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It looks exhausting, Eddie thinks, how much Volt has to talk as he mills about the club.
He had certainly never been one for small talk, when it had been just him, but he had to admit that business had never been better. Volt had a knack for showmanship, for knowing exactly what a crowd needed, and Open Spotlight had rejuvenated the club more than anything Eddie could have hoped for.
It helped, too, that Volt had spent the first year of his life fucking everything in the house, and one by one, they all came back in, hoping for another chance, and buying a few rounds of drinks when they realized it wouldn’t happen. He’s currently unavailable, he’d tell them, but he appreciated the interest.
Neither of them told another soul that it’s Eddie’s bed he’s occupying. That would open up far, far too many questions that neither of them wanted to answer.
It’s nothing like that - it’s not serious, though. It’s convenient, it’s fun, both of them being able to take what they need from the comfort of the rooms behind the bar. I mean, they hardly even kissed - it was purely, easily, co-workers/roommates turned fuck buddies.
Nothing more.
Which is why Eddie’s rather confused as to why, as he watches Volt tuck one of Betty’s pink curls behind her ear, he feels sparks at the tips of his fingers, hot enough to shatter the glass of the tumbler he’s cleaning.
Volt and Betty turn at the sound, and he shuffles her out the Breaker Box door, locks it behind her, and he runs over to the bar where Eddie has already wiped the shards away.
“I’m fine, I’m fine,” he says, before Volt can even ask. “Fingers just got hot, is all.” He tosses the rag and the glass inside it into the trash can, before promptly picking up another of each and starting to clean.
“What’s got you all charged up then?” Volt asks, a curious smile on his lips.
“Nothing,” he says, because that’s exactly it. Nothing.
Volt cocks his head, tsks his tongue. “I don’t think shattering a glass is nothing, Eddie.”
“We run a bar, Volt. Glasses get broken.”
“Not while cleaning them with a rag.” He watches Eddie’s hands run across the glass, over and over, steel eyes staring intently at the rag. “You really ought to relax a bit.”
Eddie rolls his eyes. “And when would I have time to do that, exactly?”
Volt looks around at the empty bar, turns back to Eddie, and shrugs his shoulders, a spark in his eyes. “Why not right now?” He stretches out his hand, offers it palm up in front of Eddie. “Dance with me.”
Eddie pauses. He dares a glance at Volt’s hand, follows his arm up, up to his face, and finds exactly the smirk he knew would already be there. Volt’s white eyes are sparkling in the low light of the bar, and Eddie recognizes the look of his face, has seen it when he greets every single patron of the bar, night after night.
Flirting. Volt's flirting. Great.
And yes, maybe that was his default setting. Always switched “on,” always powering, charging something. It was helpful peddling cocktails, sure, and the Breaker Box’s audience had steadily increased night after night since Volt had sparked into existence, so Eddie couldn’t complain.
But, despite the fact that they’d been… together (Eddie still wasn’t sure how to classify it) for a few months now, Eddie certainly isn’t used to that sparkle being used on him.
He scoffs, tries to make it sound amused. “No thanks,” he grumbles, turning his eyes back to the rag and tumbler in his hand.
“Eddie,” Volt coos, and it takes everything in Eddie’s power not to look up at the sound, “that glass is as clean as it was when you first picked it up.” He steps closer to the stool Eddie sits on, their legs now nearly touching. “As I said, you really ought to relax.” He draws out the “a”, almost in a sing-song tone. “And dance with me.”
Eddie sighs, puts the glass back on the bar and, against his better judgement, brings his gaze to meet Volt’s again. That sparkle is still there, but it’s warmer, kinder. Genuine, maybe, Eddie thinks. It surprises him - Volt wasn’t one to lie, but he wasn’t one to be totally transparent, either. This warmth… is curious.
And beautiful.
And Eddie, though he tries to hide it, is weak.
“Fine.” He puts his hand in Volt’s, and something surges when their skin touches. They both realize it, both feel it in their currents, but they say nothing, and Volt is leading him onto the dancefloor in a flash, to the point where Eddie nearly loses his footing trying to keep up with him.
When Volt’s hand finds the small of his back, pulls him closer to his chest, Eddie swallows a gasp, not wanting to reveal just how the proximity was pulling at the wires in his mind. Which was ridiculous, he tries to tell himself - they’d literally been fucking for months, been spending more nights than not sleeping in the same bed, to the point where the office they’d turned into Volt’s bedroom was truly reverting back to it’s original form. But despite all that, this softness, this tenderness, wasn’t something they really sought from each other. Didn’t show it when the club was open, didn’t peck kisses on each other’s cheeks when they passed each other in the hallway.
Didn’t dance hand in hand when the bar was closed.
Eddie tries to shake that thought away, tries instead to focus on the slight pressure of Volt’s hand on his back, the way his hand sits in Eddie’s own.
Volt is smiling, a thousand watts, his hair emitting the smallest glow of light that envelopes their faces. “Shall we?” he asks, and his voice feels like being two whiskeys sours deep.
Eddie pauses, and he cocks his head when he gets a thought. “The music’s off.”
“Ah.” In response, Volt stomps the floor twice, and the speakers kick on. A slow, sultry jazz beat starts to fill the room, and Volt chuckles when Eddie rolls his eyes. “Better?”
“Better.” Volt has such an innate grasp on the circulation of his power than Eddie ever did, knowing exactly where and how to send it, just the perfect amount. It was the little things that Eddie started struggling with first, when he was alone, and a small part of his brain wonders if it should feel jealous of the ease that Volt had over it so immediately. A larger part, though, is proud. “I do kinda miss being able to do that. But you’re much better at it than me.”
“Nonsense, I’m sure of it,” he muses. But before Eddie can open his mouth to retort, Volt pulls him in again, closer still, pressed solidly together. “Now, just follow my lead, alright?”
Volt’s feet start to move, and he sways to the side, pulling Eddie along with him, unsteady and unsure, his hands gripping Volt’s arms like a vice. They spin, and Eddie is sure he’s going to trip at every step.
Volt’s laugh is warm, like velvet on Eddie’s skin. “Eddie, you’ve got to relax.” He slows their feet, and his fingers slot between Eddie’s, holding him upright. “You’ll make us both trip with how stiff you are.”
Eddie grunts, his eyes focused on one of the buttons by Volt’s lapel, but sure how to meet his eyes. “Easy for you to stay. I never even entered the Hollyween dance thing.”
“Well don’t let my reigning championship deter you, darling. This isn’t a competition.”
Darling.
He’s never called him that before, Eddie thinks.
He glances up, white eyes already set on his face, and he feels sparks pop along his palm where Volt’s hand rests. He knows, somehow, that Volt feels them too.
They’re quiet now, their movements slowed, the music still filling the empty bar. Eddie wonders if he should call it now, just groan and head back to the bar, but something keeps him pressed to Volt’s chest. Something that feels almost like a wire, wrapped around his heart, buzzing and humming with a powerful current. One that Eddie doesn’t know if he can control.
Volt’s eyes flit over Eddie’s steel gaze, that sparkle, that warmth, still shining. “You’re doing beautifully, Eddie.”
The wire tightens.
“Yeah, well,” he scoffs, noticing his mouth is suddenly dry. “This is still another thing you’re better than me at.”
Volt’s expression flickers, a flash of something Eddie can’t place. He’s quiet a moment, taking his time to find the words he uses next. “Eddie,” he says again, almost a whisper, “I only wanted to dance with you.”
It’s like a shock to his circuits, this flash that hits Eddie at the tone of Volt’s voice. It’s no longer flirting, no more charm, it’s… raw. It’s true. It’s like a veil that was between them has fallen, and now, for perhaps the first time in their shared existence, they stand plainly before each other.
It takes Eddie a moment to stop studying Volt’s face, stop trying to analyze the fire in his eyes, before he realizes he should breathe. Should say something.
“I,” he starts, but he’s unsure. “I know.” He swallows, to buy himself a second more. “I’m sorry.”
One of Volt’s brows twitches, and his lips fall open, almost like he’s about to speak. It surprises Eddie when his hand leaves his back, ghosts along his arm, and comes to rest on Eddie’s cheek, his fingertips brushing his neck. That surge is there again, humming where they meet.
Volt’s voice is still quiet, still that raw tone that Eddie’s not sure he’s ever heard before. “I only want for you to be alright. You work so hard, for them, for… for me.” His other hand leaves Eddie’s, comes to his other cheek, and Eddie finds that his palm is now pressed against Volt’s chest. “Can’t you let me help you?”
“I’m fine,” Eddie says, a little quicker and a little gruffer than he intends it to, years of guardedness and loneliness making it his default. But he blinks, and he promptly tries again, softer, more thoughtful. “I’m alright, Volt. I don’t need to be helped.”
Volt’s thumb strokes his cheek, little sparks lighting under Eddie’s skin. His dark brows are furrowed now, his gaze disarming. “But isn’t that what I’m here for? To help you? Protect you?”
Eddie blinks, his own brows coming to meet. “Is it?”
Volt nods. “I think so. I… I feel it, inside me. Alongside my current. This, this need to keep you safe. It’s the strongest thing I’ve felt since…”
Since he sparked into existence, he doesn’t have to say. Volt’s existence was born out of anger, out of desperation to simply be rid of the pain that had threatened to rip Eddie apart. It wasn’t logical, it wasn’t intentional, and even now, a year later, Eddie still isn’t certain what Volt’s existence means - for the club, for the power in the house, for himself.
The wire in Eddie’s chest is tight, so tight he wonders if he’ll even be able to breathe soon.
The hands around Eddie’s face hold him tighter, and Volt’s breath tickles Eddie’s lips as he speaks. “And I only want for you to let me. Let me hold whatever I can if it means that maybe,” the corners of his mouth turn up, but the smile doesn’t meet his eyes, “you could at least enjoy a dance.”
Eddie’s breath is gone, only Volt’s remaining between them, and the thrum of his current pounds in his ears. He feels trapped, held by this man who is both everything that he is not, and everything he longed for in his lonely years. This man who, when he feels their skin touch, makes him feel complete.
But how could he be so selfish? To even allow himself to feel such a thing? To even hope, so deep inside himself he won’t even admit it’s there, that Volt could feel the same?
“I,” he starts, his lips moving on their own. “I don’t want you to worry about me. I… I don’t need that.”
“You do. You do, my darling, and you know it,” Volt says, faster, nearly pleading.
“But how can I ask that of you?” Eddie’s voice is rushed too, desperate, out of breath. “I, I fucking made you, I don’t even know how, and I can’t ask you to… to…”
“Love you?”
No.
No, this couldn’t be happening.
It couldn’t, because that meant that…
That something that Eddie desperately, hopelessly wants, is within reach. In his own fucking hands, right here, right now.
And he couldn’t be so lucky.
He tries to push himself away from Volt, to get out of this pull his current has on him, has to think. But Volt’s grip only tightens, his hands around his neck, stopping him before he can even take a step.
“Eddie, don’t -”
“Volt, no.” It’s harsher than he means it, but all of his circuits are fried. “You, you don’t know what that means -”
“Of course I do,” Volt’s voice is like silk, smooth and level and still - everything Eddie is not. The shine in his white eyes could blind Eddie, or could lure him out of some unknown depth like a beacon. Maybe they’re trying to do just that. “It means I’d do anything for you. Anything to protect you, give you anything you need. It means that my breath is yours, my current, yours.” One of the hands on Eddie’s neck slips down, down his chest, and stops over his heart. “You feel it too, I know you do.”
As he says it, Eddie feels that warmth flood his veins, emanating from Volt’s touch and flowing to the ends of his fingers and the top of his head. It’s so beautiful, it’s overpowering, and it’s like he can taste it, like he can taste the devotion in Volt’s voice, like he can feel Volt’s heart beating like it’s inside his own chest.
It’s beating in sync with his own, he realizes.
And Eddie, though he tries to hide it, is weak.
Without thinking, his hands fly to white hair, and he pulls, pulls Volt down to him, needing his lips on his own more than air. When they meet, the lightbulb above them bursts with a pop!, but it’s the furthest thing from either of their minds. Volt’s lips are soft, softer than he remembers them ever being, and they open for him, pliant, irresistible, perfect. This is not how they normally kiss - it’s usually all teeth and bite, hurried, like a means to an end. But this… this is warm.
“Eddie,” Volt gasps, their breath mixing, one inhaling when the other exhales, “My darling, I love you. I love you.”
Eddie's grip on Volt’s hair tightens, and he curses through grit teeth. “Fucks sake, Volt,” he hisses, knowing the words are right there on the tip of his tongue, but the effort to say them - he doesn’t know if he has the strength. “Fuck, I - I feel so selfish, I - you shouldn’t have to love me just because I made you.”
“Never. Never. I love you for myself. For us. What we share when we touch,” he says, his fingers carding through Eddie’s hair. “It’s been here all along, hasn’t it?”
It has, Eddie knows it has, has known since the moment he opened his eyes and found bright, white ones staring down at him.
And here it was, bare and open in front of them. Just waiting for Eddie to reach out and take it.
“Volt,” the name falls off Eddie’s tongue in total adoration, “I… I love you, too.”
In a haze, like he’s drunk, Eddie is being led, pushed across the room by strong, loving hands, and his back is pressed to something cool - the bar, it must be. It’s urgent, now, how Volt is kissing him, keeping his lips no more than a breath away, sparks shocking their lips each time they meet. Eddie’s hands move from Volt’s hair to the collar of his shirt, pulling him closer still. But it’s still not close enough.
“Volt,” he breathes, when Volt moves his lips to his jaw, “upstairs.”
They’re there in a flash, kissing clumsily up the stairs, vests and shirts and belts shed in their wake. When they fall to the bed, their bare chests and legs tangling together, Eddie thinks he must finally know what it feels like to be electrocuted, to have every cell in his body shocked to attention. Volt’s hand holds his waist, and he gasps as a shiver runs down his spine. It’s like he’s finally seeing, finally feeling Volt, with no pretenses, no masks, just their tandem heartbeats and shared breath.
Eddie’s lying back on the bed, Volt above him, the bolts of his hair falling like a veil around them, enlightening them. Volt kisses his jaw, his neck, and Eddie moans, arching into the touch. He is hungry, he is weak, and more than anything, he needs Volt.
“I, fuck” he moans, grunts at the feeling of Volt’s teeth scraping his skin, “I can’t wait, Volt, I - please.”
“My darling,” he purrs into the shell of his ear, “I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.”
He’s so beautiful, Eddie thinks, as he watches him stand and retrieve the bottle of lube from the night stand. His shoulders are so wide, elegant, and he can’t help but follow the line of his muscles down his chest to the white coils that sits between the v of his hips. It’s intoxicating, better than any cocktail that Eddie could concoct, and the blood starts to rush from his head to his cock.
Volt hums as he settles back on the bed above him, peppers kisses across his face, feels the charge in his heart surge at the little sounds Eddie makes in response. “Will you let me love you, Eddie?”
For Eddie to finally have something he wants, something he needs, in his own hands -
He’d go through the pain that came before Volt a thousand times if it meant he’d still end up here.
“Yes.”
His hips are lifted, and he wraps his ankles around Volt’s waist as large, soft hands press open his thighs. He watches, the wire tightening around his heart, as Volt pumps his cock, coating its length with the lube, and Eddie gasps when he feels him at his hole. Volt leans forward, balances a hand on Eddie’s chest, and in turn, Eddie grasps his wrist, trying in vain to steady his breathing. It doesn’t matter, though, when Volt finally pushes inside, and all the air leaves Eddie’s lungs.
“Volt,” he whispers, losing more and more thoughts in his head other than that one name as he fills him, “Please -”
“Shhh,” Volt purrs, and they both gasp when he finally bottoms out, and Eddie clenches around him, “I’m here, Eddie.”
Tentatively, softly, he rocks his hips, and already Eddie is gone.
“Fuck,” he groans through his teeth, his nails digging into Volt’s arm as he thrusts. “Yes, I - fuck!”
“Eddie.” Volt’s white eyes are locked onto Eddie’s steel ones, unblinking, and everywhere is warm, something deep and electric pulsing in every electron in their shared touches. It’s like they’re charging together, their powers combining and building, and it makes the lamps in the room start to flicker.
As Volt’s pace quickens, Eddie is vaguely aware of tears starting to form at the corners of his eyes. “I l-love you,” he gasps, Volt’s cock burning inside him, his white eyes lighting a fire under his skin. “Fuck, Volt -”
“I love you,” Volt whispers, and he tears a small yell from Eddie’s throat as he wraps his hand around his cock.
How strange it is, some logical part of Eddie thinks, how complete he feels, despite the fact that he had to tear himself apart to get there.
Both of them know they weren’t meant to last long, as Volt hits a spot inside Eddie that finally spills the tears in his eyes. Volt kisses them away, whispers into his skin how good he’s being, how much he loves him, all the while working his hand over his cock and deepening the angle inside of him. Eddie’s hands claw at his back, his breath strangled in his throat from the stimulation, the sensations both physical and not. It’s too much, it’s not enough - it’s exactly what he needed.
“V-Volt,” Eddie stutters, and his hands shake as he feels himself climbing, knowing he’ll fall soon, clinging to the only solid thing he can. Volt doesn’t stop, thrusts into him faster, harder, and then -
White flashes across Eddie’s vision as he cums - the feeling in his body so raw and exposed, he wonders if he’s been burned. He can feel Volt’s lips on his cheek, the erratic pump of his hips, and then Volt joins him, falling, together, into a white haze.
They’re pressed together when they come round, their faces buried in each other’s necks. It’s painful, almost, Eddie thinks, having to separate, so he keeps hold of one of Volt’s hands even as they clean up, Volt kissing his fingers every so often.
When finally, they’re back beside each other, under the blankets - their blankets, now, they suppose - only then can Eddie take a deep breath. He rests in the nook of Volt’s shoulder, his fingers making circles on his collarbone, and Volt tracing circuit lines on his arm, their chests rising and falling with synced breath.
“What do we do now?” Eddie eventually says, in the quiet of the dark.
Volt hums in the back of his throat. “I move my things up here. We…” he lets out a small laugh. “I don’t know. Is there something we should do differently?”
Eddie huffs, a small smile on his lips. “I… dunno. I guess not.” He thinks for a moment. “I don’t want you fucking anyone else.”
“And I don’t want you fucking anyone else, darling.” Volt’s fingers find Eddie’s hair. “I’m a bit protective, if you haven’t noticed.”
“You? Protective?” Eddie chuckles. “No, I’ve never noticed.”
“You love me, don’t deny it.”
And Eddie, though he tries to hide it, is weak.
“Of course I do.”