Night had fallen over New Can Town, population thirty-six and Nepeta's cats, and the whole 'gang' was assembled on the Hill for one of the new universe's more exciting astrological events. A year's worth of some serious astronomy had given Rose a suitably complete model of their new solar system to predict that a major meteor shower would be visible that night, and she had promised enough of a show that everyone had showed up. Granted, even if it wasn't a big deal most people would still have shown up, and Gamzee spent most nights staring at the sky in a fairly disconcerting manner anyways, but this was one of the few times that absolutely everyone on Serenity got together.

Egbert's house was empty, with all the lights turned off to preserve the view, and everyone had scattered themselves loosely on the side of the hill that had the clearest view of the Lesser Squiddle constellation, from which the meteors would be approaching. Most of them had brought chairs to avoid getting all wet from the dew, with some standing around and chatting. Gamzee was sitting alone on Egbert's roof, slowly draining a bottle of Faygo.

John had gotten the best spot on the hill by virtue of living there, and all of his friends had clustered around him in a group that, for lack of a better word, was known as the 'People Who Know Egbert'. The PWKE represented a fourth of the people living on Serenity, and John had shot down several of Meenah's hints about installing a monarchy with this hard-to-beat voting bloc. Dave and Jade were sitting next to John, while Rose was smoothing a quilt on the other side. John's father was in the house, baking in the dark, but he had promised to come out before it started. Vriska and Kanaya hadn't shown up yet, and John himself was laughing his ass off at Karkat, who was pinching the bridge of his nose in embarrassment as Terezi wandered aimlessly in the background.

"This is serious, John," Karkat said, mortified about his girlfriend's behavior, "I need some help sorting her out."

"Oh my god, she bit you?" John said, barely suppressing his laughter long enough to get a sentence out.

"Yes, John. As I said before, Terezi bit me, and now she's-"

"How did that happen?"

Karkat sighed. "Let's just say that kissing isn't the wisest way of showing affection in a species with really sharp teeth. Anyways, Terezi bit my lip-which she says was an accident-and then my blood comes out, she reflexively snorts it or whatever, and now all she can see is, and I quote, 'C4NDY C4NDY R3D'."

"Karkat, that's easily the funniest thing that's happened here. I'm getting a picture for the scrapbook."

"Egbert, she's actually blind for the first time ever, and her walking stick has killed people before."

Jade giggled and Rose, while appearing more restrained, had to cough into her hand to avoid chuckling. Dave just smiled, and nodded knowingly. "She got like that once or twice when we were dating. If I got a paper cut or something, she'd make me show her. Is it just on her lip, or did it actually get up her nose?"

This was too much for John to handle, and he doubled over laughing as Karkat cursed under his breath. "She got a lot before I could jerk away. She had a little bloodstache… Oh my Gog, I just used the word 'bloodstache'. My relationship is so fucked up."

"The weird parts are part of the fun." Dave said, before quickly covering with, "Not that fun, though."

"Nice save, Dave." Jade said, rolling her eyes.

"That does not count as an excuse for being suspicious of me and Terezi, Jade, I caught myself."

"Strider, seriously, what do I do?" Karkat said, panic creeping into his voice as he heard Terezi, giggling slightly, stumble into Tavros' chair and knock him over.

"You're probably going to have to stick her head in a bucket—a tub of water," Dave said, correcting himself when he saw the look on Karkat's face, "And make her inhale through her nose. She didn't enjoy that very much last time we had to do that."

"Strider, this is the only time you'll ever hear me say it, but thank Gog you dated Terezi before me."

"It's what I'm here for."

Someone tapped Karkat on the shoulder, and he turned to see Feferi, who was leading Terezi by the elbow. "Is this yours?"

"Er, yeah, sorry." Karkat said, taking Terezi by the arm and blushing slightly. "Real sorry about that."

"Hey, Terezi, how are you doing?" Jade asked brightly.

"Great!" Terezi said creepily, her voice sounding weirder than usual, "Everything is red, so brilliantly, deliciously red! Everywhere I look, swirls of shining, shimmering red!"

"Well, that sounds pleasant." Kanaya said as she walked up to the group, carrying a folded-up Alternian telescope under one arm. "It looks like we have another Rainbow Drinker on the way."

Terezi giggled again, thrilled at the concept. "Karkat, you'd taste delicious… You'd all be delicious!"

"Oh god, it thirsts for human blood!" Dave said, making a cross with his fingers, "Run, run before it kills us all!"

"Should I be worried that hearing stuff like that doesn't bother me?" Vriska asked as she walked up. She had stayed behind to find her totally awesome pirate spyglass, before remembering she broke it in a particularly vicious pirate fight. "What's wrong with Terezi?"

"She's high on my blood." Karkat said in a deadpan tone, "So I'm going to Egbert's house and sticking her head in the sink until she learns her lesson."

"I sincerely hope that's not a sex thing."

Karkat swore under his breath as Terezi giggled. "You walked right into that one." She said, still giggling weirdly as Karkat led her up the hill to John's house.

"I love living here." Vriska said with a grin, as John set up a folding chair for her. "Nothing beats friendly, intellectual conversation."

"I know, right?" John said, as he set up his own chair, "What were you looking for, anyways?"

Vriska paused for a moment, not wanting to say she was looking for an object she should have known was broken, and settled on, "My evidence folder for you and Feferi."

There was a choking noise from Tavros, and Feferi half-turned to glare back at Vriska. Then she pulled a flirty smile and waved at John, who blushed slightly and quickly looked away, an event Vriska would capitalize on for years to come.

Further down the hill, sitting apart from everyone else, Eridan was stewing in his own bile, as he tended to do during big parties like this. And small parties. And pretty much all the time, come to think of it. It was sort of his thing.

His bitter pity party of reflecting on his isolation was rudely interrupted by someone talking to him. "Hey."

He turned to see one of the Lalonde humans, he didn't know them well enough to tell them apart, standing there, wearing her pink scarf and giving him a strange look. "Are you the wizard?"

Eridan considered arguing the difference between magic and 'white science', but knew that it was pointless. He nodded curtly, which made her smile for some reason. "I love wizards!"

Ah. She was making fun of him. Eridan scooted a bit away from her, drew up his legs, and began his most righteous sulk. Roxy arched an eyebrow, before taking a step to follow him. "Hey."

Eridan ignored her, which, instead of driving her away, seemed to make her even more curious. "Hey. Hey. Hey, fishy." She said, prodding him with her foot on the last one. "Why are you ignoring me?"

Eridan sighed, as he realized he wasn't going to get rid of her without talking to her. "Who put you up to this?" He asked, "Wwas it Kanaya again? Go tell her I'm sorry for May Day, but she's more than gotten back at me."

Roxy laughed a little. "Nobody put me up to anything, silly. I just like wizards is all."

"Yeah, right." Eridan said, adjusting his glasses a little. "Tell her it was a good idea to send someone I didn't know, but she shouldn't have picked someone who I know is in a relationship."

"What relationship?"

Eridan waved a hand in the general direction of the part of town where Jake English lived. "Advventure-boy. I've seen you two together, being all cutsie and snoggin' and stuff. Is he okay wwith you messing with me like this?"

"Jake and I broke up a month ago: Apparently I wasn't blue enough for him."

"Yeah, I'm real sorry about that." Eridan said, scooting another few inches away, "That still doesn't provve you're serious."

Most girls would have been offended by his behavior, and given up a long time ago, but Roxy took this as a challenge and followed him. "And why should I have to prove I'm serious?"

"Evveryone thinks I'm full of myself." Eridan said, "Thinks."

"Well, I don't know about other people, but you don't seem that stuck-up to me." Roxy said, bending down slightly, "Al I see is a cute little guy who doesn't believe anyone could be attracted to him. You've got self-esteem issues, if anyfin."

"Don't patronize me with fish puns." Eridan said, pulling up his scarf to hide his blush. A few seconds later, against his better judgment, he had to ask, "You really think I'm cute?"

"'Course I do! The little British accent thing you got going there is cute, and the scarf is adorable."

Eridan had no idea what Britain was, or what an accent from there would sound like, and he liked to think of his scarves as dashing rather than 'adorable'. However, this was after years of rejection and loneliness, and with these redrom attentions from a human raising a faint prospect of hope, he wasn't going to contest anything.

"You… you're…" He stumbled, "You're serious?"

Roxy winked at him. "I wanna see your wand."

Roxy winced almost immediately when she realized how awful that line was, but her terrible-innuendo guilt was interrupted by Eridan jumping to his feet, his eyes wide and shining with hope.

"I will be anything you want me to be." He said, so desperately happy he forgot to do the thing with his voice, "I will get you jewelry, I'll change my personality, we can do all the sissy stuff girls like doing, just please, please be serious."

Hell yeah, Roxy thought to herself, pleased with her powers of seduction. You've still got it.

"You mind getting me a drink?" She said, pointing a thumb over her shoulder at the cooler Jane had next to her on her quilt, "Maybe when you get back we can talk about scarves?"

Eridan practically sprinted to the cooler, tripping over Jane's quilt and falling face-first on the ground. The former Crocker heiress turned to see a flushed, anxious looking half-fish troll digging frantically through her cans of Tab. She glanced up at Roxy, who gave her the thumbs up while grinning inanely. She just sighed, and nodded with resignation: It was under two minutes, and she owed Lalonde five bucks.

Up in John's house, one light was turned on in the kitchen, as Karkat tried to convince Terezi to wash out her nose.

"You're going to have to do this sooner or later." Karkat said, pointing at the sink, which he had filled with water. "Might as well do it now so you don't miss the show."

Terezi giggled. "You know how silly you looked saying that?"

"No."

"Neither do I! All I can see is red! Delicious, delicious red!"

Karkat sighed, and took her arm to pull her over to the sink. "Come on, Terezi, let's get this over with."

"No! Keep your stupid sky, I want to stay like this." She said, pulling away.

"Terezi, you're absolutely helpless like this. I don't want to lead you around until it wears off."

"I am not helpless! I don't need you to lead me around."

"Terezi, you couldn't get out of this room if you didn't have me to help you."

"Could so!"

Karkat stepped away, and folded his arms over his chest. "Prove it."

Terezi paused awkwardly, just now realizing she had no idea how John's kitchen was laid out. She extended her telescoping waking stick, and began to slowly prod her way around the room. She hadn't actually had to use it before, but after some false starts and gaping holes punched in Egbert's cupboards, she began to make progress towards the exit.

Karkat watched her, feeling his irritation at her behavior tonight boil over with no way to release it. A malicious idea popped into his mind, and he grinned darkly.

Terezi had gotten herself a few feet from the door, when suddenly Karkat grabbed her cane and held it out of reach. "Also," He said, playing keep-away with it while she flailed her arms after it, "You don't have me to find the cane for you."

"Karkat, that's cheap!" She whined, flailing in a still-delicious but less fun sea of red, "Give it back!"

This continued for a minute or so, in which time Mr. Egbert walked in, grabbed a bottle of wine from a cupboard, and left without saying a word. Eventually Terezi gave up, and, breaking away from Karkat, stumbled her way over to the counter. She began feeling her way along the edge, bumping into chairs and a table leg in the process, but she eventually found a door.

"Yes, got it! I win, Karkat!"

"Congratulations Terezi, you found your way to Egbert's bathroom. Obviously the whole world's your shell-monster."

"If you don't shut up I'm going to bite you on purpose."

"If you can even find your way over here. How can you stay like that this long? Isn't it annoying?"

Terezi grinned. "A little bit, but," She said, stopping to inhale deeply, then shivering a little with pleasure, "Oh Gog, totally worth it."

Karkat groaned in irritation, and shot a death-glare at Terezi. She just grinned right back, arms folded across her chest in victory. She was a silly, ridiculously happy blind girl who had just made an ass of herself getting lost in a friend's kitchen, and she didn't care. Looking at her, seeing her beaming, in love with life, Karkat found he couldn't stay mad at her.

"Fine." He said, his frown fading as he walked up and handed the walking stick back to her, "I guess it's fine if you want to stay like this. Whatever floats your sea vessel."

Terezi cocked her head. "Really?"

"Yeah. I mean, it'd be a bad idea to do this all the time, and don't think I'll just rustle up some blood for you whenever you get a craving, but I shouldn't be so angry at you when it does happen. Enjoy the bloodstache while you can."

Terezi smiled. "You know, Dave never got over me wanting to sniff his blood."

"Well, then I'm glad I'm doing better than Dave was."

Terezi laughed lightly, taking Karkat by the arm. "Alright, take me to the sink. I'll clean it off."

"You sure?"

"Just because I like something doesn't mean I have to be a jerk to you about it. Besides, I want to see the show too."

Karkat led her back to the sink, and, after thoroughly wiping her upper lip with a dishrag, Terezi took a big whiff to see if it worked. "Alright, I can see again. I don't think too much actually got up my nose… Still a little red, but there's nothing wrong with that."

Karkat sighed with relief, then escorted his slightly-vision-impaired girlfriend out of the room, making sure to hit the lights on the way out.

Meanwhile, on a balcony looking out over the Greater New Can Town Metropolitan Area, another couple were enjoying their evening. Mr. Egbert carefully poured the bottle of wine he had retrieved from downstairs, as a small candle flickered between him and Ms. Lalonde. He was careful not to spill, but he needn't have worried: In light of one of their previous dates, Lalonde wore a wine-red dress whenever they had dinner, in which she was looking as stunning as ever.

He set the bottle down, and the couple toasted each other as a cool wind blew out of the open sky, sending her scarf fluttering. Mr. Egbert was a man of few words, and his lovely accomplice even more so, so neither felt the need to comment on the absolute perfection of the moment. When they weren't silently enjoying each other's company over wine, they would discuss the lives of their children, maybe share a laugh over Vantas's ill-conceived shipping chart (which was pressed between the pages of the Egbert family scrapbook), or else muse over the nature of universes and the strange twisting of fate.

Of course, neither of them believed in fate at this point. Being dead gives one wonderful perspective, and, upon their return to the waking world, they had been determined to forge their own path through existence, causality and stable time loops be damned. Of course, this new world didn't present much adversity to overcome, and for that they were thankful. They were left free to pursue whatever goals they had in mind.

Mr. Egbert had a rather special goal in mind tonight, and his hand rested anxiously on the little box hidden in his pocket. Of course, given the circumstances of their lives, a diamond ring wasn't an especially precious thing: They could alchemize the materials fairly easily, and brilliantly cut stones appeared to be a natural occurrence on Serenity. Still, Mr. Egbert was a man who respected tradition, and this was something that needed to be done right. When he couldn't stand the tension any more, he began to pull the box out of his pocket. "Roxy…" He began.

"You gonna motherfucking propose or not?" Came Gamzee's voice from a few yards away on the roof. "You've been messing with that motherfucking box for an hour."

Well. That certainly broached the topic. With a sigh, Mr. Egbert placed the box on the table, opened the box, and shrugged slightly.

"Mr. Egbert," Lalonde said, smiling wryly, "Is that the best proposal I'm getting out of you?"

"I suppose so."

To answer, she leaned across the table, and kissed him on the nose. He smiled, and kissed her back, trying to ignore Gamzee giving him the thumbs-up out of the corner of his eye. That was life, he supposed: Strange, sweet, annoying, and definitely worth it.

The couple decided to stay up on the balcony watching the stars alone, and, eventually, Gamzee took the hint and left himself.

John and Vriska sat together, watching the first few streaks of light begin to arc through the sky, as Rose yelled at everyone else to shut up. Everyone had gathered together, and even though most of them disliked each other, it was still a great feeling to know that everyone in existence could be united by something.

The lights continued to streak through the sky, gaining in in intensity and number as time wore on. Most of the naysayers who thought this was going to suck were nodding reluctantly, suitably impressed, while the more enthusiastic people were already cheering and clapping.

The night was a rousing success, all of them amazed at how entertaining lights in the sky could be. There was a simple joy, a sense of childlike wonder that couldn't be adequately be explained, that drew them to the hill year after year to see the meteors. As Gamzee would have put it, 'motherfucking miracles, my brother'.

Most of the group stayed up far later then they intended to, simply enjoying themselves too much to go home, and, the next morning, Roxy woke up and found that she had dozed off on the hill.

She sat up slowly, stretching herself cat-like for a second, then rubbing the sleep out of her eyes with a small contented smile on her lips. That had been a fun night: She'd let herself try a little alcohol and had had enough self-control to keep from getting drunk, Janey had given her five bucks, and the meteors had not disappointed. She felt a lot better than she should have for sleeping out all night. Her back was a little sore, but her neck, which should have been killing her, was fine. She turned back to look over the patch of grass she had fallen asleep on, seeing if it looked particularly comfortable, and found that she had been sleeping on a makeshift pillow. Bunched up in a ball, where her head had been resting, was Eridan's scarf.

She stared at the object, picking it up and slowly unfolding it. Eridan had been attentive all night, and he must have left this for her after she fell asleep. It was surprisingly considerate of him.

Roxy felt a twinge of guilt. She and Jane had made a bet over her powers of seduction, and, as Eridan was generally known to be a whiny asshole, he was considered an acceptable mark to lead along. But now, looking at this heartfelt act of consideration, she felt manipulative. Messing with him was mean, and she didn't want to imagine how terrible he'd feel when he found out he was being played.

She stared at the scarf, her twinge of guilt spiraling into a full-blown pang of remorse. He wasn't such a bad guy for Alternia, and he was trying, trying as hard as he could, to be something worthy of being loved. She toyed with the waterproof knitting, thinking about what she had done, before coming to a decision.

Wrapping the scarf around her neck, she set out for Eridan's house. What the hell: He was a wizard, and the scarf was adorable.

That one took a little longer than i thought it would. I'm still not perfectly happy with it.

Please review!