Chapter Text
Never before had the plaza of the Mall gone so quiet as that one day.
At least half the people inside the building had turned to look your way, and with good reason. The incriminating styrofoam cup in your hand was now empty, it's content all over him. His favorite shirt ruined, the coffee stains were sure to stay on the fabric forever, just as your face would forever haunt his mind.
His brown locks were also dirty, half of it coffee, half of it cream, sticking to his square and perfect face. The dark frame glasses had ended up on the tip of his nose, dripping with liquid just as much as he was dripping with regret.
He wanted to frown and be angry, in fact he was angry, furious even, yet his face couldn't show it. For the first time in all your time together, you had outmatched him. Not even he could have shown so much hate in just one look.
With the empty container still in your hand, you turned around, not wanting to give him even one more second of your time. And after just a few walking steps you ran, pushing pass people indiscriminately only wishing to get away at any cost. Out of the plaza and eventually out of the mall threw the ally leading to the parking lot were you regularly met up with him. You had nothing else to say to him, not now not never. It was not like he'd want it to hear what you had to say anyway. Not like he ever did. Your nails dug onto the styrofoam, destroying the cup for good, violently throwing it onto the floor as it made an echo in the half empty parking lot.
What a disaster. Never in your life had you ever felt so hurt.
"Motherfucker..." The first word took at least 5 minutes of clenching teeth to actually come out of your mouth. Your tongue was a knob, it felt bad to even speak. With your back against the brick wall you crouched, your head hiding between your arms and your mocha stained hoodie. "Motherfucking Captor you son of a bitch!" After the first word the subsequent ones were easy to let out. Even if you yelled, it all sounded like a nonsensical loud mumble to the people around you, since your tight embrace on your head muffled most of the sounds you emitted.
This was betrayal at it's worst.
And from him of all people.
"Friends no matter what, right?"
Bullshit.
You had to know he was talking bullshit since day one. How could he not? Friends? Never. You were just a tool to him probably. You couldn't explain it in any other way. Why would he hang out with you if that wasn't the case?
Tears had far from begun to fall. You still focused yourself in being angry though. You weren't sad, or so you told yourself.
A few people passed by you and stared. A few gave a few whispered words of sympathy or anger because of your outrage from mare moments before, but most didn't know what to make of you.
"Not enough drama for one day? You need to keep making a scene out here twwo?"
Not giving him a word, you stood up and walked away, chewing on the inside of your cheek to stay silent. Not wanting to give him nor anyone else any satisfaction in seeing you suffer. The only difference he was apparently way more stubborn that your so called friend.
"Nothing to say noww? Wwell, noww look at that." Step after step he followed you at your same pace, keeping a safe distance from you at all times. You could almost make up the smile on his face, laughing at your state like he always did at any chance he got. "Wwhat you give back inside wwas nothing short of a perfect postal picture. I'll get them printed for Christmas." Nothing. Not a word. The inside of your mouth begun to taste like blood, he frowned. "Funny how you yelled in the middle of the mall but you're so silent noww."
"Leave me alone, Ampora."
"Ohhhh your vvoice returned, I thought he had taken it with him together wwith your dignity."
But there was no response. Now that was shocking. As your feet slowed down and finally came to a complete stop, he expected you to at least try and punch him, at least once, but there was nothing. Instead you just stood there, not saying a word.
Tapping his shiny leather shoe against the pavement it took him less than a minute to be bored with your non reaction. Your hands clutched your hood tightly, covering your head in shame of your own actions of lack of them. Witty remark after witty remark he made his way around you, ending at your side.
"What is it that you want?!" You suddenly snapped, removing your hands away from your face making his usual cocky expression drop completely. Even as your brows arched inwards, the pain surpassed any anger you could be feeling at that time.
Tear, genuine tears and even a few scratches on your face. The border of your messy hair poke out of your hood and it looked worse than ever. One of your sleeves was still tainted, probably with part of the cold drink you had splashed on Sollux face and to top it all off the little makeup you wore on a daily bases was all smeared on your face as if Gamzee had been the one doing your makeup.
The Hipster douche stood silent just a foot away from you and at your sudden outburst of emotions. "You want to make me feel miserable? Well guess what? You come late to the party Ampora. Nothing you say, nothing you do will make me feel more miserable right now. Or did you just come to point at me and laugh?! Do it for all I care! It's not like it will get any worse!" Violently waving your arms all around, the only thing you did was caught more unwanted attention. You knew you looked silly and miserable, but you felt it too, so what was the point in hiding it?
At his now lack of response you threw your arms in the air one last time in an attempt to wave him off of your life for good. "Just leave me alone. You won't be seeing much of me anymore anyway." The truth suddenly hit you like a train wreck for the second time in less than 30 minutes. Your best friend had abandoned you. The boy you had come to care about so much had kicked you out of his life for good.
And now you were alone.
He was the only thing you could even come to consider a close friend, the only person outside your family and in the city that you truly cared for. Sure you had other friends, but they lived far away, and it's not like you had that many to begin with.
In silence, Eridan watched as you took various steps further into the parking lot, completely ignoring the car horns being directed at you. It was then that realization hit you again only this time the pain was just one of a baseball bat. Your head was then bashed somewhat delicately against the nearest concrete column, were it rested for a while. You had no ride home, you had no money on you for the most part and your cellphones battery had died. It never had occurred to you you would need another mean of transportation. Sollux was your habitual driver, what would make this time any different?
"Stupid. Stupid. Stupid." Three consecutive bangs you gave your poor already hurting head, punishing yourself for not having a back up plan. The one day you had no cash on you. The ONE day had to be the day. "How the fuck am I getting back home now?"
Another horn was now blown your way and just like every time, you chose to ignore it. It was not a strange occurrence to be yelled by a random driver seeing as you were literally standing in the middle of the road the cars needed to use to get out of the Mall, but this one seemed to be especially persistent.
With your fist clenching hard and your skin being dug onto by your nails, you turned around ready to flip the driver off, only for your wrist to be met by someones hand.
And before you could protest, you were sitting on the passingares sit of someones car.
In the time it took you to process what was happening, the half bleached hair glass wearing male had already driven all the way out of the Mall and was quickly approaching the highway."Wwhere do you livve?" Annoyance dripped from his voice. You didn't answer, still somewhat surprised by his actions. "I asked you wwhere you livved, are you deaf?"
"Just drop me on the corner or something. I'll find my way home." You mumbled, avoiding his question.
Eridan sighed, clicking his tongue in frustrated at your commonly known cold attitude to mostly everyone, but he was having none of it, specially not now. "Look, I'm not doing you any favvours here. Evven if you don't look like one most of the time, you're still a wwoman and even if you're a royal pain in my ass it's not decent for a gentlemen to leave you all alone and broke in the Mall." His speech paused as he crossed the highway to the other side of town before speaking again. "So tell me wwhere you livve and suck it up."
Biting on your lower lip to hold in what you wanted to say, you gave him your address, pointing the way silently.
He didn't thank you nor did he say anything else. His hand went down onto the radio and he flicked it on, not wanting it to be all complete silence, for his own mental health of course.
The rest of the drive threw was silent. Awkwardly silent. Your view was stuck somewhere in the outside of the car, not even wanting to think of what was going on. There was no small talk either. What was the point? You had nothing in common. You were loud and messy and he was a neat suck up. You liked games and he liked photography. He was stinking rich and you were low class, your parents working constantly while you slacked off in high school while his father had some kind of fishing company that made God knows how much millions a year.
That you never got along was not even near the truth, but it's safe to say it was not that simple either. Much to your dismay, your long time crush and best friend had hooked up with a lovely high class girl which you came to dislike rather quickly. It was not her personality, it was not her looks, it was not that she had money, it was just the fact that she was with him. It was no hiding the fact that you liked Sollux. Maybe because of the looks, maybe because he was smart and maybe because he was gentle at first and tough at the next, there was no telling at this point, so it was safe to say that seeing him with someone else hurt you and even made you angry.
And how did Eridan Ampora fit in all this? Well much to yours and Sollux discomfort, he seemed to be Feferis best friend. Clinging onto her like a tick, constantly bugging her about how Sollux was a mess, something which out of your love for him you corrected constantly, something you regretted the second after your spoke.
But your mouth had always been quicker than your mind.
"Do you need a tissue or something?" Eridan's voice cut your memories to an abrupt end. You glanced at yourself in the mirror for the first time to find your face a complete mess. Rubbing the non dirty sleeve of your hoodie on your face you let a 'no, thanks' whisper before darting your eyes to the outside of the vehicle once more. You where close to home already, which was a relief. You could now take a shower and sleep for the next week or two. Maybe if you were lucky enough you could even get your mother to bake you cookies of some kind to make you feel better, though you doubted you could ever explain what happened without breaking down making you quickly decided against it.
As your house came into sight you motioned him to stop, which he of course did. The old fashioned yet modern looking car was out of place in your neighborhood, causing a few people to glance at the sight. As you opened the door to exit the car, you swallowed, holding the doors handle between your still trembling digits. "Thanks."
"Excuse me?"
"I said thanks." Just as the first time, the second came a little louder but just as sincere.
"Wwhatever." Even not looking at him you could tell he wasn't looking at you either. His eyes were on the road, or maybe the GPS as he searched for a way out of your neighborhood. "Be gentle wwith the door."
"Right." So much for trying to be nice eh? At least he wasn't mocking you which in all honesty was way more than you had expected. Just like he had requested, you closed the door carefully, the second it closed, it locked behind you and he sped off. Not like you were waiting for a heart warming goodbye of any kind but at least some kind of acknowledgement would have been nice.
Just as he disappeared round the corner you unlocked your front door and disappeared inside.
That day had been the worst day of your life so far, but one thing did come out of it:
If Eridan Ampora had the capacity of having human feelings if even for a second then maybe,
just maybe,
there was hope for you after all...