Chapter Text
Vox leaned back in his chair with a sigh as he looked down the table at his two business partners, seated on either side of the conference table. The Vees hadn’t gotten where they were by not working well together, but there was always the understanding that they all had their own agendas. Vox wanted as much money, power, and influence as possible, and he had formed the Vees with the logic that when multiple Overlords combined their assets, that meant more for all of them. Valentino really only cared about getting eyes on his porn and making all of Hell obsessed with him and his actors, so of course partnering with the Media Overlord had been the best way to achieve that. Then there was Velvette, who also wanted Hell obsessed with her, but while Valentino wanted it so that people would want him, she wanted it so that people would want to be her. She wanted to shape what all of Hell thought, liked, and did, and to do that, she needed to be successful - hence the Vees. It was a symbiotic relationship where they all got what they wanted, but that didn’t mean their interests didn’t sometimes clash. They had been talking in circles for an hour now, and Vox was tired. And it really didn’t help that he couldn’t stop thinking about Lucifer.
He didn’t know exactly what was going on between them, but Lucifer had made it very clear that he wanted to see him again. Even after Vox had talked his ear off about sharks all morning. But every time he’d thought Lucifer had to be getting annoyed, the fallen angel had just smiled and asked a question to keep the conversation going. And then he’d actually seemed disappointed when Vox had to leave. Had let him kiss him and tease him and had looked so fucking adorable.
How the fuck had this happened? Vox was a powerful Overlord with most of Pride at his fingertips, and here he was fantasizing over a guy like a fucking schoolgirl with a crush. The only reason he’d even approached Lucifer in the first place was to make a powerful connection; he wasn’t supposed to catch feelings for the most untouchable guy in Hell! Except… Vox could touch him. And he couldn’t wait to do it again.
“If ya’ cut down on ads, that would open up another time slot,” Velvette pointed out, the magic word of ‘ads’ catching Vox’s attention enough to lock him back into the conversation. The younger Overlord’s eyes were glued to her phone, as was the standard for her during these meetings, but Vox had known her long enough to know that didn’t mean she wasn’t paying attention. “Perfect for my fashion show.”
“If I’m cutting ads to give you a time slot, it’s your ads I’ll be cutting,” Vox warned.
“Uh, hell no!”
“I’m the one who should get that time slot, anyway,” Valentino insisted. “The Angel Dust Pounder Hour will be a fucking gold mine, Voxxy, you’ll see.”
Vox groaned, running a hand over his screen. “Then you can replace one of your existing programs with it,” he growled through clenched teeth.
“But I don’t want to,” he argued petulantly. One of his lower arms slipped beneath the table and began to slide up the television demon’s leg as he leaned in closer, dropping his voice an octave. “Can’t we work something else out?”
He gave an exasperated sigh and knocked Valentino’s hand away. “I’m not in the mood.” For you.
“Look here, Vox-” Velvette began sternly, but she was cut off when the doors to the conference room suddenly burst open.
In the doorway stood Lucifer, head held high, giving the impression that he was taller than he actually was, and his sharp gaze instantly locked onto Vox with alarming intensity. “Vox. We need to talk,” he demanded, his tone hard, leaving no room for argument.
All three demons stared at the Devil in shock. What the hell? Wasn’t it a little early in their not-relationship for a ‘we need to talk’? And what did Lucifer think he was doing, just bursting in like this?! And perhaps most importantly, should Vox actually be worried for his life right now? Because the way Lucifer was glaring at him was not very reassuring.
“The fuck?!” Velvette broke the silence first, her phone nowhere to be seen as she gaped at the fallen angel.
“Baby, since when do you know the Devil?” Valentino turned back to Vox, somewhere between confused and impressed.
A muscle in Lucifer’s jaw twitched and his narrowed eyes snapped to Valentino. Okay, well jealousy was kind of a good sign, right? And kind of cute.
“Alone,” Lucifer added, his eyes darting briefly between Valentino and Velvette before returning to Vox.
“Uh, no way,” Velvette immediately protested, crossing her arms stubbornly. “Whatever’s goin’ on here, we ain’t leavin’ Vox alone in it. If ya’ have a bone to pick with him, you have a bone to pick with all of us.”
“Exactly,” Valentino agreed, straightening in his chair as he shifted his attention back to Lucifer. “So, have a seat, Your Majesty, make yourself comfortable, and we can all have ourselves a nice little chat.”
Vox found himself fighting against a small, touched smile. As much as his business partners annoyed him at times, it was nice to know that they’d always have his back, even against the Devil himself. Though hopefully that wouldn’t be necessary.
“It’s fine,” he assured, glancing at them both before meeting Lucifer’s gaze unflinchingly. “You can leave us.”
Both of the other Vees turned to him in surprise. “You sure, V?” Velvette checked.
He nodded. “Yeah. Clearly, we need to talk.”
Valentino made a thoughtful sound in the back of his throat as he and Velvette slowly got to their feet. “Someone’s been keeping secrets,” he remarked in a low murmur.
Vox barely spared him a glance out of the corner of his eye. “I’ll fill you in later.”
“You’ll call us if you need anything,” Velvette insisted firmly before she turned to leave. She didn’t bother waiting for a response because they both knew it wasn’t a question.
Valentino followed behind her, but when he reached Lucifer, he paused, bending down so that their height difference was at least sort of reasonable and fixing him with a tight smile. “I just want to make sure you know, chaparrito, that I have one of your princesa’s little projects under contract. So, if you were thinking about hurting Voxxy, you should really think twice if you want her to still have access to him.”
The air in the room seemed to go still, almost suffocating, as Lucifer slowly turned to look up at the moth demon with a sharp, dangerous smile. “It’s Valentino, right? Tell me, do you even know how little effort it would take me to kill you?”
Artwork by HasBeenHellWolf
“Val, leave,” Vox ordered, a slight note of very real concern creeping into his voice. He would not be able to stop Lucifer if he decided to kill Valentino then and there, and while he didn’t think it was something that the fallen angel would do, he really didn’t want to risk it.
Thankfully, Valentino listened. He left, closing the conference room doors behind him, and somehow, the room felt disproportionately empty with just Vox and Lucifer on either end of the long table.
Vox deflated with a sigh, resting his elbow on the table as he rubbed at the top of his head. “Luci, you can’t just barge in here and interrupt my meetings.”
“Don’t ‘Luci’ me,” Lucifer snapped, his smile vanishing as he narrowed his eyes at Vox. “You lied to me.”
The television demon blinked rapidly, taken aback with absolutely no idea as to what the fallen angel was talking about. Normally when people accused him of shit, he had at least some context for where they were coming from (and usually, they were right - not that he ever admitted that). But though he racked his brain, he wasn’t coming up with a single lie he’d told Lucifer. Hell, he’d been more honest with him than he ever was! “About what?”
“About what?” Lucifer repeated incredulously as he rounded the table. “How about the fact that you tried to spy on my daughter?!”
Vox frowned. “Wait. You mean when I sent Pentious to the hotel almost a year ago?”
“Yes,” he snarled, stopping beside his chair and crossing his arms over his chest furiously.
Vox couldn’t believe this. Lucifer was acting like he had committed some kind of unbelievably egregious act, like he’d sent a fucking assassin after his daughter, or something. But it had been one spy who hadn’t even done anything before getting caught. Vox had done far worse things that were public knowledge, and his reputation hadn’t even taken a hit over them! And yet here Lucifer was, looking ready to kill him over… what? A couple cameras that didn’t even get placed?!
He shook his head. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” he muttered under his breath, and then continued louder, spinning his chair to face the fallen angel. “Let me guess, Alastor told you about that.” Fucking worthless piece of shit.
“No, Charlie did. Making me look like an idiot!” he complained, throwing his hands in the air as he turned and paced away from him. “As if it wasn’t hard enough telling her I’m trying to date again, come to find out I’d brought someone who had tried to spy on her back to her hotel! I’m supposed to protect her, not endanger her! And now because of me, everyone’s spending the morning searching the hotel to make sure you didn’t plant anything!”
“I didn’t,” Vox stated flatly, his mouth compressing in annoyance.
“Oh, and I’m just supposed to believe that?” Lucifer spun back to face him, eyes wide and dubious. “You were unattended! You could have done anything.”
“And who suggested that?” he demanded, already knowing the answer.
The fallen angel pursed his lips, his eyes darting away from him. “Alastor. But just because I don’t like the guy doesn’t mean he can’t be right.”
“But you know how trustworthy he is,” he argued. “He’s probably orchestrating all of this to make you look bad, and you’re actually falling for it!”
“The only thing I fell for was you!” Lucifer shouted, and then he froze, clearly rethinking his words. “Your lies, I mean,” he muttered, turning away to stare off into the aquarium, his expression twisted with bitterness.
Vox watched him for a minute, furious indignation and dejected yearning battling within him. Oh, and wasn’t that a familiar feeling. He should kick Lucifer out now - he'd never even had a chance with him, and Vox had known that from the start - but he’d never been very good about giving up.
“I never lied to you,” he finally said quietly.
Lucifer snorted in clear disbelief. “You were using me, Vox. You just needed an in.”
“Maybe you were too drunk to remember how things went down last night,” he sneered as he got to his feet, pacing along the wall in the opposite direction of Lucifer, hands clasped behind his back, “but I didn’t ask to be brought to your daughter’s hotel. I didn’t ask to be brought anywhere. Suddenly, I was just falling through a portal. And for the record, if I’d known where we were going and actually got a say in it, I wouldn’t have agreed.” He looked over at him through narrowed eyes.
Lucifer whirled on him in shock. “You said you were into it! I asked if you objected and you-you-”
“I was into you,” he corrected, turning to face him from across the room, the aquarium wall stretching out between them. “I had no objection to our activities, but I wouldn’t have agreed to go to the hotel. I try to avoid being in close proximity to Alastor, if I can help it.”
The fallen angel raised a suspicious brow at him. “So, if you’re so eager to avoid the hotel, why’d you try to spy on it?”
“Alastor,” Vox answered with a shrug, and Lucifer frowned in confusion. “My biggest rival shows up after seven years of fucking off to who knows where and is suddenly associating with the Princess of Hell? It raised some red flags, and I wanted answers. Unfortunately, Pentious was a giant screw-up, so I ended up with nothing. No harm done. Though, considering I’m pretty sure Alastor is trying to trick your little girl into a deal, maybe you should rethink who you’re siding with.”
Lucifer scowled. “I’m not ‘siding with’ Alastor. I don’t trust him, and I don’t want him near Charlie. But don’t pretend that you were at all motivated by protecting her.”
“Of course I wasn’t,” he scoffed. “But if I had found out what that bastard was up to, I’m sure you wouldn’t care as much how I got the information.” No one ever did.
His lips compressed into a thin line to match his narrowed eyes, giving his face a rather scrunched appearance. “So, what? Now you want me to help you? In the hopes that you’ll learn something that might be beneficial to me?”
Vox rolled his eyes. It wasn’t a terrible idea, really, and if Lucifer seemed at all receptive to it, he’d definitely jump at it. But he wasn’t, so Vox had no problem passing on it. “How about you stop putting words in my mouth for two seconds? You approached me last night. You kissed me, and you brought me back to the hotel. How can you accuse me of having an ulterior motive when I didn’t do anything?”
Lucifer crossed his arms and looked away, chewing his bottom lip as he once again stared out into the aquarium. “You still should have told me.”
“When?” he demanded reasonably. “When you stuck your tongue down my throat? ‘Oh, by the way, I sent someone to spy on your daughter’s hotel like a year ago, just on the off chance it comes up, since it’s not like I expect you to take me there!’ Fuck, Lucifer, I’d practically forgotten about that.”
The fallen angel deflated with a sigh, watching the sharks swimming in the distance as his arms fell to his sides and his mouth shrank into a small frown. “And did you forget you have a boyfriend, too?” he asked quietly.
Vox blinked, his own anger fading as the question caught him by surprise. “You mean Valentino? He’s barely even my boyfriend. We fuck around, flaunt our relationship for the public, but it’s nothing serious. And it’s an open relationship, we both sleep around all the time.”
“I still should have known!” Lucifer spun back to him, his wide eyes full of betrayal and… heartbreak? Or was Vox just reading too much into it?
He opened his mouth then closed it again, for once unsure of what to say.
“And by the way,” Lucifer continued coolly, setting his jaw as he looked away again, “that resident you gave me advice on last night? The one complaining about his terrible contract?” Vox squeezed his eyes shut, already having a pretty good idea of where this was going. “His name is Angel Dust - ring a bell?”
“Of course it was him,” Vox groaned, returning to the center of the room to slump back into his chair, its back now pressed up against the table. He ran a hand over his screen with a sigh. Damn, that twink was annoying. The amount of times he made Valentino late for shit, and now this. “Yeah, he’s Val’s favorite.”
“Favorite? He treats him terribly!” Lucifer threw his hands up as he turned to him in disgust. “And this is the guy you’re dating!”
“Oh, so you’re judging me for his actions now?” he sighed, suddenly feeling utterly exhausted. No matter what he said, it would never be enough. Lucifer may claim not to hate Sinners, but he definitely had issues with them, and now that he’d remembered Vox was one, whatever may have been developing between them was over. Again, an issue he had known would come up sooner or later, but Vox had let hope start to seep in, despite himself. Thinking that just maybe Lucifer saw him differently. Idiot. Didn’t he know by now that he’d never be someone’s exception?
“How Val treats his souls is his own business,” Vox continued, his voice clipped.
“But you support it.”
“I don’t know what you want me to say,” he complained, gesturing exasperatedly as he spoke. “I’m an Overlord. Everyone has their own methods for keeping their souls in line based on what works for them. Valentino’s methods aren’t mine, but I really don’t give a shit what he does, so long as he makes me a profit. I’m not altruistic, I’m not benevolent, and I have no interest in being a better person. I do many things I’m sure you would hate, but it’s what gets me results. So, if I have to hypnotize someone to get my way or toss a few employees into the shark tank to get them to work harder, I. Don’t. Care.” He leaned forward slightly and his left eye pulsed in emphasis with his words. It wouldn’t matter how much Vox tried to make himself look less reprehensible than he was; Lucifer would still see him as nothing more than an abhorrent Sinner. So, why should he bother sugar-coating anything? It was already over. “And it’s not my fault you decided to ignore that side of me because you wanted to get off,” he finished, straightening in his seat.
Lucifer’s eyes flew wide, aghast. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me.” He met his gaze, his expression hard. “I didn’t hide anything from you - hell, I was more honest with you than I am with anyone. You knew what I was, but you decided you didn’t care because you wanted to get laid. Fine, I get it. But don’t come crying to me because you’re forced to face the parts of me that you chose to ignore.”
Lucifer stared at him, mouth agape and apparently speechless. “You… you weren’t honest with me, though,” he finally argued, his voice shaking slightly. “You had a boyfriend…”
“And that’s public knowledge,” Vox pointed out. “Pretty much everyone down here knows about that, so it’s not really the kind of thing I typically have to tell people. Excuse me for forgetting how out of the loop you are. It’s not like I was trying to keep anything from you, but I also don’t exactly make it a point to give a guy a rundown of my relationship status before I sleep with him. Though, again, it’s not like you gave me much of a chance to do that, anyway. Not that I was complaining, of course,” he added with a sardonic smile.
Lucifer scowled. “Right, why would you?” he muttered bitterly as he turned back to the aquarium. “I’m sure you only cared about the sex, anyway. You had an actual boyfriend to come home to. I should have just taken the hint when you tried to sneak out.”
“And what is it that you cared about, if it wasn’t the sex?” he demanded coolly, ignoring the way his heart clenched at the undercurrent of pain in Lucifer’s voice. He leaned forward, his hands clenching the arms of his chair tight enough that he felt them starting to warp under his grip. “Was I supposed to be some kind of fucking exposure therapy for you? Forcing yourself to play nice with a Sinner to make your daughter proud?”
“No,” Lucifer answered quietly, still not looking at him. “I liked you - like you…”
All at once, the fight drained out of Vox. It was exactly what he’d wanted to hear, and yet it only made him hurt more. Because it didn’t make any difference. He glared ruefully at the wall as he slumped back in his chair. “Yeah, well, same. But I’m not going to play along while you pretend you can look past things you can’t. I don’t have time for games, and I’m not going to change for you. So, are we done here?”
He had done the whole drawn out, trying to hold onto something that was clearly never going to work thing before, and it hadn’t been worth it. It was messy and only made things hurt worse in the long-run. They would be much better off parting ways now. So, if Lucifer could kindly get the fuck out of his building so that he could get drunk and possibly throw a Valentino-sized tantrum, that’d be great. Ugh, it wasn’t fair that he’d only spent one night with the guy, and it was already hitting him this hard.
To make matters worse, Lucifer still hadn’t said anything. He continued to stare off into the aquarium in silence until one of the great whites swam up to him. Vox could see the reflection of Lucifer’s small smile as the fallen angel reached out to place a hand on the glass. “Hey, there. What’s your name?” he asked softly.
“That’s Vin,” Vox supplied, voice and expression void of emotion as he watched the shark swim along the glass and then circle back to Lucifer. He huffed out a breath, shaking his head. “He normally doesn’t like anyone but me.” Traitor.
“Well, I have a way with animals,” Lucifer purported proudly. “Hey there, Vin. You’re a cutie. Guess you take after your dad.” He peeked over his shoulder at Vox, who was staring at him helplessly.
“What are you doing?” There was an almost pleading note to his voice now. This wasn’t fair. Lucifer couldn’t just barge into his tower, disrupt his workday, throw accusations at him, and then be this adorable. It was torture.
Lucifer sighed as he turned around to lean back against the aquarium. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I’m kind of out of practice with the whole dating and communication thing, if you haven’t noticed.”
“Oh, believe me, I’ve noticed.”
“Right…” He frowned down at the floor. “I wasn’t ignoring who you are. I didn’t forget. But you… you made me realize there’s a lot more to Sinners than I thought there was. You’re capable of so much more, and I want to understand. To recognize where you’re coming from, even with the stuff I don’t approve of. But… I’ve been burned before. A lot. I wasn’t always like this, you know,” he sighed, and when he looked up, there was an ancient sorrow reflected in his eyes. “In the beginning, I had so much hope for humanity, and when everything… well, went to Hell - I held onto that hope. At first.” He swept his hand through the air and golden light sprung from it, twisting and shifting between various shapes too quickly for Vox to follow - he thought he caught a building that resembled the shape of the original Hazbin Hotel, and maybe some kind of park, but he couldn’t be sure.
“I had plans,” Lucifer continued heavily. “I wanted to help, to give you all an afterlife that wasn’t so terrible. But every Sinner I let close betrayed me, and everything I built was destroyed. And then I realized… Hell was never meant to be a punishment for Sinners. It’s my punishment - a constant reminder of what I have wrought. The cost of giving humanity free will.”
Vox’s heart ached at the despair radiating off the fallen angel, and something in him urged him to go to Lucifer and wrap his arms around him. But he doubted he’d be receptive to that, so he refrained. Instead, he breathed out a long sigh to buy himself time, choosing his next words carefully. As much as his instincts told him to push Lucifer away to protect himself, he… he didn’t like seeing him in pain. And just like last night at the club, he wanted to help ease that pain, if he could. “I think what you’ve wrought has its own charm to it,” he offered gently, and Lucifer looked at him in surprise. “You know what the great thing about Hell is?”
“I really don’t.”
The television demon’s lips twitched at his dry tone. “It’s malleable. Earth wasn’t, not really - people can only do so much within one lifespan, and then the next generation comes along and resets everything. And I’m going to take a wild guess that Heaven isn’t so malleable, either.”
Lucifer snorted, a bitter smile twisting his lips. “Definitely not.”
He nodded, unsurprised. “Well, here, there are no limits. We can build anything and shape the realm around it. And as for other demons who want to ruin our hard work…” A sharp smile cut over his screen. “You just have to send the right message. If you’re successful in that, Hell offers endless potential to be whatever you want. That was the whole point of free will, right? Letting us choose what to make of ourselves? Sure, some people just want to be murderous psychopaths terrorizing the streets, but some of us have a bit more class and the skill to actually build something worthwhile. Down here, I’m able to be everything I always wanted and more. So, I guess I should be thanking you for that.”
For a couple seconds after Vox finished speaking, Lucifer just stared at him, lips parted and something unreadable shining behind his eyes. Then he swallowed thickly and slowly began to walk forward. “You… have got to be one of the most impressive people I have ever met.”
Vox’s eyes blew wide and a bright blue current arced between his antennae. “... What?” he choked, static crackling in his voice. That… was not the response he had expected.
“You’re impressive,” Lucifer repeated as he came to a stop just a little ways in front of him, a small smile on his lips. “Your creativity, everything you’ve been able to build, the way you see things… it’s inspiring. I didn’t think inspiration in Hell was even possible, but you… you just keep defying my expectations at every turn, video star.”
A sliver of hope began to creep back into Vox at the use of that nickname, his screen brightening with a small smile. “Well, I do like to set a standard.”
He chuckled. “That’s a high standard.” He bit his lip, his eyes flickering away as a hint of gold dusted his cheeks. “You really are incredible, you know. Whatever you think I think of you, you’re wrong. You’re not a test or an experience or… or a fling, or whatever else you might think. I haven’t clicked with someone like this in… well, since Lilith. Working on that design with you was the most fun I’ve had in a really long time. You make me laugh, and it’s easy to talk to you, and I feel like I can just… be myself. And the sex was pretty great, too,” he added with a slight laugh, peeking up at Vox through his eyelashes almost bashfully. “I really like you, Vox, and that terrifies me. And when I’m scared… I’ve been known to act a little impulsively. Well, actually, I’ve been known to act impulsively in general, but what I’m trying to say is, I hope I didn’t mess things up. Between us.”
Between us. Fuck, Lucifer wanted them to be an ‘us’. And between his words, that laugh, the look in his eyes - it was hard for Vox’s trepidation to not start melting away again, little by little. But the part of his brain that never seemed to shut off was doing the math, and he didn’t like it.
“Luci, I… it took less than 24 hours for you to find a reason to decide you were wrong about me,” Vox struggled to keep his voice level as he held his hands out in front of him reasonably. “How long until you find another? And if we get through that, how long until the next one? Because believe me, there is no shortage. Did it ever occur to you that maybe the whole reason you even pursued me is because in some ways, I’m a safe option? Because you know, sooner or later, the shoe’s gonna drop. You have a guaranteed, eventual out.”
Lucifer was already shaking his head. “No.”
“Are you sure?” He raised an eyebrow skeptically. “Cause you said you were scared - maybe you’re subconsciously looking for that way out.” Because there was no way that Lucifer was actually comfortable with the idea of being with a Sinner. Not when he’d just admitted that he saw them as part of his eternal punishment. No matter how impressive he found Vox, no matter how the demon made him feel, he would always be ready for something to go wrong. And while Vox was by no means an optimist - he had contingency plans for his contingency plans - he didn’t particularly feel like entering into a relationship that would require him to constantly be on the defensive. He had enough things to worry about in his afterlife without adding dating a guy who would take any excuse to doubt him to the list.
“I’m not!” Lucifer snapped, meeting Vox’s eyes in a glare. And for a moment, they just stared at each other - Vox grim and obstinate, Lucifer pained and defensive - and then the fallen angel’s expression crumpled and he looked down. When he next spoke, his voice sounded much smaller. “I’m not looking, but… maybe in some ways, it’d be simpler if you were using me. Not easier, not because I’m looking for a way out, but because it’s what I expect from an Overlord. It’s the explanation that doesn’t throw everything I’ve believed for millennia into question. But that doesn’t mean it’s what I want,” he continued, his voice growing harder as he looked up, glaring at the wall and beginning to gesture animatedly with his hands as he spoke. “And it definitely doesn’t mean I went into this expecting it to fail. I wouldn’t do that to myself! Maybe I didn’t totally think everything through, and I didn’t think I’d start falling for you as fast as I did, but that doesn’t mean I’d change anything because I really like spending time with you, and I don’t want to lose that. And at this point, I think it’s safe to say you decidedly aren’t using me because this seems like a very counterproductive method, so with that off the table, as long as you haven’t done anything else targeting Charlie, I think we should be just fine. I can deal with some hypnotism, and… throwing employees into your shark tank?” He paused, raising an eyebrow at the television demon as he recalled his earlier admission.
Vox shrugged. “It’s a proven method. Once they respawn, they’re on average 30% more efficient.”
Lucifer blinked. The corners of his lips twitched. “I’m not laughing,” he said, sounding more like he was attempting to instruct himself, rather than stating a fact. “That’s not funny.”
The corner of Vox’s lips quirked up. Of course the Devil would have a bit of a sadistic streak. Vox really shouldn’t be surprised by that, but Lucifer just came across so adorably at times that it was sometimes difficult to remember who he really was. “I have the data, if you want to see it,” he offered, mostly joking, but it also wasn’t a lie.
That was enough to completely break the fallen angel’s composure. He started laughing, clutching his stomach with one hand and covering his mouth with the other in a failed attempt to muffle the sound. “You… keep data… on how feeding your employees to your sharks… affects their work?”
“Of course. I also track my sharks’ reactions - gotta make sure none of their meals disagree with them!”
“That… okay…” Lucifer exhaled a wheezy breath as he got himself under control, then he schooled his expression and pointed a stern finger at Vox. “I don’t approve, just to be perfectly clear. But it’s not a deal-breaker.”
Vox’s grin faded as the reality of their conversation once again set it, and his mouth sank down to the bottom of his screen. “Then, what is? Because the second you get handed the right excuse, you’ll fall back on all your preconceived notions, whether you want the out or not.”
For just a second, it was clear that Lucifer wanted to argue, but then he pursed his lips and returned to glaring at the wall. “If you hurt Charlie or endanger her in any way - not just physically, anything that would negatively impact her.”
“I think that one’s kind of obvious. A loving family dynamic may be a foreign concept to me, but I’m still not stupid enough to maliciously target the daughter of the guy I like. Give me a little credit.”
“Hey, you asked! And I do give you credit, that’s why it hurt so much when I found out what you did.”
“What I did a year ago, before I knew you,” Vox reminded him pointedly.
“I know, I know,” Lucifer sighed, taking off his hat to run a hand through his hair. Vox’s fingers twitched, itching to do the same. “But I panicked. I worry about Charlie placing too much trust in Sinners coming back to bite her, but I never thought she might end up in the crossfire from me trusting a Sinner. Not when I swore I never would again. But I do trust you, despite all my years telling me I shouldn’t.”
The fallen angel’s eyes grew a little wider as he seemed to fully process the implications of what he had said, and then his face contorted into a grimace. “Fuck, you’re right,” he breathed in horror. “I’m really not giving you a fair chance, am I? Justifying my reservations doesn’t change… it doesn’t help…. Of course you’re not going to want to be with someone who’s constantly expecting the worst of you!” He threw his hands in the air, vanishing his hat in the process, as he began to pace away from the television demon in distress. “To not even get any benefit of the doubt… dammit, I didn’t even think about how that might feel. I knew you were upset, but I thought it was just defensiveness or something, that you felt like I was wasting your time. I didn’t even consider… I’m hurting you…” He froze, staring into the corner of the room as though all the answers to their problems might be buried in the seam there. “And that’s not what I want. But I don’t want to let go, either. I know it was just one night, and walking away should be the easiest thing right now, but it’s not. I can’t. I… Charlie was right. My prejudices against Sinners are a problem. More than I realized. I… I really need to work on that…”
Vox was glad Lucifer was turned away from him, so that he couldn’t see the myriad of emotions flashing far too obviously across his screen. Bitterness and resentment gave way to discomfort and shame when his own pain, a weakness for any Overlord, was acknowledged. But at Lucifer’s contrition, that too gave way, and to Vox’s absolute horror, he felt tears welling up in his eyes. He quickly turned his face away to further hide his… what? Grief? Hope? But the latter made no sense to make him cry, and the former didn’t fit with the pleasant, if a little overwhelming, warmth swelling in his chest.
Lucifer, the literal Sin of Pride, was admitting that he was in the wrong, that it wasn’t fair that the ‘trust’ he had in the television demon could be shattered at a moment’s notice, requiring that Vox always be prepared to build it back up. And he… Lucifer was actually willing to work on it. He wasn’t just expecting Vox to bend over backwards to constantly prove himself to him. He wasn’t asking him to conform to what he wanted him to be. Fuck, in all of Vox’s life and afterlife, no one had ever made the effort to accommodate him before - it had always been the other way around.
The television demon took a deep breath and frantically blinked the tears from his eyes before turning back to Lucifer, studying the way the fallen angel was hunched in on himself dejectedly. Well, how the fuck could he be expected to walk away now?
Despite the fact that Lucifer wasn’t even looking at him, Vox offered up a playful smirk, softened just slightly by the earnest look in his eyes. “So… you in the market for a tutor, then? I’ve heard my advice is pretty good, you know. And I can be awfully inspiring. Some might even call me impressive!”
Lucifer immediately whipped around, his gaze snapping to Vox, and the hope shining in his eyes was like a beacon, drawing the television demon in. “Really? You mean it?” he checked, slowly crossing the space between them, like he was afraid if he moved too quickly, Vox would rescind the offer.
He couldn’t stop the spread of his smile as he nodded, understanding what the fallen angel was really asking. “Yeah. I really don’t want to give this up, either.”
Lucifer beamed at him for just a moment, before his smile twisted into a cheeky grin. “Well, then - what are your rates? Someone as big a deal as you, I feel like you’ve got to be pretty expensive. Should I be worried?”
“Not at all,” Vox chuckled, a bit of electricity sparking around him in his elation. “I’m a reasonable guy, and a sucker for a pretty face. I’ll cut you a good deal.” He started to push himself up, but suddenly Lucifer was in front of him, shoving him back down by the shoulders so that he could climb onto his lap. “Fuck, so you’re this handsy even when you haven’t been drinking, huh?”
“Yep! Hope you don’t mind.” He settled with his knees on either side of Vox’s legs and slid his arms over his shoulders with a satisfied smirk. Vox’s hands immediately landed on his hips, giving them a light squeeze, and it felt so good to finally be able to touch him again.
“Not even a little,” he assured with a huge grin. To go from being so sure that things were over before they even really began, from giving up, to suddenly having a lapful of Devil... well, there were probably several cheesy metaphors to describe what he was feeling, but Vox would insist that he was above using them all. He was just… really fucking happy.
“Good,” Lucifer hummed, caressing a thumb over the back of his neck. “Sooo, you were saying about your rates?”
Vox laughed, genuine and carefree, and he let his hands begin to trace idly over Lucifer’s frame. “Right, let’s see… let me touch you, take you out to dinner, buy you nice things, and don’t interrupt my meetings - how’s that?”
The fallen angel offered him a sheepish smile. “Oh yeah, sorry about that. And, uh… the taking me out to dinner thing could be… complicated,” he admitted apologetically, his expression twisting into a grimace. “I kind of told Charlie I’d stop seeing you - I mean, I’ll tell her eventually, of course! Just once enough time has passed that I can properly reassure her. But in the meantime, we should probably keep this quiet.”
“Fair enough,” he agreed easily. Honestly, Vox wouldn’t mind Lucifer’s reputation being workshopped a bit before he was publicly linked to him. But could anyone blame him for getting excited? “Dinner here at the tower, then.”
“Perfect!”
“And I’m going to have to tell my partners something. They’re going to want answers after you burst in here.”
“Right…. Yeah, that’s fine, so long as they keep it to themselves. But, uh, speaking of them…” Lucifer bit his lip, his eyes darting away from the television demon. “Look, I’m not interested in coming second to someone else you’re seeing. So, if I’d just be a… a ‘side piece’ or whatever it’s called-”
“As if you could come second,” Vox scoffed. “I have a feeling you’re going to be stealing all of my focus, sweetheart.” He brushed a hand through Lucifer’s hair as he spoke, enjoying the silky feel of it between his fingers. Seriously, when he had the embodiment of temptation right in front of him, and he was his, how could he possibly focus on anything else?
Lucifer immediately perked back up. “Good. I’m not good at sharing the spotlight, anyway. Or at sharing anything, really…” He ran a hand down Vox’s chest and there was something deliciously possessive about the action. “Out of curiosity, since I’ll be stealing your focus, anyway, and you said you and your business partner aren’t really serious… how do you feel about exclusivity?” he asked, his voice dropping lower and a heat burning in his eyes as they followed the progress of his hand.
A gleeful smile split Vox’s screen. Fuck, he absolutely loved this possessive side Lucifer had - it was hot as fuck, and it felt oh so gratifying to have it directed towards him. He was honestly a little tempted to keep things going with Valentino just to see Lucifer getting all petty over it. But then Valentino would probably end up getting pissy over Vox not giving him enough attention, which could be expensive. And Vox also didn’t want to risk causing any problems between himself and Lucifer, especially not over a change that he had absolutely no problem making. Yeah, it was probably best to just give the Devil what he wanted.
So, he kept up his honest streak. “With you? I kind of like the sound of that.”
Lucifer’s eyes lit up, and he proceeded to catch the television demon in a passionate kiss. “Then you have yourself a deal, video star,” he murmured against his lips.
Vox laughed delightedly, the sound instantly swallowed by Lucifer’s mouth. Then, without breaking the kiss, he wound his arms tightly around the fallen angel’s waist and condensed into electricity, teleporting them both to his room. Turnabout was fair play.
It was a couple hours later, after Lucifer had gone to check back in with the hotel, that Vox wandered out to find Valentino and Velvette in one of their lounges. He leaned against the doorway, fully aware of how rumpled he looked in the wrinkled shirt that he had haphazardly buttoned and neglected to tuck in, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. “I’m ordering dinner, you two want anything?”
“Yeah, earplugs,” Velvette scowled up at him over the top of her phone.
Valentino chuckled. “And to think we were worried about you.”
Vox rolled his eyes, unable to entirely suppress a self-satisfied smirk. “Hey, Luci was pissed at me when he got here, but we worked it all out.”
“Oh, ‘Luci’, huh?” he teased. “And how long have you been keeping this a secret?”
“It literally just happened last night.”
“Wow, an’ you already managed to piss him off,” Velvette snickered. “That’s impressive, V.”
“Oh, fuck off, it was a misunderstanding. Just… keep this quiet, okay?” he requested, looking between the two of them. “We don’t want people knowing about us just yet.”
“Ooh, there’s an ‘us’,” she mocked with an amused smirk.
“Yes, there’s an ‘us’,” Vox confirmed with a roll of his eyes. “And speaking of… he wants to be exclusive.” He shot Valentino an only slightly apologetic look because, as much as he did value Valentino in his afterlife, he really wasn’t that sorry.
The moth demon blinked once, and then his eyebrows shot up. “And you agreed?”
“Yeah…” he muttered, glancing away as he braced himself.
Valentino and Velvette both burst out laughing.
“Oh, you like him,” Velvette cooed.
“Our little Voxxy’s falling in love,” Valentino sang. “So, when’s the wedding?”
“Want me ta’ make you matchin’ outfits?”
“Are we moving to the palace, or is he moving in here?”
“Ohmygod, you’re gonna be a step-dad!”
“Ugh, fuck you both,” Vox groaned as he turned away. “Nevermind, you’re on your own for dinner.”
Their laughter followed him down the hall, but he couldn’t help but smile, despite it all. Yeah, their teasing was annoying, but at the core of it, they were right. He did like Lucifer. A lot. It was funny, as much as the guy really did need to work on his Sinner relations, his first attempt in who knew how many years had really gone over rather well. And with Vox’s help, he was sure his next attempt would have… well, hopefully not quite as good results.