Stolas and Blitzo sat on the balcony watching the sunset, eating the leftovers from breakfast. The estate felt almost surreal in this light, most of Hell was a dense overpopulated slum, gunshots and panicked wailing the only company most had at night.
Lounging across from each other, Stolas and Blitzo were drinking neat scotch together, looking at the sky for want of a clearer night where the stars were even visible. "You won't see shit tonight." Stolas gently touched Blitzo's arm when he poured him another drink. Sitting across from him he brushed his leg gently.
"You're all the stars I need, darling..." Stolas said as Blitzo gave him a sourish grin, having grown accustomed to Stolas' attempts to ply him with words and drinks. Credit where it was due, it was working quite well.
"Why don't you shine down on me, then?" Blitzo said pulling Stolas down on top of him with his tail. Stolas hooted gently the sudden motion almost causing him to drop the bottle in his hand. Slowly he fished his hands down Stolas' back, looking for any tell Stolas had as to what would happen next.
Blitzo took out the length of fabric from Stolas' robe. Gently tying it around Stolas' eyes as he felt the large owl loosen around him. He drank directly from the bottle as he cuddled up on Blitzo's midsection, making a sort of chittering hum of comfort.
Blitzo took the remaining fabric from the end of the knots and tied Stolas' hands behind his back, taking the bottle from him in the process. "Lovely night, isn't it?" Blitzo said as Stolas writhed around gently in his lap.
The door on the adjoining bedroom came open swiftly and silently as Octavia walked in.
"What the fuck?" she said, seeing her father happily laugh in the imp's lap.
Stolas peeped before falling to the ground beside Blitzo. "It's not what it looks like?" Blitzo said, stepping over Stolas to attempt to distract Octavia's gaze.
"What does it look look like?" Stolas said, still struggling on the ground.
"Oh, right..." Blitzo said, helping to untie Stolas.
"Oh, Via... You're early..." Stolas said, holding his robe taut over his head.
"Whatever." Octavia said, grimacing and covering her eyes in embarrassment before turning and leaving the room.
"That could have gone better." Blitzo said, frowning in response to Stolas' defeated expression.
"Stay here, I'm going to go talk to her." Stolas said, attempting to regain his footing.
"No, I've got an idea." Blitzo said, walking toward the phone in the corner of the room. "It's an awful idea..." Stolas shrugged, realizing it's not like things could get worse at this point.
"What do you want, dad?" A voice from behind the door said in response to a knock on the bedroom door.
"I'm not coming out, you fucking dick." Octavia said in a tone more somber than accusatory.
"Whatever..." Loona said from outside the door. "I'm here until I get bored." She said browsing on her phone. "You got any liquor?" She said, finally looking up at the doorknob.
A hand came out and deposited an uncapped bottle of vodka, barely touched.
"Nice..." Loona said, sipping directly from the bottle. "Got any ice?" She said with a candor of charm.
The hand came out again and flipped Loona off. "Not the vocal type?" She replied, swigging from the bottle again before capping it.
Octavia sat at the edge of the doorframe, unknowingly back to back with Loona. "How could he still be doing this?" Octavia said, her voice loose with tears.
"Which one are we talking about?" Loona said, leaning back in the hallway. "You want the bottle back?" Loona added, slowly rising to stand in the doorframe.
"I could use some of that..." Octavia said, slowly opening the door.
"Good, because I'm subtle." Loona said, bursting into the room and taking Octavia by surprise.
"A hellhound?" Octavia said in response.
"A shitty daughter?" Loona said instinctively in response to the accusatorial tone.
"Move over and take a shot." She added as Octavia instinctively moved aside.
"How do you think it's going?" Stolas said nervously. "I should really go and..." He added before Blitzo pinned him down by one arm.
"No." Blitzo said staring Stolas down directly.
"Will this work?" Stolas said cocking his head in the only position of force he could find at present.
"No idea." Blitzo said softly. "But at least we'll know."
"You trust her?" Stolas said, rolling his eyes towards the bedroom door.
"Loonie's just the best." Blitzo said rising up and placing his hands on his hips in a sign of pride.
Octavia's room was decorated in such a way as to cloud out her reality was much as possible, there were posters covering the walls of music groups.
"You ever see these guys live?" Loona said gesturing to a poster.
"No, I've never seen any of them." Octavia said taking a sip from the bottle.
"Huh, they're all dickwads anyways..." Loona said as she sat on Octavia's bed.
Octavia sat feeling small, in her own room everything collapsed to the point of a much smaller cone, desperately she looked for some topic of conversation.
"Hey, don't you cry on me." Loona said, slowly appearing through the blurriness of Octavia's vision. "And give me back that bottle." She added, taking back the bottle and drinking in a way that seemed to drop the contents into her directly.
"My dad is an idiot, you've got plenty of friends..." Octavia said grabbing the bottle and drinking deeply.
"My dad is an idiot, and no I don't." Loona said leaning back on the floor.
"You want to listen to music?" Octavia said, hooking up her earbuds to her phone and offering Loona one.
"Damn right." Loona replied, handing the bottle back to Octavia and the two spent the rest of the evening listening to music together.
Some time had passed, Octavia had leaned into Loona as she tried to match her shot for shot.
"They're both fucking dicks..." Octavia said, slurring slightly.
"Glad someone sees it." Loona said, poking at Octavia.
"Here's a pillow, I'm going to bed." Octavia said, throwing a pillow to a couch in the side of the room.
"Right..." Loona said as she layed back.
"Right..." Octavia added, turning toward Loona as she snuggled up on the couch a few sizes too small for her.
"Ugh, fine!" She said, shuffling over in bed and raising the sheets.
Loona approached the bed and spoke and patted Octavia's hand "Another time." before laying back down on the couch and falling asleep.
Stolas shook Blitzo awake and said in his face: "How do you think..." Stolas said before he stuck a finger in his face.
"We'll do that thing someday." Blitzo said as he clasped his fingers over Stolas' eyes.
Stolas gently kissed him back. "Thank you." Stolas said nipping around his jawline.
"How about now?" Blitzo said placing the bedsheet in his teeth.
"It's not that, it's..." Stolas said with Blitzo's finger still in his face.
"No, I get it..." He said rolling to Stolas' side in bed. "Loony's, well, Loony..." Blitzo said with a kind of muted nostalgia.
"I understand." Stolas said, tensing up slightly. "In that I don't understand, why don't I understand?" He said holding himself closely.
"Has there ever been a time when you felt you did?" Blitzo said, inserting his arms in between Stolas' defensive position.
Stolas sat puzzled, tracing the lines of the few happy memories he had, all of which were times he'd spent raising Octavia. "No, there never was..." He said, tacing those lines back to pride. "But I love her." Stolas said, feeling slightly defeated and lost in thought as Blitzo fluffed about with his chest feathers.
"How much of this is my fault?" Stolas said after a long time staring.
"Depends how you slice it, 100 percent, 50 percent? But you can share the blame with the whole world if that's what keeps you asleep at night." Blitzo said, trying to bait Stolas out of his stupor.
"I never was able to sleep." Stolas whispered in a way that denoted an inner monologue.
"And now you can, usually." Blitzo said as he rubbed Stolas' side. "Whatever happens next?" He said, leaning in for a kiss. "I'll be there for you." Stolas liked whenever Blitzo cut the tension like this.
Stolas rolled over to lay in Blitzo's arms, his head resting gently on his chest. "You have such a nice heart, Blitzy..." Stolas said, as he kissed Blitzo on the sternum.
Blitzo peeked up at Stolas and gently combed the feathers on the back of his head. Sweating slightly under the mountain of puffy feathers on top of him. "Thanks, darling..." It slightly bothering him that he didn't have a pet name for Stolas.
Stolas continued to sink back into deeper thoughts, however this time they weren't the memories he'd sifted through, like a sea of quicksand. It was of what could be, the heartbeat provided a slow easy metronome as he laid there, somewhere between dreaming and fantasies were usually drawn out nightmares, but this time they weren't.
Stolas saw himself standing in an open field as he took a moment to stant still in shock. It was removed from everything else, a thinly cut path with marks from talons stood before him. In his hands Stolas held a few basic provisions, slowly he felt a compulsion pushing him forward.
Stolas arrived at a small house in the middle of the field, slowly approaching the door flew open. Blitzo stood in the door. "Well, there's my tall drink of water..." He said, standing in a basic casual dress outfit in the doorway.
"We've all been waiting for you!" Blitzo said, flagrantly bowing down and rolling his arms to introduce Stolas to the room.
Stolas looked up and saw the room, it was a basic kind of living room. He was shocked as he saw Octavia and Loona playing cards on a sofa. "Hey dad!" He heard in unison from Octavia and Loona.
"Hush, he's had a hard day." Blitzo said, picking Stolas up and carrying him to a bedroom. "I know how you are." he said, picking up Stolas' hands in a dancing pose before forcibly throwing him down on the bed.
"I just wanted to let you know, you're the world to me..." Blitzo said, nibbling at Stolas' neck.
"This isn't real, is it?" Stolas said, leaning back in the plain room.
"No, not even remotely." Blitzo said, still rubbling at Stolas.
Stolas felt the fear coming back from his remembered nightmares, it was often by then it would come to his awareness that it had all failed by this point.
"No, no, no!" Stolas screamed, bursting the door back towards the foyer.
"Don't worry, dad. We all found our way in spite of you." Octavia said, laughing deeply.
"No, no, no!" Stolas screamed as he rose to see himself in his room again. Blitzo was still pressed to his legs.
Blitzo instinctively pulled Stolas to the floor beside the bed as he reached around his waist for some kind of weapon.
"No, it wasn't anything!" Stolas said as he pushed Blitzo's hand away.
Between two worlds, Stolas sat back on the bed, panting as he attempted to regain his grace. "I was just having a dream." Stolas said, in an embarrassed repose.
"Just tell me it's tomorrow already..." Stolas said rubbing his eyes. Blitzo relaxed on the floor.
"I'll tell you what, I'll go make some coffee, you just rest your eyes." Blitzo said, leaning back with Stolas in bed and gently kissing him on the forehead and lightly combing his fluffy feathers on his head.
Stolas laid back down, feeling comforted by Blitzo's defensive nature, the saccharine nightmare he'd have still more refreshing than his usual inadequacies.
