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Her last few appointments with Aranea came and went, and soon enough it was time for her eye surgery.

Terezi was nervous, she didn’t want anyone to notice as per always, but I knew. I could see it in her sightless eyes that she was nervous. She also was fidgeting with her cane and had her head angled toward the floor. Her anxiety wasn’t getting past me at all.

One of Aranea’s nurses led us back to the prep room and after all the prepping stuff was done, most of which I didn’t pay attention to, Terezi was hilarious drugged up on the anesthesia.

I sat next to her and rubbed my thumbs over her knuckles. Latula was sitting on the other side of her, snickering at the jumbled mess of words that were tumbling out of Terezi’s mouth.

She was twice as giggly as usual, but she also looked incredibly tired. I guess that was to be expected since she was about to go under for surgery.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous. This was Aranea doing her surgery, my sadistic and manipulative sister was going to be fixing up my girlfriend’s eyes. I didn’t trust her, she put me to shame on the manipulation scale and she was eight times as sadistic.

Aranea was standing at the foot of Terezi’s bed scribbling on a chart and looking at Terezi’s vitals. She was at least doing her job right this time around.

I looked back over at Terezi, who was starting to look even more tired.

“Bit tired there Pyrope?” I teased.

“Shut up Serket,” she slurred, giggling even though she was trying to be stern with me. Or at least that’s what I thought she was doing.

I threw her a mischievous grin and she slowly raised her free hand to flip me off before turning her other hand over to grasp at mine.

Wow she really was nervous, her hands were clammy as hell. I put my metal hand over hers and she smiled nervously at me.

“But in all seriousness… I have to tell you something Vriska…” she drawled.

I nodded slowly, my heart clenching in my chest. Everyone and their stepmother got nervous when someone has to tell you something. Everyone. “Yeah Terezi?”

Her hand tightened around mine, “Been too nervous to tell you for over a month now… but I’m all doped up on anesthetic and feel twice as blunt as usual so I wanted to tell you that I love you Serket.”

My eyes widened and my hands around her hand tightened, blinking rapidly. No one had ever said that to me before in my life. No one, not my mother, not Tavros, no one.

I never thought anyone would have the capacity to love someone like me. I wasn’t the best person on Earth, I was probably one of the worst. I was a manipulative bitch and I didn’t care who I hurt.

I bowed my head to touch my forehead against hers and and I could hear her smiling as she slurred something that I couldn’t hear over the roaring in my ears. I blinked several more times before the traitorous things started dripping tears onto her face.

“Why are you crying… Vriska?” she drawled almost nervously. I shook my head and pressed my lips to her forehead, “No one has ever said that to me before Pyrope, give me a second.”

She blinked slowly and yawned and I hiccuped against my will. I hadn’t wanted to put a name to what she had been making me feel, putting a name to it made it real. I let go of her hand and wrapped my arms around her shoulders, “I love you too Terezi. You weren’t the only one who was afraid to say it.”

I could hear the smile in her voice as she spoke, “Well… glad I wasn’t… the only one… who was afraid… although… I didn’t expect you to…. admit you were afraid… of anything…”

She laughed a little as I bumped my head against hers, “Oh shut up Pyrope.”

She laughed drunkedly, “If no one… has ever… told you that they loved you… I’ll be sure to tell you… often…”

I sniffed and smiled a little, “You’re a sap Terezi.”

Despite my teasing, I could feel my heart fluttering in my chest. My nervousness about her surgery was still there, but it wasn’t the only iron in the fire right now. I pecked kisses on Terezi’s face softly, smiling as she giggled. It distracted her from replying I guess, because she never responded to my statement.

“Hey Vriska…” she yawned, reaching a hand up to brush my hair away from my face. “I’m going…. to take a little nap now…”

I kissed her forehead, “You do that, I’ll be here when you wake up.”

She smiled and she was out in seconds.

Aranea cleared her throat as I sat up, “Now that she’s out, I’m going to have to take her back now sister of mine.”

I rolled my eyes, “I figured Aranea. Don’t hurt her too much or I’ll have to make you pay.”

She glared at me, “She’s a patient Vriska, I won’t hurt her beyond what typical surgery does.”

“You better not. Now go fix her eyes.”

“Bossy as always are we?” Aranea snickered, waving over her nurses. “She’ll be fine. Now kick back and relax because this is going to take awhile.”

I nodded as Latula grabbed my wrist to pull me out into the waiting room.

The surgery itself took two hours, but it seemed to take even longer than that. Probably because I was nervous, not that I would let anyone see that.

I didn’t do much beyond stare at the clock. Latula left after awhile to go talk on the phone with her boyfriend and Ms. Pyrope was working on stuff from, well, work. Being an persecutor must be a lot of work, good thing I didn’t want to go into law. I wanted to be in the Navy, where I could sail the seas and maybe even do something productive with my life. Maybe, who knows.

I decided after an hour that staring at the clock wasn’t going to do me much good, so I pulled out a book about pirates from the colonial era in the Indian Ocean. It was interesting, but I was distracted.

I looked up at the clock about every five or so minutes. Aranea said that the surgery would take around two hours, and it had only been an hour and a half when I got up and started pacing. I didn’t trust my older sister, I didn’t trust that she would take proper care of Terezi. She never took care of anything I loved that I trusted her to take care of.

“Anxious?” Terezi’s mom said, making me jump from the sudden break in silence. She chuckled lightly, “You don’t have to hide it you know.”

I slowly turned my head to look at her, “If you knew my family, you would know that I do have to hide it.”

She smiled softly, “I know. My family has a bad habit of hiding their emotions too. I do it because I have to, Terezi does it because she thinks she has to, and Latula keeps a mask going to hide who she really is. She’s not always as happy as she seems.”

I nodded slowly, turning the rest of me to face her, “Why do you have to?”

“I’m a prosecutor, I’ve learned to keep my emotions shoved aside to keep a level head in the courtroom.”

I nodded again. I walked over and sat next to her, sighing, “My mom and sister are just huge bitches, they put me to shame in that sense.”

“Do you know why they’re like that?” she asked, tilting her head.

“No clue.”

She sighed, “I knew your mother, but I don’t know what goes through her head.”

My eyes widened, “You know my mom?”

“Yeah, but that’s a story for another day.”

Just as I opened my mouth to speak, Aranea walked into the room as she pulled her surgeon’s mask off her face. She was smiling, “All done! The surgery went well, she should be able to see once her eyes heal.”

I couldn’t help myself from smiling, “You didn’t cause her any undo pain?”

“Of course not, I’m not getting sued by my sister for malpractice,” she rolled her eyes.

“Good.”

Ms. Pyrope got Latula and we walked upstairs to Terezi’s room, who was still out like a light.

She had gauze wrapped around her eyes and the rest of her head. They weren’t too bloodstained, but it was enough that if I was squeamish I would have had a problem with it.

I walked over by her bedside and sat next to it. It took her about an hour to wake up, but I spent the entire time watching her. Latula and her mom talked but I paid them no attention. I wanted her to wake up. I held her right hand in mine, letting my left arm hold me up. Most of her IV’s were in her left arm, so I didn’t feel too bad about holding her hand.

I knew when she woke up because her hand twitched.

I had been dozing off when I felt it, and I was starting to doubt my sanity when her hand flexed.

“Terezi?” I yawned. Graceful as always Serket, graceful as always.

She snickered weakly, “Good morning Vriska.”

“It’s the middle of the afternoon Pyrope, not morning at all.”

“Like hell am I going to know that.”

Latula and their mom walked over. Latula sat on the corner of her bed and Ms. Pyrope stood next to the bed and said, “How are you feeling Terezi?”

“My eyes kinda hurt and I’m tired, but other than that I feel fine.”

I snickered, “Of course your eyes are going to hurt.”

“No shit! I had no idea such a thing would happen!” she grinned.

Aranea walked in again and shooed as all aside so she could check vitals and such, “Glad to see you awake Terezi! On a scale of one to ten how would you rate your pain right now?”

“I’m guessing the painkillers are doing their job because it’s maybe a four on that scale?”

“That’s good, if you need any more morphine the button is right here,” she guided her hand to the button on her IV stand.

“Great! Now if I feel like someone’s trying to gouge out my eyes with a spoon I’ll know what to do!” she laughed.

We all laughed before Aranea finish writing things on Terezi’s chart, “Okay, Terezi you should be able to take the bandages off in a week. I have a special eye cover you’ll have to wear for the next month so your eyes can heal.”

She nodded before Aranea continued, “After that, you should be able to see. You’ll need glasses, but you should be able to see.”

Terezi grinned, “That sounds great. Could I have my red glasses fitted with prescription lenses like I did when I was a kid?”

“Of course,” Aranea smiled. It looked off, like she was trying to hide a grimace. Suspicion caused my hands to ball into fists, but I uncurled them right away.

Something was going on, but I didn’t know what.

Terezi came back to the dorm two days later. Everything went about as normal, except for Terezi complaining about her eyes hurting and taking painkillers every so often. A week after, we went into Aranea’s office to take the bandages off.

Aranea unwrapped the bandages, which didn’t have a speck of blood on them anymore, and Terezi hissed and covered her closed eyes with her hands.

“What’s wrong?” I asked with a hint of anxiety, I still didn’t trust my sister.

“Bright…” she hissed again. “I didn’t even open my eyes but it’s too bright .”

Aranea looked pleased, “That means you’re sight is returning. You can see the lighting through your eyelids, which I can imagine after twelve years is pretty bright.”

“You bet it’s fucking bright,” she said in a strained voice, her arms still over her eyes.

I snickered, “Now imagine when you open your eyes fully for the first time in twelve years.”

“That’s going to hurt for days,” Terezi growled.

“Only until your eyes adjust,” Aranea said, smiling. She picked up the eye cover that was sitting on the table next to her and turned back to Terezi, “You’re going to have to move your arms in order to put the eye cover on.”

She hissed again, her muscles tensing, as she pulled her arms down from her eyes. Aranea placed the eye cover on her eyes and fastened the latch on the back of her head. Terezi relaxed and sighed, “That’s better, the darkness doesn’t hurt as much.”

I reached over and held her hand, “Do your eyes hurt at all even with it being dark?”

She grinned, “Not as bad as they did at first, so I take it that they’re healing.”

Aranea smiled again, “That does mean that they are healing, which is a good sign, and there also seems to be no sign of infection either. You’re healing well Terezi.”

Terezi smiled, turning to face me. I smiled back, even though she couldn’t see it yet.

Soon, she’ll be able to see soon.