Moxxie awoke with a start, grumbling curses to himself.
"You shouldn't be sleeping on the job,” he hissed to himself, rubbing furiously at his eyes to stem the tears of humiliation and fear.
...
“Sir, just give me five minutes, OK?”
“Bitch, you look as if you'll accidentally kill one of us instead of them f*ckers.” Blitzo snapped, shooting a look at his weapons expert, whilst a worried Millie looked on. “As the boss, I say your stupid tired ass is staying here.”
“But-"
“Mox, you may be an absolute bitch baby who gets on my f*cking nerves all the time, but I still don't want to see you get f*cking slaughtered by our target, OK? We kill humans, we do not get killed by them.”
“Millie-” Moxxie pleaded with his wife, who merely bit her lip - a sure sign that she did not agree with him this time.
“Sorry, hun, but ah'm with B on this one,” she said. “Ah know ya ain't sleepin’ right, and ah'll never forgive myself if ya get hurt or killed out there.”
It was seeing the worry in her gentle, beautiful eyes that finally made Moxxie relent to stay - not that he liked the idea any more now than he had a minute ago.
So now, Moxxie was going through a pot of coffee, trying to force himself to focus on paperwork.
Truth was, the numbers for the budget swam around in circles; reports suddenly made no sense, and it took Moxxie three readings to even half-grasp their contents; and his own writings sounded as if a deluded maniac decided to take pen to paper and write a magnum opus in a delirious frenzy.
With a growl, Moxxie held his now-aching head in his hands, trying hard not to cry.
Why, oh why did Blitzo ever drag them to Greed??
Seeing his father again for the first time since before his arrest; the tension of dinner; being struck across the face; and the near-wedding to his wretched creep of an ex, Chaz.
Thank f*ck Chaz was dead. Most likely.
Moxxie vaguely remembered that Zane, Chaz's elder brother, had actually intended to inherit shares from his uncle's ‘pharmaceutical businesses.’ Chaz was supposed to be an heir as well, but got disinherited shortly after dating Moxxie.
This had been why his dad had been so keen to marry Moxxie off to Chaz; he had either forgotten the disowning, or perhaps had been fed some lie about getting his inheritance back… without actually getting any inheritance money to back up his claim.
It's about time your pathetic ass was useful for something!"
"Here's something more to… your kind’s liking…”
The trouble with being unable to either sleep or focus on work, was that poor Moxxie had no distractions to keep him from replaying the horrible experience of his almost-second wedding. Coffee just made him jittery and paranoid - well, more so than usual.
He took his phone out, but decided against ringing Millie, or even Blitzo. They would be busy, and he didn't want to distract them from a potentially critical moment - and get them killed.
With a frustrated snarl, he swiped all the paperwork off his desk and, stubbornly burrowing his face into his now-folded arms, he allowed himself to cry.
...
It was a soft glow of light that caused Moxxie to suddenly lift his face from the arms - only to see the lanky form of the Goetian Prince Stolas standing before him, looking impatiently around the room.
“Erm- Hello, your Highness.” Moxxie said with cautious politeness, hastily wiping his wet cheeks on his now-damp cuffs.
“Oh, you're here, little one.” Stolas said, almost disappointed. “Where's Blitzo?”
“He’s on a hit, Your Highness, and would prefer not to be disturbed. I'm sorry I couldn't be more help, Your Highness,” Moxxie choked out, trying to remain polite but - dammit! He still felt like crying, but he was trying to restrain himself until the Prince left.
But he saw Stolas take note of the near empty coffee pot, the puffy, wet eyes of the usually composed Moxxie, and the mess of papers on the floor - and his face softened into an expression of sympathy.
“Moxxie, are you quite alright?” He asked gently. This may not be his Blitzy, but he had been in this imp's shoes - hooves? - before, and to ignore him now would be cruel - especially since Blitzo had admitted to him before that, in spite of Moxxie being “a total bitch” he was loyal and always came through for the team, even if he had beef with them sometimes.
At this, Moxxie gave a hoarse, almost hysterical laugh.“I'm just having a hard time sleeping.” He said.
“Any particular reason?”
“My father, Sir - erm, Your Highness,” Moxxie cringed at the slip of his tongue, but Stolas took no notice, his head instead co*cking to one side.
<
Moxxie took a deep, shaky breath, and continued, “He… he was really abusive to me my whole childhood, and I tried to maintain some distance from him when I ran away from Greed with…” he faltered, wondering if Stolas even knew of Blitzo’s incarceration in Greed, or that the two had been cellmates back then. “with what little I had.” He amended. “But… Blitzo accepted a call from him a week ago, and we ended up at his home - well, my childhood home, I guess, for all that it f*cking was..”
Stolas blinked in surprise at the unexpected profanity, coming from the small imp, but he said nothing about it, instead saying“I'm sure Blitzy didn't-”
“I'm not blaming Blitzo,” Moxxie interrupted, giving the prince an apologetic look. “He didn't know about this, but… and I'm not proud of this, but it's easier blaming him for this mess than owning up to how f*cked up I feel right now…”
“I know how you feel…” Stolas said softly.
At this, Moxxie's attention was snagged. “You…”
“Well, you and I will have different experiences, but I know how… How it is to have an abusive father who took away all my choices from me except the one that benefited him and the Goetian family the most - even when it led to me being further abused by my own wife.” He said, and laid a hand on Moxxie's arm. “Would… would it help to talk about it?” He offered gently.
“If I told you even a quarter of what I went through, I'd be here all night,” Moxxie replied wearily. “I know that's depressing, Your Highness, but…”
“I have my unfair share of horrible stories too, little one,” Stolas said gently. For once, the ‘little one’ almost sounded paternal instead of patronising, and it made Moxxie tear up again.
“Well, I guess I'll stick to what happened last week…” and Moxxie recounted the events of him being dragged to Greed; seeing his dreaded father again; nearly getting married off to Chaz; and how Blitzo and Millie crashed the wedding - literally crashing into the wall using Chaz’s car - to save him.
“I just… just felt helpless, knowing that he put me through that, even when I tried to tell him no…” he sighed. “I put up what fight I could, but…"
“Listen,” Stolas said gently. “I've never had the chance to tell my father where he can “stick it” I believe is the term?”
Moxxie knew Blitzo would've suggested something more crude than that; but he was too weary to point this out and just nodded.
“The point is, you've done more than I could have, standing up for the woman you love, and for yourself.” Stolas said. “That was brave of you, Moxxie, and I am proud of you for putting up a fight. But, just because he beat you that day does not mean he has won. You merely need time and strength to heal and become stronger. Simply telling someone to ‘f*ck off’ is cathartic, but not enough to fix your problems.”
Moxxie nodded wearily.
Stolas softened in sympathy as he saw Moxxie struggle to fight another yawn. “Look, I realise this idea may be somewhat - unorthodox, but how about I hold you whilst you sleep?” He offered.
“Pardon?”
“There's no romantic or sexual intent behind this, I assure you,” the Prince said. “I never had anyone to comfort me when Stella waged her abuse on me, and I imagine you were in a similar position.”
Moxxie nodded wearily. “I only had my mother - until my father killed her.” He replied bitterly.
“The choice is yours.”
Moxxie hesitated. He didn't want to do anything that would be perceived as cheating, necessarily. But then again, he and Blitzo had occasionally fallen asleep together and nothing came of those instances.
Besides, a nap sounded really f*cking good right now. And one that would have a heartbeat for white noise?
He supposed he couldn't complain.
Before he could say ‘No, thank you,’ he was nodding his head in quiet acceptance of the offer.
He supposed a quick nap couldn't hurt…
So, Stolas gently took the imp’s hand in his own, and led Moxxie to the couch.
“Your Highness, not that I don't appreciate you doing this for me, but why?”
“My whole life, Moxxie, I would have liked nothing more than to be able to fall asleep next to someone who I felt safe with - even if it was merely a close friend.” Stolas replied. “Someone who I could trust with my secrets and vice versa.” He sighed. “I have tried to be to Via what I never had from my own father.”
Moxxie understood that, but he still had Millie to be safe with, or come to it, Blitzo, who had stayed with him when he was sick, injured or had narrowly escaped death - sometimes a mixture of the above.
But, she wasn't here right now.
Would she… mind Moxxie doing this?
Well, she had also fallen asleep next to Blitzo before, and he always trusted them both. (Even Blitzo, despite the fact their boss gave him little reason to be trusted).
And it was just a nap…
Moxxie decided weighing out potential marital strife was too taxing for his fatigued brain and he'd deal with it later if he'd had to.
But, deep down, he had a feeling that Millie likely wouldn't be too fussed - unless it went any further, which was highly unlikely.
As soon as Moxxie’s head landed atop Stolas’s soft, fluffy chest, he was out like a light.
...
When Blitzo returned with Millie and Loona about four hours after they left; they saw Stolas asleep on the office couch, with Moxxie softly snoring atop the prince’s chest.
“Well, well, well, got a couple of sleeping beauty bitches,” Blitzo remarked. This earned him a soft, airy hoot of a snore from his lover.
He debated yelling at Stolas to leave, as things had been awkward since Princess Octavia ran away to the human realm not so long ago,; as they had yet to address their issues from a fateful ‘date’ to Ozzie
But on noting the extra bags under the owl's eyes, and the way he seemed so unusually relaxed, he deduced that Stolas had probably needed to sleep as well.
He decided to allow it, seeing as Stolas was actually sleeping, and thus, not annoying him.
Millie returned with a blanket from a nearby closet (it was handy for when someone had fallen asleep or felt sick and had to lie on the couch.)
She draped it over her husband and the Goetian royal with an affectionate smile on her face.
“They look so cute, don't they, Sir?”
“f*cking nerds,” Loona grinned, snapping a photo on her phone.
“Yep, you said it, Loonie,” smirked Blitzo. “Send that to me, will ya?”
“Sure thing, Blitzo,” Loona rolled her eyes, but sent the photo to her adoptive father as requested.
As Blitzo stared at the photo on his screen, he chortled to himself.
“Have fun sleeping, bitches!” He said, before stretching his arms over his head. “I need some f*cking iced coffee before our next hit - you girls wanna come with?”
“Sure thing, B!”
“Yeah, sounds good,”
Blitzo grabbed the keys to his van and the three ran out of the office, leaving Moxxie and Stolas to slumber on, unaware.
