A heavy silence filled the room. Eridan looked from Kanaya to Sollux expectantly.
"The firtht egg broke," Sollux said quietly.
"What?" Eridan nearly shrieked in disbelief. "How? When?"
Kanaya noticed Sollux's discomfort with recounting that particular moment and decided to intervene. "Do you recall how difficult it was getting the first egg out?" she asked cautiously.
"Of course I do,' Eridan replied petulantly.
"The egg simply could not withstand the pressure, dear."
Eridan stayed silent as he processed everything. Sollux shifted a bit under the weight of the sea troll in his arms. "Sol, put me in the nursery with the eggs," he instructed finally. He would've walked in there carrying the eggs himself but after hours of labor he felt too weak to stand on his own.
"Eridan you really should get to your recuperacoon to rest," Kanaya warned.
"I'll fuckin' rest in the nursery with my eggs."
"Very well," Kanaya sighed in defeat. "Sollux, bring him to the nursery and we will get him and the eggs situated." By this point Sollux was too exhausted to be disappointed that he wasn't going to get to sleep with his matesprit yet another day. He just wanted to put the sea troll down somewhere before his arms fell off and then curl up and go to sleep.
Sollux followed Kanaya into the storage room-turned nursery. The plan for the room had been to emulate the brooding caves as much as possible in order to create the best hatching environment for the eggs. The lighting in the room was dim and a humidifier along with a few extra fans had the room feeling slightly damp and chilly. Several rocks of varying sizes were scattered about and Kanaya was kneeling down beside a shallow kiddie pool placing the three eggs into the water.
"The eggs have to stay in water?" Eridan asked as Sollux set him down beside the pool.
"If they were normal eggs conceived by two sea dwellers, yes. I am going to be treating them as such just in case any different handling is detrimental to- wait, Eridan what are you doing?"
Eridan had crawled into the shallow pool with the eggs and curled himself around them. It almost looked as if a violet tear had slipped down his face but was washed away by the water in the pool before anyone could be sure. Sollux leaned forward and placed a kiss on Eridan's wet forehead then gently ran his hand over the shells of the eggs the sea troll held against his stomach. He really hoped they weren't all dead.
Sollux could have sat there beside the pool watching his matesprit lay with their eggs forever but he felt a nudge from Kanaya.
"We should give him some time to rest," the jade blood suggested. She didn't miss the look of melancholy that settled over Eridan as he ran his fingers over the eggs. One. Two. Three- nothing more. Sollux nodded in agreement.
"I'll be back in a little while to thee if you need anything ED," the Gemini said before following Kanaya out of the room.
"You need to go get some sleep Mr. Captor. You really need it."
"I'll be fine," he waved his hand dismissively.
"Sollux," the Virgo warned.
"What are you? My luthuth?"
"I will stay here as long as you need me to in order to help take care of things while Eridan recovers. You go get some rest and I will check in on him in a little while." Sollux grumbled but finally agreed and shuffled off to his recuperacoon.
Kanaya decided to busy herself with a bit of tidying up. Just as she began putting dishes away a pounding was heard from the front door. The Virgo was suddenly worried about the noise waking Sollux up and who knew how he would react to another troll near the hive. She hurried to the door and yanked it open.
"Finally! It's about god damn time one of you bulge suckers- Kanaya?"
"Shh! Please lower your voice Karkat," Kanaya pleaded after Karkat had decided to greet whoever opened the door to the hive with an impassioned rant.
"What in fuck's name are you doing here?" Karkat demanded. "And does this hive have the shittiest reception known to troll kind or does it just become this black hole for cellular devices where no one has the means of answering their phone?"
"Really Karkat you can not be here right now. How about we take a little walk and you can tell me what you need," Kanaya suggested.
"Why in the fuck are you being so secretive? Is there something going on in there?" Karkat glared then seemed to realize something. "Wait, does this have to do with Ampora's mystery illness? Is he fucking dying?" The shorter troll just did not have the capability of lowering his voice.
"Well yes, it does have to do with that but-"
The air in the room was suddenly thick with static. Kanaya felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end and she let out a shiver. "We shall talk as we go for a walk," she said as she took the Cancer's wrist and led him away from the hive.
"What the hell Kanaya?" Karkat protested as he was dragged away. "I have things to tell the other two assholes in that hive!"
"I am afraid I will have to relay the message for you."
"Is fish fuck contagious or some shit?" he asked incredulously.
"I can not say for sure," Kanaya supplied to keep up the rouse.
"So then Sollux would have it too?"
"I do have him quarantined just to be certain," she told him in a serious tone.
"Are they- are they going to die?" the short troll asked worriedly.
"Oh my goodness no!" Kanaya nearly laughed before realizing she was compromising the cover story. "I mean, they have me looking after them," she amended. Karkat still gave her a skeptical look but stopped walking.
"Look, I came out here for a fucking reason." Kanaya came to a stop next to him and was alarmed by the sudden seriousness of his tone. "It just really sucks that none of you answered Feferi's group chat." He ran his hand through his already messy hair in anxiety.
"What has happened, Karkat?" Kanaya asked in fear.
"She's been challenged," he stated. "She just went to go fight the empress. She wanted to let us all know and say goodbye just in case," he said sadly. "She especially wanted to say goodbye to those two shit for brains," he gestured back towards Eridan and Sollux's hive, "given their past history together."
"It is indeed unfortunate that we could not answer," Kanaya said sullenly.
"Yeah," Karkat continued, "she also warned us that she heard from a reliable source that the drones are supposed to be making their rounds soon."
"What?" Kanaya gasped in shock.
"She said she was going to try to beat the Condesce before they were sent out but, you know," the Cancer trailed off. Neither troll wanted to voice that there was a chance their friend wouldn't make it out of the battle alive.
"Are you going to be okay if the drones do come?" the jade blood inquired nervously. Karkat shrugged.
"I mean, it's not like the drones are checking for colors when they come around to collect," he said. "They don't give a shit if a rust fills a pail with a fuchsia as long as something is collected. It's when that pail reaches the Mother Grub that they will realize something doesn't compute with my contribution. That's when we're fucked. It's not just me that's fucked- it's Terezi too. They will know that she knew. I mean, I guess we could always play the 'she's blind and had no idea' card so that way maybe they would spare her…" he was beginning to ramble in a panicked way.
"Karkat," Kanaya cut in. The shorter troll snapped his attention to her. "Just try to remain calm. Give me some time and we will try to figure a way out of this. We still do not know for sure if they will come," she reasoned.
"Yeah, alright," the Cancer nodded. "Well just let fish face and the double dork know about everything I told you. I guess tell them I hope they get better soon," he added the last part in a grumble.
"I will," Kanaya assured. "Take care of yourself Karkat." The shorter troll nodded and headed off toward the direction of his own hive. The Virgo turned back to Sollux and Eridan's hive to deliver the news.
As soon as she had closed the door behind her she froze in place. It wasn't an intentional act on her part, but rather, she found her body incapable of moving past the front entryway. The air around her appeared to ripple and felt thick with static. She whipped her head over to the nearby couch and saw Sollux perched on the arm of the furniture piece. His eyes were glowing brightly behind his bicolored glasses as he used his psionics to restrain her at the doorway. His face was hard to read. He appeared impassive for the most part but one had to be very careful with someone who had as much power as he did.
"Sollux?" Kanaya asked cautiously.
"You were right, GA. I jutht can't deal with having anyone elthe at the hive," he acquiesced. "I don't want to hurt you but it theemth that I am having a hard time controlling what my inthticth are telling me to do." Kanaya breathed out in relief. She wasn't in any immediate danger the Gemini was merely issuing a very strong warning.
"I understand," she accepted. "Before I go I must tell you something."
"I'm lithening," Sollux said without letting up on his psionic hold.
"Karkat just came by to tell us all that the group chat from earlier was Feferi's way of telling all of us that she has been challenged to the battle," Kanaya told him.
"Shit," he hissed bitterly. He wished he had the opportunity to tell her goodbye.
"She also informed everyone that the drones are set to be making their rounds soon. If she defeats the Condesce in time we will not have to worry about them, but if not it could pose a very huge threat to you and Eridan and your eggs. It will also pose a threat for Karkat and Terezi." Kanaya felt the psionics around her weaken significantly.
"Fuck!" Sollux shouted sliding down from the arm of the couch. "What the fuck are we thuppothed to do? Eridan and I are in both fucking concupithcent quadranth together. Even if we could thomehow pull off filling both bucketh he jutht fucking laid eggth! He can't pail in thith condition!"
"Sollux-"
"We already contributed to the expansion of our thpecieth ath evidenthed by the three fucking troll eggth in the other room but nobody can fucking know about it becauthe-"
"Sollux!" Kanaya cried out causing the yellow blood to abruptly cease his pacing. Kanaya removed her trembling hand from her check and looked at the jade on her fingers. Sollux blanched as he realized that his emotional tirade had caused his psionics to spark out of control which culminated in a stray tendril lashing out at the Virgo.
"Kanaya," he breathed, "I am tho thorry."
"It's fine," she replied wiping away any blood from her face. She was shaken but not angry or upset. "I will take my leave but try not to worry about what I told you too much."
"But how can I-"
"You just focus on being with your matesprit and ensuring those eggs stay cozy until they hatch. We will be in touch," she smiled.
"I'll do my betht," said Sollux.
"I will leave my bag here in case you and Eridan can use anything in it." She opened the door and turned around. "Take care Sollux."