Chapter Text
When he got the call, Moxxie had been having such a nice dream. He was sitting in a dark theater, watching a ballet. Then the music started changing. By the time he got over his confusion and realized it was a dream, the ringtone had stopped. Maybe he could stay asleep and finish the-
It began again. Moxxie opened his eyes and grabbed his cellphone. Of course it was Blitzø.
“Yes, hello?” he said, maybe a little bit snappy. It was the middle of the night and this had better be important. “You’d better not be in our house again.”
“Am not, I’m at Ozzie’s tonight. Can I call in a favor?”
“That depends. Tomorrow is our day off, remember?” Moxxie whispered, hoping that Millie would continue to sleep.
“I know. It’s- well, it’s kind of important. For Fizz more than anyone.”
Fizzarolli? Blitzø’s childhood-best-friend-sort-of-crush-turned-bitter-enemy-turned-friend-again? “Go on,” Moxxie said, laying back down. He wasn’t saying yes yet, but now he was curious.
“You guys have that spare room set up, right?”
“Yes…?”
Blitzø sighed. “Do you mind setting up a couple kids for the night? I would, but y’know… I’m sleeping on the couch already.”
“Kids? Whose kids?”
“Nobody’s. Well, Fizz’s soon. He’s spontaneously adopting? He talked Oz into it just now, but their place is not kid friendly yet and they’re going to have to make some calls to whatever the Greed Ring is trying to pass of as a functioning CPS-”
“Wait wait wait, stop,” Moxxie cut off Blitzø’s rambling. “Adoption is a big decision! Any kids are a big decision, and there’s more than one?! Millie and I are barely halfway through our required reading that will give us the information to even consider having kids-”
“It’s not required if you’re requiring yourself to read it, Mox. And it’s really none of my business if Fizz wants to take home two sad runaways off the street.”
“Runaways?”
“Yeah, keep up. They ran away from the Greed Ring? They were going to try to make it to Wrath all by themselves because nobody-” Blitzø cleared his throat, sounding suspiciously choked up. “-nobody wanted them. They thought… they might be better off alone.”
“Oh. That’s awful.”
Moxxie heard a noise that sounded like a sniff. If he asked, he knew Blitzø would deny it. “Whatever. Can you do us a solid? Let them stay over at your place?”
“I’ll tell Millie and get her opinion. Probably.”
“I seriously owe you one.”
—
Fizz hadn’t even needed to resort to That Face™ for Ozzie to get on board with the idea. But, “We do need to have some more serious talks about this. And we can’t take them home right away. I need to make some calls, and… well, I don’t think our place is very user-friendly for imps. You’re sort of an exception, with the…”
“Extendable limbs, yeah. You’re right.” Fizz fidgeted with the end of his tail nervously. “Is this… you’re really okay with this?”
“I think we can do it, Fizzy. If it’s something you want, and something you feel ready for.”
“I don’t know if I feel ready, but I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if I didn’t do something.”
Ozzie sighed. “Just promise me two won’t turn into eight. Kids are-”
“I know! I know they’re different, I’m not- it’s not like I’m not taking this seriously.”
“I know. I was going for some levity there, babe.”
“Sorry.”
Ozzie gently untwisted Fizz’s tail from his hands. “It’s okay. Take some deep breaths. Is something else the matter?”
“I don’t know. No. Maybe. He said- they both seemed so sure no one would ever want them. Someone’s obviously told them that. Made them think that. It makes me angry.”
“I know, it isn’t fair,” Ozzie agreed. “It’ll be okay from now on, though. For both of them. We should figure out where they’ll stay until we can get our place squared away. Maybe Stolas…”
“I’m not sure how comfortable they would be staying with a Goetian prince. ” Fizz glanced over to where the implings were signing. Ozzie admired how the three of them- the kids and Fizz- could understand each other perfectly even when their hands were moving so fast. Not for the first time, he considered starting to learn.
“Maybe Blitzø…?”
“Knows somebody?” Fizz finished the sentence. “Yeah. Blitzø? Who are your friends, the married and disgustingly in love ones?”
Blitzø looked up from the game on his phone. “Wh- Millie and Moxxie? Also, hypocrite.”
“Do you know if they have a spare room?”
—
When they had snuck out of the group home that night, Oliver and Kai had not expected to end up in the living room of a cozy apartment in Pride.
Outside, the sky was growing light again. Oliver was swaying on his feet a little bit. Kai reached out an arm and encouraged him to lean on the side of his chair.
“Tired?” he signed.
“ You are too. You’ve got circles under your eyes. What are they saying? ”
“ Small talk mostly. And thank you. ”
The male imp- Moxxie- looked almost as tired as Oliver was feeling. Apparently, Blitzø had called him up in the early hours of the morning. His wife- Millie- looked a lot more chipper. It turned out Oliver and Kai had to stay here for a while.
“ Just while we sort things out, ” Fizz had promised.
Oliver was a little worried that he might change his mind and never come back to get them. But only a little. Fizz must have sensed their anxiety, because he went with them and Blitzø on the elevator. It was less nerve wracking that time around, Fizz had let Oliver cling to his hand the whole way up. As they stopped at Wrath and a group of imps got out, Kai looked a little forlorn.
“ Don’t worry, you’ll get to see Wrath someday soon, ” Fizz had promised. He signed most of the stuff he said out loud. Even if he wasn’t talking directly to Oliver. He liked that, it kept him in the loop the way not a lot of other people were willing to do.
Suddenly, Oliver couldn’t hold back a huge yawn. He felt his jaw crackle and his eyes tear up. It turned out that running away made a person tired.
“Y’all must be dead on your feet,” Mrs. Millie said. “Now, we have a little guest room, but there is only one bed-”
“That’s fine, we always share,” Kai shrugged. Oliver tried to keep up with lip reading but it was harder when his eyes felt heavy, and his feet felt heavy, and his head felt heavy…
Fizz knelt down in front of them, looking anxious and happy and a whole lot of things at once. “ I’m going to go now, but Moxxie and Millie will keep me posted. And I’ll be back when we’ve sorted things out. Okay? ”
Kai nodded. “ Okay, ” Ollie signed.
Fizz smiled, stood, pushed down the conflicted feelings that came with leaving these kids so soon, and headed for the door. Blitzø pulled Millie and Moxxie into a quick hug before he left.
The kids were shepherded to a small room with a neatly made bed. The closet was open, mostly empty except for some folded blankets and sheets on the top shelf. The top shelf in question was lower than Oliver was used to seeing. Moxxie still needed a step stool to reach it, but he could reach every other shelf without one. Everything in this house was lower down than he was used to- of course it was.
They were in Imp City.
It wasn’t Wrath, but in Oliver’s opinion, it was almost as good.
“I think I’m going back to sleep too,” Moxxie said, unfolding the extra blanket and smoothing it out over the bed. “How does late brunch sound to everyone?”
Kai opened his mouth to answer, but words turned into a yawn.
“Let’s just make it lunch,” Millie suggested.
Oliver wasn’t paying any attention, already crawling into bed. He resisted the urge to turn a few circles, instead reaching over to help Kai haul himself up too. The two best friends were asleep a second or two after their heads hit the pillows.
“Aw, aren’t they the cutest little things?” Millie resisted the urge to squeal.
“They’re small. Should they be that small at their age?” Moxxie did not resist the urge to start worrying again.
“Once everything is sorted out and they're with Fizz, I'm sure they'll be just fine,” Millie said.