Title: New York Nights and City Lights
Words: 798
Rating: M for later chapters.
Warnings: It's based off after the game has ended, and there might be spoilers pertaining to act 5 (?) But you shouldn't be reading this if you haven't reached there yet.
'Beep, Beep, Beep'
"Mmff.." you mumble rolling over slamming a fist on his alarm clock. Seriously you needed to get rid of that thing it'd be the death of him. You're awake now, thanks to the goddamned clock, and lay there dreamily gazing up at the ceiling for roughly 20 minutes. You grunt, a hand groping around blindly for his glasses, which should've been changed after the game ended. A quick glance at the time gets you out of your tired groggy state and the next thing you know you're making more a mess of your room than the state it originally was it, with you tossing clothes around trying to look for something which looked presentable to throw on. Maybe it would've been a good idea to clean up the place because as you dart out the door your foot gets caught in a pile of salamander plush and you're landing face first in the corridor. Rubbing the growing lump on your head you dart downstairs and bolt out the door, glancing nervously at his watch. The perfect way to greet an old friend John great going on getting up early!
Your name is John Egbert, and you are incredibly late for your 'appointment'.
You speed into the desired destination within the time span of 10 minutes, namely a coffee shop, your sudden entrance startling several customers and earning you some looks to be shot your way. The person of whom you're meeting is as well, startle by your appearance, but her look is warm and her plum lips tweak into a soft smile. "John," she says casually closing the book, which she previously was rather engrossed in. "Rose," you reply, grinning at her, and neatening, or at the very least, trying to neaten out the mess you call hair. "I see you took the initiative to arrive early, that's lovely to see the independence and maturity blooming in you," she says moving a strand of blonde hair out of her eyes. She had definitely… changed since their sburb days. She no longer donned the yellow robe and hood, or blue ballet shoes, and her figure had developed far more drastically, slim was a good word to describe it, not the scrawny, skinny 13-year-old girl you remembered. She was fitted in a lavender trench coat, and with her legs crossed you catch a glimpse of a black waist skirt beneath it. She's wearing classy boots, but then again whenever is Rose not classy. A shiny purple hair band, one highly similar to the one she wore 10 years ago sits nicely in her blonde hair, which falls in nice curls around her face. "Shut up," is all you manage to retort, your eyes betraying you and clearly getting carried away with observing her curves and that chest, ok you're getting ahead of yourself now Egbert. "Good comeback John," she replies a soft smile resting on her lips. You've changed that's for sure, and definitely matured by bounds and leaps. If anything it was probably the death of dad and the realization that he wasn't coming back after sburb that did it.
You had dropped off the radar after several years, Dave giving up after the first 3 years, followed by Jade. The trolls didn't give much of a fuck about you, the connection to their universe being lost anyway, and having to deal with looking at the trollian name 'arachnidsGrip' and knowing it'll never light up, even if we still had some sort of connection with the trolls. The information about Vriska's death that you had obtained from Karkat when you were 16 was another huge shocker, and something that was considerably hard for you to get over. Rose however, still made futile attempts to grab hold of you, god only knows why. Yes, it was pretty immature of you to just stop talking to everyone because you had suddenly been thrown into the harsh cold world of reality at an early age, because the other 3 of you guys had to do the same. But it seemed Rose had placed some faith in you, and a whole lot of confidence that she was eventually going to reach you. That she did, several years later, on your 20th birthday. It seemed she hadn't forgotten, and you just happened to open pesterchum after all these years for shits and giggles, and the first thing you receive is a message from purple text reading 'Happy birthday John.' You then proceeded to read through the whole walls of text that had accumulated over the years.
The change in you was prominent, but then again there were still obvious traces of the goofy kid that they all loved. She tried her best to guide you back. She conversed with you on a daily basis, and got you to open up to her again. Just recently she had requested that the two of you meet in person, having it been so long since you had last seen each other, and now, here you are, sitting here awkwardly while Rose sips her coffee, but you know she too, doesn't really have much idea what to do.
You break the silence by asking one of the stupidest questions you could muster. "So uhh, Rose, what now…?" She just places away her book in her handbag, and takes out a mirror, re applying her lipstick and fixing her hair, such that you almost think she didn't hear you. Just as you open your mouth to repeat the question she turns to you once more standing up and stating instead of suggesting that the new local art museum would be a good place. You're more than willing to oblige when it suddenly strikes you, that the museum is closed today, it being new and all. "Yeah, great plan, just that, it's closed…?" You point out raising an eyebrow.
She smirks and strides out the door anyway, leaving you with not much choice but to follow her.
Authors note: This was initially a quick thing in class that evolved into a more detailed fic. I don't really ship this pairing, but it's such an underground ship and they're adorable. Ahhh first chapters is the hard chapter but I hope I've impressed with the brain farts that are produced within my mathematics classes.