Author's notes: I've got a little problem. I want to use italics for thoughts and radio/phone conversations but AO3 doesn't apparently allow italics. I would appreciate any suggestions for what to use instead.
—-
With the salon out of the way, it was now time for lunch. Moxxie and Millie got out in order to grab lunch for everyone while Vortex circled the block. Sometime later, the imps re-entered the limo with lunch. Moxxie got food for himself and Verosika from a place that specialized in salads and smoothies while Millie got burgers for herself and Vortex.
"You're going to eat that with Vortex in the driver's cab," Verosika ordered to Millie.
Probably doesn't wanna be bothered by the smell of real food, Millie thought as she complied.
"Now we get to the awkward part," Verosika said to Moxxie. "In order to keep my nails pristine, you're going to have to feed me my lunch."
Moxxie took Verosika's lunch and began doing just that. He fed her a few forkfuls of salad and then moved the smoothie up for her to take a sip, all the while having a content grin on his face.
"You better not be getting any ideas about where you hope this is heading," Verosika said threateningly.
"I'm not expecting this to go anywhere," Moxxie said to defend himself. "Having said that, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't enjoying this."
"That's fine," Verosika replied.
—
Later at the TV studio, Verosika and her security detail were going through a security check to enter the building. Moxxie and Millie turned in their weapons before being allowed through while Verosika withdrew a snub nose revolver from her purse and checked it in with security as well.
"You had a gun on you this whole time?" Moxxie asked even though he could already tell the answer was yes.
"I've had it for years," Verosika began, "for home defense but I've never had to use it. After what happened with Donnie I've decided that there's no such thing as too much protection."
"Fair enough," Moxxie admitted. They walked past the security checkpoint and Moxxie took out several pieces from his fanny pack and snapped them together to make a pair of wrist-mounted crossbows.
"How do you get those in?" Verosika asked.
"They're made with plastic and carbon fiber materials," Moxxie answered, "so they didn't set off the metal detector, which security here has too much faith in."
"Well put," Millie agreed as she pulled out three shivs in each hand. They looked like spikes made out of hard, brightly-colored plastic.
"Those are sharpened toothbrushes, aren't they?" Vortex asked.
"She doesn't need much to work with," Moxxie answered. "Any object larger or sharper than a toothpick is a deadly weapon in her hands."
"Ah," Millie said as she wrapped an arm around Moxxie and put him in a half hug. "You always know just what to say."
Verosika went to get her makeup on (her personal makeup artist, Josh, being brought in for it) for the interview and performance that she was there for. Sometime later, Moxxie was approached by Coco.
"I heard about what happened at the salon," Coco began. "Excellent work by the way. I need to make an official incident report."
Moxxie began telling her about what happened.
"So you see," Moxxie said in conclusion, "we had everything under control."
"You sure did," Coco agreed.
"There is one thing I would like to go over," Moxxie said with a hint of nervousness.
—-
A few hours later, Verosika had finished the interview and performance. It was time to call it a day. She met up with Coco, Josh and her security detail.
"So Verosika," Coco began, "the crew and I are planning a little getting to know you thing with Vortex, Moxxie and Millie tonight. Nothing big: just takeout and drinks at mine and Apple's place. Would you like to join us?"
"Sure," Verosika answered.
"Really?" Josh said, surprised at how quickly Verosika agreed to that. "I figured you would've had better things to do than hang out with the help."
"That would normally be the case," Verosika began, "but recent events have made me realize that I should probably not spend my free time doing anything that involves getting fucked up around strangers or having sex with unfamiliar demons. And with those things removed, my schedule is very open now."
Depressingly open, Verosika thought. I was probably just going to grab some takeout on my way home, catch up on TV and get reacquainted with some of my favorite toys.
"Whew," Coco sighed in relief.
"Why are you glad to hear me say that?" Verosika asked.
"Well, you see," Coco began awkwardly, "Moxxie brought up to me earlier…"
"Hey," Moxxie angrily interrupted. "You said you were going to bring this up as your idea."
"When we made the actual sales pitch," Coco angrily glared back at the bow-tie wearing imp. "Which we don't have to do now."
"What the heaven are you two talking about?" Verosika demanded.
There was an awkward silence before Moxxie cleared his throat and faced Verosika.
"I brought up to Coco earlier," Moxxie began, "that your preferred forms of recreation would be a major security risk. She agreed to bring it up as her idea since you'd likely listen to her due to knowing her longer but we apparently didn't need to get to that part."
"All right," Verosika said in understanding.
—-
Sometime later, Verosika, her crew and security detail all arrived in the apartment shared by Apple and Coco. Fortunately it had a spacious living room/kitchen area to accommodate such a relatively large gathering. Everyone began helping themselves to food and drinks.
"Thanks for coming," Coco said to the three new hires. "So we now have time for more detailed introductions," Coco said as she wrapped one of her arms around a blonde succubus wearing a top meant to look like overalls with a snake tattoo on one of her legs. "This is Apple. She works for Verosika as a graphic designer, mostly coming up with designs to put on T-shirts and posters. Also, she's my girlfriend."
"Hi," Apple said with a wave and wide, toothy smile.
"I'm Josh," the incubus introduced himself. "I am Verosika's personal makeup artist. And I enjoy working for her so much more than when I used to work at channel 666 news. I lost that job when Katie Killjoy fired me over a disagreement on what would look good on her. Surprisingly, she's actually more of a bitch in person than you would think."
"If that were true," Moxxie said, "then how come the people she's pissed off haven't banded together and tied her to a lamp post the night before extermination day?"
"I have no idea," Josh replied as he shook his head. "Just one of life's great mysteries, I suppose."
"I'm Ace," a hunky looking incubus said. "I do the drum work on Verosika's music whenever that comes up. Very well, if I do say so myself."
"Almost as well as he thinks," Verosika chimed in with a backhanded compliment.
"And we are dating," Josh said as he wrapped his arm around Ace.
Good for you, Moxxie thought in admiration towards Josh. While Moxxie was usually attracted towards women, he had to admit that Ace was a vision of male attractiveness. Especially with how his cut off tank top/tight pants combo left very little to the imagination.
"The name is Kiki," the skinny succubus introduced herself. "I handle post production sound mixing on Verosika's music."
"And she's very good at it," Verosika added. "She's a maestro with a mixing board." This earned a blush of appreciation from Kiki.
"I'm Kat," the next demon introduced himself. "I work as a mechanic. I'm also non-binary so please refer to me with they/them pronouns. Or else," he finished with an angry glare.
"And lastly, I'm Milky," the short and stout succubus added. "I'm a roadie for when any heavy lifting is required. Due to the level of strength I have, I'm also kind of a secondary bodyguard so that means we may be working together." she finished with a playful grin.
"Lookin' forward to it," Millie replied with her own amount of playfulness.
"So the seven of us," Coco resumed as she motioned to the other members of the crew, "are kind of from all over hell. Ace, Apple and myself are the only ones from Lust."
"I'm originally from Greed," Kat spoke up. "If you've never been, I would strongly recommend keeping it that way."
Truer words were never spoken, Moxxie thought.
"I'm from Pride," Josh chimed in.
"I'm from Envy," Kiki said.
"Oh, I've always wanted to go there," Millie said. "Did you spend a lot of time on the beach?"
"Oh, yeah," Kiki answered and noticed that Millie had a dreamy look on her face. "You're picturing me in a bikini, aren't you?"
"Actually," Millie began to counter, "Ah'm picturin' you in a figure huggin' wetsuit, holdin' a surfboard under your arm. You look good if you were wonderin'."
"Damn right I do," Kiki boasted. "But you should keep in mind that I am a lesbian so if you and bowtie are looking for a third, look elsewhere."
"How do you know we're dating?" Moxxie asked. "We haven't brought that up yet."
"You disclosed it on the paperwork you signed this morning," Kiki answered. "Coco noticed it and shared it with us after you left the studio."
"you're a lesbian?" Millie asked with a hint of confusion. "But you look so… how do I put this… traditionally feminine."
"Not all lezbos are bull Dykes," Kiki replied. "Case in point: my high school girlfriend was a lesbian like me and was also a total girly-girl. She was even a cheerleader. Well, so was I but she was really into it. I only went along with it for status purposes and group showers."
This caused Millie and Moxxie to both bite their lower lips and have awkward looks on their faces as they blushed.
"Where's the bathroom here?" Millie asked.
"It's that door," Coco said while pointing at the door. Millie said nothing as she grabbed Moxxie's hand and they both went in there.
Once Coco was done giving directions, Apple put her arm around her girlfriend's torso and practically dragged her to their shared bedroom. At the same time, Josh pulled Ace to follow him into a room Josh knew from previous visits was Apple and Coco's guest room. While Ace was a gay man and was unaffected by the mention of lesbian cheerleaders, he wasn't going to go to turn down a quickie.
"Dammit, again," Kiki said, while placing her hands on her face in frustration. "I've got to be more careful when bringing that up."
"Yeah, you do," Verosika added. "So what did your girlfriend look like?" Kiki's only response was to glare at her boss. "I'm asking for a friend." Kiki continued to glare. "Worth a shot," Verosika finished in frustrated defeat.
About eight minutes later, everyone came back to the main living room/kitchen area.
"And now that we got that out-of-the-way," Kiki said in exasperation, "where were we?"
"Well, I haven't gone yet," Vortex spoke up. "I'm from Gluttony."
"Not surprising," Kat said. "A big guy like you would need to have been well fed growing up."
"I spent the first 10 years of my life in an orphanage," Vortex continued. "I really dodged a bullet with it being in Gluttony based on what I've heard about hound orphanages in other rings being total shit shows. Before this, I worked at an events company. Even helped with some of the massive parties that Beelze threw. Considering I'll be going to one as a guest in about a week, it seems like I've gone up in the world."
"My turn, finally," Milky interjected. "I didn't get a chance to say that I'm from Wrath."
"So are we," Millie said while motioning to Moxxie.
"He doesn't seem like the rough and tumble type you expect from there," Kiki commented.
"Try telling that to the demons he killed today," Verosika spoke up.
"I only killed two demons," Moxxie said. "Millie killed the other two."
"And we kept them," Millie began, "from gettin' anywhere near Verosika because you had the great idea to get sniper coverage on the back entrance."
"You said you were good with guns," Verosika said as she reached into her purse and pulled out the snub nose revolver from earlier. "Is this due for any kind of maintenance?"
"Since when are you packing heat?" Kat asked.
"Since Donnie getting killed," Verosika's began to counter, "made me realize that I might need to act as my own last line of defense."
"Seems kind of dinky," Ace said in criticism of the gun
"That assessment," Moxxie said, "says more about you than the weapon itself. The small size means it can be secreted inside a coat pocket or a purse while being easy to draw quickly whereas something larger might be more cumbersome."
"And as I've learned," Verosika semi-angrily began, "after several highly disappointing fuck sessions, size isn't everything."
"Bet the little guy is super happy to hear you say that," Josh snickered.
"Does everything," Millie spoke up, "end up bein' about sex with you people?"
"Most things," Apple answered with a wide smile.
"As for the gun," Moxxie resumed, "it's not in need of maintenance right now. I remember you saying at the studio that you've had this for years and never shot it so I can tell that you've been keeping it somewhere where it's been kept from gathering dust. The box you originally got it in?"
"A hollowed out book on my nightstand," Verosika answered.
"Fantastic combination of discrete and accessible," Moxxie complemented. "Excellent choice, as is the gun. In addition to the points I made about the merits of its small size, the lack of a barrel means that while it loses accuracy at long range, it has greater stopping power at close range. Maintenance is simple and if properly kept up, there will be zero chance of the gun jamming on you in a critical moment. All in all: while far from a professional's weapon, it is an excellent choice for self-defense."
"You just knew all that off the top of your head?" Kiki asked.
"I know guns," Moxxie explained then had a nervous look on his face. "What Apple said about most things ending up being about sex made me think of something I was wondering earlier. Do you all consider an orgy a team building exercise?"
"Well, there's an idea," Apple replied with a smirk.
"I'm gonna have to derail that train of thought for both of you," Coco said while placing her hands on her hips. "While we have a very casual attitude about sex, there are a few lines we don't cross and mixing sex with work on that level is one of them."
"I wanna be clear," Moxxie began, "that I was asking out of curiosity, not hopefulness."
"Speaking about curiosity," Vortex said, "I'm straight. Is that gonna be a problem?"
Only for me, Ace thought. He normally wouldn't have sex with hounds, but Vortex's general level of hotness made him tempted to rope the massive hound into a three-way with him and Josh. Sadly, this revelation made that a moot point.
"Why would it?" Apple asked.
"I heard some stuff," Vortex resumed, "about how straight is actually a minority among succubi and incubi."
"That's a misconception," Coco said. "So among succubi and incubi, it's pretty evenly spread out between straight, gay and bi as opposed to with everyone else where straight is normal and everything else is the exception. But to answer your original question, I seriously doubt you'll be persecuted against."
"Good," Vortex said.
Everyone started breaking into their own conversations after that. For once, Verosika chose not to be the center of attention and listen to everyone else talk.
"So how long have you two been together?" Verosika asked Apple and Coco. She's been working with the two of them for over two years now and knew they were together at that point but didn't know more about the relationship past that.
"Oh, we've known each other practically our whole lives," Apple answered. "We've been friends since we were nine and girlfriends since our sophomore year of high school."
"That's sweet," Verosika said with a hint of longing
"Not as sweet as you may think," Coco said. "We can also be really spicy too. Three-ways, four-ways, orgies: you name it, we've probably done it. Gotta keep things interesting."
Things with Blitzo were interesting and look how that turned out, Verosika thought.
—-
Millie and Milky had been talking for a while. Milky was finishing up the story of how the attack on Verosika that led to her, Moxxie and Vortex getting hired went down.
"So I rush over to where all the noise is coming from," Milky resumed, "and see that Donnie's been killed with two other guys on the floor with him and a third standing over them. I figured these guys tried to get past Donnie to kill Verosika and were only successful in killing him so I pushed the last guy to the ground and punched him in the head so much it partially turned into red mush."
"Cool," Millie said, impressed with such an act of violence.
—
"It's bullshit," Vortex angrily continued as he was talking with Moxxie, Kat, Josh and Ace, "that hell hounds have the same level of intelligence as other demons but it's common for us to get treated like house pets that can talk."
"That is bad," Moxxie began, "but I think it might be part of a larger problem."
"And what problem is that?" Vortex asked with a hint of anger.
"That hell just has a very high level of general asshole-ishness," Moxxie answered.
Vortex thought this over for a bit.
"I think you might be onto something," Vortex admitted.
—
Verosika learned more about her crew in two hours than she had in two years. Such as that Milky's hobbies included hunting, fishing and making pottery. She was so good at the last one that she'd made a ceramic tableware set that had sold for quite a bit to a noble family.
Verosika was not surprised to learn that Kiki was into surfing and scuba diving after hearing that she grew up near one of the beaches in Envy. She was surprised to hear that Josh's career as a makeup artist started from how much he enjoyed helping his two little sisters with their dress up parties.
What was most surprising though was hearing Ace brag about his sex life. Which he did at great length, whether he was asked about it or not. He was very open about being exclusively into guys but he was like a frat guy douche bro about it.
There is a good chance, Verosika thought, that will never not be weird.
Verosika left the party, surprised at how much she ended up enjoying herself.
