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"Okay. Take it easy, Stolas. Take it easy. You're just seeing your daughter. The girl who you haven't seen since you ran off to stop the execution of your ex, stripped of your rank and status within the Goetia family; all the while, your ex-brother-in-law became your temporary replacement. No worries."
That the disgraced prince of Hell was nervous would be an understatement. As he'd just said, he was meeting with his daughter, whom he hadn't spoken to since Blitz and his team were put on trial for using his grimoire to access the human realm and sentenced to death. While he and Blitz weren't exactly on speaking terms, Stolas still harboured strong feelings for the imp assassin. And it didn't help that the fellow ex of Blitz that Stolas had made out with at the Anti-Blitz party had only pretended to like him and even asked him for a dance just because he lost a bet with his buddy. As soon as Stolas had overheard this following their make-out session, the prince kicked the Succubi in the balls and threw him into the pool. Feeling even worse, Stolas returned to his mansion to watch soap operas for endless hours.
Then, after two months since their "breakup," Stolas was shocked to see live footage of Blitz being chained up and readied for execution by Satan's command. Without a thought as to what he was doing, Stolas teleported himself inside the courthouse where the execution was being held, preventing the imp from being killed and confessing to allowing I.M.P to use his priceless book illegally. This resulted in Andrealphus being placed in charge of the grimoire, all of Stolas' duties, and his legions, and given his title, rank, possessions, and privileges; all until his daughter Octavia came of age, while Stolas was disgraced and cast out of the higher elites of Hell.
As an outcasted prince, the members of Hell's lower classes, who'd suffered under the higher-ups, would have certainly taken the first opportunity to gut him. If not for Blitz and his crew, who were now heroes in the eyes of their social class, who defended Stolas and took him in. Giving him food, shelter, clothes and friends to help heal his emotional scars.
It helped somewhat. But what none of the members of I.M.P could do was repair the already strained/damaged relationship between Stolas and his teenage daughter.
For the first few weeks, Stolas had been too depressed to do anything but lay on Blitz's couch. He only bathed and ate when the imp put him in the bathtub and repeatedly stuffed food in his mouth. By the end of the third week, Stolas had begun to get up off the couch, feed and bathe himself, and even walk around the apartment. However, he avoided going out as much as possible as many of the inhabitants of Hell treated him like garbage.
But he was willing to make an exception for his precious owlette. The only problem was that the locks on his family's mansion had been changed, and Stolas' ex-wife Stella, who once again resided there, had ordered all servants not to let the disgraced prince onto the premises.
They wouldn't even let Octavia know that he wished to see her.
He tried calling her, but she refused to speak to him. His emails and social media accounts were also blocked.
It reached the point where Stolas had to do whatever it took to let his daughter know that he wanted to see her again. He forced his way onto TV and online shows, begging her to listen.
By the sixth month after his disgrace, Stolas finally received a message in the form of a letter from his daughter. The letter was written in her handwriting and had her unique signature, with the I's dotted with owl skulls. So Stolas was sure that she had written it.
Stolas hadn't been this happy in his months of banishment and was even happier when he read the letter. It said Octavia requested his presence at the Richest Cup café at noon the following day after the next full moon in a couple of days.
A few days later, an hour before noon, Stolas arrived with his clothes, the same ones he always wore out, as clean as you'd expect them to be after living with imps, which wasn't as bad as you'd think—just a little wrinkly and with a stain or two.
He sat near the front so that when his daughter arrived, she would have no trouble finding him.
He sipped tea for a couple of hours and a few more afterwards. Stolas began to worry whether or not his ex-wife had set him up to think his daughter had wanted to see him. He couldn't help feeling depressed and a little heartbroken. Just as he was about to call for the bill, the front door opened to reveal two highly muscular Succubis dressed in black suits, wearing black sunglasses and armed with high-tech blessed riffles. They looked around the café before signalling to someone outside. It was then that a young avian female entered. She was dressed in the finest purple dress Stolas had ever seen that sparkled like a thousand stars. Her hair was done up in two buns, one on each side of her head, and on top rested a shining silver tiara with purple jewels that matched her dress.
Stolas was amazed. He hadn't seen her before and thought he'd met almost every royal demon in Hell.
While sipping his tea, Stolas watched as this young princess, accompanied by her bodyguards, walked over to him and sat opposite him.
Stolas was confused by this, and he only realized who she was when she spoke in a voice he recognized.
"Hello, father."
Stolas couldn't help but spit out his tea, nearly splattering his daughter had one of the Succubi bodyguards not stepped in between them to take the non-lethal blow.
When he was out of the way, Stolas stammered for words to say to his owlette. "O… o… Octavia?!"
"That's my name," Octavia replied casually. At that moment, a tiny imp waiter asked her for her order. Her response surprised Stolas.
"Black blood tea. One percent skimmed milk. No sugar. Oh, and have it brought to me exactly at 149 degrees Fahrenheit. Not hotter or colder than that. And make it snappy, you filthy imp, or you'll suffer my wraith."
There was so much of that that Stolas found unsettling. For starters, Octavia had always refused to drink tea. She preferred soda or sparkling water. Not to mention, there are such specific instructions. She didn't usually care how her food or drinks were prepared. She'd eat straight from the bag if the opportunity arose. And now she was threatening the waiter if they got the temperature of her drink off by a hair? This was just not what he'd been hoping to see today. For crying out loud, he didn't recognize his own daughter. It hadn't been that long, and she'd changed so much.
"Of for fucks sake!" Octavia spat, interrupting her father's thinking. "Yes, I'm wearing a dress. So what?!"
Stolas hesitated a moment before finally speaking again. "Well… it's just… you know…"
Stolas's stuttering was getting on Octavia's nerves, as she expressed by crossing her arms and giving off an annoyed facial expression—one Stolas only saw when dealing with his ex-wife, Octavia's mother.
With a gulp, he tried to speak his mind. "You've always hated wearing dresses," he said at last. "Ever since you were a little owlet, you refused to wear them. Not even on special occasions. And you never seemed to grow out of this phase as you grew into a teenager. I'm slightly surprised you suddenly changed since I last saw you."
Octavia quickly responded to this. Too quickly if you asked her father. "You haven't seen me for six months. SIX MONTHS! Six months since you disgraced our family. Shamed our name and humiliated me and my mother in front of all of Hell, including the Seven Deadly Sins. Six months since you broke your promise and abandoned me. And that was after breaking the family apart when you chose to cheat on Mum for a lowly imp of all things. And then kicked her out of the house because she wasn't pleasing you."
This was much worse than Stolas could've imagined. It was clear that Stella had been working her slimy talons on their daughter. For Christ's sake, was there no limit to that vile woman's cruelty?
"Octavia dear, I know it may seem your mother is the victim of our separation. But she was always cruel to me. Since before we wed, she has done nothing but verbally torment me and, on occasion, physically."
"Like you did with your imp toy in the bedroom before you got bored and threw him out like mum?" Octavia spat. "I went into your room after you were banished. I saw the sick, creepy sex toys and showed them to Mum. She told me that you never used them on her. That only a sicko would use such things for sex."
This caused an embarrassed blush to form on Stolas' face, proving his daughter right.
"How could you look me or Mum in the eyes after doing such revolting things for your own sick, twisted pleasure?"
"Well, your mother wasn't the entertaining in the bedroom," Stolas protested.
"Maybe she just has decent tastes. Or at least had the decency to not throw herself on the nearest dick that came her way."
Stolas was annoyed by his daughter's insults. Disgraced or not, he was her father, and she shouldn't be talking back to him like this. "See here, young lady!"
"Oh, don't try to play the stern parent card on me," Octavia rebuffed. "You never could play it in all my years since I hatched. And unlike you, Mum knows when to use discipline."
"Because she's a heartless tyrant!" Stolas spat as he was reaching his breaking point. "A cold, manipulative cow that cares about no one but herself. Sorry, not even you. Whatever she's said to you about me, it's just to get under my skin and turn you against me so that should I return to my royal status, she'll have you to fall back on for an easy life. And from how you're dressed, you've become her little puppet. A toy she can use further to benefit herself in the grand scheme of things. No better than the rest of those filthy Goetia whores!"
Octavia and the rest of the occupants in the café were all speechless by Stolas' words; even the succubi bodyguards had mouths open in shock. Meanwhile, the ex-prince, in turn, immediately regretted saying what he said as soon as the words finished leaving his beak.
Stolas attempted to mend the situation. "Via," he said, reaching out to her, but the damage was already done. Tears seeped through his daughter's eyes, and she batted his arm away with such force that it knocked him off his seat and caused him to fall onto the floor.
The next thing he knew, Octavia stood over him, her face as cold and menacing as her mother's. At that moment, the waiter returned, wobbling, with a cup of tea on a silver platter made according to Octavia's instructions.
Seeing the waiter and her drink, Octavia took the teacup from the platter and ordered the waiter to get lost. Without hesitation, the waiter vamoosed in an instant. Octavia then returned her focus to her father, who remained on the floor, looking at his daughter with horror.
Next thing he knew, his daughter poured the hot tea down right on top of him, landing on his crotch.
Stolas yelped in pain as his hands instinctively went to his burning dick.
As he recovered from his painful experience, Octavia spoke again in a voice that could make Stella's voice sound pleasant in comparison.
"I only came here because I thought you'd learned your lesson. But I was wrong. You haven't changed. You're still the same bumbling, horny buffoon that shamed the very name Goetia and abandoned me in that courtroom." Without another word, she turned around and began heading towards the exit.
Doing the best he could with the pain still in his crotch, Stolas pushed himself up, calling out to his daughter. "VIA!"
In response, Octavia turned back to face him with a death glare in her eyes. "Don't call me that! You lost your place, and I doubt the Deadly Sins will reinstate you. From now on, I want nothing to do with you. Do you hear me? You. Are. Dead. To. ME!"
Her words stabbed Stolas' heart like a blessed knife, if not more painful. And she wasn't finished yet.
"And if you try to get in contact with me again, I'll have your precious imp toy executed like he should've been at the trial."
Without another, Octavia turned her back on her father again and stormed out of the café with her bodyguards behind her. Leaving Stolas to pay the tab, which was the least of problems now.
The walk back to Blitz's apartment was slow, but it wasn't like Stolas had anything better to do. Blitz and Loona were at work.
I.M.P had become quite popular since the hired assassins became the first convicted demons to avoid execution at the hands of the Seven Deadly Sins. This had made them legendary among the citizens of Hell, especially those of the lower class. Since then, they've been bombarded with media attention, fans wanting autographs, overlords wanting to invest in the company, and their number of clients was skyrocketing to the point where they had a waitlist. There were rumours that Blitz was looking for a bigger office to house the business, including additional supplies and employees, to handle the growing demand for their services.
The point was that Stolas expected that Blitz wouldn't be home until super late, while Loona would typically go out after work with her boyfriend, Vortex.
This left him to slowly, step by step, make his way back to "home" while dodging the occasional trash thrown at him by the inhabitants of Hell.
Walking back, he couldn't help but look back on his reunion with Octavia. She'd changed so much. More like her mother than ever before. Filled with so much anger. Hate. Hatred towards him for destroying her family. For abandoning her, as he'd realized after being banished and reminded of by her.
As much as he hated to admit it, he couldn't blame her, or even Stella, for what Octavia had become. Stella was a verbally abusive witch, but he'd put up with it to give their child a good family life. If only he'd held in his desires for something more for himself a bit longer, waited until Octavia found her mate, settled down, and started a new family. Yes, had he left her mother later on in her life, she'd still resent him, but at least she'd be old enough to be free of Stella's cruel, twisted grasp and possibly have a loving partner and child to heal her heart.
But that wasn't the case. Blitz had come at the wrong time. However, Stolas wouldn't blame the imp assassin. It was his own decision to sleep with Blitz, continue their affair, and even go so far as to divorce Stella for a chance to be with him.
He caused all that had happened, leading to this moment—no one else.
When Stolas reached the door to Blitz's apartment, He opened it to find, much to his shock, Blitz pacing through the apartment with a worried expression.
"Blitz…?!" Stolas gasped. "What are you doing here?"
"I live here. Am I not allowed to be in my apartment at this time of day?"
"Well, no… It's just… I thought… I just thought… it's nowhere near your usual quitting time. And I.M.P has been busy lately with jobs, acquisitions, and moving arrangements. Plus, Millie is six months along. I figured you'd be swamped with work. What could motivate you to leave all that behind to come home at this hour of the day?"
"You," Blitz simply said.
Stolas couldn't help but stutter. "I'm… I'm sorry, what?" he replied.
Blitz brought out his phone and showed a video of Stolas and his meeting with Octavia online.
Someone must have filmed what had happened between them at the café, which greatly upset Stolas. Knowing that one of the worst moments of his life was broadcast before all of Hell, he could only assume Stella had something to do with it. If not, she was nevertheless getting a good laugh seeing him suffer at the hands of their daughter.
Just as his anger reached another breaking point, Blitz lunged at him and embraced him in a warm, comforting hug.
"It's alright, Stolas," the imp whispered into the Goetia's ear. "It's alright. Just let it all out. Break apart. I'll put you back together. I promise."
The anger quickly subsided as Blitz's hug, combined with his heartfelt words, allowed Stolas to let his pain out in tears. He cried for who knows how long. It didn't matter. Despite all they'd gone through, all the bad times they'd experienced together, Blitz was there right when Stolas needed him most. He would always be there. Stolas knew this in his heart.
And that was enough for now to ease his broken heart.