Within a couple of weeks, his new routine seemed pretty normal. Talk to CA online, Skype Aradia and Karkat, spend most of his time with Vriska and Terezi...Even his almost but not quite flirting with Eridan had become part of the routine. Sollux was still waiting to see if anything would come of Vriska's promise to somehow make things progress beyond that, but for now, this was good enough. For that matter, he still had a few doubts about whether he wanted anything more to come of it. Sure, Eridan was plenty attractive, and he seemed nice enough, but Sollux still knew next to nothing about him.

What he did know was that every day, Eridan made empty threats to write him up for dress code violations or having his phone out, and every day, Eridan's gaze would linger a little longer than it should. Sollux considered talking to CA about it and asking for advice, but he never did beyond a few vague mentions. It was like mentioning Eridan to CA would somehow violate a universal law and send the world into chaos. The reverse would also be true, if he ever considered it or had a reason to mention CA to Eridan in the first place.

It seemed like his daily routine of sorts of interacting with Eridan would remain static forever. But eventually, like with everything else, there was a catalyst that sent things spiraling out of control.

Sollux was distracted, gaze fixed on the floor as he walked. That was hardly unusual. His mind was never entirely free of things to brood over, and this particular morning, it was the math test he'd just taken. It was relatively inconsequential, as it turned out later. He'd gotten a 95% on it, but at the time he'd been convinced that he failed.

If he hadn't thought so, it could've changed the entire course of the following weeks and months. Still muttering to himself under his breath, he caught sight of a door out of the corner of his eye and opened it, all without paying enough attention to know what room it led to.

When he finally glanced up as the door shut behind him, he realized that he'd blundered his way into the girls' bathroom. He was now that guy. At that point, Sollux would've turned and left while hoping that nobody noticed what he'd done. But instead, he was confronted with the sight of what the door had hit on his way in. Or more accurately, who.

"Why did this have to happen to me?" Sollux's face likely resembled a tomato by now, but he simply couldn't make himself turn around and leave.

His only friends in the school were somehow wedged into the tiny amount of free space near the sinks, making out like he hadn't just barged in and hit them with the heavy door.

After what felt like a century, Vriska slowly pulled away.

"Sollux, what are you doing here?"

Then, naturally, Terezi chimed in.

"Wait, are you saying that Sollux was the one who hit us with the door?"

Not able to figure out how to respond, he just stared at the trace amounts of blue lipstick now lingering on Terezi's lips for a moment longer before slowly backing out of the bathroom. He was planning on just returning to study hall and pretending he hadn't seen Vriska and Terezi.

In those few seconds between starting to exit the bathroom and the next portion of this unexpected series of events, Sollux didn't have time to think much. The one thing he did think was "this day can't possibly get any more weird." He was wrong.

Sollux had barely cleared the doorway when he came face to face with Eridan.

"I was just walkin down the hall, and you walkin out of the ladies' room is one of the last things I expected to see. Are you going to explain?" In addition to his usual, vaguely irritated expression, Eridan looked almost hurt.

Sollux didn't know what to think about that. Why would that unfortunate mistake bother Eridan so much?

"Um..." Not even trying to finish his sentence, Sollux quickly walked away, back to study hall.

With Sollux halfway down the hall, before Eridan had composed himself enough to keep walking, Vriska emerged from the bathroom, telltale smirk on her face. Immediately jumping to conclusions, Eridan blocked her path.

"God, Vris, don't fuckin tell me you were makin out in the bathroom. I could write you up for this."

"Wait...how'd you know?" Vriska looked confused, as if she was trying to figure out what part of her appearance had given it away, and why Eridan cared so much.

"Because I just saw Sollux come out a there. I'll be speakin to him about it as well." In his effort to remain strictly professional, Eridan only made it more obvious that he was upset about what he assumed had happened.

"How is Sollux involved in this? He just...oh. You think he's the one I was with. That explains why you're so pissed." Vriska laughed quietly, shifting her bag on her shoulder. "He just accidentally walked into the wrong bathroom. If you really want to punish me for this, the other person you should be talking to is Terezi."

"Wait, so he's not...Sol is..."

"Totally single and reciprocating your pathetic attempts at sneaky flirting, yes."

"You can't be suggestin that I should actually do something more than that...If someone found out, I'd be screwed for the rest of my life, in all likelihood." Eridan was fiddling with the ends of his scarf, though he looked to be considering it.

"You'd probably be screwed if someone found out that I've spent the night at your house before too, but that doesn't stop you from letting me."

"That was a completely different situation and not romantic in the least," Eridan protested.

"I doubt anyone else would care. Just go for it. It's obvious that he feels the same way." Vriska paused a moment, deliberating, and then spoke again. "Today. Before you lose what little nerve you have." Not giving Eridan a chance to argue or respond at all, she walked away, Terezi following soon after.

Eridan walked in the opposite direction, thinking about what Vriska had said. It was definitely risky attempting a relationship with Sollux, and he wasn't entirely sure if he himself was okay with it. There was a lingering sense of guilt, partially because Sollux was his student, and partially because of twinArmageddons. The idea of dating someone else almost felt like cheating, even though TA was only yellow text on his screen and they'd never really discussed any romantic feelings.

In the midst of his thinking, which was able to be fairly prolonged due to him not having a class to teach that period, Sollux walked in. It would be eerily similar to that first day, except Sollux looked far more comfortable now. He strode in, pausing right in front of Eridan.

"Vriska said you wanted to see me. Is this about what happened earlier? Because that was just a mistake."

What really confused Eridan about that was that he'd never told Vriska to tell Sollux anything like that. She must've decided to take things into her own hands to try and force him to make a move.

"Uh, no, I know that...That wasn't what I wanted to discuss." Might as well just go with it at this point.

"Then what was it?" Sollux was biting his lip slightly and tugging at the hem of his shirt. It was clearly a nervous reflex, and Eridan felt a little bad for causing it. He wanted nothing more than to just pull the Gemini into his arms and soothe all of his worries.

"Well...I, uh...I'm sure you're not oblivious to the embarrassingly flirtatious nature of many of our interactions." Now Eridan was the one fidgeting, moving a little closer.

Apparently unable to continue the awkward conversation, Sollux closed the gap between them, pulling Eridan into a kiss.

"I figured that's where this was headed anyway," he said after he pulled away.

Eridan just blinked at him, face bright red. Yes, he'd just been thinking about kissing Sollux, but he hadn't been expecting that.

"I guess it was," he agreed. "But are you sure about this? It won't be like a normal relationship. We'd have to be extremely careful not to get caught. And honestly, we don't know all that much about each other." He hated having to try to dissuade Sollux, but he had to know what he was getting into.

"I know," the teen replied. "But I want to try it if you do."

Arms still loosely wrapped around Sollux, Eridan nodded. Sollux was really warm, he noticed. Probably good to cuddle with. But he pulled away fully, not wanting to risk someone seeing them.

"We'll see. We'll see how it goes," he finally decided. And once they were out of view of anyone who might be walking down the hall, he pulled Sollux into a kiss. It didn't last very long, and it wasn't very romantic, but it was something.

"Shouldn't you be going back to class?" The question was muttered against Sollux's impossibly soft lips, since he was simply not pulling away.

"It's just study hall, and there's only like ten minutes left. I think I can afford to stay a little longer." Sollux punctuated this with his thumb gently tracing along Eridan's cheekbone.

"Alright. I suppose you can stay, if only because it's pretty damn hard to say no to you. You have to have left by the time my next class comes though." Eridan smiled softly, something he didn't do very often. He smirked, sure, but a genuine smile was pretty rare.

"Good. Maybe we can actually get to know each other now or something." Sollux laughed quietly, still unable to place that odd sense of familiarity. There were actually two reasons for it, one more obvious than the other, but Sollux had failed to puzzle out either of them.

"Yeah, that might be good."

"...so, it's kind of ironic that my dad sent me here to try to get me to date girls, only for me to wind up with you. It's almost disappointing that I won't be able to piss him off by telling him that." Sollux sighed, leaning against Eridan. They'd been telling each other about their lives for the past ten or fifteen minutes, but now Sollux really did need to go.

Just as he was about to say so, the bell rang, doing it for him.

"Alright, Sol, as much as I wish you could stay longer, go. We don't need anyone potentially getting suspicious about why you were here." Eridan gave the younger boy a bit of a nudge towards the doorway before relenting and giving him one more kiss a moment later.

"Okay, see you later then, I guess." The disappointment was evident on Sollux's face, but he left to go to his next class anyway.

Mere moments later, Eridan's next group of students flooded into the room, and he forced the dreamy grin off of his face, replacing it with his typical scowl. If anyone noticed him smiling, they'd definitely know something was up.

He got up and started his lecture, Sollux on his mind the whole time. It wasn't until the class left that he noticed Sollux's phone sitting on his desk, next to his laptop, which still had his earlier conversation with TA up on the screen when he brought it out of hibernation mode. Eridan remembered the Gemini taking his phone out at one point, but he'd been certain he remembered to put it back in his pocket. Apparently not. Oh well, he'd just give it back to him at the end of the day. Now, he really needed to reply to TA.

CA: howw wwas your morning?

CA: wwe still need to set up a date to meet.

A moment after he clicked send, Sollux's phone lit up.