-Saturday, July 22, 10:02 am/Karkat & Terezi's house-
Terezi sighed as she tiredly carried a sleeping Katrina downstairs. She and Karkat were waiting for the security system people to arrive, which would be any minute. Since the installation process would take a long time and be very loud, Terezi was planning on taking Katrina out of the house for a bit while Karkat stayed home and supervised everything.
"Good morning," Terezi yawned, sitting down at the kitchen table. She gently placed Katrina in the car seat nearby and walked over to the fridge to get some breakfast.
"Morning." Karkat set down his coffee mug and looked up from his laptop. "Did Katrina sleep all right?"
The teal-blood nodded and filled up a bowl of cereal with milk. "I'm not sure she likes being crammed in our bed with us, but tonight she'll get to sleep in her own." She paused, getting a spoon out of the silverware drawer and joining her matesprit at the kitchen table. "I was going to take her over to John and Vriska's, is that alright?"
"I don't know why you're asking me, but yeah, it's fine." Karkat stood up and looked out the window. "Oh, I think they're here now. You should probably get going."
"Shit…" Terezi quickly downed the bowl of Froot Loops and grabbed her keys before getting Katrina and her diaper bag. "Alright," she told her husband, giving him a kiss, "I'm off."
-10:18 am/John & Vriska's house-
Vriska sighed and let out an irritated groan as she opened the door. "Terezi," she whined, her shoulders dropping, "why do you always have to come over here? I know we're friends now, I know we live across the street from each other, but you have a car! You can always—"
"Vriska, there's no need to be rude." Kanaya came out of the kitchen and joined the other two trolls, Casey in her arms. "Terezi has every right to come over here after what happened. I'd be terrified of staying there as well." The jade-blood looked up at Terezi with a forgiving expression on her face. "Vriska told me what happened. It must have been awful."
Terezi nodded in agreement and stepped over the threshold into the Egberts' home. "We're getting a security system installed to make sure nothing like that ever happens again. I knew it was going to take a long time and be loud, so I didn't want to irritate Katrina or anything. She's been so lethargic lately…" Her glance drifted down to the still-sleeping grub in the car seat. "I hope nothing's wrong…"
Vriska gave a sarcastic eye roll. "She's probably fucked up after what happened the other night—"
"Vriska!" Kanaya exclaimed.
"What-ever!" Vriska turned back to Kanaya and Casey. "C'mon, Casey-Peanut," she cooed, "you've spent enough time with Auntie Kanaya—"
"Why am I not Auntie Terezi?" Terezi was already irritated with Vriska, and it had only been a few minutes.
"Because." The cerulean-blood took Casey over with her to the couch, sending a signal for the others to follow her. "That would be weird."
"Vriska." Kanaya sternly looked at the other troll and stood back up. "We should probably go before Miss Sassy Pants decides to make things worse."
Terezi snickered. "Good idea."
-10:57 am/Town Center Mall-
"Did we have to go to the mall?" Vriska complained, getting Casey out of her car seat and placing her in the stroller.
Kanaya gave her friend another look and locked the car. "Where else did you think we could go?"
"True, true." The cerulean-blood began pushing the stroller towards the entrance. "I see Terezi coming."
"We'll just wait for her at the entrance," Kanaya told her.
Terezi slowly approached the three with an exhausted expression on her face. "Katrina woke up," she announced, stopping the stroller with the screaming grub inside.
"I can tell." Vriska rolled her eyes before beginning to push Casey's stroller. "C'mon, let's get this over with."
-7:34 pm/Karkat & Terezi's house-
"The pass code is Katrina's birthday," Karkat told his wife. "0-5-0-9."
"Zero five zero nine," Terezi repeated. "Zero five zero nine." She walked over to the fridge and got out a pitcher of orange juice. "I should be able to remember that."
"I would hope so." Karkat paused and looked up at Terezi. "How was Vriska?"
"Good God, she was a bitch!" The teal-blood rolled her eyes and sat down at the table with her orange juice. "Eventually I just told her and Kanaya I had to be somewhere, just so I could get away from her."
"Yikes." Karkat was about to say something else, but then remembered something. "Shit, I left my keys in Katrina's nursery…I'd better go get them before I forget…I'll be right back."
He got up from the kitchen table and went upstairs and down the hall. He slowly opened the door to Katrina's nursery and flipped on the light—
"Holy shit…Terezi?!"
"What, what?!" Terezi groaned before going upstairs and into the nursery. "…What?"
The two parent trolls approached their daughter's crib to get a look at what was inside. Hanging from the back side of the crib was a grub-sized brownish sac that slightly resembled a butterfly chrysalis.
"So that's why she's been so tired lately!" Terezi exclaimed. "She was ready to pupate! I get it now!"
Karkat laughed. "Great. How long will this take?"
-Thursday, August 10, 1:48 pm/Karkat & Terezi's house/12 weeks old-
Karkat took the pepperoni pizza out of the oven and set it on the stovetop. Katrina had been in her cocoon-like sac for a little over two weeks now, and her parents were beginning to wonder when she would come out. Terezi was set to go back to work on August 7th, and her classes began on the 28th, so she was wanting Katrina to pupate already so human childcare could become an option if necessary. Plus, it was almost like Katrina wasn't there.
"You know what." Terezi stood up. "I'm going to go check on Katrina."
"Again?" Karkat sighed. "Look, I know you're anxious for her to pupate, but you check on her literally every hour—"
"I'm going to go check on her!"
Terezi entered Katrina's nursery and walked over to the crib. Sighing, she leaned on the drop-down bar to get a look at the sac hanging from the back side. In just a short time, it had gone from brownish in color to almost transparent. Of course she couldn't really see anything, but Terezi could still make out an arm or a leg.
After staring at it for what seemed like a few minutes, Terezi could tell something was off. She could just…feel it, if that makes sense. At first she just thought her mind was playing tricks on her yet again, but then she noticed the sac beginning to twitch.
"Karkat!" she called, continuing to watch the sac. The twitches were becoming more frequent and more violent, and she was honestly afraid Katrina would pupate before Karkat got there.
"What?" Karkat looked at Terezi with an exasperated expression, but then noticed why she had called him. "Oh my god."
The two continued to watch as the former grub slowly began to poke her way through the sac. First came an arm, and then a leg, and eventually Katrina rolled out onto the mattress.
"Hi," Terezi smiled, looking from Karkat back to Katrina. The young troll squealed and rolled over to be closer to her parents.
Karkat just continued to stare at his daughter, absolutely speechless.
"Don't just stand there!" Terezi scolded, nudging her husband. "What are you doing?"
Karkat looked up at Terezi with wide eyes. "She doesn't have any clothes, does she?"
Sorry this took so long! Since I'm out of school, I don't really have any time to write (or I do, just don't want to do it). I finally made a chapter outline, so I have a pretty good idea of what I'm going to do for the next few chapters.
godlessAdversary – Yeah, I would expect them to face some sort of discrimination, or at least the "stay away from the weird people" kind of thing.
Eridan x Feferi - I would be doing that right now if my CD-ROM isn't broken. I got an expansion pack for Christmas and I still haven't been able to do anything with it.
2outherngemiinii – I'm planning on focusing the next few chapters on the Egberts actually!
Abethia - …