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Flowers clutched in his hand, Vox waited in a back alley. An odd place to meet, yes, but Alastor probably wouldn’t have any second guesses about it. He was fun like that. He could invite the guy to go on a murder spree with him and he’d accept it, no questions asked. Honestly, he admired that about him.
He was exceedingly nervous, that much was true. His fingers tapped against the plastic holding the flowers into a bouquet, and his eyes darted back and forth as though Alastor might appear out of the shadows. He had debated on not buying flowers for this; after all, this conversation would be made of two things: convincing Alastor to form a business with him and his other friends, and…well…
Anyway, his nerves were running wild. He was debating on the possible outcomes. Perhaps rejection, perhaps acceptance. Alastor was harder to convince than Valentino and Velvette. He could convince those two on anything if he tried hard enough. It was actually kind of refreshing, though, at least they put up a little bit of a fight. He was so used to people agreeing and following him without any hesitation, so it surprised him but also exhilarated him when Val protested and bargained.
‘What would I get out of this?’ He’d asked. ‘A business partnership? Oh, come on, baby. That’s nothing! I could form a partnership with anybody. What do I get?’
Vox had grinned. ‘Well, you’d get me.’
It seemed it didn’t take much for Val to agree, after all.
“Vox.”
He quickly looked up from the red roses in his hands and met the searing gaze of Alastor. It made his heart do a little flip. “Alastor!” He greeted, perhaps a little more enthusiastically than he’d wanted. He cleared his throat and hid the flowers behind his back, even though Alastor had clearly already seen them.
“Hi, hi, sorry if coming here was an inconvenience for you.”
Alastor hummed thoughtfully, taking a step forward so he was more in the light. His face was just as pretty in the light as it was in the shadows. “It’s quite alright. I was only having tea with Rosie, she was a little upset I was leaving to go meet you, but no hard feelings.”
“Ah, yes, right.” His face scrunched up a little at the mention of Rosie but didn’t try to show his distaste too obviously. “Well…I…um…wanted to talk to you about something.”
“Spit it out.”
He tugged at the collar of his turtleneck nervously. “W–well, we’ve been friends for a while, right? And…me, Val, and Vel are all planning on working as a group. We’re planning on calling it the Vees.” He took one hand away from the flowers behind his back to make a jazzy motion in the air, grinning meekly. “But…would…would you like to join us? I would…really like it if you did.”
He then held out the flowers in front of him for Alastor to take, his heart pounding. Would Alastor accept? He couldn’t tell based on his face, it was unreadable. Would he reject him? Well, the worst thing he could say is no, right?
“Is…this your attempt at courting me?” Was the first thing that came out of Alastor’s mouth. His permanent grin was twisted as though he was trying to frown. Vox had seen that expression on him when he expressed great distaste with something.
Vox wasn’t sure whether his heart broke or pounded faster. “Um…in a way, y–yes. I would like you to be my…partner. Business partner and romantic partner. If…if you’d let me?” He tilted his head, his eyes a bit desperate.
“No.”
Alastor’s sharp voice cut through the air and slapped the bouquet out of Vox’s hands before he had a chance to react. “Sorry, Vox, but I don’t do things like that. I work on my own, both in romance and in business.” He said the word ‘romance’ as though it were foreign to him and disgusting to say.
Vox felt like crying. He had braced himself for this, or, well, he had half–braced himself for this. He’d thought maybe Alastor felt the same way. The looks they traded, the little touches they shared that Vox had initiated, was it just Vox that had felt his heart flutter?
Alastor began to walk away. Before Vox could stop himself, he grabbed onto the cuff of Alastor’s sleeve. A high pitched screech emitted from the staff in Alastor’s right hand. At that moment he knew he’d fucked up, but he continued anyway. “But I love you!”
“...No, Vox. No you don’t.”
Alastor half turned and pushed Vox. His heavy box head weighed him down so he fell to the ground. He felt his back hit the hard pavement, and maybe he started crying, he wasn’t sure, because Alastor stood over him and paused for a moment as if pretending to consider, before stomping his foot through Vox’s screen.
The last thing he was aware of before his vision turned black was Alastor's maniacal laugh and his horrible, horrible smile.
—...—
Fuck. Fuck. Shit.
He knew Vox was a fucking dumbass.
Who else would he find propped up against an alley wall with a broken face?
God, he’d never trusted that radio freak. He’d only gone along with it because Vox seemed to like him. He’d told Vox it was a bad idea to go meet up with him like this. He’d told Vox that things might turn for the worse. But did that dumb bitch listen? No. He was too caught up in his ‘stupid love’.
Now look what’d happened to him. That fucker was probably dead.
He traced his finger over the gaping hole in his face, scraping it over the glass and making it bleed. It looked like a foot had been stomped through it, and now he couldn’t even look at Vox’s handsome face. That fucker, he was going to kill that radio faced prick. He was going to dissect him and cut him up into pieces for this. And now Vox wasn’t even here to tell him that what he was thinking was morbid.
How would he even try to fix him? How would he ever hear that stupid bitch’s voice again? How could he fix this? Goddamit. Vel wasn’t even here to help him, he had to do this himself and he had no fucking idea how.
At least Vox was safe. The rest of him, at least. His body was propped up on a bed (though not in the situation Val would’ve preferred) and the rest of his body looked unharmed.
He felt useless, just sitting on the bed right here next to him and not doing jack shit to help. He was useless. He didn’t know how to do anything but be a sex pest. Which he owned, of course, but it didn’t come in handy in most situations.
“God, Vox. You fucking idiot....” He muttered. He was so glad no one was here to hear his voice breaking. His bleeding finger traced down his chest and his leg, staining a path of red down his body. He wished he could touch his body in a context unlike this. He wished he could see Vox’s stupid, grinning face. He wished that Vox hadn’t gone to meet with Alastor.
He desperately searched his brain for something; anything. Had Vox told him anything that might help? Any random passings of ‘oh, hey Val, here’s how you could try and fix me if I suddenly wind up with a broken screen, haha.’ …that might sound odd but really Vox would be the type of person to shove that in a conversation.
He searched his mind, a mind that was very poor at remembering things. Not his fault, he just didn’t quite have the mental capacity to remember things that he considered ‘unimportant’.
Tapping his fingers on Vox’s thigh, they suddenly froze as he remembered something.
Maybe Vox had said something remarkably similar to that.
—...—
Vox felt his vision slowly cloud back, like the world was loading back into sight. He immediately held up his hands in instinct, as if trying to stop Alastor from stomping on his screen, but Alastor wasn’t there anymore. Now Val was looking at him with wide eyes, his eyes looking uncharacteristically desperate.
“V̷-̶v̸a̷l̶?̴” His vocal cords glitched, and he winced, rubbing his throat. It felt like grating sandpaper against his throat as he spoke. He slowly sat up before Val pushed him back down with his palm.
“No, mi amor. You’re laying down until I say you can get up.”
Vox reluctantly obliged. He rubbed his hand over the top of his boxy head, and was surprised when he found a difference. The corners felt a little less worn and more shiny and new. He nearly sat up again in surprise but held himself back.
“Val…?” He repeated, this time in question. His voice now felt much smoother rather than grating, though it was still a little raspy.
“Yes, I performed surgery on you, basically. Yes, I saved your life. Yes, thank me.” Val tossed his head pompously while Vox just blinked at him.
“You…what?”
At this, Val grinned excitedly instead of acting offended that he hadn’t absorbed the information immediately like he’d thought he would. He looked to be proud of himself, his wings that draped behind him twitching as though they wanted to spread and flap in his pride. “Remember when you told me that you just replaced your head whenever it cracked? Well, I did it too! It took me a long time to find your creepy–ass stash of heads, but it didn’t take me that long to figure out how to…”
Vox stopped listening at about that point. He was just staring at Val with shining eyes. How was he supposed to react to that? Val, the Valentino had actually figured something like that out without Vox’s help? He’d saved his ass after getting stomped through the face?
That was kind of hot, actually.
“...anyway, you’re welcome, Voxxie.” Val seemed to notice that Vox had been staring, and tilted his head. “Hey, what are you staring at?”
He jumped slightly. “Oh, n–nothing.” He fidgeted with his hands. Val gave him a once over before seemingly deciding to drop it. He gently nudged Vox’s shoulder.
“You can get up now.”
He obliged, his body aching slightly, but otherwise he was fine. He never broke eye contact with Val. How had someone so oblivious done something like that? How had someone who he called ‘a stupid bitch’ in half–seriousness just saved his life? And the biggest question was: why? Why would he do that? He could’ve easily just left him to rot in that alleyway.
“Vox, you’re staring a lot. Are you sure you’re okay? You need some water?” Concern seeped into Val’s tone that he usually didn’t have.
He waved a dismissive hand. “No, I’m fine. Just…why did you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Save me.” He said bluntly. “Remember that I’d said that in the first place. Why didn’t you just leave me there?”
Val looked incredulous. “Why the hell would I leave you there? I’m not heartless, babe. And…well…it’s not like I’m gonna waste a partnership with you just like that.” He added in a mumble.
Vox tilted his head. He wasn’t sure whether to accept that answer or assume something out of him or not. He settled for the first option.
“Oh. Okay.” He looked down at his hands, lapsing into silence. He needed silence for a minute. He needed to think. About Val, about this situation, about…
Alastor.
Fuck.
His shoulder began to shake. He couldn’t cry, not really. There might be stray pixels that dolloped near the corners of his eyes, but he couldn’t release any tears from his eyes or let snot pile roadblocks in his nostrils. It was both amazing and horrible. He didn’t ever cry at bad times anymore, but when he needed to, it never happened.
“Oh…baby…” Val’s hands reached out and touched his shoulders to stop him from shaking. Vox flinched away and Val withdrew his hands. “What did he say?” Val’s voice was uncharacteristically soft. Vox didn’t know if he was babying him or if he genuinely just wanted to be soft with him. Either way, he wanted to yell.
“You know what he said.” He snapped, voice cutting through the soft air. He wanted to scream. He wanted to shout. He’d thought Alastor loved him, no he fucking didn’t. He thought he had a chance, he couldn’t have had less than one. He wanted to punch something. He wanted to vent his anger. He wanted to lunge at Val even though he had done nothing.
Oh god.
Did he really want to do that?
His hands shook before his shoulders slumped. Sobs echoed from his throat but no tears fell. He wanted to cry so badly. He couldn’t. And he was breaking down in front of Val. Oh god.
“Shh, baby, it’s okay.” Came the gentle voice of Val. It almost immediately soothed him, and his sobs turned into hiccups. He felt wings wrap around him. He leaned forward and arms caught him. He didn’t open his eyes, but he let himself be surrounded by warmth.
“You really liked him, huh?”
Vox nodded bleakly.
“I kind of thought he was a prick. Guess that proved to be right, huh? I bet he’d be terrible to have sex with.” Val gently stroked the top of his head as he spoke, making sure to skirt around his antenna and avoiding making him more irritated. He relaxed slightly under his touch.
He chuckled softly, though the sound lacked the humor he wished it had. “Y-yeah. Probably.”
Val planted a kiss on the top of his head that made his broken heart flutter.
“Someone will love you eventually, amorcito. I know it. You’re someone hard not to love. Alastor didn’t love you, so what? He can go suck a dick, and not yours because he’s missing out. I just know that you’ll find someone, baby.”
Val’s words soothed him. He still didn’t open his eyes, but he could feel Val’s soft gaze on him. He could feel the gentle touch of his fingers. He could feel the fluff on his wings brushing against him. That was more than he could ever ask for.
“Okay.” He responded hoarsely. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, Voxxie.” He punctuated his words with another stroke on the top of his head.
“I’d do it anytime.”