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“You’ve been awfully quiet.” Vox stated, his feet crossed over his desk like they had been before his dramatic musical number with the radio demon which Valentino had so kindly interrupted with an enticing question Vox had put a pin on for later. “If you’re going to be a prisoner, at least be entertaining.” Valentino had left a while ago, at Vox’s request of being alone to bask in the victory of finally having his favorite little toy in his palms.
Alastor, tied on the rolling chair, rolled his eyes, his ears flattened and his smile on the verge of exploding off his face. “I do not take kindly to being lied about,”
Vox chuckled, adjusting his tie as he leaned closer over the chair. “Still upset about the tail thing? C’mon Al, you yourself said you hated that thing.”
“So for whose sake do you lie?” Alastor raised a brow as if his statement had done anything, his hair was still a mess from having been electrocuted and tossed around like a rag doll, he looked pathetic almost— a man who still attempted to hold power after it had been torn from him by his own will. “I fail to see the glory in telling all of hell that I lack a certain appendage.”
Vox rose from the seat, his grin bright and gleaming as he placed two harsh palms on Alastor’s shoulders, he gripped them violently— like a lifeline. “I get to keep it for myself.” He shrugged, it was spoken like a lie, a joke almost, but it wasn’t— far from a lie.
“You’re mad— deluded, but I’m sure you are aware of that already?” Alastor raised a brow, ears twitching in intriguement, a smile too bright that said all of the trickery between his lips.
“I may be deluded, but you’re just as equally mad to be here, to have gotten yourself in this situation.” Vox let one of his hands trace to Alastor’s jaw, he cupped his jaw, smiling wickedly as if he was revered by the mere sight of Alastor near him. “So don’t even try to pull all the ‘you’re pathetic because of your obsession’ bullshit on me.”
Alastor simply widened his grin, his eyes relaxed and almost uninterested as if Vox were still beneath him even at this very moment. “I am just as mad as you for being here?” He repeated, the words converted into a question now. Alastor’s ears upturned, as if listening to the electric signals around him— not as if they were a threat, but as if their sound at least intrigued him.
“You even being willing to make this deal with me tells me you at least miss my company in some way.” Vox’s eye flashed, a low chuckle escaping his throat as the chords loosened around Alastor’s body and wrapped themselves around his joints. “You still remember that song we used to dance to all the time at that old-timey tavern?”
“It’s not an easy song to forget, no.” The chords around Alastor’s ankles barely allowed him to touch the floor, his tail flicking beneath his pants, an automatic habit he never truly mastered in unlearning. But it was something Vox knew all too well, a movement he had memorized from all the previous times they had once danced together.
Vox took Alastor’s hand in his own, his grin widening as a smooth, old jazz song blasted from his speakers. Alastor let the chords take him, resisting would only make him appear even more idiotic than he already did. “Still flicking that dumb little tail around you, aren’t ya?” Vox whispered close to Alastor’s ears, the air of his hot breath causing Alastor’s ears to quiver. “Now that I think of it, you told me plenty of things you wouldn’t have told just anyone. You trusted me at one point, I’m sure of it.”
Vox’s hand had traveled to Alastor’s lower back, pushing Alastor closer to him until their chests touched. Alastor groaned, almost as if haunted by how much trust he put on Vox back then, and how disappointed he was in himself for doing that— or maybe just disappointed their friendship had metamorphosed into whatever this was now. “If you wish to tell yourself that, then sure.” Alastor’s voice sounded like a static hum, his laughter dry and spent— but the two of them knew the truth, there had indeed been a certain point in time where there was something mutual between the two of them.
“You told me of how much you despised the way your form had shifted into something perceived as adorable or vulnerable— a serial killer turned deer, it’s almost ironic.” Vox scoffed— the music had been playing for a while but they hadn’t even begun taking the steps of the dance. “You hated the fact that even though your smile revealed nothing, your ears did— they betrayed you in a way nothing else could.”
“Oh please, Vox— do us both a favor and leave that in the past.” Alastor laughed once more, it sounded insincere and seemingly desolate. “Befriending you may have been one of the biggest mistakes I ever made.” He muttered low, but one particular long note moved the both of them as the chords forced Alastor to lean back and Vox to sustain him with his arm.
“Yet you still remember this dance.” Vox replied, his voice husky as he spun Alastor around and gripped his palm tightly. “Except our roles were reversed.”
Vox took Alastor’s other hand, their faces impossibly closer as he took one step back and the chord around Alastor’s joints forced him to take one step forward. “You attempt to put me on the same level as you, but you’re clearly the one who was left taunted with my words.”
Vox scoffed and simply blew on Alastor’s ears, Alastor grumbled, his ears flattening to avoid Vox’s mocking attempts to gain a reaction from him. “You still entertain me.” Vox took a step forward, Alastor one back.
Alastor was spun nearly another two times before being forced into another dip position, Vox’s hand on his back more steady now— something about it spoke of violence and passion, a feeling that mixed too well into Vox’s heart.
“Admit I still mean something to you.” Vox added, his voice a low rumble in his throat as he brought his face closer to Alastor’s. “Surely I do, right?”
Alastor’s eyes twitched, tail tucked between the legs that shook being forcefully held up by chords that restricted and disrespected his autonomy. “Don’t put me on the same level of fixation you hold for me.”
Chords dropped Alastor on the floor, the nostalgic jazz music ceased and Vox crouched beside him and pulled him by the collar. “Tell me there is still something here— that there at least was.”
“You still need me to validate those feelings, truly it’s pathetic, Vox.” Alastor tried to back away but Vox pulled him harsher— closer.
“Al,” Vox’s face glitched, electromagnetic signals shifting all around them like a storm in the horizon. “Did I ever mean anything to you— did you ever truly care for me?”
Alastor sighed, eyes gazing away as if merely burdened by Vox’s pleas to have an old friendship verified by a man that had hurt him so badly. “You never truly change, do you?” Alastor tilted his head back, laughing as if someone had told a cruel joke— and at least to him, someone had. “You know what the thing that makes me saddest about you is? That you rely on people to grow your power, you truly don’t learn— even when you were alive and now that you are dead. You work for it through manipulation, but you’d be powerless the second your community snaps out of it.”
Vox wrapped the chords around Alastor’s body as he stood up and adjusted his tie. “You’re no better yourself, Alastor.”
“But of course I am!” Alastor exclaimed, his ears snapping right up and his smile all too joyous. “You still emotionally depend on me while I can act for myself without worrying what an old pal from nearly seventy years ago thinks.”
“You haven’t changed either.” Vox spat bitterly, overlooking pentagram city with his hands clasped behind his back. “You know why, Al?” His shoulders shook as he gave another low rumble of laughter. “Because you still hide that tail of yours.”