A light veil of frost was covering the low district's streets and alleys as the young troll pattered towards the market, on an errand for his guardian. He had tried escaping it, throwing a tantrum, whining, threatening and even hissing, but the carapace didn't fret. He had seen all of Sollux's scenes and the past and had stopped being impressed by them, or even caring about his mood swings in general. All the fuss earned him was a slap in the face and a push in the back on his way out of home. After cursing under his breath the carapace had slammed the door shut and after hearing a little clicking sound Sollux knew there was no getting back in until he brought back what his guardian asked of him.

He glanced at the list:
- Oil
- Screws
- copper wire
- bolts
- nuts
- marinated goods

Almost all they ever ate were marinated goods. His guardian didn't know how to cook and neither did he. He was okay with canned goods though, if there was one thing he wasen't picky about it was food. It's just fuel to keep your body running, isn't it? At least, that's what he liked to think.

He bummed around for a while. He didn't want to be out there in the cold so he decided he might as well make the best of it. He had this nasty little habit of spending some of the errand money on books. He'd then simply lie about the price of oil, no big deal.

He made his way to the closest book store and got himself some obscure manual about the newest technologies and programming. Not a lot of people had access to technology, but since his guardian worked for the army, he was "free" to mess on machines... as long as he didn't get caught. He loved it, it was probably his only passion. He wasen't really into robotics themselves, the software aspect had always interested him more than anything else. Handy work had never been his thing, so he didn't really enjoy assembling and disassembling the robots his guardian brought home, but he had the knowledge to do it.

It was as he stepped out of the store that he met one of the only two friends he ever had in his life.

He was in a hurry. He knew he would get it if he didn't make it in time. As he sprung out of the store to be on his way to the Market place, he collided with a small, feminine figure. A seadweller. She fell over from the impact, he was just about to nag her (as a young troll he didn't have too much respect for higher bloods) when fuchsia tears showed up pearling at the corner of her adorable big eyes.

"Out of my way, princess", is what he would normally have wanted to tell her, but what came out instead was more along the lines of "Are you okay?"

Feferi cried out as she fell to the floor with a thud. Her eyes squinted shut behind her goggles as she grabbed her left leg. Her skirt had lifted up enough to show her bandaged ankle. The tears did indeed well up at her eyes as she hissed between her noticeably sharp teeth in agony.

Her shopping bag's contents were now scattered across the ground next to her; a combination of fruit, a loaf of bread and a small contraption designed to blow bubbles - presumably a toy.

It was a few seconds of her entire body trying to cope with the pain coming from the injured ankle until she seemed to register that the person who helped her end up in such a position had actually spoken to her.

She opened her eyes and looked up, as her delayed thoughts processed that he'd asked her if she was okay. Her face began to betray panic beneath her pain as her opened mouth refused to respond. It was quite clear she was not alright, so would she appear stupid for admitting the bleeding obvious? Or would she appear stupid for not responding, especially this late? Or maybe just for being a clumsy fool? She ended up just staring.

The objects that scattered around the young highblood were very intriguing to him, especially the toy since he never had any. He wondered what the peculiar looking contraption might be for. After pondering for an instant, he focused back on the distressed young lady who seemed to be quite in pain.

“ ’you hurt?”, he inquired while helping her back onto her feet and starting to help picking up her goods from the floor and putting them back into her shopping bags. The fruits seemed perfectly ripe and delicious. He didn’t have a fruit in such a long time. That was yet another thing his guardian had never gotten him. The only fruits he ever ate were the ones he had stolen at the market place whenever he could.

He looked at the seadweller for a bit. She looked frightened, tired and obviously she didn’t belong to this part of Derse. Probably some rich kid from higher district. He could’ve sworn he’d seen her face before…in visions! Yes, he remembered nightmares he had that were involving the young lass, only a few years in the future. It was all so blurry though…

Their eyes met when he placed the last fruit back into the bags. She was in tears. He didn’t know what to do; he had always hated interacting with others and had no clue how to cheer up someone in need.

He hoped she wouldn’t start crying. Gosh, he hated it when people cried! It really got on his nerves.

“You’re not from around here, are you?”, he tried asking in an attempt to start conversation.

The girl squealed a little as she was helped to her feet, clutching onto the new troll before then leaning onto the wall. She kept her injured ankle off the floor, not sure she could put anymore pressure on it without crying. She murmured a thank you, as he began to recollect her things into her bag, but she wasn't sure if he heard her, or just didn't want to respond.

You're not from around here, are you?

She blinked, and nodded.

"I-I live on the e-edge of the high district..." She murmured, trying, and failing, to not give indication her leg was still in a rather lot of pain.

"I jus-just came for some food..." She finished, as if she was somehow feeling guilty for going shopping.

"I...I didn't hurt you did I?"

The question seemed pointless, the troll in front of her was hardly the fragile thing she was, despite actually being the same height as him. However, she was always taught to be polite, and if that meant asking how somehow else felt whilst the burning agony in her leg throbbed with her heartbeat so be it.

He raised an eyebrow at the seadweller's question. Why the hell would a tiny little fish-lady like her be worrying of hurting him. She sure had good manners. Like he thought, she was one of those rich highbloods he usually disliked. Of course it's not that he was jealous or anything, it's just that highbloods would usually treat him like shit and he was getting fed up with it.

She didn't seem like the mean type, in fact she looked a little bit distressed.

"So you don't have servants that do the shopping for you in the high district", he said, snickering a little. "That's surprising, usually you guys are pampered all life long, no?"

He realized he was being a little rude, but he couldn't help it. They had everything, comfort, decent food, proper upbringing and schooling. Okay, maybe he was a little bit jealous. Maybe he wished he could've been studying all the things he had interest in instead of being his guardian's slave.

She didn't look okay though and that's when he stopped picking on her.

"Hey... you're hurt."

He glanced towards her ankle.

"You should have told me, idiot... Don't just stand there in pain and pretend it's nothing! Let me have a look."

She looked down at the floor, still trying to keep her injured foot off of the ground. She just looked miserable.

"N-no, w-we don't have servants, a-and I like shopping..." She murmured, trying to dodge the remark about her ankle.

Then she realised she didn't want to. She didn't want him to call him an idiot and the more her ankle hurt her the more she wanted to scream, and the more she wanted to scream, the more she wanted to get hissy at this troll calling her an idiot. She looked back up at him, now frowning. She suddenly looked quite fierce. Despite her apparent polite upbringing the remnants of the highblood rage their species suffered from still lingered slightly. It was also noticeable that as she glared, her teeth were sharp, like a predator's.

They didn't fit her image. Her hair was an unruly mess in a pony tail, and her teeth even had what appeared to be braces hiding behind the edges of her lips, but regardless they just turned the hopeless little girl into something that resembled an animal trying to be scary. Like a lion cub.

"And I'm not an idiot! That's not fair! You hurt my ankle and you start being snarky at me and then I'm in trouble for not demanding you stare at my bandages?"

It wasn't shouting, but her tone certainly harshened. Though her anger seemed to quickly subside, the guilt returning to her face as she realised she was talking in a way that wasn't the polite manner her guardian taught her.

"S-sorry..." She whispered as she returned to looking at the floor.

He took a step back when the little seadweller snapped at him. He didn’t think she would have so much authority in hidden in her. For an instant he didn’t know what to do or say. He was just standing there, mouth agape, staring at her with his red and blue eyes. She even looked a little scary with her big sharp teeth and that frown on her face.

It made him feel a little sting in his chest, something like guilt. For the first time, he felt bad for being so rude with someone. Usually he’d just shrug it off because he always believed others were the one to constantly make his life miserable and that they deserved very little to no respect. Usually he’d tell them to fuck off and get the hell out of his way. This time was different, this time he realized he really had no reason to be so mean to her. She had done nothing wrong. She was even injured and, well, she looked kind of adorable with her messy ponytail and her teeth sharp like razors. But he’d never admit that, especially not to himself.

He stared at her for a bit. He couldn't possibly let her know he was starting to feel guilty for being such an ass.

“Woah that’s some sharp teeth you have there seadweller. Trying to scare someone with those because it sure as hell isn't working! Just show me your ankle already. It looks really weird.”

He pulled the highblood over to the closest bench he could find and sat her down onto it. He put his own errands down so he could have both his hands free and knelt down to check on the other troll’s wounds. It didn't look too bad, besides most trolls were pretty tough but she seemed like she was in quite a bit of pain.

He frowned. She definitely had been pampered too much as a wriggler and that was the only explanation why such a light injury would put her in such a bad state. He looked up at her.

“It really doesn’t seem to be that big of an injury. Are you going to be okay?”

Feferi recoiled mentally at the remark at her teeth, and quickly covered her mouth with the hand not preoccupied by her shopping. The insult stung more than she had thought it would, she hadn’t meant to look threatening. What if he was simply mocking her braces? They cut into her gums sometimes but she wasn’t sure if they were particularly scary to an onlooker. At least she hoped they didn’t.

Anxious and still in pain, she said nothing when she was hauled to a nearby bench and plonked down. She had never felt more self-conscious of her ankles as she had right then, being scrutinised by this snarky stranger.

“I…it’s fine.” She lied, she’d be limping back for sure. She then took her hand from her mouth and frowned slightly.

“Hey! Your teeth are sharp too!” She declared, as Sollux’s previous words changed from a justified comment, to an unfair insult. She kicked him in the chest with her healthier foot. It wasn’t meant to be hard, but the highblood didn’t always know her own strength, or how fragile lowbloods can be.

The kick sent him down on his back. It hurt a lot more than he'd have expected, then again he really wasen't the sturdiest troll. He could have given her a whooping with his psychic powers...if only he could control them properly. He layed on the purple pavement for a little while, catching his breath after the impact.

After a little bit he finaly sat up, breathing heavily and frowning angrily at the highblood.

"The hell is your problem?! I'm here trying to help you and all you can find to do is to kick me in the chest?! "

Spoiled fucking highblood, he thought. He couldn't bring himself to say it out loud. He knew he had been rude to her in a way and she probably didn't deserve it. Besides it wasen't quite true that she didn't scare him. As charming as she was, he felt like she had quite a bit of potential in her.

He slowly pulled himself back onto his feet.

"Hey... whatever ok. Didn't really mean to turn that into a fight or anything. Sorry I ran into you and everything. I just wanna know if you need help with something? I could sorta make it up to you for injuring you and everything..."

Mortified. There was no other way to describe how she felt at that moment. She was completely and utterly mortified. He HAD just been trying to help in his own pretentious little way, she supposed, and there she was, kicking the poor fool onto his back.

"I am so SO glubbing sorry" She gasped, from behind the hands she had brought to her mouth in shock. "So, so, glubbing sorry" The idea that fish puns may not have been appropriate went completely over her head. As far as she was concerned, fish puns were always appropriate.

Then he got up and he was...apologising? What was she supposed to say? She felt her face flush from embarrassment, turning a bright fuchsia colour.

"No! I mean, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to kick you like that...or at all I suppose..." She trailed off with an awkward giggle.

"Um...Well I...I fink I'm going to sit here for a moment, until my leg stops hurting...Sorry...again."

Sollux knew he had never been very good at interacting with other trolls, but the thought that he had probably just had his worst introduction even rolled through his mind. He felt ashamed, angry and sad at the same time. He had always pushed others away either because he felt they were afraid of him or just because he thought they were stupid.

The seadweller didn’t seem stupid nor frightened.

He picked up his things from the floor while she was giving him an apology, which he nodded to once he had picked up all his errands from the ground. She sounded like she genuinely felt bad about the incident, and so did he. As much as he wanted to hate her for being highborn, he simply couldn’t. Her giggle had just made her way too adorable.

He shyly pattered closer.
“Hey so um… what’s your name anyway, if you don’t mind telling me? Mine’s Sollux, Sollux Captor.”

A rush of blood went to his head and suddenly his ears and cheeks were completely flushed. He bit his lip nervously and hoped she didn’t notice and messed around with his bangs to try and hide it a little, which probably ended up making it look even more obvious.

And the yellowblood flipped like a switch from an aggressive ball of fury into a bashful mess. It was arguably the cutest thing since the first time she saw Eridan sitting along in that courtyard. Oh she just wanted to scoop the poor thing up into a big warm hug and tell him everything was going to be just PERFECT.

But she had been told such aggressive affection was unladylike so she restrained herself. For now.

Instead she giggled, smushing her hands onto her own blushing cheeks.

"Oh aren't you just the most adorabubble grumpy gills I've even seen?" she chirped, her facial fins fluttering excitedly.

She forces herself to clasp her hands together put them down on her lap, though her grim was unstoppable as always.

"I'm Miss Feferi Peixes" She announced in a rather rehearsed upper-class fashion. "It is ever so lovely to meet you Mr Captor! Even if you did knock me over."

She stuck her tongue out playfully. Not very ladylike but sod it, what mother doesn't know wont hurt her.