Prince of Heart- Merry X-mas folks from your aro author.
Five months ago- Christmas day?
Eridan examined the fauna in front of him, a large, green tree that Rose had recently alchemised for a strange human holiday she liked to call 'Christmas.' Sounded like a cheap knockoff of twelfth perigee's eve to Eridan at the time, which he never even celebrated unless Feferi came to his house and forced him to. He always thought the holiday was for wrigglers, a made up day where child trolls would give each other presents and their lusi would get them an especially succulent meal, if you were a low blood that is. Eridan never really did anything those days, Feferi would come over with a gift, which made him feel terrible since he never got her anything out of his stubborn hatred of the holiday, and the two would just sit together at the beach and talk, occasionally the Purple-blooded clown coming by to hang out with them.
Rose attempted to reach up and put a bauble on the top layer of the tree, but even on her toes she couldn't reach it. The tree was already heavily decorated with various bits and pieces: several baubles already hung, a few lengths of tinsel wrapped around the tree, and various cards each addressed to people on the meteor. Even the mayor had come out to help, placing cans in-between the branches and occasionally munching on the delicious green branches. The Seer fell back to the soles of her shoes, placed her hands on her hips and sighed. She glanced over to Kanaya, whom was finishing up placing another card for Dave at a table nearby, and sighed slightly louder to get her attention, to no avail.
She took a deep breath, and exclaimed, "It sure would be nice if some fashion minded troll who happens to be taller than me would come over and help!"
Kanaya perked her head up, and looked around the room, proceeding to point at herself in confusion. Rose smiled, and nodded at her with confirmation. The Sylph placed her pen down, her message only half completed, and got up to help Rose place the bauble up.
"so wwhat evven happens noww?" Eridan asked, pricking his hands on the sharp branches of the plastic tree.
"What do you mean, 'wwhat happens?'" Rose questioned, handing the bauble off to Kanaya.
"like wwhat do wwe do for this ridiculous holiday? are wwe supposed to burn dowwn the tree or somethin?"
"Of course not!" Rose chuckled. "When Christmas does roll around, which is kind of hard to tell admittedly what with time and space being all relative to our personal views rather than a standardised stream, we'll give each other gifts not unlike you do on Twelfth Perigrees Eve." She turned her head to face Kanaya. "Am I right about that?"
"That Is The Gist Of It Yes," Kanaya replied, pinning the bauble on a spot near the top of the tree.
"i dont evven celebrate perigrees evve," Eridan told her. "its a made up holiday to make loww bloods feel not as lonely."
"Well I don't really celebrate Christmas either, I'm not even a Christian. I just think it's a lot of fun to decorate a tree and get free stuff."
Eridan groaned, "i hope you dont expect anythin from me wwitch. id rather die than givve somethin awway for free."
"How very capitalist of you, Eridan. I'm not the one that came up with the idea to celebrate Christmas. Dave holds that trophy. Where the heck is he anyway?"
"He Is Up In His Room," Kanaya mentioned, "Terezi Insisted On Speaking To Him About Something."
"Are you serious? Those two are inseparable ever since they officially started dating a few months ago. And where the hell is Karkat? He barely comes around ever since that dream bubble with those two troll girls."
Kanaya shrugged. "Im Sure Hes Somewhere Around Here He Just Needs Some Time. Weve Still Got Under Two Sweeps Until We Enter The New Session Right? Hes Probably Just Training. You Know How He Is."
"You don't seem too worried about him?"
"Oh I Know Him Best. He Just Tends To Do Things Like This When He Doesnt Feel Adequate Enough."
Rose rolled her eyes and made her way to the door. "Well I'm going to get Dave, he should at least help us."
Eridan watched as she exited, his attention turning to Kanaya, whom looked back at him unimpressed. He waved nervously, before hopping up and rushing after Rose. He eventually caught up with her, a smile and a nod acknowledging his existence, and the two walked together to Dave's room. Eridan had traversed this meteor a many times since their journey started, either out of boredom or on one of his workout routines with Terezi, but the cold metallic feeling never escaped him. He felt so lonely when he walked the corridors, even with other people, but he never could place his finger on it. Maybe it was the absence of the rest of his… companions. There were twelve kids that escaped on the meteor, and now only four of them remained, not counting the humans. And he still couldn't shake the feeling like he just shouldn't be alive right now, not out of relief, but rather because he didn't deserve to live.
"Here we are," Rose said, snapping him out of his stupor. Eridan glanced up at the metal door, a t-shirt planted on a rack just beside the door and above the electronic lock. Rose input a short code, and the door slid open with a soft whooshing sound.
Rose poked her head around the corner and into the room, and whispered, "Oh, well what's going on here?"
"you know knocking was a great invention right?" Eridan heard Dave say from inside the room. He slowly walked up to the door and glanced in, at first noticing Terezi on the bed at the corner of the room, only dressed in a pair of boxers and a small bra with most of her grey, thin figure showing, her clothes strewn about beside the bed. He only noticed Dave, likewise scantily clad in a pair of woollen boxers baring his extremely pale and slightly scarred skin and skinny body, when he pushed himself up with his forearms.
"You know helping us out was an equally great invention, right?" Rose replied, crossing her arms.
"well i wouldve trust me. i was all like 'hey i oughta go help out with christmas decorations itd be really douchey if i let a couple of trolls and a jewish born girl set it up' but then tz took her shirt off and i thought 'hey cthulu chick fish boy and vampire girl all got this handled.'
"Oh I'm sorry your majesty, I'm really glad you can multi-task by disappointing two girls at once!"
Dave furrowed his brows. "dont act all high and mighty if vampire chick took her shirt off for you youd be slobbering all over miss glow in the dark."
"I might, I might not." She flashed Dave a cheeky smile. "It is interesting to see Terezi in boxers though, I always imagined you girls wore lingerie the same colour as your blood."
"wait what? you fantasising about my girlfriend?"
"D4V3, SH3'S JUST B31NG CUR1OUS!" Terezi added. "1 M34N, 1'D B3 GL4D TO T34CH H3R 4BOUT TROLL B1OLOGY THROUGH MOR3 1NT1M4T3 M3THODS."
Terezi bore a toothy and mischievous smile, and Eridan could've sworn he saw Dave's naked eye twitch a little. Dave looked back over at the two.
"alright what the fuck do you want me to do to get you out of here?"
"Just get into the Christmas mood a little, you know?"
Dave sighed, and lightly pushed Terezi off of him, jumping up to his feet in a flash. He took a step over his clothes, walking over to the other side of the room where a closet was situated. He smashed his fist on the button to open it, reached in, and grabbed a couple of shoe boxes from the pile of clothes in it. He then proceeded to Eridan and Rose, holding the boxes behind his back.
"first is fish boy since he doesnt complain about me showing the appropriate amount of give a shit about my gf." He held out the box, which Eridan took reluctantly. "dont tell tz i want to john it up by pranking her hard."
Eridan narrowed his eyes, and slowly opened the lid of the box, revealing a pair of black sneakers about Eridan's size. "wwhat the fuck is this?" Eridan asked.
"those my aquatic hipster bro are heelys. you wear them then click out the wheels and zoom around. bet you wish you had a pair of these when you killed your ex so you could escape vampire lady huh?" He elbowed Eridan a few times playfully, much to Eridan's annoyance.
Dave turned his attention to Rose. "and what would you like for christmas little girl?"
"To un-see my brother in his underwear," Rose replied coldly.
"well thats too bad cos youre getting black make-up," he told her, handing her the box.
She chuckled slightly. "Thank you, it's a good second."
"good great fucking a. you know what a great early present for me would be? getting the hell out of my room."
Rose rolled her eyes, and grabbed Eridan's shoulder. "Alright, we're gone. Come on Eridan."
Eridan placed the lid back on the box of his new pair of shoes. He had to admit: wheels in shoes sounded pretty freaking awesome.