#i.c.u.

When the Boss imp doesn’t wake and winds up in the I.C.U. following the event of truth seekers. 

Everyone is left in a manic state. Forced to take refuge in the human world, Stolas, Moxie, Millie and Loona take Blitzo into a human-ran-hospital. mistaken as a pet- and told to go to the veterinarian. Stolas persuades the doctor to take on as a secret patient. 

His life utterly depended on it. 

The Head nurse, who resembles a female Atilla the Hun, greets them with a dour expression on her face, like she had just at a lemon. 

Loona growls at her, tense her claws biting into her hands. She delivers morose news. Blitzo had been hiding a heart murmur from them for some time. The murmur had exploded into renal heart failure. 

Saddled with the disturbing news that Blitzo might not be coming home, the four demons sit beside themselves wrapped up in their own dark thoughts. 

One of the last things she had ever said to him echoes in her head. Now she might never get to tell him how she feels. How could he hide something like this from them?. 

Did he try to tell them, and they weren’t listening? 

The Goetic prince asks to see him, but the nurse is abdomen about following the rules and allowing one in at a time. 

  Moxie stood up counting head and then gave the nurse a quizzical look. While the rest looked at each other and then back at the nurse. 

The nurse carries on saying that his husband is in there with him and reassuring no-one that he is taking care of things. 

“And who exactly is his husband?” asked Stolas, interrupting Moxie, who was about to ask the same question. 

“I don’t have his name answers the nurse while flipping through her charts, but he must hail from Austin Texas. He is a southern gentleman. she acclaims.

 “If I wasn’t married”- she went on a tinge of pink flushed her cheeks. 

“I thought you said Blitz was an animal?” inquires Millie, throwing the nurse a skeptical look. 

The nurse shakes her head. 

“Its Striker!”.. he is in there, probably finishing the job! snarls Moxie, his fists clenched, eyes screwed shut. 

He lied to us... he never told us about his heart murmur and now-

“How could he lie to us? We never asked about him about this-, we just took him for granted.” 

“Like he’d always be there, like he’d always bounce back” Loona looks up with tears in her eyes. Springing from her chair, her hands coming to grip the lapels of her white coat. A look of surprise on the nurse’s face. 

“It will be okay, the nurse reintegrated. “He is in excellent hands, the lord’s hands,” she says. 

“Crap! She’s christen,” Loona glowers. 

“It is all up to the cowboy. I’ve checked out his records and their emasculate. at least someone knew of his condition and if anyone could help that poor thing pull through, it would be him,” she says. 

“But he’s lying. He doesn’t care about Blitzo! Moxie barges in. he is an assassin for hire.. he’s here to kill him! Do you understand, ma’am? 

“Possum, if that Texan wanted to kill him, he’d done so by now.  I think I can spot a budding romance a mile away. 

“Oh yea, the last romance you had was a bull!” snarls Moxie

The nurse pinches the bridge of her nose, my shift is ending shortly shorty, and if you're here when I get off.. “the unspoken threat hung in the air. 

-

Why is he hiding these types of problems? Aren’t we family! Stolas remained quiet. He wanted- no, needed to see Blitz to hear his voice. The man was blaming himself. He should have never allowed Blitzo near his grimoire, maybe things would have been different if he was more acclaim to tell the demon no. 

We wait for the shift turnover and then we go looking for his room. Both Blitzo and this unnamed cowboy have some explaining to do. quips the owl.

“He has a name your highness, he has tried to sway Blitzo at the harvest moon festival and now- he’s planning on finishing the job”  Moxie’s voice cut through his thoughts. 

“And you're sure it is my little imp he is after?” inquires the prince. Moxie gulps Blitzo was trying to distract him at the fall festival. His true target is you, sir,” Moxie answers, his voice trembling. 

Stolas stares blankly out into the dark corridors of the hospital. He had his qualms about his wife. 

Secret meeting, hushed phone calls late at night. Something was going on. The prince had suspected his wife to be a part of of his assassination. They were growing apart any now-. 

Nothing screamed louder than the need to be by Blitzo’s side. 

“What have I done? I’ve endangered them both. My starphire and my little imp,” 

His lower lip wobbles.

“Blitzy, when did I lose you?” he wonders. 

-

The Harvest Moon Festival wasn’t their first meeting. Apparently, when Blitzo stole Verosika’s credit card and maxed it out on shitty horse-riding lessons was. 

They hadn’t exchanged names or anything-  and Striker wasn’t his instructor: Derringer was- a gray-skinned snake imp cowboy who had taken a liking to the city imp. 

Derringer was an old family friend. Blitzo’s uncles, Riff-Raff, and Scarecrow owned a ranch here in Wrath where the harlequin was staying. 

The peach-skinned cowboy lived up a mile from one of Blitzo’s uncle. he was always helping, carrying bushels/ barrels of hay over his shoulder. The Ring Marcs and Remington’s were constantly feuding and or fighting over something..  

Blitzo was no exception. Drake would often gloat to one brother about how Blitzo’s uncles were thinking about giving him away. And the shadow-serpents were keen on taking the scarlet imp for themselves. Riff-Raff wanted money. He was always squabbling with his brother. 

If it wasn’t for Rattle, and Natalie, the brothers would have lost their farm and acres to the king of greed.  

“Were not selling Blitzo, and that’s final snarls scarecrow”  

“Blitz, will have to choose” he doesn’t have to marry Derringer, he could marry Drake or Draimen. 

“I’m not selling our nephew!, so you can sleep better!” snarls the older brother. Ramming a pitchfork into the ground and wiping his brow. 

“We might not have a choice, brother. Mammon can be very persuasive and he is a stickler about life debts” 

“It’s not Blitzo’s serving out” 

“Cael is dead! They found his rotting ass out in the dunes of the desert. Some say he was headed here when he died” 

“Blitzo doesn’t belong here” Riff-Raff counters. 

“He does, and I’m finished with this conversation,” Scarecrow snarls.

“Then we should put the imp out of his misery!, he was born with a heart defect!

“Shut up, you speak another word of this, and you're no brother of mine” Scarecrow warns. 

“I want to see him taken care of as much as you do. He can’t thrive here! he’ll die here! Is that what you want, Scar?

-

Blitzo hated being the topic of a crude conversation between his two uncles. He knew he was unwanted on the farm. That his only friends were the RingMarc brothers and the Remington Brothers. six serpents who didn’t want Blitzo to go anywhere. 

-

Blitzo didn’t have anywhere else to go, but he couldn’t stay in wrath. He hated when his uncles fought. Blitzo needed to make things right. He was seventeen, and he was itching to leave. He had taken one of his uncle’s horses out of the stable. Firelight neighed, nudging his hand looking for a sugar-cube Blitzo would often sneak her. 

But the imp hadn’t expected his horse to get spooked. Firelight took off running into the open fields towards Remington farm. Striker looked up from where the fields parted to see a runaway horse barreling its way towards him. Blitzo had a fearful look on his face, his eyes wide as he held on tight. The loud ruckus brought a crowd.

Striker held out his hand to calm the devil and his horse, his hat was tipped to the sun, his arms outstretched as Blitzo fell into his arms. Striker’s tail wound itself around the red-skinned devil’s waist.

He looked up at the porch where his mother stood towel drying her hands and calling for her boys. 

“I guess will set another plate,” she smiles

“Shitty, horse riding lessons, huh?” Striker smirks, winking at the scarlet devil.

“Something like that,” Blitzo answers. 

“After dinner, there is a giant swing out back. My brothers are gone on a drive with my dad. It’s just you and me, sugar-cube,” 

-

It had been years since Striker had sprung the question on him, getting on one knee in front of a roaring crowd during the pain-games. A year where Stolas himself was absent for the harvest moon festival, but his daughter was the one- ushering in the accursed glow from the true harvest moon. 

-

Moxie probably blocked it out, and Stolas had trouble believing it himself. But the city imp was married to a country bumpkin. Who, after all these years, was still feuding with the Ring Marcs. 

-

“Sugar-cube” Striker’s voice purrs into his ear. “I’m here, and I’m not leaving your side until you're feeling better. Until this whole thing passes and we get to go home. “Mom has been asking about you, he says, wiping the tears from Blitzo’s eyes, so had Adrian, Malachi and Remington. Auri is still asking for your hand in marriage. Vesper made you this tiny wooden horse. And I have the staff eating out of my hands. 

“your the world to me, Blitz, so don’t give up on me darlin,”