Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Oliver watched Fizzarolli’s lips, trying to read what he was saying. 

“ Greatest… performing. And I’m so glad…”

He kept being jostled by the crowd. Oliver scooted up into a gap between groups of people. Would there be another song? The one that had just ended- even if Oliver didn’t pick up on every word- was the best one he’d ever seen. (To be fair, it was the only one he’d seen in person so far. The TV at the group home was so grainy, it was amazing to see everything so clearly, so sharply, in such bright colors.) Able to push further toward the front, Oliver raised an arm and waved. He caught his idol’s eye.

Thank you, Fizzarolli signed. Just for him!

“Cause now… I quit!”

Oliver’s eyes popped even wider open. Quitting? Did he read that right? The expressions of the other people in the crowd were also changing. The microphone dropped, and Fizzarolli was leaving the stage. Quitting? Was this his last show? How on earth was he going to tell Kai about this?

The air crackled with electricity. The hair on Oliver’s arms raised. In a huge cloud of green smoke and confetti, Mammon appeared on stage, towering over Fizzarolli. He was yelling something, but they were too far away and the air was too hazy. Oliver couldn’t tell what he was saying, but now Fizzarolli was sidestepping him, flipping him off.

He would have to get ahold of a newspaper. This would probably be in the news as quickly as tomorrow, then he could probably read what all this was about, and fill in the gaps of what he was missing. Mrs. D usually tossed hers when she was done, he’d have to watch for when-

The air crackled again. It made Oliver want to run away. He felt vibrations in the ground. What was happening?! A hell shake? More green smoke, and spider legs. Mammon was bigger now. Huge. Fizzarolli was still standing straight, arms crossed. Oliver wasn’t sure how he was doing it. He wasn’t the one that Mammon was using that booming voice on and his knees were still shaking and his heart was pounding so hard he could feel it in his ears. He hated being yelled at. Even if he couldn’t hear it, he could see the glares, he could see the anger and he felt the consequences-

“Little shit!”

Oliver knew how to read those words. He’d read them off the lips of-

“I raised you like the son I didn’t want!”

Didn’t want? (“I never asked for a kid like this. I don’t want him.”) Fizzarolli brushed Mammon off, and narrowed his eyes.

Oh no, Oliver thought, I would be in trouble if I did that. Is Fizz in trouble now?

He was wringing his hands. He hadn’t noticed it until now, but he had been for a while. He sort of wanted to cover his eyes, but then he wouldn’t know what was going on at all. Mammon was inhaling again, madder than ever, but then his expression dropped.

Red-tipped blue flames roared up behind Fizzarolli. Oliver gasped. Fizzarolli didn’t budge. Asmodeus- the Deadly Sin - appeared behind him, glaring. The imp seemed to be entirely comfortable, even as flames sputtered behind him. Even if Asmodeus looked just as angry as Mammon, who leaned forward to tell him something. Oliver couldn’t catch any of it, Mammon’s face was angled too far to the side. All three of Asmodeus’s faces continued to glare at him. Even so, the tightness in Oliver’s throat and chest was soothed a little bit. Mammon wasn’t screaming in Fizzarolli’s face anymore.

“I don’t care anymore!”

Asmodeus’s faces all spoke in sync as he raised up even taller. Didn’t care about what?! Oliver watched as Fizzarolli’s expression dropped and he looked up at the Sin of Lust. He looked nervous for the first time in the interaction, but not afraid. (Oliver wondered what it would be like. For someone to have your back like that and be able to do something. He and Kai were always together, but they couldn’t do much substantial protecting, mostly comforting when it was all over. They were both small. Mrs. D would laugh in both of their faces if they ever stood up to her like this.)

“Ozz?”

Mammon was laughing. Saying something but now his back was turned to the crowd. What was he saying? Oliver was dying to know.

“What? That I love him? Well I DO.”

Oliver’s mouth dropped open. He could practically feel the collective gasp of the crowd. Fizzarolli looked petrified. People around him were taking out their phones. He could read the happy chatter from their lips, I knew it! I knew it! I knew it!

In the biggest explosion of green smoke yet, Mammon was gone. The force of the wind nearly knocked Oliver off his feet, and he covered his face with his arm, coughing. As the smoke cleared, Oliver squinted at the stage. Asmodeus opened his huge, cupped hands and there was Fizzarolli. (Safe. Protected.)

Cybernetic arms stretched out, wrapping around Asmodeus’s neck. The two (Four maybe? Did the other two faces in the Sin’s mane count as an extra two?) had big, silly grins on their faces. Fizzarolli nuzzled his beak against Asmodeus’s cheek. An imp and a Sin? A Sin and an imp? In love?

One of the reasons that Fizzarolli held such a special place in Oliver’s heart was because there were so few imps who ever got to be such public figures. So admired. So famous. Oliver could probably count them on one hand. Hearing from Fizz that he could be anything he wanted to be meant the world. And now… a Sin and an imp?!

Oliver had learned a lot of words for imps from a lot of different people. Even Mrs. D, who ran the group home, and claimed in front of visiting adults that she just loved all of the kids, used some of them. “Fire toads.” “Imp trash.” “Impling,” which was supposed to be just a word, but was sometimes spoken with such clear disdain that it was impossible for Oliver to take it as anything but an insult.

Right now, an imp was being cradled by a King. Like he was… not valuable, valuable was how often Fizzarolli was in advertisements, it was the roped off areas and the fan meet and greets that Oliver couldn’t afford to get into.

He was being held like he was something precious.

Oliver’s head was spinning.

He followed the crowd out, still in a daze. He caught the bus back to the group home, giving the driver the last of his change. He almost missed his stop, so lost in thought. 

Of course, he was in trouble when he got back. He’d been missing for the majority of the day after running away to catch the show. He was sent to bed without dinner but his thoughts didn’t linger there for long, instead replaying the events at the end of the show. He changed into the pajamas he was quickly growing out of and climbed into his bunk.

He was abruptly pulled out of his thoughts when Kai shook his shoulder. 

What happened? Show, how was it? His best friend signed quickly, a huge grin on his face. Signature? Got it?

Oliver pulled the photo out from under his pillow, grinning back. He couldn’t hear Kai’s squeal, but he could imagine it. He handed over the photo to free his hands for signing.

It was crazy! You won’t believe- Fizzarolli quit!

Kai gasped, one hand flying to his mouth. He put the photo back under the pillow, and hauled himself out of his wheelchair and onto the bunk they both shared. Tell me everything. Why? When? After?

Oliver took a deep breath, and started from the beginning. 

Chapter Text

The next morning, they were both tired. They weren’t the only ones. Mrs. D seemed exhausted. Apparently, having to report Oliver missing a few days ago got her in closer contact with what flimsy ‘law enforcement’ the Greed Ring had. It was technically against the rules to have so many kids here. And Oliver knew that she really should be spending more of the money she got for keeping them here on the kids. He might be deaf, but he wasn’t stupid. 

Even if she said so.

He pretended not to understand. Mrs. D still wasn’t entirely sure if he could read lips or not. She screamed a lot, Kai said, as if that would make Oliver’s ears work. Mostly Oliver stared at her as blankly as possible and hoped she would ignore him again soon so he could do something funner than stand here. 

Right now she was going on about “was it worth it to sneak out?” and “you’ve caused so much more trouble than you’re worth” and something about the monthly stipends and she could throw him out on the street if she wanted to and blah blah blah. “This is why no one ever adopted you” and “you’re lucky I even took you in here, it’s a step above an orphanage” .

So nothing new.

If she couldn’t wait to get rid of him, Oliver wondered why she didn’t just do it. Kick him out like she threatened. If no one followed up on him disappearing from her home, then she could ‘graciously take in’ someone easier to handle to replace him and get monthly stipends for taking care of that impling instead.

I know why, it’s because they pay her more for kids like me. And Kai. ‘Difficult’ kids who are harder to place. Besides, he knew now that someone would follow up on him going missing. It would be difficult to disappear into Greed without being caught eventually.

Why couldn’t a nice group home want me. He knew they existed. Somewhere. It wasn’t the same as getting adopted by a family but a nice group home would take good care of its kids. Even the crowded orphanage Oliver had hazy memories of had nicer staff. They just didn’t have enough time for everyone. Or resources. 

“Are you paying attention?” A hand with long, sharp nails grabbing his chin pulled Oliver out of his thoughts. “It’s disrespectful not to even try to understand, you know.”

He understood perfectly.

-

A flash of lightning. Oliver shivered.

A rumble of thunder that felt like it might shake the walls down. A rumble in his stomach. Dinners had been smaller that week. Everyone knew it was Oliver’s fault for running away. Kai was the only one who didn’t shoot him dirty looks for it.

Another rumble of thunder. He felt Kai’s grip on the blanket tighten.

They both hated storms. Oliver tried to be glad that he could hear it, but when he perceived it with every other sense, he ended up being just as scared anyway.

Kai’s small flashlight clicked on.

Tell me again how the show was?

He never got sick of hearing about it. Oliver wished he could have brought Kai with. He sat up too, ready for the most dramatic retelling yet, starting with using the hard-earned, carefully saved money he’d been accumulating for the past year to bribe another imp to smuggle him into the show in his backpack. (That had still been cheaper than the tickets. Oliver was not fond of Mammon at all.)

Then the lights came on, and everyone was cheering… 

-

Oliver and Kai woke up one morning to pieces of paper scattered across the blanket.

The picture with the signature was in such small pieces that it wasn’t even worth trying to put back together.

-

“ Come on up here.”

“You can do anything you want to do.”

“Thank you.”

No one could tear his memories into pieces and leave them scattered. Oliver played those moments over and over in his mind. The more he did it, the better he would remember, which was the opposite of how a VCR tape sustained wear and tear from countless rewindings or CDs getting scratches in them.

He signed out the story again and again. Sometimes all by himself, sometimes when Kai asked to hear it again. No one could tear that to pieces.

Oliver tried not to let his bottom lip start wobbling when he thought about the autograph. It wasn’t the only thing he’d brought back with him from that day. 

(It still stung.)

-

“ I have an idea,” Kai signed one day, after waving to get Oliver’s attention. He was perched on the lumpy gray couch folding socks while Oliver swept the rug.

“What?” Oliver hoped he would sigh quickly. If they were caught taking too long of a break, then they would be assigned more to do. And the more chores in a row they were assigned, the harder they got.

“Fizz performs at Ozzie’s now. Exclusively. We should go there and get another autograph.”

Oliver rolled his eyes. “If only. Let’s finish up our chores.”

“I’m serious, Ollie!” Kai let out what was probably a very loud, dramatic sigh. “We’ll take the elevators.”

The elevators?

As in, travel to another ring? By themselves.

“And we won’t come back here. Think about it,” Kai continued, hands moving fast, “we can’t run away here because we’re too different. We’re imps in the Greed ring. You know where they would have a much harder time finding us? Wrath.”

Right. The Wrath ring was crawling with imps. Here in Greed, or in Pride, or even in Lust, there were blocks or neighborhoods largely inhabited by imps, but in Wrath, there were whole towns. Farms and stores and gas stations and bus routes all run by and used by imps. 

“We still look pretty different,” Oliver pointed out, not wanting to get his hopes up. He gestured to his ears and broken horns, then Kai’s legs.

“So? All Mrs. D and the authorities see are implings. Little red guys. They don’t really see us. I bet they’d give up fast if they couldn’t find us here in Greed.”

“And if someone from Wrath turns us in?”

“The news won’t get there for forever. They’ll give up on finding us, and we’ll be free.”

“Free to do what?”

“Anything we want,” Kai’s smile only grew brighter. “You can perform, and I can be your announcer, or we could work at a farm- I could churn butter. They do that there, it looks like fun.”

Suddenly, his expression changed. “Look busy,” he signed quickly. He probably heard footsteps in the hall. He and Oliver turned away from each other and got back to work, looking very concentrated. Sure enough, Oliver saw Mrs. D pass them by out of the corner of his eye. She was talking on her cellphone. Ashes from her cigarette dropped like snow onto the carpet Oliver was trying to clean.

When she was gone, he stuck his tongue out. It made him feel a little better, even if she didn’t see it.

—

For days, all Kai would sign about was Wrath.

“They film that TV show in Wrath. The one on Fridays, because the deserts there are scenic.”

“In Wrath, almost every mayor of every town is an imp.”

“Have you seen those ads for IMP? The assassins? The woman with the big ax is from Wrath. I bet that’s where she learned a lot of her transferable skills.”

Before Oliver knew it, he was begrudgingly imagining it too. Somehow having the money for tickets (he was accumulating loose change from the street in a sock again) and getting on the elevator. Pushing Kai’s wheelchair while he hung on to their bag with all their stuff in it. Finding someone who would let them live in a spare room or the loft of a barn while they found their footing. Maybe a nice imp woman who could be like a mom. A nice imp man with a mustache (like the guys from that show) who would tip his hat and nod his head in approval at a job well done. The volcanos.

There was actually natural light- from lava and a sun in Wrath… it seemed like it shone so bright all the time. Like it would be hot. Like it might warm the lakes, and maybe Oliver could learn how to swim. Or they could take naps in it in the afternoons. And the red of their skin would deepen. Maybe Oliver had freckles, and he’d never gotten enough sun to know it yet. In Greed, he was always chilly. If he wasn’t chilly, it was smog that warmed him and his head ached and his eyes watered. In Lust, it was perpetually rainy and overcast, whether it was warm or cool. But Wrath… Wrath seemed so bright and warm, at least the places they showed on the grainy television screen.

“I heard there are hardly any sharks there,” Kai said one day. “Sometimes they pass through, but it’s so hot and dry there that after a while, they don’t feel good. You don’t like sharks much, do you? Wouldn’t you like to go to a place where there aren’t so many of them?”

Kai was right. Oliver didn’t like sharks much, they way their eyes seemed to track where he went, their huge tooth smiles. And sharks didn’t like him much either. (He was glad they didn’t. Most sharks didn’t really like other demons, they liked what they thought they could get from them.)

“You really think it will work?” he signed back.

Kai’s expression gave way to surprise for a few moments before excitement. “I do! I really think it’ll work. We’ll pop down to Lust real quick, get that autograph, and it’ll be our good luck charm. We’ll take the elevators right up to Wrath. Look, I have timetables!”

He pulled a cut out piece of paper from beneath their mattress. 

“We just need the money. We’ve managed to save money before, we’ll do it again.”

He was… right. They had saved the money. Oliver had gone, and come back with a story and an autograph, and Fizz had told him he could do anything he wanted to. Would Fizz do this?

Of course he would. Oliver looked around the room crowded with bunk beds. He looked at the knees of his jeans that were beginning to get holes worn through them. The bruise on his arm where Mrs. D had grabbed him a little too hard yesterday. He didn’t want to put up with this until the system let him go off on his own. He wanted to hand in his notice too.

Oliver took a deep breath. “Okay. I’m in.”

Then he held out his hand to shake on it.

Chapter Text

They couldn’t seem too excited.

Oliver carefully kept his face schooled into its usual apathetic expression all day.

It was almost exactly four months after the last time he’d run away to see the pageant performance. Kai had had a birthday and was now eleven (which meant they considered Oliver to be eleven too. No one remembered when Oliver had been born, so Kai said they could share his birthday and be twins.) Since the pageant, the knees of Oliver’s jeans had been worn through, patched, then worn through again. The sock with their savings in it had been tucked up Kai’s pant leg twenty-four seven all this time.

After dinner, they were all sent to bed. Kai and Oliver waited, pressed shoulder to shoulder in their bunk, for the clock downstairs to strike one in the morning. The perfect time to leave. Since Oliver’s first escape, Mrs. D kept a better eye on them during the day.

But right now, everything was quiet in the house. And still. They waited until the noise of vehicles on the highway outside had lulled everyone else to sleep…

—

Now that they were traveling through the dark, trying to keep their footsteps and wheels quiet, Oliver felt a little sick. He felt his pulse in his arms and in his head. He gripped the handles of the wheelchair harder and picked up the pace as they got further away.

Kai reached back to tap his shoulder, twisting around to sign, “ Not so fast! The left wheel is making weird noises. If it falls off we’re screwed.”

Oliver slowed down.

“I can hold the bag, hand it here.”

He did. Kai held their bag in his lap. They had discussed this so many times. Oliver navigated, weaving the two of them through the crowded platforms to the ticket window, where Kai talked to the bored demon at the ticket window. Oliver saw him heave a weary sigh when Kai began counting out change. He nervously watched the line behind them grow. The longer they spent here, the more anxious he felt about being caught.

Eventually, two tickets down to Lust were handed to Kai. He’d barely finished thanking the demon at the window before Oliver was speeding them toward the correct elevator.

“ Satan, slow down! Slow down, we’re fine.”

Oliver forced his feet to move more slowly as they found their spot on the crowded elevator with the other unaccompanied minors- two small succubi and a hellhound who was gnawing idly on the end of his own tail. They were all placed out of the way so some of the bigger demons didn’t accidentally trample them underfoot. Kai didn’t try to talk to the others. It was better if they didn’t make conversation and be more memorable.

The big doors slid closed. Kai was bopping his head. There must be some sort of music playing, Oliver thought. He kept his tail wrapped tight around his leg for comfort.

The floor seemed to drop underneath him, making Oliver’s stomach do a weird flip. He clutched the handles of Kai’s wheelchair even tighter, knuckles turning a pale pink. He wasn’t sure if he liked this experience. Luckily, it wasn’t much longer than twenty minutes to get to a neighboring ring. When the elevator stopped, it was a similar feeling. Oliver found that when he stepped off, his legs and his head still felt weird, as if the floor moved every time he stepped now.

He would have to give elevators a solid five out of ten.

Kai was pointing. The exit, right, they were sort of in a hurry here. They had to get to Ozzie’s. 

The misty streets of Lust had some light foot traffic this time of night, but nothing too bad. Nothing that would slow them down. The longer they walked, the less nervous Oliver felt and the more excited he was. He was going to see Fizzarolli again! And this time, his best friend would be with him. Then they were going to Wrath, and it was going to be so nice and warm, and no one from Greed would ever find them there.

Life couldn’t be better.

—

They kind of hadn’t factored in security.

From a half block away, Oliver and Kai spotted the bouncer standing outside Ozzie’s, under the glow of the colorful sign. They exchanged glances as their hearts sank.

“Give me a second, I’ll think of something, ” Kai signed.

“ He’ll never let us in, we’re probably too young,” Oliver frowned.

“ Let’s try around the back? And maybe we can catch Fizz backstage after his show.”

That sounded like it might work. Oliver was ready to try pretty much anything. After all, they’d come this far. So the boys snuck around the back of the building, hiding behind the dumpsters. Two employees were standing by a propped open door on a smoke break. The male succubus exhaled a cloud of smoke and turned to his coworker. Oliver couldn’t make out what he was saying. The female succubus responded, the words leaving her mouth in a smoky blur.

The two employees looked a little tired, but satisfied. Their conversation was laid back, and they continued to take lazy drags from their cigarettes and watch the smoke spiral. It must not suck, working at Ozzie’s. Of course it didn’t. Fizz worked here. And Asmodeus ran it. Asmodeus seemed like a pretty cool guy. Still not cooler than Fizz, but to be fair, that was a high bar.

After about five minutes, the cigarettes were put out and the butt ends of them were dropped in a nearby puddle just in case. The two succubi disappeared back through the door into Ozzie’s.

The door was still propped open a few inches with a doorstop. Oliver grinned.

“ Tell me if you hear someone coming,” he told Kai.

They crept toward the door. Oliver pulled it open slowly. He looked at Kai, eyebrows raised, wondering if it was squeaking, but Kai gave him a thumbs up. All good. Then he went ahead and rolled himself forward, peeking his head around to check for more people. He gave Oliver’s sleeve a little tug, and he stepped inside, making sure the door shut slowly and quietly behind them. 

The hallway was dimly lit. Oliver wasn’t quite sure where it would lead, but they picked a direction and went, ducking into a storage closet for a minute after Kai heard footsteps around the corner. When those faded, he gestured that it was okay to keep going.

“ I can hear Fizz on stage. Faint, ” Kai signed quickly. They must be headed in the right direction.

When they saw the door, they both had to stifle gasps. It had a star on it, and Fizzarolli’s name printed in marker on the star. His dressing room!

“ We should wait here, he’ll probably be back-” before Oliver could keep signing, Kai stopped nodding and his eyes went wide.

Oliver felt a nudge on his shoulder, turned, and found himself staring down the barrel of a gun. 

—

“...and I couldn’t help but think, that’s what I call a hardened criminal,” Fizz twirled the cord of the microphone idly around one finger. He knew Ozzie wasn’t the biggest fan of the kidnapping related jokes, but hey, they got laughs.

His life was so much more chill now that his only business partner was his boyfriend. He didn’t have to worry so much about being perfect all the time. Even when he did things Ozzie didn’t necessarily like, Fizz was never worried. He hadn’t been so aware about his ‘walking-on-eggshells-ness’ around Mammon until he wasn’t anymore. 

He should probably switch gears now though, before Ozzie started to think too hard about that one incident and worry. He isn’t even the one who was kidnapped and he worries about it more than I do, Fizz thought, equal parts fond and exasperated.

“Anyway-” Fizz stopped and tilted his head. Was someone… screaming? Back near the dressing rooms?

He glanced at Asmodeus, who was in the crowd- near the back so he didn’t distract from the acts. He didn’t look like he’d heard anything. But Fizz did. He knew he did.

“...on that lovely note, it’s time to introduce our next act! You might’ve seen them before, we liked ‘em so much we invited them back, Exxxtasy! With three ‘x’s for some reason!”

The band looked confused, fumbling to pick up their instruments. Fizz had cut his act rather short, and they were still puttering around backstage getting everything ready.

“Sorry,” he mouthed. “You’ll do great.”

Asmodeus watched his partner disappear backstage and frowned.

—

“...the air!”

The rather tall imp with a big white splotch on his face demanded. Oliver froze. He hadn’t caught the start of the sentence because he’d still been turning, but Kai lightly slapped his arm and waved his hands in the air. Oliver copied him, heart hammering. He could feel a whine building in his throat, but he wasn’t sure if it was audible to everyone else or not.

This was not the plan. This was not the plan.

“What are the two of you doing hanging around here, huh? This is Fizz’s dressing room. And I doubt you’re of legal drinking age, can you even be in the building?”

The imp kept questioning, the end of the gun drifting back and forth from Kai to Oliver, to Kai to Oliver again. Oliver glanced from his best friend to the imp, unable to keep up with lip reading the conversation as they spoke over each other.

Then the adult imp caught sight of something behind them, and he put the gun down. Oliver risked turning. He wasn’t sure if he was glad when he did. Fizzarolli stood there, but he had a glare on his face and his arms were crossed tight over his chest. Was he angry at the two of them?

“Christ on a stick, Blitzø! Are you threatening kids?”

Oh, looked like he was mad at this Blitzø guy. As the two adults continued to argue back and forth, Kai and Oliver exchanged glances.

“ I almost pissed myself, ” Kai signed. “ I’ve never seen a gun up close like that before. ”

Oliver felt a somewhat hysterical laugh leave him. Fizz seemed to remember then that the two of them were still there.

“Hey, what are you two doing here? It’s pretty late for a couple of kids to be out, ” he signed, crouching down to their level.

Oliver saw Kai start to talk out of the corner of his eye about coming to see the show. He grabbed their bag from Kai’s lap and pulled out the newspaper picture. Fizz looked confused.

“ The other one got stolen. I wondered if you would sign a new one, please? ” Oliver signed, unsure if Kai had already explained that part or not.

“ Stolen? ” Fizzarolli asked.

“ And ripped up. ”

“ That’s mean. Who did that? ”

“ I don’t know. We were sleeping. ” Oliver gestured to himself and Kai.

“ So is this your brother? ” Fizzarolli asked, before pulling a marker out of his pocket and signing the corner of the photo.

Oliver shrugged. “ Best friend. Close enough. ”

“ What are your names?”

“I’m Oliver. He’s Kai.”

Fizz watched as Oliver tucked the photo in their bag for safe keeping. “ Going somewhere after this? ”

Oliver grinned and looked to Kai, who started talking almost too fast for Oliver to read. “We’re going to Wrath! It’s a whole hour in the elevators, sometimes more, but it’s going to be awesome. We’re going to live there, me and him. We’ve been wanting to go for ages. Well, I have. I managed to convince Ollie it would be a good idea.”

Fizzarolli and Blitzø exchanged a glance.

“Oh? Is there someone waiting for you there?” Fizzarolli asked.

“ Yes, a friend, ” Oliver lied, at the same time that Kai proudly declared, “Nope! We don’t need anyone else.”

Maybe it would have been a good idea to agree on a cover story beforehand.

—

As these kids lied to his face, Fizz put the pieces together fairly quickly that they were runaways. Then he very quickly drew a blank about what to do about it.

The first idea he had was to report to the authorities.

But what if they had a very good reason to be leaving?

But look at them, they were both so young. It couldn’t be safe to let them go on their own.

Where were they coming from, and who was supposed to be responsible for them?

“Froggie? Is everything alright?” Asmodeus turned the corner and his other two faces wore matching worried frowns. He took in the odd scene, and worry gave way to confusion. “What’s going on?”

“I heard a commotion, and this one was taking his job a little too seriously,” Fizz stood up, sending another exasperated glance Blitzø’s way.

“Hey, you can never take a job too seriously.”

“They’re like eight, they aren’t security threats!”

“I couldn’t have known who sent them! They could be spies. Or very small adults,” Blitzø grumbled, defending himself.

“Well, they aren’t security threats. Or spies. They’re fans. I met this one at the meet-and-greet during the pageant. His name is Oliver,” Fizz extended an arm slightly to gesture to one little impling with the ends broken off of his horns. The kid’s tail was tucked close to his body, wrapped around his leg, which Ozzie recognized as a common nervous habit for imps. “And he brought along his best friend, Kai,” Fizz gestured to the other impling, the one with shorter hair in a wheelchair. Both of the kids were staring up at Ozzie, somehow managing to be both in awe and very nervous.

(He was a Sin. He could kick them out. Or get mad at them for sneaking in and- Ollie didn’t know- smite them or something? Whatever Sins did.)

“And why are they here? Not that I don’t like kids, but this isn’t exactly an appropriate place for them to be.”

“We snuck in through the back, the door was propped open, but we’re really sorry, sir,” Kai piped up. “We won’t do it again. We just wanted to see Fizzarolli and we’ll go now, sir, we won’t hang around where we aren’t allowed.”

“Wait a minute, how far are you going?” It wasn’t ideal to send them off on their own. Even if they had come here alone, Asmodeus felt, in a way, responsible for their safety now.

“Just to the elevators. Then we’re going to Wrath!” the impling announced with stars in his eyes. The other impling, Oliver, who had been watching the face of whoever was speaking, grinned.

“Yeah, as you mentioned… what’s the plan when you get to Wrath, if I may ask?” Fizz tilted his head, the bells on his hat jingling softly.

“Well, we’re going to get jobs, and we’re going to find a place to live, and it’ll be easier than living in Greed, that's for sure.”

Kai said all of this with the confidence of a child who did not know much about the world. Or money. Or child labor laws. (To be fair, they existed in Wrath and not in Greed. Asmodeus couldn’t really fault him for not knowing.)

“Ollie can juggle three whole things,” Kai continued. “It’s pretty cool. He’s going to be a performer like Fizz. And I have a really good announcer voice, so I think we’ll do that for a while. You know, ‘til we find something we like better.”

Fizz glanced up at Ozzie. He saw the same concern he was feeling reflected in his partner’s eyes. An unspoken agreement was made between them. They couldn’t let these kids run off again, they had to figure out what was up.

“That’s a long way to go, even if you will be on an elevator most of the way,” Asmodeus said, keeping his tone light and even. “Why don’t you stay for a little longer? Have something to eat.”

Kai’s face lit up, but Oliver seemed wary. He nudged his friend and signed something to him, body turned so no one else could see. After their short sidebar, Kai had tamped down his initial excitement. 

“No thank you,” he said. “We’d best be on our way. Y’all. They say that in Wrath.”

Fizz crouched back down to sign to Oliver. Asmodeus wished he could understand what he was saying to him. Instead, he watched the impling’s expression change to be a bit more relaxed.

—

“Mind telling me what’s up, Oliver?”

“Nothing,” Oliver signed quickly.

Fizzarolli gave him a stern look. His heart sank. Fizz may be his idol, but he was still an adult. And he could still send them back to Mrs. D.

“ It’s pretty obvious you two ran away. ”

Oliver scuffed the ground with his shoe. Fizz noticed that it was practically falling apart.

“ Are you going to turn us in? ”

“ Your… ” Fizzarolli paused to consider his next words, then settled on, “ ... adults might be worried about you. ”

Oliver made an indignant chirping noise. “ No way. Mrs. D hates us. ”

“ Who’s Mrs. D? ”

“ She runs the group home. She’s not nice. We don’t like it there. Don’t turn us in, please? We want to go to Wrath. It’s nicer for imps there. ”

“ Don’t you think it might be dangerous on your own? ” Fizz signed more slowly, looking conflicted. It seemed like he wanted to get Oliver and Kai to change their minds on their own. “ And couldn’t you still get adopted from a group home? Maybe you shouldn’t give up hope yet. ”

“ Nobody wants us. ”

The blunt way Oliver signed it broke Fizz’s heart a little. More than a little. The kid’s expression didn’t even change. It was like he was reporting the weather. It’s always misty in Lust. It’s always sunny in Wrath. And no one wanted to adopt either of them.

Fizzarolli was not exactly known for his top-notch planning skills. Or looking before he leapt. Before he thought to consult his partner (with whom he lived) or reflect on his own child-rearing skills (of which he had none, at least that he was aware of), he was already signing, “ What if I want you? ”

Oliver’s eyes went wide and round. He turned around to grab at Kai, who had zoned out and was distracted by Blitzø’s gun (which he was beginning to warm up to. Guns were kinda cool actually). 

“ What? What?” Kai signed. Oliver shook him and pointed at Fizz.

“ Both of us?! ”

He wouldn’t go anywhere without Kai. Not even if Fizzarolli himself asked him to.

“ I need to make some calls first. I need to figure out if I can. But yes. Both of you. If possible, ” Fizz signed, beginning to realize what he was signing up for, but not beginning to regret it in the least.

Sure, why not spontaneously adopt? All the best things in his life he’d done spontaneously, come to think of it. Start a relationship with the King of Lust. Quit his job. Go into the shelter never having owned a pet and coming out with six quieves. (Not that kids were the same at all, but he could handle kids too. Right? Right. Totally.)

He should probably get his boyfriend on board though.

Shit, he was doing this out of order.

Kai and Oliver were staring at him, starry eyed.

“Um… okay. I’m going to talk it over with Oz, you two stay right here. No sneaking off,” Fizz said, signing while he spoke.

“So…” Fizz pulled Asmodeus a couple more steps away for a quiet sidebar, extending his legs to be closer to the Sin’s ears. “I did a thing.”

Chapter Text

When he got the call, Moxxie had been having such a nice dream. He was sitting in a dark theater, watching a ballet. Then the music started changing. By the time he got over his confusion and realized it was a dream, the ringtone had stopped. Maybe he could stay asleep and finish the-

It began again. Moxxie opened his eyes and grabbed his cellphone. Of course it was Blitzø.

“Yes, hello?” he said, maybe a little bit snappy. It was the middle of the night and this had better be important. “You’d better not be in our house again.”

“Am not, I’m at Ozzie’s tonight. Can I call in a favor?”

“That depends. Tomorrow is our day off, remember?” Moxxie whispered, hoping that Millie would continue to sleep.

“I know. It’s- well, it’s kind of important. For Fizz more than anyone.”

Fizzarolli? Blitzø’s childhood-best-friend-sort-of-crush-turned-bitter-enemy-turned-friend-again? “Go on,” Moxxie said, laying back down. He wasn’t saying yes yet, but now he was curious.

“You guys have that spare room set up, right?”

“Yes…?”

Blitzø sighed. “Do you mind setting up a couple kids for the night? I would, but y’know… I’m sleeping on the couch already.”

“Kids? Whose kids?”

“Nobody’s. Well, Fizz’s soon. He’s spontaneously adopting? He talked Oz into it just now, but their place is not kid friendly yet and they’re going to have to make some calls to whatever the Greed Ring is trying to pass of as a functioning CPS-”

“Wait wait wait, stop,” Moxxie cut off Blitzø’s rambling. “Adoption is a big decision! Any kids are a big decision, and there’s more than one?! Millie and I are barely halfway through our required reading that will give us the information to even consider having kids-”

“It’s not required if you’re requiring yourself to read it, Mox. And it’s really none of my business if Fizz wants to take home two sad runaways off the street.”

“Runaways?”

“Yeah, keep up. They ran away from the Greed Ring? They were going to try to make it to Wrath all by themselves because nobody-” Blitzø cleared his throat, sounding suspiciously choked up. “-nobody wanted them. They thought… they might be better off alone.”

“Oh. That’s awful.”

Moxxie heard a noise that sounded like a sniff. If he asked, he knew Blitzø would deny it. “Whatever. Can you do us a solid? Let them stay over at your place?”

“I’ll tell Millie and get her opinion. Probably.”

“I seriously owe you one.”

—

Fizz hadn’t even needed to resort to That Face™ for Ozzie to get on board with the idea. But, “We do need to have some more serious talks about this. And we can’t take them home right away. I need to make some calls, and… well, I don’t think our place is very user-friendly for imps. You’re sort of an exception, with the…”

“Extendable limbs, yeah. You’re right.” Fizz fidgeted with the end of his tail nervously. “Is this… you’re really okay with this?”

“I think we can do it, Fizzy. If it’s something you want, and something you feel ready for.”

“I don’t know if I feel ready, but I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if I didn’t do something.”

Ozzie sighed. “Just promise me two won’t turn into eight. Kids are-”

“I know! I know they’re different, I’m not- it’s not like I’m not taking this seriously.”

“I know. I was going for some levity there, babe.”

“Sorry.”

Ozzie gently untwisted Fizz’s tail from his hands. “It’s okay. Take some deep breaths. Is something else the matter?”

“I don’t know. No. Maybe. He said- they both seemed so sure no one would ever want them. Someone’s obviously told them that. Made them think that. It makes me angry.”

“I know, it isn’t fair,” Ozzie agreed. “It’ll be okay from now on, though. For both of them. We should figure out where they’ll stay until we can get our place squared away. Maybe Stolas…”

“I’m not sure how comfortable they would be staying with a Goetian prince. ” Fizz glanced over to where the implings were signing. Ozzie admired how the three of them- the kids and Fizz- could understand each other perfectly even when their hands were moving so fast. Not for the first time, he considered starting to learn.

“Maybe Blitzø…?”

“Knows somebody?” Fizz finished the sentence. “Yeah. Blitzø? Who are your friends, the married and disgustingly in love ones?”

Blitzø looked up from the game on his phone. “Wh- Millie and Moxxie? Also, hypocrite.”

“Do you know if they have a spare room?”

—

When they had snuck out of the group home that night, Oliver and Kai had not expected to end up in the living room of a cozy apartment in Pride. 

Outside, the sky was growing light again. Oliver was swaying on his feet a little bit. Kai reached out an arm and encouraged him to lean on the side of his chair.

“Tired?” he signed.

“ You are too. You’ve got circles under your eyes. What are they saying? ”

“ Small talk mostly. And thank you. ”

The male imp- Moxxie- looked almost as tired as Oliver was feeling. Apparently, Blitzø had called him up in the early hours of the morning. His wife- Millie- looked a lot more chipper. It turned out Oliver and Kai had to stay here for a while.

“ Just while we sort things out, ” Fizz had promised.

Oliver was a little worried that he might change his mind and never come back to get them. But only a little. Fizz must have sensed their anxiety, because he went with them and Blitzø on the elevator. It was less nerve wracking that time around, Fizz had let Oliver cling to his hand the whole way up. As they stopped at Wrath and a group of imps got out, Kai looked a little forlorn.

“ Don’t worry, you’ll get to see Wrath someday soon, ” Fizz had promised. He signed most of the stuff he said out loud. Even if he wasn’t talking directly to Oliver. He liked that, it kept him in the loop the way not a lot of other people were willing to do.

Suddenly, Oliver couldn’t hold back a huge yawn. He felt his jaw crackle and his eyes tear up. It turned out that running away made a person tired.

“Y’all must be dead on your feet,” Mrs. Millie said. “Now, we have a little guest room, but there is only one bed-”

“That’s fine, we always share,” Kai shrugged. Oliver tried to keep up with lip reading but it was harder when his eyes felt heavy, and his feet felt heavy, and his head felt heavy…

Fizz knelt down in front of them, looking anxious and happy and a whole lot of things at once. “ I’m going to go now, but Moxxie and Millie will keep me posted. And I’ll be back when we’ve sorted things out. Okay? ”

Kai nodded. “ Okay, ” Ollie signed.

Fizz smiled, stood, pushed down the conflicted feelings that came with leaving these kids so soon, and headed for the door. Blitzø pulled Millie and Moxxie into a quick hug before he left.

The kids were shepherded to a small room with a neatly made bed. The closet was open, mostly empty except for some folded blankets and sheets on the top shelf. The top shelf in question was lower than Oliver was used to seeing. Moxxie still needed a step stool to reach it, but he could reach every other shelf without one. Everything in this house was lower down than he was used to- of course it was.

They were in Imp City.

It wasn’t Wrath, but in Oliver’s opinion, it was almost as good.

“I think I’m going back to sleep too,” Moxxie said, unfolding the extra blanket and smoothing it out over the bed. “How does late brunch sound to everyone?”

Kai opened his mouth to answer, but words turned into a yawn.

“Let’s just make it lunch,” Millie suggested.

Oliver wasn’t paying any attention, already crawling into bed. He resisted the urge to turn a few circles, instead reaching over to help Kai haul himself up too. The two best friends were asleep a second or two after their heads hit the pillows.

“Aw, aren’t they the cutest little things?” Millie resisted the urge to squeal.

“They’re small. Should they be that small at their age?” Moxxie did not resist the urge to start worrying again.

“Once everything is sorted out and they're with Fizz, I'm sure they'll be just fine,” Millie said. 

Chapter Text

Kai woke up first, the smell of something sweet making his nose twitch. He wriggled out of Ollie's hold and managed to land in his chair okay. It was different from the group home beds. Probably easier in theory, since they were lower to the ground, but disorienting since it wasn't the height he was used to.

The squeak of his wheelchair alerted Moxxie to his presence as soon as he even got close to the kitchen.

“Afternoon,” he greeted, before wondering if that was too formal.

“Hi. Whacha making?”

“Waffles. Oh crumbs, do either of you have food allergies?”

“I don't think so. Waffles sound good. Should I wake Oliver up?”

“In a few minutes.”

A slightly awkward silence settled over the kitchen.

“Have… have you ever been to Wrath before?”

Moxxie grimaced. “Yes. It’s very dusty there.”

Kai perked up. “Is it really true that you can be a cowboy as a job there?”

Moxxie found himself borderline interrogated as he kept an eye on the waffle maker, answering the questions to the best of his ability. “But I’m not from Wrath, most of what I know is through visiting with Millie’s family.”

“Where are you from, than?”

“I’m also from Greed.”

It was Kai’s turn to grimace. “I don’t know why anyone lives there.”

Moxxie shrugged. “It takes all kinds. Personally, I like to stay in Pride.” He carefully pulled a steaming, golden waffle from the waffle maker with a fork. “How about you wake up your friend? Millie should be back soon with-”

The door was kicked open. Millie strode in, holding up a shopping bag full of canisters and beaming. “Whipped cream!! Only the most important waffle topping in existence.”

-

Every time Fizz resolved not to be surprised again, it came back to bite him in the ass. He knew that everything was much easier for a Deadly Sin to accomplish. Of course it was. They were… well, Sins. With the power and resources and clout to pull off nearly anything. But he was still surprised when the phone call didn’t take Ozzie very long.

“They’re preparing the paperwork. It should be ready in a few days,” he said after he hung up.

If Fizz had called, he would probably still be on hold. Didn’t matter how popular he had been in the entertainment industry. “Really? Then what?”

“We sign. A social worker- one from this Ring- will be assigned to our case, which means a few visits in the beginning.”

It all sounded so… simple, yet the smaller tasks that he was beginning to list in his notes app were piling up into what felt like an insurmountable hurdle.

“Wow,” was all that escaped. Fizz sort of wanted to talk to his boyfriend about how he felt, but where to start? And besides that, did he really have time to waste? It was easier and more pressing to talk logistics. “Well, before all of that, we still need to figure this place out.” He gestured with an elongated arm. “Everything is super tall.”

“I suppose we’ll be needing a lot of little sets of stairs, then?” Asmodeus tried to imagine it. They already had one small set of stairs for the quieves to help them hop up onto the couch. Maybe soon the whole place would look something like that.

“Wheelchairs can’t go up stairs,” Fizz pointed out. “And for stuff like counters, will they be running around up there? Because that sounds dangerous, they could fall.”

“Okay, we need a different idea for kitchen counters… what if we just got a different couch?”

“You would be sitting with your knees up to your chest.”

“I could take a smaller form more often.”

“You get claustrophobic in those smaller forms. Don’t pretend it’s not true.”

Asmodeus sighed. It was true. “What if we set up two bedrooms, then we can work from there to the rest of the house?”

Fizz considered that. “Sounds good. But do you think they want to be separated into different rooms?”

“I hear that kids like their own space.”

“But they’ve also been all the other has for… the longest time. What if they get lonely? Or what if I’m overthinking this?”

Oz considered that. “We’ll set them up in a fairly big room. Two opposite sides. They still have their space, but the other is right there on the other side if they need them? Things can always change too, once we have their input.”

“Okay. Alright, yeah.”

-

“There ain’t enough room in this town for the both of us.”

The imps on the TV glowered at each other. Kai took a bite of his peanut butter covered waffle, rainbow sprinkles crunching between his teeth. Oliver, busy reading captions, was unaware of the whipped cream quickly melting and making the cereal soggy.

“I could get used to this,” Moxxie said softly, offering another strawberry to Millie.

“What? Late brunch?” she asked with a grin, 

“Lazy Saturday mornings watching crappy Westerns with the kids.”

Millie’s left hand intertwined with Moxxie’s right as they both purred quietly.

-

“I don’t know where the fuck we are actually.” Fizz sighed and ran a hand down his face. This was supposed to be a quick, in and out type of shopping trip. And somehow they had gotten side tracked, then lost, in the winding aisles of Hell’s most frustrating but somehow most popular furniture store- Ikea. 

“Well, we saw this showroom before, which way did we decide to turn?”

“I can’t remember, Oz! Left, probably?”

“Let’s try going right then. Kids’ beds can’t be that hard to-”

“Don’t. Don’t even. We’ve been here for a half hour already. We should just ask the next person we see, or we’ll be here all day.” They’d gotten as far as picking out some cute sets of twin-sized bedding before somehow getting turned around. There seemed to be no end in sight to kitchen showrooms and various appliances. Those they didn’t need to worry about. Probably. 

“I don’t mind spending all day with you, Froggie.”

Fizz grumbled, trying not to let the corners of his mouth turn up in a grin. “I’d rather spend all day with you not in Ikea. I don’t want to take too long and let the kids think we forgot about them.”

“I understand. We’re going to figure this out. Here, I’ll push the cart for a while.”

Fizz relinquished control of the cart and was secretly very glad that Ozzie didn’t bring up the fact that he was the one who thought it might be fun to go shopping in person. Yeah, maybe this would have been easier online, but he wasn’t going to admit that now. And really, would it kill these people to put up some directional signs? He said that part out loud. 

“They have those in human Ikea, but I don’t think they help very much.”

“You’re telling me Earth has these too?!”

“Sometimes I forget you’ve never been there.”

-

By the end of their trip, Fizzarolli and Oz went home with two matching bed frames, two kid-sized mattresses with sheets, pillows, and blankets. Two sets of drawers, some shelves, supplies to anchor those to the walls (“In case they’re climbers like Barbie was.”), and two desks. Fizz deliberated over buying toys for a minute before realizing that he didn’t have the best idea of what the two would like. Probably better to let them choose.

“What age do kids start school again?” It had been a long time since Oz had interacted with kids. He remembered Lucifer unable to stop crying on Charlie’s first day of preschool, but that was about… two hundred years ago? Give or take a decade.

“Um… well, eleven is definitely school aged. We’ll have to figure out where we’re enrolling them before summer ends,” Fizz added that to the list in his notes app. If his hands weren’t metal, they might have been sweating. Did the schools in Lust have a positive attitude toward imp students? Were there bullying problems? What if the kids found it hard to make friends? What if they hated it, and then they hated Fizz for making them go there?

“I can see you worrying again. We’ll figure it out, one thing at a time,” Asmodeus reminded him. “First, quite a few of these boxes say ‘some assembly required’.”

“That shouldn’t be too hard. I mean, you’re an engineer.”

It was that hard. The instructions were very small for Asmodeus, and mostly in pictures which seemed like it could be helpful but wasn’t really, and Fizz kept messing up the sizes of the different dowels. Thirty minutes in and Fizz felt like he might cry. He took a deep breath. He would not be bested by a set of shelves, goddammit. 

“Do you want to take a break, Froggie?” Asmodeus asked, clocking the calming breaths which were only sort of helping.

“Kinda.” His stomach turned with guilt. “Are we doing the right thing?”

“What do you mean?”

“Combined we know, like, nothing about kids.”

“You don’t know nothing, Fizzy Frog. Shit, at least you were a kid once. I popped into existence fully formed one day, so I’m kinda banking on your knowledge, babe.”

“And that’s a terrible idea!” Fizz slouched over onto the floor, wrapping his cybernetic arms around his aching middle. “My parental figures were Blitzø’s parents. Tilla… passed when we were still pretty young and I didn’t see hide or fucking hair of Cash after that. I don’t know the first thing about being a good father, what if I’m awful?”

“You are not going to be awful, c’mon! Just… what would you have wanted when you were a kid? An- an impling? Is that what…?”

“Technically. Though, the way it’s being used by some other demons, it’s starting to sound like another fuckin’ slur.” Fizz sighed. “I’m not really like them. I mean, I lost my parents too, but I was in the spotlight from the moment I could crawl. On a tightrope. I wasn’t a normal kid, I wasn’t treated like a kid most of the time. I was an employee first.”

Asmodeus sighed and scooped Fizz up off the floor. The dramatic imp remained limp in his grasp, limbs dangling. “So you wanted to be a kid? Well, we can do that for them. It’s not like I had it in mind to hire either of them, and you’ll be careful about putting them in the public eye. They can be themselves. And we’ll figure it out from there.”

“You make it sound easy.”

“How hard could it be?”

“Knock on wood right fucking now.”

“Okay, okay,” Oz laughed, knocking on one of the shelf pieces. “There. We’re not going into this jinxed or cursed. We’re just… first time parents.”

Fizz sat up. “Oh. Right- they make books for first time parents, don’t they? Oh my god, we’re first time parents. I should read.”

“Hold your horses, furniture then books."

“Okay. Well, dinner then furniture and then books. I’m hungry.”

“Burgers?” Oz suggested.

“You read my fucking mind. I love you.”

“Love you too, Froggie.”