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When Loona and Octavia had moved to the newly renovated palace, the family had agreed to weekly family dinners. But soon, the girls got busy with friends and Octavia’s duties, and making time for weekly family dinners was too difficult, so they had agreed to monthly family dinners. Even those started to fall by the wayside, and suddenly, four months had passed without them spending time together as a family.
Sure, Loona still worked with Blitzø and Stolas, but seeing each other at work was just a different dynamic than hanging out together as fathers and daughter. Octavia would try to come to the IMP office once a month for lunch, but that was always extremely chaotic and made it very difficult to have any meaningful bonding time.
It was at one such lunch when Blitzø had reached his breaking point. He watched Mollie play with her “Auntie Loona,” while Octavia got wrapped up in a conversation with Millie about Cleaver Hand 7: Cleaver’s Revenge.
“Hey, Loonie-,” he started, but his voice was quickly drowned out by Mollie’s excited giggles as Loona started to tickle her.
Blitzø sighed and turned his attention to his step-daughter, “hey Via-“
“The way the blood splattered all over them was amazing!” The princess giggled as she gushed over the details of the movie, completely unaware of his presence.
“That’s it!” Blitzø yelled, slamming his fist onto the conference table, shocking everyone into silence.
He glared at them all. “Family meeting. My office. Now!” He gritted his teeth and stormed off, his tail whipping in short, erratic swings.
The girls turned to Stolas, who just shrugged in response to their unasked question as he stood up to follow his husband. He didn’t always understand what went through the mind of his love, but he would always be in his corner. No matter how erratic that corner may be at times.
Blitzø was already seated in his office chair by the time the rest of the family had congregated, his fingers steepled together in front of his scowling face.
“Darling?”
Blitzø let out a long breath, trying to untie the knot that was currently around his heart.
“It’s been too long since we’ve hung out, just the four of us. I’m demanding family time.”
“You can’t demand family time,” Loona rolled her eyes.
“I am your dad and I absolutely can,” he took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. “How’s laser tag sound?”
“Oh, fuck yeah,” Loona’s tail started to wag happily.
“What’s laser tag?” Octavia asked.
“It’s so fucking fun,” Loona turned to her. “We went as a team building/training exercise once years ago with M&M. You basically shoot each other with lasers while running around a dark maze.”
“That actually sounds like fun. Ok, I’m in.”
“Yeah, that’s the spirit, Via! You’ll see, it’ll be a blast and half,” Blitzø smiled. This was exactly what he needed.
~ ~ ~
“What are you wearing?” Stolas asked Blitzø as he adjusted the flowy sleeves of his white dress shirt.
Blitzo was sitting on the couch in their living room, decked out in black from head to toe.
He cocked an eyebrow at his husband. “What am I wearing? What are YOU wearing? I told you to wear something comfortable. Christ on a stick, you look like you’re headed to the theatre.”
“This IS comfortable!”
Blitzø sighed and pinched the space between his eyes. “I meant something you could wear to the gym. Something you can easily move around in.”
Stolas examined his shirt. The first two buttons were undone to allow his extra fluffy chest feathers room to breathe. The material was a silky, smooth satin. It wasn’t actually breathable, but it was also a baggier cut against his slim frame, which he hoped would keep the cheaper material from sticking to his feathers.
“I don’t even understand why you’re so worried about moving so much. I thought this game involved shooting each other?”
“Yeah. What? Are you worried you’ll do so bad against me that you won’t be able to run away?”
“I beg your pardon? Need I remind you that I am quite the accomplished sniper? And I still go to the gun range every week, when was the last time you went?”
“Well excuse fuckin me for not ‘going to the gun range every week,’” Blitzø said while imitating Stolas’s accent, “but out of the two of us, I’m the one that’s an assassin. I don’t need to practice, my job is practice.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah, really.”
Stolas leaned closer to him, his eyes half lidded as he smiled mischievously at Blitzø, “how about a wager then? Whomever gets the lower score tonight cooks dinner for the week.”
Blitzø blew a raspberry, “no way, I’d like to not get food poisoning with my prize. How about when you lose, you clean the van? Inside and out.”
Stolas rose to his full height, shoulders squared as he glared down at Blitzø from above his beak.
“Fine! When you lose, you will watch every episode of my favourite telenovela with me.”
“That seems like I’m doing way more, but fine! It’s not like I’m gonna lose, anyways!”
“So, it’s a bet?” Stolas put a hand out towards Blitzø.
Blitzø smiled up at him, sharp pointed teeth shining in the light of the setting pentagram, “oh fuck yeah, birdie.” He grabbed the outstretched hand and shook it vigorously, shaking Stolas a bit.
“You have no idea what you are getting yourself into.”
~ ~ ~
Blitzø and Stolas walked into Wacky Wally Wackford's Newly Rebuilt Fun Time Emporium, an obvious gap between them.
The arcade was a bright, noisy space of glowing screens and humming cabinets, where every wall seemed to bounce colour off of it. Cabinet marquees cast shifting bands of neon across stained carpeted floors, and the air was thick with sound—joysticks clicking, buttons thumping, speakers blasting video-game music, and the occasional burst of cheers as someone defeated their friends in honourable 32-bit combat. The sound of dropping coins punctuated the room, each clink threading through the steady hum of ventilation and electronics that kept everything running.
“Oh, you’re so going down, Princess,” Loona laughed as she quickly spun her steering wheel joystick. The pixelated motorcycle on her screen screeched as her avatar passed Octavia and took first place.
“You’ve got it coming now, bitch,” Octavia gritted her beak and slammed the gas pedal to the floor, her animated race car closing the distance.
“Octavia! Language!” Stolas scolded as he and Blitzø reached the girls.
The step-sisters were too busy trying to beat each other at Hellion Kart to turn and welcome their dads properly. Their eyes stayed completed glued to the screen as they navigated their vehicles along the winding course.
“It’s fine, Stolas,” Loona tilted her head back to address him, “trash talking is our love language.”
“And you’re gonna feel a whole lotta love, mutt,” Octavia quickly turned her steering wheel, her race car ramming into Loona’s motorcycle and knocking her off the road and onto the grass.
“You cheating little pigeon,” Loona wrestled with her steering wheel, trying to get herself back onto the track. Before she could, Octavia crossed the finish line, ending the game.
The princess cheered as she jumped up from her seat, arms raised above her head in victory. She turned back to Loona and stuck her tongue out at her.
“Who are you calling ‘little?’ I’m taller than you now.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Loona rolled her eyes as she stood up from the game and stretched her arms. She was dressed very similarly to her father, in black from head to toe. Her usual crop top was replaced by a black baggie hoodie that sat on top of black leggings.
And Octavia wasn’t joking about being taller than Loona. Ever since her coronation she had been very slowly going through another growth spurt. Stolas had explained to the rest of family that it was pretty normal amongst the avian members of the Ars Goetia. While they do go through puberty like other demons, when they reach adulthood their magic increased and caused another growth spurt. Octavia would probably grow for another year or so and eventually stop just under Stolas’s impressive 7’ 6” stature.
Blitzø pointed towards to doorway to the laser tag section of the arcade, “you girls ready to go?”
They nodded eagerly.
An apathetic looking cocker spaniel hellhound handed out black plastic vests with laser blasters attached to them.
“Please secure your vests with the clasps. Do not run in the maze. Two hands must remain on your own blaster at all times. No physical contact with the other players. No covering your sensors. The display screen in your vests will show your ID. Your score will be displayed at the end of the game. Any questions?” He droned on in a monotone voice.
The family grunted sounds of agreement as they snapped on their vests, their eyes already starting to glow menacingly in the dark room.
“Is it just us?” Octavia asked as she unclasped the blaster from the front of her vest.
“Just you,” the hellhound replied.
“I mean, it is a Wednesday night,” Loona chuckled as she held her blaster.
“Once I let you in you’ll have thirty seconds to hide before the game begins. The arena lights will turn off when the game begins,” he let out a deep sigh, “please don’t run in the maze-“
“Yeah, yeah, you said that part already. Let’s get this show on the road!” Blitzø’s tail was wagging quickly behind him, his excitement obvious.
The bored employee opened the heavy door to the maze and the family poured in.
“Maze” was a very accurate description of the space in front of them. Paths twisted and branched between black wooden walls, splattered with white and neon paint that looked like Mollie had been let loose in here with balls of paint. Some routes climbed to second levels, including one that led to a fenced-off crow’s nest overlooking the chaos below. Others ended abruptly, because apparently getting lost wasn’t enough—they also needed to be trapped. Several walls had windows cut into them, providing the perfect opportunity to shoot your loved ones from a safe distance and then duck behind them before you were caught.
“Ok fam, you heard the man,” Blitzø smiled at his family as he hoisted his blaster into his claws, a darkness covering his eyes, “SCATTER!”
And scatter they did.
Blitzø and Loona took off running in opposite directions, large smiles splitting their faces in two.
Stolas portaled himself to the crow’s nest and lay down, bringing his blaster up to his eye as he surveyed the maze stretching out in front of him. Sure, it didn’t have a scope like his rifle did, but he could make it work.
Octavia followed her dad’s example and opened a portal to the other end of the maze. She somersaulted through and crossed the hallway, pressing her body flat against one of the black walls, blaster in hand, ready for action.
Vents from around the space started to fill the labyrinth with a fine mist of dry ice fog as a pre-recorded female voice started the final count down.
5…
4…
3…
2…
1…
The bright yellow overhead lights went dark and were replaced with the deep violet hue of black lights, causing the white and neon paints to brightly glow.
Blitzø chuckled softly to himself as he looked up toward the crow’s nest, where Stolas was impossible to miss. Between his white faceplate and white shirt, his entire body seemed almost alight in a soft blue gleam. He was drawing Blitzø toward him like a beacon, practically daring him to come and take him down.
He kept himself behind Stolas, using his claws to climb over the walls, as stealthily as possible, never veering from his path.
Suddenly, Stolas shot his blaster twice. In the distance, the girls yelled and cursed loudly as their vests and blasters turned off, indicating that they had been hit.
“Sorry, my dears!” Stolas gleefully exclaimed from his hideout.
Blitzø scaled the tower and leapt to perch on the railing of the crow’s nest. Staring at Stolas’s backside was filling him with all kinds of feelings, but, currently, the strongest one was his desire to just be a mischievous brat to his loving husband. His tail wrapped itself around Stolas’s feathery tail and yanked on it.
“Gah!” Stolas jumped up and turned around to face his assailant. Blitzø just smiled, charm oozing out of him. Stolas blushed slightly when he realized who it was.
“It’s been awhile since you climbed a balcony to visit me. Reminds me of Romeo.”
“Romeo?” A look of rage took over Blitzø’s playful look, “who’s Romeo? If some fucker dares to touch MY bird-“
Stolas let out a low laugh as he pulled Blitzø into a hug, trying to soothe his raging heart, “it’s just character in a book, darling. You know you’re the only one for me.” He kissed Blitzø’s circus mark, “always,” then pulled him in to kiss his lips, “and forever.”
Blitzø melted into the kiss, wrapping his arms around Stolas and holding him close. It was so soft and tender, just like all their kisses these days. So filled with the love and comfort they shared with each other.
With a small ounce of regret, Blitzø ended the kiss, and smiled up at him, assassiningly.
“Too bad I’m here to fight you.”
“Wait… wha-“ Just as Stolas started to regain his composure, his vest let out a sad defeated combination of descending beeps and boops, its blinking lights shut off, signifying he had been shot.
“How did you…? He spun his head around 180° degrees and looked down. Behind him, Blitzø’s tail was wrapped around the blaster, the spade against the trigger, and it was still aimed at the target on his back.
“But… But… you need to hold the gun with both hands for it to function!”
“C’mon pretty bird,” Blitzø shrugged as he walked to the railing, “you know how well my tail can replace two, maybe even three, hands!” His tail tossed the blaster up in the air as he fell backwards off of the railing. He caught the falling blaster in one hand as the other dug into the wall to slow down his descent, his laugh echoing throughout the room.
Stolas tightly gripped his hand around the railing, and gritted his beak.
“That motherfucker…”
Meanwhile, Octavia was not having fun. Not only was her father continuously sniping her and Loona from his hiding spot, which totally felt like cheating, but no matter where she went, the hellhound was always on her heels. She opened portal after portal, trying to give herself a moment of reprieve, to collect herself, and to give her blaster enough time to turn back on, but just as the lights of her vest started to blink, showing that it was ready, Loona would be there to shoot her again.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” she muttered under her breath as she stepped through another portal, hoping it would finally get her far enough away from her pursuer. She pressed her body flat against a wall and stared out the window, waiting.
“You know,” she jumped and spun around to face Blitzø as he clung to the wall behind her, his voice soft and low, “your portals are really fucking bright, they make it really easy to track you.” As if on cue, Octavia spotted one of her dad’s portals opening up not too far behind Blitzø.
“You don’t want to draw anymore attention to yourself than you already are. Your feathers and shirt are already glowing so brightly you might as well be a star yourself, sweetie.”
Octavia looked down at herself. He was right. The white feathers of her fingers were glowing bright blue and the stars on her sweater were a luminous yellow. She couldn’t even imagine how much her white face was probably glowing. Blitzø and Loona’s full black outfits suddenly made much more sense. Especially Loona, her white fur would make her a walking flare.
As she raked her mind trying to figure out how to cover her glowing feathers, she noticed the lights on her vest started to blink. She looked up at Blitzø, his blaster pointed squarely at her, a soft smile on his face.
“Sorry, sweetie-“
She reached out her hand in front of herself in a vain attempt to shield herself from the impending attack, “wait, Dad, don’t…”
Blitzø blinked.
“Did you just-“
Octavia lifted her blaster and shot him directly in the chest, deactivating his vest. Finally, she had gotten a point!
“Sorry, Blitzø!” She giggled as she ran away from him while trying pull her black cardigan further over her glowing sweater dress.
“I’d be mad if I wasn’t so damned proud,” he sighed to himself and turned to find another victim.
~ ~ ~
Loona sniffed the air. Blitzø and Octavia were in front of her, not too far off, but Stolas was alone behind her. Taking on one person seemed like the better strategy, so she spun on her heel and followed her nose towards the older owl.
After quickly making her way down a few of the labyrinth’s paths, she could tell he was nearby. She didn’t need her enhanced sense of smell to pick up the scent of lavender that followed the bird everywhere he went. She gripped the blaster with both hands and slowly tiptoed toward the edge of the L-shaped partition he was hiding behind.
She jumped past the edge of the divider and went to shoot at Stolas, but her blaster didn’t respond. Confused, she looked down at her vest and realized the lights were off.
She slowly raised her head and met Stolas’s sheepish smile. His blaster was pointed directly at her.
“Sorry, Moonstone, I was actually looking for your father. Nothing personal, of course!”
“How did you…?”
“Oh, didn’t your father ever tell you? My hearing is incredibly sensitive. You might have been able to sneak up on Blitzø, but that was far too loud for me.” He gave her a playful wave, wiggling his fingers in her direction as he walked away. “See you later, Loona dear!”
“Fuuuuuuck!”
~ ~ ~
Loona stomped through the endless twisting paths of the maze, still angry with herself for being taken out by Stolas. Sure, he went to the gun range every week with Fatty, but she was the professional assassin! She shouldn’t have let her guard down like that.
She was so lost in her own thoughts that she didn’t notice the figure in front of her as she rounded one of the labyrinth’s many corners. The two demons bounced off of each other, falling onto the floor.
“What the fuck-,” Loona started as she rubbed her backside then stopped as she focused on the sight in front of her.
Octavia was sitting in front of her, similarly rubbing her backside, but her long head feathers had been wrapped around her face, giving her a makeshift beard.
Loona attempted to hold in a laugh, her cheeks puffing out from the effort. A small, wet mumble escaped her lips, which just added to the hilarity of the situation, causing her to completely lose her cool. She fell onto her back, utterly consumed by a fit of uncontrollable laughter
“It’s not that funny,” Octavia said as she stood.
“Have you seen yourself, Princess? It kinda is,” Loona wiped a tear from her eye as she tried to regain her usual aloof attitude.
Octavia rolled her eyes and shot Loona before walking over her and back into the maze.
At least she finally got her.
~ ~ ~
Time was running out. Slow, strategic moves had been tossed aside as they gave into the chaos and their competitive nature. Each family member ran through the maze, shooting anything that looked like it was moving, or could be the blinking lights of a vest. Blitzø charged through the maze, screaming as he went, shooting his blaster off at random.
Soon, the yellow overhead lights turned back on, shunting them back into reality.
“Oh, that was so fucking fun!” Blitzø’s smile was wide, his eyes sparkled. He bounced out of the laser tag area, throwing his vest onto the outstretched hand of the indifferent employee, and raced to the screens that showed the scores. His family followed at a much more relaxed pace, smiling at each other.
“Fuck, yeah. Look who’s number one, losers!” Blitzø teased, his tail wagging quickly behind him.
They crowded around him and looked at the screen. Blitzø was indeed number one, with Stolas in second place, Loona in third, leaving Octavia in fourth.
“The fuck?” The sisters cursed in unison as they read the screen.
“Oh my, that was a very fun activity. And we got some exercise and got to bond as a family. Wasn’t that great, girls?” Stolas smiled at them, trying to calm the anger radiating off of them.
“Who wants to go again?” Blitzø asked enthusiastically.
“Me!” The sisters answered in unison, again.
“Darling, don’t you think that was enough for one night?”
“Oh, scared you’re gonna get your tail whipped, old man?” Loona glared at Stolas, her arms crossed.
“Dear-“
“You only did so good because you were blocking your vest for most of the game.”
“Oh!” Stolas looked down, his beak formed a thin line. A knot of worry tightened in his stomach at the thought that he had unintentionally ruined family night.
“Ok, I promise not to do that this time, Moonstone.”
“And I promise not to portal around,” Octavia interrupted.
“I mean, that wasn’t actually helping you,” Loona rolled her eyes, a small smile on her lips.
“Right!” Octavia summoned a small portal near her waist and pulled the grimoire from it.
She levitated the book in front of herself and quickly flipped through it.
“Ah ha!” Her eyes glowed white as she cast a spell on herself, transforming her outfit so that it was completely black.
“There, that should even things out a bit,” she smiled proudly as she portalled the grimoire away.
“Ok, who’s ready for round two?” Blitzø motioned the group back towards the door of the laser tag arena.
As soon as they were back in the labyrinth, everyone ran in different directions, putting as much distance between each other as possible.
The previous game was just the warm up. Now they knew each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and the girls had something to prove.
The count down completed and the lights switched, bathing the maze in the dark glow of the black lights. The game was on! The arena became a blur of running footsteps, laughter, electronic beeps, and shouted accusations.
Octavia darted between obstacles, firing wildly and somehow never getting hit. She had wrapped her head feathers around her face again, making herself a dark blur with only a slight bit of her glowing blue face visible as she ran through the arena.
Blitzø balanced himself on top of the wooden walls, shooting his family from his high vantage point. He laughed like a madman as he listened to the addicting sound of their vests’ musical death tones, his chest swelling with pride.
Oh, he had this one in the bag.
Loona crouched low behind a barricade, waiting patiently for her targets to pass her before blasting them. She grinned to herself as she watched the points total on her vest start to grow higher. In her black outfit and hoodie, she blended into the wall, almost completely invisible except for her glowing face and paws.
Stolas walked past her hiding spot, letting out a surprised squawk when his vest made the sad sound of being shot. He turned his head in all directions trying to find his assailant, finally settling his eyes on the semi-glowing hellhound behind him.
“Oh, good shot, dear,” he smiled nervously at her.
Loona sighed. “Why are you being weird?”
“Who’s being weird? I’m not being weird.”
“Yeah, you are,” she stood up to meet him face to face. “Look, I’m sorry if I was a bit of a bitch earlier. That’s about me, not you. You’re fine. Ok?”
“Oh, no, dear, you were right, I was cheating and I just don’t want-“
She placed a hand on his shoulder. It wasn’t much, but for Loona, it spoke volumes. The sudden intimacy broke him out of his anxious spiral and he looked down at her. Her eyes were focused to the side like she suddenly became really interested in that one paint splatter on the wall across from them.
His expression softened as he took her hand in his. A part of him was still getting used to a family that actually loved him and cared about his feelings.
“Thank you, Moonstone. I appreciate that.”
“No problem, St-“
Before she could finish her sentence her vest played the telltale sound of it being deactivated.
“Hey! There’s no bonding in war!” Octavia yelled through the opening in the wall Loona was standing in front of, as she raced away from them.
“Oh, that little brat,” Loona snarled. Without looking back at Stolas, she leapt through the opening and took off running after Octavia.
“Get back here and face me, pigeon!”
Stolas smiled and turned to walk in the opposite direction. He figured it was about time he found his husband.
And shot him.
But Blitzø wasn’t about to make things easy. He used every obstacle, wall, and level to his advantage, darting through the labyrinth like he’d been born there. Hiding behind covers, scaling walls, flipping effortlessly through the air—every movement was fast, fluid, and just a little ridiculous. To Blitzø, the laser tag arena wasn’t a battlefield. It was a playground.
And he fully intended to play.
Yet, time was quickly running out. While Stolas had been able to get both girls numerous times–to shouts of disappointment and accusations of cheating–Blitzø kept alluding him. He would catch a blur of glowing yellow eyes, or a flick of a tail, and then realize he’d been shot.
Sweat dripped down his faceplate. His chest heaved as he leaned against a wall to catch his breath. He patted his face dry with the sleeve of his shirt. Was laser tag supposed to be this intense of a sport?
“That shirt looks pretty hot,” Blitzø’s deep gravely voice whispered directly beside Stolas’s ear opening.
He jumped back, and looked back at the wall he had just been leaning against. Blitzø hung from it nonchalantly. His tail was holding onto the blaster while his large hands kept him securely fastened to the wall. Stolas wondered how had he not heard him sneak up on him.
“It would look even hotter on our bedroom floor,” he smiled at him, eyes half lidded and wiggled his eyebrows knowingly.
“Sounds fun, darling. Too bad I’m here to fight you,” Stolas pointed his blaster at Blitzø and opened fire.
Blitzø laughed as he flipped through the air, dodging each shot. He started to crawl up the wall, but Stolas wasn’t about to let him get away again. He reached out and grabbed Blitzø’s tail, yanking him hard.
“Owwww!” Blitzø lost his balance and fell backwards, directly onto Stolas, knocking him flat on his back.
“Ah ha!” Stolas cheered as he grabbed Blitzø’s blaster from the floor and lifted it above his head.
“Oh, fuck you!” Blitzø growled, a smile on his lips and a glint in his eyes.
He grabbed onto the blaster in Stolas’s talon and tried to pull it free. A loud caw rang out from Stolas as he tried to pull away from Blitzø, causing the two of them to roll along the floor of the maze, putting Stolas on top.
“Hey, I’m the top in this relationship,” Blitzø grunted, as he tried in vain to keep the blaster away from his vest’s targets.
“Maybe it’s time we revisited that arrangement. I’m quite liking you from this angle,” Stolas laughed as he leaned his face closer, his beak almost grazing Blitzø’s lips.
“Ahem.”
The two men froze and slowly looked over their shoulders.
Standing over them were their daughters, a mischievous look painted on their faces. Blasters pointed directly at them.
There was no way to run.
There was no place to hide.
“Now, my dears, would you mind giving us a moment so we could have more of a sporting chance?”
The steps-sisters shared a look. Big smiles crept over their faces as they slowly turned back to their dads.
“No,” they said in unison as they opened fire.
Blitzø dropped Stolas’s wrist and tried to wiggle away, but their previous grapple had left them tangled together in a mess of tails and crossed blaster cables.
It was a massacre.
The vests would reset, and the daughters would blast them. Then the dads would struggle to get free, their vests would reset, and their daughters would blast them again, cackling as they went.
Mercy came quickly as the black lights turned off and the bright yellow lights turned back on, signalling the end of the game.
Octavia levitated Blitzø and Stolas out of the arena, where she and Loona finally helped their dads get untangled.
They walked as a family to the scoreboard screens, the girls looking very smug while the dads hung their heads in shame.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me…,” Loona whispered in disbelief.
Blitzø and Stolas whipped their heads up. Somehow, Blitzø had still come in first place, Stolas and Loona were tied for second, and Octavia came in last.
Art by Goose
“What. The. Fuck?” Octavia growled, her eyes flashing white as she crushed the blaster in her hand. She stared at it wide-eyed as sparks began to spit from the damaged weapon.
“Oops.”
The sparks rolled along the floor, causing the dirty carpet to smoke and smoulder.
“Oh, dear…,” Stolas whispered as almost immediately the whole arcade was swallowed up in red flames.
The family ran out, helping other demons escape the inferno as they went.
Outside, Wally Wackford knelt on the ground, his hands grabbing fistfuls of hair as he watched the newly renovated arcade go up in smoke.
“I say, I say, I say,” he mumbled to himself as the sounds of firetruck sirens loomed closer.
“I think it’s time we bid a hasty retreat,” Stolas opened a portal to the apartment and nudged the members of his family through it.
“Aw, baby’s first catastrophic fire!” Blitzø looked up at Octavia with big eyes, “I’m so proud of you, Via.”
“So what’s the plan for the next family fun night?” Loona asked as she got comfortable on the couch. “Game night? Mammonopoli?”
“No way, that game tears families apart,” Blitzø shook his head as he went to the kitchen to turn on the kettle.
“You want to do this again?” Stolas asked the girls.
“Yeah, that’s was really fun, Dad,” Octavia proclaimed as she smiled at him.
Stolas felt his eyes start to glisten with tears. This family was all he had ever wanted.
But he could do with less fires.
Hopefully, next time.