End
The sun was cresting over the horizon as Karkat shuffled around the room, pulling his jeans up over his thin legs and tossing his socks and shoes on haphazardly. He threw quick glances over his shoulder at the snoring form on the bed, then knelt down to sift through the man's jeans to find his wallet. Three hundred cash. Less than Karkat was expecting but it would work. He snatched a pack of cigarettes and lighter from another pocket and left the room, closing the door behind him quietly. The air outside was crisp and dewy as the young man finished buttoning his pants and lit himself a cigarette. With a quick drag, the nicotine settled in his system and he sighed in relief. It didn't have the real calming effect he was looking for but with the money from the sleaze still inside the hotel room, he and his beloved would rest easy tonight.
After a few minutes and a second cigarette, sunken auburn eyes, ringed with dark circles, opened to the sunrise, just high enough in the sky to blind him. Karkat pocketed the carton and lighter and made his way to the end of the walkway, taking the stairs quickly. He had to get back down to his neighborhood before it got too late. He used the phone at the front desk to call himself a taxi, and waited, avoiding the suspicious glances from the older woman behind the desk. Every time he looked over to her, his tired eyes narrowed, she flicked her gaze away from him. She didn't hide the disapproving frown on her thick face. Karkat was used to the condescending looks he got from other people; it got old fast, and every time he simply wanted to thrum them upside the head with a street sign. Oh thank God his taxi was here…
It was seven by the time Karkat's taxi pulled up to his apartment building. He handed a twenty to the driver, told him to keep the change, and left the cab. His eyes met with another pair, the owner leaning against the brick wall underneath a fire escape. He nodded to the other person and they walked together into the alley behind the complex. Karkat immediately held out ten bills, and heard the other sigh.
"Karkat, I can't keep cutting you deals. I got a family to support."
"Cut the bullshit, Dave. This is the last time, I promise. I don't need as much as him, I just need enough to get us through the weekend," Karkat replied, his voice shaky. He needed another cigarette.
Dave shifted his weight from one leg to the other, turning his head to the end of the alley. He was quiet as several cars drove past. "Okay, fine, I'm shitting you. I got a new rep that's giving me a new arrangement, so your price is fine for now." He snatched the money from Karkat's still outstretched hand and counted them. After a show of lifting them up to check the authenticity (and an aggravated sigh from Karkat), Dave reached into his jacket pocket and pulled two sandwich-size baggies out. As the other man reached out to grab them, he held them back.
"Dave, fucking come on! I gotta get upsta-"
"Why do you do this to yourself, Kar?" Dave asked, his expression grim.
Karkat paused, meeting the blonde's gaze. A thousand answers flitted through his mind, but, as always, he chose his answer immediately.
"I have to take care of him. No one else will."
Dave sighed again and handed the bags over, Karkat snatching them out of his hand and shoving them into his jeans pocket. As the shorter man prepared to walk away, he quickly asked, "When can we get together again?"
Karkat shrugged. "I'm in tonight. Maybe tomorrow."
"That's what you've said the last three times."
His answer was a wave as Karkat disappeared around the corner.
Karkat entered his apartment quietly, his shaky hands fumbling with the keys for a moment. He paused when the door creaked loudly. The house was still quiet. Good. After closing the door behind him and doing up the locks, he kicked off his shoes, set his keys down, and wandered further into the apartment. Light from the morning streamed in through the living room windows. A layer of dust settled on everything except the couch and coffee table, and Karkat made a note in the back of his mind to clean later (though he knew he would never do it). A pair of dingy purple Chucks lay in a pile next to where the man stood. He was home. As he always was. Where else would he go?
The floorboards creaked underfoot as Karkat made his way to the bedroom. If he wasn't on the couch, he was in bed, which meant that he was prepared for Karkat to bring someone home. He should have known by now that Karkat didn't want to subject him to that. With a rough sigh, the small man crept up to the cracked doorway of the single bedroom, and saw his beloved fast asleep even through the dim light from the blackout curtains that hung over the windows. He lay on his back, head turned away from the door, long limbs stretched out from a bare torso. Karkat watched for a moment, but when he couldn't tell if the other's body was rising or falling, dread gripped the bottom of his stomach.
"Gamzee?" he squeaked out. Too quiet. Even the lightest of sleep wouldn't be disturbed by that volume. He tried again.
"Gamzee?"
A light sigh.
"Hey, beauty…" The voice was dry, cracked, old. Breaths labored.
Karkat gulped back phlegm and wiped at his eyes with the heel of his palm. "You bastard," he managed. He stumbled forward until he was at the bed. The mattress groaned under his weight as he sat beside his beloved. A hand gently stroked the left of his chest. That heartbeat was so faint…
"Sorry, beauty," Gamzee drawled, his eyes (red, inflamed, crusted over with sleep) trained on the ceiling above. "Didn't mean to… scare ya."
The smaller man sniffled. After watching orbs old beyond their years trace random patterns in the popcorn, he shifted and brought Gamzee's attention back down to Earth. The kiss was gentle, soft, sweet even through horrid morning breath.
"Don't leave me, Gamzee… promise me," Karkat murmured against chapped lips.
"I promise… beauty…"
After leaving the bags Dave had given him on the nightstand, Karkat collected himself and readied himself to go out as Gamzee fell back asleep. The apartment door rasped shut behind him and he took the stairs two at a time until he was at the ground floor.
Dave was still in the alley. He looked up immediately as Karkat neared him, taking a final drag from the cigarette between his lips. "'Sup, Kar. Back so soon?"
He frowned, watching for a moment as the blonde crushed the butt underneath his shoe. "I need your help."
A faint look of alarm crossed the other man's face. "What's going on?"
"I-" Karkat cut himself off, forcing back tears. "We're done. Me and Gamzee, we're done. Can you help me get him ready? I'm gonna take him to the hospital."
Dave's gaze was trained on him, searching.
"Okay."
They went back upstairs carefully. Dave's fingers intertwined with Karkat's. It was a forgotten comfort that calmed Karkat's raging heart.
The apartment was still silent when they made it back. Fear suddenly attacked Karkat once more and he didn't bother with his shoes this time when he led the way to the bedroom. The door was still open.
Déjà vu hit him like a brick as he looked on Gamzee's body, lying in bed just as Karkat had left him.
"Gamzee, come on, we're going out for a while."
Silence.
"Gamzee."
Still nothing.
Tears prickled in his eyes once more and he stumbled into the room and onto the bed, straddling his beloved's waist. His hands, shuddering even more now through the terror, found Gamzee's thin face. His skin was still warm.
"Gamzee. Gamzee, no, don't fucking do this to me. Come on, wake up, dammit. Wake up!" Pale fingers traced sunken eyes and hollowed cheeks, ran through matted black hair, over gauged ears. The tears were on the verge of falling now. "You're not allowed to leave me, Gamzee! You promised!"
Another failed attempt at shaking his beloved awake. He choked and suddenly the apartment was filled with screams and sobs, hands still jerking at emaciated shoulders. He didn't register Dave coming up behind him and pulling him off of Gamzee's body. His beloved didn't hear him crying for help. He felt his fist connect with Dave's jaw and knock his sunglasses to the floor as he kicked and flailed, but at that point he couldn't be bothered to apologize. He couldn't let go of Gamzee. If he let go it meant he really was gone.
Dave sat Karkat on the couch as he grabbed the drugs from the nightstand and a jacket for Karkat. They were gone by noon.