Author's note: Alright, I have suddenly uploaded another story (or at least the first chapter of it), and you all should go read it and at least give me your feedback on the first chapter. I'm not expecting you to want to stick with it necessarily, but whatever, I just wanna know if I should continue or not. Short note because meh. Who even reads these, anyway?

And seriously, tell me these two are not the cutest babies ever. Asdfjkl. For the record, very little plot headway was made. Mostly, this chapter was just fluff.

LSU is Louisiana State University, in case you didn't know and/or were too lazy to look it up.

Chapter Ten (holy shit, already? That was fast), enjoy and review, please! cx

I woke up facing Sollux. He'd slid down in the bed during the night and now his head was buried in the crook of my neck. I inhaled deeply, loving that I could now love the scent that rolled off him in waves; it was a combination of sweat and chlorine and some other thing that was so uniquely Sollux, and I couldn't get enough. I lost track of how long I lay beside his sleeping form, his arms still wrapped around my waist and mine folded beneath my head. Eventually, he started shifting and I instantly shut my eyes and relaxed my body. He yawned quietly and let out a little hum of pleasure when he settled back into the bed. Readjusting his grip, he tugged me closer and muttered into my ear, "You don't think that after yearth' of th'leepovers, I'd be able to tell when you were ath'leep or not, do you?"

I let out a wry smile at his words, keeping my eyes closed. "You don't suppose that after years of being an asshole, you'd get sick of it, do you?"

His chest shuddered as he chuckled. "You really are shitty at pretending to th'leep, you know."

My eyes finally flashed open when he pressed a gentle kiss to the side of my head. Embers burned in my cheeks as I stammered out a reply. "I-I didn't want you t-to think I was weird for watching you sleep." My voice cracked when I said "weird."

"I know you're weird, KK. I don't really care, to be honeth't." His arms slid away from me as he stretched. Suddenly, the alarm blared across the room, awakening a lumberjack in my skull and causing Sollux to jump.

"Ugh," I groaned, slamming my face down in the pillow. "You have a morning class today. Why do you have morning classes? How is that not the most sickeningly horrendous concept on the face of the Earth? Oh sweet fucking shit, can you please go shut that off? It's giving me a headache."

He pulled the blanket away and clammored over me. "You are juth't full of complaintth', aren't you? And another thing, that headache ith' more likely the reth'ult of a hangover than the alarm clock."

"Yeah, well, fuck off, 'kay? Either way, something is splitting my fucking brain in half and that loud-ass alarm is hardly an antidote." He snorted and the alarm shut off.

"I can't fucking wait for th'cool to end. I really don't feel much like going to clath' today, either."

"Rnnnng. Then don't," I replied, lifting my head slightly and keeping my eyes closed.

"Jeez, doeth' your head really hurt that bad? You only had one glath', heavily diluted at that."

"Not really," I managed through the fluff. "I had a bit after the movie, too. And that wasn't a small glass, don't kid yourself."

"You're th'uch an idiot, KK," he told me, his voice a lot closer now. I cracked open an eye at him, hating the dawn light that shone through the window, or more specifically, the throbbing frenzy it sent my head into. "Th'coot." I complied with his request and he soon crawled back under the covers with me. "How much ith 'a bit'?"

"More than was in the glass you gave me."

"Let me reiterate; KK, you are th'uch an idiot."

"Shut up and let me sleep, douchedick." I groaned again and dove face-first into my pillow.

"Abth'olutely not. I'll get you th'ome Tylenol or th'omething, but you are not th'leeping all day."

"Do you wake up this early for pleasure, asshat?"

"It'th' a vague possibility," he said, kissing the side of my head again. "I'm gonna take a shower becauth'e I th'mell like pool and B.O. and it'th' not a pleasant th'mell." I was tempted to contradict him, but thought better of it. "If you're ath'leep when I get out, I'm gonna blow an airhorn in your ear."

"No! Fuck! Ow, shitting hell, don't do that, please!"

"Hmm, only 'cauth'e you ath'ked th'o nith'ely." And once again, I was alone in the bed.

"Do we even have an airhorn?" I yelled when the door slammed shut. He didn't answer.

I did doze for the next fifteen minutes or so, until the snooze effect on his alarm decided "fuck you" and sent the device screaming electronic obscenities throughout the house. I practically fell out of the bed and crawled to the dresser. Blatantly disregarding life, I ripped the cord from the wall and collapsed against the corner where wood met plaster, hating absolutely fucking everything. The water shut off in the bathroom and Sollux walked out of the bathroom seconds later, nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist.

"Sollux," I whined. He turned to look at me and raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"What are you doing?" he asked slowly. I held up the alarm clock's plug by way of an answer and he just laughed.

"That Tylenol is sounding pretty fucking good right now."

His eyes rolled. "I'll get you th'ome." He returned to the bathroom and called out, "You want one or two?" I couldn't muster more than a "yes," to which he replied, "Two it ith'."

My eyelids had fallen shut again by the time he came back out. He placed the pills in my outstretched hand and I muttered, "I won, Sollux. I fucking won. It was a vicious, bloody battle, but I won."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" he asked, sounding completely bewildered. I held up the power cord again and he burst into laughter, stepping around me and opening one of the drawers. My nose wrinkled at the sensation of the pills going down dry, and Sollux spoke after pulling his clothes out, "You know, I would have gotten you th'ome water if you'd juth't waited."

"Fuck that. Waiting isn't gonna make my head feel better." He sighed and kneeled beside me.

"You're too impatient, KK," he murmured, cupping my jaw in his hands and tentatively placing a gentle kiss on my lips. I sighed happily and didn't try to stop the smile on my face.

"I'm sick of being patient. I waited seven years for you." Shit. I'd meant to say "that," not "you." I'd meant to say "that" because I was talking about the kiss, not him. But it came out anyway because, honestly, I had been talking about him, and now that fact was just out there. Instead of a verbal answer, he kissed me again and walked back out of the room. Twenty minutes later, my headache was all but gone and Sollux was curled up next to me in his sweats, having decided against going to class altogether. "Can you even do that?" I asked, hoping he wasn't failing a class on my behalf.

"Eh. Finalth' were last week, and tomorrow ith' the lath't day, th'o I don't th'ee why not. Beth'ideth', I'd rather th'tay home with you," he added, nuzzling his face into my neck. I flushed bright red and he grinned at me for a minute.

Words came tumbling out of my mouth before I could stop them. "I feel like I botched our first kiss," I admitted. God almighty, that still sounds surreal as all fuck. "It was spur of the moment in completely the wrong way and we were both a bit tipsy, me admittedly quite a bit more than you, and I was terrified in a way that you shouldn't be when you kiss someone and—"

"Do you want to try again?" he interrupted.

"—it was really such a last-ditch effort and — wait, what? Try again...?"

"Th'inth'e you 'meth'ed up' the firth't one th'o bad. You wanna try again, and get it right thith' time?" Sollux's soft murmur sent a shiver down my spine as he moved his face a bit closer to mine. Once again out of words, I settled for a nod. His parted lips met mine and all the fireworks I hadn't really been expecting exploded around my head. Fingers curled at the hem of my shirt and my heart threatened to beat out of my chest even after he'd pulled away.

"Oh. So that's what it's supposed to feel like," I whispered. Sollux's raspy laugh met my ears as our mouths collided again. Immediately our tongues were wrestling like they'd done the night before and oh, god, when did I get on top of him? Warm, minty breath tore at the few remaining shreds of my sanity and the fingers that had been teasing the hemline of my shirt just seconds ago were now tracing circles in my lower back, skin against skin, and okay, no, that was definitely not a thing I was okay with. Just as suddenly as he'd started, he stopped, his hands frozen in place and his head pressing into the pillow enough that we separated.

He gazed up at me for a moment. "Let me know if I'm doing th'omething you're not comfortable with, okay?"

Again with the cute pronunciations, I thought. 'Come-fert-ah-bull.' Four full syllables. Then I mulled over his words and whispered back, "You're doing something I'm not comfortable with." The word "comfortable" came out "comph-ter-bull" on my voice. Instantly, his hands were back on the outside of my shirt and he turned his head like he was looking away, although his eyes were still glued to mine.

"Th'orry."

"It's okay." His arms crossed higher up on my back.

"Not really. I don't want to do anything you aren't comfortable with." I kissed the tip of his nose.

"You're really cute when you say that, you know." No. That absolutely did not just come out of my mouth.

His brow furrowed in confusion. "Th'ay what?"

"'Come-fert-ah-bull.' 'Bithe-ih-nith,' too." I am really not telling him this right now.

"What?"

"I don't know." I kissed him again. "Things." I burrowed my face into his collarbone before I could say some other stupid thing, but of course that didn't work and I had to add, "You taste good. It's really nice to finally be able to kiss you, too." Now my cheeks were no doubt a bright flaming red which I was more than thankful he couldn't see.

"You know what elth'e is really nith'e?" he murmured softly, one of his hands coming up to stroke my hair.

"Hmm what?"

"Your fath'e. Speth'ifically your lipth'. And your eyeth'. And your noth'e. Alth'o your hair. Mmm, and your voith'e. Can't forget that blush you get when you th'ay th'omething you didn't mean to. Or the way you cringe after it cometh' out of your mouth, like you're th'cared of how I'll react. There are a lot of nith'e thingth' about you, KK." His baseless admiration of my appearance and mannerisms was doing absolutely nothing as far as taking the blush off my cheeks went. It only got worse as he went on. "A lot of thingth' I like. Like how you can alwayth' manage to make me laugh, even when I'm in one of my mood th'wingth'. Or the ridiculouth' th'wearth' you come up with and th'ay like they're the moth't th'eriouth' shit on the planet. Or how you act like a th'elf-th'entered prick when you really couldn't care leth' about yourth'elf, and inth'tead you want the people around you to be happy. Or how you pretend th'ertain thingth' don't affect you and really they cut th'traight to your core. And your th'illy love for shitty romcomth', th'ome of which, very few, actually aren't ath' bad ath' I th'ay they are. And they way you mouth the lineth' of th'ertain th'eneth' in th'peth'ific movieth' becauth'e you've juth't th'een them that many timeth'. I give you a lot of shit for thoth'e thingth', but I really like them, honeth'tly. You wouldn't be you without them."

An embarrassed groan escaped me. "Stop it. Those aren't good things, you dumbass."

"Yeth', they are." Rather than dignifying his statement with a verbal response, I pressed a gentle kiss to the base of his neck. He shuddered lightly and I made a small noise of surprise, kissing the same spot again and eliciting the same reaction. I smirked to myself and kissed higher up on his neck. My actions were rewarded with more ragged exhales I could tell he was making a huge effort to control and a much more erratic hand slipping fingers through my hair. I kissed the soft skin once more and he gasped. "Here, KK, why don't we, um, movummmnnnnggf." His words were cut off when I sank my teeth gently into his neck. More out of curiosity than anything, I ground my hips into his and was almost instantly met with a buck in return. Gently placing a kiss over the shallow bite mark, I chuckled to myself and pushed myself up so that I was basically sitting on his stomach.

Smiling as innocently as I could down at him, I said, "Wanna play a video game?" He lay panting softly for a moment before propping himself up on his elbows.

Face hardly an inch from mine, he growled, "I have no intention of playing any video gameth' today." Then he kissed me again. And again. Over and over until I was straddling his hips again and my chest was pressed down and keeping his pinned. Long, gangly arms wrapped around my neck as he pulled me closer, still determined to memorize the inside of my mouth. I wrestled his tongue just as roughly, sucking and softly biting and 200% determined to win. An idea came to mind and I pulled back only as much as I needed to in order to move my lips to his jawline. Slow, sweet kisses trailed along the edge of it while I held his cheek in one hand, tangling my other in his hair to tilt his head back. I made short work of reintroducing my lips to his now-exposed neck and he let out a low whine in return. The whine tapered off into a violent gasp and a high whimper as my teeth came out to play.

Trying not to think too much about my actions so I wouldn't pussy out, I licked from the base of his neck to just underneath his ear, murmuring when my lips brushed it, "That was a cute little noise." He groaned in reply and I ground my hips down again, quick to be rewarded with yet another, albeit higher whine as he pressed up into me. "You know, I think I'm slightly more okay with having your hands on me now." He didn't hesitate to slide my shirt up to my ribs, his hands holding my waist and the tips of his fingers digging into me. I resumed attending to his neck and his hands splayed out across my back when as soon as my lips made contact. After a few minutes of that, me kissing and suckling on his neck and his fingers alternately clenching and relaxing on my back, I moved my head up and kissed him on the lips. He took the slight reprieve to skim his fingers over my spine. Eventually, they caught on one of my many scars and his eyes flashed open.

"Mmm. You have really pretty eyes." Maybe it would be better if I just sewed my fucking mouth shut.

He looked into mine with his. "Th'o do you." As he stretched up, we kissed again and he whispered against my lips, "I wanna learn you, KK." My cheeks burned all over again and a small shiver ran down my spine. I could feel him smile as he glided his hands lightly over my skin, letting his fingers hook on my every scar and each uneven stretch of skin on my body that they could. "Who would do thith' to you?" I let out a strangled whine. "Who could ever hurt you?" Another barely-there kiss. "Who would hurt th'omeone as th'weet ath' you, th'omeone who careth' th'o much?" He bit my lower lip so softly. "How could anybody do th'omething th'o horrible to you?"

His words seemed so innocent, just like sweet nothings, but they meant everything to me. I debated for a good minute about whether or not to explain things with Trevor to him. I wanted to. If anyone deserved to know, it was him. But I was so, so scared to, and I'd never admit that. All throughout my internal argument, he was kissing me sweetly and tracing my scars with his fingers and murmuring things like that into my mouth, and as much as I hated to end our first makeout, I knew I had to tell him. "Nnnng, Sollux...?" I whispered, pulling away slightly. He looked up at me.

"Yeth', KK?" His undivided attention wasn't something I was particularly used to, so it took me a moment longer than I would have liked to muster up the courage to say what I had to.

"I think, probably, it's about damn time you got some answers."

"Anth'werth'?"

I nodded and disentangled myself from him, straightening my shirt as I lied down beside him on the bed. "Explanations, moreover." He turned towards me, confusion clouding his eyes, and I began, clearing my throat a little. "About the guys who attack me... or, used to, anyway. They're kind of an unofficial gang, I think. And their 'leader' of sorts is a guy named Trevor." I paused, wondering how best to continue.

Sollux looked thoughtful. "Didn't you have a friend named Trevor th'enior year?" he asked quietly, bringing his hand up to my face and running his thumb back and forth over my cheekbone.

"I... um... I-I don't think 'friend' is the right word for him. Or, was. I mean, in high school, yeah, but after..."

"Oh."

"Um... yeah." I swallowed thickly. "We kept in touch after high school. When he dropped out of LSU because he didn't have the grades to back his sports scholarship, he came back here and asked to move in with me, but he didn't know that we were roommates already and I didn't want to invite a third roommate into our house without asking you, which, honestly, was not a conversation I wanted to have, so I just told him I'd asked you and you said no. He moved in with one of his other friends up here anyway, and we still talked, just now in person again. And then two years ago in September, the twenty-nineth to be exact, he came out to me as gay. He seemed really afraid of even just saying it, so I tried to calm him down by telling him my sexuality. He turned it around and suggested we got together, and I... said yes, so, we got together. Things were okay for a few months, we didn't say anything to anybody, just waiting to see if the thing between us would work out. But there was always something kind of... off about him. He was always looking around the corner, always watching everything around him, really only talking to me when we were alone. He didn't even text me. Really, I think he was just scared. He'd told me his dad was a big homophobe and he didn't know what would happen if his old man found out he had a boyfriend. He told me he was just being cautious. But it always seemed like the wrong kind of caution.

"About a week before Memorial Day last year, he asked me what my plans were for the holiday and got upset when I told him I was gonna have a picnic with you and Nep and my parents. He wanted me to stay with him. He and I both said... some things and then it escalated into this big huge fight and he just. Hit me. That was the start of it. We never really officially broke up, but we didn't talk at all after that and from then on, the guy he'd been living with and a bunch of his other friends created that shitty gang kind of thing that they have now and he'd send them out to tail me after work. I'm not entirely sure why he had them do it, but I think it has something to do with him hating me for my selfishness and choosing my family over him, or maybe he was afraid I would tell people about him being gay. Whatever the reason, it came to be a regular thing. It was him you punched a few weeks ago. That was actually the first time he himself had hit me since this whole thing started. Or... second, I guess. That also was probably the worst attack. You don't know how many times I had to clean myself up in the park bathroom before coming home. Which is probably why you couldn't ever pick me up from work, too, because I would always cut through yards and try to stay off the main roads after the attacks to get to the park. I used to carry cover-up in my pocket, just in case, and let me tell you, the look the cashiers gave me when I bought the shit, oh my god."

I risked a glance at him when I'd finished. His eyes were wide and his hand had long-since frozen on my cheek. I was afraid for a minute that I'd told him too much and it would change everything, too much, nothing, all at the same time. Then his arms were around me again and holding me closer and he was placing kiss after kiss on my cheek, my nose, my lips, jaw, forehead, anywhere he could. "That'th' why, then." The soft whisper met my ears and he kissed my lips again, and again, and again. I simply lay there stunned, completely in shock; pleased shock at that from all the attention I was receiving, but shock all the same. "I promith'e, KK, I won't let him hurt you again. I'll keep you th'afe from now on, okay?" Any other time, I would have gotten angry at him for being made to sound helpless, but now I just nodded as he kissed me again.

"Alth'o, I'm really pith'ed at you."

"What?" My smile slowly fading out of fear.

"You dated th'omeone for eight monthth'." Had I not been so worried, I would have laughed at his attempt at the word "months." Really, he just elongated the "th" sound. "You kept that a th'ecret. And you know, KK," he added, both his tone and his smile reinstilling hope in me, "beth't friendth' don't keep th'ecretth' from each other."

"I know," I whispered, looking away from his chilling dual-tone eyes. "I'm sorry."

"But hey, we're okay now, aren't we?" A soft kiss brought my eyes back to his. "Th'o I gueth' it'th' not really a big deal."

"I-I was just so scared to tell you because—" So much for never admitting to it. "—I was afraid you-you'd look at me differently for dating someone who didn't really seem to care even though I think he really did and he's just terrified, but I didn't want you to be afraid of me o-or..." My broken voice faltered and I felt stinging tears in the back of my eyes. Well, shit. Now I'm a complete pussy. I should just go get my award from the Trophies For the Shittiest People on Earth factory. And on top of it, I think I'm about to cry. What in the sweet almighty taintchaffing fuck is wrong with me?

"KK, shh. It wath'n't your fault. If I ever th'ee Trevor again, I think I'm gonna punch him juth't for being a shitty pieth'e of shit." At that, both a chuckle and a tear left me. Sollux laughed with me and kissed the tear away, holding me close. "Like I th'aid, KK; I'll protect you from now on, and that includeth' from th'tupid, shitty ath'holeth' like him." Rather than replying and risking a real onslaught of sobs, I buried my face in his neck and let him hold me, trying (failing) to keep the occasional tear from soaking the front of his shirt. The only thing drifting through my mind was the warm, soapy scent of Sollux as I faded into sleep.

Review, please.

Also, love the fluff. I'mma die from feels, guys.