"Terezi, Terezi, hey," Karkat moved as soon as he saw her tears fall, reaching to wipe them away—as he should have done, every other time he’d made her cry in the past couple of months, but at least this time he could finally do something about it. “Don’t—don’t cry," he murmured, unsure how exactly to help her. “Listen, you’ll never have to be on the outside again, okay?" Pausing, he scooted closer to her, touching his forehead to hers in an effort to comfort her before he moved back a bit. “Things won’t be how they were the first time; I’m not gonna fuck up again, and if I start to, then tell me, and I’ll fix it. We’re not stupid little kids anymore, right? We can… we can be mature and we can talk about things now…"
Karkat sighed, trying to gather his thoughts and give Terezi and semi-decent response—he owed her one, especially after the praise she’d given him. Such bullshit, really; you’d have to be in love with Karkat to think that about him, he supposed. “Do you really want to just… not try? If… If we’ve loved each other all this time, don’t you think we’re both always going to want to be more than friends? As often as I said I was over you, I still… noticed when you would flirt with other people, and I didn’t like it, I just kind of… learned to ignore that I didn’t like it. Maybe stuff with me didn’t bother you after Jade but… look, I just… I feel like we’re supposed to end up together. I think that if we have problems, we’ll be able to work through them. If we were supposed to move on, we would have by now, right? And I don’t think we should let… the fear of messing up stop us, because we could be happy, together, you know? I’m tired of letting fear stop me, and I’ve never known you to be afraid, Terezi," he smiled, touching his forehead to hers again. “I think we can do it. Do you want to try?" Karkat pulled back again, sliding his thumb under her eyes to catch any more tears while he waited for her answer.
Terezi's eyes automatically slid shut at the hand on her cheek, breathing more steadily at the support it offered. In turn, she rested her hand on Karkat's arm, reluctant for him to move away. Karkat's arguments made sense, although it wasn't really an argument--reassurances, she corrected. They were older now, and had probably already made every mistake in the book--wasn't it easier that they'd already got that other and done with? They were talking now too, as if they finally had more to grasp to than a fleeting moment of maturity. They'd spoken a lot before the Gamzee incident too, and Terezi couldn't think of a problem or issue that she hadn't addressed with Karkat. Maybe most importantly--based on their previous relationship--Karkat had been honest with her too, talking about his own issues and hang-ups.
Even if Terezi was sure that some of Karkat's speech was deep-rooted in unrealistic expectations from movies and books, there was some truth to it. They'd both never truly gotten over each other, and nine times out of ten she could be found in Karkat's company. He was right on even more accounts--since when had she been afraid? She wasn't on the meteor anymore, and even if she was, Karkat had wanted to help back then. Sighing softly into Karkat's hand, Terezi berated herself once more, they really could have been happy a long time ago. But crying wasn't going to solve anything, especially when the problems had already been solved.
Finalizing her resolve, Terezi brought her hand up to curl around the one on her face, briefly enjoying the warmth of it before she finally smiled again. "Yeah," she nodded, remembering to open her eyes again. "Let's try," Terezi smiled wider, letting her hands fall from their positions and instead moving them to Karkat's face. She leaned her forehead back against his and breathed in the familiar pavement cherry smell, almost all-but forgotten with how distant they'd been with fighting. It was easy to pull back a little, tilting her head just enough to softly kiss Karkat--testing the waters, as it were. "Missed that," she breathed, smile quirking back to it's usual grin.
