Chapter Text
When Vox returned to V Tower, he didn’t bother with the elevator, instead opting to zap into one of his cameras and travel through the wiring. He didn’t particularly want to broadcast his arrival, after all; and this way, he could just slip quietly into his room. He knew he’d have to face his business partners eventually, but the longer he could put it off, the better.
He got changed into some fresh clothes, and then decided to risk the short walk to his office. That was a mistake. Opening his bedroom door revealed the sour faces of both Valentino and Velvette right on the other side.
Panic flashed across Vox’s face before he managed an upbeat smile. “Oh, hey-”
“Don’t you ‘oh, hey’ us, flat face,” Velvette snapped, cutting him off. “Did you really think you could jus’ avoid us by zappin’ to your room? Really? I’ve been watchin’ the cameras all bloody morning.” She waved her cell phone in his face, on which she had the lobby security feed pulled up.
“Who said I was avoiding you? I was just taking a short cut!”
“Oh, please, Vox! Avoidance is basically your default setting.”
“It is not!” he argued, crossing his arms over his chest defensively.
“I can confirm it definitely is,” Valentino weighed in.
“Fuck you both. I’ve got work to do.” Vox attempted to turn down the hall to his office, but immediately he felt hands closing around both his arms as both Velvette and Valentino stopped him.
“You’re shackin’ up with an enemy,” Velvette said firmly. “We’re talking about this.”
“I thought you wanted to stay out of my sex life,” he grumbled.
“Well, I very much want to stay in your sex life,” Valentino purred, narrowing his eyes in a glare. “So we’re discussing this.”
“And I don’t give two shits where you stick your dick,” Velvette added. “Unless it jeopardizes us.”
“It won’t jeopardize us,” Vox assured with a sigh, shaking their hands off as he turned back around to face them. He locked eyes with Velvette, since she would be the easier one to handle. “Alastor doesn’t care about getting in the way of our work. If anything, now we know we don’t have to worry about him causing problems for us. Other than that, nothing changes. He’s not coming between us as the Vees. And even if he changed his mind and decided to, I wouldn’t let him.”
“Are you sure about that?” Valentino challenged. “Cause it seems to me that you’ll agree to anything to get his dick.”
“That couldn’t be further from the truth,” he snapped, glaring at his ex-lover. From the beginning, Vox had been on alert for some kind of manipulation from Alastor - he refused to be made a fool by him again - but it hadn’t come. He actually seemed to care about him and want him around, in his own twisted way. But still, Vox wasn’t about to agree to just anything the asshole wanted. And if he let Alastor think he would , he would definitely take advantage of that fact. And Vox wouldn’t even be able to blame him for doing so.
“No?” Valentino arched an eyebrow, regarding him skeptically. “Do you know what he said to me?”
He sighed. “Yes. And I already told him to cool it with the threats.”
“I don’t care about his pathetic threats,” he seethed, striding closer to tower over Vox. “He told me to stay away from you.”
Vox took a deliberate step back. Not out of fear - he wasn’t afraid of Valentino - but he wanted to prevent this from becoming a physical fight, if at all possible. “He wants to be exclusive,” he explained, keeping his voice level. “I know that’s a foreign concept to you, Val, but some people want it. I can respect that.” Hell, he preferred being exclusive, that just hadn’t been an option with Val. It would be a nice change not being jealous all the time.
Valentino laughed harshly. “You know, I thought you’d gotten past desperately chasing after the Radio Demon. But of course, the second he pays you a bit of attention, you’re willing to give up everything.”
“Not everything.” He cringed internally at the implied, just you.
Valentino heard the implication, too. His face contorted into a snarl. “You will regret this. Once he gets what he wants from you, he’ll throw you back out like garbage, just like last time. You don’t actually think you’re worth his time, do you?”
Sparks shot from his antennae and his eyes went wide as the static in his voice increased. “Oh, Val, you have no idea the things he wouldn’t be doing if I wasn’t worth his time.” He wasn’t going to elaborate. Valentino didn’t need to know that Alastor had had absolutely no interest in sex until getting close to him. He didn’t need to know that literally the only reason Alastor even had mild interest in it now was because he wanted to do it for Vox. And he didn’t need to know every other way that Alastor had stepped out of his comfort zone, even putting his reputation on the line within the hotel, proving that Vox was, indeed, worth it.
“Val, take a walk.” Velvette reached for Valentino’s lower arm, giving a gentle tug. “Fightin’ ain’t gonna accomplish anything, here. So go cool off. I’ll handle this.”
Valentino hesitated, locked in glaring eye-contact with Vox, but then he smiled and shrugged as he turned away. “Fine. I look forward to you crawling back to me once he gets tired of you.”
Vox wasn’t going to humor that with a response, but he continued to glare until Valentino had turned the corner.
“Are you sure about this, V?” Velvette demanded.
His gaze softened as he turned his attention back to the youngest member of the Vees. “Yeah. I am.”
She shook her head. “Look, what you and Val have… sure, it’s weird, sometimes, but… are you seriously willin’ to throw that away? For someone you hated two weeks ago?”
He took a deep breath. “Alastor and I have history. I know you didn’t know me back then, but he used to be my best friend.”
“Yeah. And then he betrayed you. I’ve heard this story a thousand times - you tell it every time you get drunk,” she added with a roll of her eyes.
“Right,” he muttered a bit sheepishly. “Well, turns out there might’ve been more to that story. And I guess the only reason I hated him was because I couldn’t have him.” He glared at the wall, mouth twisting into a grimace at the admission. “Fuck, that sounds pathetic.”
“That’s cause it is pathetic. What’re you gonna do if Val’s right and he’s just stringin’ you along again?”
“He’s not.”
“Okay, but if-”
“He’s not, Vel.” He turned to meet her eyes again. “It was fucking hard for me to believe, too, but he’s not.”
She swallowed at the conviction she saw in his eyes. “You better be right about this. Cause if he breaks you, I ain’t pickin’ up the pieces.”
He chuckled. “Don’t worry about it, Velvette. Once Val and I get over this awkwardness, everything will go back to normal around here. It’ll be like any of the times we’ve been on an extended break. Just permanent.”
She arched an eyebrow at him. “You really think Val’s gonna get over this?”
“He has to,” he said with a shrug. “Besides, he has plenty of whores to keep him entertained. Now-” He straightened his jacket. “-are we done with this intervention? Cause I have work to do.”
“Yeah, yeah. I still have damage control to do from Valentino’s fit yesterday. Which, thanks for leaving me alone in that, by the way.” She glared at him over the cell phone she had brought up to her face. “I expect compensation.”
“Send me an invoice for the damages,” he sighed, already turning away.
“That’s more like it.”
*
Vox mostly avoided Valentino over the next couple of weeks. Whenever he did find himself in the same room as the moth demon, Valentino always put on a show to be as sexy as possible - to entice him or to make him jealous, Vox wasn’t sure. Probably a bit of both. But to his own surprise, Vox didn’t find himself all that tempted. Yeah, he found Valentino incredibly sexy, but the prospect of having Alastor all to himself was so much more enticing that it drowned all that out.
Speaking of Alastor, the beta of their A.L.E.R.T. system had gone over well with the other Overlords, so they just had to get together to iron out some of the final kinks before implementation. It was smooth sailing… for the most part.
“Al,” Vox tried again imploringly. “If you want to stop an alert from going out, how exactly do you plan on doing that?”
“Well, I had intended to do it through the radio waves,” he retorted sharply. “But then you had to go and complicate everything with your pointless technology.”
“Stop sulking. It’s really not that complicated. It’s easier, even! If you just get a-”
“No.”
Vox’s fingers twitched with a sudden urge to strangle the other demon. “You can’t expect to always be able to get ahold of me to cancel the alert for you. It’s unrealistic.”
“Which is why we need to make some tweaks to the system,” Alastor insisted. “This is all built on radio waves, anyway. If we streamline it-”
“And you accuse me of overcomplicating.” He shook his head. “Look, let me get you a smartphone. I’ll take care of setting it up and everything. You won’t even have to touch it , unless you need to do something with the system. Or… you know, if you want to talk to me,” he added with a grin.
Alastor just stared at him, unyielding.
He sighed, running a hand over his screen. “Okay, it’s about dinner time. You getting hungry? Let’s break for food, you can think about it, and then we can continue arguing later.”
He glanced at the time displayed on the screen of one of the monitors in Vox’s office and shrugged before getting to his feet. “Very well.”
Vox led him down to the kitchen, then immediately went to peruse the contents of the fridge. “What do you want me to make you?” he asked over his shoulder.
“If I recall, you are a lousy cook,” Alastor remarked as he stepped up behind Vox, resting his hands on his waist as he looked over his shoulder.
He automatically leaned into the touch, even as he scowled in indignation. “It’s been years since I’ve cooked for you! I could’ve improved.”
“I doubt it.” He reached around him to grab a package of ground beef with a look of disdain. “Do you have any decent cuts of meat?”
“I’m a decent cut of meat.” He carefully avoided hitting Alastor in the face as he twisted his head to smirk at him.
Alastor laughed. “Mm, you are,” he agreed, and Vox didn’t think he was imagining the note of fondness in his voice. Whether that fondness was for him or for his flesh, he wasn’t going to think too hard about. “But I thought we were looking for dinner for us both.”
“Hey, I was just answering your question.”
He sighed. “I guess I’ll just have to work with this, then. Get out of my way.” He batted at Vox’s side, and he obligingly stepped aside.
Alastor gathered ingredients, then moved over to the stove, grumbling at the modern touch screen as he got to work. Vox smiled and hopped up onto the island counter, leaning back on his hands to watch. He still resented what Alastor had said about his cooking, but truth be told, he wasn’t overly fond of it, and would much rather have someone else preparing his food for him. So, he wasn’t going to complain.
“So, where did your passion for cooking come from?” he asked conversationally.
The edges of Alastor’s smile softened just slightly into something more genuine. “My mother taught me.”
“You were pretty close to her, huh?” Alastor was one of the very few Sinners Vox had met who actually seemed to enjoy talking about his life as a human. He had always found it curious that he held the memories so close.
“As close as anyone is to their mother, I imagine,” he dismissed casually.
Vox’s mouth twisted. “I wouldn’t be so sure.”
Alastor arched an eyebrow at him, but didn’t comment on his response. “This recipe normally calls for sausage, but I’ll have to make due with just the beef.”
“I’ll try to stock up more before you come over next time,” he promised, grateful that Alastor hadn’t questioned him. Unlike him, Vox would much rather leave his human life as nothing more than a hazy memory.
“I don’t see that that will be necessary, considering we’re nearly done with this project. I won’t need to be over anymore.”
Cold fear flowed through Vox’s veins at Alastor’s words, and despite his best efforts, he felt his smile slip. “I thought you’d still want to come over…”
He raised his eyebrows. “Here? Of course not! The whole place is tacky and the privacy is superficial. We’ll stick with you coming to the hotel.”
“You are so fucking pretentious,” he muttered, shaking his head. His smile was back in place, though, since Alastor had clarified that he still wanted Vox to visit him . “Fine. I’ll never ask you to come over again if you agree to let me give you a smartphone.”
His eyes narrowed. “Blackmailing, now, are we? That’s not even good leverage. I’d just say no.”
Vox smiled so wide it clipped off his screen. “Oh, but I’ll ask all the time. Because maybe I don’t want to go all the way to the hotel. Maybe I’ll refuse to go visit you.”
“That sounds like a good way to lose the privilege of my company.”
He rolled his eyes. “Fuck you, just agree already.”
“No,” Alastor refused firmly, though his eyes gave away his amusement. “It would set a misleading precedent in our relationship if I agreed so easily.”
“Fine, I’ll also never ask you to use any new technology ever again.” Unless it’s something you need, he added quickly on mute. “And I’ll make sure everyone knows A.L.E.R.T. was all your idea, and I just assisted you in realizing it.”
Alastor considered that. He knew full well that Vox had been going to claim that they were both the brains behind the program - it’d be great for his image, after all, and if Vox said it, people would believe him. Vox’s voice was everywhere in Pride, and it carried weight. So, giving the credit to Alastor was definitely a worthwhile offer. “Hmm. I suppose I can agree to that.”
Vox beamed. “Trust me, babe, you’ll thank me when you see how much easier a smartphone makes things.”
“I wouldn’t count on it,” he objected dryly.
“Course. Cause you’d never admit that I was right,” he teased.
“I wouldn’t know, seeing as it’s never happened before!”
“Oh, fuck you.” He scrubbed at his face with his sleeve as the rising heat caused his screen to steam up.
“Perhaps you shouldn’t be leaning over the stove with a glass face,” Alastor suggested, and he reached up to draw a smile in the condensation. Vox was torn between irritation and amusement at the action.
“Perhaps you shouldn’t be so damn fun to watch,” he retorted, but jumped down anyway. He blamed the fact that his vision was still a little foggy for the way he failed to find his footing, and probably would have fallen if it weren’t for Alastor catching him with a mocking smile.
Before Vox could recover, a familiar voice drifted closer to the kitchen. “Oh, something smells - oh.” Valentino came to a stop when he saw Alastor, one hand still on Vox’s waist. “I didn’t realize you had your boy toy over.”
Alastor’s smile morphed from amusement to irritation and his eyes narrowed as he turned to the doorway. “Definitely not an accurate label.”
“No? I thought it fit.” He gave him a scornful smile before turning his attention to Vox. “That smells delicious , amorcito. Can I have some?”
“First of all, don’t call me that,” Vox said flatly. “Second of all, Al’s the one cooking. And third, no.”
“Oh wow, so the Radio Demon is double-timing as a booty call and a personal chef.”
“Ha! I am doing no such thing!” Alastor protested, his smile strained, while Vox growled wordlessly.
“He’s here to work on the A.L.E.R.T. system,” Vox elaborated through gritted teeth. “We just took a break for dinner.”
“Oh, that explains why you’re wound so tightly,” Valentino chuckled as he made his way further into the room. “He’s always so tense when working on a project,” he said conspiratorially to Alastor, coming to a stop on the opposite side of the island from them. “If you like, I can show you how to really relax him.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Alastor said stiffly, while Vox snapped, “Fuck off, Val!”
Valentino pierced Vox with a sharp smile. “I’m just trying to make sure you’re taken care of, Voxxy,” he purred, reaching across the counter to caress his arm. He only made it to within a couple inches of the demon, though, before a tentacle whipped out, wrapping dangerously around his wrist.
“Carajo!” he shouted, attempting to yank his arm away from the mass that was squeezing it. “I was just patting his arm, you freak!”
“And I told you to never touch him again!” Alastor reminded him brightly, using the tendril to pull Valentino’s arm back to his side of the island before releasing him. “D̸̜̫̈́͠i̷̳̤̱͒͐d̶͍͉͖̽ ̷̤̭͋̑Ǐ̸̘̓̀ ̷̻̲̼̀̐̚n̶͔͉͊ǫ̸̈́ẗ̴̝͖́̉̚ͅ ̸̹̹̪̀̀͝m̸̫̤̓̀̏͜â̶͙͉̼̒͘k̶̘̤͆̅ͅe̵̥̣͗̀̀͜ ̴͔̭͈̎̀ṁ̸͓͑͠y̶̙͙̓͘s̶̩̲̝̕ē̵̼̉̕l̶͙̳͉̋f̶͚͈̅̈́ ̴͖̓̉̀͜ć̶͚ͅl̵̨̹͎͐e̴̡͇̩͆͒a̸̰̗͋r̶̫̫͒?̴͕̳̇̒͛ͅ”
Vox raised his eyebrows, admiring the way the shadows darkened around Alastor, despite the faint red glow he was emanating. There was definitely something gratifying in how he wanted to keep Vox all to himself, especially when he got all territorial. Vox was very attracted to Alastor’s power, and when it was being displayed in defense of him, it just made it that much better.
“Vox, are you gonna say anything?” Valentino demanded indignantly.
“Hm?” He was reluctant to tear his gaze away from Alastor, but he managed. “What do you want me to say? It’s hot when he gets like this, so I’m not complaining.”
Alastor chuckled. “I could’ve easily taken off your hand, so consider yourself lucky I showed restraint.”
Valentino drew himself up to his fullest height. “I should crush you, you little-”
“Val!” Vox cut him off sharply, static crackling in his voice as his eye pulsed. Sparks danced between his fingers, adding a silent threat on top of the hypnotism. “It’s time for you to leave. Now.”
His four hands curled into fists at his sides. “Like I want to spend anymore time around this creepy ass deer. Can’t even enjoy my own fucking house.” He whirled around and stomped back to the doorway, but then he paused, sneering back at Vox. “Just so you know, baby, the more you push me away, the more I’m gonna make you beg me to take you back once he gets tired of you.”
A low growl rumbled from Alastor’s chest as Valentino disappeared down the hall. “Is he always like that, or was that performance for my benefit?”
“He’s… not normally that bad,” Vox admitted. “Val just doesn’t know the meaning of the word no.”
His smile sharpened. “Well, he’d better learn. Or I will be sending a very pointed message to anyone who would dare to encroach on what’s mine.”
A chill ran down his spine at the ferocity in Alastor’s voice. He attempted to swallow, but his throat had gone very dry. “Noted.”