(Untitled)

[carcinology]

He had been avoiding her for long enough now that even Aradia had noticed. She had tried to pull him aside, to talk to him, with those huge maroon eyes of hers and that concerned pout when he brushed past her. He was a bundle of nerves and tense energy, and he just sort of couldn't stop moving. Even Sollux seemed vaguely concerned, which irritated

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[prodigypyrope]

Trying not to make a big deal out of this had become increasingly difficult.

Of course she had noticed; she was blind, but she certainly wasn't stupid. On the one hand, she had no idea what could be causing this - why he was distancing himself all of a sudden - and to add to some twisted sense of misfortune, her seemingly endless patience was beginning to wear off. If he wasn't going to talk to her, she would want to know why; after all they were partners, were they not?
Pfft.
Some partnership.

She was all alone in the office at the moment, going through some records of Strider's, expecting to pick one at random to listen to and maybe focus on... Something. Anything to keep her busy.
She picked up two of the records and set them on the permanently messy desk; there was the distinct sound of a piece of chalk rolling onto the floor. It was yellow, that as much she knew; the yellow chalk was on the side of the desk that it had rolled out from. She could pick it up right then, but it didn't matter. Not when there was yet another distinct sound that made her ears perk up: between setting the objects on the desk and acknowledging the piece of drawing chalk hitting the floor, there were footsteps somewhere outside - footsteps that she had grown to recognize just as well over time.

She smirked, an expression which remained when Karkat finally spoke up. There was something... off, but she could act like it was nothing.

"Hello to you too, grumpynubs. Is everything ok?"

[carcinology]

"Fuck you they aren't nubs," he spat back reflexively, and then mentally kicked himself. Swearing at her and getting ornery wasn't going to get this accomplished. He swallowed around the lump forming in his throat, worrying at his lip for a moment with his slightly-rounded fangs. "You care if I come in?" He asked, but stepped into the office anyway. She never cared if he came in, and if she did she was usually blaring some of that obnoxious Strider kid's music which was more than enough of a deterrent.

She had two of his records out on her desk, which may not have necessarily been a good sign, and for a moment he second-guessed himself almost to the point of backpedaling out of the office, but convinced himself to stay put.

"Everything's fine," he offered belatedly, trying to ease around the words like he would have if everything were fine. But everything wasn't fine, and he was nervous, and his voice was probably faintly strained but nothing was faint in sound or smell with Terezi, it was all glaringly obvious and why had he thought this was a good idea again? He cleared his throat. "I, uh. Have a proposition for you."

[prodigypyrope]

She didn't quite respond to his somewhat brash statement and simple laughed, waving her hand in a dismissing manner with a nonchalant "sure, sure" thrown in. They didn't have to argue that; she would forever call them nubs and he would forever tell her not to, or at least that was sort of how it would probably go. She didn't even have to respond to his question; first off, no, she didn't mind if he came into the office; his company was generally better than no company. Well. Then again his company was better than a lot of people's company but let's not get into that.

Something really was off and Karkat wasn't being such a good liar about it; she could hear it in his tone, but she didn't quite find that alarming, at least not yet - and her smirk didn't falter for a second as she set her elbows on the table and leaned over, as if to give the impression that he had his full attention. Terezi didn't exactly want to make it seem like she was making fun of him, but there was no harm in joking around a bit. Besides, he did seem serious enough that she thought turning her back to him or something would be kind of a Bad Thing.

"Ohh, a proposition? Please elaborate."

[carcinology]

"Okay so it's more like an informative statement," he corrected after a moment, still tense and still guarded in his tone. He was opening and closing his hands into loose fists, and had started shifting his weight from one foot to the other in an idle gesture. He wasn't sure what he wanted to think of her leaning forward on the desk. She was grinning like she always did, but that could always mean she'd noticed he was acting funny and was just grinning to make him squirm (it was working). Or maybe she just hadn't noticed.

Unlikely, but let's stick with that.

He closed his eyes over again and went over how he had recited this a few hundred times in his head. Terezi, we should go dancing. Or maybe Terezi, do you wanna go dancing sometime?. He wasn't even sure why he had let Droog talk him into this, he wasn't a dancer. So he just burst out with it, sick of keeping it rolling around in his head and instantly regretting the way he said it.

"I'm taking you dancing tonight!"

...Oh God, had he squeaked when he said that?

[prodigypyrope]

Her look faltered. The corner of her lips twitched and, almost in slow-motion, her smirk was wiped off her face, replaced by a thin, tense line as she was suddenly reminded of something. It was something petty, a glimpse of a past event and the faint memory of having mentioned her interest in dancing to her partner.
Now the fact that he had brought up in such a seemingly determined manner had caught her off-guard; she didn't like that one bit, yet she couldn't bring herself to be upset about that. There was that little bit of anxiety all of a sudden - the good kind, if you please - that she immediately pushed away in favor of forcing a toothy grin and her trademark laugh.

"Aahah, what?" She leaned back in the chair now, tapping one of the records idly. She was perfectly calm, just surprised - but she was able to mask that decently enough to treat this as any other discussion.

Note to self; ask for the rest of the day off, bring Aradia along.

"This is all so sudden, but you sound so cute when you're anxious, did you know?" She paused, the forced smile morphing into something far more sincere, but no less irritating. "Name the time and place. You'll be picking me up."

[carcinology]

The amount of times he had been happy she couldn't see had increased again, because his face had gone scarlet all the way to his ears and he had gone ramrod-straight and pursed his lips together, and probably was fairly adorable. A full sort of horrified shudder ran from his toes to his hairline and back down, and he sighed inaudibly (but everything was audible to Terezi's ears) and relaxed a little.

Okay, she hadn't flipped out. She... maybe even seemed a little excited? Maybe. He couldn't fucking tell through those goddamn glasses of hers. He afforded her a very slight smile.

"I can get you at your place at seven-thirty," he offered, his voice a bit more steady this time. "It's, ahm... fancy."

[prodigypyrope]

"That's fine." She nodded, on both accounts. She would really have to get Aradia's help on this one; did she even own anything fancy? Well... Well yes, she did. But she... She wasn't used to looking fancy? It had always been something of a strange notion to her, even when she was younger.

She stood up then, grabbing the records so that she could set them next to the other ones and then her cane as she circled the desk, heading towards the door. "I don't know who else is going, if they are, but you better not chicken out. I have work to do now, but I'll see you later- err. Smell." She laughed. "Don't keep me waiting, grumpynubs."

[carcinology]

At some point between her agreement to meet at seven-thirty and her getting up, Karkat had turned into a teenage boy again. He didn't laugh, and his smile faded, but his entire body teemed with the excitement of a child and he had to physically try to not vibrate in place.

"Bite me, Pyrope, I'm not going to demand you go somewhere with me and then leave you hanging." He rolled his eyes and followed her out the door, turning the opposite way down the hallway. "You had better be ready right at seven-thirty!!"

Rounding the corner, he stopped and pressed himself bodily against the wall, his eyes closed and his breath held. Oh God oh God oh God oh God. Had that really just happened? Had he actually just-- vnbdsjkfdhtfnfg.

He failed to notice Sollux grinning at him from across the room.