A/N; I really ended up loving the Val/Professor ship, so I have given you guys a bit of an update in the form of a partial epilogue/sequel teaser. I'm not 'review-baiting', but if I see that it's popular (and the best way to let me know is by leaving a review) I will start a smaller story centered on Val/Drake's relationship with the odd bit of Hibbles thrown in for shiz and giggles. Hope you like it!

Being a god isn't everything a mortal might imagine. You've got people who cower around you because they are terrified of getting smote or some other crazies who want to slit throats to 'honor' you. Honestly, just getting a coffee was sometimes a trek to wade through the tide of fans, religious devotees, not to mention the sheer amount of ass recklessly thrown in your general direction. Yeah, it was nice to have a bunch of very willing options to take to bed at night, but it wasn't nice when none of those options was what you really wanted.

What was it that the God of Rock, aka Val Halen, wanted more than all of that? Well, currently it was the rather thin man dressed in a lab coat sitting across the table. He was proud of the thick, blond hair that hid his eyes from view because it meant that he could stare all he wanted. An awkward silence was laid thickly between them. "Whatchya doin' up so early, dude?" He asked Professor Utonium in a deceivingly light tone. Truthfully, he was intensely curious.

Utonium sighed heavily. "I'm worried about my girls, Val. This is the first time I've had an empty house since…well, it's just been a very long time." He sounded tired and a bit worn. He had noticed that there were subtle signs of age around the Professor's temples as well as crinkles in the corners of his eyes. Val had spent so much of his time hanging out with near-immortal humans that he'd forgotten how susceptible the normal ones were; subject to infection, disease, and age.

It was a pretty heavy realization for the hero god. He'd just always assumed that Utonium would always be there. Yet, he'd forgotten that every day was a ticking clock for the mortal focus of his affections. "Shit, man. I don't know what to say." He said truthfully. "You..uh…wanna talk about it?"

Drake rubbed his jaw. "It is times like this when I wish I hadn't stopped smoking." He patted regretfully at the pocket of his lab coat where his pipe used to live. It wasn't there, of course. He wrapped his hands around his coffee cup again. It was three am, but the thought of his girls spending this first night alone in unfamiliar surroundings with unfamiliar men made his skin crawl. "I know it is ridiculous to worry about them being alone with strangers, but my mind keeps yelling at me that something is wrong."

"It's all cool, I can dig what you're sayin'." Val replied. "You're a dad, man. Those girls can take care of themselves, but your daddy senses are tinglin'. It's normal as far as I can tell." Drake looked up at his friend with worry etched into his handsome face. "Even if one of those guys tries somethin', you can be sure that the girls won't take it lyin' down." He smiled and punched his open palm. "Plus, the creep would get a very personal beat-down courtesy of me and my Ax."

The scientist ran a hand through his short, coal-black hair. "Thanks. It doesn't entirely put me at ease, but knowing that really means a lot." He took a sip of his coffee. "You, the Major, Krunk…you have all been so good for the girls. Believe me, I've tried being the hero role model as well as a father, but I'm not cut out for it. They really look up to you guys." He seemed to struggle with his words for a moment. "Things might not have started off on a great note, but I am very grateful you three came into our lives."

Val's heart gave bit of a stutter, but he played it cool. "Whoah, headin' into sappy territory, my dude. You tryin' to make a bro cry?"

Professor Utonium chuckled. "No, not at all." He furrowed his brows as if a sudden thought had hit him. Val had been sitting here nursing a soda way before he'd given up on trying to sleep. "So, why are up so late, Val?"

The easy smile disappeared and the rocker sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "Same as you, I guess. I've got these thoughts in my head swimming 'round in circles like sharks."

Drake nodded sympathetically. "Well, maybe talking will help?"

Val shrugged. "Eh, sure. Why the hell not, right?" He gulped down the remainder of his cola, crushed the can with one hand, and tossed into the bin without aiming. "I've been the god of music for more than a millennia. I've kept it fresh since the glory days of the lute and sitar, but what bugs the heck outta me is I've never had the chance to take it slow." His fists balled under the table. "Sure, there's the babes, the worship from the zealots, and the music is always good, but most of it doesn't really mean anythin'." He took a steadying breath. "It's a fast playin', hard ballin' life, but I ain't got nothing to show for it. Hell, there's loads of people who'd love to do what I do." He put up his hands in a defensive gesture. "Don't ever say that I don't love it; the music can do what words can't and that's a fact. It's why humans came up with poetry, art, theatre, and music; because sometimes plain ol' words just don't do something justice." He put his head in his hands. "I took up with the Major and Krunk cuz I was bored. I didn't think it'd go anywhere, but here I am nearly a decade and a half later. We're still hangin' in there, but twenty years from now both of them will probably be retired or dead and I'll be the same." His fingers brushed lovingly along the strings of his Ax. "I just….I want it all to slow down, ya know? I wanna be playin' this gig until Kingdom Come because there are very few things in this world that have felt this right to me."

Drake frowned. "If I didn't know better I would say you sounded like a man in love."

Panicked, Val laughed nervously. "Nah, I'm just really bad at explaining myself." He scoffed bitterly. "I'm not that great at anything besides music, to be honest."

The Professor raised an eyebrow. "You're being self-deprecating to avoid the subject. I believe that your introspective mood is coming from deep-seated feelings of some degree for an as-yet-unknown personage." He rubbed at the stubble on his chin thoughtfully. "Val, I would not judge if…ahem…you were speaking of someone who also happened to be male." He went on, oblivious to Val's uncomfortable expression. "May I confide in you a secret?"

"Uh..yeah." Val coughed and was glad that his hair covered his face so well.

"I was a very rowdy child." Drake reminisced fondly. "Part of my reason for acting out, beyond my strict parents and my desire to rebel, was that I had noticed that I was not like other boys." He drained the last of his coffee. "For two years in middle school, I had a huge crush on a male classmate. It wasn't my first crush because I'd felt the same awkward things for a handful of girls before. Yet, it led to a realization that I had to accept I was not the normal boy my parents had hoped to raise." A rueful, somewhat sad, sigh escaped the brilliant man. "When I got up the courage to tell them, of course they did not understand."

Val didn't like where this was headed. Drake Utonium appeared anxious and fiddled with his empty cup. "I..I'm not sure I know what you mean."

A pained look crossed the other man's face. "My parents sent me to a place where I would learn to…behave myself." The unspoken meaning became undeniably clear. Val sucked in a tense breath. "I ran away halfway through step 1. One of the nighttime guards was not as vigilant as he should have been. I was caught by the police three days later living in a dumpster just outside of Townsville. I would have preferred to spend the rest of my life living like a piece of garbage instead of returning to my family or that evil place. No one has any true idea about what it is actually like there unless you've lived through it. I would not be surprised that if Hell exists it would be very close to that camp." His breathing was shaky and his knuckles were white as he clutched the cup. This was something that Val had never witnessed in the calm, kind man; defiant anger mixed with fear. "I..I am sorry that I can't say much more about it. You're my friend, but many of those memories are just something I would prefer not to speak about." He closed his eyes wearily. "The girls have no idea I went through any of that and I will never tell them. I am so thankful that they are able to live in a more enlightened era than I did and people like you are the reason for that. Obviously not directly, but when people do good things it builds, grows and spills into places that you would never imagine it could have reached."

Val swallowed hard. "I swear on Rock'n'Roll that I will never tell anyone, not even your daughters." A thick silence lingered between them.

Drake's anxiety faded gradually. "I didn't mean to make this awkward. I just wanted to let you know that I understand, at least, in some part. All of it did have a happy ending, after all. I emancipated myself from my parents; got myself into a great college on merit alone, and now I have all this." He gestured around his home. "I have a wonderful home in a nice neighborhood, a cushy job at the local university, and three beautiful girls."

"Have you ever thought about sharing it with someone?" Val locked eyes with the professor.

Drake hummed. "I've tried dating, but it seems I'm not very lucky with it. Neither men nor women are very impressed with what I have to bring to the table." He leaned over the table farther. "If I promise not to tell anyone, would you let me know? It's a well-known fact that all scientists are extremely nosy." He was grinning mischievously. It was a grin that had Val shifting in his seat to alleviate a southern-most pressure.

What did he have to lose? Well, his dignity and his friendship with Drake for a start. Yet, something in his gut was urging him forward. He mumbled his answer. Drake leaned closer and asked him to repeat himself. "You, it-it's you!" He blurted out before he had the sense to stop himself.

The professor, completely stunned, jumped back so that his chair smashed onto the tile floor. His face grew redder and redder and his jaw clenched so hard that Val could hear his teeth grinding against each other. "How. Dare. You." Drake spat out vehemently. "I told you something in confidence, something that was so hard for me to say that I can't even admit it to my children and you…you made a joke about it?"

"Wait, no- it's not like that!" Val exclaimed. His heart was sinking as he watched the professor struggle with the presumed betrayal. "Dude, you gotta understand-"

"Oh, I understand plenty. You think I haven't heard this before?" Snarled Drake defensively. "I'm sure you think it's very clever, and that you're the first to pull this. Guess what, you are the latest in a long, long line." He stomped over to the door and yanked it open. "Get out of my house and get out of my life."

Inwardly conflicted, the god of Rock advanced on the professor. He was taller by a little more than a foot and a great deal wider. Drake was pale, but so furious that the anger in his eyes held a weight that could have knocked Val on his golden ass. "I wasn't jokin'. " He said quietly. "I'm not sure what'd make you think I'd be like that, but I'm sorry. Dude, fuck, this is hard for me, too." He groaned. "Man, this is harder than tryin' to get the Major to a dentist."

"What are you getting out of this?" Drake growled.

"Chill out, prof." He said wearily. "Please, just hear me out, yeah?" He paced the length of the living room and occasionally glanced upstairs. He knew that even with all the noise, his friends hadn't woken. Krunk and the Major slept like rocks with earmuffs buried six feet under. "Look, it's really you, alright? Geez, man. I totally thought you'd have figured it out by now."

"What are you talking about?" The professor demanded urgently. "You can't be serious. You can't be. This has to be one huge joke."

Val leaned heavily on the wall. "Really, dude? Do I look like I'm laughin'? Do you really think that I am enough of a dick to do something like that? Hell, I didn't even know you were…are…uh.." His mouth snapped shut.

The professor sighed as he massaged his temples. "Gay? Is that what you were going to say? You don't have to make it into a dirty word. I am certainly not afraid of it anymore. Anyway, the correct word you're looking for is bisexual. I am bisexual." He stated it so candidly, that he seemed to surprise himself. "I haven't said that out loud in years." He muttered to himself.

"Yeah…well, me, too." Val stammered.

Drake scoffed. "Why are you still bothering to lie? I know this is a joke."

Val scowled. "You know next to nothing about me! If I knew you were going to react so badly I never would have confessed to you." He grabbed his Ax and the bag of things he'd packed for the night, and made a move to leave through the open front door. His foot was on the second step when he felt a hand on his arm.

"Did you really mean it?" Drake asked in a vulnerable, small voice. There was fear in his eyes. "Can you just look me in the eyes and tell me you meant it?" His face hardened. "I raised three girls and I teach for a living; I can tell if you are lying."

Val tucked his long hair behind his ears so that his eyes, bright and blue as a cloudless sky, met Drake's. He knelt down on the concrete steps. "I swear on Freddie Mercury's grave that I was telling the truth. I..I've been trying to get your attention for a couple of years now. It's why I always try to bring back science-y stuff from our trips around the world. I..uh..I'm not exactly good with romantic stuff, but I thought it would work. I asked the Major-"

He wasn't expecting Drake to bust a gut laughing. "Wait, wait, you actually asked the Major for advice?" He was bent over with tears in his eyes. Val blushed while Drake howled with mirth.

" 's not that funny." Val grumbled under his breath.

"Yes, it really is." The professor replied through his manic laughter. He finally calmed down and wiped the wetness from his cheeks. "That is hilarious and so cute. It's so obvious now. You're right, I really should have known."

Val let the hair fall back in his eyes. "Yeah, so I'm gonna get goin' now…." He hung his head and turned away from Drake.

"Excuse me, but we aren't finished with our conversation." He turned around with a confused look. "You heard me. Now, get back in the house. I will make more coffee and get you another soda. We'll see where this goes from there, alright?" Professor Utonium smiled warmly. "I apologize for lashing out at you earlier." He said gently. "There really isn't an excuse for it, but may I say that I have just been very used to bad treatment."

Val stood up straighter and beamed. "There won't be any more of that with me around." He said proudly before marching back into the house. Drake chuckled to himself as he watched Val's chest puff up happily. Perhaps this could work, if they really stuck with it.