass, and Stolas made a noise like a cat in a blender and almost threw up right into Blitz’s lap about it, but they made it through the suddenly impossible task of basic bathing without incident.

“Good lords I’ve never been so exhausted in my life.” Stolas complained as he helped Blitz up and over the lip of the bathtub, and Blitz held out a steady hand for him to use for balance as Stolas stepped out onto the bathmat and stood there shivering in the cool fall air for a minute.

“Yeah, I got that effect on people.” Blitz smirked. “My bad.”

Stolas gave his imp an irritated scowl, but the smile in his eyes told Blitz it was mostly for show. “As if you did more than thirty seconds of work.” Stolas shot back archly. “We’ve had better sex than this, Blitzy. You know we have.”

Blitz nodded and accepted the towel Stolas handed him off the rack. “Sure, but they weren’t better n’ this. This time felt like comin’ home, not just comin’ hard.”

Stolas felt tears start in his eyes despite the crass delivery of the line, and shook his head fondly at his imp. “I hate how romantic you made that sound.” he sighed with a smile. “Almost as if you had a way with words under all the swearing.”

Blitz paused in the act of drying off one horn and gave his prince an obnoxious smirk and an exaggerated eyebrow waggle. “They call me the cunning linguist. Ask me why later.”

Stolas stopped dead with the towel halfway to his hips and stared. “Where. The fuck, did that come from?” he demanded incredulously. “You don’t even know what that means!”

“Means I’m good with my mouth even if I ain’t good at words.” Blitz tossed back smugly. “What? I can read too y’know. S’just harder for me ‘cause of the backwards letters thing.”

Stolas gave him a deadpan look. “Which movie was it from?” he asked dryly. “Was it a Jackson Jacked fight film, or another horse romance?”

Blitz scrubbed the water out of one ear with the end of his towel and closed one eye in thought. “Uh, probably one of Loonie’s movies she found humanside.” he hedged a little too casually “Humans love a good sex joke in their dumb comedies. S’the only funny shit they’re allowed, probably.”

The way Blitz said it told Stolas he was lying, covering up for something Blitz thought might get him in trouble, and he frowned at the imp.

“Try again.” he said with a warning in his words. “Don’t make me angry, Blitz. I’m not properly medicated right now.”

Blitz wilted under the annoyed glare and bit his bottom lip. “I, uh… Maybe I read your diary once?” he admitted slowly. He waved a hand as if to clear the air of his words, and hastily amended. “I didn’t know it was yours! Some bitch client had it last Sinsmas, and I read it before I realized it was yours! I thought it was Moxxie’s with all the flowers n’ shit!”

Stolas crossed his arms over his chest. “And if it had been, that would make it okay?” he demanded.

Blitz gave him a look that asked if he was actually stupid and shrugged one shoulder. “Well, yeah. He oughta know not to leave his gayass romance poetry out where I’m gonna find it. Of fuckin’ course I’d read an unlabelled book full of his flowers n’ bullshit- How else would I bust his balls about it if I didn’t even sneak a peek!”

Stolas sniffed imperiously at his stupid imp, about to deliver a scathing dress-down about respecting privacy and how could Blitz read his diary of all things, and make fun of him about it, and-

Stolas caught himself just as the first word was about to leave his lips, and pivoted at the last second. “You’re not making fun of me…” he said slowly, the statement more like a question. “Why aren’t you busting my balls about it instead of using my own damn dialogue to flirt with me?”

Blitz sighed and rolled his eyes at his prince. “First of all, I didn’t know it was yours when I said it, I’m not a complete dickhead. And second of all, ‘cause… I-I guess it was kinda sweet, since it turned out it was your book n’ all… I saw one of the pictures you sketched after a story I was readin’ in there… That’s how I figured it out, a-and once I did, I closed it up n’ put it back under your pillow! I swear I didn’t read more than a couple pages!”

“And you… Haven’t mentioned it since?” Stolas asked slowly, and Blitz looked miserable as he peeked up at his prince from under his lashes.

“I’m sorry, baby… I just didn’t wanna embarrass you, or make it weird.” Blitz apologized quietly. “Wasn’t keepin’ secrets or anything, I figured you wouldn’t want me knowin’ about it, so I just thought no harm, no foul ‘til I pulled that line outta my ass just now and it turns out it was yours…”

Stolas laughed and dropped his wet towel down at last. “You really thought it was sweet?” he asked, and Blitz sat up a little straighter even as he swayed with the motion.

“Yeah. I mean it was cheesy as hell,” He grinned and Stolas rolled his eyes at the ridiculous creature. “But I liked the part where the handsome prince saves the helpless damsel from a dragon. It was like that fight we had with the snowcock, the first time you kissed me after…” Blitz stuttered to a stop, unwilling to bring up Verosika’s shitty party and everything that had happened there. Not while he was literally naked and vulnerable, and Stolas was exhausted and emotional, and everything had been so perfect five minutes ago, and-

“It’s alright my love, I understand.” Stolas soothed as he scooped up his Blitz and began to carry him forwards into the living room. “I’m not angry with you. I think I would have read a book like that had I found it in a client’s hands before we were us again.”

Blitz nodded against his prince and clung to both shoulders as Stolas brought him back the stripped couch and stopped with a hand on his hip, frowning down at the thing.

“What?” Blitz asked “What’s wrong pretty bird?”

“That couch is disgusting.” Stolas said in a tone that Blitz knew better than to argue with. “I’m not sleeping in it like that.”

Stolas brought them to the beanbag instead, and bent over to pull fresh pajamas out for himself, and a new set of sleep shorts for Blitz. “Besides, the bare floor is better for my back, and cleaner for yours.”

“Whatever you want, baby bird.” Blitz agreed in a tired yawn. “Bring the horse blanket, okay? I’m cold.”

He shivered as he said it, and Stolas’s eyes immediately softened. “Are you feeling sick darling?” he asked solicitously, and Blitz snuggled up into the damp chest feathers at his throat with a tiny little nod. “Do you need ginger?”

“Jus’ you.” Blitz answered in a vague slur. “N’a blanket.”

Stolas kissed his imp’s temple and took a handful of steps into the middle of the open living room. He lowered them both down to the old hardwood flooring and handed Blitz his sleepwear, drawing breath to ask if his imp needed help pulling it on, but Blitz was already half-in the shorts and tossing the old t-shirt aside, so Stolas pulled his own sleep top on and tugged the blankets off the couch above and behind them.

He balled up his unworn pajama bottoms, tucking them up under Blitz’s head as his imp curled up and pulled at Stolas’s shoulders to coax him closer.

“Stay here…” Blitz asked on the very edges of sleep. “Feels better when you’re with me…”

Stolas slid down beside his little lover, wrapping an arm up at the small of his back and the other up behind Blitz’s head. “You make the entire world less insufferable, even when it’s you who’s most insufferable of all.”

He pressed a soft little kiss to the top of Blitz’s head, Blitz sighed into his chest fluff the way he always did, and both of them lay there, breathing in the scent of each other and clinging to the certainty that they’d made it through this too.

Their family was whole, and together, and the tiny little apartment full of too many bodies was peaceful and silent around them.

Silence never felt so full… Stolas thought as the last of the waking world drifted off with his awareness. Blitz sighed into his chest, snuggled closer still, and Stolas felt himself smile without conscious action.

Fuck the world, the fallout, and whatever came next. They could take it on together or not at all, and that was a matter for tomorrow- And everyone knows tomorrow always dawns as today.

Chapter Text

A/N: Made it! Sneaky second update despite all conspiring against me! Bit of a longer one, to make up for disappearing into the sea shortly. We're finally back home and The Chaos(tm) is winding down! All that remains to be seen is Mysteries- But first, Stolitz looking after each other, and domestic fluff as our new family adjusts to having each other two feet away at any given moment XD No beta, we die like men, ectect so forth.

CW/TW:

As usual, comments, concrit, feedback of all types welcome! I love reading back all the cool stuff y'all say- Making stories that make folk happy makes me happy even though I'm awful at replies <3

Chapter 20: Recovery Position

Who even knew what time it was, what day, as Stolas woke sharply into the middle of one of Blitz’s more vicious nightmares and his imp kicked him squarely in the knees, making Stolas swear roughly and hook one leg around his lover’s legs to keep the imp from lashing out and hurting himself.

“Blitz?” he called gently, but firmly. “Blitz, come back darling- It’s a nightmare. You’re alright, it’s not real- Follow me my love, that’s right… Only me…”

On any other day, that would have been enough. The sound of his prince’s voice always drew Blitz back out of whatever bad memories or dream had grabbed hold of him as he slept, and Stolas could kiss the lingering panic away while his imp hugged him tight and caught his breath.

But this time, it seemed Blitz couldn’t hear him. Had no idea Stolas was there with him at all as he thrashed and pushed hard against the strong, steady arms that kept him securely pinned against Stolas’s soft body.

“Blitz? Blitz, love? Can you hear me?” Stolas tried again, a little more loudly this time. “It’s me darling, it’s your pretty bird, hm? Safe, like always. Isn’t that right? I’m right here my love, right here…”

“Gonna take ‘im…” Blitz slurred as he answered someone Stolas couldn’t see. “Gonna take ‘im n’ leave me here ‘lone… Jus’ like the fire…”

“Blitz? I’m right here darling.” Stolas tried again, risking a tiny, gentle shake of Blitz’s shoulders this time. “I’m here, love, listen to me- Come on Blitzy, come back to your pretty bird…”

“N-No… N-Not…” Blitz told the unseen speaker from his dreams. “N-Not gonna let you… N-Not this time…”

He lashed out with both hands, slamming his palms down against Stolas’s solid chest and Stolas paled as the sudden impact flipped his barely-stable stomach, but held on doggedly as Blitz tried to roll away from him and Stolas tried his best not to touch the bandaged back in front of him.

“Blitz? Blitz, listen for me-” Stolas called a little more loudly this time. “Darling, it’s Stolas. It’s me, I’m here with you- Come back to me my love, I’m right here…”

Stolas shifted his grip on the imp, and winced hard as the heat rolling off Blitz hit him like a brick. Blitz was burning now, sweat-soaked and delirious, trapped in the nightmare that had him shaking and fighting invisible adversaries Stolas could do nothing to protect him against.

“Blitz?” Stolas tried a fourth time. “Blitz, try to hear me- Listen for me, love. I’m right here, I love you… I’m here, Blitz- Nobody’s taking me away from you, I promise.”

“G-Gonna make ‘im leave me…” Blitz repeated, and this time his words hitched on a sob. “Don’t take my bird… Not again…”

Another hard, rough blow against his chest, and Stolas knew Blitz was beyond hearing him. The fever was too high, his imp was too hot. Stolas needed to do something to bring the fever back down and protect his Blitz from further damage.

“I’m going to pick you up, alright?” Stolas narrated even though he knew Blitz couldn’t hear him in this state. “We’re going to cool you down. You’re burning up.”

He scooped up his thrashing, panicked lover, and Blitz almost caught the back of one big fist up against the underside of Stolas’s chin as Stolas hauled the smaller body upwards and rushed them into the bathroom.

“Blitz? Listen for me-” he tried again, raising his voice to be heard over the sound of the shower turning on. “Listen for me, I’ve got you. You’re alright, I’m here. It’ll be alright…”

He waited exactly enough time for the shower to run ice-cold, stepped resolutely into the bathtub under the painfully cold deluge, clothes and all, and held his imp cradled against his chest. Blitz was draped over his entire front like a limp, too-warm blanket, his bare back instantly soaked through by the cold shower, and Stolas briefly worried about the still-healing stitches beneath the wet bandages, but then again, they needed changing anyway, and Stolas hadn’t thought to do it earlier. What was ten more minutes if hours hadn’t made things worse yet?

Unless they had, and that was why Blitz was caught in his own mind right now, mumbling into Stolas’s neck about dying alone, being left behind and someone Stolas couldn’t see taking his prince away. What if this was his fault? Stolas thought with sudden horror. If he hadn’t been good enough to look after his imp, to take proper care of Blitz’s injuries, and now he was suffering because of him, because Stolas hadn’t had his shit together, and-

The water hit them both like tiny daggers, Stolas winced hard as he felt himself freezing under the spray, and after only a handful of moments, Blitz began to shiver too. The nightmare seemed to be fading, Blitz growing still as his features relaxed incrementally the longer Stolas kept them directly under the cold water, and Stolas doggedly kept his trembling knees steady and planted as he passed one hand over and over Blitz’s shoulders and began to rock him.

“It’s alright darling… You’re alright…” Stolas soothed as Blitz tensed up against him and began to wake. “Shh, I’m here… I’m right here. I love you my Blitz, I’m here with you…”

Blitz startled, suddenly aware that he wasn’t in the nightmare anymore, but also acutely aware that he was freezing and fucking soaked, and that his head hurt like the time he’d slammed face-first into a steel support beam sticking up out of a construction site job he’d been on a few months back. The concussion from that had almost felt good compared to what his head was like now, and his stomach hurt, and Stolas wasn’t even here with him, and-

“S-Stols!” Blitz gasped out around tears he hadn’t realized he’d been crying. “Stolas! Stolas, please! I’m sorry- I’ll do better- Stolas!”

He pushed and shoved at the blankets covering him, and Blitz knew a moment of pure terror as the blankets hugged him back and a soft, careful voice rumbled against his chest as the wet bedding shifted around him.

“You’re alright darling, it’s only me.” the blankets said in Stolas’s voice. “You’re safe, I’m right here with you. Try not to hit me, there we are…”

“Stols?” Blitz called again, this time confused and disoriented as his mind started to catch up with his eyes and took in the familiar sleep shirt in front of him and the tall, lanky body under it. “Y-You’re really- I-I’m not… I…”

Blitz threw himself at the waterlogged feathers, wrapped both arms up around Stolas’s shoulders and absolutely sobbed. He felt Stolas hold him closer, one hand coming up behind his head to cradle him like he meant anything to anyone, soft, gentle kisses coming down across his forehead and temples as Stolas lowered them both down to the bathtub floor.

“There you are, here I am…” Stolas soothed. “I love you my darling, I’m right here… I’m always going to be right here… Shh, shh…”

Blitz nodded along, hearing about half of what his bird was telling him anymore and not caring what it might be so long as Stolas kept talking, kept his body wrapped up around Blitz’s. Anything so long as Blitz could still feel his bird’s heartbeat, hear his voice, smell the lavender and lilacs, and the faintest, barest hint of magick and stardust…

“Don’t go…” Blitz pleaded around hard, heavy pulls for breath. “Fuck, Stolas- Don’t leave me here without you. They made you leave, n’ maybe you died back there in the palace, an’ I couldn’t save you either, and I-I c-couldn’t see you, n’ what if you died but I wasn’t there to protect you? An'-”

“Oh no, my love. No no no-” Stolas cut in before Blitz could work himself up into a worse panic. “Nothing like that happened. I’m right here. See me? Feel me?”

He tightened his arms around Blitz, kissed the curl of one horn, rubbed the curve of his back just before the beginning of a bandage.

“You have a fever my love.” Stolas told him in short, easy words that took no effort to understand. “It’s quite high- We’re going to sit under this nice water until it breaks, alright? Because I love you, and I’m here for you. I love you my beautiful imp, I always will. Always.”

Blitz nodded along, the sobs ebbing back the longer he could feel Stolas there with him, hear him talking and responding when Blitz called out. He felt the soggy feathers bunching up under his fingers as he clung to his prince’s back, listened to the steady, racing heartbeat under his ear, told himself over and over that he’d had a nightmare, Stolas was safe and whole in front of him. His pretty bird was right here, everything else was a bunch of bullshit his brain made up to fuck with him in the dark, because it was so damn hot all of a sudden. He was burning-

Except that he wasn’t. Blitz was actually frozen as the icy water kept up its grim work and Stolas all around him provided the only heat in the room. He started to shiver, teeth chattering as the cold pierced his sensitive hellborn imp skin much faster than if he’d been any other kind of demon.

“S-Stols?” he called, raising his head up out of the comforting chest feathers just high enough to look up at the four huge red eyes focused only on him. “Stols I’m f-fuckin’ freezing… We g-gotta get outta h-here…”

Stolas bit his lower lip, worried about moving them away from the cold water too soon and throwing Blitz back down into the fever dreams, but watching as his imp’s skin lost colour the longer they sat there under the frigid deluge.

“I- Can you hold on for five more minutes?” Stolas bargained. “Just to be sure the fever breaks. I don’t want you warming up so quickly again, you’ll do yourself damage.”

Blitz nodded and pressed in as closely as he could to his prince. “Y-Yeah. Okay, s-sure…” he agreed with a shiver. “Y-You got dry clothes close by? G-Gonna n-need ‘em fast. My dick’s about t-to fall o-off…”

Stolas laughed in spite of himself, the worry and anxiety of the last hour spilling out of him with the little giggle Blitz’s ridiculous sense of humour coaxed out of him. “I’m sure it won’t.” Stolas said with a fond kiss to Blitz’s forehead. “I wouldn’t ruin my favourite toy, now would I?”

He felt Blitz shake with laughter against him, and Stolas heaved a sigh of relief. The nightmare had seemed so endless, so all-encompassing, but here they were now, joking like idiots under the cold shower while Blitz let Stolas look after him for once. Almost as if they were really doing this, honestly in a committed relationship, for better or worse, no matter what happened next, or who tried to get between them…

Blitz sneezed, and the sound was so unexpected and adorable, his face screwing up like a much younger imp’s as the involuntary squeeze of his entire body forced the sneeze out of him, that Stolas felt the whole world lift off his shoulders.

“Lucifer keep you, Blitzy.” he teased, and Blitz scowled up at him.

“Y-You’re lucky I f-fuckin’ love you.” Blitz complained without any real heat in his words. Or anywhere else in him. “H-How fuckin’ long is f-five m-minutes anyway?”

“A few minutes longer, love.” Stolas promised. “Be brave, my big, strong Blitzy. I’ll make it up to you in kisses once we’re done here.”

“B-Better let me g-get my hands on s-somethin’ f-fun.” Blitz threw back as a hard shiver ran straight through him. “F-Fuck it’s c-cold!”

“Blitz, we talked about this.” Stolas chided sternly. “Neither of us is in any condition to-”

“Quit m-makin’ sense an’ lemme get c-closer!” Blitz shot back straight into the middle of Stolas’s patient reminder. “F-Fuck me! I c-can f-feel my blood!”

Stolas shivered alongside his imp and drew the smaller body closer. “Y-You aren’t wrong.” he relented “I think we’ve both had enough…”

He shifted to a low kneel, reached over to turn the taps off, and the relentless icy deluge cut itself off abruptly. Blitz shuddered hard as the water stopped and the cool air of the apartment instantly washed over both of them, and wrapped his entire body around Stolas like a soggy, imp-shaped backpack.

“C-Clean clothes…” Blitz asked miserably. “S’t-too c-cold…”

“I- Yes, new clothes.” Stolas echoed, sounding alarmed as he realized something was wrong and unsuccessfully tried not to worry his Blitz. “Up you come darling.”

“Stols?” Blitz asked immediately. “S’wrong baby?”

Stolas smiled at him and passed a gentle hand along one horn as he stepped up over the bathtub’s edge and pulled a warm, fluffy towel down off the rack for his imp. “Nothing, love. You’re alright, I have you.”

Blitz made a face even as he let his bird wrap him securely up in the towel. “Y-Yeah. You’re s-sellin’ it r-real good.” he deadpanned. “Don’t bullshit me. I k-know you too well.”

Stolas sighed, pulling a towel down for himself and draping it across his slender shoulders like a blanket without jostling Blitz too badly. “Of course you do.” he sighed, all the love in the world in the simple words.

He rubbed at Blitz’s arms, held the shivering imp closer as he unsuccessfully tried to warm him up and dry off his own soaked feathers at the same time.

“I’m not sure we have any clean clothes left…” Stolas apologized with a wince. “It’s been so chaotic, and you were very sick yesterday… Earlier?” He shook his head to refocus himself. “Whatever the fuck it was. We were both messy, and Loona’s been lending Octavia clothes because she’s had to leave everything behind, and…”

He trailed off, all four eyes guilty and anxious as he looked down at Blitz in his arms, half-naked and chilled to the bone. His imp gazed back at him, the golden eyes cloudy with fever, but otherwise open and full of nothing but concern for the love of his life, and Stolas felt himself smile a little at the reminder that what they had was more than silly little setbacks like this.

“I’m not sure if I can dress us both.” Stolas finished quietly, his tone softened and full of apology. “But we still have your blankets, and whatever we can find behind the beanbag.”

Blitz nodded along with him and drew his towel in closer around his shoulders. “Okay, e-easy.” he said so simply that Stolas instantly believed him. “P-Put me down here a s-sec- Get us both d-dry, at l-least.”

He waved vaguely behind himself at the closed lid of the toilet and Stolas obliged, setting his imp carefully down on the seat and moving to pull his sodden top off. He felt the air nipping at his skin beneath the waterlogged feathers, gooseflesh rising along his arms and torso making his feathers puff up and ruffle in an effort to get him warmer, and Blitz laughed at the involuntary display.

“S-Satan you’re gorgeous.” the imp breathed around the cold, and the fever, and the small hour of the morning they were awake in. “I f-fuckin’ love you, Stols.”

Stolas blushed prettily, giving Blitz a playful nudge at one shoulder as the imp wiped water off his horns and rubbed at his arms and chest with the old towel. “Oh shut up, you ridiculous thing. I look like shit.”

“C-Couldn’t happen.” Blitz told him as if his opinion closed the matter entirely. “I d-don’t k-keep shit in the house.”

Stolas very pointedly did not bring up the Caramel Cheese Couch incident, and let his imp think he’d won a round in favour of dropping his soaked towel and scooping Blitz back up against his mostly-dry chest. “Mm, well, let’s blame the fever for your delusional eyes and find us some dry clothes if we can, shall we?”

Blitz started to nod, thought of something, and put a hand into his prince’s shoulder to stall him. “Wait- One s-sec.” he asked quickly, draped his towel over Stolas's shoulder in front of him, and immediately wriggled out of his wet shorts.

Stolas felt his face heat up as all of his imp came into sudden, full view, and Blitz caught him staring with a coy smirk that told Stolas Blitz was about to say something borderline offensive at him.

“Blitz…” Stolas warned as he stepped out into the main living room and the imp raised an eyebrow at him.

“What? Y-You think I c-can’t see you?” Blitz challenged mildly. “L-Lookin’ at all this like I g-got d-dinner on the table?”

Stolas shivered, cold having nothing to do with it as he felt his body automatically responding to Blitz’s cocky little tease with an answering pushback. Heat was in his eyes, he could feel the blush in his cheeks, arousal pooling up in his stomach and between his thighs, but Stolas was beyond exhausted, his imp was ice-cold between his arms, and everything was just so freshly resolved that the relief was pressing in around him like a lead weight.

“Where did you last put my pajamas?” Stolas asked instead of responding to the shameless idiot’s words. “They’ll fit you if I roll the cuffs high enough.”

“B-Beanbag.” Blitz told him with a smirk. He turned his chest up into Stolas’s, pressing their bodies closer as both knees came up to wrap around his prince’s waist and his tail curled up around the slender hips.

Every bare inch of him (emphasis on bare, Stolas thought with a groan) pressed up into Stolas’s stomach, the hot, sweaty face slipping down across the damp fluff at Stolas’s throat in the endearing, sweet way only Blitz could manage, and Stolas just couldn’t help himself.

He leaned in, lifting Blitz up with one hand up under his delicious ass, and kissed the obnoxious smirk squarely. Blitz rose up against Stolas’s chest, sliding his wide-open legs ever so rightly up along Stolas’s naked body, and they kissed hard, and fast, and within a handful of seconds Stolas was whimpering up against his imp’s sharp little teeth, and Blitz had a hand snaking down along Stolas’s side, towards the sensitive base of the owl prince’s tail, and Stolas was dipping them down to let him-

“Oh my fucking lords!” Via’s voice screeched in utter disgust “What the actual fuck is happening right now!”

“Oh shit!” Blitz yelped at the same time Stolas choked on thin air and made a noise like a bird hitting a plate-glass window.

“Via! This isn’t what it looks like!” Stolas cried , scrambling to straighten up and push Blitz away from him at the same time. “It’s- Shit!”

His arm under Blitz slipped, Blitz scrambled to cup both hands over his front for Via’s sake, leaving him zero free hands to catch himself with and Stolas couldn’t catch a fucking breeze if it hit him in the damn face, so Blitz hit the hardwood flooring with a rough, loud smack of his horns and a string of loud, harsh curses as his back laced absolute fire up his spine and into his throbbing head.

“Blitz!” Stolas cried in alarm, already kneeling beside his imp and scrambling to help sit him up. “Oh my Lucifer, I’m so sorry my love! I- Oh!”

One of Blitz’s big hands flashed past his shoulder, making Stolas jump reflexively as an open hand came flying towards his face, and Blitz whipped the towel off his shoulders, wrapping it hastily around his hips to spare Via further unsolicited cockshots of her new roommate.

“F-Fuck me, Stols!” Blitz spat through gritted teeth “What th-the f-fuck! That hurt!”

“Show me?” Stolas asked swiftly, worry clear in his words as Blitz heaved himself up into a shaky sitting position. “Show me what hurts darling, I’ll fix it.”

“I’m going blind on my way to the bathroom is what’s wrong!” Via cut in furiously. “What the actual fuck you two! Couldn’t you wait until I wasn’t home?”

“H-How the fuck w-were we s’posed to k-know you w-were gonna need a piss at th-three am!” Blitz shot back irritably. He shivered hard, his back lanced agony up across his shoulders, and his face paled as Via’s hard glare softened at the sight of him.

“This isn’t what it looked like, Starfire!” Stolas added swiftly. “He was burning up, I had to get him under cold water- We weren’t- I- H-He…”

Stolas trailed off awkwardly, violently pink in the face as Blitz sucked in hard, steady pulls for air and tried not to throw up all over his freshly clean prince.

“A-Are you alright?” Via asked nervously. “Like, did something pop when you fell?”

Blitz didn’t answer her, his eyes screwed shut in a brave effort not to snap something rough and biting at her, and Stolas dropped down into a cross-legged position to gather his imp up into his lap.

“Show me?” he asked Blitz so gently that Blitz actually peeked an eye open for him. “Let me see, Blitzy. Let your pretty bird help…”

“D-Don’t call me that in f-front of her!” Blitz complained. “M-My fuckin’ b-back! S’freezing!”

“Via, darling?” Stolas called back to his daughter. “Can you go into Loona’s room and bring us the winter blankets? I’m going to see about finding us dry clothes.”

“You'd better be clothed by the time I get back!” Via admonished sharply. “Keep your hands to yourselves, okay?”

“I promise.” Stolas agreed hastily. “I’m so sorry my precious girl, we didn’t think you’d be awake.”

“D-Didn’t think you’d s-see anythin’…” Blitz chimed in more reasonably this time. “S-Sorry sweetheart, h-honest.”

His whole body shuddered as Stolas felt his imp’s hands and feet turning to ice against him, and Stolas swept the little body up into his arms again.

“Quickly, Via.” he reminded his daughter. “He’s shivering badly.”

Via nodded shortly, rushing back to Loona’s room for the requested blankets as Stolas carried Blitz over to the beanbag and knelt into the dip in the styrofoam so he could rifle through the questionable tangle of clean and dirty clothes shoved up behind it.

“Something warm…” Stolas muttered mostly to himself “A pair of my pajama pants? No… Of fucking course not… A pair of your shorts, at least? No, why would anything useful be here. Stupid fucking, sonofabitch…”

“S-Sweater.” Blitz said steadily, directly into Stolas’s increasingly agitated mumbling. "B-Big sweater. S-See it?”

Stolas frowned, flinging aside tops that smelled like actual death, a handful of Blitz’s clean underwear…

“Give me some guidance?” he asked with a bit of a bite in his words now. “Next to… In front of?”

Blitz pointed straight in front of them, and Stolas followed his hand until he too saw the plainly visible sweater. He snatched it up off the pile of clothes with an irritated huff, and Blitz nuzzled up under his chin in a silent act of reassurance.

“You’re f-fine pretty bird.” he encouraged. “S’okay. I-It’s late, we’re t-tired n’ it feels sh-shitty.”

Stolas nodded, cuddling his imp briefly closer before helping Blitz pull the sweater on over his horns and head. Blitz had thought to grab a pair of boxers up out of the laundry pile where Stolas had been singularly focused on one task at a time as his thoughts began to slow and stick with exhaustion and the newer, chillier feeling of cold from the drafty old apartment around them. He shivered as he held his Blitz steady under the arms so his imp could step into the boxers, and Blitz frowned up at him.

“G-Get some f-fleece on b-baby bird.” he asked softly. “D-Don’t want m-my bird c-catchin’ c-cold.”

Stolas blinked a bit dazedly at him, but nodded anyway and carefully set Blitz down in the beanbag while he dove back behind the thing and retrieved an old, ratty pair of Loona’s old pajama bottoms he hadn’t seen since last Sinsmas when he’d first borrowed them.

The cheerful pawprints and dog bone print made Stolas smile as he pulled the pants on and left himself shirtless, unwilling to spend another second digging through laundry or away from his imp, who was half-asleep in the beanbag beside him despite the tremors still running through him.

He carefully scooped Blitz back up into his arms, slipping himself down into the crook of the beanbag’s well-worn center, and within another handful of seconds, Via was back with the requested blanket.

“Are you decent?” she called from the far end of the couch, head turned stoically towards the front entryway just in case the two idiots in the living room were back to seeing how much of each other they could swallow without choking to death. “Can I get closer?”

“Y-Yes, of course Starfire!” Stolas reassured at once. “Thank you Via, really- He’s freezing.”

Via nodded as she crossed the room to the two in the beanbag, and her eyes softened as she saw Blitz looking completely pathetic curled up in her father’s lap and shaking like a leaf. Her father took the blanket from her and Blitz never made a sound as the heavy fabric fell across his shoulders as Stolas began to wrap him securely up in it.

“I… L-Loona said imps run warm?” she asked hesitantly, watching as her dad swaddled the shivering imp up as if he were six instead of fully grown.

She smiled a little at the sight- At least her dad was consistent. He treated everybody like they were little kids, not just her. It felt better somehow, seeing her father reflexively leaning back on all the little comforts he’d given her as a child, still did, when she let him…

“Is he okay?” Via tried again “Loona said he shouldn’t need the blanket- Sh-Should I get her to check on him?”

Stolas frowned and shook his head. “It’s alright my love,” he reassured vaguely, all his attention on Blitz in his arms “We took an ice bath to bring his fever down, that’s all. He’ll be warm in a few minutes.”

“G-Gimme Loonie a s-sec?” Blitz asked very softly from under his nest of blanket. “S’too c-cold… I hurt…”

Stolas startled and almost asked what he could do, how he could help, if he’d done something wrong, but Via was already hurrying back into Loona’s room, and the hellhound was padding quickly their way with a frown on her face and another, lighter blanket in her arms.

“What the fuck happened out here?” Loona demanded roughly, her eyes telling Stolas she was worried more than angry. “First you two assholes scar Via for life with your horny face-sucking, now my Dad’s a fuckin’ pupsicle?”

“H-He was tryin’ t-to h-help.” Blitz told her through a hard shiver. “S’n-not his f-fault he doesn’t know sh-shit about imps.”

Stolas almost shot back that he was sure he did know at least one thing about imps by now, but as Blitz continued to tremble and Loona leaned in to add her blanket to Stolas’s snugly wrapped one, it dawned on him where he’d gone wrong.

“Oh my Lucifer, he runs hot.” Stolas snapped his head up to look at Loona, who bit her lower lip and confirmed. “I put him in a cold shower… He can’t get warm enough quickly enough. This is my fault…”

“Hey- Hey, n-no, pretty bird. S’okay.” Blitz said quickly, one hand slipping out from under his blanket pile to brush his fingers over Stolas’s cheek. “S’okay, y-you’re h-here. I-I’m good.”

Stolas looked down at him, tears in all four of his eyes as he saw his imp freezing and wincing hard in front of him, all because Stolas had forgotten the most basic of imp biology, and-

“Loona?” Via asked quietly into the rapid spiral of Stolas’s thoughts. “Can you help me fix the couch up? I-I think they’ll actually sleep if we put them in their bed.”

Loona turned to the younger girl, blinking stupidly for a second as the handful of sleep she’d managed to get and the rude awakening Via’s horrified scream had provided five minutes ago briefly made her thoughts lag, then smiled broadly.

“Yeah- That’s a great idea Via.” she agreed, and Via gave her a shaky little smile back as Loona put a hand on her shoulder and nodded at the back of the couch. “Here, lemme help. The sooner we get these assholes settled down, the sooner we can go back to bed.”

Via giggled a little as she crossed the small space and tossed Loona the first cushion over the back of the couch. “Man, my dad used to tell me stories about having to get up with me at all hours, and that when I had my own baby, I’d have to do it too. Who knew he was gonna be my first kid?”

Loona rolled her eyes as she slid the second cushion back into place and took the third as Via offered it. “Not the first time Blitz has made me clean up after him at four in the morning.” she said with a rueful little laugh. “At least nobody’s puking this time.”

Blitz groaned as she said it, and Loona’s ears pinned themselves back as she thought she heard disaster coming, but Stolas started talking- something too low and quiet for even her sensitive ears to catch, and Blitz turned his whole face into the bird’s chest without another word.

Without arguing, or swearing, or insisting he was fine, leave him the hell alone, or- Just… Looking for comfort, and finding it with his prince. Moving like they’d always done this, like Blitz was sure if he asked, Stolas would be there, and Loona felt her eyes soften to the point of tears watching them. It had been so long since her dad had trusted anyone like this, even Millie, or Loona herself…

“Via?” Stolas called in a quiet undertone. “Can I move him over? He’s falling asleep, and so am I.”

Loona shook her head to clear it as Via came back around the couch to look up at her as if she had all the fucking answers, and Loona realized with a start that Via probably did think she could pull miraculous fixes out of her asshole the way she’d been doing all week so far, and the sudden weight of faith from a recently rescued, seventeen-year-old goetia princess and her stupid dumb Bird Dad with a helpless Blitz in his arms staggered her for a second.

“Uh, Y-Yeah. Yeah, you’re good.” Loona answered a little unsteadily. “You need help, or?”

Stolas tried to wave her off, but he stumbled as he got to his feet, and Loona slipped an arm up under his elbow to steady him before be dropped Blitz- again- and some gash or whatever opened up on her dad’s back.

“Via- You can go to the bathroom and go back to bed, okay?” Loona called back to the teenager. “I got it from here.”

Via jumped a little, suddenly remembering why she’d gotten up in the first place, and nodded quickly as she disappeared into the little bathroom while Loona walked Stolas over to the couch.

“Sh-Should we change out his bandages first, do you think?” Stolas asked shakily as Loona guided him the short few steps to the couch. “They’ll be wet from the shower, and cold, I imagine.”

Blitz made a faint, whimpering noise of protest at the idea of unwrapping any more of himself from under the blankets, and Loona sighed as she looked back up at the anxious owl prince in front of her and tried to find a way to tell him ‘no’ that wouldn’t leave him more upset than he already was.

“I… Think maybe we let it go for tonight.” she said slowly. “He’s pretty frozen, and you said it was clean water anyway, plus we wrap up worse than this after a rough job at the office, so I think it’ll be okay for a couple more hours.”

“I-If either o-of you a-assholes fuckin’ touches a b-blanket…” Blitz warned as he clung to Stolas with one hand and clutched his blankets closer around himself with the other. “S-Swear to S-Satan I’ll k-kick your a-asses out the balcony w-window.”

Stolas smiled a little at the fiery warning that held absolutely no substance to it, and adjusted Blitz in his arms so that he was draped over his chest instead. “I think we’ll try body heat and blankets first, then see where we are by morning.” he told his imp as Loona rolled her eyes at her father’s empty threats, and Stolas kissed one of his imp’s temples soothingly. “Does that sound fair, darling? You let us look after the stitches once you’re warm. No arguments, alright? For me.”

Blitz growled under his breath, his feet kicking briefly along Stolas’s sides as he scrabbled to climb up higher and get closer to his prince, and Stolas lifted his arm up under the perfect curve of Blitz’s ass to help him.

“Ask me th-then.” Blitz shot back irritably. “S’f-fuckin’ cold, Stolas.”

Loona heaved a huge, exasperated sigh at her dumbass of a dad, about to argue sense into him, but Stolas surprised her by holding a hand up to stop her and moving himself over to the end of the couch instead.

“It’s alright Loona, I can manage from here.” Stolas was telling the hound even as his entire body began to tremble with exhaustion and the cold of the drafty old apartment. “I have him.”

“I know you do.” Loona said with a smile as she helped him lay down across the old couch with Blitz securely cradled to his chest. “Lemme help my dads, okay? He’s all yours once I get you under the covers.”

“He’s mine n-now.” Blitz shot back fiercely, his words half a mumble as he spoke with his eyes closed and one hand curled up around one of his prince’s arms.

 He peeked up at his daughter from the middle of his blanket cocoon, and gave her the shadow of his usual grin. “Thanks sweetie. S-Sorry we woke you…”

Loona lifted a shoulder in a dismissive shrug. “You look a lot better now. Good thing someone around here knows what they’re doing.”

She’d said it as a joke, to be funny and wave off her dad’s praise the way she always did when she was uncomfortable with a compliment, but Stolas wilted like the words had been a punch to the gut, and Loona winced.

She opened her mouth to say something reassuring, to apologize to him, but Via came out of the bathroom before she’d had a chance to think, and then Blitz was wrapped up around his boyfriend like a second skin, and Loona couldn’t face one more thing that night without losing her everloving shit.

“Go to bed.” she growled at the pair on the couch. “Keep your clothes on, and sleep, okay? I’m not comin’ back out here ‘til morning.”

“See you in an hour!” Blitz quipped like the asshole he was, and Loona laughed despite herself. How was he always so good at knowing what to say? How to make her feel better, even when she said nothing at all to tell him she needed it?

The stupid bird laughed too, and passed a careful hand up over one of Blitz’s horns, and Loona felt worry melting off her as she turned to go back to her room at long, long last.

Stolas could handle things. He understood Blitz in a way none of the rest of them did, and at complete worst, Loona was right there in the house to rush in and save whichever dumbass fucked up next from whatever they got up to.

Unless it was another naked session like the one Via had obliviously walked in on. That was gonna have to be a learning curve the kid handled for herself. Satan knew Loona had.

Chapter Text

A/N: And now a hiatus while I hop into the sea! I told y'all I was trying to give a few extra updates while I'm gone- No wifi in the ocean, which means A Brief Intermission after this. Hopefully the domestic, family-time chapter makes up for the absence <3

CW/TW: Panic attack, anxiety. Mention of graphic violence (canon-typical), blood

As always, concrit, comments, emojis, carrier pigeons all welcome and appreciated!

Chapter 21: Ohana Means Family; Family Means Everything

Via had gone back to bed, Loona had followed after a handful of minutes, and Stolas listened to the quiet settling back down around them as Blitz’s hard, full-body shivers lessened and finally stopped as his imp pulled the two heavy blankets up around both shoulders, and Stolas felt like the worst piece of shit alive for forgetting the most basic imp biology anyone in any ring knew.

Even goetia royals knew to keep their imp staff warm- Cold could kill them, all the guidebooks and proper, fancy scholars opined. Imps were delicate little creatures designed to be put to work and nothing more, but if one let them catch a chill, it was a mark of deep shame as it meant the royal house could not properly support their estate by maintaining their staff. A Goetia always kept their tools well-maintained, after all, and imps were only an extension of Royal will.

Stolas made a face as the old memory played without his direct permission, and hugged his Blitz closer against his chest. His imp sighed into the feathers tucked up just under his chin, the way he always did, the clever tail sneaking out from under the blankets to wrap itself around one of Stolas’s wrists in a silent show of claim.

That particular endearment had never been in any of the books Stolas had read, he mused with a smile. None of the clever scholars of imps had ever mentioned the social, loving touches imps handed out like candy amongst their peers. All the laughter, the warmth, the social bonding conducted by means of outwardly alarming violence that never actually hurt anyone- Only displayed affection, described intimacy with friends and family, and-

Blitz’s soft, quiet purrs broke into his tired thoughts, and Stolas snuggled deeper against the low rumble of his imp’s contented body.

Mine the little sound said loud and clear Mine, safe, warm

That hadn’t been in any of the textbooks either. The way that singular, innocent sound told Stolas much more than sex was between him and Blitz now, that his imp trusted him, loved him. That Stolas was Blitz’s safe place, well and truly now after all of it, after everything…

Stolas fell asleep with the gentle comfort of that realization in his chest, warming him from the inside out and wrapping his Blitz up between his arms as his imp slept on.

The world dropped away, a muted purple light crept out from under Stolas’s motionless hands like a rabbit sneaking itself up out of its burrow, checking for predators and danger before leaping up and outwards into the world.

The light blossomed the deeper Stolas slept, and neither demon on the couch had even the faintest clue that it existed as the sun began to rise behind the half-closed curtains and the apartment stayed silent and still for the first time in a week.

                                                                                                                                     ~*~*~*~*~

Something went click, and Blitz was instantly awake.

He jumped to his knees, the couch under him giving him a strangled kind of huh sound as he whipped the tangled blankets away from him and reached under the pillow for his gun-

Which wasn’t fucking there. Neither was the pillow, and Blitz made a split-second decision to vault the back of the couch and start swinging at whoever the fuck had a scope on him in his own fuckin’ house-

“Piece of shit! I’ll kill ya with my fuckin’ belt!” Blitz promised wildly, forgetting he was in his literal underwear and wasn’t wearing a belt “Nobody touches my bird!”

“Blitz! Holy shit- It’s just a camera!” Via squealed in alarm, waving Loona’s phone between them in some weak form of self-defense. “You’re asleep! Blitz!”

Blitz pivoted in mid-air the way only a trained circus imp could have pulled off, his lower body twisting a full 180 as his tail whipped up beneath him to give him some forward momentum for the leap he was about to make over the wide-eyed teenager in front of him.

“Duck, Via!” Blitz shot at the girl. “Down!”

She did it without thinking, his big hands barely touched her shoulders as Blitz expertly controlled his fall, shifted his weight away from her younger, more vulnerable body, and flipped himself neatly onto all fours behind her.

“Via!” a newer, fuzzier voice cried worriedly. “Are you alright? Blitz- What the fuck was that? That’s my daughter, you incredible asshole!”

“I thought she was a sniper!” Blitz protested indignantly, heart still hammering in his chest as he crouched right in the middle of the apartment and caught his breath. “I heard a click- You can’t do that shit around here! Don’t you know what I do for a livin’!”

“I’m sorry!” Via cried on the verge of tears. “I was taking a fucking picture- How was I supposed to know you were going to kill me about it!”

Stolas rounded the couch in three quick strides and wrapped his arms around his daughter’s shoulders. “You didn’t do anything wrong darling.” he reassured her. “You’re alright. Blitz is a little jumpy when he’s asleep. You couldn’t have known…”

“A little?" Via echoed incredulously, hiding her face in her father’s shoulder as the adrenaline began to leave her shaky and unsteady. “He was about to beat the shit out of me in his underwear!”

“Yeah, well, I said I’m sorry!” Blitz grumbled as he picked himself up off the floor and moved to stand beside his prince and the kid. “What the fuck was so special you needed to snap a pic of us while we were asleep anyway? Gonna start a scrapbook?”

The way his ridiculous face lit up at the idea of Via starting a family picture book made the teenager bite back the sarcastic reply she’d been ready to snipe back. Blitz was just so earnest, so eager to have them bond and get closer. Almost as if he’d been dreaming of exactly this for longer than Via had a notion of…

“I wanted to show you-” Via explained to cover her sudden unease around Blitz. She thumbed open the screen to show Blitz and her dad the picture she’d managed before all hell had broken loose. “Dad was glowing again- See? It was a lot calmer this time, maybe because he was asleep?”

Stolas leaned in to get a better look, and Blitz stretched up onto the absolute tips of his toes, trying and failing to get a decent angle on the hastily taken picture.

“Can you fuckin’ lean down?” Blitz demanded irritably. “You guys are like, seven horses tall- I can’t see shit!”

Stolas made an annoyed noise at him and gave his stupid boyfriend a shove out of the way. “Wait your turn, you menace. It’s the least you can do after kicking me directly in the gut five minutes ago.”

Blitz winced, amber eyes immediately wide and apologetic. “I did?” He leaned in closer to his bird, parted the soft feathers with the palm of one hand to expose the tender skin beneath, and pressed a gentle, loving kiss to Stolas’s stomach. “Sorry baby, I was so focused on protectin’ you…”

He kissed the feathered body again, and a warm, heady feeling completely separate from the warm, heady feeling of arousal also pooling up in his stomach began to gather in Stolas’s chest. Via was still hugged up against his side, Blitz to his immediate right, the soft purple light crept timidly out from under Stolas’s palms as Blitz lingered against him, and Via rolled her eyes at the display.

“There!” Via shouted urgently, pointing and waving at her dad. “D’you see it now? The magick- He can pull magick again!”

Blitz jerked back, eyes huge and eager to catch sight of the light again, and Stolas startled instinctively at the sudden movement. His heart raced despite his full knowledge that Blitz wouldn’t hurt him, couldn’t bring any real harm to his prince, and the light abruptly stuttered out under his hands.

“What the fuck- Why’d it stop?” Blitz demanded, looking up at the two owls for answers. “D-Did I like… Was it something I did? D-Did I hurt you?”

He move in closer, brushing his fingers over Stolas’s bare stomach again, brows knit with worry, and the light flickered back to life at his touch.

Via narrowed her eyes, an old lesson she’d once been given as a preteen floating vaguely back to the front of her mind as she watched her dad looking stunned, and Blitz gazing up at his boyfriend like Stolas hung the moon. Which would have been true once upon a time…

“I-I think I know what’s happening.” Via said slowly, carefully. “I dunno why it’s happening, but I think I know what it is…”

Stolas huffed an annoyed sigh as the magick dimmed and dissipated in seconds again, and crossed his hands over his chest. “Alright, but I want my coffee first. If we’re going to have a serious conversation, I want to be awake for it.”

“And medicated!” Blitz added swiftly. “Go get your meds baby, I’ll start the coffee.” He held out a hand to Via in friendly invitation. “D’you drink coffee, Via? I think we got some apple or orange juice someplace if not. What about pancakes? You like those? Your dad does, but sometimes he won’t eat ‘em ‘cause I always burn a couple-”

Blitz kept talking at roughly the speed of sound, Via following behind him as he led her to the kitchen and her father briefly disappeared into the bathroom for his pills.

“I- Blitz?” Via asked shyly as Blitz paused for breath and she took her shot. “Can I ask you something?”

Blitz looked back at her from the open fridge in front of him, smiling broadly at the owl princess. “Anything. What’s up?”

She bit her lower lip, clearly uncomfortable, then pulled in a deep, steadying breath. “Doesn’t your back hurt?”

Blitz blinked, hand frozen mid-lift of the milk and thought about the question. “I- Huh.” He stood up straight, milk still in hand, and rolled his shoulders experimentally. “Oh shit, it doesn’t. I can still feel the stitches, obviously, and it kinda feels a li’l shitty still, but…”

He frowned and looked up at Via. “You think your dad fixed it like he fixed my arm? W-Without meaning to, o-or like, by accident, or…”

Via shook her head, eyes a hundred miles away as she thought hard and tried to remember her magick lessons. “I…I think that fight with uncle Andre changed everything…” she told him slowly, vaguely. She heard herself mid-sentence and made a frustrated noise at her own clumsy phrasing. “Like, obviously things changed. Everything fucking changed that night. I mean like, something else. Something maybe bigger than just us? Like… My dad has magick again. That has to mean something.”

Blitz chewed a thoughtful corner of his cheek as he began to make coffee on complete autopilot and pulled four mugs- every cup he owned, he noted distantly- down from his cupboards. “Yeah…” he agreed carefully, a little dazedly.

He scooped coffee out of the can, set the machine working so his fussy prince wouldn’t be irritated about having to wait an extra second for the machine to finish once he was done in the bathroom, and leaned back against the counter to face Via.

“I… Maybe we wait for Loonie to wake up too…” he said quietly. “This sounds like a family meeting.”

“What sounds like a family meeting?” Stolas asked as he stepped soundlessly around the corner that divided the kitchen from the bathroom wall, and Blitz swore as he jumped ten miles. Stupid fuckin’ bird bones being hollow and quiet…

Stolas’s eyes widened as he saw Blitz casually lounging back against the rough countertop, and he rushed in to pull his imp up and away from the thing. “Blitz! Your back!” he admonished. “The stitches!”

Blitz let his bird move him, then turned his back to the room, pulling his shirt up to expose his whole back. “I- Can you check to make sure I didn’t rip anythin’?” he asked a little too off-handedly.

Stolas frowned, hearing the unspoken questions in his imp’s voice, but said nothing about it as he did what he’d been asked.

“Alright… The bandaging needed changing out anyway.” he relented, all four eyes suspicious and cautious as he moved in closer to his Blitz.

He carefully peeled away a corner of medical tape that had already begun to come loose on Blitz’s left shoulder, and when the imp hardly reacted to the gentle, firm tug of Stolas’s work, the owl prince began to suspect.

He kept moving, pulling the bandages loose in longer, rougher movements, and Blitz held absolutely still for him, elbows up beside his ears as he kept his sleep shirt out of the way and Stolas finally got to the corner of bandaging he knew intersected with the deepest, roughest lines of stitching Blitz had been given. The ones that crossed the healthy, red skin and led up along the rough keloid scarring on his back in a jagged, messy line Stolas was very sure the surgeon could have paid better mind about.

He frowned at himself, a hot, sudden flash of anger making his vision flicker briefly as he thought of doctors ignoring duty of care just to uphold the brutal class system that kept Hell so neatly divided. To protect the system that had nearly taken his Blitz away from him, kept his lover so beaten down and disadvantaged that during those early days when they’d been nothing but bedfellows, when Stolas had been kind, of all things, Blitz had seen nothing but condescension and courtly politicking. 

And he hadn’t been entirely wrong, at first, Stolas recalled with a wince. He leaned in to cover his discomfiture at his own ignorance with a brief, gentle kiss to the curl of one of Blitz’s horns, and his imp looked back at him with concern in his open golden eyes. Concern and a question he asked so often, Stolas heard it without Blitz needing to speak; You okay, pretty bird? What do you need? I’m right here

The unspoken ask and the familiar face brought an instant smile to Stolas’s face, and he leaned in to brush the curve of his beak up along the upturned cheek in front of him in his own wordless answer; I’m okay. I have you

And he did, Stolas knew. Heart, body, soul- Always, the same way Blitz had him. Whatever that meant, however the world treated them, no matter what; It would be them and their girls, and that was just going to have to be the end of it.

Blitz began to fidget, because the imp could hardly stand still on a day without half his back covered in bandages and tape, but he’d made such a valiant effort at it so far that Stolas knew he had about five minutes before his ridiculous little love found some reason to explode into another whirlwind of activity around the kitchen.

Nevermind institutional racism Stolas told himself very, very firmly as he straighten up and turned back to the task at hand We’ll burn that bridge when we come to it

“Almost there darling.” he encouraged Blitz. “Does it hurt?”

“What? Oh, uh, yeah. Sure. Some.” Blitz fumbled awkwardly. “Hurry up and get the dressings off, okay?”

Stolas smirked a laugh at his imp, catching the obvious lie at once and playing along just to see how far Blitz would take this. “Dressings? My my, Blitzy- Who taught you such polished vocabulary? Are you sure you know what it means?”

Blitz scowled as he heard Via giggle from the kitchen table, and almost crossed his arms over his chest indignantly, but remembered he was keeping his back clear for his prince at the last second. “I said don’t call me that in front of your kid!” he complained loudly, and Stolas answered by tugging a corner of the bandaging that ran up his right side- the infected, painful, tender side- just a little more roughly than he needed to. “And I heard it on one of your stupid Hellanovellas! Ampersand or whoever the fuck, when he survived that explosion in the glass factory after waking up from his ten-year coma?”

This time Blitz winced for real, his words hitching as he spoke, and Stolas bit his lower lip at the sound.

“I’m sorry darling,” he apologized at once, taking care to be gentle as he kept his hands moving on Blitz’s back. “It’s almost off, I’ll be careful this time.”

Blitz’s shoulder rose and fell as he shrugged off the prince’s words. “S’okay, pretty bird. Any excuse to keep your hands on me.”

He grinned obnoxiously over his shoulder at Stolas, and Stolas heaved a fond, exasperated sigh at his stupid imp.

“And you wonder why I’m so mean to you.” Stolas teased. “One last pull, steady now my love.”

He did it as he said it, and Blitz‘s hands around his shirt white-knuckled as the nastiest line of botched and clearly unhealed stitching came into full view. Stolas dropped the dirty bandaging to the kitchen floor, caught Blitz as his imp whirled to crush his face up into Stolas’s stomach, and wrapped his imp up as securely as he knew.

“It’s over, we’re done.” Stolas soothed as Blitz pulled in short, choppy breaths across his feathers and held him like a vice while the pain faded. “Everything’s over darling, I’m right here… Shh… Shh, hush now, there we are, here I am…”

It took a handful of minutes for Blitz to resurface, the back of one big hand swiping angrily at tears that had risen unbidden while his entire right side burned like fire. He leaned back a little to look up at his prince, the sweet, soft face full of worry and nothing but love for his imp, and Blitz gave him a tiny little nod and a smile.

“We’re good. You can check the stitches now.” Blitz told him with a bite of edge in his words. “That last one was a motherfucker, that’s all.”

He let go of his bird, Stolas let Blitz move as the imp took a step backwards and away from him, and turned back with his shirt pulled back up around his shoulders for Stolas.

“Tell me if the others look as bad as that felt?” Blitz encouraged, and Stolas leaned in to oblige.

All four eyes went wide as he stared at the largely healed stitching lines spiderwebbing Blitz’s back. The long, ugly gash of green and yellow still ran from Blitz’s spines to the shoulder blade on his right side, but other than that, the rest of the suture lines were pristine. The skin had healed almost overnight, the skin sealed up cleanly and neatly in a series of thin, barely-there scars that joined the rest of Blitz’s work-seasoned body.

The souvenirs of past missions gone wrong, the burns from the fire, bruises and faint, darker red traces of inflammation around the newer wounds lingered, but none of the other injuries looked the way they had two days ago. Hell, they barely looked like they’d been there at all.

“Blitz…” Stolas called quietly, much too calmly for the hammering in his heart and the tremble in his knees. “Blitz, please tell me what you’re hiding from me. I know you’re trying to ease me in, but I… This… You…”

Stolas felt the floor rushing up towards him, his knees refusing to hold him as they shook hard, and without even a warning from Stolas, Blitz was already there with him, one strong hand under his elbow, one arm across Stolas’s lower back as Blitz led him to the kitchen table and helped him crumple into a chair on Octavia’s left side.

The teenager moved in to put a comforting hand on her father’s wrist, violet eyes huge and anxious, and Stolas shook every scrap of shock off him with his next breath.

“I’m alright, Starfire.” he reassured his daughter. “I’m okay, just a little bit surprised. Everything’s alright my darling, it’s all alright.”

Blitz nodded from her other side, struggling out of his shirt as it briefly tangled in his horns, and spoke from somewhere in its center. “We’re gonna figure it out sweetheart.” he promised. “Your dad’s real smart, and so are you, okay? We’ll wait for Loonie to get done sleepin’ and we’ll talk it out, right? As a family.”

Via frowned, watching as the ridiculous imp fought his shirt without success for a few moments, then reached over and helped free him.

“Is that what families do?” she asked him once Blitz’s head popped out from under the tangled fabric. “They actually support each other?”

Stolas winced, assuming the barb had been aimed at him, but Blitz saw the look of hesitant humour in Via’s eyes and smiled at her before his bird could spiral himself into guilt that wasn’t his to carry.

“Weird, huh?” Blitz said with a smile. “Took me a few years to get used to too, once I found mine. Sorry you got screwed with me for a weird uncle though.”

Octavia giggled at the oddly endearing little imp her father was so obviously ass over crown for, and gave him the lightest, most ginger tap on the arm she could summon. “Ew, don’t say that.” she laughed. “All I can picture is my dad making out with uncle Andre, and it’s just so humiliating to think about.”

“I should think not!” Stolas cut in indignantly. “I’d rather kiss a Wrathian hog’s asshole before a bath than put one feather anywhere near that prick! That frigid ice bitch looks like he kisses like a sloppy teenager who’s never been touched!”

“You better not know that for a fact.” Blitz shot back with a growl. “You’re mine, pretty bird. All mine.”

Stolas smirked and leaned his chin down across a closed fist propped up by his elbow on the table. “And if I did? What would you do about it, Blitzy?”

Blitz rounded the table before anyone could draw their next breath, and seized his prince’s smug mouth with his. He grabbed the bird across the shoulders with one strong arm, pulled Stolas down into his chest and buried his free hand in his prince’s messy headfeathers.

The kiss lasted years and hours, and Stolas was utterly lost in it as Blitz exploited every weak spot he had, melting and boiling all at once as his imp tugged at the back of his head, feathers caught up in those huge, sure hands that knew exactly what they were doing, the hot, naked chest pressed right up into his own shirtless body, and-

“Call me when you’re done sucking face! What the fuck, Dad!” Via shouted indignantly. “Is this what it’s like here? Just a constant horny teen makeout session?”

“Yep!” Blitz grinned at the exact moment Stolas blushed hard and yelped “No! I swear!”

Via rolled her eyes at the pair of them, her cheeks pink as she realized Blitz was definitely in just his boxers and that if her father hadn’t pulled the imp in as close as he had, she’d have a full and unobstructed view of whatever was going on underneath the thin fabric.

“Can you at least wear pants then?” Via admonished. “I can see- Well, I can’t see, and thank Satan for that! But I know I could be seeing the most disgusting sight in Hell if my dad didn’t have you covered with his leg!”

“Your dad likes what he sees.” Blitz smirked because he was a complete and shameless asshole, and Stolas blushed deeply, embarrassingly crimson as every feather on his body agreed loudly, and his sensible, fatherly brain told him to apologize to Via and force Blitz to get real clothes on.

“You complete idiot, that’s my daughter you’re talking to!” Stolas told Blitz sternly. “Don’t speak to her like that!”

“Didn’t treat her any different than I do Loonie.” Blitz threw back entirely too reasonably. “She was seventeen once too y’know.”

“Well and good, since she grew up in Imp City,” Stolas argued with an imperious, unconsciously courtly lilt in his voice as he drew himself up and away from Blitz. “I’m sure your daughter was well-used to crass displays of shameless lust, but mine isn’t! She grew up in a proper home, with civilized demons who keep their kissing behind closed doors!”

Even Octavia winced as she heard what her father sounded like, and Blitz let the owl prince go almost instantly.

“That’s a mood killer.” he announced to the kitchen at large. He nodded over at Via instead. “C’mon kid- Lemme get you some rats or something as an ‘I’m sorry’ breakfast. We can put the heads on the plate like a smile! The way I used to make bacon n’ egg faces for Loonie before she figured out I can’t cook eggs for shit!”

Via tried to smile for him, her four eyes anxious and uncertain as Stolas sat there at the table with his head in his hands, and Blitz seemingly breezed right by the vicious yelling Via had been expecting.

“A-Are you sure?” she asked tentatively. “Y-You’re not even mad he said that?”

Blitz laughed a little, the sound forced and obviously hurt, but not dangerous the way her mother’s laugh had been during arguments like this. “Sometimes his meds take a minute to work right. He knows what he said.” he offered as evenly as he could. “Now come get some coffee… Uh, juice? What the fuck do you drink anyway? Water? The blood of my enemies?”

Via giggled and made a face at him. “Oh my god, Blitz, ew!”

Blitz nodded along understandingly as he poured out two cups of coffee and hooked the third mug up with his fingers. “Yeah, I never liked orange juice myself. It’s pretty gross.”

Via smiled at him, her eyes bright with mischief, and Blitz beamed out at her as he opened the fridge and offered her anything she saw. She chose the apple juice, and Blitz’s eyes softened as she reminded him of Stolas and his caramel apples. They really were father and daughter, even if she seemed a lot more grounded in reality than his prince did some days. Like today…

He handed Via her juice, went back to the counter to finish adding milk and sugar to his own mug, milk and less sugar to the second cup, and carried both over to the little table tucked up against the far wall.

“Here y’go, Prince Charming.” Blitz teased as he slid Stolas his cup of coffee made the exact way he liked it. “Maybe it’ll help take the edge off that privileged attitude.”

“I’m so sorry, Blitz…” Stolas apologized miserably. “I wasn’t thinking… I don’t even believe any of that, I was just upset because you weren’t being careful of my daughter. You know what she means to me, I… I just…”

He looked up at his imp, and Blitz looked genuinely remorseful as he listened quietly and waited for Stolas to finish.

“Please be gentle with her.” Stolas asked softly, eyes on Via, who looked apprehensive and ready to bolt the very second things got truly heated. “She’s very strong, but I don’t want her to have to be. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Blitz nodded soberly. “Yeah…” he said so quietly Via almost couldn’t hear him speak. “Guess I took it a little far, huh? This’s all so new to her, n’ I could be like, a little less-” He looked himself up and down meaningfully. “This.”

Stolas smiled and gathered his imp in closer with one long arm. “If you mean ‘less naked at the breakfast table’, then yes, you could.” he said with a playful kiss to the tip of Blitz’s nose. “But if you mean less of yourself, I don’t think either of us would want that. Am I right, Starfire?”

Via jumped at being directly spoken to during what was supposed to be a screaming argument between her father and his new boyfriend, but recovered swiftly and nodded earnestly. “Definitely not that.” she agreed. “But put some pants on when I’m in the house, is that fair?”

Blitz sighed as if he were the most put-upon demon in hell, and kissed his prince to tell him everything was okay between them. “Yeah, fair ‘nough, but if you’d seen my house shorts you’d know the boxers do more to cover my, uh…” He stumbled here, searching for the right word and coming up empty, then did what he always did and plowed ahead anyway. “Y’know, my whole package.”

“And it absolutely is the whole package, Blitzy.” Stolas said into his ear, the low, silky whisper like a promise that shivered right through Blitz. “Be good for me and I’ll help you unwrap it later tonight.”

Blitz felt his entire body go molten, and he forced himself not to grab the bird and bend him over the table right there. “You’re such a brat…” he breathed back in an undertone. “You’re gonna pay for that when I get my hands on you.”

Stolas kissed him then, slow and sensual and over much too quickly for Blitz’s liking. “Promises, promises.” his prince teased in a soft little flirt. “Prove it, Daddy.”

Blitz brushed the front of his boxers up along the inseam of Stolas’s thigh under the table, hiding the action in a reach for his coffee mug across the table, and was rewarded with a hard shiver from his bird and no reaction at all from Via, who had opened up some app or other on her borrowed phone and left the two idiots to whisper to each other so she wouldn’t have to listen to them flirt shamelessly.

“I don’t need props to make you want me.” Blitz smirked behind his cup as he pretended to take a sip and Stolas watched his mouth like a starving man. “Hands off until I say so.”

Stolas arched a brow at him, tucked both arms up behind his chair, both wrists locked together with a smirk, and pressed his lips firmly against Blitz’s without further warning. Blitz almost dropped his full coffee mug, fumbling it up onto the table just in time to get his hands up around Stolas’s cheeks and keep his brat prince from pulling away before he was ready to end things this time.

They kissed again, the action an apology and a promise, and a renewal of everything they were to each other, and Stolas was beginning to give up soft, sweet little chirps for his imp while Blitz passed his thumbs up and over the soft feathered cheeks and positively inhaled his prince, when Blitz heard a sound Stolas missed and abruptly ended the kiss.

“Get back here, you incredible asshole.” Stolas whined. “I wasn’t finished with you!”

“Yeah you were.” Blitz said meaningfully, eyes flicking back over his shoulders towards Loona’s room. “Give her a couple minutes to wake up before she sees us suckin’ face, huh?”

“But I get the full show before my coffee’s even poured?” Via muttered under her breath. “Fucking great.”

Blitz laughed out loud at the comment, Stolas turned brightly pink as he remembered his child was sitting at the table with them, coughing in a weak attempt to cover his embarrassment, and Via startled at the sound of both of them acknowledging her at all.

“Sorry sweetheart,” Blitz barged in before Via could get too caught up in her own head. “It gets horny in here sometimes. Bound to happen with a body like this in my bed!”

He jerked his hips up towards Stolas’s open legs in front of him with an exaggerated, over-the-top hip thrust that stopped long before anything inappropriate happened in front of Via, and dropped a shameless kiss that ended in a bite at Stolas’s chin.

The bird squealed in alarm, the sound pleased and indignant at the same time, and shoved without any real effort at the stupid imp’s bare chest in front of him. “Blitz! What the fuck!”

“Next time don’t talk back to Daddy.” Blitz murmured as he covered the whisper with another kiss just below Stolas’s ear. “Brat.”

Stolas almost whined as Blitz pulled away and moved out into the rest of the house in search of the shorts he’d promised Via he’d put on, and the prince subtly crossed his legs as he pulled his coffee to him and took his first sip.

It was deeply unfair how easy it was to want that stupid imp, he thought as he watched Via rolling her eyes and going back to scrolling Sinsta, and Blitz throwing every scrap of clothing he owned out from behind the beanbag in search of clean loungewear.

Loona shuffled out of her room, crossed the apartment without a word to anyone and slammed the door to the bathroom as she disappeared behind it.

“That’s my cue!” Blitz chirped happily, yanking up his shorts and bounding back over to the kitchen. “Time to show off my cool dad tricks!”

He swept in like a tiny hurricane, pouring coffee, pulling down a bowl for cereal and a box branded ‘Pawsitively Perfect Boner-O’s!’ to set beside it as he listened for his daughter and hummed tunelessly to himself as he worked.

“Via- You want Boner-O’s?” Blitz offered generously. “C’mon kid- Lemme see you at least take a bite of something besides the juice, okay?”

“What the fuck are Boner-O’s?” Via demanded with a scowl. “That better not be some weird sex joke.”

Blitz shook the cereal box at her. “Boner-O’s! The healthiest start to any pup’s day!”

Via arched a brow at him. “You want me to eat… Hound food?”

“Why? S’it too gross for your royal taste buds?” Loona drawled as she dropped into the last empty chair at the table on Via’s left. “More for me.”

Via crossed her arms and gave her a sour look. “No, not because I’m too good for them, because they’re called ‘Boner-O’s’! Like that’s a real fucking name!”

Loona laughed as Blitz carried her breakfast over for her, and she leaned in to hug her dad as he slipped the coffee mug up onto the table in front of her. “Yeah, like who market-tested that?” she agreed. “They taste better than they sound, I promise.”

Via eyed her dubiously, and Loona slid the fresh bowl of cereal her way. “Just try one, trust me.” Loona offered.

Via reached out and slowly took a piece of the bone-shaped cereal, eyeing it the way Stolas had eyed Blitz’s first attempt at pancakes for him over a year ago, and Loona hid a laugh at the mirror image of each other those two really were.

Except that Via popped the cereal into her mouth without any snarky comments, chewing thoughtfully for a second before her eyes widened and she looked up at Loona like the sun had just risen indoors.

“Oh my god, they’re actually good.” she declared, then turned back to Blitz. “Can I have a bowl? I think I’ll take you up on the cereal offer.”

Blitz beamed and bounded forward to get the requested item, and Loona’s strong hand fell on the owl princess’s shoulder. Via looked up at her, confusion and apprehension in her huge, expressive eyes, and Loona gave the girl a reassuring smile to calm her.

“You’re not in trouble,” Loona told her patiently, gently even for a voice that was always rough and on the edge of dishing out biting sarcasm to anyone else in the room. “I just wanna let you know- My dad’s not staff, okay? He’s always gonna wanna help, and he’s so fuckin’ happy to do stuff for all of us, but you gotta remember he’s my dad. He’s Blitz, not your butler, okay?”

Via’s cheeks went pink and patchy as instant anger boiled up inside of her, mingled with guilty, fearful anxiety as she realized Loona had been right to point out the reflexive order she’d given the only imp in the room, however accidental, and tears sprang into her eyes as she struggled not to show anything but the anger to her new roommates.

“I fucking know he’s not staff!” she yelled back at the hound. “I fucking know this isn’t the palace, and we don’t have staff here! I’m not fucking racist like those doctors at the hospital or the cab driver who called you a stray dog, or… Or…”

She trailed off, fists balled by her sides as embarrassment flushed her pink cheeks scarlet and tears slid through the feathers on her cheeks without her permission. Before Loona could say anything further, strong, warm arms were around Via’s back, and her father’s familiar-yet-foreign smell of lavender and lilacs, and a little bit of hot sauce was wrapped securely around her shoulders.

Via turned her face into his chest, hugging him tight as she spent a few minutes that felt more like hours sobbing into his chest, shaking at the thought of being thrown out of here too, terrified she’d be dropped off at some… Some… Who the hell even knew where you brought goetia children you didn’t want anymore. The royal orphanage? The fanciest bridge uptown?

“I’m sorry!” she cried into the soft feathers covering her face. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to, I don’t think that! I swear to fuck I don’t!”

Stolas rubbed her back and kissed the top if the messy, uncombed feathers the exact way he’d done since she was three years old, running to him with skinned knees or broken crayons, and his arms tightened protectively around her shoulders.

“It’s alright my little owlet, you’re alright.” He soothed in the impossibly gentle, quiet little undertone he used when anyone was especially upset around him. “Daddy’s here. I’ll always be here, darling… You’re alright…”

Loona startled to realize he’d comforted her like this too, speaking to her just as softly, just as kindly as he did his own daughter, and the sudden realization hit her like a brick to the chest as her ears pinned themselves back and she bit her lower lip. She hadn’t meant to make the kid cry for Satan’s sake… She’d even been gentle by her standards…

“These royals are little high-strung, s’okay Loonie. You didn’t say anything wrong.” Blitz’s voice said quietly enough for Loona to hear, but not the owls sitting not half a foot away on the long side of the table. “I know what you meant and I’m proud of you, sweetheart. You did so good.”

Loona turned to look down at the imp, who was standing beside her chair as if he were waiting to have to defend her in front of a court of law, one hand across the back of her chair. He wasn’t directly touching her, because he knew she wasn’t always comfortable with physical affection, but his stance was open, clearly ready to do whatever she asked of him, whatever she needed, and Loona felt her chin trembling at the unconditional love he still gave her, no matter what she did to him…

She picked up the imp like he weighed nothing (because to her, he did), and hugged him as tightly as she could with her face briefly buried in his shoulder while she got her shit back together. Blitz startled at the sudden action, recovered in seconds, and his arms wrapped the huge hellhound up between them as if she were much younger than she was.

“I got you, Loonie.” he reassured her, one hand rubbing her shoulder as his tail came up to wrap protectively around her chest and his. “Daddy’s gonna fix it, okay? You know I’ll always be here for my baby girl.”

Loona laughed even as she swiped the heel of one hand up under her eyes and rolled them at her stupid, ridiculous dad. “I know, Dad.” she said as he held her as long as she let him and she felt the warm little heartbeat against her chest through her sleep top.

She put her chin down across one of his shoulders, eyes closed, listening to that heartbeat for a minute or two, just sitting with the knowledge that he was alive, she was alive, and that everything she’d had to see and do and survive at the palace, and the hospital, and-

She hadn’t even known she was crying again, but this time for real. Not just a few reflex tears during a moment of high emotion, but an actual, full-bodied breaking of the dam she’d been so careful to hold back this whole time since the fight had ended and she’d carried Blitz back to the van, bloody and unconscious, barely-breathing, and-

“Via? Darling, get me a glass of water?” Stolas’s voice was asking, and the sound of hurrying talons over linoleum flooring followed, then the taps being turned on and off, then the talons rushed back to the table.

“You’re okay, Loona, you’re okay…” Blitz was telling her over and over. His heart sped up against hers, and Loona did everything she could to box up everything she felt, every flashback she was seeing, but it just wouldn’t stay boxed this time, and she cried harder.

“You were gonna die Dad!” she sobbed into his shoulder. “You were gonna fuckin’ die, and I was gonna be alone, and I’d be an orphan again! I don’t wanna go back there, Dad! I can’t! I just… You… I need you, okay you fuckin’ prick! I need you to be my dad! I don’t care who knows it anymore- You’re my Dad, and you were dying, and.. And I had to… O-Or you’d be dead, and she’s never gonna forgive me… Sh-She’s never gonna… You’re never gonna… H-He’s never… Sh-She… I….Y-You…”

A sudden weight added itself to Blitz’s wrapped up around her shoulders, this one slight and smaller, smelling of lavender and lilacs, and oddly of cinnamon and gunpowder. Loona opened one arm automatically to make room for Via, and as she did, the slightly heavier, taller body of the owl prince snuck itself in beside his daughter, and he gathered both his girls up under both strong arms as if the action alone could lift the world away from them.

Could fix this sudden, new layer of hell Loona had found herself in, and the fact that Stolas of all the people in the room, and Via, were willing to take a chance on her, willing to get closer to her, even after… But they couldn’t know, and they needed to know, so Loona did what she knew, and pulled a Blitz;

“I-I think I killed him!” she howled miserably, tripling down because she had no idea how to handle this, how to be delicate about it when the words were so indelicate and rough. “A-At the palace- Th-The peacock, h-he had Blitz pinned down, and there was so much blood, and he’s my fuckin’ Dad, a-and I just lost my fuckin’ shit, and the dire wolf’s a lot more powerful than I thought, a-and there was a lot of blood! Like, a lot a lot, a-and he never got up after I got d-done with him, a-and…”

She trailed off, shaking hard and pulling for breath, the short, choppy gasps doing nothing at all to get her the air she needed so badly, and Blitz was holding her so tightly some of her ribs were cracking under the pressure, but Loona couldn’t bring herself to ask him to loosen up, back off a little or ease back, because what if he disappeared when he did? What if this was all some fever dream of hers and the happy little family she’d had two days ago didn’t exist, and she was back at the pound, and-

“On me darling, on me.” Stolas was saying firmly, but gently. “Listen for me Loona, that’s right… On me my love, there we are, here I am…”

“I think I killed him!” Loona screamed again, this time louder because clearly nobody had heard her. “I ripped his throat out with my teeth! He never got back up! H-He didn’t… A-And half the blood on me was his if it wasn’t my Dad’s, a-and…”

“Hey- You’re okay. You’re with me.” Blitz this time, steady and solid, speaking short, easy phrases to her that Loona was only half-hearing anymore. “Okay? Right here, Daddy’s here baby girl. I got you, I got you… I love you, no matter what, I promise…”

“Count with me, darling.” Stolas this time, still gentle, still so kind and full of nothing but genuine care and concern for her, and Loona somehow felt worse because he wasn’t giving up on her. He wasn’t horrified or scared to be near her, or-

A soft little hoot in a decidedly girlish voice reached Loona’s sensitive ears and she remembered Via almost at the last second. The teenager was doggedly hanging on to her, her father under her right arm, Blitz under her left, Loona wrapped up in all three of them with Blitz pressed right up against her chest as Loona kept the smaller body pinned to hers and her dad used Satan knew what muscles to keep himself upright and solid for her, and with his back-

“Shit!” she cried in alarm, and Stolas’s head came up like lightning to direct Via towards the clean bowl he hadn’t used by the couch.

Loona scowled at the idea of being weak enough to puke just because she was crying, then remembered her dad’s nightmares and how Stolas was used to PTSD panic or his own anxiety kicking their bodies to shit, and her features softened in the ten seconds it took to process that thought.

“Not like that- I’m okay!” she said before Via could let go to run for anything. “Everybody back the fuck up- Blitz! Your back! We’re gonna fuck up the stitches!”

Blitz made zero effort to let her go or move away, and frowned up at her. “What the fuck d’you mean ‘my back’? I’m fine! I’m not gonna- Holy shit! What the fuck!”

Blitz had clearly forgotten how strong his hellhound daughter was, because she got both arms up under his armpits and lifted him up like a little kid in front of her, the sharp claws at the tips of her fingers very carefully angled upwards and away from his back. The action forced Via and Stolas back a step, and Blitz hung there awkwardly, golden eyes locked on his daughter as she went from falling apart to all-business like a switch had been flipped and he recognized his own resilience in Loona.

“I am so fuckin’ proud of you Loonie.” Blitz breathed like he was looking at the rarest work of art he’d ever seen. “Look how far you’ve come since that first day!”

“Show me.” Loona ordered in a no-nonsense tone despite the tears barely drying in her eyes and the softened look on her face as Blitz gazed adoringly up at her from between her hands. “Lemme see what the damage looks like.”

She set Blitz down in front of her on the kitchen floor, and watched an odd look pass between her father and Stolas while Via bit her lower lip and looked like she wanted to bolt out of the room on instinct alone.

“Okay, now Loonie, you’re gonna wanna freak out, but I swear it’s okay…” Blitz started bracingly, beginning to turn on his heel to do what she asked him.

“Just show me, dumbass.” Loona growled at him, rolling her eyes at how dramatic her stupid dad was sometimes. “I already know it’s gonna be a shitshow-”

She jerked the scarred shoulder so Blitz’s back was fully to her, and swore a blue streak so ugly Via went white and Stolas covered his daughter’s ears with both hands while Blitz howled with laughter at the variety and originality of his daughter’s language.

“She certainly is your daughter.” Stolas sighed into the silence that fell once Loona had finished. “I didn’t know one could do that with a hairbrush and a garden spade.”

Blitz looked over his shoulder and gave his daughter a very serious nod Loona knew instantly was teasing. “Yeah, and if Stols can’t imagine it, think about how freaky it musta sounded to the rest of us.”

Stolas blushed hard, thankful his hands were still firmly around Via’s ears, but the smug, proud smirk he gave Blitz told Loona she truly didn’t want (or need) the followup on that particular bit of information.

“Ew! Dad, I can fucking hear you!” Via squealed, batting her father’s hands away from her head as she crossed her arms indignantly in front of herself. “I heard most of what Loona just said, and I heard the part where she said she killed Uncle Andre too-” She paused here and stumbled a little, suddenly uncertain and shy. “Or… Like, maybe killed him? I don’t know, I don’t care!”

She rounded on Loona, who winced and pinned her ears down flat against her head as she braced for the incoming screaming, and Via drew herself up to her full height in front of the hound.

“I heard you telling us you maybe killed Andre,” Via went on before anyone could stop her or change the subject abruptly as seemed so commonplace around here “And how I’d never forgive you and my dad would hate you, and d’you know what?”

Loona bit her lower lip, Blitz shifted as if he were moving to stop Via from speaking, Stolas jerked forwards as if to stop him, and the owl princess blocked everything but Loona out of her awareness.

“You know what? I hope you did.” Via growled fiercely. “I hope you made that prick pay with every drop of blood he had, because nobody hurts my dad!” Via waved broadly towards Stolas, who looked much better than he had a few days ago, but still sported the dark bruises of a broken nose under his eyes and the stabilizing bandage that kept the hairline crack in his beak from widening or chipping pieces away.

“And nobody hurts the imp who saved my life!” She turned to Blitz this time, and the imp actually shrank back a bit from her, which Via was going to ignore in favour of finishing what she’d started with Loona before diving into another messy, heartfelt discussion with Blitz and her dad.

She faced the hellhound with all seven feet of her standing tall and proud, and set her jaw. Her fists curled up at either side of her glowed purple and black, a dim but strong reflection of just how much she meant what she next said. “So even if my uncle dies, good. I hope there’s someplace worse than Hell we can send him.”

“Via? I think the morning’s been a bit upsetting, perhaps we shouldn’t-” Stolas tried carefully, but Loona put a firm hand into his chest to quiet him as she slid to the edge of her chair and faced the teenager in front of her.

“Yeah?” she asked Via softly. “You sure you mean that? You’re not just pissed off, o-or overwhelmed with all this shit, o-or like…” Loona trailed off, tucking a stray piece of her long hair back up behind her ear to cover her nervous gaze. “‘C-Cause if you were mad about it, or you’re gonna miss him or whatever, even if it’s confusing to think about, sometimes we don’t choose who we love y’know? Like we grow up around someone, a-and even if they’re fuckin’ awful, you love them in some fucked up kinda way? Like… I’d still want you around if you told me that’s how you really feel.”

Via shrank down into her shoulders, the strong, capable mask she’d worn cracking a fraction as she briefly touched all the conflicting emotions she had about the palace, her mother, her uncle and the life she now led here, with Blitz and his daughter, in an apartment too small for four of them, and-

She shook her head to clear it, feeling her father’s hand at the small of her back steadying her. She smiled up at him and nodded her thanks, then turned back to Loona. “I-If you’d killed Mum, I think I might feel that way…” Via admitted quietly. “Like, obviously I hate her, and she never really loved me anyway, but… Sh-She’s still my Mum, I guess. It’d be different if it was her…”

Stolas moved in closer, and Via pressed her back up into his solid, sturdy chest behind her.

“But it wasn’t Mum.” Via said fiercely, a little more harshly than she’d intended. “It was Uncle Andre, and I hope it hurt the whole time he was dying. Fuck that prick for stealing my dad and hurting my family. I thought nobody loved me, nobody wanted me- I…” She hesitated here, and looked back at her dad behind her with his red eyes full of worry and his hands strong and reassuring across her shoulders as she leaned against him for comfort.

“I… I dunno what I thought,” Via said slowly, carefully “B-But I know it hurt like hell, and that I’ve never felt so alone in my life. I hope he died knowing all he had was that ice palace he built for himself and fuck all else. Selfish, greedy piece of shit.”

For a long, pregnant moment nobody spoke, then Loona reached her hands out for Via’s, and the owl princess took them as her father hugged her closer from behind and Blitz moved in a respectful distance from the father-daughter pair in a show of available comfort without forcing anything on Via or making his prince feel like Blitz was barging obliviously into a private bonding moment.

“Nobody wanted me for awhile either…” Blitz said softly into the spiraling quiet. “I… Look, there was an accident, I don’t wanna talk about it, but after that, I was out there with nobody but me for company. I get how it feels when you’re alone against the world.”

He looked up at Via, golden eyes huge and full of earnest conviction only Blitz could convey without coming across as condescending or overbearing.

“You’re never gonna feel that way ever again, Via. Not as long as you got me.” Blitz swore in a low, protective growl. “Ask Loonie if you think you could ever scare me outta your life.”

Loona smiled and gave her dad a fond, exasperated look across the small space between all of them. “Trust me, I tried every dirty trick I knew to get this bastard to quit on me.” Loona confirmed with a soft little laugh. “He’s the most stubborn piece of shit in Hell, I swear.”

“Second to me.” Stolas cut in with a flip, airy little smirk. “Not even Blitz’s infamous lack of common sense and Satan’s own decree could stop me getting back to you, my precious Starfire.” He hugged his daughter closer, and she turned into his shoulder the way she had when she’d been much younger, and Stolas’s entire heart melted and hurt at the same time as he wished he could take the pain of this moment away from her.

“If you thought I was willing to die for him, you should see what I’d risk for you, my beautiful, precious darling.” Stolas whispered into a firm, protective kiss to the top of his daughter’s head. “Beating the shit out of Andrealphus was nothing. I could burn down all of Hell without a shred of guilt if it meant you were safe.”

“Even though we’re probably going to have to face another trial?” Via asked tremulously “I-If he’s really dead, o-or even just because you all came to rescue me?”

Blitz made a hard, derisive sound somewhere between a snarl and a growl, and gave Via his meanest, most defiant scowl. “I called Satan a big red bitch to his face last time- You think I won’t tell him to get down on his knees and suck my red cock if he thinks he’s taking my daughter away?”

Via blushed at the graphic honesty of the imp, and Stolas sighed and rolled his eyes at his ridiculous lover as he put his forehead down over Via’s without letting her go.

“And while Blitz is distracting the court with that magnificent cock on full display, I’ll slide in with angelic steel and kill the bastard myself if that’s what it takes.” he promised like poisoned honey over steel. “Nobody will ever take you from me Starfire, do you understand me? Not a soul in Hell is brave enough.”

Via nodded against his shoulder, wiping tears out of her eyes as she looked up at her father with serious, intelligent violet eyes. “I believe you Dad, but could you never again mention your boyfriend’s dick in a heartfelt speech about how much you love me? Like, ever?”

Something in the deadpan way she delivered the line broke the tension in the room like a pin through a helium balloon, and Blitz was howling while Loona doubled over with laughter that brought tears of relief and the last of her own anxiety pouring down her cheeks, and Via was smirking up at her father, who was brightly, obviously scarlet in the cheeks, but laughing right along with them, and for a time that felt timeless and natural, the little apartment was full of nothing but that sound.

Patchwork, found family falling all over themselves, gasping and hooting with mirth, grabbing sleeves and forearms, and shoulders, and generally acting as if they’d always been like this, never been apart for longer than ten minutes at a time. Never been separated by politics, or circumstance, or distance, or anything but mundane daily errands, and something about it just felt… Right.

Correct to have, and without thinking Blitz threw his arms around Loona and Via both, pulling Stolas in towards him by virtue of his prince still holding his daughter safely between his arms as Blitz brought his girls in for a family hug.

“I’m making everybody horse pancakes!” Blitz declared grandly, clearly crying and emotional over the shared bonding moment. “And nobody’s gonna complain if I burn a couple!”

He nudged his prince’s hip with one elbow, and Stolas heaved a sigh like a man about to walk the gallows steps at him.

“I won’t if you’ll let me help you.” the prince bargained. “I can at least make sure you don’t poison my daughter at her first real meal in this house.”

Blitz looked scandalized as the hug broke apart and everybody began moving back to their respective places at the table, Via taking the last available chair at the long side, with Loona and Stolas at opposite ends of the short sides.

“I can cook pancakes for fuck’s sake!” the imp declared indignantly. “Flour, water, sugar n’ fire- It ain’t rocket fuel!”

Stolas pinched the bridge of his nose and winced at the malapropism. “I can’t believe I fell in love with you.” he groused without any real heat in his words. “Could you at least pretend to speak Satan’s plain English some day?”

“I speak good English already!” Blitz shot back with a smile that told Stolas his imp was about to be the most obnoxious creature in Hell all day. “Come help me crack eggs, Mister College Education.”

“What college education?” Via asked between sips at the water she’d brought for Loona. “Goetia are privately tutored from birth. He’s never been to a real school and neither have I.”

Stolas gave his daughter A Look as Blitz’s grin widened to a devilish smirk and the imp gave the frying pan in his hand a fancy little twirl with one wrist.

“Well, well, well- Never been inside a school, huh? Mister Fancypants Words hisself, homeschooled just like I was, huh?” Blitz drawled like the asshole he was. “Gonna remember that next time you try and lord how smart you are over me. How’s that for dumbass?”

“Via, darling,” Stolas sighed with great chagrin as he pulled the eggs out of the fridge and carried them over to the kitchen counter. “Daddy loves you, but why would you do this to me? What have I done today to earn this betrayal from my own flesh and feathers?”

“You’re crackin’ eggs onto my clean counters, for one.” Blitz noted serenely as Via giggled at the kitchen table and he threw her a cheeky little wink. “Did they skip common sense at your homeschool too? Mine always did.”  

Stolas startled as he looked down and realized he’d automatically moved to begin his task, but wasn’t nearly as awake as he should be given all the recent emotional confessions, seeing Blitz’s mysteriously-healed back, the way his meds hadn’t had the chance to level back out yet, his sleepless night…

“Here, I’ll help Dad. You sit with Via.” Loona offered kindly, sliding in behind the once-prince and gently nudging him back towards the kitchen chairs. “Drink some coffee and let your meds kick in. You really took ‘em this time, right?”

Stolas nodded quickly, eyes wide as Blitz turned serious and gave him a piercing, pointed look around Loona’s tall frame between them. “Yes! I really did!” he promised swiftly. “Count them if you like- I swear, I took them!”

Blitz narrowed his eyes at his prince, watched the huge, open red eyes for a handful of seconds, then nodded decisively. “Good boy. Go spend some time with your kid. Me and my daughter are gonna handle breakfast.”

He leaned all the way back with one hand anchoring him under the lip of the countertop, and Stolas winced as he thought of the nasty, infected line of stitching being split by the ill-advised movement.

“Hey Via- You hungry?” Blitz called cheerfully “You want three horses or seven? I make ‘em regular sized, like an Alexis or a Staple Gun, not like huge like a Jeremy or a Rocket Launcher. Just as a reference.”

“Who the fuck knows what that even means?” Via complained good-naturedly as Blitz turned back to the pancake prep and Loona rolled her eyes at the teenager while his back was turned.

“Unfortunately, I do.” Stolas told her with a lovesick little sigh as he watched his Blitz bouncing around the kitchen and Loona shoving him roughly away from the lit burners as she traded places with her dad and pancake batter began to hit the hot pan with a sizzle. “I’ll explain it for you.”

And he did, while Loona and Blitz cooked for them. The little apartment filled with the sound of comfortable, casual conversation, the smell of fresh pancakes and a new pot of coffee as the original one ran out after Stolas’s second cup of the stuff and Loona’s third, and nothing at all came along to ruin the easy grace of their family’s first breakfast together.

Chapter Text

A/N: Aand we're back! A Little late, because one of the final chapters was giving me absolute hell, and I wanted to be able to get these posted a bit faster now we're in the home stretch. Apparently that also means you guys get Jumbo Size Chapters now too, but if you have complaints- Y'all know where the trash is :P Just kidding, comment constructively, and I'll see what I can do to provide... *checks notes* Less Story? I guess? No beta, we die like men! 

CW/TW: Medical scene, major character injury (Blitz; Aftermath of the Big Fight scene); Blood, graphic injury description, at-home surgical procedure described (mild to moderate, depending on how sensitive you are; NOT graphic, but YES blood and Hurt Blitz). Everything Will Be Okay- Dw, this is a Hurt/Comfort/Sickfic deal, not a New Disaster situation. Do NOT Google 'debride' without Safe Search on, trust me lol

As always, comments, concrit, carrier pigeons and ect welcome <3 Y'all make my day when I see your reactions and/or emojis in the comments :)

Chapter 22: Growing Pains

They were clearing up the last of the breakfast dishes, Via wiping down the final bit of spilled syrup from where Blitz’s enthusiastic retelling of an old hit had gone terribly awry and he’d knocked over the full bottle of syrup, painting everyone’s place settings in sticky, sweet-smelling disaster.

He’d painted his prince too, and Stolas had shrieked indignantly at the deluge of gummy tree sap suddenly waterfalling down into his lap, splashing up against his naked upper body and coating him thoroughly in impossible mess that took nearly an hour and a half in the shower to get out.

Blitz had offered to help him out with the shower, and Stolas had levelled such a blistering streak of curses and admonitions at the stupid imp that Loona had had to reassure Via they weren’t serious threats, nothing awful was happening, and Stolas had shot back loudly and angrily that something awful absolutely was happening, and only to him, who was the most put-upon being in all of Hell being tethered to a complete hurricane of a man without two shreds of common fucking sense in that tiny little head of his.

Blitz had looked so pathetic and guilty as Stolas stormed off into the bathroom and slammed the door behind him that Loona had taken pity on her dad and sent him over to the couch for some time alone while she and Via cleaned up the kitchen.

That had been nearly a full two hours ago, and while Via worked with Loona and traded simple, easy conversation in the kitchen, Blitz sat curled up around his knees on one end of the couch, tail wrapped up around his ankles for comfort.

He’d really stepped in shit this time, he knew. Those feathers were gonna take hours to preen out, not to mention the meticulous scrubbing that syrup was gonna need, and the lavender oils they were out of since Via had used the last of them after her last shower, and the inevitable pull of the syrup ripping out a few feathers during the cleaning process, and-

“Blitz? Could you come in here a moment?” Stolas called from the bathroom, and Blitz was instantly on his feet and running for the bathroom door. “I need another set of hands for my back.”

He sounded less angry this time, and Blitz looked up at his prince hopefully as Stolas opened the bathroom door for him and Blitz slipped inside. He stood there in the thick steam of what was probably the entire apartment complex’s hot water for the day, and said nothing about it, sure he deserved the cold shower he’d be taking later for what he’d done to his perfect prince’s beautiful feathers.

“…Going to need two combs,” Stolas was explaining as Blitz heard exactly none of the instructions and toyed with the hem of his shorts like a scolded child.

Stolas put a hand on one hip and sighed dramatically. “Oh for fuck’s sake, put those beaten puppydog eyes away. I forgive you if you’ll help me.”

Blitz’s expression instantly brightened, a soft, goofy smile lighting up his entire face as he looked up at his prince as if he’d just been offered a full royal title and acreage to go with it. “Y-You really mean it?” Blitz asked in the singularly adorable way he had when he was truly sorry, tail waving hopefully behind him and everything, and Stolas melted on the spot.

He picked his imp up right off the tiled floor and hooked both arms up under his knees, pulling him in for a cuddle and a kiss as Blitz purred loudly and contentedly up against his chest feathers, arms snaked up around Stolas’s neck as Stolas held him securely in place.

“I really do.” Stolas told him with a dreamy little sigh as Blitz squirmed closer and pinned sweet little kisses up against his chin like the shameless idiot he was. “You’d better never cover me in syrup again, but I forgive you.”

Blitz gave him a coy smirk and nipped at his cheek. “Even if you ask me real nice sometime?” he teased, and Stolas arched an eyebrow at him.

“If I ever ask to be covered in syrup, it’ll be because I’ve sustained critical head trauma, you ridiculous creature.” Stolas shot back imperiously. “Now stop being so deliciously cute and help me comb out my feathers!”

“I’m cute, huh?” Blitz purred like caramel, and Stolas felt his knees turning to jelly for his imp who hadn’t been home for a week, and hadn’t been well enough to do more than trade kisses with, and Stolas himself had been so sick, and-

The way Blitz kissed him as if the imp could read his mind had Stolas liquid in his lover’s arms before he could think about the girls waiting for them in the kitchen, or Blitz’s cryptic words about the mysteriously healed wounds across his back or-

“Mm, Blitzy, yes…” Stolas moaned into Blitz’s next slide of his hand down Stolas’s naked back. “Just like that…”

“Keep quiet, good boy.” Blitz reminded him as the sleep shorts tugged downwards and Stolas slipped his imp up over the bathroom counter and knocked over everything that had been laid out on it in the process. “Good boys get rewards in this house…”

It was another hour after that when a hard, rough pounding on the bathroom door interrupted the rough, hard pounding Blitz was giving his prince down on all fours with his forearms braced against the bathtub wall.

“Pretend you weren’t just fuckin’ nasty in there and get out!” Loona yelled through the closed but unlocked bathroom door. “Your fuckin’ bird’s kid is about to piss her pants out on the balcony!”

“Get her to piss of the side!” Blitz yelled back because he was utterly without shame and completely devoid of class. “S’what I do when you’re in here for hours fuckin’ with your hair!”

“Are you actually serious!” Stolas cried in disgust. “Is that why the downstairs neighbours hate us? You regularly give them unsolicited showers?”

“Hey, people pay good money for that shit and I’m out here givin’ it up for free.” Blitz smirked down at his bird. “Hold still, we can finish up real fast, and-”

“Blitz! I swear to fuckin’ Satan!” Loona yelled again, and Stolas moved up into a kneel that forced Blitz to pull back and out whether he wanted to or not.

“Fuckin’ swear to Satan, this roommates shit is horse turds…” Blitz muttered sourly as he scanned the floor for his discarded shorts and tried to find some new, creative way to tuck his raging hardon away and out of sight while Stolas picked himself up off the floor and hastily brushed his hands over his ruffled feathers.

“Tonight, Blitzy.” Stolas promised in a quiet giggle as he found a towel to wrap himself in and Blitz climbed back into his sleep shorts with a new round of complaining and sprinkled in some muttered curses for good measure. “Daddy never did get his second finish, did he?”

“Gonna save it special for ya.” Blitz promised with one last kiss to his prince’s towel-clad stomach. “I love you, pretty bird, so fuckin’ much…”

Stolas positively glowed as Blitz said it- Literally this time, as the purple light stuttered to life under his palms and began to shimmer out around his wrists and snuck up his arms. It flickered out and died almost as soon as it blossomed, and Stolas shook his hands out in annoyance at the telltale glow.

Blitz smirked at the sight and checked himself over one last time to make sure he was decent for mixed company. “Gotcha turned on all over, don’t I?” he teased with an obnoxious waggle of eyebrows up at his prince. “Never gonna be able to play coy with me again, huh?”

“I’ll learn to control it again, you know.” Stolas shot back with a bratty little smirk. “I was master of prophecies once, I think I can handle a little wild magick.”

“Yeah? Well I’m master of cl-” Blitz started, and the hard insistent sound of Loona hammering at the door was joined by a lighter, but angrier tattoo of fists on hardwood.

“Blitz!” both girls yelled at them, and Stolas deliberately brushed his long, beautiful tail up along Blitz’s entire right side as he passed the imp and began to push the door open.

“Master of what?” he asked sweetly, the door opening into the main living room where Octavia was glaring daggers at them, and Loona looked ready to physically haul their asses out of there if she had to. “I didn’t quite catch that?”

“Cookies.” Blitz growled as he stalked out of the bathroom with a pronounced limp that was never there before giving his predicament away immediately. “Master of cookies. Get the fuck out of the way, big dumb bird. I want a smoke.”

“Shall I join you, Blitzy, or are you angry with me?” Stolas singsonged, and Via pretended to vomit as she stepped into the bathroom and Loona smirked at her in commiseration.

The dumbass twins disappeared out onto the balcony after Blitz had retrieved his rolled cigs from a drawer in the nightstand set beside the old couch, and Loona threw herself down onto the couch to revel in the momentary quiet of the apartment. She hadn’t slept nearly as long as she’d wanted to, but she’d heard Via and her dad trading loud conversation in the kitchen, and hadn’t wanted to leave the teenager out there alone against Blitz and his stupid horny prince for longer than she absolutely needed to. Not until Via had had enough time to adjust to how sickeningly in love those two were, anyway.

And how fucking shameless, Loona thought with a hard roll of her eyes and a soft little laugh to herself.

Gods, they could find a way to make out, or get naked, or both at once with any spare time they managed to steal together. Especially Blitz, who was just as happy to sneak a hand down the back of Stolas’s pants during a movie night together, or at the fucking dinner table as he dropped a line about dessert coming soon and Loona hoped to Satan she’d remembered to charge her headphones that morning.

                                                                                                                          ~*~*~*~*~*~

She wasn’t sure when she’d fallen asleep, but clearly she had as Loona’s eyes fluttered open and the living room blinked back into clearer focus.

The sun was just beginning to dip back down along the tops of the buildings across the street, telling her it was somewhere past noon, but still daylight out, and in front of her Blitz and Stolas were sprawled messily across Blitz’s old beanbag, which had been pulled out of its usual corner and hauled into the middle of the room. The two lovers were sharing a set of earbuds, completely engrossed in some movie or other. Via lay stretched out on her stomach across the old hardwood flooring, dressed in her usual starry purple top, some borrowed pajama pants, and her old toque jammed over her messy hair.

A pair of headphones topped the girl’s hat, and she was reading some book or other with the rapt attention of her father around words, which pulled a smile from Loona as she looked out at her peaceful, fully dressed and not at all embarrassing family.

“Wonder if Gabriella got her tits done before, or after the mid-season finale.” Blitz mused into the quiet, his voice lowered to keep from waking Loona.

Stolas giggled, the soft hooting muffled behind one hand as he swatted playfully at his stupid imp’s arm with the other while Blitz held his phone steady for them. “Blitz! Of all the ridiculous questions!” he laughed just as quietly as Blitz had spoken. “After, obviously. Have you seen the continuity they keep?”

“Oh my god. You’re actual dumbasses.” Loona quipped in a deadpan without sitting all the way up. “I wish I was still asleep.”

Blitz fumbled his phone and accidentally pulled his earbud out as he scrambled to catch the phone before it fell. “Shit! Loonie, we’re sorry- Go back to sleep sweetheart. I’ll keep this asshole quiet, I swear!”

“You’re the one who can’t speak below a foghorn’s scream!” Stolas shot back indignantly. “Tell her you’ll stop talking!”

Blitz gave his bird a steady, even look. “You askin’ me to lie to my own daughter Stols?” he asked with a raised eyebrow at his bird. “You know I can’t shut the fuck up for five straight minutes unless I got somethin’ fun in my mouth.”

“Mm, shall I help you out then?” Stolas offered as he leaned in for a kiss, which Blitz eagerly returned.

Loona made a face and dropped her whole arm over her eyes to avoid having to look at them, and rolled herself off the couch and onto her feet. She stumbled over someone’s discarded old clothes in her way, recovered swiftly by dropping her arm and flinging it out to one side of herself for balance, and sulked her way to the kitchen for a mug of cold coffee instead.

She was joined shortly by a shy, hesitant figure who hung back by the partition wall to see if Loona was ready for company or not, and the hellhound smiled out at the owl princess.

“Hey Via.” she called, and the teenager gave her a timid, anxious smile in return. “You hungry Chicklet? I can make us some cereal, or get you some chilled rats?”

Via shook her head and jerked a thumb back out at the pair in the living room still tangled up in the beanbag together. “I didn’t want to be two inches away from that.” she said with a disgusted scowl. “I think I saw Blitz slide his hand down my dad’s shorts.”

Loona sighed and watched Blitz definitely grab his bird’s ass through the fabric of said shorts over Via’s shoulder. “Yeah, they get like that sometimes. Gotta let ‘em have their fun some time, otherwise we’d never get the bathroom free.”

Via giggled and inched herself closer towards Loona in the kitchen. “I guess so. As long as nobody’s clothes come off then.”

Blitz raised his arms as Stolas slid his hands up under the imp’s shirt, and Loona pinched the bridge of her nose, about to yell at them about it.

“No guarantees, kid…” she muttered sourly. “Blitz! Keep your clothes on, dumbass!”

She yelled the warning at the same time Stolas accidentally grazed a claw over the uncovered, still open line of stitches across Blitz’s right side, and the imp screamed, rolling off his bird like his ass was on fire and landing on the hardwood floor with a solid smack of his horns.

“Fuckin’ Christ Stolas!” Blitz swore as his prince scrambled to see what he could do to help. “That fuckin’ hurt! Shit, I’m on fire!”  

“Here, hold still- Let me see it!” Stolas was saying in a worried, panicked hurry. “Show me, darling- Let me see what I can do to help!”

“It’s probably that bum shoulder with the open gash in it.” Loona called over as she hustled into the bathroom for the first aid kit. “Keep his hands out of the stitching, I’m coming with the med kit.”

Stolas pulled Blitz up onto his knees, letting his imp crush his face up into the exposed feathers tumbling down from the plunging V in Stolas’s house shirt, thankfully clean this time, and Blitz grabbed hold of his prince like a lifeline as his shoulder sent sudden agony through him.

“Fuck me, I think somethin’s bad in there…” Blitz gasped around tears. “Shit, it hurts so fuckin’ bad, Stols…”

“It’ll pass darling, it’s almost over…” his prince soothed, gentle hands running back along Blitz’s horns the way he knew his imp liked best. “Loona’s bringing us help, it’s almost over, love… Shh, there we are, here I am… Here I am…”

Blitz hugged his bird to him long enough for Loona to reappear with the first aid kit in tow and Via to cross the room to them and offer her help to Loona, who was already laying out a sterile needle, thread and medical scissors with a peculiar L shape to the blunted, rounded blades.

“Get his shirt off.” Loona told Stolas as she handed Via a roll of gauze and a sealed package of nonstick bandaging. “Lemme see what we’re working with.”

Blitz pulled his top up and over his head, Stolas helped him get the collar up and over his horns, and Loona moved in to get a better look at the mess of leaky green and yellow… Stuff mingling into fresh black droplets of blood against Blitz’s scarred shoulder.

“This is pretty settled in…” Loona said as she carefully brushed the edge of her thumb against the smallest edge of the injury and Blitz sucked in a hard, pained breath in front of her. “I… I think we gotta lance it…”

“Does that mean cut it open?” Blitz asked in alarm. “Like, right here in the living room, without anesthetics or anything?”

“I have some lidocaine in a gel and not much else.” Loona told him grimly. “So it’s gonna hurt like a motherfucker.” She turned to Via beside her. “You uh, you might wanna step outside for this one Chicklet. It’s… Gonna be a shitshow and he’s gonna be screaming the whole time.”

“Sh-Shouldn’t we bring him back to the hospital?” Via asked unsteadily, looking a little green as Blitz set his jaw and steeled himself for what was about to happen and Loona wiped off the end of a tiny knife in the kit with an alcohol-soaked pad. “Can’t a doctor fix this better than we can?”

“No fuckin’ hospitals!” Blitz snapped roughly at the same time Loona said “Not on my watch” much more calmly, but still clearly and sternly.

Via shrank back at the sudden harsh pushback from the both of them, and Stolas reached out a hand to lay it on her knee.

“They’re not going to treat him well, Via.” he explained gently, all four eyes kind as he tried to break the reality of things to her without scaring her further. “Medical neglect is likely the reason one of his wounds was infected this badly to begin with. He came home with a bad fever, remember?”

“Didn’t you heal that with magick?” Via demanded, giving her father a hard look. “Let me do it this time- I can actually control my spells.”

Stolas winced at the barb, but shook his head sadly at her. “Magick won’t help illness my darling. Don’t you remember your lessons? Energy costs, and healing at the cellular level is much more complex than knitting bones or mending cuts and bruises. It has to do with the nature of disease, and the nature of physical injury, remember? The body gets sick, and every cell is damaged to one degree or another. It’s too vast a system for any one demon to repair, especially a novice.”

His voice dropped to a sincere apology, all four red eyes genuinely sorry as he tucked a stray bit of feather up behind Via’s ear and she glared at him like he’d told her her best friend had just died. “I’m sorry, Starfire. It isn’t safe to experiment with this. You could do him serious damage.”

“Then how come it was safe for you to experiment with!” Via shot back furiously. “Why’s it okay when you play with magick, and not me when I actually want to help on purpose!”

“Via- Hey, it’s okay.” Blitz cut in like a steady current in a suddenly raging sea. “S’okay honey, I get that you’re trying. Stols has a couple years on you, that’s all. He probably knows more tricks and secrets than you got taught by all those fancy tutors you were tellin’ me about just ‘cause he's been working that grimoire since we were both snotty little kids under that old tree out back at the palace. He’s got the experience you don’t, and besides- I don’t think he meant to fuck around with the lights. They just… Kinda… Happen? Show up? I…”

He trailed off here, clearly at a loss and out of his depth, and Via glowered at him for the longest thirty seconds of his life before heaving a frustrated sigh and throwing her hands up in defeat.

“Fine, but once we get you patched up I want us to talk about the magick my dad’s not even supposed to have, okay?” she said like it was a direct order and not a stern request. “I want to understand what the fuck is happening to him before it goes wrong and he gets hurt again…”

She sniffled a little, and Loona squeezed her shoulder reassuringly to steady the girl. “We’re gonna take care of both of them.” she promised. “We’ll handle your dad’s thing right after I get done with Blitz, okay? Promise.”

Via nodded and wiped at her eyes with the heel of one hand. “Okay.” she sniffled, then drew herself up to her full height and squared her shoulders. “Okay. What do I do?”

She held up the gauze and the sealed bandages she’d been handed and set her jaw resolutely. “I’m here for every step. Blitz would do it for me.”

“Yeah, but can you do it without puking?” Loona teased with a grin as she motioned for Blitz to give her his back and the imp did. “Gonna be a little messy, okay kid? You sure you’re ready for this?”

“We’re about to find out.” Via shot back fiercely, all four eyes flashing iron and steel back at the hellhound. “Tell me what to do, I’ll do it.”

Loona gave her a hard, proud grin and leaned in to start her work.

“Wait!” Blitz cried at the last possible second, and Loona sat back on her heels as she scowled at him. “Lemme just…”

Blitz dropped both knees to either side of his prince, hugging his bird to him with all four of his limbs, tail wrapped possessively around Stolas’s hips so they were chest to chest and as close to singular as they could be with their clothes firmly on, and Stolas shifted into a cross-legged position to better accommodate his imp.

“I’ll be right here my love, I won’t let go.” Stolas promised with a sound little kiss to the birthmark on Blitz’s forehead. “I love you my darling. We can stop any time you need to, hmm? I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

“Gonna hurt the whole time anyway…” Blitz muttered into the soft chest fluff he buried his face in. “Get it over with Loonie.”

Loona moved without warning him, and Blitz screwed his eyes shut as the cold, careful feeling of his daughter patting at the open wound with disinfectant washed over him.

He never knew what came next as the simple sting and discomfort of the antiseptic was quickly replaced by the smear of warmish gel over the sensitive row of stitches, then momentary relief as nothing happened for nearly a full minute.

And then someone lit a match and pressed it straight into his shoulder, and Blitz howled in agony as Loona’s fingers began to press and prod, sliding over the seam of his injury to force the rotten pus out and help her clean out the wound. She worked fast, but careful, and by the end of the first five minutes a small pile of used gauze was sitting beside the hellhound as she methodically dipped the alcohol-soaked pads down into the wound and scooped out all the discolouration she could find.

The gauze stopped being an effective tool for removal as the infected tissue began to peek out through the fluids and the blood, and Via doggedly kept cutting bandage squares out of her gauze for Loona, who used them almost as quickly as Via could produce them until the gauze began coming away more black than green or yellow, and Loona sucked in a hard, bracing breath.

“Okay Dad- Hold your bird tight, okay?” Loona warned, picking up the knife she’d sterilized earlier and giving it another wipedown with the antiseptic pads. “This part’s gonna suck.”

“The fuck d’you mean-” Blitz started and tried to look back over his shoulder at what the girls were about to do, but Stolas held him firmly in place with one strong hand against the back of Blitz’s head.

“Hold still darling, we’re almost there.” Stolas encouraged “Just a little longer now, there’s my big, strong Blitzy… I’m right here dearest, I promise. The whole time…”

Loona touched the blade down into the open wound, and Blitz knew a moment of white-hot terror as he realized what was about to happen next.

He screamed, Loona sliced into the first layer of infected skin, and Blitz’s voice arced up so high it was hard to remember it was his anymore. Stolas held him in place with both arms wrapped securely around both of his imp’s upper arms, and Blitz grabbed twin handfuls of feathers at Stolas’s back under his t-shirt.

Stolas winced as a few feathers came loose when Blitz squeezed his fists harder as Loona stripped off another segment of dead skin, and Blitz sobbed into a fresh scream as mortal agony lanced up his back and made his stomach flip. Another slice, another scream, and Blitz was turning pale pink and blushing rough, deep scarlet in front of him as Stolas kept up a steady stream of simple, short phrases that encouraged his little lover to hold on, it was only a little bit more, everything would be over soon…

“Stols…” Blitz slurred after the sixth peel of infected skin from the open wound. “S-Stols.. M’gonna… Gonna…”

Blitz could barely get the words out as he felt himself throwing up, and Via rushed a bowl she’d pulled from who even knew where up under his chin as Blitz vomited roughly and threatened quite seriously to do it again.

“One more time Dad,” Loona called from her place at his back, sweat sliding down her temples and into the fur around her eyes. “Hang in there tough guy, I know you got it in you.”

Blitz threw up again as she touched the little knife to his skin, and felt the whole world swimming in front of his eyes as the pain stacked and his body began to shiver at how awful everything was. Sweat broke out on his forehead, his heart raced wildly against his chest, and Blitz felt himself swaying on the spot as the blade cut into him one final time and Loona reapplied the alcohol-soaked gauze for good measure as the knife finally, finally left his back for the last time and didn’t return.

“I don’t feel good…” Blitz told them all through a haze of tears, and black, blurry vision that wavered. “Don’t… Feel…”

Blitz went limp against his prince, who caught him deftly, and they were talking all around him as someone lay Blitz down, someone else shoved a rolled blanket up under his knees and Stolas pressed his forehead up into his, murmuring soft, gentle words Blitz couldn’t hear anymore as he pulled for breath and lay perfectly still while the world tilted and pitched all around him.

Everything but Stolas hurt to experience, to see, to hear, to acknowledge, and Blitz fisted his hands up across his prince’s shoulders to pull him in closer.

“Hurts…” he mumbled faintly. “Stol’s, I hurt…”

“I know my love, it’s over now.” his prince soothed in that impossibly soft way he had of making Blitz feel completely supported and utterly protected no matter what else was going on. “I love you, you’re so brave my beautiful imp…”

It was the last thing Blitz registered as he threw up again without meaning to, Stolas held him closer, and a deeply, softly purple light wrapped them both up as Loona taped down the last corner of gauze at Blitz’s back and pulled her hands back in alarm as the light touched her fingertips.

                                                                                                                                  ~ *~*~*~*~

“…Well you’re not going to move him, and that’s final!” Stolas was telling someone in that ‘Go Fuck Yourself’ way he had of putting his foot down and meaning it on the rare occasion his prince actually stood his ground instead of folding immediately under any sort of pushback.

“And I’m telling you I have to!” Loona’s voice shot back hotly. “He puked all over you! You wanna have to do this again in a week? Doesn’t he look pathetic enough now?”

“I’m not leaving him!” Stolas repeated for the sixth time in ten minutes. “I made him a promise and I’m not going back on my word! Not to him, not for anyone!”

“Even if it costs him pain?” Loona argued. “Even if it hurts him?”

“Another twenty minutes won’t do more harm than waking up disoriented and without me will!” Stolas told her fiercely. “I’ll look after him when he’s awake and feeling better- I know what I’m about! I raised Via, didn’t I? She’s not dead or disfigured yet, is she!”

“Dad, Blitz could be really sick.” Via tried to reason. “D’you honestly think he’d want to have that fever back? After he just got through the first one?”

“She’s got a point Stols…” Blitz mumbled fuzzily. “Sucked to be too hot n’ frozen at th’ same time.”

Stolas startled at the sound of his voice, the small jostle of movement earning him a groan from Blitz, who cuddled in closer despite everything that made the move less comforting than it should be.

“Blitz!” Stolas cried at once, his voice lowered just in case his imp was sporting the same headache Stolas was. “How does it feel, love? D’you need more time to wake up before you answer?”

Blitz shook his head and shifted his grip on Stolas, trying to squirm in as close as he could for comfort and hearing their shirts squish between them. “Feels like shit.” Blitz told him honestly. “My back’s on fire, feels sick n’ I don’t wanna move, but we gotta do what Loonie’s askin’ an’ get us clean.”

The way he repeated ‘us’ and not ‘me’ told Stolas everything he needed to know about how right he’d been not to listen to Loona or Via as they’d begged him to let them take Blitz into the bathroom and have Loona clean him up while Stolas waited outside the door and handled himself.

There was no doubt in Stolas’s mind now that had he allowed that, Blitz would have woken up and panicked, too disoriented to see reason before everything spiraled down into chaos Stolas had no intention of subjecting anyone in the apartment to. Not so soon after all the rest of it.

“Do you think you could sit up if I helped you?” Stolas asked kindly, and Blitz nodded, because Blitz would never admit to being unable to do anything he was asked for by his family, and Stolas warned Via with his eyes alone to have the bowl ready, just in case.

“Alright, we’re going to try.” Stolas narrated in the same steady undertone he’d been using ever since Blitz had first woken up. “You tell me if you need to be sick, okay? Our girls are right here with help for it, alright? Yes?”

Blitz nodded again, his features screwed up in a grimace this time, and put one hand down under himself to push himself up onto his knees. Strong, protective arms slipped up under his elbows as Blitz tried to lift himself up and his entire body began to tremble at the motion. His prince gathered Blitz up as if he were a very young child, one arm tucked up under his knees, the other braced across his sweaty back, and carefully inched them upwards until Blitz was leaning back against Stolas’s dirty shirt with his eyes half-closed, nestled safely between his prince’s crossed legs.

“How’s that feel?” Stolas asked gently. “Shall we lay back down, or are you steady enough to try a bit of moving around with me?”

Blitz shook his head, nodded, realized he was gonna have to use real words to get anywhere this time, and growled low in the back of his throat about it. “Yeah. Let’s just do the damn thing and get it over with.”

“You aren’t about to vomit?” Stolas asked pointedly. “You’re sure?”

Blitz shoved at his stupid bird’s chest and immediately whined as his own damn actions caused Stolas’s body to break contact with his. “Yes already! Fuckin’ get it done!”

Stolas smiled a little at the way his imp slid right back to being eight years old when he wasn’t feeling well, and slowly eased himself up onto his knees with Blitz cradled up in the crook of one arm. He waited to be sure Blitz hadn’t been lying about needing a moment to recover, and when nothing continued to happen, he picked up his boyfriend and carried him to the bathroom door.

“Loona?” Stolas called over his shoulder as the sudden thought struck him. “Could I borrow some clothes?” he asked with an anxious bite of his lower lip and his features full of apology. “I- We haven’t been doing laundry… I’m completely out of clean clothes.”

Loona nodded, picking up the last of the med kit and handing the closed case over to Via. “Sure, no problem.” she answered easily. “I’ll leave them by the door for you and get a bag of laundry together while you deal with Blitz.”

Stolas smiled briefly at her, pulled the bathroom door opened and disappeared into the little room with Blitz draped over one shoulder like a blanket that swore every time Stolas took a downwards step.

Loona hid a laugh at the pair of them and held a hand out to Via as she got to her feet. “You hanging in there kid?” she asked the teenager. “That was kind of intense, huh?”

Via nodded, letting Loona pull her up and onto her feet and following the hellhound to the kitchen, where Loona pulled a clean mug out of a cupboard, and a strange assortment of blank white envelopes and a strong-smelling, spiced box of teabags with a picture of a comically sad-looking imp on one corner.

“Y-Yeah.” Via answered slowly, her brows knit as she read ‘Ginger’s Ginger’ off the side of the box of tea and watched Loona pull out a small pot next and fill it with water. “It was a lot, but I think he feels better. I’m glad we could do something for him even if my stupid dad wouldn’t let me try magick.”

Loona nodded along sympathetically as she turned on a burner and slid her pot full of water over the open flame. “I think maybe he made the right call.” she said slowly, carefully. “I really wouldn’t thank you if you fucked up and my dad ended up back in the hospital again.”

She’d meant to speak casually, unwilling to upset Via and deal with a moody teen on top of having to pick up the entire apartment’s dirty laundry after she was done in the kitchen- including whatever alien life Blitz had been stashing behind his stupid beanbag all month, and Stolas’s favourite comfort shirt that had basically dried into a science experiment by now after all the blood, and the puke, and-

Loona’s ears pinned back against her head at the thought, and Via looked nervous as she hugged an arm up across her chest and bit her lower lip while she waited for Loona to scold her, or yell or whatever, and Loona sighed as she pulled a few teabags out and tossed them into the gently boiling water in front of her.

“Listen, I know you just wanna help.” Loona said a little more gently this time. “Blitz knows it too, it’s just that we don’t even know if your magick will hurt him in the long run. Yours or Stols’s. We gambled because your dad said it was safe the first time, and the second time with his arm? I don’t even think your dad knew he could do what he did, but now?”

Loona shook her head and sighed as she tore open the white envelope and dumped a light brown powder that smelled sweet down into the mug she’d set aside on the countertop. “I think we’re gonna need to have that talk you wanted sooner than later. Did you see your dad start glowing while Blitz was sick? Don’t think he knew it was happening, he was so focused on Dad y’know…”

Via bit her lower lip and toyed nervously with the hem of her shirt, not quite looking up at Loona as she next spoke. “I… I don’t think the magick will hurt him?” she offered uncertainly. “I know magick uses energy to create movement, and that the threads a goetic conduit can manipulate are different than just like, any asshole’s magick?”

She blinked, a thought suddenly occurring to her, and her head snapped up to look at Loona. “Do imps use magick?” she asked curiously. “Like, even really bad, really useless stuff like heating up a teacup, or like… I don’t know, tying their shoes or something? None of our old staff did, but maybe that’s just in the rules about butlering? Buttling?”

She huffed an annoyed, irritated little hoot out with a huge breath that fluttered her bangs and rolled her eyes. “What the fuck ever!” Via complained. “Being an imp in front of stuck-up pricks like Uncle Andre and my mum.”

Loona laughed at the younger girl, gave her boiled tea a quick stir, and carefully began to pour out a measure into the prepared cup with the odd powder in it. “Imps don’t have magick.” she confirmed for Via, then rolled her eyes at her next words. “Trust me, if Blitz could use superpowers, he’d have found a way to fly around town shooting fireworks out of his asshole by now.”

Via giggled and moved in closer as Loona turned the stove off, set the unused portion of the ginger tea aside in its pot, and went to town stirring the contents of the mug until whatever the brown powder was had been had dissolved.

“Is that for you?” Via asked curiously. “Is it ginger and some kind of vitamins?”

Loona barked a laugh and let the freshly hot water settle for a second before she tipped the mug a little and checked most of the lumps of chocolate were dissolved. “Oh hell no- It’s chocolate ginger, for Blitz.” she explained. “It’s his favourite when he’s not feeling so hot. I think it reminds him of home?”

She picked up the empty white envelope and turned it so Via could see the Hot Chocolate Beverage label badly printed along the top edge of the packet.  “It doesn’t have any real milk in it, so it’s safe for him to drink it even if he pukes it up later. The ginger should stop that happening though, usually does.”

Via nodded along, eyes wide and fascinated as Loona explained what felt like a whole new, secret world she’d never been to for her.

“Does he have any other favourites?” she asked a little shyly. “L-Like, I could get his favourite blanket, or like my dad’s softest shirt for him?”

“Shirt!” Loona yelped as she suddenly remembered she’d promised to bring Stolas clean clothes before she’d distracted herself making ginger for her father. “Shit, wait here a sec Via- Lemme get those two something to wear before Blitz walks out here buckass naked. You wouldn’t believe how little he cares about who sees what, I swear to Satan.”

Loona rushed off towards her room, the door to the bathroom cracked open a little, and before Via could call after Loona, her dad was sticking his head around the jamb and smiling encouragingly at her.

“Darling? Do you know if we have anything I can change us into?” he asked her the way he always had back home, the way he always spoke to her as if he were completely enthralled by her entire existence.

The gentle care in his voice made Via tear up for no good reason, and she nodded, pointing out at Loona’s room. “Sh-She, I mean- Loona’s bringing them. Can you use towels for now?”

“Via?” Blitz’s voice said from somewhere behind the old wooden door. “You okay sweetheart? You sound like you’re scared.”

Via startled. She hadn’t even noticed the tremor in her words from the stupid tears. Hadn’t connected the sudden swell of emotions and memories to the way she’d spoken in a shaky, softened tone that even her father hadn’t registered, but somehow Blitz had.

“You want your dad back?” Blitz offered because Via hadn’t answered him. “I can get myself to the couch and let you guys have some time together, s’okay.” The sound of rustling fabric and Stolas’s worried little squeak as something he was seeing alarmed him, and Blitz spoke again, clearly to his bird this time. “Lemme down baby. Go see your kid. She needs her dad.”

“But you’re not steady!” Stolas argued with more concern than heat in his words. “You threw up in the shower- I don’t trust your legs…”

The muffled grunt of a huh from her dad as Blitz elbowed him in the ribs, and Via giggled at the sound. Even with the bathroom door blocking him from view, she knew what the imp had done because she’d seen him correct her father about telling Blitz what his limits were with the move multiple times by now, and the feel of laughter bubbling up from her stomach made Via feel instantly better.

“I’m alright Blitz, really.” she told them both, crossing the handful of steps over to the bathroom and poking her head around her dad’s stupid head in her way so she could smile at the imp.

Blitz was thankfully wrapped up in a fluffy bath towel, so Via received no repeat performance of her early-morning visual trauma, and her father had secured a smaller, much more revealing towel around his hips, but Via was used to seeing her dad in his never-closed red housecoat, so finding him mostly naked didn’t even phase her.

“Once Loona brings you clothes, d’you want ginger chocolate?” she offered Blitz. “Loona made you some, if it’ll help?”

Blitz’s tail waved behind him at the mention of his favourite comfort drink, and he smiled at Via. “Yeah. Yeah, I think that’s the perfect thing. You think my blue horseshoes blanket survived the last couple days, or is it in the wash?”

“In the wash.” Loona answered as she came to join them by the bathroom door. “Got blood on it when we were fixing your shoulder back there. Sorry.”

She handed Stolas the armful of clothes she’d brought over, and he took them with a grateful smile and a quick ‘thank you’.

“We got the green one, with the little horses if you want?” Loona offered as Stolas took a step towards the open door behind them and began to carry Blitz forward. “Gonna set the couch up for you guys, okay? Gimme five.”

“I want the pink one, with the hearts n’ hooves on it.” Blitz asked as the door pulled shut behind his prince. “Soup Can and Meredith are on it!”

A click of beak, and Stolas sighed exasperatedly. “I swear I can’t understand why I’m so desperately attracted to an imp who names make-believe horses on bedding.”

“Same reason I fell for the dumbass owl who writes love stories about Victor and Alessandra, the make-believe farmer and his princess bride.” Blitz shot back dryly.

“That’s not remotely the same thing!” Stolas argued, and Blitz was already talking back into the middle of Stolas’s sentence.

Via laughed out loud as the door closed on the pair of bickering idiots, and Loona moved over to the living room with the empty laundry bag she’d had slung over one shoulder. Via followed and helped her pick up anything fabric off the floor and stuff it into the laundry bag. Loona tried to wave the teenager off multiple times, insisting she didn’t have to do this as Via picked up the recently-puked on blanket Blitz had been laying on earlier and dropped it into the open bag with a disgusted look on her face.

“Family does for each other.” Via told the older girl firmly. “I want to help.”

Loona smiled proudly at the teenager, and was rewarded with a shy, nervous grin from Via in return. They worked for the entire ten minutes it took for Stolas and Blitz to re-emerge from the bathroom, Stolas now fully dressed in Loona’s old pajamas and a fresh three-quarter-sleeved top, and just long shorts that came down past his knees for Blitz.

Stolas was holding the shirt his imp had refused to wear because it rubbed against his injured shoulder, tucked up along Blitz’s back as he rubbed tiny little circles along the spines laid flat against Blitz’s back. The imp himself was draped unceremoniously across Stolas’s right shoulder, face buried in his prince’s neck as Stolas carried him carefully forwards.

“He’s been sick twice.” Stolas told Loona as Blitz said nothing to any of them and clung to his prince like a needy toddler. “He’s warm, but it isn’t a fever yet. I think he’s exhausted and in some pain. Nothing serious this time.”

Loona nodded officiously at him and waved them towards the couch. “I found the pink blanket he wanted. Get him settled, you, me n’ Via gotta talk in the kitchen.”

Blitz instantly locked his knees up at either side of Stolas’s back, his arms tightening their grip around his bird’s shoulders in a clear show of defiance towards anyone who thought he was letting his prince go while he felt like shit and the soft chest feathers against his skin brought him the only comfort he knew as his shoulder poured fire down his spine and just wouldn’t quit.

“I… Think we might need to postpone.” Stolas apologized with a gentle squeeze around Blitz’s lower back. “I don’t think he’d let me put him down.”

“Jus’ talk here.” Blitz said with his eyes closed. “M’gonna hear it anyway. House ain’t that big.”

“A-Are you sure?” Via asked anxiously. “It’s about the purple lights my dad can do now, a-and magick. It’s kind of… Complicated?”

Blitz made a dismissive noise at her and waved with one hand behind Stolas’s back. “Easy. I c’n listen. Maybe I’ll learn somethin’.”

“Oh I highly doubt that my wishful little love.” Stolas teased, and it was a testament to how badly Blitz felt that his prince got no reaction back from his hotheaded, mouthy imp.

Stolas held the smaller body close and dropped a soft, loving kiss down at one temple. “Let’s get you under a blanket, shall we?” he said as if Blitz was in any position to refuse or argue. “I’m right here darling, always. Whatever you need.”

“Someone got that ginger Via promised?” Blitz asked as Stolas carried him to the couch and lowered them both down into their usual place at the arm closest to the ‘hallway’ where the bathroom and kitchen opened out into the main living area. “I feel shitty. It’ll help.”

“I’ll get it!” Via offered, already on her way to the kitchen to fetch the drink. “Get him comfortable, I’ll bring it over.”

Via went to the counter and picked up the fresh mug of chocolate ginger, and on her way back to Blitz and her father on the couch, nearly tripped over Loona, who was pulling a kitchen chair out from under the table.

“Gonna need someplace to put the mug when my dad falls asleep.” Loona explained as Via gave her a confused little frown as she stopped short and some of the hot drink touched her fingers.

Via blinked. She never would have considered the physics of reaching down over the side of the couch when you already felt like shit, or the logistics of having Blitz firmly in Stolas’s lap limiting Stolas’s range of motion. She would have just used magick, but these people didn’t have magick, not even her father.

Except when he did… she thought, and her frown deepened as she ran over possibilities and implications that her dad sometimes had magick now.

Loona gave her elbow a gentle nudge and gave a flick of one ear towards the couch. “You look like you have shit to say. I wanna hear it, but Blitz needs us too.”

Via’s eyes went wide, and she nodded quickly, following Loona back to the two already curled up at one end of the couch. Stolas had Blitz safely tucked up against his side, the smaller body wrapped loosely in the obnoxiously pink blanket printed with tiny, adorable silhouetted horses touching noses the imp had asked for, and Blitz had his face crushed up into his prince’s chest fluff with his eyes half-closed and an irritable look already on his face.

That was how Loona knew he must be feeling like complete crap. He didn’t even try to look up and fake a smile for her or Via, and when the teenager stopped just shy of actually signaling her presence by word or by touch, Loona covered for the girl by dragging her kitchen chair over by Stolas’s elbow, just far enough to avoid accidental spills, but close enough that the chair could still be a useful side table.

“Via brought your ginger, Dad.” Loona said in her usual easy drawl. “You still want it?”

Blitz brightened at her words and sat himself up a bit straighter. “Yeah.” He smiled up at Via, who held out the mug with a shy little smile back at him, and Blitz took it with surprisingly steady hands. “Thanks kid- Really need this. Everything inside me’s tryin’ to come back out, and not in the fun way.”

Stolas made a face behind him. “In what possible world could there be anything but a bad way to mean that?” he scoffed without thinking, and Blitz gave him a tired, but no less impish smirk.

“Tell you later.” he promised, and Stolas blushed as several versions of ‘tell’ flashed across his imagination, and Blitz’s smirk widened. “See? You totally get it. Just had to give it a sec in that big ol’ brain of yours.”

Via cringed, Loona traded horrified looks with the younger girl, and the hellhound gave her dad a gentle, careful tap at one shoulder to shut him up.

“Can’t you just not be completely unhinged for five fuckin’ minutes?” she complained with a fond, soft smile on her face as she saw Blitz acting mostly like himself, able to talk and sit up unassisted, and some hard knot of worry she hadn’t known she was carrying dissolved like so much smoke.

“Gotta be who I am sweetheart- You know that.” Blitz told her with the fakest look of regret she’d ever seen anyone in Hell wearing. He grinned up at his daughter and waved with the hand not holding his mug of ginger. “Hey, I kept it real friendly for Via’s sake! That’s one hinge, at least!”

“At least.” Via muttered with a giggle and an exasperated eyeroll at the stupid imp. “Can we talk about something that actually matters now, or?”

Blitz was serious almost before she’d finished speaking, and he looked up at his prince for direction. “Stols? You wanna tell them about the light? Think you might know somethin’ about it?”

Stolas frowned, his eyes soft as he snuck a soft little kiss down to one of Blitz’s cheeks before he next spoke. “I think Via has a better grasp on things this time.” he admitted easily. He looked up at his daughter and smiled encouragingly. “I seem to remember you were telling Blitz you might know why my magick’s come back? From this morning, Starfire- Do you remember?”

Via looked confused for a second, wondering when he could have overheard her conversation with Blitz since her father had been in the bathroom at the time, then remembered Dad Hearing; He could know what she was doing in her room from across the palace if he’d wanted to.

She laughed at the memory of her younger self trying to sneak into his office and peek at his grimoires while Stolas had been out in the greenhouses, and before Via had touched the tip of her claw to the closest book’s spine, her father had stepped out of a sudden swirl of stars directly behind her and scooped her up as if the entire scene was common as anything.

“Daddy will always know when his little owlet needs him.” Stolas had smiled as he swept her up and cuddled his daughter closer. “I have Dad powers that tell me when to appear.”

Via felt her heart flinch back as the happy memory clashed painfully with the year she’d spent wishing her dad was there with her and knowing he wasn’t coming. Couldn’t be there because of her uncle and mother, thinking even if they were gone, he would never choose her over Blitz, and-

His soft, worried hand touched the underside of her chin, and Via shook off the sudden spiral of anxious thoughts in favor of smiling at her dad, and at Blitz, who looked like he was ready to climb right out of his bird’s arms and let her have him all to herself if she didn’t say something soon.

“I’m okay Dad.” Via told them both, and surprised herself by meaning it completely for once.

 She stepped towards the couch, intending to curl herself up beside her father, but stopped at the last second as she thought of Blitz and how awful he must still be feeling, and was unwilling to worsen things for the imp no matter how badly she wanted the comfort of her father’s hug.

“Hey, I don’t bite.” Blitz said, sending a nervous smile her way. “You can slide in wherever’s comfortable kid. I’ll get outta your way.”

“It’s okay Blitz. I don’t mind.” Via said, sitting gingerly down beside her father’s curled knees on the old couch and very carefully not jostling Blitz or his fresh cup of hot drink. “I just didn’t want to make you feel worse. You look like shit.”

“Thanks, it’s my face.” Blitz grinned at her with a wink. He took a small, cautious sip of his ginger and Via hid a giggle behind one hand as Stolas watched them interacting with a soft, sappy look in his eyes that made Blitz roll his eyes at Via as if to say ‘this corny bitch, amIright?’.

And he was right. Via did know how incredibly lame her dad could be, especially when it came to soft feelings, and she didn’t bother hiding her laugh this time, which pulled a good-natured scowl out of her father and a wide, proud grin out of Blitz.

“Anyone want anything before I sit down?” Loona asked before the cheesy sitcom unfolding in front of her got any cheesier. “I thought we were gonna talk about purple lights n’ shit, not sit here and watch my dad turn into the biggest lameass in town.”

“Hey- I’m still sick.” Blitz complained at her as Loona curled herself up on the far end of the couch when nobody else answered her. “It’s illegal to be a dick to me ‘til I feel better.”

Stolas leaned in as he sat up straighter to make room for both girls on the tiny couch and kissed Blitz straight between both horns. “She’s being unreasonable, Blitzy. Don’t listen. Stay with me instead.”

“How many times-” Blitz started to protest as Stolas smirked impishly at him. “Y’know what, fine. Call me whatever you want. You always have.”

“Does this mean I get to call you Blitzy too?” Via asked with a shit-eating grin at Blitz, and the imp raised an eyebrow at her in challenge.

“Only people willing to kiss me full on the mouth, with tongue get to call me that stupid nickname.” Blitz shot back with a more exhausted version of his trademark cocky grin at the younger owl. “You willing to do that, Via? After I just got done puking my guts out n’ everything else besides?”

Via made a disgusted face at him, picturing the oldest imp in Hell kissing anyone, and the look of revulsion deepened further as her father put his thumb and forefinger up under Blitz’s chin and coaxed the imp’s face up so they were facing each other.

“Nobody kisses my Blitzy but me.” Stolas told them all very firmly. “This is my ridiculous idiot. Go out and find your own.”

He kissed Blitz soundly on the mouth, and for a minute the two of them lost themselves in the feeling of that kiss, the two girls trading rolls of their eyes at the display of Dads Kissing (again). Stolas pulled back from the kiss before Blitz was entirely ready to end it, earning himself an adorable whine from his imp, who tried to pull Stolas back down by grabbing his cheeks between both hands and succeeded only in spilling still-hot ginger chocolate from the mug balanced across both their knees all over both their laps.

Stolas yelped in alarm and jumped back reflexively, dropping Blitz to the hardwood like a sack of soggy grain, and Blitz swore as he rolled expertly to protect his injured shoulder and avoid hitting his head at the same time.

“What the fuck Stols!” he cried indignantly. “S’not even hot anymore! It’s just chocolate milk!”

“My freshly-washed feathers- Again!” Stolas shot back with a hard glare at his stupid imp. “They’re going to start falling out if I take any more showers, Blitz! Could you possibly be less graceful?”

“I got hit with it too!” Blitz complained, picking himself up off the floor with a shaky stumble back towards his prince. “And I still feel like warmed up ass!”

“Who’s fault is that!” Stolas demanded haughtily, and Blitz gave him the widest, guiltiest set of golden eyes Stolas had ever seen his imp wearing. He sighed and leaned forward to scoop up the unfortunate love of his life.

“I swear this isn’t intentional.” Stolas apologized to Via, who looked more than annoyed at the delays that seemed timed specifically to keep her from explaining her theory about the lights to her father. “He really is this incompetent at most things.”

“You’re the one who wouldn’t lemme kiss my bird!” Blitz argued as Stolas carried him towards the bathroom for their third shower that day. “All you had to do was hold still!”

“If you promise not to cover me in anymore unexpected messes today, I might let you have another kiss.” Stolas offered in a low, flirty tease Via was glad to hear disappearing behind the bathroom door.

The last thing she wanted was to watch those two make out for what would feel like hours, but would probably only be three minutes in real time.

“Are they always like this?” Via asked once the shower had started running and she was sure the other two couldn’t hear her. “This… So… I mean, like… So…”

“Stupid?” Loona suggested. “Fuckin’ sloppy? So wrapped up in each other they’re disasters for the rest of us?”

Via blinked at the accuracy, and nodded. “Yeah, actually. Are they really always so ridiculous together?”

Loona laughed out loud as she used the now-stained pink blanket to mop up any spilled ginger she could find, then added it to her laundry bag from earlier. “Oh yeah. Blitz doesn’t even need his bird to be that stupid. He can wreck a mood and a room all by himself.”  

Via laughed, then an idea hit her. “Wanna know something very cool? Like, before they get out of the shower? I can tell you first, since my dad and your dad can’t be normal for five fucking seconds?”

Loona finished the last of her cleanup, and gave the teenager a curious grin. “Anything. You can show me anything, whenever. I’m down.”

Via’s smile lit up the entire room as she focused her magick and summoned her backpack from their shared room. “I keep trying to tell my dad I have these,” she started breathlessly as the bag floated over to her and she undid the straps that held the top flap shut. “But something always happens and I never get to, so…”

She flipped the canvas bag open, pulled out a familiar blue and gold book covered in fancy script with a perfect ruby oval embedded in the spine, and Loona’s jaw absolutely dropped.

“Holy shit!” she barked. “When the fuck did you get his book!”

“A week before the fight.” Via told her as if she were talking about buying new shoes at the mall. “Uncle Andre doesn’t give a shit about any of the books, so I started stealing one at a time before things got so messed up I had to text Blitz, and… Well… I…”

She trailed off, lower lip caught between her teeth as she looked nervously up at Loona.

“D’you think my dad’ll be angry with me about it?” she asked quietly, and Loona gave her an incredulous laugh.

“Uh, no- I think he’s gonna freak out, but in the best way.” Loona told her, in awe of the young princess who brazenly stole from other Goetia and seemed so capable compared to her helpless, devastated father when he’d been fresh out of the trial. “Do you have any more, or just that one?”

Via’s shy little smile turned into a hard, devious smirk. “Oh yeah. I got most of the secret library back to my room before they started locking me up at night. I saved the most important ones the night Blitz turned up.”

“Secret library!” Loona echoed in complete shock. “Say more, what the fuck?”

Via drew a breath in to explain, but before she could, the bathroom door slammed opened and Blitz was screaming across the apartment at them. She hastily shoved the grimoire back into her bag, tugged the drawstring shut and turned all her focus to Blitz and her father standing in the bathroom doorway.

“Someone help me with him! Via- How do I turn off the lights!” he yelled, voice close to panic as Stolas swayed and wavered on the spot and Blitz used his entire body to prop him up against the doorway. “Hurry up- He’s gonna pass out!”

The owl prince was leaning heavily over Blitz’s shoulder, eyes half-focused, entire body glowing softly, gently purple and white as he clung to his imp’s arm wrapped solidly around his hips, the arm at his back doing its best to keep Stolas moving forward. Both of them were wearing only towels, and by the time he’d coaxed Stolas a few more steps forward, Blitz was towing the absolute edges of the word ‘wearing’ as the towel slipped and dropped ever downwards and the imp hardly noticed as his eyes stayed locked on his prince.

Loona rushed forward to help, taking the dazed owl prince under one arm while Blitz braced him from the other side, and together they hauled Stolas to the couch, where Via hurried in with a clean blanket she’d found somewhere and Blitz wrapped his prince up in it as if he himself weren’t shivering in a wet towel and dripping water all over the living room floor.

“What the fuck do I do?” he demanded of Via. “Make the light stop! He can’t handle the magick forever, he’s not even supposed to have it anymore!”

“I… I don’t…” Via fumbled, her eyes huge and frightened as Blitz’s hard amber eyes locked on her for instruction and everything she’d ever known flew right out the window with the rest of her common sense. “I just…”

“What the fuck were you two doing in there?” Loona shot back at her father. “No bullshit Blitz- What happened when he started glowing?”

“I swear to Satan Loona- Just kissin’!” Blitz confessed at once. His hands came up defensively, as if he could somehow block out the intense, hard stare his daughter was giving him if he only held his hands at the right enough angle. “We went in to wash off the chocolate, got naked, turned on the shower, and-”

He stumbled to a stop there, cheeks brightly pink as he became acutely aware of Via listening along beside him, and Loona’s glare went from pointed to accusatory.

“And you started trying to get in his pants?” she supplied bluntly. “I said no bullshit, Blitz. What else.”

Blitz shook his head in an adamant denial and waved both hands through the air between them for emphasis. “No! I swear to fuck, no! We were just kissin’!” He paused, considered for half a second, then looked back up at Loona, eyes huge and desperate as he looked back at Stolas on the couch on his other side.

“Okay fine, like heavy kissin’ with tongue,” Blitz admitted all in a rush “B-But I never got my hands anywhere but his chest, I swear! I tried, because look at him, and he didn’t stop me, but then I got near his tail with my fingers a-and…”

He stopped again, the blush a furious scarlet by now, and Via almost laughed out loud at how discomfited the unflappable, loud-mouthed, shameless imp seemed to be telling them all about his chaste compared to what she’d walked in on last night makeout session with her dad.

Via sobered at the thought of the word ‘dad’, and ran for the kitchen as inspiration suddenly struck her like a bolt of lightning.

“So you got your hands near his tail, then what?” Loona pressed mercilessly, arms crossed over her chest and features stern. “All of it, Blitz. Right now.”

“Fuck me, fine- I was tryin’ to cop a feel of that sweet ass.” Blitz sighed as if the admission pained him to speak aloud. “He likes it when I get his tail feathers between my fingers, so I was gonna do that, but then he glowed and said his head hurt so we stopped.”

Via came back holding a glass of orange juice as Blitz finished talking, and she made an obviously grossed-out face at his last words.

“She made me!” Blitz apologized at once. “I wasn’t gonna say shit ‘cause I know it makes it weird for you- Loonie made me!”

Loona rolled her eyes as Via tried not to laugh at the earnest, anxious look in Blitz’s eyes and from beside them on the couch, Stolas sighed as if the world were deeply unfair to him, specifically, and put a hand on his imp’s elbow to quiet him.

“Blitz, darling?” he asked shakily. “Could you possibly keep it to a quiet scream just this once? My head’s going to split…”

Via jumped guiltily and held out the glass of juice she’d brought. “Here, Dad- Orange juice. Remember from when I was little and I couldn’t hold back my magick? You said it helps with energy drain?”

Stolas smiled up at her and sat himself up a little higher, still glowing softly purple, and took the juice. “I did say that.” he echoed fondly. “I’m surprised you remember. You were so upset at the time.”

“I was seven, Dad.” Via reminded him. “You must have freaked out the first time your powers manifested as a kid.”

Stolas winced at the reminder that he’d grown up in a proper Goetic household where Via had been spared most of their old-world, outdated customs by his royal decree and Stella’s utter uninvolvement in Via’s life.

“I… We had different experiences growing up.” he hedged. “Do you remember how I helped you stabilize the energy that day? How it felt, what I told you about centering the magick with your body’s natural energies?”

Via nodded that she did.

“Do you think you could do for me now what I did for you when you were seven?” he asked with clear concern for her well-being and comfort in his eyes. “Take my hands and help me pull the magicks back? I can’t generate my own core energies the way you can- There’s a block I can’t move past every time I try.”

Via blinked and nodded quickly. “I-I can try?” she agreed at once. “Give me your hand.”

Her father smiled at her, all four eyes shining with heartfelt fatherly pride, and took a few good sips off his juice before handing the glass off to Blitz, who took it without a word and watched the owls with huge golden eyes full of excited caution.

Via took her father’s hand as Stolas offered it, and both of them closed their eyes as Via summoned her own darker purple and black magick.

“Alright now Starfire- Direct a thread of power down towards my energy lines.” Stolas instructed “They should feel like feathers of electric water. I know, it’s a bit heady to think about water being airy, but it’s as close as I’ve ever managed to describe it.”

Via nodded, her young face screwed up in deep concentration as she pulled at the wild magick threads and firmly directed them to action. She pushed her magick out through her palms, into her dad’s fingertips, and immediately encountered the huge, powerful waves of his magick, and the sudden shock of contact nearly threw her back and away from the spellwork.

“On me, darling. You’re alright.” Stolas encouraged as if he knew she needed him without Via having to say a word about it. “You’re doing wonderfully, Via. I have you, it’s alright my precious girl.”

“I-I can do this.” Via told him more for her own benefit than his. “I can feel your energy- What do I do now?”

“Thread a line of magick down and direct it to quiet mine.” Stolas narrated as his face worked with deep focus and obvious struggle, trying and failing to help his daughter in any way he could from his end. “Th-There should be a sort of bundle of… Of ethers? Like smoke, but it’ll feel like the old lullaby I used to sing you when you woke up afraid of the dark. Do you remember?”

Via nodded again, sweat breaking out across her forehead as she looked for the energy ball he was describing and couldn’t find it. “I- I dunno where to look…” she told him with the very edges of fear in her voice now. “What if I can’t find it? How do I help you if I can’t find it? Dad- Help, I-”

It always seems so quiet in the dark…

The sound of his voice singing the old lullaby for her instantly calmed her nerves, and Octavia hung on to that feeling as she pulled in a deep, steadying breath and sent a new thread of energy down into her father’s networks. This time it only took a few seconds to find the bright, strong bundle of energy he’d been describing for her, and Via swore a quiet fuck yes! under her breath as she grabbed and held it.

“Got it!” she reported breathlessly. “Now what, Dad?”

“Find the core Via-” he gasped as his head began to lance pain straight down his back. He felt Blitz’s strong hand slip up around his middle back, and Stolas felt stronger somehow. “Drop the line down to the core and direct it to level me out.”

Via did it, pulling and jerking at her magicks as if they were unruly toddlers fleeing naptime and managed to wrangle them into place through stubborn will alone. The simple little lines sunk down, curled up around the tiny ball of, well, Stolas, she found at the exact middle of his energy center and she told it to pull the purple light back. Take it back into her dad and hold it quiet and stable, the way she held her own magicks dormant when she wasn’t using them.

It was all more of a flash of feelings and sensations than actual words, her thoughts flickering by faster than Via could process them as her energies merged with Stolas’s and their magicks briefly tangled as Via realized she was moving him instead of the other way around she’d been used to her whole life.

“I-Is it working Dad?” she asked after a solid five minutes of floating and holding her firm directive to help and retract and balance over her magick lines. “Can I stop yet?”

“He’s still glowing, I don’t think it’s helping…” Loona’s anxious voice said into the starry expanse of magicks Via was staring down into. “M-Maybe another five minutes?”

“She isn’t old enough to hold this kind of spell that long-” Stolas forced out between hard, heavy breaths of exertion. “She’ll hurt herself! Backlash, ch-channel burns…”

Via wanted to argue back that she wasn’t a little kid anymore, she was a lot stronger than he thought she was, but at the exact second she opened her mouth to tell her father off, she felt a sharp, knifelike pain burn up her arm and she screamed as the sudden shock of it caught her off guard.

“Via!” Stolas, Loona and Blitz cried in near-chorus as the owl princess’s eyes flew open and she dropped her dad’s hands like they were live snakes.

“Starfire? What hurts?” Stolas asked instantly. “Show me! Tell Daddy how to help darling- I’m here…”

“Her arm!” Blitz shouted in alarm, pointing up at Via’s shoulder where her loose collar had slipped down over the curve of her slender arm to reveal a tracery of deeply blue veins even her feathers couldn’t fully hide. “What the fuck is that!”

“Energy burn.” Stolas told them all grimly. “Loona? Dearest, could you-”

But the hellhound was already gone, running back with the first aid kit she’d used with Blitz that morning under one arm.

“What does she need?” she asked breathlessly. “What do I do?”

“Help her get her sleeve off.” Stolas instructed eerily calmly. “Let me see, Via. It’s alright darling, I’m right here.”

Via let Loona brace her injured arm under the elbow and start helping her pull the sleeve off, wincing as even the small, simple movement made her whole arm feel like it was frozen and on fire at the same time.

“Dad, I fucked up.” she sniffled through a watery sob. “It hurts…”

Stolas’s eyes softened as the girls got Via’s arm loose from her sweater, revealing the sleeveless tank top she had thankfully layered beneath it, and he delicately took his daughter’s arm back from Loona.

He gave the limb a sharp, clinical once-over, eyes piercingly intense as he watched the deep blue burn lines already beginning to recede, made sure they weren’t turning purple or swelling the arm as Via cried and let him do whatever he needed to do to help her.

“Loona? Could you get me a cold glass of water?” he asked the hound kindly. “It needs to be as iced as you can get it, alright? Not frozen, but very, very cold. Can you do that for me?”

Loona gave him a quick ‘sure’ and darted off to do as he asked. Blitz moved himself swiftly out of the way as Stolas guided his crying child to the couch beside him and sat her down while he watched her arm slowly, but surely shifting back to its normal state.

“It wasn’t a bad one.” Stolas told Via as she watched him with tears streaming down both cheeks and tried to calm herself down. It was more shock than pain causing her tears at this point, the painful, wicked burn of too much raw energy slicing through her sensitive channel lines ebbing back and dying down the longer she sat there and did nothing more than let her dad fix her screw up.

“You’re alright darling.” Stolas soothed, reaching up to cup one of Via’s cheeks in his palm and giving her a reassuring, fatherly smile. “We all learn sometime, hm? I’m not angry, Starfire. It’s alright, you’re with me. It’ll all be right again soon…”

Loona returned with a glass full of more ice than water and stopped beside the kitchen chair she’d pulled up next to the couch for them. The abandoned glass of orange juice sat there waiting for them where Blitz had set it down earlier, and Loona held her glass of ice out to Stolas without a word.

The owl prince took it, made a face at how little actual liquid there was in the glass, then had a sudden stroke of genius.

“Via? Drink whatever water there is in here. It’ll help.” he told his daughter, and she took the glass off him without argument.

She drank the bare dregs of water down in a few quick swallows, violet eyes wide as the fucking thing actually worked and made her arm feel better as the cold water chilled her body’s core slightly.

“Better?” Stolas asked kindly, and Via nodded at him. He smiled, relief evident in his eyes as he picked up the mostly-full glass of orange juice in one hand, and asked Via to hold her glass of ice steady.  “Good. The cold helps the residual magicks our blood conducts heal up channel burns like that. It should be completely painless in a few more minutes.”

He tipped the juice over into the glass of ice, handed the empty glass back to whoever was available to take it, and nudged the cold orange juice towards Via.

“Some juice to give your physical body a bit of help recovering, hm?” Stolas explained with all the care in the world in his eyes for her. “The cold will help the burn, the juice will keep backlash away from snapping the lines so suddenly.”

Via swiped the back of her hand under her eyes, dashing away the last of her tears as she sipped her juice and curled up into her father’s side as if she were six years old again. He wrapped her up in his arms, kissed the edge of her forehead the way he’d done since she was born, and Via snuggled up into the familiar comfort.

“Thanks, Dad.” she said softly. “I’ve never had a burn like that after using magick before. I didn’t know you could do that…”

“It’s a bit new, isn’t it?” Stolas soothed, smoothing down Via’s hair along her back the same way he did for Loona when she was this upset. “It takes a lot of practice to be able to hold so much raw magick, especially when you’re working with someone else’s networks.”

Via nodded without really processing what he’d said. “Yeah, I guess…” She turned her face into his shoulder and her dad held her closer until Via was ready to speak again.

“It feels better now.” she told him quietly, eyes guilty and remorseful as she looked up at her still-glowing father. “I couldn’t even help you though… I’m not strong enough.”

Stolas made a hard, stern noise at her and kissed the top of her head soundly. “Don’t you dare talk to me like that, young lady. There is nothing weak about you. This is a very complicated situation, with extremely advanced interplay involved, and I’ll not have you dismissing your talents just because you aren’t a grown adult who uses them hourly yet!”

Via giggled at how offended he sounded on her behalf and nosed at the underside of his chin in silent thanks. “Sorry Dad. I’ll remember not to talk shit about your daughter next time.”

Stolas nodded at her and gave her a playful nudge to make the girl smile, which she did. “There we are, we’re together on this.” he said with a cute little clap and a quick kiss to Via’s forehead. “All better, hm?”

Via turned her whole body into his side and hugged him tight. “I love you Dad, seriously. I always did.”

He wrapped both arms securely around his little girl, kissed her at one temple and put his forehead down against the top of her head. “I love you too my precious Starfire.” he said so softly Via almost missed the hitch of raw, wavering emotion in his voice as he said it. “Daddy’s here my beautiful girl. Everything will be okay.”

Via hugged him back so hard Stolas gasped in surprise at her shockingly strong arms suddenly squeezing the life out of him, and for a minute or two the whole world was nothing but Via. Nothing but his daughter safely back in his arms, looking to him for answers and comfort. Loving him, seeing all of him for once, knowing Blitz was a serious part of his life and choosing Stolas anyway now she was old enough to do without him if she wanted.

The thought of Via ever deciding she wanted nothing to do with him again, of leaving him alone in this world against everything life could conjure, even with Blitz and the rest of his newfound family by his side made Stolas tear up, and he held his very solid, very real daughter closer as the lingering shadows of Sinsmas one year ago briefly came back to torment him.

“Hey Stols? You remember your meds baby?” Blitz’s quiet, respectful voice asked, neatly derailing Stolas’s spiraling train of thoughts. “You want me to get them for you with some water?”

He was obviously asking if Stolas needed one of his maintenance meds. Blitz knew good and well Stolas had taken his morning dose earlier, and here and now the imp was subtly asking if Stolas was alright, did he need extra help keeping the anxiety under control as he readjusted to his usual SSRI dose.

Blitz had asked the question in such a way that Via wouldn’t be afraid for or- Lucifer forbid- of him, and the room didn’t need to hear how fragile Stolas could still be where his sensitive heart was concerned. Stolas smiled a watery, loving smile out at his sweet, thoughtful, wonderful imp who was doing what he always did and showing not telling Stolas how loved he was, how cherished, looked after, thought of, cared for…

“I did remember.” Stolas finally answered. “I’m alright darling. Everything is okay.”

He opened one arm for Blitz, and Via shifted over on the couch without letting her dad go to make room. Something in the simple, easy action made Stolas tear up even more somehow as Blitz slotted himself up against Stolas’s curled-in knees and any part of the blanketed chest he could reach.

“I love you both.” Stolas whispered with one cheek pressed to Blitz’s, his other pressed to Via’s shoulder on his right. “Very, very much. I couldn’t imagine living without either of you.”

“Okay, fine- You’re all corny as shit.” Loona growled straight into the tender moment. “We still have a fuckin’ problem here!”

She gestured to all of Stolas and his brand new backlighting as they all looked her way with various versions of scowling, what the fuck faces on.

“The bird’s still purple.” Loona said as if they were stupid, because they were. “He can’t pull the light back and it’s costing him energy to make it. I’m not spending another week at that gross-ass fuckin’ hospital full of racists and room-temperature tuna sandwiches!”

Via giggled at the reminder of that one awful breakfast she and Loona had shared at the hospital cafeteria, and she sat up a little beside her father, lower lip caught between her teeth as she tried to think what else she could do to help.

“I… I don’t think my magick’s going to be enough…” she said anxiously. “We need something stronger, I think.”

Blitz’s eyes lit up as somewhere in front of him Stolas reminded Via she’d done her best, he wasn’t disappointed or angry with her, some kinda fatherly bullshit that didn’t matter enough to retain right now-  

He grinned against his prince’s chest, an idea suddenly grabbing his quick mind and running ahead of his thoughts without him.

“Hey Stols?” he said to get the bird to look his way, and all four of those gorgeous rubies snapped to attention right on his own bright, golden gaze almost at once.

“Yes Blitz?” his prince asked in that endlessly patient, soft, sweet voice Blitz never got tired of hearing “Did you need me for something?”

“Yeah, I think I do.” Blitz told him, and pushed himself up onto the very tips of his toes to reach.

One arm came up behind Stolas’s head, careful not to dislodge Via too roughly as Blitz pulled his prince down and into a slow, loving kiss Stolas instantly began to melt into. Blitz kissed him, their movements chaste and sweet at first, but after the first ten seconds of it, Stolas sighed against his cheek and the feel of warm breath ghosting up along the line of his jaw sent white-hot need racing through Blitz’s entire body.

He grabbed his prince firmly around the waist, blanket be damned, jerked the warm body firmly against his bare chest and used the hand still up behind Stolas’s head to direct his bird to deepen the kiss, which Stolas obliged without resistance or complaint.

Stolas’s arms wrapped up around Blitz’s back, one strong arm swept down under Blitz’s ass and scooped him up against his pretty bird in one quick, easy motion, and Blitz was kneeling in his lap with their mouths firmly tangled, teeth scraping beak, soft, sweet sounds of pleasure escaping both of them as Stolas drew the smaller body in closer, the world narrowed to only Blitz and his prince, and for a full five minutes that lasted lifetimes, all that mattered anymore was the feeling of being together, with each other.

Stolas having Blitz moving against him, holding on, kissing him like they’d never touched before, Blitz feeling Stolas begin to whimper for him, liquefying under his hands, nipping softly, ever so gently at the sides of his mouth, tongues tangled, bodies seeking-

“Oh my god why!” Via yelled into their perfect moment.

The high, horrified shriek split the living room air, and the two lovers instantly broke apart, Blitz leaping back off the couch like a spooked cat and landing in a ready crouch in the middle of the living room, where Loona and Octavia stood in a messy half-circle.

“Dad! Your towel’s gone!” Loona barked at once, and Blitz stared up at her in total confusion for a second, then felt the cool apartment air breezing up against his naked skin. The next thing he felt was Stolas hastily whipping the blanket he’d been covered in across his entire front, wrapping him up shoulders to heels in the thing from behind like a really, really red burrito.

“Why is this the third time today I’ve seen you naked!” Via complained angrily. “Do you not like, believe in clothes around here!”

“I’d have ‘em on if I had any left!” Blitz shot back just as hotly. “You think I’m trying to flash my boyfriend’s kid every time I sneeze around here!”

“We came out of the bathroom very suddenly.” Stolas cut in bracingly, one hand reaching out towards Via in a weak offer of peace and diplomacy. “He’s not doing it on purpose, I’m sure-”

“Why the fuck did he just climb into your lap and start making out then?” Via demanded as Loona rolled her eyes at them all, noticed the naked bird thankfully covered by most of Blitz in front of him, and made for the back of the beanbag where Blitz kept his clothes. ”Was that an accident too?”

“No!” Blitz argued indignantly. “I was tryin’ somethin’ out since magic ain’t gonna be the answer this time! It worked at the hospital that time, why the fuck not now!”

Via narrowed her eyes at him and crossed her arms over her chest defiantly. “Why would it?” she countered just as stubbornly.

Blitz jerked a thumb back over his shoulder at Stolas, who looked desperate to find a way to stop this before it escalated any further. “He’s not glowin’ anymore is he!” he shot sullenly. “You said the energy drain was making him sick! I fixed the problem, so fuckin’ what!”

“You were wearing a towel!” Via accused, expertly smoothing over the shock that hit her as she saw Blitz had been right- Her father wasn’t glowing anymore. He seemed to be back to his usual self, if a bit tired-looking, but Via certainly wasn’t going to give Blitz the satisfaction of being right. Not after what she’d been forced to witness just now. “And it came off while you two were… Right beside me! You’re lucky I was gone before that or who knows what I’d have seen!”

“Wouldn’ta seen shit.” Blitz muttered sullenly, trying to raise his arms and mirror Via’s angry crossed-arm stance but finding he couldn’t move inside the snugly wrapped blanket he was trapped in. “My hips were angled all wrong anyway. Most you saw was my naked ass.”

Via gave him a sharp, pointed look of pure teenage derision. “And when you jumped off the couch just now? Was that just your ass?”

Blitz winced, some of the righteous indignation fading out of him as he sighed in acknowledgement. “Fine. Sorry I forgot the towel. Can we move the fuck on now?”

Via raised an eyebrow at him and nodded behind the imp. “You understand my dad’s totally naked behind you, right? Like, I can see you too, you know.”

“I didn’t plan to be, I swear!” Stolas protested as Loona finally found a pair of Blitz’s oldest shorts behind the beanbag and threw them at Via, who caught them with a scowl down at the two idiots in front of her. “We didn’t have any clean clothes! It’s been such a fucking nightmare these last days, and-” He heaved a dramatic, put-upon sigh and gave his daughter an imploring look. “I’m so sorry Via! It was bad timing and poor circumstance, that’s all. I promise this isn’t a regular occurrence here.”

“The hell it’s not.” Loona snorted as she carried a long, dresslike top over for Stolas and shoved it unceremoniously at the bird. “I think I see Blitz naked in here like, twice a day and I’m not even home often enough to be here twice a day.”

“I keep tellin’ you knock loud before you come in!” Blitz sulked as Stolas hastily pulled the clean top on behind him and the blanket almost dropped again. “I fuckin’ live here too! What am I s’posed to do- Shower in a full suit?”

Stolas made a considering face behind him and brushed the back of one hand up along Blitz’s jawline. “I might like to see that someday.” he said in a cute little flirt that instantly mollified Blitz. “We could make it a statement about destroying the bureaucracy that kept us apart for all those years and-”

“Hey hey hey- Keep it PG13.” Blitz reminded his prince with a shiver. “We got kids in the room now.”

Stolas raised an eyebrow at Via and Loona, who both rolled their eyes and gave him faces of utter exasperation, and smirked back at Blitz. “They’re old enough to hear me say I love you, my sexy little Blitzy.” He leaned in closer and pinned a kiss to the side of Blitz’s cheek from over one shoulder.

“And when they’re asleep later, I’ll show you what I don’t want them overhearing.” Stolas promised in a quiet whisper only Blitz heard as he pulled back and away again. “I missed you, love of my life. Very much.”

Blitz’s face went completely slack, his mouth half-open in a goofy, completely mesmerized little smile that told Stolas everything he needed to know about what Blitz was thinking now, and the smug smirk widened at how easy it was to get his imp to forget being angry in favour of getting Blitz to think about him. 

“Dads!” Loona snapped as she saw the two lovesick assholes in front of her about to fall into another passionate round of kissing and refused to witness still more of their disgusting domesticity. “Focus! Stols isn’t glowing anymore- Why?”

Blitz’s features cleared almost at once, eyes gaining a curious, apprehensive light as he looked back at Via for the answers she’d been trying to give them all day. Stolas seemed at just as much of a loss as Blitz was, and even Loona was looking out at her as if Via held the answer to every mystery life had to offer, and she shrunk down into her shoulders at all the eyes suddenly on her.

“I… I…” Via stammered nervously. She wrung the shorts she still held anxiously between both hands, and Stolas was beside her with her next breath.

“Let’s settle us all in, then we’ll talk, hm?” he offered kindly. “Via? Would you like some cinnamon apples before we start my love? As an apology for earlier. What do you say?”

Via’s eyes flickered out at the rest of the room, at Blitz in his blanket burrito, Loona in her sleep shorts and a ripped up band tee that hung loosely around her muscled frame, at the backpack full of books she’d abandoned on the floor earlier, and finally back up at her father with his soft smile and four open red eyes that told her any choice she made was the right one- About the apples, the magick, her entire fucking life so long as she was safe and happy in the world.

“Yeah.” she agreed with a hitch of sudden tears in her eyes. “Yeah, cinnamon apples sound perfect Dad.”

She hugged him close for a minute, he held her until she let him go, then offered her his hand as he began to move towards the kitchen with her.

“And you, Blitz? Do you need coffee, or a cherry soda, or perhaps a grilled cheese with that hot sauce you like?” Stolas offered his imp. “Loona? Some cereal? A jam sandwich?”

Loona shook her head no at him, already back to cleaning up the living room- again- and putting the unused first aid kit back in the bathroom, and Blitz lit up like Sinsmas as he shuffled after the two owls towards the kitchen.

“Grilled cheese with hot sauce!” he echoed enthusiastically. “And those cheese crackers we got the other day- Shaped like horses!”

Stolas laughed fondly at his ridiculous lover and rolled his eyes. “You really don’t want my kisses today, do you?” Stolas teased. “You’re going to taste of nothing but capsaicin and processed dairy.”

“And hot sauce!” Blitz added helpfully. “You forgot hot sauce!”

Stolas sighed tiredly. “Capsaicin is hot sauce, Blitz.” he explained as if Blitz were an excited preschooler following them to the kitchen in a blanket cocoon. “Capsaicin is what makes hot peppers spicy.”

Blitz made a face at him. “No, I think you mean the seeds.” he corrected with complete confidence. “Caps-casein sounds like cheese.”

“Lucifer keep you, darling.” Stolas laughed in that airy, dismissive way he had of calling Blitz stupid without outright doing so. “Bless your impish heart.”

Blitz scowled up at his prince as the owl began pulling bread and pans out of cupboards, and from somewhere beside him, Via snickered as she heard what her father didn’t say. Blitz grinned up at her, happy to hear her laughing even if it was at him, and she gave him a shy, tentative smile.

“Um, here.” she said, handing him the shorts she still carried. “Y-You should have these?”

Blitz gave her a brilliant smile back and dropped the blanket a little to take the shorts from her. “Thanks kid.” he said, then pointed over her shoulder with his eyes wide and alarmed. “Holy shit! Look!”

She did, and by the time she’d realized she was looking at nothing on the dirty apartment wall above the kitchen table and turned back to glare at him about it, Blitz was standing next to her fully dressed in the shorts and no shirt, the blanket folded neatly over one of his arms.

“How did you do that!” Via cried incredulously. “I wasn’t even turned around for a full minute!”

“Used to share a tent with six people, and one of ‘em was my mom.” Blitz said easily. “You get used to bein’ fast at everything when Fizz is threatening you with a centipede down your asscrack if you don’t get the fuck outta the bathroom before he misses morning practice.”

“Practice?” Via frowned. “Like, for a recital?”

“Like for a show.” Blitz explained. “I grew up in a circus, we put on three shows a day- Morning, matinee and afternoons after five. Fizz was our best draw, but I was pretty good too. Me n’ my sister Barb, we did this highwire act…”

Blitz cut himself off abruptly, eyes dropping to his knees as pain briefly flashed across his open, expressive face.

“Anyway, I learned a lot of stuff growing up.” he finished too quickly to pull off the casual tone he was aiming for. “The quick change was one of them.”

He stepped quickly towards the cupboards as a weak cover for the too-bright shine in his eyes, and Stolas’s hand was touching one of his cheeks without Blitz having said another word. His prince brushed a silent thumb up along the line of Blitz’s jaw, all four eyes soft with sympathy for his obvious distress, and Blitz gave him a small, grateful smile back.

“I’m okay pretty bird.” he reassured his prince. “All good.”

Stolas nodded even though he didn’t believe a damn word his imp said, and gathered the smaller body close anyway. “I know.” he said easily. “I just like to have you near me.”

Blitz’s arms slid up around Stolas’s back, brushing up against the base of the long, elegant tail, and Stolas ran a gentle hand down along the curve of one of Blitz’s horns. The familiar face pressed up into his borrowed shirt, a few cold little patches of damp soaking through the old fabric as Blitz held perfectly still for the only three minutes of his life, and Stolas said nothing else as he held the smaller body securely between his arms and rubbed Blitz’s back.

He was very, very careful not to touch the newly-debrided open gash on Blitz’s shoulder, and Blitz shook himself back to unshakeable bravado just as quickly as he’d let the old memories briefly catch up with him.

“You’re gonna burn that grilled cheese.” Blitz teased as Stolas smiled softly down at him and their eyes exchanged a conversation that told Stolas Blitz was better, he’d done exactly the right thing for once. “Shoulda let me cook if you were just gonna ruin ‘em.”

“Oh my stars! The stove!” Stolas yelped, having utterly forgotten as his focus slid only to Blitz and his comfort. “I can still save it, I promise!”

He went about trying, Blitz laughing and joking with the owl prince as if things had always been this easy, this simple, and Via watched with her eyes full of tears she refused to cry.

She absolutely would not ruin their moment together, wouldn’t steal their time the way Blitz was so careful to leave her and her dad their time, but guilt was gnawing at her at the way Blitz had reacted to her questions about his past. She’d have to remember not to bring it up again, even though he had, and Via wasn’t sure where she’d gone wrong this time, and-

A strong, sure hand fell on her shoulder and Via looked up at Loona, eyes wide and apprehensive as she tried to guess what to expect next and couldn’t.

“Sometimes it gets a little intense around here.” the hellhound observed as if she could read Via’s thoughts. “My dad’s kind of a soft touch even if he’s the most embarrassing demon in hell most days. Your dad’s good for him. They play off each other y’know? Know what to do when someone’s old scars get stepped in.”

“I… I asked about the circus.” Via told her softly. “I’m the reason he was so upset…”

Loona ruffled the younger girl’s hair and shook her head, smiling fondly as Stolas fumbled the grilled cheese as he tried to flip it, half the sandwich landed in the open flame of the gas burner and Blitz immediately swore loudly and accused his prince of trying to feed him charcoal sticks and week-old noodles on purpose.

“Nah. I bet Blitz brought it up first.” she said easily, watching the two dumbasses arguing over grilled cheese like she never wanted to forget this moment. “He likes to share stuff with us about his old life, just doesn’t always remember some of it hurts his feelings sometimes. He’s kinda stupid like that.”

Loona gave the owl princess the gentlest, most playful hip check and a grin to show nobody was mad at her, and Octavia laughed a little, passing the back of her hand over her lower eyes to clear them.

“Is every family this complicated?” Via asked as Blitz smeared butter into her father’s left forearm, Stolas screeched in outrage and retaliated by smashing an egg dead center into Blitz’s forehead while both of them howled with laughter and called each other every foul thing they could think of. “Or is it just this one?”

Loona shrugged and dropped herself down into a kitchen chair to wait for the dumbass twins to wear themselves out. “I dunno, I’ve never had a family that wanted me before. This’s my first time.”

Via slid into the chair closest to her and nodded slowly. “I… Mine too, I think? I don’t think it was a real family when Mum and Dad were still together. All she did was hate him, and he pretended not to care until…” She stumbled here, then pulled in a bracing breath and went recklessly ahead. “Well, until Blitz fell off the balcony into her tea service and made her look completely stupid in front of her court friends.”

Loona wasn’t sure if she was allowed to laugh at the mental picture that painted for her, so she choked it down until Via smirked across the table at her in a clear permission. The two girls exchanged grins, then giggles, and finally broke down laughing so hard that even Blitz stopped bickering with his prince long enough to turn to them and frown.

“He fell ass-first into her fancy cakes, and Mum was screaming about her expensive dress getting ruined for weeks!” Via gasped between peals of laughter that were half mirth, half relief that a conversation with Loona was the worst she’d get about accidentally upsetting Blitz. “She fucking hates your dad!”

“And I hate her rich bird ass right back!” Blitz shot back loudly. “Sorry Via, but fuck your mom and her shitty brother- This ass is mine now!”

He pulled Stolas to his side with one strong arm wrapped possessively around the slender waist, hand slipping seamlessly down to the perfect peach of an ass and grabbing a generous handful as he went. Stolas squealed, went brightly, beautifully pink, and shoved weakly at his shameless, ridiculous imp.

“I’ve said not in front of my daughter!” Stolas admonished with a wicked, impish gleam in his red eyes. “Behave yourself!”

“Or what?” Blitz challenged like a promise. He stepped up onto the lip of a half-closed drawer in front of him, used it like a stepping stone, and hopped himself up onto the counter behind his prince.

He slid the few inches forward to the absolute edge of the countertop, wrapped his arms around the thin shoulders and jerked his bird backwards into his arms. “Or you’ll what, pretty bird? Gonna send me out to the balcony and miss out on all this?”

He kissed the feathered, floured cheek soundly and Stolas giggled like a schoolboy as he let his Blitz push and pull him any way he wanted despite the dripping egg smearing into his feathers and the way he saw Via exchange disgusted, grinning smiles with Loona as Blitz snuck his hand down over Stolas’s stomach and leaned in closer to kiss his chin.

“You stupid, ridiculous creature! Let me go!” Stolas laughed “I’m ruining your lunch!”

“Tell me somethin’ I don’t know.” Blitz teased, nipping up at Stolas’s collarbone and making his prince shiver deliciously. “I’ll still eat it, lemme get a snack in first.”

He moved in to deliver a proper kiss to Stolas’s grinning lips, but Stolas beat him to it, turning to face the imp so quickly Blitz actually caught his breath at the speed he forgot his prince was capable of.

“Let me start you off with something sinful.” Stolas breathed as he caught Blitz’s mouth up in his. “My sexy, wonderful Blitzy.”

They kissed, the hot pan began to smoke behind them, and Loona did absolutely nothing to help as the half-burned grilled cheese gave up the ghost and filled the kitchen with the familiar smell of charcoal and burnt food.

“Shit!” Stolas swore, and Blitz tried to grab him back in for more kisses. Stolas planted his whole hand directly into the stupid imp’s face as Blitz laughed his ass off at the mess beside them, and together they went right back to arguing over who’s fault this was, and who was going to clean it up.

“I dunno what other families get up to,” Loona said as Via pulled an apple out from the bowl in the middle of the table and began to bite into it. “But in this one, there’s gonna be a lot of that.” She waved vaguely out at the idiots who were finding new ways to fuck up a simple grilled cheese and wreck their half of the kitchen. “And a lot of this.”

She slid over the abandoned box of Boner-O’s cereal nobody had put away after breakfast, and Via reached into the box and pulled out a curious handful.

“And I think having a place we can be whoever the fuck we wanna be is kinda the point anyway.” Loona finished, her eyes distant and misty as she watched Blitz hug Stolas from behind and kiss the small of his back, and the owl prince leaned down to wipe a bit of wet egg off Blitz’s horn.

“Family here means love is free and support is unconditional.” she told Via seriously. “And that matters a hell of a lot more than perfect.”

Via chewed her dry cereal thoughtfully, watching her dad pull a fresh batch of bread out of the bag while Blitz moved over to the sink to wash out the burnt pan so they could start again.

“I think perfect’s a lie they tell in court rooms and politics.” she said after a quiet minute. “Because this feels perfect to me, and it’s obviously not.”

“Blitz! My clean feathers!” her dad cried as the imp waved the soapy, dirty pan full of burnt butter and melted cheese bits enthusiastically during some new thought of his and sprayed his prince up the front with the murky, soapy water. “Are you fucking serious!”

And everything devolved from there, which was honestly better than Via could have asked for.

This house was loud, and chaotic, and someone seemed to be crashing out or melting down, or finding newer, more creative ways to get hurt every hour, on the hour, but it always came back to hugging it out on the old couch. Talking it out in the hospital room.

Standing in the kitchen making grilled cheese for someone who couldn’t think ahead if he were handed a map and a play-by-play of his next few moments alive, stealing kisses while that same hopeless soul made you laugh. Filled the apartment with joy, and hope for the days ahead, and an odd, new kind of calm that had nothing to do with peaceful.

A loud clatter of kitchen pans and Blitz’s swearing echoed Via’s thoughts like the imp had heard his cue, and Via laughed at the idea.

No, it wasn’t peaceful, but it was reassuring, and it was safe in a way she’d never had before, and when Loona slid her chair over to wrap a comforting arm around her shoulders, Via hugged the hellhound back with everything she had.

She still wasn’t sure what family was supposed to feel like, but if it was up to her to choose, then it would definitely be this.

Chapter Text

A/N: Told y'all I wasn't gonna make you wait as long between updates :P Longer chapters, because apparently I just can't stop these guys from being adorable and building a Fambly together. No beta, we die like men as I run out my front door live XD If you see typos- No you didn't lmao

Magick is NOT a typo; There's a difference between illusion and craft, and while I couldn't see a spot to add it in-story without creating a separate novella about it, Someday we might have the backstory Lore for why I chose to use the ritual spelling and not the common-tongue one (as in, real-world, actual historical usage, not strictly Hellaverse Lore reasons)

CW/TW: Blood, minor injury; Tooth-rotting, fluffy domesticity :P

I love hearing from you guys! Comments, concrit, strings of emojis always welcome- I really do read them all! I'm just very shit at actually replying lol You guys give me life <3

Chapter 23: Bookin’ It

Another half hour of fussing in the kitchen, cooking small, easy meals that could be eaten with one hand or off a napkin, and pouring fresh coffee for Loona, Blitz and Stolas while Via stuck with her apple juice from earlier, and they were back in the living room, staring up at Via perched self-consciously on one end of the couch while Loona sat on the other with Via’s backpack between them.

Stolas and Blitz had opted to slide the old beanbag over to their makeshift circle of bodies, and Stolas was sprawled out on his stomach across it with Blitz curled up into his side, half-draped over his prince’s back as he idly ran a few fingers up and down the feathered shoulder.

“So tell us everything.” Blitz said as Via let the silence spiral and begin to get awkward around them. “My bird glows everytime I touch him- What the hell’s that about?”

“I… Don’t really know for sure,” Via started nervously, one hand toying with the top flap of her backpack as she dreaded her dad’s reaction to what she was about to pull out of it. “B-But I think this might help?”

She drew in a deep, steadying breath and flipped her bag open, tugging Stolas’s old grimoire out in one hurried move that popped the book out into full view of the room like a jack-in-the-box.

“I… It had a bunch of old text about energy mechanics and interplay?” Via told the suddenly dead silent room around her. “I thought maybe-”

“Holy shit! That’s your old grimoire!” Blitz shouted directly into the shocked silence of the apartment. “Satan’s gaping asshole, Via! What the fuck?”

Via made a face at the graphic imagery Blitz’s words called up, and Stolas swatted his imp’s shoulder from beside him in the beanbag.

“Language!” Stolas admonished reflexively.”Keep your mouth civil or I’ll put you out on that balcony, Blitz.”

He rolled out of the beanbag as Blitz gave him an incredulous look and seemed about to argue, but Stolas was already across the small space and nudging Loona to one side so he could sit next to Via on the beaten old couch. His eyes never left the grimoire sitting ominously quiet in his daughter’s lap, Via’s fingers shifting anxiously across the spine and front cover as her father seemed to forget anyone was in the room with him at all, even Blitz.

He slid himself down in the hasty space Loona and Via made for him on the couch to Via’s right, the armrest supporting the prince’s rigidly straight back as he sat and stared at the book for much longer than was comfortable for anyone in the room.

“Baby?” Blitz ventured carefully, moving to sit himself up as he watched his prince like a hawk and worry began to creep in at how unlike himself Stolas seemed now. “Stols? You with us pretty bird? You still here?”

Stolas nodded as if he’d heard a damn word Blitz had spoken, and one hand reached out to ghost long, trembling fingers across the old blue cover.

“My old grimoire.” Stolas said much too calmly, much too evenly for Via to think this was all the reaction she was going to get from her father about it. “I…”

He looked up at his daughter, all four eyes huge and shining with tears as his old life and his new one clashed violently inside him at the sight of the grimoire that had haunted half his life and had nearly cost him his Blitz at the trial. Had cost him Via for that terrible, awful year that had taken entire cosmic aeons to resolve, and-

“I stole it from Uncle Andre.” Via explained all in a rush before her father could ask. “He doesn’t care about the books, so I started hiding them in my room back at the palace. I-I thought he could use them to do some really awful shit someday, i-if he ever did care? S-So I thought that at least if I had them, he couldn’t, like… Do that? Even if he wanted to, or he suddenly cared enough to try? I… I don’t really kn-”

Stolas’s strong, protective arms grabbing Via by the shoulders and jerking her sharply up against his chest stunned Via into silence as her father burst into tears without warning. He held her as if she were about to disappear at any moment, and Via hugged him back, completely bewildered as her father cried and held her to him as if she were much younger than she was.

“I… Oh, Via… I’m so sorry, my precious thing…” Stolas sobbed against her shoulder, one hand coming up to tangle in the back of Via’s hair as he held her closer in a weak effort to ground himself back in the present. “ My strong, beautiful, clever Starfire… I am so, so sorry darling…”

Via blinked, features shocked and a little bit afraid as she automatically wrapped her arms around her dad’s shoulders and hugged him back, and Stolas clung to her as if he’d never seen her before.

“You’ve had to be so brave, and so resilient my precious girl…” Stolas said into her shoulder, his arms around his daughter tightening until they were almost painful now. “I never wanted any of this to affect you this way, to hurt you… I- My entire life since you were born was shielding you from all of it, making sure the politics and bullshit never touched you… A-And now you’ve had to… I couldn’t… I’m so sorry my moon and stars… I’m so sorry…”

Via bristled without really understanding why, and pushed her father away from her so she could look him dead in the eyes. “Dad.” she said slowly and clearly, her voice full of conviction and authority Via wasn’t sure she actually possessed. “Stop. Stop telling me you’re sorry, you didn’t do anything. Not about this. I chose to steal these books because I’m not stupid. I heard Mum bragging about killing you, and when she started hitting me whenever I told her ‘no’…”

Via shook her head and trailed off, all four violet eyes bright with power, and a thin, barely-there glow of purple and black beginning to trickle out from beneath her palms. “I’m not stupid, and I’m not some helpless little kid anymore. I took the books because I understand they have secrets about your power in them, and that if Uncle Andre or Mum got to them first, they’d use them to hurt you.”

She drew her father in closer again, and this time Stolas pulled in a deep, steadying breath as he wrapped his arms securely around his little girl and listened until she’d finished speaking. Via nosed the curve of her beak up against the side of his chin the way she had since she was tiny, and Stolas pressed the gentlest kiss he could manage to her temple in reassurance.

“I’m not as old as you are, or maybe as powerful,” Via told him a little more gently this time. “But I’m just as smart. You taught me to be clever and think for myself, s-so I did. I’d never let anyone hurt you, or me, okay? I did what needed done, that’s it. I’m not fragile Dad. I need you to really know that.”

Stolas sighed, his eyes closing as his tears began to ebb and fade, and hugged Octavia again before setting one hand on each of her shoulders and pulling back to look her straight in her four bright, anxious eyes.

“I can see how strong you are, my wonderful Via.” he said quietly, a proud smile creeping up across his trembling features. “I know you’re not fragile. These past weeks have more than proven that to me. I just…”

He trailed off here and sighed as if the weight of the world were back on his shoulders. “I just didn’t want you to have to be. I never wanted my little girl to live the life I was forced to lead, with the politicking and the bullshitting, and the Goetic court…”

Via smiled up at her dad and looked back at Loona sitting on the couch beside them, pretending she couldn’t see or hear them with her tail wrapped tightly around her stomach for comfort, and to Blitz, who hovered anxiously between his worried daughter and his obviously distressed prince, dying to help them without wanting to make things worse by assuming he knew what they needed or interrupting their moment.

“Dad.” Via said gently, softly. “Look where I am. Look who I’m with.” She opened her arms and nodded encouragingly at the other two. “Maybe it’s not as perfect as you wanted it to be for me, but from where I’m standing, I think it turned out way better.”

She reached back for Blitz, who had snuck in closer without a word, and he took her hand the second it touched his wrist. Loona slid over on the couch, putting a careful, ginger hand up over Octavia’s shoulder, covering one of Stolas’s slender hands with her huge paw, and Stolas smiled at her to tell her everything was alright.

“Maybe it’s fucked up that it happened the way it did, with you and Blitz standing up to Satan at the trial, and Mum and Andre holding me hostage, and the hospital and the…” Via gestured broadly. “The everything. But honestly? I’ve never had a family before, Dad. It was always you and me, and someone who didn’t want either of us around in a giant, cold palace that never really felt like I was home.”

She tugged Blitz in closer, and the imp stumbled forwards as Via snuck her arm up over his shoulder and took up Loona’s hand in her free one.

“I never knew family could be warm, or love each other even though we’re always basically in each other’s laps in this ridiculous box of a place.” She gave her father a broad, impish grin and gave Blitz a tiny shove towards his bird. “I never knew I could feel so right watching you suck face with this asshole at any least opportunity.”

She looked back over one shoulder at Loona, who had an oddly soft look on her normally hard, indifferent features, and Via smiled at the hound.

“I didn’t know it could be this good sharing a tiny apartment with two complete strangers,” Via said softly, fondly as she looked at each of them in turn, then finally back at her father. “I didn’t know I could think of them as family this fast, but I think sometimes you just… Like, bond over some things, you know?”

She leaned in to hug her father again, pulling Blitz and Loona in behind her as she moved, and felt three pairs of arms tangle up over and through one another as their patchwork family held each other close.

“I didn’t know, and now I do, and maybe it’s not the perfect life you wanted for me, but it’s perfect for me.” Via finished with conviction in her every word. “It’s better here, with these people and you being around without being terrified all the time, than it ever was back at home. This is what I need, Dad. Can you hear me when I tell you that?”

Stolas squeezed his arms around his daughters and his imp, a broad, tearful smile on his heart-shaped face as he nodded by way of answer until he trusted himself to speak again.

“I heard you, Starfire.” he sniffled, the words relieved and proud beyond measure as he saw his precious baby Via as the near-adult woman she would be by the end of the week for the first time in all the years he’d raised her. “I’ll never forget to listen again.”

A quiet moment passed between them all as Via beamed at her father, they all hugged one another as if they’d never be able to let go again and generally basked in the warm, happy glow of found family. They would have stayed that way longer, but in true Blitz fashion, the imp just couldn’t hold himself still longer than three minutes in a row.

“I am so fuckin’ proud of you Via!” Blitz burst out with his eyes full of tears and his words brimming with the same fatherly pride he buried Loona in at the least provocation. “Look at my girl all grown up! I love how you tell us what you need like this!”

Via froze, Blitz winced, realizing he’d called her his daughter again without thinking and wondering if it had been too soon, too much, too-

“It’s okay, Blitz.” Via said, drawing back and away from the hug so he could see the shy little grin she was giving him. “I’m glad I’ll always know exactly how you feel- You couldn’t hide it if you tried.”

“No matter how embarrassing he is.” Loona quipped with an obnoxious smirk at her dad. “Especially in public.”

“Can I help it if my girls are the best girls in all of Hell?” Blitz crowed like the shameless idiot he was. “My kids are better than everyone else’s, and if they don’t think so, they can lick my asshole!”

“Not on my watch.” Stolas laughed through the last of his tears. “That ass belongs to me, and you know that.”

“Hot damn do I, beautiful.” Blitz smirked in an over-the-top purr as he leaned in towards his prince and stole a kiss. “Satan, how’d I ever get this lucky?”

Loona rolled her eyes and shoved Blitz back towards the opposite end of the couch before he could start trying to inhale his stupid bird in front of them again. “Okay, so are we good? Can we get to the part where we read these fuckers yet?”

She gestured meaningfully at the book still sitting in Via’s lap, and the younger teen looked up at Stolas inquiringly.

“I think Octavia should be the one to lead us.” Stolas suggested with a wave down at the book that had once been his jailer. “You said you had some leads, didn’t you Starfire?”

Via nodded and hefted the book up over her knees as Blitz scrambled up the back of couch and leaned in over Loona’s shoulder with interest.

 “I… I think so?” Octavia said slowly, uncertainly. “Like… You told me once about energy and emotions? A-And how they’re bound by our magick? I… I don’t exactly remember it all, but maybe that’s why you can pull magick again? All the big feelings you’ve been having?”

Stolas nodded along, listening as he reviewed the times he’d been consciously aware of the purple glow and the events surrounding those instances. “Hmm, yes. That does seem plausible. Our energy bodies are quite closely interwoven with our physical ones, and the physical is susceptible to the emotional charge of our nervous systems-”  

“One more time in English?” Blitz asked loudly, and Loona huffed an annoyed sigh at him and rolled her eyes.

“Big feelings make your body do weird shit.” she summarized for him. “He’s saying the lights come from energy or whatever, and their bodies are like… Tangled up in it? Part of it? I don’t fuckin’ know either…”

“That’s a very good try, Loona.” Stolas beamed at the hellhound. “You got it in one, except that as goetic demons, our bodies aren’t tangled in magickal energies- We’re more like living conduits for it. The magicks move through us by birthright, and their energies can be manipulated by any goetic demon with the knowledge to command them.”

“So like…” Blitz started slowly, brows knit with all the concentration he possessed. “Any demon born into royalty like you can just…” He waved his hands as ominously as he could. “Shape the fuckin’ universe on a whim? Because of your feelings?”

Stolas hooted a laugh at the ridiculous notion, and Via heaved a huge, exasperated sigh at the stupid imp.

“No, Blitz, we cannot ‘shape the universe because of our feelings’.” the owl princess groaned. “We can shape magick, which is a type of energy that exists in the universe, and we can do it because we’re goetic. Our entire point is to manage our given mantles; My dad did stars, Uncle Andre had geometry and like, tactics? Sneaky politics bullshit? Frosty bitch domain?”

“He was the Marquis of dramatic irrelevance.” Stolas sniffed with all the disdain of his old titles dripping off every word. “He thought he had a job, but it was only ever because I read the prophecies from my grimoire first.”

“Stols, I’m likin’ this side of you.” Blitz smirked with an appreciative laugh. “Sounds like there’s a story there- Gimme the tea baby bird. Daddy’s thirsty.”

Stolas blushed even as Loona and Via made disgusted faces at each other at Blitz’s choice of words, and raised his chin defiantly.

“That fucking snowcock had astronomy assigned to him, which meant he should be overseeing the placement of the planetary and cosmic cycles I conjured into being with my grimoire, but the most Andrealphus ever did was bitch about the work and kiss asses at goetic parties with his stupid vapid sister.” Stolas told them all in a huff, crossing his arms indignantly over his chest at the thought of his old courtly life. “I was the one cleaning up after him, because of my marriage to Stella. I can’t imagine the state of affairs now, since I’ve been gone a full year and more.”

“So like… This grimoire can move the whole cosmos?” Via asked incredulously, looking at the dusty old tome with sudden newfound awe and respect. “I always thought this was just like, a roadmap? Like any other old book that taught you boring shit like the relative weight of a red giant and the orbital arc of whatever.”

Stolas nodded in acknowledgement of her words. “Well, yes, that too- But the spellwork my grimoire contains is designed to provide answers to concrete questions like that so I can- could-” He corrected himself hastily. “Conduct the magicks appropriately and project my Sight forwards with as much accuracy as anyone can have reading a fluid state of possibility.”

“Holy shit…”Blitz breathed, his eyes wide with curiosity and wonder as he craned his neck to get a better look at the old grimoire. “That thing can conjure stars, and touch time n’ shit, and you just fuckin’… Y-You just…” He stalled out here, looking over at Stolas like he’d never seen the prince before.

“You just… Let my dumb ass have it?” Blitz finished quietly, eyes shining with tears and the shadow of fear now. “You just handed this insanely powerful magic book to me like it was nothing? Like I couldn’t use it to do anythin’ stupid, o-or lose it, o-or…”

He trailed off, suddenly overwhelmed by the vastness of what that old arrangement had meant, the kind of trust Stolas had blindly handed over to him, the implications of what could have gone wrong if Blitz had been less honest than he was, less careful with the book, with how he used it…

“I was never unaware of where my grimoire was,” Stolas told him softly, almost apologetically. “I… My station and my role in the goetic court meant I was always connected to it, always aware of its movements even if I couldn’t see exactly what was happening around it. When I granted you access to the book, Blitz, it was because I knew you wouldn’t misuse it.”

Stolas held his hands up to stay any arguments or objections that might be forthcoming. “I was obviously aware of the possibility that you might misuse it, that any one of your crew might abscond with it, or leverage our arrangement against us, or any number of unpleasant outcomes, but Blitz- I knew you would never allow any of that to come to pass. You would never betray my trust, even if you might one day betray me…”

Blitz’s hand slipped on the back of the couch and the imp smacked down into the top curve of the old thing, jaw cracking at the shock of hearing his prince remind him of the rocky road both of them had been dragged bare-assed over to get to here and now, where they loved each other without question and had a family, and-

“Oh no, my darling- No no no.” Stolas soothed at once, reaching up to pull his imp down and into his lap for a cuddle “I didn’t mean to summon up old ghosts! All I meant to say was that even then I trusted you, my beautiful soul. I barely knew you, and I could see how genuine you were, how honest. Despite both our masks, all of both our lives between and behind us- I knew you would never betray me. You’re a good soul my darling, I’ve always been an excellent judge of character.”

“And somehow you still chose my busted ass.” Blitz tried to joke. “You just like slummin’ it with us lowlives out here.”

Stolas trilled an angry, annoyed growl at his stupid imp and drew the smaller body in closer. “Blitz, I’ve been helplessly in love with you since I was eight years old. Ever since my father forced me into your old circus tent to watch you and Fizzarolli perform. He couldn’t have known he was bringing me to meet my destiny in the scrappy, grubby little firecracker who taught me about pirates and playing pretend, and what a friend was, but I certainly knew what I was looking at when you came back to me all those years later.”

He paused just long enough to drop a sound, firm little kiss down straight between his Blitz’s horns. “I couldn’t have predicted the ways in which we’ve changed and grown since that first fateful meeting, grimoire or not, but I can tell you one thing for sure, my Blitz- I loved you then, I love you now, and nothing about your circumstances ever deterred me. Ever made me think less of the imp who told me he’d hire me if he ever got his business started, who treated me like any other demon in Hell and nevermind the royal title or who my father happened to be.”

He slipped a thumb and forefinger gently under Blitz’s chin and coaxed the anxious eyes up to meet all four of his. “You, my darling, are the beacon I have followed for my entire life, and the only light brighter than yours was Via’s.” He smiled at his daughter, who was watching her father cradle his imp as if he were the rarest jewel in Hell, tears standing in her eyes and a small, silly little smile on her young face.

“There was nothing accidental in my choosing you, Blitz.” Stolas said firmly, voice full of conviction and every scrap of his bleeding heart on full display. “I may not have gone about it in the best ways, may not have been perfect in my judgement or thought things all the way through when I did, but love of my life; You make me stupid in all the best ways. I could forget the whole damn world when I’m with you, and if you only knew how impossible a feat it was to make my thoughts stop spinning, you’d understand a bare corner of what it is I see in you. The heart I cherish, the mind I admire. The determination, the tenacity, the-”

“Body that just don’t quit?” Blitz cut in with a shit-eating grin up at his misty-eyed prince. “Record-setting stamina?”

Stolas rolled his eyes and heaved the most put-upon, exasperated sigh at his ridiculous imp who couldn’t stand so much attention being solely on him unless it were a performance, and laughed out loud.

“Yes, that.” he smirked right back into the mischievous golden eyes. “Everything about you makes me love you more, Blitzy. Don’t you know anything by now?”

“I know it’s been a long two weeks…” Blitz purred, snaking himself up along Stolas’s chest and slipping his arms up around his prince’s shoulders. “I missed you, pretty bird. You always spin me whole galaxies when all I was askin’ for was this.”

He reached up and caught Stolas’s mouth with his, the kiss slow and loving, even chaste by Blitz’s standards, and Stolas leaned into it with a careful, delicate squeeze of his fingers at the small of Blitz’s back.

For a minute, the pair lost themselves in each other, and by the time they came back up for air, Via had the old grimoire open on her lap with Loona peering interestedly down at the pages as Octavia’s finger moved under the words and told the hound what they were reading next.

Neither had said a word as Blitz and Stolas exchanged declarations of love, and kisses, and generally acted like the lovesick newlyweds they were, and Stolas privately made a note of how easy it seemed to be for Via to not only accept his relationship with Blitz, but to forgive them both for their clumsy handling of everything. To look past their mistakes and see them here and now, as the loving couple they were, the family they were trying so fucking hard to build, and-

“Hey- Read out loud.” Blitz’s loud, obnoxious demand cut directly into the middle of Stolas’s soaring thoughts. “I got that backwards letters thing and this whole fuckin’ book’s done up in Fancy Bitch.”

Via made a face at him. “D’you mean cursive?” she asked as if it should be obvious.

Blitz closed one eye and cocked his head at her. “Nah, I don’t think you’re allowed to swear in fancy old magic books. I mean the loopy letters fuck me up real bad- Someone’s gotta read it to me.”

Stolas hid a giggle behind one hand, exchanged fond, exasperated looks with Loona over top of Via’s head, and the owl princess rolled her eyes so hard, Stolas was sure she’d detached one from the retina.

“Anyway, Blitz’s dumb ass aside.” Via muttered with a smirk on her lips that told the room she wasn’t annoyed or angry by the imp’s request. “Shut the fuck up and listen, okay? I don’t want to be reading the same passage a thousand times just because Blitz can’t keep his hands out of my dad’s pants, okay?”

Blitz froze with his hand sneaking under Stolas’s waistband on the side Via couldn’t see, and scowled at her. “But I’m real quiet when I do it!” he protested.

“Well and good, but I won’t be able to concentrate!” Stolas shot back evenly, shifting pointedly to dislodge his shameless imp’s hands. “If you need to sit elsewhere to focus, we can do that Blitz.”

“No! I’m good!” Blitz cried in alarm, his hands flashing up and dropping into his lap at once. “Don’t send me away, I’m sorry! I’ll be good!”

He was smiling as he said it, clearly joking and playing up for the sake of the girls, who were giggling and exchanging secret looks only teenage girls understood as they rolled their eyes, made dismissive faces at their fathers and generally saw nothing deeper than Blitz’s stupid sense of humour happening in front of them, but Stolas caught the hidden undercurrent of insecurity in his imp’s loud, unbothered declarations. He felt the minute tightening of Blitz’s back against his chest, felt the little hitch of Blitz’s next breath, and Stolas subtly gathered his imp in closer to his chest without calling attention to himself.

“Good. Now shut up, darling.” Stolas said sweetly, the impish smirk on his face making Blitz grin wide at his brat prince. “Let my daughter read to us.”

A few more seconds of shuffling as Via repositioned the book, turned back a page and Loona crowded in closer to see, and the owl princess took in a deep, measured breath exactly as she’d been taught by her expensive tutors, and began to read.

“Energy travels along specialized channels within Goetic bodies, which are built to resist the powerful charge of magickal conduction.” Via read dutifully. “Energetic movement is, of course, susceptible to the vessel’s incarnate mind, making the channels especially sensitive to heightened emotional states and states of shock, highlighting the need for strict self-control especially relevant as any loss of control can result in serious backlash or other magickal injury.”

Via looked up from the old tome, her brows knit into a confused little frown. “So like… You glow whenever you’re having strong feelings?” Via asked slowly. “Like, because the magick is responding to your nervous system?”

Blitz made a face that looked painful as he thought hard for half a second, then whipped an arm forward and punched Via right in the shoulder. He pulled the strike to be sure he didn’t seriously injure the teenager, but still put enough strength into the hit to earn himself a hard string of curses from the owl princess and the iciest glare his prince had ever dealt him.

“What the fuck, Blitz?” Via demanded furiously, rubbing at her bruised shoulder. “I didn’t fucking do anything!”

Blitz looked clinically up at his prince, and winced at the hard, furious glare he was getting, but saw nothing else of note. “He’s not glowing.” Blitz told the younger girl way too pragmatically for the murderous glare Via was levelling at him. “He’s so pissed at me, but he’s not glowing. Those old dead guys are full of shit!”

“And if you ever put your hands on my precious little Starfire again, I’ll put my foot straight up your ass and linger!” Stolas threatened seriously. He turned to his daughter, eyes soft with concern. “Did he hurt you my love? Shall I get you an ice pack for your arm?”

“Dad! I’m not fucking three!” Via shot back at him with a scowl, still glaring at Blitz across from her. “If he ever hits me again, I’ll put my steel-toed foot up his ass and linger.”

Blitz raised both hands in alarm, eyes wide and properly dressed-down despite the laughing smirk on his face as he next spoke. “Whoa there kid- It was kinda hot when your dad was offerin’, but you’re not even my type. Better just punch me in the mouth or we’re both gonna be in an awkward fight.”

Via made a disgusted face at the stupid imp, who was clearly laughing at her even as she rolled her eyes practically into the next apartment and gave him the loudest, most exasperated sigh any teenager had ever uttered. “Blitz! Be fucking normal for five minutes!” she lamented. “Dad! Your boyfriend’s fucking gross!”

Stolas pinched the bridge of his nose, knowing that even if he scolded Blitz about curbing his crude sense of humour around his daughter, the imp wouldn’t be able to help himself. This was Blitz behaving, and Stolas had fallen just as hopelessly in love with the worst of his imp as with the best.

“Darling, if you think I can change this stupid man if his entire life hasn’t even rounded the edges off yet…” Stolas sighed tiredly.

Blitz looked scandalized, golden eyes huge and full of mock-hurt as he slapped a hand dramatically down across his heart and reeled back as if under a sudden heavy blow.

“Babe! I thought you liked my filthy mouth!” Blitz cried indignantly. “Never gonna let you have it again at this rate!”

He smirked up at his bird, who’s four irritated red eyes were beginning to soften to fond affection the longer Blitz carried on, and gave him a winning smirk.

“And by ‘let you have it’, I obviously mean-”

“Blitz!” Loona and Via shouted at the exact same time.

“Flirt on your own time!” Loona snapped impatiently, waving down at the open grimoire between them. “I actually want to know what else these old dead guys have to say about the lights!”

“Yes, please, go on Via.” Stolas agreed before Blitz could add anything else to the room that ended in Octavia being hurt or worse; the imp climbing up over his lap, in full view of both their daughters, to experiment with the only sure-fire method they knew of to draw out the wild magicks- Choosing the most sensitive spot Stolas had and running those devilish, nimble fingers directly over his feathers, dropping those sinful claws down, pressing his lips to Blitz’s as they-

“Dad! You’re glowing!” Via cried urgently. “Quick- What’re you thinking? What triggered it!”

Stolas went from idle fantasy to complete mortification between one breath and the other, jumping like a little boy with his hand caught in the cookie jar before dinner. His cheeks went instantly scarlet against his own will as eight pairs of eyes focused only on him, and it suddenly felt like his every thought was laid bare for the entire room to analyze at their leisure.

“I, ah… I d-don’t…” Stolas started to stammer out.

“Me.” Blitz said with complete confidence, golden eyes bright with mischief as he watched his prince beginning to squeeze his thighs together and squirm uncomfortably under him. “You’re thinkin’ about me, aren’t you? All those kisses I’m not gonna let you have anymore. All those times I run my hands all over you, tell you how much I love you, flip you over and-”

“Dad!” Loona barked to stop the endless flow of narration her father was about to devolve into. “I don’t wanna know! Neither does Via!”

“But it worked, Loona- Look!” Via piped up as she watched Stolas blushing harder than she’d ever seen, the faint purple light that had blossomed beginning to intensify and wrap up around her father’s entire body. “Blitz was right- Keep talking!”

Blitz slid himself off the couch with a hungry, focused smirk on his smug little face, eyes never leaving Stolas’s as he stood himself up directly in front of his prince and slid both hands up along his bird’s seated thighs.

“See? I don’t need some old grimoire to tell me how to turn you on, pretty bird.” Blitz purred, and Stolas positively shivered with arousal as his arms came down to pull his Blitz up and back into his lap almost without thought.  “All I gotta do is watch and learn.”

The purple magick grew deeper, more midnight than plum, and Blitz let his bird settle him dead center in the crook of Stolas’s single crossed leg before leaning up into the strong, solid chest he loved so dearly and sliding the fingers of one hand right through his prince’s fluffy chest feathers.

“S’all mine, y’know.” he said quietly, reverently. “You’re all mine, pretty bird. I get to be yours. It’s real, what we got. I never thought I could have real after Ver, but here you are, and here I am… Right here, right now…”

The hand idly toying with Stolas’s feathers was jerked roughly and suddenly to one side as Stolas grabbed his imp by the back of the neck and turned the unresisting face up towards his while his free hand made sure he didn’t crush Blitz’s arm between them as Stolas yanked his Blitzy flush against his chest.

He pulled his imp up into a hard, passionate kiss that had Blitz hastily repositioning himself to spare the girls a full view of his instant hardon, and Stolas smirked as he felt the obvious and clear response to his touch from Blitz.

“All yours.” Stolas purred into Blitz’s open mouth. “Always, only, until the end of me, my beautiful, wonderful Blitzy.”

Both of Blitz’s hands came up to cradle his prince’s cheeks between his palms as the kiss deepened, their eyes closed and the world fell away from both of them for a time neither bothered to count.

Blitz dropped both knees to either side of his bird, Stolas used the elbow of the long arm keeping his hand under Blitz’s head to coax his imp closer, tongues tangled as hot, needy sounds slipped past both of their best defences without a first thought to who else might be in the room or what their daughters might be witnessing as Blitz slid a brazen hand down Stolas’s back and slipped his fingers down the waistband of his bird’s house shorts.

“Move up.” Blitz breathed as Stolas whimpered at the new touch and asked for more without a spoken word. “C’mere, beautiful. Lemme get my hands on you…”

It had been so long, lifetimes, it seemed to Blitz, even though it had really only been a few weeks. A lifetime of distance from his prince, missing his touch, his kisses, the way Stolas surrendered without a single second of hesitation to Blitz’s hands, his voice, his…

“Blitz- Blitz, w-we need to stop…” Stolas said suddenly, a shaky hand pressed down into his imp’s chest as his heart began to race in a way that had nothing to do with the molten heat pooling up between Stolas’s half-open legs. “B-Blitz, I… Stop, darling… W-We need…”

Blitz was scrambling up the arm of the couch before his prince had finished speaking, catching the swaying body as Stolas suddenly lost his balance and fell sideways a little.

“Stols?” Blitz called worriedly. “Baby? What’s wrong? Where’s it hurt? Lemme see, I wanna help…”

“Here, dumbass.” Loona’s voice sighed from just behind Blitz’s turned back. “Make sure he drinks it all. I sent Via down for more, we were almost out.”

The teenager in question ran in through the unlocked front door as Loona finished speaking, a fresh bottle of orange juice clutched in her arms, and slammed the door behind herself, chest heaving as if she’d run the whole way to the store downstairs and back as she looked to Loona for instruction. The hellhound smiled at her, waving her free hand towards the kitchen and telling Via she had things under control with their dads. Via nodded, smiled back without a word and moved to do as she was asked.

Blitz blinked in total confusion at Via by the door, then back at the glass of juice his daughter was holding out to him, staring stupidly at it for a second or two before Loona gave him an exasperated glare and rolled her eyes at him.

“Orange juice, Blitz.” she reminded him impatiently. “He said it fixes whatever backlash is.”

“The magick is pulling energy faster than I can replace it…” Stolas explained as Blitz took the glass from Loona and held it up for Stolas to sip at. “The juice will help me recover more quickly, but we need to find out how to stop the draw before the drain outpaces my body’s natural recovery rate.”

Blitz waited for his bird to take a few good swallows from the orange juice, let Stolas take the glass from him once it was less full, then pulled in a deep, bracing breath and said

“Hey Stols? You know how I said I really love your new preening oil?” Blitz said like a man on his way to the gallows. “The really expensive one that smells like penis flowers?”

Stolas startled and made a face at the seeming non-sequitur. “Peonies, Blitz. Peony flowers, you colossal idiot.”

Blitz nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah! Remember how I said I love the way they make you smell like a fresh garden?” Stolas eyed him warily, and Blitz plunged ahead anyway. “I don’t love it. Smells like cat piss someone microwaved in a vase of flowers.”

“Why the fuck would you lie about that?” Stolas demanded hotly, eyes flashing dangerously as Blitz ducked and covered as if he’d been anticipating this fight. “I spent so much of my paycheques on it because of you! I could have been buying myself the lavender ones for half the price this whole time, you thoughtless, selfish, complete-”

“Loonie look! Look- It’s working!” Blitz cried excitedly even as Stolas’s feathers ruffled up around his shoulders and his furious prince sucked in a hard breath to really lay into him. “The light’s going- Look!”

Stolas startled, looking down at his hands in utter shock and watching the purple light creeping shyly back under his palms around the half-full glass of juice he still held.

“I- You did this on purpose?” Stolas demanded before he could soften the sharp edge off his words. “You said something deliberately inflammatory, picked a fight you knew I’d be sensitive about… Just to stop the magick?”

Blitz hung his head, guilty apology all over his open features as he looked up at his prince from under his lashes like a scolded child. “I, uh…” he stammered softly. “I didn’t want you passin’ out just because we don’t understand the magick triggers yet… I-I thought I was doin’ somethin’ good, t-to keep you safe… I…”

He trailed off, catching his lower lip up in his teeth as his tail snuck up between his fidgeting hands for security. Stolas’s entire body softened, all four eyes shading darker with fondness for this stupid, ridiculous creature who was ready to do anything for his well-being. Anything he could to keep Stolas safe and happy, including letting his prince tear him an entire new asshole on the off-chance the newer, more intense sensation of anger worked to counteract the obvious spark of magick their intimacy kindled in Stolas.

“You ridiculous man. Come here.” Stolas sighed, features soft and gentle now as he hastily set his juice down beside the couch. He picked Blitz up under both arms and tugged him up into his lap, snuggling the pathetic face up against his cheek until he heard the faint, quiet sound of purring start up under him.

“I love you, my Blitz. I love you more than I ever thought was possible.” Stolas whispered into a tender little kiss to Blitz’s cheek. “I can’t believe you’re really mine…”

“Even if I’m kinda a pain in the ass?” Blitz asked quietly, guilty.

“Because you’re a pain in the ass.” Stolas said fondly, dropping a second, sounder kiss to one of Blitz’s temples this time. “If you weren’t as impulsive and relentless as you are, could you even imagine the state of all of us?”

“Bet you wouldn’t glow so hard it hurts every time I kiss you.” Blitz countered softly. “Kinda my fault it happened, I guess. After the fight at the snowcock’s n’ all. First time you glowed was when he threw that ice wall at me...”

“The first time…” Via mused just a little too loudly into the delicate quiet of her dads’s conversation. She sat bolt upright, eyes huge and bright with sudden thought, and waved frantically at the two lovers to keep them quiet as she next spoke.

“Dad! What if Uncle Andre broke the Law!” Via cried incredulously. “What if, when he attacked me and tried to kill us all, he actually broke Satan’s decree from the trial… Wh-What if…”

“Quickly, Octavia- Hand me my grimoire.” Stolas asked at once, face suddenly all business as he gently shifted Blitz over to the armrest to make room for the old book. “Let me look it up…” 

For a time that felt like years the little apartment was silent as Stolas frantically flipped pages, marked relevant passages with his fingers stuck into the pages of his book until he ran out and Via started handing him whatever came to hand and wasn’t sticky or disgusting out of the old couch. Bits of string, old shoelaces, abandoned hair ties, one of Blitz’s less toxic socks… The odd assortment of objects made the grimoire twice as thick as it should be, and still Stolas held his hand out for more as he cross-referenced, looked up and bookmarked anything he thought could be relevant.

“Damn it all!” he swore as the twenty-minute mark started to creep in on them and Blitz jumped a mile behind him, slipping off the arm of the old couch and crashing unceremoniously to the floor. “I need Demonic Law, and Goetic-Sin Liaisons for more information! I wish we’d had time, I wish-”

It was perhaps a testament to how engrossed in his work he was that Stolas didn’t even react to his imp’s instant string of swearing as Blitz picked himself up off the floor and glared daggers at his big dumb bird, watching Via pulling some old book out of her bag for her dad.

Via rifled through the collected tomes in her bag still sitting dutifully between her and Loona, and pulled out Demonic Law for her father. “I-Is one of them enough to help?” she offered earnestly “I have others- D’you wanna see? Maybe one will help?”

She hauled her backpack up into her lap and pulled the fabric side down to show her father the stack of a dozen or so books of various ages, and Stolas lit up like a Sinsmas tree as his eyes filled with proud, overjoyed tears.

“By Lucifer, I can’t believe how smart you are!” he exclaimed tremulously. “I am so fucking proud of you my little Starfire!”

He pulled the books over and into his lap even as Via rolled her eyes good-naturedly at him, all four eyes bright in a way Loona hadn’t seen in the full year they’d been living together. Stolas handed Via the grimoire packed with odd ends, and swapped her for Demonic Law.

“Did you bring a pen and paper?” Stolas asked distractedly. “Could you start compiling notes from the marked pages- I’ll give you paragraph headings as you go.”

“I…” Via started to search her bag, but Loona put a hand on her shoulder and smiled down at the younger girl as she jumped up to get the requested items.

“Ask your dad what keywords you’re looking for in your other books.” Loona suggested as Via blinked owlishly up at her. “Get a head start on cross-referencing while I grab stuff for you guys. Stols- What else do you need? Pen, paper, books, and?”

“Hm?” Stolas answered distractedly, and glanced up briefly from his book. “I… Oh! Perhaps some dry cereal? To keep my hands busy while I think. And a bottle of my lime water if we have any? Plain tap in a closed bottle, if we don’t.”

He looked up at his daughter, and the look of sheer awe in his eyes as he watched her reading and skimming through her own research practically lit the entire room.

“Via? Darling, would you like a drink of something while Loona’s up?” he asked his owlette. “Will you need sticky markers for the pages? I think we’ve just about exhausted the usable objects in this couch that aren’t used gum or coated in caramel…”

“I didn’t even get to eat that cheese!” Blitz protested sourly. “Loonie threw it out!”

Stolas sighed around a disgusted face. “Somehow, yes.” he said in a deadpan so plain Blitz cracked a smile at his stupid fancy prince despite the smart of his whole left side from where he’d fallen off the couch. “How could she be so thoughtless.”

“I know right?” Blitz agreed as if he couldn’t hear the sarcasm dripping off Stolas’s every word like caramel over too little cheese. “Move over, Stols- I can hold the cereal for you even if I can’t read curly.”

“As long as you keep your hands to yourself…” Stolas mumbled distractedly. “I’ll read to you if I find anything interest-Via! Slow down! You can’t possibly be retaining what you’re reading.”

“Dad! Don’t tell me how to think!” Via snapped back as she slowed her pace despite her instant pushback at her father. “I know how to research!”

“Good. I’ll expect proper notes and a full summary of what you’ve learned then.” Stolas said sternly, putting a finger down to mark his place as he took the pen, paper and other requested items from Loona as she carried them back. “Write clearly now, alright? Information saves lives my darling.”

“Dad!” Via howled indignantly as he handed her a notepad. “I can do words! Fuck’s sake!”

                                                                                                                                          ~*~*~*~*~*~*~

They sat there with books slowly spreading out around them for hours, until the sun had begun to touch the horizon line in front of them out the open balcony windows. Until Loona had put her headphones on and curled up with her phone after giving up on all the ten-dollar words, long, dry explanations for shit she didn’t really grasp anyway and old men bending over backwards to kiss their own asses about their creds. Until Blitz had curled up against his prince’s side and fallen asleep holding an open box of Impy-Imps Chocolate Cereal, and Stolas himself was beginning to see blurry afterimages of words as he read the last few paragraphs of his current work at an absolute snail’s pace.

Via was wilting beside him, but doggedly said nothing about it as she forced herself to keep reading some dusty old book with a stuck-up name in ancient goetic script.

“…And binding is the Law of the Angel upon the souls of the damned.” She mumbled mostly to herself as she automatically took note of the passage since it mentioned ‘law’ and ‘goetic’ in the same handful of pages. “Wrath be upon betrayers of Law, and unbinding be the agreements of said under the Eyes of the Angelic King…”

“What?” Stolas asked, his head snapping up so quickly he startled Blitz awake as he moved. “Via- What did you say?”

Via shook herself back to attention and frowned. “I… I don’t remember…” she winced. “I was just reading this book out loud, to keep myself focused? I-I guess that? I…”

“Who’s Angelus Cling?” Blitz asked with his face half-buried in Stolas’s side. “He sounds kinda gay.”

Stolas scowled and almost rolled his eyes at his ridiculous imp. The name Blitz had mangled registered with him, and he hastily pulled Blitz up into a sitting position before the imp could coax himself back to sleep.

“Say it again.” Stolas demanded urgently. “Blitz- Say it again; Who’s gay?”

Blitz blinked up at him, an annoyed, sleepy little frown on his face, and shrugged a shoulder. “You. And whoever ‘Angelo Sings’ is. He sounds hella fruity, not that it matters for magic. I guess everyone’s gay if they’re magic? I don’t fuckin’ know, I was dreamin’ about Shrimp Cocktail and my future horse farm. Wasn’t payin’ attention to everyone’s personal life.”

He would have gone on in a tired ramble, spitting out any thought that crossed his mind without filter or consideration for his impatient audience of one, but Stolas silenced him with a kiss, pulling the dazed imp up and into his lap as he snuggled his imp close.

“Blitzy! My clever, brilliant Blitzy!” Stolas cheered as Blitz winced and made a face as Via smirked at the stupid nickname and the way Stolas was treating his boyfriend like a stuffed doll all of a sudden. “Angels- Via, backtrack and see what you can find with the word ‘angel’ or ‘angelic’ in it.”

Via nodded quickly and dropped her eyes back to her book, skimming quickly down the page until she found the passage she’d been obliviously reading from again.

“Dad! Here it is!” she cried breathlessly. “Here- Where it says the Angelic King is the binding force in Hell. Whatever he says is Lawful- Big fucking capital ‘ell’, which means Satan has to enforce his rules.” She looked up at her father, eyes wide and full of disbelief. “Th-That’s Lucifer, isn’t it? The Angelic King?”

“I should think so,” Stolas started slowly, leaning in towards Via to read over her shoulder for anything the princess might have missed. “Let me see, darling. Let’s take some notes, then we’ll compile them….”

He grinned suddenly, features alight with pure, unbridled glee as the books and project sprawled out before them, and Via quirked a shyer, more hesitant version of Stolas’s same smile back at her father.

“I love words!” he giggled. “I love spending time with my daughter! This day couldn’t be going better if I’d planned it!”

“If you’d planned it, there’d be some sort of terrible themed outfits involved, and I wouldn’t be seen wearing them.” Via teased in her signature deadpan. “You’re always so extra, it hurts.”

Stolas threw an arm around her shoulders and hugged his daughter dramatically up against his side. “But think of the theater!” he said grandly, waving a hand out at an audience that didn’t exist. “Think of the drama! The flair for intrigue! We could have been detectives! Adventurers on a sacred quest!”

“Pirates on the open seas!” Blitz added enthusiastically from Stolas’s lap. “Pirates who steal horses and set them free on deserted islands where horses don’t get put in saddles! And we’d steal books, and plants too- For Stols, and like… I dunno- Via, what’s your thing? Taxidermied animals? Goth shoes?”

Via blinked at him, eyes bright with laughter as the imp found his stride and jumped down in front of both of them to tell the full story with his whole body.

“Anything you want!” Blitz declared grandly. “This vessel sails under the black flag of Princess Celestial!”

He rushed over to the exposed corner where they’d moved the beanbag earlier, searched the collected mess for a second, then ran back over to the couch with a very pink, many-eyed stuffed unicorn held proudly aloft.

“Princess Celestial’s pirate horse rescue slash plant nursery!” Blitz yelled at the top of his lungs. “Via- Add a third thing! And moody teens adoption agency! Cinnamon Apples Bakery! Uh…” Blitz cast about wildly for something to improv with, and his eyes fell on Via’s bookbag.

“Princess Celestial’s pirate horse rescue slash plant nursery, slash legal counsel!” he crowed, and something about the confident, oblivious way he said it as if it were already a factual truth made Via crack under the strain of intense studying she’d been doing most of the day.

“Legal council to horses!” she howled as tears of pure glee began to gather in all four of her eyes. “Legal counsel to horses and ship fashion designer!”

“Yeah! Fancy horse lawyer ship!” Blitz agreed at once. “Led by Princess Feathers and Captain Blitz- The feared and deadly rogue who steals your horses in the dead of night to set them free!”

Blitz flourished a blanket around himself like a cape, Via doubled over laughing at how ridiculous he was, and Stolas fell lightly over her back as he laughed out loud and audible, undignified hoots filled the room as he watched the born circus clown he loved spinning wilder and less believable stories about pirate horses and rogue lawyers for them.

Via shifted as she watched her father openly hollering like a commoner, restraining none of his emotions, concealing no part of himself as he shouted out additions to Blitz’s ongoing narration, as Blitz leapt forward and grabbed his prince by the waist to tug him down into a showy, too-dramatic dip and kiss the fat, rolling tears of pure joy off Stolas’s cheeks.

“The Princess will never escape the daring pirate’s clutches!”  Blitz declared ominously, the broad, cheeky grin on his face making Stolas blush despite himself. “Captain Blitz claims his booty and never lets it go!”

Blitz snuck a hand down under his prince to grab a handful of bird ass as he said it, and Stolas squealed as his stupid imp cackled with faux-maniacal laughter that sounded an awful lot like Blitz’s normal mischievous laugh, and swatted playfully at the broad, strong chest above him.

“Captain! Let me down!” Stolas laughed even as he made no move to free himself. “This behaviour is utterly unfitting of a man in your position!”

“My position is any way I can get on top of you!” Blitz purred with a smirk straight into Stolas’s four red eyes. “I’m a pirate rogue! I take what I want!”

“Not on my watch!” A new voice yelled gallantly, and Stolas found himself unceremoniously dropped to the living room floor as Loona came out of nowhere and tackled her father to the ground.

“Admiral Lunaticus won’t let you keep a Princess captive!” Loona declared grandly. “Prepare to be boarded!”

“Ha! Boarded! Cause you’re a hound, and kennels!” Blitz quipped as he rolled in a playful grapple with his much-bigger daughter and tangled himself hopelessly in his blanket-cape as they went. “You have no idea what kind of trouble I’m about to bring, Admiral!”

“Ha!” Loona shot back with a wide, toothy grin at her father. “Troubled! Like your relationship with the kitchen stove!”

“Good one sweetheart!” Blitz praised as Loona flipped him roughly onto his back and he used his tail to snap her arm back and away from his bicep so he could use the now-free limb. “Watch your elbows- Don’t let me slam ‘em down! Good! Nice!”

The pretend play shifted abruptly to a hand-to-hand lesson between Blitz and his daughter, and Via swiftly pulled her legs up onto the couch, eyes wide and afraid as she thought she saw disaster coming.

A familiar, comforting weight fell on the couch beside her, and Stolas gathered his daughter in closer to sooth her. “It’s alright,” he reassured. “I promise this is harmless. Watch-”

Via nodded against her father, bottom lip caught anxiously up in her beak as if she couldn’t quite trust rough play to be play when she was so freshly out of a home where any physicality at all was violent.

Loona slammed Blitz’s back down into the hardwood with a hard oof from the imp, and he immediately came back up with both knees in her gut, their hands locked around each other’s fingers as they grappled for the upper hand.

“Nah- Focus on the pressure points!” Blitz called breathlessly “You know better than to let me do this!”

His tail whipped up around one of Loona’s knees and constricted, making the hellhound yelp as the powerful whipcord of solid muscle dug into the sensitive back of her knee, and Blitz grinned up at her like he’d already won.

Loona growled low and mean in the back of her throat, rolled sideways so that her entire weight fell directly across the coiled tail around her knee, and Blitz yelped as the sudden pinch of the spade of his tail being crushed into the floor shot pure electricity up his spine.

“Unfair! My tail’s off limits!” Blitz shouted indignantly. “Cheater!”

“No such thing as cheating in a fight for your life!” Loona shot back smugly, and Blitz positively beamed at her as he shifted a knee around her hip and dug his socked heel into the tender spot where her thigh met her waistline.

“That’s my girl! Show me whatchu got!” Blitz approved as Loona arched with a yip and momentarily loosened her hold on him, allowing Blitz to scramble up and over her prone body to grab her wrists in both of his hands. “Don’t think you can break me just ‘cause I’m smaller! Gimme your best baby girl! Daddy can take it!”

“Good lords can he…” Stolas mumbled only to himself, all four eyes intently focused on his Blitz rolling, straining, showing off his wicked flexibility, the rippling abs as Blitz’s shirt rode up…

And beside him Via gagged. “Dad!” she complained. “”I can hear you.”

“I’m sorry darling, but can you blame me?” Stolas giggled, a faint pink touching his cheeks as he remembered his daughter beside him. “Look at my man.”

“Rather not.” Via muttered sourly. “He’s like, a thousand, and Loona’s dad.”

“And one hell of a lover.” Stolas smirked exactly like Blitz, and Via groaned even as she laughed out loud at her stupid dad.

“Dad!” she cried exasperatedly, and in front of them Blitz faltered almost automatically as his ears caught the word.

“Shit! Loonie, stop-” Blitz said just as Loona drew back her arm to deliver a punch she knew Blitz would dodge. “Via- Fuck me!”

The hound’s huge fist smashed down directly into Blitz’s nose and something went crack as blood instantly flew up around them and Loona’s eyes went wide with panicked shock.

“Dad! Shit! I thought you were gonna move!” Loona cried anxiously, letting her father up and pulling him into a sitting position as Blitz held both hands to his face and crammed his t-shirt up and over his nose to stem the flow of black blood. “I’m so fuckin’ sorry! What the fuck! You were supposed to move!”

“I was, huh?” Blitz agreed easily, a smile clearly peeking up from the sides of his shirt as Via and Stolas rushed in to join them on the floor. “Nice shot, sweetheart! Almost broke my nose there, and I know you held that hit back real far ‘cause we were only playin’.”

Loona nodded distractedly as she tried to get Blitz to move his hands and the imp refused to be moved, eyes on Via’s wide, stricken violet eyes and his prince’s worried face hovering anxiously a few feet away.

“I’m fine!” he told her in an obvious lie. “It’s just a little blood- Nothin’ I can’t handle!”

“Hold still and let us help, you ridiculous idiot!” Stolas ordered smartly. “You said it yourself- Your nose might be broken!”

Blitz made a face at his prince and winced as he shifted his injured nose. “So? We got tape and water at the house. You think this’s my first time settin’ a broken face at home?”

Stolas sighed and pinched the bridge of his still-healing beak. “I know it isn’t.” he said tiredly. “But let us help you. For me if you won’t do it for yourself.”

“Here-” Via spoke up suddenly. “Sit still and move your hand.”

She leaned forward, one hand extended as she summoned up her magick before anyone could stop her or tell her ‘no’.

“I can fix it.” she said confidently, and Blitz dropped his hands for her without further argument.

Blitz’s face was a mess of black, red and white as the blood obscured his scarred features, black staining his teeth and giving him a haunted, ghoulish look that briefly made Via shiver to look at.

“It’s okay sweetheart.” Blitz said steadily, evenly. “You got this. I know you do.”

Via nodded and gave the imp a small, timid little smile as she brought her hand closer to Blitz’s face and surged her magick forward, telling it very firmly to heal without harming. She glanced back over her shoulder at her dad once, just to make sure he wasn’t about to jump in and try to baby her out of helping her family, but Stolas was siting calmly to her right, watching her work with a gentle, encouraging smile on his soft, familiar face.

Bolstered by her father’s faith in her, Via turned back to the healing work and slipped her eyes shut as she focused solely on helping Blitz and healing his broken nose. The warm, heavy draw of magick on her blossomed up like a dormant flower, opening up and spilling her midnight purple light out and over Blitz, who winced once as the gentle weight touched his face, then relaxed again as nothing worse than a little bit of a pull behind his eyes happened.

“Doin’ good sweetheart.” Blitz offered quietly as Via concentrated hard and directed her magicks in front of him. “Feels better already.”

A second, paler purple light behind Via began to flicker into existence, and Blitz frowned, wondering why Via was conjuring two streams of light for one measly break, but as Blitz watched the new light growing and solidifying, he recognized who’s it was at once.

His eyes flashed to his prince, who sat still and outwardly very calm beside his daughter, mouthing words he wasn’t voicing at Via’s back and moving his hands through nothing at all in front of him, seemingly on instinct alone. Blitz kept his face deliberately neutral as he watched his bird, splitting his attention between Via to make sure she didn’t get herself into trouble, and Stolas, who absolutely would get himself into trouble since they still didn’t know how to stop the damn lights without Blitz risking a long, cold week sleeping alone in the beanbag after pissing off his prince to get the job done. Once had been noble and cute, but the second and third times felt like a gamble Blitz would rather not have to take- Especially with how damn gorgeous all that purple glowing made his prince. All soft lines and backlit grace, and flowing, beautiful lines that made Stolas’s white cheeks and the streak of moonlight in his hair stand out and positively sparkle like some fancy movie star, and-

“Tell me when it stops hurting.” Via pushed out through her tightly clenched teeth. "I can’t hold this forever, but I’ll go as long as I can…”

Blitz shook himself back to the present reality and reluctantly dragged his eyes away from his prince for a second to check back with Via. She looked like she was struggling, working hard to keep her magick stable and steady, but otherwise unharmed, so Blitz went back to staring at his starlit prince instead.

“S’good enough for me right now.” Blitz shrugged, eyes pinned on Stolas, who was too focused on Via to notice Blitz watching him like a hawk. “Whenever it feels right, you stop, okay honey? Don’t hurt yourself on my account, I’m real tough. I grew up on the Imp City streets.”

“Okay,” Via huffed “But the whole point of me doing this is to keep you from needing to be tough about it. So fucking tell me when, Blitz!”

Blitz laughed, watching as Stolas seemed to falter in his ‘work’ where Via did, the way he seemed ready to jump in and catch his little girl at the barest hint of her falling, and the imp’s eyes softened.

“Feels good enough to get by.” he told the teenager. He smiled at her, and Via gave her magick one last good push and command before she began to draw it back under her hands. “You did good, Via.”

Octavia pulled her power back, the light fading as she manipulated the threads of her magick into doing as she asked and no more, and Blitz watched in utter fascination as Stolas seemed to do the same on instinct alone. His red eyes were still locked on his daughter, Via screwed up her face as she locked back the last dregs of the magick she’d summoned up, and Stolas seemed to follow her lead, with the sole exception that his movements were more practiced, smooth and professional compared to Via’s hesitant determination.

“There!” Via gasped with a triumphant look in her brightly violet eyes. “How’s that?”

“Perfect! Never better!” Blitz beamed at her, his eyes fixed on his bird but not wanting to make Via feel unappreciated or dismissed either. “Now all I gotta do is get the blood off my f-hey!”

A warm, wet cloth slapped him straight in the mouth as Loona brought it for him, and Blitz gave his daughter a playful middle finger about it, which she returned with a mocking grin and an annoyed huff as she sat back down at Via’s other side and pressed a fresh glass of juice into the younger girl’s hand.

“That’s for letting me break your nose, pain in my ass.” Loona growled at her father. Her eyes softened as she watched him smearing blood across his chin with the washcloth, and her tone softened as she asked “You good now? Don’t lie to me Blitz. I wanna know you’re okay.”

Blitz nodded and gave her a wide, messy smile from under the cloth. “Like new! I think she fixed an old break that healed funny too!” He turned serious, solemn eyes on Stolas, who looked worn but no different than he had earlier, and grinned at his prince. “Your kid’s a fuckin’ badass, you know that?”

“I do.” Stolas agreed proudly. “She’s very talented, isn’t she? Smart and powerful, the way I’d always hope she’d be.”

“Speaking of powerful- Did you mean to pull magick, Dad?” Via asked, her head cocked to one side as she regarded her father with a curious look. “Because I felt you moving it, you know. While I was working?”

Stolas frowned and looked down at his own hands as if he’d never seen them before. “I…I don’t think I did?” he started slowly, hesitantly.

“Oh you definitely glowed, big bird.” Blitz told him as he painted one of his cheeks with black blood in a sloppy effort to clean off his face. “Saw you movin’ your hands around like a stage magician and everything.”

Stolas sighed and moved in closer to his imp. “Here- Let me.” he said, taking the washcloth out of Blitz’s hands and holding the imp’s face still with one hand under the stubborn chin as he scrubbed blood away from skin. “Tell me all about what you saw- I don’t remember consciously choosing to touch any magick at all.”

“I… I had my eyes closed, s-so I felt it more than saw it?” Via admitted slowly, her eyes full of anxious uncertainty now. “I-I thought I felt your energy moving, l-like when you asked for my help? A-And I was in your magick likes? It was like that.”

Stolas nodded along, still meticulously cleaning blood off Blitz’s face as if he were tending a messy toddler, and the imp nodded into his prince’s strong hand under his chin.

“S’true- I actually saw the lights.” Blitz added earnestly, trying and failing to  squirm his way out of Stolas’s grasp. “You were doing like a… A this thing with your hands,” He waved his hands and fingers in front of himself in the vague patterns he’d seen Stolas creating. “The light was moving with you! Like it knew what it was doing and it listened to you when it didn’t.”

Blitz turned to look across his bird to his daughter. “Loonie- You musta seen it too! Tell him!”

“I…” Loona dropped her eyes to her lap and fidgeted nervously with her tail. “I dunno what I saw,” she told them as ten eyes locked on her expectantly and she half-wilted under their combined gazes. “But Stols was definitely purple. And he’s not now, so something I don’t understand definitely happened.”

Stolas blinked out at them all, his hands dropping away from Blitz to land across his knees in front of him, and his red eyes darkened as he tried to think back and couldn’t seem to. A blank spot in his perfect memory where nothing but Via and her work on Blitz existed, and Stolas had no memory of his own state of mind or being during that time- All he’d cared about was Via, and protecting her from injury or worse. Even moreso than getting Blitz the help he’d so clearly needed.

“I… I’m sorry everyone, I honestly can’t recall.” Stolas apologized quietly. “I’m sure I must have drawn the magick. Three trustworthy witnesses can’t be making it all up- And Via felt the shift in magickal energy, that can’t be falsified… I just… I…”

Blitz was instantly curled up in his prince’s arms, tucked up under his chin the way he knew Stolas liked best, and the owl prince smiled softly as Blitz began to purr, eyes full of gentle reassurance and his open features full of nothing but concern and comfort for his prince.

“I’m alright, you ridiculous thing.” Stolas said fondly, gathering his imp close and kissing the birthmark dead center on Blitz’s forehead soundly. He passed a loving hand down along the curve of one of his Blitz’s horns as the imp snuggled in closer, and sighed again. “This is all very new, and a bit heady even for me, but we’ll work it out somehow. There have to be logical boundaries and explanations for all of this- Magick isn’t some ethereal thing without common sense, there are rules. Limits. Very real variables.”

“Sometimes it’s just how much something matters.” Via put in without thinking. “Sometimes magick is about feeling things so intensely, it just comes out. Like when I called up my magick at the palace and… D-Did what I did to Uncle Andre. Half of that was intent and all that books and training stuff you drilled into me my whole life… But half was just how fucking angry I was at him. Still am…”

Her hands glowed faintly black and indigo blue as she balled them into fists beside her, and Stolas put a soothing hand on her shoulder to help ground her.

“I see what you mean.” Loona said slowly, thoughtfully. She looked up at Via, expression openly curious in a way Via had never seen her wearing before. “Hey Chicklet- You think one of those dusty old books you got could teach a hound like me more about magic n’ shit? This stuff is pretty cool for a couple fairytales and some show lights.”

“They are not fairytales!” Via protested with a grin up at Loona. “I swear, I thought it was all old mythologies and bullshit too, but look- Here, I’ll show you!”

Via was on her feet and dragging Loona up with her in minutes, the bright, excited look in the teenager’s eyes making Stolas’s eyes soften as he watched his little girl leading Blitz’s adult daughter back over to the couch and the assorted tomes lying spread open or tossed haphazardly aside. The two pulled a book each- neither one daring to touch Stolas’s old grimoire without his permission, Stolas noted proudly- into their laps, Via narrating animatedly as she pointed out information, cool pictures and her favourite stories for Loona, who listened intently and never once interrupted unless she had a relevant question to the material Via was presenting her with.

“Kinda makes you proud, huh?” Blitz said directly into the middle of Stolas’s soft, warm thoughts as they both watched their daughters seamlessly bonding and sharing the books, the space, their lives as if things had always been this way. “Like we built this life with our sweat n’ blood, and now we get to give it to our girls so they don’t have to pay up.”

“I think they already have, much more than I’d like.” Stolas said ruefully, watching Via using a thread of her power to illustrate a difficult concept for Loona. “But I know that raising strong women means letting them make their own choices. Letting my girl find out when she’s able, when it won’t devastate her, so that when real danger presents itself, she can trust me to teach her how to protect herself.”

“Yeah, that.” Blitz agreed vaguely, eyes watching Loona taking notes on the old legal pad she’d dug out of who knew where earlier. “If you don’t let ‘em fuck around, they’re still gonna find out someday. Just makes more sense to have ‘em find out where you can see ‘em, I guess. I wouldn’t know, my dad never gave two shits about me unless it made him money.”

Stolas bristled at the idea of anyone hurting his sweet, loving, loyal Blitz here and now, but as a child? His eyes flashed rubies as he thought dark, terrible things about what he would do to Cash Buckzo if Stolas were ever given the least opportunity. Hell, he might even have control of his magick back by then, and-

“Whatcha thinkin’ big bird?” Blitz asked directly into the umbra of Stolas’s thoughts.

He was smiling gently up at Stolas, everything about the imp soft and unmasked as he kept his arms loosely wrapped around his prince, listened to the steady heartbeat under his ear and purred so quietly even Stolas strained to hear it.

Stolas kissed the beautiful, familiar face from temple to jawline, and Blitz shifted to give him better access as he went. “I was thinking that nobody in Hell is luckier than I am. That nothing could be this perfect, this warm and cozy. This unrelentingly gorgeous.”

Stolas slipped his mouth down to cover Blitz’s, one hand coming up to cradle his imp’s cheek in his palm as they kissed, and he felt Blitz grin into the action.

“Thinkin’ the same thing, pretty bird.” Blitz breathed into Stolas’s next kiss. “Thinkin’ the same damn thing.”

Chapter Text

A/N: Back again! Told y'all we were gonna go Fast :P I made you guys a fun surprise for the final chapter, and I'm too impatient to wait two weeks to hand it over lol My lack of any form of self-restraint is working for YOU! As always, Beta, dying, men, ectect

CW/TW: DV/child abuse mentioned (Via, Stella) 

Comments, concrit, emojis ect always welcome <3 I really do read 'em all!

Chapter 24: Minor Adjustments

It was nearly a week after that fateful conversation. A week in which all four members of the new household tripped over each other, swore at each other, and generally began to learn what a four-person household’s logistics looked like when you lived in a one-bedroom barely designed for the two original occupants.

They’d gotten Via a real bed, because Loona kept such odd hours after parties or drinks with her adult friends, and the owl princess had nowhere else to go when Loona wasn’t home but their room. Via had grown up so sheltered and isolated that she had no real friends outside of the household and her father, and now that they lived with a loud, impulsive psychopath who regularly bounded into her shared room wielding cookies, or pancakes, or, one awful, terrible midnight, nothing on but his skin thinking Via had gone out with Loona, Via needed any space she could call her own.

The palace had been too roomy, echoing the quiet around her like a somber shroud, but this place was too close. Too small, so intimate Via could hear her father’s giggles from the living room through her headphones as he flirted and kissed Blitz without even bothering to keep his voice down on her account. She heard Blitz regularly reminding his prince to be quiet, mind the two girls just next door, but it didn’t help as the next thing Via usually heard was a squeal in Stolas’s high, laughing voice and Blitz’s answering murmurs about stay quiet or Daddy won’t-.

Whatever it was Blitz was doing to her father out there, Via had no interest in finding out. Not that she blamed them for being all over each other, she guessed. They’d been kept apart for so long, and the trial had been so scary for her, from the outside, that she could hardly imagine what it must have felt like being in the room with Satan himself ordering both of them executed, those huge, hooded reapers chaining Blitz down like a rabid animal, binding Stolas in those enchanted chains while Blitz screamed for his prince to do something, begged the way Via could never have imagined the strong, fearless imp ever doing…

She shook her head to clear it, and Loona’s features knit in clear question as she and Via sat at the breakfast table here and now. Octavia gave the hellhound a reassuring smile, taking a sip out of her apple juice just to show Loona how actually okay and safe she was. Loona was the one who looked after her the most, other than her father, obviously, but in Via’s mind he was like, legally required to care. Loona wasn’t. In fact, she had every reason to not want Via around, taking half her tiny room, almost getting her father killed at the palace…

But Loona did care, and she seemed especially aware of the hard, messy emotions Via went through as she processed her new normal and adapted to the loving, soft relationship Blitz shared with her father. Compared to Stolas and her Mum's 'marriage', Blitz was positively perfect no matter how obnoxious he could be, how uncultured or crass, and Via found herself loving the worst parts of Blitz just as much as his unwavering loyalty, his boundless enthusiasm for anything that made her even remotely smile. The way he kept her favourite things around the house, remembered her dad’s preferred coffee blends, Loona’s favourite soaps…

Little things, and bigger things, and everything that had to do with keeping his family supported and happy. None of it ever involved Blitz’s own favourites, Blitz’s own comfort, and anytime anyone but Stolas or Loona tried to offer Blitz any measure of the same care he showered over them, the imp blustered his way through easy dismissals and claims he was totally fine- Even when he obviously wasn’t, and Via took note of that especially.

She did it too, to a lesser degree, so she knew the only way to get Blitz to actually take and allow care that didn’t come in the form of kisses from his prince or Loona’s gentle bullying was to simply… Provide it. Learn what he liked and do it, make it quietly available to him without drawing direct attention to what she was doing, or why. Find a way to sneak it in front of Blitz and smile her shyest smile at him.

She smirked into her juice at the stray thought. Blitz really would do anything if she smiled softly at him. She’d have to be careful not to exploit that little trick, but Via had to admit it was nice to have a bulletproof ‘yes’ in her back pocket. Just in case.

Loona shifted beside her at the kitchen table, and Via’s smirk turned thoughtful as she watched the hound scrolling through her phone with one hand, drinking her second cup of coffee in the other. It really was like having a big sister, Via smiled to herself. She could tell Loona anything, and the hellhound somehow always knew what to do, or say about it to make Via feel better.

She and Loona went out regularly to Beezelbucks, or out shopping for the day, or just to fuck around downtown, and they’d talked about the apartment, Blitz’s relationship with Stolas, how everything was affecting Via… Everything, honestly, and even though her dad was much better about asking her where she stood with things, how she felt, how he could support her best, it was different with Loona.

Loona didn’t have to care, she just did. She could choose to ignore Via the way she did with most everybody else, but the hellhound seemed all too eager to show Via she’d meant what she’d said back during all the hospital stuff about maybe being real sisters one day. Via had smiled thinking about that, one night after a perfect day of wandering the streets with no real destination in mind and Loona pointing out stores or buildings Via might find cool, or stupid so they could laugh at them together.

They’d even found a spot that sold Via’s favourite preening oils for less than the small fortune they usually cost, and Loona had gifted the teenager a full set of them, with extras just in case, and picked up the smaller, cheaper version with lavender infused oil for Stolas.

“Tell him they’re from you.” Loona had smiled at the girl. “Let him get that big dumb smile he gets when he’s proud of you n’shit. Stash some Great Daughter points up for the next time he forgets to lock the bathroom door and you walk in on him before he’s ready to be Seen by the Public.”

Via had laughed at the way Loona got her father’s fussy, haughty tone and mannerisms dead to rights, and Loona had given her a cheeky wink as she handed over the bag of oils and they went on with their day.

They’d gotten home that night to Blitz yelling something about tiny fishes tasting like puckered assholes to his bird, who had his back to the rest of the apartment and a pan full of something that smelled like it didn’t belong in Hell for how delicious it was on the stove in front of him. Whatever it was had tomatoes and caramelized onions, and bacon, and something a little fishy, but in a good way in it, and Loona missed the hook by the door she’d been aiming her bag strap for as she inhaled a deep lungful of it.

“I cooked your sauce without the anchovies, you uncultured philistine!” Stolas argued back at Blitz, and Blitz made his patented ‘I don’t understand, but I’m gonna be pissed off anyway’ face back at him.

“Speak fuckin’ English!” Blitz fired back. “Stupid fancy pigeon! Fuck sake- Why’s it gotta have fish in it at all!”

“Because some people have more than three tastebuds in their skulls!” Stolas snapped back with a barb in his words after being called pigeon by his stupid asshole lover. As if Stolas could be so common as to be any kind of rock dove.

“Yeah? Well, some people eat out of the garbage cans out back at Big Al’s Mule Feed down in Wrath too!” Blitz countered hotly, and Loona had rolled her eyes at Via and led her to the couch as the two idiots bickered over what was apparently about to be dinner. “That don’t mean I want a plate of bait for dinner!”  

“Then call yourself a pizza, because we’re eating the pasta I spent three hours cooking for, and that’s final!” Stolas had said like a threat, and Blitz shut his mouth before he could argue himself out of sharing the couch with his big dumb bird that night.

The meal had turned out amazing, and even Blitz sulked through seconds as Stolas gave him the snarkiest, smuggest smirk Via had ever seen him wear from across the table.

“Are you going to apologize, or am I going to lord this over you until you do?” Stolas had asked sweetly as Blitz finished mopping the last of his fishless sauce off his plate. “I really do have all night to carry on, Blitzy.”

Blitz rolled his eyes, crammed the bread into his mouth and scowled at his prince. “Fine. It doesn’t taste like assholes, but you’re being a real pain in mine.” Blitz spat grudgingly. “Any more in the pot?”

Stolas had laughed at the imp, kissed him fondly between both horns and picked up the empty plate for Blitz.

“I’m proud of you for trying new things.” He’d singsonged as if Blitz were a picky toddler refusing grilled cheese he’d specifically asked for. “Good boy, Blitzy. Very brave!”

And whatever Blitz had thrown back at him had been completely buried under Loona’s howling, reckless laughter and Via’s much quieter hoots as both girls lost it completely, and even Blitz grinned at the sound of their laughter. Even if it was at his expense.

The morning after had been much less perfect as the bathroom became the usual war zone when three out of the four of them needed it at the same time.

“Get your fancy ass outta there Stols!” Blitz had yelled with one hand unsubtly squeezing the front of his shorts and both knees firmly crossed. “Lemme in! I gotta piss so bad!”

“The balcony’s available and free!” Stolas shot back in his rough, unmedicated morning voice. “Go remind the neighbours why the rent is so low in the unit below ours!”

“I’m not going to pee over a balcony!” Via yelled back angrily. “Dad! He’s right!”

The bathroom door opened almost instantly, and Stolas rushed out in his barely-tied purple bathrobe, half his face covered in some kind of moisturizing cream, all four eyes huge with anxious concern. “Via! All you had to do was tell me my precious Starfire! Go ahead, I’ll wait outside.”

Via smirked at Blitz on her way into the bathroom, and Blitz turned to his owl with a scandalized scowl on his face. “Oh yeah, sure, you’ll let me piss my pants out here waiting for you to take seven hours to wash your face, but Via can get you outta there with a word huh?”

“You would drop your pants and piss off a balcony in front of all of Imp City!” Stolas huffed irritably. “Via has standards, you don’t!”

Via giggled from the almost-closed door, one violet eye bright with mirth as she stood by the door to listen in on their argument for a minute. Blitz saw the eye, heard the soft little laugh, felt all the irritation of the situation drain out of him like so much warm water, and smirked up at his brat prince.

“Yeah, you’re right. I don’t.” he quipped with a firm, open-handed slap of Stolas’s ass. “S’how I got you, right babe?”

Stolas screeched with indignant protest and shoved Blitz away from him with one hand planted firmly across the sturdy chest. “Don’t think I won’t remember that when you’re begging me for kisses in ten minutes.” he scowled. “Stupid beautiful idiot that you are.”

Blitz stumbled back with the force of the gentle push, his knees unclenched for a bare second, and he knew a moment of pure panic as his body very, very firmly reminded him he really had to pee.

Like real bad.

“Get outta the way! It’s happening!” he yelped in alarm. “Open the door! Open the door!”

He ran for the sliding glass balcony door, expecting Stolas to follow him and help the way he usually did when Blitz asked him for something, but the owl prince stayed leaned up against the wall beside the bathroom door as if nothing in the world could be wrong.

“I told you I’d remember you calling me sub-par.” Stolas told him sweetly, and behind him he heard Via’s laugh again as the bathroom door finally closed all the way and the lock clicked to let him know she was actually in there now. “Handle yourself, you tactless degenerate.”

“Satan fuckin’ dammit Stolas!” Blitz howled, fumbling with the locked glass door and trying not to think about the urgent pressure building up in his middle. “When I get my fuckin’ hands on you- Shit!”

He finally succeeded in pulling the balcony door open, tripped over the short step outside, and sprawled out onto the metal structure, where Stolas got an unfiltered view of his imp jerking his shorts down without even checking for pedestrians below or if the balcony under theirs was occupied, and letting loose right over the side.

Blitz was just finishing up and pulling his shorts back into place when Loona emerged from her newly-shared bedroom and made a face as she caught sight of him.

“Fuck’s sake Blitz!” she yelled out the half-open door at her dumbass dad. “If I get one more fuckin’ angry letter from the landlord, I swear on Stapler’s life!”

“Not Stapler!” Blitz howled as if his daughter had threatened an actual child. “It’s not my fault! These fuckin’ birds are hoggin’ up our only bathroom with their stupid fuckin’ feathers n’ shit! I had to!”

After which Via had come out of the bathroom to a screaming match between Loona and Blitz about which of his horses was the best one, and why Loona couldn’t give fewer fucks if she’d had one to give in the first place, and Stolas had locked himself back in the bathroom without offering it to Loona first.

Which was how, on the second day of them actually living together, Loona had found herself in line at the gas station up the block just to have a place to pee that didn’t involve a kitchen pot or pissing off the neighbours- Literally.

She’d come back to the apartment sour-faced, bearing a cheerful box of Frosted Brimstone cereal to share with Via until the other two were finished brawling over whatever it was this time, and Via had reported that ‘this time’ was about feathers.

Stolas was dropping them all over the house, Blitz had slipped on one and almost knocked himself out on the corner of the accent wall by the kitchen, and the imp was holding an ice pack Stolas had made him behind one horn and waving a fistful of collected feathers in the other.

“I almost died, big dumb bird!” Blitz yelled in that way he had of being angry very gently so Stolas didn’t spook or start crying. “These fuckin’ things are lethal!”

Stolas’s eyes went huge at hearing ‘almost died’ so soon after he’d watched Blitz bleeding out in the back of the work van, his eyes filled with tears, and before anyone could do anything else, Blitz was wrapped around his prince like a warm, guilty blanket.

“Shit- Fuck, I’m sorry baby bird…” Blitz had apologized “Honest, I didn’t mean it like that…”

After which Loona had waited an hour, impatient and itchy in her semi-clean clothes and fur that hadn’t been able to have a full shampoo since she’d started sharing her bath products with Via, grabbed the kid and the laundry, and left with a growl and a hasty text to her stupid dad about going for groceries without them.

Two days after that, they were all piled up on the living room couch, Blitz in Stolas’s lap at one end, Loona curled up against the opposite arm of the couch and Via sat comfortably between them holding Blitz’s cracked phone up for them all while they watched the most obnoxious, brightly-coloured cartoon horses save an imaginary land from…. Other horses? Dragons?

Who really knew anyway. Certainly not Via, who wasn’t paying much attention and wished for the sixth time that day she’d remembered her phone when she’d left the palace. She was beginning to despair as the twenty minute cartoon seemed to go on for hours and nobody said anything about the childish, irritating voices the horses were given, or the simplicity of the storylines (all about friendship and magic, and bullshit only little kids still believed in), when the screen suddenly froze and an incoming call banner popped up right over the middle of an epic battle between a black unicorn and some kind of rainbow-winged pegasus.

“No! Princess Luna!” Blitz cried in real dismay as he moved to dismiss the call, and Stolas caught his hand up with his before he could.

“Darling, it’s Millie calling.” Stolas pointed out very gently. “What if they need something for May?”

Blitz heaved a huge, put-upon sigh, reluctantly took the call on speaker and was greeted by Millie’s angriest, shrillest screech.

“Y’all ain’t even called us to say Blitz is still alive?!” she demanded, the thick burr of her Wrathian accent telling Blitz they were all in real shit now.

Even Loona’s ears had pinned themselves back against her head at the sound, and Blitz hastily began talking as fast as he could, exaggerating how bad the fever had been, how his stitches had hurt so much and generally weaving the greatest tale of woe and strife Hell had ever heard for five full minutes as Millie fumed on the other end of the phone.

“Blitz? You know I love you right?” Millie had asked in a deceptively calm tone, to which Blitz had squeaked out a little ‘yeah…”, and then a beat passed before Millie’s voice filled the little apartment again.

“You ever try n’ sell me a pile of hogshit like that again, Blitz Buckzo, and I swear on my baby daughter I will find you!”

Which was how the call had ended with Blitz promising Millie she and Moxxie could bring themselves and baby Maya over whenever they wanted, just call first to make sure everyone had pants on. Loona had called out loudly that the only ones in this apartment who had to be told to keep clothes on were Blitz and Stolas, at which the owl prince had blushed hard and Blitz had started arguing about how polite and reserved he was, which had everyone including Millie rolling with laughter before Millie gave them a half-hour warning and hung up. 

The visit had been perfectly timed, the adorable baby breaking most of the tension that had been building up between the four new roommates, the respective father-daughter duos and even Blitz and Stolas as toes that had been stepped on found relief in interacting with people who weren’t permanent occupants of the cramped little apartment.

Stolas showed Via how to hold May, how to feed her and rock her when she was fussy or needed a change. Blitz showed her how to hand the kid off to Moxxie, specifically, when she needed a new diaper, and Millie rolled her eyes fondly at her old friend as Moxxie showed off his rockstar husband chops and swept the baby off to a more private corner of the house to change her without so much as a scowl.

He kissed his tiny daughter so gently on her forehead, the baby babbled happily and grabbed at her father’s horns and wispy white hair, and the whole room ‘n’awww’d’, catcalling sweet nothings after Moxxie as he carried his daughter like she was priceless treasure. Blitz caught Stolas’s eyes flickering his way, teary and sappy the way only his prince could be around babies and soft displays of care like that, and part of Blitz had wondered ‘what if…’

The moment had lasted less than thirty seconds as Loona threw a pillow at him and told him to move his ass down the couch and let Via have a spot, but the warmth of it kept Blitz going for hours past the time Millie, Moxxie and Maya had packed up and gone home.

Something about babies was magic even Via didn’t have in all those old books and dusty writings, Blitz thought vaguely as the sun set through the barely-closed curtains and he climbed up into Stolas’s waiting arms on the couch.

Something about everything that day had been magic. The kind only living people shared, demons or not. Warm, and together, and full of love that didn’t care if an imp had fallen in love with a goetia prince, or a runaway princess was hogging up the whole floor in Loona’s room, or if Loona didn’t know where she even came from-

It didn’t matter. Family was the point, and that’s what they finally, finally were to each other.

                                                                                                                     ~*~*~*~*~*~

The morning of the seventh day dawned cloudy and overcast, and Blitz blinked himself to wakefulness with extreme reluctance. In front of him, his prince was warm and soft, and shirtless after a quiet, chaste tumble under the horse blanket where neither of them had stripped fully, but both of them had been covered in kisses and light, tender touches that lingered into the morning. Nothing further had happened, and part of Blitz resented the two girls sleeping behind Loona’s closed bedroom door about it, but even the fleeting wisp of thought made him feel guilty and selfish for wishing he didn’t have daughters, even if it was just his frustratingly neglected dick talking.

Stolas sighed in his sleep, and Blitz snuggled down into the feeling, a low, contented purr bubbling up from his chest and wrapping his prince up in a warm, loving vibrato under the now-clean horseshoes blanket they shared.

He could stay like this forever, Blitz thought with a dreamy little half-smile. Curled up with his eyes closed, listening to Stolas’s heartbeat in his ear pressed down against his bird’s fluffy, soft chest feathers. All safe and supported, sure of the man he loved for the first time in-

The door to Loona’s room slammed unceremoniously open, Stolas startled awake with a jolt that almost threw Blitz down to the old hardwood flooring as the prince half-sat up with a gasp of shocked confusion, and Loona stalked by the both of them in her pajamas, earbuds clearly jammed into both ears with music on so loud Blitz could hear it from the couch, and slammed the bathroom door closed behind her without so much as a word to either of them.

“What the actual fuck set her off?” Stolas demanded once he was sure the water was running in the bathroom and Loona’s sensitive ears couldn’t hear him. “I nearly went into full arrest!”

“I don’t think the cops out here would care if you freaked out.” Blitz said with a scowl in Loona’s direction, one fist rubbing irritably into his eyes to clear the last of the peaceful sleep out. He looked down at his prince, who wore a similar frown and half-closed, clearly still asleep red eyes, and passed a gentle hand over his lover’s cheek.

“You need me to get you a glass of cold water, pretty bird?” Blitz offered solicitously. “I know loud noises get you jumpy as hell, ‘specially out of a dead sleep like that.”

Stolas shook his head and moved to sit up, shoving Blitz roughly down off his chest and into his lap so he could move freely. “No, I need you to talk to your daughter about respecting other people who live here.” Stolas snapped irritably. “I can forgive a lot of things Blitz, but it is seven thirty in the fucking morning and my heart is racing like I’ve run twenty miles under Wrath’s own suns!”

Blitz winced as Stolas crossed his arms over his chest in a clear sulk, and stuck his bottom lip out at his prince in his cutest, most irresistible wide-eyed look of apology. “I’m sorry baby, honest. I’ll tell her to work on it, okay? Promise.”

He snuck himself up into a loose kneel across Stolas’s lap, pressing kisses down onto the feathered body in front of him as he went.

“C’mere baby bird. Let Daddy make it better, hm?” Blitz coaxed. “Lemme make it up to you.”

He kissed his way up from Stolas’s stomach, pausing between each new touch of his lips to the bird’s unresisting body to flash his most winning smile up at his scowling, deeply annoyed prince. Blitz let his hands slide up along either side of Stolas as he moved, dropping soft, sweet kisses down every few inches as he moved up the line of Stolas’s chest, followed each rib up to the perfect, slender arms crossed over the narrow chest, and began pressing kisses into the ropy, tight muscles under the deceptively soft feathers.

“Lemme see that smile, huh?” Blitz tried again as Stolas steadfastly ignored his efforts and Blitz dropped his hands down to the seated waistline and teased at the hem of Stolas’s sleep shorts. “Come get some sugar to make you feel better, huh? You know I don’t disappoint…”

Stolas rolled his eyes and sighed at his stupid, ridiculous lover, but loosed his crossed arms in spite of himself. Blitz was trailing deliberately light touches up his back, across the edges of his tail, the kisses rounding the curve of his forearms now and beginning to travel upwards towards his neckline.

Stolas shivered as tiny, razor-sharp teeth nipped up at his collarbone, teasing and cajoling as Blitz’s sinful fingers dipped down into the waistband of his pajama pants and began to toy with the base of his tail the way Blitz absolutely knew drove Stolas out of his mind…

“Oh alright- Come up here.” Stolas relented as Blitz flicked an artful thumb up the line of his hip and began to circle the spot in the small of his back with shameless claws. “Only kisses- Loona’s in the bathroom and I don’t want Via hearing anything through that open door.”

“I can keep you quiet, pretty bird.” Blitz smirked as he pressed his open legs up into Stolas’s taller torso and rolled his hips subtly against the feathered body. “Gimme that mouth.”

Blitz surged upwards as he spoke, taking Stolas’s trembling mouth with his as Stolas fought not to show how hot this little display of uncharacteristic submission by Blitz had been, and the owl prince finally relented, slipping his arms up around Blitz’s back, eyes sliding shut as he leaned into the kiss and buried his fingers up between Blitz’s spines.

Blitz’s hands at the hem of Stolas’s pants dipped down under the elastic waistband, cupping both asscheeks in the palms of his big, strong hands, hips pressing closer up into his bird as Stolas began to toy with the rigid spines running down Blitz’s back and Blitz groaned into their next kiss at how good it felt to have this back. To be here, with his prince, locking lips and touching bodies, and-

“For fuck’s sake Dad.” Blitz heard Via swear as the teenager appeared in the doorway to Loona’s room, also in her pajamas and sporting headphones over her toque and messy bedhead. “It’s too early to see this shit.”

“Close you eyes then.” Blitz shot back, words muffled with his tongue tangled in Stolas’s mouth. “Close th’ door an’ come back in an hour.”

“Blitz!” Stolas admonished sharply, abruptly breaking off their kisses and shoving the imp off him in one smooth movement. “She’s allowed to exist in her own home!”

“So m’I…” Blitz grumbled under his breath. He checked over his shoulder to be sure Via was occupied with Loona’s phone or whatever, and she was, so he pulled at the front of his too-tight sleep shorts and crossed his legs under the blanket in a weak effort to be less obviously tented. “Fuckin’ roommates always cockblocking…”

Stolas caught this last, giggling behind one hand as Blitz looked ready to commit murder and Via walled out into the main living area of the apartment, oblivious to Blitz’s words or the imp’s rock-hard state of discomfiture. He leaned in closer to his Blitz, previous irritation replaced with a laughing sort of sympathy for his little lover.

“Later.” Stolas promised in a quiet, silken purr. “I promise, Blitzy. Once they’ve gone out for the day.”

“Yeah, right.” Blitz complained at full volume. “That’ll happen.”

Stolas almost answered him, but the bathroom door flew open as Loona shoved it roughly out of her way and shuffled over to the kitchen, in a terrible mood already and still half-asleep. Via almost collided with the hound as she turned to walk back to the table from the fridge, and Loona made a beeline for the coffee maker directly beside the fridge.

“Use your fuckin’ eyes!” Loona growled at the bewildered teen. “You have four don’t you!”

“Excuse your rude ass!” Via shot back angrily. “I was obviously in here first! I’m allowed to exist for fuck’s sake!”

“I don’t fuckin’ care who exists anywhere,” Loona snapped back sharply “I’m about to end you if you don’t let me get my coffee!”

“Don’t you dare speak to Via like that!” Stolas cut in hotly, on his feet and striding towards the kitchen in full Dad Mode already. “You’ve been disrespectful and sullen since you scared the living shit out of me slamming your bedroom door like that, and I won’t have you intimidating my daughter in her own home!”

Loona glared daggers at him. “Yeah, my home. That I let you two crash in.” she corrected him with a hard streak of defiance in her words. “I can do whatever the fuck I want!”

“You don’t get to hold being abused by my mum against me!” Via yelled with tears in her eyes. “You don’t get to hurt my dad in front of me!”

Purple and black crackled between her fingertips as she spoke, fire in her wide violet eyes and a stubborn set to her jaw Stolas recognized from the screaming matches they used to have when his precious little girl had turned thirteen and become his precious little landmine of hormonal mood swings and hypersensitive emotions.

“Loona…” Stolas warned, and the hellhound took a half-step at the taller prince, who instantly moved to put himself between the hound and Via, shielding his daughter from whatever Loona might do next.

“You’re not even my dad!” Loona yelled into Stolas’s face. “I just want my fucking coffee! Get outta my face already!”

“Move your stupid ass out of my way and I’d let you!” Via shot back from behind her father’s sturdy frame. “I was going to the kitchen table anyway!”

“Via!” Stolas snapped, his patience thin without his meds and after the rude awakening into sudden panic he’d had not twenty minutes ago. “Don’t antagonize her!”

He turned to look out at the living room, all four eyes bright with frustrated anger. “Blitz! Could you possibly get up off your ass and help me in here!”

The request was sharp, pointed, and Blitz had absolutely zero interest in honouring it as he watched Loona digging her heels in, Via ready to cry, but still holding her ground in the face of the older hound’s obvious sour mood, and his prince floundering between them for no reason other than Stolas had been dumb enough to get involved in the first place.

“Hell fuckin’ no I can’t.” Blitz called back with an incredulous little laugh that spoke volumes. “I ain’t ready to die today. Fuck that sideways with my best knife.”

“She’s your fucking daughter!” Stolas cried furiously. “You have to deal with her when she’s like this! How do you expect to raise her properly if you can’t discipline her!”

“I’m a grownass hound!” Loona reminded the dumb owl prince fiercely. “He’s not my real dad anyway, and neither are you!”

Blitz looked devastated as he stepped around the corner of the couch towards the kitchen, and the deep hurt in his golden eyes stung at Loona’s soft heart despite her bad mood and hard words.

“Blitz… Wait, I-” she started to apologize. “I didn’t-”

“Nah. You’re right, you don’t owe me shit Loonie.” Blitz said a little too quickly, a fake, too-bright smile up on his face covering none of the pain in his eyes. “I’ll just get outta your way. Do whatever makes you happy sweetie- I love you no matter what.”

Without another word, he spun on his heel, hit the sliding glass door to the balcony in three broad, efficient strides, and stepped out onto the old balcony, barefoot, still dressed in only his pajamas.

All three occupants in the kitchen froze as they watched Blitz jump down the fire escape stairs, one big hand swiping across his eyes as he went, and for the longest three minutes in history, nobody said a word. Nobody went after Blitz, nobody moved any part of them even though Via’s grip on her glass of juice had fumbled and a thin trail of sticky, sugary apple was leaking down her arm and soaking into one knee of her sleep pants, and Stolas was caught between frustrated anger at Loona’s behaviour, the way she’d hurt his Blitz, and heartbreak for his imp.

Loona was first to break the silence, muttering a low, wavering ‘fuck’ loud enough for all of them to hear it before she ran from the kitchen and into her room, the door slamming unceremoniously behind her as she went. Via looked up at her father, violet eyes wide and full of tears as she looked to him for guidance, and Stolas sighed as he quietly drew his shaking daughter to his chest and coaxed her hand still holding the juice glass in it up towards the countertop. She let him move her, ditched the glass so quickly she knocked it over and whatever remaining juice had been in it spilled out across the cheap countertop as she hid her face in her father’s chest and sobbed.

“I know, Starfire, I’m sorry darling…” Stolas soothed and apologized at the same time. “She’s been through some hard things these past weeks. I’m sure she didn’t mean what she said… It’s alright my darling, you’re alright…”

He stood there comforting his child, Via said nothing that wasn’t a sob as Stolas hushed her and held her close, letting her cry until she couldn’t anymore, and somewhere between his gentle reassurance that everything would be okay, and Via’s crying beginning to calm to occasional sniffles, Loona reemerged from their shared room.

She was fully dressed now in her usual black top and short shorts, earbuds jammed into both ears trailing down one side and into her pocket where an old MP3 player of some kind was clipped into the loop of her jean shorts. A black messenger bag embroidered with ‘Fuck the World’ across the front and a stylized skull and crossbones at one corner hung across her left side, and the angry scowl on her face told Stolas addressing her at all would be dangerous right now.

She took a hard L turn out of her room and to the front door, disappearing into the apartment complex’s hallways without a word to anyone, and Stolas’s eyes softened as he watched her go.

She’d been crying, he knew, because of the inwards curve of her shoulders, the way she wouldn’t look at anyone as she left. The fact that he’d heard her suck in a tremulous, tearful breath as the front door had pulled open in front of her…

“Let’s get this spill cleaned up, hm?” Stolas offered Via as gently as he knew. “Get you cleaned up and see about breakfast before we do anything else. Does that sound fair Starfire?”

Via let him go and swiped the back of her long sleeve across her eyes to clear the last of her tears. “Yeah… I-I think so.”

She hesitated with her hand on the fallen glass beside her, and looked back up at him.

“Dad?” she asked slowly, carefully. “D’you think we can like, text her in an hour or so? Tell her I’m sorry I did whatever to piss her off? Loona, I mean. She seemed really mad, a-and I don’t want her to be, and…” She trailed off, lower lip caught between her teeth and eyes filling with tears again. “It’s been a lot a lot lately, and Loona’s been so good about helping me, a-and I just want to like… I dunno, what if she needs me?”

She looked up anxiously at her father, who was smiling softly at her the way he did when he was proud of her and didn’t want to seem like he was smothering her with his fatherly pride.

“I think we can talk about it after breakfast.” he agreed, picking up a kitchen towel and starting to wipe up juice with it. “Now, help me clean this mess, hm?”

Via smiled back at him and moved to do as he asked, but the phone she had clutched in her hand buzzed, and she jumped as she remembered she’d even had the thing with her. She raised the device up and the screen automatically flickered to life in front of her.

Srry I wuz shitty. Pls do’t B mad

Via squinted at the barely-legible words from 'Dumbass' with a devil emoji next to the name, frowning as she tried to make them out and couldn’t. Stolas leaned in over her shoulder as he caught her struggling, and his brows knit with worry as he scanned the mangled words and understood them as easily as his next breath.

“That’s Blitz.” Stolas explained as Via gave him a confused look that wordlessly requested guidance. “He thinks she doesn’t want him as her father anymore…”  

“Because of what she said?” Via asked uncertainly. “B-Because she told him he’s not her real dad?”

Stolas winced, a deep, heavy sigh making his shoulders rise and fall as he tried to think what to do about everything and the fog of unmedicated morning brain slowed his reasoning skills to a bare crawl.

“And because of what I said… He feels like he doesn't deserve her...” he told her with another sigh. “I really fucked this all up, didn’t I? Between Blitz, and Loona, and you…”

He ran a tired hand over his face and gently took the phone from Via.

“Go and clean yourself up darling. I’ll go next.” he told her softly. “I’ll do the kitchen, you look after yourself, and we’ll meet over breakfast, alright? We have apologies to make, and a hound to track.”

Via nodded shortly, relieved that at least her dad knew what to do about this new mess, and did as he asked without argument.

                                                                                                                      ~*~*~*~*~*~

It was hours later, the kitchen was spotless again, Via was fed, showered and dressed, Stolas was medicated, dressed and pulling on his last boot as Via waited a few steps behind him with the strap of her new messenger bag anxiously clutched between both hands. The owl prince pulled the zipper up on the side of the boot, put his foot down and straightened, about to turn to Via and usher her out the front door, when it opened from the hallway side and Stolas took a surprised step back and away from it.

Loona stood on the other side, ears pinned down to the side of her head, arms hugged up around herself as she made no move to step inside, and neither owl said a word for what felt like ten thousand years.

“Uh, I…I was really shitty to you guys…” Loona offered with uncharacteristic shyness in her trembling words. “Maybe… I-If you want we can talk about it? I mean, y-you don’t have to, I just… I…”

“I’m really sorry I got between you and your coffee.” Via answered before Stolas could say a word. “I-I know you need time to wake up in the morning, and I-”

Loona waved a hand right into the middle of the apology. “Nah. It wasn’t you, Chicklet. It was definitely all me.” She peeked around the doorframe at Stolas who looked equal parts guarded and paternal, huge eyes wide with concern for her even though she’d given him nothing but disrespect and outright aggression that morning. “I… You were right, Stols. I was being a total bitch, ‘specially to you and Dad, a-and… I… Can I come in and explain? O-Or do you need more time, o-or…”

“I’m always here for you darling.” Stolas smiled at her. “Come inside my love. Via, sweetheart, can you get Loona her phone? It’s on the kitchen table. I think she’d like to check her text messages, hm?”

Loona blinked as she followed Stolas into the apartment and he made sure the apartment door was securely closed behind her. “Texts?” she echoed, brows knit in confusion. “What d’you mean texts?”

“Here- You should read them.” Via encouraged, padding back over with Loona’s phone in hand. “I think, like, maybe you’ll want to? I mean…”

She bit her lower lip anxiously, violet eyes full of hesitation as she tried not to say too much and set Loona off again, but also thought of Blitz being left on read somewhere out in the city, thinking his daughter wasn’t speaking to him.

Loona took the offered phone, brows furrowed even deeper as she wondered what the hell the two owls were hiding from her, nervous sweat beading up under her fur as she thought she was about to read something awful and world-shattering on the stupid little screen of her phone.

Srry I wuz shitty. Pls do’t B mad

The text under Blitz’s contact name on her phone hit Loona like a punch to the gut. The string of clearly worried texts that followed dug that fist straight into her guts and ground down like an angry boxer as she kept reading.

8:00am: Pls? I men it- I’m srry Loonie

8:30am If u don’ wan talk its OK ilu newayz

9:00am Pick up yr pheon pls?

9:35am OK. Sery bothrd U. All gud ilusm bbygrl

9:36am Wen ur reddy im here

Followed by notifications for at least ten missed calls from her dad, and Loona stared at the screen for a minute, frozen with guilt and paralyzed by indecision as tears blurred her eyes and remorse ate her alive.

“I forgot my phone with Via…” Loona whispered half to herself, still staring down at the blank screen long after it had winked into standby mode. “He tried calling me and I didn’t have my phone, and he thinks I’m not answering on purpose…”

Warm, strong arms slipped up around her shoulders, and Loona snapped her head up to see who was stupid enough to touch her without even asking her permission when she was this upset. Stolas smiled softly, gently back at her, both hands rubbing tiny little circles into her shoulders with his thumbs, all four red eyes kind and understanding as Loona did nothing but stare back at him at first, then he spoke.

“It’s alright darling, we’ll fix it.” he reassured in a quiet, careful tone that spoke everything of warmth and comfort and nothing at all of accusation or anger. “Blitz loves you very, very much- I’m very sure we can talk him into taking a call from you, hm? Would that help, to hear his voice?”

“But I…” Loona started shakily. “I… I said all that shit to you before, and to Via. I treated her like complete trash…”

“Did you mean to?” Via asked before her father could start lecturing about mistakes and everybody making them, or some other total bullshit about love being difficult because it meant adjusting to someone else’s scars or whatever. “Did you say all that stuff because you wanted to hurt me?”

Loona’s ears pinned back against her head and she narrowed her eyes at the younger girl. “Of fucking course not! How shitty do you think I am?”

Loona winced as she said it, not really wanting to hear any answer that came back from Via while she was still raw and vulnerable, but Octavia surprised her by smiling softly, the way her father did when he was reassuring Blitz he wasn’t an irredeemable fuckup, and lifting a casual shoulder at the hound.

“Okay, so obviously we need to talk about it,” Via said much too pragmatically for Loona’s guilt to handle “But you’re not like, really mad about me and my dad living here?”

Loona hugged her arms across her chest and dropped her eyes to the apartment floor. “I... I didn’t mean that shit.” she said slowly, haltingly, clearly uncomfortable now. “I… There was… I-It was something else I was upset at, not you. Of course I don’t mind you and your dad being here. I kinda like our stupid little family thing, it’s just…”

She never said what it was, and Octavia gave her a handful of minutes to try and get the words out, but Loona stayed stubbornly quiet as tears began to slip down her cheeks, and the younger girl took pity on the huge hellhound.

“Okay, so it’s fine.” Via shrugged a little too easily for Loona’s guilty heart. “Like, obviously don’t ever talk to my dad like that in front of me again, and it was shit to hear what you said to me, but clearly there’s been a few changes around here, and some very scary shit to deal with, so I feel like we can skip the fighting this one time and just like… Listen? To each other?”

Via looked up at Loona, Loona looked back at her, ears back, features shaky and almost afraid as she heard what Via said but couldn’t process at all. How could this stupid owl girl forgive her so easily? Tell her they were gonna talk it out, solve the problem, instead of hating her forever about it? Instead of throwing Loona away like everybody but Blitz always did, and-

Oh fuck, Blitz. He thought she was pushing him away after everything, thought he’d done something wrong, something stupid to hurt her, and it wasn’t her Dad’s fault at all, it had been-

Loona shook her head to clear out the painful memories and curled in around herself, tail sneaking up around her knees as she hugged herself for comfort, and Stolas drew her in closer to his strong chest with a gentle tug forwards.

“I know darling, I can tell you’ve had a hard morning.” Stolas soothed as Loona trembled against him. “I’m sure we can find a way past it, hm? Shall we all gather in the living room and call Blitz together? For moral support? I promise we won’t say a word unless you ask us to, right Via?”

Via nodded quickly, giving Loona an encouraging little smile and moving in to put an arm around her dad’s shoulder, and the other around Loona’s. “I’m very sure Blitz will listen to anything you want to tell him.” Via echoed with more confidence than she usually displayed. “We’ll be right here, even if he doesn’t.”

The hellhound nodded into a sniffle, hugging Stolas briefly around the chest and letting him squeeze her close, the way he often did with Via, for a handful of moments before she let him go and moved them all to the beaten old couch in the middle of the living room half of the tiny apartment.

“Don’t leave, okay?” Loona asked as she thumbed open her phone and tapped over to Blitz’s contact info. “I’m gonna put him on speaker, but don’t go?”

Stolas smiled so softly at her, taking up Loona’s spare hand in his long fingers and squeezing wordlessly. Via snuck in close to one side of the hound, and Loona hit dial.

The phone barely rang once before Blitz’s breathless, half-panicked voice came through the speakers at full volume.

“Loonie? Sweetheart where are you?” Blitz said all at once, in a huge rush. “Can I come meet you? I’m so sorry, I swear to Satan I didn’t mean to crowd you, I-

“Dad- ” Loona cut in before her father could get himself even more worked up (if that were even possible) “Shut the fuck up and listen.”

She waited for the line to go silent, hearing the ambient noise of wherever Blitz currently was in the background, then pulled in a grounding breath.

“I didn’t mean what I said to you.” Loona said into the phone. “I… I woke up from this fucking awful nightmare. A-About the other night, at the palace, a-and y-you… A-An’ Via, n’ Stols, a-and I didn’t make it in time, a-and-” She shook her head hard to clear it. “I don’t wanna talk about it, but it was rough, and I said some shit I shouldn’t have because I got so freaked out about it, and-”

“Oh my fuckin’ Satan, sweetheart! My baby! I’m comin’ home!” Blitz shouted before Loona could finish her lame excuse for an apology. “What d’you want babygirl? You want ice cream? Puptreats? Puptreats in ice cream? I’m gonna bring both- You wait right there, Daddy’s comin’ devil dog! I’m comin’!”

“You don’t even know where I am, dumbass!” Loona snapped reflexively. “Calm your ass down, I’m fine, what the actual fuck!”

“You’re home with Stols- I can hear his tall ass breathing.” Blitz answered, his breathing hard and fast now, as if he’d started running. “His feathers are loud, trust me.”

“The fuck d’you mean ‘loud feathers’?” Loona demanded in annoyance, but Stolas cut her off before she could start bickering with Blitz.

“Blitz- Darling, she’s home with Via and I,” Stolas called much too loudly into the phone. “She’s alright, just a bit upset. I’m sorry I accused you of not being a good enough father for her- I wasn’t right to get between you both, I just-”

“Coulda helped you out sooner too.” Blitz said into the middle of Stolas’s apology. “Doesn’t matter, pretty bird. My little girl needs me- You keep her safe, big bird. Unlock the balcony door- I’m comin’ up.”

Alarms blared somewhere in the background from Blitz’s side of the call, and Loona smiled fondly as the next thing they heard was a big, burly voice yelling ‘Get back here you scumbag thief!’ and Blitz’s maniacal laughter as the loud rustle of packaging and the rush of wind crackled over the line.  

“Oh my god- Dad!” Loona yelled as the sound of bare feet slapping against concrete and asphalt joined the general chaos of the call and she pictured her father running from the cops over a bag of chips and a candy bar. “Are you committing petty crime right now?”

“Can’t hear you sweetie!” Blitz’s voice called back from a distance that told them Blitz had the phone down at his sides as he ran from the rapidly fading voice of the officer chasing him. “I’m running from the cops! Be home soon, love you! Tell my bird to treat you nice or I’ll kick his tight little ass out to the balcony tonight!”

And with that, the line went too crackled and muffled to hear anything else, and the last thing they heard was Blitz’s voice yelling ‘Yeah? Well your Mom worked the corner I used to piss in! How’s that for homeless cocksleeve!’

Loona put a hand over her face as she tapped the ‘call end’ icon, Via bit her lip beside her to stifle the giggle Blitz’s final words were threatening to pull from her despite her best efforts, and on Loona’s other side Stolas accidentally snorted into his hand pressed tightly over his mouth to hold back his own mirth.

Via broke first, a quiet hoot of laughter breaking free as Loona locked eyes with her and grinned like the most exasperated being in Hell, and when Loona began to giggle right alongside Via, Stolas dropped his hand and let loose the loud, fond laughter he’d been holding back just in case the hellhound needed more time to process what had clearly been a rough morning for her.

“Oh my god, your dad is actual insane!” Via howled as Loona doubled over and Stolas braced one hand against the hound’s shoulder, laughing half-hysterically. “Like, actually fucking ridiculous!”

“Yeah, he kinda is.” Loona agreed with tears rolling down her cheeks that weren’t all caused by laughter. “He’d seriously do anything for me. For us.”

She leaned over and put an arm around Octavia’s thin shoulders. “You too, Chicklet. You’re his now, far as Blitz is concerned, so that makes you mine too. I didn’t mean what I said before, I swear.”

Via smiled up at Loona and hugged her fiercely around the chest. “I know. I say shitty things when I’m overwhelmed too. As long as you don’t do it again, we’re okay. I get it.”

Loona gave the younger girl a tremulous, watery smile, wrapped both arms around Via and hugged her back. A slight, warm weight fell against Loona’s back as Stolas gathered her up from behind, and Loona closed her eyes, chin down across Via’s shoulder as they all let the last of the wonderful, warm laughter die down between them and simply held on.

The world might be crazier than even Blitz could dream up some days, but it always came down to this simple truth; Love wins, every time.

No matter what.

Chapter Text

A/N: Today's the day kids! THE END! Baby's First Longform- FINAL CHAPTER! Huge thank you to all my readers, every comment, every paragraph of feedback and encouragement- Ngl, I almost quit a couple times, but then one of y'all came in with a winky face or some heartfelt comment on parts you liked, things you noticed, and it gave me the boost I needed to keep going. I'd never wanna let someone invested in a story down- That's worse than talking shit about horses in front of Blitz!

So here we are after almost 5 months- No cw or tw here; Only FLUFFY FLUFFY FLUFF. And filthy, dirty smut :P We're goin' out like we came in, with Stupid Soft Idiots in love.

And wild, uncensored, explict NSFW sex. I did something new here- Hopefully y'all like it as much as I did. I thought it turned out nicely, but if you don't- Comments, concrit, keyboard smashes always welcome <3 You know I read them :P

Without further ado; FINAL UPDATE

Chapter 25: Touch Like Magick

Blitz came running up the fire escape half an hour after the trio on the couch had calmed down and settled into an easy conversation about Loona, how she’d come out of her nightmare shaky and horrified, and, not wanting to scare Octavia, had tried to keep everything bottled up and hidden, which had led to the explosion over coffee Stolas and Via had been treated to.

“I… It wasn’t fair of me,” Loona was saying, but she never got further than that as a loud, insistent hammering at the glass balcony door sounded and Blitz’s muffled voice floated inside to them.

“Lemme in! Loonie? It’s Daddy-” he called urgently. “Lemme in sweetie, I brought snacks, and iced coffee, and someone’s credit card!”

“Someone’s credit card?” Stolas echoed incredulously, exchanging bewildered looks with his daughter across the couch.

Loona looked utterly unphased as she heaved an annoyed sigh at her obnoxious father’s stupid antics and got up to let the asshole in. She pulled the glass door open, and Blitz immediately tumbled into the apartment, worried eyes huge and locked on only Loona.

“Here!” he said breathlessly, shoving his armful of assorted stolen goods at Loona in a whirlwind of half-panicked love and support. “Here- I think I got everything but the ice cream. Security saw me stuffing bags of puptreats down my pants and I dropped a two-litre of cherry soda all over the bodega floor, so he was real fuckin’ pissed, an’ the store owner chased me out with a shotgun, and- B-But I got most of it!”

Loona stumbled back with the force of having six bags of snacks, three cans of her favourite iced coffee (still miraculously cold), two family-sized HoundBars, and a tiny square of plastic unceremoniously jammed into her chest by Blitz, who looked wild and mostly feral, even for him in his sleep shorts, bare feet and torn t-shirt that barely clung to his sweat-soaked frame anymore.

“Holy shit Dad- What the fuck?” Loona demanded, throwing a hand out to steady Blitz as he tripped all over himself to get her what he’d brought and try to guide her over to the couch at the same time. “Where have you been? You smell like you ran through the sewers by the docks again!”

“I jumped in a dumpster real quick to shake off the cops.” Blitz told her with a broad, oblivious smirk on his face. “S’where I lost the cute tote I had all this shit in. But I saved most of it! The credit card’s there for if you wanna replace some clothes you gave Via or somethin’- I thought y’know, since shopping cheers you up, but I’m kinda broke, and I didn’t even have my wallet anyway, and-”

Loona blinked down at the little imp practically dancing in place with the need to have her feel loved and supported, trying his absolute best to comfort her even after Loona had basically told him he didn’t mean a damn thing to her, and-

She dropped her armful of larceny, swept her dad up into her arms and hugged his entire body to her chest. Blitz jumped in surprise, caught off-guard by the uncharacteristic show of physical affection, and wrapped all four limbs around his daughter’s much taller torso. One big hand came up to cradle the back of her head as Loona leaned into him and hid her face in his shoulder, the clever tail wrapping possessively up around her forearm as she held him for a few minutes and tried not to cry.

It didn’t work, but nobody said a damn thing about it as Loona stood there in a sea of all her favourite snacks and drinks, hugging her father like a lifeline as she cried into his shoulder and reminded herself he was alive, he was here, she could feel his heartbeat racing against her chest, hear him breathing in her ear, smell his singular hot sauce and gunpowder and lilacs smell-

Well, right now he smelled mostly like he’d jumped into a vat of fresh clam juice left out in the summer sun, but somewhere under the Eau de Landfill was her Dad. Her dad, who did anything she ever asked of him, and everything she didn’t ask for. Like forgiving her her worst moods, adding care to everything he did for her because she needed it. Remembering she liked lavender soaps because Stolas had introduced her to them, that Loona took an hour to wake up properly in the morning and never tried to smalltalk her into socializing before she was ready, had gotten her sheets that didn’t cling to her fur when she’d first moved in, and-

“Dad?” she sniffled quietly, and his head instantly came up in silent inquiry. “You know I love you, right? Like, really, really love you. You know that for sure, r-right?”

Blitz squeezed his strong arms around Loona, nuzzling up under her chin and trying to cover the huge hound with every measure of care he could muster, and she returned his affections with a quick nudge of the end of her nose against his cheek.

“Loonie-Toonie, babygirl- Who told you I don’t love you?” Blitz soothed in his softest, most comforting tones. The one he used when Stolas was sobbing in the middle of the night, Loona noted. The one he used when he was showing how much he cared without being able to express his feelings verbally. “Of course I know you love me. You’re my little fireball. You’re not real expressive about your feelings, so what’s wrong with that? You saved my fuckin’ life, how much more could I ask without being a total dickhead about it?”

Loona laughed a little and shook her head against his horns. “Of course I saved your life dumbass. Who else is gonna be my dad if you get yourself killed by some fuckin’ ice bitch in the middle of the night?”

“Stols’ll take you if I die.” Blitz tried to joke, grinning over Loona’s shoulder at his bird and his other kid sitting quietly on the couch while Blitz and Loona took their time together.

Blitz felt Loona’s chin tremble against his shoulder as he spoke and instantly sobered.

“Sweetheart, no. I’m sorry okay?” he soothed, running his hand down along the curve of Loona’s head and tangling his fingers in her long, messy mane of hair. “Honest. I was kidding. Daddy’s always gonna be here baby girl. Always.”

She held him close for a handful of moments more, then swiped a hand over her eyes and looked back at the pair of owls anxiously wringing their hands in their respective laps, faces mirror images of each other that made Loona smile to see.

“Okay you two- I’m done being disgustingly corny.” she called to them “You can breathe again.”

“I’m not!” Blitz quipped, squeezing all four limbs around Loona for good measure. “I’m never gonna be done telling the whole fuckin’ world how much I love my daughter!”

He yelled the last part straight into Loona’s ear, and the hellhound flinched hard as the sudden jarring noise pierced straight into her eardrums.

“Hey asshole- I’m two fuckin’ inches in front of you!” Loona complained, a soft, fond smile on her face as Blitz squeezed the life out of her with everything he had and brushed a quick, parental kiss to one of her cheeks for good measure. “You’re gonna blow out my eardrums!”

“What? I can’t hear you over the sound of all my love!” Blitz crowed obnoxiously, and Loona rolled her eyes even as she laughed out loud at her ridiculous father and his irrepressible sense of humour.

Stolas and Octavia joined them in the little group hug, the softness of feathers wrapping up around Blitz’s back and Loona’s side, and the hellhound slipped her arm away from Blitz’s back, trusting him to be able to hold onto her without extra support, and pulled Octavia in close.

“Sorry I was such a fuckin’ nightmare.” Loona told them all softly, guilt heavy in her words as she hugged her family close and let them love her back. “It was a rough fuckin’ night. I don’t wanna talk about it, but like… Yeah…”

“It’s alright darling.” Stolas said in that singularly gentle, kind way he had of making anything feel less awful than it was. “We’re all a little bit shaken up after everything. This is all so very new, and so very fresh- There are bound to be areas of friction between us.”

“Hey hey hey!” Blitz cut in suddenly. “Nobody’s gettin’ any friction in this house unless it’s me, climbing you after dark, before I-”

“Blitz!” Octavia and Loona groaned at the same time. “Ew!”

“Take your stupid boyfriend back.” Loona smirked, peeling Blitz off her front and holding the dirt-stained imp out to Stolas like a toddler. “He smells like shit anyway.”

“Hm, yes, I had noticed.” Stolas agreed, taking his imp back from Loona even as Blitz reached eagerly out with both arms for his prince, hands opening and closing in anticipation as Stolas leaned in to pull Blitz to his chest. “Let’s put you in a bath, shall we darling? No sense inflicting your reckless morning on the rest of us.”

“You comin’ with, pretty bird?” Blitz asked with a cheeky waggle of his eyebrows up at Stolas. “We could get all soaped up and-”

A soft, firm talon pressed itself to Blitz’s lips, and Blitz nipped playfully at the end of it, making Stolas shiver even as he kept his expression stern and parental.

“Not in front of the girls, darling.” Stolas chided fondly. “You’ll survive one shower alone, I’m sure.”

“Yeah, but I’ll miss you, pretty bird.” Blitz wheedled with the most adorable pout on his face. “C’mon baby- I’ll keep my hands above the waistline, I promise…”

Octavia made a face as her dads devolved into sentient puddles of rainbow vomit, and looked up at Loona.

“You want to like, watch a bunch of stupid animal videos with me?” the owl princess offered casually. “O-Or like, I dunno- Whatever. Anything but this.”

She waved at the two idiots kissing and giggling behind her, and Loona snickered as she nodded towards the couch and Via led them over.

“That sounds perfect. Anything but this.” she agreed. “You think Fuck You Dad has a new single out yet?”

Via made a face at her. “Actually, I don’t think I like them anymore… What about Loud Fucking Noises? D’you like them?”

“Never heard of it.” Loona admitted, throwing herself down to the couch without care for the old furniture. “Show me?”

“Yeah- Wait!” Via cried, scampering back and sweeping up the fallen bags of chips, hound-safe candy bars and iced coffees. “I’ll bring snacks! Load the first video for me- ‘Three Minute Scream’! I love that one!”

                                                                                                                                ~*~*~*~*~

Half an hour later Blitz was freshly showered, Stolas was in a clean shirt, and all four occupants of the little apartment were puppy piled on and across each other on the old couch, watching Loona’s phone play an old movie from the human world, about aliens and cartoon characters competing in a rigged basketball game.

“Why don’t they just cheat back?” Blitz demanded as the tiny aliens suddenly transformed into hulking behemoths. “The cat has a hammer for fuck’s sake! He could take that tall skinny bitch, easy!”

The elderly grandmother character pulled a mallet out from under her skirts to slam it hilariously across the annoying duck’s head, and Blitz waved emphatically at the display. “See? Even that old lady’s got an arm on ‘er! Beat the shit outta them! That really tall rabbit could do it, I swear!”

“Dad.” Loona sighed with an exasperated roll of her eyes. “It’s a kid’s movie, dumbass. They’re probably trying to teach the kids not to be total pieces of shit to each other.”

Blitz wrinkled his nose and made a face at her, snuggling in closer to Stolas, who was curled up at the far end of the couch with Octavia tucked in beside him and Blitz sprawled across his lap in some vain effort to keep the imp still for the length of one entire movie.

“Humans are the shittiest people, and I live in Hell.” he groused as the giant aliens scored basket after basket and the toon team struggled to make one playing fair. “These movies ain’t workin’ to teach ‘em shit.”

“I know darling, it’s all so deeply unfair, isn’t it?” Stolas hushed, running a gentle hand back along one of Blitz’s horns to quiet him. “Let’s see if the little earth men can win at basketballing hm?”

Blitz seemed to hold still for approximately three extra seconds, then began to toy with the hem of his t-shirt, feet kicking in front of himself as he tried and failed to stop fidgeting, and Stolas leaned in to wrap his imp up in a hug that was half-cuddle, half-restraint.

“Half an hour more my love.” Stolas murmured behind Blitz’s ear. “Try your best, let the girls have our time together.”

Blitz shivered against him as his prince’s breath ghosted against the spot behind his ear Blitz couldn’t resist, and he shifted unsubtly in Stolas’s lap so they were chest to chest, Blitz’s chin slipping down through the chest fluff at Stolas’s neck to pin a cheeky kiss to his prince’s jawline.

“What about our time?” Blitz purred in a coy murmur against Stolas’s cheek. “When’s that comin’ back?”

Stolas giggled, trying and failing to keep himself quiet as he slid his arms down along Blitz’s waist and pulled his imp closer, chin dipping to catch the shameless mouth pressing soft, innocent kisses to any part of Stolas’s neck and cheeks Blitz could reach.

“Soon, darling. Patience.” Stolas whispered back into a much less chaste press of his lips against his imp’s mouth. “After they’ve gone to bed tonight.”

“Dad.” Via’s voice interrupted like a bucket of ice water over the both of them. “I can literally hear you. I’m right here, remember?”

In his defense, Stolas had forgotten the entire room around them when Blitz had turned his beautiful, well-toned body up and into his own, but the owl prince feigned competence for the sake of his daughter anyway.

“Of course I wouldn’t forget you Via, dear.” he laughed as if he’d been perfectly aware of himself the whole time. “It’s only a kiss, you’ve seen us kissing bef-Blitz!”

Stolas squealed as one of Blitz’s big hands slipped covertly down the side of his pants, on the side Via couldn’t see from the angle she was sitting at, and the seeking, devilish claws dug into Stolas’s ass with a mischievous squeeze that instantly brought a pink flush up to the owl prince’s cheeks and gave them both away immediately.

“Can’t help it baby.” Blitz announced to the whole room with absolutely no modesty at all in his words. “You know I gotta keep my hands busy or I can’t stay focused for shit.”  

“Dad!” Via cried in total exasperation. “Can’t you like, put a leash on him or whatever?”

“Not that he hasn’t- Hey!” Blitz started, only to be cut off as Stolas suddenly grabbed him by the shoulders and dipped them both forward into a hurried, sloppy kiss that swallowed the rest of what Blitz had been about to say.

“Not in front of my daughter, you degenerate.” Stolas laughed in a dusky growl that had Blitz nipping up at his neckline in a clear request for more. “Keep your mouth clean.”

“Not fuckin’ likely.” Blitz purred back into a deepening kiss that took Stolas from playful flirting to desperate need like a shot from a gun. “Lemme get that sugar, beautiful. The girls can close their eyes.”

“Okay, that’s it.” Loona spoke up for the first time since Blitz had started talking. She snapped her phone off, the screen going blank the second she pressed the side button, and grabbed Via by the elbow. “Come on, Chicklet. We’re going out for awhile. It’s getting way too horny in here.”

“No! Shit, Loonie- Wait! I can stop!” Blitz protested guiltily, dropping Stolas like he was suddenly white-hot and made of lava. “You don’t have to leave- I’ll go make us some snacks in the kitchen. Keep my hands to myself, okay? I’m so sorry sweetheart. I swear!”

Loona gave her dad a grateful smile to show him she wasn’t really angry, but kept pulling Via to her feet anyway. “Nah. You two deserve a little time to yourselves. We’ve been sardined in here for the last few weeks, and honestly? I’m surprised you two could hold off this long before making it awkward for the rest of us.”

She grinned over at Via, who smiled broadly at the hellhound. “I’m gonna take Via shopping in town.” Loona told their dads. “Gonna be out awhile- Text me when it’s safe to come home, okay?”

“Pack a bag sweetheart!” Blitz called after his retreating daughters at the same time Stolas said “Don’t feel obligated to stay out of your own home, Loona. I-”

Whatever Stolas had been trying to say, Blitz’s big hand covering his mouth cut off the rest as the imp dropped both knees to either side of Stolas’s hips and grinned pointedly down at his prince.

“They’re doin’ us a favour, pretty bird.” Blitz said with a sexy little smirk on his face and his hips pressed right up against Stolas’s seated waistline. “Don’t be a rude bitch and tell ‘em ‘no’.”

Stolas wanted to protest, he really did, but the way Blitz was straddling him, and the hand pressed firmly across his mouth, and the evident hardness already digging into his stomach had the bird molten in seconds, and he nodded obediently as his white cheeks flushed a hard, deep scarlet.

“Y-Yes, of course not.” Stolas managed to force out in a mostly normal tone behind Blitz’s hand. “Be safe, girls! Call if you need us!”

“Try not to need us!” Blitz added with his face mere lashes away from Stolas’s beak. “Gonna have my hands real full here at home!”

“Oh my god!” Via groaned, her face screwed up with utter disgust at the both of them. “Loona, hurry up and get your bag! We have to go- Now!”  

“On it!” Loona called back from her room, rushing out and slamming her door behind herself with her messenger bag and Via’s backpack slung over one shoulder. “Run for the hall, Via! Hurry!”

Via shrieked like a much younger teen and did it, running out after Loona’s blurry tail, both of them squealing and laughing as they made their hasty exit.

                                                                                                                          ~*~*~*~*~*~

“Well, Blitzy?” Stolas teased as soon as the apartment door had slammed shut behind their daughters. “Whatever shall we to do with all this sudden free time?”

Blitz didn’t even pretend to play coy. He rolled his hips straight up into Stolas’s solid, lanky body in front of him and rose up on his knees to capture his prince’s mouth with his.

Stolas dropped back against the couch cushions, body sliding forwards just enough to give his Blitz room to work in, and hooked an arm up under Blitz’s ass as his imp’s tail began to wave eagerly and Stolas enthusiastically kissed the open mouth in front of him.

“You realize we just chased our own daughters out of the house?” Stolas laughed even as he let Blitz slide a hand down the back of his pants. The imp fisted one big hand into the feathers at the back of his head, the other curling around the base of Stolas’s long, elegant tail, and the combined actions effortlessly pulled a low, reedy moan out of Stolas.

“Fuck ‘em. Loona’s grown.” Blitz answered without really hearing himself speak. He was too focused on grinding the painful, clothed pressure between his legs closer up against his bird. “They’ll be fine. Talk about something else.”

“Like the way I’ve been dying to get my hands on you for three straight weeks?” Stolas countered with a sharp, rough jerk of his forearm against Blitz’s lower back that pulled his imp closer still. “That twenty minute shower hardly counted.”

“Gonna make you lose count of how many times I finish you off.” Blitz promised in a haze of kisses and nips at his prince’s cheeks and the side of his mouth. “Swear to Satan, you never tasted so damn good, beautiful.”

Stolas said nothing in return, too busy sliding his free hand up the line of Blitz’s spines and tracing his long, sharp talons up and over the sensitive back. Blitz shivered hard, his breath hitching as he swallowed still more of Stolas’s mouth with his, and a soft purple glow began to fill the room.

Neither of them noticed, Blitz’s hand reemerging from Stolas’s pants long enough to fumble the front button and zipper open and wriggle his prince’s pants down to his knees while Stolas carelessly yanked the front of Blitz’s house shorts and boxers down. The diamond-hard cock slipped free, Stolas grabbed hold of it like a starving man, and Blitz gave his prince a wild, feral grin as he spread his legs wider and Stolas slipped further down over the couch to accommodate.

“Let me warm you up, my sexy little imp.” Stolas offered breathlessly. “Follow me now, there’s my good boy.”

He guided Blitz forwards with the hand wrapped around his imp’s cock, and Blitz followed without question, eyes huge, pupils blown wide and dark with raw arousal as his bird paused their kisses just long enough to smirk like the devil at him and drag the bare tip of Blitz’s throbbing, aching cock up the wet line of Stolas’s open legs in front of him.

Blitz growled low and possessive, surging forwards to drive himself straight down into the soaking hole just waiting for him, but Stolas kept him back with one strong, firm hand planted firmly in the middle of Blitz’s chest.

“Not yet, Blitzy.” Stolas warned. “Let me show you how much I need you, hm? How much I’ve missed my big, strong Daddy. Be good, Blitzy, and I’ll give you such praise for your performance.”

Blitz felt his entire being go white-hot at the sudden full-body tremor Stolas’s low, sultry words arced straight up his spine, and he wrapped his hand around Stolas’s between them.

“Oh fuck yeah, pretty bird.” he panted. “Fuck yes you can have it your way.”

The hand lazily working Blitz’s cock paused in its work as Stolas took note of how turned on Blitz was right now, how into the idea of Stolas taking charge he was, and tucked the information away for later use.

“Mm, you like that, don’t you?” Stolas cooed, stroking the leaking, hypersensitive tip of Blitz up against his waiting body once again. “When I call you my good boy? When I tell you how strong you are, how clever? How irresistibly sexy my beautiful, handsome Blitzy is?”

Stolas flicked his hips upwards, dragging their twinned hands up and over his slick feathers, brushing the insides of his thighs with the back of Blitz’s hand and the clawed fingertips of his own, the heavy cock curled up inside his palm sliding effortlessly over the wet line of his hot, ready body.

“Do you want me, Blitz?” Stolas panted even as Blitz tried to grind his hips down into his palm and Stolas kept his hands deliberately just out of reach. “Do you want me to put your cock inside me? Let you feel how much I’ve missed you? How badly I’ve been wanting you? How ready I am to be absolutely devastated by you and that glorious cock?”

Blitz keened, eyes half-closed as Stolas whispered the tip of his dick up against that soft, feathered body absolutely drenched just for him, and Blitz felt liquid heat replacing every cell in his body as he licked up along Stolas’s collarbone above the ring of the V in his shirt and nodded like a lovedrunk idiot.

“Fuck I want it.” Blitz said between hard, heavy pulls for breath. “I want you, Stolas. I wanna feel every fuckin’ feather on you tangled up in me, under my fingers. I want your tongue down my throat and your hands all over me. I wanna forget my own name ‘cause I’ll be too busy screamin’ yours. Please, baby, please- Lemme have you! Lemme put it in already- I’ll give it to you any way you want me, I swear.”

“Hm, will you?” Stolas asked as if he wasn’t burning with pent-up lust and anticipation as his big, strong top rolled over and became the submissive switch Stolas had suspected he’d always been without so much as a second of resistance. “Will you let me lead you home, Blitzy? Do exactly what I tell you to, and nothing more?”

“Anything, pretty bird.” Blitz confirmed into a flurry of frantic kisses against Stolas’s chin and neck. “I’m your good boy, baby bird. Your good boy who does what he’s told. Any way you want me. Tell me how you need me.”

“Just like this.” Stolas breathed, dragging the handful of cock he held down the center line of his body one last time. “Straddled right over me, sweating and begging for me. Letting me see every glorious second of you coming apart in my hands.”

He slid Blitz’s twitching cock down into the soaking, waiting hole between his legs, and Blitz moaned like a professional whore straight into his prince’s mouth, body pliant and willing even as Blitz maintained the firm control over their interactions he preferred during intimate moments like this.

He wasn’t subbing, not completely, and Stolas knew his imp never could- Blitz was too strong a personality to ever be completely submissive to anybody, but he was as respectable a bottom as he was a top, and Stolas found the sudden switch in dynamics absolutely intoxicating.

“Oh my fuck, Blitzy,” Stolas groaned as he arced his hips up into Blitz and pulled his imp closer on top of him. “Just like this- Ride me hard, cowboy. Ride me!”

Blitz instantly moved to action, hips rolling, knees working as he drove down into Stolas and pistoned his hips in a punishing, hard rhythm that left Stolas gasping and grabbing at the imp’s shirt so frantically he tore the thing half-off as Blitz rolled his chest up and over his prince, raining kisses and sinking sharp, pointed little teeth anywhere he could find purchase as Stolas chased his mouth for hungry, hot kisses that stopped and started with each new thrust of Blitz’s cock to the back of Stolas’s insides.

The soft purple light intensified around them, neither body noticing as Blitz pounded down into his prince and Stolas grabbed and pulled, and whimpered into Blitz’s mouth as his imp responded to everything the owl prince couldn’t say as words began to fail him. The light deepened, sprawled out around them, and Blitz sank his claws down into one of Stolas’s hips, making his bird cry out and arc sharply, roughly upwards against Blitz, who delivered a devastating, mind-shattering finish straight to Stolas’s core in answer.

Stolas screamed Blitz’s name against the strong, sturdy shoulder that wrapped him up under one big hand and kept him pinned up against Blitz as the imp stiffened, bore down somehow deeper and held himself in check just long enough to punch out “Tell me when…” and remind Stolas he was on top this time.

“Take what you need…” Stolas ground out, half-delirious with the haze of his own climax and the heady, steady pull of the wild magick pouring out of him like a waterfall of stars. “Oh my lords, Blitzy- Finish for me! Do it now, lover! Permission granted!”

Blitz hardly needed to be told twice, and he dropped both hands up under Stolas’s ass, digging in with his fingers as Stolas arched his hips up into his, swallowed his cock to the root and pushed up as if he could possibly get more as Blitz rolled his hips and clenched his knees around his prince.

“Fuck Stols!” Blitz growled low and dusky and desperate. “Fuck me, you’ve never been hotter…”

“Go again?” Stolas panted even as he pulled Blitz closer to kiss the open mouth and grab hold of the base of his horns as Blitz barely relaxed from his first finish against him, and Stolas already burned for more. “I need you, Blitzy… Need you…”

Blitz nodded against his kiss, teeth nipping and grabbing at Stolas’s lower lip as he inhaled his prince and slid his hands up Stolas’s hot, feathered sides and up his sweaty back. “Get us down on that floor, beautiful. I want you pinning me down, workin’ me over with everythin’ you got.”

Stolas groaned even as he scooped Blitz up between his arms and barely spared a moment to separate their bodies before tackling his imp straight down to the living room floor. Blitz’s back hit the ground with a hard crack of his horns against the hardwood, grunting hard as Stolas’s light, lithe body fell over him seconds later, and his prince grinned down at him, all four eyes wild and bright with pure arousal as he planted his knees at either side of Blitz and dragged his wet, ready body up and over Blitz’s diamond-hard cock under him.

“Fuck me, I chose the most beautiful creature in all of hell…” Stolas breathed in the only pause they’d taken since Loona and Via had run out of the house and left them truly alone together for the first time in nearly a month. “I love you, my Blitz. Honestly and truly, I love you, you ridiculous man…”

Blitz leaned up and kissed his prince, gently, tenderly, eyes cloudy and amber as he rode the comedown of his recent finish and already wanted more. “Love you too, pretty bird. So fuckin’ much… You’re the only heart I’d let near mine. The only body I want for the rest of my fuckin’ life…”

Blitz reached up to pull his prince down closer, sealing their chests together, his knees coming up to wind up behind Stolas’s much longer legs, hooked up just under the feathered thighs. Stolas brushed one shaky, sweaty hand lovingly down over Blitz’s cheek as he gazed down at the flushed, lovedrunk features in front of him, and Blitz jerked forward to kiss him again.

This time it was a harder, needier gesture, a low, pleading moan rolling out from his imp’s chest as Stolas answered the kiss with another inquiring surge of his hips and Blitz hissed in a hard breath through his teeth brushing up against Stolas’s beak.

“You tell me, princess.” Blitz barely whispered against his prince’s cheek. “Any way you want me, baby. I’m yours.”

Something about the complete surrender in his strong, cocky Blitz’s voice drove Stolas absolutely feral, and he seized both horns in each of his hands, circling their base with his thumbs the way Blitz could never resist during their normal sessions.

“I’m going to drop down on that magnificent cock of yours, and you’re going to touch nothing but my hips.” Stolas told- not asked told, his Blitz. “And I’m going to give you the hottest show in Hell while you squirm.”

Stolas dragged Blitz’s hands down the length of his body, stopping them firmly at his sides, and smirked down at his imp as Blitz grinned up at him like a starving dog and nodded along at his bird.

“Don’t touch, Blitzy.” Stolas singsonged, and one of his hands slipped down between their naked bodies to wrap his long, delicate fingers around Blitz’s twitching cock. “I’m going to have it my way, just for you. Hm? Does that sound good, lover? My hands all over you? You, watching me treat your cock like an unbroken mustang while I ride hard and wild?”

“Stols you better stop teasin’, ‘cause I’m gonna come in your hand…” Blitz panted roughly. “Baby, you had me at my own name.”

Stolas laughed at the desperate whine in Blitz’s voice as he slowly, oh-so-deliberately slid his palm up along Blitz’s length and the action earned him a low, sharp hiss from his lover.

“Eyes on me, Blitzy.” Stolas reminded as he slid his hips back and lifted his knees just high enough so he was lined up with the already-leaking tip of Blitz’s cock. “Watch me, good boy.”

Blitz’s huge amber eyes watched as Stolas slowly, painstakingly, slipped Blitz in and began to drop his hips down towards Blitz beneath him, perfect ass curved up behind him, the long, beautiful tail fanning out across both their legs as Stolas flicked it down and over Blitz in a teasing promise for what was to come.

Blitz moaned at the feeling of hot, slick feathers wrapping around him, sinking deeper as Stolas began to move. His prince took them at a slow, even pace that had Blitz whining and keening for more even as Stolas made no effort to speed up his easy, lingering slide up the length of Blitz and controlled the drop back down until Blitz was red-faced and panting hard beneath him, eyes so darkly amber they were practically copper.

The hands at Stolas’s hips grabbed on as if Blitz’s life depended on the contact, and Stolas smirked as he flicked his next downwards motion into a quick, sharp little tease and Blitz swore out loud at him.

“Lemme touch…” Blitz begged breathlessly, claws sinking into Stolas’s sides as his prince began to slip a hand up the line, under the remains of his shirt, from Blitz’s firm stomach to his ribs. “Please baby, lemme get my hands wet…”

Stolas smirked wickedly and shook his head. “Now now Blitzy- I said no, didn’t I? Good boys who won’t listen get punished, don’t they?”

The hand sliding its way up Blitz’s body stopped abruptly, reversed course and dragged Stolas’s sinful claws all the way down Blitz’s hot, sweaty body until it found the line where Stolas’s body was just barely about to meet Blitz’s as their hips worked in tandem.

“All you can do is look.” Stolas commanded sharply, his words a low, sultry purr, and Blitz’s eyes almost glazed over right then as the hand at Stolas’s waist ghosted up between the prince’s legs and began to play.

“I’m going to take what’s mine, and you’re going to let me.” Stolas told the squirming, whimpering imp beneath him. “You’re going to watch, and I won’t let you touch, and you’ll hold your finish until I tell you to come for me. Understood?”

“Oh fuck me…” Blitz gasped as he watched Stolas’s fingers touching himself, ghosting over his sheathed cock, fingering any available spot around their joined bodies in time to the bird’s slow, maddeningly steady rise and fall over him. “F-Fuck yes, Stols… Fuck yeah. You’re so hot right now… I-I dunno if I can…”

“Hold it.” Stolas ordered in a breathless, reedy moan. “Hold it while I come on your cock and teach you to do as I say. Good boys listen the first time, don’t they Blitzy?”

Blitz nodded without even knowing what he was agreeing to. “Y-Yeah. I’m your good boy. I’m the best fuckin’ boy for you…Oh shit, fuck Stolas! Fuck!”

The owl prince dropped down again, burying his hand between his legs as Blitz felt the clawed fingertips sliding in beside his cock and curling up around him, teasing and touching as Stolas ground his hips down and began to breathe in quick, choppy gasps for air, low, filthy moans coming in faster and harder the longer the fingers circled Blitz’s cock.

“You feel so good, Blitzy!” Stolas groaned, raising himself up on his knees only far enough to let him bounce back down against Blitz as his hand around Blitz’s cock stayed exactly where it was and Stolas buried his fingers inside himself again. “Blitzy, I-I…”

His free hand whipped down to roll his thumb down over the sensitive little button at the top of his soaking, leaking hole and Stolas leaned all the way back with his tall, flexible body on full shameless display.

“Oh my fuck, Blitzy!” Stolas cried as he dragged his thumb up over the spot, his fingers slipping and scrambling to pick up the pace as his hips worked and Blitz lay there under him, helpless to do anything but watch and want without having. “Blitz! Yes! Oh fuck, yes!”

Stolas screamed his name as he finished, and something inside of Blitz just snapped. He grabbed his bird by the waist, flipped them roughly over with Stolas under him as his prince rode the high of his second full finish in less than an hour, and Blitz watched him come, sweating and half-feral as he let his bird work himself past the last few seconds of pleasure.

“Daddy’s turn.” he growled low and hot and reckless, and Stolas pulled both hands out of Blitz’s way with a sharp challenge of a smirk on his soft features.

“Oh yes Blitzy.” Stolas purred like silk over glass. “Fuck yes, come for me.”

Blitz didn’t waste time being told twice, and he readjusted them for about six seconds, then dropped his entire weight down on Stolas, who cried out at the electric feeling of having yet more attention on his already hypersensitive body, but did absolutely nothing to resist or stop them.

“Finish hard for me.” Stolas panted as Blitz began to move as if they hadn’t just shared a fresh climax each on the couch. “Daddy yes! Your princess is loving this!”

“Love you.” Blitz punched out in a haze of lust and blind focus that only made Stolas grab his imp’s hips and pull him down harder, faster as Blitz worked and took exactly what he wanted this time. “Mine, pretty bird. All mine.”

Blitz grabbed his prince by the shoulders, raised him up just high enough that leaning down to reach never once stopped his rhythm, and sunk his teeth down into Stolas’s shoulder so hard the imp tasted blood. He almost paused to check in with Stolas, make sure his prince wasn’t hurt, but just as he had the thought, Stolas surged forwards and dragged his clawed hands up across Blitz’s back with a hard growl of pure need.

“Just like that!” Stolas screamed into his ear as Blitz felt the world dropping out from under him and he began to freefall. “Blitzy yes! Just like that! One more! One more!”

They came together, Blitz finishing before Stolas, who took a moment longer to ride out the tail end of an earth-shatteringly good climax, his every nerve on fire as Stolas gave his body no time at all to recover and was already looking for more.

The purple light spilled out of him in waves, filling the room, burying them both in starlight and deep, bright galaxies that surged and intensified every time Blitz pulled another finish out of his prince, and Stolas hardly noticed the drain, every atom of his being focused only and solely on Blitz.

“Go again?” Blitz asked breathlessly as they kissed frantically and Stolas dropped a hand to Blitz’s ass and squeezed with pointed demand. “Or you wanna breathe-”

“If you don’t shut up and give me more of that cock…” Stolas growled hungrily, and Blitz shivered hard against him. “I want all of you, Blitz. My safe word is ‘jelly sandwiches’.”

“Mine’s ‘Staple Gun’.” Blitz said into Stolas’s open mouth. “The worst horse.”

“Still?” Stolas laughed even as one of his hands slid up Blitz’s back to toy with his spines while the other wound the clever tail up around his wrist and tugged gently, just to hear the delicious whimpers the action pulled from his Blitz. “I really must love you.”

“Love you too, baby.” Blitz echoed mindlessly. He slammed a forearm down across Stolas’s chest, leaving plenty of room for his prince to escape should he feel the need to, and putting only enough force into the motion to make Stolas suck in a hard hiss of anticipation. “Now get those knees up- Daddy’s home.”

Stolas did it, Blitz surged on top of him, the room was swallowed in deep, starry purple all around them as Blitz pulled back and out just long enough to slide his whole body down Stolas’s stomach and draw a high, needy whimper from his prince as he teased the shivering owl mercilessly, then drove himself back home with an audible sound of exactly how ready Stolas was for him.

“Blitzy yes!” Stolas cried enthusiastically, the world absolutely shattering around him as nothing but his Blitz registered anymore.

The security of his imp back in full control of them, the way those sinful, expert hands slid and pulled at him, all over him, the hot, needy breath at his neck as Blitz sucked kisses into his collarbone, his chin, his shoulders…

“Lemme hear you, beautiful.” Blitz encouraged into his next thrust. “Loud n’ proud baby. Loud n’ proud…”

Stolas smirked into their next kiss, heart racing deliciously as his entire body felt every bare whisper of Blitz on him, inside him, cradling him as if he were precious, singular, perfect and the only demon left in hell.

“Harder!” Stolas screamed so harshly he felt his throat burn with the intensity of his rising voice. “Blitzy, more!”

And his imp delivered, over and over, any time Stolas asked for him, across hours and messy, hard finishes, and softer, slower sessions where they whispered sweet, heartfelt words of devotion into each other’s kisses. Across timeless sprawls of breathless panting, dizzy highs and the feeling of hands and claws and mouths across hot, sweaty skin beginning to sting with the rough play. Neither minded as Stolas called for his Blitz and his imp answered with exactly what Stolas demanded from him, and Blitz begged like never before for one more turn under his prince’s gentle, firm hands.

They shared a shower at some point to clean themselves up after round who even knew anymore in the dusky sunset of early evening, and the tiled walls echoed their voices up all around them in the cramped little bathroom as Blitz pinned his prince up against the wall, and Stolas did everything in his power to reign back the urge to drop his full weight down against the filthy mouth that worshipped him like the dark prince of Hell he’d once been. Stolas rode Blitz into the enameled tub floor when his imp took them down to both their knees and dropped a hand down between them to cup Stolas’s throbbing, leaking body in his hands.

“I’m gonna keep going ‘til you tell me you’ve had enough.” Blitz warned in a gasping, breathless growl, and Stolas nodded his consent into a hard, needy kiss that pulled Blitz in closer and brought the seeking fingers higher into the curve of Stolas’s feathered body.

“Don’t you dare hold back now.” Stolas growled, and Blitz’s eyes flashed pure desire in their coppery, clouded depths as the owl prince licked a wild stripe down the front of Blitz and lingered just above the waistline until Blitz had leaned back and granted his bird access.

Everything after that had been a blurred, waterlogged mess of hands, and teeth, both of them screaming each other’s names and streaking curses through the apartment so foul, Blitz actually blushed at how downright filthy his prince actually was under all the fancy clothes and polished mannerisms.

“I want it through me like you’re making candy apples!” Stolas demanded as Blitz got him down on his back and the long, strong legs dropped down under Blitz’s arms while the imp lined himself up again. “Make me sticky sweet and cover me with sugar, lover!”

“Oh my fuckin’ god, Stols.” Blitz had laughed even as he touched the tip of his dick up against the waiting hole and Stolas swore roughly. “You corny bitch, I swear.”

He rammed home before his prince could produce any sort of answer for him, and Blitz smirked like the devil when Stolas flattened both palms up against the old bathtub’s end to keep himself anchored while Blitz gave better than he’d been asked for and touched the back of Stolas’s throat with each new pounding thrust.

The shower ended with them somehow actually clean, wrapped in fluffy towels for just long enough for Stolas to dry out most of his feathers and Blitz to decide he wasn’t going to bother with one once he’d wiped off most of the water. Seeing Blitz brazenly standing in the bathroom doorway, leaned up almost too-casually as he asked Stolas about water or apples, or something Stolas heard no part of had them tangled up again within minutes, and Blitz led them backwards into the kitchen while Stolas chased kisses and handfuls of his imp’s deliciously slippery body.

It was hours before they finally rolled to a stop, laying breathless in the middle of the living room floor, a blanket twisted up around Blitz’s legs and Stolas’s knees.

Everything in the house was spilled out and thrown wildly across the living room floor around the two lovers; Clothes, towels, empty cereal boxes, spent bottles of fancy lime waters and cans of Blitz’s cherry soda littered the apartment, and somewhere in all of it Blitz and Stolas themselves lay tangled up in one another, kissing lazily, heaving for breath and unwilling to let each other go.

They were freshly showered again, both of them had traded sloppy, easy finishes under the hot water as they used the washcloths and soapy bubbles as an excuse to slide their hands over each other and keep themselves touching, keep themselves close to one another. Blitz snuggled deeper into his favourite spot in Stolas’s chest feathers here and now, and the owl prince smiled with all the love in hell in his half-lidded, exhausted eyes as he gazed down at his imp and sighed.

“Again?” Stolas rasped, his voice gravelly and painful after Blitz had pulled every scrap of volume out of him with absolute efficiency and moves even Stolas hadn’t known his imp had left to surprise him with.

Blitz shook his head, hands running idly over his prince’s back as Stolas toyed with the spines running down his back and Blitz kissed the soft, feathered chin above him. “Nah. Don’t think I can move, pretty bird. You took everythin’ I got.”

Stolas smirked like the smug little brat he was and cuddled his Blitz closer. “Good. That’s what I want to hear.”

Blitz huffed a soft little laugh into the downy chest fluff under his cheek and curled his tail up around his prince’s knees. “Satan’s taint Stols- I never had anyone outpace me before, and Ver was a fuckin’ succubus y’know.”

“She sounds second-rate then.” Stolas sniffed imperiously, dropping a firm, possessive kiss directly to Blitz’s birthmark. “It’s so incredibly easy to look at you and want more, any time or place.”

Blitz grinned sleepily and brushed his mouth up over the underside of his prince’s chin. “Satan I fuckin’ love you.” he mumbled on the very edges of the waking world. “Always, all of me…”

“I love you too, my Blitz.” Stolas whispered into the curl at the base of of his imp’s horn. “Until the end of me.”

They lay there in the comfortable quiet, hands touching skin, smoothing the spines down along Blitz’s back, running through overheated feathers that moved like silken ribbons over Blitz’s scarred hands…

“Stars look good on you baby bird…” Blitz said apropos of nothing at all, and the strange shape of the words startled Stolas out of the half-doze he’d been letting himself drift into.

“Stars?” he echoed in confusion. “What do you mean ‘stars look good on me’?”

“The lights-” Blitz murmured, only half-conscious anymore as he toyed with the feathers on his bird’s shoulder and reveled in the feeling of soft down against his cheeks. “You got ‘em so bright the whole apartment looked like a fuckin’ space movie. I love that about you… Always findin’ somethin’ new to make me fall in love all over…”

Stolas startled. Not only had he not noticed the pull of apparently powerful magicks on him, but he didn’t feel like he’d lost the energy required to sustain what Blitz was describing. All he’d been aware of since the girls had left was Blitz. Blitz’s hands on him, teeth dragging over hot, hypersensitive skin, Blitz’s breath in Stolas’s lungs…

The faint, gentle glow of lilac that rose up around his entire body told Stolas what he’d already been suspicious of. Even the thought of Blitz called the magick up without his direct control, and part of Stolas worried that might get them both into serious trouble someday while the other, hungrier part of him loved having that power back. The feel of the energy moving through him, the heady, giddy joy of knowing he was magick again. Some part of his old life that wasn’t Via had survived, and he could access it anytime he liked-

“Hey- You’re doin’ it again.” Blitz interrupted Stolas’s suddenly whirling thoughts. “You’re purple, pretty bird. Looks good on you.”

Stolas laughed, his every limb heavy and exhausted from their entire day spent naked and all over each other, and kissed the top of his Blitz’s head. “I know darling. Do you know how to turn it off before it starts to hurt?”

He’d said it glibly, as an idle sort of musing more than a real question, but Blitz shook himself awake long enough to raise his head up a little, consider Stolas’s glowing body in front of him, then did what seemed most logical at the time;

He smashed his face down into the fluffy ruff of feathers he loved so much, wrapped his arms around his prince, and purred. The sound was warm and deep, absolutely radiating comfort and security, and Stolas felt the rumbling little sound vibrating through his chest, his ribs, down through his arms and torso, to the bottoms of his feet and back up the entire length of his spine.

At first it seemed so ridiculous that Blitz had thought this was all it would take to tame magicks older than both of them combined, to cage back the wild, willful energies of the living cosmos itself, but the longer Blitz purred and held on, the more Stolas felt himself relaxing into the touch. Into the soft, steady resonance of his imp’s chest pressed up against him and the feel of the hot little body curled up just under his chin the way they always did.

The way Blitz liked best, and Stolas found so endearing. The way the scent of hot sauce and cinnamon, and just a little bit of gunpowder touched his senses as Stolas sighed deeply into complete release of every worry, every fear; All of everything that wasn’t Blitz and this moment. He breathed in the smell of his imp, listened to the loud, loving purrs, and let his Blitz wrap him up completely until the light that had been building up around him dissipated bit by bit. After a good ten minutes of it, the glow had winked out entirely and Stolas found himself on the absolute edges of sleep in his imp’s arms.

“S’at better baby?” Blitz mumbled around the haze of utter exhaustion draped over him like a warm blanket. “You good now?”

Stolas blinked, confused for a minute as he tried to puzzle out what Blitz was talking about, then remembered the lights and his flip little comment that Blitz had taken literally, and somehow answered by way of pure dumb luck.

“Much. Thank you Blitz.” Stolas answered in the softest, most loving murmur he could coax his sore throat into producing. “We can sleep now. We both need it, hm?”

No answer came, the purring kept on even as Blitz grew heavy and still in front of Stolas, and the owl prince pulled whatever fabric that felt like a blanket and was closest to hand over the both of them as he curled his knees and shoulders up around his imp and followed Blitz out of the waking world.

                                                                                                                                     ~*~*~*~*~*~

When they next woke, it was past midnight and Blitz was waiting patiently for his prince to get his ass up so he could run to the bathroom and take a piss already.

He could have just gotten up to get the job done, but the way Stolas looked so totally spent and completely serene as he lay there beside Blitz, mouth half-open, snoring softly the way Stolas swore he absolutely, never-had-he-ever done in his life, made Blitz not want to ruin everything by making noise or moving. His prince would startle awake even if his kid was grown now, because Dad Reflexes just never died, Blitz guessed.

He laughed a little, the sound barely there, a silly little smile creeping up across his open features as he watched his prince sleeping and forgot about everything else in the world for a minute, then two, then however long it took for Stolas to actually drift out of sleep on his own terms.

“Mm, five more minutes…” Stolas whined as his eyes screwed up and the pressing need for water, and food, and basic care for his sore, bruised body all ganged up on him at once and reminded him he was older than he’d been the first time he and Blitz had woken up tangled up together on his bedroom floor back at the palace.

The marble had certainly been softer somehow, the blankets plush and clean as his staff had silently covered the prince and his illicit little lover after they’d both dropped off to sleep. There had been water, and a bowl of fresh mealworms with Stolas’s preferred cereal and magickally chilled milk on his vanity waiting for him, and the subsequent long, luxurious bath in his old tub with space enough for three full goetic demons, should he have so chosen, had solved the rest of his problems quite handily.

But here and now, he had none of his old staff, none of the trappings of wealth or power. No palace but this dumpy little apartment crammed full of too many bodies and so much more love than even his palace could have held. He had what he had thought was a blanket earlier, but was actually an old shirt of Blitz’s pulled up across his back, he had a blinding migraine, sore everything, and an imp in front of him who accidentally kicked his knobby little knees into his stomach when he couldn’t hold still any longer.

“You awake yet?” Blitz demanded irritably. “I gotta piss so bad, I can feel my fuckin’ eyes floating.”

Stolas gave up on any ideas he might have had of going back to sleep and let all four eyes slide open to glare at his stupid boyfriend, who was doing The Peepee Dance with both hands firmly pressed between his legs while sprawled out beside him instead of being sensible and simply going to the bathroom like a fucking adult.

“Who, exactly, is stopping you?” Stolas asked archly, his voice escaping him in a ragged warble that immediately gave away what they’d been up to all day. He blinked as he heard himself, and bit his lower lip. “Oh good lords, do I really sound like that? Move, I need water.”

“Gimme five minutes.” Blitz promised as he sprang up and dashed across the apartment for the bathroom. “Take your time sweetheart- Daddy’s gonna take good care of his baby!”

The bathroom door slammed behind Blitz, and his voice came back to Stolas muffled and full of relief. ”Right after I take care of business in here!”

Stolas sighed and rolled his eyes at his stupid imp, hauling himself up into a mostly sitting position as he got used to being properly awake again. The apartment was still and quiet around him, the pitch-dark sky telling him they’d slept longer than he’d first thought, and Stolas stretched a knot out of one shoulder and then his back before grudgingly getting himself to his feet and walking the short distance to the kitchen table.

Which was exactly where Blitz found him when he hurried out of the bathroom, hands still wet from the taps.

“You want another lime water, pretty bird?” Blitz offered cheerfully as he passed the ruffled, scowling owl prince at the table and saw nothing but Stolas’s perfect beauty before him. “Maybe orange juice? Y’know, cause of the light show?”

“Could we try a bit of your cherry soda?” Stolas asked as he considered his limited options and the throbbing in his head from spilling so much magick out as quickly as he had. “The way my head hurts, the caffeine will do as much as the sugar to help.”

“You want me to bring you a painkiller too?” Blitz asked as he hastily grabbed them both drinks from the fridge and carried the cans over to his prince. “We went kinda rough a few rounds there- You don’t have all that goetia royal bullshit to help you recover the way you used to.”

Stolas started to nod, popping open his drink and taking a few small sips of the overly-sweet, awful cherry soda he hated unless it was Blitz who tasted of it, then stopped his imp with a sudden hand on Blitz’s arm.

“I- No, actually. No, I don’t think I need one.” Stolas said slowly, incredulously. “Other than the headache, I feel better than I have in weeks. The magick felt… Good, Blitz.”

He said this last in a quiet, shameful half-whisper, and Blitz pulled his bird down into a comforting cuddle as Stolas sighed.

“I…I don’t want it to feel so right, so… Whole.” Stolas confessed in a tremulous little voice that hurt Blitz’s heart to hear from his prince. “What if… What if having my magick come back means they give me back my titles? My old legions?” Stolas looked up at his Blitz and drew the smaller body in closer. “ What- What if they try to take you from me? Take this life we’ve built away? From me, from you, from all of us?”

Blitz climbed up into his prince’s naked lap, and for once not a single impure thought crossed his mind. All he wanted was to hold his lover close, tell him everything was gonna be okay. That the only way any motherfucker was gonna take Stolas away from Blitz this time was if they killed him about it first…

But Blitz never could bring himself to lie to Stolas. Not when it really mattered, so what he said instead was. “I dunno, baby bird. I don’t know what the laws are about all this shit, and I don’t know what Sins get up to outside their rings.”

He looked up at Stolas in the dirty light of Imp City’s neon and the faint smear of the full moon pouring in from the open balcony window behind them.

“I can’t promise you nothin’ bad will ever happen again, that Hell ain’t Hell and politics aren’t bullshit, but I’ll tell you this much-” Blitz leaned up and kissed the trembling mouth, put his arms around his prince and snuck a hand up to cup one cheek in his palm. “Nothin’ they got is stronger than me. Us.”

He kissed Stolas again, gently, slowly, and despite the rapidly swelling pool of anxiety growing in Stolas’s stomach and the tears in his eyes now, Stolas melted into that kiss like the solemn promise it was.

“There’s nothing they got that’s stronger than us, baby bird, and I’ll be there with you no matter what.” Blitz swore with every scrap of conviction he could muster in his words. “They could hand me every horse in Wrath and tell me I’d be an untouchable king livin’ on my dream ranch if I just let you go, and I’d tell ‘em they could fuck right off. They could threaten me, try to take you away by force, and the first and last thing every fuckin’ one of anyone who thinks they’re brave enough would see is the barrel of my flintlock shoved straight up their assholes.”

Blitz kissed him again, and Stolas smiled a little as his imp spoke with the same unflappable confidence he always had, told Stolas impossible things as if they were facts already and had the prince believing that no matter what came now, it really would all turn out right.

Because of Blitz. Because of love, because of his wonderful, strong, thrice-damned family who defied goetia, and Sins, and God himself if that motherfucker ever turned up to try their resolve.

Because after everything, love still won. Love had driven them all, even Via, even Stolas, even the stars themselves, to this point, past blood and pain and grief, through struggle and hardships, and joy and warmth and so much more to come ahead of them-

“…You good baby?” Blitz was asking as Stolas tuned back in and realized he’d been drifting away in his own thoughts. “You need your meds sweetheart? I’m right here, tell Blitzy what you need huh? I got you, I promise, lover. Promise…”

“I know you do.” Stolas said through a watery, heartfelt sob. “Fuck anyone and everything else. I have you.”

He surged forwards and grabbed his imp behind both horns, hands coaxing Blitz forward until Stolas’s beak was brushing one of Blitz’s cheeks, and he ghosted his forehead over Blitz’s for a stolen second of tender intimacy before seizing the half-open mouth with his own and claiming his imp with every fiber of his being.

The purple magick flared to life around them, Stolas saw it and reveled in how good it felt to have this back, to be able to access the cosmos like this, even if his control could barely be called that anymore. Even if he hardly understood why, or how he had it back, or why Blitz seemed to be so integral to remastering this new magick Stolas couldn’t cut off or call up without his imp as the catalyst. Had no idea why Blitz was the only being in Hell who could trigger the lights without fail, had known how to calm Stolas into letting the energy go once he’d summoned it-

“I fuckin’ love you, Stolas.” Blitz breathed into his prince’s open mouth as they deepened their kiss and hands began to slip towards waistlines and shoulders again. “Nobody but you. They can take my prince outta my cold dead hands, an’ I don’t die easy.”

“Talk about something else.” Stolas gasped as he pulled Blitz closer and practically inhaled him. “I love you too, but don’t say it like that right now.”

“S’true.” Blitz vowed into a press of his entire body up against his prince. “Ain’t nothin’ I wouldn’t do for you, baby. Nothin’.”

“Tell me I’m yours.” Stolas breathed as he lifted Blitz into a kneel in his lap and crossed his arms up under his imp to secure him in place. “Tell me you mean forever when you say ‘I love you’, that time won’t steal you from me and we’ll always be this way, you and I, for the rest of our lives…”

“Couldn’t picture me anywhere else, beautiful.” Blitz told him like a lovesick teenager. A soft, deceptively chaste kiss touched Stolas’s neckline as Blitz briefly broke their kisses off and started tracing the line of Stolas’s jaw with the end of his nose. “I love you like I need air, pretty bird. The way the stars need the sky, the way Golden Mane loves Gingersnap on Equine Acres.”

Stolas almost ruined the moment by snorting a laugh at how ridiculous his Blitz could be, but in the same moment he smiled and began to laugh, Blitz smirked up against the side of his jaw and dragged those sharp little teeth just right up the line of his cheek.

“I love you like I never thought I knew how.” Blitz whispered right into Stolas’s ear, and the feel of his breath against the sensitive little feathers at the side of his head made Stolas shiver hard. “You gave me back my heart baby bird- Far as I’m concerned, there ain’t no other love in Hell, and if there is? I don’t fuckin’ want it. I want you, Stolas, now, and always, and for the rest of whatever life I got.”

Blitz nipped at his cheek, Stolas moaned at the feeling, and his shameless, brazen lover flicked those perfect hips up and into Stolas’s trembling body.

“You got me, love of my fuckin’ life, and I got you, and nothin’ else in Hell or Heaven is gonna have dick to say to me about it, understand?” Blitz growled low and possessive into a hard, loving kiss against his prince’s panting mouth. “This ass is mine, and anyone who thinks they know better can come through me.”

“Good lords, Blitz, get us down to that floor…” Stolas whimpered, purple stars and spirals of white, iridescent moonlight wrapping them both up as Stolas felt the wild magicks surging to meet the molten core of his raw need to have his Blitz wrapped up in him, on top of him, around him, inside of him. “Please, lover, please…”

“First things first-” Blitz purred like caramel over honey. “Finish your drink. Don’t want you passin’ out on me, understand?”

Stolas nodded dumbly, grabbed the can of cherry soda off the table beside him without once seeing it and downed the entire thing in a few quick, efficient swallows. Blitz shivered as he watched his prince’s throat working, and Stolas smirked like the devil at him, running his tongue over the last drops of sticky-sweet cherry on his lips.

“Consider this moment a free preview of what’s to come.” Stolas said in a dusky, sultry drawl that had Blitz aching and sweating in front of him. “Now get us down on that floor Blitzy, and give me what I want.”

Blitz smirked as he slid himself backwards off the chair and Stolas followed blindly, dropping the now-empty can of soda somewhere into thin air beside him. He snaked his arms up around his Blitz’s shoulders, mouth already sealing itself back over Blitz’s as his imp nipped up at his chin and cheek, tongue flicking deliciously out over any leftover cherry Blitz could find.

“You taste like my favourite thing.” Blitz murmured into the heated kiss he was in the middle of delivering, and the low, easy resonance of his voice against Stolas’s chest sent the bird molten.

“B-Blitzy… Now…” Stolas begged through a moan “Now, before I come right here…”

Blitz bit down against the soft, willing mouth tangled in his, dragging his bottom teeth right over Stolas’s lip, and the owl prince keened for him like the good sub he was as Blitz brought them down to the floor and swung a knee over the squirming, reaching body. Stolas’s arms never left Blitz’s shoulders as Blitz moved them down to the kitchen floor, legs falling open at once when Blitz dropped his knees and straddled him.

“Please, Blitz…” Stolas begged with his eyes half-closed and the purple light making him look positively celestial all around him. “Please…”

“Our whole life is gonna be like this.” Blitz promised as Stolas searched his mouth with his tongue and whined for him when Blitz paused long enough to make sure his bird was comfortably laid out beneath him before dropping his weight down fully over Stolas’s hips. “You, me, n’ any part of me I can get near you all wrapped up like Sinsmas. Any time you let me.”

“Blitz please!” Stolas cried desperately as Blitz threatened to tease and Stolas absolutely burned with desire. “Please!”

“Safe word’s ‘cherry cola’.” Blitz grinned, and it was the last thing Stolas understood as his imp surged on top of him and the entire world narrowed to purple stars and Blitz’s body moving with his.

                                                                                                                               ~*~*~*~*~

They lay there spent and breathing hard half an hour later, both of them too exhausted to draw out their latest session after the day they’d spent ignoring everything but each other, Blitz half-sprawled over his prince’s chest as Stolas caught his breath and tried to calm his racing heart long enough to pull back the purple magick he knew he shouldn’t have allowed out so soon after the last time.

He was certainly paying for it now, a full migraine blinding him even as he regretted nothing and held Blitz closer with the arm loosely draped across the sweaty back.

“Blitz?” Stolas heard someone that sounded awfully like him ask in a low, hoarse whisper. “Blitz, I need you to purr.”

“Huh?” came the fuzzy, sleepy reply. “Y’wan’ what?”

“Purr.” Stolas repeated between deep, steadying breaths. “Can you do that for me darling? Purr so I can stop the lights?”

Blitz frowned, dazed and still lovedrunk from their final finish, but pulled Stolas’s hand up to his cheek anyway. “Help me out, pretty bird.” he asked faintly, and showed Stolas how to circle his thumb up along Blitz’s cheek just so. “Yeah, good boy. Jus’ like that…”

A soft, contented purr bubbled up from the imp as a tiny, goofy smile spread out over the familiar face, and Stolas forgot about the magick, his migraine, the way the cold tiles of the kitchen floor dug into his ass and constricted his tail underneath him-

None of it registered anymore as he traced circles into his Blitz’s cheek, his imp purred like a tiny engine at him and nuzzled up into the chest fluff he loved so much, and Stolas felt himself relaxing the way he never did unless he was asleep next to his Blitz.

The purple light ebbed back exactly the way he'd thought it would, Blitz kept purring even long after he’d fallen into an easy doze, and Stolas held the little body close as he curled up around his imp and felt simultaneously worse and better than he ever had in his life.

“We’ll have to make a study of this…” Stolas mumbled on the very edges of sleep. “About the lights…”

“Tomorrow.” Blitz mumbled vaguely. “Sleepy…”

“Tomorrow.” Stolas agreed, kissing his beautiful lover gently at the curl of one horn. “And the day after that. I love you, Blitzy. I always will.”

“Always.” Came the faint, badly slurred echo, and that was the last thing Stolas knew before his eyes slipped shut and the world dropped away from him.

Always.

-The End