15. Wallace #4
Now he wanted to choke up all over again.
What had he done to deserve this amazing man, who not only knew him well, but supported him, too?
Who didn’t care how much money he had, as long as he was doing something he enjoyed?
Who, in fact, suggested he might use that money to support the arts in the least flashy and most hands-on way possible?
“I still like coding, though, Daddy. And I don’t know how to do any of those other things.”
“Then code what you want to code. Hire someone else to manage your new art museum and throw your money around getting the artists you like. Or, hell, stock cans at the grocery store. Take a long vacation and go on hikes. Or better yet, come be my house boy. Just get yourself off the hamster wheel and do what you love. Although,” he added with a chuckle, “that might mean I need a new nickname for you.”
“You already have enough nicknames for me,” Wallace teased. Though he was greedy enough that he still wanted another one.
Anything Volt wanted to give him, he would take. Daddy was his foundation. The planet that his little moon orbited around.
Though Daddy had been paused for a long time in replying to him.
“Daddy?” he asked.
“Hey, sweetheart, just a sec.”
He could imagine Volt’s posture, his eyes looking off into the distance as he listened to whatever Angel was telling him.
Well, of course, to anyone standing nearby, Daddy would look like that while speaking with Wallace on the phone, but when Wallace saw that abstracted look, it always meant Angel was talking with him over their private connection.
It was funny, because sometimes it would happen while Daddy was walking or dancing or even kissing him, and he’d keep on doing it… but not quite with his full focus.
Wallace, who was horribly smitten, found this kind of cute. Daddy was so perfect at everything that it was nice to know that there were a couple things that he didn’t do as well.
Though he didn’t like the sound in Daddy’s voice when he got back on the call. “Hey, creampuff.” The words were right, but the sound was wrong.
“What’s wrong, Daddy?”
“Nothing.” Volt sighed. “Just another day, creampuff. Angel had something he wanted me to look at. But nothing as important as my pretty girl,” he cooed, his attention coming back to Wallace.
“Thank you, Daddy. But you know you can tell me about your problems, right?” Not like he was one to talk. He would love to tell Daddy about everything going on with Maxamillion. To get the opinion of another spark. Just to have someone else to talk to.
But he wasn’t sharing anything because there were Non-Disclosure Agreements preventing it.
He wasn’t sure what Volt’s reason was.
Well, he knew that Daddy didn’t want him to worry about anything when they were together… But what about Daddy’s worries? Who would help him shoulder the load?
Wallace might enjoy looking cute and feeling small, but he wanted to be an equal partner.
“It’s nothing, baby. Really. I’m just happy to spend time with you.”
Volt’s voice was almost right… but not quite. He was still distracted.
No, not just distracted, but worried about something.
“Is Magnolia okay?” Wallace asked sharply.
“Magnolia? Yeah. She’s good. She asked for a mimosa with her breakfast today.”
“Did you give it to her?” Wallace asked, pulled from the depths of his feelings by Volt’s fondness.
“Well, we gave her the non-alcoholic version. And some reflux meds to wash it down.”
Wallace found himself smiling, just a little bit, but it still hurt. Maxamillion and Magnolia… Wallace felt so powerless. They both had to be okay.
Silence grew between them, Volt probably as lost in his thoughts as Wallace was.
Fuck. Wallace had been wallowing in guilt for three days instead of being there for his Daddy. Who was clearly still worried about something.
Wallace made a snap decision. “Is it too late for me to come over tonight?”
“You can come over?” Volt asked, enthusiasm alight in his tone. “Right now? Of course it’s not too late.”
Wallace would have made some flirty joke about how Daddy was telling him to break the rules, but right now, he didn’t want to bring them up. He’d been close to breaking them for the last three days, apologizing for skipping his daily walks and barely replying to Daddy’s calls.
He didn’t deserve either the rules or the punishment for them. Not when he’d done something so despicable.
But it sounded like Max might be okay, at least eventually. And if he could do something to help his Daddy feel better, to maybe, in some tiny way, give back to his boyfriend all of the care and support that he’d received… He wanted to do that. To start being a better person today.
He’d been breaking their rules, and that had to have hurt the man he… deeply cared about, at least, since it was probably too soon to call these overwhelming feelings anything more.
“I’ll be there in twenty minutes,” he promised, already searching for his shoes. He was wearing his pajamas, but they covered a lot, and with a jacket on, he could get down the elevator to the underground parking lot without anybody seeing anything.
“I can’t wait, baby boy,” Daddy told him, sounding like himself at last.