"Oh man, we haven't been up in the treehouse for so long," Vriska said cheerfully. Terezi laughed a bit. It was honestly weird feeling the texture of the rope with only her right hand. Sometimes Vriska truly hated having a prosthetic arm, but it was better than only having one arm.
"Yeah, Mom says it's not safe for me to up so high, but she's hardly around lately so who cares?" Terezi answered. Wow, a mother who makes herself scarce? Vriska would kill for that.
"Yeah, where is she anyway?"
"Hell if I know. Between her clients and her own case against Dad and the baby shit-"
"Whoa, whoa, wait- she's suing your dad? Why?"
Terezi shrugged. "Guess he hasn't been paying child support."
Vriska scoffed. "Like you need it; your mom makes lawyer money."
"That's what I'm saying!" Terezi gestured incredulously. "I told her to just let it go because it's stressing her out and it's bad for the baby but she just said something about justice…" Terezi sighed. Vriska smiled to herself a bit. That was the Pyropes for you, always searching for justice in the most radical way. Even Terezi; she always wanted to right these wrongs she had nothing to do with. Vriska preferred to leave well enough alone. Unless payback was in her own best interest. Regardless of their views of morality, Terezi and Vriska had always had each other's backs and that didn't change despite their messy accidents. Okay, so only one of the things that happened was an accident. But Terezi stuck by Vriska regardless, and Vriska always appreciated that. For whatever reason, she had a hard time making friends. After another quiet moment, Vriska spoke again.
"So when's she due? The baby, I mean."
"I think April?"
"Oh, breaking up the Libra squad," Vriska laughed. It was always some kind of weird coincidence. Terezi's whole family was Libra, just like Vriska's whole family was Scorpio. And if you believed in astrology, three Scorpios under one roof was a disaster waiting to happen. Terezi laughed a bit too.
"I know, it's kind of weird how that worked out." Vriska paused and looked out from the treehouse. They were above Terezi's house, and Vriska could see past it; see the neighborhood sprawling out beneath her, and she followed the roads with her eye until they went winding up into the hills. She let out a small breath.
"Great view from up here, eh Pyrope?" Vriska teased. She glanced over at Terezi, who was scowling at her. "Come on, don't be like that. I'm just messing with you a bit."
"Hmph."
"'Reziii."
"It's fine, Vris. Besides, we already got even for that." Vriska touched her face with her real hand, feeling the scars around where her eye used to be.
"An eye for an eye," she murmured.
"An eye for an eye and an arm for the other," Terezi answered. Vriska paused for a moment, glancing down at her other arm, all plastic and metal and wires. She flexed her fingers a bit, still glad she could even operate them as well as she did. "It was an accident, you know," Terezi said after a minute.
"Yeah, I know." It had been an accident. It wasn't like when Vriska told everyone that what happened to Tavros was an accident. She'd meant to hurt Tavros; maybe not as bad as she did, but Terezi had just wanted to confront her, not hurt her. Accident or not, it was in the past. "Thank fuck for Equius, right?" Vriska hated the idea of owing him a favor, but she certainly did.
"Mhm." Vriska tried to ignore the tension that had just come between them. They hadn't even been in the treehouse since that day, so it was proving difficult not to think about it. BUt they were still friends, so Terezi had to have put it behind her. Despite this, things didn't feel quite the same. They clearly still had their underlying problems.
"You know, being up here reminds me of the Team Scourge days. Hey! We should get the D&D group back together!" Vriska said, feeling very excited with that idea. "We always had such great adventures."
"I was impartial." Well, Terezi was the DM, so of course she was going to claim she was impartial.
"Suuuuuuuure."
"Yeah, well, you may be able to talk Eridan and Tavros into it, but something tells me Aradia won't be a part of any new session we start." Vriska rolled her eyes. The only reason Eridan ever played with them was because Vriska and Eridan had been dating at the time. Still, Dualscar was a pretty cool character. Until he died, in a really lame way. And Aradia. Vriska and Aradia had never really gotten along all that well.
"Who cares? She was always so odd anyway. We could probably get Nepeta to play; she's into roleplay."
"You can't just replace your friends, Vriska."
"Sure I can. Besides, it's not like I cut Aradia out of my life or anything, but if she doesn't want to play D&D anymore, she doesn't have to." The matter between Vriska and Aradia was more complicated than that. They hung out a lot as kids, and then Tavros started spending more time with Aradia, and maybe Vriska got jealous, and maybe Vriska orchestrated an event that involved a Ouija board, after Aradia's mom died, but she never expected anything to happen with it. Regardless, Aradia got very odd after that. She still hung around that group of friends, but she just seemed weirdly interested in death and ghosts and she and Sollux bonded over this bizarre concept of voices and doom that Vriska never understood. But, whatever, that wasn't even the point.
Regardless of what happened or what didn't happen in the past, Terezi and Vriska spent the majority of the afternoon up in the treehouse, laughing and making jokes and trying to relish in the last little bits of sunshine before it disappeared behind the hills again. And then, Vriska's phone rang. With just one glance, she already didn't want to answer it. But, there would be hell to pay if she didn't.
"What," she said bluntly as she answered the phone.
"Vriska where the hell are you?"
"Mom, Jesus Christ, I'm at Terezi's." God, her mom could never remember anything.
"Don't you talk to me like that. I thought I told you to get some dinner. I'm starving. Just get something on your way home, you gotta do something to pull your weight around here. Lazy little-"
"Ugh, please sto-"
"You're always trying to get away from me."
"Sto-"
"Good for nothing."
"Mom, stop talking. I'll go to the stupid grocery store, fuck," Vriska hissed, hanging up before her mother could get another word out. She looked at Terezi, who had one eyebrow raised up at her.
"You talk to your mom like that?"
"She's being dumb. Anyway. Guess I gotta go."
"Alright, well, see ya later then." Vriska went down the rope ladder and then out front through the side gate instead of through the house. God, she couldn't stand her mother, especially when she started belittling her. Good for nothing? Vriska had to prove her wrong; Vriska had to be something great. And the worst part was none of her friends even knew how terrible her mother was. They had money, but her mom didn't really do anything to take care of Vriska and Aranea. It was always, "you should be grateful there's even a roof over your head." At least she didn't notice when Vriska snuck money out of her wallet, because hey, a girl needed to buy new clothes once in a while. But of course Vriska didn't have any cash on her. Her empty wallet stared back at her.
"Oh, great," she huffed. She knew she couldn't go home empty-handed; her mom would kill her. So she'd have to either steal something or find some money, fast. The former was bound to be easier, so Vriska strolled inside, minding her own business. She gathered a few items—mostly frozen dinners that were easy to pop into the microwave or oven—and took them over to the self-checkout. These things were a miracle; nobody would question her if they thought she paid, so she shuffled things around, squinted at the computer screen, and then shoved everything into her bag. The whole 'charging for shopping bags' thing was great, too, since it wouldn't seem out of place for her not to have one. Really, all they were doing was making things easier for sneaky little thieves like her. It wasn't as if she really wanted to steal, either, but her mother made it clear what would happen if she didn't comply. As it happened, her mother still wasn't happy with what Vriska brought, disdain evident on her face as Vriska emptied the stolen goods onto the kitchen counter.
"What's this crap?"
"It's a frozen pizza, Mom. You just put it in the oven."
"I didn't ask you to get me something I had to cook. I said to get dinner."
"Well if you would just give me an ALLOWANCE, I would be able to get fast food or something instead of commiting petty theft at the GROCERY STORE!" Vriska yelled.
"Oh, you want money. Earn your own money, you freeloader. What do you even need money for, so you can go track down your dad and leave your poor mother all alone?"
"Don't guilt-trip me, Mom. I'm 14, it's not like I can even get a job," Vriska huffed, toning her voice down. It was probably a bad idea to keep yelling.
"Oh, excuses excuses. Whatever, I'll make your damn pizza." Vriska clenched her fists, grit her teeth, rumbling with anger at the way her mom treated her. It was like she was just some food source, not even a daughter. Just, 'take care of it or I'll kick you out, Vriska.' That was nothing she should have to worry about. But her mom was such a neglectful, heinous bitch. It was her fault Vriska was even missing an eye; Mom didn't even want to let them put a glass eye in. Vriska remembered hearing her mom saying that maybe just having the bandages forever would teach her a lesson, as if the whole incident hadn't been enough of a wake-up call. Vriska stomped up to her bedroom and slammed the door, not even bothering to think about if Aranea was studying. Aranea was always studying, nose-deep in her fucking history books. Instead of telling her mom what she really thought of her, Vriska just turned up her speakers and started blasting her music.
"FOXTROT! UNIFORM! CHARLIE! KILO!" she shouted-slash-sang along, until Aranea pounded on their shared wall. When Vriska didn't turn the music down, Aranea came to the door instead, walked in, and did it herself.
"Vriska, please, I am trying to study."
"It's summer. Break. What are you studying?"
"I'm reading old biographies of someone we may be related to," Aranea said, letting her know-it-all-ness show. Vriska rolled her eyes, and Aranea huffed. "You know, Vriska, I thought you would be more interested in my research of our ancestry."
"Yeah, unless we're related to pirates or something, I don't wanna hear it."
"Well, actually—"
"Aranea, I don't caaaaaaaare."
"You really can be so rude sometimes!" Aranea shouted before storming back out.
"Ugh!" Vriska groaned, and she turned her music back off and grabbed her bag again, running down the stairs and out the front door before her mom could ask where she was going. Anything was better than being in this house. So, who could Vriska go blow off some steam with? Terezi had been all huffy with her, so maybe going back to hang out with her wasn't the best plan. There was only one other person Vriska knew would put up with her on short notice. As she started off down the sidewalk, she noticed Equius, her neighbor and sometimes friend, sitting on his porch. He looked up at her and stood up, so Vriska paused in her path, wondering what Sweats McGee wanted to talk to her about.
"Hey Eq," she said as he approached.
"Hello, Miss Serket. I have a question for you."
"Ok, shoot."
"Well, there seems to be something of a relationship between you and Mr. Nitram, correct?" Vriska felt herself flare up with blush.
"And what business is that of yours?"
"I am only asking because… people of our social standing—you and me, I mean… it is just. Oh fiddlesticks."
Vriska rolled her eyes. "Spit it out, Zahhak."
"Do you have difficulties acknowledging your feelings for someone of such a low social standing?" Equius finally managed to ask. Vriska raised an eyebrow at him befuddledly, and then sputtered into laughter.
"Do you actually believe the classist garbage that comes out of your mouth, or is this just a load of shit? Look, just because we have money and big houses and stuff doesn't mean anything. If you like someone and they're like, 'low-class' or whatever, who cares!" Honestly, Equius' rich kid bullshit was exhausting. Yeah, Vriska's family had money too and it didn't make her life any easier. "So who is it?"
"Uh… it's Miss Megido."
"Hm. Interesting."
"Do you have any… advice?"
"Why don't you fucking ask Nepeta? She's way better at this romance stuff than me." Equius looked embarrassed when Vriska mentioned Nepeta, and he glanced away. "Besides, it's not like that with me and Tavros. Just talk to her."
"Very well. But might I remind you that you do owe me a favor?" Vriska glanced down at her prosthetic. Fuck, he was right.
"Fine. If shit goes south, I'll help. But for now, I gotta go." Vriska waved him off and continued on her way. Why did that asshole have to bring up Tavros? If she said that was who she was going to hang out with, it would only prove him right. But Equius was notoriously terrible at relationships, even just simple friendships. Everyone in the group thought he was like, vaguely creepy, except for Nepeta. Those two were pretty much inseparable, for whatever reason. And then he mentioned her fucking arm? What a jerk.
It wasn't exactly a short walk to Tavros' place, but Vriska was just listening to her music and minding her own business. When she got onto Tavros' street, she shot him a message on Pesterchum.
arachnidsGrip [AG] began pestering adiosToreador
AG: Hey, toreadumbass.
AG: Let's go for a walk.
AT: Uhhhhhh
AG: I mean, I'll push your stupid chair. I just need to get out of my house.
AT: Ok, i guess thats fine
AG: Cool, I'm outside.
arachnidsGrip [AG] ceased pestering adiosToreador
Despite a bit of a contentious history, Vriska couldn't help but smile when she saw Tavros rolling down the ramp to his front door towards her.
"Hey, loser," she said, teasing him gently.
"Hey Vriska. You… dyed your hair?" he asked. Right! She'd dip-dyed her naturally blonde ends to a cerulean blue.
"Yeah, isn't it just the coolest?" She'd done it at Vriska's house as to not stain her tub and risk her mom wanting to kill her, but when she saw it, her mom wanted to kill her anyway so the whole thing was a moot point. It still looked cool, and despite Aranea disapproving, she said it did bring out Vriska's eye. Tavros started rolling down the sidewalk, and Vriska fell into step beside him as they headed towards the park.
"So… you ready?" Tavros asked. Vriska raised an eyebrow at him. "For, uh, school tomorrow, I mean." Vriska felt her smile immediately drop.
"School starts tomorrow?"
"Yeah. You didn't know?"
"No, my mom is… so clueless," she muttered. She didn't really tell her friends how bad her mom could be sometimes. The last thing she wanted was anybody's pity. "And Aranea has been too wrapped up in her own business to keep me in the loop on anything. Such a fucking bookworm. Shit! I can't believe I forgot!"
Tavros had a perfectly pitiful expression on his face, and Vriska kind of wanted to smack him for it. "W- um, I have some extra… notebooks and… stuff. Maybe you could use it until you can go supply-shopping."
Vriska scowled at him. "Don't be stupid, Tavros. I'm not looking for charity. I'll take care of it myself." Being self-sufficient was one thing Vriska was good at.
"I was only trying to help."
"Maybe I don't need your help."
"If you say so," Tavros muttered. Vriska rolled her eyes at him, and then he got quiet. She never liked it when he got quiet, or when anyone got quiet, really. She didn't know how to handle a lull in the conversation. The sun was beginning to go down behind them as they walked.
"Brr, it's getting chilly out," Vriska said pointedly.
"Yeah…" Tavros murmured. "Do you wanna head home?"
God no. Heading home was really the last thing she wanted to do. "No."
"Uh…okay…"
Vriska frowned at him. Didn't he get the memo? "I said I'm cold, numbnuts."
"Uhh…"
"Are you going to offer me your coat or not?"
"Oh! Oh, yeah, here," Tavros said, worming his way out of his sweater. And a moment later, he was on the ground, faceplanted on the sidewalk. Vriska looked down at him, and she couldn't help but to laugh.
"Tavros, that was just. So pathetic. Hahaha, you look so sad right now!" Vriska just kept laughing, Tavros saying something she didn't quite hear, and then managed to climb back into his chair, pulling his sweater back on. It was actually mildly impressive. "Wow, toreadork, that's some mad upper-body strength you got."
"Well, it is a manual chair. I mean, I, uh, spend a lot of time pushing my own weight around."
"You just look like you have the muscle density of a twig."
"Maybe we should just head back," Tavros suggested, a small frown on his face. He started heading back in the direction of his house as they talked. Vriska let out a long groan and then looked back at him.
"Yeahhhhhhhh. You're not wrong. I just don't want to go back home."
"Why do you want to avoid your house so badly?"
"Have you met my mom? Remember how 'torn up' she was when I was in the hospital? That she didn't even want to discuss payment options for a fake eye? She just let them sew it up! And she's been acting even screwier than usual lately. My aunt Snowman has been bugging her out." This was probably because Snowman was the principal of the high school Vriska was due to start at the next day, and Vriska thought her mom was worried she'd tell Snowman how she was treated at home. It was never the same worry with Aranea, maybe because Aranea coasted barely underneath their mother's radar, always buried in her books and schoolwork. Vriska was a lot rougher around the edges, and instead of learning to deal with it, her mother was trying to sand down those edges via harsh words and shitty treatment.
"Snowman?"
"I don't even know her real name! God my family is so fuckin' weird. You're lucky, Tavros, with your dumb nuclear family." It was true; Tavros and his two regular parents and his older brother, with a sibling dynamic that was a lot more amicable and friendly than hers and Aranea's, which read mainly as 'two people who JUST HAPPEN to live in the same house and kind of vaguely tolerate each other'.
"No family is perfect," Tavros answered with a sigh.
"Yeah, well, better than mine. Ugh. I should probably go, though."
"Okay. Night, Vriska."
"Psh, see you later, you fucking dweeb," she laughed a bit, still smiling despite having to go back to her mother. She stepped off the Nitram porch and heard Tavros go in the door behind her. As she walked back home, she wondered 1) if her mom was going to yell at her for leaving without saying anything, or if she'd be asleep on the couch and not even notice (Vriska sincerely hoped it was the latter) and 2) exactly what the hell she was supposed to do about school tomorrow.
