Trigger Warnings: language, minor violence, and minor kismisitude interactions.

~On LOTAK~

~Dirk's POV~

"C'mon Hal," I call through the apartment, "Jane and Roxy are waiting for us." No response. Making my way down the hall, I inform, "We're going to be late. Again." I hear a soft whimper and a crash just before I open his door. The sight that greets me is adorable and hilarious. Hal had gotten tangled in his shirt before falling over into a pile of stuffed animals and action figures. I can't help the laughter that pours out of me as I lean on the doorframe for support.

"Don't laugh!" he snaps, still trying to fix his shirt.

"I'm sorry," I apologize, trying really hard to stop laughing. Once I eventually succeed, I ask, "Are you stuck?"

"Yes."

"You want some help?"

He looks away from me, a small pout on his face. "Yes."

I laugh a little more as I help him get untangled from the dark blue shirt he had chosen. He likes wearing dark colors. When I had asked him about it, he told me that it makes his red markings stand out. "Okay, kid, arms up," I instruct before pulling the shirt over his head and down his torso. He giggles when I scoop him up into my arms. "Ready to go?" I ask as I grab his backpack on the way through the apartment.

"Are we bringing Arquius with us?" he asks.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I said so."

"But why not?"

I look down at him, hoping to find that he's messing with me. Unfortunately, he's not. He really wants Arquius to come with us. I have no idea why he would want to interact with that creep, but he wants to bring him along. I sigh as I stop in the middle of the living room. I sit Hal down on the couch and kneel in front of him. To show that I'm trying to be serious, I take off my shades before asking, "Why do you want him to come with us?"

Hal shrugs. "I thought it would be nice to take him to see Fefeta," he says, sounding a little nervous. He probably thinks he's in trouble. "Was I wrong? Is there a reason he's not allowed to come with us?" He gasps, as if he just realized something, and a look of fear and panic flashes in his eyes. "Is he a bad guy?"

I stop him before he freaks himself out. "No, Hal. He's not a bad guy. And you're right, it would be the nice thing to do to take him to see his friend." I rub the back of my neck, a nervous habit I've had for as long as I can remember. "It's just that I've been getting weird vibes from him since he's been here, and I don't think I fully trust him to be around you." Hal looks confused. "You don't understand anything I just said, do you?"

He shakes his head. "Is there something wrong with Arquius?"

"Have you met him?" He nods. "Did he tell you to touch him?" He looks confused and shakes his head.

"Why would I do that?" a very dejected sounding Arquius inquires from behind me. Startled, I spin around, summoning my katana to my hand. Arquius looks genuinely upset at what I said; drooping ears, sad eyes, and all.

"I don't know, and I don't care," I say evenly, venom in my tone. "What I do know is that if you so much as look at my kid wrong, I will gut. You. Alive. Have I made myself very clear?" He nods. I captalog my katana, pick Hal back up, and motion for Arquius to follow me. "Come on. You weird the hell outta me, but Hal seems to think you're okay." He's frozen in place when I look over my shoulder. "We're going to meet up with everyone." He looks confused. "You wanna go see Fefeta or not?" He perks up at the mention of his friend.

Finally following us, he mutters, "Nepeta."

"Fefeta," Hal corrects as we reach the window that will take us to LOCAH. I roll my eyes as I step through the portal from my apartment and into Jane's living room.

~On LOCAH~

"Jane," I call, "we're here!"

"We're out on the patio," she calls back. "Can you grab the blue frosting from the kitchen on your way out, please?"

"Gotcha, Janey," I respond as I make my way to the kitchen, situating Hal on my hip as I go. A few cabinets later, and I call back, "Hey, Jane? Where is it?"

She looks confused and a bit flustered as she bursts through the door. Without even acknowledging us, she goes to the cabinet, next to the one I'm holding open, and retrieves a blue tin of frosting. When she spins around to snap at me, though, her face lights up. She ruffles Hal's synthetic white hair, giggling when he pouts. "Come on guys," she giggles, "everyone's waiting outside. You guys are late again."

"I-is Nepeta here?" Arquius nervously inquires.

"Fefeta," Hal corrects.

Seconds later, we hear a small crash. Erisol had dropped a small cooler of ice and is staring at Arquius. The green and white sprite is just staring in disbelief and recognition at Arquius. "Equius?" he asks.

"Equius is here?" Fefeta calls from the door. The second she spots Arquius, she shoves Erisol out of the way and tackles Arquius, squealing, "EQUIHISS!" When Erisol finally shakes his shock, he too rushes to hug my sprite.

I lean over to ask Jane, "What's going on?"

~On the Meteor~

~Equius' POV~

I take off another bot's head with a final well-placed roundhouse kick and turn to the next one running at me. It throws a punch. I drop to a crouching position and sweep its legs out from under it. It rolls and swings a low punch. I dodge again by spinning out of the way and slam my elbow into the base of its neck. As it goes down, I once again turn to face an oncoming bot. Only this time, it doesn't reach me. I stand up a little straighter when my fighting bot is crushed like a tin can. I'm both shocked and angry.

"Mind letting me have a go?" Aradia inquires from the door.

I laugh a little. "I don't mind, but the bots might not like being crushed every five seconds. With me they have a chance."

She shakes her head as she makes her way over. "I don't want to fight the bots," she says. The next thing I know, I'm face down on the mat, my right arm twisted behind me and her knee pressed to the center of my back. "I wanna fight you." I teleport out from under her, smiling as I finally notice what she's wearing; dark red yoga pants and one of my shirts, tied up to show off her toned abs. "Like the view?" she jokes as she ties her hair up in a messy bun.

"Maybe," I admit as we drop to a fighting stance.

She makes the first move, a feigned right hook that twists into a left kick. I drop to the mat and roll to my right, her left. When I spring back up, I'm behind her and use this small advantage to land a soft jab to her shoulder. She spins around to face me before I can land another hit, bringing a fist to my gut in the process. I may be pulling my punches, but she sure isn't. Not that I'd expect her to. As she pulls her fist away, I grab her wrist. Her response is to swing a leg up and around, effectively putting her on my shoulders, pulling my arm with her, locking me in a very uncomfortable position. She leans back, pulling me off balance and down to the mat, tangled in her legs and my own arm. I slip out from between her thighs, twisting around as to not dislocate my shoulder, and stand, pulling her to her feet in the process.

We continue like this for almost an hour before she finally pins me. By now we've both got a few bruises and I have a split lip. I tap out when she straddles my stomach and leans over, holding my shoulders in place with her forearm. I could easily get out of this, but I'm tired and her smile is too beautiful to ruin by taking this small victory from her. Don't get me wrong, I'm still angry about the bot that she ruined. There's no way I'll be able to salvage anything from the crushed contraption, aside from maybe some wires, now. But seeing her smile almost makes up for it. Almost.

I'm pulled from my thoughts when she leans down and kisses me roughly. Every ounce of anger I felt about the destroyed bot is shoved to the back of my mind as I'm suddenly hyperaware of her. How close she is. The taste of her peppermint lip gloss. The scent of the cherry blossom perfume, that I got for her before we entered the session, that somehow entirely overpowers the scent of the sweat clinging to her flawless skin. The sting of her dull teeth biting my split lip. The small gasp she lets out when I bite back. The feel of her curly hair between my fingers after I pull off the tie holding it up.

A pointedly cleared throat and a rather annoyed, "You two have an audience," breaks us apart in seconds. Aradia scrambles to her feet and takes a few quick steps back while I simply teleport to the other end of the room. I can still taste peppermint on my lips even after we part.

~Signless' POV~

Sollux laughs at the glare Equius shoots at us. "Why can't anyone on this fucking rock just get a fucking room?!" Karkat snaps. Sollux actually falls over, he's laughing so hard. Karkat turns his attention to his laughing brother before he once again shouts, "You're not exempt from that statement! You and Eridan won't go somewhere else unless someone fucking tells you to!"

"And you're any better?" Aradia retorts as she wipes indigo blood from her mouth.

"What are you talking about?" He crosses his arms over his chest, dawning an air of superiority. "I have yet to get so lost in my own little world with someone that I completely ignore common decency and the boundaries of others, unlike all you fuckwads!"

"Oh, so that little whine over the coms the other day was commonly decent," Sollux teases.

"THAT WAS DAVE'S FAULT!" Karkat practically screeches.

I lean over to Psii and quietly asks, "Should we remind them that we're here?"

"Don't you dare," he whispers back, trying not to laugh himself.

"Signless," Equius calls before teleporting over to us. Then the questions start. "Are you okay?"

"I'm okay."

"Are you sure? You're not in any pain?"

"I'm sure." He's about to ask another question before I stop him. "Equius, I'm fine. I promise. Feferi came by earlier and finished healing most of my injuries. I promise you, my child, I'm okay. Besides, I'm supposed to take care of you. Not the other way around." That last bit I point out as I wipe the blood from his split lip. He flinches slightly at the area around the small wound being touched. "Maybe you should have that looked at," I suggest.

He just blinks at me like he doesn't know what's going on. "You're suggesting I see a healer about a split lip? An injury that will heal on its own in a day or two?" I nod. He blinks again, before looking over to Karkat. Then he looks over to Sollux, whom just busts out laughing again. He then fixes me with a skeptical look. "You're joking, right? That's a joke."

"I'm being completely serious."

Psiioniic's barely contained laughter finally gets the best of him, and he too is on the floor.

"I don't need to see a healer about something as small as a split lip!" Equius snaps, obviously offended that I'd even suggest such a thing.

"Oh, so you don't want me to be overly protective and, as I believe Dave said, go 'full mother hen mode' about every little scrape and bruise that somehow appears on you?" He shakes his head, still a bit surprised by my behavior. "Then don't do that with me. I'm fine, my child. Believe me, if I wasn't, you'd be the second to know and Psii would be losing his mind."

"Anyways!" Sollux speaks up as he gets up off the floor, having finally stopped laughing. "We should get on with this tour before Equius follows Aradia's example and explodes." He earns a glare from his aforementioned brother. "This is the training room slash gym. Yes, it's usually covered in bot parts. No, nobody except for Equius, and sometimes Aradia, actually uses it. All the gym equipment is on that side," he points to a bunch of machines and weights by a mirrored wall. "Feel free to use this room whenever you want."

"The rest of us usually just spar with the Dancestors in the dream bubbles," Karkat says as he leads our, now slightly larger, group down the hall to a small platform, barely large enough to hold all of us. A small flash, and the oddest feeling of being torn apart and put back together, later and we appear in a large room. There are computer stations all along the walls and random piles of stuff around the room. "This is the computer room. Most of us hang out either here, the kitchen, or our own respiteblock."

"Or our significant other's respiteblock," Sollux adds, earning a glare from my Descendant.

"Anyways, we haven't really assigned anyone a respiteblock, other than you. We needed to put you somewhere other than Equius' lab and you weren't exactly conscious to claim a block on your own, like everyone else did. Any questions?" I raise my hand. "This isn't a learning block. You don't need to raise your hand to ask a fucking question. But, what the fuck ever."

"What's a 'dancestor'?" I inquire. "I've never heard the term before." Before he can answer, a bucket collides with his head and he goes down.

"DAVE!" He angrily shouts as he jumps up and kicks the bucket halfway across the room. "I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU!"

Said human laughs from his chosen computer station, where he has a small pyramid of upside-down buckets tucked under the desk. "C'mon, Kitkat. Why are you so angry?" he teases.

"'Why am I so angry'?!" Karkat mockingly repeats as he storms over to the blonde human. "Maybe because you threw a fucking bucket at my HEAD! You'd be pissed too if I threw a human condom at your head!"

"No I wouldn't. I'd assume you were," he flicks Karkat's horn, "horny." Karkat just growls at Dave and slaps his hand away.

"Why are you always fucking like this?!" Karkat growls.

Dave stands, quickly kisses Karkat, and starts walking away. "Come by my room before we reach the next dream bubble and find out," he calls over his shoulder.

"FUCK YOU, STRIDER!"

"You could never top me, Babe." And with that, the deathly pale human steps on the platform and disappears, leaving behind a very red Karkat.

Shaking his head, Karkat turns his attention back to us, "What was your question, again?"

"What's a 'dancestor'?" I repeat, trying my best to ignore what I just witnessed.

"The version of you guys from the other main timeline. Any other questions?"

One of the computers dings, drawing everyone's attention. It dings again before Sollux makes his way over to a station covered in papers, motherboards, and a bee plush. "Hey, KK," he calls as he opens a chat window, "Kankri's got a question for you."

Growling, Karkat marches over to Sollux asking, "What the fuck does that asshat want?"

"Uh," he scrolls through a wall of red text, "he wants to know when we'll be reaching the dream bubble and how long we'll be there." The computer dings again before another message appears on the screen. "He says that Signless needs to learn how to fight." He looks up to Karkat. "He's not serious, right?" Silence. "Kankri can't actually expect him to fight."

Equius, whom had rushed to read through the messages says, "Kankri knows he's a pacifist, right? He's not a fighter like us. I've only ever heard him threaten someone once, and that was to defend me. A-and he's only ever sparred with me when I asked, if you can count holding boxing pads as sparring."

"I-I need to talk to Jade," Karkat finally stutters.