Fifth Iteration (3/15)

[universe_c]

Fifth Iteration

A fic about a village at the beginning of a Universe

Part 1 | 2


3.

Sollux knocks very late in the afternoon, just as you're getting ready to leave for the night. Gamzee's due at the kitchens for evening meal pretty soon, and you're planning to take a long walk back up the valley to check on the local wildlife. You're getting to know this planet's animals pretty well, and you have some ideas about which species might be helpful to domesticate. It's one of your longterm projects.

Sollux is wrapped in a hooded cloak, though the heat of the day is lingering. It kind of looks like he's carrying something underneath it. He's not wearing his glasses and he's got puffy bags under his mismatched eyes.

“Best friend's best friend!” Gamzee says, “What can we up and do for a motherfucker?”

His lips twist into a tight line. He brushes by without touching either of you.

“Close the door,” he says.

You do.

He lifts one side of his cloak open, revealing his pale, gold-sheened skin.

His stomach is huge.

“Aradia?” you ask, when you manage to get your slack jaw under control. You thought Aradia was back at the waterwheel camp, though their internet connection has been down again and you haven't heard from her. It wasn't that unusual to not see Sollux around. He's one of the no-set-schedule crowd and spends most of his time holed up in his tower, working on electronics.

Sollux nods. “I had to call her back as soon as she made it up river. She's sleeping.”

“Poor motherfucker,” Gamzee murmurs, “You musta been hard up waiting for her to flit all the way home to you.”

Sollux blushes. He lowers himself onto your couch, his eyes crackling a little as he uses his psionics to support his weight.

“Fef was there and, well. She may have. Um. Helped.”

Your eyebrows ratchet even higher. “I thought you two were pale!”

“We are so pale you don't even know. Except when we're not.” He gives you a sulky, defiant glare. “Gog, it was fucking stupid of me to come talk to you two about this. You're practically Earth Human Married or whatever. I should have known you would get all weird and judgmental.”

Gamzee folds himself down onto the other end of the couch. “This ain't no thing we'd get our judge on over, my brother. You got some beautiful feels for fishsis and some beautiful feels for Tav's palesis. No shame in that.”

Sollux looks small, shoulders hunched over the curve of his stomach. He frowns at Gamzee, who smiles back easily. You prop yourself on the edge of the table, trying not to stare. Gog, he's huge. As big as Gamzee, and Gamzee's stomach has been growing for a couple weeks now.

Sollux shakes himself a little bit, rolling his shoulders. “Look.” He says, “I'll get to the fucking point already and stop wasting your time. It's just... how do I tell Karkat?”

That isn't really what you were expecting to hear.

“Uh, correct me if I'm wrong, but, isn't Karkat always asking you if you're still friends? That kind of makes it seem like you're pretty important to him. Uh. At least to me. So, uh, what exactly is the problem with telling him?”

Sollux flushes miserably and picks at his cloak.

“You got some beautiful feels for my palebro, too?” Gamzee asks, gently.

“Argh! No! Well, ok, maybe, not that I would characterize them as beautiful in any way. Annoyingly persistent maybe. But that asshole is totally hung up on Troll Serendipity, even though he's so red and black and pale all over he doesn't know what the fuck he wants from anyone. And then he's got John, Terezi and Dave locked in his fucked-up-rationalization-of-the-week quadrant-swap clusterfuck. Did you know that they have a schedule? Posted right outside their ablution block? It's in Karkat's handwriting.”

You've seen it. You try not to look at it or think about it ever.

Gamzee chuckles. “Palebro's always complaining how people don't up and respect all his schedule shit. He just gets in his own way all the motherfucking time, don't he?”

“I would really look like a pathetic, hypocritical jerk if I got all upset over Karkat and his asshat schedule fuckery, right?” Sollux rants, “I mean, did I not just come out and admit my own quadrant hopping shenanigans like two seconds ago? But he's gonnna come down so hard on me for getting knocked up by two people, and like, neither of them is a kismesis. Gog, is that going to be a thing now? Are we all going to have to get love-hate double reacharound pregnant to satisfy that bulgestain?”

“I don't know if, uh, that's actually how getting pregnant works,” you say. “Also, quadrants are kind of not a thing that has anything to do with pregnancy, at least originally, and furthermore are not a thing that will get you culled anymore, so at least there's uh, that. But as your matesprit's moirail, I feel kind of like I should ask whether you've talked about any of this with her.”

Sollux gives you a stricken look. “Of course I talked about it with Aradia,” he says. “She was glad Fef was there for me when I needed her. And whenever Karkat comes up she gets that cute mysterious smile and is all 'follow your heart, Sollux!' Besides, in case it wasn't totally crystal clear to you chumps, I'm mostly pretty black for him. So, I really shouldn't feel like such a huge dick, here, right?”

You don't totally get it, but you know he makes Aradia happy so it must be ok. You nod.

“There ain't so many of us left that there can be meant to bes for everyone, Solbro.” Gamzee says. “Maybe quadrants is just feelings now. Maybe that's better.”

“Not that feelings are necessarily all that easy,” you add.

It's weird to see Sollux without his glasses. It makes him seem very young and very nervous, his eyes flicking back and forth between you.

“I seriously can't believe you two are going to be lusii,” he says, finally. “I can't believe I'm going to be either. Shit. I should go.”

“Have you had Jane or someone look you over?” you ask him. “You seem really, like, well. Huge.”

“Fef did. She said she'll stay with me the whole time. Aradia will be around a while, too. Uh, sorry we didn't tell you sooner. It kind of just happened.”

Oh. You guess maybe you should be upset that you weren't around to help your moirail during her time of uh, need. But then again, you can kind of understand how it might have slipped her mind. You'll go up and visit her later. Maybe you'll find her some of the mushrooms she likes while you're on your walk.

Sollux grumps at you a little more, then wraps his cloak around himself and lifts himself straight up the cliff, bypassing the village. You hope he's going to go back to sleep and not sit up all night programming.

“Is this going to be a thing now, where everyone thinks we'll know the right thing to tell them about being pregnant?” you ask.

“I don't think we did so bad,” Gamzee shrugs.

*

It is a very warm bright season, the Big moon high and full at night, the sun powerful. Even First House is stuffy inside, so Gamzee and Jane serve the sunrise meal on blankets on the lawn.

Sollux saunters up to the gathering crowd with head held high, his matesprit and moirail on his arms. He's obviously borrowed clothes from someone not so rail-thin. From the colors and the faded grass stains, you think they're Jake's. The yelling turns out to be pretty spectacular, though Feferi breaks it up before Sollux and Karkat get too up in each others' faces. Just a few minutes later they're practically snuggled up on a blanket, Karkat plying Sollux with way too much food. If the two of them really are black, it will be the snarkiest, most apologetic kismesissitude ever, you think. Either that, or Karkat taking care of pregnant people is going to become a thing. It kind of wouldn't surprise you, somehow.

Aradia sits with you, looking tired and glowy. You rub her shoulders a little bit and fuss with her hair - not too much, you are in public, after all. You get her to tell you about progress with the waterwheel thing and how she and Damara are doing with their calendar project. Damara is camped out on some mountain, where she's built herself an observatory. They've been observing the stars since you arrived on this planet, and have determined that it's been nearly a full solar sweep, now. Sweeps here are shorter than on Alternia, but longer than on Earth. Aradia puzzles gloomily about how the moon-cycles seem to match up suspiciously exactly with the solar cycles. You're not totally sure why that would be alarming. It seems pretty convenient and orderly to you.

When Kanaya arrives, she makes a beeline for Sollux, pulling a measuring tape from some hidden pocket of her skirt. Though Gamzee hasn't gotten too big for the oversized t-shirts he lives in, he has flat refused to wear pants for the past week. Instead, he'd gone around kilted in various lengths of fabric until Kanaya caught him at it and forced him into a flowing wrap-skirt. His endless legs flash in the gap when he walks and it drives you a little bit crazy. You assure Aradia that she'll fix Sollux up with something nice.

You pretend to yourself that there won't be yet another meeting about pregnancy starting up any second now. No meetings, only hanging out and eating and talking and laughing. The dawn light makes burgundy highlights on the fine, mammalian hairs on Aradia's arm and coppery ones on yours. You have all become strange creatures, but at least you've done it together.

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