They had gotten some consorts and exiles playing for them. Karkat was not entirely sure how this was accomplished, but for once he did not complain at all. They had a vast variety of musical instruments, and played something raggy-looking (?) that got everybody move on quite well. The first song was instrumental and lasted several minutes, but the second, otherwise quite similar and fast-paced, had a singer. There was this small blue iguana with a fairly high-pitched and funny voice, but nobody seemed to mind much.

He felt strangely warm and fuzzy: a feeling he was not very familiar with at all. There was a special kind of tingle in his hand as Nepeta touched him, spreading across his entire body when she was close, and her skin was soft under his hand as he pressed it on her waist, pulling her closer to him, something which she also seemed to appreciate. He spent a lot of time looking into her eyes, which she reciprocated for, as well.

That's not to say that they did not dance with anyone else: Karkat spent some time with mostly everyone, except maybe John and Dave (humans sure are weird), and of course Terezi, whom he was still (mutually) avoiding. He spent a good while with Jade, who was happy again, complimenting him of his choice.
"I... I don't know...", he said in a low tone for her.
"What? I thought you were happy with this. You look happy." She gave him a bucktoothed grin. "Happy ending for everyone, right?"
"Yeah, I guess, but still..."
She sighed. "It'll go over by the end of the evening, I promise. I think you're just being clingy and afraid."
He shrugged but said nothing else, consenting to her advice for now. Terezi caught to his eyes, dancing very closely with Dave: Jade noticed them as well, and he felt her shrudder under his hands. Some of it may have been himself.

He was also the only one to dance with Gamzee: most of the time, his moirail went completely alone, but was nonetheless very possibly the heart of the party, with his very unique and exaggerated style of dancing. No one else even tried to get very close to him, but he did not seem to care. He looked like a troll romance movie protagonist for Karkat: if this was one of those movies, he would soon catch the hearts of the cold and emotionless cast, allowing them all to let go of their fears and rebel against the oppressive government. (The movie was banned by the highbloods and the entire cast culled, and he had to go to certain lengths to get a copy.)

There was more than dancing. There was food: cotton candy, grilled meat, and deep-fried just about everything. There was ice cream, and Betty Crocker's cakes and pastries, and of course Faygo. And there was an alchemiter so that if something was missing, or running out, there was always more.

John had a magic act. It consisted of apparently the greatest human magic could offer: card tricks, pulling small animals and consorts out of hats, conjuring flowers and small white flying poop creatures out of nowhere, levitating objects, and even sawing a lady (Rose) in half, which admittedly was an impressive one in Karkat's opinion. Rose herself did not particularly seem to enjoy her magician's assistant's outfit, but still, even she had good time.

And then there was the play. It was apparently a highly romanticized version of the adventure of the humans (and trolls, to lesser extent), as they journeyed to save the four planets and the mystical Golden Land. It had singing consorts, an entire exile orchestra, romance (one has seen nothing until they have seen a salamander and a turtle go through a long-winded and dramatic relationship on-stage), a crashing airplane full of underlings, and a robotic fluffy tooth creature given to a little salamander child. Compared to his romantic comedies, Karkat would have rated this one as 'poor', but he supposed he shouldn't have asked too much and it was probably pretty great coming from humans.

He felt that tingle again when he found that Nepeta was holding his hand.

The dance begun again, but it was considerably slower this time around. No more a happy, cheerful prance where everyone went about and changed partners a lot, but rather a slow, romantic, and intimate... the singer was a male exile this time, and went on about something about not wanting to miss a thing: he didn't hear most of the words.

Nepeta rested her head against his shoulder, purring, as he held her close and moved about: he could smell the human perfume on her, and feel the warmth of her body radiating against his, and it was good. Elsewhere, some other couples got close as well: he saw Aradia and Sollux move on from their respective losses and clearly getting back together, the humans John and Rose were finally going along with his ship, and Dave and Terez-

"What's wrong?" Karkat realized he had physically lurched, enough for Nepeta to notice and jump up, looking at him. He looked back and bit his lip.
"Oh, um. Nothing... fuck, nothing's wrong at all."
She did not seem convinced: looking to the direction he had, he saw her gaze go past Dave and Terezi without even noticing them, and stopping, strangely enough, at Jade. When she turned back, he saw that she looked worried.
"Jade claimed this funny thing the other day... I dunno, something about you still having a thing for her."
"I... what?" Karkat was genuinely confused. "Whoa, whoa. Why'd she tell you that? We don't have a thing. We never had."
"You did."
"For like five minutes. Come on." Karkat shook his head. "We're ashen. She's keeping me off my... myself's throat. I haven't talked to myself much lately, so there's not much for us to do but... no, really, there's nothing."
He said this all a little bit too quickly, but she seemed convinced enough nonetheless, and smiled again. "Well, I think it's good you get over your bad things. But purrhaps you should still be furiends with her."
"Yeah I know."

They did not talk again for the duration of a few more songs. They simply danced, and held close. Karkat felt oddly sleepy, as it went on, and the evening turned to night...
"...Karkitty?" She sounded rather quiet, and did not lift herself from his shoulder this time.
"Huh?"
"Thank you."
"...What. For what?"
"Fur the greatest three weeks in my life. It's been really, really great... even without Equius to look after me. Thank you."
He did not answer. He could not think of much to say, especially as she had moved away from his shoulder again, and close to his face... she was smiling, her eyes were half-closed, approaching... the entire world faded away for Karkat, into sweet, fluffy warmth or perfume and soft lips and Dave about to kiss Terezi oh god

Before he had realized what he was doing, or the three other people involved had, Nepeta had been harshly pushed away, Dave Strider was pulled out from Terezi Pyrope, and Karkat's fist connected with the other kid's cheek. He was sent flying with his nose broken, his glasses going to a different direction, and two sources of "Karkat!" (well, one was more like "Karkitty?", but still) filled the air.

"STAY AWAY FROM HER, YOU RED HUMAN PIECE OF SHIT!", Karkat shouted at him as he went down. He was vaguely aware that he was making rather a scene, with every eye looking at him. While Terezi looked (or smelled) at him in a mixture of anger and admiration (mostly former), a soft hand was placed on his shoulder. "K-Karkitty, what're you-"

He turned around at shocked Nepeta, shoving the hand away. The floodgates were open. "OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE, WOULD YOU GET A GRIP ALREADY, YOU STUPID AUTISTIC DELUSIONAL FUCK? YOU THINK YOU'RE SO GREAT WITH EMOTIONS WHEN YOU NEVER NOTICED WHAT ME AND TEREZI HAD GOING ON? STILL HAVE GOING ON?"

"I WAS!", he emphasized every word. "NEVER! FLUSHED! FOR YOU!"

It had started to rain, although the mood on the field could hardly fall lower by it. People took shelter under the parasols: Jade gingerly pulled Nepeta under one and made her have a seat, because otherwise she would probably just have stood there. She had not said anything, and despite getting some meat in front of her, she would not eat. She had been completely catatonic for a good ten minutes now.

It was easy for everybody to estimate with a millisecond's accuracy the exact point at which her heart had broken: it had happened after the fading of her smile, the sudden stiffening of her body, and right after the pathetic whine she let out, but approximitely half a second before all light went out from her eyes, turning them into so much as glass.

Discounting the first twenty seconds he had spent throwing up, Karkat had spent that entire ten minutes sitting at another table, binge drinking the strongest thing the party had, which was Faygo. When he did not have a drink over his mouth, he was banging his head against the table. His side was largely empty: most of the others had gone to take care of Nepeta, and make sure she was all right - a far cry from the almost entirely friendless wild troll she had started as, Karkat realized.

But as a small consolation prize, Terezi was still there with him. She still did not seem particularly impressed, but at least she was there. She was listening, even if all Karkat had said over the last five minutes was "Fuck... fuck fuck fuck... fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck..."
He shruddered heavily, and reached over for another can, while Terezi spoke: "I thought you were over me." It was barely audible, but enough for him.
"I was this close of flushing over her!" Karkat displayed his left thumb and index finger, less than half an inch from each other, to emphasize. "Like, I was actually honestly feeling something for her. And... and then I punched Dave, and... augh. Fuck." He sounded angry, a little, but mostly she thought he was just plain sad and ashamed. "I didn't want to do that. Hurting her, I mean. I wanted to... I don't even know what I wanted."
"You are such a sad, miserable sack of shit," she sighed.
"Yeah..." He agreed. "I fucking am."

Silence fell between them. On the other side, the others were trying their best to console Nepeta and make her react. The rain fell gradually heavier, and they heard the thunder somewhere far. Terezi picked up a can and downed it.
It was Karkat who spoke next. "I was... if I hadn't done that, we could've all been happy. Right?" He slurred, as if the stuff he had been taking had made him drunk. His jacket was open, and he had removed his tie, wrapped it around his head. "You and Dave. Nepeta and I. Jade..." He looked over to where Jade was sitting next to Dave, nursing his cheeck. "Well okay, not Jade... but four out of five isn't that bad, right?"
Terezi shook her head. "I dunno... I think I might've been all over him just because of the red thing."
"You think?"
"Yeah... when you clocked him, it was like a spell had broken around my mind, or something."
"Oh." A shorter silence. He glanced at Nepeta, still catatonic. "So..."
"I guess... we still have a thing going on?"
"I think. I don't know. Fuck." Karkat rubbed his forehead. "I really need to apologise to her first, though."
"Yeah," she agreed.

There was a total downpour out there now, and a cold wind passed through them all: Karkat shivered.
"You seem cold."
"I'm fine."

Fifteen minutes into the shock, Nepeta finally snapped out of it. Or at least she reacted and talked to people, which was something. Karkat had gone to look for her, and had just spent a couple minutes in vain trying to get her to hear his apologies... she only woke when Terezi held his hand, which he really, really hoped was just a coincidence.
A slew of questions and comments followed:
"Are you okay?"
"Do you want to eat? There's food."
"You motherfucking scared us all there, chica-"
"His reaction was clearly overreacting and exaggeratingly disproportional, I don't think that-"
"Maybe we should give you some more clothes, it is rather chilly-"
"Nepeta? Fuck, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you like that, it was just-"
She did not smile, though she did not cry either, and her eyes were still rather glassy. She looked over to each speaker and responded with an "I'm fine," or "Sorry fur scaring you," or "It's all right," or similar. But she completely ignored Karkat, not even looking to his direction.

She still did not eat. She glanced at Terezi, avoiding Karkat's eye, then looked at Jade, then at the rest of them present. Then she asked the million-boondollar question:
"How many of you knew?"
"...Pardon?", Kanaya asked.
"I think Jade was trying to warn me. About... about Karkitty. I didn't listen. So... well, it looked like you all felt bad about something."
"Look, I was just-", Karkat begun, but Terezi placed her hand on his shoulder, and shook her head. No one else was paying any attention to him anyway. So he fell silent.

Everybody else was avoiding Nepeta's gaze. There were coughs, some people shifted on their feet awkwardly, John bit his lower lip... it was Rose that finally nodded. "I think... I think we all knew. Karkat opened for us about it. About... this whole thing."
"He was trying to find some other way," John added. "I don't think he wanted to hurt you."

She was welling it up inside her. Karkat thought it a miracle that she was still not doing anything. He tried to apologise her again, half-heartedly, but he was not sure if she heard him at all: certainly she did not react. Instead, she sat there and talked it out with the others, though if anything they said made her feel any better, she did not show any change.
Terezi sighed. "Look... don't you think we should leave her alone for a bit? She's been through a lot."
This was seen as a generally good idea, as most people did not have anything left to say anymore: as people dissipated, only Karkat and Jade were left with her, though she reacted to neither. In fact, she was at last getting up from her seat.

She still ignored Karkat, and tried her best to not look at him. Instead, she looked at Terezi, and, for the first time in twenty minutes, managed a smile, even if a very sad one.
"Hey," she said.
"Hey."
"So..."
"Um." Terezi looked away, not that it made any difference what with her being blind.
"I had fun roleplaying."
This sounded like an odd thing to say, all considered, but the blind girl smiled sadly. "Yeah, me too. Maybe we could do it again some time?"
She sniffled sadly, and bit her lower lip. "I... I doubt it."

And then she pounced at her.

Terezi had not seen that one coming. The powers of the Seer of Mind do not work very well when the mind in question only works halfway itself. There was a bestial roar, like that of a large human feline, she felt two hands crash against her chest, and herself fall down and hit the wet ground in the rain, painfully, with Nepeta on top of her. She heard shouts from all around - including a very familiar "Fuck! Fuck!" right near her - but she also heard the disturbing sound of sliding metal and smelled a number of light blue, shiny metal objects... half of which were subsequently buried deep through her chest and the ground under.

The voices around her were fading into echoes, the smell of green blood all around and her chest feeling warm and her body cold, she nonetheless had enough sense to try and reach for her cane with her right hand, and cover her face with her left, as the other clawed hand was rising up to strike at it. There came no strike: instead, the hand that was coming grabbed hers from the fist, and with a single pull, tore the entire limb away from shoulder. Terezi realized that the resulting loud scream was her own, but she was very quickly beginning to feel absolutely nothing else, other than perhaps chilling cold...

Then the weight was lifted from top of her, and the other set of claws from her lung. She barely had it in her to feel it anymore as the blue flash swiped across her face one last time, filling her nose with more green smell. The voices were loud, but sounded like they were somewhere very distant, perhaps underwater.

John and Rose had gone to look for Terezi, while Karkat and Jade pulled Nepeta away. With one last roar she downed Jade, slashing her throat and upper chest, while the other claw went deep to Karkat's side. The cold steel hurt, but he had taken much worse injuries than this, and was really more hurt about who was doing the hurting: indeed, it was this last attack that finally seemed to snap Nepeta out of it... she looked at him, whined, sniffled, tears welling in her eyes... then ran.

"Jade!" While Dave - make that two Daves, what with the time travel - rushed over her to try and desperately save her life, and Rose was magically stabilizing Terezi, Karkat ignored his wound entirely and looked outside into the woods, where Nepeta had disappeared. Another thunder struck somewhere.