Archive of Our Own ^beta

TG: how do u boys feel bout gettin kinky?
TA: kiinky?
CA: kinky howw
TG: uh like
TG: shucks this is almost embarassin
TG: *embrarassin
TG: *embarrassin
TG: bondage????
TA: bondage.
CA: aww hell no
TG: please??? i just think you two would really benefit from it!
TA: and you get your a2hen rock2 off two iit.
TG: well that too!
TA: 2ure, ii'm down.
CA: im not!
TA: come on ed don't tell me you're a fuckiing wiimp
CA: fuck you sol im no wimp
CA: ill fuckin do it
TG: !!!!!!!!
TG: c3<
TG: we still good for our date, night after nex?
TG: *next?
TA: yeah
CA: you got it rox

Roxy and Sollux sit in Sollux's loungeblock, waiting for Eridan to show up. Roxy fidgets a bit nervously, and Sollux sends her a quick smile.

“Calm down, RX,” Sollux says. “No matter what you've got in mind, it'll be fine.”

Roxy takes a deep breath and smiles back at him. It's a bit weird, being both his roommate and his auspistice, but they make it work. “Of course it will!” she says. Just then, the doorbell rings, and both Sollux and Roxy stand up.

“I'll get it,” Sollux says, but Roxy snaps her fingers, going into auspistice mode.

“Nuh-uh, if it's Eridan, you're not going to answer anything,” she replies, and goes to the door herself. Sure enough, Eridan Ampora stands at the door in all his seadweller glory. “Hey, Eridan!” Roxy greets, and ushers him inside.

“Hey, Rox,” he says, and sweeps into the loungeblock, where Sollux is still standing. “Sol,” he sneers, and Sollux sneers back, sitting down.

“ED,” he replies.

“Stop that,” Roxy admonishes. “Eridan, you sit over there.” She points to the opposite end of the couch Sollux is sitting on, and Eridan obeys. “And take your cape off,” she adds. Eridan looks a bit scandalized, but takes it off regardless. Sollux snickers, and Roxy boxes him around the ear.

Sollux looks properly mollified, so Roxy smiles at them and bounces out of the room. “Just a moment!” she calls, and Eridan and Sollux look at each other.

“Not having second thoughts, are you, ED?” Sollux challenges.

“Not on your life, Sol,” Eridan growls back, earfins flaring in challenge, and Sollux's glasses crackle with red and blue psionics around the frames. They're staring each other down when Roxy comes back, and she sighs loudly, regaining their attention.

“I just can't leave you alone, can I?” she asks rhetorically. She's dangling chains and leather and wearing a wide belt. “Okay, who's first?”

Sollux and Eridan both point at each other.

Roxy giggles and goes over, sitting between the two of them. “I got most of this stuff off the internet,” she says as she sorts through the pile of bondage paraphanilia on her lap.

“So that's what those packages were,” Sollux mutters. Roxy gives him a wide grin.

“Five points, Sollux,” she tells him, and when he looks at her strangely, she just pats his knee. “Here,” she says, and takes his hand. Deftly, she slips a pair of leather gloves on him, effectively removing the use of his claws, and locks the metal bands in the wrists in place so he can't take them off without the key, which Roxy keeps.

She turns to Eridan. “Your turn!” she tells him, holding a second pair of gloves.

“Oh, hell no,” Eridan says, leaning back into the couch cushions.

“Told you he'd be too scared, RX,” Sollux laughs, and Eridan glares at him over Roxy's blonde head and holds out his hands. Roxy gives an unimpressed look to the dozen rings on his fingers and carefully takes them all off, slipping them into her pocket.

“You'll get them back when you leave,” she tells him, slipping the gloves on and locking them into place as well. The key to all four gloves on its chain goes around her neck. “How're you feeling, guys?” she asks, and Eridan flexes his fingers.

“It's kinda weird not having my claws,” he says, “but I'll be okay.”

“Sollux?” she asks.

“Yeah, I'm good,” he replies. Roxy nods.

“Moving on then!” she chirps, and holds up a mouth guard. It's a simple wire box, easy enough to eat and not hinder the mouth, but it would definitely stop them from biting someone. Sollux and Eridan stare in horror.

“What would we need that for?” Eridan asks.

“In case you haven't noticed,” Roxy said, “the entire point of this exercise is to help you two be in close proximity to each other without hurting each other. The gloves are so you can't claw each other, and the mouth guards are so you can't bite each other, and my presence is to monitor this entire scene so you don't talk nasty or flip off the handle or anything!”

Sollux blinks. “You've really thought this out, haven't you?” he asks, and Roxy blushes.

“Been planning it for a while,” she confesses. “Turn around, let's get this guard on you first.”

Sollux sighs and turns his back to Roxy, a blatant display of ashen trust, and Roxy carefully fits the guard around his mouth, fastening it in back and locking it in place again. She picks up the other one and shows it to Eridan, who grumbles but does turns around, letting her do the same to him. She puts this key around her neck too.

“Okay,” she says, “almost done. Sollux ...” She holds up a collar. “How much do you trust me?”

The collar is plain and black, with a box on it. Sollux recognizes it, of course he does. It's a psionics inhibitor. He swallows, hard, eyes wide. Even Eridan doesn't comment, knowing just how dangerous the thing in Roxy's hand can be.

Roxy and Sollux look at each other for a long moment, Sollux eyeing the thing in Roxy's hand, Roxy watching is face for his reaction. He closes his eyes tight, swallows hard, and nods, tilting his chin up. “Do it.”

Roxy wastes no time, wrapping the collar around his neck and settling the box just to the side of his Adam's apple. She slides the buckle together, and pulls back. “How're you feeling?” she asks gently.

“Weird,” he replies, eyes still closed as he lowers his head and rolls his shoulders to get used to it. “I never really noticed just how much I use them to keep track of a room ... I feel kinda blind, now.” He opens his eyes. “It's just weird.”

Roxy can see a bit of panic in his eyes, and brings up his hand, kissing the back of it in a gesture of ashen affection. “You're okay, Sollux,” she says, “I got you.” He looks at her, and nods.

“Yeah, I am,” he says, and she grins.

“Great!” she stands up, taking the chains with her. “This is how it's gonna work. C'mere.” She beckons at them, and they stand up, standing beside each other. Roxy untangles the chain. It's in a Y, and one end she attaches to a loop on Eridan's right glove, and the other end she attaches to Sollux's left glove. The long tail of the Y she attaches to a loop on the back of her wide belt. There's plenty of length between Roxy and the trolls, but only about a third of that length between Sollux and Eridan. “So,” she says, “you can't hurt each other, not physically, and I'm attached to the both of you as well so you can't trip each other or anything without taking me down too, and I know neither of you want that.”

Roxy hums and turns around. “Come on, then,” she says, and the three of them make their way towards the nutriblock, Eridan and Sollux glaring at each other. Roxy pulls out a couple slices of grubloaf, and then, “Could one of you grab me some grubpaste?” she asks. Sollux and Eridan go for the thermal hull, and, with a bit of pushing and shoving, Eridan grabs the grubpaste as Sollux tries to reach for his psionics to keep the seadweller away. Grinning, he hands the jar over to Roxy. “Thank you, Eridan,” she tells him, and on the other side, Sollux hands Roxy a knife. Roxy flashes Sollux a thankful smile and Sollux smugly looks over at Eridan, who fumes silently.

Roxy hums a light tune as she slathers on grubpaste liberally before putting the pieces of grubloaf together with a wet slap. She sets the knife on the grubpaste jar and Eridan picks it up, dumping the knife in the sink with the rest of Sollux and Roxy's dirty dishes before putting the grubpaste back in the thermal hull. Roxy turns around and leans against the counter as she eats, watching Sollux and Eridan fidget because they're so close to each other but aren't allowed to fight. Sollux tries to scratch at his psionics inhibitor, but the leather gloves make the gesture pretty much useless. Eridan smirks at him and Sollux lowers his hand with a scowl.

Roxy finishes her snack and sucks extra grubpaste off her fingers. “Oi,” she warns as Eridan goes to kick Sollux.

“Aw, Rox,” he whines, but she just narrows her eyes at him. The off spectrum pink along with the white eyes have been known to unnerve him, since his own human, Dirk, kept his eyes hidden behind dark shades.

Sure enough, Eridan looks down and mumbles an apology. Roxy smiles. “Apology accepted,” she tells him sweetly. She wanders back into the loungeblock, Sollux and Eridan following her like barkbeast wigglers, and she picks up her husktop. Flipping up the lid and pressing the power button, she sits at the end of the couch, forcing Eridan and Sollux to sit beside each other. 

Roxy dicks around on the internet for a while before bringing up Trollian, grinning at a bright orange trollhandle.

TG: hay dirky
TG: howre u doin?
TT: Hello, Roxy.
TT: I'm pretty good.
TT: Ampora's out.
TG: ya i kno hes sittin on my couch
TT: Oh, was that today?
TG: yup
TT: So, how's it going? Has he flipped his shit yet?
TG: surprissingly not
TG: *surprisingly
TG: i think he just wants to show up sollux
TT: Probably.
TT: I think he dislikes Sollux more than he dislikes me, and he keeps making black passes at me.

Sollux and Eridan are glaring at each other again, and Sollux shifts in his seat as if he's going to do something. Roxy eyes him over the top of her husktop.

TG: hold on i think sollux is about 2 do somethin

Sure enough, Sollux growls and goes for Eridan, leather gloves scrabbling harmlessly against his skin before his fingers latch onto the mouthguard. Roxy leans over her husktop and wraps her hand firmly around a horn. “Let him go,” she demands, voice hard, pulling on his horn. Reluctantly, Sollux's fingers slip off Eridan's mouthguard and she pulls him back, giving his head a small shake. “Stop that, both of you,” she says sternly, and they give her apologetic looks. Sighing, she holds out her hands. Sollux takes one and Eridan takes the other, pressing her palms as close to their mouths as they can with the mouth guards, a kiss in ashen deference to her as their auspistice. She smiles at them as she takes her hands back. 

TT: By the way, when you're done doing your auspistice thing, tell Ampora the wind is starting to pick up and it looks like there's going to be a storm soon, so he might want to start his way home unless he wants to get caught in it.
TG: i thought u said u guys were black???
TT: I said he's black for me. I'm too indifferent to do anything other than fuck with him for mild amusement.
TG: ur a terrible person and ily
TT: Love you too, Roxy.

Roxy closes her husktop and sets it on the floor out of the way. “Okay, guys, time's up,” she says. She reaches behind her and unhooks the chain from her belt. “According to Dirk, a storm's coming up, and Eridan should leave now if he wants to be home before things get bad.”

Eridan looks confused. “Dirk said that? That's ... kinda pale of him ...”

Roxy giggles as she unhooks the chain from their gloves and takes the key to their mouth guards off her. “I don't think he's pale for you, Eridan, sorry.” She unlocks Eridan's mouth guard first, sliding it off before moving on to Sollux. Eridan rubs his hand over his mouth, getting used to the feeling of no longer having the metal in place. Sollux just stretches his jaw out when Roxy removes his mouth guard, enjoying the feeling. Roxy drops it all in a pile where she was just sitting and undoes Sollux's psionic inhibitor collar, and he sighs happily when it comes off, psionics crackling across his skin. Roxy smiles at him and drops the collar beside the mouth guards. She pulls the second key off from around her neck and undoes the gloves, letting Sollux pull them off and drop them on the pile of bondage gear as she does the same for Eridan.

“My rings?” asks Eridan as he stands up, grabbing his cape and swinging it over his shoulders. Roxy digs the rings out of her pocket and holds them out to him, and he carefully slips them onto his fingers as the two of them walk to the door.

“How're you feeling, Eridan?” Roxy asks. Eridan nods.

“Pretty good,” he says. Roxy takes his hand and kisses the back of it, and Eridan takes the opportunity to flip over her hand and kiss her palm properly this time, without the mouth guard. His lips linger there and Roxy brings up a hand to run through his hair.

“You did good, Eridan,” she tells him. “I'm proud of you and Sollux.”

Eridan smiles, letting her hand go. “Thanks, Rox,” he says. He pulls the door open, and sure enough, the sky is cloudy and the wind's picked up. With one more look over his shoulder, he disappears with a swirl of cape. Roxy shuts the door and goes back to Sollux.

“How about you?” she asks him, sitting beside him. “How're you doing?”

Sollux nods slowly. “It was a good exercise, I think. I can't speak for ED, but I feel a lot stronger connection with you as our auspistice.”

Roxy giggles and takes his hand, kissing the back of it. “Do you think it's serendipity?” she asks.

Sollux grins. “Y'know what? I just might.”