Sollux Captor had started out the day fine. Saying goodbye to his family, he made the quick walk to school, which was conveniently only a block or so away. He met up with Dave and Karkat outside the gym, and they compared schedules. History was their first block, and it was only a coincidence that they had been sat at the same table, along with someone Sollux had never heard of: Eridan Ampora. Sollux noted the name in his head, and when he met the boy, he chose to sit back and observe, hiding behind his technology in order not to be an obvious spy. Eventually, he couldn't take their bickering.

"You guyth are aware that you both thound like thhit heads and are probably freaking out the new guy, right?" He turned back to Eridan. "I'm thorry for thethe two idiotths, Eridan. Thollux Captor."

"Nice to meet you," Eridan said, a small smile gracing his lips. Sollux didn't want to overstep his boundaries, so he kept quiet. On occasion, Sollux would glance up and see Eridan's nose in his books, paying attention to the words on the page like his life depended on it. Sollux admired that a bit. At least Eridan seemed to care about his work, and that's more than Sollux could say for himself, Karkat or Dave.

Classes were easy to get through until lunch, where he met up with Dave, Karkat, and his girlfriend Aradia Megido. Pulling her under his arm, he leaned back against the wall next to his table. Everyone was laughing and grinning because Gamzee Makara had cracked some funny joke Sollux missed. He managed to crack a grin and pulled his giggling girlfriend closer, attempting to pay attention to his friends, though his gaze always seemed to find its way back to the table of losers.

Eridan Ampora, Feferi Peixes, Equius Zahhak and Nepeta Leijon were all sitting around. Equius looked bored as always, and Eridan looked like he was putting some effort into their conversation. Every once and a while, Eridan would crack a smile at something Feferi said.

"Yo, Sollux," Dave said. "You okay? You look a little distracted."

"Yeah, I'm fine,"Sollux said, turning his attention to his best friend. Dave looked over at the table and then back at Sollux before giving him a flash of his red eyes. As quick as the glare had been, Dave was back talking to his boyfriend, John Egbert. You wouldn't look at them and think "gay couple", but the entire secret came out when Sollux and Aradia went behind the gym to make out and saw John against the wall with Dave latched onto his neck. At the point, Dave simply shrugged off their little affair and then they both came out.

With that, John Egbert ascended the popularity ladder with great speed similar to how Sollux had back when he first met Dave. Dave was always cool; there was no doubt about that. In middle school, Sollux walked in the first day in a polo shirt, jeans and tennis shoes, and left having been swept up by the established cool kid, Dave Strider.

Eventually, school was out, and Sollux took the short walk home. He tried to quietly close the door, but even that woke up the slumbering beast that he called a twin brother. He heard the fumbling footsteps that clobbered down the hall, then a slam and a soft "ow." Rolling his eyes, Sollux yelled, "Morning, Mituna."

"It wath jutht a nap," Mituna complained, rounding the corner into the living room. As always, Mituna's helmet was on. Sollux sighed, asking, "Mituna, did you thleep with that on?"

"Maybe," Mituna said, taking his helmet off and sitting down on the couch just before Sollux did. The two brothers stared at each other a moment, though it wasn't like Mituna could do much staring through his thick hair that covered his eyes. Sollux reached his hand over to ruffle the black fluff Mituna called hair, and he made his twin laugh. Flipping on the television and throwing the remote to the slightly older Captor, Sollux made his way down the hall to his room to do what minuscule homework he had. Working quickly through it, Sollux jumped on his electrical-chord-covered bed and snuggled under the covers before pulling his laptop to him and spending a good bit of time coding. Over summer, he had finished up a virus that would just continuously send his friends porn as well as a bunch of other things. However, he didn't know what to do that night, so eventually he stopped thinking of it and let his fingers just type away. Of course, it was just another virus.

Hector Captor, Sollux and Mituna's father, came home later that night, groceries in hand. By the time Sollux came down to help, Mituna was already humming and helping along, a big grin on his face. Good. A calm Mituna is a happy Mituna. Eventually, all the groceries were put away, and Hector set to work on dinner while Mituna went back to watching television, this time with his twin by his side.

"I want to watch Thpongebob," Mituna said, grabbing the remote.

"No," Sollux said, groaning. "Thpongebob is thtupid."

"Ith not!"

"Ith tho!"

Hector glared at them over the kitchen island. "If you two don't settle down and agree on a channel, I'm putting on House Hunters!"

"Thpongebob?" Mituna asked.

"No!"

"That's it," Hector said, heading into the living room and taking the remote back into the kitchen, turning on HGTV and watching his show while he finished up dinner.

"Look at what you did," Sollux said. "Now we have to thuffer through thith lame thhow."

"I'm not the one who didn't want to watch Thpongebob," Mituna said, crossing his arms over his chest and pouting.

Sollux turned to him, a slight twitch of irritation in his eyes. "Mituna, no one wantth to watch Thpongebob except you! It'th a little kid thhow! You're thixteen! You thhouldn't be watching Thpongebob! Grow up."

Mituna bolted to his room. Hector sighed, muttering, "Smooth move, Sol."

"Thhut up. It'th not my fault he's retarded!"

Hector's head snapped up. "Sollux, we do not use that word to describe your brother. That car crash could have done as much damage to you as it did to him."

"But it didn't," Sollux snapped, getting up and storming past Mituna and Hector's rooms to his own at the end of the hall. He threw himself onto his bed and covered his messy hair with his pillow, trying to drown out Mituna's screeching. He groaned, kicking his feet in an effort to entertain himself before eventually grabbing his headphones and going back to coding, techno music blasting in his ears.

Sollux remembered that car crash. It had been his turn to sit up front, but Mituna had beat him to it. His mother had only laughed when it happened, and she said that Sollux could ride up front on the way back. Of course, the way back never happened. Mituna was left mentally handicapped, and Sollux's mother had died a few days later in the hospital. Hector suffered the worst of it. He could have almost lost Sollux, too. Sollux, however, had been in the backseat half asleep, and he only had to stay in the hospital for the arm that got caught in the crash, though that healed up nicely.

Dinner was silent, and after a quick shower, Sollux threw himself into his coding again until the wee hours of the morning. He quickly closed his program once he saw the clock, put his laptop on the floor beside his bed, and pulled the covers over his head, drifting to sleep.

In the morning, Sollux got a text from John about a coffee run. Sollux said he'd pass. He stumbled out of his room to the table, his brother already there and stuffing his face full of waffles. Sollux yawned as Hector set his own plate in front of him, still not fully awake. He ate slowly before going back to his room and getting dressed like he normally did: some sort of polo shirt and a pair of jeans with his two mismatched shoes. Finally, it was the loveliest task of the morning: getting Mituna to take his pills. With a groan, Sollux clobbered to the bathroom where Mituna was already standing, brushing his teeth. The two brothers glared at each other a moment, the fight last night, as small and stupid a fight it was, still lingering over their heads.

In one swift movement, Sollux slammed the door and locked it, pill bottle in hand. Mituna dropped his toothbrush into the holder, and the slightly smaller Captor tried to maneuver around Sollux, but to no avail. Sollux had his back to the wall, Mituna in front of him in a head lock.

"It'th two pillth Mituna! It won't kill you!"

"Thhut up, Thollux," Mituna said, biting the taller twin's arm.

"Ow," Sollux screeched. "Hey, thhithead, thtop biting me! I'm trying to help you!"

"I'll thtop biting when you thtop trying to make me thwallow that thing!" Mituna continued to struggle, and finally Sollux shoved the pill into his mouth before clamping Mituna's jaw shut until, after a bit of struggle, Mituna finally swallowed it. But they weren't done yet. Mituna tried to wriggle away, but Sollux pinned him to the wall before giving Mituna his other pill. By the time Mituna had swallowed, Sollux was exhausted. If Mituna was anything, he was strong.

Sollux left the bathroom and grabbed his backpack, throwing his laptop into it and texting John that he would take that coffee. He then made his way out of the house with a goodbye to his father as he drove Mituna to school and he went to work. Walking down the street, he looked over and saw a certain boy in a purple tee shirt walking on the sidewalk across the street.

"Hey, Ampora," Sollux called. The boy's head snapped up, and a small smile came to his face. They met up at the next cross walk.

"Hello, Sollux," Eridan said as the two finished their walk together.

"Hey. How did you get down here? Doethn't Thpider Bitch live across town?"

"Spider Bitch? Oh, V-Vriska. Yeah, we do. She didn't w-want me in her car though. She said I w-was too lame, but somehow-w my brother got into her car. I think it's because he didn't purposely try to push her into the pool ev-ven those she can't swim."

"You tried to do that?" Sollux asked with a laugh.

"Yeah, ov-ver summer w-when Miss Skeret had us ov-ver after the stupid w-weddin'."

"Thounds like fun," Sollux said.

Eridan snorted. "Yeah, it's alw-ways an adv-venture in the Ampora-Serket home."

"Tho you took the buth?"

"Yes, actually. Public transit isn't as good here as it is in my hometow-wn," Eridan said, putting his hands in his jean pockets.

"Well, it ith a pretty thhitty town," Sollux said, looking around. "Hey, do you want a coffee or thomething?"

"That'd sound nice," Eridan said. "Naturally, though, I prefer tea."

Sollux nodded, texting John again. Eridan raised an eyebrow as he asked, "You're not tellin' one of your buddies to get me some, are you?"

"Yeah, why not?"

"Oh, it's nothin'," Eridan said. "I'm not used to that kind of courtesy."

Sollux shrugged. "If you thay tho. Anywayth, I'm thorry if Karkat and Dave freaked you the fuck out yethterday."

"Not a problem," he said. "I expected some sort of hostility for someone."

"What?"

"New-w school, new-w face; hell, new-w British face. W-We all know-w that girls lov-ve the Brits, for w-whatever obsessiv-ve reason they may hav-ve. I guess Strider thought I w-was going to steal his w-woman."

"Man," Sollux corrected. "He'th dating John Egbert."

"Egbert, huh? Funny. I didn't expect Egbert to buy into that cool-kid charade," Eridan said, kicking a stray pebble on the sidewalk. "Oh w-well. I'll talk to the chap later anyw-way."

"You're not going to tell him to dump Dave, are you?" Sollux asked, genuinely concerned. "I wouldn't be able to hold rethponthibility for what Dave did to you if you did that."

"Oh, no, of course not. I'm more curious as to w-why."

"If you inthitht," Sollux said. "Are you making friendth eathily, at leatht?"

"Surprisingly, yes," Eridan said. "Feferi and I seem to hit it off really w-well. Then there's her friend Nepeta, though I don't believ-ve she's v-very fond of me, and I know-w her brother isn't either."

"Oh, Equiuth," Sollux said. "He'th okay once you get to know him. Ath for Feferi, she's my ex-girlfriend."

"I'm sorry," Eridan said quickly.

"Don't be," Sollux said. "I withh you the betht of luck with her. Thhe'th a bit loud."

"I'm not interested in her like that," Eridan said.

"I thee," Sollux said. They had reached the history classroom without even realizing it. They quickly swapped numbers before going to sit down with Dave and Karkat, who were once again arguing over something Sollux found extremely stupid. He tried to drown them out while he focused on his work, but for some reason his eyes kept daring to dart up to the boy with purple and black hair to his side.