One Plus One Equals Three (Erisol fanfic)

Chapter 13

            A heavy silence filled the room. Eridan looked from Kanaya to Sollux expectantly.

"The firtht egg broke," Sollux said quietly.

"What?" Eridan nearly shrieked in disbelief. "How? When?"

Kanaya noticed Sollux's discomfort with recounting that particular moment and decided to intervene. "Do you recall how difficult it was getting the first egg out?" she asked cautiously.

"Of course I do,' Eridan replied petulantly.

"The egg simply could not withstand the pressure, dear."

Eridan stayed silent as he processed everything. Sollux shifted a bit under the weight of the sea troll in his arms. "Sol, put me in the nursery with the eggs," he instructed finally. He would've walked in there carrying the eggs himself but after hours of labor he felt too weak to stand on his own.

"Eridan you really should get to your recuperacoon to rest," Kanaya warned.

"I'll fuckin' rest in the nursery with my eggs."

"Very well," Kanaya sighed in defeat. "Sollux, bring him to the nursery and we will get him and the eggs situated." By this point Sollux was too exhausted to be disappointed that he wasn't going to get to sleep with his matesprit yet another day. He just wanted to put the sea troll down somewhere before his arms fell off and then curl up and go to sleep.

Sollux followed Kanaya into the storage room-turned nursery. The plan for the room had been to emulate the brooding caves as much as possible in order to create the best hatching environment for the eggs. The lighting in the room was dim and a humidifier along with a few extra fans had the room feeling slightly damp and chilly. Several rocks of varying sizes were scattered about and Kanaya was kneeling down beside a shallow kiddie pool placing the three eggs into the water.

"The eggs have to stay in water?" Eridan asked as Sollux set him down beside the pool.

"If they were normal eggs conceived by two sea dwellers, yes. I am going to be treating them as such just in case any different handling is detrimental to- wait, Eridan what are you doing?"

Eridan had crawled into the shallow pool with the eggs and curled himself around them. It almost looked as if a violet tear had slipped down his face but was washed away by the water in the pool before anyone could be sure. Sollux leaned forward and placed a kiss on Eridan's wet forehead then gently ran his hand over the shells of the eggs the sea troll held against his stomach. He really hoped they weren't all dead.

Sollux could have sat there beside the pool watching his matesprit lay with their eggs forever but he felt a nudge from Kanaya.

"We should give him some time to rest," the jade blood suggested. She didn't miss the look of melancholy that settled over Eridan as he ran his fingers over the eggs. One. Two. Three- nothing more. Sollux nodded in agreement.

"I'll be back in a little while to thee if you need anything ED," the Gemini said before following Kanaya out of the room.

"You need to go get some sleep Mr. Captor. You really need it."

"I'll be fine," he waved his hand dismissively.

"Sollux," the Virgo warned.

"What are you? My luthuth?"

"I will stay here as long as you need me to in order to help take care of things while Eridan recovers. You go get some rest and I will check in on him in a little while." Sollux grumbled but finally agreed and shuffled off to his recuperacoon.