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“Fef,” Sollux said, entering her respiteblock, and he groaned when he noticed Eridan sitting alone on one of the many cushions dotting the room. “Oh god, not you.”
Eridan bristled. “Hey finless, why don’t you try knockin’ when you enter your master’s respiteblock? This is the domain’a royalty, not a lounge for mustardblooded pets.”
“Fef!” Sollux called. He heard her answer from deep within her closet, and he grimaced.
“She’s busy, dumbass. Or can’t you tell? What with that mutant brain’a yours, maybe it’s too much for you to process.”
Sollux scowled, a few sparks jittering out from underneath his glasses and across his face. Eridan smirked and stood, taking a stance.
“Sollux?” Feferi called, popping her head out of the closet. Instantly recognizing the situation, she rushed into the room, putting herself between them. “Eridan, do you really have to provoke him every time he comes by?” she asked, exasperated.
“What an monstrous accusation! I was just mindin’ my own business.”
“Oh, fuck that noithe,” Sollux snapped. “That’th a sthameleth lie and everyone here knowth it!”
“You’d best start learnin’ your place soon, or I’ll be usin’ your mustard blood as a condiment!”
“God, I don’t have the energy for thith. Fef, can you make him go away? I have to talk to you about sthomething important.”
“How dare you—!” Eridan started, but Feferi quickly shushed him.
“Eridan, please, give us a moment.”
He scowled. “You always take his side!” he said.
“Eridan, don’t start this. I don’t always take his side,” Feferi said, sighing.
Eridan’s scowl faded into a pout. “You do! You waste all your red feelings on him. What about me, Fef? I’m your moirail, aren’t I? Don’t I get some pity sometimes?”
“You get pity all the time, but it’th not the red kind,” Sollux said with a snicker. Eridan flared up and was about to retort, but Feferi darted over to him and pulled him into a hug.
“We’ve been hanging out all afternoon, Eridan,” she said, breaking the hug. “Don’t you think you can salmon the civility to let me talk privately with Sollux for a little whale?”
“...Fine,” he relented, pouting again. “Can I come back in an hour?”
She looked over her shoulder at Sollux, who groaned. “Two hourth,” he said.
“Of course. Two. I should’ve guessed,” Eridan grumbled. Crossing his arms and exhaling with a huff, he strutted past Feferi and exited, closing the door more forcefully than necessary.
“I hate him stho damn much,” Sollux muttered as Feferi rubbed her temples.
“I wish you would at least try to ignore him."
“I do try!” he insisted. “He’th jutht too much of an athhole. Seriouthly, I am up to my bulge in all the sthit that cometh out of hith mouth every time I sthee him, if I let him keep talking I sthwear to god I’ll drown in it.”
She grimaced. “I know...he can be glubbing difficult sometimes.”
“Whatever. I didn’t come here to talk about him.”
“Is somefin wrong?” she asked.
“Not egthactly. I wath talking to Aradia. Sthe wanth me to join them.”
“Join...them?” Feferi asked, her curiosity piqued. “Who? Doing what?”
“Karkat and Kanaya and sthome other people. They’re going to do sthome sthort of hemothpectrum rebellion or sthomething, except it'th not happening yet and I'm not sthupposed to sthay anything about it to Kk for sthome reathon.”
“Really?” she asked, growing excited. “Sollux, that sounds so exciting! What sort of things are you going to do?”
“You would think that’th ecthiting,” he said, smirking. “I don’t know yet what’th up. It sthoundth like Aradia’th got sthomething in mind, but sthe wouldn’t sthay much. Sthe wath being sthpooky again, you know how sthe can get sthometimeth.”
“Yes, of course! But,” she said, becoming more serious, “that would mean you would have to leave, right?”
“Yeah, that’th what that would mean,” he said.
“Whale, Sollux, I think it’s a fintastic idea, and if it’s what you want to do, then I’ll support you!”
He grimaced. “I don’t know if it’th what I want to do, though,” he said. “I’m jutht getting a bad feeling about the whole thing.”
“Is it the voices?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he said. “They’re faint, stho whatever it ith, it’th still far off, but I already know it’th going to be huge. I don’t know if thith thing Aradia’th putting together hath anything to do with it, but I don’t like it.”
“Maybe Aradia’s trying to stop it,” she suggested.
“Maybe,” he said, but he didn’t sound convinced.
“If that’s the case, Sollux, maybe it is best for you to help them...”
He thought for a moment, grimacing, and then he finally agreed, “Yeah, maybe it ith.”
“And I’ll help you in any way I can!” she said.
“Wait, Ff, listhen,” he said, putting his hands on her shoulders, “thith hath to be kept sthecret, okay? You can’t be walking around talking about it and sthending uth sthtuff or anything like that. It’th a fucking rebellion for fuck’th sthake, okay, you have to keep it on the down-low. Esthpethially,” and he looked at her over his glasses for emphasis, “from your doucthebag moirail.”
“Of course! Did you really think I would tell him about somefin like that? He’d take it as a glubbing challenge,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I don’t know what to do with him sometimes, Sollux. It’s like babysitting a shark!”
“I honethtly don’t know how you do it,” he said, offering her a small smile. “But think about it, now you have your own little way of sthabotaging him. Every time he giveth you sthit you can think about uth and how we’re fighting againtht his hemophobic genocthidal bullsthit.”
She smiled back, the excitement returning to her eyes. “That’s right!” She laughed. “Sollux, this is so exciting!”
“Yeah, I gueth it sthort of ith,” he agreed, his smile extending into a grin. “You’ve convinthed me. I think I’m gonna do it. But that’th meanth I’ll have to leave sthoon.”
“Then we’re going to have to make the next few days count, won’t we?” she said, looking at him from beneath her eyelashes. He smirked.
“I gueth that’th egthactly what that meanth,” he replied, wrapping his hands around her waist. She giggled as he pulled her into a kiss.