I had to change this from second person to third. So, no. You're not seeing things. Heh... If anything happens to the story or whatever, just

message me to figure out what's up, because this story has been giving me a lot of trouble lately..

Homestuck does not belong to me. It belongs to Lord Hussie!

Prompt assigned to me:

AU where Tavros has a degenerative disease that is slowly killing him and has left him in a wheelchair. Gamzee is at his care facility (It can be a hospital whatever its up to you) doing community service for a drug possession charge.

The events of the last couple of weeks came rushing back to him. He remembered the siren, the pulling over, the being arrested. He remembered that stuck-up jackass taking his fix out of the backseat of his car. He remembered being in court, the judge saying he had to go do some community service for getting busted. He remembered groaning and moaning on the way home about it to his bro, Karkat, who was driving because he got his driver's license taken away for speeding again. He remembered a couple of sentences from those days...

"SHUT THE FUCK UP, GAMZEE. THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT ANYWAY. GOD DAMN IT. WHY DO I HAVE TO BE THE ONE TO DRIVE YOU BACK AND FORTH TO

YOUR COMMUNITY SERVICE EVERY DAY? YOU SHOULD HAVE TO TAKE THAT SHITTY BUS."

"You're sentenced to community service at Jackson's Home."

"Oh, fuck."

Karkat pulled his crappy, old car over on the sidewalk. "Have fun, sweetie," Karkat remarked sarcastically, closing the door behind Gamzee and pulling away. Gamzee looked up at the big sign on the front of the building. It read in gold, rusted lettering, "Jackson's Home for the Diseased and Ill." He'd heard that this place was where all of the dying people with incurable diseases came to wait out their days, which was pretty depressing, now that he thought about it.

He started walking up the gravel to the big, shiny, silver and glass doors where a little girl with brown hair was being rolled into in a wheelchair. He ran up and held the door open for the nurse and the girl, smiling at them.

The nurse said with a grateful sigh, "Thank you."

He nodded, and they wheeled in, him walking right behind them. Gamzee followed them to the front desk and waited to sign in. Once they left to get on the elevator, he stepped up to the desk, slouching with a grin, and said his name, "Gamzee Makara, here for community service." just like Karkat told him to in the car. The young woman sitting behind the desk looked up at him and smiled, her dimples noticeable.

"Right. You've been assigned to a room, instead of going room to room. It's part of a new system we're trying out. You're assigned to room- oh."

"What's the matter, sis?"

"Oh, nothing. It's just you're assigned to room 620, and that room has a patient that's a little... hard to take care of, I guess you could say."

"What's so hard? All I gotta do is come here every day and talk with him, right? Maybe boost a motherfucker's day up a little."

"Well, you see..." the woman sighed. She leaned forward as if to whisper something to him but then shook her head and leaned back into her computer chair. "It's nothing. You can go ahead up to his room." She gave him the key to the room and pointed to the stairs, "Third floor."

Gamzee nodded and turned around. He blindly walked up the stairs, zoning out a little as usual. He thought about what he'd be doing right about now if he weren't there. He'd probably be at work or in his apartment, listening to music or watching TV, zoning out as he was doing right now. He probably would've been snacking on some Cheetos with a nice bottle of Faygo. He looked up at the ceiling and decided he would find a vending machine somewhere and get some later.

He shoved his hands in his pockets as he walked down the halls. It was a little cold. Or maybe it was just him. He had a tendency to be freezing most of the time. The air conditioner could be broken in his apartment, and it could be 100 degrees outside; he'd still be an ice cube. That never stopped him from eating a whole tub of ice cream though.

He reached the room 620 and looked down at the key in his hand. He wondered what could be so bad about this patient as he fumbled with the lock. He slowly pushed open the door with a little knock. "Anybody home?" he asked with a slight grin. He didn't want to scare the little guy.

It was dark in the room, and Gamzee didn't see the light switch. He looked across the darkness at the light shining through the window. He could see the dust floating around in the room. But he could also see a man about his height and size in a wheelchair by the window, his elbows on the window sill and his head in his palms. He looked so fragile, so bored. His eyes were dull, and his hair was shaggy, like it hadn't be cut or washed in a while. He had a little brown scarf around his neck and a blanket with little white bulls printed on it spread across his lap.

The man lifted his head in suspicion and looked at Gamzee, curious. He didn't say anything, and Gamzee didn't either. Gamzee slowly entered the room and closed the door behind him with a click.

"Mind if I turn on the light?" he asked, finally spotting the light switch now. He held his finger under it, waiting for the guy's cue. No response came, so he pulled his hand away awkwardly. The man was just staring at him, as if he were taking him in. Gamzee walked in more and decided to sit on the edge of the bed. "I'm Gamzee. Your name?"

He didn't respond to that either.

Gamzee was getting a little weirded out and uncomfortable. A light-bulb lit up metaphorically in his brain. "If you're not going to up and tell a motherfucker, I'll figure it out for myself." Gamzee got up and started walking around the room, trying to find something with his name on it. Finally, he found some of his mail. He read the back of one of the envelopes that hadn't been sealed yet. It said in bold letters, "To Rufio."

And at the bottom it said, "Love, Tavros."

"Your name Rufio?" Gamzee asked, looking up from the letter. The man shook his head and blushed a little bit for an unknown reason. "Tavros then?"

He nodded and looked up at him with big, brown eyes will hints of orange in them. "Tavros. That's got a nice ring to it, my man." Gamzee sat back down on the bed with his legs apart and his arms resting on them. "As I already said, I'm Gamzee. Gamzee Makara, if you wanna be all fancy and shit." He got a smile out of him. Good. It was about god damn time.

"I'm here 'cause I got busted for carrying around some drugs. Not that I mind being here. I mean, you seem like a chill motherfucker and all." Tavros turned his wheelchair around and looked at him, placing his hands in his lap and staring at him some more, seeming a little bit interesting now. "I do got some hobbies though. I like to draw. And get high. I like the ocean a lot too. My favorite food is chocolate pie, and I'd eat that for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if I could. My motherfucking best friend, Karkat, wouldn't let me do that though. He says I'm skinny enough, and if I just ate pie, I'd either become too bloated to walk or I'd be as skinny as a rail because of the lack or protein."

Tavros laughed. And if that weren't one of the best things Gamzee had ever heard... That's what he decided right then and there. He decided that he would do anything in his power to get this guy to smile, to laugh, and, most importantly, talk. Tavros didn't seem as if he were a mute. He seemed as if he talked a little bit, just not around strangers. He was just shy, Gamzee guessed. Maybe if he got Tavros to warm up to him, he'd talk a little bit about himself.

"I see you like to draw too, telling from all of the pictures you got up on the walls." Gamzee got up and touched a picture. It had Tavros drawn next to a man with red hair and fairy wings with his name above his head, "Rufio." Tavros reached out for the drawing, his eyes alarmed and worried. Gamzee stopped touching it and stepped back. "Sorry, man. Didn't mean to alarm a brother." Tavros nodded and leaned back in his chair, relaxing.

Gamzee sat back on the bed. "You willing to up and tell me about your pretty little self now, or do I have to keep on going on about my boring ass life?"

Tavros smirked and pointed at Gamzee, leaning forward a little.

Gamzee went all day talking about himself, making Tavros laugh, making Tavros smile. He talked to him about drawing. He talked about his dream of going to art school one day. He talked about Karkat and all of his other friends. He talked about his family, which wasn't so great. Then he talked about his childhood, what neighborhood he grew up in, some of his silly adventures as a kid. He cracked jokes, and they shared laughs.

And then, at the end of the day when Karkat came to pick him up, he decided this wasn't going to be so bad after all. He also had a new goal. Gamzee Makara had to make Tavros Nitram, the sweet, dying boy in room 620, talk to him.

Sorry for errors. I'll fix them later, probably.