Demon law didn't apply to humans since it was intended for demons living in the mortal realm. Sure, a demon could opt to live in hell but....Well it's hell. Who would want to live there?
Part of those laws included marriage regulations. Before, demons would fight for their mates, but the humans got frightened when powerful demons clashed heads, so that law was rewritten to where the higher ranking demon was automatically made the head of the household if they had one or more spouses. When it came to courting, the higher ranked demon would have first dibs on a mate that someone else was after so long as their ideal mate wasn't already married.
Technically speaking, this law never put into consideration what would happen if the stronger demon was tricked into marrying someone who was already married. This was unheard of, but there was a defacto clause which stated that if one mate went rogue and wanted to have another weaker partner, then the head of the household would have claim to that other partner as well, but only if the other partner was lower ranked.
Ricky began shaking his head, unable to understand what was really happening around him. This was crazy! He had been living a bachelor's life these past seven years and now he had not one, but two husbands??! One of which was very unwanted.
Taking a few breaths, he sat down on the adjacent couch and stared at the two warily. "Married?"
"I didn't know either, if that makes you feel any better." Damon explained. It didn't. "As a matter of fact, the only thing I knew about you until the other day was that you were his ex." He then glowered down at Chris unhappily, "Had I known Chris had a lover here in the states, I...Well things wouldn't have happened the way they did."
"Wait...You didn't know he was cheating?" Ricky asked. Damon turned to him abruptly, causing the lower ranked demon to scoot away ever so slightly.
He may be pissed at Chris, but his instincts were screaming at him to avoid angering this monster of a demon.
Chris gave a halfhearted laugh, trying to lighten the mood. "He's not gonna bite you."
"Oh it ain't the teeth I'm worried about on this one." Ricky eyed the man's bulging muscles, imagining how easily this guy could break him in half.
Damon sighed wearily. "Look, this is a lot to take in, I know. I had just gotten the news of this the other day. As a matter of fact, I probably would never have found out had we not run into you at the shop."
"Wait." Ricky stood suddenly, his anger getting the better of him. "You're saying Chris kept our marriage a secret from you this whole time?!"
"Ricky I didn't mean to! It's just.... My parents convinced me it'd be better for you if I didn't mention it. I didn't...I just..." Chris floundered as he tried to find the words. "I'm just glad you didn't leave me."
"GLAD I DIDN'T LEAVE YOU?!" Ricky exploded. "DIDN'T MEAN TO? What? Did you trip and fall on his dick?"
"Ricky, please I didn't-"
"Enough! I'm leaving!" Unable to take anymore of this, he stormed out of the hotel room and stood in the hallway, realizing his mistake. Turning beet red, he reentered his hotel room and held open the door. "This is my room, get out." He utterly refused to make eye contact with either of them as they passed.
Damon paused in the hallway. "We need to talk about this more. Are you free tomorrow?"
"I don't know. Just...Leave!" And he slammed the door behind them. He hovered with his hand still on the knob, listening as their footsteps faded down the hallway before he turned towards his bedroom and dove right into the pillows. He screamed at the top of his lungs, his face thoroughly smashed into the cushions to muffle the sound.
Oddly enough, the next day he was able to keep up his happy go lucky appearance at work despite the cacophony of emotions swirling inside him. One of his tasks at the current meeting was to suggest a more efficient way to keep track of hourly paychecks versus salary workers. Their current software just wasn't cutting it as the company grew, so they were trusting him to find a solution and he had luckily managed to schedule a meeting the next day with the CEO.
"Have you fully tested it out?" Mrs. Carday asked from the display screen in their meeting room. Most of the people in the meeting were in other states and had to join via video call, but each one was on the board of directors.
"Yes, we already got our HR department set up on the payment system a month ago. So far no problems." Ricky explained after going over his presentation. "Tomorrow we're going to meet up and negotiate a price point over dinner."
"Excellent. Glad to see our new VP is taking action so quickly. I expect to hear good things in the next meeting." Mrs. Carday smiled as her screen shut off. The meeting was finally over and Ricky could now head home to wrap his head around yesterday's events.
"Wait a moment Mr. De'stat!" One of the secretaries came running from around the corner. "Do you have that report from last month's project?"
Ricky face palmed. "Yes, yes I do. Don't worry, I'll have it here by tomorrow."
She smiled apologetically. "Can we get it tonight?"
Ricky's ears were ringing. He needed to turn in that report before his meeting tomorrow or the budget he'd requested for the new software wouldn't be approved. "Okay, yes, I'll go get it now."
"Oh good!" She clapped her hands, somehow avoiding breaking her ridiculously long painted nails. "Oh, and you got a call. A Mr. Reyes is waiting for you out front."
"Mr. Reyes?" He asked, but the secretary just shrugged and left. Confused, Ricky took the elevator down and met with Damon in the front lobby.
"Ricky." He greeted him.
"....Mr. Reyes?"
Damon just nodded. "We really need to talk. I'll give you a ride." He began walking away.
Ricky was extremely uncomfortable with this situation and tried looking around for Chris, but the bastard wasn't anywhere to be seen.
"It's just us." Damon confirmed after noting the way Ricky was searching.
"Really? Will anyone else be joining? Maybe a random bystander to bear witness in case anything unfortunate happens?" Ricky asked, half serious.
"I promise I just want to talk." Damon assured him. Outside, the man walked them to a black sports car that looked to be worth at least a couple years worth of his paychecks. "Get in."
"I honestly would rather not." He forced his fake smile and stood back, head cocked. "I understand you want to talk, but look at this from my perspective. You're much more powerful than me, and currently married to my ex husband." He emphasized 'ex'. "I know how possessive we demons can get, so if you're wanting me to back off of Chris, you don't need to worry about that."
Damon let out a long sigh and closed his eyes. "That's...Not it at all. Look, I just want to talk about this whole situation. You're not the only one who was cheated on."
"And how is that my problem?" Ricky did not budge. "Are you trying to make me feel guilty for you?"
Damon opened his eyes and stared the smaller man down. "No, I just...I wanted to talk to someone about it."
"Why me?"
"Because you have more experience dealing with this than I do."
As much as he didn't want to, he did feel a bit of remorse for the guy. Glancing back at the building, he hesitated for another moment, then entered as instructed. "Just to be clear, I'm doing this as a favor and expect something in return."
Damon sat behind the wheel and began driving away. "And what would you like?"
"Take me to my apartment. I have to pick something up for work." He punched his address into the console GPS without waiting for a reply. The cab fair would have been ridiculous otherwise, but he didn't feel like this guy was going to kill him in his sleep if he learned where he lived, so they continued heading towards his apartment nearly an hour away.
They eventually pulled up to an old complex. It was by no means fancy, but it also wasn't quite a dump either. As well off as Ricky was now, he didn't feel comfortable spending large amounts of money on an unnecessarily large apartment.
He got out of the car and started walking up the stairs. Unlocking his apartment door on the 3rd floor, he was startled to find Damon close behind him.
"Cheeseburgers! You scared me!" He yelped.
Damon's face remained passive as he followed the man inside, bowing his head to fit through the door.
Quickly he hunted down the report and returned to his living room where the enormous demon stood awkwardly looking around.
"Do you want anything to drink? Coffee, tea...Or I could make you a juice?"
"Juice?" Damon looked confused.
"Yes! I can make you a juice blend. You know, with some celery, cucumber, ginger, all that good stuff. It tastes better than it looks, I swear."
"No thanks." He shook his head, looking slightly upset. "I'd rather talk about the divorce."
Ricky shrugged. "It's just some paperwork right? I can sign and we can be done with it."
"It's not that simple." Damon began. "It's....It's Chris. He....He doesn't want to go through with the divorce."
Ricky froze, knowing that they wouldn't be able to finalize anything without Chris's signature. "What?"
"Look, I don't understand it myself." Damon scratched his head and frowned. "But he's being so stubborn about it. He claims he still loves you and wants to work things out, but quite frankly I think he's being too selfish about this. All these years I thought I knew him, then he pulls this shit."
"So then...What are we going to do?" Ricky couldn't get the shocked expression off his face. He had expected to sign the divorce papers and be done with everything quickly, but if Chris wouldn't cooperate, that complicated things.
"I don't know. My other husbands and I have been discussing it but we're all still reeling from him lying to us in the first place."
"Wait...Did you just say.....Husbands? As in Plural?"
Damon nodded. "Hector and Thomas are our other husbands. They're not sure how to handle everything either. None of us ever expected Chris to do something like this."
"Uh huh..." Ricky sucked in a breath and held it. That meant that he too, had two more husbands technically. Even if it hadn't been written down, that stupid defacto clause made it so that all husbands involved would have to sign the damn paper now. "But you're all in agreement, right? Aside from Chris, you all agree to file for divorce from me?"
Damon looked surprised at the suggestion. "Of course. We would never hold you to this marriage against your will. We just need to work on convincing Chris a little more. I'm sure he'll come around...I think."
Ricky watched the demon's shoulders slump, making him look less confident than he sounded.
"How did you deal with it?" Damon suddenly asked.
"With what?"
"With the cheating?"
And here they finally arrived at the original topic. Ricky shrugged bitterly. "I buried myself in work and...Other things." Like hell if he was ever going to tell anyone about his old drinking habit.
"How long did it take for this feeling to go away?"
Damon stared at him, his tough stoic expression replaced by a desperate need for answers in his eyes. He was hurt and trying to hide it.
Sadly Ricky didn't have a good answer for that. "Years honestly. The memories suck, but life goes on."
"I see." The brute looked like there was something else he wanted to say, and after a moment's hesitation, he finally did. "I...We bonded with him."
Bonding was something stronger demons did with their mates as a sort of impromptu magical marriage. It connected their souls so they'd feel each others presence at all times, but it only worked if you had the magic for it. Ricky tried bonding with Chris, but the connection was so weak that he never worried about breaking it after the 'divorce'.
If Damon and his other husbands had bonded with Chris, that meant they could feel each other's grief over this, and it was probably amplified since it was multiple connections.
Oh god. Multiple connections meant that breaking the bond would be even harder. That shouldn't be Ricky's problem, but he couldn't help feeling sorry for the brooding man before him.
"I'm gonna go juice." He chickened out on that topic and dove for the kitchen, unable to think of anything that would comfort the man. Damon had a very tough task ahead of him and was looking for Ricky's advice on how to handle it. Quite frankly, Ricky was the last person to ask such things.
Pulling out his juicer he grabbed some ingredients from the fridge and started rinsing them off. "So...How about that weather?" He tried to make small talk as he did his best to avoid that subject.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable." Damon called from the living room, his form barely visible from across the small bar that separated it from the kitchen.
"It's fine. You're the head of house, aren't you? You have to take responsibility for your husband's actions and theses actions aren't small actions at all. I didn't ask for any of this, and I feel you certainly didn't request that all of this be dropped on your lap either." Ricky started chopping the vegetables. "I actually kind of feel bad that you're-Oh cheese and crackers!" He tossed the chopped vegetables as he turned to find Damon's hulking form taking up half his tiny kitchen. "How are you even fitting in my kitchen?!"
"Why do you act like you're scared of me?"
"Sir. You are aware that you look like the poster boy for bouncers, right?"
For the first time, Damon's face cracked a smile as he stepped further into the kitchen. He then put his arm on the counter beside Ricky and leaned down. "I think I can see why Chris fell for you."
The smaller man flushed crimson. Was Damon hitting on him? Well, sure Ricky did his best to keep his appearance up. He had a slight tan himself, went to the gym, kept his hair well groomed and wore the sleekest, if not most expensive outfits he could afford. That and he was often complemented on his baby blue eyes. Even Chris's eyes weren't as bright blue as Ricky's were.
"I uh....Need to pick up the vegetables." Ricky quickly changed the topic and kneeled down.
Damon appeared surprised, but quickly regained his composure and returned to his usual self. "I'm sorry. You said you had to pick something up? I'll give you a ride back."
"Thanks." Ricky nodded, then bolted out of the kitchen and grabbed the report, his heart pounding.
What an unexpected turn of events.
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