Chapter Text

Chapter 1:

“Once IIP has progressed beyond a certain point, there isn’t much demonic medicine can do…” 

The doctor kept on talking, but Asmodeus had already tuned back out. The rest of what she was saying was all a bunch of medical bullshit that if she were to be believed, wouldn’t help Fizz one bit. As she rattled on about this treatment and that, Asmodeus instead focused on Fizz lying in the hospital bed, looking smaller and more fragile than he had ever seen him.

They were in a private room, and even though Fizz was more open to letting people see his prosthetics, Ozzie figured that he could preserve some of Fizz’s dignity since he wasn’t able to wear the hat to cover his horns. He knew Fizz would never want the fans to see him like this.

He also knew that Fizz wouldn’t want Ozzie to see him like this, but he was just going to have to cope. After weeks in and out of the hospital, now that it was looking like Fizz wasn’t getting any better, nothing would keep Ozzie from his partner’s side. 

Fizz always looked pale from his scars, but seeing him with all of these wires attached to him, breathing through tubes in his nose… it filled Ozzie with a profound impotence. He had all of this power, he was a damn Deadly Sin, and what good was it all if he couldn’t use that power to help the one imp he loved the most?

The other Sins wouldn’t get it, they wouldn’t understand the connection he and Fizz had. None of them really *saw* the demons they ruled over as people. Well, maybe Bee did, or Lucifer, but the others… they wouldn’t care one bit if Fizz died.

Ozzie knelt down next to the bed, taking Fizz’s hand in both of his own. Fizz’s labored breathing hitched for a second as he opened his eyes to look up at him.

The doctor must have realized that Ozzie wasn’t listening and left to give them some privacy because he didn’t hear her anymore, and Ozzie didn’t care. He remained focused on his partner

“Hey, Froggy…” Ozzie said softly, hiding his worries behind a smile. “So, I’ve got some good news and some bad news…”

Fizz managed a weak smile at Ozzie. “I get to go home?”

Ozzie’s heart clenched at the question. Because it was the good news, but it was also the bad.

“Yeah Babe, I can take you home,” he answered, fighting back a hitch in his voice he hoped Fizz couldn’t hear over all the machines hooked up to him.

Fizz wasn’t an idiot, he could see all the shit they still had him hooked up to. He had to know what was coming before Ozzie said it.

And it broke Ozzie’s heart that Fizz beat him to the punch.

“They’re sending…me home… to die, aren’t they?” he asked, his breath labored again.

He didn’t want to answer, he felt that if he said it out loud, that would make it real. 

“I swear to you Fizz, I am going to find a way to beat this thing,” Ozzie said, bringing his hand up to hold Fizz’s face. “If medicine can’t help you… we’ll just have to think of something else.”

Fizz’s brow furrowed with a question, but then Ozzie brought his hand away from his face and stood to his full height. 

“My assistants are going to move you and all of this equipment back to the penthouse,” he said. “I’ve got a visit to make.”

Chapter Text

Asmodeus let out a resigned sigh as he opened the door to Belphegor's office. He really didn't want to go to any other sin for help with anything, but this was a matter of life and death. 

At first Fizz had laughed about his illness, waving off Ozzie's concerns that Imp Immuompromise Syndrome sounded pretty bad. It was only when traditional demonic medicine stopped working and he became increasingly weak and unable to perform anymore that Fizz finally agreed to let Ozzie search for somebody to help. 

Ozzie just had his doubts that Belphegor would be that somebody. 

Her office was dark, the blinds closed and if he couldn't see in the dark Ozzie was sure he'd be tripping over all the trash in the room. The floor was a cluttered mess of wrappers and empty water and Beezlejuice bottles. The acrid smell of Bel's famous Sloth ring weed floated in the air and Ozzie finally found her on a futon couch in the darkest corner of the room, smoking and scrolling through her phone.

“So Oz,” he heard Bel mumble in lieu of a greeting. “You say your little boy-toy isn’t doing so hot?”

“Yes Bel, thanks for putting it so delicately,” Ozzie replied dryly. 

Bel rolled her eyes, the candles on her head flickering to life so that shadows danced across the room. “I’ll never understand yours and the others’ interest in the mortal demons,” she said. “At least Mammon uses them for profit, that makes sense to me.”

“Yeah, I know, you don’t give a shit about any other demons—” Oz said. 

“Au contrare, Ozzie,” she replied, finally looking up from her phone to meet his eyes. “I have a few employees that show promise. One imp in particular has a lot of potential in my line of work.”

“Meaning they’ll do everything for you so you don’t have to get up off your ass?” Ozzie asked sarcastically.

“Careful there… didn’t you come here to ask me for something?” she asked.

Ozzie sighed again, knowing that Bel had him there. “As you mentioned, my— my partner, Fizzarolli, he needs a cure for this illness he’s got…”

“And you’re hoping that I’ll just whip it up for you?” Bel asked with a tired indignation. “Do you know how many demons come and beg me to cure their illnesses for them? Ugh, it’s annoying how much they beg.”

“But, you have the means to create cures just as much as you do for the drugs and poisons you create,” he said.

“Yeah… I guess.” Bel said. “But cures are just— they’re usually so hard to make…” she whined the last part as if it were physically straining her to even speak the words. “And it’s not exactly like there’s anything to gain from them for me.”

“The demons from your ring get sick too…” he tried to argue. “Don’t you care about them?”

“I mean… as much as the rest of our fellow Sins do about their’s, I guess…” she said. “However, your little imp isn’t one of mine. So apart from you owing me a favor, why should I care?”

That got Ozzie’s blood boiling. “You should care because you could make a fucking cure in your sleep like it was nothing, but you don’t want to.”

Bel shrugged. “I’m just not feeling it, Ozzie.”

“Then what am I supposed to do?” he asked. “I can’t just let Fizz—” he didn’t even want to think the word ‘die’, and saying it out loud would make the possibility even more real.

“Maybe if he does, you’ll learn to distance yourself more… it’s way easier that way,” Bel said.

“I can’t do that,” he said. “I can’t just ‘not’ care like you.”

“That’s one reason you’re the weakest of us Sins,” Bel replied. She went back to her phone for a moment and - when she realized that he wasn’t going anywhere - she gave an exasperated sigh and hit send on the phone. She held a finger up for Ozzie to hold on while she made whatever call she felt she needed to at this moment.

Whoever was on the other end picked up, and a certain amount of energy came to Bel’s voice (which was to say, still not much) as she greeted the other person.

“Zora, my right-hand imp, you busy?” she asked, still holding up a finger towards Ozzie.

“Mmhmm, yeah… look, Zora. There’s a job opportunity here that I don’t feel like dealing with, and I thought you could handle it for me.”

Bel smiled as this Zora person answered her. “Great, great. Head on into my office ASAP, okay, Z?”

She hung up the phone without saying goodbye to Zora.

“Just called my best apprentice, she can get your little cure for you maybe even sooner than I would have.” Bel said after another drag from her joint. “So, happy now Oz?”

Ozzie crossed his arms and continued to frown, but he was somewhat grateful. “Hmpf, I guess it’s something. And this apprentice of yours is an imp?”

Bel nodded, blowing out smoke. “Guess not all of them are useless. She’s a great poison maker, so it shouldn’t be too difficult for her to make the opposite.”

Bel's door creaked open, and Ozzie turned to see a young imp woman in a purple dress with dark, wine colored hair and glasses. She came hesitantly into the room, looking to her boss before meeting eyes with him.

“Oz, this is her. Zora,” Bel introduced her. 

“Zoralei Killmore, of the Wrath ring Killmores,” Zora said with an awkward smile, as if trying to read the mood of their conversation. “and I of course know who you are, Mr. Asmodeus.”

Ozzie grinned at her polite greeting. “you can call me Ozzie, Zora. Sorry we had to meet under these circumstances.”

He briefly filled Zora in on what was happening, Ozzie watching her face fall as he described Fizz's condition.

“I… I'm so sorry,” she replied once he'd finished. “And you really trust me to make the healing potion for you?”

Ozzie frowned momentarily at Bel before turning back to her. “Well, if Bel thinks you're worth dumping the work she doesn't want to do onto, you must be pretty skilled.”

Zora gave him a small, sheepish smile. “I'll do my best, I won't let you down.”

Here’s the list of ingredients I’m going to give her.” Bel scribbled down the ingredients to the cure on a scrap piece of paper and sent it flying over to Ozzie.

Ozzie caught it and looked it over. “Hmm… She might need some help for this. Time is of the essence after all.”

“Time is always ‘of the essence’ for mortals…” Bel scoffed. “But if you’re so set on keeping your little Fizz around for another couple of decades then… yeah, she might want some help.”

“And I know just the imps for the job,” Ozzie said, his voice finally hopeful as he thought of who his next call would be to.

Chapter Text

It was nearly quitting time and they hadn’t had a call all day. Things had been slow for the past few days at IMP but Blitz was certain things would turn around. Sure, they could have spaced out their last few jobs so they wouldn’t just be sitting around bored at four-thirty on a Wednesday, but they were professionals, dammit. It was right there in their name. So was the word ‘immediate’ when you came to think of it. If they spaced things out, then what would they be? The Leisurely Murder Professionals?

Loona was scrolling through her phone at her desk as usual, and Blitz was poised on the chair nearby, attempting to predict when the phone would ring. 

“Any minute now…” he assured Loona. “I can feel it…”

Loona rolled her eyes. “You’ve been ‘feeling it’ for the past three hours. Face it, today’s a wash. No wonder M & M already bailed.”

That brought Blitz out of his attempted phone telepathy.

“Hmm?” he said, looking around the room. Sure enough, there was no sign of Moxxie or Millie. 

“Did they seriously go home?” he wondered. “I could have sworn…” he then noticed Moxxie’s jacket and Millie’s purse still on the breakroom couch.

Blitz slumped a little at the sight. “Let me guess… they’re in the closet again?”

Loona glanced up over her phone with a sigh. ‘Third time this week.”

Blitz nodded, rolling his eyes now as he went to the closet door. He jiggled the handle and pounded on the wood.

“Hello in there, everyone put your panties back on and come out here right now!”

Blitz heard shuffling and scrambling, Millie giggling, and Moxxie tripping over something before the door slowly creaked open and the couple appeared, Moxxie’s hair a mess and Millie still tugging on her shirt.

“Look, I know it’s been a slow couple of days, and normally I’d be cheering you two on with pompoms and an air horn, but this is the third time this week I’ve caught you canoodling at work.”

Millie raised an eyebrow. “‘Canoodling’?”

Blitz frowned. “Loona got me a swear jar and she thinks she’s going to have enough money by the end of the month for a car.” He then looked pointedly at Loona. “And I know a challenge when I hear one. So I’m not gonna let her win.”

Millie looked skeptically at Blitz while helping Moxxie fix his hair. Moxxie still looked fairly embarrassed about being caught having sex at work again.

“Sorry sir,” he said sheepishly. “But we only have a small window of time to do this while Millie's ovulating.”

“Ovu-whating???” Blitz retorted. “The fuck is that?”

“That’s another five bucks in the jar, is what that is.” Loona piped up from her desk.

“Dammit!” Blitz said.

“Ten bucks” Loona added with a smirk.

“You know what? Here,” Blitz pulled out a twenty and stuck it in the jar. “Fuck you and fuck whatever it is Moxxie’s talking about.”

Blitz then turned back to Moxxie and Millie. “Now what the— heck is ovulating?”

At this, Moxxie and Millie shared a soft smile between them. “You think we’re ready to tell ‘em, Honey?” Millie asked Moxxie.

“I guess we can’t hide it forever,” Moxxie replied. He then turned back to Blitz. “Blitz, Loona…”

“We’re trying!” Millie exclaimed happily. 

Blitz blinked. “Trying to… what? See how often you can bump uglies on company time?”

“They’re trying to get pregnant, dumbass,” Loona called.

“Hey, five bucks in the jar, Missy!”

“Not my jar,” Loona replied. “I’m just reaping the benefits of your lack of self-control.”

Blitz frowned again, turning back to M & M. “You’re serious?”

They both nodded, Millie beaming. “We’ve only just started really trying, but— we both think we’re finally ready to grow our family.”

Blitz just stared at them, with their excited faces, all happy to share this bombshell of a thing and waiting to hear what he thought. No, this wasn’t a bombshell, it was a time bomb… a ticking time bomb that would explode and bury his friends in a mass of diapers and responsibility.

His mouth grew dry and his mind went blank. Did… did they expect him to be happy about this? Excited for them? In the back of his mind, Blitz knew that was what they must want - what he should be feeling - but all he could come up with was an overwhelming sense of dread. A baby would change literally everything, didn’t they realize that?

He wanted to shout that at their stupid, excited faces, but he was still unable to come up with a single fucking thing to say.

Thankfully, that was when the phone at long last decided to ring.

Loona – whose job was to answer the phone – merely stared at it while Blitz answered it.

“ Immediate Murder Professionals, where your murder commission is our mission. You're talking to Blitz, founder, and HBIC, how may I help you?”

“ Blitz, it's Asmodeus,” he heard from the other end.

Asmodeus's tone immediately doused Blitz's hopeful mood. He had a bad feeling that Ozzie wouldn't have good news.

“ Hey Oz, how's everything?” he asked with a tentative, anxious chuckle. “I know Fizz has been under the weather---”

“ That's exactly what I'm calling about,” Ozzie replied. “We're trying to keep it out of the public knowledge but—-” Blitz could sense what was coming in just the way Ozzie was speaking. “He's been in the hospital for a few weeks, and they're... sending him home today.”

“ Well, isn't that a good thing?” he asked. “I mean, they wouldn't send him home if he wasn't...” Blitz paused, knowing full well that there was another reason to send a deathly ill patient to the comfort of his own home that had nothing to do with him getting better. The exact opposite.

“ No...” Blitz froze as the single word escaped him. “No no no, Ozzie... he--- he can't--- don't tell me you're giving up.”

“ I've been informed that this is the extent of what demonic medicine can do for him,” Ozzie said. “I felt it was best to bring him home. You know how Fizzie hates hospitals.”

Blitz knew, because he hated them too. Fizz hated them because that was where he had to spend so long after the fire that nearly killed him, and Blitz hated them because that was the last place he saw Fizz for nearly two decades.

“ But--- that can't mean he's---”

“ No, no, he's still hanging in there,” Ozzie assured him. “Or at least, he's trying to. And to answer your question; no I haven't given up on him.”

Blitz swallowed hard, finally able to breathe since Ozzie started talking. “So you've figured something out? There's still hope?”

“ I think so. But I'm going to need your help, as well as your crew if possible.”

“ Absolutely, anything. Anything at all you need to get Fizz better you just say the word.” His anxious tone was starting to draw everyone's attention, he saw Millie and Moxxie looking concerned, and even Loona had put her phone down to watch him.

“ Good to hear,” Ozzie replied. “Because we're trying something outside modern demonic medicine. We're trying an old Sloth healing potion.”

“ A potion?” Blitz repeated skeptically. “That old nonsense? How could you possibly think that would work?”

“ It's the only other option I have, Blitz,” Ozzie said. “I went to Belphagor to ask her for help but---”

“ Let me guess, the royal bitch laughed you out of her crack den.”

“ Something like that. But she acquiesced enough to get me in touch with her apprentice, and she's taken the job. She'll be coming by your office in about an hour to meet you and let you know what you all can do to help.”

“ An 'apprentice'?” Blitz repeated, even more skeptically this time. “Whatever underling Belphagor's got on her payroll I don't want anything to do with her. She's probably some hoity-toity upper level demon whose daddy paid for her to get that job.”

“ Actually, she's an imp from Wrath, not unlike the rest of your IMP crew. Self-made too, not unlike you.”

“ I'll believe it when I see it,” Blitz said, growing annoyed that he was going to probably be expected to take orders from this supposed 'self-made' Wrath imp farm girl.

“ Don't count her out just yet, Blitz,” Ozzie said. “Bel told me she's highly skilled, she's done work on both potions and poisons, and she's been studying under Bel for years, so I trust her at least for that.”

“ And how the f---” Blitz caught himself with a glance to Loona. “How do we know if this imp gal is so great with poisons that she won't screw up and make things worse by poisoning Fizz?”

“ Because in that case she would have both you and myself to deal with,” Ozzie said. “And between the two of us, I think you know what would happen.”

Blitz nodded, but then pinched the bridge of his nose. “Ugh... fine. She'll be here in an hour, you say?”

“ Possibly sooner, since we've been talking.”

“ Alright, we'll give this a shot. But if this bitch starts ordering me around like some... stinking errand boy, I won't be held responsible for my actions.”

Ozzie made an actually amused sound at that. “You know, she said something similar about you. I think either you two will get along, or one of you will be dead by the end of this.”

“ Oh, ha ha, Oz,” Blitz replied sarcastically. “Let's just focus on doing whatever we can to get Fizz well again.”

“ Agreed. We'll talk again soon and I'll keep you updated. I'll want check-ins from you as well, okay?”

Blitz nodded again despite knowing that Ozzie couldn't see him. “Yeah yeah, let me just brief the crew about this 'apprentice's' arrival.” With that, he hung up.

Chapter Text

Chapter 4:

It didn't take long before the apprentice chick arrived after Blitz hung up with Ozzie. As annoyed as Blitz was to have a Sin's underling working with them, he had to admit he was curious as to what a Wrath imp was doing working under the Sin of Sloth.

Blitz knew once she arrived that it must be her because not only did she use the door, she actually *knocked* before entering? Who the fuck did that?

“Uh, come in?” Moxxie said, looking just as surprised as Blitz was at the imp's manners.

When she entered Blitz immediately clocked her as part succubus. Her horns and lighter red skin gave that away. She had clearly-dyed wine colored hair, glasses, and wore a short but still professional looking purple dress.

She glanced around the office, clearly having some opinions that she kept to herself.

Blitz let out a sigh and walked over to her.

“So, I guess you're Belphegor's apprentice. I'm Blitz, the o is silent,” he said, then gestured to the others, introducing each of them in turn. “This is Moxxie, Millie, and my daughter Loona.”

The apprentice gave each of them a polite smile and held out her hand for Blitz to shake.

"Zoralei Killmore, of the Wrath ring Killmores," she said, holding out a hand and introducing herself. 

Blitz just stared down at her hand, giving a scoff. "Name sounds fake as Hell, but okay." 

Millie though perked up at the name, pushing Blitz aside to shake her hand. 

"So you're related to Rico Killmore, Zoralei?" Millie asked. 

Zoralei nodded. "That's my dad. And you can call me Zora." 

Millie grinned brightly as she shook Zora's hand. "Well I'll be, an actual daughter of Rico Killmore." Millie looked over to Moxxie's curious expression and clarified. 

"Zora's daddy just might be one of the best hitmen in Wrath." 

"Pfft," Blitz said at that, crossing his arms. "If he's so great how come I haven't heard of him?" 

"Well, he retired a few years back," Zora said. "You don't tend to hear much about hitmen living long enough to do that." 

"But he keeps up with the goings on in the community, which is how I already knew about y'all." Zora continued. 

Blitz raised his eyebrows, a bit more pleased to hear about this hitman father of hers if the guy had heard of him and his company. 

“So, your boss dumped this job into your lap?” Blitz asked. “She do that a lot?”

Zora tilted her head in a slight shrug. “More often than I’m willing to admit. Asmodeus thinks I’ll need some help with this,” she said. “Not sure why he thinks I need a group of assassins to aid me, but I don’t want to question him.”

Blitz took a bit of offense at her tone. “I'll have you know that this isn't just some favor we're doing for Asmodeus,” he said. “Fizz is my oldest and one of my best friends. I'd sooner cut off any appendage you could name than see him suffer like he is. We are *going* to make this damn cure, and if we have to put up with each other for a few days to do that, then I'll do it.”

“I didn't know that…” Zora said, genuinely surprised. “I'm… I'm sorry. I'm not saying Belphegor was right to refuse Asmodeus. Honestly I think she should've helped him no matter who the cure was for." She frowned and adjusted her glasses with an awkwardness that looked like she was afraid Belphegor had her bugged and was listening in. 

"Ms. Bel has always been... flaky, let's say. And she doesn't normally care about lower demons unless they can do something for her." 

Blitz rolled his eyes. "Sounds like most of the royal assholes we've had to deal with," he muttered. "I'm surprised she even has an imp like you for a student." 

Zora shrugged, but that wariness to not badmouth her boss appeared to still be there. "I'm useful, I guess."

Blitz gave her an appraising look. “Yeah, well we’ll see how useful you are at making this stupid potion. What exactly do we need to do?”

“I suppose just help me collect the ingredients,” Zora answered. “I have the list here, and we can get started right away.”

“Good, because the sooner we get this shit done, the better,” Blitz replied, placing a five in Loona’s jar.

Chapter Text

“First thing should be the Leviathan pearl,” Zora said. “They’re found in the deepest parts of the ocean in Envy.”

Blitz rolled his eyes. “Ugh, Envy. Haven’t met a single bastard from Envy I didn’t hate.”

“Well, we may have to get in contact with someone from there to find a pearl.”

“Or…” Blitz left his sentence hanging in the air as he rubbed his Asmodeon crystal, activating the portal to what looked like the purple skies and ocean of Envy. He slipped through, was gone barely a minute, and returned soaking wet but with a handful of pearls.

He held out his hand to plop the slimy things into Zora’s hand.

She pulled her lips into a line, looking exasperated but still determined to be patient and polite.

“Thanks…” she said finally. “But, the others aren’t going to be so easy to obtain.”

“Well, good thing you’ve got ol’ Blitz on the case with ya,” he said. “We’ll have this potion made faster than I can make you orgasm.”

“Hmm… why do I doubt that?” Zora said flatly.

“Oh don’t tell me you haven’t already thought about it.”

Zora rolled her eyes as she placed the pearls on a paper towel to dry off.

“Believe me when I say that it hasn’t crossed my mind once,” she answered with a flick of her tail.

“Oh, by the end of this whole thing I’m certain you’ll change your tune,” Blitz replied.

Zora crossed her arms and took two determined steps towards Blitz, her irritation evident but Blitz was still confident he was right.

“To be quite frank, at this moment you make me feel dryer than sandpaper.”

That sounded to Blitz like a challenge, and he didn’t hear one of those he wouldn’t at least try to win.

“So…” he said, lowering his voice and looking her over with a smirk. “If I were to pull you closer, maybe prop you up against the wall and kiss down that pretty neck of yours, you wouldn’t be turned on?”

“I’d just as soon let a hell hog kiss me,” she answered, staring into his eyes.

“Ya know, I could probably arrange that.” he said.

“Alright, Mr. Flashy Crystal guy,” Zora said with a roll of her eyes. “Let's use your flashy ass crystal and go up to Earth for…” she looked back down at the list. “The blood of an innocent creature.”

“Why the— why do we need to go up there?” Blitz asked, still careful not to swear within earshot of Loona.

“It says ‘innocent creature’,” she repeated. “How many innocent creatures are in Hell?”

“Fair point, but what creature is truly innocent up top, either?” He argued.

“I'm sure we'll find something,” she said. “Let's mobilize your crew and get going. There's no time to lose.”

“Don't start ordering me around, Princess,” Blitz muttered. “You're not the leader of this operation.”

“Don't call me princess,” she replied. “And if you want to be the leader then by all means, lead your team.”

“With pleasure,” Blitzo said derisively, making a mental note to call her princess even more now he knew she didn't like it. He turned to Loona at her desk.

“Loony, let's roll. Come on.”

Loona just glanced up at him and then back down at her phone. “No way.”

“What?” Blitz said with indignation. “Why not?”

“You don't need me for this,” Loona retorted. “Just take M & M.”

“Fine,” Blitz grumbled, now looking for Millie and Moxxie. “Where are they?”

“This is some great leadership you're showing, there, Blitz,” Zora remarked.

Blitz rolled his eyes. “Ha ha ha, fuck you, Princess,” he said on his way to put five more bucks in the jar. “That one was warranted.”

Blitz then opened up the closet to check for the couple, a little surprised when he didn't find them.

“Huh…” he said curiously. Then his attention quickly flicked to the breakroom door, where he heard something being knocked over and the unmistakable sound of rhythmic squeaking on a faux leather couch.

“Oh for crying out loud!” He groaned, stomping to the door and banging on it.

“When I open this door everyone better have clothes on!”

He jiggled the handle to show he was coming in, slowly opening the door to give them a couple more seconds to stop doing what they were doing.

By the time he opened the door, Moxxie had jumped over the couch to hide himself as he put his clothes back on and Millie was quickly stuffing a stained towel under the couch.

“Oh, for— not my workout towel!” Blitz whined. “Guys, I *really* hate to be a cockblock, but can you please keep it in your pants while you're at work? At least until this whole potion for Fizz mess is dealt with?”

“Sorry, Sir,” Moxxie said for the second time today. “We just thought you might not need us for a while.”

“And that means I've gotta watch you two like a couple of horny teenagers?” Blitz asked. “Of course I need you, you're at work, ya know!”

He hadn't noticed that Zora had peeked in over his shoulder, but as he entered the room he spotted her following him curiously.

Millie blushed when she noticed Zora had seen them, rushing over to her with embarrassment.

“We're sorry to you, too, Zora,” she said. “We ain't usually this— frisky at work. We're just trying to get pregnant, you see.”

Zora's face softened and she gave an ‘aww’ that made Blitz roll his eyes harder than before.

“That's great, I hope it goes well for you,” she said to Millie.

“You know you basically just said you hope he successfully cream pies her,” Blitz said snidely.

Zora frowned at him. “You don't need to be crude. What they're doing is natural and beautiful.”

“Oh sure, ‘beautiful’ right,” Blitz said with heavy sarcasm. “Let's remind them how beautiful it is when the thing bursts out of Millie like a bloody, puss-filled zit, or when they're knee deep in shitty diapers.”

“My Lucifer, Blitz!” Zora said, looking appalled. “Are you really so cynical?”

“Hey, I'm not wrong, am I?” he replied. “Let's just change the subject back to what's important, saving my oldest friend's life.”

Zora's frown grew more analytical as he continued to study his expression, as if she were trying to read something written on his face.

“What?” Blitz said, slightly defensive. “Starting to rethink that offer for me to pin you against a wall?”

She continued scanning him, starting to look as if she could see right through him, and Blitz didn't like it.

“Let's just go, Princess, before Mr. and Mrs. Ovulating start rutting again.”

Blitz then activated his crystal and a large portal appeared in the space next to him. The portal opened up to a large, wooded area with the distinctive blue sky of the Mortal realm.

“After you,” Blitz held out his hand sarcastically for Zora to step through.

Zora did, that analytical expression remaining for a moment before she got a better look at their new surroundings.

Blitz stepped through next, followed by Millie and Moxxie. It took Blitz a moment before he realized Zora was staring wide eyed around them, marveling at what was around her.

“What?” he asked her. “It's just some random forest. Nothing to wet your pants over.”

“I've never actually seen the Mortal realm before…” Zora replied, still a bit in awe. “I'm sure it's not a big deal to you, but it's… not like regular imps get much of a chance to visit.”

Blitz hummed in thought at that. “Guess it's just become normal for us.”

Millie then gasped and pointed excitedly off to a thicket nearby. “Moxxie, look!”

Blitz rolled his eyes. “Then again…”

Millie shushed him. “Just shut it and look.”

They all looked where Millie was pointing and tucked away safely in the thicket was a very small, very young looking fawn. It lay snoozing all curled up, its ears twitching in its sleep.

Millie and Moxxie clutched each other's hands as they cooed over the baby deer.

“Look how small, look at its little hooves!” Millie quietly squealed.

“I'll bet our baby's hooves will be just as adorable!” Moxxie said, matching her volume and intensity.

Blitz rolled his eyes again and pretended to gag, causing Zora to frown and hit him lightly on the arm.

“Oh come on, they're getting stupid over a fucking deer.”

“Correction; they're getting stupid over a fucking innocent creature,” Zora replied. 

Blitz's eyebrows raised. “Shit, this *has* been easy,” he remarked, then shrugged, pulling out his gun. “Oh well, won't look a gift horse in the mouth. Buh bye, Bambi.”

Millie, Moxxie, and Zora all grabbed his arm at once, the former two looking distraught at his actions.

“Blitz, we can't kill it!” Moxxie whined.

“Oh, yes we can,” he said, trying to jerk his arm out of their grips. “We need its blood, it's as simple as that. For Fizz, remember?”

“I know, but—” Moxxie said, hesitation in his voice. 

Blitz gave him a determined stare, he was not going to let their baby fever jeopardize his friend's life.

Moxxie sighed with resignation and lifted his hand away from Blitz's arm.

The other two however, still held him firmly.

“There has to be another way,” Millie said, looking to Zora.

“There is,” Zora said with a nod. “It doesn't say we have to kill the creature, just get its blood.” Zora pulled a vial from her satchel. “This much should be enough.”

She held the vial out to Blitz, who grumbled as he finally lowered his gun.

He sighed with frustration. “Ugh… fine. But I really wanted to fucking shoot this thing.” Blitz then holstered his gun and flicked out a knife, handing it to Zora.

“Since you three don't want me near the precious little venison.”

Zora took the knife and quietly approached the fawn.

“Actually, I think I'll need you to hold it,” Zora said.

Blitz frowned. “No fucking way.”

“It won't be hard, I'll move the brambles back and you just scoop it up. We only need to hold it still for a minute.”

Blitz grumbled again. “Killing it would have been faster, I'm just saying.”

Zora moved the thick brush to make a hole Blitz could reach into. In a swift, fluid motion, Blitz grabbed the fawn and held it tightly close to him.

The fawn started squirming and crying out, kicking at Blitz for freedom. He tried to hold it still as Zora cut one of its legs and drained the blood into the vial.

“Hurry up,” Blitz said urgently. “Before this thing kicks me in the head.”

“Hold it still, and I can!” Zora retorted.

“Uh, guys?” Millie spoke up from the side.

Both Blitz and Zora glanced at her, only to see her pointing over Blitz's shoulder.

They turned their heads to see a very angry mother deer charging towards them.

Zora jumped as she put a cork in the vial and tried to tug Blitz out of the way. Blitz only scoffed at the deer as it barreled toward him.

“Heh, like I'm scared of a— SHIT!” 

The doe clamped her teeth down hard on Blitz's arm, and he fumbled as he was going for his gun and dropped the fawn which scampered off further into the woods. 

The mother now having freed her baby, then took off after it, leaving Blitz with his arm covered in both his and the fawn's blood.

“Fucking dammit!” he cried out, clutching where she'd bitten him.

“Moxxie and I are keeping a count on how much you swear while we're out, you know,” Millie said. “Loona's gonna let us have any extra cash after she buys that car.”

“Seriously, guys?” he shouted. “You can kiss that raise I was definitely thinking about considering someday giving you goodbye, then.”

He touched his crystal with his non-bleeding arm and the portal opened for them to go back to the office.

Zora quickly wiped off the vial of blood and shoved it into Millie’s hands. “Put this in the fridge, I’ll be right back.” She then grabbed Blitz by the collar and dragged him into his personal office.

“Now slow down there, Princess,” Blitz tried to joke as she handled him so roughly and while he was still bleeding. “I’m not in the best shape for anything fun right this second, but gimme a minute and I can get into this—”

Zora groaned. “Just shut up and sit,” she ordered, pushing him into his chair. “Roll up your sleeve.”

Taken slightly aback by her tone, he found himself actually doing as she instructed. Zora took his hand and moved his arm around, inspecting the bite. “Not bad, this’ll be simple.”

She then opened her satchel again and took out a jar of goopy-looking stuff. She scooped some onto her fingers and gently rubbed it on the bite. Blitz watched with curiosity as the bite mark disappeared before his eyes. If it weren’t for the black blood stains on his sleeve, he’d never have known there had been an injury at all. 

“Fuck,” Blitz remarked, impressed despite himself. “Never thought I’d see an imp using actual magic.”

“You think I was all talk?” she asked, putting the lid back on the jar and tucking it away. “I know what I’m doing, I’ve worked hard to get as good as I am and to get as far as I have. It’s not exactly easy for an imp to make a name for herself doing something like this.”

“I believe you,” Blitz said. “So… how’d you even come to start learning this shit in the first place?”

She smirked at him. “Sorry, but you need to gain a little more of my trust before I start sharing backstory stuff.”

Blitz tilted his head. “Fair enough, but why heal me? I’ve been injured before, it’s not like I can’t handle a bite.”

“Why not?” she asked as if it were obvious. “You’re hurt, I can heal. I just help as needed, no matter what scoundrel needs me to heal him.”

Blitz felt a little bit touched on top of being impressed, but he covered it all with a sly smirk of his own. “Heh, I knew you’d come around. Stick with me much longer and we’ll have you spread out on this very desk in no time.”

Zora sighed and shook her head, her smile only fading some. “You know I can make poisons too, right? Would a little cyanide shut you up?”

“It might slow me down,” Blitz teased. “But we don’t need to get too kinky right outta the gate.”

“That was a very strange way of saying, ‘thank you Zora’,” she said. “Don’t expect me to feel so compassionate again if you keep being like this.”

“Thank you, princess,” Blitz said, trying his best to sound genuine. It wasn’t as if he wasn’t grateful for her to go through the trouble to patch him up, he just… didn’t understand some of the things she did. She was so different from other imps he’d known. She had fucking manners for crying out loud. She went out of her way to help him - and not just with this injury - she was helping him save his friend whom she didn’t even know and for what? Asmodeus didn’t promise her anything in return. So what was she getting out of it?

“And…” he added, a hesitant but genuine respect in his tone. “Thanks for agreeing to help Fizz. This isn’t even any of your business, so I guess I don’t understand why you did it in the first place.”

She raised an eyebrow, looking again like he’d said something so obviously dumb, but at least her smile remained so she must have found his ignorance endearing.

“You don’t understand the concept of doing something simply because it’s the right thing to do?” she asked. “It… I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t help.”

“Well… I guess I appreciate it, even if I don’t understand it,” he replied. 

His gaze locked onto hers, and for a second he thought he could see a blush coming to her cheeks, but she swiftly broke their eye contact and took his hand in both of hers, looking over the spot where the bite had been again. 

“Well, you’re good to go,” she said, clearly wanting to break the tension that had begun to build in the air around them. “Just try not to piss off any more wild animals for a while, hmm? Let me focus on the cure for your friend.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Blitz agreed. “Sure I can’t get you to share a little bit of that backstory?”

“Not unless you’re willing to talk about why you seem so opposed to your friends having a baby,” Zora remarked, that analytical gaze back on her face. “You appear way more invested in mocking their attempts than a friend should be.”

“I just don’t see what the big deal is,” Blitz said, crossing his arms. “Why all of a sudden do they want a baby so damn bad? Don’t they know it’ll just drain their wallets, steal their time, and bury them in responsibility?”

“Some people are willing to handle all of those things to have a family.”

“They already *have* a family…” Blitz muttered, the words slipping out before he could think.

Zora blinked at him, and he got that feeling again of her having some kind of x-ray vision into his thoughts. He stood from his chair and started out of the room. 

“Yeah, thanks again for the healing I guess—” he said, his mood now soured by the thoughts of Millie’s and Moxxie’s attempts again. “We can finish up the rest of this shit tomorrow.”

“But, we don’t exactly have a lot of time, Blitz,” Zora tried to argue as he opened the door. “You said so yourself.”

“I know what I said,” he replied, not in the mood to be told what to do at the moment. “But I just— I think I need some time alone.”

“Can this alone time be after we get the final ingredient?” she asked, taking the list Belphagor made out of her satchel. “We just need one more thing.”

Blitz turned back to her, curious. “You’re serious? We only needed three things?”

“It’s not so much the ingredients list as it is how I have to combine them,” Zora said. “Plus this last one, it’s going to be a difficult one to come by.”

“Why, what is it?” he asked.

“We need to play a Heart Song to infuse into the potion, played on an angelic instrument.”

Blitz raised an eyebrow, taking a couple of steps back into the room towards her. “Where the fuck are we gonna find an angelic instrument in Hell?”

Zora tilted her head, unease on her face as she answered. “The only one I can even think of is Lucifer’s fiddle.”

“Lucifer? As in the king of Hell? That Lucifer?”

“How many other Lucifers do you know?”

She had Blitz there. “Alright so… what? We’re gonna have to steal from the king of Hell?”

Zora shrugged, her head tilting in a slight nod. “It looks like it.”

Blitz’s smile returned, actually feeling hopeful for once during this whole ordeal. “Finally, something fun to come out of this.”

Chapter Text

“Okay, listen up, here’s how we’re gonna get that stupid fiddle,” Blitz said as he stood in front of his white board. He had crudely drawn figures of himself, Millie, Moxxie, and Zora in front of what could be assumed was the Hazbin Hotel. Blitz hadn’t actually seen the building since it got destroyed and rebuilt so he used his artistic license.

“We find a way inside without being noticed,” Blitz took a long pointer and tapped where he had drawn the hotel. “M & M, you could chat up whatever yahoos they’ve got at the front desk or whatever so Zora and I can slip past.”

He pointed to the drawings of Millie and Moxxie.

“Zora, we then have to find out which room is Lucifer’s, so we might need to find a list or something of whose room is whose.”

Zora raised her hand to interrupt.

“Save all comments for the end,” Blitz said.

“But I already know which room is Lucifer’s,” Zora said. “And if you took a second to actually research the hotel you’d know too.”

Zora pulled up a picture of the newly rebuilt hotel on her phone to show him where a very large apple-shaped tower butted out from the east side of the structure. “Pretty sure that’s where he lives.”

Blitz rolled his eyes but looked at the picture. He couldn’t deny that was probably the place, seeing as it was a big-ass apple and Lucifer wasn’t one for subtlety.

“Okay, so we know *where* Lucifer’s crap will be, but we still need to find a way to get there, so stop interrupting and let me finish.”

“Bet you say that all the time,” Zora muttered sarcastically, but she at least shut her mouth for the time being.

Blitz chose not to retort for once and finish explaining his plan. 

“So once we’re inside, Zora and I will find the best way into Lucifer’s room to snatch the fiddle. We locate it, grab it, and then bing bang boom, we blow the joint and we’re free and clear.”

Zora sighed and raised her hand again.

Blitz grumbled as she did so, gripping his pointer and bending it to the point of breaking.

“Yes?” he asked through his teeth.

“That’s not exactly a plan for how to get out without being seen.”

“That wasn’t exactly a question, was it?” he replied. “What, you got a better way to do it?”

“Better than just saying ‘bing bang boom’?” she replied. “Uh, yeah, I think so.”

“What, you got some sort of ‘invisibility potion’ or something?”

Zora scoffed. “No, because that’s not a thing. What I have are substances that we could throw to cause a distraction.” She started listing off items. “Stink bomb, mustard gas, bitch juice—”

“Wait, wait, what was that?” he asked.

“Mustard gas?” she asked.”I mean I could *make it, but I don’t think we have to go that extreme.”

“No the last one.”

“Bitch juice?” she repeated. “It’s just what I call this little concoction I made that affects the amygdala and the fight-or-flight response in the brain. Essentially it’ll cause whoever breathes it in to go into either panic or rage mode. Either way, they’ll be too distracted to notice anything around them.”

Blitz blinked, actually intruiged and impressed by this new information. “Huh, that… might… actually be useful.”

“There’s a reason Belphagor sent me and why Asmodeus trusts me to help you out,” she said. “And I told you, I know my shit.”

“Guess you are more than a pretty face,” he mumbled as he put the broken pieces of the pointer down.

“Careful there,” she teased. “That was almost a compliment.”

Moxxie then raised his hand, looking tired and very much done with their back and forth.

“So, once you two are upstairs grabbing the violin, what should Millie and I be doing?”

Blitz blinked again, drawing a blank. He hadn’t actually thought that far yet.

“What if you two get caught? then what are we supposed to do?” he asked. 

“I’m sure you two can improvise an escape, I have every confidence in you,” Blitz replied to cover the fact that he hadn’t thought this through.

Moxxie appeared to realize that he had no idea what they should do, crossing his arms and looking at Blitz with exasperation.

Millie, however, put her hand on Moxxie’s shoulder to comfort him. “He’s right though,  Mox. We got this. I’m sure once we’re in there it’ll be easy to figure out a way to escape.”

“Plus, we *won’t get caught,” Blitz assured them. “I’m telling you, the hardest thing will be getting inside, and the second hardest will be getting out again with the fiddle. But if we work together, we can get in and out in no time at all.”

“Welcome to the Hazbin Hotel’s open house night!” the pre-recorded voice of Charlie Morningstar blared from speakers in the wall as the four of them entered the hotel lobby. A big hand-made banner that read ‘Open House tonight!’ was draped across the railing of the upper loft area, and several imps, demons, and sinners were already milling about through the lobby and other very much open areas of the hotel.

“Guess this’ll be easier than we thought,” Blitz said as the four of them stood in the lobby in the middle of the crowd. 

“The plan still stands though. M & M, you stay down here while Zora and me go snatch the fiddle. If there’s trouble, we’ll call you.”

Moxxie nodded and Millie gave a thumbs-up before getting distracted by the table on the far side of the lobby. “Ooh, Moxxie, they have fancy horderves!”

“Hey hey, don’t get distracted,” Blitz said. “We’re here on a mission, don’t just go and stuff your faces with fancy crap.”

But Millie was already pulling Moxxie over to the hors derves table.

Blitz sighed resignedly and then turned to Zora, who had her arms crossed and was glancing around possibly checking for other points of extry or escape if things turned out not to be so easy as they thought.

“I guess since the place is open for everyone, we can just— go upstairs?” she said.

“I guess so,” Blitz said. He did see a few people going up the stairs, but he wasn’t sure if they’d be restricted to certain floors or if there might be security keeping people out of the residents’ rooms. “Best we can do is go up there and see what’s what for ourselves.”

Zora nodded. “If we can’t just walk into his room, we at least know which room is Lucifer’s, so it won’t be hard to find it from the outside if we need to.”

“Got your Bitch Juice handy?” he asked as they began walking.

She nodded, patting the small bag around her waist. “Got it, and a few other tricks up my sleeve if the need arises.”

“You know, you really are much more than I expected,” Blitz said as they started to climb the stairs. “Maybe that mentor of yours was right to think you’re useful.”

“I hope you’re right,” she said. “I just want to make a good impression… I gave up my whole life in Wrath just to study under her… I want to prove to her and my family that I’m more than what they assumed I could be.”

That struck a chord with Blitz and he glanced at her as they climbed the stairs with a newfound respect. He certainly knew what it felt like to want to prove himself… to be seen as more than just what he appeared to be by others. 

“Hey… you said it yourself, you know your shit. You seem capable to me, I’m sure you’ll show that Belphagor and everyone else what you can do.”

She met his eyes then, a small but genuine smile grew on her face. “Thanks, Blitz.”

They reached the landing for the first floor and began to ascend to the second, and a thought struck Blitz as he looked Zora over again. He observed her more appraisingly this time. By the time they’d reached the fifth floor, he’d made up his mind.

“You know…” he began, breaking the silence that had fallen between them. “If this whole apprentice thing doesn’t work out, or if you actually finish the thing… there might be a place we could fit you into at IMP.”

Zora’s eyes widened slightly at the offer, she blinked and looked at him with bemusement.

“You’re serious?” she asked, sounding surprised but pleasantly so.

Blitz shrugged, feeling a bit sheepish under her wide eyes staring into his.

“Yeah… I mean, if you want.”

“You’re offering me a job?”

“Don’t make a big thing out of it, but… yeah,” he said. “I’ve got an eye for potential and— maybe we could use somebody like you around. Long as you don’t stab me in the back like the last asshole I offered a job to.”

“I… don’t know what to say…” she said hesitantly, stopping on the landing of the fifth floor with her tail flicking a bit anxiously.

“Just say you’ll think about it,” he said, his smile wry but hopeful. 

Zora took a second to process this, and then when they started walking again she added. “You know you owe Loona for the swearing.”

“That was between you and me,” he said. “I’m trusting you not to let Loony know about it. You’re on my side, right? You don’t want me to lose this fucking challenge, right?”

Zora smiled again, her voice now filling with amusement. “I guess if you’re going to be my boss, I should probably stay on your good side.”

“That’s what I like to hear,” he replied.

It wasn’t long before they found a sign that indicated that Suite 666 was just on the next floor. It was as good a place as any to assume that was Lucifer’s room.

Blitz and Zora reached the sixth floor and rounded a corner, heading down a nondescript hall with the red apple wallpaper that the other floors had.

Coming up on the suite, Blitz heard a door opening and saw a housekeeping cart outside one of the rooms near the end of the hall. A tiny one-eyed housekeeper exited a room, flitting about her cart and putting things on it before beginning to push it their way.

Zora noticed the housekeeper as well, freezing momentarily before glancing at him.

“Grab me and pin me against the wall,” she whispered urgently.

It took a second for that to register. “What?”

Zora rolled her eyes and groaned in frustration as she grabbed his arms, putting them around her and pinning herself against the wall. “Now act like we’re making out.”

Blitz needed another second to process her command, but when she started letting out a fake moan his eyebrows rose, understanding and quickly putting his mouth down on her neck.

As he started nipping and sucking down her neck, Zora tensed up for a second, her breath caught and then a very genuine-sounding moan escaped her lips. The way she made that noise did something to him, it filled Blitz with an urge to make her do it again, so he nipped her a little harder and was rewarded with another delicious and very non-fake moan.

The tiny housekeeper passed them by without looking at them, but as she did she called out in a high voice.

“Get a room.”

“We’re in a fucking hotel!” Blitz called back.

“Then use one!” she called back before disappearing around a corner.

Once she was gone, Bliz removed his arms from Zora, glancing back to see her breathless and flushed.

“Sounded like you were getting a little too into this act there, Princess.”

He watched as Zora blushed more and started catching her breath. “Oh, fuck you, I had to sell it, didn’t I?”

“Uh huh, sure…” Blitz replied, absolutely not buying it. “And maybe we can discuss it later, although there *might be a wait list…”

She shoved him off her with a smirk that did nothing to convince him that she hadn’t enjoyed every second of that little interaction.

They finally reached the door to the suite, Blitz was surprised to find the door unlocked.

“Well, since invisibility potions ‘aren’t a thing’,” Blitz stated, using air quotes. “How do you suppose we get the fiddle now? I’m voting for that Bitch Juice you mentioned.”

“You just want to see the king of Hell freaking out like a scared little baby,” Zora replied. “We may not need it if we just walk in and ask him first.”

“Come on, Princess, do you really expect the king of Hell, a deadly Sin, to just give two random imps something that might be one of the only reminders of his time in Heaven?” Blitz asked skeptically. “Ain’t no way he’d do that. Better to not ask at all and just bring it back before he notices.”

“I just think it would be a lot easier if we—”

“Shush your sexy little mouth,” Blitz interrupted, finger up to her face. “Fizz is *my* friend, Oz asked *me* to help you, I’m putting my fucking foot down and we’re gonna do this my way.”

Zora blinked and pursed her lips, apparently seeing that Blitz wasn’t going to budge on this. “Okay, fine. But we’re not using the Bitch Juice.”

“Party pooper,” Blitz muttered but with no real annoyance. 

They opened the door just a crack to see Lucifer with his back to them working on something at a standing desk. He seemed absorbed in what he was doing but he could very well turn around at any moment.

The fiddle was in a glass case on the wall close by, close enough for them to stealthily snatch it if only they could get him to move away from the desk.

Blitz and Zora crept into the room, crouched and silent. Zora picked something up from the floor, a small, yellow, rubber duck. She looked at it with confused curiosity, holding it out to Blitz with a shrug.

This gave him an idea. There was a pile of other ducks in the opposite corner of the room. Blitz squeezed the duck slowly so it wouldn’t squeak until he threw it, and then he shot it straight into the pile of ducks with a loud, resonating squeal.

When the duck hit its fellows the pile toppled over some, creating the distraction they needed. Lucifer turned towards the pile with a raised brow, leaving his workstation to straighten it up.

Blitz grinned smugly at Zoram who rolled her eyes and gave him a silent look that told him to focus. He nodded, creeping up to the glass case and very carefully opening it to grab the fiddle.

As he grabbed the instrument and its bow to extremely carefully lower it into Zora’s arms, one of his claws accidentally plucked a string, sending a faint but distinct note through the silent room. Naturally, Lucifer turned and immediately spotted them, his expression going from confused to a growing anger.

“And just what in Hell do you think you’re doing?” he asked, his voice stern with the growing cadence of distant thunder and his eyes flashing.

“Well, shit,” Blitz said. “Now we’re gonna die.”

“You break into my private room and try to steal from me?”Lucifer stated, the thunder in his voice taking on an ominous echo.

“Look, now take it easy your… kingship,” Blitz stammered out, trying to talk their way out of this. “First of all, we haven’t broken anything, and we weren’t ‘stealing’ per se.”

“And just what do you call creeping up and taking one of my most prized possessions while my back was turned?”

Blitz let out a nervous laugh, cowering under Lucifer’s red, intimidating glare. “I’ll admit, that doesn’t look great.”

“No shit,” Lucifer growled. “You better have a damned good reason for this.” Despite his short stature, it was clear in this moment why he was the king around here, a commanding aura exuded from him as his horns grew from his head and flames began to emit from his mouth.

“We do!” Zora piped up, standing and placing herself in front of Blitz between him and Lucifer. “Please, we just need to borrow it. Asmodeus needs it to save Fizzarolli. He’s deathly ill you see, and we need—”

“An angelic instrument?” Lucifer asked, finishing her sentence.

“Yes, please. We’ll bring it back, you have my word,” Zora pleaded.

It took a second, but after a beat the flames disappeared and his eyes returned to their normal state. Lucifer was now grinning at them with a small chuckle.

“Well, why didn’t you just tell me it was for Ozzie?” he asked. “Ozzie’s my boy, and Fizz— well I of course know how he feels about Fizz… you say he’s ill?”

Zora nodded. “Yes, he has Imp Immunocompromise Syndrome and an angelic instrument is all we need to complete the healing potion.”

Lucifer’s grin faded when she mentioned the disease, and he nodded with a newfound determination. “Well, then there’s no time to waste.” He then held out his hand for the fiddle. “Let me make sure it’s all tuned and everything before you take it.”

Blitz looked hesitantly at Lucifer and his outstretched hand. They were so close to their goal and he couldn’t rule out the possibility of this being a trick.

“Don’t worry, any friend of Ozzie’s is a friend of mine,” Lucifer assured him with a smile.

Blitz held onto the fiddle for a moment, checking Lucifer’s face for any sign of deceit, then reluctantly handed it over.

Lucifer immediately began tuning the strings and checking both the fiddle and bow for any wear. “It’s been a minute since I last used her, but she should be good to go in a minute.”

“She?” Zora asked.

Lucifer blinked at her, his expression turning a bit sheepish. “Lilith, I uh— call her Lilith. Naming instruments is something musicians do sometimes and— well, it’s the most beautiful name I could think of.”

“Aww,” Zora said, her head tilting and smile softening like she was looking at a cute puppy or something. It only made Blitz roll his eyes.

Zora must have seen him in her periphery, for she swatted him lightly. “Don’t be rude.”

“Hey,” he replied with indignation.

Lucifer only chuckled again. “It’s alright,” he said. “Do you need anyone to play the Heart Song for you? I could always accompany you.”

“I think we’ll be okay,” Zora answered. “But thank you, and thank you for letting us use her.”

“My pleasure,” Lucifer replied as he finished the tuning and handed the fiddle back to her. “Just - ya know - if you need something from me in the future, just ask.”

“Of course,” Zora said with a pointed look to Blitz. “We apologize, Your Majesty.”

“Just call me Lucifer,” he said, holding up a hand to her formality. “And what is your name?”

“Zora, Zora Killmore,” she answered. 

“Ah, Bel’s apprentice, I should have known,” Lucifer said, his smile returning. “Good to see you’re putting your talents to good use.”

“Thank you, Lucifer,” she said, Blitz, noticing her cheeks growing a little blush to them. “I’ll do my best.”

“That I have no doubt,” he said with a pleasant nod and a little wink. “Just keep your boyfriend here in line.”

Blitz was taken aback by being called her boyfriend, and he was about to protest when Zora interrupted.

“Will do, thank you so much again,” she said quickly. “I’ll bring it back the moment we’re finished with the potion.”

With another nod from Lucifer, Blitz and Zora took their leave as Zora pulled him out of the room.

“Hey, hey, watch it!” Blitz protested as he pulled against her once they were back out in the hall. 

“I told you we should have asked first,” she said with an annoyingly smug tone. “I just knew Lucifer was a reasonable guy. He understands what’s at stake.”

“Uh huh…” Blitz replied, sarcasm in his voice. “Was that because of your obvious crush on him or what that you thought that?”

“My—” Zora stuttered, clearly flustered by the implication. “I do not have a crush on the king of Hell.”

“Sure…” Blitz said with a smirk. “And all those compliments we was giving you weren’t making you blush.”

“I was not—” she said defensively, but Blitz could tell she didn’t even believe herself. 

“Guess I should call you ‘queen’ instead of princess,” Blitz teased. “Since you obviously want to be the new queen of Hell.”

“Why do you even care if I *might* have a crush on him?’ Zora asked. “What, jealous?”

“Oh please,” Blitz said to counter her accusation with one of his own. “You *wish* his little idea that I was your boyfriend were true, that’s why you didn’t deny it.”

“I didn’t deny it because it wasn’t relevant to correct him,” she fired back. “He doesn’t need to know what kind of relationship we have.”

“You’re just hoping that I’ll get it in my head that sounds like a good idea,” Blitz said with a roll of his eyes. “Well, you’re barking up the wrong imp, sweetheart. I’m not a relationship kinda guy.”

“You really think a lot of yourself, don’t you?”

“Only when I can tell beyond the shadow of a doubt that someone’s into me.”

“Ugh, you’re just—” she grumbled, her face completely gray with blush. “Do you do this to everyone or am I just lucky?”

“You weren’t exactly complaining when I had my mouth on that little neck of yours,” he said, voice lowering but still teasing. He smirked as he watched her for a moment, looking her over with an appraising eye. Seeing her all blushing and flustered - and being the one to do it to her - was becoming a very fun passtime. If she really did take him up on his offer to join IMP, he was looking forward to teasing her like this every day.

“Of course you’re going to bring that up again,” she said. “It must have been just as enjoyable for you. You know you’re acting like a little boy pulling my pigtails.” She smirked right back at him, looking up at him now through her lashes. “Just who is it that’s into whom, again?”

He watched her blush some more despite her tone, looking still flustered under his gaze. He didn’t deny it, because he was having too much fun seeing what he was doing to her.

“So you admit that was enjoyable?” he replied, his voice still low. They were standing a hair’s breadth away from each other now, and he held her gaze, both staring into the other’s eyes as if neither wanted to be the one to back down. 

Blitz’s smirk grew when it was Zora who was the first to look away.

“Ahem, we have a friend of yours to cure,” she reminded him, her voice soft and low, matching his. “Time is of the essence.”

Blitz straightened up, leaning back out of her personal space as the unspoken tension dissipated.

“Yeah— let’s— we gotta focus on Fizz.,” he agreed with a nod. 

Zora smiled, turning from him to begin back down to where they came. 

“But… I’m bookmarking this conversation for later,” he said, his smirk still in place.

Blitz tapped his fingers on his crossed arms as they all waited outside the breakroom door as Zora worked on the potion. He didn’t think it should be taking this long, there were only three ingredients, how hard could it possibly be to just mix them together?

Not able to stand waiting any longer, Blitz swung the door open and poked his head in. Zora stood over the table, eyes focused as she added the crushed up Leviathan pearls into a small [cauldron?] over a green flame. 

“What’s takling so damn long?” Blitz asked.

Zora kept her concentration and spoke without looking up at him.

“It needs to be at an exact temperature,” she replied. “Plus, have you ever tried crushing up pearls? Harder than you’d think.”

The fiddle lay on the table close by, and Blitz wondered just how she was going to infuse the Heart Song or whatever she needed to do.

“Do you know how to play that thing?”

Zora shook her head. “No, and I need to be at the mixture while its being played anyway to make sure its working.

“Well, I don’t know how to play it, who the fuck do we know who can?”

“Ahem,” Blitz turned to see Moxxie in the doorway. “Allow me, sir. I’ve had experience with several stringed instruments.”

“Of course you were band kid as well as a theater kid,” Bitz remarked. “Think you can play the right thing? The fuck even is a ‘heart song’ anyway?”

“As long as the intent of the song comes from his heart, it doesn’t matter what he plays,” Zora responded. “I’m just glad Moxxie can do this for us.”

“Fucking Satan,” Blitz said as he rolled his eyes. “This Heart Song bullshit has got to be the schmaltzly-est thing I’ve ever heard of. What’s next, we’re gonna save Fizz with the Power of Friendship?”

“Don’t mock it if it gets the results we’re looking for,” she said. “Moxxie, you can go ahead and start whenever you’re ready.”

Moxxie nodded at Zora, picking up the fiddle and checking it first to make sure it was tuned. When he finished, he started playing, feeling it out before he began to draw the bow across the strings, ringing out a sweet, heartfelt melody that it took a moment for Blitz to recognize. 

“You’ve got to be shitting me,” he said with bemusement. ‘My Heart Will Go On’?”

“Shh,” Zora chastised him as Moxxie kept playing and she kept stirring up the mixture.

As Moxxie reached the chorus, golden light began emitting from the fiddle, little flecks and sparkles of gold floating off of it and into the mixture. Blitz watched the process curiously, hoping that not only would this be sufficient, but that it would work. For all his jokes and moaning the whole thing, he of course really did hope that this would work.

As Moxxie finished playing the final notes of the song, the fiddle’s glow faded and the gold flecks disappeared. Zora gave the mixture a few more stirs and lowered the heat underneath it. 

She turned from the table and smiled at Blitz. “Give it a little while for everything to settle, and I think we’ve finished it.”

Blitz blinked, his eyes widening slightly. “You mean it, the potion’s done?”

She nodded. “We can get it to Fizzarolli tonight.”

Blitz clapped his hands, his spirits lifting as well as his hopes as he retuiend the smile. “That’s great, that’s great! I’ll text Ozzie right now.”

He pulled out his phone to do just that. As he was texting, Millie and Loona entered and Millie was complimenting Moxxie on his playing having heard it from the other room.

“You did so good, baby!” she said as she gave him a squeeze.

Blitz glanced at them, a little suspiciously. “I’ll be right back. Loony, make sure there’s no funny business between those two while I’m gone.”

“Blitz, I’m not going to cockblock them if they wanna go off to have sex,” Loona said. “No matter how much it weirds me out that they’re doing it so close to me that I can smell it.”

“Just— just stay here, okay?” Blitz said. “I’ll be right back.”

Blitz left the room for his private office where he had something *extra* special prepared for everyone. 

It was a foolproof plan in his opinion. Now that the potion was made successfully, there was no way anyone would suspect anything by Blitz wanting to celebrate, so it wouldn’t look weird at all for him to come out with some celebratory chocolate pudding for everyone. So long as he could give Millie the extra special one just for her.

He pulled the pills he’d snatched from Zora’s bag, staring down at them as a pit in his stomach began to form. Was he really going to do this? Did he really want to do this to his friends?

He swallowed and pushed the twinge of guilt down as he opened the bottle and dropped a few crushed up pills into the small pudding cup. He had seen this as a method for giving medicine without the person knowing before, and he figured it would work in this case.

After he’d mixed the pills into the pudding, he added sprinkles to the other cups so it wouldn’t be weird if Mille accidentally crunched down on a bigger piece. 

He picked up the tray and carefully carried the cups into the breakroom, making sure that Millie’s cup remained in the right corner. 

They’d never know, how could they? The pit in Blitz’s stomach argued with him that it didn’t matter iof they wouldn’t know, *he’d* know. But he argued back that this was for the greater good.

“Alright!” he called out, masking his guilt with a smile. “Time for some celebratory pudding!

The others looked at him as he entered, their expressions ranging from curious to pleased, all except for Zora, who had that annoying x-ray vision look on her face again. He watched as her eyes flocked down at the pudding, suspicion growing on her face but she didn’t voice it.

Moxie and Millie reached out for cups eagerly, and Blitz made a point to tilt the tray so that Millie would take the one he’d made for her.

Just as she was about to grab the correct one, Zora swooped in and snatched it, leaving Millie a bit confused but grabbing a different one.

“Uh… hey, no—” Blitz stammered, trying not to give it away but also wanting Zora to just leave the cup with the pills for Millie. “Let Millie have that one there, Princess.”

“Oh, I don’t mind, Blitz,” Millie said as she took a spoonful of the pudding she’d grabbed. 

“Yeah, but—” Blitz said as he tried to come up with an excuse, his eyes locked onto the cup in Zora’s hand.

“But what, Blitz?” Zora asked. “It doesn’t matter which one she gets, right?” Zora scooped out some of the pudding with her spoon and sniffed it, then put it into her mouth to taste it. Her eyes widened as realization and confirmation filled them.

She shook her head, pursing her lips and her brow creasing.

“Blitz, can I see you in your office?” she asked, but in a commanding, not-a-question way.

The pit in his stomach doubled as she spoke, her gaze turning into a glare before his eyes.

“Yeah… sure…” he responded and followed her determined steps back to his office.

Once he was inside, Zora closed the door, slamming the pudding cup down onto the desk.

“You know, I really was starting to like you, Blitz,” she began. “I thought that beneath your crude humor and this front you put up, that you were a genuinely caring person and that you cared about and respected your friends.” She then spotted her pill bottle in the trash and the guilt in Blitz’s stomach twinged harder.

“But wow, I can not believe you would do something like this, this is beyond shitty,” she said, a regretful and almost hurt tone to her voice. “Stealing my birth control pills is one thing, but then sneaking it into Millie’s food? What kind of a friend does that? You have to know how violating that is, right? Especially for Millie.”

Blitz’s heart sank. “Shit, don’t tell her, please,” he begged. “She and Moxxie would never speak to me again if they knew.”

“No shit,” she fired back. “I wouldn’t either if you pulled something like this on me. What were you thinking, Blitz? You can’t be so controlling over them that you fuck with their efforts to get pregnant.”

“I know, I know!” he fired back, regret filling his voice now. “I was desperate, this was a stupid plan, but— I just—”

Zora crossed her arms and glared. “Oh this’ll be rich. Come on Blitz, give me a good excuse for what you were trying to do.”

“I can’t,” he replied. “I know I can’t, are you happy? I just— if they get pregnant, it’s gonna change everything. What if they can’t work here at IMP anymore? What if— what if they quit to find better, higher-paying jobs to support their little crotch goblin? This could break the whole team up—” Tears pricked at the corners of his vision as he tried to hold back his desperation and shame. He stared back at Zora, knowing how stupid and immature he sounded, but also knowing that he was being stupid and immature.

“I just— I don’t want things to change…”

Zora stared at him for another beat, but then she gave a heavy sigh, her face softening somewhat.

“Blitz, I get it. I understand not wanting things to change,” she said. “And I’m not gonna lie, them having a baby would change a lot of things, but… you can’t mess with them like this. You have no say in what Millie and Moxxie do, and you had no business trying to meddle.”

“I know…” he repeated softly.

“You’re just lucky I had my suspicions the second you left and came back with this stuff. I won’t tell them what you tried to do, I know that you really do care about them, and buried somewhere deep in this gesture that caring is in there. But— just because a baby would change things, that doesn’t mean it won’t be for the better.”

She stepped closer to him, reaching out to place a hand on his shoulder. “Sure they *might* leave IMP, but at the same time, they might not. They care about you and this company too, right? Who’s to say they wouldn’t stick around so they could stay in your little work family?”

Blitz frowned but nodded. He had been so focused on all the bad that could happen, that he hadn’t entertained the idea that they would stay.

A soft smile began to grow on her face, her tone growing encouraging. “And hey, what if this doesn't hurt your family, but expands it? You have to admit a cute couple like them would make the cutest baby imp, and don’t you wanna be the cool uncle that teaches the kid how to shoot a gun?”

A tiny smile came to his lips at that idea. “Heh, yeah… an M & M kid would be cute, and I’d teach it how to be the most badass baby there is.”

“You are gonna make the best uncle ever,” she said, moving her hand to take his with a squeeze. “Because I can tell you’re already a great friend and dad.”

He didn’t object to her taking his hand, and his smile grew a bit as she squeezed it.

“I’m gonna sound schmaltzy so be warned,” Zora said. “But you know that love isn’t a finite resource, right? It expands and there’s always enough to go around. Millie and Moxxie have more than enough in their hearts even if they add a baby into the mix.”

Blitz chuckled a bit at that. “You’re right, that was schmaltzy. But… I guess it sounds true enough.”

Her smile grew as she tugged on his hand, leading him back out of the room to rejoin the others.

“Maybe I should take you up on your offer,” she said. “I could keep an eye on you better if I work for you.”

“Does that mean we can return to that pinned conversation?” he asked, his smile growing a bit sly.

She smirked. “Let’s get the potion to Fizarolli first, then… we can talk.”

Chapter Text

The entire crew accompanied Blitz to the penthouse that Ozzie and Fizz shared, and Blitz felt like they’d arrived not a moment too soon when he saw all the shit Fizz was hooked up to.

The rest of them hung back to give Blitz a moment with his friend, Zora handing him the potion so he could do the honors.

“Hey Fizz,” Blitz said, soft and cautiously. “I’m gonna be honest, you’ve looked better.”

Fizz smiled wearily as his eyes appeared to focus on Blitz. “Oh ha ha,” he replied, his voice not able to go above a whisper. “Leave the jokes to me, asshole.”

Blitz smiled fondly. “You can tell all the jokes you want after you take this,” he showed Fizz the potion bottle.

“That the potion that’s gonna fix me up?”

“Yeah…” he replied, uncorking the bottle for him. “Zora said it’s not gonna taste great, and I don’t doubt it, but hey— down the hatch.”

Blitz reached under Fizz’s head to help him lift it, tilting the potion into his mouth. Fizz frowned at the taste, but appeared to muscle through the flavor.

Once the whole boittle was emptied, Blitz put the bottle back down on a side table. 

“How do you feel?” he asked.

Fizz smacked his lips as the taste of the stuff left his tongue. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Guess we’ll see.”

“We will see, because this potion is *going* to work,” Blitz assured him. “This chick Zora knows her shit, so I know you’ll be back to your old self in no time.”

Fizz chuckled, still weary but a bit of color coming back to his face already. “Maybe she can make a potion that makes you funny.”

Blitz laughed at that as well. “Maybe. But hey, you’re sounding better already.”

Blitz stayed by his side for a while longer, the two friends talking on and off about the old days. Once he was confident that Fizz looked beter, Blitz finally went back out to the rest of the group.

Millie, Moxie, Loona, and Zora all looked up as he entered, Asmodeus trading places with him to go sit with Fizz.

Blitz sighed and nodded at them. “I think he’s gonna be okay.”

Millie and Moxxie let out sighs of relief, and the other two looked grateful and relieved as well.

“That’s great to hear,” Millie said. “We’re so glad we were able to help, Blitz.”

“Even though you took every opportunity to go off to have sex?” Blitz asked teasingly. He glanced for a moment at Zora, who smiled back encouragingly.

“But, seriously M & M, thanks for the help, and… I really am happy for you trying… I can’t wait to be an uncle.”

“Well, I guess you might not have long to wait,” Millie responded with a growing smirk. This got Moxxie’s attention.

“Honey, what do you mean?”

Millie tilted her head and leaned into Moxxie, her smirk growing. “Bought me a pregnancy test while y’all were mixing the potion. I’ll take it as soon as I can.”

Moxxie lept from his seat and Blitz stepped forward.

“Let’s get a move on, then!” Moxie said, taking Millie’s hands and pulling her up to stand.

“Yeah, get home and take that thing, and make sure you call me with the results,” Blitz said with a genuine smile. “Either way, but I’m… I’m hoping for the best.”

With that, Moxie pulled Millie out the door and presumably straight home.

Blitz felt a lot better about things now that he’d accepted the idea, and he smiled gratefully to Zora as she stood from her seat as well.

“There’s just one more thing we need to address,” Bl;itz said as he turned to Loona. 

“If I go halfsies with you on the car, will you let me swear again?”

Loona smirked. “I knew you’d cave eventually.”

“Not cave, just a compromise,” he corrected. “I’m feeling generous, is all.”

Loona looked him over, seeming to consider before replying.

“Alright, challenge over.”

“Fuck yes!: Blitz exclaimed, pumping his fist, feeling more hopeful about the future than he had in a long time, even if he had to fork over some cash for Loona’s car.