Team Spirit

The arguments had started by the time Elio had come back to the training field with Buddy the black impup, on a bright pink leash. The imp was happily bounding along as Elio walked back to where he’d left Hutch. 

The smaller succubun had been setting up an obstacle course to train Buddy, and his other imps, in agility. Buddy was really improving in his training, so Hutch thought today was the perfect day for a bit of a challenge. 

The little imp had a lot of energy, so Elio thought it would be best if he brought him for a quick walk while Hutch set up. 

Hutch had been by himself when Elio had left but as the other walked back, he spotted Quince holding Peach in their arms and arguing with the leashed imp tamer who was holding onto Sesame for dear life. Miss Hiss was curled around his right leg and Reginald was perched on his head, shooting daggers at Quince - at least that’s what it looked like. 

“Oh for the love of all that is unholy,” Elio grumbled as he walked up. 

Elio looked down at Buddy, who was oblivious to the tension in the air, and walked over to the arguing pair of dumbasses. 

“Hello Quince,” Elio said and Quince glanced over at Elio, as did Hutch. 

“Elio,” they said at the same time before glancing back at each other and growling angrily at each other. 

“Tell Quince to get lost, we were here first to train our, pure imps,” Hutch snapped. 

“Me, why don’t you be a good boy and share huh Hutch,” Quince argued back. 

“Take you abominations out of here Quince,” Hutch growled but before he had a chance to continue with more harsh comments Elio pushed the pair apart with his arms - still holding onto Buddy’s leash. 

“Alright, enough, Hutch we don’t own the park, Quince has every right to be here…” Elio started, silencing the ‘but’ that left Hutch’s lips. Quince smirked as her side was taken but quickly shrunk into herself as Elio turned to her. 

“Please don’t antagonize him, we’re trying to train imps here, because of your silly little contest…so take your imps to the other side of the park please, have some respect,” Elio told her and Hutch let out a little ‘ha’ which only got another look from Elio. 

Finally, after what seemed like hours, the pair agreed to share the park for their training. 

“Thought she’d never back off,” Hutch grumbled. 

“Hutch,” Elio said and he pouted. 

“Come on we have a lot of work to do, isn’t that why you asked me to help out, to prove Buddy can learn tricks quicker even with sesame treats?” Elio asked and Hutch nodded. “If you want to get back at Quince, then prove her wrong, you got this!”

Hutch nodded again, now pumped up to train his little critter friends. 

Elio sighed with relief and helped Hutch finish off setting up the obstacle course for their imps to try out. 

While they finished setting up the hurdles Elio looked over to see Reginald squawking at Buddy - at least he thought he was squawking. Considering imps didn’t have mouths he wasn’t quite sure where the noise came from. It was a noise, that sounded like a squawk therefor it was a squawk. 

Buddy in turn was yapping in frustration at the Chirop but Reginald was having none of it and flapped his wings in frustration. 

“Wah, Reginald what are you doing?” Hutch said as he tried to get the other to calm down but the Chirop was not impressed with something. It squawked and fluttered about before flying at Buddy. Buddy let out a yelp and ran off across the park. 

“HEY NO WAIT!” Elio shouted and cursed the demons in frustration as he gave chase. Running was not his strong suit but he attempted to keep up with the little impup who ran around in circles before headin to a tree and some how managing to go straight up. Sitting in a low hanging branch and yapping down at Elio. 

“You blasted…Buddy you’re not a loafki get down,” Elio shouted up at him and looked around at Hutch who hurried over, Reginald on his head, Sesame in his arms and Miss Hiss now coiled around his torso. 

“What’s gotten into him?” Hutch asked and Elio growled in annoyance. 

“I have no idea, he must have been scared of Reginald,” he said in response and Hutch gasped. 

“Oh don’t be so dramatic, you know Buddy is only young probably just got scared by his squawking,” Elio continued. “But I want to know why he was squawking so much…it’s so out of character.”

“I wouldn’t call it a squawk Elio, it was more like a chittering noise…or a trill,” Hutch said and Elio grabbed the other’s leash tugging it sharply.

“I’m going to trill you in a second, now, how do we get Buddy down,” he said releasing Hutch and watching him compose himself after being yanked so hard on his collar.

“Just climb up and get him,” Hutch suggested and Elio grumbled. He wasn’t great with heights. 

“Alright,” he said not wanting to admit his fear and walking to the tree. He started to climb slowly softly whispering Buddy’s name as he went but the impup wasn’t interested in the other - not one bit. It just looked away and crawled further out onto the branch.

“Buddy, hey no…hey come back,” Elio called as he started to crawl out. He just had to avoid looking at the ground and everything would be okay. Yup that’s all he had to do. 

“You almost have him!” Hutch shouted up to him.

“Thanks for the words of encouragement Hutch,” Elio called back as he gripped onto the branch with his legs and finally scooped Buddy up into his hands.

“Gotcha,” he said with a smile but his eyes took a glance at the ground and his stomach dropped. His stomach sunk further as he heard an awful cracking noise. Of course it wouldn’t take his weight!

The branch snapped and Buddy and Elio tumbled to the ground. Elio held Buddy tight, shielding him from harm as he landed on the ground with a heavy and harsh thud. 

“Oh my demon are you alright?” Hutch asked before running over to him. 

“Uhhh…why are there five of you…” Elio murmured and tried to sit up only to fall back down. Nope, that hurt.

Buddy yapped in Elio’s arms and wagged his tail looking down at the fiery succubun. It was then Elio noticed the sprinkle of sesame seed biscuit bits along Buddy’s face. 

“Hutch…where are the treats?” Elio asked him. 

“Huh, well they’re…oh…the bag is empty…” Hutch said as he checked his bag of treats. “So that’s why Reginald was cooing at him…he knew Buddy had stolen all our treats.”

“Great, all those treats and we haven’t even gotten him to complete the obstacle course,” Elio growled with a sigh. Buddy yapped and tilted his head before running off toward the course they’d set up. 

Now, it wasn’t perfect and most of the hurdles ended up being knocked over, but Buddy managed to complete the obstacle course for the pair. Yapping at the end and wagging his tail. 

“Yup, I’ll take that,” Elio said with another sigh as he lay back down and closed his eyes. He just wanted to nap a bit. Or at least lie down until the pain up his spine stopped. 

“You good?” Hutch asked him. 

“Yea, just…gunna take a loafki nap for a bit, you’re turn to watch Buddy bud, or next time I might actually break something,” Elio replied. Hutch laughed and nodded.

“Alright, I guess that’s fair,” Hutch said and looked back over to Buddy. He was confident with a bit more training - and a whole load of treats - Buddy would be able to do the course with ease.