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Some days you just wake up knowing it’s going to be a good day. Today was one of those days.
Vox sat up in bed, feeling delightfully well-rested as he stretched his arms overhead. It wasn’t often he got a good night’s sleep, what with how busy he was running an entire company on his own, so last night had been a rare treat. And he just knew it would spill over into the rest of the day.
The first clue that he was right about that came when he reviewed the morning’s analytics over his coffee. There was a record number of posts about him, and surprisingly, they all seemed to be gushing about how sexy he was. Not that he was surprised people found him sexy, of course – he thought he was pretty damn good looking – he just wasn’t sure why all of Hell was suddenly talking about it.
So, as he usually did when he was at a loss on this kind of thing, he called a dear friend of his.
“What’s this about, Vee? It’s seven in the mornin’, and I haven’t finished my skincare yet,” Velvette answered the video call, her hair up in a bun and patches under her eyes.
“Was hoping you could shed some light on something. Any idea why I’m trending right now?” he asked hopefully. Velvette was the Social Media Overlord – if anyone was going to know it was her.
Immediately, she lit up. “Ooh, you haven’t heard? You won the tournament.”
Vox frowned at his phone. “What tournament?”
“Hell’s Tumblr Sexyman. You’re officially the sexyman of Hell. It’s kinda a big deal.”
“Seriously?!” His screen glowed a little brighter as a smile stretched over it. “I won? Who all was in this thing?”
“Only every man in Hell. Or at least all the ones people know. Can’t believe you didn’t hear about it.”
“I’ve been busy.” He conjured up a holographic screen, pulling up the details. Velvette was right. The list of everyone in the tournament was… exhaustive. It wasn’t just Sinners, either. He’d beat out the Ars Goetia, the Sins, even the King. Holy shit.
“Well, the runners up were the King of Hell and your boyfriend,” Velvette provided.
“Val isn’t my boyfriend,” Vox reminded her. Valentino was another Overlord, a mutual friend of theirs that Vox had hooked up with a few times, but they’d agreed to keep their relationship strictly friends with benefits.
“No shit. Val got out in round two. Took it pretty hard.”
“Then who were you…” He stopped, his eyes going wide when he finally saw the lineup for the final poll. “Alastor is not my boyfriend, either,” he spluttered, his cheeks glowing a bright cyan.
“Uh-huh,” she gave an exaggerated roll of her eyes. “Sure.”
“He’s not!”
“Whateva’ you say, Vee. Anyway, I gotta go. Enjoy your new status!”
And enjoy his new status, he did. Who knew that some little internet poll could do so much for him? But all day, everyone seemed willing to bend over backwards for him, and not once did anyone tell him no. He was able to finalize a business deal he’d been working towards, set up a meeting with an important new client, and get the ball rolling on what was sure to be a hot new TV show. In everything he set out to do, he succeeded. His stocks were up, ratings were up, and company morale was doing pretty damn good, too. By the time that afternoon’s Overlord meeting rolled around, Vox was feeling like he was on top of the world.
He bounded into the conference room above Carmilla’s factory, pulling out his usual chair and doing a little spin as he fell back into it. “Fuck, today’s been good,” he sighed.
Beside him, Alastor chuckled. “You don’t say?”
Vox grinned at him, bracing his hand on the back of the Radio Demon’s chair. “Hey, no hard feelings, right?”
Alastor blinked, but before he had a chance to respond, Carmilla stepped up to begin the meeting. It was boring as always, but even that felt more tolerable today with the high of Vox’s win carrying him through.
“If no one else has anything–”
“I have something, Carmilla,” Vox cut in, and all of the other Overlords looked over at him curiously as he rose to his feet. “I’ve been thinking, all of us here are the controlling powers of the city, but outside of these meetings, we’re all concerned with our own districts and our own souls, with no regard for each other. If we were to form a more cohesive network, think of how much more efficient we could be.”
“And how would you propose we do such a thing?” Carmilla asked bluntly; though not without a hint of curiosity.
“We can start small – something as simple as a newsletter could keep us informed of what other Overlords are doing and allow us to plan our own moves accordingly. I would never seek to place more responsibility on your shoulders, of course.” He inclined his head to her respectfully. “If everyone sends me weekly updates on their goings-ons, I can compile them all into a newsletter that I’ll send out to everyone… let’s say at the beginning of every month? That way we can all stay up-to-date on any disputes, acquisitions, and everything else we need to know to stay on top of our duties.”
There were some murmurs of agreement. Vox was used to receiving pushback at Overlord meetings, but not one person objected to his proposal. He just couldn’t stop winning today!
“You’ll share some of the information with me, won’t you?” Alastor leaned close to murmur once Vox resumed his seat.
“Of course,” he whispered back.
Having every major Overlord reporting their activities to him, and him being the one to choose what got passed onto the others was going to be a powerful advantage. Not that he’d be able to withhold much without drawing suspicion, but if he wanted a couple things to slip through the cracks, that could be arranged. And he’d still be getting the information up to a month before everyone else. That was plenty of time to capitalize on the intelligence. For him and for Alastor.
Alastor had been Vox’s longest-running friend in Hell, and they had helped each other out a lot over the years. They worked well together, even if they didn’t officially work together. Fuck, Vox would love that, though. He’d come close to asking Alastor for an official partnership many times now, but he always backed down at the last minute, too worried what his reaction would be. Sometimes it felt stupid to worry about it. They were so close, and they’d worked on so many projects together – surely the answer was obvious. But what if he was wrong? What if things got weird between them afterwards? He couldn’t even imagine what his afterlife would be like if he lost Alastor. He’d probably go down a really dark path – which was saying something, considering he’d been a serial killer in life.
Maybe today was the day to ask him, though. Things were going so well for him, if there was ever a time to press his luck…
“You want to come over for drinks tonight?” he asked as everyone made their way out of the conference room.
Alastor looked at him with his staple grin. “How could I say no?”
*
The second half of the day carried on much the same as the first. Everything went as well as it possibly could for Vox; business flowed smoothly and everyone was happy to give the television demon whatever he wanted. He really hoped that that particular trend would persist for his drinks with Alastor that evening. But surely, even if Alastor didn’t care about the results of some poll, he would be able to see what it had done for Vox’s reputation. Surely, he’d want to partner with someone who was such a big deal. Surely.
They were a few drinks in before Vox finally broached the subject. “So, Al, I’ve been thinking for, well, for a while actually now, that we’re really doing ourselves a disservice.”
“How so, pal?” Alastor asked curiously, pouring them both another drink.
“Well, people know us, they love us, and we’ve accomplished a lot – you with your radio show, and me with VoxTek,” he started, twisting to face his friend on the couch. “But we could be so much more together. Like at the meeting today! You shouldn’t have had to ask if I’d share that information with you – that should be a given! Because I’m not going to withhold from you something that can help you, and you’ve always been there for me, but if we went all in? We are two of the most powerful Overlords Hell has seen. If we combine our resources and our strengths, we’d be unstoppable. Radio and video. Me and you – we could rule Hell together, as partners.” He extended his hand, his heart pounding in his chest as he waited for an answer to the most important question he had ever asked.
For a second, Alastor just blinked down at his hand, then he lifted his gaze to meet his eyes. “Partners, you say?”
“Yeah, you know, business partners,” he hastened to clarify, internally cursing himself as he felt a blush bloom over his screen.
“Hmm.” He looked into the distance thoughtfully. “I suppose it could be an advantageous move. Helping each other out is one thing, but I do see the benefit of a more solid agreement. Very well. Partners.” And he clutched Vox’s hand.
The room was bathed in green and blue light as the deal was sealed, the blinding brightness but an echo of Vox’s own excitement. He was actually partnering with Alastor. It was official. They were a team. Whatever Hell threw at them, they would take it on together, and he had no doubt that they would come out on top. Fuck, as amazing as the day had been, it all paled in comparison to this. Vox felt as though he’d just gotten everything he’d ever wanted. Hell, he basically had. A partnership with Alastor… nothing would ever top this.
“We can work out all the details when we haven’t been drinking – does that work for you?” Alastor asked, an amused curl to his lips as he regarded Vox’s radiant smile.
“Yeah, that sounds great!” he enthused. And then he practically lunged forward to snatch up his drink from the coffee table, hardly able to control his movements with all the excess energy buzzing through him. His smile hadn’t dimmed in the slightest when he turned and offered up his glass for a toast. “To us.”
The corners of Alastor’s smile pulled up a little higher, and he much more gracefully picked up his own class to clink it against Vox’s. “To us.”
Their conversation returned to its usual flow as they sipped their drinks, but Vox still felt like he was riding the high of the day, and the last hour, in particular. “I should send a gift basket to whoever hosted that tournament,” he eventually mused aloud.
Alastor raised an eyebrow at him curiously. “What tournament?”
He blinked and slowly turned his screen towards him. “The… Hell’s Tumblr Sexyman tournament…”
A second eyebrow joined the first. “Hell’s what now?”
A bolt of electricity shot between his antennae. “No, you–you knew about that… didn’t you?”
“I assure you, I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about, Vox.”
It felt as though a weight had dropped into Vox’s stomach. If Alastor didn’t know, then he didn’t know how big of a deal Vox suddenly was, which meant he hadn’t had any more reason to agree to the partnership than he would have had on any other day. Vox had thought the deck had been stacked in his favor! Which, fine, it had all worked out, but the sudden realization that Alastor didn’t have all the information, that he could have said no, hit him hard. Fuck, he wouldn’t have even risked asking if he’d known that was the case.
“I won the tournament against every man in Hell,” Vox explained, a hint of desperation to his voice, even though logically he knew there was no reason for his panic. Alastor had already agreed, he didn’t need to convince him of anything. Logic wasn’t winning out right now, though. “And I mean every man in Hell – not just Sinners, royalty, too. I’m the Tumblr Sexyman of Hell. Which is a huge deal. And since it happened, no one can say no to me. Everything I’ve done today has gone in my favor. It’s like I can’t stop winning! So, I thought… well, if there was ever a day to ask…”
Alastor burst out laughing. He slammed his mostly empty glass down on the table and threw his head back, shaking with the force of it. “You thought –” he gasped out between peals of laughter “– I agreed to this partnership – because you had won the title of ‘Tumblr Sexyman’.”
Okay, when he said it like that, it did sound kind of stupid. But… “I mean, everyone’s been saying yes to me because of it.”
Getting his laughter under control, the Radio Demon fixed him with a pointed look. “And they’ve said it is because of this tournament?”
“Well, no. But the Overlord meeting! Everyone agreed to my idea!”
“It was a good idea.“ Alastor regarded him with some amusement as he propped his elbow against the back of the couch, leaning his head against his fist. “And you made a good argument for it.”
Vox frowned, shaking his head. “I also finalized a business deal I’ve been working towards.”
“So, your hard work paid off?”
“And I got a powerful new client,” he added.
“You gain new powerful clients all the time,” Alastor pointed out patiently.
“I’ve got a new TV show in the works!”
“On a network that you control? How shocking. Anything else?”
Vox opened his mouth, then closed it again. Was Alastor right? Were none of the good things that had happened to him today because of the tournament? “It’s just… been a really good day,” he concluded lamely.
“And just maybe that’s the result of a reputation you’ve spent nearly 70 years building for yourself.” Alastor flicked his antennae playfully, chuckling when the action produced a spark. “I certainly don’t need anything else to partner with you!”
He peeked over at him with an almost shy smile on his screen. “Yeah?”
He nodded, and Vox let his head fall back against the couch with a sigh. A pleasant warmth was blooming in his chest, and he reveled in the feeling as a comfortable silence fell between them.
After a couple minutes, Alastor spoke up again. “What exactly is a Tumblr Sexyman?”
Vox blinked, lifting his head. “It’s… well, it’s… it has sexy in the name…”
Alastor barked out a laugh. “You don’t even know! You put all this stock into the title, and you don’t even know what it means!”
“Velvette said it was a big deal,” he argued defensively.
“Sweetheart, Velvette thinks getting one more like than someone else on a photo is a big deal.”
Shit, that was a good point. Vox pulled out his phone and quickly voogled ‘tumblr sexyman’. Alastor siddled closer to read over his shoulder.
“‘A male character who attracted a fan following on tumblr,’” the Radio Demon read aloud, laughter bubbling up in his voice. “‘Becoming a sex symbol, often in spite of a conventionally unattractive or non-human appearance.’”
“What?!”
“‘They usually fall into the category of ‘young twink’ or ‘father figure’, though the criteria for what qualifies as a Tumblr Sexyman can vary greatly.’ Oh dear, look at this – ‘The craze is said to have begun with the Once-ler from The Lorax.’ And there’s a picture!”
“That’s enough,” Vox snapped, his screen burning cyan as he shoved his phone back into his pocket while Alastor fell back onto the couch chortling. “Shut up!”
“So, are you the ‘young twink’ or the ‘father figure’, do you think?” He was practically rolling on the couch with his laughter, his ears flopping against the arm and his legs kicking in the air before his feet landed on the other side of Vox’s legs.
“You were runner up, asshole!”
That only made him laugh harder. And fuck, his laughter was contagious. It wasn’t long before Vox had joined in, wrapping his arms around Alastor’s knees as he folded over them.
“Sex symbol is still good, though,” he finally managed to get out. “Clearly, the conventionally unattractive part doesn’t apply to me.”
“Oh, I wasn’t aware that having a television for a head was considered conventionally attractive.” Alastor had been covering his face to collect himself, but he peeked up at Vox from between his fingers, so he got a clear view of being flipped off. That set off another round of giggles.
“It’s still a win,” Vox continued with a resolute nod as he straightened back up.
“I just can’t believe you thought that was why you had such success today.” Finally, getting his laughter in check, Alastor swung his legs back over the side of the couch and sat up, his arm brushing against Vox’s.
“There were an unprecedented number of wins, okay?” he sighed, running a hand over his screen. “I thought it was the most logical explanation.”
“Hmm. Well, maybe today’s just your day. Perhaps you should try something truly daring to put it to the test.”
Vox turned to him with a raised eyebrow. “Now it feels like you’re trying to bait me into doing something stupid.”
His smile grew a little wider. “Maybe I’m just curious to see what you’ll do.”
Fuck. Did Alastor have any idea what was running through his mind right now? If he did, would he still be encouraging him? Alastor was good at goading Vox into doing things he otherwise wouldn’t, and the television demon was feeling the familiar urge to provide him with the entertainment he was obviously craving. But this… this was different. This wasn’t picking a fight or trying demon flesh, this was something that could jeopardize everything. But Alastor had said truly daring…
“Promise me you won’t hold it against me.” He spoke the words before he fully processed his decision. Was he actually going to do this? Fuck, how much had he had to drink?
Alastor’s eyebrows shot up in unmistakable intrigue. “Well, I can hardly promise that until I know what you’re going to do. I can promise to be fair, though.”
Vox nodded. He supposed that was good enough. So, he took a deep breath and then leaned forward to place a light, gentle kiss to Alastor’s lips.
When he pulled back, he had just a second to register the Radio Demon’s eyes blown wide with shock, and then he felt a tentacle curl tightly around his neck, threatening to strangle him. Fuck.
“Al–” he tried to choke out an apology, but before he knew it, the tentacle was hauling him forward, hands were grasping either side of his screen, and then Alastor’s lips were on his again.
Alastor was kissing him. Really, properly kissing him! Vox melted into his hold, returning the kiss with decades’ worth of pent-up devotion. Claws were biting into his casing, teeth sliced at his lip, but he didn’t care, it was all wonderful. He clutched at Alastor’s back and shoulder, holding him as close as he possibly could as he moaned into his mouth.
Far too soon, Alastor drew away, licking his lips thoughtfully. “Pardon me, I just had to have the experience of kissing Hell’s Tumblr Sexyman.”
It took Vox a moment to process his words, and then he shoved him backwards with an indignant scoff. “Asshole!”
Alastor was cackling again, clutching at his stomach.
“You’re such a dick,” Vox complained, shaking his head. And then he looked down at him out of the corner of his eye. “That wasn’t really why you did it… right?”
“I don’t know,” he hummed. His eyes sparkled mischievously as he got to his feet, stretching his arms up overhead. “I suppose you’ll have to wait until all the buzz has died down and try again to know for sure.”
A huge smile stretched over the television demon’s screen, practically blinding in its brightness. “I can do that.”
“Lovely. In the meantime, I should be heading home. It’s getting late.”
“Yeah, okay,” he muttered reluctantly. “See you tomorrow?”
“I’d say so. We have a partnership to work out the details of.” He returned Vox’s smile knowingly before he turned for the door. “I’ll see myself out.”
When the door closed behind the Radio Demon, Vox fell back onto the couch with a contented sigh. He had a partnership with Alastor. He had kissed Alastor. Alastor wanted him to kiss him again. He was dizzy with all the wins the day had provided him.
He let out a little giggle, bracing one hand on the side of his screen. “I like winning,” he murmured aloud.
There was a little chitter, and Vox frowned across the room to see Alastor’s shadow – an extension of the Radio Demon’s own being – watching him from the wall.
“You’re still here?”
The shadow swept across the room, pressed itself against Vox’s side, and placed a ghostly kiss to the side of his screen before gliding through the door after his body.
Vox stared after it with a bemused grin. He really hoped his luck would carry over into tomorrow. Because he was going to ask the Radio Demon on a date.