Chapter Text
You look down at the key in your hand, shining gold and pristine with a scarlet jewel and intricate patterns. Then the carriage rocks and you almost drop it, your heart jumping into your throat as it half-slips through your fingers. You clamp your hand around the cold metal, bringing it to your chest and holding it close over your blood-pusher.
“Don’t lose that lad, or wwe’re gonna havve to shoot ‘im free wwith the crosshairs.”
Dualscar leers at you from the seat opposite, his arms resting on the back either side of him, fanning his cape out over his shoulders. You just glare in response, keeping your fins pinned back as much as they twitch with the urge to flare. He laughs, bitter and husky, shaking his head as he turns to look out of the window. Your name is Eridan Ampora, and for your sixth wiggling day you’re being taken to visit the only creature on the planet who’s worth more than you are.
And he’s yours.
Or at least he will be.
You have the key’s outline imprinted across your palm by the time you arrive, and you give up your balance to keep it there as you get out. Dualscar snickers when you nearly miss the step, but you keep your head high and straighten out your cape. The building is more plain than you expected, no ornate decorations or colours plastered on the walls. You guess it’s an attempt at secrecy, trying to make sure nobody finds out what – or who – is being kept inside. The drones guarding the entrance kind of give it away though. You don’t look at them when you walk past, keeping your head down and following in Dualscar’s footsteps like a lost wiggler.
A blue-blood greets you, dropping to one knee with a “Welcome your Domination” and then a nod to you, “My Prince.”
You nod back and ‘His Imperial Domination’ Dualscar grunts in acknowledgement. The blue-blood rises, and begins leading you further inside.
It feels like you’ve gone in circles, but eventually he stops by a door made of dull, black metal, locked and bolted in at least five different places. He takes out a key for each one and unlocks them, then taps on the door before opening it. But he doesn’t enter, instead standing aside to give you access. Dualscar does the same, forcing you to take a step with a sharp prod to your lower spine, then another, until you have both feet planted firmly over the threshold.
They room beyond his huge, maybe even bigger than your own respiteblock back at the palace. Gold and red are everywhere, in decorations on the walls and rugs on the floor. There’s a recuperacoon filled with royal sopor in one corner, half-hidden behind a heavy, velvet curtain. In another corner stands a training dummy, a sickle embedded in its head and sewn-up gashes scoring shapes across its body. Then at the centre, plush cushions and blankets adorn an Emperor-size sleeping platform, drapes hanging around it like a cocoon and drawing your eyes to the small form sprawled in the middle.
He’s draped in shimmering jewellery from head to foot, gold and red to match the room, with the odd glimpse of violet jumping out amongst the patterns. But every precious stone in the world means nothing when you meet his eyes, the crimson halo around his pupils so bright that their gaze feels as if it should burn. It still amazes you, even though you knew about his blood colour, how he’s the only one of his kind, rarer than the Empress herself. Or at least, he was.
The key in your hand was not always destined to be yours; many sweeps ago, it was to be passed to the Empress, a token of appreciation from her home planet, a desperate attempt to win her favour. But before she could even hear word of the offer, the ship she resided on was destroyed, taking Her Imperial Condescension down with it. Only a few out of the thousand strong fleet that had accompanied her remained, dragging their limping vessels back to the planet with naught but a flash of light to blame for the devastation that had been wrought upon them. ‘There was no ship’ they had said, ‘our sensors picked up nothing’, ‘there were no planets in sight’. It was as if the ships had just spontaneously burst. Poof. Gone. The enemy hid themselves impeccably, and left without a single trace or threat left behind. Or so the story goes. You happen to think that they did in fact leave a threat, and the remaining crew were so shit scared that they promised not to say anything. But they’re all dead now anyway; driven mad by the dayterrors that plagued their minds even during the night, until they either ended it themselves or did something worthy of a death sentence.
With the Heiress still barely out of her first pupation and the empire throw into turmoil, it was decided that the most eligible Troll of the next most royal hue would become Trollkind’s new leader. That ‘leader’ was Dualscar Ampora, and by extension you became the Heir, crowned Prince of Alternia, taking the place of the Heiress who was moved off planet to a safe, undisclosed location. You were only two at the time, but less than a sweep later it was arranged that you would be the one to receive the Empress’ gift. When you were three, Dualscar told you he would be a play-mate, a companion. At four, this changed to a quadrantmate. Then at five, he finally told you the whole story.
You are a breeder, a trait marked by your violet forelock, but a completely useless one since Trolls began their symbiosis with the mother grub. Your gift’s name is Karkat Vantas and he is a mutant, with cherry red blood and biology just skewed enough to be compatible with yours. The two of you are essentially an experiment, to see if a pure lineage would be a viable way of spawning more little mutants, rather than relying on the mother grub to pick out and combine the right genes. If it’s successful, multiple fuchsias could be born in the same generation, giving the Imperial line more of a fighting chance against assassination. If not… You don’t really want to think about it.
The blue-blood clicks his fingers, snapping you out of your daze. Heat radiates across your face with the realisation that you were staring at Karkat, but the Troll in question doesn’t seem to notice. He slides onto the floor, his adornments jingling as settles himself into a kneeling position on one of the rugs. His expression is unreadable; lips in a relaxed line, brows set level, eyes round and strong amongst his soft features. He’s emotionless. He’s beautiful. The blue-blood gently urges you closer, and without thinking you kneel down level with Karkat. His shoulders tense ever so slightly, eyes widening, but he doesn’t move or make a sound.
You spot the golden collar around his neck, the old Empress’ sign embellishing the lock that sits just above his sternum. Your fingers twitch, flexing against the key still tightly in your grasp. Once you take that collar of, he’ll be yours, all yours. Your chest tightens at that thought. What if he doesn’t like you? He’ll have to act like he does obviously, but as the seconds pass it’s becoming harder to ignore the fact that you’re falling flushed at first sight, and all you want is for him to feel the same. You don’t show it though. You can’t. Dualscar said that he may be treated like royalty, but he’s still just a pampered pet that needs to know his place.
You bring your empty hand up and place it under his chin, tilting his head upwards to give you access to the collar. God, he’s so warm, hotter than anything living being you’ve ever felt before. He shivers at your touch, closing his eyes as you put the key in the lock and twist. With a single click, the metal loop comes undone, clattering to the floor behind him. You pull his exquisite little face closer, waiting until his eyes open before you speak.
“Wwho do you belong to?”
He growls, “No-one.”