1. Wallace #6
“Your family seems really nice,” he told Volt while he waited, pointedly turning away from the creepy bots.
“They are.” Volt looked up from behind the giant metal box that housed the heating system.
He had a smudge of dirt on his forehead, which somehow made him look even sexier than usual.
“I’m very lucky.” Then his face dimmed. “I just wish I’d gotten to know Magnolia earlier.
When she was younger, I mean. Angel’s known her for over fifty years, I think. He won’t tell me how old he is.”
“He knew Jeremy, right?” Wallace asked, unsure how to bring it up.
“Yeah. By what I’ve put together, Jeremy passed away in his third or fourth year of college and Angel caught the spark when Jeremy was six or eight.
I’m not too clear on the dates.” He shrugged.
“Magnolia doesn’t care about anything so trivial as time and Angel doesn’t like to wander down memory lane, so I don’t have a real timeline.
I think that Angel was more involved when Jeremy was small, but of course he grew up, and I could never really tell how close the two of them were as adults.
If you hang around Magnolia, though, you’ll hear all the stories.
Angel hates them,” he added fondly, “but I think that’s just because he’s in a lot of them. ”
“And you?” Wallace asked. “Are you in any stories?”
Volt gave a lopsided smile. “She has a few about me.”
Wallace was absolutely dying to hear them. “How long have you known her?”
“Six years as of March twelfth.” He held up a wrench, looking like some sort of calendar model for HVAC repairmen.
“Hang on, is that when you caught the spark? I’m mean, you’re six years old? Or… is that the way to say it?”
“I suppose so. We celebrate the day that I realized that I was sentient, and it’s marked on all my legal papers as my birthday. So you could say I’m six years old.”
That was a weird thought. Wallace had assumed Volt was older than he was. Or at least the same age. He seemed to have so much experience.
Even counting the time since Wallace was legally an adult, he was older. “You’re a baby spark,” he said out loud.
Volt laughed. “Yup. It took me a while to find my way, but I think I’m pretty settled into myself now.
” He shrugged. “That’s why Angel and Magnolia are so excited that I’m dating you.
I had a lot of crushes, and, uh, obviously a lot of sexual and D/s experience.
I thought I was dating once. Or, maybe a few times?
But those weren’t…” He trailed off, looking forlorn before he perked up. “You’re my first real boyfriend.”
For a moment, Volt looked like a gawky teen, as new to this as Wallace was.
It was adorable.
Wallace knew he was blushing, but he felt all warm and gushy inside, too.
Volt might be the ultimate Daddy, but they were kind of in the same place with this whole dating thing.
“You’re my first real boyfriend, too,” he said.
He had his own years of experience dating money-grubbing women, but this was a whole new world.
“Is it okay if I’m not in Daddy mode all the time?” Volt asked. “I guess we should have talked about that earlier.”
But Wallace was already nodding. “Yeah. I mean, it’s great. Or, you’re great. Um… I like you like this. The real you.”
Volt beamed. Then he made his voice dark and husky. “Being your Daddy is the real me, too.”
Wallace shivered all over. “Uh, yes, Daddy.”
The look in Volt’s eyes made Wallace wonder if Daddy was going to stalk across the room and fuck him right there.
Wallace definitely wouldn’t say no.
The moment swelled between them. Daddy dropped the wrench he was holding with a thunk.
And then something moved behind Wallace—something altogether too human—and he screamed.
He whirled around, panicked, only to see that the Blaze model had opened its eyes and sat up, one arm holding it up in a sensuous pose, ripped torso on display, while the other arm awkwardly shot up toward the sky like Superman.
Wallace told his rabbiting heart to slow down. It was only a bot. Just a bot.
“You okay, creampuff?” Volt asked, suddenly by his side.
“Yeah. I’m fine. Just startled.” He gave himself a little shake. “Bots kind of freak me out.”
Volt reeled back and Wallace realized what he’d said.
He sounded like a Humans Firster.
“No, not you. Not sparks. Just, uh… bad experience one time. I promise. Not you or Angel or anyone else. It’s just when they look so human, but they’re not moving. I don’t like seeing them on the floor. Or turned off. Like they’re, uh, dead.”
Volt breathed out a sigh.
Wallace was going to be the biggest spark supporter for the rest of his damned life.
“No worries,” Volt told him.
It had kind of ruined the moment, though.
Volt went back to the heater and Wallace returned to his diagnostics. He’d need to figure out how to make this better. He needed to be better.
He could start by fixing the bots, no matter how long it took or how much it cost.
He was doing it for his Daddy.
And the amazing, unexpected family of his that bizarrely seemed to like Wallace just the way he was.