Your name is Rufioh Nitram and you have never seen Cronus so focused on something that wasn't scoring a date.

He's sitting crosslegged on the grass, computer in front of him, headphones over his ears and notebook paper over on the side. There's also an array of musical instruments around - a guitar, a small keyboard, even a snare drum. You wonder how long you can watch him work before he notices you and starts hitting on you. Since he has his headphones in, probably a while.

You sit down behind him, watching him mess around on his computer for a few minutes, then go to his notebook, chewing on the end of his pencil, then playing a few chords on the keyboard, scowling or nodding or biting down harder on his pencil. You see a few broken pencils a few feet away. Music must be frustrating.

After another half an hour, he takes out his headphones, stretches, and notices you.

"Whoa," he says, blinking. "Didn't see you there."

"You looked kind of busy..." you say trailing off. "Didn't want to bother you or anything, haha..."

He smirks. "You could bother me anytime," he says, pulling his cigarette out of seemingly nowhere and sticking it into his mouth. "You bother a certain part of me most of the time, anyway, why not add the rest of that into it?"

"Oh, wow..." you say, glancing around. While it's true that everyone apart from Meenah has hit on you, you're still never quite sure how to deal with Cronus. If there's any troll with a more fragile self-esteem than you... at least the other trolls like you. "That was way more information than I needed..."

He's kneeling, looking sort of like an excited little animal of some sort. "So, how long were you there?" he asks. You don't actually want to admit that you were watching him work on his music for close to forty minutes, so you shrug.

"A few minutes..." you say, and he looks sort of disappointed. You didn't actually want to hurt his feelings, but he can deal with it, right? Wow, he's looking really sad right now. Okay. Uh, wow, you don't really know how to deal with this. You could ask him about his music, you guess. Would he like that? He likes talking about himself, you know that, so it would probably work. "So... what are you working on?"

He perks up immediately and goes into a huge speech that includes a lot of things that you had no clue were even things, let alone what they are. Still, you nod, pretending that you understand what he's saying, and go over the plot of the last episode of Cleaning Solutions in your head. You still think that it should have ended differently, even though it ended a long time ago and there's really nothing you could do to fix it, especially since you've been dead forever. You're just still a little bitter that it didn't go out with more of a bang. Sure, the end was heartwarming and all that, but still. Could've been way cooler.

"...so, do you want to hear it?" he asks. You, having nothing better to do and not wanting to run into Horuss for another few minutes, shrug.

"Sure," you say. He pulls his computer out and pulls his headphones out, pressing play.

And he's actually pretty good. You've got to hand it to him, this isn't complete shit. He's looking at you, expectant, and you nod. He's actually been pretty bearable this entire conversation. You should make him talk about his music more often, because when he does he spends less time trying to get you to sleep with him. It's pretty great.

The next time you see Cronus, he's apparently just been rejected by Latula, if the imprint of skateboard wheels across his face are anything to go by. Either that or he was screwing with Mituna again. Either is pretty plausible.

When he sees you, he wipes blood out of the corner of his mouth and manages a sort-of grin. There's not much he can do with his face being in pain, but he tries. Way too hard, but he tries. You have to give him credit for that.

Or, you would, if he wasn't such a douche.

"Hey, Rufioh," he says, getting way too close. You back up a few steps, but he just keeps coming. Eventually, you just decide that he's going to be three inches away from you no matter what you do, you're just going to have to deal with it. After all, if Horuss comes along and kicks his ass, it's not your fault. "You're looking fine."

"Yeah..." you say, trailing off. You find yourself fascinated with the imprint on his face. Like, wow, she must have hit him really hard to get them that far in. Maybe she rode her skateboard over his face somehow? Huh. The mysteries of the universe.

He notices you looking and draws himself up taller, like they're some sort of battle scars. "Latula was being a major bitch. All I was doing was talking to her matesprit, all nice-like, you know, asking him about his totally irrelevant interests, like Kurloz and skateboarding and falling on his face like an idiot, and she just comes out of nowhere and lands her skateboard on my face. It was totally uncalled for. I don't even know what her problem is."

You think you know what her problem is.

But, hey, at least now you know how those skateboard wheels got imprinted in his face so deeply.

Him being a major douche isn't going to stray you from your purpose, though. You are going to break up with Horuss if it kills you (or kills Cronus), and you've figured that the best way to do that is to just get a new matesprit. Nobody is stupid enough to go for you while you're still in a matespritship with Horuss, apart from Cronus, and you do sort of want to have some sex where sweat isn't a major part. A little sweat is fine. It happens.

Sweat that fills the bucket that you're supposed to use for other things, however, is sort of a problem.

"So, anyway..." you say, and suddenly all of his attention is on you. He gets closer, if possible. "I was wondering... if you maybe wanted to come hang out or something... play some fiduspawn, maybe... watch some troll anime..."

"Can we make out?" he blurts out, and you feel slightly devious. It worked. It actually worked. Wow, you feel bad. It's for the best, though. You want this as much as he does.

"Yeah, I guess," you say, and he flushes a dark violet. "Are you okay?"

"N-no. Wait. Yes. I need to go," he says. You watch him leave, wondering what his problem is. Oh well. At least you're going to get to make out with someone who won't soak you with sweat. Should be nice.

He shows up at your hive, hair freshly greased and a clean t-shirt on. He's nervous. You're sort of nervous, too, honestly, because you have no idea how much of this you're going to have to commandeer. You generally take control, anyway, once things get going, but you really have no idea how to start it, especially with someone like Cronus. He'll just go with whatever, right?

He stands outside for about ten minutes before knocking. You hold back a laugh and answer. He looks at you and immediately blushes. "Hey..." you say, grinning a little.

"So, uh," he says, stumbling over his words. "I was vonder- er, wondering what exactly we'd do, because, uh, I don't exactly-"

You decide that you're just going to need to tell him straight out. It's going to be a little embarrassing, but you can do it. "I need to have sex with someone who won't sweat out his body weight," you say, feeling heat rush to your face. "You know what I mean, right? It's just sort of... man, I don't know, haha, it's just..."

"Sex? Okay," he says. He's excited. And still really nervous. "But, uh, Horuss isn't just going to come in and beat the shit out of me, right?"

You shrug. "Probably not..." you say. "He's supposed to be at Meulin's for the night, dunno... he might drop by, but I don't think so..."

He swallows, and nods. "Let's do this," he says, and you grin a little. You step aside so that he can enter. Tinkerbull floats out of somewhere to greet him, and he eyes your lusus suspiciously. "Why do you have that?"

"Tinkerbull? He's my happy thought... don't know how I could keep going without him, haha... don't exactly know if he's the real Tinkerbull or not, but..." you trail off. He accepts it, and now the two of you are just standing in the entrance of your hive. You shut the door behind him. He's just looking at you, totally unsure what to do.

Yeah... you'll just go for it. Making sure that the shades are down, you kiss him. He makes a little squeaking sound that you have to admit is adorable. Wow, he's way cuter than you thought. Not a great kisser yet, but with a little practice you can fix that.

When you pull away he's blushing again, even darker than before. You wonder if he's going to be okay. Eh, he'll be fine. You kiss him again, and he melts, slumping into you even though he's a few inches taller. You keep him propped up, hands on his waist, making sure that he doesn't actually fall over. He kisses you back after a while, or, rather, tries too, but he's not that bad. You steer him over to the couch, pulling his shirt up over his head and tossing it into a corner. You push him onto the couch, straddling his hips, kissing him as much as you can, kissing his mouth and jaw and neck. You didn't know how much you needed this. He's making all of these little noises, all these cute little noises that make you want to kiss him more and maybe mess around below the waist a little bit. You want to have his hands on your body, too, but it's so much of a hassle to get your shirt off with your wings and your horns, so you decide that you'll just have to deal with it.

You go back to his mouth, kissing him sloppily, hands in his hair. He whines deep in his throat, tugging at your shirt. "It'll take too long," you say, slightly out of breath. He grimaces. You kiss him again. "There's always next time."

He nods, and both of you jump when someone knocks on your door. It's not Horuss, he wouldn't pound like that, he'd just come in, so you feel like you can get up and answer.

"You should probably put your shirt on..." you tell Cronus as you get off of him, not really wanting to but knowing that you have to anyway. He reaches for you as you go, and you smile and shrug. He sighs, then gets up to get his shirt.

Damara's at the door.

Great. Well, you're just going to... can you just shut the door? Hopefully Cronus isn't stupid enough to wander into view.

"Hey, doll..." you say, managing a sort-of smile. You hope it's not too obvious that you were just making out with someone.

It apparently is, because she asks if Horuss is over.

Should you say yes?

Wait, shit, that's Horuss back there. Walking toward your hive. Shit, shit, shit. You slam the door in Damara's face, muttering a quick sorry, then run back to the living room.

"Out the window!" you say, and he blinks.

"Huh? But-"

"He's back," you say, and Cronus's eyes widen.

"Got it," he says, voice a little higher than usual. He wrenches open the window. You grab his head and kiss him on the mouth once before he leaves.

"We'll do this again, alright?" you say. He nods, and you watch him go.

You can't believe you're in this situation again.

haha wow this got sort of long.

but uh.

yeah.

this is a oneshot that might be expanded once i'm done with you like greasers? which shouldn't take too much longer so um yeah there's that.