Eridan & Kanaya: Trope- Dying Curse
In another world, another timeline, Eridan kills her and destroys the matriorb. In that same timeline, Kanaya comes back and kills him (but much more permanently). In this one, Eridan is much less desperate and much less hateful. He doesn't kill Feferi out of rage and despair, but in self-defense when she tries to avenge Sollux (who had succumbed to a violent, unhealthy caliginous urge and had attempted to kill Eridan).
And then when Kanaya had, mistakenly, attempted to stop what she had perceived as a threat…he'd blasted her, carved a hole in her middle with the wand she'd helped alchemize.
He holed himself up in an empty room, afterwards, with violet tears staining his cheeks. "Oh God," he murmured, staring at his hands. They were covered in mingled jade and fuchsia, from where he'd tried to stem the bleeding he'd caused. As the fluids dried, it became apparent that he might never get the crusted jade out from under his fingernails. "Oh God." He'd killed them both. He'd…He'd–
Eridan stifled another sob, and tried not to remember exactly what Kanaya had said to him, as he was wrist deep in her innards. Snot and tears had covered his face, and she'd bared fangs at him and snarled. She'd…she'd said such horrible things to him, even as he'd wrapped his scarf around the gaping wound in a doomed attempt to keep her from bleeding out.
"Kan," he'd whispered hoarsely, "Kan, oh my cod, I'm so sorry."
"You…idiot." She'd said, anger and hatred very nearly dripping from her words. Her hands curled into claws, and she'd dug her nails into his thighs. "Scum," she'd called him, and she'd bitingly noted that, "Feferi would be ashamed of you." She'd coughed, and jade had bubbled up at the corners of her mouth. And they'd both ignored his embarrassing sobs, even as his body shook with the force of them.
This timeline's Eridan was, in Karkat's words, a "big fucking piss-baby."
"I hate you so much." Kanaya had admitted, fingers twitching towards that tube of lipstick he knows hides her deadly chainsaw. "I hope you suffer, every day…for this." He'd scowled, but then he'd winced when she'd tightened her death grip on his thighs. "You take the matriorb to Karkat. Don't forget…"
She'd shuddered, death throes taking hold, and she'd screamed his name and cursed him. He'd captchalogued the matriorb, and he'd run from her. And that was that. And now he sat in this dark and empty room, tears still streaming from his ducts, blubbering like some sissy fuckin' baby, holding his cape around him like it might keep him from falling apart.
As if he hadn't fallen apart already. As if Kan's hatred didn't haunt him even now, especially when he looked at his sylladex. As if…she was still cursing him even now. "Scum," he choked out, and Kanaya echoed it in his mind.
"Scum. Ingrate." Her voice spat, and Eridan curled in on himself. She was still cursing him.
