Fragile scales (Aquariumstuck Erisol!)

Chapter 25 Mother

|Music: Lontalius - sleep thru your alarms|

Another day, another game of hide and go seek that involved plenty of fun for Eridan, however for Sollux, being the seeker resulted in quite a lot of repetitive racing from one end of the tank to the other. His lucky matesprite was able to swim and with his years of honed experience that was as simple as instinct. God he loved that precious sassy little bastard. Aggressive words but full to bursting with the desire to pinch his cheeks and pull his fins and kiss him until he was purple as a perfectly ripe plum. "Ah! II 2aw you! Get back here!" Sollux demanded seeing the familiar tail fin peeking out from behind a tall wide pillar of coral and rock. Letting out a huff when he saw it whip out of sight. "Hey! That'2 not faiir! II 2aw that taiil, you better get your a22 out here Eriidan II 2wear to-GAH!" Just as Sollux went skulking around the side if the tank, his eyes were snapped away from their search and startled by the towering sight of seadweller that was most certainly not his mate and nowhere near friendly. Backing up more than a few feet, arms and hands at his side, small beads of sweat gathering on his skin. His chest sucked in as if the frightening creature before him had sucked up all the oxygen in the room, demanding his absolute attention. His eyes growing to the size of the moon behind his dual colored shades. "The young Captor." A sultry voice flowed out from between the inhumanely terrifying and yet beautiful creatures lips. Dualscar was and continued to be the thing that scared the majority of their staff half to death.

What with the way he looked at humans as mere play things. Using his primal hunting instinct to spook and startle whenever he pleased, just a little something he did when he got bored. Call it a form of play. He figured he deserved to have a little fun if he had to listen to that loud mouth banter with the security guard while on duty.  Thankfully Dualscar's attention was turned to the disturbance in the waters movement behind him, whipping around he caught the metal pole in the trap of his immeasurably strong jaws, crushing and denting it until it became too week to stay together against the forceful side to side thrashing and jerking of his head in an attempt to tare it apart. On the end of the slim metal pole was a syringe that'd been attached with elastic. From the looks of it, it was a device used to sedate an animal without getting too close to it. From the remnants of the pole? It was likely necessary.

Rufio groaned loudly in defeat and tossed the other end of the pole on the ground. "oh come on! that's the TH1RD one th1s week!!!" He raged, slamming his fist down on the edge of the tank as he stood on a ladder, having attempted to angle the sedative down to inject into the evasive creature. Looks like it was back to the drawing board for him. Sollux all the while took the advantage to scramble out of sight as quickly as possible. Being discreet as he escaped out to the lobby full of large tall spiraling fish tanks, he would return later and apologise to his mate but for now he was trying to stay out of range of Dualscar. He had no interest in speaking to him and clearly he had something he wanted to say. Best thing to do was to avoid it at all costs.

There was so little that he understood of the society his matesprit had been born into, and there was very little he understood of his own society. He knew one thing, his own mortality. However he had yet to think deeper. Seeing those thoughts as a tempting ripe fruit hanging from the flourishing sprout of his life. Fruit that he would pick, inspect, only to turn it and find the black moldy spotting in the skin. Right where he couldn't see it beforehand. His mother for one. His flesh and blood mother. Sollux's memories of the woman we're vague, as if he were looking at her through a smeared wet rain speckled window. Who did not know what their own mother looked like? Even then, he could not remember any features she had bequeathed to him nor his brother, though what she had done to his father was still very vivid in his mind. Three years before the divorce he had begun to recognize the bags under his father's eyes for the very first time. As a thirteen year old at the time he was surprised he wasn't more observant of his parents marriage.

Sollux could still pick out the detail in such memories. Each pulsating red vein running through the white of his father's eyes from the nights he had gone sleepless and the tears that made his lips quiver every time they parted to speak. The grey in his charcoal black hair at the age of thirty-four, the loss of weight in his arms and face, fingers slender and laced together. Knuckles pressed to his pale lips, knees apart to support his elbows where he sat hunched over on that old blue sofa they used to own. Hearing him take shallow breaths he hardly had the energy for. For his father, even breathing had become tiring. Sollux could see every which way that this woman and their marriage had affected this poor man. He witnessed enough arguments to know that his father was innocent. The smallest things would set that woman off, every attempt her husband made at fixing their marriage was shut down. This man was laid so low, spending years trying to figure out where things had gone wrong, why she was all of a sudden so hostile. Trying to fix it when he didn't have a clue what needed to be fixed.

By now Sollux could point out all the obvious problems. There was a severe lack of communication on his mother's part, to the point that if his father pressed the slightest she would lay hands on him. Spiral out of control into a fit of harsh verbal and physical abuse. His father of course responded to this as a coward. Taking her abuse and leaving every confrontation at that. According to him, his mother hadn't always been that way, and he could remember a time when she was around that things were....moderately stable. Enough that he could tune out their small arguments. All the while his father ran in circles like a chicken without a head until he could run no more. Towards the end, his mother neglected to even pay attention to him or his brother aside from the occasional hateful gaze.

The last he had mentioned her, his father seemed to go eerily still, as if the mere thought of the woman was deeply troubling in his mind. He didn't hold it against him, didn't think him cowardly, not after witnessing the compulsive lying, manipulation, emotional abuse, verbal abuse, and physical abuse he received from her. He didn't even know why his father stuck around for those last three years and he refused to speak of them, as if they didn't exist, like they were a blip in their timeline. But if he had to guess, he stayed due to the self loathing and self hatred she had inflicted on him. To the point he felt so pathetic he was manipulated into thinking she was all he had, and that he was too broken to be wanted or loved by any other, even his children who she had told him to his face, thought he was a cowardly bastard.

In hindsight, he was glad she was gone. He had been taught to never dare put his hands on a woman but the way she attacked his father, he was just as glad he hadn't been old enough to go toe to toe with her at the time though he was tempted to now. He wouldn't dare touch her, the thought of it disgusted him, made him shudder to his very core. However he would give her one hell of a tongue lashing. Call her out for all the horrible things she was, call her out for trying to lie and hide it, call her out for trying to blame everyone else but herself.

The sight of his father in that state still shook him to the bone. Maybe it's because he felt like she got away with it, walked off without the charges of the abuse she inflicted on her partner. To see years later how even saying her name rendered his father to lock up and knock his breathing out of pace, heart beating like the wings of a hummingbird. It showed him the extent of what being a rotten bitch can do to those who love you. Normally he would say something more poetic but she wasn't worth the energy.

But even maybe. Maybe, his father had stayed and gave so much effort where she hadn't, because he loved her. To sit through that abuse because you love and want to help someone? Well, he must of loved her and her selfish heart or rather heartless, until he himself had become selfish. To himself and to his children who were forced to witness their family photo frames become shatter at the hands of their fiendish cold monster of a mother.

He still didn't understand it, how could you love, someone and something so evil?

(Woop woop eyyyyyyyy aighty folks I'm sorry this took so long((aka like a month.....and two years :1)), between playing video games and giving my boyfriend attention it's hard to balance writing. My new favorite thing right now is honestly listening to my hubby angrily shout at his asshole cat in Russian. It's the highlight of my day. Feel free to let me know what you thought of this chapter and what you think of Sollux's abusive mother. MWUAHAHAHA >:3 Hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things soon but I hope you guys enjoy this!!!!! :3 :3 :3 :3 :3)