Warnings for this chapter: slight Solkat, even though this is a Karezi story
Terezi's P.O.V
My world is colorless. I can't smell anything and I feel an urgent need to lick something just to get my bearings. Where am I?
I try to sit up, but my head hurts and there's a pain in my ribs.
"Terezi!" says a familiar voice.
"Karkat," I respond, my voice weaker than I expected and shaking as I try to hold back tears. "Where am I?" It's okay, I tell myself—just a stuffy nose. But my body hurts and I'm so confused.
"We're in the infirmary. Do you remember what happened?"
I've never heard his voice so concerned before. It's lost its usual edge and it's actually really calming.
"I was playing quidditch, and it was cold," I reach my hand out toward him and he catches it in his own. It's warm and dry and it feels so nice I want to melt into his touch. But I can't. "And I couldn't smell anything, and I fell. That's all I remember."
"A bludger hit you," he tells me, and I hear squeaking like a chair being scooted on the floor. His voice is slightly closer now. "You've been out all day. They say you have a concussion and a few broken bones, but those might be fixed by now."
Of course. Quidditch accidents are common. I really shouldn't be as freaked out as I am. I take a deep breath through my mouth and try to taste the air, but it isn't any use. "What time is it?"
"Half past eight. They probably want you to spend the night here."
I start to nod, but it hurts and I snarl instead. "I think I have a cold."
"You can't see anything?"
"Yes, Karkat, because colds make you blind," I say sarcastically. But it's true.
"Sorry," he mumbles. I hear the sound of tin foil crinkling, and Karkat says, "Open your mouth." I do, because I trust him, and he places something deliciously red and sweet on my tongue. It's incredibly comforting to taste my favorite color. He knows exactly what will make me feel better.
"Thanks," I say around the candy.
He lets go of my hand, and the air feels cold and empty.
"I need to get back before curfew," he says, and I hear his footsteps turn around and walk away, leaving me in the darkness.
"Good night, Karkat," I say, but I doubt he hears me.
I'm back on my feet by breakfast, bones healed and head almost recovered, and my stuffy nose is only a sniffle. I can make my way around, but nothing is clear and the more movement there is the more disoriented I become. The nurse walks me to the great hall and helps me find my usual seat where I wait for my friends. Dave and John show up a few minutes later, and Dave sits next to me for once instead of across from me with John. Then he walks me to my first class with his arm around me, even though it will make him late for his own. While I'm incredibly grateful to have such a good friend, I hate having to depend so much on others.
In History of Magic, Karkat and Sollux are passing notes again. I try to get Karkat's attention, but he seems distracted. He glances at Sollux then sets a note on his desk, slightly under the corner of his book, and pretends to be listening to the lecture. When he isn't looking, I slide the note out and unfold it under the table. The words are hard to read from that far away, but I manage it eventually.
YOU WERE WORRIED TOO. AND THE TEREZI THING WAS A LONG TIME AGO.
Worried about what? Probably me. But my accident was yesterday. Whatever was a long time ago that I was involved in, I didn't know what it was. But I was awfully curious.
WH4T T3R3Z1 TH1NG? I write above his sentence, and slide it back to him.
He turns red and crumples the piece of paper. I raise an eyebrow and grin mischeviously.
4R3 YOU H1D1NG SOM3TH1NG K4RK4T?
ITS NONE OF YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS. He replies.
1T 1S 1F 1TS 4 T3R3Z1 THING. I point out. He begins to write something then scribbles it out.
ITS NOT IMPORTANT.
1 SM3LL L13S.
WHY DO YOU EVEN WANT TO KNOW? ITS NOT LIKE IM HIDING ANYTHING FROM YOU.
K4RK4T YOUR3 B31NG R34LLY 1MM4TUR3.
YOURE THE ONE STICKING YOUR NOSE INTO EVERYONE ELSES PRIVATE CONVERSATIONS.
4T L34ST 1 DONT T4LK 4BOUT MY FR13NDS B3H1ND TH31R B4CKS.
IT WASNT LIKE THAT! I WAS JUST MENTIONING YOU IN PASSING. IS THERE ANYTHING WRONG WITH MENTIONING MY FRIENDS? LIKE, "HEY, DID YOU SEE WHAT JOHN DID TO THE BOOKS IN THE LIBRARY?" IM SURE JOHN WOULD BE REALLY UPSET IF HE HEARD ME SAYING THAT.
:[
He ignores me for the rest of the class and I can't get rid of the nagging curiosity about their conversation, or my sense of suspicion. Something is definitely going on, and I will figure it out one way or another. I slump over my desk and draw unrecognizable dragons in my textbook for the remaining twenty minutes.
By noon my sinuses have cleared I'm almost back to normal. Karkat isn't at lunch, and I can't help but wonder where he went.
"Where's Karkat?" I ask Dave. He shrugs.
"I think I saw him with Sollux just a little while ago," John offers.
I turn towards the Ravenclaw table, but neither aforementioned boy is there.
"I smell something fishy," I say, standing.
"Those must some seriously funky fish," Dave says.
"You bet they are. But I'm gonna go look for him."
"Why? It's Karkat. He's probably throwing a fit about a plugged up toilet or something. He's like a crazy wind-up toy that you set off and it goes spinning in circles until it spins off the table and keeps whirring round on the ground all jittery and shit and then it finally runs out of juice. Not apple juice, though, 'cause that stuff was made by Merlin himself."
I grin and leave the boys to their lunch as I head off to find Karkat. I check the common room first, and then the boys dorm, but I don't catch a whiff of him anywhere. Eventually, it's time for my next class and I still haven't found him. I gather my books walk up the staircase in the direction of my class, down a long corridor and past one of my favorite colorful paintings. I'm nearing the Astronomy Tower when I turn a corner and stop dead in my tracks.
I know that my nose isn't deceiving me, but I don't want to believe what it's telling me. Standing in a little window nook is Karkat. And Sollux. And they're snogging. They pull apart as they hear my footsteps, and I back up quickly, then pivot and run in the other direction. I faintly hear a familiar voice call my name, but I keep going anyway. My class is just a little ways from here if I take a short cut. I rush up another corridor, slip behind a tapestry, through a tunnel, and land in the hallway right across from where I need to go. I run into the classroom where I sit down quickly and bury my face in my book.
I'm not sure what to feel right now, but I certainly don't feel good. My head starts to hurt again, and my chest aches, and there's this horrible buzzing feel in my stomach and I want to puke. Maybe it's from running when I'm not fully recovered, or maybe it's from the scene I just witnessed, or maybe it's a reaction to something I just ate. Whatever the case, I don't want to sit through a lesson. I raise my hand feebly.
"Miss Pyrope," says the professor.
"I think I need to go to the infirmary," I say wearily.
"Alright. Have a friend take you."
My professors were informed of the accident, so It's no surprise that I'm released so easily I stand up and gather my books and the Hufflepuff sitting next to me takes them and walks with me to the door. Her name is Nepeta and she wears an enchanted cat tail that swishes back and forth, and a blue cat-eared hat. We are pretty good friends. We used to play games together a lot, but we've grown apart somewhat since we're in different houses and only share a few classes.
"How do you feel?" she asks. "Does your head hurt?"
"Yeah. I feel like shit."
She puts her arm around me and I hate how much it comforts me. We take the long walk back to the infirmary together, and she sits on a stool beside my bed while the nurse prepares a potion for me.
"You look really upset," she says. "Did something happen?"
"It's all Karkat's fault," I respond.
"What did he do? If it isn't too impurrtinent of me to ask?"
"He's just an asshole, that's all."
"It's okay if you don't want to tell me," she says. I lean my head back and close my eyes. I don't want to talk to Nepeta about this. I know she had a crush on Karkat at one point, and I don't know if she's over it yet. I can't trust her enough to let her know about my own feelings that I've been harboring for years.
"Thanks," I say.
"No purroblem!"
I'm given a potion and I'm back on my feet again in a few hours. I sit around in the common room, hoping that company will keep my mind away from other things. Dave sits with me and we take turns adding to a collaborative drawing. John joins us but doesn't say much—he just watches us and speaks only when Dave addresses him.
People have been coming and going all evening, so I don't notice when Karkat walks in, Sollux in tail, until John speaks up.
"Hey there, Karkat!" his voice is suddenly cheerier.
"Hey, asshole," he replies.
"Hi, Sollux," John says.
Sollux gives a halfhearted wave.
"So are you two a thing now?" Dave asks bluntly.
"What?" Karkat looks surprised.
"You were holding hands when you came in," John explains.
"Yeth," says Sollux. "We're pretty much offfithally a thing."
Karkat is turning red—something I usually love. But right now, it makes me sad and angry. I know I'm being stupid and selfish, but my reaction is kind of involuntary. I'm incredibly glad for my glasses, because I know my eyes would betray me.
A/N: I meant to get this up this afternoon, but I ended up going off-campus because it's my birthday and I didn't want to sit in my dorm all day.
So you can probably see now that there will be a triangle with Terezi and Karkat and Sollux. But this is still a Karezi story. Don't give up.
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