See You on the Other Side [Yan!DSMP x Reader]

- CHAPTER 6: Julius Caesar

"Hey Jared," Karl says s soon as he approaches the three of you, startling Schlatt in the progress and confusing you. With a wide eye, you stare at him. He doesn't give you any attention at first, until he notices something on your clothes. "Is that blood or paint?" He's mostly referencing to your trousers, which are covered in a red liquid. As you look down, you have to admit that you don't even know yourself. Schlatt answers for you though.

"What do you think, Jacobs?" he grumbles, Karl sighing annoyedly before he turns to Jared. He asks him something, but you don't process his words. Jared answers, and although his mouth moves, you don't hear anything. There's a pressure in your ears, a high ringing sound deafening you. They're still talking as you're just staring right at them, as if your brain is malfunctioning. Your mechanical arm is shaking, but you don't notice until Schlatt taps your shoulder, eyeing towards your arm. Karl notices it too, asking you something, but you don't say anything, since you can't understand what he's saying.

You turn down the sensitivity on the arm, hoping that it'll stop, but when it doesn't, you just entirely deactivate it. If the arm doesn't work, you'll just have to turn it off until it will again. It may just be a problem in the machine, rather than your brain. You hope that's the case, at least.

You look back at them. Karl asks you a question. You don't know what. He realizes this, so he asks it again, and you nod, hoping that that answers his question. He seems to be satisfied. Or not, but you truly don't know. Thankfully, the sound starts returning once Karl walks away, and you have no clue what words were said, or how long they took.

"I never thought you'd agree to that," Schlatt comments, scepticism and confusion clouding his tone. Jared simply laughs, throwing his arm around your shoulders with a grateful look.

"I'm just thankful you said yes! This means I won't have to go alone to that godawful place. The parties are always so boring and Karl is never any fun. Sapnap is, but he's a bit too enthusiastic for my taste. And he'll keep talking about his previous tasks back when he still worked at DeMeter."

"Wait, what?" you stutter, not fully understanding what they're talking about. Jared laughs and cheers.

"Can you imagine that, Schlatt? Even after my tragic breakup and promise to stay single forever, I arranged myself a date for that silly party." Party?

"So, what exactly are we supposed to do now? I'm not going to talk business with any of these guys."

"I know you're not. Connor and Jared are. The two of us are just going to hang out and judge other people silently, what about that?"

You know what party they're talking about.

"Y/N! It's so good to see you!"

"Loverboy! How good to see you too! I hope you have the alcohol ready? When are all the other guests coming if I may ask?"

Even when they explain to you what it is, when it is, and where and all those silly details, at the back of your mind, you know it all already.

"Where's Tommy?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"Because I'm here due to his invitation, dickhead."

You remember fractions of that event. The event where Jared actually lost his life. You went on a platonic date with him only for him to be seen alive for the last time there, just because of his closeness to you.

"And I agreed to go to that as your date?" you mumble. Apparently, that's what Karl had asked. If you were prepared to go on a date with Jared, so he wouldn't try to infiltrate himself into Sapnap and Karl's relationship again, considering Quackity was almost entirely out of the picture now.