Loona soon arrived back at her apartment with Balin running inside and up to the couch for a rest, after getting his shots for the final, rather fatal, stage of hellhound fever at Stolas' house.

"Home... sweet home..." Loona said in a little melancholy.

The boy peaked his little human head from the couch to see her in the kitchen, her head and ears slightly lowered, and began to feel concerned for her.

"Loona? Is there something wrong?" he asked.

"Oh, no, not at all." she replied warmly. "I'm just making some lunch. Why not play some video games while I get yours ready?"

"Okay." the boy replied back in relief, before kindly asking: "Can I have peanut-butter on my sandwich, please?"

"You got it." smiled Loona.

While she made the boy's lunch first, Balin grabbed one of his Wii games from the DVD cabinet underneath his bedroom TV to play on the living room one.

The game was 'Wipeout: The Game', based on the popular UK game show.

A couple of minutes into playing his game, Loona brought Balin his plate of peanut-butter sandwich slices.

"There you go, kiddo." she softly spoke. "Eat up now."

As Balin ate the first triangular slice of his sandwich, Loona sat down on the couch facing the little boy with her legs crossed.

"I wanna ask you something, Balin." she cleared her throat. "What made you want to keep your hound form?"

"It's just... after that fun day yesterday, I felt like, I liked it." he explained.

"Yeah?"

"I did want to stop being sick, but something was telling me I wanted to keep it." continued the boy. "Why do you ask?"

"Uhm, it's like Stolas said. Your life probably won't be the same anymore." she replied sadly. "Are you sure you're okay with that?"

"I don't know, Loona." sighed the boy in a little guilt. "You're right, I don't even know why I did it. I mean, what if my family and friends see me like that? My parents might not want me around anymore, for real this time. They'll think I'm a monster now too. My Nan-Nan always rubs my face whenever I'm down, Mitch plays the bongos with my cheeks at times, but now when they feel my face, even he'll think I'm one!"

"Oh, Balin..."

"And Halloween's coming up too. I'm supposed to go trick-or-treating with my friends. What if any of them see me like this? And they see it's not a-?"

"Balin, hey!" Loona soon reached her hand out to him. "...C-Come here."

The boy put down his half-mate sandwich and crawled to Loona, lying down on her thigh with his head in her belly.

"What if... they don't love me anymore?" his sad voice was muffled in her fur.

Hearing that made Loona stroke the boy's head until he calmed down, feeling sad herself. As soon as she sensed he was better, she gently tilted his chin up to her face with her claw and lowered her snout to kiss his forehead.

"I know I've been giving you a lotta these Ted-Talks lately, but sometimes... the truth of me is I'm no good at them. I'm usually so messy." she replied to his question with a small smile. "But maybe, until you show them... just, be yourself. Don't let this be the end."

"I-... I-I won't. Loona." Balin was speechless hearing her say all that.

"I mean, family will be family. They should forgive you, right?" she then stood up from the couch. "You'll be okay with it soon, I just know. In the meantime, I gotta help the others at work, so I'll let you deal with it. If that's okay."

"Oh. Okay." shrugged Balin, indeed feeling okay with it.

"I'll be back in about a couple of hours." she added. "Do you think you'll be OK for a couple hours, waiting for me to come home?"

"Well... I do have my phone and bracelet." he replied, showing her the two things.

"That's a good Meal." Loona ruffled and kiss his hair goodbye. "See you soon."

It was when Loona grabbed her purse and left that Balin continued the rest of his sandwich.

...

Over the next hour-and-a-half, Balin had a fun time with his video game.

During said game, he saw the notification from Amy still on his iPhone screen, where she sent him a picture of the get-well-soon package.

It made him smile a bit, knowing how supportive even she was of him now, thanks to his new life. So with that, he replied to her saying 'thank you' and 'I'm feeling better now' and that he couldn't wait to go back to school.

Then later, when the afternoon fell, Balin decided to put his game away and watch a movie in his room. So as he collected his movie and turned on the TV, it suddenly started glitching a little...

Until it opened its eyes! Revealing itself to be...

VOX, of the notorious overlord trio, the VEES!

"Oh shit, right in the interface." he groaned. "I think there was a tear loose right there." Soon, he saw Balin in front of him.

The boy's mouth was wide open, and a suspenseful silence hit the entire bedroom until Vox waved to him.

"Hey there, kiddo." he chuckled nervously.

"AAAAHHHHHH!" he screamed. "MY TV'S ALIVE!"

"Whoa! Buddy, chill out." he tried to calm him down. "I ain't gonna hurt you."

As he panicked, Balin crawled up against the way and even grabbed his teddy bear for protection.

"STAY BACK!" he shouted, swinging it around. "What have you done with my TV? WHO ARE YOU?"

"Hey, take it easy, kid. Shhhh." Vox tried soothing him again. "I'm a good demon here. I'm on your side, 'kay?"

"But... you were hiding in my closet. In my friend's apartment." Balin stuttered. "How long have you been in there? Aren't you stinky right now?"

"Well, you're no superhero either with that catchphrase, sport." retorted the TV demon.

"Wait a moment... how long-?" Balin suddenly realised. "You were my TV the whole gosh-darn time!"

"Ugh... to tell you the truth... Yes. I have." replied Vox reluctantly. "Every show you've been watching, every movie, every video game was all on me."

"So... does that mean you've been watching me sleep?" Balin asked, feeling a strange chill down his spine. "And every morning when Loona-?"

"Yes. And as cute as it is, it's disgusting." replied the TV. "Then again, there are some shows you can just never get outta your head."

"Well... prove that you're a good demon."

"Sorry, what?"

"If you're not here to hurt or kill or perhaps eat me, can you please come out?" Balin ordered politely. "Show me you're a so-called friend."

"Who said we're friends?" asked Vox.

"The cartoons I've been watching on you for a month now." Balin replied.

"Ugh, fine, fuck it." the TV overlord groaned in his distorted TV voice, luckily keeping Balin from hearing him cuss.

He got out of the closet revealing his tail human body, wearing a fancy tails suit, a bow-tie, jeans, and a pair of blue-and-black tap shoes. ...Only to fall on the bedroom floor face-first, making Balin cringe.

"You would not believe how cramped it is in there." he then coughed, spiffying up his coat and putting on his antenna top-hat. "Like, how many clothes did that mutt buy you? Even I'm blind as a bat in there."

Vox then looked at Balin, still holding his teddy bear up in self-defence.

"Uhh, kid?" he then chuckled calmly. "You can put down the bear now."

"How will I know you're not going to punch me in the face if I do?" Balin then asked, as if he were acting like a tough guy he saw from one of Loona's movies.

"Look 'Balin', as you're famously called 'round these parts, I swear on my career that I won't-" Vox said in a facepalm. "A-A-And how the hell would I eat you anyhow? Hello...?"

"Oh... stuff. Right." Balin then swore in realisation, and in a real cute way. "Well I'm grateful for my Uncle Moxxie and Aunty Millie for getting me... you. But my other friend, Mr. Blitzø, taught me self-defence with my caretaker's permission."

"Moxxie and Millie? Don't you mean, M&M?" the TV then asked in realisation. "That country girl who thanks Satan she's with that imp who looks like he sat on a dick?"

"What's a dick?" asked Balin.

"That one you'll learn as a wide-screened TV." replied Vox flatly again. "Those two are the ones who bought me?"

"Well, yes. Loona told me to thank them when they showed me you." Balin then replied. "How did you even get them to buy you?"

"Fine, I'll tell. But only so you stop saying they bought me. Sounds like I'm a slave!" Vox then cleared his throat for his explanation. "You see kid, it was a normal Tuesday. I stood in front of a TV store by the order of my friends. and then transformed into a real TV for your boss friend, Mr. Blitzø as you call him, or even his lackey couple to... purchase me the first moment I gained their attention. I didn't really mean to at first, but it soon proved a miracle. So one piece of paperwork comes to another and it's a long haul to this room. Which I oughta say needs a flea bath. Like, everywhere."

"But... why are you here?" asked Balin next. "And what did those friends of yours ask you to do?"

Vox sighed, knowing there was more to explain again.

VOX: "For a while now, me and my friends, the VEE'S, have been discussing the return of Alastor. The radio demon. Who you now seem to know as well, just as much as he knows Lucifer's brat of a daughter and her cheap hoteliers of hers. Or should I say, t-theirs... whether they made a deal or not. So when we heard he was after your friends' company next, offering them a deal they can't refuse, we immediately took action to hear their point-of-view on the deal, and so far so good. So being able to hear so much in here, during their visits and without getting sniffed out by that dog of yours, it's as I said, I got ordered at the TV store, they placed me in here, I've been gathering intel on your boss' company and that radio 'FUCKFACE!' ever since."

"So... you've been spying on all of us?"

"Only for protection. That Alastor's not who you think he is and has no idea what impact his deal has on them." Vox finished. "But what's it to you? You're so young, not even a demon child your age can understand."

"Y-You'd be surprised. Actually." said Balin. "I've read on Alastor, and his story of killing and using demons for his radio show."

"Hmm, smart kid then. I'll give you that." shrugged the TV demon.

BALIN: "He said I'm one-of-a-kind."

VOX: *protesting* "He says that to nearly every everyone who meets and ends up trying to make a deal with. Including us, once, before he disappeared. Nobody just disappears and comes back empty-hoofed. He's hiding something from your friends like he is with that Hazbin Hotel."

BALIN: "If he was evil, he wouldn't have saved us from a dinosaur."

VOX: "He'd only keep them alive to make that deal, whatever it took. Think of that. He could have them end up hurting you. Again."

BALIN: "What do you mean again?"

VOX: "I've heard your story, kid. Sleeping in this bed with the same nightmare, haunted by how other people see you and deceive you in the end, your friends the demons could end up like them."

BALIN: "They'd never hurt me. I'v been hurt before, but we've gotten close to each other's hearts."

VOX: "Yeah? How close?"

BALIN: "Loona says that if a demon seems trusting enough for now, you get as close as you can. Until you earn their trust. And a lot of them aren't as bad as you predict Mr. Alastor to be."

VOX: "A family boy, huh? I understand. Come with me."

Clapping his hands, Vox opened a portal to the mortal realm, making Balin surprised.

"I thought sinners weren't supposed to travel to Earth!" he shouted over the sound of the portal.

"Not sinner 'overlords'!" Vox replied as he and the kid jumped through it.

The place Vox had taken Balin was so dark, until he turned on the lights of whatever Earthly place they were in.

And it was brutal.

It was Compound X, where the assaults of the DHORKS headquarters had happened. Bodies laid everywhere, with skin decaying, skulls everywhere, meat soaking black after losing blood, and seeing all that made Balin cover his eyes with one of Vox's tails.

"Okay, you don't have to look. But think." he spoke softly, as to not alert any agents. "This here's what happens when a human like you gets a little too heartfelt with demons. Along, with something we saw weeks before they took you in."

He then showed a picture of Loona mauling a target to death on his screen, making Balin gasp a little more.

"Even if she treats you like something special, it isn't always forever." he continued. "Sometimes, there's dark secrets to hide or to be hidden. Whether we wanna see them or not, we must keep them under wraps."

Soon came the alarm.

"SOMEONE'S IN COMPOUND X!" one of the guards shouted outside.

"Oh shit. Quick!" Vox then grabbed the kid's arm and opened another portal back to Hell, just in time for Agents One & Two and Stella to appear on-guard.

"Where- Where the hell did they go?!" Agent One exclaimed as Agent Two started belching. "Oh, no! Don't do that. If you do that, I'll-"

Agent One started belching to, making Stella groan in disgust.

"Honestly. Such revolt- OH! No, you're not." she began gagging like she'd throw up as well."

BACK IN HELL...

The two arrived home with Vox tidying his suit again, but instead of Loona's apartment, they were actually in the Vees' studio.

"Whoa. What is this place?" Balin asked.

"Oh, sorry, it's just where I work, kid." chuckled Vox.

Soon, a human-like demon wearing a tutu and two large pony-tails with little streaks of white strutted through the room, examining three supermodels carrying different clothes.

"And who's that?"

"That kid, is the wonderful Velvette!" the TV overlord smiled. "My other friend Valentino's the director of Hell's movies and TV series, she's the costume designer, and I'm the top of the whole operation."

"No, I mean, who's that girl?" Balin then pointed to a demon staring at the corner of the wall.

"Oh, that's just Chloe." he replied. "She was sent to time-out after I discovered something sickening about one of your movies."

...

FLASHBACK:

As Balin watched 'Lightyear' on Vox, the controversial scene with the gay couples kissing made the TV gag in secret.

"Wait just a fuck-" he said inside his head before groaning in more disgust. "DAMMIT, I told you not audition for the role, didn't I, huh?!"

FLASHBACK ENDS.

...

"Alright kid, you might wanna hold on again."

Balin held onto him, and with his powers, he travelled through the security camera, along the telephone lines of Imp City, and back to Loona's apartment at last.

"So you see, Heaven, Hell, and Earth? We all take care for our own, even if we're on our own, Balin." continued Vox. "Surely you must understand, when all's said and done."

Balin sighed, knowing he was right but still keeping his faith.

"I understand. I have lived on my own." he replied. "But no."

"No?"

BALIN: "No. Mr. TV, these were other people. I've had experience with those people too and I saw them for who they were. Just as I.M.P did with so many other bad guys. But here you are, telling me that good or bad, Hell's supposed to be bad?"

VOX: "Lucifer is a fallen angel. Sent down here all those years ago to the evil and wicked of your world. You can't always touch a demon's heart."

BALIN: "Maybe I don't have to, Mr. TV. All I can do is hope for the best, that I can have a home where my heart is. And I've seen it, heard it for myself, today."

With a little concentration, Balin transformed back into his hellhound form and hopped into the blankets of his bed.

"You... You kept it. But, wh-?" he stuttered. "What are you doing kid?"

"Dreaming." replied Balin. "Of how much they love me. The sun always comes tomorrow."

Vox then showed a small but somewhat impressed smile on his TV screen.

"I respect your spunk, kid." he replied. "I guess... Hell has that too, from time to time."

With a snap of his fingers, Vox made a new TV, a REAL one, appear in the boy's closet.

"A gift of good luck to you." he then said. "Still has the inter-dimensional cables to your world, with every other channel in Hell. Just don't watch Channel 420."

"Why not?" asked Balin.

"Yeah, what Valentino makes, you don't wanna know." Vox replied sheepishly with a glitch.

...

AT THE STUDIO:

The same penguin imp from one of I.M.P's previous missions was showing Valentino one of his playbills as he sweated, hoping it would be one of his movies.

The playbill was called 'Pommel Horse.'

"Hmm... equestrian porn..." he studied it in a seductive tone. "Ooh, this could kill in Scotland!"

...

"Just trust me on that, kid." Vox continued at the apartment. "Trust. Me. With all your heart..." he then sinisterly tried to use his mind-manipulation on Balin.

But he just tilted his hound head, unfazed and confused.

"Dammit. That usually works." he said. "Oh, and uh, that TV icon of yours? He's signing books at the hotel at the start of November. You probably don't wanna miss that, but just, do me one deal..."

"Yeah?"

"DON'T TELL MS. LOONA I SAID THAT!" the TV then pleaded the little boy. "Just tell her you saw it on the TV."

"Okay."

"Splendid. See you later kid, on this brand-new TV, brought to you by Vox Studios!"

"Vox Studios?" Balin then gasped. "You're Vox? From the book?"

"Until next time we meet. Good afternoon, good evening, and good night!"

...

Vox then ran out of the apartment, only to hear Loona soon walking out of the elevator. Panicking, he quickly hid in another room with a slightly opened door before Loona waltzed through the corridor on her phone, picking up a familiar scent as she walked.

"Is that a... TV?" she thought to herself... before shrugging. "Meh."

Opening his eyes after hearing her shrug, Vox then looked out the apartment door to see Loona walking away with her tail swishing about. And sighing in relief, he then travelled along the power lines of the room's TV once again.

...

Loona soon walked back into her room, excited to see Balin again.

"Buddy? Hello?" she called out to him.

"I'm in here, Loona!" he called from his room, as Loona walked into see him in his bed and his human form, watching TV.

"How's the day been, kiddo?" she asked, sitting on the edge of his bed.

"It's been... really happy being by myself. The way I am." he replied, with Loona rubbing his cheek. "Also, Devo's signing books at the Imagination Castle next month. The TV told me."

"Did it now?" asked Loona in intrigue. "Hmm... could be a good early b'day present. Why not?"

"YAY!" exclaimed Balin.

"Can't wait either, kiddo." chuckled Loona. "But right now... you-you wanna cuddle for a bit?"

"If you'd like to." nodded Balin.

"I'd be happy to, sweetie." she then said. "Scoot."

So Balin made some room for Loona to lie down on his bed and under the blanket. But not before changing into her human form.

"We rarely get the chance to snuggle like this, so, is this-?"

Loona then felt Balin rest his head on her side, lovingly. Showing a sweet smile, she took that as a yes and left the TV on the cartoon channel before snuggling next to the little boy, showing his smile.

Soon, she quickly rubbed her nose against his while he was still asleep, before falling into a nap herself.

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