Becoming Truly Happy :Erisol:

Chapter 7

The next day at lunch, Dave and Eridan were perfectly content to chat in a corner of the table together, laughing away without a care, while Sollux and Karkat whispered concernedly down the other end of the table. The others sat between them awkwardly, glancing from pair to pair, but there was notably one empty space - Rose had disappeared somewhere.

"Okay, okay, okay, get this," Dave chuckled, a wide smirk on his face. Eridan stifled a giggle. "This fuckin bitch, alright, literally had no filter. Like. What a hoe? She came up to me, and was like," and here he put on a ridiculously high voice that made Eridan snort into his hands, "Excuse me young man, but I saw you kiss that boy over there, and I'd like you to know that I think you're going to hell."

Eridan could hardly pull himself together enough to reply. "It's true, I w-was the," a snort, "I w-was the hell."

"Shut up dude, I'm telling a story here, god. So I'm staring at this ratch-ass suburban mom, right? And just sorta, yknow, flick down my shades? And like, she freaks out, devil child, spawn of satan, heard it all before, and like fuckin runs away before I even get a chance to deliver some witty one liner and make everyone applaud and get a shit ton of notes and reblogs on tumblr." Dave slammed a hand down on the table, his smirk turning into a wide grin at the tears forming in Eridans eyes as his body shook from laughing. "I'm fuckin pissed! I need more followers! Validate me, god damn it!"

"That newer happened, Dawe. Shut your mouth."

"I'm hurt and offended that you dont believe me, Eridan. I thought we had a connection. I'm sick of all these lies."

"I'm sick of all these fake-ass tumblr stories. You made that up for notes."

"I sure did!"

They dissolved into chortling again, Eridan feeling free as a bird. Dave was maybe one of the only people besides Sollux who made him feel so unrestrainedly happy, and he was enjoying every second. Was this what positive friendships felt like?

Speaking of Sollux, he was down the other end of the table conversing quietly and much less jovially with Daves boyfriend.

"Tho, you think theyre gonna be alright?" he asked, watching Eridan snicker and giggle and feeling his cheeks flush slightly. God, he was so cute.

Karkat nodded decisively. "We'll anonymously tip off the cops, and Eridan will be fine. Look at him. Hes having fun! With Dave, no less. Never thought that'd be a particularly close friendship." He turned to Sollux with a scowl. "They messaged me loads on tumblr last night, pretending to be some of you guys. It was fucking annoying."

Sollux smiled rather wistfully, eyes still trained on Eridans face, now full-on crying with laughter. The sight stirred something in his chest, pulled his lips into a dopey smile, crinkled the corner of his eyes, and Karkat poked his cheek rather violently.

"Hey, fuckface. You in there?"

"Look at how happy they are," Sollux whispered in return, and Karkat turned to see. Despite Jade and Johns conversing heads in the way, Sol and Karkat had almost entirely clear views to their respective boyfriends, and for a few minutes just sat and watched them talk and laugh, similar loved-up expressions on their faces. After a moment, John and Jade noticed, twisting round to talk to them and leave Dave and Eridan to their laughter.

"You guys are so in love," John commented, batting his eyelashes jokingly. Karkat reached out and smacked him lightly around the head, just hard enough to warrant a joking hey! and John rubbing his head with a playful glare.

"It's adorable!" Jade added, green eyes sparkling. "For a while I thought Dave would never find love."

Dave paused in his rambling for a second to glare ineffectually from behind his shades. "I fucking heard that, Harley!" he yelled playfully at her turned back, and she twisted around to blow him a kiss, which he caught and immediately threw on the floor. She stuck her tongue out and swivelled back round, Dave immediately jumping back into his tirade about something or other. Something about weeaboos and Club Penguin.