Two weeks had passed. The good news were that Terezi still had not flayed him. The bad news were that he was still in a flushed relationship with Nepeta.

Quite unsurprisingly, she made a very cuddly matesprit. Whenever they were together, she would be all over him, purring and hugging and rubbing herself against him and occasionally nibbling his ear or scratching him affectionately. But thankfully for him, she also gave him plenty of space, and he used most of that time pestering the others, pouring himself out, and asking them advice. Unfortunately, they all had the exact same thing to say as Terezi had: just tell her. It was much harder than it sounded, however, and as such he had not stopped purrcrastinating. And whenever he closed the chumhandles, he would end them with the same message:

CG: NOBODY FUCKING TELL HER ANYTHING.
CG: THIS DISCUSSION NEVER HAPPENED. IT'S NONEXISTANT, STUCK IN A DEAD TIMELINE SOMEWHERE ON THE GRAVEYARD OF TIMELINES.
CG: I WILL LET HER KNOW. EVENTUALLY. HONEST

But obviously he still hadn't. He kept looking for better ways.

It was John that first suggested him that he should just make it obvious that he does not care about her: not ask her on dates, do anything affectionate, respond to hugs, etcetera. John was of course too derpy to notice that this was basically what he had done with her the whole time, and he told him that. He just told him to try harder because the message obviously did not go through.

Terezi thought that Nepeta was pretty much in denial now, fooling herself: it was obvious for everybody but her that Karkat did not really care about her at all, or not in the way she cared about him at least, and yet here she was babbling on about how Karkat was so perfect and such a great listener and did so many romantic things for her and how they were so obviously and forever flushed to each other and... this infuriated Terezi, who was rather longing for Karkat herself obviously, but she did not say anything: she had promised it for him. She had not, however, promised to not hint it, to nudge her in the right direction a little.
"Are you sure?", she asked her carefully. "He doesn't seem all that affectionate to me."
She looked back at her as if she had just claimed the sky was green. "Are you crazy?", she giggled. "Maybe you're just blind! Karkitty's so awesome and thoughtful and purrfect and..." And so she kept going again: Terezi stifled a gag and managed to not show her contempt for the other girl.

"...And he's taking me to the dance next week!", she finally finished.
"What?" This genuinely surprised Terezi. "Did he really say that?"
"Well, no," she admitted with a shrug, "but it's just opawious, isn't it? I mean, we are matesprits! And human matesprits dance!" Terezi had to admit this one.

It had been John's idea. Now that everything was finally over and they had found peace, they should all party like motherfuckers. They would get themselves a large hall, fill it with food and music (since almost everyone played something this would not be a problem), dress everyone up in fancy clothing (which they could alchemize), and then eat, dance, and have generally good time by all. John had been very excited about all this, and his excitenment gradually stuck to the other humans, followed by trolls. Terezi had been looking forward to go with Karkat.

She told him, in no unclear terms, that she would go to the dance with him. "I know this is hard to you, and I can totally see that, but trust me: if you go there with her, then you might as well never tell her about how you feel, because you and I are through."
"Yeah, yeah, I know, look. Seriously." Karkat tried to make her feel better, as well as himself, and failed. "I'll try. I'll let her know before it. Just watch me."

Jade and Kanaya had built themselves a tower on the nearby mountain, one that resembled their old homes, and set up a shop there to alchemize some personally tailored suits for any human or troll that came in. And sooner or later, they all did. They had to admit that John really had gotten everyone around with this thing.

With humans, it was easy to get them something nice to wear: during the game itself, all four had alchemized themselves several different types of suits and dresses and such, and it was only a matter of picking the ones they liked the most and turning them into something even more stylish and festive. With trolls it had been rather more tricky, as none of them - barring Kanaya, of course - had a single spark of fashion sense in them, and they had been wearing the exact same clothes throughout the entire game and after - sometimes even not washing them in between. Nonetheless, despite the hardships, the girls prevailed.

And then Nepeta pranced in, and the two glanced at each other. The glances promised for dark, dark times for the two, and even more so for Karkat if he didn't pull his shit together soon. "H-hi...", Jade managed.
"Hey!", Nepeta responded happily. Jade had not thought it would be possible for one to feel so very quilty for someone else being so happy. "Got something for me?"

They spent the afternoon trying dresses for her, listening to her praising Karkat, and trying their best to talk her out of it. That he did not seem entirely happy with it. That perhaps this was not entirely what he wanted, and she should let him go. She would not listen, simply brush off their accusations. Eventually Jade went directly against Karkat's orders and told her outright:
"Look, he doesn't like you, he only sticks with you because he feels bad, and he has someone else he wants to go to the dance with!"

Finally, it seemed to go through. Nepeta's smile slowly faded away, her posture drooped a little, and the happy glimmer behind her eyes extinguished, for most part. "...Oh." Jade felt her heart break as she watched, and hoped that the other girl would not start to cry, because she probably could not handle that. Instead, she slowly pulled her in a hug, to which she responded. After a fashion, Kanaya joined them too.

"I'm so sorry...", Jade murmured, holding her comfortingly as close as she could.
"It's okay... you shouldn't be." Nepeta took a deep breath. "I know it's hard... but it's okay. I'm here fur you."
"Huh?" Jade was pretty certain that was supposed to come from her mouth. Or at least Kanaya's. But it was Nepeta that was still talking.
"I know Karkitty had a thing for you in the past, but..."
"Wait, wha-?", she started, but Nepeta papped her paw on Jade's mouth. "Shoooosh."

Kanaya sighed: she had not gotten it after all. Perhaps they had their hopes up a little.
"I didn't mea-", Jade attempted, only to be shooshed again by Nepeta. "It's all right, Jade," she whispered sympathetically. "It's all right. You'll find someone. I heard Gamzee is still free..."
"I AM NOT LOOKING F-" Shoooooosh. "STOP THA-" Pap. "I'm warning y-" Shoooshoooooshoooosh shh. "But..." Pap pap pap.
Shooooooosh pap pap. Jade yawned.
"B-but seriously, Nepeta," she started again, more quietly this time, "you have to see..." Pap.
Second wind. "No really, YOU JUST HAVE TO OPEN YOUR EYES AND SEE HOW LITTLE HE REALLY-" but it was all covered under a very long, loud SHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH.

Kanaya had stopped hugging them a little while before, knowing more than well enough to not get in the middle of this mess. It ended with a hug, although rather a half-hearted on Jade's part, and with a promise from Nepeta that they would do another feelings jam later if she felt like it. She then left, merrily as ever, with a whole new dress captchalogued in her inventory.

Jade sat down on a box of grist and buried her face in her hands. "...Fffuuuuck."