It was Sollux's first day at this ridiculously fancy school, and he already missed home. But he'd gotten into this boarding school on scholarship, and they'd apparently taken note of his skill with programming. So, his parents wouldn't take no for an answer. He was going whether he liked it or not.
His roommate was an angry guy just as short as him, who made a comment as soon as he came in, without bothering to preface it with a hello.
"Well, you've gotta be better than fucking Strider," he'd grumbled. Sollux had no idea who this Strider person was, but he really didn't care. Judging by his roommate's continued ranting and raving, the guy must be pretty annoying. So he just made a vague noise of agreement and started unpacking.
Things were alright that evening, and Sollux even started getting to know his roommate, Karkat. The guy was pretty funny, honestly. It was classes the next day that would prove to be more unpleasant. Starting at a new school in the middle of the semester was bad enough, but it was even worse when it was a boarding school. He could already hear people talking about him. It was mostly typical stuff, like "Who's the new kid?" or "Oh my God, he's as short as Karkat!"
On the way to second period gym, also known as hell on Earth, he heard something a little different.
"Oh, Fef, look! That's the guy in my history class! I heard he's Kar's new roommate...Ain't he precious? I haven't actually heard him talk yet, but I bet his voice is gorgeous too..." It was definitely a male voice, with a slight accent of some sort and what sounded like a stutter on his w's. Not wanting to turn around and look for who it was, despite his curiosity, Sollux just kept walking.
He introduced himself to the teacher before everyone else arrived, lapsing back into silence afterwards. Skinny jeans and a too-big hoodie weren't exactly good athletic wear, and he'd forgotten to bring other clothes from his dorm to change into. So, his first gym class was spent sitting on the bleachers and watching.
Watching one guy in particular, mostly. One downright gorgeous guy, who looked like a hipster even in his shorts and t-shirt, playing soccer. There was an oddly endearing violet streak in his hair, and freckles smattered across his cheekbones and the bridge of his nose. He'd glanced over at Sollux at one point, allowing the shorter boy to see that his eyes were ocean blue, and his smile was pretty cute too.
At the end of class, once everyone had changed back into their usual clothes, Sollux saw that the gorgeous guy's fashion sense was ridiculous. An insanely soft-looking black sweater with purple skinny jeans and Converse...if that wasn't bad enough, the black hipster glasses and striped scarf completed it. Sollux tugged on his own hoodie self-consciously. The guy was chatting with the teacher now...was that? He was. His voice matched perfectly with the one talking about him earlier.
This might be a good time to approach him, now that he knew the cute guy in both his classes so far thought he was precious. Sollux took a deep breath, confidently striding towards the other boy. This could either turn out incredibly good or incredibly bad.
"Uh, hey." He instantly began mentally berating himself. He sounded so stupid...Then again, the guy he was addressing sounded pretty funny too, but for different reasons. All overdramatic and pretentious sounding...But luckily, the other boy just smiled faintly at him.
"You're the new guy, right? Kar's roommate..." Wow, his voice sounded even better when actually directed at Sollux. "You're pretty cute, y'know..."
"Oh, um, yeah. I'm rooming with Karkat. I'm Sollux." It took an extra moment to process the compliment, and he was sure he was blushing. "Oh. Wow. You think so?" Hopefully he thought lisps were cute too.
"Of course...And I saw ya lookin' at me before, so it seems the feelings are mutual. I'm Eridan." Then, Eridan did something very unexpected. He grabbed Sollux's hand to shake. Now, that alone would be completely normal. It was what he did after that that was unusual. Rather than just shaking his hand and letting go, he held onto it. To be honest, Sollux almost pulled away. But instead, he let Eridan's ring-covered fingers intertwine with his own. The bell rang just as he felt Eridan's thumb tracing little circles on his skin.
"Uh, Sol? What class do you have now?" Just like that, Eridan's tone was businesslike once again, besides the small hint of hopefulness.
With his free hand, Sollux fished his schedule out of his bag, handing it over to the other. There was an anticipatory silence as he read over it, everyone else having already flooded out of the gym.
"Sol! We have all the same classes!" The happiness in Eridan's voice was damn near tangible as he handed the schedule back, leading Sollux out of the gym. Originally, he'd been planning on trying to get a schedule change to try and get out of Drama at the very least, but being able to spend his entire day with Eridan might be worth it.
The rest of the day was about the same. Going through the whole awkward meeting the teacher thing at the beginning of every class before letting Eridan drag him to wherever he usually sat...it wasn't exactly extraordinary by most people's standards.
Once, during Physics, he'd gently laid his hand on top of Eridan's. It had just been sitting there on the lab table between their notebooks, begging to be held. The chill of the other's skin nearly made him shiver, but he kept his hand there, continuing to jot down notes with his other. He didn't do anything else, just left it there, as though they'd done this a million times before. When class was over, Sollux merely picked up his things and waited for Eridan to do the same, making no mention of what had happened or the butterflies still lingering in his stomach as a result.
Things like this just made Eridan want him that much more, and it didn't take long to figure that out. Around the same time, Sollux realized he liked teasing him.
In the locker room before and after gym, he changed near Eridan, almost agonizingly slowly, silently daring him to watch.
Most any class was eligible for little hand holds or legs brushing together.
When there wasn't an extra seat in Drama, he sat on his lap.
This went on for almost a month, and every day Eridan reacted a little more obviously. His face would get a little redder, or he'd lean a little more into it, or his gaze would be glued to him, sweater still just half on.
Finally, after gym one day, Sollux found himself being pinned back against the wall, Eridan's lips meeting his own. He hadn't realized it, but the Gemini was getting just as desperate for something real to happen between them instead of all this teasing. So he gladly kissed back, stifling giggles when their glasses clacked together.
"You've been drivin' me mad for so long, Captor...Didn't think you'd be able to keep it up for that long, honestly," Eridan said a few moments later, face flushed. "But that's over now, right?"
"Mm, I don't know..." Sollux pretended to think about it, still hugging him close. "I might still tease you like that sometimes, it was pretty fun. But now I could do it while officially being your boyfriend."
That day in Physics, he'd laid his hand on top of Eridan's, ever so gently. Just for old time's sake.