She clung to him almost the entire journey, purring, clearly well over with her close brush with death. He never once managed to rid her - though to his shame he never tried too hard either, afraid of hurting her more - until they had come to the rooftop, where at last she left him so that he could have a hug with Terezi.

Everybody was here. Well, everybody that was still alive. Plus Vriska that wasn't. Plus Kanaya who wasn't but was now. Minus Gamzee. It was all very complicated, and there would have to be so many explanations later, when they were all finally clear out of this entire thing - but right now Karkat was focused with pushing Terezi away, although not too hard, when she tried to kiss him.

She looked confused. He tried to wordlessly signal her the sadness and awkwardness he was feeling, eyeing at Nepeta, who behind him was smiling brightly. She seemed to understand.

"This'll be temporary," he whispered to her so that the other girl could not see. "I'll get myself out of it soon, I promise."

Then Gamzee arrived and they were given something else to think about. Karkat surprised everybody by shoooooooooshing him into submission and entering a pale relationship with him, thus ending the cycle of murder forever. More hugs were shared, this time with a previously murderous juggalo.

A much too small break followed, and then along came the Scratch. The kids and the trolls were united. They joined forces in a final battle against the demonic dog-thing Bec Noir. After that, they joined forces again, and all the dead trolls and humans came temporarily back to life, for the very definitely final battle against Lord English. And even after that, they all had a happy ending in a new universe where they all settled down after all these crazy adventures. It all took about two hours of their time, and was intensely epic, with several week-long breaks and flash animations.

And the whole time, Nepeta had been happier than he had ever seen her before. Even when she threw herself in front of an attack that would have killed him, and very nearly did her in, she was smiling throughout the entire ordeal. Unfortunately, Karkat was already flushed for Terezi. Obviously he wanted to be with her but couldn't, because goddammit it would hurt when he let Nepeta know.

"You just need to tell her," Terezi told him once, when they had managed to find a bit of break from the catgirl. "The more you keep it welling up the more it's going to hurt when you finally let her know. I mean you're not really flushed for her, are you?"
"No, but-", he tried.
"And you'd much rather be with me, right?", she interrupted.
"Well of course, but-"
"Then you gotta tell her. Just stop purrcra- I mean, procrastinating. Seriously."
"But... urgh." He groaned, holding his forehead. "Fine. Okay. I'll tell her tonight."

The dead had not, unfortunately, stayed with them for much longer than the epic final battle, and so they had to soon find some place to bury them in: it was a weird human ritual that they had insisted for the deceased of their own, and several trolls had followed suit. Their human guardians all lied there six feet under, as did the trolls, with some carved stones they had alchemized stuck next to each grave, stating the names and deeds of each body buried there.

Nepeta spent rather a lot time here. She had placed her hood on Equius's gravestone, and poured some milk over it, to remember her old moirail. Sitting here, next to him, and talking to him, she could pretend that he could hear her, listened to her, and occasionally even answered. She thought that she could understand humans now: they wished to have a place to speak to their dead in and pay some homage to them, even have them watch over the still living. It was a strange thing but made her feel a lot better.

She had forgiven Gamzee, of course: trolls had been doing this kind of shit for millennia, and along with the whole package of killing each other for little to no reason, obviously also came the inability to hold a grudge, because if they did, they would have no one to talk about at all. Humans thought this was weird, and the one called Rose had been especially perplexed of her easily forgiving him, and she was still struggling to understand this bit of their culture. Humans sure were weird.

She heard familiar footsteps from behind her, but the hallowed ground stopped her from just outright pouncing at him again, so she simply waited there for him to sit next to her, in silence. Karkat looked sad as well, and she had to say she appreciated it: not many trolls visited this place, most of them having moved on already, but Karkat obviously still cared. Her Karkitty cared about everyone.
She told him this. "It's one reason why I like you so much," she said. "You're not like the others at all. You don't like hurting them, or insulting them, or breaking their hearts, or anything. You like to be furends with everybody, even when they're dead!"
"Uh." He seemed hesitant: it was clear that her compliment had gone through, and he was trying to look for words for it. He eventually settled for "Thanks," although, much to her chagrin, he did not smile. She still had not seen him smile, apart from the time he hugged Gamzee, but she supposed it would take a while for the crabby jerk.

She leaned closer and slowly pulled him in a hug. "I'm so glad you're here with me," she whispered tearfully. "Now that Equius is gone... I- I'm not sure I could've been going on without you. I'm so glad we're together now."

Karkat shruddered and barely managed to return to the hug, and was all too thankful that this exchange did not end in a kiss as well. Another crappy overexaggerated scene from his crappy rom-coms: if it was anyone else, even Terezi (especially Terezi, he realized), she would have been guilt-tripping him to stay with her, because no one else could possibly play this shit straight in the real world. But it was Nepeta, and fuck this shit.

Karkat Vantas had never felt more sick in his entire life, more disgusted with himself. He just hoped that Terezi would not flay him alive.