AN: I apologise in advance, guys. I'm going in a bit blind here-no idea where this will take me. Written for the kinkmeme (kinda) so expect M-ness (maybe?). Also-this is a prologue of sorts, that's why it's so short! Written in present with flashbacks, and...yeah. Please let me know what you think!

Prologue

"Well…this is awkward…"

"That's the understatement of the century. Thank you for your truly useful input at this crucial point in our lives. Whatever would I have done without you?" Her normally calm voice is strained, and she sounds a bit hysterical, but all things considered the young girl is reacting rather well.

Dave isn't exactly himself either, but one can hardly tell with his sunglasses blocking his expression. A slight alter in demeanor, the subtle shift of nervousness—Rose knows the signs all too well. "What do you want me to say?" he mutters more than speaks, as if afraid that someone will overhear their conversation even though they are the only ones in the hallway.

"You're my brother!" It hits both of them, and the silence reveals the uneasiness that permeates in the air around them.

"Yeah. I guess I am."

"I…just…" she takes a deep breath in an attempt to get her thoughts straight, "I can't believe we let this happen. What were we thinking? It was such a horrible idea in the first place, and why did I let you talk me into it anyways? 'Oh, Rose, what the hell does it matter? Rose, stop being such a flippin' prude!' Well, brother dearest? Is this what you wanted?" She knows it's not. She knows, somewhere in the rational part of her brain that has decided to exeunt from all this chaos, that Dave had never intended for any of this shit to happen, it just had. It was just their sheer dumb luck—their bad karma or whatnot. If Rose could go back and buy girl-scout cookies and help little old ladies across the street, she would. Anything to keep this from happening. But it was all that time travel shit that had gotten them into this mess in the first place.

Dave just glances away from her in a nonchalant way, but she's sure that it's because he can't stand to look at her. "It's not like we even knew we were related back then. Seriously, just chill. Nobody's gonna know but you and me, and you can bet I'll be keeping a lid on this so tight that even Karkat's ass couldn't rival it, so don't flip your shit over nothing."

Rose doesn't know what to feel. She's standing in a dark grey hallway, in a dark grey building, on a dark grey asteroid in the middle of literally fucking nowhere, having a conversation she never thought she'd have with the last person she could imagine having it with. And yeah, she was flipping her shit, just a little.

But Dave's (her brother's?) surprisingly rational argument gets through to her, and Rose can see the reality beyond the big clusterfuck of 'what the hell?' that has become her life. And although her extensive research into the realm of human psychology tells her that secrets like this rarely stay secrets, she allows herself to accept that keeping it covert would really be the best option. Who would find out anyway, really? John and Jade were too naïve and oblivious to get it, and the trolls didn't understand enough about human dynamics to know when something was up. This really wasn't that big of a deal, she tells herself.

Not to mention, there had to be some Freudian explanation for their dalliance. Some sort of instinctual recognition of similar features, perhaps. Something completely natural and out of their control—like the Oedipus Complex. So everything was fine. It couldn't be helped. The past was in the past…right?

"Yeah. Yeah, okay. We'll just keep it quiet. It's not like anything happened in this timeline anyway. It was a totally different time and place. Really no need to dredge it all back up to the surface when it never really happened." At some point during this, Dave had turned back to face her again. The blacks of his sunglasses burned into her with the intensity of his gaze, "I don't remember it all that much to begin with," She states flippantly.

"That's good," he replies, "So we're cool, then?"

Rose purses her lips in distaste, "We're on the same page. But I don't quite think that's what you mean by 'cool'."

"Yeah, whatever, sis."

And then he's gone, as quick as he came, slinking down the hallway with that too-cool gait that makes all of Rose's hackles raise in a combination of immense irritation and begrudged attraction. He sure is a piece of work, that brother of hers.