I accidentally a long update. I had this entire act written out last night but I couldn't post it until just now. YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW FRUSTRATING THAT IS.
Many thanks to obsessed01616, BlOo KiSsEs, cherrylipbalm, Bitblondetoday, kab, LinkinPark X, crimsonkoteto, CatastrophicAquarius, iDreamBig, RandomAnonymous, Wolfen Artist of Hetalia, Kerra-Chan, thepeopleofthecrysis, and Bear for your reviews to the last act!
He was halfway out the door with his keys in his hand when he stumbled and realized he was still pretty drunk. The temptation to just say "fuck it" and take the car anyway was powerful, but a long look at the gleaming lines of his BMW was long enough for him to imagine his precious car wrapped around a tree and he shook his head. He needed to wake Cronus up for this.
Fortunately, as he hovered outside his brother's bedroom door, he didn't hear anything that sounded like him and his girlfriend going at it, so he knocked loudly.
There was a stirring from within and then his brother's tired, irritated voice floated out into the hallway. "Who the fuck is that?"
"Cro, it's me!"
"Do you have any fucking idea what time it is?"
"One-forty-seven. It's important!"
Cronus sighed, there came the sounds of rustling sheets and a soft murmuring, and then the door opened up a crack, just far enough for the elder Ampora to glare at him and for Eridan to see that he wore a pair of boxer shorts and that was it. "What the fuck do you want?"
"Sol's gone."
"Who?" The look on Cronus's face said he was having exactly none of Eridan's shit right now.
"Sol. Sollux. He's gone."
"Who the fuck is Sollux?"
"The, uh..." He suddenly realized he had no idea how to describe Sol short of "that one guy who was makin' out with me when you interrupted," and he really didn't want to go there right now—or at all, for that matter. Somehow, though, Cronus realized who he was talking about.
"That tall cat? 'No one'?"
Eridan wasn't exactly short, and Equius was the tallest guy there, but the only one to refer to himself as no one, especially in Cronus's presence. "Yeah, him."
"Gone?"
"Yeah. He's not in the house. I'm pretty sure he left—the security system shows someone headin' out the front door like a half-hour ago. I would a' gone to find him myself, but... I'm a bit too drunk for that."
"He drive?"
"Rode. With Equius."
"So he's on foot."
"Yeah," he muttered, suddenly disappointed. Cronus was going to tell him he could walk, but he didn't even know which direction Sol had gone off in. It would take him forever to find him.
"Alright, gimme a minute. Lemme put on some pants."
Surprised, Eridan looked up at him. "You're helpin'?"
"'Course I am. It's gettin' cold out there an' I don't want you gettin' some dumb idea about drivin' into your head anyway."
"Thanks."
Cronus closed the door and reappeared a few minutes later in a white T-shirt, a dark leather jacket, and ripped, faded jeans with a cigarette stuck behind his ear; he swung his keys in his hand. "Let's go find your boyfriend."
Eridan didn't bother to correct him. He simply hurried down the stairs as quick as he could, nearly tripping and falling face-first on the second-to-last step. He was only saved from an unfortunate face-plant and possible broken nose by Cronus grabbing him by the back of the shirt. "Easy, little monster. Maybe you should stay here. You're a little... plastered."
Eridan shook his head vehemently. "Nuh-uh. I gotta go. You can't make me stay."
"Alright, fine," Cronus said with a sigh. "Just slow down. Go too fast and you'll hurt yourself."
Eridan nodded obediently and followed his brother out the front door to his 1955 Mustang. One other thing besides their love of water that they shared was their affinity for the color purple. Cronus's car had been custom-painted a deep violet and the interior was done up in black leather with purple leather trim. Eridan hopped into the passenger's seat and buckled up, waiting impatiently for his brother to start the car.
"Alright, where do you think this cat went?"
"I... got nothin'."
"Drive around 'til we find him, aye," Cronus joked, putting the car in gear and pulling away from the house.
When they didn't find him in the first five minutes, Eridan began to really worry. He kept calling Sol's cell phone, chewing on a fingernail as he did so, but the calls kept going right to voice mail. I hope he's okay.
Sollux sat on bench in this park he'd found, hugging himself with his knees drawn up to his chest while he tried not to cry.
Some stupid part of him, even after telling himself that one kiss couldn't change a single thing, had started to believe that maybe it would. Maybe Eridan would realize he liked him. Some small spark of hope had ignited in him, and he carried it like a torch.
He woke from a light doze at the sound of Eridan and FF's footsteps heading away from the mass of bodies, realized he had to pee anyway, and followed them at a discreet distance. He only intended to wait outside the door, but then he realized they were both in there together, and...
And then that small spark of hope was snuffed out like a match in a glass of ice water when he saw Eridan and FF kissing. He could only watch for a second before he recoiled as if he'd been struck. Hell, it felt like a physical blow. He backed away from the bathroom door, nature's call forgotten. His hand over his mouth, trying not to let out the pained whimper that threatened to escape him, he was unable to do anything but scramble away as fast as he could.
He went for his sleeping bag, snatched up his phone, and fled. Faster than he thought possible, he was up the stairs, retracing his steps through the house to the front door, and sprinting into the cooling, calming air outside. He ran.
He ran until his lungs burned and his eyes stung, and only then did he slow, wheezing from what wasn't entirely physical exertion. Don't cry. He's an asshole. Don't fucking cry over him. Eridan Ampora is a creep. Don't you dare fucking cry over that prick.
He wandered up and down the neighborhood's streets for what felt like hours, trying not to think about what he'd just seen but somehow unable to keep his mind off it. After all this, Ampora still liked her, and apparently, she liked him. He supposed it shouldn't have been that much of a surprise considering he liked Ampora, too, but he always suspected she had better taste.
He pulled off his glasses and set them on the bench next to him so he could rub his eyes. According to his phone, it was two-oh-four and he hugged himself tighter. It was cold and he hadn't thought to bring a jacket—he'd just been focused so entirely on fleeing that he'd just run out the door. He was freezing, the wind going right through him, and he wondered if he'd made a mistake, leaving Ampora's place in the middle of the night. He was sobering up now and he realized he had no idea how to get back. His feet had brought him here while his mind tortured him, and he was lost. He should have just stayed in the damn backyard or at least on the property somewhere, but he had wanted so desperately to not be anywhere near Ampora. He didn't know the house address, or else he would have used Google Maps to get back to the house, and he thought about calling Aradia, but what could she do? Wake up Ampora to ask for the address? That would be admitting defeat, that he'd fucked-up, and he was feeling too stubborn and too crushed to do that. He had no idea where he was aside from a rich Los Angeles suburb and no way of getting anywhere anymore.
He was just lost.
Ampora probably didn't even realize he was gone. He was so wrapped up in Feferi that no one would notice his absence until the morning—certainly no one had called him. At least it was October, though. It wouldn't get much colder than it was right now—although short sleeves in forty-degree weather with a strong breeze at night wasn't exactly comfortable. He wasn't built to withstand the cold.
Once or twice, a car passed by, and he found himself hoping it was one of his friends come to pick him up, that someone had found him, but the car never slowed. No one stopped.
His stomach growled suddenly. The pizza had been, what, six hours ago? But he'd only had two slices—Aradia had eaten the rest. He'd already filled up on mead and hadn't wanted to throw up. Now he was hungry again, and he gave an involuntary shiver. He was cold, he was hungry, and he was tired, and the first two made sleep impossible. He tugged his arms into his sleeves and hugged himself tighter. It was going to be a long night.
He wasn't sure how much later it was. He'd just slipped into a light doze when a third set of headlights swept over him from behind. He woke almost instantly, expecting the car to keep moving.
It didn't, though. It stopped.
It was nearly three in the morning when Cronus shot Eridan a sad look. "It's your call, little monster. We've been out here for like a' hour. Wanna keep lookin'?"
"Hang on. Pull over."
Cronus did as Eridan said and the younger Ampora pulled out his phone.
Fef answered the second before it went to voicemail. "'Lo?"
"Fef, it's Eridan. Look, I need you to—"
"Wait, what? Eridan? What's going on?"
"I'm tryin' to tell you. Is Sol there? In the basement, I mean."
"Sollux? Hang on." She set the phone down and he heard the faint sound of her calling Sol's name, a whisper in the darkness. "No, he's not here. Why? What happened?"
"Me an' Cro are lookin' for him. I was just wonderin' if he came back in the hour we've been gone."
"Oh. No—is he okay?"
"Dunno." He tried not to sound worried, but he couldn't help wondering if Sol really was okay. "Still lookin' for him. Lemme know if he shows up, okay?"
"Yeah, shore. Good luck."
"Thanks." He hung up. "He's not at the house yet."
"So what do you wanna do, daddy-o?"
"Maybe the park? I can't think a' anywhere else he might be."
Cronus gave a sad nod and set off for the park.
Eridan kept his eyes glued to the side window, scanning the sidewalks for any sign that Sol had come this way. He didn't know what he was looking for, but he knew he'd know it if he saw it. It was too fucking cold out there for anyone to sleep comfortably, even if they had a jacket—and what if Sol didn't have a jacket?
"Hey. Look. That bench there," Cro whispered, as if afraid he might startle whoever it was (as if the car wouldn't have already done that).
Eridan jerked his head toward the front so hard he nearly gave himself whiplash. He quickly picked out the bench his brother was talking about, the one the headlights were fixed on. There was definitely someone there, and it looked like...
"Sol. That's gotta be him." Eridan threw off his seat belt and scrambled out of the car as fast as he could. "Sol?!" he called, as loud as he could to bridge the fifty or so yards.
He turned his head, sliding on a pair of glasses with one lens each tinted blue and red. It was definitely him, and relief washed over Eridan in an awesome wave. He started running toward him as Sol stared and slowly stood up, and as Eridan finally drew level with him, he flung his arms around the taller boy.
"Jegus fuck, Sol, you're freezin'! Come on, the car's warm," he said, starting to tug Sol toward Cronus's car, but Sol jerked his arm out of Eridan's grip.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" he spat.
Eridan turned, stunned at the venom in his tone. "I... I came to find you. W-we've been lookin' for you for like a' hour. W-what happened?"
"Like you don't fucking know," Sollux muttered, taking a step back and leaning against the back of the bench. He crossed his arms in more of an effort to warm himself than to look annoyed, but Ampora could probably see the goose bumps raising on his skin. He'd been warm and he'd struggled to tear himself away from him. But he had to. He couldn't let himself slip any further into the rabbit hole than he already had.
"No, I don't, actually. I go an' talk w-with Fef an' you're there, I come back an' you're..." His voice trailed off. "You saw."
"Fuckin' right, I saw," Sollux said. He knew he was being petulant, but he wanted to make Ampora feel just as awful as he did. It wasn't his fault he felt like this, but in a way, it also was.
"Sol, look—"
"Don't fucking call me that," Sollux snapped. "It's 'Sollux,' not 'Sol.'" He made an extra effort not to lisp, although the effort was wasted because he wasn't fully sober yet and his tongue didn't want to cooperate.
"Alright. Sollux. I'm guessin' you only saw the first like thirty seconds or somethin' 'cause if you stuck around, you would a' heard. I... Okay, yeah, I kissed her, but only 'cause I liked her for years now an' I thought maybe I still did." Ampora crossed his arms and shivered slightly, the cold biting through his own thin shirt. He didn't wear a jacket or hoodie, either. "But I didn't. I don't. It took kissin' her to realize that, okay? Both of us—Fef an' me—we both realized it... it didn't feel right. Anythin' I thought I felt... if I ever really did, it's gone now."
Sollux had dropped his arms and the anger and hurt had melted off his face. Still, he kept his mouth shut, as if waiting for Eridan to go on.
"I... well, I meant to talk to you about this tomorrow. I don't..." He gave a pained sigh. "Look, can we talk about it tomorrow? It's fuckin' freezin' out here an' I think my hangover's kickin' in. I can't articulate right now."
Sollux waited a beat before nodding. "Yeah. Okay."
"Let's just go home."
This time, Sol allowed himself to be led to the royal-purple muscle car. Eridan opened the backseat door for him, but instead of closing it and getting into the front passenger's seat, he slid in next to Sol. "Blast the heat," he instructed Cronus. "Poor kid's freezin' back here."
Cronus shrugged out of his leather jacket and tossed it at Sol. "Bundle up, little monster."
Shaking from the sudden warmth, Sol tugged the sleeves of Cronus's jacket over his arms. It smelled of cigarette smoke and Cronus's cologne, but it was warm and while it was loose in the shoulder—Cronus was shorter than him by about two inches, but wider through the shoulders—it fit just fine everywhere else.
The elder Ampora put the car in gear and backed out of the parking lot, and Sollux realized he was unconsciously leaning into Eridan. He nearly pulled away but Eridan's arm snaked around him and he let himself melt into him, knowing it was stupid but needing to hang on to some scrap of him. For now, he could pretend everything would be alright, and even if he woke up later aching from heartbreak, he could think back to this and somehow remember feeling the anticipation of something good on the horizon.
Sol put his feet up on the seat—Eridan would have caught Hell from Cronus if he did that, but his brother seemed unwilling to yell at the guy since he'd spent the last hour and a half freezing his ass off—and curled up, putting his head in Eridan's lap. Eridan automatically moved his hand from Sol's shoulder to his waist and, with his other hand, started running his fingers through Sol's hair. Almost immediately, Sol's eyes drifted closed and a faint smile crossed his face, and Eridan half-expected Sol to start purring. It made him smile, though, and he finally had an excuse to stroke his hair, wispy over his ears and constantly falling into his eyes.
Every so often, Eridan would catch his brother's eye in the rearview mirror, although he couldn't tell what Cronus was thinking. He hadn't uttered a word of complaint since the mess started, something that surprised him. He wondered if he could tell that Eridan's heart beat a little faster with Sol so close to him, what he would think.
They finally pulled back in front of the house ten minutes later and Eridan gently shook Sol's shoulder. "Hey. Sol. Time to go inside an' get some real sleep."
Sol mumbled something unintelligible.
"Sorry. Sollux."
"You can call me 'Sol,'" he answered, finally straightening up. He followed Eridan out of the car, to the front door, into the hallway (Eridan pulling off Cronus's jacket and handing it back to his older brother; "Go the fuck to sleep now," Cronus said, shooting them a glare so poisonous they knew it was feigned and stalking up the stairs to his room), down the stairs, into the basement, and across the room.
Sol fell asleep almost instantly after his head hit the pillow, but Eridan lay awake a few minutes longer, looking at him and wondering what he was going to say to him in the morning. Finally, he rolled over and fell asleep as well.
Eridan in Act 36: wwhoops i accidentally gayed a little
I started writing the next act, but we'll see if I finish it tonight. Right now, I need to troubleshoot the holes in my eyelids.