Driving. Driving was good. Driving was something that he knew. Sure he wasn't great at it yet since he'd just gotten his license, but it sure as hell beat staying at home with his father and step-mom. Not to mention his step-sister. Normally he didn't have much of a problem with her; he even thought that they had a nice little friendly rivalry going, but ever since she'd decided that she was too good for geo caching with him their relationship had been on the rocks. But that wasn't why he was leaving. He was leaving because of his father. He'd been acting...strange since his brother had gone off to college. He'd been putting all of the expectations that had been on his brother onto him, and he couldn't take it. His brother was confidant, and talented, and even though he was creepy as fuck most days, he was still a good, or at least a generally okay, older brother.

So he was on his way to stay with him. He had a few of the basic necessities with him, including two dozen changes of clothes, and he had a way that his brother just couldn't resist letting him stay.

He parked in the lot and made his way to the building, waiting for someone to open the door. It didn't take long; there were always people leaving and willing to let someone in. He walked down the hall to his brother's room. He took a breathe, adjusting the strap of his messenger bag, and knocked solidly on the door. After a few moments, his brother came to the door. "Dan? What the fuck are you doin' here?"

"Hey, Cro. Dad's bein' a weird fuck so I thought it'd be best to come here instead a standin' around an waitin' to figure out what his big weird qualm with me is."

Cronus crossed his arms over his chest. "And you didn't think that, you know, just maybe I was busy entertainin' any kind of sexy guests?"

"Oh please, Cro, you've got as much a chance at a date as me an that is a probability a negative three. Remember that day I checked?"

"Yeah, Dan. You fail to take into account that I'm not as useless of a sack a shit as you, though."

"Wait you seriously got someone in here? Someone that may be considered on some plane of existence some kind a sexy guest?"

"That is exactly what's goin' on right now."

"Shit where can I go then, Cro? I don't have anyone else I can go to! You're not goin' to throw your baby brother out on his ass, are you?"

Cronus sighed. "Eridan. You can stay in the common room until whatever bullshit this is comes to its stupid head. That sound cool?"

"Yes thank you, Cro! You're the best brother a kid could ask for!"

"Yeah I know, now move quick and don't fuckin' look at anything."

Eridan did as he was told, but he still noticed the clothes littering the ground. He realized that he'd probably just interrupted what probably his brother's only booty call ever in the history of time. And that made him a little proud as a little brother.

In the common room, he sat in the comfiest looking chair and took out his phone.

hey fef

O)( )(I -ERIDAN! Did you make it to your brot)(er's dorm room okay? 38)

yeah but i got demoted from bein allowwed in the room to havvin to stay in the glubbin common area like some sort a bum

38(

its not your fault fef cros just a useless piece a shit

38/

i wwas just lettin you knoww that im not dead though

W-ELL T)(ANKS! 38D

im gonna let you go fef I need to figure out howw to sleep in this stupid room

okay! try not to be too angry at him! And let me know what its like to stay in a dorm! 38D

yeah fef wwill do talk to you later

BY-E! 38)

He put his phone back in his pocket. Honestly all he wanted to do was sulk since his father was being weird and his brother was being more of a tool than usual. He planned on staying through his whole spring break, too. He was just glad that Cronus didn't have the same week off that he did. As he sat sulking, he heard a door open to the common area. From his brother's suite mate's room walked a tall and lanky man clad in what Eridan could only think of as proper geek attire. He sat down on the couch and whipped out a laptop from the messenger bag slung across his shoulders and began typing manically. Eridan couldn't help but stare. He got up from the chair and sat next to him.

"Hey there. I'm Eridan." He held out his hand, smiling as charmingly as he could.

The man didn't even look up. "Look I'm just gonna lay this out for you real quick, here," he had a faint lisp, "I don't care who you are. You're in my space and I'm working."

Eridan looked at the screen. Complicated code was laid out in red and blue text on the screen. He tried to decipher what it was supposed to do, but it was far beyond his basic knowledge. "What are you workin' on?"

The man threw his head back. "Look I seriously want nothing to do with you. I've been over this with your brother: I hate you. I hate everyone. I hate me. I hate the whole fucking world. So if you would kindly leave me alone so I could work on this shitty code for my stupid programming class. Normally I'd just half ass a project like this but this professor decided that "Oh no, Sollux; I know that you can do better than this!" even though I was doing A+ fucking work. So I decided to double team him with something that I was doing for work. Now if you'll kindly remove your hipster ass from this couch and leave me alone, I won't be forced to pull out that ugly purple streak in your hair."

"Well excuse me, I was just interested in what you were doin'!" He went back to the chair and continued to sulk. But he looked over to the couch. "So, Sol, you're my brother's suite mate?"

"Incorrect. And don't call me Sol. I am not sunny. Ever."

"Hey, sorry. It just seemed like a fittin' nickname! But if you're not his suite mate then why are you here?"

"Watching my brother. He hasn't been feelin' so hot since his rad girl graduated." He stopped typing and looked over at Eridan. "Why the fuck am I even talking to you?"

Eridan shrugged. "Because I'm a fantastic specimen a the human body and you just can't stop starin' at me."

"How about no."

"Hey you asked!" Eridan frowned and pulled out his journal and a pen. "So I guess if you're goin' to sit there and be an antisocial hacker then I'm just gonna sit here and plot your death."

Sollux stopped typing and looked up at him. Eridan couldn't really tell what his expression was with those stupid sunglasses on, but he could see his eyebrows were raised. "I don't think I heard you right. Did you say plot my death?"

"It's something a low brow piss brain like you probably wouldn't understand."

Sollux frowned. "You wanna come here and say that to my face?"

Eridan clicked his pen a few times then brandished it like a sword. "I think I just fuckin' did, Sol. I think I just fuckin' did."

"You are gonna regret that you little piece of shit."

"Oh I'm shakin'! I'm shakin'!" He put pen to paper and began to write, thinking that he'd never see this man again.

Little did he know, their lives were about to become entangled in a confusing and infuriating way.