(no subject)

[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.

Comments

[cookinglikeamotherfucker]

Gamzee took his hand and pressed his lips to the back of it, returning the smile as he reached out to lay his free hand on Eridan's cheek in turn. "All that's left now's to go and talk to dad, then I don't ever have to go back to that fuckin' house if I don't want to." He smiled a little wider and pressed his face back into the couch. He knew he should have felt some kind of remorse for trying so hard to get away from home, but all he could do was think about how much better off things would be now. No more going to school covered in bruises or falling asleep in the middle of class because he hadn't slept at all the night before. "He even said he'd take care'a Kurloz while I'm not there. Dunno what that includes but I can still go back and see him myself."

[princeofmelodrama]

Eridan's smile turned victorious and fond, as he turned to press a kiss to Gamzee's palm. "I'm glad it works out well for you. I'm sure he has seventy ulterior motives behind his decision, but so long as it works out amicably for you an' doesn't backfire, I'm not goin' to question father's motives." He paused and then bit his lower lip, snickering, "Did he say anythin' about those claw marks I apparently left on you? An' sorry for that. Didn't really know what I was doin' there."

[cookinglikeamotherfucker]

"He didn't say anything about anything," Gamzee shrugged, sitting up finally and wrapping his arms around Eridan's shoulders, leaning their foreheads together. "Pretty sure he's all motherfuckin' sighin' in his office though. Ran into him still smellin' like you like I was."

[princeofmelodrama]

Eridan didn't know quite what to think. Either his dad would let it go without a word, or flip every shit known to civilization. He was hoping for the former, since if he was going to do the latter, Dualscar would have started already.

As it stood, Eridan just smirked. "About that," he said, looking down at Gamzee with a quirked brow, "Why didn't you stick around an' let me pay you back for that? I might not know what I'm doin', but that sure as hell doesn't stop me from tryin'." Not that he was offering just at that moment, that'd be a little spur of the moment, and definitely not the most smooth way of going about things.

[cookinglikeamotherfucker]

Gamzee shrugged again. "It takes a lot more to get me goin' than you prob'ly have patience for," he excused, sitting back and letting his hands rest on Eridan's shoulders a moment before running down to his chest and falling away. "If it gets to where that's what I want, I'll let you know alright?" He offered a soft smile then leaned forward to peck Eridan's lips, then his cheek. "You can go back to doin' homework up there."

[princeofmelodrama]

With a quick reciprocation to the kiss and a lopsided smirk, Eridan responded, "An' I suppose I'm not supposed to take that as a challenge to try'n see if I can? You can't just say that sorta thing an' assume I'm not goin' to get it in my head to try." He looked back to his homework with the cocky smirk still in place. He wouldn't - at one point he might have if he was younger - but he knew that Gamzee would go at his own pace, and that was just fine with him.

He looked up at the highblood after a few more minutes, finishing his assignment. "You want to get some of our mutual assignments outta the way, just to get 'em done with? It'd be better than just lettin' 'em weigh on us the rest of the night."

[cookinglikeamotherfucker]

Groaning quietly, Gamzee replied, "Nope," but got up to find his bag anyway, dragging out the notepads and new binder that held his assignments, sitting down at Eridan's side. He propped his chin on his hand as he laid out what he had, getting settled in and tapping the end of his pen against the table. Already he was bored and he'd only just looked at the assignment. "But really man, I don't want you feelin' all motherfuckin' obligated to do anything for me. Even somethin' small like tryin' to get me off. Honestly, I don't care about all that. Used to, not so much anymore. So just don't worry about it."

[princeofmelodrama]

Eridan sighed as he grabbed his own books from his backpack, settling them on his knee as he looked over at Gamzee with a serious look on his face. "Let's put it this way. I don't think I owe you anythin', nor do you owe me. No matter what. This is one of those things that may seem selfless an' like me tryin' to be magnanimous an' it's really out of selfishness an' desire. I want to. Just assume when you're ready to hop aboard that ship, I'll be eager to get underway." He leaned down almost flat across his crossed legs to pull one last book that had migrated to the bottom of his backpack, and pulled it up. "Literature first?"

[cookinglikeamotherfucker]

"Well see when it comes back around," Gamzee agreed quietly and ran his hand across Eridan's back before he straightened up, rolling his eyes some. It was one of his least favorite classes; just seeing so many words sitting there on a barren page made his eyes want to cross. Propping his chin up on his hand, Gamzee resigned himself to the fate of good grades and started to write down his answers between double-checking the reading.

Homework went fairly quickly and by the end of it, Gamzee was starting to sniffle again. Only then did he realize that he'd forgotten to fetch the water and aspirin that Eridan had asked for and he immediately stood, stepping over the corner of the table and making his way back out of the room without so much as a word of warning. He had to take a moment to find someone to ask about it, but as soon as he'd done so he followed behind them, talking amicably about what he'd seen of the place so far. The man seemed to have a rather high opinion of the Amporas, and not just from a social obligation; not only were the staff here paid well, they were treated quite decently as well. Gamzee smiled faintly, considering for a moment going home and trying to talk to the very small staff that the GHB hired to take care of his estate and convince them to potentially find some work at the Amporas' estate. But he was getting ahead of himself, realizing that Dualscar wouldn't be able to take in everyone. It had been a stretch just offering his brother temporary asylum.

He returned maybe five minutes later with two glasses of water and a blister pack of pills, putting them both down on the tabletop before once more taking his seat at Eridan's side.

[princeofmelodrama]

Blinking and minutely shaking his head at Gamzee's sudden standing and leaving, Eridan raised an eyebrow to all of it, and then sighed and went back into his own homework once again. He figured Gamzee would return whenever he felt like - he always seemed to go on his own non-schedule, go where the wind took him, and Eridan had long since become resigned to that. Homework had finally started becoming much more of a hardship than a task once his face felt like it was completely stuffed up, however, and he sighed, setting it aside to grab his husktop from under the sofa, booting it up. He sent off two messages immediately - one to his moirail, and one to... well, he didn't consider her a friend, nor did he consider her a kismesis. Platonic rival, perhaps. He smiled to himself as he chatted with the girls, content to simply fill both of them in on the happenings of the past couple days. Feferi had nothing but excitement for her moirail and Gamzee as well. She knew full well how dicey the Makara situation was from overhearing her mother talk about them. While they seemed to do just the bare amount to stay in the Condesce's favor, they weren't her favorite members of the court. Feferi still had no solid opinion of Gamzee himself, either. He made Eridan happy, and that, in turn, made her happy, but without knowing him, she had nothing much to say.

Rose, on the other hand, couldn't give two shits less that he was sick - AGAIN - for the beginning of winter, and managed to find himself in a relationship despite. She had 'bigger fish to fry' regarding her *own* outstanding performances. She had been taking college level courses and finally got her first assessment in them, which placed her highest in her class for reading and writing. Clearly, she was well on her way to being top student on the honor roll - a highly coveted position for her ever since Eridan landed that position the year prior. She then chided him that since he was too busy playing figurative and likely literal grabass, he probably had completely forgotten to practice for his recital that was coming up in only two months. He groaned at that, because she nailed it on the head, and sighed heavily, claiming temporary defeat - she was quite right, he really had. And then he signed off, pulled up the program that was part metronome, part sheet music, and wandered off to get his viola.

By the time Gamzee came back, Eridan had just started fine-tuning the strings as he looked down at the composition on his laptop's screen. He looked back up with a brief smile. "Was thinkin' you be gone for longer than you were, decided to keep myself busy," he explained, before starting the program, which let out a faint, slow, and steady ticking, which kept him on time with the song, which he started to play with near effortless grace and ease.

[cookinglikeamotherfucker]

"Sorry. Remembered you wanted some fuckin' meds. Got all motherfuckin' sidetracked earlier and completely forgot." Gamzee hunkered down to listen with his chin propped on top of his knees, his arms wrapped around his thighs. He hadn't had the chance to watch Eridan play more than once in the time that they'd been friends and it was something of a treat to be able to sit down and watch. He wasn't musically inclined; he could rap, pretty well as a matter of fact, but that wasn't really something that came up in casual conversation or talk about school. It was simply a hobby that very few people knew about. He clapped quietly when Eridan drew the piece to a close, sitting back and popping out a couple of the pills to hand over to him, eyeballing the glasses of water sitting in front of him then chancing a sip of one, only to make a face and hold it out.

[princeofmelodrama]

Eridan gave a graceful little bow of his head to the applause, chuckling silently before he took the glass of water and the pills, downing the latter with the former, and finishing off the entire bunch of seawater in one go. "Still need to keep workin' on this. Don't let it keep you from gettin' a hold a your moirail. You got a phone? I can lend you mine, if you'd like." He nodded to his backpack, where his cell was, and then turned to point out the land line phone with his eyes. "I'm willin' to bet that after all the drama a the past few days, it'd be nice to hear from you." He certainly would be worried if his moirail went out to do something dangerous, only to up and disappear for a couple days with no word.

[cookinglikeamotherfucker]

Gamzee chewed at his lower lip as he looked over at the phone, shaking his head some. "Karkat's not really all that big on talking on the phone," he explained then sat back, glancing at the husktop, wishing that he'd thought to pick up his own before hiding out here. His phone had been damaged in the same altercation that had left him with the slowly healing scars across his face and he obviously hadn't been able to replace it yet. He gestured toward the computer vaguely without reaching for it. "He's always online at least..."

[princeofmelodrama]

Eridan raised an eyebrow, and then sighed, leaning down to turn off his music program and sign out of trollian to get it to the login screen, before turning the husktop around to face Gamzee. He was wary of anybody even touching his computer other than himself, but it was important to him to have Gamzee touch base with someone who seemed to be the only other person other than him who gave a damn.

He leaned down across the back of the couch to give a kiss to Gamzee, and went to grab his actual sheet music and metronome instead.

[cookinglikeamotherfucker]

At the sigh Gamzee started to withdraw, willing to forgo the computer if Eridan was that uncomfortable with it. At the kiss he frowned softly, reaching out to turn the husktop around gingerly and sign back into trollian, blinking then smiling faintly as immediately a window popped up. Apparently Karkat had been waiting to see him come back online.

The explanation was short and to the point, letting his moirail know where he was, and more importantly, that he was safe, at least for the time being. He let him know that he wouldn't be on very long given that he was on a borrowed system then finally promised that he would come back and visit as soon as he knew he could. He didn't spend much time elaborating on what he was doing at the Ampora estate in the first place, promising that he would explain later. Karkat wasn't satisfied with that but seemed to accept it when Gamzee signed back off and returned the husktop to the other side of the table, crawling back up onto the couch.

[princeofmelodrama]

Eridan raised both brows at Gamzee's hesitation and swift discussion as he continued to practice, but once he played through a song, he slipped back up and took a seat on the back of the sofa, and ran a hand over Gamzee's shoulder. "You don't gotta take how I react personally," he murmured, holding his viola and bow against his leg. "I'm not a gentle person. You should know that by now. I'm sorry." He looked up at a knock to his door and walked over to see what it was. They were being told that dinner was prepared, and that they had the choice of eating with his father, or eating here. After a moment of thought, weighing the decision, he bade the maid to bring it up for them. He closed the door after she departed and rubbed his face.

"Listen, Gam, you gotta understand that no matter how callous I'm actin', it isn't on account a anythin' you've done. You hold aloft the moon to me, all right? I'm tryin' to get better at showin' that sorta thing. I don't want you to think a me as cold." He set his viola on a stand and carefully placed the bow beside it, before he walked over and settled down to pull himself up into a slight ball on the corner of the couch once more, tense and pouty.

[cookinglikeamotherfucker]

Gamzee sat at the other end of the couch with his hands together between his knees, his feet propped up on the edge of it. He looked down at the borrowed pajama pants and picked some at a ball of fuzz with a soft frown. "Never thought you were," he said quietly without looking back around. "I shouldn'a said anything, just made the phone call. Don't really matter how I get back to 'im as long as I do it at all, right?" He offered a small, crooked little smile then went back to contemplating his own knees, his fingertips tapping on them somewhat nervously.

[princeofmelodrama]

Eridan's mental state deteriorated rather quickly at seeing how he'd affected Gamzee, and he curled up closer onto himself, his jaw set and his brow furrowed sadly. He did it again, he wound up saying, and doing something that managed to fuck everything up. He was certain what he'd done was on par with whatever other mental abuse that Gamzee often had, and he shook his head. Gamzee shouldn't have even thought to be around him. Eridan would only fuck him up even more. On the surface, sure, shit was completely fine, everything he did was well intentioned and polished, but it hid an ugly underbelly that only served to hurt. He couldn't fucking believe himself just then.

Eridan didn't say a word, just looking out before him as he contemplated frantically, trying to find some way to salvage this, to make things better. And the more he panicked, the harder it became to focus and find a good solution.

"I'm sorry," he finally whispered. "I fucked up. It's not your fault, you didn't do anythin' wrong, I was a fuckin' tool again, an' I fuckin' know it." That alone was something that rarely, if ever, left his lips.

"Please stop worryin' it's you."

[cookinglikeamotherfucker]

The alarming change only served to make him frown more, crawling back across the couch and wrapping his arms around Eridan's shoulders, pulling him over and holding onto him tightly. He pressed his nose against Eridan's temple, shaking his head. "Stop that. You didn't do anything," he murmured against the other's cheek. "Not a motherfuckin' thing." He laid his hand on the other side of Eridan's face to turn it back toward him, kissing the corner of his lips then up across his cheekbones.

[princeofmelodrama]

With a tension in his whole body, and the cold still serving to make him even more miserable feeling, Eridan was trembling again, but it wasn't out of excitement, but rather in sheer nervousness that he'd fucked everything up and he'd have to find some way to rebuild from a wasteland. He clung immediately to Gamzee once the highblood's arms were wrapped around him and he shook his head, "no, I fuckin' did," he argued, "shouldn't even talk to you like that, shouldn't talk to you at all," he said, jaw clenched. "Don't." He didn't even know what he was protesting as his face was smothered in kisses, and he tried desperately to find a center of calm, something that didn't suddenly look like a dark and terrible thing. He focused himself on the warmth of Gamzee's arms and how he clearly wasn't as fucked up as he had originally thought, but the look that Gamzee had on his face returned to his mind and Eridan clenched his eyes tight.

"You're way too fuckin' good," he said, his whispered tone still frayed and sharp as he finally found a modicum of space to breathe, "too damn good for me, too good for everybody. Don't see why you gotta be so fuckin' nice."

He had to pull himself together. This wouldn't stand. This attitude was unbecoming. Unfit. Not suited for royal decorum. Eridan focused on breathing and laid his head against Gamzee's shoulder.

[cookinglikeamotherfucker]

Gamzee just shushed him and ran his fingers through the hair at the side of Eridan's head, scratching at it gently as he laid his cheek against the top of the other's head. He rocked slowly on the spot with his hand resting against the side of Eridan's face, murmuring quiet assurances that he hadn't done anything wrong. It was perfectly reasonable to be less than willing to let someone else use his computer for any reason. Not only that, he hadn't even thought that his reaction had been that obvious to begin with. He leaned back some and laid his hands on either side of Eridan's face, turning him back around to look him in the face.

"I mean it, you gotta stop this. You didn't do shit wrong. I'm ok, ok? I promise."

[princeofmelodrama]

It didn't take long after nodding to what Gamzee said for Eridan to finally calm down and look Gamzee in the eyes, murmuring, "I'm sorry, I don't... I don't usually get like that 'round others, don't know what came over me." He usually waited until everyone else was out of range to see or hear him to flip out like that. "Must be this stupid cold, fuckin' messin' with me. Probably got a fever, too, dunno." He excused and pulled a blanket over himself as he felt chilly suddenly. The blanket wound up over Gamzee too, and he continued to lean against the highblood.

"S'definitely the cold. Probably some nerves. Never had anyone actually feel flushed for me before, never had a lotta this shit happen before. Must be all a this comin' in at once," he said with a firm nod. "Just overwhelmed me. That's all." That said, he looked up at Gamzee with a faint smile. "We should find somethin' to do before anythin' else threatens to kick my ass down the stairs again."

[cookinglikeamotherfucker]

"Yeah, definitely the cold. Ain't feelin' yourself," Gamzee agreed quietly, smiling to himself as he kissed Eridan's temple again then sat back, finally letting him go now that he'd calmed down. He continued to run his fingers through Eridan's hair after finally settling back down at his side, looking back out of the window at the drizzle still hitting the windowpane. There was a lot to think about now and his fate wasn't even sealed yet, but he felt good about all of this. He would be able to keep out of the line of fire, at least for a little while. Though more than that, he wanted to keep Eridan as far away from it as it could manage without leaving him behind entirely.

When the maid finally returned with their plates, he was still there wedged against Eridan's side acting as a comfort without being invasive, taking the plates with his free hand and giving the girl a toothy but altogether very sweet smile. He scooted down onto the floor in front of the table to eat there, poking a bit at the fish that Dualscar had had grilled for him so that at least he could have a warm meal. He ran a hand over Eridan's leg, offering him a softer smile then dug into the salad at the side wordlessly.

[princeofmelodrama]

As he slipped down to join Gamzee, he smiled fondly, leaning over to press a kiss to Gamzee's neck before he set into his own meal. "Mm, have you even ever met my brother? I know we avoided him yesterday, but I just hate his friends. He's kinda an idiot, but he's really great to keep me from feelin' too bogged down in shit. Kinda like he's psychic about when I'm gettin' too far into my own fuckin' brain, mindfuckin' everything. An' he's... the worst at actin' his status." It was refreshing, actually. Kind of a pain at social functions, but Eridan had nothing to do with Cronus when they went out to social functions. He stuck close by his father and listened to the politics and gossip.

[cookinglikeamotherfucker]

Gamzee thought about that for a few seconds, then shook his head. "Nah, never met 'im. Kurloz likes tellin' me about his friends though. 'bout Tuna and Meulin, mentioned Cronus before. That was before he started stayin' home. Didn't really think much of 'im, but I guess he didn't know 'im as well as you do."