Go me, two stories updated today! (Head on over to "When Blood Sings" for Zahhak feels and other awesomeness. I just really like this fic okay.)

Many thanks to BlooKisses, iDreamBig, HoNk HoNk, obsessed01616, SlytherinUnicorns, CatastrophicAquarius, LinkinPark X, FanficFinatic2, Rand0mAn0nym0u2, and Leok for your reviews to the last act!


It felt weird to leave school by himself. He'd already gotten used to having Sol in the car with him—now it just felt empty without him. Still, he was about to get his fish. That was enough to improve his mood, at least a little bit.

He parked in front of the PetCo he'd visited the Monday before and climbed out of the car. It had been nearly freezing this morning, but now, he could comfortably unbutton his pea coat without shivering. He went into the store and scanned the registers to see if Rufioh was up there, but he wasn't. Eridan supposed he could have been in the aisles, too, since that's where he'd been when Rufioh found him, so he began prowling around the store in search of him.

He'd just made it past bird food when he heard Rufioh's voice. "Hey, fish boy!"

Eridan turned around.

"Thought that was you," Rufioh said cheerfully, hurrying over to him. "Here to pick up your fish, I'm guessing?"

"Yeah." His initial response had been to be offended by being referred to as "fish boy," but it was pretty obvious that Rufioh hadn't intended to be offensive, so he let it slide. Besides, he worked at a high-traffic pet store. He probably had a hard time keeping track of people's names and just remembered them by defining characteristics—in this case, Eridan's pursuit of a fish tank and fish.

"Alright, come with me!" Rufioh had a tendency to walk really fast, which Eridan found hilariously at-odds with how short he was (he was probably only about five feet tall), but he was able to keep pace with Rufioh fairly easily.

It was hard not to like Rufioh, actually. He had dark-brown hair with dyed-red streaks in it, a septum piercing, and another stud through the middle of his lower lip. Although he wore the red shirt of a PetCo employee, his jeans reminded Eridan of something one of the Lost Boys from Peter Pan might wear if they somehow grew up and worked at a pet store.

"Wait here," Rufioh said as they drew up to a door marked EMPLOYEE'S ONLY. Eridan cringed at the apostrophe abuse, which Rufioh noticed. He grinned. "Yeah, I know. Me, too. I've been trying to get them to change that for months now. Hang on." He disappeared through the mislabeled door, so Eridan waited outside of it, quickly growing bored and looking around.

The whole store was filled with the sounds of barking puppies and meowing kittens and the squawking of birds, and in cages and pens, rabbits and hamsters and guinea pigs ran on their wheels and shuffled through shredded newspaper. It stank really badly, and Eridan imagined he'd have to take an extra-long shower after he got home if he worked here, but there was a charm to it with all the animals. He'd probably end up working solely in the fish section, if that was possible—they were quiet, and as long as you took care of them properly, they didn't smell—but he could understand how an animal lover would be comfortable working here. Rufioh seemed to have a way with the animals, too—he was somehow able to calm down any animals that were freaking out for whatever reason.

"Here you go," Rufioh said from behind him, startling him. He turned around to see three separate plastic bags—labeled with the numbers one through three—in a bigger plastic bag. Each of the smaller bags contained a single yellow fish swimming around.

"Awesome," Eridan said, grinning suddenly. Even at first glance, he could see that the one in the bag labeled with a two was bigger than the others, and the one in bag number one had a spot of black on his back. It would be easy to tell them apart—and, better, to name them and actually know which one he was talking about.

"You paid for them last week, so you're all good to go from here." He almost sprinted to the front of the store and, as Eridan followed him at a walk, Rufioh called to someone Eridan couldn't see, "The guy with the fish is all paid up, guys!"

Eridan heard answering calls, and when he finally got to the front of the store, Rufioh disappearing down another aisle to help another customer, several of the cashiers waved to him to acknowledge that, yes, he was fish boy, and he was going to be allowed to leave without being harassed, thank you very much.

He set the big bag on the floor in front of the passenger's seat of his car. He already had an idea on what to name them—the one with the black spot would be Daisy (he did not give one solitary fuck if it turned out to be a boy fish—it would be a boy fish named Daisy) and the big one would be Sunshine, leaving the smaller, not-spotted one to be Butter Mellow. His inner fanboy was pleased.

When he got home, he was relieved to see that Cronus was not. Good. He would have time to enjoy his fish without his brother being obnoxious over his shoulder. He closed his door tightly behind him anyway and locked it before tossing his backpack onto his bed and setting the big bag of fish on the desk. He eyed the water level in the fish tank and tried to decide how to work this—he couldn't really dump the contents of the smaller bags, fish, water, and all, into the tank without the tank overflowing. He remembered after a few moments of contemplation that he'd bought a little net just for this purpose and felt like an idiot for forgetting.

Eridan removed the top to the tank and set it on the floor. He untied the top of Daisy's bag, reached for the net, scooped out the fish, and dropped it in the tank after barely a second out of water. Good. He tied the top of it up again to dispose of the water in the tub or down the sink, and repeated the process with Sunshine and Butter Mellow. Once all the fish were swimming around in the tank (Sunshine seemed to like skimming the rocks at the bottom of the tank), Eridan shook some fish flakes into the tank, replaced the top, and sat down to watch. He put his hands on the desk and rested his chin on his hands, wiggling his seat back so he was more comfortable.

At first, none of the fish appeared all that interested in the food, but slowly, Butter Mellow realized it was there and swam toward it. Then Daisy and Sunshine realized Butter Mellow had found food, and they followed it to the flakes, and within minutes, they were all gone. Eridan grinned. Once he was sure the three of them were going to get along, he would have to see about getting a couple of seahorses, and maybe a starfish.

His stomach growled, reminding him that it was his feeding time, too. He finally looked away from the fish tank and hunted for the car keys he'd somehow managed to misplace in the twenty minutes he'd been home. He searched for a few minutes before giving up for the moment and picking up the now-empty bags of water. He took them to the bathroom and emptied them into the bathtub. Once they were completely empty, he dropped the bags into the trash can and went back to his bedroom.

He finally found his keys in his backpack (he'd forgotten he put them in there), shed his pea coat onto his bed, and headed back out the door. At this point, his long-sleeved shirt was more than sufficient covering for his arms.

Now the only question was what to get to eat.

He returned about a half an hour later with four slices of Big Rico's garden-style pizza. He couldn't eat a whole one—he probably could have put away a whole one with Sol's help or Cro's, but he didn't feel like buying food for Cronus and Sol probably wouldn't coming over tonight anyway—but four slices would be good. Even if it seemed to be a bit much, he could probably put away three slices while doing his homework and nibble on the last one until it disappeared, too.

Still, he decided to text Sol anyway.

hey i just got my fish you should come ovver an see them

He sat down and waited for Sol's response, starting on one of his slices of pizza and pulling up the photos he'd taken during lunch so he could start editing them. As an afterthought, he put on some VNV Nation to help him while he worked but turned it low so as not to startle the fish.

or or OR you could ju2t 2end me a piicture

Eridan rolled his eyes. but then i dont get to see you

lqtm you ju2t 2aw me a few hour2 ago

wwtf is lqtm

a more hone2t ver2iion of lol meaniing laughiing quiietly two my2elf

youre no fun

dont you have homework you 2hould be doiing anyway

im wworkin on it!

apparently not that hard iif youre textiing me

actually

DO NOT RE2POND TO THAT

hehehehe okay fine picture incomin

He leaned back in his seat and snapped a picture of the three fish swimming around and sent it to Sol. the big one is sunshine an the one wwith the black spot on its back is daisy an the other one is butter melloww

that ii2 a reference two 2omethiing iim 2ure of iit but ii have no iidea what iit ii2

wwhat the hell howw long havve wwe been datin

two day2 a2 of thii2 morniing and ii am 2tiill confu2ed

harry potter it is a reference to harry potter you uneducated fucktruck it is the spell ron cast on scabbers in a failed attempt to turn him yelloww

? al2o, Along with the message came a photo of Sol flipping him off.

Eridan couldn't help but grin at that. Since he didn't have any pictures of them together—yet—he decided to save this one as his contact photo for Sol. the spell is "sunshine daisies butter melloww turn this stupid fat rat yelloww" but it didnt wwork either because its not actually a real spell or because scabbers is an animagus an not actually a rat

he2 a what

WWHAT

2orry douchewagon ii never got iinto the harry potter thiing what the fuck ii2 an aniimagu2

its a wwizard that can turn into an animal GOD wwhat the hell

well excu2e me for not knowiing liike ii 2aiid ii never got iinto the fandom

yeah but you saww the movvies this weekend an wwith me

how could ii po22iibly ab2orb every siingle detaiil iin one 2iittiing and you hone2tly thiink ii wa2 payiing attentiion two the moviie2 come on

wwhat the hell else could you havve been payin attention to

other thiing2

jfc like wwhat

you for one

At that point, Eridan completely stopped focusing on anything that wasn't his phone. He grinned and buried his face in his arms. He supposed he could accept that answer as a reasonable excuse for not watching the movies. okay this is vvalid i suppose but it just means ill havve to lock you in a room alone so you can wwatch the movvies although i strongly suggest you read the books too

jegu2 chrii2t ii knew thii2 wa2 goiing two be a chore but ii diidnt a2k for thii2

you kneww wwhat wwas goin to be a chore

beiing wiith you

ouch

iim ju2t kiiddiing but 2eriiou2ly harry potter ii2 ju2t not that iintere2tiing two me

oh

i wwish you said somethin earlier then i wwouldnt havve made you wwatch it if i kneww

ED ju2t calm down okay that2 not what ii meant

wwhat did you mean then

ii meant that no ii wiill not watch harry potter on my own but ii wiill watch iit wiith you 2iince you liike it 2o much and ii dont fiind iit iintolerable iim ju2t 2ort of ambiivalent toward2 iit okay

Well, that wasn't as bad as outright hating it, and Sol was able to put aside the fact that he wasn't a fan of the franchise just because he liked it. That was actually pretty nice of him. oh okay wwell ill still tone it dowwn a bit on the harry potter flipouts. after tomorroww anywway

youre goiing two be a wiizard ii fuckiing knew iit

...maybe

omfg go back two your homework weiirdo

Eridan sent back a picture of himself flipping off the camera before setting his phone aside. Sol was right, though—he did have to finish up this homework. Fortunately, he actually enjoyed doing his Photography homework, so as he buzzed through all four slices of pizza and cast sidelong glances at his new fish and skipped past the live VNV Nation tracks, he did his homework with a smile on his face until he heard Cro come home around ten. Then, he finally set aside his homework for the night (he was almost done, but he had until Monday morning technically to get it all finished), showered, and went to bed. Even though he didn't have Sol next to him tonight, he still felt content. He had his fish, and like it or not, Sol was probably thinking about him. That was enough to send him off to good dreams.


It hasn't been explicitly stated yet, but Rufioh is Tavros's older brother. Also I was thinking about putting him in a relationship with Horuss (those two are adorable and I'm really in love with Horuss right now) but I feel like that would be shipping overkill so yeah nothing yet.

Are you excited for the Intermission next act? You shouldn't be!