Chapter Text
"Are ya sure you don't want a ride?" Blitz asked for the third time, wrapping Stolas's scarf around the taller man's neck.
Stolas let out a soft chuckle, reaching out to ruffle Blitz's hair. "I'm sure, darling. It's just a check-up, and we won't be back until after dark. No sense keeping Loona up that long on a school night."
"Yeah, but the roads are shitty 'cause of the storm, and I swear I saw you try to drive on the wrong side of the road once," Blitz argued, pouting as Stolas laughed again.
"That wouldn't happen to have been when I had just moved, would it?" Stolas teased. When Blitz refused to answer, because of course it was, Stolas tapped him on the nose. "You are so cute when you're fretting over me."
"Shut up," Blitz protested, crossing his arms.
"We'll be back before you know it, Blitzy." Stolas pulled him a bit closer and his voice dropped a bit of its teasing tone. "If it's still thundering by the time Loona has to go to bed, put on some music until I get back, and I'll sleep over here, alright? You don't have to be alone, my love."
Blitz buried his red face in Stolas's chest. "Why do you gotta know everything, asshole…"
"Because you're my boyfriend and it's my job," Stolas cooed. Just then, Octavia pushed herself between their legs and tugged on Stolas's pant leg to get his attention.
"Daddy, the little hand is on the four," Octavia informed him, pointing to the clock that hung on Blitz's living room wall.
"That's right, my little starfire," Stolas smiled, lifting her into his arms. "Time for us to head to your check-up! Say goodbye to Blitz, please."
"Bye!" Octavia reached out and happily hugged Blitz from her father's arms. She giggled as Blitz blew a raspberry on her cheek.
"See ya later, princess. Make sure your daddy behaves, 'kay?" Blitz winked. He gave Stolas one last kiss on the cheek before he watched the two head out into the storm.
Fuck, he should probably see a shrink. He had been massively on edge all day, ever since poor Loona had discovered one of the chickens dead in the coop that morning. He'd had to spend most of the day explaining the afterlife of a chicken (obviously they went to corn heaven) and cleaning out the coop while four other disturbed chickens screeched at him. After that, he'd received a courtesy call from the rehab center that his sister had relapsed yet again, which he'd decided not to share with Stolas simply because he didn't want to talk about it, so then he had to pretend nothing was bothering him.
The gathering February thunderstorm outside had been both the last straw and a handy excuse for his anxiety when Stolas had asked what was bothering him. He would have been more than happy to accept the comforting cuddles that Stolas usually offered during bad weather, but then he'd learned that Octavia had a four-year-old check-up in the city that had been scheduled for that evening, since her birthday had been the previous week.
Altogether, it was not a great day.
Blitz grit his teeth against the sound of distant thunder rolling across the fields. He shook his head, forcing a smile as he clapped his hands together.
"Loony! Get your cute butt in the living room, we're playing Just Dance until we pass out!"
By Loona's bedtime, Blitz was feeling a bit better. Sure, he was still strongly convinced to let the six-year-old stay up longer when she begged, but he had stopped jumping out of his skin every time the thunder clapped outside, so he decided to be a responsible adult and send her to bed. He even made sure to enforce his no-dogs-on-the-bed rule, instead carefully latching Alarm Clock into his crate in the kitchen.
Despite it only being eight o'clock, Blitz decided he wanted to call it a night as well. He crawled onto his bed, too mentally exhausted to take off his comfy clothes. If he played his cards right, he could probably convince Stolas to undress him later – preferably with his teeth.
Smiling at the thought, Blitz pulled on his headphones and started up his latest audiobook. It was a children's book, technically, but Stolas had told him it was one of his favorites – a young orphan girl fixing up a cottage and the surrounding garden so she'd have a place of her own. It was peaceful, and he could imagine Stolas reading it to himself as a young boy.
He had just begun to drift off to the soft narration when suddenly there was a massive bolt of lightning outside, accompanied simultaneously by a crack of thunder so loud it shook the house. The power surged before going out entirely.
Before Blitz could even react, Loona burst open the bedroom door and bolted into Blitz's arms. Blitz held on tightly to her shaking form – Loona wasn't usually afraid of thunder, but that had been too much, even for his brave girl.
"Shh, shh," Blitz whispered, tossing his headphones aside. He gently rocked from side to side, not entirely sure if he was comforting her or the other way around. "It's just a bad storm, that's all… it's okay, Daddy's got you…"
"Is it gonna do that again?" Loona whimpered, her grip around Blitz's neck bordering on uncomfortably tight.
"I don't think so," Blitz answered, more hopeful than sure about his answer. As he took deep breaths to try to keep calm for his daughter, he noticed that the odd ozone smell of nearby lightning wasn't going away – instead, it was getting stronger.
Smokier.
Blitz wracked his brain, trying to convince himself it was in his head, that the smoke alarms would have gone off if the power surge had really done any damage.
They would have, Blitz realized with an icy chill, if he hadn't pulled them from the ceiling in the middle of the night when they wouldn't stop beeping about batteries.
"Loona–"
"Do you smell that?" Loona asked, pulling away with eyes wide and scared.
Feeling bile rise in the back of his throat, Blitz placed Loona on the floor before rising to his feet as well, shoving his phone into his pocket. He led her out of the room on shaking legs.
When they peered down the stairs, Blitz froze and Loona screamed.
The orange tendrils licked the walls, leaving black scorches that spread across the wallpaper like it was made to burn. The billowing smoke rose up the stairs, bringing suffocating heat that seemed to burn away any of the remaining oxygen on the second story.
"Fuck!" Blitz shouted, pulling Loona back inside her bedroom as soon as he realized that there was no safe way to get her down the stairs. He yanked her window open and shoved against the screen, but it was stuck fast.
"Daddy?" Loona yelped as Blitz threw her desk chair through the screen, where it caught briefly in the branches of the large tree before clattering to the ground.
"Go! Call 9-1-1, you got that?" Blitz pressed his cell phone into Loona's hands as he led her to the window ledge.
"No! What about Alarm Clock?" Loona whimpered, pushing against her father's grip.
"I'll get the fucking dog, Loony, just go! Down the tree and to Stolas's house! I'll be right there!" Before Loona could protest any further, Blitz tossed her into the tree.
"Daddy!"
"Just go!" Blitz barked, turning back. Loona's open doorway was nearly engulfed in flames, but Blitz braced himself and ran through.
The hallway was even worse than it had been before, but Blitz dropped to the floor to find the few precious inches of smokeless air. He more slid than crawled down the stairs, unsure if he felt more choked by panic or smoke. As he reached the bottom of the stairs, something cracked loudly from the direction of the living room. He looked through the smoke and felt his heart drop as he saw the large exposed beams in the ceiling begin to buckle.
He had to get out soon, or the house would fall on top of him.
Blitz strained to hear over the roar of the flames and the crackling of the wood, but he eventually heard Alarm Clock's shrill barking over the din.
"Alarm Clock!" Blitz yelled, his voice breaking as he inhaled far too much smoke. His lungs burned, and he could feel the flames begin to singe the edges of his clothes as he got too close. Struggling to breathe, Blitz stumbled and crawled towards the kitchen, where Alarm Clock's crate was.
The barking only grew more urgent as he neared the crate, and Blitz's ears rang with all the noise.
As soon as Blitz unlatched the door to the crate, Alarm Clock bolted for the doggy door Blitz had installed in the kitchen door.
Blitz didn't have any time to think about following the small dog, or perhaps about rescuing anything else in the house, as a sickening crack came from overhead. Sudden, agonizing pain ripped through Blitz's lower back as the thick ceiling beam came down on top of him, unceremoniously knocking him to the floor, where his head met the tile with an explosion of white-hot pain.
Blitz barely had time to register that he was pinned to the floor before it all went blank.
"No, Via, please use your spoon," Stolas scolded gently, handing Octavia the proper utensil.
"No! Fork!" Octavia insisted, placing the spoon back on the table.
"You're very good at using your fork, darling, but perhaps you'd get more applesauce if you used the spoon instead?" Stolas tried again, gently wiping the corner of her mouth with his napkin.
Octavia simply stuck her tongue out at him, and Stolas sighed. At least she'd eaten her dinner without a fuss, a feat that didn't always happen when they went out to eat. He wouldn't have tried it again at all if they weren't still a good ten minutes from home with nothing easy to make in the fridge. Instead, he'd given in and stopped at the last restaurant before the turnoff to his road.
He checked his messages again – still nothing from Blitz. Hopefully that meant that his boyfriend had either gone to sleep or had found another way to distract himself from the admittedly terrible storm. Stolas knew Blitz was a perfectly capable adult, of course, but today had been so trying. He had every expectation of being met with Blitz mid-panic-attack when they returned home. It was for the best, really – keeping things bottled up like he knew Blitz was doing, that was how things got worse.
"Look! Fire trucks!" Octavia's observation snapped Stolas's attention back to the present. As his daughter began to hum the Fireman Sam theme, he watched as two large fire engines raced past the restaurant, alarms blaring, with an ambulance following close behind.
Don't turn left, Stolas found himself begging mentally. Left was rural farmland, with only two occupied houses for miles. Left was home. Left was Blitz.
And left was the direction the vehicles turned.
Stolas rose from the table so fast that his knees knocked into it painfully, but he didn't care. He pulled several bills from his wallet, enough for the tab twice over and then some, and tossed them on the table before pulling Octavia into his arms and bolting towards his car.
"My applesauce," Octavia complained, squirming unhappily as Stolas hastily buckled her into her seat.
"I'll get you more," Stolas promised quickly, one hand buckling his own seat belt and the other hastily dialing Blitz's number.
Busy.
Stolas peeled out of the parking lot, ignoring the honks of disgruntled drivers as he cut them off. They didn't matter. He dialed again.
Busy.
"Daddy?" Octavia asked from the back seat. He dialed again.
Busy.
"Everything is going to be fine, my owlet," Stolas assured, bordering on hysteria. They were right behind the ambulance now. He dialed again.
Busy.
"We're going to get there and it's going to be so silly that Daddy got all worked up!" He dialed again.
Busy.
"Daddy, the sky…" Stolas's breath caught roughly in his chest as he saw the fire engines' lights reflecting off large plumes of smoke rising above the trees. He dialed again.
"H-Hello?"
Stolas nearly dropped the phone when Loona's voice replaced the busy signal. He could see the houses in the distance, especially with the bone-chilling orange glow emanating from one of them.
"Loona, darling, are you alright?" Stolas asked breathlessly, speeding up as the vehicles he was tailing did as well.
"Fine, I'm, I'm fine," Loona whimpered, coughing lightly.
"Where's your father? Is he okay?" Stolas nearly crashed the car as Loona's reply was a wordless, heartbroken wail. He jerked the wheel to one side, narrowly avoiding running into the back of the slowing ambulance. By this point, he could clearly see what had happened.
Blitz's house was on fire.
He gave Octavia a stern order to remain in the car as he parked it just off the road. He hurried out of the car and began to sprint towards the houses, where firefighters were already spilling from the engines.
"Loona, where are you?" Stolas yelled desperately, half into the phone and half into the night. As he neared, the legs in his muscles burning, he caught sight of the distraught little girl.
"He's in there!" Loona was screaming, pointing wildly at the flame-engulfed house with the hand that wasn't holding a small dog. She was covered in ash, sticks and leaves caught in her hair, and she had no shoes on to protect her from the bite of the snow, but not even Stolas's parental instincts could slow him as he changed course towards the burning building.
Blitz was in there.
Strong, rough arms caught him around the middle, causing his breath to leave in a painful oof . Stolas thrashed in the unfamiliar grip of a firefighter. "Let me go! Blitz!"
"I can't let you go in there, sir," the firefighter answered, her grip unrelenting and unbreakable.
"Blitz! You don't understand, Blitz–"
"Would probably not want you to run into a burning building, sir," the firefighter interrupted, her tone kind without leaving any room for argument.
Stolas still tried, struggling and shouting until he had no voice left to shout with, as the flames were fought back by the mighty hoses.
When two firefighters rounded the back of the house with an occupied backboard held between them, Stolas's knees buckled. The firefighter finally released her grip around his waist and he stumbled towards the figure that was being transferred to a stretcher.
What he saw made his stomach churn. Blitz's face was covered in blood, both dried and fresh. His mouth and nose were covered by an oxygen mask, making him look incredibly small. His clothes were torn and singed, with cuts and bruises showing dark against skin that was too pale. His back and legs were strapped tightly to the backboard, but Stolas could see that something was definitely wrong with the angle of Blitz's hips.
He tried to take Blitz's hand, but the EMTs pulled the stretcher away before he could.
"Sir? You know this man?" another paramedic asked, gently touching his arm.
"Yes, yes, he's…" Stolas suddenly lurched forward, losing the contents of his stomach into the snow. The next touch he felt was different, small shaking arms wrapping themselves around his back. The smell of smoke nearly sent him gagging again, but he swallowed the feeling down and pulled Loona into his arms before standing again.
"We need to go with him," Stolas declared, his voice shaking and hoarse, but stern. "My daughter, too, she's in my car. Please."
"Of course. They can ride in the front, if you're comfortable in the back with him," the paramedic offered, and Stolas nodded quickly.
He took a deep breath, holding Loona closer. "Could someone look at Loona? I think she was in the building too."
"We'll get her on some oxygen," the paramedic assured, gently taking the girl into his own arms. "Meet us at the ambulance with your daughter, quickly."
Stolas nodded, pulling his phone out as he moved as fast as his shaking legs could towards his abandoned car. He hit send on the text message just as he reached the car.
"Via, sweetheart, we're going to the hospital, okay?" Stolas lifted her and the car seat out of the car.
"What's all the loud?" Octavia asked softly, her hands over her ears. Stolas grabbed his fluffy white earmuffs from the front seat and placed them on her head before answering.
"Blitz is hurt and Loona is scared. Can you be my big girl and keep her company?"
"Mhmm!"
Once both girls were safely buckled into the ambulance (and Alarm Clock had been deposited inside Stolas's house), Stolas climbed into the back with Blitz.
It was more than a little cramped, with several EMTs crowded around Blitz and Stolas trying desperately to keep out of the way while still being close enough to see what was going on.
Finally, he found a spot squished against the double doors to sit where he'd be out of the way. He rested his head against the cool metal of the doors, listening as the sirens outside fought for dominance with the thunder.
He didn't think he liked thunder very much anymore, either.
He'd have to tell Blitz, when he woke up.
If he woke up.