Nepeta's Ship

Gathering and Warmth

Tavros's p.o.v.

I could feel my hands and legs, I could feel my face, my hair. When I died, I woke up in a desert with my head feeling unbearably light. I found a ring, and had an impulse to grab it, but I actually decided not to. Later on I found a Vriska with white eyes who was from a different timeline. She told me that I was a ghost and that she killed me. I didn't know the ghost part but I had memory of Vriska killing me. I was confused, and for the time I was there I thought the events that happened in her timeline happened in mine. That Terezi killed her, and others were dying too. Aradia, who was god teir, told me that Gamzee killed so many of our friends. I was scared, and shocked. But later on I found out that they weren't from my timeline, where everyone didn't die, and a lot of my friends were oddly in love with each other.

Then, when Gamzee kissed my corpse, my conscious was suddenly moved to my dream body on Prospit. Prospit was totally torn up, and my castle was a wreck. I opened my eyes and my arm was stuck under a slab of cement. I cried out for help, and one of the Prospit castle gaurds heard me. He lifted the slab off of my arm, and I was relieved that I wasn't hurt badly.

There was a small Prospit ship that wasn't destroyed, and I flew to the meteor from there. Now I'm here with Gamzee and Karkat, Gamzee's hand in mine and my eyes occasionally shifting to Karkat, who was on Gamzee's left side. His hand was on Gamzee's shoulder, and I could tell that Gamzee was nervous.

Our feet glided down the steps to the bottom floor. Karkat stopped us at the foot of the staircase and turned around. "Stay right here for now, I'm going to gather them up at the computer lab."

I nodded as Karkat left, and then I turned to Gamzee. "Are you going to be alright?"

"Oh, haha, hell ya." Gamzee said hesitantly and winked at me.

"That didn't sound very confident." I told him and squeezed his hand. "I mean, I should be the one who doesn't have confidence in this situation. I came back from the dead and, technically, my corpse is still somewhere else."

Gamzee coughed awkwardly and looked away from me. "Haha, well, about that."

"What?"

"Your body is kinda in my motherfuckin closet."  Gamzee laughed and my eyes widened.

I shook his arm, begging for his eyes to meet mine. "Are you serious??"

"How else are we gonna contain your motherfuckin dead-smell?" Gamzee asked. I laughed as he continued, "I mean, we can't have Tavvy's zombie perfumin' round the place."

"You're silly, and I'm sorry you had to deal with... That." He looked down at me and saw my smile. His face blushed purple and his hand snaked around my neck, sending me shivers.

He rested his hand on the back of my neck and felt around. "Are you so toasty." He chuckled. "I missed that."

That sentence made my heart sink, and I tilted my chin up to see a clearer view of his face. I studied his curly hair, his long horns, and his silly face paint that I kinda love. "Don't say that, I'm here now." I told him and right after I said that he grinned and quickly swooped in and kissed my lips.

I ran my fingers through his hair and I think I heard a soft giggle from him, which made me smile against his lips. His thumb moved against the skin under my ear and I tilted my head further into the kiss.

We heard a rough clearing of a throat in front of us and we quickly pulled away to see Karkat standing awkwardly in the hallway. "I gathered the flock if you guys are done sucking face."

"Yep." I said sheeply and pulled Gamzee with me. We walked with Karkat to computer lab and Karkat went through.

"Hey guys, I got someone you all might want to see." Karkat said to them in the doorway.

Suddenly I got a lump in my throat when I heard how soft Karkat's voice was. His eyes looked around the room with caution, and he looked back at me. I was still outside of the door, hiding.

"Come on." Karkat said to me, and gave me a really, really small smile. That smile was enough.

I gripped onto Gamzee's hand tight and I walked through the door behind Karkat.

I saw everyone, including some of the humans we have been trolling. They looked a lot different than they looked on the computer. I heard some gasps, and I heard some settle chuckles that had a twinge of shock. The humans looked confused, but my troll friends all looked half thrilled, half surprised, and some disappointed.

"Tavros... What?" Kanaya said slowly. "You're... Alive? How?"

I explained to them all the confusing journey I've been through because of Gamzee, and of my intentions to be more helpful during our course.

Terezi smiled proudly. "Just letting you know, I performed probably the best investigation of a crime scene that anyone's ever witnessed on your dead body."

I gave her a forced smile. "Uh... Thanks?"

I looked over to the corner of the room where the atmosphere changed. The air felt cold and dark, and my heart dropped when I saw Vriska. Fear spiked my blood and I gave her a small wave. She was standing behind a chair and she had her hands on the head of it. Her nails dug into the cushion and her eyes were wide. Her eyes didn't have anger though... They had shock, fear, worry, and sadness laced in them.

"Ta..." She said quietly. Her voice was barely audible from the other voices in the room. Her eyes started to tear up. "I'm sor-" she started to say, but she cut herself off again. She straightened her shoulders and her expression changed to a slight scowl.

"Woop-dee-doo. Tavros is back from the dead. I'm going to go use the bathroom I guess." Vriska got up and walked past me, hitting my shoulder with hers. She shut the doors behind her and the room fell silent.

Eridan pointed at the door, looking kind of lost. "So... she was the one wwho killed you?"

Terezi sighed and smacked his arm. "You idiot, get with the program." she sat up and and rubbed my shoulder. "I'm glad you are back Tavros. I might need to check up with Vriska though." Then, with that, she left the room to look for Vriska.

"We haven't seen you in a while." Sollux said to me and I smiled back. Sollux then turned to Gamzee and raised an eyebrow. "And we haven't seen you in a while either."

Gamzee's hand started to sweat against mine. "Haha, well... Uh." Gamzee scratched the back of his neck. "I'm sorry."

Karkat looked around the room. "You shits are going to see Gamzee and Tavros more often now, get used to it."