towerofanimus | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Characters: Willow Rosenberg and AU7 Eridan Ampora
Setting: Floor 25 - the meadow
Format: Action
Summary: Eridan's got a little something to give Willow
Warnings: Cavity-inducing cute

[Eridan sits on a rise on the meadow, fidgeting as he waits for Willow. He has something burning a hole in his pocket, a little trinket he's spent the last several days working feverishly over. He's quite proud of it, but nervous about the reception it will get. Will it be good enough? Will it offend Willow in some way?

But he's determined to give it to her. He just has to hope that nothing horrible happens before he can do it. The last time he waited for Willow, he got attacked by the Grand Highblood Subjugglator and nearly died. Of course, they also became matesprits that day, so it could have been worse]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She sure is the cutest... wwith the possible exception a you, a course.

[He's silent for a moment, thinking] I don't knoww wwhat to say, though. She's beautiful and wwild, and she hates bein cooped up. She's a wwhirlwwind a fire and rage sometimes, and also the swweetest troll in the coddamn univverse.

She's had a lot more years to work on it than I have, so I'm okay with being a possible exception.

So she's a handful? In the way that you never want her not to be a handful, because then you'd feel incredibly lonely.

[He goes quiet for a bit, thinking with a faraway look] She an me nevver had lusi, at least, not that wwe remember. Wwe basically raised each other, in a wwreck of a ship in the middle a the ocean. Not havvin' a lusus messed us both up real bad, and sometimes she's half crazy wwith the longing a it. But wwe're all wwe evver had.

[There's a moment as she processes this, thinks about how incredibly sad it sounds. How much she wants to wipe away the hurt and the memories, though she knows she can't do that, not really. All she can do is just make the present better. And Willow thinks, too, that maybe she understands this whole pity being affection thing more than she'd thought.]

... Sometimes having each other is more than enough, [she says softly.] Sometimes it's a lot.

Yeah. [He smiles and gives her another nuzzle] I didn't mean to make things sad, Wwill. Wwe had each other, and that's all wwe really needed.

Nah, it's okay if it's sad sometimes. Life is that way.

I was just thinking that I'm glad you had her. Troll romance might be about pity, but... human romance is about wanting the best things possible for each other. And I do, want that for you.

I don't think troll romance is so vvery different... I wwant wwhat's best for you, too. And for Fef. Not so much wwhen it comes to the black quadrants, but that's different.

I don't know, you guys make a big deal out of it being hate-based, and I mean, it obviously is, but... It doesn't really seem that dissimilar to me. There's still all the same relationship issues, they're just about something a little different.

Wwell... it's more about bein' rivvals than takin' care a each other. Wwe're still important to one another, but I wwouldn't go out a my wway to help Sol unless he really, really needed it, because if he wwere too wweak then he wwouldn't be up to bein' my rivval.

No, see, I get that, but it's like... you still really care about each other, even if it's in a different way. I don't know, it's just that when I'm talking to you about him or to him about you, I can tell that it's important.

[And the funny thing is, it's so different from a regular relationship in her mind that when she thinks of it this way it doesn't make her jealous at all. Though sometimes she is jealous, knowing Sollux personally had helped a lot not to feel that way. She smiles.] It's just... nicer than I thought it would be.

Wwell, yeah, it's important. [Eridan flushes, cocking his head] Nicer? You mean like because wwe aren't activvely tryin' to kill each other?

Kind of. When you first mentioned it I was afraid that it was like... legalized spousal abuse, or something. I was worried. I mean you have blood castes and totalitarian rule, it's not unlikely.

But it's a lot more balanced than that. If the power dynamic's uneven it completely defeats the purpose of the relationship. ... Right?

[He chews on his lower lip] Yeah, that's right. That's wwhy I wwas so wworried wwhen wwe first met, because our powwer dynamic's alwways been unevven. But I feel better about it than I did, evven if the ring doesn't really wwork.

[Oops...He never told her that, did he]

Huh? It doesn't? But I was so sure--

[She shifts in place, frowning, but not like she's offended. Just worried and confused.] Can you tell me what happened with it?

Wwell, it wworked fine, exactly howw you made it! [He says this hastily, touching his ring and wrapping his fingers protectively around it] But then Sol realized that if he didn't wwant to hurt me, he could still use his powwers, so he held me dowwn instead.

Hmmm. [She thinks about this, lost thinking about spell details for a moment.]

Do you want me to modify it at all? Originally I put that in because I'd just met you and I didn't want to hand you an undirected magical defense mechanism, but obviously I'm not so shy about that now.

[He thinks about that for a long, long few moments]

Wwhen he thought that his powwers wwouldn't wwork at all, he wwas scared. I wwas so much stronger than him, physically, and he thought I wwas going to hurt him real bad, and there wwas nothin' he could do to stop me.

I kinda thought you'd say that. [She leans in and places a kiss on his forehead.] You're a good boyfriend. And hate-boyfriend, whatever.

But if you change your mind ever, let me know.

[He blinks] I wwas goin' to say, it felt real fuckin' good. I pulled back because I wwas afraid he'd dump me. But I'm still deciding...

[... An amused look.]

Whatever you want to do. It'd be a cinch. I just think maybe you don't want to take some of the competition out of it.

Wwell, yeah. I guess I realized that it wwouldn't be any fun if I wwas completely in powwer, too. It's really hard to find that right balance. I nevver kneww it wwould be that hard.

I'm sure you'll get it. You've been together for a while, haven't you? You seem comfortable with each other.

Yeah, for a wwhile, though bein' here is really different. I'm seein' him more often, and wwe don't havve our wworkin' relationship anymore.

It must be nice to get out of the role for a while, where he gets to lord everything over you. At least I'd find it supremely annoying.

[He smiles] Yeah, it's fuckin irritating as hell. But I sort of miss bein his Agent sometimes. [Then he sobers] Except wwhen I remember howw stupidly dangerous it wwas and howw often I got the shit beaten out a me.