Gamzee put the finishing touches on his face paint. Putting away the remaining paint, he stared at his reflection. 'Tonight.' He thought. 'I'm gonna do it tonight.' Nervousness tickled his stomach. The sensation felt weird and a small giggle escaped his lips.

"Hey, jackass, stop hogging the bathroom. Some of us need to use it too." An angry voice said loudly from the doorway. Gamzee turned and saw his best friend standing there, glaring at him.

"Sorry, Karkat. My mind must've gotten away from me." He smiled at the shorter boy.

"When isn't it away from you?" Karkat grumbled. He stormed in and shoved Gamzee out. "Now get out. I have to pee."

Kicked out of the bathroom, Gamzee ambled back to his room and plopped down at his desk. His computer was on and open to some rap video. Whatever song had been playing was over though. With not much else to do at the moment he opened pesterchum. A few people were on, but not the one person he was really hoping for. Sighing, he leaned back in his chair, his head lolling over the back, when a familiar ping sounded.

grimAuxiliatrix begain pestering terminallyCapricious

GA: Hello.
GA: I Hear You Are Planning To Talk To Him Soon?
TC: HeY
TC: NoW wHeRe'D yOu HeAr ThAt?
TC: BuT yEaH i Am
GA: Karkat Can Be Particularly Talkative Sometimes. Especially When He Is Riled Up About Something.
GA: Which, I Admit, Is A Lot Of The Time.
GA: I Believe I Am The Only One Who Knows, However. And I Have Not Told Anyone Else Your Plans Either.
TC: HaHa. FiGuReS iT wAs HiM. I gUeSs I hAvE bEeN dRiViNg HiM uP a WaLl WiTh AlL tHiS.
GA: I Doubt That You Have. It Seems That He Is Merely Worried About You. You Know How He Gets.
TC: YeAh, I kNoW
GA: So, Are You Going To Talk To Him Tonight?
TC: I wAs PlAnNiNg On It, iF eVeRyThInG gOeS oK. JuSt GoTtA bElIeVe In A mIrAcLe.
GA: Yes, I Suppose You Do. I Hope Everything Goes Well For You.
TC: SpEaKiNg Of GoInG wElL…
TC: HoW aRe YoU aNd SpIdErSiS?
GA: …
GA: We Are Doing Better.
GA: In Fact, We Are Going Out Soon Before Tonight's Festivities. Which I Trust You Will Be At?
TC: Of CoUrSe!
TC: WoUlDn'T mIsS iT fOr ThE mOtHeRfUcKiNg WoRlD! :O)
GA: Good.
GA: Well, Vriska Is Waiting For Me. I Have To Go Now.
GA: Good Luck Tonight.
TC: ThAnKs. GoOd LuCk WiTh SpIdErSiS.
GA: Thank You.

grimAuxiliatrix ceased pestering terminallyCapricious
terminallyCapricious ceased pestering grimAuxiliatrix

He closed out the chat window. The person he wanted to talk to still wasn't on he noticed, but he wasn't concerned. There was going to be plenty of time tonight to talk to him. Well, he hoped there would be. Everyone else was going to be there tonight too. That could make things difficult. He would just have to hope for the best. Like he told Kanaya, just gotta believe in a miracle.

Unfortunately, there were still many hours between now and then. At least he had Karkat to distract him. That would make the day a little more bearable. Normally he was more than happy to patiently wait for something good or exciting to happen, letting the Universe work its magic, but not for this. The nervousness he had felt in the bathroom tickled at him again, this time unpleasantly. He slumped out of his chair onto the floor and squirmed to try to make the feeling go away. It didn't work.

"Uh, so when you're done doing…whatever it is you're doing, you wanna get your ass up and come get Terezi with me?" He heard Karkat say. Gamzee glanced up through his bangs to look at him.

"Sure. I'm always down with seeing my red loving sis. What sort of miraculous shit we gonna be doing?"

"Shopping. We're responsible for bringing food to this thing tonight, remember? And we got nothing in the fucking house. Come one, let's go."

"Terezi, do you have any goddamn idea what you're putting into the fucking cart?"

"Something tasty I bet!"

"We're in the cleaning supply aisle! What in god's name would be tasty here? Seriously!"

Terezi just laughed. Karkat huffed and pushed the cart forward. Gamzee followed behind, smiling to himself as he listened to the two of them go back and forth. He didn't really hear what they were saying; rather letting their tones wash over him while his mind wandered.

"Hey, what're you doing back here? You're gonna get left behind!" Terezi latched onto his arm and grinned up at him with her fangy smile.

"Nah, I won't. Karbro up there wouldn't do something like that." Gamzee replied, to which Karkat muttered "fuck yes I would."

Terezi chuckled at her boyfriend before sniffing the air around Gamzee. "Your grape jelly smell seems a little off today. You wouldn't happen to be in some sort of trouble, would you?" Her voice got serious.

Gamzee laughed, hoping that would assure her. "Nope, no trouble. You don't gotta worry yourself about me." Terezi stared at him through the red lenses of her glasses. It was always a little unnerving when she did that, somehow being able to look directly into your eyes despite not being able to see herself. He could understand her concern though; a few years ago he probably would have been in some sort of trouble. Getting mixed up with drugs can do that to a guy. But that wasn't it this time. "Trust me, sis, it ain't nothing like it used to be. I'm just all up and thinking about tonight, that's all."

"Well…ok. I know it's more than that. It takes more than worrying about a party to make your jelly go weird, but I'll let it go for now." She released his arm and stalked back up to Karkat, giving his neck a big lick while he wasn't looking, which resulted in a stream of expletives from him.

The rest of the shopping went much like it had before. Karkat would try to be serious and get what they needed, Terezi would put random items in the cart and generally screw with Karkat, and Gamzee just followed with a smile on his face. Though he was still worrying about later that night, the trip did take his mind of it a little.

The distraction of his friends wonderfully continued when they got back to his and Karkat's place. Terezi insisted Gamzee bake something for tonight and with little resistance he agreed. Karkat threw a small fit, saying that he had just cleaned the kitchen and there was no way he was going to let them dirty it so soon afterward. He was promptly shooshed and papped by Gamzee. Scowling, but unable to really do anything, he stomped into the living room and put a movie on. Terezi, meanwhile, got out what they needed to bake, having asserted that she was going to help.

It took longer than usual to make the pie, what with Terezi "helping", but it was fun and Gamzee didn't mind. While it was cooling on the counter they joined Karkat in the other room to watch his movie with him. As expected, it was one of his many romantic comedies. When that one was over, Karkat put in another and went to make popcorn. Which, in retrospect, was probably a bad idea since Gamzee and Terezi spent a good amount of time throwing popcorn at each other and Karkat instead of watching the movie, much to their friend's annoyance.

After a while Terezi said she needed to get home and get ready for tonight. Karkat grumbled but took his girlfriend home with minimal complaint. Gamzee knew he didn't put up any more fight because they were going to see each other at the party. Normally Karkat protested up a storm when Terezi said she had to go somewhere else. It was kind of cute.

With Karkat and Terezi gone, there was nothing to do anymore. Gamzee figured he should get ready for tonight as well, but he was pretty much done with that. Even if there were plans for tonight, he didn't see any reason to get done up all special or anything. Especially if things didn't go well. No, what he was wearing now would work either way. Once again he felt that annoying anxiety. This time, however, there wasn't really anything to distract him from it. All he could do was hug a pillow from the couch for dear life and try to push the feeling away. That was how Karkat found him when he got back.

"Hey, are you ok?" Karkat's usual harshness was softened at the sight of his clearly distraught best friend. "I keep telling you, you're overthinking it. It's gonna be fine. You're gonna tell him, he's gonna accept, and you'll be in gay fucking heaven. That's how it's gonna go. Nothing to worry about."

Gamzee nodded mutely into the pillow. Karkat was probably right, he probably was overthinking this. But there was that small voice in the back of his head that kept reminding him that he might be rejected and not be in, as Karkat put it, gay fucking heaven. He glanced up at Karkat, who was looking away at some spot on the wall, brows furrowed and chewing viciously on his fingernails, something he did when he was worrying a thought over in his head. Gamzee unfurled himself from the pillow to stand up and ruffle Karkat's hair. The shorter boy made a growling noise in the back of his throat, but did nothing to stop him.

"Thanks for worrying about me, motherfucking best friend." He planted a small kiss on top of his head, earning himself another growl. "How much time we got before we have to up and leave for this thing?"

Karkat peeked at his watch. "About two hours."

"Bitchtits. Enough time to make another pie. You wanna help? Might make it go faster."

"You know goddamn well I can't bake worth shit, ass. No, I'm gonna shower. The fucking AC broke in the car and I'm fucking disgusting and sweaty."

"Sure thing, bro. You go get your clean on and I'll be here making pie."

Pie was made and Karkat was clean. The food was packed in a cooler with plenty of ice and waiting to be put in the car. They were just waiting for Gamzee to put on clean clothes; somehow he managed to make a royal mess while making the second pie, resulting in flour everywhere, including on the baker.

He had had every intention of not making any particular effort to look nice, but now that he was faced with putting on new clothes, Gamzee felt his resolve wavering. He stood in front of his closet with nothing put his boxers on, trying to decide what he should do. He didn't have a lot of "nice" clothes, but if he were going to go down that road he could do better than jeans and a t-shirt. But did he want to? Not really. Sighing, he settled on (nicer) blue jeans and a (somewhat nice) purple t-shirt when Karkat yelled angrily down the hall for him to hurry up.

They piled themselves and everything into the car, which indeed did have broken AC now, and made their way to the park where the party was taking place. Karkat drove, Gamzee have never gotten around to getting a license. He idled that maybe he should someday, if for any reason than to take the stress of driving away from Karkat whose rage seemed to rise exponentially every time he got into a car.

They got to the park with Karkat cursing the existence of every other driver to have ever existed. A few of their friends were already there, setting things up.

"Karkitty! Gamzee!" Nepeta cried as she poucegreeted them.

"Nepeta that is hardly an acceptable way to greet someone." Equius admonished as he walked up. He nodded briefly at the two new arrivals and took the cooler from them. Nepeta stuck her tongue out at him as he walked away.

"So, how are you guys doing? It feels like it's been ages since I've seen either of you!" She nuzzled against Karkat as she spoke. Equius called her over to help with something before they had a chance to reply though. "Sorry…" she said apologetically. She winked at them before flouncing away.

"Seems like they haven't changed much." Karkat grumbled. He sighed, an aggravated huffy sound. "We should help. That is our food and all." He stomped over to the others, Gamzee following. Along with Nepeta and Equius, Feferi was there to help with set-up. She glubbed them a greeting.

Not too long after Karkat and Gamzee had showed up others began arriving. Vriska and Kanaya came first, holding hands and generally acting like a couple; Gamzee took it that their date went well and things were all right between them for now. Eridan was a close second arrival. Karkat left soon after that to pick up Terezi. By the time his best bro came back Gamzee was starting to get anxious. Aradia and Sollux weren't there yet and they were bringing a certain someone. Gamzee prayed to every mirthful messiah out there that they were coming tonight, hoping they were just running late or something.

By the time the sun had set the party was in full swing. Everyone was eating and talking. Equius had set up a game of horseshoes, which of course Vriska turned into a competition and declared the loser had to walk like a crab for five minutes. Aradia and the others still hadn't shown up. Gamzee was trying to enjoy the party anyways but inside the anxiety was eating at him. A few times Karkat or Kanaya would place a reassuring hand on him, silently acknowledging his worry. Eventually he couldn't handle faking his usual buoyant attitude. Separating himself from the others a little, he laid out on the ground, staring at the dark sky.

"You might, uh, catch cold, lying on the grass like that."

Gamzee's eyes snapped open. Shit, he hadn't realized he had fallen asleep. Turning his head to look at the voice, his stomach did a funny flip-flop.

Tavros.

He sat up, keeping his head down to mask the tension that he knew was showing on his face. Once he was sure he didn't look like a nervous wreck, he flashed a bright smile at the boy. "Nah, bro, I won't get sick or nothing. Don't gotta worry yourself 'bout that."

Tavros returned a smaller, but just as happy, smile. "That's, good. Sorry I was late. Um, Sollux was trying to fix, someone's computer, and it took a little longer then we, uh, thought."

"It's all cool. Fucking glad you were able to make it."

"Me too. Do you mind, if I, uh, go get something to eat?" Gamzee shook his head. Tavros stood up, a wobbly motion thanks to the prosthetic limbs he got recently (and was still adjusting to), and went to the table laden with food. Gamzee lay back down and his attention returned to the night sky until Tavros came back.

"We didn't miss the fireworks, did we?" he asked as he took a bite out of the watermelon slice in his hand.

"Nope. That shit shouldn't be starting for a good while now." Tavros made a pleased-sounding noise as he chewed. A silence fell between them as Tavros ate and Gamzee stared at the stars. For Tavros, it was a comfortable silence, something that happened often between the two of them. However, the quiet was an awkward weight on Gamzee's mind. He knew he should say something now; there might not be another chance tonight. The fact that he had managed to be alone with Tavros without doing anything to achieve that was practically a miracle to the mirthful messiahs and one does not spurn such miracles.

He sighed in frustration after several times he tried to open his mouth to say something, but the words kept getting stuck in his head. Tavros looked down at him with slight concern. "You, ok?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah, I'm motherfucking good." Gamzee grinned at him. Tavros grinned back, his brown eyes crinkling at the corners. Damn, he was too cute, Gamzee thought. He swallowed hard. "Hey…Tav?" he started.

"Yes?"

"Do…do you ever think about…going out with anyone?" He tried to keep his voice steady and he thought he succeeded.

"Huh? Why?"

He shrugged. "Just wondering and shit, I guess."

Tavros cheeks reddened. "Well, I guess, maybe. Sometimes I do. Not really, about anyone, in particular though." He glanced down at his friend. "Do you?"

"Yeah. I think about going out with someone."

"…About who?"

Gamzee was silent. He had managed to get this far with the conversation, but his courage was failing him. Tavros was looking at him imploringly, brown eyes searching his painted face. Gamzee couldn't take the weight of his gaze. He covered his eyes, crossing his arms over his face.

"About who?" Tavros repeated. He leaned down close to his friend's covered face. "Gamzee…is it, me?" Gamzee responded by biting his lip and squeezing his arms tighter around his head. "Gamzee." He leaned closer, a breath away from touching. He tried to move Gamzee's arms from his face, but the other boy was stubborn. Sighing inwardly, Tavros did the only thing he could think of.

His arms went flying off his face at the unexpected pressure he felt on his mouth. Luckily, they flew above his head so they didn't hit Tavros. Who was currently in the middle of kissing him. Gamzee gawked down his nose in shock. Before he could really comprehend what was happening, Tavros pulled back. Confused purple eyes stared into content (and slightly triumphant Gamzee thought) brown.

"Tav…?"

Tavros looked away. "So, I might've, um, lied a little, when I said I didn't think about anyone, in particular." He slid his gaze back to Gamzee, looking at him from the corner of his eye. Gamzee looked back, dumbfounded, which made Tavros giggle. "Sorry, the look on your, uh, face is really, too cute."

"Tav, I'm real motherfucking confused right now." Gamzee sat up. "Are you telling me that you've been up and liking me?"

Tavros nodded. "Yeah. I just wasn't really sure, how you felt, until just, uh, now." He blushed. "I'm sorry if that was, a bit…forward of me. Um, I just figured it was, the best way to, uh, communicate my feelings. So…since I guess we both like each other…are we…?"

"It would make my motherfucking day if we were." Gamzee said. "Shit, it would make my entire fucking life." He tilted his head closer to give Tavros a kiss, stopping just short of the other's mouth. "What do ya say? Wanna go out with me?"

Tavros gently pressed his lips to Gamzee's. "Yes." He breathed. He leaned further into the kiss. They stayed like that, locked together, until a loud boom and bright flash startled them a part.

"Oh, I forgot about the fireworks." Tavros laughed. He smiled softly at Gamzee. "Would you like to, maybe, join the others to watch the fireworks?"

"Yeah, sure. Sounds fucking great." They helped each other off the ground and went over towards their friends hand in hand. Gamzee couldn't stop grinning. It hadn't gone exactly the way he thought it would, but the end result was the same. Miracles can be funny that way sometimes.

AN: I wrote this for my friend's birthday. It's probably really super OOC and I'm sorry for that. I can't really write Homestuck worth crap, but I'd thought I'd try for my friend. *shrug* Also, Homestuck belongs to our god, Hussie.