Vriska/Equius
He gets one message from Trollian:
AG: H8LP!
Nothing else. No elaboration, no instructions. Nothing. For a moment, Equius is tempted to ignore it, but some other power forces him to at least check up on his neighbor. He makes the short walk over to her atrocity of a castle and pounds on the front door with his fist. Once, twice, thrice – no answer. Faced with no alternative, he kicks in the door.
He waits for a moment, and then, hearing no screams about damaging ruining Vriska's hive, he presses on inside. He moves carefully, fully expecting that he has been lured into a trap. Though he can think of no wrong that he has committed against Vriska, one can never be too sure, especially not when fellow blue bloods are involved. Nevertheless, he moves through her winding hallways unbothered. The only thing remotely dangerous are her dice, littered across the floor, but if Equius missteps, he simply crushes them to dust.
Once he reaches her respiteblock, he knocks again. Once, twice, thrice – again, no answer. He kicks the door in as he did before. It doesn't occur to him that it may have been unlocked.
The minute he catches sight of her, it's clear this is no trap. Most of Vriska Serket is at her husktop, slumped forward, covered in her own blood and, far as he can tell, unconscious. The rest of Vriska Serket is lying in a pool of cerulean blood a few feet away. There is no hope for the arm, and only slightly more hope for the rest of the troll.
He stands in the doorway for a moment, thinking. He could leave her here, let her bleed to death. She is lower than him on the hemospectrum, even if only by a notch. There is no obligation. In fact, it would even be expected – Vriska has done nothing but disrespect him and make fun of him, and though he might begrudgingly consider her a "friend," it is a consideration out of convenience rather than true affection.
So he stands, and he ponders the consequences.
And perhaps it is Vriska's last stroke of luck, but he decides to save her.
-o-
It takes her a good three days to wake up. In this time, Equius does a number of things. He cleans the wounds on her body, takes the proper measurements, and starts the skeletal work on the arm she never even needed to ask for. He checks in on her every hour or so, even during the day, first to see if she's awake, and then to see if she's alive.
He's recieved messages from Sollux asking about her. He deflects them by the excuse that it is no right for a lowblood to know, but also because he suspects that if Sollux knew her condition – unconscious, barely breathing – she would not be breathing for much longer. Equius finds it odd Terezi has not yet asked about her FLARP partner, but he is too busy to do anything about it. It's not his business.
Vriska finally opens her eye as he is looking for spare parts near the table on which he's set her. He doesn't notice her at first, because she is still too weak to move, but he finally catches his name, hissed along with a "the fuck are you doing?"
He turns slowly and moves to stand over her. It is a bit gratifying, seeing her finally forced to look up at him. "I am looking for spare parts. I need to rebuild a robot." It's a simple answer, and he knows it's not the one she's looking for.
Vriska tries to sit up, but she's not used to the lack of her other arm yet, so she falls flat on her back again with a pained grunt. She glares up at him with her single eye. "Not what I meant," she hisses back, her fangs bared. "What are you doing here?"
"You are in my hive," Equius explains. She doesn't respond, but the look is enough. "You were bleeding to death, so I brought you back. I believe your lusus has been feasting on unsuspecting trolls who walk past, as she has not seemed too hungry."
Vriska's glare lessens, though whehter she's tired or less angry, it is hard to tell. She asks, "Why?"
"I suppose I pitied you," Equius says, but before either of them can consider what this means, he turns and leaves.
-o-
By the time he finishes the arm, a week later, Vriska has begun limping about his hive. She swears at his lusus and runs into things (he understands that losing one eye can do a number on depth perception, and figures that losing seven must be even worse) and she eats his food without asking. She's the worst hive guest in the history of Alternia, but he still doesn't kick her out. Not until he's finished.
The installation doesn't take as smoothly as Equius is anticipating. Getting the port onto Vriska is the first difficulty. She squirms and complains and calls him names and once or twice her working eye leaks out a tear or two, but she doesn't tell him to stop. Painful as it might be, it's for her own good, and she knows that just as well as he.
But even once that's completed, the arm malfunctions, with a mind of its own. It punches Vriska in the face, and then when Equius tries to detach it, it punches him in the face. This breaks the fingers, allowing him to get it off.
"Yeah, some skilled mechanic you are," Vriska spits. "Might as well have just gone to a fucking lowblood junkyard and stuck an old fork in my stub. Would be more effective than that piece of shit."
Equius sighs and sets the arm down for a moment, fixing her with a stare. "I could kill you for saying that," he warns.
"Yeah." Vriska, even down one arm, isn't scared. "But you won't."
He doesn't do anything for a moment, but in the end, they both know she's right. He makes the arm right the next time.
-o-
It takes another week for Vriska to fully adjust, and once this happens, it's time for her to go.
Her return home is a subdued affair, which strikes Equius as odd. He doesn't know why he should expect anything more – though Vriska herself is rarely subdued, her hive is within sight of his, and it is hardly as though they will never see each other again. She says briefly "Going back across the chasm, Spidermom's probably hungry," and stops in the doorway to make sure he's heard the news.
He turns and looks at her through cracked shades, and for a moment, they are stuck staring at each other from across the room. Equius knows he should say something. He feels that he should say something. She's expecting it, and he's expecting it, but when his mouth opens, the wrong words come out.
"Be careful."
Vriska laughs – a short, quick bark – and without another word, she leaves.
Homestuck is property of Andrew Hussie
(And thank you fanfiction dot net for removing Vriska's eight exclamation points at the beginning there. Your formatting never ceases to confound me.)