Hey, I think it's my longest chapter yet! I had the bulk of it written out several weeks ago so I just had to slap a beginning and an end on it, which is why I was able to update so fast.
Many thanks to obsessed01616, Heki564, BlOo KiSsEs, and one anon for your reviews to last chapter!
Sollux woke slowly, a strange song penetrating his sleep. That definitely wasn't the alarm he set on his phone. Not his normal alarm, anyway. No, that Shinedown song was—
"Shit!" he yelped, sitting bolt upright. He scrambled out of bed to silence his "last chance" alarm—as in, his last chance to get to school on time. It was seven-fifty, and he had forty minutes until his first class—Web Design—began. In a flurry, he grabbed the first clean pair of jeans and shirt he could find, shoved his glasses on, struggled into his shoes and socks, grabbed his backpack, and flew out the door. He didn't bother waiting for the elevator. He simply charged down the three flights of stairs.
He dashed to the bus stop, making it just seconds before the bus pulled up to the curb. As soon as he was sitting, he allowed himself to breathe. The bus would make it to his campus stop in about twenty minutes if traffic was good, twenty-five if it sucked. It was seven-fifty-four right now, meaning he had anywhere from ten to fifteen minutes to make it to class from the bus stop. That was just barely time.
He didn't call it his "last chance" alarm for nothing. It was literally his last chance. He wouldn't even have time to see Aradia before class. Frowning, he pulled out his phone and sent her a text. AA, ii woke up late thii2 morniing 2o iill 2ee you after cla22 iim on the bu2 riight now but ii thiink iill make iit.
The bus was ten minutes away from campus when her reply arrived. thanks f0r letting me kn0w. i h0pe the rest 0f y0ur m0rning g0es m0re sm00thly.
Aradia didn't hate text-messaging, but she preferred other methods of communication. Sollux, she knew, had hang-ups about talking on the phone, and so she didn't make a fuss when he insisted on texting her everything. Since he was on the bus right now, she understood his desire to text more so than otherwise. Public transportation was no place to have a phone conversation.
Still, Kanaya had already gone to her class and her own class didn't start until nine-thirty, so there was nothing for her to do except wait. Jade was nowhere to be found—she hadn't seen Jade since last week, although her absence wasn't exactly uncommon; the girl sometimes went right to the library in between classes and then straight home, and Aradia knew that if she wanted to be found, she would be—so Aradia decided to use her free time to make some decent headway into A Game of Thrones. She'd been meaning to re-read the books in their entirety (such as they were, considering there was still at least one more to be written) for awhile and even brought the first book with her, but she hadn't gotten a chance to re-read it. Not yet. But she could now.
She was so used to having at least one other person around her at all times—Damara at home, Kanaya or Sollux or both at school, sometimes Terezi when the mood struck her, or Jade when she could be dragged out of the library or from her grandfather's house—that being alone at her little table in the corner made her feel very small. That, too, was odd, considering she was six feet tall. Small was not an adjective one applied to Aradia Megido. It was strange to not have someone chattering at her. True, Kanaya spoke eloquently, as did Sollux when he could be roused to talk, but she missed the sound of voices besides her own.
She kept glancing up every so often to look around the cafeteria, her restless brown eyes skimming the other students. There by the windows were two people, a boy and a girl, who he'd seen talking with Sollux yesterday. She didn't know either of them, but the girl wore a pink skirt and the boy had a streak of purple in his dark hair. Separated from them by several tables was another couple, but they weren't at a table themselves (rather, they seemed tucked into another corner by themselves). The tiny girl was perched, half on a ledge and half on the shoulders of the boy, who easily cleared six feet tall. Exposed by the sleeveless black shirt he wore, his massive biceps bulged like oversized softballs. He appeared not to notice the way the other girl played with his hair, gathering it from his bangs, combing it back with her fingers, and braiding it. Aradia blinked when she saw how long his dark hair really was. It seemed to fall halfway down his back.
The tiny girl scrunched up her face in concentration as she worked. She leaned back for a moment, putting her hand—or, rather, her sleeve—to her chin before pushing her sleeves up to almost her elbows and continuing to braid. Her sleeves, heedless of the unspoken command to stay, fell back down again almost immediately, but she ignored them.
The boy adjusted the sunglasses perched on his nose, obscuring his eyes, and murmured something to the girl. Her hands faltered as she began looking around. Aradia saw her lips form the word, "Where?" She couldn't tell how he responded, but as the girl began scanning the room with more purpose, Aradia looked down at her book. When she peeked up again about thirty seconds later, both the girl and the boy were looking at her. At least, she thought he was looking at her—the sunglasses he wore made it exceedingly difficult to tell where had his gaze focused. She blushed—even with the sunglasses, he was quite classically handsome with noble-looking features and dark skin, and she had been caught staring at him and his girlfriend—but as she started to look back down again, the other girl waved excitedly, motioning for her to join them. The boy turned slightly and said something, causing the other girl to kick at his pectorals with her heels.
Aradia tossed her book into her backpack and slunk over to the pair, looking as sheepish as possible. She hoped she wasn't about to be branded a creeper. "Sorry," she said the moment she was within earshot. "I didn't—"
"Hi!" the girl said happily, ignoring her apology. She leaped off the boy's shoulders—now that she was on her own feet, Aradia could see that she really was quite short, only about four inches taller now than the boy was now, still sitting—and tugged Aradia closer. She wasn't quite sure where her hand had darted out from, since she could only see olive-green sleeve. The other girl motioned to a chair a few feet from the boy. "What's your name?" she asked, still smiling brightly.
"Um. Aradia. Look, I didn't mean—"
"Nonsense! I'm Nepeta!" she said, bounding back over to the boy and climbing onto his back again. Aradia had a feeling that just about everything she said had exclamation points. "This is Equius!" Nepeta added. The boy, heedless of her additional weight, again pushed his sunglasses up the bridge of his nose. Now that Aradia was closer to them, she could see that his sunglasses appeared to be cracked in several places, and that they kept sliding down his face due to a light sheen of perspiration. Equius flexed his fingers at her in what she interpreted to be a wave. She blushed a bit and hoped it went unnoticed.
"Hi," she said shyly, looking from Nepeta to Equius.
Nepeta resumed braiding his hair but remained quiet. Equius sighed heavily. "I apologize for my companion. She tends to be... incorrigible," he said, and suddenly, Aradia had to fight the urge to smile. He had a deep, soothing voice and a surprisingly formal way of speaking, not unlike how Kanaya spoke. It was pleasant.
"It's fine," she said instead. "I really didn't mean to stare, though."
Nepeta scoffed in a good-natured way. "But we're purrfectly interesting!" she said. Aradia realized that the blue hat jammed down over her untidy blond hair was actually in the likeness of a cat's face. Nepeta appeared to have a fondness for all things related to cats, considering the hat and the cat pun. "Besides, Equius doesn't have nearly enough furriends!"
"I'm sure you have plenty," Aradia started soothingly, but the boy shook his head ever so slightly so as not to unseat Nepeta.
"I fear Nepeta is correct. While she is my closest friend, I have few others. I believe... I put people off."
"That seems a little hard to believe." Aradia was well-aware that she was starting to flirt with Equius, but considering he'd described Nepeta as a friend and a companion, and she'd said nothing to correct him, she felt herself relaxing a bit. Maybe he's gay. Or maybe he wants to be more than friends with her and she doesn't realize it. Or she does and she's trying to shake his interest. Still, she pushed those thoughts down. They were none of her business.
"They just don't understand," Nepeta sighed, but with a fond smile at the top of his head. "People think he's big and mean and scary, but he's really just a big kitten!" she added. Meanwhile, her hands never stopped moving, deft fingers twisting Equius's dark hair into one cohesive braid. She scooted back so that all of her weight was on the ledge before hopping off and standing, moving farther down his back. After a moment, she reappeared with a triumphant smile. "Done!"
Equius hadn't flinched once in the process that Aradia had seen. Whether it was a testament to Nepeta's gentleness or his pain threshold, she didn't know for sure. Either way, the braid suited him well. It brought out the edges of his face and Aradia found herself blushing again.
"So," Nepeta went on, oblivious to the silence. She hopped back onto the ledge—or, rather, climbed from Equius's arm to his shoulder before seating herself back on the ledge. Then the crossed her arms and propped them up on his head, using them to support herself. "What have you been doing today?"
"Well, I normally spend the mornings with Kanaya or Sollux—"
"Sollux Captor?" Equius asked abruptly.
"Yeah, do you know him?"
"He's in my coding class on Mondays and Wednesdays," he said.
"Who's he?!" Nepeta asked excitedly, leaning farther over Equius's head. "Your boyfurriend?!"
"Nepeta," Equius said warningly, but she shooshed him. She seemed genuinely interested, and not in a "I want to hook you up with my best friend" kind of way.
"No, I'm single. And nothing against him, but he's not exactly my type," she added. When Nepeta tilted her head to the side, she realized what that sounded like and waved her hands in embarrassment and frustration. "But I'm not a lesbian!" she added quickly. Nepeta tilted her head to the other side, the sphinx-like expression on her face never changing. "Not that there's anything wrong with that! My friend Kanaya is a lesbian," she said, wishing the floor would swallow her up. "You know, you can stop me from talking anytime now..."
Nepeta let out a shrill giggle. "But it's so amewsing to listen to you ramble!"
Aradia groaned and completely covered her face. "I'm just trying not to come off as a total creeper."
"You're not a creeper! I think you're sweet!"
"Well, what about you?" Aradia asked in an almost challenging tone. "Are either of you dating anyone?"
Equius merely shook his head, but Nepeta said, "Nope! I'm far more interested in my own shipping, anyway!"
"Shipping?" she asked, but Equius shook his head again, with more vigor now. She couldn't be sure, but she thought he saw his eyes widen.
Nepeta ignored it, though. "Yep! People who I think would be impawsibly adorable together! Like those two over there—" She motioned over Aradia's shoulder, to the two she'd seen talking to Sollux the day before. "They're friends, he likes her a lot, she's clueless! They'd be cute, but... I think they're too alike! They wouldn't be good for each other! Equius, on the other hand—"
"Nepeta," Equius said again. "Don't you have class soon?"
"Huh?" Nepeta shook back her sleeve to check her watch. "Oh, no! I gotta go!" She grabbed her backpack out of nowhere, hopped off Equius's shoulders, and planted a quick kiss on his cheek. "Bye, Aradia! See you later, Equius! And if you don't get her number, I'll put you in a headlock!" she added mischievously, already scampering away.
Equius seemed to blush for a second, but he hid it by pushing his glasses up. "Again, my sincerest apologies for her. I had hoped she would behave herself, but that appears to be against her nature."
"Oh, I don't mind. I wish my friends were half as chatty as her. Sometimes I get tired of my own voice."
"She certainly speaks enough for three," he admitted with a small smile.
"She cares about you a lot."
"She and I have been through much together," he said almost wistfully. "We..." Suddenly, he seemed to remember himself. "My apologies. I don't wish to bore you."
"I don't mind at all," she said, drawing her knees up to her chest and smiling at him.
He cleared his throat. "Very well. We've known each other since we were in first grade, you see. However, we didn't know each other very well until the third grade. We were on a class trip, and the bus... flipped on its side." He faltered for a minute, and Aradia nearly told him that he didn't have to continue, but he found his voice again. "She was seated next to me and I caught her before she hit the window, thereby preventing her from sustaining serious injury. Other classmates were not so fortunate... one girl lost an eye from the broken glass, and another boy required the use of a wheelchair for the next several years. Very fortunately, no one was killed. But from that day, we have been best friends. Her parents were grateful to me, and she was always very friendly, so my parents did not object. I can hardly remember a time when I did not know her, it seems now."
"That was really brave," Aradia said, unable to keep the awed tone out of her voice.
Equius just shook his head. "It was fortune. If it had been someone else sitting next to me, I might have ended up with a different best friend. For what it's worth, I'm glad it was her, though. I have been lucky to have her in my life."
"I'd say she's been pretty lucky to have you, too."
He appeared to think it over. "I suppose so."
"Look, I have to go to class, too, but..." She scrounged in her backpack for a scrap of paper and a pen and quickly scribbled her name and number on it. She handed it to him with a grin. "I don't want her to put you in a headlock. Have a good day, Equius," she said cheerfully, and quickly bounded out of the cafeteria.
As she left, she thought she saw the shadow of a smile on his face.
As it turns out, I cannot cat puns either. (I need to reread Nepeta and Feferi's chat logs—I'm rereading Homestuck right now and I just hit the intermission, so it will happen soon—to figure out what they replace with what.) I'm a lot more comfortable with Equius's characterization, though.
I knew there was some traumatic childhood event that brought Equius and Nepeta together, but it didn't come to me until tonight. Also, it left me a way to introduce another character. So yay!