I wanted to put out something for Thanksgiving since I missed Halloween, so this is it! Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Disclaimer: I don't own Homestuck or the characters. Cover art by shubbabang on Tumblr.
Your name is Karkat Vantas, and you've just woken up to a hell of a lot of unfamiliar smells.
You sit up groggily, rubbing your eyes, only to realize you're still in Strider's respiteblock. This isn't an abnormal thing anymore, although he's so insufferable, you don't know why you put up with it. Movie nights had been moved to Dave's block since he'd alchemized the largest TV, and you often fell asleep towards the end of the marathons. Even though you loved your movies to death, one person could only stay up so long to watch them. You didn't even know how Dave managed to stay awake through all of them. Then again, he always wore his shades, so you couldn't really tell.
You exit Dave's block, making your way barefoot to your own. It's just down the hall. Normally, you'd grumble about the cold floors, but it's abnormally warm today on this godforsaken meteor. You wonder if you've entered another dream bubble, and maybe that's where the smells are coming from.
After entering your own block, you are quick to change your clothes, briefly running your hands through your messy hair to try and smooth it out. Your efforts are for nothing though. There's nothing you can really do about the mop of hair on your head.
Sighing, you exit your respiteblock, following the scents that seem to be stronger now. They're coming from the kitchen.
As soon as you enter, your nose is absolutely overwhelmed by all of the unfamiliar smells, and you have to take a step back. As your eyes adjust to the bright light and steam in the room, you see that Rose is slaving over the hot cooking orifice, stirring pots of who-the-fuck-knows-what-that-is. You're surprised to see that Dave is also working around in the kitchen, making more human fuck-up edibles. At least you hope they're edible, but with Dave cooking, who knows.
"What in the holy fuck are you two up to?" you ask, ignoring the crack in your voice. You just woke up, you get to give yourself a break.
Just then, Kanaya glides around you, carrying a few trays of shit into the kitchen and setting them on the counter. She answers your question before anyone else can. You're not sure they're listening anyways.
"I have learned that today is the human tradition of making an abundance of food to represent what they are grateful for," she tells you. "It is a holiday, a celebration, and human families get together to celebrate with each other. Rose and Dave had the idea of honoring the tradition, and I did not see any reasons for why I should not help."
You roll your eyes, turning to leave when Dave calls you out.
"Yo Vantas, wanna get over here and help me with this."
He says it more like a command than a question, and you raise an eyebrow, peering over his shoulder to see what exactly 'this' is.
'This' is in fact a shallow glass pan full of what appears to be sweet potatoes. There's a bag of marshmallows nearby. Hey, of course you know what those things are! You're not that uncultured!
Only uncultured enough to not know why this holiday is such a big deal.
"Yeah, yeah," you grumble, padding over to Strider's side.
"Okay so just put these marshmallows on the yams or some shit. Cover 'em and then give them to Rose, she'll stick them in the oven," he tells you, handing you the bag of marshmallows. He then walks off to start some other thing, a pan with a think light brown crust and a bowl with some thick brown mix. You can't tell it's smell from all the others floating around in the room.
"Where's Terezi?" you ask as you start coating your pan with marshmallows.
"We kinda put her in another room with the Mayor. Don't want her going on smell overload," Dave replies from where he's standing. Rose hums, confirming what he says.
"And Gamzee?"
"No idea. Probably still in the vents."
"He'll come out eventually..."
The way you say it holds more hope than actual thought. You don't know if he'll make an appearance. You haven't even seen him for a few weeks. He usually only comes around if he feels like having a feelings jam. You don't like to think about it much.
No one speaks, Kanaya having left to do something else, and the sounds of the making of food fill the room instead. It isn't like that for long, as Rose eventually speaks up.
"Karkat, you may participate in our rituals if you'd like," she offers. Dave butts in,
"You make it sound satanic, Lalonde. It's just eating food."
"If you'd like to put it that way. You're welcome to eat with us, Karkat. Kanaya will be and I'm sure both Terezi and the Mayor would like to also, judging by their excitement when we announced what we were doing today."
You shrug. "Is this shit even edible for trolls?"
"Our anatomies are similar enough. I've done plenty of research with Kanaya."
Dave snickers, and Rose just shakes her head. "Book research," she adds.
"Plenty of not book research too, I bet," Dave quips.
"Yeah, I'll try some food," you tell her, ignoring Dave.
"Good. I think you'll enjoy it. I have a feeling you'll like the pumpkin pie."
You don't really know what that is, but you might as well take her word for it.
"I'm not that picky about food anyways," you tell her, picking up your pan and bringing it to her. You're finished coating it.
She takes it from you and slides it into the oven, then turning to Dave who is pouring the brown mix into the pan with the crust.
"Is the pie ready yet, Dave?"
"Just a minute," he replies. He evens out the mix with a spatula, then bringing it over to Rose. You don't fail to notice the way he just barely brushes your shoulder as he passes. Douche.
"Didn't you guys just celebrate a holiday?" you ask after a moment of silence.
"Halloween? Not that exciting," Dave tells you.
"I'll have you know there's still a fucking rotting pumpkin in the corner of the library."
"Yeah? And you still have all your candy."
"Excuse me for not wanting to rot my teeth right out of my goddamned mouth."
"Would help if you brushed them."
God Strider is so insufferable. You want nothing more than to just draw your fist back and knock his lights out sometimes, but you don't. No need to upset Rose or Kanaya, as you're sure would happen as a result. Because that's obviously the only thing stopping you.
As if sensing the tension in the room, which she probably actually does, Rose gives you another job to do.
"Karkat, would you mind peeling these potatoes?"
She has a bowl of fully skinned potatoes, and a peeler in her other hand. You sigh, taking both from her.
"Fine."
She smiles, "Thank you, Karkat. It's appreciated."
"Only by you," you mutter under your breath as you pull out a chair at the table.
It takes a full half hour to finish peeling the potatoes, and you're almost sure Dave is doing nothing. He could've gotten his insufferable ass over here to help you, but no. What a motherfucker.
You stick a potato skin in your mouth after handing the bowl of peeled potatoes to Kanaya, who starts cutting them into smaller pieces to mash later. Dave makes a face at you from the corner he's standing in, as if he's the supervisor or some shit. You think Rose would make a better supervisor.
You don't give him the pleasure of giving a face back, and instead turn to Rose.
"Anything else you need me to do?"
"I think Kanaya and I can manage the rest on our own," she replies. "But,"
You tense up. 'But's never end well for you.
"I'm sure you and Dave could busy yourself making decorations."
Even Dave looks confused at this.
"But Rose, no one ever decor-"
"Dave. I said to make decorations. They would certainly liven up this meteor."
Dave turns with a sigh, leaving the room. "C'mon Vantas."
"I'm not a fucking pet you can just call around," you tell him, but follow anyways.
"This wasn't my idea."
You don't bother replying. You just follow him to his respiteblock, and sit on his bed when you arrive. He digs through a few drawers in his desk and pulls out different colored paper, and a set of markers and crayons. He lays down on his stomach on the floor.
"Karkat come down here. What we're doing is easier on a hard surface."
You oblige, sliding down next to him, also on your stomach.
"Okay, so what you gotta do is trace your hand," he tells you, beginning to do as he narrates. You follow his instructions, and watch him carefully after you've both traced your hands. He's turning it into what almost looks like a cluckbeast. You do the same.
"What is it?"
"A turkey. We're eating some of it today."
"Oh."
That's really all you can think to reply. The two of you make a few more hand turkeys in silence, coloring them in. Dave then instructs you to cut them out, which you do.
"Okay sweet, we can hang these up in a little bit. Rose won't be happy with just these though, so I got another idea," Dave says, getting up to get more paper, a stapler, gluesticks and two pairs of scissors. He hands you one, along with a stack of paper, and starts cutting his own into strips.
"Do it like this, about this size. Make like 50 I dunno, a couple sheets worth."
You watch him yet again with a calculating gaze, doing as he says. You still work in silence. You can't decide if it's an uncomfortable silence or not. Maybe it is, but if it is, it's only uncomfortable for you.
Eventually, Dave speaks up again, "So now you gotta make a ring with these," he demonstrates as he speaks. "Glue that part in place, and then wrap the next one around that, make another ring, over and over."
You see what he's doing. You've seen them in movies, the little circle decorations. They connect to each other and you make a chain with them. You know how to do this, you're practically a fucking master at it, even if you've never actually done it before. You can catch on quickly, anyways.
Once you've made a sufficiently long chain, you start making another one. You see Dave's head turn to glance at your work out of the corner of your eye, and can't help a small smile as he nods in approval.
A few chains later, Dave stands up, stretching. "You're better at this than I thought, Vantas. We can put these over doorways and stuff. The turkeys can just go everywhere. Maybe even Can Town, we'll have to run it by the Mayor."
You nod in agreement. "Anything else we should make?"
"Dunno."
Fancy reply.
"Give me a serious answer."
"I'll figure out something here. Why don't you go ahead and hang a chain in the doorway?"
"Yeah, yeah, okay."
You grab one of your fancy multicolored chains. It's red and yellow and orange, and sort of reminds you of the cooling season back on Alternia. You like it. You take two more pieces of cut paper, stapling them to the ends of the chain, but not folding them.
"Got any tape?"
"Yeah."
You get tape flying at your head a second later. You're lucky you catch it.
You take two strips of tape off and attempt to hang the chain. Attempt is definitely the right word, because you're not actually tall enough to do it. You're determined though, so you stretch up as far on your toes as you can. Almost got it...
And then it fails. Not because you couldn't reach! No, because you suddenly felt arms around your waist. You're about to turn and snap, but you're being lifted into the air. You feel your face grow hot, but mutter a curse and hang up the chain. Dave lifted you up so you could reach.
As soon as it's hung though, he doesn't put you down. You begin to squirm, trying to turn to face him and tell him off, but he's carrying you. Out of the room.
You begin to kick. "Put me down right this motherfucking second, Strider, or I swear to god I will shove my foot so far up your wastechute that you'll taste it in your-"
You are eloquently cut off as your face is pressed against the wall across from Dave's block. You turn, fist raised to punch because you could care less how you feel or what the others think at this point. Except that your fist is caught by Dave, and he puts a hand on your chest, pressing your back against the wall.
"Wha-"
You are again cut off, this time by Dave's lips. You tense for a fraction of a second, torn between pushing Dave away and kissing him back. The latter wins out, and you wrap your arms around his neck, pulling him closer.
Dave never smiles. He never smiles, yet you can feel his lips spreading into a grin against yours, and you end up doing the same. Your bloodpusher beats hard in your chest. God, you've dreamed of this moment for a while now, and you're finally getting it. Finally, finally getting to kiss Dave Strider.
He pulls away after a second more, grin still obvious on his face. "How the hell do you manage to be so shouty, yet such a cute motherfucker?"
You blush, mumbling, "I'm not cute."
"And that, sir, is where you are wrong," Dave replies, looking into your eyes over his shades. His eyes are red, like yours. Nice. A bit surprising, but nice. They suit him and go along nicely with the freckles you can't help but notice dusting the bridge of his nose.
"Karkat," Dave's voice pulls you out of your thoughts.
"Yeah?"
"I love you."
You shake your head, chuckling, "Douchebag, I love you too."
Just then, Rose rounds the corner, calling your names. "Dave, Karkat, the food is done!" She pauses as she catches sight of you. "Oh dear, am I interrupting something?"
You're about to blurt out 'No', but Dave answers for you. "Hell yeah you were, but food sounds enticing. Let's go, Karkat."
You willingly go this time. But you're still not Dave's pet.
"Happy Thanksgiving," Rose tells you and Dave, with a wink.
"Yeah, you too. I could never be more thankful," Dave replies, and you can't help but smile.
"And what exactly are you thankful for?" Rose asks, although she already knows the answer.
"I'm thankful for food and Karkat. And you because you put up with me. Also the Mayor and TZ because they're cool."
"Karkat?" Rose directs the question to you.
"For all of you asshats."
That's all that needs to be said.