North Main Street.
"Mi-uuuuuu." Nepeta mewed in dramatic despair. "How am I supurrsed to survive with Karkitty as leader?"
"You'll manage, Nepeta." Equius answered her, drinking another glass of milk.
"Equius. How much mewlk have you had today?" Nepeta sniffed suspiciously.
"Don't worry about it, Nepeta." Equius said gruffly, wiping his mouth and standing up. Nepeta crouched with her handmade claws digging into the floor. She inched after him carefully, like a tiger she stalked her prey. As he climbed the stairs, her presence unknown, she sprung up after him.
"Nepeta tackles her prey!" She announced, leaping into his back and wrapping her arms and legs around him.
"How many times have I told you not to-"
"Nepeta ignores her meowrail and demands he deliver her to her bed." Nepeta cut him off playfully. Equius sighed, knowing Nepeta wouldn't be deterred from a potential piggyback. He secured her in the crooks of her knees and carried her the rest of the way up the stairs and into her bedroom.
She had made it so that her bedroom looked like a cave. Along the walls, drawn in bright crayon colors, she had marked her multiple ships. She had Equius help her color-code it, too. Blue was for possibly canon, green for no way in hell, pink for so-totally canon, and red for OTPOTPOTP. So far, nothing along her walls were marked in red. At least, not to Equius's knowledge. Nepeta had refused her bed, stripping it of its mattress and dumping the metal frame outside. She tore the mattress inside out, strewing stuffing into one big pile along with blankets and sheets and pillows and stuffed cat plushies. Equius carefully removed her from his back and into his arms, carrying her like a baby. She yawned greatly and curled into his chest.
"Equius," she purred sweetly. "When are you going to let me cuddle in your bed?"
"I've told you, Nepeta." Equius replied, setting her down gently in her pile. "It's not appropriate for a girl your age."
"But Equius, you're as old as me!" Nepeta laughed. Equius knelt down and ruffled her hair. As she got comfortable he slipped her clawed gloves off her hands and set them down on her nightstand.
"Good night, Nepeta." Equius said, giving her the smallest of smiles.
"Wait, Equius," Nepeta called him back. "What happens if...during the trip...what happens if I get hurt?"
Equius knew the answer she wanted, and it was the answer he would give her. He turned back to her and said "I won't let that happen, Nepeta. Good night."
"Wait, one more thing." Nepeta said again, and again Equius turned. "What if I have a bad dream? Then can I cuddle with you?"
"If you have a bad dream, you can come see me and I'll send you back to bed with some warm milk, ok?"
"Ok. Goodnight Equius."
"Good night, Nepeta."
Once he was out of sight, Nepeta quickly dug out a drawing from behind her pillow, illuminated by the moonlight. It was a drawing she made when she was seven- and that she still held onto. Scribbled in bright red crayon was a very cute drawing of her and Equius sharing a very cute kiss. Just looking at it her face flushed like crazy. She hugged it to her chest and stuffed it back under her pillow, curling back into a ball and going to sleep.
Closing her bedroom door behind him, Equius turned to find himself nose-to-nose with a long-haired girl with her arms folded. She glared at him scoldingly as his face flushed.
"Oh, what do you care." He groaned, moving aside so that he wasn't so close to her.
"I don't." Aradia replied, following him down the hall. "All I'm saying is to be careful."
"You tell me that every day, I'd really just appreciate if you'd stay out of it. " Equius unlocked his bedroom door with his key.
"It's easy to get tangled up in personal matters, Equius, and with our new assignment we have to stay focused."
"It isn't my place to say so," Equius stepped inside his bedroom. "But don't be a hypocrite. You're always tangled up in 'personal matters' chasing after Captor."
"Leave him out of it." Aradia flushed. "All I'm saying is-"
"Goodnight, Aradia." Equius closed the door and locked it. Aradia, angered that he would even suggest that she was chasing after Solkux, slunk down the stairs and back into her room. Her room was cold, dark, and had everything she needed- a sleeping place, a bookshelf, a picture of Sollux, and a desk with pencils. That's all she required.
"Chasing after Captor," She repeated to herself as she stripped off her day wear and changed into night wear. "What an idiot. A foul smelling idiot."
"I wouldn't think so." A voice from up above. Sure as sunshine, there was Nepeta, her head poking down through a trapdoor in the ceiling.
"Nepeta!" Aradia cried, covering herself.
"He's not that bad." Nepeta continued. "And besides, it's not a very well kept secret that you are head over tail in LO-OVE with Mister Sollux!" Nepeta teased. Aradia blushed angrily.
"Get out!" She shouted.
"Fine, fine." Nepeta muttered, her head slipping back up and trapdoor shutting.
"Well kept secret? Head over tail?" She said aloud. "Urgh!" Shoving on her sleeping shirt, she stomped over to her bed and flopped furiously on it, kicking her and her out and hugging her pillow. Quietly, Aradia held her framed picture of Sollux and hugged it to her chest. "I wish you weren't so oblivious." She sighed. "And I wish you weren't so in love with Fef."
"Told you so!" And there was Nepeta, her head poking out of the trapdoor.
"Get out!" Aradia roared, hurling her pillow at Nepeta's head. With a laugh Nepeta slipped away again.
Up above, Equius also held a picture. Very delicately in his strong hands he held a picture Nepeta had drawn for him when they were eleven. It was a scribbly doodle of Equius, holding a bow and smiling. He had studied this picture many times, and so far had found only one heart. In the very corner, as tiny as could be, a red heart stood out against the blue sky. It was Equius's only written proof that Nepeta's feelings for him were more than pale. He held onto it very well. And then there was a text on his phone from Eridan.
"Equius." It read. "Outside. Now. I found something."
"What?" Equius texted back.
"Just get out here."
Standing outside was Eridan, his cape handing down by his ankles as he stood over something. Equius followed instruction and met him outside as what Eridan had found glinted in the moonlight.
"What is it?" Equius asked.
"A plaque. A license plate, I think." Eridan picked it up. "There's writing on it, too."
"North Main Street. The center of town. Greyhound."
"Tuesday, four a.m." Eridan added.
"I think we just solved the first puzzle." Equius said.