Karkat stood behind a tree a few feet away from the city bus stop by their school. He kept looking at the stop every now and then to see what the Scourge sisters were up to. So far nothing was suspicious, they were just casually chatting with each other.

"Wait so why do you think they're being suspicious again? They're just going to the mall, what's the big deal?" John asked. Karkat had told him the situation since he was coming along anyways.

"Terezi didn't invite anyone along and I don't know something just doesn't feel right," Karkat glared at the girls from his hiding spot.

"Karkat I think you're just being silly, they're probably just doing some boring errand for their lusus or something. Let's stop hiding and just go join them and have a fun hang out," John suggested.

"If that's what you followed me for then you should just go home, I'll follow them by my fucking self."

John sighed at Karkat's strange behaviour, "Dude they're gonna think you're a creeper stalking them if they see you peeking out from behind a tree like this."

"You're the one who fucking invited yourself so if you have a problem then, like I said before, leave," Karkat waved John away. John rolled his eyes before looking at the two girls. Vriska looked up and began to wave. Karkat quickly pulled John behind the tree thinking that she was waving at him, but seeing that she was facing a different direction entirely, his brows furrowed in confusion.

"Ow Karkat claws! Claws! Claws!" John attempted pushing away the troll's hand that was gripping tightly onto his arm when he had pulled him over.

"Huh? Oh," Karkat nonchalantly let go and looked back I at the two girls. His eyes widened when the two girls turned into three.

"Geez I better not be bleeding," John frowned rubbing his arm. Looking up he saw the third addition to the two girls, "Oh hey it's the new troll. Zylpha right? How nice, looks like the girls went and asked her for a hang out or something. Maybe they didn't invite you because they knew you would scare her away."

"Whatever I'm following them anyways, it's obviously not going to be a simple hangout. They're definitely going to talk to her about yesterday and I want to know what the hell she was thinking," Karkat kept his distance and continued to glare.

"Dude do you like her or something? Was it like love at first sight?" John grinned.

"What the fuck? No!" Karkat spun around and looked at John in shock, slight disgust and annoyance, "Why the fuck would you say that?"

"Karkat, all you've been talking about all day, is this new girl since yesterday. You totally have a crush on her like um how do you trolls say it, red romance? Cause you know, all you want to do is talk to her and stuff."

"No! She knows my fucking secret! Why wouldn't I want to talk to her about that!? I just want to make fucking sure she keeps my fucking secret safe or else we'll all be in hoofbeast shit for the rest of our lives! How the hell does wanting to talk to someone instantly make that red romance?"

"Wait so is it like that other romance thing of yours like the hate thing? That's the black romance right? So you hate –love her?"

Karkat face palmed, "No, I do not hate her that way. I just hate her platonically at how she responded to me the other day and I do not have any fucking red feelings for her at all. None what so fucking ever because I already have someone else in mind for that quadrant and same with my black one."

"Oh really? Who are they?" John quickly asked, grin growing wider.

Fuck. Karkat just admitted that he had a red and black crush in front of his red crush. Haha no he's not going to be admitting any of this. Karkat's tried his best to hold back a blush as he yelled at John, "None of your fucking business!"

John just laughed, "Oh come on man you can tell me, I can keep a secret."

"Fuck. No," Karkat attempted to drop the subject there and looked back at the girls to find them gone and a bus just leaving the bus stop. They'd have to wait for the next one to get to the mall. Hopefully the girls would still be at the mall by the time they got there and not somewhere else. Karkat begrudgingly walked over to the stop as John followed and kept persisting about his crushes.

"I swear I'll keep it a secret, you can tell me!"

"John drop it before I shove polluted snow down your wind pipe," Karkat threatened.

"Aw you're no fun . . . so no sort of feelings for her at all?"

"John . . ."

"Hehehehe."


By the time they were at the mall John ended up dragging Karkat around instead. They browsed through almost all the stores, tried on a bunch of accessories and had snacks. Karkat kept yelling at him to let him look for the girls but John just laughed at him, told him to 'chillax' and continued dragging him around for a fun hang out. After two hours of nonsense they stopped at the food court. Karkat claimed to be hungry after being dragged around by a hyper idiot and demanded John to go get him something to eat.

The Cancer sighed and slouched in his seat. They probably looked through the whole mall but didn't run into the girls at all. They must have left or didn't even go to the mall in the first place. Karkat believed it to have been a major waste of time. But at least he was able to 'hang out' with John.

Just the two of them.

Alone.

Like a date.

Karkat felt his face heating up so he quickly put his hood on and pulled on the strings to tighten it. Dammit it really did feel like a date, the way they were together like that with John dragging him around and Karkat complying to his idiotic requests of trying on stupid hats. They even bought some matching scarves. That's what people on dates do right? He did something like that with Terezi after all. Karkat grumbled and hit his head to the table. Too fucking bad John was not a god damn homosexual. The idiot probably didn't even realize that their hang out felt more like a date to Karkat. The factor that John kept denying his homosexuality was the reason why Karkat hadn't confessed yet. Well he thought that John was denying it anyways. He was sure John had a thing for Dave before their family merged.

"Come on and just admit you had fun alreadyyyyyyyy! You really need to go out more girl," Karkat could pretty much hear the eight letters from the long drawl of the word. The angry troll slowly lifted his head as he heard the sounds of people sitting down at the table behind him.

"Well I can say that it was . . . different," a calm yet uncertain voice replied.

A familiar cackle, "Good different right?"

Karkat slowly turned his head to peek behind him. Zylpha had her back to him and the other two were facing Karkat. Vriska raised an eyebrow at the troll slouched over his table, eyeing him suspiciously before continuing her conversation with the new troll. Did she notice it was him?

"So you've never hung out with any girls your age before?" Vriska asked.

"No, I've only seen people gather like this. I've never done it myself."

"Wow you're so sheltered. Glad we fixed it," Terezi gave her usual fanged grin, "Also thanks for taking the notes off for us this morning."

"Those notes were quite rude, it doesn't matter what blood colour you have, no one deserves to be called such a thing," Zylpha confidently stated.

"Careful, don't want any highbloods to hear you," Vriska joked and laughed, "Ha! Like any highbloods would come near us. Also, weren't you annoyed by all the looks you got when we were going around?"

"Well I'm a sea troll, of course others would look at me and it shouldn't be too weird to have a highblood walking around with bluebloods. They'll just think you're like henchmen or something. Oh but of course I don't see you two that way at all. It's just that um," Zylpha tried to correct herself. Wow she really did need to go out more.

Terezi just cackled again, "You took the notes off of our lockers because you almost went through the same thing in the past right?"

Whoa a little direct there Terezi. And everyone was saying that he'd scare everyone off. Legislacerator mode may have been turned on a bit too early.

"What?" Zylpha looked at Terezi in shock.

"Don't worry we won't tell anyone. We just wanted to know."

"I knew there had to be some other reason for you two to have taken me out like this. I didn't think one would invite another for just taking down rude notes. Especially with what happened yesterday on the bus."

"Hey hear us out, half the reason why we brought you here is because of what happened today alright. The other half is because of what happened yesterday night," Vriska explained.

"Last night? Oh right you're friends with the walking fuse of a troll that's ready to go off any minute," the two girls giggled at Zylpha's accurate description.

"Yeah sorry about Karkles. He goes a bit over the top sometimes."

"Karkles? What an odd name," the girls giggled some more, "Also what do you mean sometimes? He says fuck in every sentence, how is that a bit?"

The girls burst out laughing which made Karkat clench his fists. Yeah nice, let's make fun of the troll that's right fucking there listening in on every single fucking thing. The scourge sisters were probably doing it on purpose.

"Is something amusing? You two keep laughing."

"You're just describing Karkat perfectly that's all," Karkat peeked back again and saw Vriska wearing a shit eating grin which made him fume some more. Yup they totally knew he was there.

When he turned back to face forward, to try to calm himself and not just yell at the girls, John was already in his seat digging into his food after having placed Karkat's in front of him. He was surprisingly quiet. Karkat expected him to have called out to the girls and say hi. So for a while he just stared dumbfounded at John making him miss a few sentences in the conversation he was supposedly eavesdropping on. John finally noticed the stare and just gave him a smile before pushing the troll's food towards him. Karkat the proceeded to stare at the burger combo that was placed in front of him.

"Why do you know so much about me," Zylpha's voice held hints of malice. Karkat easily imagined her glaring at the two.

"Nothing personal. We just wanted to know a little about the person that could easily change the balance of our lives," Vriska said in a slightly melodic voice as she examined her nails.

"If you are afraid of such danger then why do you even bother to stay acquainted with him?" Zylpha asked, truly puzzled.

"Things happened. Friendship was one of them. Many things can happen after a couple of years of being near each other. Sure not everything that happened was great, but all of the events are certainly memorable. Through those bonds we can't bear to break it apart or betray each other. It's just how we are," Karkat peeked behind him once more and saw Terezi smiling at him. It wasn't the usual fanged grin that she always wore. It was just a sincere and genuine smile. Karkat blinked before awkwardly turning around and continuing to eat his food.

"How nice . . ." Zylpha's voice became softer. It was either laced with jealousy or sadness, Karkat couldn't tell. Could've been both.

"So if you feel better having to hold something against me to make sure to keep the secret then so be it. Even if you spread word about me I promise won't tell anyone. I truly do follow his father's beliefs of equality and if that is all, I'll be going now," Zylpha stood up and prepared to leave.

"Hey you know you can always join our group anytime you want you know. It's better than being a loner sea troll that avoids everyone," Vriska surprisingly suggested. Zylpha paused and looked at the two girls. Karkat quickly looked away and went back to eating. With a face stuffed with some fries he saw John smile and wave in his direction.

"I'll think about it."

Karkat finished his food and waited. For what, he wasn't sure. The girl had social problems it's not like she was born a bitch and he did feel better after listening to her promise to not tell his secret once again.

"You convinced now Karkles?" Terezi walked over and occupied the seat beside him.

"Yes no more chasing after new girls alright?" Vriska went and occupied the one by John.

"Fuck you. If you're going to be like that then you better take fucking responsibility if anything ever happens."

"Fiiiiiiiine."

"Come on Karkat don't be like that. They helped you, the least you could do is thank them," the human oblivious to the feelings of the troll said.

"Fuck that. I'm going home," Karkat got up, threw his garbage away and proceeded to leave the mall.

"You're welcome Karkles. Remember if you need anything else you can always count on your friends," Karkat looked back to see the sincere smile back on Terezi's face.

He just grunted in response and continued to walk. As he walked he couldn't remember when or how they were all just able to rely on each other like this. Just a few years ago, Vriska and Eridan were at the top of the list to be avoided but now everyone was so close. Just like the humans. It must have rubbed off on them when their groups merged. Before Karkat would have thought the idea was ridiculous and annoying since troll society was almost like every troll for themself. Now he was glad to have been able to make the changes to some of the ways he thought. It made things more comfortable to know that there was someone out there to help you. It would've been something his father would've liked a lot.

If only the rest of the world could see this way.