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Blitzo was fucking this up. He wasn’t sure how, exactly. He was doing everything he could think of. He was trying, which…gross. But. He was. He had a second chance with Stolas. A second chance at life in general, actually. And he was fucking it up.
What was he supposed to do? Stolas was miserable, because of course he was. This was why he hadn’t wanted to…you know, feel things. I mean, why get yourself invested when you know you’re going to disappoint?
And yet, somehow, he’d become a glutton for punishment (not his usual thing) because there he was, crawling out from Stolas’s feathers way earlier than he ever used to get up (and he was a fucking business owner, he didn’t used get up late) and looking over and seeing the permanent crease in his brow and thinking /maybe one of the fancy coffee’s Millie gets sometimes would cheer him up/ because, you know, sugar and caffeine totally makes up for losing your daughter and your powers for a shitty little imp who fucks you real nice.
So, yeah. There he was. At a coffee shop at the crack of dawn with no fucking idea what to order and fucking extra guilt because the barista was smiling at him in that new way that probably meant she going to give him drinks for free because he was a hero of the people and that was still cool as shit but he shouldn’t be thinking about that when he was trying to cheer up Stolas. And then on top of all that, who should walk in but fucking Octavia Goetia?
He almost turned around and walked out. He really did. Except that Blitzo prided himself in never being the one to turn around first from an awkward situation. Even if this fucking teenager who’s life he ruined terrified him.
So they just sort of…stared at each other across the coffee shop and Blitzo had just braced himself to hit her with a sort of jokey “Hiii there, princess…” when they both heard the barista call out “I’ve got two mocha frappes for Blitz-OH…” (which was really fucking annoying because she clearly recognized his face) and the next thing she knew Via had huffed over to him and demanded, without any preamble “Please don’t tell me one of those is for my dad.”
“Uh, well.” He blinked, recovering quickly. “No, actually, it’s uh, for the other deposed prince sleeping on my couch.” This earned him another exasperated huff and an eyeroll. She grabbed one of the mochas, took a huge sip and turned to the barista. “We’ll take a London Fog, whole milk, with an extra shot of syrup. On him.” She gestured to Blitzo without looking at him and he nodded sheepishly as the barista shrugged and walked away. She was still turned away, drinking the mocha as she mumbled. “I can’t believe he fucking threw his life a way for a guy who doesn’t even know he hates coffee.”
Fucking ouch. Give him a knife fight. Give him a gun fight. Give him a fucking…it wasn’t that he minded looking stupid. Getting backed into a corner and coming out on top anyway was right in his wheelhouse. But this. Sure, he could laugh this off. He could turn this on her. But. It wouldn’t change how this felt.
“He didn’t do it for me…” He sputtered with much less confidence than he would have preferred.
She scoffed. “Well, he certainly didn’t do it for me.”
And then she fixed him with the kind of withering look that only a teenaged girl could manage and he genuinely couldn’t think of a thing to say, which had to be a first.
It wasn’t until he’d gotten the new drink for Stolas and she turned to leave that he found his voice enough to call out “You’re not gonna like, send a message for him, or anything?”
She turned back, eyes rolling again. “Oh, are you getting involved now? Think you’re gonna impress him by playing Stepdaddy?”
“Out of respect for Stolas, I won’t respond to that last part.” He could feel himself loosening up, suddenly. Fuck this, actually. If she hated him anyway, he couldn’t make things any worse by saying shit that needed to be said. “But yeah, I guess I am gonna get involved because you’re acting like an immature little baby and he doesn’t deserve that shit. Like, oh no, boo hoo. My dad has spent my entire fucking life completely focused on me and takes his eye off the ball once-”
“Once?” She snorted.
He ignored that. “Just give him a fucking break. Look, I don’t know a lot about…but I do know about regret. You are going to regret not having your dad in your life.” He couldn’t believe he was saying these things. Him, of all people. He didn’t know what he would have said if someone had come at him like this when he was 17. She was just a kid, he knew that. But he couldn’t not say anything. “Like, fine. Be pissed. If my dad randomly got on TV and basically tried to kill himself for his situationship…well, with my dad it would probably be a publicity stunt but that’s not…your dad fucking loves you. Be a grownup about this.”
Via didn’t respond for a moment and then gave sort of a huff/grunt, pulled eyeliner out of her pocket and scribbled something on Stolas’ tea before muttering “I’m not a grownup.” and stalking off.
***
Stolas stared bleary eyed at the cup, reading aloud. “Your boyfriend’s a dick.”
He gaze turned to Blitzo. “Boyfriend?”
“Yeah, well, I mean close enough, like we never really nailed down labels or anything because, to be fair, the last time you know, we had anything close to a relationship talk at all it didn’t exactly go well, my bad, but HEY how is that what you’re taking from this…Stolas? Stols? Are you crying? Hey, hey. Don’t do that…it’s. I’m sorry…”
Not knowing what else to do, he curled up on his lap. Crying? He was crying? He’d made him cry with his bullshit? Again? Fuck. He’d really done it now. He just had to open his big stupid-
“Blitzy…she talked to me…” Stolas was looking at him and through the tears he could see that he was smiling. It might have been the first real smile he’d seen in a very long time. And he couldn’t help it. He smiled too.
“Yeah, I guess she did.”