A/N: I actually don't really like this chapter, which is why it took so freaking long to write, that and college decided to start kicking my ass... Anyway, someone pointed out that there were spelling mistakes in the last chapter, and i re-read it, but didn't find anything. This is probably because I suck at spelling, so if it really bothers you, feel free to tell me what's spelled wrong, and I'll fix it. That goes for any chapter.
Also, I don't own Homestuck
Slowly regaining consciousness I noticed a few things immediately. One, my arm was completely asleep, to the point where I couldn't feel it anymore. Two, I had a terrible cramp in my neck. Three, my butt hurt like hell. And four, there was a solid weight in my lap leaning up against me.
I slowly cracked open my eyes, straining against the light that I never got around to turning off last night, and saw a very peaceful Vriska with her head buried in my shoulder. Soft snores were coming from her partially open mouth, and I didn't have the heart to wake her up after the night she had, hell, after the week she had. All of the sudden she grunted and threw her arm around my neck, and pulled me into a cuddle.
Who knew that the Spiderbitch liked to cuddle? So much for that tough girl act. I thought to myself, giggling as quietly as I could when she sighed contently before she started her snoring again. I'm not sure how much longer I can sit here… A strange burning sensation had started in my tailbone, and Vriska pulling on my neck had caused the cramp to turn into a major pain.
"Vriska." I shook her shoulder, trying to rouse her.
"I don't wanna…" She mumbled into my shirt, still half asleep, her eyes shut tightly.
"Come on, time to wake up."
"Why?" She groaned, her eyes slowly opening. She then noticed the position she had put us in and released my hair. "Sorry…" She shyly smiled, getting out of my lap.
"I would have never taken you for the cuddly type." I laughed as I stood, stretching out. I offered her a hand, which she grabbed, and I pulled her to her feet.
"I wasn't until recently. I had to start sleeping with an extra pillow just to hug at night." She told me, blushing and rubbing the back of her neck.
"I knew you were a big softy." I poked her in the stomach, instantly brightening as we slipped into the comfortable banter I was so used to with her.
"Hey! Just because I hug pillows does not mean I'm going soft." She huffed.
"Whatever you say…" I rolled my eyes and headed out of the bathroom, and headed to the kitchen. "You still drink coffee?" I asked her once she came into the kitchen.
"Yeah." She started rifling through the cabinets, then went to the fridge. "Do you have anything actually edible in this place?"
"Sorry that my food isn't full of artificial sugar and preservatives."
"I do not appreciate the sarcasm. And why not? Breakfast should always include way too much sugar. It's like, the cardinal rule of meals." She went to cross her arms, but quickly realized her mistake, so she settled on placing her hand on her hip.
I sighed affectionately, chuckling under my breath. The girl could be a real pain sometimes, but she was still my closest friend. "There's a box of Pop-Tarts above the fridge." She immediately brightened and threw the designated cabinet open to find her sugary prize.
"I knew you were holding out on me Fussyfangs! No college student would have a pantry missing junk food!" She grinned, placing the box on the table to take out a pack of Pop-Tarts.
"Do you need me to…" I tried to offer her help, turning around to hold my hand out for the foil pack, but found Vriska tearing open the package with her teeth. Once it was open she maneuvered the silver wrapping away from the food and took a bite of both pastries at the same time. I was pleasantly surprised at her ingenuity, if not a little appalled by her lack of manners, and turned back to the coffee machine to make two cups.
"You still like your coffee with only sugar, right?" I asked, bringing her the mug of steaming liquid before turning back around to grab sugar and creamer from the fridge.
"Aw, you remembered." She said through a mouthful of her breakfast.
"Don't talk with food in your mouth." I chastised her, sitting. "And of course I remember. You're the only person I know that can drink coffee without some sort of cream in it."
I prepared both of our coffees; pouring only two spoonful's of sugar into Vriska's and then adding both sugar and cream to mine, while watching her eat with a kind of gross curiosity. The crumbs on her face were bothering me for some unknown reason, so I reached out and brushed them off without a thought. Her eyes went wide at my gesture, and she mumbled a thanks as soon as she swallowed the bite she had just taken. We sat in silence for a little while, I was enjoying the warmth of the coffee as it seemed to warm up my entire body when Vriska spoke up.
"So, what're the plans for today?"
"Well, I need to go to the grocery, especially now that you're here. That's about it. I don't start work until next week, so I was planning on catching up on my reading."
"That is incredibly boring, you know that right?" She informed ne with a wide smile on her face.
"Sorry that my days aren't filled with excitement. What do you suggest we do then?" I shot back.
"You do need to go to the grocery, so we'll do that. After that, well, we could see a movie. I really can't think of anything else."
"And you had the gall to call me boring." I teased.
"Oh shut it Fussyfangs…"
After breakfast I went to take a quick shower, and got ready for the day. Once I got out of the bathroom Vriska started to head towards it to take her own shower.
"Vris, if you need anything, I'll be here." I motioned to my bedroom.
"I'm pretty sure that I can manage a shower on my own, thanks." She rolled her eyes at me and went into the bathroom, shutting the door.
After half an hour of various thumps, bangs, and curses from inside the bathroom, Vriska emerged, thankfully fully dressed, with her wet hair tangled and falling loosely over her shoulders and back.
"So, you can handle a shower just fine?" My question was delivered toneless, as I tried to stifle a laugh.
"Not a single word Kan…" She growled at me, plopping down onto the bed, falling onto her back and throwing her arm over her eyes.
"Fine, fine. Do you want me to brush your hair?"
"Why?" She lifted her arm to look at me, confusion written all over her face.
"It's just, well, I've always thought your hair was beautiful. And, I don't know… I just, have a weird urge to brush it." I tried to explain without sounding like a total creep.
She laughed at my pathetic explanation, but got up anyways, settling back down on the floor in front of me. "Brush away Kanaya!" She tilted her head back to look at me with a grin on her face.
"I have to get the brush first." I swung my legs over the side of the bed, then headed into the bathroom to grab a hairbrush. Once I had the brush I sat back down onto my bed, just behind Vriska, and grabbed her hair.
I started running the brush through the ends of her hair, noticing the tangles, and knowing that if I tried to brush the entire length at once she'd feel a very painful tugging. "You do know what conditioner is, right?" I asked once I started working on a particularly tangled section right under her left ear.
"Of course. OW! Watch it, are you trying to pull out all of my hair?" She hissed in pain.
"It wouldn't hurt so much if you actually used the conditioner…" I muttered, trying to brush more gently. She really did have beautiful hair, and it would be a shame to pull too much of it out, but it seemed like she had never brushed her hair before. Sure, she was just in the hospital, but that wasn't an excuse to let her hair go to hell…
It took a little over half an hour until I was satisfied with the state of her hair, a half an hour of listening to Vriska complain every time I tugged just a bit too hard, but I was finally done. Once I said as mush Vriska shot up and away from me, probably scared that I'd find another spot that could be brushed just a bit better.
"Now, I believe we have a date with the grocery store?" Vriska said quickly, really trying to avoid the brush at all costs.
"I don't know, I mean, your hair could use some more work. I could even style it." Fear flashed across her face as she put her hand up and backed up a bit, causing me to laugh. "I'm kidding. The grocery it is."
"You suck…" She mumbled, causing me to laugh once more.
"Yeah, yeah. Now come on." I lead her out of the apartment and to my car. I drove to the grocery, listening to the fidgety blonde fiddle with the radio the entire way there, suppressing the urge to smack her hand away from the console. Thankfully I pulled up to the store before my annoyance was too great, and swiftly parked the car.
We headed into the building, and I grabbed a cart, heading to the produce section with Vriska on my tail. I started picking out various fruits, chuckling as Vriska made random grossed out faces at my choices.
"You know fruit is good for you, right?" I waved an apple in front of her face.
"Stop that." She laughed, nocking my hand away. "I know, but it doesn't taste as good as processed foods." I shook my head at her, continuing to shop.
It went on like that all through the aisles. I'd pick something healthy out, she'd make a comment, she'd pick out some junk food, and I'd shoot a comment right back. Finally we made it through all the aisles, and I started walking towards the checkout lanes. Standing in line, I started flipping through some trashy celebrity gossip magazine.
"Mommy, why does that girl only have one arm?" My head shot up to locate the source of the question. There was a small boy, no more than five or six, pulling on his mother's pant leg, pointing straight at Vriska. I glanced towards the blonde, fearful what her reaction would be. Somehow, she had kept her face emotionless, and refused to even look towards the boy. The mother scolded her child for being rude, then glanced up at Vriska.
"I'm sorry about him, miss." She offered Vriska a sheepish smile. Vriska turned her head towards the mother, and I was scared that she was going to go off and bitch the woman out.
"Hey, kids'll be kids, right?" She offered a pained smile in response. She looked down towards the kid, causing him to flinch, afraid he was going to get reprimanded yet again. "What's your name?"
"Andy." His voice wavered with his nervousness.
"Hi Andy, I'm Vriska." She crouched down so that she was more level with him, the mother eyeing her cautiously the whole time. "Just so you know, some people might not like it when you point out certain things about them. It can be really personal, or really painful. So, will you promise me that you won't go around asking other people why they look certain ways?" Understanding dawned on the boy's face, and he nodded vigorously. "Thanks." She offered him a smile, then stood up straight and joined me in line.
"Are you ok?" I whispered to her, not wanting to force her to stay here if she was uncomfortable.
"Yeah, let's just check out and head back, 'kay?" She told me. I studied her face intently, but didn't find any indicators that she was going to break down, so I just nodded and started putting the groceries onto the belt. Once the groceries were bagged and I paid we headed back to the car. I handed Vriska the keys and then loaded all the bags into the trunk. As soon as I returned the cart I got into the car and started headed home.
"Are you sure that you're ok?" I asked her.
"Yeah, like I said, kids'll be kids. They're going to have a curiosity about everything. I can't hold that against them. Besides, I'm gonna have to get used to it sooner or later, so why not sooner?" She explained, a small sad smile on her face.
"I guess so…"
We made it back to the apartment, and I started grabbing bags when I heard my name being yelled. I turned to see Nepeta walking towards me, her trademark smile on her face.
"Hey Nepeta. I appreciate you not tackling me this time." I said, smiling back.
"Well, you were unloading your trunk, so I figured you didn't need me making you spill everything." She said with a sheepish chuckle, rubbing the back of her neck. "Hi Vriska!" She offered Vriska a smile when the other girl got out of the car and made her way to the trunk.
"Hey there."
"So, do you want some help?" Nepeta offered, gesturing to the groceries.
"Sure." I moved to the side so that she short girl could grab some bags. With Nepeta's help, we unloaded the car in one trip, bringing all the bags to the apartment. I started putting the groceries away when I noticed that Nepeta was still standing in my kitchen, glancing around nervously. "Um, Nepeta, did you need something?"
"What? Uh, yes, I mean no. Or, well, not really. I don't need anything, I just want to talk to you guys about something." She stammered, finally getting her point across.
"Ok, just let me finish putting the groceries away." I turned around, furrowing my brow in confusion. Nepeta didn't get flustered very often, and when she did it was usually bad. Vriska was making small talk with the short blonde while I put groceries away. I smiled when I heard them both talking about video games and online campaigns. "Alright," I turned around to look at both of them, "all done. How about we sit down, and you can say whatever you needed to say." They both nodded, and settled down at the kitchen table. I followed suit, sitting next to Vriska and across from the obviously edgy Nepeta.
"Well, I want to start off by saying that if I'm crossing any boundaries, or making you uncomfortable at any time, feel free to stop me, yell at me, call me names, whatever you feel appropriate. 'Kay?" She was looking at Vriska as she spoke.
"Um, sure." Vriska replied. I'm sure that neither of us had any idea where she was going with this.
"I'm assuming that since you're Kanaya's friend, you're a good person." This earned a snort form me.
"Sorry, sorry. It's just, not everyone would agree. But yes, she's a good person deep down." I elaborated, which earned me a smack on the arm from Vriska.
"Right, anyway, as I was saying, any friend of Kanaya is a friend of mine, and I like helping out my friends. And when I saw your… condition, I had an idea."
"Oh really. I'm not really sure you can help my 'condition'," Vriska made air quotes with her one hand around the word, "unless you know how to magically grow limbs or restore sight!" She snapped in anger. Seemed like she could take an innocent child asking questions, but a grown person pointing her situation out set her on edge.
"Actually, I think I can help with half of that. I can't do anything about your vision, but I have a friend who's a wiz at mechanics and robotics. Yesterday I called him, which I know, was way overstepping my boundaries, and I'm sorry about that, but I asked him if there was anyway he could make a robotic arm that would act just like a normal arm. He said that it would be a challenge, but he would love to try. He has this thing about proving he can do anything when it comes to robotics. He said that if he could get your measurements, he would try to build you a new arm." She explained quickly, not wanting to be on the wrong end of the other blonde's anger.
"Are you serious?" Vriska choked out. I looked over at Vriska; her mouth was hanging open, and her face the picture of shock.
"I'm sorry, I offended you, I'll just go." Nepeta stood up, and started to turn around when Vriska suddenly shot up and tackled the shorter girl in a hug.
"NO! You didn't offend me, you just shocked me!" She laughed, releasing the smaller girl. "Your friend really thinks he can make me a new arm?"
"He's confident. Like I said, he just needs measurements to make it the right proportions for your body." Nepeta explained, relief crossing her face.
"Thank you so much!" Vriska was beaming.
"Is that a yes?"
"Duh!"
"Well then, I'll call Equius!"
A/N: I have a headcannon that Vriska acts like a total bitch, but has a soft spot for kids, so if you hate the scene with the little kid, that's where it came from...
