Chapter Text
Cronus. Move in.
You grab the last cardboard box from the back of your truck, tucking it under your arm as you make your way up the sidewalk leading toward the small apartment complex. You and your brother had only got into town last night, leaving your own home hours away.
You take the elevator up and unlock the second door on the left, walking into the apartment empty of everything save some furniture and piles of boxes in the center of the room. You walk over and set the last box on top of the others, sighing quietly.
After dropping Eridan off at school this morning, you decided that you really shouldn't put off unpacking anymore. So the past five hours have been spent visiting nearby furniture and appliance stores trying to get the apartment in working order. It took another few hours to rearrange all of the furniture, it didn't help that the hallways were narrow and that you had to assemble both yours and Eridan's beds.
By the time Eridan came into the apartment, unlocking the door with his key, you were almost done unpacking the living room and had started on moving all of your clothes into the closet.
Eridan walks in, kicking his shoes off and looking around. "Cro?"
Eridan is a twelve years old, skinny sixth grader. He has fluffy blond hair, and light freckles that dust over his pale nose and cheeks, while you are a bit tanner, with jet black hair, slicked back. Well, slicked back the best you can anyway. Normally your hair has a curl to it that makes it a pain to deal with. You're tall, and more built than a lot of people you know. This is probably from swimming so much. You won't admit it to a lot of people, but you absolutely love to swim. Oh, and both you and Eridan have deep ocean blue eyes.
"Ey. In here, Dan." You call from your room. You hear him toss his bag to the floor, then the footsteps getting closer as he makes his way to your room. He walks into the room and pushes his thick rimmed glasses up his nose some as he sits on your newly assembled bed. Honestly you don't know quite what to say to him. You never did tell him exactly what happened that made you leave your parent's house late last night, and then drive 4 hours to spend the night at your aunt's house, and he hasn't asked. The two of you have talked about leaving before; you just weren't sure when it would happen. Last night decided for you.
You continue to take things out of your boxes, rearranging them in your new desk drawers. Eridan sits in silence for a moment, bouncing slightly on your bed. After a few minutes of watching you silently busy yourself around the room he speaks up. "The main room looks good."
You close the drawer and stand up, stretching slightly, "Yeah?" Eridan nods, "Yeah." You look around room for a moment, and then run a hand through your jet black hair. "Looks a lot smaller when it's not completely empty, yeah?" You chuckle breathlessly, tired from moving things around all day and not sleeping last night. Eridan laughs quietly and nods in agreement, "Yeah… but it looked small before." "Comparatively yeah." You shake your head a bit, laughing quietly.
"Come on Dan. You want pizza?" You say as you turn and head back toward the main room, only to be followed quickly by your little brother. "Yeah!" He smiles, "Are you ordering now?" With a short nod you pull out his cell phone, sitting down on your new couch, patting the space beside you for Eridan to sit.
You orders two small pizzas, one vegetarian and one meat lovers, not having to ask Eridan what he wanted. Eridan's been going back and forth with this vegetarian thing. You're pretty sure he's only doing it because your cousin, Feferi, talked him into it.
After the pizza had been ordered you lean back against the couch and sit in silence for a moment. Until Eridan breaks the silence that is, sitting up a bit straighter, "Cro?" "Yeah?" "You never told me what happened."
You turn your head to look at your brother, who is now pointing to the side of your forehead. The two of you catch eyes for a moment, staring at each other, blue eyes locked on each other in silence.
Then you shrug and look away, "Don' worry about it Dan." You look back to smile down reassuringly at him, ruffling his hair gently. "It's not a big deal." That's not completely true. Your dad has called you at least three times today trying to convince you to come back, but you don't plan on doing that until things get better.
This response doesn't seem to pacify Eridan, as he pulls up onto his knees, reaching out to touch the two fresh, stitched up, and jagged scars on the side of your forehead gently. "Does it hurt?" You hiss quietly at the pain, and swat Eridan's hand away. "Yeah it hurts like a bitch." You frown and cross your arms. "Oh." Eridan crosses his arms as well and slumps down as he looks away slowly from you slowly, "Im sorry..."
You absolutely cannot stand to see him sad. If it were anyone else you wouldn't care, but your little brother is and always will be, hands down, the most important person to you. "It's fine Eridan..." Then you reach over and mess with his hair a bit. "Hey Dan. You still wantin ta dye your hair?" Eridan immediately perks up, "Yes! Not all of it though. Just this part," He grins and gestures to the bangs of his hair then frowns slightly, "but dad wont let me..." You nod a bit in understanding; Eridan had asked your dad over and over if he could get his hair dyed purple for about a year now. Each time he did though your dad would tell him no and give some lame excuse about how it's not "respectable for a young man to- blah blah blah." The way you see it, if Dan's that set on dying his hair, then let him.
You grin at him, "Well why don' you go finish unpacking your room... An' after pizza gets here I'll go out and buy some dye." Eridan sits up straighter, "W-wait really?" he grins excitedly.
You can't help but laugh quietly as you stand up, nodding some and walking toward the door. Eridan also stands up and walks toward his room excitedly only to turn around and come back, "Oh yeah Cro, I was put in a group project for history. Can I go over to my partner's house after school tomorrow?"
You pause from where you were by the door, putting on your heavy leather jacket, "huh? A group project already?" you're slightly surprised that his teacher would throw him into a project so soon; but you aren't too worried. "Yeah that's fine I guess... Just let me know where and when I need to pick ya up."
Eridan nods a bit, smiling and says "I'll ask Kar then let you know." Car? Who the fuck names their kid car? You sit by the door and start pulling your combat boots back on, only to have Eridan asks, "Where are you going?"
You stand back up and pause for a moment to check your pockets. "Jus' outside for a sec'" after finding what you were looking for you smile at Eridan. "I'll be right back Dan."
The blond haired boy nods slightly in understanding then turns to his room, walking in to unpack just as you walk out of your shared apartment. You make a right down the hall, walking back the way you came, then click the button on the elevator. As you wait in the elevator on its way to the ground floor you reach up and gently feel the mark made only recently on the right side of your forehead.
You really need a smoke.