Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Olivia jerks awake with a gasp when she feels the hand on her shoulder, quickly lifts her head, and looks at the man standing next to her.  She had been sitting on the altar then… She was here… 

“ Principessa , you okay?” Terzo asks softly.

The blonde slowly sits up with a frown, blinking up at him in confusion. “What time is it?” She asks, clearing her throat slightly as she looks around her office. 

Terzo chuckles, reaching out and gently pulling the paper that was stuck to her face off, “Almost seven. I was coming to get the ghouls for evening mass and saw the light on and thought I heard you speaking.” He raises an eyebrow at the wide-eyed look she gives him as she looks him over. “Have you been crying?” He asks, leaning down slightly as he takes in her puffy eyes. 

“Yeah,” She mumbles, slowly looking back down at her desk, taking in the mess of files and starting to peek through them. 

Fuck I haven’t needed half of these since before the tour… What the fuck is going on? The last few months seemed like a slight blur, almost dreamlike as she thinks about it.

“What made you cry, my piccola principessa ? You can tell your Papa,” He says, making her look up and over at him again as he offers out his arms for a hug. 

Olivia blinks a few times, feeling a sense of déjà vu from this conversation but it seems to be more real than that. What was I crying about? She gives a small shrug, trying to buy herself a bit more time to think, as she stands and slowly wraps her arms around him.

“Can I take a guess?” He asks, making the blonde slowly nod as she closes her eyes and holds onto him tightly. “It was about a boy wasn’t it?” 

Instinctively she finds herself nodding, not pulling away to look at him as she feels his hand come up to play with her curls. Shit. This happened after I asked C out to coffee. “I asked him for coffee and he didn’t give me an answer. He just stared at me.” 

“He rejected your advances?” Terzo asks, sounding surprised as he looks down at her, “A pretty young woman like you should never shed a tear over a man.” He pulls back out of the hug slightly to get her to look up at him. 

She slowly complies, letting him bring his hand to her chin and tip it upwards to make eye contact with him. “I’m sure he will give you an answer soon. Either way, you will always be welcome in my arms,” He says, sliding his other hand down to grip her hip. 

Fuck I forgot how much of a flirt he was before he gets with Sydney… She laughs softly as her eyes dart away from him, fully processing that thought for a second before speaking. “I’ll remember that. Thank you,” She says softly as he hums. 

“Good good. Now go home and relax. Papa’s orders,” He tucks a stray curl behind her ear before kissing her cheek and letting her go. 

Fuck, home. I haven’t seen my apartment since… well since the prime mover shit came out. 

“Yes, Papa,” She murmurs, moving to grab her bag and walk out of the office with him. 

“Will we be seeing you this weekend?” He asks, stepping out into the hallway as she turns off the lights in the archive.

“Yes. Sydney and I will be here for midnight mass if that’s still okay with you,” She says absentmindedly as they head towards the stairs. She could work off of muscle memory for a while.

“That is wonderful. I’m sure everyone will be just as excited as I am for you to join our congregation,” Terzo smiles, taking her hand in his to kiss the back of it. “We’ll see you then,” He says before continuing past the stairs into the dark side of the hallway, leaving her to walk out alone. 

Olivia felt insane. 

She hadn’t broken out the thumbtacks and note cards since college. Not since she was neck-deep in research for her independent study. She brings a hand up to rub her forehead as she scans over the important moments she had scribbled down. Everything seemed too real to just be a dream , she can’t help but think as her eyes linger on the neon note card with ‘Imperator = Scary bitch’ written on it. 

She had thought it was a full dream, even after she had made it back to her apartment. If it hadn’t been for the mark on her ribs still being there, she would have been eager to dismiss it but the small breakdown on her bedroom floor over the mark had led to this. 

“What the fuck?” She mumbles, shifting in her place and sitting on the edge of the coffee table. “What the fuck am I doing?” 

‘End game?’ Olivia’s eyes drift over towards the other neon card as she stands. Not getting kidnapped and tortured would be nice… I can do this. 

She lets out a sigh as her phone vibrates in her pocket, taking a moment to pull it out and scan over the text.

Syd:

Hiya, can’t wait for tomorrow! I’m so fucking excited. I’ll be over around 9 to get ready at yours then we can ride over together. 

Olivia lets out a small curse, quickly replying before looking back up at the mess on her living room wall. “Fuck,” She mumbles. I’m gonna need to cover this up somehow…

Olivia lets out a small sigh as she climbs out of Sydney’s Jetta, mumbling a soft curse as she tugs at the hem of her dress. She stares over at the looming ministry, dread creeping in slightly at the thought of being stuck in a room with Imperator so close. 

“Syd, you look good. I’m sure Papa will love you even if you’re in a paper bag,” She says, turning to watch Sydney straighten back up and adjust her cleavage. 

“What’s up with you tonight? You know I love dressing up for things like this,” The redhead says, locking the car and tossing her keys into her purse as the two start walking towards the entrance. 

“I just don’t want Sister finding a reason to put my head on a spike,” Olivia mumbles, taking Sydney’s arm as the two walk up the front steps. “I just don’t want to be late.” 

The pair enter the front doors and spot all the siblings heading into the nave. “See, just in time,” Sydney murmurs, pulling Olivia along to join them. 

Olivia instinctively leads Sydney over to the empty pew at the back of the nave. The blonde sits down slowly on the inside of the pew, vaguely remembering how well Sydney hit it off with the Sister who joined them. 

“Ah, Olivia,” Sister Imperator’s voice makes Olivia jump slightly, the blonde quickly standing and turning to look at her. “Glad to see you’re joining us this evening,” The smile Imperator has on feels wrong to Olivia like the older woman was silently judging the pair of them. 

Sydney stands and nods slightly to Imperator with a smile. “Thank you for letting us attend,” Olivia forces herself to say, putting on a bright smile for the woman. Act normal for fucks sake. “Sydney and I were very excited when Papa Terzo said we could attend.”

The older woman nods, eyes narrowing slightly at Olivia before mumbling a good evening to them and heading up the aisle toward the main altar. Olivia waits a bit longer than Sydney before sitting down, crossing her ankles in her black sneakers. The redhead scans the room while Olivia smiles politely at the siblings who look over at them. 

“Oh, I got an extra surprise for you,” Olivia whispers, leaning over towards her friend as a sister sits down next to Sydney. The redhead hums, looking over at the blonde with a smile and a raised eyebrow. “This is the same ministry that runs Ghost,” She whispers, watching as her friend gasps and looks around with wide eyes. 

“No… what?” Sydney asks a bit louder than a whisper, an excited smile appearing. The Sister sitting next to Sydney giggles softly at her reaction, causing the redhead to look at her. The pair seem to eagerly start talking as Olivia looks back up towards the altar and spots Imperator staring at her in between chatting with a few of the male siblings. 

Once everyone was settled and the room was silent there was the soft swell of music and everyone turned to watch as the Cardinals carrying thuribles entered first, filling the room with the soft scent of incense. Olivia’s eyes instantly found Copia, walking slightly behind the other four, and she couldn’t help but focus on him fully. It feels like I haven’t seen him in forever. She offered a small smile as his eyes settled on her, watching as his lip twitched into a smile for a second before he looked away. 

Next came Papa Nihil, escorted by two children dragging his oxygen tank along that Olivia was sure were the creepy pair she had seen in the hallway that one time. While Primo and Secondo are entering, the blonde scans over the rest of the nave and smiles over at the ghouls standing between the columns. 

Once Nihil, Primo, and Secondo were settled in their seats behind the altar, everyone around them stood and Sydney and Olivia quickly followed suit, turning to watch as Terzo began his walk up the aisle in his full robes and miter. Olivia glances over at Sydney when she feels her grab her arm and lets out a small gasp, chuckling softly at the star-struck look on the girl's face.

The after-communion conversation had been awkward for Olivia to say the least, but not as bad as the walk back to Copia’s room. She closes the door behind her as she watches him turn on a lamp and light his candles. She looks away to scan the room as she takes a seat on his loveseat, bringing a hand up to run through her hair. 

“Wine?” Copia asks as he pulls his biretta off and pulls open his closet. Olivia looks back over at him and smiles, meeting his eyes as she crosses her legs and rests her hands on one of her knees. 

“Sure,” She murmurs, letting her eyes playfully drift over him, biting her lip to hide the laugh as he gets flustered and looks over before pulling out wine and two glasses. She watches him bend over, humming softly at the sight of his ass in the black slacks. 

“Red okay?” Copia asks softly. He snags a corkscrew and moves to join her on the other side of the loveseat, setting down everything the bottle and glasses on the coffee table before starting to uncork the bottle.

“Red sounds lovely,” She says, scooting closer to him as he pours, remembering that Copias’s wine taste was surprisingly good. She takes the glass with a small smile as he holds one out to her. She sips from the glass and lets out a content sigh as she makes eye contact with him.

“Is it okay?” He asks softly, humming happily as she nods eagerly. 

He pours himself a glass and leans back into the corner of the love seat and starts to sip at his glass. 

How the fuck am I supposed to sit here and pretend like I don’t know that he’s just an adorable dumbass. She sips at her wine for a moment before setting down the glass and starting to tie up her hair. She can’t help the smile that appears as he watches her over the rim of his glass. 

“So a church band,” She teases with a laugh, “The instruments in the archive make sense now.”

Copia swallows the sip he had taken, chuckling, “I guess we never explained what happens on tour.” 

No, you fucking didn’t. But this time I read the fucking binder. “I’m teasing. I read the welcome binder. Despite the tiny print. It was a real struggle to get through it.”

“That took me three drafts to get approved by Sister Imperator,” He teases back, relaxing more as he finishes his glass of wine. “Small print,” He chuckles, shaking his head as he sets his wine glass on the side table. 

“I don’t mean to offend, Cardinal,” Olivia says, putting on a small sly smile as she moves closer to him. Fuck it. Things would go easier if we just kissed now. I know you like me. Just let me sit in your lap and kiss you. She watches his eyes dart over her face before humming softly, moving to rest her hand on his arm. “I know you worked hard on it, really.”

“You shouldn’t tease an old man like this, amore, ” He whispers after a second, a blush appearing as he leans forward to grab the wine bottle and refill their glasses. 

“…C. You never did answer my question,” Olivia says, toeing off her sneakers before coming to kneel next to him on the loveseat. She sees the thoughts rushing through Copia’s head and gives his arm a squeeze. 

“I’m much too old for you, amore ,” He whispers, running a hand through his hair before resting a hand on hers. 

“I’ve sat in the laps of men older than you,” She whispers back, leaning in closer to him, a smirk appearing as he blushes hard and looks at her amused. “Do you not like me?” 

He stumbles over his words for a moment before smiling, “You’re very beautiful… you could have any man you wished, it would be unfair for me to keep you all to myself.” 

“I’d let you share me,” She mumbles, leaning in closer to him, “But I might be greedy and keep you to myself. Shouldn’t you be encouraging my sins, Cardinal Copia?” 

He seems to choke on the breath he takes, sputtering as she sits back onto her heels. One of his hands moves to rest on her bare knee before slowly drifting up it. “You want an old man like me?” He asks, gloved hand squeezing her thigh as he shifts to face her better. 

“I do, yes,” She says, leaning in closer to him, as she rests her hand on his before moving to straddle him. “Do you want me?” 

He lets out a groan as she sits herself in his lap, eyes making contact with hers as he nods slowly. Her hands move to his shoulders, leaning in more eyes darting down to look at his lips for a second before closing the gap between them. She lets out a soft moan as his hands slide up her thighs and squeeze them. Her hands drift down to the buttons of his dress shirt, starting to unbutton them as she pulls out of the kiss to smile at him. 

Fuck taking my time like my last run-through. I’m going to enjoy everything I can while I have a chance.

Chapter Text

Olivia steps out into the hall, glancing back into the room, she can somewhat see Copia’s back as he is getting ready for the day. She can’t help but smile as she leans against the doorway for a moment, watching his hands carefully tuck his dress shirt into his slacks. 

A door opens further down the hall and Olivia can hear the soft laughter of Sydney and Terzo, causing the blonde to step away and fully close the door. I guess I was too disappointed last time to notice how much of a mess Syd looks right now. Olivia laughs softly to herself as she walks down the hall towards them. 

“Cardi gave you socks to wear?” Sydney asks when she notices her friend, shifting her heels into one hand to point at the fruit-themed socks Olivia is wearing. “They’re cute.”

Somethings, Olivia supposed, are a universal constant. She had found it amusing that he had tossed her the same fun pair of socks after hers disappeared the night before. “Yeah,” She chuckles, looking down at where they appeared over the top of her sneakers. “Good morning, Papa.”

“Good morning, principessa ,” Terzo smiles at her. Olivia once again couldn’t help but find it amusing that neither of them thought to remove the smeared gray mess of makeup covering them before exiting Terzo’s apartment. “You and the Cardinale have a fun night?” He asks.

Olivia can’t help the smile that appears, looking up at him and winking. “I don’t kiss and tell Papa.” 

Sydney and Terzo laugh, the redhead moving to give him another kiss as she whispers her goodbyes. The blonde watched as Sydney went through her pouting routine and Terzo slapped her ass.

The entire walk to Sydney’s car was an interrogation. Olivia couldn’t help but be amused as Sydney attempted to trade her stories about Terzo the night before for her Copia interaction. 

Copia looks up at his office door when he hears the soft before Terzo pops his head in with a sly grin. 

“I hear congratulations are in order,” The older man says, making his way over to sit in one of the chairs in front of Copia’s desk. 

Instantly Copia feels his face heat as he plays with the pen in his hands, “I don’t know what you mean…”

Terzo lets out an amused huff, rolling his eyes as he relaxed back into his chair. “I’m talking about you and your little archivist,” He teases. “If she’s any good as her friend, I’m sure you two had a very enjoyable night indeed.” 

The Cardinal hums softly, nodding as he looks back down at his desk again. “It was like she knew everything about me already,” He mumbles, frowning softly. 

“Surely not all,” Terzo teases, “You’ve only known each other for a few weeks, right?” 

Copia nods, setting his pen down and looking up at Terzo again, “Did her friend mention anything about Olivia having scars or embarrassing tattoos?” He asks, watching as the Papa frowns.

“No, she didn’t. Only mentioned that Olivia went with her to get hers done, the beautiful one on her arm by the way,” Terzo trails off for a moment before tilting his head slightly. “Why?” 

“She might just be shy about her body then,” Copia mumbles, shaking his head as he leans back and thinks. “She refused to get undressed with the lights on, and wouldn’t really say why.”

Terzo shrugs, “She’s been off since I found her asleep at her desk. She got turned down last week.” 

The younger man feels himself stiffen, What did she tell you, Terzo? What do you know that I don’t?  

“Either way, make sure this, ” Terzo motions vaguely at Copia for a moment, “Doesn’t get in the way of this tour. I know I’m the last person who needs to ride your ass about this, but this tour cannot fail. For everyone’s sake.” 

Copia nods and lets out a small sigh at the look on Terzo’s face, watching the other man stand and pat his desk before heading toward the door. “You are about to be traveling with her for a while and I’ve heard the ghouls are very fond of her. Just be careful, yes?” 

Terzo looks back at him as he pulls open the door, watching Copia nod for a second before smiling brightly, “Good. Grazie . May you two enjoy the passion of the flesh.”

Things were different this time. Copia seemed more comfortable around her, walking her to her office and having lunch with her on days when he had time, and she started to spend the night on weekends after mass. Despite the constant offers for her to move in from Imperator, Olivia was doing her best to avoid the topic. 

She spent the first week working on everything for the tour, all of the prep work, list of relics, supply lists and budgets, and display layouts. It was easier to get all of it done in one sitting and slowly send it to Imperator for approval. 

It was one of her rare free moments after a meeting before the end of her work day, but she knew she couldn’t leave too early and risk someone telling Imperator that she was slacking off. 

Olivia was sitting in the archives in her desk chair. She lets out a small sigh, leaning back and crossing her ankles onto a clear section of her desk. She adjusts the over-ear headphones she had decided to invest in, vaguely remembering that her old earbuds were one drop away from dying anyway, and crosses her arms as she closes her eyes. 

Olivia gets a few moments of peace before she feels a hand gently wrapping around her ankle, and lets out a panicked scream, eyes instantly opening as she instinctively kicks the person. 

“Woah there, Liv,” Swiss says, pulling back his hand as Olivia pulls her headphones down around her neck. “Didn’t mean to scare you. Thought you heard me come in.” 

The blonde can’t help the breathy laugh that escapes as she sits up, “Sorry Swiss. What’s up?” She smiles at the ghoul, settling her feet back on the floor as she looks up at him. 

He seems to frown softly, eyes digging into her for a few moments too long. “Are you okay?” He asks softly after a few moments of silence. “You have a different glow to you.” 

She watches his tail flick curiously as he leans in closer to her face. “I’m fine,” She says quickly, giving him a confused smile as her head tilts. “A different glow?”

Swiss nods, stepping around the desk to get closer to her and taking a deep breath, “You smell different too… Have you been doing magic with the boss lately?” 

Olivia can’t help the confused laughter that escapes her as she moves to stand, “Magic?” She pulls her headphones off and tosses them onto her desk as she snags her phone. “What do you mean magic?” I haven’t been doing any, but I guess keeps fucking happening to me. Surprised it took that long for them to notice… then again I have been running around for the last few weeks. 

“Like sex magic.” Olivia can’t help the laughter that escapes as he continues. “Phil said you’ve been acting weird in meetings with Sister Imperator. Twitchy. Running out of the room after she dismisses you,” He says, following her around the desk and out into the main archives. 

Olivia gives a shrug, looking back at him with a smile as she motions over towards the collection of boxes on one of the back tables. “She makes me nervous that's all.” 

“Did she say something to you?” Swiss asks, glancing over towards the door to the hall where some of the other ghouls were standing. “Phil was worried.” 

Olivia looks over towards the doorway with him, moving to sit on one of the stools by the main table as she watches the ghouls come in to stand around her. She spots Aether’s eyes narrowing and looks over at him with a confused smile, “What?” She lets out a nervous laugh. “I don’t mean to worry anyone, it’s nothing important.” 

“What have you seen Liv?” He asks after a moment, stepping forward and closer to her. His eyes seem to glow slightly as she locks eyes with him, causing the blonde to stumble over her words for a moment as she straightens up in her spot. 

“Seen? I don’t know what you mean,” She manages, a small frown appearing as she shifts uncomfortably with all of the eyes on her. She spots Sodo and Rain glancing at each other with small frowns. 

“You’re hiding something from us,” Mountain says, leaning his hip against the workbench as he looks down at her. 

“We can hear when you lie,” Sodo says, causing the blonde to let out a sigh as she stands. 

“I know. I know,” She mumbles, taking a deep breath as she runs a hand through her hair. Phrase it like odd dreams. That worked okay-ish the first time. “I’ve just been having odd dreams lately. That’s all. I guess I haven’t been sleeping well.”

The ghouls seem to all look around at each other, pondering her words for a moment and chattering to each other in ghoulish, before looking at her again. “We’re taking you home,” Swiss announces, simply stepping closer to her and scooping her up into his arms. 

“What?” She says quickly, arms moving to wrap around Swiss’s neck as he shifts her in his arms. She watches as Rain grabs her backpack and starts hunting around in it for her keys. 

“We’re taking you home,” Mountain says, heading towards the door with Swiss. Olivia lets out a confused noise as she looks around at all of them, watching as Sodo practically sprints out and disappears up the stairs ahead of them. 

“But I still have an hour on my shift,” She protests, squirming slightly in his arms. “I don’t want you guys to drive to my apartment just to drop me off. It doesn’t make sense.” 

“We’re going to stay and make sure you actually get some sleep,” Aether says as Rain laughs. 

Fuck. Fuck. They’re gonna go through my apartment. Noisy bastards. She looks over at Rain with wide eyes, watching the water ghoul wave her keys in the air with a smile. “I’m not getting out of you guys coming over, even if I agree to go home at this point am I?” She asks softly. Did I cover the notecards? Fuck. They’re going to just burst in. Fuck me if they see it they’ll have so many questions. 

“Nope,” Rain practically sings. Olivia looks between Aether and Swiss with wide eyes, watching as the two smile down at her and begin to head up the stairs. 

“Don’t worry. I’ll drive,” Aether says, reaching forward to take Olivia’s keys out of Rain’s hands. 

“Don’t you guys have mass?” She mumbles as they reach the top of the stairs, one last try to get out of this, silently hoping that she had mixed up which day of the week it was. “And I’ll drive. I don’t trust any of you to drive stick to my place.”

“Nope,” Sodo says cheerfully, rejoining the group and taking Rain’s hand. “It’s Thursday, Livie. You should know it’s one of our nights off.” 

Olivia lets out a soft curse, leaning her head against Swiss’s chest, causing the ghouls around her to start laughing. 

“Bossman said it was cool if we go. He and the girls might swing by later tonight after the clergy meetings,” Sodo seems to be practically bouncing as he turns back to smile at the rest of them. 

They head down the steps, Aether clicking the lock button on her key fob to find her car. All of them pause as her car beeps and the lights flash. 

“The fuck is that?” Rain asks, pointing over at the holographic Honda across the street. 

“It’s a type R Civic,” Olivia says, patting Swiss’s chest as he slowly sets her on her feet. “My daddy bought it for me during my sophomore year. He wouldn’t let me wrap it in the pink holo I wanted so purple multichrome it was,” She says, pulling the keys out Aether’s hand and starting to walk towards her car. “It’ll be a tight squeeze. Mount gets shotgun.”

She unlocks the car and pulls open the driver's door, turning back to look at the group lingering on the sidewalk across the street. The group of ghouls seems to stare at her and the car in confusion, causing her to tilt her head. “If you want to come get in the car. We can do pizza and movies tonight if you want. You guys just have to give me a minute to straighten up my apartment first.” 

Slowly the ghouls start to walk over to join her, making the blonde hum softly to herself as she slides into the driver’s seat and unlocks the other doors. She’s in the middle of doing up her seatbelt when the passenger doors open and the ghouls squish in. Rain tosses her backpack over the back seat into the cargo area as Olivia pulls her door shut and looks over at Mountian who is sitting with his head slightly tipped to one side. The earth ghoul seems to struggle with the race seatbelts she had for a moment before letting her help him. 

Wordlessly, Olivia starts the car and glances over the four ghouls squished into the back seat as she opens the sunroof. Mountain whispers a soft thank you, straightening his head as he adjusts in his seat. She smiles over at the ghoul sitting shotgun and nods, shifting as she pulls her phone out of her pocket and starts up her music on Bluetooth. 

“ Ladies and gentlemen of the congregation. This is Pope Gravy. Please put your hands together for Pastor Baby ,” The music starts thumping as the blonde sets her phone in the cupholder and puts on her sunglasses. 

“What the fuck is this?” Sodo asks from his spot in Rain’s lap, leaning forward to pop his head in between the front seats. 

“You’ll see. I think you’ll enjoy this,” She laughs, pulling out of the parking spot and starting down the street. 

“ Smoking marijuana. Deliver her banana. Take a few hits then I'm reaching my nirvana. ”

Olivia can’t help but turn it up as she drives, enjoying the confused looks on their face as bops along to the music. 

The Yung Gravy song fades into a synth-pop song, making Aether and Swiss look at each other for a moment as Olivia starts to merge them onto the main road to get them across town. 

“We know this one,” Sodo says excitedly once the vocals start, causing Olivia to laugh and nod as the group starts singing along to the original It’s a Sin by the Pet Shop Boys as the multichrome Civic cruises down the road. 

Olivia closes her eyes, curled up between Sodo and Swiss on her couch as a movie plays softly on the TV. 

“Liv?” Aether asks softly from somewhere above her, causing the blonde to hum softly for him to continue. “What the fuck is this to-do list?” 

Olivia’s eyes quickly open, scrambling to sit up and try to get the note from him. “It’s nothing.”

“Number one,” He starts, taking a step back as the others grab hold of her. “Fuck Copia. That one is checked off. Two, think about sleeping with Secondo if Copia is cool with it. Three, let the boys buy rope sooner?” 

Olivia blushes, nervously laughing as she looks around at all of them. “What is everyone’s chance of forgetting that?” 

“Not a snowball’s chance in hell,” Sodo says excitedly, sliding his hand up her thigh. “What’s this about rope?” 

Chapter Text

“Livie has been having dreams,” Sodo whispers from his place on Olivia’s couch with the blonde’s head resting on his chest, her hands tucked in between their bodies. Mountain was dozing behind him, arms wrapped around both the fire ghoul and the blonde. The TV was still softly playing in the background, some science fiction movie channel that Aether had changed it to after the last movie had ended.

“Humans dream,” Copia finds himself saying with a small shrug, looking up from the book he had snagged off her coffee table. It was a book on prophecies, something that seemed very out of place with the young woman’s history books. “What about them?” He turns to look at the ghoul from his spot on the other end of the couch, the blonde’s sock-covered feet resting in his lap. 

The fire ghoul lets out a soft hum, picking up his head from the earth ghoul’s chest to look over at the Cardinal. “They’ve been keeping her up at night apparently. Making her jumpy around us.”

The pair glance down at the blonde who was starting to softly mumble something in her sleep, watching in silence for a moment as she jerks slightly and buries her face into Sodo’s shirt.

“I’ll ask her about them,” Copia says softly, nodding as he rests a hand on her ankle and smooths his thumb over the bare skin between her pajama pants and her socks. 

Sodo hums and nods, smiling at Copia as he settles back against Mountain. The others had retreated into Olivia’s room, the ghoulettes and Aether were unwilling to squish themselves onto the tiny couch or the armchair with them, choosing to make themselves comfortable in the blonde’s bed since she wasn’t using it. 

“We tried asking,” Swiss mumbles from his spot in the armchair next to the window. He was curled up with Rain, who had fallen asleep when it had started to storm outside. “But she’s very good at dodging questions.” 

Copia looks over towards Swiss with a confused frown, “Olivia?” He turns to look back at the blonde curled up on the other end of the couch at the affirmative hum the multi-ghoul lets out. “That’s unlike her.” 

She had been acting very out of sorts lately. Copia looks back down at the History of Prophecy book in his hands, flipping through the pages and noticing the small notes she had scribbled in the margins. He stops when a notecard slips free and lands in his lap. 

‘Why did he have to choose me for this?’ Was written on the neon notecard, followed by the worst attempt at writing in Italian that he had ever seen.

Copia sighs sadly looking down at the card, reading over it a few times before looking back over towards the blonde. Clearly, she has a reason for trying to write this down. If only this made sense, maybe I could help her more.

“Olivia, darling girl, I think we need to talk,” A male voice says behind her. She was standing in a library, reaching for a book when the voice startled her and caused her to turn and look.

“Lucifer,” She whispers, letting her arm come back down to rest at her side. 

He nods, smiling at her as he offers out his arm for her to take. “Sorry to let you just relive things for so long, I would have had a chat with you earlier but I’ve been a bit busy with the main timeline.” 

Olivia frowns in confusion, slowly taking his arm as she thinks. That right there is a rather Doctor Who like statement. I didn’t sign up for that shit. She nods slowly as he begins to lead her through the rows of books.

“I know you're thinking that you didn’t sign up for any of this but, I couldn’t stand the thought of how broken you were after your capture,” He says, hand coming to rest over hers. She nods slowly, enjoying the warmth that seems to come off of him. “I picked you for your spark and they beat that out of you. So I took over at a prime opportunity to yell at them and kinda fried your brain with that one.”

“What?” Olivia’s eyes widen as she stares up at him.

“Yeah, sorry about that. After that, I knew I couldn’t just leave you brain-dead in that bed for a few months so I did a little miracle to send you back to a point where you could change everything. I thought about just miracling you okay but that didn’t seem like much fun.” He seems to hum for a second before shrugging, “I actually did both so I get to see both outcomes just for laughs.” 

“You fried my brain…” The blonde comes to a stop in the doorway of the ministry library, eyes drifting down to the floor as the reality of what he was telling her starts to sink in. “Wait…how do I know this isn’t just me brain-dead in a coma dream?” 

“That’s really what you want to ask right now Olivia? Not how I moved your consciousness from the future to the past?” He asks, frowning as he stares at her in disbelief. “I mean I guess you can’t disprove it. Look point is, that this gives you a chance to do everything differently and avoid getting snatched for not being excited enough to be the prime mover. You also give me a chance to take Imperator out of power sooner. It’s a win-win.”

She’s quiet for a few moments, slowly looking back up at him, “Are you still going to possess me and talk to everyone through me or will I need to learn Italian?”

Lucifer can’t help but start to laugh. “Darling, this time I think I’m going to leave you be the one to figure that out.”

They were on to her. It felt like somehow they knew and they were going to do everything they could to get it out of her. For all she knew, the moment after she had fallen asleep curled with some of the boys on the couch, the others searched her apartment. 

I should have known better than to let my guard down like that… But Sodo was just so warm and comfortable. I slept so well that he was able to speak with me… win some and lose some I guess.

She mumbles a soft curse to herself as she practically rushes out of the archives after finishing for the day, deciding to leave before any of the ghouls can come back to try and pull more information from her.

Olivia makes it up the stairs onto the main level, shifting her backpack on her shoulder, only to freeze as two sets of eyes turn to look at her. 

These fucking kids again. The blonde’s eyes narrow as she glances between the twins standing barefoot in the hallway. The pair go to open their mouths to speak to her, but the blonde shakes her head and moves to head down a different hall away from them. 

“Fuck that,” She mumbles. “Should have asked him about the twins instead.”

After heading out one of the doors leading outside, the blonde lays herself down in the grass in the gardens, choosing to soak in every moment of the space before they leave for the tour. It would only be a matter of time before they wouldn’t let her go anywhere unaccompanied or before she’d get kidnapped while just lying out in the grass. 

She had the urge to rush into Copia’s office and just come clean to everything. Would that put him in danger? What if I’m changing things too fast? What if I get them killed because I’m not being careful enough?

She opens her eyes and stares up at the sky for a few moments, almost like she is trying to get answers from the clouds. Olivia’s eyes widen as she slowly sits up and a smile appears on her face. This is going to be the most bullshit thing I have ever done.

Olivia stares at herself in the mirror in her bedroom. She turns back and forth, hands fidgeting with the slits on the skirt and the belt around her waist. She had managed to ‘borrow’ one of the Sisters of Sin’s habits from one of the storage closets. 

She chews her lip turning to look over the back of the outfit, hands moving to pull at the laces on the corset back, and plays with them. All things considered, she thought she looked pretty good in it. 

It makes me more anonymous. Just some sister with a gift of visions. She sighs, turning back to face the mirror, her hands playing with the veil for a few seconds as she adjusts the inner purple layer. Olivia finds herself wishing that the inside is blue rather than purple for a moment, deciding that this shade looks better on Sydney than her. 

She lets her hands fall to her sides, fingers curling in the black fabric of the dress. She lets her eyes drift up to where she had taped up the confessional schedule. Now I just have to pick a Papa…

Primo sighs, shifting in his spot in the confessional, as he gently pulls more length of yarn out of the bag at his feet. 

Most siblings choose to confess to a younger Papa, in their minds they were more likely to be invited into the other side for extra ‘blessings’, so he would bring his ‘old man’ hobbies along with him to keep busy. Secondo and Terzo had made fun of him when he would show them his creations, but they still wore the horribly made sweaters every year on the first day of Yule. Even Copia had been excited when receiving his last year, choosing to wear it during his more casual days during the winters.

The only noise seemed to come from the soft clicking of his needles for the first few hours of his shift. Which made him pause when he heard the soft click of the door on the other side of the booth. 

“Papa?” A voice asks softly. “Am I too late?” She sounded somewhat familiar but Primo couldn’t place exactly which sibling it was. 

“Not at all,” He says, setting his needles into his lap and straightening up. He hears the door close before the young woman sighs and takes a seat. “Feel free to start whenever you’re ready.” He can faintly make out the shape of her head through the lattice.

“Bless me Papa for I have sinned,” She says with the uncertainty that the younger siblings always had during their first confessions.

“Which sins my child?” Primo shifts again, picking up his needles and starting to work again, falling into the easy motions of knitting two and purling two.

“Well… I don’t know what they are Papa. I’ve started to have dreams. Visions maybe.” 

Primo frowns at the unsure tone in her voice. “Visions?” He asks, “Of what?”

“Cardinal Copia,” She says softly. He glances over towards the lattice and thinks he can see her turn to look over. “I had a vision of his hands on my skin.”

“Lust is a normal thing and not all sexual dreams are visions, my child.”

“But when his hand touched my ribs it burned… and when I woke there was a mark, Papa. It looks almost like three sixs looped together at the base, blooming out like a flower.” She sounds close to tears. “I see us standing at the front of the nave, hands bound together as the clergy gathers around us. Sometimes he’s standing above me while hands hold me down on the altar.”

Primo finds himself lost for words, not sure what to say to the sister on the other side of the booth. Poor Olivia. It sounds like this sister is supposed to be Copia’s prime mover…

When Primo finally opens his mouth to speak again, she decides to speak. “I dream of death too, Papa. The panic in the ministry halls as three deaths are announced. Your bodies in glass coffins and no matter how hard I try to wake you all none of you move.” She lets out a soft-sounding sniffle and he sees the shadow of her hand come up to touch her face. “She takes you on tour with the Ghost Project.”

“Who does?” He asks, needles fully discarded in his lap, and he tries to prepare himself for the answer. It’s not something Olivia would do…probably Imperator…

“Sister…” She whispers, moving closer to the lattice, “Please Papa. Be careful of who you trust… She has spies everywhere.”

He couldn’t help but hum in agreement, thinking of the siblings who seemed to constantly be rushing to and from Imperator’s office at all times. “I will…” He starts, pausing for a moment before letting out a sigh, “Are there any other topics you wish to speak about?” 

“ He has been coming into my dreams.” 

Oh for fucks sake. He gives a random sister visions of the future and comes into her dreams for a chat, she must be extra special then.

“Oh?” He can’t help but sound surprised. “What has he been telling you, if I might ask.”

“ He said he chose me for Cardinal Copia. That I’m special but I don’t feel special. I’m just… well I’m a new convert. It just feels wrong that I’m being showered in his blessings and I haven’t been a member of the order for that long.”

“Our dark lord works in mysterious ways. We may not know exactly why he’s doing such things but we just need to believe that he is looking out for his followers.”

She lets out what sounds like a relieved sigh and he watches her head fall forward as her hands rise to cover her face. 

“Sister,” Primo says softly, turning away from the lattice to look at the back of the door. “I normally would never ask this, as it violates the rules of confession but may I speak with my brothers about this?” 

The silence seems to drag on for a long few moments before she lets out a soft hum. “Of course, Papa,” She says, voice muffled by her hands. “Please. I don’t know if I would be brave enough to speak to them about this.” 

“Anything for a member of my flock,” He says, trying to keep his voice gentle as she starts to pull herself together. 

She seems to hum softly as she struggles with what to say next. He can’t help the small frown that appears as she says the phrase needed to end her session. “I am truly not sorry for my sins.”

“Give thanks to our dark lord for he guides us through the darkness,” He folds his hands in his lap, trying to memorize her outline through the lattice. 

“His influence leads temptation,” She shifts in her spot, clearly getting ready to stand and leave.

“You honor him with your sins.” He hopes these words comfort her in some way that his others couldn’t. She stands and he hears the latch on the other door rattle for a second.

“Thanks be to our master for providing such pleasures,” The words seem to spill out of her mouth before she quickly slips out the door of the confessional and he hears her rushing footsteps echoing across the stone floor of the nave. 

Primo can’t help himself, standing quickly and pulling open his door to the confessional, just in time to watch as the sister gets to the end of the pews and rushes out the doors into the hall. He lets out a sigh, silently wondering how he was going to bring this up with his brothers.

Poor Olivia, she just started to feel comfortable in her relationship with Copia. Now she’ll be forced to share him with the prime mover he chose for Copi. Hopefully, they can get along together for Copia’s sake.

He stands there for a few moments before moving to carefully pick up his project that had slid off his lap and onto the floor, promptly deciding that he was done with confession for the night. Meeting with his brothers seemed to be the most important thing he could do with the rest of his evening.

Primo sits in his armchair by his fireplace, glass with a dark bourbon on the rocks in one hand as he looks over at his brothers who had pulled themselves away from what they were doing to join him. 

“We’re all here,” Terzo sighs, rolling his eyes as he crosses his arms and leans back. He seemed to be only dressed in a robe and paints smeared across his face and down his neck, which had instantly alerted Primo and Secondo to what their younger brother had been up to. “I have a very beautiful woman awaiting my return.” 

“Not yet,” Primo shakes his head slightly, taking a sip of his drink as Secondo finishes pouring himself something and takes a seat in the other armchair across from him. “I will not be repeating myself tonight.” 

There's a soft knock on the door before Copia slips into the apartment, causing the three brothers to turn and look at him. He mumbles a soft apology as he hurries over and has a seat on the couch next to Terzo. 

“Now that we are all here,” Primo sighs, bringing a hand up to rub at his temple as his eyes scan over his brothers. “I have gotten her permission to speak about this with you all, but these words go no further than us. Understood.” 

“Was confession that good?” Terzo huffs, “Could this not have waited until morning?” 

“No. One of our newest Sisters has been receiving vivid visions,” Primo says, looking back down at his drink as Secondo lets out a soft scoff. 

“Her and every new sibling that is vying for attention,” He huffs, rolling his eyes as he brings his glass up to sip.

“Normally I would have said this but she claims that she has been marked.” Primo swirls his glass, staring down at the ice as it slowly rotates through his drink. “It appeared after a vision involving Cardinal Copia touching her bare skin. She sees them standing at the altar in the nave, hands bound together as clergy surround them.” He hears Copia take in a sharp breath and looks over towards him.

“Me? But I am not a Papa and am not of the bloodline, I cannot earn a divined prime mover,” The Cardinal says quickly, looking at Primo with wide eyes. “I have amore mio .”

Terzo lets out a soft laugh, shaking his head, “You will be Papa the moment the dickhead drops dead.” Copia looks over at Terzo with wide eyes, clearly struggling with what to say next.

Primo clears his throat, “And I have a very firm suspicion that you are just as much of an Emeritus as the rest of us.” He offers Copia a weak smile when the youngest man looks over at him with wide eyes. “You’ll just need to figure out a way to keep both of them happy, Olivia and the Sister that is.” 

“We’re there any other visions or did you really just call all of us here to announce that Cardi here is going to have two girls in his bed every night?” Secondo asks eyebrow raised as he brings his glass up to take another sip.

“She’s also foreseen our deaths and Copia’s assent from what she told me.” Primo takes a large sip from his glass. “She seemed very insistent that Imperator could not be trusted.” 

Chapter Text

“ Amore, ” Copia whispers. They were curled up in bed at her apartment and he found himself awake as the sun began to rise over the horizon. 

It was the first time Olivia had let him stay over on his own. The first time he had ever been able to pleasure her with the lights on. He had seen how uncomfortable she was about removing her shirt and regretted pushing her when she rushed off into her bathroom only to return naked with a large bandage hastily pressed over something on her ribs. 

He presses a soft kiss to the top of her shoulder. The blonde hums softly in her sleep, leaning back against his chest. Copia can’t help but smile softly, letting his hand drift up her bare side, shifting his head as he looks over her form in the light peeking in through the curtains.  

“I love you,” He whispers, pressing another kiss to her shoulder before moving to slip out of bed, not wanting to disturb her too much. The blonde seems to hum happily in her sleep, curling up more around the pillow she had next to her. Copia gently kisses the top of her head as he tucks the covers around her. I shouldn’t get too attached to her. She’ll leave once she finds out about my apparent prime mover. She shouldn’t have to put up with me splitting my affections.  

He lets out a soft sigh as he slips out of the room, closing the door behind him with a soft click. His eyes scan over the living room for a moment taking in the quiet space before making his way back over to the couch and having a seat. He rubs his forehead briefly before resting his elbows on his knees and pressing his fingers into his eyes. 

Copia wishes things were different. The sister seemed to only feel comfortable speaking with Primo, despite him being added onto the confessional rotation in an attempt to speak with her. He wished they had more information as to who she could be. Primo had yet to catch a glance of anything but her back, she was apparently clad in the same habit all of the other sisters wore. He lets out a soft sigh, opening his eyes and looking at the closed bedroom door. 

I’ll tell her after the tour. We can make all of the good memories we can together… Then if she wishes to leave, I won’t stop her. I love her too much to try and trap her in this horribly fucked up situation with me. He runs his hands over his face, squeezing his eyes shut as he feels an odd mix of emotions bubbling up. I should be in there holding her, but here I am breaking down on her couch in my fucking underwear. 

“C?” Olivia asks, peeking out of the bedroom door as Copia looks up again. He watches as the blonde makes her way over in just his unzipped hoodie and a pair of brightly colored underwear, rubbing at her eyes and yawning as she comes to join him on the sofa. 

“Did I wake you, amore ?” He asks, sitting up and offering out his hands to her. He smiles softly as she shakes her head no.

Olivia reaches out, taking his hand and moving to sit in his lap. Copia’s free hand slides into the opening of the hoodie letting his hand drift around her waist as he wraps his arm around her and holds her close. He lets his eyes drift down her, lingering on the edge of some kind of marking on her skin under the bandage. 

“What has you up?” She mumbles, resting her head on his shoulder as she brings a hand up to rest on his chest, thumb smoothing over his mark. 

“Just couldn’t get back to sleep,” He whispers, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “I was planning on returning to bed shortly, you didn’t have to get up.”

She lets out a soft noncommittal noise, shrugging as she turns her head to press a soft kiss against his skin. Copia lets out a soft sigh, guilt creeping back into his head about keeping things from her. He slowly leans back fully, letting Olivia curl up in his lap, and turns his head to watch the sunlight start to fill the main part of the apartment. 

When he feels Olivia’s breathing even out completely, he slowly shifts his hold on her and carries her back to bed. I’ll tell her after the tour. Sister would have our heads if it went wrong. 

He would enjoy his last few hours before they needed to be at the ministry to depart curled up around her.

The tour was mostly the same as her first time through, which made falling into the routine easy. 

Arrival at the venues in the morning. Unpacking the exhibit. Watch sound checks. Change and sit at her post. Pack up. Sleep at some point and repeat.

What was very nice was falling asleep in Copia’s arms and waking up with him still there. The ghouls were just as affectionate as before, bringing her into the center of any cuddle piles and playing with her hair. 

She knew exactly what to expect at each venue, easily working around their quirks with an ease that seemed to surprise the ghouls. To them, it probably seemed like Olivia had just planned five different layouts that worked around the random support beams or tighter spaces than they requested.

That was until they pulled into the next venue and she was informed that there wasn’t space for the display. Olivia did her best to act surprised and disappointed, even though she never bothered pulling any of her cases off the truck.

So here she was, making her way down the hall after sending her email to both Phil and Imperator. She pauses just outside of the ghoul dressing room door, pausing for a moment before laughing softly to herself. 

Maybe after I speak to C, She thinks as she remembers exactly what the ghouls had been up to on the other side of that door. 

She pulls a pen out of her pocket, stepping closer to the door to scribble a ‘please knock first’ note on the ‘Ghoul dressing room’ sign that was taped up. The blonde hums softly, putting a small smiley face after her note before sliding the pen away and continuing down the hall. 

Her smile is still there as she makes it to Copia’s dressing room, knocking before slipping inside, faintly hearing him call out something. “C,” She sighs, running a hand through her hair as she closes the door behind her.

Copia looks up at her through the mirror, making her smile over at him, before slowly turning to face her in his chair. She watches as he scoots away from the vanity before standing and making his way over to her. “What’s wrong, amore ? You don’t normally come to see me before sound check.” 

“They don’t have a place for me to set up. I’ve already emailed Imperator.” She steps closer to him, bringing her hands up to rest on his chest. Her thumb smooths over the grucifix patch that was on the breast of his suit jacket. “I have the night free I guess.”

He hums softly, gently pushing her bangs out of her eyes before cupping her face, as he thinks. “Would you like to actually see the show tonight? In the audience?” 

Much better than the ‘you could go into town’ option he gave me last time. Olivia nods and smiles up at him. “Nothing quite like playing groupie for my boyfriend and his church band,” She teases, leaning up and pressing a soft kiss to his cheek. “Of course, I’d like that.”

He lets out a soft chuckle, pulling her into an actual kiss.

Olivia adjusts her earplugs, starting to scream along with the others in the pit with her, she couldn’t help but be excited as she feels the energy of the crowd around her. She was happily playing the role of super fan tonight, spending a bit too long changing into her uniform and applying makeup to mimic Copia’s. She had done her best to not let them catch sight of her again before the show, wanting to see their reactions. 

She calls out a thank you to the girl next to her, getting another compliment on her ‘cosplay’ that ‘was scary accurate’, and laughs as she shifts her grip on the barricade. The lights start to come up and the first notes start to ring through the venue. 

Olivia once again can’t help but pull her phone loose to take a few pictures of Copia under the stage lights and the ghouls, wanting to try and capture every moment she could before sliding it away. This time will be better. She hums happily before singing along to the songs with the other fans. 

The ghouls seem to notice her quicker this time around, playing around more with the crowd and each other. ‘Extra feral’ as someone else says during a brief moment of silence. Rain, Aether, and Sodo seem to keep checking on her, one even tossing her a pick after pressing a kiss to it. 

Soon enough, the familiar opening of Cirice begins and Olivia feels her chest get a bit tight, eyes drifting away from the ghouls on stage stomping along to the music to watch as Copia starts to sing and cross the stage. She watches as he starts to get closer, a smile spreading across her face as he keeps glancing over at her and moves to kneel on the edge of the stage. 

Slowly she feels herself reaching out to him. The tightness in her chest fades as he takes her hand, locking eyes with the man as he sings to her. He smooths his thumb over the back of her hand, the familiar drag of the leather, making her let out a soft breath. Time seems to slow around her as he keeps stroking the back of her hand with his thumb. She can’t help the tears that start to build, feeling frozen in place and lost in his eyes that seem to dig into her soul. 

I’m sorry I haven’t told you yet… that I’m me. That you don’t know what I am. She sucks in a rough breath as the mark on her ribs burns slightly. His eye twitches slightly in discomfort as he finishes the chorus and moves to stand, pressing a brief kiss to the back of her hand before seeming to give her a small confused smile.

The same girl who complimented her squeals in excitement, giving Olivia’s arm a momentary squeeze before bouncing along to the song with her. The blonde gives the girl a wobbly smile as she holds her hands close to her chest. Did I just fuck this up and have him figure it out too soon?

Terzo was reading, sitting up against the headboard as Sydney lay next to him half asleep. He absentmindedly smooths his hand up and down her back as his eyes glide over the words. He lets out a soft sigh as his phone starts to ring from its place on the nightstand and slides a finger into the book to hold his place as he reaches for it. 

“Who is it?” Sydney mumbles face still pressed into the pillows. 

“ Ragazzo ratto, ” The Papa can’t help but sigh, seeing the contact photo appear on the screen of his phone before answering and putting it on speaker. “Yes, Cardinale ?” 

“ Hi. Uh. I was wondering if you knew anything more about Prime Movers yet, ” The man on the other end sounds mildly panicked as he whispers into the phone. 

“Not any more than what we’ve already talked about,” He sighs, leaning his head back against the headboard as he lets his eyes shut. “Why? Getting impatient already?” 

“ Is it possible to have more than one? Because I might have imprinted on Olivia as well.”

“What the fuck?” He finds himself saying, eyes snapping open to look down at the phone in his hand. “What the fuck did you do?”

“ Well it was during Circie and I was holding her hand then suddenly it felt like my mark was on fire. ”

“The fuck kinda magical bullshit is happening?” Sydney mumbles into the pillow, making Terzo mumble a soft curse in agreement.

“Have you spoken with her? To see if she has a mark yet?” He finds himself asking after a second. 

“ Not yet. I just made it back to my dressing room. I ran off after bows and had the ghouls distracting her. How the fuck am I going to explain this to her, Terzo? She’s not a believer or a member of the congregation.” 

“Just tell her she’s been blessed by his dark eminence. That he always chooses someone in the crowd who’s at their first ritual.”

“ That’s a good one ,” Copia says after a moment of silence. “ Alright. I’ll let you know how it goes.”

“Or you could just tell her the fucking truth,” Sydney mumbles, letting out a disappointed-sounding sigh as she tucks her head under her pillow. 

Terzo doesn’t get a chance to voice the option that Sydney gave them before hearing the beep of Copia hanging up and lets out a curse before starting to aggressively type out a text. The redhead slowly pulls her head out when she hears the clicking noise from his phone keyboard keeps going longer than normal to look at him.

“Livie!” She hears the ghouls yell from down the hall, causing her to turn and smile brightly at them. She slides her phone away as she watches Sodo and Swiss race down the hall towards her, bracing herself for impact and laughing as the bigger man practically sweeps her off her feet with a hug. 

She holds onto him tightly as he spins her around, pressing her head to the side of his to try and not get as dizzy as she normally would. 

“Be careful with her, Swiss,” Aether sighs, “Liv is fragile.” 

The ghoul holding her lets out a sad noise as he slowly stops and sets her back onto her feet. Olivia still holds tightly onto his arm, trying to let the slight dizziness pass as she looks between them all with a smile. 

Aether comes to a stop in front of her, looking down at her with wide eyes as the others glance at each other nervously.  

“What?” Olivia’s head tilts as her smile starts to slip, “What’s wrong?” She glances up at Swiss for a second before leaning slightly to look between Aether and Rain down the hall. “Where’s C?” 

“Liv?” Cumulus asks softly, pushing past the boys, “Did anything weird happen tonight?” 

Olivia feels her eyes get wide and she takes a step back before fully realizing her reaction. She laughs nervously, trying to play stupid as she lets go of Swiss and tilts her head slightly. “Weird? No.” Another nervous bubble of laughter escapes her as she stares into Cumulus’s worried eyes. 

“We know when you lie Liv,” Aether says softly, looking the blonde over for a moment before shaking his head. “This isn’t a conversation to have here,” He steps around her, motioning for them all to follow him down the hallway. 

She finds herself surrounded by ghouls as they guide her down the hall and into their dressing room. The instant they start to drift apart and close the door behind them Olivia is hit with the memories of the last time she was in this room. 

In the back of her mind, she’s slightly amused by the fact that they all seem to drift back into the same places as they had been before. Cumulus sitting on Mountian’s lap, Rain and Sodo taking a spot in one corner of the couch, Swiss and Cirrus over by the vanity counter, and Aether looming over her. She feels her face heat slightly as she slowly scans over them and looks up to offer Aether a nervous smile.

Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Sodo start palming himself through his pants and let out a groan. He says something in ghoulish that makes Rain roll his eyes and shake his head, lightly smacking the fire ghoul in the back of the head. 

“Olivia,” Aether says, fingers lightly coming to grab her chin and make her look up at him. “What happened during the show?”

Dread bubbles up in her stomach as she stares up at him with wide eyes. “I can’t tell you,” She whispers, tears starting to well in her eyes. “Not yet. It’s not safe.”

“Why not?” His hands move to cup her face as his eyes search hers. “You were so out of it after Circie . Did the Cardinale do something to make you uncomfortable?” 

“No,” She says quickly, hands coming up to grip his wrists, “Copia didn’t do anything wrong.” Her eyes move over to look at the rest, spotting the looks of concern on their faces. “I swear.”

There’s a quick knock on the door to the dressing room, making everyone quickly turn to look at it and watch as Copia slips in. His eyes scan over everyone, the panicked look on his face shifting into one of confusion, lingering longest on Olivia and Aether. The blonde can only imagine what he thinks is happening, between Aether’s hands on her shoulders and the tears that had welled up in her eyes.

“What is going on?” He asks, hands coming to fidget in front of himself as he steps closer to them. “Is everything okay?” 

“Something happened to Liv, but she won’t tell us,” Sodo says, leaning back against Rain and letting the water ghoul wrap his arms around him. 

The blonde starts to nervously laugh again, trying to wave off the concerned look Copia gives her as she steps away from Aether. “How about we talk about how you guys had an orgie earlier and didn’t bother to lock the door?” She points around at them, “I was just able to wander right in. What if one of the venue staff came in instead of me?”

Everyone is quiet and staring at the blonde in confusion as she starts to move towards the door. 

“Olivia… You never came in. How do you know about that? Aether put up a sound charm,” Mountain asks, making the blonde freeze. 

“Yeah, how did you know about that?” Swiss asks, moving away from Cirrus and slowly starting to approach Olivia as the blonde struggles to come up with an answer. 

“I, uh… I guess I imagined it?” Olivia is shaking softly, hands playing with the buttons on her vest as the tears start to roll down her face, smearing the makeup she is wearing. “Jokes on me?” She whimpers. 

Through blurry vision, she watches as Copia raises a hand to make Swiss pause. “ Amore, ” He says gently, offering out his hands, “During Circie , you felt it too, didn’t you?”

The blonde can’t help but nod slowly as a soft sob escapes, back fully pressed against the door as he comes to stand in front of her. “C… I don’t…” I don’t know what to say. It’s too fucking early for you to know. For anyone to know.

“It’s alright to be confused,” His tone is soft, almost like he’s trying to reassure a scared animal. “Where did it burn?” He asks, hands hovering in the air for a moment when she doesn’t take them before coming to awkwardly lace in front of himself. 

Without thinking one of her hands moves away from her vest buttons to rest over her ribs, fingers curling into the fabric as she lets her head fall forward and starts to whisper apologies. 

“It’s nothing to be sorry about,” She can faintly hear him say as hands smooth over her shoulders and arms, squeezing her arms before she gets pulled against his chest. “You’ve been blessed, amore mio . Sometimes his dark excellency chooses to bless someone at their first ritual.”

That’s the most bullshit thing I have ever heard, Olivia thinks as her hands come up to grab hold of Copia’s jacket and it seems like the ghouls agree as they start chattering in the background. I shared too much and he’s willing to stand there and tell me a lie like that. The ghouls aren’t just going to forget that I know too much either.

Terzo throws on his robe as he steps out into his living room, Sydney still lying in bed behind him. The knocking starts back up at his door, causing him to mumble curses as he pulls it open. “It was unlocked, just get the fuck in here before anyone sees you.”

Primo and Secondo quickly enter, more dressed than their younger brother, both sighing as they head straight towards the sofa and chairs. 

“So he thinks he imprinted on her?” Secondo asks, rubbing his forehead as he sprawls out over half of the sofa. “Like a baby bird?” 

“Yes,” Terzo says, moving to sit in his normal spot after closing and locking the door. 

“Is it really wise for us to discuss this here?” Primo asks, voice hardly above a whisper, looking between his brothers with a soft frown. “If the sister is correct then Imperator could have listening devices planted…” 

“You could go to Liv’s,” Sydney says with a yawn, wandering out of the bedroom in one of Terzo’s older band shirts, clearly with nothing else on under it. “You can check on the plastic plants she thinks are real.”

Primo mumbles something about plastic plants being so depressing to be around, causing his brothers to roll their eyes for a moment. The three men look over at the redhead watching her back as she stretches and reaches for glass in one of the kitchen cabinets, the shirt rising up to expose a sliver of still red marked thigh and ass. 

“And if you’re worried about taking a ministry car there and being tracked,” She says, settling back down onto her feet and moving to start filling the glass with water, “You all can take Scarab or Nebula as long as you can drive stick.” She looks over her shoulder at them. The three men all look at her confused, heads tilting as they think about it, making the redhead laugh as she steps away from the fridge with her glass of water. “Liv and I’s cars,” She clarifies as she sips on her water.

“That wouldn’t be the worst idea,” Secondo says slowly, turning to look at his brothers with a small shrug. 

“You could even pull that ugly tapestry down and do a conspiracy wall,” Sydney makes her way over towards them, heading straight towards Terzo’s chair. “Don’t know why she hung that fucking thing up, it’s horrible.” 

“Would Olivia be alright with that?” Primo asks, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees. 

“Of course. As long as you leave it up and use pretty colored string. She loves looking at that shit.” Sydney says, taking a sip of her water before moving to sit in Terzo’s lap. “Just check the mail and try not to draw too much attention to yourselves and it’ll be fine. Means I don’t have to go over there every other day anymore.” 

The men look at her for a moment before at each other with shrugs. “Sounds like a plan,” Primo sighs.

“I was not expecting that,” Terzo says, tucking his hands into his pockets as he looks up at the wall above the sofa from his place on the other side of the coffee table. Primo hums in agreement, leaning forward slightly to look over some of the notes closest to him.

“No shit,” Secondo sighs, stepping down off the couch, folding the tapestry over his arm a few times as he steps back to look at the whole thing. 

“We should have guessed,” Primo sighs, shaking his head as he moves to sit down on the couch. “Of course, the sister would be one of the ones going on tour with them. It makes sense why she stopped coming to confession every week and why she never mentioned any guilt for potentially breaking up Copia and Olivia.” 

“Wait,” Terzo says with a confused chuckle, “You’re saying Olivia and the mystery sister are… what? Girlfriends?”

Secondo starts to chuckle, tossing the tapestry onto the armchair before heading into the small dining area she had. “Makes sense…” He teases before going silent, eyes locking onto a small bundle on the table.

“What’s that?” Primo asks, looking over with a frown as he watches Secondo pick something up. 

The middle brother turns to face the other two, a rosary and a very familiar veil in either hand, “It’s a stupid theory, I’m not going to lie, but I guess it holds some water.” 

The three brothers hum in agreement, all silently wondering how Copia could have stumbled into such luck of having two women interested in him and each other.

Chapter Text

It had been a few days since the Circie incident, and Copia was acting odd - more than his usual odd. The ghouls had been too, the more Olivia thought about it, their tails seeming to freeze in the air whenever she entered a room or looked at them too long.

“What do you want to do for your birthday, Liv?” Cumulus asks, flopping down onto the sofa with her as the other ghouls squish around the table. 

Olivia looks up from the book she had been taking notes in, glancing around at them as she thinks. The last time we went out for dinner we ran into my parents and sister… that didn’t go too hot… Maybe just pizza and a movie?

“I don’t know. I mean We don’t need to do anything fancy for it. It happens every year,” She gives a shrug. “I’d be happy with pizza and a movie at the hotel.” 

“Boo,” Sodo says, blowing a raspberry at her. “Come on, Liv. You don’t want to go out anywhere? It is our day off.”

“Exactly,” Rain says. “We could do anything.”

Copia shifts in his spot on the other side of her, “ Amore, this is your first birthday in our company.” He gently squeezes her leg and smiles over at her. “Let us treat you.” 

She lets out a soft sigh, tucking her hair behind her ear as she tries to think of a different restaurant they could go to.

This shitty little town. I fucking hate it here.  

They had ended up back at the same restaurant. The others she had listed were closed or just unable to accommodate a party their size without a reservation a week ahead. 

Claire had been just as much of a bubbly bitch as last time, calling her by her old name and seating them at a table before going over to her parents to rat her out.

Olivia lets out a soft sigh as they walk out the doors of the restaurant after dinner. Just like last time the small family was standing just outside, arguing with each other as the little girl on the man’s hip looked between her parents in confusion. 

“Here we fucking go,” Olivia mumbles, causing Copia to frown and look over at her for a second. 

“Olive? Is that you?” The older blonde woman asks, moving closer to them. 

“Hi Mother,” Olivia says, offering the older woman a tight smile. She can see all of the ghouls and Copia focusing their attention on her as she walks over towards the couple, letting go of Copia’s hand. 

“Hello, Mary. It’s been a while,” The man says, looking down his nose at her. 

“It really has,” Olivia’s voice turns sickly sweet as she looks over the couple. 

“Are these your friends?” Mrs. Sinclaire asks, looking at the ghouls and Copia nervously. 

“They’re my new family now,” Olivia says with a laugh. “See what happened when god decided to cast me out like you said he would? I decided to sell my soul to satan and live in a commune. The man in red is my first husband and the rest are my secondary spouses.” She manages to keep a somewhat straight face at the panicked looks on her parents’ faces. “I haven’t finished my oaths yet but I can’t wait to earn my mask. Isn’t it exciting?” 

The older couple blinks in shock, glancing at each other as Olivia moves to retake Copia’s hand. It’s clear that they’re struggling with what to say in response to that and the younger blonde woman laughs politely. 

“Oh don’t worry about me. I’m not your responsibility anymore after all. Hail satan and have a good night,” She says, giving them a bright smile and a wave before starting to pull Copia back towards the SUV to get out of there. The ghouls follow in confusion, offering the couple nods as they pass. 

“So,” Aether starts as they all settle into the car and he starts it. “Are we going to talk about what the fuck just happened?” He glances in the rearview as he speaks, focusing on the blonde sitting behind him. 

“Nothing really hammers in the last nail in the coffin than that,” Olivia says with a shrug and a smile. “Really gotta make sure they don’t try to reach back out to me. I’m not too keen to be born again, thanks.” 

The ghouls all seem to hum and nod in agreement as Copia looks over at her with a soft smile. 

“Besides, you guys are my new family,” Olivia says, leaning slightly to bump her shoulder against Copia’s. “Brother and sister husbands or not.” She can’t help but start to laugh as the others crack up.

“ So how was your birthday? ” Sydney asks over the phone the next day. 

“It was good. Made sure my parents would never want to see me ever again and all of the ghouls bought me a lot of ropes and a bunch of lacy things,” Olivia says, heading down one of the backstage hallways of the venue and towards the relic space. She had just finished getting into uniform after the sound check. “Copia also got me a very nice necklace.”

“ Oh? I didn’t know you were getting back into that scene ,” Sydney laughs. 

“I’d been thinking about it for a while actually. I’m glad they found my Instagram now,” She says, figuring it wouldn’t be the worst thing to lie about. It’s easier than saying that I have a sex to-do list nowadays.

“ Well then, good luck with that… Sorry about you running into your parents though, ” The redhead sighs on the other end of the call. 

“Yeah, it sucks but the sooner we’re out of this fucking town the better.” Olivia takes a seat at her station, rolling her shoulder slightly as she shifts the phone against her ear. 

“ It’s just tonight, right? Then you guys leave for the next town. ”

“Yeah. Not soon enough,” She sighs, shaking her head as she flicks on the small monitor she had set up on at the podium she was sitting at. 

The blonde finds herself smiling as she hears Terzo and Secondo’s voices wish her a happy birthday before letting them go for the night and saying goodbye.

A few weeks after her birthday, Olivia and Copia are getting ready for bed when their night is interrupted. 

Olivia curls tighter around the pillow she is holding in Copia’s bed, eyes following the anxious man as he speaks rapid Italian over the phone with someone. 

I should just come clean about everything. We’re close enough to the end of tour , She thinks, watching as Copia’s face went blank and he quickly turned his back to her. Or maybe the Papas are already telling him.

“ Grazie per questo, ” Copia says almost sarcastically, suddenly sounding more upset than he had been earlier on the phone. “ Chiederò della sorella. Vaffanculo. ” He kisses his teeth at whatever the response on the other side of the phone is saying before hanging up. The Cardinal lets out a rough sigh as he tosses his phone down onto the hotel dresser and rests his hands on it for a moment. 

“Everything okay?” The blonde finds herself asking softly. She knew they were definitely talking about her, judging by the looks Copia kept giving her throughout the phone call. 

“Tell me about your sister ,” Copia says after a few moments of silence, still not turning to look at her. 

Olivia can’t help the confused frown that appears as she sits up. “My sister? Like Mary? What are you so upset about an eight-year-old you found out about two weeks ago.”

“Not that sister,” Copia hisses, “The sister of sin. When were you going to tell me about her?” Copia asks, almost seeming to curl in on himself as he lets out a shaky breath. 

“Eventually. When it became relevant.” She finds herself shrugging slightly as he turns to look over his shoulder at her. I mean I was going to tell him I have been carrying around a habit at some point… and the confessional things. “How did you even find out about her?”

“Your friend Sydney had the Papas go over to water your plants and they saw the evidence,” He says, crossing his arms as he turns to look over at her. 

“They went through my shit?” Her eyes widen as she shifts to sit on her knees. They would have had to be turning over everything to find my murder board. Why the fuck did Sydney let them search my place? “What the fuck?”

“Let me rephrase. How long were you going to cheat on me with Sister Mary?” He asks, voice sharp as he comes to stand at the end of the bed and leans in closer to her. “The evidence was out in the open.”

Cheat? What the actual fuck is he talking about? She blinks rapidly in confusion. “What the fuck? Cheat on you?” 

“The Papas found parts of a habit and veil around your apartment,” He snaps. “I wouldn’t have been against you having partners outside of me if you had expressed that as your wish, but to hide something like this from me.” 

Olivia feels tears building in her eyes, “How dare you.” Her voice is soft as her eyes narrow at him. “You have no clue what the fuck you're talking about.” 

“Then explain it to me,” His voice raises slightly. “Ever since we left for the tour you have been acting odd. Then everything a few days ago…” 

“Copia,” She starts, letting out a rough sigh, “It’s not that simple.” 

“Just try, amore , please. I can’t stand the fact that you’re hiding things from me,” Copia says quickly, sitting on the edge of the bed and reaching out to grab one of her hands. 

“Then why have you been hiding things from me too?” Tears start to roll down Olivia’s face as she stares at Copia, letting him carefully pull her hands away from the pillow in her arms. “I’m scared you won’t believe me.” 

“Of course, I’ll believe you. Please, just try,” His voice sounds desperate, hands squeezing hers as he watches her struggle with words. 

“Do you know about your prime mover?” Olivia asks softly. 

Copia’s eyes widen as he stiffens, “Did she tell you about that? The Sister?” He asks, eyes narrowing. “How long have you known about her and I?”

The blonde lets out a soft laugh, squeezing her eyes shut as she lets her head fall forward. “I’ve always known, C,” She whispers, “It’s kinda hard not to know. It just hasn’t been safe to talk about this. There’s a reason why she only spoke to Primo during confession.” 

“She’s a novice Sister,” Copia says, clearly finding the need to argue with this reasoning, “How could it have been dangerous for her?”

“Because Copia,” Olivia says, opening her eyes and looking up at him with a sigh. “She isn’t a sister at all. New to the ministry but not a sister.” 

Copia’s eyes widen, and for a moment Olivia thinks he understands before he speaks. “What do you mean she’s not a sister? How did she know how to answer in confessional or everything about the clergy?” 

“Because it's not hard to learn when it’s beaten into you,” Olivia says quickly, before letting out a soft startled noise as she pulls her hands away from him. “When you are constantly being drugged and only get water as a reward for compliance.”

She could still remember all of the lessons Imperator’s co-conspirators had forced down her throat during the time they had her. The way she screamed for any of the ghouls to find her, for Copia or any of the Papas. The looks of disgust that the men pretending to be Papas gave her as she begged for them to help her. Imperator forcing the bishops she was working with to punish her during lessons. How they held her down as they cut the birth control implant out of her arm.

Her fingers curl into the pillow in her lap for a moment as she watches Copia struggle to process what she has just said. “Is that what you want to hear? That they took your prime mover and forced all of this on her just because she wasn’t thrilled about it?” Olivia snaps. 

The Cardinal seems lost for words, causing Olivia to let out a bitter laugh and move to climb out of bed. His eyes stay on her as he watches her dig through her bag. “Who did this?” He asks softly, frowning as he watches her. 

“Who else would want the perfect prime mover for her Cardinal?” She snaps, pulling a bundle of black and purple fabric out of the bottom of her bag and tosses it down on the bed next to Copia. “Who else has the motive to secure the bloodline for her hand-picked successor?”

He slowly reaches out and lets out a rough sigh, seeing the patterns on the fabric telling him that it was a habit. “Olivia…” He whispers, looking over at her with sadness clear on his face. 

The blonde roughly starts to pull on her jeans, not turning to look over at him. “They formed her into a perfect match for you. Exactly how they needed her to be.” She lets out an angry-sounding laugh. “ Blessed be the fruit to lead the man to sin. ” 

She roughly pulls the shirt of his that she had pulled on to sleep in over her head and lets it fall to the floor. Olivia turns slightly, starting to pull at the bandage that is on her ribs, cursing at the adhesive pulling at her skin.  She doesn’t look over at him as he gasps at the sight of his mark clear on her ribs, she just balls up the bandage and tosses it in the trash before starting to pull on one of her hoodies. 

“Where are you going?” He asks softly, eyes following her as she walks towards the sneakers she had left by the bathroom, snagging her phone off the desk as she passes it. 

“Out,” She says quickly, wiping at her tears as she shoves her feet into her shoes. “I just need a bit of air. Don’t wait up for me.”

“Olivia, please. Let's talk about this. I had no clue,” He says quickly, standing and holding his hands out to her. “The clergy wouldn’t do something like that,” He whispers, sounding somewhat unsure. “She wouldn’t do that.” 

“But you’d believe I was cheating on you?” She snaps, turning to look back at him with cold eyes. His silence is enough of an answer for her, making her sigh as she shakes her head and heads towards the door again. “I’ll be back. I just need some space.”

The door clicks shut behind her, leaving Copia standing alone in the hotel room staring at the door as the blonde makes her way down the hall.

Sydney had come with the brothers, seemingly to borrow a few of Olivia’s books and work at the kitchen island as the brothers spoke in Italian over the phone with Copia. 

The group has been off the phone with Copia for almost ten minutes when Sydney’s phone rings. The redhead yawns, flipping her phone over to see who it was before quickly answering. 

“Hey, Liv. What’s up?” She asks, putting the phone on speaker when the brothers all look over. 

“ What the fuck Syd? ” Olivia asks quickly, the faint sound of gravel crunching can be heard over the phone and it makes the redhead frown. 

“What?” She asks confused, “Where are you?”

“ You let them search my apartment? What the fuck Syd? Who else have you let in there since I’ve been gone? ”

“Woah. No one searched your apartment. You left the murder wall you and that sister did up on the wall,” Sydney says quickly, looking over at the Papas for a second. They all seem very interested in the conversation, all quietly starting to make their way over. 

“ There is no other fucking sister! ” The young woman on the other side of the phone snaps. “ Where the fuck did you all even get that idea? I just had Copia question me about sleeping around on him. I swear to a fucking spaghetti monster that I’ll punch Lucifer the next time he decided to talk to me. ”

The papas all look at each other with wide eyes as they process what Olivia is saying. 

“ Fuck! ” Olivia practically screams into the phone. “ I wish he had left me fucking braindead for a few days. I wouldn’t have to jump through all these fucking hoops. ”

“Liv…” Sydney says softly, staring down at the phone in confusion. “What are you talking about?” 

A bitter-sounding laugh comes through the phone, “ You’ve seen the wall. That should tell you everything. Besides, I’m sure you’ve talked to the Papas about all of this, haven’t you? ”

The men all turn to look at the wall, eyes sadly scanning over the different hastily written notes pinned up. 

“Seen it? Yes. Understood it? Not at all. Liv please, just talk to me,” She begs.

“ Syd you don’t understand the danger you’ve put them in by showing them all of that, ” Olivia says, voice suddenly getting thick like she was trying not to cry. “ Syd. Imperator isn’t to be trusted… She won’t hesitate to take down anyone who stands between her and her goals. ” She lets out a shaky breath as she sniffles, “ Where are they right now? Please tell me they haven’t been talking about this at the ministry. Oh fuck are you there right now? ”

“We’re at your place right now…” Sydney says, glancing up at Terzo as the man rests his hands on her shoulders to give them a comforting squeeze. “Do you want to talk with them?” 

“ I should yeah… fuck me. ” She whispers as the crunching of gravel stops. “ Put me on speaker? ”

“Hiya, princepessa, ” Terzo says gently, eyes focused down on the phone as the young woman on the other end lets out a soft laugh. 

“ Hi, Terzo, ” She takes in a shaky breath, seeming to gather her thoughts for a moment, “ This isn’t the way I had planned on telling you guys… I figured that you guys would just keep your eyes out for anyone sketchy with the details I fed Primo during confession, not conclude that I was having a fling with myself. ” 

“We are creative though, no?” Primo asks with a chuckle, coming to lean against the island next to Terzo and Sydney as Secondo takes the other free barstool. 

“It seemed more likely,” Secondo says with a shrug, “You never showed any interest in confession.” 

Olivia can’t seem to help the laugh that escapes, “ How- I know you all did think I was dying of a weed disease so I shouldn’t be surprised. ” She was silent on the phone for a moment, making Sydney tap her phone screen to see if the call was still connected. “ I kept it a secret to keep all of you safe… If I hadn’t interfered with the relics… if Imperator found out about the visions, I don’t know what could happen. ”

“What do you mean? Interfered with the relics?” Terzo asks, resting his chin on the top of Sydney’s head. 

“ I’m not entirely sure, but I think that Imperator’s original plan was to kill the three of you so Copia would be able to ascend after Nihil dies at the last show, ” Olivia says softly. “ She kept telling me that if I didn’t behave she’d have you three in glass faster than she could snap. ”

The men are silent, staring at the phone as they try to process that. 

“How?” Secondo asks suddenly, breaking the silence. 

“ I’m not sure how… or even if it was truly a possibility or if she was just making something up but I did have a vision of all three of you in these glass coffins and I had to set them up while on tour so the fans could see… It didn’t seem like anything I did would make any of you wake. ” She takes in a shaky breath, her sniffling just barely audible over the phone. 

“What the fuck?” Sydney asks softly, eyes wide as she forces herself to look up at Terzo. The man grips her shoulders a bit tighter as he tries to keep from freaking out.

“ Get why I didn’t want you guys to know too much? ” Olivia asks with a bitter laugh. “ Fuck. I just dropped that Imperator and her shitheads tortured me then walked out. ”

“What the fuck, Olivia?” Sydney says suddenly. “The fuck do you mean by that?” 

The papas all seem to refocus on the phone again, listening to the blonde hum softly on the other side of the phone. 

“ Well after we got back from tour Terzo announced me as the divine prime mover. Imperator didn’t like the back talk I gave her when I said I wasn’t ready for children and… well I suppose it was so she could train me to be perfect in her mind. ”

“You just dropped that shit on him then left? Liv, you did not,” Sydney says quickly, letting out a soft groan as Olivia hums affirmatively. “Go talk to him. For fucks sake.”

“ I will. Just… I don’t know. Be careful okay? ” She says, the faint sound of gravel crunching returning. “ Please. ”

“We will be,” Primo says, clearing his throat softly. “It’s all going to be okay.” 

Olivia lets out a weak laugh, “ I sure hope you’re right… I love you guys. ”

“We love you too dummy,” Sydney says, “Now go make up with your boyfriend.”

Olivia stands outside the hotel room she had been sharing with Copia, staring hard at the door as she fiddles with the keycard in her hands. She had pulled her hood up, not wanting to deal with her hair falling in her face as she cried on her way up in the elevator.  

She lets out a sigh, looking down at her feet for a moment before slowly bringing the keycard up to the lock to open the door. It flashes green and she slips into the room, pulling down her hood as she closes the door. 

The blonde turns to look into the room properly, spotting Copia and the ghouls all scattered around looking at her. “Hey guys,” She says softly. 

Copia quickly hurries over to her, pulling her into a hug as he presses a kiss to the top of her head. “Thank the maker,” He whispers, practically cradling her head as he pulls back to look down at her. “You were gone for so long,” His eyes frantically searched her face, “We were worried.”

Her hands come up to hold his wrists, offering him a weak smile, “I’m okay… ‘m sorry for just dropping that all on you.” She turns her head slightly to press a light kiss to his palm. “I had to make a phone call and had a bit of a cry.”

“I didn’t know,” He says and Olivia suddenly processes that he hadn’t taken off his makeup like normal, his eyes are bloodshot and it seems like he had cried most of the paint off. “I didn’t know she did that to you.”

“Technically she hasn’t yet,” Olivia sighs, bringing a hand up to run through her hair as Copia lets her go. “She has, I remember it but it won’t happen until after we get back from tour.” 

“You say that like we’d just let you be kidnapped,” Dew says suddenly, causing Olivia and Copia to both look over at him. “We would never.” 

“It’s not a matter of you all letting me just get stolen,” Olivia sighs, moving away from Copia to head further into the room, shoving her hands into her hoodie pocket as she toes off her shoes by the desk. “I was stupid enough to take a nap in the gardens alone.”

“And we just let you?” Swiss says, sitting up more on the bed to look over at her. 

“I was rather convincing,” Olivia says, giving a soft shrug as she moves to flop down on the bed between the ghoulettes and Swiss. “Turned on the waterworks and pinky promised Dew and Rain that I would be at mass. Besides it was a nice day out. Shame it had to end with a bunch of strangers stripping me naked and tying me down to an altar.” 

“So are we just going to pretend that Liv talking like this is normal now?” Mountain asks, looking around the room with a confused frown. 

“Probably so,” Aether sighs, bringing a hand up to rub his neck. “So what is this? A fucked up groundhog day?”

“I’m just living through the tour again. He sent me back to Terzo shaking me awake and told me to have fun. So I fucked Copia after the first mass. I made a to-do list remember, granted it has evolved quite a bit since then.” 

“Oh the fuck Copia, get Copia’s permission to fuck Secondo, and buy rope list?” Dew asks excitedly. 

“Bingo,” Olivia laughs as Copia lets out a confused noise. 

“There was a list?” He asks, moving to stand at the end of the bed to look down at Olivia. “You want to fuck Secondo? Is that why they all bought you rope for your birthday?”

“I used to,” The blonde fully starts to laugh, “I had a bit of a breakdown before making that list, gonna be honest. Figured fuck it, I’ll sleep with anyone who offers before Imperator starts making plans for me to pop out the antichrist.” 

“When were you going to tell me this?” Copia asks, looking between his ghouls and Olivia with wide eyes as the ghoulettes start to laugh along with her. 

“At some point,” She smiles up at him before giving him a shrug, “I had grand plans to dress up as a sister of sin and come out on stage with the others but I’ll happily accept suggestions for more fun things I’m missing out on.”

“...you could earn your mask,” Cumulus says, seeming to perk up from where she was sitting with Cirrus in her lap. 

“Ooo,” Olivia says, looking over at her with a mischievous grin. “I’d love to hear more.”

Chapter Text

Her afternoon in the archives was quiet. At some point the silence became overwhelming to her, causing her to pull her speaker out of her office and pair it with her phone, quickly filling the space with her work playlist. 

One song fades into another as a soft pop song starts as Olivia sets one file off to the side and picks up another, doing her best to stay focused on documentation for a thurible. She finds that her thoughts kept drifting back to laying in Copia’s bed next to him, the feeling of his wine-colored sheets against her skin and the soft sound of his voice. 

She squeezed her eyes shut, shaking her head slightly as she opened them again, trying to focus on the condition report that she needed to finish reading. She quickly skims it, flicking the folder shut and putting it in the correct pile before grabbing another. 

Halfway through reading another condition report on a pair of Papa Nihil’s gloves, her mind slips back to the sliver of Copia’s wrist she had seen and how much she wanted to reach out and take hold of his hand. She sucks in a soft breath as she gives up on reading, flipping the folder shut. Olivia groans, squeezing her eyes shut again as pushes away the files to lay her head down against the table. After a few seconds, she lets out a sigh, turning her head to rest her cheek against the cool metal, and opens her eyes again. 

A new song fades in, one of the few songs left on the playlist from her electro-swing phase, and she slowly sits up, rolling her shoulders to crack her back. Olivia drums her fingers against the table, trying to figure out what she can work on that won’t make her think of the Cardinal. The blonde stands, wandering into her office to start working on unpacking the box of books she had brought with her. 

Olivia gets the last book onto the shelf where she wants it when two men bickering in Italian step through the doors into the archive. She peaks her head out of her office, lets out a sigh when she spots Terzo, and pauses with a confused smile appearing on her face when she spots the other man. She leans against the doorframe, crossing her arms as she waits for them to notice her. 

After a few more moments, it becomes clear that they aren’t going to turn away any time soon, she clears her throat and takes a step forward. “Can I help you with anything Papa?” She asks softly. “Daddy?” Olivia can’t help but add, watching as Terzo quickly turns looking between her and Secondo in confusion. 

“Ah , la mia cara ragazza ,” The bald man purrs, stepping around the dark-haired man and holding his hands out toward the blonde. “Livie,” He says with a smile, looking her over as she takes his hand. 

“Hi,” She squeezes his hands before giggling as he pulls her into a hug. 

“What are you doing here, tezoro ?” He asks as she returns the hug. 

“Daddy?” Terzo asks still standing there confused. “How do you two know each other?” 

Secondo turns to look at his brother over his shoulder, chuckling softly as he takes in the confused look on Terzo’s face. “After you became Papa, I went off on my own remember? I helped her pay for school.” 

Olivia hums, looking over at Terzo with a smile, laughing when she spots the look on his face.

Out of the three Papas, she hadn’t gotten a chance to meet Papa Primo yet. 

Olivia wanted to make a good impression, choosing heels and a nice skirt. She figured that he might have heard about her already but it never hurt to dress up for first meetings.

She takes her time, running early for the portion of the meeting she was allowed to attend, walking down the hall, and glancing over the different artworks on the walls as she passes them. When she gets to Imperator’s office, she turns to fully face it and knocks. The woman calls for her to enter and Olivia opens the door, slipping into the office and closing the door behind her. 

Olivia offers the woman a smile, tightening her hold on the files as the men gathered around the front of Imperator's desk turn to look at her. She smiles as she scans over them, eyes landing on another very familiar surprised face. 

“Olivia,” Imperator says as she stands, moving to stand by her side. “This is Papas Nihil and Primo. I believe you’ve already had the chance to meet Secondo and Terzo, yes?” The older woman looks over at her, resting a hand on her shoulder as the other gestures towards each man. 

“I have yes,” She nods her head toward them all, an amused smile forming as she watches the confusion flash across the eldest brother’s face.

“Good. Good. Papas, this is Olivia Sinclaire. She’s our new archivist and relic manager for the upcoming tour,” Imperator says, gently giving Olivia’s shoulder a squeeze before moving to sit at her desk again.

“Via?” Primo asks, shifting and standing as the blonde steps closer to them. “It’s wonderful to see you again, darling girl.” 

“Hi, it’s nice to see you again too,” She says with a soft laugh. The men watch as Olivia steps closer to Primo, leaning up and pressing a soft kiss to his cheek before passing the files she had in her hands over to Imperator. 

The youngest Papa watches as Olivia turns to kiss Secondo on the cheek as well, letting out a soft whine as Primo offers her a seat. “Do I not get a kiss as well Principessa ? Is this papa not as special as your other ones?” Terzo protests, leaning forward to look at the blonde with a pout. 

“Of course, you can have a kiss too,” She says with a soft chuckle before moving closer to him between Secondo and the desk to give him a light kiss on the cheek. 

Nihil lets out a noise of confusion as Sister Imperator rolls her eyes. “I don’t understand, she’s worked here for how long again?” He asks, looking at the woman behind the desk with a confused frown as he brings his oxygen mask up to his face.

“A week,” Imperator says, watching as Olivia gets pulled down into Secondo’s lap. 

After mass one night, the three brothers were gathered in Secondo’s apartment, sitting in the chairs and sofa around the coffee table near the unlit fireplace. 

“I never thought I’d be asking this,” Terzo sighs, taking a sip of his drink as he stares at the large print hung above the mantel. “But is that Olivia?” He asks, head tilting as his eyes scan over the image of a semi-nude woman bound in emerald green ropes, her face turned away from the camera, but her short blonde hair was messily tied up in a bun.

Primo looks over at it as Secondo nods, humming softly as he looks it over. “I thought I recognized that birthmark,” The oldest brother says, eyes lingering on the mark on the woman’s ribs.

“Am I the only one who hasn’t slept with Olivia?” Terzo protests, tossing his cards down on the coffee table. “Did you two decide not to share her with me?” 

“I was unaware of Olivia’s relations with our fratello ,” Primo says, shaking his head. “I just enjoyed the companionship.”

“I found her on my own. She was a travel companion for me during my sabbatical,” Secondo smiles over at the image as he sips his wine. “I took that during our trip to Italy.” 

“So that’s why she was unavailable for three weeks that July,” Primo chuckles, shaking his head. “Damn, she’s smart. She got two trips to Europe that year then.”

“You paid for her degree,” Terzo says, pointing at Secondo before looking at Primo. “What did you buy her?” 

“New clothes. Shoes, those red bottom ones. A car when I saw her looking at them online one night,” Primo says with a shrug. 

Terzo lets out a small noise of confusion, “A car. You bought her a car?”

“Yes. She needed one to get to her internships,” Pirmo tosses his cards down on the table, sure that their game isn’t going to continue any time soon, as Secondo starts to laugh. 

Olivia follows Copia into his room, gently closing the door behind her before toeing off her heels to leave by the door. Her eyes scan over the familiar room, smiling at the lava lamp he had sitting next to the couch in the small sitting room. She watches as Copia turns on a lamp, filling the room with soft warm light, before lighting a few of his taller candles on the sideboard. He seems to pause and murmur a small prayer before blowing out the match in his hand and continuing with his nightly routine. 

“Wine?” The man asks as he pulls his biretta off and moves to put it away. She can see him glancing back at her as he opens the closet.

“Sure,” Olivia turns to look at him, eyes meeting his for a moment as she nods, before she moves to sit down, watching as he takes off his cassock and hangs it up leaving him in his black slacks and a white button-up. 

Copia can’t help but let his eyes drift down to her legs as she settles into the corner of the loveseat and crosses her legs. He lets out a soft breath, quickly turning his head and leaning down to open the cabinet he kept a few wine bottles and glasses in.

Olivia can’t help but stare at him when he bends down, imagining him in the tight white slacks the tailor had him in a few days before. 

He grabs the first bottle he can, two glasses, and a corkscrew before straightening up and turning towards her again. “Red okay?” He asks, walking over to join her on the couch and setting the glasses down. 

“Sounds good to me,” Olivia murmurs, shifting to lean closer to him once he gets the cork out and begins pouring. “I’ll drink just about anything.” Her eyes follow his hand as he handles the bottle and glass.

He carefully passed the glass over and watched as she took a small sip to try it. “Is it okay?” He asks softly.

Olivia looks up from the contents of the glass with a small smile, nodding quickly. “It’s really good. I don’t think I’ve ever had a red like this before,” She says, eyes darting back towards the glass after making brief eye contact with him. 

Copia hums happily, moving to pour himself a glass before settling back into the other corner of the loveseat. 

They sit in somewhat comfortable silence, occasionally making small talk once they finish their second glasses. A bit after he pours them their third glasses of the night, Olivia leans forward to set her half-empty glass on the table. He raises an eyebrow, looking over at her as she leans back again, watching as she pulls a hair tie from her wrist to tie up her hair. “So, the whole tour thing makes more sense now,” She says, with a nervous laugh.

Copia swallows before letting out a chuckle, “I guess we never explained what happens on tour.”

Olivia hums and nods, stretching for a second before settling back into her spot as she looks over at Copia. “Yeah. I mean I figured somethin’ was up. Explains the random instruments in the archives.”

He smiles, setting his glass on the side table before resting his arms on the back of the couch. “It was in your welcome binder. Under the tour expectations section,” He points out, an eyebrow raising as she looks away and laughs nervously. 

“I’m still working my way through it, if we’re being honest,” Olivia whispers, reaching for her glass and taking a sip. “It’s just so long and the print is so small, I get lost on the page.”

“Excuses, excuses,” Copia teases, clearly more relaxed than earlier. “That took me three drafts to get approved by Sister Imperator.”

“My deepest apologies, Cardinal,” She giggles softly, looking up at him with a mischievous grin over the rim of her wine glass. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she recognized drunk Olivia taking over for her. “I didn’t mean to disrespect your hard work. How ever shall I repent to you?” She teases softly, her voice soft as she leans closer to him.  

Copia seems to bluescreen, eyes slowly widening as he looks at her. Olivia watches as his eyes dart from hers to her lips and possibly lower for a moment before returning to her face. His mouth opens slightly before quickly closing as he swallows thickly. 

Olivia takes another sip of her wine, letting what was left of her lipstick hold her lip to the glass for a moment as she pulls away. She can’t help but giggle at the slight blush she can see spread across Copia’s face as he focuses on the glass. 

“You shouldn’t tease an old man like this, amore ,” He whispers after another moment, eyes getting soft as he looks away and picks up his glass to sip from. You wouldn’t want to get involved with a man like me anyways , Copia can’t help but think, Nothing good could truly come of it.

“Why not?” Olivia whispers, leaning away from him as her head tilts in confusion. She waited a few seconds before looking down at her glass as she rested the base on her thigh. “I’m sorry. I’ve been completely inappropriate,” She says quickly, before finishing her glass and setting it on the coffee table. She curls up in her corner of the couch, tucking her stocking-clad feet underneath herself, not seeming to care as her dress rides higher up on her thigh. 

Copia lets out a small sigh, a hand running through his hair before unbuttoning the top button of his shirt. He reaches over to her a second later, not seeming to care as he rests his hand on her lower leg, giving it a small squeeze to make her look at him. “I’m much too old for you, amore ,” He whispers, smoothing his thumb over her leg, making her shiver slightly at the feeling of her stockings and the leather of his gloves moving over her skin.

“I don’t mind,” Olivia says, her hand quickly moving to rest on his. “Really,” She says at the skeptical look on his face. 

“I’m over ten years your senior,” He says, shaking his head and starting to pull his hand away. “I’m too old for you. You deserve someone younger than me.”

“How much older than you is Secondo?” Olivia asks as she lets him pull his hand away, folding her hands into her lap.

“What?” Copia asks, looking at her confused. 

“He’s, what, seventeen years older than me?” She asks, head tilting slightly as she feels her eyes water. “If you’re not attracted to me you can just say so.” 

“What does Secondo have to do with this?” He asks, leaning to set his glass down on the table before fully turning towards her. 

“I’m trying to make the point that I like older men,” She sighs, shaking her head as she lays her hand over his. “I like you, Copia. You’re not too old for me. Primo said the same things during our first few times out.” 

Copia seems even more confused by this, causing Olivia to let out a soft chuckle. 

“Did they not tell you?” She asks, “I was a sugar baby in college. I’m not trying to fuck my way through a satanic ministry, trust me. I guess I’m just attracted to older men with mismatched eyes and father issues.” 

He is quiet for a few moments before slowly humming, “That doesn’t bother me. Your age doesn’t bother me either.”

“Then what stopped you from answering?” She leans forward towards him, pulling his hand off her leg to hold onto with both of hers. 

He seems to be struggling to come up with an answer, eyes searching her face for a few moments. “...I worry that I won’t be enough for you.”

Olivia lets out a soft sigh, smiling gently at him as she brings his hand up to cup her face. “C, I’m sure you’ll be more than enough for me.” 

Chapter Text

It had started as a joke.

One of her suitemates had jokingly mentioned thinking of selling pictures of her feet to be able to buy textbooks for the next semester. That led to her roommate Sydney talking about how she was thinking of becoming a sugar baby to find someone to pay for fun trips. 

So here she was, sitting in the dark with her laptop in bed as Sydney slept across the room. Olivia chews her lip as she starts to do a bit of research. Someone to pay for the rest of my degree would be nice… so I don’t have to work as much off campus. 

Olivia lets out a small sigh, clicking through the information on the website she is on. Despite all of the Reddit threads about this site being legit, she still couldn’t help but worry that it was all a scam. What are they going to do? Steal my last ten bucks? Something might be worth the risk…  

She moves her cursor over the top of the register button, taking a small deep breath before clicking and starting to fill in the registration form.

The first few matches she got were, what she had later learned, Splenda daddies. They weren’t very nice either, as Olivia slowly found out, and one even gave her a hard time for the dress she had borrowed from Sydney. 

She was getting ready for another shitty daddy date when she got a message from the site. Her eyes scan it over and a slow smile appears as she takes in how sweet the man sounds. He’s looking for a date to the flower show here… purely looking for companionship. I like flowers.  

Olivia takes a moment to reread the message before replying to start working out details with him. Her weekend plans had just gotten a bit more interesting.

She almost thought he was too good to be true when she got his message back about payment. It was more than any of the other men on the site had ever offered her without asking for sex or for her to dress extra slutty. The man told her to dress comfortably for the botanical garden. So she had settled for a casual dress, light makeup and pulled her hair back into a messy ponytail.

She supposed that her nerves got the better of her when she got a half payment sent to her the morning of because she ended up getting to the gardens an hour early. Mainly out of the fear that the free shuttle would run late or be delayed.

So here Olivia sat, in an armchair just inside the welcome center as she waited. Her leg bounced slightly as she watched groups of people and their families come and go. She glances down at her very worn sneakers, suddenly panicked that she should have gone to get a new pair before this, knowing the scuffed-up white pair didn’t really go along with the red sundress that Sydney had tossed at her when the redhead found out about her ‘date’. 

“Olivia?” A man asks from in front of her, pulling the blonde out of the spiraling thoughts over her shoes. 

She quickly stands, smiling at him as she nods, “Yes, hi.” 

He’s just like his profile picture, including what she had assumed was a trick of the light making his eyes two different colors. “Dante,” He says, smiling at her and offering out his hand for her to shake. She steps towards him, gently shaking his hand before blushing as he brings it up to press a soft kiss on the back of it. 

They walk in silence for a few minutes, him seemingly content to have her hold his arm as they stroll through the garden. “Thank you for coming. These things are always more fun with company.”

She nods excitedly, “I’ve never been to a botanical garden before.” Olivia says, stepping closer to his side as they enter a more crowded area. 

“Really?” He asks, looking down at her with a soft hum of surprise. “They are wonderful places. I find inspiration for my own gardens with each one I see.” 

“I’m afraid I’m dreadful with plants,” She says softly, looking away from one of the trees she was looking at and up at him. 

“Can I tell you a secret?” He asks softly, leaning down towards her as she nods. “I killed so many plants before I learned how to take care of them properly. It took about ten years before I managed to keep roses alive for longer than one season.” He chuckles at the surprised look on her face. 

“Really?” She asks slightly in awe. “I love roses. I remember my neighbor growing up had a bunch of them planted.” 

“They’re very temperamental,” He says, patting her hand gently. “You need to start with an easy plant.”

“I had a money tree for a while. One of the clubs on campus bought it for a table decoration, they were going to toss it,” She smiles as she turns to look around again. “I watered it just how the directions said to, tried to give it plenty of sun, kept it warm and everything. It died last week.”

“Was the trunk soggy or shriveled?” He asks, head tilting slightly as he thinks about it. “When it died that is.”

“Oh, kinda soggy, but what truly did it in was falling out a window.” She lets out a soft laugh, looking back up to see the confused look on his face. “The screen on the window was loose and my roommate bumped it. We had a funeral for poor Bart the money tree.” 

He starts to chuckle, coming to a stop as he turns to fully face her. “You had a funeral for a plant? Some of my… friends would be very happy that you did that.” 

Olivia hums and nods eagerly, loosening her grip on his arm slightly to let him turn. “I’m glad,” She smiles brightly as he lets out a soft sigh. “It was a beautiful service,” She jokes, “We all said something nice about him then lit sparklers off the candles my roommate set up and played Ritual a song by some metal band she loves.”

“Sounds lovely,” He lets out an amused hum. It seems like he’s holding back something that he thinks is funny.

“It really was until campus security shut it down for the sparklers,” Olivia says as they start to walk down the path again.

Apparently, Dante E really liked her, choosing to continue speaking with her, and decided to give her an allowance in exchange for phone calls and the occasional dinner date when he was in town for business. Olivia enjoyed spending time with him, even looking forward to his phone calls, he was very sweet to her.

The allowance he would send her mostly went towards school, books, and food that didn’t come from campus dining. 

Her sneakers had finally died. All it took to do them in was walking in the rain and attempting to dry them with a hair dryer. 

Was she still sitting on the floor of the suite bathroom with a hair dryer hoping that somehow they would bounce back into shape? Yes. Yes, she was. Were the tears rolling down her face from something that silly? No. They were definitely just tears from allergies. 

She clicks the hair dryer off as her phone starts to buzz in her back pocket. Fuck did I lose track of time that badly today? She thinks as she checks who it is. She took a few deep breaths before answering and bringing the phone up to her ear as she tried to quietly sniffle. 

“Hiya,” She says in a tone she hopes sounds cheerful. “How are you doing?”

“ Via ,” His voice is gentle on the other end of the line. “ Is everything okay ?”

No. My single pair of sneakers are now trashed and I’m stuck in only dress shoes. How’s your bonsai tree doing?

“Course,” She squeezes her eyes shut and presses her palm against one of her eyes. “Just got in from the rain. It’s a pretty bad storm here.” 

He hums softly, clearly not fully convinced. “ You make it back from class alright? Didn’t you have a test today? ” 

This time the concern in his voice makes her let out a soft sob, leaning back against the tub as she gives up on sounding cheerful. “I think I failed it,” She murmurs.

“ Oh, darling girl ,” He whispers, listening to her cry for a second, “ What makes you say that? ”

“I studied for the wrong sections. I was late because my other class was running over… It was just so cold in there and I couldn’t focus,” Olivia rambles, hand moving into her hair as she takes a breath. 

“ I’m sure you didn’t completely fail it, Via. You’re a very smart girl. I’m sure you’ll be able to make up the grade ,” He tries to soothe, “ You don’t normally cry over tests… What else happened? ” 

“It’s so stupid,” She snuffles. “My sneakers got ruined.” Her voice is hardly above a whisper as she opens her eyes to look over at the snapped laces and detached soles lying on the towel. 

“ They did seem to be on their last leg, darling ,” He sounds sympathetic as he speaks. “ Have you gotten a new pair yet? ” 

Olivia feels tears well up in her eyes, as her breath hitches softly. He’s always telling me I need to get myself something nice. He’s going to be so disappointed. “I’ve gotta wait a while before I can,” She whispers. 

“ Why? Did you not get your allowance this month? ” He asks, sounding concerned. 

“I did,” She chews her lip for a moment before letting out a shaky breath, “It’s gone already…”

“ You spent all of it already? ” The man on the other end of the phone sounds surprised. “ What have you been buying? ” 

“I didn’t waste it, I promise,” She whimpers, “It went to my tuition and groceries.” 

He’s quiet on the other side of the phone. “ Am I not giving you enough? ” He asks after a few moments. 

“Of course you are,” She says quickly, “You’re giving me more than enough. I’m really grateful. It lets me have more time for schoolwork.”  

Faintly Olivia hears him let out a soft breath, “ Darling, you are allowed to ask for gifts outside your allowance if you’re using all of your allowance before the month is up. ” There's a soft rustling over the phone before the sound of him walking somewhere. 

She lets out a confused-sounding noise, sitting up as her free hand wipes at her tears. “What?” 

“ Via, darling girl. If you need something you can just ask for it. ”

After what Olivia started calling ‘The shoe meltdown’, she learned a few things about Dante that she wouldn’t have otherwise.

First, apparently, the man had a thing for letting her buy very expensive clothing and shoes with a card he gave her as long as he got pictures of her wearing them. 

Second, despite the man not wanting any sexual favors, he really enjoyed sexier pictures of her in those same pieces of very expensive clothing.

And lastly, and more recently, if she even joked about wanting some crazy expensive pair of shoes, they would appear in her campus mailbox if he didn’t hand deliver them to her. 

This is how she found herself wearing her shortest pencil skirt and the red bottom heels she had joked about while having Sydney take pictures of her walking in them. 

“So which daddy sent these?” The redhead asks from her spot lying on the floor in an empty common room of one of their fancier academic buildings. 

“Dante,” Olivia says softly, turning back to look at Sydney over her shoulder. “I only have him.”

“Why only one? Was it in his contract or do you enjoy the sex too much not to get another one?” 

The blonde blinks in confusion, “I could have more than one at once?”

“Liv,” Sydney sighs, passing the phone over as her roommate walks over to her and helps her up. “Of course, you can have more than one at a time. They love to compete with each other. You’re putting these on the Instagram you shared with them, right?” Olivia is silent for a bit too long for Sydney’s taste, causing the redhead to let out a small huff, “We’re fixing that.”

Dante had been surprisingly encouraging for Olivia to explore other arrangements, something about being rather busy in the coming days and needing to be there for his younger brother.

She was shocked at how easily she had found another arrangement on the app. Sydney had been encouraging her to try a more sexual arrangement, clearly tired of walking in on her trying to get off after her dates with Dante.

So here she was, sitting at a very expensive hotel bar dressed in a tight short green dress and her favorite heels. She sips on the drink she got, a fruity virgin thing that she was trying to push her nervousness away by fidgeting with her glass. She glances over next to her as a man slides into the empty seat. 

He smiles over at her, “Olivia?” He asks, offering out a gloved hand for her to shake. 

“Hi,” She says with a smile, turning to face him as she offers him her hand. “Valentino?” She blushes softly as he presses a kiss to the back of her hand and looks over the edge of his sunglasses as he lets out an affirmative hum, making her pause.

The odds of meeting two men through the same service who both had one white eye had to be slim to none. Valentino had the same white eye that Dante did. Since the other man stated clearly that he didn’t want her to share any details about him, she chose not to comment on it. 

“Nice to finally meet you in person, tezoro ,” He purrs, letting go of her hand as he looks her over. “I’m glad to see you can follow instructions well.” His voice is soft as he leans in closer to her, making her blush softly. 

“Of course,” She says, fingers trailing over the rim of her glass. “I’m a quick learner too.” Olivia can’t help but look away from his gaze, eyes drifting down to the knot of his tie, suddenly feeling a bit shy. 

“Good,” He says, flagging one of the bartenders down to order. “Then the first thing you should know is I want you to call me Daddy rather than my name. Can you do that, tezoro ?” 

“Yes Daddy,” She says softly, face turning pink again as she looks back up at his face. Tonight is going to be interesting if I’m already calling him daddy out in public.

Things definitely were interesting. That was putting it mildly. 

With Valentino came an allowance similar to the one Dante was giving her, gifts of expensive lingerie, weekend and school break trips, and lessons on kink.  She had never thought that she would enjoy most, if not all, of what he wanted to do. It became a new routine for her spring semester, alternating weekends with her daddies. 

Flower shows and peaceful lunch and dinner dates with Dante. 

Drinks, dancing, and marathon sex or orgies with Valentino. 

Olivia loved every moment of it. She had never gotten this much attention from any male figures in her life. They encouraged her to go after what she wanted. They pushed away her worries of being greedy. They love to compete with each other, despite the fact that Olivia never talks about her previous weekend. 

If Dante noticed new lingerie in one of the photos she would send him, she would get a new pair of heels or jewelry. 

If Valentino noticed her new heels (or in one case a very nice charm bracelet) he was taking her designer dress shopping that he knew she would never wear outside of their dates.

By the time the end of her spring semester started to approach, she was panicking. 

Once the dorms closed for the summer she would be essentially homeless. Nowhere would sign her on for a three-month lease and she hated the idea of trying to pay for a hotel room for the entire summer, even if both of her allowances would allow her to. 

Sydney was nice enough to offer assistance in moving all of her dorm crap into the small storage unit she had managed to get. Olivia had applied for a housing extension. She was working on arranging a travel schedule with Dante and Valentino, who both seemed to be fighting over who got the most time with her during her summer.

“That bastard!” Primo hears Secondo shout from his office. He was walking down the hallway towards his after grabbing himself lunch. He can’t help but pop his head into his middle brother’s office, watching as the younger man quickly types up a message on his phone. “Is everything alright?” He asks with a soft chuckle.

“No! My tezoro ’s other daddy is trying to take a few of the weeks I wanted to use to go on a trip with her,” Secondo growls, hitting send before tossing his phone onto his desk. 

Primo could relate a bit too well, his Via had been trying to negotiate time with him and her other daddy for a few weeks now, and with the summer quickly approaching she needed to broker a deal between them before it was too late. He had events he wanted to attend with her during the weeks, this other man probably just wanted some sex vacation if the marks he had started to leave on her were any clue. “I understand. Sharing my darling girl is hard but we find a way, even if that means being more flexible with our time.” 

“Fuck flexible. I deserve the time I’m paying her for.” Secondo lets out a huff as he crosses his arms. 
“And so does this other man. Unless you plan on changing your agreement with her and changing her allowance to make up for her loss of income,” Primo says, shaking his head as he moves to leave. “Good luck with your tezoro.”

Chapter Text

“I miss doing ballet,” Olivia says softly, closing her eyes as Dante keeps smoothing his fingers over her skin, lightly tracing patterns between the freckles on her shoulders. She was still dressed in the red strapless dress he had picked out for her, the full skirt spilling over the top of his legs, standing out against his black suit like a ruby under lights. 

Dante seems to hum softly, eyes still locked onto the TV where Swan Lake is playing. The blonde had picked it out, practically begging to watch it instead of the zen gardening documentary he picked out. “You were a dancer?” He asks gently, shifting slightly where he is leaning back against the headboard. 

She hums, nodding as she opens her eyes to look back at the TV, “I was en pointe before my sister was born and my parents pulled me out of it.” 

He glances down at her, watching as she smiles fondly at the screen and hums along with the music, “Have you thought about getting back into dance?” He asks, looking back up at the screen as she presses herself even closer to him and shrugs. 

“Every so often,” Olivia murmurs, hand moving to play with the buttons on his shirt as she thinks. “I have enough of a credit gap to take a beginner refresher class before going back into a studio setting. But pointe is so expensive in the long run.” 

His fingers drag up her shoulder for a second before smoothing over her hair as he chuckles, “My darling girl, you hardly ask me for anything anymore, especially since your other arrangement beat me to the punch by covering the rest of your university for your birthday.” 

Olivia gives another shrug, fingers curling into his shirt as she turns her head to look up at him. Her eyes search his face as he looks down at her again. “It would cut my time during the week for calls, are you sure?” 

“I get to say I know a graziosa piccola ballerina,” He smiles brightly at her, smoothing the back of his fingers against her cheek. “And get to buy you adorable outfits for your classes. You do all of the hard work and I get to support your dancing dreams.” 

She giggles softly, eyes squeezing shut as he leans in and presses a soft kiss to her forehead. 

“Thanks for picking me up, Daddy,” Olivia says cheerfully, sliding into the passenger seat of Valentino’s car, leaning over the center console to kiss his cheek before settling her bag in her lap and closing the door. 

“Of course, tezoro ,” He says, waiting for her to buckle in before pulling away from the curb. 

She smiles brightly over at him as she unzips her bag and starts touching up the light makeup she is wearing. “It completely slipped my mind that I had an extra class this week since it just made it onto my schedule.”

“A class dressed like that?” He asks, raising an eyebrow as he glances over at what she’s wearing. She shifts her shoulders and he watches out of the corner of his eyes as the gray cropped sweater shifts off her shoulder. 

“Yes a class,” She teases, flipping the compact shut again and slipping it away, looking over at him as she zips her bag shut and slides her bag to the floor. “It’s a dance class. Ballet. I want to build back up to pointe. I get school credit for this beginner class.” 

“Pointe?” He whistles softly, reaching over to rest a hand on her thigh, thumb smoothing over the tracksuit pants she had pulled on over her tights and leotard. Her hand comes to rest on top of his, making him smile as she smooths her thumb over his skin. 

“Yeah,” The blonde settles back into the seat, half paying attention to the road as she looks over at him. “I was en pointe for maybe three, almost, four years before I was pulled out of dance. My parents figured it was a waste and made me a godless slut for dressing so inappropriately.”

He lets out a scoff, shaking his head as he fully focuses on getting to their destination. “Why the sudden change of tune from them?” He asks gently.

“His mom died and they decided it was time to be born again. It was horrible, church every Sunday, Tuesday, and Friday and I always felt so sick during it.” She frowns, shaking her head as she looks back down at her bag. “Things really bubbled over when I didn’t want to be reborn or some shit.”

“Well,” Valentino sighs, a smile appearing. “I am very glad that you decided against it. Sin looks good on you.” 

There’s something in his tone that makes it seem like that has a deeper meaning to it, but Olivia doesn’t pry and chooses to just smile at him and nod. “I guess it does, huh?” 

It takes her less time than she had expected to build back up to pointe, managing to get back into the full swing of it by the start of her third year of university. She was rather lucky that both of her Daddies were very supportive of her keeping up with practicing outside of class. 

They both seem very interested in watching her practice whenever they’re with her over the weekends. 

Olivia sits on an open section of floor in Dante’s townhome and stretches, soft music playing on her phone and filling the early morning air. She got up knowing that it would still be a few hours before the man got up, choosing to not waste his time by making him sit around while she practiced. 

She straightens up with a sigh, rolling her shoulders out before starting to pull on her pointe shoes and starting to tie her ribbons. 

“Good morning darling girl,” Dante says softly, yawning as he comes out of his bedroom and crosses the open living area she was in towards the kitchen. 

“Good morning Daddy,” She says, looking over her shoulder at him with a smile before focusing on her ribbons again, missing the surprised look he had on his face while frozen mid-step. 

He hums in amusement, blinking a few times before smiling, and continuing to start working on his coffee. “Did you sleep well?” He asks. “You’re up early.”

Olivia nods, standing as she adjusts the sleeves on the sweater she normally wore in her classes. “I did, I just wanted to get up early so I didn’t keep you waiting while I practiced.”

“You’re practicing doesn’t bother me, Via,” He chuckles, leaning a hip against the counter as he watches her step up onto the dance dot that Valentino surprised her with after her teacher cleared her for the more advanced class.

“I just worry it’s wasting your time,” She says, before starting to run through her beginning positions as a warm-up. “I know I’m not but still…”

“Via, if it makes you happy it makes me happy,” He says, pulling his mug off of the base of the maker and making his way over to sit at the nearby dining table to watch her. 

She laughs softly, settling back on both feet to pick up her phone and change her music to the piece she had been working on in class. “Well since you’re going to watch I might as well show you what we’ve been working on.”

“Please do,” He sets his mug down on the table and adjusts his robe as he watches her get into the starting pose, carefully bringing her arms up into position and straightening her back.

Practicing around Valentino was different, he somehow was more interested in watching how flexible she could be. It seemed that every time she put on her pointe shoes, he expected a bratty ballerina who would give him nothing but attitude while strutting around in a leotard and tights. 

“I’ve got a surprise for you,” He says, leading her through the front door into his condo. 

Olivia can’t help but smile up at him in confusion, as she lets him lead her through his space towards what he used to use as a small formal dining room. “What is it?” She asks, letting him step behind her and cover her eyes as they get closer. 

“ Tezoro, ” He chuckles, “Me telling ruins the effect of a surprise.” He comes to a stop, shifting his hand to be over both of her eyes as she sighs dramatically, and she hears the door being opened. “Just a few seconds longer,” He says, guiding her through the doorway and flicking on the light switch. 

Olivia leans back against his chest as he rests a hand on her hip. After a few seconds, he pulls his hand away from her eyes causing her to gasp. “Did you do this just for me?” She asks, eyes scanning over the mirrors on the wall and the new wood floor setup in the room. 

“I have to support my prima ballerina somehow, yes?” He asks, leaning in closer to her ear. “Besides, I have bigger plans for this room other than just dancing.” His fingers squeeze her hip as his lips brush over her neck. 

She can’t help the soft moan that escapes her as she watches him in the mirror, images of him making her watch him fuck her filling her mind. 

“Go get changed, I know you haven’t practiced today,” He purrs against her skin, hands drifting up from her hips to her waist and squeezing her again. “I think it’s time we got this floor broken in, yes?”

A soft breath escapes her as she nods eagerly, turning around to press a kiss to his cheek before rushing to go change. 

“With the little skirt thing too,” He calls after her, “I picked out a new one especially for tonight.”

Olivia is nervously shifting backstage as she waits to go on with her dance partner. “Please don’t drop me on opening night,” She murmurs, resting the back of her hands on her hips, trying not to squish any of the tulle. 

“For fucks sake, I won’t. I may have fumbled you a few times before but I’ll catch you,” He hisses at her, shaking his head as he rolls his shoulders. She glances over at the others who smile and nod at her.

What a fucking confidence boost, She thinks as she rolls her eyes. “Thanks Brad,” Olivia says sarcastically. After a second she lets out a soft breath, shaking out her arms as she puts on a smile and heads out onto stage with him and the other dancers in the scene.

The music starts and she easily starts on the routine, smiling and trying not to let the discomfort show on her face when Brad grabs her too hard or presses himself a bit too close.

The other male dancers in the scene seem more careful with her tonight, whispering soft encouragements when they can and clearly aware that she is a bit more nervous than she had been during rehearsals the last few weeks.

She finds herself relaxing more as they keep going. Brad actually has his shit together tonight.

They reach the part Brad had been struggling with most, one of the lift and dips that puts her head towards the floor before he is supposed to put her over his shoulder. He gets her into the air and easily dips her before moving to put her on his shoulder. She hears him mumble a curse, then the next thing she knows she’s hitting the floor hard, shoulder and head first, then darkness.

She isn’t out long, just long enough to only catch the tail end of the gasp the crowd and a bit of the panicked cries of the kids on stage and the other dancers, she can’t help the cry that she lets out as pain floods through her. She groans, trying to shift before she feels hands on her. 

“Shit Liv, don’t move. We don’t know if you broke anything,” Mark, one of the others in the scene, says, face swimming into her vision.  “You hit your head hard and the crack sounded bad.” 

“My shoulder,” She whimpers, trying to bring the arm not squished underneath her up to feel only to get her hand batted away from it by the man kneeling next to her. 

She frowns, slowly just laying her head back down onto the floor. She faintly can spot some of the other guys in the show yelling at Brad in the background. “That bastard,” She slurs, squeezing her eyes shut when she spots the director rushing on stage along with the stage managers. 

“Is there anyone I can go get for you?” Mark asks gently, laying a hand on her side to get her attention.

Fuck. Which night is it? Tears leak out of her eyes as she tries to remember if it was Dante or Valentino in the audience. “My Dad,” She whispers, “He should be out there. Italian guy.” 

“I’ll find him. I promise,” Mark smooths his thumb over her side before standing and quickly rushing past the show leadership that was trying to get the other actors and crew off stage and close the curtains. 

“Via,” Dante calls as the stage manager throws one of the blankets they kept backstage over her. Olivia’s eyes open as the shivers start to kick in and the pain turns into a dull ache in her shoulder. She watches as he hurries over and carefully kneels at her side, “Darling girl,” He says softly, reaching out and resting his hand on her head for a second. “It’s going to be okay, I promise.” 

She blinks again and suddenly she’s got two EMTs hovering above her and Mark is speaking with Dante while passing her bag over to the older man. 

Olivia finds herself curled up in Dante’s bed that night, arm trapped in a sling, and is what she considered high off her ass on painkillers. She blinks a few times, pulling her head off of his shoulder as she looks away from the book Dante was reading to her and out the open bedroom door. 

She stares at the black blobs of figures that were walking around in the living area, unwilling to look away as she reaches over to pat Dante to get his attention. “It’s looking at me…” She whimpers, feeling a bit panicky as one of the blobs looks over, eyes seeming to glow a brighter purple the longer it looks at her. “Whata th fuh?” She mumbles.

Dante lets out a sigh, looking over with a frown, “Darling, I think it’s time you got some sleep. You’ve had a very rough day.” 

Olivia can’t help but turn her head to look up at him, tears welling up in her eyes as she tightens her hold on his shirt. “M’ sleep paralasis demons are in the living room.” She sobs, pressing her face into his chest, and lets out a small whine of discomfort as he tries to keep her from putting pressure on her collarbone. 

“Do you want me to tell them to go?” Dante asks after a few moments of her crying against him. 

When she nods, he lets out a small sigh and carefully pulls himself out of her hold, laying the book down on his nightstand. She lets out a soft whimper as he tucks the covers in around her and adjusts the pillows he had supporting her. Her eyes follow him as he heads out of the bedroom and watches as he comes to a stop in front of the figure. He seems to whisper to it for a moment before it nods and quickly slips away.

“There we go,” He says gently, smiling at her as he walks back in and closes the door behind him. “All better, yes?” 

She nods sluggishly, the arm not trapped in a sling slipping out from under the covers to reach for him. 

“I’m right here my darling girl, nothing is going to harm you,” He says, sliding back into his side of the bed and taking her hand, pressing a soft kiss to the back of it. 

The next morning, Olivia wasn’t sure if it was the concussion or the painkillers that were making the shadowy figures seem to be around more, lingering in the corner of her vision. She squeezes her eyes shut tightly for a moment as she takes a few deep breaths before opening them again, staring down into the bowl in front of her. 

“Via?” Dante asks gently, making the blonde sluggishly lift her head and look over at him. “Are you sure you’re doing alright?” 

No. I’m not. I’m sure I’m going crazy, thanks for asking. She gives a small one shoulder shrug, offering him a weak smile as she sighs. “These painkillers are fucking me up,” She says softly, slowly turning back to look at her bowl as she feels him press a soft kiss to the top of her head. 

“They’ll do that. You won’t have to take them for too much longer, you only have another two days’ worth,” He says, starting to head back into the kitchen again. She hums, nodding as she picks up her spoon again, intending to go back to eating the soup Dante had made for her. 

She’s sitting there quietly having a staring contest with a shadow, spoon fully in her mouth when her phone rings, making her jump and quickly look around. Her eyes land on her phone after a few moments and she reaches for it while letting the spoon fall out of her mouth and down onto the table. 

“Hello?” She asks, sounding mildly panicked as she glances around for the shadow she had been staring at before focusing on the table top again.

“ Tezoro, ” Valentino says cheerfully. “ Do you have time for lunch with me before your call time?” 

Olivia lets out a soft curse, scooting back her chair slightly as she leans her elbow on the edge of the table. “I’m not dancing tonight. Fucking Brad dropped me on my head and I broke my collarbone.”

“ Poor darling, ” He sighs, “ Did they tell you how long it’ll take to recover? ” 

“They say since I’m still young it’ll be six to eight weeks. I’ll have to go to physical therapy and it’s gonna be a while before I’ll be able to use my arm again,” She lets her eyes slide shut as she lets out a yawn. “That combined with the concussion I got from bouncing my head off the floor means I won’t be dancing or doing anything fun for a while.” 

“ Are you being looked after well? I know this isn’t my week but if you needed anything I would move hell to be there. ”

“I know,” She smiles, humming happily. “Thank ya. He made me soup and the shadows are doing a great job keeping me entertained.” 

“… the shadows? Livie what do you mean? ”

Olivia’s eyes open, looking across the table at the shadow sitting there with wide eyes, clearly shocked that she had even said that. She lets out a nervous laugh as the hood containing glowing green eyes tilts in amusement. “These painkillers are wild… I um… I think I just need to go back to bed.” 

“ Alright… ” He sounds mildly worried as he processes what she had said. “ Get some rest. I’ll see you next weekend, yes? ”

“Yeah. If you still want me while I’m all broken,” She says softly, eyes drifting away from the shadow and towards her sling.

“ Of course I still wish to see you. You’re still my girl, broken or not, ” He chuckles. 

“Thanks,” She smiles down at the table, adjusting her hold on her phone slightly. “I’ll see you next weekend.” 

He hums softly on the other end before telling her to get some rest and hangs up the phone.

Olivia slowly sets her phone back down, eyes moving back to the group of shadows now gathered on the other side of the table. Her hand blindly searches for her spoon again, not wanting to pull her gaze off of them. 

Slowly one of the taller beings leans forward and grabs it, holding it out to her as it nods for her to take it. 

She slowly reaches out and takes it. “Thank you, Mr. Shadow Man,” She whispers, watching as the group seems to glance at each other in silent laughter.

The shadows seem to follow her over to Valentino’s place the following week, but they all had a different kind of blob for faces despite the same glowing eyes under their hoods. 

She wakes up in the middle of her first night at Valentino’s since the accident and, after being unable to immediately fall back asleep, she slips out of bed and wanders into the main kitchen and living space. 

Olivia fails to notice the group gathered on the sofas and the game that was paused on the TV until she finishes getting a glass of water. She sips on it as her eyes scan over the numerous sets of glowing eyes that were staring widely at her. 

They watch curiously as she glances back at the closed bedroom door for a moment before starting to make her way over. “Whatcha playing?” She asks softly, sitting down on a sofa next to one and squeezing one eye shut as the light from the screen made her eyes ache slightly. 

The shadow sitting next to her slowly reached forward and picked up the case laying on the coffee table to show her. It was surrounded by empty cans and wrappers that seemed to just be tossed onto the surface.

“Oh, Halo? That’s a good one from what I’ve heard,” She says with a small yawn, tucking her bare legs underneath her as she looks over at the screen to see the split screen setup. The group nods, watching her for a few moments before starting to play again. She can spot them glancing over at her every so often as she sips on her water. 

She can’t help but jump slightly, both eyes open to look up at the shadow above her when she feels something soft touch her skin. The shadow immediately pauses blinking at her a few times before it finishes draping the blanket from the back of the couch over her and lightly pats her head. “Thank you,” She whispers with a yawn, letting one of the others pull the empty glass from her hand. 

They nod slightly to her, watching her curl up as best she could in the corner of the sofa and close her eyes again. They seem to be slightly amused as she falls asleep to the soft sound of their game on the TV speakers and clicking their controllers. 

When Olivia wakes up next, it's Valentino picking her up off of the couch to carry her back to bed. “What are you doing out of bed, tezoro ? It’s too early for you to be up,” He murmurs to her, letting the blonde bring her good arm up to wrap around his neck. 

She glances around the living area as he takes her back to bed, able to see it fully with the early morning light that was flooding into the room, it was like she was the only one sitting there all night. The room was spotless, the gaming console had vanished and so had the glass she could have sworn was left on the coffee table.

“Donno, guess I slept walked,” She mumbles, laying her head against his chest as she closes her eyes again.

“So,” Earth starts, glancing over at Pebble as they walk towards the gardens, “Did you finally get to meet Secondo’s girl? Because I got to meet Papa’s week before last.”

“I did. Poor thing,” Pebble sighs, nodding slightly. “She is stuck in a sling right now. Something about a broken collarbone. Humans can be so fragile.”

Earth can’t help but laugh softly, “That’s funny because Papa’s is too. She was dropped during a performance.” 

“No way,” Pebble stops in the hall, looking over at Earth with wide eyes behind his mask. “Ballet?”

Earth’s head tilts slightly as he nods slowly, “Yeah. The nutcracker.”

“Let me guess,” The other earth ghoul says, “She was the sugar plum and Brad the asshole dropped her on her head?”

Earth can’t help the laughter that starts to escape him, reaching over and clapping Pebble on the shoulder. “Oh shit. They’re seeing the same girl and they don’t even know it. I bet they find out the moment she graduates.”

Pebble shakes his head slightly, shoulders shaking as he laughs, “Nah, I bet it’s sooner than that. There’s no way they don’t know. Right?”

Chapter Text

As Olivia’s concussion started to get better, the shadowy figures slowly started to disappear from her daily existence in Dante and Valentino’s places. Something she was grateful for until a few weeks after classes started back up.  Olivia felt like shit. Which was a rather mild description of how she sounded and looked. She was still trapped in the sling from breaking her collarbone at the beginning of winter break. 

She clutches her arm to hold her shoulder in place as she starts coughing again, spots starting to creep into her vision as she struggles to take in a breath in between coughs. 

The moment she had started showing signs of being sick Valentino insisted that she stay in his condo, even if he wasn’t going to be there that week, to recover and had set her up in the guest room. Sydney had dropped her off so quickly after Olivia had apparently started to sleep talking about the end of days and a second coming of some kind. Dante had been oddly accepting when she called to say she wouldn’t be able to spend time with him that weekend, telling her that she was more than welcome to spend the time at his, but something had come up so he wouldn’t be there.

It had started like a cold, runny nose, fever, and a slight cough. Now Olivia felt like she was actively dying. She had been sleeping sitting up, after quickly processing that it felt like she was drowning when she slept on her back since she still couldn’t sleep on her sides. 

Her phone alarm goes off to remind her to take another dose of cold medicine, making her let out a soft groan as her cough slows and reaches over to silence it. She tosses her phone down onto the bed next to her, shivering as she slides out of her nest of blankets and stands. Her head swims for a moment as she shoves her feet into her slippers, snagging one of the blankets she had stolen off the couch to wrap around her as she heads towards the door of the guest room. 

She stumbles slightly as she walks eventually getting the blanket around her shoulders covering the top of her head as well and holding it in her teeth as she opens the door with her free hand. Olivia frowns, hand coming back up to hold the blanket, as she steps into the hallway. 

I have to be imagining that. She thinks, slowly starting to make her way down the hall towards the kitchen and living room, and tilts her head in confusion as she hears the soft sound of people chatting. He said I’d be alone for the week until he got back.

Olivia pauses after turning the corner, taking in all of the slightly blurry people-sized shadows standing there chatting with each other. These fucking sleep paralysis demons just now show up whenever I’m sick now? If I play it cool maybe they’ll leave me be…

She blinks a few times, staring wide-eyed at the floor as she staggers in between them towards the bag she had left on the island. 

The group seems to go silent, she can faintly see them glancing between her and each other in confusion for a moment. She looks up around at them, offering them a small smile and a wave. “Hey… nice to see you guys again…” 

The blonde stumbles slightly and one quickly reaches out to grab her good arm to keep her from falling. She lets out a content-sounding sigh, feeling the warm hand holding her arm, and mumbles a soft thank you as she leans into it. 

“Of course, miss,” A male voice whispers to her. 

Great. The fever demons speak now. 

Olivia hums softly, stepping closer to the island between the two shadows closest to her, she blinks a few times as she stares at the dark stone top and struggles to remember what she came into the room for. 

“Are you alright? You look pale,” The shadow on her other says softly and she turns to look up at them as his hand comes to press against her forehead. 

She can’t help but sigh, closing her eyes as she leans her head into his hand. “I don’t feel good,” She mumbles. Her head felt like it was on fire and the cool hand on her face felt so nice, imaginary shadow monsters or not. 

“She’s burning up,” The one with his hand on her forehead says, making the others sigh. 

She hears a bag rustle on the counter and then footsteps approaching. “Livia,” A new voice says making her slowly open her eyes and turn to look at the newest shadow. It holds up the thermometer that she had thrown back into the bag the last time she had checked it. 

Olivia doesn’t even fully notice it being held out until it taps her lips, and just opens her mouth for it, letting the shadow slip it under her tongue, as she stares at the two glowing purple eyes under the hood. She manages to hold in her coughing fit until after it beeps, her hand instantly letting go of the blanket to hold her arm still as she coughs into her other shoulder. 

“Fuck. It’s one oh four. What’s normal in humans?” She hears purple eyes say, as hands move to hold her blanket over her shoulder and rub small circles on her back. 

“Ninty-eight, I think,” Someone else starts before saying something else that she can’t make out over the ringing in her ears that starts as she struggles to get a breath in again. She leans more into the hand on her back as she struggles, squeezing her eyes shut as the dots start to dance in her vision again. 

The hands seem to guide her over to one of the couches and she easily stumbles alongside them, as her coughing stops and she takes in desperate gasps of air. The blanket is pulled from her shoulders, making her look up at Orange Eyes with a small pout for a second before its being tucked around her again. 

“Livia,” White Eyes says, causing her to slowly look over at the shadow carrying the box of cold medicine that she had originally wandered out to take. “When was the last time you took this?” He asks. 

“Six,” She says, voice rough from the coughing and her dry mouth. 

“Then it’s time for another dose,” Blue Eyes says as he walks over with a glass of water, passing it to her as White Eyes starts to pull a dose out of the box for her. 

“If her fever isn’t down after the drugs have time to kick in then we’ll need to bring her temperature down somehow,” Purple Eyes says, coming to sit on the edge of the coffee table as he reads over something on his phone.

White Eyes holds out the pills for Olivia and for a second she panics, not sure how to take them other than to open her mouth and hope that they just throw them in. After a second, it seemed they understood her problem and carefully feeds her both of the pills before encouraging her to take a sip of water.

She finishes half the glass before sighing and letting them take it back. Blue Eyes slides onto the couch next to her, carefully pulling her to rest against him. She lets out a small whine starting to shiver again as the cold seems to radiate off of him and starts to seep through the hoodie she had pulled on to sleep in. 

“You’re cold,” She whimpers, frowning as she tries to pull away. 

“You heard Quint,” The man behind her says softly, arm wrapping around her waist to keep her against him. “Your fever needs to come down.” 

“It’s either a cuddle with Water or a cold shower Livia,” Quint says, purple eyes pulling away from his phone to look over at her. 

The blonde can’t help but frown. “No shower,” She mumbles, turning her face to press against the side of Water’s chest. “I feel like I’m drowning.” She lets out a rough-sounding breath as her teeth start to chatter and brings up her good hand to pull the hood up over her head. 

The shadow man holding her lets out a soft hum, carefully shifting them both to be more comfortable as the others start to settle into their different spots in the living room. She drifts off into a light sleep, face pressed into Water’s chest.

At some point, it seemed that Water had pushed her hood down, choosing to run his fingers through her hair as she slept. 

Olivia wakes slightly and can hear the soft noise of something playing on the TV and the shadow men talking to each other. 

“Her breathing sounds like shit,” The voice of White Eyes says somewhere above her, and seconds later she feels a hand slip between her sling to rest on her ribs. “Maybe we should get Pops to take her to a doctor. Like an actual human doctor.” 

Olivia feels Water’s chest expand underneath her before he lets out a long sigh. “At least her fever is breaking,” He says, the cool fingers in her hair slipping under the neckline of her hoodie to rest on her upper chest for a second before returning to play with her hair. “She started sweating not long ago.” 

“Thank fuck,” Someone else huffs, “It only took two hours to work.” 

The hand on her ribs pulls away, carefully tucking the blanket around her again. “Earth, did you text Pops to update him yet?” White Eyes says. 

“Yeah,” Earth says, “It seems he’s under the impression that she still doesn’t notice we’re here.” 

They all start to chuckle, seemingly amused by that statement, as Olivia starts to weakly cough again. She feels Water’s hand support her bad arm as he sits her up a bit more. Her wheezing seems worse when her coughing stops, something White Eyes comments on again that makes the others hum in agreement.

The next morning when she woke up, they were all still there, cuddling around her on the couch where they had been when she fell asleep. She lets out a small groan, shifting uncomfortably as she pulls herself out of her spot between Water and the guy who felt like a furnace. Everyone watches as Olivia stands, pulling at the collar of her hoodie as she shuffles off toward her room to change out of her sweat-soaked clothes. 

They watch as she disappears down the hallway before turning to look at each other. They couldn’t help but feel protective of her for some reason. To Quintessence she seemed to have an aura almost like one of some of the most devoted sisters, but to the others, something about her fruity smell drew them in and made them want to keep her safe.

“Livia,” Quint says softly, gently nudging the blanket cocoon she made for herself in the armchair that night. 

They had disappeared for most of the day after making sure she was comfortable and took her medicine, something about having business elsewhere for the day. 

The blonde hums weakly, opening her eyes to look up at the purple-eyed shadow in front of her. “Yeah?” She croaks, trying to blink away the blurriness in her vision. 

“Have you eaten anything today?” He sounds mildly concerned as he moves to sit on the arm of the chair and reaches out to feel her forehead. 

“Yeah. I had some grapes,” She shifts slightly, leaning forward into his hand. “I couldn’t find anything that didn’t need to be cooked,” She finds herself whispering when his head seems to tilt in disappointment. 

“She hungry?” White Eyes calls from the kitchen. 

Quint hums softly, “Are you hungry?” He asks gently, hand pulling back from her forehead to cup her cheek. 

“Yeah,” She says as her stomach growls loudly. 

“Make enough for one more Air,” Quint calls out, leaning down towards the blonde to lay his head on hers for a moment before moving to stand again. 

“Sure thing,” White Eyes calls back, “Livia allergic to anything?” 

“Strawberries,” Olivia finds herself mumbling as Quint tucks her blankets around her a bit more. 

“We’ll take care of it, don’t worry,” He says gently, purple eyes seeming to smile in the darkness of his hood. “I’ll come get you when it’s ready, just sleep a bit more.”

Eating a meal with a bunch of shadowy hallucinations after waking up from a nap was possibly one of the strangest things Olivia had ever done. She couldn’t smell anything since her nose was too stuffed up, but from what she could taste, these demons weren’t the worst at cooking. 

She couldn’t help but wonder if she would wake up from this dream still in the armchair and hungry at any moment. But for now, she was going to continue to enjoy the dino chicken nuggets and mac and cheese Air had made for her after realizing that the curry he had made was going to be too spicy for her. 

“You know,” She says softly after a few moments of watching food disappear under their hoods, causing the group to all look over at her. “This has to be the strangest fever dream I’ve ever had. Not in a bad way, happy for the company honestly, but like…” She frowns in confusion, wiggling her fork in the air for a second. “I never thought I could be this creative.” 

The group of shadows around the table can’t help but chuckle, the one sitting closest to her even reaches over and pats her head.

“So how was being sick?” Sydney asks, looking over at Olivia as they walk across campus to one of their history classes. 

Olivia is quiet for a few moments, thinking about all of the shows she ended up watching with her shadows. “It was nice. Watched a lot of TV and really enjoyed having a kitchen that fully worked.” 

Was she sure how she had managed to stay upright and make all of the different things she could vaguely remember eating? No. Not at all but it was a better explanation than ‘the shadow monsters took care of me, it was great’.

“This was Valentino’s place right?” Sydney asks, pausing for a second as she waits for Olivia to make it up the steps to the door to their building.

“Yeah,” Olivia says, frowning softly as she starts to get really lightheaded, taking a moment at the top of the stairs to take a few deep breaths. “I think I need to sit down for a bit.”

Sydney nods, pulling open the door and letting Olivia go in first before guiding the blonde over to a chair.

After a few moments of sitting, the dizziness passes allowing Olivia to continue to class.

Olivia had thought the dizziness was a random one-off thing. She couldn’t have been further from the truth. 

Over the next few months, what had started as just occasionally getting dizzy while walking upstairs turned into headrushes when standing up. She would see literal stars when Valentino would move her too quickly in bed. She found herself out of breath when walking with Dante through museums and gardens. She kept telling herself it was just from being out of shape from not dancing outside of making sure she was still able to stretch and get en pointe. 

She had been out of her sling for a few weeks, trying to get back into dance again, but found herself constantly needing to take breaks in the middle of classes. Her teachers had been rather forgiving but she felt like it was only a matter of time before that kindness disappeared.

She tips her head back under the water, rinsing her shampoo out of her hair, as Valentino smooths his hands down her sides. Olivia lets out a rough breath, opening her eyes and quickly lowering her arms back down to her sides. She shifts slightly, suddenly feeling too warm, as her vision starts to swim and she tries to take a few deep breaths. 

“M too warm,” She manages softly, trying to step out from under the warm water. The world felt like it was starting to close in around her. She feels her breaths start to speed up into small gasps as her heart pounds in her ears.

“Olivia?” He asks, a concerned frown appearing as he steps closer and guides her out from under the water. 

She wants to respond but can’t, her vision starting to cloud with static as she feels herself sinking towards the floor. She can hear him let out a sudden curse, his arms gripping hers tightly as he lowers her the rest of the way. Olivia’s eyes roll shut as she lays her cheek on a patch of cool shower wall. Faintly, she can feel him letting her go and hears the water turning off before everything goes fully quiet and dark. 

She comes around as he’s pulling her out of the shower and onto the bathroom floor. 

“Olivia,” He says, cupping her face as he sits her up against the glass divider keeping the shower from the rest of the bathroom. “You back with me?” His voice sounds slightly panicked. 

Her eyes sluggishly open, rolling slightly as she tries to focus on him, her hands come up to grab his forearm, giving it a weak attempt at a squeeze as she tries to answer. She opens her mouth to speak only to have a dry heave escape, eyes widening as she feels her stomach lurch. 

Olivia's hands pull his away from her face as she struggles to pull herself away and get over to the toilet as her stomach heaves again. She feels his hands move under her arms as he practically pulls her the rest of the way over, making it just in time before everything comes rushing back up. 

She faintly hears him say something to her before his hands disappear from her skin as her body starts to shiver and shake on its own. 

Olivia isn’t sure how long she fades in and out but by the time Valentino returns and wraps a towel over her shoulders, she’s started to sob. She feels so confused and nothing really seems to make any sense as the ringing in her ears starts to fade away

“ Tereso ,” He breathes, gently wiping at her tears when she sits back and leans against the wall. “Do you know where you are?” He asks softly.

The blonde slowly nods, teeth starting to chatter as her hands grab hold of the towel around her. “M at yours,” She manages, squeezing an eye shut as her head starts to pound. “We were in the shower.”

He lets out a sigh of relief, “Exactly right.” She watches as he fusses with the towel around her to try and dry her off some more. “What happened? Why didn’t you tell me you weren’t feeling well?”

“I dunno,” She sniffles, a hand coming up to rub at her eye, “I got too warm, and then…” She gives a small shrug. 

“It looked like you had a seizure,” He sighs, leaning forward to rest his forehead against hers for a second before pulling back. “I have half a mind to take you to a hospital.” 

“I’m okay, I promise,” She says softly, “I guess I locked my knees or something.” Olivia knew that was grasping at straws to try to avoid him taking her to the hospital. I’ve had enough doctor's appointments lately to be good for the next ten years.

He seems to believe her because after helping her off the bathroom floor and into comfortable clothes he tucked her into bed. 

She’s curled up around one of his pillows, mostly asleep in the peacefully dark and cool bedroom when she hears the door open. Olivia doesn’t bother to lift her head from where she had buried it in a pillow to see who it is when she hears Valentino let out a soft sigh. 

“I’m worried about her,” He whispers and faintly Olivia hears a familiar hum. 

“She passed out?” She hears Quint whisper back, as a hand lightly smooths over her head. She’s pretty sure she imagined the shadow’s voice as she lets out a soft sigh and lets the darkness of sleep fully take her.

The next time Olivia finds herself on the verge of passing out she’s on the phone with Dante, walking back from class. 

He’s in the middle of talking about some of the new flowers he had gotten for his garden when she decides to jog across the street to make the pedestrian signal. By the time she slows back to a walk again, she can hardly hear him over the sound of her heart pounding in her ears. She forces herself to take even breaths, leaning against the wall of a building as she shakily adjusts the headphones in her ear. 

“M sorry,” She says, only catching the end tone of a question as she blinks away spots in her vision and pants softly. “I didn’t catch that last part.” 

“ That’s alright, darling. Are you alright? It sounds like you’ve been running, ” He sounds just as concerned as Valentino did, something that makes her smile softly to herself. 

“Yeah, just jogged across the street,” She swallows and starts to straighten up again. Her sports watch buzzes on her wrist, making her frown slightly down at it, seeing a high heart rate notification appear. 191. What the fuck?  “That’s odd,” She whispers, slowly starting to walk towards her dorm again. 

“ What’s odd? ”

“My heart hit one ninety-one. From crossing the street,” She says, running a hand through her hair as she cuts through a parking lot to get back to her apartment. Her limbs feel heavy and she has to sit on the front steps for a few minutes while she waits for the floaty feeling in her head to pass. 

“ You’d tell me if you weren’t doing well, right ?” Dante asks softly when she goes to get off the phone with him.

“Of course. I think I’m just tired,” She sighs, running her hand through her hair as she closes her eyes. “You’d be one of the first to know if I was sick.” 

I would tell him, She thinks as he agrees and says a soft goodbye. It feels like something is wrong with me. I just keep getting told it’s nothing. I’m fine. But I feel like I’m dying anytime I’m more active than a walk.  

Olivia cuts through her student housing apartment after getting off the phone, heading back to her room, and tosses her bag down onto the floor before flopping face-first into bed. The fainting, heart racing randomly, and seeing shadow people. I feel like I’m going crazy.

Chapter Text

“We need to hire someone who actually knows how to do this shit,” Terzo sighs from his place at the desk. He scoots the chair back slightly, kicking his feet up onto the desktop, as he watches Secondo peak into boxes. 

“This role is normally held by a sibling, why would we hire externally?” Secondo asks, tossing a lid back onto a box before shoving it back into its place under a workbench. “Can’t we find one that can do it? We wouldn’t have to make Phil file all of that paperwork.”

The younger brother lets out a long sigh, shaking his head, “You say that like it’s as simple as sending out an email. Either way, Imperator wants us to deal with this.”

“Maybe a poster? So she doesn’t have a digital trail to follow?” Secondo asks, moving to stand in front of the station Terzo is sitting at. 

“That might work…” Terzo hums, shifting in the chair and putting his feet back on the floor as he snags a pen and a piece of paper.

Life in the main ministry was odder than Olivia had expected after converting. It seemed that as long as she attended mass, an occasional confession, and did some charity work once every so often she would be able to get away with anything she could imagine. 

She was bored most days. Other siblings chose to fill their days with sex and half-ass attempts at the few classes that were offered as ‘enrichment’. 

Olivia had chosen to take the ‘boring’ classes that no one else seemed to be interested in. Pottery and painting classes with Papa Primo. She was one of his only human students, mainly because the other sisters chose to take the courses the younger papas taught and he was open about being asexual these days. 

Was Olivia any good at painting? In her opinion, fuck no. But she found the classes fun, sitting and quietly chatting with Primo in the gardens on nice days while painting flowers was relaxing. 

“Papa,” Olivia says softly, glancing over at him out of the corner of her eye. She waits for him to hum in acknowledgment before continuing. “I was wondering if there was anything I could do to be more useful for the ministry.”

Primo chuckles softly, glancing over at the young woman with a raised eyebrow and a smile. “Is your role as my favorite student not enough?” He asks playfully. 

“Of course it is,” She says with a soft laugh. “I just sometimes feel like I’m not doing enough here.” 

“What makes you say that?” He turns to face her as he swishes his brush in water to rinse it.

She hums, shrugging as she stares at the mess of watercolor flowers she is working on. “I don’t quite fit in with the other siblings. Their party scene isn’t really for me and I’ve tried taking more charity hours. I just feel like I could be doing more…” 

“There isn’t anything saying that you can’t work during your time here, weren’t you telling me that you have a degree? Is there something you could do with it?” 

“Unless you need a BA in history with a museum studies minor, then not really. Even if I wanted to look outside of the ministry I would need a master's to work most places.” She looks over at him, rinsing her brush as he smiles. “What?” 

His head tilts slightly as he considers her words. “I think you should speak to my brothers about that. They were looking for someone to help them with a project.” 

Olivia frowns slightly, carefully blotting her brush on her towel for a moment. “What kind of project?”

“Imperator assigned them something in our archives since Sister Cynthia decided to leave us four months ago and neither of them is working on the Ghost project anymore,” Primo gives a small shrug, turning back to his landscape.

Olivia dreaded coming up to the papal offices. 

It meant fighting with her veil to be fully in uniform so Sister Imperator wouldn’t write her up. In the two years since earning her veil, she had yet to master it fully, Primo didn’t require them for classes like Secondo’s upper-level Italian classes did, and every time she put it on it constantly felt like it was slipping off her head. 

She comes around the corner, looking down the hall of offices for a moment, trying to see if Imperator or Nihil’s doors are open for a moment before slowly starting to creep along without making too much noise. 

Olivia can’t help but hold one hand on the top of her veil, silently praying for it to not completely slide off as she glances into Nihil’s office while passing it. She lets out a sigh of relief, spotting the man sound asleep at his desk, before quickly hurrying towards Papa Terzo’s open door.

Once in the doorway, the blonde notices Terzo and Secondo working intently on something at his desk. She chews her lip, bringing the hand she had on her veil to knock softly.

The men quickly look over with wide eyes causing Olivia to nervously shift, “Sorry to interrupt Papas…”

“It’s nothing, darling girl. Come in,” Terzo says quickly, motioning for her to enter. 

She slowly starts to make her way in as Secondo clears his throat and straightens up in the chair he is sitting in. 

“Is there something we can help you with, Sister?” Secondo asks, eyes following her as she comes to a stop by the edge of Terzo’s desk. 

“Papa Primo said you were looking for help in the archives,” Her hands came to fidget with the skirt of her habit. “He said I should speak with you two about it.”

“You wish to assist in the archives?” Terzo asks excitedly. “This is amazing news.” He motions for her to have a seat in the open chair by Secondo. 

Olivia nods as she sits, offering the men a smile as she does. 

“Thank fuck, these posters were starting to look stupid,” Secondo mumbles, capping the pen he had in his hand and tossing it down onto the desk. 

She can’t help the soft giggle that escapes as she looks over the different posters that seem to be trying to advertise the job in the archives. 

“What experience do you have, sister?” The elder man asks, folding his hands in his lap as he looks her over. 

“Well, I have a degree in history and had some museum archive experience in college. I’m just looking to be useful somehow.” It feels like their eyes are digging into her the longer she speaks.

“An even better candidate than we could have hoped for,” Terzo says quickly, standing and moving around his desk closer to her. He offers his hands out to her as he smiles brightly at her. “My darling, you are a true miracle,” He says, taking her hands and giving them a small squeeze before pressing a kiss to the back of them. 

The blonde feels her face heat as she watches him. “Thank you, Papa,” She whispers, smiling as she looks down towards her lap. 

“We will inform Sister Imperator,” Secondo says as Terzo lets go of her. “Sister…” His voice trails off and it suddenly occurs to Olivia that she never introduced herself to them. 

“Olivia, Papa,” She looks up at him, letting out a soft laugh as he reaches out and pats her head.

“Well thank you, Olivia,” Terzo says, leaning back against his desk. “You are doing us a huge favor taking this on.” 

The sister nods quickly, standing and offering them a small nod. “Thank you for this chance, Papas. I promise I won’t let you down.” 

“Of course, darling,” Secondo purrs, smirking slightly as she starts to move towards the door anxiously again. “We’ll find you after we speak with Imperator then work out the details.”

Cardinal Copia had returned from his first tour. 

That was the main chatter that Olivia had heard since getting up for her day. All of the sisters were whispering about the Cardinal everywhere Olivia went. 

In her two years at ministry headquarters, she had yet to meet the Cardinal that Sister Imperator was constantly speaking about. The treasurer of the clergy. He seemed to be important, from what she understood, but she hadn’t heard too much about him before him being assigned to the ghost project. 

Olivia hardly knew what this man looked like. Sure she had seen pictures of the man. Did that mean shit? No. Not at all. She had been too focused on his legs in the suit pants he was wearing in that photo to pay attention to his face. 

So when a man dressed in a red cassock caught her when she lost her balance on a foot ladder in the archives she had no clue who he was, other than his title of Cardinal.

“Are you alright, Sister?” He asks gently, still holding on to her as he lowers her feet to the ground. 

“Yes, thank you, Cardinal,” She says, taking a moment to get her feet under her before starting to let go of where she was clinging to the front of his cassock. “I just got dizzy for a moment.”

He hums softly, nodding as he smiles down at her, “You’ll need to be more careful. I won’t always be here to catch you.” 

Olivia feels her face heat as she forces herself to look away from the man. “I will be. It’s just been a lot of standing today.” She gives a small shrug, “I’ll get used to it.”

He hums softly and Olivia sees his hand come into her vision, gently nudging her chin up with his fingers to look up at him. “What are you doing down here, sister?” He asks. 

The blonde lets him guide her face up to look at him, instantly getting a look at the confused expression he has on. “Oh, I’m the new archivist,” She smiles up at him. 

“You’re a postulant,” He says, raising an eyebrow. “Are you that eager to move up in rank this quickly, Sister Olivia?” 

Olivia can’t help but laugh softly, hands moving to play with the grucifix on her rosary around her neck. “I wanted something more to do. I just wanted to be useful. I wasn’t looking for a change in rank.”

Sister Imperator had asked the same thing after summoning Olivia to her office, questioning her on why she wanted such a high position as a new postulant. The blonde had given the same answer then, causing the older woman to give her a tired sigh.

The Cardinal seems to brighten a bit at this answer though. “Wonderful. I’m sure you’ll be wonderful at this then. Any system is better than the old ones,” He says, squeezing her arms before stepping back. “Come, the relics that went on tour are about to be brought in.” 

She nods quickly with a smile, letting him guide her out of the archives and to the loading dock to assist with unpacking.

“These are creepy as fuck,” Olivia says softly, eyes carefully looking over the scratched glass lid on one of the coffins. 

“Yeah, they sure fucking are,” Sydney sighs, spinning herself in one of the rolling chairs Olivia had brought into the larger storage room of the archives. “I don’t understand how you feel comfortable standing that close to those things.”

“It’s because I know the Papas are all still breathing upstairs right now,” The blonde sighs, adjusting the gloves she had on before picking up the glass cleaner and a towel to start wiping the smears of gunk off the glass’s surface. 

“I still think it’s wild that the public thinks those are actually the Papa’s bodies.” The redhead slowly uses her heels to roll the chair closer to the glass coffin closest to her. “They look so lifelike,” She whispers, leaning in closer to look at the replica of Secondo a bit closer. 

“The Cardinal who helped me move them in here said they made casts of each Papa’s face then the bodies are just manikins that are similar sizes,” Olivia gives a small shrug, looking down at the Terzo replica under the glass for a moment. 

“How did you even manage to swing this promotion, Liv?” Sydney asks, frowning as she looks over at her friend. 

“I told Papa Primo that I wanted to have more to do. I wanted to feel useful,” She gives a small shrug, “He told me to speak with his brothers. They were making glitter posters to advertise the role. I have a degree and experience in an archive. Sister was pleased that it was an internal move.” 

“You lucky bitch. You know that means you get to go on tour with Cardinal Copia on the next tour right?” 

“Does it?” She asks with a frown. “Sister Imperator didn’t mention that.” 

“Yeah. That’s why Sister Cynthia stepped down, she didn’t want to go on tour and handle the veneration of relics.”

So I get to go on tour with the Ghost project… fuck.

“So I heard a rumor,” Mountain says, during their pottery class the next week. The earth ghoul was back from tour and was eagerly working on a large vase at the wheel next to the blonde. “That you got a promotion.”

Olivia looks over at him for a second as a soft laugh escapes her. “You heard correctly then,” She says with a nod as she looks back down at the bowl she was working on. “I’m the new archivist for the ministry.” 

“Congratulations Liv,” He says with a smile, “I think you’re going to love touring with us.” 

“So it is true then,” She sighs, “I thought Syd might have been lying about that one.” 

“It’s very true,” He nods, picking up one of the clay tools to work a curve into the vase. “What do you think of Cardinal Copia so far? Think you can get along with him for a few months?” 

A confused frown forms on Olivia’s face as she tries to figure out if she has met him yet. “I don’t think we’ve met yet,” She says softly, letting her wheel slow to a stop and looking over the lopsided bowl she had made. 

Mountain lets out a soft hum of amusement, “Oh. I’m sure you’ll get along with him great. Don’t worry.” 

Her eyes narrow as she looks over at him, suddenly getting the feeling that he is hiding something from her.

“The boss man has been working with Sister Olivia, right?” Mountain asks from his spot behind his drums in the practice room as they wait for Copia to arrive. 

“Course she has,” Swiss says, tuning something on his guitar. “Why?”

“Because when I asked she said she had yet to meet him,” The earth ghoul laughs, spinning a drumstick in his hand for a moment. 

“I bet he just didn’t introduce himself,” Cumulus says, giving the others a shrug when they look over at her. “I bet you could line all of the Cardinals up right now and Liv wouldn’t be able to pick him out.” 

“It’s that generic white guy curse, isn’t it?” Dew sighs from his spot on the floor, lifting his head to look around at the others. “What?” He asks as the others look at him confused. “Tell me that without his eye marking him he doesn’t just seem like another awkward white man.”

“He’s got a fair point,” Rain says, giving them a small shrug. 

“That’s a little mean, Droplette,” Aether sighs, shaking his head. “But it’s true,” He adds after a moment. “Livie is a smart girl. She’ll figure it out at some point.”

To their dismay, it seemed that Olivia was never going to figure out that the nice Cardinal who was helping her in the archives was the same man leading the Ghost project. It didn’t matter if they showed her pictures of Copia on stage and his clergy portrait. She just seemed to be convinced that those were two different men. 

They now had bets on how long it would take for her to figure it out. 

Dew had bets that it would be the day they left for tour and was sadly proven wrong when they found out that Olivia was going to be traveling with the other siblings for the majority of the tour.

The ghoulettes said it would be after the first show. Once again wrong, Olivia seemed too distracted by staring at the coffins to make sure the ‘papas’ didn’t move. 

Rain and Mountain had bets on her figuring it out at one of their little parties, except that Olivia and Copia never seemed to be in the same room during them. 

Aether had taken the bet that it would be something so stupid that revealed it to Olivia. He was the closest to being correct.

“Good show everyone,” Copia says brightly, smiling at his ghouls as he claps his hands.

Aether is only half paying attention to Copia as he speaks about the travel arrangements for the next section of the tour when he spots one of the siblings running toward them in tears. He frowns, causing the others, including Copia, to turn to watch as she comes sliding to a stop. 

“Cardinal, there was an accident,” She says quickly, causing the man to frown and gesture for her to lead the way. “Olivia’s hurt.”

Instantly the ghouls are rushing after the pair, trying to get as many details out of the sister as possible before turning to the loading bay where trucks were being loaded up with equipment.

“It’s fine,” Olivia’s voice says when they cross through the doorway. Instantly their eyes fall on the blonde sitting on the ground holding her arm against her chest as her shoulder sits at an awkward angle. “I don’t need a fucking ambulance.” 

One of the male siblings working crew is hovering over her, trying to comfort her but all it seems to be doing is making her more angry. 

“Fuck off Brad. You said you had a grip on that case,” She snaps. “I will break your fucking hand if you do not stop touching me.” 

Brad looks over at Copia and the ghouls with wide eyes, taking a step away from the blonde as she tries to bite the hand he still had close to her. “Cardinal Copia,” He says, bowing his head to Copia. 

Olivia looks over at Copia, frowning slightly for a moment as Mountain and Aether rush over to her side. 

“Liv, what happened?” Aether asks quickly, motioning for one of the crew with a flashlight to come closer. 

“I tried to catch one of the road cases instead of stepping out of the way and it hit me,” She says, leaning her head away from her bad shoulder as Aether tries to see how bad the break is. 

“Liv, you’re bleeding,” He says, noticing the blood starting to soak her uniform shirt and vest. “You need a hospital.” 

The blonde curses, leaning her head back against the road case behind her. “Fuck you, Brad,” She mumbles, causing the brother to let out a soft huff and shake his head.

Copia lets out a sigh, “Can you walk?” He asks gently, coming to stand behind Aether. 

Olivia looks up at him and nods, “Course I can.”

“And you do not wish to go in an ambulance?” He asks, waiting for her to nod again before humming. “Then we can drive you there.” 

The blonde finds herself smiling up at the Cardinal. Finally, She thinks, Someone with some sense. Imperator is going to have my head over a hospital bill, let alone an ambulance ride. 

Olivia considered herself lucky. Sister Imperator wasn’t that upset by the news of her injury, instead choosing to send out a sibling of her choosing to work with as an assistant. Sydney had been more than eager to join in on the tour, although was rather disappointed when she found out she would not be joining Olivia on the bus with the band. 

Unfortunately, the painkillers she was still on after the surgery on her collarbone meant that she was drowsy for most of the day while it worked. 

She is on the bus with the ghouls and Copia the first day after her accident, tucked into the corner of one of the couches with a book in her lap. 

The blonde stares at one of the blobs that seem to be scattered around the bus, slowly blinking as it starts to move closer.

“Hey, Liv,” Rain’s voice comes from the blob, speaking softly as its head tilts slightly. “You doing okay?” 

Olivia opened her mouth slightly, taking a small breath before frowning slightly as she blinks again. “As good as I can be,” She settles on, glancing over towards Copia who was reading on the other side of the couch. He still looks human… why are they all… blobby?

“You don’t look too good, Olive,” Dew’s voice says as the black blob of a head suddenly pops out of nowhere next to her. 

She can’t help but jump at the sudden appearance, cursing loudly as she grabs her bad arm. “Don’t scare me like that,” She says quickly, trying to take a few deep breaths as she tries not to let its proximity bother her. 

“Leave her be,” Aether sighs, a blob with more of a purple hue to it starts to walk over towards them.

Olivia’s eyes dart between the group of shadows standing by her. Aether lets out a sigh, “Liv, you need sleep.” 

“Nah, I’m fine,” She says through a yawn, eyes squinting for a moment before quickly blinking away the slight tears that built in her eyes. 

“ Amore, ” Copia sighs, closing his book with a soft snap, setting it down on the seat of the couch as he grabs the blanket lying over the back. “You need to sleep. You’ve been staring at the ghouls for almost an hour now.”

Yeah. That’s when they got all shadow demony. She thinks, looking up at Copia with a slight pout as he lays the blanket over her and takes her book away. Olivia opens her mouth to protest only to close it when Copia gives her a look. 

“Sleep, sister. All of the ghouls and their prettiness will still be here when you wake,” He says, gently tucking the blanket around her a bit better. Olivia let out a sigh, eventually following Copia’s order and closing her eyes to sleep.