This one was even more difficult to write than the previous one, beyond "these two have never talked to each other" - with Tav/Fef, it was easy to write something cute because they're characters that lend themselves well to that kind of material. Equius and Terezi don't really have anything in common at all, so I had to engineer something that ignores the canon series of events entirely. But hey fanfiction does that all the time anyway so whatever. I also wanted to deal with the idea of temporary moirails, because Nepeta and Equius are just too great together to split up, but I didn't see Terezi and Eq in anything else.

Feel free to comment and critique!

The teal-blood intrigues you. She is a lady of contrasts.

She is not prim and proper like your mental image of a teal-blood is. She is a wrecking ball of energy, a diamond grin flashed at anyone she cares for and kept hidden from those she scorned. She laughs all too much. And her method of seeing is simply lewd and improper, although she cannot help it. Her opinions, too, are wrong – she cares not for the haemospectrum, and seems oddly fixated on that awful mutant colour, claiming it "tastes the best."

And on the opposing end, she is exactly everything a teal-blood should be. Her cane gives her a regal air, even though she doesn't need it. Her pursuit of the law is admirable, even when Alternia no longer exists to enforce it. And she refuses orders from that little upstart, a quality you wish you could borrow for even a little while.

An odd contrast indeed. And yet she seems to be a constant, a solid rock in these troubled times. Her cackle is a regular feature of the times when your shifts and hers align. Nothing seems to upset her – in fact, the humans have only seemed to spur her on to new, giddying heights. It angers Karkat so much that you wonder what their quadrants even are.

So when you hear her howl, slap Karkat away from her and bolt for the transportalizer, you are more distressed than you will admit. No-one seems to be keen on following her – Her Majesty is moirailizing with the mustard-blood, and the jade-blood is busy with the survival of your species. So you are the one to go after her, and the last thing you see before you leave is the candy-red bruise on his disbelieving face.

You find her, alone, sobbing uncontrollably at the edge of one of those damned floating platforms, blindly staring into the oblivion below.

You do the only thing you can think to do.

Mentally cursing yourself, silently begging your beloved Nepeta for forgiveness, you pull Terezi away from the edge as gently as you dare. Your grip must feel like a vice to her. You sit her down on the floor and shush her when her tears redouble themselves, and little by little it comes out, how she manipulated the Dave human through time, causing him to, in a sense, die, and how it was her fault.

You don't dismiss these concerns. That would make you a bad moirail. Instead, you tell her it was necessary. She had to show the Dave human the nature of the travels he took, how he risked himself every time he made a loop, and the importance behind the decision of going God Tier. You take her concerns and wrap them in reasoning and at the end of it, she's not crying anymore.

She looks at you, a shadow of her usual grin on her face, and says that you must have picked up a lot from Nepeta. Your gut twists in guilt, and you protest that no, this was merely a necessity, only temporary, and to suggest otherwise would be hugely improper, and –

She crawls over and licks your face. You stare at her blankly, almost in horror. When her expression screws up and she complains that you taste of ink and sweat, you can't stop the laughter for some reason, and neither can she.

The oddest part was that you liked it.

Sometime later, Nepeta told you that there was no such thing as pale infidelity, and you were never more relieved in your entire life.