A/N#1: I hope you're in the mood for fluff. It's so fluffy, you're going to die. You have been warned.
You are TEREZI PYROPE and you are on the PLANE RETURNING to ALTERNIA ACADEMY.
The trip had been fun, she supposed, with the exception of Karkat's constant muttered expletives. Of course, that was perfectly normal, so she wasn't sure why she was complaining. After all, she was used to it, wasn't she?
Karkles was sitting next to her again, and he smelled sleepy.
Yes, that was a thing. It had always been a thing.
She smiled widely as he finally succumbed to sleep and leaned against her. His hair smelled good, like always.
Terezi: Pass time by reminiscing.
Well, of course she would! What else was there to do on a nine-hour plane ride? Not much, besides sleep.
Terezi stroked his dark brown hair, thinking back to little moments they'd shared, thinking about all of the little things that made Karkat who he was.
The way he smelled. He smelled like sunsets and shyness. He smelled like love and passion and happiness and gold, the way he was so soft beneath the hard exterior.
The way he tasted. His kisses tasted like candy and carried a hint of strawberries. He tasted delicious. She could kiss him all day if it weren't for the fact that they had everyday lives to attend to.
His eyes. He'd never liked them and tried to hide them for the longest time, never meeting anybody in the eye. Until Terezi finally decided to become his friend. However, by the time he had finally summoned up enough courage to look at her, look directly at her, she had already become blind.
But she didn't mind, because she remembered what they looked like, remembered the bright redness that even now exploded on her tongue, remembering the color. The dark lashes framing them that tasted like dark chocolate when she kissed his tears away after his sister had been killed in a car accident. And even his tears were lovely, like sea salt caramel. Everything about him was just that.
Lovely.
Was it odd that she had fallen for such a boy? She knew that he only ever showed the soft side of him to her, only to her. When other people were around he was just Karkat, loud, angry, and always yelling the most creative combination of swearwords.
She liked his creativity. His words were never bitter, a little sour, and almost always sweet. Was that what creativity tasted like?
He claimed to hate the world but she knew better. He didn't hate anything, couldn't hate anything. For all of his bravado, Karkat was just as caring and sweet as Tavros. And she knew it, despite his shy 'you're the only one I don't hate with a passion hotter than the fucking sun'.
No, she wasn't the only person he didn't hate.
But she was the person he cared the most about.
She liked that, too.
Oh, the way he smiled was precious, she could feel it even if she couldn't see it anymore. It started slowly and accelerated when she ran her fingers over his face; she could feel the corners of his mouth tug upwards, his cheeks heating up and warming underneath the cool surface of her fingertips.
It was a rare smile, rarer than diamonds and in her opinion much more precious, because who could ever compare tawdry, tasteless, bland diamonds to the absolute delight of Karkat's smile?
And even when they got into fights she knew he still loved her and wasn't truly mad, just as she still loved him and could not be angry. She didn't like it when he was angry or sad, he turned bittersweet and melancholy and she wanted to hug him until he felt better.
The night his sister died, he had disappeared, leaving no trace behind. The disturbing emptiness in the air, the absence of his scent, the odd silence.
It terrified her. She didn't know where he was, why he was gone, if he was okay or not. Fumbling around corners with uncharacteristic clumsiness, swearing when she dropped her cane, realizing that she had taken the wrong turn at the wrong hallway and had lost her way inside the vast school.
For the first time in her life, Terezi had felt blind.
She'd gone on slowly, feeling around for anything familiar, and then she heard him.
Quiet sobs, the occasional sniff. Terezi had breathed a sigh of relief and concern, silently maneuvering around to the source of the sad saltiness.
And he'd been sitting inside the library, against the farthest bookshelf, crying.
He hadn't wanted her to see him cry.
"Oh, don't worry, Karkles," she'd murmured softly. "I can't see you cry."
Letting him cry into her shoulder. Letting him be weak because he was allowed to, after all the years of being strong.
Arms wrapped around him. Arms wrapped around the most important thing in her life and what else was there to do because it was Karkat, her Karkat that was crying and hurt and sad. He was her knight, the one that had saved her from being truly, truly blind and there was nobody to save him except for her because she was the only one that could save him, the only one to save him.
And eventually he had explained the situation through broken breaths and tiny hiccups and then there was nothing left to do but hold him and coo to him that everything was going to be alright.
She remembered the first time they had kissed, when they were sitting side by side on the rooftop, staring up at the stars and the constellations. Or at least, he was, and she was flicking her tongue out, trying to catch a taste of stars. She liked stars, they were cold and bright and icy and sharp.
His breath tickled her ear when he whispered soft, sweet nothings, but they weren't the stereotypical murmurings lovers came up with, no, they were one hundred percent Karkat Vantas, complete with rude words and expletives. At the same time he had said them with a halting shyness that made her giggle, knowing that the soft voice he used with her was the only time he ever used it.
And then he had kissed her, uncertainly, hesitantly. She had wanted to drown in his lips, the overwhelming explosion of red color and taste that left her gasping for air and her heart drumming rapidly as her hands flew up to his cheeks.
When they broke apart, she'd felt him looking straight at her, her and nobody else. "Terezi, I fucking love you." The growled undertone was low and it had made her laugh as she pulled him down for another kiss under the night sky with nobody but the moon and her entourage of stars as witnesses.
She looked at him now and a warm flush of protectiveness spread over her. Karkat. The most beautiful, delicious, adorable boy in the world loved her just as much as she loved him.
You are now JOHN EGBERT. You have been back from the TRIP for nearly TWO WEEKS and the AUTUMN BALL is TOMORROW. You are a LITTLE BIT NERVOUS.
"C'mon, Egderp, just ask the fucking broad out and you'll have enough mangrit to grow some balls in that oddly feminine area you call a crotch," Dave commented offhandedly, munching on a slice of pepperoni pizza.
John winced. "Ew."
"I'm not kidding around, all those years of watching completely shitty movies made you grow a fucking vagina. Now's your chance to redeem yourself, like Arthur and that legendary piece of shit he had to pull from a rock."
Staring down at his plate, John moved a few pieces of potato around with his fork. "I do not have a vagina, Dave!"
"Have you developed an underlying psychological obsession with vaginas as well as phalluses, Dave?" inquired Rose from where she sat next to Jade. "I do hope this isn't a Freudian-"
"No, enough with your Gogdamn psychological bullshit," Dave interrupted without skipping a beat. "This is about Egbert not being able to ask a girl out to a dance, not whatever mental issues I don't have."
"Oh, who are you going to ask out, John?" Jade squealed, eyes sparkling. Dave's mouth twitched. "This is so exciting!"
John pulled a face. "Um… Vriska, I guess."
"Spiderbitch?" Dave asked, a pale eyebrow making its way above the dark blackness of his shades. "Really. Of all the chicks around here you choose the creepy one missing an eye and an arm."
"She's not a bitch, she's actually really cool, Dave!" protested John, sliding back his chair to leave. "Alright, I'm going to ask her right now!"
"Good luck, John!" called Jade from the table as he made his way out of the dining hall.
He had talked with Vriska over the course of their week-long trip to Los Angeles, and he found that while she was a little bossy, she was funny and surprisingly nice. Her fixation on the number eight was kind of endearing and she was actually really pretty, even with the ruined face and missing arm. He couldn't quite remember her face from before the explosion, he only knew that she was incredibly good-looking.
Lost in his thought process, he didn't even notice when he bumped into her.
"Heeeeeeeey, John! What're you doing here?"
Startled, he reared back before realizing who it was. "Oh, hi, Vriska! Um, I need to ask you something."
She cocked her head, her missing eye hidden behind the eyepatch-like thing on her glasses. "What?"
Now or never, now or never, now or never, the dance is tomorrow you idiot, just ask her-
"I was just wondering if you'd want to go to the Autumn Ball with me?" He blurted out the words before he'd found a way to put it more sophisticatedly and immediately regretted not thinking it over.
She's going to say no, you big derp. The next moments were tense as John held his breath, waiting for her reply.
Her face remained inscrutable for a few seconds before breaking into a huge smile. "Sure! But it's not a date, okay?"
Weak laughter. "Oh, yeah. Well, um… do I pick you up from your dorm, or do I just meet you there?" Oh man, he was so awkward. Awkward awkward awkward.
"Just meet me there, John," Vriska laughed, kissing him on the cheek and walking past him. He stood there, dazed, before tentatively raising up a hand to his face.
"I just asked a girl to a dance and she said yes," he said aloud, without realizing it. Fist pumping the air, he whipped out his phone and began texting Dave.
You are now DAVE STRIDER and you are EAITNG LUNCH. Moments ago, your BEST BRO, JOHN EGBERT, marched off to war. You mean he went off to ASK out VRISKA SERKET to the DANCE.
Sliding out his phone and checking the text, he realized it was from John. A slight smirk crossed his face as he replied with the appropriate Strider congratulations.
"So, did Vriska say yes?" Jade asked, leaning over the table, large green eyes fixated on him. He fought the urge to blush, because Striders didn't blush. It just didn't happen.
"Does Rose have an obsession with trying to prove that I'm gay, which I'm not?" he responded rhetorically, but he had to smile at Jade's adorable giggle as she hi-fived him.
"Well, if you manage to bring a girl to the ball yourself, some of my suspicions will be dispelled," Rose said, meticulously cleaning off her plate.
Jade's eyes grew wide. "Yeah, you need a date to the Autumn Ball, too, cool kid!"
He would never admit how cute he found her bubbly voice. Catching her hand and steering her around the table so that she was standing and he was down on one knee, still with her hand in his, he looked up at her through his shades. The entire dining hall was watching now, some girls 'aww'ing in the background, a few boys catcalling. "So, Harley, would you do me the pleasure of bein' my date to the dance?" Shit. His accent was slipping out. This was not cool. Striders did not get flustered.
Her other hand rose to her mouth while a pink flush slowly made its way onto her cheeks. "When you ask like that, there's really no way I can refuse, is there?" She was just too damn cute. He lost his train of thought for a second before responding. Gogdamn trains, always flying off of their rails. You'd think engineers would learn to keep the damn things on track. Metaphorically, of course.
"It was just a formality, Harley. You were going to be my date even if I had to kidnap you in the middle of the dance." Really. Kidnapping. What the fuck was he thinking?
"Questionable motives and brain-melting adorableness aside," Rose interrupted as they sat down again, now with Dave's arm across Jade's shoulders. "Dave, I do hope you'll be a gentleman and escort her to the dance?"
Dave didn't stoop to rolling his eyes. Only girls did that. And John, of course. "My twin sister doubts me? Where has this world gone?" Where had all of his wit gone, for that matter? It was as if his smartass mouth was a police officer and somebody had just thrown a bucket full of jelly donuts towards South fucking America.
"To hell, if we listen to the recent news reports," deadpanned Rose as she got up to put her plate away. "If you'll excuse me."
A/N#2: Damn, I did it again. We're now two chapters behind schedule.
Fuuuuudge. I really need to just... make my chapters a lot longer.
Anyway, Karezi! I don't even know why it was so easy to write, the entire thing just like... blurbed out. Sat down, typed "You are Terezi Pyrope" and then that whole mess appeared. Yep. I accidentally that.
That.
Thanks for reading & do review! Until the next time I decide to blarf out another 2000 something words of... this. I'll accidentally... that.
Wow, it's not even 10 and I'm being asinine already. Bye (: