Chapter 3:
The next day at school was as normal as it always was, except that for the first time in my life, I was dreading art class. Not because it was art class, but because Karkat sat next to me. On any normal day, I would be ecstatic to be sitting with Karkat for seventy minutes. However today, I was likely to be bombarded by questions from him, all of which would be about the Disciple, my "fictional" character.
"Nepeta, are you alright?" Equius fretted, gently placing a hand on my shoulder.
I jumped a little at the surprise. "I purromise I'm just fine Equius, I told you befur, I've just been feline a little sick lately, nothing big." I lied, Equius always bought my lies. He nodded at me and I smiled back, he was so protective.
"We have arrived at your class, Nepeta, I'll be leaving now." He said; formal as always.
"Alright, see you later!" I said, giggling and hugging him before dashing to my spot in the art room.
Luckily, Karkat wasn't in class yet, so I took the advantage to pull out my sketch book and continue my portrait of him. It was our current project; we were assigned partners- or, assigned to the person next to us, rather- and had to do a full-body portrait of them. I was ecstatic to have Karkat as my partner, and because now I had an excuse to make a portrait of him. I had drawn him before, but never while he was in front of me, so they didn't really look much like Karkat.
Before I knew it, Karkat was sitting next to me, trying to get my attention. I flinched at the sudden noise and turned to face him.
"I need to be able to see you to do this stupid fucking project." He started. "Today was supposed to be my day to draw you since you started drawing me yesterday, or did you forget, like you usually fucking do?"
"A-ah, right, no I didn't forget." I said, bushing my sketchbook aside and turning to face him, not sure quite where to look.
I sat awkwardly in front of Karkat for a few minutes before he noticed my tension. "Stop fucking making that face you look ill, calm the fuck down alright?" I nodded and sighed, relaxing my muscles. "So, Nepeta, tell me more about that character, the Disciple, what's she like?" He asked.
My face felt like it was on fire. I knew he was going to ask, but I had totally forgotten about the whole "answering" part.
"W-well…" I started. "She's athletic, smart, very business-y, to the point…" I faded off; it really felt like I was just praising myself.
"I met her again yesterday evening, the Disciple, she said for me to call her T.D." He explained. "I mean, I figured since she's your fucking character you would know what the hell her name is or some other back-handed shit like that."
"O-oh, so, what do you think of her, since you said you met her." I said, feigning enthusiasm as best I could.
"Kinda fucking scary, to be honest. Also she's really intimidating." He answered. "Are you sure you don't know her real name? I know she goes to our shitty-ass fucking school, so that's one thing."
I laughed nervously, crossing my ankles. "No, I don't, I purromise."
"Hey! What are you doing?!" Karkat screeched. "Don't move your legs, goddammit, Nepeta." He said getting up and walking over to me.
Karkat gently grabbed one of my legs and put it back into the right position, before he stopped. My face was burning up as he grabbed my other leg and inspected it.
"You have, really fucking defined leg muscles." He said bluntly. "How the hell…"
"U-uh, Karkitty?" He looked up at me. "C-could you let go of my leg?" I said awkwardly, face probably redder than a tomato.
Almost immediately Karkat dropped my leg back into its proper pose and backed up, stuttering an apology, face blooming with a light shade of pink. I sighed in relief, placing my hands back onto the edges of my stool. I was completely embarrassed; I had never had anyone, let alone a guy, look at my legs like that. To make matters worse, I was even, maybe, a little flattered. Especially since he didn't comment on the new stubs of hair I had growing.
"Uh, anyways, what are you planning to do for the next T.D comic in that poor excuse we have for a school newspaper?" He asked.
"Well I hadn't thought about it, maybe her helping a lost little boy or something?" I offered, hoping it was far enough from what had happened last night for him not to notice. After all, I didn't want to stop using my adventures for the comics just because of what was happening with Karkat. Karkat hummed and continued his work.
Just before the bell rang Karkat stopped and walked over to me with his phone in hand. I looked up at him curiously. "What? Add your number. If we don't work after class I'm never going to finish this idiotic fucking assignment."
I nodded quickly, adding my name and cell number to his contacts. Karkat thanked me and walked out and to his next class. Fortunately for me, I had the last period off, so I dashed out and ran home to drop off my things and change into my Disciple clothes.
I had been sitting in the shadiest part of town for almost half an hour, usually I can at least catch a mugger in that time, but today there was absolutely nothing. I sighed and lay back on my tree branch. I had almost fallen asleep when I heard police sirens blaring. I shot up to a crouched position, watching the car wiz by in a fury. I finally had something to do.
I followed the car all across town, and when it stopped I noticed it did so at my very own high school. Just as the panic hit me, my work phone rang, it was Karkat.
"Hello?" I said.
"Get your fucking ass over to Skaia high!" Came Karkat's muffled yelling. "Some ass-crack with a gun has the school in lock down." He added in the same tone.
"I'm already here, I followed the cops; do you know where the person with the gun is?" I asked quickly.
"People are saying he's in the math hall, and moving to the sciences hall. Those are in the West wing, by the way." He said quickly.
"Thank you." I said, hanging up the phone and putting it in my side pouch.
I quickly climbed down from the perch in my tree and crawled my way up onto the roof of the building, sliding effortlessly into the vent shaft. I quietly made my way to the sciences hall, spotting the man with the gun instantly. He was tall and wore a black ski-mask; how cliché. Discrete as I was, he spotted me crawling atop the lockers.
"Hey, look it's a little kitty." He snickered. "Go home or I'll shoot you, today's not the day to be playing hero."
Before I could respond, I saw one of the doors open and a few kids came flooding out, presumably trying to escape. Idiots. I thought. I recognized one kid though, that was John Egbert, which is when I realized that he was in Karkat's- and Equius'- Biology class. The masked man turned to face the kids, holding the gun up to the one he was closest to; I took this as my opportunity to attack.
I flipped off the top of the lockers and quickly hopped again to land a smooth butterfly kick right into the back of the shooters head. When he got back up, I pulled out my finger daggers, one between each finger. He came at me from the front, I pushed my daggers into each of his shoulder joints and used his weight to flip over behind him as I pulled the daggers back out. I crouched behind him and kicked his feet out from under him, upper-cutting him in the lower back with my daggers as he went down.
This time the man didn't get back up, he laid on the floor bloody and groaning. I pocketed my daggers, whipped my slightly bloodied hands on my bare torso, and leaned over him.
"Eat a dick." I said sweetly, taking the gun he dropped and tucking it into the back of my skirt as I walked away. The idiotic shooter still had the safety on it too.
Before I could make it out of the student's sight, one called me back.
"T.D!" The voice called. It was Karkat.
I half turned to face him, still somewhat in a battle stance. "Don't thank me." Was all I said before hopping back up on the lockers and into the vent shaft for my quick escape.
Hey, thanks for reading the new chapter. I hope everyone liked it too! I'm considering doing a chapter in the future using Karkat's POV, but I'm not so sure, let me know what you think about it I guess? It probably won't be the next chapter, but let me know what you guys think.
~Chris
