Sorry about the wait, but at least it wasn't as bad as the last one. I think I'm just going to be working on this one and kind of...disregard my SPN fics for the moment. I have a lot of Homestuck feels right now (YESTERDAY'S UPD8 OMG I AM SCREAMING WHY THIS).

Thanks to Artimashunt, YAOIYAOIYAOIYAOI, and BlOo KiSsEs for your reviews!

So. Last Sunday was my birthday. I turned 23. Leave me reviews as a birthday present.


Terezi hung onto Sollux's arm so tightly that he was sure it would take a week for all the feeling in his fingers to return. Her white cane was a blur as she twirled it at her side, grinning in an almost malicious way (he wasn't sure if she meant to look that creepy or if it came naturally) as he led her to where Karkat and Eridan were waiting in the cafeteria area. Neither of them looked particularly thrilled to see him, Eridan moreso than Karkat, and both of them looked puzzled at Terezi's presence.

She didn't seem to notice their reaction (her being blind and all) and introduced herself with all the showmanship she could muster. "Hey, boys! I'm Terezi!"

"Uh, Eridan."

"Karkat."

"Sollux said that Karkat said I could come," she added, flashing her teeth in the direction of Eridan's voice.

"I didn't fucking think he was serious!"

"Calm down, dick-shit. I'm not gonna be a bother," Terezi said, finally letting go of Sollux's arm. He wasn't sure if she was genuinely annoyed or not, but he was already regretting this decision.

"Who are you calling dick-shit, void-humper?" Karkat shot back.

"You, ass-wagon!"

"Fuck, will you two calm down?" Sollux said, moving to stand between the two. He looked at Karkat first. "Don't antagonize the blind girl, jerk. She has a cane and she will hit you." He turned to face Terezi. "Don't antagonize the jerk, blind girl. He has a short fuse and he will explode."

"Wait, you're blind? And who are you calling short?" Karkat demanded from Terezi and Sollux in turn, his voice raising even higher.

"Bluh, of course I'm blind. Check the cane, douche-nozzle," she said. She waved her cane around for emphasis.

Karkat fumed silently in response. Terezi giggled as Eridan rolled his eyes. "Stop flirtin', kids. It's gettin' annoyin'."

Sollux rubbed the bridge of his nose. It was going to be a long lunch.

Fortunately, Feferi didn't seem to mind having another girl to talk to. She and Terezi chatted comfortably from the time they piled into Eridan's gleaming purple car (Sollux sensed he had a purple fetish) all the way through lunch. Karkat, for his part, was mercifully quiet, as if the revelation of Terezi's blindness had genuinely stunned him.

Feferi had even opted to sit in the back next to Terezi, with Karkat on Terezi's other side, leaving Sollux in the front seat next to Eridan. Maybe he'd misinterpreted Eridan and Feferi's relationship. Not that he'd been in a relationship for a long time, but it seemed to him that if they were actually dating, they'd probably want to sit together.

"Is this it?" Eridan asked incredulously as he pulled into the parking lot. He peered up at the huge sign proclaiming the restaurant to be Rubio's as if it was somehow a lie.

"Yeah, we're here," Sollux said. He unbuckled his seatbelt and slid out of the car.

Feferi craned her neck to look from the sign to the actual restaurant. "Oh. Fish tacos?"

"This place has the best seafood tacos ever!" Terezi enthused.

Sollux caught the glance Feferi and Eridan exchanged and sighed. "They have vegan-friendly food, too," he said. He supposed he should have realized earlier that she was a vegan, considering she suggested a vegan place, but he hadn't been paying that much attention. "And regular Mexican food, if you're of a mind."

Feferi smiled again. "Oh. That's good, then! Now let's go—I'm starving!"

Sollux led the way to the door, pointlessly hoping that the sooner they ate, the sooner they could leave. He got in line as Eridan and Feferi came through with Karkat and Terezi bringing up the rear—even though she didn't exactly need the help finding her way to the door, he seemed to have taken up the task of guiding her, the two of them bickering the whole way. Sollex felt a little guilty for just leaving her with him, though. She didn't deserve that.

He'd just placed his orderand started to pull out his wallet when Karkat's harsh screech reached his ears. "Sollux Captor, you back your freakishly skinny, leet-hacker ass up from that pay station! I'm repaying you, remember?!"

Sollux closed his eyes, pinched the bridge of his nose under his glasses, and took a quick step back—right into Eridan. The other boy seemed momentarily stunned by the impact but recovered quickly, shoving Sollux away from him with a curt, "Watch it, asshole."

It might have been his imagination, but he could have sworn he heard Eridan's voice trip on the W sound. He ignored it though, sidestepped Terezi (whom he'd narrowly missed when Eridan shoved him), and shot the other boy a murderous look. Eridan seemed constantly to be annoyed with something, and Sollux wasn't sure why, but it was starting to get on his nerves. If he never saw him after today, he would be just fine with it.

Terezi ordered next, having long since memorized the menu (which was fortunate, since she couldn't actually read it), and Karkat followed her. After Feferi and Eridan conferred quietly with each other, they ordered the same thing: a vegan burrito with the works. Sollux caught the way Eridan insisted on paying for both of them, as well as the annoyed way Feferi tossed her hair and insisted right back that he shouldn't pay for her food all the time.

Ah. Now he could see it. They weren't dating, but he clearly wanted to be. She, on the other hand, was either unaware of Eridan's true affections or chose to ignore them. He wondered how badly he'd been shot down before this.

Still, she'd probably made the right call. The thought of anyone actually wanting to date that asshole was both hysterical and horrifying.

They took a booth near the door, Eridan and Feferi on one side and Karkat, Terezi, and Sollux crammed onto the other bench (although in all fairness, the three of them were about equal to the other two). Sollux purposely avoided looking at anyone, choosing to stare down at his fingernails and his receipt until he heard his number called, while the other four started a meaningless conversation. It was a relief to leave them, honestly—Terezi and Karkat had started to squabble again, although it didn't sound as harsh as Karkat usually liked it.

He waited at the counter until the other four orders were up, mostly as an excuse to stay away from them. He'd begun to feel the stirrings of a mania attack (as he called the upswing of his bipolar disorder) coming on and wanted to calm down without causing an incident. He'd been off his bipolar medication for a few months now and he'd been doing okay up until this point, but this whole situation grated on his nerves like nothing else. He actually wished that it had been Aradia to come with him today instead of Terezi because she was the only one who knew he was off his meds (Karkat still thought he was on them) and was also the only one of his few friends who didn't actively try to irritate him. In fact, she took a great amount of pleasure in being able to calm him.

Eridan and Feferi's burritos were deposited on his tray along with their drinks, followed a few moments later by Terezi's taco plate and Karkat's quesadilla and their drinks. Resigning himself to rejoining the group, he picked up the laden tray and headed back to the table.

"Order up," he half-joked. Maybe he really should have considered taking his meds again if he was going to insist on making stupid cracks like that, but he didn't really like popping more pills than he had to.

Everyone grabbed their food off the tray and dug in, and for a few minutes, the only sound besides chewing was Feferi exclaiming over how good her burrito was.

"Yeah, it's reel good," Eridan agreed. Then he seemed to have realized what he said as Feferi let out a giggle. "I mean really, not reel."

"You know you love my fish puns."

"They're a part a' your sparklin' personality—a' course I do."

Sollux suddenly wasn't hungry.

"See? Told you this place was the bomb!" Terezi said, as if she had been the one to suggest Rubio's in the first place.

"I'll definitely be making Eridan bring me back here in the future," Feferi added. "Great idea, Sollux!"

The glare that Eridan suddenly leveled at him could only be described as murderous. He pretended he didn't notice it, though, and continued eating like nothing had happened. It was either that or strangle Eridan with that stupid fucking scarf that he wore (even in the winter, it didn't get cold enough to warrant a scarf around here—what a pretentious twat) with that stupid fucking peacoat, and he didn't think he could get away with homicide in public with three (well, two and a half) credible witnesses.

Still, the rest of lunch wasn't half bad, once he made a habit of ignoring Eridan and Karkat. Feferi asked him about his classes while Eridan's scowl deepened and Sollux answered calmly. He was almost tempted to pull faces at him when the others weren't looking since he was sitting directly across from Eridan and forced to look at his stupid face, but he resisted—barely. He did wonder, however, what he did to deserve this kind of Hell. All he did was help Karkat fix his computer, and this ended up being more of a punishment than a repayment.

"...and then there's fucking Gamzee sitting there on the couch, stoned out of his mind, and all he says is, 'Want some motherfucking Faygo?'" Karkat was saying to Terezi, but Feferi was listening, too—much to Eridan's visible annoyance. Terezi let out a mad cackle, slapping the table in glee, and even Feferi laughed. Sollux wished he'd heard the first part of this story. "I don't even fucking know where he gets that swill—they only sell that shit in Michigan, I think."

Once the girls settled down, Terezi turned in her seat to look at Eridan. With a calculated coolness, she pushed her red-tinted glasses up the bridge of her nose. "So, tell me, Eridan. What kind of guy wears a scarf in September?"

On the table, Eridan's hands bunched into fists. Sollux hadn't noticed them before, but to his surprise (although he supposed it shouldn't have been a surprise, since he knew Eridan was rich), he had rings on every one of his fingers. How the Hell could he function with that much jewelry?

"I thought you said you w-were blind," Eridan growled, and Sollux was pleased to hear that, yes, he actually did stutter on his Ws.

"Legally, I am. I can see a bit. Enough to know that your scarf is blue. And you have a purple streak in your hair," she added with a frankly evil grin. "You gay or something?"

A muscle in his jaw twitched. "No, as a matter a' fact. I'm completely straight."

Maybe it was because of how angry he sounded and because she just liked to rag on people, or maybe it was because she was genuinely curious, but she pressed the issue. "You sure? We're a very accepting group of individuals. Well, me and Sollux, anyway. Sol's bi, you know."

"Yeah, thank you, TZ," he mumbled sarcastically, feeling his cheeks heat up all the same. "Really needed to out me to a bunch of random people." His smug mood vanished just as quickly as it had arrived.

He was out to his friends, after all—Aradia knew, and Terezi and Karkat and Gamzee (as well as his brother, but that was a huge can of worms he didn't even like to think about most days)—but he didn't tell people he'd just met that he was bisexual, especially cunts like Eridan Ampora.

"Can't say that info shocks an' astounds me," the cunt in question said snidely.

"Eridan!" Feferi said sharply, reproachfully, but something inside Sollux snapped because he took his half-full cup of Dr Pepper and emptied it over Eridan Ampora's head.

There was a stunned silence for a solid three seconds, as though no one could really believe what had just happened. Sollux could barely believe it, and he'd actually done it. Eridan recovered quickly though. "You motherfucker!" he spluttered, struggling to get out of the booth. His rage rendered him uncoordinated, though, and he got stuck between the seat and the table. It was enough time for Sollux to slide smoothly out of his seat, grab his backpack, and swing it onto his shoulder.

Eridan cursed at his back, but Sollux didn't care. He didn't even mind walking all the way back to campus. Seeing the mortified, shocked look on Eridan's face was well worth it.


I ship flushed Karezi very hard. About as hard as I ship pale Gamkat. I paleship Karkat with basically everyone though. He should be the village two-wheel device for moirailing.

Also, Eridan is a dick right now. I kind of love it.