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Avery waited until he heard Kimiko invite him in. He opened up the door before wheeling the cart inside.

”They made me lunch. We weren't sure how hungry you would be, if at all, so they made some sandwiches, but you can have some jerky if you want,” Avery offered.

He pushed the door shut with his foot and wheeled the trolley over to the table in Kimiko's room.

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Caden piled books onto a table with the more relevant volumes on top. He looked down at the list Nero had compiled and turned.

He rested a hand on the table and the other on Nero's back as Caden leaned over them to read their notes. He rubbed his hand subconsciously along Nero's back as he read.

”It looks good, babe. Do you want anything to eat or drink while we work?” Caden asked, and went to grab a couple more books he missed.

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Cassiopeia smirked and set her phone back onto her nightstand. ”Shoulders and ankles are covered,” she assured Nic. Max was curled up on the end of the bed, and shifted his attention when he heard Nic and smelled the tray of goodies he had.

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Kiki keeps her smile small to save her lip and follows Avery to the table. “They’re absolute sweethearts.” She says, peering around the werewolf to see what’s on the trolley. She smothers a bigger smile when she sees that the hot chocolate has a straw in it. She steals a piece of jerky to chew on as she sits at the table.

She fidgets in her seat for a moment before she holds out her arm to Avery. “Your sense of smell is better than mine; did I get their stench off of me?” She almost doesn’t want to ask him in case she does still smell of the disgusting assholes, but she also really wants to make sure she got id of it all the same.

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Nero beams up at Caden, glad they’ve got the essentials down at the very least, before they tap their chin in thought. “Hmm, something salty… what’s the snack mix they have at pubs? Like pretzels and all those goodies.” They say, missing Caden’s hand on their back already. The grab the book at the top of the pile and pull it towards them.

“Is it too early for alcohol? I feel like we’ll need it.”. Nero says, not looking up as they open the book and start reading. This particular book seems to cover a lot of the lore from humanity’s more famous books like the Bible.

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Nic steps through the doorway with a smile. “How was the rest of your bath, beautiful?” He asks as he sets the tray on the bed, giving Max a tiny scratch under his chin. He eats his backpack done and pulls out the treaty along with his pencil, opting to use his graphing paper notebook for note taking so he can start making a chart.

“Is there anything else you want or need right now?” He adds, moving next to her to kiss her cheek.

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Avery transfers a plate of food onto the table to eat when Kimiko holds her arm out. He smirks at her before taking her arm. When he first walked in, Avery could just smell her shampoo, body wash, and the laundry soap Caden’s cleaners use. With his nose closer to Kimiko now, he could still smell the lingering effects of the werewolf pack and the warehouse. Avery frowned, striped off his sweater and handed it to Kimiko.

”I had a feeling the scent would linger, so I brought this for you to wear,” Avery explained.

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”It’s never too early for alcohol,” Caden declared. He walked over to his desk after setting more books on the table and called down to the kitchen for salty snacks and a couple of bottles of wine.

”Okay, snacks and drinks in route,” Caden said before he joined Nero. He sat down next to them and pulled a book and his laptop over to start his research.

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Cassiopeia picked up her cup of tea and inhaled the soothing scent of ginger tea. She settled into her pillows and smiled at Nic. ”I have everything I need now. Thank you, Nic. For everything.”

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Kiki’s eyes go wide as he hands it to her, touched that he had already thought ahead for this. Standing, she greedily pulls it on and a small stupid smile pulls the corners of her lips as she finds herself engulfed by Avery’s scent. “You’re brilliant.” She chirps before starting to make herself a plate with a little bit of everything.

“Oh! I think Henry must have remembered how much I adore these.” Kimiko says, seeing strawberry and cream sandwiches on the trolley and grabbing a few before sitting down again.

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Nero leans over to kiss Caden’s cheek as a sort of thank you when he joins them before refocusing on the book they have. They write down the title and author before jotting down some of the info they find. It does mention Lilith and Lucifer, as well as some of the other demons that have been in hell since the early days, but no mention of any children.

“Although most of the info in this one is correct - which is quite a feat honestly - no children of Lucifer are mentioned in it.” Nero announces placing the book off to the side as snacks and wine arrive.

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Nic beams at Cass, dimples showing, before kissing her forehead. “No thanks needed. How would you feel if I had Jane or Kat bring me some clothes that I could leave here? In case we ever encounter another couple of nights where I might need to stay.” He takes a seat at the foot of the bed

He begins eating one of the sandwiches. “Oh, and how’s the nausea right now?” He asks as well.

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”Mmm, more selfish and possessive than brilliant. I’d rather you smell like me than anyone else,” Avery confessed. He sat down and started digging into his steak, which was cooked more on the rare side. Foods with high iron were always better for Avery after a shift. He ate a few pieces of his steak before looking at Kimiko and her sandwiches.

”What kind of sandwiches?” he asked, very confused.

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Caden read through a book written in German that went over lore on demons. It mentioned Lucifer and Lilith, along with the idea that demons where their children, but there was nothing specific on Mundus. However, the hierarchy was interesting. Caden wrote a couple of pages of notes before setting the book aside.

He stood up and poured Nero and him a glass of wine to go with the snacks. Caden sat back down, resting his arm on the back of Nero’s chair, and read over their shoulder again.

”I have a feeling Mundus and knights of hell lore is going to be limited.”

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”I wouldn’t mind that at all, actually. I could clear out a drawer for you,” Cassi said, liking the idea of having a stash of Nic’s clothes in her house.

She sipped her tea, letting the warmth soothe her nerves and her stomach. ”It’s okay,” she said and rested her head against Nic’s arm.

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Kiki almost bites her lip at Avery’s explanation before she reminds herself not to. She can’t stop the red cheeks and ears however at his show of possessiveness. She’s never wanted to ‘belong’ to someone, but she quite likes it from Avery.

“Oh, do you want to try a bite?” She asks, holding out half of a sandwich to him. “I’m sure other places have them, but it’s strawberries and like… whipped cream on Japanese milk bread. I haven’t had one in forever.” She picks up another half with her other hand and starts to eat it, closing her eyes as some of the memories of being at Caden’s place in England come to mind.

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Nero scorches their chair closer to Caden, unable to help themselves as they nod to what he says. “Well, it’s not like we’d want the public to have that information.” Nero remarks before pausing. “I don’t think I can refer to Hell as ‘we’ anymore… It doesn’t feel right.” They turn to look at Caden.

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“Only if you have the room to do it.” Nic moves so that he can put his arm around Cass and kisses her head. “I’m glad the nausea is gone - I was going to rub your feet if it wasn’t.” He tells her before opening his notebook and starting to write down a chart. ‘Human’, ‘Werewolf’, ‘Caden’, ‘Cass’, and ‘Kimiko’ are the first names he wrote down, knowing that the last three are special cases.

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Intrigued, Avery sets his knife and fork down to take a sip of water before accepting the sandwich from Kimiko. He takes a bite and chews carefully before swallowing. ”Huh, who knew.” Avery finished off the half Kimiko shared with him before he dove back into his steak and potatoes.

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Caden watches Nero while they talk. He smiles softly and brushes his fingers along their shoulder. ”It’s okay if you do. It was a large part of your life. In some ways it will always be a part of you, even if you aren’t actively involved with Hell anymore,” Caden said.

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”Oh…Actually, it’s starting to come back… Ooo, ya,” Cassi said, taking a sharp intake of breath, resting her hands on her stomach before she looked helplessly at Nic. She was faking it and probably doing a horrid job at it, but his shoulder massage had felt so good she could only imagine what the foot massage would be like.

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Kiki laughs softly at his reaction, opening her eyes again before peering curiously at Avery as he eats his food. “So, now that we’re ’going steady’, do I get more than one question a day now?” She asks as she reaches for the hot chocolate, still laughing a little that the maniac added a straw.

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Nero kisses Caden’s cheek. “You always know the right thing to say.” Nero remarks with a smile. “I have some knowledge of the hierarchy in hell, if you’d like… Crowley might not be opposed to giving me some of the information either.” Nero offers with a tilt of their head.

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Nic chuckles, thoroughly amused. “Let me finish my sandwich and then I’ll happily rub your feet, you silly thing.” He says as he grabs the other half. He’s only now realizing that while he made sure everyone else was fed earlier, he forgot to eat anything himself.

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”I don’t know. Do you think you deserve more than one question a day?” Avery asked in between bites of his food.

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Caden sipped his wine while Nero spoke. He set down his glass and nodded in response to Nero’s offer to tell him more about the dynamics of Hell. ”It wouldn’t hurt to know the different dynamics and how to approach them,” Caden agreed. ”Do you want to write them down, or would you rather talk, and I can type what you say?”

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Cassiopeia rested her head against Nic’s arm again and nodded. ”That seems fair. You probably didn’t eat anything today anyway. What with you running around to look after me and everybody else.” Cassi sipped more of her tea before closing her eyes. The tea was warm in her hands.

Now that Cassi’s nausea had subsided, all she was really struggling with was a headache, but when she closed her eyes, it seemed to be a bit better. The only problem with that was it was making it very difficult for Cassi to stay awake. The emotions of last night and the events of today were catching up with her. It was only mid-afternoon, but Cassiopeia was exhausted.

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Kiki promptly flips him off, stopping herself from throwing something at his head. “I starting to think that you don’t deserve my questions.” She says with a dramatic huff, but the smile on her faces gives her away.

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“Are you going to want to type up whatever I write down anyway?” Nero asks as a counter before giving it more thought. “Actually, it might be easier for me to write them down with a little chart to help first, that way one of us is still looking for Mundus.”

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”You might be correct on that…” Nic says sheepishly. He finishes the rest of his sandwich and watches Cass as she closes her eyes. He’s tempted to stroke her forehead to help lull her to sleep.

“Do you want to take a nap? You’re keeping up in conversation with me pretty well, so you should be okay to take one if you’d like. It’s been a rough twenty-four hours for you… A rough less than twenty-four hours.” He leans down to kiss her forehead, the arm around her shoulders rubbing her arm a little.

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”Works for me. Then I can remain a man of mystery,” Avery said, and wiggled his eyebrows at Kimiko before popping the last piece of steak into his mouth. He grabbed the other plate of steak and potatoes, and started working on that.

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”No, I'd leave the handwritten accounts as is. If anything I would preserve them to keep them from being damaged,” Caden said.

He leaned forward and pecked Nero's lips. ”Let's keep working then,” he said.

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Cassiopeia took another sleepy sip of her tea. She was rather tired. Cass opened her eyes and shifted to look up at Nic. ”You'll stay with me, right? I mean I know you probably don't need to sleep like I do or will sleep because you're too worried about me to actually look after yourself properly but you won't leave, right?” The words tumbled out of Cassi rapidly, but her eyes were full of worry. She suddenly hated the idea of being left alone.

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Feeling feisty, Kiki takes a loud sip from the hot chocolate using the straw. “I think I like using a straw for hot chocolate. Maybe I’ll start using a straw for every drink.” She shoot a smirk in Avery’s direction.

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Nero nods, smiling up at Caden before flipping the notepad to a new page and beginning to work on the hierarchies they know of for Hell, starting with Lucifer at the top before adding the ‘Princes of Hell’, or the other white-eyed demons. More than once, they tap their chin with the pen as they think hard about where everyone fits.

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Nic looks down at Cass, unable to help the small smile the slips onto his face as his girlfriend worriedly rambles. “I’m not leaving your side, I promise.” He kisses Cass’ head, using his free hand to caress her cheek. “You’re stuck with me, sorry.”

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”You’d have to find the rest of them first,” Avery said chuckling.

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While Nero started work on the inner workings of Hell, Caden continued looking for information on Mundus.

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Cassiopeia breathed a sigh of relief. She set her tea on the nightstand, and turned back to hug Nic. ”That's okay. I'm liking the idea of being stuck with you.”

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Kiki shakes her head in amusement, but winces at the movement. She closes her eyes for a moment as she waits for the room to stop spinning. “I’ll just keep reusing this one.” She mumbles defiantly as she opens her eyes. Her eyelids feel heavy though and she blinks before yawning.

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Once they have most of the hierarchy written down, Nero tears the paper off the pad and slides it over to Caden. “I don’t know most of the demons after that - there’s too many to keep track of and I never really cared to learn the names, but I’ve got the basics down for you.”

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Nic hugs her back, pulling her into him more as he settles into more of a comfortable position for her to fall asleep on him. “Good, I’d hope you would.” He says softly, running his hands up and down her back.

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Avery stops eating to watch Kimiko. She opens her eyes again and he watches her pupils to make sure they dilate properly. He picks up his water and drinks it before wiping his hands.

”Okay, I think it's time for you to have a nap.” He stood up and grabbed the supplies Cassiopeia had given him. The tea he could make for later, but the rub he could put on her neck and shoulders before she went to sleep.

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Caden sets his books aside and looks over the list Nero made up for them. He smiled. ”This is good. Thank you,” Caden said and kissed their cheek.

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Cassi wants to stay awake simply to spend time with Nic, but she reminds herself that he'll be there when she wakes up. Cassi smiles and cuddles into Nic. She moves around until she finds a comfortable position and falls asleep rather quickly.

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“I’m not tired.” Kiki argues before yawning again. She opens her eyes wide in an attempt to look more awake before she rubs one eye with her hand. She doesn’t want to fall asleep, not yet at least. A tiny bit of panic settles itself in her stomach as she thinks of the last time she woke up, naked in a cage with her wrists bound.

Kimiko reaches out and grabs Avery’s wrist as he walks by, but looks down, unable to meet his eyes. “Please stay… I know it’ll probably be boring but…” The panic starts to bubble up her throat even as she tries to push it back down.

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Nero does a happy little wiggle in their chair after Caden’s kiss. “I’ll try and update it as I remember more too.” They tell him with a silly smile on their face before they pull the next book towards them to start reading. Despite everything that had happened last night and this morning, it’s nice being able to sit with Caden like this.

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When Nic hears the soft snores from Cass, he smiles and kisses her head. He moves the tray of food and his tea off the bed and places it on her nightstand, adding her cup of tea to it before he starts munching on his second sandwich. He runs his hand up and down her back still as he eats his food, taking a moment to decompress from everything that happened so far today. He hopes everyone else is doing well still.

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Avery paused when he felt Kimiko's grip on his wrist. He looked down, admiring the way her hand contrasted with the colour of his skin. ”On the contrary, I'm looking forward to hearing you snore again,” he teased her.

Avery knelt down beside Kimiko and brushed his fingers through her white hair. ”Don't worry. I'll be here when you wake up. I'll probably sleep beside you once I'm done eating if you're okay with that.”

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Caden enjoyed every time Nero made a happy noise or had a happy wiggle because of something Caden said or did. He enjoyed it even more that he enjoyed Nero's company enough that they could do something as mundane as research, but it was the most important thing to Caden at the moment.

Caden pulled forward some texts written in Japanese and flipped through them. He often found that every culture, language, or religion had their own take on lore but if you compared the facts, especially when it came to Heaven and Hell, it all lined up. And the Asian cultures usually held more information than people cared to pay attention to.

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Kiki almost flicks Avery’s wrist but stops herself when he kneels down beside her. At his words, Kiki feels her eyes well up with tears as the events of the last twenty-four hours or so finally hits her. She lets go of his wrist and throws herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck and burying her face in his chest.

“I’d like that, thank you.” She whispers, not sure how to put all her thoughts into words.

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Nero takes notes as their eyes roam over the pages of the books - this book is accurate so far on Hell, which is always a pleasant surprise to find in anything.

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Avery was startled by Kimiko's sudden hug. He wanted to embrace her and hold her close. He wanted to kiss her neck and massage her shoulders. He wanted to ease her pain, but he couldn't. Avery gently rested his arms around her back, and shut his eyes.

He could hear her breathing and her heartbeat. It was the most soothing sound in the world to him. The smell of her soap tickled his nose and Avery was pleased that his scent was starting to mingle with hers. The wolf inside him settled quietly into the background, happy with this piece of information.

”If you keep thanking me, I'm going to get a complex,” he teased her.

Avery slid one of his arms lower, keeping his hand away from her ass, and scooped her up with one arm under her but and the other along her back. Essentially Kimiko sat on Avery's arm. He didn't want to tip her over in a bridal carry in case the change caused her to become dizzy again.

Avery walked along her bed and knelt on the edge of it before he gently lowered Kimiko down. He slipped his arm out from under her, and rested his hand briefly on her hip to make sure she was stable.

”Was that okay? Did I hurt you?” The concern and worry was thick in his voice.

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Kiki can only manage a half laugh at Avery’s teasing comment, keeping her face buried for now. She barely registers that Avery’s picked her up until he moves his arm out from under her. Peering up from his chest, Kiki half smiles, both from trying not to split her lip and also from her trying to process her feelings on everything still. When Avery asks if she’s okay, she laughs softly and rests her forehead on his shoulder.

“That was perfect, you didn’t hurt me at all.” She assures him before pulling away to wipe at the tears on her face. “If you tell anyone I cried, I’ll deny it.” She says as more tears fall despite her desperate attempts to stop them.

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When Nero comes across mention of Abbadon in this book, they look at the inside cover of the book and sees a symbol stamped into it with a little ‘Men of Letters’ inscription below it. Turning back to the page, they read about how the demon decimated the American chapter of the Men of Letters.

Nero pushes the book closer to Caden and taps the passage. “This name is familiar.” Nero tells Caden. “Is there any more information on them in the Men of Letters library? Or whatever it is you have access to?” They write down the name on their notepad and circle it twice.

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