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Overhead, the hot Alternian sun beat down on Kanaya's exposed back. It's warmth filled her. It ran through her veins, charging her insides with electricity. She felt as if glitter surged beneath her skin, trying to spill out of her pores. More than anything she wanted to expel the energy. It overwhelmed her. When coupled with the delicious adrenaline that came along with hunting, she felt she would burst.
In her peripheral vision, she saw movement. Instinctively she assumed it was a member of the heinous broods who feasted on the light and the living, not unlike herself but for the lack of mental facilities. Before it could get the upper hand, she withdrew her chainsaw from her strife deck, revved it up, and brought it down hard on the undead's neck, with precision that clearly took years of practice. The old, grey flesh was hard as steel due to years of baking in the sun, but the spikes on Kanaya's chainsaw were harder.
Under the powerful weapon, its skin cracked. Carried by the chainsaws momentum, the pan eater to flew down into the multicolored sand. Kanaya pounced on the its body, stabbing her chainsaw down where it had cracked, digging in deeper. The sensation inspired it to roll over and grab her chainsaw with its bare hands, slowing the rotation. It didn't flinch at the way the blades chopped up its strangely soft palms. Kanaya gritted her teeth and pulled away, hopping back.
The undead managed to stand back up and swivel towards where it thought she was. Sand slid out from its gaping open mouth, like drool, as it sniffed the air, trying to get a better read on where the jade blood was located. The sun had completely burned away anything resembling eyes, leaving two gaping holes in the center of its face. The way its nose twitched when it sniffed reminded Kanaya eerily of Terezi. She faltered, which gave the eyeless pan eater a chance to attack.
It's claws were a hair's breadth away from gutting her when a blur of blue and black appeared, body checking it away. It fell down into the sand; A garbled scream rang out but was quickly silenced by Vriska's deft hands twisting it's head and snapping its neck. The head fell back limply as Vriska stood up, keeping a foot on its chest to prevent its body from trying to crawl away. The spine protruded out grossly from where the skin was torn, sparkling white in the sunlight.
To make sure it was dead for good, Vriska rolled her dice. 64872148. Explosion.
Bits and pieces of the undead body sprayed everywhere, coating both girls in gore. Vriska was protected by a full body suit, built to protect her from the sun, but she still retched as she pulled a chunk of dead body from the glass covering her eyes. Kanaya, who had inexplicably turned into a rainbow drinker after being killed by an undead on her first outing, did not mind the carnage. She pulled off a piece of the sun baked body and popped it in her mouth, enjoying the tangy flavor that came from absorbing Alternia's harsh rays everyday. The taste spread over her tongue, coating it and encouraging her to ignore the fact that eating fried, old troll was probably bad for her.
When Vriska saw her dining on what was left of the pan eater she made another noise of disgust. "What the hell Kanaya?!?!?!?!" she yelled, her voice slightly muffled by the mask she wore to protect her face. "That's so gross. Why would you eat that?" She scrunched up her nose.
"I believe hunger serves as my paramount justification for consuming century old troll flesh." she stated, picking pieces off her arm and laying them down on her tongue, relishing in the taste before swallowing. "They're much more delicious than one might think. You too could enjoy it if you were open minded enough to try."
Vriska snorted. "Okay, sure, but why eat that garbage when you've got a totally willing victim right here." She puckered her lips and tried to wink but Kanaya couldn't really see her facial expression given the mask covering it. Even if she could see, it would only look like Vriska had blinked due to the one black lens covering her eye.
"There's no such thing as a willing victim, Vriska. The literal definition denotes bodily harm as a basic requirement and your reactions to my feeding habits are quite the opposite of anything resembling displeasure. Almost disturbingly so." Vriska sputtered.
"Well excuuuuuuuuse me for being passionate! And last time I checked you weren't all that "displeased" either. If I remember correctly, not to long ago I gave you a batch of blood that left you wanting a little more than I was willing to put out." she said, with one hand squeezing her boob and the other covering her crotch. Kanaya sighed at her lack of maturity and constant flirting.
"I would appreciate it most greatly if you'd abstain from referencing the one time I got a little, uh, carried away in the heat of the moment. The way you were reacting to what I did was, um. You made it seem as if your desire was to partake in even more intimate acts than feeding itself and I can't help it if my mind wondered to a rather vulgar place. It's just, I thought it was what you wanted. To become more intimate, I mean. So I deemed it appropriate to reciprocate your apparent desires in a situation where mine always come first. That added to the fact that I was in a state where I rely on my more primal instincts, which make decisions based purely on survival. It's unfair to say my judgement was not clouded by natural carnality brought on by your voluptuous body language which blah blah blah blah" She blabbered on, creating excuses for why she tried to fuck Vriska the first time the blue troll let her feed.
The girl had been writhing and moaning beneath her. How else was she supposed to interpret it? Plus, in her mind at least, it seemed like they had been dancing around their feelings for quite a while. She thought she was being smart by actually advancing for once, but after the humiliating rejection their moirallegiance became strained and awkward.
That had been nearly 4 sweeps ago, however, and they had moved passed it. Well, Kanaya tried, at least. Vriska, on the other hand, brought it up whenever she could.
After a moment Vriska's snickering helped Kanaya realize she was only making herself seem more foolish by babbling. Glaring at her moirail she tried to recompose herself and switch the topic. "Let's continue walking towards my hive, shall we? All of this sun exposure is making me jittery and interrupting my thought process. It's usually much more pleasant. I can't understand how you all hate it, even on good days." she commented, waving her hand as if the entire rest of the troll population was off their rockers. Which...they kind of were.
The two women continued walking towards Kanaya's hive in silence.
Both of them were nearing ten sweeps, the age considered adulthood for most trolls, meaning that soon they would be forced out into space, to make it on their own. Vriska planned on following in the footsteps of her ancestor and pillaging the eight know oceanic planets in search of treasures. Years of intense FLARPing had helped prepare her for her dream job and she couldn't wait to leave. She spent a sweep and a half mapping out her route and even built, with Equius' assistance, a ship for her to sail away on.
But before she had to leave Alternia forever Vriska wanted Kanaya to take her on one of her pan eater excursions. Whenever she told stories Vriska was left awed and glossy eyes. She'd heard rumors that the undead, which often came in dozens of broods at a time, were incredibly difficult to fight but Kanaya did it for fun all the time.
Vriska wanted in.
The closer they got to Kanaya's hive, the more trees and plant life Vriska saw. Eventually the sand turned into grass and stone pathways, signalling the approach of Kanaya's hive. Soon the sparkling white tower came into view and so did the many shrubs and trees, which were cut in the form of various fauna Kanaya encountered over the sweeps.
The largest piece of topiary sat in the middle of her lawnring and depicted the late mother grub. Vriska knew from previous conversations that directly underneath lay her corpse. Burying lusii wasn't something most did, Vriska certainly wouldn't go through the trouble for Spidermom, but Kanaya was different like that.
For a moment they stood in front of the monument, honoring her death. "I wish I could've met her." she said, breaking the silence. Kanaya nodded.
"A shame, indeed." They moved on.
As Vriska entered Kanaya's hive for the first time in quite a while, Vriska was struck with a strange feeling akin to wonder. Everything around her looked so pretty it overwhelmed her. All was in it's place, but lazily so. Various shrubs and small attempts at stone carvings littered her hive. Half finished dresses and fabric was scattered in a carefully sloppy matter. Dresses laid draped over couches and thread hung off tables. Paper and patterns from half finished products were stacked in the corners. Her hive was the definition of an organized mess.
When they got to her respite block Vriska found there were piles of crocheted pillows and quilts for them to rest on. When she lay down on them she realized they were even softer than they looked. She moaned as she curled up in a ball, resolving to never come out again.
This resolution didn't last very long.
Kanaya curled her fingers around the back of her one-piece and pulled her out. "This is no time to rest. We've work to do." She scolded.
Vriska took off her helmet and glared. "Most trolls aren't up at this hour, ya know. Sorry if I'm too normal for you." Kanaya ignored the comment while she walked over to her desk to get her lunchtop. Vriska snorted when she saw it.
"Lunchtops are for wrigglers, Kanaya." Again, Kanaya ignored her. She opened up the lunchtop for Vriska to see. The screen wrapped around them, filling the room and shielding them from the outside world. Kanaya pulled up a file labeled "Pan Eater Locations Map Two.jpeg" for them to see. Vriska was silent while she gazed at the map, trying to memorize it. For a moment, the jade blood allowed her to do so but eventually she spoke in order to explain it.
"As I'm sure you already figured, this is a map I drew of the land and use to mark where day walkers most often reside or are found lingering. They most often come in broods and large numbers due to lack of individual physical strength. Originally this map was created so that when I went out on various escapades I knew where to avoid. It is now used primarily for hunting."
"Blah blah blah. I don't need a whole history lesson, just get to the good stuff." Kanaya pursed her lips but complied. She made the image larger and pointed to a detailed drawing of her hive from birds eye view.
"That's where we are now. This is also essentially the only structure holding resources for miles around. I suggest you stock up on food and various supplies you think will be necessary now as there will be no way to restock whilst out fighting the undead. If all goes well we should be fighting until moonrise. Speaking of fighting..." she murmured, using her keyboard to navigate through various files until she pulled up one named "Weaknesses.doc" which overlapped the map. "Through extensive research of both lore and nonfiction works regarding the subject of pan eaters, alongside my own personal experience slaying them, I have accumulated a lengthy list of tricks we could use to make the slaughter much easier. Due to their decrepitude you'll find they have many weaknesses. Memorizing this list is in your best interest. I'll start with the things that effect them least, then build up. Pay close attention."
Barely two minutes into the list, Vriska got bored and tuned her out. It wasn't as if she would need the information once they left Alternia anyway. Instead she opted to enjoy the eye candy. Long expanses of gray skin, darkened by years of sun, were visible. The dress she wore was yellow and silky. It slid over her legs like butter. The straps holding the dress up did a poor job and if Vriska tried hard enough she got a glimpse of her rumble spheres, which were pale in comparison to the rest of her skin.
Suddenly feeling heated, she peeled off the rest of her outfit, until she was in only a blue bra and black boy shorts. Tugging at the straps, she idly wished she could go without a bra like Kanaya.
"Are you listening?" Vriska briskly sat up straight and surprised, she shouted,
"Yeah, duh!" Kanaya didn't question her.
"Good. Then I presume you're ready to go out again?"
Vriska groaned and fell back onto the floor, moaning. Partially because of how the cool floor felt on her back but mostly because she was tired. She closed her eyes and whined, "No waaaay. Let's rest for a little while. I'm tired from all that listening and being awake at ungodly hours."
"When you suggested that you would assist me, I assumed that meant you knew what you were getting into. If you want to back out and just sleep all day that's fine by me. Why you suddenly decided to join me on these exploits anyway is beyond my comprehension."
"I already toooooooold you it's because we never even hang out anymore." she said, opening one eye.
"Mhm."
"I'm serious!" This time she sat up and pouted in Kanaya's direction.
"Of course you are, dear." Kanaya said, patting her knee, before standing up and walking away.
Vriska grabbed the trail of her dress and pulled. "Don't get snarky with me, fussy fangs! Why can't you just accept that I want to hang out with you, huh? Why do I have to have some ~ulterior~ motive?"
"Because the merits of being straightforward are lost on you."
"Shut up." she blushed. "No one asked you."
"Actually you di-"
"I was being rhetorical."
"If you say so, but at the time your questions seemed much in need of an answer." Vriska let go of Kanaya dress and pushed her legs. She staid still as a stone.
"Just shut up! You're so annoying." she shouted, spinning away on her butt and sulking. Kanaya let out a light laugh and crouched next to Vriska.
"I'm sorry. You're just so fun to tease. And the blush on your cheeks is simply," her lips kissed Vriksa's blue tipped ear, "delicious." A shiver went down Vriska's spine, making her shudder.
"But anyway, feel free to rest up while I prepare for our excursion." Kanaya told her, walking away again. Vriska didn't stop her that time.
When the sun was fairly high in the sky, Kanaya went over to her recuperacoon and shook Vriska awake. "It's time to go over the plan." Vriska groaned and turned over.
"We already did that, remember? You read that long list of weaknesses and blah blah."
"No, not that plan. The one we talked about via trollslum." Vriska stared blankly through her one good eye. "I assumed you would forget, hence why I want to review it." Again, she opened up her lunchtop and pulled up the map of the area surrounding her hive. Pointing and drawing circles with her fingers she explained, "The areas marked with red are the ones where one most commonly finds the pan eaters lurking. As you can see, they are a distance away from my hive, meaning we will have to trek a considerable distance. Do not let your mind wander, however, for once one appears hundreds, or perhaps thousands, appear right behind in a matter of seconds. When we encounter one of the flesh devourers you are to use your mind controlling ability on them. It's possible your powers won't work on all of them, perhaps not even any of them. Try not to push yourself too hard if you find your powers don't work as well as you want. After all they're literally mindless creatures and I've yet to closely study their anatomy, or the chemistry behind your own psychic powers. I should do that in the future..."
"Uuuuuhg. Is there a point to all of this talking? I just wanna kill shit!" Kanaya gave her a disproving look.
"Yes there is a point to all of this talking. The point is to assure you that it's okay if you're powers are don't work. Stay calm and fight with your dice."
"Okay, I gotcha. Now let's go!" Vriska jumped up, got dressed, and ran out the door of Kanaya's respite block. Giving an exasperated sigh, Kanaya followed.
Even though Kanaya assured Vriska the full body suit was made of a semipermeable fabric which let heat out, but not in, she still swore she could feel the sun roasting her. They walked for a longer time than Kanaya expected, which irritated Vriska. Not even halfway through their trek, Vriska's complaining became a near constant buzzing in Kanaya's ear. Tolerable, but annoying nonetheless.
"Grooooooss." Vriska moaned, pulling the fabric away from her skin. "I'm soooo sweeeeeeaty. Equius' disease must be contagious or something. Uhg, I feel so disgusting. Seriously, I have never felt more disgusting than I feel right now. Where are the fucking pan eaters so I don't have to be bored anymore???"
Ironically the undead chose that exact moment to swarm in on them.
The cerulean blood shrieked, falling on her butt, when she saw the first few walking up to them, barely a five feet away. The suddenness left her confused and paralyzed. Kanaya, on the other hand, didn't even flinch. She moved so fast it seemed the weapon had taken itself out. With careful precision she cut horizontally along the weak looking stomach of a pan eater. It was hard to actually saw through it, but the force from her blow sent it flying to the left into another pan eater, knocking them both out of commission.
"Looks like I'm the one who saved you this time." she said, smirking down at Vriska, before running at another daywalker and hammering down on it with her chainsaw.
Vriska stared, bewildered. Her eyes wide as she watched Kanaya finish one off then deftly swirl around and slice another's head off. Using the momentum she kept spinning and slicing and slicing again. Vriska wondered if she ever started feeling dizzy.
The pan eaters complete surrounded the two trolls. No more than thirty seconds ago there had been nothing as far as the eye could see, but now all Vriska could see was rotting trolls.
The blue blood squeaked and pulled herself away from one about to bite her thigh with its toothless gums. The teeth had all fallen out, but its gums seemed sharp enough to pierce through flesh.
"Vriska! What are you doing?" Kanaya's sharp voice rang out clear over the whir of her chainsaw and the mutters of the pan eaters. "Numerous times I informed you of their tendency to spontaneously appear. You shouldn't have let your guard down." she spit out the words like bullets as she jumped over the flesh eaters to protect Vriska from a legless one clawing at her. She kicked the monster square in its chest. She looked back for a quick second and hissed, "Use your power already!" before furiously lunging at another undead. "This horde is bigger than I expected so I can't afford to be covering your ass." she said through gritted teeth. Sweat rolled down her forehead as her powerful legs took her further away from Vriska.
Vriska regained her bearings and almost slapped herself for acting so weak. She put her fingers to her temple and tried to concentrate on one of the daywalkers who was tinted yellow, hoping the same mechanics regarding lower bloods being more susceptible still applied when they were dead.
Surprisingly, she slipped in easier than ever before. The quickness jolted her. It felt as if the path had been paved with butter, allowing her to slide in and settle down, comfortably. Then, without Vriska's will, her influence spread across the crowd. Hardly meaning to she took fifty undead under her control. She laughed manically as she forced them to fight their comrades, ripping apart exposed rib cages and tearing off loose limbs.
As she was experimenting with a troll that looked high on the hemospectrum she pressed in too hard, which made it's head explode. Vriska's laugh rang out again, above the crowd. It was a gloating laugh that said 'I have everything under control' and if Kanaya heard it she surely would assume her cerulean moirail was finally on her feet and safe to leave alone.
"This is soooooooo cooooooool!" She shouted as she made her army of pan eaters destroy their metaphorical brothers.
Soon a civil war had broken out. They fought and killed eachother, doing Vriska's job without her having to lift a finger. The imagery was so entrancing she couldn't look away.
That was her mistake.
Although time and time again Kanaya warned her not to, Vriska let her guard down. So she didn't notice as a pan eater, which was crawling through the sand behind her, got close enough to sink its mangly teeth into her calf, so deep it scraped her bone. The pain shot up, extending to every part of her body.
The feeling was even worse than when she got her arm chopped off.
It slurped up her blood and tore through tendons, damaging all sorts of muscle tissue. Shaking her leg only made the monster grip on harder. Due to the distraction she didn't notice as more pan eaters smelled her exposed blood and began to circle around her.
Just like before, they surrounded her in seconds. They all started taking bites while the original seadweller made sure she couldn't escape, no matter how hard she struggled. Blue blood gushed out from every part of her body, drenching the sand and she realized she was being eaten alive.
From her vocal chords erupted a long howl she hoped could be heard across all of Alternia. Her throat burned from the force of her screaming but she kept cursing and calling out for Kanaya Kanaya Kanaya Kanaya Kanaya please help dear god!!!!
It was no use.
And the seconds didn't tick they dripped, falling down slowly, letting her savor every minute of her downfall because she was arrogant and didn't listen to her moirail.
Nails and teeth and gums were all peircing her skin, tearing apart muscle and flesh for them to eat. It never occurred to her to summon her dice until she could hardly feel her own hands.
Nonetheless she tried anyway, letting them drop out of her strife specibus and appear into her numb hand. Putting the last of her fading energy into it, she uncurled her fingers and let the dice fall out.
Chances were she would never get such a lucky 8r8k again.
A force field appeared around her, incinerating all the pan eaters in a half a mile radius so they were nothing but ash. Without the undead there to support and nip at her she fell to the ground, face first. She barely had enough strength to roll over so she didn't inhale too much sand.
Now that she had a break she realized what bad shape she was in. Breathing was hard and everywhere hurt. Especially her leg. The idea of even being able to crawl away was laughable. After all, Kanaya had told her they were the only things around for miles.
So all she could do was wait.
And wait.
And wait.
And while she waited she felt her body ache. There wasn't a piece of her left undamaged. Legs, stomach, hands, neck, face. All were stained with blood, still oozing from her wounds. The sun burned the skin which was revealed where the undead had stripped off her body suit. Thoughts trudged slowly through her tired think pan, leaving muddy tracks of regret and anguish. The most prominent thought was 'I never even told Kanaya I'm flushed for her...'
She wanted to live but she wanted to die or pass out at least. At some point her force field had disappeared so she lay in the blood drenched sand, unsure if pan eaters would come back and finish her off. Fear gripped her, but she didn't cry.
The pain only got worse as she waited. She started to wonder if she should just close her eyes and fall asleep. If she died, that would make things easier for Kanaya. Finding Vriska alive would only make Kanaya feel helpless. What could Kanaya even do if she found her? Wouldn't it be better if Vriska didn't have to die in her arms?
The time that passed between her downfall and Kanaya's arrival could have been anywhere between ten minutes and two hours.
"Nice of you to finally show up, fussy fangs." Vriska said, her smile bitter. The other woman ignored her sarcasm in favor of ripping off the bottom half of her dress so it barely covered her ass. Then she tied it around her own middle so it didn't get wet as she crouched down and pried the head from Vriska's leg, throwing it somewhere else.
After moving Vriska to drier sand, she untied the fabric from around her waist and used it to cover Vriska's still bleeding leg wound.
She made sure the makeshift bandage wouldn't come off then lifted Vriska up bridal style and started to run home. Thanks to her abnormal Jade Blood strength and the energy the sun gave her, the task was not too hard. Kanaya chanted a mantra of "please don't let any flesh eaters find us please don't let any flesh eaters find us" all the way until her hive came into view.
When she saw Kanaya's hive, Vriska felt it was safe enough to pass out, like she had so desperately wanted to for the last hour.
Rainbow sand had gotten caught in all the crevices of Vriska Serket. A torrent of it spilled out when Kanaya began cutting away what was left of her jumper. Kanaya didn't mind as the blood stained her floor. She would be leaving soon anyway and her hive would be demolished.
Using her subpar medical eye, she observed Vriska's wounds. As her gazed at her nearly lifeless form her heart was full of love and concern. Would the bites from the undead turn her into one? The lore she read said so, but no vampire had bitten her before she turned.
Kanaya shook her head, clearing the thoughts from her head. At that moment the only thing that was important was cleaning Vriska's wounds. The first place she would tackle was the worst part, her leg. After removing the fabric she used to tie up the wound, blue muscle tissue was exposed, out in the open. Rainbow sand sparkled from within. Before proceeding to clean the wound, Kanaya closed the curtain over the window so the sun didn't irritate Vriska's skin. Then she started scooping handful of sopor from her recuperacoon so she could feed it to Vriska. Gently, she levitated her head with her elbow while pouring the sopor into her open lips, making she she swallowed before getting more. It spilled from her lips, down her cheeks, leaving slimy green trails, before pooling on the floor. Most of it didn't even go into her mouth.
After the fifth handful Kanaya realized there was a much more effective way to go about it. She ran over to her recuperacoon and slurped up large mouthfulls, without swallowing. She used her tongue to part Vriska's lips then opened her mouth and fed her like a mother bird. Once she gave Vriska a good amount of sopor slime, she started using it to clean her wounds. She poured the goop in and used her fingers to make sure it got deep in the wound and she scrubbed. When she got to Vriska's leg, she first flooded it with water, in hopes of getting rid of the sand. It worked, somewhat, then she poured in the sopor slime, making sure it got into every nook and cranny. She read somewhere it had healing properties.
At a seemingly random time, needle and thread fell from her chastity modus. She assumed that meant it was time to start sewing together Vriska's wounds. Seconds later corpses she had stolen for snacking on were released. At first, Kanaya didn't know what that meant. Then she realized pieces of Vriska's skin was missing. She searched all over the day walker for skin that could be used for grafting. The only bits of skin that were soft were the palms. She peeled the palms from all of the corpses then washed them off blooded.
Using her string and needle she started to sewing the patches of skin to Vriska. When she was done varying shades of grey littered Vriska's skin. Most darker than her natural tone. The stitches managed to blend in well enough. Overall Kanaya was proud of the work. Vriska was still breathing and her body looked much better.
Soon every cut and scratch was sewed up, except for the one on her leg.
She looked at it and pursed her lips. "What am I to do with you..." she asked the cut, who didn't answer back.
Staring got her nowhere so Kanaya decided to do a quick internet search. For the most part, the results were useless. On the bright side she was able to find out more about the dangers of a pan eater bite. She learned that so long as the wounds were cleaned out the side affects were mostly harmless. Victims usually suffered from things like increased affinity towards sunlight and flesh, slight rotting, tooth loss, and a high chance of coming back from the dead.
Since the internet proved useless Kanaya decided to go with her gut. She pulled out her heavy duty thread that wasn't liable to break under the worst conditions and started working, poking her needle through the soft flesh over and over. Her fingers trembled slightly, causing her stitches not to be as straight as she wanted, but in the end she got the job done, and that was what mattered. After making sure the stitches were tight and wouldn't come out, Kanaya placed down her materials and fell down, eagle spread on the floor. With the back of the hand least covered in blood, she wiped the sweat off her forehead. The whole process had taken a little over a few hours and already the sun was setting. Kanaya was ready to fall asleep.
But first, she moved herself, and Vriska, into her recuperacoon. Vriska was so full of sopor slime she'd probably be fine and free of nightmares even if she didn't sleep in one, but Kanaya wanted the company.
Opening her hazy eyes, Vriska's first thought was 'Where the fuck am I?' It felt like her think pan was trying to burst out of her skull. Slowly, she took in her surroundings. Cloth hanging up over the windows. Colorful throw pillows tossed about. Half made clothes lying on the floor. Kanaya laying next to her in the recuperacoon.
A light bulb went off.
"Oh yeah, Kanaya's hive." she said.
Realizing she was safe, she put her head back and decided to rest a bit more, before getting up and facing the night. Before she could relax, memories of what happened during the day came back to her, shaking her from her sleepy state.
She shot up suddenly, making the sopor slime slosh and spill over the side. Lifting her leg up high, in a fluid, flexbile motion she hadn't been aware she was capable of, she started to inspect it. There were stitches all over her but it was obvious the worse damage was on the side of her calf. The stitches there were thick and plentiful. Her leg felt a little numb, but for the most part Kanaya had done a good job of patching her up. She smiled fondly, looking down at her stitches.
She looked over at Kanaya, who slept soundly. Black lipstick was smeared onto the side of her face. With her thumb, Vriska wiped the smudge away. Then she brushed her thumb directly against Kanaya's lips. Looking down at her placid face she entertained thoughts of kissing her, the moirail who had put up with her so much. Moirails could kiss, couldn't they?
Vriska worried her lip with her teeth, not minding as her nibbles broke the skin and made her bleed. The blood matched her fading lipstick, after all.
At that moment Kanaya's eyes started to flutter.
Vriska snapped back, slamming into the wall of the recuperacoon and almost jumping out. The sopor slime sloshed, splashing onto Kanaya's face and shocking her fully awake. Confused, she looked around, trying to figure out what had caused the splash. When her eyes fell on Vriska, who was breathing heavy, her eyes brightened.
"Good to see you're still alive." she greeted, smiling. Vriska tried to hide her blush by rubbing her eyes.
"Uh, yeah. Totally." she coughed. "So. Sorry about earlier, in the desert. With the pan eaters. I got carried away and distracted and..." Kanaya waved her hand.
"Oh no, it's fine. It was your first time and the information I gave you was flawed. It's also partially my fault for assuming you would be fine on your own for such a long time. But I digress. You're alive, and that's what matters." Kanaya's smile was 10000x brighter than the sun. It made Vriska's eyes hurt. "Why do you keep rubbing your face?" she asked, reaching out to take her hand away. Her hands were so warm and gentle. More gentle than any hands that had ever dared to touch her before. Vriska's heart hurt as she thought about how after they left Alternia the chances of them still talking was slim to none. Kanaya would be off becoming a legacy whereas Vriska would crash and burn after a few sweeps of pirating. Without Kanaya around to keep her in check she'd piss some troll off too much and end up murdered.
"Vriska...? Are you...crying?" Kanaya asked, stunned.
"After we leave Alternia, I'm probably never going to see you again." She blurted out. Blue water filled blue eyes making blue mascara run down a blue tinted face along with the blue stained lips of a blue blooded girl who felt blue.
Before long the dam holding back Vriska's emotions was unplugged. She was blubbering and not bothering to control the river of tears that rolled down her cheeks, forming a small pool of blue amongst the green slime. Her face scrunched up and snot dripped from her nose.
At first Kanaya didn't know what to do. In all her years of knowing Vriska, she'd never seen her cry. But nevertheless she needed to do something.
"Vriska, sssh. It's okay." she wrapped her arms around Vriska's shoulder and pulled her into her chest. "Calm down. I'm sure we'll see each other again." she murmured, petting her hair. She ran her fingers through the dark locks, untangling its knots.
"But how do you know!? I'll be off doing my pirate business and you'll be off doing some cool jade blood thing! And what about when being a pirate doesn't work out? What if I can't even become a pirate in the first place? What if I can't get a crew together? Or...or..." Vriska pressed her face into Kanaya's chest and sobbed. Kanaya continued to run her fingers through her hair.
"Haven't you already started recruiting?" she asked, looking down at Vriska.
"Well, I got this loser yellow blood to be my helmsmen by promising not to kill him and his lowblood friends... But other than that I'm alone." Kanaya sighed and shook her head.
"That's no way to go about it!" she tutted. "You have to get on people's good side, so they don't try to betray or overthrow you once you've become powerful." Vriska gave Kanaya a look. "Ah, yes I suppose that would be difficult for you giving your nature and the entire foundation of your personality." Kanaya went silent for a moment, pondering an idea she had wanted to pitch to Vriska for a while. "What if I helped you recruit?"
Vriska sat up with light shining in her eyes, a sudden and complete 180 from before. "Oh my god, I just got an even better idea. I mean. It'd still be great if you recruited people but what if you became my second in command! I mean, not just because you're my friend but because you'd be great for the job! The way you patched me up and shit. I'll need a medic. Plus you're a great adviser. You can stop me from going power crazy, or something." Vriska was practically vibrating from happiness. She looked so elated by the idea of spending the rest of her life with Kanaya by her side, that Kanaya felt tears of happiness well up.
Both were on such highs, partially from swallowing sopor slime and partially from pure happiness, their thoughts became muddled. The only thing they saw was red. Without caring about possible consequences they each decided to confess their more than pale feelings for eachother. At the same time, they leaned in to kiss the other...
and ended up missing.
Kanaya had aimed too high and was at level with her nose whereas Vriska aimed too far to the right, and ended up at Kanaya's cheek. They sat there for a moment before pulling back, blushing. "I'm sorry I-"
"No no! It was my fault for being presumptuous and-"
"But I really do like you Kanaya! I mean more than just-"
They fumbled trying to form their thoughts into coherent sentences. Realizing they were getting nowhere, Vriska grabbed Kanaya's cheeks between her hands and looked into her eyes, where a shimmer of green was appearing around her pupils. Trying to force all of her love for Kanaya into her one good eye, she stared until Kanaya calmed down and stared back. They looked into each others eyes and fell in love all over again.
Vriska kissed her her. Hard.
She pressed her lips to Kanaya's and let out sweeps of built up tension by crushing their bodies together.
They stayed locked together, kissing and squeezing and touching for a couple hours before they decided to get out of the recuperacoon. "So does this mean we're...?" Kanaya asked tentatively.
"Matesprits and working together? Yes. Yes that's exactly what this means." Vriska grinned, walking towards the ablutionroom. "Come on. Let's get clean."
After the adventure the two girls ended up spending all their time at eachothers respective hives'. Mainly Kanaya's since Vriska's was a mess no matter how many times Kanaya cleaned up.
Time passed and soon drones were outside Vriska's hive, along with Kanaya and the rest of their crew. All the trolls filled out the papers necessary to be allowed to leave Alternia rather than be culled. After filling out the papers, everyone entered Vriska's ship and took the positions which had been assigned, by Kanaya, ahead of time.
The matesprits stood on the front deck, watching as the ship lifted from the ground. Their fingers were entwined and as they blasted off into space they both felt not a force in the universe could stop them.