AN – I am so sorry about not writing this in… well, forever. I'd like a reasonable excuse, like saying I'm just totally swamped with college stuff, but that's not really the case. I mean, yeah, I'm busy with applications and all that jazz, but the real time consumer, the one that sucked up my entire summer… is Homestuck (if you know what it is; sympathize with me. If you don't, get away while you still can). It basically just sucked me in and won't spit me back out. I had this chapter halfway done for the longest time, and considered posting it short as was, but decided against it.

Out on the Town

"Tell me again…" a frustrated Gold started the next day, pacing to keep up with his girlfriend, "…why are we doing this?"

Crystal sighed and ran a hand through her hair – she'd left it down for once, though she had a nagging suspicion that it would probably end up in its ubiquitous twin tails by the end of the day. "Because…" she ground out, "…while you may be fine with entrusting our relationship to a stranger, I am not. If you really expect me to go through with this, I need… I need to know her, at least a little bit. Okay…?"

Gold crossed his arms and sulked quietly, unable to argue such a point.

Beside him, Silver rolled his eyes and allowed a small smile to grace his lips. "He's just mad that you're making him waste his Saturday on this."

Crys giggled lightly and elbowed her grumbling beau lightly in the side. "Well, too bad. His big bad, mean girlfriend is forcing him to wake up early for a change."

They were right – if the young man had had his way, he'd be sleeping until at least ten. But to tell the two that would be incredibly stupid; at least they were in good moods for a change, and he'd rather not risk bringing them down with him.

So Gold, subtle, tactful genius that he is, changed the subject abruptly. Turning to the female of the trio, he whined, "Why is Silver coming along anyway, then? It's just between us and Blondie, after all…"

"She has a name," Crys reprimanded.

He sighed in exasperation. "Fine, whatever. Yellow. But that still doesn't answer my question!"

Casting an annoyed glance his way, she said airily, "I thought I'd make it a group outing, is all."

"Huh?"

Silver stepped in between the two and offered his two cents. "Not just our group, but also theirs. We're all meeting today. Just… getting to know each other. Right?"

Fingering one of the hair bands on her wrist, Crystal smiled and nodded, glad that at least one of the boys understood.

Gold scratched his head in confusion. "But why? I get that you want to properly meet Blon – Yellow, but why have us meet the whole gang? What's the point?"

The dark haired girl exhaled loudly and began snapping the band on her wrist. "Because, Gold, think about it – we'll be in contact with Yellow a lot, so odds are, we'll probably just end up moving over there for lunch. In which case, wouldn't it be so much easier if we already knew those we'll be sitting with?"

And her boyfriend, lovable, idiotic, infuriating person that he is, stared in incomprehension. "That's stupid. Did I really have to wake up for this?"

She was so putting her hair up after this.

"…And that's why you have to be on your best behavior and make good impressions, okay?" Blue finished, finger pointing accusingly at the two dumbstruck boys before her.

Green frowned, unimpressed, and crossed his arms. "We didn't need you to tell us that. We're not stupid; of course we know not to mess things up." Saying this, he shot a sidelong look at the fourth member of their party, who was currently off in her own little world, fretting and wearing circles in the ground with her pacing back and forth.

The girl huffed and resisted the urge to shake the man by his shoulders. "That's exactly what I'm talking about! You cannot be so anti-social around them, got it? At least try to make an effort at participation!"

Red recovered from the daze the speech had put him in and inquired, "Why is it so important to you, anyway? I mean, I get why Yellow's freaking out," at this all three chanced another glance at the girl, who had moved past simple nerves and was onto straightening her perfectly ironed clothes and messing with her clean, straight hair, worrying that they might not like her, "…but what's got you in such a fit?"

Blue rolled her eyes and huffed, "What, I'm not allowed to worry for Yellow's sake?"

The black-haired boy gave her a pointed look. "Well, yeah, there's that, but there's more to it… isn't there?"

She fought the urge to squirm under his gaze, cursing him for doing this to her. Honestly, that man! One minute he doesn't seem to understand me at all, and the next he's giving me that look, as if he sees right through me!

And under such intense scrutiny, she felt her cheeks heat up. Seeking to break eye contact, she turned sharply – this also had the added benefit of not allowing the infuriating boy to see her face, which was inexcusably red – and gathered her wits before hesitantly confiding, "…It's Silver, okay? He's one of my best friends. I've known him since I was five, and… and I just want you all to get along, alright? I don't want my friends to dislike each other…"

Even Yellow stopped worrying long enough to come up and give the girl a short, compassionate hug – embarrassing Blue to no end.

When she finally built up the nerve to turn around and face the boys, they both smiled – albeit Green only with his eyes. Red was giving her this look, one that seemed to say, "I understand" and "That's sweet" and "You're great" and… Shut up, brain!

Red conceded, "We'll be on our best behavior, okay? I promise. For you and Yellow both."

Blue smiled back before looking up at the sky, unable to keep looking at the boy as long as he had that look in his eyes. "That's all I ask."

Green simply watched the two, intrigued and suspecting more than ever due to the unpredictable girl's behavior.

And if he chose not to act any differently towards the newcomers by attempting to make nice and socialize, well… he'd made no promises.

They had all planned to meet at one of many restaurants in town (they chose the only one that happened to have a buffet, thinking that this way even the pickier eaters would find something to eat).

The colorful quartet arrived first, Blue in the lead, Yellow still fretting terribly, and occupied a large table with room to accommodate the newcomers.

When the trio arrived, Blue again took charge of the situation, standing and waving them over to the table. She gave Silver a smile as he sat down beside her, and he briefly returned it, giving her a curt nod.

Crystal greeted the blonde with a small smile, noting how worried the girl appeared, and hesitantly took a seat beside her. Gold slouched into his seat at the end of the table, unaware (or more likely, uncaring) of the stiff atmosphere.

Red sat up straighter in his seat and glanced around awkwardly at the group. "So…"

Crystal perked up and latched onto his utterance in the hope of distilling the tense feeling in the air. "So?"

He stared at her a moment before recovering and muttering, "Uh. O-okay! So, I'm Red, and the girl next to me is Blue. The guy staring holes into the tablecloth is Green. And of course you already know Yellow."

She gave a strained smile, thinking, not really… and said, "It's nice to meet you. My name is Crystal, the guy slumped into his chair— " here she paused to send the aforementioned boy a chastising glare "—is Gold, and the guy sitting next to your friend is Silver."

Red returned the simple courtesies, and the table promptly fell into silence once more. Blue and Silver whispered amongst themselves as the rest of the gang sat glancing at everyone else awkwardly.

Yellow finally gathered up the courage to say something, and looked to the girl beside her and stuttered, "U-um… maybe we should tell each other a bit about ourselves? Would that lighten the mood a little?"

Crystal gave her a relieved smile. "It certainly couldn't hurt. Okay, I'll start. Like I said, my name's Crystal, but my friends usually call me Crys. I grew up in Violet City. I met Gold and Silver when I was about… ten? I don't remember, really; it seems like they've always been there in my memories. Anyway… I'm a straight-A student, and I spend my summers doing volunteer work at the orphanage in town."

Blue tuned in to let out an appreciative whistle. "Wow. Sounds like you could give Yellow a run for her money in the whole 'I'm a perfect little angel' department. Makes me wonder how you could possibly be having relationship problems."

Red shot her a warning glance as Silver cracked, "It definitely makes it seem like Gold's the problem, right?"

The two shared the laugh of two familiar conspirators, and Gold was left spluttering in outrage.

Green sighed and rubbed at his forehead. This was going to be a long day. But then again… he reconsidered, smiling as the other two girls started giggling, and even Red couldn't keep a few chuckles from escaping, …maybe it will all work out, after all.

Gold just continued spewing his protests in the background, an angry rabble barely heard over the group of kids cracking up.

AN - Much like most of my stuff, I just feel like it deteriorated over time. More specifically, it gets bad around the time I stopped and returned way later. And, this was short, and, it didn't get really move the plot along, and... I'm thinking I might go back and make some changes to previous chapters, because looking back, I feel as if their quality isn't great, either (this is how I am; I like something enough to post it, but then immediately feel that it is horrible. It's a curse, I tell you!). I honestly have no idea how much time it will take for me to update this, but I'm not giving up on it just yet. Sorry again for the wait, and thanks so much for all the continued support! It really does help motivate me to keep going!