Night and day were quite undistinguishable in Pentagram City, what with the constant smog and acid vapours arising from the sewages. Thus, when Blitz woke up from what felt like a long nap, he wondered not what day, but what time it was. He then noticed the IV needle sticking in his arm.

"So that's where the pain comes from…" he thought drowsily. Not that he minded the needle, after all, he'd already been sent to the emergency room more often than he could count, but that throbbing sting in his thin arm was stopping him from going back to sleep.

But wait… Why do I have an IV? Have I been caught by those DHORKS dorks? By penguin researchers? No… I was at Stolas, and I…

Blitz groaned. Everything hit him like a 40-ton truck. Stolas had called him for them to have a talk. And just after apologising… He had passed out, for no obvious reason.

Well lah-dee-dah, That'll teach me to apologise.

"Uurgh…"

Couldn't he articulate a single phrase? It felt like writing messages all over again. The words were there, nested in his mind, but somehow, he couldn't express what he thought.

It seemed enough, though, as Stolas barged into the room only a few seconds later. The poor guy looks panicked.

· Blitzy! You're awake! Are you alright? You gave us quite a scare! I'll have to call Loona, and your staff… Do you remember their number? Hellphone number, I mean. I think I might…

Blitz sighed. The panick ranting had started. He saw Stolas and his two or four beaks rambling on about Hell knows what… The words he heard followed each other in strings, then plaits of sentences, and tied, untied, and re-tied themselves in long, long knots that didn't mean anything anymore to him.

Stolas abruptly stopped his oral report – Ha! Oral report! – and brought his hand to Blitz's forehead.

· Blitz, you don't look so well… Are you sure you're fine?

Blitz winced. He hadn't spoken a single intelligible word since he had woken up, and certainly never said he was fine. Instead, he just shook his head before flopping back to his pillow. He took a deep breathe, and felt himself falling back to sleep. Stolas grabbed his hellphone and dialled Plague's number.

· He woke up just for a few minutes, before falling back to sleep.

· Perfectly normal, in his state.

· I was afraid his temperature might be a little low.

· Again, not surprising, considering how much weight he's lost.

Stolas gave a sad hoot. Plague stood still, his infrared thermometer in hand.

· What is it, Stolas?

· Nothing… Noth-

· Stolas, I've known you since we were chicks. You may try to hide your sorrow from me, but we both know it'll be useless.

Stolas held his upper arm nervously. He needed somebody's objective point of view, and Plague was the best he could find.

· I was asking myself whether it could all be my fault, I mean… You know…

Plague let out a long, weary coo. He wondered when Stolas would ask this question.

· Your friend is a grown-up imp, perfectly able to take his own decisions. He might have felt affected by something you said or did, but all in all, the choice was his.

Stolas focused on his feet. This answer wasn't the one he expected.

· Thank you… For your words of comfort.

· Those weren't words of comfort. It was the truth.

Plague set his round eyes on Stolas, and gently pinched his shoulder.

· I know you love him, Stolas, but you can't expect to control his whole being. After all…

· What kind of monster would that make me…

Plague left Stolas without a word, only a few written instructions and a pat on the side of the neck. Stolas was alone, in a palace that felt so large, so empty… He stepped back to the guestroom where Blitz rested, and contemplated what Plague had told him.

True, Blitz was uncontrollable, to say the least. Stolas was pretty sure if he would tie the raging imp to a chair, he'd run away with the chair still attached to his behind. The image made him chortle, and Blitz moaned in his sleep. He turned his head towards Stolas, and let out what sounded like a little purr. Stolas felt his hellphone vibrate in his pocket and retrieved it, only to realise it wasn't his, but Blitz's. He bit his lip. It wouldn't hurt to take a peek, would it?

Stolas bit his lower lip. He remembered Blitz's words: "Helloooooo, we live in Hell!"

Stolas was born and raised a demon, and had lived his whole life among demons. What was expected from him became a bit blurry. Should he strive towards moral righteousness, as he always had up till now, or allow himself…

To take a small, tiny peek at Blitz's data?

Perhaps it would consist only in horse GIFs.

Perhaps he would only find pictures of the M 's.

Perhaps…

Stolas left the hellphone on the bedtable, and perhaps it was all for the best.

He kissed Blitz's forehead tenderly, and held him in a tight embrace. The owl prince felt tears squeezed out of his two pairs of eyes, and gulped back a sob. He let go of Blitz and fled the room, not noticing the dark silhouette following him to his room.

Olivia hadn't seen her dad in this state for a very long time. She couldn't say she approved of his feelings for this imp, but at the same time, how could she look down upon the creature that had saved her friend from the prison she had described? Loona rarely spoke of the cell she had called home for a long, long time. How the "guard bitch", as she called her, described her as a lost cause to the demons who envisaged adopting her. How she slept on hard wood and soggy pizza boxes, covered in grease and hairballs. How she preyed Satan the bitch would forget a bottle of liquor, for her to disinfect her wounds and down the rest, hoping to never wake up from the nightmare she had come to call her life.

When Loona saw Liv' starting to weep, she switched to her "happy ending": the arrival of her real Dad.

Loona had never met her biological father, and her mother had died a few minutes after giving birth to a litter of five puppies, of which Loona was the runt. The greyish hellhound had learnt from the very start to fight for what she wanted, and most of all for what she needed.

The word "need" made Olivia feel uncomfortable. This concept felt foreign to her, and she didn't know whether she ever could've survived the ordeals Loona had faced. Probably not.

Loona chose to leave her in contemplation for a minute or two, before holding her in a tight hug, without saying anything other than "I know."

At this part of the story, Blitz arrived, like some kind of weird, unexpected saviour that Loona had neither wished nor asked for. But he was there, not as an owner. As a Dad.

"Heh. I had already seen pups getting adopted as kids, before coming back when they'd grown too big, or too fucking ugly. I thought Blitz was some kind of fetishist, but then… He… We went home. And he gave me his room. The only room in his shitty flat. He sleeps… He slept… On a mingy old sofa he found in a dumpster, but kinda luved because of the horse pattern… He luvs horse. Yeah. And he luvs me. And…"

At this point, Loona had whimpered, and balled her fists at the side of her thighs. She had then left without even saying goodbye to Olivia, and Olivia let her go. She needs space.

…

Stolas' face was cupped in his hands when Olivia entered his room. His eyes had a glum expression… Close to sorrow, but with a tad of longing. His mind was elsewhere, in another realm, where and when life was a parade and demons wore masks of pure delight. She walked towards Stolas, waiting for him to notice her presence, which he only did once she was in front of him.

· Oh! Starfire! How are you!

Olivia rolled her eyes. It was so like her Dad to avoid discussing serious issues, or matters regarding HIM, by focusing the conversation on her. She decided to give it the ol' college try.

· Dad, is something wrong?

· No! No, absolutely not! How could you even conceit such a thing? Every… Every…

The look on Olivia's face said it all: how genuinely worried, upset, disappointed she was of his answer, and perhaps…

Satan, I hope not of me.

He massaged his nasal bone to calm down, before letting out a long exhale.

· I'm afraid things are going slightly out of hand…

· Aren't they always?

Stolas frowned, before taking in a deep, tired breath. Why did teens have to be so cheeky?

· Bli… Loona's D… My…

· Blitz.

· Erm… Yes… Him. He… Isn't going well. Not at all well.

· I thought I noticed after seeing him half-naked in the guestroom bed. Oh…

That comment came out far too dry than she would've wanted. She blushed slightly. How was she supposed to make her father feel better by acting like a carbon-copy of her mother?

· I'm sorry, Dad… I know you really care for him… And Loona shared he might care just as much for you, if not more…

Stolas' eyes grew wide. At this point, he didn't know what to expect. He had wished for the best, only to get the worst. He didn't think his being could handle any more false hopes. He stood up, staring at an ebony black stary sky which appeared out of thin air, before him and Olivia, and stepped in the celestial landscape, before being followed by Olivia.

Stolas' sky illusions were usually filled with shiny dots and swept with asteroids, comets, moons, and planets, with countless shades of blue, purple, red and even yellow swaying around him. This evening, however, the sky was dark, intimate, and lifeless. Above them, single star was slowly faltering.

Olivia would have come up with a bilious comment, but the scene of her father slowly sinking to his knees prevented her from hurting him more than he already was. She had been bright enough to figure out her parents' marriage wasn't meant to be, and her open-mindedness allowed her to tolerate this union that demons would consider taboo.

To a certain degree.

· Why are you so attached to him?

Stolas' head dropped in what looked suspiciously like shame, or the result of years and years of bullying by his own father, who wouldn't allow the sighted sign of respect towards "these lower-class subspecies".

· I… Really don't know. I met him before I met your mother, and… I felt some kind of happiness I couldn't understand. He was there, a thief, and like myself, a poor tortured soul, facing the Lady Destiny's unfair wrath… He was there… And so was I… I wanted to believe we could be meant for each other.

Once again, Olivia held back her tongue. Stolas rarely mentioned his childhood or his own father. From what she had heard from conversations between her mother and uncle, the demon was an abusive ego-maniac, which partly explained Stolas' relentless avoidance of this subject.

The owl prince was gazing at the small star representing Blitz. His hands were held up, trembling, and framing its light. Olivia held him from behind, her dark head falling on his shoulder.

· Oh, Dad…

The sky abruptly disappeared. A desperate imp servant had run inside Stolas' room, thus breaking the prince's concentration.

· Your Majesty! Your Majesty!

· What is it?

· The imp guest-

· Blitz!

· Yes, him… He woke up!

Stolas let out a sigh of relief. Thanks Satan for favours, big and small…

· And he has decided to leave the palace.