Being only two of the twelve, you usually had at least bi-monthly meetups with the other ten of you. Usually there was some status reports on blending in followed by just chatting with your fellow mutants or doing some dumb activities and acting like you were all kids since your childhoods were all pretty much stolen from you, plus it was fun to unwind a little bit. Tonight's gathering happened to be at Eridan and Feferi's house.
It had been about a week since you first took Sollux with you into the woods. He, surprisingly, decided to join you almost every time you went out there, even to the point of shutting down his monster of a computer in the middle of a coding project so he could join you. His mood swings seemed to have lessened drastically, and his migraines seemed to have alleviated almost completely, as well.
"Karkles, you and Lord Appleberry should stop being such party poopers and sing!" Terezi cackled, swiping her ginger bangs out of her face. She pointed in the direction of the karaoke machine. You still never would completely understand her mutation, it lets her almost be barely impaired even though she couldn't see with her eyes. She could taste and smell things though.
You glance at Sollux at the same time he glances at you as you're sitting next to each other on the off-white couch in a very well-decorated living room. He raised his eyebrows a bit and you both look back at Terezi, shaking your heads.
"TZ, do you really think it would be a good idea for me to thing with mithter crabby athh-hole? He already maketh fun of my lithp enough, think about it," Sollux inquired the short redhead with a slight smirk.
You decide to add onto his point and playfully shove his shoulder, "Exactly, I would rather cut his tongue out of his mouth than have to sing with that lisping idiotic douchewaffle."
He chuckles at your banter and Terezi crosses her arms with a determined look on her face, "But you two lovebirds are the only ones who haven't sung and if you haven't noticed, none of us are the greatest singers." She gives a shiteating grin and you feel your face go red. God damnit, Terezi.
"Wha- We aren't-" You stammer and Terezi drubs you on the head with her cane.
"Then prove it by getting up there and singing," She challenges. You growl at her and stand up, then yank Sollux up by the arm. You hear Terezi cackle something like, "I knew that would get them to do it" as you trudge over to the god awful, fucking stupid, dumbass karaoke machine. You pick up a microphone and shove one to Sollux, which he reluctantly takes.
You point to the blasted machine and back at Sollux, "You pick, Captor."
Before he even selected, or even made a move to touch the screen, you knew what he was going to pick. Predictable as your best friend is, he picks exactly the song you knew he would. That song being a fairly new song called "A LIGHT THAT NEVER COMES" by Linkin Park. You were mildly entertained when Sollux first showed you the song and remarked on the capitalized title, "KK it'th like they hired you to come up with a title."
You nod at Sollux and hold your mic up to your face instead of at your side and he follows suit. You both are tone deaf as hell but for some reason even his below average singing gave you some kind of dumbass warm fuzzy feeling at your core. Not again. Why this. Fuck.
You both manage to get through the song without passing out or messing up terribly and once the song ends, the other ten mutants in the room all applaud. You grab Sollux's hand and bow dramatically. "Thank you, thank you very fucking much, we'e here twice a month," you announce like some kind of famous person.
"We altho do birthday partieth and bar mitzvahth," Sollux adds with a smirk.
That pretty much concluded the meeting and everyone said their goodbyes. You and Sollux make your way to the car you both shared though you didn't drive so it was technically his car. Of course, neither of you have proper driver's licenses but Sollux drove so flawlessly he wouldn't get pulled over. And it wasn't like you guys even looked too young to drive, Sollux was approximately 22 years old and you were about 21 and though you both looked like more like teenagers than adults, it was at least the over-16 teenagers that you looked like.
You stare out the window of the car as he drives you home quietly. You finally switch on the radio so kill some of the awkward silence that seemed to fall over you two in the past few weeks until you make it home. He parks the car in its assigned parking spot and shuts off the car but then he just kind of sits there staring at his hands.
"Sollux what are you-" you begin but he cuts you off.
"KK there'th thomething I've kind of been meaning to athk about but I kept getting thidetracked," he states then blinks slowly and looks at you.
"Okay? Fuck, Captor, here I thought you just went braindead or some shit and I'd have to drag your limp, scrawny ass into the apartment all by my damn self. Go on," you reply, meeting his heterochromatic gaze with your bright red one.
"I- okay," he stumbles but keeps going, "Thomething hath been kind of off about you lately, KK. I can't really put my finger on it but you theem lethh... Aggrethhive..? Towardth me, like you don't theem to want to teathe me ath much or lecture me when I forget to eat a meal or thomething when I'm coding. You thtill do, but it't kind of empty. Did I do thomething thtupid to pithh you off?" He asks quietly.
Fuck. He thinks it's his fault. Well it kind of is his fault for making you feel these things but not really. It's more your idiotic self's fault for letting yourself feel these things. Is that one of your mutations, you wonder; a mutation that ruins your life and causes you to fall for your best friend?
You snap out of your mind to realize you still didn't respond to your question and he looks like he's going to die or some shit if you don't give him an answer. You can't hide it anymore, he knows something is going on. You might as well tell him the truth. Here goes… One… Two… Three…
"Shit, no, you didn't do anything. It's me who's been, well not really doing things, but, fuck," You manage to say and pause to get your bearings. "Sollux. Do you remember when we were in the labs, and the other experiments who were older than us started feeling things… And nobody fucking told them what it was so they called it 'flushed'?"
"Yeth of courthe I do, KK. But what doeth that have to do with-" He cuts himself off and his expression changes to understanding. "...Oh. Tho you like thomeone and you're too dithtracted to call me out on my usual bullshit, thath'th it, right?"
"Yeah, we can go with that. The worst thing about it is that… They're one of us," You mumble.
He tilts his head with a curious look on his face, "Tho...Thith perthon you like ith one of the mutantth. Hmm. We're betht friendth tho can I know who it ith…?"
You shake you head and slowly reply, "N-no… You would like hate me forever and kick me out of the apartment or some shit. You would at least flip all of your shit and our friendship would be ruined."
He looks confused now, then seems to put it all together, or so you think until he speaks, "You know, AA and I are jutht like thiblingth and that whole methh with FF ith like yearth in the patht and we don't feel anything for each other tho I'm not pithhed or anything if thith is what you're thayi-"
"No. You don't get it. It's not either Aradia or Feferi. It's not any of the, erm, girls. And fuck you if you think it's Eridan, hell to the fuck no," You cut him off and cross your arms. "Look, just, forget it, okay? I'll be fine."
He has that thinking look all over his face, it's almost amusing when your nerves aren't being chewed to bits. His thinking look is almost like a loading screen on a computer or something, processing. You notice his eyes slowly widen and you know he's figured it out now and you're fucked. And not in the literal way. But in the friendship-ruining way.
You quickly and without thinking throw open the door of the car and sprint off down the parking garage. You feel hot tears welling in your eyes, and god damnit Vantas, don't cry now. You duck around a corner and curl up into a ball, pulling your legs up into your hoodie and burying your face in your arms. You don't even hear the footsteps approaching because you're so out of it and something shocks your shoulder.
"KK. I think we have many thingth to talk about," Sollux states calmly. You look up at him and gulp.