Notes: Okay, I just want to say this chapter and I had a fight. Bitch stole my ice cream and refused work with me. I haven't really edited it, so please forgive any major mistakes. There was a lot I wanted to address in this chapter, but nothing was coming out right. And I'm just tired of fighting with it. So, I guess what I'm saying is, this chapter is shitty; don't expect anything great.

The teens had officially been living on the meteor for a year; well according to Rose and Kanaya. They had taken it upon themselves to start a sort of calendar, and now that everyone was settled and routines, living arrangements, food, water, entertainment, and so forth had become non-issues; the two girls decided it would be a good idea to start incorporating cultural events. That way the trolls could learn about humans and vice versa. It was once again April, at least, according to the human's calendar; this is usually a slow time for any of the big human holidays, however, when Kanaya had learned of Spring Dances she became enthralled with the idea of creating finery for everyone to where and dancing sounded just lovely. Rose had no objections; and Vriska, who had overheard the discussion was surprisingly for it. Something about finally getting a chance to show off her superior dance moves.

The boys were against it. Neither wanted to dress up and neither were big fans of group dancing of any kind. Dave, while he enjoyed ballet, was not a big fan of dancing in front of other people. Karkat being the only exception. No one else knew of his formal training and he preferred to keep it that way. Karkat, quite frankly, just didn't like it when he was forced to do anything. Vriska made it clear however, that attendance was mandatory, they didn't have many people as it was, so everyone (barring psychotic clowns) must attend. If they refused than she would happily…persuade them. Neither boy wanted to lose control of their mental faculties, so they were obliged the compulsory attendance requirement.

And there they were. Dave in a red suit, Karkat in a black and grey one, curtesy of Kanaya. They stood off to the side, trying fruitlessly to blend into the wall. Rose refused to let Dave DJ as she wanted him to truly participate; not hid behind his music. Why did they have to do this? It's so stupid. He doesn't want to be here, he doesn't want to dance. He wants to go to his room and play fucking Mario Kart with Karkat. Still, maybe he could get Rose alone and ask her some things about relationships with trolls and the whole quadrant system. He wanted to know if it was possible for trolls to develop romantic feelings while in the asexual quadrant. He could ask Karkat, but that would open up a box he wasn't ready to open. He would move as slowly as needed to ensure that his relationship with Karkat wasn't ruined.

"Yo, Strider, dance with me." Vriska had come up and interrupted his thoughts. "Sure." Not because he wanted to dance, but this would get out his obligation and then give him a chance to corner Rose; who was currently dancing with Kanaya. Vriska was wearing a cerulean, tea length, A-line dress. It was flattering to her figure, but did nothing for her personality. She was abrasive as always, Dave didn't really mind. He didn't hate Vriska or anything, she just wasn't his favorite person on the meteor.

"Wow, Strider you're a really smooth dancer!" Dave suppressed a blush, not because of her compliment, but because of the attention that it drew. Now the other four teenagers were looking at them. Vriska relished the attention, while Dave wanted nothing more than to be out of the room at that moment. Karkat now had his eyes trained on the pair, which only made things feel that much more intense for the knight of time.

Karkat couldn't help, but watch. Truth was he wanted to dance with Dave, he wanted Dave to take his hand and feel his grace. That was ridiculous, these, these feelings aren't reasonable. He's Dave's moirail, he should be happy, not…jealous. Fuck, he was jealous, his feelings were leaning red and he didn't know what to do. He needed to talk with Kanaya; she could help him through this. How do you handle red feelings for a human? The song ended and the boys grabbed the respective girl that they hoped to speak with.

Dave pulled Rose aside, thankfully Terezi and Vriska could entertain each other. It looks like they are trying to eat as much of the cotton candy laid out as they can. "Yes Dave?" Monotone as always, not that he was one to talk.

Speaking as quietly as he could he said, "Look, I was just wondering…how did you and Kanaya….um…." Fucking god damn it! Putting his questions into words was really hard. He really should have prepared the thought in his head first.

Surprisingly Rose was able to infer his meaning from the limited information; and she was a little surprised. "You mean you guys aren't together?"

"Well, according to Karkat we're in some quadrant thingy, moirails, I think?"

"And you want something more?"

Dave nodded "Yeah, it took me a while to figure it out, cause you know, I hadn't really thought much about that sort of stuff before. It wasn't really something that needed figuring out, but now….I don't know, I think I love him, but I just…"

"It's okay to be gay Dave."

"I fucking know that, I just, this shit … and Jade at one point…gah…I feel really confused." And the truth is he was, he had spent some time researching, but nothing he found fit his situation. Was he pansexual? Bi? One of the other 1000 different titles for sexuality out there? Nothing he was experiencing was normal and not being able to define it, nothing to ground him was surprisingly distressing. Like, was he just some freak?

Rose calmly took a sip of her punch. "It's okay Dave, forget about labels for a second, try to forget about anything our culture ever taught us about sexuality and answer my questions."

"Okay."

"Do you hold affection for Karkat, romantic or otherwise?"

"…Yeah" It was true he wanted nothing more than to put a smile on Karkat's face and keep him happy and safe and every other positive emotion there is.

"Okay, …do you think anything romantic towards Karkat? They don't necessarily have to be sexual in nature, but cuddling with him, holding hands, etc?"

"Yeah, but isn't that a moirail thing? I mean, if it's not sexual in nature?"

"Let me finish my questions, and remember I said forget labels. Finally, do you want something more from the relationship? Tenderness? Kissing? A higher level of romance?"

"Yes." When she put it like that it was so simple. He wanted more than what he had, he already knew that. So…why did he have to put a label on it? Labels suck. Fuck labels. How did he get so swept up in that shit. No human can fit inside a fucking box. And nothing in his life so far had been typical, so what difference does it make? Still, that didn't solve his dilemma.

"Well then that's all you need to know."

"Wait, that's great and everything, and I appreciate the talk, but what about Karkat?"

"What about him?"

"Like, he seems really attached to the whole pale relationship thing. I really don't want to fuck this up. I….I really DO want a relationship, a romantic one…our idea of romantic, but if he doesn't want that I don't want to lose what we have."

"Well, according to Kanaya, it's not completely uncommon for trolls to move between quadrants. Typically it's vacillation between pitch and flushed quadrants, but I'm sure it's happened between pale and flushed quadrants as well. Hmmm….I'll be honest with you Dave, I think regardless of what you do, you will risk losing what you have. Try to get Karkat's take on things; maybe you can get where he stands on your relationship. Look."

Dave turned to see Karkat talking with Kanaya, he couldn't tell what they were talking about, but Karkat seemed to be pretty emphatic, while Kanaya was mostly nodding her head.

Karkat pulled Kanaya aside. "Hey Kanaya, I need some advice on human relationships."

"Are things not going well with Dave?"

"No, that not it, well, not completely anyway. We're fine in the pale quadrants, things are great, it's just…."

"You've developed red feelings?"

"Yeah, and, I don't know. I think Dave may feel the same way, but humans seem to have some sort of different system for relationships? And I don't know if it would be something Dave would be open to."

"Well, from what I've gathered, humans like to label sexuality in terms of gender and attraction to gender. It's primarily portrayed as a binary system, but just before their world ended other views were coming into the light. However, even Rose seemed to have a very fixed view of sexuality, that is completely unlike ours. We view sexuality as fluid, meaning that we don't necessarily attach a label in regard to ourselves, we are allow movement through our preferences."
"You mean humans don't?"
"From what I could gather, no, most don't. They affix a label to themselves, like 'gay', 'straight', 'pan', or 'asexual'; among others, and assume they will be that way for the rest of their lives. This makes it very hard for them to come to terms with feelings that may not align with the label they identify with."

"So, Dave may not be able to accept my feelings? Or if he has feelings he may not be able to accept them himself?"
"Yes, however, I think it would still be worth a try to see how attached he is to his label; if he has chosen one yet. He wasn't opposed to you calling him your moirail, right?"

"No, he seemed fine with it."

"Even after you explained that in our culture it has romantic overtones?"

"Yeah, he didn't seem to care."
"Then I think it would be worth it to talk to him and see his perspective. Don't give up hope; Dave was rather young by cultural standards, he may be more open to undefined sexuality than most of his culture."

"Yeah, I should talk with him. Thanks Kanaya."