Archive of Our Own ^beta

It's buzzing.

The room you're in has wires everywhere. It's a bit too dark and hot for your tastes, but comfy enough.

And it's buzzing.

The bees that usually fly around the room slowly and without a care are nowhere to be seen, though, and there is only one other living thing that could cause this metal-smelling buzzing that you've grown so used to.

And that is Sollux, obviously.

He's very concentrated in what he is doing. Messing around in the bees' hive, he said. You don't really care. You just like to see the concentration in his face, how his brow relaxes and furrows again when he gets stuck. There is a nice, gentle flow of psionics around his horns, blue and red mixing and twisting as he solves another problem.

There are small, circuit like lines around his eyes, and that's when you know he's got a headache. You are about to run to his side to help him with it, but he puts his hand between the two of you, eyes still closed. He's almost finished, he doesn't want to be interrupted.

You just stay in place then, dangling your legs as you watch the lines go further in his skin. You know he wears his weird glasses to correct his color blindness, but you also know that those lines might become part of the reason, too.

They don't seem to hurt him, though, so you judge the whole subject as unimportant.

Pretty and delicate in the palest of ways, yes, but unimportant.

The buzzing finally dies down and he opens his eyes, face still expressionless as he puts his glasses on. You stand up, a smile on your face as you get ready to play some more grubs.

"Ready for another round, Appleberry?"

He looks at you and the corner of his lips quirk up.

"Yeah, sure. Let's go."

The bees around you start buzzing again and you close your eyes, wondering if you could get all the way to the main block without tripping.