Helluva Boss: ''Helluva Human Kid''

Songbird

Via lead Balin back to her bedroom for some more private bonding time as babysitter-and-guest. She then turned on the light to brighten the place up, and Balin was surprised to see how bright and colourful it all was.

"Sorry I had the lights off in here last time, sweetheart." said Via. "There's not a lot of that here in Hell."

"I understand." replied Balin. "I mean, owls are nocturnal animals." That comment made Via laugh. "You are sooo cute!" she hugged him tightly and spun him around in her arms before flopping onto her bed.

Via then closed her canopy drapes and crawled towards Balin on her bed slowly like a predator. "Come here, little one." she sang, before lunging at him to tickle him.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!!" Balin laughed. "Via! You're tickling me!" "Aw, are you ticklish little one?" Via cooed. "Yes you are!" they both continued laughing the whole time she did this.

Soon afterward, Balin brought his backpack into Via's room and sat back down on her bed pulling the drapes shut. He grabbed out his favourite board game 'CandyLand' for them to play. The rules were very simple; each player has their own piece of candy and whatever colour card they drew, they'd move that piece to that colour on the board. But if they hit the liquorice space or jumped forward on a shortcut, they would miss a turn. But whoever would reach the candy castle first would win the game.

Balin & Via sat down cross-legged on the bed as they played three rounds of CandyLand over the next half an hour, as they kept on surpassing each other with every turn they got and making sure they didn't land in the liquorice field. Balin won the first two games, but in the last, he found himself in the liquorice field just once, giving Via the chance to get ahead of him. Two minutes of suspenseful playing went on as the two were so close to each other.

But soon, Via finally won the last round of the game making it to the candy castle. "Ya-hoo!! Yeah!" she celebrated, while Balin smiled warmly and clapped for her victory.

"Kid, why are you clapping for me?" she laughed. "Because you've won silly." the boy replied laughing back. 

Via then blushed feeling very modest with herself. "Oh no, I don't need any praise." "It's okay. You still won though, fair and square." Balin then crawled up to her and gave her a hug, or as he put it; "Just a victory hug for the winner then."

"Awwwww." Via returned the hug, rubbing the back of his hair. "Quite a little hugging machine, aren't you?" the two then let go of each other. "Okay. My turn."

Via started giving him small and slow kisses on his cheeks and his forehead. "There. Runner-up kisses from the princess." she smiled at him.

"Thank you." Balin said as he tried not to wipe the lipstick off his cheek. Via giggled at the scene and ruffled his head.

"Nah, I thank you Balin." she replied. "I haven't had this much fun since I was your age."

"What did you do when I was 7?" Balin asked her curiously. "Well I went to this theme park with my dad, and..."

"Did you have fun?" the boy asked as Via froze. She had a traumatic experience at that park and spent years trying to forget it. Balin felt a little nervous seeing the terrified look on Via's face and called out her name a couple of times, but she seemed to be stuck in a flashback of some kind.

He then saw the feathers on her back underneath her shirt, and while he didn't put his hands in the shirt, he decided to give her feather scratches to calm her down, the way he figured it'd work with Loona. In which cases, it worked. She was hooting in relaxation from the message, bringing her back to life in an instant. She then felt him stop and saw him looking at her in worry.