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Valentino had had a long fucking day. Which is probably why the moment he finally entered their shared, top floor penthouse, he beelined to his and Vox’s room and immediately collapsed onto the large, king sized bed.
Vox wasn’t in bed yet, which made him frown, but he didn’t have the energy to go and drag him to bed from his office, located all the way on the other side of the tower. It always caused a fight, and Valentino loved Vox more than anything but simply didn't have the energy to entertain that right now. It had only been about a month since they found out about the baby, and it had been… rough. 'Rough' being a huge understatement, it almost made Valentino want to laugh.
Their bio scientist... what was his name, Baxter? had predicted Vox was about 6 weeks along already, and the news had been a lot for them to process.
Valentino couldn’t believe he was going to be a father. He wasn’t even sure he deserved such a miracle - reproduction was possible, but extremely rare in Hell, and he honestly didn’t really know how to raise a child. Like... he hadn’t been around children in life and certainly not in death - most of his family had shunned him away from his younger relatives when he became a whore. It sometimes made him sad, but human Val was often too high to think or care about it. So was demon Val, he thought bitterly, but he had been trying to quit harder drugs ever since he found out they were expecting.
Vox had, understandably, taken the news much harder. He was the one who was going to have to carry the baby, after all, and their small little bundle of cells was already causing a plethora of problems. Vox was constantly tired and sick. So, so sick. It was almost like the baby had a personal vendetta against Vox trying to go a full 24 hours without throwing up. His back somehow already hurt, despite the baby being the size of a pea, so Val had become a personal masseuse whenever the aches got too unbearable for Vox to handle or work through.
He was also constantly walking into Vox's office, only to find his lover passed out at his desk, drooling all over his keyboard and other important paper work - but Val dare not move him. He tried to bring him back to bed, once, and Vox freaked out about 'being carried and looking vulnerable in front of his employees', and refused to talk to Val for the rest of the day and most of the night too. That was another less desirable symptom of the pregnancy so far; Vox was already a temperamental man at the best of times, so all of these new hormones were making him a thousand times harder to deal with. Not that Valentino or Velvette would EVER tell him that. They both quite enjoy not getting fried by an angry TV.
Vox was already a man who hated emotional vulnerability, so imagine his complete and utter horror when said hormones suddenly caused him to be either screaming at Velvette for making him a 'nutritional' smoothie filled with mango and strawberry (baby hates mango, rookie mistake Vel…), or crying over commercials he had written and approved himself. The whiplash was a lot for the other Vees too, especially Val, who normally took the brunt of the meltdowns himself. It was really making him appreciate how much Vox looked after him during his own meltdowns, because Valentino really didn't realise it was this emotionally draining.
Vox had been working overtime more than usual recently , and Val assumed it was to avoid the reality that he was indeed pregnant. To avoid talking about it, and to avoid making it feel real. It wasn’t good for him, but Vox was pretty emotionally unstable right now and, once again, trying to remove him from his office was a battle that Val wasn’t choosing today. So, he rolled over, wrapped the soft blanket and his red wings around himself and promptly fell asleep, exhausted from a day of shooting at the studio - shooting other people for films, because since the pregnancy he had agreed to become monogamous. It wouldn't be fair to Vox or the baby if he continued to fuck around.
He was woken again by a small, mumbled voice calling him from… was it coming from the bathroom? Val squinted at the digital clock beside him, reading 4AM. Great. He also noticed Vox still wasn’t next to him, frowning as he put on his heart shaped glasses, looking over to the door of their ensuite and seeing the light turned on.
“Val.” Vox mewled from the bathroom, weak and shaky as he heard Valentino’s small moth feet padding towards the bathroom door, “it’s unlocked.”
With the verbal confirmation that he was allowed to enter, Valentino turned the doorknob and saw Vox hunched around the toilet bowl, shaky and weak. He spat some bile into the toilet bowl, which Val saw was already filled with... gross.
"Baby, you should have called me sooner." Val spoke softly, diverting his eyes from the mess in the toilet bowl and sinking onto the floor next to Vox, wrapping his upper set of arms around his torso. Vox continued to shake, shutting his eyes and leaning forward as another wave of nausea rolled over him. Val rubbed gentle circles into his back, offering gentle words of comfort as he started to gag again.
"Fuck." Vox coughed, voice hoarse and throat burning as he spat the last remnants of vomit out of his mouth, finally done with the previous wave of sickness. He felt Val remove himself, and he was almost going to cry at the thought of being left alone before a cold glass of water was brought up to his lips. Grateful, Vox leant into Val more as he swirled the water around his mouth a few times before spitting it back out. Once his mouth felt cleaner, he did swallow a few more sips, soothing his sore throat and finally settling his stomach.
"What time did you get home?" Val asked, and Vox shrugged against him, looking away. Valentino could already guess what had happened - Vox had worked late, despite feeling ill, and didn't want to admit it to anybody - not even himself. He had come to their bedroom, tried to sleep, and almost immediately had to run to the bathroom to be sick, eventually swallowing his pride and calling Val to help due to sheer exhaustion.
After cuddling on the floor for another 10 minutes, to make sure Vox really wasn't going to be sick again, Val hoisted them both up and brought his lover back to bed. Vox let himself be lay onto the mattress, sniffling as Val started to settle down next to him.
"Mi amor?" Val asked, placing a hand against Vox's abdomen - he didn't have a bump yet, but Val still liked to rest a hand against his stomach, knowing his baby was growing in there despite lack of visible evidence.
"I fucking-," Vox started, cutting himself off as he took a deep breath to compose himself, "I fucking hate this."
"You need to take better care of yourself, baby." Val replied gently. Despite how stubborn Vox wanted to be, the reality was that, as the pregnancy progressed, he really wouldn't be able to keep up with the insane workload and schedule he always set himself.
Vox didn't reply, sniffling again and scowling as he turned towards Valentino.
"I don't want to hear it, Val. I'm fucking-" Vox stopped himself again, wiping his screen as his voice broke, "- I'm just... tired. So tired."
Vox was crying now, so Val moved closer and wrapped both his arms and wings around his smaller lover as he sobbed.
"This stupid- stupid baby! It's ruining my life," Vox cried, gripping onto Valentino's shirt and shutting his eyes as he continued, "and I just- I know it's going to get worse, and I'm already so miserable and sick and- and- I feel like I need to keep up with work and eat all the right food and I can't drink or smoke and- and I'm going to get fat and ugly and -" Vox was cut off by Valentino placing one of his hands on the edge of his screen, looking surprised.
In reality, Valentino really wasn't sure what to do. Sure, the pregnancy was making Vox more vulnerable, but he had never been so open or expressive about his doubts or feelings before. This was uncharted territory - then again, so was this whole entire situation.
"Voxxy, no matter how fat and pregnant you get, nothing could make me not attracted to you anymore. Even when you reach the stage where you have to waddle around, you will still be the hottest man in Hell to me," Val replied, lowering his voice and running a hand up Vox's chest, smiling as he shuddered - that was one upside of the new hormones, at least. "All of these changes are going to be because you're carrying our baby, Vox. That's fucking amazing."
Vox opened his mouth to reply, but Val cut him off with a kiss on the lips.
"If you're still feeling upset in the morning, we can talk again then. But I can see you're overtired and overwhelmed and I want you to get some sleep. I'll get Velvette to cancel your meetings, and I'll let Travis direct the shoots tomorrow. We can have a day just for us, yeah?"
Vox wanted to protest, but exhaustion from the day quickly changed his mind. He hated how easily his mind could be changed now, all because he was losing his edge. Still, it was really nice to bury his face into Valentino's flocked chest and listen to his heartbeat as he dozed off, wrapped in Val's gentle embrace and finally falling asleep, Val following soon after.