Be You: You were far too busy to even think about arguing that at the time. After all, today was the day. You couldn't avoid it any longer. He couldn't avoid it any longer. Though you knew you couldn't take Sollux's word as absolute, though you still felt a tinge of distrust to both of their words. But you needed to set the record straight, to finally know the truth. You had messaged Eridan just that morning, you told him nothing other than that you'd like to meet. It made you feel a bit bad, leaving him hanging like that. But you had a mission, and that was your only mode and mindset. Though, you wanted to avoid a full confrontation, there was likely little way to do this without triggering it. You wandered along the streets, meandering along, glancing at every rock and managing to kick one down the sidewalk for quite a ways, before it took a trip into the street, greeted by a set of tires as it was run over. Another sign escaped you, as you rubbed your left shoulder with your right hand. There was no escaping it, anxiety crept over you, causing you to shudder and grow uncomfortable. It was almost time to meet him. You retrieved your phone: 7:12, it read, you placed it back in its designated pocket. The windswept hair flew along with the breeze, there was a storm coming. Both a physical and personal storm. Dark clouds approached the sea shore and threatened the docking bay near the boardwalk. There wasn't any way to do this without confrontation. You still had no idea what would become of the two of you.
You hadn't even eaten before you arrived. You feared the nausea would only cause you to unwillingly regurgitate the meal. You made your last few paces up to Eridan's doorstep. Your hand reached out to knock, but lowered along with your eyes. 'Would he even tell me the truth?' With an unusual sense of determination, your narrowed eyes met the door, knocking three times. You expected Eridan to answer but you were greeted with another fishboy, a rather confused expression written on his face. 'He looks like he crawled out of Grease'
"Man, wve nevwer havwe guests..Are you sure you-?" He looked you up and down, his expression changing as he leaned onto the door frame, evaluating your figure, causing you tense up. "Hey there, girly?" 'Is he hitting on me?!' You inched away slightly.
"Cro, wwho is- (Name)!" Though you couldn't see Eridan from where you were standing, from the sounds of it, he could see you. Eridan pushed the other out of the way and inside, closing the door behind him. "S-sorry, that was my brother, Cro. Wwell, Cronus, but y'know.." He trailed off, pressing his two index fingers together, as you'd seen him do a few times before. You noticed his hands return to his sides, your eyes meeting his once again. "So, you wwanted to talk?" He questioned, remembering your earlier message.
"Oh, yeah.. Well, I wanted to talk to you about something..." Your tone left him a little unsettled. He knew, whatever you wanted to talk about, it wasn't any joke. But you took his hand and led him down to the beach. You sat down, grains of sand sliding over your fingers as you watched as he did the same, but he never took his eyes off of you, holding a face on definite concern. "Eridan, I.. I've wanted talk to you about something for a little while but...."
Be Eridan: You hadn't the time to even bother arguing your consciousness. You had known something like this was bound to happen, and yet, you kept up the foolish hope that she wouldn't find out or even ask. But you weren't going to lie to her. How could you lie to her? She was too important to you. You couldn't bear to do it. She meant too much. You took a deep breath and let out a long sigh.
"Listen, (Name)... I..I knoww wwhat you're goin to ask.."
She looked up at you, a deep worry in her eyes, " Y-you do?"
You took another breath before speaking, breaking eye contact for only a second, "Yeah, and... I wwant you to knoww that it's true. I did try to cull Fef and Sol..." She looked shaken, and now slightly timid in your presence. You could feel your heart sink as she looked away, you knew she was facing conflict.
"T-there's one more thing though.." She still had yet to look at you again.
"Wwhat is it?"
"Feferi. You still like her, don't you?" She held herself, you could tell she was father away than before, not only physically, but emotionally too. You didn't know how to answer her question. You admit, you still had lingering feelings but you liked her too. Your eyes broke from her, eyes looking to the floor, ticking back and forth as you made an attempt to compile an answer. Fef was such a big part of your life before, she was just so hard to forget. (Name) even reminded you of Fef sometimes. You had yet to completely move on.
Be You: At this point, you'd become accustomed to having your existence oddly pointed out to you. So, you weren't even fazed when it was brought up again. However, you were surprised at his answer.
"Y-yes." He answered definitively, "I-I still havve feelins for Fef..." You bit your lower lip, turning your head away from him. You were curled at this point, attempting to conceal your quiet weeping. You had hoped it wasn't true. But, what Sollux told you, was correct. "But, please, (Name), I can explain-" "What's to explain?" You turned away, standing up to leave him on the beach. In all honesty, you were startled by your own reply. You knew getting defensive wasn't going to fix anything but how else were you supposed to act? You were hurt, he knew it as well as you.
"(Name) wwait!" You could hear his footsteps approach you, you still keeping your back to him.
You took a deep breath, trying to conceal the tears that threatened to show, "Y-you still have feelings for her..even though you tried to kill both her and Sollux"
"N-no...please, just listen.. it's not like that anymore!" Eridan grabbed lightly at your elbows, turning you around to see him. Your quivering eyes met his, neither of you breaking the gaze. He slowly released your arms, letting out a heavy sigh before explaining, "Y-yes I still havve feelins for her but it's only because wwe greww up together.. I had felt that wway for a wwhile and those kinds of things are hard to let go.." He hung his head a little, feeling hopeless, "And I knoww that nothin' wwill change wwith just wwords but.."
"Eridan.." You lightly reached over, pulling his fingers into yours, "I just..I don't know how to feel right now.."
He looked up, the faint glow of pleading in his eyes, "I'm sorry." His words shook you a little, hearing the sincerity of them, "Since Fef left and evverythin' wwent dowwnhill, I thought I could livve on my owwn. I din't care wwho entered or left my life. But..." He paused, his other hand reaching up to brush your shuffled hair away from your face, never breaking eye contact, "Evver since I met you, you'vve been a part of my evveryday life. It alwways felt strange if I didn't talk to you that day. I felt the need to see you all the time. Evvery time wwe wwere together, I wwanted each moment to last for an eternity."
"Now you're just saying things.." You looked away, afraid you'd have your senses overwhelmed by him.
"No. I wwouldn't lie to you.." The distance between the two of you closed as he wrapped you in his embrace, you clutched onto his sweater, letting out the faintest of weeps. It was the only thing you could think to do, you knew he meant it and you knew you wanted to be angry with him but... you simply couldn't. He pulled away from you, the both of you bringing your foreheads together as he placed both of his hands on either side of your face. He let out a low sigh, "I don't know if this wwhole thing wwill wwork, but I couldn't possibly be the same if you wweren't in my life."
You turned your head, leaning in to give him a small, sweet kiss.
--
Ayyy so I've been abset for a while, huh? Worry not, dear children! I will write more in the up coming weeks (minus finals week cause jfc) but it will not NEARLY take as long to update as this whole fiasco.I hope that chapter title didn't scare you too much. Also, I have thank you all for your great patience in this endeavor to actually write this chapter. And I thank you again for all of the support and encouragement that I received! You are all so amazing! Those of you that have been following the story for a little while, you may have gotten an update notification for the chapter "A Disturbance" that's because for a reason I have yet to figure out, wattpad deleted nearly the whole chapter so I needed to rewrite the whole damn thing.
For those of you who are reading long after this chapter comes out, feel very lucky.
This is SpacedOutN7, signing off.
