Annie Writes

In which Annie dumps all her writing uwu

[arabellaxahrimi]

It was only after I finished locking my door and turned around that I noticed there was somebody on my couch, making me freeze.

From the languid pose to the shock of purple on their head, it was not hard to tell that it was Minho, Hanji’s roommate. But that only answered a single question out of the many that circled my frantic mind.

“What are you doing in here?” I asked flatly at last. He looked up from the screen of his cellphone, the brief intensity of his gaze making something within me flip strangely.

“Visiting,” he replied with just as much affectation.

“…Why?”

A valid question in my opinion, considering we barely even knew each other, rarely even seeing each other outside of the few times the whole floor would hang out at Chris and Felix’s apartment.

He shrugged nonchalantly, briefly looking back at the cellphone in his hand before powering it off and placing it on the end table closest to him.

A short sigh escaped me at the deliberate non-answer, a hand reaching up to nervously smooth my hair. “Fine, be that way,” I could barely keep the edge out of my voice, “How did you get in here, then?”

He took a moment to stretch, during which I felt my patience beginning to slip away from me. Surely he couldn’t be so dense as to not realize I was on edge in this situation?

At last, he raised himself off my couch, and began to approach. I tensed, my grip on the bag of groceries tightening; if he got within reach, I was definitely going to try to hit him with it.

But he stopped just outside of reach; he looked at the bag and then back up at me, the ghost of a smirk crossing his face briefly before he extended his left hand towards me, which held–

“My guest key card?” My eyes widened at the sight of it. “But– I thought I left that with Hyunjin?”

The boy in question had wanted to do a drawing or something of the view from my apartment, and I found no issue with that request, so I gave him the guest key so that he could come in and complete the task even if I wasn’t home. So how in the world did it get into Minho’s hands?

Apparently my line of questioning was amusing, as Minho immediately began to chuckle; what got to me in that moment was how completely his expression changed, from the second worst case of RBF on this floor to one of the sweetest smiles I had ever seen.

“That explains why I found it in the hallway.”

“Eh?!”

He extended his hand a bit more, and I took the card from him without thought. “Hyunjin-ah has trouble keeping things with him sometimes,” he said, amusement still evident in his face and tone.

“Geez, good to know,” I muttered, absentmindedly checking the card for any issues that would make further use difficult. Finding none, I looked back up to be immediately struck again by the sweet expression on Minho’s face. But I quickly regained my composure. “What?”

“Ah, nothing,” He shook his head, and I didn’t have the nerve to press further into why he seemed to be staring at me. But there was still something to question.

“Okay, so, thanks for getting this back to me but like… Why break into my apartment to do that??”

“Well, you weren’t home,” he started, expression sincere, “And I had no idea when you’d be back, but if I didn’t return this asap I’d forget about it.”

“So, you just let yourself in,” I said slowly, “so you could give me my key card as soon as I got home.” He nodded. “Well, I can’’t exactly fault that logic, I guess,” I muttered begrudgingly, bringing a somewhat mischievous glint to Minho’s eyes. “You didn’t mess with any of my stuff, right?”

“Of course not!” Minho said with faux indignance, “What kind of guest would do that?”

“Well you are hardly a guest, my good sir,” I stated dryly, though I could hardly keep a slight smile from coming to my face.

“I used the guest key card though,” he said, his already big eyes widening innocently, “Doesn’t that make me a guest by default?”

I caved, a snicker finally escaping me. “Whatever you say,” I managed to get through my building laughter, “Just go home already.”

[arabellaxahrimi]

“Are you ever going to actually practice guitar, Yoongi?”

The question came out unbidden at the sight of the dusty case in the corner of Yoongi’s room.

It was apparently enough to draw his attention away from his studio, as Yoongi turned to look at me as if I’d grown two heads.

“I do practice the guitar.”

I let out a questioning hum, absentmindedly pulling my legs onto the bed properly. “Then how come I never hear it?”

“Noona, the walls here are soundproof.”

That made me widen my eyes. “Oh shit, are they actually?”

His expression shifted to something fond, melting my heart instantly. “Yes, they are.”

It took only a split second for me to compose myself. Outwardly, at least, cuz I was still dying on the inside.

“Well fuck. Guess that means you owe me a performance, sir.“

[arabellaxahrimi]

“Hey Namjoon, do you have any recommendations?”

The man in question lifted his head from the book he was reading as I approached his table and blinked a couple times.

“Recommendations?”

I smiled, feeling a little sheepish. “Yeah. It’s just that, you seem so well read, and that book I picked up when we first met was pretty good, so… I dunno, I kinda wanna pick your brain a bit, I guess.”

Namjoon quietly slipped a bookmark into his current book, a serious expression settling over his features. I hoped it meant he was thinking of something for me and not thinking negatively about me.

I promptly hit the anxious thought on the head and shooed it away. Stupid mental illness.

“Have you read 1984?”

I held back the urge to roll my eyes, but let out a sigh. “Yeah. It was required reading back home. It made me so mad, narratively speaking.”

He chuckled. “I believe that was at least one response it intended to elicit.”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t doubt it, due to the subject matter. Got anything else?”

He made a thoughtful sound, gently tapping a finger against the spine of his book. “Maybe. Let me see if it’s in the system, first.”

He got up from his seat, and the familiar feeling of being towered over came over me again. Why did he have to be so fricking tall?

I promptly moved out of his way as he started heading towards the computers, and I followed curiously.

It didn’t take him long to find what he was looking for, evidenced by the smile that spread across his face after tapping away for a couple seconds. “They do have it. Good.” He turned to face me, leaving me momentarily stunned as I hadn’t expected it. “Let’s go get it, then.”

I found myself nodding, feeling sheepish again. I hadn’t expected that he would go so out of his way when I had asked him for a recommendation. I just thought he’d like, I dunno, write down the title and author on a slip of paper or something.

Never would I have guessed that he’d lead me into the stacks and put his recommendation directly in my hands.

It was a paperback. Maybe, 200 or so pages? “Into the Magic Shop…“ I found myself saying the title aloud, before immediately turning the book over to read the summary on the back.

Ah… A male protagonist. Oof.

I persisted, however. But perhaps my face betrayed my hesitance, as when I finally looked up from the book in my hands, Namjoon’s expression was a bit more somber.

“You don’t like it?”

Guilt hit me like a truck, and I immediately shook my head, desperate to not hurt his feelings.

“No, no it’s not that I don’t like it! It’s just that… I have rarely read things I enjoyed that had a male protagonist.”

He looked down at those words, away from me. Without thinking, I reached out and took hold of the sleeve of his jacket. It was enough to have him look back at me, surprise evident on his features. “But, since you’re recommending this to me, it must be good.“ I gave him a smile which I hoped didn’t betray my sheepishness. “I trust your judgement, Namjoon.”

The silence that followed felt like forever. But at last, Namjoon smiled, and gently placed his free hand on mine, making my heart leap and face warm.

“Thank you for trusting me.”

Now it was my turn to look away, my composure just barely hanging on as I tried to rebuild it. “O-of course. I mean, I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t.“

He chuckled. “Right.”

I finally managed to look back up at him, and the smile on his face almost destroyed me. But it didn’t, so I was just barely able to speak again. “Can… Can I have my hand back please?”

[arabellaxahrimi]

“Are we actually doing a new production this year?”

“That’s what the director told me.”

I let out a whistle, running a hand over the top of my head as I stared sightlessly at the wall. “That… That hasn’t happened in ages.”

Seokjin chuckled. “You don’t sound excited at all.”

I gave him a look that made him laugh again. He was definitely just teasing but, “Seokjin, I haven’t had to make or come up with brand new costumes in at least two years, this is going to suck.”

“I don’t think you’ll have to worry too much, noona.”

I narrowed my eyes at his conspiratorial tone, but instead of elaborating he just gave me a cheeky smile, his eyes glittering.

“…Alright. If you say so.” I eventually said, a sigh quickly following. “Anyway, I guess I’ll have to look over my notes. Depending on how recently they’ve been updated, I might have to take measurements again.” I was mostly musing to myself, looking back at the wall.

“Oooh, you haven’t done that in a while.”

“Yeahhh.” I paused and then looked up. “Not counting the newbies, at least. But the regulars… Haven’t taken their measurements since Romeo and Juliet a couple years ago.”

Seokjin took a sip of his iced coffee, looking thoughtful. “What about all the measurements you took afterward?”

I let out an awkward laugh, looking down at the table. “Those… Those I just jotted down on stickies and lost after I made the adjustments.”

He laughed at that, and I couldn’t blame him for it, so I just let him do so while I took a few sips of my own iced coffee.

Eventually he calmed down enough to speak. “Well, just let me know if you need me, I’ll drop everything and come running.”

It was hard to take him seriously since he still had remnants of laughter in his voice and on his face, but I refrained from rolling my eyes at least. “Of course, of course. But I swear, if your shoulders have gotten any broader since the last time, I’ll kill you.” I smiled to signify that I was joking, but it seemed unnecessary since Seokjin immediately fell into laughter again. And this time I joined in.

[blueinkonlinedpaper]

Written 2/8/20 - stream of consciousness

One day, Gin tells Atsuko about how Dazai saved them. And mentions how he trained her brother. And Atsuko just. 8| Nopes out if there, and immediately goes to find her friend because Ahe Has Words to share with him.

She goes to the Agency and finds Atsuhi, and he takes one look at her face knows something is up because she has legit never been that angry since he's known her. He points her downstairs, and it is there that she finds Dazai.

She drags him outside, and calmly asks about what Gin told her. There's an edge to her voice that he has never heard before, and briefly he wonders what has her like this.

Once he affirms the story though, he realizes, cuz she immediately starts berating him intensely, with a fire in her eyes he had never seen before and she's shaking with indignation. How could you treat Ryunosuke like that?! He was a boy! He didn't need to be strong, he needed to be SAFE! HE WAS A CHILD!

He's stupefied, which he was not used to feeling. She wipes angry tears from her eyes, and pokes him in the chest, hard. "You need to make this right, Osamu," she uses his first name with that edge and he almost feels ashamed. "Soon. You better not visit Yume until you fix this."

And she leaves, still shaking and holding back tears and angry. He watches her leave, bewildered at first, but then he settles into thought.

Atsuko was not easily angered; annoyed, yes, but she was rarely actually angry. She was also one of the few people who could almost see through him; she rarely put up with his bullshit on the days where his mind was dark.

And it was no secret how she felt about his former pupil. That likely fed her anger in this instance.

He returned to the cafe silent, and spent the rest of the work day thinking about his next course of action.

It was not very much in his nature to speak to people plainly. He favored the cryptic sort of speech that others look back on and go "Ohhh that's what he meant"

He left the Port Mafia, and left Akutagawa to fend for himself, after teaching him to be a monster. Part of him twisted at the realization; how had he never noticed? Why did it have to take an outsider standing up to him for even think about the damage he had done to somebody only two years younger than himself.

He would have to talk to him properly now, wouldn't he? He couldn't go on without being able to visit Yume... Or rather, seeing the waitress there, and teasing her to the point of blushing. His heart twisted this time; his pupil was very lucky indeed, to have that girl on his side.

[andaranati-shan]

Returning from her trip to the Hinterlands, Amalla found herself passing by the tavern. In her rush to report to Cassandra and the others, a familiar sound caught her attention, and she stopped just outside the side door of the building. Listening.

It was so familiar. But…

She slowly stepped through the door into the tavern, barely taking note of the people buzzing within. That music. She knew that melody. But the words were in Common. It sounded wrong.

She stared at the bard at the other end of the building, squinting under the strain of remembering. The memory was on the tip of her tongue. She finally closed her eyes, and hummed along with the familiar music. Then, like a waterfall, the memory returned, and she was singing along quietly to herself, in the Elven that she knew.

The song ended, and she opened her eyes to look at the bard. The human looked away from her when their eyes met, and she seemed embarrassed even as she moved on to the next song.

Amalla let out a quiet hum, uncrossed her arms, and exited the tavern. She would talk to the shem later; she still had to report to the others.

[blueinkonlinedpaper]

It was chaos for a while, settling into the girls' place. A lot was going on, between the Dreemur's issues and figuring out where everybody would be staying. But it all got figured in the end, and soon enough everyone had settled into a routine.

Most days, it was only him and Annie left at home once everybody went off. It was hard for him to function sometimes, fearing that the next time he woke up everything would be reset.

Annie tried really hard to help, whether it was cleaning up or making him something to get his mind off things. She used to hang out with him whenever there wasn't anything to do, but it became more infrequent as time went on.

Before he knew it, she had stopped hanging out with him. Sure, she'd say hi, smile, wave, talk. But it was never for very long; she always left with some excuse.

He started watching her whenever she didn't know he was around. There was something wrong, and he wanted to get to the bottom of it.

There were so many days where she barely left her room. Whenever she was around other people, she kept to herself more than she used to. Her smiles never reached her eyes anymore. She rarely showered, trash started to accumulate in her room... Nobody else seemed to notice.

So he went to Mercy, knowing that she would know what was going on. Those two were nigh inseperable.

Her depression's getting worse, Mercy said. He had to ask what depression was. It was... an enlightening conversation. Got him thinking about himself, about the bad days he had gone through. About the bad days Annie tried to help him through.

Go talk to her, Mercy said.

He was more than a little hesitant; how could he talk to her about her problems when he wasn't nearly as open with her about his own? It took a couple of days of beating himself up, and a single conversation with Papyrus, before he decided to give it a go.

Everybody was hanging out in the living room, talking, laughing, winding down from a long day. He watched as Annie got up silently and headed upstairs. He noticed a few people watch her go, but none of them got up to follow.

He let out an over exaggerated yawn and excused himself, vaguely registering that Mercy and Papyrus were giving him knowing looks as he went upstairs after Annie.

The door to her room was closed, and he stood in front of it for a solid thirty seconds before bringing himself to knock, bony knuckles against solid wood.

He heard her on the other side, a quiet gasp, followed by 'gimme a sec'. He waited until he heard her say 'come in' before opening the door.

The first thing he noticed was the state of her room, but he quickly diverted his attention back to Annie when she asked what he wanted. She was sitting on her computer chair, her hair parted in half and thrown over her shoulders. It always surprised him how much she had.

Annie called his name, and he shook himself from his thoughts with a muttered apology. She asked him what was up, and he immediatley answered with 'the ceiling', purely out of habit. She let out an amused huff and gave him a crooked smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

Okay, but seriously, Sans, why're you here?

Just thought I'd check on ya, he replied. Haven't seen much of you lately.

The smile fell from her face, and she looked at him for a second before casting her gaze elsewhere. She mumbled an apology, running her fingers through her hair.

It's been hard to be around people lately, she said quietly. Then she looked back at him and gave him another one of her false smiles. Don't worry about me hun, I'll be fine.

He stared at her for a good moment, long enough that her smile faded and her eyes went elsewhere.

TBC?

[blueinkonlinedpaper]

Eeyore Mug (2/12/16)

It was one of those days where all they really did was sit with each other. Annie had made herself some tea, and Sans seemed to stare at her mug. She remained oblivious to his staring until he spoke up. “What’s with the donkey?”

Startled from her reverie, Annie looked first at Sans, and then at the mug in her, and then let out a quiet chuckle. “Since when did you know what a donkey is?”

Sans gave her a measured look, before her expression turned sheepish. “Sorry, that wasn’t very funny, heh.”

Annie took a moment to turn her mug so she could look at the donkey in question. “He’s a character named Eeyore, from Winnie the Pooh.” She gave her mug a soft, fond smile, though Sans felt he could see something sad in her eyes. “People used to compared me to him when I was younger, and I hated it... But I’ve since gotten fond of him.”

Sans raised an brow ridge at her. “Why did you hate it?”

Annie let out a short sigh and placed her mug gently on the countertop, holding it in both hands. “Eeyore is... not a happy donkey. He’s very depressing to a lot of people, and whenever he talks it’s always about the gloomy side of things, or something self-deprecating.” She began to trace the lip of the mug with a finger, her gaze definitely sad now. “I didn’t want people to see me that way, cuz I didn’t really like Eeyore. I wanted to be seen as happy, energetic, fun! But whenever the subject came up, everybody agreed that I was Eeyore.”

Sans watched her for a while, absentmindedly messing with his own mug of tea, unsure of how to respond. “Well, bud... What changed your mind then?” he asked, a hesitance in his voice. Annie looked over at him and smiled gently.

“I found a post about Eeyore on tumblr. It talked about how most people see his character and interpreted him as somebody nobody would want to he around. But they went on to say that Eeyore’s friends care about him, even though he’s sad all the time. They invite him to hang out, to parties, like, they make sure to include him in their fun. They don’t judge him for being sad, or treat him badly.”

Annie stopped for a moment to wipe at her eyes, as tears had begun to form there against her will. She let out a chuckle that sounded sad, and Sans reached over and pat her hand in what he hoped was a comforting way. She looked at it silently for a moment before placing her free hand over his, a ghost of a smile on her lips.

~I forgot where I was going with this one owo; Oops~

[blueinkonlinedpaper]

Things I think about and need to get out of my system since I don’t think I’ll be able to have this scene in the thing I’m planning =V

He told her everything. It wasn't something that he planned to do, no. It just happened.

She found him after he gave her the key to his room- as if this whole thing wasn't convoluted enough- and handed him the drawing he had stashed away. One thing led to another, and now here they were. In his room, sitting next to each other on his bed, and the look on her face was one that he never wanted to see again.

She started muttering, asking how he could handle all that. Watching Papyrus and everybody else die, over and over. Her breath caught in her throat, and she started to cry.

Comfort was never his strong suit; he dealt with his pain with jokes and deflecting, but that didn't work in this situation. He watched her crying turn to sobs, and listened patiently as she spoke through her tears.

She couldn't imagine how she would have felt if she were in his place, she said. Just the thought of seeing somebody kill her sister once, and then it happening over and over, sporadically, no defined pattern to find that would make it easier.

He had long since taken his hands out of his pockets, and they rested in fists on his knees, the lights in his eyes gone out. It was a mistake, telling her. But she had been so persistent. She wanted to help, she said, and to do that she had to know everything.

He didn't notice that her sobs had subsided, lost in his own thoughts. Not until he felt her place her hand over one of his.

He looked up at that, and stared into her tear-stained face. She said she was sorry that he had to go through all that by himself.

Then she smiled, just a little, and told him how much she admired his bravery. And somehow that was what did it.

He turned his gaze to the floor as the floodgates broke, his fist tightening in her gentle grip. She didn't say anything, and he was glad for it. She just held his hand, and after a pause, she leaned her head against his shoulder.

They stayed that way until he brought a sleeve up to wipe at his sockets. She released her hold on him - strange, how cold it became once it was gone - and got to her feet. She stood in front of him, placed her hands on his cheeks, and made him look up at her.

We're going to fix this, she said. Older siblings had to look out for each other.

At that moment he almost wished she could see her Soul outside of battle. Because it was glowing in a way that he had only seen a small number of times before... And his Soul was reacting to it against his will.

He let out a sigh, and closed his eyes, resting a hand against one of hers. She twitched at the contact, and the grin that was forever on his face grew at that knowledge. He would have to make use of that later.

Yeah, he said. Gotta look out for each other.

[blueinkonlinedpaper]

NAME THE FALLEN HUMAN:

A N N I E

The first thing she noticed was that there was a really bright light. Immediately afterwards came the realization that her entire body ached, but mostly her back.

She opened her eyes, groaning quietly and rolling onto her side in an attempt to avoid the light.

Annie stayed that way for a while; it always took her a long time to wake up. She gazed unseeing ahead of her, unaware of everything except the ache in her bones and the way her chest moved as she breathed.

After what felt like an eternity, she gathered the energy to move. And as soon as she did, she realized that there was a very strong smell in the air. She absentmindedly looked down at her hands as she pushed herself upright, and let out a gasp at the sight.

Flowers! She was lying on a bed of very pretty, bright yellow flowers.

Annie let out a wordless whine as she hurried to her feet and stepped back from the flowerbed, frowning at the state she had left it in.

"I'm so sorry, flowers..." she muttered, wringing her hands.

At last, she rolled for perception gave her surroundings a good look.

There wasn't much to the area aside from the rather uniform flowerbed. She looked up, and froze.

She remembered now; she had gone along with her sister Mercy to explore the nearby Mt. Ebott and stumbled upon a cavern with a huge hole in the middle. Mercy went off to check something in the back of the cave, and in her hurry to follow her, Annie tripped over something and fell into the earth.

"How the hell did I even survive that?" she wondered shakily as she craned her neck in an attempt to find the hole she fell through. 

Then she thought of Mercy’s reaction to finding out she was gone, and felt the beginnings of panic build up within her. Her breathing turned frantic, and barely realized that she was beginning to walk in circles.

*No, I can't do this. I need to calm down, or I'll never get out of here.*

Annie ceased her pacing, took a deep breath, and let it out as slowly as she could. She did that a couple more times, until she was finally calm. Aching, but calm.

At least, she was calm, until she noticed something off. The air around her seemed to be getting heavier, and the hairs on her arms began to rise. She found herself looking at the flowerbed, her eyes wide and unblinking, and thought, *I need to leave, right now.*

So she did. She took off down a path, and through an arch, but the feeling didn't go away. She felt the rise of panic in her chest, and she only stopped when her knee began to ache.

She let out a hiss and leaned against the arch, bending and stretching her knee to ease the pain. Once she could put pressure on it without it hurting, she sighed and turned to move on.

Annie vaguely noted a pillar of light hitting the ground before noticing that there was a single golden flower directly in the middle of the light. She paused, staring at it in surprise.

And then it looked back at her, and dread crashed over her shoulders.

"Howdy! I'm Flowey, Flowey the flower!"

"Obviously," Annie muttered breathlessly, staring at it wide-eyed.

"I've never seen you before! You're new to the Underground, aren't you?"

All she did was nod, once. The flower - Flowey - smiled cheerfully up at her, but there was something chilling about their expression. It made her incredibly uneasy, to say the very least.

"Golly, you must be so confused. Someone ought to teach you how things work around here! I guess little old me will have to do."

Nope, this flower was bad news. Shivers ran down Annie’s spine at their words and it took all her will to not go back the way she had come from.

"Ready? Here we go!"

"Wha-"

And suddenly, her chest began to glow, and she watched in shocked amazement as a purple cartoon-style heart emerged and floated about a foot in front of her.

Annie stared breathlessly at the outrageous thing before her, eyes wide. What in the world was going on?

"See that heart? That is your SOUL, the very culmination of your being!" Flowey stated. [In the comic, there's gonna be a bit of confusion on his face cuz. Who the fuck is this person. But I sure as hell don't notice cuz wHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED]

"...Soul?" she breathed, shock beginning to fade as confusion came up.

Flowey continued as if they hadn't heard her speak. "Your SOUL starts off weak, but can grow strong if you gain a lot of LV."

"LV...?" she asked hesitantly, her eyes constantly switching from the golden flower to the purple heart.

"I know what you're thinking: what's LV stand for?"

Flowey's smile twitched slightly, and she could have sworn that there was another face behind the one they had.

"Why, LOVE, of course!"

Love? No. No, nope, no way. Whatever this flower was talking about, it wasn't love. It was something else.

"You want some LOVE, don't you?"

Annie’s mouth settled into a firm line as she stared down at the innocent-looking plant. They continued to smile cheerfully up at her.

"Don't worry, I'll share some with you!"

As soon as they finished speaking, Flowey winked, and she tensed up immediately, her hands balling into fists as Flowey summoned 5 unidentifiable objects, which spun in place above their head.

"Down here, LOVE is shared through... Little white... 'Friendliness pellets'."

Even if she didn't already have a bad feeling about this flower, the expressions that flitted across their face did nothing to pacify her, and she continued to stare them down as they returned their attention to her. Annie noted that the flower seemed somewhat taken aback, probably by the look on her face, and she couldn't help but smirk a bit.

Flowey recovered quickly, and continued with what felt like a practiced conversation. "Ready? Move around! Get as many as you can!"

*Oh hell no.*

The "friendliness pellets" started moving towards her heart - soul - and she instinctively moved away from them, anger rising within her.

"Hey buddy, you missed them."

She glared at the golden flower, who looked mildly annoyed.

"Let's try again, okay?"

Again the pellets moved towards her soul, and again Annie stepped out of their way, glaring at Flowey all the while.

Flowey was definitely annoyed now, but she couldn't find it satisfying at this point. Did they think she was stupid or something? The very thought of it made her angrier, and she let out a strong huff through her nose.

"Is this a joke? Are you braindead? RUN. INTO. THE. BULLETS!!!"

*There we go,* she thought darkly, *The truth is revealed.* The bullets moved towards her soul again, faster than the last two times, and she dodged them, glaring daggers.

There was a pungent pause, and Annie watched as Flowey's face changed from a simple emote to one that might have frightened her if she weren't so enraged.

"You know what's going on here, don't you?" Their voice was different; it was scratchier than before. "You just wanted to see me suffer."

Annie opened her mouth to reply, when suddenly she felt something constrict around her soul, and an obscene number of bullets appeared in a perfect circle around it. She let out a startled sound, dark brown eyes widening at the sight.

"DIE."

The bullets began to close in on her soul, and Flowey laughed the most haunting laugh she had ever heard, and if her life weren't in danger she would have loved it. She had no choice but to watch the approaching circle of death, as all her attempts to get away failed.

She was truly trapped.

[blueinkonlinedpaper]

"Hey, Hawke, why do you never drink?"

Annika pried herself away from the conversation between Aveline and Fenris off to her side, and looked at Varric, taking a moment to let her mind register what he had just asked.

When it clicked, she chuckled quietly and rested her crossed arms on the tabletop before her. "What brought this on?"

Varric shrugged. "I dunno, it might be the fact that everybody else has had a drink tonight except you, and this is not the first time this has happened."

She couldn't help but notice that her companions had all stopped talking; sure enough, when she looked at them through her peripheral vision, they had fallen silent and their attention turned to her. Wonderful. "I'm just not all that fond of the habit." she replied, in a tone of voice that was the equivalent of waving a hand.

"Oh Annika, don't be silly."

Everybody turned to look at Bethany, who looked like she might actually fall out of her seat at any moment. The young mage was so out of sorts that she didn't register the severe look her sister was giving her, and continued with her train of thought. "You just worry too much!" She turned to the person on her right - Anders, as it turned out - and kept on, in a loud whisper. "She never drinks because she wants to be alert in case anybody tries something while we're drunk."

"Bethany."

Bethany looked over at her sister, noticing that her cheeks were a little ruddy, and grinned before turning to the person on her left - Merrill. "Also she's a mopey drunk."

"Bethany!"

She began to giggle loudly, and very nearly fell out of her seat, except Anders managed to catch her before she hit the floor.

Everybody else began to laugh goodnaturedly at the information, even as Annika tried to hide her face by putting her head on top of her crossed arms.

Well, nearly everybody.

-TBC???-

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Below the cut are little drabbles I wrote for a self-indulgent petstuck!Gamzee thing that I may or may not actually write at some point in time. They're all basically mindvomit. You have been warned!

When he finally spoke, it took all her strength to keep herself from smothering the malnourished troll.

"Gamzee" was his reply. It was a strange thing for him to say, she could tell by the way his tongue seemed to slip against his overbite. It was one of the cutest things she had seen, but also one of the saddest.

"Gamzee, huh," Annie managed to say, smiling brightly. He looked up at her, blinking nervously. She giggled, taking his little hands into her own. "It's nice to meet you, Gamzee. I hope we can be friends."

Fuck the Betty Crocker Troll Food. Even if she wanted to feed Gamzee that shit (which she didn't) she could never afford the stuff.

So there she stood, in front of her fridge, with a hungry Gamzee at her feet. She could feel him staring up at her, begging with those silly, adorable chirps and clicks. Annie finally looked down at him, a strained expression on her face. "Gamzee, baby, I know you're hungryyy, I'm working on it!"

It honestly pained her to see him looking at her like that. She let out a distressed sigh before leaning down to pick Gamzee up. He let out a surprised chirp before clinging to her, settling comfortable on Annie's hip.

"Alright, sweetheart. Here's the fridge. What calls to you?"

He was getting bigger. It was more than a little unsettling. Annie found herself noticing just how much Gamzee was growing. When she had first taken him in, he was barely taller than her knee.  But now, the tips of his horns reached the same height as her.

It left her wondering just how old the troll was... and why he didn't seem to stop growing. Now, the latter could be googled. But she'd have to ask Gamzee about the age thing.

She wasn't exactly surprised to find out that Gamzee didn't know how old he was; nobody had ever bothered to tell him anything like that.

So Annie sat there, absentmindedly running her fingers through Gamzee's hair, who presently had his head in her lap. She found herself thinking about Gamzee's age and how she could figure it out.

A friend had once told her how a vet could figure out a dog's age by looking at their teeth. Maybe the same could be done for trolls?

She made a quiet distressed sound, looking down at her lap, where Gamzee was currently napping. The idea of taking him to a vet felt so wrong, in so many ways. As much as people felt about them, trolls didn't feel like pets to her. They never did.

Annie decided in that moment to google doctors who specialized in trolls, not vets. There had to be at least one, right?

Nobody would take him in. Most people weren't comfortable with the idea of having a Troll that was used in illegal fights. He certainly couldn't go back to his previous owner, and she was most definitely not going to keep the Troll. She was busy enough as it was.

She paced her office, casting sideways glances at the crate next to her desk. She needed to find a home for the thing, or it'd be put down. As much as she wasn't a Troll person, she simply couldn't allow that to happen.

On her seventh round of her desk, her eyes landed on a picture she had of her and her daughter, and she stopped to stare at it. Maybe...

She slid into her chair and picked up the picture. It was a 'selfie' Annie had taken with her on their last trip to the beach. She stared at her daughter's smiling face, thinking.

Yes, Annie wouldn't mind taking the Troll. She knew her daughter could handle the responsibility of taking care of it.

She set down the picture and pulled out her cellphone, pulling up her daughter's contact info and calling her.

-TBC?- 

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She felt the cold coming before there was any visible sign.

Annie let out a sigh as she plopped at her usual table at lunch, long before the rest of her friends arrived. That was one of the perks of having a class near the cafeteria. She looked down at her school lunch, which was one of her favorites, and she frowned; just the idea of eating the food left a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, and let out another sigh, resigning herself to just having the orange juice she had grabbed in place of chocolate milk. Maybe if she did that, the cold would go away before it fully hit her.

She was startled from her thoughts by the sound of a tray clattering beside her, and she turned in time to see Karkat pull out a chair. "Oh, hey Karkat," she greeted with what she felt was her usual smile.

Karkat gave her a look from the corner of his eye as he sat down. "You look like shit, what's wrong?"

The shock on Annie's face made the corner of Karkat's mouth lift in mild amusement. She opened her mouth and closed it, several times, and when she finally got her voice back her face was visibly darker. "You are a sack of shit, Karkat. Ugh." she grumbled, annoyed.

"You didn't answer my question, Annie." Karkat mentioned, starting on his lunch nonchalantly. "What's wrong?"

Annie sighed, absentmindedly twirling a strand of her hair. "Nothing's wrong. I'm just, not feeling the best." Seeing that Karkat had raised an eyebrow and his mouth was full, she continued. "I'm pretty sure I'm coming down with something. It's not that big a deal, though."

The very next day, Annie woke up with the scratchiest throat and heaviest headache she had ever had. It wasn't bad enough to warrant staying home... until the nausea hit. So she pulled out her phone, opened up Pesterchum, and sent a message to Karkat, despite him being offline.

--absolutelyBashful [AB] began pestering carcionGeneticist [CG] at 08:32-- AB: Just thought I'd let you know that the thing I mentioned finally came AB: You know the "I'm coming down with something" thing AB: So I won't be at school today. Tell the others hi for me! --absolutelyBashful [AB] ceased pestering carcinoGeneticist [CG] at 08:34--

Going to the kitchen was hellish, and looking into the fridge made her very upset stomach grumble angrily. But she had to have -something- to eat... Or at least drink.

As she reached for the carton of orange juice Mama had so kindly gotten for her yesterday, Annie's phone chirped, informing her that somebody had logged onto Pesterchum. And as she poured herself a glass, she was notified that somebody had pestered her.

Leaving the short glass of juice for a moment, Annie pulled out her phone to see who it was. "Pffft." Of course it was Karkat.

--carcinoGeneticist [CG] began pestering absolutelyBashful [AB] at 08:45-- CG: HOW BAD ARE YOU DOING? AB: Just nausea and a sore throat so far, nothing big. AB: I just don't want to risk me getting worse at school. CG: DOES YOUR LUSUS KNOW YOU'RE SICK? AB: Well, I told her I wasn't feeling well. AB: She couldn't really stay with me, cuz she has work. But she did get me orange juice! =3 CG: FUCK, ANNIE. YOU ARE SUCH A GODDAMN WRIGGLER. AB: Shut up, I like orange juice ;3; CG: YEAH YEAH, I KNOW. CG: WELL, KEEP ME IN THE KNOW, I GUESS. AB: Will do, Karkat~ CG: IF NOTHING GOES WRONG I'LL DROP BY AFTER SCHOOL, IF YOU WANT. AB: Awww, I'd love that, thank you ;u; AB: Have a good day at school, hun~! CG: DON'T FUCKING CALL ME HUN. --carcinoGeneticist [CG] ceased pestering absolutelyBashful [AB] at 08:53--

Annie let out a giggle, putting her phone down. And then she coughed because her throat got irritated. Ugh.

It took her a moment before she finally -stopped- coughing, and then she downed her orange juice, content. She had hopes that whatever it was that she had wouldn't get worse, and that she'd be able to go back to school tomorrow.

But as the day progressed, it became more and more obvious that this sickness would not go away so easly.

By the time Karkat arrived at her house, Annie was curled up on the couch in her blanket, and he could hear teeth chattering and crying. "Holy shit." he muttered, worried. He dropped his backpack by the front door and rushed over to the bundle shaking on the couch. "Annie, what's wrong?"

Muffled moans came from the mountain of blanket, and Annie popped her head out. Her entire face was dark, tears stained her cheeks, and her hair was a complete mess. "I-I-I have a fffffever a-a-a-a-and I feellll sooo shitty..."

"You look shitty too..."

Annie let out a distressed cry. "Karkaaat, I'm sssserious." She started crying again through chattering teeth, and the sense of unease that had been building in Karkat finally reached the surface. He had never seen Annie so upset, and he was rather at a loss for what to do.

When Annie finally managed to calm her crying, she looked at Karkat with such a dejected look on her face it nearly broke Karkat's heart. "I-I-It's not a ggggggood idea for you to ssssstay, Kaaarkat." She paused to give him a weak smile. "I don't wwwwwant you to get sick too..." She removed a hand from her bundle of blanket and tapped her fingertips against her dear friend's cheek. "Thank you for ccccoming, though."

The sigh that Karkat let out was heavy, and Annie was startled by it, and the fact that Karkat had taken hold of her outstretched hand. "Annie Bella, if you think I'm going to leave you here by yourself while you're feeling like shit, you don't know me half as well as you think you do."

Obviously, this was not the reaction that Annie had expected, and Karkat almost smiled at the look of disbelief on her face. Almost. She opened and closed her mouth a few times, absolutely flabbergasted. "B-but, why would yyyyou want to stay with mmmmmme?"

That made Karkat raise an eyebrow. "Why wouldn't I? You've been there for me through shitty times." When he finished speaking, he suddenly became hyperaware of the fact that he still held Annie's hand, which was shaking like a leaf and abnormally warm. "Jesus fucking christ, Annie." he muttered, releasing his hold on her hand and pressing the back of his own against his dear friend's forehead.

She winced at his touch. "Y-your hand is cold, Karkat."

"No, it's not. You're just on fucking fire." he replied, furrowing his eyebrows. "Why the hell are you shaking?"

As if on cue, her teeth began to chatter again, and she pulled her outreached arm back into the bundle she had made herself into. "I-i-it's the fever... It mmmmmmmakes me feel c-c-c-c-c-cold."

Karkat let out a sigh. "God humans are fucking weird."

Annie tried to laugh at that, managing to giggle a little before her body decided that she should be crying instead. "God fucking dammit, I hate thiiiis."

Karkat looked at her solicitously, absentmindedly moving strands of her dark brown hair away from her face. "Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?"

It took a moment for Annie to compose herself enough to speak. "Orange juice. And, and food." she replied quietly, exhaustion evident in her face.

"I thought you said you were nauseaous earlier?" Karkat asked, raising an eyebrow. All he got in response was a mildly annoyed glare. "Fine, I get it." He pushed himself to his feet, taking a moment to get the pins and needles out of his legs before heading to the kitchen. As he left, he heard Annie call out a quiet 'thank you' after him and he shook his head with a small smile. She was so unbelieveable, that ridiculous human girl.

Annie continued to suffer by herself in the living room, teeth chattering and fits of crying coming and going while Karkat messed around the kitchen. It seemed to take forever, but at last Karkat returned to her with a glass of orange juice in one hand and a bowl of tomato soup in the other. She let out a gasp of delight at the sight, clapping her hands under her blankets.

"Get your ass on the floor, Annie, you're not going to eat on the couch." Karkat scolded when she tried to reach for the food. She pouted at him but complied, scooching off the couch onto the floor near the coffee table, blanket and all. Karkat rolled his eyes but placed the glass and bowl on the coffee table before her. "Here you go, you fucking wriggler." he stated, smirking when Annie gave him a glare.

She proceeded to dig into the food, fighting back the shakes and teeth chattering that her fever made her feel. Karkat sat down beside her, watching her eat slowly. It was a companionable silence, but he broke it to ask a question. "Do you want to watch a movie or something?"

Annie blinked tiredly at him, spoon still in her mouth, though she promptly removed it. "Sure, I don't mind... You can pick something, Karkat."

Karkat grinned, pushing himself to his feet. "Don't mind if I do!"

Annie watched as he moved over to the bookshelf full of DVDs and Blu-Ray movies next to the TV, her eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Karkat, you better not be picking 27 Dresses."

"Too late, motherfucker!" he crowed, pulling out the infamous movie from the shelf.

"Noooooo!" Annie cried, falling over in mock defeat. "Not 27 Dresseees!"

Karkat cackled as he made his way over to the PS3 next to the TV, Annie mock crying behind him as she pushed herself upright again. "You're an evil troll, Mr. Vantas." she whined, finishing up the last of her soup while the troll in question sat beside her again with the remote in his hands.

"You know you fucking love this movie, Annie, shut the fuck up." he teased, making her let out an exagerated moan and lean against his side. God, he could feel the heat she gave off even through the blanket she had wrapped around herself. Of course, the girl was a heater to begin with. But this fever shit really put her natural temperature to shame.

After skipping through the previews and setting up the subtitles for Annie's sake, he put down the remote and wrapped an arm around his friend comfortingly. She let out a contented sigh, resting her head on Karkat's shoulder. "Thank you for staying with me, Karkat..." she muttered, her cheeks darkening a bit in embarrassment.

He looked at her from the corner of his eye with a quiet sigh. "You are such a disaster, Annie."

That made Annie lift her head and look at Karkat, her expression puzzled. "Wh, what do you mean by that...?"

Karkat rolled his eyes, shifting his position slightly to get a better look at his friend. "You go out of your way to help everybody, Annie. Even the people that rest of us have given up on. But whenever you're the one who needs the help, you never even tell anybody." Annie opened her mouth to reply but Karkat cut her off. "How long were you curled up on the couch before I came over, huh?"

She closed her mouth, and cast her eyes to the side. "A few hours, probably..." she muttered in reply.

Karkat let out another sigh. "I figured as fucking much." He moved his arm from the general area around Annie's waist to around her shoulder, moving his head so that his forehead was against her's. "You don't have to keep your pain to yourself, you dumbass. I'm your friend, I'm here for you. That's kind of the fucking point."

The gesture was so affectionate, and his words so sincere, that Annie couldn't help but start crying quietly. But she smiled regardless, a soft chuckle escaping her. "Karkat Vantas, you are literally the biggest cheeseball in the entire world." She removed an arm from her blanket and placed her hand on Karkat's cheek, gently moving her head so that she could give his forehead a kiss. "Thank you. Seriously. But, can we actually watch the movie please?"

The look of realization on Karkat's face made Annie giggle. He turned to look at the screen, narrowed his eyes, and whispered, "Fucking dammit."

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I found an old story I wrote for Mercy and I'm really proud of it still cB So here ya go enjoy~

mercilessMercy [MM] began pestering carcinoGeneticist [CG] at 12:38

MM: Karkat, I need to talk to you. ;-; MM: Karkat? ;~; MM: Karkaaaaaaaat! D; MM: KARKAT! D:< CG: OH MY GOD, I'M HERE! CG: WHAT DO YOU WANT, MERCY? MM: I need to talk to you. ;-; MM: Could you come over, please? CG: YEAH SURE, I'LL JUST DROP EVERYTHING I'M DOING TO GO INDULGE YOU WITH MY PRESENCE. MM: Karkat, please. CG: DO I HAVE TO? I'M HANGING OUT WITH TEREZI RIGHT NOW. CG: YOU KNOW HOW SHE IS WHEN WE'RE TOGETHER. CG: SINCE, YOU KNOW, WE CAN'T HANG OUT ALL THE TIME CG: BECAUSE SHE LIVES 2 HOURS AWAY. CG: I SHOULDN'T EVEN BE TALKING TO YOU. CG: IF SHE CATCHES ME SHE WILL DRUB ME SO HARD, YOU HAVE NO IDEA. MM: I know, I know. D; MM: Bring Terezi with you then! MM: Please, Karkat, I /really/ need to talk to you. MM: Are you still there? CG: YES. CG: SORRY, I WAS PUTTING UP WITH A MASSIVE NUB DRUBBING. CG: THANKS A LOT, ASSHOLE. MM: Come oooon, Karkat. D; MM: You are the best at the thing I need to talk to you about. MM: PL34S3. MM: I even typed it like Terezi, because I know you can never say no to her. CG: SIGH. CG: FINE, WHATEVER. MM: Yaaaaay~ ;w; CG: NO. CG: NO CHEERING. MM: >3> CG: I'LL BE THERE IN ABOUT 20 MINUTES. MM: Thank you, Karkat. ;w; CG: BYE. carcinoGeneticist [CG] ceased pestering mercilessMercy [MM] at 12:42

~*~*~

Twenty minutes later, there was a loud series of knocks at the front door. Mercy got up off her couch and entered the entryway of her home. With a soft sigh, she took hold of the door handle and opened it. On the other side stood Karkat Vantas and his matesprit Terezi Pyrope. Karkat, as usual, looked rather annoyed. Terezi was wearing a similar expression on her face, which was not all that common. Mercy had a feeling that the expression had been on her face ever since she caught Karkat talking to her earlier.

"Thanks for coming, guys," Mercy greeted with a small smile. Karkat looked up at her, the expression on his face shifting when he noticed tear stains on her face.

"No problem. We can come in, right?" he asked, casting his eyes into his friend's home. The brown-haired girl nodded, moving out of the doorway so the couple could come in.

“You guys want something to drink, or anything?” Mercy asked once her friends were inside, closing the door behind them.

“Nah, we just ate.” Terezi replied, turning her face in Mercy’s direction. Her nose picked up the familiar smells that belonged to her friend, but also another one that she was not used to. Her eyebrows furrowed in thought; tears?

“Alright then. Come on,” she said quietly, leading her two, now worried, friends into the living room. Karkat and Terezi sat on the couch, and Mercy sat in the one armchair. She sat there for a moment, her eyes staring off into space.

Karkat gave her a glare. “Are you going to talk?” he asked, crossing his arms.

Mercy started, and turned to look at Karkat with a sheepish expression on her face. “You guys took so long to get here… I kinda don’t want to talk about it anymore,” she commented with a shrug.

Karkat and Terezi gave Mercy an incredulous look. “What? Are you kidding?” Terezi demanded. Mercy closed her eyes and hung her head, shrugging again. “So you made us dump our plans for today, for no reason? What the hell, Merc?”

“I’m sorry guys,” was the girl’s simple response.

“No. There is no way in high hell that I came all the way out here for no reason!” Karkat stated roughly. He adjusted his seating, leaning forward toward Mercy with a determined look on his face. “You wanted me here, I’m here! Now talk to me!”

Mercy lifted her head to look straight into Karkat’s eyes, noting that there were signs of his abnormally-colored troll blood mixed in with the usual grey. The more she looked at them, the more her own eyes began to sting and tingle. She took a deep breath, and sat up better, looking at the ceiling.

Karkat waited patiently; he knew Mercy. Once she was persuaded to talk about something that she originally decided she didn’t want to talk about, it took her a moment to gather up the nerve to say what she wanted to say.

At last, Mercy returned her attention to her two friends. Her eyes were shimmering with unshed tears when she spoke. “I think I’m in love with Gamzee.”

Whatever Terezi and Karkat thought she was going to say, it sure as hell was not what she had just said. They stared at their friend, shocked at the news. “With… Gamzee…?” was all Terezi could manage, blinking her unseeing eyes in surprise. Karkat continued to stare at Mercy, who just nodded in response to Terezi’s question and closed her eyes to stop the tears that had begun to overflow.

“What should I do…? Karkat, what can I do?” she asked, raising a hand to cover her mouth. “I, I have no idea what I can do. This feeling, is just… I can’t…”

Karkat finally came to his senses, and looked at his grieving friend with concern in his eyes. The girl before him did not trust romantic feelings of any kind; they were pretty much her weakness. She loved the idea of being in love, but she often said that there was no way she was ever going to find somebody to feel that way about. But there she was, sitting there, in love with the worst possible candidate.

“Mercy. Come on, calm down. I can’t talk to you if you’re going to be crying like that,” Karkat shooshed, moving over to the weeping girl. She looked up at the troll boy, barely seeing him through the veil of tears over her eyes. He took hold of one of her hands and tugged lightly, making Mercy get out of the armchair. He then guided her over to the couch, and she sat down between him and Terezi. The blind girl in question almost immediately wrapped an arm around her friend, hoping to be of some comfort.

“Okay. So how’d you find out?” Karkat asked lightly, keeping hold of Mercy’s hand.

Mercy sniffed, using her free hand to wipe the tears from her face. She took a shaky breath, once again gathering the nerve to answer her friend’s question. “I… When, we were all hanging out a few days ago, at the park…” she replied, closing her eyes again.

Karkat nodded, remembering the occasion. Mercy, Gamzee, Sollux, Tavros, and himself had all gone to the park together after school, like they usually did. Aradia and Feferi had joined them later; it had been a rather uneventful affair, from what he could remember. “What happened?”

Mercy swallowed, keeping her eyes closed, which was still not able to keep the tears from running. “W-well, um…” She stopped to let out a rather weak growl of frustration. “I, I hate trying to talk, while I’m crying… I just sound so weak and shit...” she muttered, hanging her head in dismay.

Terezi shooshed the girl, rubbing her arm comfortingly. “Don’t worry about it. Give yourself a sec to calm down,” she stated, her voice soothing. She was not used to Mercy being so shaken; she was such a strong girl, normally. At least, she seemed it a majority of the time.

Mercy took a long, shaky breath and exhaled slowly, her eyes closed. She repeated the process a few times, and at the end she was calm, and no longer crying, much to the relief of the two trolls beside her. She opened her eyes, the whites a little red from her fit of tears, feeling tired, but ready to tell them what happened. She cast her eyes to Karkat, who looked back at her with a sympathetic expression on his face. “It… it happened on Friday,” she started.

Karkat gave her a small nod and held her hand a little tighter, encouraging her to continue.

Mercy let out a soft sigh, and cast her eyes forward, her vision glazing over as she relived that afternoon again. “After you and Sollux went to the gas station to get some snacks, I went to the Shake Shoppe to get ice cream. When I came back, Gamzee and Tavros were hanging out by the swings, talking.” She stopped for a moment to breathe again, closing her eyes. “I was about to go over there, when Gamzee picked Tavros up out of his wheelchair, set him on the swing, and started pushing him. I froze, and just watched the two of them play on the swings. And…” She swallowed at that, and lowered her head, her hair hiding her face. “And for a second, I wanted to push Tavros off the swing.”

Terezi tensed a bit at Mercy’s words, her unseeing eyes wide in surprise. Karkat noticed her reaction, and touched the hand Terezi had on Mercy’s arm, silencing any questions that she might’ve wanted to ask at that moment.

Mercy didn’t notice the silent exchange between her friends, and continued her story. “I didn’t act on it. I didn’t do anything. All I did was just stand there, wondering what fried my thinkpan enough for me to even consider thinking about doing something so mean to sweet, sweet little Tavros!” By that point, she had raised her head again, her expression ashamed and distressed. She raised her free hand to her face, placing it on her cheek as she screwed her eyes shut, tears beginning to form again.

Terezi and Karkat immediately began to shoosh their friend, Terezi rubbing her arm and Karkat gripping her hand, muttering ‘shoosh’ under his breath. It didn’t last very long though; Mercy was getting rather annoyed with herself, and she let out a huff of frustration, the action making Karkat and Terezi stop.

“You better?” the blind troll asked. Mercy nodded, opening her tired eyes. “Okay, good. So... What happened after that?” Terezi asked quietly. Mercy swallowed again, casting her red-rimmed eyes to the floor. “Well…” Terezi and Karkat waited patiently for Mercy to gather herself up again. With another sigh, she continued her story. “Well, there I was, staring off into space. Probably looking like an idiot. One moment there was nobody beside me, and the next, there was Gamzee.” Her expression became embarrassed, and her face began to redden. “He said, ’Hey, sis, your ice cream’s all melting and shit.’ A-And…” She stopped again, placing her free hand on her red cheek. “He, he took my hand, and licked up some of the melted ice cream that was on it.”

Now it was Karkat’s turn to react. His eyes widened, and he cast a disbelieving look at Terezi, his mind in a frenzy. Gamzee was not the kind of troll to do things like that. If he didn’t know any better, he would have thought Mercy was lying about that. But he knew her, and even if she was a little bit insane, Mercy did not make that kind of stuff up.

Terezi could all but read her matesprit’s mind, being one of the few people he really opened up to, and shifted her attention back to Mercy. “Okay… What happened after that?” she asked, wanting to keep her friend from noticing Karkat’s reaction to her story.

Luckily, Mercy did not notice anything, and looked at Terezi from the corner of her eye. “Well… I, I kinda squealed, dropped my ice cream, and… r-ran off, with the excuse that I forgot I had a project to work on…” she replied, her expression sheepish.

Terezi couldn’t help but snort at that mental image. Karkat, now having gotten over what Mercy had said earlier, spoke up again. “Okay, so. What exactly about that, made you think that you’re flushed for Gamzee?” he asked, his grip on Mercy’s hand tightening a bit.

Mercy frowned at the question, lowering her free hand to her lap and her gaze to the floor, her expression thoughtful and serious. “When I saw Gamzee and Tavros having fun on the swings… That urge to push Tavros off…” she paused, closing her eyes in shame at the mere thought. “I, I’m pretty sure… it was because I was jealous… And, and when he came over, and licked the ice cream off my hand… My, my heart, it just went absolutely crazy. Karkat…” She opened her eyes again, and turned her head to look at Karkat, whose expression was serious.

“I know these signs. I’ve read them in most of the stories I’ve read, and in almost all of the movies I’ve watched. I know that you know them too.” Her eyes began to shimmer with unshed tears, but she held them back. “I’m in love with him. I know it. And I really have no idea what to do.”

Karkat looked at Mercy’s tear-stained face, picking his words carefully before finally speaking up. “Mercy… I honestly have no idea what you can do.” He stated quietly. His answer made Mercy turn to look at the floor again, her hair hiding her face from him, but he knew that the tears she had been holding back had most likely begun to overflow. “Gamzee’s thinkpan is fried, because of all that sopor slime he ate when we were on Alternia. I’m not sure he can ever really feel flushed for anybody because of that,” he continued, knowing that his words probably wouldn’t make Mercy feel any better.

Mercy didn’t say anything. She pulled her hand out of Karkat’s grip, and hid her face behind her hands, trying to keep herself from sobbing. Terezi and Karkat just sat there, watching their friend grieve, feeling horrible because they were in fact rather useless, and couldn’t help her.

The three of them sat there in silence for a whole minute, when suddenly Karkat’s cellphone started ringing. He shot up off of the couch, pulling the phone out of his pocket and wandering away into the entrance hall to answer it. “Yeah?”

“Hey there, best friend.”

Karkat froze, casting a look behind him at Terezi and Mercy. Speak of the devil. “Hey, Gamzee. What do you want?”

There was silence on the other end for a moment. “I was just all up and wondering if you wouldn’t motherfucking mind chilling out with me for a while,” he finally replied.

Karkat narrowed his eyes at that; Gamzee wasn’t sounding like his usual self. Sure, he was getting sober, and it had been affecting him strangely as of late. But this was weird, even for his sopor-withdrawn self. “What’s wrong, Gamzee?” he asked bluntly.

A sudden laugh assaulted Karkat’s ear. “Well, man, get your ass up and over here first. Then I’ll motherfucking tell ya. Cuz this is some pretty heavy shit, best bro. Heavy shit. And I can’t really get my thinkpan around it, even though I’ve been fucking thinking about it all motherfucking weekend.”

Karkat’s mouth spread into a worried line. What could possibly occupy his clown friend’s thinkpan for that long? He didn’t even know he had that big of an attention span. “Alright, I’ll be right there. Just don’t go doing anything stupid, all right?”

“No problem, bro. I’ll see ya when ya motherfucking get here.”

Gamzee hung up, and Karkat stared at the cellphone for a moment before letting out a heavy sigh. He turned around to face the others, and found that Terezi and Mercy were both looking at him with rather unreadable expressions on their faces. Karkat focused on Terezi, not wanting to see that look on Mercy’s face. “So, I’m gonna guess that you just heard everything.”

Terezi nodded. “Go on. He needs you. I’ll stay here with Merc,” she stated, absentmindedly rubbing Mercy’s arm.

Karkat looked at his friend for a moment, her expression solemn, and looked back at Terezi. “Okay. I’ll be back as soon as possible, alright?” Terezi nodded again, and blew him a silent kiss, which Karkat caught with a small smile before going out the front door. As soon as Terezi heard Karkat start the car, she turned her attention to Mercy. Now that they were alone, she wasn’t exactly sure what to say or do. But Mercy seemed to know.

“You know, looking back on things that happened before… I should have seen it coming,” she commented quietly.

Terezi was intrigued by the statement. “What kinds of things…?” she asked.

Mercy lifted her head so that she was looking up towards the ceiling. “Like… when I first met him.” She paused, a small smile coming to her face. “We were in the same art class in middle school, and we were paired together to work on a project where we had to draw a portrait of each other.” She let out a chuckle, closing her eyes in a contented manner. “I worked really hard on drawing him. You know, because I’m a perfectionist, and I wanted to get a good grade. But Gamzee… When he showed me his drawing, he had drawn me pretty well, but he had put his favorite emote on my face! You know, the two eyes, clown nose, and smiley face!”

Terezi giggled; she could totally believe that Gamzee would do something like that, especially back then. “That must’ve been a bit annoying,” she commented.

“Oh goooood, it was!” Mercy exclaimed, throwing her arms up. “I was like, ‘Seriously, Gamzee? Why would you do that? Do I really look like I have a clown nose?’” She let out an exasperated laugh when she finished speaking, shaking her head at the memory.

Terezi grinned, glad that Mercy seemed to be cheering up. “What did he say to that?”

Mercy giggled. “He told me to close my eyes. So, I did, to humor him. After a second, he told me to open them, and go look in a mirror. He freaking drew his freaking emote on my face!”

“Oh my gooood! Seriously?” Terezi cackled.

“YES! Seriously!” Mercy exclaimed, laughing loudly. “And, and you know, I burst out laughing. It was just too funny! I laughed so loud, I got sent out into the hallway for disrupting the class. Gamzee was too. At least, I think he was. I was never really sure if he was sent out there, or if he went out to keep me company.” Mercy’s expression turned quiet, a small smile on her face. “Yeah… Looking back on that now, I think I was pretty much screwed from the start.”

~*~*~

Karkat arrived at his friend’s house within ten minutes. He pulled into the driveway and parked, his eyes absentmindedly looking at the large tree to the right of the carport as he exited his car and headed to the front door. Before he could even ring the doorbell, the front door opened, and there stood Gamzee Makara. There was something off about his highblood friend, but it wasn’t something caused by his lack of sopor. “Hey there, Karkat,” Gamzee greeted, smiling at the familiar face.

“Hey, Gamzee,” Karkat replied, giving his friend a quick look over. “I can come in, right?”

“Yeah, of course you can motherfucker. Come on in,” Gamzee said, moving out of the doorway and into his hive. Karkat entered the familiar building, casting a look around as he closed the door behind him. Man, the place was a mess. There were bottles of Faygo everywhere, and those god forsaken horns all over the floor. It was almost exactly the way Gamzee’s hive had looked back on Alternia, but with a different layout. But there seemed to be more of a mess than usual, somehow. It seemed like there was more Faygo decorating the space, the one pile of horns bigger than it had been before… There was definitely something off.

Gamzee plopped himself down onto the couch in his living room, his hand beckoning Karkat to join him in the space. Karkat sat on the other side of his childhood friend, and it was once he was close to Gamzee that he realized what was off; he wasn’t wearing his stupid clown makeup. That had been a constant in Gamzee’s life for as long as Karkat could remember. The fact that he hadn’t put it on worried Karkat to no end.

“So, what is this ‘heavy shit’ that you wanted to talk about?” Karkat asked, crossing his arms.

Gamzee didn’t answer right away. He grabbed a half-empty bottle of Redpop Faygo from the coffee table and drank a little bit of the crappy strawberry drink before speaking. “Man… I don’t even know where to motherfucking start…” he stated, running his free hand through his massive nest of black hair.

Karkat let out a sigh. “Why don’t you start at the beginning?”

Gamzee looked at Karkat for a moment, an unfamiliar frown on his face. “I guess that makes motherfucking sense…” he commented.

“Of course it does. Now spill it.”

Gamzee let out a short sigh at that, casting his half-closed eyes away from his moirail. As a result, he didn’t see the look of shock that came to Karkat’s face when he finally spoke. “I’m, motherfucking… flushed, for Mercy.”

~*~*~

Mercy and Terezi spent almost an hour and a half talking, mostly about experiences Mercy had with Gamzee, with Terezi butting in from time to time with questions about the events, and similar experiences she had with Karkat. Mercy had so many stories about her and Gamzee that Terezi could barely believe it.

Mercy told Terezi about one year on the 4th of July, when there had been a festival going on at the park downtown. There were going to be fireworks over by the lake at the end of the day, and their group of friends had been planning to go watch them together. But Mercy got lost in the crowds at the park, and she was sure that they had all gone off without her. So she tried to find her way out of the crowd, and found Gamzee. It turned out that he had stayed behind to look for her. They hung out at the park for a while, waiting for most of the people to leave, before going off to find a place where they could watch the fireworks together, since the others had already left for the lake.

She also talked about one Valentine’s Day dance when she had decided to hoe-down in the middle of a slow song, and she had gotten Gamzee and all the other singles to join in.

Her favorite memory, though, was when her cat had been killed. She had watched it get run over by a car on the way to the bus stop, and ended up not going to school. Gamzee came over after school with a bottle of Faygo for her to try, and decided to hang out with her for a while. She told him about what had happened, and he was quiet for a little bit. Then he moved so that his head was in her lap and looked up at her, telling her that he would be her cat for the day. “Purr, motherfucker, purr.”

Mercy stopped talking for the first time in an hour, and looked down at her empty lap with a massive grin on her face, remembering that adorable moment. It had been the sweetest thing anybody had ever done for her, and she doubted that anything could top it.

Terezi watched her human friend, glad that she had cheered up since Karkat had gone. She had been worried that she would be alone with a melancholy Mercy until he returned, but luckily that hadn’t been the case. She was about to comment on the story that Mercy had just finished telling her, when her sharp ears caught the sound of a car pulling into the driveway. She grinned. “Karkat’s back!”

Mercy looked up at the statement, and gave Terezi a playful glare. “Oooooh really? And how exactly do you know that?” she asked, placing her fists on her hips.

Terezi cackled. It had been a long time since she had had to answer that playful question; she kind of missed it. “My ears are epic amazing, Mercy,” she stated proudly, getting up off the couch. “I’ll go get the door for you, okay?”

Mercy giggled at the familiar answer. “Alright, I’ll be here.”

It was only a moment later that there was a knock on the front door, and Mercy smiled when she heard the front door open. There was some muttering, but she didn’t really catch what was said. Her mind was going over the stories she had told, a grin on her face. She could imagine Gamzee standing in front of her, like he was a poor quality hologram. There was something strange about him this time, though.

“Hey.”

The sound of his voice brought Mercy back down to Earth, and boy did she land hard. She blinked a few times and looked up at the familiar, solid figure standing in front of her. “Oh, h-hi, Gamzee! H-how did you get here…?” she asked, a strained smile on her lips, and the threat of a blush warming her cheeks.

Gamzee looked down at her. There was something odd about his face, but she didn’t really recognize what it was. “Karkat motherfucking drove me here,” was his simple reply.

That was when Mercy realized what was weird about his face; he was frowning. And, he wasn’t wearing his makeup. It shocked her; she was looking at his real face, not the clown one he usually wore.

“Mind if I motherfucking sit down?”

Mercy stammered for a moment. “Oh, o-oh, yeah, sure, go ahead,” she finally managed, scooting over on the couch to make room. Gamzee sat down on the other end of the couch, and Mercy found herself staring at his clean face. She stopped herself, though, and looked down at the hands in her lap.

And that's the end of it cuz I couldn't figure out which direction to take it from there >n>

I found the ending!! I found it in the doc where Mercy wrote down her ideas for the fic so hERE HAVE IT

“Sooo… Why did you come over?” she asked quietly.

Silence again. Was that a gulp she just heard, or was it her imagination?

“Um…”

Mercy looked over at him, and found that he was looking at the floor, his left hand going through his messy black hair. His expression was a confusing one to read, but she could tell that he was nervous. “What…?”

Gamzee turned his head to look at her, and there was an intensity in his gray eyes that made the blush from earlier appear on her cheeks. “I wanted to motherf- to tell you something…”

*Wow, he actually stopped himself from saying a variation of ‘motherfucker’. This must be serious.* Mercy thought. “What do you want to tell me?” she asked, curious as to what could make Gamzee act so unlike his usual self.

He cast his eyes to the side for a moment and then looked back to Mercy, a very serious expression on his face. “I… I’m mothe- shit, this is hard,” he stopped, looking away in frustration. He let out a sigh and then looked back at Mercy for the third time. “I’m flushed for you.”

The words didn’t register in Mercy’s mind for a split second. When they managed to enter her brain, her eyes widened, and the blush on her face, which had begun to fade, came back full force. “…What- what did you just say?”

Gamzee’s face turned purple at her answer, and it took him a moment before he replied. “I’m- I’m flushed for you…”

Mercy froze. She could hardly believe what he just said. Was he serious? Did he mean it? Or was this some mean practical joke? No, no, Gamzee wouldn’t do that. He wouldn’t lie about this kind of thing.

Gamzee let out a sigh, running his hand through his hair as he turned in the couch to look into the entryway. “Man, I motherfucking told you this was a bad motherfucking idea.”

Karkat peeked around the corner at his moirail, glaring. “Shoosh! Turn back around, you idiot!”

Gamzee looked at Karkat with an embarrassed expression on his face, the purple blush not fading from his cheeks. Karkat motioned for him to turn around with one hand, and he did, looking at the human girl sitting beside him. It had taken a long time for Karkat to convince him to do this. Now that he had started it, he had to finish it, or who knew what Karkat would do. So Gamzee reached over and waved a hand in front of Mercy’s blushing face in an awkward attempt to get her attention.

It worked. Mercy blinked her eyes a few times and shook her head slightly before focusing her gaze on Gamzee’s flushed face. She opened and closed her mouth a few times before something finally managed to come out. “How- how do you know? I-I mean, when did you figure- I mean, ugh.” She stopped, feeling embarrassed and flustered.

Gamzee looked at her for a moment, feeling a little ray of hope light up in his chest. She wouldn’t act like that if she didn’t feel the same way, right? So he decided to answer her questions.

“You remember the day you didn’t moth- come to school and I mo- came over with Faygo?” God, cutting the word ‘motherfucking’ from his speech was so hard. But he wanted to show that he was being serious, and this was the only way he really could.

Mercy nodded.

“Well, when you m- opened the door, and I m- saw that you’d been all crying and shit…” He stopped, trying to think of words that would help convey how he had felt that day. “It, it kinda made my m- chest hurt, you know? Like… It was m- weird, to see you like that. Mercy doesn’t m- cry. It wasn’t right. M- Unnatural.

“And I, I just m- wanted to make you feel better. So, I pretended to be a m- cat.” Gamzee smiled sheepishly at the memory. “The look on your face when I did that… It, it made me feel like I’d all up and done a miracle. And, I wanted you to always look like that.”

Mercy looked at Gamzee, feeling that far too familiar tingling behind her eyelids. “You’re not making this up,” she muttered, raising her hands to her chest.

Gamzee looked at her, that same sheepish smile on his face. “No way, man. I could never make this shit up. I ain’t that creative.”

Mercy choked a bit, the tears flowing down her cheeks. It was so hard to believe. He felt the same way. She had to tell him. *Go on, Mercy, tell him! Tell him!* She gulped, her breath catching for a moment before she spoke up. “I, I-I-I feel the same way…”

As soon as the words were out in the open, Mercy wanted to take them back. What if this was all just an incredibly elaborate prank? What if Gamzee was lying? What if? What if? What if?

Those thoughts were dashed when she saw Gamzee’s expression shift to surprised and then to joyful, the purple on his face deepening. “Are you serious?”

Mercy nodded vigorously, a nervous smile on her face.

Gamzee felt like he was about to explode. He shot up to his feet, grabbed Mercy and pulled her up into a tight embrace.

The action made Mercy laugh, and she hugged him back just as tightly as he was hugging her. Even at that moment, it didn’t feel real. It was like she was dreaming. *Oh god I hope that I’m not dreaming. Please don’t let this be a dream. Please!*

“Awww, well isn’t that the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?”

Aaaand apparently that's the actual end oops, kind of a cliffhanger. But oh well.

[blueinkonlinedpaper]

At this point in time, Karkat deeply regretted bringing Annie over to his house that day so long ago.

It was fine at first. They just worked on their homework together, sometimes pausing their studies to get a snack or just talk about what was going on at school. She was a rather quiet girl, except when she was around people she felt comfortable around. Then she would reveal that she was... actually rather loud. Whenever anybody brought it up, she would blame her hispanic heritage; in a house full of yelling people, you had to yell just to be acknowledged, and it was something that you never really stopped doing.

Anyway.

They had finally finished their homework, and went to the living room to hang out a while longer, since it was still daylight. But, they both stopped when they noticed that there was already somebody else sitting on the couch, arms and legs crossed.

"Kankri, what the hell are you doing back?" Karkat exclaimed, furrowing his eyebrows at the sight of his Dancestor.

The boy on the couch perked up at the sound of his name, and he rose to his feet in a single, surprisingly graceful motion. "Ah, Karkat. It is a pleasure to see you again, it has been too long." He blinked at the sight of the girl beside Karkat, a quiet surprise on his face. "Who is this?"

Karkat snarled. "This is my friend. Answer my fucking question, Kankri."

Kankri let out a sigh. "If you insist. I just got off for Thanksgivng Break. Didn't your ancestor tell you that I would be returning?"

"No. No he did not." Karkat grumbled, crossing his arms.

"Should I head home, Karkat? I don't really want to be a bother..." Annie asked quietly, looking at Karkat.

"There's no need for that."

Annie's head shot up at that, noting that the troll was now closer to them. "I will just head up to my block. But, if you don't mind me asking... What is your name?"

The inevitable happened, and Annie's face flushed. Boys tended to have that effect on her. "Annie. Annie Bella."

He nodded, a pleasant smile coming to his face. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Annie Bella. I am Kankri Vantas."

"N-nice to meet you, Kankri." Annie muttered, doing her best to not look down at her feet.

"Yeah yeah, now that you're done embarrassing my friend, will you go away?" Karkat asked, glaring at Kankri.

"Oh, I hope I didn't actually do that. But, of course, I'll be on my way."

And it was with that said that Kankri passed by them and went upstairs. As soon as they could hear the door open and close, Annie just rushed over to the couch and sat there, her hands covering her face. "Karkaaat, he's so cute..." she whined.

Karkat stared at her for a good moment before going over to her and putting his hands on her shoulders. "No, no he isn't. He's the opposite of cute, god. Pull yourself together, Annie, shit."

~*dropped*~

[awakaru]

"Your clothes won’t fit me."

~*~*~

Millie turned round to look at Aura, who sat on the edge of her canopy bed, looking rather put out. “Oh come on, Aura, why do you think that?”

Aura stared at Millie, her expression unchanging. “You’re skinny. I’m not. It’s that simple. Also, I’m taller than you.”

Millie spread her mouth into a comical line, and walked back over to her new friend, grabbing her gently by the wrists and pulling her to her feet. “Up you get. We’ll see if what you say is true!”

More than a bit startled, Aura let out a quiet exclamation as she was dragged away from the bed and placed in front of the mirror Millie had standing right next to her walk-in closet. Her eyes habitually lowered to the ground, but Millie cleared her throat and made Aura look at her.

"Take off your clothes." The expression on Aura’s face made her snicker a little. "Don’t make that face! I’m not going to do anything bad, I just want to prove something to you!"

Aura stared at Millie, as if waiting for a punchline to a really bad joke. But her face didn’t change, her expression as expectant as before. Realizing that Millie wasn’t joking, Aura let out a slow sigh, and turned to look at the mirror before beginning to pull off her ragged black hoodie.

Satisfied, Millie beamed and opened the door to her closet, diving headfirst into the mountain of clothes within while her new friend stripped down to her underwear.

Aura waited, shivering in the slight cold of Millie’s bedroom. Not wanting to look at her reflection, she kept her gaze on the floor, and the articles of clothing she had left there. Her black hoodie, a dull red t-shirt, dark-washed jeans, white socks and grey-and-blue sneakers.

It felt like forever before Millie finally emerged from her closet, clothes drapped over both her arms and around her neck. Aura stared as the small girl deposited the garments haphazardly onto the mattress, and then sorted through them, humming as she did so.

"Ahaaa!"

The sound almost made Aura jump out of her skin, and there was barely enough time for her to recover before Hurricane Millie hit. “Try this! It used to be my aunt’s! I don’t know why she gave it to me, cuz she’s a freaking tree, and I’m not. It’ll probably fit you better than me!”

Aura didn’t really a say in the matter, because Millie was determinedly pulling the dress over her head even as she spoke. She didn’t know what to do, and instinctively tried to pull the dress on by herself. “Stop squuuuirming! I’ve almost got it!” Millie exclaimed.

There was a brief moment of grunting, struggling, and confusion on both sides, but it was soon gone, and Millie grinned at the sight before her. “Yeah, I knew it. Fits you waaay better than it would me!”

The dress was dark red, and so long that the hem pooled attractively at Aura’s feet. The halter top fit her well, and the fabric clung to her in a way that made it seem that she had more curves than she actually did. Aura stared at her reflection in quiet awe. Despite the state of her hair after the struggle, she found that she actually looked decent, and she let Millie know that.

The girl in question was just about to say that Aura was not ‘decent’ but gorgeous. But she stopped herself, because she had a feeling that all those words would do is start something and that was honestly the last thing she wanted to have happen.

"Well, it seems you were wrong at any rate."

Aura couldn’t make herself stop messing with the dress. “Wrong about what?”

"About my clothes not fitting you, obviously!"

"…Millie, I don’t think this counts as your clothes."

"Of course it counts! It was in my closet, wasn’t it?"

Aura let out a quiet sigh, still messing absentmindedly with the abundance of fabric that the dress had. “If you say so.”

Millie giggled triumphantly, and peered into Aura’s face via the mirror. “Shall we see what else I’ve found for you?”

Aura couldn’t help but smile a little. “Why not, I guess.”

[awakaru]

This freaking scenario popped into my head the other day and it’s been bugging me ever since so I gave in and wrote it down.

~*~*~

Curled up on the couch and watching TV, you can’t help but wonder if she knows what she’s doing.

Her eyes are clearly focused on the screen, but her fingers, intertwined with yours, are messing with the many rings on your fingers. They linger on those with stones, the tips tracing the faces of the gems gently. It was difficult to ignore, and as much as you had been looking forward to your show, she had managed to make herself the focus of your evening, something she did often without realizing. You watch her fingers as if in a daze, the color of her skin a stark contrast to the grey of your own.

Apparently satisfied with your rings, her absentminded focus shifts to your fingers. She moves them slowly, the tips of her fingers messing with your sharp nails all the while. It feels surprisingly pleasant, and you can’t seem to look away; you just let her keep fiddling with your fingers, and then your hands.

You manage to pry your eyes away from her fingers, and you look at her face. She wasn’t looking at the TV anymore, her eyes instead looking at your hand. She suddenly looks up, and in the moment that your eyes meet, she gives you that bashful little smile of her’s, and she releases your hand. “Sorry… Couldn’t help it.” You raise an eyebrow at her, and she looks down at her lap. “It’s just, I really like your hands, so…”

You stare at her for the shortest of moments, and without a word, you take her hand, and proceed to give it the same treatment you were given. Except, she doesn’t have any rings on her fingers. So you improvise, tracing her knuckles slowly before moving on to her fingers, and eventually her long, somewhat impractical nails.

When you finally look up, the color in her face brings a ghost of a smile to your lips. “I can see w-why. Your hands are pretty borin’, compared to mine.”

She glares at you playfully, and gives your shoulder a light whack. “You’re a jerk.”

The smile turns into a smirk. “That’s w-why you love me.”

You receive another whack on the shoulder, and she proceeds to stare at the TV. You chuckle, used to this behavior by now, and return your own gaze to the television, the two of you falling into a familiar silence. And it didn’t take long before you find yourself holding her hand again.