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She couldn’t bear staying in the palace. It didn’t matter where she went, every room seemed to remind her of her dad and she couldn’t accept what her eyes saw. Why was he there?
Via had texted Stolas to ask if they could hang out despite it being one of the days she spent at Andrealphus’s palace. It wasn’t like her mother and uncle really cared about what she did when she was there and domestics were usually too busy to keep an eye on the princess so, yeah, it wouldn’t have been the first time she sneaked out.
Not to mention that Andrealphus said he had something to do at the Goetic Council. It wasn’t like Via was expecting her dad to ditch council, but she thought about asking him first, before texting Loona, since her friend would have been busy with IMP for some hours still.
The fact that Stolas told her he was free for the day should have been a warning that something was wrong. But Via took it as an opportunity to spend more time with her dad, considering that Stella didn’t close her beak about what a field trip day she was having looking as he was completely heartbroken over his imp lover.
And while Via wasn’t so fond of Blitz, well, that was cruel and something she had never experienced her mom being toward dad. She knew they didn’t love each other, but they had always been courteous around her. That, probably, must have been the second signal that something was wrong
She tried to reach for the Council once she saw what was happening on the screen, but she couldn’t open portals without the Grimoire yet and when she ran off to reach it her mom stopped her and now there wasn’t anything she could do. Stella changed the channel to something else, something Octavia didn’t remember and after a while the owlette excused herself.
Now, hours later, shaking and without more tears to shred, she was looking for a room in which she didn’t expect her dad to appear to hug her and bring her back to her bed. He wouldn’t have come. Not that day, not anymore.
Eventually, exhaustion won over her body and she curled up in a corner, sobbing against her knees.
“Princess?” A voice called for her, a voice she had known from the very first day of her life, just as… his.
“Pringles?” She sniffed, trying to remember what was proper of a Goetia princess. She knew he wouldn’t care, but it was still the only thing she remembered was expected by her, now more than ever. There were things to be done, she knew her dad tried to train her for that too, things which needed to be taken care of, statements to release to the public, relatives to call, alliances to be made, she just had hoped they’d allow her to mourn on her own a little longer. “Are them… Is the Council…? I’ll meet them shortly.”
She needed to change her crown, and her clothes, and she needed to find the Grimoire, they would have wanted that and… and the truth was that she wanted her dad so that she could run in his arms where none of that could reach her.
“None of this, Princess,” The butler answered, and there was some sort of kindness in his words she wasn’t sure she was accustomed to. “It’s just your phone. It’s been going off for a while and I took the liberty to bring it to you while I was looking for you.”
She nodded, thanking him while she looked at the screen. She decided to ignore the missed calls from some other Goetias around her age, probably looking for gossip or pretending to care when they never once reached out to her before, and checked the texts.
The oldest unread one was from her dad and she purposely decided not to open it until she read all of the other because she knew it would have probably been the last time she heard from him, ever.
What surprised her, though, were the crazy amount of text she got from Loona and an unknown number. It wasn’t like she and the hellhound texted a lot. Sure, they grew closer after what happened in Los Angeles, but they usually just called each other to meet up at the mall or talked over Sinstgram. Texts were for important stuff and she couldn't see the older girl texting her in that situation.
Except that - she read the preview of the first of the messages from the unknown number and what it said had her freaking out. My personal phone died, still Loona here. Listen, I doubt he will be able to text you tonight, but… It read.
Via never tapped faster on anything in her entire life. ...I won’t say he’s ok. Because that would be bullshit and that’s your department, or your dad’s, for that matter, but, still, he’s got a roof over his head and Blitz is looking after him so, you know the address, just let me know if you can show up.
She was this close to ignore all of the other text and directly call Loona to understand what the fuck was going on when her phone chirped once more and this time it was a picture. The caption said that Loona wasn’t sure it would have made a difference if she went or not and showed Stolas sleeping on a couch she sort of knew and Blitz curled up on a beanie bag by her very much alive dad.
When years later she would have thought about that moment, Octavia wouldn’t have been able to explain how the portal opened, but she didn’t even care when she stumbled through it with her eyes filled with tears. She didn’t register Loona’s surprised noise or the loud sound of fireworks going off outside of the windows, she just tuned in on the hooting sound leaving her dad’s beak and curled herself on the floor, Stolas’s talon between hers and cried herself to sleep.
**
Blitz wondered what kind of fever dream he was having or if he completely blacked out on his last boys’ night down in Lust and someone drugged him because there was no way not one but TWO fucking Goetia demons were sleeping on his couch. Or, better, one was on the couch, fluffy and beautiful and so broken all the imp wanted to do was to hold him and never let him go, while the other, the tiny one who hated his guts - with all the reasons under the pentagram of Pride -, was on the floor.
He wanted to scream, just to be sure that he would have ended up waking himself and realize he once again fell asleep in front of Ghostfuckers newest episode. But then his phone buzzed and it was a text from someone called Vassago whose profile picture showed a baby parrot and a baby owl Blitz knew far too well and the imp realized his mind wasn’t that imaginative, not when it didn’t come to ways to off humans.
What was even crazier was that parrot boy texted him to know if he had a clue about where the princess might have been since apparently Elsa rip off’s extremely attractive sister (that had been weird and, according to Blitz, the worse way as possible to both prove Elsa’s sexuality and try to sell the woman off to Satan for some reason) couldn’t locate her and there was just that much Vassago could do to keep Andrealphus busy (weird, and it gave Blitz even weirder ideas he didn’t need his mind wondering to when he had his so long missed cloaca so close!).
Still, despite the parrot's extremely Moxxie-like enthusiasm for Stolas singing and the fact that he had been the only one actually trying to get the real version of things out of them - thank you very much, Ozzie! - he wasn’t sure either Stolas or Via would have appreciated him answering, especially if his idea about the other bird sleeping with Elsa was to be proven true.
“Fuck me,” He yelled-whispered, and only in that moment he registered the noises coming from the kitchen and the smell of coffee in the air. “Loonie?”
“No, big and baby bird moved in with their entire army of butlers so now we are housing imps in the walls,” Came his daugher’s answer, even if there wasn’t any bite in it. Blitz smiled at her, but it was short lived and bitter.
“This building has seen weirder,” He answered. “Christ on a stick, I think them being here is weirder than imps living in the walls. When did Octavia arrive, anyway?”
Loona looked over her shoulder, where the owlette’s phone was constantly going off on the counter. “After you both fell asleep. I’ve texted her the entire night but - She shook her head and Blitz didn’t like the expression on her face in the slightest - I think she didn’t know about him surviving the trial. I didn’t manage to get one single word out of her, but when she saw him she kept saying that she thought he was dead.”
Blitz could feel himself pale. What Elsa said, what had been streamed all over the Seven Rings of Hell was the fucking peakcock saying Stella would have taken care of Via. And yet she let her believe her dad was dead?! He wanted to kill someone. Striker and whoever called him in on that assassination attempt were high up on his list. If only they’d known who it was.
He felt his tail coiling tightly around his waist as if it was trying to find a solution to all of their problems, but he couldn't find any and the only thing which was repeating in his mind was the loss he had seen on Stolas’s face. He sacrificed everything for him, and how could Blitz repay him? with a shitty place where to rot for the next hundred years? If he understood something from his trial was that if they’d been able to figure out who hired Striker they might find a way to save Stolas. But to do that they needed more power and connections than IMP recent fame could give them. Even if that was better than nothing.
“I’ll call M&M and bring them here, when Stolas and Octavia wake up, we need to talk,” He said and was about to leave for the bathroom when one of the still unclaimed mugs flew toward the kitchen counter. Considering how things were going, he knew without doubts who was moving it.
Octavia looked like shit - not that he was going to tell it or that he didn’t understand why, but still - and yet Blitz could swear she would have ripped through his body and used his bones as chopsticks to some fancy royalty event in less than two minutes. She took a short sip of her coffee and raised her eyes toward Blitz’s face, when she spoke, he could swear her pink eyes were glowing with pure eldritch power. “Yes, we do. So, start to talk!”
Blitz could understand the owlette’s rage and a huge part of him was willing to be her punching bag if that meant saving Stolas from it. Yet, he couldn’t deny that she was frightening, her feathers almost vibrating with magic. She was still training, or so Stolas told Blitz, and yet he was sure that display of power would have been enough to level down the entire building without breaking a sweater. The imp couldn’t stop himself from comparing this to her father’s powers. And what he sacrificed for his worthless life.
“He gave up everything for you, so you better tell me why!” He knew she was trying not to cry. But the truth was that he didn’t have any answer for that question. Blitz didn’t know, and he was sure that he didn’t deserve that kind of kindness either. So he just looked at the chopped wood of his kitchen table, hearing soft sobbing noises coming from the princess.
“He lied,” She was saying, ‘probably to Loona. “He promised he wouldn't leave me behind for him… He said when he would have been gone I’d be ok…”
Blitz wanted to look up, to have something to comfort her, but he knew whatever he would have done was probably bound to make the situation worse. He hoped Loona could make Octavia feel better, but the lost glance in her crimson eyes and the awkward patting she was giving to Via’s shoulder as she cried into her shoulder told him another story.
“I’m going to call M&M,” He said, because he needed to get out of the room, at least momentarily. His eyes lingered for a moment on Stolas, curled up on the too small couch from which his long legs swung out of the arm rest. The bird had always been a late sleeper - Blitz both hated and loved the reason why he knew that - but he couldn’t help the dark thoughts which were clawing at his mind. He too had a hard time waking up after he lost everything in the fire, he too wished to never wake up again and wasted his days in bed, pretending to be asleep even if there wasn’t anyone around to check on him. So he stepped closer, placing a hand against soft feathers and brushing them carefully away from Stolas’s closed eyes.
“Stols?”
**
It was like an instinct, something he didn’t really want for his eyes to do but which he couldn’t fight either, as the impìs claw cradled his cheek and the soft voice of the man he loved called his name, Stolas couldn’t help but open his eyes. He couldn’t bring himself to speak or to think, but, apparently, his body still reacted so obediently to Blitz’s voice.
He let the imp help him sit on the couch feeling every instant like the burden he was being in that moment. Yet, how could he be anything else? The only appealing qualities he had to everyone up until that moment - his magic and his money, his status - were gone and it was clear that the only reason why he had a place where to spend the night was out of pity, if not, even worse, because Blitz felt like he had to.
“Hey, are you with me?” That was a question he couldn’t answer, at that moment. Not when he could barely stand the idea of being at all. Having Blitz holding onto him was helping, somehow, even if he was well aware it wouldn’t have lasted and it wasn’t enough. He didn’t regret what he did, but he also wished his beloved wouldn’t have to see him like that.
The imp didn’t wait for an answer which would have never arrived from the former prince, very likely, and moved, jumping down the couch and dragging the owl to the kitchen. “Ok, we need to get some food for you… We have bacon, pancakes, eggs… Via…?!”
Stolas was sure Blitz said something else after his daughter’s name, but that was what he zeroed in on and a moment later Octavia was pounding his chest with fists which hurt a lot - even if what hurt the most were her tears - and was screaming at him.
“You left me!” She was saying, and that was dumb because he would have never except that he did, didn’t he? “You left me and I thought you were gone forever and… you chose him over me?”
She stepped back, her pink eyes galaxy with tears and Stolas wanted to say something but he couldn’t think about what to say. He should have fought more, even if he had no idea how or if he could stand up to Satan. Instead he accepted everything because what had mattered at the moment was to save Blitz and he only thought about the rest after the sentence was passed. Of course Via had been his first thought, but not first enough and she had every reason to think that.
She had every reason to hate him.
And now that she was waiting for him to deny her words, he couldn’t.
“You never loved mother and you never loved me,” She sobbed, her body shaking and Stolas wanted to reach for her but when he tried his body didn’t move and a moment later Loona’s paw was on her shoulder so he didn’t move, because he didn’t have any right to comfort her anymore. “You only love him!”
She turned her back at him and stomped toward Loona’s bedroom, the hellhound hot at her heels. And with that, the little fight which still was left in Stolas left his body as he was well aware Blitz was the only reason why he didn’t fall on the floor.