Goodness does word spread quick. Apparently, Gamzee told Nepeta who told Terezi who told Aradia who told you that they're keeping another troll already.
"But they literally just got one!" You said to Aradia.
"I know! Isn't it crazy? Before we know it, those two are gonna be married with some human kids on the way!"
You force yourself to suppress an audible shudder. "Well… Maybe? I mean, Terezi told me Nepeta declined when he proposed a few days ago… Good for her.." You mutter under your breath.
"Sorry, did you say something, Feferi?" Aradia raised her voice a considerable bit since she last spoke, causing you to move your ear away from the phone for a moment.
You can only assume that her troll son, Sollux is 'buzzing' oh you have got to tell her that one around, using his psiionics to wreak havoc.
"No, no, you're fine, Ray!"
Get it? Ray? As in… Manta Ray? And...a nickname for Aradia? You crack yourself up…
You hear a clatter in the background and you flinch just from hearing it.
"Should I leave you to that?" You ask hesitantly. You don't think you've heard him so worked up before.
"Oh, no, he'll be alright. I think he just needs to get his frustrations out.. I think he might have a crush or something!" Aradia giggles. "But I can't read his mind or force him to talk so I just let him go."
"But.. Last time I checked, you had expensive china!"
"Oh! No, I have all that fancy stuff to Damara as a sort of house warming gift. See, she recently moved from Japan."
"So she finally wanted to come see you?"
"Oh…"
You can't think of anything else to say but 'Oh'. Sometimes you forget that your friends don't have that good of a bond with their siblings. Not that yours with Meenah is picture purr perfect either but…
"Besides, I've learned to not have anything too expensive or fragile within a mile of him." Aradia adds with a small chuckle.
"Is taking care of Sollux ever a burden or… too much work?"
"Oh, yes, he's quite a handful but I would never say that he's a weight on my shoulders. He's young but we've been through so much together."
You sigh. "Well, I'll get going. You need to calm that buzzing bee of yours anyhow."
You hear Aradia laugh for a bit. She's heard way too many bee puns from you but she still laughs like it's the first time. You guess it's just a running joke now?
"Goodbye!" Aradia chirps then hangs up, you following suit.
As much as you don't like it, you're a little bothered by the current situ- okay, you're a LOT bothered… Why weren't you the first person Nepeta told about this new troll? You are best friends!- No. You think you shouldn't think like that. You should respect Nepeta's boundaries and go to her apartment and see for yourself.
To tell you the truth, you really just want to see her and any reason is a good reason. You feed your cuttlefish and before you leave, you glance back at your olive cuttlefish and blow a kiss.
You approach Nepeta's apartment and raise your french tipped pointer finger to ring the bell when a sudden thought dawns on you: you hardly ever let Nepeta know you're coming, you just do… Perhaps that's a reason why Gamzee doesn't like you. He would definitely be pissed if you walked in on them making out or… something.
You retch at the thought of seeing his drug tainted lips going anywhere near hers.
You would gladly take her gentle hand and spin her into your arms and kiss her yourself in front of that guy.
Is that messed up?... Yeah, you're messed up. In fact, you're so messed up that you just… walked in. Without ringing the doorbell.
You hear some stirring, which you assume is Nepeta, Gamzee, Eq, or the new kid. You shut the door behind yourself and you aren't left alone in the entryway long enough to wonder who it was.
"You're home already, Gamzee?" Nepeta's voice calls.
You're about to announce your arrival on your own behalf but a troll with nubby horns glides into view and upon seeing you, his bushy eyebrows seem to almost form a unibrow. "Definitely not Gamzee." He grumbles.
You see yet another pair pair of horns appear, one of them broken and you smile at the troll bearing them.
"Then who is it?" Says Nepeta's voice.
"Don't tell me I need an introduction!"
You walk into the room and Pounce, Nepeta's white maine coon, who was previously resting on Nepeta's lap leaps to the floor with a small 'mrrp' and saunters over to you.
You kneel down to pet the cat in her favorite spot; right behind her left ear. She nestles her soft, furry face into your palm and purrs comfortably. You smile and stand back up after a while.
"Y'know, I don't see Pounce too often anymore… You'd think that a white maine coon would stick out like a sore thumb."
Pounce spins around, her fluffy tail tickling your leg and jumps back onto the couch. Nepeta chuckles and glances at Pounce for a moment.
"Yeah, I don't… think she likes Gamzee that much."
You exchange a meaningful moment's glance with Pounce, as if you could commune with animals. You and me both sister, you think to yourself, again, as if you could commune with animals.
"Is… Gamzee not here?" You ask.
"Oh, yeah… He went out a few minutes ago. Why?"
"Just wanted to make sure we can both be ourselves." You half joke.
"Feferi, I always act the same way. There's nothing different."
"You're less tense than usual."
"Well, you and Gamzee aren't fighting… That's enough for me." She sighs with a small smile, which you return.
You look back down to Pounce and the troll boys. "Nep? Could I ask something of you?"
"Uh- Of course! What is it?"
"I want someone to… keep me company." You mutter, a bit embarrassed. "Like… them," You gesture to her furry friends and she looks a bit... disappointed to hear that last part.
"Feferi, you wanna take care of a troll?"
"Well… yeah." You confirm, feeling awkward.
"Nepeta's face lights up and you suddenly feel your knees nearly collapse under you so you quickly suggest the two of you sit and chat. She asks you if you want a drink but you decline because you say you don't plan on staying long.
"Why not? I'd be happy to help you get a companion,"
Your gay ass wouldn't want to miss out on an opurrtunaty to spend time with Nepeta so you decide that you'll stay a bit longer; at least until Gamzee comes back… Yeah, you don't think you'll want to be here when he comes back.. Maybe.
"You wanna go for a walk?" You ask.
She glances outside, likely checking how much daylight you have left and she nods. "Let me just write him a note before we go?" She says, ending is as a question as if she would change her mind if you objected.
"Shore!"
Nepeta smiles wide and stands, wandering around the first floor of her apartment for a pen and paper. You don't really know why she does this and you'd never ask because you think that would be rude so at this point, you just let her do what she thinks is best.
Getting the feeling this may be a while, you stand and start compulsively cleaning. Of course, the majority, if not all of the mess is beer bottles, mostly empty. You pick up as many bottles as you can and silently judge Gamzee Makara even further.
How does she stand being within a ten mile radius of this guy?... That's love, you guess.
As you go to recycle this shameful display, you notice that some even collected dust. Gross?
What does he even do? You ask yourself, tossing the bottles away. You know he doesn't work… Does he just drink and smoke all day? As much as that makes you want to laugh at the idiocy and… utter douchebaggery of it all, you know it's true and clear as day. You're tempted to scour the apartment for more to clean but Nepeta comes over and you wipe that from your mind.
"Sorry, one second." She whispers and bends over the counter to write the note and you desperately want to write 'GET A JOB!?￢ﾀﾙ on that, but you decide to be mature and just shut up.
"Okay, I'm done. Eq and Kartitten, you know where the food is if you get hungry. You're in charge until Gamzee gts back, Eq." Nepeta says over her shoulder.
Equius makes a confident sounding "Hm", nodding and the other boy rolls his eyes.
"You're leaving them alone?" You ask, glancing back at them nervously.
"Gamzee's gonna be home soon. Besides, I trust them," Nepeta beams at them.
With Gamzee there, you think they might as well be alone.
"Yeah, of course!"
Nepeta locks the door behind you both and you set out on a walk. The two of you walk in silence for a bit, occasionally catching eye contact.
She looks so serene now as you watch her short bottle blonde hair bob as she walks, vaguely missing her beautiful ginger hair.
You look down to Nepeta's small hands, swaying at her sides and you realize how you ache to hold them. You look at your own hand, a bit bigger than hers, so you could protect her.
You bite your lip as well as the metaphorical bullet and take it upon yourself to hold her. Her hand is cold. You look up at her and see her blushing through her bangs; you wish you could brush her bangs out of her onlive eyes and get lost in them… forever…
You clear your throat and Nepeta sorta jumps.
"Soo, Nep.. Why did you dye your hair?"
"I honestly don't really know…" She chuckles. "I admit, I'd been thinking about it for a while since you did it. It just… seemed like a good change!" She shrugs.
You nod. "You pull blonde off pretty well!"
"Ehhh, I dunno. I think I prefer my natural ginger."
You do too but that would probably sound rude?
You stop for a moment to figure which way you'd go next and you both agree on right.
You notice Nepeta starts to gently swing your arm with her's.
"I haven't walked down this neighborhood in a while… It's been even longer since I have with Gamzee," She muses.
You frown at the mention of her boyfriend and she notices, apologizing softly. You reassure her that she has nothing to be sorry for. She smiles and you melt.
For a moment, Nepeta looks as if she was going to say something but had forgotten and closed her mouth. You rub her hand with your thumb.
"Are you okay?" You ask.
"Yeah, just thinking… Remember when you and Gamzee were close?"
"I remember… we would team up and play pranks on you, terezi and aradia all the time in high school!"
"Yeah! Hehe…"
You both crack up for a bit. It's hard to believe now that he was your friend..
"Oh! And when I taught you how to bake a pie just so you could throw it in his face?" Nepeta snorts at your recounting.
Out of the corner of your eye, you see someone struggling to pick something up.
You turn and tell Nepeta you think you should help and you walk over together.
"Excuse me, do you need help?" Nepeta asks them.
The person stands, seeming very relieved that the two of you were there.
"Oh my Gosh, you have no idea how grateful I would be… You see, I'm moving back to Europe so I can attend an art university-"
They're British, eh? Cute accent!
They look back to their house. "But I'm afraid I can't bring my troll with me… I can't afford it." Wait. Did they say troll?
"Did you say troll?" You ask.
"Why, yes, I did. Why do you ask, love?"
"I've… always wanted a troll."
"Is that so?" They smile with a cute little chuckle. "He was my first troll… Such a sweetheart."
"Well… I wouldn't mind taking care of him! I would… love to, actually."
"I'm sure he'd love you too! I would hate to have to take him to a shelter.."
"It breaks my heart," You both say at the same time and laugh heartily.
At that moment, you notice they have different colored eyes but you don't realize you were staring-
"Heterochromia, dear," They say sweetly.
"Pardon?"
"My eyes. You were.. Staring." They laugh and point to their left eye, which is a deep brown. After a few moments, they then point to their right eye, a rich green.
"No, I'm sorry! That's not what I meant, uhhh"
At that moment you realized you never formally introduced yourself-
"Cal or Callie, if you prefer,"
"Feferi," You say.
"Nepeta," Nep pipes up. You'd nearly forgotten she was there. "Hey, is that him?" She points over to… a tree? But then you notice the almost too obvious horns sticking out from behind the tree.
"Pay no attention to the troll behind the oak tree…" A small voice shakes.
But… he just drew attention to himself by saying that? Also the horns now that you notice them.
"Tavros, dear, come out and meet your new friend!" Cal attempts to invite the little guy out and you see his tail flick out from behind the tree.
"He's so nervous," Nepeta mutters and you nod.
"Maybe we should come back another time?"
Cal opens their mouth to speak but you see Nepeta walking over to the tree, seemingly using all of her effort in remaining quiet and as non-threatening as possible. For someone like her, this shouldn't require so much of her but this little guy has some serious all-around anxiety disorder… Poor thing.
You see Nepeta kneel down in the grass and watch her small frame disappear behind the tree and you wait. You can just barely hear Nepeta whispering to Tavros. You glance anxiously to Cal who looks deathly worried.
"She knows what she's doing," You insist and Cal visibly relaxes.
After a few minutes, you notice the talking stops and Nepeta reappears, standing up and walking back over to the two of you, a small but satisfied smile on her face. Shortly after, you see a small troll come out. You can't help but notice that some of his- most of his features are very bull-like, especially when he's walking on all fours like that. He stops at your heels and looks up at you with those adorable brown speckled, grey eyes of his that you finally get to see… and… take him home… away from Cal…
"Wait," You pry your eyes away from Tavros. "Are you sure you're okay with this?"
Their confusion melts into a sweet smile. "Yes, I'm quite sure. I want what is best for him and remaining under my hospitality simply… isn't."
You allow yourself a somewhat guilty smile, glancing back to Nepeta, trying desperately to silently ask her for reassurance. When she nods, you feel a bit better… about… everyfinthing.
You take a deep breath. "Okay," You say.
You see Cal smile, tears welling up in their eyes. They kneel onto the grass, stretching their arms wide and Tavros quickly leaps into their arms. "
"You'll be good, won't you?" Cal asks, running their hand through the boy's spiky hair.
He nods silently and they release each other.
"I cannot thank you enough, Ms. Peixes." Cal turns away from the three of you and you feel another pang of guilt as they start walking back over to their boxes.
"Wait. Why don't we exchange numbers? Or Pesterchum? To keep in contact? And…"
"Can we help?" Nepeta finishes the thought for you and a tear rolls down Cal's cheek.