"Wow, you really live down this road?" Sollux asked in amazement, staring at the rows of massive detached houses, their elegant lights from the windows giving off a gentle yellow glow. Sollux compared the rows of lighted mansions; yes, they were big enough to be mansions, to the city streets at Christmas time, illuminated with all the sparkly holiday-themed lights. He'd been down this road very few times in his life, only on the odd occasions when he'd been working as a part-time paperboy. Eridan come to the gates of the house at the far end of the road.

"Yep, here's my house." Eridan said calmly, opening the fancy steel gates that opened up to the front garden. "11 Seashore House."

Sollux didn't really understand why all the fancy houses had special little names instead of just house numbers. Those posh people probably felt they needed to feel grander than the common scumbags like himself. Oh well. Sollux followed Eridan up the cobblestoned pathway leading up to the front door. The pathway was lit up with tiny outdoor lamps. If you had enough money to waste on outdoor lighting, you had to be pretty rich, Sollux decided.

The house had a small porch out front, with a wooden decking, illuminated by a single hanging lamp. There was even a swinging bench in the far corner of the porch. While Sollux admired the picturesque porch, Eridan fumbled in his trouser pockets for the house key. On finding it, he inserted it into the door and pushed it open.

"Oi, I'm guessin' you like my porch." Eridan chuckled, snapping Sollux out of his daze. "You can come in, y'know."

"Haha, sorry, I've never seen such a classy house." Sollux said, stepping into the house, taking care to leave his scruffy shoes and skateboard by the door as he did so. The hallway was fancier than his entire house. The walls were of panelled wood; and it looked as if they had been whitewashed, because they were the perfect shade of pure white. They reminded Sollux of some sort of fancy beach house. The walls were adorned with various ornaments; gleaming silver-plated mirrors and fine paintings of beach sunsets and sunrises. Walking down the hallway, Sollux came to a rather large gold-framed painting.

It looked like a family portrait; a stern looking gentleman with slicked-back raven black hair, a pair of old-fashioned spectacles balanced on his nose, piercing cobalt blue eyes. He was wearing a very exquisite-looking dinner jacket. Beside him was a thin, feeble-looking woman. Despite that, Sollux thought she was rather pretty. She wore sparkling pearl earrings, and a matching white ball gown. Her platinum hair curled around her pale face and dropped to her shoulders. Yes, this woman was very beautiful indeed. Although she looked as solemn as the gentleman. On her lap, sat an infant. Sollux assumed the woman was this baby's mother, as they both had pretty blonde curls. Behind his ridiculously large pair of black-framed glases, the little boy had big, pale blue eyes. The look on his face almost looked as if he was trying to suppress a cheerful grin.

"Hey, ED, who are these people?" asked Sollux, pointing to the portrait. Eridan's grin drooped.

"That man... he's my father." Eridan sighed, as if he didn't really want to talk about it. "He's not around much. He's usually at work. And when he's not workin', he's out drinkin'. When he is home, all he does is moan about what a waste of space I am."

"Damn, I'm sorry..." Sollux murmured, adjusting his glasses. "So you're all alone most of the time? That's fucked up."

"Yeah. He doesn't really give a shit about me anymore, so I just do whatever. He used to be a real good dad when I was younger. Honestly, he was the best dad a kid could ever want."

"Well, that sucks. Who's the woman, then? Is she any better than your dad?"

Eridan let out a pitiful smirk. "My mum. She was lovely..."

"She was?" Sollux uttered quietly.

"She w-was ev-ver so frail..." sniffled Eridan, his bottom lip quivering. "Until one day... she fell ill... Dad took her into hospital, and I... I nev-ver saw her again..."

"Oh shit, I'm sorry..." Sollux murmured, edging closer to Eridan and placed a comforting arm around his shoulders.

Instantly, the dark-haired teen exploded into a fit of tears. Salty rivers poured down his face, as he let all his frustration out into the taller boy's shoulder. Sollux had instinctively drawn Eridan into a tight hug, clutching him firmly as the raven-haired boy sobbed grossly in his embrace. He didn't know what else to do. He rubbed Eridan's back sympathetically, as the shorter teen continued to cry.

It lasted a few minutes, before Eridan drew back, exhausted. "Oh Cod, I'm a fuckin' w-wreck..."

"No, no..." Sollux hushed, cradling him as if he was a frightened infant. "It's fine, honestly..."

Eridan let his head drop against Sollux's shoulder as he regained his breath. "Thank you, Sol... You're a real pal..."

After that sudden breakdown, Eridan had brought Sollux into the spacious lounge, and had put the kettle on. Sollux insisted he didn't waste his expensive coffee on him, but Eridan told him that it was the least he could do at that moment. The kettle bubbled away, as Eridan ushered him onto one of the three large chaise longues in the room. Sollux plopped down onto the cushiony cream fabric as Eridan sat down next to him, his eyes still red and puffy, but at least his adorable smile was beginning to show again. As Eridan poured steaming hot water into the two mugs on the glass top coffee table, Sollux took the time to gaze around the lounge with envy. The walls were identical to the ones in the hallway, white wood panelling, with various paintings and fancy shit hung up on them. The flooring was made up of some sort of creamy-coloured polished wood. There was a huge plasma screen TV mounted up on the wall, polished and new, unlike Sollux's old TV in his bedroom, which had never heard of a thing called furniture polish. The only window in the room was the largest thing Sollux had ever seen; it was one of those full length windows which took up almost the entire wall. Two heavy-looking cream curtains hung by the window. Everything seemed so elegant.

"Coffee's done." Eridan said, bringing over a large mug over to Sollux, placing it onto a beach-themed placemat on the tea table beside him.

"Thank you." Sollux looked up at him graciously. The coffee smelt invigorating.

Eridan sat down next to him again, his mug to his lips. "You're probably wonderin' who that kid was in the paintin'."

"Well, yeah, if you're willing to talk about it." Sollux didn't really want to have to console a blubbering 18 year old again, it was rather awkward for the both of them.

"That kid was me. When I was like, 3. It was a quite few years before mum passed away, I was only 10 when she died." explained Eridan, taking a well-deserved sip of his coffee.

"How come the kid in the picture had blonde hair?" asked Sollux, staring into his swirling brown drink.

"I usually dye it black. It ain't naturally this colour, y'know. At least that way I'm not reminded of my mum all the time. I also thought dying it the same colour as my father's would impress him. Of course, it didn't do shit. I just stuck with black." said Eridan, "And as for my purple-dyed fringe, I just did that because it's my favourite colour. Purple makes everythin' better."

"Ahh." Sollux took a swig of his coffee. It was strong and bitter. "Is your dad coming home tonight?"

"Nope, wouldn't have thought so." sighed Eridan into his drink. "All on my own tonight. Again."

Sollux felt sorry for him. "Well, if you want... I could stay round and keep you company. I'll just sleep on your floor, heh."

"Really?" Eridan's eyes widened. "I ain't had a friend over in years!"

"If it's okay with you." Sollux smiled. He didn't mind staying in a fancy mansion with the adorable Eridan Ampora. He was already eyeing the extensive collection of XBOX 360 games that were stacked neatly in the armoire.

"W-well, it's fine by me. But w-weren't you goin' to w-watch a mov-vie w-with your friend Kar?"

Only then did he remember Karkat was waiting for him back home. "Oh, it's okay, I'll send him a text saying that I'm here. He won't mind."

Sollux pulled his phone out from his pocket, and started to text a message to his friend.

21:00, Saturday

"hey kk, ii won't be comiing back twoniight, 2tayiing round ed'2 hou2e. 2ee you twomorrow. tell my dad where ii am. 2omethiing came up and ii don't thiink ii can leave ed here on hii2 own. 2orry."

Phew, that was a long message. Send. Sollux placed his phone onto the tea table and took another swig of coffee.

Bzzt. His phone was vibrating.

21:03, Saturday

"SOLLUX YOU ARE THE BIGGEST FUCKING FUCKASS EVER. YOU OWE ME BIG TIME WHEN YOU GET BACK."

Yep, that was Karkat alright. He probably didn't care too much; he had the TV all to himself, and he was probably raiding the snacks at that precise moment.

"Yeah, he says it's okay." confirmed Sollux, popping his crappy cell phone back into his pocket. "So, what do you want to do?"

Eridan placed his mug down onto the coaster. "Well, don't mean to brag, but there's plenty to do. We recently got a Jacuzzi installed, and..."

"Holy shit, is there anything you don't have?" Sollux exclaimed excitedly. "Damn. I could really use a relaxing hot tub."

"Jacuzzi it is, then!" Eridan got up. "You can borrow a pair of my swim trunks if you want."

"Yeah, that would probably be an idea." chuckled Sollux awkwardly, "You probably wouldn't want to see me butt-naked, anyway."

Eridan shifted uneasily. "Heh..." he smirked, twiddling with his thumbs. "W-well, not if you don't w-want to."

"Dude, I'm not going to strip off or anything." assured Sollux, flashing the other teen with his trademark crooked grin. God, Eridan was adorable when he got all flustered, but Sollux didn't want to upset him. "Lead the way, ED!"