Chapter 9:

"But Its Better If You Do"

Sollux noticed he was acting a little weirder than usual. "ED, are you alright?"

Eridan just walked towards him and sat on the couch, deciding it wasn't too weird if they watched TV together. "Yeah, I'm f-fine," he assured, even though he stutter kind of gave him away, so he decided to give him a huge smile. It came out a lot freakier than he expected, judging from the way Sollux scrunched his nose. "W-what are w-we w-watching?"

"Nothing, I'm just looking around this bunch of bullshit channels," he answered and looked at his Eridan. He looked very nervous. The grin on his face that wasn't exactly phony, but it felt like it was more from sadness than from happiness.

It had been more than two months since the accident, since confessing to Eridan, since just about everything. They had spent most of their time just relaxing, Sollux's hand was still recovering, so they had mainly just been to a few interviews and photo-shoots. They had both started talking a bit more every day, it seemed like things were getting back to normal. Well, that was most of the times. Eridan sometimes got very weird, even when Aradia wasn't around to make him jealous.

Sometimes Sollux wanted to just put an end to all of this, he had been just about to on many occasions. The reason he hadn't done it was because he wanted to know for sure Eridan felt something for him, something deep. It was usual for Sollux to think about things too much, but it really worried him that Eridan was just crushing on him. A crush do to the pressure he felt from Sollux's confession and the latter wouldn't stand another rejection.

"Just put whatever is on MTV," Eridan requested. He hated when people flipped through channels, especially if it was Sollux cause that meant they had to strike a conversation.

Sollux did so and they watched Catfish for some time silently. Things were starting to get tense, Sollux hated getting tense. Lately he had cut the tension by doing something that would make Eridan uncomfortable. Believe it or not every time Sollux tried something to kind of turn on Eridan, he would start losing it up a little. Soon Eridan would feel totally comfortable and reveal his feelings. "ED, want to go to the movies?" Sollux suddenly asked and gave him a cheesy smile.

Eridan raised an eyebrow. "Movies?"

"Yeah, I'm dying to see the new Hobbit movie," Sollux answered.

"Hobbit? You?" Eridan asked, all his nervousness gone and replaced with disbelief. "I had to beg you to watch the last one with me. Literally! I got on my knees with a jar of honey candy so you would go with me."

Sollux laughed. "Yeah, I remember. KK wouldn't go with you since he only watches his horrible romcoms, so you begged me."

"I also had to pay for everything, including the whole fucking snack bar," Eridan continued. "You barely left anything for all the other costumers."

"Well it was a long movie, didn't want to get hungry in the middle of it," Sollux commented. "Anyways, I really enjoyed it and AA is not around."

"Oh, I get it, since your girlfriend isn't around, all that is left is poor old me," Eridan said resentfully.

This was exactly the reaction Sollux had been waiting for. He moved his face closer to Eridan's so they were just mere inches apart. Staring into Eridan's blue eyes through his shades wasn't going to get the message through, so he removed them. "Come on, I'll do whatever you want if you come with me," he uttered, very sensually.

Eridan's whole face went red and he looked away from the Gemini's gaze. What the fuck had Sollux just said and why the fuck had he said it like that. What was he supposed to do with such a proposition? It sounded so weird and his heart was beating so fast. It had had to have been his imagination. There was no way Sollux was thinking what he was thinking.

He dared to look at Sollux again, he was still looking at him with his mismatched eyes and a smile. That smile was so enticing, there was no way Sollux wasn't thinking what he was thinking. He had done it on purpose, that damn Sollux Captor was playing with him.

"ED?" But there was no confusion on his voice, no wondering what was going through Eridan's mind. He had said it so inviting, his voice sounded so hot.

"Sol," Eridan tried to say, but it came out as a whisper. He was looking into Sollux's eyes and all he wanted to do was kiss him.

Sollux knew this, Eridan's body language was pretty obvious. He decided to inch his face closer, their lips barely apart. They met and in that position he said, "Come on, I'll drive."

Eridan could have had a heart attack right there. Feelings Sollux's hot lips touching his, moving with every word he said. Their eyes hadn't left each other. This was not okay, but he couldn't stop it. "Ok," he replied, moving his lips against Sollux's as well.

With that said Sollux quickly removed himself from Eridan and stood. "Great, I'll go get my keys," he announced and disappeared into his bedroom. Inside, he threw himself to his bed and screamed into his pillow.

What the fuck had he just done?

…

Eridan ended up driving to the movies since Sollux had forgotten his arm was in no shape to drive. Sollux kept thinking about what he had done not too long ago. He tried texting Aradia since then, but she hadn't answered yet. Tonight, Sollux had to make another move on Eridan. He had to make sure he knew that Sollux's still had feelings for him, that he wanted them to be together.

Maybe it was better if he just told him everything about her, but it was so hard. It was even harder now that Aradia had left and was not returning his calls. "Hey ED," he called.

"We're almost there Sollux," Eridan said nonchalantly.

Sollux looked outside the window. He was right, he could already see the movie theater from there.

…

They were both very upset when they found out The Hobbit was all sold out.

"Well that fan-fucking-tastic," Sollux commented as he sat on a bench just outside the movie theater. Eridan joined him. "And I don't wanna watch some dumb comedy; I have enough with KK's bullshit movies."

"I'm actually not surprised," Eridan said. "The movie just premiered yesterday, it was bound to be like this."

"You could have mentioned that before we left."

"Well I wasn't thinking straight when we left," Eridan defended himself, but quickly regretted it. He shouldn't have mentioned anything about that.

"I'm sorry about that," Sollux phrased, catching Eridan by surprise.

"What are you sorry about?"

"For teasing you like that ED, I've been doing it a lot and I really shouldn't be messing with you like that."

"Of course you shouldn't," Eridan said with a very recriminating tone, causing Sollux to be surprised this time. "You have a girlfriend, what would she think if she knew about this? I mean, I know I deserve this for what I did to you Sol, but you shouldn't hurt her."

Sollux turned his head quickly to look at his friend, he was looking at his hands playing with his blue scarf. There was guilt all over Eridan's face, which made Sollux feel awful. But then again, Eridan had hurt him a lot. Sollux wanted him to hurt just as much as he had or at least that was what he had thought until now. He hated that look on Eridan's face. Lately, he was always looking down; he used to be so cocky, always with a smirk on his face. Sollux had sucked all of that from his life after the accident.

"I know you said you put everything that happened between us behind," Eridan suddenly said, interrupting Sollux's thoughts. "But I just can't forget about everything I did to you and obviously, you can't either. I know feelings just don't go away, but after what happened, I don't deserve those feelings at all."

"ED…" Sollux tried to talk, but Eridan just continued.

"I've actually been thinking about this for a while and now I know this is for the best. You can't be happy with me around, I'm a constant reminder of everything bad that happened to you. I want you to be with Ara and not think about me. So I decided to leave the band and move back home."

Sollux felt all the oxygen exit his body. Eridan had said all of that with such crude honesty it hurt, it hurt even more than when he broke his heart. "You can't leave." Was all that Sollux managed to say.

"Yes I can, you guys don't need me," Eridan answered, he looked at the empty parking lot. "You are an amazing singer, you can easily replace me. And there are millions of guitarist and pianist and anything you guys need around."

Sollux was speechless. He wanted to tell him all the reason why he didn't have to leave, but Eridan had completely shocked him with those words. He was used to him being so arrogant and selfish, that just being so beautifully considerate and honest was too much for him.

"If I'm gone, you can easily forget about me and be with her, happy…"

"I don't want to forget you," Sollux managed to say.

"It's for the best Sol, so you and Ara can be happy and…"

"I don't want to be happy with her, Eridan, I want to be with you," Sollux interrupted, raising his voice considerably.

He always felt a horrible pain in his chest when Sollux said his name. "Sol, I can guarantee you that…"

"No you don't get it," Sollux once again interrupted, his voice louder that Eridan was used to. He stood up and looked down to him, he has left his shades at home, so their eyes met once again. "Everything with AA was a ruse."

"What?" Eridan questioned confused.

Sollux turned around and looked at the parking lot. Eridan was going to hate him after this. "We pretended to be dating."

"Why would you do that?" Eridan asked, as he also stood up.

"She suspected that you might have feeling for me, but didn't know, so she came up with this plan in which I would date someone right in front of you to make you jealous," Sollux confessed.

Eridan was silent for a while. "Weren't you dating Vris back then?"

"I was, but the plan required for me and my 'girlfriend' to act like a real couple. I can't stand Vriska at all, never have been able to. I just dated her to hide my feelings to you since I thought they were becoming too obvious. I felt bad for her at first, but she was such a bitch it became rather easy."

Eridan once again was silent.

"AA had been really nice to me, she had made me come back and talk to you. I trusted her, so I told her she should be my fake girlfriend."

"Fake girlfriend Sollux?" Eridan questioned. "I saw you two cuddling, making out. I know you two slept together after Dave's party!"

After that was said, Sollux immediately turned around to look at him. His face was red and his eyes were holding back tears. "You know that?"

"I went home shortly after you guys left together and when I arrived to our apartment, surprise, surprise, I could hear you guys from the living room."

Sollux felt like he was about to vomit. Eridan had heard them having sex. "I had no fucking idea…"

"Well yeah, so don't come and bullshit me with this fake girlfriend horseshit. There was no way you guys knew I was going to hear you fucking to 'make me jealous'." Eridan's words were cold.

"We were drunk," Sollux explained. "We barely remembered what happened the morning after, promised to never talk about it. She left after that, haven't talked to her since."

Eridan sat down again and buried his face in his scarf. It hurt so much. He couldn't breathe. "I don't even know why I'm complaining about all this, I deserve it. After everthing thing I did, all those years of hurting you. This is nothing."

"No," Sollux muttered and sat next to him. "You don't deserve this, you didn't know what was happening. You weren't doing it consciously. I, on the other hand, knew exactly what I was doing to you. I should have stopped the minute you reacted to it. I just didn't want to believe it was true, I didn't want to get high hopes again."

"Well it is true Sol," Eridan said. "I like you. A lot. More than I think I was even aware of."

Sollux smiled. His heart was beating faster. "You are probably going to get scared by this, but I love you Eridan."

…

Let me start by apologizing for taking so long to update. After I finished with my finals I was so tired and until today I didn't feel like writing at all. I tried to force this chapter out a couple of times but it wasn't coming out right, so I decided to put if off until I felt like writing.

I really hope you enjoy it! I'm going to keep on writing the next chapter, which I already started. It was going to be part of this chapter but it's just so much that I want to write right now and I didn't want to leave you waiting any longer.