Karkat's POV:
When Karkat and Nepeta arrived at the large, mansion-like house, they were greeted by Jane and her cousin, Jake. "Nepeta, Karkat, good to see you two!" Jane grinned and stepped forward to give them each an awkward one arm hug since she was cradling a large bowl of batter in the crook of her other arm.
"C'mon, Roxy's been waiting for you." Jake waved them in and told them where to put their jackets.
At first, Karkat expected to see only the Egberts and this mysterious "Roxy" that had invited them, based on the fact that they were still technically early, but when they got into the massive living room it turned out they were a tad bit tardier than originally planned.
There, lounging on the massive pieces of furniture sat a multitude of familiar faces and those of strangers. "Neppy!" one of the platinum blondes leapt to her feet and launched herself at the girl standing next Karkat, nearly giving him a heart-attack.
"Roxy!" Nepeta squealed back, holding out her free arm for a hug; her other arm still pinned her keyboard between her palm and her hip.
Karkat remembered vaguely being introduced to this girl but it must have been either been a very long time ago or when he was drunk because he barely recognized her. "Soo glad you could make it." She pulled away from Nepeta, flashing a Cheshire cat grin.
"I'm glad, too." Nepeta beamed back with just as much excitement.
"C'mon, I'll show you where you can set up your cool deely-bobs." The overzealous blonde lurched in the direction of another hallway, motioning her friend to follow.
"For the last time, it's just a keyboard!" Nepeta giggled. Karkat started to trail behind when his roommate turned around and held up a hand for him to stay. She glanced at the other guests who were just staring at them, apparently enjoying the show. Her hand was moved to the side of her mouth to block what she was mouthing out to him.
"Make some friends."
And just like that, she was gone.
Karkat turned to face the group of strange people. He recognized John, of course, and Jade. But other than that, he was kind of lost. There were three blondes left sitting there, all seeming pretty bored with him again, if they were ever interested before.
The first one that Karkat noticed was a fairly pretty girl who sat next to John. Her petite body was shrouded in a loosely fitting purple halter strap top and a two-sizes-too-big pair of grey shorts over some calf-length leggings. Her hair was cut into a stylish bob that framed her jawline perfectly, but that was pretty much all Karkat could see of her face before she buried her nose in the large black leather-bound book that hid pretty much her entire face.
One of the others was sitting next to her, his arms relaxing on the back of the couch.
His outfit wasn't much to write home about; a simple T-shirt and torn up jeans hung loosely around his very obviously muscular body. A pair of leather, fingerless gloves clung to his knuckles and a pair of pointy, anime-esque sunglasses resting squarely on his nose. His hair was slathered back from his face and up to a point in the back of his head. There were so many hair products used to do this anti-gravitational tick that Karkat could practically smell it from where he was standing a good eleven feet away. He must have noticed Karkat's stare situate on him because he lifted one of his hands to give a half-hearted little wave. Karkat awkwardly waved back.
Just as he was about to study the last blonde in the room he felt a great weight hit him squarely in the back with an enthusiastic "Karkles!"
Karkat would have recognized that familiar squeaky voice anywhere. "Terezi, what the fuck?!" he shouted, instinctively slinging his arms back to catch her legs on his hips. They'd done this whole charade many times over and by now he was used to her launching her entire weight onto his back, despite having outgrown him by an inch or two. Still, he almost toppled over onto the coffee table; he honestly wasn't expecting it.
He laughed at her, his voice losing all poison immediately. He carefully set her down and turned around for an answer.
"John, you are such a liar! I thought you said he wasn't coming!" she placed her hands on her hips, completely ignoring her middle school friend.
"But he told me he wasn't." John raised his hands innocently as Terezi strutted forward. She was known to be outstandingly strict when it came to punishing liars.
"Is this true, Karkles?" she turned her head over her shoulder to "look" at him with her glassy blue eyes.
"Yeah. I denied his oh-so-generous invitation earlier, but Nepeta's the one who talked me into coming." Karkat crossed his arms over his chest and left a tiny fraction of a smile on his lips as he watched his childhood friend.
When he shut everyone out, he shut everyone out, Terezi included. He still saw her occasionally; the few times she actually showed up to work and once or twice when they ran into each other on the street, but otherwise not a word had been spoken.
"Remind me to give her an extra-large 'Thank you' tonight. Dragging you out of that little burrow of an apartment must have been hell for her." She sauntered back up to Karkat and hugged him, receiving a tight squeeze in return. "I'm glad you're here though. It's good to. . ." she paused momentarily. "Aw, damn, being blind can really be difficult when trying to figure out correct terminology." She pulled away and giggled. "It's good to. . . smell you, I guess?" she wrinkled up her nose and laughed.
"Nah, that sounds weird." She decided. Karkat chuckled and shook his head, sending stray hairs flying into his face, but shit if he gave a fuck. It'd been a good seven months since he'd last allowed Kanaya to carefully trim his hair and by now it was all over the place. He'd quickly picked up the art of seeing through his bangs without being too bothered by them though so it was pretty easy for him to see his friend's goofy smiling face still.
"Hey, Terezi, is that the same shirt you were wearing when you got here?" Jade asked innocently. Terezi turned around to face the Egbert who sat snuggly between John and the arm rest of the couch.
"Nope!" she said proudly. "I hope you don't mind, I left my other one in the coat room. It felt too. . . Un-me." Terezi put simply.
Karkat rolled his eyes; half of the shirts Kanaya had forced her to buy felt "Un-her" yet she refused to get rid of them for some strange reason. He wondered silently which one it was that she changed out of while quickly evaluating her outfit. Her top was covered by a black shirt with teal sleeves that came down to just about her elbows. A bronze colored, knee-length layered skirt sat on her hips and her favorite pair of red converse flats lit up the outfit like a match.
In other words, she actually managed to pick out corresponding colors for once in her obliviously blind life.
"Ah, Terezi, glad to know you finally stopped hogging the bathroom." Jake's voice suddenly rang out from the hallway Karkat and Nepeta had entered from. Karkat startled from his relaxed position, bristling to the point of his shoulders hitching up an inch.
He hated being surprised.
Not only because of his natural reactions to them (which was to either freeze up, jump six feet into the air with a squeal or immediately smack the shit out of whatever had scared him) but also because it reminded him of. . . a certain bad experience he forced himself to repress years and years and years ago.
Karkat forced himself to calm down and to not drag that back up into his day to day thoughts.
"Well, it's not like you don't have a bazillion others throughout the house." Terezi rolled her eyes, a truly uncanny event to watch considering her pupils were almost indistinguishable from her iris, and placed her hands on her hips.
"Right, but it would have been nice of you to at least not stay in there for thirty minutes." Jake argued back. "There are other people here after all." He switched from his more serious voice to a joking and smiling one in a matter of seconds before he turned to Karkat
"Karkat, Jane said she'd like you to help her out in the kitchen. Something about coffee cakes, I think?" he sounded unsure of himself.
Karkat raised an eyebrow and was about to protest that he knew nothing about baking, despite working for a bakery, but Jake was already moving to sit by Spikey-Anime-shades guy, snuggling up rather closely while the blonde wrapped an arm around the Brit.
They were already starting to do that ridiculous coupley thing where they cuddled extra close and did nauseating things like kiss each other's cheeks or whisper little things in each other's ears. Karkat rolled his eyes and decided that he'd rather take his chances in the kitchen than out here. Just as he was turning to go though, he got a glimpse at the face of the last blonde who sat separate from the rest on a huge armchair. The boy's face had been turned in the brunette's direction for who knows how long.
Dark round shades.
Sleek, sturdy jawline.
Slender body.
Dave Strider.
Dave's POV:
He was here.
He was here, he was here, he was actually. Here. Holy shit.
Bakery Boy was standing in his best friend's living room for a party they would be attending together for the entire. Night.
Why that sent Dave's heart racing and made him struggle to keep his face from heating up was beyond him, though he had a sneaking suspicion. . .
He did a quick once over of Karkat from behind his shades and quickly noticed his muscular, fit body.
Shit, does he work out?
That had to be it, because what other explanation could account for his biceps, his tightly toned abdomen, not to mention the abs that were clearly visible through his incredibly tight shirt. Just, wow. Karkat looked good.
Dave pondered silently while Karkat scanned the room why he ever wore those oversized and heavy clothes all the time if he looked this good. It didn't make any sense to him; if you've got it, flaunt it.
Dave's heart nearly leapt into his throat when Karkat glanced at him before disappearing down the hallway to the kitchen. He bit the inside of his cheek, desperate to keep his cool intact.
"What's wrong, Dave?" Terezi asked innocently. She must have noticed his silence, somehow and was staring at him with those huge, creepily glassy eyes.
"N-nothing." Shit.
He stuttered.
Just behind Terezi, Dave watched Jade's eyes widen. Shit, shit, shit.
A smirk slowly curled onto her lips and her eyelids fell to half-mast.
Shit, shit, SHIT.
She glanced in the direction of the hallway quickly before returning to meet his gaze.
Jade winked at him.
Shitshitshitshitshitshitshitshit, fuck, NO!