Eridan maintained contact with Kanaya through Trollian to keep her informed of the eggs' well being. There were still two and a half months left until they were expected to hatch so they had done little more than just sit in the shallow pool of water while, hopefully, the grubs inside grew and developed. Sollux still felt bad about not being able to control himself to have the jade blood actually be able to stop by but Kanaya was very understanding. The main thing on most everyone's mind was what they were going to do when the drones showed up for collecting.

No one had heard any news of Feferi and the hope that she could stop the drones from coming was beginning to flicker out.

"Do you and Sollux have a plan yet?" Kanaya asked during her video call with Eridan. The high blood had brought his husktop into the meal block with him as he prepared dinner.

"Honestly, Kan," Eridan said as he placed his dish in the oven to bake, "we don't have a fuckin' clue what to do. The only strategy we can come up with is to just fill both pails and hope we are able to pull off a flip successfully enough for both pails to qualify. If we give 'em what they need hopefully they'll leave the hive without noticin' the eggs."

"Or grubs, depending on how long it takes them to come," Kanaya added. Eridan rubbed his eyes underneath his glasses.

"Cod Kan, that'll be a fuckin' nightmare tryin' to contain movin', livin' grubs long enough for me an' Sol to fuck twice then get the drones on their way." He poured himself a glass of water and took a sip. "Have you worked out what to do with Kar and Rezi yet?" Kanaya gave an uncertain look and tilted her head slightly.

"Perhaps? We were thinking of staging an attack at their hive. If it appears as though the residents of the hive were killed then it would explain why the hive would be empty. In the meantime I am trying to speak with some associates of mine to arrange for Karkat and Terezi to be hidden in one of the brooding caverns," the jade blood explained.

"That all sounds complicated," Eridan said as he took another sip of his drink.

"It is quite exhausting," the Virgo admitted. "But these are trying times and I can only hope that we will all make it through them successfully." Eridan hummed in agreement then went to peek into the oven before returning to his husktop.

"Sol won't shut up about how sorry he is that he ended up gettin' ya with his light show," the sea troll said with an eye roll.

"I have told him time and time again that I am not upset nor hurt from it," Kanaya covered her mouth to suppress a giggle. "I completely understand. I was the one to warn you about how powerful and unpredictable a troll's natural instincts can be."

"I'll see if I can beat some sense into him," the Aquarius muttered with another sip of his beverage.

"Oh, Eridan?" Kanaya asked suddenly. The violet blood lifted his eyebrows in question. "In order to stage that attack at Karkat and Terezi's hive we are going to need to use some blood. We obviously can not use Karkat's so we will need for someone to volunteer some to use in the staging."

"Whey can't you just use Terezi's?" Eridan asked with a frown.

"We are using hers but we will need one more. The hive was obviously home to two trolls. It must look as though two trolls were killed in the attack." When Eridan still appeared skeptical she added, "I can not use my own because as a jade blood it would raise suspicions."

"So you are askin' me if you can take some of my blood to splatter all over a hive?"

"In a round about way, yes."

Eridan appeared conflicted and opened his mouth to say something before closing it and turning around to the oven to remove his dish. Sollux entered the meal block and grabbed a can of soda from the fridge.

"Hey babe, that thmellth great. Ith it done? What'th wrong?" he asked as soon as he saw the way his matesprit's brow was furrowed and how he gave off the impression that he was literally biting his tongue. The yellow blood noticed the husk top sitting open on the counter with Kanaya waiting patiently on the screen.

"Hey GA, what'th up?" Sollux greeted taking a step closer to the screen.

"Hello Sollux. I was just telling Eridan that the plan we have come up with to try to hide Terezi and Karkat involves the necessity of another troll's blood," Kanaya recapped.

"Blood?"

"Indeed. The plan is to stage an attack at their hive in order to make it seem as though they were killed. We are going to place Terezi's blood around the scene of the attack but we need one other troll's blood and it can not be my own," Kanaya elaborated.

"Oh," Sollux seemed a bit surprised and glanced over towards Eridan who seemed to be busying himself with serving two portions of the dinner he had made. The pieces finally clicked into place in Sollux's mind and he looked back at Kanaya.

"You can uthe mine if you need to. Anything that'll help out KK and TZ," he offered.

"Thank you very much Sollux," Kanaya smiled gently.

"It'th the leatht I can do to help out. Bethideth, we owe you for everything you've done to help uth with our thituation," said Sollux.

"Your generosity is very much appreciated. I will be in touch when we will need the blood and we will go from there. You two have a lovely evening."

"You too," the Gemini waved.

"See ya, Kan," Eridan finally spoke up before the call disconnected.

"Are you really thtill having problemth with that?" Sollux turned to Eridan and asked as soon as the two were alone. Eridan clenched his jaw tight and reached around Sollux to get to the silverware drawer. "It could thave KK and TZ'th liveth and you thtill hesitated." Eridan extracted two forks from the drawer before slamming it shut and dropping a fork on each plate with a clatter.

"I've been fuckin' workin' on it for sweeps an' you know it! It's a damn improvement from how it once was so don't give me that shit," the sea troll picked up a plate and shoved it at Sollux. "Eat your fuckin' dinner."

"ED, we are talking bout our friendth potentially being murdered and-"

"They're just goin' to throw it on the walls or some shit! I can't just have my blood thrown about all over the walls like it's from some common low blood! It'd be a fuckin' waste to use it like that," Eridan snapped.

"It would be to throw the droneth off of KK and TZ'th trail tho they don't get culled for KK'th blood color! How ith that a wathte?" Sollux shouted back. "And don't you thtart on thith whole low blood hoof beatht shit again. Blood color doethn't matter and FF ith going to make sure of that," he asserted.

"How can we be so sure she's even still alive, Sol? Without Fef around to make it so the hemospectrum will always matter and that's the way it's always been. Learn your place- FUCK!" Sollux's fist collided with Eridan's jaw catching him off guard.

"Don't thay that about FF you fucking ath hole! You may have improved from the way you uthed to be but you thtill have a long way to go if that'th how you feel about it." Sollux picked up his plate of food he had set on the counter. "Thankth for making dinner douche finth," he grumbled before leaving the meal block. Eridan glared after him before abandoning his own plate of food in favor of following Sollux out into the living room. The yellow blood set his plate on the coffee table and was about to have a seat on the couch when he noticed Eridan approaching.

"What now?" the Gemini demanded before Eridan had suddenly closed the space between them with a kiss full of fangs. Sollux reached up and dug his claws into the high blood's shoulders which only made the Aquarius growl before pushing the double horned troll down onto the couch. Sollux hissed when his back hit the cushions and his psionics crackled around the two of them. There was a moment where they both glared into each other's eyes with such heated anger and intensity it was nearly palpable.

"You are thuch a conthieted pompouth douche," Sollux seethed, actually spitting with each word he lisped. He lunged forward to connect their mouths once again but the kiss was cut short by Eridan biting down on his lip and pressing him further into the couch. The high blood licked the trail of yellow blood off his lips and stared down the other troll like a predator cornering its prey.

"The old me," he began dangerously as he unfastened Sollux's pants and yanked them down his thighs, "would have been absolutely disgusted to learn that his future self had reproduced with the likes of low blooded scum such as yourself," he leaned down and hissed quietly in the Gemini's pointed ear. Sollux growled low in his throat and Eridan unfastened his own pants to free his writhing bulge. "But now," he said dropping his hips low over the trapped troll beneath him, the tip of his bulge slid over Sollux's in search of the lower blood's warm nook. "Now I'm completely fine with it." He thrust completely into the psionic who bit down on his bruised lips to keep from calling out.

"Good to know you dethided to low your thandardth," Sollux panted. Eridan rewarded his remark by leaning down to sink his teeth into the nape of his kismesis's neck and began pounding into him at an unforgiving pace. The low blood allowed himself to let out a groan and he reached up to wrap his hands around the cold arms that held him down, digging his claws into the exposed flesh.

Eridan moaned when he felt his blood well up around Sollux's claws. With each thrust the psionic was forced back against the cushions of the couch and the front of Eridan's pants was getting soaked with both of their fluids. After a few moments Sollux gasped and had to use his psionics to bring their bucket to the couch.

"Get off fith dick," the yellow blood warned irritably.

"I'm sorry what was that?" Eridan asked with a shit-eating grin on his face.

"I need to get to the fucking bucket you ath!" Sollux moaned the last part as Eridan bucked his hips into him at a different angle.

"Actually," the sea troll said in a low voice close to the low blood's ear, "I was thinkin' of returnin' the favor."

"Wha-"

Before Sollux could even finish asking, Eridan gave one last hard thrust and spilled his genetic material deep inside of his partner. Sollux was forced to ride out his orgasm away from the bucket as his own fluids mixed with Eridan's running down his thighs and drenching the high blood's pants as well as the couch.

"Fuck!" Sollux shivered and Eridan laughed as a mix of pleasure and disgust crossed over the Gemini's face. The violet blood's bulge was already retreating into its sheath as he pulled away from the mess beneath him and refastened his wet pants. He took a look at the couch and frowned.

"That'd better not stain," Eridan remarked in distaste.

"Oh sure, our main conthern at the moment ith the well being of our couch and not the fact that you jutht fucking uthed me as your bucket," Sollux snapped.

"Like I said, I was only returnin' the favor," the high blood shrugged. Sollux attempted to sit up more and grimaced as more violet material leaked out of his nook and ran down his legs into his pants bunched around his thighs.

"When I did it it wath an accident you piethe of shit!" the yellow blood defended.

"Well whatever," Eridan said dismissively. "Clean that up for me will ya, I've got shit to do." He walked off before Sollux could object and went to towel off his legs and change into clean underwear and pants. Sollux was fuming as he pulled his pants back up to absorb most of the material before he fully stood from the couch. He caught sight of the now cold plate of food sitting on the coffee table that Eridan had cooked. He gave it such a look of contempt it was as if it had failed its job of preventing its creator from being such and insufferable asshole. Sollux knew it wasn't really the plate of food's fault but he couldn't help but feel a bias against it being that it was made by the hands of his kismesis.

By the time the hacker troll had made it to the respite block to grab clean clothing to change into Eridan had already moved on this his next order of business which meant any further confrontation had been avoided. Clothing in hand, Sollux set out to lock himself in the ablution block to take a hot shower before attempting to tackle working the stains out of the couch. Eridan had decided to check in on the eggs and sat by the edge of their pool of water stroking their rock colored shells lightly. The claw marks on his arms had already formed thin scabs that may possibly scar later on. He almost hoped they would. Any marking caused by Sollux were always welcome to him because it was just more physical evidence that showed Sollux was his.

Eridan emerged from the nursery and entered the meal block to reheat his dinner around the time Sollux got out of the ablution block and set to work on cleaning the couch. Luckily, he was able to lift the stains and the two of them wouldn't have to worry about anyone else ever finding out about their little mishap. The yellow blood came into the meal block carrying his plate of food to reheat when he found Eridan in there as well. He shoved his plate into the microwave then turned to the sea troll to shoot him a glare. Eridan met the other troll's glare with his own then leaned in to capture his warm lips in a kiss. It was still a rough kiss was a bit too much teeth but right after they parted, Eridan returned for a shorter, softer kiss. They shared an almost-smile between the two of them before their moment was cut short by a sharp knocking on their front door.