I'm not stupid I see through it

[pythianjudgment]

Who| Terezi and Karkat
What| Karkat's being less than anonymous, and Terezi figures this conversation is long overdue.
Where| D1
When| After a really dumb anonymous conversation
Warnings/Notes| None?


Terezi has spent a lot of time pondering this conundrum. One on hand, Karkat's insistence in meddling with her love life has become something of a massive sore spot for her. The less she involves him in her quadrants, the better as far as she can tell.

On the other hand, he's under the assumption that she and Dave are still dating--and making his usual passive aggressive quips about it. This is not only annoying, but it worries her that it might swing things back into the awkward zone between them. And she certainly doesn't want that.

She's been caught between this rock and a hard place for a while now, but finally... finally, it's time to set the record straight, she thinks. Maybe she can find a way to make this quick and painless. Like a band-aid, right?

Terezi heads down to D1, lingering around in the common room before deciding to check his respite block. She's half-tempted to leave a note on the door for him to find, but that's stupid and childish and she doesn't have any paper on hand anyway. Or a pen.

Eventually, she knocks.

Comments

[sleeplessinalternia]

"They're not ridiculous assumptions!" Karkat says, throwing his hands up in the air for emphasis. "Maybe you've forgotten, but I did the human male dating thing too! And it crashed and burned like a fucking inflatable bladder flying vehicle and then he died with like fifty fucking things left unsaid between us and maybe I just want to make sure that Strider wasn't being stupid in the way that Bert used to be stupid because... fuck, I don't know! Humans are stupid and fucked up and I know Strider and Lalonde were pretty fucking decent for humans when we were on that fucking meteor but we also outnumbered them two to one so they couldn't, like, put all their stupid and gross human expectations on us."

He folds his arms in front of him. "And I have been worrying about my own shit. I spent perigees worrying about it and trying my fucking best not to interfere with you and Strider or you and that fucking shitbag Fraysong and okay, fine, I fucked up this time, but I have been fucking trying, okay. But whatever. It's not like you ever notice when I do make an effort for you, only when I fuck it all up."

[pythianjudgment]

"They are stupid assumptions, Karkat! You're taking one experience with a human and assuming that they might all be like that! Despite having lived with them for who knows how long, and they never once acted like that."

She wants to shake him until he understands, she's so frustrated with all of this. It feels like something that's been going on forever, and she doesn't know how to stop it.

"You're wrong. I do notice when you try for me. All the times that I want you to, but especially all the times that I don't. You're my friend, Karkat, but that's it. You're not entitled to know about my quadrants or to judge if the people I hang out with are good enough, or to make guesses at how truthful I'm being about my break ups. It's not your business, and I need you to stop. I need you to respect me enough to back off when I want you to."

[sleeplessinalternia]

He wants to keep shouting, but what's the use? Nothing he can say will change the facts that he fucked up things with her forever and everything he does just compounds it.

Why can't he back off? What's wrong with him? Why can't he just be happy to be her friend? Why does he have to be so fucking hung up about her? It's like he's stuck like this, in this stupid emotional fuckup land, where he can't get over her and can't let her go as long as there's the tiniest chance that maybe, someday, she will take him back again.

Maybe the only way he can stop being a shithead and get over her is to kill that chance.

"Your friend." His shoulders slump. "I... can you promise me that's all we'll ever be? Swear it on... fuck, I don't know. Justice. Can you do that for me? Because I need to be able to give up on you to back off and I can't if there's a chance... if there's even a little chance we'll be able to go back to before everything... I'm not going to be able to do it. I'm not going to stop wanting to get involved and I'll slip again. So I need you to help me give up."