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Helluva Boss

Stolitz

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First Snow

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Written by Arian Mabe (Amethyst Mare)

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Blitz hesitated at the edge of the portal, the flickering blue and white magic familiar to him, though more so when it came directly from Stolas rather than purely from the spells contained within the Grimoire. The imp pressed his lips together, glancing back at the owl Goetian towering above him, even though he should have been well enough used to the differences in their heights by that point. No matter how much time he spent around Stolas, however, he could not become fully used to being close to him.

Not that they had not spent time together outside their, ah...monthly rendezvous. That was how Stolas put it, not Blitz. Blitz would have called it "the monthly bang-de-bang", though that was nothing in comparison to what he could have come up with, if he put his mind to it. Anyway, the monthly "thing" had become, slowly, a little bit more. First, he'd done that bodyguarding gig for Stolas at Loo Loo Land, then there had been a movie night, a stop-by from Stolas when he had been sick, the thing at the Harvest Moon Festival, meeting at Stylish Occult for a spot of shopping with their daughters...

It had happened so slowly that he did not even realise what was happening.

Or maybe he did and didn't want to make a thing of it. Maybe Blitz didn't know what to do about it. That was why he focused on the white, sparkly stuff on the other side of the portal, the chill of the wind bringing a prickle of a shiver to his red and white skin.

"Stolas? Where the hell is this portal to?" He said, wrinkling his nose, tail lashing the air behind him. "It's cold... It doesn't fucking get cold in hell."

Stolas laughed softly, offering Blitz a coat that he scoffed at, shaking his head.

"Oh, come on, Blitzy," the owl crooned, draping the coat, perfectly sized for the imp, over Blitz' shoulders anyway. "It's a lovely evening out and there's something I want to show you."

Shivering again, Blitz grumbled, tucking his tail around his hips and around his left thigh, though it wasn't going to do anything much to keep him warm.

"Ugh... If you fucking insist, birdbrain, can't imagine what you've got in a white hellscape like that to show me though..."

He stomped through, flinching obviously as his boots crunched into the sparkly white stuff, compacting under his weight. Blitz froze, in more ways than one, stilling as the bitter cold wrapped around him, an inky blue sky, touched with black, the tip of his tail shaking like a rattlesnake.

"Fuck, Stolas," he breathed, shuddering into himself. "Where the hell have you taken me? What the fuck is all this shit?"

The owl chuckled faintly, stepping through the portal more elegantly than Blitz had, wearing a coat with a thick fluff around the hood, though it was not pulled up around his head. He didn't seem to feel the cold, at least not like Blitz did, a scarf tucked tastefully around his neck, sparkled with stars.

"Reykjavik. That's in Iceland." Stolas' eyes creased softly at the corners. "I'm surprised to see you so...taken aback, should I say, by snow. You've never been on a job outside the United States of America, haven't you?"

Blitz grumbled and stomped, glancing back at the portal, curiosity battling with his urge to be warm again. Without thinking about it, he pulled the coat a little closer around his shoulders, finding that it helped a little, his arms slipping into the sleeves.

"Uh... No..." Blitz shrugged. "Didn't think it worth using the Grimoire, y'know, unless it was for a job. Usually, we're so piss beaten up by the time we get done with work, we just lock the Grimoire away and we're done for the day. States has snow too, just not done a job for a client that wanted us to go anywhere that was this kind of shit cold yet. Sure, we'll get there in time, our client list is getting longer and longer."

"Mmm..." Stolas nodded, something unreadable in his eyes. "Whereas I am glad that you take such precautions with my Grimoire, I did expect you little imps to see about using it for holidays and the like. Please feel at your liberty to take a break somewhere warmer, of course, with the suitable disguises. It seems that you feel the cold a touch more than me, though I can conjure something a little warmer, if you'd prefer..."

Blitz didn't answer, not as Stolas hovered. Imps. Blitz shuffled his weight, the snow crunching again under him, prints left behind, showing him where he'd been. Stolas didn't mean any harm by it, not with the softness in the lines around his beak, but it was forever a reminder of the difference in their status.

One imp. One Goetia Prince. There wasn't much greater difference that one could draw a comparison to.

"Come here," Stolas said, offering Blitz a hand that the imp did not understand why he took, grumbling the whole while. "I wouldn't bring you here for no reason, my dear, though I am happy that I could be the one to introduce you to your first snow also. I still remember my sweet Via's face the first time her tiny talons set foot in the snow... The look on her face was a picture."

Oh, Satan... Blitz recognised the look on Stolas' face, giving the prince's hand a little unconscious squeeze, or at least a squeeze that he pretended was unconscious. That look could mean anything specific, but more generally it meant something around Stella and Octavia, something that brought more than a flicker of pain to Stolas' memories.

Perhaps it was best not to think about that. Stolas spent more than enough time wrapped up in his own thoughts, alone in that big old mansion, despite having a wife and daughter, for Blitz to try to draw something like that to the forefront of his mind when he should have been forgetting it. If only for a little while.

"Well, it is kinda nice," Blitz said, casting his eyes about the line of coniferous trees, the old pines tipped with snow, branches layered with it, making their way up a crunchy, snowy slope. "I mean, cold as Satan's balls, Stolas, really, but I bet my daughter wouldn't even feel this cold. I try to get a scarf and hat on her when it's as cold as the Pride ring's ever going to get, or when we get onto a mission somewhere grey and murky, but she throws them off every time. Something about having a "fur coat" and "not needing that shit"."

He maid air quotes with his fingers, rolling his eyes, though that meant he had to drop Stolas' hand to do so. The effect it had on the owl, however, was exactly as desired, bringing the tug of a smile back to the owl's lips until he laughed and looked a little more like himself again, the long feathers of his tail flicking to the side affectionately to brush against Blitz' own. The imp had not even realised that it had been hanging behind him again, the tip twitching back and forth, only held up high enough so that it did not drag through the snow.

"Oh, our daughters are much alike, aren't they?" Stolas chuckled. "I'm sure they would get on a little better if they spent more time together, but I understand we cannot force the matter either way. They seem to like the same bands too...though I cannot say either that I understand dear Via's taste in music. Fuck You Dad always feels a little barbed, at least to me."

"Ah, don't sweat it, Stolas." Blitz was quick to jump in. "That's just what most teenagers are listening to these days. Well, Loona is twenty-one now, fuck. Seems like only yesterday she was seventeen and I was signing the adoption paperwork for her."

The imp shook himself, he was getting off track and they were almost at the top of the slope anyway, the going tougher and tougher with every step. Two feet of snow was a great deal different to the imp than it was the taller owl, though he didn't notice the prince waving his hand subtly in a spiral of magic. Neither did he notice that his way of going got easier, bit by bit, melting the snow before him and packing it down so that he didn't have to plough through it quite so much. Removing it completely, however, would have been demeaning and obvious to the imp, so tact was required.

"Anyway, Octavia's a good kid, you know she is. There's no need to spend so much time worrying about that shit, though, I know, I know, that's not all that easy to do. Fuck, I spend more than enough time worrying about I.M.P., Loona, paying the rent, making sure Millie and Moxxie are all set up right..."

Blitz laughed, though there was no humour to it, looking up at the owl, who quietly listened to his every word as if every last one was far more important than the one that came before.

"Fuck, yeah, there's a lot to worry about, that's my point, Stolas. But even I can see that the kid fucking adores you and sometimes that's gotta be enough. A song's a song: it's not the sum of your whole fucking relationship."

"Blitz, that was very deep."

"Yeah, well, don't get used to it." Blitz frowned and flipped him off, though the hint of a blush showed in the white, scarred side of his face. "Ain't no fucking therapist here, but I'll still charge your royal featherness by the hour if you start treating me like one."

Stolas smiled, yet Blitz was not looking, a step ahead of him.

"I'd never treat you like that, Blitz."

"Yeah, well, that's fucking great and all... Whoa."

Blitz stopped dead in his tracks. Although the imp had not known where they were going, what he had not expected was for the sky to change at the top of the slope. Sure, there had been a flicker of colour to it, but he had been more focused on working his way through the deep snow, keeping pace with the owl, to really pay attention to what lay ahead.

The sky was alive, dancing with shades of green and blue, colours that he had never seen in Hell, not even the once. The stars were still there, but where he may have been transfixed by their beauty before he could not focus on them as he froze in place, even his tail still and quiet, dropping lightly from its weight, when he was not concentrating on holding it up.

"Stolas..." He breathed, forgetting himself as the owl stood beside him, so close that he could feel the warmth from Stolas' body. "How... What is this?"

The owl smiled, spreading his hands apart.

"The aurora borealis, a beautiful phenomenon on Earth, though not one that we are graced with down in Hell. I doubt even this reaches Heaven's borders, though I hear they are not in the business of replicating what takes place on Earth. Something about a divide between the living world and the afterlife."

Blitz didn't much care about that, though the imp understood, the ripples of light shifting to hues of richer blue and even a lilt of purple, though not like any purple that Blitz had seen before. He wanted to see more, stretching out a hand to them as if he could snatch them out of the sky, yet they were beyond the grasp of a mere imp.

He allowed Stolas to lay his tail, softly, against his, the difference in their heights too great when standing for Stolas to comfortably put an arm around the imp. He knew Blitz thought it was condescending with Stolas leaning down on him like that, but Stolas could not simply change who he was and that was something they would have to both work with.

A brush of the tails, however? That was fine. Rather nice, in fact.

"I'm glad you like it, Blitzy," Stolas said softly. "It really is beautiful, but more so with you here. I come to see it sometimes, by myself, but I didn't want to look at it through a portal this time."

Blitz wanted to ask whether Stolas couldn't just have gone through the portal on his own, but the words died on his lips. It was too beautiful, the hard edges of the lights not something that he felt should have been best placed on Earth, not where humanity was such a cesspit of evil. That was why there was an overpopulation problem in Hell, why they had the exterminations to control such. It cut and it danced, like the hem of a ladies' skirt, though it had been a long time since Blitz had had anything to do with a ballroom. He had watched some balls, however, from balconies and the like, and the way the lights moved across the sky reminded him of the sweeping gowns, how everything had a place, weaving one into the other.

That was corny though, for him. Certainly cheesy. Too flowery. Best to keep that shit to himself, though that was no different to what Blitz ever did.

Stolas filled the silence, his voice better than any music than could have played in the background to serenade the scene.

"The aurora borealis is created when energised particles from the sun crash into Earth's upper atmosphere. They can reach speeds of forty-five million miles per hour, though the magnetic fields of the planet protect humanity from the onslaught. The Earth's magnet field re-directs the particles toward the North Pole and the whole process transforms into this stunning, cinematic, atmospheric phenomenon that fascinates humans, and demons, alike."

"Fucking fascinating stuff, Stolas... Is this what gets your bird-puss wet these days? Fucking load of...fancy...shit..."

Blitz muttered, though he was too spellbound to care about anything other than basking in the soft ebb and flow of Stolas' voice. It allowed the moment to stretch out for at least a little bit longer. That was all he could ask for.

The owl's tailfeathers rested softly against his tail, the spade-shaped tip twitching faintly. Why did they have to be so soft?

"It was an Italian astronomer, Galileo Galilei, who coined the name, "aurora borealis", back in sixteen-nineteen, for the goddess of dawn, Aurora, and the Greek god of the north wind, Boreas."

"Shit, Stolas, I was never really that good at that crap in school."

"No one has to be good at it, Blitz," Stolas said. "We record it all in books and tomes and scrolls, the histories of Earth, Heaven and Hell. I just..."

He blushed, rubbing the back of his neck, and would have moved away from Blitz if not for the imp abruptly lashing his tail around the owl's feathered one, holding him close.

"You're just passionate about it," Blitz helpfully filled in the gap for him, though he could not meet the owl demon's eyes. "Go on...Stolas."

They rested there for a moment, quiet, peaceful. A moment didn't have to be more than that sometimes.

"The earliest suspected record of the Northern Lights is in a thirty-thousand-year-old cave painting, which was found in France," he continued softly, his lilting tone winding around Blitz. "The colours depend on the chemical composition of Earth's atmosphere - where they are seen in two different locations, or at two different times, will never be the same. They are as unique as snowflakes, here on Earth."

Blitz exhaled softly, warm within his coat. It was a nice coat. His eyes followed the path of the lights, tracing them again and again, the glitter of the stars that Stolas also spoke so eloquently about. The owl was more knowledgeable than he would ever be and, for once, that was not something that the imp minded. At least, not as much as before.

"Every type of atom or molecule, whether it is atomic hydrogen or a molecule like carbon dioxide, absorbs and radiates -"

"Stolas."

"- its own unique set of colours -"

"Stolas."

"- which is analogous to how every human being, and demons too, of course, have their own unique set of fingerprints. Some of the dominant colours -"

"Stolas!"

"Oh!" The owl blinked, a blush easily showing through the pale feathers of his cheeks, the imp's tail squeezing his tightly. "I'm so sorry, dear, I think I got a shade carried...away...there..."

The imp's eyes locked onto his and Blitz pulled him down, a short hop getting him high enough to grasp the front of Stolas' coat. The tug of his hand in the owl's coat allowed a rush of cold air down the Goetian's shirt, yet the kiss that Blitz dragged the prince down into was enough to bring a flushing rise of heat back to his skin, feathers poofing out around his neck and chest.

Stolas blushed heavily and cooed into the kiss, Blitz dominating, his tongue swirling deep, tangling around and curling with the prince's, though they had spent more than enough time together to know the ins and outs of each other's bodies in that way by that point. He kissed the prince deeply, as if there was to be no other night for them together, harder than he ever had even in sex, lips crushed together and breath shared between panting lips.

It meant more, that kiss, but what it said silently would have to be said aloud, one day, too. When he broke the kiss, a faint string of saliva connecting them for a heartbeat of a moment, even Blitz was breathless, though the demon's lips stretched in a trademark grin, teeth showing.

"What's the matter, princey?" He breathed, tracing the line of Stolas' jaw with the tip of his claw. "Something took your breath away? The lights, yeah, probably..."

Stolas cooed, a soft "hoot" bubbling up from his chest.

"I think you know what. Though the lights are even more beautiful for seeing them here, with you...with me..."

It was cute to see the prince so tongue-tied, stumbling over his words when he was usually so eloquent and well-spoken. But that was something that Blitz could help with, even if he would never have told anyone that he knew better what he was doing than he suspected anyone else around Stolas.

"You can keep talking about that science shit," he said, bumping Stolas lightly with his shoulder and not moving away from the warm, comforting pressure. "It's kind of cute."

That was all Stolas was going to get out of him, still breathless after the kiss, though he did allow Blitz to tug his tail a little closer to him, never once breaking the tight grip of an imp tail wrapped around it. Slowly, the imp wrapped his hand around the prince's thigh too, an almost possessive grasp. Stolas bit down a hoot that would have been as appropriate as a moan under those circumstances.

"The two main forms of the aurora are the discrete and the diffuse, though..."

It was easy for him to talk. It was easy for Blitz to listen. That was all it had to be, Blitz' cheeks warm with more than simply the closeness of the owl.

Maybe it wasn't so bad, after all, that he was an imp and the owl was a Goetian, as long as he got moments like that. Moments that he did not have to admit to aloud, quietly leaning into Stolas' side and listening while the owl pointed out specific features of the natural phenomenon and the constellations that could still be seen, how the Northern Lights flickered playfully before them as if they were silent dance partners of the night sky.

Not only Blitz' first snow, that night, but his first aurora borealis. The words played around his mouth on the flick of his forked tongue, yet only time would tell if that night would bring another first for Blitz.

Whether it came or not, at least he had Stolas there with him. Blitz hid his face, tucking it down into the neck of his coat. The sneaky owl must have zipped and buttoned it up with magic when he had not been looking. The owl breathed a coo, though Blitz had not been picking out individual words, even as he listened.

Stolas...with him. Yeah. Yeah, that was okay. More than okay.

That would be enough.