You found him on the side of the road in an alley, practically coughing his guts out. Your dad had been sick of you ranting about how the aristocracy was way better off than the common folk, and instead of being concerned on what to wear each day he should worry about the people in his new world. He did nothing but reprimand you and shove you out the door, telling you to "live like the commoners if you are so keen on defending them." So there you were, staring at the kid snuggling in the corner of a dank alley (who happened to be coughing up God knows what) in a city on the outskirts of of your home town. It was painful to watch, really. A lot if these things have been happening. The citizens of all other fairly poor cities are usually inflicted with multiple, life threatening diseases.
Finally, you walk up to the kid and he looks up at you, hate blaring in his eyes. He hacks and coughs and you see the blood leaving his mouth as he wretches. The tears falling down his pale, sickly coloured face tell you that he must be in immense pain and it pains even you to see it. "What the hell do you want, fanthy panth?" He hisses, his voice scratchy and dry from coughing. Another cough escapes him and he pitifully sobs and fuck you feel so bad. You reply with a small, "You look terrible," and he scoffs as if he isn't feeling like shit at the moment. "Well I jutht feel like fucking thunshine," he growls back before being forced into yet another fit of heinous coughing.
You look him in his newly discovered mismatching eyes and you ask, "What do you do for a living?"
He cackles back at you and you can tell it's costly to keep his smugness in tact. "I'm a helmthman, but I wath fired and evicted from my houthe after I got thick. Been living on the threeth for about a year, now, not like you'd care though. You've probably gotten nothing worthe than the common cold."
You growl under your breath at his snarky remark and go to pick him up. Fuck whatever he said. He needed help and he knew it. He had to. You hold out your hand and gesture for him to take it. God you hope there was a convincing look on your face. "C'mon I jus' wanna fuckin' help,"
"I don't need your help," he replies, pouting. You chuckle and pick him up, despite his angry flailing. It's not like anyone would help him. People in this new society's day and age wouldn't help each other unless they could benefit from it. He coughs into your shoulder and you are forced to deal with the muffled sniffling beside your ear. He's in pain and you are feeling far worse than before. It didn't matter now, though, for you were going to make everything right and heal him. This poor kid will be under your care and responsibility from this day on. He'd be the start of a project to change the world and how those are treated in it.
You walk through your large front door, trying to be as silent as possible. If your father or mother caught you with a commoner you'd be disowned in less than a minute. The kid had long since fallen asleep in your arms and you thanked your lucky stars for that one. His coughing could've alerted everyone in the house and you'd have really been in trouble for that one. Creeping up the stairs, you silently made your way to your room and opened the door. That's when you see your douchebag of a brother. He's sitting on your bed, unlit cigarette in hand, giving you the most smug look you've ever seen. He gets up and walks past you only stopping briefly to whisper, "I'm telling Dad," in your ear.
You drop the kid in your bed (and you know you woke him up from the disastrous coughing that emits from behind your back) before closing the door behind you and running after your brother. When you get to him just above the stairs, you take him and slam him into an out of view wall so bad he winces. You press your forehead hard to his and hiss out, "You tell Dad about mine, I won't even hesitate to tell him about yours. I know you've got one, I've seen him and I know where he hides. You really like this one and I know it. I might even just put 'im on display for our loving father and mother to see. How woudl you like that, Cro?"
Cronus, your brother, laughs nervously and now you know you've got him. "Let me go, let me go. I won't squeal, I promise. You got me in a corner. Just keep yours quiet and I won't make a move." He shoves you off and returns to his room. It occurs to you that he could've done that at any time and he was just pretending to tattle to get a hilarious reaction out of you. Honestly, you should've seen that coming and you yell at yourself for being such a dense idiot.
When you return to your room the kid's sitting up in bed, getting whatever the hell he's coughing up this time all over your bedsheets. You wince when he hacks especially hard. He looks up at you and his watery eyes are enough to turn you into fucking jelly. You walk over to him, and he pushes you away weakly. "C'mon I gotta get you in the shower, kid. You're fuckin' disgusting." You say.
"For all I know you could be athking to rape me," he counters. "And I'm not a kid. I turned thixthteen latht week."
"We'll I turned nineteen in February, now let's go, in the bathroom."
"No..." He whispers. "I have the Miles, okay? I don't like looking at it, it maketh it itch."
You sigh. The Miles, or Red Miles, was a wretched disease that your mother released on the common folk a few years ago. It's a painful, disgusting infection that makes the skin fester and turn red. Usually, it makes all kinds of brutal, vein-like patches appear that itch like no tomorrow. If it gets bad enough, the miles can cause other sicknesses, too. Of course, there is a cure. It just wasn't made public to the commoners. To them, it was at this moment uncurable and the upper class scientists were working day and night to find a cure. Luckily, you had the cure. Right in your room, in case you ever come down with it somehow.
"If you bathe, I'll give you the cure and some food as a bonus," You bribe.
"Thereth a cure?!" He sputters, dumbfounded.
You nod and go to pick him up. He doesn't push you away this time, and you make your way to your bathroom without a single scratch. You place him on the floor in front of your tub and close the door behind you. When go to help him out of his clothes he yells at you and tells you he can do it himself. After he's removed his clothes you can really see how far along his case of the Miles is. There's intimidating branching red veins all across his stomach, back and thighs. He's really skinny, too. His ribs could clearly be seen and his spine stuck out through the Miles. Didn't that just make you feel even worse.
The water's turned on and hot within a few minutes and you help him into it. As the water surrounds him he hisses, but eventually he relaxes. You leave the bathroom only briefly to retrieve the drug necessary to cure his Miles. However, when you do return he's sleeping again and this time you take time to appreciate his features a little. His features are no longer as pale and sickly as before, but he is dangerously thin. You try to pay attention to his shallow chest movements and his small sputters as if he's going to cough. Now that you take a good look at him, he is pretty attractive. His lips twitch when you move closer. Though they're crusted with dried blood they still look soft and kissable. You lean in a little more and touch your lips to his. There's heat when you come in contact with him and you ponder about deepening the kiss a little more. Before you can do anything else, there's a hand in your hair then your face is in water.
You come up spitting water from your mouth and your bright red hair obscures your vision. "What the hell?!"
"I knew you were a rapitht." He lisps, and you stop being mad at him and become mad at yourself.
"Sorry," you mumble and take out a syringe with his "cure" in it. He holds out his arm like it's the most normal thing and doesn't even wince when you stick the needle inside the crease of his elbow. You set everything to the side afterwards and begin massaging every kind off shampoo that you have in his hair. It takes quite awhile to wash him up, but in that time you learn a lot about him. You're surprised he was willing to tell you about himself.
Apparently, he only has a fourth grade education because he was pulled out of class to become a helmsman. He had a mother, father, and brother that he ended up leaving as to not inflict them with his Miles. He'd been living in that alley for a year, which you thought was not cool for someone as sick as him. Also, his hair colour wasn't actually black, but someone felt bad for him and offered to colour his hair from brown to black on his birthday for that was all they could spare. You also learned that his name was Sollux Captor.
In turn, you told him about yourself. You are of Scottish decent, hence your flaming red hair. Your mother, father, brother, and one of your sisters are the worst. You hate to be treated so regally when there are those like Sollux out there fighting to stay alive. New clothes are always and option for you. Your favourite colour is purple. And you also let him in on your name.
You had him nestled under a new set of bedsheets and a meal at his side when you broke the news to him. Your name is Eridan Ampora and you are the son of the heartless Orphaner "Dualscar" Ampora and the merciless Condesce Peixes. Your brother is the womaniser Cronus Ampora and your sisters are the ruthless Meenah Peixes and the stubborn Feferi Peixes. You belong to the infamous Peixes-Ampora family. Your family is the leader of the very large country of Alternia. The year is 2057, and the last World War was forty-two years ago in 2015. It's nicknamed "the nuclear war" but it's known more as "the mushroom war" that brought about the extermination three-fourths of the human species. You live in a new world where the poor are looked over, and all that matters is the rich. If you are born poor, you stay poor. Rarely does one break the cycle. Your name is once again Eridan Ampora, and you are so determined to change the world.

Here's a thing I wrote with my OTP. It'll have multiple chapters and this is one that I will update. I actually really like it. Make sure to review because the make me so happy inside. As always, I accept plot suggestions (in the form of reviews or in my inbox) and story covers (in my inbox). Thanks for reading and please review!