Chapter Fifty-One: Valentino's Angst

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Three months pregnant, I look like I'm four and a half months pregnant and I have yet to get the Essence of Fertility. So, I decided...well, fuck it, I've got a few days till my body decides that it must flush three unborn children out of existence, so let's go bother the most emotionally unstable bigot who blames most of his problems on me: the one, the only VALENTINO.

"Babe, take Mercy with you." Angel advised.

"Why the fuck-"

"She can bring him to his knees, Al, her power has a lot to do with serotonin levels and emotion. I've taught her how to make people feel pain in ways that they would never feel otherwise, using me as the test dummy. It hurt. A lot. My neck is still sore." Angel shrugged, wincing slightly. I fixed him with a horrified look before ushering Mercy out the door to the car.

I pulled up in front of Vox's mansion and we got out of the car. Mercy ran up to the door and punched the doorbell enthusiastically. Velvet's footfalls sounded from inside and she threw open the door with a loud greeting.

"Hello, Velvet." I smiled at her.

"Hi, Vel!" Mercy cheered, hugging her legs.

"Hey, Uncle Al, hey, little cousin." Velvet laughed. "What can I do you for?"

"I came to bother your parent." I laughed cruelly.

"I'm assuming you mean Val? He's very sad and lonely and drunk right now." Velvet sighed, picking Mercy up. Velvet looked very awkward as she held the six year old in her arms, but she didn't seem to mind holding the literal emotional support demon.

"Hmmmmm... I would join him for a drink, but I really don't think that is the wisest decision. I'll have a cup of tea as I talk with him. I need to get him a therapist, but I don't know who would be the best at therapy." I mused, tapping my chin before shrugging. "I'll do my best to make him better, I promise, Velvet, so you don't have to deal with yet another cycle of divorce and get back together."

"That would be great, Uncle Al, just be careful, he holds grudges even when drunk." Velvet warned, putting Mercy down.

"That's why we have Mercy. She can help people calm down and just pour out how they feel." I said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Off I go, come along, Mercy." I said, ascending the stairs to Val's room. I opened the door as silently as I could, sinking down on a chair in the corner of the room. Mercy stood next to me, her eight eyes glowing slightly like mine often did. Valentino sobbed at his personal bar as he downed glass after glass of wine and vodka and whiskey. I almost pitied him right there without seeing his face.

"So...what's got you so blue, Valentino?" I said casually. Valentino whirled around on his barstool, hardly managing to stay on the stool as he struggled to see me through tears.

"And why would I tell you?" Valentino snapped at me.

"Because I happen to care about my family, Valentino." I said, petting Mercy's hair absently.

"Did you just call me your family? I needed that, how did you know?" Valentino asked as he looked at me and just cried. Mascara ran down his cheeks, eyeliner mixing with it. I felt a twinge of sympathy for the ex-pimp and tried not to show it.

"Oh dear, you are quite the disaster, aren't you? Let's get you cleaned up and have a talk about feelings." I said, standing up and helping him off the barstool. He surprisingly didn't fight back, but I was most surprised by how light the nine-foot-tall drunk, miserable demon was.

"Oh dear, that's not good at all." I murmured to myself, knowing what starvation felt like. "Let's take your clothes off and get you in the bath." I mumbled to him. He numbly nodded and let me take his boots and jacket off before I fumbled with the buttons of his shirt and pants for a solid minute, eventually ripping the clothes on accident.

"I am going to ask you to take your...er...panties off. I am not going to do that." I said before starting to fill the tub of in his private bathroom. Valentino took off his panties, covering up with a towel so he didn't ruin my daughter's innocent nature (I appreciate that gesture of his). I added bubble bath to the water and helped the extremely tall drunk overlord into the bathtub.

I sang a lullaby to him as I washed his hair that had managed to grow a lot since we shut down the porn studio. He did his best to stop crying as I took care of him and helped him freshen up and I wiped the makeup stains off him, going as far as taking all his makeup off.

"Why are you so nice to me right now? I did so many awful things to you and Angel and your family and yet...here you are to clean me up while I'm being a sad drunk failure of a wife." Valentino sobbed as I scrubbed his back and gave him a massage (he was really really REALLY stiff).

"I believe in good karma as well as bad karma, Valentino...if I do enough good, I will have something good come to me later in life." I muttered as I shaved his legs and underarms.

"Such a trusting person you are..." Valentino mumbled as I finished my shave job and drained the tub. I realized that Mercy was standing in the doorway and I shooed her away, telling her to go find something sweet to give to Valentino.

"I'm just a mom with some strong beliefs, that's all." I sighed as I tossed Val a towel and toweled down his hair before brushing it and blow-drying it. Valentino dried off enough and I found a pair of panties for him, throwing them at him and going through his closet for some comfy clothes.

Mercy came running into the room with some chocolate and a box of assorted pastries, causing me to laugh as she put them down on the bed.

"Good job, sweetie. Can you straighten up the bed a little while you're at it? That's where we're gonna sit." I asked kindly. She nodded and set to work.

I helped Valentino into a pair of baggy sweatpants and a baggy pale pink sweater before leading him to the bed and making him sit on it. I summoned a cup of hot chocolate and handed it to him, summoning a cup of strong tea.

"So. What's up with you, Valentino?" I asked.

"Hold onto your ears, Al, I am probably going to talk for three hours at top speed for ranting." Valentino warned. I nodded at him to go on.

He told me about how he felt so very guilty about sleeping around, how he wanted to be sober and happy at the same time, how he didn't actually want abuse people but that was how he grew up, his past of abuse, his drug addictions, his alcohol addiction, how much he wished he could tell Vox how he felt without getting waved off because Vox was busy, how he wanted to be a good parent and spouse, how he didn't see a point to living anymore.

I understood fully about his issues and I offered him the occasional hugs, which he gladly accepted, and we ended up cuddling platonically for a while. I refilled his hot chocolate three times.

And then...it got deep.

He told me how he was sexually abused once a day as a teen and adult. He told me that was the reason he wanted to be the one doing the sexual abuse. He told me that it helped the first time around, but then he felt awful after every time he did it. He told me that he was a very very self-repressed transgender woman who was abused for that reason. She told me that she desperately wanted to be a woman, but she thought that she would never be a real woman.

"I am going to stop you right there, my dear. Have you seen Jeff?" I asked. Instantly a look of guilt spread across her face. "He's forgiven you, don't worry. But Jeff... Happy transman. Very happy, even though he didn't end up with the whole body he wanted and he's got a baby on the way. Have you seen my son, Stitches? A happy pre-pubescent transboy. Still very female, hair is still long, but nevertheless he is happy. Have you seen my friend Husk? They don't have a gender. They want to be referred to as an Eldritch Abomination! Who am I to disagree with that logic?" I ranted with tears cropping up in the corners of my eyes. "You, my dear girl, are a woman. You may not be seen as a woman, but I believe that you are a real woman and that you deserve to be treated as such. Don't you dare say otherwise."

Val full on cried and cried as I tucked her into my chest and wept with her, running my fingers through her long dark hair.

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