She sat in her studio apartment with all of the windows open. It was nearing the end of the school year and she was disappointed that all of her friends were going to go home. Well, she was mostly disappointed that one was going to leave. He was her best friend! And he being her best friend gave her an excuse to see her crush, which was nice. She just wished that the boy she liked would notice that she liked him. It was just hard liking someone like that. And it hurt. A lot.

But she just worked on her final project for her drawing course. It was difficult working on such a large multimedia project in her apartment, but it allowed her to chat with friends and catch up on her favorite shows while she worked. And as it just so happened, she had a video chat going with her best friend while she worked on her final and he worked on a side project. Neither of them had said anything for about half an hour, they were honestly at a point in their friendship where they could have a video chat and just leave it running while they worked, but soon the door opened behind him and he turned his head.

She looked up and saw the pixelated image of the boy she liked. His head thrown back and his black hair disheveled. He looked at her friend. "Equius. For the love of all that is holy, go to the lounge. I need some fucking me time right now."

She could see Equius's eyebrows raise from his profile. "Karkat, though your suggestion does in fact sound like you are about to do something terribly lewd, may I inform you that I am chatting with my dear friend here?"

She saw Karkat frown when he looked at the screen. She just blushed and waved, hoping that he didn't think that she was just a bother. Or that he would remember her name. That would be nice. "Oh. Hey Nepeta." Score! She didn't really think he'd forget her name, but it was nice to know that he cared enough to know who she was! "Didn't notice you behind this guy's massive fucking shoulders." He moved to his own desk and threw his pack down. "Seriously though, Equius I just want to be alone and I can't lock those dick weasels out of the lounge. All I want to do is sit down, watch Hitch and eat some fucking popcorn."

Nepeta giggled to herself. She thought that the way he watched chick flicks was cute. She would love to watch some with him someday. She thought that he'd probably either talk to the screen or just sit enraptured by what was happening.

Either way it would probably be really really cute.

But she just smiled at him, even though he couldn't see her. Equius turned his head. "I'm sorry to have to end our chat so soon, Nepeta. Would you care to convene at a later date?"

"Oh don't be a stick in the mud, Equius! I could just take my project to the dorms and we could sit in the lounge! That way Karkitty gets his space and we get to hang out!" Hopefully she could maybe talk to Karkat too. That would be perfect.

"I suppose that may be a sufficient plan." He glanced at Karkat. "Would that be suitable?"

"I don't fucking care I just want to either watch a romcom or hit something so hard it explodes."

He looked back to the screen. "You will meet me here in twenty minutes."

"I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Twenty minutes."

She rolled her eyes. "I'll be there soon. See you soon!"

"Twenty minutes."

She shook her head, laughing and just closed out of the chat to shut down her computer. While her laptop shut down, she put all of her things into easily transportable containers and finally put her giant project into her portfolio. That was really the worst part of the class. The portfolio was as big as she was and she couldn't bed it at all.

At least her art was nice when she took it out. That was a plus.

Once her things were packed she gave her cat a scratch on the head and some food, then started the short walk to campus. The faded yellow building was well within a ten minute distance, she just hoped that Equius hadn't gotten impatient. He really needed to work on his patience some days!

She made it to the front door and used her student ID to open it. They still hadn't taken her access away, sweet! Though she realized that it probably had something to do with her new hacker friends. They really were great for things like that! She made her way to Equius's suite and knocked on the door. He answered, looming over her. "Hello?" He hadn't looked down yet, though she hadn't really expected him to.

She just laughed it off, though. "I'm down here!"

He looked down and smiled. "Ah, yes, greetings, Nepeta. Do come in." They went into the room where Karkat was busy packing a bag and she noticed that Equius was hard at work on some sort of new robotics project for the school team.

"So are you seriously fucking kicking me out? I just want to watch a romcom and sit in the dark all night you piece of shit!"

"I do not appreciate your lewd vocabulary, Karkat."

"And I don't appreciate being kicked not only out of the room, but out of the fucking suite so that you can do whatever creepy fucking thing it is that you're going to do!"

"Nepeta and I require space for our projects." He crossed his arms over his chest.

"Oh yeah. Sure. I'll just make my way downtown then?"

"If you would."

He huffed as he slung his bag over his shoulder. "Fine. I'm just going to go work out in the Brennan Center. Maybe there'll be someone to spar with, I don't fucking know!"

Nepeta tilted her head to the side. "Spar?" She wondered if he was a kick boxer too.

"Yeah, sparring. Like in boxing. Well not just like boxing. I mean boxing."

"Oh you box! I'm a kick boxer! But I think that I'm a pretty good boxer, too." She grinned widely. "Do you maybe want to spar with me?" She pointed at herself, hoping that he'd say yes.

He just laughed. "I don't want to fucking hurt you. You can't weight more than, what? Seventy pounds?"

"I weight ninety pounds, thank you very much and it's all muscle!" She put her hands on her hips.

He just shrugged. "Hey I mean I guess if you want to come spar with me instead of working on whatever it is you have in that giant briefcase you can. I just hope it doesn't affect Mum-Ra over here." He jerked his thumb towards Equius.

"Mind your manners you philistine."

"Go fuck yourself."

Nepeta could see Equius starting to sweat and she giggled a little under her breath. "Well if I go with you then a certain very tall friend of mine could invite a certain lovely lady over to watch a movie." She winked. "And I bet that lovely lady would love having the room to just the two of them..."

Equius coughed and rubbed the back of his neck. It was obvious that he like the idea. "Very well, then. You have my permission to go with Karkat."

"Yes! I'll see you later then! Is it okay if I leave these things here?"

"Of course you may." He already had his phone out of his pocket. "I shall see you upon your return."

"See you, Equius!" She put her things down by the door and ran behind Karkat as they left. Once she'd caught up, she side eyed him, smiling. She'd never really spent time with just him before.

He glanced down at her and she looked away hurriedly. "So... Why'd you want to come with me? I'm not exactly the most pleasant company." He snorted.

"Well, you've given Equius and some of my other friends some pretty good advice!" He put her hands behind her back and laced her fingers together. "And I was wondering if you'd maybe be willing to help me, too?"

He shrugged. "Sure. What do you need help with?"

She bit her lip. "Well, I like someone. And I want to tell him, but I don't know if I should."

He frowned. "Is that it? I mean the answer is obvious that you should tell him."

"Well,,, I'm mostly scared to tell him because I don't know how he feels."

"How do you feel about him?"

"Well, I like him a lot!"

"And how do you like him?" It was strange hearing how his voice changed when he was giving advice. She'd seen him do it from a distance, but everything about him just seemed more relaxed. His eyebrows her still scrunched, but the rest of his face was at ease and his voice was a little softer. She shook her head, snapping out of her observation.

"Uh, what do you mean by how do I like him? I like him the way he is!"

He laughed a little. "No, I mean, like, do you like him in that way where you all want to do is like suck on his face or fuck him, or do you like like him in a way where if it ended you'd be like "eh, okay we can still be friends I guess" or maybe you like, I don't know, wanna just hold her, uh, his hand and like cuddle and maybe make out," she noticed that his face had flushed to his ears. It was too cute not to look at. "Or maybe you like like him in that weird way where you want to like hit him but still suck on his face?"

She giggled a little. "I think it's a bit of all of them!"

"Really? Huh. Well what's he like?"

"Oh, he's nice, but I don't think he thinks he is, and he's fun to talk to even though I haven't gotten much of a chance to talk to him at all!" She dropped her hands to her sides and let them sway. "I mean I could tell you a whole lot more."

"Then why don't you?" His dark eyes searched her face. It was strange seeing him staring at her like that. But it was nice to have his attention solely on her.

"Well if I tell you too much you'll know who he is!"

"And you don't want me to know?"

She squealed. "No! No one must know! It's a secret!" She put her head in her hands. Talking to him about this was just so embarrassing! "But, maybe I could tell you if..."

"If...?"

"If you beat me in a match!"

"Uh-huh. You do realize that I would own you in a match so hard you wouldn't know what happened, right?"

"Well we'll just have to see, won't we?" She smiled widely.

He laughed sharply. "I've been boxing since I was six, Nepeta, I think I've got this."

"Well I've been in gymnastics since I was three but there people half my age that are better!" They entered the Brennan Center and Karkat held the door for her.

"Yeah I guess. I just don't wanna hurt you."

"You won't! I'm tough!" She flexed her arms in front of her and gave a little growl. "See?"

He laughed, a little more softly this time. "Okay so you're tough. We're wearing protective shit, though."

"Okay, fine." She let her arms drop naturally to her sides. "I'll have to get my gear out of my locker, though. We're using the regular practice ring?"

"Yeah. I've gotta change too so meet me there?"

"Sure! See you soon, Karkitty!"

He opened his mouth and let out a horrible growling-hiss. "Don't call me that!"

She stopped in her tracks. "I'm sorry!"

"Ugh, no, it's fine. People just keep giving me names that are supposed to be like fucking cute or something and I'm not cute! I'm manly as fuck!"

"You are. You are indeed quite manly." She nodded sagely, her cheeks flushed a little. "I have to go change, though. I'll meet you by the ring!"

"All right, see you soon."

And with that they parted ways.