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[cookinglikeamotherfucker]

Nobody talked to the kid with the dreads.

Nobody knew if he'd been held back with the jocks, or if he'd just hit the world's worst growth spurt, but the long, lanky highblood seemed to top everyone else in stature, even the select little clique of seadwellers, all of whom had taken to muttering about him indiscreetly. Of course, it didn't help his image that he wandered the halls with the dazed expression of the perpetually baked. He'd already been forced to stop painting his face by the faculty to keep from distracting others in his classes. As if that was really what everyone was focusing on.

He was intelligent, even brilliant according to some of the instructors, but that didn't count for anything when none of his homework was turned in, either coming up missing or simply forgotten, or occasionally doodled on. He never took notes and rarely remembered to bring his textbooks. The only class he did well in, for that matter, was his visual arts elective and even then, he rarely stayed on task, often speeding through the lessons then slinking away to one of the broken-down loveseats what were used for the occasional sit-in model for life drawing sessions.

He was a flake, and ninety percent of the time, he was alone.

Fourth block Gym was never something that he participated in. He simply stayed long enough to be counted there for role call, then slipped out easily to settle down behind the gymnasium where the security guards never went, sitting on the ground in the shade in his gym clothes and packing a bowl out of sight where the smoke would be whipped away by the breeze.

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[cookinglikeamotherfucker]

"I hear those motherfuckin' finish crumbs," Gamzee prodded gently, a small smirk tugging at the corners of his lips. He reached over and poked Eridan's side lightly then leaned against his shoulder, nudging him a bit. He let the thought go for now though and shrugged the other shoulder. "I'll just stay one night, see about going home and getting it overwith. The sooner the better, y'know?"

[princeofmelodrama]

"Leave my fuckin' finish crumbs alone, Gam," he snipped jokingly. Eridan squirmed to wrap his blanket over Gamzee's shoulders as well as his own and pressed his forehead against his friend's shoulder, nodding. "Fine, but if you're fucked up to the point a needin' somewhere to be for a while longer, you're gonna come here. I won't stand for seein' you get beat the fuck up anymore. It isn't fuckin' right." He simply blurted it out, but stood by it, looking at Gamzee with a stern, but worried gaze. His friend had endured so fucking much that it was enough to make him want to assassinate a member of the Condesce's taskforce. And he would, if he knew he would be able to get away with it.

It wasn't out of flushed feelings - or rather, it was, but not entirely - that he felt that way, either. But rather, a deep sense of personal ethics that said to protect what brings you joy, and to destroy all that sullies what you see as your own. Gamzee was his friend; one of the very few that he made that his father approved of, nevertheless. And he intended to see somebody pay for his friend's feeling like kindness was a completely foreign concept.

He sat back up only to flop back against the back of the sofa once more, hearing his guardian walk back in, the scent of fish soup wafting in his wake. He handed over two bowls to the young trolls and gave Eridan another rough muss of the hair, telling them in his rough, inadvertently booming voice that once Cronus came home, they'd have to find somewhere else in the house to go - he was bringing friends over for a study group. Eridan practically gagged at the news. "Ugh, his friends are terrible." He slurped his soup then, and looked up at Gamzee once again.

[cookinglikeamotherfucker]

Gamzee had taken to drinking the soup straight from the bowl rather than using the spoon that Dualscar had given him. He looked up at the announcement that Eridan's brother would be coming home and raised an eyebrow at Eridan and the look on his face, then licked his lips and nodded out the window. "You said you had the guesthouse right? Could just go hole up out there 'til his friends go home, that sound good to you?"

[princeofmelodrama]

With a lopsided smile, Eridan nodded. "Wouldn't a thought a it myself, but yeah, we could go there. Even has a TV a its own an' all the amenities. But it won't be for another couple hours, anyway." He took another large spoonful of soup, savoring the warmth and flavor of it. The fish was of a kind that he'd gotten used to eating cooked, and didn't bother his stomach so much to begin with. Once he finished with the soup, he set the bowl aside and reached over to grab his book bag, handing over the packet of tissues to Gamzee. "We can get this shit outta the way later," he said of the homework they had gone to get before leaving school.

[cookinglikeamotherfucker]

"Thanks man, I appreciate this more'n you know. When this is overwith I wann try and do somethin' for you. Dunno what I plan on, but somethin' to make up for all this." Giving Eridan a small pout, Gamzee put his bowl down between his feet and leaned back against Eridan again. He knew he would argue that it was just something he wanted to do, but he couldn't help that want to repay the admittedly unfamiliar kindness of both his friend and Dualscar. Not just the help with his homework or his wounds, but the unrelenting compassion with which he had been treated since that first day. He took a chance and laid his hand on the side of Eridan's head, pressing a tentative kiss to his forehead.

[princeofmelodrama]

"That's real nice a you to think to do that," Eridan murmured, "but there's nothin' to make up for." He leaned comfortably against Gamzee's shoulder in turn, looking down sheepishly at the closeness of them together, when Gamzee turned to kiss his forehead. That made his cheeks burn and glow, and he tightened his hands into the blanket, holding back the urge to catch Gamzee in a proper kiss. He promised himself that he wouldn't make a move towards the flushed. He all but promised Feferi the same thing. But he didn't say the first thing about Gamzee making a move.

He wasn't even sure that this was a move towards the redder end, and the ambiguity laid heavily on his mind, even though he was happy to lean back against Gamzee's shoulder, looking as if he had just gotten a wish granted, looking at the TV but not really watching it. He figured if Gamzee wanted to clarify things, he would. But until then, Eridan figured that it was likely that his friend knew quite well where he stood in his wants. It wasn't very often that he lit up like that, and it wasn't as if it was very easy to make him glow. That was something that a lot of the kids found out during that biology lesson. All the other seadwellers seemed almost ridiculously easy to fluster and turn on, but Eridan managed to be more prone to hissing and snapping his teeth at those who tried.

[cookinglikeamotherfucker]

When it came to Eridan and his luminescence, the only thing that he really noticed was the way it accentuated the lines of his cheekbones, especially when he smiled. Which was depressingly seldom. Gamzee's thumb dragged lightly over one side of the pattern under his eyes.

"I mean it though. I owe you a hell of a lot and it ain't even been a month since you came up talkin' to me. Didn't even know it was somethin' I needed 'til you gave it to me."

[princeofmelodrama]

Eridan's cheeks glowed brighter at the touch, and his smile grew as he made eye contact with Gamzee, shaking his head subtly. "You don't owe me anythin', though. You hangin' out with me's just fine."

He was glad that he'd had a death grip on the edges of the blanket, because he knew that if he didn't, he'd be trembling. It was embarrassing enough to be unable to stop the glow of his cheeks and the tiny pinpoints of luminescence that ran up his nose, up to his forehead, but if he had been trembling, he knew he'd want to slink away and bury himself under a large rock for a while.

And although he was sure that his hand wouldn't be steady after unwinding it from the blanket, he put it up against Gamzee's hand and brought his friend's hand down to leave a firm, but somehow still barely chaste kiss against the back of its knuckles. "Please don't think you owe me anythin'," he murmured against Gamzee's fingers.

[cookinglikeamotherfucker]

The kiss only made him smile a little wider, his hand flattening against Eridan's cheek briefly then falling away again when he noticed the trembling. He frowned softly and wrapped the excess of his blanket around his friend's shoulders; while it wasn't by much, he was still warmer than any seadweller. He focused back in on the tv for the time being. One way or another, he would find some way to pay the Amporas back.

"What if your dad says somethin' to GHB about runnin' errands for you guys?" he said after a little while of silence. "He might not like it but he'd listen to royalty..."

He hoped, anyway.

[princeofmelodrama]

Eridan bundled closer. It wasn't out of chill that he was trembling, but rather, due to the fact that his blood pusher was pounding so hard in his chest and that he didn't know what to do with himself, and he didn't want to screw anything up to make Gamzee think that he was only thinking of the... one thing he'd been caught up about thinking about since they sat down, really, that he would be scared off somehow. And once they were sharing both blankets, Eridan stopped worrying. It was weird, but it seemed to help.

At the idea, Eridan's eyes went wide and he grinned, sitting up. "That's a marvelous idea! That'd keep you outta the line a trouble an' I know father's got lots a things he can't get done on his own. An' you know, workin' with royalty's a step up on the ladder, it'd be a definite power play on your part." It was obvious from his devious smile that the gears in his mind started spinning.

"Now would you rather propose this arrangement to father or shall I? I very much doubt he'd understand the gravity a your situation unless you told him, an' would turn down the offer of help unless it was for a noble cause," Eridan thought aloud, rubbing his irritated nose, "but if he understood it was to keep you from comin' under danger a your guardian, or gettin' caught at some really underhanded shit he has you doin'," and he moved to brush his fingertips gently just beside the cuts on Gamzee's cheek, "or havin' this or worse happen again. He'd be sure to say yes." He bowed his head. Dualscar also knew how Eridan felt about his friend. It wasn't as if he bothered trying to hide it.

"Maybe we should propose it together. It might be hard tellin' exactly why, but... well, it's better than just lettin' you go back to doin' that foul shit again, an' if he says yes, you'll have good news to come home with an' maybe he won't be so hard on you."

[cookinglikeamotherfucker]

"Don't know if he'll look all that hard at this," Gamzee gestured to his face, "without just calling it a hazard of the job. But I do wanna try and see. I don't... I don't wanna live like this no more," he finished weakly, looking Eridan in the face again and swallowing hard. He didn't want to be known as nothing but the Makaras' runner. He didn't want to be an enforcer, or carry his clubs for anything besides his own amusement anymore. He didn't want Eridan to have to worry about him anymore.

"Tomorrow. We can talk to him about this tomorrow. Before school or after, whichever works."

[princeofmelodrama]

All Eridan could do was wrap his arms back around Gamzee's shoulders and put his hand gingerly against the back of his friend's head as he shooshed him. He didn't want the life that Gamzee had found himself in for him, either, on any level. He knew that Dualscar wouldn't consider facial scars as simple hazards - he knew that it was a lifelong branding, either as a badge of pride like his were, or a living testament to failure like Gamzee's would be if he wasn't given any reason to see them as something else - and Eridan knew that today would be the only window in which Gamzee would have to change his mind about what those scratches were. He slipped out of the hug and brushed his thumb across Gamzee's jaw, careful not to upset his wounds.

"They're the last scars you'll ever get outta havin' to do that shit, Gam. They can live on as a slap in the GHB's face for fuckin' with the wrong guy, 'cause that guy made friends in high places," he said, his smile gone almost wicked with its conviction, though that only lasted a moment before his expression softened. "An' tomorrow sounds good. Get all our thoughts together so we don't rush in pourin' nonsense at him. Knowin' him, he'll likely put you to work doin' odd jobs 'round here after school." Errands and odd jobs that he would have Eridan doing if it weren't for the fact that Dualscar was 100% convinced that Eridan was too fragile to do much more than be a pretty face and a solid mind, no matter what Eridan accomplished to prove the contrary.

[cookinglikeamotherfucker]

"Even if this did work out like that I would still have to go back to him," Gamzee murmured, sighing softly but still nodding in agreement. It was still better than living under the roof of one of the most feared names under the Condesce's rule all his life. And Eridan was right. He had friends in high places. Higher than his own blood caste. That had to count for something.

Before they realized how long they'd been there, the voices of the raucous group of Cronus' friends had loudly announced their presence and was on their way toward the lounge in which they were huddling. It was time to vacate the premises.

"Sounds like the guest house is gonna be our best bet now," he muttered and took the remote out from under their cocoon of blankets to turn off the tv.

[princeofmelodrama]

"Still, with good news at least," Eridan said with a gentle nudge, but he let the subject drop.

Once he heard Cronus' voice filter through the house, he made a quiet disgusted sound and his earfins dropped as his lip curled. "Easiest just to go through the door there," he said with a nod to the sliding glass door, "through the lawn to it. Don't have to run into 'em that way." He stood and hoisted up the blankets over his head in a large bundle and grabbed his book bag with an elbow before walking off to the door, waiting for Gamzee to slide it open before marching out of it and neatly avoiding any confrontation with his elder brother and the ragtag group of imbeciles. The walk wasn't far, at least, and once at the door to the guest house, he looked over at Gamzee, with a small smile. "The key code's 73394," he said, "an' it doesn't change," he added pointedly, just in case Gamzee needed to know. "Put it in for me, could you? My hands are full."

[cookinglikeamotherfucker]

Gamzee did as he was asked and opened the door, holding it until Eridan had passed through, joining him shortly thereafter and taking the blankets and piling them up on the nearest comfortable surface. He turned back to Eridan as he tucked his hands into his pockets, shrugging a shoulder and facing his friend with a half smile.

"I ever tell you about my moirail?" he asked suddenly, arching an eyebrow at him then glancing around the room. "His name's Vantas. He lives over there where I was last night, goes to the other school. If he heard about all this, he'd shit a motherfuckin' brick. Don't have a real high opinion 'a royalty."

[princeofmelodrama]

_{[[ooc: here's a thing.]]}

Eridan shook his head as he set his bag down against the back of a large chair and looked up at Gamzee, shaking his head. "You never did," though the name sounded familiar. He tried to suss out why, exactly, and came up with, "Mighta went to school with him ages ago, back in preschool, or somethin'. His name sounds familiar." He waved it off.

It'd probably take him a while to remember that he did, indeed, go to a daycare with a kid with the last name of Vantas, though he knew him only as Kar, if indeed Eridan remembered at all. They were thick as thieves before he was transferred away from the place 'not suited for the pedigree of our family', as his father had stated.

He settled down against the pile of blankets after swiping the large box of tissues off a table, and pulled one out to rub his nose again. "So why's he got a problem with us? I mean, other than the fully justified reasonin' that the vast majority a us are fuckin' entitled pricks a the highest fuckin' caliber," himself included, though not to the same extent.

[cookinglikeamotherfucker]

"He ain't ever been treated well by any highbloods of any kind," Gamzee replied quietly, looking down at the ground at his feet. "Always been an amazing motherfuckin' friend to me but I don't even treat 'im very well, truth be told. He's been talkin' to me a lot lately. About all'a this. He uh... He's the one that gave me the idea about askin' for Dualscar's favor."

Running his hand up along his neck, Gamzee glanced toward the window, then back at Eridan, giving him a small, tight smile. "All his family's been fucking amazing to a broke-ass failure of a subjugglator, just like you've been." He swallowed hard, tipping his head back as he pressed his lips together tight, the yellow of his eyes starting to tint with a thin purple. He didn't let it spill over though, instead simply stepping up in front of Eridan and laying a hand against the side of his neck, running his thumb across the skin just over the opening of his gill.

There was no more preamble before he finally pressed his lips against Eridan's, chaste but obviously not platonic by any means. It wasn't obvious until he had finally drew back that his lower lip was starting to quiver.

[princeofmelodrama]

Eridan had been about to gently argue the point, that he had only been doing what he felt was right, when Gamzee came closer and brushed against his sensitive neck, sending him back into a fit of glowing that he didn't have chance to recover from before his lips met Gamzee's and he let out a little surprised sound through his nose. He quickly wrapped his arms around the highblood's waist and his nails lightly tugged at the fabric of Gamzee's shirt, only to keep him close and not pull away entirely once their mouths parted ways.

As he worked to find a suitable response to everything, Eridan reached up to brush the side of his forefinger over Gamzee's unwounded cheek, shushing him with a fond shake of his head. "You've succeeded in far greater pursuits. Your art, Gam," he smiled as bringing it up brought to mind so many pieces he'd seen, on building walls and across countless pieces of scrap paper, "is uninhibited an' powerful, beyond anythin' anyone else our age is capable a'." Eridan brought his hand down to rest against Gamzee's chest and shook his head with a huff of a chuckle. "An' you're fuckin' dangerously brilliant, whether or not you show it the way you're bein' told to." He bowed his head as he continued, "An' Gam, you've got no reason, none whatsofuckin'ever, to consider yourself a failure. Not a single one. You just don't pander. An' that's not a failin', that's a fuckin' sign a character, a true show a strength."

[cookinglikeamotherfucker]

"Don't none of it count for a motherfuckin' thing if it don't either keep the family in business or meet the Condesce's needs," he argued, giving a slightly shaking breath as he held onto Eridan in kind, his eyes squeezed shut as he laid his forehead down against the other's. "But I'll die before I give any of it up."

[princeofmelodrama]

Eridan's smile didn't falter as he put his hand up around Gamzee's shoulders, hesitating only a moment before he pressed another kiss to the highblood's lips. "So you aren't a tool, an' that's a terrible thing, how?" He sighed and laid his head back against the thick pile of blankets behind him. "Call me fuckin' jaded to the Condesce's machinations, but I'm pretty fuckin' sure that bein' a tool only gets you used an' tossed, while bein' brilliant might actually get you put up an' ahead of those who strive to stifle you an' only see you as disposable." He smirked a little at that. There was absolutely no fucking way he'd let his friend wind up being disposable, at least if he could help it.

"Even if my guardian doesn't say yes for you workin' for him, says he doesn't need you, I do. An' that counts for somethin'. If he doesn't employ you, I will. I got enough fuckin' sway where I can find somethin' to say you're doin' for me, get the GHB off your bulge. I'll... I dunno. Say I'm your patron an' commission you for some grand, huge fuckin' mural or somethin'."

[cookinglikeamotherfucker]

"Man, my art ain't the kinda shit you want decoratin' anything'a yours," Gamzee snorted, shaking his head as he laid his hands on Eridan's shoulders, standing back up a little straighter and looking down into his face. "I'll figure somethin' out... We'll figure somethin' out. For now, we got time. We can rest a little, right? Clear up some'a these motherfuckin' sniffles we got goin' on," he added and fished the tissue packet out of his pocket that Eridan had given him while they were still at the school, dabbing it under his friend's nose. He took the chance for one last kiss before finally rounding the chair and pulling the blankets down over the top of him then lifting his hands up and making grabbing motions until Eridan decided to join him.

[princeofmelodrama]

"You can't tell me what kinda art I like," Eridan scolded lightly with a dramatically put-on petulant scowl, before he leaned up into the kiss to return it just as quickly. He didn't take long to simply crawl under the blankets and emerge beside Gamzee, leaning against him. He squeezed himself under Gamzee's arm and reached for the remote to the TV which was on a side table, turning it to the same channel they had the other TV on.

"So it goes without sayin'," he said after a few quiet minutes, "that I'm goin' to work actively towards the redder end a things with you, now that you've shown interest."

[cookinglikeamotherfucker]

"Goes without sayin'," Gamzee agreed with a small smirk,resting his chin against the top of Eridan's head once he'd gotten comfortable. He watched without much interest as a pleasant female voice droned on about microbiology, tucking his feet up under him comfortably and rearranging the blankets around them to be able to wrap an arm around his waist. It wouldn't be long before he dozed off even in that cramped seating arrangement, but it meant that he was content enough to do so, really relaxing in Eridan's presence.

[princeofmelodrama]

It wasn't long after Eridan turned his head carefully to make sure the tips of his horns wouldn't gouge Gamzee accidentally, that he too wound up drifting off, smiling faintly at the slight warmth that Gamzee had to him, one arm draped over the highblood's waist. He hadn't realized how exhausted he'd become, but the day had been emotionally and mentally exhausting, and the cold that had crept up on him had drained what was left over.

It was several hours before he woke up with a growling stomach, sore joints, and a stuffed nose. He didn't want to move, but he was hungry. Having Gamzee still there comforted him more than anything else, however. "We missed supper," he murmured blearily, looking out the window at the main house, knowing that it was likely that his guardian came in, saw them asleep, and snuck right back out again. That or Cronus was sent in, wound up being unspeakably lewd, and left after finding new fodder for his mental spank bank, like the complete pervert he was.

[cookinglikeamotherfucker]

Gamzee had been snoring quietly up until Eridan moved, his head lifting as he gave a low groan and popped his neck, which only seemed to alleviate part of the ache. He rubbed at his eyes and squinted around, unsure for a moment where he was but then looking back down at Eridan and settling again.

"Think they left anything for us or are we gonna have to go scroungin' up somethin' for ourselves?" he yawned, looking out at the darkness beyond the half-open curtains over the windows.