Requested by help_me_make_constellations on AO3

Takes place between "Oops" and "M.M.M.M.S. (f.F)"

Slight warning for mentions of traumas, PTSD, violence, and domestic abuse

3rd Person POV

"Neve' thought I'd say this but thank Satan for cho'es list." Ayden breathed as she walked through Imp City with her phone in paw and a short list of things that needed to be done and items to be picked up.

After the previous day's events with Striker and Crimson and saving Blitzø and Fizz from them, Ayden still felt conflicted over all the secrets and warnings that had begun to accumulate.

So earlier that morning when Moxxie mentioned some errands that needed to be run but he and Millie had plans elsewhere, Ayden jumped at the chance to do them to distract herself.

*BVV-VVVV!*

"Hmmmmrrr..." Ayden groaned internally at most-likely another text from Millie asking if she was sure about running the errands herself and subconsciously sped up her walking.

"Mrow."

She only slowed her pace when she realized that Jin had fallen slightly behind and ran to catch up with her before brushing their tail along her leg for Einar to ask, slightly out of breath,

'Must you rush?'

"Sorry I jus' wanna get to the music sto'e 'lready." Ayden argued as she pocketed her phone while clicking the button on the side to silence it.

'They'll be open all day just slow down, we ain't got long legs like you...!'

Ayden raised a brow at the exhausted and impatient tone Maris was giving off before muttering,

"I offe'ed ta carry ya but you said-"

'I know what I said...'

"Then stop complainin' and get up here..." Ayden held out her arm for them to jump onto while rolling her eyes slightly and Jin gave her the stink eye before obliging and settling on her shoulder as they arrived at the music store.

Upon walking in, they saw rows and shelves fully stocked with instruments, supplies, and tools for different genres of music and players with a humanoid katydid-like, orange-schemed Sinner sleeping at the register with his head in his insect appendages and a name badge reading "Nym" on his uniform shirt.

'What're we looking for?'

"StringAgony brand guitar strings." Ayden read the brand name off her phone screen before browsing through the packs of guitar strings to find Moxxie's preferred ones while Jin jumped to the upper shelves to search up there.

"Anything?" Ayden asked after a few minutes of fruitless searching and Jin peeked over to look down and shake their head before-

"HEY! NO PETS ALLOWED IN HERE!"

Jin spiked up like the spooked cat they were in that moment Nym woke and screeched when he saw them on the shelves.

Automatically, Jin hurriedly jumped back down to hide in Ayden's satchel but, in the process, they accidentally knocked a rack of electric guitars into another rack and pretty much started a domino effect of falling racks and shelves until-

*KRSH!*

*BRRRRIIIIINNNNNGGGG!*

A shelf was tipped over to crash through the front display window making the store alarm go off.

Ayden slowly turned her head to Nym as he did the same but with more anger on his face as she grinned sheepishly and raised her paws in a shrug to ask,

"Now a bad time ta ask whe'e the StringAgony brands a'e?"

One of Nym's eyes twitched in fury before a cut to the alley behind the store revealed that Ayden got tossed out, landing in a dumpster, with Nym shouting after her,

"BANNED!"

Before he slammed the door shut behind him just as Jin, who had tumbled out of the satchel during the throw, meowed as they landed in and were nearly buried in a pile of garbage bags,

"Mrrooowww...."

"I don' know whatcha said but no...." Ayden grumbled as she wrenched her tail out from under a broken speaker and started to climb out of the dumpster when she heard a familiar voice,

"Ayden?"

And she turned to see Remi and Alex walking past the opening to the alley with some shopping bags in hand and paw and Ayden greeted them casually as if she hadn't just been caught climbing out of a dumpster,

"Oh hey you two, how's it goin'?"

"Uhh doing a quick grocery run?" Remi answered lifting the bags in her hands to motion to them before Alex asked bluntly,

"Why are you in a dumpster?"

"We got thrown out of the music sto'e..."

"'We?'"

"Mrow!" Jin popped their head out of the garbage bags, startling Remi but not Alex as they just raised an eyebrow at them before Ayden introduced them,

"Alex, Remi, this's my siblings Jin, Jin these're Alex and Remi, some friends o' mine."

After they managed to wrestle themselves out of the pile and Ayden jumped out of the dumpster and was picking off pieces of trash that stuck to her, Jin went over to Alex and Remi to introduce themselves before Remi jumped away after making contact with them as she questioned,

"Uhh is the whole 'talking in our head' normal for them?"

"Yep." Ayden managed to fully clean and brush herself off before walking over to the three of them as Jin was talking to Alex as they commented,

"Huh you've got a kinda multi-gender thing going on in there dontcha?"

"Well the'e's 27 of'em in the'e so..."

"Daaaaaammmn!" Remi exclaimed as she bent down to get a closer look at Jin before asking, "Didn't you say you could turn into a hellcat like this?"

"Not 'nymo'e..."

"I get the feeling we missed a lot between you dying and the text you sent us like two days ago that you were still alive." Alex stated as they put a paw to their hip expectedly so Ayden responded with a reluctant acceptance tone,

"Yeh... it's been a wild time these past coupl'a days..."

"Wanna come with us to our place to talk about it? We gotta get these in the fridge anyway." Remi asked as she held up her bags again.

"Ummmm..." Ayden thought for a second, remembering the errands she had to do, but figured she still had til that afternoon to get them done and she really did want to catch up with her friends, so she responded, "Yeh, let's go."

"C'mon then." Alex gestured for her and Jin to follow them and Remi as they all headed down the street before arriving at a large motorcycle that had a glittery blue paint job with Lune Bleue Patisserie on the side where a sidecar that looked like it was used for deliveries was attached.

"Sweet ride..." Ayden looked at it in awe and Alex huffed with pride as they flipped up the seat to reveal a fairly spacious under-seat storage area where they and Remi put their grocery bags before they got on and strapped helmets to their heads before they told them,

"Just hide in the cargo carrier, it should be fine til we get to our place."

Ayden looked at the sidecar that was just a box on wheels attached to the side of the motorcycle before muttering hesitantly,

"'Ight then..."

Opening the top of the box to hop in with Jin by her side before closing it over them as they were slightly squished inside but not too badly to where it got claustrophobic.

From outside, they heard Alex start the engine, the vibrations spreading to the sidecar making Ayden and Jin jump a bit before they all took off.

A short while later, from the way the motorcycle slowed to a stop and the sounds of other cars and vehicles around cued them to the fact they were in the vehicle Ring Elevator.

*HLP!*

And right on cue, Ayden retched into her paw with Jin doing the baby-bird impression and, from the outside, Alex was seen moving their ears around at the sounds of heaving coming from the sidecar as they asked,

"You both doing alright in there?"

Ayden discreetly stuck her paw out to give a thumbs up before bringing it back in as they grinned a bit wryly but Remi looked a bit worried before the elevator opened back up in Gluttony to let everyone out.

A little while more driving later, Alex parked their motorcycle in front of the apartment complex they lived with Remi as she went to open the box for Ayden as she asked,

"You sure you're both good?"

Ayden stood up and hopped out of the box to answer,

"Peachy."

Before Jin followed as they gave off a small hiccup-like burp and shook themselves off happily before jumping back onto Ayden's shoulder as she looked around as asked,

"You both live here?"

"Mmhmm!" Remi hummed joyfully in answer and Alex added as they gathered all the bags,

"For 6 almost 7 years already. Get the door Boo?"

"On it!" Remi hurried up the stairs to the second level before going to unlock the door of one of the apartments with Ayden and Jin following behind them.

Just as Remi opened the door to let Alex through as they hurried to get all the bags inside, another older-looking Border Collie hellhound wearing a long-sleeved shirt and baggy pants and reading glasses on their teal-colored short pixie-style under-shaven hair came down from the stairs on the other side leading up to the upper-level apartment with a watering can in their paw before noticing them there and waving,

"Good morning Remi, Alex."

"Morning Mx. Brightburn." Remi smiled while waving back and Alex called from inside,

"Hey! We got your condensed milk substitute here!" Alex grabbed two cans from one of the bags before they walked out to hand them over as Mx. Brightburn thanked them,

"Excellent! Thank you so much. I made some vegan lemon tofu bars, enough for your little friend too."

Putting their watering can down, they took the cans from Alex's paws before heading upstairs again as Remi explained to Ayden and Jin,

"Mx. Brightburn's the lessor around here, they're really nice."

"'Really nice?'" Alex emphasized in disbelief before saying and explaining strongly, "They're the closest thing to a saint we got down here. They were the only one who let a couple of barely-adult minors rent a place when Remi and I decided to leave our homes."

Ayden silently gasped before Mx. Brightburn came back down with a small yellow paper bag that they handed to Alex before telling them all as they got back to watering the plants,

"Enjoy and thank you again."

Smiling, they all went inside where Alex was finishing up putting the groceries away and Ayden and Jin were looking around the apartment, noting all the pictures of Remi and Alex there were; first moving into the apartment with Mx. Brightburn next to them handing over the keys, at Loo Loo Land before it got burned down with the two of them in front of a ride called the Spine Ripper with the Loo Loo hats on, Remi competing in a roller derby competition with Alex cheering her on from the side with a sign that read "Remi the Ruiner #1," Alex in front of the "Lune Bleue Pâtisserie" bakery on its opening day with who looked like the store owner along with a few other Hellborn employees, and many more photos.

"Hey you want some soda or juice or something?" Remi asked from the kitchen as she got the lemon bars out of the bag and set them on four small plates.

"I'll take a soda and..."

'Water please.'

"Jin jus' wants wate'."

"On it."

"You wanna sit at the table or the couch?" Alex asked as they grabbed the plates to set down wherever they were going to sit.

"Table's good." Ayden went to sit at the table, leaving her satchel on the back of the chair, and Jin sat on her lap as Alex brought the plates of lemon bars over while Remi brought over Ayden's can of Spite and a cup of water for Jin.

Once everyone was set with their food and drink, Alex sat down with Remi beside them in chairs on the other side of the table from Ayden and Jin as Alex asked,

"So what's been going on with you lately?"

"Whe'e ta sta't...?" Ayden spoke a bit despondently as she poked at the soda pull tab to her Spite with a claw, "I guess I shoul' sta't wi'h...." She inhaled a bit shakily as she struggled to word, "I'm... I'm a..."

"Hey..." Remi reached over to gently place a hand on Ayden as she assured her, "Safe space, you can say anything you want or are ready to whenever you want to..."

"I know I jus'..." Ayden stuttered a bit before firmly shaking her head to just say forthrightly with her eyes scrunched closed, "I'm a human hellcat hybrid."

Ayden unscrunched an eye to look at them and Remi looked a bit surprised while Alex looked more or less indifferent as they commented,

"That makes sense."

"It does?!" Ayden and Remi asked in unison surprise before Alex explained,

"Most hellcats smell like embers and a hint of incense while Sinners smell like the Living World, you smell like a mix of both but less intense on the Living World since I'm guessing you don't go up there much anymore?"

"Nah jus' fer work." Ayden shrugged before Remi asked,

"So if you're a hybrid, are you still alive? I mean you died right? Wouldn't that make you more half-Sinner than half-human then?"

"That I'm not really su'e..." Ayden admitted, "The last time I face my dickwad of a dad, all my siblings became pa't of me and then I got stabbed with an Angelic Knife and they all separated or exo'cised from me and took my hellcat form, which is whe'e Jin came from."

At their name, Jin rose up from where they had been drinking out of their water cup after taking a bite of their lemon bar and Alex noted questioningly,

"So they took the hit for you then? Maybe you're still half-human instead of Sinner then?"

"But my powe's also changed when I came back, it feels like they got stronge' so I don' know if that means I became mo'e Sinne' then."

"That is tough to say..." Remi admitted as she opened and took a drink of her Spite before asking, "Hold on, back up a sec; didja say you were stabbed by an Angelic Knife?"

"One that now's a pa't o' me..." Ayden answered back as she whipped her paw up and, in the same flash of light, it materialized making Remi shrink back and Alex lean forward as they asked,

"That looks.. different from most Angelic Weapons ever seen."

"Stolas thinks it got 'corrupted' wi'h my blood when it failed to kill me."

"Stolas Stolas, the owl prince?" Remi questioned in disbelief so Ayden answered,

"Yeh, he's my teache' fer my hellfire powe's."

Letting the blade fade out of existence before summoning a fireball in her other paw that made Remi fall back in her chair looking like she couldn't take anymore surprising news before Alex pushed her drink to her and told her,

"Boo, take a drink."

"Not strong enough..."

Alex pulled a silver flask out from their vest and poured some of its contents into the soda can before taking a swig themself and asking,

"How about now?"

And Remi drank from her now spiked soda as she proceeded to chug it while Alex told Ayden earnestly,

"This is a lot to take in, for both of us, but your secrets are safe with us..."

"'T's not jus' these secrets I'm worried 'bout keepin'," Ayden expressed as she closed her fist to extinguish the fireball before stressing, "It's everythin' else I gotta keep that gets ha'd..."

"*HAH* You try journaling?" Remi sighed after gulping down her whole spiked soda can before suggesting.

"Ya mean like writin' things down in a diary?"

"Yeah, you can write down what you're feeling, stuff that happened in a day, experiences you lived, whatever you want." Remi explained before Alex added,

"It's helped us with our issues."

"Really?" Ayden asked as she swallowed a bite of her lemon bar.

"Yeah, I used to be a lot more jaded and emotionally... dead from growing up in a house where it was always 'oh you can tell us whatever you're feeling' 'oh that's it? Just suck it up buttercup' and just getting emotionally shamed by everyone around me for feeling the 'wrong' things." Alex recounted before Remi did the same,

"Yeah it was always more chaotic in my home and journaling helped me with better organizing and prioritizing what to freak out over to make me a little less jumpy about things."

"It's also why we balance each other out so well..." Alex expressed as they leaned their head toward Remi's and she met them halfway so they could nuzzle each other, making Ayden smile a bit fondly.

"~Mroooow!~" Jin meowed teasingly and Ayden shot them a annoyed 'shut it' look before Remi asked,

"What'd they say?"

"Nothing!" Ayden was quick to try and grab Jin but they evaded her grab and landed on Remi's lap to talk to her as she asked in a matching teasing tone Jin had earlier,

"~Who's Via?~"

"Another friend o' mine." Ayden tried to recompose herself to seem less conscious but Jin tapped on Alex's arm to talk to them too before they asked,

"Is it the same Octavia who's Stolas's daughter?"

"Maybe...?"

"Hey we're not gonna judge if that's what you're worried about..." Remi dropped her teasing tone from before to ask, "You identify as Aroace right?"

"Yeh...?"

"Which side of the spectrum?"

"Whaddya mean?"

"There's different kinds of attraction you can feel for someone on both Aromanticism and Asexuality." Alex explained making Ayden question,

"How do I know whe'e I fall?"

"You consider all the feelings you have for different people and possible crushes or loved ones." Remi answered before Alex pulled out their phone and tapped away at it before asking,

"You mentioned you were sex averse back at Bee's party right?"

"Yep, coul'n't stand it ev'n b'fo'e all the.. stuff my mum's boyfriends and Hannah and her crew put me through..."

At that, Alex and Remi looked at her with wide-eyed worry before Remi raised a finger to note,

"We can talk about that another time if you'd like..."

"Su'e..."

"So Demisexual might not be you unless... do you feel sexual attraction only after you bond with someone emotionally?"

"I mean..." Ayden leaned on her crossed arms on the table to think before answering, "I don't really bond wi'h that many people but since it's Via I.. maybe like... no I don't really feel like that wi'h her... and anytime sex's ev'n brought up I get pre'y grossed out."

"So sex-averse Asexuality... as far as Aromanticism do you feel the urge to kiss Via when you're with her?"

"Mmm..." Ayden thought some more before shrugging while answering, "Not really su'e..."

"What do you feel with her, if you don't mind saying?"

Ayden smiled a bit at Remi's willingness to give her the choice to talk about it or not and thought some more before saying,

"It's kinda like... I wanna be around her a lot... cause I'm happy wheneve' we're doin' stuff togethe'... wheneve' she's sad, I wanna let 'er know I'm the'e fer her... and when she does the same fer me.. I know she really means it and it makes me wanna trust her wi'h everything... but I also wanna protect her from ev'rything too no matte' how badly I wanna tell'er, it's jus'... argh!"

Ayden growled in frustration toward the end of her audible thought process and thumped her forehead against her crossed arms so Jin went back over to rub their head against hers comfortingly and she lifted back up to give them an appreciative scratch behind their ears.

"That's beautiful..." Remi was tearing up a little at hearing Ayden's feelings while Alex smiled a little before reporting from where they were reading on their phone,

"And probably not complete Aromanticism but the way you describe your feelings for her doesn't seem like romantic attraction..."

"They could be platonic attraction." Remi brought up making Ayden tilt her head in question before she continued, "Platonic attraction means your interest in someone is based more on bonds with emotions and is a little deeper than simple friendship but not quite romantic in the 'conventional' sense."

Remi made quotation marks when she said "conventional" making Alex bring up,

"Most 'romantic' aspects focus way too much on getting laid or scoring dates instead of actually connecting with people."

"I mean we've held hands before and.. I'd like to do it again but I'm not su'e if I wanna kiss her cause what if I do and we don't like like each othe' that way and I jus' end up makin' things wei'd between us and-" Ayden's quickening rant made Jin bump their face against hers to make her stop and calm down before Remi assured her,

"Just remember, your feelings can continue to change over time and that's OK and if you still feel the same like 10 years from now that's OK too, these are your feelings and they grow or change however you want them to."

"And if you do end up finding out you and Via don't feel that way about each other you can still be friends if you both find your dynamic works better that way."

"Yeh I guess..." Ayden smiled with some relief before admitting, "This actually feels good ta get off my chest..."

"Hey we're friends, it's what we do." Remi beamed before Alex reminded,

"And keep the journaling thing in mind too, it really can help."

"Defo." Ayden realized she finished her lemon bar in between all the talking and noted to herself, "That was pre'y good actually, 'm not usually fer vegan stuff but..."

"Yeah Mx. Brightburn's a genius in making vegan stuff." Remi finished up her lemon bar before gathering the dirty plates and empty cups and cans and asking, "You wanna take some home with you?"

"If the'e's some left."

"You wanna ride back home?"

"I've got some stuff I gotta get done b'fo'e. Don't s'pose ya know a music sto'e in this Ring?"

"Oh yeah, Beany's place over by Beezlehaven, it's just a few blocks from here, we could walk."

"Sounds good." Ayden grabbed her satchel even as Jin sprawled out on the couch on their back with their legs spread out dramatically in a "play dead" position as they meowed complainingly,

"Mrooooooow!"

"Why're you complainin'? I'm the one walkin'." Ayden rolled her eyes playfully as she held her arm out and let Jin roll over to jump onto her shoulders.

"You both really are siblings and sister." Alex smirked wryly as they grabbed their keys and Remi handed her the wrapped lemon bars to stow into her satchel before they all walked out of the apartment and walked to the music store, talking some more about music artists they were into, crazy stories from their jobs, and more.

After picking up the guitar strings, they all managed to tackle the rest of the errands on Ayden's list together before the "sun" started to set across the Rings.

"Thanks again for all the help." Ayden thanked Alex and Remi as they all stood back by the apartments with Ayden holding two shopping bags in her paws.

"No prob." Remi hugged her before Alex asked,

"You sure you don't need a ride back to Pride?"

"Nah I got this." Ayden smiled cheekily as she shifted the bags over to free up a paw for portal drawing back home after a quick survey around them to make sure there were no onlookers.

Looking back to see their slightly shocked faces, she gave them a two-digit salute and a wink before she stepped through and closed the portal behind her.

'Something to explain next time.' Jin commented as Ayden got her keys out to unlock the front door to find Millie and Moxxie in the living room with the latter removing the broken string from his guitar before they noticed them enter and he asked,

"Hey Ayden, how were errands?"

"Good. Got the strings he'e." Taking the string pack out of one bag to give to him before Millie stood up to take the other bags as she asked,

"How come ya didn't answer any of our texts?"

"I ran into some friends and we were hangin' fer a bit, I musta missed'em." Ayden answered somewhat truthfully but also tried to hide the fact she was getting a little annoyed by the excessive texting on Millie's part.

"Dinner'll be ready in about an hour." Millie announced to everyone as she went to the kitchen to start using the food Ayden grabbed to start prepping.

"Gotcha Honey." Moxxie responded as she finished restringing his guitar and began strumming to begin tuning it with Jin sitting by him to watch in wonder so Ayden headed for hers and Jin's room, closing the door quietly behind her.

Looking to the door to make sure no one was coming, Ayden reached into her satchel and pulled out a red notebook with a little number latch on the front before grabbing a black marker from her desk to write on the front "Ayden's Journal KEEP OUT ^That means you Blitzø!" alongside a cat skull doodle with fire in the eyes.

Flipping it open to the first page, Ayden switched the marker for the new multi-colored pen with a skull on the end she got and began to write,

'Entry 1. Guess I'm giving this journal writing a chance. Today was pretty good aside from the rough getting tossed into a dumpster cause of Jin...'

Writing everything she was feeling and had experienced that day until she was called for dinner.

AN- Hope you all enjoyed the only-slightly-angsty Ayden, Remi, and Alex fluffy slice-of-life hangout ^^

Finally got some time to myself at my local Barnes and Noble yesterday so I was able to fully finish this up to post today : D

Some references and notes for this one

StringAgony is a spoof of StringJoy and Spite is a spoof of SpriteMost of the information portrayed here for Aromanticism and Asexuality I either know from some personal experience with self-realization or are tidbits I found online from LGBTQIA+-run informative websites, if I got anything wrong or if something's been declared as offensive, please let me know

As mentioned before, Ayden, Alex, and Remi's experiences are all based on personal and observed experiences I've seen in friends and family and if you find something hard to deal with and want to talk about it with someone, you can always DM me and I'll be willing to hear you out and be vented to if needed

Other than that, I'm still looking to write some more short story bonding stuff with Ayden and other OCs or canon characters so feel free to comment with a request if you'd like and I'll try to get to them as soon as I can with school and work resuming next week and traveling back up to campus on Friday

Until the next one, Bye!