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It’s quiet in the gaming room today. You’re curled up in a blanket or three— or maybe four? Your cape might also be somewhere in here— with your controller held out in your lap. Nobody has come in to bother you since you arrived, so you’ve gotten a few hours in the current game you’ve been putting your time into. You’re slowly reaching Gamer levels of investment in what you’re playing, which is a laughable idea. You, Eridan Ampora, being a gamer? Perish the fucking thought.
You’re playing The Binding of Isaac, currently doing your runs as Azazel. The runs aren’t perfect by any means, but you don’t mind. It’s just that sort of time where you feel like playing a roguelike where you can kill angels when you want to, and you’re going to kill those damn angels; you still need to kill Mega Satan for the first time, anyways.
From behind the couch you hear the door to the room open up for the first time since you got here. Turning around— as best as you can while incased in your little blanket cocoon— you see Sollux standing in the door frame. He looks surprised to see you... you think? He mostly looks tired.
“Hey there, Sol.”
Sollux walks up to the back of the couch. He doesn’t bother to walk around or psionically float over the couch, and instead leans on the backing with his arms. “Out of all the people that I would’ve expected here instead of an empty room, you were very low on the list,” he tells you.
You hum a thoughtful note. “Well that’s unfortunate. I can be somethin’ of a gamer myself, you know.”
Sollux’s amusement is less than you were aiming for with that joke. He quietly huffs and says, “Sure.”
You turn back and un-pause the game, resuming your antics of killing literal little shits from where Azazel flies over the rocks, away from any harm. “What, is that all you've got to say? The hell is holdin’ you back?”
“Fuck off, I’m tired,” he says. You see from the corner of your eyes as his arms fold out, dangling over the couch as he bumps his face into the top of the couch. “I used a lot of energy doing dumb shit, so now the repercussions are kicking my ass.”
“I can spare you a blanket and you can watch me play, if you want.”
“You don’t need to give up your blankets.”
“No, it’s probably for the better—” you wiggle and pull at the half-assed cocoon you’ve made, lodging a blanket loose— “I’m gettin’ a little stuffy in all these goddamn things.”
You’re lying. Blankets don’t get very overwhelmingly warm when you have little-to-no natural body heat to warm them with. The look you see on Sollux’s face when you glance over makes you think he knows this just as well as you do. Azazel looks like he could probably figure that out too, and he’s just pixels and code in a gore-y game with themes of religious trauma.
Sollux finally shrugs his shoulders, standing back up to walk around. You successfully pull a blanket out of the framework from your little fabric shelter, one layer of insulation shorter. You pass it over and he takes it, sitting down and pulling up his legs to curl up into himself.
You pick up the controller again and just play for a while. Sollux occasionally points out places where you fuck up, or half-heartedly tries to cause fuck ups by telling you not to fuck up. You start to commentate for him in turn, talking about the good and bad luck you’ve had in the past and currently get as you play. It’s pleasant, and you soak up the comfortable feeling of being curled up under the nice weight of the blankets with Sollux next to you, just close enough that either of you could lean on the other.
You wonder if Sollux is tired enough to want to lean on you. You almost ask him if he wants to, but instead you end up saying, “Hey, can you look up what that little fuckin’ red worm does?”
You look over to watch as he pulls out his phone to look at the wiki. Apparently, Sollux is tired enough that he’s not complaining, or even teasing you about needing the wiki for that matter.
“Holy shit, his name is Little Chad.”
You can’t help but snort at that.
When he reminds you that the item just gives you red heart halves, you decide to grab Little C.H.A.D. and keep playing as usual. There might be a chance the hearts might come in handy, even if you aren’t really depending on red hearts this run. Sollux checks something on his phone before putting it away again, adjusting his blanket a little.
Its a while longer until you realize that Sollux’s verbal responses are fewer and fewer in-between. You glance over discreetly only to see him still leaning over his legs and looking like some shitty cloaked adventurer in his blanket. You can just see his eyes behind his glasses; he’s staying awake just from stubborn nature alone, if that glare he’s making as he watches the screen is anything.
“Hey,” you say with a little elbow nudge in Sollux’s direction. “D’you need to sleep?”
“No.” That answer almost sounds indignant, of all things.
You roll your eyes. “Go to sleep. Fuckin’ idiot.”
Sollux doesn’t bother to respond with any words. There’s just an annoyed groan that almost sounds like you personally offended him by understanding that bodies, in general, run on a sleep cycle. And people say you’re the dramatic one. You are, but he’s a pretty close second between the two of you.
“Seriously, Sol. You look like you could conk out in two seconds flat.”
Azazel takes damage from a skeleton’s bone thrown his way. It’s a small— okay, you need your goddamn hearts, so maybe not THAT small— price to pay for giving a shit about this exhausted bastard. Sollux doesn’t comment, and you focus on avoiding more damage as you beam the skeletons to their death.
“Saying ‘I could’ isn’t saying that I will,” he eventually decides, once all the skeletons are gone and you put out a fire. “I’m not sleeping.”
“Sleep is for the fuckin’ weak, huh?”
Sollux sinks even more into the blanket. “Yep.”
You don’t bother to say anything else and decide to enter the boss room, getting to fight The Gate this time. Even if you had something to say, Sollux’s 'yep’ was so certain, it would likely destroy whatever you were going to say next regardless. Just like that fucking rocket that obliterated that one red car on Mythbusters. Poor damn thing.
You make a little strangled sound as you fumble your movement, getting hit by a leaper that The Gate spawns. At first you try to save the run by giving more focus to the screen, and not your thoughts about the goddamn Mythbusters of all things. And then yet, as you get hit another time, you realize that this run has been a little bit shit in general, and you’re a little bored of this particular run, so you intentionally let the boss kill you.
“Nice job taking that L,” Sollux says as you start a new run.
“Says the one with two L’s in his name.”
“Okay, but who’s Eridan? The only dipshit I know now is Earl-idan.”
That sentence gets more of a laugh out of you than you think it deserves. “That would look horrible. Are you makin’ my name so it’s spelt 'E-R-L-I-D-A-N'?”
“No, I put another A between the E and the R.”
“Wow, thank you so much, you gave me a goddamn ear so I can still be aesthetically pleasin’.”
“Mmmhm.” You can hear a smile in his hum, his flat tone lifting just a little. “Hope you hear things better now, shithead.”
“I think my hearin’ is actively worsenin’ now, Sol. Fuck you.”
“That’s not my fault. Perish, idiot.”
“You perish. Turn to bones, shit licker.”
Sollux blows a raspberry at you in response. It's a pretty shitty raspberry, considering he barely makes it sound like a fart, so you’re taking that as a win for you.
As your new run starts, you find the level generation is significantly kinder to you this time around; you spend a good chunk of time heading back and forth through the rooms each level, double-checking for tinted rocks and making the most of the room drops you gain. You get caught up in it enough that twenty minutes pass without looking over at Sollux. When you finally look at him again, it’s when his eyes are closed and his head is tilting away from your direction. You almost make a disappointed face at the fact that he’ll careen away from you if he tips over, but then you realize you’re glad you won’t be at risk of a surprise attack from his horns.
“Thank fuck, he’s finally asleep,” you mutter aloud. “Aren’t you so fuckin’ glad he gave in, Aza?”
You jokingly move the right analog stick up and down so Azazel frantically nods in agreement. It’s only while you’re doing this that you realize you shouldn’t be moving the stick that fast, because the loud clicking of the plastic hitting hard rubber will likely— and does— manage to wake Sollux. He sits up sharply, slowly blinking his eyes awake with a disrupted grunt.
You sigh through your nose. “Damn it.”
“What the fuck,” Sollux complains.
“Seriously, is it really that awful to take a nap?”
“Yeah, idiot.” Sollux rubs an eye with a finger. “It’s annoying to fix and maintain what little scraps of a sleep schedule I already have, I’m trying to avoid needing to fix it in the first place!”
“Then just— then at least take a twenty-minute nap or somethin’, you dumb piece of shit. Hell, you could take twenty-two minutes, even. Two twos for your two lovin’ ass.”
You can feel the annoyed look coming from where this shithead nerd is huddled in his own blanket, where he’s been hunched over and looking about half his size for the past half hour. You’re starting to realize that uncomfortable position is probably intentional, even if its not actually working to keep him awake in the end.
“Listen,” you continue, “just set a timer, get all nice n’ fuckin’ cozy, maybe lean against the totally wonderful seadweller keepin’ you company right now, and once you feel better from the minimal rest you can go to sleep when you decide you’re supposed to.”
“You’ll just pause the timer,” he flatly accuses.
“I won’t! I promise I won’t. Just take the nap, Sol.”
He’s silent again, so you leave him alone to unlock a golden chest in the game. The moment you see Tammy’s Head on screen is the moment you know this run is going to go so damn well.
As you start knocking out all the rooms with a newfound ease, Sollux starts to mumble irritably under his breath, and you see his phone taken out at a glance. You can tell he’s doing something, but you don’t know if it’s what you want him to be doing or if he’s just—
Oh, huh.
“If you even try to do something like turn the ringer off I’ll wring you like a sponge,” Sollux grumbles, even if the threat sounds half-hearted. He’s curled his legs to the side of the couch, taken his glasses off, and started leaning into your shoulder.
So now you know that he was doing what you wanted, after all.
Setting a timer, that is.
And also leaning on you. That was a want, too.
“... I think I’d rather not be a wrung-out sponge,” you end up saying. You reach awkwardly over to pat his shoulder and add, “Hope you sleep well.”
You feel him nod against you, a silent response of 'yeah, thanks’ communicated from his cheek to you, muffled considerably by the blankets.
You turn the volume down a couple notches before you continue to keep up the pace, each room a one-shot with that damn ten-beam attack from Tammy’s goddamn Head. You successfully kill two angels to collect the key for Mega Satan, and you decide to kill a third just for shits and giggles. You contemplate killing a fourth when the final angel room shows up, but at that point its just overkill, isn’t it? You go kill the angel anyways, because you are overkill.
And now all that’s left is to get Mega Satan. You’re going to get that fucker, absolutely decimate that piece of shit. You’re going to kick ass, and you won’t get killed like the few other times you’ve fought this boss before, and— and you get hit in the first thirty seconds. That doesn’t bode well.
You reflexively suck air through your teeth. As you try to keep the noise quiet, the sound that comes out is what you imagine a water sprinkler on it’s last few legs sounds like. You don’t entirely register it in the moment, but there’s a quiet amused breath near your side as you re-adjust Azazel’s position out of harms way.
It takes a little while, but through many swaps between thinking this will just be another practice run and thinking you’re going to win, you get to a point where it could go either way; Mega Satan is on his last phase, and you’re on your last heart. And after maneuvering through bullet hell and trying to get your last hits in, you... end up dying. Fuck.
You sigh, begrudgingly accepting the loss. You exit to the menu, set the controller in your lap, lean your head back into the couch for a moment, then glance over at Sollux with his face half-pressed in your arm.
“You seem like you’re comfortable,” you mutter.
“Yep,” Sollux responds with his eyes still closed, sounding suspiciously awake.
“That’s g— wait a minute.”
You can barely see how the little corner of his smile moves his face, a half-assed snort showing up in the back in his throat. “I don’t know what you expected. I can’t fall asleep in twenty minutes.”
“Well try harder, then?” You’re wasting a perfectly good glare on Sollux while he’s keeping his eyes shut.
“Don’t need to. Timer’s going off soon.”
“You can always nap for another twenty minutes,” you point out, poking Sollux in the temple for emphasis.
He pushes your hand away. “Or you could piss off.”
“It’s twenty minutes twice, you doublin’ douche, c’mon.”
“ED, I refuse to let you appeal to my interest in twos in a way that matters.”
“We’ll be two people hangin’ out for twice as long as expected.” You take one of your blankets and drop it on him. This action does not phase meteor-famous Sollux Captor, the prodigy of having blankets dropped onto him. “Both wrapped up in two blankets each.”
“You are completely grasping at straws now.”
“They’re actually very durable straws, so its fine.”
“No, they’re shitty silly straws, and each of them read ‘whoever grasps at these straws is a huge idiot’ in awful bendy cursive.”
“You seem real familiar with that specific set of silly straws, Sol. Almost makes me think that—” The worst alarm you’ve ever heard starts to go off, which perfectly disrupts your train of thought— “...what in the hell is that.”
The sudden burst of song you hear is a miniature sensory hell; its just some asshole whining about “Charizard” eating pancakes played over some synths. You stare bewildered at the source of the noise as Sollux finally pushes the blanket off his head, stringing together a few curses and getting to his phone to shut up the auditory shit-fest he’s caused.
“I forgot I had that as the default alarm,” he says.
You look at him incredulously. “Your default alarm.”
“Listen, when you have stuff you need to work on and don’t want to oversleep, an alarm that immediately pisses you off enough to wake up does wonders.”
“Okay, but your default fuckin’ alarm? I think at that point you just like the fucked up little song and don’t want to admit it.”
Sollux gives you a long, unimpressed look that speaks handfuls of words. “You know what? I don’t need this from you.” He flicks you twice in the arm. “Fuck off, fall over, go away.”
You slowly tip over and whine, “Oh noooo. I can’t believe you would do this to me. So cruel and heartless.”
You fall over completely, resting your head against the armrest. Sollux tucks his legs to the side so you can stretch your own legs out, and you decide to roll onto your back as you take up as much horizontal space possible. You do make sure to leave enough room for him, though; you’re almost certain he is not above launching you off the couch if he decides he wants space.
“Every day you say things and I remember you’re insufferable.”
“I think I’m insufferably charmin’,” you correct. “So, so very insufferably charmin’ and smart. It would be devastatin’ for you to leave anytime soon, really.”
You can see how deeply he breathes in by the rise of his chest, but the loudly annoyed sigh you expect out of him never comes. He just breathes back out through his nose, pulling out his phone again.
“Alright, sure,” he says. “You get two extra minutes.”
“Oh.” You blink. “Really?”
“Mmmmhm,” he hums as he fiddles with the timer. “Congrats, man.”
He leans forward and gestures at you to move over. You scootch closer to the edge and he gets between you and the back of the couch. His arms end up around your torso, and he leans his head onto your shoulder. He dramatically motions his arm as he starts the timer, turns his phone off to set it to the side, and you fully process that you have two minutes to get the most out of cuddling Sollux.
“Huh,” you voice out, taking your glasses off to set them aside.
“What’s up.”
“I dunno. I guess I didn’t expect you to react to the annoyin’ you bit by not annoyin’ me back.”
He shrugs. “That’s the weird fucking magic of naps, I guess.”
“The science of naps,” you correct automatically.
“Oh, sorry, the science of naps. Why don’t you tell me the science behind twenty minute naps, genius?”
Yeah, okay, there is where the ‘annoying you back’ went.
“As opposed to longer naps that help with memory n’ shit, twenty minute naps specifically help out with alertness and motor skills.”
“What specifically causes the boost in alertness and motor skills? What happens during the nap to specifically cause that to happen?”
“You just... you take the goddamn nap.”
“Sounds like bullshit,” Sollux provokes, like the motherfucker he is, “It’s nap magic.”
“It’s just known knowledge on how naps work, you absolute pillock. It’s not magic.”
“Nope.” He lifts his head up to look at you. “Magic.”
You make eye contact for a moment, taking in the tiny smug look on this idiot’s face. He’s comfortable, and having his fun by making fun of you. His face is decently close to yours. Jesus, there is no goddamn way you look attractive with the way you’re craning your neck to look at him.
“Damn, you wanna make out about it?”
Sollux scoffs and leans away from you. “You’re pushing it. I’m already here cuddling your stupid ass, ED.”
“Fair,” you say. You were half-joking, and you’ll accept that reaction. Its certainly a better reaction over if the comment lead him to flat-out leave you on the couch. Instead, he just gets right back to his spot with his head on your shoulder.
It’s a moment after when he amends his claim and says, “Maybe another time. There’s probably only a minute left on the timer by now, anyways.”
“Mmm, yeah. A minute wouldn’t be very long.”
You put your arm loosely over Sollux’s waist, and the two of you just hang out quietly. As the low sound of the start screen music fills in the silence, you’re not really waiting for Sollux’s alarm to go off, but aware that it could happen soon.
And you lay there together.
...
...
Huh.
Alright. Those two minutes are feeling pretty long right about now.
You start to wonder; if you stay here like this and don’t act like something has likely gone wrong with the timer, how long will it take for Sollux to notice?
You wait for that.
...
...
You feel Sollux lift his head off your shoulder. You open your eyes to watch as he frowns, confused, then leans over you to grab his phone.
He’s perfectly silent while staring at his unlocked phone.
“... So. The timer never actually started.”
You let a cheeky little smile slowly grow on your face.
“No,” Sollux says before you can open your mouth, “Stop that. I didn’t do it on purpose.”
“Well, I wasn’t even goin’ to suggest such a thing.”
“Bullshit, you asshole.” Sollux groans and puts his hands over his face, dragging them down. You’re absolutely delighted to notice his face has gone a subtle shade of yellow.
You put your own hands to your face in an act of coyness. “Does this mean we have the time to make out now?”
“Oh my goddd,” he says, before trying to hide your face under his own hands. “You—” he gets cut off by his own tiny wheeze of a laugh— “You are literally the most unbearable bastard I’ve ever met.”
“Thank god,” you reply, “I’d absolutely hate to be bearable.”
Sollux removes his hands— he’s lucky you didn’t have your glasses on, you wouldn’t want them smudged by his handprints— and you catch his eyes. He’s the only thing you can see (somewhat) clearly right now, after all. He’s close enough you can see his expression perfectly; you’d like to say the look he has right now is affectionately unimpressed. Of course, ‘entertained and unimpressed’ might be more accurate, but you’d like it to be the former.
“Alright,” Sollux says after a moment, sitting fully upright on his knees. “I think I need to go and get some stuff done now.”
“Aw, really?” You lean up too, putting weight on your hands. “Your stuff can’t be that important.”
“Even if its not, you’ve stolen away a lot of time I could’ve been using to get work done, Eridan.”
You wave a hand dismissively, “Why work on bullshit like computer-y jargon when you can have a nice time hangin’ out with me?”
Sollux rolls his head to emphasize his near-undetectable eye roll, getting up from the couch as he does. “Unlike you, some people actually like to be productive and do things with their time. I can’t socialize forever.”
Even if his tone is good-natured, the pout you throw his way is a little bit more genuine than you mean it to be. God, it’s way too genuine if Sollux has immediately noticed it. His expression changes slightly, and you can’t tell what’s going on in his busy head.
Then, out of the goddamn blue— or, you guess out of the yellow? No, that sounds stupid— you feel a quick, soft pressure against your cheek, and a little sound that registers immediately as the little ‘smeck’-like sound of a kiss. Sollux leans away in a hurry, getting off the couch and quickly setting one of the blankets back on the couch.
“We can hang out some other time,” he says, keeping his voice even. “Bye, good luck if you keep playing your runs.”
And then he hurries around the couch, and you’re left staring at where he disappears behind the door. There’s nothing left keeping you company but quiet menu music, all the blankets surrounding you, and the faint sensory leftovers against your cheek from Sollux apparently deciding he’d be alright with actually giving a kiss to you.
A little puff of a laugh escapes your lips as everything fully processes. You duck your head into your shoulder and put a hand against your cheek as the single laugh develops into a soft chuckle. God, you’re really flustered over that, aren’t you?
You pick up the controller again and pull a couple of the blankets closer. You drape them over your legs and shoulders respectively and start up one last run of The Binding of Isaac. You’ll give Sollux some time to do his own thing before you go pester him at his computer setup; hopefully for him it’ll be closer to an hour if you play strategically and don’t fuck up. The giddy feeling you have right now might say otherwise, though.
In the end, your run only lasts about twenty minutes before you “accidentally” die, and you slip out of the room to go see what Sollux decided to work on for a while.