Sollux loaded Eridan's fish bowl into the car carefully, and assured his little friend that he would not let him wash away.
"Don't worry," he said, "I've got you."
He strapped the passenger's seat belt over Eridan, and fastened himself behind the steering wheel. With a sigh and firm squeeze, Sollux slowly put his car into drive. He pulled out cautiously, and never relaxed. He hated driving at night. No, he hated driving at all.
Sollux kept glancing nervously at his fish, who only glubbed about and wiggled his tail in frustration as the water trembled along with the ride. Eridan seemed perfectly fine, except for the fact that he kept swimming straight into his glass walls. What was up with that? Sollux figured he'd find out later when he had access to his laptop.
The drive struck horror and anxiousness into Sollux's gut, and the worst part was he had no choice but to keep going forward. Of course, they made it home with no damage or trouble, but Sollux refused to stop shaking until he had placed Eridan safely on his kitchen counter. Boy, would his roommate be furious to see-
"What the fucking hell is this shit?"
Too late.
As Sollux laid his keys beside the fish bowl and turned to the couch for his laptop, Karkat had sneaked downstairs behind his back. He always did that, to scare his best friend when he came home, but tonight Sollux had caught him by surprise.
Karkat shoved his face to the glass and glowered. "Brought your ugly-ass work home with you?"
Eridan, sensing the rage in Karkat's grumpy, scrunched up face, spread the fins to the side of his body in a "threatening" manner. Sollux sighed and got comfortable in his usual groove of the sofa cushions.
Karkat scoffed and stuck his short, little tongue at Eridan.
"Where'd you pick this one up from? I didn't know there was a place for ridiculously pompous creatures that look like they swam out of a fairy's gaseous asshole," Karkat growled. Eridan flashed him yet again and swam in circles aggressively, to which no one paid much attention.
Sollux tapped his way to his browser and remarked, "You would know what that looks like, wouldn't you KK?"
Karkat swiveled for the refrigerator and let the door bang wide open against the wall. He scavenged for the water purifier, and slammed it beside Eridan's glass. The fish jumped and his plump, round body forced bubbles to the surface.
Karkat said, "I bet I could interpret it correctly by looking at this fruity twerp."
Sollux watched Karkat smash a plastic cup down beside the purifier, and dump water in until it was almost pooling off the top. He replaced the pitcher in their fridge, slammed the heavy door, and crashed beside Sollux on the couch.
"Looking up fun trivia for your new space waste?"
"Yeah. I kinda, dunno, don't want it to die."
"Does it have a name?" Karkat wondered.
"Eridan."
The fish swam to Sollux's voice until he smacked against the barrier of his bowl. Sollux was surprised and puzzled. He had said Eridan's name maybe once out loud, and the little guy already knew it was meant for him?
"This fish is something special," Sollux mused.
Karkat grumbled a sentence or two about everything being "special" to Sollux and cranked the television on.
Sollux felt a grin rising at the corners of his cheeks, something he hadn't done genuinely since Aradia. He found a handy page about Eridan's fish type, what it was capable of, and how it was meant to perform. Perform? Yes. Sollux was going to train his little buddy, and they would cream all the competition. He just needed the right equipment.
