Grilled Cheese
When Karkat was four, he toddled up to Slick and demanded a grilled cheese.
Slick had no fucking idea what a grilled cheese was and looked it up. Finding that it was just two pieces of buttered bread with cheese that you fried, he thought it would be, of course, an easy dish.
He and Karkat went through two loaves of bread, three tubs of butter and five packs of cheese before making one, glorious sandwich.
And from then, they were hooked.
When Karkat was seven, he became suddenly ill.
Slick worried over him like a flustered mother hen. The crew had no idea what to do because first off, none of them had ever been sick, and second off, Karkat was a completely different species. The only thing Slick could think of?
Grilled cheese.
Surely the golden crusty outside and the thick, oozing cheesy center would make Karkat better, right?
Surprisingly, yes.
Yes it would. Karkat was up and running around three days later, caution to the wind.
For years, Slick argued with Droog about the medicinal value of a grilled cheese sandwich.
At 13, Karkat met his moirail.
Slick wasn't too impressed with the indigo stoner, but if he made Karkat happy, then fuck it, Slick was okay with the kid. He knew it was serious on Karkat's end, anyway.
First thing the kid did was show his moirail how to make grilled cheese.
At 16, Gamzee left Karkat.
Slick found the nubby-horned kid in his room, sobbing red-tinted drops. He discovered through tears that Gamzee had just left him like that. So Slick did the only thing he knew.
He called that weird clock kid Dave and made a grilled cheese.
At 18, Dave and Karkat were moirails.
Slick made it clear that if he found Karkat crying again that Dave was dead. Dave understood fully and said that he'd never do that to his bro.
So Slick made everyone a grilled cheese.
And everyone knew that the moiraillegiance would last for years.
At 21, Karkat got 'human married', with Dave as his best man.
He married a bright eyed girl with long black hair that could shoot the wings off of a fly at 20 yards without a scope on her rifle. Slick approved of Jade immensely; she took shit from no one and could dish it out twice as hard.
At 36, Karkat was buried.
Slick knew the day would come. The kid's mutant blood meant he'd only live about 12 sweeps, maybe more.
That didn't make it any easier.
It was a quiet service, with the crew, Karkat's moirail, matesprit, and closest friends in attendance. Slick was surprised at the appearance of the indigo blood, and refrained from slapping him.
Slick and Jade stood at the grave stone for 5 hours in silence. He dug into his coat pocket and very carefully retrieved a photograph, and placed it on the soft dirt.
It was a photo of the two of them, Karkat was 4 and Slick had both eyes. They were covered in empty tubs of butter surrounded by burnt sandwiches, holding a plate with one, perfect grilled cheese on a plate in their lap. Their first of many.
Slick turned without saying a thing and left.
He would never make another grilled cheese again.