Chapter 24

Some Nights

Sollux groaned into his pillow and pulled his blanket over his head. He laid there for a few seconds until a dull thumping caused him to groan again and roll over. His hand groped blindly at his desk till he found the cold rectangle of his phone and pulled it to himself. Scrunching his eyes, Sollux pressed the side button a few times till he remembered he had shut his phone off a week ago and hadn't bothered to turn it back on. Another dull thudding shook the apartment as Sollux reached to the desk and fumbled for his glasses. Sliding out of bed, he trudged out of his room and down the stairs to his front door. He felt slightly dizzy and grabbed the railing quickly, trying to remember the last time he had eaten. Scrunching his eyes closed to try and stop the world from spinning, he growled when there was another harsh pounding at his door.

"God fucking damn it," his voice was raspy and dry, "I'M COMING!"

Stopping down the stairs, Sollux flicked the deadbolt and tore open the door, a scowl planted firmly on his face. His glower melted immediately when he saw Roxy standing at his door, her fist raised and a look that could only be described as thoroughly pissed the fuck off. Several tense seconds passed as Sollux became painfully aware that he was just in his boxers and that the woman who was his boss stood there, her eyes boring into him as she all but shook with fury.

"C-come in?" Sollux tried with a sheepish grin, stepping aside as the blonde woman pushed past him.

"Where the fuck have you been?" She was sober, never a good sign, "I have been trying to get ahold of you for, like, over a week! We agreed that the only reason YOU get to work from home was if you answered me at all times. Do you know what I've been through?! I've had CEOs breathing down my neck for the past four days about that program YOU were contracted to do and now if I don't have it to them by tomorrow, we're both done for. How could you let this happen? How could I let this happen?"

She paced his living room, ranting and waving her arms wildly as he blond hair waved to and fro, her pink skirt swishing as she walked. Sollux quirked his head as a small smirk played on his lips. She continued to rage as Sollux pieced together the events that had led up to this point. After the incident at the dinner, Sollux had shut down. He refused to answer his phone, and after the third time Eridan had tried to call him, he just simply turned it off and never bothered turning it back on. After the second day, he'd actually planned to go out and try to do something, but when he opened his door there had been a small package with beautifully scrawled handwriting with his name across the top waiting for him on his doorstep. So Sollux just closed the door, locked it, and hadn't left since.

He ate when he was hungry, showered when he felt too gross, played video games till he couldn't keep his eyes open anymore, then slept till he couldn't stay in bed any longer and repeated the process. He'd only run out of food two days before Roxy's arrival but he didn't see that reason enough to leave. His regiment had accomplished what he'd set out to do, however. He hadn't had a single dream since he had broken up with Eridan and shut himself off from the world.

Eridan. Sollux shook his head. Whenever the dark haired man entered his thoughts, he found a distraction. And now, as amethyst eyes teased at the edges of his memories along with soft smiles and tender words, Sollux knew he had to shut them out. Snapping back to reality, he was relieved to find the answer pacing angrily in his living room, still trading with bouncing blonde hair and a tight pink dress.

"…and furthermore, the calculations need to be perfect. I can't have those idiots in the big office bitching about…" She seemed quite surprised when Sollux caught her and locked lips with her.

It was only a second before she moaned into the kiss and wrapped her arms around his back, clutching desperately as his warm skin. She pushed him till his back hit the cold metal door and he pulled back from the kiss, panting and gasping as she dug her nails into his shoulders. She kissed down his chest, nipping and biting his chest and stomach, making his teeth clench and his boxers tent as his body responded positively to the attention. He groaned as he felt warm hands drag across his thighs, pulling his erection free from its cloth confines. When she buried his deep in her throat, Sollux sighed audibly as his hands laced through soft blonde locks. Groaning, he let his eyes flutter closed as his head rested against the door.

Suddenly memories of his and Eridan's own encounters came drifting back into his mind. How good the wet warmth around his cock had felt, his fingers buried in Eridan's soft hair. Snapping his eyes open, Sollux pulled Roxy off of his dick and hoisted her up, smashing his lips into hers before attacking her neck, causing her to gasp and moan in delight. He set his fingers to work unzipping her skirt, pulling her blouse over her head. Shoving his hand down her panties, Sollux cupped the soft curve of her ass, before reaching further down, curving his fingers up between her legs till he found an immense source of heat. A twinge of remembrance of many such escapades with many women over his short life guided his motions.

When his fingers slipped into her, Roxy moaned out his name, her voice husky with want. Using his other hand, Sollux snapped the clasp of her bra expertly, freeing her supple pink breast which he immediately dipped to kiss and suck. Roxy grasped at his neck desperately and moaned his name again. But her voice was thicker and Sollux's mind echoed with Eridan's voice calling his name with equaled passion. With a growl, Sollux tore at the blonde's panties till they were off her body before hefting her up till she wrapped her legs around his hips, he cock finding the warmth between her legs and burying itself deep there. Roxy draped her arms around his neck, burying her face into his hair and moaning into his ear. Sollux thrust his hips, feeling Roxy flex around him and grip tightly to his shoulders. Turning, he took the steps, thrusting deep into the blonde with each rise making her moan and gasp and call his name.

When he reached to top, he stumbled into his room until he fell back on his bed, Roxy atop him giggling and moaning. The blonde braced herself with a hand to his chest and sat up, bouncing up and down on his dick as the brunette dug his fingers into her hips, scratching down her thighs. Arching his back, Sollux thrust up to meet Roxy's hips as she rocked in his lap. Scrunching his eyes shut, Sollux let himself go to the pleasure. All too soon, however, images of Eridan hovering over him drifted into his mind, their hips rocking together as Eridan thrust into him, hitting places deep and forbidden within him and making Sollux's toes curl. Throwing his eyes back open, Sollux sat up, gripping Roxy hard into his lap and latching onto one of her nipple with renewed vigor.

Sollux lost track of time as he continued to lose himself in the pleasure of sex only to find the image of Eridan haunting the edges of his consciousness, causing him to snap back, change positions, and continue pounding Roxy mercilessly. His hair was matted to his forehead and his skin was soaked with sweat, Roxy's mascara was running from the tears that rolled down her cheeks as she cried in ecstasy at the second orgasm he had given her. His promiscuous past had paid off and, when he'd found the spot that made the blonde's toes curl, he gone unrelenting till she nearly screamed. The second one had been a well fought battle and Sollux nearly lost himself. The wish to keep Eridan out of his thoughts, however, provided a wonderful deterrent to reaching his own feverish climax and had allowed him to bring her to a second, more powerful orgasm.

By now, Sollux was getting tired and he could tell Roxy was as well. So with one final push, he found her spot again and relentlessly pushing into her, hitting it with such force she did scream his name as she came for a third and final time. Sollux, unable to hang on any longer, thrust his hips several times and gave over to his release. His body shook as he collapsed back onto the bed, pulling the blonde on top of him and throwing a blanket over them. They were quiet for a long while, their breathing returning to normal, before Roxy spoke up, her voice thick with satisfaction and exhaustion.

"That project is STILL due in the morning, ya know."

Sollux chuckled before allowing the blonde to roll off of him. As Roxy curled up on his bed, Sollux turned on his computer which glowed to life. He looked down at the time and date stamp on his desktop. When had it become Sunday? He glanced outside the window across the room, but it was dark. Of course it was getting darker earlier as winter drew closer. It took only a few hours to pull up the project from his online drop box and find the errors one of the other programmers had made. It was a simple enough fix and before too long he had the system running perfectly. Shutting down his computer, Sollux turned to find Roxy fast asleep in his bed. He smirked, but a sudden guilt panged in his chest. Shaking it off, he crawled into bed with his blonde boss. It wasn't long till he fell asleep.

Maybe it was the exhaustion from the work, of the sex, or just from fending off the memories too long, but a dream began to form in Sollux's mind. He tried to fight it off, tried to wake himself up, but the exhaustion was too much and finally he let the blurred pictures and muted words take form in his head. The memory dream was broken. First he was aboard a ship, speaking a language that wasn't English. There was a storm, and there was oppressive heat, and a man with ruffled sleeves and a thirst for adventure. Christopher Columbus. It was his fourth voyage to the New World and Eridan and Sollux had been quick to sign the charter and board the Spaniard's ship. Eridan had talked about feeling a pull, like a drive to go and Sollux felt it as well. As the dream wafted in and out, Sollux saw strange new sights. Tropical trees, giant stone step pyramids, men and women with deep red skin, covered in paint with dark suspicious eyes. When the dream solidified at a specific moment, Sollux braced himself for the tragedy he knew would follow. Eridan had insisted on leaving the crew and venturing into the jungle. Sollux, or course, had followed. They had been captured, just as Sollux had felt the tingle of remembrance and familiarity set in, by some natives who shouted at them and bound them before dragging them off to their village deeper in the jungle.

Eridan had tried to communicate with the chief, but his people were angry and saw them as demons sent as a test from the Gods. Where the dream suddenly solidified, Sollux and Eridan had just been bound side by side to a long flat line of logs, a canoe set upon their chest, and the natives were bringing heavy rocks and tossing them into the vessel. Eridan chuckled darkly as another rock shook the wooden boat and pressed firmly down on both their chests.

"Are you sure you…can't…try and reason wwith them?"

"What can I thay that you haven't?"

"I don't knoww… you wwere the… priest!"

"And you were a…Prince!"

"Eridan?!" Sollux could feel an immense pain shooting through his chest, and it became harder to breath.

"Sol?" His breathing was labored.

"Promithe me," Sollux tugged weakly at his bonds till his fingers found Eridan's and he gripped as tightly as he could manage, "Promithe you… won't let… out memory…die out… Prmithe…me."

"…Promise…" Eridan gasped before there was a sickening crunch and the pressure on Sollux's chest was slightly relieved, until he realized he couldn't breathe in.

Panic set in as the world went slowly dark and all pain left him. It took him several seconds to finally break from the dream and when he woke, it was still dark outside. He felt the tears rolling down his face and he gritted his teeth. Rolling over, he found his bed empty. Roxy had left. Sitting up, Sollux groped the desk till he found his glasses. Shoving them on his face, he turned on his bedside lamp and found a hot pink sticky note attached to his phone with curvy letters smiling up at him.

Turn your phone back on or you're fired.

3 Roxy

Sollux sighed with a sad smirk as he pushed the power button on his phone. As the screen lit up and jingled to life, Sollux swallowed and closed his eyes. Sure enough, his phone buzzed and beeped rapidly as his inbox was filled with messages. Forty-eight messages to be exact. Scrolling through them, the most recent ones were from Roxy. Actually most of them were from Roxy. There were two from Feferi asking if he was ok and telling him to call her. He had three missed calls from her too. Karkat had sent a few caps locked messages and Jade had even sent a concerned text. Eridan had only sent him three.

Sol, please answwer your door.

Sol, Im dory. I promise wwe'll get through this together.

I lovve you

The last one had been sent a week prior. Sollux gritted his teeth and pursed his lips together. Fighting back the tears, he simply hit the tiny trash can emblem and deleted all the messages. It was for the best.