496 Reasons Why Multidating is More Complicated than it Seems

Pairing 9: Horuss/Latula

Beginning AN:

I am proud to announce that this might be the last chapter where the pairings are more-or-less written as "friendships" or something like that! Oh, and yes, even the ones that haven't officially hooked up yet will later get together in a future chapter. Eventually it should get to the point where the pairings actually become pairings on their chapter, since it'll take place enough in the future for them to have enough prior development for it to make sense.

Day 1.

"Hey roomie," Latula said, unpacking and uncaptchaloging anything she could by means of a rather annoying modus, "I have a simple question. Like, where is your dream self?"

On the other side of their door, Aranea tried dragging a giant cardboard stand through and into the room.

"Just wanted a small low-down yo." She added. "Porrim said that your DS was missing when she did her big count. Kankri's was too, but you know, he's really good at making his move on its own."

"Oh, that..." Aranea said in between grunts, "It's an experiment."

"What kind of experiment? And why is that so heavy? It looks like it's all cardboard."

"My references... are in... this... oof!" She finally got it in a reasonable place, then willingly collapsed on a wand pile, grinning at Latula. "As for the experiment... do you want me to cover every detail?"

"Um, no thanks. Look, everything's in here, I'm just gonna walk around and see what I can shred."

"All of the game's veil stones are made for labs. They only have one purpose. And that has nothing to do with 'shredding.' But I would be more eager to halt your progress if by 'shredding' you went by the traditional meaning. And were talking about my papers and not your sports."

"Building is always a thing that can happen. Becides, we're still in a dream bubble, I could just think up a park from home or LOTAS."

Before Aranea could begin with "Dream bubbles are not that simple," she was already out the door.

The 8-fold bearer shrugged, closed her eyes, and grinned.

"Dream selves, on the other hand..." she whispered to herself.

Hearing 'neighs' out in the plains would have normally been nothing, but setting made a surprising difference.

Like in a hallway, altered by the bubble so that trees seemed to grow along the walls, dissapearing in the height. Or when that hallway led right into a blue cave, echoing the noises that were definitely within. Or when Latula stumbled upon the source, which was Horuss oddly shrinking himself to the wall of this cavern.

"Horuss?"

"Oh." He turned to her, starting to get up - she frowned when he noticed his complete lack of attire - and explained. "It's the new humans! As a three-sweep hold on our mission, I felt that this was the time to try out a new experience! Properly releasing my inner horse to the outside world! Or, what passes as the outside for such a gritty location."

"..."

"This is me, Latula, my real form."

"Uh, that's nice and all, but I think Aranea was telling me about some neat experiment that breaks a dream barrier or something like that."

"I have nothing to hide!" He seemed to be ignoring her, "And, for some reason, this infuriates John and Jade to no end. Dave too. And Karkat."

Latula stopped in her tracks when she briefly took the wall away from her mind and decided to re-think about Horuss's latest sentences.

"Wait." She turned back to him, her shades already resting in her hand. "Did you say... nothing to hide? Not saying I wanna take off all my clothes, but I want to get your low-down."

"...I know," He sulked, "This is hypocritical coming from me. N-no it isn't!" And then his face shot back up with a grin, one that made Latula lean back with an arm out defensively. "Being, like this, is who, I want to be! I mean, I-"

"And this pisses off John?"

"Yes, but I would refrain from such l-blood language."

One deep breath and a look at her feet later,

"Well, tell me more!" She shrugged, throwing her shades down. However, her mood quickly soured when she noticed that they landed right between his legs.

"Um... you can keep those now." Latula added.

Closing AN:

Once again, not that proud of it. Felt more like story exposition and less of the characters getting into a real friendship. At least, from what it appears to be, they are starting to bond over some form of mutual dislike towards John. What's that dislike about? Don't worry, most if not all questions will be answered in due time.

Next up: Meenah/Rufioh.