Yay, updates!

Many thanks to obsessed01616, BlOo KiSsEs, and walomadolo for your reviews to the last act!


Four-thirty the next morning saw Eridan rewatching Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for the eightieth time. He'd only been able to sleep a few hours before he woke up again, and no amount of tossing, turning, or staring at his empty fish tank could lull him back to sleep, so he put Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone into his desktop computer and watched it with his headphones on so as not to wake Cronus. He was nothing if not a respectful brother.

As soon as Chamber of Secrets finished around three-fifteen, he slunk to the kitchen, made himself some coffee, and slunk back to his bedroom to queue up Prisoner of Azkaban. By four-thirty, he'd downed four cups of coffee and his hands were trembling, but there was no way in Hell he was going back to sleep at this point. He was too jittery to keep watching the movie (even though it was his favorite of the bunch), but he didn't know what he wanted to do. He contemplated drawing, but his hand was shaking too badly, and he didn't feel like smearing his hand in pencil this early in the morning anyway. He could have tried editing some photos, but the only ones he felt like looking at were of—no, he definitely wasn't going there right now. It was too early to even think about any of that shit.

Next, he thought about actually taking some pictures—leaning out the window and snapping some photos of the pre-dawn city; with this lighting, it would make for some interesting exposures—but it seemed like too much effort right now to dig out his camera and open his window and perch on the ledge.

He opened up Pesterchum and eyed all of his contacts. All of them were either idle or offline—or invisible, but it looked the same as offline, so it didn't matter. He sighed and hovered over cuttlefishCuller. Offline for 4 hours, 13 minutes. Of course. It was before even the sun woke up—he didn't know why he expected anyone but him to be awake.

crypticAngelfish came online, and Eridan rolled his eyes. Every time he saw Cronus's handle, he wanted to gag. The elder Ampora was many things, but "angelfish" wasn't one of them.

He went back to the kitchen to make himself a proper breakfast. Maybe having some food in his stomach would make the jitters subside.

He made himself a vegetarian breakfast sandwich with egg, cheese, and tofu bacon and went back to his bedroom before the smell attracted his brother. First thing in the morning, Cronus behaved more like a wild animal than a person, and more than once, Eridan had found himself pinned to a wall with a hot plate of food in his hand and Cronus eyeing it hungrily. At that point, Eridan usually had two options: give Cronus his food, or make him another plate.

He really wanted to avoid something like that this morning.

Too late. Cronus, up for whatever reason far earlier than normal (just like Eridan himself—maybe it was a weird night for Amporas in general), emerged from his bedroom, yawning and scratching his stomach. "Hey, Er," he said, and then his sharp nose twitched and he sniffed, and suddenly he looked much more awake.

"Mine!" Eridan yelled, charging into his own room. Before Cronus could take two steps, Eridan had slammed the door closed and locked it. He called through the door, "If you're so hungry, make your own damn food like a normal person!"

"But I can't cook, daddy-o!" Cronus whined.

"Throw somethin' in the microwave, then! I'm not lettin' you abscond with my food again!"

"Aw, come on! I'm doin' you this huge, highly illegal favor—"

Eridan groaned behind his closed bedroom door and stuffed a bite of his sandwich into his mouth. Cronus did have a point, and Eridan didn't want to play the whole "if I can't have this party I'll be here listening to you and your girlfriend fucking" card because by now, Cronus was desperate enough to not care who was listening in. Besides, departing for the weekend was a small return for the favor. "Fine," he sighed after he'd finished chewing. "Gimme like five minutes to eat my own fuckin' food."

"Thanks, Er, you're the best!"

"Then why don't you ever fuckin' act like it?"

"I'm your big brother. I'm supposed to give you shit."

Eridan sighed and flopped down into his computer chair, still munching on his sandwich. He glanced up at his screen and noted with some surprise that, at four-forty-eight, twinArmageddons had come online. He ignored the stupid, uninvited surge of happiness at that (it wasn't like Fef was online—it was just Sol; what the Hell was wrong with him?) and he hovered his mouse over the "pester" option, but it wouldn't do any good. Sol had blocked him on Monday morning and, as far as Eridan knew, hadn't unblocked him since. He stared at the screen, chewing slowly, wondering when—if—Feferi would come online this morning.

It took longer than five minutes for him to eat his sandwich but Cronus didn't seem to notice the delay when Eridan finally emerged. He was still in his pajamas—a black A-line shirt and soft purple sweatpants—but he wasn't going to change his clothes until after his shower. He threw together the quickest sandwich he could and presented it wordlessly to Cronus, who grinned and immediately dug into it, making sounds that would have been better suited to the bedroom and that Eridan really didn't want to hear from his own brother, so as soon as Cronus was completely engrossed in his food, he went to shower.

He made a second pot of coffee, having successfully killed the first one, and filled his Thermos before he left for school. Maybe it was a mistake to drink so much coffee but he knew by the time two o'clock rolled around, he'd be grateful he did—and would probably still be craving another caffeine pick-me-up. Maybe even more so than usual.


"You look exhausted," Aradia commented, peering at Sollux over her book. She was over halfway through A Storm of Swords by now.

"Yeah. I am." Sollux sank down into his chair and lifted a bottle of Mountain Dew Code Red to his lips. He'd been so tired this morning that he'd skipped his usual tea drowned in honey for something with a ton more caffeine. He didn't know how he was going to make it through today like this. I should just go home and sleep.

"Didn't sleep?"

Sollux shook his head. "Not for hours. And I woke up really early today, too."

"How much sleep did you get?"

"Two, three hours. Tops."

"Aw, I'm sorry." Aradia marked her place and closed her book. She glanced over Sollux's shoulder before leaning in. "Want to talk about it?"

"Not really."

"Eridan stuff?"

Sollux groaned and fisted his hair in frustration before dropping his hands back to the table. "Yeah. Something like that."

"I know, it's tough," she said soothingly, putting her hand over Sollux's. "I know you're trying not to think about him, but crushes have a way of getting into your head and not getting out, huh?"

"That's putting it mildly."

"It takes awhile for things like this to run their course, okay? You can't expect to get over him in a night. You just barely realized that you liked him like two, three days ago. It'll happen. Just give it time."

Sollux sighed, running his free hand through his hair again. He didn't know how to tell her that he'd been unable to sleep even after two sleeping pills. He didn't even know how to tell her that he was on sleeping pills in the first place. He felt like confessing it would make it too real, that his whole life was a mess. He couldn't even fall asleep without help.

Friday night promised to be so much fun. He'd have to leave his pills at home if he was going to drink, though. Even he knew not to mix alcohol and sleep aids.

Added to the mix were his stupid feelings for Eridan in the first place, the reason he couldn't fall asleep the night before. And then waking up just after four-thirty and groaning, he rolled over and silently pleaded for two or three more hours of sleep, but his body refused to cooperate, and ten minutes later he'd logged onto Pesterchum and stared at his contact list.

caligulasAquarium was online. Why is ED awake so early? He hovered over his status bar and blinked when he saw that Eridan had been online for only about twenty minutes. What the Hell is he doing? He went back and forth in his head, arguing with himself about whether or not to message Eridan—it would be stupid, Eridan wouldn't want to talk to him, but maybe he'd be nicer first thing in the morning, but not if his prank last week was anything to go by, but it could be different this time, you never knew; but Eridan had been a raging asshat the night before, so why should he expect things to be any different this morning? He finally sighed and unblocked Eridan but didn't bother messaging him. He left Pesterchum opened while he went to make breakfast, just in case Eridan decided to message him. He left that window open on the off chance Eridan would take it and try to talk to him.

When he got back to his desk with his toast in hand though, there was no new message from anyone, let alone Ampora. He tried not to let himself feel disappointed, but he munched his toast despondently. Expecting anything to change was a futile hope.


Sollux looked exhausted this morning—even through the bicolored glasses, Eridan could tell his eyes were tired. He tried to look away, but he found himself staring as Sollux went to a vending machine near the door and bought a Mountain Dew Code Red. He cracked it open and took a long drink, making a face as he headed to a table—presumably, Eridan saw, the one Aradia was sitting at. For a short time, the two of them sat their in silence, Sollux drinking his soda and Aradia reading her book, until she peered over the top of it and said something Eridan couldn't quite make out.

Sollux slouched lower in his seat and took another swig of his drink. Aradia said something else and Sol shook his head. She said something else, he answered, and she answered back before closing her book.

Then Ara put her hand on his, and when Sol didn't immediately pull his hand away, Eridan felt his face getting hot. She was dating Equius—what the Hell was she doing? And Sol was just letting her! Didn't he care?

They continued talking for a few moments longer, and Aradia squeezed his hand, but it felt as if a massive hand was squeezing his chest. He hated the feeling almost as much as he hated realizing that Sol was having a really tough morning from the look of it and that his first instinct was to go to him and try to offer him some comfort but God damn it, Aradia was still there, still holding his hand and Eridan tried not to vomit. It was probably a mix of all the coffee (he'd had eight cups, after all), the tofu bacon, and seeing this, but this felt like the biggest cause of all.

He wasn't jealous of her or anything. He just wanted to be there to comfort Sol, although saying what, he had no idea. He didn't even know why Sol was having a tough time of it this morning, but if his early appearance on Pesterchum and the bottle of soda next to him was anything to go by, he probably hadn't slept much, either.

"Hey, fish, where's your head?" Fef asked beside him, startling him out of his reverie.

"Uh. Nothin'. Nowhere. I'm fine."

"Oh-kay. You sure? You looked like you were ready to snap someone's neck."

"Yeah—no—no, I'm fine."

She didn't look entirely convinced. "Alright, well, I have to get to class, but if you want to glub at me, just text me, okay?"

"Yeah, sure."

She stood up, ruffled his hair (not that it did much—with the amount of product in his hair today, it could withstand a tornado), and headed off to her class. Eridan half-watched her go, his attention more focused on Sol and Ara's table and the fact that she'd finally removed her hand from his and had gone back to her book.

Maybe Fef was right. Maybe he should apologize to Sol. For everything.


ERIDAN IS JEALOUS.

YER A HOMO, ERI. (Actually he's bi, he just doesn't realize it yet.)