Sorry! I meant to write this yesterday but then I slept and it didn't happen.
Many thanks to YaoiOverlord, grimjaws, iDreamBig, kab, CatastrophicAquarius, thepeopleofthecrysis, scone, obsessed01616, LinkinPark X, BlOo KiSsEs, RandomAnonymous, and Kerra-Chan for your reviews to the last act! (Also, thanks to Foxalicat for pointing out a continuity error I missed back in Act 12! I have since corrected it!)
Sollux pretended that he hadn't just caught Eridan looking at him. He was just concerned for whatever reason about him—he hadn't seen him so visibly uncomfortable before this morning, before Vriska. She'd hurt him badly. Sollux could tell. It wasn't necessarily illogical to want to do what he could to cheer him up.
She'd hurt Kanaya and Tavros and John, too, he told himself, and he didn't find himself flying to comfort any of them. He did his best to ignore that thought, too.
"That was a really good idea," Aradia said as they headed back to the cafeteria. She slung one arm across his shoulders and the other around Kanaya's.
He shrugged. "Thanks." He couldn't resist looking back over his shoulder at the other departing figures. Nepeta and Equius were striding off towards a far parking lot, the nearly foot and a half height difference between them almost comical. She had to take three steps to match every one of his. Karkat was helping Tavros to his feet, and the two of them along with John and Dave headed to a building about a hundred yards away labeled with a four-foot-tall C. Eridan, though, had stopped walking and abruptly sat back down, and Sollux suddenly wondered where Feferi was. He hadn't seen her all day, and now that he was thinking about it, he would have expected her to be there. Where was she? Eridan was just sitting there by himself, all alone...
A sick feeling twisted in Sollux's gut. "You guys go on ahead, okay?" He pulled away from Aradia's arm and started back toward Eridan.
"Want us to save you a seat?" she asked.
"Uh. Yeah, sure." He didn't know if he'd actually be back, but he figured it was better to be on the safe side. For all he knew, Eridan could snap at him and tell him to leave. I really don't know all that much about him.
Still, for the second time that day, he found himself approaching Eridan with no idea how it would turn out.
"Hey. Uh, you okay?"
Eridan looked up, his purple eyes looking even bigger than normal, and slowly, he shook his head. "This whole situation is fucked-up," he said.
Well, it's an improvement. Sollux sat down across from Eridan. Again, he wondered what the Hell possessed him to talk to a guy who hated him. Although it seemed like maybe Eridan was hating him a less and less. He hadn't said anything really mean to him, not since last week, and yeah, that prank he pulled had been a dick move, but it wasn't like Sollux had been completely defenseless. He'd also gotten his retaliation even though he harbored no actual hatred for him. It felt more like a friendly rivalry than anything else.
So were they friends?
Vriska had seemed to think they were dating. That might have just been a joke, but still... They weren't exactly enemies, so did that make them friends?
"Well, yeah," he said, "but she's a fucked-up person."
"Yeah, I guess."
There was a few moments of silence, wherein Sollux glanced occasionally at Eridan and tried to figure out what was going on. Friendship—if that's what this was—was a complicated emotion.
The silence was broken, however, when Feferi appeared out of nowhere, charging across the grass and practically flinging herself to the ground where they were sitting. "So glubbing sorry! What did I miss?" She looked apologetically from Eridan to Sollux, but when she saw him, her expression shifted to one of amused curiosity. "Hmm. What did I miss?"
"Right—see you later," Sollux said quickly. He stood up, grabbed his backpack, and chased after Aradia and Kanaya.
"What was that all about?" Feferi asked, watching Sollux's retreat.
"I don't know. He... Everyone left already, but he came up with a pretty good idea for gettin' back at Vris."
"Hmm. I sea. What's the plan?"
"Ignore her. Sol said she likes attention an' if she doesn't have a' audience, she'll stop. Theoretically."
"Whale, he's right about her wanting an audience. She probably won't like being ignored much. But that doesn't answer my question. What was he doing here, with you?" She grinned.
"I don't know," he repeated. He really didn't, either—Sol just seemed to know when he was feeling down and alone and came by to talk to him. He was being nice to him, but Eridan couldn't figure out why. "But he... um, when Vris left this mornin', he came over an' talked to me."
"What did he say?"
"I don't remember," he lied. He remembered every word.
"Whale, was he rude?"
Eridan shook his head. "No. I mean... no. He's been nice." He'd been nice to Eridan all day, aside from first thing this morning, but he could admit that was his own fault. If he hadn't started harassing Sol, he probably wouldn't have been snarky with him at all.
Then again, if he hadn't started harassing Sol, he would have been by himself when Vris saw him and Sol might not have even noticed and he would have been by himself the whole time and she might have stuck around even longer because he wouldn't have had the shield of Sol and Ara, neither of whom were taking any of her shit. He might be even worse off than he was now.
"Nice? Nice how?"
"He... fuck, Fef, he just came over an' made me feel better. I don't know."
"Whale, that's good. I'm sorry I couldn't be here earlier."
"It's okay."
She sighed, leaning toward him and giving him an awkward sideways hug. "I don't feel like going back to class anymore. Wanna get out of here?"
"Yeah. I just need to get some coffee first."
"Okay." She climbed to her feet, helped him up, and they picked up their backpacks and started off toward the campus coffee shop.
"So, how was Mr. Ampora?"Aradia teased as Sollux sat down at their table.
"Fine."
"Really?"
"Yeah. FF showed up, so I left."
Kanaya nodded solemnly. "I understand how awkward that must have been. It must be difficult to be the boyfriend when the girlfriend is around."
Sollux nearly slammed his forehead against the table. "I'm not his boyfriend, and she's not his girlfriend."
"Right. You may not be his boyfriend, but you'd like to be his boyfriend," Aradia said.
"No, I don't!"
"Oh, come on. That's twice in one day you've gone rushing to his side, waiting to assist in the destruction of his evil ex. It's like Scott Pilgrim in reverse. Admit it—you like him."
Aradia was right—he had talked to Eridan out of nowhere twice today. The fact that Eridan had been alone at his lowest had been too much for him to stand. He had to do something about it. Irrationally, he did like Eridan. Somehow, the asshole pulled himself out of his own self-loathing shell like no one else could.
She must have realized what the look on his face meant, because when she spoke next, her tone was less teasing and more full of realization. "Oh, my God. You actually do like him. You've got a big gay crush on him!"
"Shut up, please," he muttered, putting his head down on the table and covering his head with his arms. He was pretty sure his face was burning red.
"Oh, my God. I am legitimately in shock right now."
"Yeah, you and me both."
Eridan Ampora was an asshole. Sollux liking him didn't make any sense. He was rude and obnoxious and... Well, he was devoted, if his long-time crush on Feferi was any indication. And he had the ability to laugh at himself in most cases. And he hadn't been angry when Sollux played that prank on him—he'd wanted him to do better. And he was hot, too. Like really hot. He bit his lip. He hated to admit, even to himself, how genuinely attracted to Eridan he was. Even with the tendency to be an asshole—which seemed to be diminishing the more he got to know him—Sollux did really like him. Fuck. It figured that the first time in nearly two years he'd liked anyone, it would be some guy who didn't even like guys.
"Wow." Aradia let out a giggle and ruffled his hair. "That bad, huh?"
"Can we please never speak of this again?" Sollux asked, tilting his head so she could distinguish his words. "I'm trying to forget all about this."
"Well, at least you're not crushing on Vriska Serket," she pointed out.
"No, I'm just crushing on her sloppy seconds." Then he flinched and looked up at Kanaya. "I am so sorry."
A muscle in her jaw twitched, but she nodded. "You spoke without thinking. I understand."
He grimaced. "I am really sorry. I didn't mean it like that." He felt like an asshole now. He really hadn't meant it the way it came out, but the damage had been done.
"I know."
There was an awkward silence until Aradia asked, "So, are you still going to play another prank on him?"
Sollux groaned. "Can we talk about anything except ED? At this point, I really don't care what the fuck it is."
Aradia giggled. "If you insist. Like what?"
He lifted his head. "How about EQ? What about that big reveal that he used to be VS's friend?"
Her face fell. "He was eight. He couldn't have known what an evil bitch she'd turn out to be. I'm not happy about it, but he didn't know her that well. And he never hurt anyone."
"You still like him?"
"Of course I do."
"I'm going to find Rose," Kanaya said abruptly, standing up. Without waiting for an answer, she glided out of the cafeteria, and Sollux groaned.
"Did I completely fuck that up?"
"Not completely, but you did piss her off."
"I didn't mean to."
"I know you didn't, and she knows you didn't, but she's still upset."
He started to stand. "Maybe I should—"
"No." She grabbed his arm and tugged him back to his seat. "Just leave her. Let her be angry for a little while. She'll forgive you, but she's had a very rough couple of weeks and I don't think she's been properly angry in a long time. It might be good for her. Just stay put."
Eridan made it through the rest of the day without running into Vriska again, something he was extremely grateful. His paranoia over possibly seeing her again had him on-edge and looking over his shoulder constantly, even after Fef looked around and told him Vriska was nowhere in sight. Even then, he couldn't relax until he was safely ensconced in his car and heading back to Cronus's apartment.
When he got home, Cronus was gone. Still at work, presumably. It was another of the pitifully few things Eridan genuinely liked about his brother—Cronus had scheduled work hours and he adhered to them. He actually even liked his job, which was weird since he just worked at a gas station. He'd taken the first job to hire him, and since he still got money from their parents every month (not to mention the inheritance he had coming to him), he was quite happy to bide his time. He'd talked about going back to college, but Eridan could tell it was just meaningless chatter, intended to make their parents happy.
Honestly, if Eridan had less motivation than he did, he would probably be in the same boat as Cronus.
He set his bag down on the floor of his bedroom and stared at the empty space where his hypothetical fish tank would go. He still felt tense and wished he'd already gotten his fish tank—it would relax him.
Fuck it. He stood back up, patted down his pockets for his keys, wallet, and phone, and left again. It was time to get a damn fish tank.
In which Sol has a big fat gay crush on Eridan.
SORRY NOT SORRY.
