a/n Sadstuck yay. This started off as being based off of If You Say So by Lea Michele. The universe for this fic is a post Homestuck universe where Tavros got the ring back and ended up getting paralyzed again when he came back to life (OKAY I JUST REALLY NEEDED TAVROS TO BE ALIVE AND I THINK HE DESERVES THE RING, AND I ALSO JUST REALLY LIKE WRITING PARALYZED TAVROS SOMETIMES, OKAY? SHHHH) and characters who are alive as of the gigapause are still alive. I'm warning you that it may seem like I'm trying to make excuses for Gamzee's actions. I'm not.
Disclaimer: Don't own Homestuck.
Seven Days
"Hey Tavbabe, I'm heading out to Karkat's for the day!" You hear him call from the hall.
"Oh?" you peak your head out from your shared respite block and see him take his keys from the bowl near the front door. "Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, he's just in need of a good ol' fashioned feelings jam like we all up and always used to have all the time," He shrugs as you roll your wheelchair over to him.
"That's good! I'm, uh, glad, that your friendship is better now," You smile at him, "I thought, that maybe he wouldn't be okay with becoming friends, again, after everything that happened."
"Nah, man, Karbro's chill now. He just needed some motherfuckin' time and to all up and know how sorry I am for all that shit," he leans down and tilts his head so your horns don't knock together as he kisses you softly.
"Really?" You really didn't think Karkat would ever forgive him. You honestly had a really difficult time forgiving him, too, and none of the others were ever really as willing to forgive as you were.
"Yup, the motherfucker totally understands. Said that it ain't all my fault. He's still pissed that I all up and hurt our friends, but he's comin' around, I think."
"Yeah, uh, did you maybe explain, why you hurt them?"
"Of course I motherfucking explained, I wasn't even all up and myself for half that shit. All that wicked lack of sopor got to me, and then the Dave human with that blasphemous shit…" He started snarling as he brought up Dave, but you know how to calm him down well enough by now. You take a hand and start running it through the hair on the back of his head. After a moment, he calms down again and continues to speak, "And with you all up and dead, I couldn't think clear for shit. Karbro knows. He still says I was motherfucking wrong for doing that shit and he can't motherfucking act like it didn't happen."
"But…he doesn't hate you, so that's good?" You smile hopefully.
"Yeah, he's all up and willing to give me a break and let me make up for killing kittysis and Equibro, especially since I'm all up and trying to make up for that shit. Says maybe someday he'll let it go but he can't all up and forgive and forget shit like that any time soon. Won't forgive me for shit for hurting Teresis. I motherfucking get it though…I all up and will never forgive anybody who hurts you."
You roll your eyes and smile, "Gamzee, nobody is going to hurt me, anymore. Plus, maybe, if they have good reasons, you'd want to forgive them, if somebody did actually hurt me."
"Nope. Never. There's all up and no good reason for anybody to hurt my motherfucking Tavbabe. It don't matter what they say."
You just continue to run your hands through his hair, "Then, I guess, we just have to live with the fact, that I won't get hurt, okay?"
"Okay," he smiles and pecks your nose, "Better not get hurt."
"You too," you give him a quick kiss before letting him stand up straight.
"I promise I'll all up and be fine. Nobody could hurt somebody like me," He says, and you hope it's true. You know that several of your friends would probably try, if Gamzee made one more wrong move.
"Good, but, still be careful, to not make people think they have to, okay," You warn him.
"I'll all up and be careful, promise," He grins as he crosses the short distances to the door and opens it, "I love you, tavbabe."
"I love you more," you insist.
He chuckles, grinning at you as he crosses under the threshold. The look on his face says he doesn't believe it but he placates you anyway, "If you say so."
With those for words, he shuts the door, locking it behind him. You smile and stare at the spot where he was for a moment, before turning around and making your way to the kitchen to get yourself a snack. You're slightly worried for him, hoping he's right, and that nobody would dare try to hurt him. You really could understand, if they did, but…that doesn't mean you want him to be hurt, or that you would be okay with it.
After eating your snack, you get a glass of water and take it back to your room, resting it on the table near your 'coon before climbing in and getting as comfortable as you can. You're thankful that he's trying so hard to make up for all the things he did during the game and while you were gone, and glad that somebody other than you is willing to give him a chance, even if mostly everybody is ready to kill him if he makes one mistake. It takes a while for you to fall asleep, knowing that Gamzee isn't sleeping in the 'coon next to you.
You do eventually fall asleep, only to be woken by loud knocking on your door and your mobile communication device ringing nonstop. You quickly squirm out of your coon and dry off the worst of the slime while sitting on the ledge before you transfer yourself to your chair. A glance at the clock reveals that it's still much too early for people to be visiting, and the little bit of light from your window proving that it's barely dark enough for somebody to visit, too.
You huff in frustration, ignoring the several missed calls in favor of making your way to the door to silence the knocking. You throw the door open, shocking Karkat as he goes to bang on the door again.
"Karkat?" You question, rubbing your eyes to wipe the sleeps away, "What are you doing here?"
Kanaya appears behind him, resting a gentle hand on his shoulder, "Tavros, we've got some news for you."
You close your eyes and rub your head, all the loud noises had given you a headache, and you were still half asleep, "Why couldn't it wait until maybe a normal time? Like, uh, a few hours from now?"
"Because it's important." Karkat answers, swallowing as he tries to continue.
You groan and return to rubbing your eyes, throwing your head back as you try to wake up. Your mind starts going through the possibilities, wondering what could possibly be important enough to wake you up when it's hardly even started getting dark out. Eventually your mind shifts to Gamzee, and how he was supposed to be with Karkat. Your eyes shoot open at the realization and you glance at Karkat, frowning at his worried expression.
"What's going on?" You ask quietly, not giving them a chance to answer before you continue with more questions. With each question, you get a little more panicked, "Where's Gamzee? What did he do? What did you do to him?"
"Tavros, please," Kanaya says calmly, "We didn't do anything to him, I promise."
"Then where is he? He was supposed to be with Karkat, where is he now?"
"With me?" Karkat answers with a question, "I didn't have any plans with him. Why the fuck would I—" Kanaya motions for him to stop, and he shuts up.
"What made you think he would be with Karkat?" Kanaya asks, voice still soft.
"He told me! He said he was spending the day with Karkat! If he wasn't there, where was he? Where is he? Did somebody hurt him? Did he hurt somebody?"
"He didn't hurt anybody this time," Karkat promises, "And none of us hurt him."
"Then what happened? Why are you here? Why won't you say where he is?"
"Tavros…I need to ask you to try your hardest to stay calm. You see…Gamzee went to find a place to eat sopor," Kanaya says slowly.
You nod, you knew he still had a little sopor, it helped keep him calm when he needed it most. But he didn't eat it nearly as often as before…and he knew he could eat a bit here, as long as he didn't have too much, "Why? He knows he can, uh, have some here, if he needs it."
"I can't answer that. I don't know his reasoning. He went out to Karkat's hive. At first he tried to get in, but Karkat was with me, and his hive was locked up. Eventually, Gamzee gave up. He sat down at Karkat's door and started eating the sopor."
"What happened? Is he sick? If he's at Karkat's hive, is somebody watching him, making sure he's okay?" You ask softly, taking a deep breath to try to stay calm, as she asked.
"Nobody needs to watch him anymore," Karkat says, earning a look from Kanaya, "What?!"
"Karkat, do not say a word unless you are going to help," She warns him before turning back to you, "That was several hours ago. We think he had been eating it straight from the packages it comes in. There were over ten empty bags around him, and he was nearly done with another."
"A-are you sure?" Ten empty bags…each bag used to make him two pies. They have to be wrong, there's no way Gamzee had eaten over twenty pies worth of sopor in a few hours, he hadn't even done that back before the game started.
As you look at both, Kanaya nods solemnly and Karkat stares at the ground with a frown, "I'm sorry, Tavros. He was barely able to keep his eyes open when we found him."
"He…he passed out? He's in a coma?"
She shakes her head, "We tried to save him, but…he was too far gone. I'm sorry."
You shake your head, you know what she's saying, but you can't believe it. He can't…he couldn't…he would never do that!
"He's passed on, Tavros. He died."
"No," you whisper, "No…"
"Tavros…" Karkat says sadly, walking over to you and putting a hand on your shoulder.
You shrug him off of you and back away from them, "No."
"Tavros," Kanaya's tone is worried, "Please…"
"No," you shake your head, pulling your legs up and wrapping your arms around them tightly. You bury your face in your knees.
"I swear, Tavros, if there was anything I could do to bring him back, I would. But he's gone," Karkat promises, following you as you back away.
You move your hands to cover your ears, "He can't be gone."
The pair look at you, eyes full of something much too similar to pity. Kanaya gently pulls Karkat back, mumbling something in his ear. When she does, he frowns and stops trying to approach you.
"I'm sorry."
"I don't care. Go make sure he's okay," you tell them, letting your legs fall back into place before turning your chair around, "I'm going to sleep again. Gamzee's just asleep. Go wake him up and make him well enough to come home."
"Tavros…" Karkat starts to follow you as you roll towards your room, but Kanaya stops him.
"Just go, okay?" You tell them as you make it to your room, slamming the door shut behind you.
A/n ahh that was…actually really emotionally exhausting like holy crap I'm tired now.
