A/N- Remember that other flashback? Yeah. Here it is.
Terezi Pyrope, Nitram at the time, was in love. She could literally smell a difference in herself. She had always had a keen sense of smell.
His name was Dave Strider, a cool kid from Houston, and as such had a sexy Texan drawl that made him irresistible in her opinion. No, not her humble opinion, for she was, and is, far from humble. She knows that she is great, and will not hesitate to let you know it.
She was seventeen, and had very little experience with boys, other than her father, and the little brat she called a brother. He always stayed in his room, playing with his stupid Internet friends on some Japanese game where you raised weird animal things and made them fight each other. It was like a virtual cock fight from what she could understand, and while her strong sense of morality found something wrong with it, their parents found it harmless, so their wasn't much she could do.
He had walked in at the start of the spring semester, wearing a white shirt, with red long sleeves, and a record on the front. His eyes were hid by shades, and his hair, as well as his skin, was a stark white. She smiled when she saw him, finding him instantly cuter than any of the other boys in the entirety of your town. She wondered if there was a movie shoot she didn't know about for some school movie, because she had never seen him, and he looked like an actor. She blushed a little as she walked by him, but stayed calm. She is strong, and determined that she will be the greatest fucking prosecutor in the world one day, and she refused to let that track be taken off course by some cool guy.
That is until he said "Hey." And she realized with a beet red face that he had just addressed her, and was lifting an eyebrow from underneath the protective covering of his shades. She smiled awkwardly, and looked at him, voice unable to express the fact that he had her attention.
"Do you know where I can find room fucking 301? If I'm late because of how this school is set up, I'm gonna do a pirouette off the handle, man." He said, and she noticed his accent, instantly falling in love with it. Unfortunately, so did the group of cheerleaders to her front, who proceeded to squeal like morons, and start whispering among themselves. Not that it couldn't be heard, because every "Who's he" and "He's SOOOO hot" Were perfectly audible to everyone, and likely this was his or her intention.
"It's down this hall. I'll show it to you. Stupid fucking whores." She said, always having been an opinionated person, and never on to hold her tongue.
When they were out of earshot, she was shocked when he said:
"They really are whores, aren't they? Just because I have a fucking accent, you'd think I was some kind of European model. Thank God you aren't one of them." He said, and her heart soared, happier than she had ever remembered being. As he walked into his first period, carrying a notebook and a cocky grin, she swooned, and noticed a strange smell had covered her body. Like a mix of freshly cut grass, and really fragrant roses. She was sure that no one else would be able to smell it, she barely could, but she still had no clue what it was, and this in and of it made her a bit on-edge. She had long since learned every emotion's smell, and every natural smell that happened in this rickety piece of shit town birthed and kept alive by the insane, both in and out of the hospital.
Fast forward: three weeks
She had been hanging out with the cool kid, mostly texting him, and talking to him at school. And then there was the enormous fuss over whom he would ask to the Winter Ball. Knowing that he had come in late, the aforementioned sluts had dumped their boyfriends in the hope that they would be his chosen ladies. It was in two weeks, and he had yet to so much as give an inkling of whom he would be escorting, or even if he would be present. Terezi was the only girl he even talked to, aside from teachers, and those he was put into project groups with, and everyone was certain that he would never pick the loud, obnoxious, barely-a-female lawyer-smartass that was Terezi Nitram.
And yet the days went by, and Terezi almost had the hope that he would ask her, when he asked her if she was going. She had answered in the affirmative, thinking that perhaps this was his prelude. He simply nodded; saying that it was cool, and that it would suck to go alone, and he wouldn't bother if she wasn't going to be there to hang out with.
But now Terezi had no choice but to show, since she had since given him the okay. She had no choice but to talk this out with her best friend, Aradia Megido.
"Let me guess, you've gone and fallen for Dave like the rest of the female population?" She said, her voice a soothing near monotone. She was sitting with her boyfriend, Sollux Captor, the guy voted most likely to run a software company. He could do anything with a computer, and had even hacked into Vriska's various online accounts, and gave away al of her money as a birthday gift to Terezi. Not that his girlfriend hadn't appreciated it. Everyone who didn't wear short skirts and speak in obnoxiously perky rhymes hated Vriska. They were quite sure even Vriska hated Vriska, and simply hated herself too much to admit she was right in hating herself.
"Yeah. And he hangs out with me, and he even asked me if I was going to the ball."
"You told him yes?" Aradia asked, and Terezi nodded. "And did he ask you?" She shook her head.
"He'th doing one of two thing'th. He'th going to a'thk you there, or you really are just another bro to him. Hard to tell at this point. Just go and see if he a'thks you to dan'the." The man said, his lisp showing as always.
"And what do I do if he doesn't ask me? We've only known each other for a month."
"Then you continue being friends, and learn to accept that that's all you could end up. You can't hold out for something that you won't get, Terezi" Aradia said, smiling softly at her friend.
"Easy for you to say. You have a man." The lawyer mumbled, stuffing her lunch into her face, hoping that the food would make her feel a little better.
The Winter Ball:
"Okay, your hair is done, Aradia. Now do mine. Nothing too frilly minds you, just maybe straightening it, or waving it a little." Terezi said, as they got ready for the ball together. Sollux would be picking both of them up, and hopefully she would be leaving with Strider. She was wearing a red dress with a teal sash. It hung loose around her flat-clad feet, satin slippers looking sufficiently dainty, while at the same time allowing her to walk home if she had to, as well as dance without killing her untrained feet.
Aradia was wearing nearly the opposite. She was wearing Prussian blue, with a red, small bow tied loosely at her ample hips. Her hair fell in soft curls around her petite body, making her the peak of beauty. Everyone had been shocked when, not only had she agreed to date Sollux, but had even asked him out, and begged him to give her a chance. He had of course accepted, and pissed off all of the kids in the popular clique. Not that they really cared. She had half-inch heels that matched her sash. Neither of them was wearing much make-up, and by not much, Terezi's case was none at all. She already felt like the Barbie dolls she had never really liked as a child, and being further dressed up would simply make her turn into plastic, and stare dumbly into space. Like the majority of the girls at her school.
Terezi's hair was fairly straight as it was, but it had a slight up-turn at the ends, and tended to stick up in odd places like she was some kind of anime character. Aradia smoothed it out, and told her she at least had to put on a little lip-gloss. Apple flavor, Strider's favorite. At least he really loved apple juice.
When Sollux pulled up, he was wearing a black suit, with a red shirt, and a blue tie, as well as a blue pocket hankie. They matched perfectly, and Terezi realized that she and Dave had not so much as mentioned doing something like this. Then again, why would they? It wasn't a date, or at least it didn't start as one.
The third wheel dutifully took the backseat of his Honda, while they forgot she existed in their lovey-dovey world of no one else. She was vaguely jealous of them, being so happy together. Happier than anyone she had ever seen.
They arrived quickly, and Terezi got out as Sollux, ever the gentleman, opened the door for his love, and helped her out. The dateless went in as they took a moment to mumble what the two of them, could only interpret, and scanned the crowd in the gym for her friend-date.
She found him leaning against a wall, a cool kid's natural habitat, still wearing the shades, but not the rest of his usual attire. He had on a red suit that appeared to be made of the plushest felt, with a black shirt and white tie. He had no breast pocket, and so he went hankie-less. She approached him, and mentally punched the air as his eyes widened, his jaw dropping slightly in a flabbergasted grin.
"Damn, you look good." He said, and she blushed darker.
"Lookin' pretty snazzy yourself, cool kid." She said softly, her normal voice being much more soothing than her more used high-pitched caw.
"And your fucking voice too? Man you are Terezi, right? I mean Jegus, shouldn't you be in an executioner's outfit?" He joked, moving to put his weight on his own two legs.
"Yes, it is the Terezi." She said, laughing a little.
"Well, in that case, can I get you some punch, my lady?" He bowed slightly, a cocky grin on his face.
"Fine. But if it's spiked, I'm blaming you." She said, and he went off to grab them both a glass, or rather, plastic cup.
She watched him leave, smiling all the while. She may not have been one of the cheerleading whores, but she was human, and he had quite the ass. But it wasn't only his looks. She had taken the time to know him, and had found that she liked what she saw. He had the morals one would expect from a western gentleman, and he regarded women with the grace a man should. He had even confessed to her that, in spite of the fact that woman literally threw himself at him; he was still a virgin, having taken to none of them. He came back, and handed her the fruity drink, giving a small toast with the cheap plastic.
"So I hear you're here solo?" He asked, raising an eyebrow, and she blushed slightly before nodding.
"I didn't get asked by anyone. Don't really know anyone but you, and Aradia and Sollux of course, but they're attached at the hip."
"So then would it be okay if you dance with me?" He asked, extending his hand to her as a slow song started to drizzle from the previously booming speakers. She wondered if her had set this up, or if it was simply coincidence. Knowing Strider, likely the former.
"I suppose I could deign to dance with the most wanted man in the county." She joked, taking the hand, and setting the newly acquired drink on the table, not really caring about it anymore.
As he locked his right hand in her left, he placed his other loosely around her hip, and she his shoulder. They were barely touching other than that, the swell of her relatively ample breasts brushing his chest every now and then as they swayed in small circles. She was shocked when he took the hand that was on her hip, and used it to removed his shades, revealing blood red eyes.
"Your eyes…" She said, surprised and staring.
"I wear the shades because I have to. It's why I never get in trouble. I'm an albino. I'll go blind if I don't." He confessed, now unhindered eyes staring into hers with unfiltered intensity.
"Could the strobe lights hurt them?"
"Doesn't matter. I'll be a happy man if I get to go blind seeing you." He said, his sarcastic smirk nowhere to be found, replaced by a small, serious frown. Her heart beat like a snare drum in her chest, and she thought she was going to pass out.
"Strider I-"She started, and he placed a finger to her mouth, before pulling her closer.
"Please. Call me Dave." He whispered, burying his head in her shoulder, though the angle he had to bend his neck to do so must have been uncomfortable.
"Dave… What are you trying to say? Be plain with me."
"But you're anything but plain. I'll feel inferior." He said, lifting his head so that it was only inches away from hers.
"Dammit Dave!"
"Fine. But you can't be mad at me."
"I won't be." She promised, and he touched his forehead to hers, taking a deep breath.
"I've fallen in love with you, Terezi Nitram." He said softly, breath gliding across her skin. In a fit of boldness, she tilted her head so that their lips were touching rather than their foreheads.
As was his custom, Strider didn't miss a beat, pulling her flush against him and responding with more passion than she could have imagined. She put a hand on his face, only to find a tear falling down his cheek.
"What's wrong?" She asked, pulling away, only to find that he was smiling from ear to ear, and holding her against him by the hips.
"Nothing. Everything is perfect." He said, and she looked confused. "They're tears of joy, Terezi."
"This is a dream, isn't it?" She asked, resting her head on his chest, the memory of his kiss still lingering on her lips.
"Maybe. But I hope I'll never wake up." He said, holding her closer as the song ended.
And that kiss, and all the ones that had come after it had still lingered. Even as she heard the worst news she could possibly hear. Dave had hydroplaned into her parents trying to come wish her happy birthday. It had killed him, and her parents. And her baby brother would never be able to walk again. She was nineteen. He was ten. And both their lives seemed to be over.
A/N- please don't kill me for going Hussie and killing Dave. I hope that you liked this chapter, as well as those before it. Thanks for reading!