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The range was quiet, almost empty in the middle of the day. Blitzø knew it would be, and that it would be better for Via’s first time shooting. He could remember the first time he’d shot a gun clear as day, but the first time he’d actually gone somewhere to practice was another matter entirely. It had been loud and chaotic and he’d been almost entirely unable to focus. If it had been bad for him, he could only imagine how bad it’d be for her extra-sensitive owl ears.
Via was glancing around curiously, clinging tightly to the strap of her backpack. Two years into his relationship with Stolas, Blitzø could almost read his daughter as well as he could read the big bird himself. She was anxious, but she was interested. It had been her idea, after all. She’d asked him in the morning less than a week ago if he could teach her how to shoot and he’d jumped on it. Any chance to bond with Via was a good chance in his mind.
He nudged her hip with his elbow and headed towards the counter. “C’mon, chicken wing, the sooner you hit a bullseye the sooner we can go get lunch.”
“What if I never hit a bullseye?” She was following behind him, but he could hear fear creeping into her voice.
“Well, you’ve got the best instructor in all of Hell, so I’m sure it’s just a matter of time.” Blitzø shrugged nonchalantly, hoping some of his confidence would rub off on her. At the counter he slammed his credit card down and propped an elbow up on it. “Give us an hour.”
The hellhound managing the counter had the most bored expression Blitzø had ever seen on someone's face. They typed a couple of things into the computer, swiped his card, and handed it back to him with an additional little plastic card. “Room six. Stuff's in the gear room.”
Before Via could ask any of the additional questions Blitzø could see forming in her eyes, the employee hit the button behind the counter to buzz open the door separating the lobby from the rest of the facility.
He grabbed Via’s hand and dragged her back into the gear room with a grin. She didn’t really even try to resist, but she was still looking towards the door as it closed behind them. “Hey, wait, I wanted to ask them something.”
“I promise they hate their job too much to be any help. You’d have better luck breaking out your phone and googling it, sweetie. Besides, you have me." He put his hands on his hips and smiled up at her.
Via still looked uncertain as her eyes scanned the gear room around them. "Okay… What now?"
"Protection!" He scampered over the wall lined with goggles and earmuffs and selected a pair of each that looked like they’d fit her. He was trying hard not to compare this to his first time in a range and failing. That one hadn’t even had ear protection, let alone anything else. He was also pretty sure most of the patrons that were there were drunk, not that he wasn’t as well.
"Try these." He handed them to her, switching out the earmuffs for a smaller pair when he realized he’d overestimated how much of her head was feather. It didn’t help that her ears were uneven, she had to tilt the earmuffs at an angle just to get both covered. He grabbed a set for himself as well, just so she wouldn’t feel so ridiculous. He’d already fucked up his hearing bad enough that he didn’t think he could make it worse without actively trying.
She still looked nervous, eyes flitting around the room so fast that he knew she wasn’t taking in any actual information. Her hands were back wrapped around the strap to her backpack, squeezing it tight enough that he was convinced she could easily choke the life out of him.
"Via, chicken wing, we don’t have to do this if you don’t want to."
Her pink eyes alighted on him, and he could see the indecision warring in them before they flicked away. He hopped up onto one of the benches encircling the room and took her face into his hands, forcing her to look at him.
"I want to do this, it’s just-" she paused for a moment as if gathering her thoughts. "It’s so far out of anything I’d ever even imagined I’d be doing." She laughed a little, as if embarrassed by the admission. "What if I suck?"
"Well," Blitzø replied. "If you suck and you like it, we keep coming back until you don’t suck so much. If you suck and you don’t like it, we go get lunch and figure out a different way to spend time together. No hard feelings if shooting things isn’t your fucking jam. It doesn’t need to be."
There were tears gathering in the corner of her eyes, she lifted a hand to rub at them with the heel of her palm. She locked eyes with him again and twisted her beak into a small smile. "Okay. Thanks, Dad.”
She froze as soon as the words were out of her mouth. Meanwhile, it felt like his heart was going to jump out of his chest and trample her like a herd of horses. He could remember the first time Loona had called him dad like it was yesterday, the triumph and joy and almost bittersweet sting of it. He knew this memory would be similarly etched onto his heart. He’d made his own family, and maybe they were still piecing themselves together but they were still his.
“I-I mean, Blitzø.”
Blitzø was already shifting her into a hug, arms wrapped tight around her and she returned it instantly. With her face pressed into his shoulder he placed a gentle kiss on the side of her head. “You good?”
“Yeah,” she replied as she pulled away. “I’m good.”
He grinned at her and the smile she gave him back hit up his insides like a hearth, warm and soft. “Good. Let’s fuck this shit up.”
~~~
“How much longer do we have?”
Blitzø pulled out his phone to check the time, drawing his attention away from the target on the other end of the shooting range that was riddled with bullet holes. She was doing fine. Nothing spectacular but for a girl that hadn’t even held a gun less than an hour ago she’d hit the target more times than not. “Five minutes.”
“Ugh, I’m never gonna get that head shot.” She lifted the little hand gun again and fired, the shot ripping through the paper target in the left shoulder. “Can you show me how you do it?”
“Fucking absolutely, kiddo,” he replied, knowing he sounded eager. He pulled the flintlock out of his jacket and switched spots with her, lining up the shot and pulling the trigger. He hit the middle of the head on the target twice in a row before he turned to look at her with a smile.
“Maybe your gun is the trick. A good luck charm.” she suggested. Her eyes were on the target and not him, and there was something wistful in them almost.
He looked down at the flintlock. This thing had been with him through some of the craziest times of his life,. It had killed more humans than he could count and had gotten him out of many sticky situations. He’d never made it a hard and fast rule that other people couldn’t use it, but it had always shaken out that way. Maybe it was a good luck charm.
Blitzø took the flintlock by the barrel and held it out to her, grip first. “Try it.”
Via stared down at it like she was being gifted the moon, her pink eyes big and wide. “Are you sure?”
“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”
She took it carefully, like it was fragile. He switched back out with her, taking the smaller handgun from her as he did so.
“Now it’s going to be a little heavier than the last one, but you should still be able to hold it the same way.” He watched her shift into position and lift the gun. “Good. Just shoot like normal.”
There was a beat of silence while she aimed, and then the familiar ring of the flintlock filled the air, deeper than the provided handgun.
The bullet went straight through the head of the target.
Via spun around as soon as she registered what had happened, the biggest smile he’d seen from her all day across her face. She threw herself at him, arms wrapping around his neck in a hug that would have knocked him off balance if her bird bones weren’t hollow. “I did it!”
“You sure did, chicken wing,” He wrapped his arms around her waist in a congratulatory hug, squeezing tightly for a second before pulling back to give her a challenging smirk. “Now do it again.”
She all but flounced back over to the line, lifted the gun, and made another perfect headshot. As soon as she’d done it once she seemed to really hit her stride, never missing another shot until their time was up.
Via was practically glowing with pride as they left. The anxiety that had been sitting heavily on her shoulders just an hour ago gone entirely like morning fog that had been burned away.
Blitzø, too, felt full of pride, but it had nothing to do with her shooting prowess. He’d been dating Stolas for over two years, Via had been living with them for about half that time, and he’d gotten more smiles out of her today than in the past six months alone. She was a good kid, so much like her dad that it was funny sometimes, but actually getting her to open up to him had been hard, and it finally felt like they were making progress, instead of treading the same ground.
"What do you say, a little WcDonalds for lunch?" He nudged her hip with his elbow and grinned up at her.
She returned the smile down at him, eyes wide and sparkling. "Can I get an Unhappy Meal so I can get one of the ugly toys?"
He laughed and wrapped an arm around her waist. "Anything for you, chicken wing.”