Chapter Text
At a small bar in Pentagram city, their usual spot, Alastor and Vox were having one of their everyday hang-outs together. It was always just the two of them—with drinks, laughs and smiles enlivening their conversations.
Those conversations and laughs were often led by Vox, the “noisy picture box” as Alastor loves to call him. After a long day of overlord activities, he loved bragging about his new accomplishments with a prideful smile on his face, as Alastor would softly nod at his endless babbling.
But today, Alastor couldn’t feel the usual connection and atmosphere between them. Vox was being awfully less talkative, borderline quiet, and he seems to drift away after every sentence both of them would say. The deer frowned… Was something bothering him? No.. He usually has no issue with speaking his mind, always loud about it when he’s had a bad day at work, as Alastor simply enjoys the entertaining sight of his unfaltering whining. But Vox does hide things from him sometimes, and he can easily sense it : it’s not like Vox was the best at hiding any emotion anyways, he’s always so over-the-top! That is the one thing that differentiates them the most after all…
An unsettling thought then crossed his mind : was Vox upset at him? He does seem very distant today… It was just them and a few midnight drunkards this time, so why would he not want to take on this opportunity to grouse and complain, something he usually avoids doing in crowded spaces to preserve his public image? And if he was really mad at him, what should he do about it? Well, it’s not like he cared or anything, Alastor doesn’t do “ships”—as in “relationships”. But the lousy crt was still quite helpful, as long as they stayed on good terms, and a free form of entertainment everyday… He cannot let him go yet.
As the red haired demon got lost in his thoughts, staring at his whiskey, Vox glanced at him : the soft and cozy atmosphere of the bar, the gentle light hitting on his fluffy ears and his puzzling expression formed a beautiful and addictive scenery in which he got lost. Maybe it was because of how drowsy he was, but the TV man wanted to be drowned in the deer’s gaze, and listen to his soothing voice talking about whatever seemed to disturb him— although he knew Alastor never spoke up about how he felt anyways. But he can still dream about it, he could doze off and think about laying down, on a soft and comfortable bed, wrapped around his arms and resting their heads on a fluffy pillow, as fluffy as his hair, as their eyes would slowly close to the buzzing sound of their matching static…
…
“Vox-?!”
Suddenly, his eyes opened wide, and the beautiful sight that he was admiring a few seconds ago got replaced by the sharp and wooden floor of the bar. Alastor was grabbing him by his shoulders, preventing him from hitting his head.
“Be more careful next time you want to get lost in your thoughts dear, I don’t want your screen to shatter in front of an audience hm?”
Alastor chuckled, slowly getting the confused man back sitting into his chair. Vox looked at him with round eyes, slightly relieved seeing that the bewildered expression left his face, but quickly got flustered as he realized the situation he was in.
“Fuck.. ‘m sorry about that, Alastor…” He mumbled, rubbing his screen to whip off his eyes and the growing embarrassing blush on him. His gaze then slowly averted to the side, looking at the deer’s hands firmly placed on his shoulders. Alastor, noticing his fleeing pupils, decided to hold his head to grab his attention.
“Don’t zone out again sweethea—” He abruptly got taken aback by the boiling temperature of Vox’s head. The demon held on his own hand, a faint screeching static noise escaping him.
…Well that’s unexpected.
“Shit- Are you okay?! Did that give you a burn?” Vox snapped out of his thoughts, now wearing a worried expression as he tried looking at Alastor’s hands.
“Nothing to worry about silly~ This is nothing but a poor little scratch to me!” He reassured him, showing his hands to the other demon so he wouldn’t worry more. But this little incident only made him more and more skeptical…
“Now now Vox, it is my turn to ask questions.” He announced, then his tone shifted to a more earnest one. “Tell me, has something been bothering you today? You seem very distant and less… big-mouthed than usual. Is there something you don’t want to tell me?” Alastor questioned him, unintentionally getting closer as he spoke.
“Ah—! Nothing to worry about Alastor!! I’ve got nothing to hide from you!” Vox exclaimed, a faint blush on his face as he slightly pushed Alastor away from him. Too close…
“Let’s say I’m just… Tired. We stayed here quite late this time. But I’ll handle it! Sleep’s not that important for someone like me, gotta keep working to get on top after all!!” He proudly laughed, making Alastor chuckle along. That’s a Vox he can recognise. But he still had a feeling of uncertainty in him that he can’t shake off…
“You’re not actually telling me the truth, are you?” The radio demon looked straight into his eyes, which surprised Vox and made him look away once again.
“This isn’t the first time we stay out this late, and I’ve never seen you this ‘tired’... I’m guessing you didn’t get enough sleep which is okay—we can call it off for the day! But right now…? Your whole body practically shut down. That’s not just dozing off like any other tired sinner would. And when I touched your head, it was… There’s something wrong.”
“Okay okay enough-!” Vox stopped him, pushing his body away another time as he once again got too close to him. “You won Alastor, no need to say anything else…” He sighed, as Alastor listened attentively now.
“Well you know how my head is a crt right? Stupid death I had, couldn’t agree more on that.” The deer chuckled softly, then nodded, indicating for him to go on. “I’m not sure if you know about that, but crts can get warm really fast, as it’s necessary for it to work. But that means you should be careful to not let it get too hot or they can get damaged, so you have to turn it off from time to time to let it cool down…” Alastor, focused, nodded along at his explanation. Maybe he should stop teasing him so much about that picture box head of his, having such frivolous technology as a body parts seems to be quite a curse. Sounds like a punishment fitting for a sinner like him…
“Which is why, as someone with a crt head, I get sleepy faster than the average sinner. I need to rest for at least 30 minutes every 4 to 6 hours to make sure my head can cool, if we don’t count the 7 hours of sleep everyday… And I usually have this rest before we hang out every time, but this time I forgot and we stayed longer than usual so..!” He yawned, as Alastor kept nodding along, truly interested in this new discovery. Vox will definitely never cease to surprise him…! He’s such an intriguing individual.
“So.. How much time has it been since your last rest? We’ve been here for quite a while after all…” The red haired man asked, a hand on his chin.
“Hmm… Probably 7 hours now?” The TV head shrugged, but Alastor flinched at his words.. 7 hours? That’s way above the time he mentioned earlier.. And what would happen to him if he doesn’t take his rest?
“Thank you for catching me earlier by the way, I guess I almost fainted… If I don’t rest for too long, my body simply shuts down and forces me into sleep, and if that happens too often.. I think that might damage me? I don’t know I try to avoid any of th—”
“Why didn’t you tell me that earlier, Vox?” Alastor suddenly cut him off, taking a stern tone. “So for the whole night, you were silently hiding from me that your body might shut down at any moment, and I wouldn’t have known why and how to handle it?”
“W-Well um, I was planning on telling you I swear!!” Vox panicked, getting fidgety with his hands as he looked anywhere but towards Alastor’s face, convinced that he was angry at him. “I just didn’t know how to.. approach it! And I didn’t really want to, yknow, ruin the moment or anything, I don’t want to leave yet…” The overlord’s face got more and more gloomy as he kept on explaining himself.
So he didn’t tell Alastor anything, just to keep spending time together… How pathetic, Alastor thought. These feeble human feelings really do wonders sometimes, and this is why he would never indulge in any such thing like “friendship”, and even less anything stronger than that.
It’s not like he cared about Vox’s well-being anyways, but risking his own health just to spend time with him, or just because he was afraid to admit such an embarrassing fact… Whatever the reason was, this seems to hurt him. For how long was his crt head boiling like that? And how much does it hurt? Has he ever fainted like this before? Did he ever get serious damage from thi—
“Anyways, sorry for worrying you Alastor.” The deer’s rumination got interrupted by the tv’s words. “It’s something quite embarrassing about me, I wish I could get rid of it. But I should've told you sooner to spare you all the trouble! Please don’t be concerned about me now, I’m okay! You caught me before anything bad happened…” He continued, smiling and yawning as he slowly rested his elbow on the table, holding his head with a hand.
Worried..? How foolish. He wasn’t worried about that noisy picture box, was he? Of course he wasn’t! They’re not friends anyways, why would he be concerned for him? He didn’t feel any of this filthy “affection” towards anyone—and that includes Vox as well. He was so sure of that. He was simply a little frustrated that the other demon would hide such a thing from him, they were far from strangers after all… Alastor shook his head. Enough of these spiralling useless thoughts for now! He’ll settle down this annoying nervous babbling from Vox and send him home.
“No need for all this fuss Vox, I’m—” As he looked back at the tv man, his head was completely rested on the table now, his eyes closed, brightness slightly turned down and his mouth partly opened with a little bit of drool leaking down.
“Ah…” While he was lost in his thoughts, Vox seems to have fallen asleep. Well, that was to be expected, he really needed this after all. Guess that means they’ll call it off for the day..!
Alastor stood up, leaving a little tip for the barkeeper, and gathered his belongings. He looked at the other overlord, so peacefully sleeping… A very rare sight indeed. Too bad that he’ll leave it here for everyone’s eyes. He thought about how furious Vox would be if he learned about how he fell asleep in public—making him chuckle a little. He couldn’t care less about carrying him to his own home, it was too far away from here, and he wouldn’t know how to open it anyways.
As he stood up and started walking away, he took one more last glance at the sleeping man. Such an uncomfortable position he was sleeping in, he would hate being in his place. Wouldn’t that disturb his sleep and make it less effective? That would be a shame… What if he won’t be able to stay awake for tomorrow due to that? But then there wouldn’t be any picture box for a day—which would make a quite boring day…
The deer sighed, walked back to their seats, and without a second thought, gently placed him on his back, carrying him by his legs. And his home, compared to Vox’s, wasn’t too far from here.