Highkey Dodgy :Erisol:

Chapter 4: Wednesday (Act One)

When Eridan dumped his tray of rubber cafeteria food on the table the next day, he was greeted with disbelieving stares from Karkat and oh yeah, those others that Sollux had momentarily pushed out of his mind.

"Don't tell me you got mugged again," Rose said smoothly, holding a cup of what looked suspiciously like red wine, but Eridan doubted anyone except Feferi could risk bringing alcohol into school.

Eridan touched his face and winced. It was a lot worse than it had been the day before - puffed up black eye, split lip, a cut above his eyebrow that had soaked his eyebrow in blood the night before (that was fun to clean) plus the bruise on his cheek significantly worsened.

"No, I w-wasnt mugged again," he admitted, sitting down heavily. Karkat glared at him in clear anger, but if Eridan pretended, he could maybe see a hint of concern in his eyes.

"So what happened?" John asked, reaching out to gently brush his fingers against the swollen flesh on Eridans face, causing him to flinch and recoil.

"Um..."

Eridan was saved from having to answer by footsteps approaching the table from behind, and he prepared to flinch, anticipating Feferi. Instead, the footsteps stopped and yes, slid in between him and Karkat, but when Eridan looked up he was met with a smirking toothy grin and differently-coloured eyes masked by 3D glasses.

"SO glad you've decided to grace us with your presence, Captor," Karkat said grumpily, but Eridan could definitely hear a pleased tone underneath his discontent. The others all murmured hellos, and Sollux raised a hand in greeting.

"Everyone, this is Captor. Sollux Captor. Hes the hermit that hangs out in the computer labs and never interacts with fucking anyone." the tiny ginger continued, turning to scowl at Sollux, but he was too busy frowning at the new bruises on Eridans face, who was trying to focus on poking around his lunch.

"What happened?" he muttered, in a tone so low it sent sparks along every one of Eridans nerves, and he shrugged awkwardly, deliberately not looking at Sollux and prodding at the miscellaneous mass on his tray with a fork.

"If youre not gonna eat that then I'll have it, Eridan!" Jade announced cheerfully from across the table, and Eridan shrugged again.

"Yeah, I'm not hungry," he said, but his stomach chose that exact moment to betray him and let out a grumble that probably shook the floor.

"Sounds like you fuckin are, dude," Dave commented, and they all nodded in agreement. Eridan bit his lip and shook his head, but in truth he couldn't remember the last time he had eaten. Monday morning maybe? That afternoon he had been swimming, no breakfast Tuesday, cafeteria food was gross, was at Sollux's all day and then got beat up... yeah, Monday morning was a pretty fair guess. Speaking of swimming, he really wanted to go back there soon. It had only been like a day, but he already missed it.

"I'll eat w-when I get home today or somethin. Cafeteria food is gross anyw-way," he muttered noncommittally, but felt Sollux nudge his ribs - making him wince, those were pretty bruised as well - and looked to see him mouthing something, which just made Eridan pull his eyebrows together in confusion.

Scowling, Sollux basically pressed his lips right up against Eridans ear, making the smaller teen freeze up and probably turn bright red, if the heat on his face had anything to say about it.

"I thought you were coming to mine today?" he hissed, 3D glasses clanking awkwardly against the side of Eridans head, and it took the latter a few moments to compose himself and stop stuttering to respond.

"I'll hawe somethin after that," he hissed back, but Sollux just blinked at him, all wide-eyed and innocent, so he frowned and grabbed Sollux's ear to whisper in that as well.