30 minutes after the disaster, Stolas opened a portal back to the mansion, ran up the stairs to see the fallen debris from earlier, and burst through the door.

"I came as soon as my owlet called!" he said. "Is everyone okay?"

Only Nep and Mari were sitting in the living room, as Tex came out with some chocolate chip biscuits in the shape of bones.

"Yeah, we're safe." he replied. "The others are the ones all shook up though. They're just showering up."

"Thank you, good sir." said Stolas, as he dashed through the hall, ...then peered his head to give Tex his pay in Goetia bucks. "And thanks for the housesitting." he smiled before running off again.

As he wandered up the stairs, he used the super bird hearing that Balin once taught him during his first stay with Via, soon picking up which bathroom the imps were washing up in.

Once he reached the second floor, Stolas knocked on the bathroom door.

"Nobody come in!" called Blitzø from inside. "There's a female present!"

"Then why are you in there, Blitzy?" replied Stolas with an unamused look on his face.

"Uhh..."

The owl demon then opened the bathroom door anyway, seeing a quietly seething Millie walking slowlytowards Blitzø like a predator.

All three of them were covered in blood from the fuck-ton of agents they took on to rescue from Stella and her new DHORK friends.

"Oh shit. So much...!" gagged Stolas softly. "I-Is Balin okay?"

"Yes and no." replied Moxxie, washing his blood-stained uniform on a washboard, which he only used for musical purposes. "Loona's taking care of him right now. Stella gave his chest one absolute fuck-up, one harder than Loona could with me. With anyone for that matter."

"Moxxie!" glared Blitzø. "She's your receptionist!"

"MY receptionist?" replied Moxxie. "Sir, she's 'A' receptionist who arrives late to do a job she barely has! Unless it's for the kid, but what has she ever done for US then?"

"Been a bad-ass daughter?!" replied Blitzø defensively. "Honestly! Why do you suddenly love torturing her?"

"Hey, she's always torturing me on how fat I am!" Moxxie fired back. "Like that seems to be the only job she does well here."

"Oh, so you admit it?" snickered Blitzø.

"...Fucking ASSHOLE!" Moxxie snarled, ready to throw the first punch.

"Hey, hey, pull yourselves the fuck together!" Stolas got in between the two. "This is a place of regality. I'll empower no quarrels."

"He's right." interrupted Millie, licking the blood of her arm like a cat. "What's important right now is how in tarnation that portal ended up in the closet."

"Portal?" asked the owl demon.

"C'mon. I'll show you." said Tex, walking past the bathroom.

As the four followed him, Moxxie fell behind feeling a small dab of blood still on his suit.

"How much blood can a 7-year-old nearly lose? Satan!" he groaned in hesitation to himself.

As he followed after them, Stolas looked out his window to see his Striker statue was missing from the garden.

"Uhh, care to tell me where your cowboy friend is?" he asked Blitzø.

"WHAT?!" the boss gasped. "...I suppose you cannot?"

Soon, the gang opened the closet door and gasped to see that the portal had disappeared from inside.

"It was right there!" said Millie. "We actually went back and forth with it a while ago."

"Yeah... that portal wasn't there when she was here earlier." explained Tex. "Then there it was."

"Earlier?" the three imps gasped again.

"She must've known the littler one was here the whole time then." said Stolas.

"How could I have been so wrong to underestimate her?" sighed Tex in guilt.

"Don't be hard on yourself, big guy." Blitzø sympathetically patted his furry thigh, beefy as a tree log. "I worked for Verosika too."

"They all came prepared for this one." continued Stolas. "Putting their best foot forward."

"What about... Striker, Your Highness?" asked Moxxie anxiously.

The entire gang ran to the stairs out front, and Tex lifted the tree for them to see he was gone.

Neptune with all her strength then lifted the birdbath to find a small hole dug from underneath, as if he had escaped before the two could kill him.

"Of course." groaned Moxxie as Millie face-palmed. "Cliche."

"Blitzø, who's this Striker?" asked Neptune.

"AND those DHORKS?" added Marijiana.

"Trademark enemies of I.M.P's past." replied Blitzø with a dark sigh. "The reason Earth's become more dangerous for business than it already was the first moment we set hoof on it."

"Hang on a second..." gasped Stolas, counting everyone except for... "Where's Via?! Ooh, I told him to never speak of my daughter!" he angrily thought she was taken by Striker next.

"Whoa, slow your horses, Stolas." Blitzø calmed him down. "She's with Loona, keeping Balin company."

"Oh. Good." sighed her father in relief. "B-But her recital."

"She told us she'd be on that." replied Millie.

Stolas then smiled softly with a light chuckle, knowing one lesson he taught his daughter was working for her at long last.

"Loyalty."

MEANWHILE...

Octavia arrived at Loona's apartment and quickly got up to her room, before lightly knocking on the door.

Two seconds later, she saw the door was slightly open. So she walked inside to see the living room was empty, but with cotton buds on the kitchen counter.

She then peered through Balin's bedroom door to see Loona sitting on his bed, carrying him in her arms.

The boy was feeling faint from the clawing Stella gave him back at the headquarters, but luckily, he didn't lose a lot of blood as it barely gave him the energy to stand up or limp away from her group for a while.

Via watched as the hellhound took off his shirt to see the scratch along his chest, making her gasp in slight horror.

Gasping herself, Loona suddenly felt a new instinctual urge. It was telling her to lick his injury, like a real mama wolf, given hellhound slobber could heal wounds in an almost faster amount of time than a normal wolf's. So hesitantly, she started licking the boy's chest to clean up any blood or dirt that nearly dried up on his scratch.

Even though the boy was feeling faint, he cringed in pain feeling the sting.

"It's okay, little guy." she soothed him. "Keep it together for me."

Thankfully for Balin, the seething pain soon all his anger from today after him, but he was still very miserable.

This all lasted 30 seconds until Loona finished licking the dried blood from his chest, and all that remained were the scratches. ...Along with the hellhound saliva lathered all over them.

She was about to grab the cotton buds from the kitchen, but she didn't want to move around with him in her arms too much, and she didn't dare want to leave him alone in his room.

Seeing this, Octavia decided to bring them for her, grabbing them from the counter and entering Balin's room, to Loona's surprise.

"Uh, how long have you been here?" she asked.

"It's okay. I'm here to help. If you'll let me." Via replied softly to her hellhound friend.

"But... what about that recital tomorrow?"

"I have until then to do it. I'm sure I'll find the time."

Smiling at her, Loona took the buds from Via.

"Thanks." she said.

"Don't mention it." the owl smiled back, as she sat down on the bed. "What happened to him anyway?"

"I'll explain later." said Loona. "But right now, I've got some TV dinners if you wanna eat. Just gotta finish up."

"Quite right. I'll leave you to it." replied Via again.

The owl demon left the boy's room as Loona began soaking up the wet saliva from his skin and rubbed the rest through his scars to make them heal faster.

Soon, Loona walked out to let Balin rest after patching him up, while Via was still in the kitchen finishing off some mashed potatoes. After letting them cool down for a couple of minutes, she grabbed two plates and scooped some potato for each of them, before sprinkling a smidge of rosemary as a topper.

"Dinner's up?" she giggled to Loona, offering her a plate.

"Thanks, girl." Loona smiled back as she took it.

...

A few moments later...

It was nearly night-time when Balin had woken up from his pass-out.

He laid down flat on the bed, feeling very depressed with himself. His smile was nowhere to be seen, his eyes were drooped, and he then sat up looking down at the bandages, wrapped around his chest like a bra cast.

His Saturday started off so well too. Before all that happened to him:
Criticism from Carmilla Carmine, being hunted by Stella, captured by the agents, and meeting the angels he claimed to have 'never delivered him from evil.'

The boy soon heard noises from the living room and peaked through the door to see Loona and Via watching some TV.

After a few seconds, he decided to leave them be, until Loona noticed him from over the couch.

"Balin? You awake now?" she called out to him.

The little human boy then looked at her and nodded softly.

"Hey, come on over." Loona gently patted on the middle of the couch for him.

Still feeling depressed, he walked with his head lowered and sat in between the wolf and owl demons.

"You feeling any OK now?" Loona asked him, looking at his bandage.

"It stings." he cringed.

"I know, but thanks to your medical attention, that nasty cut will be gone before you know it." replied Via.

"Yeah... But listen. Tex told us what happened earlier on today. About that, mean Carmine lady. Are you okay?"

Hearing that from Loona made Balin look down in more melancholy than ever.

"No, Loona." he replied to his friend.

"No?" Loona tilted her head feeling sad too.

"Oh, your poor baby." sighed Via sadly. "Come here." she was about to cuddle him, when Loona's hand subtly stopped hers.

"It's okay, Princess." she softly spoke. "But I feel... he just wants me a bit more."

Balin then crawled up to Loona and wrapped his arms around her waist, making the hellhound return the hug as he began tearing up.

Watching this from the two made Via want to cry herself, having remembered what it was like to have this kind of attention from Stolas when she was around Balin's age.

"Shhhhhh. It's okay. I'm here." whispered Loona, giving him a soft kiss on his head like she was a mother. "C'mon, don't cry."

Via just hugged the two anyways, and they stayed like this for a few minutes until the boy ran out of tears to shed.

"I'm so sorry for letting you see me cry." the boy said with his head buried in Loona's fur.

"Hey now, no, you don't have to be sorry, honey." replied Via.

"Yeah. Why say such a thing?" added Loona?

"Because the mean lady, she called me insecure. Just for being happy AND said." the boy replied.

"Oh no, angel."

The two girls drooped their ears in sadness hearing that, while Balin let out a hateful sigh hearing that 'angel' word, after encountering the Cherubs.

"I even had a dream about it in the scientists' building." Balin continued, looking up at the hellhound. "She tried to feed me to you."

"And... you know, I'll never eat you. Don't ya?" Loona asked him.

"I know. But I could just leave, so you don't have to. Before I end up... disappointing you, somehow."

The little boy stood from the couch and was about to walk towards the door, when Via got up and placed her hand on his shoulder.

"No, it's okay. We wouldn't want you doing that." said Loona, as Via lead him back to the couch. "We promise, even if Hell throws its challenges at you, you're safe here."

"So... am I not insecure?" Balin then asked the two demons.

"Of course not." smiled Loona. "That one was a challenge. It's just what the mean lady said to put in your head. Those scientists too."

"What about the angels?"

"Oh, buddy. The Cherubs are angels, but not all of them are bad creatures." smiled Via. "The Exorcists may be deadly, but the rest are... really cool. They can be loving."

"Even me? One day?" he looked up at both girls.

"One day, one of those loving angels could be you. The best one we'd know." Loona booped his nose. "I don't know how else I could've said that, but..."

"It's okay. I get what you're trying to say." the boy interrupted.

Balin may have been sad and a 7-year-old human who was still learning, but he understood a lot of different feelings after being through so much. A special gift for someone like him to possess, like a hellhound's sense of smell.

"That you aren't a disappointment?" Loona finished her statement for him.

"I'm not?" the boy tilted his head.

"No sweetheart. You're not a disappointment." replied Via.

"Then what am I?"

"I promise you, NOT a disappointment. Or a liability." said Loona sympathetically. "You're a kid. One that... I love."

The boy's eyes had lit up in surprise hearing that. He still had his sad eyes, but Loona wiped away his tears with her thumb as he tried to comprehend her saying that to him.

"I love you too, Loona." he then hugged her tightly.

"Awww, baby." Via rubbed his back as Loona returned the hug.

"You know why I love you?" Loona spoke again. "You're adorable, innocent, and a survivor. With the best smile I've seen."

"I only smile when I'm sad, because you lick my face." Balin tried to correct her, which made the girls giggle.

"Well, I'm not gonna do that this time." the hellhound finished chuckling. "In fact, I want you to find that smile this time. By thinking about one thing, from here. You." she placed her hand over his chest.

BALIN: "My tummy?"

"Hehehehehehe! No, silly!" giggled Via. "Like I said the day we met, it's your heart."

LOONA: "And that's one thing we love about you. We love everything about you."

VIA: "Yeah, like how you have a brilliant family back home, you have a great taste in music, you're good with animals like us, you've made friends with lots of demons, you have lots of cool friends at an amazing school, you're so kind and brave. You're a very good boy."

LOONA: "Not to mention, you're perfect just the way you are." *points at each body part* "Look at you. You have a beautiful voice, fluffy brown hair, perky little ears, a little button nose, 10 fingers and toes, a soft little belly, two beautiful blue eyes. And do you know what else I love about you?"

BALIN: "What else?"

LOONA: *Rubs his face softly* "The cutest human face I've ever seen. And cleanest." *licks his cheek, making him giggle* "Look at my mirror."

Loona then grabbed her little make-up mirror from her hair, showing Balin his face with it.

This made him widen his eyes at how beautiful he looked, like it was the first time she saw his reflection for who he truly was as a human. And it was. Slowly, the boy regained his small smile, looking at Loona as she wagged her tail in warmth.

"Thank you, Loona." Balin said. "I'm glad to have you as my guardian angel. Or, demon."

The two demon girls giggled at his innocence again.

"Hey. It's like you said." Loona replied, softly ruffling his hair. "If dogs are man's best friend in the human world, then... I'm your best one."

"Really?" Balin smiled more.

"Technically, you're likely her first one." smirked Via.

"Please." scoffed Loona cheekily. "I had Tex and you."

"Still..." sang Via in response.

The two then started nuzzling Balin like they were cats, making him laugh and sigh at the ticklish feeling of their fur and feathers against his skin.

"Why don't we end this Saturday with a game?" the boy asked Via and Loona.

"What would that be, sweetie?" Loona asked him in curiosity.

The boy then left the couch and grabbed one of his video games in his closet. The Super MarioKart Wii game.

"Ahh, video games, eh?" Loona looked up at Via, who winked before saying: "Wanna few rounds?"

"Yes please." Balin and Loona said in perfect harmony, while Loona's tone was more cheeky.

Before they knew it, the three were playing MarioKart together, driving Mario or Luigi, Peach, even Bowser along the most magical of tracks, from the Rainbow Bridge to the Coconut Mall. Sometimes they each got a little tricky and tried to bump each other off the tracks being multi-player, which made each other laugh as well.

After 30 minutes, Balin started feeling a little drowsy again, as Loona won the last round and noticed.

"Aww well." she warmly smiled. "Looks like it's bedtime for you, Meal."

"Meal?" Via looked up at Loona with a flabbergasted smirk.

"Hey, it's what I decided to call him. Don't judge me."

"I don't judge." replied the princess. "But... I'll tuck him in for the night, while you clean up."

"Got it." replied the hellhound.

Octavia picked up the little boy in her arms to lay him down for the evening, while Loona cleaned up the Wii and the dishes.

A few minutes later...

After doing said dishes, Loona checked on Via to see how she was doing with Balin, then saw her in his bed with the two smiling at each other.

This made her awe with the most melted smile she'd felt so far.

"Okay. He really is too cute for words." she thought to herself.

She then heard Via singing him a lullaby.

...

"LOONA HAS A LITTLE PUP"

VIA (slowly, softly):
Loona has a little pup
Little pup,
Little pup,
Loona has a little pup
My fair hellhound.

Fill him up with hugs and kisses
Hugs and kisses,
Hugs and kisses,
Fill him up with hugs and kisses
His fair mother.

Balin giggled hearing sing this song, and so did Loona, who walked into the room singing softly next.

LOONA (slowly, softly):
I have a little pup
Little pup,
Little pup,
I have a little pup

LOONA and VIA (Heavenly):
Hellhound mother...

"Mmmm... good night, mommies."

Balin then fell right asleep at the end of the lullaby, earning him a shocked expression from Loona and Via hearing him call them that.

Loona then got into Balin's bed with the two as she giggled.

"Well Via, I gotta admit. You know your Earthly lullabies now."

"Thanks. I have a couple of Earth songs prepped for tomorrow." she replied. "Wanna come as guests of honour?"

"Anything." Loona then joked. "I.M.P ain't bodyguards, but we gotta protect both of you, right?"

As the two smiled warmly, they soon felt Balin rolling over a lot, snuggling into both Loona and Via, because of how cuddly they actually felt to him.

"Hahahaha, make up your mind, Meal." laughed Loona.

"Hey. I know. Maybe this'll help."

Via wrapped her arms around the boy, putting him in her feathery chest, before signalling Loona to do the same thing.

So wrapping her arms around him, the hellhound nuzzled him into her furry chest, all snug into her breasts too.

"Sweet dreams, Balin." whispered Loona, giving him a kiss as the song described.

"See you in the morning, darling."

"Don't let us bite..." Loona then sang softly and cheekily, earning a small giggle from Via.

Pretty soon, everyone closed their eyes and called it a night, snuggling up against each other in their Holy Trinity of an embrace.

"YES..." Via softly whispered happily to herself.

She finally got to sleep with the person she could possibly call her girlfriend one day.

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