Wow, thank you everyone who reviewed this story and followed it and favorited it and whatever else! To the anon that asked if this is Erisol or Solkat, this is Erisol, sorry I couldn't make that clear or reply to your message because is dumb and won't let me reply to anons D: But thank you all, and enjoy this chapter! It's the longest yet, so I might make the 20th chapter an extra long one, just for symmetry's sake. If I get to a chapter 20. Thank you all! C:

10. Makin' My Wway Dowwntowwn, Wwalkin' Fatht

Your name is Eridan Ampora and you are so done with everyone and everything. Before Sollux's father came home, Cronus had dropped by a while ago to inform you and Sollux that you were going out to explore the town, which was great, just what you wanted. To float around town for hours with a couple of assholes and try to talk to them without people who are walking by noticing, with the added bonus of possibly seeing old rivals? Sounds great.

On the other hand, it is a prime opportunity to hang out with a prime piece of ass you've been secretly checking out for the past 15 minutes. Okay, maybe it's not so secret, you have nothing else to do and Sollux is a nice bit of eye candy. He's typing away on his laptop, but from the place you're sitting, against the wall on his left, near the door to the bathroom, you can see his profile. The way his eyebrows raise in surprise and lower into a frown, the way his glasses slowly slide down on his angled nose so his (nice long) fingers have to push them back up, the way his lips curl downwards into a frown. Especially the way his lips curl downwards into a frown.

It's only been 15 minutes and you're still bored. Time is crawling by, and you sigh loudly, slumping against the wall and hoping he gets the hint. He ignores you. What a dick. You're obviously suffering here, and he just leaves you to fend for yourself?

You hoist yourself up and sit next to his laptop on his desk, whining and slumping forward. He glares at you for a brief second, then turns back to his laptop. You groan and drape yourself across his laptop, probably pressing a few keys on it but not really giving a fuck.

"For fuck'th thake ED, I'm trying to work. Get off my fucking computer or I will thmack you," he growls, trying to shove at you, and wow what do you know, he can actually touch you when you're in solid form. You smirk at that but file that thought away for another time.

"I'm boooored, Sol. An' since I wwas technically livvin' here first, so you havve to entertain me," you answer snobbily, crossing your arms.

"Newthflash: I don't give a fuck. Now get off," he growls, still trying to push you off.

All you do is turn your face towards him, smirk, and wiggle your eyebrows, and he really does smack you on the stomach this time, scowling at you.

"Look, I'm buthy and you're in my way, so get the fuck off or I will make you," he hisses at you, now trying to pull you off, but still to no success.

"Sol, I knoww I'm hot an' you wwant me, but you're comin' on a lil' strong," you smirk at him, crossing your arms and lying on your back on top of his laptop and wow he's picking you up now, bridal style. You fake swoon, calling out his name in a falsetto, and get promptly dumped on the floor before he goes back to his laptop.

Well fine then, you guess it's going to be the hard way.

You tug at the column of his super fancy spinny chair, trying to tug him away from the computer, but he digs his feet into the floor. No success.

Next you drape your arms around his neck from behind, smirking as a blush creeps up his neck while you whisper his name in his ear and owowow he just punched you in the face, sending you backwards and onto your ass. Ugh.

Luckily for you, all this time you had spent bugging him and trying to get him to notice you had been enough time for Simon Captor to get home. As the door downstairs opened and closed, you bolted out of Sollux's bedroom and downstairs. It took Sollux longer because of his puny mortal legs, but eventually everyone meets up in the dining hall.

It shocked Simon enough that everybody knew each other that he had to sit down, putting his bag down as he stared suspiciously at you and Cronus. But Sollux and Mituna quickly explained the situation, albeit slowly because Sollux was distracted, mostly by you repeatedly kicking his legs under the table as he was across from you.

Simon actually took the information about the ghosts and the rumors pretty well, you thought, because if he had thrown a hissy fit about it, although he doesn't seem the type to do that. However, when Mituna asks him if they can explore the town a bit, he says no.

"But why noooot?" Mituna's whining, sagging against his father.

"It's too late to do that; you still need to eat dinner, and I'm sure you two both have homework that you didn't do because you were busy messing around with the Amporas," he says, rolling his eyes.

You can't help but think, well no not messing around with them yet, but you don't say it aloud because either Simon or your father (or probably both) would punch your face in, and you like your face exactly the way it is, thank you.

With your internal monologue you nearly miss Mituna whining a bit more at his father, and then Simon finally relents, "How about this weekend you can go explore town, okay? I'll give you some money and you can get lunch or snacks or video games or something."

"But Daaaad, it'th only Mondayyyy!" Mituna keeps whining, rolling his heterochromatic eyes at his father.

"You can wait. Now go do your homework while I make dinner," Simon says, then gets up and goes to the kitchen. Mituna groans loudly and dramatically leaves the room, Sollux sighing and going after him.

Looks like it's going to be a long week of being bored to death at home with your father and brother.

{}

Your name is still Eridan Ampora- no POV switches for you. It is finally Saturday, but it's not like you're excited to go out with your brother and the twins. Nope. Okay, maybe just a little.

Nonetheless, you're a bit angry at Sollux anyway. With all the time he's been spending with Aradia, "working on their project" (but really most of the time they were just talking and laughing together), he's had almost no time for you. Whenever he wasn't with Aradia he was on his laptop, typing away on Pesterchum to one of his fifty million friends. You get lonely, dammit! You want attention and he doesn't pay attention to you. Fuckin' ridiculous.

Nonetheless, now that it's Saturday, you're being dragged into town. Not to do anything really special, just to walk around and explore. It sounds boring, as you and Cronus have been around the city many times, but you're going anyway.

Of course, being disturbed at 7 o'clock in the morning was not so fun. You were sitting against the wall as usual, totally not creepily watching him as he sleeps, admiring the curve of his chest rising up and down as he breathes slowly, watching his face muscles twitch either in a frown, or in a rare smile. Anyway, you were sitting there when Mituna bursts in, yelling about going out to town and shaking his twin.

Sollux groans and waves his hand in the general direction of Mituna's voice, trying to smack him but failing miserably as Mituna dodges him.

"Come on Thollux, get uuuup," Mituna groans, pulling Sollux's arm and trying to get him out of his bed.

"I thwear to god Tuna, it'th… it'th fucking theven o'clock in the morning. I'm going to kill you," Sollux growls, then throws off his covers to shove his brother off the bed, then pinning him down on the floor. Mituna fakes struggling, laughing as Sollux growls and sits on his stomach, effectively crushing him. Mituna groans and collapses, putting a hand up to his forehead and moaning, "Oh no, here cometh my death at the handth of my own brother, my grim demithe!"

You groan and finally get up, bodily tearing Sol of off Mituna- you know you're much stronger than your thin build suggests, but the way Sol flails is totally worth it.

"C'mon you twwo, knock it the fuck off. Sol, get dressed, wwe're goin' out. Mituna, go bug Cro or someone," you say, and shoo Mituna out before leaving the room yourself so Sol can get dressed in peace.

You arrive downstairs to see Cronus sitting in the dining hall, his feet up on the table. You growl and smack his feet off the table, then sit down across from him. "Havve some fuckin' manners, Cro."

"It's better to relax an' chill out than to havwe some 'fuckin' manners'," Cronus replies, rolling his eyes and putting his feet back up on the table. You two gripe and grumble for a bit before Sollux and Mituna arrive downstairs, one of them grinning and the other grumbling, but eventually you four make it out the door with lots of good-byes to your respective dads and money given and to be home by dinner and lots of rule reminders and etc.

You and Cro do have to blend in, so you both disappear, but reassure Sollux and Mituna that they can still talk to you.

It's a bit of a walk to town, but not much considering the Ampora Mansion is a ways away from town, but close enough to be accessible. When you all finally arrive in town, Mituna sets off in a random direction down the main street, where you know lots of shops and restaurants reside. Though it's been a while since you were out here last, so there are a few new shops.

Mituna starts tugging Sollux towards a candy shop, but Sollux reminds him that they haven't even had breakfast yet. Right on cue, Mituna's stomach growls, and Cronus starts laughing, the asshole. You smack him for being loud, even though there aren't any people nearby.

Sollux brings Mituna to a small café, with outside space for dining and inside space as well. You and Cronus follow them in as the twins go up, getting a table for two. You groan as you realize that you'll probably end up sitting on either the floor or the table (or possibly Sollux's lap, heh), but the waitress leads them to a booth and you sigh, sitting next to Sollux as he sits opposite Mituna, Cronus sitting next to him.

You groan and whine as they take fuckin' forever to order, finally Mituna gets some waffles and Sollux gets some pancakes. Then you wrinkle your nose in disgust as he drowns them in honey, basically upending the bottle. You don't fail to tell him so, "The amount a' honey you put on those pancakes is fuckin' disgustin'."

"And it'th none of your buthineth," he mumbles back before shoving a honey-drenched pancake into his mouth. You shudder in disgust.

One very disgusting and boring breakfast later, Sollux pays and then drags Mituna out of the restaurant. You and Cronus follow as you all stroll slowly through the town, eyeing the different shops and occasionally going in some. When you end up in the hair care section of the reasonably-sized grocery store, it takes threats of leaving you there and then Cronus actually dragging you away to lead you away from the section.

It's a beautiful day outside, which is a rarity in Oregon, so it's nice. The sun is shining down, so when you four stop at another little restaurant for lunch, you decide to sit outside. They end up getting a table for two, so after Sollux attempts to smack you (it goes straight through your mid-section) because you asked if you could sit on his lap, you take that as a no and sit on the ground, Cronus next to you. You would sit on the fence that encases the outside seating area, which is right next to Sollux and Mituna's table, but you'd probably just float through. Maybe you could float through the ground if you tried hard enough.

Or maybe if you sat on Sollux's lap you'd float through that.

Heh.

Nonetheless, you watch from the ground as the twins eat their sandwiches, and you mumble to Cronus how fuckin' unfair it is that you have to sit on the ground while their living asses get to be on the fancy chairs. He replies that yes, they are very fancy, but not as fancy as Mituna. You roll your eyes and smack him; that was pretty bad. Really bad.

When they're finished with lunch, they wander around the small town, not just the main street. There are a lots of houses, plus one hotel you doubt ever gets used. It's a cute little town, you'll admit, and the twins soon admit. There are children playing outside, most of whom you avoid because children.

Then you pass the Town Hall.

Ugh.

The mayor of the town was Mayor English last you checked, and it seems to still be. Mayor English basically ruled over the town, and everybody loved him, but he never spoke to anyone directly, except for his most trusted servants, Connie Peixes and Jack Noir. He gives public speeches sometimes, but other than that, doesn't talk to anybody outside the Town Hall.

You whisper to Sollux and ask if Mayor English is still the mayor, and he mumbles back that he doesn't fucking know, he just moved here. You whine and moan at him until he groans and goes over the Town Hall, reading some of the posters up and yep, Mayor English is definitely still the Mayor. Ugh.

You never liked him much. He was an asshole, to simply put it. From what you heard from him, anyway. But that was years ago and you'd think that you'd be over it, but nah.

Nonetheless, you all continue on to wander around some of the super fancy houses around that neighborhood, admiring the old style of house, but none of them come near to the size of your- dammit, not again- the Captors' mansion. It's by far the biggest house in the town.

As you pass a bright pink-colored house- you could say it's a fuchsia-, you turn to look at it a bit more closely.

You remember… the first people that tried to move in, they were two sisters who didn't get along very well. One of them was obsessed with power and money while the other was always nice and kind, smiling and giving to those a bit less fortunate in the town. You definitely liked the more bubbly one, and you were happy for her to stay. But… your father didn't like them, and you three ended up chasing them both out, but not before you had developed a bond with the excited girl.

Her name was Feferi Peixes, and she was your first young love.

She went to school with you, and she was your best friend. When she found your ghost, she was understandably devastated, but you got to bond with her once more even in death. Her favorite color, as well as her older sister Connie's favorite color, was always fuchsia, and you have the feeling you know who owns this house.

But you were only meant to be friends with Feferi, and the bond you had grown with her in death was broken when you, your brother and your father pushed the two sisters out, quite literally. While Cronus and Orpheus made their lives a living hell, hiding things and breaking things and bugging them when they were busy, you stood by and did nothing. You still beat yourself up about it.

Nonetheless, you're over that like the mature adult you were supposed to be (if you hadn't died) and continue on in death to meet other people. At this point you've realized that yes, your relationship with Feferi was never meant to go beyond best friends and you've accepted it.

While you've been lost in your thoughts, you haven't been paying attention to where you're going and end up in Sollux- no, not like that, get your mind out of the gutter. He hasn't seem to have noticed, but you step to the side anyway. That was weird.

It's nearing dinner time, so you sigh as you have to go back to the mansion, and the four of you start heading back. There's a comfortable silence in the air as you walk along the side of the road that leads to the mansion, the sun slowly going down, not quite so high in the sky anymore.

In the meantime you're definitely not checking out Sollux's ass, walking behind him, but Cronus nudges you from his place beside you and winks, and later when questioned you deny looking in any general direction of any parts of Sollux's body. You didn't. It never happened.

When you four get back, you head back up to Sollux's room to avoid the whole being-questioned-by-parents-for-10-years thing. Even your own father sometimes did that to you after school, though most of the time he was busy with work and stuff. You survived, though, so hopefully Sollux and Mituna will.

After setting yourself on the bed and lying back, you're startled when you hear your father's voice, "Hello, son."

You sit up, waving at him, "Hi father."

He sits down next to you, raising an eyebrow, "Cronus tells me you have a thing for the twin that lives in this room."

You flush horribly and spend the next 30 seconds making an array of shocked and disgusted sounds before finally spluttering, "I wwould never!"

He raises his other eyebrow.

You keep spluttering.

He decides to put you out of your misery and interrupt you by saying, "It wouldn't work, you know. We're ghosts. Remember what happened last time-"

"Yes, I fuckin' get it, wwe're ghosts an' can't interact wwith the livvin' cause a some stupid bullshit that happened 25 years ago, I get it!" you snap at him, crossing your arms sulkily.

He just sighs, used to you and your dramatic bullshit, and gets up to leave. As he's at the door, he turns and says, "Look, son… I just don't want you to become too attached again. Okay?"

When you don't reply, he sighs and leaves.

You groan and collapse on the bed.

You don't have any feelings for Sollux.

You don't.

But that night, when you're watching Sollux converse with Aradia and her dark red text over some Trollian thing, and you realize he's smiling while talking to her but doesn't seem to notice, you try to ignore the feeling of jealousy in your heart.