Requested by AmiStuki09 on Quotev
Takes Place After "Uphappy Campers" and Before "Oops"
3rd Person POV
"HAH!" Ayden threw a punch only for Millie to catch it with her palm, the two of them in a training session at Ayden's request,
*PSH!*
"RAH!"
Just before Ayden used her tail to grab her ankle and trip her up enough to shove her away making Millie note,
"Gettin' better, but remember you're not supposed to be doing anything too straining."
"*Hah…* *Hah…* Millie I'm alright." Ayden panted as she got back into ready position but Millie wasn't having it as she argued,
"You came back yesterday, while I admire you willin' ta get back in action you're forgetting one itsy bitsy little detail."
"What?" Ayden questioned before the front of her shirt was grabbed to bring her to eye level with Millie as she practically shouted in her face,
"YOU DIED!"
Softening a bit, Millie added,
"You came back sure… but you can't be pushin' yourself too hard after that…"
Letting her fists drop from their position, Ayden begrudgingly agreed,
"Fine…"
With a sigh, Millie let go of Ayden's shirt to let her go to the water cooler for a drink, only to grimace when she caught sight of the shirt's ruined back from where it had burned in the lava and gave her a full view of the new burn scars on her upper back.
"Why haven't you gotten any new shirts?" Millie asked and Ayden choked on her water a bit as her ears drooped back sheepishly before she tried lying,
"Jus' haven't had a lotta time to.. y'know wi'h ever'thin' goin' on an'-"
Only to stop when she turned back around to see Millie giving her the "Mom Glare" and closed her mouth while hunching over embarrassed.
"C'mon we're going shopping." Millie unwrapped her fists and grabbed Ayden by the elbow to practically drag her out of the office into the city even as she protested all along the way,
"C'mooooon! I don' need new clothes, Millie…"
"You can't keep wearing the same ruined outfit everyday."
"You wear the same thin' everyday, Hell we all do!"
"Me and Mox have duplicates, I'm not sure what B and Loona's deals are." Millie retorted before they stopped in front of a building as she announced, "And we're here!"
The store they had stopped in front of was Wayward Fair; a department store that had three floors of everything a demon could want from furniture to clothes to weapons and traps for their enemies.
"Mmmmm…." Ayden made a little noise of reluctance before Millie urged her forward,
"C'mon!"
Tugging her inside, they headed for the bone-constructed escalator to head to the clothing floor where other demons and Sinners were either browsing around or wrestling for clothes they claimed to see first or wanted more.
Ayden raised her eyebrows when she noticed all the cardboard cutouts of a demoness with curly hair in two pigtails wearing a long coat with a crop top underneath along with loose striped pants all around the store, making her question,
"Uh who's that?"
"Oh her…" Millie's tone and face instantly soured when she explained, "That's just Velvette, one of the V's."
"The V's?" A chill ran up Ayden's spine at that mention but she managed to hide it when she questioned it before Millie continued explaining,
"She one'a the Overlords who oversees and dictates fashion styles for the whole Ring…"
'If she's so big, why haven't I heard'a her…?' Ayden thought to herself before commenting out loud, "Well we'll see if 'er style actually lives up to the rep."
Millie started browsing a rack of tops while Ayden did the same in another rack of shorts and leggings, occasionally ducking or avoiding the odd fighting customers who came too close to them.
"Ooh whatcha think about this one?" Millie held up a shirt that was a dark pinkish-red loose crop top with glitter hearts and lipstick kisses all over.
"It's.. nice…"
"Ya sure?" Millie asked and Ayden muttered,
"Yeh it's cute…"
"Ayden…" Millie put the shirt down to look at her with a patient expression as she emphasized, "We're here for you, do you like it?"
Ayden sucked in her lips a bit before shaking her head no and Millie put the shirt back before asking,
"Alright then, that wasn't so hard was it?"
"I g'ss…" Ayden shrugged as she tried to turn back to the rack she was by but Millie came next to her to remind her,
"You're allowed to want things for yourself OK…?"
"Ok…" Ayden nodded before Millie asked,
"Is this top more your style?" Pointing to the top she always wore despite the rips, tears, and singe marks on it.
"Yeh.." Ayden tugged on it before explaining bashfully, "I like star patte'ns, especially in black."
"Oh? Is it because of a certain friend'a yours?" Millie teased a bit with an eyebrow wiggle.
"Even b'fo'e that…" Ayden admitted with a small smile, "when I was a kid, I kinda.. hoped to be an astronaut to actually see the sta's but.. Mu-Ade," Ayden frowned as she corrected herself and Millie felt a small pang of pride for her for that before she continued, "Told me I'd neve' make it up the'e… always thought she meant just in life but now…"
Fury rose up inside Millie at hearing how Ayden's own mother tried to crush her dream like that but managed to keep it suppressed, barely, when she reminded herself that she would never hurt her ever again if she or any of the others had anything to say about it.
Instead, she smoothed out the anger from her face and switched back to teasing as she hinted,
"Well hey, the golden realm's overhyped anyhow and maybe there's ~another~ way for you to see the stars."
At her tone and expression, Ayden's face flushed a tiny bit as she conceded,
"I dunno… maybe…"
Thinking she could maybe, possibly ask Via sometime in the future if she could actually show her the stars when she was pulled from her train of thought by Millie asking,
"Ooh how about this one?"
She pulled out a choker-style crop top that was dark maroon with a black shooting stars pattern on the front, "This seems a little more your style."
Ayden's eyes widened when she caught sight of the shirt and breathed,
"Fie'ce. Ooh!" Ayden browsed the bottoms rack she was by and pulled out some frayed edge blue shorts, "Maybe with these shorts."
"Whaddya think of this skirt over them?" Millie went over to pull a pleated asymmetrical ripped light gray skort off the rack to hold behind the shorts and Ayden smiled before noting,
"Defo."
"That's one outfit done."
The two of them smiled as they continued searching the racks for more outfits, Ayden even getting into and winning a fight with a fox squirrel Sinner for some gray leather leg wraps to go with the skirt from earlier.
As they were waiting in line for the registers, Ayden's ear twitched when she heard a commotion going on a little ways from them with someone yelling in a London accent,
"Who put my displays next to Die-Over?!"
"Shit!" Millie hissed when the very Overlord they had talked about earlier was seen to be the one yelling at the unfortunate manager of the clothing floor,
"That daft idiot wouldn't know cutting-edge fashion if he took a dagger to the damn gullet!"
Luckily the manager was saved when Velvette's phone rang and she yelled into it,
"What?!"
There was a pause as Ayden and Millie got closer to the register before Velvette shouted again,
"Just get Vox or fucking handle it yourself Valentino!"
As soon as that name was mentioned, Ayden felt as if she'd been submerged in a tank of freezing water and suddenly everything and everyone felt too close yet too far at the same time as the voices that hadn't visited her in a while returned,
'~Such a pretty little gatita…~'
'Worthless!'
'~allll~ alone, as you should be...'
"ayden…"
'Monster!'
'Maybe I should just let'im take ya!'
"Ayden!"
"Huh?" She was snapped back to the present when she realized that she and Millie were right in front of the register where the cashier was rolling her eyes waiting impatiently for the clothes in Ayden's paws, evident by how she snapped,
"I don't have all day bitch!"
Ayden's ears dropped down threateningly as she started snarling but stopped with a scoff as she forced herself to harshly plop the clothes on the counter as the cashier started scanning them but the whole time, Ayden kept watching Velvette out of the corner of her eye until she left the store in a burning huff spewing profanities into her phone the whole way out.
"Thanks for shopping with us blah blah blah now get the fuck out…" The cashier handed Millie the large shopping before pointing to the doors with one hand while flipping them off with the other.
"Same to ya cunt…" Ayden returned the flip double time before stomping out of the store with Millie trying to keep up as she questioned,
"What's up with you now?"
"'T's nothing…" Ayden tried to deflect but Millie hissed, about to lose her patience,
"Ayden-"
"Millie, it's nothing!" Ayden snapped coming to a stop to cross her arms and looking away before her demeanor made an unexpected switch from defensive to apprehensive as she added, "Nothing I'm.. ready ta talk 'bout yet…"
Millie's exasperated expression turned to a tired one as she remained behind Ayden to ask her,
"When will you be ready…?"
"'M not su'e… but I promise," Ayden turned around slightly to face Millie with a watery look in her eyes, "You an' the o'hers'll be the fi'st to know when I am…"
"Imma hold you to that." Millie came up to place her hand gently on her arm and Ayden hesitantly put her paw over to grip it a tiny bit before she let go to sniff and wipe her eyes while asking,
"Let's jus' go home 'lready please…?"
"You got it." Millie nodded and the two started walking back home, eventually making it back before Moxxie and Jin, who started working on making dinner together while Ayden and Millie put all the new clothes away in Ayden's room before eating all together.
After dinner, Ayden sat on her bed, already in her pjs with her phone in paw taking a deep breath to almost steel herself as she pulled up her chat with Via to text her,
*Hey Via*
*Can I ask u something?*
*Just did*
Ayden scoffed while rolling her eyes,
*lol so original*
*For real though
what's up?*
Ayden took another deep breath through her nose before typing out and sending,
*uv said your dads taken
u to space b4 right?*
*Yeah?*
*Why?*
*Think u could show
me someday?*
*Still haven't gotten
that spell right yet*
*Once I do, absolutely!*
Ayden smiled and almost texted something cheesy and stupid like 'it's a date' before she stopped herself and settled for an excited emoji response instead.
Sighing wistfully after Via wished her a good night and returning the sentiment, Ayden put her phone on its charger before settling under her blankets to fall asleep after the eventful day… unaware that, within the hour, Millie snuck into the room and grabbed her desk chair to sit while keeping vigil over her as she mentally lamented,
'Whatever it is you're still running from… I just wish you knew how much we wanna help ya…'
…
…
…
AN- Another request done! Woo!
Some references and notes for this one:
- "Die-Over" is supposed to be a spoof on "Dior" (I'm realizing that I'm not too good at making spoofs obvious to catch ^^;)
- The outfit Millie and Ayden put together in this chapter is the same one she wears in the "Oops" episode
- I've already got a rough idea for that mentioned Via and Ayden hangout in the stars if anyone would like to request that to be written later on
With Hazbin Hotel Season 1 fully out now, I'm already working on figuring out when to possibly have a crossover with this story with even just at least Angel Dust (who was mentioned in this chapter O.O) while still working on the separate OC fic and the What If? AU (just waiting for those episode transcripts to be finished before I can get started on weaving my OCs in)
With those two aforementioned fics coming out, hopefully within the next month or so, I'm gonna be posting some reference and fan art for them both on Deviant Art too so keep an eye out for those ^^
Until the next one, Bye!