#nltverse

The second time you have flowers and a mix-tape, and Terezi keeps her hand stuck over her mouth as she stares at you in disbelief. You’ve been hanging out a lot recently, since she found out you like video games and you found out she has a house that isn’t run by a madman with a puppet fetish. It’s been a while, and you’ve been getting on well, so you figured it was time to interrupt tonight’s regular schedule with Dave Strider Is An Idiot, Part Two: Now In Technicolour.

Rez has the amazing ability to judge you with the power of her gaze alone. You think you feel the flowers wilting when you do.

“No.” She shakes her head, but she’s smiling, and her voice is light. “Try again, numbnuts.”

“What am I gonna do with these flowers?” You mumble, embarrassed, and she grins.

You make each other flower crowns that you wear like a champion, and somehow it isn’t as awkward as you thought it’d be, even when she puts the mix-tape on and sings it all into her hairbrush at the top of her voice.

Three times is probably ridiculous, and you both know that.

She takes the note from you in class after the teacher finishes informing her that playing with chalk is for children, and instead of ticking yes or no, she draws herself hanging dragons all over the paper and puts a tick in the middle of the gap between the boxes.

You keep the note safely tucked away, not blushing at all.

Vriska tells you to give up, and you tell her you will the moment Rez just says no.

Fourth time and you’ve got this insist to yourself, as her assembled dragons - the gaps in her collection marked with little RESERVED signs - observe you quaking in your boots and facing down the head of the High Court of Pyrope with a box of chocolates.

You’re found guilty and made to eat every single sweet in the box, and crawl home to Bro whining that you never want to eat another strawberry fondant again.

As you finish burning the last of the shitty rap-poems that marked your fifth attempt, you hear the tell-tale grind and squeak of Tavros attempting to sneak up on you, and wave over your shoulder at him. He sighs and comes up next to you, looking at the smouldering paper with a shake of his head.

“You know,” he starts, waving his hands around his lap, “it seems like, uh, you’ve been doing a lot of stuff... from a list? Um. All the normal stuff. Like in a film.”

“Isn’t that what works on chicks?”

He stares at you.

“Okay, jeez. What do you suggest, then? Ain’t gonna sweep her off her feet with a crayon drawing of us holding hands like I did you, am I?”

“No, but, that’s my point, sort of? That picture was... for me. You knew I liked pictures, and used my favourite colours for, uh, everything. You aren’t doing anything for her, though. Just things, well, for you.”

Despite his impediment, he forces it all out determinedly, though he stares into the blackened paper as he does so. He’s a genius, you think idly, as you scramble up and clap your hands on his cheeks so you can smack a big kiss on his forehead.

“You’re the best, Tav,” you ramble, already halfway through ideas and plans and dammit Bro answer the phone- “The best. What would I do without you? Probably float in a sea of bullshit and self-pity until the SS Vriska Serket swept in and plundered my emotional booty to blackmail me with, or- Oh hey Bro, yeah, listen, I need a favour--”

Tavros watches you go, sighing and smiling to himself. You don’t notice him gather up the remains of the paper, and giggle as he reads it, fondly shaking his head.

“Where are we going?”

Rez nudges you with her cane, and you waves it off, shifting the bag under your arm. You don’t want to know how Bro knew the exact spot the security cameras don’t cover in the mall, but you’re glad he did. Leading her to it is easy, and so is convincing her to hide there with you, despite the way she looks at you with the utmost suspicion.

“The mall’s gonna close soon,” she whispers, watching you rifle around in your bag. “You don’t intend to break some rules, do you, Mister Strider? The eyes of the law wouldn’t look kindly on that. Why, if I had the materials to write you up right here and now-”

She stops short when you offer her the black paper and chalks you just pulled out of your bag, eyebrows rising. You clear your throat.

“Wouldn’t let a good servant of the law go without her shit,” you explain in a slightly hoarse voice. She takes the box first, opening it and whispering about the fact you put in extra red, before her fingers close around the pad of black paper and she feels the stock of it critically.

“Is it okay?” You watch with your heart in your ears, and Rez carefully slips out a stick of red, licking the tip slowly before she draws her face on the page.

She adds a smile as her own grin spreads, more muted than normal.

“It’s perfect,” she replies happily, and relief floods you. You watch her draw out a trial scene, and what you’re pretty sure is you with a noose around your neck, but her smiles and giggles are worth it. She doodles away the time until all outside is quiet and still, and you pull out your flashlight and start leading the way out and across the mall floor, stealthy enough Bro would weep tears of pride.

Terezi gasps as you present the soft play to her, unguarded and empty of children, a multicoloured haven for the two of you alone. Carefully, you balance your flashlight among the netting to light it up, and then set your things aside while she whoops and dives into the ball pit, emerging a moment later grinning like a shark.

“Dave!” She claps, bobbing her way back over to you, “Dave this is great! I’m almost  excited enough to forget the fact we’re illegally trespassing, but that will be a charge you face before my court at a later point, don’t worry.”

”Speaking of that-” You duck back to your bag, straightening with a bundle wrapped in the most garish paper you and Bro could find. You hand it down to her with a shrug, glad the dark covers up just how red you are, and the light shows you just how excited she seems.

She carefully tears it open, and as you swipe up the trash before she leaves evidence behind, Terezi squeals so loud you’re amazed no alarms go off.

“This is a limited edition red-eyed Pyralsprite! These are really rare, how did you...” She turns it around in her hands, before licking it affectionately and holding it to her chest. “Thank you! Holy shit, Dave...”

You clear your throat, but before you can say anything, Terezi is looking straight at you with her pretty pale eyes and reaching out to hold your hand.

“Wanna go out with me, Cherry Coolkid?”

For a moment, as you stand in the abandoned mall at 1am with no idea how you’ll get out or what to do if you’re caught, with a bag full of chalk drawings of your own demise and this clearly insane girl sitting in front of you in a pit full of bright rainbow balls, the world is perfect.