Chapter 14: Nothing gold can stay.
The next morning you're awakened by the sound of Nepeta bursting into your door.
"Merry Christmas Tavros—
"Oops." She giggles once you and Gamzee sit up in bed, pulling the covers up around you.
"Merry Christmas Nep," She jumps on the bed to hug and kiss you.
"Hurry and come out okay, we're waiting on you two to come open presents." She's so excited she can barely keep still. You tell her you'll be there in a minute and you and Gamzee groggily pull on a few articles of clothing and walk out through the kitchen and into the living room.
When you walk in all your friends look at the both of you and start clapping and cheering. You cover your face from embarrassment and Gamzee just shakes his head.
"Let me be the first to say fucking finally!" Karkat yells and everyone laughs toasting you with their mugs of coffee.
"Congrats on the sex, Merry Christmas, blah blah let's open presents!" Nepeta yelps and everyone starts sorting through the pile of presents with their names on them. You and Gamzee take a seat on the floor and watch them while filming their reactions on the camera.
You bought Nepeta lots of colorful clothing and the best art supplies you could find. She squeals and hugs you extra tight before taking her pencils and moving to the kitchen and starts sketching a portrait of all of you.
You picked out clothes, workout equipment and books about horses for Equius who knocks the wind out of you with his big hug. Sollux and Karkat get videogames which they love and start playing right away, for Aradia you bought jewelry since you weren't very sure what she would like, but she says she loves it and hugs you. For Rose you bought lots of yarn and fabrics for her to make more clothes which she thanks you for. Kanaya is content with the books and very fashionable clothes Eridan picked out for her.
For Terezi you buy her a couple of choice CD's to enjoy a long with a series of law Audiobooks and even crime show DVD's to entertain her affinity for the court systems. She gives you a bonk on the head with her cane and a thanks.
Dave being Dave you worried a lot about what to get him. Eventually after thinking about the little you do know about him, you bought him a high grade professional mixing table with lots of blank CD's and tapes to record his tracks and bulk case of fancy apple juice, the kind that they use for hotels and expensive catering. He thanks you and once everyone had gotten their things you bring out Gamzee's presents. For Gamzee you only buy clothes you know he's going to like and wear just as much as his everyday clothes. On top of that you also buy him some very pricey cooking equipment knowing how much he loves to cook, along with lots of romantic candies, and CD's of artists you know he likes. He kisses you prompting an "aww" from the group which makes you blush.
Gamzee gets your gift from the room where his clothes are and you're surprised when he hands you an envelope.
"What's this, a card?" You joke and everyone watches as you tear it open. You reach inside and pull out a plane ticket; you're confused at first until you see the destination is Arizona. You look up at him starting to tear up
There was no way he bought it last night when your parents called, that means he had planned to give you the one thing he knew you needed all along.
"That's not all I got you, there's more stuff I made but I'll give it to you later." He smiles and you jump up into his arms and hug him as tight as you can.
"Thank you so much."
"It's my motherfucking pleasure. Now, who wants breakfast? Might as well put this stuff to use." He puts you down and picks up his gift and heads into the kitchen.
While Gamzee fixes a big breakfast and everyone else is enjoying their gifts and talking you walk back to your room and check your phone. No morning call from Eridan yet. You check all the alarms on the phone to make sure they're set, knowing he calls you every morning exactly at eight whether you need to come to his house for the day or not it's not like him not to call.
You call his phone but still only get the voicemail, you even call Feferi but she's in the middle of enjoying her Christmas morning with her family so you cut the conversation short. The more you think about it, the more you worry but decide to put it out of mind until after breakfast and everyone leaves to go over and check on him.
You look through your drawer ready to get your clothes and take a shower when sitting on top of your shirts is a large box that'd been gift wrapped.
You pull out the card on top of it to read it
To the best mate a guy could have.
Tav, I got these for us, I have one and you have one. I love you and Merry Christmas
Yours, Eridan Ampora
You rip off the paper and see a large solid gold frame with a collage of pictures you and he had taken together over the past couple of months. You run your fingers over the glass smiling at the pictures you'd taken where he acted silly or snuck in a kiss on the cheek at the last minute.
The frame has little fish engraved in it along the sides until you get to the bottom where underneath the picture of you both in the apartment it says "For the halibut."Which you assume is some kind of play on words for Hell of it, and you laugh at the crappiness of the joke. Eridan had given you so much that while you had been shopping you'd asked him not to buy you a Christmas present and he'd protested but said okay. You knew he couldn't resist and really it's exactly the kind of thing you love
You hug it to your chest and carry it to the living room asking Equius to reach up and hang it above the fireplace for you. Everyone gathers around to look at the pictures and poke fun at the funny pictures you took
"Where is Ampora anyway?" Karkat says and you shrug sadly.
"I tried to call him, but I get voicemail. I'm a bit worried about him, so I'm going to go over later and take him his present and check on him."
Gamzee announces that breakfast is ready and everyone leaves your side to rush to the kitchen, Karkat yelling he has dibs on using the toaster first for his bread.
You join them in eating and joking around until you're so full you can barely move. Around the afternoon you start packing up most of the leftover food you'd had for dinner ready to send all it down the road with them when they left.
Once they got all their things together they all helped you put everything away and clean the kitchen up before loading up in their cars and leaving. Nepeta and Equius stay the latest making sure you're set before heading off to see Equius's parents. You send Horuss's and Rufioh's gifts by them since you know he passes their new place together on his way home. Nepeta hands you the sketch she did of all of you before she leaves and you marvel at her technique promising her you'll find a frame for it and hang it in the living room.
Once the door closes the apartment is finally quiet. You look over at Gamzee who had decided not to head back with Karkat and stay with you.
You walk over and wrap your arms around him just hugging until he pulls back.
"You want to get back in bed?" You laugh a little.
"I do, but I really want to go check on Eridan first to make sure he's okay, do you mind?" You bite your lip nervously, not sure how he feels about Eridan since you first talked about him.
"Hey, it's all water under the motherfucking bridge as far as I'm concerned I mean, you're with me, and I can tell you also care about him so I'm going to work with it."
"Thanks, you're the best." You peck his cheek and start to walk back to the room to get dressed.
"Did you want me ride with you there? I won't go in or anything, it might be weird." He laughs.
"Yeah, I do. Then we'll come back and be lazy in bed all day, deal?"
"Deal" He nods before picking up and carrying you into the shower with him.
҉
You pull up to the Ampora Estate around two a nervous knot twisting in the pit of your stomach. Gamzee pats your hand and you take a deep breath before going in. You get buzzed in at the gate and head straight up to his room.
You knock on the door but don't hear a reply and start to wonder if he's actually here. You turn the knob and head inside the room. The first thing you notice is how dark the room is, the shades are drawn and there's faint music playing on a radio on the dresser. You look at the bed and see Eridan curled up in a ball on his side still dressed in the clothes he left the apartment in last night.
You walk over to his side of the bed and sit on the bed next to him. He's not sleeping, but laying there staring sadly at the wall.
"Eridan, why's your phone off? I tried calling you a million times. What's wrong?" You put your hand on his shoulder. He sits up and grabs you into a forceful kiss, but he's being too rough and you pull away. You hate being kissed like that and he knows it. When you pull away he stares at you starting to tear up
"Love me back, as your boss I order you, no I demand for you to love me back. Please love me back." He lowers his head in defeat.
"What are you talking about? I do love you." You can feel the sad feeling tugging in your chest growing.
"But you don't love me like you love him, I fix you from the bottom up, I got you clean, I gave you everything you have and it's still not enough for me to be better than that fucking idiot! No matter what I say, no matter how many times I say I love you, you don't accept it."He yells. You can't hide how much that hurts you as you move away from him.
"You did give me things, but you did not give me everything. You gave me a place to live, an opportunity to live well and go to school; even friendship but you didn't create me Eridan stop bullshitting yourself. And second of all how fucking dare you say you "fixed me", that's why I could never love you that way, because if you loved me you could have loved me the exact fucked up way I was. You feel like you had to try and tame, break, and groom me up to your standards before you even started liking me!" You yell back trying not to cry.
He stands up and tries to kiss you again but you push him away.
"I fucking knew I should have listened to my father. He told me so many times not to invest my time in such a fuck up like you and I didn't listen because I wanted you so bad and now—!"
You shake your head and back away from him. He covers his mouth as if he didn't mean to say it.
"Fuck, Tavros I didn't mean that, I didn't mean that how it sounded." He tries to reach out and touch you but you head towards the door tears blurring your vision.
"You know, you're the only best friend I've ever had. And the worst part of all is I love you, really love you with everything I have. I need you to be in my life and support me through this, even though you don't like Gamzee friends are supposed to be there for each other. But now I can see that you Eridan Ampora are no friend of mine. I fucking quit you, you cross dressing, too much hair gel wearing, insecure fuck up! I quit, sue me I don't give a damn." You throw his Christmas present at him and storm out of the room you're hands shaking as you run down the corridor and take the elevator down.
You march towards the door with tears streaking your face when you pass Feferi.
"Oh hi Tavros…what's wrong?" She reaches out to touch your arm but you snatch away and storm out of the doors. You throw open the car door and climb in breaking down in loud quaking sobs.
"Tavros? Tav, stop, don't cry. What did he do? Tell me what he did, did he touch you? I'll break that motherfucker's legs I swear." Gamzee hugs you and grows angrier by the minute. You can't even begin to tell him what happened so he gets out of the car and picks you up and puts you in the passenger side so he can drive.
You turn your back to him in the seat and sob even harder into the crook of your arm. He just rubs your back and tries to calm you down as he speeds away from the Ampora Estate cursing Eridan the whole way.
Deep down you knew this would happen; every time something very good happens to you like yesterday soon after everything turns to shit. Nothing ever lasts; nothing gold can stay.