Eridan awoke in the morning with his face pressed into Sollux's abdominal muscles— they were surprisingly prominent— and his fingers entwined in the fabric of Sollux's shirt. He didn't know what to make of this, since his mind was quite clouded and his recollection of last night was almost nonexistent. He was confused and wasn't sure what to do— should he push away, or perhaps snuggle closer? Stay where he was and breathe as little as possible? He opted for the last choice, only now becoming aware of Sollux's hand on his back.

"How did I even get here?" He whispered almost inaudibly to himself. The hangover he had was giving him a splitting headache, and he could feel the room spinning around him. This alone was enough to make him cling to Sollux tighter and groan in exasperation. So much for his "not moving, not breathing" idea. That was stupid anyway.

"You only brought the hangover on yourself, Eridan."

Eridan jumped slightly when he heard Sollux speak. A deep purple blush burned on his cheeks and he brought his face away from Sollux's body, nearly falling backward off of the couch.

Sollux hands flew to catch him and drag him back up. "Whoa, take it easy! You're okay, Eridan."

"What am I even doin' here?" Eridan knew the hangover was his fault, but he didn't remember much besides drinking and being outside.

"Well," Sollux drawled, "you texted me at one in the morning saying that it hurt to breathe and you didn't know where you were. I came out and found you under a fucking bridge that you were thinking about jumping off of. I put you in my car because I refused to leave you like that. You fell asleep while I was carrying you up the stairs and here we are."

Eridan's scowl grew deeper and deeper as Sollux recounted the night's events. God, he felt stupid. Sollux trailed off when he noticed Eridan's pained expression.

"You okay?"

"No, Sol, I'm a fuckin' idiot. What was I possibly thinkin'? I thought I had beaten thoughts like that." He rested his head against Sollux's lap and covered his face with one long-nailed hand.

"C'mon, Ed, it's not that bad," Sollux murmured. "We all make mistakes— wait. You mean you've been through something like this before?"

"Yeah, an' it ain't somethin' I'm exactly proud of, either."

"You've just hit a low point in your life right now, Eridan," Sollux explained. "You'll get better. You have to."

"I really don't think I will. I don't feel like there's any hope left for me."

Sollux looked down at Eridan, glaring deeply into his eyes, searching for any sign at all that his sorrow and self-loathing hadn't completely taken over him. When he found none, his brows knit together in concern. "Eridan…"

"What? Havin' a hard time facin' the truth, Sol? Don't you see that nothin's ever gonna get better for me? No one's ever been able to stand me, no one ever wants to be around me, no one cares whether I live or die—"

"I do! You selfish asshole, I care!" Sollux dragged him up by the collar of the shirt so that he was practically screaming in his face. "I wouldn't have tracked you down at one in the fucking morning or brought you here to make sure you didn't do something stupid if I didn't give a shit whether you lived or died! Would you open your fucking eyes, Ampora? I've saved your damn life twice now, how can you not think at least one person cares about you?"

Eridan looked away from Sollux's eyes in shame.

"Look at me, Eridan, please," Sollux begged, his tone softening considerably. He didn't. "Eridan, I'm worried about you. You just seem to be getting worse with every passing day. Why can't you see that, contrary to what you believe, someone out there cares about you?"

Eridan didn't reply.

"Answer. Me."

He just closed his eyes. This was frustrating Sollux to the point of tears.

"Why won't you speak?"

"Because I don't know how to respond to what you're askin' me."

At least he got some kind of answer out of Eridan.

"I want to keep an eye on you, Ed. I'm not going to let you get this low ever again. I'll fucking lock you in my house with me if I have to. We will play videogames until our think pans fucking turn into mush. I will make sure you're focused on other things."

"Why do you care so much, Sol?"

This again?

"Because you're my friend. That's why. Friends look out for each other."

Eridan felt an overwhelming pang of guilt in his chest. He flung his arms around Sollux's neck and dragged himself up to press his face into his shoulder, mumbling, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

Sollux blushed a bit at the sudden embrace, thankful that Eridan could no longer see him. He wrapped his own arms around the other troll awkwardly and patted his back. "I know. I know you are," he whispered back.

"Could you take me home?"

"Only if you swear you'll call or text if you start feeling this badly again."

"I promise."

"Good. And one more thing: promise me you'll stop drinking so much."

"I'll try."

"Promise. Me. Eridan." Sollux was dead serious, and Eridan could tell, even though he couldn't see his face.

"Alright, I… I promise."

"Good," Sollux repeated firmly. He pressed Eridan's body to him briefly, then unwrapped his arms from around him. Eridan shifted so that he was sitting up next to Sollux, covering his face so that he couldn't see the violet blush that was once again burning on his cheeks. "C'mon, let's get you home. You'll have to give me directions, because I don't know where you're living now."

Eridan peered at him through his fingers. "It ain't too far from here. Let me wake up a bit first an' then we'll go."

Sollux glanced at Eridan, getting a truly good look at him for the first time. His hair was longer now, as were his horns. He actually looked rather handsome, as much as Sollux hated to admit it. Despite his disheveled hair, wrinkled clothing, and puffy, bloodshot eyes, Sollux was still finding him very attractive.

And this concerned him.

—-

Eridan had directed Sollux to his own home without much of a hitch. When Sollux saw it, he gaped, awestruck. It looked like something out of a human fairytale; a winding cobblestone path lined with flowers leading up to a two-story white-brick house with large windows, a couple of balconies, and elegant-looking front doors. Sollux let out a low whistle, catching a scent like a mixture of flowers and sea breeze; the latter was probably because the ocean was nearby.

"Ed, you live here?"

"Yep. Do you want to come in?"

"Nah, I've actually got work to do, but maybe some other time."

"Right," Eridan whispered, looking slightly dejected. But he quickly perked back up. "Well, anyway, thanks for everythin'. I'll text you later."

Before he could stop himself, he leaned forward and placed a small kiss on Sollux's cheek. They both blushed deeply and Eridan practically jumped out of Sollux's car and sprinted inside.

Sollux's hand slowly rose to his face, his eyes fixed on Eridan's front door and his fingers lightly skirting over the area where Eridan had kissed him. He still felt his lips there as he was driving home, he had butterflies in his stomach for the rest of the day, and could barely concentrate on work because his thoughts kept migrating back to Eridan. Sollux found himself checking his phone every five minutes to see if he had texted him, and felt a slight twinge of disappointment whenever he saw that his inbox was empty. He felt like an adolescent with a major crush again, which made him laugh a little bit at himself.

—-

After Eridan ran inside, he stood there with his back pressed against the door, heart pounding and mind racing. Was that too forward of him, did it upset Sollux? He waded through the day with Sollux on the edges of his mind and a coffee cup firmly attached to one hand. If he couldn't drink alcohol, he would drink coffee, if only to help with the hangover. He tried to sketch a picture of his garden, but every drawing turned out to be Sollux's face. He didn't crumple the papers— he couldn't bring himself to do so.

Later in the evening, Eridan decided to finally call Sollux instead of just texting him.

The phone rang all of one time before Sollux answered with a slightly overenthusiastic, "Hey!"

"Hey, Sol. Listen, uh… Sorry about earlier."

"Hm? Oh, wait, you mean kissing me? Oh, don't worry about that, okay? I'm not upset."

"You're not?"

"Nope. Why would I even have reason to be? You were just thanking me."

"Yeah. About that. Could we maybe… meet somewhere for some coffee or somethin'? I've got some things I want to discuss with you."

"Yeah, sure, we can talk. There's something I need to tell you too."

Eridan swallowed. "Cool, yeah. So how does next week sound?"

"Wednesday morning work for you?"

"Yeah, Wednesday mornin's perfect."

"Great."

Eridan breathed a sigh of relief and smiled for the first time since Feferi had broken his nose.

"Hey, Ed?"

"Hm?"

"Thanks for calling me."

"You're welcome, but… why?"

"I was just worrying about you. I've been doing that a lot today."

"Oh. Well, I'm okay."

"And sober?"

"Jittery, but yeah. Sober too."

"Jittery?"

"I downed about two pots o' coffee today because I was exhausted an' hung over."

"Jittery makes sense now. I would say sleep, but you're talking at fucking hyperspeed so something tells me that isn't in your near future."

"Yeah. Can you talk for a little longer?"

"I guess these codes can wait an hour or so."

Sollux and Eridan talked about little, stupid things on the phone for well over three hours, trying to find out what the other liked now. Eridan discovered that they had some similar tastes in music and videogames. Sollux found out that Eridan was a true science enthusiast now, having passions for chemistry, biology, and botany. He even kept a garden, not just for study, but also due to his new love of beauty. They mostly talked about videogames and music, though, and Sollux realized that when Eridan was comfortable— not to mention hyper— he could be rather chatty.

"So," Sollux started, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes after a witty remark Eridan had made, "I'll see you next week?"

"Yep. Café on the corner."

"It's a date. Goodnight, Eridan."

"G-g'night, Sol."

Eridan's cheeks were flushed as he went to take a quick shower before bed. A date? Did he mean that? As Eridan changed into his nicest pajamas— silken lavender ones— and laid back on his bed, a large grin spread across his face.

"Damn right, it's a date," he mumbled, switching off the light on the end table adjacent to his bed and feeling giddier than he had in a long time.