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„Hey Loonie, did you take the wine bottle I bought last week?“, Blitz asked while searching the kitchen cupboards. He had been sure it was…
„Why are you always suspecting me? That´s like the third time now.“, the hell hound growled in response and looked up from scrolling through her phone.
„Who else would take it? I won´t get mad at you I promise. Just please don´t lie to me, Loonie.“, the imp responded getting his bag and approached Loona on the couch.
„Fuck you Blitz! I´m not lying! Maybe you lost it like everything else. Don´t blame me for your chaos.“, Loona growled back at him and turned away to look back at her phone.
„Whatever. I´ll just get a new one. Can you tell Stolas, I´m back in about an hour? Want to buy one of the more fancier ones for the big birdie.“, Blitz stated.
„So you´re gonna leave me alone with him again? I don´t even know what to talk with him about.“, the hell hound replied, annoyed.
„Don´t be mean, Loona. He´s still very depressed. That´s why I wanted to pamper him a little this evening. Making some nice dinner with some nice fancy wine. Just like in his palace.“, the imp replied. „If you´re not happy staying with him, you can go get the wine. Should be more fair anyway, don´t you think?“
Loona rolled her eyes and groaned loudly, but then stood up from the couch and pulled the bag from the other´s hands. „You know what. I´m actually going to do that. So I don´t have to talk to you any longer. You can crawl on your knees and apologize later when you find the bottle in some weird place.”, she growled and turned towards the door to leave the apartment.
The bathroom door opened the instant Loona had shut the front door with a loud bang. Stolas had flinched at that and looked at Blitz with a confused expression. His feathers were still a little damp and Blitz tried not to stare in awe at the other. He failed.
“Hey, Stols. Sorry for that. Loona is angry at me.”, the imp explained awkwardly.
“Oh, don´t apologize. I´m actually quite used to this.”, the owl shrugged and waved one of his talons. “But why is she angry with you?”
Blitz had understood by now in what kind of household the bird had lived and how his bitch of a wife had screeched and thrown things at his bird. He was glad Stolas had possessed his magic in those days and wouldn´t be hurt seriously...but only the thought of someone trying to hurt or throw things at Stolas out of malice...it made his blood boil. He breathed and shook his head to calm the anger down.
“I accused her of drinking some of my uhhh… alcohol”, he didn´t specify to not ruin the surprise for later. “She used to take some out with her when partying, it´s nothing new. I just don´t understand why she is lying to me. She knows I wouldn´t be mad at her for something like this.”
Blitz was frowning and running his mind through possible explanations for his daughter´s behavior when he suddenly noticed Stolas shaking.
“Hey you alright, buddy?”, he asked the owl and approached him to take one of his talons into his hands.
Stolas was still very weak after loosing his powers and had not gotten used to how his body felt and moved without magic. Blitz flinched when Stolas suddenly pulled his talons away from his grip.
“Sorry, I-”, he began.
“No, Blitz. It´s alright. I just need to sit down. I feel a little dizzy. Maybe showered too long or something.”, the owl explained averting his gaze.
“Oh Stols, I don´t want to scold you about this, but you have to remember we don´t have that much hot water here. I don´t really mind, even helps me to wake up in the morning. But Loona hates it. We have to share the stuff here. I´m sorry this apartment is shit, but you have to get used to it birdie.”, Blitz explained to the other trying not sound mean or condescending. He knew Stolas had grown up vastly different and was still not used to being restricted by such things.
Stolas frowned at that and walked towards the couch that still was his bed.
“Please don´t apologize about this, Blitz. I should know that by now.”, the owl smiled sadly at him and sat down on the couch. The badly hidden sadness left the imp´s heart clenching and he decided to cheer the other up.
“Okay, let´s just switch topics. Are you hungry birdie? I have prepared a special meal for you today. I´ll go get the oven on and you can watch some TV while I´m at it?”, Blitz proposed.
Stolas gave him a blank look, but then mustered up a weak smile again. Better then nothing, Blitz thought.
“That sounds wonderful, Blitz. Thank you for taking such good care of me”, Stolas praised.
The imp felt a flush of warmth spreading though him at that and bee lined for the kitchen to hide his excitement. He really liked taking care of his bird.
---
Stolas couldn´t sleep that night. He kept on staring at the imp sleeping on the bean bag. Sleeping there because he was occupying his “bed”. He just kept on taking and taking and taking while being a useless piece of shit.
He couldn´t even hide how much he needed the alcohol by now. The happy pills had helped only so much to calm him down. He was feeling on edge most of the day. Couldn´t concentrate during work which made him a fuck-up there, too. He didn´t dare asking for Blitz to buy him more. It was selfish. He was afraid the imp would throw him out if he got to know how pathetic Stolas really was. Just a parasite leeching of him, giving nothing in return. Even if Blitz was helping him out of pity or gratitude for having saved him, there were limits to that. And Stolas didn´t want to get near them at all. A part of him, the selfish part, bathed in all the attention and care he got from the other while another just kept on screaming at him lo leave and disappear. He shook the thought off. He couldn´t do that. He needed to get Octavia back. He needed to keep living for her.
He sighed quietly and froze upon seeing yellow glowing eyes staring at him.
“Sorry, didn´t want to wake you.”, the owl whispered.
“Don´t fuss about it. Couldn´t sleep anyway. You can´t sleep either?”, the imp whispered back.
“No, I suppose not.”
“Wanna watch a movie or something?”, Blitz proposed, already getting up from his bean bag.
“I´m not sure. Shouldn´t you sleep? You need to be fit for work tomorrow”, Stolas argued weakly.
“Yeah, you too, don´t you? We´ll just watch something boring and poof! Fall asleep. It´s like magic. Had always helped me when I couldn´t sleep”. the imp stated.
Stolas smiled at that and then padded the seat next to him on the couch. “Okay, let´s do it. I´m very curious about what you deem to be boring.”
“There are lots of weird earth-TV-documentaries. These meatbags just film grass or rocks and then sell it as art. Though, the ones with horses are awesome, but I already watched most of them I think. And they would get us too excited. So grass and rocks it is.”, the imp joked and Stolas had to smirk at his use of “us” talking about the damn horses again. Blitz pressed the remote control to start the TV and then got next to Stolas on the couch. They sat apart about an arm length. It always felt awkward and Stolas found himself mostly avoiding sitting together during the last weeks. He didn´t know how close he was allowed to be even thought he found himself drawn to the comforting bodily intimacy they had shared before.
“Sounds...interesting?”, the bird replied and pulled the blanket over the two of them.
“I hope not! We wanna sleep, don´t we?”, Blitz responded but nuzzled himself into the blanket with a happy sigh.
---
Stolas woke up the next morning with a purring imp on his stomach. It felt weirdly soothing. A voice inside his head screamed he didn´t deserve this kind of softness right now. He coughed and then pretended to be asleep again. He heard a muffled grumble in response and then the weight on his body was gone. He thought so. Blitz just felt asleep on him. This didn´t mean anything.
He spend the next days at work trying to call Octavia again. Blitz had finally bought him his own phone (with Stolas promising he would pay him back someday), but his daughter still wasn´t replying. He tried one last time for the day, hope already low when suddenly the announcing-voice said the dialed number wasn´t assigned to someone anymore.
He instantly froze up, already shaking while hot panic flooded his system. No, please. This couldn´t be. It was his last straw for his sanity. He could at least pretend to reach Via like this. He stood up with wobbly legs. He couldn´t breathe. His heart felt like it was going to explode out of his chest. He just wanted that damn organ gone by now. All it did was hurt. He couldn´t take it anymore. He just wanted to stop feeling anything.
----
“Hey Stolas, I´m back home. Look what I got for you! Finally found a place that had rat tails for you to eat. We could put them on….”, Blitz froze after having put down the groceries on the kitchen board. There were at least six bottles of wine, absynth and something he couldn´t decipher...probably something even harder. He felt his stomach clench spotting Stolas laying on the couch, passed out on his stomach. He checked if the bird was breathing and then bee lined for the bathroom, slamming the door behind him in his rush. He didn´t care. Stolas wouldn´t hear anyway in his state.
He couldn´t do this again. He felt sick. He really had tried to be better. Tried to annihilate his toxic routines so no one ever would be ruined by him. Especially not Stolas. He grabbed the sink, his knuckles hurting under the pressure.
“You fucking shit piece of shit. “, he groaned and looked at himself in the mirror. He cringed at seeing his face, reminding him even more of his fuck-ups. He turned on the tap and washed his face with ice cold water. That brought him down a little. He breathed heavily and tried to calm himself down. Stolas needed help. This wasn´t the first time he Stolas had knocked himself out like this. And this explained the lost bottles over the last few weeks. Blitz knew the symptoms of addiction by heart. Did the owl know what this was? Or was he still oblivious? He had to get him into rehab or otherwise...But he did not have enough money at the moment to pay for a fucking clinic again.
“Fuck!”, he cursed again and dried his face with a bath cloth. He would just clean the mess up and he had to make sure Stolas wouldn´t choke or something. Put the bird on his side and watch him all night. He could do that. Nothing he hadn´t done before.