Vriska slouched on her couch, scrolling through pages and pages of nothing on her old laptop. The house was a general dump, she hadn't done the laundry in weeks, dishes were stacked almost to the ceiling and trash was everywhere trash could be. She hadn't paid the bills in god knows how long and was pretty close to being kicked out on her ass. Nineteen years of messing up the lives of other people just for her own enjoyment was bound to get her either nowhere at all or somewhere at the top of a huge corporation. Here's looking at you, Batterwitch. Vriska however, has definitely gotten nowhere. She's manipulating, deceiving and a total bitch. It's how she had always lived her life. She hated the world and everyone in it due to her mother, the town whore, abandoning her at an orphanage doorstep because she couldn't go out and get laid every night with a little kid in the house. She learned from a very early stage to fend for herself and not to let anyone get close to her because they would only get in the way.

It was at that orphanage where she had met most of her friends. Of course she had made enemies there too, but this was the only place Vriska had ever really met a friend. People tried to be friends with her later on in life but gave up and stayed away from the girl completely in fear of getting hurt. Which most people did. There was one incident that caused permanent physical damage when she'd "accidentally" pushed a tanned and timid boy named Tavros Nitram down a flight of stairs which ended up putting him in a wheel chair. Vriska hadn't gotten in much trouble with the authorities on that one as Tavros got her out of it. She never knew why he done that but with that being said she didn't care either. She suspected that the boy had liked her at that time until she later found out he was homosexual and had crush on some stoner in their year. Whatever the case, it doesn't really matter now. She hadn't seen the boy in years, not that she wanted to.

The unexpected sound of the doorbell shocked Vriska and caused her to drop her laptop on to the floor in a surprised jump.

"Fuck." She yelled at her laptop - which now had a broken left hinge. To her dismay her yelling was a signal to her visitor to just waltz on in to her run-down apartment.

"Looking good, Serket." The mocking voice of a familiar friend called. She whipped her head around and sneered at her guest. He smirked at her in return.

"Why the hell are you here, Vantas?" She stood up, picking up the broken laptop carefully as she did. She inspected the damage and grunted, realizing she'd have to call Sollux and get him to fix it if she didn't want to pay for repairs. Even if she did, it's not like she has that kind of money just lying around.

"Can't a friend visit another friend?"

"They can, but I wouldn't exactly call us friends. We've hardly spoken since..." She trailed off, struggling to think of the last time the two of them had crossed paths let alone spoke to each other.

"It's been a few months, yeah." He was observing the room and trying to hide his disgust at the conditions she was living in. "Actually, Kanaya called me and asked me to check up on you."

"Maryam? How come?" Vriska questioned as she placed the machine on her couch, the screen slipping slightly earning another cuss. The last thing she remembered of Kanaya was her walking out of their then shared apartment, suitcase in hand. That had to have been at least a year ago for her.

"Fuck if I know." He looked at her and they both realized she was still in her spider print pyjamas. They both blushed slightly although he remained looking at her -avoiding eye contact of course. "You really should get dressed. It's eleven A.M. Serket."

"And you shouldn't barge in to people's houses at eleven A.M. Vantas."

He grunted. "I'd hardly call this a house. A garbage dump maybe, but a house? No way." He made his way over to the couch, trying to avoid standing on any of her belongings which were scattered all over the floor.

"Well I'm so sorry Mr I've-Been-Watching- Too-Many-Home-Makeover-Shows." She turned away from her laptop to face him. "Why do you even care?"

"Because as the only person in our group of friends who has their head screwed on correctly I need to make sure everyone's okay, be it financially or mentally and you're obviously not good in either." He gave some sort of know-it-all smirk.

Vriska was in the hand-on-hips bitch stance. "First of all fuck you, second of all I'm fine money-wise and sanity-wise." She stated, emphasizing the 'and'

"Your shrine to Nicolas Cage says otherwise." The smirk remained on his incredibly smug face. Vriska began to think he enjoyed messing with people more than she does, which is really saying something. He managed to make her blush slightly, she must have realized she was blushing because she turned away before Karkat could even mentally slap himself for thinking she was cute when she blushed.

Karkat stood up abruptly and scanned the room. "So, now that I'm here I guess I'm going to have to help you."

Vriska cocked her head and raised an eyebrow. "Help me? I don't need your help Vantas."

He gestured at the unwashed dishes and piles of dirty laundry on the floor with a look of laughable shock on his face. "Oh so you can handle this? Like you've been handling it for god knows how many months? Listen here sweet cheeks, I don't want to be helping you because I have a lot of things to do with my life with people far more important to me than you. I'm only here because Kanaya, a girl who is like a fucking mother to me, would have at me otherwise. She still cares about you, not enough to be near you, but she still cares. So get your ass in the bedroom, get changed and tell me where you keep the rubber gloves."

Vriska's jaw dropped slightly as she struggled to comprehend what had just happened. Nobody ever talked to her like that, bar the unbearable douche bag that is Eridan Ampora, but he thinks he's better than everyone with that stupid scarf of his. She struggled to find any words, realizing that he was right for once. She couldn't just stay like this forever and now that she had someone to do it for her she wasn't going to pass up this opportunity. Vriska started to back out towards her bedroom door. Karkat coughed and she turned around, he had raised his eyebrows expectantly.

"I was serious about the rubber gloves Serket, I'm not touching anything with my bare hands."

"What kind of maid doesn't bring her own gloves?" She teased, turning back around to go to her bedroom. "They're in the second drawer to the left in the kitchen."

"Thanks." He muttered. He didn't want Vriska to have the satisfaction of him thanking her for something as stupid, but Kanaya had taught him that not saying it at all was rude. He didn't like how Kanaya was messing with his head lately, that's Vriska's job and nobody needs more Vriskas.

She closed her bedroom door with some level of force and proceeded to look for clean clothes - if she even had any that is- and Karkat retrieved the yellow rubber gloves from the drawer. He hated the colour yellow, the way it burned his eyes and the way it reminded him of the asshole he begrudgingly calls a best friend.

"Today's going to be a long day." He sighed, putting the probably never used gloves on his hands.