A warm rage boiled in the pit of Karkat's stomach as he vented his anger to Dave, "I can't fucking believe you! You're such an insensitive ass! Why can't you just put yourself in my position a little bit?"
"Maybe because you're kind of being irrational right now? I did evaluate my goddamn behavior tonight and I'm pretty sure I didn't do anything wrong!" Only Karkat could make Dave shout like that. Get emotional and dysfunctional like that.
"Irrational?! Fuck you!" Karkat panted heavily, his fists clenched tightly at his sides. There was a break in their dispute. A dimming buzz filled the space between them, cooling the rage and leaving a bitter aftertaste. Karkat took a deep breath and broke the silence. "If you can't take a second to think things through about what happened tonight then it looks like I'm gonna have to do the self-reflecting for the both of us. I'm going for a walk."
Karkat wrapped his hand around the doorknob, opening it a crack. "Hey, wait…" The concern in Dave's voice caused him to hesitate. He retracted his hand a few centimeters and let it hover above the knob. "At least wear a jacket..."
The words made him bristle. They weren't what he needed to hear. Or maybe they just weren't what he wanted to hear. "Fuck off!"
He slammed the door shut behind him.
Karkat shivered in the autumn chill as he walked the streets of his neighborhood. The occasional street lamp was lit, creating a rhythmic disturbance in the ominous shroud of nighttime encircling him. He tried to rub his arms with his hands but self-generated heat was apparently a rare commodity tonight. "Damn…" He hissed under his breath as he tried to stubbornly will himself to be warmer with the remaining adrenaline rush that had accompanied him in his last few moments of fighting with Dave.
They had been together for a little less than a year now and like most couples they had some adjusting and reprioritizing to do to meet each other halfway. Karkat just didn't know how long that was supposed to take, or if maybe, it was supposed to be a reoccurring thing that happened throughout their relationship. He never really knew what happened after the characters got together at the end of his romance novels. He had never taken the time to think about it. That wasn't supposed to be the exciting part. The unrequited feelings and tortuous moments of 'almost's that made readers sit on the edge of their seats. That he understood. The complications of learning to cohabitate and the arguments that occasionally reared their ugly heads… That was something he knew next to nothing about. He blamed himself mostly, for relying on fiction as reference material. It was preposterous to think he could romanticize reality enough to relate to it completely.
Dave wasn't perfect, like the dashing male leads in his books were. He was a charismatic, sweet talking asshole that liked to get on Karkat's last nerve just as much as he liked to rile him up in other ways. As far as Karkat was concerned, much more preferable ways. Dave Strider was nothing like the characters from his books. Dave Strider was better. Dave Strider was also a hell of a lot worse.
But that's why you love him, you dense fuck.
Karkat stopped walking. He stood there stock-still on the sidewalk and thought about how that thought had managed to squirm its way into his practically impenetrable wall of a seething rage soliloquy. He leaned against one of the street lamps and glared at the pavement, his arms crossed tightly against his chest.
Karkat did love him.
He loved how he was something completely unexpected. He loved how he followed his own way of doing things. He loved how, when he noticed something was off, he made sure to slow his own pace down just so Karkat knew he would always be his first priority.
"At least wear a jacket…"
"Fuck!" Karkat threw his head back and let his frustrations spread into the sky with the visible white smoke of his breath. He spun around and made his way back to his apartment complex.
He had been a bit too hotheaded. Dave really didn't deserve to get yelled at like that. Karkat didn't even give him a chance to explain himself. They would talk things through like they always did and salvage what was left of the night.
He travelled up the stairs of his building and passed his old living arrangements. He paused. The door to Dave's apartment, the door to their home was about halfway open. The lights inside were off, dark and unsettling. Karkat's pulse quickened. That wasn't right. He had shut the door when he had left. And if Dave had decided to go out he certainly wouldn't have left it open.
Slowly he pushed the door inward and peered inside. It creaked on its hinges and he swore to himself he'd oil it after he stopped being paranoid over a potential break-in… Okay he was lying to himself but he could pretend he'd get to it. He took a step inside and glass crunched underfoot.
Fear jolted through him and he flicked on the lights.
Terezi arrived at the apartment at three in the morning. The police arrived fifteen minutes later.
"So how did you come upon the scene? Recount the events leading up to this, please," The officer apathetically inquired while writing in a notebook, a heavy lisp hitting every 's' he tried to pronounce.
"I-I just walked in- The door was open- but I still walked in and I turned on the lights- I stepped on glass- so I turned on the lights and the apartment was a wreck. Almost all of our shit is broken. Clothes were strewn everywhere," Karkat eyed a pair of his boxers hanging off of the overturned sofa. He grabbed it and stuffed it in his pants pocket, "Are still strewn everywhere. The dumb lava lamp he got me for my birthday is broken."
"Hey, can you please put that back? You're tampering with evidence." The cop gestured with his pen at the boxers. Karkat flushed and, with heightened attitude, placed them back onto the couch.
Terezi remained impassive, only holding his hand and absentmindedly playing with the way her fingers fit with his.
"Was anything reported missing or stolen?"
"I can't find his sword."
"His what?"
"His shitty anime sword! He has a sword. I don't know." Karkat groaned and plopped down next to the upside down couch. Terezi continued to hold his hand, leaning forward to accommodate.
"Sir, please stand up. You are tampering with eviden-"
"Oh put a cork in in, Sollux. Give him a break. It's his home for god's sake. There are gonna be plenty of places in this apartment with his ass cheek imprints plastering surfaces. What's one more?"
"How about you stick to lawyering and I stick to policing, alright?"
"God, you are such a prick! Someone's partner goes missing and all you can do is berate the guy. Show some human fucking decency!"
"We don't actually know that he's missing yet. He is an adult. He could have just fucked everything up and left."
"Dave wouldn't do that!" Karkat stood back up and got in the cop's face. The room went quiet. Karkat felt a wave of heat wash over him as he realized how childish the outburst had sounded. "He wouldn't…"
The cop, "Sollux", sighed. "Listen, we gotta cover this from every angle and like it or not we have to speculate some things to get a clearer picture. Did you guys fight a lot?"
"Not really. Not more than what's normal for average couples."
"Kid, I hate to tell you this but, statistically speaking, the average couple usually ends in separation. Divorce is on the incline. Moving on…"
Terezi leaned over to Sollux and whispered in his ear, "I find his use of the word 'kid' when he is our age to be quite demeaning."
Karkat sighed, "Terezi… I'm over here." He gently pulled her away from Sollux.
She cackled nervously, "Oops. Sorry, I'm kind of freaking out here myself."
Sollux squinted at her but continued, "That's okay, Ma'am. As I was saying, did you fight just before you left?"
"Well yes but-"
"That's imperative information. Gotta write that down. Alright, did he ever talk about leaving you or did you ever have suspicions of him cheating on you? Did he ever abuse you? You said he had a sword-"
"That's enough of that!" Terezi screeched. "Dave would never do that! Right, Karkat?"
A burning sensation itched at his nose.
"Karkat?"
Don't cry in front of this douchebag. Don't you do it!
Sollux flipped his notebook closed and let out another deeply troubled sigh. "Okay, I think we're done with the interrogation. I didn't mean to upset you or anything. I just gotta cover all of the bases, ya know?"
"Yes, we are aware," Terezi practically growled, hooking an arm around Karkat's shoulders.
"You've got nothing to worry about. If you're sure he hasn't run off with someone and he is missing, we'll be able to find him. We've got a crack crew on the case as we speak."
A shattering noise punctuated Sollux's sentence. The trio looked over to find another cop lying down on the floor next to a broken lamp.
"Uh… That kind of hurt," the officer muttered.
Terezi and Karkat turned their skeptical looks back to Sollux.
"That's Tavros. He's new."
"Listen, Captor. I don't doubt that you could come through if we needed you but considering the family background of some of the parties involved I think we need to look at this from a different angle. One where you guys might not be able to handle everything that's going on," Terezi spoke to him more casually, a lot of tension leaving her body. They must have become good acquaintances at some point, since they shared a similar line of work.
"You mean gang involvement?" Sollux looked down at Karkat. "Your boyfriend involved with the mafia or something?"
Terezi cleared her throat. "Other way around."
"Him? What are your ties?"
Karkat fidgeted under both of their stares. "You know The Midnight Crew?"
Sollux actually quirked a grin, "Yeah, what about 'em?"
"Their leader's sort of my dad."
"Jesus." Sollux took a moment to walk in a small circle, away from where they had been standing, before merging back into the conversation. He rubbed the back of his head. "This is giving me a killer headache. You do know this means anyone could have done this right? Literally everyone has something against The Midnight Crew. How are you not lining a coffin yet?"
"Wow. Being super concerned and sympathetic right now," Terezi grumbled.
"This case might be unsolvable, you know? If he really didn't just leave on his own," Karkat shot him a defiant glare, "this could be a mess."
"So when it gets messy, clean it up."
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me, Captor. Lend me a favor and keep a pair of rose tinted spectacles on while overseeing the case."
"You want me to help you cover up shit when it starts surfacing?"
"I also want you to give me information every time something new comes up. I want to help decide what's relevant."
"I hate the way you said that. I'm supposed to be unbiased. I'm the chief investigator on this case. It could be my ass on the line."
"It could also be your big payday. Just keep us in the loop. We could provide valuable insight on what goes down and when." A glint of light passed over Terezi's glasses. "Lest I remind you who saved your ass from going home drunk with a certain unwanted suitor?"
"I had beer goggles on! I was plastered! You can't hold that against me forever!"
"Okay, well think it over, at least for tonight. I wanna get Karkat settled. He looks bushed."
Terezi and Sollux peered down at Karkat. "What?"
"You look worse than the apartment. She's right. Get some sleep."
Before he could snap a retort back, Terezi pulled Karkat out into the hallway and stopped them in front of his old place of residency.
"How do you know that barely sentient glob of phlegm?"
"We're drinking buddies. He gets shitfaced to forget about his hard day at work and I get tipsy to get tips."
Karkat sighed, "I guess I'll sleep in my old apartment tonight. I've still got some bedding and a few toiletries over here."
"You haven't moved out completely?" Terezi's face fell.
Karkat shrugged, "It's not like I'm not trying to adjust to living with Dave, I just liked having the independence when I first moved in, you know? I haven't actually slept in there since we started going out." I just kept it to-"
"To fall back on? God, you're already anxious enough and that asshole was asking such insensitive questions, implying Dave would ever… He wouldn't. You and I both know that. You really ought to stop paying the rent on this place. It's deadweight. Take that as sound economic and relationship advice from a friend."
"I know. God, what do I do? Where would he go?"
Terezi looked pensive for a moment. "Well, he does have a few friends he could rely on if he did need a place to crash or if he needed to lay low for a bit. You could always check with them."
"Do you have their addresses?"
"Sure. I'll text you a list of his possible hidey-holes when I get back home. Just… Please get some sleep. Promise me?" She ducked down and kissed the top of his head. "And call me if anything happens. I'll be on the bastards that've wronged you like stink on a manure pile."
"Gross. Super Lawyer Terezi Pyrope to the rescue." Karkat gave her a tentative smile and small wave as she left.