Karkat clenches his fists, fingernails digging sharply into his palms as more screams assaults his ears.
"YOU'VE ALREADY GOTTEN IN TROUBLE BEFORE SCHOOL HAS EVEN STARTED-" His mother screams, waving her arms around wildly at her son who's keeping his gaze on the ground.
"IF YOUR FATHER COULD SEE HOW LOUSILY YOU'RE DOING IN LIFE-"
He grits his teeth, biting his tongue in the process, but he ignores the coppery taste beginning to coat the inside of his mouth. His anger flares at the mention of his absent father and before he can stop himself he begins screaming right back at his mom.
"DON'T FUCKING START WITH THAT AGAIN I REALIZE HOW MUCH I FUCK UP OK YOU DON'T HAVE TO REMIND ME EVERY FUCKING TIME I MESS UP OKAY!" He screams back at the top of his lungs, red tinging his cheeks as anger floods through him.
"FUCK YOU," Is his final remark as he shoves past his mom and runs towards the door.
"KARKAT VANTAS DON'T YOU DARE LEAVE THIS HOUSE!" She screeches, grabbing at Karkat's arm and snagging it for a second before he jerks away.
Karkat slams the door as hard as he can behind him, not noticing the slight chill in the air from the impending Autumn storms as his bare feet slap against the sidewalk. He doesn't even know or care where he's going, he just runs until the last of his anger drains away. His adrenaline fades away with it, leaving him exhausted.
In front of him is a playground, and with sluggish movements he walks over the the slide that's already been thinly coated with dew and crawls under it, folding his knees up to his chest in order to fit in the slightly small space. He leans back against the metal of the playing structure and sighs, already beginning to regret the choice of running nearly halfway across town.
His breath wisps in front of his face before being whisked away in the wind, and he suppresses a shiver and wraps his arms more tightly around himself. His feet are badly scraped, he can already tell that much through the numbed pain, and he didn't grab his phone or a jacket. And he managed to lose track of where he was going after awhile.
"Stupid fucking decision," Karkat mutters harshly to himself, hitting his head against the top of his knees a few times before sighing again and closing his eyes.
He registered for school today and the ladies were glaring at him the entire time like he had just murdered someone, although he had no clue why. Maybe because of the scowl on his face but that had given them no right to be irrevocably rude, so he had been rude right back.
Stupid school, stupid people, stupid reason to get angry but he still did.
Stupid stupid stupid.
It's like a never ending mantra that runs through his head, mixing in more unsavory words as his anger increases.
Karkat's mind suddenly registers the sound of footsteps, and he immediately tenses, becoming wary and paranoid as the sound gets closer.
Adrenaline floods through his veins once more, and he begins thinking quickly on who else would be walking around at almost midnight (probably later because he has no clue how long he's been sitting here) and if he could possibly run away without having to fight whoever it is.
The footsteps are light, possibly someone young, but the solid sound of shoes against earth is absent so he suspects this person is also barefoot.
Karkat moves tilts his head in an attempt to see around the plastic slide obscuring his vision, and he can in fact see that someone is walking towards him. Whoever it is, which he guesses that it's someone near his age, is barefoot, and their jeans end around mid calf, and the hems are sort of frayed a if they wore those jeans often. A softer sound reaches his ears, almost that of cloth being rustled together with paper.
The teenager, which Karkat guesses is a guy, stops a few feet away from the slide and seems hesitant to advance any further. Karkat slowly stretches out his legs, then moves into a crouching position. He can hear his heart thumping in his ears, borderline panic rushing through him even though he suspects that this guy won't hurt him.
Karkat intently watches the newcomers feet as he begins approaching once body tenses as the guy is now only a few feet away; he could reach out and touch him if he wanted to.
As the guy begins to crouch down, Karkat makes his move, shooting from his hiding spot and practically pouncing on the guy, tackling him to the ground in one smooth motion. A yelp rings through the air as Karkat now sits with his knee on the guys chest, one hand clenched in the strangers shirt as the other is drawn back in a threatening fist.
Surprise and curiosity spreads across Karkat's face though as he sees that as he suspected, it was a teenager his age, also a guy, but he's just laying against the ground with an almost pained look on his face, eyes clenched tightly shut.
Karkat quickly climbs off him, but doesn't help the stranger up as he backs away a few steps, entranced by the guys appearance. A single honey-shaded feather floats past Karkat's face and he suddenly realizes what he's so shocked about.
As the teen on the ground leans up and rubs at his head with a pained grimace on his face, two gilded golden wings unfold from underneath his body and arc out to lay in a less painful-looking way.
Karkat's eyes widen as the teen stands with a still rather painful look on his face, but it quickly morphs into almost fear as he sees Karkat still standing in front of him.
"S-sorry, I didn't mean to...scare you," the stranger says quickly, holding his hands out and talking a few steps away, almost cowering. His wings suddenly snap close to his body and Karkat's focus clicks back into place.
"I attacked you first, sorry, but also to be fair, you did scare me," Karkat replies curtly, taking a few steps forward, his gaze still focused on the wings.
I'm dreaming, he must be right? I fell asleep underneath the slide and now I'm imagining some teenager with wings that I almost punched into oblivion.
"I-I saw you run into the playground and I guess I was just sort of curious and worried because no one ever comes here at this time of night and you looked really like angry and stuff and...yeah," He trails off, looking almost embarrassed as he shuffles a bit further away from Karkat.
"Oh," Karkat frowns, but doesn't really pay attention to what the guy is saying to him. With a few quick strides he's standing in front of the guy again and before he can move back, Karkat has a tight hold on his arm and is reaching to touch one of the feathery appendages.
Before he can however, the stranger, which Karkat notices is wearing a faded yellow shirt, twists around and jerks his arm from Karkat; seeming almost terrified at the action.
"What the hell!" Yellow shirt asks in a high pitched tone of voice.
"Ok, obviously a dream, there's no way those wings are real," Karkat murmurs to himself in concentration, staring still at the strangers back.
"A dream? Are you seriously ok? I mean they told me I shouldn't be seen by anyone because they would take me away and stuff but I don't think they told me about saying I'm not real," The guy seems seriously confused and concerned as Karkat continues to mutter under his breath.
"Yeah definitely a dream, although it's awful cold for a dream, but I'm sure it's just my subconscious signalling some shit to me," Karkat says thoughtfully as another gust of wind ruffles his clothes and hair.
"Wow yeah you must be freezing, here, take my jacket," The stranger says with a frown as he observes Karkat shivering. He slides the clothing item easily from his back and hands it to Karkat. The small teen stares dubiously at it before shrugging and putting it on, what's he got against a dream guy giving him his jacket?
"This has been an interesting dream stranger that I'm sorry for almost punching but I should probably head home now," Karkat says almost warily, shrugging into the jacket and holding back a sigh of relief as warmth seems to immediately envelop him.
"I'm still not sure what you mean, but I really need to go back, they're going to be angry at me." Yellow shirt begins backing away, watching Karkat carefully as the smaller teen begins to turn away before turning back.
"Ok dream-dude, thanks alot, I probably will never see you again," Karkat calls back with a small wave before beginning to walk home. He forces himself not to look back as he retraces his steps back to his house. He repeatedly attempts wake himself from the dream, but each attempt just leaves him with slow forming bruises and scratches.
Upon reaching his house, he decides not to enter through the front door, instead walking around back to where his bedroom window would be. He always keeps it unlocked for situations like this.
The digital clock reads almost three am, which he frowns at because that's definitely a lot later than when he first left the house, but he attempts to ignore it as he moves as silently as possible to sit on his bed, kicking off his shoes.
The absence of noise confirms that his mother is no longer awake, or no longer here, but he doesn't risk tempting fate and instead just lays down in bed, curling into an almost fetal position and rubbing the sleeve of the jacket between his fingertips.
Pretty weird dream.
AN:
Hello yes I'm back quite soon.
This story is not quite a crossover of Maximum Ride and Homestuck, which is why I didn't label it as such, but my inspiration was the books series Maximum Ride by James Patterson. Also the song Icarus by Bastille (and you know, the Greek Tragedy about how Icarus flew too close to the sun and water and consequently died.)
Only the first chapter (and I'm writing in third person, which is weird because for so long in DYDFTS I've been writing in first) but I hope you lovelies enjoyed it
-Levy