Hey, look at that! I got another act posted today! SIGNLESS TAKE THE WHEEL.
Many thanks to LinkinPark X, CatastrophicAquarius, thepeopleofthecrysis, and BlOo KiSsEs for your reviews to the last act!
"I... believe we're here," Equius said slowly, blinking up at the mammoth structure before them. He followed Feferi up the massive circular driveway, still trying to take in the sight of Eridan's house. Actually, it was more of a mansion, and Nepeta and Aradia had also been stunned into silence.
The blonde nudged Sollux with one Vans-clad foot to jostle him awake, and Sollux reluctantly opened his eyes. It had been a nice nap, one he wasn't quite willing to relinquish, but then he saw the house. "Holy shit," he murmured. He readjusted his glasses and rubbed his eyes. He'd known Eridan was rich, but this was on a completely unexpected level.
They climbed out of the Suburban while everyone else but Feferi and Eridan seemed a bit stunned with this turn of events.
"This is... impressive," Rose said slowly.
"This is nothin'," Eridan said. "You haven't seen Fef's place."
Heads turned in her direction, and Feferi shrugged. "My mom's a scientist. I can't help it!"
"Right. Um." Karkat leaned back against Feferi's car, looking from her Fiesta to Eridan's BMW. Suddenly a few more pieces clicked into place. Wow.
Eridan fidgeted and popped the trunk of his car. "Alright, let's get this inside. Not much a' a party if we're outside all night."
This seemed to jar everyone out of their stunned staring, and Equius began slinging duffel bags and backpacks over his arms. The ones he couldn't grab, Aradia picked up as Feferi, Dave, and John picked up the rest of the bags from her trunk, and everyone else started grabbed the alcohol from Eridan's car.
To Sollux, it felt like they'd been walking for ten minutes before they stopped, but it was probably closer to only a minute before they were following Eridan down a flight of stairs and into a cavernous basement filled floor to ceiling with stuff. There was a foosball table in one corner, a pool table in another, a huge flat-screen TV hanging on the far wall hooked up to a Blu-Ray player, a DVD player, and, to Sollux's surprise, a VHS player. The entire wall on either side of the TV was dominated by shelving filled with VHS tapes, DVDs, Blu-Ray discs, and CDs. In the back corner was a bar area (all the booze was locked up, and that was one key he didn't have access to) with a popcorn maker, and in front of the TV, arranged in a neat semicircle, was a gigantic, plush-looking sofa and two recliners.
"We're gonna have to push that crap back," Eridan said nonchalantly, setting the twenty-four-pack of PBR down on the bar and gesturing toward the couch and recliners.
Equius unceremoniously dumped the bags he was carrying on the floor and looked around. He seemed quite impressed.
"Was that everythin'?" Eridan watched as Sollux, Nepeta, Tavros, and Kanaya set down the alcohol in their hands. "Yeah, looks like everythin'. I'll be right back." With a surprising speed, he crossed the room and went back up the stairs as Feferi grinned at them all.
"Eridan's right—let's start moving this stuff. It'll give us a lot more room!"
Room for what? Sollux wondered, but followed Equius and her to the middle of the room.
"Where did you want to move these?" Equius asked, standing in front of the sofa.
"Um..." Feferi looked around and pointed to the stretch of wall between the pool table and the foosball table. "Right there!"
Equius looked, nodded, and started pushing from the middle. Sollux and Kanaya went to either side and helped, pushing the ends, and the three of them managed to get the couch against the wall in short order. Karkat and Dave followed with the recliners, leaving them in front of the couch. Feferi looked satisfied and said, "Okay, what first?"
Suddenly, Eridan reappeared in the basement. "Looks good. Um. Is anyone hungry? We can order pizzas."
It was another forty minutes before they were able to pull up Figaro's Pizza's menu and yell out what they wanted—Eridan and Feferi would be splitting a medium vegan pizza with the works; Dave, John, and Karkat wanted a large meat-lovers' pizza; Sollux and Aradia ordered a medium ham-and-pineapple pizza (Kanaya made a face—she hated pineapple); Nepeta and Equius got a large cheese-only (he insisted that she would probably be eating most of it); Rose and Kanaya ordered a medium veggie pizza; and Terezi and Tavros were the only ones who wanted a plain cheese-and-pepperoni, so they agreed to split a medium. The person taking the order from Eridan seemed a bit stunned by the sheer volume of pizzas they'd be consuming and the total ended up being close to a hundred dollars, but the price didn't faze Eridan at all. Once they gave him an estimated delivery time of an hour from then, they asked for his name and address.
"Eridan Ampora," he said smoothly, rattling off his address.
"Ampora? Right, thirty minutes."
Eridan smirked and hung up.
"What just happened?" Terezi asked. "Didn't he just say—"
"I'm a regular customer. They know that the sooner they deliver, the better tip they get. An' on a' order like that, it'll be a pretty big tip."
What a douche, Sollux thought reflexively, but his heart wasn't in it. It was actually pretty nice when rich assholes tipped well.
They decided to watch a movie while they waited and took it to a vote. Sollux figured it would be pretty hard to get thirteen different people to agree on one movie to watch, but after Aradia suggested The Great Gatsby and Eridan confirmed that of course they had The Great Gatsby, the decision was almost unanimous. To celebrate, Nepeta unscrewed the cap on her bottle of Everclear and took a shot right from the bottle.
She burped and grinned.
"Are you sure that's Everclear? Looks like water to me," John said.
Nepeta smirked and held the open bottle under his nose. He recoiled sharply.
"Holy crap! That smells like floor cleaner!"
"It's ninety-five purrcent alcohol," she said simply, shrugging. "Anyone wanna try?"
There was a stunned silence before Aradia sighed and raised her hand. "Okay, I will."
"Excellent!" Nepeta bounded behind the counter of the bar and located a shot glass before Eridan could even open his mouth to protest. She poured a half a shot into the glass. "I'll start you off with something small. It packs a wallop, though! Oh, and you'll want a chaser... Here!" She grabbed a can of Coke from the bar fridge, cracked it open, and passed it to her as well.
Aradia took the proffered glass and can and gave the Everclear a wary look. "Oh, God," she murmured and looked at the rest of her friends. "See you on the other side," she half-joked, and without further ado, knocked back the shot and a long swig of Coke in quick succession, well-aware that every eye was on her. She nearly drained the can before she set it down and belched loudly. "Oh, my God," she laughed, tears stinging her eyes. "Wow!"
"Puts hair on your chest!" Nepeta joked.
"Holy shit." Aradia exhaled sharply through her mouth. "I feel like I can breathe fire!"
"That would kill you," Equius pointed out, and Aradia gave him a condescending look.
"Fire cannot kill a dragon," she said with all the seriousness she could muster.
"Oh, God, she's trashed already," Sollux said with a grin.
"Shoosh! No, I'm not!" Aradia set the shot glass down and finished off the can. "Well, for smelling like paint thinner, it actually went down really smooth."
"Yep!" Nepeta agreed, hopping up onto the counter. "It's really off-putting at furst glance, but it goes down easy and fucks you up!"
"Nepeta," Equius said, but she waved her sleeve at him.
"Shoosh! That's why I love it!" She tilted the bottle in what was probably intended to be an inviting manner but came off more sinister than anything else. "Anyone else wanna breathe some fire?"
"I think I'll stick to wine," Rose said, digging out her own bottle and locating a wine glass.
Karkat, under Eridan's not-exactly careful supervision, got the movie set up while the rest of the alcohol was broken into. Once everyone had a drink in their hand (Aradia had deigned to take a shot of tequila before she decided she was all set for the moment), Karkat hit play and everyone settled on the floor and watched.
They had just gotten to the part where Nick Carroway was seeing Daisy and Tom's house for the first time when there was a knock on the door, followed by a ring.
"Hang on, keep watchin'," Eridan said, finishing off his bottle of Redd's and hurrying up the stairs. When he returned laden with pizzas, the movie paused just long enough for everyone to divvy up the pizzas and get situated, and then they resumed the movie.
Rose and Kanaya were snuggled up off to the side, carefully staying out everyone's view but somehow not. Equius seemed to have become a makeshift chair for both Aradia and Nepeta, the latter sitting full on his lap and the former leaning against his side. Sollux sat next to her with Terezi and Karkat stretched out next to him. John and Tavros lay on their stomachs in the front, looking up with their heads propped up, and Dave was in between Karkat and Feferi with Eridan on Feferi's other side. Sollux drank his mead and pretended he wasn't looking at Eridan but he couldn't help remembering that the last time they'd been in a darkened room was the night they'd met, even though they hadn't exchanged a word. He couldn't help sneaking glances at Eridan but felt like an idiot anyway. It was stupid for him to admire the way the light from the movie illuminated his profile, but he did it anyway, drinking more mead to appear nonchalant.
Aradia nudged him and whispered, "You're being extremely subtle."
Sollux quickly fixed his gaze to the plush white carpet, his cheeks heating up. Busted. At least it had been Aradia to catch him and not someone else.
Eridan wondered as he reached for another slice of pizza (the box of which had been placed between him and Fef) if he should put his arm around her. Something told him no, but a stronger part of him said he didn't even want to. It was strange—a few weeks before, he would have probably jumped at this opportunity (he'd promised Cronus he'd tell her, after all, and this would be a good way to lead into it), but everyone was there, and while he didn't think people were completely oblivious to how he'd acted around her, he didn't want them to think he liked her. Even though he did. He just had the feeling that it would start all kinds of drama tonight and that was the last thing he wanted. There had been too much drama over the last week or two anyway without him needing to contribute any more. Besides, the movie was good and he didn't want to mess up the moment.
He glanced over Fef's head and somehow his gaze landed on Sol. He was white-knuckling his bottle of mead, the now-empty box of pizza between him and Aradia empty, and looking from the floor to the movie, although he mostly stared at the floor. Eridan couldn't tell if it was just the lighting, but his face seemed to be reddening. Maybe he's drunker than he looks. Sol lifted the mead to his lips and finished off the bottle, and Eridan's thoughts strayed to what those lips would look like wrapped around other things.
He shifted uncomfortably, crossing his legs. That was dangerous territory and he wasn't entirely opposed to it. Something was very wrong with him—Sol affected him in a way no one else had. Not even Vriska had affected him like this, distracting him so effortlessly or so completely unaware of what he was doing, but he did. Sol had no idea what he did to Eridan, and half of him wanted to hit him, but the other half of him strongly disagreed.
Hell, maybe he was drunker than he thought because right now, the idea of kissing Sol seemed pretty appealing.
He bit his lip and shoved away the temptation—Sol was nowhere near him, and wanting to kiss him was stupid anyway, and his breath smelled like vegan pizza. To distract himself, he took another bite of his pizza and tried to pay attention to the movie.
The more he drank, the more difficult it was for him not to look at Sol, though, and he hated himself for it.
In which Eridan gets the next indication that he's not completely straight.
EMBRACE YOUR INNER HOMO, ERIDAN.
The next chapter will be so cool, I promise. (Protip: Aradia's reaction upon drinking Everclear was my exact same reaction to the same thing. I was pretty sure I had been transformed into a dragon.)
