Hal and Sollux and Roxy. Third person perspective.
The crackle in the air precedes the smell of ozone by a couple milliseconds giving Hal enough time to let go of Roxy's shoulders before he is whipped away from her by swirling red and blue psionic energy. He nearly collides with the kitchen counter but manages to halt his momentum just microns from the impact.
"What the fuck do you think you are doing?" The voice comes from Hal's right. He straightens up from the awkward pose and turns to face the troll.
"What did it look like I was doing?"
"It looked like you were kissing my matesprit."
"And if I was?"
"I'll kill you." Red and blue sparks snap around his head and fists.
"Sollux!" Both troll and android turn to look at the distressed human.
"It'll be alright, Roxy," Hal tells her.
"Are you okay, Roxy?" Sollux simultaneously asks. He whips back around at the sound of her name coming simultaneously from the android. "Who the fuck are you?"
"I'm Hal," he answers as he pulls himself up to his full height.
"The fucking Auto Responder?"
"The one and only." Hal takes a grandiose bow. "Now, if you don't mind, Roxy and I were in the middle of something."
"Stay the fuck away from her."
"It seems that you don't understand the situation here. I'm here to court Roxy properly."
"Roxy is my matesprit."
Hal ignores him and continues, "Now, if you would, just turn around and leave."
Sollux defies him as he move further into the room, abandoning the groceries near the door. He turns and stands square shouldered in the direct line of sight between Hal and Roxy.
"That is just rude." Hal takes a step forward. "You know, I don't have enough data on you and how you fight. This might actually be interesting."
"Hal, no. Please no. Don't do this," Roxy begs from behind.
"It's alright. I'll only be a moment." Hal takes another step and the psionic crackles kicks up a notch. Storms of red and blue energy swirl around Sollux's fists.
"No."
A sudden drop into a crouch is the only warning Sollux gets before Hal launches himself into the air in an arrow-like tackle. He seemingly freezes in the air with an arm extended as he is caught by a net of psionic energy. His hand is less than a foot away from Sollux's face, now contorted into a grimace of concentration. After straining against the mental wall for a few seconds, Hal twists his body around and manages to escape, nearly instantly returning at a different vector of attack. He is stopped again with less than six inches to spare this time. A second after his momentum is halted, Hal retreats again. He detects the crackles of ozone to his left, indicating a trap of energy, so instead he works his way to the right almost casually. His sensors tell him of a lull in energy in a certain area, a weakness in the troll's shield. He maps out the spot and prepares a plan for his next attack.
His lunge is again sudden but Sollux catches him and forces his kinetic energy to a stop.
"Your powers may react as fast as you think," Hal taunts, "but I think faster than you."
Without pulling back his hands, Hal twists the lower half of his body around, targeting the known weak spot with his legs. As soon as he senses the change he contorts again and moves into another weak spot that's closer to his quarry. The shift happens again and he moves into a closer position. Then suddenly the weak spot becomes a condensed block of sharp pressure.
"But you aren't smarter than me." Sollux slowly brings his hands together mimicking a crushing action. Under the muted roaring of his psionics there was the unmistakable sound of groaning metal.
Hal's mechanical expression doesn't change as he run several calculations about his current predicament. At the current rate of applied pressure his chassis will survive another another thirty seconds before damage occurs. Fourty four seconds before irreparable damage to the structure. One minute and two seconds before circuity starts to be affected. The pressure is a unified field, which Hal has to give Sollux credit for such control. No mobility extremely limits any attack options. Hal regrets not including any projectile weapons in his design, not that he'd be able to access or aim them well, but they'd be another resource to leverage. Logic and dialog probably won't be effective unless Hal wanted to decrease the current time left. Sollux seems to be enraged and protective and such emotional spectrum doesn't bode well for reasoning and gaining his release. Hal's own actions might be considered rash given his lack of data. But nothing risked, nothing gained. Hal's act of aggression and subsequent taunting would not gain any favor and would be forgotten. There is nothing Hal can do from his current position. Sollux has effectively checkmated him. Impressive. The only thing that can save Hal is an external factor.
Twenty eight seconds until damage.
"Sollux, stop. Please, Sollux. Please."
The pressure decreases. Again Hal is impressed with the nuanced control that Sollux possessed over his psionics. This is truly insightful data that he is collecting. He recalculates. Four minutes thirty one seconds until damage.
"Why should I, Roxy?"
"It's just Hal."
"He kissed you and tried to attack me. 'Just Hal' isn't going to cut it."
"Sollux, please."
"I can't," he growls out.
"Just let me talk to him."
"I'm not letting him go. Whatever you say, you say in front of me."
"I'm not going to hide anything from you. I don't want to hide anything from you."
"Then why didn't I know about this."
"I didn't know about this. I didn't know Dirk built him a chassis until he showed up at the door. I didn't know he would confess. I didn't know."
Sollux narrows his eyes at the android in front of him. He relaxes Hal's bindings below the critical danger point Hal had calculated. It actually drops low enough that Hal can force some movement if he wants to, but based on the collected data, he won't get more than a few inches forward before Sollux would stop him again with potentially supercritical pressure. Hal holds perfectly still to keep the peace and to keep his advantage quiet.
"Hal? Are you alright?"
"Yes. All damage is superficial."
"Damage?"
"I'm fine."
"No. You're not." She shakes her head at him. "Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why did you kiss me?"
"Because I love you," he states as if it is the most obvious thing in the world. "And you love me."
"Oh Hal."
"You told me so. I have every chat log where you say it saved to my memory banks."
"I do love you, Hal. But-"
"Then what is the issue?"
"I don't love you like that."
"I know you grew up post-humanity, Roxy. But you aren't a troll. You don't use moirallegiance."
"You are my best friend."
"I predicted you would say that. The previous statement negates it."
"You are more than my best friend. You are more than a moirail to me."
"Obviously."
"Damn it. It's complicated, Hal."
"No. It's not."
"Yes, it is!" Roxy balls her fists in frustration and squeezes her eyes shut to keep the tears back. "Why are you doing this? Why are you doing this to me? Why are you doing this to me now?"
"I'm sorry it took so long for me to get a body."
"It's not about your body, Hal. Why would that matter to me? Do you really believe I am that shallow? Is that how you see me? Is that how you know me? After all we've been through! After that hell we grew up in! You believe that!" Roxy shouts at him. Her body is rigid as the words echo through the apartment. Then her shoulders slump down. She begins again in a softer voice. "You shouldn't have waited, Hal. I wouldn't have. As I didn't when I decided on Sollux. I love you. I do. But I love Sollux."
Hal doesn't respond. The only indication that he heard Roxy is the soft closing of his eyes. Roxy glances at Sollux before walking past him, disrupting the psionic field. Hal is lowered down from his lunge with the remaining control Sollux has until he is standing up straight on his own power. Roxy comes to a stop in front of him. She places a hand on his cheek but he keeps his eyes close. She leans up on her toes and gently places a kiss on his lips. His eyes fly open. His sensors study and record the moment. She pulls away after five point four six three seconds, too soon by Hal's estimates. She meets his eyes for a moment before turning away. She goes to Sollux and kisses him the same. She turns back to Hal but leans back into Sollux's embrace.
"I'm sorry, Hal."
"I... I understand. I'll... I'll go now." Hal turns toward the door.
"Wait." Both Roxy and Hal turn to look at Sollux. "Hal, don't go yet. Roxy, can I talk to you?" Sollux tilts his head towards the bedroom.
"Sure," Roxy replies, confusion evident in her tone. The two of them head into the other room, closing the door solidly behind them.
As if a simple door could keep Hal from eavesdropping. He really wouldn't need to move to recalibrate he sensors to pick up their vocal patterns, but he refrains. Instead he starts to predict what heinous punishments Sollux could ask Roxy for his trespasses. Though really how accurate can his calculations be as this scenario never even crossed his circuits.
It takes eleven minutes and thirty seven seconds to come up with twenty four thousand three hundred fourty nine ideas with varying probabilities.
When the door opens and the two residents of the apartment come out, Hal first notices Sollux's soft smirk which causes him to raise the probabilities on the worst outcomes, but then he notices the stubborn blush across Roxy's cheeks and her own lazy smile. Surely she wouldn't be happy over Hal's imminent destruction. Caught in a hesitation of calculations, Hal fails to react as a net of psionics falls over his shoulders. He only recognizes the danger when his pressure equations start running again.
"I think I might hate you," Sollux informs Hal.
His self preservation routines kick on immediately but Hal knows he is already doomed.
"But really when has that mattered with me?" Sollux continues as he approaches Hal. Hal glances over to Roxy but she is still just standing there with a drifting smile and on her lips and rouge on her cheeks. "For once being fucked up actually benefits the situation." Sollux gets right up into his face. "How do you feel about my Roxy?"
"I love her." Red mechanical irises stare into dual tinted glasses. He can just detect red and blue ringed with mustard through the glass.
"And how do you feel about me?"
"Jealous."
"Enough to hate?"
"I'm sorry?"
"Do you hate me?"
"What?"
"Do you hate me?"
"Oh." The pressure from the psionics increase until the all too familiar sound of wrongly moving metal starts again. "Yes."
"Yes, what?" Sollux sneers at him.
"I hate yo-" Hal's obvious response is cut off by the sudden presence of Sollux's lips against his in a kiss.
Instantly he starts cataloging the differences between Roxy and Sollux. The angle that Hal had to tilt his head down is less, but the optimum angle between line of mouth to avoid hitting noses is greater. There was definitely more lip involvement and the inclusion on Sollux's fangs pressing against the rubber is a new dynamic. He body language also read as hostile instead of static or gentle as Roxy had behaved with her previous kisses. It is so novel and full of differentiating intricacies that Hal finds himself actually enjoying the kiss and begins to respond with similar patterns.
Both parties are surprised apart when a bite from Hal's sculpted enamel teeth on Sollux's lips pulls a moan from the troll.
"I've always said my matesprit is a genius," Roxy finally speaks up at the two stare each other down. "Though my boyfriend being a super computer isn't too shabby either."
"There are high probabilities that this will not work," Hal reluctantly admits.
"I'm willing to play the odds," Sollux challenges. Hal is turned by a hand on his shoulder to face Roxy. The kiss she gives him is finally the one that he wants. It's all of things that he's read about in romance novels. It's all of the things they show in rom coms. It's how it is supposed to be. He realizes that he will have to share with Sollux, but it will be worth it in order to have this.
Human, troll, and android.
Strawberries and cream, honey, and metal.
Why not?