Chapter Text
The courtship began a month after the game had ended. After all, Rose had still needed time to settle her thoughts after what had happened so rapidly. There had been a three year break to get over the first day of their Sburb adventure, but even that period of time had been held with an underlying sense of wrongness and anxiety. Then, so frantically things had changed around her, and she had fought until her last cell was bruised and bloodied, before the game it'd ended so quickly and spit them out so heartlessly that she could almost imagine it'd all been a dream, if not for the new world she found herself in.
If she'd had access to the internet, Rose would have been quick to edit her Sburb tutorial to note that no good game should only have two days of gameplay. But, then again, no good game should end with blood on your hands and trauma sunken deep into the marrows of the deepest, thickest bones. She wished she could say she repressed the worst of the game, but it was hard to forget something when the memories of it were etched into every inch of her life.
At the very least, from the frantic tales John and Roxy spun, she was grateful for how her timeline had been sheltered and altered and fine tuned to success. After all, she had her three closest friends back at her side, and while her mother was gone forever she'd gained a new family to call her own.
Still, when she'd walked through that red door she knew that things would be different, but the same. After all, her feelings for those around her had changed. She was with Kanaya now! The thought of dating a girl who she could touch in the flesh was an idea that was wholly impossible when she was thirteen years old. The thought of dating a girl who was a chainsaw wielding vampire alien was just as impossible, especially when she'd been unacquainted with an alien race that contained very gorgeous feisty alien vampire women that were just her age. Yet, the stars had aligned and she had been given this.
At the same time, somethings remained the same. Even the briefest time spent with her three closest friends showed that their relationship had stood to stand the strain of time and distance, they were as close as they had been before. She also knew from subtle eavesdropping that Dave still hung onto John's every word as subtly as he could, (really, he was just lucky he'd never wanted to be an actor, he'd be truly awful,) and that he complained dramatically to Karkat that he wasn't being paid nearly enough attention by his Egbertian bro.
In his own right, John still held an almost naive sense of hope. The kind of hope that would seem almost inane and unhealthy to Rose if he hadn't explained the serendipitous events that had led to him saving them all from sure doom. But, the mere fact that against all odds he'd somehow managed to tweak just enough of their timeline to alter it's DNA and save them all was enough to quiet her critiques. She was alive, and at least somewhat contented, so she couldn't quite find it in herself to correct him on his boring happy endings.
She had everything settled then. Kanaya was her lover, her girlfriend and matesprit and a dear friend all in one. John and Dave and Jade were her dearest friends then, three people that she wouldn't have hesitated to call on in a time of need, and three people she loved dearly and platonically.
So, she was more than a little surprised at herself when she had realised that her (ahem,) puppy dog crush on Jade from when she was thirteen had come back with a vengeance. After all, she was taken. And, more important, she was sure of herself and her feelings! She adored Kanaya in the romantic sense, and she adored Jade in the platonic sense, and the two space godesses in her life did not mingle and mix and mess with her mind.
Oh, but how they did.
It became quickly apparent how much her feelings for Jade were an unavoidable truth. She was just too much! Too strong, too gorgeous, too affectionate. Every time they met Jade made sure to hug Rose with those strong, warm, solid arms, and she let it linger, giving Rose the chance to breathe in her earthy scent and let herself be enveloped wholly in a sense of protection. Her personality was such a refreshing breath of air as well, brash and open and sweet and bitingly rude all at once. Rose adored it. Rose adored her, and it was incredibly and increasingly problematic.
She quickly realised that the only thing she could do in this case was be open with her actual lover about these new confusing feelings. Surely, it'd be fine. Kanaya was an understanding woman, and Rose had no intentions of leaving her, she just wanted to have a clean conscious about the entire thing. Plus, from what she had gathered, with all their quadrants and short lifespans and frantic, messy copulations, trolls were quite fickle with their feelings anyway- this would not come as any sort of shock. Her intuition told her to be honest, and while the game had stripped most of their powers she knew that her views on the future were just that touch more accurate that she could believe herself.
Rose decided the best time to confront Kanaya about her feelings was after dinner, when the two of them settled on a blanket in the waning sunlight to write together. They often drank the nightly tea that was brewed together, picking at whatever fruits had been grown that day, the two of them writing side by side. Briefly, Rose noted that the tea was bitterly strong, and concluded that it must have been one of the boys on tea duty that night, and that they'd managed to get distracted. Not Karkat, of course, he took his tea duties very seriously- but perhaps John had been cornered by Dave for something. It didn't matter too much, she was only sipping the tea as a way to soothe herself, and it was more the sensation of holding a warm mug in her hand than the actual taste of it.
Eventually, she turned to face Kanaya, still holding the mug firmly in her hands, “you are not too busy at the moment, are you darling?” Of course she wasn't, Rose knew exactly the sort of self indulgent vampire romances her girlfriend was writing in her notebook, and she wasn't interrupting much that she couldn't simply act out on her own.
Rose watched as Kanaya closed her notebook quietly, and sat up, turning to face Rose. Her head tilted just a bit to the side, examining Rose, and then she grabbed her own mug and mimicked her girlfriend's pose, “I wasn't aware we were at a stage in our relationship where we had to ask to speak to each other.”
Ah. So it was not simply Rose who felt tense then, it must have muggied up the air around them. She sighed, giving a gentle shake of the head, “no, I'm grateful we are beyond that, but I'm afraid that I have something to share with you.”
“And I suppose it's not good news, if you look like you've been fed awful food,” Rose felt a cool hand on her knee, and she sighed again. No use denying it.
“It's not the best news. I.. I have to admit I haven't been the most loyal romantic partner to you as of late.”
She watched Kanaya's eyebrows rise up with confusion and concern, a frown painting her pretty onyx lips, “you... have been cheating on me?”
“Er.. Well, not cheating, exactly. There has been no romantic conduct!”
“So, you have started a relationship in another quadrant? Because I've already said that is not only perfectly acceptable, but general-”
“No, no, that's not it either. It's definitely... Undoubtedly romantic.”
“But it's not cheating,” Kanaya leaned back, looking cool and calm and collected as she studied Rose, who was gnawing her lips as she tried to eloquently explain herself.
“It's not cheating because I have not engaged in romantic conduct with the object of my predicament, nor with any person that is not you.”
“So you are flushed for another woman.”
“Well... Yes, I suppose that is the only way to put it.”
“But your feelings for me have not waned.”
“No, of course not!” She reached over, gripping Kanaya's hand tightly, “it just felt wrong hiding this from you. I didn't want to look like an ass if it slipped out some other time,” damn Freud, for making her aware of that possibility.
“Then..” Kanaya leaned in, a mischievous smile parting her lips just enough to reveal pointed white teeth, “I see no reason for us to hold back on discussing this mystery woman who has gripped your heart.”
Rose flushed- and it was not just because of those teeth, “you're sure? We'll be discussing another woman who has caught my eye, it might upset you.”
“I don't see why. You have no inclination to leave me for her, and I'm curious about what drew you to her.”
Her own eyebrows raised then, and Rose hid a smile behind her hand, “you want to know what I find hot.”
“Er-” Kanaya was tinted green. Triumphant, Rose lowered her hand to giggle.
Once she had ceased laughing, leaving Kanaya significantly flustered, Rose smiled at her, “I don't see why not then. I'll teach my girlfriend who I love dearly how to woo me, because clearly she is incapable of doing such arduous work on her own. I suggest lifting weights will help you.”
“That doesn't help. There are three other women, and one of them is related to you and two of them are strong capable young ladies.”
“Ah, well. Perhaps you should guess at what I find attractive then? We'll make a game out of it.”
Kanaya sighed, giving her a look, “you like women who can kill you. That does not narrow the search one bit either, except it now includes me.”
“We all have our vices. Feel free to continue guessing, you seem to be having fun with it,” she looked quite deep in thought, and Rose found the faces Kanaya made when she was concentrating simply adorable.
“Not to jump to conclusions, but you have an affinity for the dangerous and supernatural, if I recall correctly.”
“Vampires and eldritch monsters from the void? I suppose so.”
“And werewolves, I think,” Rose frowned, her face pinking as Kanaya continued, “not that you really know a werewolf, if such a thing existed, but I've been looking at human media in your room and I've stumbled across a few novels that contained such a being, part human, part wolf. Or, in our case, part first guardian disguised as a pedigree showdog,” she stared long and hard at Rose, and then nodded, “yes, that's right- it's Jade. You look like a strawberry Rose.”
To prove her point, she lifted a strawberry from the bowl they'd been sharing from, raising it to Rose's face. Before Rose could comment something back about how Kanaya looked like a piece of spinach, she was distracted by a kiss to her forehead. She forgot her decision to make a remark, and instead defended herself with a weak, “it's hard not to have feelings for your first crush when you meet her years later and she has such nice arms.”
Kanaya nodded, glancing at her own toned arm in understanding, “I did not say it was bad. In fact... Perhaps I have not been terribly honest with you either Rose.”
She reached for her notebook, opening it to where she'd been writing, where she handed it over to Rose to read. Earlier, she'd been sure that she knew what her girlfriend had been writing in her notebook. Now, she was faced with the reality that perhaps she didn't know exactly the sort of self indulgent vampire romances her girlfriend was writing. The jade tint on Kanaya's face proved her case.
“Ah, well. I suppose if we are on the same page the only option is to carry forwards with a united front then.”
“Are you suggesting we work past our feelings together?” Kanaya looked so genuinely confused then, and Rose smiled, shaking her head.
“Oh, no. Nothing simple like that. Say, have you ever heard of polyamory, Kanaya?”