Nepeta roamed the air vents, pausing at various grates to peer inside their rooms. She heard some noises up ahead, and went to investigate. Looking through the bars into what she now saw was Terezi's room, her eyes widened at what she saw: Terezi and her love Karkat, intertwined on the couch and kissing passionately. Nepeta fell back against the cold, unforgiving walls of the air vent, gasping as fat tears welled up in her eyes and her heart hurt so bad she wanted to die…

…but instead, she woke up.

Nepeta rocketed out of bed, throwing the covers to the side and barely wincing as her bare feet hit the floor with a hard smack. Once standing, she didn't know what to do, and stood there frozen for a long time.

She mulled over what she had dreamt and collapsed back on her bed, her body now shaking. The pain in her chest that had decreased into a constant, dull ache was back, and as poignant as ever. All Nepeta really wanted was a saucer of warm, comforting milk, but there was none on the godforsaken asteroid, because Equius had wasted it all by breaking glass after glass.

Suddenly filled with a tempting wanderlust, Nepeta grabbed her blue hat and tiptoed out the door and into the hallway. It was dark, and Nepeta felt a little scared, so she ducked into the air vents and crawled along. She couldn't help it; she felt herself heading in the direction of Terezi's room.

In the dark, it was a little hard to see, but after blinking forcefully once or twice, Nepeta could make out the form of Terezi sleeping soundly in her bed, alone. Nepeta breathed the sigh of relief she had been holding since she woke up, and continued on her way.

She had conflicting feelings about Terezi. Because of her relationship with Karkat, Nepeta half wanted to hate Terezi. But she found it hard to do so, because after all, Terezi was her friend. And on top of that, Terezi didn't know how Nepeta felt about Karkat. Her actions were, essentially, blameless. Often, Nepeta wondered what would happen if she told Terezi what she was going through. But she knew she could never put Terezi in such a compromising position, no matter how much it hurt.

After a while, Nepeta found herself at her second destination. Peering through the gate, what she saw took her breath away, as it did every time. Karkat Vantas.

He was asleep in his bed, just like Terezi. Nepeta wondered if they were dreaming of each other, but quickly pushed the unpleasant thought away.

Nepeta watched him for a while, monitoring the rise and fall of his chest. He was dead asleep. Quietly, she removed the grate from the wall and placed it on the floor of the air vent. The almost silent clink of metal on metal did not stir the sleeping troll.

Feeling guilty and scared but pushed on by a penetrating sense of longing, Nepeta slunk into Karkat's room and slowly inched her way up to his bed, still-bare feet padding across the deep red carpet. When she was just a foot away, she stopped. From here, she could see the details. The slope of his nose, the angle of his horns, the tone of his skin. But something was different. Was it the darkness? No. His hair, mussed by the pillow? No. Then it hit her. Karkat wasn't frowning.

His eyebrows rested lightly above his eyes, almost as if they were floating. He was so innocent this way, so pure. How Nepeta yearned to crawl into bed alongside him, touch her nose to his, trace the outline of his chin, embrace him, and have him love her back.

So filled with these fantasies, her guard dropped, and she failed to notice his breathing grow irregular until it was too late. All she could do was take a step back and watch the transformation.

The peaceful look on Karkat's face disappeared as his eyebrows snapped back into a frown, and when his eyes opened, they focused on her form almost immediately, despite the prevalent darkness. Karkat was out of bed in a flash, and flicked his lamp on.

In the dim lighting, Nepeta noticed a curve of metal in Karkat's right hand, and suppressed a smile. He sleeps with his sickle? she thought. He was so prepared and poised to strike, even just emerging from the precipice of sleep. Nepeta fought the urge to cuddle the anger and fear right out of him.

Karkat recovered from the shock quickly, and dropped the sickle back on the bed, but the anger stayed on his face. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" he exclaimed loudly. Unfortunately, this was around the time Nepeta noticed he wasn't wearing a shirt, so she had some difficulty forming a cohesive sentence.

"Um."

"WHY ARE YOU IN MY ROOM?" Karkat continued. "GET OUT!" It occurred to Nepeta, very slowly, that he wasn't being very polite. Frozen to the spot, Nepeta made no move to follow Karkat's orders. Seeing this, Karkat lunged forward and grabbed her by the wrist. Surprised, Nepeta lost her footing and tumbled backwards. Karkat let her go, and she fell to the floor, hitting her head on the wall.

"NEPETA, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?" he roared. Now slightly frightened, Nepeta eased her claws out just a bit.

"OH, THAT'S CUTE," Karkat yelled, and began to mimic her with a slightly higher voice. "LOOK AT ME! I'M NEPETA LEJION, AND I'M PAAAAAWSITIVELY ADORABLE! SO DON'T MIND ME WHEN I SNEAK THROUGH THE AIRVENTS AND CREEP INTO YOUR ROOM AT FUCKING MIDNIGHT!"

Nepeta pushed herself up and slowly approached Karkat, shaking slightly. "Karkat, listen…"

"NO, YOU FUCKING LISTEN TO ME!" Karkat cut her off, grabbing her by the shoulders and yelling directly into her face. "I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE PLAYING AT, BUT LEAVE ME OUT OF IT, YOU AUTISTIC CAT-TROLL!"

This close, Nepeta could examine his eyes. What she saw there drowned her in sadness. She had considered this before, but not really, because she didn't want to believe it. But Karkat's eyes confirmed her theory beyond a shadow of a doubt. Hatred for the world, yourself, and everyone else that intense was a hatred that could never be cured.

And Nepeta couldn't live with that.