Karkat POV
You don't even realise you've fallen asleep until you find yourself in a dream bubble. It's cold and dark and you're not sure if your eyes are even open at first. Looking around you deduce that you're in an alleyway of some kind, you see a light from one end so you head towards it slowly. When you emerge onto a street, you don't see anyone, which is strange; usually the bubbles put you with someone, much to your displeasure. You wander around for a while, it looks like a village, hivestems all around, unidentifiable structures, a park. There's a slight breeze pushing some leaves along the path you're on, every step you take echoes eerily.
After you've been walking for a few minutes, appreciating the silence which leaves your thinkpan light and calm, you hear a noise. It sounds like someone shuffling their feet and coming up behind you quickly, instinct tells you to spin around, and when you do, you spot somebody not five feet from you. You let out a low growl, it's still dark, but you know exactly who it is.
It's you.
Well, a doomed version of you, obviously.
This version looks younger than you are now, only slightly shorter, you can tell by his pupilless eyes that he's dead, and he's wearing something that looks like it must be The Signless' outfit, black leggings with red trim, Kanaya had mentioned she could make them for you one time, that's how you knew what it looked like, although, how she knew you have no idea. You can imagine how that could have doomed the timeline on it's own, how could any iteration of you let her dress them up like that?
You don't give him a chance to say anything, every doomed version of you just wants to fight, and you are so not in the mood right now.
So, you punch him in the face.
To his credit, he doesn't fly backwards or even stumble like they usually do, just leans back with it like he expected that to happen.
After a few seconds, he pulls himself back up. His bottom lip is split and bleeding quite badly, and seeing that flash of colour makes you want to hit him again. You flex your fingers, digging your nails into your palms painfully. You're snapped back to reality when he opens his mouth and speaks, the blood is coating his teeth, you want to knock them all out of his face.
"Hello to you too. Sorry for startling you, I should've announced my presence more clearly. Now, if you are quite done, who the fuck are you?"
You gawk at him, he sounds, young? Different anyway. You suppose he must have been younger than you thought and doesn't even know what a dream bubble is. Although that would mean he's been here this whole time and not seen anyone.
"Who the fuck do you think I am? Look at yourself, shitstain." You gesture to him, he raises an eyebrow at you. You can hardly make out his face in this light, but something definitely looks off. For one thing he looks completely impassive.
He folds his arms and taps his foot. "I'm afraid I don't have a clue what you are trying to say. Also, I don't see why it was necessary to hit me as soon as you laid eyes on me. Sorry if my existence offends you." Something about him is giving you a weird feeling in your digestive sac, like you're missing some big flashing neon sign saying 'hey look at me, I'm the point! Did you miss me?'
"Whatever, sorry, I thought you were going to hit me first." You look down and talk fast, you hate apologizing to yourself, or, doomed/past/future selves.
He unfolds his arms and you think you can see him smiling. "It's quite alright. Now, why don't we start over. What's your name?"
You roll your eyes, best to just fucking humour him. "It's Karkat, you oblivious douche."
He makes a small hum like he's thinking about something. "That's a nice name. Karkat…?" He has this questioning look on his face, and you just blink in confusion. Is he serious?
"Uhh, Vantas, duh."
"Oh! I see. This is, wow. I'm sorry I-"
"Oh my sweet taint chafing fuck what is wrong with you?" You interrupt, rubbing at your forehead, this is all too confusing, has he lost his memories or something?
"I do apologize, this must be very strange." And why is he so fucking polite?
Then it hits you.
"Kankri?"
He nods.
"Holy…" You tilt your head to the side. "What happened to you?"
He looks offended, there's a trademark Kankri expression, how did you not realise before? "There's nothing wrong with me. What are you talking about?"
"I mean you're so…" You wave your hand up and down wildly at him, trying to think of something to say, all that comes out is, "short."
"Hey, fuck you! I'm not short." He balls his hands into fists, but notices and gets self-conscious, folding his arms again. "How old even are you?"
"And since when do you swear? You're always yelling at me for cursing, I don't even-" you stop your little rant and look at him, his arms have dropped to his sides and his mouth is open a little, he looks baffled, and you suddenly remember that he didn't recognise you, so he's never met you, and he may have never met his Alpha self. "I'm seven. You?"
"Six."
"How long have you been here?" And how long since you've seen anyone else, you don't add.
"Umm." He looks around quickly, twiddles his fingers and hunches in on himself. He finally shrugs his shoulders. "I'm not sure. A while? I haven't seen anyone else, I've been avoiding my teammates, so…"
He doesn't seem to know where he was going with that, just shrugs again, something you don't think you ever saw Kankri do, other Kankri, real Kankri? Fuck it, whatever.
"Wow, okay. Well I guess I should apologize properly. I mean, I'm sure you know how dream bubbles work. I thought you were me." You run your fingers through your hair. "So… Sorry about that."
He laughs in your face. You've heard Kankri laugh before, that's nothing special, but this doesn't sound like his laugh, it's rougher. His voice in general is deeper, raspier, something a little like your own. "It's fine, honestly. It didn't even really hurt."
"Excuse me?"
"You really should learn how to throw a punch better. Or at least learn to not make it so obvious and predictable. I can teach you if you like."
You do nothing but blink at him a few times.
"I'm sorry, was it something I said?" It has a strange edge to it, amused perhaps. he manages to look smug while he smears the trail of blood across his chin with his fingers, looking at them with an odd fascination while rubbing his fingertips together.
"I don't usually fight with my fists." You spit. This time you fold your arms, although you feel ridiculous and probably look more like a disrespectful wriggler.
He chuckles lightly. "I can tell."