I am really tired. Let's leave it at that.

Many thanks to Rand0mAn0nym0u2, Bitblondetoday, SlytherinUnicorns, Wolfen Artist of Hetalia, and FanficFinatic2 for your reviews to the last act!


Vriska fell asleep that night to sugar-coated dreams and a smile on her face. This had been one of the best birthdays she could remember since before she turned eight, and it was because Jade had been with her. As hesitant as she'd been at first to accept Jade's offer of friendship, she was glad she had—she didn't feel quite so alone anymore.


"I just want to take a nap," Rose had said. "I'll be up in an hour," Rose had said. "Let me go back to sleep," Rose had said, and seven-thirty came and went and Kanaya sat there on the Lalondes' sofa in her chainsaw-murdering costume, watching TV while next to her, Roxy sipped at a martini. Kanaya couldn't help being a little bit irritated—they were supposed to go trick-or-treating with friends and she'd been looking forward to it, but apparently that wasn't about to happen.

At eight-fifteen, Kanaya took her fake chainsaw and left, asking Roxy to tell Rose when she woke up that she'd left. Roxy agreed, slurring her words slightly, and Kanaya wondered if Roxy would even be sober enough to remember telling Rose anything later.


They'd continued on with trick-or-treating, trying not to think about how Eridan's brother could be in mortal peril right now, dying or dead already, but it was really difficult to stay in character. About an hour after Eridan and Sollux left, though, Aradia received a text message from Sollux.

hey EDs brother ii2 okay apparently the bullet ju2t cliipped the 2iide of hii2 head or 2omethiing but hell be fiine. he al2o got pii2tol whiipped the way he tell2 the 2tory whiich ii2 kiind of funny am ii a bad per2on for laughiing at that

Aradia grinned and breathed a sigh of relief. She was glad that Cronus was fine—she would have felt awful if he'd ended up dying for taking her sister's shift. Not that she was glad he'd gotten shot or anything, because she would have strongly preferred that not to happen at all, but at least he was going to be okay. "Hey, guys, Eridan's brother is fine. Sollux says the bullet clipped the side of his head and he also got pistol-whipped," she announced before returning Sollux's text message. i supp0se it depends 0n why he g0t pist0l-whipped. was the pers0n being a jackass? Around her, her friends exchanged relieved looks and laughed in relief.

no the way cronu2 explaiined iit he wa2 beiing an iidiiot and makiing really 2narky comment2 or 2omethiing liike he wa2 beiing deliiberately obnoxiiou2 two the guy2 who were robbiing the 2tore

Aradia snorted with laughter. then n0 it is perfectly acceptable t0 laugh at s0mething like that

he2 al2o hiigh on paiinkiiller2 iit2 kiind of funny actually. he keep2 2ayiing 2tupiid 2hiit and arguiing wiith ED

then that seems t0 be pretty 0n-par with h0w he acted last weekend. She put her phone away and their small group continued trick-or-treating, the mood now much lighter than just a few minutes ago, and they didn't stop collecting candy until nearly eleven, when porch lights started to go out all throughout the neighborhood.

The six of them that remained piled back into Equius's Suburban (strictly speaking, Nepeta could have stayed behind since their place was only a block or so away, but for whatever reason, she'd decided to come along too) and Equius dropped them off one by one—Feferi, then Dave, John, and finally Aradia before he turned around and headed home himself. Although Kanaya and Rose had never shown up, Aradia still felt fairly content with how the evening had turned out.


Sollux got home after midnight, which wasn't too bad considering his first class the next day was at nine-thirty. He certainly wouldn't suffer too badly from slightly less sleep than normal, although he would have to shower after he woke up the next morning since he was too tired to do it now.

He shrugged out of his black shirt and the sweatpants he'd borrowed from Eridan (a bit short in the leg, but he had long socks on) and tossed those and the black leggings he'd worn into his laundry basket. He dug out a pair of sweatpants that fit properly and a clean T-shirt, tossed a pair of jeans onto the floor for him to wear tomorrow, and crawled into bed.

Sleep didn't come immediately, though. For a few minutes, he let his mind wander. After all, Eridan had seemed close to asking to spend the night here, and Sollux wouldn't have refused him. It actually had little to do with the prospect of fooling around with him, either—he'd gotten used to falling asleep with Eridan pressed up behind him or burrowed into his chest. His presence had a strange sort of comfort to it that soothed him. He had a feeling that Eridan really wanted to sleep next to him tonight, something he would have gladly allowed him if it hadn't been for Halloween and his stupid bee costume getting in the way.

He supposed he could have asked Eridan to wait for a few minutes while he packed his backpack for another night at Eridan's place, but by the time he got back up to his apartment, he was too tired to even face that prospect, so here he was, home alone and wishing he had Eridan sleeping soundly next to him. It would have been nice, but that was going to have to happen another time. Like this weekend, he told himself. After all, it was technically Friday morning. Maybe sometime this weekend, they could even go on an actual date or something. Breakfast on Tuesday morning had probably counted as a date considering Eridan paid for the whole thing himself, but it would still be nice to actually go out and do something, like see a movie. Runner, Runner was supposed to be pretty good...

With that thought, he finally drifted off.


When Eridan woke up the next morning, he smelled what was definitely real bacon frying (it was decidedly not tofu bacon), and his stomach churned with nausea. He could generally handle the smell of cooking meat unless it was bacon—it just made him sick. He slunk out of his bedroom, holding his nose and wondering what in God's name had possessed Cronus to cook actual bacon (he knew they had it in the freezer but usually, Cronus was good enough to make it after he'd left for the day). But it wasn't Cronus in the kitchen.

It was Meenah. She'd actually come over.

"When did you get here?" he asked, still holding his nose.

"About three—oh, Jesus fuck," she muttered, turning around and getting a good look at him. She seemed irritated. "Cod damn it, you're not a fucking vegan like Feferi, are you?"

"No," he said, bristling at the condescension in her tone. "Just a vegetarian."

"Animal rights?" That was what had inspired Feferi's vegan eating, after all.

He shook his head as best he could. "Meat makes me sick."

Meenah sighed, turning back to the frying pan. "I guess I can't fault you for that, then."

"I got fake bacon in the freezer. If you're dead-set on makin' breakfast, that's what I'll be eatin'."

"If you weren't Cronus's little brother, I'd conch you in the fucking face."

Eridan rolled his eyes. He assumed she meant "punch," but her affinity toward fish puns leaned more toward the ridiculous and horrible. The less they made sense, the better. "So you got here at three?"

"Yeah, aboat then. I mean, I was passed the fuck out when I got that text, but when I woke up and read it, I came right over."

"Did Cronus let you in? I didn't hear the doorbell or knockin' or anythin'."

"Nah, he gave me a key a few weeks ago. I net myself in." She set the spatula in her hand down and reached for a small stack of plates. "He was still asleep when I got here, anyway." She dug the package of tofu bacon out of the freezer. "How many slices do you want?"

"Two or three. I'm gonna hop in the shower." Now that he knew food would be waiting for him, he'd take a shorter shower than normal. He'd taken a shower last night, too, so all the product had been scrubbed out of his hair—all he really needed was a rinse. "Um, thanks, by the way."

"No problem. My pleasure to kelp out."

In a way, he was glad Meenah had shown up. If she was planning to stay all day, he wouldn't have to worry about Cronus hurting himself in a drug-induced confusion or something, plus she was making sure he ate, which was definitely an improvement over his typical habits.

He took one of the shortest showers of his life before dressing and heading back to the kitchen. When he got there, he saw that Cronus had woken up and was brewing a pot of coffee. Eridan had completely forgotten about coffee until he smelled it, and the smell alone was enough to perk him up slightly. It also covered up the bacon smell, which was a relief.

"Hey, little monster," Cronus said with a loopy grin. "Coffee?"

"Sit down before you hurt yourself. Lemme see the stitches."

Cronus stuck his tongue out at him but allowed himself to be pushed into a kitchen chair. He'd taken the bandage off from around his head sometime between last night and this morning, although what he'd done with the dressing, Eridan had no idea. "Feel okay?"

"Uh-huh."

Eridan tilted Cronus's head from one side to the other. Against his left temple, almost reaching his eye, were two thin rows of stitches that had already started to knit together a little, but it still made him a little sick to look at. On the right side, about an inch above his ear, was another row of stitches, this one a little wider. That must have been where the bullet grazed his head. Jesus. He really got shot at last night. "No pain, no dizziness?"

Cronus grinned at him, a crooked little smile that Eridan knew meant a wisecrack was coming. "No, Doctor Monster."

Eridan was really tempted to smack Cronus's forehead, but considering he already had three head wounds, it would be in poor form, so he restrained himself. "Meenah, how long were you plannin' on stayin' here?"

"Probably until four or five. Haven't quite decided. Maybe later."

"Alright. Just need to make sure this clown doesn't hurt himself."

"I'm not a baby," Cronus said suddenly.

"I never said you were. I called you a clown, remember?"

Cronus stuck out his tongue again.

"That's what I thought. An' I called our parents last night an' let them know what happened. Then I told them I'd have Cronus call them back to reassure them he's okay, so can you make sure he actually calls them?"

Meenah nodded. "No problem. When are your parents netting back from their vacation again?"

Crap. He'd forgotten all about that when he'd called the night before. He'd also forgotten about their anniversary two days before. He was apparently a crap excuse for a son. "Sunday, I think they said. Probably pretty late."

"Alright, whale, as soon as he finishes eating, I'll have him call your parents and then I'll put him down for a nap."

Cronus stuck out his tongue again before downing two pills from the orange bottle behind him on the table. "You can't boss me around! You're not my real mom!"

"And thank cod for that," Meenah muttered.

Eridan closed his eyes and tried not to think about anything even remotely related to his brother and Meenah having sex.

Meenah scrambled some eggs for them and they had a fairly comfortable breakfast considering Eridan still hadn't decided if he liked her or not. Right now, the scales were tipping in favor of liking her, considering she was taking care of his brother and had made them all breakfast, but he kept going back to the condescension in her tone when she spoke of Feferi and it irritated him all over again. Still, he managed to keep his thoughts to himself.

"What did you do with the bandage, by the way?" he asked.

"It's in the trash," Cronus said, pointing toward the kitchen trash can.

"Ew. That's like a biohazard or somethin', I think. Maybe you should wrap it in a Zip-Loc bag or some plastic wrap or somethin'." He did not envy the poor assclown that trash bag potentially split open on.

Cronus twisted in his seat to look at the trash can. "But it's so far away!" he whined.

"Oh, my cod," he muttered. He finished off his eggs and put his dishes in the dishwasher. "Alright, I gotta head to school. I'll be back later. Take it easy today, Cro," he added. "No wild sex while I'm gone." As soon as he said it, he regretted it. It just conjured up more mental images he didn't need.

Meenah grinned at him. "Damn."


I was inspired to write a new fic, so go check out "Bring on the Undead." (TL;DR I basically shaved my head.)

Also I have a really heart-wrenching idea for the next act but I need to decide if I will actually follow through on it.