They couldn't seem too excited.

Oliver carefully kept his face schooled into its usual apathetic expression all day.

It was almost exactly four months after the last time he'd run away to see the pageant performance. Kai had had a birthday and was now eleven (which meant they considered Oliver to be eleven too. No one remembered when Oliver had been born, so Kai said they could share his birthday and be twins.) Since the pageant, the knees of Oliver's jeans had been worn through, patched, then worn through again. The sock with their savings in it had been tucked up Kai's pant leg twenty-four seven all this time.

After dinner, they were all sent to bed. Kai and Oliver waited, pressed shoulder to shoulder in their bunk, for the clock downstairs to strike one in the morning. The perfect time to leave. Since Oliver's first escape, Mrs. D kept a better eye on them during the day.

But right now, everything was quiet in the house. And still. They waited until the noise of vehicles on the highway outside had lulled everyone else to sleep…

—

Now that they were traveling through the dark, trying to keep their footsteps and wheels quiet, Oliver felt a little sick. He felt his pulse in his arms and in his head. He gripped the handles of the wheelchair harder and picked up the pace as they got further away.

Kai reached back to tap his shoulder, twisting around to sign, "Not so fast! The left wheel is making weird noises. If it falls off we're screwed."

Oliver slowed down.

"I can hold the bag, hand it here."

He did. Kai held their bag in his lap. They had discussed this so many times. Oliver navigated, weaving the two of them through the crowded platforms to the ticket window, where Kai talked to the bored demon at the ticket window. Oliver saw him heave a weary sigh when Kai began counting out change. He nervously watched the line behind them grow. The longer they spent here, the more anxious he felt about being caught.

Eventually, two tickets down to Lust were handed to Kai. He'd barely finished thanking the demon at the window before Oliver was speeding them toward the correct elevator.

"Satan, slow down! Slow down, we're fine."

Oliver forced his feet to move more slowly as they found their spot on the crowded elevator with the other unaccompanied minors- two small succubi and a hellhound who was gnawing idly on the end of his own tail. They were all placed out of the way so some of the bigger demons didn't accidentally trample them underfoot. Kai didn't try to talk to the others. It was better if they didn't make conversation and be more memorable.

The big doors slid closed. Kai was bopping his head. There must be some sort of music playing, Oliver thought. He kept his tail wrapped tight around his leg for comfort.

The floor seemed to drop underneath him, making Oliver's stomach do a weird flip. He clutched the handles of Kai's wheelchair even tighter, knuckles turning a pale pink. He wasn't sure if he liked this experience. Luckily, it wasn't much longer than twenty minutes to get to a neighboring ring. When the elevator stopped, it was a similar feeling. Oliver found that when he stepped off, his legs and his head still felt weird, as if the floor moved every time he stepped now.

He would have to give elevators a solid five out of ten.

Kai was pointing. The exit, right, they were sort of in a hurry here. They had to get to Ozzie's.

The misty streets of Lust had some light foot traffic this time of night, but nothing too bad. Nothing that would slow them down. The longer they walked, the less nervous Oliver felt and the more excited he was. He was going to see Fizzarolli again! And this time, his best friend would be with him. Then they were going to Wrath, and it was going to be so nice and warm, and no one from Greed would ever find them there.

Life couldn't be better.

—

They kind of hadn't factored in security.

From a half block away, Oliver and Kai spotted the bouncer standing outside Ozzie's, under the glow of the colorful sign. They exchanged glances as their hearts sank.

"Give me a second, I'll think of something," Kai signed.

"He'll never let us in, we're probably too young," Oliver frowned.

"Let's try around the back? And maybe we can catch Fizz backstage after his show."

That sounded like it might work. Oliver was ready to try pretty much anything. After all, they'd come this far. So the boys snuck around the back of the building, hiding behind the dumpsters. Two employees were standing by a propped open door on a smoke break. The male succubus exhaled a cloud of smoke and turned to his coworker. Oliver couldn't make out what he was saying. The female succubus responded, the words leaving her mouth in a smoky blur.

The two employees looked a little tired, but satisfied. Their conversation was laid back, and they continued to take lazy drags from their cigarettes and watch the smoke spiral. It must not suck, working at Ozzie's. Of course it didn't. Fizz worked here. And Asmodeus ran it. Asmodeus seemed like a pretty cool guy. Still not cooler than Fizz, but to be fair, that was a high bar.

After about five minutes, the cigarettes were put out and the butt ends of them were dropped in a nearby puddle just in case. The two succubi disappeared back through the door into Ozzie's.

The door was still propped open a few inches with a doorstop. Oliver grinned.

"Tell me if you hear someone coming," he told Kai.

They crept toward the door. Oliver pulled it open slowly. He looked at Kai, eyebrows raised, wondering if it was squeaking, but Kai gave him a thumbs up. All good. Then he went ahead and rolled himself forward, peeking his head around to check for more people. He gave Oliver's sleeve a little tug, and he stepped inside, making sure the door shut slowly and quietly behind them.

The hallway was dimly lit. Oliver wasn't quite sure where it would lead, but they picked a direction and went, ducking into a storage closet for a minute after Kai heard footsteps around the corner. When those faded, he gestured that it was okay to keep going.

"I can hear Fizz on stage. Faint," Kai signed quickly. They must be headed in the right direction.

When they saw the door, they both had to stifle gasps. It had a star on it, and Fizzarolli's name printed in marker on the star. His dressing room!

"We should wait here, he'll probably be back-" before Oliver could keep signing, Kai stopped nodding and his eyes went wide.

Oliver felt a nudge on his shoulder, turned, and found himself staring down the barrel of a gun.

—

"...and I couldn't help but think, that's what I call a hardened criminal," Fizz twirled the cord of the microphone idly around one finger. He knew Ozzie wasn't the biggest fan of the kidnapping related jokes, but hey, they got laughs.

His life was so much more chill now that his only business partner was his boyfriend. He didn't have to worry so much about being perfect all the time. Even when he did things Ozzie didn't necessarily like, Fizz was never worried. He hadn't been so aware about his 'walking-on-eggshells-ness' around Mammon until he wasn't anymore.

He should probably switch gears now though, before Ozzie started to think too hard about that one incident and worry. He isn't even the one who was kidnapped and he worries about it more than I do, Fizz thought, equal parts fond and exasperated.

"Anyway-" Fizz stopped and tilted his head. Was someone… screaming? Back near the dressing rooms?

He glanced at Asmodeus, who was in the crowd- near the back so he didn't distract from the acts. He didn't look like he'd heard anything. But Fizz did. He knew he did.

"...on that lovely note, it's time to introduce our next act! You might've seen them before, we liked 'em so much we invited them back, Exxxtasy! With three 'x's for some reason!"

The band looked confused, fumbling to pick up their instruments. Fizz had cut his act rather short, and they were still puttering around backstage getting everything ready.

"Sorry," he mouthed. "You'll do great."

Asmodeus watched his partner disappear backstage and frowned.

—

"...the air!"

The rather tall imp with a big white splotch on his face demanded. Oliver froze. He hadn't caught the start of the sentence because he'd still been turning, but Kai lightly slapped his arm and waved his hands in the air. Oliver copied him, heart hammering. He could feel a whine building in his throat, but he wasn't sure if it was audible to everyone else or not.

This was not the plan. This was not the plan.

"What are the two of you doing hanging around here, huh? This is Fizz's dressing room. And I doubt you're of legal drinking age, can you even be in the building?"

The imp kept questioning, the end of the gun drifting back and forth from Kai to Oliver, to Kai to Oliver again. Oliver glanced from his best friend to the imp, unable to keep up with lip reading the conversation as they spoke over each other.

Then the adult imp caught sight of something behind them, and he put the gun down. Oliver risked turning. He wasn't sure if he was glad when he did. Fizzarolli stood there, but he had a glare on his face and his arms were crossed tight over his chest. Was he angry at the two of them?

"Christ on a stick, Blitzø! Are you threatening kids?"

Oh, looked like he was mad at this Blitzø guy. As the two adults continued to argue back and forth, Kai and Oliver exchanged glances.

"I almost pissed myself," Kai signed. "I've never seen a gun up close like that before."

Oliver felt a somewhat hysterical laugh leave him. Fizz seemed to remember then that the two of them were still there.

"Hey, what are you two doing here? It's pretty late for a couple of kids to be out," he signed, crouching down to their level.

Oliver saw Kai start to talk out of the corner of his eye about coming to see the show. He grabbed their bag from Kai's lap and pulled out the newspaper picture. Fizz looked confused.

"The other one got stolen. I wondered if you would sign a new one, please?" Oliver signed, unsure if Kai had already explained that part or not.

"Stolen?" Fizzarolli asked.

"And ripped up."

"That's mean. Who did that?"

"I don't know. We were sleeping." Oliver gestured to himself and Kai.

"So is this your brother?" Fizzarolli asked, before pulling a marker out of his pocket and signing the corner of the photo.

Oliver shrugged. "Best friend. Close enough."

"What are your names?"

"I'm Oliver. He's Kai."

Fizz watched as Oliver tucked the photo in their bag for safe keeping. "Going somewhere after this?"

Oliver grinned and looked to Kai, who started talking almost too fast for Oliver to read. "We're going to Wrath! It's a whole hour in the elevators, sometimes more, but it's going to be awesome. We're going to live there, me and him. We've been wanting to go for ages. Well, I have. I managed to convince Ollie it would be a good idea."

Fizzarolli and Blitzø exchanged a glance.

"Oh? Is there someone waiting for you there?" Fizzarolli asked.

"Yes, a friend," Oliver lied, at the same time that Kai proudly declared, "Nope! We don't need anyone else."

Maybe it would have been a good idea to agree on a cover story beforehand.

—

As these kids lied to his face, Fizz put the pieces together fairly quickly that they were runaways. Then he very quickly drew a blank about what to do about it.

The first idea he had was to report to the authorities.

But what if they had a very good reason to be leaving?

But look at them, they were both so young. It couldn't be safe to let them go on their own.

Where were they coming from, and who was supposed to be responsible for them?

"Froggie? Is everything alright?" Asmodeus turned the corner and his other two faces wore matching worried frowns. He took in the odd scene, and worry gave way to confusion. "What's going on?"

"I heard a commotion, and this one was taking his job a little too seriously," Fizz stood up, sending another exasperated glance Blitzø's way.

"Hey, you can never take a job too seriously."

"They're like eight, they aren't security threats!"

"I couldn't have known who sent them! They could be spies. Or very small adults," Blitzø grumbled, defending himself.

"Well, they aren't security threats. Or spies. They're fans. I met this one at the meet-and-greet during the pageant. His name is Oliver," Fizz extended an arm slightly to gesture to one little impling with the ends broken off of his horns. The kid's tail was tucked close to his body, wrapped around his leg, which Ozzie recognized as a common nervous habit for imps. "And he brought along his best friend, Kai," Fizz gestured to the other impling, the one with shorter hair in a wheelchair. Both of the kids were staring up at Ozzie, somehow managing to be both in awe and very nervous.

(He was a Sin. He could kick them out. Or get mad at them for sneaking in and- Ollie didn't know- smite them or something? Whatever Sins did.)

"And why are they here? Not that I don't like kids, but this isn't exactly an appropriate place for them to be."

"We snuck in through the back, the door was propped open, but we're really sorry, sir," Kai piped up. "We won't do it again. We just wanted to see Fizzarolli and we'll go now, sir, we won't hang around where we aren't allowed."

"Wait a minute, how far are you going?" It wasn't ideal to send them off on their own. Even if they had come here alone, Asmodeus felt, in a way, responsible for their safety now.

"Just to the elevators. Then we're going to Wrath!" the impling announced with stars in his eyes. The other impling, Oliver, who had been watching the face of whoever was speaking, grinned.

"Yeah, as you mentioned… what's the plan when you get to Wrath, if I may ask?" Fizz tilted his head, the bells on his hat jingling softly.

"Well, we're going to get jobs, and we're going to find a place to live, and it'll be easier than living in Greed, that's for sure."

Kai said all of this with the confidence of a child who did not know much about the world. Or money. Or child labor laws. (To be fair, they existed in Wrath and not in Greed. Asmodeus couldn't really fault him for not knowing.)

"Ollie can juggle three whole things," Kai continued. "It's pretty cool. He's going to be a performer like Fizz. And I have a really good announcer voice, so I think we'll do that for a while. You know, 'til we find something we like better."

Fizz glanced up at Ozzie. He saw the same concern he was feeling reflected in his partner's eyes. An unspoken agreement was made between them. They couldn't let these kids run off again, they had to figure out what was up.

"That's a long way to go, even if you will be on an elevator most of the way," Asmodeus said, keeping his tone light and even. "Why don't you stay for a little longer? Have something to eat."

Kai's face lit up, but Oliver seemed wary. He nudged his friend and signed something to him, body turned so no one else could see. After their short sidebar, Kai had tamped down his initial excitement.

"No thank you," he said. "We'd best be on our way. Y'all. They say that in Wrath."

Fizz crouched back down to sign to Oliver. Asmodeus wished he could understand what he was saying to him. Instead, he watched the impling's expression change to be a bit more relaxed.

—

"Mind telling me what's up, Oliver?"

"Nothing," Oliver signed quickly.

Fizzarolli gave him a stern look. His heart sank. Fizz may be his idol, but he was still an adult. And he could still send them back to Mrs. D.

"It's pretty obvious you two ran away."

Oliver scuffed the ground with his shoe. Fizz noticed that it was practically falling apart.

"Are you going to turn us in?"

"Your…" Fizzarolli paused to consider his next words, then settled on, "... adults might be worried about you."

Oliver made an indignant chirping noise. "No way. Mrs. D hates us."

"Who's Mrs. D?"

"She runs the group home. She's not nice. We don't like it there. Don't turn us in, please? We want to go to Wrath. It's nicer for imps there."

"Don't you think it might be dangerous on your own?" Fizz signed more slowly, looking conflicted. It seemed like he wanted to get Oliver and Kai to change their minds on their own. "And couldn't you still get adopted from a group home? Maybe you shouldn't give up hope yet."

"Nobody wants us."

The blunt way Oliver signed it broke Fizz's heart a little. More than a little. The kid's expression didn't even change. It was like he was reporting the weather. It's always misty in Lust. It's always sunny in Wrath. And no one wanted to adopt either of them.

Fizzarolli was not exactly known for his top-notch planning skills. Or looking before he leapt. Before he thought to consult his partner (with whom he lived) or reflect on his own child-rearing skills (of which he had none, at least that he was aware of), he was already signing, "What if I want you?"

Oliver's eyes went wide and round. He turned around to grab at Kai, who had zoned out and was distracted by Blitzø's gun (which he was beginning to warm up to. Guns were kinda cool actually).

"What? What?" Kai signed. Oliver shook him and pointed at Fizz.

"Both of us?!"

He wouldn't go anywhere without Kai. Not even if Fizzarolli himself asked him to.

"I need to make some calls first. I need to figure out if I can. But yes. Both of you. If possible," Fizz signed, beginning to realize what he was signing up for, but not beginning to regret it in the least.

Sure, why not spontaneously adopt? All the best things in his life he'd done spontaneously, come to think of it. Start a relationship with the King of Lust. Quit his job. Go into the shelter never having owned a pet and coming out with six quieves. (Not that kids were the same at all, but he could handle kids too. Right? Right. Totally.)

He should probably get his boyfriend on board though.

Shit, he was doing this out of order.

Kai and Oliver were staring at him, starry eyed.

"Um… okay. I'm going to talk it over with Oz, you two stay right here. No sneaking off," Fizz said, signing while he spoke.

"So…" Fizz pulled Asmodeus a couple more steps away for a quiet sidebar, extending his legs to be closer to the Sin's ears. "I did a thing."