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"It's raining." Karkat complained, arm out the window. "I refuse to go outside."
"You can't refuse to go outside. It is my wriggling day, and I swear if you do not celebrate adequately, I will have you-" Terezi decided not to complete her usual threat seeing as he was a little fragile with it came to the topic of killing vs. bieng allowed to live despite his mutant status, etcetera etcetera. "I will hit you with my cane."
"I'm so very scared. Face it, Terezi. We're not going back outside. We can stay inside. I'll bake you something."
"Karkat." Terezi yanked his arm back inside. "We are going on a walk, like you promised."
"I promised to show you my favorite place in the world."
"Exactly." Terezi grinned.
"You are blind, and therefore my promise can never be fulfilled, making it invalid." There was smugness in his voice, and Terezi was regretting that she had left several textbooks last time she came over. It appeared he was going through the pretentious lawyer phase that everyone entered, and most never left. Terezi was fortunate enough to have experienced it only briefly before having her best friend Vriska bring her back down to Earth.
"Fine. I'm leaving." Terezi tapped her cane on the floor sveral times to simulate walking. "I'm marching away from you, Karkat."
"Terezi. I can see that you haven't moved."
"I just wanted to have fun on my seventh sweep, so sue me."
Karkat groaned. "Funny."
"I know I am."
"Fine. We'll go out for a little bit, but if I hear thunder I blame you."
"Yes, for I am the mighty thunder god."
"Just put your boots on."
Terezi did in fact have boots at Karkat's house. There was this whole Twelfth Perigee's Eve party that got way out of hand and everyone had decided to go home without shoes due to some story Sollux had told involving mutant lusii and cluckbeasts. It had scared the shit out of everyone, but Karkat had missed the entire story, being as he was unused to this human "eggnog" and was vomiting his guts out due to excessive intake.
Once Terezi had her naked mermaid boots fully donned and a bright red umbrella opened just enough to poke Karkat irritatingly in the face, they descended the stairs. Karkat was currently on an exercise kick, and he was making Terezi do everything along with him. He had a treadmill taking up half his bedroom, but that was fine, Terezi said, being as no girls ever slept over. Terezi crashed at his house all the time. It was closest to the university she was attending, and there were scalemates taking permanent residence on his couch. Karkat found it both annoying and funny that she didn't consider herself a girl.
"See? Isn't this great?" Terezi waltzed out into the rain, twirling her umbrella. Karkat followed behind her at a safe distance, hands spread out above his head to catch the multitude of raindrops assaulting his hair.
"It is decidedly not great. There is nobody I know who is sluttier than rain."
Terezi paused. "What?"
"Rain fucking hits on everyone." he muttered.
"Did that train of thought actually pass through your head?" she laughed, starting to walk again.
"Not my fault you couldn't get to the station fast enough!"
"I'll wait for the next one!" Terezi stopped at the crosswalk until Karkat told her she could move forward, and a bike swerved to avoid her. "Sorry!"
The clouds were obliterating the sky now, and it was getting darker. Karkat moved closed to Terezi, eyes trained on the ground to make sure she didn't slip in the puddles quickly forming as sheets as rain fell harder.
"What did you get me for my birthday?"
"Why didn't we throw a party?" Karkat asked.
"The party's tomorrow, silly. Vriska's in charge-"
"That was a shit idea."
"-AND...I just wanted to spend today with you." Terezi said the last word lower than the rest.
"Me." Karkat said dumbly.
"Yes. Is that so crazy? We're very good friends. I have clothes at your hive."
"Apartment."
"Whatever, Earth words are strange."
Karkat shook his head. Of course she picked up the slang but not the actual vocabulary. Fucking Terezi.
"Why me, though? I'm sure Kanaya would have loved to go for a walk in this goddamned SHITSTORM!" It was a fucking storm now. Lightning flashed overhead, and Karkat pulled Terezi with him as he hit the pavement.
"What the hell?"
"Lightning."
"Karkat, you have to stop being afraid of storms."
"I'm not afraid of lightning, I'm afraid of the repurcussions of being struck by it!"
"Superpowers?"
"Death, Terezi! Do you ever think about danger?"
"Karkat, let me up." He released her, and she found her way to her feet without his help. "I think about danger, sure. But you also have to sometimes live in the moment. Think about the movies you watch. Doesn't life go better for them when they just do things without thinking too hard about it?"
Thunder rumbled overhead.
"Terezi, could we please go inside now?" Karkat said quickly.
"Don't panic. It's just thunder."
"Terezi, we're going to get sick."
"Calm down."
"Terezi, shut up!"
"It's just a storm!"
There was a brief pause as more lightning appeared. Karkat crossed his arms across his chest, shaking slightly.
"Are you cold?"
"Yes." he said sullenly.
"Would you like a hug?"
"No."
"You don't have a choice. It's my wriggling day, and that is my gift." Terezi wrapped her arms around him.
"Terezi, I hate this."
"You say my name an awful lot." she said into his damp sweater.
"Not because I like it."
"You don't like my name?"
"No, I mean-it's a fucking beautiful name, but that's not why I say it."
Terezi let go of him and stepped back. "We can go inside now if you want to."
Karkat walked to her and kissed her. She was perfectly still for the three seconds it lasted. Finally, he stepped back.
"You had to make it like a romantic comedy, didn't you?" Terezi said softly.
"What?" Karkat was bright red, and completely ashamed. She hadn't even kissed back.
"You had to freaking kiss me for the first time in the rain!" She hit him. "How long were you waiting for a moment like that to kiss me? Do you know how long I've been waiting for you to kiss me?"
"You've been waiting?"
"Yes, I've been waiting!"
"Why didn't you fucking kiss me, then?"
"Because if I kissed you, you would get embarrassed and run away, or go tell Kanaya instead of kissing me back!"
"That is not true!" he sputtered.
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah!"
"Prove it then!"
"How am I supposed to-"
Terezi kissed him then, until the rain stopped and they were soaking wet, and Karkat was coughing like crazy.