Before the land of wrath and angels, endless tasks had managed to hold Eridan's depression at bay. He always had something to do, some puzzle to solve, or a threat to demolish. What he faced in that moment, though, wasn't like installing a new device. Failure wouldn't simply result in a smashed wall or a misplaced bathtub. Failure on this mission could cost his client player her life. "Nep, you'vve gotta leavve your hivve," He barked into his headset, deflecting falling rubble with his computer mouse. "Its crumblin'!"

"Ampurra I can't just scampurr away and abandon my drawings," The leo cried, darting about the rapidly collapsing cave and chasing after sheets of paper. "There's no telling when I'll be able to ship again!"

"There are imps wwith fuckin' pick axes hackin' at your roof!" He snapped, zooming out to see even more of her surroundings. The imps were re-spawning faster than he could throw things at them, and with Nepeta in danger, he couldn't fend them all off. "Get the drawwin's and MOVVE!"

Stuffing the last few sheets in her mouth, the olive blood leaped out of the cave on all fours, running faster than she ever could on two. Just as the entrance to her home shuddered and collapsed, she skidded to a stop, barely a meter away. She blinked, and Eridan nearly relaxed, but then he noticed a dark shadow looming over the tiny girl. He snatched up his mouse. "Nepeta, RUN!"

Alarmed again by his shouting, she bolted quickly to the right just as a giant ogre of an imp smashed a club to the ground where she had been poised seconds before. Eridan picked up anything he could, rubble, furniture, other imps, whatever could cause damage. It wasn't making a dent in the creatures health, not by a long shot, but the projectile objects were enough to distract him while Nepeta pounced from behind, attacking with her claws. Though he tried to keep his eyes on the imp, his focus kept flickering to the tiny ball of fury flitting across his screen. Nepeta was a cute one, sweet and affectionate, everyone could see that, but he had a feeling that not many trolls got to see her in hunting mode and live to tell the tail. It was quite a display, easily capturing the war loving highblood's attention. In the heat of battle, Nepeta's cute face gave way to passionate, radiating beauty. His sickle heart skipped a beat, and he was disappointed when the defeated, despite the abundance of grist and shale they earned.

She cheerfully collected the rewards, purring contently as she frolicked around in the rubble. He had to laugh as the way she showed no sign of exertion or strain. "Hey uh, Nep," He said as she finished her plunder. "Did ya fetch all your drawwin's?"

She pulled up her modis, showing all of the paper safely stored. "My ships are all afloat!" She confirmed.

"Shippin', huh?" He missed, absently messing with his headset. "Maybe could I help out wwith some of that?"

"Oh, you like shipping too?" She asked, delighted. "How purrfect fur a seadweller!"

"I had… one ship in mind."

"Whats that?"

"Maybe… you an' me?" He offered, suddenly bashful. "As somethin'… I dunno, reddish?"

He could tell she tried not to, but she scrunched up her face a little, tail flicking absently behind her. "Purrhaps shipping is… not a fishy thing after all," She mumbled. "Maybe you should stick to swimming instead?"

Rejected. The sour part of the memory changed then, and instead of communicating through the game, he was now standing before her, face to face. He found himself repeating his proposal, as if someone had pressed rewind. "Maybe… you an' me?" He offered again. "As somethin'… I dunno, reddish?"

Instead of scrunching up her face, she outright sneered, sticking her tongue out in disgust. "Ampurra, ew," She groaned. "You're so creepy, why would I EFUR fill a quadrant with you?"

He blushed darkly, frowning at the blatant insult. "Wwell a simple no thanks wwould havve sufficed," He said, tone sad and hurt. "I don't see wwhy ya had ta be so mean."

"You don't know mean," She growled, crouching down and extending her claws. "You're mean, how do you lay down your head at night knowing just how mean you are?"

He backed up a little, the evil glint in her eyes completely foreign on her face. "N-Nep, calm down."

"Calm?" She shrieked, image warping into something dark and unnatural. Only her voice remained untouched. "I'll be calm when your blood covers my walls!"

With a wicked snarl she pounced, electing a scream of terror from the seadweller that rang clear through not only the dream, but reality as well. When he opened his eyes again, he was back in his hive, drenched in sweat and all alone. "Oh god," He panted, chest rising and falling with each ragged breath. "Dream, bad dream, oh god…"

He was trembling, almost sure he was going to be sick. What an awful version of an already painful memory. He fumbled blindly in the dark, searching for the warmth of his companion, but he was nowhere to be found. Tears poured down his face and he ran from his hive, too terrified to be alone.

The troll he was seeking had finally decided to move, in search of a positive outlet for his negative energy. He got caught up on his coding, cared for his bees and even harvested some mind honey, but through every mindless task he found himself thinking of only Eridan. Sollux wanted to know how his performance went, he longed to hear him play, but most of all he was agonizing over what it would be like if the highblood returned to the sea for good. The thought made his damaged eyes sting, and he swore that even if his prince healed and left him, he would do anything in his power to keep the goofy ass fish happy and healthy. Before he could lose his cool one of his bees came along and buzzed in his ear, no doubt seeking attention from its ever absent master. "Now what do you want?" He snapped, throat tight. When the bug landed on his shoulder, the Gemini slapped it away. It was sticky with honey, useless mind honey.

The bee hovered nearer and Sollux sighed, taking it into his hand and stroking its delicate body with one finger. "You're right little guy," He mumbled. "Not totally uth'eleth'"

Be buzzing contently in his palm, Sollux strode over to the kitchen with a couple of jars of mind honey and a psionic recipe book. The instructions to make a miracle protein serum were pretty complicated, and practically impossible to memorize. Eating mind honey could have a growth effect if enough of it was consumed, but the extreme, maddening side effects just weren't worth it. It was those side effects that forced him to keep Biclops chained up, and allowed Vriska to control him before the game.

He felt an ache at the memory, and though he hadn't been in control at the time, he shouldered all of the guilt. Swallowing hard, he made a mental note to pay Aradia a visit sometime soon.

Sollux mulled over the past as he brewed the serum. He quickly realized that Eridan hadn't been the only troll to become isolated from the others. In fact, almost everyone had drifted apart. Only those in solid quadrants really spent any length of time together, and there were very few pairs like that left. He absently wondered how everyone was going to fair when the drones came around. Anyone over ten would be a target. Of course, no one Sollux knew had a wriggling day coming up, but he could see everyone pairing up before someone did. It was worrying him a little, when it came to collecting buckets, the drones didn't mess around. "Fuck," He muttered, his entire train of thought derailing as he scrambled to lower the heat on his stove. His serum was reacting pretty strangely.

Grumbling under his breath, Sollux reread the recipe, frown lines deepening across his brow. He had done everything correctly, he used all the right ingredients, he even heated it to the correct, unreasonably high temperature. He stood there and reread the page over and over until it finally hit him. He wasn't supposed to heat the serum with open flame or electricity; the energy took too long to transfer and resulted in a destructive chemical reaction. With a roar of frustration, Sollux knocked the unfinished potion across the kitchen, not even flinching when it splattered all over the walls.

Psionics were the answer, the footnote explained that to correctly form, the serum had to be heated by psionic energy. Naturally, the one thing Sollux could do to actually help, required a gift he no longer had.

Thrashing through his hive, furious and filled with rage, he nearly punched a hole in his door, but just before he could take a swing there was a desperate knock that sounded so familiar, he stopped dead in his tracks. Anger dissolved, he yanked the door open to see none other than the prince of hope, wrapped tight in a cape and violently shivering. His eyes were wide, frightened, and puffy around the edges. The poor thing was scared to death, and he had obviously run the entire way there. Sollux cleared his throat, finding it hard to speak past the giant lump forming there.

"Wwhy didn't ya come back?" Eridan finally asked. "I… I got scared."

"I had th'ome thingth' to do," He mumbled feebly. "Why didn't you juth't call FF or th'omething?"

"I almost thought that… that you wwerent comin' home."

The ache in the lowblood's chest returned, he could hardly breathe he was fighting so hard to keep his cool. When he didn't answer, Eridan's lower lip trembled, his voice lowering to a whisper. "You wweren't gonna… wwere you?"

"I thought you didn't need me, okay?" Sollux cried, yellow tears finally pouring down his face. "No matter how hard I tried to take care of you, nothing fucking worked until FF th'howed up! You needed her, you ate for her, you smiled for her! You… you never needed me!"

Instead of being upset by the outburst, Eridan just took the Gemini's hands. "Sol I'm always gonna need ya," He said. "I doesn't matter if I'm starvvin' or strong, if ya wweren't around ta keep me going… I know I'd just givve up again."

Sollux's heart throbbed in his chest and he released Eridan's hands, but before he could make another move, Eridan winced, taking it as a rejection. "I… I said too much."

"You th'aid juth't enough." Cupping the seadwellers face in both hands, Sollux leaned down just as Eridan rose up, their lips locking together in a tender, loving kiss. The two were still for a spell, shivering back to life at the feeling of electricity rushing through their veins. Heart pumping, Sollux pulled away, looking down into the others eyes and stroking his face with his thumb. The expression Eridan held was enchanting, like he was waking from a beautiful dream to find that it had all come true. Slowly, his eyes fluttered open, his face breaking into a breath taking grin. He was beaming, and Sollux beamed back, grabbing two fistfuls of the seadwellers shirt and pulling him into another kiss. The second one was just as electric, just as passionate, but even sweeter. Neither of them could stop smiling long enough to keep their mouths together for long.

The lowblood was giddy, silly even as he backed into the hive, pulling the other in with him. Eridan kicked the door shut and before they knew it, they lost their footing and tumbled backwards onto the couch. Sollux was sarting to get a little dizzy, he kept forgetting to breath, focused more on how well Eridan kissed. Desperate for another taste, Sollux leaned in again, but instead of what he sought, his lips met with Eridan's nose, a soft giggle making his chest flutter and fill with butterflies. "Little eager there, Sol?" The prince chuckled. "I think ya missed your target."

He lightly presses a finger to his own lips, as if showing Sollux the way. It was probably just to get a rise from the Gemini, and it worked. "Are you flirting with me, Ampora?"

"Maybe," He shrugged, another smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "That depends."

"On what?"

"On you," He whispered, moving the finger from his lips, to Sollux's.

The Gemini took Eridan's hand in both of his. "Well whatever it wath'," He murmured. "It'th making it really hard for me to not be in love with you."

"Then stop fightin' it."

"Never th'tarted." Rolling onto his side, he pulled the highblood to his chest. "Ever th'ince you th'toped your crying juth't to laugh at my th'wimming, I knew I wath' in love with you."

Eridan laughed just like he had that day. "I wwasn't laughin' at your swwimmin', Sol," He said. "I wwas just surprised you bothered."

"Why would that th'uprith'e you?"

He blushed, lowering his gaze. "Because no one I lovve had evver lovved me back."

"Well, I love you," Sollux said.

"I lovve you, too Sol," He whispered.

((Just cuz I love you sweetie pies. Now get some rest!))