"Karkat, are you in here?"
If the chair tipping over didn't alert the visitor that he was in fact there, then the glowing husktop screen would have. Everyone else had theirs turned off for the first time in weeks. In his defense, he had gotten used to the silence of what they had labeled as night and was startled by the sound of another living creature.
He laid there and stared up at the ceiling. She would find him eventually anyway. It may be dark, but his blood was a beacon for her no matter the conditions.
Just as he assumed, a cane soon prodded him followed by a quiet cackle. "So you are in here, Karkles! Why didn't you answer me?"
"Because I wanted to be fucking alone," Karkat muttered and shoved the end of the cane away from his face after it nearly poked him in the eye. "What are you even doing up? Aren't you supposed to be wherever the hell the "Sleepover" is going on?"
The sleepover was part of a celebration that the humans—or two of them at least—had made it safely and joined them and that they were all alive. None of them really admitted it, but there was an underlying fear of sleeping by themselves in their own respiteblocks that 'night' after the whole Gamzee episode. Even after the half-sane troll locked himself up in only Gog knows where on the meteor, the innate fear of all they had been through demanded them to be in one room—to know it wasn't some dream.
Karkat had opted out of that. Instead, he found himself sitting as his shitty computer trying to contact Sollux. He wanted to know where the bastard went after he and Aradia blasted the meteor off to fucking nowhere.
"I was. But I woke up and saw you weren't there. I wanted to make sure you were alright." She didn't outright say it, but the words I was worried were said.
"Well, as you can see, I'm fine. So go back to fucking sleep."
"You need to sleep too, Karkles. I can practically taste the bags under your eyes from here. It tastes terrible."
Karkat got up on his elbows and looked up at the Libra. She was staring down at him with an upset pout. "I'm fine. I've gone without sleep so far and I'm perfectly fine."
She knocked one of arms out from under him with her cane causing the troll to fall back on the ground and hit his head. "You are not fine! We need our fearless leader for when we meet Jack! You need to sleep while we're all safe or you won't be able to fight later on!"
"I'll be fine¸Terezi. And—oof!" His process of picking himself off the floor was ruined as the red and white cane soon knocked him back down. "Pyrope! What the fuck was that?" She smiled and gave him an innocent look. "Fine, look. If I go back there with you to sleep, will you fucking let me get up and stop hitting me?"
A devious grin was his answer as she held her cane close against her. He knew that he'd probably be hit by that cane several times just by tomorrow, but if it pleased Terezi for him to go back with her—and more importantly, if it meant that she could sleep herself—then he'd agree to the one-sided bargain.
He followed her out of the lab and they appearifyed as quietly as possible into the sleeping grounds. Terezi led him to an open space where she had obviously been sleeping before, only made obvious by the fact of the pile of scalemates as a makeshift recuperacoon.
"I hope you don't mind sharing. There's not a lot of space in here! Besides, this is the most delicious of piles!" She whispered hoarsely to him and proceeded to jump into her shitty pile. Taking off her glasses for the night, she looked at him expectantly.
"Whatever." Karkat muttered and made himself as comfortable as possible as far away from Terezi as possible, all the while trying to keep his blushing at bay. No doubt Terezi already sensed it though and that was why she was grinning ear-to-ear as he laid awkwardly in the pile. He'd been close to Terezi before, this should be no different and—
She shoved a scalemate into his face.
"What is that for?"
"For you to sleep with!" She said happily. He turned to face her and could see that she was facing him as well, waiting for him to accept the offering.
"Why?" Karkat hissed.
Terezi frowned for a second before the smile returned. "To keep the horrorterrors away. That's what you're scared of, isn't it? What you saw when you were passed out. I sleep with Pyralspite usually because he makes me have happy dreams but I think you need him more than me." She sounded like a little wriggler. So innocent, that it almost made Karkat feel guilty for even considering to refuse the plush doll. Silently, he grabbed it from her and set it next to him. Despite the fact that he witnessed Jack murdering him on Prospit which disturbed him, the horrorterrors were just as bad. "Not that you'll see the horrorterrors anyway. You'll probably just end up in a dream bubble. They're fun but Prospit was better."
They both laid there for some time. The only sound was of that human Dave's light breathing from across the room. Karkat stared up into the blackness, frowning. There she went again, talking about that Prospit place. She was always so excited about it and had always nagged him about waking up on Prospit so they could spend time together. Truthfully, he had always found it stupid, but tonight he couldn't help but think what the place had been like to get Terezi's attention like that.
"Tez?"
"Hm?"
"You awake?"
"Why?"
Karkat stayed silent for a bit wondering if he should really discuss this with her now. She sounded sleepy.
"What is it, Karkles?"
"What was," He paused trying to find the words. "What was Prospit like?"
She was quiet as well. He thought that she had surely fallen to sleep and was in the expanse of dream bubbles until he heard the fragile words, "It was beautiful."
"What did it look like, do you remember?" He now held onto the white scalemate and his fingers fidgeted with it as he waited for a response.
"Everything was golden. Everything had a gold glow. The buildings were huge and complex. They all seemed to connect to each other somehow or another. And the people were white in colorful clothes. Bright greens, oranges, yellows…" She cackled softly before grinning and said, "reds." She stopped. Karkat hung onto every word and was about to urge her to continue but she did so on her own accord. "After I lost my sight, it smelled and tasted of the sweetest honey and lemons. It was so refreshing from the smoky scents in the veil."
Karkat sighed at the mention of her sight. He still couldn't see why she would purposely choose not to gain it back in one world. Even if she said that she preferred to be without it, it just didn't seem right that it was taken away in the first place.
"But nothing beat the sky. It was daylight all the time, but the sun didn't burn—unless of course, you look straight up into it." The pile shifted as she tried to get comfortable again. "But the clouds were puffy and huge. And when you looked up at them, they showed visions. I saw events that had yet to happen. I remember I could just stare at those for hours on end and never be bored.
That's what Gamzee ended up doing most of the time. Though I think he was spaced out most of the time and didn't know what he was doing."
He snorted and tried to hold back a little laughter. "I'm sure that's the last thing he needed. He already sees so many 'miracles' that his rotten think pan couldn't process anything else." This caused Terezi to laugh in agreement as they thought back to how the Capricorn was before sobriety. "What did everyone else do?"
"Tavros never set foot on the ground. He was always up in the sky pretending in her was Pupa Pan. It was a nice get away for him. He could move without his wheelchair and his dreams came true. I think that's why he would always sneak off to take a nap. Vriska, on the other hand practically looted the place and tried to torment everyone there. But you know how it is. If you ignore her long enough, she eventually gets bored and leaves you alone.
It was quite funny to see her appear all beat up. Blood was everywhere. I never got to congratulate Aradia for that!" She laughed and Karkat groaned. He remembered having to deal with that debacle during their session. It was hardly funny to him. Though he'd never admit it to the team, he did enjoy hearing that Vriska finally got what she deserved. "I slapped her when she woke up on Prospit after that. She was too shocked to even know what happened!"
"Why would you do that?" He knew that they had a rivalry but after all Terezi was put through with her, he would have thought she wouldn't have been dumb enough to do that.
"I had to get payback somehow! Of course, I had to hide out for a bit afterwards. But it was worth it."
The Rose Human stirred across the room, reminding them to keep their voices down, which was hard considering they were both naturally obnoxious speakers.
"Kanaya explored as well. She was more focused on the fashion though. I never did see much of her. And Sollux was pleasant to talk to when he woke up occasionally. He'd always come visit. It was nice."
She ended it just like that. A lull of silence fell between them and the curiousity ate away at Karkat. There simply had to be more than just what she was telling.
"What about you? What did you do?" Surely she explored as well. Terezi was all about the next grand adventure just as much as she was about justice. Surely she would have stories to tell him of this place from her own personal experience.
The pile shifted again and he saw her prop herself up out of the corner of his eyes. A small smile on her lips. "I waited for you."
"What?"
"Our towers were next to each other. I don't even remember going into my tower. I stayed in yours the whole time."
"You didn't explore the place?"
She shook her head and smiled at him. "I sat by your side and waited for you to wake up. I wanted to explore it with you. I wanted to show you the world we could share. There was no hatred there, Karkat. You would have loved it. I wanted you to wake up so much so that you could see a bit of happiness for once." She paused as if remembering those dreams. "You never did."
Karkat laid there and hugged Pyralspite closely to his chest. He closed his eyes tightly and refused to believe that there were tears welling up behind his eyelids. The longing in her voice made him feel like a bigger douche than he already was. She had wasted all her time on him. She could have enjoyed herself, yet she didn't. Just like she could be sleeping now, but he was taking up her time again. She could have saved herself from all those injuries during their session, but he had needed her in his Land because he was too weak to face it himself.
She was always there for him, and the one time she wanted him, he refused to be there.
"I'm sorry." He whispered, trying to keep his voice level. "I'm so sorry." I was such a fuckass.
"It's okay." She sighed and he felt her fall back down on the pile again. She moved so they were closer to each other and he suddenly didn't mind. Her hand found his and she squeezed it. "We'll always have each other in this world, won't we? And we'll always be happy together."
She rested her head on his shoulder and smiled. Pyralspite was discarded and forgotten as Karkat pulled her even closer. His fingers on one hand wrapped around hers, and his other arm wrapped around her to keep her close. She was by his side so much, the least he could do was guarantee that he would always be by her side as well. With her by his side, he didn't need a stuffed dragon to ward away his terrors, because they would face them together—just like everything else.
"Yeah." He murmured with a smile to her before relinquishing himself to sleep. "Yeah, we'll always have each other."
After all the recent updates with the whole Karkat and Terezi relationship freak outs, I realized that despite me saying that I don't "ship" characters, I do in fact ship these two together. So be expecting a lot of them. Seriously. Like. A lot.
Congratulations Homestuck, you managed to get me to ship when I promised myself I would never do such a thing.
(I really hope they stay together.)