Chapter Text
The hive’s atmosphere was peaceful.. mostly. Usually, Eridan would be the one whining or crying his lungs out, but this time it was the other way around. Sollux was stressed. He was working on a code for more than 3 hours and it just kept getting worse. The errors kept popping up.
“Please, please.. work..” Sollux mumbled, he was really getting his hopes up this time. This had to be it. He fixed all the issues, right?
Sollux pressed the “run” button. More errors than the last time started popping up. He felt like his head was going to explode any second from now. “FUCK!” He slammed his fist on the table, which caused the regressed troll to look his way.
Eridan was curled up in the playpen, cuddling with his seahorse plushie. He managed to fall asleep to the sound of Sollux’s typing on the keyboard, but when he heard the loud noise he was immediately woken up.
He didn’t understand why his caregiver was being mad yet, nor aggressive. His little mind knew that Sollux wasn’t the calmest or nicest troll, but whenever he took the caregiver role upon himself he was nothing but patient. Of course, as all daddies have some bad moments, like when Eridan absolutely refused to be changed, he just let out a loud sigh and whispered to himself “It’s okay”. And it was. Until now.
Eridan picked up his toy and began crawling towards his daddy’s chair. He could see the other troll had his hands on his head, looking as frustrated as ever, but Eridan wanted to make him feel better.
Sollux was so angry and lost in his thoughts that he didn’t notice Eridan’s crawling or the obvious crinkles of his diaper whenever he was moving. He felt a tug on his right leg.
“Dada..?” Eridan babbled, trying to get his attention. But Sollux wanted all his thoughts to go away, along with all the people around him. It was something his brain did, that he couldn’t help. Like it was trying to shut down.
The violet blood tugged harder, not wanting to give up yet. “Daddy! Pway?” The prince insisted again, but when he looked up, he saw Sollux’s expression. He didn’t look like his usual caregiver, who would feed him and clean the dripping milk off his chin. The one who changed him no matter how many times Eridan made messes. The one who rocked him until he was asleep. All the saw was a troll full of rage.
“Goddamn it, Eridan!, How many times have i told you to leave me alone while I’m working?! I’m desperately trying to fix this piece of shit and you won’t stop fucking bothering me!”
The gold blood finally snapped, but what he didn’t realise was before he addressed those mean words towards his regressed matesprit, was that this troll was the one he agreed to help and be patient with, but now, the trust was all gone, all because of Sollux’s pathetic coding project wouldn’t function properly.
“No, no, no.. Eri.. I didn’t mean it..” It was too late for that. Eridan’s lower lip was trembling and as soon as he knew it, the boy started wailing. Worst of all? They weren’t usual wails like Eridan did to get attention. These were gut wrenching wails that came straight from his heart.
“Dada doesn’t want me.. I knew it! I knew that i was just bothering you and you’d eventually get tired of me!” He bawled as more hot tears poured down his cheeks, his whole body was shaking now, his anxiety overtaking him.
Sollux immediately jumped out of his chair and kneeled on the floor in front of Eridan, wrapping his arms around the other troll and pulling him into a very tight hug, despite Eridan trying to get out of it weakly. “I’m so sorry, little prince. Daddy was a total asshole and lashed out on you when my perfect baby boy did nothing wrong. I know you only wanted to play. I’m sorry i couldn’t control my outcome.”
He kissed his forehead as the little let out more shaky breaths. Sollux kept mumbling apologies and how much he loves him until he started calming down, his wails turning into soft little sniffles. The gold blood grabbed the discarded pacifier that was left in the playpen, wiped it and slowly pushed it against Eridan’s lips until he started nursing on the pacifier, letting out little suckling sounds.
He kept kissing his baby’s cheeks, forehead, between his horns.. he couldn’t get enough of him. He felt so sorry regarding the incident. “Daddy loves you so much, Eri. You’re my adorable little boy. I’ll make it up to you, sweetheart, I promise. I’m sorry that had to happened in the first place.” Sollux whispered as he kept pressing kisses against Eridan’s face, while the little troll sucked on his pacifier.
Eventually, Eridan started drifting off, now fully calmed down, knowing that Sollux was actually not mad at him. The coder noticed it immediately and lifted him up, carrying him towards their shared bedroom. This was another night in their big bed, as Sollux refused to keep his arms off Eridan, and Eridan the same.
They laid down, Eridan on top of Sollux, Sollux keeping his arms around him tightly. He planted another kissed between his horns, “Sleep tight, precious. I love my little perfect baby boy so so much. You’re my everything. Everything that i ever wished for.”
The violet blood smiled after hearing those words from his caregiver, he popped out his pacifier to answer him, “Thank you, dada.. You’re the best caregiwer ever.“
They fell asleep tangled, as always, with a smile on their faces.