Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Sollux took a deep breath, fighting the urge to tug on the green of his hood nervously. His fingers twitched at his sides anyway, anticipation making his blood rush and body move on its own without any real input from him. Standing at his side, not even looking at him out of the corner of his eye, Eridan Ampora was the polar opposite of him; he wasn’t moving at all, just standing with his head high and his face cold. Sollux wanted to make a jab at him — the drapes and folds of his outfit were more unflattering than Sollux thought they had any right to be, mostly because the yellow was such a hideously unflattering color on him in spite of the high amount of wealth that went into the clothes, and no amount of fabric could hide the way his fins flared out on either side of his head — except that he wasn’t entirely sure of what was going to come out of his mouth right at that moment, and if he made a fool of himself during their first official interaction, he was going to do a fucking acrobatic pirouette off of some gods forsaken handle and die.

He didn’t want to be here, not really. This whole peace agreement that the Condesce and Signless hashed out was, in Sollux’s ignored opinion, fragile and unsustainable in the long run. It appeared, to Sollux, like the Condesce had gotten bored of fighting all the time, but couldn’t be seen conceding to a mutant blooded troll who’d challenged her authority; instead, she’d created a plan to essentially…wait Signless out. She was much longer lived than almost everyone else, the two princesses withstanding of course, and this would be the best possible solution to both defeating Signless and winning the war in the long run. It was a smart move, on her part, and Sollux couldn’t tell if Signless was naïve to have not seen through it, or was just hoping that someone else would take up the mantle to keep it going once he was gone.

At least Sollux wouldn’t be around to see the end of this peace thing, either.

He glanced to the side, at Aradia now. She was staring straight at him, the look on her face blank but her eyes burning. He winced as quietly as possible at the sight, darting his eyes away from her. She was still mad at him, then; she’d agreed with him when he protested against the wedding, backing up his arguments with her own, but they and Jade had lost the battle, so to speak. Aradia had tried sneaking out, but Sollux refused to be the only one of them stuck in this stupid, pointless marriage, and had chased after her. She’d tried to convince him to go with her, but he hadn’t wanted to deal with the potential consequences of running away, and they’d ended up fighting for so long that they were caught by Signless.

And Karkat, too, but Karkat had been convincing in an entirely different way. He’d had a plan, at least, and that had been more than what Aradia’d had when she’d tried to book it the other night. It required more patience than Sollux thought either of them had, especially considering the partners that were chosen for them, but it had been enough to convince Aradia to come back to the encampment so that she could be prepared for her wedding yesterday.

She looked different now, sitting stiffly by the Princess and the Queen. Her hair was pulled back, tight and neat, the size of it gathered behind her forcing her head forward at an odd angle. There wasn’t any hint of dust or grime on her, her skin a darker grey than Sollux had thought, especially when sitting next to the Princess. Her dress was deep red, new and thick-looking, and she had golden jewelry draped along her arms and her neck. Bright pink gems glistened off of them, matching the color that the Princess sitting next to her wore, and Sollux just knew that all the decorations just added to her anger.

“All right, all right!” The cheery voice startled Sollux, badly, and he jumped a little in response to it. Ampora didn’t even seem to notice the movement at his side, staring coolly at the indigoblood that was suddenly in front of them, and Sollux felt his cheeks warm up. He reached up slowly, giving into the instinct to tug at his hood. “Round two, are you both ready?” Sollux still didn’t open his mouth, still too nervous about what he might actually say, but it didn’t seem to matter — Ampora didn’t say anything either, and the indigoblood seemed to take that as her cue to go on. “Right, so. In accordance with the new peace treaty signed by Her Imperial Condescension and Signless of the Rebellion, I preside over this event to help strengthen this decision of peace with a union of marriage.”

“I vow myself,” Ampora started, and Sollux glanced at him with wide eyes, “to you, Sollux, in order to secure protection for my people and yours. I will take you into my care, and place myself willingly into yours in order to ensure our marriage is successful. With time, we can forge a path of peace and freedom together.”

Oh, is that what he sounded like? Sollux didn’t like that. He sounded pompous and presumptuous, just on this side of whiney. It did sort of match the whole look he had going on, but Sollux found himself glancing at Aradia again out of sheer confoundedness. Ampora wasn’t looking at him at all, despite the two of them standing across from each other and holding hands, and Sollux decided right then and there that he could not stand this guy at all.

Maybe he should’ve just let Aradia run away the other night, and gone with her.

“I take — ” No wait, shit. Sollux knew it was wrong even before the hand in his squeezed harshly, and he winced and tried again. “I vow myself to you, Am — Eridan, in order to secure protection for my people and yours. I will take you into my care, and place myself willingly into yours in order to ensure our marriage is successful. With time, we can forge a path of peace and freedom together.” His words tripped over themselves, but worse yet was his lisp; it always sounded worse at the most inconvenient possible moments, and this was no exception. It made his words muddied and almost unintelligible, and he watched as Ampora pressed his lips together to prevent himself from reacting too much. The violetblood finally looked at Sollux, though, but it was just to give him the most judgemental look Sollux had ever gotten in his life. He resisted the urge to squeeze his hand back, or to try and spark Ampora with his psionics, though it really was a very narrow thing. Glancing at Aradia again, Sollux licked his lip and took a steadying breath.

A ribbon landed on the back of Sollux’s hand, and he stared down at it. It was soft and silky, and it was violet colored. The indigo didn’t seem to care that neither one of them was listening to her, though Sollux couldn’t imagine why that would bother her at all. Something twisted in his stomach, the feeling growing stronger with each pass of the ribbon around their hand, and Sollux peered up at Ampora again to see if he could see how this was affecting him. Ampora was staring straight at the motion, back to not even looking at Sollux, and that annoyed him for some reason; he adjusted his grip as best as he could to be able to press his nails into the back of Ampora’s hand.

Ampora’s lip curled, and his eyes flickered from the ribbon wrapping to Sollux’s; the purple was dark against the yellow, and narrowed in some mixture of open disgust and hatred. It was almost as if Ampora hated the whole situation as much as he did, and Sollux felt…

Sollux felt trapped.

He blinked down at the ribbon connecting them, remembered how Aradia had complained that it wouldn’t come off until at the very least the end of the night, and found himself feeling sick to his stomach. Chills were running down his spine, and Sollux grabbed at the edge of his hood again with his free hand; it was that or let loose the sparks that were building up and building up with no outlet, but he didn’t think his new spouse would be particularly pleased with that outcome. Breathing shakily, Sollux blindly followed Ampora’s lead until they were in front of Her Imperial Condescension, and the Princess. Ampora bowed, forcing Sollux down with him, and Sollux glanced over at Aradia.

She was crying, dark red rivulets running down her cheeks as her bottom lip trembled, and Sollux ached for her; for the both of them really, because right at this point he genuinely did not know which of them had it worse — Aradia had the Princess, who was rumored to be not that bad, but she now had close contact with Her Imperial Condescension whenever the woman so wished, and she was about to embark on a journey that kept her in close confines of the castle. Sollux was at least going back home, but he would be lugging this sea dweller with him, this captain who’d killed so many of their people and kept looking at Sollux like he was dirt on the bottom of his shoe.

Ampora strode confidently to the Condescension’s side, almost dragging Sollux along because Sollux hadn’t been paying attention. Sollux tripped over his feet, barely keeping himself from falling over and making more of a spectacle of himself. Ampora didn’t exactly smile at the awkward way Sollux scrambled after him, but he could tell that it had brought some amusement to him. A dark feeling burst in Sollux’s chest as he was pulled into a bow with Ampora, thick and heavy, and he wondered if Aradia had felt the same way when she’d taken her seat next to the Princess yesterday morning. He felt his own breath coming in the same stutters and starts as Aradia’s, their breathing pattern matching even despite the distance between them. His eyes burned a little as Ampora pulled him up and to the left, taking his seat next to Her Imperial Condescension and pulling Sollux down with him.

As the doors opened across the room, a single tear dripped out of the corner of his eye.

Chapter Text

“This is…” Sollux watched as Ampora glanced to the side at Vriska Serket, daring him in silence to finish the sentence he’d started. It had been a very long two day trip to the Veil, following an extremely long two week stay in Alternian territory, and though they’d not necessarily traveled together in the sense that all of them were in the same carriage, Sollux had to travel alone with Ampora and listen to all the snarky comments he’d had about the war, the Veil, the lowbloods, and Signless, and Sollux. Sollux kept trying to remind himself that Signless was advocating for peace, but that fragile reminder had been steadily breaking down the last hour or so of the trip — they’d stopped just as Sollux was holding onto the last threads of his sanity to keep himself from lunging across the carriage. The look on Ampora’s face right at this moment wasn’t helping either, the faux optimistic look that Sollux could tell was vainly trying to hide what he really thought.

Serket was not even trying to do the same. There was a glint in her eye, the one that was normal, and her eight-bit left eye spun in the socket as she snickered a little. Sollux was almost viciously proud of that and the metallic left arm she was currently rolling backwards in a stretch; Aradia and Tavros had teamed up for that one, Aradia causing the explosion that took out Serket’s eye right after Tavros used his lance to tear through her shoulder. It had backfired a little, Tavros getting that close to her, but they’d still gotten her worse than she’d gotten them, and she’d been forced to retreat.

Granted, the next time she’d come out to fight, she’d nearly killed Egbert for the fourth time, but hey. Battle was battle.

“This is quaint.” Serket finished for him, smiling widely. The expression showed off her fangs fully, her eyes scanning over the main compound. Her smile grew as she lingered on details that were lost on Sollux, but couldn’t possibly be good things if they put that kind of look on her face. “It’s, like, adorable! Exactly what I was picturing from a little…” She trailed off this time, but the look on her face was so much more amused than Ampora’s was. Her tongue traced the sharp edges of her fangs, but Sollux could tell she was just barely holding back her cackling laughter. “What would you call this, Eridan? Would ‘campsite’ be the appropriate word, do you think?”

“Can you just fucking move?” Jade snapped from behind Serket, shouldering past her roughly to stomp into the compound. Sollux blinked, cutting his eyes back to where Serket was looking positively victorious. It took a lot to get Jade to start swearing, he knew from experience and also from how frustrated Karkat would get when around her, but Jade seemed to have no problem with it now. She had John with her, dragging him behind her past Signless, who’d stepped smoothly out of the doorway so that she could pass. She was also muttering viciously under her breath, and Sollux was tempted to go after her to try and calm her down.

“This is a little bit on the smaller size.” Came a smooth voice from Sollux’s left, and he cut his eyes to the side to see John’s husband standing next to him with his hands in his pockets. Sollux didn’t know much about Strider, just that he was part of the younger set of twins, but John had known him, apparently, so they were probably off to a decent start. Hopefully, at least — Sollux hadn’t really known Ampora, per se, but he’d known of him, and so far Sollux wasn’t impressed with him at all. “Like, if you tried to cram fifteen clowns in a little clown boat, like a teeny tiny sailboat, and then sent them off to their destination. They’d arrive like, ‘oh, it’s a small boat, there couldn’t possibly be that many clowns on it’, and then just BAM!” Sollux jumped at the exact moment Strider smacked his hands together, creating a loud noise that he hadn’t been expecting, “fifteen clowns just like, absolutely piling out onto the docks so that — ”

“Dude.” Sollux said, and Strider tilted his head, presumably, to look at him. His shades were huge, taking up a decent half of his face, and sort of reflected Sollux back at him. They stared at each other for a moment, Sollux thought, his mind trying to put Strider’s words in some semblance of order so they made sense, and then gave up. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Should I have used juggalos?” Strider asked, and Sollux shrugged almost helplessly, still lost to the point Strider was trying to make. “Like, I feel like maybe juggalos would’ve been a better comparison, because that whole thing with Makara was definitely juggalo inspired, but like. I don’t think juggalos have the same sort of comedic effect clowns do? I can’t see, like, fifteen juggalos trying to make themselves fit onto a tiny sailboat or anything, but clowns could for sure. They’re good at that, you know.”

“Again.” Sollux said. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Are we gonna have to share rooms?” Strider asked, completely changing the subject, and Sollux shrugged carelessly. It was actually really likely; the main compound was set up properly, but not enough of the branching areas, and there was a lot of sharing rooms already, mostly amongst matesprits, moirails, and families. There were some camps that were definitely still up and around — the Leijon family tended to like the outdoors a bit more due to their hunting activities, and it was easier to keep the Nitrams out there as well so that they weren’t constantly knocking down walls with their horns — but the rooms in the compound itself were minimal. Strider adjusted his glasses, humming in response to Sollux’s shrug. “Man, I guess. As long as I don’t have to like, room with Eridan or some shit — ”

“Why would you room with Ampora?” Sollux asked, and Strider turned fully to face him now. His brows looked a bit furrowed above his glasses, looking as confused as Sollux had seen him, which was sort of on par with how Sollux had been feeling this entire time. There was a commotion by the carriages, but Sollux wouldn’t let himself be distracted now. “Like, didn’t I marry him? I’m the one sharing with Ampora, if anything.”

“So…I’m sharing with…Egbert?” Strider didn’t necessarily sound upset about the situation, but there was something about the way he stressed John’s name that made Sollux narrow his eyes. Worse, there was a faint blush that was covering the tips of his ears, turning them red in the evening sunlight. He ran his hand down his face, stopping it right at his mouth as he turned to stare ahead into the house. “Like, is that what you’re telling me, dude? I gotta share with Egbert?”

“I mean.” Sollux said, still squinting at him. He reminded himself, somewhat abruptly, that he had never met Strider before at all. The guy was so much weirder than Sollux had been expecting, though, and he wasn’t sure what to do with him. According to John, they were pretty much evenly matched in strength, their fights usually ending in narrow victories. Sollux was pretty sure that was all they had in common, though; John was a goofy kid, upbeat and peppy, and Strider was just an oddball. “You married him? What did you expect?”

“I need to talk to my sister.” Strider said, and Sollux lifted his hands in confusion. Wasn’t she still in Alternia? It wasn’t like he could talk to her now, he would need to send a letter —

Strider marched forward, ears steadily turning redder, and grabbed a girl with short blonde hair and a long purple and pink scarf. He dragged her backwards, away from Jane, who seemed to blink at the space in front of her for a moment before turning to look at Sollux. Sollux shrugged at her, still confused, and made his way towards the entrance of the compound. Signless was still standing there, watching all of them as they got their stuff together; he had his lips pressed together tightly, his shoulders holding a familiar tension since his last meeting with the Condescension. His eyes were scanning all of them, taking in everyone who had returned and the new, mostly unwilling, additions to their home.

“I think he’ll be ok.” Sollux offered up quietly, though that didn’t seem to do anything to help Signless at all. Signless looked at him, and Sollux shrugged a little. Karkat was stubborn and irritating, that much was true, but at least he knew when to shut up and stop talking, unlike Kankri. Besides, what with KK’s whole thing, Sollux didn’t think Signless had much to worry about; he was also aware that the troll knew that, and was worried anyway. And it wasn’t even like Sollux could blame him, either, not when Sollux was doing a similar thing anyway. “I mean, Her Imperial Condescension was the one who pressed for peace, right? So KK should be safe, she wouldn’t hurt him without causing a whole incident.”

“I think,” Signless said, “that The Condescension has her own, warped version of what peace is.” Sollux crossed his arms, looking with Signless out over the yard. Jade’s entrance with John clearly alerted the rest of the compound that they were back; Meulin was twirling Nepeta around, chattering excitedly about something Sollux couldn’t hear, and Rufioh was standing next to Jane, looking somewhat concerned as he talked to her with his hand on her shoulder. Most likely asking about Tavros — he was a little overprotective of his brother, much in the same way Signless was a little overprotective of Karkat.

Sollux glanced around idly, then peered over his shoulder to look inside the compound. More people were coming out, a mixture of trolls and humans, and Sollux found himself automatically scanning for Mituna before he could stop himself. There were a couple of other yellows here and there, but none that he could see that matched the horns he had on his own head, or even that had on the helmet that Mituna loved to wear. He jerked his head forward, yellow creeping up the back of his neck; Mituna was sort of a pain of an older brother, difficult to manage and even harder to deal with, and Sollux often found himself regretting talking to him whenever they ended up chatting with each other, but…

But he was still his brother, and he’d gone missing several months ago when Damara had taken a fight to the Heiress Apparent. Sollux didn’t want to admit that part of why he’d even gone into Alternian territory, before he knew about the whole marriage prospect, was to try and see if he could stage a rescue of his brother. If Mituna could even be rescued; Handmaid’s army had been defeated by Her Imperial Condescension sweeps ago, and she’d slaughtered almost everyone before selling the rest of the survivors to Lord English, Handmaid included. Damara had picked up the reins after that, and had a decent run, until the Heiress Apparent stuck them down. There had been nothing remaining of the battle afterwards — everyone was just gone, on both sides of the battle.

And now, Sollux mused, it was their turn now. Aradia against the Princess, Sollux against Ampora, and so on and so forth. Never ending, Sollux thought, before deciding that he was too tired to deal with anything anymore and started heading towards his room. Ampora could figure out his own way if he really needed to; Sollux just wanted a nap.

—

Sollux wandered around the compound, glancing into rooms and down the hallways he passed as he went. He met with several of the others he hadn’t seen when they’d first arrived a couple of weeks ago — Kurloz being one of them, who waved at Sollux from where he was hiding in Meulin’s tent, and Xochil, who’s sister worked with animals in Alternia — and nearly ran right into Zahhak. He blanked for a moment, guard instantly up, and threw his hands up in a defensive position he sort of knew would do nothing to protect himself; Zahhak was navyblooded, strong enough to pull out submersibles from the ocean and rip trolls apart with his bare hands if he were so inclined, and Sollux was a yellow who spent most of his time on the computer where his skills were needed. It would be laughable for Sollux to even think about trying anything, and he was well aware of it, but it didn’t stop his body from moving to protect himself automatically. Zahhak didn’t move for a moment, presumably staring down at Sollux through shades that had cracks all along the lenses.

Sweat broke out almost instantly on Zahhak’s body, and Sollux recoiled in surprised disgust. He hadn’t really expected that as a response for nearly running into the guy, and wasn’t entirely sure what to do with it now that it had happened.

“You are a computer expert, correct?” Zahhak asked, and Sollux took a moment to realize he was even talking to him. His voice was deeper than Sollux had been anticipating, and it occurred to him now that he didn’t think he’d ever seen the other troll with his hair up before; it was pulled back now, messily and sticking out around the rubber band. “I’m assuming because you’re a yellowblood, and I know that yellows are usually known for their computer skills back in Alternia. I am assuming it would be the same here. You are a computer expert?”

“Uh, yea, yes.” He stammered out, as Zahhak wiped at his face with the back of his hand. Sollux stepped back automatically, not really wanting to get covered in navyblood sweat, and glanced around them. It was the middle of the day, which meant there were a fair amount of trolls around them, but that only marginally appeased him right then; if Zahhak wanted to go into a different area, there wasn’t going to be much Sollux would be able to do. And there weren’t a lot of trolls that could match a navy’s strength, save for another navy, and none of the humans would be able to at all. Sollux felt trapped.

He hoped it wouldn’t start being a recurring feeling with all the Alternians floating around.

“Oh, you found him!” He twisted around to see Nepeta bounding up to them, skidding to a stop just next to Sollux. She wasn’t dressed for hunting at the moment, though Sollux knew she was likely going to head out later on with some of the other olives, and she didn’t seem to mind that Zahhak was coated in sweat; she threw her arm around his waist, almost climbing up his side like he was an actual tree, and Sollux felt his throat spasm in a disgusted gag at the way she frowned at her wet hands, then rubbed them off at Zahhak’s shirt. She got real comfy with him real quick, Sollux thought idly, lifting an eyebrow at the way she leaned on his head while avoiding his broken horn.

Maybe she wasn’t really all that comfortable with him, actually; above his head, out of his line of sight, Nepeta stuck her tongue out in a silent gag of her own, shooting her hands an exaggerated face of disgust. Sollux bit his lip, glancing away from the pair for a moment in order to not give Nepeta away. Zahhak looked distinctly uncomfortable with her hanging off of him, though — he put his hands on her hips more gently than Sollux had been anticipating from a navy, and slowly pulled her away from his body to stand on the floor like an actual adult troll. She went easily, glancing down at the front of her suddenly wet clothes with an imperceptible shudder through her shoulders. Sollux could tell, without a doubt, that she was going to change clothes regardless of whether she ended up hunting or not.

“Anyway.” She said, smiling up at Sollux. He looked back down at her, unimpressed, and she clasped her hands in front of her face. “I’m having some trouble with my husktop, and Equius was wondering — ”

“Who the fuck is Equius?” Sollux asked, unable to keep his mouth shut, and Nepeta shot him a look. Zahhak looked, if possible, even more awkward, and something about the look on his face told Sollux that he likely messed up a little. It wasn’t even something specific, just a feeling that had settled in his chest and was growing the longer silence permeated the air between the three of them. He glanced between the two of them, a little confused and a lot concerned, before Nepeta opened her mouth again.

“Equius.” She said, pointing right at Zahhak, who looked like he would like to be quite literally anywhere but where he was now. Sollux felt that way, too, wishing he could just go back, like, ten minutes in time so he wouldn’t be having this interaction at all. Ampora was in their room, but Sollux sort of found himself wishing he hadn’t left it; at least Ampora was mostly harmless, whereas the lack of highblood weaponry wouldn’t mean much when navybloods had brute strength on their side. “My new…husband?” She asked, frowning up at him, and Zahhak shrugged in response.

“I’m fairly sure that’s the word.” He said, voice low and rumbling, and Sollux felt something in his chest quiver. It sounded different from Ampora’s, smoother and deeper and somehow…less imposing than Ampora’s was, but the tone was the same — patronizing, just this side of condescending, and mostly unhappy to have to be addressing Sollux at all. His shoulders tensed even more, and Sollux glanced around subtly for help.

His heart dropped when Kurloz lifted the hanging cloth of Meulin’s tent out of the way, making his way out blissfully unaware of what was happening just to the left of him. Quite possibly the only thing that could make this whole situation worse is if Kurloz noticed them, which of course meant that he spotted them right away. He froze at first, eyes widening almost comically as he took in Sollux looking at him with Zahhak and Nepeta standing across from him, and Sollux could almost see the thought process his mind was taking; he wanted to wave him on, make him go back to doing whatever the fuck it was the indigo did in his spare time, but couldn’t figure out a way to do it without drawing attention to him, which was the last thing Kurloz seemed to want. He’d been very dedicated in not letting the Alternians know he’d defected to the side of the Veil, but that seemed to have fallen to the wayside — he headed over, glancing at Sollux curiously before turning to Nepeta and Zahhak.

“Hello.” He said simply, and Zahhak seemed to recognize him from that alone. His jaw went a little slack, and he lifted his sunglasses to stare at Kurloz with wide, surprised navy eyes. Kurloz lifted the side of his mouth, the stitches along his lips pulling a little awkwardly with the movement. The sight of them still sent chills down Sollux’s spine, not in the least because he knew they were replaced often throughout the day. The stitches had been there as long as he could remember, which meant the skin around them had long since healed and allowed Kurloz to re-thread the holes without causing himself to bleed, but that didn’t change the fact that Kurloz did all that at all was creepy as fuck. “It’s interesting to see you here, Equius. Do you remember me?”

“Grand Highblood.” Zahhak said in response, dropping to his knee and bowing his head. Kurloz looked uncomfortable, rubbing the back of his head and looking to Sollux for help, but Sollux was staring at Zahhak; he’d heard of how disgustingly loyal navys could get when it came to those in a higher caste than them, but he’d never seen it in person before now.

It was…kind of pathetic, actually. Kurloz hadn’t even said anything, and even if he had, it was just Kurloz. It wasn’t like the guy was going to do anything, he’d been living in the Veil amongst lowbloods who didn’t respect him like that for ages. He didn’t even seem to know what to do right now, glancing around like one of the others around him would help him out, and the whole situation just felt so surreal. Zahhak dropped a lot, somehow, in Sollux’s estimation of him with one small movement. Insane.

“Please don’t do that.” Kurloz sighed heavily, looking up briefly before reaching down to grab Zahhak’s shoulder. A grimace crossed his face the second his hand came into contact with Zahhak’s sweaty shoulder, but he yanked him up anyway. “There isn’t any need for that here.”

“We’d heard that you died in battle.” Zahhak said, sounding almost breathless with glee. His face was lit up, and Sollux was even more unnerved than he’d been before. There was something in him — deep, instinctual, something without description — that quivered in fear at the look on his face in spite of the way Zahhak lost his respect just now. Sollux stepped back a little more, more or less ready to cut his losses and just book it, but he’d forgotten about Nepeta; Nepeta, who’d noticed him stepping back and latched onto his arm.

“Sollux, wait!” She cried, and Kurloz glanced over to them. Sollux wasn’t entirely sure what was on his face at the moment, but he didn’t think it was anything good — Kurloz stared at him with wide eyes, but Sollux could barely process it through the adrenaline that started making his hands shake. He wanted to get away from this whole little group, pulling Nepeta back with him as he took another step back. “Sollux, I need help — !”

“Nepeta.” Kurloz said, his face twisting in a frown, and she stopped talking — his finger had wrapped around several strands of her short hair and tugged to get her attention, though his free hand never stopped repeating her name. The aggressive movement of it caught Sollux’s attention, somehow, gave him something to focus on that wasn’t the prospect of a happy, bloodthirsty highblood that couldn’t be defended against physically. It calmed Sollux even as Nepeta stilled in her movements. Her face fell, turning to look at him with a bland expression, and Kurloz gave her the most disapproving look her could muster. It was only partially effective, in Sollux’s opinion, because he kept glancing around to make sure he wasn’t being seen by any of the other Alternian residents. “Sollux is uncomfortable. Perhaps — ”

“Why would you think that?” Nepeta asked, eyes hard and stone like. It had been several sweeps since Kurloz had deafened Meulin, and maybe a couple months less since he defected because of it and came to live in the Veil instead. Nepeta had barely been eight or nine sweeps at the time it happened, but she hadn’t forgiven Kurloz in all that time and it showed whenever he spoke to her. Even now, at sixteen sweeps, she refused to talk to him unless she absolutely had to, and whenever she did, she was rude and curt to him. Meulin had tried so many times to convince her sister to just be more civil to him, at the very least, but Nepeta continued to hold her grudge against him even as Meulin let it go.

Sollux honestly didn’t think he could even blame her; Kurloz had messed with Mituna’s mind in that same attack, scrambling the neurons in it so thoroughly that it had been more than obvious that Mituna was never going to heal from it even before he’d vanished, and Sollux had only started talking to the troll two sweeps ago. He still didn’t particularly care what happened to him now, really, but he knew that Kurloz was terrified of being caught by Her Imperial Condescension. Sollux was afraid of that too, but not for the exact same reason — Kurloz seemed to think his defection from the Condesce’s ranks would be his downfall, and Sollux was worried about the effect that would have on the Veil for harboring him for so long.

“I don’t think — ”

“No, you don’t.” Nepeta said sharply, and Zahhak couldn’t have looked any paler if he tried. His hand was shaking a little as he reached out for her, brushing against her shoulder briefly before she roughly shook him off in order to step forward. The look on his face slowly devolved into what looked like panic, and Sollux almost couldn’t blame him. He crossed his own arms, glancing around at almost anything else — it was so awkward being around when Nepeta really got into it with Kurloz, and he sort of already hadn’t wanted to be stuck in anything resembling close quarters with Zahhak in the first place.

“Maybe it’s best if we go for a run.” Zahhak said nervously, and Nepeta rounded on him. Her eyes were narrowed to slits, and she lifted her lips to hiss at him. Zahhak’s eyes narrowed at her, and Sollux didn’t even have time to react before he was lifting Nepeta and placing her gently on his shoulder again. Nepeta hissed again, wriggling around on his shoulder, but he didn’t seem to put much effort in keeping her still. He looked at Kurloz, completely ignoring Sollux, and said, “please excuse us, Grand Highblood. I would be willing to meet with you at a later time to speak, if you would be amenable.” Kurloz stared at him, lifting his eyebrow, but Zahhak didn’t seem to want for a response. He made a face, like he was in pain, and abruptly turned on his heel; Nepeta was still struggling, but now she was raking her claws up his back and leaving dark blue welts in the wake of her claws. As he walked away, Sollux could hear him telling Nepeta, “that was very rude and uncalled for. The Grand Highblood…”

“Well, that’s coming back to bite us in the ass.” Sollux said.

“No, I don’t think so.” Kurloz said, and he had a thoughtful look on his face when Sollux glanced at him. Something uneasy curled in his gut, and Sollux took a subtle step away from the indigo that Kurloz didn’t notice. “Equius won’t say anything, I’m sure of it.”

“You’re betting on the silence of a navyblood who has only been here for, like, a week?” Sollux asked, giving Kurloz a look over his glasses. “Forgive my impudence, oh high and mighty indigo, but that seems more than a little ill-advised.”

“Equius won’t tell anyone.” Kurloz repeated, still staring after the pair of them. Sollux glanced in their direction as well, feeling the lift of his own eyebrows as he did so. It wasn’t like Kurloz to be so lax in his own protection, and though Zahhak was getting along better with Nepeta than Sollux would have liked, he didn’t think that was enough of a basis to risk something as deadly as Her Imperial Condescension. Especially because it wasn’t like Nepeta really liked Kurloz anyway, so he wasn’t sure what the indigoblood was planning in the long run.

“You’re putting a lot of faith in him.” Sollux told Kurloz, his voice blunt. It wasn’t that he even particularly cared for Kurloz either — the troll was creepy with his inability to talk and the face paint that he kept on putting on despite the fact that he was in the Veil’s territory now. Meulin vouched for him, sure, but Sollux didn’t really know how much Meulin could be trusted. This was the troll who deafened her, after all, and yet she’d fought hard to get him accepted into the Veil. He’d been weird, but more or less fine living in the Veil, until now; now that there were Alternians here in the Veil, he tended to keep hidden as much as possible — sticking to Meulin’s tent, eating as early or as late as possible to avoid meeting any of the others. It seemed risky, to Sollux, to reveal himself now. “Are you really so sure he won’t tell anyone you’re here? You’ve always seemed concerned about being discovered before.”

“He won’t tell.” Kurloz said for a third time, and Sollux was going to strangle him if he kept repeating the same shit over and over again. Kurloz seemed to realize it, because he finally looked towards him with a smile. “I remember his brother, they were the same. Both hated Eridan and Cronus. I would be more worried about them telling Her Highness, because she would be the only other one to outrank me in their eyes, but they won’t say anything to her unless asked directly. I’ll be safe.”

“If you say so.” Sollux said, and Kurloz patted his head right between his horns. Like he was a grub or something, or like he was Mituna. Biting his tongue so he didn’t say anything he was likely going to regret, Sollux gave Kurloz a tight smile and turned on his heel. He wasn’t particularly willing to risk running into Zahhak and Nepeta in the forest at the moment, so his best bet was to head back into the compound and hopefully not run into Ampora in their shared room.

—

Almost a month in, Aradia appeared in his room.

She was a pale gray, hovering just above his bed as she stared blankly at the ground. Her hair floated around her a little, blowing in an invisible breeze, and she moved somewhat robotically as she straightened up from a hunched over position. Sollux felt something in his chest settle, something that had been twisted up in knots ever since he’d left the Alternian castle — and by default, Aradia — behind him. She looked well, as far as Sollux could tell; he could only glean so much information from her ghostly form, but what he could take in was the way the shape of her silhouette hadn’t changed, meaning she hadn’t lost any weight, and there didn’t seem to be any silver marks on her — any silver marks on her ghost were indications of injuries on her, so the lack of them meant that she wasn’t hurt at all.

“AA?” Sollux whispered, and her head whipped around to face him. There was still something mechanical about the movement, but it was smooth and quick as she twisted to meet his eyes. As best as she could, anyway; Sollux didn’t think she could see him fully, but she could definitely hear him and could pinpoint where he was based on his sound. She was looking just to the left of him now, eyes solid gray and emotionless. He missed the rust color of them fiercely, but seeing her was enough to alleviate some of that ache. “AA? How’s it going?”

Her mouth opened and shut as she responded, but there was no sound that came out of her mouth. She looked at him, silent and still, while Sollux stared back at her. After a long moment, she repeated the action, but it had the exact same result — there was still no sound, and Sollux reached out to her automatically to get her to stop. His hand passed through hers, sending chills running up his arms and down his shoulders, and he yanked his hand away the second they made contact. Aradia flickered a couple of times, then vanished completely, and Sollux swore under his breath. His laptop, which had been in his lap the whole time, was shoved to the side as he sat up a little more fully, staring intently at the spot where she’d been just seconds ago.

Then she flickered back into view, her hands pressed against her temples.

“Sol…hear me?” The sound was static-y and weak, her voice emotionless and even, but Sollux pressed his fingertips to his eyes regardless; it felt like it had been so much longer than it actually had been since he’d heard her voice, more like sweeps than the month it had been, and the sound of it almost made him want to cry. Aradia didn’t move at all, but he could hear the way her voice strengthened as she spoke. “Sollux. Sollux, can…hear me? Sol…you hear me? Sollux?”

“AA.” He said, and there was a moment of silence.

“Sollux.” She said, finally, and he lifted his head a little to see her. “It’s so good to hear from you.” She wasn’t moving this time, her own fingertips pressed against her temples. He couldn’t tell if she was looking at him or not — her eyes were still open, but the irises of them were blending into the sclera around them, and so anything she would focus on was lost to him. Not to mention, again, that she couldn’t actually see him the way he did her, but she could hear him. She didn’t sound any sort of way, her ghost form mostly emotionless and even, but he could see the tension leaving her shoulders as she solidified a little more. “I’ve been trying to reach you.”

“I’ve been waiting.” Sollux said, sitting next to her as close as he dared. He didn’t want to risk breaking the connection again, and the less he had to feel of that chill that came from passing through her the better. He always forgot that he couldn’t touch Aradia when she was like this, though the shock of cold he got each time he did it reminded him why it was a bad idea. “What happened?”

“Alternia is a lot bigger than we thought.” Aradia said. “Or the castle is further into the territory than we’d anticipated. I couldn’t reach you right away, but I’ve been trying for weeks. I’m excited that I finally managed to reach you.”

“It’s good to see you too, AA.” Sollux said softly.

There was a noise at the door, and Sollux whipped his head to the side to stare at it in abrupt horror. Aradia didn’t move in the same way; out of the corner of his eye, he watched as she flickered several times before she vanished completely, just as the door opened and Ampora walked in. He stopped in the doorway, handle in his hand, when he realized that Sollux was in the room, and staring at him. Their eyes locked for a moment, Ampora’s wide in surprise, before his eyebrow lifted slowly. His eyes moved around the empty room for a moment, giving Sollux enough time to push himself further onto his own bed and against the pillows on his headboard.

“Who’re you talkin’ to, Sol?” He finally asked, and the sound of his voice brought Sollux back to the moment. Twisting his lips into a scowl, Sollux pulled his laptop into his lap again and flipped it open. He could feel the weight of Ampora’s stare on him, but he refused to look up at him. It wasn’t even his fault, it wasn’t exactly like he knew when AA was coming, Sollux hadn’t even known, but it was the principle of the thing; he hadn’t seen AA in far too long, and the fact that they’d only managed to get fifteen minutes together — including the time when AA first appeared in his room and vanished before she could say anything — was chafing at his nerves worse than Ampora usually did.

“Don’t worry about it.” He said shortly, shoving his headphones on. Ampora opened his mouth, probably already saying some stupid shit, but Sollux didn’t want to hear him. He focused on his computer instead, typing more aggressively than he really needed to.

It wasn’t even like it was a good visit or anything, it was just something to establish the connection and work on building it stronger while Aradia passed information to Sollux and the crew in the Veil, but Sollux had seen Aradia. For the first time in a month, for the first time since their fight, he’d seen Aradia out from under the watchful eye of the Princess and Her Imperial Condescension, had spoken to her, and all for it to be ruined by Ampora coming in. He threw his laptop onto the bed, headphones yanking off of his head to follow the computer to the mattress, and pulled himself off of his bed. Ampora was still in the room, apparently had gone over to his own side of the room now, and Sollux watched out of the corner of his eye as the violet jumped. He twisted around, likely watching Sollux as he pulled the door open and slammed it shut behind him; without thinking, Sollux chose to go left and make his way down the hallway, trying to get as far away from Ampora as possible.

Hopefully Aradia would visit again soon.

—

Of course it wasn’t going to be that easy at all. Sollux wasn’t even sure why he’d thought it would be, but of course it was destined to be difficult.

“Can you just keep all your goddamned shit on your side of the room?” Ampora snapped, kicking at the wires that had apparently crossed the invisible boundary he’d set up. Sollux had told him, without looking up from his computer, that the idea of dividing the room in half the way he’d wanted was stupid, and that he wouldn’t follow whatever plan Ampora had wanted to put in place, but of course the violetblood wouldn’t listen to him. He’d done whatever the fuck it was he wanted to do, without any input from Sollux at all, and Sollux was two seconds away from losing his shit.

“Can you just knock it the fuck off?” He shot back, balancing his computer on his knees as he tried to push the wires back into place. The one thing about being yellow and stuck in the Veil on the Rebellion’s side was that he was recognizable if he ever tried to venture into any part of Alternian territory. He looked just like Psionic, after all, and Psionic was a well known supporter of Signless, which meant it was damn near impossible to go into any kind of Alternian town without potentially starting a fight. Sollux didn’t mind it so much, usually, but it made getting shit for his computers difficult; as a result, a lot of the cables and wires he had were tied together with zip ties and electrical tape, and some could only work properly if in a certain position that took him at least ten minutes to find. Figured that Ampora would be kicking at the one set of wires — “God, just — stop, knock it off!”

“Or what, Sol?” Ampora snapped at him, and Sollux bared his teeth in a snarl. He didn’t know where that fucking nickname came from, or why Ampora decided to use it on him whenever he fucking pleased, but it rubbed him the wrong way every time he heard it. Ampora knew it, too, Sollux was sure of it; there was no other reason the violetblooded fucker had to call him that all the time. “What, exactly, do you think you can do to me?”

“You really wanna see?” Sollux pushed his computer to the side, standing abruptly. Ampora didn’t move, forcing them together chest to chest. They were the same height, or at least they likely would be if Sollux didn’t slouch so much, and Eridan flared his fins out in a display of aggression. Sollux lit up in response, blue and red electricity running up and down his arms. Ampora leaned forward incrementally, putting them that much closer to each other; his breath wafted across Sollux’s face, and he wrinkled his nose in disgust at the feel of it.

“You don’t got the guts.” Ampora said, and Sollux tilted his head to the side as he considered his options. He didn’t really doubt that Ampora had an ulterior motive, but he couldn’t quite parse what it was supposed to be. If Sollux hit him, or did anything that could constitute as violence against him, he could complain and say that Sollux wasn’t putting in the effort for peace, and it could result in the war restarting. Sollux was technically risking it every time they argued, but Ampora was too much of an asshole to take anything he said without shooting back a response of his own, and besides, it could be dismissed as the beginnings of a kismesissitude. Maybe not technically what Signless was planning when volunteering them for these marriages, but a quadrant was a quadrant, right? Pitch, flush, or pale, it shouldn’t matter too much.

Then again, the question led back to the beginning. Would Ampora be that desperate, to seek out a kismesissitude with a yellowblood just because they were somewhat legally tied together? It wouldn’t exactly look the absolute worst on him, Sollux assumed, because they were technically married, but…it wouldn’t exactly look great for the violetblood either, because on what planet would he actually be shooting so goddamned low. Not to say what it would say about Sollux himself, because while falling into a pitch quadrant with Ampora wouldn’t be all that surprising in terms of quadrant decisions, falling into a quadrant with him at all would be. Sollux barely wanted to even look at the guy, falling for him would be damn near impossible to do even with the amount of encouragement Ampora was giving him.

“You know what?” Sollux said, and got a front row, up close look at the way Ampora’s eyes widened in surprise at the sudden tonal shift of his voice; his fins flapped, the movement slow and uncertain, and his pupils dilated just a little. He swallowed a little roughly, body tensing a little against Sollux’s. It was sort of interesting, the way Ampora pinpointed his focus so fully on him, and Sollux squashed the thought with the force of a thousand hoofbeasts. “You’re right.”

“I’m…right?” Sollux dropped back down suddenly, making Ampora yelp a bit and stumble back at the speed of it, and picked up his computer again. Ampora spluttered above him, clearly not sure how to react at all, and Sollux smothered the victorious grin that was threatening to crack over his face. It was kinda funny, honestly, the way Ampora had gone from arrogance to confusion, and Sollux wanted to revel in the apparent control he had over Ampora’s emotional state.

“You’re right.” He repeated, shrugging his shoulder as he reopened his computer and ran his fingertip across the mousepad. Ampora was still spluttering, sounding lost and confused the longer Sollux wasn’t looking at him. “I don’t have the guts, you’re so right. I don’t know how you managed to guess me so accurately, that’s amazing, practically magic — ”

“Magic doesn’t exist, Sol!” Ampora hissed, and Sollux finally stopped focusing on his computer to shoot him a deadpan look. Of all things to focus on right at this moment, that was really what he chose to respond with? God, what a dick. Ampora flushed violet, the color dusting the tips of his ears and the rounded part of his cheeks, and Sollux dropped his gaze quickly to focus back on his computer.

“Anyway,” he said dryly, fighting back the warmth of his own blush. There was no reason for him to be blushing just because Ampora was — he was the one who was being stupid, it wasn’t Sollux’s fault he pointed it out. “I don’t have the guts to do anything to you.” He, abruptly, was tired of dealing with Ampora any more than that; while he was still tying to process what it was Sollux meant, Sollux pulled his headphones over to him by the wire and shoved them haphazardly onto his ears. Ampora probably tried to say something, if the way he kicked at Sollux’s foot was any indication, but Sollux turned up the volume on his music and ignored him until he went away.

Chapter Text

Jade collapsed next to him on the table in the kitchen, burying her face in her arms and letting out a controlled, semi-quiet scream. Sollux lifted one hand from his handheld game, not taking his eyes off of the screen, and reached over to awkwardly pat her head twice before yanking his hand back. Not because of Jade, though — an enemy popped up on the screen and he didn’t want to die just yet. Mituna had the highest score on this game, and he wanted to beat it badly. It wasn’t even a difficult game, just some sort of space shooting asteroid knock off game that didn’t seem to have a cap on levels, but it did get progressively more and more difficult with each level. He’d gotten close to Mituna’s score, once, and hadn’t managed to get there a second time. It was frustrating and annoying, and Sollux was always at least two seconds from throwing the damn handheld out the window.

Exactly how he’d felt about Mituna at times, honestly.

Jade let her head rest on her arms for a few more moments before she lifted her head, brushing her hair back with rough strokes. She looked like she had a headache incoming, her glasses smudged to hell and her face red with irritation. Sollux glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, mentally sighed as he realized that Karkat wasn’t there for her to talk to anymore, and paused his game.

“What happened, Jade?” He asked, voice monotonous and even. He sounded a bit like Aradia’s ghost, actually, which made him press his lips together to hide the grin that threatened to break free. She’d visited the night before, when he was on his computer checking the systems around the Condescension’s castle; he passed along Karkat’s report of the castle itself, and Tavros’s added commentary about the grounds surrounding it, and she complained about what sounded like the most awkward mealtimes known to troll kind. She’d kept him company until she seemed to fall asleep, her ghostly form flickering out of existence while Sollux had been focused on the strings of code on his computer screen.

“Have you ever wanted to punt someone into the sun?” Jade asked, pulling him back to the present with her blunt, and Sollux choked. He would be the first to admit that he never really talked to any of the humans that seemed to have taken up permanent residence in their compound, much less the four that had gotten roped into Karkat’s scheme with the rest of them, so he didn’t really know too much about them or what they liked — it was Karkat that was technically closest with John and Jade, and the Nitram brothers for Jake English, and Jane usually hung out with the Maryam girls — so whatever he’d been expecting out of Jade’s mouth, it definitely wasn’t that. She looked so done with everything, staring at him with wide green eyes from behind her glasses, and Sollux stared back at her for a brief moment. He was fully prepared for her to break and admit she was joking, but when she continued to just stare back at him…

Shit. She wanted an actual answer.

Sollux winced a bit, glancing around the room to make sure it was empty before he said anything. The kitchen area was a public place, after all, and despite the increasing amount of humans that had been joining the rest of them on Signless’s side of the rebellion, the compound itself still had a majority troll population; this wasn’t exactly a public area kind of talk, and Sollux was definitely not the troll she should be asking, because everyone knew that he and Aradia had been moirails since they were practically grubs. The kitchen itself was empty, but that didn’t really mean shit when he knew that half the compound were nosy assholes, and at least a good third of them would hold this whole conversation over their heads as blackmail — just because the room was empty didn’t mean the hallway was, after all. He also wasn’t sure if this was the right question to be asking, but Jade spent a lot of time with Karkat before, so she knew, right? She knew how something like that would come across as?

“Like…” He swallowed a little, glanced around again, and scooted in a little closer, lowering his voice so only she could hear. His heart was thundering in his ears, because he’d never imagined he’d be having discussions like this with someone other than Aradia. It made something in his gut twist, like he was doing something wrong, but he was pretty sure he wasn’t. Fairly sure. Maybe, like, forty-five percent sure? “Like, platonically, or…?”

“What other ways would you want to punt someone into the sun?” Jade asked, narrowing her eyes at him. Her voice had lowered to match his, which he was extremely grateful for, but she looked confused. He pursed his lips together, hoping against hope that he wasn’t going to have to explain the intricacies of troll romance to a human — honestly, Karkat should have done that already, the self proclaimed team leader for this mission was fucking slacking — when something passed over Jade’s face. It was a lot of somethings, actually, going too fast for Sollux to really keep track of, until she let out a loud “eugh!” and shoved herself backwards away from him. The suddenness of her own action made him jump, and he almost dropped his handheld as she gagged.

“Don’t be so loud!” He hissed at her, and she got right back into his face.

“Sollux Captor, how dare you?” She hissed back, poking his chest. It was sharp, and actually hurt a lot, and he used his elbow to try and bat her hand away from him. She jabbed him several more times, each time harder than the last, and Sollux resorted to just jabbing her in the side with his elbow. Jade yelped, pulling herself back to rub at the injured area, and Sollux did the same thing to his chest. Goddamn, her fingers were bony. “What — why are you guys all so weird? In what way is wanting to punt someone into the sun romantic?”

“It doesn’t mean literal romance!” Sollux gripped his handheld tightly between his hands to ground himself. His heart was racing a little, and he could feel the control of the conversation slipping through his fingers; this was why he never talked to anyone else if he could help it, especially when it came to these humans. He could feel his face getting warm, yellow spilling across the back of his neck and along his cheeks, and Jade was doing the same thing, turning that bright candy red that all the humans did when they were overheated. She buried her face in her hands, and Sollux found himself running his mouth even more. “It’s literally the fucking opposite of romance! Punting someone into the sun romantically is just another way of…I mean, it’s just like…God, it’s just like a-a sex thing!”

Fuck.

“Can you please stop?” Jade whisper-screamed into her palms, dragging her hands down her face and staring at him over her fingertips with the widest eyes he’d ever seen on a human. “I will literally pay you to stop talking, I’m begging you. Please stop.”

“Karkat didn’t explain all this shit to you?” Sollux asked desperately, ducking his head down to try and hide the yellow. Karkat should’ve told Jade all this already, he would die on that hill if he had to. There had been a point, maybe a couple sweeps ago, where there had looked like the beginnings of a flushed relationship between the two of them, but it had fizzled out and Karkat had never told him why. Sollux had assumed it was because Jade was too human, too focused on a monogamy-type relationship like the humans had verses a troll’s quadrants, and so far this whole conversation felt like it was proving him right. He wondered how poor Kanaya was doing; he barely knew the humans on his side of this war, and though he knew the names of Strider and Lalonde, he also knew there were two sets of them. For the life of him, he couldn’t remember which set was the up and coming set, and which set had already been established as top tier fighters, but he was entirely sure that it was hell for Kanaya regardless of which one she was married to.

“He did!” Jade said, sounding a bit shrill, “but I don’t remember all of that! Why would I need to have remembered that kind of stuff?”

“I think,” Sollux said dryly, “being married to an actual troll would’ve meant you should’ve remembered that kind of stuff.”

“I wasn’t exactly planning on being married to an actual fucking troll, now was I?” Jade snapped, and Sollux felt his shoulders tense up in irritation. She sighed through her nose, glaring off to the side, and then dropped her head down onto the table again. They sat in silence for a moment, Jade hiding her face in her arms and Sollux tapping awkwardly at his handheld on the table, trying not to look at her. Her shoulders shook a couple of times, and Sollux glanced away from her so that she could try and get herself under control without him staring at her. He sort of wanted to comfort her, but anything potentially comforting that came to mind reminded him a bit too much of moirallegience, and he still had his own moirail all the way in Alternia. Sollux was wracking his mind on what to do — would it technically count as infidelity with Aradia if he comforted Jade, who was human and didn’t follow the intricacies of troll romance? — when she spoke again, her voice thick and wobbly, though muffled by her arms. “I wasn’t planning on being married to a troll, and I never would have gone for Vriska Serket in a thousand years. It’s not even just the stuff that happened with John, either, she’s just the worst.”

“And you think I would’ve gone for Ampora?” Sollux asked, trying to lighten the mood a bit. It sounded lame to his own ears, and he sort of winced at his own feeble attempt. Jade snorted into her arms, snickering a little as she lifted her head up. Her eyes were watery now, red rimmed underneath her glasses, but her face was dry, which meant she wasn’t actively crying and so he counted that as a good sign. She’d been one of the only ones against the marriage idea, along with him and Aradia, so Sollux figured it wouldn’t hurt to try and make friends with her. It wasn’t like he could talk to Aradia all that often about it anyway, so someone was better than no one. He’d just have to be careful about it not potentially being misconstrued as moirallegience somehow. “God, he just sucks. Did you know that he insisted on dividing my room in half? No real reason for it, but he did it anyway.” Sollux tilted his head back, rotating it side to side to crack his neck. “And he keeps going on and on about the ships he’s been on and shit, it’s annoying.”

“At least John’s getting along with Dave.” Jade said, scratching at the table underneath her arm. Sollux hummed, tilting her head to look at her, and she looked sort of wryly happy. “Dave Strider. He really likes him, I think, they mesh well together. And Nepeta seems to be getting along with Equius.” Sollux just barely refrained from asking about Zahhak again, remembering just in time what had happened the last time the navyblood’s name was mentioned. “And Jane and Roxy…they clicked together almost suspiciously well, considering.”

Considering that Jane had also had her own reservations about the whole marriage arrangement idea, Sollux thought, but she had been smart enough to keep them to herself. It wasn’t anything he’d noticed particularly on his own, but Kanaya had mentioned just before her own wedding that Jane was behaving differently than usual — more quiet and withdrawn, more introspective, something that had gone over Sollux’s head but rang a couple of bells in Kanaya’s. Apparently, whatever she’d been nervous about hadn’t come to pass in anyway, if Jade thought they clicked together well.

“I guess it’s just the three of us, then.” Sollux muttered, and Jade hummed at him curiously. He smiled wryly, holding an imaginary cup up in her direction. “The shitty marriage partners club. You, me, and AA.” Jade snorted, pretending to tap her own imaginary glass against his own.

“The shitty marriage partners club.” She deadpanned, leaning on the table and putting her cheek on her hand. Her free hand twisted in the air idly, “hooray.”

—

So the thing was.

Sollux leaned against the half-finished wall, trying to get his breathing under control. His body ached a little, and he could feel the beginnings of psionic exertion forming right behind his eyes. Someone landed next to him, and Sollux debated the merits of checking who it was before ultimately giving up and just slumping over to rest his head on the person’s shoulder without even opening his eyes; his head was hurting too much for him to really care where he rested it right now. The body underneath him tensed up completely, but Sollux ignored it in favor of squeezing his eyes together even tighter — they were on a lunch break for the moment, but Sollux was already well aware of the fact that he would have to continue using his psionics once their break was over; he needed to try and stave off as much of the psionic exertion as he could now, so that he wouldn’t be completely useless for anything at all the next day. Or even just later on in the day today — the migraine was promising to be excruciating, and he was not looking forward to dealing with the fallout.

“Uh…” Sollux felt his entire body tense up in the same way Ampora’s had the moment his head touched his shoulder. Fuck, that’s what he got, wasn’t it, for not checking who was going to be sitting next to him before just plopping down onto it; he hadn’t expected Ampora to come sit so close to him. They’d never been so close to each other before, at least not in this sort of way before. He didn’t even know why Ampora was over here — last he’d seen, Ampora had been standing by Zahhak, looking even more pissed off than usual while carrying a bag of who the fuck knew what on his shoulder. The sight of him working, doing actual manual labor, had been funny to Sollux when they’d started working. It wasn’t really so much now, now that it had been several hours of Sollux lifting and carefully placing things with his psionics for almost six hours. Now, he just wanted to rest, and he was even willing to lean against Ampora to do it.

“Uh.” Ampora sounded lost, and very confused, but Sollux could be stubborn when he wanted to be; he kept his eyes closed and tried to ignore Ampora as best as he could. “Sol?” Sollux turned into Ampora’s shoulder a little more, trying to drown out the sound of his voice by burying himself in more darkness — Ampora smelled…nice, despite the sweat that had soaked into the fabric of his shirt. Musky, kind of, and a little salty, which was weird. Without thinking, Sollux nuzzled in a little more in search of soothing his headache. The shoulder under his head shifted, the movement slow at first before turning rough and sudden, and Sollux grabbed his arm in a tight grip to force him to stop. “Sol?”

“Shut up, god.” He snapped, feeling the throbbing behind his eyes get a little worse. His other hand pressed against his temple, massaging the skin there. It helped, a little, with the growing migraine. Not enough to make it stop or go away, but enough to dull the pain even more. “Don’t you know how to just…fucking not say anything at all?”

So the thing about the compound was this.

The main building was mostly completed, mostly. It was two stories and sort of plain, if the whole damn building being a light brown could be considered plain, and the way the roof was designed and tiled meant that it blended well with the leaves of the trees from a bird’s eye view, which meant they had been fairly well protected from any air attacks when the roof was fully completed. The second floor had the majority of the sleeping rooms, several bathing rooms, as well as two separate staircases for emergencies — one main staircase to get to the second floor to begin with, and a hidden one known only to a few of the most highly loyal elder trolls to aid with clearing the second floor in the event of an attack. Since most of the sleeping rooms were on the second floor, that meant most of the population stayed up there, generally in four to a room if possible. Signless had his room that he’d shared with Disciple, Psionic, and Dolorosa, when she’d been around. Sollux had split his room with AA, KK, and Mituna, with the human conglomeration of Jade-Jake-Jane-John on one side of him, and Kanaya-Porrim-Kankri-Damara on the other side.

Others filtered in and out of rooms depending on necessity; vacancies were common in the main compound, considering the nature of their rebellion, and sometimes people lent out their spots in a room if they had an idea that a fight was going to last longer than usual. It was customary that anyone missing for more than a month after any type of fight meant their spot was given to another, and it worked out for them well enough for now. One of the larger rooms on the second story was designated as a sleep room for the kids too old to be in the nursery on the first floor but too little to have their own rooms just yet, but the rooms were generally all the same size at the moment.

The first floor had the main entryway, two different cooking areas on opposite ends of the compound, a clothing cleaning room, and the nursery for the grubs that were brought over with their guardians or found in the surrounding area. There were two branching hallways at either end of the sides as well, doors at each cooking area that led to the extra rooms being built for the rest of the trolls. These rooms were only partially completed for the most part, consisting mostly of the pipe work and the outer walls, but there was still a long way to go before both sides could be considered finished, which was what they were currently doing now; at the moment, Sollux was working on the right side of the compound, which was meant to house the majority of the brownbloods that were living in the tent encampment in the area behind the compound. Their horns tended to vary, but they were generally enormous and had not been planned for in the initial building of the main compound, which Sollux figured was an oversight and Signless tended to blame on poor planning.

He really hadn’t meant for the Rebellion to get as big as it did, Sollux thought, and now he was stuck leading the rest of them until the real end of the war or he died, whichever happened to come first. Sucked a lot, in Sollux’s opinion, but that was the price that came with fighting Her Imperial Condescension.

Anyway. The compound.

It could almost pass for a hidden living community, what with the children running about and the way they all helped each other, and Sollux figured that was better than it looking like what it actually was — a base of operations for the Rebellion, which Sollux had access to from the right rooms. The cooking areas, mostly, and one of the closets in the hall on the first floor, all of which had a locked panel that allowed them to access the lower levels of the compound. Those were the meeting rooms and computer rooms, the ones they used to monitor what they could of the Condescension’s castle and hijack any ships she sent to demolish their fighting units. Generally, there were conditions that needed to be met in order to gain access to these areas; loyalty to the cause was a main one, but abilities played a small factor, and age a slightly bigger one. Sollux had always known he’d be part of the fighting aspect of the Rebellion eventually, but he’d still had to wait until he hit fourteen sweeps before Signless would even let him into the room.

Sollux scrambled abruptly upwards, head protesting the action with a violent throbbing. Ampora had apparently decided that enough was enough, and jerked his shoulder against Sollux’s head to force him up. The sudden movement combined with the sudden bright light made Sollux woozy and a little disoriented, and the migraine he’d been attempting to stave off came back with a passion. Ampora was standing in front of him, stretching his arms over his head, and Sollux moved before he could think about it; he’d had a little package of doughnuts at his side to eat, but he hadn’t opened them yet due to his headache. They became ammunition instead, thrown half-blindly from where Sollux was still sitting against the wall.

“What the fuck, Sol?” Ampora hissed, whirling around with his hand on the back of his head. Sollux bared his teeth in response, not willing to speak just yet, and Ampora flared his fins in agitation. He threw his water bottle next, but Ampora dodged that one and threw himself forward; he slammed into Sollux, which made him slam the back of his head into the wall. Pain exploded from that spot, and Sollux instinctively activated his psionics in response — Ampora made a weird gurgling sound as he was electrocuted, though Sollux was sure to keep the power level low. It wouldn’t really due to kill him, after all, even if it was just because of this stupid fake peace thing.

“Fuck you, Ampora.” He grit out through his teeth, feeling his migraine worsen immediately due to the proximity of brightly flashing colors. Fortunately for Ampora, that did mean that the psionic shock wore off faster than it would usually have, lasting only three to five seconds before fizzling out. He groaned, letting go of the violetblooded asshole to press his palm against his temple, and Ampora took the opportunity to draw his own hand back and punch him across the face. Stars burst behind Sollux’s eyes, and he forced his knee up into Ampora’s stomach as hard as he could in retaliation, wishing he had the ability to enjoy the sound Ampora made when the breath got knocked out of him.

Ampora snarled again, lighter and more pained than it had been before, and then was suddenly yanked away from Sollux. Sollux curled in on himself almost immediately, pressing the palms of his hands into his eyes. Nausea rolled his stomach, and Sollux grit his teeth tightly together to keep the rising bile down. His throat spasmed a little, and his jaw ached a bit from the tension, but he managed to not throw up what little he’d eaten before all this shit happened. Ampora was snarling at someone, but Sollux ignored it in favor of rolling onto his knees and burying his face in his legs. The dark was familiar, if warmer than usual, and Sollux forced himself to slow his breathing and keep his eyes shut. Noises slowly filtered into his brain as his heart rate slowed from adrenaline-spiked to normal, and he could catch the tail ends of the conversation happening around him.

“ — ot really all that cool, Eridan.” Someone was saying from next to him, and Sollux became aware of the hand on his shoulder. It felt protective, and off, but he couldn’t bring himself to shrug it away for the sole reason that if he moved, he’d expose himself to the light, which meant that the nausea would likely come back as well. He wasn’t particularly willing to do that right at that moment, so he left it alone while he tried to figure out who was talking. It sounded familiar, young and male, but his mind was in too much pain to process things at its usual speed. “He’s already going to be in pain later, there wasn’t any real need for you to make it worse.”

“Why don’t you fuckin’ butt outta this instead — ”

“Eridan. Chill.”

“How dare you?” Ampora snarled, and Sollux twisted his head just enough to take the smallest of peeks out of the corner of his eye. It stung, his head throbbing again, but he could just barely make out Ampora glaring at someone in front of him. Sollux’s vision was blurry, the edges and finer details of Ampora fuzzy and unclear, but the person standing in front of Sollux had their back to him. No details, but Sollux assumed that it was Strider; mostly because of the blonde hair and the bright red hoodie he had on. Which meant John was likely the one kneeling next to him, hand sill lingering on his shoulder. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

“Dude. It’s just not cool.” Strider was remarkably calm, considering he was facing down an enraged violet, Sollux thought. Violets tended to kill for a lot less, even when they weren’t pissed off, and Strider was likely lucky that Ampora didn’t have his actual weapon on him. Not that not having that ridiculous looking gun in his possession was the only thing stopping Ampora from attacking, but at least Strider stood a better chance of getting help if Ampora just decided to lunge at him. It was probably better that John was nearby too, even if he was still next to Sollux on the ground. He still had his hand on Sollux’s shoulder, too; Sollux rolled it once, gently, but John didn’t seem to get the hint and left his hand there. At least he wasn’t trying to pat him or rub his shoulder, but the weight was still awkward and unfamiliar. “He’s already down, Eridan.”

“I liked you better in Alternia.” Ampora hissed it through his teeth, face likely scrunched up in anger. Sollux fought against the consistent throbbing to keep watching out of the corner of his eye at the two in front of him; his vision was swimming a little, but the nausea wasn’t as bad as it had been a few moments ago. Small mercies, he guessed. “You had more respect for your betters there.”

“We aren’t in Alternia now.” Strider said calmly. He looked sort of like he had his hands in his pockets, but Sollux could sort of tell he was ready to fight. It was something about the way he was standing — feet shoulder width apart, most of his weight on his back foot. John had mentioned that he moved quickly, sometimes so quickly he couldn’t be seen at all, and the way he was standing made it look like he was ready to jump. “We’re in the Veil. And they don’t abide by that kind of shit here.”

“But we will be heading back to Alternia. I won’t forget this when we get back home.” Ampora promised, dark and menacing, before turning away and pushing his way back to the main compound. Strider stood in front of Sollux for a moment longer, presumably just watching as Ampora left, then twisted smoothly on his heel, crouching down to be eye level with Sollux. The move was faster than Sollux could really see it, which meant that Strider suddenly appeared in front of him with no warning whatsoever. His heart jumped in his chest, throbbing in time with the pounding of his head, and Sollux buried his face back into his arms without thinking. Another hand landed on his unoccupied shoulder, and Sollux started feeling stifled in addition to everything else.

“Dude.” Strider said, voice quiet and soft. “You gonna be ok?”

“Eventually.” Sollux grit out quietly, after a long moment. John hummed, thumb tapping against Sollux’s shoulder now, and Sollux shifted again to try and hint for them to get off of him. Strider seemed to get it, his hand leaving Sollux’s shoulder, but John didn’t seem to notice. “I’m fucked for today, though. I’ll need to go to my room.”

He had blackout curtains in his room, at least. His bed would be helluva a lot more comfortable to be right now than where he currently was. And at least it would be quiet, which he desperately needed in order to try and recuperate from this whole ordeal. Sollux was going to need help getting to his room, though, and he didn’t want to ask Strider or John for it; John would help him, but it would make him think they were better friends than they actually were. And Sollux just didn’t want to ask Strider — he was the opposition, in spite of everything, the enemy on familiar ground, and Sollux didn’t want to show him more weakness than he already was.

“C’mon, man.” Strider said. His tone sounded off, weird, but Sollux couldn’t place how. He chanced another peek at Strider, but hid his face again when all he could see was the reflection of himself in those aviator shades. His stomach rolled in protest, but Sollux curled into himself more and forced himself to breathe. “You can push through, right? You’re fine.”

“Dave, I really don’t think he can.” John said, sounding a bit worried. “He doesn’t look good. It might be better for him to go back to his room and recuperate for the rest of today.”

“Seconded.” Sollux muttered quietly. He didn’t think either one of them heard him at all, though, because they kept talking over him.

“Probably.” Dave said easily. “But that’s not always the best course of action, is it? I think if you can push through, you should just push through. Signless assigned you a job, man. Gotta get it done, no matter what you feel like. Suck it up, y’know?”

“That’s a terrible mentality!” John exclaimed, loudly and right next to Sollux’s ear, and Sollux hissed in response. John startled a little at the sound, but when he spoke again his voice was quieter. “That isn’t a way to get things done, Dave. He needs to rest to get better. If anything, Eridan should come back and finish his assigned job. Or are things different for him?”

“Course it’s different for Eridan.” Strider said. “But only because it’s Eridan. I can’t go tell him anything, now can I? I’m only human. He won’t listen to me, but he’ll listen to Signless.”
“Why?”

“Because he recognizes Signless as the leader. He won’t like it, because Signless is so redblooded he’s practically human, but he’ll accept what he says because Signless is the one in charge.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.” John sounded a bit exasperated now, but he was interrupted almost before he was able to finish speaking.

“Oh, my god, can you stop hovering and just go away?” That sounded like Ampora had come back, though Sollux couldn’t guess why for the life of him. He sounded pissed off and annoyed, but neither Strider or John could seem to say anything before Ampora acted on his own. Something landed on Sollux, sudden and warm, enveloping him in a much-needed darkness. Sollux felt his shoulders relax almost immediately, and he lifted his head slightly. The fabric was thick and warm, so thick he wasn’t even getting the hint of midafternoon sunlight through it at all. And though the instant darkness soothed his aching head, his heart rate sped up regardless the second he felt arms under his knees and behind his shoulders. Sollux didn’t even get the chance to say anything before he was lifted easily into the air, Ampora’s voice coming from right next to his ear. “Fuck off, quit babyin’ him like a buncha over-worried crabdads.”

He started moving away from the duo, ignoring their protests with Sollux still in his arms. Sollux was torn on what to do; he wanted to go to his room, he wanted the darkness that was being oh so graciously given to him right at the moment, but he didn’t want Ampora to be even touching him, let alone holding him. Sollux was conflicted, but the small shift of his legs made Ampora’s hand clamp down on them like a vise. He hissed quietly, sure that the noise was muffled by the fabric of Ampora’s cape — which was most likely what he was being covered with, and that was worse somehow — but Ampora hissed back.

“Quit your strugglin’, or I’ll drop ya, I swear to god.” Ampora’s voice was low, but he wasn’t using the same menacing tone he had been using on Strider. Sollux didn’t know what to make of that, crossing his arms over his chest in lieu of keeping his face covered. His head was still throbbing violently, though not as badly as it had been before, and the nausea had gone down a little bit as well. Against his better judgement, Sollux leaned his head against Ampora’s shoulder, closing his eyes again. Ampora was steady as he moved, his steps even and sure, and Sollux mumbled something that he could barely understand. “You eat like shit.” Ampora continued, as if Sollux had asked him something, “I’ve lugged spidermoms and goatdads with more weight than you, you don’t weigh a goddamn thing.”

“Shut up.” Sollux said belatedly, once he’d managed to fully process and understand the words. There was the quiet sound of a door opening and closing, the sounds of the compound muted the second the door closed, and Sollux figured they must have finally made it to the room. Ampora didn’t move right away, though; he stood in the entryway of their room with Sollux in his arms for a few more moments before making his way across the room. Sollux could barely see as Ampora laid him on the bed, but his hand shot out before he could think or second guess himself. He tangled his fingers in Ampora’s shirt, preventing him from pulling away too far. Ampora stopped, and Sollux could hear the confusion in his voice.

“Sol? What’s wrong?” A hand landed on the cape that had been covering him and pulled it away gently. Sollux grimaced, instinctively shying away from the light that was bound to assault his face, and was surprised when nothing happened to make his migraine worse; the blackout curtains were already drawn, and the air of the room was so much cooler than it had been underneath Ampora’s cape. His room was quiet, and Sollux refused to let go of Ampora’s shirt. He licked his lips, debating on the merits of saying anything to the violetblooded troll.

“Don’t leave me here by myself.” Sollux finally whispered, feeling his face burn in embarrassment. God, this really was the absolute worst, Sollux really didn’t want to be acting like this. A wave of pain coasted through his head, making his tighten his grip on Ampora’s shirt. Ampora wasn’t saying anything now, but Sollux felt like his silence was saying so much. Blood began traveling across his face and down his neck, and Sollux had never been more grateful that the blackout curtains kept his room dark. He could barely see Ampora, which meant Ampora couldn’t see him at all.

He didn’t even want Ampora, was the thing? Sollux wanted AA, actually. He wanted his moirail, he wanted snuggles and gentle shooshpaps on his back, and AA’s warmth wrapped around him while his head ached. She was all the way in Alternia, though, and Ampora was the only other person nearby — the only other person Sollux could feasibly have help him with this, since everyone tended to avoid Sollux once a migraine started.

Ampora didn’t say anything at all, but he slowly climbed into bed with Sollux; he kept his movements slow and gentle, adjusting them so that they were both on their sides, facing each other. After a moment where he hesitated, Ampora reached out and wrapped his arms around Sollux, one around his waist and one of his hands cradling the back of his head. He pulled Sollux forward gently, and Sollux followed easily, burying his face in Ampora’s chest and shutting his eyes tightly. His heartbeat was slow and even, soothing to the pounding of his own head, and Sollux unconsciously matched his own breathing to Ampora’s steady breaths.

In the silence, with Ampora’s heartbeat in his ears, Sollux fell asleep.

—

The mail from Alternia wasn’t exactly steady, but it came in fairly regularly all things considered, in addition to other pieces of mail for the Rebellion.

One of the other yellows was usually in charge of distributing the mail, something she took great pride in. She used the faulty intercom system that had been set up by Psionic, announcing mail delivery in her raspy voice, and gathered everyone in the main hallway to hand out the letters that had been delivered that day. For the most part, the Rebellion leaders tended to get the most mail — Signless, Psionic, Disciple and Dolorosa, before she had been captured — the three of them trying to keep in contact with the fighters they sent out into the fray, and trying to create and hold alliances with whoever they could. Signless still technically had more letters than anyone else, but other mail was becoming more common now as several of their number had been staying in Alternia. Aradia didn’t write at all, though she appeared in front of Sollux at least once a week, Tavros tended to write to Rufioh a lot, and Kanaya wrote to Jane and Porrim usually, Jake tended to alternate between any of his cousins, and Karkat —

“Ooh,” Polian sang out, holding one of the letters high above her head. She didn’t have her usual buns on today, Sollux noticed, just a pair of braids that started at the top of her head and made their way down her back, which made the letter easier to be seen as she waved it in the air enticingly. “Karkat has once again written to Sollux.”

“Shut up!” Sollux groaned, already knowing where she was going with her tone. It didn’t do much to keep him from turning a light yellow, forcing his way up so he could grab the incriminating envelope; he already knew what it looked like, he didn’t need her to make a whole spectacle in front of everyone about it. Her eyebrows waggled at him as he made his way up, bright yellow eyes lit up with delight, and Sollux reached up to snatch the letter from her hand. She dropped it the second he did, making him bare his teeth at her when she waved the letter under his nose. “Polian, what the hell?”

“This is, what?” She asked teasingly, yanking the letter from his fingertips a second time, “the fourth time in three months he’s written you? The fifth? Got something to share with the class, little psionic?” Sollux flushed even darker, trying a third time to snatch it from her hands. He grabbed the sleeve of her hoodie instead, growling when she switched the letter to her other hand and laughed at him. He tightened his grip on her sleeve, pulling her arm further away from her body so she wouldn’t try switching it back. It kept the letter just out of his reach, though, his arms just barely shorter than hers in a way that left her a clear advantage in this little scuffle she’d started. Her voice, when she spoke again, wasn’t quite as loud due to her mouth’s proximity to his ear; Sollux was grateful that she at least wouldn’t try and deafen him while she kept KK’s letter away from him. “C’mon, Sollux, share the news! You guys starting a little flushed quad while he’s away?”

“Polian, I swear to all that is electric, I will fucking fry you if you don’t — ”

“Aww, don’t — ” Her voice stopped as the letter was yanked from her hand, Ampora frowning down at it curiously. Sollux stopped as well, still holding her arm away from her body; he blinked at Ampora, at the way his brow furrowed at the envelope as he turned it over in his hands. His lip curled a little, and Sollux couldn’t tell why — if it was because KK’s writing was barely legible, because it was KK writing to him, because it wasn’t the Princess writing to him — but he spun it between his fingers regardless. Polian glanced at him, yellow eyes searching his face, before turning back to Ampora. When she spoke again, her voice had lost all the playfulness she’d been using with Sollux. She sounded firm, now, and just the tiniest bit irritated, though Sollux wasn’t sure if it was because Ampora interrupted them or because she was just that dedicated to making sure everyone got their mail. “Hey, that’s not for you.”

“It’s not yours either.” Ampora shot back, lifting his eyes to meet hers dead on. His face had smoothed a little, the majority of his curiosity gone as he met her gaze coolly, but the frown was still there — that was a familiar face to Sollux, though, the disdain obvious in the tilt of his mouth and the tone of his voice as he addressed Polian. He’d stopped spinning the envelope, but now he was just holding it between his fingers. “An’ yet, you’re keepin’ it from Sol for no reason I can see.”

Polian blinked at Ampora, stunned into inaction, and then looked at Sollux. Sollux stared back at her, their eyes meeting in a silent conversation — the fuck is happening right now how the hell should I know is he actually I don’t fucking know but isn’t he supposed to be your don’t even start with that — that ended with Sollux dropping her arm and stepping away from her. He hadn’t even realized how close the two of them had gotten, so focused on getting his letter from KK away from her as quickly as possible, and Ampora eyed the distance between them as it grew. The scowl left his face little by little, though it was only barely noticeable, until his usual resting bitch face was back in place. Sollux glanced to the side, locking eyes with Polian again before stepping forward almost cautiously. Ampora didn’t move, and Sollux moved forward with more confidence than he actually felt.

It had been almost two weeks since Sollux had gotten his worst migraine of the month, and he’d gone to sleep with Ampora wrapped around him like some sort of demented blanket. Things had been awkward when he’d woken up several hours later, refreshed and migraine-less but with the most embarrassing realization he’d had since he’d aged into puberty — and that was that he was holding on to Ampora’s shirt like a lifeline, not letting the violetblood do so much as roll away even an inch. Blood had rushed to his face so quickly Sollux had been lightheaded, and he’d pushed Ampora away from him so roughly that he’d fallen off the edge of the bed. They’d gotten into a screaming match then, pulling in John and Jade in from the rooms on either side of them to try and pull them apart, but it hadn’t really mattered; something had changed between them, though Sollux couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was.

Which led to things like Ampora just…watching him, randomly, with this look on his face that Sollux couldn’t really figure out. He was harder to bait into their more petty squabbles, and he’d seemed to have given up on the idea of dividing their room in half. And though he didn’t seem as interested in fighting with Sollux anymore, he kept trying to talk to him. It was weird and bizarre, and Sollux had no clue what to do with him.

He hated it.

Right now, he was focused on his letter; Sollux yanked it back from Ampora, eyeing him wearily as he did so to gauge his response. He was expecting some sort of reaction, a flaring of his fins or a narrowed eyed glare like the one he’d been aiming at Polian, but Ampora did none of those things. He stared back at him instead, one of his eyebrows lifting, and Sollux bared his teeth at him in response.

“I’m not gonna thank you.” He said shortly, when Ampora didn’t even blink at him, and Ampora snorted. The sound was inelegant but quiet, and accompanied by an exaggerated eye-roll that had Sollux bristling.

“Of course not.” Ampora said dryly. “It’s not like I stuck out for you — ”

“She was gonna give it to me anyway, dipshit.” Sollux said, rolling his own eyes back. Ampora looked affronted now, but he didn’t care. It wasn’t like him to be messing in Sollux’s business with the others in the compound, not really, and this weird attitude he was giving was getting on Sollux’s nerves. He turned on his heel and strode away, ignoring Polian’s shout after him but still feeling Ampora’s eyes boring into his back.

It wasn’t until he was in his room, door shut firmly behind him, that Sollux felt himself fully relax with KK’s letter. Locking the door somewhat absentmindedly — but also not really, because he didn’t want Ampora barging in when he wasn’t wanted — Sollux plopped onto his bed, holding the letter above his head for a moment to just stare at it. He was never entirely sure what KK’s letters contained, thought it mostly seemed to be coded messages hidden in complaints about castle life that Sollux was forced to decipher until it gave him a headache. With a sigh, knowing he couldn’t really put it off much longer, Sollux ripped open the envelope and pulled out the letter.

Hey, asshole,

How’re the Alternians holding up so far? Signless sends me a lot of letters but happens to oh so very conveniently leave out how the marriages over there are going. Hasn’t asked about the ones over here either, keeps focusing on “how’re the people treating you?” and, like, “how’s the Condesce talking to you?” As if she’d ever waste her fucking time deigning to even look at me, let alone say one single goddamned thing within the fucking vicinity of my presence. I think she looked at me at breakfast the other day, but that might’ve been my imagination running wilder than the hoofbeasts that Tavros keeps trying to corral out here. Who fucking knows, honestly. Nothing’s changed since we came out here, but I guess he’s still worried or whatever. Tell him to knock it off.

Everything seems to be going ok, for the most part. Terezi’s pretty cool, I guess. She’s grown on me a little, for the most part but. She keeps bugging me about my blood color and trying to lick my face, which is weird as fuck and annoying. We haven’t really made any sort of headway with the servants, it’s fucking weird as all get out. Reilan keeps calling Aradia “Your Highness”, and Calion refuses to call Tavros anything other than “Grand Highblood”, even though Tavros is basically one shade brighter than Aradia, and Trased won’t stray from “Respected Midblood” for me, which I fucking hate with a passion but what the fuck ever, I guess. Jake’s a lucky son of a bitch, so’s Kanaya, because at least they didn’t get the useless lumps of flesh following them around all over the goddamned place and reporting their every move to Her Imperial Condescension or whatever.

I can already fucking hear him. I know, I know, they’re stuck here same as we would have been had things been different, blah blah fucking blah, but the fucking point remains. It’s weird having other lowbloods serve me and the rest of us like we’ve got some goddamned violet or indigo running through our veins instead of the same mud color they do, and they add the titles just to further drive home the point that we’re fucking better than they are, just because we were goddamned unlucky enough to be chosen for this shit.

Whatever. It’s just fucking weird. I sort of maybe hate that I don’t like it here. Don’t tell Signless, cause that fucking prick will be insufferable about it, but I…I kind of want to go home now.

Three months down, three more to go.

Karkat

Sollux snickered a little at KK’s too blunt way of writing, his fingertips tracing softly over the letters that made up AA’s name. He was getting pretty good at figuring out what code he was using to send other, more important information; Sollux reread the letter from the top, picking out what KK actually meant to say when he’d sent the letter and figuring out what to relay to AA the next time they talked.

His heart sank a little as he read, his brow furrowing a little as his leg started jumping with anxiety.

We didn’t get too much farther, unfortunately. There’s a sectioned off area that we can’t get close to, and no one seems to know why. Issue is that it’s only cleared for indigos and above, and Tavros can’t convince fucking Makara to do shit. Asshole’s too high or something, he’s useless to us. And since Aradia still won’t even fucking look at the Princess, we can’t ask her for help either. The servants are coming around, I think, slowly but surely, but they can’t be trusted.

Maybe Aradia can phase in. Let her know.

—

Ampora was getting on his goddamned nerves. Irritation bubbled under his skin, the same way it had been for the past week every time Sollux caught Ampora watching him or hovering near him. It was happening more and more often, and Sollux was sick of it. It was somehow so much worse than when they were just fighting all the time, and Sollux honestly thought that things would be better if they could get back to that. Especially because it wasn’t just limited to just mealtimes or their work on the compound — Ampora was trying to be around him all the goddamned time now, and it was starting to interfere with his conversations with AA.

The last time they had spoken, two days ago, she’d mentioned that she’d found the hallway KK had been talking about, and had tried to phase through the walls in order to see what lay down the hall. She hadn’t even managed to tell him if she’d succeeded or not before Ampora had thrown open the door to their shared room, and she’d vanished in a moment of panic. His eyes had narrowed, drifting from the empty space next to Sollux to him, but Sollux had been too annoyed to read anything into that, and he’d left before he could say anything compromising.

But now — this moment — was the final straw.

“Don’t you have any friends from Alternia here?” Sollux snapped at him, whirling around to face Ampora with a dark glower. The compound was nearly completed, at least the side where the majority of the brownbloods were going to stay was almost completed, and Sollux had been trying to enjoy day off; he’d been missing AA fiercely, more so than he’d been when they initially separated, and had remembered that she’d found a hidden temple somewhat nearby. Feeling like it was likely the best way to get some kind of alone time that didn’t involve hiding away in his room, Sollux made the decision to go to the temple — he’d only been there the one time, and that had been with Aradia, but he was fairly confident he’d be able to find it on his own.

“Is it a crime to wanna talk to you all of a sudden?” Ampora asked. Sollux blinked at him a couple of times, thrown off but unwilling to admit it. Ampora wanted to talk to him? About what? They didn’t have anything in common aside from their marriage, and the less Sollux had to think about that, the better. He didn’t want to spend more time with Ampora than he needed to, and he’d thought Ampora had more or less felt the same.

“It’s a bit weird.” Sollux said, crossing his arms over his chest. It felt a bit like something was shifting, changing between them, but he didn’t know what and it made him feel…weird.  Off, somehow. The gesture was more protective than he wanted to admit, but it wasn’t like Ampora would be able to tell anyway. The whole situation was making him feel uneasy, but Sollux couldn’t tell if it was because of Ampora himself or because he wasn’t entirely sure where he was supposed to be going. He glanced back up the path he was on, not entirely sure if this had been the right direction to go in, but it looked right enough. “You’ve done nothing but needle and annoy me since you showed up here. Why the fuck are you bothering me now?”

“I just wanna know where you’re goin’.” Ampora said, crossing his arms as well. Sollux blinked a couple times, taken aback at the easy way Ampora had said it. His shoulders shifted uneasily under his cape, and Sollux caught sight of a white stick in his pocket. Apparently, the no weapons rule only extended so far in regards to the Alternians visiting the Veil; Serket had gotten some kind of knife shortly after they’d all arrived in Alternia, claiming it was decorative and too dull to do any damage with, and Zahhak had practically drenched his entire shirt when his brother sent him an old, sturdy-looking wooden bow and a set of twelve arrows that he and Nepeta used for hunting. Strider and Lalonde hadn’t gotten anything, as far as Sollux could tell, though Strider had examined Serket’s knife for a brief moment when she’d gotten it.

Ampora had evidently gotten a thin, white stick that made him turn a particularly interesting shade of violet. Whoever sent it seemed to have miscalculated how happy he would be to have it in his possession — Sollux had watched with a detached interest as Ampora’s face lit up when he first spotted the thing, then with a more focused interest when he scowled darkly at the letter that had apparently come with it. Lalonde had leaned in to tease him about it, poking his cheek, and he’d swatted her away irritably.

Right around then, Sollux had realized he was focusing too hard on Ampora and had torn his gaze away to shout something at Polian instead.

“An’ anyway,” Ampora was saying loftily, and Sollux groaned quietly at the sound of his voice. He dropped his head, rubbing at his temples and regretting the start of this whole conversation. “It really might be in our best interests to get along, you know. Roxy was sayin’ that her an’ Jane were gettin’ along splendidly, an’ Dave told me that John was somethin’ completely amazin’ or whatever — ” Sollux let out a breath, rolling his eyes as he prattled on and on. He didn’t particularly care about how everyone else was doing; they were just waiting, for the most part, because they weren’t in Alternia currently. Sollux was the only one of them that had any sort of responsibilities right now, because of his connection to Aradia, and his inability to fulfill them because of this violetblooded motherfucker was getting on his nerves. “ — an’ from what F — what the Princess is sayin’ —“

“Ampora — ” Sollux groaned, and Ampora steamrolled over him to just keep talking. “Ampora — ” He tried again, and still he didn’t seem to hear him. Sollux grit his teeth together and let out a burst of psionics. They flash red and blue, harmless but bright amongst the green trees as he made his third attempt. “Ampora!”

“And god, just what, Sol?” Ampora snarled at him, and Sollux gaped at him in surprise. It felt like it had been a while since Ampora had gotten genuinely angry or even just frustrated with him, and he wasn’t prepared for the way Ampora stamped his foot at him. They stared at each other in silence, Ampora’s chest heaving up and down with the deep breaths he was taking to calm himself down, before he rubbed his eye with one of his clenched fists. When he spoke again, his voice sounded calmer, but his words came out a little weird; kind of stuttery, like his lip was wobbling over any ‘w’s or ‘v’s in his words. Ampora was clearly trying to hide it, but that only drew Sollux’s attention to it all the more. “God, would it actually kill you to call me somethin’ other than Ampora? I fuckin’ hate it when you call me that, it’s goddamned annoyin’ is what it is, I don’t actually wanna be reminded a all a that shit here — ”

“The fuck else am I supposed to call you?” Sollux asked, the words falling out of his mouth before he could think about it. Ampora stared at him with wide eyes for a moment, throwing his hands up like the answer was obvious and in front of his face. Sollux stared back at him, shaking his head like Ampora was the one being an idiot, and Ampora rubbed at his eye again.

“I have. A goddamned name, Sol.” He said. He sounded a little strangled, like he was gritting his teeth together, and Sollux stared back at him for a moment while he tried to process. Ampora glared at him, which wasn’t helping as much as he maybe thought it would have, until what he meant finally made sense.

“Eridan?” He asked incredulously, stepping back out of surprise. Ampora threw his hands in the air again, as if to say fuckin’ finally, and Sollux couldn’t help the impulsive grimace of disgust that crossed his face. Ampora flinched back, and Sollux watched as his face fell into a carefully blank sort of expression. It looked familiar, like maybe that had been the face he’d made when Sollux met him for the first time all those months ago, but it made him nervous in ways he couldn’t explain. Still, his mouth kept running without his permission, and Sollux could only watch somewhat helplessly as he made things worse without even really trying. “You want me to call you Eridan? Like we’re, what, friends or something?”

“You would be so lucky to be somethin’ even remotely in the realm of friends with me, Sol.” Ampora still sounded like he was gritting his teeth together, and Sollux let out a snort of disbelief. He wasn’t sure what Ampora was thinking they were going to be, but he didn’t want any part of it at all. All he wanted to do was get through the rest of this year, see if there was anyway to either save his brother or at least salvage his body, and figure out what exactly was going to happen when the marriages dissolved at the end of the year. Playing nice with Ampora fell nowhere on that itemized list, and Sollux wasn’t willing to put forth the effort when he knew it would ultimately end up pointless. When it came down to it, Ampora would have no problem wiping Sollux off of the face of the planet if Her Imperial Condescension ordered it, and Sollux needed to make sure he was prepared for that possibility to occur. “But we’re not friends, we’re married, an’ maybe we should act like it. The peace treaty — ”

“Is a joke!” Sollux cut in, and Ampora’s mouth shut so quickly that Sollux could hear the wet snap of it from where he was standing. He stared at him, eyes wide with surprise, and Sollux felt something twisting in his chest. There was something that seemed oddly vulnerable in Ampora’s eyes, and it made Sollux’s hands start trembling a bit where he had them clenched together. The silence rang out between them, heavy and thick, before Sollux kept talking. “Come on, wake up and figure it out! Signless might actually think this stupid idea is working, but this idea came from the mouth of your goddamned Queen. She doesn’t want peace, she wants the Rebellion gone. At the end of the year, she’s going to want all the information you guys have about the base and the people who live here so she can fully exterminate us off of the fucking planet!”

“You don’t know that, Sol.” Ampora said, and Sollux could see the uneasy way he swallowed even from the distance separating them. His hand twitched, fingers curling inward briefly before fanning out again, and Sollux glanced down at the movement before meeting Ampora’s eyes.

“It’s fucking obvious.” Sollux rolled his eyes. He was starting to feel jittery too, his heart thumping a little harder in his chest as they fought. This felt more like an actual fight, nothing like the little bickering they’d been doing up until now, and Sollux was beginning to feel a gaping pit open up in his stomach. “There’s no way anyone is taking this stupid thing seriously, we’re all just biding our time until the end of the line here. We’re waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

“I’m takin’ it seriously!” Ampora said, and Sollux couldn’t help the scoff that came out of his mouth. His eyes darted around them, taking in the trees and bushes like they were hiding something. “Me an’ — me an’ the Princess, we’re takin’ it serious. There’s more ridin’ on this than you know, Sol, an’ I don’t think — ”

“I know you don’t think!” Sollux said, and Ampora’s eyes flashed. His hand shifted again, this time completing the movement; he pulled the white wand he insisted wasn’t a wand from his pocket, gripping it tightly in his hand. Sollux trembled, lifting his hands up to shoulder level, bracing himself for an attack that didn’t come.

“You think I wanna keep fightin’ all the time?” Ampora asked darkly, and Sollux threw his hands up in the air again in exasperation now; he’d thought they were going to start fighting, but the asshole was still talking. Ampora glanced around them shiftily again, and this time Sollux found himself doing the same even though he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to be looking for. Ampora’s voice lowered a little, words coming out quiet and mangled. He looked odd, voice thick, and Sollux squinted at him as he tried to figure out what was different about him so suddenly. “You think I wanna have all those people relyin’ on me only to watch as they get killed under my command, chokin’ on sea water an’ their own blood, cryin’ — ”

“Oh, so sad.” Sollux crooned sarcastically, watching the way Ampora’s fins spread out in a display of anger at the interruption. His smile sharpened — he loved pissing Ampora off whenever he could, it was practically his favorite pastime, and Ampora always turned such an appealing shade of violet when he was mad enough. It hadn’t been happening at all recently, though, due to Ampora’s sudden change of attitude, and Sollux found himself hoping that violet flush would make an appearance soon.

If he was trying desperately to get them back on more familiar ground, more even footing, that was a secret for him and him alone to know.

“Poor Ampora kept losing other violetblooded dickwads, how absolutely tragic for the reign of Her Imperial Condescension — ”

“You absolute dumb fuck.” Ampora growled at him, low and threatening from his throat, and Sollux’s hackles raised. He opened his mouth but Ampora barreled on, not giving him a chance to say anything. “You think I led a crew of violetbloods? We’re not meant to be led, you absolute infantile grub, we violets are meant to lead. You might have gotten some navys, sure, a handful a cerulean an’ teals, but those squads you targeted so viciously because a me were mostly made a yellows an’ olives!” Sollux felt his jaw drop a little, but Ampora barreled on. “Every single time you fuckers made one an our submersibles malfunction or the ship go down, you weren’t killing the violets! We can fucking swim, we are sea dwellers as well! But you sure as fuck killed all the lowblooded soldiers an’ crew members that were on them!”

“Well, why were they there to begin with?” Sollux snapped back, feeling wrong footed and unsure now. “They had no reason to be there — why did you have so many lowbloods on your ships?”

“What does it matter why they were there?” Ampora yelled. “Why they were there doesn’t matter — but they were there! Those are the trolls you’ve killed, those victories you’ve been celebratin’ this whole goddamned time, you absolute unit of stupidity!”

“That…that doesn’t make any sense.” Sollux muttered, except it did, it did. He thought of every time they sunk one of those ships and Psionic would lean on his console, palms pressed into his eyes while the rest of them were shouting and chatting. The way Disciple would sometimes come in, smiling at them while quietly urging Psionic out of the room. How the rest of them would be discussing strategies and how things could have gone differently, and the way Dolorosa would make them be quiet before Signless could hear.

“It might not have made sense to you.” Ampora sneered at him, “but they supported our cause and they were killed for it.”

“If they were supporting the Condesce and her cause,” Sollux sneered the word with so much vitriol and hatred he didn’t even know he had stored in his body, and Ampora’s fins flared out even more in response to the tone, “then maybe they deserved to die like that. Suffocating for air and choking on sea water. They should never have supported her to begin with, knowing what she is and what she has done to the rest of us, to all of us in this fucking war!”

Silence rang out after Sollux finished yelling, the sound of his voice echoing slightly back at them. He was panting for breath, and he could feel the sparks of his psionics racing up and down his arms. Ampora lifted his head, seemingly unfazed by the display of power; his hands betrayed him, though, the way they trembled where one gripped at the edge of his stupid purple cape and the other held tight to the stupid wand he kept insisting was a science stick. Sollux didn’t know what to expect — violets were temperamental and violent at the best of times, and he’d been needling at this one personally for a couple of months now. He shifted his body slightly, automatically preparing himself to defend against whatever attack Ampora was planning on throwing his way. His mind was screaming, louder and louder the longer Ampora didn’t do anything but stare at him, but he couldn’t move to start the fight he could sense coming.

“If that is the way Signless has been talking about the lowbloods that are not on his side,” Ampora said, and his quiet, calm tone was somehow worse than the anger that he’d been yelling at Sollux with, “then it really is a wonder that this rebellion managed to last so long as it did, considerin’ it sounds exactly like somethin’ Her Imperial Condescension would say.” Sollux felt his eyes widen and his psionics died down instantly. Ampora looked like he wanted to say something else, his mouth open and flapping a little uselessly, but ultimately he didn’t seem to have anything else to say. He put his hands, still shaking, into his pockets as best as he could and turned his back on Sollux to walk away.

Sollux was so dumbfounded by his parting words that he let him.

Chapter Text

“What did you say to him?” Serket asked, pinning Sollux to the wall with her robotic arm. He blinked at her, confused; he’d just woken up, and had been heading to the main kitchen area to get food. At least, that had been the plan all the way until just this moment, with Serket pinning him to the wall and snarling in his face. She looked vaguely murderous, her eyes narrowed and her lip pulled back, and Sollux couldn’t figure out what she was talking about for the life of him. There wasn’t anyone here she would be getting so up in arms about as far as he could tell — she didn’t really seem to care much for anyone from the Veil, Sollux had been constantly hearing about the fights that she would win over anyone who wouldn’t leave her alone when they’d first arrived, and though she was more likely closer to the others from Alternia, Serket didn’t seem like the type of person who would get this upset on their behalf.

“To who?” He finally asked, and the way Serket’s eye spun in its socket meant that it was the wrong response. She pulled him forward a little to slam him back against the wall, making little starbursts of pain explode from the back of his head. He hissed automatically, and she snarled back in response, tightening her grip on his shirt. Her arm pressed more firmly across his shoulders, small metallic noises coming from the added pressure on her joint areas, making it a little more difficult for Sollux to breathe properly.

It was far too early in the morning for this; he was still brimming with unused psionic energy from the aborted fight with Ampora yesterday, and there was a weird ball of guilt that had started forming in his chest — it had only grown over the course of the night when Ampora hadn’t come back to their shared room. It had kept him up late, Sollux unable to sleep as he tried to figure out a way to smooth things over with the violetblooded troll without feeling like he was conceding ground to him. He hadn’t come up with a solution yet, though that might also be because he distracted himself with some coding project. His eyes burned from staring at the bright screen and the lack of sleep, and he sort of wanted to get some food and maybe take a nap. Another nap, one that was longer than the twenty minutes he’d just gotten.

“Don’t get fucking smart with me.” Serket snarled at him, and Sollux moved to push her off of him. It didn’t work, mainly because he didn’t have the strength to fight against her robotic arm, and her flesh hand twisted so hard in his shirt that a couple of seams popped. “You know exactly who I’m talking about. What. The fuck. Did you say to him? He was in my goddamned room all night, keeping me up with his whole sob story about whatever happened yesterday.” She leaned forward, red robotic eye spinning as it met with Sollux’s blue while he blinked at her. “And I know it was your fault.” 

“Why would it be my fault?” Sollux snapped back, giving in to his fate for now. There wasn’t anyone coming down the halls this early in the morning, which meant he wasn’t likely to be saved by anyone just yet.

“Because between you and him,” Serket said, “he’s the one who’s been trying to put some effort into getting you into either a pitch quadrant or a flushed one, and you are the oblivious motherfucker who keeps missing the goddamned signals he’s flashing. Honestly, I’ve heard more about this whole shit show than I’d ever wanted to know when it comes to something like Eridan’s love life, and the fact that you don’t even notice how hard he’s been trying makes the whole endeavor so much sadder than it would have been originally.”

“A what?” Sollux squeaked out, entirely stuck and focused on the first part of her sentence. Thoughts raced through his mind, muddled and a little too fast for him to get any sort of firm grasp on. He remembered thinking about Ampora potentially wanting a flushed relationship with him, though he’d dismissed it almost immediately, and had thought that maybe a pitch quadrant was more likely. The fact that Ampora had attempted both was fucking wild.

“I mean, at this point it’s just goddamned pathetic, honestly.” Serket said bluntly, tossing her hair back over her shoulder carelessly, “especially because he just randomly up and decided to give up on the pitch attempts in more recent times, but you can’t be that oblivious, right? He’s been trying for, like, literal ages. Since we came here, practically.” She stared at him for a moment, taking in the surprised way Sollux was entirely sure he was staring at her with, and one of her eyebrows lifted into her hair. Silence reigned between them for a moment, and her grip on his shirt eased just slightly. “You…were aware of something, right?”

“I thought it was odd he was so persistent for a kismesissitude,” Sollux admitted slowly, “but I’d thought maybe that was all it was. A kismesissitude.” Serket snorted, looking far more amused than Sollux felt she had any right to, and he felt the urge to defend himself. “How was I supposed to know? He never said anything about anything!”

“Well, it was a little bit more than just a kismesissitude.” She said, mocking the way he’d said it. “And I’m telling you right now, I’m not down for playing substitute moirail just because he wants to be whiny. The most I’ve ever been able to do for him is a kismesis, and that basically ended once we found out these marriage things were gonna be reality.” She shuddered almost theatrically at the idea, looking so disgusted that Sollux almost pressed her for details. “I have my own matesprit, and I need Harley to be my kismesis, especially now. I’ve got basically no room for this whiny ass sea dweller.”

“So, what?” Sollux asked, “you want me to be a substitute moirail?” He bared his teeth at her, the idea rankling at his skin. Just the thought of it was enough to make him want to jump from the roof of the compound, never mind the murder AA would have in mind if she ever discovered his infidelity. “I have my own moirail, thank you very much, I don’t need — ”

“No, what I want,” Serket hissed, shaking Sollux like a rag doll as she interrupted him. He grit his teeth, trying to keep his head from wobbling too much on his neck and hitting the wall behind him again, “is to finally fucking fit Harley into my own goddamn black quadrant, preferably before the drones show up on our doorstep to tear us all apart like a bunch of grubs barely wiggling their way out of the goddamned gene pool!”

“The what?” Sollux asked, frowning deeply. He was really regretting his lack of sleep last night, because Serket was only partially making any sort of sense at all. Ampora trying to fight his way into a kismesissitude made some sense, but him trying to be Sollux’s matesprit was boggling, and now she was bringing up fucking drones? What drones? Her Imperial Condescension didn’t send drones over the compound, not even when they were actively fighting, and none of the other Alternians had said anything about drones in the entire time they’d been here. The Condescension was sending drones after her people? What for?

“Don’t act fucking stupid with me,” Serket finally let him go, stepping back to squint at him searchingly. “The drones, the ones who stop by every couple of months.” Silence grew between them for another moment, thicker and heavier than the one before. Serket narrowed her eyes at him, Sollux twitching his head slightly, staring back at her until she spoke again. “You don’t…you don’t have drones?”

“Drones for what?”

“The collection drones?” Serket said, and paused for a moment to let that sink in. Sollux still didn’t know what she was talking about, though, and her attempts to clarify didn’t help. “The ones who have to collect the…the genetic material from every kismesissitude and matespritship, or kill us if we have nothing to give?”

“What the fuck?” Sollux said, more bluntly than he’d meant to. “That’s…that sounds so sick. And twisted. The fuck do you mean?” Serket stared at him, looking baffled, and Sollux shrugged his shoulders. “We don’t have those, what the fuck are you on?”

“You have grubs though?” She said bluntly. “Like. Actual grubs? With their little — ” she made a disgusted face and wiggled her fingers in what she clearly thought was a well-executed pantomime “ — with their wriggly little legs and shit? There’s a whole fucking room dedicated to them, do you mean to tell me you have no collection drones whatsoever?”

“I mean, I fucking guess?” Sollux said back. “I’ve never heard of drones, they kill you guys?”

“But then how do you get the genetic material to produce grubs?” Serket demanded, completely bypassing his question. “Like, you have grubs. I’ve seen them. I’ve heard them. Where do they come from?” Sollux lifted an eyebrow to stare at her, and she flushed a darker blue than he’d anticipated she could. He opened his mouth to answer her, but — “that is not what I meant and you know it!”

“Ok, ok.” Sollux snorted a bit. “Genetic material gets collected by the jadebloods, usually. Not Porrim, though, she hates that shit. They take it to the Mother Grub, and bring back any wrigglers that are created there.”

“That doesn’t make any fucking sense.” Serket frowned harder. “The Mother Grub is on Alternian territory, isn’t she? How are the jadebloods getting from here to there without getting attacked? How are they collecting any grubs to bring back here?”

“Jades are primarily neutral, I think.” Sollux shrugged. “Or, like, they’re protected from attacks. Mainly because of the Mother Grub, they need to be able to care for her. She’s definitely neutral ground, at least for us. We won’t launch any attacks on jades coming from or heading to the breeding cave.” Serket hummed a little, and Sollux wondered if he should have told her that. It was fairly obvious, from a tactical standpoint — not even Her Imperial Condescension was stupid enough to attack the only spot where life originated on the planet, if only because of the eventual lack of ruling subjects. They’d never launched any sort of attack on the Cave either, though Porrim had offered to steal the random highblood grub here and there. Signless never let her, though; he’d always felt that would be a step too far, and would make the breeding cave another territory to fight over. The Mother Grub was enormous, and well protected, but not enough to withstand an attack from either side.

“So what you’re telling me,” Serket said slowly, “is that I’ve been doing all this work to get Harley in my pitch quadrant, and it isn’t even necessary?” She rolled her head back, letting out a long groan. Strangely enough, the irritation she was showing was somehow the least threatening thing Sollux had ever seen from Serket in her entire time spent here. He watched as she rubbed her eye under her glasses, grumbling under her breath about wasted time and unneeded stress.

“Does that mean you’ll stop trying to hatefuck Jade?” He asked bluntly, and Serket glared at him.

“What it means,” she said snidely, “is that I can message Rezi and tell her to stop stressing out about me getting culled by the goddamned drones, and I can focus on pulling Harley into my pitch quadrant without a time limit dangling above my head. That’s all.” She threw her head back, tossing her hair behind her so that it swung from side to side before rolling her shoulders back. Groaning a bit as she ran her hand down her face, Serket glanced at him sideways and sneered at him. “Look, I don’t really give a shit either way what you do, but figure out something quick. If I keep losing sleep because Eridan keeps crying to me, I’ll take it out on you personally.”

“Is that a threat, Serket?” Sollux asked, and she smirked at him coldly.

“Take it how you will.” She said, “but figure it the fuck out.”

—

“Maybe he’s just faking it.” Sollux said two weeks later, leaning against the wall of Jade’s room. He was sitting in one of the corners, back to the wall and gaze out into the open room itself. Serket was out somewhere, though he wasn’t entirely sure where, and Jade had pulled both Sollux and John into her room to keep her company. Of course, wherever John went Strider just happened to be as well, and Nepeta had bounded in shortly after with a favor on her lips but wild glee in her eyes, and sans one Zahhak following on her heels. Sollux thought it was a bit odd that nearly everyone in the room was part of KK’s plan in some way, but couldn’t find a way to bring it up because Strider wasn’t supposed to know about their plans. “I’ll bet he’s sitting with, like, Serket or that random Lalonde, and just talking shit about what a dumbass I am for still thinking about that stupid fight.”

“I dunno.” Jade said musingly, tilting back on her chair. She had an actual desk in her room, though Sollux wasn’t entirely sure how it had fit when there had been two other occupants in the room, and she had taken it almost the instant her brother and his husband had followed them in. John was sitting at the foot of her bed now, leaning against the wall with Strider’s head in his lap. It did something weird to Sollux to see them relaxing so casually as they were — like they were completely comfortable with each other already. Nepeta was like that with Zahhak, he though, in a profoundly different way than they were, and Jane was always with Lalonde. Was it just him and Jade that were so staunchly against their own marriage spouses at this point? All signs were pointing to yes, and Sollux began to wonder if holding this animosity towards Ampora was worth it in the long run. Jade had her own reasons for Serket, but Ampora had never really done anything to Sollux personally. “He did seem like he was trying…kinda hard for something.”

“I can totally see it.” Nepeta said brightly, laying on the floor on her back. She was throwing a ball up and down in the air, her feet tangled with where Jade’s were at the base of her chair, her hat laying next to her own face on the ground. The sound was quiet and soothing, a continuous thwack thwack thwack as the ball hit her open palm against and again. She didn’t turn to look at him, but Sollux could tell her words were aimed at him all the same.  “They’re panicking, you know, about drones and such, but even without that. He’s been trying to analyze you, figure out how to get into your good graces, so to speak. He was asking Meulin about you a little while ago.”

“Meulin?” Sollux asked, gaping at her a little at the revelation. Nepeta hummed, nodding as best as she could without getting up, and Sollux felt his mind spin a bit. Out of all of the trolls Ampora could possible be asking about him, why in the seven hells had he chosen Meulin? It wasn’t like she knew him best or anything — he was closer with Nepeta than he was with Meulin, and he only tolerated Nepeta in small doses, which meant he didn’t really know Nepeta all that well to begin with. That he went to Meulin for help —  “What did Meulin have to say?”

“I dunno.” Nepeta said, and Sollux wanted to strangle her a little. She was too far away, all the way across the small room on Jade’s side, which was the only reason he didn’t bother. At least, that’s what he told himself. “It was mostly weird because Meulin only really knows you as Mituna’s little brother? So she didn’t have much insight.” She tilted her head back, grinning at him so widely that her fangs were showing. There was a bright look in her olive eyes, mischievous and practically sparkling, and Sollux found himself weary of the next thing out of her mouth. “But it’s sweet, that he’s going around asking about you. Like he’s serious about pursuing something with you.”

“Yea, especially after that one day.” John added. “You know, where you had your migraine?” Jade muttered something about how that had been several weeks ago, but she was ignored in favor of Nepeta’s snickering. Sollux stared at John, a bit confused, but Strider snapped his fingers together and pointed up at his husband. His glasses weren’t smudged, as far as Sollux could tell, but Strider still seemed set on keeping them on in the room, even as the light of the room shifted and changed with the passing time. It had to be uncomfortable, laying down on his back to stare up at the rest of them with glasses on, but Strider didn’t seem to notice any sort of discomfort as he vehemently agreed with John.

“Yes.” He said, his voice forceful, the brightness of it only obvious because of the grin that was crossing his face. “Yes. A lot changed that day, didn’t it? With Eridan, at least.”

“I don’t think I ever saw him so mad.” John said, leaning his head against the wall. He looked thoughtful, teeth worrying at his lower lip in between words. “But like, not just mad? He looked really concerned. And then afterwards…” John shrugged a bit. “It was kind of like something flipped? He kept looking at you, and following around after you.”

“That’s right!” Nepeta threw herself up, twisting around to keep looking at Sollux. “I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t really see you with him in any sort of capacity until that day, you know. It was very knight in shining armor of him, carrying you through the compound. He looked really concerned, I think. Or upset, I couldn’t tell. But he went with you for the whole rest of the day, nobody saw him again after that.”

“It was hella weird.” Strider added sagely, nodding along like his words made sense to anyone but him. He was tapping his finger on his lip, like he was trying hard to think about Ampora’s past behavior. Sollux figured if anyone knew about Ampora acting weird, it would be Strider; he was the only one in the room who’d known him before this whole…debacle. “Like, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Eridan act like that? It was hella weird, bro.”

“It was hella weird for me too.” Sollux said, frowning a bit at the pair of them. “I was the one he kept following around. It was creepy. And weird. I hated it a lot.”

“Did you really?” Nepeta pouted a little, throwing herself back on the floor dramatically. She spread her arms on either side of her, squeezing the ball in her hand intermittently rather than throwing it up and down again. “I think it’s sweet. It’s done wonders for my shipping chart, you know. I wasn’t entirely sure if I should put you guys on there, you know, but Eridan really changed that!”

“On your shipping chart?” Sollux groaned, pressing the palms of his hands into his eyes. Starbursts of light burst behind his lids, and Sollux pressed even harder; maybe if he applied enough pressure, he would find out the whole past five months was nothing more than a fever dream. It was probably a bit much, wishing they were back in the middle of war rather than a sort of unsteady peace, but Sollux felt like he might prefer all the fighting over this.

At least it had been less confusing.

“So Eridan was following you around,” Jade said, her voice slow and thoughtful, and Sollux had the feeling that he wouldn’t like where this was going to go. “Asking about you, wanting to know what you were doing, trying to talk to you — ”

“Don’t forget about the thing with the migraine.” John added.

“I didn’t ask him for that!” Sollux burst out, curling up into himself. “I didn’t ask him for any of this! I don’t even know what he was achieving by doing all of that!”

“It sounds like Eridan was doing a lot of trying to connect with you on your level.” Jade said. Her chair creaked a little as she most likely twisted in it, still thinking hard. “And even though it didn’t work, he still tried.”

“And what am I supposed to do about that?” Sollux asked, lifting his head up. His vision was a little blurry, even with his glasses on, but he could still see clearly enough to glare in Jade’s direction. He might not have been able to see her response to it clearly, but he could at least aim his ire in the right direction. “I didn’t want him to try anything. I didn’t even ask to be married to him!”

“None of us really asked for this though, did we?” Nepeta asked, and that brought Sollux up short. She blinked at him, sounding more serious than she’d been before, and the look on her face was…complicated. More complicated than Sollux liked. “On either side. We were chosen as pawns on both sides, and while we’re worried about everyone who’s in the castle in Alternia, I’m sure they’re worried about everyone over here. It’s not an easy adjustment, for anyone.” Sollux opened his mouth, but he wasn’t entirely sure what he could say to that, because she was right. Nepeta smiled at him a little, tilting her head side to side. “Equius and I are doing fine, we got over our differences of sides and opinions. Mostly.”

“But you didn’t have to fight Zahhak face to face.” Sollux argued weakly, hating that Nepeta had a point and unwilling to let her know her words got to him.

“And you didn’t have to fight Eridan.” Strider said, his voice heavy. John tangled his fingers in Strider’s blonde hair, smiling somewhat morosely down at him. Strider didn’t seem to notice, not outwardly at least, but Sollux could see the way he tilted his head just enough to lean into the touch. He drummed his fingers on his stomach, the only real sign of unease Sollux had seen from him the entire time they’d been in the room. “Not the way I did John. Or the way Dirk did Jake.”

“It’s not like Jade had to fight Serket at all.” Sollux said, “but does that mean she’s going to forgive her for the shit she pulled with John the few times they met up?”

“No.” Jade said, firmly and leaving no room for argument. “No, Vriska Serket is the worst. I’ll hate her forever, just for that alone. But.” Her expression changed, now, going soft around the edges and looking thoughtful. Sollux felt something shift in him at the sight of her face, though he wasn’t sure what it was. It seemed like there was a lot of shifting Sollux had been feeling lately — he vaguely thought that maybe he should get checked out by a doctor or something to make sure nothing was broken. Jade didn’t notice the change in Sollux; she seemed to be mulling over her words, and the room was silent while she tried to get her thoughts together. “I’ll hate Vriska Serket forever. She’s not exactly trying to do anything but ensure my dislike for her. But maybe…maybe it doesn’t have to be like that with Eridan.” She met his gaze head on, expression gentle as she said, “maybe things can be different with you guys. Most of us are getting along with our spouses — would it really be the worst thing if you got along with Eridan?”

—

“She is infuriating.” Aradia said, crossing her arms over her chest. She was leaning against nothing, staring off at the wall of Sollux’s room. He was laying next to her on the bed, arms crossed behind his head and staring up at the ceiling; Aradia was supposed to be reporting information that he needed to send to Karkat, but she’d started complaining about the Princess instead, and Sollux found himself distracted. He hadn’t really seen much of Eridan Ampora in more than two and a half weeks, and while that would have been arguably the most ideal way of having to deal with him and the whole marriage thing, it was starting to eat away at him. A little.

Mostly, it was because Sollux kept thinking about what he’d said, about the lowbloods on his crew. And how, for a violetblood whose main purpose was to win victories for the Condesce, Eridan hadn’t seemed that way when they’d been arguing out in the forest. He seemed…tired, kind of, and alone, and Sollux absolutely hated the thought as it passed through his head, but he wondered if Eridan was ok. Not just in the aftermath of the fight they’d just had, but like, overall. He hadn’t really noticed until now, almost five months in, that the trolls and humans from Alternia tended to keep to themselves more than they wanted to stay near each other. The only exceptions to that seemed to be Lalonde and Strider, and that was more because Lalonde liked to hover around her younger brother and pester him than anything else whenever she could.

Otherwise Nepeta and Zahhak were usually out hunting whenever they could be, and Serket tended to bounce between writing to whoever it was that actually wanted to talk to her back in Alternia, and fighting with Jade at every available opportunity, and Eridan…

Eridan tended to be in their room, reading a book, or sitting by the sad excuse of a lakeshore that they had in the Veil, staring out over the water. He was probably there now, Sollux thought, because he wasn’t in the room currently, but still. Sollux couldn’t imagine going anywhere without potentially tripping over Mituna, or running into Kanaya, or being pulled by Aradia into exploring whatever new underground thing she’d found. He found himself feeling…ugh, a little bad for him or something, which was so stupid Sollux didn’t want to think about it anymore.

And then there was Jade, voice echoing in his head every so often. ‘Would it really be the worst thing — ’

“Do you think the Princess has been trying with you?” He asked, and AA’s voice cut out abruptly. Sollux felt his face begin to flush, cheeks warming with yellow as the silence between them stretched on in a way it never had before. He kept his gaze on his ceiling, not willing to look at whatever expression might be showing on AA’s face, and forced himself to ask again when the silence started stretching on too long. “With the whole, like, marriage thing. Do you think she’s trying to make it work out between you guys?”

“What does that matter to me?” AA asked, and somehow the deadpan voice she spoke with sounded so judgmental Sollux cringed a bit. He didn’t say anything, though, and the silence between them grew for a moment before AA sighed heavily. There was a quiet hum, and then her voice start up again, short and likely irritated. “I couldn’t say, I guess? It’s not like I’m paying attention to what she wants from me, anyway.”

“But do you think she cares about this whole marriage thing?” Sollux asked her, and AA blew out a breath. “Like, do you really think she might be putting in actual effort into this?”

“You’re really focused on that.” She said. “Why are you suddenly so interested in what the Princess is doing? Whatever her intentions are right now, they’re not important. We’re busy, there’s more important things at stake here. Damara, Mituna, and Porrim are at stake.”

“I know!” Sollux ran his hands down his face, groaning a bit. He hadn’t forgotten about the whole point of their mission, per say, but he’d been distracted by Eridan and everything that had been happening the past couple of weeks. He felt himself slowly getting distracted as they sat in silence, mind turning towards Eridan again and what he was doing while Sollux was talking with AA.

“What about Karkat, has he said anything?” AA asked suddenly, placing her hands on top of his, and Sollux blinked at her. He’d stopped paying attention to AA at all, and wasn’t even sure if she’d started talking again or what she’d been talking about. His mind raced a little, trying to figure out when the topic of conversation had shifted and what it had shifted to. Aradia stared at him a little, sort of used to how Sollux tended to split his attention between her and whatever it was he would be thinking about, but Sollux had completely tuned her out; he could not, for the absolute life of him, figure out how she’d gotten from talking about the Princess to bringing up Karkat. Already anticipating the lecture he was about to get, Sollux closed his eyes for a brief moment to pray for some kind of understanding from AA.

“Shouldn’t you be telling me how things are going with KK?” He said, squinting at her in confusion. Aradia pressed her lips together, and Sollux could already tell he was digging himself a grave. Figuring that it couldn’t get any worse, save for outright admitting he hadn’t been paying attention, Sollux pressed on. “Since you are all at the castle anyway? Like, I feel like I should be asking you what KK said, or thinks, or something. You’re practically living with him, aren’t you?”

“She watches us almost constantly whenever we’re alone, all four of us.” Aradia said, and somehow even her ghost sounded exasperated. “Especially if we’re all together. It’s literally the most annoying thing in the world.” Sollux frowned at her, confused as to what was going on; she hadn’t mentioned being watched by anyone before, he didn’t think, and the sudden mention of it now was alarming.

“Who does?”

“The Queen, haven’t you been listening to me?” Aradia sounded annoyed now, her ghost flickering a little as her concentration wavered just slightly. “The Queen sends her servants to watch us, we’re alone but we cannot speak freely, that’s why Karkat and Kanaya are always writing home! So that way we can all know what’s going on!” She bopped Sollux’s forehead gently, her hand going through him just enough to regain his attention; the chill than ran down his spine made him blink again, focusing on Aradia. Her ghostly face couldn’t scowl, but he had no doubt that she was glowering as darkly as she could at him right at this moment. “God, Sollux, where is your head even at?”

“Nothing!” He responded, somewhat nonsensically, and the silence between them spoke volumes. Rubbing at his temples, feeling the beginnings of a migraine coming on, Sollux continued, “no, it’s just — it’s something Eridan said — ”

“Eridan?” Aradia repeated, and Sollux pressed his lips together — busted, goddamn it. He hadn’t intended on letting that slip ever, let alone just now, and he wasn’t looking forward to the incoming scolding he was about to be getting now. Her volume rose, though the tone didn’t change, “Eridan? Eridan? We’ve gone from Ampora to Eridan now?”

“AA — ”

“No, why have we gone from Ampora to Eridan now?” Her ghost stood up, crossing her arms and giving him that blank stare. “Last time we spoke, you barely even wanted to call him that, but he’s Eridan now?”

“AA — ”

“What. Happened.” She said. “Because if you’re compromised — ”

“I’m not compromised!” Sollux said, loudly and far too quickly, and the silence between them was practically deafening. He was standing now as well, facing down AA’s ghost like that would make her believe him, even with the distance between them. His lungs felt weird, like they couldn’t expand fully in his chest, and his mind was racing oddly as he tried to assert himself to her. “I am not compromised.”

“I need to go.” She said immediately, and Sollux felt a jolt of panic.

“AA, wait, I’m serious, I’m not — ”

“I have to go.” She said firmly, “because Karkat needs to know that you’re compromised. Gods, this puts the whole plan in jeopardy, Sollux! We can’t afford for anything to go wrong, you know this. If the Condesce hears of our plans, worse, if Signless figures them out, this whole thing will have been pointless.”

“You are my moirail, aren’t you?” Sollux snapped. His hands were shaking a little, and he wasn’t sure what to do. “You’re supposed to believe me, you’re supposed to hear me out! I’m not fucking compromised, I just…” he trailed off, and AA waited for a long moment. He buried his face in his hands when nothing came to him, feeling frustrated because he couldn’t explain himself.

He didn’t think he was actually compromised, was the thing. That felt like it would be something completely different, like it would have consequences Sollux wasn’t prepared for. Sure, he was worried about Eridan now, because he hadn’t seen the troll in several days, but that didn’t mean he was compromised. It wasn’t like he was planning on telling him about what they were doing, or anything else about their plans. It was more like…like he…

Jeez, he couldn’t even find a way to explain it to himself, let alone find the way to tell AA. It was no wonder that AA thought he was compromised, especially because he had no way to defend himself.

“Let me talk to Karkat.” AA said, and Sollux felt the coolness of her hand passing through his shoulder. “And I’ll get back to you. This has to be reported, Sollux, but…” He looked up at her, not really getting anything from the blank look on her face. “I’ll believe you, for now. I’ll try to get back to you as soon as I can.”

—

A few days after the whole debacle with AA, Sollux found himself wandering outside for the first time in a while. Part of it was because he hadn’t talked to AA since the last time she’d ghosted over to give him an update, and he wasn’t sure if the silence was good or bad. Eridan had started coming back to the room, at the very least to get some sleep in an actual bed, but he still wouldn’t talk to Sollux either, and he was always gone before Sollux woke up.

But, Sollux reasoned with himself, Jade had more of a point than he’d like to admit; Eridan, even when he’d been picking fights and attempting a kismesissitude, had always met Sollux more on his terms than anything else. Given that that had meant most attempts were made in the privacy of their room or the the living area of the compound, Sollux felt like that didn’t really mean much, but Jade still had a point. He was trying to demonstrate his willingness to at least try with Eridan, which meant meeting him halfway on what could be considered more “Eridan’s” turf.

It literally just meant going outside, the same way he would’ve for AA or Kanaya. Or any of the humans, though Sollux still refused to admit they were growing on him. Jade was the easiest to get along with out of all of them, though that was likely because she reminded him a bit of AA anyway — far too willing to go out exploring the forests and come back home covered in mud and leaves, picking random fruits in the forest and usually bringing something edible back. She was the one to remind him of where the lake was, which was the only other likely place for Eridan to be; sea dwellers tended to be predictable, put them close enough to a body of water and they gravitate towards it automatically.

Sure enough, he was there, sitting at the edge of the water. He had his cape in a pile next to him, a striped scarf on top of it; the weather had turned warmer several weeks ago, though you wouldn’t have known it from the way Eridan insisted on wearing his outer layers almost at all times while in the compound, and the sun was shining brightly above them. Sollux found himself unreasonably nervous, considering it was just Eridan, but therein lay the crux of the problem: it was Eridan, and he was going to have to try and get along. He shook his hands at his sides as he walked up, trying to calm himself down before Eridan became too aware of him.

He was humming, just loud enough to be heard as Sollux approached him, and it was so surprising that Sollux stopped briefly to just listen to the sound of it; it was a jaunty tune, upbeat and rhythmic, and Sollux almost felt bad for interrupting him while he was involved in doing his own thing. He debated on going back to the compound, maybe downloading some computer game and playing through that, but steeled himself with a deep breath.

‘Would it really be the worst thing?’

He closed the distance between them with two steps, quiet and sure, and dropped onto the ground behind Eridan, pressing his side into Eridan’s back. The humming had stopped the second Sollux made himself known, but he decided to go one step further; outside his own comfort zone, though he wasn’t entirely sure how in Eridan’s comfort zone the move would be. Without thinking too much about it, Sollux leaned sideways a little more, dropping his head so that it rested on the back of Eridan’s shoulder. He forced his body to relax, though it took a fair bit of effort on his part, and closed his eyes.

Eridan’s body was warm, a product of sitting out in the afternoon sun without any cover, and the wind was gentle as it breezed past the two of them sitting together. Sollux kept his breathing slow and even, as though something like this was a common occurrence between the two of them, and waited for Eridan to make the next move.

“Don’t you have better things to be doin’ than harassin’ me?” He said, quiet and unsure, breaking the tense silence that had lingered between them. Eridan wasn’t snapping, but Sollux could tell it was a near thing. He wasn’t shaking Sollux off though, wasn’t really doing much of anything other than pretending to keep reading. His back was stiff, though, because he’d tensed up the moment Sollux had put his head on him, and it didn’t feel like he was planning on untensing anytime soon.

“My moirail won’t talk to me.” Sollux said, the first and only thing that popped into his mind at this point, and his head lifted and dropped slowly in time with the deep breath Eridan took. It had absolutely nothing to do with what was currently happening; he had absolutely no idea why he started with that. Silence reigned for another moment while Eridan presumably waited for Sollux to continue, but he didn’t know what else to say and so he kept quiet.

“Surprise surprise.” Eridan finally said, voice deadpan and even. “Go bug them, then, try an’ force them to talk to you instead of buggin’ me.” Sollux hummed softly, closing his eyes. The sun felt nice on his face, warm and relaxing, and the slight breeze was doing a lot to keep him from overheating at the moment. Eridan shifted a bit, probably uncomfortable, but Sollux moved with him and pretended not to notice. He sighed, and it sounded like he turned a page in the book he was reading; Sollux wondered what it was, but couldn’t be bothered to ask. “Who even is your moirail anyway, why can’t you go pester them?”

“I call her AA, she’s usually pretty good at keeping me calm and shit.” Sollux said, and Eridan finally seemed to accept that he wasn’t moving. He tilted his head from side to side — Sollux could feel the way the edges of his hair brushed against him, could hear the subtle snapping of the bones in his neck.

“So why exactly can you not just find AA and talk with her?” Eridan asked dryly.

“AA went to Alternia.” Sollux said, and the sharp intake of breath Eridan took told Sollux that he knew what that meant. Before this whole mess, none of the others had ever gone into Alternia if they could avoid it; generally speaking, trolls tended to come to the compound from Alternia. They sat in a short silence while Eridan seemed to mull over the information, and Sollux offered up the information before he could ask. “She married your Princess, you know.”

“Well, I’m not lookin’ to fill your pale quadrant just cause your actual moirail isn’t here.” Eridan said, turning another page far too soon. Sollux hummed in response, and Eridan seemed to take it as a challenge. “I’m not! I got a moirail a my own, yanno, an’ I’m not looking to cheat on mine just cause I married you.”

“You got a moirail?” Sollux asked skeptically, not lifting his head. “You. You have a moirail?”

“Oi, is that really so surprisin’?”

“No.” Sollux said, and it was as much of a surprise to Eridan as it was to him. He hadn’t known that Eridan had a moirail already, and maybe he still couldn’t see what exactly Eridan could provide as a moirail — he was fairly short tempered and Sollux couldn’t really see how he would provide any sort of calm or comfort, but those sort of tendencies also meant that there had to have been someone to calm him down when he got frustrated. He would definitely have benefitted from having a moirail, and he was high enough on the spectrum that virtually anyone would likely be tripping over themselves to have the opportunity to be that for him — at least in Alternia. Not really so much in the Veil, though. “I don’t think it’s surprising at all.”

“Really.” Eridan said, voice deadpan and even, and Sollux snickered against his shoulder.

“So who is it?” He asked Eridan, and Eridan went quiet.

“None of your business.” He said, but it sounded different from the way he would’ve said it before. It was a little more unsure, a little quieter than a few moments ago. Sollux wondered if he would have told him, or if they were too lowblooded for Eridan to admit their name to him.

“Not even for me?” Sollux said teasingly. He nudged the back of Eridan’s shoulder with his head, snickering a little. “Thought we were married, you’re supposed to tell me everything. No secrets between husbands and all that.”

“You have a secret from me though, don’t you?” Eridan asked, and Sollux’s eyes finally opened. The abrupt mention of AA, though Eridan didn’t know that was the big secret, threw Sollux off-guard enough that he wasn’t sure how to respond. He didn’t say anything, staring blankly ahead of him at the edge of the tree line, and Eridan seemed to take that as an opportunity to continue. “You’re hidin’ somethin’, an’ even if I don’t know what it is, I know it’s somethin’ serious. Important.” Sollux felt a little frozen where he was leaning against Eridan, unsure of what to say or do now. He didn’t want to give away their plans, but knew that the growing silence between them was only among things worse. Fuck, AA and KK really were going to think he was compromised now, how the fuck did Eridan — “I heard you a couple times, talkin’ to the girl that shows up every now an’ then. The silver ghost girl?”

“What was that song?” Sollux asked, and cringed at how obvious the change of topic was. The silence between them was telling, at least to Sollux, and he scrambled to fill it. “It sounded interesting. What was it?”

“An old pirate song.” Eridan said slowly. His body shifted, shoulders moving Sollux’s head slightly as he placed his book down in his lap. “Cronus taught it to me before he became…the way he did, I guess. All, like…Cronus-y an’ shit.”

“Sing it for me?” Sollux asked. For a long moment, he was entirely sure Eridan wasn’t going to do it — he was still tense, a soft tapping sound filling the air around them that was likely Eridan tapping his fingers on the cover of his book, and Sollux was about to open his mouth to tell him to forget it. Just as he parted his lips to do so, Eridan sang quietly, just loud enough for Sollux to hear. The song was clearly the same, bright and jaunty despite the quietness it was being sung in, but that wasn’t what caught Sollux’s attention the most; it was the language it was being sung in, the words gentle and fluid in Eridan’s voice. He’d never heard the language before, and he lifted his head once the singing had stopped. “What was that?”

“Sea dweller language.” Eridan said, sounding a little embarrassed. He was doing that thing with his ‘w’s again, the sound coming out wobbly and warped as he stuttered over them. His fins flared and contracted, a brighter violet than Sollux was used to seeing them colored in, and he sorted of wanted to trace the edges of them with his fingertips. “I know a fair amount of it, but only ‘cause of…well, the reason why’s not important. Just that I know a lot of it.”

“What’s it like in, like, non sea dweller language?” Sollux asked, instead of saying something embarrassing. Something like how beautiful the words sounded, or how good Eridan sounded when he sang, or if he could — “like, is there a way to translate it? I don’t understand sea dweller, you know.”

“That was the point, wasn’t it?” He said, voice tight. Sollux twisted his head a little, putting his chin on Eridan’s shoulder to try and catch a glimpse of his face. Eridan turned away a little more, still hiding his expression, and tapped harder on the book in his lap. “Not really meant for lowbloods to know, y’know?”

“But I want to know it too.” Sollux said, put out more than he’d like to admit. “And what would it matter if, like, the one lowblood you’re married to knew the song? Like, for real. It wouldn’t be that big of a deal, right?”

“It’s just a silly little pirate song, mainly for wrigglers.” Eridan said, still not letting Sollux see him. “Violet wrigglers at that, you know. It’s-it’s childish, is what it is, Sol, you don’t particularly strike me as one who’s interested in childish things, y’know, I don’t know — ”

“Just sing the damn song.” Sollux snapped, and Eridan tensed up even more. Turning his head to put his temple back against Eridan’s shoulder, Sollux closed his eyes and sighed irritably. Was this what he got for trying to do something nice for the guy? It was irritating, all over a song that Sollux didn’t particularly care about. Sea dweller culture and whatnot had never been his interest, really, and Sollux had never thought that would change even when he found out he would be partnered with one; it still hadn’t, but Jade’s voice had been echoing in his ears for the past couple of days, and this was the best way he’d found to reach out to Eridan. Just a small way of reaching out to him, the way the others had seen Eridan reaching out to him.

He was still going to kill all of them for this moment, though.

“Wave goodbye, but don’t you cry, our memories remain.” Eridan sounded hesitant, the words taking on the same jaunty rise and fall as before. Sollux blinked his eyes open, his breath catching a little in his throat as Eridan gave in and sang in the more common language. “Our days are but a passin’ dream, everlastin’ though they seem. ‘Neath the moon, we’ll meet again, the wind’s our lullaby.” His back shuddered under Sollux’s head as he fell quiet again, and Sollux pressed his lips together tightly; the sides of his mouth felt weird, pulling at the edges like he wanted to smile even though he really had no reason to. It was just a song, and Eridan had been right — it sounded a little silly, like it was for wrigglers.

“That’s…kind of sad.” Sollux said, instead of what he’d thought, and Eridan snorted a little.

“What were you expectin’?” He asked, and Sollux hummed a little in contemplation. He hadn’t been expecting much, to be honest, but Eridan’s voice had still been soothing and the words hadn’t sounded too bad. Just more melancholy than he’d been expecting, but maybe that was the nature of sea dweller songs; they were one of the longer-lived castes, after all, maybe most of their songs and stories were about the passing of time. Sollux twisted around a little, and this time Eridan didn’t look away — his face was bright purple, what Sollux could see of it, and he was watching him with a sort of weary look on his face.

“I dunno.” Sollux said simply, making Eridan’s eyebrow arch, “but the tune doesn’t sound like the words.”

“That’s not the whole song, obviously.” Eridan blew out a breath, ruffling some of his bangs that were starting to droop a bit, and Sollux found himself biting back another grin. Trying to hide it again, he licked his lips and opened his mouth.

“Teach it to me?” He asked, and Eridan stared at him with narrowed eyes. They stared at each other, Eridan’s face slowly getting more purple before he twisted his head away; Sollux didn’t move, but he felt the awkward, jerky way he’d picked his book back up. Snorting at his response, Sollux leaned against him again and closed his eyes. The sun felt nice on him, and the water kept the soft breeze cool enough that Sollux found himself starting to drift off.

“I’ll…I’ll teach you.” Eridan muttered, and Sollux let himself smile.

Chapter Text

Sollux was so excited to see AA that he couldn’t keep still.

He’d been jittery with excitement the night before, making sure he’d had everything packed and ready to go when the sun began rising. It was a two day trip to Alternia, which meant there was going to be an inn at the halfway point where they would momentarily meet up with the Alternian group. Eridan was watching him from the bed on the other side of the room, looking bemused as Sollux rambled. He hadn’t said anything the entire night, looking more and more pensive as the night went on, not contributing much to the extremely one-sided conversation Sollux was having. It was weird, but not weird enough for Sollux to comment on it; literally everything was focused on seeing AA the next evening.

He was still excited the next day as well; anticipation made him shaky as they loaded what looked like carriages sent from Alternia, the same ones that they had taken after the marriages had been completed. Sollux hadn’t really cared to look at them then, more annoyed about being stuck with Eridan and upset about leaving AA behind than he’d been interested in the vehicles transporting them, but he looked them over now. They were decently sized, small but big enough for them to sit on opposite sides without touching each other. They were bright pink, unsurprisingly enough, with black paint of the Condesce’s symbol on them, and the lowbloods who drove them made no eye contact with any of them as they packed things into their respective carriages.

Sollux wasn’t the only one jittery to go, either. Serket was already sitting inside one of them, presumably entertaining herself while Jade was talking to Meulin and Nepeta. Zahhak was standing next to her, blue dripping from his hairline and glancing constantly towards one of the carriages but making no effort to try to interrupt the girls as Meulin threw her arms around Nepeta and hugged her tightly. Strider was talking in quiet tones to Lalonde, while John and Jane and Rufioh said their goodbyes.

Eridan was also in the carriage already, and Sollux, who had already said goodbye to Signless and Disciple a few moments ago, grinned brightly at him. Eridan turned to face him a little, his face impassive as he made eye contact with Sollux. Sollux frowned at him a little, squinting at him to try and see if he could figure out what his problem was; he got his answer when Eridan’s gaze momentarily darted to his left, where what looked like a bronzeblooded troll passed by. Sollux glanced to the same side, watching as she lifted something that looked like it belonged to Jane easily over her shoulder, and didn’t really understand what the issue was until she turned to put it in the carriage — he hadn’t really noticed it before, but the giant symbol tattooed onto her shoulder was obvious enough. All of the trolls loading up the carriages had them, Sollux realized as he watched the others work as well, the Condesce’s symbol in bright pink on all of their shoulders, all the workers marked as part of Alternia. They hadn’t even left the Veil yet, and they were all already being watched by the Condesce.

That realization had put a little damper on the trip, and they spent nearly all of it in silence until they made it to the inn.

Sollux didn’t even look at the place — he threw himself out of the carriage and ran towards the door, flinging it open before anyone else could catch up to him. He glanced around the room, noticing the few people and trolls that were there, and barely managed to spot dark bushy hair before there was more weight in his arms than he’d been expecting, complete with enough force to make him stumble backwards. Sollux barely managed to catch himself in time, staggering back but finding his balance quickly enough before he and AA landed in a heap on the ground. Her arms were wrapped tightly around his waist, squeezing him to the point where he almost couldn’t breathe, but Sollux didn’t tell her to loosen her grip; he was holding her back just as tightly, after all, burying his face in her hair while minding her horns, his arms around her shoulders as AA giggled quietly. He barely noticed Eridan pushing past the two of them, and they didn’t break apart until KK got in the way and snapped his teeth at AA.

She looked almost the same as when she left, when Sollux finally managed to look at her. Her hair had gotten a little longer, a little wilder, her face carefully made up with what looked like more expensive make up than usual, but her skirt was still a little dusty at the bottom, and she looped her arms through Sollux’s as easily as she had before. Their lack of communication, and the reasoning for it, seemed to have been wiped from AA’s memory completely — or she was just as excited to see Sollux as he was to see her, and she didn’t feel like bringing it up now when their time together was so limited.

He could hear, outside, a loud shriek from someone he didn’t recognize, but Serket seemed to; Jade and Jake were screaming at each other, likely from their respective carriages, and Lalonde almost sounded like she was crying as she yelled at her brother and sister. It sounded like chaos outside, just a little, but in a good way, and they made their way into the inn together, already whispering about the things they hadn’t really been able to talk about while AA had been in Alternia.

Everything was going well, at least Sollux had thought everything was going well, all the way up until the Princess excused herself from the table. She seemed…off, somehow, though Sollux didn’t really know her well enough to say how, and barely paused in her rush to get up the stairs. The table was awkwardly silent for a moment, none of them knowing what to do or who to look at, before Eridan cleared his throat and pushed his chair back as well.

“I think I’ll head up as well.” Eridan said shortly, and Sollux watched as he pushed his chair in and swept past everyone to follow the Princess up the stairs. Something caught in his mind at the action, Sollux blinking as he realized what it was; he’d been excited to see his moirail, of course he was, but he hadn’t been the only one. Eridan hadn’t even paused in the entryway of the inn, had been adjusting his hair and his glasses and the cape he had draped around his shoulders for the last hour of the ride. If Sollux really thought about it, it also had to do with the way Eridan had looked when he’d first locked eyes on the Princess sitting across the room. It was almost like they couldn’t keep their eyes off of each other, and Eridan had beelined towards the Princess without even looking at anyone else. He’d definitely knocked into several people just to be able to bow at her without doing anything else first.

And now he was the first one after her, making his way up the stairs with a grim look on his face and his hands clenched in determination. Sollux tracked him with his eyes, thinking back to how he’d so proudly stated he had a moirail and, in the exact same breath, refused to name a name for them. He’d thought, at the time, that Eridan had been hiding the shame of a lowblooded moirail — someone blue or teal, anything lower would be more than he likely could have borne — but now he realized the truth. Eridan hadn’t been hiding some lowblood; he’d been protecting the Princess, from whatever it was the Princess needed protecting from. Narrowing his eyes a little as Eridan disappeared completely up the stairs, Sollux wondered if anyone else was aware of their potential relationship status.

Then his gaze dropped down to the table, and his heart stopped in his chest. The entirety of the table was looking at them, some of them leaning on the table to see them better. Sollux squirmed a little at the sudden attention, wishing that they would look away and shrinking a little under KK’s particularly biting glare. Looks around the table varied, mostly confused and a couple of accusing, and Sollux turned towards AA to see if she had any answers.

AA pressed her lips together, reaching for the water that was placed in front of her with a quiet nod of gratitude to the human who had brought it for her.

Sollux looked back at the others with wide eyes, shrugging his shoulders helplessly. KK’s lips curled even more, and he practically yanked Kanaya from her spot by the mini Lalonde. Dragging her down the table, he grabbed Tavros as well, shoving the other two into the Princess and Eridan’s now vacant spots.

He leaned in, creating a sort of barrier with the three of them that hid Sollux and AA from the rest of the table. Sollux would have felt grateful to get the rest of the other party’s eyes off of him, but somehow he could tell that this would be worse; KK looked furious, eyes practically glowing, as he glared at AA specifically for a long moment.

“What. The absolute fuck. Just happened?” He said, voice hard and quiet.

“I don’t know.” AA said back, placing her water down a little firmly on the table. She met KK’s eyes almost defiantly, daring him to tell her she was wrong, and KK hissed at her without saying anything. AA bared her own teeth back, but didn’t warn the way KK was, and Sollux was lost as hell. He looked back up to where Eridan and the Princess had disappeared to, wondering what they were talking about now that they could apparently talk more freely. He wasn’t entirely sure of how to feel about the Princess now; it was a little weird, being so low on the spectrum and suddenly having ties to not one, but two extremely important highbloods. It gave Sollux chills, and not good ones — they were arguably the most important highbloods in Alternia, which meant all eyes were on them, and on whoever was chosen to fill their quadrants. It was…more nerve wracking than Sollux really cared to admit.

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Tavros asked, sounding a little nervous, and Sollux returned his attention to what was happening in front of him. Tavros waved off the human server who was trying to see if they wanted food, then faced AA with a worried look. He looked different, somehow, his face creased in a familiar worry, though he seemed less fidgety than he’d been before. Sollux remembered when it was his turn for his wedding, the way he’d stammered over every word and couldn’t keep himself from trembling visibly, even from all the way across the room. “The Princess, uh, she kind of looked a little upset? Was she ok?”

“She’s fine.” AA waved her own hand dismissively. “She’s probably, I don’t know, tired or something. It’s been a long day for all of us, and we still have a long way to go.”

“It isn’t just that, though.” Kanaya said idly, and AA pressed her lips together. Sollux hadn’t ever seen her so irritated with the jadeblood, and that seemed to prove Kanaya’s point, if only to herself. She looked grimly triumphant about it, in that way Kanaya usually was. It was sort of funny; Sollux hadn’t even been aware that he’d missed Kanaya, the distance between him and AA taking precedence over all the others who’d gone to Alternia, but her calm demeanor and even voice soothed an ache he hadn’t realized was there. “Is it, Aradia? You don’t get on well with Princess Feferi, not even in a pitch or ash way.”

“Oh my god.” KK ran his hands over his face, leaning down on the table dramatically. Over his shoulder, Sollux could see the way some of the others were watching them for a moment longer before returning to their own conversations; Makara was staring at them for a moment longer, eyes glancing between Tavros and the rest of them, and wouldn’t look away until Tavros smiled at him. He smiled back then, wide and uncaring, before dropping his head onto his hand and facing the rest of the table.

“You guys are being dramatic.” AA said, pressing her lips together tightly. She was looking a little uneasy, though Sollux was sure he was the only one who noticed.

“She’s going to ruin the plan for all of us!” KK hissed, “and I just got Feferi to listen.”

“You brought the Princess into this?” Tavros gasped, and KK flashed his teeth at him.

Sollux glanced back up at the stairs leading to the second floor, and felt his eyes narrow. The thing was, he knew his moirail, almost as well as he knew himself, and knew that whatever he’d been doing to piss off Eridan, AA was doing it just as much with the Princess. She was stubborn and hardheaded at times, and was putting more of herself into trying to find out what happened to Damara than Sollux was for Mituna; not for lack of care, because Sollux loved his brother about as much as he hated him at times, but Sollux hadn’t been left alone the way AA had been. Psionic was still there, in the Veil, fighting and living alongside the rest of them, but nobody knew what happened to Damara, and the less said about Handmaid, the better. Maybe it would have been better to marry Kanaya to the Princess, or Tavros or Jade, but the whole point was moot now. AA was the one who was chosen for the Princess, and they had to work with what they had.

“You’re gonna piss her off,” Sollux told AA shortly, not bothering to sugarcoat his words, and she glared at him. He was mostly unfazed by it, having seen it in varying levels of intensity since they were grubs, and pointed at her accusingly. “You’ve been trying her patience this whole goddamned time, haven’t you? I feel like we will be particularly lucky if she hasn’t complained about it to her mother.”

“I am not afraid of Her Imperial Condescension.” AA said haughtily, and Sollux wanted to tear his hair out of his skull. He pressed the heels of his palms into his eyes instead, planting his elbows on the table and leaning forward so hard that starbursts flashed behind his eyelids. “She won’t do anything to me.”

“Now!” KK snapped at her. “She won’t do anything to you now, currently, because of this whole fucked up situation we got ourselves locked into. Can you imagine what would happen if we weren’t?”

“So what exactly are you suggesting I do?” AA snapped.

“I don’t know!” Sollux said sharply, pulling his head back. Colors blurred together for a moment, wonky and out of focus, but Sollux pushed through regardless. Adjusting his glasses a little, he met AA’s glare with one of his own. “Try like, apologizing? Talking to her every once in a while?” AA opened her mouth, and Sollux knew what she was going by to say before she even said it. “Talk to her without fucking antagonizing her! God, AA, most of the rest of us can get along with the ones we’re stuck with, why can’t you?” It was the absolute wrong thing to say, and Sollux knew it the moment it came out of his mouth. Aradia’s eyes narrowed completely, and Sollux buried his face in his hands again. Their little corner of the table was silent, and he did not want to look up to see the faces everyone was likely making at him.

This wasn’t really the time to be fighting. It had been six months since he’d seen AA in person, and it had been at least a couple of weeks since he’d talked to her ghost projection; he still didn’t think he was compromised in any way, but AA was still cautious about it, and he was pretty sure this conversation wasn’t helping his case. Especially considering the full one-eighty he’d had in attitude with regards to the whole marriage situation they were in now. He might have been right, but that didn’t change the fact that it had been the both of them against the whole marriage idea in the first place, and AA needed her moirail on her side way before Eridan needed his chosen spouse on his.

There was a loud screech, the wooden legs of the chair scraping against the stone floor. Sollux yanked his head back just in time to see AA stomping up the stairs, hands clenched into fists at her sides and that dark look still on her face. He half stood up from his own chair, ready to go after her if necessary, but KK put his hand on Sollux’s elbow and he dropped back down into his seat. There was a tense silence, louder than Sollux was expecting it to be, and a glance down the table reminded him that they hadn’t been alone; nearly the whole table was staring at them once again, save for one of the blonde humans that had stayed behind in Alternia, and Sollux felt himself flush yellow at the attention.

Several moments later, AA came back down the stairs. The whole table glanced her way as she made her way down, but only Sollux and KK watched her until she sat back down at the table. She looked…stunned was likely the best word for it, though maybe not the one that came to mind right away. There was something contemplative in her eyes, though Sollux knew she hadn’t gone upstairs long enough to actually talk to the Princess, and though she licked her lips and opened her mouth, she didn’t actually say anything at all. The three of them sat in silence for a long moment, watching the rest of the people from the Veil talk and mingle a little longer with each other before heading up for the night. Tavros, Zahhak, and Nepeta were the last to go up, Nepeta with her arm thrown around Tavros’s waist while Zahhak held her up by pulling her other arm around his neck, the three of them sleepily stumbling their way up the stairs.

It left Kanaya, KK, Sollux, and AA still gathered around the table. Kanaya pulled out a small wooden circle, gently prying a needle out of where it had been attached to some red thread and starting to stitch. KK and Sollux kept playing cards, though Sollux occasionally glanced at AA to check on her.

When she finally leaned forward onto the table, he was the only one who didn’t seem to startle. Kanaya jerked on her thread a little harder than she needed to, and KK nearly dropped the hand of cards he was holding, but Sollux just looked at her. She still looked contemplative, but she looked more present now, more aware of her surroundings than she had been for the past couple of hours.

“There is,” she started quietly, “something much bigger going on here than any of us could have planned.”

“What the fuck does that cryptic bullshit mean?” KK asked, and she blinked up at him in rapid succession.

“It means that maybe we should be stepping more carefully than we thought.” She said. “And that it might be wise to put our own plans on hold to focus on the bigger threat at hand.” AA sounded so serious, almost the same way she’d had after they’d found out the news about Damara and Mituna, and for a moment the remaining three trolls could only stare at her in shock. She didn’t meet any of their gazes, just stared down at her hands with a worried frown creasing her brow, and Sollux sort of wanted to take her by the shoulders and shake her so that she made more sense.

“Answering cryptic bullshit with more cryptic bullshit was not exactly what I meant, Aradia.” KK snarled quietly, looking like he also wanted to shake AA by her shoulders.

“I can’t say more than that.” AA said, shrugging her shoulders. “No more than I can share anything Sollux and I talk about during a feelings jam session. Conversations between moirails are best kept…private.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” KK demanded, slamming his hands down on the table. It drew the attention of some of the other patrons, the ones who were still up at least, but they quickly looked back to their own tables when Kanaya tilted her head in their direction — though it was likely less from the cold look in her eyes, and had more to do with the flash of her sharp fang and the subtle glow of her skin in the dim lighting. Rainbow drinkers weren’t exactly common on Alternia, but the Maryam family had always been particularly strong-willed enough to become one. Her next look was shot at KK, who sat back down and lowered his voice. “I don’t — I thought you went to go talk to Feferi. Where did moirails come into play? I thought it was just you and Sollux, and Nepeta with Equius Zahhak?”

“We’re focusing on the wrong thing.” She said it sharply, though her voice was still quiet. Her fingers pressed together, and she leaned on her elbows on the table, covering her mouth as her eyes turned contemplative. “Perhaps it would be wiser to shift our focus.” Her hands dropped, hitting the table lightly as she leaned forward and asked, “do we think it’s possible to get me to like the Princess in any sort of capacity? And how would we manage it?”

Chapter Text

“How was the Princess?” Sollux asked quietly, and Eridan startled so hard that he actually jumped a little in his seat. He stared at Sollux with wide violet eyes, like he hadn’t expected him to actually talk to him about the whole situation, and Sollux cleared his throat awkwardly in the following silence. Glancing out of the window, like the problem had been the eye contact between the two of them and not Sollux asking about something he technically shouldn’t know, Sollux focused on the view outside; it was different from what he’d been looking at on the way in, trees starting to gather and bunch together into forestry for a second time after miles and miles of deserted no man’s land. They were on the outskirts of Alternia, he thought, just inside the border of it but nowhere near the castle just yet. They’d been riding in silence, Sollux exhausted from staying up late with his friends the night before and Eridan just oddly quiet. “You followed her up. Was she ok?”

“The Princess was fine.” Eridan said, voice stiff and thin. “She was simply tired from the long journey and wanted to rest.” Sollux pursed his lips together, glancing at Eridan out of the corner of his eye. He looked a little nervous now, eyes darting around the carriage; it was an odd habit he’d gotten into during their fight in the forest of the Veil, like he was scared someone was listening in on the conversations they were having. Sollux wasn’t sure about how he felt about it yet — on the one hand, it was a great insight to how different Alternia was to the Veil, and how the Condesce ruled over her people.

On the other hand, this was a highblood, and not just any highblood. This was Eridan Ampora, whose oldest known relative had been killed in service of the Condesce, and whose older brother had presumably been her daughter’s oldest friend. He was the part of the second highest blood caste, second only to the Condesce and the Princess themselves, and was likely the Princess’s oldest friend by way of moirallegience if nothing else. If he didn’t feel safe, what did that say about the state of highbloods in the Condesce’s castle? Were none of them safe, regardless of caste? The thought made Sollux uneasy; Karkat had made it sound like the lowbloods in the castle were brought up differently from the rest of the Veil, deferring practically everything but their work to the highbloods around them. Did that only hold merit for the lowbloods?

“Why are you asking about the Princess?” Eridan asked, squinting at him. “You’ve never asked about her before. I didn’t think you were all that interested in her, to be honest.” Sollux looked outside again, trying to show his boredom now that they were heading to Alternia and he couldn’t see AA again; it was an attempt to calm Eridan down a bit, but Sollux couldn’t tell how well it was working, considering he wasn’t looking at him anymore. He contemplated on what to say — if Eridan was so concerned about being overheard, Sollux thought it would be best to humor him and speak carefully moving forward. It would be better for him to have Eridan on his side, especially now that they were going into Alternia, and the best way to ensure that was to assuage Eridan’s fears in whatever way Sollux could.

If it had the added bonus of Eridan not being so tense, that worked out too. Sollux sort of liked him a little more when he wasn’t so tense and snappy, when their conversations felt more like little quips and banter. It was an odd, sudden change, and Sollux sort of wanted to study why it was happening so suddenly.

“I’m not, really.” Sollux eventually said. “She’s married to my moirail, but that’s about it. I thought maybe she’d been upset, but if you say she was just tired — ”

“She was.” Eridan said quickly. He was starting to sound more and more like he had when he’d first arrived in the Veil, or when Sollux had first met him at the altar — cold and aloft, with that holier than thou attitude that highbloods in Alternia tended to have. Sollux glanced at him again, but Eridan was staring out of the window at his side, lips pursed together. It was a little weird; Sollux hadn’t realized exactly how much Eridan had relaxed during his time in the Veil until now. It wasn’t just his tone of voice or way of talking — it was everything, down the extremely formal clothes he was wearing and the way he was holding himself stiffly but regally. “I was also tired, and so I went back to the room early to get some sleep.”

He looked a little shifty, a little nervous, and Sollux didn’t know what to do to calm him down. Without thinking too much on it, he stretched his legs out, pressing the side of his left leg against Eridan’s. Eridan glanced at Sollux, meeting his eyes for what felt like the first time in a long moment, and they stared at each other across the carriage. Sollux could feel his heart pounding in his chest, and he found himself hoping desperately that Eridan wouldn’t push him off. The silence felt loud between them the longer Eridan didn’t do anything, and Sollux was just about to give it up as a loss when he finally shifted just a little.

Just enough to press firmly into Sollux’s leg, a response to his own silent offer of comfort.

He looked away, staring out the window again, but Sollux watched as his shoulders relaxed and his arms loosened from their tight hold across his chest. Eridan still looked regal and aloof, his gaze bored as he watched the scenery go by, but he looked less like he was about to bite some poor lowblood’s head off if they so much as breathed in his direction wrong. Sollux felt his breath leave him in a quiet sigh of relief, leaning against the window on his right to watch outside as well.

They’d entered into a town, it looked like, mainly one populated by lowbloods. As they drove through, Sollux watched the way they all huddled together, keeping their eyes and heads down to avoid making eye contact with any of the midbloods that seemed to be randomly patrolling the streets. It was a stark contrast from where Sollux had grown up in the Veil, and the differences made him shift uncomfortably in his seat a little. He glanced at Eridan, trying to gauge his reaction, but he didn’t seem to care much; his face was impassive still, lips pursed together into a tight line, and Sollux desperately wanted to know what he was thinking. He’d spent his entire life in Alternia, so this was probably familiar to him to an extent, but he’d also just spent the last six months in the Veil were caste and rank didn’t matter as much.

“We’re almost back to civilization.” Eridan said, suddenly and a bit out of nowhere. Sollux jumped a little at the sound of his voice, tearing his gaze away from a pair of brownblooded children running through the legs of passing adults, blinking at Eridan for a moment. Eridan didn’t look at him at all, directing his words to the window at his right. “It’s going to be very different from how things were in the Veil.”

“I know.”

“You don’t, not really.” Eridan sighed quietly. They sat in silence for a moment longer before Sollux opened his mouth to ask what he meant, but Eridan started talking before he could. “It’s…the servants of the castle will defer to you, give you the respect you’re owed by virtue of being my husband. However, any other violet is going to give you a wide berth, or disregard you completely. There might be some pushing from any of the midbloods, like the Zahhak family and the Serkets, but that’s because they’ll want to see how you’re going to respond to them. Don’t fight them head on, but you can’t back down at all either. Something violet will be added to your regular clothing, and you must have it showing at all times. You cannot speak with the Queen unless she has given you a direct opening to do so, and you will not look her in the eye. Ever.”

“This sounds fucking ridiculous.” Sollux said, a little irritated about the rules that were being laid out for him. “What the fuck do you mean, I gotta wear violet? I can’t even fight back? That’s stupid.”

“It’s what’s expected.” Eridan said.

“By who?” Sollux shot back, wiggling his leg a little so that it was tapping against Eridan’s. Eridan wouldn’t look at him, but Sollux refused to be dissuaded. He’d grown up in the Veil with AA and KK by his side, with Mituna and Kankri to annoy into doing things for them, with no real rules to follow and no highbloods to stand behind. He wasn’t particularly looking to make things difficult right now, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to just roll over and accept that this was the way things had to be. “Hey. By who?”

“I’m trying to protect you!” Eridan hissed through his teeth, jostling his leg back. “This is the best way for me to do that. Don’t think — think of it as a way to keep you safe!”

“AA didn’t have to do all this shit, did she?” Sollux asked. Eridan looked at him at that, finally, and frowned a little in confusion. Sollux tapped his finger against his bottom lip, thinking hard about the things AA had told him whenever she’d contacted him. There had been a lot of complaints about the Princess trying to talk to her, and the servants avoiding her eyes whenever she so much as glanced at them, but there hadn’t been anything about the type of rules Eridan was suddenly placing on him. “She didn’t, I don’t think. Why do I have to if she didn’t?”

“Miss Megido,” and Sollux started a little at that, that Eridan knew her last name at all. He gave him a look, sort of like he’d thought Sollux was stupid, and continued, “Miss Megido is married to the Princess of Alternia. Whatever experience she had while staying in Alternia, I can guarantee that it was a vastly different one than the one you will have. I may be violetblooded, but I am still outranked by the Queen and her children. There were a lot of things Miss Megido was about to get away with, but if I can assure you of one thing it would be this: you will be watched very closely due to your association with me, and we will both be punished for your missteps while in Alternia.”

Sollux stared at him with wide eyes as what he said sank in, finally, and something grew in the pit of his stomach. KK hadn’t mentioned anything like this in any of his letters to Sollux either, though that could also be because he’d married a midblood who wasn’t as important to the Condesce as the Princess or Eridan was. Tavros would likely be the only other one of them under such intense scrutiny while in Alternia, but Tavros was so quiet and shy that he wouldn’t have drawn any attention to himself whether he’d been aware of all of these rules or not, which meant that Sollux was likely the only one of them who was getting this kind of information. Once again, he wondered about how the Condesce would be ruling over her people, and he was starting to realize he wasn’t liking the answer at all.

“That’s fucked.” He whispered, and Eridan shrugged one shoulder. The movement was meant to look careless, Sollux could tell, but the tension had returned to Eridan’s body and the movement looked stiff and uncomfortable instead.

“Welcome to Alternia.”

—

There was a troll approaching them from the other side of the hallway.

They had just gotten to the castle the night before, late and way past the time the sun set, and so there hadn’t been much to do once they’d arrived; they all disembarked with far less commotion and a bit less grace than they’d had when they’d reached the Veil six months prior, and Sollux had a brief moment of not knowing where to go until Eridan had taken his hand in his own. They’d gone up several flights of stairs, down at least three hallways with moonlight leading their way rather than anything else, until they’d come up on a door in the middle of the hallway without running into anyone else. Eridan had pushed it open to reveal a drawing room, spanning wider than any other room Sollux had ever seen before, and had dumped him into another room off to the left. Sollux hadn’t even complained, just threw most of his clothes off onto the floor in a pile, and didn’t realize until he’d already crawled under the blankets that there had only been one bed in the room. He’d sat up, blinking rapidly as sleep started to take hold, but Eridan had already left the room and closed the door behind him. There had been a moment of confusion, because Sollux had shared a room from practically the moment he was brought to the Veil, but he swayed a bit in place while he decided not to question it, and he’d been out nearly the second his head hit the softest pillow he’d ever felt in his life.

He’d awoken midafternoon to a firm knocking on the door, and then Eridan striding right in without waiting for him to get his bearings, followed by an unfamiliar troll with short black hair. Sollux had scrambled up, swearing and flustered, but Eridan didn’t seem to notice as the unfamiliar troll walked up to the window and pulled the curtains open. Sunlight flooded the room, momentarily blinding Sollux as he was pulled out of bed and stood in the middle of the room. He didn’t really understand what was happening, mainly going along with it as Eridan talked pointlessly from behind him, so he was startled when hands suddenly appeared on the sides of his hips.

“Calm down, it’s just one of the servants.” Eridan had snapped at him, and Sollux didn’t even have time to ask why the troll was touching him to begin with when his shirt was yanked over his head. He was dressed quickly and efficiently, the servant already heading out the door before Sollux could even fully process what was happening. Eridan was rambling already, talking about missed breakfasts and touring the castle, and at that point Sollux decided that whatever was going on might as well just happen.

Which sort of led them to now: Eridan and Sollux, walking next to each other but not touching as Eridan led him through the castle and pointed out where he shouldn’t be going, Sollux noting how many times trolls just stopped walking to bow their heads at them as they passed by, and the troll who was quickly coming on them from across the hall.

“Oh, no, it’s Cronus.” Eridan muttered under his breath, and Sollux glanced at the troll strolling down the hallway more carefully. He was tall, with slicked back hair and something white stuck behind his ear; he looked relatively informal compared to Eridan, wearing a plain white shirt and what looked like jeans on instead of the dark button up and slacks Eridan was wearing currently. “Maybe if we’re lucky — fuck.”

“Eridan!” He intercepted their path easily, reaching out and grasping Eridan’s shoulder firmly in his hand. Eridan smiled, a bit uncomfortably, but he didn’t seem to notice as he shook Eridan gently. Up close, he smelled heavily of smoke and ash, sort of adjacent to how Kurloz got at times, and almost identical to the way Damara had at all times. It was never a smell he liked very much, he’d complained about it to AA damn near constantly, so Sollux felt his nose wrinkle almost automatically in distaste. “It’s been way too long, little man. How’s it going?”

“Hello, Cronus.” Eridan said, shifting a bit to pull his shoulder away from the older troll. He didn’t seem to get the hint, pulling Eridan into a tight hug that looked extremely awkward to Sollux. Sollux pressed his lips together, trying not to snicker at Eridan’s obvious discomfort, and Eridan flashed his teeth at him from where his head was pressed into Cronus’s shoulder. Cronus was slapping his shoulder, likely good-naturedly in his own mind, but each time his hand connected Eridan winced a little; Sollux couldn’t tell if Cronus was actually hurting him, or if Eridan was exaggerating. “It has been a while. I’ve been in the Veil.”

“I heard!” Cronus said brightly, releasing Eridan but keeping his arm around his neck. Eridan gave him a strained smile, trying to push at Cronus’s hips to get away from him, but Cronus didn’t notice as he swung them around a little to look at Sollux. “I also heard you got married! That’s what it was, right? That human sort of thing.” He sounded way more interested than the whole thing really required, though Sollux thought it was the intrigue of something new — he hadn’t really known what the point of a marriage ceremony was when it was brought up as the plan, and the humans with them hadn’t exactly helped with explaining it. Sollux’s sort of hoped he wouldn’t ask them about it, mainly because he still wasn’t sure how to explain what it was. “There was a whole ceremony and everythin’, I’m sorry I missed it! This is him, then? The lowblood you got stuck with?”

“His name is Sollux.” Eridan said shortly. Sollux smiled a bit, waving awkwardly as Cronus looked him up and down slowly. It felt weird, being studied the way he was, and Sollux wasn’t sure what to do other than just let it happen. He didn’t really care for it though — Eridan had always sort of looked at him in a way Sollux would call assessing, especially in the earlier months of their marriage, but with Cronus it was different. Sollux couldn’t place how, but the way his violet eyes scanned him from head to toe made chills go down Sollux’s spine in a way that almost screamed that he was prey in front of a predator. “He was one of the hackers on the Rebellion’s side.”

“Tough luck, kid.” Cronus said, holding his left hand out to Sollux. He glanced at Eridan, trying to gauge what he should do, but Eridan was more focused on subtly trying to get away and didn’t help him much; he took Cronus’s hand with only a vague idea of not being rude to the only other violet he met. Cronus’s hand was surprisingly warm, considering how cool to the touch Eridan usually was whenever Sollux had grabbed at him in the Veil, and oddly…damp was probably the best word for it. Sollux didn’t like it, but couldn’t pull his hand away — mainly because Cronus had a firm grip and wouldn’t let him go. “I’m his older brother, Cronus.”

“So I’ve heard.” Sollux said, and that seemed to make him light up a bit. He leaned forward, arm finally slipping away from Eridan’s shoulder, and Sollux felt his lips draw back to bear his teeth just a little. It was an automatic reaction, mostly because he wasn’t really used to unfamiliar trolls getting into his space, but Cronus just beamed at him. His teeth looked sharper than Eridan’s, white and thin, and something similar to chills ran down Sollux’s spine. They were menacing, even with the attempted ambivalent air Cronus was trying to put on, and Sollux tried to force his mouth closed.

“Heard lots of good things about me, I bet.” Cronus said, and Sollux grimaced a little at that. Eridan hadn’t mentioned Cronus, ever, but Mituna had before his brains got scrambled, and sometimes afterward too; considering the fact that they were on opposite sides of a battle at all times, Mituna never had anything good to say about the violet in front of him. Sollux wasn’t about to admit that though — it felt like a genuine recipe for disaster, and Eridan had already warned him the night before not to insult any of the trolls in the higher castes. “Let me know if you ever get tired of my little brother — he’s not done much in the whole quadrant side of things, y’know — ”

“Cronus!” Eridan hissed, and he laughed; the sound was loud, echoing through the hallway, and Sollux flinched away almost instinctively at the suddenness of it. He ruffled Eridan’s hair roughly, making the younger violet swear at him soundly, and pull away to fix his hair. “Can’t you see we’re in the middle of something?”

“You’re walking around the castle, kid.” Cronus said, and Sollux finally realized what else sounded a bit off about Cronus — he had that same sea dweller accent that Eridan had let out on occasion in the Veil, but he clearly wasn’t trying to hide it as much as Eridan was; it rounded the ends of his words, slurring together the sounds of his ‘v’s and ‘w’s until they sounded almost indistinguishable from one another, and it sounded particularly thick compared to the lack of it in Eridan’s voice.

It was a little bit weird — why did Cronus let it color his words, when Eridan tried so hard to hide his accent?

“Cronus, god, just go away.” Eridan rolled his eyes at Sollux, as if expecting him to commiserate with him, but Sollux couldn’t bring himself to do much more than glance the other way. It was weird, and more than a little bit difficult, watching Eridan treat Cronus as poorly as he was. He hadn’t seen his older brother in six months, likely longer considering all the fighting and whatnot, but he almost seemed to want him as far away from him as possible.

Sollux had his moments of ups and downs with Mituna, and he could freely admit that they were mainly down by the time Mituna had vanished; there had been more times than not where Sollux had wished that Mituna would just disappear and leave him be, and the weeks following that initial wish come true were filled with guilt and depression on his own end. He’d felt bad for AA, looking back on that time, because his head had been in a dark place, and she’d been almost working overtime as his moirail to draw him out of it. He still had moments now, though they were farther apart than they’d started out, where he’d be overtaken by a dark mood whenever something reminded him of Mituna. That was the main point of their self-imposed mission now — the last battle with the Heiress Apparent had been practically wiped from any sort of record, and nobody was willing to talk about it now. Sollux was driven by the desire to at least put his brother to rest properly, if only to see if that would help assuage his own guilt.

Anyway.

Cronus was a little weird, making Sollux feel like something was off, but he didn’t seem particularly bad in any sort of way. Mituna tended to get migraines that were worse and more destructive than Sollux’s were, and though Cronus kept hugging Eridan and looking Sollux over, he couldn’t really compare to something like that. Cronus seemed mostly harmless, if a little bit touchy, so Sollux was more than willing to stay out of whatever family dispute the brothers were clearly having now.

“It’s fine, it’s fine.” Cronus was saying dramatically, tilting away from Eridan so that he was next to Sollux instead. His arm was heavy on his shoulders, far more than Sollux had been expecting, and his knees sort of buckled a little under the unexpected added weight. Eridan’s fins flared out a little, his face scrunching up in barely contained annoyance, but Cronus wasn’t paying attention to him anymore; he put more of his weight on Sollux, really leaning into him until his mouth was right back his ear. It sent chills down Sollux’s spine, having those sharp teeth that close to him, and he only just caught what Cronus was saying to him now. “I can tell when I’m not wanted around, y’know. But I’m dead serious, you know — the moment the drones start whirring around, you come find me, little lowblood — ”

“Cronus!” Eridan snapped, turning a bright violet.

“ — I got a few tricks under my belt that the kid wouldn’t even imagine to try.” Cronus punctuated his point by nuzzling into the side of Sollux’s face, and the chills multiplied exponentially. He felt frozen, unsure of what to do and a little bit terrified, but it didn’t seem to matter; Cronus pushed himself away on his own, waving a hand over his shoulder as he called out, “I’ll see ya both around, boys!”

Sollux didn’t even turn to watch him go, trembling violently where he was standing. He wasn’t entirely sure what had just happened, but his heart was racing in his chest and he couldn’t seem to catch his breath. It felt like Cronus’s arm was still on him, holding him in place, and his heart was pounding so loudly in his ears he almost didn’t notice Eridan calling him until the other troll was right in front of his face.

He jerked back, staring at him with wide eyes and psionics racing up his arms; Eridan stepped back, holding his hands up in a gesture of peace, and Sollux felt his lips draw back automatically. They stood in the middle of the mostly empty hallway, staring each other down for a long moment, before Sollux swallowed heavily and shook his hands out. The psionics disappeared, but he felt antsy now, adrenaline still running through his body even though Cronus was likely long gone now.

“What the fuck was that?” He asked, trying to ignore the shakiness of his own voice. Eridan groaned, burying his face in his hands once he was sure Sollux wasn’t going to try to fry him in the middle of the hallway. “What did he mean by drones?”

“Fucking Cronus, that — ” He spit out several curse words, none that Sollux could actually recognize by anything but the tone with which he said them, and reached out for his arm. Sollux jerked back at the exact same time Eridan did, the violet’s lips pursing together in frustration. He turned on his heel, beckoning Sollux to follow after him with a wave of his hand. Sollux stared at it wearily, and Eridan took a couple of steps before seeming to realize that he wasn’t following. He turned to look at him over his shoulder, lips still pressed into a thin line. “I can’t say much out here. Let’s go back to the room.”

“Eridan — ”

“Sol.” Eridan glanced to the side, where the servants were still lining the walls, before meeting Sollux’s gaze again. “I promise, I’ll explain everything. In the room.” They stared at each other from across the hallway for a moment before Sollux sighed shakily and stepped forward, walking to stand next to Eridan; he didn’t fully trust Eridan, even now, but the violetblooded troll was the only one he could count to be on his side right now, at least amongst the highbloods in the castle, and Sollux couldn’t afford to lose that right now. Eridan sighed softly from next to him, his shoulders dropping just a little, and moved to step forward.

Before he could second guess himself anymore, Sollux took Eridan’s hand in his own, gripping it tightly as he started walking towards the room again. There was a moment of resistance as Eridan tried to process what was happening, but he caught on quick enough and sped up a little to walk next to Sollux again.

—

Sollux blinked several times in confusion, spinning slowly in place. The area around him was completely unfamiliar, though it was definitely in a clearing in a forest. The trees were thick on the edges of the clearing, so close together Sollux wasn’t entirely sure how he’d gotten out here to begin with, and the grass beneath him was greener than he’d ever seen in either Alternia or the Veil. It felt weird on the bottoms of his feet, too, and Sollux abruptly realized that he was standing by barefoot in the clearing. There were bunches of flowers growing in random areas, but nothing that Sollux could recognize — not that there were a lot he could recognize, plant-wise, because he usually tried to avoid going outside for too long if he could help it. The clearing was empty, as far as he could tell, but something in Sollux’s chest told him something was wrong.

He kept spinning in place, keeping his guard up; slowly, his hands lowered to his sides, palms open and fingers tensed, blue and red energy crackling from his fingertips. The sun was directly above him, lighting up the clearing around him completely, but he didn’t feel any of the heat from it at all — the grass and flowers and trees were moving in a soft breeze he couldn’t feel, and not even the leaves made any noise even as they rustled together. Sollux scanned the edges of the clearing, trying to see if he could see anything past the tree line without moving from his spot — it felt like if he moved even an inch from where he was standing, he would regret it. His heart was thudding in his chest, racing much faster than he was used to and heightening his anxiety.

Sounds started filtering in, faint but growing stronger. Sollux frowned, straining his ears to hear better, but the sounds growing in strength around him weren’t what he was expecting; there were screams, most of them cut short abruptly, and shouted orders that Sollux couldn’t fully understand from where he was standing. The ground started shaking underneath him, and Sollux had to brace himself to not fall over. His breaths started coming in gasps, psionics crackling up and down his arms now, but nothing came by him. Instead, there was the added sound of clanging metal and the smell of gunpowder in the air, heat enveloping him with no way for him to know where it was coming from. Sollux kept spinning around, trying to pinpoint something, anything, but smoke was starting to cloud the sky around the trees, filling the air with smoke and ash.

Something slammed into his side, and Sollux finally went down, his heart stopping in his chest as he hit the dirt. The impact had so much force behind it that he slid, rolling in the grass with whatever it was that hit him. His breath, what little he’d had, was knocked out of him completely and for a moment Sollux just laid there, in the dirt, with a weight on his chest. The fight that sounded around them didn’t seem to be coming any closer, but that wasn’t any comfort right now; Sollux wanted to get out of there as soon as possible, once he managed to get himself together. Opening his eyes was a bit of a struggle, but Sollux managed it. The smell of fire was thick now, smoke and ash coating his lungs and his face, and Sollux finally looked down to see what hit him.

It was a person, a troll from the horns that stuck out of their head, and Sollux felt his breath catch. The horns were familiar, a double pair he saw all the time whenever he saw his own reflection, sticking out through a broken helmet. Sollux scrambled a bit, choking on the smoke that was enveloping then to pull Mituna’s head up to face him.

Horror flooded him when he did, though — half of Mituna’s helmet was missing, cracked in jagged half down the center of it, revealing matted black hair and rivers of yellow streaming down both sides of Mituna’s face. The remaining red lens of his helmet was cracked so badly Sollux was sure he couldn’t see out of it, but that didn’t seem to matter; peeking through the blood on his face was blackened skin, his blue eye nearly translucently white from extreme psionic burnout, which meant that the red counterpart looked the same. His mouth was mangled as he groaned Sollux’s name in pain, his hands shaky as they reached out for him, and Sollux couldn’t move couldn’t breathe couldn’t scream —

He shoved himself upwards, gasping so roughly that it echoed in the room around him, his hand gripping at his chest to try and calm his racing heartbeat. Mituna’s voice calling his name was echoing in his ears, and he was looking around the dark like he could still see the open field he’d just been in. The darkness was blinding after being submerged in so much light, even if that light had only been mental and not real, and Sollux felt his panic notch up even more the less he could see around him.

It took him a long time to calm down, his body shivering in the cold air of the night. His eyes adjusted slowly to the dark, and the details of his room came into view.

When Sollux was much younger, just having outgrown his grub legs and not yet old enough to share a sleeping space with anyone other than Psionic and Mituna, he had horrorterrors that would startle him awake screaming. Psionic and Signless apparently had multiple discussions about it, because it was occurring damn near nightly, and sometimes would wake Sollux multiple times in a night. They got worse over the course of a couple weeks, very quickly, and Signless was the one to come up with a solution; with some trial and error, as well as one accidental overdose that left Sollux nearly catatonic for two days, they fed him mindhoney before putting him to bed. It worked, maybe better than they’d hoped, and Sollux stopped having nightmares until he outgrew the mindhoney completely.

Well, it was most likely him outgrowing the mindhoney; after a while, Sollux was old enough to start staying up nearly all night, playing video games and practicing his coding, but the result was the same — the horrorterrors stopped, and everyone else slept peacefully again. He hadn’t had an episode of horrorterrors in years, which made it all the weirder that he was having them now. It had been over a week since they’d arrived in Alternia, ten days since he’s gotten more than a couple of hours of sleep at a time. It was driving Sollux up the wall, the stone walls of the castle added to the chill he felt, and the pure silence of the room made him uneasy. He’d never had a space to himself like this, not once, and not at this size, and while it had been nice when he’d seen it the first day in Alternia, it felt like it was making his horrorterrors worse.

At least no one else was being subjected to his horrorterrors. That was some small comfort, at least.

Sollux felt his tremors get worse, and he made a decision without consciously thinking about it. Slipping out of his bed, Sollux stepped carefully onto the stone cold floor, hissing when the chill raced up his legs. It was likely better for him to get back into bed, but he was fucking exhausted and the castle was far colder than he’d expected it to be, and he was more than a little afraid that if he tried to go back to sleep now, he’d see Mituna’s bloodied, half-burnt face in his dreams again.

He crept out of his bedroom, sort of grateful that Eridan had what basically amounted to a whole floor to himself; it meant that there wasn’t anyone to see the way he tiptoed around a semi-darkened room to cross to the door opposite of his own. There weren’t any of the candles lit anymore, most likely out out once Sollux had finally gone to bed, but the giant window that took up nearly the whole wall was still uncovered — the moon was high and bright, half full and giving off just enough light to help him cross the room without bumping into a table or chair. He made it easily to the other side, pulling the door open silently and grateful again that it didn’t squeak as he did so.

The room behind was dark and quiet, and Sollux hesitated for half a second before slipping inside and closing the door behind him. Giving himself a moment to adjust to the pure darkness again, Sollux felt his shoulders relax already from the soft sound of rustling blankets. There was a quiet sigh, and Sollux pressed forward at the sound until he was right next to the bed. After another moment’s hesitation, wherein he decided that he was already here and might as well do the fucking thing he came over here for, Sollux reached out and grabbed Eridan’s shoulder. Eridan didn’t move, or seem to react, so Sollux shook him a little.

“Eridan.” He whispered, shaking the violet harder when that didn’t seem to do anything. He hadn’t been aware that Eridan was such a heavy sleeper, but he was learning it now that it was working against him. It had to be a violet thing, though Sollux wasn’t entirely sure how this was beneficial; all the lowblood he’d grown up with were light sleepers, easier to alert if anything had happened overnight. Eridan was a leader, right? He should be easier to wake up than this. “Eridan. Eridan!”

“Sol?” Eridan hissed, though he still sounded groggy and asleep. Sollux swallowed, feeling embarrassed that he was even here, let alone what he was going to be asking. He felt Eridan move, heard him grunt a little as he propped himself up, and steeled himself to ask his question. “What happened? Sol?”

“Can I sleep with you?” He said, blurting it out all at once. It seemed better, to just get it out without thinking too much, but he could feel the way yellow flooded his cheeks. They hadn’t really slept together since they were in the Veil, when Sollux had wanted comfort for his migraine and he wouldn’t let Eridan leave. He’d woken up around midday the next day, still exhausted but now starving on top of that, and had been so startled by Eridan that he’d jumped and shoved him onto the floor. Eridan had sworn at him, cursing him out in what Sollux now realized was probably sea dweller language, and then the both of them had more or less proceeded to pretend that it hadn’t happened at all.

Or, well. Sollux pretended. Eridan had apparently decided to relentlessly pursue a flushed quadrant instead.

“What?” Eridan yawned, the sound loud in the otherwise quiet room; his sea dweller accent was coming in thicker than usual, probably because he’d been woken up from what seemed to be like a deep sleep, though the warble on his letter was slowly going away as he kept talking. Not only that, but the more he woke up, the more Sollux felt like a whining grub. He didn’t really need to be here, he was old enough to handle this kind of thing on his own. What was he even doing here? It couldn’t be that difficult to get mindhoney in a place like the castle, and he could even try to be discreet if that sort of thing would reflect badly on Eridan. “Like, in here? With me? Why?”

God fucking dammit.

“This was stupid.” Sollux muttered instead, twisting his head away. He pushed himself backwards, inwardly berating himself for thinking this was a good idea. Now that both he and Eridan were more alert and awake than they’d been before, Sollux could see in startling clarity how ridiculous this request was. They had separate rooms for a reason, right? Because clearly Eridan had hated sharing a room with Sollux in Alternia, and this was the easiest way to get that point across without outright saying it. Best option now was clearly to make for the door and pretend this wasn’t a thing that happened in the morning. “Never mind, this is dumb.”

“Sol.” Eridan’s hand shot out, latching onto his sleeve and stopping Sollux from moving. There was a rug in Eridan’s room, he noted idly as he shuffled in place, which meant the floor wasn’t as cold here as it had been in his room. Small mercies, considering Eridan was currently not letting him leave. “What’s goin’ on? You doin’ ok?”

“It’s stupid, honestly, I don’t even know — ”

“Sol.” Eridan’s grip on his sleeve tightened a little, his knuckles pressing into Sollux’s arm just a little. The contact, muted by his sleeve as it was, grounded Sollux in an odd way — similar to the way AA’s touch did, but different enough that it didn’t feel like infidelity to let Eridan comfort him. Sollux stopped, still flushing bright yellow but not spiraling as much as he had been before. Eridan didn’t sound judgmental, either, just quiet and a little concerned. It reminded Sollux a little of how he’d been in the Veil, towards the end when he’d been a little more receptive of his advances. “What’s goin’ on?”

“I…” Sollux pressed his lips together, willing to ask but not really willing to share the reason why, and Eridan waited quietly in the dark. The silence stretched on for what felt like hours, and Sollux felt it like it was tangible. “I had…I had a horrorterror.”

“A horrorterror.” Eridan repeated, and Sollux bristled, instantly on the defensive.

“Yes, goddamnit, a horrorterror.” His face was flushing, but Sollux didn’t move now that the truth was coming out. He barely noticed as one of Eridan’s fingers started to move, rubbing gently against his wrist. “I used to get bad ones, way back when I was a little older than a grub, and I don’t know why they’re coming back now, but they are. They’re bad, really bad, and I just thought.” He cut himself off, rubbing his free hand over his face and muffling the next words out of his mouth. “I don’t know. Fuckin’ stupid, like I said.”

“I don’t think it’s stupid.” Eridan said, and Sollux scoffed irritably. “I don’t, honest!” It was a nice thought, but Sollux wasn’t a grub anymore — it was stupid, was the thing; he was basically an adult, right, he was married even, currently residing in what had previously been enemy territory, and he was scared of something little like a fucking horrorterror; it was grub-like, infantile, but Eridan was shifting away from Sollux already. Sollux stepped back, just one step, ready to go back to his own room, but Eridan pulled him back towards the bed instead. Sollux resisted for a moment, pulling his arm back experimentally, but Eridan’s grip was tighter than he’d realized, and he pulled him forward more insistently.

This had been what he’d wanted when he came in here, technically, so Sollux didn’t really try to fight it any more than that. He crawled on top of the blankets, shifting around when Eridan tugged on them a little from underneath him. Throwing the blankets over the both of them, Eridan shifted a bit more so he was laying on his side; he pulled Sollux towards him, pressing his head under his chin gently and wrapping his arms around Sollux’s shoulders. Uncertain and feeling like all of this was vaguely familiar, Sollux wrapped his arms around Eridan’s waist slowly, listening to the extremely slow pump of Eridan’s heartbeat right by his ear.

“Why does this feel so familiar?” Sollux whispered, feeling like he might shatter whatever moment was between them if he spoke too loud. Eridan hummed back quietly, one of his hands creeping upward to tangle in Sollux’s hair. He didn’t have his rings on at all, Sollux noted distantly, so when he began scratching gently at the back of his head, there wasn’t anything to get caught in his hair. It was soothing, and Sollux closed his eyes almost without meaning to.

“Pretty sure we fell asleep like this in the Veil.” Eridan whispered back, and Sollux hummed in response. He didn’t remember a lot about how he fell asleep that day, but he did remember how he woke up in the morning, so Eridan was probably right. At least this time he was more aware of what was happening around him — meant it was less likely he was going to be shoving Eridan onto the floor in the morning. “Tell me about your horrorterror?”

“It’s dumb.” Sollux said, and Eridan shifted his leg enough to knock Sollux in the upper thigh. He yelped quietly, struggling against the suddenly tight hold Eridan had on him, but he couldn’t get himself loose enough to retaliate. He settled for squeezing Eridan as tightly as possible, making him wheeze a little as all the air rushed out of his lungs. “What the fuck, asshole?”

“Stop sayin’ stupid shit.” Eridan said, still gasping a little for air, “just fuckin’ tell me what your dream was. God, why does everythin’ gotta be a struggle with you?”

“Part of my charm.” Sollux said back, tone mocking, and Eridan snorted a little in response.

“I’m fairly sure you have other charms,” he said dryly, “an’ being a difficult pain in my ass is definitely not one a them. Just talk to me, asshole, it wouldn’t kill you.”

“You’re not my moirail.” Sollux said instantly, instead of what he’d wanted to say. Eridan’s hand, which had started scratching at the back of his scalp again, paused for a moment. It was a brief moment, one that had Sollux regretting opening his mouth at all, but then he started again before the feeling could really sink in and settle.

“You’re not mine.” He said, voice quiet and hushed. It was barely audible to Sollux, he was likely able to hear it only because he was so close, and he tightened his grip on Eridan again. Not enough to strangle the breath out of him, but enough to hopefully try and bring him some sort of comfort. “But…it’s different, right? This kinda thing. It’s different than when…than when it’s with your moirail. Your actual one.” Sollux hummed softly, and felt more than saw the way Eridan took an unsteady breath. He curled in a little more around Sollux, hugging him just a little tighter, and asked softly, “tell me about your horrorterror?”

And Sollux, warm and comfortable, thought that he had nothing left to lose at this point.

—

Sollux was entirely sure that Eridan was full of shit.

It had been about a month and half, and nothing Eridan had warned him about on the way to Alternia had happened.

Wait, correction: the thing about not talking to Her Imperial Condescension was true and valid. He’d thought it was unfortunate that AA and the rest of them had been stuck with the Most Awkward Mealtimes ever, but hadn’t thought much of it other than to gently tease AA about them whenever he had a chance to talk to her. Then he’d had his own mealtime experience, and he’d suddenly had a little more sympathy for her; granted, he’d d made his own situation worse by arriving to the very first one late and speaking directly to Her Imperial Condescension about it, in spite of Eridan giving him clear warning not to, so he was pretty sure he’d sealed his fate on that front — he just wasn’t sure how. The Condescension hadn’t even look at him, keeping her eyes closed as she’d reminded Eridan to ‘keep his lowblood under control’, and Eridan hadn’t said anything about any consequences afterwards.

But other than that — all Sollux had been contending with the whole time were the servants. They were nervous and quiet, never looking Sollux in the eye and calling him ‘Esteemed Highblood’ instead of his name, which was weird. He’d tried to engage with them several times in the beginning, asking them questions about themselves or what they did in their spare time; none of them gave him anything to work with aside from their names, giving the impression that they had no free time to themselves, but Sollux knew for damn sure they had time off at some point — they couldn’t possibly be working twenty-four seven, Karkat had told him that he’d talked to most of the servants in the castle. It was just Sollux, for some reason — they seemed extremely unwilling to talk to him about anything, even if Sollux asked them point blank. Half of the time, they stopped and bowed if Sollux walked past them in the hallways.

Sort of like now.

The castle was big, towering over the grounds it sat on easily. It had six known floors, at a minimum, with one floor dedicated to a library and war rooms, and was made of pure gray stone. Fuchsia colored banners lined the halls, both along the walls with the Condescension’s sign stitched on in gold, and along the floor in neat, clean rugs. Sollux had been heading to the library on this floor, the only room that was unlocked and available for him, to meet with Jade and Jane for a bit, and wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings properly. He’d noticed, just a few seconds too late, the three servants stood with their heads bowed outside of one of the rooms, and slammed into someone before he’d even registered the reason for it.

The force of it made him stagger back a couple of steps, and Sollux lifted his gaze from the servants along the wall to the person in front of him. She’d also been pushed back a step or two, her papers on the floor at her feet. Her eyes were already on Sollux, narrowed and a startlingly familiar color; for a moment, Sollux almost felt like he’d gone back in time, to way back when he first met Eridan, due solely to the cold way her gaze traveled up and down him as she sized him up

She was definitely on the taller side for a troll, almost as tall as Sollux himself, with long black hair that looked like it fell to her mid-back. Violet covered her almost completely, from her jewelry to her shirt and the shoes she wore. Sollux didn’t know who she was, had never seen her before, but he’d spent so much time amongst his own people from the Veil and Eridan the entire time he was in the castle; he’d forgotten what Eridan had told him on their ride in with regards to dealing with the other violets in the castle.

To be quite honest, Sollux hadn’t really anticipated running into any of them at all.

“What, exactly, are you waiting for?” She asked, her voice low and deep; she sounded a little irritated, the sound of her words softened by a sea dweller accent even as they came out sharply, and the contrast distracted Sollux a bit too much. He hummed, blinking at her a bit stupidly, and she lifted an eyebrow. The movement was somehow more elegant than anything Eridan had ever done, and Sollux internally resolved to never let him know. “Lowblood. Do you require a written invitation?”

“Invitation for what?” Sollux asked her. He had a bad feeling in his chest, like something about this interaction was going to go south very quickly, and he was desperately hoping that feeling was wrong. He didn’t get these types of feelings often, this feeling of impending doom that was steadily rising in his chest, but whenever he did, they were never wrong.

“You’ve knocked my things down with your carelessness.” She said. Sollux glanced back down at the papers on the floor at her feet, then behind himself at the two servants who were standing against the wall. Neither one of them were moving, and neither was she, so he wasn’t quite sure what her point was.

“I’m sorry?” He tried, taking a step to the side. Her lips pressed together tightly, her eyes flashing with what looked like disapproval, and Sollux stopped moving; he felt lost, mainly because he wasn’t sure what it was she wanted from him. He didn’t even know her name yet.

“What are you doing?” She asked.

“Walking?” Sollux said slowly in response, the word combing out soft and unsure. There was a quiet sound from behind him, like one of the servants drew in their breath sharply, and Sollux felt his lips draw back just slightly in a small grimace. The sinking feeling that he’d given the wrong answer was compounded by the way she looked even more unimpressed with him than before, the sound of snickers coming from her side of the door. There were some other noises, comments Sollux was entirely sure were being made about him, even if he couldn’t hear them properly from where he was standing. He told himself that he would only make it worse if he kept talking, and opened his mouth regardless. “Y’know, that thing you do to get from point A to point B?”

“Well.” She said blankly, crossing her arms across her chest. The movement made the bangles on her wrist clink against each other gently, and the way she shifted her hips to the side made her earrings sway gently. She was very pretty, Sollux thought, though the cool, disinterested way she stared at him was making her seem less attractive than she could have been. Her eyes narrowed slightly at him, still sizing him up. “Aren’t you a mouthy one, then? What’s your name, lowblood?”

“Why do you want to know?” Sollux asked back automatically, and sort of wanted to hit himself. Her shoulders actually lifted with the breath she took in, and Sollux scrambled to make it better; he really didn’t think it was a good idea to have her pissed off at him for any reason. “You haven’t even told me yours yet.”

“I am not required to introduce myself to the lower caste.” She sounded like she was barely holding herself back from snapping at him, voice thin as she tightened her arms across her chest. “You are clearly not from Alternia if you don’t know how to act around your betters. Where did you come from?”

“My betters?” Sollux couldn’t hide the incredulous tone in his voice, but he wasn’t trying. He’d never really had any sort of interactions with highbloods like this before — Kurloz Makara had come to the Veil when he was so young, so by the time he’d managed to have any interactions with the troll any highblood superiority had been long trained out of him, and the highest blood color they had aside from him were some navys who helped with the more physical work of the compound. The idea that this troll was better than him, just because she happened to be violet colored rather than anything else, rankled his nerves. “I don’t happen to see any betters here, currently.”

“You are clearly not from Alternia.” She said coldly, talking over him almost before he’d finished speaking. Her arms dropped to her sides, fists clenching so tightly that the pale silver of her skin nearly turned white, and she took a step forward, likely to try and intimidate Sollux. Her fins were flaring out on the sides of her neck, thinner and wider than Eridan’s were, dotted with violet looking freckles and shimmering with gold glitter. He had a brief, distracted thought that the papers at her feet clearly weren’t that important, considering she was stepping on them and wrinkling them under her purple boot, but the thought was instantly lost the second she reached out and pulled him in. She dragged him forward, yanking him down a little so that his knees buckled under him, and hissed, “who are you? Where did you come from?”

“Hey, hey, Amyrie.” A hand reached out, pulling her back just enough, and Sollux found himself looking at another violet, his heart sinking in his chest even further. Somehow, the fact that this troll had been been coming out of a room hadn’t registered in his mind that it was likely other people were also in the room with her. It was looking more and more likely that there were other violets in there, likely other indigos as well, and Sollux was entirely sure he was about to die. This troll was still talking, his voice smooth and even, and though he was also glaring at Sollux, there was a bright, wide smile across his face. “Hold on, wait a moment.”

“What, Vialax?” She snapped.

“No, I’m just thinking.” He peered down at Sollux over her shoulder, narrowing his eyes at him for a moment. “Didn’t Eridan marry a yellow? The Queen herself approved of it, right? A little while ago?”

“What does that have to do with anything?” She asked, seemingly automatically. Before Vialax could respond, she jerked her head back, then peered down at Sollux again. He bared his teeth at her in response, and her fins flared out on either side of her neck before they dropped against her. “You think this lowblood would be the yellow Eridan married?”

“It would track, wouldn’t it?” He asked her. “He’s clearly not from Alternia, and Eridan is officially back. Haven’t seen him yet, of course, but he’s been having meetings with the Queen.”

“Does it think that being married to Eridan would save it?” She asked him, and he shrugged in response. Sollux growled a little at being ignored, at the casual way she dismissed him and called him ‘it’ right in front of him, but she didn’t return her attention to him at all. Even at his worst, Eridan had never treated him so poorly, though it was likely because he’d been the one outnumbered the second he’d gotten to the Veil; he wasn’t stupid, after all, and this highblood attitude wouldn’t get him anywhere surrounded by the residents of the Veil. “I’m not under any obligation to save it from any poor decision it makes.”

“I’m not making any poor decisions.” Sollux said through gritted teeth, and she finally dropped her gaze down to his again. Without thinking, he reached up, gripping her wrists where they held the fabric of his clothes in a tight grip. Her face contorted a little, and her lip drew back just enough to show off the sharp teeth that lined the inside of her mouth. Sollux swallowed nervously, but he refused to back down. “And I’m not an ‘it’, I have a name.”

“Your name does not matter right now.” She hissed back.

“Amyrie.” The other violet repeated, and she snapped her teeth at him. He flared his own fins out at her, and though it didn’t make her submit in any way, it at least got her teeth away from Sollux’s neck. He didn’t look at Sollux again, focused on smoothing down the front of his own shirt like he’d done anything to wrinkle it. “It would be wise to remember that the lowblood that are joined to our own in this…marriage…are, in fact, heavily protected.”

“Eridan should know better than — ”

“Not by him, or the Orphaner’s name.” He interrupted smoothly. Amyrie was remarkably fast on the uptake, Sollux would at least give her that. She let go of his clothes suddenly, making Sollux drop to his knees at last, and took a prim step backwards, off of the very important papers she’d demanded that Sollux pick up for her. Sniffing irritably, Amyrie tugged on the edges of her shirt, straightening it out before wiping her hands together. Vialax was still smiling that toothy smile, clapping his hand on her shoulder and ignoring Sollux completely. “That’s a girl. Oi. Lowblood.” Sollux bared his teeth automatically, but he wasn’t even looking down at him.

There was a soft step from behind him, and Sollux felt the warmth of the rustblood at his back. There had been two of them back there, he remembered again, though he couldn’t be sure which one had stepped forward. They were silent, presumably awaiting instructions.

“Amyrie has dropped her papers.” He said carelessly. “Pick them up and straighten them out. Don’t read them.”

“Hey!” Sollux pushed himself to his feet, startling the two violets as well as the rustblood girl who’d already knelt down to do as she was told. She froze a little, hand outstretched but head still bowed, and Sollux felt a familiar rush of anger course through him; he hadn’t felt it a while, not truly the way he’d had while they were fighting against the Condescension’s armies, and it somehow didn’t surprise him that he was feeling it now against these two in particular. It was a little more surprising that he was so willing to fight, considering the way he’d frozen when it had been Cronus, but he wasn’t thinking about that right now. “You can’t be ordering her around like that! She isn’t just a slave to do what you can’t be bothered to do!”

“Watch your tone.” Amyrie hissed at him. She stepped forward again, getting into Sollux’s space and pressing her finger into his shoulder. Her nail was sharp, catching on his clothes, and Sollux noted that she just barely missed stepping on the rustblood girl in her path. “You may be protected now, lowblood, but that protection will not last forever, and it does not extend to anyone else.” Sollux glared at her, opening his mouth to contradict her, but she smiled at him coldly. In one quick movement, she pulled her hand away from Sollux and yanked the rustblood up by her hair; to her credit, the girl didn’t cry out or even react, her hands hanging limply at her sides as Amyrie shook her none too gently.

“Amyrie.” Vialax sighed, and he sounded so disappointed that Sollux thought he might have been against her somehow; he’d protected Sollux a little, and though it was the bare minimum of not having her physically attack him, it might extend to the servants as well. That hope was almost immediately dashed the moment he kept talking. “Don’t keep breaking the servants, the Queen won’t be pleased with that.”

“I’m just making a point.” She said, and dropped the girl again. Sollux grit his teeth and clenched his jaw, but forced himself to stay quiet and hold Amyrie’s eye. She looked smug and victorious, especially once the girl stood up and handed her the papers that had fallen. “One that it would behoove this…yellow to learn sooner rather than later.” Sollux bared his teeth at her impulsively, and she bent down to press a long nailed finger against his nose. “Do not test your luck, lowblood.”

Chapter Text

“The names don’t sound familiar to me,” AA said later, drumming her fingers against the bottom of her chin. They were in Sollux’s room, where Sollux was laying on the bed and AA was sitting cross legged next to him. She had her chin in the middle of her palm, her knee bouncing up and down on the bed next to her. Her head tilted to the side momentarily, distracted by the names Sollux had given her as he’d complained about the two violet he’d met the day before. “I could ask the Princ…Feferi, I guess? She would know the names of all the highbloods better than me. I didn’t really interact with anyone if I could help it, while I was in Alternia. I hated it there.”

Sollux could tell the idea made her a little uncomfortable, even without looking at her and with the distance between them — the perks of moirallegience. He sighed heavily at the thought of it, considering the pros and cons of involving the Princess in the whole affair. She was the second highest authority, after only the Condescension herself, but what would that matter when she wasn’t in the castle currently? The reach of the Princess would only go so far, and Sollux wasn’t willing to start this battle on his own with only Eridan beside him. The girl — Amyrie — had made it clear already that Eridan had very little influence over the rest of the violets, and Sollux wasn’t entirely sure how much the Princess’s influence held with the distance.

“Don’t do that.” Sollux sighed, lifting his hands to rub at his eyes underneath his glasses. His head was aching, a quiet throbbing that never seemed to leave him no matter how hard he tried to get rid of it. The darkness was some kind of relief, brought on by the pressure of his palms against his eyeballs, and Sollux pressed a little harder chasing the feeling. “It wouldn’t matter much, would it? Not like she can do anything all the way in the Veil. All it would do is start trouble I can’t afford right now.”

“You’re not having any luck getting that stupid doorway open?” AA asked, and Sollux groaned irritably in response.

AA had told him about it, right before she’d left the castle and Sollux came to Alternia: a doorway on the first floor, next to where the hallway to the kitchens were located. It was difficult to stay nearby it, mainly because the servants were constantly going in and out of the kitchens all day, but also because it was locked from the other side by some sort of code. Hacking into the Alternian mainframe was difficult but manageable, even with Sollux hiding his points of entry, but figuring out the code was taking longer than Sollux thought it should be. The internet connection was shaky at best outside of the control room, which meant he was forced to work there if he wanted to do any sort of coding or hacking, but that meant interaction with the others of his caste. And he didn’t dislike them, exactly, but they were very clearly Alternian and he wasn’t. It wouldn’t mean much, shouldn’t mean much, but so far it meant that the other lowbloods in the castle were less than helpful when it came to anything outside of their goddamn computers so they were out.  it was the only door in the whole castle that had a tunnel to nowhere connected to it. AA had tried going down it a couple of times, but she had never gotten very far down it before being interrupted by something or other.

“I don’t wanna talk about that.” He said, and AA was quiet in the way that meant she was probably laughing at him. He stuck his tongue out at her, wiggling it in the way that irritated her all the time; he was never entirely sure how much of him she was able to see when they communicated this way, but she seemed to know what he was doing anyway. She let out a noise, quiet and short, and shoved her hand through his shoulder. Ice burst through it, and Sollux yelped as he rolled away from her touch.

“In that case,” she said, “how are things with Eridan?”

Sollux pressed his lips together tightly, turning to face away from AA for a moment. The entirety of his right side froze a little as she leaned into him, but Sollux twisted his head a little more to the side to hide his face. He was glad that AA asked about it, if only because then he could talk about it and get a different perspective on how everything was going, because he thought things were going well. He and Eridan still bickered and fought about things, especially because the servants around the castle weirded Sollux out, but it had none of the animosity that their earlier disagreements were colored with, and though they couldn’t do anything while in public view, they were getting more physically intimate in private. Not enough to involve the fucking drones everyone kept mentioning, but enough to feel like an actual, real redrom was forming on the edges of their marriage. It was off putting and weird, and extremely rare for him to see something as positively as he was with this, and he didn’t know what to do about it.

“I don’t know.” He said, and ran his hands over his face and through his hair. “I don’t — it’s.” He sighed and threw his hands out to the side now, narrowly avoiding going through AA as he did so. “It’s weird, a bit? I told you about the horrorterrors?” She hummed an affirmative. “I had them a bunch when we first got here. And waking up alone was disorienting and making them worse, I think? But Eridan — ” He blew out a puff of air through his lips, feeling a little ridiculous about what he was about to say but knowing he was going to say it anyway. “He let me sleep with him. And the horrorterror went away, surprisingly enough. I haven’t had one since.”

“You’re still sleeping with Eridan?” AA asked, and Sollux felt the burst of yellow that crossed his face. He threw his arms over his face to try and hide it, mortified at how quickly the color spread across his face, but couldn’t hold back the snickers that burst out of him. She sounded so clinical about it, so robotic, even though he knew that she was practically burning in curiosity.

“Not in that way!” He said.

“But you are.” She said, and Sollux pressed his lips together again. If it was anyone other than AA asking, he probably wouldn’t have even considered answering at all. It wasn’t anyone else’s business, what he was doing in his own marriage, and it wasn’t like he was prying into anyone else’s either. But it was AA, and she was his moirail, and he needed to talk about it with someone or he might burst.

“I am.” He said softly, and AA hummed again.

“I’m sharing a room with Feferi.” She said, “not a bed, but it’s…its still odd. Off, somehow. She seems so…quiet. Uncertain, I think. She’s different from how she was before, in Alternia.”

“She might think you still don’t like her.” Sollux said, “considering how much you were avoiding her when you first got married and all.”

“But it’s been ages now,” AA said, “and now she’s the one who’s being all quiet and kind of reserved. And it’s not like I was putting any effort in getting to know her, so I don’t know how I would draw her out of that.” She slumped forward a little, putting her chin on her palm as she gazed off into the distance. “Maybe it really isn’t worth it, this whole thing we got ourselves involved in. It’s so much harder than I thought it would be, navigating something like this.”

“It’s too late to back out now.” Sollux reminded her. “Only way out is through.”

“I know.” AA said. “It’s just…it’s frustrating. It seems like everyone else’s marriage is more or less on track, it’s just ours that’s difficult. And that’s because I’ve made it difficult to get along with the…with Feferi.” Sollux hummed, thinking a little about what to say. It was hard, because he didn’t really know the specifics of their relationship, but maybe that was a place to start. Sort of like he had, with Eridan — meeting on some kind of common ground, or at least reaching out to building something together.

“Have you tried talking to her?” He asked, and the sound AA made could be considered a groan.

“Would it really be the worst thing,” Sollux asked softly, catching AA’s attention and making her turn to face him, “if you got along with the Princess?”

The words tasted odd to him, familiar in an unfamiliar sort of way, and Sollux stuck out his tongue to wiggle it as he thought of why. It wasn’t the sort of thing he would say on his own, he was well aware of it, but he couldn’t place why he’d said it to begin with.

“That sounds like something Jade would say.” AA said in the same quiet tone, and Sollux snorted without meaning to. AA twisted to look at him, but the humor had taken hold already. Sollux started snickering at first, trying to keep quiet, but AA kept staring at him and he lost it. It wasn’t even that funny, to be honest, but Sollux couldn’t remember the last time he laughed with AA like this; it felt like over the course of the past year, he’d just gotten more and more withdrawn from her. It had everything to do with the sudden distance between them, the miles and miles of land between Alternia and the Veil, but it likely wasn’t just that. Maybe it was also the product of growing up, taking on more responsibilities than they’d had before, the new people they found themselves attached to out of the blue.

Growing up was hard. It was hard, and no one understood.

AA was still staring at him when the random giggle fit passed, unamused, and Sollux sighed.

“Jade did tell me that.” He said, “a little while back.”

“Around when Ampora became Eridan?” AA asked, and Sollux hummed an affirmative. AA nodded a bit, looking away from Sollux again. “It probably wouldn’t be the worst thing.” She said. “Feferi is pretty nice, comparably. More reasonable, in the long run. She’ll be amenable to working towards a relationship, it’s just…”

“It’s scary.” Sollux finished for her, and AA hummed a little. Sollux wished he could hold her hand, or lean against her like they usually did when they had their jamming sessions, and settled for pressing his hand through hers. It sent an immediate chill up his arm, but he powered through it in favor of trying to maintain some sort of connection to his moirail. “If anyone can do it, you can AA.”

—

“Did I not,” Eridan said, and Sollux blew out a long breath through his mouth. He sounded annoyed, a little, and even though Sollux had his arm covering his eyes, he could almost see the way he had his hands on his hips. The mental image made him smile, briefly, as Eridan continued indignantly. “Sol. Did I not tell you that you should not be antagonizing the other highbloods? Like right before we got here?”

“I didn’t start anything!” Sollux said, throwing himself up so that he was able to actually see Eridan. Their room was dark, darker than it had been when he’d first come into it several hours ago, but Eridan was still visible in the quickly-fading light of the sun. He did have his hands on his hips, and a matching disapproving look, and Sollux was feeling a little better about calling the expression on his face. It didn’t last; his hands were still trembling, and he still felt cornered and cold. The weight on his shoulders felt heavier, making him feel like he was struggling just to sit up properly. “It’s not my fault — ”

“Amyrie said.” Eridan started, and Sollux frowned at him. The topic of conversation threw him off, the name unfamiliar, and Eridan frowned back at him automatically. He held his hand up to just above his head, indicating height, as he continued, “violetblood, around yay high? Long black hair, heels? She said you slammed into her and gave her grief about not picking up her papers. Almost knocked her off her feet, according to her.”

“Oh, that bitch.” Sollux said, and Eridan spluttered indignantly. He also flushed a very pretty violet, one that had Sollux’s eyes tracing over it in fascination; he had been on his best behavior for the most part, ever since he’d decided to try to actually cooperate with Eridan, and so he hadn’t seen him turn any shade of violet for what felt like the longest. It was still a good color on Eridan, accenting the color of his eyes and the outer lines of his fins, and Sollux sort of wanted to trace the color with his tongue.

He yanked his eyes away when he realized what he’d been doing, feeling his own face flush and unable to stop it. It took him a moment to even remember what they were talking about, he was so mortified. “That one wasn’t my fault, either!”

“That one?” Eridan repeated, voice growing slightly in volume. Sollux winced at the volume, and the way he’d inadvertently made it seem like he was getting into more trouble than he actually was, and Eridan actually seemed to take notice. He didn’t change the annoyance that was seeping through his words, exactly, but he stepped closer to where Sollux was sitting on the bed and lowered his voice a little. His accent was slipping out, slowly growing thicker the more he spoke, and Sollux found the sound of it relaxed his shoulders and lightened the weight in his chest. “That one? Sol, how many highbloods exactly are we talkin’ ‘bout here? Are you seriously goin’ around pickin’ fights after I specifically asked ya not to, I can not believe — ”

“I’m not the one pickin’ the fights!” Sollux said louder, trying to be heard over Eridan’s voice. Eridan fell silent, crossing his arms over his chest and lifting his eyebrow, and Sollux took the chance to explain before he could change his mind. “I’m not, honest. I didn’t know there was a meetin’ room there, the castle’s fuckin’ huge! Why would you put a room for violets to meet on the same floor an’ in the same area where people gotta be rushin’ around back an’ forth? Makes no fuckin’ sense, but I was tryin’ to meet with Jade in the library on that floor. If anything, she was the one who ended up knockin’ me on my ass, so.”

“An’ the attitude she said you were givin’ her?” He asked, and Sollux deflated a bit.

“I’ll give her that, I guess.” He muttered. Twisting around to pull his legs onto the bed, Sollux wrapped his arms around his shins and put his chin on his knees. “She was bein’ hella rude, though, an’ I didn’t exactly grow up with highbloods that demanded that sorta behavior. I wasn’t tryin’ to be confrontational, not really, but.” He trailed off, and Eridan didn’t say anything for a moment. Sollux wanted to look at him, but was a little embarrassed and didn’t know why, exactly. It wasn’t his fault that he wasn’t used to the kind of treatment highbloods demanded around here, but Eridan was also a little right; his temper had gotten the better of him, especially when the other girl got involved, and though it rankled his nerves, he could’ve avoided the whole thing if he’d just kept his mouth shut.

The silence following his admittedly weak defense felt louder than Eridan’s voice had been. Sollux glanced over, still not meeting Eridan’s eyes but seeing enough to see how his fingers tapped against his elbow. He drew into himself a little more, tensing a little as he heard Eridan take in a deep breath before moving closer to the bed.

He pushed him over gently, sitting down next to Sollux with a quiet sigh. Sollux leaned against him automatically, relaxing a little more when Eridan shifted a bit so that his arm wrapped around his shoulders. The weight was warm and more welcoming than Sollux anticipated, and they sat together in silence for a long moment while he slowly relaxed. He wasn’t entirely sure if Eridan fully believed him, or was just keeping quiet for the sake of not arguing right at that moment, but he didn’t mind the silence between them or the physical touch at all.

“You’re startin’ to sound like a sea dweller.” He said softly, and Sollux made a face at that.

“Probably because I’m forced to be stuck around you all the goddamn time out here.” He said, knocking Eridan with his shoulder. There was more force behind the motion than he’d meant to put in, and Eridan shoved him back just as hard. Sollux shoved him again, a little harder, almost knocking Eridan off of the bed, and Eridan threw his arm around his neck and dug his knuckles into the top of Sollux’s skull; motherfucker had his rings on, too, so it hurt like a bitch. Sollux struggled with shoving him off, but Eridan was a bit stronger. He continued for a few moments longer before granting mercy in the form of letting Sollux go.

He flashed his psionics at him briefly, a warning spark more than anything else, and leaned against Eridan again while he tried to catch his breath. Eridan shifted as they settled again, wrapping his arm around Sollux’s shoulder, and Sollux elbowed him one more time before settling. He felt better, marginally, and sort of hated that Eridan was the one who did that. It didn’t even feel pale-like, the way it would’ve with AA, which Sollux didn’t really feel like looking into too much right now.

“What were the other incidents?” Eridan asked, once the room had gone fully dark and the moonlight was starting to make its way across the room. Sollux hummed, and Eridan jostled him gently with his arm. “You said there were more than one. You explained what happened with Amyrie. What about the others?”

Sollux tensed up a little, and Eridan ran his hand down his arm soothingly. The motion was familiar, a little stifling, but more comforting than Sollux wanted to admit, and Eridan kept up the movement when he didn’t do anything to stop him. His breathing got a little shaky, and he felt as Eridan pressed his cheek against his head, mindful of the horns on that side of it.

“C’mon, Sol,” he whispered softly, “I won’t be mad, swear it. I’m not really upset about the thing with Amyrie, either, I’m just worried, y’know — ”

“I ran into Cronus, earlier.” Sollux said, and Eridan fell silent instantly. His hand stopped as well, and Sollux grit his teeth together for a moment before letting it all out. “That’s the only other one so far. I ran into him and-and he mentioned the drones were coming soon, that they come every couple — ”

“I already told you,” Eridan interrupted, “that the Queen is making a special exemption for those of us who are married — ”

“But that’s just for us!” Sollux felt a shiver go down his spine, and he yanked himself away from Eridan. Eridan let him go, and Sollux felt his breath get caught in his chest over and over again. He sort of wished that he’d had a chance to talk to AA about this before Eridan, because everything was jumbled up and he didn’t know what to do or how to feel about everything, but that wasn’t an option now. Eridan was staring at him with wide eyes, hand still hovering in the air where Sollux had just been leaning against him, and Sollux’s chest hurt. “That doesn’t extend to the rest of the castle, and Cronus knows it! He’s not just coming onto me that way, he’s gone after Jade and John and Nepeta!”

“Humans aren’t part of the collection,” Eridan said, and Sollux wanted to scream and shake him, and maybe jump out of the window in their room, because that wasn’t exactly the fucking point was it? John and Jade didn’t have to be part of the collection, it was was the fact that the fucking thing existed at all, and no one was really going to stop Cronus save for the one person who didn’t actually give a fuck about any of the rest of them, especially if they happened to come from the Veil. “Cronus would be killed regardless just for tryin’ to include the humans.”

“That’s not the point!” He snapped, and Eridan put his hands up placatingly. “The point is that he’s comin’ on to all of us, and he’s coming on strong. The only reason he hasn’t been knocked on his ass by one of us is because we’re all tryin’ to make sure this whole peace thing works out, and he fuckin’ knows it. Her Imperial fuckin’ Condescension isn’t gonna do jack shit to stop it, which means that the rest of us just gotta suffer through his advances.”

“Do you want me to tell him somethin’?” Eridan asked slowly, his brow furrowing contemplatively. Sollux stared at him with wide eyes, mind static, but Eridan sounded less certain than he would’ve expected him to. Like he could try, but whether it would end with Cronus listening to him was hit or miss. “I could tell him somethin’, if it makes you feel better. Have him, like, back off…?”

“Would he even listen to you?” Sollux asked. “It didn’t seem like any of the other violets would even listen to you. Am-whatever the fuck basically said that it didn’t matter that the Condescension — ”

“Amyrie’s a low-level violet who is loyal to the Queen above all else.” Eridan said dismissively. He shifted over to the edge of the bed, a little closer to Sollux, and began working his rings off of his fingers to drop them on the bedside table. They made a light noise as they came into contact with the wood, and Eridan was focusing extremely hard on a fairly basic task that he did every night. The stimulation of the familiar task, both visually and audibly, worked together to calm Sollux down again. His hands unclenched, slowly, and the tension that had been taking up residence in his shoulders started to dissipate. It didn’t feel particularly pale, though it reminded Sollux of when AA would do the same thing for him. “Cronus is my brother, an’ one who don’t see to much a me to begin with. He might be a little more willin’ to work with me, an’ do what I’m askin’.”

“This is a lot to place on a maybe.” Sollux told him bluntly, and Eridan blinked up at him, surprised and mid-drop. They stared at each other for a moment before Eridan shrugged one of his shoulders, the movement looking stiff and unpracticed. “It is, it’s not something that can just — ”

“I understand that.” Eridan said, slamming his last ring down on the table and glaring at Sollux. His fins flared out briefly, fluttering as attention was drawn to the thin webbing and the smoothness of his throat. Sollux clenched his jaw as his eyes darted down, clamping down on the urge to bite that seemed to have cropped up out of nowhere. It wasn’t even that he wanted to hurt Eridan, which was annoying, it was more the want to taste the pale skin of his throat, to know that Eridan trusted him enough to have Sollux’s teeth around his throat and know he wasn’t going to draw blood. “An’ I’m aware, thank you very much, that there is very little I can do, seein’ as Cronus is the only one a us that can be actively recognized as the moirail of a Princess an’ all. But I can ask him to leave you all alone, an’ even if he decides to be a dick about it, there’s at least a chance he’ll agree an’ back off. Whereas otherwise, I can just keep quiet about the whole damn thing, an’ he can just keep on harassin’ all a you until we all go back to the Veil. Which sounds like the honestly better option?”

“Better option for what?” Sollux asked, distracted enough that he’d forgotten what they’d been talking about to begin with. Eridan’s fins flared out again, warningly, and Sollux flushed as the whole conversation came back to him again. Scrambling to get his bearings again, Sollux mentally rewound the conversation a bit. “I — it might be better, I mean — ”

“It couldn’t really make it any worse.” ED said. “So I’ll talk to him tomorrow an’ we’ll see how it goes.”

Sollux really, really hated that it made him feel better.

—

When they had told Sollux that the lowblood castes were nervous and kept to themselves, they weren’t kidding. Every single one of them that Sollux had encountered so far kept their eyes down, their mouths shut, and their hands folded in front of them. For Sollux, who had never seen a quiet rustblood or a subdued brownblood, it was more jarring to see than he’d like to admit. It was made worse by the silence that came from the yellows, the way they all looked down and quieted the moment he entered any room they were in.

Like now. The control room was big, much bigger than the one they had in the Veil, though it always looked like the yellowbloods were right on top of each other in a way Sollux was used to. The desks lined the sides of the room evenly, spaced out so that there was a walkway between each table all the way up to the front of the room. It was half-full when Sollux pulled the door open, several girls and boys sitting on the desk in cramped spaces between computer monitors and a couple of them playing what looked like computer games in a group near the front. Conversations overlapped each other, the sound soothing and familiar as Sollux stepped in.

The door was heavier than he was expecting, though, and it slammed shut behind him. A glance in his direction was all that was needed to change the energy of the room completely.

The silence in the control room was deafening, especially considering the low-level volume of noise that had filled the room right before Sollux let the door close behind him a little too loudly. The second one of them noticed him, she nudged the yellow sitting next to her, and the chatting had stopped sort of like a wave through the room. They were all staring at Sollux now, who shuffled awkwardly in place under the weight of all their gazes. He clutched his own laptop tighter to his side, debating the merits of just leaving, and gave the room at large a small wave.

“Hi.” He said, a little lamely, and cleared his throat. He could feel yellow creeping across the back of his neck, embarrassment painting his skin, and tried to pretend like he wasn’t two seconds away from blushing like an idiot. “Is it ok if…?”

“Oh, uh.” One of the yellows stood up awkwardly from where she’d been sitting in the back row closest to the door, bowing down at her waist. Sollux felt his lip lift in disgust, and cringed a little at the flurry of whispers that set off around the room. The troll sitting directly in front of him trembled a little, her ears turning bright yellow as her eyes widened; she glanced at the girl who was bowing, looking like she couldn’t decide whether she should scramble to her feet or turn back to her own computer. “Highblood, sir…”

“You don’t have to do that.” Sollux muttered, and there must have been something in his tone as he said it; she squeaked a little, her body tensing up so completely that he was momentarily worried for her. The whispers didn’t stop, and Sollux could feel the way his neck was getting even warmer. He didn’t hate what passed for a control room in the castle, not really, because it was so much larger than even the one they had in the Veil; the people inside it, though…he missed the easy camaraderie that he got from being in the Veil. Polian gave him a lot of shit for Eridan, those first couple of weeks in the Veil, and none of the others regarded the violet with this level of respect at all, which had infuriated him at first. The yellows here were completely different, and the difference gave him some sort of whiplash. They were his siblings in blood color, but the constant reference to his highblooded companion was the most annoying thing in the world, and it seemed like they were incapable of not bringing it up every single time he met with them. “It’s really not necessary.”

“Of course, sir.” She said stiltedly, not moving from her position, and Sollux grit his teeth to avoid making another face. He glanced at one of the other yellows, and the troll his eyes landed in squared his jaw for a moment before his friend elbowed him in the side; then they both bowed, not as low as the girl in front of him but still in deference to him. Any of the others that Sollux looked at did the same, with varying levels of depth to their bows. “Did you have a request, sir? Our command room is available for your use.”

“Drop the shit.” Sollux snapped, and she flinched again. A tremble ran through her, from the tip of her horns down to her barely-visibly trembling knees, and Sollux wanted to feel bad about it but he was so exhausted. Tavros didn’t seem to have had any issues with the other brownbloods in the castle, and AA had managed to get a least a couple of the other rustbloods talking to her before she went back to the Veil, so Sollux didn’t understand why he was having such a hard time talking with the other yellows around him.

Maybe it was his eyes. He had his glasses on, always, but that didn’t really seem to do much to hide the brightness of the colors. Red and blue sclera wasn’t exactly common amongst yellows to begin with, and so far Sollux hadn’t met any in Alternia throughout his stay. It didn’t exactly rank him higher on any yellow scale, but it marked him as an outlier amongst his own caste. The yellows in the Veil were more used to it, mainly because Psionic had been one of the foundations of the revolution alongside Signless and Disciple, but the Alternian yellows clearly weren’t. Combined with the fact that he was married to Eridan, as technically the highest caste after the Princess, and Sollux found himself facing far more deference and respect than he’d ever had before in his life. He still didn’t know what to do with it, so he tended to default to antagonism.

AA gave him shit for it, when he brought it up with her last time they talked, but Sollux wasn’t exactly feeling up to her suggestion of just talk to them or anything like that. He stepped over to the first available space he saw, shoving aside some random piles of wires and two different keyboards to make space for his laptop. There was still silence in the room, though Sollux was doing his damndest to ignore it and continue setting up. He kind of hated that he’d left his headphones in the room, mainly because he wouldn’t be able to block out whatever noises — or lack thereof — would circulate the room just because he decided to join them.

“Um.” He glanced to the side, at the yellow who had bowed to him first. She was short, with short black hair and bright yellow eyes, and she looked so scared Sollux almost told her to leave him alone, but then she opened her mouth and kept talking. “Sol-Sollux, right? The-the Highblood’s…” Her jaw worked a bit, mulling over the word, before she finished with a weak, “matesprit?”

“Spouse.” Sollux said automatically, though even after all this time he still wasn’t entirely sure what the difference between the two was. She flushed, bright yellow against dark grey skin, and buried her face in her hands for a brief second before setting her shoulders and lifting her head again. She looked determined, if a bit mortified, and Sollux gave her credit for not immediately crumpling the way the rest of them had been doing so far.

“Right.” She took a deep breath, then bowed down before him. It was shallower than before, and much shorter — she straightened up nearly the second she bent forward, holding her hand out to him in offering. Sollux blinked at her, lost, but noted the way she was trembling. Her hand was shaking, but her jaw was set despite the tremors. Sollux reacted without thinking, taking her hand in his before any form of doubt could settle in her shoulders. His touch seemed to bolster her a little, and she shook his hand with more firmness and formality than he was expecting. “I’m Polynn, the Chief in Charge — ”

“According to fucking who?” A boy’s voice called out, and Polynn seemed to tense up a bit in response. She whirled around, mouth already opened to yell back, but seemed to remember herself at the last second. She turned back to Sollux, turning an ever brighter yellow, but not losing her determined look.

“We are at your disposal,” she said firmly, “spouse of our esteemed Highblood.”

“I’m just a yellow.” Sollux reminded her, and she blinked at him stupidly. Her eyes were bright yellow, and though she was trying very hard, she couldn’t seem to make herself meet his own eyes for longer than a moment. “It’s a mutation. I’m not going to do anything to any of you.”

“But you’re from the Rebellion, right?” One of the boys called from across the room, and Sollux lifted his gaze to meet his. His friend was tugging on his arm again, looking a combination of mortified and terrified, but he was ignoring them to squint at Sollux suspiciously. “You’ve made it your mission to be against us regardless of whether we have the same blood or not. You being here is just to gain information to destroy us from the inside out.”

“I don’t want to hurt you guys.” Sollux snapped back. The boy flinched back but didn’t sit down again, and Sollux pressed his fingers to his temples in irritation. The whole room flinched back, Polynn almost falling on her ass in order to put as much space between them as possible, and Sollux took a deep breath to reign in his irritation. “I’m serious. I will not hurt any of you.”

“Why not?” The boy demanded, and Sollux glared at him.

“Because some of us,” he said pointedly, “are takin’ this peace treaty seriously. There’s a lot more ridin’ on this than you know, and it’s to all of our benefits that you understand that I am not the enemy here.” Silence rang out after he said that, tension thick in the room before Polynn stood up again. Trying to pretend she wasn’t shaking badly, she dusted the front of her skirt off and took a deep breath.

“Ok.” She said, strolling back to her chair and sitting primly in it. As she did so, some of the others turned back to their own computers, and the boy who had been trying to antagonize Sollux was successfully pulled down by his friend again. “Ok. We’ll believe you, Es…Sollux.”

Sollux opened his own laptop, feeling something sinking in his gut. The noise level of the room slowly, awkwardly, picked up again, small quips and laughs as the yellows teased each other over whatever stupid shit they were doing on the computer, but Sollux still couldn’t feel at ease at all. It felt performative, in a way, the air still tense and thick, and he felt more alone in the room full of yellows than he’d ever been in his room in the castle at all; despite the apparent, outward acceptance of his presence in their control room, Sollux couldn’t help but feel like he’d somehow managed to make everything worse instead of better.

—

When he finally managed to crack the code to the door, one extremely late night when no one happened to be around, Sollux wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting from what actually lay behind it; an extremely well-protected storage room, perhaps, or maybe a secondary control room that was full of yellows that never saw the light of day and were currently still creating plots to move the war forward somehow. Instead, a dark hallway loomed behind it, fading to black the further back it went, and Sollux had no clue how long the hallway was. His heart started racing in his chest, and Sollux debated for a brief moment before making the decision to step into the hallway. He pulled the door shut behind him, almost automatically, and hissed through his teeth when the action meant that he enveloped himself in an all-encompassing pitch darkness without meaning to.

Curiosity drove him forward in spite of his onset trepidation, though Sollux would only ever admit to AA how long he’d hesitated before pressing onwards. His footsteps echoed in the quiet, and he sort of wished he’d brought a light to help him see. He didn’t have any sort of special vision to help him see in the dark, not like Nepeta did naturally or Vriska did because of her new eye, and Sollux regretted leaving impulsively the way he had because he didn’t even have his phone on him or anything.

There was nothing for it now, though, so Sollux pressed onwards without stopping.

It wasn’t until Sollux was halfway down the hidden hallway itself that he realized what it was he was humming — and that was mainly because he’d started singing out loud to alleviate some of the anxiety building up in him, letting the quiet sound of his voice echo a little around him. He pressed his lips shut at the realization, yellow flooding his cheeks as he cut off the lines to that stupid pirate song ED had been teaching him, the one from the Veil. Feeling his cheeks warm unnecessarily, Sollux tried to keep walking in the silence only for the lack of sound to start unnerving him a lot more. There wasn’t anyone with him, but the hallway was dark and he could barely see even now, and it was beginning to feel like there was someone creeping along with him in the quiet.

He gave in.

“Somewhere in the endless sky, stormy winds are blowin’ by,” he muttered to himself as he pressed forward, keeping his hand on the wall to make sure he kept straight, “waves are dancin’, evenin’ comes, it’s time to sound the drums. But steady men may never fear,” something scraped on the stone floor beneath him and Sollux’s breath caught; he couldn’t tell if the sound was coming from ahead of him or behind him, and he wasn’t entirely sure which was worse. He took a deep breath, continuing the song under his breath as he did so. “Tomorrow’s skies are always clear, so pound your feet an’ clap your hands til sunny days return.”

It was a little stupid how calming the song was, how repeating it quietly gave him the courage to keep going until he nearly ran into a dead end, which threw him off more than anything else. It felt like he’d been walking forever, and the hallway leading nowhere made no sense considering how long it took to get himself through. He ran his hands along the side of the wall in confusion, irritation starting to bubble up as the stone felt the same it had the entire walk down; it wasn’t until he out his hands in front of him that the texture felt different, off somehow, and the irritation was snuffed out in favor of more confusion.

The wall in front of him moving and letting in more light than Sollux was anticipating didn’t help the confusion, and Sollux dropped down into a squat to hide his face. Spots dotted his vision, growing smaller the longer he kept his head down, and he swayed a little from the exhaustion he was just now feeling. His head felt a little light, his stomach rolling a little, but the spots faded gradually and Sollux let himself rest a moment longer before forcing himself up again. The door — it couldn’t be anything other than a door at this point — in front of him wasn’t even fully opened yet, and Sollux pushed it open. He sort of fully expected something familiar, something on Alternian soil or at the castle, though he couldn’t say for sure how long he’d been walking or even if he was even in the same place he’d been before.

As what looked like mid afternoon sunlight streamed down on him, it became painfully obvious that he was no longer on Alternian soil.

He was not expecting the door to open into a field that looked familiar, though he’d never been there before in his life. Sollux froze a little, blinking at the tall grass bending in the slight breeze, and felt his chest go cold. Something in him was holding him in place, almost begging to not go out there, but he hadn’t come all this way for nothing. There was a faint echo in his mind, a trace of some long forgotten horrorterror, and Sollux forced himself forward on trembling legs.

Shaking almost violently, feeling completely sick to his stomach, Sollux squinted in the sun as he pushed the door open a bit more and stepped into the doorway.

The field was vast, wider than he’d been expecting and fully green with long grass that came up to his knees. To the right was rolling fields, with nothing in the distance that Sollux could see. To his left was forest, thick and dense and covering the majority of the space around him. Though it wasn’t a completely perfect match to the field he’d been having horrorterrors about since coming to Alternia, it was close enough that Sollux could almost hear the phantom screams echoing in the air, almost smell the smoke that burned at his lungs in his dreams. His breath trembled almost as much as his legs did, and Sollux leaned heavily on the doorway to prevent himself from falling. He wanted desperately to do out into the field, see if any of what he’d dreamt about before sharing a bed space with ED had been true in any way, but he couldn’t make himself step out into the meadow at all.

Instead, heart pounding and head aching, Sollux stumbled back into the hallway and nearly ran the entire length of it back to the castle.