[RadioDust] Artificial Love

Chapter 7: Visible Changes

"Looks like somebody's got his spark back," Arden noted backstage while he and Angel were both on a ten-minute break. "So, who's the lucky guy?"

"Pff, what makes ya think there's a guy?" Angel asked. It was a little after midnight now, so they were changing into their racier outfits for the rest of the night; Angel had already stripped out of his little minidress and was pulling on a rhinestone-studded teddy.

"Please, how long have I known you?" his friend asked, watching him critically, unfazed by his nudity. "I can always tell when you're falling for some new guy, because you're always feeling yourself way more onstage. So let's skip this little back-and-forth where you try to dodge the question and just talk about it now."

Damn, he hadn't even considered that the change in his attitude would be visible to anyone else—but it was true he was feeling a lot more confident and sexy after seeing how much Alastor wanted him. Still, Arden wasn't exactly the kinda guy that could keep a secret; if Angel told him about Alastor, there was a good chance pretty much everyone in the club would know within a week or so. But then, it wasn't likely Arden would quit pestering him about it until he spilled.

"...okay, it's still kinda early—"

"Ha! I knew it," Arden said with a grin, wiggling into a tiny midnight blue skirt that provided a glittery contrast to his dark skin. "Go on, tell me everything. What's he like? How do you know him? Is he good in bed?"

"Sorry to disappoint ya, but I haven't slept with him yet." And honestly, he wasn't sure how he felt about doing it. Sure, there was definitely an intense attraction between them, but he worried that jumping right into sex might give Alastor the wrong idea one way or another. It was lucky he had work tonight; otherwise, he might not have been able to resist dragging his tom off to bed...or just letting him get it right there on the kitchen counter. "As for how we met, uh, Molly introduced us."

"Oh. And it's...still working out?" Arden asked, raising his eyebrows. "I know the guys she sets you up with tend to be a little soft for your taste."

"This one's pretty great so far, actually. It was a little awkward at first, but we're gettin' through it." He might as well go along with the idea that Al was a person. He was close enough, right? And trying to get into the actual situation would take way too much time. Digging his favorite lip gloss out of his bag, he went on, "He's sweet. And nuts about me, so that's pretty cute. I dunno, I'm still gettin' to know him."

"Uh-huh. Well, it's pretty obvious you like what you've seen so far. You think he could be the one, Angel?" Arden snickered, not even pretending to hide his cynicism. He'd never really bought into the whole romance scene. He had friends and he had sex, but anything more intimate than that was off the table. And he loved to tease Angel for how (comparatively) sappy he was.

"Yeah, we'll see," the blond laughed along with him, not ready to look at that thought too closely yet. What did it say about him if his perfect match was an arguably defective, illegally modified tom? Maybe it meant he was defective too.

Nope! We're not going down that road in the middle of a Saturday night shift.

"So, does that mean we're not doing dinner after closing?" his friend asked, examining himself in the mirror to be sure his makeup was perfect before he went back out. Arden had a pretty reliable base of regular customers just about every night he worked, usually guys (and a couple gals) from his OnlyFans, and they were all into him because he never gave anything less than perfection. "I mean, is he waiting up for you to get home, or...?"

Considering how worried Alastor was about his safety before he left, that seemed pretty likely. "I dunno, but I'm gonna wanna get home soon as possible anyway; I been up all day, so I'm fuckin' beat." That part was 100% true. Alastor being there had kind of fucked up his sleep schedule, and being up for twenty hours straight definitely didn't suit him.