Eridan's keys jangled noisily as he let himself inside the hive and made his way to the coffee table to set his books down. He could easily pick up on the sound of Sollux typing away on his keyboard from the room the two used as an office down the hall.
"Where the fuck have you been?" Sollux called to him without missing a beat in his typing and clicking. Eridan was about to respond when he felt another wave of bile rise to his throat. This was just not his night. With his mouth clamped shut he rushed to the nearest receptacle he could think of which happened to be the meal block sink. As his stomach attempted to empty more of its contents he heard Sollux ask, "ED?" The typing had stopped. Even while the violet blood was gasping over the sink with a trail of spit hanging from his mouth he was figuring that Sollux had to have been playing a game rather than working on coding. Had the yellow blooded troll been coding he wouldn't have even noticed Eridan getting home at all.
Just as the sea troll felt that he had finished being sick for the time being he heard light footsteps approaching. "Eridan?" Sollux asked with concern lacing his voice. Eridan turned his head away from the sink slightly, with a mess of saliva still around his mouth, to see his matesprit standing at the thresh hold of the meal block looking quite startled.
"Oh shit!" Sollux exclaimed when he noticed what a mess the other troll was. He hurried to grab a clean dishrag and bring it over to where Eridan stood hunched over the sink. After running the rag under the water he began gently wiping away the mess around the high blood's lips. "What'th wrong?" he asked softly.
"Just not feelin' so hot tonight," Eridan groaned.
"Do I need to take you to a doctor?" Sollux asked getting worried.
"No!" Eridan couldn't help his knee jerk response. He realized how panicked he may have sounded by the slight upturn of the eyebrows Sollux gave him. "I mean, no we don't need to do that. It's probably just somethin' I ate. I'm sure I should feel better tomorrow," he lied. He knew he needed to tell Sollux the truth but the words just wouldn't come to him. The yellow blood seemed to accept his story.
"Well let'th at leatht get you into the 'coon. You should probably retht you look like shit," Sollux told him rather bluntly. Eridan was too exhausted to fight back and, if he was being honest with himself, he probably did look like shit. He let his matesprit press his hand lightly to the small of his back and guide him to the respite block.
He attempted to cover his front as much as possible while he stripped and climbed into the recuperacoon. Once he was fully submerged in the slime Sollux leaned down to place a kiss on his forehead. Eridan could've sworn he felt the Gemini inhale deeply as his lips made contact with his skin. Sollux pulled away from him slowly and gazed at him intensely with his heterochromatic eyes. The violet blood looked back at him uncertainly and under the thick slime his hands gravitated to rest on the definitely there small bump of his lower stomach. The intensity remained in Sollux's eyes as he leaned towards Eridan again, this time planting a soft kiss on the sea troll's neck just below his gills. Eridan was certain that he heard the other troll inhale deeply against his neck. A shiver ran down the high blood's spine. Sollux locked eyes with his matesprit for a moment once he had pulled away from the other's neck.
"I'm, uh, jutht going to finish thith campaign with KK then I'll come to the 'coon," the yellow blood said sounding as though he was not entirely sure why he was behaving in such a way.
"Alright," Eridan replied before working on getting into a cozy position to sleep in. Sollux left the room, turning the light off as he went leaving Eridan in the dark to sleep. As the violet blood began drifting off to sleep he thought, 'Tomorrow. I'll tell him tomorrow. I just found out today anyway so what harm could one more day do?'
'I'll just tell him tomorrow,' Eridan thought to himself a week later as he lay curled up on the couch wearing loose fitting lounge clothes and reading one of the books he had gotten from the library. He had been repeating the same thought to himself every night for seven nights straight. Every time he thought about broaching the subject with Sollux he always got anxious and decided that putting it off one more day couldn't hurt. The only problem was it was hurting.
Even though Eridan's egg bump wasn't very big yet it was noticeable that his stomach wasn't exactly as flat as it normally would be. He was so paranoid about Sollux noticing the change that he kept making excuses to get out of being intimate with him. He avoided changing in front of him and panicked whenever the yellow blood's hands got anywhere near his stomach while they were curled up together in the recuperacoon. He was sure that Sollux could tell something was up. Luckily he was never as sick as he was the day he found out the news. Occasional waves of nausea would hit but nothing too serious.
While he was busy hiding his pregnancy from his matesprit, he was also coming more to terms with it. The gravity of the situation had finally set in and now that he knew his symptoms were not caused by indigestion but by eggs developing within him he felt a bit overwhelmed. He often found himself resting his hands on the small bump and couldn't help but feel a sense of attachment to whatever rested inside. Slowly but surely he was growing more comfortable with the fact that he was carrying eggs.
A few days later Eridan was ready. He was going to tell Sollux the truth no matter what. His egg bump was only going to keep getting bigger so his options were to either tell him right now or tell him later when he could no longer hide it. Either way, Sollux was going to have to know about it.
The Aquarius had been out running errands and buying groceries when he returned to the hive to see his matesprit lounging on the couch lazily watching a documentary on lusii. Eridan always felt uncomfortable with the subject of lusii due to his past history with them. His duty of feeding Feferi's custodian had long since been passed on to some other troll that was much younger than him. Even Feferi wasn't really involved with the mammoth creature anymore now that she had grown into an adult like the rest of their group of friends. "Hey Sol," he greeted as he carried the bags of groceries in to the meal block. Sollux lifted one of his arms into the air and gave a half assed wave. This was it. He was going to tell him. First he had to ease into conversation.
"How was your evening?" the sea troll asked as calmly as he could. He busied himself with putting the groceries away. If he made eye contact with the other troll right now he would lose his nerve.
"It wath alright," Sollux said from the couch.
"Oh that's good," Eridan responded absently. He had to stop what he was doing and just grip the counter. His hands were shaking too badly to put anything else away.
"Tho thith thing I've been watching hath me remembering what it wath like with my luthus back in the day," Sollux called to him from where he was sitting.
"Yeah?" Eridan responded trying to keep the tremble out of his voice.
"Yeah," the yellow blood continued. "I don't know how it wath with your luthus but mine wath ridiculouthly high maintenanthe."
"I didn't really have to do much for my lusus," Eridan admitted. "I did feel that he was a bit rude at times," he added somewhat bitterly. The high blood began to relax a bit while he let the conversation distract him from the topic he was planning on bringing up.
"Fuck, I with I could've been that lucky!" Sollux complained.
"Why? What did yours do?" the Aquarius asked curiously.
"Gog, what didn't he do?" Sollux groaned in frustration. "I had to keep him chained to the roof of my hive, if that giveth you any clue ath to how bat shit inthane he wath."
"Oh," was all Eridan could think to say in his surprise.
"Not to mention the fact that I had to conthtantly feed him mind honey. You know how dangerouth it ith for me to handle that thtuff. Ath if it wathn't enough dealing with it for my computerth." Sollux let out a sigh and rubbed his eyes underneath his glasses. "I mean, part of me thort of mitheth him but Gog damn, I do not mith having that rethponthibility." Something about the way the yellow blood said those last words didn't quite sit right with Eridan.
"What exactly do you mean?" the sea troll prodded.
"Like, I don't mith having to conthtantly take care of thomeone elthe," Sollux explained and leaned his head towards Eridan to give him a crooked grin. "You know I can barely take care of mythelf let alone thomeone elthe that ith entirely dependent on me." Eridan felt a lump of fear rise to his throat but Sollux continued to dig the hole deeper. "I'd shoot mythelf if I had to deal with taking care of my luthus again." The psionic turned his attention back to the program he had been watching. "Bethideth," he added off handedly, "it'th nithe jutht living alone with you and being independent, don't you think?" There was a stretch of silence as Eridan stood in the meal block frozen in shock. He eventually quipped a quick 'mhm' in response and realized that his claws were beginning to dig into the counter top.
As the violet blood attempted to hold off the full scale anxiety attack he could feel coming on he managed to force himself to say, "I'll be right back. I forgot to pick something up." Within seconds he was out the door to the hive, leaving Sollux a bit confused. Eridan plunged his hand into his pocket as he walked at a brisk pace and pulled out his phone. It was difficult to see the screen through all the tears in his eyes but he managed to shoot a quick text to Kanaya letting her know he was on the way.