X-TRA HEAVY WARNING FOR:

Uncensored curse words, graphic descriptions of gore and violence, depressing backstory, mentions of sexual language and activities, attempted rape, domestic violence and abuse, self-harming, suicidal thoughts, alcohol and drug use, Val being Val, and PTSD-induced emotional breakdown

Basically a whole lotta triggering and depressing shite so READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!

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I'm not kiddin' this is gonna get pretty dark...

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Last chance...

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OK then... don't say we didn't warn you...

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3rd Person POV

It was shaping up to be another day of "Redemption Lessons" with the Hazbin crew, the activity for the day being "Show and Tell" and unfortunately-

*~Oh, yeeeeaaaah, baaabyyyy~*

-it was Angel's turn...

"You know, this performance won me a Sex-x-xi award." Angel bragged proudly to the others as they were all watching one of his porno movies with mixed reactions from everyone; Pentious and Charlie were grossed out, Vaggie was annoyed, and Niffty was watching in glee.

"It's, uh... Very... Honest?... Ohhh..." Charlie tried to compliment but eventually had to turn away from the screen, too appalled to watch anymore as Vaggie commented plainly,

"Ew."

*~Oh, haaaarder, Daddy!~* Angel's voice in the movie moaned out, making Charlie cringe even more.

"Okay! Enough of that." Vaggie asserted as she used her hand to shield Charlie's eyes.

"'Nuff o' what?" Ayden questioned as she entered the living room, barely waking up, per the norm but also because she had hung out with Via the day before, wiping her sweaty forehead dry with the sleeve of the sweater she was wearing; one of Angel's fuzzy bubblegum pink off-shoulder sweaters that had "I PUT THE HOT IN PSYCHOTIC" in hot pink letters on the front over her pjs while also wearing one of Angel's choker collars that was black and spiked with a gradient pink heart charm dangling from it.

"Quit stealin' my clothes!" Angel told her incredulously while looking at her with annoyance.

"You don't even wear thes-yaaaahhhh-" She yawned before catching sight of what was on the TV and dry retching into a sleeve, "-Hlegh!"

"Seriously Angel, what the fuck?" Vaggie reiterated as she kept her girlfriend's gaze hidden behind her hand and Ayden pulled the front of the sweater up and over her head to block her view while groaning in discomfort.

"What? You said it was show-and-tell day. I'm showin' you my best film, and I'm tellin' you that it scored me a win over that bitch, Tiffany Titfucker." Angel reasoned before whining as he pushed his chest floof up mockingly.

Just before Husk criticized from where he was cleaning wine glasses at his bar,

"Ya know, not a very convincing interrogation scene."

Making Angel laugh as he was starting to get pissed off,

"Alright, dickhead. What makes you think you have any right to insult my work to my fuckin' face?"

"You really gonna sit there and act like these scripts ain't hot garbage?" Husk argued before he tossed away his bar rag making Angel gasp in insult,

"Fuck you! This is classy art!"

Gesturing back to the TV as his onscreen voice wailed out,

*~OOOOH! FUU-UUUCK!~*

The scene being shown enough to make Pentious cover his eyes with his hood while Niffty continued to watch from where she was lying on the table with legs kicking back and forth childishly.

Ayden had settled to sit on the back of the couch where Angel was sitting, facing away from the TV so she could uncover her face, revealing her displeased expression at him, before Husk walked over with a bottle in hand to point in Angel's face as he asserted,

"That's bullshit. You get drunk and bitch about them all the time. Everyone likes to bitch to the bartender. I know everything about you and these motherfuckers at this point."

Gesturing to Pentious as he revealed,

"That one. That one is an insecure buffoon whose lonely ass watches you idiots sleep."

Causing him to grin sheepishly at Vaggie and Charlie, the former subtly threatening him by punching her fist to her hand, before Husk turned to Charlie,

"Princess, is a bleeding heart who wants to solve everybody else's problems 'cept her own."

"Whaaaaat?!" Charlie tried to cover up with a sheepish grin of her own before trying to disagree, "Noooo, I-What? Pfffft, no, no."

"This one." Husk referred to Vaggie, "Judges everyone and everything because she hates herself."

"Argh!" Vaggie groaned annoyed before Husk moved on to Ayden,

"Little Miss Snarky there is quick to criticize and mock others to keep from doing it to herself because of her abandonment issues."

"Hey!"

"And don't think I don't know about you raiding my bar cabinets for this one..."

"Mrrr..." Ayden made a cat-like noise of irritation as her ears folded down while she pouted moodily before Husk motioned to where Niffty was still happily kicking her legs in the air and twirling her hair,

"And Niffty? Hehhh..." Niffty gave a sly smile while kissing her fingertip in a teasing manner as Husk made a dismissive gesture to say, "You don't even wanna know what her deal is."

"I think some'a us do..." Ayden looked over at her in slight interest, her annoyance shaken away for the moment before it came right back as Husk gave her a "you're only proving me right" look before he took a deep gulp of his booze and Angel laughed raucously while kicking his legs around,

"HAHA! You weren't kidding. Oh ho, wow!"

Angel laughed right in Vaggie's face and booped Ayden's nose before tussling her hair into her face despite her scowling frown at the action before he got right up to Husk so he could tease with a matching hand motion,

"Kitten's got claws."

Placing his hand underneath Husk's chin to turn his face close to his so he could croon teasingly,

"~Meeeoooow~"

But Husk wasn't having it as he scowled and broke away to point right in Angel's face, much to his surprise, and scoffed,

"And you! TCH! Don't get me started. I see right through you and all this bullshit and how fake you are."

Ayden winced when he said that word and looked to see Angel's face flash with irritation for a split second before laughing sarcastically and dramatically,

"Oh ho ho, me? Fake? Wow, I had no idea. Guess that's why I'm an actor, dumbass. And-"

Right before his phone rang Angel held up a finger in a "wait" motion,

"Hold that thought."

Before pulling his phone out to answer and stutter,

"Hello? Uh, yeah I'm-I'm... No, No, I just, I..."

Ayden's ears twitched and folded down when her super hearing allowed her to vaguely hear Valentino's voice yelling at Angel and she tucked her paws into the sleeves of Angel's sweater before hugging herself with her arms and tail as he continued to stammer,

"No, I-I'm not... But, uh..."

Looking back at the others before answering somewhat firmer, but still hesitant, than before,

"Yeah. I'll be right there."

Hanging up before announcing to the others,

"Well, uh... Looks like Val needs me for an... Uh-emergency shoot."

Angel tried to walk away while playing it off cool and casual but Husk snarked cynically,

"Uh-huh, sure."

"You know what? Fuck you." Angel got right in Husk's face again to tell him off, "I don't give a shit what some drunk-ass bartender thinks a' me." He pulled some pink cat-eye sunglasses from his chest floof before declaring, "So why don't you just crawl back to whatever cave you came from, porn critic?"

Angel flipped Husk off after putting his shades on and Husk growled while glaring at him before he shouted to Ayden,

"And I want my shit back before I get back Ruby!"

"Fine...! But I'm keepin' the necklace!" Ayden rolled her eyes as she got up from the couch and headed upstairs to go change and grab all the pink shirts and sweaters she borrowed from Angel over the past few weeks to dump them all in his room, feeding and playing with Fat Nuggets real quick while she was at it, before coming back downstairs.

Everyone had already gone back to doing their own things but Ayden wanted to talk to Charlie about something so when she couldn't find her she asked Vaggie,

"Uh d'ya know whe'e Cha'lie is?"

"Yeah she just left to go talk to Angel's boss to convince him to let him spend more time at the hotel."

"KLCK! WHAT?!" Ayden choked on her own spit to shout and Vaggie gave her a disturbed look before confirming hesitantly,

"Yeah she just left a little while ago...?"

But that just made Ayden panic even more as she yelped,

"GAH!"

Bolting toward the front door before stopping to run back to the staircase-

"HRRR!"

Only to stop and growl in frustration and looking like she was about to run back to the front door before tugging her hair and panicking in place and running up the staircase, leaving Vaggie to question while going back to whatever she was doing before,

"The fuck was that about...?"

Meanwhile, back in her room, Ayden slammed her door behind her before practically yanking her bottom drawer open and tossing out all the tank tops inside to grab and hastily throw on her choker under Angel's, since it was thin enough to do so, struggling to do so with her paws shaking slightly before she scolded herself,

"Urgh! Get. A. Grip!"

Clenching a fist before using a digit to draw a portal to an alley next to V Tower and taking a deep, slightly quavering, breath to steel herself before jumping through.

Once she landed outside, she surveyed around, found Charlie's limo parked out front, meaning she had to be inside already, snuck into the lobby and shifted to hellcat form to sneak around the edges of the room, skillfully avoiding other demons and navigating through the halls and stairs up to where the Porn Studios floor was.

'He'e was hopin' I'd neve' be back in this place again...' Ayden thought to herself as she made it to the movie sets floor and sniffed the air, her eyes lighting up pinkish yellow, as she searched for Charlie before she saw her walking toward one of the doors leading to a set.

"Cha'lie! Wait nonono!" Ayden hiss-shouted as she rapidly scampered to catch up to her but was too late when Charlie opened the door and walked in leaving her to skid and crash face-first into the closing door,

*TCH!*

"Owww..."

Shifting to demon cat form, she sat on the floor and rubbed her stinging forehead and nose before bolting up and opening the door to find Charlie staring uncomfortably at an actor who was being slathered with mud by two set assistants,

"Oh, wow, that is...-That is a lot."

On the set, Ayden saw Angel shoving off his co-star and pulling on a fluffy robe in alarm, no doubt because of Charlie being there, so Ayden hiss-whisper called from the door,

"Cha'lie...!"

Charlie turned to face her and waved joyfully making Angel see she was there too as he made it to Charlie to question panicked as he gently grabbed her hand to pull her away from the other actors,

"What in the ever-loving fuck are you doing here?!"

"I am the Princess of Hell, Angel! And I go where I please!" Charlie announced in a dramatic accented tone before she whispered, "I'm here to get you some time off for the hotel."

"Like that's gonna happen...!" Ayden snarked with slight worry as she made it to the two of them but Charlie was adamant as she tried to argue,

"It will! Just as soon as I-"

Before she was cut off by Angel asking her,

"And what are you doin' here...?!"

"I was tryin' ta get'er outta he'e same as you...!" Ayden argued back.

"Guys we can sort this out after I talk to-" Charlie tried to assure them walking away toward the set but was held back by both Angel and Ayden as they pulled her away with Angel panicking,

"Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You are going nowhere near Val-"

"Angel!" He and Ayden froze and flinched when they heard Valentino yelling, "What is the fucking hold up?

"I'm.. coming!" Angel called back while stepping in front of Charlie to block her from his line of view while Ayden tried pulling her back to the door as he shouted back,

"Not off-camera, you're not!"

Before Angel started helping Ayden with guiding Charlie back toward the door, opening it for them as she stood there with a worried look on her face and Ayden urged with another frantic tug on her arm,

"We need ta leave now...!"

"She's right." Angel spoke quickly to Charlie, desperate to get her out of there too as he begged, "Please, please, just wait, wait until I'm done working and we will talk about this, I promise. But first you've gotta go!-"

"Aaaah, ~Your Majesty...~"

Angel and Ayden both froze when Valentino noticed them all there and Angel cursed under his breath while Ayden made a noise of discomfort,

"Oh, shit...!"

"Nnnnn....!"

As his boss walked over to them to greet Charlie, pushing Angel behind him,

"Welcome to my humble sex dungeon." He leaned down toward her and was reaching for her hand, "What can I do for such a-"

"HAAAH!"

*TSS!*

"Oi!"

"Hands off!"

When Ayden shoved herself between him and Charlie, snapping at his hand while hissing protectively as her fur bristled in agitation with her pupils becoming narrow slits.

"-lovely specimen..." Valentino finished with a barely hidden sneer at being denied contact before it, for a split second, turned to a look of recognition before finally turning to a hidden smirk as Charlie got between him and Ayden to whisper scold her,

"Ayden...! No need to be rude...!"

"I'm jus' tryin' ta-" She started trying to argue but Charlie cut her off with a patient,

"Just... stand down, please? Let me handle this..."

Exhaling sharply through her nose, Ayden narrowed her eyes to subtly glare at Valentino from behind Charlie before begrudgingly muttering,

"Fine..."

Standing to the side close to Angel as Charlie turned back around to try and apologize,

"I'm so sorry about her, she just gets a little.. overprotective."

"Of course." Valentino bit out with a forced smile sending Ayden a not-so-subtle death glare before asking Charlie as he got in her personal space again, making both Ayden and Angel cringe, "So what brings you here? You don't want a role, do you? Because I can make you a star, make us both richer than, well, your ~papito~-"

Making Charlie recoil away shocked as she blurted out,

"Fuck noooo!-Uh, I-I'm sorry." Before rapidly pulling herself back together to declare with some authority, "I have come to aggressively, kindly speak with you about Angel."

Valentino stiffened with eyes narrowed and an eyebrow raised in suspicion while Angel waved from behind him to signal for her to stop while Ayden made the "cut it out" motion before Charlie seemed to take the hint as she added hurriedly,

"Later, of course. I wouldn't want to stand in the way of your work."

Valentino snapped his head back to Angel to scowl at him, making him grow more worried for Charlie and Ayden, before he faced Charlie again and spoke "kindly" through gritted teeth,

"Well then, make yourself comfortable, Your Majesty, you and your.. guard cat..." Ayden's eyes narrowed even more while a snarl was barely restrained in her throat before he gestured for them to stand together closer to the set behind the cameras as he told them, "and enjoy the show."

Before he walked back over to the chair next to the Director's chair as he announced to his workers,

"Well, let's take this shit from the top!"

"Hahahaha! Action!" The Sinner director, Travis, shouted through the bullhorn as the scene resumed with Angel out of his robe and back on the bed as the four "robbers" trapped him and he "pleaded,"

"~Oh, wow, mister robbers! I sure hope you don't.. hurt me with those... big guns of yours..~"

Ayden's ears folded down in her discomfort and she put a paw to her face to keep from watching the scene in front of her as one of the co-stars started to perform as well, but not well at all,

"Don't move, you spicy little, uuh, cock sleeve or else I'll...uhh..."

Ayden's ears twitched back up when she heard Charlie whispering a little ways away and she looked beside her to see was gone and, after quickly wondering how she managed to sneak away from her without her noticing, tried to frantically signal for her to stop since she was distracting the cameraman with talk about the hotel and it was causing him to mess up the shot by moving the boom mic into the co-star's face,

"We do trust exercises every day in the morning from 8 to 9..."

"CUT!" Valentino ordered before he started shouting, "What the fuck is going on with this?"

"Ooh, I'm sorry, Were we too loud? I was just telling him about the Hazbin Hotel." Charlie spoke cheerfully as the cameraman gulped and subtly scooted away from her before Valentino spoke in a restrained high-pitched tone while he forced a smile,

"Not at aaaall, Princess!" Valentino sent a glare to Angel, who wilted a bit under his look, when he emphasized, "It doesn't bother me one bit."

"You know, this scene feels awfully violent. If you want help with the script," Charlie tried to offer as she walked on the set to stand in front of Valentino, "maybe I can pitch some scenarios that are more wh-Woah!"

But was cut off when she tripped over a power cord that was connected with a bunch of other cords to a powerstrip that crackled with electricity as it was violently ripped from the outlet.

"Okay. Okay. Ah, ah okay-AH!" Charlie reached out to try and replug it back in but the sparks started setting fire to the plush carpeting and she began to panic as it spread further out,

"That's on fire. That-that, that's on fire!"

Everyone started to panic, screaming and running around away from the fire as it continued to spread and, in the middle of the chaos, Ayden was shoved into a camera tripod, tripping over it and dragging a line across the side of her leg, making her glowing blood sharply contrast against the scarred white, and landing closer to the set, where she instinctively recoiled away from the fires even though a small part of her reasoned she'd be fine.

"Ayden! Can't you do something about this?!" Charlie panicked as she tried to put out a fire by covering it with a rug.

"What could I do?!" She shouted back as she scooted backward away from the fires closer to the bed on set where Angel was still sitting frozen in place against the pillows.

"I-I don't know! Just-AH! Put them out with your fire powers or something!"

Ayden's eyes snapped open when Charlie shouted that and looked at Valentino with a fearful look as he'd been watching the whole scene with annoyance but shifted to an expression of furious disbelief as he stood up from his chair even as Charlie continued to try and put out the fire, taking off her jacket to try and wave at it while panicking,

"Can I get a fire extinguisher? I am so sorry. I ruined your movie. I ruined your movie. Oh, my God. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm s-s-s-s-s-sorry! Noooooo!"

Seeing Charlie's desperation and how all the fires were only getting worse, Ayden pushed herself to semi-stand and was about to jump in and at least try to get the fire put out when she felt a hand grab her upper arm.

When she turned, she saw that it was Angel holding her back while minutely shaking his head as his eyes were still widened in fear with his pupils mere pinpricks as he looked back past her and she followed his gaze to see Valentino's dark silhouette standing dauntingly past the fires with his glaring eyes glowing menacingly.

Seeing him in that position again, Ayden reflexively backed closer to Angel's hold as Valentino's "coat" moved and revealed itself to be his wings that he flapped to extinguish the fires instantly with a thick plume of reddish smoke leaving him standing there with a glowering scowl on his face.

"Oh, fuck, fuck, fuck..." Angel muttered as he pulled away from Ayden to get his robe back on before quickly, and quietly, checking on her, "Are you OK...?"

Ayden nodded her head discreetly, still shaken up by everything that just happened, as they both looked to where Charlie had been before as she started rapidly apologizing to Valentino,

"Oh, my gosh, I am so, so, so, so sorry, I-I can clean this up. I-I can-"

Before he cut her off when he walked over to her and bent down to be at eye level with her as he spoke in a condescending tone,

"Don't you worry your pretty blonde head about it. We have people for that."

Addressing Angel afterward,

"Angel... Can I see you in your dressing room for a moment?"

Ayden's breathing turned shaky as she recognized the true tone under the pretense one in Valentino's voice before Angel quickly followed behind his boss with a dreaded anticipation expression on his face as they headed for his dressing room.

Charlie had reached out to Angel as he left but Ayden gently grabbed her wrist while grimly shaking her head to signal her not to follow.

"Ohmygosh! Ayden you're bleeding!" Charlie exclaimed in concern and Aydne looked down at her leg still sluggishly oozing her glowing blood as Charlie tried to reach for it while panicking some more, "W-We need to get that wrapped up and-"

But Ayden pulled her back since she was still holding her wrist as she warned hurriedly,

"Don't touch it!" Charlie looked up in confusion at her as she looked away to explain, "You'll get bu'ned..."

Before she let go of her so she could unravel her black cloth arm wrap and half kneeled to get it wrapped around her leg when a harsh slapping sound was heard, solely by her on the outside, coming from Angel's dressing room and it made her flinch down instinctively and squeeze her eyes shut and clench her teeth.

Her ears ducked down in an attempt to stop hearing Angel's desperate pleas and pained cries mixed in with Valentino's furious and threatening yells but it did nothing as their voices started slowly morphing into voices from her past,

'Worthless!'

'You're nothing on your own!'

'~You're not being ungrateful are you...?~'

'Monster!'

'Why don't you take it like the cheap little bitch you are?!'

'You need us!'

With each hidden slam and hit she heard, she would flinch and tighten the strap around her leg tighter and tighter before finally tying it off just as the door opened back up and the sound of a mirror shattering broke her out of the trance,

*KRSH!*

"Alright!" Valentino yelled as he dragged and practically threw Angel out back onto the set while shouting at the rest of his workers, the whole time Charlie was looking at him in angry disbelief while Ayden kept her head down from where she was still kneeling, "Get your asses back on set, and we are taking this from the top!"

Seeing him treat Angel like that, as well as the effect it seemed to have on Ayden as she folded in on herself even more while shaking in place, Charlie grew furious as her demon form started to come out in her voice darkening, her horns growing out, and her blonde hair releasing from its ponytail to float around her head in a semi-fiery blaze as she exclaimed,

"WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU CAN TREAT HIM LIKE THAT?!"

Stomping toward Val, who just stood there with his top arms crossed and a bottom arm on the hip he jutted out while he smirked smugly at her but she was stopped from reaching him when Angel stood in her way to shout,

"Charlie! Just stop!"

Making her stop and revert back to normal as she questioned in confusion and worry,

"Angel, what are you talking ab-?"

"Charlie, leave!" Angel told her as he pointed back to the door, guiding her there even as she tried to protest,

"But-"

"I didn't want you ta come here. I already asked you to leave and you didn't listen. You made things worse."

"I just wanted to help you..." Charlie spoke helplessly before Angel continued to yell at her,

"Well, you ain't! You actually want to help me? Get the fuck out of here! Right now, and let me finish my work."

"B-But I-"

"Let's go!"

Charlie was cut off by Ayden, who had grabbed her wrist to pull her toward the door while angry tears ran down her face making her start to cry too as she sobbed out,

"I... I didn't... mean to! I... I'm... I'm so sorry."

Before she pulled her wrist free from Ayden's grip to run out of the studio crying, Ayden following behind begrudgingly, stopping at the door to look back at Angel's furious face and then at Valentino, still with that smug look on his face that made her growl,

"Hrrrr....!"

Clenching a fist before opening it slightly to let some sparks pop out with her eyes and freckles glowing slightly before it all faded so she could leave, slamming the door behind her as she ran after Charlie back to the limo to go back to the hotel, unaware that the cameras in the Tower were following her every move until she left the building.

On the drive over, Charlie was still crying into her knees as she curled up on her seat while Ayden sat with one leg pulled to her chest as she glared out the window before her attention was grabbed when Charlie asked,

"Why? Why would Angel let that happen to him?"

"I don't know..." Ayden answered, somewhat lying since she had a slight idea why, but it only made Charlie more upset as she retorted,

"How could you not know?!"

"I've only known'im fer ba'ely a yea'..."

"Then how do you two get along so well?"

Ayden looked at the floor of the limo as she put a paw to her arm over her scratch scars and answered quietly,

"Cause we have some.. sha'ed experiences..."

Charlie's eyes widened a bit when she saw the movement before Ayden started to recount,

"I left home sho'tly afte' I tu'ned 13... coul'n't stand bein' somewhe'e whe'e my mum let he' endless parade of boy toys tu'n ta me when she w's tapped out... 'fter that I.. went from place ta place... whe'e each of'em jus' wanted ta use an' hu't me..."

The corner of her mouth twitched in a smile when she recalled,

"'Til the day Angel found me.. o' I guess Fat Nuggets technically found me... but Angel let me stay, taught me how to shoot, speak Italian, cook, and all kinds of fun stuff..."

Before her tiny smile fell again as she remembered,

"But most 'mpo'tantly.. he kept me safe from the Vees, Val in pa'ticula'... 'specially afte' the day he almost got me..."

That made Charlie's expression turn to a horrified one as she questioned,

"What happened?"

Ayden turned to face her and closed her eyes to remember...

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"Prrrrrr...."

"Merda!" (Shit!)

Past Ayden's eyes snapped open from her afternoon nap before rapidly shifting from hellcat form to demon cat form in an instant as she bolted to a sit and yelled,

"MWRE! Wha's happenin'?!"

A quick look over to the vanity revealed that Angel was sitting there with a makeup palette in one hand, a brush in another, a sponge in another, and a broken black eyeliner pencil in the fourth one that was pulled from one of the vanity drawers before he looked back to tell her with an annoyed tone,

"You been messin' with my stuff again?"

"Nooooo...." Ayden answered sleepily as she rubbed an eye with one paw while the other, unchained paw, was stretching above her head.

"Uh huh suuuure..." Angel drew out in joking dubiousness when he noticed a streak of black on Ayden's eyebrow that she discreetly rubbed away before petting Fat Nuggets so he could fall asleep again after waking up from her outburst.

"Hmmm..." Angel hummed in thought before putting his makeup tools down and pretending to struggle to reach the zipper on the back of his outfit before asking her, "Hey Ace, think ya can help me with this?"

"Again...? Can't ya reach it on yer own, Twiggy...?" Ayden asked raising an eyebrow in questioning as she rewrapped the chain back around her wrist from where it got unwound in her jolting before Angel lied without missing a beat,

"Hey I gotta save the arm strength for the pole later."

"Ugh.. fine..." Ayden got up from her bed and went over to Angel to get in position to pull the zipper of his top up before reciting as if she'd said it a thousand times before, "Suck in on 3... 1. 2. 3!"

Angel sucking in right on time for Ayden to quickly zip up the zipper just before he dropped his other makeup tools and quickly trapped Ayden with three of his arms before tickling her with the fourth as she started laughing uncontrollably,

"Hahaha! W-What's the big ideeeeea! Hahahaha!"

"Admit it!" Angel declared in a faux dramatic voice, "You used my stuff behind my back instead'a just lettin' me do your makeup!"

"Neve'HAHAHAHA!" Her laughs got louder as Angel probed his fingers deeper into her ribs before she relented, "OK! OK! I gi-i-i-ive! I diiiiid!"

Angel stopped tickling her before light-heartedly pretending to be betrayed with a hand to his forehead and others on his chest and bracing himself as he leaned backwards dramatically,

"How could you lie to me like that?"

"Cause.. ya do.. too much!" Ayden huffed as she caught her breath from the tickle attack while Angel jokingly scoffed in mock offense as he picked his tools back up, putting the broken pencil back and getting out another one in dark pink instead to complete his stage look.

"Wo'k again...?" Ayden asked incredulously while scratching at her tangled hair to try and detangle it while referring to the fact that he'd barely had any days off in the last couple of weeks.

"Tell me about it Fuzzball..." Angel muttered halfheartedly before it lightened for the slightly good news, "Lucky it's an easy gig tonight, jus' some dancin' at the club here at V Tower."

Wrinkling her nose a bit at what the job referred to, she perked back up to ask,

"'S it any fun?"

"When I'm not havin' ta ham it up for the crowd, yeah it's fun." Angel admitted as he finished putting on his makeup and stood up from the seat to pat it to signal Ayden to come over so she rolled her eyes and sat down as he got to work on some makeup for her.

He was doing her eyeliner when he suggested,

"If you want, you can come with and watch for a little bit?"

Ayden frowned in unsure hesitation with her ears folding down too as she questioned,

"Ya su'e that's a good idea...?"

"Eh all eyes are gonna be on me anyway, but if ya don't wanna come with that's alright." Angel noted with a nonchalant half-shrug as he picked up two tubes of lipstick comparing the reds before settling on one and applying just a tiny bit to Ayden's mouth before she snapped to bite and snark,

"No mo'e! I don't wanna look trashy like you."

"Ya think I look trashy?" Angel questioned in faux offense, teary eyes and all.

"Yep."

"Then I nailed it!" He smirked proudly, making her roll her eyes as she got up from the vanity seat to tell him as she started fixing her hair into a messy ponytail,

"An' I'll come wi'h fer a lil' bit, been a minute since I've been outside anyway..."

That last comment made Angel pause for a second in gathering his stuff since he knew about Hannah and her crew basically holding Ayden hostage inside every day for a whole year, never letting her out, among other unspeakable things even he had a hard time believing could ever be done to a young teen like her...

Even after she had told him all that and he had promised not to do the same to her, it was still hard for her to let go of certain habits, like keeping that chain around her wrist still even though he'd offered several times to get it off, so he tried to remain as patient as possible as they moved at a pace comfortable with her as far as moving on and past certain issues by making compromises whenever possible, such as now-

"Want me ta bring the big bag?"

Angel asked her as he held up a large fancy tote bag that he normally used for costume changes and makeup sets but was also used sometimes to hide Ayden in hellcat form when she wanted a quick dodge when they were out and about and she answered with a small smile and a shrug,

"Su'e."

Angel quickly compiled the last of his things before making space in the bag and holding it out while daringly raising an eyebrow so Ayden could smirk and stand at a distance before running toward him, jumping up into a front flip, and transforming to hellcat form in midair to land squarely in the bag space as Angel hoisted it onto his shoulder while saying as they left his apartment,

"10 outta 10 landing Fuzzball! Now let's get this shitshow on the road."

"Yeh!"

A few hours later, Angel was finishing up his routine on the pole on stage in the club while Ayden was sneaking some jerkwad's food off his plate while he was drooling at the performance.

'Ha!' Ayden mentally cheered when she managed to sneak a whole slab of meat off the plate before retreating backstage to enjoy it in Angel's private dressing room in her demon cat form just as the uproar of whistles and catcalls from the audience signaled that Angel's performance was over as he made his way backstage.

"Phew!" Angel practically threw himself onto the seat at his work vanity after closing and locking the door behind him as he commented to himself, "I need a boost..."

Opening a drawer to fish out a clear plastic baggie of white powder before getting to work lining it up to snort with a straw, leaning with his head hanging back with a sigh to let it work its magic.

"'S it any good?" Ayden asked, mouth half full from eating the meat she'd stolen with her bare paws and Angel answered in a breathy voice with his head still hanging back,

"~Oooh yeah...~"

"Can I try some?"

At that, Angel's head bolted back up before answering in a hesitant tone,

"Nah.. this.. ain't for you..."

"What? Wor'ried I can't handle it?" Ayden teased with a playful head tilt before Angel started to tell her more firmly,

"No, it's just..-"

*TCK* *KRCHT*

*TCH!* *TCH!* *TCH!*

Before he was cut off by the locked doorknob jiggling and heavy knocking on the door followed by Valentino's voice that made them both flinch and look to the door in fear,

"~Angeeeeel Caaakes...~"

"~Coming Daddy!~" Angel called back in a suggestive tone that hid an underlayer of fear for Ayden as he jumped up from his seat and made a shooing "hide!" signal to her so she dropped the meat and dove for the bag, shifting to hellcat form as she did so, to hide while Angel went to open the door as Valentino teased condescendingly while waving his cigarette around dramatically,

"~Not without me I hope...~"

"Hehe 'f course not!" Angel laughed semi-nervously as his boss entered and closed and locked the door behind him causing Angel to ask while trying to hide the nervousness in his voice as he took a couple of steps backward, "Wh-what are ya doin'?"

"~Whaaaat?~ Do I need an excuse to give my favorite whore a ~reward~ for a job well done?" Valentino kept taking slow steps forward toward Angel, who tried to hide his fear under his performative mask, to corner him against the vanity when a wet squish sounded from under Val's shoe,

*PLSH!*

And he looked underfoot to see the piece of meat there before wrinkling his nose as he picked it up between two fingers to question in disgust,

"Angel... what the fuck is this?"

"Uh..." Angel hesitated to answer before fibbing as he walked toward him to take it from his hand, "Maybe some drunk chump got ballsy and tried to sneak back here for an 'accidental' peep show? Why don't I just-?"

*PSH!*

"AH!"

Angel was backhanded sending him stumbling backward and landing right on his tote bag, nearly crushing Ayden as she yowled and scrambled out from the safety of her hiding space involuntarily,

"MREEOW!"

About to try and run out when Val stomped a foot in her path and made her stop in her tracks as she cowered in place.

"You taking in strays now?" Val punctuated his question by kicking Ayden back in Angel's direction as he was still reeling from the hit and she skidded to a stop in front of him as he picked her up and held her with three hands while the fourth patted her head comfortingly as he tried to explain/lie,

"I just- y'know found her.. on my way in and I thought.. maybe Nuggs would want a little friend to-AH!"

Angel was cut off when Val snatched Ayden from him by the scruff of her neck as he criticized while harshly poking her head with the end of his cigarette holder, making her too scared at that moment to move or fight back,

"I'm sure you can pick a better companion than this little.. flea-ridden pest. After all, cats are too.. defiant.. and good pets should be dumb and loyal to their owners, right Angel?"

"I-uhh..." Angel struggled to answer when he saw how badly Ayden was shaking in his grip.

"Right Angel?!" Val reiterated with a harsh tug on Ayden's fur that made her eyes snap open with her pupils narrowing to slits before she shifted to demon cat form, surprising Val enough to drop right out of his grip but she lost her balance when she landed on the ground and fell back onto her backside, crawling backward to put as much distance as she could from the both of them.

There was a moment of stunned silence before Val drew out coquettishly,

"~Well weeeeeeell...~" Before directing to Angel who was still wide-eyed with worry disguised under surprise, "~Angel Baby~ you weren't trying to hide this from me were you...?"

"I-I swear I didn't know, I just thought-"

"HRR!" Ayden tried to save him from having to lie anymore when she made a bolt for the door and grabbed the knob with a paw-

"Yah!"

Before she yelped as her chain-wrapped paw was wrenched off when Val grabbed it to lift her clear off the ground and she started squirming around like a worm on a hook while hissing,

"HAAAAH!"

But Val was unfazed as he took a drag from his cigarette and purposefully blew the scarlet plume right into her face making her cough,

*Fwoooosh...*

"KLCK! Kof! Kof! Kof... Mnnnn..."

Before her expression changed to one of disorientation as the smoke began to take effect and she went limp in his grasp as her eyes went half-lidded in a haze that was too hauntingly familiar for her.

"~Such a pretty little gatita...~" Val crooned in a faux comforting tone as he hugged Ayden close with his two lower arms while the upper third and fourth ones stroked up her spine, making her shudder involuntarily, and gripped her chin to make her zoned-out gaze focus on him as he chuckled at the lost look and the chain wrapped around her wrist, "Seems like you've already been conditioned to things like this... that'll make things easier..."

Meanwhile, Angel's panic had only heightened under his calm facade seeing Val using his smoke on Ayden and was trying to find a way out for her when an opportunity presented itself in the form of a knock from one of the stagehands as he reported through the locked door,

"Sir, the audience is getting rowdy for an encore out here."

"~Ooooh well~ now's a good a time as any for a debut don't you think?" Val asked while twirling her around only to have her stumble back to his side and Angel's eyes lit up for a second before noting in an exaggerated fake sultry tone,

"~Oh yeeaaah~ I know the kinds of freaks who drool aaaall over and go ~haaaard~ for shapeshifters..."

All while silently cursing himself for this as they walked out of his dressing room before suggesting,

"I bet summa them'll ~loooove~ the tail play..."

Reaching for her tail when Val grabbed his wrist to keep him from touching it as he "scolded,"

"You'll have to wait your turn..."

Tracing a finger along the tail spine before twirling the bifurcated end and harshly grabbing it to wrap around his fist making the rest of it taut.

All at once, Ayden's eyes snapped back to focus with her eyes narrowly slitting, her muscles tensed before spasming out as she yowled,

"MROW!"

*SHNK!*

A glowing arc slicing through the air separating Ayden from Val as he stumbled back while holding a hand to his ribs that now bore three long, fairly deep, dark red dripping gashes with Ayden on her feet with a paw positioned across the front of her chest in a post-scratch attack pose as she silently gasped for clear breaths.

All around them, a few workers were frozen in shock at the attack before Val yelled furiously with his eyes blazing in fury,

"SOMEBODY GET THAT LITTLE BITCH!"

Prompting Ayden to fully shake herself out of the daze she'd been in to start running and dodging all the attempts to grab her, running out of the club back onto the streets as she kept running...

...

...

...

Back in the present, Ayden had finished telling her story back in the hotel while sitting next to Charlie on the couch in the living room with KeeKee by their side,

"Afte' that, I ran back ta the apa'tment whe'e Angel.. found me and.. promised ta keep me safe from his boss no matte' what..."

Charlie was still in a sitting fetal position listening to the whole thing, noting the slight hesitation towards the end there, signaling she might be leaving something out, but made a mental note to ask about it later to question with sad wonder in her voice,

"So.. he did all that.. to protect you? And us today...?"

Ayden just quietly nodded before muttering as she got up,

"Ya can't reason with Val.. what he can't do to you he'll do to him... trust me.. I know..."

Before heading over to the bar and taking a seat so she could asked Husk as he was cleaning a glass with his rag,

"Think I can get that bou'bon on the rocks now?"

"Still no." Husk answered frankly, making Ayden slump in her seat with her chin resting on her crossed arms and Husk softened a tiny bit to offer, "Strawberry mocktail?"

"Fine..." She grumbled and Husk got to work gathering the ingredients: strawberries, simple syrup, lemon juice, and tonic water before blending the fruit with the syrup and juice and straining the mixture to set the pulp aside in a separate bowl for eating with a spoon and finishing up by adding ice, a lemon wedge, and some mint to the filtered juice and sliding the cup and bowl toward Ayden with a mild,

"Here ya go."

Ayden took the drink in one paw while mindlessly stirring the fruit paste with her other hand whose wrist was propping up her head before she took a sip and raised her eyebrows to comment before sipping some more,

"Pre'y good..."

Husk gave a small appreciative smile at that before it slipped back to a frown as the front doors opened and slammed shut to let Angel in, who was groaning and holding his face and head in a few of his hands in exhaustion.

Ayden's ears and tail drooped when she saw that Charlie had tried to give him a wave but he ignored it, making her wilt down some more, before dropping himself into the seat with a groan a little ways away from Ayden as he told Husk in a worn-out tone,

"Eugh! I need a drink. The hardest you can make."

Husk set a glass down in front of where Angel was slumped over the counter before critiquing bluntly as he grabbed two bottles of booze to open,

"Hmm, you look like shit."

Angel straightened up while brushing his hair back and inhaling deeply through his nose before scoffing with his cocky smile back on his face as he posed "casually" in his seat,

"Pfft, not possible. Just a long shoot, nothin' new..."

Taking his drink right as Husk finished pouring it as Ayden muttered while he gulped it down,

"We both know that's a loada crap..."

Thinking about how she hated that mask he wore during times like this before Angel finished drinking and told Husk in an impatient and judgy tone,

"Eugh, I said a strong one."

"Excuse me..." Husk spoke a bit thrown off by the attitude before it changed to a suspecting tone as he spoke while refilling his glass and raising an eyebrow in matching skepticism, "Didn't realize this was a 'drinking to forget' kind of night."

"Oh, I forgot. You're the wise old bartender who's seeeeen it aaaalll." Angel drew out mockingly while making motions with his arms and hands before he told him haughtily, "Get the fuck over yourself and pour me a real drink."

Using the tip of his finger to tilt the cup over, spilling the drink before Husk told him as he cleaned up the spill,

"Look, if you've got a problem, you're not going to find the solution at the bottom of a bottle..." Before commenting dully, "I should know, I've been looking there a long time..."

But Angel wasn't getting it as he suggested flirtatiously,

"Oh sure, and where should I Iook? Hmm?" Leaning closer to Husk despite the uncomfortable look on his and Ayden's faces, "In your bedroom, maybe..? ~Under the covers...?~" Angel shook his shoulders suggestively even as Husk visibly cringed back as he continued to flirt while walking his fingers across the counter, "~Maybe we can go look together...~"

"Don't." Husk held up a hand in annoyance as he told him, "Even start."

"Pleeaase...!" Ayden added, having finished her drink and was starting in on the fruit paste when the whole interaction made her lose her appetite.

"Go mind your own business, Fleabag..." Angel tried to push Ayden away with a finger to her nose before she slapped it away to start walking away as Angel continued to flirt with Husk, getting right in his space to grab his wing and wrap it around himself,

"~Oh, c'moooon, I bet I can make those wings flap...!~"

But that seemed to be Husk's breaking point as he shoved Angel back in his seat making him drop the bottle he snagged and it shattered on the floor making Ayden stop in her tracks as he started yelling at a scowling Angel,

"STOP! Fucking Christ!" Planting his hands against the counter to tell him off while rolling his eyes, "You can cut the act already. It's never going to work on me. So all you're doing is makin' an ass out of yourself with this fake bullshit."

Right at that word again, Angel's demon form started to emerge as he shouted in a rage-filled tone with all eight of his eyes glowing a dark neon magenta and his fur bristling from where he got right in Husk's face to threaten,

"CALL ME FAKE ONE MORE TIME, MUTHAFUCKA!! I DARE YOU!"

Ayden stood there in fear at seeing Angel like this again but Husk wasn't fazed at all as he leaned in close to his face before using a finger to poke his chest floof as he smiled smugly and emphasized,

"Fake."

About to send Angel off the edge, as he looked like he was preparing to fight,

"FUCKIN' ASSHOLE-"

*PSH!*

"ARRGH! GOD! OOF!"

Before he bumped his head against the bar ceiling and fell backward off his seat clutching his head in pain as Husk leaned over the bar counter to stare down at him and question expectedly,

"Ya done?"

Ayden bristled at the uncaring manner Husk was showing but Angel beat her to the punch as he shouted infuriated,

"Ya know what?!? You would be fucking lucky to get a chance to fuck me!" Grabbing the broken neck of the bottle that had shattered before to throw at Husk but he just dodged it by leaning aside with an unimpressed look as Angel continued yelling hysterically, "Ya know how much I'm worth?!? You know how many people would kill to have Angel Dust come onto them?! FUCK YOU! Have fun being a lonely piece of shit!"

Angel made a move to run out of the hotel but was stopped when Ayden stepped in front of him with a firm look on her face that he had no patience for as he growled through gritted teeth,

"Get outta my way..."

"No..." She growled back in a matching manner as she tried to argue, "'M not lettin' ya-"

"You don't 'let' me do anything! I do what I want! Remember?" Angel cut her off to poke her chest, making her slap his hand away to make the same motion to him instead.

"Cazzate! Lo ti conosco! Questo non sei tu!" (Bullshit! I know you! This isn't you!) Ayden yelled back gesturing to their settings to refer to the argument from a few minutes ago as well as at the studio before Angel snapped back,

"Non sai niente! Voi non siete la mia famiglia! Allora perché non vai a essere inutile da qualche altra parte?!" (You don't know nothing! You're not my family! So why don't you go be useless somewhere else?!)

Ayden's eyes widened in hurt before Angel shoved her onto her backside as he stormed out of the hotel, pushing past Vaggie who exclaimed,

"Woah-The hell? Angel, where are you going?"

"Out!"

He yelled before slamming the door behind him so Vaggie could ask Husk in a judgemental tone,

"Husk, what did you do?"

"Made him a drink." He deadpanned with a shrug.

"Ayden?" Vaggie turned to her to get a second opinion but she was just sitting there with her eyes still wide in broken shock while silently panting so she hesitantly reached down to tap her shoulder with a questioning, "You.. all good there...?"

But the second Vaggie's hand touched her, Ayden rapidly pulled away before running up the stairs back to her room, leaving Vaggie, Charlie, and, even, Husk to watch her leave with worry.

As soon as she got to her room, she slammed the door behind her and locked it before leaning with her back against it as she hugged herself with burning tears streaming down her face.

With a choking sob, her paws switched to grab at her hair from the roots to tug on it painfully as more voices started flooding her head,

'Never gonna amount to anything useful...'

'Monster!'

'You'll die out there without us...'

'Maybe I should just let'im take ya!'

The last one being Angel's voice, made her snap her head up to look at the mirror on her vanity where the reflection abruptly turned everything rough and jaggedy like a psychotic child drawing with chalk as she swiped a hand in a slicing motion before she started forcefully singing,

♫ Please stop talkin', you've been misleadin'

I've been through enough

Two-faced promises, sca's and traumas

I've been through enough ♫

She trudged over to plant her paws against the vanity desk to let her head hang tiredly as she continued singing in a lamenting tone,

♫ Yeah I'm so tiiii'ed (tiiii'ed)

Of all these liiieees (liiieees) ♫

♫ Please stop talkin', you've been misleadin'

Stop you've done enough ♫

Before her twisted reflection started taunting her while singing in a warped version of her voice, minus her accent as it reached through to wave the Polaroid photo that was normally hidden near the mirror around,

♫ It's time to walk away from all the lies

Yeah it's time to run away again ♫

♫ Can't believe you made us waste a lot of time

Just for us to be proven right again ♫

But Ayden was trying not to have it anymore as she snatched the picture back and pushed herself away from the mirror to sing while looking out of her room's window from on top of her bed with the photo in her grip,

♫ I really thought I coul' be happy he'e

Without anything really to fear ♫

Her paws clenched to her chest, right above where more of her scars were underneath with the photo crumpling a bit from the force,

♫ Far away from all those "games"

That just left me in a whole lotta pain ♫

♫ Please stop talkin', you've been misleadin'

I've been through enough

Two-faced promises, sca's and traumas

I've been through enough ♫

Leaning against her bed after putting the photo down, Ayden clenched a paw around the heart charm on Angel's choker around her neck while the other pushed against her forehead as she continued singing,

♫ Yeah I'm so tiiii'ed (tiiii'ed)

Of all these liiieees (liiieees) ♫

♫ History's shown that we can never stay

Forever alone yeah all on our own ♫

♫ Time to go back

To the way it once was

The way it should be ♫

In that moment of vulnerability and self-hatred, Ayden didn't even realize she had shifted to her human form for the first time in months before she lost all self-control to yell,

♫ Stop, you've done enough ♫

Shattering her mirror with one punch that made her trip backward on her, already in deep stabbing pain, injured leg and she stumbled to the wall on the opposite side of the room from the vanity closer to the door, leaning against it before sliding down to a sit as she silently cried,

♫ ...When.. will it be.. enough...? ♫

Before letting her head hang as she gave up trying to fight off the voices swarming in her mind.

Meanwhile with Angel and Husk

Husk had just finished saving Angel's ass from a bunch of shark-like goons and was dragging him out of the bar even as he shouted at him while trying to pull away,

"Husk! What the actual fuck are you doing here? Let go of me."

"No." Husk firmly held Angel in front of him as he stated while pushing him forward, "I'm takin' you back to the hotel."

"Get off!" Angel used his height advantage to keep from moving forward before pulling away from Husk even as he argued,

"That fucker put somethin' in your drink!"

Referring to how he'd seen one of the goons pour a love potion into the drink he was going to give to Angel, but he didn't seem to care as he declared,

"You don't think I can tell if someone spikes my drink? I do this all the fuckin' time!"

"You just let people drug you all the time?!" Husk questioned incredulously before Angel yelled back while getting in Husk's face to poke his chest accusingly,

"You think I ask for it?!? I don't ask for any of this shit! I didn't ask to be this way. I didn't ask for Charlie to save me, I didn't ask for Ayden ta try and stop me, I didn't ask for you to save me. I can handle myself."

"Really? Because I just saw someone self-destructing." Husk jabbed a claw in his direction before protesting earnestly, "It seems like... I don't know... you might need a bartender to talk to."

Making Angel chuckle in disbelief as he questioned doubtfully,

"Oh, so now you're going to act like you give a shit about me? You think after how you treated me, I'm gonna open up to you? Please."

He was starting to walk away when Husk called him out,

"Maybe I'd treat you better if you were real, and not some bullshit version of yourself, always pushin' my boundaries!"

Angel had closed his eyes and grit his teeth upset even as Husk continued protesting,

"Lemme tell ya, nobody in that hotel cares who you are. How famous, how hot, so you might as well just.. cut the act."

Making Angel stop walking and whip back around to shout with tears forming in the corners of his eyes,

"It's not an act!!"

Husk flinched back as Angel sobbed while ranting,

"It's who I need to be. And this... " He gestured to the streets, "This is my escape! Where I can forget about it all!" He braced a hand against the wall of a building while looking down at his other ones while seething, "How much I hate... everything. A place where I can get high, and not have to think about how much it hurts." Pushing himself away from the wall he held his hands against his head as he reasoned for his self-sabotage, "And maybe... if I can ruin myself enough in the process... if I end up broken, I won't be his favorite toy anymore..."

Angel sat down on the curb holding his knees to his chest and putting his head to his knee to curl in on himself as he wished hopelessly,

"And maybe he'll let me go..."

The whole time he had ranted, Husk had started to look at him in sympathy before he sat down on the curb a little ways from where Angel sat before sighing to tell him,

"I was an Overlord once, you know..."

Angel perked up a bit in interest as Husk admitted with a semi-fond smile before recalling grimly,

"Yeah, and uh... It was nice to have that power... but when you're dealing in souls while also being a gambler, the stakes are pretty high... and losing a few hands can be more than a little dangerous... so when you're down on your luck, you turn to anything to... keep you afloat, even making deals with yourself..."

"So I know what it's like to... regret the choices made... and knowin' ya can't take it back..." Husk finished off in a forlorn tone before it switched to a slightly more hopeful one as he added, "But at least you have something to improve for..."

"Tch.. as if..." Angel scoffed dubiously before bitterly muttering, "I'll be lucky if they eva let me cross the pearly gates..."

"That's not what I'm talking about..." Husk spoke softly making Angel look at him in his peripheral vision before asking,

"Then what...?"

"Ayden..."

Angel scoffed before Husk protested gently,

"I'm serious... that kid looks up to you.. looks to you as her big brother..."

"She shouldn't... I'm only gonna get'er in more trouble..."

"Heh.. You really think she cares about that?" Husk chuckled, "We've both seen how willing she is to jump into the fire for her friends, and you're much more than that to her... It's not always enough for someone to sympathize with you but to empathize with you, you offer that and that's what really counts to her..."

"Doesn't matta anyway.. she'll never forgive me for what I said..." Angel curled in further on himself as Husk noted plainly as he remembered their argument from earlier,

"Maybe... maybe not..."

The two of them sat in silence for a moment before Husk began to sing, getting up from the curb to walk in front of Angel, stepping in a puddle to distort the reflection with a splash,

♫ So things look bad, and your back's against the wall

Your whole existence seems fuckin' hopeless ♫

Husk grabbed an umbrella from some trash cans to block the vomit from a bar patron who had stepped outside not feeling well and fell back into the alley as he shook off the umbrella to continue singing,

♫ You're feelin' filthy as a dive bar bathroom stall

Can't face the world sober and dopeless

You've lost your way, you think your life is wrecked

Well, let me just say you're correct ♫

The last line confusing Angel to where he questioned,

"Wait, what?"

Before Husk poked his nose to sing while dancing with the umbrella in his hands,

♫ You're a loser, baby

A loser, goddamn baby

You're a fucked up little whiny bitch ♫

"Hey!"

♫ You're a loser, just like me ♫

"Thanks, asshole." Angel flipped him off but Husk kept "berating" him before sliding to a lay behind him,

♫ You're a screw's-loose-boozer

An only one-star reviews-er

You're a power-bottom at rock bottom

But you got company ♫

"This supposed to make me feel better?" Angel questioned offended as Husk got up and sang in a remorseful tone as he leaned against the window of a building nearby,

♫ There was a time I thought no one could relate

To the gruesome ways in which I'm damaged ♫

He broke a window to let a Sinner run out in a plume of green smoke before a bigger explosion highlighted Husk's long note,

♫ But lettin' walls down, it can sometimes set you straaaaiiiight!

We're all livin' in the same shit-sandwich ♫

Husk had gone to sit next to Angel before he started singing unenthusiastically,

♫ I sold my soul to a psychopathic freak ♫

Making Husk laugh good-naturedly before offering a hand to Angel to pull them both to a stand as he sang,

"Haha! ♫ And you think that makes you unique?

Get outta here, man! ♫"

They both started dancing together, Angel shocked that Husk was giving him some space as they did so and there was nothing sexual about it as he continued singing upbeat,

♫ We're both losers, baby

We're losers, it's okay to be a- ♫

Angel sang in uncertainty before Husk approved and he started singing with more confidence,

♫ Coked up, dick-suckin' hoe? ♫

♫ Baby, that's fine by me ♫

♫ I'm a loser, honey

A schmoozer and a dummy!

But at least I know I'm not alone ♫

♫ You're a loser ♫ Husk sang before the two of them sang together as they leaned against each other back to back.

♫ Just like me! ♫

Husk and Angel took turns singing their vices as a spotlight shone on them,

♫ I got an appetite for gamblin' ♫

♫ I got an appetite for samplin' every drug and sex toy I can find! ♫

♫ Go ahead baby, sing that song, come on! ♫

Before they both sang as multiple neon signs pointing out their "flaws" piled up around them,

♫ I got no holes left to deflower ♫

♫ I sold my soul to save my power

Now I'm on that demon's leash ♫

The two of them were wrapped up in glowing lines, Husk's more organized to symbolize Alastor's control while Angel's was more haphazard to symbolize Val's control before they sang together,

♫ I'm trapped and it gets worse with every hour ♫

Angel sang as they were sitting under neon lights "rain" before Husk shielded them with the umbrella he found and sang after him before chorusing,

♫ You're a loser, baby ♫

♫ A loser, but just maybe if we ♫

♫ Eat shit together, things will end up differently! ♫

♫ Ooooooooo! Ooooooo! Oooooooo! ♫

To finish off, Angel started harmonizing in the background as Husk sang while they danced together,

♫ It's time to lose your self-loathin'

Excuse yourself, let hope in, baby

Play your card, be who you are ♫

The two of them crooned out together while leaning against each other,

♫ A loseeeer, juuuuust liiiiike- ♫

"There he is!"

Both their eyes widened in shock as the shark goons from earlier came back with the shortest one shouting incredulously,

"They're fucking singing?! GET'EM!

Before they all pulled out their guns and started shooting at the two of them as they hurried to duck behind a car.

"Oh shit!" Husk growled before telling Angel with a raised arm in a protective position while the other pulled out some more cards, "Stay down. I'll deal with this..."

He leaped on top of the car to launch all his cards towards the front line of goons, impaling them right in the center of their foreheads, gathering a trio of golden glowing dice in his hand to throw right into the open mouth of a goon that tried to chomp down on his head but wound up with his blown right off, and had used a card to slice open the neck of another goon before the shortest goon from before leaped onto Husk's back out of his reach as he held him in a chokehold while laughing,

"Hehe, you're fucking dead-!"

"You little-!" Husk growled before the goon was shot clean off him and he looked and saw Angel holding a Tommy gun in his hands as he cheered,

"Eat lead, sucka! Hahaha!" Laughing at his repeatedly shot at the short goon reducing him to a bloody mess of shot-up flesh and lending a hand to help Husk up from the ground as he told him while smirking at each other, "I told ya. I can handle myself, Baby."

He used his five other hands to pull out more guns as he resumed shooting up the goons while Husk threw some more explosive dice until the shark demons were reduced to blood puddles and gut piles with one of them groaning out before he died,

"This did not go as planned... ulgh..."

Husk huffed in slight exhaustion with a fresh bruise on his cheek and blood smeared on his head before smirking at Angel as he told him in an impressed tone,

"Well.. that was something I didn't expect to see."

"Like I said, you don't know me." Angel told him while brushing his blood-streaked hair back and giving him a wink with his uninjured eye, "Sex ain't the only thing I'm good at."

"Good to know, cause this guy ain't that bad." Husk looked over Angel with an admiring smile that he returned before the two of them started their way back to the hotel, talking along the way and they were laughing while entering the hotel with Angel recounting,

"He-he had like 3 bills, and it took him like 30 minutes to count'em. His eyes are so shit!"

"Hehe, and this is the guy you gotta take orders from?" Husk chuckled making Charlie, who had been busy in the living room writing the apology letters and lesson plans, look their way as Angel laughed,

"I know! What a fucking joke, right?"

Before she rushed at him in relief and squeezed him in a hug as she wailed slightly,

"I'm SOOOO sorry Angel, I promise I won't ever, ever, ever, ever-"

Before Angel gently cut her off to smile at her appreciatively,

"Charlie, it's fine... I get it..." Before putting a hand on her head to thank her softly, "Thanks... for caring about me..."

Making her full-on start weeping and bawling until Angel held her limp body up in the air and handing her over to Vaggie, who had walked over with a rueful smile on her face, as he told her,

"Ehh, I think this is yours."

And Vaggie carried her princess-style as she told her softly,

"Ok missy, let's get you to bed."

But Charlie kept blubbering through her happy tears,

"He-he-he said he for-forgaaave meehehee! Awa-It's so beautiful, Vaggie..."

Husk and Angel watched the two of them leave before Husk gently bumped Angel's side to offer,

"Hey, how about that drink?

"You read my mind." Angel responded with a fond smile and the two of them started heading over before he hesitated and remembered,

"I better go check on Ruby real quick though..."

Turning to leave when he halted and asked,

"Ya got any fruit or chocolate back there?"

"I got some with the strawberries from earlier, why?" Husk answered hooking a thumb behind him before questioning with a raised brow and Angel answered sheepishly while rubbing the back of his neck,

"A little food goes a long way when it comes ta sayin' sorry with her..."

Husk grinned at his consideration before telling him,

"I'll bring some up right now."

"Thanks..." Angel gave him a grateful smile before heading upstairs and finding himself in front of Ayden's door before he knew it.

He raised his two right fists to knock on the door, hesitating to do so for a quick second, before gently knocking,

*Tch...* *Tch...* *Tch...*

"Ruby? You in there...?"

Some faint shuffling from within alerted him that she was in there so he started speaking through the door,

"Look kid... I know I really screwed up today at the studio and then before when ya tried to stop me..." He paused to take a breath while leaning his forehead against the door, "I know I can't take back what I said and you can be mad at me for as long as you need to but..." He shifted to sit down with his back against the door as he told her, "I just need you to know that you're not useless... and you're not failing... us or yourself..."

Some approaching footsteps alerted him that Husk was approaching with the small plate of pureed strawberries in the center surrounded by some more strawberry slices and small rectangles of chocolate that he handed to him so Angel could slide it under the space in the door as he tempted lightly,

"~I got your favorites heeeere...~"

The plate made it all the way under the door to the other side and Husk and Angel waited a few seconds to see what she'd do and got their answer when the plate slowly came back under the door, untouched.

Angel's hopeful expression fell as he sighed and took the plate to hand back to Husk while telling him,

"Maybe she jus' needs more time..."

Husk looked like he was about to agree when he sniffed the air and the plate before his eyes snapped open and he grabbed onto the doorknob with his free hand to try and open it, only to find it locked and curse loudly,

"Dammit! Open up Kid!"

"What the fuck are ya doin'...?!" Angel bolted to his feet to shush him when Husk shoved the plate in his face to show him something dark red that wafted with the smell of something metallic on the rim that made Angel's eyes widen in panic; Ayden's blood.

"Ayden this is serious open up...!" Angel banged on the door, hardly caring now if anyone else heard them.

"Oh fuck it...!" Husk shoved the plate into Angel's hands, pushing him away from the door before pulling a card from his sleeve and wedging it between the door and doorframe before swiftly bringing it down, cutting right through the lock.

Angel was close to shoving past Husk to throw the door open when he held up a paw in a "hold on" motion and he stopped so Husk could slowly open the door, moving Ayden since she had been sitting on the ground close to the door and if the door had been thrown open it would've hit her already injuring leg.

"Ayden...?" Angel's voice quavered when he saw the state she was in; her eyes barely cracked open to look at them with an empty glare, her left fist was covered in scratches with pieces of glass seen embedded in her skin, and the makeshift bandage he had glimpsed at earlier in the Studio was cutting into her skin, leaving red marks that threatened to cut deeper.

But what had completely surprised them was that she was in her human form; her hair had changed to be shoulder-length loose with neon orange tips instead of crimson red ones and her clothes had changed to a red muscle tank top with a black planet design on the back, her shorts lost their buckles, a leathery scarf wrapping around her waist with the ends flowing out in place of her tail, and was wearing punky black ballet flats with leather straps that wrapped upwards on her legs, over the makeshift bandage, and had buckles on them,

"The hell..."

Angel's blood froze when he realized Husk was still in front of him and was seeing her "true" form but when he made a move to turn him around in a futile effort to divert his attention, Husk shook him off and told him seriously before leaving back downstairs,

"Those cuts are gonna get infected and that tourniquet is cutting off her blood flow. Get her to the bathroom and get the blood cleaned off while I get the kit so we can get those cuts taken care of and wrapped up."

After taking a deep breath to try and calm his nerves, Angel carefully stepped over Ayden's legs to fully leave the doorway and close it before bending down and carefully picking her up while minding her injuries, pushing down the panic at how limp she was and how she wasn't fighting back despite the weak defiance in her eyes.

"C'mon.. let's getcha cleaned up..." He walked her into her bathroom and carefully set her down to sit on the closed toilet before grabbing the hand towel from the sink to dampen it.

Kneeling back down in front of her, Angel took her injured hand in his but froze when she sluggishly pulled it away to cross her arms and turn away slightly from him, still staring blankly and unfocused while frowning dismally.

"Ruby...?"

"...jus' leave me like this..."

Angel shrank back when she mumbled that despondently but it hardened to a resolve as he muttered,

"No..." Angel regained a firm, but still careful of the injuries, grip on her wrist with one hand while two more went to her shoulders to sit her upright and the fourth carefully cupped her chin to lift her gaze to him as he asserted, "I'm not lettin' ya give up on yourself just cause I almost did."

Before expressing in a somber tone,

"I meant what I said before, you can hate me for as long as ya need to but I need you to know that you didn't do anything wrong.."

"I don't hate you..." Ayden mumbled as she looked away before scrunching her teary eyes shut as she whispered, "I hate myself for not bein' able ta help you..."

"Fuzzball..." Angel used a thumb to gently wipe away the tears falling down her face but Ayden tilted her face away to drone in a helpless tone,

"I know why ya don't want me ta kill'im.. cause it'll put a ta'get on my back wi'h the othe' Vees and othe's who wanna use me as a weapon and blah blah blah..."

She trailed off before sniffing and continuing,

"But I can't help but feel like a failu'e every time I have a chance ta free ya and I don't... jus' ta save my own stupid furry skin..."

She looked at Angel with her eyes watering again as she started to rant tearfully,

"I mean you we'e the first one since Taylo' to actually treat me like a pe'son.. and I ba'ely show 'ny thanks fer that.."

She hugged herself again even with her injured hand making her wince in pain but she kept doing it despite that.

Angel put a hand on her arm and she looked up at him through her teary eyes when he started to sing,

♫ Ohhh, why you look so saaad...?

Tears are in your eyes

Come on and come to me now ♫

Ayden tried to pull away from Angel's offer of a hug but he put a hand on her cheek to turn her face back to him as he kept singing softly with an empathetic smile,

♫ Don't... be ashamed to cry

Let me see you through

'Cause I've seen the dark side too ♫

♫ When the night falls on you

You don't know what to do

Nothing you confess

Could make me love you less ♫

Ayden's eyes widened a bit when he sang that before he stood up to make a reaching-out motion to her,

♫ I'll stand by you

I'll stand by you

Won't let nobody hurt you

I'll stand by you ♫

They both started remembering the last time they had fought that badly; right after coming back to his apartment from dealing with Val, with some bruises to show for it, he had found Ayden curled up in a corner of the room hitting her head and pulling on her hair but when he tried to reach out to her to make her stop, she somehow summoned something like a hardened shield of fire that made him angrily yell at her, his demon form coming through like it had earlier, to where she ran out of the apartment before he had instantly regretted what he'd said in that moment of blind outrage to run after her,

♫ So... if you're mad, get mad

Don't hold it all inside

Come on and talk to me now

Hey, what you got to hide?

I get angry too

Well I'm a lot like you ♫

After he had searched for her for hours, Angel found Ayden again in the same alley he and Fat Nuggets had first found her in, looking like she was about to head back to Hannah's place but something was stopping her...

♫ When you're standing at the crossroads

And don't know which path to choose

Let me come along

'Cause even if you're wrong ♫

When she saw Angel standing there with an apologetic expression on his face, she had teared up before running back to him and jumping into his arms as he grabbed her in a hug that left them both kneeling on the ground as they held onto each other tightly as if they were each other's lifelines.

♫ I'll stand by you

I'll stand by you

Won't let nobody hurt you

I'll stand by you

Take me in, into your darkest hour

And I'll never desert you

I'll stand by you ♫

In the background of their embrace, more memories of the two of them were remembered from both before arriving at the hotel and after; Angel helping get the shackle and chains off her arm and ankle, being introduced to Cherri for the first time and the two of them getting along really well, getting more piercings in her ears, being taught how to make cannolis and Ayden sucking the whipping cream out of one and throwing it in Angel's face when he made a dirty joke about it making the two of them laugh together, decorating her new room at the hotel, and every time they hugged, fought, and smiled together like brother and sister...

♫ And when..

When the night falls on you, Baby

You're feeling all alone

You won't be on your own ♫

Back in the present, the two of them were hugging again before Angel rested his forehead against Ayden's as he finished singing,

♫ I'll stand by you

I'll stand by you

Won't let nobody hurt you... ♫

Angel trailed off before they heard a soft chuckle and looked over to the door where Husk was leaning against the doorway with a first aid kit in his hands before he commented sincerely,

"You two really are something... connected not by blood but by love... and a whooole lotta sass and attitude..."

The last bit made the two of them smirk in mock offense before he moved to set the kit on the sink to get out what was needed: some gauze, rubbing alcohol, and two rolls of bandages.

"You get that hand cleaned up?" Husk asked Angel as he prepped a rag by soaking it in the alcohol.

"Just about to Baby." Angel responded with a faintly flirty tone as he got back to wiping the blood off her hand while avoiding the glass pieces still in the skin making Ayden question with just a hint of a sly tone,

"Didja two hook up o' somethin'?"

"No." The two of them answered in unison and she smirked a bit to draw out teasingly,

"Mmmhmmm...!"

"You want me to fix your hand or what?" Husk asked critically as he used his claws to carefully pick out the glass pieces after Angel finished wiping the blood away and Ayden "pouted,"

"Yeees..."

"Then shush." Husk punctuated his statement by pressing the alcohol-soaked rag over the cuts and Ayden had to grit her teeth to keep the barely suppressed whine from getting any louder,

"Hrrrrrr....!"

Before she felt Angel slip one of his hands in her free one to hold... and nearly crush...

"Geez Fuzzball!" Angel whined as he took his hand back once Husk finished disinfecting and was working on wrapping her hand up while Angel looked over the clench marks left by her hand to whine, "I knew ya had a grip but has it gotten stronger?"

"Been practicin' my hrrr shtick..." Ayden winced a bit as Husk got to work undoing the strap from her leg so he could disinfect the ligature marks and cut before wrapping them up as well.

"The one they keep buggin' ya to do?"

"Yep. Wanted ta ask Cha'lie ea'lie' if I could set somethin' up outside ta practice wi'h but uh..." She trailed off since the rest could go unsaid before she turned gears and asked Husk since he finished wrapping up her leg and was packing the kit back up, "Where'dja lea'n all this stuff?"

"When you've been a bartender who's seen as many fights as I have, you pick up a thing or two." Husk answered before adding with a lighter tone, "You're the first one I've had to patch up outside of a fight though."

"~Awww so I'm special?~" Ayden teased with a playful head tilt.

"Oh you're special alright Kid..." Husk gently ruffled her hair while smiling at her before gesturing with his head out the door, "You both up for some drinks?"

Angel and Ayden nodded before she asked while standing up,

"C'n I have-?"

"Still a no on the Bourbon Kid." Husk cut her off thinking he knew what she was going to ask when she clarified,

"I was actually gonna ask fer anothe' mocktail. Ya make'em really good."

"Oh," Husk looked taken back for a second before he smiled again and told her, "Sure."

The three of them made it downstairs, Ayden managing to shift back to demon cat form in case someone walked in on them and Angel letting her use the sweater she'd been wearing that morning, seeing how it brought her some comfort, where they shared some drinks and stories, Husk being let in on some of Ayden's history and promising not to tell anyone else.

"Mmmmm..." Ayden eventually started to doze off with a tired hum, even after eating the chocolate squares, with one still partially in her mouth, so Angel thumbed the chocolate from her mouth before easily picking her up to carry back upstairs to her room.

"IIIIIn we go..." Angel lifted the paint-splattered blanket to deposit Ayden underneath and was folding it back over her when he noticed the Polaroid photo fall to the ground out of the corner of his eye.

Just as he was about to pick it up, Ayden managed to sleepily grab his wrist to whisper,

"...Love ya Anthony... fratellone..." (big brother...)

This time, Angel was only slightly taken aback before his eyes misted a bit and he smiled before leaning down to kiss her forehead and whisper back as he tucked her paw back under the blanket and brushed some wisps of hair out of her face,

"Anch'io, sorellina..." (I love you too, little sister...)

Before picking the photo up, smiling at the happy memory, placing it face down back on her vanity while frowning worriedly at the punch impact in the glass, and walking back out, quietly closing the door behind him, completely unaware that she hadn't taken her other choker off from under his, which was now glowing hauntingly making her grimace in her sleep.

...

...

...

Meanwhile, in an eerily familiar surveillance room, a certain tv-headed Overlord was looking over various footage videos: Ayden's team up with Angel and Cherri the day after Extermination Day, watching from the side as Alastor tossed around Sir Pentious's zeppelin, using her powers during the team building battle, and the most recent appearance in the Porn Studio trying to avoid the fires.

Taking the most recent footage to pause at the moment of her glaring at Val and nearly showing her powers, he pulled it to go side by side along a photo he had of Ayden right after her first confrontation with Val as he compared the two and deduced they were the same being.

"You saw too, Voxy?" Valentino spoke up from where he'd entered the room but stayed by the door as Vox asked without taking his eyes off the screens,

"She a Sinner?"

"Angel says she's a Hellborn but..." Val trailed off so Vox could finish the thought,

"Hellcats supposedly haven't been seen in any of the Rings for years and there's not a lot of information about them to begin with..."

"What does it maaaatteeeer?" Val walked in and draped himself dramatically over the edge of Vox's chair as he whined immaturely, "Can't we just kill that little cunt? I mean, look what it did to me...!"

Moving his coat aside and wiping away concealer makeup to reveal the three clawed scars that were still on his side before Vox tried to reason,

"Exactly, this kid is powerful enough to hurt Overlords yet dumb enough to follow around your favorite whore and Little Miss Rainbows and Sunshine."

Vox stood up to get closer to a monitor that had a freeze frame of the moment after Ayden had survived the Molotov cocktail explosion with her powers around her paws and her eyes shining bright reddish pink as he noted,

"Her powers could be a valuable asset if turned to.. our agenda..."

"Fat chance, you have a better shot trying to tame fire." Val tried to argue but Vox just grinned deviously as red drip lines appeared at the corner of his mouth when he spoke hauntingly,

"Sometimes it's not about taming fire, but trapping it long enough for it to burn itself out..."

He chuckled as he pulled up another image of Ayden from a few years ago with her super long hair and wearing a length of chain from a shackle on her left wrist as she cowered in front of a group of shadowed beings.

...

...

...

AN- Whooo.... That was hard to work on and reread for certain parts... but hopefully the fluffy bits were worth the wholesome/angsty build up ^^

Some notes and references for this one:

Angel's extra song to Ayden was "I'll Stand By You" by the Pretenders and Ayden's song solo was a parody of ​charlieonnafriday's "Enough" so hope I did alright with the lyric tweaking (I know it's not completely perfect ^^; )Yes there was a little nod to the fourth wall breaking in Helluva Boss's "Spring Broken" episode as well as Ayden's "Truth Bomb" trip from "Truth Seekers"All of Angel and Ayden's Italian speak comes from Google Translate for longer sentences and WordReference for shorter words and phrases so if there's any mistakes, that's probably why and feel free to correct me (I'm only fluent in English and Spanish with some basic ASL understanding but I'm trying to learn some more languages)That last image of Ayden is a digital drawing I posted on my Deviant Art account a while back

Trauma in any shape or form is a serious matter and there's no one-size-fits-all way that people cope with it, so if there's any confusion as to why Ayden reacts a certain way to certain things or if any of her behavioral traits seemingly don't make sense, just comment or DM any questions and I'll be willing to clarify anything since most of her personality and history are based on personal and observed experiences with trauma and abuse

I've drawn a few pieces of Angel and Ayden being found big brother and little sister and are posted on my Deviant Art account (same username) so please check them out if you get a chance or, for you Quotev users, I'm thinking about starting a book of Hazbin/Helluva fanfic art over there and was wondering if you'd all be interested in that : D

Finally managed to finish "Dad Beat Dad" and got some of "Welcome to Heaven" started but classes, work, mild midterm/approaching end of the school year procrastination, and spending two weeks working on this chapter is really starting to take effect on future chapters so apologies in advance if I end up not updating on time within the next few weeks... ^^;

Until the next one, Bye!