Terezi Pyrope was not happy. She was really not happy. And she didn't bother to try and hide it, either. Why was she unhappy? Because there were cops swarming her latest case and tainting the scent of everything. So as she walked through the police station – no one even tried to stop her, they gave up on that a while ago – she made sure to tap her cane along the floor as obnoxiously as possible.
Hopefully the Sheriff would understand that she wasn't pleased with his men and she was coming to complain to him about it. When she gets to the door she stops, takes a breath, then whacks it repeatedly with her cane, shouting out, "Vantas! Open this door, you have some explaining to do!"
And then she quickly covers up her annoyance, her face blank and emotionless – her typical professional look. She wasn't going to give the angry ball of fury and hatred the pleasure of her being disheveled and upset.
Karkat Vantas had in fact heard her, his first response to the banging being a groan. He didn't know why she was here, he just wanted her to go away. With another groan and a roll of his eyes, he opens the door to glare at the blind PI. Well, she certainly didn't seem happy. It was obvious she was trying to hide it, though.
Great. "How did you get in here, Pyrope?! I thought I told them to keep nosy PIs OUT." He's pretty pissed off, too.
But that's just how he always is.
Immediately she's got that wide grin that she knows pisses him off. Unnaturally sharp teeth and everything. And to add to it, she taps along his legs with her cane. "I'm the best there is, Vantas! Of course I'll find a way in!" Okay, so it was more like the other officers had just given up on stopping her, but those were just little details."Now, I want your goons out of my crime scene and off my case! They're messing it all up!" Her grin falters for a moment, her cane connecting rather harshly with his knee.
No, bad Pyrope, calm down. She clenches her cane tightly, forcing herself to relax more, her grin more forced than before.
Karkat wasn't amused by her shenanigans, rubbing his knee and glaring at her. "Who the fuck said it was YOUR case?! I'll do as I damn well like and no blind girl is going to tell me how to do my job differently!" He didn't even know what case she was talking about, but based on past experiences he didn't really need to know. Her 'cases' often clashed with the work of the actual cops and she was always getting in his face about it.
That was about what their relationship was, and he did not enjoy it. Especially because she always seemed to get off on his pain and anger. "What do you even mean by 'they're messing it up'?! You'd probably just sit there and lick the damn thing anyways! I'm not changing SHIT, Pyrope!"
He was probably the only one in the station to know about her little disability. How did he know? He's seen her eyes. Her glasses were terrifying enough – Who the hell wore pointed sunglasses with red lenses? – but her eyes were even freakier. They explained why her shades were red, though.
He's brought back to the situation on hand when she gives his leg another whack, her other hand removing a file from seemingly nowhere. Terezi prided herself on having lots of different places to hide things, just in case it was ever necessary. Such as whipping a portion of a case file out while drubbing the Sheriff. You know, the important things.
"This says that it's my case. I was hired specifically to do the job, and I won't let any kind of so-called cop interfere with the way I do things." Maybe she was a little too hostile towards them, but she couldn't exactly help it. If they wouldn't let her join the force because of a disability most people didn't even know she had, then they could deal with her working on her own cases in her own way.
Her playfulness is gone – it was strained in the first place – and she gives his side a whack. Enough to sting, but not to actually leave any kind of bruise. Assaulting an officer wasn't something she wanted on her record. "Move your boys or I'll do it myself."
With an annoyed growl, he tries to grab the cane, wanting it out of her grip. "Well THIS is assault, WE were called to the scene of the crime, and I'M not letting you mess this shit up without some sort of assistance from the force to make sure you don't COMPLETELY MESS EVERYTHING UP."
His face was beet red at this point, already fed up with her even though it's only been a minute or two. He was always quick to anger, but this girl just knew EXACTLY what pissed him off. Her grin is back, a little more sadistic than before, and she easily pulls her cane back to her. No way was she letting him get it.
"What, will you charge me? Besides, I have never once messed up on a case. If this one gets fucked up, it's on you. Do you know how many times I've been commissioned for a case that you badge boys couldn't figure out?"
"And do you know how many times I've been given shit by my superiors for letting a nosy little investigator do my job for me?!" His hostility was draining, slowly coming to realize there was no way he was winning this.
Sensing him slowly giving in, she grinned some more, allowing herself to feel victorious.
And then it turned into something filled with a fake kind of sweetness, the kind that she would always send to criminals when she knew she had them. "Then maybe if you did a better job, you wouldn't have a 'nosy little investigator' doing your job for you." She gave his arm a gentle papping with her cane. It wasn't that she was trying to make it up to him for her earlier abuse. Oh no, she was just trying to make him think that. "So does that mean you'll tell your men to back off?"
"On one condition, Pyrope." Karkat grins this time; she wasn't going to let her get away with things that easily. Her eyes narrowed for a second, not liking where this was going. Karkat Vantas, grinning? That couldn't be a good sign.
Especially since it just smelled so unnatural on him. Grumpiness and anger suit him much better. But she forces herself to straighten out and put on the sweetness and sugar again, not willing to bow down to him. That wasn't something Pyropes did. "And what's that, Vantas?" Her voice has the same faked sweetness as her smile, but she doubts he'll notice. He doesn't seem to notice much, actually. Not unless it's really obvious.
"If you're not letting THEM in on this, you're at least letting ME in. You better fucking appreciate I'm taking time out of my own busy schedule to help with this case." She doubted he was very busy. He certainly didn't seem the type to be busy.
But she had an idea. A way to at least get that grin off his face. A way to put him back in his place, so to speak. Her grin creeped back, slowly widening, and she leaned towards him on her cane. "Aw, does the Sheriff want to get closer to the nosy PI? How cute, he's too shy to even ask her on a date!" And then she lets loose a cackle, straightening out just so she can tap his legs with her cane. "Fine, but you're following my rules on this. Got that, Vantas?"
Karkat seemed completely shocked by this; his face went red and he took an involuntary step back. Or was it voluntary? No, definitely involuntary. As much as he was terrified of her and her insanity, he wasn't one to back down. "Shut up, okay?!" Oh yes, Terezi was very much pleased with this reaction. "It's my job to make sure you don't completely fuck shut up here, it's nothing more and never WILL be."
He's been telling himself that for a while now. For the past few months he's found his thoughts wandering to the psychopathic blind PI that felt the urge to just stomp all over him whenever one of their cases collided. There was no way he was developing a crush on the one person that annoyed him more than himself. Nope. No way.
To take out some of his anger, he kicks at the cane, muttering curses under his breath.
He hated her cane, and she knew it. She took pleasure in annoying the fuck out of him with it, they both knew that. Karkat adds the cane to the mental list of things he hated, which he had lovingly named the Shit List.
Inanimate object or not, it was on the Shit List.
Terezi's been taking pleasure in his obvious frustration and anger, cackling away. "Now, now, angry little Vantas. No need to be so violent about your denial." She calms down, just grinning at him now. To keep her cane from getting kicked from her grip, she pulls it back towards her, keeping it close. She takes a few seconds of silence – Karkat's too busy seething and muttering to notice the quiet – to take in the delicious red of his face.
"Maybe if you'd stop being such a grump I may actually fall for you."
Karkat decided it would be a very good idea to ignore that.
"Are you going to fill me in on what happened or not, Pyrope?!" Okay, so he was still pretty pissed and angry, having issues with calming himself down.
He's always had issues with that.
She never made it any easier, either.
"Hehehe, calm down and I may." She pauses, debating, then adds, "Karkles," with a wide grin. She had come up with this name when their first run-in happened – a rather simple kidnapping case, almost right after she started being a private investigator. Since then, she'd use it on a rare occasion when he would piss her off or when she just wanted to smell that delicious red she brought out.
His teeth grit together, hard enough to make his jaw ache. He has never been a fan of the nickname. He thought the nickname was a piece of shit and deserved to be with the cane on the Shit List. The thing was stupid and it made him sound like a little fucking kid. "Hurry up already, I'm not waiting much longer, and that's Officer Vantas to you!" Or even KARKAT. My name is NOT Karkles. Get your shit right."
As she laughs – okay, cackles, it's a definite cackle, there's no way there's anything that can be other than a cackle – she pulls out the other file for the case. From the same hidden area as before. Karkat wonders for just a moment where the hell she can hide those things on such a fucking skinny frame, but he quickly loses interest. It's Terezi.
"Calm your shit, Karkles. Or should I call you partner now?" She sends him a grin, taking her sweet time with this on purpose. He was quick to lose patience and she loved to just make his blood boil. It wasn't really anything against him, it was just amusing. And in her profession, she'll take any kind of amusement she can get. It was fun and interesting and all, but sometimes... Sometimes she wondered what was underneath that hateful exterior.
But those 'sometimes' never really lasted too long. Especially when he would say things like, "I don't care. Go ahead. It'd be better than fucking KARKLES." Whenever things like that happened, she'd immediately lose interest in knowing the deeper side of him.
Karkat was tempted to snatch the file from her and read it himself, but he knew that would just be playing into her hands. Mainly because he didn't want to get whacked with that fucking cane again. He sent the piece of shit a glare. If it had a face he was sure it'd be glaring right back.
"Karkles it is!" That grin was always creepy. Sometimes Karkat thought she forced it to be that terrifying. But then he realized it was Terezi fucking Pyrope. She doesn't have to be terrifying, she just is. And those canines of hers looked like something he would want to avoid. She made a show of opening the case file, even though it was pretty much useless because not only did she have the entire thing memorized, she was blind. As in, unable to read it. But that doesn't mean she wasn't able to sniff the ink off the page and know what it said.
"Female, Asian, early twenties, around twenty-three. She was found stabbed in the chest once-" She stops talking to touch a place just above her heart, indicating where the stab was, "-and in the stomach once." Her hand goes to tap a spot just above her belly button. "It's obvious the killer wanted her to suffer, but not for too long. The cause of death was massive blood loss. She was found a few hours after death by a neighbor a floor above her. He says he's a close friend, and that they were supposed to be going somewhere. He didn't specify whether it was a date or not. The girl's father has been notified, but he says he apparently cannot come down for two weeks. That's not nearly soon enough to help us with anything. And that's about all the info we've got right now. No prints, no evidence, no videos. The apartment has a security tape of the lobby, but so many visitors come and go it'd be nearly impossible to pick out the killer, but they're still sending me the video for the timeframe."
Terezi's demeanor changes as she talks, going from a giddy and overly grinning little kid to an adult who knows play time's over and in the past. She's straightened out and looking down at the file, her grin gone, not even leaving a ghost or a trace of its previous existence.
She's determined to solve this case, cop interference or not.
This kind of change was always a shock to Karkat, but he's started to get at least a little used to it. But it was a good kind of change. "Fucking... lovely. Last week there was another crime like this, I don't know if someone told you about it. This may be a serial killer case in the making on our hands, and if it is, this guy's gonna strike again and we need to figure out WHEN he's going to do this before he DOES."
They weren't little kids fucking around in the playground, this was serious shit. No more cat and mouse. And Karkat was planning on shoving this case's face into the ground and laughing at it's defeat.
Okay.
So maybe he wasn't going to do that.
But it made him feel better to think about.
Terezi wasn't as one-minded as Karkat was about this. She was currently fighting between a grin and a frown. She's never had a serial killer case before – hell, she's only had a few murders, and most of those turned out to be abductions made to seem like murders – and that was exhilarating. But then it was also a serial killer. Someone who kills for fun or just because they can. Kind of a really dangerous person.
"No, I was never told." The grin wins out, and it feels unnatural. It even looks unnatural. At least to Karkat, he's so used to her grin. Her fingers drum along the head of her cane and she asks, "What was this other case? I need every detail possible."
If she could, she'd be looking him dead in the eyes.
But she settles on (hopefully) keeping her blind and dead eyes on his. Even though he probably couldn't tell because of her red-lensed shades. She will never not think she has the most badass glasses in existence.
Unfortunately for her, she was looking at Karkat's neck. And it took him a while to realize exactly why she was looking there. Sometimes he forgot she was blind. Actually, he forgot a lot. "Uh, Pyrope?" Without really thinking it through, he slowly reached his hand out to gently tilt her head up, one finger on the underside of her chin. Okay, now she was at least looking in the right general area.
And now he can continue, not noticing the slight blushing from Terezi at the odd and unfamiliar touch. "It was the same scenario a couple days back – three, actually. Woman in her twenties got the shit stabbed out of her. Same places you mentioned, too. There was no note or evidence. She worked in the management department of a real nice hotel, except listen to this: for such a nice job she had pretty shitty living arrangements. Crappy little apartment on the complete opposite side of town as this other girl's place. Literally, I mean complete opposite. You could fucking draw a straight line between the places. This was either a coincidence or the guy's a God damn OCD symmetry freak." Being the skeptic about everything that he was, he didn't believe in coincidences.
She only barely manages to catch what he was saying, too busy berating herself for already losing her touch. So before she responds to the facts about the previous case, she pats her hands from his shoulders up, to get a better picture at about what his height was. "Damnit, when did you grow? You were shorter last I remembered." She's grumbling, a little put-off by such a late growth.
That was really going to mess with her. "I guess I've just reached a mid-life growth spurt or some shit like that." He's grinning, feeling just a little bit of pride at throwing her off. For once she actually seemed like a real blind person.
It was slightly weird.
But she had heard the change in his voice, so she pat and felt around his face until her fingers came across the grin. "Hehehe, apparently Karkles can smile." And then she was back to professional, her fingers still exploring his features. It was a blind thing. "But shitty apartment may suggest that her money was going somewhere else. Drugs? Abusive boyfriend who demanded money? Perhaps a relative in need? And there's ethnicity as well… If she wasn't Asian, then the only connection is the straight line, female, and early twenties. Go grab that girl's file real quick, then we'll head to my office. I've got a few things sorted out for the more recent case. We may be able to find a connection."
Karkat was having a few issues with not flinching away from her cold hands and weird touching. Blind. Gotta at least let her have some freedom. "I'm not sure about ethnicity, I didn't ask too many questions, it was a different officer's problem, but I know where the file is. I'll go grab it."
"Well, go on. Go get it!" She pulls her hands away, at least partially done with 'seeing' his face, and taps his leg. It was light, a little on the playful side. "I'll be waiting here. I promise I won't go through your office." She grins wide, the smile gaining its usual sharpness and edge.
He just rolls his eyes, not even bothering to try and get rid of the cane. "Yeah, sure. Because I believe that. Just try not to fuck up my shit too bad while you're rummaging through it." With that, Karkat left the room, silently cursing himself for actually looking forward to a little alone time with the blind PI.
Terezi's grin just widens more and she immediately slips into his office. She wasn't planning on looking through any of his boring stuff – who would want to? – she just wanted to mess shit up. So while he was gone, she busied herself with pulling things out of their places and swapping things in files.
Then she sat herself down on his desk, cross-legged and grinning proudly.
When he came back, Karkat's first reaction was to twitch.
Fuck. This was going to take time to fix.
But instead of ranting, like he usually would've, he just dropped the file onto her lap. "There, happy? Now are we going? Can we get food? Jesus FUCK I'm hungry."
She keeps her grin as innocent as possible, doing her best to not burst into laughter. But her grin lost any traces of innocence when he mentioned the food, turning into a mischievous child's grin. "Hehehe, so I was right! This is just some kind of ploy to get me on a date! Wow, Karkles, aren't you good with the ladies?" With a short cackle, she plucks the file from her lap and jumps off his desk, tucking it under her arm. "Well, alright then. I'm hungry, too. While you're driving us to wherever for food, I'll sniff this over."
"Wha- It doesn't- I don't-" He just gave up and sighed, knowing she wasn't going to listen to him. Face flushed red at the thought of going on a date with her, he gestured out the door, still holding it open. "Hurry up already."
With another laugh, she steps past him, swiping her tongue up his cheek. "Hehehe, tastes like I got the Sheriff to blush!" As she heads to the exit, she makes sure to obnoxiously tap her cane against anything she can reach. "Come along, Karkles!"
"Could you quit licking me?! It's weird, and do you even fucking need that thing?" He followed her, continuing to bitch and whine, not caring that she wasn't listening. Why was he even looking forward to this? Today was never going to end. He could tell by the grin she was sending him.
"No, I won't stop licking you. And yes, I need it, I'm blind. Now get that ass of yours into your car and take me to get some food." And with that, she gave his backside a light tap with her cane, still grinning wide. Oh yes, she was going to enjoy this partnership, she could already tell.
So long as things went well with the case.