There, that wasn't too long, was it? Read away!


"Dave?"

"Yeah?"

"Why the fuck do you live on the top floor?" Terezi panted, gasping for breath as her partner pulled her up the last few steps with a mighty tug. Overdramatically, of course, she collapsed onto the landing and groaned as though she were dying.

"Oh, get up. It's not that bad."

"Dave, that is the most stairs I have ever climbed in my entire life."

"Stop whining, my apartment is just down the hallway. You can have some water or something," the blonde chuckled and hooked his fingers into hers, pulling her up to her feet.

"Cherries?"

"Yeah, you can have cherries. We've got a bunch of them."

"Fuck yes!" she was suddenly completely re-energized, and Dave lead her down the hallway. He poked a key into the lock and pushed the door open.

"It's kind of lucky for me that you're blind, I don't have to clean up because you can't see how disgusting it is in here," Dave grinned as he kicked the door shut behind them.

"Wow, that's super respectful. Thanks," Terezi giggled sarcastically, leaning on her cane.

"You can probably smell it though, can't you?"

"Oh, absolutely. It's like unwashed laundry and sweat and an undeniable overtone of male in here. Filthy, but there are lots of colors. I like that," she sniffed around to come up with a suitably degrading description. Dave laughed under his breath.

"Those colors are definitely not things you want to sniff or lick," he informed her, nudging aside a stray smuppet on the floor with his foot.

"Okay. Where are the cherries?"

"I'll get 'em, be patient. Stay here," he wandered into the kitchen to grab the bowl of cold fruits from the fridge, then grabbed a handful for himself before handing the bowl off to Terezi and pulling her to his room. "Did you bring your notebook?"

"Yep! And my pen!" she rifled around in the messenger bag hanging at her hip for a few seconds before triumphantly removing her teal pen.

"Awesome, let's get to work," Dave said as he searched for a writing utensil in his mess of a room. Terezi slipped her bag over her head and dropped it and herself to the carpet, crossing her legs and pulling out her book. Her partner sat next to her, having found a ballpoint pen to write with. He opened the book in her lap and flipped past her red doodles to the page were she had written their themes and outlined their setting. The page after that had the beginning they had written in class, so that was where Dave pressed the point of his pen to the paper.

"Where were we?" Terezi asked, clicking her pen.

"The trial. Senator Lemonsnout just killed Pumpkinsnuffle, I think."

"Oh, that's right! Now he'll drop the bag of embezzled beetles."

"Alright," Dave wrote what he was told, and they continued their project like this for about half an hour, with Dave dropping in ideas every couple of lines and Terezi agreeing wholeheartedly with them. Soon, they had filled a two pages with black text and random notes in teal.

"This project is easy. Does he always assign easy stuff like this?" Terezi asked, on the brink of boredom as she held a cherry between her sharp nails and slipped it past her lips.

"Sometimes it's kind of harder, but usually it's just like this," Dave tried to be as silent as he could, poking his own fingers into the bowl of cherries in hopes of stealing one. His silence was to no avail, though, his hand bumped into Terezi's.

"Hands off the cherries, Dave," she mock-growled.

"Oh, come on! Just one!" he pleaded, pushing her hand back and grabbing one into his fist.

"Fine! One," she permitted his hand to leave with the tart little red fruit.

"Thanks," he tossed it towards his mouth and caught it between his teeth, crushing it and draining the juice.

"Dave?" she asked a few minutes later, a frown in her voice.

"Yeah?" he answered boredly, thinking of snagging another cherry.

"I don't know what you look like," she was obviously quite concerned about this.

"What do you think I look like?"

"I don't know! That's the problem. I can't imagine you like you should be, I can only think about you like someone from where I used to live," she held her head up in her hands, pouting and considering, "I need to know, Dave."

"Do you want me to describe myself or something?" he asked, grabbing a cherry while she was too busy to guard the bowl.

"No, I won't know if you're telling the truth! You could make yourself seem all handsome or something," she smiled slightly.

"Well, you can't get much hotter than this anyway," he chuckled.

"I'm going to feel your face."

"What?"

"Turn this way. Now. This is happening," she held up her hands, suddenly facing towards him instead of forwards.

"You're gonna cut me with your nails or something!" he protested, not really wanting the sharp yellow objects near his face.

"I'll be careful. If you don't want to get hurt, help me find you," Dave sighed at her request that could obviously not be averted and pushed the bowl of cherries out from between them, scooting closer and grabbing her by her wrists. She grinned as he placed her hands on his cheeks. She squeezed them like an annoying relative, "Aw, baby fat!"

"No, come on! Not cool, Terezi! Quit it!" he protested through his teeth, which only made her laugh.

"Fine," she moved downwards, groping along his neck and upper chest.

"I thought you were feeling my face?" he smirked.

"Yeah, I'll get to that..." she mumbled and moved back upwards. When her fingers collided with his shades, she frowned, "Dave, why are you wearing these?"

"It's a habit, though I guess I don't really need to wear them around you," he slipped them off and she could feel him blink in the sudden brightness. The scent of red became much stronger.

"Gasp! Dave! Are your eyes red?" she asked excitedly.

"Damn, you can smell my eyes?" he groaned, "Don't tell anyone!"

"Oh, fine! But that's so cool!" she gushed, reaching one hand to her own face to remove her glasses. "There!"

Slowly, she kept feeling upwards, playing with his hair for a while before stroking the top of his head gently.

"Are you petting me?"

"Maybe."


Thank you so much to everyone who's been reading this, you have no idea how good it makes me feel that you like this! A double thank you to those who review, finding those as soon as I check my email is basically my favorite thing. Ever. Keep reviewing, keep reading!