Chapter Text
Vox was indescribably happy as he descended from the top of the penthouse to where Valentino currently resided in the filming studio, a place he too associated with bad memories.
Albeit, he thought, not as bad as Angel Dust’s…
He felt guilty for remembering this place badly himself. Where the eyes of Valentino's attention fell on another man as he smiled and praised him, sometimes from a director's chair, and sometimes hands on.
Vox wasn't naive, he was very aware of the kinds of things that happened to Angel behind closed doors. Unfortunately, he didn't know of much that there was to do to stop it. If he had intervened at any point, Valentino could ruin him. Vox may control the media in hell, but he had become so dependent on Val that he couldn't imagine a life without him.
As far back in either life as Vox could remember, even back in his days with his alliance with the Radio Demon: he became attached to people very easily. Almost to the point where he depended on them in order to keep going. If he had lost the love that he had gained from Valentino, there was no way that he could continue to be an overlord.
And that was the only life in hell that he wanted… to be loved, to be adored, and to be powerful.
However, as far as he had climbed the ladder, there was one thing that he was missing. He had a coping mechanism that he couldn't tell anyone about, especially not his two partners. Though as scary as it seemed, if he had to start anywhere in confessing this, he wanted it to be with Val. Velvette had always ignored him, though every now and then she fed him a square of attention. That wasn't going to do, especially not while he was so small and vulnerable. It wasn't desirable to tell either of them about the way he coped, but in his mind, one was far more preferable than another. He placed his blue pacifier, the one that he'd had for months, safely in his suit pocket.
He thought things would be easier to explain to Valentino if he just showed him what he wanted… no, needed from him, if he was willing…
As he entered the studio, he found Valentino in the place that he almost always was: in his director's chair. His eyes led to the direction of angry yelling, and landed on his partner.
“God, shit!” Valentino stood, kicking the chair over and putting his head in his hands, facing the ‘actors’ on his set. “Have you EVER watched a porno, you lousy fuckheads? Just- take five.” He laughed to himself, though the laugh was rich in anger.
He threw his shot glass against the wall, shattering it in an instant. “And get me a better whisky that doesn't taste like piss.” He yelled at another man who scrambled away to follow Valentino's orders.
Vox didn't waste any more time, he didn't think his mood was going to get any better. He walked up as confidently as he could to the taller moth demon and glanced up. “Val, if you could quit huffing for a second…” The expression on his screen curled into a smile.
“Don't tell me,” he growled as he looked down at Vox, ready to be disappointed.
Vox shook his head. “Val, relax…” he said calmly. “I got him for you, hm? I told you he'd be here tonight…”
Valentino’s lips formed a toothy grin. “Did you really, Voxxy? Oh, mi amor~” He gave a gentle laugh as he caressed his screen. “Baby, I never doubted you.” He continued in his softest voice, as if he was admiring everything there was about Vox in this moment.
Vox leaned into his gentle caresses and let out a gentle chuckle of his own. He couldn't swallow the guilt he felt, but at the same time, he looked up at Valentino with eyes full of nothing but love and adoration.
“Ah, mi amada, you're so perfect… I can always rely on you, can't I?” Valentino's mood had changed like a light switch in front of him, turning his emotional state from pitch black back to bright and colorful within a few seconds. It was almost scary… almost.
“Of course, Val… I…” Vox kept looking at him with that gentle expression that he wore on his face. “I love you,” he whispered softly.
Valentino perked up slightly, giving him a questioning look, as if to say: ‘you're really going to say that right now?’ He didn't return the affection that Vox had given him. Rather, he patted him on the shoulder without another word.
He then tried to change the subject, keeping his hand on Vox's shoulder and walking them down a hallway where the dressing rooms were. “Let's talk about this more in private, shall we?”
As Valentino pulled him into a room, the door shut quietly behind them. Val made sure to lock the door behind him, sitting Vox on one of the couches by pressing on his shoulder rather forcefully.
“Vox…” the words came softly as Val took a seat next to him. As if to show that he was gently trying to correct him, he grabbed Vox's face to make him look at him. “You know we can't just say those things in front of people, don't you?”
Vox gave a confused glance. “But… but we're partners…” he chuckled nervously, “...right?”
“Oh, shh.” Valentino soothed, wrapping him into a hug, making sure his arms were tightly around him. (Almost to the point where it felt suffocating.) “Of course we are, mi vida. But you must understand… to the eyes of hell, we're business partners. We wouldn't want people infringing on what we have, would we?” He crooned, doing that damned gentle side-stroke of his screen Vox loved so much.
Vox exhaled, trying not to look disappointed. Trying with everything in him, in fact. “No.” He stated simply.
“Good… I'm so glad you see things my way, bebé…” He leaned far enough away to look at Vox's face. He studied it for a good minute before leaning in unexpectedly, and trying to kiss his mouth.
Vox did something he never would've once thought of doing in the past. As if his body had acted for him without its consent, he shoved Valentino off of him. He wasn't nearly strong enough to knock Valentino over, or off of the couch in any way, but he did stumble backwards for a sizable distance. The moth demon's back landed on the soft piece of furniture. After he saw what he did, a gasp left him.
Had he really just done that?
Valentino looked shocked himself. He looked up at Vox with a surprised expression, and sat himself up, his eyes furrowing in new anger.
“Are you serious?” Valentino hissed, the blood that boiled under his skin very present in his voice.
“Look, look, hey… Val-” Vox set all the way up and backed himself to the edge of the couch. “I seriously didn't mean to do that, I mean it. I-I don't know what…-”
Valentino’s eyes fell to a bulge in Vox’s left pocket. “Oh…” he smiled falsely, his anger ever present as he reached for whatever this could be. “What have we here, Vox?” He grabbed the box clean out of his pocket, making Vox's expression fall.
As the moth demon had grabbed it, he observed that what was in his hand was a box. Almost the size of a ring box, except less heavy and more vacant on the inside. “Aww…” Val cooed cruelty. “Was this supposed to be a gift for me?” He looked over at the state of Vox's face, and a shit-eating grin spread across his own as he noticed Vox's heart looked like it was about to fall into his ass. “Oh… I get it. Is this something valuable to you, Voxxy?”
“Val, please…” Vox begged, his expression vacant. Clearly, his mind was no longer present in this room. It couldn't be, for his own sanity. “It was just something I wanted to bring up to you, I- it's not important anymore, please don't look…”
“What?” Valentino asked like that one word alone was a knife cutting into Vox. “Is this medicine or something? Can you not get it up anymore? Is that why you pushed me off? It has to be to resist someone like me. Do you understand how many people would kill to be dating ME?” He asks, leaning closer and yelling right into his partner's face. He lingers there for a minute, for no better reason than to put fear where he sickly believed it belonged.
A moment of silence cut between them, Vox didn't dare say a word, until finally, Valentino opened the box…
He took a moment to look at its contents, and then looked a second time, and then a third to make sure that he had seen what he thought was inside properly. Vox didn't even want to breathe, as if he didn't want to make any noise that might make Valentino even more mad at him. He knew he was fuming, he didn't have to ask.
He didn't even have to say anything.
Finally, Valentino broke the silence, as he always did. “What…” he began, softly as he took the pacifier by its handle out of the box. “In the nine rings of hell is this?” He asked, finally facing Vox again. The expression of anger on his face was indescribable, a kind of rage that Vox had never once seen the likes of before.
All ability to speak left Vox, he tried to make up a lie, to formulate a sentence, to say something, anything that could get him out of the situation that he had seemingly put himself in. As much as his mouth moved, no words ever escaped him. Only sounds, only small whimpers of distress.
“You don't have to say anything…” Valentino declared, as he stood up. “I can tell by how you're acting all I need to know. That this belongs to you, doesn't it?” He walked a good distance away from Vox before he turned back around to look at him.
Vox knew that he had to answer, not answering was a one-way ticket to making him somehow even more mad. So he did, he answered honestly and began doing so by nodding his head once. “It's mine…” Vox said, wanting to disappear.
But Valentino didn't seem satisfied with that answer, he gave him a look as if to tell him: ‘go on.’
Vox sighed. “I just thought that… you'd be happy with me, you know? That I got Angel in the studio tonight, and I thought maybe…” he lifted his head for a moment, trying his best not to cry. Then he looked back at Valentino, “maybe one time, you could… take care of me, like that?”
Valentino let out a hearty laugh, letting Vox fully sink in his shame. This went on for nearly a full minute before he dropped the pacifier to the floor and got serious again. “That I'd what?” Valentino asked sarcastically, “that I’d ‘take care of you’ like a baby? What did you expect me to do? Feed you a bottle, and change your diapers too?” He wretched, fake gagging. “You disgust me.”
Vox's heart was beating out of his chest. His signal was going awry, he could barely focus on anything around him anymore. All he could say was: “I'm sorry…”
“Oh,” Valentino hushed in a mock soothing tone, “no you're not, sweetheart. At least, not yet.” He lifted his heel atop Vox's pacifier, the hard plastic shattered under it from the pressure with a loud crunch.
Vox wanted to yell, to scream, to beg Valentino to stop, but he knew none of that would get him anywhere. It would only get him in more trouble. All he could do was sit there as tears formed in his eyes and finally succumb to quiet crying.
“Look at the little baby, crying because I broke his pacifier…” he grabbed Vox by his antenna and made him look up at him. “Get a grip on yourself. How old were you when you died? In your 50s, wasn't it? Did mamí and papí not give you enough love?” He laughed.
A new anger that had never been felt by Vox before suddenly coursed through his body. He looked up at Valentino with nothing but resentment in his eyes. All the love and adoration from before had faded, and for the first time in his memory, he didn't think about what would happen if Valentino had left him. He didn't think about what would happen if he was all on his own. He thought about right here, and right now.
Vox smacked his hand away, standing all the way up off the couch, and putting his face in Valentino's. “I never asked you for anything…” he began. “I never asked you to do anything for me, and yet… every temper tantrum you had, every favor you thought of in your crooked mind, you came to me with… and I fulfilled it.” He crossed his arms, not wanting Valentino to grab him. “But the one time I'm vulnerable with you, the one time I try to ask you for something, you.” He paused for a minute, angry tears streaming down his screen.
“You had no right to break that. You had no right to break the one thing in my life that bought me comfort. Every time you and Velvette ignored me, every time all you wanted out of me was to bend me over, every time ‘our relationship couldn't be public’… this was all I had to turn to…” Vox managed to express calmly, “and your immediate response was…” his voice cracked, heartbroken. “to break it, right in front of me…”
Valentino stamped his foot over the broken pacifier again, shattering it further. “Oh, so this is the game you want to play? Really?” He asked Vox rhetorically, opening the door and not giving a shit who heard him. “Fine then! I made you the media overlord of hell, and I can just as quickly take it away!” He boasted. “You can say goodbye to your relationship with me and Velvette. I can't speak for her, but… I don't think that she'd be very stoked to know her sweet Voxxy likes to suck on pacifiers and play with blocks.” He crooned. “And if you say anything about what's transpired in this room to anyone outside my company, or you go running over to Charlie's little hotel? I'll make sure everybody in hell knows that Vox is nothing more than a little baby who can't take care of himself.” He smirks, opening the door wider. “Consider yourself single.” He says as one final jab before walking out the door, slamming it behind him.
Vox could have sat there, and thought about all those ugly things that Valentino had just said to him. But for some reason, the first place that his mind went to was Angel.
What had he done?
He quickly pressed Angel’s contact on his phone, it rang twice before he finally picked up. Though to Vox, it felt like an eternity.
“Shit, Vox.” Angel huffed. “I know, I know it's 11:30, and I was supposed to be there early for fittings and whatever but-”
Vox cut him off. “Don't come.” He said immediately.
“The fuck are you trying to pull here?” Angel stopped, mid walk. “This mornin’ you couldn't wait to get me in there. What the hell’s goin’ on with you?”
“Just… Please listen to me, run. Don't come here.” Vox blurted out. “He's mad at me, like… mad like I've never seen him before… I don't want you to be in the middle of this. I shouldn't have…” He tried to breathe. “I shouldn't have asked you to come in earlier. I'm sorry, Angel…”
Angel's voice turned serious again, but in a different light this time. “Did he hurt you?” He asked, trying to sound as calm as he could for Vox’s sake through the phone. “Are you somewhere safe right now?”
“No, he… he didn't hurt me physically, at least not yet…” Vox began to wonder if that would change. “I'm in one of the rooms down the studio hall right now, he's not in here…” he whispered, as he looked at the camera in the corner of the room and realized just how fucked he was.
“Vox, it's gonna be okay.” Angel soothed through the phone. “I'm gonna try to…-”
And suddenly, the line cut off. Nothing but a dropped call screen met Vox's face. And that can only mean one thing…
Valentino knew what he'd done.