This was the day Eridan Ampora went back to the Core.

Morning came before he wanted it to. And so he pretended it wasn't there. He shut his eyes against the sun and dozed, only to be roused by its rays some indeterminate amount of time later. And he'd be in a different position then. But always with varying degrees of himself tucked in Sollux's arms. Sometimes it would be his entire chest. Others it would be just an arm or a wrist. Once only a forefinger was wrapped in the warmth of Sollux's palm. They didn't stay like that for more than half a moment before Eridan rolled toward Sollux and seized him in an embrace. They exchanged a sleepy kiss or two or three before Eridan laid his head back down on the pillows and dropped off once more.

The next time he was roused, it was not by the sun or even the heat of the August air as it gave way to midday. Instead it was a fluttering warmth against his chest. Then a chill. He blinked, trying to focus his bleary vision. By the time he was able to make out the pillow-fluffed black hair and sleepy smirk, Sollux had already kissed his way down to Eridan's stomach.

Then he ducked lower, and Eridan was suddenly very much awake. His fingers curled in the sheets as he felt those warm, wet lips ghost over him. They rocked together, and in one, two, three languid strokes of Sollux's tongue, Eridan was gone, his toes curling and fingers tangling in the soft locks between his thighs.

Once he had groaned himself into tingling silence, he hauled Sollux back up to his chest. Eridan could feel the grin against his skin as a sleep-gruff voice murmured into his sternum.

"That was easy."

"Shut your fuckin' mouth."

Sollux's response to that was to clamp his lips over Eridan's. It earned him an indignant splutter, but he never broke the kiss. He just chuckled through his nose and slid his palms up Eridan's sides and soon they were making a tiny chorus of groans. Eridan had just gotten started returning Sollux's morning favor with a few lazy strokes of his hand when the doorbell rang.

"Ah, fuckin' shit," he gasped as he broke away from a particularly dizzying kiss.

Sollux's response was to shut his eyes and lean forward to let their lips meet again. Eridan pushed him away.

"The doorbell is ringin'," he remarked.

"So ignore it."

"I can't fuckin' ignore it, Sol, this is a matter a fuckin' propriety."

Sollux tried for another kiss, but he was met with a mouthful of pillow as Eridan rolled out from beneath him and staggered off the bed. Sollux lifted his head back up and glowered as Eridan began hopping into his underwear and a pair of jeans.

"I hate you so much right now," he remarked with a groggy lisp.

Eridan yanked on a shirt before planting a kiss on the top of Sollux's fuming head. "It's not like I'm gonna invite them in for fuckin' pancakes. I'm just goin' to open the door and calmly tell whoever it is to fuck off until about the next lunar cycle."

Sollux's frown curled into a grin. "I thought this was a matter of propriety."

"Given what they interrupted, I'd call it a matter a fuckin' charity at this point." His voice brimmed with impish laughter.

Sollux stretched and settled himself back down on the pillows. "All right. I hate you significantly less now."

Eridan's eyes drifted over his skin, drinking in the way the slats in the blinds made gold bars of light that bent over every angle on Sollux's wiry body. He dipped down and kissed the sharp bone of his hip. His reward was a soft sigh, and it made Eridan grin against Sollux's sun-warmed skin.

"Does that mean you'll let me finish our little cuddlin' session when I get back?" he asked, looking up.

Sollux regarded him with a lidded smile that reminded Eridan of a cream-fed cat. "Maybe."

Eridan grinned and gave Sollux's hip another kiss before the doorbell chimed again. He sighed, straightening and ducking toward his mirror to give his hair a brief smoothing. He quickly decided it had been a mistake to look at his reflection at all. The bruise on his cheek and nose had now darkened from red to an ugly purple. He tried to smile and tell himself that at least it was his favorite color, but that vein of optimism was about as effective as attempting to make his swollen grin symmetrical. He sighed so heavily he swore he lost a piece of his soul.

The doorbell rang again.

"Are you going to answer that or just admire yourself until they decide to leave?"

"There is nothing about this face which warrants admirin' right now, Sol," Eridan groaned, trying to push his hair into something that at least resembled groomed.

"Jesus Christ, Eridan, just go and fulfill your fucking decorum or whatever the hell answering the door is going to do for you, because I swear to god I am starting to feel that damned ringing in the roots of my teeth."

"Fine, fuckin' relax," Eridan snapped. He gave his hair another brief smoothing before he dashed out of the room and opened the front door.

And immediately slammed it shut again.

Or he would have, if a huge grass-stained foot hadn't gotten between it.

"Mornin' best motherfuckin' friend."

Gamzee stuck his head around the door, giving Eridan a lazy smile, one hand raised in greeting as usual. As he pushed his way inside, Eridan somehow managed to register the pie tin clutched in his other hand while simultaneously scrambling backwards into the kitchen. He opened the drawers and refrigerator door as a sort of barricade before reaching into the sink and grabbing a soapy spoon.

"Stay back!" he cried. "I am fuckin' armed!"

"You sure motherfuckin' are, my friend, I ain't got myself to be seeing two more functional limbs in all my time as I've been alive on this earth." He smiled, stopping just outside the kitchen where Eridan was backed up against the stove, wielding his dripping spoon.

"What do you want?" Eridan demanded, brandishing his weapon. "If it's a fight, you better think twice because I am a force to be fuckin' reckoned with when I am on my guard. And that is what I am right now. I am on my guard. Like, fuckin' standin' on it, right on top of it, and I will fuckin' mess you up if you get any closer."

Gamzee smiled and slid one of the drawers shut. Eridan yelled and flung his spoon at his attacker's face. It clattered to the floor and Gamzee shuffled forward, nudging the refrigerator door closed with his foot. Eridan grabbed another spoon from the sink. He mentally cursed himself for his habit of never cooking anything that required sharper cutlery.

"Now, now, there ain't any motherfuckin' need to be getting violent," Gamzee said, stopping before Eridan and gazing down from his towering height. He then plucked up the spoon shivering under his nose and set it down on the counter.

Eridan quailed, defenseless. "What do you even want from me? Was last night not enough for you? Have you come to finish the job, is that it?"

"I don't got any jobs to be finishing up with," Gamzee replied. "I just came to bring you this here baked delight. It's all smiling like it's happy to see you because it's friends just like the two of us motherfuckers are."

Eridan could do nothing except yield to the pie tin as it was pushed into his hands. He stared down at it, looking at the smiley face that Gamzee had cut into the top layer of crust. He made a faint choking noise.

"I even made it up to be purple just how you get all to be enjoying of having your things colored. And I was careful not to put in the blueberries. I remembered that those don't get to be all agreeing with your insides sometimes. Not like the two of us. We're a couple of choice bros who are up to our motherfuckin' eyeballs in agreement and camaraderie."

Gamzee's smile was so serene that Eridan almost didn't notice the huge hand as it fell on his shoulder. Almost. He stared at it as the fingers clenched, and he winced, expecting a vice-like grip. But instead it was only a reassuring squeeze. Eridan blinked his eyes open and turned them back to Gamzee's face. That lidded grin was still affixed there, under the unruly mop of dark hair.

"So are we just not gonna discuss anything that happened last night?" Eridan's voice was smaller than he'd meant it to sound.

He received another squeeze to his shoulder. "Ain't nothing as happened last night that needs discussing. It's all like how it would be if you had a blackboard in your brain like the kind they got in schools and the teacher all tells the motherfuckin' kid to go clean that shit off. And so he does, and all the math that was got to be occupying that slate is wiped right up on one of them dirty sponges. So I made you this motherfuckin' pie, bro."

Eridan's gaze fell to the pastry in his hands. "Somehow that doesn't make a whole lot of logical sense, but right now I'm pretty chiefly concerned with not gettin' punched in the face again, so I'll just agree with you."

"See?" Gamzee's grin widened. "I told you we were up to our motherfuckin' brainstems in friendship. And if you eat that pie, you'll feel it fill all up in your veins like motherfuckin' sunlight and magic. Then you can get that motherfuckin' student to be all wiping up at your brain slate too."

It was about then that Eridan realized that the pie was definitely poisoned.

He stared, his eyes so wide he thought they might fall out of his head as Gamzee backed away, pulling his hand from Eridan's shoulder.

"I got to get myself back to my own place of residence, but you get your enjoy on of that, all right my brother?"

Eridan made a sort of gurgling sound in response. That seemed to be all Gamzee needed, and he gave Eridan a huge smile before raising his hand in farewell and backing out the door.

Eridan stared at the pie in his hands as if snakes had suddenly burst through the crust. Holding it at arm's length, he rushed back to the bedroom, kicking the door open so violently it bounced off the wall.

Sollux was sitting on the bed, still casually naked with his computer perched on his lap. His earbuds were in, the music in them pulsing so loud that Eridan could hear it from half a room away. Still holding the pan, he leaned over the bed and yanked one out. Sollux hissed and glared.

"Fuck! What was that for?"

"For bein' an irreconcilable piece a shit, mostly," Eridan snarled. "I was almost assaulted in the kitchen, thanks for noticin'."

Sollux blinked. "Wait, are you being serious? Who was at the door?"

"Gam was!" Eridan cried. He was pleased to see the way Sollux blanched, and it spurred him to continue. "He cornered me, all six-foot-fuckin'-monstrosity of him, and started spewin' shit about a blackboard or whatever and then he gave me this."

He produced the pie with a flourish. Sollux stared, the color rapidly returning to his cheeks.

"Uh-huh. So basically all is forgiven," he remarked blandly.

"Or it isn't," Eridan snapped. "This is fuckin' poisoned, all right, he's still got it out for me, Sol, I can fuckin' tell."

Sollux rolled his eyes. "Right."

"Or it's drugged or something. The way he started goin' on about how it was gonna fill me up with friendship and magic just sounded really fuckin' off. And we already know he's got at least a few screws loose, okay, you even agreed with me that there was something really weird about the way he just attacked me last night."

Sollux sighed, snapping his laptop shut. "Am I really going to have to hold your fucking hand through every interaction with living beings that you manage to dredge up? I mean, did you even stop to consider the fact that this is likely just some weird apologetic gesture before you catapulted yourself headlong into paranoia?"

"If this is you tryin' to tell me that I am shit at readin' people and so my fear here is completely baseless, then let me just remind you a the discussion we had last night. That was where you also admitted to bein' fuckin' garbage at interpersonal shit. So that means your readin' a the situation is just as likely as mine, okay, and there is something wrong with this pie, I can fuckin' smell it."

Sollux slapped his hands to his face and dragged them down. "Oh my god. Are you being serious? Is this actually sincere fear? Can you honestly look at this smiling pie and think, 'This is definitely going to kill me.'"

Eridan pursed his lips. "The smile makes me that much more certain."

"Jesus," Sollux groaned.

"I'm serious!" Eridan cried, brandishing the pie under Sollux's nose. "Look at how fuckin' eerie that is, starin' up at whoever decides to eat it. It's like it fuckin' knows something, Sol, and I'm determined to figure out what it is."

"Oh my god, I am done listening to this. Give me that."

"What, no, wait, what are you doin'?"

He tried to yank the tin away, but Sollux had already reached into it and scooped out a fistful of pie. Eridan watched in horror as the crumbly purple mess disappeared into Sollux's mouth. Then his mortified gaze dropped to the smiling pastry, which was now missing an eye.

"Sollux, what the fuck? You just ate it!"

"Yes. That's a thing you do with pies," he responded, licking his fingers clean. "Wow, I actually forgot how good GZ's baking is."

He reached forward and Eridan gave a veritable shriek of indignation as he held the pie above his head. "Stop fuckin' touchin' that, at least get a fuckin' fork or something, you're makin' a mess outta my sheets."

Sollux gave him a purple grin. "Glad to see you're so concerned about my life, considering I just ate that deadly poisoned pie."

"I am not fuckin' kidding you right now, if you touch this pie again—Sol, goddammit!"

He yanked the pie up further, but his disadvantage of a few inches was all Sollux needed to reach forward and take another generous scoop from the middle of the dessert. Eridan cursed colorfully as he was treated to another crumb-caked smile.

"Oh god, here it comes," Sollux said, clutching his chest as he continued to chew. "I think I feel the poison kicking in."

Eridan gave him a glower. "Stop fuckin' around, Sol."

"I am being completely serious about how much this dastardly pie is killing me. I would never make a dramatic scene about something so severe, ED. That is one thing we have in common, actually."

Eridan tried to kick him away so he could roll off the bed in a huff, but Sollux grabbed his wrist, pulling him in close. "You'd leave me now when I'm caught in death's snare?"

Eridan lurched back as Sollux leaned up to kiss him. "Sto—stop you're gettin' blackberries everywhere, do you have any idea how much that shit stains? I am wearin' a pink shirt you thick fuck."

"So cruel, pushing me away while I try to utter my last words," Sollux said weakly from beneath Eridan's hand. "My breath is failing, ED. I think this might be it for me. I am definitely dying. Only the kiss of life could possibly save me now."

"Stop bein' an idiot," Eridan snarled, struggling to shove the grasping hands off his arm. His efforts ceased abruptly as Sollux collapsed onto the pillows beside him. That was when Eridan lunged forward to yank him back up.

"Get your purple face off a my sheets," he yelped, trying to hold Sollux's sagging frame upright.

"Tell KK…not…to touch…my video games…" Sollux wheezed before closing his eyes and falling back against the comforter. Eridan let him drop, glaring at the sprawled, naked figure beneath him. Heaving a sigh, he bent down and planted a light peck on the purple, faintly smiling lips beneath him.

The mismatched eyes fluttered open instantly, and Eridan felt a pair of arms loop around his neck, pulling him in close. "I've been resuscitated. It's a miracle."

"More like a big pain in the ass," Eridan began, but was prevented from expanding his insult by a pair of sweet, blackberry lips over his own. He let slip a smile as he sank deep into the kiss.

And quite suddenly he stopped giving a single damn about the cleanliness of his bedding.

After his clothes had all been scattered back on the floor and Sollux lay trembling and gasping beneath him, Eridan slid his watery legs over the side of the bed, hoping as much as doubting that they'd support him.. Fingers caught at his wrist.

"In a hurry to be somewhere?" If Sollux's voice was spent, it was nothing compared to his hazy, distant expression and the haphazard way his limbs were sprawled over the sheets.

Eridan offered him an apologetic smile. "Sorta. I wanted to stop back at the Core sometime today before it closed."

Sollux's gaze followed him as he pushed himself unsteadily to his feet and staggered to the dresser. "Why do you want to go back there?"

"Gotta get my guitar," Eridan replied, yanking open a drawer and pulling out some clothes. "If there's anything left of it, that is. I wouldn't be surprised if someone wanted to use it for kindling after the performance I put on last night."

Sollux pushed himself up onto his elbows, the hazy contentment in his face disappearing under a sharp seriousness. "Do you want me to come with you?"

Eridan shook his head. "No. This is my shit to sort out. You can just go hang out over by Kar in the mean time. I'm sure he's probably still flippin' out over havin' been in the same room with John for more than a few consecutive seconds."

"Or maybe I can just stay here and scope out your porn stash," Sollux replied, lifting the purple MacBook off the bedside table and opening it. Eridan rolled his eyes before turning back to the dresser to pick out a pair of briefs. As he moved to another drawer to dig out a decent cologne, Sollux's voice floated over to him again.

"I guess should get a hold of KK though. He's probably worried about you." His tone was soft. Almost despondent.

Eridan glanced back at him. "Really?"

"Yeah," Sollux replied, his eyes still fixed to the MacBook's screen. "He suffers from this rare disease called 'giving a fuck.' I've been trying to work him out of it for several years to no effect. I'm starting to fear it's terminal."

Eridan gave a small smile, looking down to the clothes in his hands. "Well, if it's really me he's worried about, you can just tell him that I'm fine if Gam is. Which I guess is the case, regardless a the fact that we haven't done any real discussin' a the issue."

"You probably never will."

"Yeah. I'm slowly figurin' that out."

They sank into a silence punctuated only by the tapping of keys and the clink of bottles. At last Sollux spoke again.

"You leave yourself logged in to our Minecraft server?"

Eridan blinked, turning back around with his selected cologne dangling between his fingers. "Oh. Yeah, I do."

Sollux frowned. "Why?"

A shrug. "Why not?"

"You're way too trusting. Your computer doesn't even require a password to log in to."

"It's not really a matter a trust," Eridan replied. "Or distrust either, for that matter. Never really had an opportunity to do either a those things for most a my life."

Sollux tore his eyes away from the screen at last, and the realization in the mismatched gaze stung Eridan enough to make him retreat towards the door.

"I'm gonna just go shower, then," he said, grabbing the handle behind him and stepping out into the hall. "You should visit Kar."

He shut the bedroom door before Sollux could make a reply. Assuming that he would have made one at all. The corners of Eridan's lips gave a rueful tug upwards before he shuffled to the bathroom.

Once he emerged, freshly scrubbed and clothed, he was both relieved and chagrined to see that Sollux had heeded his command. The bed was vacant and the tangle of faded clothing had vanished from the brown carpet. Eridan sighed, resting his head against the doorframe before finally pushing himself off and exiting the house.

He didn't lock the door behind him.

The walk to the Core was about as much of a struggle as it always was. It was reassuring. Business as usual, really. He almost smiled under the familiar palpitations and dripping sweat. It would have been something to truly worry about only if it had gotten worse. Because he had good days and bad days. Sometimes even great days.

But not better days. Never better days.

The air conditioning of the Core tasted sweet on his tongue as he finally stepped inside the coffee shop. He eased himself into a chair at his usual table by the door. Unlike the other times he had come, however, the table beside him was devoid of a book and an iced mocha and an immaculately groomed woman presiding over both. It made the store feel empty and quiet. Even though it was usually both those things anyway.

Thunk.

Eridan jerked out of his thoughts as a guitar case was slammed on the table in front of him. His gaze snapped up to the woman standing over it, and he was unsurprised to find blue mascara-rimmed eyes staring back at him.

"There you go. Got what you came for. Now you can get the hell back out."

Eridan glanced again to the instrument sitting on the table before him. He put his hands on it and drew it close. It was a few more moments still before he was able to utter a feeble, "Thanks."

Vriska shrugged, crossing her arms. "It's not like I'm doing you a favor. I just couldn't stand to see this piece of junk cluttering the place up."

"Yeah," Eridan replied before casting his gaze around. "Lookin' kinda slow today."

Vriska shifted her weight back on a heel to survey the empty shop. "Cafés where fights break out don't really pull in the biggest crowd."

Eridan looked back to his guitar. He ran his hands over it, rings scraping over the surface. "Look, Vris, I'm really sorry—"

"Sollux told you, didn't he?"

Eridan glanced up, but her gaze was ice through her glasses. He licked his lips. "Yeah, he did."

"Then there's nothing for us to talk about." She turned and strode back to the counter at the far end of the room.

After a few beats, Eridan picked up his case and followed her.

"Actually there is something," he panted as he heaved the instrument on top of the counter. She grimaced at it, but made no move to shove it back. Instead she began collecting mugs from behind the counter and wiping them off. He watched her for a moment before deciding she had no intention of acknowledging him. So he plowed ahead.

"I'd like to get a job here."

That stopped her. She looked up from her mug, her eyes wide with surprise before they narrowed. "We're not busy enough to be taking on newbies right now. No thanks to you and your fabulous marketing ploy from last night."

Eridan waved his hand as if to brush her words aside. "No, I don't need to be paid or anything like that. I'm askin' for you to host me here just to sorta train me up. Like an intern or something."

Vriska wrinkled her nose. "Don't be stupid. Nobody interns at a coffee house."

"Well, I do. Or I'd like to at least. I guess you're the final say in if I actually do or not." He paused, but Vriska's disgusted expression hadn't changed. So he carried on. "I've never worked anywhere before, so I won't lie and say I'll be a great fuckin' help to you or whatever. To be perfectly frank, I'll probably fuck more shit up than I'll do right. And I'll need to take about twice as many breaks as is usual for an employee workin' at an establishment like this, given my…condition or whatever you want to call it. But I feel like I owe this place for at least givin' me a chance, you know? Even if I did royally fuck that chance up."

Vriska's face finally melted into cold disdain. She crossed her arms and leaned back, peering at Eridan through narrowed eyes. "What can a lame useless slob like you even do?"

Eridan shrugged. "I don't know. I figured you'd be the best one to take a whack at teachin' me though."

Her flat lips cracked up in a smile. "Obviously if we're talking about the best candidate for anything, we are talking about me." She let her folded arms drop, looking Eridan up and down like a sculptor eyeing a block of clay. "You are pretty useless, but luckily for you, I happen to be the authority on making useless people awesome. And I can start doing that any time you're ready. If you still have the guts for it that is."

She leaned over the counter and sneered at him over his guitar case. He gave her his best leer in return.

"I got guts spillin' outta my ears, Vris. Come on, who do you think you're dealin' with here?"

She laughed, giving the instrument a slap before pushing herself off of the counter. "It's a good thing you've got some to spare, Eridan, because you're going to get disemboweled by this place. It's not kiddie games we're talking about here. This is mixing five different drinks at seven o'clock in the morning and ducking the angry slobber of a whole line of pre-caffeinated zombies. Think you can stomach getting your pretty rings dirty?"

"I've got a whole slew of extra rings," Eridan replied. "I can afford to get a few stained with espresso and saliva."

She smirked. "Be here by six-thirty on Monday. And don't be late. I won't waste my time on someone who can't even get that much right."

"Expect me at six of the fuckin' clock then," Eridan retorted.

Another biting laugh. "Maybe I will."

She gave his guitar case a rap and he sneered, dragging it off the counter and turning to make his way out of the shop.

As he reached the door, he heard her voice call out to him. "Hey Eridan."

He turned back.

"You're all right."

He gave a wave. "Wait until Monday to decide that one, Vris."

She tossed a crumpled napkin over the counter at him and itt landed in the middle of the room. The jingling bells mingled with the notes of their joined laughter as Eridan exited, the sound only fading once the glass door had swung shut.