A/N: SO I'M NOT SURE WHY BUT KARAT MARKS AREN'T. WORKING. so when you see blank lines, i was probably doing a heart or a diamonds symbol. orz
=== Be Aradia Megido
I pin my hair back, giving myself a quick smile in the mirror before tossing my bookbag across my shoulder and heading to school; it's barely a five-minute walk, so it's not bad.
Just as I've stepped onto the campus, Sollux pulls up with Feferi, a sight that makes my heart alternately bubble with happiness and hate. Purposefully ignoring Fef, I walk around to Sollux, giving him a quick hug and kiss on the nose. He holds me a little tighter, though, and for half a second longer, which is odd. "Hey," I say quietly. "Everything okay?"
He shrugs. "As okay as anything."
"What's wrong?"
"FF came over." He sighs ever so slightly, the softest breeze on my cheekbones. "I broke down; it was bad."
He's not even trying with the lisp. "Did she do something?"
"Nah," he replies with a quick shake of his head. "Just had a bad night. You might want to make sure you go kiss her at some point, though. She's having some problems with believing you're still in hate with her and all that shit."
My lip curls up slightly. "Of course she is. I'll fill her in to how absolutely wrong she is later."
"That's the Aradia I know and love," he responds with a chuckle. "I'll see you at six."
"All right," I nod. "You're lisping. Pay attention to it."
A sigh, then he nods right back. "I will. See you later." He gets back into his car and drives off to his school, and I'm left alone with just my thoughts.
Half of me wants to believe that Feferi did something to him, though the other half realizes that I just want more reasons to hate the girl. But the fact still remains that she had something to do with my matesprit being… off. If his moirail would've been anyone else, I probably wouldn't mind a bit. But Feferi and I have established that, being kismesises, I'm allowed to get somewhat jealous of her, and she tends to flushflirt with him just to get on my nerves.
I'll take her bait.
It takes me a few minutes, but I do track Feferi down, finding her in front of her locker. Annoyed, I step just a few inches closer than her 'comfortable.' "What did you do to Sollux?"
"Absolutely nothing." The words are honey, but barbed slightly, bribing, taunting, pleading with me to go deeper. Her smile is beckoning, wanting me to give up some ground. I'm by far the more dominant in our relationship, and, being the battle for power it is, she always wants more authority in our kismesissitude.
Snarling ever so slightly, I roll my eyes at her. "Like I believe that. Did you flirt with him?"
"Whale, we are touchy today, aren't we?" She only sticks the audible fish pun in there to get on my nerves, cheekily cocking an eyebrow. "Sollux has his swim trunks in a knot, and immediately you think I'm pulling him toward red infidelity."
Again, the barely discernible snarl on my lips. "You've done it before."
"Only in good fun." Her lip quirks up. "Don't worry, things didn't even go very far."
That's enough to spark the interesting reaction I know she wants. "How far exactly did they go, sea slut?"
"Well, I didn't even try to keep my hands off his horns… and there was a fair amount of cuddling… pretty typical." That taunting, pleading ghost of a smile is on her lips, wanting nothing more than to force me into a response. And I want the same thing she does.
"Did you kiss him?" My voice is low, threatening. We both know she didn't, that she keeps her relationship completely pale and would never even honestly consider crossing that line. More importantly, Sollux knows his boundaries, and is loyal to both of our relationships. This isn't a question, it's a lead-in, wanting her to answer me one thing.
"I don't know." She takes a step toward me, grinning. "You tell me."
And then she's pushing me against the locker, and her hand's laced through my hair, yanking my head up to meet her lips, prompting my hands up against her scalp bringing her right in too. She's kissing me, and it's all teeth and clashing tongues, a battle for dominance that she's won before we even start, forcing me into the uncomfortable submissive role. Her breath is hot against my face, but it smells and tasted overwhelmingly like salt and the sea, the wilderness she longs for mixed with the staleness of where she is. I gasp into her as she lets her nails rake gently across the base of my horns, sending prickles down my spine and making me lean into her, begging for more and feeling her against me doing the same- and then she pulls back, eyes alight with hatred but that spark, longing for my approval and reciprocal hate, evident.
I remember that I wouldn't actually know what Sollux tastes like, and it almost makes me wince.
Someone yells, "Get a room!" and I let an inch of smile pass my lips. Her eyes plead with me, and the breath of a whispered "Please?" brushes my cheek.
I smile meanly. And my dominance is back. "Not enough time," I reply, leaning up to press my own harsh kiss to her lips. "Come over after school."
She nods bouncily, walking off to her first class.
I make my way to my own first class, feeling decently happy. With the distinct lack of physical affection in my flushed quadrant, I've had to survive with just my calignous, which really isn't good. I have to cling to her in order to get it, and I've taken out my confusion with Sollux on her in all kinds of unhealthy ways. I know she hasn't complained, but that doesn't make it okay.
I want Sollux to get better so I'm not doing this to Feferi. I'm her first kismesis, and I know from my last one that this is a bad way for a kismesissitude to work, bordering on abusive.
First class. I walk in, realizing this is one of the ones I have with a human teacher. All the troll students get pushed to the back, while the humans sit in the front. Honestly, I don't care, but the split grading is annoying. Subjective classes are always so hard to pass.
I walk to the back of the room dutifully, sitting fairly close to the front of the troll section. As I pull my tablet out of my bookbag, quickly flipping to the book I'm using for this class, I look up to see Tavros sitting next to me. "Hey, Tav," I grin. "How are you?"
"Pretty good," he replies, giving me a shy smile. "B-but, um, I had to d-drop my, uh, sp-peech therapy," he stammers out, a slight brown blush rushing to his cheeks. "… again…"
I sigh. As much as speech therapy is helping him, he hasn't been able to show it except in scenarios where he's completely comfortable, such as around only me and Gamzee. That means his school-appointed speech therapist really hasn't seen any improvement, and those kids tend to get dropped for "lack of trying." I know Tavros, and he's trying harder than anyone. "It's okay," I reassure him with a quiet nod. "Gamzee and I can come over to your house later and we'll record you again."
"Really?" His eyes light up happily. "Th-thanks, Aradia." It's a toss-up as to whether his stutter gets better or worse when he gets happy or excited. Usually the individual words are better, but the overall thought is jumbled. "I really- really do try at m-my therapy, I just- I can't, uh, can't get it… out sometimes." He seems quite pleased with this sentence, and it's actually not half-bad. The words were pretty clear, it was just the sentence as a whole that needed help.
"Of course," I smile. "I want you to be able to speak confidently, and therapy is helping. Just remember to slow down and think about what you're saying."
He nods. "I tr-try."
Then, as if on cue, I hear the olivebloods in the back, imitating Tavros. It's vile, and I can see my moirail hunch his small shoulders and look down to his desk as they talk. Not only does he stutter, he's in a wheelchair, so he gets this all the time. It's really not helping his confidence issues.
"I'm a d-dorky little bitch," they mock, "and I c-can't protect myself, and I'll live my l-life alone."
That's it.
Angrily, I stand up and stalk back to the olivebloods. "Exactly who the hell do you think you are?"
They eye me critically, then the boy who had been talking replies, "Someone higher on the hemospectrum than you."
"Oh, look at me giving a shit," I hiss. "That is my moirail, who, for your information, also has an amazing matesprit."
He scoffs. "Like you're going to do anything about it."
Twisting a hand in his t-shirt collar, I bring him up to just below eye level, betraying the strength I hide pretty well in my small frame. "Please note," I snarl, "that the last person who made fun of Tavros to my face ended up going home with a black eye and a dislocated shoulder."
His eyes register a spark of fear, though he tries not to show it. "Protective much?" he asks dryly.
"You're making fun of someone so they can't protect themselves." I raise an eyebrow. "When I happen to love that person very much, you better believe I get protective."
Nepeta, the little oliveblood that, up until this point, has been busily completing schoolwork, looks up. "Kamden," she sighs, "just give up. It was wrong fur you to make fun of him like that, and you know it."
He twists his lip into a snarl, but nods. "Fine. I'll stop teasing the doormat."
I drop him harshly into his seat. "Thanks, Nep," I call happily as I walk back to my seat.
"No purroblem!" She giggles.
Just as the teacher comes in, I sit back in my seat, catching an appreciative glance from Tavros. "Thanks," he says quietly.
"This is why I'm your moirail," I smile back. "Any time."
