Erisol Aquariumstuck

Chapter 16

HI SCRUBS! HAVE AN UPDATE!

Everyone knew I had improved. It was visible in the way I walked, the way I talked, even the fact that I laughed every once in a while. I never left Eridan, staying around while I filled out paperwork for my job. We talked and laughed. Eridan never asked about what happened after he left, and I never asked what happened to him. It was a silent mutual agreement to leave it in the past.
I looked up as Kanaya came in. "We Have To Move All The Mertrolls Into One Tank To Do A Deep Clean Of Their Tanks," she explained. I nodded and stood up, tucking my clipboard underneath my arm as some workers lifted a confused Eridan out of his tank.
"Wwhat's goin' on Sol?" He asked once he'd been placed in the cart.
"All the mertroll2 are beiing put iinto a central tank 2o your iindiiviidual tank2 can be cleaned."
He nodded and yelped as he was suddenly dumped into an inside pool. He lifted his head again and grinned up at me as I sat down.
"You can go 2wiim around. Ii'll 2tay riight here."
He glubbed and dove under the water. I watched as he swam off to see some other violet blooded mertrolls.
I went and grabbed my laptop before settling down to work on a coding project for one of my classes. Eridan swam up again.
"Hey Sol! My brother said he wwanted ta meet ya!"
I glanced up. Another mertroll, similarly built and colored was beside him, watching me with narrowed eyes.
"Hey there." I waved.
He tilted his head. Eridan nudged him. "It's fin Croww. He's my friend."
I smiled at him and he smiled back.
"Vwell it's nice to knowv someone is keepin' little Eri outta trouble." He ruffled Eridan's hair.
"Hey!" He leapt onto the other and they disappeared under the water.
I giggled and resumed my work.
Suddenly a large mertroll with two scars across his face appeared in front of me and I yelped.
"Hello there, human."
"Uh... hey..." I glanced up from my work.
"Are you the one that my boy keeps talking about?"
"Uh... maybe? Ii wouldn't expect hiim to talk about me a lot..."
"Hm." He set his head on his arms, watching me. I shifted uncomfortably.
"Can Ii... help you wiith 2omethiing...?"
"No."
"Oh..."
Eridan appeared beside him. "Hi dad! I sea you met Sol!"
"He doesn't seem as... exceptional as I had hoped."
Eridan frowned. "Wwhy does he need to be 'exceptional'?"
"Because wwe are royalty, Eri. Wwe only engage wwith the highest of species. And humans are- I'm sorry- not on that list."
Eridan folded his arms stubbornly. "Wwell wwhat do you suggest?"
"I suggest you try to get in the good gills wwith that other mertroll- oh wwhat wwas her name? Feferi, I believve."
I looked down, running my nail between the keys of my keyboard.
"Eww no!"
"Wwhyevver not, son?"
"I don't like girls."
There was a long silence.
"You wwhat?"
Eridan glared at him. "I'm gay, dad. Is there somefin wwrong wwith that?"
"Yes!" He roared, making me flinch. "Members of royalty are to get married to princesses and princesses only! Cod what kind of a family am I raising? I got one son that likes guys and another that's obsessed with humans!" He seemed angry.
"Wwhy wwont you just givve us a little bit'a freedom?!" Eridan snapped back.
"Because you'd ruin the family!"
"I can't ruin much of anythin' if wwe're stuck here!"
There was another long, uncomfortable silence. I looked over to see Cronus watching fearfully.
I let out a low sigh before standing up. The older and the younger didn't notice and I walked around the pool to sit beside him.
"Hey," I murmured.
He looked up. "Oh. Hey."
"Doe2 thii2 happen often?"
He nodded sadly.
"That2 a 2hame."
"I try to keep them from fightin' but it nevwer vworks."
"Ii feel liike we're gonna have problem2 iif they keep goiing at iit." I looked over where the two were wrestling.
He let out a sigh and sank to the bottom of the pool.