(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

Comments

[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

[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

[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

[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?

[bloodyradia]

Sollux had gotten up, not long after Karkat had fled from his point pressed against the corner wall, and wandered down to what a lot of people in the precinct had affectionately taken to calling the Meat Locker. He meant, of course, the Morgue, where Aradia Megido could be found. He had lurked in the doorway in silence for a while and watched her bob around happily with a pair of blood-soaked latex gloves on her hands and a scalpel alternating between being in one hand and being held between her teeth. She had a habit of talking to her tiny recorder with the scalpel still in her teeth, grunting, and either setting it down and getting another one later, or holding it between two fingers while she continued to talk and prod at the deceased's body

[prodigypyrope]

By the time Terezi was done talking to Karkat, she had headed to the captain's office to inform him that she was going home; he was fine with it, unsurprisingly. Though today she wouldn't be getting a vanilla milkshake after lunch, but hey, what was that when she was apparently going out dancing? It was exciting, that was much she could not lie about; but unlike Karkat, she couldn't just round the corner, lean against the wall and drop to her knees like she might have wanted to (her legs sure seemed to want to give in). After all, she wouldn't know if anyone was watching

[bloodyradia]

"A little birdy told me there was something going on with you and Vantas," the Aries offered, the smile on her face evident in her speech. "I'd been downstairs all day, but Sollux came by to tell me that Karkat looked mighty flustered leaving your office not too long ago."

She stood straight, then, a little taller than Terezi, and clasped her arms behind her back, rocking back and forth from her toes to her heels. She was quiet for an agonizing six seconds before she twisted at the waist and gently seized Terezi's hand-- the one that wasn't occupied holding a cane.

"So? What's he done, what's going on? Why are you leaving early~?"

[prodigypyrope]

"Something is... What?" The good thing about having Aradia for a friend was that letting your guard down for a while Wasn't So Bad; either way she just had this thing where she just kind of knew stuff. Terezi always pegged her as someone who read people relatively well. So it really wasn't so bad when the Libra hesitated for a moment, eyebrows raising in a sort of surprise that was very rare to find in her panoply of expressions.

She didn't pull her hand away when she felt Aradia taking it in her own, but it might have taken her another full thirteen seconds to properly answer the question that hung in the air. First she smiled, but it soon morphed into one of her trademark grins. "I actually need your help with that." Then, she tilted her head slightly, lifting one hand up to half-cover her mouth as if she were about to tell an important secret.

(Which, let's be honest, wasn't so far from the truth.)

"I need shoes, Aradia. I'm going dancing."