One Plus One Equals Three (Erisol fanfic)

Chapter 18

            When Sollux got back to his hive he wasn't really sure what he was expecting to find. The purple blood just outside his door, too dark to belong to his matesprit, left an unsettling feeling in his gut. He stepped inside and did a quick visual inspection of the living room. Nothing appeared out of place and it was quiet.

"Eridan?" he called out in apprehension. He didn't know if his quadrant mate was injured or not but the thought crossed his mind that if he was Gamzee was going to wish he was dead if he wasn't already. Sollux took a few more steps further into the living room and picked up on Eridan's scent. He should have figured the sea troll retreated back to the nursery out of fear for the eggs.

He found Eridan stationed next to the eggs in their pool of water with his gun beside him. He looked visibly shaken and the second he noticed Sollux in the doorway he let himself crumble.

"Thank cod you're here," Eridan choked back a sob. "I didn't know what to do! It all happened so fast-"

"What happened? Where ith GZ?" Sollux questioned and entered the room to check over the eggs for confirmation that they were okay. As soon as he was satisfied that they were all unharmed he moved on to sit down on the floor beside Eridan to make sure he wasn't hurt. He took both of Eridan's ringed hands in his own and inspected them for blood as the Aquarius spoke.

"I don't know where he is. Fuck, I don't know where he is! The last thing he said to me was 'you're goin' to regret this, motherfucker.' He wasn't outside when you got here?" he asked worriedly.

"He wathn't. Hith blood wath," Sollux stated and let go of his matesprit's hands in favor of running his fingers through his two-toned hair soothingly. "Why wath he here?"

"He was lookin' for you apparently," Eridan said beginning to calm down and lean into Sollux's touch.

"Me? Why?"

"Said it was some sort of computer issue that he wanted to get your opinion on. I told him you weren't home and that seemed to be that. He was about to leave when I think he caught a whiff a' the eggs or somethin'. He started goin' on about how it wasn't right for us to be hidin' miracles in our hive," the sea troll paused to take a deep breath. "He got like that at Rezi's wrigglin' day party. It's like he gets to lookin' at ya' like a' piece a' meat. There must be somethin' about the smell of the eggs that makes him want to destroy 'em."

"He tried to go after them?" the Gemini asked in surprise.

"He tried to get into the hive," Eridan said clearly reliving his experience in his mind. "I couldn't think about anythin' except makin' sure he didn't get to 'em. I just grabbed my gun an' shot him before he could make it passed the door. That's when I slammed the door shut an' locked it. I heard him say that last bit through the door."

"Did you get hurt?" Sollux asked finally. Eridan pulled up one of his sleeves to reveal two long scratches. They weren't very deep but they had been enough to draw blood to the surface.

"It's fine. Just stings a bit," Eridan explained. "What do you think he meant by sayin' I'll regret this? What's he goin' to do?"

"I don't know," Sollux sighed and wrapped an arm around the other troll to bring him close. "I really don't like the idea of having to look out for the droneth and now him too."

"How'd it go at Kar's place?" Eridan asked and reached over to brush his fingers over the shells of the eggs.

"It went pretty good. They know about thethe guyth now," Sollux answered looking over at the rock colored eggs Eridan was touching. The violet blood froze and looked back over at Sollux. "It'th fine. KK didn't believe me at first though. I wath going to bring them all over before they went off to the caveth for hiding but when I got that methage from you they went on ahead."