Chapter Text
It was another sick day for Vox. The fourth one this week, actually. He usually didn’t take so many, he prided himself in being able to work through any amount of illness, but he’d just been so nauseous and sick. He didn’t trust himself to be able to do work without throwing up.
He’d kept it a secret from Valentino and Velvette, mostly. He didn’t want them to be concerned as to why he was out sick, so he just lied and said he needed sleep since he hadn’t gotten much the night before, which was half-true, as he never really got that much sleep in the first place. They were a little suspicious, but didn’t question it.
Vox was laying in bed now. He’d felt so exhausted today and almost fell over when he stood up to go to the bathroom. That was just an hour ago, but he had to pee again, and he hadn’t even had any water yet today. He must be really sick.
He knew the company was probably burning alive without him, and he was just itching to stand up and go to work, but he was hardly in good condition. He knew that if he were telling Val or Vel about his symptoms, they would demand he stayed in bed anyway. God, was this a fever or had he caught some sort of bug or virus? He’d never been this sick before. Whoever gave him this sickness, they were dead on Monday. Hmm… maybe he could have Val seek it out for him, then he could fire them sooner.
He should probably take some over-the-counter meds for it. And maybe try to eat something, if he could keep it down.
Shaking, he sat up and tried to step off the bed. He held onto the mattress briefly to support his weight, and then attempted to walk out the bedroom and into the kitchen. He stumbled doing so, his vision spinning.
He wasn’t sure how long he’d be able to deal with this and survive.
Eventually, he managed to make his way to the kitchen and took three tablets of Ibuprofen. He usually only had two for something like this, but he wanted to stop hurting now. He drank water afterward, and somehow managed not to go throwing up in the sink, thankfully. He didn’t trust himself to eat anything, mostly because he tried to eat dinner last night and that didn’t end well.
He crawled back into bed and shoved the covers over himself, shivering with how cold it was. He never thought he’d be annoyed by an AC, but the V Tower felt colder than normal, or maybe it was just him. The buzz was also making his head hurt, but once the Ibuprofen kicked in it would probably get better.
Vox managed about an hour of sleep before his body woke him up again. He had to pee like, really bad. He’d never had to go to the bathroom this bad before. Maybe it was just the water, since he usually forgot to drink water most of the time.
He stumbled over to the bathroom and did his business. Almost as soon as he leapt back into bed, his phone rang, so he answered it, trying not to let the tiredness show in his voice.
“Hey, Velvette. How are you doing? Need anything done on your floor?”
“Urgh— absolutely not, Vox. You sound awful.” She responded through the phone, her disgust audible. “When’s the last time you’ve been so sick?”
“Ah… maybe that Halloween that one time? When I threw up all those Snickers into the punch bowl?”
“Oh, yeah, I remember that. So fucking disgusting… Anyway, I was gonna ask you to go check on Val, but I’ll leave you to rest.”
He sat up, not minding how it gave him a headache. “Wait, why do you need me to check on Val? Is something wrong?”
“No, no, he’s fine. I think he’s just missed you lately.” There was a pause and a shuffle on the other line, and then the sound of snipping fabric. He assumed she was multitasking. “You’ve been sick a lot, and I advised him to keep his distance. You know how Val gets when he can’t be near you.”
“Yeah, yeah.” He winced. He’d thought this sickness was a come and go type of thing, and he didn’t want Val to be sad or worry. “How about I check on him once I feel better?”
“That’ll be good, thanks. What are you sick with, anyway?”
He laid back down on his side. “Well, I’m not completely sure. I’ve been throwing up, I keep falling over when I stand, and I’ve had to pee a lot. I took some Ibuprofen an hour ago, so my headache isn’t as bad as it was. Maybe I caught a flu bug or something?”
He heard Velvette snort on the other line. “God, Vox. Are you sure you’re not pregnant or something?”
“Oh, please. Be serious.” He rolled his eyes. “It’s definitely the flu. I must’ve gotten it from one of my employees. I’ll find out who it was and then I’ll fire them.”
“Okay, okay, you do that, love. Well, I gotta run, some model is having a little makeup catastrophe over here and it needs fixing ASAP. Kisses!”
She hung up and Vox set his phone back down on the nightstand. Talking with someone made him feel a little better, it always did when he felt sick, but his stomach still felt empty and he didn’t think he’d be able to eat anytime soon. He’d just have to go back to sleep and wait it out.
He closed his eyes and let his thoughts wander, chasing just the smallest of naps.
God, Vox. Are you sure you’re not pregnant or something?
His eyes snapped open.
No, he wasn’t going to listen to that thought, nor entertain it. He was not pregnant. Velvette was just so goddamn funny for joking about that, hahaha.
… He rolled over and checked the time on his phone, smiling when he saw his background. It was all three of the Vees together, one of the few pictures of them where Vox was actually, truly smiling. He didn’t usually let Val or Velvette see his phone for mostly that reason, he couldn’t let them know he was this sappy.
It was about one in the afternoon, past when his lunch break would’ve been. His stomach rumbled remembering that, but he ignored it, because he didn’t want to vomit again.
He assumed running to the pharmacy would take an hour tops with how sick he was…
Vox sighed.
He was going to have to entertain this.
~
He bought the test with company money, since he forgot to bring any bills. He knew it would show up on the receipt, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. He made sure to drink a lot of water, and took the test once he got back to the penthouse.
Shit.
Fuck.
He stormed out of the bathroom, heart pounding. This could not be happening. He couldn’t handle this. God. Fuck. How did this even happen? He was usually so careful…
Honestly, he didn’t even know sinners could get pregnant. Sure, the Morningstar family somehow did it, but they were weird as fuck and he’d never cared about them. Lucifer Morningstar was also an angel, and neither Vox nor Val were. Now suddenly this test meant for hellborns was telling him that he was? He almost wished Val had let him blow everything up.
He was hyperventilating as he called Velvette. Velvette would have to be the first one he told, because he wasn't sure if he was ready to tell Val now or ever.
She picked up immediately, thank god. “Hey, babes. What’s up?”
“Um.” His voice shook with nervousness. “So you know how you joked about me being pregnant like an hour ago?”
“... yeah?”
“Well, uh, I decided I didn’t really want to take the chance, so I ran over to the pharmacy and took a test. And… well… “ His voice got choked up towards the end. He was trembling.
“Vox,” Velvette was speaking all too calmly for the situation. “Was the test positive or negative?”
He took a few deep breaths to try and calm himself. “Positive.”
There was a long silence on the line. Vox almost thought she hung up, but she spoke again.
“Do you want me to call Val?”
“NO! No, no, no. Please don’t.” He said quickly. “I don’t want him to know, not yet. I’ll tell him myself.”
“Vox, that’s probably a bad idea—”
“I don’t care! I’ll be fine. I’ll just wait it out.”
“Okay, okay. Do you need me to get off of work so that I can help you?”
He considered this briefly. It would be nice to have someone here, especially someone who could relate more than Val could. Yes, Vel’s never been pregnant, but she was like, fifty percent of the way there already, what with being a woman and all. He didn’t really want to take her away from her job, and if Val found out she’d come to take care of him it would be suspicious, but also he was selfish and he didn’t think anything through.
“Yeah. Yeah, that would be nice, thank you.”
“Alright. Be there in five.”
He managed an inkling of a panicked rest before Velvette barged into his room.
“I cannot fucking believe this.” She said, sounding a lot more angry than she had on the call. He supposed he’d mistaken her calm voice for her tense voice. “You went and got pregnant? What have I said about safe sex? Now this is my problem!”
He shrank a little bit into his blankets. “Uh, I mean, it’s my problem too. And Val’s.”
She pinched her nose in exasperation and sat on the bed. “This is why I knew I shouldn’t let you fuck on company time, things like this happen!”
“I mean, it might not have resulted from sex during company time—”
“Seperating your bedrooms would be a good first step.”
“Hey, what? But I like sleeping with Val!”
She raised her eyebrow at him.
“In both ways!”
They held eye contact before Velvette sighed. “Okay, okay. What are you going to do with it?”
Vox glanced down at his belly. It didn’t look changed. It looked normal, slim as he always was. It was odd to think that there was any sort of change about it.
“... I think I’ll keep it. I don’t really want to do anything to it, because I’d feel bad.”
“You’d feel bad? You mean you have feelings?”
“Shut up!” He snapped. “I just… I wouldn’t want to terminate a baby… and it’s like, mine and Val’s. It’s something we made. I can’t just throw it away, right?”
“Okay, but you’re like, sure it’s Val’s, right?” She laid back on the bed, looking at him from the side.
“It’s not like I really have sex with anyone else… maybe a few years ago, but I wouldn’t be pregnant from sex that wasn’t recent.”
“Riiight, right. Well, uh… “ She clicked her tongue. “... we sort of need to actually tell your boyfriend, so… “
“I said I wouldn’t tell him.” He asserted. “I’ll wait.”
“You know,” Velvette flipped over onto her stomach and kicked her legs up in the air. “When he finds out he’s going to be really angry that you kept it from him.”
“I don’t care. I’ll tell him when I’m ready.”
They sat in silence, the AC buzzing as Vox held his stomach. Not from sickness, no, but because it just felt so surreal. He didn’t feel any different besides being horribly sick, and it felt odd. Val had put another living organism inside of him, how crazy was that?
Velvette sighed and hopped off the bed. “You should probably eat something. Do you think you could keep soup down?”
“Umm, maybe?”
“I think we have some cans of chicken noodle soup in the pantry. I’ll make some for you.”
He followed her into the kitchen, despite her telling him to stay in bed and rest a bit more. He watched her heat up the soup, eyes stuck on how she stirred it. It was a bit weird to see her cook something, because it was usually Val who made them dinner when they didn’t eat out, and if it wasn’t Val then it was Vox occasionally. Velvette never really made them food, and he’d always figured it was because she didn’t like the gender roles it forced onto her.
He realized that it was a lot she was doing, making him soup like this, even though it was mundane. He smiled as he watched from the counter, feeling a grateful, warm feeling bloom through his chest. He was so lucky to have a friend like her.
She’d finally finished the soup, and when she turned around she caught Vox smiling. “Hey, what’s making you so happy?” She accused.
He averted his eyes. “Nothing. Just… I’m so lucky to have someone like you as a friend.”
“Oh, please don’t tell me that you being sappy will be an occurrence now.” She scoffed, turning her body to pour the soup into a bowl.
“It won’t! Uh, probably. I just felt really grateful right then!” He stuffed his hands in the pockets of his pajama pants, mouth scrunched into an angry pout. “Can’t I be grateful for my friend?”
“You can, you can. I just don’t think I’ll be able to put up with you if you start acting like this for a full nine months.”
A full nine months. That was a long time, in his opinion. A long time that he’d have to be like this. And possibly keep it from Val, but he was sure it would start to get noticeable.
Velvette slammed the bowl down in front of him, jerking him out of his thoughts. “Eat your soup.”
He did, making sure to take slow sips from the spoon. He didn’t bet on keeping this in his stomach for more than an hour, but he was too hungry to not eat all day. “How mad do you think Val will be?” He asked in between sips.
“You’re asking how mad he’ll be that you’re keeping the fact that you’re pregnant with his child that he helped you make from him? Uh, pretty mad.”
“Right, right… “
He knew there was still an option to not not tell Val about it, but he already had his mind set on keeping from him for a little bit. He wanted to sort of… ease into it. Yeah, that’d be better for everyone.
Velvette watched him eat the soup in silence. She seemed like she was thinking deeply about something, so he didn’t interrupt her. When he was done, she finally spoke.
“Okay, weather boy. Time to rest.”
She took him back to his room and helped him into bed. She then crawled in beside him. He was a bit surprised, but he enjoyed cuddling with her occasionally, whenever she was a little less prickly, so he welcomed it. He wrapped his arms around her loosely as he closed his eyes, and his pounding headache seemed to ebb a little less.
~
Vox woke to large, red eyes in his face.
He yelped with fright before he realized it was just Val. He seemed to have drawn his head close and his eyes were wide as bowls as he watched him. When Vox jerked away, Val snickered.
“Well, well, lookie here. I found two of my favorite people snuggling without me, because I was at work! It’s just horrible that this would happen to me.” He sniffled fakely.
Velvette sat up, rubbing her eyes. It made Vox a little happier knowing that she was able to fall asleep in his company. “Sorry, Val. Vox wasn’t doing well and he wanted me over here.”
Val frowned. “Not me?”
Vox interjected quickly as he sat up too. “Ah, well, I wanted to spend a bit more time with Velvette. We usually don’t get to hang out by ourselves as much.”
“Yeah, it’s just… “ Val averted his gaze. “I haven’t really gotten to see my Voxxy much lately because he’s been so sick… but… it’s fine.” He quickly put on a smile. “I get to see you now.”
Val got down onto the bed and squeezed the two of them. They both squeaked with how tight the hug was. “I love you both.”
“You’re gonna get sick.” Vox reminded him, trying to act like he wanted out of the hug.
“Right, right. Sorry.” Val let go of them and got off the bed. “You two can stay here. I’ll go make dinner.” He ran out of the room, his bottom hands clasped together with what Vox could only assume was excitement.
They both watched him leave. “He’s in a good mood.” Vox remarked. He was a bit surprised, actually, since Velvette had been worrying about him earlier.
“He is.” Velvette agreed. “Maybe Angel managed to not piss him off today. He usually gets happy when he cooperates.”
“... right.” Vox looked away. He didn’t really want to think about Angel, like, ever.
“And, you know, you’re going to be ruining his happy mood once he finds out you’re lying to him.” She pointed out.
The thought made his stomach churn. One of the few times Val was happy, genuinely happy, he was going to ruin it.
He felt the chicken noodle soup from earlier start to come up. He covered his mouth and ran to the bathroom.
He nearly didn’t make it to the toilet, but he did. He retched loudly, and when he was done, his throat hurt.
Velvette came in behind him. “Urgh. Gross.”
“My stomach hurts… “
“Here’s a tip: next time, wear protection.”
~
He decided he’d go to work the next day. He was feeling a little bit better, but the most he was able to eat were tea and crackers. He’d never seen his employees happier that he was back, actually. They flooded him with questions of where he’d been and how he’d help them in the future, since, as he predicted, everyone had done stupid shit for the days he was gone.
He didn’t tell them of his situation, of course, he merely told the same lie to Val that he was sick. It didn’t feel good, but he couldn’t have this getting out to the public. He had an image to uphold, after all. Velvette was the only one allowed to know, because he trusted her.
Today he wasn’t vomiting as much, but he had some pretty bad cramps in his lower abdomen. He kept having to cradle his side discreetly during his meetings. People noticed. One of them asked if he was on his period. He was ready to burn down the building.
At about four in the afternoon, he’d finished all his work. Usually when that happened he would go on a little break, maybe go to the lounge and have a coffee, but instead he found himself being pulled over to Baxter’s lab.
Baxter was on thin ice with him at the moment, what with working to help those hotel pests and all, but he couldn’t bring himself to properly fire him. He was extremely valuable, and he’d made Shok.wav. Really, Vox didn’t know what he’d do without Shok.wav, so Baxter had to stay.
His lab was deep in the basement of the V Tower. He suspected his room in the hotel was about as deep as the one here. Vox stepped into the elevator and let it carry him down, the darkness of the basement slowly enveloping him so that the only light sources were the veins of blue light on the wall and his own screen.
“Baxter.” He said as soon as he got down. “I have a question for you.”
Baxter was tinkering with something at his desk. He turned when he heard Vox, the bulb on his lure bouncing as his head whipped around. “Can you make it quick? I’m busy.”
Vox stepped forward to get a peek at what he was doing. He looked to be making some sort of living organism. It looked kind of like a deformed crab with ears. He stepped away, face scrunching up in disgust.
“Okay. Well, are you familiar with pregnancy in sinners?”
Baxter turned fully towards him, face lighting up with surprise. “Mr. Vox, from what I’ve gathered, sinners cannot even retain a pregnancy in the first place.”
“Right… right… “ Vox ran a hand down his screen. “Can you… um… put some more research into it, please? It’s very important.”
“I’m more than happy to, Mr. Vox, it’s just that… Why are you asking me this?”
“Uh.” His screen flushed a light shade of blue. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to tell him, but he’d gotten this far, right? “Well, I am. Pregnant, I mean.”
Baxter gaped at him, and then reached for a notepad and began scribbling something down. “What… how could this be possible? This has never happened before… Are you one-hundred percent sure that you’re pregnant?”
“Well, I took two tests. One yesterday morning and one at night after dinner, so I’m pretty positive.” He shuffled on his feet, regretting this already.
“Is it Mr. Valentino’s?” Baxter asked, pointing his pen at him.
Vox groaned, his face growing warmer. “Er… yes.”
Baxter smirked a little at that. “Hmph. Figures.” He wrote another thing down and then put his notepad and pen back on the desk. “I’ll do more research on this, Mr. Vox. I’ll need you to come in every week to see how you’re getting along.”
“Every week sounds like a little much… “
“Well that’s what we’re doing. Keep in mind I was never a doctor when I was alive, but this is all too fascinating to turn down… “ Baxter tapped his chin. “Perhaps I’ll get someone from Sloth to help, too.”
“Okay, no. We’re not getting more people involved.” Vox clarified quickly. “You and Velvette and the only ones who know so far and we’re going to be keeping it that way for a while.”
Baxter tilted his head. “You haven’t told Mr. Valentino?”
“I will! Not yet! Don’t lecture me about anything!”
Baxter sighed and turned back around to his crab specimen. “Okay, Mr. Vox. I won’t. I’ll try and get as much information as I can, alright? Come back in on Monday.”
Vox left after that, not paying mind to the static shock he heard behind him and the faint, exhausted noise of the crab thing that followed. He went back up the elevator, tapping his foot.
It was probably a bad idea to have told Baxter, yes, but who would Baxter tell? The good thing about introverts was that they didn’t spread secrets. And, well, he needed more information about this. He couldn’t just not know, because he was sure that would kill him. He needed answers about how this happened.
When he returned to his office, Val was waiting for him, sitting on the desk.
“Hey, why’d you go down there?” Val asked, pointing to one of the cameras in his office that displayed the elevator.
“Oh.” He searched his brain for a lie. “Baxter is working on something. I just wanted to see how he was getting along with it.”
“Please tell me it’s not another shark, Voxxy. I will genuinely die.” He leaned forward, the smoke from his cigarette curling up into the air. “I cannot handle another shark.”
“It’s not another shark, don’t worry.” He stepped forward and grabbed his upper pair of hands, chuckling. “Just something for the company, don’t worry about it.” He tilted his head to the side and kissed his cheek.
Val giggled in surprise and leaned into him. “You’re awfully touchy today. In a good mood?”
Vox’s hand found a place on his chest, pulling at the golden chain there. “Hm. You could say that.” His mouth tugged up into a smirk.
Val leaned forward to capture his lips. When he pulled away, he murmured “Ooh, are you feeling naughty today? What happened to me getting sick?”
“I think you’ll be able to manage… “ He pulled him closer by the chain and met his lips again, pinning him in place by putting his knee on the side of him.
Val responded eagerly, so eagerly that Vox wondered if the whole reason why he’d come into his office was because he was planning this. Either way, he didn’t really mind, because his snapping earlier had got him all pent up.
Val’s glasses clacked against his screen as he deepened the kiss, making probably the most unpleasant noise he’d ever heard, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. He was basically straddling Val against the desk now, listening to the beautiful noises he got out of him.
It was just starting to get good when Velvette came in. It was always her interrupting their makeout sessions, he swore to god.
“Vox, are you—ugh, gross. Not again.” She immediately tried to back out of the room.
Vox leapt away from Val and leaned against a different part of the desk, trying to catch his breath. “Wait! Don’t leave! Uh, sorry. I was doing something.”
He heard Val curse under his breath in Spanish behind him, straightening his glasses. Vox reached out to hold his hand comfortingly, and his cursing ceased, but he was still doing that thing where he squeaked angrily.
Velvette closed the door behind her and leaned against it, crossing her arms. “You two are gross. Anyway, Vox, I was wondering if you’d take a few of my employees for you or Val to shoot with your guns or whatever you do.”
“Ooh, gladly!” Val chirped before Vox could answer. “What’d they do?”
Velvette waved her hand dismissively. “Doesn’t matter what they did. Vox, can you get them next week?”
“Why next week?” Vox asked.
Her eye twitched in irritation. “Well, because I expect a certain someone is going to tell another certain someone about something, and then that someone is going to get really fucking angry and they’ll need to blow off some steam.”
Vox swallowed harshly. Val counted on his fingers, muttering, and then looked at her in confusion. “Wait, I didn’t follow that.”
“Don’t worry about it, babe.” Velvette brightened, and opened the door to leave. “Now, you two can keep going with what you were doing.”
Val groaned dramatically. “Ugh, I would, but I have a shoot in five. I thought this would be a little more cut and dry, but it took longer than I thought for Vox to get back.”
Vox winced. “Sorry.”
Val turned and smiled at him. It was a warm smile that made Vox’s heart stutter. “It’s fine, mi amor. We can do more tonight, anyway. I’ll survive.” He picked up his still lit cigarette off the desk and followed Velvette out of the room.
Vox watched the two of them go, a faint smile on his face. Then, he stretched his back and sat back down in his chair, ready for the onslaught of work that had been replenished while he wasn’t doing it. There was a new cigarette burn on his desk now, and he felt at it with his finger, thoughts roaming elsewhere.
Val was so happy this week. It was great, honestly. He loved when Val was happy. He was always much more in the mood to fuck and kiss him, and his attention was on Vox instead of anyone else. When he was mad at Vox, he usually shifted his attention to his other whores.
He sighed. Why did he have to ruin everything? Next week was going to be a catastrophe.