6. Volt #5
“Yeah,” Volt admitted. The bag was still dangling from his fingers.
“I’d thought that something had happened with Prism,” Wallace told him. “Like maybe you needed to leave.” Because that had happened on their first date. “Then I couldn’t figure out what else was wrong except that maybe you didn’t want to be here. With me.”
Ah, poor sweet, darling boy. “No, uh, I just realized that I’d messed up the dress code. I wasn’t sure if you’d want to be seen with me.”
Wallace’s mouth dropped open. “Daddy! Why wouldn’t I want to be seen with you?”
Volt couldn’t help but let a small smile steal over his lips. Every time that word dropped from Wallace’s mouth, it soothed his wounded soul.
“I just didn’t want them to think that you’d hired me or something,” he finally mumbled.
There it was, hanging in the air. Volt’s deepest fear.
That this was all he was.
All he was worth.
Unexpectedly, it made Wallace look miserable. “I know. I’m not attractive like you. I saw some of the looks we were getting. You’re completely out of my league.”
Out of his league? It was definitely the other way around.
Money could buy attractive companions, whether it was sex workers or trophy wives. He knew it. It was basically his whole job. And Wallace had already explained it with his dating history.
It really said a lot about Wallace’s mental state that he’d seen some of the looks Volt was getting and interpreted them so differently.
“I think it’s the other way around,” Volt said baldly. “People like you pay for people like me.”
Wallace sucked in a breath. “We’re not doing that though, right?” He looked like he was about to crumble.
Now Volt’s heart was cracking again. He shook his head.
How many times had Wallace been rejected by people who claimed to be better than he was?
“I want us to be in the same league,” Wallace whispered.
“Me, too, baby.” Volt wanted it with every gear and piston in his body. “But I understand if you don’t want to introduce me as your boyfriend sometimes.”
Wallace’s eyes widened. “You mean with Diana,” he said, as if suddenly putting everything together.
Volt shrugged, though he was starting to hope.
“I’m sorry, Daddy. I just froze up. I know I should be over it, but she and Rick used to play tricks on me.
Stupid kid shit, I guess. Like, I was taking a shower when I was maybe about fourteen, and Rick snuck into the bathroom and stole my clothes and all the towels.
They were waiting outside, and I had to run down the hall naked.
They laughed about it for weeks. I was, uh, pretty fat even as a kid. ”
Volt could only imagine what cruel things that bitch had said to his sweet, shy boy, who was just on the cusp of puberty and all the confusion that came with his developing body.
Volt’s urge, his overwhelming urge, was to kiss Wallace senseless. To pull him onto his lap and cuddle him close. To make him come so many times that he was panting and pliant and happy.
Or at least to ply him with pretty gifts and distract him from everything horrible in life.
But he carefully restricted himself to a warm hug, nearly dizzy with relief when Wallace collapsed into his arms.
He would never get enough of holding his baby, and the relief of knowing that Wallace hadn’t been embarrassed to be seen with him let his stiffly-held gears finally unlock. With a little shudder, he collapsed fully into the hug, needing it more than he wanted to admit.
Here he’d been freaking out about being introduced as Wallace’s boyfriend, and Wallace had been panicking over coming face to face with one of his childhood tormentors. He’d known Diana was a horrible person, but the levels of trauma Wallace had experienced just kept hitting him.
Wallace squeezed him just as tightly. His poor, darling boy, who’d gone through so much alone.
But not anymore.
“You’re beautiful,” Volt told him. “And Diana’s an immature, superficial snot.”
Wallace snorted, but he looked up at Volt with misty eyes. “She is a snot. But I still don’t understand what you see in me.”
“Perfection.”
Wallace snorted again, but Volt was captivated by his boyfriend, still awed by his good fortune in having him.
Volt whispered in his ear. “I see Daddy’s perfect baby girl, who took me to the orchestra for the first time on a very special date. And who’s going to wear the pretty panties I got for him after this concert and make Daddy a very, very happy man.”
Wallace shivered in his arms, pressing closer. “Okay, Daddy.” He looked impossibly sweet, blooming under Volt’s praise and direction with just a few little words. Becoming more himself with Daddy’s guiding hand.
And, fuck. That was everything that Volt needed in life.
Maybe he couldn’t fix everything. He couldn’t undo Wallace’s years of emotional abuse. He couldn’t make Magnolia any younger. He couldn’t stop the unknown attacks on Prism or stem the gaping holes in their finances.
But if he could be Wallace’s Daddy, that meant everything.
A little piece of paradise that he could control. Where he could make everything right for the both of them. Where none of the second glances and sneers mattered and all the Dianas of the world ceased to exist.
“So good for me, baby girl,” Volt repeated, just so he could hear the words. “You bring me so much joy.”
Wallace positively beamed. “You make me happy too, Daddy,” he whispered. “In fact, this week is the happiest I’ve been in my whole life.”
Volt’s throat felt tight. He didn’t even know how to respond to that.
So he just held his baby close, stroking along his back and exchanging soft kisses, until the lights dimmed.
Wallace guided them to their seats—not in the back row, where Volt maybe could have done something naughty to his sweet boy, but right up front where everyone could see them.
Then Wallace pushed his chair right up against Volt’s, and rested his head on Volt’s shoulder.
Volt wished he could record the moment—not just the audiovisual input as the room quieted in anticipation of the concert, which he could stream to his personal cloud drive with barely a thought—but the feeling he had right now, when his processors went all sticky and slow and his fans thrummed.
He hardly dared to breathe, lest he interrupt.
Wallace was claiming him, in his own sweet way. Braving his childhood bullies, coming out as gay where people he knew could see them together, and openly walking around with a sexbot as a boyfriend. Volt hadn’t truly realized how precious that was until it was happening.
Or how fucked up it was that his past experiences had taught him not to trust something like this when it was right in front of him.
He put his hand on Wallace’s knee, and Wallace turned and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek, his trim little beard brushing softly across Volt’s skin.
Where was the record button for that feeling?
Volt would have happily sat like that all evening, but watching the orchestra file in with their instruments was exciting enough to claim his attention.
Especially when Wallace was sharing it with him like this.
He was sure that this was nothing new for Wallace, but there was something magical about the hush that fell over the crowd, magnifying each little shuffle and footfall as the performers streamed in, dressed in all black.
Surprisingly, there were two sparks among them, and Volt was riveted.
Or, he corrected himself, at least two sparks that he could identify at a distance.
There might have been more that looked completely humanoid, but his eyes were drawn to a tall cleaning bot on three spidery legs who took their place with the other bassists, and a plastic customer service bot with a smooth, white, ovular head who sat in the midst of the violin section.
“There are sparks in the orchestra,” he whispered. He knew there were spark artists out there—a lot of them, in fact. And he knew that there were tons of sparks who left the professions they’d been designed for.
It was just that far more of them liked their original work and kept doing it. Teacherbots usually kept teaching. Chefbots usually kept cooking. Volt had chosen his bank because one of the tellers was a spark… who’d been designed for exactly that job and happily continued to work there.
He’d kind of assumed that would be the case for him.
He was a sexbot, wasn’t he?
So even though it shouldn’t have been a surprise, there was something about seeing his… his kindred up on the stage. It felt like a revelation.
“Yeah,” Wallace agreed, somehow intuiting his thoughts. “There are sparks in the ballet, too.” He gave Volt a gentle nudge. “You could dance, you know. Professionally.”
Could he? Not that he necessarily wanted to, since that was something private that only his family, and now Wallace, had seen. It was for him. It was his safe space and his release.
But it was wild to think that maybe he could just… do something else.
Especially when Wallace was looking at him with such admiration.
“I don’t know about that,” he answered.
“I’d pay to see you, and not just because you’re my boyfriend,” Wallace whispered, appearing happy either way.
Supporting him.
The conductor lifted his baton, and Volt was captivated. The music swelled. The guitar melody bubbled like a brook and rang out like a wail.
As he’d expected, it was completely different attending a live performance. Being there while music was created. Hearing the flowing, intricate melodies that felt like they were dancing through his circuits of their own accord.
This was shaping up to be one of the best nights of his life.
And he was definitely going to show Wallace just how much he enjoyed it as soon as the concert was over.