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Eridan really doesn’t know how it happened. Maybe it was the sopor pie Gamzee had made. Maybe it was the meteor as a whole. But here he was, his tongue halfway down Karkat’s protein shute. The two of them had stumbled into Karkat’s respiteblock shuffling over discarded clothes and nearly cutting their ankles on Karkat’s haphazardly strewn sickle. Eridan’s neck strained as he bent low to kiss Karkat, cursing the height disparity between low and high bloods-another point to seadweller superiority. The shorter troll moaned into the kiss, tongue swiping along the inside of Eridan’s cheek as his hands roamed clumsily in Eridan’s slicked back hair. The other troll was so warm-feverishly so-against Eridan, the heat seeping under his skin and into his core making the air around them feel hot and syrupy.
A tangled knot formed low in Eridan’s guts as a small voice screamed beneath the tide of sopor that this was wrong.
But he was feeling brave and angry, scrolling back through his and Feferi’s messages over pesterchum. Each sloppy handful of sopor fueled him to keep reading, sinking further into his misery. Eridan’s bloodthumper squeezed hard in his chest. He missed talking with Feferi and he hated Sollux for poaching her. He could only imagine them happy and flushed together, Feferi daring to fall so low as to pail with a low blood, a land dweller, sullying her beautiful fuschia with that disgusting shade of mustard yellow. It made him sick.
If Sollux wanted to poach his moirail it was only fair if Eridan did the same. Well, he wasn’t entirely sure if Karkat and Sollux were officially moirails, he’d had to guess when he planned this, but the two did spend an awful lot of time together. Besides, the only other guess Eridan could make as to who Sollux was pale with was Aradia and there was no alternate universe where that was ever happening. Maybe it was being stuck on this godforsaken floating rock with all these assholes. The audacity of Sollux to get in the way of what the hemospectrum had already destined for Eridan. He and Feferi were meant for one another, it was by rite they would be matesprites. Two completely superior beings of the troll world together as it should be. Sollux couldn’t even swim.
He caught Karkat and Sollux talking often, he knew that they messaged over pesturchum a lot as well, they might as well be pale for one another. It was a logical guess. Karkat was the move. He was even nice to Eridan on occasion, or as nice as Karkat could be. The advice he gave Eridan did seem genuine and came from a benevolent place despite the swearing. So Eridan began reaching out to Karkat more, being a little less superior in his language, more friendly as much as it pained him at times. Really it wasn’t too hard to befriend Karkat since once Feferi distanced herself from him, Eridan had no one else to speak with regularly. Or at all. How much of his pursuit of Karkat was motivated by his revenge plot was debatable, Eridan did truly enjoy the companionship that wasn’t a lie. But he’d always had this goal in mind. So when Gamzee brought out tins of the slop he called sopor slime for everyone to gorge themselves sick on, Eridan took his chance. Karkat had consumed far too much of the substance for a troll of his size, halfway through his second tin before becoming mildly delirious. It didn’t take much coaxing to get the smaller troll to follow Eridan back through the halls of the meteor and towards Karkat’s room.
He’d half-listened to Karkat ramble on about pairings and quadrants and lament his own quadrant related struggles filling despite his in depth knowledge of the intricacies of relationships. Eridan easily slid in a few well-timed compliments, watching with delight as they seemed to stun the typically angry troll into silence before he started up again on another grievance. This song and dance continued for a few minutes, Eridan cooly sliding in a few more flush-tinted compliments between Karkat’s rants, closing the distance between them as they came upon Karkat’s door. Eridan kissed Karkat as he rambled, the smaller troll’s eyes bugged out before he melted beneath Eridan’s touch, hands coming to cradle Eridan’s face in a surprisingly gentle manner.
And now he’s here in Karkat’s respiteblock caging the low blood against the wall and exchanging feverish, sloppy kisses. Karkat’s warm hands roamed over Eridan’s body, tugging at his sweater, his cape, his hair, his horns. Everything within Karkat’s grasp he pulled on.
“Shit Kar, wwatch the horns.” Eridan gasped out in the space between their mouths. He slid his arms under the other’s, hooking Karkat around his ribs and holding him upright. The other troll was uncoordinated, legs stumbling and giving out beneath his own weight under the affects of the sopor, his mouth missing Eridan’s more times than not. Eridan shoved away the guilt that was creeping up his digestion bladder. Karkat is engaging in this it’s fine, he’s even taking the lead. Karkat pressed his hot-blooded palms to Eridan’s cheeks, forcibly dragging the seadweller forward and crashing their lips together. Their teeth clacked together noisily, Karkat thrust his tongue between Eridan’s lips and licked behind his teeth. Eridan was struggling to keep up with this feverish pace, his tongue meeting Karkat’s and tangling together tasting the lingering hint of sopor as Karkat attempted to choke Eridan with his tongue.
With his arms still secure around Karkat’s waist, Eridan dragged the troll with him to his knees, pulling Karkat over his body as Eridan lay flat on the ground (making sure not to lay on any discarded sickles or other objects). Karkat was sliding his warm body up Eridan’s own, looking up at him with hazy, half-lidded eyes. Eridan flushed, chewing on his bottom lip and feeling the skin split. He didn’t expect Karkat to be this enticing. But he was so cute, face flushed, lips kiss bruised and parted, eyes heavy and looking over Eridan like he was something to devour. Eridan swallowed, feeling his bulge beginning to grow excited in the confines of his pants.
Then warm hands were pawing at his scarf, tugging it loose and tossing it aside. Karkat leaned over, nuzzling close to Eridan’s neck, and pressed his lips to Eridan’s gills. The sea dweller jolted at the touch, feeling hot breath tickling the delicate membrane of his gills, drinking in Karkat’s breath. That…that was new. Karkat’s blunt nails traced over the slits in his neck and Eridan bucked his hips, face flushing at his involuntary reaction.
“W-wwait, those are sensitive.”
But Karkat is already lathing his tongue against Eridan’s gills again and he’s keening at the feeling. He wonders if Sollux has ever done this for Feferi and that sours something in his gut. And then his stomach is flipping as Karkat’s hands slid under his sweater and he’s spreading warm fingers over Eridan’s stomach and Karkat is just warm, warm, warm all over. It’s infectious, Eridan feels himself heating up to match the warmth that’s burning under Karkat’s skin.
Eridan slid his hands to the smaller troll’s plump waist giving the flesh beneath his hands a little squeeze before slipping his fingers under Karkat’s waistband. Before he could begin undressing the other troll, Karkat’s hands shot to Eridan’s wrists and gripped hard. The strength in his grip shocked Eridan, this bruising pressure cinching tighter and tighter around his wrists could not be coming from Karkat, could it? Eridan met the other’s gaze and froze. Gone was the hazy fog of inebriation in Karkat’s eyes and in its place was a wild intensity Eridan hadn’t seen before.
“If you tell anyone I’ll kill you.”
Karkat’s voice is low, bordering on a growl. Eridan swallows harshly around the growing knot in his throat.
“Didn’t knoww you wwere such a stickler for privvacy, Kar.” He jokes, flashing a lopsided smile up at Karkat. The tension doesn’t waver. Eridan raises his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Okay okay, I promise.”
“Swear it.” Karkat snaps and the grip on Eridan’s wrist grows. He worries he will loose feeling in his hands if Karkat doesn’t let him go.
“Wwhat?”
“Swear on your ancestor.”
Eridan wets his lips. “I swwear on my ancestor’s legacy. I wwon’t tell a soul, Kar.” He chuckles low and tries to smile again but fears it comes out wrong. “It’s not like I havve friends to go bragging to anywway.”
Karkat doesn’t acknowledge him but releases Eridan’s wrists from his vice grip. It’s still rather difficult to get Karkat’s sweats down while his legs are spread over Eridan’s waist but Eridan manages to get the fabric bunched up just at the other’s mid thigh. It’s enough to reveal Karkat’s underwear which still has a visible wet spot despite being all black. Eridan dips two fingers in the waist of his briefs and Karkat glares down at him but makes no move to stop him. Eridan is slow when he moves Karkat’s briefs, watching the smaller troll’s dower expression the entire time.
Then he finally sees what Karkat had been so deadly serious about.
“Kar-“
“Shut up.” Karkat snarls, tugging his briefs back up. His eyes are wild again and he’s breathing hard and this time Eridan knows why; it’s fear. Karkat sits there on his lap, chest heaving, eyes wild, lips pulled back to show rows of his not quite sharp but not quite dull teeth. They both know there’s a sickle somewhere on the floor nearby. Eridan knows Karkat is doing the mental calculation on if he can get to it before Eridan overpowers him. Eridan is doing the same calculation.
“You’re a mut-“ Eridan doesn’t get the full word out as warm hands wrap around his throat and squeeze. He flails, grabbing at Karkat’s arms and trying to wrench them away but the hands on his neck only close tighter. Eridan kicks and thrashes his legs, bucking his hips to throw the smaller troll off but Karkat’s weight is solid, like a stone. He exhausts himself trying to break free.
“I can’t believve it.” Eridan coughs around the stranglehold. “You’re a mutant blood, wworse than a loww blood.” He chuckles and it comes out dry and humorless. Of course. He’s stooped far lower than Feferi has, bedding with a yellow-blooded wretch, Eridan was about to pail with a genetic mistake. Something that shouldn’t have been allowed to live.
“Shut the fuck up.” Karkat hisses above him. “Gog you’re so fucking insufferable, the most miserable, self-righteous, nook-sniffing shit heel I have ever had the displeasure of conversing with. Forgive me for trying to be friendly because this is what I fucking get. A fucking fish-fucker supremicist who’s lord of his own absolution trap and nothing else.”
Eridan thrashed under the low blood’s weight again, baring his teeth. “You dare speak to me like that? Knoww your place you wworthless mutant!”
“Or what?” Karkat laughed bitterly.
Eridan shuts his mouth with an audible click. What would he do? Kill Karkat? Because he should and that’s what he’s supposed to do?
“Fucking hell you don’t even believe all the caste system bullshit you fucking spew all the time, do you?” Karkat says but his hands are loosening on Eridan’s throat. Eridan thrashes again, harder, squeezing his eyes shut as his eyes start to well with tears.
“Fuck…what are you even doing here, Eridan?” Karkat asks and he finally pulls his hands away from Eridan’s neck. Eridan feels that slow sense of shame creep through him and tangle his abdominal sausages into knots.
“I wwas mad at Sollux for poachin Fef from me so…” the words were clogging up his wind shute, coming out rough in the back of his mouth like bile, “figured I’d do the same to him. Steal his morail.”
“You’re so unbelievably fucking pathetic.”
“I knoww.”
Karkat snorts. “Me and Sollux aren’t even pale you wriggler-brained assfuck. That’s not even touching the multilayered stack of manipulative bullshittery this is.”
Eridan twisted his head away and stared at the door, feeling sick. He knew this. He knew this was wrong. Hearing Karkat say it aloud made it so much worse.
“Are wwe still friends, Kar?” He hated how broken the question came out. How sniveling and weak he sounded but maybe no one else had to know. No one else was here, this moment could stay here in Karkat’s room.
“Are you going to kill me, fish-freak?”
“No. I wwouldn’t kill a friend it’s….it’s unconscionable.” And that was the truth. Eridan couldn’t stomach the idea of killing any of his friends no matter how much they got in his nerves, not even Sollux. Karkat has always been nice to him—in his own way—the thought of killing him made him sick and had his bloodthumper thrashing in his chest.
“Then yeah, we’re still friends.” Karkat’s voice was soft and barely audible, it was odd hearing his usually booming voice suddenly soft and raspy. It was…soothing?
“I wwon’t tell anyone I swwear, Kar. I promise.”
“I won’t tell anyone you’re secretly a big softie.”
Eridan recoils at that, whipping his head back to face Karkat with his teeth bared, fins flaring. “Wwhat in the shell are you talking about? Me? Soft? I havve been krillin’ angels since wwe started this cod-forsaken game!”
Karkat bursts into laughter, sides heaving as he barks out a laugh directly into Eridan’s heated face.
“I won’t tell them you make fish puns when you’re mad either.”
Eridan huffs because it’s all he can do and then he notices Karkat is still on top of him and his laughing fit caused him to rock in Eridan’s lap, stirring his traitorous bulge. Karkat seems to notice too, adjusting himself to sit over Eridan’s navel rather than his groin.
“Uhm, do you wwant me to leave?” Eridan ventured, coughing awkwardly into the back of his hand.
Karkat tucked his chin to his shoulder, pointedly looking away from Eridan so the sea dweller didn’t notice the growing cherry flush to his cheeks. “I mean…you’re already fucking here.”
Not one to waste opportunities, Eridan brought his hands back to Karkat’s waist and grasped the waistband of his sweatpants. This time the shorter troll helped wriggle the articles of clothing off, one leg at a time. Eridan admired Karkat’s thighs, the thickness, the obvious presence of muscle under grey skin. Then, with one last pointed look, Karkat kicks off his briefs and reveals a candy red bulge barely peeking out of its sheath. Eridan doesn’t have much time to stare as Karkat’s hands are already undoing his pants and pulling them down to his mid-thigh, Eridan generously does not react as Karkat snorts upon seeing his purple boxers dotted with little seahorses and starfish.
Their tentabulges touch and begin to wrap around one another and the two of them moan and shudder. Eridan watches, transfixed at the delicious mix of dark violet pressed up against a brilliant candy red. Even in the dark of Karkat’s room he can tell Karkat’s blood color is an abnormal shade of red, it nearly glows. Karkat squeaks and rolls his hips down and Eridan knocks his head back. Shit. He didn’t think this would feel that good. But Karkat’s rolling his hips in a steady rhythm and their bulges are squirming together, twisted around in a multi-colored spiral, and Eridan is bucking his hips up and he’s growling–and oh gog he’s growling that is so embarrassing. Karkat begins untangling their bulges, gasping and keening with every brush of his fingertips against his heated flesh. Eridan shivers and whines as Karkat takes his bulge in hand, prying it away from his own. Eridan watches as Karkat maneuvers the two slippery, wriggling organs in his hands, shifting slightly to adjust his hips for a better angle. The tip of Eridan’s violet bulge teases at Karkat’s nook and Eridan flushes. He’s all candy red inside, dripping slurry onto Eridan’s exposed skin. He squeaks feeling a warm and wet presence at his own nook, looking down he sees the bright red bulge wriggling excitedly, straining against Karkat’s hold. Eridan chews his lip and whines at the sight.
Karkat’s eyes flick up to meet Eridan’s, waiting. Eridan swallows and nods. Karkat releases them both and Eridan cries out as his bulge dives into Karkat’s warm and wet nook simultaneously as Karkat’s own bulge worms its way into his own. He’s so warm, he’s burning up, it’s going to cook Eridan from the inside out.
“Shit, is-is it meant to be this fucking cold?” Karkat stammered out, squeezing his eyes tight as he adjusted to the sensation. “Feels like I’m nook deep in an ice block right now.”
“Piss off,” Eridan panted, “yours isn’t any b-better. All wwarm, feels like I’ll melt.”
Karkat ignores him and rolls his hips and they both shudder and moan. Karkat’s bulge twists inside him in all the right ways, curling against his core as if trying to dig through his flesh. Karkat’s nook flutters around his own bulge and Eridan sees stars over his eyelids. Revenge is so good sometimes. Soon they’re both bucking against one another, hissing and whining and whimpering.
“Kar, please,” Eridan chokes on a moan, “please lick my gills again. Felt so good.” He should be embarrassed begging to a mutant blood–should being the operative word. But he was so delirious, lost in pleasure, desperate for more and more. Karkat felt right around him, so warm and inviting. Eridan let out a wail when the shorter troll leaned across his body again and pressed his hot tongue flat to his gills. It was heaven. It was going to kill him.
Eridan’s thrusts became more ragged, stuttering and sloppy. His head had lolled to the side, allowing Karkat easy access to his gills and ear fins which the low blood lathered in attention. Sharp teeth grazed the delicate membrane of his fins, the tip of a warm tongue traced the slits of his gills, he was breathing in Karkat’s own hot air.
“Fuck Kar, I’m gonna-“ Eridan rasped out. He gripped Karkat’s thighs tight, pulling his warm body flush against him, bucking his hips up into that tight heat. Karkat lapped his tongue against Eridan’s gills, pressing the muscle flat against the slits and smoothing out the fins lining Eridan’s neck. Every hot puff of breath pushed him further along that edge, drove him further. And Eridan was cumming, shuddering and keening under Karkat’s body. Karkat wasn’t far behind, chirping in surprise as he came alongside Eridan.
They laid there on the floor for a moment, catching their breaths before finally Karkat sat up, cringing as genetic material spilled between them, coating Eridan’s navel in a mix of purple and red. The mix of slurry dripped down their bodies and leaked on the floor, spreading in an incriminating puddle.
“Shit.” Karkat muttered, looking at the pool of genetic material forming on his floor.