Chapter Text
1 h 37 min remaining
Eridan had an hour, thirty-seven minutes and approximately 12 seconds before his mathematics paper began. At least he had the affirmation that he could count using measurements of time! Oh joy, was that useful. A dry laugh rang through the atmosphere as he clenched the edges of his table. There was no one else in the classroom at that moment, except for miscellaneous shitheads that he wouldn't even spend a single nanosecond thinkin' about... especially not the one at the corner of the classroom with the ruffled hair, and the infuriating lisp for god's sake, yep, definitely not the one with the ridiculous bi-coloured specs or that crooked smirk-
"Hey so could you stop staring at me? Th- thome- I mean some people are trying to study."
He acted unfazed, in fact, even indignant at the notion that he could be staring at... him. Sollux Captor, the most oblivious jerk in the entire world, at least in the former's eyes. No verbal response was made in return to the accusation. He just turned away, blinking with an air of snobbishness, his eyelids languish and uninterested. He rolled his eyes as well, and did his best to hide his cold sweat. Which was due to the anxiety of not having studied for an exam, he tried convincing himself. His primal heart told him otherwise, of course, with its rapid, warm pounding and constrictions that binded the blood in his chest. But heavily ingrained within was his initial denial. Yeah, he was definitely not looking at him. Him? Out of all people? Ha.
Oh, but on the other hand, Captor was so effortlessly... aesthetically... intelligently... it was hard to put into words, Eridan realised, and all that spewed forth in the end was snark and hatred when he spoke. What he had for him was not in the conventional sense a romantic inclination at all, yet he felt like their relationship had already been tainted with emotion that was nothing less of passion. Eridan thought he'd felt this way ever since he set his eyes upon him. It was reinforced when he first heard him speak, subtle 'ths' that were like nails on chalkboard to his ears. Eridan was fully enthusiastic to continue his musings about Captor, though he inevitably had to derail the train of thought. He did have a mathematics exam, after all. Was he deliberately trying to lampoon himself, by dwelling on that boy? Perhaps, but the point had to be cast aside temporarily.
1 h 15 min remaining
Tap. Tap. Tap. A bitten pen cap makes repeated, annoying contact with the wooden surface of a table. Eridan cringed at two things in total; the fact that Captor was most certainly antagonising him with such blithering and stupid noise, and the fact that he was using some blatantly second-hand brand of pen to tap the pristine and lavish table, dirtying it with his spit, most likely. He thought, god - why did his damnable school have to take in charity cases like him? Eridan theorised that scholars were honestly there just as a futile effort by the school to tone down the elite aura of the entire establishment ... and it wasn't working very well cause they all ended up looking poor and isolated and despisable.
They were obnoxious and knew nothing about prestige or nobility in family names, so why try and hide the fact that the school was for the opulent sector of society? It wasn't a thing to be ashamed of, and it shouldn't have bloody well incited the need to bring in poverty-ridden scholars, taking up needless space. He felt rage boil within. Captor shouldn't be here. He couldn't afford it by any fuckin' means whatsoever so rightfully he shouldn't have been given the opportunity at all. So of course he couldn't help but swivel around at the torso and give the fellow a disapproving scowl, both at his annoying tapping and at his very existence.
And you know what Captor does next, out of all the responses he could've pulled? He smiled, sickeningly sinister, eyes narrowing.
This proved to infuriate Eridan further. His anger made itself obvious through the crease in between his eyebrows. To Eridan, it had seemed like his theory was confirmed! That all those scholars were just plunderers and ruffians under the guise of his school's honorable uniform... soiling the royal crest with their inherent barbaric-like nature and uncouthness. Why should he pay a bloody large fee to stay in this school while that asshole got everything complimentary? The world was practically handing the guy every opportunity in the universe on a silver platter, and yet Eridan still could feast his eyes at that disgusting attitude of Captor's. He even stole his position of first place last term, which he felt he so righteously deserved. Lamenting, Eridan found the degree which humanity had degenerated mortifying. And his shoulders rose in anger along with the partition of his lips, only to fall and for him to keep quiet. Because he did have that math exam, he knew, which was not going to stop approaching just for him to analyse that dude's balderdash and the system that wasted resources on people not worth wasting.
53 minutes remaining
This is about the time he fully realised the bleakness of his situation. He had used about forty or more minutes thus far, he calculated. And still he was not halfway done with flipping through the textbook. A curse was muttered under his breath. Then he began to shake with anxiety, eyes darting left to right. Adrenaline gave way to rapid thoughts, spinning and weaving radical ideas around and over each other, cancelling those really unfeasible and then- a ridiculous idea hit him. So ridiculous that he felt might just in fact work. He sauntered over to Captor's table, unknowingly condescending in the way he carried himself. Meulin, a senior who had ended up repeating a grade, waggled her eyebrows, looking at both of them. Though peeved at the senior's implicating gesture, Eridan dismissed that and carried on, textbook in hand.
"Hey so I was simply wonderin', see, that-"
"Look, I don't want to know, I don't care so just pleathe get lost." Sollux cut him off with a monotone voice, not even bothering to make eye contact. Eridan briefly considered flipping him off and just doing the apt thing by returning to his table. A subtle sneer makes it onto his face, but as he was desperate, he found himself dragging a free chair in front of Captor's table, facing him directly. He was about to give him a proposition he was most likely to reject, anyhow, but hell he had to try. After all, he reckoned that Captor would be grateful that he was even giving him the time of day. Eridan knew that he was dirt poor - and he knew he himself needed help for the examination, in a subject that Captor was most adroit in. Win-win.
"Let me be upfront. Can you do a crash course of half of our textbook in 50 minutes?"
"Yeah... ha. And why would I be entitled to help you?"
"I'm willin' to give you cash-"
"You know what. Just stop right there. Not hearing any this okay? I've got my own shit to deal with- Like why the fuck are we forced to learn about stuff like the League of Nations? Why not current bullshit? I don't get any of this and I'm equally as screwed so just shut the fuck-" Eridan peered at his table. Woah, no shit. He's got history notes sprawled all over his table, it's a fucking mess. His hair was frazzled, and it looked like he wasn't making much progress.
"You know that mathematics is first, right? We have an hour and a half of break before the history exam begins."
"I don't need to study for math." He quips.
"Then why didn't you do revision yesterday? Too busy being a wreck I presume?" Eridan thought he heard the other party let out a growl.
"No, no I wasn't. I fell asleep, okay? We've been having an entire week of examinations consecutively cause of this fucked up school system and I fell asleep on the table yesterday, alright? I don't give a damn about you or any oh so pitiable woes you have-" This time Eridan interjects the dialogue.
"Oh, same. Didn't manage to stay awake either. Except it's history I'm not worried about." It takes him a while to register that Sollux made eye contact with him after his off-hand remark, which he hadn't put much thought into. Eridan took that opportunity to note that behind the lenses he was wearing, his eyes looked akin to being of different shades of colour. He found it all sorts of enthralling, and he struggled not to bite his lip, even though he thought himself to surely be seeing false things. Sollux glanced to his side for a while, contemplating. Then he stood up, unexpectedly, promptly. He made a noncommittal gesture for Eridan to return to his own table, and Eridan was barely able to interpret the cue. So Sollux speaks up, on his own accord for the very first time.
"In return... help me for history, all right? You're... first in level for that th- subject. I remember."
"Likewise." The privileged boy grinned when the promise dawned in him. Both of them made their way to Eridan's table and the cram session begun.
17 minutes remaining
He couldn't comprehend the efficiency of which Captor could teach, but- holy hell, man. Somehow he managed to make him concentrate and understand the insurmountable amounts of equations before him instead of Sollux's own endearing (frustratingly so) face, and that, Eridan admitted, was a miracle of its own kind. Tap. Tap. Tap. Again he was using his pen to hit the desk. This should be irritating to Eridan, considering that it was the desk of his belonging- and it was, but somehow... at the same time, he didn't mind that him doing so. After all, it looked like, with his help, the two were done with the relevant syllabus. Eridan smiled, celebratory and pleased with himself, even though most of the effort was accountable to Captor. He flipped through a few pages, relaxed. Sollux didn't seem tense either, which was rather unnatural for the both of them, but nice nonetheless. Eridan felt sure of himself. Sollux shifted around in his ridiculously large grey hoodie, looking kinda satisfied as well, and the two of them sat in comfortable silence.
"Yeah, I owe you." Eridan broke the silence for a brief moment. "But only for a while, so don't get used to this level of amicable treatment."
"Amicable? Hardly." Sollux snorts in dire amusement. Eridan retorts.
"The only reason I'm not bein' eloquent with civil discourse is cause I'm not tryin'. And that's entirely your fault. It really is. I'm a defaultly affable person."
Sollux's lips curled into a tender smile, and tossed out at last was Eridan's sense of reason. He was legitimately trying to be angry at the other party at this point, yet genuine repulsion he could not muster. Stealing a position in the prestigious school for free, daring to be a snark-filled contemptible anathema towards him (Eridan reiterates in his mind that Sollux's attitude towards an Ampora was what it was), and worst of all - making him absolutely obsessed with him without him really trying. Emotion coursed through his veins, the nature of which was an enigma and could not be described. He was overwhelmed by all of it and he could only sigh whilst he simpered. It's all his fault, that he was feeling this way; and he absolutely loathed him for it. If only Sollux hadn't those misgivings and disgusting traits, oh he felt that he would worship his brilliant mind and his sincere and dorkish banter. He would be never reveal that to Captor, though, how much he had spiraled into feeling for him. He knew it was laughable, how deep and invested he was. Unless he felt the same, which he... thought was improbable, though he also thought he definitely deserved his affections; and the only thing hindering that was Captor's own daftness.
So he could go on and on, dreaming about that person he was obsessed with right in front of him, that work of horrendous art with the initials S.C. But reality was still regrettably real and there came their damned invigilator as other students filed in. As protocol, the teacher wrote the designated subject on the whiteboard, how long the examination was going to span, and started procedures in preparation to begin the examination soon thereafter. Sollux stood up and presumably started to return to his seat, expression reverted to that of indifference. Eridan began rearing himself for the examination, feelings finally settling and dissipating; converting to a mode of absolute concentration. He had a serious reputation to keep in regards to academic performance, after all. Taking a deep breath, he rid himself of distracting thoughts-
And then Sollux briskly traced a hand over his as he passed by, bending slightly and whispering into his ear, "Good luck, prince. Don't be so tense." Eridan couldn't see his face but he knew the smirk was there. And just like that, the emotions rushed back again, his freckles disappearing under a embarrassingly prevalent blush. Yet time doesn't wait, and soon enough he found himself flipping the paper open, mind still halfly preoccupied with angry thoughts about Captor. Oh, how he would get back at him later. He swore on it, mentally.