[Here I am posting more fluff I wrote. Originally written on my wp blahblah.

Maybe I Love You by Lenka.]

Maybe I love you, Maybe I do. Maybe this feeling inside me is true.

You find yourself staring at the ceiling, reminiscing the events of today's prom. It was ironic, taking your best bro's ectobiological sis to prom. The person Karkat said you're supposed to marry (the moment he said that to your face was followed by a subsequent flipping off).

Now that SBURB is over and the world's generally okay, there's no reason for Karkat's stupid pairing. It was all ironic, you repeat to yourself. Even with your hands on her waist and her arms around your neck, as she giggled about your obstinacy in removing your shades. Then she left, dancing alone in the midst of couples, twirling like there was no tomorrow.

And if I love you.

Even your heart was ironic, beating just a bit faster at the sight of her.

And if I do.

Yep. Bro sure would be proud of the layers of irony.

Then maybe, baby, maybe you'll love me too.

You're standing on her doorstep the next day, your left hand held just in front of the door, the other holding a bouquet of flowers. That's what friends do, right? Give each other flowers after a date, you mean, prom. It's made more ironic by the fact that you spent a hundred bucks on this monster of a bouquet, with all sorts of fancy roses (is there such a thing?) and whatnot. You want her to be used to the flora of the mainland, seeing as she did grow up in an island and all. That's all there is to it.

I knew I liked you, I knew I cared
And I knew that something was brewing in the air

Your hand's still in the air, for maybe ten minutes now. It's not because you're afraid of her reaction or anything, it's just another ironic thing you do. Waiting for the girl to answer instead of knocking yourself because…ironies and stuff. The level of irony has shot so far into the sky, you've run out of explanations for it. You simply stare at the magnificent block of irony that is yours.

And then a scream reaches your ears, and you push open the door and rush into the house, which now that you think about it (not that you were distracted or anything) is more like a tower than anything else. In the room is a lone transportalizer you jump onto. Green light surrounds you and you feel like your insides have been ripped to shreds, thrown in a blender, and pieced back together again. You end up in a room full of stuffed animal heads. It doesn't faze you, but another scream does.

You transportalize again, this time into Jade's garden atrium. It's filled with flowers that change color and a stunning lack of pumpkins, the beauty of which you have no time to marvel at. Jade screams again, and it sounds close. You whirl around, your katana at the ready, eager to fight some baddies.

You only see Bec licking Jade's face, and she's screaming and lying on the floor and laughing and man don't you look like an idiot right now. The flowers are gone too, you note with annoyance; must've dropped it in your anxiety to get here.

"Jegus, Harley, I told you you should put that fucking devilbeast out of it's misery already," you say.

"Dave?" Jade tries to stop laughing and pushes Bec away. She stands up and fixes the glasses that have fallen slightly down the bridge of her nose. "I could never hurt an innocent creature."

"Even if that creature was mainly the fault our session screwed up in the first place? Why is he still here anyway?"

"Who knows," she says with a smile, ruffling Bec's fur. "I still don't understand what happened, but I'm just glad Bec's here." Bec licks her face again, causing Jade to erupt in a fit of giggles. "At least he's normal now, and not that fuckass Bec Noir."

Part of you softens a bit, the other's proud that she swears now. "You're sure he's not there anymore?"

"Absolutely."

"What if there's still a part of him there? Just waiting for you to be fine and dandy and then suddenly springing on you like some Vriska who hasn't murdered anybody in a month?"

"Dave! You don't have to worry. I think I can take care of myself after all that." Your lip quirks at this. "Also, Vriska's really nice. She and John are getting along perfectly fine."

"Ugh, don't remind me. Just another mad bitch who got called back to life by some ungodly force intent on torturing us all."

"Haha, you're so mean, Dave! Why are you here anyway?"

"Was just in the neighborhood – damn house you got here by the way, Harley. And I heard you scream."

"So you…" Jade paused, a twinkle in her eyes. "Came to my rescue?" She fluttered her eyelashes and clasped her hands together. You struggled to maintain a poker face. You will not say that you think she's cute.

"Yeah I'm your knight in shining armor."

"The knight that came just in…TIME!" She waggles her eyebrows at you and grins, buckteeth showing.

You groan at the remark. "Well fuck. Least you ain't worse than Egbert. He'd crack jokes that'd make me barf, and you know I don't do such uncool stuff."

"So coooool," she says, pretending to swoon. You allow yourself a little laugh. Your teen moments seemed so long ago. Back when you liked Jade just a little bit more than friends, whoa wait where did that come from. A little warmth comes to your cheeks, and you figure that you should leave before you embarrass yourself.

"Bye, Harley." You turn around, heading to the transportalizer.

You're already there when she says, "Come back soon, Dave! We should hang out more!"

"'Course," you say, but you're not sure she heard.

When you get to the ground floor, you see the flowers on the floor. You pick them up and store them in your sylladex.

As you leave the house, you find yourself wishing that she didn't let you leave.

But maybe I love you, maybe I do
Maybe this feeling inside me is true
And if I love you, and if I do
Then maybe baby maybe you love me too

It's been a week since the incident. You've chalked up your wanting Jade to let you stay in her house as normal, friendly concern for her. You remember the time you died during the game. When you woke up afterwards as your dream self, you kept worrying whether she was alright. You knew you had to die, but what if your death had it's own repercussions to her safety? That was the last time you were going to let weird time shit decide your fate. Paradoxes and doomed timelines be damned, you weren't going to leave her alone a second time.

Yep. That's a reasonable and platonic explanation.

You're currently wandering around the neighborhood. It was a decent neighborhood, you guess. Rose and John are living here too, despite the absurd enormity of Rose's house. Though you couldn't let Jade's tower thing pass too. And the troll's hives. Man, you've never realized that you lived in such a screwed up place

Suddenly you find yourself in a park, and what the hell, you roll with it and start strolling in the place

You see some of your friends hanging out by a huge tree. And by some you mean all of them, even the trolls. They're huddling around, whispering excitedly. You get curious and walk over to them.

"'Sup guys."

They greet you in their varying ways, Karkat with some elaborate swearing mixed in, Eridan with his stupid wwavvy accent, and you stopped paying attention.

"What's going on here?"

They stare at you blankly, Karkat looking at you with such murderous rage that if you didn't know better, you'd think he was vying to be your kismesis. "Dave, you really forgot?" John says, wide-eyed and looking incredulous.

"Forget what?"

"It's Jade's birthday tomorrow!"

Ohshitohshitohshit. You idiot. You fucking idiot.

"Oh. I knew that."

"I believe that the slight pause which preceded your answer could prove you wrong," Rose says with a raised eyebrow. Stupid psychoanalyst sister. "You could also throw in the fact that you're as red as your eyes."

"Must be the ketchup I spilled on my cheeks earlier." What just came out of your mouth. That was so…uncool. Bro would kill you ironically for it. Holy shit what's happening to you.

Rose's mouth twitches. You sense that she wants to smirk but is trying not to. "Anyway, we were all discussing what to get for Jade. She's having a party tomorrow, unless you forgot that too."

"Fuck you, why would I forget one of my best friends' parties." Of course you did forget, so you're mentally whacking your head against a brick wall.

Oh, she was positively smirking now. You've never admitted something like that before. "So, would you like to discuss with us?"

Your mind's spinning. You have to do something. Something special. You will not be upstaged by your fourteen other friends, which just now occurs to you to be a daunting task. "No, I've got something planned," you say.

Now everyone's smirking. You hurriedly leave, not wanting to be interrogated or psychoanalyzed. Vaguely you hear them placing bets on what you will or won't do. Your coolness keeps coming up, something about preventing you from doing what you want to.

Bullshit, you say.

You spend the rest of the day meandering around. You've decided that you wouldn't buy her a present early on, you wanted to make her something, or do something, instead of getting her a store-made object. How about giving her a mix? Nah. You've done that as gifts in the past, you want this to be different, special.

Maybe make her feel like she makes you feel? a little voice inside you whispers.

You swat that voice away, but it gets you thinking. How does she make you feel?

Her honesty makes you think that maybe it's okay to be sincere, that you don't need to wall yourself in.
Her optimism makes you think that, hey, maybe seemingly impossible things can actually happen.
Her personality makes you think, wow, this is such a great and sweet girl, and I want her to be mine.

Holy jegus you did not just think that. Oh, the remarks Rose would make, about wanting something that isn't yours and the missing piece of the puzzle and blahblahblah. And you find yourself suddenly not caring, that fuck her and what everyone else thinks. Who cares that to an average reader, this is cliche, you'll do what you want.

I wasn't feeling quite like myself
And something inside me was sitting on the shelf
But then you swam into my heart
And now the good stuff starts

Today's Jade's birthday, and you're all in her living room, which is decked out with fancy looking tables arranged in a circle and confetti and all the party stuff. All of them. There's even a huge stage at the very end of the room, where multi-colored spotlights are directed. You wonder how this was pulled off, then you laugh. This is nothing compared to the game.

The lights go off, save for a solitary spotlight at the center of the stage. Fog starts creeping along the edges, and there's an explosion of colors and smoke. Jade is at the center of the stage, wearing what looks to be her Eclectica dress, but…better. It's a gown now, layers upon layers covered with shimmering fabric. Her long hair is as wild as ever, but you think it looks great on her.

"Hey guys, you ready to party?"

And you all partied, eating food served by iguanas, salamanders, crocodiles, and turtles, chugging various liquids (Gamzee chugged Faygo with Eridan, the Mayor did TaB). During that time you were too anxious, watching the clock tick down. It's still ten minutes till gift giving starts.

When the ten minutes are up, your heartbeats outnumber the seconds that passed. As of the moment it's still pounding in your chest, although you do your best to keep a poker face.

Jade's sitting on a makeshift throne in the center of the stage. Everyone lines up to present their gifts, except you. Jade didn't notice your absence yet, she's squealing at a gun that looks like a cross between Ahab's Crosshairs and the Fluorite Octet. Soon enough everyone finishes their turn and heads back to their seats. That's the only time you stand.

You head to the stage and pick up the microphone that's situated in the center, directly facing Jade. You tap it a bit to get the attention of everyone in the room. Then you speak: "'Sup everyone. Since I realized everything that comes out of my mouth are practically insults and shit–"

"Damn right," Karkat says. The rest are disagreeing with your statement.

"–and I didn't want to just buy a gift or alchemize some shit–" You get a bit nervous, thinking that your swearing's ruining the moment, but that's a part of you so you just carry on. "–I wanted to do a little something for the birthday girl."

You snap your fingers, and a song starts to play. You retrieve the flowers from the hash modus, battered as they are, and present it to her like it's the most fantastic treasure of all. "Remember when I was at your house, Jade?"

Yeah maybe I love you, maybe I do

"I was gonna give this to you." She takes the flowers with a little grin and puts it in her modus.

Maybe this feeling inside me is true

"Don't you mind that it's messed up? Pretty much like me?" you ask.

And if I love you, and if I do

"You're messed up?" She sounds like the idea's never occurred to her. "You're just…you. And I like that."

Oh then maybe, baby, maybe you love me too.

You hold your hand out for Jade, and, blushing fiercely, she takes it. You unceremoniously jump to the floor; she follows you with a laugh.

You twirl her around as befits the song, dancing in the space provided by the circle of tables. Both of you dance great, which you attribute to plain awesomeness, since you both never practiced this song. It just…worked. For reasons you couldn't explain, your bizarre idea worked.

For a few minutes, there isn't anyone else in the room. There aren't tables the pair of you sometimes hit, because honestly the space isn't that big and you can't be perfect dancers. (Okay fine maybe you exaggerated the earlier moment just a bit.)

There's only you and her.

When the song's nearing it's end, she's leaning her chin against your shoulders, and you're just rocking around in a sort of weird hug. You start singing the lyrics in her ear.

"How can I know for sure
That you and I are meant for something more
And I oh, I have to go on this, this feeling inside
And I hope that I am, I hope that I am right."

You look at her, she smiles at you, and your heart flutters. You continue:

"Maybe I love you, maybe I do
Maybe this feeling inside me is true
And if I love you, and if I do
Oh then maybe baby maybe you love me
Maybe baby maybe you love me
Maybe baby maybe you love me too."

The song ends. You don't want to let go, but you have to. Everyone is more or less cheering for the two of you; Rose is saying something like, "Pay up." But you couldn't care less.

You lean in towards Jade and plant a kiss on her lips.

"Now that wasn't ironic," you say.