Eridan could see Sollux staring at him out of the corner of his eye, and he was equal parts uncomfortable and amused. He'd fuckin' earned this damn reaction. The lack of response altogether was nerve-wracking, and while he couldn't help but feel nervous under the scrutiny, he was at least relieved that his messages were having some sort of effect.

Even if the other boy was making this extremely obvious. Jesus fuck, he was so socially inept; how the hell did he have any friends at all? Just fucking staring…

The Ampora glanced over, jolting a bit when he locked eyes with his interest, quickly looking forward again. He could feel his cheeks warm slightly, but refused to react otherwise, forcing his gaze to remain on the professor pacing in the front of the room. It was like Sollux was trying to be as embarrassing as possible; other classmates were starting to notice the fact he was studying him. Ugh.

Narrowing his eyes, Eridan focused harder on the professor. He was not going to humor that douche of a programming student and look over again. Absolutely not.

When a paper football smacked against his cheek, though, his glare was reflex. Sollux just smirked in response, finally turning his weird dual-toned gaze away. Offering an irritated hiss under his breath, Eridan picked up the small triangle of lined paper from where it had landed on his desk.

The more pathetic, romantic part of him hoped it was an invitation to coffee or something. He knew it probably wasn't, but aside from the questionable aim, it would have been a fairly cute way of bringing the subject up, he thought.

So he unfolded it, revealing -

Niice a22.

Jesus fuckin' Christ. The Ampora didn't even try to be subtle, crumpling it up and throwing it as hard as paper would go at the irritant next to him. Ridiculous. He shouldn't even be surprised; obviously someone as awkward as Captor would have no concept of romancing someone. Which was partially why he was going about this whole thing like he was. If Sollux had just asked him out to begin with...

Another football hit him in the face, and Eridan barely resisted the urge whip a pen at the other boy. Huffing, he unfolded the paper, already expecting something stupid -

Diinner?

The Ampora froze in his seat, stunned, not even sure what to do now that his 'plan' had 'succeeded'. OhmyGod. He could feel his face heating up, and he willed himself to move, to do anything, because he could feel Sollux staring at him again, but all the swimmer could do was gape at the scrap of paper in his hands. Shit. Oh, fuck, he wasn't sure he could do this; he wasn't exactly skilled in the matter of relationships, and he hadn't seriously expected his 'flirting' to work. At best he expected a quickie for his efforts, but he hadn't genuinely…

Clumsily, he floundered for his pen, effectively knocking it onto the floor from the desk in his haste to grab it. So smooth. Snatching it from the floor, Eridan flatly refused to look at the Captor, because he knew perfectly well he was amused and he wasn't quite sure he could resist snapping at him if he saw that stupid smirk.

The end of the pen tapped against his cheek nervously as he considered, eyes back on the date request. What should he say? Well, yes, obviously; he hadn't been sending the nudes for his health. But phrasing was important, or so he figured. And hey, maybe he was making Sollux nervous with his hesitation in a response. One could only hope.

A quick glance at the clock confirmed class was nearly over, and he let out a huffed sigh. Okay. Carefully, his usual dramatic script curled on the paper, stark contrast to the unsurprisingly casual handwriting of his peer.

pick me up at sevven

Still, he didn't give the slip of paper back, collecting his things as their professor wrapped up the lecture. Grabbing his backpack from the floor, he left the note on his desk, trying not to bolt like he so desperately wanted to. Sollux knew to check it, right? He wouldn't take him not handing it back to him as a refusal. He'd seen him write an answer on the paper, so he must know to at least glance at it… anyway, the Captor was probably curious, right? Right. He was the one who asked for the date, after all, so clearly he was intrigued. But Eridan didn't want to seem too interested, and he certainly wasn't going to encourage the paper football method of communication, but… maybe just leaving it on his own desk had been a bad call.

Too late now to do anything about the delivery, though. Stepping into the hallway, Eridan didn't go far, stepping close to the wall and peeking through the glass next to the door. A few of their classmates glanced at him with varying degrees of interest, but they were easy to ignore, because Sollux had collected the paper already and that took Eridan's full attention.

He couldn't see the other boy's face from where he was, but when the Captor glanced over his shoulder towards the door, Eridan jerked back. He'd really like to hope that the other student hadn't seen him peering in, but he was pretty sure he'd effectively embarrassed himself. Good going, Ampora, that didn't seem desperate at all.

Hastily he made his escape, unwilling to face the other boy and get called out on his somewhat pathetic behavior. That would probably come soon enough.

After all, he'd see him again at seven, provided things worked out as planned.