Sleepover - ThirtheenPrimes - Helluva Boss (Web Series) [Archive of Our Own] (2024)

“Bli~tz”

“God f*cking damn it, Millie, do not let him in here!”

The doorknob jingled and I heard my employees attempt to dissuade the f*cking clown from barging in. They did not succeed; the door burst open and in strolled a bitch with entitlement up the ass. “Bli~tz you’re so rude! It’s afternoon already, and I haven’t heard from you all day.” He kicked the chair out of the way to drape himself dramatically in my desk.

Moxxie and Millie were sticking their noses in the doorway to watch. I groaned and tried to shove Fizz off my desk. “Careful, I’ve got really important paperwork there! Really important paperwork that I’ve been busy with all day. Non-stop. That I’m still busy with, so go away.”

He pushed himself further over the desk, hand to his forehead while he lamented, “Blitz, I can’t believe you’d do this to me! I can’t believe you forgot, again, after all this time!”

“I didn’t forget sh*t, I don’t care. You’re a grown-ass man, you’re not a f*cking little kid.”

“Excuse you,” he sat upright and put a hand to his chest, “my birthday is not childish.”

I hated the surprised looks on M&M’s faces when he said this.

“Blitz,”

“Stop.”

“You’re not going to-”

“Fizz, I swear to f*ck don’t you f*cking go there.”

“-ruin another one of my birthdays, are you?” He gave me some wide, watery, baby doll eyes that probably has that Sin whipped with. I wasn’t as similarly effected, I was there when he developed that technique.

“That’s a f*cking low blow and I cannot believe you’d say something like that. I’m busy, Fizz.” Not avoiding you on the anniversary of the biggest f*ck-up of my life, obviously.

He didn’t put his damn eyes away. “But Blitz, this is such a hard day for me! It’s so rough, getting through this day, every year, without you. And, after all the heart-felt reconciling we’ve done, I thought we were okay again? I thought you were going to help me heal from such a traumatic event-”

I slammed my face down on the table. “I f*cking hate you so much.”

“Is it working? Do you feel guilty yet?” He dropped the stupid ‘woe is me’ tone and I could hear the snark in his voice.

I groaned again. “Yes.”

“Great. I expect to see you at our club by seven tonight, bring all the usual stuff.” He stood back up and scooted the chair in the most annoying way.

“Usual stuff?” I tilted my head upward to give genuine confusion. “The f*ck are you talking about, I’ve never been to your place before.”

His sh*t-eating grin and co*cky posturing finally relaxed and his expression softened. “Yeah, the usual stuff. Salty. Savory. Sweet. Spicy.”

“Fine.” I leaned back in my chair and let him go.

Nobody made a single sound until after Fizz left. I dug my phone out of my pocket to make sure he hadn’t tried to call me first, or send any messages, but no. The asshole skipped all those steps and went straight to barging into my place of business to make a scene in front of my employees.

“Uh, B?” Millie stepped into my office and was giving me a concerned look. “You alright?”

I hit send on the not-good-enough ‘Happy Birthday’ message and dropped my face down into my hands. “Yeah. Fine.”

“Are you sure? Because, that was the guy that was harassing you at Ozzie’s, wasn’t he? It… sounded kind of intense.”

“It’s fine, Mills,” I groaned through my hands. “We’re old friends. We… we’re fine now. That was a long time ago.”

“Oh,” Moxxie’s voice was also coming from the doorway, “I didn’t know you had friends.”

I sat upright and glared at him, about to bite off a few cursing insults, but stopped when I realized he was just goading me out of pouting. I glared and let it go, deciding I’d rather just ignore him.

“Well, if you need an excuse to leave early, just text us and I’ll call about an ‘emergency’.” Millie motioned for both her and Moxxie to leave me alone.

“Thanks, Mills. I appreciate it, but, that probably won’t be necessary.” Actually, I’d rather pay them both overtime to make sure I have no reason to leave early.

I called it an early night and had everyone go home, so I had plenty of time to pack and get to the Elevator. By the time I got to their club, it was only seven thirty.

This is f*cking stupid. Here I am, walking up to the sh*tty couple’s lounge, alone, back to the place not only I was humiliated at, but so was M&M and so was Stolas. I intend to give them sh*t about M&M, but, I’m hoping they don’t bring up Stolas. Obviously I want to wring both of their stupid little necks for making Stolas look like that, but, I would rather shoot myself in the dick than talk about him right now.

The bouncer looked me up and down. I’m not even in line, and unless I was hiding a sexual partner in my bag, I’m obviously completely alone.

“Just turn around, man.” He didn’t take me seriously.

“One of your performers asked me to come by, I’m not here for fun. Honestly, f*ck your club.”

“Oh. Yeah, I was told to let in one ‘Blitz’; an asshole with a face tattoo. Head upstairs, to Ozzie’s view box. Do not take any turns.” He let me through.

“I won’t,” I grumbled, pushing past as ungratefully as I could. Stupid f*cking clown, he better be in there.

The door to the room was locked. I groaned and knocked. It flew open before I was done, and I was yanked inside by a couple of cool, robotic, stretchy arms. The door slammed shut behind me.

“My delivery’s here, Oz!” Fizz tied me up in a hug, wrapping his arms around himself and me a few times.

A chuckle came from the couch by the wall, “That’s some prompt shipping.”

“Har har, f*ck both of you.” I tried to pull away, but didn’t get far. “Let me go, Fizz.”

He did, then slunk across the room to lay across Asmodeus the Sin of Lust’s lap like a cat and pat the other chair in the room. I sat in it with a huff, dropping my bag at my feet. “So what the f*ck are we doing here? This wasn’t the plan.”

“Spending some quality time with the birthday boy,” Fizz stuck his tongue out and kicked his legs in the air.

“We’re leaving after the next show, now that you’re here. You want a drink before we go?” Asmodeus leaned over Fizz and took a menu out of a cubby on the wall and held it out toward me.

I took it to look through. “Sure. Guess that makes sense, all things considered.”

Usually, these nights started off with him distracting my dad while Barbie and I stole the booze.

I tried to shove those memories down – that’s going to be an all night thing, I think – and put my attention on the performance we were waiting for. There’s an imp at the microphone in drag, lip-singing some pop song. A few other demons, a mixture of succubi, inccubi, and imps, also in drag, clapping along at the back wall. I looked back to the Sin and his pet imp, who were cuddling very openly and sickeningly and making me feel like this is f*cking stupid why the f*ck am I here?

“What?” I demanded, when Fizz wouldn’t stop grinning at me.

“Get the Fizzy-Rolli. It’s almost as fruity as I am.”

“My favorite,” Ozzie cooed and scratched through Fizz’s hat, between his horns.

I didn’t try to hide my disgusted face as I looked back down at the menu to figure out what was in the ‘Fizzy-Rolli’. “f*ck, get a room.”

“We have one; this is our room.” Fizz wrinkled his nose at me. “Jealous?”

My stomach twisted weirdly. “No.” Damn it, the Fizzy-Rolli sounds delicious. It’s topped with a slice of kiwi and had a drizzle of hot sauce on the bottom.

It wasn’t the best drink I’ve ever had, but, it reminded me of the sh*tty attempts at making co*cktails we made when we were kids, with my dad’s stolen liquor and whatever Barbie snuck out of the fridge. One of the better attempts, like when she wasn’t being a bitch and pretending like she really thought tequila, apple sauce, and grape juice would be delicious.

When the current round of drag was over, Asmodeus opened up a portal and sent us all into their bedroom. It was obviously their bedroom because there was a big ass, circular bed at the top of a set of stairs, but it was not distinctly just a bedroom. I mean, I don’t know who I am to judge, I don’t even have a bedroom. Loony’s, in our apartment, is tiny and really has just enough space for her bed, dresser, a desk I don’t think she uses, and a night stand. It’s a mess in there with the amount of clutter she’s got, and I don’t think all her clothes would even fit in the closet and dresser if she did pick it up, which I guess isn’t a whole lot of incentive to clean it up. Not that I care. It’s her room, she’s an adult.

Stolas’s room is so obviously his bedroom. There are tall bookshelves full to the brim, obviously, because he’s a huge book nerd. He’s got a couch, and there are two wardrobes, two chest of drawers, but only one set is used. The other wardrobe is empty and the other drawers is where he keeps our sex toys.

Like Stolas, Asmodeus’s bed has fancy sheets and big stretches of fabric hanging down like curtains in weird ways. f*cking royals. Unlike Stolas, he’s got a lot of other stuff in here too. Namely, he’s got a set of cabinets along one wall that look like a minibar, a corner with two couches and what probably usually has a big coffee table they both face, and honestly, it was even bigger.

I say there’s probably usually a coffee table there because at the moment, there’s a big ass, fancy coffee table filled with snacks organized by flavors pushed to the side. Instead, pushed up to the corner between both of the big fancy couches is a mattress full of blankets and pillows. They were thrown on hap-haphazardly, one of the blankets stretched halfway over the open couch, the larger one. The other couch, the smaller one, was full of sh*t that had clearly been tossed there in preparation of the night. More snacks, a few extra folded blankets, extra pillows, and a few things that were probably just shoved there out of the way from the coffee table.

Most importantly, I think, was the big f*cking TV that obviously wasn’t usually there because its an inconvenient and weird place to keep a TV, at the foot of the mattress on the ground, directly across from the larger couch.

“You brought the stuff, right?” Fizz poked at my bag, trying to take it away from me.

I clutched it closer, “Yeah, yeah.” My face was definitely heating up now, because seeing all this with Fizz’s enthusiasm was… it was doing something for me. I didn’t think we’d ever do this again…

“Sweet. Go get changed, the bathroom’s that direction. No sleeping until dawn- you’re not going to pass out without Barbie here to beat you up, are you?” He bounced excitedly in front of me while Asmodeus went up the stairs toward a wardrobe by the bed.

I wasn’t positive how I felt about all this, but, ‘bad’ isn’t it. Not even hearing him mention her. “I’m not f*cking ten anymore, shut up.”

He started giggling, “This is going to be great. Blitz, you are not going to regret this. I’ve been looking forward to this all week!”

“Fizzy Frog,” Asmodeus called from the top of the stairs. “I bought you new pajamas for tonight.”

“We were doing presents before company, though.” He turned his back on me and slunk up after his boyfriend.

“I thought it would be fitting to wait for this one.”

I rolled my eyes and went to change into my pajamas. Shorts and a horse-print over-sized shirt. When I came out, they were both cuddling on the mattress, so I got the other sh*t I brought in my bag to add to the table. Cheese and hot sauce, mostly, but I also brought a bag of popcorn mix with chocolates and pretzels and whatever because I remembered it was Fizz’s favorite when we were younger, which almost definitely means it should already be on the spread. I didn’t see it, though.

By the time I sprawled out on the couch, they still weren’t getting the first movie ready.

“Uh, if we’re doing four movies, we should probably get started.” I kicked a stray pillow at Fizz’s head.

“No, we’re going to wait a little bit longer. Ozzie invited one of his friends, I hope that’s okay.” Fizz rolled over and threw the pillow back at me.

I caught it and tucked it under me, trying to hide my disappointment. We’re already doing this with someone else here, Asmodeus, but I don’t mind that. That’s his boyfriend. They’re all over each other and it’s his birthday and he wants to have another one of these movie marathons, he can bring his boyfriend in on our thing. I don’t care. It was always the three of us before, now our third is just his boyfriend instead of my sister.

“Yeah, that’s fine.” Now another person? A fourth? Someone I don’t even f*cking know? I guess Fizz maybe is going to spend a lot of time bothering me tonight, maybe Asmodeus wanted someone else to talk with or whatever.

“Tell me about how you used to do this again, Froggy.” Asmodeus sidetracked the conversation, swiping his finger from the base of Fizz’s neck up this throat, to his chin.

Fizz arched his back in response and stuck his tongue out. “I already told you what this was. Horror movie night! We’d sneak some liquor from Blitz’s dad’s stash and some snacks from the fridge, and we’d stay up all night watching scary movies. They’re so dumb, they aren’t really scary, but Blitz always got scared of the one with the witches.”

“I did not.” I glared down at him. “I screamed one time because I didn’t know what was going to happen. It wasn’t scary, I wasn’t f*cking scared.”

“Uh-huh. And you were holding Barbie’s hand because of wholesome sibling love.” He held his hands over his heart and cooed, batting his eye lashes.

“She attacked me!”

Asmodeus was laughing, “And this was a birthday tradition? You eat themed snacks and make fun of horror films?”

“Not always birthdays. Just when one of us needed it. Let’s see, we did it when I broke my arm on the trapeze, and…” Fizz squinted his eyes as he thought.

“When Mom left town.”

“Oh, yeah, then. And I think Barbie got the sh*t beat out of her by the acrobatics once.”

“She deserved it.”

“Yeah, and I think she slept through most of the movies that time. Oh! How about when you got kicked by one of the horses?”

I smiled fondly, “I deserved that one. Shouldn’t have walked behind her.”

“You couldn’t trapeze for a month, your dad was pissed.”

I groaned at the memory, cut off from complaining when there was a knock on the door.

A thrill ran up my spine and goosebumps swept over my skin. It was just a knock, how the f*ck can a knock be familiar?

“There he is.” Asmodeus grinned, making the prickling feeling in my stomach twist aggressively despite how common that pronoun is. A significant portion of the population of hell uses that pronoun. I’m being stupid.

“How’d you get him over? I thought this part was going to be harder.” Fizz sat up and watched him go curiously.

I followed suit and sat up. “Who?” You’re being stupid, Blitzo! Why would you assume it’s him? It could be anybody!

“I told him I changed my mind about that thing he asked for, but he was going to have to come over tonight to pick it up.” He stopped at the door and opened it. “Stolas, it’s go-”

I blocked out everything else. I ignored whatever was said, but couldn’t ignore how painfully familiar the voice that answered was, while I searched for somewhere to hide. I had seconds, and with this view from the door, maybe even less. If he’s paying attention, he may have already seen me. So I dove for the first place I thought I’d fit; under the couch. I went over the arm of this couch into the corner between both of them, squeezed between the side and the table sitting there (holding a lamp and some kind of book I didn’t pay attention to) and shoved myself into the tight space under the smaller couch. With the back blocked off by the wall and the front blocked off by the mattress, the only openings were the sides. The one I came through would be impossible to see me through because there wasn’t a lot of space between the table and the couch. The other side actually faced toward the door, but I was far enough back that he had no chance of noticing me here. I could see his feet as Asmodeus pushed him further into the room.

I adjusted to put my face up to the mattress and peek through the tiny, narrow slit of light between them so I could get a sh*tty view of what was going on.

“I’m sorry, but, I don’t think I can.” Stolas looked nervous and sounded worse, responding to something Asmodeus had said while I was panicking. I can’t see well, but I can see him eyeing their pajamas and pinching at the edge of his cape.

“Do you have something important tonight?” Asmodeus pushed, trying to get him to stay. “Or are you just being shy?”

“I couldn’t imagine why either of you two would want me to linger…” Stolas looked very out of place and nervous, looking toward the snack table now. “I only came to retrieve the crystal. If that’s alright?”

“At least stay for one movie,” Fizz insisted. “Pick out some snacks, take a load off.”

“Movie?” Stolas looked back to them in confusion.

“Yeah. We’re having a movie night sleep over for Fizzy Frog’s birthday. And don’t tell me you aren’t dressed appropriately, because we even picked you up some pajamas.” Asmodeus produced a hanger from seemingly out of nowhere, showing off a Stolas-sized horse-onesie with a hood.

Stolas froze, staring at it, and seemed to stop being quite as flustered as he had been. Which… isn’t a good sign. Worse when he started to look around the room like he was looking for something. He reached forward to pick up my hot sauce, and I’m pretty sure his searching gaze stopped where I’d left my bag, on the other side of the big couch. My stomach twisted painfully, as he turned back to Asmodeus and Fizz.

“Do you have… other company right now?”

“Uh, yeah, hope that’s alright. And sorry for tricking you into coming here; didn’t think there’d be any way we’d convince you to come over if we told you the plan.” Fizz jumped down off from Asmodeus’s shoulders onto the mattress, making it bounce and block my view momentarily. “Blitz! Stop being a puss* and come out! This is my birthday present from you, alright?”

“Blitz?” Stolas’s voice rose an octave and he took a step back. “I’m sorry, I don’t want to invade-”

“You’re not invading anything. Come on, put the pajamas on, go take a seat.” Fizz insisted, picking up a pillow to slide into his lap. “Blitz will come out in a minute, and then we can start the movies. We’re doing the salty snacks first. Ozzie! Can you make us some drinks?”

“Of course, babe. Stolas, what kind of drinks do you like?”

“I- uh- I mean…” Stolas still wasn’t convinced he was going to stay. “What do you mean, ‘tricked’? Am I not to have the crystal? I don’t want to invade your celebration here under false pretenses, you see, it’s actually very important to me and I would rather not be lead astray by false promises.”

“No, no, I’ve got the crystal for you. But you’re not getting it until you stay for at least one movie. My Froggy wanted you two here for his birthday, and I’m sorry, but I’ve got to deliver. What kind of drink do you want? Blitz, what sort of drink would you like?”

Stolas, still stammering, still holding my bottle of hot sauce, seemed completely at a loss.

I groaned and stuck my mouth closer to the crack of light between the couch and the mattress. “Give me something strong, and get him something fruity.”

Stolas jumped out of his feathers and, by the time I was looking out there again, his eyes were zeroed in on me, exactly where I was.

My vision was blocked again by a pillow smacking down abruptly. “Blitz! Get the f*ck out of there! You’re going to make Stolas think he has to leave.”

I crawled out reluctantly, heavily embarrassed, and avoided everyone’s eyes. It would have been less humiliating if I’d just stayed where I was to begin with. I tried to ignore Stolas’s eyes specifically as I went back up to the couch and decided to pretend I was busy with something on my phone.

“The plan for tonight is to stay up watching horror movies all night.” Asmodeus began while Fizz turned around and put his elbows on the couch in front of me, giving me a terrible grin and suggestive eyes. I ignored him. “We’ve got plenty of snacks, Fizzy’s picked out the movies, and after we’ve all had a decent rest, I’ll make everyone breakfast.”

I mouthed to Fizz “I hate you”, in response he wrinkled his nose and mouthed “Birthday boy”. I flipped him off and he kicked his feet giggling.

“Are you certain I’m necessary for-” Stolas was cut off by a fruity drink with a kiwi in a straight glass getting put in his hand. Asmodeus pushed him gently toward the nest over here. He motioned with another glass, this one a martini glass, toward Fizz, who finally left me alone to go take it.

“Yes. Go, sit.” Asmodeus went back to the minibar to collect the last two drinks and leaned over the mattress to hand the other straight glass, with a darker, duller color, to me before he lounged on the mattress with Fizz again.

Stolas sat on the other side of the couch. Someone turned on the first movie, I downed half my drink and kept my phone in my hands just in case.

The first movie began and I relaxed against my better judgment. It’s a movie I haven’t seen in years, maybe since the last time I had one of these horror movie nights, but it was a classic; one we’d watched almost every time. A familiar one that had lots of theatrical blood, unrealistic splatter, and a main character that was obsessed with protecting themselves with tire iron.

Fizz was snickering and vibrating, even though nothing happened yet, in anticipation of the first on-screen kill; an imp getting speared through the chest with their own broken horn. The actor’s real horn was painted entirely black and they tried to angle the camera so it wasn’t visible after the ‘break’ happened, and there was no blood spray despite the fact there should be plenty if you stab someone in that spot repeatedly like that.

Fizz was bursting out laughing before the cheesy pun was even said, “Not so horny now?”

I loosened up some more and parroted a phrase I know I’ve said before, years ago, and had gotten punched in the shoulder for. “They weren’t even having sex, that doesn’t make any sense!”

The first movie was a familiar one and a comfortable one. The special effects were terrible, the dialogue poorly written, and the plot an unwarranted treasure. When Fizz nudged Ozzie to grab the bag of pretzels off the table, I decided to get a good look at everyone else. Asmodeus was lounged on his stomach, feet our direction, in a smaller form than I’m used to seeing him in. I think he had that when we first walked Fizz up to the clown pageant. Fizz was on his back in front of him, sideways to the TV and making the two of them look like a ‘T’. They were both watching the movie and murmuring to each other, touching each other, kissing sickeningly occasionally, and a couple times Ozzie had even joined in our commentary.

It was harder to sneak a glance at Stolas. The first one, at least. After I realized his attention was fully on the television, I relaxed and paid a bit more attention. He’s no longer sitting upright, knees together and back straight. He was leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, however, and he didn’t look that comfortable. Of course not, this isn’t why he came here. He doesn’t want to be here, but you can’t exactly say no to a Sin.

“Blitz, it’s coming up. Come on, come on. What was it Barbie used to say about this part?” Fizz leaned to look back at me over Ozzie’s shoulder.

I looked back at the TV to see what he was talking about. I rolled my eyes. “They would have lived if they just stayed in the closet.”

“What…” Asmodeus, understandably, was confused by that statement, because two male imps that I really hope didn’t stay in the acting career had just confessed their love to each other.

An explosion on screen cut him off, and we watched what was supposed to be blood and guts going everywhere in an emotionally charged climax of the story… because the two gay boys just tried to leave the literal closet they were hiding in and tripped a wire the sad*stic freak that was hunting them all down had set.

Fizz’s laughter and whatever the f*ck Ozzie was saying was lost to me, though, because the couch had jostled majorly when that happened and hands were suddenly grabbing onto my arm. I looked over at Stolas in alarm, realizing he’d also just squawked, and he let me go immediately.

“Sorry.” He put more space between us again, shoulders tense and his feathers ruffled. He hasn’t relaxed at all since the movie began, and it’s only got another twenty minutes left to go. Suddenly, it didn’t seem like he was so uptight because he’d been unexpectedly thrown into the awkward situation of watching casual movies with a Sin, the Sin’s Seven-Ring-famous boyfriend, and the annoying imp that he’s got a complicated sex-based relationship with.

He’s scared of horror movies.

I turned back to the screen to process this, more confused by this revelation than anything. How can someone who lives in hell be scared of horror movies? I’ve done more f*cked up sh*t to humans on the job than most of what’s been in this movie. He’s scarier than the bullsh*t in this movie! I saw him possess those human agents, that was f*cking terrifying – and hot as f*ck – and way worse than this sh*t.

He flinched again and covered his face when the second to last guy was killed by getting dragged through a hole in a door into the darkness, followed by some very creative wet crunching sounds.

I mean, is he just using this as a set up to cuddle up to me? No, absolutely not, he is trying so hard to keep his gasps and squawking quiet. He grabbed me once, then immediately let go and looked embarrassed.

Well sh*t.

Most of the time in horror films, there’s one survivor. Usually some chick, the one that was the most cautious in the beginning and the least flippant throughout. This movie’s set up to fulfill that stereotype, but I knew at the very last second, before the cut to black, just as she’s about to stumble out onto the road with an oncoming car that’s supposed to symbolize her escape back to the city and out of the sad*stic backwoods of Gluttony, she gets dragged backward and the closing shot is of the car driving through a little pool of fresh blood.

Stolas doesn’t know that. So he was relaxing, because it looked like it was over.

I scooted closer to him, drawing his attention so he stared down at me in alarm. I found his hand and laced out fingers together, which he accepted gladly, but cautiously. Then, right before the scene, I squeezed his hand. He still jumped and gasped, but he showed less reservation about clutching onto me this time.

There was a funny feeling in my chest when the credits rolled.

“I thought the one driving the car was supposed to be the killer, at the end?” Asmodeus wondered, sitting up.

“Nah, that’s the parody. Did you make those little cheese balls?”

Asmodeus was getting up and stretching, “Yes, babe. Just for you. I’ll be right back, you three, the next round of snacks is in the other room.”

The instant he was gone, Fizz turned around to grin at us, staring neither at me nor Stolas, but at our joined hands. “Sooo?” He slid closer. “You two didn’t take long to stop pouting.”

I took my hand back quickly and put some space between us. “Shut up, Fizz, it was a dick move tricking him into coming here and you know it. Stolas, you can f*cking go now, Ozzie only said you had to stay for one movie.” I avoided looking at him.

“This is… alright.” He didn’t get up.

“Yeah it’s ‘alright’.” Fizz jumped on the bed toward the coffee table and sprayed himself in the mouth with fake cheese. “The next one’s a lot newer and it’s a whole lot better done. It’s supposed to be about hyper intelligent sharks that have a taste for succubus ass – literally – after they get infected with Beezeljuice.”

I considered our competition with Verosika on the beach. “Sounds more realistic.”

“Yeah, well, this one’s got a full-frontal sex scene, so hope that doesn’t bother you.”

“f*ck yeah, that’s fine.” I gave Stolas another weary look, because is he really going to stay? “I’m grabbing a water, you want one?”

He startled and looked to me, then his face spread with an awkward smile and he nodded. “Yes, thank you.”

I grabbed one for each of us from the smaller couch and crawled back toward him about the time Asmodeus returned with two plates full of various small, hot snacks. Hot dogs wrapped in rolls, little squishy balls coated in something crumbly that smelled like cheese, and a set of kebab skewers with meat chunks and toasted fruit. This is way fancier than anything we had before, doing this. And they were delicious. Stolas handed me a few extra of those fried mac & cheese balls after the next movie started. I settled in right next to him, reminding myself this is nothing personal, I just wanted to help him out. Because he’s so jumpy, and… that’s all.

He took my hand with the cold-open of the second movie, involving a massacre on a tiny island in Envy that was supposed to be portraying a location in the human world.

I squeezed back and leaned into him. To Fizz, “Did they actually kill that guy, or was that special effects?”

“Which one? The one that got disemboweled or the one that got crushed?”

“The one that got crushed; that thing looks heavy.”

“I think he was for-real injured, but, pretty sure he didn’t die.”

“For the record,” Asmodeus interrupted a scene a few minutes later where the main characters were finally getting introduced; a set of young succubi and inccubi that wanted to sneak off to the living world and party on deserted islands instead of f*cking with humans, “none of these air-heads would have gotten one of my crystals.”

Stolas stiffened beside me, and I tried to figure out if there was anything on the screen that indicated something ‘scary’ was about to happen.

“You good?” I checked with him more directly, because there were only plot-things happening right now.

Ozzie and Fizz both glanced back at us.

“Just fine.” He looked embarrassed.

“Wait,” Fizz began, frowning.

Asmodeus finished for him, “Stolas, you don’t like thrillers?”

He looked even more uncomfortable. “It’s alright, I insist. It isn’t typically a genre I enjoy, but, tonight is pleasant regardless. It’s stupid. Blitzy has done far more violent things to me and it is so sexy. I just… tend to get pulled into films. I suppose.”

“You sure you’re good to finish the night with us, then?” Asmodeus lifted a brow.

Someone on the screen had a jump-scare (still young succubi being stupid, nothing violent yet), and Stolas jumped slightly. “Uh, yes. Please just enjoy your night, I’ll be fine.”

They let it go, but I didn’t. That weird feeling in my chest was still there, and I came to the reluctant conclusion that every time he squirmed, and clutched tighter to me, I liked it. The positive mood of the movie setting up the group of idiot friends was starting to fade as it theatrically prepared to go back to the thriller genre, and I made a split-second decision. I let go of his hand – he made a sad sound at that – and crawled into his lap – he made a happy sound this time. His hands were both on me instantly, but still hesitantly at first.

I’m just helping him out. I’m making him more comfortable. That’s all. I’m not that relieved that I didn’t seem to have screwed everything up by yelling at him in my van last time we say each other, and I’m not more comfortable on these feathers than the couch.

Obviously.

Suddenly I wasn’t as annoyed with Fizz and Asmodeus being cute on the mattress.

The problem with the second movie, it being one I’ve never seen before, and how I chose to watch it was, was I was getting comfortable and had too little to comment about. There was a completely ridiculous sequence where someone died from a f*cking abdomen injury (and they were not bleeding enough to bleed out that fast), but other than that I was comfortable and I was tired, and I was not a teenager anymore.

And the hand petting over my back, occasionally gently playing with my spines, was really comfortable.

“Blitz don’t you f*cking dare go to sleep!” Fizz shouted from the mattress, making me jolt awake abruptly, sitting up and slamming my back into Stolas’s chest. He was giggling, snaking his arms around me as I grumbled under my breath.

“Sorry.” He apologized for me. “I’ll keep him awake.”

“Good.” Asmodeus rolled over and sat up, leaning back against the couch where I used to sit. “The night’s just begun, we’re not even halfway through.”

“Pfft, Blitz was always the first one to fall asleep.” Fizz sprawled out over the bed, limbs extended to take up as much space as he comfortable could. “You fall asleep, we’re all drawing on your face.”

“No the f*ck you’re not, Stolas is guarding me. You aren’t coming anywhere near me with any of your sh*tty markers.”

“Actually,” Fizz started batting his eyelashes back up at us, “Stolas is a very nice demon who understands the sanctity of a birthday. He would never make the special birthday boy sad, right?”

Stolas was caught between a rock and a hard place, and I was not going to help. “I… I’m not…”

“I guess we’re going to have to wait and find out.” Ozzie interrupted. “This is starting to pick up, pay attention, boys.”

We put our attention back on the movie, and I realized I had lost enough of the plot that I wasn’t sure what was happening. I mean, I knew it was dumb demons doing dumb things and some f*cked up sharks, but I didn’t understand what happened to the guy with a plan and why they weren’t going with that plan anymore? Did he die? Did I miss that?

I laid back down in Stolas’s lap and kept my eyes open. He went back to playing with my spines, but, I didn’t let him lull me back to almost-sleep again.

After that movie, everyone got up to stretch their legs and wake up some. Asmodeus made more drinks, Fizz cleaned off the outmoded snacks and brought out more for the next theme (sweet sh*t, this is where my bag of popcorn-mix was opened up), and Fizz dragged me down to the mattress this time while Asmodeus sat beside Stolas on the couch like some prearranged plot I didn’t know about.

“Fine, fine.” I laid down beside Fizz and snaked my tail behind me to Stolas’s ankle, that hung down onto the mattress behind me. He shifted it closer and made no objection.

“Wait,” I almost sat up when Fizz picked out the next one and started it.

“Yeah, is it still your favorite? I mean, probably not. It’s been forever, and, there are a lot of other movies out now.”

“Still my favorite scary movie.” I leaned over to bump my shoulder into his. He gave me an excited grin and bumped me back.

“What’s it about?” Stolas asked, more interested this time.

I rolled onto my back to look down at him excitedly. “Killer horses. Think, like, Spirit, but the horses get fed up with the people trying to tame them, so they start orchestrating these great murder-plots to kill off anyone that tries to ride them or whatever. They quarter a guy with his own lassos.”

His expression paled. “Oh.”

I tightened my tail around his foot and rolled back over onto my stomach as it started. “No, no, it’s great. You’re supposed to root for the horses.”

“I don’t think you’re supposed to root for the horses, you’re just a horse-freak.” Fizz scoffed.

“Whatever, you and Barbie always agreed with me. Stain their hooves red!” I cheered, pulling the bowl of popcorn mix more between us than just in front of him.

I was pulled into the movie, back over a decade, and completely forgot about what my tail was doing through most of the movie. Most of the gore in this movie was saved for the last quarter, and, when the first on-screen death took place (the actor actually got a permanent scar on his chest from that kick) I was basically giggling and kicking my feet in the air behind me. At least until I heard the startled hoot almost directly behind me.

“Oh, sorry.” I glanced back and realized where I was. I’d tugged with my tail, and nearly pulled his leg off the couch toward me.

“It’s alright,” he muttered, his feathers fluffing and adjusting to sit comfortably again.

Ozzie was offering him from a bowl of gummy candies, “I don’t want to hear sh*t about Froggy and me not being able to keep our hands to ourselves. Stolas, just go put the pajamas on. You’re obviously staying.”

“I-” Stolas was locking up again, staring down at his ankle where I was loosening my tail because I was kind of hoping he’d get up and put that sh*t on he’d look f*cking great in it. “Are you sure?”

“Yes!” Fizz and Ozzie exclaimed in unison.

Stolas stood up off the couch and picked the onesie carefully. “And… you’ll give me what I asked for in the morning?”

“You’ve already earned it. I’ll go get it for you now, do you want me to?”

“No! No, not, yet.” Stolas gave me a nervous look, and he looked like he was panicking. “I’ll be back.”

I watched him go curiously, because, what was that all about? “What’d he even come over for? What were are you trying to manipulate him with? That’s kind of sh*tty, Fizz, he doesn’t need you holding sh*t over his head like that.”

“Aw, you’re so cute, being protective of your birdie.” Fizz bat his eyelashes at me again. “Sorry, Blitzy, but if you want to know what we got him, you’re going to have to ask him.”

“Sure, whatever.” I turned back around and grabbed at the popcorn.

There wasn’t a whole lot happening during the few minutes it took for Stolas to come out. I didn’t turn back around immediately, because I didn’t need Fizz throwing popcorn and accusations at me, but, I probably didn’t need to turn around at all. When I had, I made a pretty stupid sound and felt my face heat up way more than I expected.

He looked f*cking adorable.

He gave me a nervous look, but only briefly before he avoided my gaze and sat all straight-backed and awkward on the couch again.

“Put the hood up.” Fizz broke me out of my staring, making me realize I wasn’t the only one looking at him now.

“It- it’s alright.” Stolas’s fingers were fidgeting in his lap. “We can simply go back to the movie.”

Fizz threw a piece of popcorn up at him. “Boo! Put the hood on!”

Stolas’s face got darker and he looked shocked. “I’m sorry?”

“You heard the birthday boy, put your hood up.” Asmodeus started throwing gummies at him from nearly the opposite direction Fizz was throwing popcorn. They were both grinning widely and not letting up, even though Stolas was alarmed. I was stuttering mentally like a broken transmission, struggling to move on from how great he looked in that onesie to the need to defend him from their harassment.

Stolas was laughing nervously, but his smile was less awkward than it had been before. “Alright, alright.”

The popcorn and gummy assault stopped and the atmosphere filled with anticipation. In the back of my mind, I was vaguely aware that I looked f*cking stupid not even paying attention to my favorite thriller and wagging my tail behind me.

He put the hood up and holy sh*t.

Eyes were on me. Not Stolas’s, he was still looking all embarrassed and shoving his fists back down into his lap. Asmodeus was grinning and looking from him down to me. He was chuckling. I snapped out of it enough to glare at him, then realize I probably needed to glare at Fizz too. Oh, yeah, Fizz is squinting his eyes and sticking his tongue out at me.

“f*ck off,” I hissed at him.

He rolled away from me, on his side, and did a little wave with his hand. “Go on, go have fun. I’m just glad I got you for half a movie.”

“Shut up, stop talking.” I was already itching to act even more like an idiot and he f*cking knows. I grabbed at my tail to hold it down and tried to put my back to Stolas.

“Blitzy? What is he talking about?”

f*cking damn it I looked back at him with his cute as f*ck bird sounds and all four eyes all wide and sh*t.

I made a real stupid noise in my throat and gave up, crawling hand-over-head back up the mattress and up his legs into his lap to cling to the horse-shaped pajamas he was wearing. He made another cute as f*ck bird sound in startle and I saw his arms raised up on either side of me like he didn’t know what the f*ck to do with them.

“Imps.” That was Asmodeus’s voice. “Guess I’ll head back down to the mattress.”

“Don’t you ‘imps’ and then act like you can come back down here and get cute with me.” Fizz scoffed somewhere behind me, and I decided to just block them out because they were getting really annoying and I was too busy getting comfortable on Stolas, wagging my tail out behind me and struggling between finding the onesie absolutely necessary and hating how it covered all his feathers.

“Oh, Blitzy, what are you doing?” Stolas finally touched me when I pulled at the zipper.

I opened it up enough to shove my face into his feathers.

His fingers twitched over my back, “I’m not certain what’s gotten into you. Are you alright? You’re missing your favorite movie.”

I shoved the zipper down further, closer to his lap, so I could shove my tail into the onesie with him, so I could wrap it around him tightly, along with my arms and legs, while I shoved my face through the feathers on his chest.

“He’s fine.” Asmodeus’s voice was behind me and lower now. “This just means our plan is working.”

“What plan?” Stolas’s hands were moving over my back in the way I loved, scratching over my spine, pinching at the spikes on my back lightly, etc. He was making my chest ache so badly I was going to have to let go or I was going to burst.

“Make you two make up. Heard it was kind of our fault you two weren’t talking, so, I decided to do something about it. Now he’s all over you, and you can’t keep your hands off him, so, you’re welcome.” Fizz’s voice was so annoying right now can’t they both just shut the f*ck up?

“I’m not sure this fixes anything, he’s only drunk-”

“Or he just likes you. Blitz, come on, say something or your birdie’s going to think this sh*t’s platonic.” Fizz raised his voice to make me stop ignoring them.

I climbed him a bit higher, so I could put my mouth right next to his ear, sticking my nose into the hood of the onesie. Quiet enough to avoid embarrassing him in front of the other two, who included a whole ass Sin, I described to him in great detail the things I wanted to and fully intended to do to him. It took long enough that his hands slid to embrace me flat-palmed and tightened his hold on me.

He responded with the cutest owl noise yet, a sort of trilling that sort of cracked the gates for me.

I went back to rubbing my face in his feathers, this time purring like a f*cking motor boat.

“Oh my god.” Stolas’s voice was higher-pitched than normal.

There was f*cking giggling behind me. “They’re so cute together.”

“Hey! So are we! Come here!”

“I thought you didn’t want me ‘getting cute’ with you?”

“I didn’t mean it baby, let me-”

I tore my face out of the feathers and wailed. “SHUT THE f*ck UP OR I’M LEAVING WITH THIS BIRD ASS RIGHT NOW, f*ck YOUR BIRTHDAY.”

I did not hear whatever dumb response I got from that, because there was very suddenly a mouth on mine. I grabbed at his face to keep it there until I wanted to stick mine back in his feathers again.

I only knew the last movie was starting when Stolas tightened his arms around me and stood up. My attention was drawn away from him enough to figure out why he was moving so much, and I caught sight of Asmodeus moving to the couch over Stolas’s shoulder. Chasing after him and slinking into his lap like he had back at the club, Fizz was watching me. He seemed to be waiting for me to make eye contact, in that split second before my entire world was tilted and Stolas and I were suddenly laying down on the mattress, Fizz winked at me.

I decided to ignore that sh*t and worm my way around until I was satisfied with our new positions. Initially, when we hit the bed, I was still clinging to his torso and he was laying down on top of me, so I was sandwiched between him and the bed in an awkward angle that made it hard for me to move at all or see the TV. By the time the last movie was starting, I had turned over so we were both on our stomachs, and I was still mostly under him. My legs are free, and I decided to give the feather thing a rest and stick my chin on the mattress so I could watch the movie. His arms appeared on either side of me, his fingers slipping into mine, and I felt his beak on the side of my face.

I rewound my tail around him and started purring again.

The last movie is another new one. I’ve seen commercials for it, but, it’s new new. This one was about vampires and was more of a psychological thriller for most of the beginning part, during which time I was missing dialogue left and right because Stolas was playing with my fingers.

He stopped when the gore started. His arms constricted in around me again, and by time it was over, my head wasn’t resting directly on the mattress, it was propped up on his arms while his face was buried in the side of my neck.

“What time is it?” I whispered after the TV went dark and no one moved immediately. There was movement on the couch behind Stolas and me, don’t get me wrong, but no one was getting up.

“Four.” That was Asmodeus, and he was whispering too.

Stolas made a soft sound in my ear and his head rolled over. He was nearly asleep; I think he’d gotten there pretty soon after he’d crossed his arms under my head.

Now I heard someone get up off the couch. I heard movement at the snack table, but, it was still out of my range of vision if I didn’t want to disturb Stolas. “I’m taking Froggy to bed. You’re welcome to anything left over, if you want to stay up any later.” Ozzie was finally moving somewhere I could get a good look at him, only to find he had one arm pulled up horizontal in front of him, open-palm up and supporting the length of Fizz’s body. All four of his limbs were hanging limply down on either side of the Sin’s arm.

I snorted as quietly as I could. “I’m the ‘first to fall asleep’ my ass. I am going to give him so much sh*t about this.”

Asmodeus chuckled and stepped closer, rather than up toward the bed like I expected. I lifted my head curiously, actually a bit nervously, but he was going to the TV stand, not to the bed Stols and I were sleeping on tonight. He took something out of his pocket and set it on the stand, in front of the TV, and motioned to it. “That’s what I promised Stolas. Make sure he sees it when he wakes up, if you’re up before us.”

“Uh, yeah.” I gave the black box a nervous look, then looked back toward Asmodeus. He was halfway up the stairs to their bed already, and, at the top I lost any good view. In just a few seconds, all evidence of the great big Sin and his boyfriend was just a lump in the blankets of the bed.

I glanced back to the box.

What is it?

What could Stolas want so badly that he’d agree to watch a movie he didn’t even like with two near-strangers? Worse than that, two demons that his only interactions with previous to tonight were that night? The one where the two of them ripped him and I to shreds? By all rights, he should want to avoid this place like the plague. And yet there’s something Ozzie could give him that he wanted that badly?

I wanted to get up and see what it was.

I was too comfortable, though. Maybe I’ll just ask him about it in the morning. For now, I just squirmed under him until I was rolled over mostly onto my back and, in his sleep, he adjusted around me and let me bury my face back in his still-exposed feathers.

When I woke up, I was being touched. I thought it was Stolas at first, because that made logical sense, but, I still heard the soft hooting of him definitely still being asleep. So, I stretched and worked my face free of the zipper that I accidentally poked my eye with right after first opening them.

“sh*t.” I whispered.

“Shhh.”

That’s Fizz. I finally got a good look at him; he’s wearing clothes instead of pajama and had clearly just been tapping my horn.

“The f*ck do you want? I’m comfy.”

“You can come back, come on.” He stood up and walked away, not really giving me any time to argue.

I looked back to Stolas, felt a strong urge to lay back down with him, and sighed. He sleeps like the dead, he’ll still be unconscious when I get back, and, he’s easy as hell to get back into his arms after I get out of them. Extracting myself is always harder, but, I’m skilled enough at it that I could get up and follow Fizz toward the door without even letting him budge.

Fizz held the door open for me, then shut it softly behind him. He didn’t say anything until we were part of the way down the hallway.

“Well?”

“What do you mean, ‘well’? You’re the one that woke me up, you asshole, don’t play word games with me.”

He rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, leaning back into the wall. “What do you think?”

I felt my stomach flip over nervously and I looked away from him. “I think it was a lot better than the last time I saw you on your birthday. Hope it was what you were looking for, Fizz, ‘cause I know I owe you a lot. Look, if that wasn’t what you wanted, I know I didn’t even stay with you a whole movie, I can do better. I can-”

“No, you idiot, that was great. I got to spend my birthday with both my boys, who are getting along real well I might add. Ozzie handled most of my birthday day, and it was amazing. He even pulled through on the one present I asked for that I didn’t think I’d get; he got Stolas out here so I could make you two make up.”

I narrowed my eyes and remembered the kind of shady way they lured him here. “Then what are you talking about? You’re going to have to spell it out.”

“You and Stolas obviously love each other.” I wanted to interrupt him and argue the point, but he gave me an unimpressed look and crossed his arms. I swallowed my words. “You’re both just too stupid to do anything about it. You said you two haven’t had sex in months, you’ve barely talked, and, I wanted to fix that. Ozzie got him here, but, it looked like you two are back on the right track, right? You finally going to get over this ‘blue bloods don’t give a f*ck about us’ thing, or what?”

I closed my eyes and pinched my nose. “Look, Fizz, obviously whatever you and Asmodeus have going on is… sweet. I’ll admit, he likes you. You two are sickeningly domestic, but, you can’t just project that sh*t on us. It’s not the same; what Stolas and I have isn’t domestic. It isn’t even romantic. He doesn’t-” I took a deep breath and tried to figure out the best way to explain myself without just fueling Fizz’s power fantasy about playing match-maker. “He doesn’t want me the way Ozzie wants you. I saw the way that chicken looks at you, I know you’re coming from a pretty good place for this, but, Stolas… doesn’t want that. He wants to get dicked down and he likes having power. That’s it. Long as I’m great in bed and need his grimoire, he’s happy.”

Fizz didn’t say anything. He just stared at me, no real change in expression, and I started to feel defensive.

“What? No argument? You know I’m right. Last night was fun, Fizz, but it’s just going to have to stay fun. I’m not-”

“I want to punch you in the face so hard right now.” Fizz threw his hands in the air on either side of him, stretching his limbs only a bit further than normal arms would go. “You’re so f*cking stupid, Biltz, you are so lucky you’re cute.”

“Hey!”

“Whatever. I need coffee before I deal with this sh*t. I’ll get you a mug too, just, go back inside and keep trying to convince yourself your birdie isn’t looking at you the exact same as mine.” He pointed back toward the door we’d left, backwards as he started deeper down the hall.

“Yeah, well, f*ck you too. I don’t want any creamer.”

“I know.” He flipped me off over his shoulder.

I smiled after him until he turned the corner, and only then went back inside. The clock on the wall said it was only late morning. I could have easily slept until after noon, but, I’m not going back to sleep now. Asmodeus is more than likely sleeping soundly, judging from the lump on the bed at the top of those stairs, and the unfamiliar snoring. It isn’t loud or very annoying, it was pretty easy to ignore, but, it will be a pretty good warning for when he does wake up. Hopefully he won’t until Fizz gets back, I’m not all that interested in awkward morning conversation with my best bud’s boyfriend, who happens to be a f*cking Sin, who I’ve only spoken to on my own maybe once.

It’d be less awkward for me if Stolas was awake too, but I’m not waking him up. He deserves to sleep as long as he wants to. In fact, I will kick Asmodeus and Fizz’s asses if they get too loud before Stols wakes up. After the bullsh*t they pulled to get him here, even if he made his own decision to stay afterward, they are not allowed to push him around any more.

Sure, he stayed and held me and made me feel great for one night, but he only came over here because Ozzie promised him something.

That something is on the TV stand.

I had no idea what that something was.

That something was really tempting to take a peek at. Just sitting out, it couldn’t possibly be something private. I also couldn’t conceive of anything ‘private’ that Asmodeus, Sin of Lust and king of a sex-toy empire, could be giving Stolas that Stolas could possibly are about me not seeing.

So, honestly with less humility than I really should have, I picked up the box and took a peek.

I closed the box and set it back down on the TV stand, and I moved the hand I’d opened the box with to my mouth.

It’s a crystal. Not the sex-kind. Not with a shape like that. It’s the kind of crystal that succubus carry with them. Verosika had one, she used it to go to the living world.

Stolas has no use for something like that, he can create portals to the living world without even having his grimoire on hand.

I slowly sat down on the edge of the bed, stomach twisting painfully and chest caught in a vice.

It’s for me.

He’s taking the grimoire back.

He doesn’t want to f*ck me anymore.

He doesn’t want me anymore.

A disappointed chirping came from behind me and fingers slid over my sides. I, still covering my mouth, looked back toward him. Only his upper eyes were open, peering up at me, as he tugged me back down toward him. I didn’t move, I just sat there staring down at him, memory of everything last night coming back to me. The way he’d held me, the way he’d pet me when I’d purred, the way he’d squirmed when I’d described the sh*t I’d wanted to do to him, the way he’d looked at me.

He made another disappointed sound and started to let me go, taking my inaction as rejection. He was beginning to curl up on himself, away from me, and that feeling in my stomach churned uncomfortably. My chest felt hot and like someone had stuck their hand inside and was f*cking around in there.

“What do you want?” I asked him, and he had no idea why. I asked it softly, not wanting to wake the other demon in the room, but I wanted to make sure Stolas heard me because I don’t feel all that confident in being able to repeat myself.

“I want to hold you longer.” He whispered outright, and he looked like he was pleading. “Will you stay?”

f*ck that question sounded a whole lot heavier than he meant it. He doesn’t know. He has no f*cking clue I know about the crystal. If he doesn’t know that I know, why would he ask that sh*t? Unless, he wanted me to? Why would he want me to stay if he’s just trying to get rid of me?

Is he trying to get rid of me?

None of this makes sense. None of last night makes sense, if he’s getting bored of me.

Is he trying to get rid of me?

“Yeah,” it came out mostly as a sigh. I pushed my hands down on either side of me so I could lift up and turn, slipping back down into his arms feet-first. He made one of hose happy sounds instead, the ones I like a whole lot better, and he embraced me tightly. I felt his beak in my neck while his knees tangled up into my legs.

The room got very quiet immediately after while I stared up at the ceiling and had the strangest experience of feeling something huge and terrifying building over my mind getting knocked to the ground and shattered into a million pieces. I could pick it back up. I could try and pick up all those horrible thoughts and assumptions and bad feelings, but, the memory of how he’d treated me last night and the way he clung to me now made it really, really hard to figure that crystal really represented any attempt to push me away.

So maybe...

That’s not what it’s for?

Maybe I get to stay?

I pet the feathers on top of his head tentatively, and my stomach only continued to twist when he trilled happily and nuzzled his face into my neck more.

I can stay.