Nepeta and Feferi had about a fifteen minute drive to the restaurant they were eating at with Eridan and Karkat. They had no trouble passing the time in the car, though. The two girls gossiped about their friends and not-so-friends, sung as loud as their lungs allowed to the music on the pop hits station, and chatted about how fun this day was going to be.
They pulled into the parking lot for the restaurant they were eating at. It was nothing fancy, just an inexpensive local family diner. Eridan and Karkat were both standing at the door leading into the restaurant, and both shared equally un-amused looks.
Feferi parked her car and the two girls bounded up to the boys, both grinning ear-to-ear.
Feferi pulled Eridan into a big hug and he lightly padded her back, somewhat surprised.
Nepeta jumped to tackle-hug Karkat, but before she could get her arms around him he pushed her away.
"Nepeta! You know you agreed to not be doing that anymore!" Karkat shouted angrily.
Nepeta's eyes widened and she lowered her head, looking down at her feet. "I'm sorry Karkitty, I guess I was just a little excited."
Feferi punched Karkat as hard as she could in his shoulder and he yelped.
"Jes-!"
Feferi put both of her pointer fingers up to their lips, and mouthed the word "apologize."
Karkat's eyes widened and he glanced at Nepeta. He sighed and swatted Feferi's hand out of his face.
"Hey. Nepeta."
Nepeta looked up at Karkat, tears welling up in her eyes.
"Nepeta I'm sorry...for yelling at you. Just, we agreed, alright! Forgive me?" he asked.
She broke into a huge grin. "Mhm!" She nodded her head so fast it looked as if it might fall right off her shoulders.
"Good, now with that aside, can we fucking eat now?" Karkat asked no one in particular.
"Yes. I'm starvin'." Eridan replied, opening the door an entering the building.
The four young adults entered the establishment and were shown their seats. Before Nepeta sat down, though, she turned around and headed for the bathroom. The bathroom was empty, and she turned towards a mirror.
A tear was falling down her cheek and she scowled. She grabbed a paper towel and dabbed her eyes. She took in a few deep breaths until her eyes were clean, and then she wiped off her cheeks.
"What a great way to start off the date, Leijon. Show him how attractive you are by crying like the little baby you are. Real cute," Nepeta muttered, reaching for another paper towel to blow out her nose.
She heard the clack of heels entering the restroom. She quickly blew her nose over the trashcan and glanced back up at the mirror.
She wasn't sure what she saw in the mirror first, the fact that there were urinals on the other side of the bathroom, or Eridan's horrified face.
"What are you doing in here?" He said, his face paling.
"Eep! Wrong bathroom!" Nepeta squealed. She pushed past him and ran out, her cheeks burning a bright red. She didn't want to go into the women's restroom now, so she tried not to make eye contact with the two groups seated closest to the bathrooms as she walked back to her table.
Feferi was happily babbling away to Karkat and he scooted toward the window to make room for her on the booth. Nepeta smiled bashfully and sat down next to him.
The waitress dropped a menu in front of Nepeta and took her drink order. Feferi and Eridan both ordered water, Karkat a Pepsi, and Nepeta got a sweetened ice tea.
Nepeta was desperate to start a conversation with them before Eridan came back and said anything to her. Unfortunately, Feferi wouldn't stop talking about her swim scholarship, and neither Nepeta nor Karkat were in college, so Nepeta had nothing to work with. The waitress sat down her tea and she thanked her.
She grabbed a few sugar packets and Karkat eyed her.
"Isn't that tea already sweetened? And now you're adding multiple sugar packets?" He questioned, interrupting Feferi mid-sentence.
"You know Karkat, it's impolite to interrupt someone's sentence. And besides, a little sugar nefur hurt anyone!" Nepeta said with a smile.
"Your use of cat puns is aggravating and annoying. You should really consider stopping," Karkat growled.
Nepeta folded her arms, but then smiled deviously.
"Does my impurractical opurration infuriate mew? Does AC annoy Karkitty? AC listens closely and can hear the rapid increase of heart beat coming from Vantas's direction. She can smell the purrspurration coming from her purrey as he becomes more increasingly annoyed with her crazy cat-lady antics, it is only a matter of time before he gets really, really angry." Nepeta said with a brazen smile.
Karkat snarled. "Can you just shut up? Do you ever fucking stop?"
Feferi and Nepeta both howled with laughter and Karkat folded his arms and looked out the window.
"You two are insufferable," Karkat muttered.
Eridan then sat down next to Feferi.
"I obviously missed something," he stated.
Nepeta immediately ceased laughing and propped up the menu in front of her face. She already knew what she wanted, she had eaten here before with her mom, but she didn't want Eridan to make eye contact with her and bring up the whole bathroom-situation.
"Yes! Oh my goodness it was so funny! Nepeta, tell-tell him what you did!" Feferi said in between laughs.
Nepeta slowly lowered her menu. Eridan stared at her with an expectant smile and a raised eyebrow.
"No, no, it's...it's fine," Nepeta said, trying to get out of having to talk to Eridan.
"What? Oh, geeze Nepeta!" Feferi said, still laughing.
"Whatever, I don't have to hear it anyways." Eridan said, opening the menu.
Nepeta stiffened up. He just pulled me out of that. Thank you Eridan!
At this point Nepeta knew he wasn't going to bring up the bathroom incident. She set her menu down at the side of the table and opened up her straw. She blew the wrapper across the table at Feferi, who returned the favor by doing the same exact thing.
"You two are really immature." Karkat grumbled.
Feferi giggled while Nepeta tore up a piece of straw wrapper and rolled it into a small ball. She put it in the straw and blew it at Karkat, hitting him in the cheek.
"Augh was that a spitball?! That's fucking sick!" Karkat said, rubbing his cheek furiously.
"It wasn't a spitball, just a ball silly! Calm down and have some fun for once!" Nepeta said, giggling.
"I have fun!" Karkat retorted.
At that the entire table laughed, and Karkat's face got red.
"What do you do for fun, then?" Feferi asked.
Karkat didn't answer, but instead watched as their waitress approached their table. She took their orders, and everyone ordered a meat-centered dish, except for Eridan. "I'm going vegetarian," he stated.
"Why?" Nepeta asked.
"Because he's a hipster, all hipsters are vegetarian." Karkat stated matter-of-factly.
"Then what do emos eat?" Eridan asked spitefully.
"I'm not emo! Karkat retorted.
"Oh really? Then why are you always whining and wearing black all the time?" Eridan asked cynically.
"Because I fucking can. And just because someone whines doesn't make them emo," Karkat stated, sipping from his drink without looking up.
"It's okay to wear black clothes all the time Karkat, it just makes you look goth-y," Nepeta offered.
Karkat turned to her. "I'm not emo! Drop it! Besides, you always look like you raided the little girls section at Wal-Mart! What are you wearing now? Something your grandma knitted you?!"
"Stop it Karkat! She's dressed the most normally out of anyone here!" Eridan snapped, his upper lip curling into a snarl.
He was right, their table was like a randomly generated set, an albino wearing all-black, a girl who looked like she was about to go swimming, a hipster, and a girl who wore what was actually in trend.
"Well, yeah. But have you seen what she usually wears? Cat tails. Really, Nepeta, is it halloween?"
"Who the fuck even cares! Let people wear what they want Kar."
Nepeta felt as if she had the wind knocked out of her. Eridan just stood up for me. This is the second time today he's helped me out.
"Alright guys that's enough...you're drawing attention to our table. Besides, I don't want to start off our fun day with an argument," Feferi said.
Nepeta barely heard Feferi. She looked up at Eridan and he glanced back at her. She smiled and mouthed "thank you!"
He nodded without further acknowledgement.
The four of them sat in silence for a minute or so until Feferi broke it.
"So, Karkat, planning on going to college?" She asked.
"Oh God, you sound like my dad."
She giggled. "No, not like that! Just, like, do you wanna go to college, and if you did what would you want to study?"
Karkat sighed and leaned back. "I'm not sure...if I were to study anything...it might be, maybe-computer programming?"
"Sollux said you suck at programming," Eridan said.
"Hey, butt out would you?" Karkat snarled.
Eridan rolled his eyes and took a sip of his water.
"Oh that would be cool! Why do you wanna go into that field?" Feferi had her elbows resting on the table and her head in her hands. She had her head tilted to the side and her eyes were wide, full of curiosity.
The two of them continued on their conversation until the food arrived. Nepeta sighed and rested her head on the table. So far, her "date" with Karkat was more like Feferi's chance to hook up with him. She wasn't mad, though. Feferi was just trying to ease the silence. Besides, Karkat had never specified that it was a date, as a matter of fact, it was Feferi who arranged the entire thing and asked her, not Karkat.
When the food got there, Nepeta was relieved the two of them would have their mouths occupied to something other than the zealous over each other.
No, stop thinking like that! She thought to herself. However, when she looked across the table at Eridan, he seemed to be thinking the same thing judging by his expression when the dishes were set in front of them.
Feferi tried to make some small talk with everyone when the food was distributed.
"How's the food?" She asked.
Eridan and Nepeta didn't elaborate much, but of course Karkat felt the need to go into detail of how they could have made it better. Then that, of course, struck up conversation between the two.
As soon as Eridan and Nepeta noticed they were going into their unbreakable conversation again, Eridan took in a deep breath and hunched over his food. Nepeta placed her elbow on the table, made a fist with her hand, and rammed her forehead into her hand a few times.
Nepeta looked up at Eridan half way through her meal to see if he was feeling the same annoyance she was. Her suspicions were confirmed when she saw him giving Karkat a particularly annoyed/angry glare.
Nepeta giggled, and Eridan, realizing he'd been caught, laughed right along with her. The two were at such a point of boredom that they laughed even longer than necessary, and Karkat and Feferi finally being the ones left out mad them laugh even harder.
Karkat and Feferi exchanged confused glances. Feferi smiled, and then laughed a little too. The sound of her laughing quickly calmed down Eridan and Nepeta.
"What's so funny?" Feferi asked, smiling.
Eridan shook his head and wiped a tear from his eye. Nepeta lowered her head so she couldn't make eye contact with Feferi.
"Nep, why-what's so funny?" Feferi asked, feeling more excluded than curious as to why they were laughing.
The question made Nepeta snort and Eridan chortled. They both tried holding back the laughter that was bound to come.
Nepeta raised her head to get a breath, but in the process, made eye contact with Eridan, and the two lost it again.
"Just ignore them," Karkat grumbled, and Feferi paused a moment before picking up a fry and eating the rest of her meal. They were done eating a few minutes later, and although they were done laughing, Nepeta and Eridan still had large grins plastered on their faces.
"How would you like to split the check?" the waitress asked.
The four glanced around the table with quizzical looks.
"I'll give you another moment to decide," the waitress said, taking her leave.
"Do we just want to...split it in four?" Feferi asked.
Nepeta reached into her purse and found it empty.
"Oh shit! I completely forgot I switched out my purses!" Nepeta said, her cheeks burning red. "I...I don't have any money..."
"Nep, relax, I got you. It's okay," Eridan said.
"Well if you're paying for Nepeta I'm paying for Feferi!" Karkat said, flustered. Feferi smiled weakly and toyed with a lock of her hair.
Eridan rolled his eyes.
"Eridan, I...I'll pay you back first chance I get, okay? I'm so, so sorry you really didn't have to..." Nepeta said, feeling her cheeks grow hotter by the moment.
"Damn Nepeta, relax. It's really no big deal. Money's not an issue, okay?" Eridan said.
Nepeta nodded, still feeling guilty.
The waitress made her way back to the table. "Is there a decision?"
"We'll split it in half, two checks," Eridan said.
"Alright, I'll get that for you guys."
After everything was paid for and they were ready to move on, Feferi and Karkat both had to use the restrooms and left Eridan and Nepeta alone. They went outside to wait for them, and Nepeta had a creeping suspicion he might try to bring up what happened in the bathroom.
"Hey nep..." he began.
Here it goes. She thought.
"You did something with your hair, I like it. And beanies look nice on you." He smiled at her, in a way he never had before.