in my Hazbin Hotel phase

______

“It—It’s okay,” Vox whispered to Alastor.

Vox’s other self snarled and dug his claws into Alastor’s head, shaking the poor man. “Don’t reassure him,” the other Vox said. “Take him. He’s ours.”

Vox’s heart thudded. Alastor was beautiful as always, even in pain, even as a mess, with his hair roughed and server’s outfit charred from electricity. And why was he dressed as a server? Any clothes looked good on him, but that outfit was demeaning for the untouchable – or so Vox had thought – Radio Demon. But Vox knew more than likely that was the point: belittling an object of contempt.

“I—” Vox swallowed. “I… I don’t want… This isn’t how…” And then to Alastor, “I’m sor—”

The other Vox roared and threw Alastor across the floor. Static exploded over Vox’s receivers and he covered the sides of his head.

The other Vox scoffed. “You’ll need to upgrade your signal blockers, it looks like. Remember that.”

Vox slightly inclined his head in a nod, more to make sure the other Vox would feel acknowledged and not worsen his ire toward him.

What had gone wrong? Why was he—not himself, but still him, somehow—Why was he treating Alastor this way?

The other Vox suddenly and swiftly crouched in front of him. Eyes narrowed in disgust, he asked, “Why don’t you want him?”

Vox’s eyes widened. Of course he wanted Al. He just didn’t want…

There was shuffling off to the side as Alastor tried to sit up. Wires burst from the walls and pulled him down, wrapped over his head and mouth. Vox flinched.

“Please,” he whispered. “Stop.”

With a smile cold as a razor blade, the other him chuckled and tweaked the lower corner of Vox’s head in a mockery of affection. “Do you want to know what he’ll do to you? How he’ll make you a laughing stock? How he’ll tell you your time together meant nothing, that you mean nothing?”

Vox shrank back. It was more than possible Alastor would do that. Alastor had done far worse to many others.

But Vox pressed his hand to the ground and pushed himself up. “Right now, I don’t care.” He took a few steps toward Alastor as the other him raised an eyebrow. “Al, buddy, um. Here, I’ll—”

A blue-clawed hand yanked back Vox’s arm. “Don’t you dare,” the other him hissed.

“How could you dare?!”

The other Vox spat out a small laugh. “That… was not as cool as you might think. GOD I was such a dork.”

A blush brightened Vox’s screen. “It doesn’t matter.” He turned back toward Alastor. “Look, I’ll um, I’ll get these wires off—”

The other Vox sighed, and… even Alastor looked bored, eyebrows raised. The other Vox grabbed the younger version’s arm and yanked him to his feet.

“Why?” the other him demanded.

Now Alastor looked interested. And despite everything, seeing those attentive eyes fixed on him, Vox’s heart fluttered and he suddenly couldn’t bring himself to meet anyone's gaze.

“See?” the other him said. “This! So why don’t you want him?!”

“Of course I want him!”

Vox grimaced as a thread of static crackled from Alastor. He was never supposed to say that about Alastor, especially not where Al could hear him.

“So why,” the other him growled, “won’t you just be proud of me?”

The growl cut off with a jolt as the other him realized what he’d said, and a burst of Alastor’s laughter shot out of a speaker somewhere.

Vox… didn’t know what to do with this.

The other Vox’s screen blurred over with a bright blush and he snapped at Alastor, “SHUT UP!”

Multiple laugh tracks now layered on top of Alastor's radio-filtered laughter.

The other Vox kicked the younger into the wall. Vox gasped when he struck the wall, but he stayed on his feet.

The other Vox stalked toward Alastor and surged with electricity. The younger Vox panicked and shouted, “DON’T! PLEASE! Whatever he’ll do to me—”

The other Vox’s head swung around with a darker glare than he’d seen all of this bizarre night, electricity still sparking all around him.

“Whatever—Whatever he’ll do to us, I don’t… I still don’t want this.”

The other Vox’s snarl twisted upward into a painful looking sneer. “Well, you should know better than anyone just how selfish we are. I don’t give a rat’s ass what you want. I came here for me,” and he hoisted Alastor up by his hair. Another explosion of static and pain briefly smothered Vox’s vision.

“Haha, yeah,” the other him chuckled at Alastor's drooping body. Then in a mockingly simpering voice he said, “Does that hurt? Is your booboo from your fight opening back up?” He thrust Alastor back to the ground and kicked him, then turned away with a scoff. He paced for a moment. Stopped to glance at Vox, who froze. Continued pacing.

Eventually the other Vox let out an exasperated sigh. “Well,” he walked over to Alastor, “if this whole effort wasn’t a bust.” And he kicked Alastor at the last word before grabbing his hair and pulling him to his scrabbling feet.

The other Vox looked to his younger self with such a disappointed and bored look… then disappeared with Alastor in a flash of electricity.

Vox sagged with a massive exhale. Out of everything he’d seen in life and in Hell – and he’d seen so much. He’d done so much – that might have been the most unsettling. Were hallucinations something he should start expecting? Maybe. He’d have to go in tomorrow to get his components checked, to be sure nothing of the electronics sort was malfunctioning, but… He shuddered.

He’d just have to do what he could to make sure he and Alastor stayed friends. That was all he could do.

______

Author's note: Hopefully the narration is usually clear enough, working with three "he"s, two of whom are the same character lol. If there are any confusing or unclear lines, please point them out. This was a fun experiment and delightful bit of inspiration. :D

(Title from "Run Like Hell" by Pink Floyd -- with another lyric from "One of My Turns" partially included in the fic :p -- as a nod to the artist's caption :D)

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and hopefully this is okay: a lot of people in the comments wanted to read a fic about this so, even tho i'm not the person who many of these people were commenting at, here are some tags :'D