Work Text
Vox POV
Vox sat at the hotel bar feeling rather out of place. Husk, Angel Dust, and Cherri were chatting away and ignoring him unless he needed a drink. Which he guessed he couldn’t blame them for since up until a week ago he was the bad guy to them. But it didn’t help that Alastor was also sitting right next to him at the bar and also not talking to him. Not talking to anyone. Vox kept trying to inconspicuously glance at him every once in a while, but all Alastor did was sip at his drink. Or more gulp at his drink. He was an entire bottle deep at this point and was not slowing down. He was just drinking and staring off into space, his facial expressions rotating through drunken haze, anger and something Vox couldn’t decipher no matter how long he stared. Vox wanted to talk to him, but he didn’t want to force Alastor. Although Alastor was great at hiding it, Vox knew that under that perfect façade Alastor always kept in place there was a myriad of cracks hiding. Something was desperately wrong with him, and he refused to let anyone help. It had been days since they’d shown up at the hotel, days since Vox did the unthinkable and gave up everything for Alastor. It all seemed to be for nothing though as Alastor seemed miserable as ever. Vox knew what Kaia and Lilith had done to him was eating him up inside. The drinking and mood swings aside, he’d known Alastor for a long time, and he’d never seen the eccentric overlord so subdued. But as long as Alastor wasn’t willing to talk about it, Vox could do nothing, so he sat silently beside him and drank.After who knows how many more drinks Vox noticed Alastor close his eyes, slowly taking in a deep breath. Vox reached out a hand to check on him, only for Alastor to grab it. Everyone at the bar froze at the motion, Vox went to set his glass down on the bar only for Alastor to abruptly stand up and yank him away towards the stairs. Vox caught the look of determination on Alastor’s face as he practically dragged him away while the others watched on in disbelief. Well Husk and Cherri watched in disbelief; Angel looked positively giddy.“Oh my god it’s happening. I’m about to win so much money.” Vox felt his screen heat up at Angel’s comment. Of course, he knew better, but he was aware of how it looked. A drunken Alastor dragging him off to god knows where to do god knows what. He almost let himself play into the fantasy a bit as Alastor’s claws dug into his wrist. He imagined that was exactly what it would be like, a lot of claws and teeth, he probably would end the night in pieces and that would be alright with him.Alastor drunkenly pulled him halfway across the hotel, stumbling every few feet and using Vox to right himself, neither of them spoke a word. As they arrived at Alastor’s destination and he opened the door to his room, Vox almost did a double take. Was that a whole ass forest in his room? Then again, was he really surprised? Alastor shut the door behind them and led them to a pair of seats. Vox sat down while still taking in the bizarre room.“So,” Alastor started, and Vox’s eyes immediately snapped back to him. “I know you have some questions that you want answered and I haven’t been the most forthcoming.” Well, wasn’t that the understatement of the century. “Tonight, I think I am finally in an amicable enough mood to deal with this so let’s begin.” Alastor stared at him expectantly and Vox realized he was going to be the one leading the discussion. Well, that was fine by him he didn’t just play an interviewer on tv. Vox didn’t want to fuck this once in a lifetime opportunity up, so he decided to start slow.“So, how’s freedom feel?” Clearly that wasn’t the question Alastor was expecting, and Vox could visibly see some of the tension in his frame smooth out.“Peculiar. My soul has belonged to Lilith since the moment I stepped into hell, I feel like I’m learning how to use my power all over again.”“So now that you’re free what’s the plan, total hell domination?” That earned a chuckle from Alastor who seemed to have fully relaxed now.“Hardly. But before I worry about that I need to finish fulfilling my obligations to Charlie and the hotel. Once that’s done, well I guess hell’s my oyster.” Vox decided Alastor was relaxed enough to ask one of his burning questions.“You seem pretty close with Ms. Morningstar. You could’ve taken your freedom and ran and yet you came back. Makes one wonder if there’s not more going on between you.” Alastor immediately frowned at the implication. Vox felt distinctly uncomfortable seeing Alastor frown. Even though he’d been freed from Lilith’s influence he’d been keeping up the façade around the rest of the hotel, so Vox hadn’t seen him exercising his new facial freedom. It looked wrong. Alastor quickly returned to his usual smile before answering.“I promise there is nothing of the sort going on between myself and Charlie. She is just a dear friend, and I won’t leave her in the lurch.” Although Alastor seemed annoyed by the question, he still answered so Vox figured he’d push his luck a bit further. Get right into the root of why he seemed so upset at the idea of being involved with anyone.“Well, I guess we might as well talk about the big elephant in the room. Why do you seem so averse to sex and romance?” Alastor sighed but answered.“To put it simply I just lack an interest in such things. There are more important matters and focusing on things like that would be a waste of my time. I also feel like I’ve eaten rotten meat when people touch me so it’s best to avoid the entire spectacle all together.” Well that certainly explained a few things, especially why he would take torture over sex.“So, you’ve never been in a relationship, never had sex?” At this Alastor’s face twisted up in disgust.“I involved myself with the odd woman or two when I was alive in order to please my mother but usually I would end things with them the second they refused to keep their hands to themselves.” Vox noticed he hadn’t answered both questions but decided to press on.“So, Kaia…” and there was that bizarre expression on Alastor’s face again. “How are you doing after that, like really doing? None of this bullshit ‘I’m fine’ business.” Vox had never wished to be able to read minds as badly as he did during this conversation. He would have to settle for reading faces though and Alastor’s had become a lot more expressive than usual. The alcohol was probably to blame. Vox was unsurprised to see the anger but there was also some sadness, at one point he looked vaguely ill and of course Vox was very familiar with the fear. Alastor’s face while Vox was forced to watch Kaia torture him would forever be engraved in his mind. But that one split second, where Kaia sat on Alastor’s lap and started undoing his pants. That was the one moment of complete and utter terror. That expression was what had led him to help Alastor free himself from his deal, and that expression ultimately led to Vox’s own deal with Lilith.And then of course there was the other expression flitting across Alastor’s face, the one he couldn’t read. It reminded him of the fear but not quite.“I’m doing okay. The scars have healed, and the memories aren’t quite as sharp. Give me a few more weeks and I’ll be right as rain.” The smile Alastor was giving him looked anything but genuine. Vox wasn’t done though. He’d saved the most explosive question for last.“And what about Lilith?” The empty glass in Alastor’s hand immediately shattered. Alastor looked down at the broken shards blankly.“They truly don’t make dependable glassware anymore.” Vox just sat silently. With a flick of his wrist Alastor disposed of the broken glass and a fresh full glass reappeared in his hand. “You know I gave you full range to ask any questions you want, and these are the ones you go with? I’m sure you can do better.” Vox resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the attempt to avoid the question.“I don’t know, I’d think your reaction to the question is reason enough to ask don’t you think?” Vox noticed a soft buzzing sound.“Lilith is off the table ask something else.”“Okay. How about why do I still see the same fear on your face now that I saw when Kaia was undoing your pants when you claim to be doing okay?” The buzzing got louder.“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Vox scoffed.“Really. You don’t know the look of absolute terror you had on your face when you thought Kaia was going all the way.” The buzzing was not just loud now but also high pitched. Alastor was beginning to twitch.“I fear nothing.” Vox outright laughed at that.“Alright then how about I play back the footage?”“What?” The buzzing stopped and it was silent. That same fear creeping back on Alastor’s face.“How about I play back the footage my screen recorded of Kaia undoing your pants, or maybe we should watch the part where you thrashed around like a desperate animal caught in a bear trap, unable to do anything but screech hysterically as Kaia assaulted you.” Vox expected anger, he knew he’d gone too far even if the threat was fake. But what he’d gotten instead was that bizarre expression, this coupled with the way Alastor seemed to be drawing in on himself and it finally clicked in Vox’s head. Shame, embarrassment. He was ashamed of what had happened. Alastor had a lot of things to be ashamed for in Vox’s opinion but not for something he hadn’t chosen. Shit now he felt like an asshole. This was exactly why he hadn’t wanted to push him.“Hey. I wasn’t serious about the footage; I erased all my memory files from that.” Alastor visibly released the breath he was holding, and his face relaxed a bit. Vox leaned toward him a bit. “And you know it’s not your fault, right?” As his hand was about to make contact with Alastor’s leg, Alastor suddenly snapped. Vox had no time to react as Alastor had seemingly teleported out of his chair and right up into Vox’s face. His body had contorted grossly and seemed to stretch around Vox.“I’m fine!” As quickly as he appeared in Vox’s face Alastor was suddenly gone. Vox sat alone in the empty room staring at the empty space. He’d pushed him too hard.“Fuck!” He fucked that up so bad. Alastor would probably never want to talk to him again. Why did he think it was a good idea to taunt him like that? He guessed old habits died hard. Vox thought about sitting in the chair and waiting for Alastor to come back, because he had to come back eventually, but ultimately, he elected to return to his own room and give Alastor some space. He’d see him tomorrow.
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Vox slowly made his way down to the lobby. This was the one thing he hated about hiding out at the hotel. The whole redemption thing. He had absolutely no plans on redeeming himself and going to heaven but in order to stay at the hotel he needed to play the part. So off he went to do another one of Charlie’s ridiculous activities.As he entered the lobby, he felt an arm lean on his shoulder. He turned and was surprised to see Alastor.“Good morning, Vox. Ready to see what ingenious activity dear Charlie has planned for us today?” Well, he seemed to be in much higher spirits this morning, and if he was nursing a hangover, he was hiding it well.“Oh ya, super excited.” Vox was confused at where Alastor’s sunny mood had come from. “So about last-” Before Vox could finish Alastor was dragging him off to join the crowd in the lobby. Clearly, he didn’t want to talk about it and Vox had learned his lesson about prying, so he left it alone. As they joined the group Vox suddenly felt a presence appear behind them.“Oh, you’re back, I’d hoped you died. Uh again.” Vox felt his blood run cold as he turned to face Lucifer. Charlie’s father hadn’t been around the past few days, so they hadn’t met yet. Vox had heard Lucifer and Alastor had some sort of feud going on, because of course they did, Alastor just had to make enemies with the most powerful being in hell, and Vox imagined that feud would now extend to him.“Ah your majesty, lovely to see you as always. As for my absence, you’ll find me quite difficult to get rid of, I was away recruiting a new high-profile guest for the hotel.” Alastor’s answer immediately put a frown on Lucifer’s face.“Hmph, I’m sure Charlie doesn’t need any of your weird friends crowding up her hotel.” Lucifer seemed to be sizing Vox up, but he was thankfully saved by the sudden appearance of Charlie.“Oh Alastor, Vox, I’m glad you could join us today!” Vox noticed Alastor give Lucifer a shit eating grin while Lucifer just looked annoyed before walking away. Charlie just continued happily seemingly unaware. “I’m really excited about our activity for today, well for this week. It’s a weeklong activity.” Oh good.“Sounds inspired I can’t wait to hear all about it.” Alastor responded which seemed to light Charlie up even more if possible. Vox would never understand their friendship. Charlie looked ready to continue telling them about her activity, but Vox was saved from the boredom by Vaggie showing up to drag her girlfriend away.“Come on hun, everyone’s ready let’s get going.”“Right, right.” In a moment Charlie was standing up on the staircase above everyone and the crowd fell silent. It was unbelievable seeing how well she could command a crowd now; her terrible news interview wasn’t all that long ago. He imagined Alastor had a lot of influence on that.“Alright everyone. So, this week’s theme is going to be Vices. To start out I want to go around the room one at a time and everyone will say what their vices are. Would anyone like to go first?” Everyone was quiet for a moment before Alastor spoke up beside him.“Eating people.” Vox couldn’t stop the laugh that came out, but he stopped almost immediately when the room was otherwise silent.“Thank you, Alastor, that’s a great example.” Vox had never seen someone so excited about eating people.“Drugs!” Vox was unsurprised to hear Angel call out from the bar. Angel nudged Husk beside him who rolled his eyes but also chimed in.“Gambling.” Angel nudged him again. “And booze.”“Yes! Who else?” One by one the other residents called out their answers. Mostly sex, drugs, alcohol. He was positive he heard a quiet voice whisper “bad boys” behind him but when he turned around no one was there.“Great answers everyone. Now this week I want to do something a bit different. I’m going to issue you a challenge. One week. I want everyone to go one week without using their vice.” There were a couple groans from the audience. “I know I know. But it’s only one week. I know you guys can do it!”“What about you? What vice are you giving up?” Someone called from the crowd.“Yes! That’s a great idea, I will give up a vice in solidarity.” Charlie seemed to think for a moment. Vox couldn’t imagine what vice the overly innocent princess would even have. Suddenly Alastor had disappeared from Vox’s side and appeared on the stairs with Charlie.“I know it’s not exactly a vice in the traditional sense, but maybe you might work on your need to people please?”“Oo that’s a good idea. I do love to people please.” Vox was surprised Alastor was getting so involved in Charlie’s activity, he was usually much more of an observer. That confusion disappeared though when Alastor’s eyes turned on Lucifer and Vaggie who were standing beside the staircase and his grin widened.“And Charlie what about our little fallen angels, what vice are they going to give up.” The way Alastor said fallen it was clearly meant to be rude but Charlie oblivious as ever turned excitedly to the other two. Vaggie scoffed.“Even if we are fallen, we’re still angels, we don’t have vices like sinners do.” Vaggie and Lucifer both gave Alastor smug looks. This seemed to finally crack Charlie’s sunny mood as she frowned at them.“Well Pride is still a sin so maybe you two can try to be less prideful and more respectful to my guests.” Vaggie and Lucifer both looked taken aback but quickly nodded their agreement. Alastor looked positively delighted. He leaned into Charlie.“Well done my dear, already working on that backbone.” Charlie smiled widely at the remark. Again, Vox marvelled at their friendship. Alastor was clearly manipulating her at every turn and yet they both seemed to care for each other. It was the only reason Alastor was still there, to help Charlie. Vox didn’t have the mental capacity to understand them. One problem at a time. Once Charlie concluded the meeting Alastor had appeared back at Vox’s side. Vox felt a pang of jealousy. It was one of the biggest thing’s he missed about giving everything up, being able to travel through electricity. Walking everywhere was such a pain.“Alright, now the real fun begins.” Alastor put an arm on Vox’s shoulder and led him back to the front. Vox wondered what he was doing until they found themselves behind Lucifer.“Hello again our esteemed ruler. So, how do you plan on spending your week without the ability to take part in your favourite hobby, expressing your vast contempt for us lowly sinners.”“Actually, all of my contempt is reserved exclusively for you. Because unlike some people I actually want my daughter’s hotel to succeed. Which means supporting her and her guests.” The calmness of Lucifer’s reply was not mirrored on his clearly agitated face. Evidently Lucifer was hanging on to his restraint by the tiniest of threads as per usual. Well, if Vox was already going to be lumped in with Alastor he supposed in for a penny in for a pound.“And yet Alastor was the one who has helped her run it since day one and helped her defend it from the angels. You sure he’s not her real father?”“Why you flat faced fuck, I’m gonna-” Lucifer whose angelic power had been flaring up around him was suddenly stopped by a hand on his shoulder.“Dad!” Lucifer immediately calmed down and spun to face his upset daughter.“Charlie I was just-”“I don’t want to hear it. You said you would play nice.” Charlie stared down her father who looked away rubbing his neck.“Sorry.”“Don’t say sorry to me, say sorry to my guest that you almost attacked.” The frustration was clear on Lucifer’s face, but it seemed Charlie ran the show as Lucifer looked Vox in the eye and pushed out an apology.“Sorry for losing my cool.”“Of course, my liege, I understand it can be hard for some people to hold their temper.” Lucifer’s eyes flared red at that but Charlie clapped her hands together happily.“Great. I’m glad we got that sorted out.” Lucifer obviously unable to stand the indignation any longer took his leave. Vox snuck a look over at Alastor thinking he would be pleased only to see a look of annoyance as he watched Lucifer stomp away. Why was he annoyed, they’d clearly won.“So, Vox, I didn’t hear what vice you were giving up?” Vox pulled his gaze away from Alastor to look back at Charlie.“Oh uh, I don’t know does my social media addiction count?” Vox really couldn’t think of anything better he was too distracted trying to puzzle out what had just happened.“Sure, that works, although after the week is over, I’d love your help with the hotel’s social media presence.” That finally got Vox’s attention.“Oh of course. Let me know how I can help.” Even if he didn’t believe in redemption, it would be nice to have purpose again. Somewhere to use his wasted skills. With that Charlie went off to talk to other guests.Before Vox could try and gently ask Alastor why he was so annoyed they had two more unwanted visitors.“So how was last night? Am I winning any bets today?” Angel seemed overly interested in their answer while Husk just stood beside him looking unbothered.“It was very invasive. I almost ate him afterwards.” Vox felt his screen glitch and Husk spat out his drink.“He meant our conversation!” Vox quickly corrected before this got more out of hand. Angel stared at them for a moment before bursting out laughing.“You kidding me, did ole Prude McGee over here actually make a sex joke. That’s fucking amazing.”“More like a cannibalism joke.” Vox corrected only for Alastor to give him a curious look.“No, I do believe that was in fact a sex joke.” Vox just looked at him slack jawed.“Since when do you make sex jokes?”“Oh, I hope this is gonna be a forever thing. Absolute gold.” Angel laughed again before dragging Husk off to the bar.“What’s wrong, all of you make crude jokes all the time, especially your ex-coworker Valentino, why can’t I?” Vox was completely dumbstruck. Where had this come from?“Uh okay I guess.”“Right well what will you be up to today since there is no activity?” Vox looked around the lobby, looking for a distraction, and noticed a tv. He hadn’t kept up to date with anything recently it would be nice to watch the news since he’d agreed to give up social media for the week. Vox nodded to the tv before walking over to it. As he approached, he subconsciously raised his hand to flick it on only for nothing to happen. Vox felt his screen heat up and quickly grabbed the remote to turn it on. As he sat down on the couch, he was surprised to feel Alastor lean down on the back of the couch to his left. He must be super bored. Vox switched the channel over to the news.“Well, that’s what we call ride or die.” Katie laughed obnoxiously at her own joke.“That car must have been a Hyun-die.” Tom replied earning him a swift punch from Katie knocking him clear across the room. God these jokes were terrible, if he were still working there, he would have never green lit this crap.“Wow it seems that Tom still hasn’t learned when to shut the fuck up. Moving on.” Katie grinned maniacally at the audience.“Why in the world did you hire such an annoying bitch?” Vox rolled his eyes; what did Alastor know about good television.“Because the world does not revolve around you and most people like her.”“I find that hard to believe. I also can’t believe she has not just eaten her cohost. She might be annoying but at least she is usually entertaining, the other one is just an absolute halfwit.” Of course, Alastor would only deign to watch tv with him so he could pick it apart. Vox had half a mind to just turn it off if Alastor was just going to keep going. But it occurred to Vox what Alastor had just revealed.“What do you mean usually?” Vox looked back at Alastor who just chuckled.“Don’t get all worked up, I would never deign to watch your programing. But I have been known to listen to the news station to keep up to date on the goings on in hell.” Vox should have known. Somethings never change. Vox turned back to the tv in time to see his own face pop up on the screen beside the Voxtek logo.“In other news, it has just been announced that CEO of Voxtek and leader of the Vees, Vox, has stepped down.” Vox froze. It seemed the other Vees had finally decided to make his disappearance public. “In an unforeseeable turn of events Vox has retired to go play house with the Radio Demon. Not that we all didn’t know how obsessed the man was but we’re extremely shocked that Alastor has decided to give him the time of day. I guess even the big bad Radio Demon gets lonely sometimes. A big day for Vox and a bigger day for Voxtek as they welcome in his replacement…” Vox quickly grabbed for the remote, turning off the tv before they could say anything else. Without the sound of the broadcast, it was very apparent that everyone else in the room had stopped talking. Vox felt his screen heat up and didn’t dare turn to look at Alastor. After another moment the silence was broken by laughter. Vox turned to the bar to see Husk laughing obnoxiously loud. In a second Alastor had appeared in front of Husk, picking him up by the neck and choking him. It only lasted a few seconds before Charlie was cutting through the crowd.“Alastor! Let him go!” Alastor immediately dropped Husk before turning back to Vox. His eyes were filled with rage. Vox quickly got up and led him away from the bar and toward the front door.“How about we go for a quick walk.” Alastor didn’t respond but allowed Vox to lead him away. By the time they had walked into town Alastor seemed to have calmed down and was back to his previous overly joyous mood.“I think I’ll make myself a stew for dinner tonight. Would you mind terribly if we stopped by my butcher shop while we’re out?” Vox felt his stomach roll at the idea, he knew exactly what kind of meat Alastor would be looking for.“Sure.” He didn’t want to ruin Alastor’s sunny mood; he’d just wait outside.As they walked toward the shop Vox became distinctly aware of the sinners who’d begun following them. Alastor’s presence was keeping them away, but it didn't stop the staring and whispering. Vox imagined this was only enforcing the news story, but there was nothing he could do so he’d just have to ignore them, they’d get bored eventually. There was always something new to gossip about. Alastor suddenly came to a halt and Vox almost kept walking, so distracted by their spectators.“Right, here we are.” Vox looked between the shop and the demons loitering about. He’d take his chances with them.“I’ll just wait out here.” Alastor shrugged and walked in. It took less than 15 seconds before the first demon approached him.“So, the rumours are true. You really gave up everything for him.” The sinner didn’t even realize how close they were to the truth.“Or maybe I just got tired of working all the time?” That response was met by a chorus of laughs.“All of hell has watched you obsess over him for years who do you think you’re fooling?” Vox could feel the agitation building in him but there was nothing he could do. He had to keep his calm, if they realized he was powerless this would go much worse.“Alastor is just a friend. Now that I’m retired, I have more time to see my friends.” Nobody looked like they believed him.“Seriously you give up your empire for him and you’re not even getting any. You really are a joke.” The sinners had begun to move in closer, seemingly emboldened by Vox’s lack of physical response to their taunting. Vox felt himself take an unconscious step back towards the shop and immediately saw the light go off in one sinner’s head as he smirked at Vox.“Just how much did you give up Vox?” The sinner reached out and yanked Vox’s arm. Vox could do nothing but try to pull it back. It didn’t take long for everyone to come to the same realization as the other sinner and suddenly the crowd was converging on him. Vox didn’t know what to do. He had relied on his powers for so long. What did he do? The only thing he could do.“Alastor!” Vox felt claws digging into his skin, hands battering his body, and suddenly it was all gone. Vox looked up to see the sinners who had been attacking him strewn out on the street. Vox turned to find Alastor, full monstrous form on display. As the sinners began to crawl to their feet and run-away Alastor finally returned back to his normal form, looking completely unbothered. Vox looked back at the retreating sinners and caught the eye of the first sinner who grabbed him.“He won’t be around to save your ass every time. Your days are numbered!” The sinner’s eyes quickly darted toward Alastor before widening in fear and he ran off. The asshole was right though. He had become a sitting duck without his powers. He would be confined to the hotel for the rest of eternity unless he could find a way to get power again.Vox was startled from his depressed stupor by a gentle hand on his arm. Vox looked to see Alastor inspecting his injuries. Thankfully it was mostly superficial. Alastor seemed to come to the same conclusion as he nodded before letting go and turning away. He began walking back the way they came. Vox hurried to catch up. They walked in silence before Alastor finally spoke up.“So, what was that all about?” Honestly Vox wasn’t even 100% sure. Were they sinners he’d pissed off or just opportunists who wanted to kick an overlord while he was down.“I guess my lack of powers is no longer a secret.”“Hmm. That is unfortunate.”“Yep.” They walked the rest of the way back in silence.
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Vox was glad when they arrived back at the hotel. He was exhausted. Between the fight and the long walk; he wasn’t used to this level of excursion. He was pretty sure he was sweating. God, he missed his powers.As they walked in the door Vox noticed the lobby was mostly empty. Empty except for Husk and another sinner whispering at the bar. He could see the drink that sat between them and Husk was trying to push it towards the other sinner who was half heartedly trying to reject the drink. Before Vox could blink Alastor disappeared from his side and appeared next to the bar pulling the drink away from them. They both turned to face Alastor in surprise but before anyone could speak another voice came from the staircase.“Alastor!” Vox turned to see Vaggie coming down the stairs. “What do you think you are doing?” Vox looked back over and saw how Alastor still held the glass in between himself and the other sinner. It looked like he was holding it out to her. “We’re not even a day in and you’re already trying to undermine Charlie’s activity!” Alastor opened his mouth to retort, but nothing came out. How was he going to explain himself without implicating Husk?“Vaggie what’s going on?” Charlie came down the stairs behind Vaggie and noticed the group at the bar. “Alastor, were you trying to give Daya alcohol?” Vox looked back at Alastor who simply put the drink to his own lips and took a sip. Vox had to hold back a laugh at the minute look of disgust Alastor made. He was extremely picky with his alcohol and apparently whatever fruity monstrosity that was, was not on the list of approved drinks.“Why Charlie I was just grabbing a drink for myself. I would never undermine your guests’ attempts at redemption.” The explanation seemed to immediately satisfy Charlie.“Oh of course. What was I thinking?”“But-” Vaggie tried to contest but Charlie simply dragged her back upstairs. Clearly wanting to stop a confrontation between her girlfriend and Alastor, and abandoning whatever reason they had come down in the first place.The moment they were out of view Alastor disappeared and appeared behind Husk, pouring the drink on top of his head. The cat demon growled at him but didn’t retaliate. Alastor strolled out from behind the bar waving toward the very confused sinner at the bar.“Come along Daya. Wouldn’t want to lose Charlie’s challenge on the first day.” The girl nodded blankly and followed behind Alastor. “I was planning to make some stew today maybe you could help. Get your mind off the booze.” Daya seemed extremely confused but nodded along anyway and they headed toward the kitchen. As Alastor opened the door, Daya walked in, but Alastor stopped Vox.“Would you mind keeping an eye on our feline friend? I get the feeling he might become a problem.” Vox nodded and Alastor closed the kitchen door behind him. Vox looked back over at Husk who was doing his best to clean the drink out of his fur. It made sense, Lilith wanted to ruin the hotel, having Husk undermine Charlie’s redemption activities was definitely the place to start. They were going to have to keep a close eye on Husk. Vox had spent a few hours sitting alone in the lobby trying to inconspicuously watch Husk. A few other hotel guests had popped by for a drink, none of them had looked particularly guilty so Vox hoped they weren’t any of the alcoholics. Vox let out a sigh of relief though when Alastor and Daya finally exited the kitchen. Daya seemed in much higher spirits then before and headed upstairs instead of back to the bar. Alastor came over to where Vox was sitting and took a seat beside him.“So how was the stew?”“Oh, quite lovely, Ms. Daya was quite helpful with prepping the food. It’s only unfortunate I had to settle for venison since Charlie has me on a strictly non-people diet this week.” Vox made a mental reminder to never eat any stew Alastor made in future. “So how has our dear Husker been behaving?”“He hasn’t left the bar and there hasn’t seemed to be any more victims.” Alastor nodded.“That’s good. I imagine it will be quite the long week keeping an eye on him.” Right. An entire week. But at least he’d get to spend it with Alastor, maybe he could get him talking more. He’d try to be more tactful this time. Vox did a quick look around them before opening his mouth.“So, you know Lilith best. What do you think she’ll try next?” Just saying her name put the fear of god in Vox. All it would take is one person to overhear them talking and he was screwed.Alastor seemed to think about the question for a minute.“She’s extremely conniving, but she won’t get her hands dirty. She used to have me get rid of anyone who got in her way. I’d assume she plans to dismantle the hotel with Husk as her unwilling puppet. Charlie won’t see it coming until her mother is wiping away her tears and finding something new to distract her with.” Vox was unsurprised to hear the anger lacing Alastor’s words. It was going to be hard getting him to open up about Lilith, Vox probably didn’t want to know what she’d made Alastor do for her. Vox shivered thinking about what she would do to him if they reneged on their deal and Lilith got her claws on his soul.Her final stipulation. If they breathed a word of her or their deal Vox’s soul would be forfeit. Alastor had not been privy to that detail, and he planned to keep it that way. Now whether that was because he didn’t want to burden Alastor further or because if Alastor had to pick between Charlie and him Vox wasn’t sure he’d be picked well… But there was nothing to be done about that for now, now he needed to focus on helping Alastor and to do that he needed to make him open up. It would probably be easier getting redeemed and going to heaven then getting Alastor to talk about his feelings, but he’d do his best.Before Vox could ask anything else the front door opened with a bang and Angel Dust came walking in, immediately making a beeline for the bar. Husk was already pouring out a drink.“Make it a triple.” Husk raised a brow but kept pouring.“What happened?” Vox could guess. He’d seen enough Valentino temper tantrums.“Trying to handle Val while sober has become a new level of hell. What I wouldn’t give for a few lines of anything right now.” Angel grabbed the drink and put the whole thing back in one go. Vox waited to see if Husk would offer Angel anything, but he simply made him a new drink. He probably knew they were watching him. But he supposed that was probably for the best, it would be better to use their presence as a deterrent then to have to actively stop Husk from sabotaging everyone. Thankfully it was also two against one. The rest of the evening was mostly uneventful. Vox tried to take advantage of Alastor’s forced proximity to gently prod him for more answers, but Alastor just kept changing the subject, or worse making a joke. Vox didn’t know how to feel about the jokes, not that he wasn’t used to them after being around Val for so long, but they seemed extremely out of character for Alastor. For someone who adamantly refused to engage in any discussion about sex Alastor all of a sudden was finding every opportunity to turn every potential serious conversation into a ridiculously inappropriate and yet weirdly still very proper joke. It was unnerving and it didn’t add up. But then, maybe Vox just didn’t know Alastor as well as he thought. They hadn’t been close in years, maybe it was simply a quirk he’d picked up from being around Angel so much. As good of an explanation as it was, it still didn’t sit right with him.At some point during their stakeout Niffty had shown up and Husk was practically funnelling the drinks into her. Based on Alastor’s lack of reaction he assumed alcohol was not Niffty’s vice, but Vox couldn’t remember what it was. The more drinks Husk got into her though the more erratic the little terror’s behaviour became. Crawling all over the bar and trying to pet Husk and Angel’s fur.Another guest showed up and Niffty immediately pounced on him. Her new victim looked around nervously, completely ignoring Niffty and began talking quietly with Husk. Vox was immediately on high alert. He missed being able to use his abilities to eavesdrop, they were whispering much too quietly for him to pick up. Husk nodded at the newcomer before shifting his gaze to the very inebriated Niffty perched on the guest’s shoulders. Again, with the whispering but all it took was a few words and Niffty’s head immediately swivelled to face Vox and Alastor, eyes locking in on Vox. This had to be some kind of distraction. Niffty practically crawled across the floor towards him, and Vox quickly got to his feet. That did not deter the little nightmare as she climbed up his leg. He tried to shake her off, but she climbed right on up. Vox heard a chuckle beside him.“Alastor call off your gremlin.”“I think she likes you.” Vox tried to grab her, but she dodged him easily.“Husk tells me you’re a bad boy.” Jesus christ. But wait. Vox was reminded of the little voice he’d heard during the activity.“Alastor, I think her vice is meant to be bad boys…” He felt like an idiot saying it but it immediately got Alastor’s attention. And not a moment too soon as he noticed Vaggie coming into the room.“Niffty stop.” Alastor yanked her off of Vox just in time for Charlie to walk in.“Alastor!” Vaggie stomped across the room to them. “You were encouraging her to use her vice weren’t you.” Vaggie truly had the worst timing possible and jumped to even worse conclusions. Alastor set Niffty down on the floor and she immediately scurried off.“Actually, I was helping her. She had a bit too much to drink so I was making sure she made good decisions.” Vaggie glared at Alastor, clearly not believing him but Charlie just smiled brightly.“Oh, thank you for helping her Alastor. I know it can be so hard to resist when you’re drunk. You’re such a good friend.” Vaggie rolled her eyes, but it wasn’t her opinion that mattered.“Of course, my dear. I want your activity to do well.” Charlie content with the situation grabbed Vaggie’s hand and they continued on to wherever they were going. Vaggie shooting Alastor a dirty look over her shoulder, Alastor simply waved at her which seemed to annoy her more. Once the girls were gone, they turned back to the bar to find Angel drinking alone. Shit. Alastor appeared next to Angel who practically jumped out of his seat in surprise.“Christ Al, don’t sneak up on me like that.”“Where did Husk go?” Angel rolled his eyes.“Can’t ya leave the guy alone for once.” Alastor leaned right into Angel’s face.“Angel!” Angel almost fell off the barstool.“He went with Levi back to his room.” Angel seemed extremely put out by that fact. Immediately Alastor disappeared. Did he seriously know which room each guest lived in? Well, Vox definitely did not so he decided to wander over to the bar to wait. Angel reached over the bar and grabbed one of the bottles, pouring himself a large glass.“What is his deal? He can’t let Husk live his life for five minutes?” Vox opened his mouth to reply but realized he couldn’t say anything. Anything regarding Husk and Alastor was off limits. With nothing to say they sat in silence for a while longer.“Val’s been in quite the mood since you left.” Vox could hear the accusation in Angel’s voice. He felt a twinge of guilt, not for Angel, but that he’d left Val behind with no explanation. When he made his deal, he hadn’t thought about how it would mean leaving Valentino and Velvette behind. Was it worth it? He supposed only time would tell.“Val is always in a mood.” Angel snorted.“Ain’t that the truth. But he’s been especially pissy since you showed up here. He dresses up whoever deigns to piss him off as either you or Alastor and then beats the shit outta them. Doesn’t seem to help though, if anything it makes him more mad.” Vox was wholly unsurprised. Val was nothing if not dramatic.Vox was saved from having to continue the conversation by the return of Husk and Alastor. They both looked angry though Alastor’s anger was hidden behind a smile while Husk openly scowled at him. As they approached Vox hopped up off his barstool, following Alastor back to where they’d spent their day watching Husk. They sat down and Alastor made sure Husk knew he was still watching him. Angel looked between them clearly confused, but none of them could tell him anything so he would just have to stay confused.
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It was a good thing Husk was an alcoholic and by definition not an early riser. Vox was extremely annoyed to be woken up by Alastor the following morning for more Husk watching.“Rise and shine. Husk is on the move again, wouldn’t want to miss any of the excitement.” Vox rolled his eyes but got up. It was going to be a long week, maybe he could just kill Husk instead, would make his life much easier. Much to Vox’s annoyance Husk was out and about today. He’d snuck out of the hotel, and they’d followed him off into the city. Either Husk was very lost, or he knew they were tailing him because he seemed to wander aimlessly, not actually going into any stores, not meeting with anyone.Finally, after almost an hour Husk arrived at his destination. Vox recognized it as one of Valentino’s less popular clubs. Why would Husk ever set foot willingly on Val’s property? It was obvious that Husk held a deep dislike for Vox’s ex-business partner, showing up at one of his businesses seemed like he was looking for a fight. Vox was about to follow Husk in when Alastor stopped him. He grabbed his shoulder and pulled Vox into his shadows. They popped out almost immediately and Vox looked around confused. They were suddenly inside the club, hunkered down at a booth. Vox opened his mouth to ask Alastor why he did that, but he just held a finger to his lips and Vox stayed silent.“You’re late.” Vox was surprised to hear Valentino speak.“I got lost.” Husk responded.“So, what was this super secretive super important information you had to tell me about my dear Angel.” Vox’s eyes widened in shock. From what he had witnessed Husk seemed… smitten with the porn star. He couldn’t believe Husk was betraying Angel like this. He almost felt bad for Angel. It seemed Husk also might feel bad about his choice based on the long moment of silence that hung in the air, only interrupted by Val clearing his throat impatiently.“So, I know you hate Angel being at the hotel and don’t want him to get redeemed.” Husk paused, probably waiting for confirmation from Val before continuing. “Charlie is doing a challenge right now, and long story short Angel is supposed to go without drugs for an entire week.” Husk paused again and Val chuckled.“So, you want me to force him to do drugs on set and make sure he gets caught.”“Exactly.”“Hmm. And what do you get out of this?” Another long pause from Husk.“I also don’t want Angel to be redeemed, so this would be good for both of us.” Val seemed to think it over for a moment.“Alright. One coked up shoot for my sweet Angel coming right up. Thanks for the tip.” Vox heard Valentino get up and leave. Husk didn’t move from his spot, but Alastor did, leaning over the booth beside Husk.“I know you have to sabotage Charlie but even I wouldn’t stoop that low.” Vox popped up from his hiding spot just in time to see Husk practically jump out of his fur at Alastor’s sudden appearance. Husk quickly got himself together and scowled at Alastor.“You don’t know shit about what I have to do.”“I know you have to do anything she tells you to do, but I highly doubt she specifically told you to have Valentino shove drugs down Angel’s throat. How do you think Angel would feel if he knew about this? Betrayed I’d imagine. His closest friend using his biggest weakness to hurt him in the worst way possible. Probably would never speak to you again.” Husk’s anger grew and he looked ready to lunge at Alastor before abruptly calming down.“It doesn’t matter because you can’t tell him shit without breaking your deal. So, you worry about your business and I’ll worry about mine.” With that Husk stormed out of the club and they were left with a ticking time bomb. When they returned to the hotel, most of the guests were gathered in the lobby for the day’s activity, Alastor pulled Charlie aside for a quick chat. Vox had no idea what Alastor planned on saying though without giving anything away, it was an impossible situation.“So, what did you want to ask me Alastor?” It seemed Alastor didn’t even know what he was going to say.“I just had a question about the Vices activity…” Charlie nodded her head encouragingly. “So, for those guests who are in contracts, what would happen if their contract owner made them use one of their vices?” Charlie seemed to think for a second.“Well then, I hope they would still use restraint. You know only do what’s required and not use it as a chance to go crazy.” Oh good, so they were relying on a drug addict to not go overboard when told to do drugs. This would end well. As much as Alastor was trying to hide it Vox could see he was thinking the same thing, his smile was just a little too tight, his eyes just a little too wide.“Of course.” Alastor went to turn away when Charlie got a very puzzled expression on her face.“Why are you asking? Was someone forced to use their vice?” Alastor, poker face restored, replied back easily.“Oh, nothing like that. I was just wondering, I just wanted to make sure you had all your bases covered. I want your activities to succeed.” Charlie’s face immediately brightened, and she pulled Alastor into a hug.“Oh thanks Al. I don’t know what I would do without you.” Alastor patted her on the head before extracting himself. He kept his smile on, but Vox had noticed the way Alastor flinched at the contact, how tense he still was. But Alastor said he was fine. Vox internally rolled his eyes. He wished hell had therapists so he could drag Alastor to one. He’d probably lose a few limbs in the process, but it would be worth it.With all that settled Charlie finally got up on her makeshift stage to address the crowd.“Hi everyone. I hope your Vices challenge is going well. I’m so proud of you guys for doing such a good job. Now for today’s activity we’re going to be doing a sort of competition. We’re going to have you guys split into two teams, I’ll give you guys a scenario, and I want you to come up with the best response to the scenario as a team. And then I’ll give points to whoever has the best answer. The team with the most points at the end wins. Does everyone understand?” There was a chorus of yeses. “Great. Now let’s just split the group in half. Right down the middle.” Charlie hopped off the stage and walked through the group of guests to split them into two groups. Vox noticed Husk was on their team. Good, maybe they could do damage control. Once the group was divided Charlie hopped back up on the stage.“Alright everyone. Scenario one. You’re walking down the street and the person in front of you drops their wallet. What do you do? You have two minutes to discuss then have one representative come up and give your answer.” Their group slowly came together but no one said anything at first.“So, we just give them the wallet back, right? This seems like a trick question.” One of the guests asked. The rest of the group nodded along and thankfully Husk didn’t give any questionable input. Maybe the activity would go smoother than expected.“Alright, that’s time. Everyone send a representative up.” Vox saw Husk going to raise his paw, that was definitely a terrible idea.“I think the person who suggested it should go up.” Vox indicated the guest who’d spoken up before. The sinner shrugged but headed toward the podium.“Alrighty.” Charlie clapped. “Group one what was your answer?” Charlie indicated their representative.“Uh return the wallet?” Charlie tried to keep her face neutral as she nodded along to the answer.“Okay and group two?”“We would also return the wallet.” Charlie’s face broke out into a large grin.“Yes. Amazing!” She clapped enthusiastically before schooling her face again. “Okay that was an easy one. Now let’s do the harder ones.” Charlie paused for dramatic effect. “So, scenario two. You’re walking down the street and someone who isn’t paying attention runs into you and knocks you over. What do you do? You have five minutes for this one.” Their group huddled together again.“I’d probably shove them back, fair is fair.” Husk stated. Of course.“Well, I do believe Charlie said it was an accident so maybe a little more consideration for the poor fellow.” Alastor added much to Vox’s amusement. There was no universe where someone bumped into Alastor and didn’t find themselves removed from this plane of existence in the most painful way possible. Obviously, Alastor’s answer was the one Charlie was looking for, but it didn’t make it any less funny coming out of Alastor’s mouth. The group hemmed and hawed over the two options. God they were such idiots.“Isn’t wrath a sin?” Vox asked no one in particular. Thankfully the group made positive sounds of agreement.“So, we let it go...?” Oh good, they weren’t complete idiots. The rest of the group seemed to agree, and the sinner who made the suggestion made his way over to Charlie’s podium. Once the other representative made it over Charlie turned to their person.“Alright group one, what’s your answer?”“Let it go?” Charlie nodded and turned to the other person.“And your answer?”“Apologize since we also ran into them.” Charlie practically beamed at them.“Yes, that’s a great answer alright first point to team two.” There was a small round of cheers from the other group. What a dumb answer, why would you apologize for someone else running into you.“Alright. Scenario three. You catch a kid stealing bread from a store. What should you do?” Where did Charlie come up with these stupid scenarios, Vox still didn’t understand what in the world this activity was supposed to accomplish.“I say we punish the child, so they never steal again.” Husk suggested unhelpfully.“Ya beat up the child.” Someone else called. Vox heard someone clear their throat behind him, turning to find Vaggie who was as usual glaring daggers at Alastor.“Alastor why would you tell them to beat up the child, are you trying to make them lose?”“And why do you think I suggested it?” Alastor raised an eyebrow at her.“Because who else is going to suggest beating up a child?” Seriously what the hell was her problem? She blamed everything on Alastor, not that he was a saint or anything, but her attitude was getting on his nerves.“I don’t know, maybe one of the other sinners who are in hell because they sinned.” Vox retorted, restraining himself from flipping her off after. Vaggie simply rolled her eyes and walked away. By the time they turned back around though it was too late. One of their group members was already walking over to the podium. This was going to go poorly. Charlie as per usual gestured to their representative to go first.“We think the child should be punished so they don’t steal again, maybe spank them.” Charlie gestured to the other group.“We’d make the kid apologize to the store owner and then buy them the loaf of bread since clearly they’re hungry.” God their team was screwed.“Amazing answer!” Charlie praised the other team. “Another point for team two. Great job guys. Okay. Last scenario. You forgot your friend’s birthday and they are upset.” Vox’s eyes immediately turned to Husk who was already opening his mouth.“You apologize.” Vox quickly blurted out.“But you don’t want your friend to feel bad, wouldn’t it be better to avoid hurting them altogether then to apologize for hurting them.” Husk asked innocently. Vox squinted at him, there was no way that was meant to be sincere. “Like if you told them, you were so busy with all your work that you got your days mixed up, you thought yesterday was Wednesday not Thursday.” It didn’t sound like the worst idea. Which was suspicious. That sounded exactly like what Vox would do himself. Or maybe that was bad, he wasn’t a good person so maybe that wasn’t the right thing to do.“Actually Husker, you shouldn’t make excuses, you should apologize and make it up to them.” Alastor corrected him. It was bizarre hearing Alastor as the voice of reason. Vox was pretty sure Alastor had never said an apology in his life.“That’s a good point, you should definitely give them a large gift to make up for it. Tell them why it wasn’t your fault, so they don’t feel bad and then give them a big gift, so they forget they were ever mad at you.” Vox was ready to strangle Husk, all the other members of the group seemed to agree with his assessment of the situation. They were going to lose the activity so badly and then the angry ex-angel was going to blame Alastor for it. This was insanely aggravating. It didn’t seem they were going to accept Vox and Alastor’s input, so Vox simply gave up, going to sit down on the couch. He was surprised to see Alastor follow him.“Why is he so good at this. The other guests don’t even blink an eye at his subterfuge. This is ridiculous. Why don’t they see what he’s doing? It’s so obvious.” Vox put his head in his hands with a sigh. This was way more of a pain in the ass than it should be.“He learned from the best.” Vox found himself chuckling at that. It was true. You spend enough time around the king of manipulation something was sure to rub off.“Then if he learned from you, you should know how to stop him.”“If only it were that easy.”“By the way, how did you know all the answers. Even I got that last one wrong.” Alastor scoffed.“Just because I was a murderer doesn’t mean I wasn’t raised right.” Fair enough. The activity finished with group one giving Husk’s dumbass answer and group two giving Alastor’s answer. Charlie praised group two for their amazing performance in the day’s activity and then told group one that they were so close. The nice way of saying their group was a bunch of idiots.“Do you get your creepy rocks off by trying to ruin my daughter’s hard work or something?” Vox spun around on the couch and found Lucifer glaring at Alastor.“On the contrary my good man. I wholeheartedly support your daughter’s dreams. Why else would I be here?” Before Lucifer could reply Vox decided to chime in.“He does far more for the hotel than you do? You can’t even do the one thing Charlie asked you to do this week.” Vox made a point to look over at Charlie who was watching the interaction closely, a small frown on her face. Lucifer looked like he wanted to say something else but somehow managed to keep his mouth shut. He directed one last glare at Alastor before he turned on his heel and walked away. Bested again. Vox didn’t know why Lucifer kept coming back for more, maybe he enjoyed being humiliated. Vox turned to smile at Alastor only to find the corners of his usually wide smile turned down. Vox nudged him.“You okay?” Immediately Alastor’s face returned to normal.“Peachy.”“Right.” They both sat in silence. Vox didn’t understand his mood swings and as per usual Alastor refused to talk about it. Frustrating as ever. While they sat, not talking, Vox noticed Angel heading toward the door. Off to work no doubt. No idea what he was walking into. He supposed it was in Angel’s hands now, time to find out if he was more dedicated to drugs or redemption. Vox did not have high hopes.
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Vox sat in the lounge watching Charlie pace back and forth nervously. Angel hadn’t come home the previous night, and it was long past time to do the daily activity. And ‘Angel never misses her activities on his day off’. It seemed a little bit excessive to be that worried about Angel playing hooky from her boring activities, but Vox had to admit that knowing what he knew her worries weren’t completely unfounded.“What if he relapsed, what if he’s dead in a ditch somewhere.” Charlie kept pulling at her hair like she wanted to rip it out. She looked about ready to go tear the city apart looking for Angel Dust when a quiet voice in the back of the room spoke up.“Um Charlie. I think you should see this.” The group of guests who were gathered waiting for the activity parted to show a girl in the back holding out her phone. Charlie rushed over and grabbed it. Vox, overly curious, decided fuck the vices challenge and opened up his social media. It was immediately obvious what the girl was showing Charlie and why Angel wasn’t back yet. Vox tilted his phone to show Alastor his screen, and the giant photo collage of Angel, clearly high off his ass, partying at a club, doing lines and having a good time. Cumulating with a lovely photo of him passed out on a bathroom floor. The collage had been posted by Vox’s own company, with a lovely caption:How can sinners trust Princess Charlie with their path to redemption when she can’t even keep her longest running guest from getting high for one week! Check out our article below for the inside scoop on Charlie’s most recent redemption fail. Of course, it had also been reposted by Val and Velvette also giving a scathing review of how stupid and pointless the hotel was. Vox clicked on the link that brought him to an article detailing the hotel’s weeklong Vices challenge and how Angel hadn’t made it three days without falling back on bad habits. The article was brutal and clearly, they had an inside source. He wondered who that could possibly be. Vox looked up to glare at the guilty cat in question, only to find him gone. He looked around but Husk had disappeared. It was probably fine though, right? All of his potential victims were already in this room. Vox looked back over at Charlie. Her eyes were filling up with tears. In a moment Alastor had appeared at her side laying a hand on her shoulder. Charlie turned toward him and started full on sobbing into his shoulder. Vox was surprised he stood there willingly, well at least until Vaggie showed up, then he gently passed Charlie over to her girlfriend before returning to Vox.“Well, that was unfortunate. But also, extremely unsurprising.” Vox grumbled. Alastor sighed in response, sitting back down with Vox.“Yes, I’d hoped for better from Angel but alas it is difficult to change one’s nature.”“You know the two of them are behind this article, right? This was all a trap.” Alastor just sighed again. After Charlie cancelled the activity for the day most of the guests left, but Vox and Alastor sat waiting in the lobby with Charlie for Angel to return. It wasn’t too much longer before the door opened and Husk appeared with a very tired Angel leaning heavily on him as they stumbled in.“Hiya everyone.” Angel called out with a grin and a wave. As he looked around though he seemed to take in the negative mood of the room around him. His bright smile quickly morphing into an apologetic one.“Angel where were you?” Charlie stomped over to him. The anger in her voice seeming to sober Angel up as he did his best to push himself off of Husk and stand to meet her.“Uh, ya see. During the shoot yesterday Val forced me to take some drugs and afterwards I didn’t want ya to see me high, so I stayed with some friends until I came down.” Angel rubbed the back of his neck nervously. Charlie pulled out a phone and shoved it in Angel’s face.“If it was just the drugs Val forced you to do, what’s this then?” Angel’s eyes went wide.“I, well I…” Angel looked away from the screen.“You did those yourself, didn’t you?” Angel looked like a kicked puppy.“I… yes. But Charlie you gotta understand, when I’m high, that’s not me. That’s why I’ve been staying sober, cause that’s not the me I wanna be. But I didn’t have a choice yesterday, Val made me, he…” Angel trailed off as Charlie turned away. Vox noticed she’d started crying again. Vaggie ever the protective girlfriend stepped in.“You made the hotel look bad Angel. You made Charlie look bad. You made us the laughingstock of hell; you erased all of Charlie’s hard work.”“I… I didn’t mean to.” Angel reached out a hand to Charlie, but Vaggie stepped in between them.“Go finish sobering up Angel.” Angel nodded and turned back to Husk. Husk offered him a sympathetic smile and Angel immediately went back to leaning on him, Husk lead him out of the lobby. Vox barely held back the eyeroll at the fact that Angel was being comforted by the person who’d caused his problem in the first place. Vox turned to comment to Alastor only to find him gone. Looking around he found him with Vaggie and Charlie, a hand on her shoulder, probably attempting to do damage control. Husk had managed to damage a foundational structure of the hotel. Angel was Charlie’s first patron, if Angel left, he imagined the fallout would be immense. It was absolutely infuriating to watch it all happen when he couldn’t just tell them. Vox might not care about the hotel or its denizens all that much, but he hated being backed into a corner. If anything, this made him more determined than ever to stop Lilith. She’d taken enough from him; she would not be winning this battle too. Tailing Husk was a full-time job. He was slipperier than an eel. Vox looked away for five seconds and Husk was off corrupting the guests. This was all very inconvenient for Vox since he was trying to use his time with Alastor to pry, except every time he got Alastor talking Husk would run off and ruin things. In just two days they’d prevented four drug deals, busted him over twenty times trying to sneak guests booze, and one time he’d gone as far as to try and seduce one of the guests who’d sworn off sex. That one had been objectively funny though. Husk had looked like a deer caught in the headlights when they found him. The sinner he had pinned against the wall looking embarrassed. They’d ushered her out and Husk’s expression had gone from surprised to annoyed at being foiled again.Now things were deceptively calm. Husk was at the bar, where he should be, and Alastor and Vox were lounging on the couch as per usual. Speaking of Husk’s failed sexcapade though, that would make for a great segue.“God I can’t get the face Husk made when we surprised him out of my head. He looked like his brain just stopped working for a minute. I can’t believe he used to be an overlord.” That earned him a chuckle out of Alastor.“Yes. He did look particularly ridiculous. Especially before we interrupted. Do people really find those ridiculous facial expressions enticing. If anyone looked at me like that, I’d be most inclined to laugh at them and then probably kill them.” Vox suddenly found himself very happy he’d never tried any overt advances on Alastor. But it made him wonder, was Alastor just born like this or was this caused by something. Did puberty just skip him. More questions he’d probably never receive an answer to. His thoughts were interrupted though by Alastor clearing his throat.“All these years and you still get all twitchy when you’re trying to hold your tongue. Just spit it out.” Vox felt a bit caught out at Alastor’s observance. He didn’t know how to respond, see Alastor said he wanted him to just ‘spit it out’ but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t rip Vox apart anyway for asking. But Vox was feeling bold and frankly he was tired of walking on eggshells.“Is that always how you’ve felt about… that. Like even when you were a teenager. Never got butterflies when some pretty girl bit her lip and looked at you coyly. Or maybe some hot guy with abs giving you the once over.” Alastor’s face twisted uncomfortably, and Vox stopped talking. Alastor quickly smoothed out his face before answering.“No.” Getting answers out of Alastor felt like trying to pull teeth. But if nothing else he had gained another small piece of the enigmatic puzzle that was Alastor. Vox decided to let it be. He knew better than to force Alastor to tell him more than he was willing to tell. So, they just sat in silence. It didn’t take long before Husk was up to his usual mischief. But as Husk ventured out from behind the bar, inevitably off to cause trouble somewhere, Vox found himself waiting behind. Leaving this problem for Alastor to solve. After almost a week of trying and failing to get Alastor to talk to him Vox decided to take a break and help someone who actually wanted the help.Angel had been moping around the hotel pitifully all week and Vox was tired of it. With Husk away from the bar Vox approached where Angel was sitting alone and took a seat beside him. Angel peaked over at him before going back to staring at his untouched drink.“Whataya want?”“You should talk to her.” Angel finally sat up and looked at him.“What? Why would I do that? She hates me right now.”“Well, ya, you fucked up.” Angel glared at him, but Vox didn’t let him speak. “Oh, quit the pity party. You fucked up. Now go apologize to her and promise it won’t happen again.” It suddenly occurred to Vox why Charlie was making them do those stupid activities, and even worse, they were working on him. Damn it.“What if she wont talk to me?” Vox rolled his eyes.“Didn’t she literally sing an entire song about saying sorry? She’ll probably cry like a baby if you apologize to her. She is not exactly the hardest woman in hell to please.” Angel nodded.“You’re right. I’m gonna go apologize.” With that Angel pushed himself away from the bar and marched toward the staircase. Well, there was one problem solved. The front door banged open, and Husk stomped back in followed by a very amused Alastor. And there came the other two problems he had to figure out. The last day of Charlie’s activity could not come soon enough. Vox sat miserably on the couch waiting for Charlie to come down and officially end his week of hell. He made sure to keep an eye on Husk at the bar, he didn’t trust Husk to not try and get one last sabotage in. Husk suddenly froze looking over to the staircase, Vox followed his eyes and saw Charlie and Angel walking down the stairs, arms linked and laughing about something. Well at least Vox was able to fix one thing. He looked back at Husk, he didn’t seem angry, just… dejected. Husk came out from behind the bar and headed over toward Angel and Charlie. Vox got up to intervene only to see Alastor pop up behind Husk as he went to open his mouth.“Oh, isn’t that lovely Husker, they’ve reconciled. I’d say this week’s activity has been a dashing success my dear Charlie. Congratulations.” Charlie smiled widely at Alastor.“Yes! I’m so proud of everyone. If they can do this there’s no reason they can’t achieve redemption. It really showed how committed everyone was.”“Exactly. I couldn’t have said it better. You’ve truly done a marvellous job of rehabilitating these sinners Charlie. You should be proud.” Vox thought Alastor was maybe laying it on a bit too thick, but Charlie burst into tears.“Thank you so much Alastor. That means the world to me.” She did her best to clear her tears. Vox suddenly felt a presence behind him.“Did you make my daughter cry?” Lucifer growled behind them. Lucifer wasn’t the king of hell he was the king of misreading situations. Both Alastor and Vox turned to face Lucifer’s angry gaze but before either of them could respond Charlie spoke up.“Dad I’m okay. I’m happy crying. I’m just so happy that my activity went so well, and Alastor was just telling me I was doing a good job, and I got a little emotional. I’m okay.” Lucifer’s expression didn’t really change. He looked back and forth between Alastor and Vox before pushing between them. As Lucifer led Charlie away, they were left with Husk and Angel. Angel completely unaware of the tension between everyone else, slung an arm over Vox’s shoulder.“Thanks for the advice, Vox. You were right too, if you thought those waterworks were bad you shoulda seen her when I apologized. It was like a busted fire hydrant. But all is forgiven and she even praised me for using what we talked about in our activity last week. I am officially back to being her favourite guest.” Vox noticed the look of annoyance from Husk and grinned at him.“No problem, Angel. Glad everything worked out.” With that Angel pulled away hooking an arm through Husk’s arm.“Alright all that apologizin’s got me thirsty. To the bar.” As they walked away Vox felt Alastor standing right behind him.“I see Charlie and the hotel are rubbing off on you.” God he hoped not. Vox spun to face Alastor who was smiling widely at him.“I was just trying to help you help Charlie. Don’t think too hard about it.”“Well thank you. You fixed a big problem for us.” Vox grunted a response before turning around and walking away. He could feel his screen heating up. Wasn’t that just terrible, a few nice words from Alastor and he was blushing like a schoolgirl. He needed to get a grip. Thankfully his baby-sitting duties were over so he could finally get some alone time. As he was walking up the stairs he paused when he heard Charlie calling out to everyone.“Hi everyone! I just wanted to say congratulations on completing our first weeklong activity. You really showed me your commitment to redemption and there’s no doubt in my mind that you will all get redeemed. Now to reward you all for a job well done, we’re going to have a party tonight.” Charlie paused and everyone cheered. “Buuuut. I still want you guys to show some of the restraint you did this week. Nothing crazy. We’ll have some good clean fun. I’ve got some fun games to play, and we’ll have some drinks.” There were some less enthusiastic cheers but overall, everyone still seemed happy.Charlie appeared to be done talking so Vox headed back upstairs. A party sounded like a recipe for disaster after a week of extreme restraint. But maybe they’d prove him wrong. Either way it would be an interesting night.
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“Alright does everyone have a drink? Let’s all gather in the middle; I’ve got some chairs so we can sit in a big circle.” Charlie gestured everyone to the seats all neatly arranged in the middle of the room. Vox found himself sitting between Alastor and some random sinner. He’d had a few drinks during the socialization part of the evening and had a pleasant buzz. Hopefully it would make whatever terrible game Charlie had planned more tolerable.Once everyone was sitting Charlie stood from her seat.“So, I wanted to do a get to know you game, I did some research and found two truths and a lie or never have I ever.” Before she even got the last word out of her mouth Angel was jumping from his seat.“Oo oo, never have I ever. Never have I ever! Please.” Husk went to interrupt Angel only for Angel to shoot him a glare. “Don’t you dare ruin this for me.” Charlie, completely oblivious and probably just happy about Angel’s enthusiasm, smiled widely.“Great. So how the game works is on your turn you say something you have never done and everyone who has done it takes a sip of their drink. Who wants to start?” Angel who had sat down immediately thrust his arm in the air. This was going to go well. “Great. Angel, you can start us off.” Angel grinned widely looking over at Vox and Alastor.“Never have I ever owned a soul.” Well, that was tamer than what Vox expected, he took a drink, noticing a few other players surprisingly drink. He noticed Alastor had not drank anything.“Alastor, you have to drink.” Alastor looked at him confused. “If you have owned a soul you drink.” He still looked confused but took a drink. Angel turned to Husk. Husk paused for a moment to think.“Okay. Never have I ever fucked a porn star.” Angel audibly choked on his drink. He shot Husk a playful glare and took a large swig of his drink. Vox and about half of the guests found themselves taking a drink.The play continued around the circle, Vox drinking more often than not and Alastor not drinking anything. Though he wasn’t 100% sure whether that was because he hadn’t done anything or because he didn’t understand the game. Finally, it was Alastor’s turn, and he still looked uncertain.“Maybe I should just skip my turn.”“No no no.” Angel interrupted, slurring a bit as he’d had quite a few drinks by this point. “Just say something you’ve never done. Like never have I ever had a human emotion.” Vox had to restrain himself from chuckling at that as the rest of the room filled with muffled laughter as people tried to hold back, no one wanting to piss off Alastor. As the laughter began to die down a voice spoke up from behind Vox.“How about never have I ever had sex.” Lucifer suggested. Everyone immediately shut up at the sudden appearance of the king. Alastor for his part did not react. Turning slightly to look at Lucifer over his shoulder and tilting his head almost playfully.“Hardly truthful. Actually, I do believe we have a conquest in common.” The room filled with outcries of disbelief, laughter, and then angered sputtering from Lucifer.“Excuse me?”“Oh, is your, what do they call it, body count, higher than one? I thought I was being obvious.” Vox sat frozen. Completely shocked. What was Alastor doing? Vox couldn’t get Alastor to answer a single one of his questions and here he was airing it all out to the public. Completely flippant. Was he that desperate to get under Lucifer’s skin he’d throw himself under the bus. Alastor was also dancing very close to the truth. Vox felt a small spark of anger ignite in him, the alcohol probably making it worse. Even if Alastor wasn’t aware of the consequences, it didn’t stop Vox from feeling agitated about Alastor putting his soul at risk just to get a dig in at Lucifer. Why was he being so indifferent? Vox watched Alastor as he kept pressing Lucifer’s buttons, revealing more to Lucifer than he’d been willing to tell Vox in weeks. But was Alastor completely indifferent? It was subtle but Vox noticed the way Alastor’s smile kept twitching downwards. No longer being held in place by Lilith’s magic, Alastor’s hidden distress was straining his ability to keep the smile in place. Vox was about to try and intervene when Lucifer finally snapped, lunging at a seemingly unbothered Alastor. Vox didn’t think. In a moment he was in between the two of them, not that it did much good. Without his power Lucifer easily knocked him out of the way. It did buy time though for Charlie to intervene. Before Lucifer could lay a finger on Alastor she was yanking her father away. Her eyes bright red and horns growing on her head, Vox recognized the changes from her battle with Adam. Clearly, she was very pissed off. She didn’t say a word as she dragged him out of the room. Vox chuckled at the comical image of Lucifer, king of hell, being dragged away by his fuming daughter. He looked up at Alastor figuring he’d be enjoying the spectacle, except Alastor looked angry. His hands were clenched at his sides, his back still turned.The room sat in silence as no one knew what to do. Vox slowly got to his feet, taking a step toward Alastor only for Alastor to turn to the bar and walk away. Vox surveyed the rest of the room and noticed Husk whispering in Angel’s ear, and almost immediately Angel was jumping to his feet.“Well, no reason to let that ruin the party. Al’s got the right idea let’s hit the bar!” There was a chorus of excited cheers as the group got to their feet.“Wait. Wait!” Vaggie’s words were drowned out by the excitable crowd around them. In a moment someone had found a speaker, and the lobby was filled with loud music. Bottles were being passed through the crowd and the group was getting rowdier by the second. How had this gotten so out of control? Vox noticed Vaggie trying to push through the crowd, but her small size made it difficult. He made his way over to her.“Do you need some help?” Vaggie looked up at him, immediately hostile, but after a second her face relaxed a bit.“I need to get everyone’s attention and get that music turned off. Charlie’s going to lose her mind if she comes back to this.” Vox nodded. He didn’t have any power, but Alastor did. One word from the scary Radio Demon and he was sure the crowd would get back in line. He pushed through the group, dodging elbows as everyone danced around drunkenly.Vox got to the bar and found Alastor sitting there, the entire bottle of whiskey in his hand. He lifted his hand and poured a generous amount down his throat. Great. He was also drunk.“Alastor.” Vox grabbed his shoulder, shaking it lightly. “We have to help Vaggie shut this down.” Alastor turned and glared at him. Well glared the best he could when his eyes were so unfocused.“I don’t need to do anything other than drink this bottle. Now get your hand off of me.” Alastor summoned a tentacle to remove Vox’s hand from his shoulder. Vox tried to restrain his anger.“Alastor. This party is getting more out of hand by the minute. What is Charlie going to think when she gets back?”“I don’t care what Charlie thinks! Or what you think! Just leave me alone!” With that Alastor used the tentacle around Vox’s wrist to throw him back into the crowd. Vox landed hard on the floor.He thought about going back, really letting Alastor have it. But what was the point? Alastor would just overpower him again. And the only reason he could was because Vox had given up his power for him. Maybe he should have expected this. Maybe this was all his fault. He knew who Alastor was. He thought it didn’t matter. Maybe it did.Vox got to his feet and headed straight for the staircase. This wasn’t his problem. It never was. He’d go to bed and let someone else deal with it. Vox sighed to himself. If the headache from the previous night of drinking was not bad enough… All day Alastor had been following him around. Vox refused to acknowledge him but that didn’t seem to be a deterrent. Even without any response Alastor just kept talking at him. At first Alastor had simply tried to pretend like nothing had happened, but the longer Vox ignored him the more unsure he was getting. Commenting on how drunk he’d been the night before, how he was upset about something else. He seemed to be dancing around an apology. The arrogant fuck probably didn’t even know how to apologize.“I didn’t mean to hurt you last night. I was upset and I reacted without thinking.” Dealing with Alastor truly was the most hellish experience of being in hell.“It’s fine.” Alastor perked up at those words.“Right then. Well, we have the day off today from hotel activities. Did you want to join me on an outing?” Vox wanted to smother him with a pillow but seeing as that wasn’t an option.“Sure.”As they walked into the lobby to head out Vox was surprised to find it filled with hotel guests all murmuring quietly and looking at their phones. Vox wasted no time pulling out his own phone and opening up his social media accounts.“Shit.” He showed his phone to Alastor. Front page of every site was a collage of photos from the out-of-hand party the previous night. The pictures were accompanied by a slew of venomous and slanderous headlines. Of course, all of the pictures had the Vee watermark. Vox felt his phone crunch in his hand. He was tired of his ex-business partners and their meddling.Vox grabbed Alastor by the arm and pulled him to the front door. Alastor surprisingly allowed it, following him out of the hotel without objection.They were about halfway to the city when Vox finally realized he didn’t have a plan. He also realized he was still dragging Alastor along. Vox was surprised he still had both his hands.“What am I doing?” Vox mostly just said to himself.“Oh, I thought we were going to murder someone. Is that not the plan?” As annoyed as Vox was, he wasn’t able to kill them, both physically and mentally unable. He needed to reason with them. Get them to back off. But he couldn’t confront them at the tower without getting in trouble with Lilith. He needed to find an opportunity somewhere else.“How would you feel about some late afternoon clubbing?” It was amusing watching how uncomfortable Alastor had become as the night progressed. The usually proud demon, beginning to hunker in on himself, looking around nervously. Vox considered this his payback for the previous night. As they sat at a booth for the past few hours waiting, they’d garnered a few odd looks from the other club visitors. Some shocked, others sent them knowing looks, one brave sinner had even invited Alastor to come dance. Alastor, who was obviously way out of his depth, had looked very much like the animal whose qualities he shared as he blurted out a rejection. Vox found it all very entertaining.Vox was also trying to subtly direct their conversation toward the previous night. Figure out why Alastor had acted the way he did, but every time he got close Alastor would clam up or change the subject. Vox was gearing up for another attempt when he felt a presence behind him.“Voxy. What are you doing here?” Vox felt Valentino lean over him, arms wrapping around his neck, and head resting on top of his screen. Vox probably should have spent more time thinking over what he was going to say to Val instead of chatting with Alastor, but this was Val. He knew exactly how Val’s debauched brain worked.“I came to see you of course.” Vox felt Val’s fingers run across his chest.“I’ve missed you.”“I’ve-” Vox paused as his eyes looked back at Alastor who was looking distinctly uncomfortable. He was trying to hide it, probably not wanting to show any weakness in front of another overlord. But Vox could see it in his eyes. Vox grabbed Val’s hands on his chest and held them as spun himself around to face Val.“I missed you as well. How are things at the tower?” Val immediately shifted from content to irritated.“It’s a mess without you around. Your replacement and Velvette are always going at it. And he is nowhere near as fun as you. I keep having to invite the common whores back to my room, not that they don’t have their own tricks to-”“Right. I’m sure that’s been very hard on you.” Vox cut him off and Val squinted at him. Probably trying to decipher why he was acting the way he was. They stared at each other for a moment before Val looked past him at Alastor. Vox did not like the nasty look Val got on his face.“So, was it worth it? Giving it all up. Was he as good in bed as you hoped.” Vox felt his screen heat up.“I- we…”“Actually, my degenerate fellow, unlike some people, just being in my presence is enough for most. I don’t need to debase myself to keep my friends around.” Val’s claws dug into the booth and Vox had to put himself in between them to stop Val from launching himself over the booth at Alastor.“I didn’t leave because of Alastor. But when I had no where else to stay, he offered me a place at the hotel. Which speaking of. I would appreciate it if you and Velvette would back off from the constant slander.” Val who was trying to look around him at Alastor finally looked back at Vox, face scrunched up in confusion.“What do you mean nowhere to stay? You’re always welcome to stay with me.” This was exactly why Vox left without a word in the first place, he couldn’t explain himself without breaking the deal.“I had to leave the tower. I can’t tell you why. But I didn’t leave willingly.” Val looked back at Alastor again, eyes filled with accusation.“Voxy tell me you did not make a deal with him? You did, didn’t you? You let your obsession go one step too far and you made a deal with him? I can’t believe any other way that you would lower yourself to staying at that hovel with the biggest imbeciles in hell. The joke of a princess and her neutered lap demon.” Vox felt Alastor’s power rising behind him. He needed to deescalate.“Val this isn’t his fault.”“Why else would you give up your overlord status, why else would you give up me if it wasn’t for him.” Well, he wasn’t wrong, but he couldn’t tell Val that. He needed to end this.“Maybe I was tired of it all. Staying on top is work, and staying with you is work. At the hotel I can actually relax for once. Kick back and spend time with an old friend and have no one expect anything from me.” Man when had he actually begun to enjoy his exile? “Also, for your information, Charlie isn’t an idiot she’s actually very good at what she does.” Val watched him for a few moments silently before storming off in a huff. Vox felt himself slowly relax. He turned back to face Alastor who was watching him. Vox couldn’t tell what he was thinking but his stare seemed to penetrate right into his soul. He needed to get away.“I need to use the washroom.” Vox got up and walked quickly to the washrooms. He felt distraught. He hated being so terrible to Val but also, he wasn’t exactly lying. And what was up with Alastor? Why was he looking at him like that? What the hell was that supposed to mean?Vox was so distracted in his inner turmoil that he wasn’t paying attention to what was going on around him. He’d barely walked through the door to the washrooms when there was a rough hand on his shoulder shoving him into a wall.“You really shouldn’t be wandering around alone. You’re not a high and mighty overlord anymore, you might get hurt.” Vox felt a wash of panic run down his spine. His attacker was right. He kept forgetting just how powerless he was right now. Before he could try and barter for his life, he felt claws rake down his back. He yelped only to be cut off by his screen being smashed into the wall, silencing him. A few more hits were directed at his back and head while Vox struggled in vain, and then in an instant it was over. Vox waited for another blow that never came before slowly turning to find the three demons who had attacked him backing away further into the bathroom. Vox looked toward the open door where Alastor stood leaning against the doorframe. Alastor didn’t say anything, just grinned maniacally at them, before suddenly tentacles came out from his back. Reaching out for the other demons, dragging them kicking and screaming across the washroom floor and back to Alastor. Alastor’s body contorted until his mouth was large enough to plop the three sinners in one at a time. There was a sickening crunch as he chewed and then Alastor was back to normal like nothing had happened. Sometimes Vox let himself forget just who he spent his time with, this was quite the reminder.“Uh thanks.”“You’re welcome.” Alastor responded happily. With that he turned back to leave the bathroom and Vox followed after.
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Alastor spent the walk back to the hotel chatting animatedly. It had taken almost the entire trip back, but Vox had finally gotten him talking about the previous night.“I just get so enraged that people use my lack of sexual interest as a way to one up me, like it’s some defect. So, I used the ammunition I had to get one over on our idiotic king. It was definitely worth it to see him react so hilariously at being humiliated in front of everyone. As for-” Alastor was abruptly cut off by the appearance of one furious fallen angel. Speak of the devil.“Do you really get that much joy from ruining my daughter’s hotel!” Lucifer, who must have been watching for their return, now stood blocking their entrance to the hotel.“I have no idea what you are referring to.” Alastor met Lucifer’s anger with amused indifference.“Last night. I know you were behind that fiasco. How dare you make my daughter look bad; you’ve ruined her reputation.” Lucifer sounded like a broken record and Alastor looked completely unbothered as the king got all up in his face. Vox on the other hand was bothered enough for the both of them after Alastor’s revelation a few seconds ago. Who did Lucifer think he was? Alastor was just trying to help.“Last I checked Alastor wasn’t the one who threw a tantrum last night, forcing Charlie to escort you to a time-out and allowing the chaos to occur.” Lucifer’s incensed gaze turned on Vox, but before he could retort, it was Alastor who lost control. Going from unbothered to seething in seconds. Vox felt the radio waves exploding from Alastor as he shoved past Lucifer. Storming into the hotel and through the lobby. Vox and Lucifer both just watched in shock as Alastor left. After a moment Vox followed after him. What had just happened? Alastor seemed completely fine after Lucifer’s comment so was it something he had said? All he had done was insult Lucifer, why would that piss off Alastor.Vox followed Alastor all the way up to his room where the door was surprisingly left open. Vox walked in, feeling extremely uncertain. Alastor was standing in the middle of the room, back to him.“Are you okay?” Vox asked unsure. Alastor turned around to face him. Anger gone, if anything he looked more resigned.“It didn’t take you all that long to move on, did it?” Wait what? What the actual fuck?“Move on? From what?” Alastor scoffed.“You’ve seen me at my lowest and deemed me no longer worthy, so you’ve replaced me. Found a new rival to challenge.” A new what? Vox felt like the rug had been pulled right out from underneath him.“I- what?”“Stop playing stupid. Ever since the Kaia-” Alastor’s entire body twitched as he spat out her name. “Incident. You’ve been treating me like a broken toy. I’m an overlord and yet you treat me like a hurt child who needs to be babied. You think I’m inferior now that you’ve seen my weakness, so you’ve moved on to a new rival.” What? If anything, he was the inferior one, he had no power.“Are you kidding? You’re not weak. I’m the one with no power.” Alastor paused. The corner of his lip twitching down.“Then it must be because I can’t reciprocate your feelings.” Now Vox was completely confused.“What do my feelings have to do with anything?” Now Alastor was truly frowning, after all these years of deranged smiling the frown seemed even more disconcerting. “You know, I never wanted to believe it. Though most people think otherwise, I’m not completely oblivious. I knew no matter the cause you did have an unhealthy obsession; I just assumed it was anger or envy.” Vox opened his mouth to interrupt but Alastor’s piercing glare quickly shut him up. “Rosie had other ideas. I always shut her down because clearly you were only so obsessed because you knew I was the superior overlord. But I guess I was wrong. This was all to do with whatever twisted perverse feelings you have for me. And since you’ve found out I can’t reciprocate them, it seems you’ve replaced me. Found a new rival to challenge to keep up your twisted games with.” Vox truly did not understand where this was coming from. He’d accepted Alastor’s non-interest and had been content with his friendship instead. Why would Alastor think he was replacing him?“What new rival? Alastor what the hell is this about?”“Ever since Lucifer showed up you’ve been finding every opportunity to go at him.” Vox had to restrain himself from laughing. Alastor sounded like a petulant child.“Uh Al. I promise I’m not trying to seduce the king of hell or whatever you think is going on. I thought we were a team. I thought we were taking on Lucifer together. And besides I thought you hated me being obsessed with you like that, that’s why I stopped. I’m not trying to baby you or whatever you think. I’m trying to help. You’ve been through hell and since we are friends now, I just want to help you.” Alastor opened his mouth to interrupt but Vox wasn’t done talking.“This is hell, I have all of eternity to be with anyone else, but right now I don’t want anyone else. So even if I can’t be your everything, I want to be your something because that’s better than being your nothing.” He paused for a second, but Alastor remained silent. “I’m not trying to replace you. But in order for both of us to be happy our relationship needs to change, evolve. I know you seem to be stuck in the past but sometimes change is good.” Vox finally stopped talking and there was silence as they both stood watching each other. Alastor’s frown was gone, his face more neutral now.“Stop being such a sap, it’s unbecoming.” Vox was about to retort when he noticed Alastor’s mouth had turned up into a fond smile.“Right of course. We don’t talk about our feelings here. Please forgive me.” Vox rolled his eyes. Alastor took a step toward him, hand lifting uncertainly before he wrapped his arm around Vox’s shoulders.“I could use a drink. How about you?”“Oh god yes.” Vox sat at the bar in the hotel lobby with Alastor, scrolling through his gazillion unread messages from Val. Since they left the club Val had been spamming his phone non-stop. The messages had started off nice enough. Begging him to come back, promising he’d do better. Then they started getting nasty, calling him and Alastor all sorts of colourful names, cursing the hotel. And just like a pendulum they swung back to syrupy sweet, promising he’d treat him right, whenever he got tired of waiting around for “the prude” he knew where to find him. Then the threats started, culminating with a vague but no less concerning promise that he would regret this. At that point Vox simply blocked him and put his phone down on the bar, sighing deeply.“You know Val is going to retaliate?” Vox looked over at Alastor to see his reaction but as per usual he looked unbothered.“Let the moth try, I’ll enjoy removing his wings in the most painful way possible so that they might be repurposed as his burial shroud.” Vox hoped it wouldn’t come to that. He still cared about Val, but Vox couldn’t protect himself anymore and Val was impulsive. If it came down to it Vox wouldn’t have much of a say in the outcome, Alastor would protect the hotel and his friends, he’d just have to hope Val wouldn’t be an idiot. Vox stood with Alastor and the rest of the hotel guests listening to Charlie explain her next activity.“Since last week’s activity went mostly really well, I want to do another weeklong activity.” There was a chorus of groans, but Charlie was undeterred. “This one will be fun though I promise, it’s almost Christmas time on earth so I wanted to do a sort of confidential Santa activity.” Vaggie whispered something in Charlie’s ear.“Secret Santa yes. Everyone has to secretly do something nice for their person and then at the end of the week they reveal what they did. It can be a gift or just doing a favour for them. But you have to keep it a secret.”“What about a sexual favour?” Angel expectantly piped up. Charlie smiled uncomfortably.“Uh no.” She paused for a second before continuing on. “Anyway, so I put everyone’s name in a hat so if everyone can come up and grab a name.”As everyone else excitedly made their way to the front Vox sighed. Time for another week of tailing Husk as he inevitably tries to fuck things up. Vox unenthusiastically made his way up to the front to pull a name. He didn’t have any money, so he didn’t have a clue on how he was going to do this activity. When it was his turn, he reached a hand in and pulled out a name, opening his small slip of paper he couldn’t believe his luck.“Who did you get?” Alastor tried to peer over his shoulder. Vox quickly hid his slip of paper.“It’s a secret.” Alastor chuckled but relented, reaching in to get his own slip. Vox looked back down at his own paper. Out of everyone, how had he managed to pull Alastor’s name. What the hell was he supposed to get him, a dead body? He stuffed the paper into his pocket, turning back to Alastor.“So back to Husk surveillance duty?” Alastor who had been looking intently at his piece of paper looked up and glanced around the room. Vox noticed Husk and Angel at their usual spots over at the bar. Vox nodded his head toward them and they made their way over to the bar.As they took their seats at the bar Husk audibly groaned. Alastor just smiled even more widely, clearly, he enjoyed screwing with Husk beyond what was necessary to stop Lilith. Though Husk was unimpressed with their presence Angel on the other hand seemed extremely happy. His smile bordering on sinister as he scooted his chair closer to Alastor, propping himself up on his elbow on the bar and smiling widely at him. Alastor looked over at him, obviously just as confused as Vox.“Can I help you with something?” Angel just grinned wider. “So, Alastor, while I’ve got ya here. I’ve been dyin to know who you were talking about during never have I ever.” Vox waited for the inevitable blow up that came from Angel poking the bear, but instead Alastor chuckled.“Well, a gentleman never names names, but it was hardly some grand affair like you’re imagining. I only did it because someone triggered an alarm while breaking into her house and I had to distract her.” Alastor side-eyed Vox, all light humour, but Vox froze in horror. Contrarily Angel burst out laughing.“Seriously! You’re a prude unless it comes to aiding and abetting a crime?” Vox didn’t hear Alastor’s response, too lost in his own internal spiralling. He knew Alastor had slept with Lilith as a distraction but the fact he’d only resorted to it because Vox had fucked up… He’d assumed Alastor had gone in planning to use himself as a distraction but now, well now he knew that wasn’t the plan. Vox tripped that alarm and Alastor made a choice. Let Lilith return and catch him and probably kill him, or…Vox abruptly stood up from his chair. The other three turned to look at him, oblivious to his mental breakdown. “I uh, need to go lie down. I’m not feeling well.” He didn’t wait for a response. Vox quickly made his way back to his room. He did his best to keep himself together as he made his way through the hallways but inside, he was spiralling deeper and deeper. All this time he’d been trying to help Alastor when he’d caused the problem in the first place. It was all his fault.
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Vox felt like an overworked janitor following Husk around and cleaning up his messes. One overworked janitor with a comedian for an assistant. Alastor had spent the past two days being his usual jovial self as they corrected any acts of sabotage done by Husk. They’d already had to reclean a room a sinner had cleaned for their secret Santa and Husk had messed up, steal back a gift Husk had stolen, as well as fix a few messes Husk had done just for the fun of if. Probably hoping to pin the blame on the victim’s secret Santa. Vox was tired. He was running himself ragged and he hadn’t slept in two days. Every time he closed his eyes all he could see was Alastor, the day he appeared in his office, the day after he’d used himself as a distraction. Vox had been all excited to tell him his news about Lilith’s meeting with Lute. So excited that he ignored that haunted look in Alastor’s eyes. So high off his own success he let Alastor brush him off, let him sweep it all under the rug like it was no big deal when he was clearly hurt. Vox should’ve pushed further.“Thank you.” Vox found himself blurting out, interrupting whatever Alastor had been talking about.“Whatever for?” Alastor watched him curiously.“For what you did with Lilith.” Alastor looked distinctly uncomfortable.“What are friends for?” He joked, his smile no longer reaching his eyes.“I’m being serious. You could’ve left me for dead.”“Well yes, but I also would’ve lost my own chance at freedom, and look, everything worked out, don’t worry so much.” Before Vox could retort Alastor was already walking away, off to find whatever new mess Husk had made. Vox restrained his annoyance and followed after him. Fresh off cleaning up yet another attempt at sabotage by Husk, Alastor and Vox headed back to the lobby to grab a drink. Walking in Vox was surprised at how busy it was, most of the hotel was gathered in the lobby. Had they missed a meeting? As the door shut behind them everyone’s heads turned to face them. And then the whispering started. Vox noticed most of them had their phones out and were showing something to each other. Vox felt the dread creeping down his spine. He pulled out his phone and opened his socials. There was a post titled The Radio is Broken. Underneath was a video. Vox pressed play. Valentino and Velvette were sitting in his old office on his desk. Velvette grinned widely at the camera.“Hello everyone. This just in, the juiciest gossip in all of hell. As everyone knows, Vox, our ex-coworker, ran off to play house with the Radio Demon.” Not this again. Talk about beating a dead horse. But Vox kept watching as Valentino interjected.“Unfortunately for poor Voxy he seems to have bet all his money on the defective pony.” Vox felt like he’d had a bucket of cold water dumped on him. He chanced a glance at Alastor who was staring at the video completely devoid of emotion. There was a slight twitch of his eye as Velvette continued talking.“All these years we’ve assumed that Alastor just thought he was better than all of us or maybe he just killed anyone he fucked so there wouldn’t be any witnesses to his private life. Turns out though he’s just broken. No different than a small child who never hit puberty. Claims to be the big bad Radio Demon when he’s scared of a little sex. Like a little boy scared of cooties.” Velvette laughed.“I still think he just needs a good fuck to fix him.” Val added, thrusting his hips toward the camera.Vox cut the video. He could feel the radio-waves in the air. He looked back at Alastor, expecting rage, but instead his face just looked frozen. His grin was still in place, but he was still staring blankly at Vox’s phone. After another second of silence Alastor looked up at Vox. And there it was again. That look. Without a word Alastor slipped into his shadows leaving Vox alone in the whispering crowd. Vox didn’t know what to do. He looked around at everyone, all clearly watching him as they pretended not too. Vox had had enough of this.“Do you idiots believe everything you hear on the news. Get a fucking hobby.” Vox pushed his way through the group to head upstairs. He hoped Alastor was in his tower otherwise he had no idea where else to check. Vox stood in front of the door. He hesitated to knock. What the hell was he supposed to say?He would probably have stood there hesitating forever if there wasn’t a loud crashing sound inside. Vox flung the door open in time to see Alastor fling a piece of equipment at the wall.“Alastor!” Alastor turned to him, his antlers had grown out on his head and his eyes were radio dials that seemed to look right through him. His hands were clutching at his head. Vox could see the claws digging into his scalp and the blood flowing down his head. “Alastor.” Alastor’s eyes flickered back to normal, finally focusing on Vox, and the two of them stared at each other. Alastor slowly let go of his head, antlers shrinking back to normal. He let out a long sigh before walking over to his chair and taking a seat. Alastor rubbed a hand over his face and motioned to his other chair, Vox took a seat. They sat silently for a bit longer before Vox decided to speak up.“You’re not broken.” There was a flash of anger on Alastor’s face before it softened.“I know. I learned to accept this part of me a long time ago, but that doesn’t mean I like to have it shoved in my face by my enemies. Even then, I wouldn’t usually give them the satisfaction of a reaction, but these days I just can’t…” Vox waited to see if he was going to keep talking but when Alastor just sat frozen, he spoke up.“You know why… right?” Alastor sighed.“Yes, yes. No need to talk about them.”“But maybe you should.” Alastor glared at him. “Okay well then just keep ignoring it, it seems to be working oh so well for you so far. Why do you have to be so fucking stubborn? You agree that they got in your head, so maybe talking about it will help get them out of your head.” Alastor kept glaring at him silently. Vox was about to admit defeat and leave him alone when Alastor sighed again.“I just, I have never felt so… powerless in my entire life or afterlife. I have always been the one calling the shots, always the boogeyman everyone else was afraid of. I was and always have been untouchable. Until Kaia. I’m no stranger to torture, heck I’ve been known to indulge just for the fun of it. But there was something so… different about this, so… wrong. And then Lilith.” Vox felt himself flinch. Now that he knew the truth it was so much worse. “She’d made advances over the years; I’d rebuffed her, and she’d never pushed. But when my distraction didn’t work, and you were going to get caught I had to make a decision. Distract her with the only thing I knew she couldn’t resist. And somehow it was worse than with Kaia. Kaia, I had no choice, but I volunteered myself up on a platter for Lilith. It was my choice, my fault.” Vox could see the anger building up in Alastor again as his claws dug into his chair. He doubted there was anything he could say that would change Alastor’s mind. But he had to try.“I know you won’t listen to me because you think I’m an idiot-”“I don’t-” Vox shot him a look; Alastor rolled his eyes but gestured at him to continue.“I know you won’t listen to me but maybe you’ll listen to yourself. Remember during the extermination when you took on Adam one on one and got your shit absolutely rocked.” Alastor frowned.“Yes. Thank you for the reminder.”“My point is, did you blame yourself for sacrificing yourself to save your friends? No-”“Yes.” Vox just stared at Alastor for a moment.“Alastor what the fuck?”“Oh, calm yourself, I have since realized the error of my ways. At the time I was mostly just annoyed that I’d almost gotten myself killed being so… selfless. What would the papers say, the Great Radio Demon, got himself killed protecting his little friends.” Alastor paused for a moment before sighing and continuing. “But I understand your point. I didn’t choose to be hurt; I chose to save you.” Vox felt a little spark of something at Alastor’s words. He’d known what happened but something about hearing it said out loud. Vox was also impressed they’d gotten this far; he decided not to push him anymore. He’d give Alastor an out.Vox did his best to put on an air of indifference.“Stop being such a sap, it’s unbecoming.” Alastor just stared at him blankly for a moment before chuckling.“Fair enough.” They sat in a comfortable silence for a few minutes before Vox reminded himself that Alastor wasn’t the only one keeping secrets.“I have to tell you something… about my deal with Lilith.” Vox looked at Alastor nervously. “Lilith didn’t want to risk the original deal, so she added the stipulation that if either of us talks about her or the deal… my soul will be forfeit.” Vox looked anywhere but at Alastor, but he could feel his eyes boring into his head.“Vox what did you do?” Vox looked back at Alastor who looked completely bewildered.“I didn’t really have an option. I wasn’t exactly in a position to barter.” Vox flinched at the anger growing on Alastor’s face, but instead of blowing up on him Alastor took a slow breath in.“I’m going to fix this.” Alastor nodded to himself. Vox chuckled drily. He appreciated the sentiment, but he knew he’d absolutely fucked himself. There was no escaping his deal. And that was okay. It was worth it.Alastor looked back at him peculiarly.“Why are you just telling me this now?” Vox felt his screen get a bit heated.“I… well… I thought you’d choose Charlie over me. Choose to tell her, to save her and her hotel the easy way. I wouldn’t blame you, up until a few weeks ago we were rivals.” Alastor watched him for a few seconds before his face broke into a wry smile.“Since when have you ever known me to do anything the easy way. Were going to defeat Lilith fair and square. Don’t worry about your silly little soul, it and your power will be yours after I’m done making her wish she had never stepped foot in hell.” Vox felt a part of him that had been tense since he made the deal finally relax. Alastor wasn’t just going to throw him under the bus.Alastor was opening his mouth to say something more when he was interrupted by a loud bang. Vox strained his hearing and realized he could hear yelling somewhere else in the hotel. They both jumped to their feet, Vox, half expecting Alastor to melt off into the shadows, was surprised when he ran out into the hall with him.As they got to the stairs down to the lobby they were met by chaos. The room was filled with all of the guests, yelling at each other. Pushing their way through the crowd Vox heard snippets of the yelling around them.“What kind of lunatic leaves a bunch of dead cats on someone’s bed and calls it a ‘gift’.”“She threw out all my make-up and clothes and called it spring cleaning!”“You think that’s bad my ‘secret Santa’ stole all my money and said it was to save me from temptation.”“Why the fuck would you mix coke into all of my food?!” Vox was beginning to get an idea of what had happened. Had Husk managed to do all this while they were busy? Vox felt Alastor’s hand on his arm as he pulled him through the crowd. Vox saw Angel clutching Husk’s arm and arguing with Charlie. Angel and Charlie were practically at each other’s throats while Husk was trying to hide his obvious satisfaction with the situation.Angel got right up in Charlie’s face.“You know what, I don’t even wanna be redeemed anyhow! You can take all your purity crap and shove it up your ass. You think you’re helping people? I’m perfectly happy staying in hell where I can have all the drugs I want and stay with Husk.” Vox felt like a lightbulb had gone off in his head. How had they missed it. The pièce de résistance. Husk forcing himself between Angel and Charlie. Making Angel choose between being saved or being with Husk. They’d been outplayed and out maneuvered. Vox went to try and get in between Angel and Charlie when he felt Alastor’s hand, still on his arm, yank him backwards. Turning around he found Lucifer and Vaggie crowding them in.“This is all your fault! I know you’re behind this shit!” Vaggie jabbed a finger at Alastor’s chest.“You happy now you smiley freak? You ruined her hotel. You proud of yourself?” “Hey-” Vox started to interrupt.“Enough!” Alastor sent a wave of power out over the room. The loud room was instantly silent, everyone turning to look at him. “I’ve had just about enough of this. I’m going to fix this problem once and for all.” With that Alastor melted into his shadows. Shit, shit, shit. Everyone else looked around confusedly. They didn’t understand. Alastor was going off to confront Lilith. He was going to get himself killed. This was all his fault, Lilith was going to kill Alastor, or worse. He needed to do something. But what could he do? Lilith had all his power, he had nothing. He couldn’t save anyone right now. Vox noticed everyone had started looking at him. His screen was probably malfunctioning, but he didn’t care. Alastor was going off to his death. He needed to do something.Vox’s eyes locked with Charlie. He couldn’t do anything. But she could. He didn’t even hesitate, speaking across the quieted lobby.“Your mother, Lilith, is behind all of this. She’s been using Husk as a puppet to cause chaos at the hotel because she’s working with Lute to destroy it. Part of the deal I made with her to free Alastor’s soul prevented us from warning you about her. Now Alastor’s going to confront her on his own to try and stop her. She’s going to kill him Charlie.” Charlie looked at him, her face a mix of shock and disbelief.“How do I know you’re not lying?” As if on cue green chains clamped around Vox’s throat and wrists. In a moment he was yanked from the hotel. He could only hope that was enough proof for Charlie.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Alastor POV
“I’ve had just about enough of this. I’m going to fix this problem once and for all.” Alastor steeled himself before slipping into his shadows. The last thing he saw was Vox’s horrified face. Alastor didn’t really know where Lilith was, but he figured her house was as good a place as any to start. He appeared in front of the door, he couldn’t be bothered with knocking and simply knocked the door in. He took a few steps into the house and immediately realized it was empty. Of course she would move since she knew her house was compromised, it was to be expected, but maybe she left something behind. Alastor took a few more steps inside before he felt a presence behind him.“Hello Alastor. What brings you here? Did you miss me that much?” He spun to find Lilith standing in the entryway. He felt every muscle in his body tense as she smiled, stalking slowly toward him. Alastor watched her silently. His body completely frozen waiting for an opportunity to strike. Lilith strode right up to him, getting much too close but Alastor stayed put, she would easily block him if he attacked now. He needed to wait for his chance. He’d bide his time. She reached out a hand, tracing it along his collar bone as she circled behind him. “I missed you.” She whispered in his ear. Alastor felt his stomach turn. He could feel his hands shaking in anticipation. Lilith returned to his front, reaching a hand up to touch his ears. Before she could make contact, Alastor’s brain was completely taken over by panic, he didn’t think. Reaching out with a tentacle he swatted her forcefully away from him, slamming her into the wall. He heard her laugh as she got to her feet. “Fair enough. You want to play rough; I can play rough.” With a flick of her wrist a wall of green power smashed into him. Alastor did his best to block her attack, but it was still extremely painful. But he was able to block it. That meant he had a chance. Alastor let his body grow and contort until he towered over Lilith. He lunged at her. She attempted to use her power against him, but his size easily overpowered her, and he was able to get a slash in at her face before she rolled out from under him. Alastor turned to face her; a giant red wound cut diagonally across her face. All lightness had disappeared.“You know the only reason I didn’t kill you right after our deal was annulled was due to a lingering sense of nostalgia for the good old days. You’ll find those feelings of charity are long gone and will not protect you now.” Lilith held up her hand and clenched it into a fist. Alastor felt like his head was being crushed like a soda pop can. He automatically shrunk back to his normal size, clutching at his head. He hadn’t even noticed Lilith moving until there was another set of hands in his hair. Alastor focused back on her as she smiled down at him. He reached up to slash at her again but she easily side stepped him. He flung out a tentacle at her, it barely grazed her, but it managed to interrupt her control and the pain in his head dissipated. Lilith looked like she was about to try something else, and Alastor braced himself, only for her to pause. She laughed then smiled at Alastor victoriously. Alastor felt a dark sense of foreboding. Lilith snapped her fingers and suddenly Vox was standing between them. What was he doing there? Vox looked up at him, “sorry” he mouthed. Alastor didn’t understand, until the green chains appeared around his throat and wrists.“No…” What had Vox done?“Come here pet.” Vox turned away and walked over to Lilith. “Kneel.” Vox dropped to his knees at her feet. Alastor felt his last meal rising up his throat. Lilith reached a hand down, running a finger along one of the antennae on Vox’s head. Her eyes were glued on Alastor though, not even sparing a glance for the ex-overlord at her feet.“I’ve been oh so lonely this past month, I missed having you at my beck and call.” Lilith sighed dramatically, before looking down at Vox. “I guess he’ll have to do.” Alastor felt his blood run cold.“What? No!” She grinned at him like the cat that got the canary.“Unless maybe you wanted to make a new deal?” Alastor felt like he couldn’t breathe. Everything fell away around him, his vision tunnelling in on her hand stroking at Vox’s head. This was his deal. He couldn’t let Vox be punished for his own stupidity.“My soul for his.” Vox did his best to bend his neck to look back at Alastor. Vox shook his head at him, but Alastor knew what needed to be done. This wasn’t Vox’s deal, it was his.Lilith laughed; Alastor looked back at her.“Oh, you’ll have to do better than that. I’ve acquired quite the asset here. With all of his fancy technology and influence, he’ll be a lot more useful than some hazbin overlord.” Lilith paused, looking over at Alastor, she tapped a long nail on her chin as if thinking hard about something. “Well unless you can think of anything else you have to offer… to sweeten the deal.” Alastor felt his entire body overcome with panic. He couldn’t. He pulled his eyes away from his living nightmare to look back at Vox, on his knees, chains wrapped around his neck and arms. Chains that Alastor effectively put there.Alastor slowly approached Lilith. Every step felt like he was walking through molasses but in no time, he was right in front of her. Lilith watched him expectantly. Alastor lifted his hand slowly, like he could delay the inevitable. He flinched as his hand made contact with her cheek. He began to lean forward, every instinct fighting him, when suddenly he felt a hand on his leg. Looking down he found Vox looking up at him pleadingly, mouth moving but no sound coming out. So, it seemed the chatterbox did have a mute button, that would’ve been nice to know. Alastor managed to muster up a small smile.“This is my burden not yours old pal. And like you said I’m not choosing her I’m choosing you.” Alastor steeled himself and quickly brought his face to Lilith’s, not giving himself another second to hesitate. He felt that cold nauseous feeling run through his veins as his lips made contact with hers. He didn’t know whether to feel thankful or not, but at that point Lilith finally took charge. Pulling him in closer and Alastor just did his best to follow her lead, no matter how disgusting he felt. He found himself wondering absentmindedly if this was how Angel felt at work or if this horrible feeling was reserved just for him. He felt Lilith’s hands wandering lower. He just needed to stay still. Just wait it out. He expected her hands to immediately go for his pants but instead he felt her grab his free hand, pulling it to her leg. He was met with bare skin where she’d hiked up her dress. Lilith pulled back from their kiss and brought her lips to his ear.“You know what to do.” Well, that was an overstatement of his knowledge on the subject, but he got the gist. He slowly brought his hand up her leg, moving as slow as he thought she would let him get away with, and as he finally reached that spot in between her legs she groaned in his ear. Alastor pulled his hand back like he’d been burned. He shoved her off. Backing away, he felt his ears pin unbiddenly against his head and a vague pain in his shoulders. Looking down he noticed he’d wrapped his arms across his chest and his claws were digging in.“That tacky moth was right. You are broken.” Alastor looked back at Lilith who was glaring at him. He felt a different kind of panic run through him. He’d messed up. All he’d had to do was what Lilith told him to do. And he couldn’t even do that.Fighting his fear he tried to reapproach.“I’m sorry. Can I try again?” He felt pitiful begging for her to put her hands on him again. But he needed to try, he couldn’t just leave Vox to her. Lilith laughed.“You had your chance, I guess I’ll be keeping…” Lilith looked back down at Vox before pausing. Her furious frown twisting into a terrifying smile. She looked back at Alastor. “You know, our little tv friend here gave up a lot for you, and you couldn’t even do one simple thing for him. I think it’s time he gets what he wants.” Alastor looked back at Vox who was frantically shaking his head at Lilith. She smiled down at Vox. “Go ahead. Take what you’ve always wanted.” Vox got to his feet, eyes locking on Alastor. Even with his screen still muted Alastor could easily tell he was saying “No” over and over again. Alastor didn’t know what to do. His instincts yelled at him to run, but he couldn’t just leave Vox here with her. With each step Vox was rapidly getting closer and Alastor was running out of time. He couldn’t see a way out; he would just have to come back for Vox. Alastor began dissolving into his shadows only to feel something wrap around his waist, dragging him out of the shadows and throwing him into the wall. Alastor lost his breath as he smashed into the wall, looking back at Vox he noticed the cables coming from his back. Clearly, he had his powers back. Vox quickly closed the distance between them, and Alastor found himself cornered. Vox was on him in an instant. Alastor created a barrier around himself just in time for Vox to slam into it. Vox began banging on the barrier, it wouldn’t hold long, but it would give Alastor a chance to think. He needed to find a way to incapacitate Vox without hurting him, but what would that even accomplish, Lilith had clearly overpowered him during their fight. He needed help.“Mom?” Alastor looked to the doorway of the house and found Charlie standing there, accompanied by a few members of the hotel. The calvary had come, and just in time, but why were they even here? Alastor looked back at Vox who was madly scratching at his barrier. Vox must have broken his deal to send him help. When would this idiotic box stop sacrificing himself for him.Alastor looked back to the others hoping for some help. Charlie and Vaggie were squaring off with Lilith, but it seemed Angel was coming to his rescue. How amusing. But he didn’t want to hurt Vox, so he’d accept Angel’s help. Angel reached out a hand to grab at Vox only for something to barrel him down. Angel smashed into a wall, held there by Husk. Alastor watched Angel struggle and plead but Husk couldn’t stop himself. Yet another one of Lilith’s puppets. Alastor’s attention was torn away from Angel and Husk as Vox landed one more hit to his barrier, dissolving it around him. Without further ado Vox had wrapped his cables around Alastor’s limbs, pinning him to the wall. Alastor thought about fighting, but he couldn’t hurt him, this wasn’t Vox’s fault, it was his fault. And Charlie was here. He just had to wait it out.Vox came right up to him, Alastor tried to pull away but couldn’t do much without fighting.“What are you doing?” Vox whispered, his face awash with panic and guilt even as his hands reached out to touch Alastor’s face. Alastor pulled his face away only for Vox to reach for his hair instead. Alastor felt Vox grip his head tightly before, without further ado, he slammed it back into the wall, hard. Alastor tried to pull away, tried to get his limbs free but Vox just smashed his head back again. He pulled into his dwindling power supply, summoning his tentacles to attempt to fend Vox off. Vox responded by smashing his head back again and again, harder and faster until Alastor was seeing stars and practically went limp against the wall. Vox finally let go, reaching for Alastor’s face again. Alastor had to fight back every instinct that told him to bite the offending hands, and he had to restrain himself from vomiting as he felt Vox press their bodies together. Alastor looked everywhere except for at Vox, but Vox dragged his head toward him. Alastor was surprised to see anger on his screen.“Alastor. Fight back!” Vox dragged his hands down Alastor’s body, until they reached the hem of his shirt, untucking it from his pants. Alastor just smiled up at him.“It’s not your fault.” Vox’s eyes widened.“No! You need to stop me!” Alastor felt the clawed hands slithering up his stomach, groping at the unexposed skin. It was okay, he’d be okay. He just had to wait it out. He tried to let his mind drift somewhere else, imagining what it would be like to rip Lilith to pieces, but his daydreams were shattered by Vox’s nonstop talking. “Not like this. Not like this.” Alastor focused back on Vox who was currently unfastening Alastor’s pants while also having a mental breakdown it seemed.“Vox.” It was like the other didn’t even hear him, just continued his panicked refrain. “Vox!” This time the wild digital eyes fixated on him. Alastor ignored the hands tugging at his waistband, focusing on Vox. “It’s okay. It’s not your fault. I know she’s making you do this. I don’t blame you. It’ll be ok-ay.” Alastor’s voice hitched as Vox’s hands were back on him.“I’m so sorry.” Alastor’s brain wanted to spiral, but he needed to stay focused on Vox.“It’s okay. Charlie will stop Lilith. It’ll be over soon. We’ll be okay.” Alastor was finding it increasingly difficult to focus on Vox as his vision swam. Vox had probably concussed him. He did his best to give Vox one more supportive smile before taking the easy way out and leaving his fate in his friends’ hands.
Vox POV
“What are you doing?” Vox finally was able to unmute himself, but he couldn’t stop his hands from reaching out to touch Alastor’s face. Alastor pulled his face away only for Vox to reach for his hair instead. Vox felt his hands grip Alastor’s head tightly before slamming it back into the wall. Vox tried to stop, tried to pull away, to do anything but his hands just smashed Alastor’s head back again and again. Alastor finally tried using some of his power, summoning his tentacles to attempt to fend Vox off. This just caused Vox to smash his head harder and faster until Alastor was left limp against the wall. Vox felt himself finally let go, reaching out for Alastor’s face again. He felt ill as their skin connected. This wasn’t right. He’d wanted Alastor desperately for so long, but not like this. He felt their bodies press together and there was nothing he could do. Why wasn’t Alastor doing anything though? Why wasn’t he fighting him off? Vox was very aware of how capable Alastor was in a fight. So why wasn’t he fighting? He watched Alastor’s eyes darting around, looking everywhere but at Vox. His hand that was still on Alastor’s face dragged his head to face him. Looking into his panicked eyes made it all so much worse. Was he too frozen to react?“Alastor. Fight back!” Vox cried desperately as he felt his hands drag down Alastor’s body. Continuing down until they reached the hem of his shirt, untucking it from his pants. Alastor just smiled softly up at him.“It’s not your fault.” Vox’s eyes widened. Alastor wasn’t fighting back on purpose. What was wrong with him?“No! You need to stop me!” Vox felt his hands slithering up Alastor’s stomach, groping at the unexposed skin. He felt every flinch as his hands explored where they had no right to be. How would Alastor ever forgive him? They were just becoming friends again; Alastor would never look at him again after this. This felt like some ironic cosmic punishment, giving him exactly what he’d wanted for years in the worst way possible.“Not like this. Not like this. Not like this.” He just kept repeating it to himself like it would save him. Like it would stop him from reaching down and unfastening Alastor’s pants.“Vox!” Vox looked back at Alastor whose eyes were back to focusing on him. Vox tried to apologize through his eyes as he began tugging at Alastor’s waistband. “It’s okay. It’s not your fault. I know she’s making you do this. I don’t blame you. It’ll be ok-ay.” Alastor’s voice hitched as Vox put his hands back on him. He might actually be sick after this.“I’m so sorry.” Vox hated the fact that his own body was beginning to react to this. He was a terrible person. He was a terrible friend.“It’s okay. Charlie will stop Lilith. It’ll be over soon. We’ll be okay.” Vox noticed Alastor’s eyes beginning to lose focus.“Alastor!” There was no response as his eye lids closed and he became deadweight. That did nothing to stop Vox’s body as he started working on his own clothes. As he did Vox felt something in his pocket, he reached in and pulled out an angelic knife. Where had that even come from? He didn’t have one before. Lilith must have put it there. His hand reached out and pressed the knife against Alastor’s chest, dragging the knife downward, completely shredding his shirt and leaving a thin line of blood down his chest. Vox felt a chill run down his spine. Why did Lilith give him a knife? He thought she just wanted to punish Alastor. Before Vox could contemplate further his arm pulled back and plunged the knife deep into Alastor’s shoulder. There was a screech of feedback as Alastor’s eyes flew open and he began to struggle again. He was much too weak at this point though; Vox had no problem holding him still. He was really going to kill him. After all this it wasn’t Lilith who was going to kill Alastor, it was him. His hand let go of the knife, leaving it in Alastor’s shoulder, and Vox sighed in relief. His relief did not last long though as his hands began roaming back down Alastor’s body. Now that Alastor was awake again Vox supposed it was back to business. His hands were reaching back into Alastor’s pants again and Vox was doing everything he could to try and stop himself. He felt Alastor struggling silently against him, Vox tried to pull back one last time, and suddenly he did. He was in control again. He immediately pulled his hands away, backing away as far as he could and letting his cables drop Alastor softly to the floor. Vox whipped his head around to find Charlie holding an angelic spear to a battered Lilith’s throat.“Do it! Dissolve all of your deals now or I will kill you.” Lilith tried smiling up at Charlie, reaching out a hand.“You’d kill your own mother for a few sinners?” Charlie didn’t even hesitate.“Yes.” Lilith looked around her for a few seconds, finally she nodded. Suddenly Vox felt the weight on his soul lift and all of his power come back. He let out a relieved breath. Then he heard a groan behind him. Shit. Alastor. He turned back and ran over to where he was crumpled on the floor. As he reached down for him, he saw Alastor flinch but still Alastor didn’t try and attack him.“Shit. Alastor. I’m so sorry. Fuck. What were you thinking? Why didn’t you fight back?” As if Alastor lived just to mock him, he kept grinning at him even as his chest bled everywhere, and his eyes began to lose focus again.“It wasn’t your fault. It’s okay.” With that Alastor’s eyes closed and he slumped over. Oh shit. Vox zeroed in on the angelic steel still imbedded in Alastor. Not thinking he quickly grabbed it and yanked it out, only for the wound to start bleeding excessively.“Shit. Shit.” Vox quickly tore off his jacket, tying it tightly across Alastor’s chest. He was going to be fine right? He had to be fine. Vox didn’t know what he would do if Alastor wasn’t fine.Vox gently picked Alastor up into his arms and looked around the room. He noticed Husk and Angel off in the corner clinging to each other desperately. They were both alive though so at least there was that. Vox looked back at where Charlie was still dealing with Lilith. This was no longer his problem; he needed to get Alastor back to the hotel. Feeling for the electrical currents in the house he hopped through them, popping out in the hotel lobby. The lobby was busy with the other guests. Vox ignored them and carried Alastor up to his own room.Once he got there, he immediately set Alastor down on his bed and ran for the bathroom. Since he had lost his powers, he’d made sure to keep a first aid kit stocked. He yanked it off the shelf and ran back to Alastor who was still unconscious. Vox checked and thankfully Alastor was still breathing. Vox wasn’t sure how long that would last. He pulled the needle and surgical thread out of his first aid kit. God, where were Velvette and her steady hands when you needed them, but he’d just have to do his best. He yanked the jacket off and immediately was greeted by the open wound bleeding everywhere. Shit. Shit. Shit. He got to work.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Vox POV
Vox paced back and forth, every few seconds he glanced over at the bed where Alastor laid unconscious. Unconscious, but not dead. Yet. It could still go either way. That angelic steel had been way too close to his heart.It had been two days and Vox hadn’t slept a wink. He worried if he closed his eyes for even a second Alastor would stop breathing. And that couldn’t happen. If that happened… Vox didn’t want to think about it because it wouldn’t happen. Alastor had survived much worse, he was like a cockroach, practically invisible.Vox glanced again at his still face. It felt unnatural to see Alastor without his characteristic smile. Vox approached him, kneeling down beside his bed. This close he could hear Alastor’s gentle breathing and it helped relax him a bit.“Alastor. Please wake up. I’m so sorry.” Vox watched him for any sign that maybe he heard him, but Alastor stayed asleep. “You know what, you wake up right now I’ll give you my soul. Come on, prime deal to be had here. Once in an afterlifetime opportunity. Going once, going twice…” Alastor didn’t even twitch. Why wouldn’t he just wake up? Was this some punishment? “Alastor! Wake up!” Vox grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. Alastor winced in pain but didn’t stir. Vox realized he’d grabbed his bad shoulder, the wound started to bleed a bit. “Shit. No.” Vox pulled back. Not trusting himself he backed all the way to the other side of the room, taking a seat in the corner to continue his vigil. Alastor would be okay. He had to be. “Vox?” Vox snapped upright in his chair. Where was he? He looked around, recognizing his room at the hotel. Why was he asleep in his chair? He looked at the bed where a pair of crimson eyes looked back at him. Alastor. He was awake. Vox blinked at him a few moments before it sunk in. Alastor was awake. He bolted out of his chair and to Alastor’s bedside in a second. Alastor looked up at him, eyes not fully focused.“Hey. Are you okay?” Alastor looked down at himself absently before looking back at Vox.“I think so? What happened?” Vox froze. Did he not remember? Maybe it was for the best.“We can talk about it later. You’re looking a little woozy still. Maybe you should get some more rest.” Alastor nodded at him and then winced at the movement. He rolled back onto his back and let his eyes drift closed.Vox watched him sleep for a moment. Letting it sink in. Alastor was okay. He was alive. And he didn’t remember anything. Should he tell him? It was better not to know right? Vox felt another wave of the guilt that had plagued him every day he’d sat watching Alastor sleep. Hoping against hope he’d wake up… Was it better for Alastor or was it better for himself if Alastor didn’t know what happened? He didn’t know if he could stand having those blood red eyes look at him with disgust and hatred.
How do you think Angel would feel if he knew about this? Betrayed I’d imagine. His closest friend using his biggest weakness to hurt him in the worst way possible. Probably would never speak to you again.
Alastor’s harsh words to Husk just a few week’s prior hung around the silent room. Alastor had said it himself, it didn’t matter if Lilith was behind everything, he would never forgive him.Vox turned away. He’d stayed to make sure Alastor was okay. He knew he was okay. He needed to give him space, and he had an empire to get back to. Now that Lilith was defeated, he could return back to Voxtek, to Val and Velvette. Vox took one last look at Alastor’s sleeping form before leaving the room. Vox tried to focus on his paperwork. He was very behind after being gone so long. But his eyes kept flicking back to his surveillance monitors. He had left one of his drones in his room at the hotel to watch over Alastor. He’d left him in Charlie’s very capable hands, but he still worried. Alastor had woken up for real last night and Vox had to fight every part of him that told him to go check on Alastor. Charlie was taking good care of him and this morning he was even up and about, joining the other residents for breakfast. He would be okay. He had to be.Vox felt his thoughts spiralling away from his work again. He pressed his claws into the back of his hand trying to ground himself. He found himself yet again looking over at his monitor only for Alastor not to be there. Vox sat up in his seat. He frantically scrolled through his other feeds, but Alastor wasn’t anywhere at the hotel.“Looking for me?” Vox jumped in his seat at the voice behind him. He swung around, crossing his arms guiltily and found Alastor leaning casually in his doorway. Vox didn’t know what to say. He just watched silently as Alastor strolled over, still a little wobbly but looking much livelier than the last time Vox had seen him in person. “Sorry to drop in unannounced like this. Charlie did her best to fill me in on what happened, but she informed me that the only one who knew what really happened was you. I was hoping you might fill me in?” Vox opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out. Should he tell him?“I… I don’t even know where to begin.”“That’s alright, just start at the beginning. I remember the fight in the lobby and then it all fades out. What happened next?” Vox paused for a moment but ultimately made up his mind.“You went to confront Lilith. I realized what you had done and told Charlie everything which broke my deal. Lilith summoned me to her house where you were. You offered to make a new deal with her to save me, but she denied you and made me attack you. We fought, I stabbed you with an angelic dagger and then Charlie defeated Lilith, and I brought you back to the hotel to fix your shoulder.” Alastor stood silently for a moment. Vox tried not to show how nervous he was, if Alastor sensed anything was off, he’d interrogate him for the truth.“Hmm. I imagine if you were able to stab me, I was probably going easy on you.” Vox let out an unexpected laugh.“Uh ya. You didn’t want to hurt me, you just kept telling me that you didn’t blame me, it was okay, it wasn’t my fault.” Vox choked on the last word, turning back to his screens so Alastor wouldn’t see his face. Those words would probably be ingrained on the inside of his mind for the rest of eternity. He felt his claws digging into the back of his hands. Vox pretended to look at his reports, trying not to cry, again, he’d done enough of that waiting for Alastor to wake up. “I’m sorry.” Even if Alastor didn’t know what it was actually for. He needed to say it. He felt a hand land softly on his shoulder.“It’s alright Vox. I know you didn’t mean it.” They stayed silent for a moment before Alastor spoke again. “So, you’re back at Voxtek now?”“Yep. Val and Velvette are glad to have me back, apparently Lilith’s minion was an absolute pain in the ass.” Vox heard Alastor chuckle as he removed his hand from his shoulder.“Well. Don’t be a stranger.” Vox turned to face Alastor only to find him gone.Vox felt himself deflate, all the emotions he was blocking out threatening to overwhelm him. He’d done what was best. He’d take this secret to his second grave and spend every day making it up to Alastor even if he didn’t know what it was for. It was what was best. Alastor had been through enough. He would be happier not knowing.
Alastor POV
Everything hurt. But especially his head. This was either the worst hangover he’d ever experienced, or his head had been stomped on by a thousand elephants. Alastor did his best to pry his eyes open. He recognized the ceiling of the hotel, but he wasn’t in his own bed. Alastor tried to sit up but immediately his vision swam. Instead, he elected to turn on his side. Looking around it was immediately obvious who’s room he was in by the computers and the sleeping television in the corner. Vox was asleep in his chair, his clothes covered in blood. What had happened? Alastor looked down at himself and found he was wearing a white dress shirt. He noticed a large red splotch on the front of his shoulder. He felt a vague pain radiating from that shoulder. What had he done?“Vox?” Vox stirred a bit in his chair, but his eyes stayed closed. Alastor tried a little louder, “Vox?” Vox snapped upright in his chair, looking around the room dazedly before his eyes darted over to Alastor. Vox blinked at him a few moments, clearly still half asleep. Alastor could see the moment his mind cleared as he bolted out of his chair and to Alastor’s bedside in a second. Alastor looked up at him, wondering why he looked so worried.“Hey. Are you okay?” Alastor looked down at himself absently before looking back at Vox.“I think so? What happened?” Alastor noticed the way Vox froze. What was he forgetting? Something major if Vox’s shocked face was anything to go off of.“We can talk about it later. You’re looking a little woozy still. Maybe you should get some more rest.” Vox was right. His head was still pounding. Maybe he would remember what happened after a little more sleep. Alastor nodded at Vox and then winced at the pain the movement caused. He rolled back onto his back and let his eyes drift closed. When Alastor awoke again, he immediately looked over to where Vox had been before only to find Charlie. Charlie noticed his movement and immediately jumped out of her chair.“Alastor! You’re awake! How are you feeling?” How was he feeling. His head felt much better. He gave his bloody shoulder a roll and found that pain was mostly gone too. What exactly had happened to him that had left him in such a state?“Never been better my dear. May I ask what happened?” Charlie’s eyebrows shot up.“You don’t remember anything?” Alastor shook his head, pushing himself up to a seated position in the bed. “Okay. Well, I don’t know everything. I just know Vox told us what my mother had done, and we came to rescue you both. When I got there you were fending off Vox’s attack with one of your barriers. I managed to defeat my mom and get her to release all her deals. After when I went to look for you, you both were gone. When I got back to the hotel the other residents told me that Vox had brought you back. He didn’t let anyone in the room where you were, until yesterday when you woke up the first time. I guess once he was sure you were going to be okay, he left you with me to go back to fix the damage Lilith caused to his company.” Alastor nodded absently. Clearly, he had missed a lot. He would need to pay Vox a visit as soon as possible to get the rest of the details. “Did you want some dinner?” Alastor focused back on Charlie.“That would be lovely.” Charlie hurried out of the room and Alastor took in his surroundings. All of Vox’s stuff had been cleared out. He’d returned home. Alastor looked over at the bedside table and noticed a fancy antique looking radio, there was also a small note card beside it. He lifted it up and immediately noticed Vox’s sloppy handwriting.<From your secret Santa.> How amusing. He turned the radio on and enjoyed some soft music while he waited for Charlie to return. Alastor stood in the doorway of Vox’s office. Vox was working away on something while keeping an eye on a screen that showed the inside of the hotel. Alastor wondered how long it would take Vox to notice he was missing.Vox suddenly jolted upright in his seat and the surveillance screen began to scroll through all of the cameras he had in and around the hotel. Alastor held back a chuckle.“Looking for me?” Vox jumped in his seat swinging around to face Alastor. He looked like he’d seen a ghost and Alastor noticed the way he tucked his arms in defensively. Vox just stared as Alastor casually strolled over to him. “Sorry to drop in unannounced like this. Charlie did her best to fill me in on what happened, but she informed me that the only one who knew what really happened was you. I was hoping you might fill me in?” Vox opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out. Once again Alastor was left wondering just what in the world he had forgotten.“I… I don’t even know where to begin.”“That’s alright, just start at the beginning. I remember the fight in the lobby and then it all fades out. What happened next?” Vox paused for a moment.“You went to confront Lilith. I realized what you had done and told Charlie everything which broke my deal. Lilith summoned me to her house where you were. You offered to make a new deal with her to save me, but she denied you and made me attack you. We fought, I stabbed you with an angelic dagger and then Charlie defeated Lilith, and I brought you back to the hotel to fix your shoulder.” Alastor stood silently for a moment. He’d have to thank Charlie; he hadn’t realized how close he was to being right back in Lilith’s clutches. He watched the way Vox was twitching in his seat; Alastor got the distinct impression he was hiding something.“Hmm. I imagine if you were able to stab me, I was probably going easy on you.” Vox let out a laugh, relaxing a bit.“Uh ya. You didn’t want to hurt me, you just kept telling me that you didn’t blame me, it was okay, it wasn’t my fault.” Alastor froze. It’s not your fault. He felt the ghost of hands tugging the hem of his shirt out of his pants. It’s not your fault. He felt the hands crawling all over his torso. It’s not your fault. They were pulling at his waist band while Vox apologized over and over. It’s not your fault. Vox’s hands in his pants, touching him.“I’m sorry.” Vox’s voice snapped Alastor back to reality. Vox wasn’t facing him; he had turned back to his computer. Alastor took a moment to gather himself before taking a step toward Vox and laying a hand on his shoulder.“It’s alright Vox. I know you didn’t mean it.” They stayed silent for a moment before Alastor spoke again. “So, you’re back at Voxtek now?”“Yep. Val and Velvette are glad to have me back, apparently Lilith’s minion was an absolute pain in the ass.” Alastor chuckled as he removed his hand from Vox’s shoulder.“Well. Don’t be a stranger.” Not waiting for Vox to respond he disappeared back into his shadows. Alastor sat in the middle of his swamp. Listening to the sounds of nature around him trying to settle his rapidly beating heart. He could feel the hands on him. Vox’s hands. Bits and pieces coming back to him and each one was like another punch in the gut. He thought about going back to Vox. Telling him the truth. Vox had been right, confiding in him had helped. But last time it was someone else. He couldn’t very well discuss what had happened with Vox when he’d been the perpetrator, unwilling or not. No, it was better to keep it to himself. Let Vox think he’d forgotten everything, that way he might not blame himself so much. Vox had been through enough. He would be happier not knowing.
Bonus Cathartic Ending
An alternate ending? In my story? I’m as shocked as you are.
Alastor POV
“Uh ya. You didn’t want to hurt me, you just kept telling me that you didn’t blame me, it was okay, it wasn’t my fault.” Alastor froze. It’s not your fault. He felt the ghost of hands tugging the hem of his shirt out of his pants. It’s not your fault. He felt the hands crawling all over his torso. It’s not your fault. They were pulling at his waist band while Vox apologized over and over. It’s not your fault. Vox’s hands in his pants, touching him.“I’m sorry.” Vox’s voice snapped Alastor back to reality. Vox wasn’t facing him; he had turned back to his computer. Alastor didn’t know what to say. After almost a minute of silence Vox slowly swivelled back to face him. Alastor imagined his internal horror was written all over his face as Vox’s eyes widened. “Do you. Do you remember?” Alastor thought about denying it. Letting Vox think he didn’t remember what he’d done. But Alastor found himself nodding his head. “Shit. Oh god, I’m so sorry. I couldn’t stop myself.” Alastor just stood there blankly, his head spinning with the reappearing memories. “Alastor? Alastor?” Vox reached out a hand to him and Alastor found himself focusing on it. Vox’s hand looked positively mutilated; Alastor flinched back in horror. Vox pulled his hand back and Alastor noticed the guilt on his face. Without thinking he reached out and grabbed Vox’s wrist, pulling it back to inspect it.“Did I do this?” Alastor looked back to Vox who looked completely taken aback, but he slowly shook his head.“Uh no.” Vox tried to pull his hand back, but Alastor gripped it tightly. The wounds looked like claw marks; stretching out Vox’s fingers he found his claws tipped in blood. Alastor flipped his hand over and found even more damage. Vox had done this to himself.“Why?” Vox tugged his hand away again and this time Alastor let go. Vox pulled his hands into his chest and Alastor noticed the way his claws were digging into his hands again.“I don’t know. The pain grounds me, I guess. And.” Vox paused. He looked back at Alastor uncertainly. Alastor gave him a small encouraging smile. “I… I can still feel your skin under my hands. I don’t want to, but it haunts me like a ghost. Whenever my hands aren’t busy, I can still feel you and the only way to stop the feeling is with pain.” Alastor felt his own panic start to creep up again, but he pushed it down.“I meant what I said. I don’t blame you. This is Lilith’s doing. We’ll get through this.” Vox’s claws relaxed a bit, and he nodded at Alastor, a small smile beginning to play on his lips.“You know, I wonder if Charlie would let us take care of Lilith, even just maim her a bit, I personally think that would go a long way to helping me get through this.” Alastor let out an unexpected laugh.“Yes. I could go for a little maiming.” They stood in silence for a moment.“We’re in this together, right? You’re not going to leave or shut me out again, right?” Vox looked so pitiful as he asked.“Of course. I still need you as an ally in my ongoing battle against his royal shortness.” Vox snickered.“You’re going to get us both killed taunting Lucifer.”“Well good thing we’re already dead.” Vox shook his head.“Mhm okay.” Vox paused. “Are you going to be okay?” Alastor sighed. He could still feel the ghost of hands, Kaia, Lilith, Vox, all over his skin. But that’s all they were. Ghosts. He was safe now, free. He’d get through this. They both would.“I’m free now, thanks to you. So yes, I think I will be.”“Good.” Vox seemed to fully relax finally. “Did you have any plans for the rest of the day?”“Charlie has given me the week off to recover.” Vox’s smile became mischievous.“How about we watch some absolutely terrible movies, and you can tell me about how back in your day people had class.”“No need to show me the terrible ones, I’m sure they’re all equally awful and I will still explain why radio is a much more elegant form of expression.” Vox rolled his eyes.“Is that a, yes?”“Lead the way.” Vox began to walk away, but Alastor remembered something.“Oh wait, I have something for you.” Vox paused and Alastor held out a small slip of paper. Vox grabbed it and looked at it puzzled.“What is this?”“Your secret Santa gift.” Vox looked between him and the paper.“Okay, but what is it? It looks like a phone number.”“It is. It’s mine. I got a phone so we can keep in touch now that you are no longer at the hotel.” Vox’s eyes widened in surprise, before his face broke out in a wide grin.“Holy shit! Fucking finally! Welcome to the 21st century, I have so much to show you. Did you get a Voxtek phone? You better have gotten a Voxtek phone or I’m going to replace it.” Vox kept rambling on, and Alastor just smiled fondly. They would get through this.