Loona showed little Balin her kitchen pantry, which was filled with snacks for days.

"And voila." she smiled. "Here we are."

"Whoa..." the boy's eyes sparkled seeing so many of his favourites from Earth in the hellhound's kitchen.

There were some protein products, considering the figure she wanted to maintain as I.M.P's occasional badass, but she also had candy bars, popcorn, cereal, and soft drinks. Many of them alcoholic though.

"So, what would you like to eat?" asked Loona.

"Hmm... can I please have a Nutella sandwich?"

"Got it, sweetie." she giggled, loving his good manners. "Why don't you make yourself at home on the couch? I'll be there with your snack shortly."

"Okay, Ms. Loona." replied Balin.

As he sat down, Loona went right to work, making two Nutella sandwiches to share.

Funnily enough, she was right about hellhounds not being related to dogs. She was a dog-like demon, but thanks to her heightened senses, chocolate didn't seem poisonous to her.

As she made the snacks, she sometimes looked up at the kid, feeling glad he was doing just fine now. Her first impression was almost fixed, but she had that all covered.

Soon, she grabbed a plate for the hazelnut-chocolate spread delights, then served them at the couch.

"As you requested?" teased Loona in a British accent, like a butler.

"Thank you, Ms. Loona." the boy replied in a smile.

"Please. I love your manners, but you can just call me Loona." she blushed. "I'm okay with it."

"Okay."

And with that, the two began biting into their meals.

Watching as Balin happily eat his sandwich slowly filled Loona's heart. She couldn't help but feel lucky to have someone like him, a new little friend, in her home. Even if he was the first one AND a human.

Once they were finished, Loona took the plate to the sink and sighed, knowing there was one more thing she had to do.

"Now Balin, I wanna chat with you about something." she bravely said.

"Sure, Loona. What is it?"

Breathing in and out, then sat back down next to the boy, softly placing her paw around his back.

"I'm so sorry for how I treated you back up there. It was so wrong of me to attack you like that, especially when I didn't know you were a kid. But that's no excuse for me, so, I hope you can forgive me."

"Hey, it's okay." the boy tried to speak with her with a smile.

"No. No, it's not." Loona anxiously interrupted him. "I threatened to kill you, screamed at you, scared the sh... heck outta you, made you cry until you passed out, I was about to kill you for God's sake. None of that should be okay!"

Loona then looked away from him a little with watering eyes again.

Balin knew deep down she was right, but hellhound or not, he couldn't just let the first demon he made friends with wallow in self-pity, even if she had a grumpy or violent nature underneath whatever feelings she had.

So in sympathy, he held her hand, making her look at him in surprise.

"I know, really. But I do understand." the caring little human said. "I don't hold a grudge on anyone who does something bad. Unless they do it on purpose, because I've been seeing that for a while now. So I do forgive you, Loona."

"You do?"

"Yes. Because you brought me to Hell, and to safety."

Loona then showed an emotional smile on his face as she wiped the water away from her eyes.

"Thanks Balin. That means a lot, coming from you." she choked again. "So, uh, I hope we can be friends."

"Of course we can." said Balin. "You said you're the one taking care of me."

"Every minute, kiddo."

"And hellhounds are like man's best friend, so you'd have to be mine."

The two both widened their eyes in silence hearing that part. But Loona just laughed and ruffled Balin's hair.

"You're so cute, you know that?" she giggled at his blushing red face.

Before long, she wrapped her arm around his neck and embraced him again.

"You can think of me, whatever you wanna think of me as." she told him. "Just know I'll be the hellhound who will indeed take care of you now. Until we find your folks, that is."

Balin felt better hearing her say all that. But only until she mentioned that last bit.

"So if it's okay to ask, what were you doing out in the dark all by yourself?" asked Loona.

The human child didn't know how to answer that, but to feel very hurt by the thought. So he couldn't.

"Balin? You okay?" she softly asked again.

He then looked up at Loona and slowly shook his head in sadness.

"Oh buddy, what's wrong?"

It was then she saw tears forming in his eyes and one rolling down his face.

"Hey..." Loona pulled him in for another hug, while the boy planted his head and cried in her chest.

She began soothing him as the tears rolled down his face, and kept shushing him until he ran out.

"Feeling better?" she asked after 30 seconds.

Balin, whose tears had stained Loona's crop-top, looked back up at her and nodded. "I'm so sorry, Loona."

"Aww no, you don't have to be sorry." she smiled rubbing his shoulder. "We all cry sometimes."

"Well, I could answer a little bit of the question. If that's okay."

"Only if you wanna."

"Okay. you see..." Balin began explaining to Loona. "I've been sleeping in a hotel room for the last 4 days, mainly in a closet. All by myself, no-one knowing I was there, not even any guests were in it. I did manage to get myself some takeout for dinner once with my pocket-money, and some breakfast and lunch at the buffet, but I had nowhere else to go."

Loona then shushed him softly with her fingertip, telling him to stay on track and asking him about his parents.

The boy then sighed not wanting to explain what happened to them.

"They were, um... uh, um... they were sent away."

That part made Loona very intrigued, but still very sorry.

"Sent away? Were your parents ass... bad people?" Luckily, she caught her swearing just in time.

"No, of course not. They're good people who love me." explained Balin further.

"Well why were you on your own then? At such a young... how old are you?"

"I'm 7-and-a-half years old. I'll be 8 in a couple of months." the boy answered her.

Loona's heart sank even more hearing this.

It was only just beginning to build up after the fun she had cuddling him, licking his face, letting him pet her, things she never imagined she'd do with anyone; not even puppies of her own. Only for it to start breaking again, learning he was a 7-year-old boy out on his own for some fucked up reason.

"I was only on my own, because..." sighed Balin. "I wasn't allowed to go with them."

"What do you mean?" Loona sounded more eager to hear.

"I don't know. But a guy said I was a liability risk."

At this point, Loona was about to hear quite enough. It was like, hearing the sad news, she wanted to kill the son of a bitch who took his family to the safe house while insulting him for some reason again.

In that case, it was the judge. But more on that later.

"I was then sent to a foster home, or someplace like that, but..."

"Foster home? Wait, did you escape or something?" Loona finished for the boy, who nodded in response. "A few days ago."

"Well, escaped or no... I know how you feel, bud." sympathised Loona.

"Really? Were you in a foster home too?" asked Balin.

And just like that, Loona then remembered her own life experience, just as tragic as this one.

CONTEXT

Like nearly many other hellhounds, Loona grew up an orphan.

Her parents abandoned her at an adoption orphanage when she was just a cub (A term for baby hellpup), and spent her entire puppyhood getting adopted back and forth because of how difficult she was.

Until the one day, where Blitzø changed everything and adopted her before she'd become a liability risk herself.

CONTEXT ENDS

Balin saw Loona's melancholy face as she slightly looked away in sadness again. Now he was the one feeling guilty, knowing she had pains and that he might've pushed through to them.

"Oh. I am so sorry, I didn't mean to..."

"No, little guy, don't worry about it." interrupted Loona in understanding. "I'm fine, it's just, I don't like to talk about it. But to answer your question, yes. I was. That's... as much as I can say without crying for now."

"Okay. I won't ask about it again."

"It's alright. We all get curious around your age, don't we?" Loona joked, before getting back onto the subject with one more question.

"Now, how did you find us at the high school? During... you know."

The child began explaining again: "Well, I was about to go back to my room to sleep for the night, when I heard this 'BOOM!' sound, followed by screaming. I wanted to see what it was. So when I got there, I... I saw all those people, and then, I saw you. And all... those..."

He began shivering, as if he was traumatised by not only Loona, but the entire gang too.

"Hey, don't go into that." she said. "Sometimes living it is enough. But if you wanna know, me and those others were... on a job."

Balin then gasped hearing that from the hellhound. "What?! Your job is killing people?"

"Shhhhh. Shh, shh." Loona tried calming him again. "Yes. But only bad people. You see, I.M.P, the place I work at, is where people who died on Earth and end up here pay us to exact revenge on someone else who hurt them in their lives. Sort of like the rude person you were talking about."

"But I don't wanna kill him." protested Balin.

"I know you don't. And we won't, if you don't want us too." chuckled Loona at his innocence. "But hey, if it makes you feel better, we're like a superhero company. Does that make better sense?"

"Ooooh. I see." Balin had a widened smile, in relief but only at how cool it actually sounded. "Now that you mention it, sounds like a cool company to work with."

"Well, those co-workers are people I tolerate, but I guess it is." Loona awkwardly rubbed the back of her head.

"But still, thanks for helping me." the child said happily. "I don't know why a demon would, but I'm grateful."

"Well, I couldn't just leave you out in the dark all cold and dirty." blushed Loona modestly. "A closed school's not really a best place to catch some Z's. You could run into the cops for all I know. But... anything for you."

Smiling once more, Balin wrapped his arms around Loona for another hug. Normally, someone would die if she was touched like that, but he was an immediate exception as she returned it and rubbed his head.

"Cuddly little kiddo, aren't you?" she chuckled, before letting him go. "OK, enough hugging for a bit. We can hug more once we have the time, but for now..."

Just then, Loona thought of an idea. One she cringed at too.

"Uhm... would you like to meet my co-workers? They're still at the office right now."

"I'd be happy to. If you promise they won't hurt me." agreed Balin.

"Well, they can be weird like I said, just to warn you, but they won't." Loona assured him. "Besides, they wanna meet you too."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I told them all about you while you were in my arms." she replied.

"But what about the... other demons, outside?" asked Balin nervously.

Loona then stood up from the couch and stretched.

"Just don't be scared. Let me worry about them and probably look at me the whole way over." she spoke, as she gently picked him up in her arms like a baby.

"Well, you are beautiful, by the way." Balin smiled as he rested his head on her shoulder.

Loona soon felt her heart filling and melting again at the boy's compliment and adorable smile.

"Thanks sweetie." she replied, covering him with some of her hair, enough to let him look at her the entire journey. "You ready for a ride?"

"OK. I'm ready now." the boy said confidently.

Soon, the two left the apartment and set a course for I.M.P once again.

Walking out of the apartment and all through the burning streets of Hell, there were all kinds of demons Balin could see through Loona's wire-haired mane. Including imps, hellhounds like her, and sinner demons.

While he didn't exactly focus on them for now, he just stared at Loona with a warm smile, which she then noticed and played along, by looking around the street like an owl patrolling over her owlets.

"What are you looking at?" she teased. "Someone beautiful?"

Balin then chuckled at her playfulness. "Oops! I mean, yes. You did tell me to look at you, so I am."

"Oh kiddo, if I'm what makes you feel safe, then I'm OK with it." she assured him with a smile. "None of these demons will hurt you, not when I've got you."

"Thanks, Loona." the boy sighed.

Balin rested his head on Loona's furry shoulder again and began looking around the street as well as her face from time to time.

Soon, Loona's ears had perked up hearing one demon from a few blocks away.

"I-say I-say I-say!" a carnival demon spoke in a Southern cartoon-ish accent.

The carnie demon was Wally Wackford, who with his top hat and cane, presented a huge arcade the size of a Vegas casino.

"Step right up to the grand re-opening of Wally Wackford's Fun-Time Emporium 2!" he announced in his loud but theatrical voice. "After being burnt to the ground by a couple of... 'I-say I-say' broads, my 2-week-old dream has finally been reborn as a 6-week-old!"

Loona's sensitive hearing was just as heightened as her sense of sight and smell.

But she gave a chuckle of amusement, Especially as she knew who one of the broads was, as she kept walking over to where she was at with Balin hidden but cradled in her arms.

A/N: See y'all in the next chapter.