Nepeta didn't know what to do. After pacing around in her room for a bit, she decided to wander the asteroid aimlessly. Maybe she would find Equius. She just needed someone to talk to. So she forced herself to brush her hair and look presentable, and walked through the hallways, looking for her friends. She hadn't seen Feferi recently, or Kanaya, for that matter. Aradia used to be a reasonably good friend, but the robots just creeped Nepeta out.
Finding herself in the large transportalizer chamber, Nepeta chose the pad that lead near Kanaya's room. After the unpleasant sensation of transportalizing, she had to lean against a wall for a few second to catch her breath. After recovering, Nepeta raised her hand to knock on Kanaya's door, but just before her knuckles even made contact with the wood, the door swung open. Nepeta started, causing the jade blood on the other side of the threshold to regard her quizzically.
"Hello, dear," Kanaya greeted. "You seem a bit jumpy. I thought I heard the transportalizer. Care to join us?" Kanaya opened the door wider and gestured inside. Nepeta peeked around the doorframe to see Feferi and Vriska sitting on plush pillows, gathered around a small table and sipping from teacups.
"Oh, sure! If it's not too much of a problem. Thanks, Kanaya," Nepeta smiled, and stepped inside. Kanaya closed the door behind her and retrieved an extra pillow for Nepeta to sit on.
Once all four girls were seated around the table and Nepeta had poured herself a steaming cup of tea, Feferi spoke up. "How are you, Nepeta? Gosh, I haven't seen you in way too long!"
Nepeta nodded earnestly. "Yeah, it's great to see you all. I should really get out more."
Kanaya delicately raised her teacup and took a ladylike sip. "I should say so," she cut in. "You and Equius spend more time than is healthy locked up in your cramped apartment."
"Kanaya's right! It's important to get fresh air every once in a while!" Feferi added cheerily. "That's why we dragged Vriska over here for tea!"
"Yes, and I'm having sooooooo much fuuuuuuuun," Vriska drawled sarcastically, chomping dejectedly on a biscuit. Feferi slapped her playfully on the shoulder, Kanaya rolled her eyes, and Nepeta giggled.
As the lighthearted discourse continued, Nepeta found herself drifting away from the conversation and losing herself in thought, as she was wont to do. She was jolted back to reality as Vriska snapped her robotic fingers in front of her eyes.
"Yo, Leijon, what's up?" Vriska squinted suspiciously at Nepeta. "You're all out of it."
Nepeta shook her head quickly. "Nah, I'm fine," she assured her friends, who were all looking at her now. "I just spaced out a bit, is all. So, Kanaya, how have your designs been going since we got here? Is it hard to find fabric?" Nepeta grasped at a completely transparent change of topic.
"They're fine, thanks for asking," Kanaya responded coolly. "But Vriska is right. What's going on?"
Feferi gave Kanaya a look. "Don't push it," she whispered. Nepeta glanced back and forth between the three girls as all of them turned to give her a guilty look.
"We're…sympathetic, Nepeta," Kanaya began, seemingly searching for the correct words. "The entire asteroid knows about Karkat and Terezi. And, we're sorry about the hurt you must be going through."
Nepeta had almost – almost – forgotten about that in all of her musings regarding Gamzee. She blinked, confused, and remained quiet for a second too long before saying, "Oh, no, I'm kind of…um…over him, I guess."
Feferi, Kanaya, and Vriska stared at Nepeta, mouths gaping. Nepeta was somewhat surprised. Their reactions made her wonder just how many people knew she had been in love with Karkat. Had everyoneknown?
Did Karkat? Nepeta wondered.
After a minute, Feferi cleared her throat. "Um, why?"
"I guess I just finally realized he wasn't good for me," Nepeta said quietly, feeling self-conscious and uncomfortable about sharing too much information about something so private. Equius would be appalled.
Vriska was the first to recover. "Well, that's fantastic, Leijon!" she piped up, raising her teacup. "Here's to getting over crabby nooksuckers!" Nepeta giggled, and clinked her cup against Vriska's. Feferi followed suit enthusiastically, sloshing a little tea onto the tablecloth. Kanaya grimaced, no doubt ill at ease due to toasting to such an uncultured statement, but she joined in for Nepeta's sake.
"Sooooooo," Vriska asked a few minutes later. "If you're over that old shitsponge, what's got you down?" Feferi and Kanaya snapped their heads up to observe her intently. Nepeta was beginning to feel like half of this tea party was just the other three trolls staring at her. She shifted uncomfortably.
"There's, um. Another troll. Who I think might feel flushed for me, and I apparently might feel red for them, even though I didn't know that in the first place, but my hand told me on my wall, and now I don't know what to do about that." Her friends looked at her strangely. Rewording her phrasing, Nepeta said, "There's another troll who might like me and I think I might like them, but I'm not sure." Nepeta's friends nodded in understanding. Nepeta saw Kanaya glance over at Vriska oddly, but she wasn't sure what that was about.
Feferi spoke first, while daintily adding a cube of sugar to her teacup. "Well, you should always follow your heart, of course! If you're ever sure that you like this troll, you should definitely go for it!" Vriska and Kanaya nodded their agreement. Reassured that all would be well in due time, Nepeta was able to relax, and spend some quality time with her friends. Being on the asteroid actually made it easier to drift apart, somehow, and Nepeta couldn't let that happen.
Two hours later, Kanaya started suddenly. "Oh, my, we've been talking forever! I'm sorry girls, but I simply must get to work! The Aradiabots asked me to make some nametags or some other form of identifier so we can tell them apart. However, we should do this again soon!" Nepeta, Feferi, and Vriska agreed, and Kanaya gently but hastily ushered them out of the room.
Once outside, the three trolls said their goodbyes and went their separate ways. Being the last to transportalize, Nepeta looked back at Kanaya's door. She shook her head absentmindedly, writing a mental note that friends were what were really important, and she couldn't let her possible feelings for Gamzee get in the way of staying close with the other trolls.
Feeling warm and fuzzy on the inside, Nepeta went on her way.