Author's Note: All the trolls and the beta kids are alive and well and on Earth, but no guardians because what is sense-making? I think I'll go with "the players were rewarded for 'winning' by all of them being alive again, but that didn't include the guardians/lusii." Yeah, that sounds good. It also sounds grammatically flawed…
Disclaimer: I do not own Homestuck; that honor and burden goes to Hussie. I'm just mucking about with the characters.
-/-/-
The knock that woke you up came obscenely early. Of course, you consider any time before noon to be obscenely early, so that isn't really saying much. Squinting at your digital clock, you manage to discern it is roughly three in the morning. Dear lord. You've barely been asleep for half an hour.
Grasping around on your nightstand for your shades, you stumble (awesomely) to the door. You're pretty sure you're still wearing the ironic Hello Kitty sweatpants that you picked up at a thrift store but since it's only a quarter past you-don't-give-a-fuck, you're not going to bother changing. Instead, you focus on wrenching open your bedroom door and hitting whoever is on the other side with a searing glare through your shades.
"Hi, Dave."
Oh, hell. Of all the inhabitants of this fucked up interspecies orphanage you were expecting to find on the other side of your door, Nepeta was pretty low on the list. She had been holed up in her room for nearly two days now, lamenting the official coupling of Karkat and Terezi. Everyone had, apparently, been expecting you to be rather torn up about it too, what with the romantic tension you'd had with Terezi. But that, of course, was a bullshit reason. You were 14 at the time; you could have had romantic tension with a particularly alluring potted plant.
Those were dark times and you prefer not to devote thought to them.
Instead, you turn your attention back to young troll shuffling in your doorway. When it had become apparent that Vantas and Pyrope were together, Nepeta had quickly and quietly taken to her room in the basement and not come out. Equius hadn't been able to get her out through the power of moirailegiance, or whatever-the-fuck. You hadn't been able to get her to come out, despite the fact the two of you had become pretty damn tight since settling in this house, and that had been quite a shock. You're very persuasive.
But you guess it's not much of a shock that she's at your door and not anyone else's. You're only topped by Equius on her list of friends (she told you so herself, actually) and the sweaty guy's never exactly taken an accepting stance on her little crush on Karkat (she also told you that).
"She lives." You finally comment, leaning on your doorframe.
Nepeta nods sheepishly. "I… 'm sorry." She mumbles, looking down at her bare feet.
"For what?" You ask, letting an eyebrow raise to show your genuine confusion.
"For… I… overreacting. I just… don't know what I expected, 'cause I always knew Karki- Karkat didn't like me… like that. But I… just. I dunno." You can't really see too well, considering it's dark and you're wearing your shades, but you can hear her choking up. You know she's going to cry.
A weakness to tears runs in your family (which is to say, neither you nor your bro could ever handle them that well) and even though you try to keep that under wraps, you think your secret is about to be blown. "Leijon…" You try.
She sniffles. "Nepeta," You try again.
She sobs. Aw, shit. "I'm… sorry!" She warbles out.
You're not really sure what she's apologizing for anymore, but it doesn't really matter, anyway. "Yeah, yeah, it's okay, c'mere," You mutter, pulling her into your room and shutting the door behind her. This is turning out to be kind of a scene and you don't think either of you really want any witnesses.
She's still crying and doing a horrible job of trying to hold it back as you lead her over to your bed, carefully steering her around all the shit on your floor, and sit her down next to you. "Okay, it's okay," You say again, reaching over and putting your arms around her.
You weren't entirely sure she would be receptive to the whole 'tender embrace' thing at the moment, but she just sort of falls into you and keeps sobbing, so you tighten the hug and let her cry herself out. "Wh- why am I so dumb, Dave?" She sniffles when she's calmed down enough to talk again.
"Hey, hey. I don't want to hear that shit, you're not dumb. I mean, yeah, you bet on the wrong cranky-ass horse," She sniffs loudly and you change tracks as quickly as possible, "But that doesn't make you dumb. Everyone does some things they call themselves fucking stupid for, but it always passes."
You're kind of shit at giving pep-talks. It doesn't help that you've never exactly been crushed by a crush before. In fact, the girl you're having some uncomfortable squishy feelings for at the moment just fell into your arms. Sure, it's because she's lamenting the loss of a boy she liked, but you're 17- you take what you can get. "It does?" She mumbles against your shoulder, bringing you back to the conversation.
"'S what I've been told." You assure her in what you're pretty sure is a comforting tone.
Nepeta sniffles again but doesn't ask any more questions, so you guess she's either placated for now or tired of your shitty attempts at feelings-jamming. You're not sure how long you two sit on the edge of your unmade bed, her face pressed into your neck, one of your arms wrapped around her shoulders and the other cuffing her tiny waist, but it's long enough for you to notice that her hair is damp and that it's uncomfortably cold against your bare shoulder. You suppose she must have taken a shower before coming to see you, which you appreciate; you really like the girl, but two days without a shower does unpleasant things to a person. Suddenly, she heaves a watery sigh. "I'm so tired," She says quietly, turning her head slightly so she can look up at you.
"No shit. It's almost 4 AM." You inform her.
"Can I stay here with you?"
Shamefully, it takes you a minute to actually to come up with an answer. "Yeah, sure. Welcome to Strider's Bed and Breakfast. Stay as long as you like, all it'll cost you is a crying session in the proprietor's arms. 'That's kind of weird,' you might think, 'Maybe I shouldn't stay here after all.' But actually, you should, because there is nowhere you will be safer, even if the owner is a fuckin' creep. He'll keep you safe as goddamn houses, whatever that shit means…" You keep your disjointed metaphor running on until Nepeta interrupts you.
"Does the silly owner sit up all night talking to himself, or does he sleep too?" She asks, pulling back in your grasp and smiling a little. Her face is still green and blotchy, but she doesn't look utterly devastated, which is good.
You shrug. "Little of column A, little of column B." You release her and move up to the head of the bed, "Now c'mon, I'm about to pass out."
The green-eyed girl joins you, looking a little guilty. "Sorry. Fur waking you." Oh, good, the puns are back.
"Whatever," You shrug, "I'm just… glad. To see you again. Out of the basement." God, that was awkwardly phrased. It makes her smile, though.
"I'm glad to see mew, too."
With that, she crawls up to where you're sitting, slithers under the blanket and snuggles right up against your side before you've even really managed to get comfortable. "Guess I'll just resign myself to being your personal pillow then." You mutter, shifting around in a manner that was most definitely not awkward.
"Yes." She yawns and shuts her eyes.
Just like that, she's out like a light. She falls asleep faster than Harley, you swear to god. Then you realize that you are, in fact, alone in your bed, snuggled up with the object of your possible affections. You can feel her body pressed against yours, smaller and slimmer than you, but at least as strong; you can feel her damp hair sticking to your shoulder and her breath ghosting across your chest and god, why don't you wear shirts to bed?
But you're not going to freak out, of course. You are way cooler than that. You are also not going to do anything ungentlemanly because you're knight and knights are nothing if not chivalrous. But it definitely wouldn't hurt if you were to just… put your arms around her. She snuggles up closer against you and you take that as a sleepy sign of permission and cinch your arms just a little tighter. Gotta keep your word and keep her safe as goddamn houses, whatever the fuck that means. And also be a creep. …Whatever.
You shut your eyes and relax your muscles and attempt to settle your mind. It is at that point that your realize you're not going to get back to sleep tonight.
But it's worth it.
-/-/-
Author's Note: I wrote this for a kink meme prompt, technically, but it doesn't really match the specifications. Ah, well. I finally wrote some coolcat, woo!