Highkey Dodgy :Erisol:

Chapter 9: Friday (Act Three)

They ended up at a convenience store on the edge of town, buying sodas and junk food as Eridan wrinkled his nose. Both were carefully avoiding the subject of the failed family dinner, focusing instead on getting comfy on the bonnet of Eridans car and, in Sollux's case, playing a trick on Eridan.

"Tho you've theriouthly never had thoda bethideth when we went to Mcdonaldth?" Sol asked incredulously, passing Eridan a can of coke and taking one for himself. Eridan looked down at the can and scrunched up his face.

"Not that I know-w of. I've definitely newer had it in a can like this.."

"Well, alright, hereth a trick. When you drink it in a can, you wanna thhake it ath much ath you can before you open it."

Eridan looked over to Sollux grinning lopsidedly, and raised an eyebrow. "Shake it."

"Thhake it like itth what your mama gave ya."

"I dont think I should really trust you on that."

"Jutht do it! It maketh it tathte way better."

Frowning sceptically, Eridan followed the instructions anyway and shook the soda can vigorously, Sollux's mischievous grin widening as he did so. "I still dont trust this, So- JESUS FUCK!"

Obviously, when Eridan cracked open the soda can, the pressurised contents exploded everywhere, sending carbonated drink all over the smaller teen, soaking his clothes and face, not to mention making his hair sticky. Sollux burst out in a fit of laughter, evil giggles taking him over at the sight of Eridan dripping with cola, staring at the can with a look of blatant betrayal. The brunet began to shake, and Sollux thought nothing of it, assuming Eridan was laughing along with the joke, because that was a prank on Egbert levels.

When he stopped laughing, though, he could hear quiet sobs coming from Eridans trembling frame, and it wasn't long before the smaller teen dropped the half-empty can and put his head in his hands, breaking out into broken sobs that immediately made Sol panic.

"Thhit, jethuth, ED I'm thorry, I didnt... fuck!" Sol placed a hand on Eridans back, attempting to comfort him, even as Eridan curled into himself. He didnt know exactly why he was crying, he just knew that something had triggered inside of him, something had snapped, and now he was breaking, like he had been shaken up all night and now he was exploding like the can, sending emotions and familial issues everywhere.

Instinctively, automatically, Eridan turned towards Sol and buried his head into Sollux's side, wrapping soda-soaked arms around Sollux's thin frame and crying into his side, ignoring the thinner males small protests against the sticky cola-flavoured hug. Before long, Sol was wrapping his arms around Eridan in response, rubbing soothing circles into his back as he allowed Eridan to cry himself into hiccups and, eventually, calm down.

"You want to talk about it?" Sol asked once Eridan was quiet, and the latter nodded, head still buried in Sollux's chest, before extracting himself from the sticky embrace and rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands. Eridan took a deep breath, shuddered, and decided - yes. After over a decade of relentless torture and hiding his feelings, he was finally ready to talk about it.

"So, if you hadn't guessed, I'm transgender." Eridan began cautiously, scanning Sollux's reaction, but the taller male remained silent and scarily blank. "My... my family aren't the greatest. I'm not wery proud a them."

"I wouldn't be either," Sol murmured in solidarity.

"They like to spend their time tellin me w-what a failure I am, and yeah, all these bruises w-were from them. Sorry I lied to you about it."

"I figured they were. No offenthe taken."

"It's father w-who prefers usin wiolence, mother prefers werbally puttin me dow-wn. But.. thats not really important, I suppose. I'm.. not really sure how-w I'm meant to go about tellin you all this."