John's P.O.V.

The library is eerily silent at this time of night. I can hear a floorboard creak somewhere a few shelves away, and someone out of my vision sneezes. The pages of my textbook are loud when I turn them, and I'm aware of my own breathing. This silence is distracting.

I get up and walk a few feet until the clock is within my view. Curfew is in a few minutes, so I should head back to Gryffindor tower. But I hear coughing, and on impulse I turn the corner and follow the sound. Sitting on the floor with his back resting against the bookshelf is the Slytherin boy I met a while ago—Henry, I think. He's wearing a fuzzy sweater and a long scarf that's piled on the ground around him and a sickly expression as he reads a well-worn tome.

I shuffle my feet in hopes that he'll hear me so I won't have to say anything and break him out of his trance. He doesn't.

"Curfew is in a few minutes, you know," I say. My voice almost echoes.

Henry starts and looks at me with alarm, before releasing his breath and sitting up on his knees. He closes the tome and hefts it back onto the shelf, an action that seems to take most of his strength. I would offer to help him, but I feel like I might offend him if I did that.

"Thanks for reminding me," he wheezes.

"No problem," I say, shifting awkwardly and wondering if it would be rude to just leave, or if I should wait for him now that I've engaged in conversation. I decide the latter would be a better option. He is quiet, like the library, and I feel kind of awkward waiting as he gathers his things off the floor.

How does one make conversation with a Slytherin, anyway? I think about other Slytherin's I've known—Vriska. The two of us actually got on pretty well. But she drove most of the conversation there, so that was no help.

I let out a small sigh in defeat and try not to twiddle my thumbs. Finally, Henry is ready to go, and I walk with him in silence toward the library door. "So, um, what were you reading?" I ask.

"Just some stuff for my herbology class," he says, punctuating it with a cough.

"Oh," I say, for a lack of better thoughts.

"Yeah," he continues.

"That must be interesting," I add, intelligently.

"Not really," he admits. "I like herbology, but sometimes the reading can be really dull. Do you have a favorite class?"

"Well, I guess I like transfiguration," I say. "And charms can be fun, too."

He nods, which sets off a coughing fit, and I stand there helplessly as he doubles over. "I'm fine," he says, gesturing with his hand. He doesn't look fine. His eyes are bloodshot, and he's frail and pasty.

"Maybe you should go to the infirmary," I suggest.

His eyes widen and he shakes his head. "N-no, I'll be okay."

"If you say so." I let it go, but walk him to the dungeon entrance just to make sure. He thanks me and offers me some pocket candy before I leave.

It's well past curfew when I get back to Gryffindor tower. The first thing I see as I enter the common room is the clock, which informs me that is is just about thirty minutes past curfew, in fact, and I'm lucky that I haven't been caught out after hours. The last time I was caught I got lucky and just had detention. Likelihood is the next time I won't get off so easy.

There are a few people still in the common room. A girl sits by the fireplace writing frantically. Another girl, this one younger, maybe a second year, is looking at a book in bewilderment.

In the nook by the window, Dave and Terezi are cuddled up, whispering to each other. They are sitting so close their sides are pressed together, and Terezi is almost leaning her head on his shoulder. They are smiling and drawing stuff like they always do.

I can't help it. There is something inside of me that snaps and I'm suddenly really angry. I know how ridiculous this is, because I know that they're not like that, but still. Dave I just had this conversation this morning. What if Terezi is the girl he likes? Maybe there is some other reason he doesn't want her back. Stop it, I tell myself, but my brain just keeps going. I'm supposed to be his best friend, not Terezi. And Terezi hates me, anyway. Maybe it's because she really likes Dave. I tell my brain that this is just the way that Dave and Terezi interact, that it is nothing special, that they broke up and they will never get back together—at least not anytime soon. But I'm still angry and I don't want to deal with this right now because I know I'm being illogical.

I say nothing to either of them and hurry up the stairs to my dorm room. Karkat is already asleep and I can hear him snoring ever-so-faintly. I flop into bed with my clothes on and put an arm over my eyes.

My brain is still wandering, and I try to force it to replay the events of yesterday afternoon. It was so easy when I was trying to sleep last night, but tonight I can't manage it.

The door opens and Dave walks into the room. He sits on the edge of my bed and just looks at me, waiting for me to say something. When I don't, he inquires.

"Is something wrong, dude?"

"Nope, I'm good," I say, not moving my arm away from my eyes.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm just tired," I say, although I really doubt I could sleep right now.

He nods. "Want to sneak out?"

I sit up. "What?"

"You heard me. Let's sneak out. We could go to the astronomy tower. Or the lake. Hell, we could go to the owlery if you want. Just the two of us."

I bite my lip. "Well it's pretty cold outside."

"We don't have to go outside."

"I guess that would be. . . okay."

"Really?" he seems surprised.

"Yeah! Let's go."

"Okay. Where?"

"The bridge!" I say, jumping to the floor. This will be good. Maybe we can have a heart-to-heart talk and I will actually get somewhere for once. I'll ask him about the Terezi thing again once we get to the bridge. I grab my wand and begin a disillusionment charm, and Dave does the same. We've gotten pretty good at not getting caught while sneaking about after-hours.

Unfortunately, we're not so lucky this evening. Terezi is still in the common room and she doesn't notice us as we pass. We get out of Gryffindor tower, okay, too. It's when we're maneuvering the moving staircases that we spot a prefect. And not just any prefect—a Slytherin. There is no way we'll get out of this if he sees us.

There is nowhere to duck, so all I can do is hope that the disillusionment charm will keep him from noticing us. We move slowly and cautiously, eyes glued to the prefect ascending towards us. He turns between two flights of moving stairs and we freeze, waiting for him to pass us. Unfortunately, just as he reaches the staircase we're standing on, I sneeze, and his eyes dart in our direction. He's spotted us. We're dead.

Karkat's P.O.V

Sunday morning it stops snowing, but there are several inches on the ground now. I spend the morning in my dorm room working on an essay and it's nearly lunch time when I finish. I roll up the parchment and stretch my arms, then make my way out of Gryffindor tower. I'm grateful that I don't see anyone as I leave, because I'm a little irritable right now, and I make a point of rarely being pleasant even when I'm in a good mood. But my emotions are more than a bit rickety, and currently they tend to be swaying most often between guilt and confusion.

When I reach the bottom of the moving staircases, someone grabs my arm, and I almost lose my balance as I'm pulled around a corner, into a small, empty passageway. I shout in surprise, but then I realize that it is just my boyfriend.

"Sollux," I hiss quietly, not really sure why I feel the need to keep my voice low.

"Hey there, KK. It'th been a while," he says, his hands sliding around my waist.

I gulp. God that lisp is sexy.

"Hello, asshole," I say, without the usual venom. He senses it.

"That'th not a very creative inthult," he replies, pulling me closer.

I step into his embrace, but my mind flashes back to my snowy escapade last, and suddenly I can't think about anything else. It's really distracting, and I'm worried that Sollux will notice. I try to keep my mind on him, all the little things he does that are so hot, like that damned lisp, and the way his hand is in my back pocket, and his skinny body pressed against me. It's not working.

"Yeah?" I say. Concentrate, Karkat! What's wrong with you?

"Tho how about a quick thnog?"

"Look, Sollux," I begin, putting my hands on his arms, ready to push away if I need to. I close my eyes for a moment, trying to squeeze away the memories that are bombarding my brain right now. But he takes the opportunity to kiss me.

Suddenly, I'm kissing Terezi again. And it scares me, because I really want to deepen that kiss, open my mouth, run my fingers through her—his—hair. But it's not Terezi, not at all. And I know that very well and I feel so incredibly guilty. So just as Sollux begins to part his lips and take it a little further, I pull away.

He looks at me in puzzlement, and I step backward and force a half-grin. "Not now," I say, and my voice is shaky even to me. He can definitely tell that something is wrong. I grab his hand and lace our fingers together and walk the rest of the way to the Great Hall with him, but I avoid his gaze the entire time. Because I'm remembering holding Terezi's hand, smaller, slightly rougher, with chipped nail polish.

Sollux doesn't leave my side until we get to the Gryffindor table. Dave and John and Terezi are all sitting in their usual spots, and I know that this is going to be incredibly awkward, so I don't want him to leave. At the same time, I wish he hadn't followed me this far in the first place. He pecks my lips before walking to the Ravenclaw table, and my face is burning as I sit down next to Terezi. I'm glad that I don't have to sit across from her and look her in the face, because that would be even more embarrassing.

"Hey, Karkat," she greets me, sounding perfectly normal.

John and Dave are eating in silence, looking pretty forlorn. Because I'm a perceptive guy, I pick up on the mood. "Why do you ass-wipes look so blue?"

"We were out after curfew," says John, "and we got caught."

I glance at Terezi, but there is nothing on her face that gives anything away about her opinion on the events of last night.

"So what? Are they making you scrub toilets or something?"

"We can't go to Hogsmeade," Dave explains.

The rest of the conversation is stale and short and no topic seems to last longer than a minute or two. I'm too distracted to really care, but Terezi seems frustrated. And to top it off, I'm having a hard time discerning just what is going on with me because there is a familiar pit in my stomach every time I look at her and my skin tingles whenever our hands brush against each other on accident.

I decide that I need some advice. And there is only one person to go to for that. So as soon as everyone begins to get up from their tables, I head towards the Ravenclaw table, avoiding the end where my boyfriend sits, and locate the wise and beautiful Kanaya.

"Good afternoon, Karkat," she greets me. "Is there something I can help you with?"

I decide to cut straight to the chase, because I know I can trust her.

"I need some advice," I say. "Can we go somewhere else?"

"Certainly," she says, standing. "Where would you like to go?"

I take Kanaya to a classroom, which is obviously not in use since today is Sunday. She perches lightly on a desk and I sit in the one next to her, burying my head in my arms so she can't see my face.

"What seems to be the issue?" she asks.

"I'm not sure," I say, my voice strangely uneven. "I'm supposed to be the expert on romance but somehow things just don't seem as clear to me as they usually do."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I know it's been a while since we talked, but I'm pretty sure you're aware of at least some of the recent events."

"I assume you're referring to your relationship with Sollux," she says somewhat dryly.

"Yeah."

"How did that happen, anyway?"

"Gee, I'm surprised you didn't seek me out and ask sooner," I say, lifting my head from the desk. "Not that it's important or anything."

"It isn't?" She quirks an eyebrow.

"It is! Well, not like, as important as-" I pause, realizing I have no idea what I'm planning to say. "Of course it's important!"

"Right. The story?"

"Oh, yeah. So remember when Terezi got hurt?"

She nods.

"Okay well—wait, maybe I should start earlier than that. Remember when Terezi first started going out with Dave?"

She nods again, and I can't read her expression. "You were very upset."

"Yeah, well, that was when I started spending a lot more time with Sollux. He was trying to help me get over her, or deal with it or something. And it kind of worked. I mean, you helped a lot, too, of course. Anyway, after a while, someone said that Sollux had a crush on me," I explain. "And I wanted to know if it was true. So I asked him about it, and he just got kind of irritated and didn't really confirm or deny it. And then I started to think that maybe I liked him, and things got kind of awkward for a while. We were still friends, you know, but he thought that I thought that he liked me and I didn't like him back, and I thought it was just a rumor and I wasn't really sure whether I liked him or not for a while."

"So when did you get together?"

"When Terezi got hurt. And I feel kind of bad about it, like we were sneaking behind her back, even though I know that's not how it was. But I think she was a little mad about it, maybe that I didn't tell her sooner?"

Kanaya rolls her eyes. "So is that why you're so upset?"

"Well of course that upsets me but that's not the problem."

"Then what is the problem?"

I take a deep breath and rest my face in my palm. "Everything was peachy with Sollux at first, but it didn't really last long. It's still peachy, kind of. I mean, I don't think he knows that anything's wrong, and he shouldn't because he doesn't know what happened. But I think he likes me a lot more than I like him, and that doesn't bode well in the first place. Anyway, I started... doubting if this was really a good thing. I mean, we used to bicker all the time. We still insult each other but it's not the same and I kind of miss the way we used to be. Making out is nice and all but I just..." My voice is shaky. I take another deep breath and try to gather my thoughts.

"It's okay, Karkat," Kanaya says. "Why don't you just tell him that you want to take things a little slower?"

There's this horrible lump in my throat and I can't seem to force any words around it. She still doesn't understand. My eyes are stinging. "It's not about him," I choke out. "It's me!"

"Karkat, I think you're over-reacting. I'm pretty sure this kind of this is normal, and you-"

"I kissed Terezi!" I blurt, nearly shouting, and now there are tears streaming down my face. I try to wipe them away quickly but my nose is running now and I'm just a big mess.

Kanaya gets down from her perch on the desk next to me and places a hand on my shoulder. It only makes me want to cry harder, but I'm trying my best to stop, to regain my composure. But then she wraps her arms around me and I can't stop sobbing as I return her embrace, holding her tightly as she strokes my head.

It takes me at least five minutes to get back to the point where I can actually hold a conversation. She has procured a handkerchief out of who-knows-where and I am sniffling into it like a pathetic fool. Kanaya is the only person who can see me cry and I won't be embarrassed.

"Wasn't the mistletoe incident a long time ago?" She asks. "You know, you don't have to marry someone just because you kiss them."

I try to glare at her but I imagine it only looks pathetic. She tries her best not to look amused.

"I'm not talking about that. This was—this was yesterday."

"Really?" I can see what she's thinking: Karkat, you know that's cheating, right?

I nod. "Last night we went outside to play in the snow. And I just kissed her and now I feel really guilty because I can't tell Sollux and I was probably leading her on. And the worst part is that now I want to kiss her again."

"Do you want my honest advice?" she asks.

I bite my lip. "Yeah."

"You need to make up your mind on this, and take action to fix it. Maybe you'll decide that you never really got over Terezi in the first place, and your attraction to Sollux is merely sexual without any real romance behind it. Or maybe you'll decide that you really do like Sollux and Terezi is just an old crush, in which case you should apologize to her and whether you tell Sollux about it us up to you. What it comes down to, Karkat, is that you can't have both of them."

I nod slowly. She's right. I just don't know how to come to that conclusion.

After I've composed myself, I thank Kanaya and make my way slowly back to the Gryffindor tower. I'm walking down a quiet hallway towards the moving stairs when I hear muffled voices. On a whim, I follow the direction they're coming from and turn down another corridor, careful that my footsteps don't make much noise. The corridor is empty except for Eridan and Sollux. They're standing with less than a foot between them, close to the wall so it almost looks like Eridan has him pinned there. They don't seem to notice me so I watch for a moment. Eridan is smirking slightly, and I can't really see much of Sollux's face. He backs him even farther against the wall, and Sollux shifts somewhat uncomfortably. Eridan leans closer, and I decide this is the point for me to intervene.

"Sollux!" I say, walking briskly towards them. As I'd hoped, Eridan backs away. I step between them, grabbing my boyfriend's hand and using the other to flip Eridan off. He looks irritated a little offended, but I don't give him a chance to say anything as I drag Sollux away with me.

We slow down as soon as we're out of his earshot. Sollux stops me, retracting his hand, and I have a horrible sinking feeling in my gut.

"KK," he begins, and shakes his head, "Karkat, I wasn't-" He pauses, unsure of what to say. Cheating on me?

"I know," I reply. "It's okay." I'm actually pretty amazed at myself for not being angrier than this.

"It ith?" he asks.

"Yeah," I shrug. "I mean, he was obviously making the advances. You looked pretty uncomfortable. Good thing I rescued you, though, shitwad."

He cracks a grin and ruffles my hair. I give him the finger. He walks with me back to Gryffindor tower and kisses me before going on his way. I pull away quickly, force a smile, and retreat to my dorm room.

A/N: Sorry about the wait, guys. Finals happened.

Anyway, I'm estimating about three to four more chapters. The next one should be up soon.

Please leave a review! That would be really nice of you.