Give It Time (a nepkat fanfic)

Chapter 19

Nepeta's POV (1st person)

After seeing Terezi hurt like that while trying to save me, I didn't know what to do. I mean, I didn't really know what to do in the first place, but now I REALLY don't know what to do.

She escaped and found Karkat and probably the others. Too bad the only way I know this is because Karkat's laying unconscious next to me. I got to see Gamzee knock him out and do the same thing to Karkat as he did to me. He tied his hands behind his back and leaned him up against the wall maybe 2 feet away from me.

I've been trying to convince myself that it's all going to be okay. That we're both gonna get out of here. Who knows if that's true, or if it's just white lies, but it's a nice thought. If Karkat wasn't here, things would be a lot easier. I wouldn't have to worry about my closest alive friend becoming my closest dead friend.

After everything that's we've gone through over the past months, I realized I really loved him. I don't know if it's only platonic or if it's flushed, I really don't want to figure it out, I just want to keep him safe and I want him by my side. I realized how much I screwed up when I confessed to him forever ago and made things awkward. It would have been a lot better if I just kept it to myself and we remained best friends.

My head is killing me, and thinking about the past isn't exactly helping. At this point I nothing more than to close my heavy eyelids and hope that this is all just a dream, but it's not. I need to stop hoping so hard and snap into reality. I'm gonna die here.

Well, that's what I WAS telling myself. That was before I noticed something.

What people usually see when they look at me is a precious cat girl that is constantly happy and is obsessed with her ships and couldn't hurt a fly. I mean, of course that's true! I love my friends with all my heart and I get REALLY excited over stupid things, but if you mess with me or my friends the wrong way you're gonna regret it.

I love to hunt and I enjoy fighting and I have to admit that I can be a lot sassier than people expect me to be. I'm sure I was a lot more pure on Alternia, but hunting was my only way to get paint and food and other things. To hunt I had to know how to fight. I've got this pair of claws that has helped me and Pounce de Leon on countless missions, and they've never failed me once.

Unfortunately, I do not have my blue claws with me. My trusty weapon that has taken down beasts over 12 times my size and has allowed me to tear open the flesh of both prey and predators. I actually crafted those claws with my own hands, and Equius did the design work. I painted them blue in 'his honor', as he would call it. I miss that dork with all my heart. Yes, it's true that I do not have my blue claws. If I did I would have been out of this situation already, the same way I escaped Gamzee last time. I do have something else though...

There's a reason why I keep my nails long, sharp, and strong. They may not be as powerful as my claws but they can penetrate bare skin and open up wounds the same way a dagger could. If Gamzee hadn't grabbed my arm when I flew out of the vent at him, I surely would have been able to cut deep enough to blind him. Instead, he took my arm and scratched it across his face with almost as much force as I would have used, and it left a mark so deep that it took months just for it to scar over. That was when I had my claws.

When I was sitting on the floor, same way I was now, my claws were on the other side of the room. I thought I was going to die, same as Equius, but when he swung at me with his clubs I was able to use whatever senses and agility I had left to avoid his attacks. The only real bloodshed that happened to me during that whole time that he was trying to hit me were the scrapes I got on my legs and arms from recklessly jumping out of the way. He didn't hit me once.