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It had been a week since the humans entered the Veil. Rose had only come reluctantly, with John pleading with her with all of his endearing force on one side of the gap, Kanaya trying to talk her down from the other.
"I know that you're angry," the rainbow drinker had said with such concentrated focus that John went slack at Rose's elbow. Rose finally met the troll girl's eyes, hers smoldering, the other's calm and bright. "But you do not want to be left alone in your universe. You have already taken some of your revenge. You will have more here."
And she had. After she stepped through, John on her heel and their doomed session abandoned, she had met Kanaya's eyes one last time—and then she was gone, a dark rocket of rage and power among illusory stars.
She had returned in tatters, her darkness holding her together, bright red blood leaking out the edges. John and Dave held her up while Jade demanded that Karkat help her find appropriate medical supplies.
"I win," Rose gritted out, a fierce smile plastered on her face, teeth white against the darkness. She then whispered something that only John and Dave heard and passed out.
Kanaya had stood to the side, lips pressed together hard, tongue caressing her inner lip where her fang pricked it and tasting nothing. Though she was in their grip, now was hardly an appropriate time for thirst and lust. She watched as the humans patched the unconcious girl up, and followed when they moved her to something like a bed. None of the humans seemed perturbed by Kanaya's presence, though Dave did give her a knowing smirk. Because the humans still had healing items captchalogued, it did not take long to stabilize her, although it would be a couple sleep cycles before she woke.
Rose's rushed hospital room had morphed into her bedroom, cramped though it was, and she spent most of the week locked inside it. She emerged for meals, although she only picked at her food and exchanged few words. When she did appear, shadows entered the room with her, the lights dimming noticeably. They followed her back to her room and blotted out the light in the crack under her door.
"I think she's just brooding," John said when Kanaya asked after her. John seemed to be the closest thing to a moirail the grimdark girl had. "She gets gloomy sometimes, and she's been through a lot."
"We all have," Jade added, putting on a sad smile for her new troll friend.
Kanaya agreed with a nod and left them to converse about other things in the corrider.
She knocked firmly on Rose's door. There was no reply.
"Rose?" she called. "I understand that you might want to be alone at this moment, but perhaps we could talk? We haven't really spoken since you first arrived here, except for that one time, which I am sure you remember, but—"
The door opened to reveal Rose dressed all in black, from headband to long skirt, shadows sliding thick across her skin. Her expression was impartial.
"—there's something I..." Kanaya trailed off.
Rose looked down the troll's body, then back up. Her eyes widened.
"You look terrible."
"What?" Kanaya said as Rose laid a cold hand on her face and ran her thumb along the skin below her eye. She flushed slightly at the sudden touch.
"You've lost weight, and you're much less bright than before." She lowered her hand. "Are you having trouble with your recent transformation?"
"Ah..." Now Kanaya flushed with embarrassment. "I have yet to make an arrangement with anyone in order to properly nourish myself, although of course I was planning to, I just don't know if anyone would be comfortable with assisting me in this manner..."
Rose caught her wrist and slid out of the doorway, pulling Kanaya a step up the hall. "Come. I'm sure we can find someone."
"Wait—" The troll girl shook her head. Her voice lowered to a murmur as she spoke. "The thing is, drinking from someone is extremely intimate, and I don't know that—that I would be comfortable with it..." She looked down at the floor.
"I see," said Rose. "Would you like to discuss this? I take it you wanted to talk to me about something else, as well."
Rose had decorated her room. The decor was largely black, with some purple peeking out here and there. Kanaya would have done a few things differently, herself, but that did not mean the grimdark girl's room was not lightyears more sophisticated than any of the other trolls'. They sat facing each other on black pillows placed on the floor. Kanaya glowed like a distant celestial object against the shadows and black fabric.
"From what I understand of troll romantic ideals, you may have up to three people with whom you should feel comfortable. Is that right?" Rose asked.
"Yes." Kanaya sighed and stared at her knees. "It is true that there are four romantic quadrants, and perhaps my thirst would not be a terrible ordeal with a moirail, but I don't even have that anymore."
"No matesprit? Not even a kismesis?"
Kanaya sighed inwardly. "Perhaps if things had gone differently. But no."
"Is there anyone you might want to pursue?"
She looked up and was caught in Rose's gaze, bright and intense and breaking through the shadows that surrounded her. Her insides fluttered and twisted.
"No," she lied.
Rose considered her for a moment, shadows curling at her edges. Then she shook her head.
"You have to pick someone anyway, Kanaya. You realize you're starving yourself?"
"I'm not, not really," Kanaya insisted. She didn't know how long she could go without drinking. Two weeks hadn't been that detrimental, even if Rose had noticed a change. Even if she had wanted to lock herself away in her room, just as Rose was doing, to resist the growing urge to suck on her friends.
"I see," said Rose. "What was it that you initially came to talk to me about?"
"Uh," said Kanaya. She thought she'd have the courage for this conversation, but it was obvious she did not. The more she thought about it, the less likely it seemed that the grimdark girl would return her feelings. That look they'd shared when Rose crossed over, the one that had burned in her mind for many nights, had probably only been a look of understanding between predators. Karkat's complaints about John were likely the same for Rose, too; it seemed that most humans subscribed to the romantic concept of 'not-a-homosexual', as absurd as it sounded to the trolls.
So instead Kanaya said, "I was just worried about you. If I may ask, and of course you do not have to answer, is there a reason you have been cloistered away all week?"
Rose snorted.
"I have an idea," she ventured, in a 180 degree subject change that Kanaya couldn't possibly miss, "regarding your dietary needs."
"Yes?"
"Drink from me. My brethren assure me that human blood is essentially the same as your Knight of Blood's."
"Karkat," said Kanaya vaguely, captured by the idea. "I saw your blood. It's bright red, like candy. Just like Karkat's."
A sly smile flickered onto Rose's face.
Kanaya shook her head abruptly. "No. I mean, I am not certain that that would be a good idea."
"Why not? We've exchanged pleasantries for a while now—we've known each other for about a year on my end, a few weeks on yours." Rose wrapped her arms around her knees. "I won't be uncomfortable with this level of intimacy. Even if you are, selecting me should minimize increased discomfort with your selection's person afterwards. I expect you are already discomfitted by my grimdarkness."
Kanaya opened her mouth to protest, but Rose pressed a silencing finger to her upper lip. Kanaya sucked in a breath and tasted phantom hints of ink and rhubarb.
"Don't worry," the Lovecraftian girl said solemnly, finger withdrawing. "I tend to have that effect on people."
It was true that Kanaya was uncomfortable in her presence, but not for any of the reasons Rose thought. The troll girl had been enamored with her even as Rose had quickly learned the ropes of the game, and thought the recent changes to her visage had only made her more beautiful; she conceded that perhaps there was a difference in what trolls and humans found desirable. It was the slow, steady pulse from the human organ called her heart that beckoned the rainbow drinker, that she could feel pulling an echo from her veins as surely as she felt the texture of her skirt against the top of her thighs, that distracted her and urged her closer to Rose as she held herself back. That, and the way that the human's insistent eye contact made the space between her legs begin to ache, were the sources of her discomfort.
--
There was a perfectly good reason for why Rose had been secluding herself, although she wasn't about to reveal this reason arbitrarily via omniscient third person narrative. Suffice it to say that the machinations of Doc Scratch and the horrorterrors had transformed her in more ways than her friends realized. She acknowledged she was acting rather like her paradox brother (and possibly Karkat) on this matter, but thought it pointless to inform her compatriots of things they did not really need to know. Because of this she had only consulted with the far-off murmurs of her outer ring brethren about certain parts of her transformation, and they had of course thought it absurd for her to be worried. This did not reassure Rose at all.
"If I am uncomfortable, it is not on account of you or the shadows that follow you. I'm actually quite happy for any time that I may spend with you—" Kanaya stopped and looked down at her hands, green flush visible through her diminished glow.
Rose quirked a smile at that. This confirmed the suspicion she'd had back before she'd met the troll girl in person, and although she would never admit to it, she was relieved—very relieved, embarrassingly so—to learn that those feelings had not changed.
"Drink from me, Kanaya," Rose said, and kneeled forward. She tugged and stretched the collar of her black tee down her shoulder, revealing the delicate curve where neck met collar, still-pale skin clouded over with darkness, and a purple bra strap. "You want to, and I want to see you healthy." She wanted to see how much brighter she shone when she took care of herself.
--
Kanaya's breath hitched, her eyes pinned to Rose's neck. She was so hungry, and Rose was so beautiful.
"Rose...are you sure about this?"
"Hyperbolically speaking, the anticipation is killing me," Rose murmured. She ran her other hand over the soft-looking skin of her neck, her collarbone, resting it on her shirt-covered breast. Her eyes glittered with the reflection of Kanaya's light.
Kanaya leaned forward and nuzzled the crook of the human's neck. It smelled of ink and rhubarb, and something spicy and floral. She ran her tongue along Rose's neck experimentally, up from her collar bone to beneath her ear, making the girl shudder and dampening the skin. The girl's pulse was faster than it had been a minute ago, and it beat into her, steady and strong. She mouthed her neck, feeling for the place where the girl's heartbeat came through the strongest, echoing in the pulse between Kanaya's legs. Her hunger screamed through her and she bit into Rose, piercing and precise. Rose gasped.
Sweet, sweet ambrosia poured into Kanaya's mouth. She sucked desperately, a desert craving an ocean; she was only vaguely aware of the breathy moans and an, "Oh Oglogoth!" coming from Rose as the girl's life washed through her. She felt as bright and hot as the sun.
"That's enough," Rose murmured. Suddenly Kanaya tasted air, dry and dusty. She whined low in her throat as the girl made a small noise of regret. The blood shone bright and sweet on Rose's neck and in little, smeared trails down her shoulder and chest, already drying; she strained towards it, but found she was held back by something firm and strong.
"Do you feel a bit better, Kanaya?" the girl asked as Kanaya looked down to see what kept her in place. Wrapped around her—her upper thighs, skirt hiked up; her middle; her shoulder—were slender, black tentacles, touched with a pinkish blush. Kanaya looked up to meet Rose's gaze, the fog of her thirst lifting.
"I feel wonderful," she said, smiling. Every cell in her body sang. The tentacles were cool against her heat, and tightened their grip as Rose shifted—then they let go, all in unison, and swept beneath Rose's skirt. Rose shut her eyes.
"I probably should have warned you about those. My apologies."
Kanaya felt Rose's heart stuttering at this.
"Your tentacles?" she said, and teased, "Are they acting out of turn, or could they possibly have harmed me in some way?"
Rose acceded a short smile and shook her head minutely. "Humans don't have tentacles. I think it safe to assume that I'm the only human ever to bear such appendages." Her heart still raced, though weak from blood loss. "They're a...gift, from my brethren in the outer rings."
Kanaya nibbled her lip and considered the black shroud of Rose's skirt. "Would it bother you terribly if I perhaps wanted to take another look at these appendages? I find them to be quite beautiful, and I...I liked the way they felt."
Their eyes locked together. Rose drew a long breath, and then said, "Alright."
One of the tentacles snaked back out from under her skirt. It hovered in the air between them. Kanaya could see the vague outline of suckers running along its underside, and, even through the air, she could feel Rose's life pulsing through it. It swayed slightly to that beat.
"You like it?" Rose asked.
Kanaya reached forward, and Rose curled the tentacle obligingly around her hand. It was cool—lukewarm, a relief against her bright-burning skin—and smooth, soft like the underbelly of a grub. She leaned forward and licked it; the inky essence was stronger here, the pulse headier. Rose squeaked with surprise at that, and sounded surprisingly undigified.
Kanaya smiled up at her with half-lidded eyes and said, "How could I not like it?"
Determination flashed in Rose's eyes, and the tentacle whipped out of Kanaya's grasp and behind her back, pulling her closer to the grimdark girl, who smirked back at her.
"Of course you do," Rose said, closing in, and kissed her. Her lips were cool and sweet, and slick with some sort of gloss. Kanaya's newly regrown and sensitive innards fluttered as Rose's tongue dipped into her mouth, teasing against her own tongue, and she shuddered as that tongue caressed her fang, hard and intentional, and the spicy rhubarb taste of Rose's blood trickled again through her mouth.
Rose gave a soft moan at that. She only withdrew to gasp for breath, tentacle tightening behind Kanaya as if she were afraid she might get up and leave. Kanaya felt the room spin around the axis of her intense gaze.
"We're going to do that again, ye—" and they were kissing again, and this time Kanaya kissed back like it had been her idea, rough against Rose's parted lips. Kanaya growled and ran her hands down Rose's back, settling in the dip above her ass and pushing them together at the waist. She groaned low at the pressure against her mound and the top of her seedflap, pressed against Rose's lithe stomach—their shirts rode up as they rocked against each other—and what must be the beginnings of the lovely, slender tentacles beneath her skirt. They curved against the anterior of her seedflap and she dropped out of the kiss with a whimper and breathy exultations.
"Ohh, Rose— Rose—"
Another tentacle wrapped beneath her ass, and the two of them lifted her as the grimdark girl rose from her knees and backed her against the chilly, black-draped wall. Kanaya shivered and ran her hand back up to rest on the back of Rose's soft neck, grabbing another kiss. She bucked against Rose as the girl's hands slid up her sides beneath her shirt and lifted it swiftly but gently over her head, Kanaya raising her arms pliantly for its removal.
"I see," Rose said as she threw the shirt to the side.
"What?" Kanaya panted as Rose's tentacle caressed her ass, slipped between skirt and panties.
"We were moving faster than I realized," Rose said, looking down at Kanaya's seedflap. The pale-glowing, green-flushed folds that emerged from the low top of her skirt ran up in a delicate line to her waist, and the lighter green area that surrounded them continued up to about where Rose's belly button would meet it.
Rose ran the tip of her fingernail up along the side of Kanaya's mound. Kanaya whined. Rose smiled and closed back in.
"I think we should slow down a bit, hm?" she murmured against Kanaya's ear, breath almost warm against the rainbow drinker's skin.
Kanaya registered distantly that her anatomy must be somewhat different from a human's, but was too occupied to inquire about it by the tentacle kneading her ass and the hand rising up to brush against her kinked horn.
"What does this feel like?" Rose murmured, rubbing up and down the horn with the pads of her fingers.
"Mm," said Kanaya, and Rose must have translated it to mean, 'good,' because she continued the light stroking. Kanaya was quickly losing herself in a daze of bliss, but she found Rose's eyes and said, "I would like to remove your shirt."
Rose smiled. "Please."
All garments were soon shed, and the grimdark girl and the rainbow drinker looked up and down each other’s bodies with hungry eyes.
“I think we should return to how we were, yes?” said Rose. Kanaya had barely nodded when Rose’s tentacles snaked back around her and pushed her back against the wall, teasing her ass and the edges of the seedflap. She whimpered as Rose closed what distance remained between them. The human caught her in a hard kiss that made her clench her legs together, and then Rose’s hand slid gently down the length of her seedflap. Kanaya made an undignified and needy noise, trying to push into the touch.
“Let’s see,” murmured Rose, and she found the nook at the bottom of the seedflap, right between Kanaya’s legs. Rose stroked it as Kanaya tried to squirm against the hold of the tentacles.
“Please,” she gasped, “please, Rose,” the words broken by the precise movements of the girl’s hand.
“Do you want me inside of you, Kanaya?” Rose asked.
“Yes, please—”
“Which part of me?”
“Ugh, Rose,” Kanaya groaned. “Just fuck me with your fingers. Please.”
Rose slid two fingers up inside of her and twisted. Kanaya whined. It felt so good, and she wanted more.
“What about my tentacles?” Rose asked huskily, soft and sly against her ear. “Would you like those too?”
Kanaya had forgotten about those, somehow, while they prevented her from bucking against Rose’s hand.
That sounded wonderful. “Oh, yes, please,” Kanaya ground out as Rose pressed the walls inside her and Kanaya spasmed. The girl’s other hand rand up and down her seedflap, mindlessly exploring her folds. Kanaya was beginning to lose track of up, down, and what the noises coming from her own self sounded like.
Rose’s hand disappeared from her nook and she whimpered—but then something cool and thick pressed up inside her, filling her. It squirmed, pressing her walls deliciously, and inched in and out.
“Ah!” she panted. “Yes, ye-ah!”
She heard whimpering and realized it wasn’t hers as cool arms slid around her. She regained enough awareness to observe that Rose clung to her, head in the crook of her shoulder as her tentacles worked Kanaya’s nook. It was Rose who was whimpering, then panting silently, eyes squashed shut. With tentacles busily filling her nook, Kanaya found one arm free and lifted Rose’s face, and the grimdark girl opened her eyes in time to accept Kanaya’s kiss.
Rose moaned into her mouth, and her world exploded in stars.
All was cosmos and bright, hot, delicious. Kanaya slowly came back to herself, Rose panting against her and her nook twitching around Rose’s tentacles, her legs and feet wet with genetic material.
She kissed her again, and Rose kissed back.
After they cleaned up—hastily, and a bit lazily, because Kanaya could still see spots of green on the floor—they lay together against Kanaya’s pile, Kanaya running her claws gently through Rose’s hair.
“Kanaya,” started Rose. “I believe you have a quadrant to drink from, now.”
“If she will have me,” Kanaya murmured in her ear.
“Oh, I will have you,” Rose said, wiggling her eyebrows a little.
Kanaya gave a small laugh and kissed her hair.