The sight of Eridan baring his teeth at him, eyes filled with an explosive rage barely contained, is something that Sollux hadn't expected to be so responsive to. His knees are on both sides of Eridan's hips, straddling him and making him unable to move, but what really gets to the proud bastard are the red and blue waves of energy pinning his hands on the floor on both sides of his head and rendering his legs useless. He hates it. Sollux can read it in his pupils, contracted with hate into minuscule pinpoints, in his wrinkled brows, he can hear it in his angry voice. He's hissing and uttering profanities. He is outraged.
Sollux just laughs and licks a long stripe up his neck, at which Eridan shudders against his will and even if he starts writhing under Sollux with more detemination, the involuntary gesture of tilting his head to further expose his neck gives him away. He's deprived. Needy. Sollux realizes that he kind of likes him like this. Likes to watch him trying to fight it.
It's not the way Eridan would want it, obviously. He doesn't want to be pinned to the floor of an obscure lab in the depths of a meteor by someone who would be on the top of his murder list if his bogus sociopathic plan of wiping out all non-marine life ever suceeded. Hell, he's not Equius. Eridan is stubborn and proud, like a difficult child who gets on everybody's nerves. Surely, when he imagines any kind of romantic conjuncture, he's the one holding the metaphorical reins. Sollux smirks, hovering above Eridan's face. This kind of rebellion doesn't make the sea dweller's face less unpleasant or any part of his person more agreeable, really, but to hell it's fun to have his delusional expectations brought to the ground.
Eridan fights to escape his grip, but his efforts are not a match for Sollux's powers. Sollux slaps him across the face with his psionics, hard, and Eridan goes still for a second.
`Shh, it'ts alright. Your massive ego won't have to suffer. Too much,' he grins. Eridan blinks in confusion, then realizes his point and that terrible, unexpectedly gratifying expression of revolt and repulsion paints his face once again.
`You fuckin' bastard. Get off me,` he hisses and he starts thrashing around again, but Sollux cuts him off with another sting. He traces the red mark forming on the sea dweller's cheek with his tongue, tasting it. Eridan tastes salty. Sollux hates the seas, but he thinks that he would love to make him cry.
`Good boy,' he says mockingly when Eridan doesn't try to fight anymore. Obviously, the fighting is welcomed, even vital, but to such extent it's counter-intuitive to the purpose.
The purpose is: make Eridan his. Make him love it. Make him hate it that he does.
A few minutes ago, he'd been the one to pick up a fight with Sollux, most probably in another desperate attempt to form a quadrant with him- just the usual occurrings that the programmer had learned to expect, but certainly not to love. The pompous prick was a pain in the ass in any context, and Sollux couldn't care less about his miserable love life. Forming a kissmessisitude with him out of pity was something that could've easily led to quadrant vacillation, which was the last thing Sollux wanted in any kind of universe, but today- something had snapped.
He'd had enough of Eridan's whining and prodding. He had repeatedly told himself that it was a matter of self-control, but this was overdoing it. There was a point after which taking no action equaled being a complete idiot. Payback had its merits along with patience and shouting unrepeatable profanities in the sea dweller's general direction, waiting for him to disappear in a puff of self-important ramble. Payback and- something else. He hated his guts, but he'd never given actual thought to the possibility of something different coming along with that hate. Well, he guessed it was time to find out.
He let his anger get the best of him for a while, responding to the other troll's attack. He led Eridan in one of the hidden rooms on the meteor, one of the few that only he knew of by account of his excellent hacking skills. After they fought a bit- for warm-up, Sollux thought-, he simply threw Eridan's gun in a corner of the room using his psionics, at which the sea dweller had reacted by attempting direct combat. Sollux had waved his hand and brought him to the floor. He had briefly considered bringing him to his knees first, but unlike Eridan, he wasn't one for cheap theatrics.
He pets Eridan's hair in a make-believe gesture and takes off his glasses, throwing them on the floor. Eridan looks like someone just took his favourite toy from him, twisted his insides and left him bleeding on the floor of his newest, most expensive carpet. He's trying to be angry to keep his dignity. He keeps pretending this is something that he doesn't want.
Sollux gives a tentative roll of his hips and it's enough to make Eridan gasp, a weak sound that contrasts pathetically with his dissolving anger. Sollux can feel the other's rage melting down, turning into distilled hate through some sort of profane alchemy, incorporating desire in its most subtle structure. It's so easy, and he both loves it and hates it that it takes so little effort to strip Eridan down to what he is. Weak. Just a little bit desperate. Attention whore, and other kinds of whore, too, if anyone would take enough interest in him. Sollux is sure of that. Such a pity, he thinks.
`Fuck you,' Eridan spits out and it's such a pretty sight, seeing him all flushed like this, so he slaps him again. Sollux can't tell apart pain from arousal in the sound that the other troll makes in response, and he grins. The marks will be visible on his face for days. He licks at Eridan's face again, pressing the tip of his tongue into the fresh bruise and Eridan bucks his hips up in response. His fingers tighten into fists above the thin energy lines keeping him still.
`Not so reluctant anymore?` Sollux teases.
`Are you kiddin' me?` he says, trying to sound repulsed, but his breathing is a bit off; rather perfect, Sollux thinks. `I'd rather die alone on this stupid planet than have your filthy lowblood hands on me, you bulge-headed idiot,` he continues, but Sollux's hand lifting his shirt, pressing at the newly formed bruises from their recent battle, makes his voice falter in what he surely believes to be an embarrassing way, judging by how he closes his eyes shut and turns his head at the side. Perfect, perfect. And Sollux hasn't even kissed him yet.
`You are so full of shit,` he says, rolling his hips hard enough to make Eridan gasp. It's ridiculous, how he spends all his time trying to make people notice his existence and when someone finally does, he denies it because he's too self-conscious. Sollux doesn't master the art of talking people out of their bullshit like KK does, but he has his ways. The difference is that he won't waste his time with just anybody. And for some reason, Eridan isn't and has never been `anybody`. He is- narcissisic, arrogant, hard-headed. Sollux hates him and his inability to steady himself in the space that he occupies, always fluctuating between rage and pity. But it's not a terminal hate, and it turns out that it's not entirely platonic either, judging by the pressure making itself known in his nether regions.
Sollux is okay with that. He is okay with many things, in fact, so he grabs Eridan's chin and brings their lips together. It's- salty. Eridan must crave the sea, he thinks. How long since he's last been in the water-and his lips still taste like it, it has to be a universal constant or some other bullshit of that kind. It's violent, because Eridan won't have it any other way and if he's to be sincere, Sollux wouldn't, either. He grabs two fists of Eridan's ridiculous hair and pulls his head back to have better access at his mouth. He sticks his tongue in unceremoniously and he doesn't have to wait for any reaction, because Eridan is kissing him back with enough force to bruise, in what are probably equal measures of lust and anger. Hatred, even. Sometimes Sollux wonders whether any of the other's rage can be truly classified as hate, or if he suffers from a life-term selfishness acute enough to make even hating other people possible. Eridan is so locked up in his own bubble, it's absurd.
But he's always fighting back. Kissing him feels like being sucked up in a poorly directed maelstrom and Sollux feels a bit light-headed against his better judgement. Eridan bites at his lip, drawing blood, then dives in for more. It feels… new. It feels maddening and heightening at the same time, as if he's just stuck his head in ice cold water. He's suddenly awake. Too painfully awake, and too lost to do anything about it. Their kiss is supposed to be a fight for dominance, this is what they do, this is where the fun lies, but Sollux has stopped caring so much about keeping his calm and more about removing the thick layer of clothing separating them. There is too little air, too little contact. It's driving him crazy.
He takes off his shirt while Eridan is watching him through glassy eyes. Undressing him would require freeing his hands and Sollux isn't sure about that, but his powers already made the decision for him- the energy strings pale in intensity and when he tries to regain control over them, they flicker in red and blue pulses for a few times, then shut off completely.
`Oh, fuck this,' he hisses and takes Eridan's shirt off before he can hate himself for losing control so easily. Right now Eridan doesn't seem to give a damn about power games either, because he's rising up to meet Sollux in a kiss that makes his head spin- maybe he's overestimated his self-control, maybe it's just been too much time since he's done this with anyone, but Sollux finds himself so acutely present, so out of his mind in every sense possible, and it feels so good that it almost makes him queasy. Eridan is far past the point of protest now, his haughty expression melted down into a lust-dazed languor that Sollux would like to lick right off his face. His hands, now free, pull at Sollux's hair and draw deep lines in the sensitive skin of his back. When Eridan rubs at his horns, it goes straight between his legs, shaking his whole body with a need that he'd thought himself foreign of. He curses through his teeth. He hates it, hates himself for it, but Eridan finds it in him to grin and Sollux wants to rip the smile off the bastard's face in the most painful way possible.
Instead, he opens the button from his pants and slips a hand in, letting a finger slide along the length of Eridan's bulge, teasing. The other arches up almost instantly and Sollux uses the opportunity to lick up his neck and bite at his chin, while still stroking his bulge at a tortuously slow pace for both of them. He's trying to buck up to increase the friction while simultaneously trying to unzip Sollux's pants, which isn't the luckiest combination of things to do at the same time, but everybody already knows that he's an idiot and- oh. Oh. His fingers wrap around Sollux's bulge, stroking up and down with more than enough pressure to make him lose his head. There are waves of arousal washing through him and he curses to himself- he thought he had some resemblance of control here, but all he can feel is a stinging want for this impossible troll. He wants to strip him down and take him apart, fuck him until he makes him lose himself and Sollux has to mobilize unspeakable amounts of will and lucidity not to give in to his own desire to let his conscience drown, subsided by unreasonable, untamed impulses.
His fingers slide to find Eridan's nook, already dripping, and he pushes a finger in, not far enough to hit any sensitive centre of nerves, but enough to make him gasp in pleasure. The sound goes straight to his groin and it's ridiculous, but he thinks that at this pace he might come in his pants- their smell in the air, the sounds that Eridan makes, the way he's writhing and pushing upwards and stroking Sollux with a kind of uncensored desperation that's so pitiable, yet gives the impression that he knows exactly what he's doing, it all goes straight past his think pan unfiltered, pooling at the centre of his stomach, curling into an exquisite, unbearable heat.
He takes Eridan's hands by the wrists and pins them up on the floor, on both sides of his head. Sollux skips over wondering why he isn't putting up any resistance and levels his eyes with the other troll's. Eridan's eyes are unfocused, lost. Sollux looks at him equally dazed, feeling as if they both slipped in a different state of consciousness, some place that is out of time where seconds flow slowly, like honey dripping in a jar, like broken clockwork. It feels delicious, weakening, filling him with a comfortable languor that tells him how, right now, he can do anything he wants to. They can do anything. He wants to drag Eridan as high as he can, let him hang on with lazy expectation before releasing him, melt into their joined illusion of atemporality until they dissolve time itself. It's a strange feeling and it somehow feels like too much of a deal for something as base as wanting to fuck Eridan stupid, but it's there and he lets that wonderful inertia engulf him without any second thoughts. Sollux wonders what it would be like to use his psionics now, whether they would be amplified or simply ineffective. Restraining Eridan's hands with his own seems enough now, though he's pretty sure this is not a necessity that he can pride himself with. He has no idea why on Alternia is he so turned on.
`If you keep going at this, I'm gonna come straight in my pants, then leave you tied here and forget about it,' he hisses, hovering over Eridan.
`Well I don't know why we're still wearin' any, Sol,' he replies lazily. Sollux wouldn't admit it, but he's bordering on grateful to Eridan for not making any mocking remark. That would be the last thing he needs.
`Don't play smartass with me, you bulge-headed idiot,' he answers, but the insult is weak and he can't help but feel a bit overwhelmed. Eridan could free his hands at any time, or at least make a decent attempt to it, but all he's doing is sit there, watching him with intent, lust-hazed eyes. They're both grinding against each other in small, stifled motions, as if waiting to see who will give in first and Sollux thinks that, for the grown-ups that they claim to be, they can both be huge idiots sometimes.
He takes in a deep breath and he empties his mind, trying to activate his powers. At first, he can only feel their distant echo, gnawing at the outer limits of his consciousness field, but the sensation grows stronger as those lines become blurrier, the aroused haze that he finds himself in making him more receptive to the forces that he usually needs to control by will alone. He laughs to himself. He can't help but find the whole situation a bit ridiculous. He watches as waves of red and blue energy hold Eridan's wrists to the ground, following a will that he's barely aware he has. Eridan scowls in confusion, but when he talks, the tone of his voice doesn't convey any real bitterness.
`Is that a thing that you lowbloods do,' he asks, 'controlling others to stifle your own sense a inferiority?` His voice is low, inviting, posing no genuine threat.
`Obviously, your god complex needs some taming sometimes. Is it just me, or you're kind of enjoying it, Ampora?' Sollux replies, calibrating his voice to the other's until it's barely a whisper. Eridan closes his eyes then, barely restraining a shiver. He suddenly looks like he's going to fall apart. Sollux never thought that he was beautiful, but right now, he just wants to drink the look on his face. His expression is the one he wears when he's feigning vulnerability to manipulate others, but this time it's the real thing and it's infinitely more compelling. His eyes are seductive, pleading, and his lips are slightly parted, swollen from the previous abuse. He's gorgeous.
`Sol,' he murmurs. `Please.`
Sollux thinks that he's going to combust, right then and there. He takes a sharp breath in, which clears his mind enough for him to notice Eridan's abandoned scarf lying on the floor. He can think of better ways to put it into use right now, and `more sensory deprivation` is on the top of the list, so he takes it and before Eridan can protest, he covers its owner's eyes with it, lifting his head slightly to tie it at the back. Eridan is writhing under him again, but now it's with frustration and need more than with a real wish to escape. Before he can speak again, Sollux descends, yanking his pants and undergarments down, and starts lapping with his tongue at the base of his bulge while dragging one finger along his wet entrance. The sound Eridan makes then is only short of obscene, and Sollux has to keep his hips down from arching with one hand while he fingers him with the other.
He's licking at his bulge slowly, teasing him with his tongue, reaching the tip and engulfing it in his mouth only to abandon it a second later, all while he pushes one finger in and out of his nook with matching slowness. Eridan is very vocal and Sollux thinks that recording him would be a delicious hit to his pride later, but right now he's too busy being distracted by his moans and gasps and unintelligible slurry of words. He adds another finger in and Eridan takes a sharp breath in, body freezing for a second to accommodate him. Sollux can feel him tensed to the maximum, ready to let go, but he's not amenable to that just yet, even though the heat in his own pants is becoming nigh unbearable.
He starts fucking Eridan's nook faster now, trying not to get too distracted by the thought of himself inside him, squeezed in that moist tightness. He pushes his fingers as deep as he can, and he's glad that he chose such a remote room, buried under the others, because Eridan groans obscenely loud as he hits one of the sensitive points inside him, arching up by instinct. Sollux takes his bulge in his mouth then, sucking on it without restraint, and he can feel himself dripping through his pants with the heat of it as Eridan groans again. He's speaking in tongues, squirming in pleasure under him, and Sollux stops just short of what he feels like it'd have been too much for both of them.
He distances himself from Eridan, providing him with no contact at all as he watches his chest rise and fall with his rushed, shallow breaths. He's made a mess of himself. He's sweaty, his nook is dripping and he keeps moving, trying to escape from his bonds so he can get some kind of contact, ease the tension burning through him. Sollux's knees are far from steady as he's standing. Seeing Eridan like this is too much at this point and it only builds up more pressure between his thighs, even though the troll's lack of self-control is what angered him in the first place, what made him so pathetic in his eyes. It's unbearably arousing right now, and slightly different from his previous masquerades because this time, he's not faking it. He's not trying to shield his desire, he's not denying it or pretending that he's better than ceding control to anyone else but his proud, ridiculous person for once in his life. He's naked and bare, and Sollux feels a slight tint of pride himself at the thought that this is Eridan, and this is him, and it's no one else who gets to see him like this, to bring him in this state.
He's calmed down now, his breathing steady as he doesn't move anymore, listening carefully to detect any kind of sound or movement as to determine Sollux's position in the room. Sollux would be tempted to leave him like this for a while, if he wasn't on the point of breaking down himself. He keeps silent for a bit more just for the fun of it, watching Eridan go from vigilant to confused to angered in only a few minutes, probably under the impression that he really has been abandoned- which is exactly the point of it. Sollux grins, then takes off his pants in a matter of seconds and goes back to straddling the needy troll waiting for him on the floor.
Eridan seems relieved then, exhaling loudly as he bucks his hips up, feeling the other's nakedness. Direct contact feels more than welcomed at this point, the hot friction making Sollux gasp in pleasure. Without any further delay, he aligns his bulge with Eridan's nook and presses in.
Eridan moans loudly then, in pleasure, pain or relief- Sollux can't tell, but he himself is far gone. The warmth of the other's tightness is engulfing him, indulging the heightened arousal that he's been putting on hold, lightening up his nerves with a liquid electricity that flows through his body, making him blind to anything else. He releases Eridan's hands then -by instinct or by deliberate choice, he can't tell- and Eridan grabs at his back, leaving deep marks as Sollux pushes into him further, burying his face in the other's neck while the heat fills him with relief and, paradoxically, with a wish for more. His head is a whirlwind, forgotten in the process of fucking Eridan senseless. Sollux buries his hands in his damp hair, pulling it while he kisses him hard, their tongues mimicking the motion of their hips as they both gasp into each other's mouths. Eridan rubs at his horns again and the sensation is too much to process. Sollux starts grinding into him hard, feeling like he wants to swallow him whole, kissing at his neck and mouth with a disquieting kind of desperation as he's approaching his climax.
Eridan is murmuring a string of profanities laced with his name, only prompting Sollux to go faster as the other's nails dig into his hips hard enough to draw blood. He still has his blindfold on- either forgotten there because there are more important things to do or purposely left untouched because he's loving it, Sollux has no idea- and he clutches to him as if he's holding for dear life, biting into his shoulder, lapping at his neck. Sollux thinks he's never seen anyone so needy, so open, and he would perhaps think low of it if he wouldn't find himself in exactly the same situation.
It's enough for him to give one long stroke to Eridan's bulge and he's coming, spilling into Sollux's hand as his whole body trembles, riding out the intensity of their encounter. He groans softly and then he's quiet, arching his spine and throwing his head back, letting Sollux make shallow bites into his exposed neck as the last waves of climax wash through him. His body goes lax under him, exhausted. Eridan unties his blindfold with lazy motions and then he lets his hands fall to the sides, watching Sollux with sated, slightly wet eyes.
`Wanna see you come,' he explains in a broken voice and Sollux loses it. He thrusts into him for a few more times, feeling the tension build up until it reaches its peak, overriding any coherent thought and sinking into an ocean of unadulterated sensation. Waves of pleasure wash through him as he comes in Eridan's hand, shivering from the height of the moment. The sensation is crushing him under its intensity; it feels better than anything has before, electric lines lighting up his blood, an explosion of violent color. He collapses on top of the other, breathing heavily.
They sit like this for some time that Sollux can't determine, since he's slipped into a comfortable tiredness laced with a strange sense of fulfillment, like he's just run a race or won an award, only more immediate, more real. He feels Eridan's hands tracing lazy circles on his back and the motion freaks him out a bit, as if it's a signal that drags him back into the current state of things- one insufferable prince under him, an unwarranted warm feeling in his chest and no idea about what quadrant is currently being filled.
He rolls over, leaving Eridan enough space to breathe. He closes his eyes, waiting for his breathing to level out. His bones are starting to feel the cold floor underneath, skin prickling with the feel of the chill air in the room, but the endorphins bring him back to the slightly otherworldly state that previously engulfed his body, punctuating the haze with a comfortable sort of exhaustion. He glances at his side. Eridan still has his eyes closed, hands spread out limply alongside his body. Sollux hates to admit it, but he does anyway since he's not sober quite yet- he might be an arrogant asshole, but Eridan looks amazing like this. Maybe a good pailing is all he needs to come down from his tower and down on earth among them mortals again.
But then Sollux remembers that this sounds ridiculously like what he'd needed, too, and his think pan starts rewinding every little thing that he's done wrong in the past hour, every single time in which he wasn't as sure or steady as he'd planned-and hell, weren't they many- and before he knows it his mind is spiraling down the endless self-reproach path again. He sighs and raises an arm and covers his eyes with it, as if it would somehow help self-oblivion.
`Sol,` Eridan says, his voice still hoarse. `If you actually stop beatin' yourself up for a minute here we might make some progress with figuring out where we're standin'.`
`It's none of your business what I'm doing, and there's nothing to figure out, so do me a favour and shut your protein chute before my head explodes,' Sollux answers begrudgingly. He'd rather just sink in the folds of the earth right now, ignorant to everything, instead of having to crawl back to consciousness and deal with the current state of events.
`We just fucked, you idiot, a course there's things to talk about,' Eridan sighs, but the tone of his voice says that he isn't in the mood for arguing, either. ` `t was really hot, if you're askin' me,` he adds in a lazy voice.
`Yeah, well nothing makes me happier than your positive assesment of what just happened. My self respect is just flying through the roof right now, just so you know,' Sollux replies, but regardless of the sarcasm, he really does feel a strange kind of contentment at Eridan's words, accompanied by flashbacks of the last hour's activities- flashbacks that only serve to stir him again, so he breathes out and tries to chase them away.
`Don't let it go to your head, Sol,' he replies, apparently oblivious to the sarcasm. Sollux snorts in amusement against his will. The situation is absurd, Eridan is absurd, the whole thing is ridiculous and he's not sure whether the fact that he finds the sea dweller's obliviousness- or masquerade of obliviousness, he still can't tell, he doesn't really care- as a universal constant, even now, makes him want to raise his hands to the skies in protest or kiss Eridan senseless. Probably both.
`Jutht so you know, I'm not waxing red for you and I don't intend to even if we were the last remaining trolls on this bloody meteor,' he says just to make a point.
`I wasn't even considering such a option,' Eridan replies. `You should find yourself lucky that I'm even thinkin' a stoopin' to your level for a kismesissitude, Sol, no offense.'
`None taken, asshole. Though I remember things quite differently back when you were writhing and begging under me,' Sollux grins. He gets no answer and when he turns his head at the side, Eridan seems intent on staring at the ceiling.
`Look at me, stupid,' he says, and the other troll complies. His expression is coy at best, seemingly vulnerable, but Eridan's eyes are fierce, burning through him. `I'm fine with repeating this thing that took place here, okay? And when I say 'fine' you know that I mean `pretty damn set on making it happen'. If we're in any quadrant it's definitely a black one, so your fish prince pride won't be seriously damaged. Unless you agree to it,' he grins and Eridan smiles then, a small devious curl of the lips that makes Sollux congratulate himself for ever having this idea in the first place.
`I knew you'd eventually give in, Sol,' Eridan replies and closes his eyes, smiling. Sollux rolls his eyes. Eridan can be so infuriating.
One day, they might have to talk about it, calibrate their issues, jump in a pile of questionably useful objects and have a feelings jam or whatever other shitty activities people do when they're too weak to bear their own think pans by themselves anymore. Most probably, have a serious fight and a couple of near-death experiences together, so they can finally see where they stand. Maybe then, Sollux will figure both of them out.
But until then, he's more than satisfied with labeling this whole thing black and rolling over to kiss Eridan again, if only to piss him off.