AT LOONA'S APARTMENT...

As Loona ran Balin a shower, the water streaming down his body washed the red wine pool water clean off, turning the tub as crimson red as the night sky in Hell.

"Oh no, Loona!" he decided to play. "I'm bleeding!"

"Gasp! Whatever shall I do?" Loona snickered at the boy's imagination. "Shall I, lick it all better...? Where's the wound?"

"Eww, Loona!" pouted Balin, continuing his playful behaviour.

"I'm joking, Meal, I'm joking." she chuckled softly. "I don't like the taste of blood. Not most of the time. But be thankful I'm no vampire."

"Thank Gosh." the boy smiled, as his hellhound friend washed the rest of his body with a bar of soap.

In no time at all, the shower was finished and Loona sniffed all over Balin's body for a final check-up.

"There. Now you smell like milk bottles again." she sighed in a smile.

"Thank you, Loona." replied Balin, as he began drying himself with a towel. "Hey, um, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, sweetie." Loona crouched down to his level. "Talk."

"I know how much you loved my singing." the little boy smiled. "It's because of the lullaby you sang me once that I've sung for you onstage. I was wondering, could I sing you to sleep tonight?"

"Sing ME to sleep?" her ears perked up in intrigue.

Normally, Loona would get her sleep by listening to white noise. Like, wolves howling in the winter breeze. And she definitely would NEVER let Blitzø sing her to sleep during her time in his apartment, on account that he'd sound like a dying cow or he'd sing her to sleep with Taylor Swift songs. Or both...

"Why not?" she soon replied.

...

A few moments later...

Balin was standing in Loona's room, looking away as she changed into her PJs. He tried to whistle to pass the time, but still couldn't figure out how.

Pretty soon, Loona was all... un-dressed and ready for bed, lying down on her side as she pulled her blanket up.

"Alright kiddo. Work your magic." she grinned, getting comfortable in her bed.

Balin then cleared his throat and held Loona's paw as he began singing...

"MISS INDEPEDENT (Loona's Lullaby)" by NE-YO:

A/N: Imagine this song only being played on the piano.

BALIN:
Ooh, it's something about
Just something about the way she moves
I can't figure it out
There's something about her

'Cause she walk like a boss
Talk like a boss
Manicured claws to set the pedicure off
She's fly effortlessly

She's got her own thing

BALIN and LOONA:
That's why I love her

BALIN:
Miss Independent.

LOONA (overlapping):
Won't you come and-
BALIN:
Promise that I'll, love you as you are
She got her own thing
That's why I love her
Miss Independent
Ooh, the way you shine.

Loona showed a heart-warmed smile the whole time Balin sang, but hearing one line he made up in that lullaby brought a droplet to one of her eyes.

BALIN (cont'd):
Miss Independent...
That's why I love you...

Balin then opened his eyes after he stopped singing, to see he was softly stroking Loona's cheek with one of his hands as she fell asleep.

Smiling himself, Balin gave her a kiss on said cheek goodnight, before she cheekily gave him a couple of sleepy licks. On both cheeks, and even at his nose.

Chuckling, he slowly left her room, leaving her to sleep with that smile for the rest of the evening as he went to bed himself.

THE NEXT MORNING...

As the sun rose in Hell, the sky was pink, but only one thing wasn't right all of a sudden.

Loona slowly woke up with her sensitive hearing, picking up on some mild coughing from Balin's room. The moment she woke up entirely, she immediately perked her eyes open and pressed her ear against the wall.

"Balin? You okay in there?" she called out to him from her room.

*COUGH! COUGH!* "No. No I'm not, L-Loona." *COUGH!*

The little boy tried to call back, but his voice sounded weak and congested.

"Oh. Hang on dude, I'm coming, okay?" Loona quickly got dressed in her normal attire. "Just give me a minute!"

She then walked out of her room and slowly approached Balin's bedroom door, opening it to see him sick as a dog in his own bed, breathing difficultly as he coughed with red swelling cheeks.

This made Loona panic for a moment, unsure of what to do. She only took care of her own sick self growing up in the orphanage and never once taken care of the sick before.

Even whenever Blitzø was ill, she'd throw him a box of tissues onto his bed and say:
'Get well soon, I guess.'

But things were different now. She knew this kid was different from those other people. After months of wishing to practice on Tex, it was Satan chose him instead.

So taking a deep breath, Loona took her leap of faith and fully opened the door, walking over to and sitting on the edge of his bed.

"Okay buddy. What's the matter?" she asked in concern.

"My throat feels sore, Loona." Balin said in his congested voice. "It hurts whenever I swallow." he then let out a couple more coughs into his arm.

"Here. L-Let me feel your temp." Loona pressed her furry hand against his forehead to check for a fever, and it was nearly high. "My Satan, you're burning the hell... here, up."

In sorrow, she then moved her hand up to his hair as she rubbed it, real soft and tender.

"You poor kid." she gently whispered. "Being sick must really suck... uh... doesn't it?"

Thank Satan she caught that euphemism just in the nick of time. Instead, she stood up from the boy's bed.

"Stay there for me." she said. "Just stay in bed with your PJs on. I'll get you some tissues and call that school of yours to let them know you'll be calling it a sick day."

"Thank you, Loona." whispered Balin wearily. "But what about you...?"

"What about me... what?"

"What about... I.M.P?" the kid finished his question in his heavy breathing. "I don't want you to miss work because of me."

"Oh, Meal." Loona let out a small yet serious giggle. "You don't have to worry 'bout me, it'll be okay. All you have to do is rest yourself. Besides, will it make you better if I did stay home?"

Balin nodded at the question, not wanting to speak with his throat spasm.

"Good." she replied. "Now let me know if there's anything else you need."

"Um... can I have some ice-cream soup please?" asked Balin.

"Ice-cream... soup?"

"My mommy and daddy would make me a small bowl of ice-cream and one topping whenever I was sick. It was inspired by this book." Balin explained, showing Loona one of his favourite books for his parents to read him at bedtime.

The book was called 'Ice Cream Soup' by Ann Ingalls.

"Can you please make me one?" he finished politely.

Loona then showed Balin a more sweet smile over her concerned one.

"Absolutely. I'll be right over." she softly said, closing his bedroom door to let him rest.

...

The hellhound was now in the kitchen prepping the ingredients whilst phoning the school and her adopted dad. She only heard him coughing once on each call and couldn't help but feel more worried about him.

As soon as she hung up both calls, she then got right to work, prepping the boy's sore throat-soothing snack, using his bedtime story as a cookbook.

Luckily, unlike the cover, she only used one or two toppings. Such as M&M's.

MEANWHILE, AT I.M.P...

Speaking of which, the three imps ran straight into the I.M.P offices, with M&M pushing Blitzø in a shopping cart as he used Moxxie as a human shield while Millie quickly slammed the door.

"Okay, sir... the next client who orders from our 'Create-Your-Own-Suicide-Bar', we just pay the fuck away while there's no weapons." panted Moxxie.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it, Moxx. The pricing was toon hefty, I should've seen it coming." replied Blitzø sarcastically, wiping his blazer.

"Honestly, expecting to make such an elaborately-planned murder and then having us to take care of it, only to just take her own pay and shoot us over the rest?" grumbled Millie. "Bitches!"

"But hey. Look on the bright side. It did seem like a fun chase." said Blitzø in a suddenly ditzy mood.

"The only reason it was fun, FOR YOU SIR, is because you were smiling like a serial killer, after kissing her unconscious lips. For 2 minutes!" said Moxxie. "She was a succubus for fuck's sake!"

"Not my fault I once heard that the lips, breasts, and yow-yows of a succubus taste like iced donuts." explained Blitzø. "Besides, I call this one a massive upgrade over that 'FISHY' WHORE, VEROSIKA!"

"SUCK MY SANDPAPER COCK!" the pop-star succubus yelled from next door.

"Say... Where's Loona, sir?" asked Millie, looking at the receptionist's desk.

"Don't bother, honey." interrupted Moxxie sternly. "I doubt she's on time, again."

"Actually, she won't be today." replied Blitzø. "She's home, looking after a sick Balin, so... Uh, Moxx? Where's your hoe?"

"Huh?"

Moxxie then looked right next to him to see his wife was no longer in the office, having left a huge imp-shaped hole in the door behind him.

"Christ-on-a-stick, your pay check owes me a door." groaned Blitzø. "And this time, I don't want one that says 'Fridge for Cream Pies.' That one did not work out."

Moxxie reacted in a flabbergasted look, before shrugging it off.

"Guess it would be better than the last door she stormed through. Or three."

"Now if you'll excuse me and do some paperwork, in case there's any more calls, I'll be in my office." finished the boss, walking into his office.

"Hmm. He didn't say keep the fuck out this time." thought the white-haired imp to himself. "Weird."

A few minutes later, Moxxie soon knocked on the door and slightly opened it to see Blitzø working on a case study of his own.

"Sir, you doing okay?" he asked.

"Oh yeah! Yeah." replied Blitzø sheepishly. "Just... revisiting a few cases ago."

"Uh-huh. Yep."

BLITZØ: "Let me ask you something Moxxie. You think that suspect in No-Name's... still out there? The one who Balin's folks..."

MOXXIE: *surprised* "Holy shit. You're trying to solve their case?"

BLITZØ: "OK, OK. Promise me you'll keep it on the DL, but... maybe I am. His family ended up in that safe house for a damn reason and for a while now, I felt like I wanted to help out. I don't know why, maybe it's like the fatherly instinct in me, one that I never feel like with Loonie. Not ALL the time, at least."

MOXXIE: "Even if that was the case, it'd be impossible to find the guy. He's taken us there like twice, and there's not been one scrap of news on his whereabouts. But then again, I guess, some humans are still... small-minded, they don't even tell us on those news reports that they even tracked the guy they're... man-hunting."

BLITZØ: "So I think, that's where we come in. Over the last few years, we've secretly shown them that we're the masters of our crafts in man-hunting. Tracks AND track-ING. I bet if I can find the asshole who separated his family with the shot of his... revolver? Just like that, I could finally be a... not an asshole to at least, one person. Show them the true heroes Loonie made him think we are."

MOXXIE: "You know sir, I'm kinda getting just as attached to him as Millie. Seeing him with... I've never seen her so... soft of with him, like this. Don't you fucking dare tell her I said that! She'll never live that down with me! And the last thing I want is for Balin seeing the other half of our teamwork."

BLITZØ: "You and us three both. The 'getting-attached-to-him' thing, that is."

MOXXIE: "Hey. I can tell you are. All three to four of us know that. And you know what, we'll show you the way."

BLITZØ: "You promise?"

MOXXIE: "Whether he chooses us or not, we're all gonna get through this."

Blitzø soon dressed up in a human disguise and spat on the crystal, opening a portal by rubbing his saliva on it.

"Moxx, I'm gonna see if I can make my start at a few places." he told his employee. "You stay and hold the fort."

"Yes sir." saluted Moxxie as Blitzø left the office.

BACK AT LOONA'S APARTMENT...

With only a few used tissues scattered on his bed, Balin was still lying in his bed, talking to Matt and Amy on his phone in the middle of lunch-time at his school.

But as they continued talking, Balin soon heard Loona's paw-steps approaching his room and quickly hung up, before she came in with his ice-cream soup.

It was warmed up, melted, and decorated to perfection. Rather neatly too, as the M&M's swam around in his vanilla-ry treat.

Watching him slowly slurp away at the cold treat brought a smile to Loona's muzzle, knowing that for the first time, in the way she never would've thought possible, she was taking care of someone like him.

"There we go, kiddo. All done. Hand me your bowl." she sighed, placing the bowl on his bedside table. "Hey. You wanna cuddle?"

Balin then perked his head up hearing that for the first time, now being the one in concern.

"But won't I get you sick too?"

"Nah, Hell-borns don't always get human colds." she assured him. "Even if you did, your folks must've gotten sick themselves after you, right?"

"Ohhhh. I see..." said Balin in realisation.

Loona then chuckled as she said: "So how 'bout it? Will a cuddle from your favourite hellhound make you feel a little better?"

Balin then nodded softly, saying 'yes please', before he made some room for her to hop in under the blanket. She slowly did so and wrapped her arm around him, curling up against him with her snout resting on his head.

"You comfy now?" she asked the boy.

"A little better now." he replied. "Thank you, Loona."

He rubbed Loona's fingerless-gloved paw with his hand and stroked the fur outside of it, before he yawned, released one more cough, then fell asleep nuzzling his head into the soft fur of her pillowy breasts.

Loona kissed his soft brown hair and fell asleep herself with the tip of her tail wagging, as they now snuggled up to each other in Balin's bed for the rest of the mid-morning.

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