Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/3885568.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Underage
  Category:
      M/M
  Fandom:
      Homestuck
  Relationship:
      Eridan_Ampora/Karkat_Vantas, Black_EriKar
  Character:
      Karkat_Vantas, Eridan_Ampora
  Additional Tags:
      Painful_Sex, Violence, Violent_Sex, Blood, Fluff, Slurs, sex_injury
  Series:
      Part 3 of life_on_the_meteor_is_shitty
  Stats:
      Published: 2015-05-06 Words: 5724
****** Vvae Vvictus ******
by amporatrash
Summary
     life on the meteor is shitty, pt 3. in which eridan survived kanaya's
     chainsaw by virtue of his "wwhite sciences" and plays at being black
     for karkat. never turn your back on the body.
He couldn't find Dave, and just then he wasn't really comfortable with anybody
else.  That first time in his room had turned into a proper "thing," and though
neither of them really knew exactly what to call it, they agreed to keep it on
the downlow.

Just then Karkat wasn't so sure he wanted to be comfortable, though.  It had
been a few weeks since Gamzee, and all too well he remembered the pain of being
stuffed full, of taking a bulge that big from someone who didn't care if he was
comfortable or not.  That was the kind of release he needed and wanted, and so
he wandered the meteor lab, half-hoping he might stumble across Gamzee again,
and more than anything, truly hoping he wouldn't.

The logical part of his brain told him there just wasn't any way.  He'd already
rejected Gamzee and the idea of being with him like that again made his stomach
turn.  It would have been one thing if Gamzee hadn't changed, but he had. 
There was no getting around that and no way to make it go back to the way it
was.  Karkat couldn't tolerate that.

He could have sought out Terezi.  There was enough tension between them to
maybe make things a little harsh, but no.  She was as hard to find as Gamzee,
and anyway things always got emotional with her (and not in the way he
currently needed).

It was difficult to admit to himself that he was after something blacker. 
Maybe it was the intensity of his frustrations getting to him, or maybe what
happened with Gamzee put him off on the idea for a while, but the need for it
was creeping in like black muck oozing through the cracks in his think pan,
slowly soaking his sponge in caliginous sludge.  He just didn't feel black
enough for anyone on the meteor, and the thought of never being able to satisfy
those desires only doubled his frustration.

Karkat walked with his hands in his pockets, hunched over and scowling,
radiating intense displeasure.  Most of the trolls on the meteor had lately
been sullen and irritable, though the reason for that was pretty obvious. 
They'd all retreated mostly to their own rooms or to more solitary areas of the
meteor, keeping to themselves or pairing off.  If Alternia still existed, it
would have been getting close to drone season, and though no one mentioned it,
it couldn't have been more painfully obvious to anyone with naturally-occurring
gray skin.

Everyone's scent changed, shifted in subtle ways.  Karkat noticed it whenever
he walked past another troll.  Eyes averted or met; there was no middle
ground.  Things weren't normal.  It was "that time" again.  They knew, and he
knew.  If Rose and Dave picked up on it, they didn't mention anything and that
was really for the best.  Dave would mention it sooner or later, as such was
simply in Dave's nature, but Karkat hoped things would calm down a bit before
he asked.  Dave really didn't get blackrom at all and the last thing Karkat
wanted was to jump his bones in a particularly caliginous mood and freak him
out.  He didn't want to lose what he had with Dave; it was too good.  Karkat
would have been the first to pitch a fit and rage about trolls crossing that
line with humans, but here he'd done it himself.  Rose and Kanaya were doing
it, too.  Precident established.

He wondered briefly if they were having trouble with this or not.  Kanaya in a
caliginous mood, now there was a fascinating thought.  She was normally so
reserved, so cool-headed, but when her switch flipped she could become lethal
in a heartbeat, as she'd shown after Eridan lost his head.  Downright fucking
terrifying.

A shudder passed down Karkat's spine, and a quiet growl slipped from his
throat.  Kanaya was far too dear a friend to consider something like that, but
the forbidden nature of the idea aroused him in ways he didn't want to think
about.  He hissed an expletive under his breath as he felt the tip of his bulge
squirming in his pants, threatening to emerge further if he kept thinking about
it.  He swallowed thickly and glanced around; if he decided to go for some
relief, he was too far from his room, having wandered all the way out to what
they all often referred to as the Edges, more or less just a term for what
equated to the meteor's many-tiered roofs.

The labs had several roof observatories and walkways, so wandering up to the
Edges was easy to do.  You could find yourself up there easily just by
wandering through the halls and ascending when the opportunity presented
itself, via elevators, escalators, or stairwells.  Karkat had done so without
even realizing it, too lost in his thoughts and frustrations to pay attention.

Still, if there was no one else up there, perhaps he could slip into a corner
and--

FLASH!

He saw it out of the corner of his eye, but it was so bright that he turned
toward it immediately, a burst of white light so pure and perfect that it could
only make him think of one thing.

A lone figure stood at the furthest Edge, his tattered violet cape billowing in
the shifting energies that surrounded him.  

Oh god fuck no.  He should be dead.

Never turn your back on the body.

Kanaya broke the wand, but that clearly had not stopped him.  She cut him in
half, but that clearly hadn't stopped him either.  

As he watched, the tall figure of Eridan Ampora gathered arching tendrils of
white holy fervor in his grasp and cast it upward, where it burst into a
thousand shimmering tongues of flame and scattered into glittering ash.  He can
still do it?  How the fuck can he still do it??

He wanted to be afraid, he really did, and something in his think pan genuinely
was, but his body wasn't translating that fear the way a human would have
expected it to.  He should have been repulsed by what he saw.  He should have
turned and fled back to the others.  Somehow Eridan survived and was still
practicing his freakish white sorcery.

He couldn't.  Instead, he drew inexplicably closer to the figure of his former
friend, silently and cautiously, wondering if what he was seeing was even real
or the result of some form of psychosis that had been brewing in his think pan
since all of this began.  The tall figure of the seadweller looked solid
enough, standing there silhouetted by his own stark, ghastly power.

Turn around.  Walk away.

No, I can't do that.  I have to see if he's real.

And if he is?  He could blast a hole through you, just like he did with Feferi
and Kanaya.  He could kill you.

At a certain point in Karkat's frustrations, a trickle of self-annihilating
desire began tickling its way down his spine.  I don't care if he kills me. 
Something black and hot flickered to life in his belly and began to burn away
at his inhibitions, his self-concern.

Before he could stop himself, the words left his lips, hard and loud.  "WHAT.
THE FUCK."

Eridan half-whirled, staring over his shoulder at Karkat.  White energy arched
and sizzled up along his arms, curling around his shoulders and getting lost in
his hair.  His eyesockets looked bruised, the eyes themselves a bit pale, as if
some of the life were gone out of them.  It only stood to reason; his shirt was
a tattered wreck, the bottom sheared away by Kanaya's chainsaw, revealing a
lean, sleek abdomen with a garish, awful violet scar.

"Kar."  Eridan's gaze narrowed slightly.

Karkat stared up at him, practically vibrating.  "How.  She cut you in half."

Eridan turned fully and jumped down from the edge, and with a flourish he
withdrew something from his sylladex to show it off ever so briefly, a vivid
white crystal that shone through the gaps generated by his grasping fingers. 
"Angel's heart," he said, as if that ought to have explained everything.  "That
I stole one shouldn't come as a surprise.  Has the powwer to bring its recently
slain owwner back to life."  A smirk spread across his lips as he stowed the
crystal away again and took a step toward Karkat.  "I suppose next you'll ask
me wwhy I havven't showwn myself."

"Should be obvious," Karkat said quietly, backing away on impulse.  "I doubt
you want anything to do with us as long as Kanaya's around."

Eridan scoffed bitterly.  "Please.  I don't wwant anythin' to do wwith you
filthy muckblooded shits.  You nevver understood anythin' about me and you're
nevver goin' to, so wwhy should I evven bother?  Hmm?  Answwer me that, Kar."

That little black fire boiled and bubbled upward, flushing Karkat's face with
color.  "Don't you give me that shit, Ampora!  You know I understood! 
Understood that your agendas were crazy as fuck and you weren't ever going to
get away with them anyhow.  Understood that you were even more socially inept
than I am and that your fucking ego was twice the length of your cape and that
you were five times more likely to fucking trip over it and fall flat on that
miserable amalgamation of features you call a fucking face!"  He didn't even
have to check himself to know he was slinging spades.

Something in Eridan went as hard as diamond, Karkat could see it plainly. 
Nostrils flared at the tip of an aristocratic nose which immediately tipped
into the air, half-dead eyes glaring down its delicate slope.  Karkat's scent
on the air seemed to tell him everything he needed to know.  "To think, I gavve
you more credit than the others," Eridan fumed darkly.  "You're no better and
you nevver wwere.  Just another fuckin' dirt-eatin' slimebubble, ain't you." 
Time to dance.

Karkat bared his teeth and snarled, hands curling into fists.  Nothing pissed
him off quicker than that kind of talk and Eridan knew it.  Did Eridan know
about why he'd come up here, though?  Could he tell?  Karkat huffed in a breath
through his nostrils and something hit his think pan like a nuclear blast, a
warm blending of intense, seething pheromones.  Eridan had never smelled so
good.  No one had ever smelled so good.  Ever.  Within seconds he could
practically feel his heartbeat in his nook.

Eridan knew.  His keen senses picked up on Karkat's frustration the moment he'd
turned to catch sight of him, and as he'd spent the last several months
completely alone with no contact whatsoever, his own frustrations were at an
all-time high.  They hadn't seen each other since the Incident, and now here
they were, about to face off in a way for which neither troll could ascertain
an ending.

Karkat for one couldn't decide whether he wanted to kill Eridan or bend over
for him, and the desire to do both overwhelmed his ability to think and act
clearly.  "You," he growled, shaking with rage.  "FUCK.  YOU!"  He rushed at
Eridan, catching him around the middle and slamming back into an air
conditioning unit.

A rush of air left the seadweller in a grunt, but it wasn't enough to wind him
by far.  Karkat's world flared red as a clasped pair of fists slammed down
against the middle of his back and a sharp knee drove up into his abdomen,
forcing the air out of him in a harsh bark.  He temporarily lost control of his
limbs, and Eridan threw him off.  He rolled back and landed into a crouch,
glaring at the finned asshole and struggling to breathe.  "I listened to you,"
he panted.  "Every fucking time I listened to you.  You came whining to me, to
ME, on a near-daily basis and I.  I fucking listened to your pathetic,
overbearing BITCHING!  THAT'S ALL YOU ARE, AMPORA.  A BULGELICKING BITCH, YOU
WORTHLESS TRASHY BRINESUCKING SHITSPONGE!!"

...hit me again Eridan, fuck, please, hit me again...

White energy arched between Eridan's fingertips as he stepped closer to the
crouched mutant.  He didn't grin.  He didn't smile.  In fact, no emotion
whatsoever registered upon the seadweller's face, save perhaps for a wisp of
bitterness in his gaze.  "Oh noww, Kar.  That wwas just a step abovve and
beyond, wwasn't it?  If I didn't knoww any better, I'd begin thinkin' maybe you
wwere after somethin'."

The last thing that registered in Karkat's thoughts was that Eridan sounded too
calm.  Then, a white-crackling fist slammed into his face and the next thing he
knew, he was on his back.  His face throbbed, his ears rang, and his vision
swam.  Pain gushed into his think pan and blood rushed to his groin, and the
only sound he was capable of making was an airy groan.  Now that.  That.  Was a
hit.  Blood trickled from cuts at his brow and his cheek...  Eridan wore
rings.  Rings that he never took off.  At one time the idea of getting cut
would have filled him with wild panic, but everyone knew about his blood now. 
It didn't matter.

Eridan loomed over him, gazing down at him as he began unwinding his scarf. 
The only thought Karkat was capable of registering just then was that he'd
never seen Eridan without it.

"Go dowwn like a sack a' shit you are," Eridan purred.  "Gonna just lie there
like one wwhile I stuff my bulge into that filthy mutant nook a' yours, or are
you gonna at least try an' pose me a challenge?"

Karkat's jostled sponge practically started smoking.  The idea of that...  Yes,
Eridan was someone he could feel black enough for, at least for the short-
term.  He couldn't think about the future and he didn't care to, not right
then.  This, more than anything, was exactly what he needed.  Now, if only
Eridan could deliver...  Karkat would just have to make sure he did.

He swept his leg out harshly, knocking Eridan off of his feet.  The seadweller
gave a startled yelp and dropped, and Karkat was on him like flies on a
carcass.  Before he even knew what he was doing, his hands had clapsed around
Eridan's throat and began squeezing harshly.  "YOU'RE THE FUCKING FILTH AROUND
HERE AND YOU ALWAYS WERE!" he snarled, layering on the black seduction as best
he knew how.  "IF YOU EVER AT LEAST ONCE MANAGED TO LOOK PAST THE TIP OF THAT
NOOKSNIFFING CARTILAGE NUB OF YOURS, YOU MIGHT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO SEE JUST HOW
SPONGEFUCKINGLY BROKEN YOU WERE IN EVERY CONCEIVABLE WAY."  Bright red trickled
down his chin and spattered Eridan's cheek, which had begun turning a very
vivid shade of violet.  "YOU COULDN'T HAVE BEEN MORE FUCKING BLIND IF I TORE
OUT YOUR GODDAMN GANDERBULBS MYSELF AND ATE THEM!"

Eridan grimaced and hissed, writhing and bucking beneath Karkat as his head
began spinning.  The bright violet of his blush began to turn a darker purple,
his blood roaring through his veins and screaming in his finned ears.  Not only
did Karkat's grasp close off his chitinous windhole, but it clamped his gills
shut as well.  Lost in staring at Eridan's face and the way his expression
contorted in outrage and pain, Karkat didn't pay attention to Eridan's hands. 
When something white-hot exploded at his abdomen and flung him back off of the
seadweller, all he could think was that he'd just been slain.

He hit the roof and skidded back several feet, jarred in every possible way. 
His senses were scrambled as if he were punch drunk, even his horns tingling in
ways he couldn't begin to describe.  He scrabbled to grip at his abdomen,
relieved to discover that Eridan hadn't turned his stomach into a wind tunnel. 
Karkat had a brief second to wonder if Eridan could even do that without his
wand when a harsh grip snatched the front of his shirt and hauled him to his
uneasy feet.

He had a bare moment to look Eridan in the face before a surprise left caught
him on the other side of the face and tore him two fresh cuts, scrambling up
his think pan again and turning his legs to jelly.  "I wwon't be called filth
by the likes a' you," Eridan growled, punching him in the gut again before
landing one last swing to the face.  "I might a' been blind, but evveryone else
wwas fuckin' deaf."

That was it.  Karkat dropped to his knees, barely able to recall his own name. 
He moaned through a split lip as his eyes began to swell shut, and he could
taste his own blood.  Had anything ever tasted so good?  Everything hurt but he
didn't care.  Hurting was better than feeling nothing, and the pain did nothing
to stifle his arousal.  In fact his caliginous need roiled and burned in him
hotter than ever, and when he doubled over and glanced up, he doubted he'd ever
seen a sight so gut-twistingly beautiful and repulsive as Eridan Ampora lightly
shaking the ache from his bloody knuckles and straightening his rings.

"You bent my favvorite wwith that loathesome face a' yours," the aristocrat
sneered.  Karkat coughed and spattered Eridan's shoe with ruby drops, and
Eridan sighed.  "Just keep rackin' up your debt to me, Kar.  I'll take pleasure
in makin' you pay up."

Struggling to think of a comeback, Karkat let his head drop.  His neck was too
sore to stare upward, and thus he didn't see Eridan finish unwinding his
scarf.  He had just opened his mouth to speak when something incredibly soft
bound itself around his throat and hauled him back.  Sparks danced in his
vision, and when he struggled to loosen that soft, intoxicatingly-scented
binding with his fingers, his hands were stolen away from him and bound up as
well.  Barely able to breathe, his mouth gaped open and his eyes rolled
faintly, and he became roughly aware that he was leaning back against something
cold and hard.  Another of the air conditioning units, perhaps.  It didn't
matter.

Eridan reappeared in front of him, and maybe it was a trick of his scrambled
senses but he could have sworn the seadweller was surrounded by a faintly
glowing fuzzy aura of white light.  "No fuckin' proper challenge at all, Kar. 
Tsk tsk.  Not as if I expected one but it wwould a' been nice.  Ah, wwell. 
I'vve givven up evver hopin' I might find someone wwho could hold a fuckin'
candle to my masteries.  You're just gonna havve to do for noww."  Adroit
fingers made quick work of Karkat's pants and underwear, and  his own clothes
were quick to follow.  He unclasped the chain of his cape and swept it aside
before lifting the tattered hem of his shirt and slipping it up behind his
head, giving Karkat a full view of his lean, slender torso.  It was as exposed
as he'd ever seen the seadweller, and as much as the idea made him cringe prior
to the current moment, he couldn't get over the sudden overwhelming desire to
see more of him.  The need hit him so hard that his bulge nearly curled into a
knot, and his nook drooled a puddle beneath him.

"Get your fucking bulge out," Karkat gasped, fighting for enough air to speak. 
"Get it out or I swear to god..."

"You knoww," Eridan purred, "if I had knowwn you wwere goin' to be such a
pitch-hungry slut, I wwould a' punched you in the face a long time ago, Kar. 
Nevver wwould a' guessed somethin' like that wwould get you goin'.  Really
wwant it that bad, hm?  Beg me.  Beg me for it, you dirtscrapin' wwhore." 
Gold-bedecked fingers paused at his beltline, just below the dark ugly gash of
the scar Kanaya had given him.

The rage in Karkat's gaze faltered for a split second, his brows arching up in
the middle as his need and frustration eclipsed all else.  Breath-constricted
words fell from him in harsh whispers before he could even think to check
himself, the throbbing pain in his body only making it that much harder to
resist the urge to submit.  He had his needs, but they hadn't eclipsed his
pride, not yet.  "Not going to fucking beg you for anything," he rasped.  "Get
your bulge out and fuck me or I swear to god I'll kill you...again..."

SLAP!  Karkat cried out sharply, a fresh cut lancing his cheek.  Who would have
thought a slap could be more painful than a punch?  Well, his face was already
tender...

"Howw dare you speak to me like that," Eridan hissed, insensed.  His fingers
made quick work of his fly then, working it open so that he could shove his
pants down unceremoniously.  "I wwas goin' to be merciful, but you just fuckin'
forced my hand."

Karkat had only a few moments to get a good look at Eridan's bulge.  He had
just enough time to register the size of it and the fact that its gorgeous rich
violet color made his mouth water.  He never expected that, nor did he expect
the intense shivers and goosebumps he'd get feeling its cool length slithering
along the inside of his thigh.  Eridan straddled Karkat's left leg, lifting his
right and proping it over his shoulder, purposefully staring down at the
mutant's nook for a moment.  He blinked, then snorted.

"I hope for your sake that freakish mutant slit a' yours stretches," he
grumbled.  "Because I'm not stoppin' until you can taste me at the back a' your
throat."

Karkat's face flushed with heat, but he had no time to emit a response.  The
tip of Eridan's bulge slithered against his entrance and then dove inside, and
tears prickled at the back of Karkat's eyes.  So much so fast, and the
seadweller really wasn't going to stop to let him adjust in stages.  Eridan
slumped over him, eyes closed, panting for breath as he forced himself deeper
and deeper inside of Karkat's tight, feverish nook.  

Karkat struggled against his bonds but doing so only tightened the scarf's
clasp around his throat, making it harder to breathe.  Stars danced in his
vision and turned the pain into something that buzzed and sang, rather than a
physical scream.  Eridan drew back a little only to resume his assault, and
Karkat croaked in agony, tears streaming down his cheeks.

"So tight," Eridan huffed, planting his hands to the roof to either side of
Karkat's torso to brace himself.  "So fuckin' tight, just as a bulgeslave ought
to be..."  Karkat could feel him trembling, but he didn't give it any serious
thought aside from being able to feel it.  His think pan was completely bent on
one thing and one thing only in that moment; the feeling of being so full that
his entire universe was the bulge stretching his nook to its utter limit.

When Eridan began to move at last, his body became a lithe, sinewy wave that
plunged deep and withdrew again with every crest and trough.  Gamzee had simply
bounced him against his hips, and Dave fucked him like an animal, but this? 
This was something entirely different, a smooth motion that only granted him
brief reprieves from the brutal stretching girth of the seadweller's squirming
tendril.  

Fingers and toes went numb as Karkat struggled for breath, his arms aching from
being bound above his head.  Black spots began dancing in his vision, and as
his eyes began to roll back, the violet prince finally seemed to notice.  "Oh
no you fuckin' don't," Eridan snarled, grasping Karkat by the throat and
hauling him up closer to the air conditioning unit, giving him a little slack. 
"Don't you black out yet, you mutant filth.  You're goin' to feel me spill
inside a' you.  No wway am I gonna let you escape that."

Karkat wouldn't have wanted to miss it for the world.  Each thrust sent black
fire searing through his veins, singing in bitterness and perfect anguish,
ripping apart his fears and his terror, locking the primal sectors of his think
pan firmly in the moment and not letting him escape to the future or the past. 
His every second consisted of Eridan and only Eridan, the intoxicating, alien
scent of his amphibious body, the cool stretching pressure of his bulge, the
pain that those ring-clad fists had forced under his flesh, right down to the
way the seadweller huffed and panted and growled with each thrust.

Too much.  Every sensation began cresting upward, peaking higher and higher,
the cruel grasp at his throat tightening to the point that he couldn't breathe
again.  Eridan granted him a brief reprieve by giving him some slack with the
scarf, but he just took it away again with his own grip.  All he could do was
glare at the seadweller through a teary veil of lustful hatred to convey just
exactly how he felt, the theft of his breath sending fresh tingling chills
through his besieged body.

Instead of moving faster and faster as Dave did when he got close, Eridan
curled the tip of his bulge so that he could force every last inch of his flesh
into the smaller troll's stretched nook.  Deeper, deeper, fuller, squirming
relentlessly, until too much truly became too much.  

Eridan trembled powerfully, arching his spine and exhaling a low, hungering
groan as his bulge spasmed and began pumping Karkat full, fuller than even
Gamzee had, full to the point that his lower abdomen began to distend, so much
that the the slow, bruised ache turned into something sharper as Karkat broke.

The seadweller didn't even have to touch Karkat's bulge.  It began gushing
geneslime all on its own, and when when Eridan began to feel stifled cries
beneath his grasping fingers, he released Karkat's throat.  "Scream for me,
slimebitch," he spat softly, and Karkat couldn't have resisted the command even
if he had possessed the faculties necessary to do so.  He sucked in a vast
needy breath and his head whirled violently, every pain in his body instantly
refreshed as new oxygen rushed to his extremities.  He screamed in a blending
of pain and pleasure so intense that he hadn't thought it possible until then,
his bulge still gushing slime as his nerve endings went berserk.

He quivered and he trembled from head to toe, weeping bitterly as his voice
broke and gave out.  Eridan kept him stuffed full for the entire duration of
his own climax, hands propped against the roof as his head slumped between his
shoulders.  When he blinked up, he looked dazed and sleepy, violet tears glossy
upon his lower lids.  "Wwoe to the conquered," he breathed, muttering an old
Alternian phrase before reaching up to untie his scarf and let Karkat's arms
drop.  He bowed his head and grasped Karkat's chin to hold his head still, so
that he could claim a victor's kiss from the lips of his victim.

A burning feeling awoke in Karkat's arms as they dropped around Eridan's neck
and the sudden rush of cool breath against his lips seemed to wake him up.  He
growled against the seadweller's mouth, eyes narrowing as he fiercely returned
the kiss for a few seconds.  All he wanted to do was bite, just as he'd bitten
Gamzee, but this was something he'd asked for (albeit in a roundabout way), and
Eridan tasted as good as he smelled.

He broke the kiss and glared at seadweller.  "Get out of me," he panted, still
shaking like a leaf.  "And untie my fucking hands."  But before could allow
Eridan to do either of those things, he gripped at the seadweller's hair and
pulled him in for another kiss, longer and deeper than the last.  Eridan
grunted softly against his mouth and moaned, and as Karkat released him, he
inched back and slid out of the mutant's brutalized nook.

Karkat gave a harsh sob and winced in pain as their slurry gushed out of him,
and he stared at it.  He'd never seen such a color in his life, a blending of
candy red and deep violet forming a magenta so intense that it would have made
Feferi jealous as fuck.  But that wasn't all...

Eridan quickly untied Karkat's hands and pulled his scarf away entirely, and
Karkat curled into a ball, doubling over.  "Oh fuck," he groaned, wincing.  "I
think you actually broke me."

"Shit."  Eridan winced as well, but the expression was short-lived.  "Wwell. 
That's wwhat you get for bein' breakable."

Karkat snorted and actually laughed, though he immediately regretted it.  He
groaned and curled up tighter.  The moment had passed.  He haze had lifted. 
They'd both gotten what they needed and now?

"I really thought you were dead, fuckass."

"Yes, wwell.  Perhaps it's for the best if you continue thinkin' that."

Karkat kicked at Eridan's leg.  "Don't be a mopey shit."

"I'm not," Eridan spat, slapping Karkat's thigh.  "It's true.  Can you imagine
wwhat the others might do if they found out I'm not?  Kan wwould probably come
to finish the job.  I don't wwant to cause trouble and I don't wwant to consort
wwith any a' them anymore.  I just wwant to be left alone."  The seadweller
sullenly rolled to the side and brushed his fingers down his slacking bulge,
gathering up some of their slurry and licking it from his fingers like it was a
delicacy.

Karkat stared up at him a moment.  "That was always the last thing you wanted,"
he said quietly.  "I thought you hated being alone."

Eridan seemed to grow even more sullen, slicking more of their slime from his
bulge to lick it away.  "I do.  Or, I did.  Before evverythin' wwent to shit. 
Before I lost hope.  Noww, I just don't care.  People are goin' to do
wwhatevver they're goin' to do anywway.  I'vve learned that it doesn't matter
howw many times you ask 'em to come hang out.  If they're not goin' to, they're
not goin' to.  I'm just.  Done askin'.  Done tryin' to change wwhat isn't goin'
to fuckin' change."

"Eridan."

"Wwhat."

"You're so full of shit."  Karkat sighed.  The pain wasn't subsiding, but he
could struggle through it, at least for conversation's sake.  

"Howw does any a' wwhat I just said count as shit?"  Eridan gazed down at him
in frustration, and then blinked.  "Oh, fuck."

Now it was Karkat's turn to be a bit puzzled.  "Huh?"

Eridan leaned down, fingers gently sliding against Karkat's skin.  Being curled
into a ball like that, his nook was visible between his legs and Eridan was
clearly looking at it.  "You're bleedin', Kar."

"What??"

"Just wwhat I said.  That's not just slime comin' outta you."  Eridan actually
looked worried for a moment.  

Karkat began lifting a leg, as if he might get a look at his own nook that
way.  "Seriously?  Oh, dude, if you fucked me up that bad, I'm gonna--"

"Shh.  Let me havve a look."

"Eridan-  Ow!"

"On your back, then.  Come on."

Karkat sighed so heavily that it made his roughed-up throat hurt, though he did
as the seadweller said and rolled onto his back, allowing Eridan to lift his
legs and part them.  The fact that he was taking such a close look at such a
secretive part of his anatomy felt abysmally embarrassing.  "I can't believe
I'm letting you do this.  I can't believe I let you do it to me in the first
place!"

"Stop your carpin'," Eridan said quietly, cool fingers gently parting Karkat's
slick, aching folds.  He loomed in close, to the point that Karkat could feel
the cool brush of his breath.  "You wwanted it as much as I did.  Don't bother
tellin' me otherwwise, I could smell it on you clear as crystal.  Ahh.  Yeah,
looks like I tore you just a little...  Up near your acid valve."

"You fucking TORE ME??"  Karkat glared up at the seadweller in indignation.

"It wwill heal."  Eridan's hands slid to the back of Karkat's thighs, gently
rubbing as he bowed his head between them and brushed his tongue against those
abused folds.  Karkat gasped sharply, glaring down at the violet prince with a
mix of fury and confusion.

"What-...  Eridan, what the fuck--"

"Shh.  Let me make it up to you a bit."

Karkat opened his mouth to protest but all that slipped past his lips was a
second gasp, and a weary moan.  Eridan seemed intent on licking Karkat clean,
and it felt far too good to turn down.  Quietly flustered, Karkat admitted to
himself that he'd had his black...  He could allow a little red now if he
wanted.  It wasn't as if he were locked in a quadrant with Eridan; they didn't
have to play by the rules, in as much as the idea flustered the shit out of
him.

The act felt far more soothing than arousing, the seadweller calmly eating his
nook out and deliberately avoiding the spot where he'd torn Karkat.

The relaxation had a downside.  Now that it had all passed, the pain seemed to
double, to the point that even Eridan's cool, soft mouth became intolerable
after a little while and Karkat reached down to tug lightly on his hair and
make him stop.  Eridan licked his lips and wiped his mouth on the back of his
hand.  "Hm?"

"Tell me there's a bathroom up here, with a shower."

"Not up here exactly, but.  Not far."

"And recoup-- I mean, beds."

"I got a mattress, yeah."

Karkat sighed again, nodding.  "I'm not going to be able to walk.  You're going
to have to help me."  He blushed heavily, hating the fact that he had to ask
for help.

"Of course," Eridan said quietly, seemingly aware of just how difficult that
was to admit.  He stood up, not bothering to pull on any of his clothes, and he
knelt down to scoop Karkat into his arms, lifting him up.

"SHIT, ERIDAN," Karkat squawked, immediately grasping him around the neck.  He
didn't think the lean wizard would be able to carry him, but.  Lo and behold. 
Seadweller strength ahoy.

"Relax," the seadweller said quietly.  "I'm stronger than I look.  Your poor
face is a testament to the fact."

"Yeah, about that."

"If you wwant a free shot later, you can havve one.  But only one."
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