Chapter Text
Loona
“In rural communities, families deserve to have faster and cheaper access to getting stuck in the toilet.
“In rural communities, families deserve to have faster and cheaper access to a sh*t ton of spiders.”
“Why?”
“I thought you liked spiders.”
“Okay where the f*ck are people getting that information from. Is it Blitzø? I’m gonna kick his f*cking ass.”
The end of another week came for Loona once again. Another long week of answering the phone, going on the occasional kill, and talking with the occasional douchebag Sinner. A typical end of a week at IMP, except for the fact that Octavia had joined Loona at the break table this time around. The two were currently playing some human board game called Cards Against Humanity and the results had been extremely vulgar. So it was perfect for two young adult goth girls like them. Loona was still chuckling from Octavia’s response to the prompt, ‘What’s a girl’s best friend?’. She swore that Via had a sense of humor just as crude as Blitzø’s, though she’d never say it to the owlet's face.
Adjusting to life in a palace had been relatively odd certainly. She already had her own room so moving out hadn’t been too difficult. However, it was awkward to have servants at her beck and call. That was something that she would probably never get used to having given that she’d spent most of her life doing things herself. Though she could admit that having regular access to that lavender bath soap Stolas had introduced her to was just such an incredible feeling. She’d never taken an actual bath, not since she was a kid, but it felt so nice to just sit in the tub and relax as music played in the background. She understood why Stolas liked them so much.
That and the delicious meals that the chefs prepared. Sure, nothing could ever replace the feeling of eating a double bacon burger from WacDonalds. And she had gotten used to the slop served at the Foundation for most of her life. Yet, Loona wasn’t too prideful enough to admit that the bacon wrapped chicken that had been prepared for her last night was one of the most delicious things she’d ever eaten. She was an absolute sucker for anything with bacon.
The only other major thing that was of mild importance was the buzz circulating around what happened at Bee’s party a week ago. After all, it wasn’t everyday that a Sin got engaged. It was like all of Hell had literally lost it’s f*cking mind at hearing that a hellhound was marrying a Deadly Sin. Every news station was talking about it, every radio show, every podcast. Not a single person wasn’t talking about the big proposal that Beelzebub had accepted from a hellhound. It was easy to forget just how cutthroat and unapologetic the paparazzi were when it came to getting a story. No matter what anyone did to scare them off, they never seemed to learn their lesson, always looking for the next big story. She was just glad that Blitzø and Stolas’ relationship had fallen under the radar of them as the last thing she wanted was to be stalked and filmed without her knowledge.
Of course, what made the paparazzi even more stir crazy was when Lucifer officially came out in support of the union as well as with Asmodeus and Fizzarolli’s relationship. She hadn’t been paying attention much, but this had led to various discussions over hellborn rights and how the system was set up against them. Loona knew she should probably care about it, but she wasn’t really concerned about it at the moment. Right now, she was more concerned with making sure that Octavia didn’t find out about the surprise party they were setting up for her.
Loona had managed to convince Stolas to rent out an entire Stylish Occult store for the day where they would host the party. She had convinced the others to also keep quiet and arrive an hour early to help out with setting things up. So far, everyone, even Blitzø, had managed to keep quiet about the party, and the owlet was blissfully unaware. Loona had the cake planned, the events, the decorations. Everything was set for next Thursday. She was going to make it the best 18th birthday for Octavia that she could. That’s what good sisters did after all.
Suddenly, as the girls began another round of cards, a portal opened from the ceiling and three imps jumped out, landing onto the floor like they were out of an action movie.
“Harp shooting there, Mox. Pro as usual,” Blitzø complimented as he rose from the ground, the thespian imp’s eyes sparkling with pride, before turning to Millie and saying, “Millie, bloody beautiful mess in there. Millie flexed her muscles during Blitzø;s complement, the imp finishing it off by making an exaggerated ‘Smooch’ sound with his lips. “What a great f*cking day this is.” Just as he said that, a bloody piece of flesh fell from the portal and splattered onto the floor.
Well, Blitzø is certainly in a good mood, Loona thought as her father pumped his arms into the air. Octavia looked at Loona, her expression asking the hellhound if she was also seeing Blitzø’s unusually positive mood. Loona simply shrugged her shoulders, unsure as to why Blitzø was so excited all of a sudden. He hadn’t been this excited when they got to work, though he had been a tad bit happier. Perhaps, the high from killing those gang members had brought out his excitement like it did with the lumberjacks months back.
“Oh hey, Octopus, when did you get here?” Blitzø asked the owlet, calling her by the nickname he gave her. Octavia huffed at the nickname, though she didn’t correct him on it. She wouldn’t admit it to anyone but Loona that she had secretly grown fond of the nickname.
“Got let out of school early. Some dumbass set the whole science lab on fire,” Octavia responded plainly. She of course failed to mention that said dumbass had been her lab partner, who lost some feathers due to thinking that he could play with fire magic while hydrogen sulfide gas was leaking in the air.
“Oh damn, well make yourself comfortable here, Octopus. Don’t mind us,” Blitzø offered awkwardly as he took off his bloody jacket, revealing a white striped shirt and overalls.
Despite having spent more time together, things were still a little iffy between Blitzø and Octavia. Even with knowing how horrible and abusive Stella had been toward Stolas during the entirety of their marriage, not to mention the assassination attempt, Octavia still found it difficult to interact with the imp on occasion. That wasn’t to say that she wasn’t warming up to him. She was, but it would take time before she fully accepted him. Similarly, Blitzø was also a bit awkward around Octavia as well since he didn’t know exactly how to interact with her. She was his boyfriend’s daughter, but also the one who broke up her parent’s marriage, even if it was best for both parties. So he sometimes felt like he was walking on eggshells, with him never sure if he was saying or doing the right thing with her.
“You sure seem in good spirits today sir,” Moxxie noted, placing a hand against his chin as he grinned mischievously. “It’s rare to see you wear something…not bad.”
“Well it’s the–Well first of all, f*ck you,” Blitzø cursed, pointing at Moxxie as he hung his bloody coat on the cactus coat rack by Loona’s desk. Honestly, she didn’t understand why Blitzø would even use that as a coat rack given that it always left thorns inside the clothing hung from it.
“Tonight is the full moon and I felt like dressing up a little because tonight I plan on giving Stolas’ feathered ass a good pounding,” Blitzø explained with a devious grin, readjusting his tie in the process.
“And I’m going home,” Octavia said deadpanned, opening up a portal with the flick of her hand back to the palace and stepping through. Loona couldn’t blame her. Having lived with Blitzø for five years, Loona had learned quickly to get used to his crass language, though Via still needed time to adjust to it.
“See ya Via,” Loona waved with a sympathetic smile.
“There’s some frozen mice in the fridge that I got you and your dad if you're hungry,” Blitzø called to the fleeing owl, who gave Blitzø the middle finger, her back facing them as the portal closed. Blitzø scratched his back in an awkward manner. “I think she’s coming around.”
“Yeah, coming around to putting her foot up your ass,” Loona joked with a sarcastic smile, knowing her father had a long way to go when it came to getting along with Octavia. Blitzø shrugged it off and walked away toward the hellhound’s desk. Loona got up from her desk and walked over to help Millie with cleaning up the messy gore that was on the floor. The pregnant imp had already gotten a bucket from storage and had it set next to the pile of flesh. Seriously, just what had happened up there that left a person looking like this.
“You know, it’s been a while since Stolas and I have had a good romp on our fancy mattress,” continued Blitzø while humping the air. “I’m feeling really horny and excited after today, and considering I haven’t been inside his ass in two weeks.”
“Wait, did you say two weeks?” Moxie queried, popping up through his boss' jacket next with shock on his face. “That’s unusually long even for you sir.”
“Yeah, well Stolas has been extra busy lately with his bitch of an ex and the Goetian Council during the divorce process and his other responsibilities. So I thought I would put on a show to really help him relax and remind him how good my dick is,” he responded in a deep and seductive tone.
“TMI sir,” Moxxie whined with disgust.
“Isn’t it a little odd to be doing it on the full moon of all days Dad?” Loona asked, stomping the pile of bloody flesh into the bucket.
“I know. I know that we definitely have some baggage related to it, but that’s why I think it’s a great idea. A way to state that we are growing beyond who we used to be as a couple. A new and fresh act to replace the old one,” Blitzø advertised, jumping on Loona’s desk and waving his arm in a magical dreamy nature.
As he jumped off and wiped his pants of dirt, he gloated, “I’m thinking of using Position 37 tonight. I’ll dick him so good we’ll be waking up in Narnia.” Loona faked a gag at his description. She hated it when he got horny.
“Well, f*ck him good sir,” Moxxie told him. The imp was holding a clipboard as he read out the company’s profit margins. “Business productivity has steadily increased since your romance with him became official, and it would be a shame to see it all rocket back down.”
“Don’t worry, Moxxie,” Blitzø assured, placing an arm around the smaller imp’s shoulder. “By the time the night is over, I’ll have Stolas eating out of my ass, if the gag will let him. Eh, eh.” Loona rolled her eyes at the joke. She could only handle so much of horny Blitzø after all.
“Stop,” Moxxie pleaded with annoyance, though the faint smile on his face indicated that he had indeed found the joke funny.
“Eh, grow up Mox, it’s what adults do, we’re horny.” Not to this degree, Loona countered in her head.
As she dumped the contents of the bucket into the trash, her ears picked up on Blitzø rummaging through his ‘toy’ chest in his office. Her father groaned, “Oh, sh*t Moxxie, we’ve used all the sh*t in this box. It’s all too boring to use with Stolas tonight.” Blitzø then walked out of the office with an irritated expression as his keys jingled in his hands.
“I need to up the ante. Mox, I need you to hold up the fort while I’m gone, get some overdue paperwork done.”
“What overdue paperwork?” Moxxie questioned before Blitzø pulled out an enormous and disorganized pile of papers from nowhere before dropping it on top of the unamused thespian imp.
“See ya Millie,” Blitzø said to the Wrathian imp, before lowering himself so that he was facing Millie’s stomach. “See ya, little Millie.”
“Blitzø, stop,” Millie giggled as she lightly swatted Blitzø away.
“Bye, Loonie. See ya later at home tonight.”
“Preferably tomorrow, if you’re gonna be horny tonight,” Loona
“Oh relax, sweetie. I can totally stop being horny if I wanted to,” Blitzø argued. At the very suggestion, Moxxie’s head popped out of the pile of papers, his eyes looking between Loona and Millie, who were similarly looking between one another. Instantly, the two smaller imps and hellhound burst out laughing.
“f*ck you guys,” Blitzø mumbled, giving each of them the bird before leaving out the office entrance door.
With the slam of the door, the trio continued to laugh for another whole minute, soon tiring themselves out. Loona walked over to Moxxie and pulled him out of the pile of paperwork, offering to help him as they waited to finish out the day. It honestly wasn’t that hard. Within half an hour, they were already finished with the pile of paperwork as most of it was just bills and contractual paperwork sent in by their clients.
“So, Loona, how are things at the palace,” Moxxie asked as he scribbled his own signature on some form.
“Not bad, all things considered,” Loona responded, taking a finished pile of papers and placing them into a cabinet. “Still having some trouble navigating the whole place, but that’s to be expected considering it’s bigger than a football field.”
“You know, when I was a little girl I always dreamed of being a princess and living in my own castle,” Millie recalled whimsically. The imp was sitting on the opposite couch munching on a pickle and peanut butter sandwich.
“I’m not a princess,” Loona countered.
“You will be when Blitzø and Stolas marry,” Millie noted, giving Loona pause. Marriage was a long way to go for Blitzø and Stolas. Still, Loona knew that it would happen eventually, maybe within the next year or so. However, she’d never given much thought as to what that meant title-wise. So, if Blitzø and Stolas did marry, that would make her a princess, on the same level as Octavia.
“Huh, I didn’t think about that,” Loona muttered thoughtfully before another consideration came to mind. “But then that would make Blitzø a prince. Oh, he is going to milk the sh*t out of that.” She could already imagine the gigantic horse ranch he’d probably build amongst other insane ventures he’d probably commit to.
“All of Hell is gonna have to start praying to God to help save us from that,” Moxxie chortled, laughing uncontrollably which Loona and Millie joined in, finding the realization hilarious as sin.
“And how’s the whole baby thing going?” Loona asked the couple. “Are you two ready?” The couple looked at each other momentarily, speaking to each other with their eyes like most close couples did.
“We’re actually thinking of getting a head start,” Moxxie started with a soft smile.
“What do you mean?” Loona asked, tilting her head in confusion.
“Me and Moxxie have been talking,” Millie continued. “And we’ve decided to adopt.”
It was like a switch had been flipped and the hellhound found herself lost for words. Had she heard that right? Looking between the couple, Loona couldn’t see or feel any form of deception coming from them before asking, “Really?”
“Yeah,” Moxxie confirmed, “We managed to get in touch with the social workers in charge over at Gluttony, and right now we’re in the middle of the vetting process.”
“That’s…really cool, guys,” Loona smiled, finding herself respecting the couple more.
“We just saw those kids and we thought that they deserve to be loved too,” Millie acknowledged somberly.
“No yeah, that’s awesome. I’m happy for you guys.” Loona felt a deep part of her warmth for whoever got to be their kid. She had an inkling as to who that might be but she didn’t want to make any assumptions just yet. Nevertheless, she was warmed by the fact that the couple were willing to find it in their hearts to help someone like her. “When are you gonna tell Blitzø?”
“Still trying to figure that out,” Moxxie stated, rolling his eyes. Loona laughed in turn. She knew that once they told Blitzø there would be no stopping the imp from trying to involve himself in every step of the adoption process. He was loving to a fault as one might say.
“Good luck. You’re gonna need it,” Loona chuckled before a dark feeling washed over her, causing her to frown. A familiar gut instinct that Loona had felt once before. And she didn’t like it one bit.
“Loona, you good?” Millie asked with concern, her husband sporting a similar expression as they caught onto the sudden shift in Loona’s mood. Loona didn’t respond at first, still trying to process the curdling feeling in her stomach that was filling her with dread.
“I don’t know why, but my gut is telling me we should follow Blitzø,” Loona explained.
“Why? Is something up with him?” Moxxie asked.
“No, I’m pretty sure he’s fine mentally at least. I just have a feeling that something is gonna go wrong while he’s out.” Loona couldn’t describe it. This sense of forewarning toward her adoptive father that she had a keen sense for.
“Maybe it’s just you overacting,” Moxxie reasoned. “I mean, Blitzø seemed happy when he left.”
“If I’d stuck to that line of reasoning, Blitzø would have blown his brains out two months ago,” Loona admitted, pulling the room into a tense silence.
No one liked to talk about it, what had happened two months ago. It had been after the mission at that summer camp. Loona had initially gone out to hang out with her new friends one particular evening, leaving Blitzø home alone. As she had waited for her taxi cab to take her to her destination, Loona had suddenly developed some form of warning pool in her gut. When she’d gotten back to the apartment, she had walked in on Blitzø pressing his gun to his temple, just about to pull the trigger. It had broken Loona, seeing him like that, almost losing him forever. If Loona had been half a second late, or had ignored that feeling of foreboding, Blitzø wouldn’t be alive today and their lives would be very different from what it was now.
“You don't think he’s actually…,” Moxxie began, his face filled with worry.
“No, he’s been doing a lot better. It could be nothing, but I don’t want to take that risk,” Loona reasoned. “Besides, the danger doesn’t have to be relegated to just himself, does it?”
“You think we’ll be able to find him?” Millie asked. “It’s been awhile since he left.”
“I’m sure I’ll be able to smell out where he went,” Loona suggested, pointing to her nose. “Plus, knowing Blitzø, he probably went to Lust. They’re bound to have what he’s looking for.”
“What about the rest of this?” Moxxie asked, referring to the stack of paperwork they had left.
“It’s not that much,” Loona shrugged as she opened the door to leave the office. “Just store it for tomorrow. I don’t wa–” Before she could finish her sentence, her attention on Moxxie, Loona didn’t notice the person standing on the opposite side of the door whom she collided with.
“sh*t,” she grumbled as she clutched her sore head, having literally slammed her head into theirs.
“Mierda, I am so sorry,” the other person apologized, the male voice oddly familiar to Loona.
“No, that’s on me–” Loona began before she froze at the sight of the ‘demon’ in front of her. He was a tall fox-like demon about her height, with blond fur and brown curly hair that ended in a flowy lava-like substance as well as a brown, gold-rimmed fedora atop his head. He had long fennec-like ears with antenna sticking from the tips as well as mesmerizing pink eyes framed by a pair of glasses that warmed Loona’s body. Behind him flowed a long tail of lava lamp fluid that twitched excitedly. He was wearing a white t-shirt beneath a dark brown open jacket and jeans. Loona didn’t need to take a whiff of their scent to immediately recognize them.
“Gabriel?” Loona whispered.
“Hey, Loona,” Gabriel spoke with an awkward smile, waving his hand to say hello. Loona could only stare back in shock at the sight of the cambion she had met only weeks earlier, in Hell, in front of her, and she had no idea why. The worry she had had about her father momentarily was replaced by confusion as well as some nervousness at the sight of Gabriel. Not because she was scared of him, but because he looked even more hot as a demon than a human.
Why does he have to be hot? Loona blushed.
. . .
Gabriel
“What are you doing here? How did you find me?” Loona asked, her muzzle wrought with confusion.
Gabriel couldn’t blame her. He doubted she ever expected to see him much less literally run into him today without so much as a call or text, which wasn’t possible since they didn’t have each other’s phone numbers. Heck, he hadn’t even texted his mother that he was coming over. He’d wanted to surprise her with the gift his grandmother had given him. But he had no idea on how to get to his mother’s place and he didn’t want to risk teleporting somewhere he had no knowledge about. He figured he could kill two birds with one stone by visiting Loona and getting directions on how to reach the Gluttony Ring and his mother’s place.
After managing to close up shop for the day, Gabriel had rushed home as quickly as possible to get dressed into something less work casual. He’d grabbed his satchel (It was a satchel, not a man purse like some people called it) and placed the wrapped photo album inside. He then used his inner magic to teleport himself back to the Pride ring, where he found himself in Pentagram City once again. He walked down the chaotic streets, managing to avoid confrontation where he could until he spotted the billboard he’d seen the first time around. In big bold letters in the corner was an address to an office building in someplace called Imp City. Fortunately, the address also indicated that it was in the Pride Ring as well so it probably wouldn’t be too much of a distance.
In an ironic twist, he’d managed to run into a pair of female demons, one of whom happened to know how to reach it and had used their services. She was a pink demon with red eyes, long white hair, curled horns, and hooves for feet, the other a red demoness with antlers, flowy black hair, and having only one eye, the other a black hole.
They seemed nice enough, albeit a bit disturbed, especially the one-eyed one. She was giving off similar vibes to the cannibals he’d seen when he first arrived in hell, although more horny for some reason. Once they’d given him what he was looking for, Gabriel summoned a mini brownie for each of them to have as thanks and then took off running down the street, verbally thanking them as he raced toward his destination. He didn’t bother to gauge their reactions as he was in a hurry, but he figured that they probably liked the desserts.
He’d started practicing the dessert magic during work hours when no one was looking. Of course, he didn’t want to use it all the time as they had perfectly good products to use, but it was something he was still curious about getting better at. From the reactions he’d gotten from his employees and customers, the products he produced were great as if not better than what he made by hand. If anything, they only made them more invested in his baking.
From Pentagram City, he managed to buy himself a cab to IMP City using money his mother had given him for when he was down here. Twenty minutes later he was standing in front of the office building where Loona’s father’s business was supposedly located. He still didn’t know what exactly the function business performed was, just that it mostly catered to Sinners. He’d have to ask Loona when he saw her.
Speaking of the hellhound, he certainly hadn’t been expecting to run into her as he was about to knock on the office door, having easily found it with the help of the building receptionist as well as the fact that the logo was on the office door window. The moment he saw the Hellhound, he instantly felt happy inside. Loona herself had similarly become a bit docile in her own demeanor.
Said hellhound was wearing an off the shoulder crop top with a pentagram lace design around her breasts as well as torn black shorts and a spiked collar around her neck, the epitome of goth if he said so himself. He couldn’t deny that she actually looked pretty hot all things considered, though he didn’t let it show that he thought so physically. Still, he could see why people on the internet fantasized about having their own goth girlfriend.
“Well I wanted to surprise mi madre and give her something mi abuela made for her. While I was in the area, I figured I would stop by first and say hi.”
“You didn’t answer my second question,” Loona reminded.
“I may have heard from my Tío Ozzie last time I was here about your padre’s business,” Gabriel explained. "I’m guessing mi madre mentioned my little excursion here.”
“She did,” Loona nodded. Gabriel leaned against the door frame as he relaxed himself around the hellhound.
“Yeah, as I was saying, I started asking people on the street where your building was and, well here I am.”
“Not exactly a safe thing to do in Hell,” Loona remarked.
“I’ve got too much charm to be attacked by random strangers,” Gabriel boasted, twirling his hair in his finger.
“Uh huh, sure you do,” Loona scoffed, a smile gracing her muzzle nevertheless. Seeing that smile, Gabriel could feel warmth flood his chest. Is the feeling papa had been talking about when he was with madre , Gabriel thought. I’m gonna end up a sap like him aren’t I?
“Loona, you didn’t tell us you had a boyfriend,” a feminine southern voice said from behind Loona. Gabriel tilted his head and saw it was an imp half Loona’s height in a black tank top and pants, with short black hair and long black eyelashes, as well as two black horns with tiny increments of white patterning them.
“He’s not my boyfriend, Millie,” Loona objected with a huff, crossing her arms like she was in denial.
“Ya sure? Yer tail is saying otherwise,” Millie teased with a smirk, pointing to the hellhound’s wagging tail which both Loona and Gabriel noticed at the imp’s remark. Loona immediately clamped down on her tail, stopping its movement while muttering ‘Traitor’ under her breath.
“I mean, I think he’s cute but…no I mean I–,” Loona sputtered before cursing as she stormed past Gabriel. “We’ll talk about this later. Millie, Moxxie, We have somewhere to be,” Loona commanded, stomping down the hall. It was then that Gabriel noticed a second imp in a black suit stepping out with the other, this one he assumed male and was the same height as Millie, with white hair and freckles. His horns were peculiar in that the white stripes were much bigger in comparison to Millie’s. That and the hair, it’s likely a secondary sex characteristic , Gabriel surmised.
“Do you mind if I join? Gabriel asked, Loona pausing in her movement, a blush on her face as she turned to face them.
“Sorry, Gabe but this is company business,” she replied stiffly. Gabriel deflated slightly at Loona’s forced cold tone.
“Ah lighten up, Loona. As long as he can handle himself in a fight,” Millie countered with a sinister smile on her face. “Can you?”
“Mi papa was in the military,” Gabriel mentioned. “Taught me a lot about knife and gun combat. Though I forgot to bring any of his old weapons with me.”
“No need. Here ya go,” The male imp who he assumed was Moxxie offered as he pulled out a simple handgun and handed it to him. In his right hand, Gabriel held the heavy firearm by the grip in his right hand and flicked off the safety with the other before pulling back the barrel to co*ck it. It had been a while since he went to the gun range, but he still knew his way around using one.
“See, Loona. He can handle himself just fine,” Moxxie said smugly. Loona rolled her eyes, hitting the elevator door button.
“Plus it will allow us to get to know more about your boyfriend,” Millie added. Gabriel wanted to argue that he wasn’t her boyfriend, though he couldn’t find the courage to open his mouth. Did that mean he wanted to be her boyfriend? Or was he just too confused by the lack of context? With Gabriel’s luck, it could have been both.
“I just said he’s not my…Oh f*ck, whatever. You guys suck, you know that,” Loona whined walking into the elevator as soon as the doors opened. Gabriel found himself being pulled along by Millie, who was surprisingly strong for her size. As the elevator doors closed and all four occupants were inside, an awkward silence fell upon them, though it only seemed to be felt by Loona and Gabriel, the former blushing like she was being videotaped naked.
“So what are we doing exactly, Loona?” Gabriel asked, Loona looking away at the sound of his voice.
“Following my dad,” she mumbled. Gabriel raised an eyebrow at the statement, unsure as to why she was doing so before Loona sighed, “It’s a long story.”
As the elevator descended and Moxxie and Millie began hounding him with different questions, Gabriel couldn’t help but think, What exactly did I get myself into?
. . .
30 minutes later…
A conservative Christian's worst nightmare, that’s what , Gabriel thought as he stared at the city around him.
After leaving the office building, Loona had led them toward the elevators to the different rings. She explained to him that she suspected something was up with her father and she was concerned something might happen to him. Though he still wondered what kind of six sense allowed her to pick up on danger like that. He wished he’d had it, otherwise he’d have been able to sense his father’s cancer beforehand. It made him more invested to see this whole thing through. His mother could wait just a little bit longer.
Gabriel found it amusing as she sniffed the air and tracked her father, like she were some police dog looking for a bomb or drugs. He wondered what other characteristics hellhounds shared with their human world counterparts. Though as he followed her, Gabriel noticed that he was getting weird looks from some of the demons around them, particularly the hellhounds. It had suddenly occurred to him that perhaps they would begin to notice the similarities between himself and his mother, causing Gabriel to dive behind a pole stealthily.
After explaining the issue to Loona, she took some of his money and walked over to a nearby shift shop, buying Gabriel a hoodie for him to put on. Unfortunately, he hadn’t been specific about what type of hoodie, nor had he realized what the design on the hoodie was. It wasn’t until he stepped out of the restroom stall and saw himself in the mirror did he notice the graphic image of two demons having sex with the word’s ‘Bottom Bitch’ written below it. As he stepped out of the restroom after having stuffed his other clothes in his satchel, hood over his head, he had been surprised by a camera flash, Loona holding up her phone while she held back a hoard of giggles. It was embarrassing as hell, but Gabriel could admit that it was a clever prank, and just maybe a bit funny.
Not long after, the three demons and one disguised cambion arrived in Lust. As soon as he stepped out into the streets of his Uncle Ozzie’s ring, Gabriel felt a completely different air to the place than Pride. Instead of a chaotic and unsettling air atmosphere, Lust had a more cooling and relaxing feeling to it, which made sense considering what Lust entailed. Gabriel had only been in Asmodeus’ tower the last time he was here, never having actually seen the outside of Lust save for the deep blue sky. Yet, he still wasn’t prepared for what he saw.
It was just so…nice and classy. It kind of looked like those old black and white shots of New York one might see. Gabriel didn’t like making assumptions, but he couldn’t help but wonder if people openly had sex out on the streets in the ring. But no, aside from the occasional kiss and holding of hands, it was all so family friendly. (He was just going to ignore the two demons making freaky noises in that one alleyway.) Well, it would be, if not for the horny advertisem*nts that were literally everywhere.
And there were so many of them too. There were ads for safe sex, for condoms and sex toys, oh the sex toy ones were the most prominent. Seriously, he knew that his uncle was open when it came to things related to sex, but this seemed obsessive. Then again, perhaps that was the idea. Still, the city did look pretty fancy and clean, so that was a plus.
Moxxie and Millie, who Gabriel learned were married to each other, had asked him several questions along the way, including who he was, how he met Loona, and if he was single (the last one, Loona blushed at). He explained to them that he and Loona were acquaintances who met while Loona was helping a friend and that he was a Sinner. He wasn’t sure if he should tell them that he was the secret son of a Deadly Sin, but they seemed to buy his explanation, for now anyways.
At the moment, they were watching Loona’s father Blitzø from a rooftop, having spotted him entering a sex shop. Gabriel took note of how Blitzø was an imp, recalling how Loona had mentioned she was adopted. When Gabriel asked them what exactly he was doing at a sex shop, the trio explained that he was looking for special toys for a night with his boyfriend. The realization of what the building was brought a flushing red hue to Gabriel’s cheeks, but hey, who was he to judge? The four were looking across the building and trying to spot any kind of person coming after Loona’s father. So far, they hadn’t found or seen anything suspicious or dangerous.
“Ya know, you actually look familiar,” Millie said, squinting her eyes at Gabriel.
“Huh,” Gabriel mumbled, caught off guard by her suspicion.
“I was thinking that too, honey,” Moxxie agreed, looking Gabriel up and down before his eyes went wide and stating aloud, “He looks exactly like Beelzebub.” Millie’s eyes went wide in recognition as well.
“You’re right, Mox. With the tail and hair, he’s almost a carbon copy of her.” He knew he looked like his mother but, now that he was thinking about it, he really did look identical to his mother. As long as he was in Hell, there was no hiding his identity from the rest of it. It was starting to look more and more like he would need to integrate himself into the landscape of Hell if he stayed.
“You like a secret love child of hers?” Millie inquired, her tone curious as she leaned toward him. Gabriel glanced at Loona, who was also listening into their conversation, looking for an answer as to if he should be truthful. Loona looked away for a moment in thought before she nodded her head.
Gabriel took a breath and answered, “Yes.” Silence followed his reply, both Moxxie and Millie blinking at Gabriel with surprise over their expressions.
“Wait, for real?” Moxxie pressed in disbelief, clearly not expecting Gabriel to say yes to his wife’s question.
“Sí, Beelzebub es mi madre.” The couple were quiet after his reconfirmation. Gabriel found their silence amusing.
“I mean, you did ask,” Gabriel gloated.
“I know, but just…wow,” Millie awed in shock, her voice quiet as she processed what Gabriel had told her. “Neither of us really expected you to be so honest about it when confronted. That’s what’s so surprising. Not the whole you being a secret love child. I bet the whole of Wrath that half of them Goetia have secret children or relationships with us hellborn.”
Gabriel didn’t know how to respond to that tidbit of information, though he could compare it to same magnitude of an anti-gay politician or pastor being exposed as being gay.
“How was she able to keep you a secret,” Moxxie muttered to himself. “Where did you say you grew up?” Gabriel pointed a finger up in the air.
“In the ring above us?” Millie asked.
Gabriel shook his head, adding, “Higher than Hell.”
“On Earth?” Moxxie inquired.
Gabriel gave him a nod.
“But why would she have you–”
“All I’m gonna say on it is that me and madre were estranged until recently. Now we’re not, and both of us would prefer if fewer people knew about me for now. Deal?” The imps looked at each other, before deciding to drop it and get back to spying on Loona’s dad.
Soon, the group moved to an adjacent rooftop, unable to get a good view of Blitzø from their current position. As they jumped over onto the adjacent roof, Gabriel asked, “So what do you do for a living? I know you’re an assassination company and you market to Sinners exclusively, but what do you do for them?”
“Oh, we kill people on Earth that they want dead,” Millie answered. “Why? You want to enlist our services?”
Gabriel stared at her, trying to see if she was joking about what they did, but couldn’t find any sort of deceit. Holy sh*t, they…kill people on Earth , Gabriel thought, unsure of what to do with that information.
Does that make me an accessory to murder now if I don’t turn them in. Well I can’t turn them in since no one would believe me? I mean they would but I would need to show them picture evidence, and with how crazy powerful AI tech is nowadays people would easily question its authenticity. Plus, I’d be exposing all of demonkind which probably is not something that I should be doing since half my family are demons. Not only that, but she offered me their services.
As Gabriel became lost in his thoughts, he wasn’t aware that the others had already moved on to continue spying on Loona’s father. Do I take it? Wait, why are you thinking about that anyway? It is severely immoral and not something that you would feel comfortable doing. Who would I even want to have killed? I mean I know who I would want to have killed, but…
“Gabriel, you good?” Loona asked, interrupting his rambling thought process.
“Tantos políticos muertos,” Gabriel mumbled as he pulled out of the swirling of dark thoughts.
“What?”
“What? Forget I said anything,” Gabriel shook his head, Loona eyeing him oddly before shrugging it off herself. Gabriel went back to peering through the binocular as he crouched by the brick barricade on the roof ledge.
“Hold on,” Gabriel paused, recalling something he’d seen on the news not long ago. “A week back there was a story about some large ring of child traffickers in Czechoslovakia being wiped out.”
“One of the kids the police rescued claimed that a silver-furred werewolf killed all of them,” Gabriel divulged, glancing at Loona who continued staring through the binoculars, appearing as though she weren’t paying attention if not for the fact that her ears were twitching in his direction.
“Weird,” Loona muttered, still looking through the binoculars. However, the slight twitch of her tail told Gabriel all he needed to know.
“Yeah, weird. Though I will say that whoever that werewolf is, that they’re pretty awesome in my book. I don’t like violence usually, but child traffickers have already dug themselves their own graves.”
Loona’s tail wagged a little more quickly at the complement, a small smile etched onto her muzzle that didn’t go unnoticed by Gabriel. He could feel the pride sweeping from her inner self. That was another thing he noticed about his abilities. Since becoming more in tune with his powers, Gabriel’s empathic skills had seemingly become hypersensitive, so much so that he needed to tune them out more often to avoid any mental overload.
As soon as he turned back to his binoculars, as he turned his attention to the roof of the sex shop, he spotted something odd.
“Hey, uh, is there supposed to be some comic book convention or anything of the like happening today?” Gabriel asked the three demons, drawing their attention.
“I don’t think so. Why?” Loona asked.
“Because I see a trio of Power Rangers rejects spying on your dad, Loona,” Gabriel replied, leaning forward slightly as he looked between the three figures in exosuits spying down through the skylight of the building. Now that he saw them, the suits that the individuals were wearing vaguely resembled Moxxie, Millie, and Loona's father.
“Where?” Moxxie asked.
“On the roof of the sex shop.” The two imps and hellhound spied for where Gabriel had spotted the three individuals in mecha suits, and sure enough, the three demons released their own mumbling and awes at the sight.
“Moxxie, they look familiar to you?” Millie asked her husband. Moxxie pressed the binoculars closer to his face as he likely squinted to get a deeper look at the trio over the sex shop.
“I think those are the cherubs from the Lyle Lipton job,” he finally said aloud after a length of tension.
“Wait, those tiny angel freaks that you got in a turf war with?” Loona recounted drawing confusion from Gabriel.
“I’m sorry, angels, Cherubs, what context am I missing?” Gabriel asked confusedly. Okay, now things are getting cartoonish, and I’m still wearing this stupid sweatshirt.
Loona released an annoyed sigh, though it wasn’t toward him but more so toward the situation itself. “Dad and the married couple here had a run in with a bunch of cherubs while trying to kill our target, a Lyle Lipton, from this one job months back,” Loona explained.
“Lyle Lipton, that name definitely rings a bell,” Gabriel reckoned. He’d heard that name before. Where oh where had he heard it.
“He was some big inventor, him and his partner on Earth,” Moxxie mentioned, and like that, a memory clicked into Gabriel’s head.
“Yeah, they were pretty well liked,’ Gabriel recalled. “At least until a big expose came out after their deaths highlighting them performing illegal experiments on the poor and homeless.”
It had been pretty big news when it came out that the two world famous inventors who everyone admired were horrific monsters, having built their empire off of actual human suffering. As for how the two inventors died, that was still under wraps intensely by their PR team, though many suspected they received karmedic justice from their own inventions.
“Not exactly surprising. You humans always seem to do the most despicable things when you have lots of money,” Millie emphasized.
“I know. You don’t have to tell me about it.”
“But what are they doing here?” Moxxie asked with concern. “And where did they get those suits?”
“Don’t know, but given last time, I’m pretty sure it can’t be good,” Loona guessed, Moxxie and Millie nodding their heads in agreement with the hellhound.
“What are the querubíns doing right now?” Gabriel asked, feeling a hint of dread at the reality that there would be an inevitable fight happening soon. He was starting to regret asking to come with them.
“They seem content to just spy on him for now,” Millie noted, eyeing the three cherubs with an angry glare.
“Let’s hold off on attacking them until they plan on attacking Blitzø,” Loona announced to the group. No one argued with the hellhound as they all knew that it would be a bad idea to jump into a fight without knowing what they were getting into. Gabriel especially as, while he knew the basics of combat, it was only the basics that he could handle. He wasn’t a trained assassin like the other three, which he probably should have been crapping himself over in hindsight, and he was pretty sure that he was not going to stand a chance against those power suits.
It was another half an hour later and Loona’s father had left the first store and moved onto a second one. Surprisingly, the three mecha-suited cherubs had followed the imp inside the store. He wondered what their reactions must be to stepping into such a lustful and depraved establishment. They were probably sh*tting themselves silly. Gabriel, Loona, and the M&Ms were watching from the skylight of the building as Blitzø talked with some kind of spider demon who was showing him all kinds of kinky toys.
As he inspected the store, Gabriel’s mind couldn’t help but wander back to his woes from a week earlier, from when he’d spoken with his grandmother. He kept thinking about his nature and what it meant for who he was meant to be.
“Hey, Loona, can I ask you something?” Gabriel started, catching her attention. “Have you ever felt lost before?”
“Like with what?” Loona replied.
“I mean with your purpose in life,” Gabriel elaborated. “Ever since I found out I was a cambion, I’ve been struggling with what that means for me. I mean the concept of Sin itself is complicated to me, what he means for me and my own nature and other stuff. If being the son of Gluttony means I need to change who I am or…” Gabriel paused, realizing he might be overthinking things. Honestly, when he started rambling, he started losing the meaning of what he was saying.
“I’m sorry, I’m rambling again.”
“No, you’re fine. I actually get it,” Loona assured sympathetically.
“You do?”
“Most of my life, I’ve been questioning what I’m even here for,” Loona revealed. “My childhood was absolute sh*t and, because of it, I thought my only purpose was to just suffer.” Loona scoffed as she recalled what must have been painful memories of her past.
“That really sucks,” Gabriel cringed.
However, Loona shook her head and smiled, stating, “But with dad, with my new friends and family, it doesn’t feel that way. Still, I don’t know what’s in store for me beyond now.”
“What do you want to do, if assassin work turns out to not be your thing?” Gabriel inquired, a part of him wondering if Loona really wanted this line of work.
Loona paused briefly before replying, “I want to help people. To make them smile, if only for a moment and help them forget about the sh*t that life is.”
“You sound like mi madre,” Gabriel remarked, and he wasn’t lying either. She really did sound like his mother at that moment. Perhaps he was just overthinking things. After all, like Loona said, his mother would never want him to change who he was to impress her. That wasn’t her style.
“I guess I do, don’t I.” Loona smiled. He really liked that smile.
“Ya know, I bet you could be a good bartender,” Gabriel suggested.
“Ya think so?”
“Oh yeah. You’re a good listener and I bet you’ve got the speed and creativity to make a great co*cktail.”
“Pretty sure you’re just bullsh*tting on the last part,” Loona demurred with a raised eyebrow, though her expression carried a hint of thought at his suggestion.
“Hey, I just call it like I see it,” Gabriel related.
“Well, then we’ve certainly got something in common.”
The two engaged in a fist bump before Loona continued, “As for that whole stuff about sin and your nature, you don’t have to change yourself just to meet the standards of gluttony. Your mom would say the same.” Hearing those words from Loona eased the worry in his chest. Perhaps he was just overthinking things. “You’re not a bad person or at least I’m sure you’re not.”
“What’s the matter? Scared that I have a closet full of corpses that you’ll end up being added to,” Gabriel teased.
“Oh, I would so add you to it first,” Loona gloated smugly. Gabriel looked down toward the floor and smiled.
“Yeah, you probably would, given I’d be distracted by how bonita you are,” he complimented warmly. Loona instantly froze, fur standing straight on its ends as she processed what he’d just said before turning to him with an inquiring gaze.
“Did you just call me beautiful?” she asked with uncertainty.
“And if I did?” he replied coyly. Loona scoffed, though her tail increased in its wagging. That thing really was a traitor to the hellhound. Thank God, because he was not the best when it came to reading people’s physical cues.
“Is this your way of asking me out?” she inquired.
“If it was, is it working?” Gabriel continued to tease.
“Any other guy I would kick in the nuts. Is that enough of an answer?” Loona implied, the image of which made Gabriel laugh like an eight year old hearing a fart noise. He couldn’t help it. He had the sense of humor of one sometimes.
“Sí.”
Loona rolled her eyes and huffed, “You are very relaxed about this.”
“Should I be nervous? Doesn’t sound difficult to ask someone out," Gabriel simplified. He really didn’t see the big deal of it. You just ask the person out. If they say yes, great. It’s time to prepare for the date. If not, oh well. Better luck next time and move onto the next person. “You just say, ‘hey, would you like to go out on a date with me?’ and that’s that.”
“I can assure you that it is not that simple,” Loona rebutted, eyeing him like he was speaking nonsense.
“Well, you’re the first girl I’ve ever asked out so what would I know,” Gabriel admitted.
“You’ve never asked a girl or guy out?”
“Nah, I’ve never been interested in relationships,” he answered.
“Why? Are you aro or ace?” Loona inquired.
“No, I’m straight,” Gabriel imparted. He’d done some experimentation in college, sure, but it had only confirmed to him what he’d suspected about himself for a while, that he was only interested in people of the female gender. He found plenty of people attractive sexually and was interested in romantic relationships, so that had ruled out being ace and aro respectively. It just had to do with time and want. “You?”
“Bisexual.”
“As for why, I just never wanted to get in one until now,” Gabriel continued.
“And why me? This is only the second time we’ve met,” Loona mused.
Gabriel thought about the answer. What made him want to ask Loona out? He wasn’t sure. A gut feeling perhaps. Some aura to Loona that attracted him to her. He kept thinking about his father and how he described his attraction to his madre. This was starting to feel eerily similar.
“What can I say? I am my father’s son,” Gabriel chuckled, gazing up at the sky like a child staring at the stars. “Just going with the flow and seeing where the river takes me.”
“Oh, f*ck me, you are so corny and sage it’s disgusting,” Loona laughed, despite the annoyance in her tone.
“You love it, señorita,” Gabriel opined.
“Do not,” Loona argued back, crossing her arms. Gabriel chortled as he found the display adorable.
“Oh I disa–”
“Oh, just kiss already, you two!” Millie interrupted with a shout. The pair turned to Millie, who was looking at them with a beyond annoyed expression, her husband also looking at his wife with some worry. Had she been listening to them talk the entire time?
“It’s not that hard. Like this,” Millie declared, pulling Moxxie to her chest and giving him the fattest kiss Gabriel had ever seen. His mouth practically dropped at the sight, Moxxie similarly dropping his guard as he sunk into his wife’s body and shivered lustfully, which Gabriel could feel radiating off of the couple. After what seemed like forever, Millie aggressively pushed back her husband, although still holding him up in the air as she gave Loona and Gabriel a glare that said, ‘Now you try it.’.
“Yeah, li–like th–that,” Moxxie sputtered, his face stupefied by his wife’s passionate showing of affection.
Gabriel turned back to Loona who was blushing at the sight of the sudden affection. When she noticed Gabriel staring at her, her blush became even larger. Gabriel smiled seductively (or what he thought was seductive) at Loona and said, “When in Lust.”
Loona’s response was to whip him in the face with his tail, knocking him onto the ground as she walked away. It didn’t take long to recover as it had only felt like a playful swat, not something that could leave him with a concussion. Gabriel laughed as he reoriented his glasses, feeling the embarrassment ooze off of the hellhound. He’d get her. He decided then and now, that he would win her by the end of the day. She will be mine.
Surprisingly, the last place that Loona’s father stopped at wasn’t at another sex shop, well, not technically. No, it was in front of a large warehouse next to a club called Ozzie’s.
“Wait, is this club mi Tío’s?” Gabriel asked.
“Pretty much,” Moxxie answered sourly.
“Bad memories here?”
“Not exactly. It was an interesting night overall, let's just say,” Millie replied. Gabriel shrugged his shoulders at the response, choosing to leave it as is. As Gabriel used the binoculars to track Loona’s father, he noticed the imp approach a familiar figure.
“Hey, I see Tío Fizz.” The imp was wearing a pair of overalls consisting of rainbow slacks and a striped shirt.
“You consider him an uncle?” Moxxie inquired.
“He’s technically family, and he and Tío Oz are also pretty tight.”
The group waited for ten minutes before Loona’s father and Fizzarolli returned. When the pair returned from the warehouse on a forklift, Blitzø’s carry-on bag was filled up hanging from his shoulder while his uncle Fizz had… Dios mío!
“What the hell is that?” Gabriel asked with exacerbated breath as he gazed at the toy that his Uncle Fizz had brought out with him. He was even more surprised as his uncle pressed a button on the thing and it instantly became pocket sized. “Some kind of super dild*?”
“Looks like it. Actually, I wouldn't mind trying it out on Mox,” Millie dreamt lustfully as she stared at her husband’s bottom.
“How about we stick to something my size, honey, please?” Moxxie pleaded, covering his rectum awkwardly.
“Ugh, gross.” Loona mumbled in disgust.
“It’s bigger than him, and he plans to use that on his boyfriend? What does he even look like?” Gabriel asked, having a bad feeling. Loona pulled out her phone and showed Gabriel a picture of a lone demon. Taking a look at them, Gabriel’s eyes widened in shock horror.
“Oh, él está muerto,” Gabriel blurted out once he saw the rail thin figure of the gray bird demon with the white-plated face. “Ain’t no way he survives that.”
“I mean, he is a Goetia,” Loona considered, her curious expression quickly morphing into disgust as she realized she had caved into the perverted line of thought. “Oh, now you got me thinking about it. Disgusting!”
“Focus, everyone, it looks like the cherubs are about to make their move!” Moxxie interrupted, pointing to the trio of angels who were hiding behind a bush, out in the open with several demons passing them by. Gabriel couldn’t help but facepalm at how stupid they looked in hindsight.
Seriously, these three obviously don’t understand the meaning of the word covert. I bet the only reason no one has attacked them yet is because they don’t recognize them as angels beneath those suits.
“So how do you guys want to play this out–” Gabriel queried, only to notice that he was the only one still on the rooftop. “Guys, Loona?” He looked around only to find the roof empty, until he heard shouting coming from the ground. Looking over the ledge, he saw that the three assassins had already ambushed the powered up cherubs.
Millie had jumped on top of the red one, knocking them down and holding a double-sided ax which Gabriel had no idea where she got (something Gabriel knew that he was going to have a headache trying to come up with an explanation for).
The purple one, who looked like a lamb through his face mask, surprised by the turn of events, asked, “How did you–” before being tackled and held down by Loona. Why do I have the sudden urge to be in that angel’s place, Gabriel thought as a blush crept on his face.
The hellhound taunted co*ckily, “Find ya? We were already following my Dad to make sure nothing happened to him.”
Suddenly, the yellow one, who had a sheep-like muzzle stormed off from the rest toward Loona’s father, who didn’t seem to register the violence as he walked away unaware. Before she could make it a few feet, three gunshots went off, bullets landing on the sidewalk in front of her and forcing her to stop as she glared at the source.
“And you weren’t exactly covert,” Moxxie noted with a sinister grin, coming out of the shadows of an alley as he lined the sight of his pistol at the yellow one.
Loona stood hunched over the purple suited cherub, like a wolf about to finish its kill. However, Gabriel could also envision it as a scene from something else, something more perverted, especially with how pronounced her butt was in that position. He was starting to question if being in Lust for so long was just making him horny.
“Ya gotta lotta nerve coming into our neighborhood after the ass-kicking you took last time,” Loona smirked with a crazed glint in her eyes.
Gabriel could see the face of the red-suited one from where he stood, his (its) face human, almost child-like, and they had a sinister grin that told him something bad was about to happen.
“A lot of nerve and a lot of upgrades, mutt,” the red one, whose voice was surprisingly high pitched, acknowledged, before he raised an arm and a robotic fist shot out at supersonic speed, sending Loona flying off the purple suited cherub.
Gabriel jumped back, having felt that hit from where he stood. He threw off his satchel and hoodie as fast as he could, knowing that he would be much more flexible without it on and made his way off the roof, not realizing he’d also taken off his shirt as well and leaving his bare chest exposed.
He jumped down from the rooftop and landed onto a canopy, though fortunately not falling through, and slid off onto the ground and made a run for where Loona was sent. In another instant, the red-suited cherub fired a rocket from his other arm toward Millie. As the rocket approached her, the imp swung her ax down toward it, cutting the rocket in half before it exploded around her. Gabriel watched in horror as blue smoke enveloped where Millie once stood, only to feel relieved when he saw her getting up and picking up her ax with only a few bruises. Demons are sturdy, that’s for sure.
Moxxie, angry at what had been done to his wife, fired several shots at the perpetrator only for them to be blocked by the wrist plate of the cherub.
“The boss,” the red suited one commanded, “Get their BOSS!” as he flew into the air and fired two more rounds, Moxxie running for cover as he narrowly avoided the explosion.
Gabriel barely had time to think as he saw the purple sheep run away from the chaos and transformed one of the suit arms into a sniper rifle, a rifle aimed at Loona’s father. The cherub held the rifle shakily as he aimed it carefully, his other hand on the trigger as he was about to fire. Time seemed to freeze momentarily as Gabriel rushed over to stop him, realizing that he wasn’t going to make it in time.
“No you don’t bitch!” Loona shouted, coming from the side and raising the rifle up forcefully as it fired. Gabriel looked to see if her father was okay, and he was. The shot had missed him and hit some random succubus passerby because the imp had bent over to pick up some penny he found on the ground. Now I know why they call them lucky. Though what was strange was that the imp wasn’t even paying attention to the fighting in the streets, not even recognizing the succubus as dead. It made him wonder if the imp was either incredibly dumb or just so used to the carnage that it never phased him when he heard or saw it.
Regardless, Gabriel shook himself from his thoughts and rushed over to Loona, who was fighting with the purple cherub over the arm gun, which fired several shots randomly toward the ground and toward Millie, who had recovered from the explosion from earlier and was embattled with the yellow-suited cherub. She narrowly avoided getting blasted into pieces by lifting the manhole cover in front of her with the pole of her now broken ax and using said cover as a shield before reengaging with the yellow cherub.
As Gabriel turned his attention back to Loona, he saw the purple cherub uppercut the hellhound in the nose with his rifle, sending blood coating onto the ground. Loona looked up in horror as the cherub pointed his gun at her, co*cking the weapon and readying to fire.
In the heat of the moment, Gabriel did the only thing he could think of. He pulled out the gun that Moxxie had given him earlier and fired three consecutive shots at the cherub, hitting him in the arm. The three shots hit their target perfectly, disabling the arm cannon as smoke and sparks burst from it. Gabriel instantly ran up to the cherub, who looked shocked at the sight of the unknown individual.
“I still need her to say yes to me, Ovejas Joder!” Gabriel shouted before jumping up and drop-kicking him, sending the cherub flying in a way similar to that of Loona had been earlier. When the cambion turned back to Loona, the hellhound was staring back at him with wide eyes. One could make the argument that she was star-struck. If he’d been paying attention, he probably would have realized that Loona’s eyes were pointed directly at his chest, amazed by his six-pack.
“You good?” Gabriel asked, reaching a hand out to the hellhound, who blushed before declining it, wiping herself off and putting on a prideful expression.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Loona blushed, looking away from him nervously, like a school girl wanting to talk to her crush. “Totally had it by the way, but thanks anyway.”
“Estoy segura de que lo hiciste,” Gabriel teased, the hellhound staring at him with confusion as she could not understand a lick of Spanish.
“Okay, I’m officially gonna buy a Spanish dictionary after this just so I can understand what you’re saying,” Loona stated determinedly, adding, “And whoop your ass later for good measure,” emphasizing so with her fists.
“And if I’m into that,” Gabriel joked. “What then?”
Loona simply growled, stomping the ground in frustration as she grumbled, “Ugh, I just cannot with–” she was cut off by the sound of Moxxie screaming. The pair watched as Moxxie was flown high into the sky by the yellow sheep cherub until they were both just specks.
“Oh, that’s not good,” Gabriel mumbled, hoping that Moxxie wasn’t dropped from such a height. The sound of machinery being sliced drew their attention to Millie, an animalistic expression on her face as she had sliced off one of the arms of the red-suited cherub before sticking a bladed object into his back, causing the jetpack to malfunction and send both of them into the sky after the other two.
“She really doesn’t like it when people mess with her husband, does she?” Gabriel asked Loona, the hellhound chuckling as they both watched her jump off the red-suited cherub, letting him fall back to the ground as she landed on top of the yellow-suited one.
“You have no idea,” she replied.
Click.
At the sound of a rifle co*cking, the pair turned to see the purple cherub pointing his other arm, which had morphed into a gun as well, at them, ready to fire once again. Before he realized it, Gabriel raised a hand up in a vain attempt to stop the cherub from firing. As he did so, he felt powerful magic surging across his arm, a dark energy swirling visibly around it. Within an instant, a long black staff appeared in his hand. As the first bullets fired at the pair, Gabriel was already twirling his staff the sync of the staff’s spin block each and every bullet. Soon, the cherub stopped firing as he stared in disbelief at him, unable to comprehend how he managed to block so many high speed projectiles at once.
As Gabriel stopped twirling the staff, he finally realized what he’d done, shaking the confidence from himself and replacing it with pure shock. What the f*ck was t
“Did you just block all those bullets with a staff?” Loona asked, taking the words right out of his mouth. The hellhound was gazing at him with a mix of disbelief and impressment.
“I think so,” Gabriel muttered, looking over the staff, which he noticed was covered in several ancient runes.
“How did you do that?” Loona inquired slowly. “I thought you said you only knew about the basics? And where the f*ck did the staff even come from”
“I can’t answer any of those because even I have no clue,” Gabriel breathed, still in shock that he was able to do something that only John Wick could do. When Gabriel had been twirling the staff, he knew exactly what to do. It was instinctual, like he’d done it before. But he hadn’t. And where did the staff even come from in the first place? He had so many new questions now.
Just as the cherub snapped himself out of his daze, he began to aim his arm gun at the duo again. Instinctually, Gabriel threw the staff at the cherub, a long, curved blade magically growing from the top of the staff as it sliced off the arm gun and pinning the cherub to the wall of the building behind him. The lack of blood implied that the cherub was much smaller than the suit itself.
As Gabriel walked over and pulled the staff from the wall, Loona used the opportunity to begin beating the sh*t out of the cherub. Gabriel flinched as he heard the pained grunts and groans coming from the cherub as he cried out for help. Gabriel would have used the opportunity to begin questioning him, but he was more curious about the staff to really focus. Only, it wasn’t really a staff was it? With the appearance of the blade, it was now a...scythe.
Oh sh*t, a scythe. It’s a scythe. The weapon of…Death, of Abuelo, Gabriel realized. It must have been the magic he inherited from him that Gabriel had tapped into. That must have been why he knew what to do with the staff without really knowing what to do. The power of his Abuelo literally ran through his veins.
Before he could think on it further, Loona threw the bloody pulp of a sheep cherub to the side. Coincidentally, as he tried to get up, the red suited cherub fell from the sky and on top of him, both being knocked out from the impact. Looking up, Gabriel was horrified to see Moxxie and Millie falling alongside the yellow cherub, their screams echoing through the air, that is, Moxxie and the cherub’s screams he was pretty sure.
“Mierda, we have to do something!” Gabriel yelled to Loona, who nodded her head before picking up a robotic arm that was left lying on the ground. She aimed it toward a large hotel with a blue neon sign that read ‘co*ck’s Comb Resort’. How obvious, Gabriel thought as he imagined what type of clientele the hotel had to offer.
In mere seconds, Loona fired two shots toward the hotel, the first toward the base, and the second toward the roof. The explosions from the rockets were followed by the sound of the building collapsing, rubble hitting the ground and sending shards of concrete everywhere. Loona dragged Gabriel off to the side as he soon realized that the roof of the building had slid off the hotel and was about to fall on top of them.
“Oh, f*ck!” Gabriel cursed in English again, amazed he hadn’t wet himself yet, “Why did you think that that was a good idea?” Just as Loona managed to pull him out of the line of the falling structure, the roof finally crashed onto the ground, the dust settling rather quickly as Gabriel realized that there were two other demons, succubi, clinging to the ledge in terror. It was as he inspected the rooftop that Gabriel noticed that the majority of it was still intact, including a large pool. Wow, someone clearly built this place to last.
Sure enough, Moxxie and Millie landed into the pool that had remained intact. At the same time, the yellow-suited cherub hit the street with a thud. When Moxxie and Millie arose from the pool, their tails curled in toward each other in the shape of a heart. The couple were in the midst of making out, their tongues out and fighting one another as the couple made lustful noises. Of course they are.
“You know, I could have just used my teleportation magic to save them,” Gabriel told Loona.
The hellhound dropped the mecha arm and chuckled, “Where’s the fun in that?” Gabriel shook his head, unable to believe that anyone would find blowing up a building fun. Sure the fight itself was giving him a rush, but he was certain that once the adrenaline wore off that he was going to be freaking out.
Suddenly, Loona’s eyes went wide. Gabriel turned to see what she was seeing, only to realize what she wasn’t seeing had surprised her. The cherub was gone, their yellow suit left behind. Loona sniffed the air and ran off. Gabriel followed behind her, the pair soon finding the three cherubs. Having a clear view of them, Gabriel could clearly see that the purple and yellow ones were in fact sheep, with fluffy wool covering their heads. As for the red one, who was dragging the other two, he was a floating baby with red hair and overalls. Without the suits, and if not for the bruises and cuts lining their bodies, they were probably the most adorable creatures he’d ever seen.
The baby cherub pulled out a remote from his overalls, pressing a button and opening up a portal out of thin air.
“Well that explains how they got here,” Gabriel stated, startling the three cherubs who didn’t realize that they had been followed. Loona stormed over and grabbed the remote with one hand and used her tail to smack the cherubs through the portal. Loona proceeded to throw the remote onto the ground and stomped on it, breaking it into pieces and causing the portal to close.
Gabriel smiled at Loona and queried, “Just another day at work, huh?”
Loona smirked, responding, “The only thing that’s missing is the kaiju fish.”
“Oh now I definitely want to start hanging out here more,” Gabriel joked, curious as to what other shenanigans Loona and her work family got themselves into. He then asked, “So, I’m guessing we’re not telling mi madre about this?”
“Oh, Hell no,” Loona chortled, “She’ll kill us all if she finds out we put you in danger.” Gabriel laughed with her. He remembered the way she panicked when she thought he’d died. Looking back on it, it was a bit funny, but he also understood that she didn’t take lightly to threats against her family. This was probably going to be a story that needed to stay buried to protect his mother’s sanity.
“Now go put on a shirt,” Loona added.
“What?” Gabriel asked with confusion before turning his head down and seeing his bare chest exposed for all to see. “Oh, huh. Did not realize I’d taken my shirt off. That explains the cool breeze though.” Loona had a deep red blush that Gabriel could see through her white fur. He smiled coolly at the hellhound.
“Like what you see?” Gabriel teased, using his hands to accentuate his abs to the hellhound, who was blushing harder than before. She pushed him aside and stomped over to the married couple who were still making out and were in the midst of taking off their clothes.
“Shut up,” she muttered beneath her breath, her tail betraying her once again with its wagging. Gabriel could only chuckle at the sight.
I’ll win her over, if I haven't already.
Beelzebub
Meanwhile, blissfully unaware of the danger that her son had narrowly survived thanks to his growing magic, and in a different ring entirely, was none other than Beelzebub. The Deadly Sin was currently sitting in a doctor's office in the Sloth Ring, having finally taken Belphegor’s offer from weeks prior. Beelzebub had meant to do it the week before, but things with the Foundation had gotten in the way, so the bee-fox demon had needed to reschedule for this week. She was fortunate enough that this Friday of all days was her one free day to do so. She was tired of Belphegor sending her constant texts and reminders to come see her to evaluate her health.
Currently, she was waiting for Belphegor to return with the test results. The tests had gone rather okay. Bel had just done some simple bloodwork, checked her vitals, and even did a test to check on her magic, all of which had gone rather quickly. However, the Sin of Sloth was taking unusually long to bring back the test results, having sent her a text that they were ready, but that was ten minutes ago. What the hell is the hold up?
The Sin of Gluttony, wearing a pink blouse with a cupcake design and a red skirt, was lying down on the examination table, laying her head against the headrest and feeling her body and with a sense of concern.
“Am I getting fat, babe?” Beelzebub asked her boyfriend, no fiancé, Vortex. Said hellhound sitting across from her in a chair, wearing a black polo and torn jeans, and was reading a magazine article of Superstar Monthly.
Vortex looked up from his magazine and replied, “I mean, you’ve always been fat,” his tone nonchalant.
Beelzebub’s eyes twitched at her fiancé's rude response. “Excuse me,” she muttered tensely. She could not believe that Vortex had actually said that to her. Had he not been listening or was he trying to joke around. If it was the latter, then it was a poor attempt at humor, and her fiancé was going to get a spanking, and not the good kind.
“You know, phat, with a ‘ph’,” he corrected, his muzzle morphing into a humorous smile.
Beelzebub shook her head, releasing an annoyed laugh and grumbling “Oh, you f*cking dick,” much to Vortex’s amusem*nt. “Why the f*ck am I marrying you again?”
Since Vortex had proposed to her, Beelzebub had been feeling like she was on cloud nine. That wasn’t to say there weren’t any downsides to the whole proposal and getting married. There were, but it had nothing to do with getting married or tied down, but more so with the fact that she was a Sin. And the media just loved spreading gossip about her. It pissed her off to no extent that they always found a way to come right back around and stalk her or her friends. Seriously, was that public flaying not enough. It was like the media and paparazzi had no sense of self preservation.
On top of that, the things they were saying about Vortex were just outright bogus, calling him a money grubbing slouch amongst other things that were less than pleasant. How dare they insult her lover when they knew nothing about him. If it weren’t for her fiancé telling her that it wasn’t worth it, she would have flown over their offices and wiped all of them out. Vortex was the kindest, most loving person she had ever met and Beelzebub couldn’t imagine her life without him. Honestly, Vortex was handling the criticism of him better than her. He never let what people said about him stick. That was just one of the things she liked about him.
Speaking of Vortex, the hellhound had finally managed to convince her to set a date to meet his mother two weeks from now. His mother had especially wanted to meet the woman who ‘won’ his son’s heart as Vortex had claimed his mother said. It was supposed to be a simple dinner at his mother's place including everyone in the family or considered as such. This included the matriarch herself, Vortex, Myra, Esme, Moray, and finally, Bee. It was only two weeks so she had time to prepare, but this still couldn’t change the fact that the date was set in stone, that the clock was ticking until she met the one person who she needed to impress, Vortex’s own mother.
On top of that, she still needed to tell Gabriel about her upcoming marriage. That was definitely not going to be an easy thing considering his reaction last time. Sure, he said that he was cool with it as long she didn’t force Vortex on him, which was an easy task to uphold. However, she was concerned that he might feel alienated from her because of this. They both had different lives after all and Bee was concerned that this would be the truth that broke them apart. She really hoped it wasn't.
Yet, Beelzebub also had this lingering doubt because things were moving so quickly in her life right now. She had so many different things happening all at once. On top of spending time and getting reacquainted with her son, she had a wedding to plan, a new super orphanage to build, parties to plan, businesses to check up on and manage. It was a lot for the Queen of Gluttony, but she couldn’t deny that it was all so fulfilling in the end.
“Because you love me,” Vortex replied with a smile, scooching his chair closer to her.
Beelzebub chuckled, pulling her fiancé in and nuzzling him on his neck, whispering, “Yeah, I do.” However, that didn’t change the worry that she was feeling about her own body as she asked, “But seriously, Tex, am I getting fat?”
“Why do you ask? Are your clothes not fitting you?”
Beelzebub sighed. They fit, but not like they used to. She first noticed it a few days ago when she got dressed that morning. Her clothes had begun feeling just a tad bit tighter around her waist. Having designated herself as the Queen of all things that bring comfort, Beelzebub instantly knew something was off, and it made her worried. Despite being a prominent foodie, Beelzebub was very conscious about her weight and figure. Having once been the size of a beluga whale, Beelzebub was very considerate of how much she ate on a daily basis.
She still ate a lot, sure, but it was not nearly as much as she did a millennium ago, back when she was still depressed from the Fall. When she’d fallen, Beelzebub originally had a metabolism as strong as hydrochloric acid. However, combined with her depression, this led to her eating any and everything she could get her hands on. This culminated in her becoming so fat and over bloated, that her metabolism could not keep up and was essentially shot. With help from Belphegor and Satan, however, Beelzebub had been able to lose all of the weight and even help reset her metabolism with some drugs courtesy of Belphegor.
Not only that, but she was able to compensate for the smaller amount of food consumed by throwing parties and helping the people of her ring feel satisfied, using them to help generate the honey and sustenance she needed not to lose her mind to the gnawing hunger. Her 'honey', was a special substance that Beelzebub had learned to create during her weight loss journey, a flowy substance she created when she first began feeling positive emotions from the guests at her parties. When she'd first tasted the substance, she could feel the raw happiness and excess of her guests, providing her with fulfillment she needed to overcome her mental anguishes. She would also use it to make her customary Beelzejuice as well as many of her dessert items at her restaurants and clubs.
Despite having come so far, however, she could still feel it, a dark and primal instinct lingering in the back of her mind, begging for release. But she wouldn’t. No matter what, she would not let it back out. She would not become that monster again.
“Everything’s just feeling a little bit tighter than it normally does and I’m worried about slipping back into old habits,” she answered.
Vortex smiled at her warmly. Beelzebub had told her fiancé about her past self a long time ago after a particularly nasty nightmare. A part of her had been scared that he would reject her then and there, yet the hellhound never held it against her, telling the worried Sin that he loved the person she was currently and that that other crueler person wasn’t her now. “Well, nothing wrong with a little extra cushion, Bee. Hell, I think you’d make it work,” he told her.
“Really?”
“Oh yeah, you’d be rocking that body. Showing off that tiny muffin top like no tomorrow,” Vortex described enthusiastically, getting the Sin to laugh at the image, before his expression and tone became more lustful. “And making me swoon with those thick thighs and ass. It’ll be nice to have more for me to grab in bed too.” Beelzebub shivered at the thought. Why did Vortex have to make gaining weight sound so fun?
“And I thought I was the pervert in this relationship,” Beelzebub cooed.
“You’re a bad influence on me.”
“Am I? Normally I’d be concerned, but I don’t think I mind in this case,” Beelzebub decided, leaning toward her boyfriend and planting her lips on his. It was moments like this that Beelzebub loved the most. No worries, no expectations, just the embrace of her lover and warmth that his touch brought. It felt so incredible.
“Ah hem,” a voice interrupted the pair.
Beelzebub didn’t need to look to know that it was Belphegor, but she was too busy kissing her boyfriend to really care. Vortex tried to turn his head only for Bee to clasp it gently and keep him focused on her and her alone. Vortex didn’t fight, continuing to kiss his fiancé at her behest. Belphegor began to speak only to be halted by Bee holding up a finger, telling her sister to wait until she got her kiss fix. Bel had made her wait, so Bee would make her wait for a minute.
Eventually, Beelzebub ended the kiss, pulling back and staring longingly into his dopey eyes before turning to face her sister, Belphegor staring at her with an unamused and impatient expression.
“You gonna let me give you your results or would you like to have sex on the examination table?” Belphegor asked sarcastically.
“Could we?” Beelzebub inquired curiously, not catching the sarcasm in her sister’s voice.
“Bee!”
“Okay, okay. I know you have work to do. Just tell me,” Beelzebub pleaded impatiently, not liking that she was still sitting here.
Belphegor sighed in relief, muttering “Thank you,” before she began flipping through the chart and saying, “I don’t want to make you worry Bee, but we managed to find something.”
“What was the problem?” Bee asked with a hint of worry. Had that been why it had taken so long for Belphegor to return.
“It wasn’t so much of a problem as it was me just wanting to double check just to be sure,” Belphegor replied.
“Okay but what’s wrong with her?” Vortex questioned, his own worry coming to the surface.
“Nothing, actually. She’s perfectly healthy,” Belphegor stated. Both Beelzebub and Vortex looked at her perplexed.
“But you just said that you found something, Bel,” Beelzebub corrected, not understanding where her sister was going with this. “What did you find?”
Belphegor sighed before asking, “Before I say anything, Bee, have you been experiencing any odd symptoms as of late?”
“Bel you’re scaring me.”
“Just answer the question, please,” Belphegor
“I mean I’ve been feeling a bit hungrier lately,” Beelzebub admitted with uncertainty.
“Any nausea, or morning sickness?”
“Morning sickness, why would I…” Beelzebub froze. Morning sickness. The last time I had morning sickness was when I was preg…nant. Oh sh*t.
Suddenly, it was starting to come back to her. The increase in hunger, the fact that she was putting on weight, the clinginess that she was experiencing. She’d experienced all of them before. Twenty five years ago to be precise.
“I’m pregnant aren’t I?” Beelzebub asked, looking to her sister for her response.
The Sin of Sloth nodded her head to confirm her sister’s suspicion, adding one final detail that gave Beelzebub whiplash.
“Pentuplets.”
