It honestly amazed Dirk what could happen in six months. In that short span of time the entire world had changed, Earth… well the version of Earth Jane and Jake came from anyway had changed in a way that he would probably describe as 'for the better'. After the defeat of Lord English and Her Imperial Bitchatude things on the little blue marble had gotten pretty insane in a large number of ways. Most of the kids and trolls had spent two months after the battle destroying every trace of the Batterwitch from the planet, including destroying a couple of doomsday weapons that she had been holding back in case she ever died. While doing that they had discovered that Jane's powers could work to bring someone back from death from a single cell, and most of the trolls that had been killed during their run on the game had been brought back to life, well except for the clown troll, apparently he was a mean son of a bitch and bringing him back would have caused more problems than good. With them back and a whole lot of stored troll DNA on the Witch's battleship the kids and trolls worked together with the rest of humanity to build a base on the moon where the trolls could restart their lives, albeit with a surprisingly competent Karkat taking the lead and making them a less war hungry people.
And then there was him, a guy displaced in time and who had a hard time attaching himself to anyone. Most if not all of his friends were busy around the clock with what a few of the more intelligent minded among them called "Project Rebirth" and initiative to use their new status to create a world where people could move into peace, which seemed a lot easier when the entire planet had gotten a taste for what had almost become of their world under the control of the Batterwitch's plans and a demonstration of the kids at their strongest against Lord English. He personally didn't really want any part of it, honestly it felt awkward even being around some of the people he used to know, and reaching out and getting to know new people wasn't really his deal. So Dirk spent most of his time in his lab, developing new robots based around Batterwitch designs which could be used to help his friends but wouldn't have to force him into the spotlight. Everything seemed perfect in a way, or at least that's what he told himself when he got lonely. But then she moved in, the troll called Nepeta.
When she first came into his lab it had been to ask about some of the machines that would be shipped to the new mooncity, or rather New Alternia. They had talked for a while about how they could help and why he was designing them in certain ways. It seemed that a friend of hers was a bit of a wiz when it came to robotics, and she had absorbed some of that knowledge from hanging out with him. She had been really nice, kind of meek and quiet in a way. She also seemed to have a habit of shipping people, one that when she got on the subject of it would be near impossible to get her off of it. When she talked about her ships she could go on for hours with the brightest look in her eyes and smile on her lips. When they had said goodbye that day Dirk had expected to never see her again, but still had the memory as something really pleasant that he had experienced.
Of course that didn't seem to be the case, as not three weeks later Nepeta came back to his lab , not for any official business, but just because she happened to be bored. Her friend was apparently hard at work perfecting (or purrfecting as she called it) the new moon city and most of her friends had other things to do. So they had talked again, this time about the game and the lives they lived before it. The conversation had gone long into the night and by the time they finished they were both too exhausted to do anything else. She ended up crashing on his bed and he ended up getting about zero work done that day. At the same time he didn't regret a single second of it and wouldn't trade it for anything else in the world.
The day afterward she had apologized to him for wasting his entire day by talking and he had explained that it was perfectly fine, and that she could drop by any time she wanted. This apparently meant that she would show up every day. At some point Dirk had mentioned he really needed to get work done, and she agreed, knowing how much his work meant to both of their people. So she would either help him with tests or would bring in some supplies and practice drawing, something she had done back home without real supplies, but wanted to work on doing it the 'human way'. Her first few attempts ended up more like cheesy cartoon drawings a kid might make, but after a couple of weeks she ended up showing some real talent for the subject. When Dirk would finish they would talk again, sometimes about themselves, sometimes about the rest of the world, but more often than not they would talk about nothing.
It almost felt like the more Dirk was around her the more open he could be, despite coming from two different races Nepeta and him seemed to share a lot of things. They both knew what it was like to be alone, they had both at one point been spurned by someone they had believed to be 'the one' or some romantic bull like that, and a number of other interests besides. At one point Dirk had joked about her just bringing clothing over to his place since she ended up crashing on his bed most of the nights, and the next time she came it was with a number of outfits which she asked where they could be put. At first he was going to inform her of the joke, but found that he really didn't want to. He just told her to stash them in the closet or something. It didn't really feel weird, which was something Dirk didn't really know how to react to.
After a few months of this there came a week where Nepeta had to leave too help Kanaya with raising some Olive blood grubs, and even with her gone it seemed all his spare time was spent over a chat with her. Even through they talked it felt weird not to have her asking about his work or being able to call her over to check something out. Sometimes he would even turn from his work at the end of the day and expect to see the cat like troll painting him from behind or something like that. During the week his Bro… or rather his blood relative from a different timeline came down to his office to check on things.
"Sup man?" Dave came into Dirk's workshop/home and sat down on the couch/office chair. Dave still wore his godtier p.j.'s, which had grown along with him and become more and more knightly looking ever since he had accepted his role as a hero.
"Work mostly" Dirk cracked his knuckles and turned away from the computer to look at Dave, spinning his chair around in order to do so. "How about you?"
The Knight of Time let out a groan and put a hand to his forehead. "Same, who knew getting humanity to work was going to be such a pain in the ass, along with making sure the trolls have everything they need, I can't even get five minutes with my girl lately with all the bull we have to deal with, which is kind of bullshit seeing as I can time travel."
Dirk winced in sympathy for that, knowing how it felt in a way. "Sorry man, sounds like a pain in the ass"
Dave nodded in thanks for the sympathy before speaking again. "Speaking of girls I heard from a certain loudmouthed troll that you have been getting pretty close to a certain catlike troll."
The Prince of Heart coughed in order to cover up a blush that was claiming his cheeks as its territory and calmed himself before speaking. "If you mean Nep than yeah, she swings by here from time to time."
"Nep?" Dave raised an eyebrow, which was the Strider equivalent to leaning directly in Dirk's face and asking for more details.
"Nepeta, I mean Nepeta." Dirk quickly corrected himself, not really sure why he did.
"Right, sure you did." Dave stood up and walked over to Dirk, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Listen, from a Knight to a Prince if you want to be with her just go for it man, hell if we cut the stupid romantic bullcrap and just said what we wanted during the game I am pretty sure a lot of things would have gone better"
Dirk was about to argue, but found he couldn't. "Yeah… I will think about it."
Dave shook his head and walked toward the door. "Yeah, do that" he waved from behind and went out the door, flying off to do whatever a Knight of Time did with his spare time.
After the week ended and Nepeta came back the two had hugged, something that Dirk didn't even know that he knew how to do. They had just stood there with their arms around each other for what felt like a lifetime, but probably only ended up being five minutes. When the hug broke Dirk finally spoke.
"Hey uh… Nepeta?" He clenched and unclenched his fist in order to dissolve the nerves building up in his chest as he spoke.
"Yes?" the cat like troll was setting up her easel like she normally did when she arrived.
"I was thinking… uh… you eat right?" mentally Dirk slapped his forehead, thinking just how stupid a question that really was.
Nepeta blinked and turned to look at him. "Well of course I do" she put a hand on her hip and tilted her head. "I stay here basically all the time, you should know that silly"
Dirk nodded and drew in a breath, gathering his courage before speaking again. "Right uh… but I was thinking that maybe we could go out and eat, you know…together, just the two of us, one on one and all that stuff"
The girl paused for a moment as her brain processed what he was saying. "You mean… like a date?" her voice was rather quiet when she said that last part, almost hopeful in a way.
He gave a quick nod. "Yeah, kind of exactly like a date."
Nepeta smiled bright and jumped over to hug him again. "I would love to go on a date with you!" she blinked for a moment and raised a hand. "Like a human date right?"
Dirk blinked in surprise. "Well uh… yeah"
Nepeta let out a sigh of relief. "Okay good, that's good."
"Whats a troll date like?" Dirk asked, not really sure that he wanted to know the answer.
"You don't want to find out" she booped his nose and broke the hug so the two could get back to what they normally did.
So they went on their first date a few nights later, and it went rather well. Some people were still a bit weirded out by the trolls, but she was with one of the guys that had fought in the battle against Lord English, and they weren't going to piss off a guy who had in the battle attempted to rip the soul out of the godlike demon.
And then they went on another date, and another date, and before long the two were happily dating. A few of their friends were weirded out by it, but they weren't going to say anything against the two. Equius even gave him the 'hurt her I hurt you' talk, which seemed to be a sign that he thought the two were serious. After about four months of dating Nepeta moved a few other things to his house/office and declared that she had official moved in with him. Dirk just nodded his head, and didn't bring up the fact that with how long she had stayed the nights over the two had pretty much been moved in together for the better part of a year.
The two of them were happy together, Nepeta with her paintings, and Dirk with his machines. A match made in a strange sort of heaven. Just like that, the Rogue of Heart stole away the Prince of Heart.
The End.