35. Volt #4
“Then let me tell you…” Wallace squeezed his shoulders harder, like he could will Volt to understand.
“I know this is my first real relationship, but I also know that you are perfect for me. You give me everything that I need, usually before I’ve even figured out that I need it.
You’ve given me the gift of learning to love myself and the freedom to be me.
You fit perfectly into every part of my life, and over time, as we change, that’s only going to grow. I don’t need money, but I do need you.”
Something metallic clinked, and a shock ran through Volt’s body. Suddenly, he could feel his arm again. The little bot was still tinkering, leaving weird, spidery shivers racing down his arm between the numb patches, but data came rushing in with full sensation.
The tsunami of feeling that hit him at the same time was what bowled him over, though.
I don’t need money, but I do need you.
Was it really that simple?
He’d kept thinking that Wallace was too new to things. Too inexperienced to separate love from the novelty of kink. Too naive to know what he might want in a year or two or twenty.
But Wallace was emotionally savvy, honed by years of emotional manipulation and the process of working through it to stand up for himself. He was more than capable of putting his feelings into words. Now, he was making a solid argument brick by brick by brick.
It seemed obvious now, but Wallace wasn’t asking Volt to prove himself as a Daddy or anything else. He hadn’t tried to buy him off. He hadn’t laughed at the idea of a real relationship. He wasn’t Bobby or Sadie or Kurt, who’d all seen him, in one way or another, like a possession.
I don’t need money, but I do need you.
Maybe Volt was enough. Just like he was.
Enough for Wallace to love. Enough for Wallace to commit to. Not just as a Daddy Dom, but as a boyfriend. Maybe a husband someday.
Because Wallace had told him what he needed—attention and structure, a safe space to find his inner strength and beauty—and Volt could give him all of that.
Part of him had already known that, but it still felt like a breakthrough. He was having a lot of those today.
Wallace loved him, as unbelievable as it was.
Wallace wasn’t going to leave him. Whether his new flower company worked or not.
“Okay,” Volt finally croaked.
“Okay?” Wallace asked.
“Okay, I…” Volt paused, unable to put everything into words.
Wallace was so much stronger and braver than he was.
He had been from the beginning. “Okay, I believe you. I trust you.” He finally had the courage to reach out and clasp Wallace’s hips, digging his fingers into the soft sweater and the softer flesh beneath. “You’re… you’re not going to leave me.”
Wallace’s face softened, his softly painted eyelids lowering. “I’m not going to leave you, Daddy. I had no idea you were worrying so much. But I’ll do what I can to prove it to you every day. I don’t ever want you to doubt me. To doubt us. I’m yours.”
“I’m sorry, creampuff. I shouldn’t have doubted.”
Wallace shook his head. “No, Daddy. It makes sense that you had doubts. You just should have shared them with me.”
Volt nodded, throat tight. “You’re right, pansy. I will next time. I promise.” It was a heavy promise, but Volt felt lighter. Free. He’d shared all of the toxic thoughts inside of him, weathered Wallace’s rightful frustration, and they’d come out stronger.
“Good,” Wallace announced. “Because I love being your submissive, but I’m your partner, too. I want us to be equals in that. Where we share our problems.”
“Yes, baby. I just… I still can’t believe how lucky I am that you’re mine.”
Wallace grinned. “I feel the same way, Daddy. Walking into Prism that day was the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Volt grinned back, warmth filling his body. “My timid little hamster. I think I started falling in love with you before you even crossed the street.”
“How did you see me? You were inside!”
Volt chuckled. “Angel told me to check the security cameras. We weren’t sure why you were lurking over there, but it became pretty clear once you came inside and couldn’t take your eyes off of me.”
Wallace blushed right on cue. Volt hoped he never grew out of it. “I didn’t know that you could see me then, either!”
“Oh, I was watching you just as much as you were watching me. I just had more cameras to do it with.”
“Oh, my god. That’s so embarrassing.” Wallace covered his face, so darling and innocent that Volt fell in love all over again.
Volt chuckled. “Not at all. One look at you, and all I wanted was to hold you on my lap, keep you safe, and hear you moan with pleasure. You brought out my Daddy urges something fierce. I had no idea if you’d be into any of the same things that I was, but that day was magical.”
“It was, Daddy,” Wallace agreed. “I didn’t even know I could feel that good. You made me feel special. Like I was the only boy in the universe.”
“To me, you are,” Volt agreed. Loving Wallace was just so easy. So joyful.
Though there was one tiny thing still nagging at him. The thing that still made his belly swoop and his engines rev.
“Baby?” Volt asked. “Can we talk about one more thing?”
“Of course, Daddy.” Wallace swayed forward, his hips still caught between Volt’s hands.
Volt cleared his throat. Then cleared it again.
“Things are changing this week. You don’t have your job any more.
You don’t have to go to sleep at any specific time or take breaks from the stress of the day.
You don’t have any colleagues to befriend or any meals to make sure that you don’t skip.
Our rules might not make a lot of sense now. ”
Wallace’s eyes widened. “I… didn’t think of that.”
Volt squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them.
He needed to admit this, too. “Before, with the nickel drive… I panicked. I was scared that without your job, you maybe wouldn’t need…
me.” He held up a finger before Wallace could interrupt.
“But I had this idea that maybe we could use your new clothes to make some new rules, and I was so worried about finding them that I didn’t pay attention to what you’d said about the logo on the nickel. ”
Wallace sucked in a breath. “Oh, Daddy… But I always want your rules. I need them.” He sank to his knees, so earnest and willing that it made Volt’s chest hurt.
Volt felt it then, moisture in his eyes. He was crying. Just like he had when Wallace showed him the dance studio in his apartment.
Wallace had no idea how much power he had over his Daddy.
Which was why Volt needed to tell him.
“Baby, I want you to know that I need them, too. You were the only thing that kept me together some days. And I promise, pansy, I’m going to do better about sharing my worries with you.
And my plans and my successes, if I ever get there.
But I want you to know that I wait all day for you to drop by.
I hang on each of your texts and read them over when you’re not there. You’re my lifeline.”
“Daddy, I… really?” God, it just broke Volt’s heart sometimes how Wallace could be so bold in defending Volt’s safety and still doubt how special he was in Volt’s life.
Volt thought that he’d said all of these things before, but maybe Wallace hadn’t understood.
“Creampuff, you are the best and most important part of my life. I don’t know if you realize how much our rules mean to me.
Your submission. Your commitment. I cannot think of a bigger honor than watching you grow until you didn’t need the rules any more. ”
“Daddy?” Wallace clutched Volt’s knees. “I… Can we keep the rules? Even if I don’t need them?”
“Oh, creampuff.” He spoke through the emotion clogging his throat. “I don’t want to trap you with old rules that don’t fit your life or help you grow. But… I’d really like to make new ones.”
Wallace’s smile was like the sun coming out after a storm. “Yes, please. What are your new rules, Daddy?”
Volt only had one idea so far, but he wasn’t sure how it would go over. “Um… What would you think about me choosing your clothes?”
“Every day?” Wallace asked. “Like, the clothes that everyone sees me in?”
Volt couldn’t tell if that was a good response or a bad one.
“Every day,” he confirmed. At least, that was what he wanted.
What he hoped Wallace would choose. “You could give me some parameters, like how you’re thinking about your gender that day or what you need to get done out in the world, then I would use that information to choose everything that you put on your body. ”
Wallace bit his lip, still uncertain. “What if we’re not together when I’m getting dressed?”