100 Songfics

[by TerraBird]

Lies

[Artist: Marina and the Diamonds]

Nepeta's hand froze mid-arc. Her fingers clenched momentarily around the red chalk in her hands. A few feet away, Karkat sat, getting frustrated at his own art. His god tier was awfully stunning on him. It was too bad Nepeta had never made it to god tier herself, but at least she could be with him here. They'd all died long ago, but surely the best ship could sail even in a doomed timeline?

He caught her staring. He flashed her an uneasy grin. She smiled back sweetly, then turned back to her own art.

Maybe it was the fact that they were in a doomed timeline. Part of her knew this was never supposed to happen, that her love was meant to remain unrequited. She knew in the Alpha he would still be chasing after her—

Nepeta's chalk hit the wall a bit too hard. Karkat noticed. She tried to pass it off as an over-eager attempt at adding detail to the piece. It was easy too, because Karkat wasn't exactly the most observant of trolls.

Nepeta blew chalk dust from the wall to cover her conflicted feelings. Surely it was better to enjoy what she had, even if it was never meant to be? What was the point of playing a game they were only going to lose?

Nepeta was naïve, but she wasn't ignorant. Karkat felt the weight of the universe on his shoulders, and here, in a doomed timeline, he felt he'd failed everyone. It wasn't the same sense of failure he'd felt in the Alpha. This was different. Now that they were dead, he couldn't sense any hope anywhere. At least before he'd thought there would be a way out. But here. . . The result was hardly worth the fight. Even he wasn't too proud to admit that he'd messed up.

He wasn't a coward in her eyes.

She turned her empty eyes back to her wall graffiti. It was an illustration of the ultimate ship, the one that had always been her top priority. The finishing touch, an exquisitely red heart, remained only half finished. Chalk dust was collecting where her piece met the wall, and she dusted it off once more.

Things were different here. They were free now. They could enjoy each other and love each other, just like she'd always wanted. And Equius would be there and Aradia would finally love him, and they could all be happy together.

She didn't have to pretend anymore.

Chalk collided with wall once more, and the soft sound of the red piece dragging across the dull gray surface was easy on the ears. The heart was completed. Nepeta sighed, leaning back to enjoy her work. Karkat came over and sat beside her. She leaned on him. He stiffened, but rested a hand on her head nonetheless.

After all, a doomed timeline couldn't be completely based off of lies.