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Of all the many cultural artifacts from the old earth that somehow found themselves a niche in the new world, Rose was happy Halloween was amongst them. Whilst she never found herself overly enamored with the idea of roaming door to door accosting strangers for candy, she had always found ways to make the night special. Watching pulpy horror movies online with June, crocheting autumnal jack-o-lanterns to decorate her room, assembling costumes for her own amusement; she had always made the most of it as best she could.
This year had been no different initially, albeit this time she would be her first spending it with others in person. Rose had decorated her house with fake cobwebs and to-scale skeletons and had even assembled a cute lich costume for herself, with Kanaya’s help. As she had stood in her doorway that afternoon, about to leave for June’s party, a part of her was brought back to the childlike excitement she had felt on this night all those years ago. After all this time, all the shit that was Sburb and effectively losing her childhood, she was happy to be finally reclaiming a special part of it…
-
The sound of Jane puking unceremoniously over the balcony was the final straw that killed Rose Lalonde’s Halloween spirit. The whole event had been a disaster, at least from where she was standing. From Vriska spiking the punch bowl to Dirk making everyone uncomfortable with his truly horrific attempt at a two-man horse costume (within the back end of which Jake had been stuffed), it had been nothing like what she had been hoping for, like what she had been missing for so long. And as she sometimes had the bad habit of doing: Rose coped with copious amounts of alcohol consumption. She stood up from where she sat, shaking off Kanaya’s embrace as she stormed tipsily from the room. Her matespirt called after her, but a slammed door was enough to halt her pursuit for the moment. Rose wound her way through the halls and rooms of June’s place, weaving in and out of gaudy decorations and partygoers. Passing who she guessed was Aradia donned in a white sheet and snuggled up to Sollux, dressed as Thanatos, on the bottom step of the staircase, she made her way into the living room.
With her mildly hazy sight set on the front door, Rose continued her odyssey for escape. However, almost as if the spirits of this shitty Halloween themselves were conspiring against her, she was immediately met with an obstacle. “Lalonde, my favourite little seer.” spoke Vriska, rechecking her peripherals that Terezi was indeed not present. “What’s got you in such a hurry?”
“Not now, Vriska” murmured Rose, slurring slightly. Vriska grinned a devilish smile as she leaned against the wall, dressed in a perhaps misguided Makima costume.
“Aww, what’s wrong? Was my lil contribution to the punch too much for ya? Or maybe some sort of trouble with our darling little rainbow drinker?” Rose glared at the troll, considering the possible consequences of punching her in the face.
“Please just leave me alone.” The longer Rose spent trapped in that room, the more nauseous and uneasy she began to feel, which Vriska’s probing gaze seemed to notice.
“Honey, sit down, you look like you’re about to collapse.” Vriska placed her palm on Rose’s shoulder and guided her to sit on a nearby couch.
“How about we just sit back and chill for a sec, huh? Could be nice if you and I got to know one another a bit better.” Rose knew viscerally that she did not want to be here, not with Vriska. Yet, in her state of ever-worsening lethargy, she felt unable to do anything to resist. “You and I haven’t talked much, have we? Seems like such an awful shame, if you ask me.” Vriska sat beside her with a posture unbecoming for her supposed character, unlike her rather fitting conversational tone. “Tell me what’s up, blondie. I promise I’m a great listener.”
“I d-don’t wanna talk to you… I need air.” Rose made a futile attempt to stand and leave, only to find her own legs giving out under her. Now even her own body seemed intent on fucking her over and keeping her here. Vriska giggled. With a great sigh, realizing she probably had no choice but to stay here with her until she regained her strength, Rose began to speak.
“I feel like shit, and I’d rather not be here anymore. I could wax psychoanalytical about why but I honestly think if I start it’ll just result in me being in a worse condition than I am now.” She ran the back of her hand over her face, smudging her lipstick slightly. “Now there: you got your fun tormenting me, so if you’d please leave me be to wallow in my unrealized childhood expectations, I’d appre-” Rose coughed. “I’d appreciate it.” The spidery troll beside her twirled a strand of hair and hummed to herself. Vriska had always seemed hard to read for Rose, not that she had really had enough time with her to make any attempts. Trying to decipher her face now was just making her sick, and so instead she turned her eyes to the others in the room as Vriska spoke.
“You’re funny, Lalonde. You remind me of someone.” Rose scanned the room, attempting to draw her attention away from the headache she felt coming on. She saw Roxy in a corner, dressed as what Rose could only describe as some kind of slutty Gandalf. Talking to her was Dave in a surprisingly cute Wirt costume. Fittingly, Jade and Karkat sat next to him on the windowsill, both confusingly dressed Wirt's younger brother Greg. Rose thought to chuckle to herself, before being interrupted by Vriska’s continuing blabbering. “I’m sure he would’ve loved to see you now, that creepy old bastard. Me as well. I’m sure he’d be so proud of how alike him we've both become.”
In all honesty, Rose hadn’t really been paying any attention to what Vriska was saying, assuming it would all be vitriolic nonsense. But she began to catch on to whom she was alluding, and immediately felt her nausea worsen. “That fucker really fucked us both up, didn’t he?” Vriska continued. “He essentially stole both our childhoods and turned us into his little freaks. And yet he couldn’t even be bothered to send me a get well soon card when I died.” She laughed and shook her head as if she was recounting a beloved dead relative. Rose wanted to vomit.
“Please stop.”
“Oh, and he would’ve loved the whole meteor thing. His round head would’ve bobbled off seeing you have your whole drinking debacle.”
“Vriska please.”
“I suppose he got his way in the end with that, didn’t he? He screwed with our heads till all we could do was drink and kill and pretend we weren’t just scared little fucking kids.”
“Shut up. Shut up.”
“Oh if I ever got the chance to see him again… I would crack his head like a fucking 8-ba-”
“Rose!” called out Kanaya, bursting into the room from upstairs. She held the length of her long vampiric skirt as she ran over to the couch and knelt beside Rose. Vriska, who had seemingly been in a trance state as she had babbled on, snapped out upon the jade-blood’s intrusion.
“Hey, I was talking to he-” Kanaya shushed her, swatting her away as she faced Rose, who was now bundled up on the couch.
“Rose, are you okay? You left so suddenly and I was unsure as to the reason why.” Rose was practically unresponsive, if not for a small murmur. “Rose, darling, I’m afraid you’ll have to speak at a louder volume. I can’t hea-” Rose murmured again, slightly louder this time, yet still intelligibly. Kanaya noticed tears welling in her matespirt’s eyes and realized a more tender approach would be necessary. Somewhat awkwardly, Kanaya leaned over and put her arms around her, placing her forehead against Rose’s and letting her attempt to speak again.
“I want to go home.” She whimpered. “ I want to go home…”
-
Once they had returned to their abode, Kanaya had to practically drag the intoxicated Rose inside, making an effort not to drag her heels on the floorboards. Arriving at their bed, Kanaya attempted to gently place Rose down on the mattress, instead awkwardly plumping her down in a thud that caused her to stir from her state of semi-unconsiousness. “K-Kanaya…”
“I am here, darling. Please do not try to speak, your body seems not to possess enough energy to maintain your cognisance.” Rose lifted her arm, trying and failing to shift her weight and sit up. “You should rest. Please.” Kanaya fretted. She so deeply desired to take care of her matesprite, but felt that her knowledge in human emotional upkeep required further expansion in order for her to feel confident in what to do in such a situation. It didn’t help that she had no idea what had provoked Rose’s outburst earlier that night. Rose had long since conquered the vast majority of her alcohol problem, and only really drank like this when something particularly bothered her.
Kanaya sat by Rose’s head, looking straight ahead with her hands in her lap as if paralyzed by apprehension. ‘I-uh… I should probably leave you to get some sleep. I shall sleep on the loungeplank so you can be alon-” Kanaya was interrupted by a groan from the woman beside her, followed by her nudging her hand with her head. Kanaya hesitated, unsure of what to do. It would take another nudge for her to pick up on the hint and begin running her hands through Rose’s light hair. After a moment or two, she seemed to settle. Soft mewls would begin to emanate from between Rose’s smudged lips as she drifted off into sleep, leaving Kanaya petting her head in the dimly light room.
The troll looked down at her lover, remarking on how beautiful she was, even in her rather unladylike state. Whatever it was that had caused Rose’s outburst at June’s place, and whatever Vriska had said to make it worse, she was here now: home. Kanaya didn’t have all the answers. As a matter of a fact, with every stroke she made over Rose’s hair she was worried she’d accidentally pull or tug at something with her nails and wake her. But one thing Kanaya did have was love.
According to all the absurdly fluff-infused alternian romcoms Karkat had made her watch, now would be the moment where Kanaya was meant to lean down and give Rose a kiss goodnight as the scene faded to black. She arched herself clumsily till her face neared her lover’s. It was at this point that the stench of booze emanating from her began to hit, but she didn’t care. Sweeping her fringe aside with a manicured hand, Kanaya placed a kiss upon Rose’s forehead, leaving a cursory green smudge on her skin. The jade-blood stood and crossed the room, grabbing herself a pillow and spare blanket before flicking off the light and stopping in the doorway before she left. She turned to look behind her, a sliver of light from the hall illuminating a line across Rose’s face. With a smile at her beauty, Kanaya closed the door and left.