Chapter Text
You're tired, have a gorgeous lady on your couch with you and are kind of scared.
You just back from what felt like an eternity-lengthened party for your close friend Dave. Okay this is the second time you've come back to your place in a while but that's not the point. Dave said it wasn't a birthday thing as he accordingly ‘doesn't do that shit’ which was just about the saddest damn thing you've ever heard, half because he probably isn't used to celebration considering how he grew up and other half being he's like forty times his physical age because of wonky time bull shit. Whatever. You're like 90% sure some one in the polyamorus mystery gang just thought “oh no dave doesn't want to do a party on his birthday let's all just say we're doing a coincidental celebration and he’ll go with it” to which he probably proceeded with “yeah fuck it” becuase he really is cool like that.
Dave obviously invited you because you've been bros your whole life that gives you each other the free honorary seat at any individual centered event but also probably to get you out your shell a bit more. You've not really been actively hanging out with your friends since you elected to live alone. You're kinda too dysfunctional as a person to really burden someone with putting up with you for a long time. Luckily, You've never to been to far from anywhere you need to go, windy thing and all that, but lately you've lacked a lot of motivation to get out there with everyone, you try to keep 'em in the loop through sparse discord conversation but it's not uncommon for you to just get distracted by something and never finish a message that'll give everyone a John-drought for a couple days. You just kinda do the same hermit funk thing until Something happens to leave you going “oh shit my friends are awesome I gotta talk to them more“ which has at most a two month effect before you slump again.
You're not particularly self aware but you've recognized this pattern enough to identify it but again, kind of lack the motivation to actually really change anything about it, needless to say you of course wanted to Go. ‘anything to go see your bro!’ you initially thought but you didn't really do anything for the first two and a half hours, sat in the corner like a weirdo because you really hadn't recovered your socializing skills. You don't want to bring down the mood with Mr. Birthday boy getting clamoured by like six people all the time. Sucks, yeah, but you definitely wouldn't want to make anyone leave so you'd just get his attention and also wouldn't emotionally handle the swarm of rotating chicks and dudes he'd apparently accumulated. Curse you, Strider’s bisexual aura.
You took to the balcony after a bit, its surprisingly small, you'd thought it would kinda expand past the doors width, but alas. No one else is out here anyway, you guess you kinda are the air element so getting in is more spacious.. space.. kinda comforted you.. a bit. You only really came to hang out with the one person you'd know you can just be yourself with but Egbert is both too much a self entitled prick to want to not expect your pal might be busy on his not-birthday and too much pussy bitch to actually assert yourself into whatever evers he's doing. Dave probably already has five pussys to eat tomorrow, you kinda sarcastically snort to yourself. In what you can only hope was a shitty attempt at taking a swig from your plastic cup and not an accidental facepalm-with-shit-in-your-hand event you spill a large part of your soda on your shirt. You groan aloud disparagingly. You don't like to drink alcohol, probably because of some deep-rooted Dad-imparted wisdom teachings, but now the bottom half of your face feels gross and sticky. Might as well deal with the shame of walking through half the house with a fucked up shirt to get a towel now while you can still save it.
That is until you almost succeeded in a rarely attempted but annoyingly common spill all your drink again x2 combo when you whip around door-wards and knock into a big cherry wall that wasn't there last you checked. After miraculously saving yourself from falling on your ass and also not dropping your cup over the railing you realized the red obelisk that wasn't there before is one of the Trolls, one of the girls you think. You're bad with names and you don't really know who this could be? Feferi was the condescension's semi troll daughter thing right? This isn't her, she's too red you think. You help yourself up using subtle wind magicks and quickly place your cup off to the side before asking who this is. The 6 feet fucking literal goddess infront of you Says shes named:
“aradia, aradia megido”’ You vaguely remember her and the name from brief encounter but it took you a second because you haven't really heard it pronounced recently. You stick out your unspilled hand and introduce yourself as:
“john, john egbert” reflecting the cute bond reference she did there.
Aradia hands you a white towel, not getting you were trying to do a gentlemanly customary handshake as she states:
“i know! i sort of sensed a future where you tried to get one yourself, tripped and fall down some stairs getting to the bathroom assumedly and then bawled your eyes until leaving!”
“..uh huh”
she just kinda smiles at you while you're trying to process what to really say to that. You notice the little time symbol on her chest, and realize she's probably Dave's time bull shit friend so she's probably cool.
“jeez.. uhh thanks for the help aradia”
”You're welcome, John, any time!” she giggles on the last part and you feel your heart beating a little harder for some reason. You don't really talk to any of the trolls besides Karkat, Vriska and a couple others so you're a little confused why the girl who is one step strayed from an alien stranger came to your rescue, she is very pretty though. Your decide to Man up and straight up ask her instead of racking it in your head:
“so.. why did you save me over here?” You ask while wiping your shirt with the recently acquired towel.
“hmmm.. i don't really know? i like using the power i have to help people i guess” pointing at her shirt where the Red Gear symbol is on her breast. You didn't really understand the implication, is it like a class thing?
isnt everything a class thing, you kinda realize? Shit, that game fucked you up huh.
You take a sec to remember to look back up at her, she towers over you and when you're spacing off you're directly in front of her large chest. You really hope she didn't notice it would just make this more awkward. Though she doesn't seem exactly pressed on the social end of the situation, she's got this freaky vibe to her you can't quite place. The Celebration was mostly casual, you've just got an overshirt over your usual tee and baggy cargo pants while she vastly contrasts with a stunning dress, one of those old timey ones with puffy sleeves and a patterned mid section. It's rather dark so it is hard to see the details but you definitely see a bunch of horned skulls. You look down at you own outfit a little shamed, she takes note it seems with her comment:
“dont worry i just like to get extravagant at stuff like this! the party i mean”
“pshh.. yeah I get it” you waved your hand in a convincing tone.
You ask how she found her way here and she replies ‘the door silly’. You realize you weren't too precise in your wording and clarify how she got to the party specifically, she responds with what you had expected, Dave Invited her. Aradia exposits that she and Dave connected over the whole time thing and hung out a bunch in dreams. Naturally, of course.
She continues on talking about some of the stuff she did since the last time you saw her all those years ago. It's nice listening to her, all the trolls have a certain accent you can't really describe, but she enunciates words in that way especially heavily and something about it is just majestic, English is probabky not as natural to her since she mostly communicates with other trolls. You don't know the troll language all that much yourself, if at all really, but if she asked you probably try to learn it to make it simpler for her. What? That's a normal thought to think, you'd have enough free time. You sip the last of your drink when she's on the lonely ventures of the dreambubble avenues, you wait to interrupt her to go get a refill, she is much taller and wider than you that you can't get to the door. You lean on the railing, Aradia imitates the action, and looking between her and the moon you realize the tiniest red glint in her iris, something transfixes you and you just start observing more and more of her appearance. She's kinda trailed off of the topic she was on and seemingly does the same with you. You want to say something but the words escape you.
“i think you look quite beautiful john”
Your heart stops for just a second. You felt the words that you should've said to this gracious woman deflected onto you, minus the John part or course, she said your name weirdly but it hits you hard all the same that you might be falling for someone you've met at most 3 times. Is this really how low you've gotten? Any vaguest amount of attention from someone feels like some cupid arrow now?
“.. i-i-i uhh, need a drink”
She gently scoots her rump out of their way and you go through to get a beverage.
Fuck it. Cheap wine sounds great, sure. You didn't close the door and Aradia hollers to you from a third of the house to get her a glass too, as if your face couldn't get any redder you got people to look at you, if only just for a moment, while you open the pantry to get the two drinks. You didn't really think this through because now you're kinda obligated to get back out there and give her the glass and also pick up that line of conversation you left on. You hear the vaguest of “4WKW444RD” from fucking Terezi from a few feet away and you know that shit eating gremlin is talking about you. You try and take a confident Lil sip of one of the glasses walking back and its tastes like ass but you resist the urge to spit it out with an ‘BLUH’ as is natural, Megido audibly giggles from outside because even with the drink covering your expression she probably understands what you're going through. You hand her that glass and tell her the brand while you close the door with your leg, she says she's not tried it.
You take another swig, you kinda let it rest in your mouth to get used to the taste. You explain to her about your recent state of affairs, since she did the same earlier, you touch on the new place, a pretty spacious but rather small couple of rooms. You tell her that you've had issues connecting with everyone since. You feel like a bit of a bother and knowing your friends they tend to blow shit so far out of proportion that russian space dog could see, for example this party. Aradia doesn't understand what you're really referencing but seems genuinely interested in your plight, you become much more aware that you are not even drunk and are spilling your guts out a very small amount of time after re-meeting this person. You take another gentle sip, your warming up to it you geuss, Aradia for one, confidently bottoms up the fucker like its nothing. Everything is quiet for just a sec.. you didnt hear her swallow the drink..?
Aradia failed to resist the urge and bluhs out the liquid over the railing, the display is so enamouring that you can't help but chortle out a laugh in your own container.
Aradia's failed chug sesh leaves her nice dress a bit of a stain, she does nothing but laugh in the face of her own plight and you start breathing through your nose harder …Creep. You offer to grab her a towel, you set the one you had on the kitchen counter when you were getting the glasses, telling her it's to even each other out. Aradia refuses:
“no no no its alright! ive ought to be leaving anyways” you sink a little bit that that, had it really that long with her? How long was she here before you, if at all? Aradia senses your concern once more and reassures you:
“oh its no big deal but ive just gotten a little bored of the scenery. what if you showed me your place, instead of telling me about it?
“oh.. uh shit yeah, give me a sec to clean up the place haha”
“alright, let me tell my ride ive changed plans!” As she's about to walk out of the door she leans in close to kiss you on the nose, she peeks her head inside as you ready your windy thing..
“SOL!! IM GOING WITH JUNE TONIGHT!!”
You scrunch out a nervous smile out of your face, she definitely said your name a little weirdly there, and out of the corner or your eyes you see a silent middle finger peek the corner where the lalondes were playing fighting games. As your about to breeze way to clean your shitty pad Aradia turns once more to say:
“meet me in 25’ on the porch”
“ah okay” you respond as you give her a thumbs up and dip.
You very excitedly clean your place up, mainly your room because it's a dump, it's unlike you to let yourself go as you have so you really focus on the small shit strewn about. You vacuum the main room for the first time in a while, you're pretty sure it is a house warming gift from someone but you don't remember who. You're kind of intimidating debt to that person now, huh. You don't have people over often, let alone a very tall pretty woman who actually seems interested. Who you are equally interested in ..shit are you going to like hook up?? That's not out of the question, right, you should be aware of the possibility? Egbert's illustrious virginity taken by one of the more random trolls.. you don't really know how you'd feel, before, during or after the instance. Will you be the same? Will that be messed up if your under the influence, your not really drunk but you've had a small cup and you think thats enough for your skinny ass to get fucked. By the alcohol. You mean. In your dozing off you realize you kinda just wasted a lot of time and would be late if not for the magic wind shit. You get back to the party in time and Aradia is just on the porch over there, wearing a jacket she didn't before, she's conversing with Jane. You remember she and Aradia were both Maids, so you guess they kinda connect there, though you don't really know what that entails, huh.
As you walk up Jane notices and finishes up what they were speaking on.
“Well ill leave you to it, but you got to promise to bring ‘em home by 5, buster!” Jane jokes with a wagging finger directed at Aradia.
“oh of course miss!” She replies while Jane goes inside, hoo hoo heeing to herself.
“..shes joking right?” Aradia questions while taking your arm.
“uuhh yea haha” you nod.
“you can fly right?” you ask this time.
“mh-hm!” And to confirm she takes a step forward and uncovers her fairy wings, along with a small poof of sparkly dust.
The wings are red and translucent, they're not like normal bug wings you think, it has an identifiable symmetrical pattern so it's more like some sort of butterfly. That is technically a bug, yeah but you were thinking of like dragonflies and ladybugs where there are just wings that move too fast so they don't let you really see the design on them. Aradia giggles again, likely at you being entranced by her newly found biology.. that came out wrong. Whatever. You both take flight together and You've elected to use the normal god tier fly instead of the wind shit, and curiously she does the same, we're the wings just for show? Or maybe they like to move too fast and therefore just look stationary while in flight. It's a little difficult to ask while your in the air, you glance at her in the night sky and man, if your life wasn't already a fucking story you'd be questioning the random pivot into romance, shes absolutely heavenly in the moonlight. The way Aradia's shiny hair flows in the breeze just takes your breath away, she's still holding your hand while in the air and closes her eyes, entirely trusting your direction and you seriously hope she doesn't feel how sweaty you are in the altitude. You should probably stop droning on and actually land on your apartment. You both make your way and every time you glance behind you she's had this expectant smile, and it's slightly nerve wracking. You open the door to your rooms for Aradia and she bows as she passes through, retracting the wings somehow.
“i uhh lock the door because i dont want to get robbed not because im like.. a serial killer or anything” you mentally slap yourself why the fuck did you say that.
“ah, naturally” she laughed.