Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/ works/176839. Rating: Explicit Archive Warning: Underage Category: F/M Fandom: Homestuck Relationship: Sollux_Captor/Aradia_Megido Character: Sollux_Captor, Aradia_Megido Additional Tags: Flashback Series: Part 1 of Three_Short_of_Nineteen Stats: Published: 2011-04-03 Updated: 2011-09-05 Chapters: 5/? Words: 2110 ****** 3so19: Welcome Home ****** by Ariamaki Summary The first of the Three Short of Nineteen flashbacks, wherein a certain red-hooded beauty returns to the Veil, to the shock and joy of her former matesprit. Notes Since making new sections for 3so19 has taken so long, and the last few days were absolute torture, I decided to just start putting up the flashbacks as multi-chapter side stories, which has the convenient side-effect of them being skippable / readable separately, divorced from the plot. ***** Red Feelings ***** Sollux Captor was alone. Oh, he still had Karkat. And it wasn't like the others were gone or dead or anything. It's just... He didn't have any black romantic options (apart from Eridan, but HAHA no) and after she got that message from the pink-text girl, Feferi had broken things off with him. And he was OK... No, no, that reminds him too much of what he really wanted. He was alright with them just being friends, it had only really beeen a relationship of opportunity, two strange fish glubbing out here together. But that didn't change the fact that it left him alone. Nobody he hated enough, nobody he pitied enough, just his rage-filled moirail and everybody's freaking Auspistice. So he sat in the lab and worked on his ~ATH scripts and tried to figure out why Aradia's robot had exploded. She was gone for good, even that metal form just a thing of the past. No, bad: He couldn't let himself get into a downswing over this. The humans would be arriving in a day or so, relative to their time. Have to put on the red face, be the Happy Sollux, be normal. Or normal enough. He thought about that last embrace, the smile on her face, the smile he had missed for a sweep and change, and that kept him going until he could use dinner as an excuse to get the hell out of the lab and go crash in his respiteblock. KK could go screw-- He wanted to sleep. Sleep was good. When he slept, the voices couldn't force him to listen, couldn't intrude on his every single attempt to think. It wasn't even like these rooms had a proper Recuperacoon, he thought as he pushed past each set of transportalizers. Just that wide flat bed with the cold white sheets and the weird squishy head-resting-objects. And, at the moment, quite a lot of grey skin swaddled in red clothes and backed with gossamer wings. Grey skin with a pair of amazing ram horns above it, with a huge smile, with a face he hadn't really seen in a sweep and change. He stared and blinked and lifted his glasses and rubbed his eyes, but it was still there. SHE was still there. Aradia giggled and spread her arms to offer a hug to her lost boyfriend. "Hey! I missed you!" ***** Red Lights Rising ***** "Tho your dream-thelf wath in a quetht bed the WHOLE time?" "Yeah! And it kind of sucked and hurt when it got burned, but it was OK, because then I woke up, and I was alive! And then The Demon showed up in person, and I..." Sollux just stared at her, listening raptly as she spoke about her tribulations in making it back, about using her powers to hold The Demon (for fuckth thake the DEMON) at bay, and then sneaking into the lab and waiting for him. He was barely able to concentrate on that amazement though, because she was so beautiful now, over a sweep of absence from the living world translating into supple curves and a perfect smile and amazing legs. The legs especially. Zooming out for a moment, we will realize that Sollux's current vantage point is looking up those legs, because Aradia immediately pulled him into a hug when he was stunned, and when he began to weep with unrestrained joy, she pulled his head into her lap, just like all those perigees ago, and calmed him down with gentle strokes through his short unkempt hair. They stayed like this for a while, Aradia talking and Sollux listening, while he fooled and fiddled with her outfit, amazed at the luscious softness of the bright red fabric-- Like a plush pillow turned into clothes. He almost fell asleep, but he was far too shocked and pleased to have her back. Eventually though, she slowed down, and then stopped completely, looking down at him. "...I'm sorry." "What? YOU'RE thorry? I killed you, AA! I--" She presses her finger to his lips, making his two-toned eyes go cross trying to focus. "No, silly! I'm sorry for leaving you alone. And I know you didn't do it- You were controlled and we both know that. So never, ever apologize for it, got it?" He sighed and looked away "...Yeth maam." She cheered up instantly, her smile going sly. "Good! Now, I think we forgot something when we said hello..." Reaching down with her delicate hand, she tilted his chin up and stared into his eyes through the glasses, her smile softening as she leaned forward. They kissed for the first time since their childhoods, since her death, since his years of coping with voices, since the game. And for a moment, sweet and glorious and soft, the voices shut up, the death was forgotten, the game an afterthought. There was only this little bed with these two points of light and heat. ***** Red and Gold ***** Thin and short fingers tangled into long and thick hair, dry lips met wet, and they held each other softly, their kisses starting slow and chaste as they had been back in the old days, then growing faster and heavier as their years of pent-up desire started to break through their self-control. He leaned down and kissed at her cheek and her chin and her neck, bringing a smile and a giggle and a moan in turn, and she ran her hands along his arms, coaxing him further. Shirts and thick plush hoodies respectively were quickly discarded, and he sat back in shock. He had known, instinctively, that her body had aged just like he had. Time passed since they had last seen each other. But he hadn't expected her to have filled out so thoroughly, to have such an unabashed grin on her face. "Just like back then, right Sollux?" They had often held each other, shirts discarded, and simply been close- - Physically embracing with no lust, just comfort. He nodded, a bit shakily, his mouth dry even after their kiss. "Uh, yeth. Jutht like before." She ran her hands across his chest-- Wire thin and undefined, his color already flushing brightly through his sensitive skin. Her own deep red (his favorite color, so dark and calm) showed brightly in the rings of her own chest, and she blushed and kept touching, her hands stroking at him as he shivered and kissed her shoulder and neck again, traveling down slowly. She gasped the first time his lips caressed her rings, the transparent skin suddenly showing even stronger colors as she gently raked her claws across him. He gasped, hating the sound of his lisp as he did, and started nipping, just a bit, his teeth bringing out the most amazing little sounds. They stayed together like this for a little while, hands roaming and teeth and claws making delicate lines of gold and ruby, before eventually she pulled his head up from her chest and looked in his eyes again, breathing heavily and letting her tongue show, just a bit. "Sollux, I..." He was panting too, he couldn't help it, she felt so good... "Yeah?" "...I think we should get a pail." "Oh. Holy thit." ***** Red in the Face ***** It was just a half hour later that they met back up in her Respiteblock- - Kanaya had been using it to store some of her bulk cloth, so it was much easier to make a comfortable place to be. The pail was in the corner, essentially forgotten, as they looked at each other-- They had spent time together before, at least partially nude, but this was a first, this level of intimacy, of closeness. Sollux stared, jaw slightly slack, and Aradia looked back at him with that wide and constant grin-- He'd noticed it, ever since she arrived, she never quite stopped smiling, but now it was a broad smile, fangs showing just a touch. "Sollux, you... Mmh. Wow. I could get used to this view." He blushed, mustard-yellow rising up his chest and cheeks, at the mere thought of it-- And the view he was getting didn't hurt any. Aradia had one hand planted on her hip, the other toying with her hair, almost nervously, as he looked up at her smile, down to flushed lips and fidgeting legs, back up to that smile. He decided he liked that most of all. It took them a minute, nervous, fumbling, to get back to the way they had been before, close and touching, lips moving-- First a kiss, gentle, teeth held back, and then touches, careful and paranoid, as though the whole thing were a dream or a vision. But thankfully, it was real, she was real and this was real, and they quickly became more active, a dozen tiny kisses melting into a singular one, deep and passionate, as their hands roamed down, stroking and pressing, finding their way. She gasped, pressing down, legs sliding and hips shoving against his hand. The spot he hit was lovely, delicious, and she couldn't keep control after that- - he obliged her quite happily, hands used to working with fiddly electronics now put to more delicate, more enjoyable, work. Finally, red in the face, on the very brink, she pulled herself away and smiled at him, red light starting to gather on her hands. "So, want to bring things up a notch?" He thought for a second, fake-contemplating with his hand on his chin, and then psionic force crackled to life around his glasses. "I wath hoping you'd thay that." ***** Red All Over ***** Chapter Notes See the end of the chapter for notes He realized he only had a second before she pulled out the time-bending tricks, so he dropped into the last thing he'd been developing before the robotic explosion. All the red and blue fire pulled inwards, back into his eyes, and then sprung out as one invisibly-small spark of force. She blinks at him in confusion. "Sollux, I thought we were using our... oh. Aah." Her lips flushed, her eyes went wide, and she began to scissor her legs together-- Feeling the heat already. He was glad he had gotten practice doing direct manipulation of that part of the brain-- He hadn't been sure if he could please a robotic frame any other way, and it turns out now, it's just another little skill he can gaaah. That's right around the point where all his thoughts get cut off in the warm and wet heat of her mouth-- Delicate, no teeth-- lowering to envelop his bulge. He leans backwards, overwhelmed by the force of it, and quickly finds he's on the brink. A minute passes, agonizing pleasure shooting up his frame, and then another, and he realizes he still hasn't gotten off yet-- And neither has she. Looking down at his lover, he sees her moving in impossibly slow motion, and figures it out. Time manipulation... slowing down even further... He lazily relaxes. He can afford to-- Sad to say (for a Troll), he trusts Aradia, and he knows she won't take ill advantage of him like this. Plus, he's still manipulating away on the other end of the field, his little burst of power doing the job he's too temporally-dislocated to do. He feels her power's grip start to weaken, her tongue starts to lap and pull at the skin right beneath his head, and his own head is spinning from the constant edging he's experienced... She finally lets him go, and his perceptions snap back to normal reality in a blinding slam as he comes harder than he ever has before. The flood of golden gel completely spatters her face and chest, and he can hear her groan and let loose her own release as his psychic spark finishes her off. They both fall back, shivering, against the bed, sharing a few gentle kisses through the mess. She giggles at him, pointing to the empty bucket in the corner. "I guess we shouldn't have bothered with... Oh!" He won't let that sort of joke stand, you know. Jutht iithn't proper.   We would try to convey the rest of the scene to you, but at this point, both Mage and Maid are acting far beyond the perception of normal time or normal space. Suffice to say, the tangle of limbs is above our comprehension, and the fierce passion on display is far past expectations. We return you now, to the aftermath. "..." "..." ...Or we would, were the two not fast asleep in each other's arms. Hm. Let's move on, then...   The Incredible Spider-Troll sat at her friend's husktop, tapping in the password she had earlier peeked. Thiiiiiiiis was going to be juicy, she thought. And if only she knew... ***** NEXT TIME ON THREE SHORT OF NINETEEN: SPIDERTROLL ***** Chapter End Notes Well there we go! The first "Three Short of Nineteen" flashback is complete! The next one, also a five-short-chapter piece, will begin soon. There are five of them TOTAL coming, and all together, they form Chapter 5 of 3so19. Enjoy! Please drop_by_the_archive_and_comment to let the author know if you enjoyed their work!