Chapter Text
The first time she introduces them, she is understanding. She sees exactly what Feferi does in Sollux, and maybe even a bit more, as Fef rarely looks past the surface.
The first time she eats lunch with him, she is fond. She grows an even stronger sense of why her fishy friend simply swoons over what seems to be just a nerdy little tech guy.
The first time she stays up all night talking to him, she is suspicious. Not of him; the main topic of most of their chatting is actually of Feferi, but more so of herself and the ways her own eyes dart to avoid contact, and yet they cannot stay off him.
The first time she goes to the park with him, she is in denial. Convincing herself that this is merely platonic – if she cannot do that, then she simply convinces herself that it is a silly infatuation that will fade, oh please, God, just fade away before someone notices.
Her name is Aradia Megido, and something about that boy just makes her swoon like the fairytale princess she will, never, ever be. Because she is a literal grave digger, digging her hypothetical grave deeper, and deeper, and deeper.
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“Aradia!”
The peppy, familiar voice brings aforementioned Hawaiian girl out of her trance. Well, mostly Hawaiian, anyway – her skin was darker, heavily freckled and hair a deep shade of russet that shone like fire. Her eyes were a dark burgundy, so brown they read maroon, body curvaceous and almost entrancing. That was, if anyone really saw her. She constantly lived in Feferi’s shadow – she was tall and blonde, skin carefully tanned in a salon but looking gorgeous, lightly freckled and eyes a shimmering blue, body slender and athletic – but Aradia never really did mind. They were polar opposites; Aradia all dark hues, Feferi all lights, Aradia thick and Feferi thin, Feferi peppy and Aradia often on the tail end of things, even if she was naturally optimistic, with an feminine but alto voice, Fef’s light and high-pitched, but not obnoxious.
Then, there was the obvious opposite; Feferi was a nursing student, and though Aradia was studying archaeology, she still worked on the side as a grave digger.
It wasn’t a glamorous job, she knew. Fef was always trying to get her to quit, to get a new one. However, she always found an odd sort of calm when on the sanctified ground, near the dead and alone save the voices that haunted her mind. The voices of those she surrounded herself with when she worked. She wouldn’t tell anyone about her mania of course – she took her pills, went to class, and no one knew the better. And it would stay that way.
Back to the present, though; she jumped a bit as Feferi called for her, book nearly falling from her hands – “another ghost story, Ara, reely?” – before she managed to catch it, saving her page before looking up at Fef and… Boy?
Boy, in this case, seemed to be her new catch. Fef was a catch and release kind of girl when it came to dating, the release normally sooner rather than later, but it was no surprise to see her clinging to his arm like a buoy, giggling and grinning and being the all around gorgeous and charismatic girl Aradia knew her to be. No wonder she stole all the attention.
At this moment, though, her catch’s eyes were curiously trained of Aradia quite intensely. She’d never considered herself much too look at, seeing as no one ever really looked at her for very long unless the look was disapproving or weirded out, so this was quite the odd occasion.
This boy; he was interesting, as well. Tall and lanky, filled out but hinting at gawkiness in his early years, he was sandy-haired with bi-colored eyes, one blue and one brown-maroon, much like her own. He was all angles, really, softened with maturity but still sharp, lanky. Attractive.
Er, no. Just interesting. That’s all he was. Probably some computer tech nerd she picked up in the hallway, just dying to be with the queen bee. Or fish. Whatever.
Despite her inner protests, though, she could see that he had potential. Aradia'd always had skill in reading people, and it was quite obvious that he was intelligent, sweet but snarky and while he could be rude, and while he had a side of him that had to be sated, he was a worthwhile catch if you could handle what you reeled in.
“Sollux, this is who I was telling you about!” What on Earth did Feferi have to say about her? “Ara, this Sollux Captor, a tech major and my new boyfrond! Sol, this is Aradia Megido, the grave digger-girl!” Oh, jesus. Already loosing points with the new boyfriend and the Aries hadn’t even spoken to him yet. Oh, yeah, she was supposed to be greeting him.
“A pleasure,” she hummed, holding out a hand and smiling softly as the boy – Sollux, she’d said – reached out to shake it, not at all hesitant. Hm.
“Yeah. Interethting pathhtime you’ve got there.” The lisp was pretty charmi – interesting. Yes, interesting.
Aradia chuckled softly, shrugging and nodding. The café she was sitting at suddenly seemed too crowded, and yet much more pleasant all the same. “You could say that. I can’t say it makes me many friends, but the few I do make are great at keeping secrets.”
Feferi’s eyes widened a bit, still unused to her best friend’s morbid humour – she’ll have to be used to it someday – but Sollux burst out laughing, grinning toothily, ear to ear, and as dorky as it made him look, Aradia had to say that it was quite endearing. She didn’t even try to convince herself otherwise on that one.
“That’th great, AA. Pure gold.” AA? Hm. She didn’t mind it, actually. She simply laughed along with him, smoothing her dress down as she stood, book tucked under her arm and slinging her messenger’s bag over her shoulder, fingers skimming the maroon-and-beige-striped strap that crossed her chest lightly, material familiar under red-painted nails.
“Well, I must thank you. Just as well, I think I’ll be taking my leave. I’ve got to study and whatnot, and make sure Dave didn't trash the apartment, or have any parties or anything while I was gone. We’ll have to meet up sometime for a real sit-down lunch, yes?” Aradia’s eyes flashed back and forth from Feferi and Sollux, skin crawling somewhat pleasantly as she realized his eyes shifted and moved many times, but never once left her form – she reprimanded herself, though, for enjoying the feel of his gaze.
“Shore!! That would be super fun! Let’s sea, it’s Monday, so…”
“Thurthday, maybe?”
After a bit of back and forth negotiation, a date for noon on Wednesday was planned to meet up at Strider Beats, so Aradia could drop off her things at her apartment upstairs, and then they could decide where to go from there.
Walking off, Aradia decided that as long as she reminded herself that all Sollux seemed to be was interesting, then this could really be quite fun.