Archive of Our Own ^beta

When The Whole Wide World Felt Young

********************************

“Here you go, my little Owlet.”

Her father's soft voice is like white noise, not nearly strong enough to penetrate the deafening music blasting through her headphones. 

But Octavia doesn't need to hear the words. She recognizes the shape of them on his beak and the way his eyes crinkle at the corners and that uncertain smile as he tries to meet her eyes. He slides a plate of skewered mice in front of her with the usual flourish but his movements look forced and gangly in a way they have never done before. Like he's forgotten how long his legs and arms are, as if the weight of his head surprises him. 

She looks down at her plate so she doesn't have to look at him and notices a light, brownish dusting sprinkled all over the dead rodents. 

Cinnamon. 

The young owl remembers a phase when she would only eat her mice with cinnamon in the mornings. Any time someone tried to serve her something else, little Octavia would scream and pout and refuse to eat it. She remembers her mother scolding her for her embarrassing tantrum in front of the servants but then she also remembers the way her father’s arms would come around her, his voice whispering soothingly into her ears, promising her that she could have her mice just the way she wants them. She grew out of it and hasn’t had cinnamon mice in years and, to be honest, she is surprised that her father still remembers.

The realization makes something tighten in her chest and almost without conscious thought she rips the ear buds out of her ears. 

Fast paced music and muffled voices screaming about a despicable and unjust world fill the air between them. Via lets the noise linger a second longer and then reaches over to turn the music off. Her dad watches closely as she pushes her phone to the side. His feathered tail twitches with suppressed joy at this concession but he knows better than to call attention to it and Via is more than happy to ignore the charged silence.

They have become good at this, she thinks. Living adjacent to each other, taking care not to overstep, taking whatever interaction they can get from each other and ignoring everything else. Like two ghosts from different times haunting the same halls.

The divorce changed everything. 

Every morning Via wakes up with the same anxious foreboding feeling squeezing her chest like a vice. Before she even opens her eyes she can't shake the sense that something is wrong. Sometimes it takes her drowsy brain forever and sometimes it hits her immediately, the realization that she can't hear the sounds she has grown up with: Her mother’s high pitched voice screeching through the house. Her father’s placatory excuses, almost inaudible through the walls. 

And then she lies awake in bed for a few minutes longer and stares at the ceiling, listening to nothing, waiting for something, and she’ll wonder about the fluttering in her heart and the heaviness around her limbs. 

She does not miss the screaming and the accusations and the petty arguments but at the same time she hates this new stillness. A quiet morning leaves too much room for her thoughts to spiral. She will look at the heavy curtains that only let in the slightest sliver of light and feel like she is trapped in the dark, like all the shadows slowly creep in on her. 

She feels a lot smaller than she used to do. 

Leaving her room rarely helps. The atmosphere of the whole palace has turned into something oppressive. The empty halls still echo with her mother's presence and the eyes of the family portraits seem to watch her every step. Via wonders if her dad feels the same way, if that's the reason he has slowly started to cover them up with sheets. She wishes he would just take them down and put them in the attic or something and sometimes, when she is feeling particularly resentful, she rips a single sheet off of a random portrait and leaves it in the middle of the hallway like an accusation.

The act feels good at the moment but as soon as she finds the sheet neatly folded on the floor the next morning she just feels empty.

If someone were to ask her whether or not she is happy about the divorce, Via wouldn’t be able to answer. 

Most days she thinks she is. Just a few months ago she would have told you that Stella Goetia was a good mom. Maybe not a good wife but those two don’t necessarily contradict each other, right? But now that she has little to no contact with her mother anymore the distance has forced her to face a few hard truths. Sometimes she is embarrassed that she didn’t realize sooner but it is amazing what you can get used to over time, how much you internalize without even realizing it. 

The little snide remarks and backhanded compliments. The way her mother would sometimes look through her instead of at her, how her gaze would slide over Via without seeing her. The disinterest in every single one of Via’s passions and the way she would roll her eyes with impatience when her daughter couldn't muster up the courage to ask for some time together. The way she’d sneer with hatred when she caught Via feeding her father’s plants, as if she took it as a personal betrayal.

But everytime Octavia finds herself thinking ‘It's better now that she’s gone’ the guilt hits her like a punch to the gut because not everything was bad! 

Via also remembers good times. Loving times. How her mother would help her take care of her plumage when it became apparent that she'd inherited her thick undercoat. Teaching her how to preen herself, what oils to use, when to pluck and when to leave it be. 

She remembers just hitting her teens and her mother celebrating by taking her with her to her favorite cafe and letting her have a caffeinated drink, something her father would have never allowed at that age. She remembers swinging her feet and sipping her bitter beverage and watching her mother entertain everyone that stopped by their table with a charming smile and humorous wit. She remembers the twinkle in her mother’s eyes when she turned to her daughter the second her ‘friends’ left to gossip with her about them. Via had been spellbound by the way her mother’s eyes had lit up, how her smile had turned genuine. Giggling like a little schoolgirl, winking at her with a levity that Via had never seen before.

Via remembers wondering why her mother wasn’t always like this. Why at home her playful nature turned mean and condescending and hurtful. Stella had kept her good mood for hours that day, right up until they returned to the palace. The moment she’d stepped through the doors it had slid off of her like water going down a drain, leaving behind the person Via had become accustomed to over the years.

That’s probably the first time Via realized that her father was not the only one feeling trapped.

Those outings to the cafe became less and less frequent over time but for a while they were the best days of Via’s life. 

So how can she be happy about her mother leaving when she has so many good memories to go with the bad? 

Mixed in with the guilt is also a healthy amount of anger. At least Via would like to think it is healthy, all things considered. She feels like she deserves to feel a bit of anger. A lot, even. It’s a hard pill to swallow when you find out that your parents were only married to birth a precautionary heir and only stayed married so you wouldn’t grow up in a broken home.

Well, jokes on them, right?

The worst thing is that she had to find out during an argument with her mother. That her father is still oblivious to the fact that Via knows. He still acts like the marriage was normal and that the divorce was just a natural consequence of the two of them falling out of love. 

As if they had ever been in love in the first place.

As if Via is stupid!

Octavia rips the head off of a mouse with a low growl. Her father flinches at the sound, the same flinch he used to make when Stella walked into a room.

The mouse lodges itself in Via’s throat.

This is so painful. She wants to put her music back on and drown everything else out but that would only hurt her dad and she wants that but she also doesn’t want that and she doesn’t know what she wants and it is making her so mad .

Why is everything making her so mad lately?

The silence between them feels like a physical thing, like a beast ready to devour them both. The skewer in Via’s hand starts to shake.

“Owlet. Octavia, I-”

She can’t do this. Not now. Maybe not ever. Her fingers creep along the tabletop, headphones so close yet so far. Her father’s eyes flicker to her hand and he swallows and she feels that in her own throat. It feels like the head of the mouse is still stuck there.

“Please Via, can we-”

The sound of a door crashing open somewhere in the house cuts off whatever Stolas was about to say and Via has never been so happy to hear that stupid voice.

“Over my dead, rotting body, kiddo!”

“That can be arranged, jackass!”

Her father immediately turns towards the sounds with a happy little hoot and Via would hate that if she wasn’t so relieved to be out of the spotlight for the time being. 

Moments later the kitchen door crashes into the wall with so much force that the dishes rattle in their cupboards. The imp that storms into the room doesn’t care one bit. His head is facing backwards over his shoulder, shouting at the person behind him.

“I said no! No fucking way!”

Her mother would sometimes enter a room just like this. Shouting and raging and causing property damage. Her father would always duck away with a pensive look on his face. Didn’t even matter whether her anger was directed at him or not. Just her voice and the scowl on her face would be enough to set him off. He’d hang his head a little and turn away and pretend that he was busy with his plants and try his best to appear invisible.

There is none of that behavior now. Her father’s whole demeanor brightens. His back straightens and his smile grows wide as he claps his hands together in delight, completely forgetting the cut of zebra flesh he was preparing for his plants.

“Darling!” he shouts. “Good morning!”

Blitzø turns his head towards Stolas. He is still tense and keyed up from the argument he is having with the person behind him but his scowl smoothes out and he manages to grin at her father. “Morning Stols. Sorry for barging in like that.”

“Don’t be. That’s why I gave you the key.”

Via watches Blitzø look away with a little huff. He squirms at Stolas’ words, obviously uncomfortable to be reminded of the small silver key in his pocket. 

At least she’s not the only one. Via vividly remembers the moment her dad asked her if she would be alright with Blitzø having a key to their place. The honest answer would have been a resounding “No” but she also couldn’t come up with a reason as to why he shouldn’t have one. The key to Blitzø’s dingy apartment had been hanging on a hook in the kitchen for days by then and Via felt like it would be petty to deny the imp the same courtesy. 

It certainly helps with her anxiety that Blitzø seems more than a little reluctant to actually use the thing. When he comes over by himself he still climbs through her father’s balcony doors more often than not, claiming that old habits are hard to shake. Stolas takes his word for it but Via thinks that for some reason the imp is just really uncomfortable with the idea of using those keys.

Looks like he didn’t have much of a choice today though. He is carrying four styrofoam cups in a holder and a paper bag that is dripping with fat. Even the former circus imp would have trouble climbing a balcony with that baggage.

The door has swung shut behind him but now it’s kicked open again with even more force than before. Via perks up as Loona storms in behind her father/boss/whatever. The hellhound is dressed in jeans and a band t-shirt. That’s probably the most casual look Via has ever seen on her and she still manages to look so freaking cool. Via self consciously plucks at her childish pajamas and wants the ground to open up and swallow her whole. If she had known that Loona would accompany her father today she would have put on one of her new shirts, the one that makes her look grown up and edgy. 

Fortunately the hellhound doesn’t even acknowledge the two owls. She snarls at Blitzø’s back, snapping her teeth inches from his horns. “You can’t tell me what to do! I’m a fucking adult!”

Via shrinks back a little. She knows the older girl would never hurt her but it’s still a bit disconcerting to see her bare her teeth in such an aggressive display. 

She is almost impressed when Blitzø doesn’t even react to his daughter’s temper. He completely ignores her and nimbly hurries across the room towards the table Via is sitting at. He wrinkles his nose at the mice and shoves his arm into the paper bag to pull out a red velvet cupcake which he then drops next to Via’s plate. Then he chooses one of the cups and slides it next to the pastry.

“There you go, Sweetie. Frozen latte with five pumps of vanilla and a hint of cinnamon.”

Which is exactly how she takes it.

Blitzø doesn’t wait around for an acknowledgment, least of all a thank you. Via tries to convince herself that it’s because he is a rude asshole who is only nice to her because of her dad. But she knows that it’s because all he’s ever gotten from her is a cold shoulder and even colder silence. He doesn’t seem to mind either, which makes the stone in her stomach drop even further. 

She just doesn’t know what to make of him. He’s the reason her parents got the divorce but their problems started years before he stepped into their lives. Decades even. He’s made her father miserable for weeks after their break up (if you can even call it that) but he’s also saved his life and is now able to make her dad smile like he’s never smiled before. He is rude and abrasive and a fucking menace but never to Via. And it’s not like he pretends to be someone else in front of her. He curses and shouts and Via has never heard “Fuck” as many times as she has in the last four months alone. But he’s never mean to her, never calls her any names or dismisses her or makes her feel like she is in the way of their budding romance. 

He calls her Sweetie and brings her frozen lattes and cupcakes and Via wants to throw it all back at him because it has to be fake, it just has to be! He’s probably restraining himself just long enough for Stolas to let his guard down and completely fall into his trap and then he’ll make sure to get rid of Via so they can all be a happy family without her. That’s what this is.

She is tempted to throw the drink at his back and smush the cupcake into his stupid face but then her father would be angry at her and Blitzø would be one step closer to getting rid of her. 

No! She is not going to give him the satisfaction. 

She takes a big mouthful of the drink while giving his backside the stink eye.

Fuck! It tastes delicious. 

Stupid imp!

“You really didn’t have to, Darling,” Stolas says with a smile and accepts the sandwich and an iced tea. He leans down and softly kisses the imp on the lips. Via looks away.

Blitzø shrugs his shoulders and pries the lid off of his own drink to drown it in one go like a heathen. “You only feed her mice. Someone’s gotta provide the poor girl with some sugar.”

Via wants to say something snarky and potentially hurtful but before she can even open her beak a fist slams down on the table next to her. It barely misses the cupcake and startles a high pitched noise out of her. She looks up to see Loona glance down at her with an apologetic look on her face. The hellhound actually mouths “Sorry” before turning her attention back to Blitzø who is giving her a very unimpressed glare. “Fuck Blitzø! Stop ignoring me!”

“Not ignoring you, the discussion is over. I said no!”

“Fuck you and your no!”

“Loonie, there is a child present!”

“Not a child.” Octavia pipes up. “And as if you give a fuck about cursing in front of me.”

“Language, everyone!” Stolas raises his hands and pinches his beak with an exasperated sigh. “What is this about, if I may ask?”

Blitzø huffs and leans against the counter with his arms crossed. “Little Missy here thinks I’m gonna let her go to a concert in the human world.”

Loona throws her arms up. “Exactly! One stupid concert and he’s got a stick up his ass! As if I haven’t gone to concerts before! As if I’m not twenty-one FUCKING years old!”

“Shouldn’t have told me what band it was! I know what goes on at their concerts, enough of those inbred chucklefucks turn up down here after a show! Gang bangs and murder and drugs and all that shit!”

“Yeah! In other words a fucking great time if you are not an old geezer like you!”

Blitzø actually seems a lot more hurt by that comment than anything else his daughter has thrown at his head. He grabs at his chest and falls into her father’s legs with an exaggerated gasp. Stolas actually laughs at his antics. “Did you hear that? She called me old!” He turns back to Loona who is fuming. “You are not going and that is final! I forbid it!”

Loona’s expression darkens. “You can’t keep me from going!”

Blitzø’s smile is so smug that Via actually wants to punch him herself and it’s not even her fight. How Loona hasn’t ripped him to shreds yet is beyond her. The imp raises his hand and points at the crystal sitting right dab in the middle of his glove. “I think I can, actually.”

For a moment it looks like Loona is going to jump across the room and bite that arm off. The air is thick with tension and Via holds her breath without meaning to. In the end the hellhound screams and kicks over several chairs.

“You fucking suck! Stop treating me like a child! Satan, I hate you!”

She storms out of the room and Via wonders if she misses the way her father’s face falls or whether she doesn’t care at the moment. The young owl watches Stolas rub a hand along Blitzø’s arm.

“I’m sure she doesn’t mean that.”

“Oh she does.” Bitz says and shrugs his shoulders as if he couldn’t care less with a grin that doesn’t reach his eyes. Something about the way he says it and the way he looks after his daughter with a resigned air about him messes with Octavia’s head. She takes care not to spend too much time with him, opting to hide away in her room or visit Stylish Occults when he is around for an extended period of time, which means that she doesn’t know him as well as she probably should by now. Until now she’s only ever seen him as this rude asshole who doesn’t care about others. This side of him is new and witnessing it makes her very uncomfortable for some reason. 

She does not want to see him like this. 

Via gets up from her chair and follows the hellhound. She is not sure her father and Blitzø notice, lost in a silent discussion that involves a lot of touching she really doesn’t want to be privy to. 

At first Via fears that she might not find Loona in their giant house but the path of destruction the hellhound has left in her wake is pretty easy to follow. In the end she finds her on one of the balconies, desperately trying to light a cigarette. The scene is so reminiscent of their meeting in L.A. that Via has to laugh a little. 

Loona turns with a snarl but when she realizes who has joined her she immediately drops it and grins ruefully. “Sorry you had to see that. Blitzø just….” She groans. “He’s just such an ass sometimes.”

The young owl steps outside and offers up her finger and the tiny flame dancing at the top of it. Loona snorts, probably remembering L.A. just like Via did. 

They fall into a comfortable silence and watch the morning sky side by side. Via still can’t believe that someone as cool as Loona hasn’t told her to get lost yet. She is once again keenly aware of the pajamas she is wearing and curses herself for not changing before coming out here. But Loona doesn’t call any attention to her embarrassing wardrobe. She is cool like that.

Loona is pretty much the only good thing (apart from her father’s happiness, but Via is so not ready to acknowledge that yet) that has come from allowing Blitzø into their lives. Via is not a popular girl at school. Or anywhere, really. She is not part of the cool crowd and probably never will be. But if someone like Loona hangs out with her, she can’t be completely hopeless. She wants to impress the girl and be just like her when she is older. Not that she would ever tell the hellhound that. That would be unbelievably embarrassing. 

Via would love for Loona to see her as a friend, not just the daughter of the guy her adoptive father is fucking. That’s one of the reasons why she just can’t shake this idea that has been whispering at the back of her head ever since Loona stormed out of their kitchen. It is a bad idea, to be honest. Stupid and dangerous and risky. It could get her into so much trouble. Via shouldn’t entertain it even a second longer. 

Loona sighs and flicks the cigarette into the garden beneath them. “I really wanted to go to that stupid concert.”

She doesn’t even sound angry anymore, just despondent, and in that moment Via’s mind is made up.

“You know… there is a way you still can.”

**************************************

“Are you sure about this?” Loona asks and follows Via into her father’s study. “The last time you tried to use the book it didn’t work out, did it?”

Via flushes. Except for the fireworks at the end she has done her utmost to forget her disastrous trip to the human world. Unfortunately she clearly remembers the shame she felt when her father brought her home and gave her an hour long lecture on why she should never use the book without proper training. If there is one good thing that came from that whole ordeal, it’s the fact that her father has started to teach her more magic to prevent anything like this from happening again.

“Don’t worry. I’ve been practicing.” She looks over her shoulder and gives the hellhound a thumbs up. A second later she already regrets it. She is such a dork! Fortunately Loona hasn’t noticed because she is standing in the doorway, keeping an eye on the hallway. 

Octavia hurries to the bookshelf where she knows her father is keeping the Grimoire and uses a simple levitation spell to make it float down into her hands. She can hear Loona hum approvingly and her feathers flutter with pride. 

She can do this! 

Via beckons Loona closer and sets the book on her father’s desk. The spell for the portal is easy to find. The book practically falls open to the right page on its own because this specific incantation has been used a lot more than any other spell in there. The hellhound responsible for that stares at the page with a look that is hard to decipher. Via thinks there might be some longing in there. 

“Maybe I should cast the spell?”

Via does not let her insecurities get the best of her. She knows that Loona doesn’t mean anything by her suggestion. The hellhound trusts her. Probably 

“Won’t work. After Dad didn’t need to give it to your dad anymore he sealed it so no outsider could use it without his explicit permission. Only members of his immediate family can cast spells from the book anymore.”

“Oh.” There is an uncomfortable silence before Loona shakes herself out of it. “Alright then! Let’s do this!”

Octavia nods and stretches her hands. She kinda feels silly for doing that but it usually helps her to focus and Loona is staring down at her feet so she probably didn't even notice. 

“Fucking Blitzø,” the older girl mutters under her breath. “Treating me like a fucking child. Thinks he saved me from that pound or some shit. Was good on my own just fine. Never needed anyone to take care of me!”

Via tries to concentrate on the spell in front of her but it's difficult when curiosity claws at her mind like the proverbial cat. She doesn't know the specifics of Loona’s adoption, only that she was already almost an adult and out of the system anyway. Via wonders what Blitzø was thinking, adopting such an old pup. Didn't he want someone younger? 

Maybe they wouldn't let him, considering that he's just an imp. Despite her own issues with the guy Via winces at the thought, aware of the prejudices imps have to face every day. 

She hadn’t always been, admittedly. To her, imps had always been around as servants but she hadn’t really wondered about that, had just seen it as a job like any other. Pringles has been with them for decades, more a family member than a servant by now. He’s never alluded to any prejudices he might be dealing with in the outside world but Via has realized over the last few months that he wouldn’t have even if he wanted to. He is a very private man, more concerned with the well being of their family than his own.

Via will never admit it out loud, but she might have been a bit too sheltered for her own good. Only now that she has listened to Blitzø complain about how hard it is to get a business going as an imp has she started to realize how they are treated by the vast majority of society. How many disadvantages they face, how they get overlooked, belittled, oppressed. 

How an imp might not have been allowed to adopt a small child. 

It makes her sad to think about but at the same time she tries to imagine Blitzø with a small, vulnerable pup, maybe even a baby, and just can't. He’s too crass. Too… Blitzø. 

She steals a glance at Loona who is still cursing under her breath in a way that makes Via think she isn’t actually expecting anyone to listen. Via wonders what the hellhound was like as a pup. How different her life would have been if she had been adopted as a small child by a loving family and not a murderous single-parent assassin. 

Octavia traces the spell with a finger and feels the magic slither up her skin. Even though it’s her father’s magic, it still feels a little alien to her. Dad told her that she'll get more and more used to it but it's slow going.

Frustration fills her. Loona is not the only one who's treated like a child. Stolas always stops the lessons as soon as it looks like Via is getting tired, never pushing her, never letting her push herself. This particular spell is one he's been refusing to let her try. 

Too difficult, he'd said. You are not ready yet . 

Always the same platitudes and excuses. 

It's maddening. 

She presses her fingers more firmly against the paper. The magic surges unexpectedly and she winces. A stupid mistake. The spell is demanding her full attention and she was too lost in her own thoughts to notice. 

Loona’s muttering cuts off. “You alright?”

“Yeah, I just…”

Suddenly there are voices outside the door. Both of them have been so wrapped up with their own thoughts that they didn't hear the footsteps approaching. 

“Girls? Are you in there?” Stolas shouts and raps his knuckles on the partially open door. “How about we take a little trip to LuLuWorld together? Make a day of it!”

“Yeah, none of that fake Mammon shit! Only the best for you!” Blitzø’s hand sneaks around the edge of the door, about to fully push it open. His voice grows softer. “C’mon Loonie, don't be mad at your old man anymore. I'll buy you an ice cream.”

Both girls panic. 

“Hurry!” Loona hisses and then attempts to block their fathers’ sight of the book and Via. “I'm not a fucking child, asshole!”

Octavia tries. She ignores the tingling at her fingertips and the shouting going on around her. Something about the magic feels off, probably because her heart is racing and so many things are happening all at once. It's hard to concentrate with the chaos that follows as Blitzø fully pushes the door open. Judging by his sharp intake of breath, Stolas immediately spots the book on his desk over Loona’s head. Via can feel his eyes on her but she can't let her friend down and she also wants to prove to herself and to her father that she can do this. 

So she pushes forward and channels everything she has learned into the spell. 

Instead of the familiar portal springing to life, the pages of the Grimoire start to flutter as if caught in an invisible storm. Sparks begin to travel over the paper, blurring the words and sending small shocks of electricity through Via’s fingers. She stumbles backwards with a surprised shout and out of the corner of her eyes she can see her father jump forward before a blinding light fills the room and drowns out everything else.

The silence in the immediate aftermath is suffocating. When Via opens her eyes she has to blink several times to clear the spots out of her vision. She can make out the distant shapes of her father and his boyfriend, both of them furiously rubbing their eyes. 

Loona is nowhere to be seen.

‘Did I do it?’ she thinks with a giddy sense of relief. 

But then something small stumbles into her legs. She looks down and a hellhound pup with big, red eyes stares up at her. 

Staring at the child, it takes Via way too long to realize what just happened even though the signs are all there. The familiar grayish fur, the spiked dog collar hanging loose around a thin neck, the band t-shirt almost falling off narrow shoulders and looking like a nightgown the way it flows past knees, the empty pants pooled around small ankles. 

It takes way too long. 

“Oh shit.”

*************************************

Via has never seen her father look like that. If she had to pick a word to describe the expression on his face it would be flabbergasted. 

“What happened here? What did you do?”

Via kneads her hands, mortified and afraid. “I was just-” She gestures towards the book that is still brimming with misdirected energy. Something went horribly wrong and she still doesn’t understand why or how. “I was just trying to open a portal to the human world for her. So she could see the concert.”

“Oh, Octavia,” Stolas sighs. The disappointment in his voice feels like a bucket of ice cold water right down her back. He pushes past her and starts to flip through the book at lightning speed. Via watches him for a moment. It always fascinates her how the Grimoire seems to have more or less pages every time you open it. Sometimes it is as thick as a tome, other times it feels like a mere leaflet. Right now it is as wide as her forearm is long, as if it’s internationally trying to make things harder for her father who is looking more and more exasperated with every page he has to flip over.

Via decides that it might be in her best interest to fade into the background right now and turns around to observe the other two demons in the room.

The little pup, who seems to be their Loona, has retreated into a corner of the room. It is safe to assume that she doesn’t remember any of them. After taking one look at the strangers surrounding her she’d started snarling and biting the air in front of herself, effectively keeping anyone from drawing any closer. 

The hellhound looks so small, huddled against the wall with her knees to her chest and the oversized shirt falling around her like a tent. Her eyes are wide with rage and flit from corner to corner, as if looking for an escape. She bares her teeth and flexes her claws in an almost nervous manner. The little girl can't be older than 4, maybe 5, but she hasn't said a single word. 

Blitzø has followed her but is keeping his distance, crouching low to the ground a few feet in front of her. He is oddly still. Only the tip of his tail is slowly swishing back and forth. 

He, much like his daughter, hasn't said a single word since laying eyes on the pup. He’s also not taken his eyes off of her for a single second. 

Via thinks she might have preferred him freaking out and demanding answers. His absolute stillness is utterly unnerving. She feels like she is looking at a predator, ready to lunge.

Loona seems to feel the same way. She looks more frantic by the second. Her eyes stray to the door more frequently while her ears stay alert and facing forward, focused on the spot from where Blitzø is watching her. 

Loona’s eyes dart towards the door once more and her tail twitches. Blitzø immediately tenses. 

“Sweetie-” he breathes.

Via has never heard his voice sound like this. 

In the blink of an eye Loona shoots to her feet and runs on all fours towards the exit and freedom. 

Blitzø is faster. Within seconds he has intercepted her and is grabbing her around the waist. She yelps in surprise when he hauls her up against his chest and then starts to howl like a wounded beast. 

Via slaps her hands over her ears. She’s never heard a sound like this before and she instinctively takes a step forward, unsure what she can do but desperate to help. Before she can intervene her father stops her by putting a hand on her shoulder. When she looks up at him he shakes his head and watches the scene with sad eyes. 

Loona throws her back against Blitzø’s chest and kicks her feet and tries to reach up to blindly scratch at his face. He manages to evade her claws and just tightens his grip around her waist and chest. With a frustrated cry Loona opens her mouth and sinks her teeth into his arm. Via can hear the flesh tear from across the room and recoils at the blood that immediately splurts up and covers the arm, dripping down onto her father’s expensive rug.

Blitzø hisses and squeezes his eyes shut. Loona shakes her head but doesn’t let go. She growls around the flesh. 

Via half expects the imp to fling the little girl away from him but for some insane reason the guy starts to chuckle. It soon turns into a full blown laugh. 

“That's my little firecracker!” he coos and pulls her more securely against his chest. It looks less like a restraint and more like a hug now. “Yeah, sweetie, let it all out. Don't hold back.”

Loona keeps growling, bloody drool dripping down her chin. She looks feral and dangerous but Via can practically see the moment his words actually sink in. The little girl falters and rapidly blinks big eyes that slowly start to fill with tears. The sight breaks Via’s heart. If you look closely it is obvious how scared Loona actually is, all that growling and biting nothing but the desperate attempt of a small pup to mask her terror and confusion. She still hasn't stopped biting but her upper lip lowers until the snarl is gone. The grip she has on Blitzø’s arm loosens, likely from exhaustion. 

Blitzø shifts his hold and raises one of his hands towards her head. Loona starts growling again, softly, so scared, but the imp doesn’t stop. He ignores her warning and carefully starts to knead one of her ears. Loona freezes and then just… 

She melts. There is really no other word. 

All the tension seeps out of her tiny body and she closes her eyes and leans into the touch with a sigh. The pup finally releases Blitzø’s arm so she can press her head further into his hand. The imp is grinning ear to ear. 

“Such a strong pup you are! Almost took my arm clean off! Amazing!”

Loona wrinkles her nose and wiggles in place until she has turned in his embrace and faces him. She barely looks at Blitzø, acting very shy suddenly. It is so unlike the Loona they know that it throws all of them for a loop. After hesitantly gripping his shirt she takes a tentative sniff of his neck and finally relaxes fully. 

Then she speaks for the first time. “You smell nice.”

Blitzø snorts and even Via’s father utters an amused hoot behind her back. Via tries not to smile but it's hard when Loona notices their amusement and puffs out her cheeks in annoyance.

“No one's ever accused me of that before but thanks, firecracker.” Blitzø uses his sleeve to carefully wipe away the blood still coating Loona’s snout and boops her nose when she lets him finish without too much fussing.  Via knows she is gaping like a fish but she just can’t help it. She didn’t expect him to be cruel or anything since he’s always doting on his ‘Loonie’ but his playful and caring attitude still surprises her for some reason. And it looks so effortless too. Loona already looks right at home in his arms. “So, I’m guessing you don't remember anything.”

Blitzø glances at Stolas who subtly shakes his head. 

“I remember going to sleep at the pound. And now I'm here,” Loona mutters. She looks around the place properly for the first time and her eyes widen at the high ceilings and the books lining the walls. “Did someone adopt me?”

Via’s father opens his beak but Blitzø cuts him off. 

“I did!”

Which… Yeah, it's not really a lie but not quite the whole truth either. 

But Loona doesn't have to know about that. Her eyes grow big and her tail starts to wag. She is smiling from ear to ear and presses herself more firmly against Blitzø’s chest. The imp looks like he is about to cry from happiness, the weirdo. 

“Really?” she asks but then her face falls and she leans back to raise a suspicious eyebrow at him. “Why can't I remember?” 

Blitzø shrugs. “Magic.”

Via wants to slap her own forehead because no way in hell will Loona be satisfied with that answer. But it seems she has underestimated the ingenuity of children. Loona holds on to her suspicion for a split second and then scowls which looks oddly like a kid’s version of the one Blitzø sometimes wears. “Oh, that fucking sucks!”

She immediately clamps a hand over her snout and flattens her ears against her skull. She once let it slip that the orphanage used to be very strict about cursing.

Which is pretty ironic if you consider where they are. 

She obviously expects a scolding but Blitzø just laughs. “Yes! It does, doesn’t it?”

Loona stares at him out of wide eyes and then she laughs, the happiest little laugh Via has ever heard. Blitzø seems to implode with happiness at the sound, squishing her little face against this cheek, tongue sticking out and purring like a cat. Whatever apprehension Loona has felt before seems to be forgotten. Her tail is wagging something fierce and she wraps her arms around his neck. 

The display is freaking adorable and Via has no idea how to deal with that. 

Stolas clears his throat and puts the Grimoire back onto the shelf. The finality of the action makes a knot form in Via’s stomach. With everything else going on she almost forgot the reason why they are in this mess in the first place. 

The Goetian prince slowly approaches Blitzø and his daughter who doesn’t make any moves to be put down. In fact she presses closer to her father, ears lowered anxiously as she tracks the big owl’s movements. Stolas stops a respectable distance away. 

“Hello little one,” he greets and bows at the waist. “Don't worry, the spell that has affected your memory was cast with insufficient amounts of magic and should fade in the next 24 hours. After that you will be back to normal.”

Via sighs in relief. So Loona will be back to her actual age in one day. 

“What does in-sufi-cent mean?”

“It means weak,” Via mutters. She should be happy that her magic did not permanently affect her friend but all she feels is a deep shame at not only having messed up the spell but also having her own incompetence displayed for all to see in the form of a little hellhound pup. 

Loona looks around herself with a worried frown. “Who was it? Were they evil?”

Via flinches and her father puts a calming arm around her shoulder. 

“Don't worry about that! It was a gang from… from greed! Your daddy fought them off with guns blazing! There was blood and guts every-where!” Blitzø swipes out his arm, eyes blazing. “It was beautiful. I'll tell you all about it as a bedtime story later.”

Loona stares at Blitzø as if he has hung the stars and the moon. “You are so cool!” She giggles goodnaturedly when Blitzø starts to weep happy tears and turns towards the two owls. It is disheartening to see her cringe away a little but Via also wonders what they must look like to a small hellhound like that. “And who are you?”

Stolas gets flustered quickly. “Oh. Uhm. I'm… Well, I mean…”

“That's daddy's boyfriend.” Blitzø says, nonchalant and apropos of nothing. Via rolls her eyes when her father blushes a deep red and stammers his way through an introduction. But then Blitzø turns towards her and she stiffens. He hasn't really paid any attention to Via in the last few minutes and a part of her thinks it's because he is furious with her. But when she hesitantly looks into his eyes she can see none of that. He looks at her like he always does. She can detect no hidden anger even though it must be there, surely. “And that's his daughter, Via.”

For some reason the little pup only glances at Stolas and then directs her whole attention to the younger owl. 

“So you're kinda my sister?”

“Yes.” It slips out before Via can think about it. She can tell that her father and Blitzø are exchanging looks above her head but she doesn’t care. “Yes, I’m… kinda your sister.”

“I always wanted a sister,” Loona says with a shy smile. Via blinks in surprise. She had always figured that Loona was more of a loner and actually annoyed with the owl’s presence. She’s always thought of Loona as a bit of a cooler older sister but she was pretty sure that those feelings were one-sided. 

And maybe they are. Maybe Loona once wanted a sister but not any more. Or at least not someone like Octavia.  

Satan, this is getting confusing. 

Her father clears his throat. “I suggest you stay here until the spell wears off. In case there are…” He looks at Loona who stares at an enchanted candle near the ceiling and then seeks eye contact with Blitzø to silently mouth the last word: “ complications.”

Blitzø’s face darkens but as soon as Loona turns her attention back to him he grins as if nothing happened. “How about that, pumpkin? You wanna spend the day in a motherfu…fu…fudging palace?”

“Hell yeah!” the little hellhound cheers and throws her arms in the air. She immediately pulls them back down and covers her stomach when it begins to growl. “Oh.”

Blitzø tickles her tummy and she squeals. “You skipped breakfast! Let me fix you something up real quick.”

Stolas puts a hand on Blitzø's shoulder to stop him. He immediately snatches it away when the little pup snarls at him. Blitzø pats her back and she calms down but she is watching the owl closely. “Before you do that we have to bandage your arm, darling. You might even need stitches.”

The little pup stares at the bloody wound as if she only just now remembers it and starts to whine low in her throat. Her ears press against her head and her tail curls inwards. “M’sorry.”

Blitzø bounces her in his arms and Via suspects that he very deliberately uses his bad arm for that so she can see that it doesn’t hurt anymore. Judging by the blood still dripping to the floor and the way his fingers are shaking it must hurt like a bitch. “Don’t worry about it, firecracker! Stols is gonna fix me up and then I’ll make you your favorite. Pancakes with chocolate chips.”

He carries her outside, Stolas right on his heels, as Loona marvels at the fact that he knows her favorite.

Via follows them at a distance, eyes fixed on the drops of blood Blitzø leaves in his wake. 

**********************************

“Don’t touch that, Looney Tunes!”

“Why?” 

“Because I said so!” Blitzø pauses pouring the batter into the pan and stares at the wall in front of him with a horrified expression. “Shit,” he mutters under his breath. “I sound just like Cash.” He shakes his head and sweetens his tone into something sugary and over the top. “Please stop touching that, alright Honey Bun? Can you do that for Daddy?”

Loona, who is still prodding the giant plant in the corner and does not look as if she is going to stop any time soon, wrinkles her nose at the pet name. “But why?”

“Because it eats little hellhound girls, that’s why!”

“Cool!”

“NO! Not cool. I mean pretty cool, yeah. but not when it’s my little hellhound! Stop that! I’m warning you! You are leaving me no choice, I’m counting to three! One. Two. … Two and a half…?”

Stolas chuckles under his breath. He and Via are wisely keeping out of the way. They are both standing in the doorway, leaning against opposing door jambs and watching the one-sided discussion taking place in their kitchen. 

“Who would have thought my darling hellblazer was such a worrywart?”

Certainly not Via. The imp seems hyper focused on the little girl while also trying to keep the pancakes from burning. She’d already known that Blitzø is apparently the overprotective type of parent but watching him balance on a stepstool while shooting his daughter frequent looks of worry and anxiety, she never realized just how much. She wonders whether the imp knows that the plant Loona is teasing is actually a carnivore. Probably not or he would have already thrown himself between them. The plant is big enough to swallow the little pup whole but it has already been fed by Stolas and its movements are slow and sluggish with post-meal satisfaction. Loona is safe. For now.

Octavia can’t keep her eyes off the small hellhound. The little pup is wearing some of her old clothes that Stolas kept for some reason and magiked into something that would fit a hellhound. She looks adorable and seems no worse for wear which is a relief.

Via just can’t figure out what went wrong with the spell. She thought she had everything under control. And why would a spell meant to send you to the human realm turn someone into a kid anyway? Where is the correlation?

It is driving her crazy and even though she’d like to do nothing more than pretend this never happened she finds herself turning slightly towards her father. The older owl notices immediately and gives her his full attention. 

“Dad, I- I just don’t understand. How did this happen?”

Her father hums and taps a spindly finger against his chin. “May I ask what you two were talking about? Before you tried the spell?”

“Just how she really wants to go to that concert.” She shrugs and crosses her arms. “And how mad Blitzø makes her with his overprotectiveness. How she’s not a kid anymore.” Her eyes widen. “Wait, is that it? Did our conversation influence the spell?”

Her father nods and the smile on his face is proud. It makes something flutter in her chest. “Very good, Starfire. I’m sure I told you already, magic is all about intent. You see, the spell Loona always used to send I.M.P. to the human world was not originally meant as a simple teleportation spell. Its intended use is to send someone through space and time. The time aspect of the spell is very difficult to master which is why it never posed a deciding factor for Loona’s spellcasting. In her inexperienced hands, it simply became a means for transportation. In yours, it unfolded its true potential” He sees the look on Via’s face and his smile turns apologetic. “I’m afraid that’s more thanks to your heritage than any real ability, my dear.”

“Thanks for that, dad,” Via grouses. “But why didn’t it send me to the past or something when I tried to see the stars?”

“I hadn’t trained you yet. Your magic was still too wild, too uncontrolled. You weren’t much better equipped than Loona back then. But to come back to your question, you two were talking about how Blitzø was treating Loona like a child. Unconsciously you were thinking about that instead of where Loona wanted to go. The spell latched onto those feelings and sent Loona’s body and mind back to a time when she was actually a child.” He stares at the ground and his whole demeanor changes. “I’m guessing the Loona we see right now is the last time she truly felt like a kid. The last time she was carefree.” He shakes his head and closes his eyes. “So young. Poor thing.”

Via tries to keep her eyes off the hellhound. She can hear her bicker with her father, voice high pitched and giggly, and feels her throat close up. 

She thinks back to the day she wanted to see the stars and was sent to L.A. instead. She remembers standing in Blitzø’s office with her father’s priceless book in her hands and staring at the decrepit walls and the water stains and the furniture that looked like it was about to collapse any minute now. And she remembers scoffing at it all and shaking her head at the futility of it all. How her father is destroying their family for all of this, just so he can give their heirloom to a little, red dickhead who uses it to regularly visit earth and kill insignificant humans. Pathetic! And what is so special about the human world anyway? Why would someone take their business over there? She’d really like to know what all the fuss is about!

Present Via sighs ruefully. Well, at least now she knows why the stupid thing took her to L.A. of all places. Home of the stars and vomit and fog. 

Great!

The sound of a commotion pulls her out of her thoughts. In the short time they weren’t paying attention the kitchen has descended into chaos. 

Blitzø is desperately trying to save the pancakes from burning while also keeping Loona from getting eaten. He balances on the step stool with one leg while the other is swinging back and forth in a desperate attempt to keep himself from falling headfirst into the pan. His tail is wrapped around a wiggling Loona’s middle. The little hellhound is suspended midair and seems to be playing rock-paper-scissors with the tentacles of the plant she’d been poking earlier. Another tentacle has wrapped around her ankle to keep her close which looks admittedly a little threatening. Blitzø is certainly losing his shit, swinging a spatula at the plant like a madman, shouting bloody murder at it. 

“Oh my!” Stolas says but he doesn’t sound too alarmed. He steps into the kitchen and snaps his fingers and the plant immediately withdraws its appendages and settles back into its pot in the corner. 

Loona pouts when Blitzø sets her back down and shoots Stolas a look. “Fucking hell, Stols!” he snaps, momentarily forgetting the little ears listening closely. “That thing almost ate my baby!”

Instead of flinching away or frantically apologizing, Via’s father chuckles. “I assure you, she was perfectly safe.” Via knows that the plant has swallowed half a zebra not even an hour ago and shoots her father a very telling look. She is surprised to find the same expression mirrored by Blitzø. Her father squirms under their twin stares and clears his throat. “Anyway! How about I show you some of the plants in my greenhouse, little one? They are much more tame and quite enjoy petting. Let’s give your father a chance to finish breakfast for you.”

Blitzø wrings the spatula between his hands, getting batter all over his fingers. “Are you sure?”

“Relax darling, I’ll keep an eye on her.”

Blitzø looks about ready to fold when Loona runs up to him and starts clinging to his legs. She glares at Stolas with a deep seated mistrust and growls low in her throat. The imp stares down at her and some kind of emotion crosses his face, too fast for Via to catch. He leans down and gently pries the arms from around his knees. “It’s alright, firecracker. Don’t you wanna see more plants?”

Loona bites her lip. “But-”

“Stolas is one of the good ones.” Blitzø promises. Via thinks that’s a weird way to phrase it but Loona immediately relaxes. “And if he misbehaves, your papa will bite him.”

Stolas blushes and Via is not acknowledging that. No! Not at all! Never! 

“I’ll be on my best behavior, little one.”

“See? Go on, I’ll be right out with your food.”

Loona tethers on the edge of indecision a moment longer but then she nods decisively and follows Stolas through the side door into the garden. Her father is already yapping away about all the plants and their names and Via wonders how long Loona will humor him before she grows bored and tries to challenge one of them to a fight. 

She wants to follow but something holds her back. Blitzø is humming a little tune, stacking pancake after pancake on a plate. Via doesn’t know whether he hasn’t noticed her lingering or whether he is ignoring her. She also doesn’t know which one she’d prefer. 

She swallows around the lump in her throat and blurts out: “I’m sorry!”

Blitzø doesn’t startle which makes her think that he’d been ignoring her and yeah no, she’d have preferred the other one. 

Instead of rounding on her, tearing her a new one, he simply shrugs. “Nah, don’t be. I know she can be fucking stubborn when she wants something. If she hadn’t convinced you to help her, she would have probably found another way.”

Via almost leaves it at that but it feels unfair and the last thing Loona deserves is to be thrown under the bus on top of everything else. “It was actually my idea.”

Blitzø pauses in the middle of drowning the plate of pancakes in whipped cream and throws her a cheeky grin over his shoulder. “Fuck, really? Didn’t think you had it in you, Miss Goody Two-Shoes.”

At any other time Octavia would have been insulted by that but right now she just feels relief. “You are… oddly nonchalant about this?”

Blitzø turns off the oven and throws the pan and spatula into the sink. Something breaks and Octavia winces. Pringles will not be happy about that when he gets back from his vacation. The imp busies himself with the last finishing touches. 

“Listen, if my Loonie had been seriously hurt I would have ripped you apart, Stolas be damned.” He sounds very matter of fact and Octavia knows that he is a hundred percent serious. Instead of frightening her, his words feel strangely comforting. “But she is alright, all things considered. And… well, not gonna lie. This is kinda… nice.” 

She can only see the profile of his face from where she is standing but the blush and sappy smile are hard to miss. Octavia is still reeling from seeing something other than a sneer or a cocky grin on that face when Blitzø jumps off the step stool and turns towards her. There are two plates in his hands and he shoves the smaller one at her. Instead of chocolate chips and whipped cream her pancakes are covered in cinnamon and thin apple slices. “Come on! Let’s get that wild beast out there something to eat before she starts gnawing on your father’s chicken legs.”

He hurries outside and leaves her staring at the plate in her hand. The apple slices are arranged into a smiley face.

She almost smiles back. 

***********************************

Breakfast turns into an impromptu picnic when Loona refuses to come back inside. Contrary to Via’s predictions she has not grown bored of Stolas’ explanations and instead listens to him with rapt attention. The owl is obviously flattered by her interest and enamored with his little listener. The way he readily and happily answers all of her questions, even the insane ones only a kid could come up with, makes Via wonder when’s the last time she asked her father about his plants.

It must have been before her mother moved out. 

The weather is nice so they leave the greenhouse and relocate to the garden. Stolas summons some blankets and they all settle under one of the trees. It’s already the longest time Via has spent with Blitzø ever since he started dating her dad and she feels weirdly out of place between them but she also refuses to go hide in her room like she would normally do. This mess is her fault and she will see the next 24 hours through just like the rest of them. 

And anyway, it’s not exactly a hardship. Via finds herself having a lot of fun because Loona is, true to her father’s pet name, a small firecracker. She is bouncing between all of them with so much energy that it’s hard to keep up sometimes. Everything seems new and exciting to her. She spends ten minutes alone just marveling at her father’s horns, running her hands over them, counting the stripes, knocking a little fist against them to listen to the sound, poking her fingertips against the sharp ends. Blitzø chuckles and just lets her be until her hands wander a bit too close to the point where the horns meet skin. The imp immediately restraints her small fingers with a strained laugh. “Ah. Not there, Loonie.”

“Why not?”

“That’s… a very sensitive spot. Only grown-ups are allowed to touch there.”

Loona tilts her head, her ears flopping adorably back and forth. She turns towards Stolas whom she has warmed up to considerably. “So you are allowed to touch there?”

Blitzø smirks and leers at Stolas from behind Loona’s back. 

The owl blushes a fierce red. “Ah yes. Definitely.”

“Oh, TMI! Dammit!” Via shouts and averts her face. At least her father has the decency to look as embarrassed as she feels. Blitzø, the asshole, just laughs.

“What’s TMI mean?”

“It means your Daddy is gross.” Via answers and is taken aback by the scowl on Loona’s face.

“He’s not! He’s the best!”

Blitzø makes a weird sound in the back of his throat, something between a squeak and a groan. He lets himself fall backwards and covers his face with his hands. “Oh Satan! Where is the fucki- fudging video camera when you need it?”

Loona immediately climbs all over her father, kicking him in the groin at one point. Blitzø jackknifes upwards with a curse and the little girl tumbles to the ground, laughing, while Stolas scolds the imp for cussing in front of a child.

Via sighs. This is going to be a long day.  

*************************************

They stay in the garden the entire morning. Loona seems content to just jump around all of them, asking them all kinds of questions. She is an inquisitive little girl and absorbs knowledge like a sponge. At one point she attempts to climb the tree which Blitzø observes with a worried frown until she grows bored of that and starts to run laps around the area.

They have tried multiple times to go back inside but Loona seems oddly reluctant to return to the house. Maybe she is just one of those children that loves to spend as much time as they can outside but Via can’t shake the feeling that it’s something else. 

She looks over her shoulder and tries to see the palace with the eyes of a small child. 

She grew up here. The palace is her home and has always been her home but looking at it with fresh eyes she can understand how it might seem intimidating to someone not used to it. It’s big and not very cheerful. A lot of the curtains are drawn shut, giving the place an almost abandoned look. Via and her father don’t really need all that space, staying in Stolas’ childhood home was her mother’s idea. But now that it is just the two of them and Pringles, who is more like an unobtrusive ghost most of the time, the halls echo with silence and rooms start to collect a concerning amount of dust from not being used. 

Via knows that Blitzø’s and Loona’s living situation is the extreme opposite of this. They are crammed together into a single bedroom apartment. Their living room and kitchen combined are smaller than Via’s bedroom. Loona’s room, the only one aside from the bathroom with even a little bit of privacy, only has enough space for a bed and a small dresser. Blitzø doesn’t have a room at all, sleeping on the couch or in his office when hours get long. 

Via only caught a brief glimpse of all of that when she came to get Loona for a shopping trip one day but that one glimpse had been more than enough to horrify her. She kept thinking that they must get on each other’s nerves constantly, crammed together into such a small place. They must be at each other’s throats all the time, right? So much proximity, wasn’t it suffocating?

She stares up at their empty home with its empty halls that you can wander for hours without encountering a single soul and realizes that the only ones suffocating are her and her dad. 

No wonder Blitzø doesn’t want to get too comfortable with using that key. 

This is not a home to him. Maybe not to anyone.

She swallows around the lump in her throat and averts her gaze before she can start to cry. Suddenly she is not so keen on returning inside either.

Loona is currently sitting on her father’s lap, facing away from him. The imp has called her to him when it became apparent that her fur was suffering from all the running and climbing she was doing. Now he is sitting cross legged on the ground and braiding her hair into an intricate plait. 

Stolas is discreetly taking a video on his phone, half hiding the device behind his body. Via wonders why until Blitzø gives them all the stink eye. 

“If you ever tell anyone about this, I’ll hunt you down.”

Stolas leans a bit further to the side, phone carefully hidden. “I would never, Blitzøy dear. But can I just say that it looks amazing? The way your fingers move is fascinating.”

Via fears another innuendo but Blitzø ducks his head, looking abashed. “Ah well. My Mom taught me.” His grin wobbles slightly before he gets it back under control. “I used to braid the manes of the horses at the circus.” He lightly pulls on Loona’s braid and grins at her squawk of surprise. “This is much easier. Less fire involved.”

Loona pouts and crosses her arms. “But I’m not a horse!”

“I know, Sweetie.” 

“You are!”

Blitzø snorts at her cheeky tone. “Am I now? Could a horse do this?” He finishes off her braid and lets it fall over her shoulder so she can see the complicated pattern he’s woven into her hair. Via gets her first good look at it and whistles softly. It looks fantastic, professional even. 

Loona’s eyes widen and she grabs the braid to stare at it more closely. “Wow!”

“Do you like it?”

“Oh it looks so cute, B!”

Blitzø is about to reply when he freezes. That was not Loona’s voice and it definitely came from where Stolas is sitting a few feet away. His eyes are twitching as he stares at his boyfriend who grins nervously. 

“You didn’t.”

“That’s some fine work, Sir. If only you would put as much care into your paperwork.”

Blitzø is vibrating on the spot, eyes ablaze. “You. Fucking. Didn’t!”

Stolas reveals the phone at his side and turns it around. Turns out he didn’t take a video after all. Rather the faces of Blitzø’s employees, cheek to cheek, stare back at them from the screen, the little sign for a connected video call flashing in the corner.

Blitzø stares at the screen. He still has Loona sitting on his lap which is probably the only reason why he hasn’t crossed the distance and mauled poor Stolas to death. His voice is eerily calm when he says: “I’m afraid I’ll have to kill you now. Hope it was worth it.”

“Don’t be like that, boss.” The female imp coos. Her eyes are fixed on Loona who stares at the screen with a puzzled look on her face. “Prince Stolas texted us to let us know you and Loona wouldn’t come in today and we just had to see! And oh my Satan, isn’t she adorable? Hi Loona! It’s your aunt Millie! Hi!”

Loona looks up at her father and then hesitantly waves back. “Uhm. Hi?”

Millie falls out of frame with a high pitched “Aww” and the male imp takes over with a frown. 

“Hard to believe such a cute kid turns into our hellhound one day.”

Blitzø growls low in his throat and winds his arms around his daughter. “Careful, Mox. One more word and I’ll dock your pay.”

“That would imply that you are paying us, Sir.” Mox sniffs and rolls his eyes. 

Loona leans back into Blitzø so she can look up at him. “Are they working for you?”

“Yes, Loonie. Those are Millie and her useless husband Moxxie. They are your daddy’s employees.” Under his breath he mutters “Just don’t know for how much longer.”

“Are you sure?” The little hellhound tilts her head and points at the phone where Mox is still squinting at them. “That one looks like a wimp!”

Blitzø is laughing so hard he falls backwards and Via can see Mox roll his eyes even harder with an annoyed expression on his face. “Yeah, alright. That’s Loona.”

Millie pushes herself back into the frame. She is laughing as well but trying to keep it down for her husband's sake. “Oh honey, I wish we could visit you! But we have to hold down the fort here. You two have fun, yeah? And Prince Stolas, I expect lots and lots of pictures!”

“Of course. And it is just Stolas, Mildred.”

“It’s Millie, your highness! Blitzø, don’t worry about work. We’ll see you two tomorrow, alright?”

Blitzø is still lying on the ground, weakly wheezing. Loona is sitting on his stomach and bounces up and down with his laughter. He raises an arm and gives Millie a thumbs up before Stolas cuts the call after another quick goodbye. 

“You will pay for that, Stols.” Blitzø mutters, voice raw from laughter.

“Forgive me, Darling, Mildred was very insistent.”

“I like Millie.” Loona pipes up. She turns around and lies down flat on Blitzø's chest so she can peer up into his face. “What do you do?”

“We kill people.”

Via holds her breath and can see her father do the same. They are in hell, sure, and Loona has probably seen her fair share of horrors despite her age but should he really tell her this just like that? Won’t she get scared? 

Loona’s only reaction is a lazy wag of her tail. “Bad people?”

Blitzø crosses his arms behind his head and stares at the sky. “Hmm. Not really. But most of them end up down here so maybe, I guess?”

Loona nods as if he’s just imparted an important truth to her.

“Can I help you at your job when I’m older?” she asks and she sounds very timid all of a sudden. Her finger draws figure eights on his chest and her ears droop down a little. “They always tell us that adopters only want a hound that’s useful or they’ll bring us back. I’m sure I can be useful once I’m older.” Her voice grows a little desperate. She clutches at his jacket and then quickly lets go as if only just realizing that he might not like that. It’s a heartbreakingly vulnerable moment and Via would love to give father and daughter some privacy but it seems like they have forgotten that they have an audience and she doesn’t want to call attention to herself by leaving. “I can bite people for you if you want? Earn my keep. Or I could-”

Blitzø stops her by putting a hand on top of her head. He leans on his elbow and Via has never seen him look so serious. “You don’t have to earn anything!” he says intently and uses his hand to keep Loona from turning her head away. “You don’t have to be useful, you don’t have to work for me to make me keep you. The day I adopted you, you were mine. I know you don’t remember me right now but I love you Loonie and I promise you you’ll never have to return to that pound ever again. Do you understand?”

Loona has no choice but to stare into Blitzø's eyes and whatever she is seeing in there must convince her. She sniffles, just once, and then throws herself forward and buries her head into the spot between his head and his shoulder. 

“I love you too!”

Blitzø takes a shuddering breath and turns his head away.

Octavia and Stolas do the same.

Both of them stare at their big and empty home, unbeknown to each other feeling the same chill crawl up their spines for reasons they can’t explain.

********************************

Loona keeps her head buried in Blitzø's shoulder for a very long time and when she finally emerges she does so with a long yawn. Over the next half an hour she keeps yawning even though she puts up a valiant effort to hide it. Blitzø panics because it’s the middle of the day and is this some kind of side effect from the spell? But then Stolas reminds him that Loona is very small and small pups need naps. 

The girl vehemently denies it but her eyes grow heavier and heavier and once Blitzø coaxes her back into his arms it doesn’t take long until she is nestled against his chest, half asleep.

The imp slowly follows Stolas back inside. Via meanwhile busies herself with folding up the blankets they used and collecting the plates left over from breakfast. By the time she joins them in the house Blitzø is standing in the living room with Loona dozing in his arms while Stolas clears some of the decorative pillows off the couch. 

Via stops in the doorway. The two adults are facing away from her and she can barely hear their whispered conversation.

“Can't we keep her like this a little bit longer? Like, say, forever?”

Stolas chuckles. “No.”

“Okay, okay!” Blitzø says. Loona grumbles a little in his arms and he bounces her up and down to soothe her back to sleep. He lowers his voice even more and Via has to strain her ears to hear him. “Maybe not forever. How about a week?”

“Hm. Let me think. No.”

“You are killing me, Stols.”

The owl straightens up and turns to face his lover. Via can finally see his face and her lips almost twitch into a smile at the fond exasperation she can see there. “I'm not but Loona might if she finds out what you are planning.”

Blitzø waves him off and blows a raspberry. “Didn't you hear? She loves her daddy!”

Via doesn’t understand why her father’s expression suddenly softens the way it does. His eyes crinkle at the corners but his smile looks sad. The imp is still facing away from her so she can't see the expression on his face but something about it must prompt her father to step closer and lean down to press his forehead against Blitzø’s. The gesture feels more intimate than a kiss ever could. 

“Darling, of course she does.”

Blitzø’s shoulders slump. He holds Loona close a second longer and then finally turns around to put her down for her nap. Via takes a tiny step back and holds her breath, afraid to disturb the moment. The imp runs a hand through the little hellhound's hair and the look on his face is bittersweet. His smile hurts to look at and even though she feels like she is witnessing something deeply personal, Via can't keep her eyes off of it. 

She wishes she had left when she still had the chance.

“Yeah.” Blitzø’s voice is raspy and without a trace of conviction. He sounds like he is simply humoring her father. 

Stolas looks like he wants to say something but Blitzø has already shaken off whatever mood had gripped him and grins up at the owl. “Shit, forget about the spell. I would miss her bloodthirstiness too much.”

Via flees into the kitchen before she can hear any more.

******************************

It is hard to believe but Loona is even more lively after her nap. 

In no time at all she is back on her feet, running through the halls, her little paws touching everything that is not nailed down. Blitzø is hot on her heels, catching vases and saving paintings from toppling to the ground. Via has watched her father have multiple minor heart attacks before she could convince him to retreat with her to his study so they can get some magic practice done. 

It’s not going well. 

Her father is distracted. He constantly stops with his lectures to listen every time there is a loud noise. Via is pretty sure he is more worried about their guests than any priceless heirlooms that might fall victim to a curious hellhound pup. He’s never taken much interest in interior design, most of the things out there had been bought by her mother over the years. Via can admit that she wouldn’t mind getting rid of one or two gaudy pieces. 

The younger owl sighs. She wants to be angry about this intrusion on their schedule. Every day they practice magic for at least an hour and although she would rather pluck out her own feathers than admit it out loud, their time together is precious to her. She enjoys her father's attention and his gentle corrections and his praise. 

But every time a frustrated scream starts to climb up her throat like bile she swallows it back down because she remembers that neither Loona nor Blitzø are to blame for this situation.

She is.

After yet another crash and a distant, muffled “ We’re okay! That didn't even look expensive!” , Stolas sighs and closes the book on his lap. “I’m terribly sorry, Octavia. Maybe we should skip today’s lesson.”

Via has already snapped her own book shut before her father can even finish. “Agreed.”

He gives her a little lopsided smile. “I’ll make it up to you. Extra long lesson tomorrow.”

“I don’t think you understand what ‘making it up to you’ means. It’s definitely not more work, Dad.” Via snarks with a roll of her eyes. Secretly she is very pleased by the offer. Judging by Stolas’ amused snort, he knows it too. 

Suddenly the door flies open and a little whirlwind rushes inside. Loona takes a quick look around and then beelines for the seating area in the middle of the room. She crashes into the arm of the couch and climbs it so she can peer over Via’s arm at her book and the loose papers next to her.  “What are you doing?

Blitzø stumbles in after her. He looks like a mess and completely exhausted. His clothes are rumpled and wet with sweat. Via has never seen him like this, not even when he got back from that three-day mission and then passed out in their foyer with blood all over him. 

“Loonie! I told you to leave them alone, they’re busy.”

“It’s alright, Darling,” Stolas says and holds out an arm for Blitzø to join him on the other couch. It speaks to his exhaustion that the imp merely follows the silent command and falls into the tall owl’s side with a tired huff. “We just decided to call it quits for today.”

“We were practicing magic,” Via explains to Loona. The girl lets herself tumble from the arm of the couch and consequently leans against Via’s side. She grabs at the taller girl’s sleeve and Via holds very still. This is the closest they have been ever since those first few minutes after her mishap with the Grimoire. Loona has been a lot more trusting with the two Goetias ever since her nap. It probably does wonders for your confidence to fall asleep in a strange place and wake up unharmed and refreshed. 

Loona wrinkles her nose and pushes her face further into Via’s arm. “I don’t like magic. Magic made me forget.”

Via winces a little. “That’s fair,” she hedges and then takes a gamble. She closes her fist and concentrates on the dark space between her fingers, just like her dad taught her. She imagines it as an empty pocket and then shoves a little bit of her magic inside. The incarnation for the levitation spell comes easy to her. It’s one of the first things Stolas has taught her and she is confident that she can pull this off without any more catastrophes. Once she is certain that the magic in her hand is stable she slowly opens her fingers and directs it towards the bowl of fruit Stolas keeps around to snack on during their lessons. It rattles for a moment before the fruits lift out and start to float through the air. “But it can be fun too.”

Loona’s eyes grow big and her tail starts to wag. “Woah!” She watches the floating food in fascination and Via would love to savor her expression but she has to keep all of her concentration on the flying pieces of fruit to make them do fun loop-de-loops. She can feel Blitzø’s and Stolas’ eyes on her and that is distraction enough.  

Suddenly the pup perks up and leans over so she can shove her face into Via’s. The young owl almost loses control and drops an apple on Blitzø’s head. Thankfully the imp is starting to doze against Stolas’ side and doesn’t notice. 

“Can you make me fly?”

Blitzø is immediately wide awake. “Fuck no!”

“Pleaaaaaaase?”

Blitzø scrambles upright, much to Stolas’ disappointment. “Over my dead body, Loonie!”

Via can practically hear adult Loona at the back of her head, snarling a response. A deja vu of just this morning.

‘That can be arranged, jackass.’

But child Loona merely pouts. 

“You are so boring, Daddy!”

This might be the first time Loona has called him Daddy by her own volition but Blitzø isn’t freaking out or bursting into tears. He’s too offended to notice. “Boring? I’m boring?” 

He jumps to his feet and pulls out a small knife so quickly, Via can’t even tell where it came from. “Is this boring?” Without waiting for an answer he throws the knife. It flies through the air and pierces not one, not two but three of the floating fruits. The tip of the knife embeds into the opposite wall, pinning the snacks in a neat line.

It is honestly impressive. Something you might expect from a world class circus act. 

It’s hard to say who cheers louder, Loona or Stolas. Even Via can’t help but applause a little bit, albeit grudgingly. 

Blitzø preens under the attention until Loona runs to the knife, pulls it out of the wall and runs right back to their group in the blink of an eye. There is barely enough time to scold her for running with a knife in her hand before she takes one of the apples and balances it on her head, right between her fuzzy ears. She shoves the knife back into Blitzø’s hand and excitedly points at her new ‘hat’.

“Now throw it at me! Knock the apple off my head! I saw that in a movie! Do it! Do it!”

Blitzø is obviously not doing that judging by the horrified expression on his face. 

Via can’t help a little dig at his expense. 

“Floating around the room doesn’t sound so dangerous now, huh?”

Blitzø flips her off. 

Worth it.

*********************************

It takes all three of them the better part of an hour to dissuade Loona from her aspirations to become the next big circus act. By the time she stops badgering Blitzø to throw a knife at her it’s late into the afternoon. 

Stolas and Via decide to prepare some sandwiches for supper. They have quickly found out that Loona can't handle big portions of food at a time without feeling sick. Via would rather not think too hard about the implications of that one especially since Blitzø looks especially murderous every time it comes up. 

Father and daughter work side by side in companionable silence. Stolas is against adding a hot chocolate to the meal because the sugar will just keep the little hellhound up way past her bedtime but Via is very adamant. Hot chocolate is a must and it has nothing to do with the fact that Via can make herself a cup too, no way. 

When they rejoin Blitzø and Loona in the living room they stop dead just past the threshold, trying their hardest to make sense of what they see.

The room has descended into chaos. It looks as if Blitzø and Loona have gathered every single blanket and pillow they could find in the palace and spread them all across the floor and furniture.

“Darling? What are you doing?”

Blitzø pops up from behind a mountain of pillows, a blanket haphazardly tossed over one of his horns. “Loonie told me that she has never built a blanket fort. Can you believe that?”

The prince tilts his head and shares a confused look with his daughter. “What is a blanket fort?”

The imp gasps rather dramatically and faceplants into a pillow. Loona meanwhile repeatedly climbs atop the coffee table so she can jump into a pile of blankets over and over as if it’s her own swimming pool. “I can’t believe you all! How have you never built a blanket fort? Too fucking posh to have fun?”

Via crosses her arms. She has a vague idea what he is talking about from listening to her classmates but she does not appreciate being called out like that. “Have you?”

“Pfft. Plenty of times.” Blitzø hefts up one of the smaller pillows and weighs it in his hands as if he is considering the structural integrity of the fluff inside. “It’s been a while but it’s really not that hard.”

“Well then.” Stolas eyes the chaos with an amused air. He looks rather charmed by it all and Via knows why. She can’t remember the last time their living room looked like someone was actually living here. Her mother kept the place in pristine condition. Every little knick knack had its place and the furniture might as well have never been used, the way it looked brand new even years after purchase. If building a fort requires this much disorder and clutter, then it’s no wonder they never did anything like it. Her mom would have thrown a fit. “Show us how it’s done, oh Master Builder.”

Mr. Master Builder is full of shit. It quickly becomes clear that he knows the basics of what a blanket fort is supposed to look like but his execution lacks pretty much everything. He claims that it’s just harder now that he’s not a small imp anymore who “weighs less than a fucking grape” but Via is calling bullshit. Every time they manage to put something up it’s structurally unsafe and lopsided. Doesn’t help that Loona has declared herself the inspector of the building site and tests every structure by dive bombing into it. She is laughing and squealing the entire time which is probably the only reason why Blitzø allows it with only a token protest.  

At one point Stolas even offers to just use his magic to assemble the fort and keep it standing but Blitzø refuses. He looks honestly put out while he lectures them that that would be cheating and not the point of building a fort.  

Via wonders if the point is that after hours of work you have nothing to show for it but a room that is even more messy than before. The pillows and blankets are scattered around the entire room, hanging off of chandeliers and picture frames. There is even some stuffing from cushions that didn’t survive Loona’s sharp claws.

At least it was fun. More fun than she thought it would be to be honest.

And you can’t argue with the outcome: Loona has played so hard, she more or less crashes as soon as it’s time for bed. Blitzø barely manages to wrestle her into the band shirt she arrived with that morning, turning it into an impromptu nightgown. Imp and hellhound don’t even attempt to retreat to the guest room. They just collapse, right then and there, resting on the biggest pillows and nestled into the softest blankets. Via doubts Blitzø has planned to fall asleep this early but the moment he settles down with his daughter he is out like a light. 

Today must have been more tiring for him than she realized.

They look adorable. Loona is snoring a little and has grabbed Blitzø’s tail to hold it against her chest like a teddy bear. Blitzø immediately wrapped all of his four limbs around his girl and then buried his face in her hair. With every breath he takes, one of her ears twitches a little. It is not enough to wake her up, thankfully.

“Should we move them to a bedroom?” Via whispers but only because it feels like something she should suggest as a good host. They look too comfortable to move.

Stolas seems to agree. “No. They will be fine here for one night.” 

Her father is sitting on the couch while Via is lounging on the floor in front of him. They have both put on pajamas when Loona did and now they are too lazy and comfy to move to their own rooms. Via is still nursing her hot chocolate which has long since grown cold. She tentatively leans against her father’s legs.

Stolas keeps watching the imp and his hellhound with a soft smile on his beak. Suddenly he sighs, his eyes growing misty. “I used to hold you like that when you couldn’t sleep.”

Via keeps her eyes on the pair. “Yeah?”

“Indeed.” Stolas chuckles and the teenager rolls the cup between her hands, trying to find any warmth still left. “You used to have nightmares sometimes. You always came and woke me up.”

Not us. Just him.

Via would bristle at his wording if she didn’t know it was true. At some point in their marriage, her parents had decided on separate bedrooms. It hadn’t seemed weird back then, just another oddity of their household. Just as it hadn’t seemed weird to her that she would always automatically run to her dad’s room instead of her mother’s. 

In hindsight, it's laughable how long Via managed to remain oblivious to everything.

She presses her beak into a thin line and leans away so she doesn’t feel his bony knees dig into her shoulder anymore. Her father’s presence at her back feels comforting and unnerving at the same time. She wishes she could see his face but something inside of her refuses to turn around. 

“I'm sorry.”

There is a heavy silence behind her. It almost feels unnatural, as if her dad has stopped breathing as well. When he speaks, his voice wavers with an hesitant undertone and a confusion that enrages and saddens her. 

“Why are you apologizing, Starfire?”  

“Taking care of a small one is hard, isn’t it?” She vaguely gestures to where Loona is sleeping the sleep of the just. Maybe it’s her own exhaustion. Maybe it’s the fact that they have been whispering this entire time, making it feel as if they are sharing secrets instead of just having a normal conversation. Like a confession. Whatever it is, she adds. “Can't have been easy to care for someone you never wanted.”

“What?” 

Her father’s horrified whisper surprises her. It sounds less like a word and more like someone has punched the air out of him. She flinches and tries to ignore her own heart trying to jump out of her throat. 

“I know you two only had me to birth a precautionary heir, dad. Mom told me.”

Well, ‘told’ might be a bit of an understatement. 

“Now that the Goetia family has what it wanted, he has no more reason to stick with this family. He told me so himself, Octavia,” her mother had screamed at Via as she carried the last of her suitcases down the stairs towards her waiting car. She hadn’t cared that her daughter just wanted a hug goodbye, just wanted some kind of reassurance that they would see each other soon, that this is not the end. All Stella had wanted was to burn as many bridges for Stolas as she could before she would never again be allowed to step foot in her old home. “He always saw us as just another obligation. You want to stay with him? Good fucking luck with that! When he throws you out to start his new life with the dirty imp, you know where to find me, dear.”

Via tried to forget the words, tried to dismiss them. But they have burned themselves into her heart and soul, leaving nothing but ash behind.

Her father sucks in a deep breath and Octavia closes her eyes. She is prepared for anything but she still startles when her dad slides off the couch and settles down on the floor right next to her. He pulls her into a bone crushing hug and she lets him, too numb to do anything else.

“My Starfire.” he whispers into her ear and Via desperately clings to the love she thinks she can hear in those words. 

“Is it not true?” It’s not really a question because she knows it’s true as much as she wishes it wasn’t. She found the marriage contract when she snooped through her father’s study in search of answers. 

“It is true that our marriage was a marriage of convenience,” Stolas starts. His words are carefully measured. His tone halting but firm. She recognizes his lecturer's voice, the one he uses when he tries to explain to her a complex magical equation. It immediately causes her to pay close attention and take in every word and nuance. “It is true that our families wanted that marriage because they wanted us to birth a precautionary heir.” He takes a deep breath and pulls her closer. “It is true that I never loved your mother the way a husband is supposed to love his wife.”

Octavia expects to feel grief and rage at that admission but in the end there is just relief. She’d always known that her parents didn’t love each other like other parents did. But they managed to pretend well enough in front of her and she had always been more than happy to pretend alongside them. 

The fact that her father finally admits it out loud, that he trusts her to be able to handle the truth, means more to her than he could ever know.

“What is not true,” he continues and he puts his beak right next to her ear as if he is trying to plant his words right into her head, “is that I never wanted you. What is not true is that I regret having you. What is not true is that I would ever change anything about any of this.”

“You wouldn’t?” Via thinks of loud voices and she thinks of her father flinching at unexpected noises and she thinks of listening to him cry in the middle of the night and she thinks of the way he looks at Blitzø, the happiness in his eyes that was always meant to be there. She thinks of all the things her father could have had if he hadn’t been forced to bring her into this world. “I find that hard to believe.”

Stolas takes her head into his hands and the way he watches her is intense. His four eyes roam all over her face as if he is trying to burn her image into his mind, as if he is seeing her for the first time. Really, truly seeing her. 

“ Nothing. I would change absolutely nothing. ” He pulls her close again and presses their foreheads together. “You are the best thing that ever happened to me. I love you more than anything, my little Owlet. Please never doubt that again.”

A childish part of Via wants to ask “More than Blitzø?” but she cringes at the mere thought of doing that. It has taken her a long time, probably longer than it should have, but she finally understands that the love her father feels for her is not comparable to the love he feels for the imp. 

He loves both of them in completely different ways but neither of them more or less than they deserve. His love for the imp doesn't diminish the love he has for her and that's also true the other way around. For the first time the thought of any of her father's affections belonging to Blitzø doesn't hurt. 

“I love you too.” She doesn’t even know when she last said the words out loud. Judging by the way her father’s face crumbles and he squeezes her against his chest it must have been much longer than she thought so she repeats it, more insistently: “I love you, Dad.”

Stolas’ breath ghosts over her feathers. She thinks he might be crying a little bit but she is pretty sure that they are happy tears so she just leaves him be, winding her arms around his middle.

She might be crying a little bit as well but the room is dark and no one needs to know. 

*************************************

She falls asleep in her father’s arms but when she wakes up a couple hours later she is on the couch, wrapped in too many blankets. For a moment she doesn’t know where she is but then she sees the high ceiling and the bookshelves lining the walls and remembers. 

Via blinks tiredly into the semi-dark and wonders what has woken her up. Just as she is about to fall back asleep the sounds of a soft whimper reach her ears, followed by a low voice.

“It’s okay, Loonie. I’m here.”

Via is immediately wide awake and turns her head. With her superior night vision it doesn’t take her long to spot the source of the voices. 

Blitzø and Loona are still nestled in the middle of their blankets and pillows but the imp is awake and sitting upright. He kneels on the ground and cradles the small pup in his arms. Via is alarmed to see the hellhound shiver and whine, squirming a little bit in her father’s hold. 

The young owl carefully frees herself of the blankets and slowly crawls towards them. She doesn’t want to surprise or frighten the pair in the dark. There is only a single candle flickering in the corner and it’s barely enough light to see the anxious expression on Blitzø’s face. But she needn’t have bothered. Via has barely drawn closer when Blitzø is already scooting over, making room for her on the large pillow without once looking away from his daughter. He probably knew the teenager was awake the moment she opened her eyes.

“What is wrong with her?” Via whispers. Loona is still asleep but it looks like she is having a nightmare. She clutches at her fathers chest and keeps her tail tucked between her legs. Via feels horribly helpless. She looks around for her father but he is nowhere to be seen. “And where is dad?”

“Getting some herbs. He says burning them in here will calm Loonie down.” Blitzø keeps his voice low but he’s not whispering. Loona is probably too far gone to be woken up by a mere conversation. “Warned me this might happen, something about her memories coming back in dreams first before her body follows. Is supposed to make it less traumatizing or some shit like that.” 

Octavia swallows hard. The guilt she has successfully beaten down over the past few hours comes back with a vengeance. “So she is… remembering?

The imp hums and hefts Loona tighter against his chest when the little girl jerks violently with a breathy “no” on her lips. 

“This fucking sucks balls.. Memories like that? No wonder she’s having nightmares.”

“You adopted her when she was seventeen, right?” Octavia can’t keep her eyes off the squirming hellhound. She hopes her father comes back with those herbs soon. “Did she tell you about her life before?”

Blitzø is silent for a very long time and Via worries that she has overstepped. But then she realizes that he is just very focused on his little girl. There is a lull in her trashing and he takes the chance to run a hand over her head and knead her ears. Very gently. 

When he speaks, his voice is carefully neutral. “Didn’t have to. Signs are obvious if you know what to look for.”

Octavia wonders what signs he is talking about. And then she wonders why he would know what to look for. 

Via thinks of loud voices and she thinks of her father flinching at unexpected noises and she thinks of listening to him cry in the middle of the night and-

And maybe she understands better than she thinks.

They watch over Loona in silence. After an especially violent shudder and heartbreaking whine from the pup, Blitzø bows his head. “Wish I could have found her sooner. Would have kept her safe.” He mumbles the last bit low under his breath, almost as if he is talking to himself. But then he snorts and when he lifts his head to look at Via for the first time since she joined them she recoils from the smile on his face. She does not like this one at all. It looks wrong. “But maybe it’s a good thing I didn’t. Would have probably just fucked her up in new and more messed up ways if I had adopted her earlier.”

“No, you wouldn’t have!” Via blurts out.

Blitzø stares at her as if she has suddenly grown two heads and Via herself blinks in surprise. She opens her mouth to remedy her outburst or put it into perspective but closes it immediately when she realizes that she actually honestly means it. The realization kinda throws her for a loop. Just this morning she would have agreed with him wholeheartedly. Would have nodded her head and laughed at the idea of the imp taking good care of a small child.

But the more she replays the day in her mind, the more she understands how wrong she’d been. She was able to see a whole different side of Blitzø. Or maybe even just a side she had been blind to before because of her own mistrust and anger. Her eyes fall on his hand which is still softly kneading a furry ear, so careful despite the sharp claws, despite the fact that these hands have killed. 

Via takes a deep breath and looks Blitzø right in the eyes when she says:  “I think she would have been lucky growing up with you. You are a great dad.”

You would think it’s not possible, with the red skin and all, but Via can clearly see Blitzø blush all the way to his horns. His tail lashes from side to side while the rest of his body is frozen and still. “Oh…” He breaks eye contact and stares down. He seems almost shell shocked. “Thanks?”

Via rubs her neck and stares into the distance.

Before things can get too awkward, Loona’s foot kicks out and almost hits Via in the face. Blitzø, who is looking very ruffled by now, wrestles the small hellhound back against his chest to keep her as still as possible.

“Where the fuck is Stols with this incest thing?”

“Incense.”

“Whatever! He better move that tight ass back in here quickly. Shit. Sorry.”

Via just rolls her eyes. She has long since given up hope that Blitzø will ever control himself in front of her. Loona wriggles more insistently now, shaking her head back and forth and gnawing on her own lips. She is crying a little bit, small trails of tears dampening her cheeks. Via wrings her hands as an idea forms. 

“Can I try something?” she asks before she can lose her courage. 

“Fuck yes!” Blitzø groans in a rare show of desperation.

Octavia sits up straighter and clears her throat. She reminds herself that there is nothing to be embarrassed about and starts to sing that old, familiar song.

“It always seems more quiet, in the dark. 

It always feels so stuck,

how silence grows under the moon,

constellations gone so soon.”

At first the words come haltingly, then with more and more confidence. It’s been a while since she heard the song but she remembers the lyrics well enough. Her voice certainly does not carry quite as strong as her father’s but it only needs to reach the ears of a little girl anyway. Via can feel Blitzø staring at her but for once it doesn’t make her feel self-conscious. She keeps her eyes on Loona who is slowly but surely calming down.

“Now all my stories have been told, except for one.

As the stars start to align, I hope you’ll take it as a sign, 

that you will be okay-”

“Everything will be okay.” 

Via turns her head slightly when her father’s voice joins hers. The older owl glides through the room and brushes her hair as he kneels down next to her. He then sets a bowl on the ground in the middle of their circle. With a flick of his fingers he sets the herbs inside on fire. The flames are the colors of the universe and the sparks that fly into the air create the illusion of a thousand tiny stars bursting to life. Blitzø stares at their surroundings with an almost childlike wonder and barely reacts when Stolas takes one of his hands into his own. With the other arm the prince pulls Via against his side and leans his head against hers. 

Father and daughter finish the song.

 Together.

“And when creation goes to die, 

you can find me in the sky 

upon the last day. 

And you will be okay.”

*********************************

A loud scream and banging noises disturb the early morning calm. Via snorts awake and jerks upright just in time to see a fluffy tail disappear behind one of the settees. Seconds later the head of a snarling hellhound pops up over the back of it. 

While the bared teeth were kind of cute on a little pup, fully grown Loona looks terrifying. 

Via is so happy to see it! 

“What the fuck is going on here?!”

“Ah! Loonie!” Blitzø’s voice sounds muffled. He’s been buried under a mountain of pillows and blankets when Loona shoved him off and shot to her feet in a hurry. Now he fights himself free and scrambles to his feet. He looks a little disheveled in the aftermath but he is quick to unearth Loona’s pants from the mess and throw them at her. 

In a surprising turn of events, Loona just catches them and quickly puts them on without any further comment. Via raises an eyebrow at the uncharacteristic efficiency. She fully expected the girl to make a lot of noise about the fact that she’d apparently been part of a sleepover with her father, his boyfriend and the boyfriend’s daughter without any pants. Via definitely would have screamed bloody murder in her shoes. 

Blitzø wrings his hands.  “Don't you remember?”

Loona gives her clothes one last once-over before she steps out from behind the settee. She tries to run a hand through her hair but encounters the braid Blitzø made for her. Little Loona refused to take it out last night so she went to sleep with it. The girl pauses for a second with a weird look on her face. 

“I remember shit! Like a fucking hangover.”

Blitzø, Stolas and Via share a quick look. Via can't imagine that Loona would take the revelation that she spent all of yesterday as a little pup well. 

Blitzø fortunately seems to agree. 

“You hit your head after that spell went wrong. You spent most of yesterday sleeping but the healing spell Stolas did should do the trick now. Right? Stols?”

“Uh. Yes. Healing spell. Yes. I did that. On you, I mean. Because you– you hit your head.” Via lays a hand on her father's arm, hoping he'll get the hint and calm down. He clears his throat. “How are you feeling, little one?”

Stolas has never called Loona ‘little one’ before yesterday but the hellhound doesn't react to the slip up. She keeps playing with the braid in her hair and then resolutely unties it with a scowl on her face. 

“Alright I guess. Fucking pissed I missed the concert.”

She doesn’t sound pissed. At least not nearly as much as Via would have expected. 

Blitzø doesn't notice. He bundles up to her and hugs her around the middle. “Aw Loonie! Don't be sad. There will be other overrated pisspoor shitass bands.”

Loona raises her hand as if to shove him off but then her gaze falls on his arm. With the t-shirt he is wearing, the bandage from the bite is fully on display. Something complicated flashes through her eyes, there and gone again, and when she pushes Blitzø away it's almost gentle. She carefully avoids the injured arm. “Yeah, yeah, fuck off, Dad. Next time I won't tell you about it and just go.”

Blitzø smiles brightly and Via stares at the back of Loona’s head, a suspicion forming in her mind.

****************************************************

She definitely remembers. 

Everything.

It is laughably obvious when you are not a father that is so caught up in his relief that you fail to notice all the little signs and glaring tells. 

But Via certainly does. 

Loona is a bit more forgiving of Blitzø’s antics all morning. She keeps close to him and calls him Dad with little to no hesitance. The moment they step into the kitchen and she spots a lone crayon forgotten on the kitchen counter she actually blushes a little and averts her eyes. She offers to make breakfast for everyone, another hint that she is not quite herself yet. When she turns towards the fridge she falters for a second but then acts as if she didn’t see the drawing Stolas put up there even though it definitely wasn’t there yesterday and clearly depicts a little imp holding the hand of an even smaller hellhound. 

Via wonders whether Stolas or Blitzø might catch on but maybe Loona will just get better at faking ignorance. Right now she is still too caught off guard to put any kind of effort into fooling anyone. It can’t be easy to wake up in the morning, back to your old self, and have all these new memories of yourself as a child being cherished and loved and cared for.

While Loona occupies herself with the stove, Octavia sits with Blitzø and her father at the kitchen table and watches them bicker over the newspaper (“I don’t care about the economy section, Stols! Give me the comics!” “I’m not done with them yet, dear.”). 

The last 24 hours have been quite eye-opening for Via as well.

Her talk with her dad has helped heal something she didn’t even realize was broken. Every time she can feel the abyss of despair and anger rolling in her stomach she remembers his reassurances, his hands on her cheeks and the look on his face and the way his words went right into her ears and straight to her heart. 

Her father wants her, has always wanted her, flaws and all. Even now he is glancing at her from time to time, giving her these little smiles full of love. And she smiles back, a lightness in her chest. Spending an afternoon just having fun instead of hiding away in her dark room has made her realize how exhausting it actually is to be mad all the time. She doesn’t want that anymore.

Things are still complicated and messy but they are slowly getting better. 

If she lets them. 

Blitzø finally manages to wrestle some of the pages out of her father’s hands. He skims them for a moment and then immediately passes one of them on to Via. When she looks down she sees that it is an article about an upcoming event at Stylish Occults. 

“Here you go, Sweetie.” he says almost absentmindedly, sipping on his coffee, attention already back on the comics.  

Via accepts the pages. She stares at the words without taking anything in and comes to a decision. 

Blitzø is rude and uncouth and pretty much an ass. But he is also funny and kind when he wants to be and he loves his daughter more than anything. He loves Via’s father and he’s even carved out a place for Via in his heart despite her trying to get out of it, kicking and screaming.

It is time to stop being mad all the time. 

It is time to allow things to get better.

“Thanks, Blitzø.”

She keeps her eyes on the article and feels more than sees Blitzø jerk in his seat. His voice sounds oddly choked up when he mumbles a quick “No problem.”

Her father’s long leg briefly brushes against hers under the table. 

Via’s heart feels light.

They sit in comfortable silence until an ad for baby clothes catches her attention. 

“You know,” the young owl drawls with a devious smirk. She keeps her voice down even though she doubts that Loona’s superior hearing will miss a single word. “This whole thing has obviously awakened some maternal instincts in your boyfriend, Dad. Should I expect a little sibling soon?”

Loona’s ears twitch from across the room. 

Blitzø spits his coffee all over the table. “Maternal?” he chokes through a coughing fit while Stolas stammers through an unconvincing denial. 

Loona throws the pan she was using into the sink (Via winces, Pringles will kill them all!) and storms to their table. There is a terrifying snarl on her face but it can’t hide the blush spreading all around her snout.  

“Hey shithead! Didn’t you say something about a visit to LuLuWorld to make it up to me?”

Blitzø pounds at his own chest. There are tears in his eyes from almost choking to death but when he turns to Loona it looks like everything is forgotten. “You wanna go, Loonie? Together?”

"Yeah, whatever! Let's see what the real deal is all about. You in, Via?”

Via startles at being included. She looks over at her father who nods at her with a hopeful expression on his face. Surprisingly enough, that expression is mirrored on Blitzø’s face as well. 

And for the first time in a long while, Via is actually excited about visiting a carnival with her family.

“Yeah. I’m in!”