Sorry this chapter was so long in the making! Thanks for sticking around.

Your name is Aradia Megido and something is wrong with your best friend. It had been the first indication when Feferi wasn't answering your texts nor had she logged onto Pesterchum. The only time she had bad days, really, was on days she argued with Eridan, but even then it only lasted a few hours.

Finally she texts you in the afternoon, "Come over?". You answer, "je serai là dans un m0ment" and you are on your way. You arrive at the stately house promptly and knock on the door. After a long moment she answers, in a white slip over pink pajama bottoms, hair messy. But damn if she wasn't still pretty.

She steps forward and then wraps her arms around you, hugging tightly, and you hug back because you can tell how much she needs it. It's hard to believe that this is the same happy-go-lucky girl who was always smiling and tipped you enough to practically pay your rent entirely herself. After a moment you pull away and she motions you inside.

"Do you.. want something to drink?" She asks, rubbing at her eyes with the back of her hand.

"Do you have tea?" You answer and she nods. "I'll make it."

You look around her house momentarily as you head into the kitchen. It's pretty; light blue walls and ships and waves carved into the molding. Immaculate; it looks like the sort of house that someone had just moved into. There's a dining room, but in the corner of the kitchen by two windows is a sitting-table with two long pillows for seats. It's quiet as you make the tea. The house is big and spacious in an empty sort of way.

You sit down on other pillow and hand her her tea. She smiles at you, looking a lot more like her normal self. You smile back.

"Thanks."

"Of course." You pause. "What happened?"

"Me and Eridan… we kind of broke up."

"Kind of?"

"Definitely. Definitely broke up." Suddenly she's not smiling anymore, not even making an effort. Her eyes are glistening as she adds, "On Saturday."

Setting down your tea, you're not on the pillow anymore. You're next to her on her pillow, your arms wrapped around her. She's okay at first, but she starts to cry as she explains.

"Said I was.. 'holding him back', that… I was cheating on him… We hit each other and… And it's over…"

You don't say anything. You'd never seen her cry harder. You pull her head close to your heart where she can hear it beating, her tears staining your shirt. And at that moment, fully accepting everything you feel about her, you want to kiss her. You want to kiss her at her best or at her worst. You want to make her smile. She is your precious person, and you want to hold her close for eternity. You rest your head on top of hers, stroking her back with your fingers.

"I'm sorry," you whisper eventually, and you let her cry it out.

After a long time just sitting like that, she's stopped crying and you just hold her. You shakes a little with remnant sobs and you twirl your fingers into her hair. She's so warm and while she calms you note the freckles down the whole of her body, so cute, inviting you to trace them with your fingers. And you would. You would if you had the chance, but she is not yours to do so with.

"Thanks so much," she murmurs into your blouse, her hands reaching up almost aimlessly around your neck. A few fingertips land on your cheek and she looks up at you with a slight smile, then sniffs. "Thank you for being here for me, Aradia."

You take a moment to let your heart recover from the sight of that and you smile back. "What are friends for?" You answer.

Friends. You're so happy you met this wonderful girl. So happy to call her friend. Not ashamed to realize you are falling in love with her.

You don't know how long it's been, just sitting there in the kitchen like that, but by the time you actually let go of her and you both stretch and talk and laugh just a little in the light way when you're cheering someone up. Eventually you decide to leave, you suppose, and she gives you a quick hug on the way out. At some point it seemed that the afternoon had turned to evening, and you take a taxi to your apartment.

"Nepeta?" You call as you enter, hanging your key on the peg and closing the door. "Are you still awake?"

Out of nowhere, your roommate pounces on you, arms on your shoulders, legs around your torso. It knocks the wind out of you and makes you lose your balance, falling to the side onto a luckily-placed pile of pillows on the edge of the living area. You let out an 'oof' as you hit, Nepeta crawling off of you and rubbing at her head apologetically.

"I was just guarding the apurrtment – I thought you were gonna stay at Feferi's tonight," she confesses. You let out a breathless laugh, one of your cats moseying up to rub himself against you as you sit up.

"No, sorry," you answer with a slight smile, "I meant to leave a note."

"That's okay!" She responds with a shake of her head, grinning widely. "Look – hold on, I have to show you!"

She scampers off, nearly on all fours at first before pulling herself up on two legs. It was funny how animal-like she could be, you think to yourself, sprawling back on the pillows. Nepeta almost resembled the cats and dogs at the animal shelter where she volunteered.

After a moment she comes back with a camera, flopping down onto the pile with you and turning it on to show you the digital image of her and a familiar face. You'd only met Terezi once, but she was a promising law student with a strange eye condition, leaving her with alarming red, milky eyes that were almost entirely pupil, with very little sight. Still, she was a vibrant personality, just like Nepeta, and evidently they shared several things in common. The picture is of the two dressed in roleplaying outfits, taken from what was probably a video of them acting it out.

"You roleplayed with Terezi without me?" You ask her, raising an eyebrow. "I am offended."

"Sorry," she answers, and you shrug with a smile. "But look! Karkitty showed up, and we got him to play with us!" She changes the picture to the next, which is of Terezi and Karkat apparently swordfighting. Then the next, with Nepeta posed to roar at him. "He was a little crabby about it, but eventually he actually started having fun, I think!"

You chuckle as she pulls away the camera, looking down at it in her hands before she turns it off. Then she looks up at you with her eyes still vibrant even in the dark. "We're my OTP."

"One true pairing," you murmur, then you smile back at her. "I think that if he doesn't like you, he's really missing out."

"I wish he would like me – then both of my two favorite pairings could be coming true!" At your questioning look, she elaborates. "You and Fefurry, and me and Karkitty."

You lay back on the pillows and close your eyes with a sigh. When normally you'd argue that you and Feferi were friends, this time you just embrace the familiar and comforting darkness behind your eyelids, a slight smile on your lips. "I can only hope," you tell her, and that's the most honest thing you've said today.