Ah, yes, Act 50. The halfway point (God, I hope not, I think this is only going to be like 75 acts at the most). Me: "I might kill Cronus." 85% of you: "Lol who?" Now that I know how you feel about him, I have no more problems with posting this act.
Many thanks to LinkinPark X, CatastrophicAquarius, Bitblondetoday, Scone, obsessed01616, BlOo KiSsEs, theindigoprince, iDreamBig, and thepeopleofthecrysis for your reviews to the last act!
Eridan had never spent the night with another person in his bed before. It was an interesting change.
He was usually able to sprawl out on his bed however he liked, but now, he couldn't. Sol was there, taking up half the bed, and he was unconsciously concerned about smacking him in the face. Eridan ended up right next to Sol, an arm thrown around him possessively, and he felt Sol shift next to him to kiss his neck and send shivers of pleasure across his skin. He really wanted to see if Sol would be agreeable to a repeat performance, but Sol's hair had just barely dried from his shower, and they'd no doubt have to take another afterward, so Eridan restrained himself. Still, with Sol's fingers lazily playing through his hair, he was caught between wanting to shove his hand down Sol's pants again and wanting to fall asleep. The latter won out, though, and with the sound of Sol's heartbeat in his ear, he drifted off.
He half-woke up around midnight as the bed shifted again and Sol climbed out. He heard the bedroom door open and close, followed by the bathroom door, and a few minutes later, Sol returned. He climbed back into bed, scooted close to Eridan, and wrapped his arms around him, and Eridan smiled to himself.
Waking up for the morning brought up an entirely different set of problems. For one thing, neither of them had actually had the presence of mind to start up the laundry and wash Sollux's dirty clothes, which Sollux only realized after his alarm went off at six-thirty and he discovered he had nothing to wear except whatever clothes Eridan had that might fit him. For another thing, Sollux's alarm went off at six-thirty, and Eridan, groggy and grumpy from sleep, asked, "What the fuck is goin' on?"
"My alarm," Sollux answered, dismissing the alarm and stretching. "My first class is in two hours."
Eridan groaned. "So sleep another hour or somethin'. I'm drivin' you to school, so it's not like you gotta catch the bus or anythin'."
"Yeah, but my clothes never got washed."
Eridan groaned again and flung his arm over his eyes. "An' they won't. The washers an' dryers here are notoriously slow."
"Fuck."
Eridan reluctantly sat up. "Alright, fine, I'm up. I can probably find somethin' else for you to wear."
"I'm not wearing your underwear."
"Then your only other option is goin' commando."
"Like I haven't done that before. Wipe that smirk off your face," Sollux added. Eridan had turned his head to level a salacious look at him.
"What? I didn't do anythin'!"
"Stop using your imagination."
"I don't need to." Eridan grinned.
Sollux snapped his fingers. "Focus."
"Alright, fine. You know how to make coffee?"
"Yeah."
"Okay. Go start some up. I'll try to find socially-acceptable clothes for you to wear to school, an' then I'm gettin' in the shower."
"Uh. You just showered last night."
Eridan stared at him. "Your point?"
"Um... are you a germaphobe or something?"
"No, I just... like water, I guess."
Sollux narrowed his eyes, as if sizing him up. "Hmm. Weird."
"Just go make coffee. The stronger, the better."
Sollux reached for his glasses, scratched at his scalp, and nodded, standing up and heading to the kitchen.
Eridan sighed and flopped back onto his bed for a few long moments. He really didn't want to be awake right now—his alarm went off at seven-thirty, so this was ridiculous—but he needed to find clothes for Sol to wear and besides, once he had coffee running through his system, he'd actually be a functional human being again. He wished he'd told Sol that more coffee was always better than less coffee, but then again, the guy drank tea like it was going out of style, so if he was lucky, it would be obvious.
He finally dragged himself out of bed and flipped through his closet. He had a few shirts that were a little long in the sleeve, so he tended to roll those up to his elbows to disguise it—he tossed a black button-up onto his bed and began hunting for pants. By the time Sol came back with a mug of coffee in his hand, Eridan had a whole outfit picked out for Sol. He snatched the mug out of Sol's hand and sailed into the bathroom with his towel over his shoulder.
Sollux looked at the clothes Eridan had laid on the bed and sighed. He felt over-dressed for school already, and he wasn't even dressed. Still, he couldn't very well show up in sweatpants that were in danger of falling off his ass, so he pulled on the clothes that Eridan had picked, feeling very much like he was getting ready for a family dinner. He had to roll the sleeves of the shirt up since the cuffs skimmed his knuckles, but the jeans fit pretty well, considering they were Eridan's. After he finished dressing, he sat awkwardly on the bed until he realized that Eridan taking long-ass showers was the norm. Then he got up and went back to the kitchen to see if they had any tea. If he got desperate, he supposed he could settle for coffee, but that would be a last resort.
The first few cupboards rendered nothing but disappointment and condiments, and he began hunting through the cupboard that he'd found the coffee in when he heard a smug voice drawl, "Mornin'."
Sollux looked over his shoulder at Cronus, who was giving him the same shit-eating grin he'd been wearing the night before. "Um. Hi."
"Who made coffee?"
"Me."
Cronus nodded, still grinning, and fished a mug out of another cupboard. "Those threads look familiar," he commented. He filled the cup with coffee and dumped about a cup of sugar into it.
Sollux felt himself turning red. "Do you have tea here?"
"Sorry," Cronus said, not looking sorry at all. "Fresh out."
"Oh. Can you hand me a cup?"
"Sure." Cronus reached for another mug and handed it over. "My little brother should be out a' the shower soon. He always takes forever."
"Yeah, I gathered that." Sollux felt more awkward by the second. It wasn't that he didn't like Cronus—he honestly knew nothing about him except that he was Eridan's brother and apparently had a thing for the nineteen-fifties. It kind of drove home how little he actually knew about Eridan himself, aside from his favorite color being purple and his favorite movie being basically any of the Harry Potter series and he was twenty and came from obscene money and Feferi was his best friend and he liked fucking with people and he liked water and fish and he had a penchant for shitty hipster traits and apparently he had a caffeine addiction. Which, now that he thought about it, was a fairly good summary of his personality.
"So what are you majorin' in?" Cronus asked, as if there was no awkwardness at all. He sat down at the table, nursing his mug of coffee, allowing Sollux to pour himself a small cup.
"Uh. Well, I'm going for my Bachelor of Science, and then I'm going to try to get a Master's in Computer Programming." He only put about a half a cup of sugar into his coffee and drowned the rest in creamer from the fridge. He eyeballed the coffee left in the coffeepot and decided he might as well make more—Eridan would probably want more.
"Well, at least you know what you wanna do with your life. Shit, I still don't know. It's why I'm workin' at a gas station until I figure it out."
Must be nice to be that rich, Sollux thought, but he said, "Why do you work there? Why not... not work?"
Cronus sighed. "I get bored way too easily. It keeps me occupied, I don't have to rely on my folks for everythin'—trust me, the temptation to do that is pretty strong—an' I get a discount on snacks an' gas. It's a win all around."
"Any idea on what you want to do yet?"
"Not really," Cronus said, so evasively that Sollux knew he was lying, but he wasn't about to push it.
Eridan suddenly appeared in the doorway and looked from Cronus to Sollux and back. "So. What's goin' on?"
Cronus suddenly grinned and leaned back in his chair. "Just gettin' to know your boyfriend, no big deal."
Wait, did he just—?
Eridan groaned, grabbed Sollux by the arm, and dragged him out of the kitchen. "Leave him alone!" he called back at Cronus. "He doesn't need to answer any a' your fucked-up questions!" To Sollux, he mumbled, "Sorry. He's a nosy little shit. He's like a cat—if you give him attention, he'll just sit there makin' noise and bein' annoyin'. If you ignore him, he goes away."
"He—" Sollux pointed over his shoulder. "He just called me your boyfriend."
Eridan pushed open his bedroom door. "Yeah, he does that. He's been doin' that since Saturday, actually."
"Ah." He wondered if he should say anything else about it—he was burning to ask, but he was afraid of the answer.
"Huh. Those clothes look good on you," Eridan said, looking him over.
"I feel like I'm going to church," Sollux muttered.
Eridan snorted with laughter. "Nothin' wrong with a dress shirt an' jeans. It's nerdy chic—I figured you'd like it."
Sollux tilted his head and glanced in the mirror. He supposed Eridan had a point—the jeans Eridan had loaned him were tighter than he was used to, but they made his butt look good, and the shirt was pretty cool, too. "I don't know—if it was nerdy chic, I'd be wearing a sweater vest," he joked.
"I can probably find one for you—don't mock me."
A small smile tugged at the corner of Sollux's mouth. Finally, he decided that he might as well ask—no matter what the answer was, he told himself he could handle it. "So. Am I your boyfriend?"
Eridan paused in the middle of shoving things into his backpack. He turned around, pressed his knuckles to his lips, and looked at Sollux for several long moments.
Sollux suddenly wished he hadn't asked—he couldn't read the expression on Eridan's face but it didn't matter. He was already bracing himself for the letdown. He shouldn't have asked. It was too early in the morning for this, too early in whatever relationship this even was, and he wished he could just walk away or run away and not have to hear the answer, but the last time he'd done that—Sunday, had it really only been two days?—Eridan had gotten upset that Sollux was just going to leave, so this time he stayed and waited.
"And I'm not asking because of last night or anything—I just want to know," he added quietly.
"Do you wanna be?" Eridan finally asked.
Sollux didn't trust himself to speak, so he just nodded, two quick jerks of his head.
Eridan dropped his hand from his mouth, crossed the room to where Sollux stood, and took his hands. "Sol, will you be my boyfriend?"
Sollux exhaled sharply, the sound nearly a laugh, and dropped his head to Eridan's shoulder. He was caught between wanting to laugh and wanting to cry, and in the end, the former won out. He managed to nod and say, "Yeah, okay."
"Wow, real enthusiastic there," Eridan teased.
Sollux chuckled and wrapped his arms around Eridan's waist, nuzzling his head into the crook of Eridan's neck. He bit down lightly just over the collar of his T-shirt and Eridan hissed faintly but brought his hand up to the back of Sollux's head. Sollux moved his lips a bit further up and bit again, just as his stomach gave a loud rumble, and Eridan started laughing.
"Hope you're not tryin' to eat me there."
"Haven't resorted to cannibalism yet," Sollux joked, straightening up but keeping his arms around Eridan.
"Get your stuff. We have a little bit a' time—we can get some breakfast. Plus we won't have Cro breathin' down our necks."
Sollux wanted to protest, but his stomach growled again, so he nodded, let Eridan go, and grabbed his backpack. As soon as Eridan finished putting his things for the day in his own bag, they were heading out the door.
LOL total b-fronds. I nearly died from the cuteness in this chapter.
