(A/N) This is my very first fanfiction and it is actually a collaboration work with a Sollux roleplayer so they played Sollux and I took on the part of Karkat. There might be some repetition as this isdone in the form of a roleplay but you will read the story from both points of view.
(A/U) This is rated for eventual gore in later chapters and maybe a little bit of smut. We'll see how it goes.
If you don't like it, then don't read it.
Chapter 1 - Aren't You Coming In?
Normally at this time of day, this particular troll would be wasting his precious time tapping away at his worn down husktop, giving insignificant messages to insignificant people. Or at least that was how it seemed. It seemed as if day by day he never got a break from the shenanigans of the humans. The useless shenanigans. But in his eyes, everything was much MUCH different. For him, this was not a question of whether or not what he said and did was important. No, this was about whether or not that these people, so seemingly insignificant to his own existence, were going to live or die. That was a lot of pressure to put on one person, or rather, one troll.
Karkat Vantas to be exact. He could be called a lot of things, douchebag, asshole, idiot, fuckass, anything really. But he called himself only one thing, the leader of the red team. And the Knight of Blood supposedly (and exclusively). Regardless, Karkat seemed to take it upon himself to ensure these human's protection no matter how miniscule they seemed to him. But it was also the protection of his eleven friends. The only trolls that ever had come close to understanding who he was. It was important that they get out of the circumstances alive.
But as previously stated, he was not doing his self-appointed job at the moment. No, instead he was walking down the long red clay path that wound away from his hive and out of sight. To his right, where the path did not turn was the sea. The waves bubbled quietly along the shore as the wind whispered to the land. He was among the few land dwellers that lived near the sea. In general though, they avoided it. Sea dwellers weren't fond of them and land dwellers of the others. Regardless, with Krabdad as a lusus, Karkat didn't really have a choice but to keep him near the beach. In general though, he avoided it at all costs.
To his left stretched out the long reddish brown path which he followed. It went over a hill and out of sight, and he was just fine with that. In this direction was the hive stems. This was where the largest of hives were, like Sollux's. Some of his surrounding neighbors called it 'hive city' because they were so big.
Right now he was taking the rare break from his trolling. Something a troll rarely ever did.
Fingers loudly tapped away at the husktop set in front of him on his desk. Long wires curved and wrapped around in random places, hanging off the desk and coiling onto the floor where the wires met many plug ins that one would swear would cause an electrical blow out if anymore were plugged in. The dual horned troll had one leg pulled up onto his chair, an arm wrapped around it, keeping it close to his chest. Leg hanging off of the chair occasionally pressed into the floor to gently sway his body back and forth in his spinning chair. If a human were to ever glance at this psychic troll, they would label him as a 'hardcore gamer'. Sollux never really bothered to try out these fancy online games the humans often talked about, except he was a master hacker and had a rather brilliant mind on computer technology. In fact, he had created the very game itself which was an attempt to save the doomed timeline they now currently lived in.
In the darkness of the room, there were constant sounds of buzzing, coming from the small hive of bees that dwelled within the corner of his room. Dual spectrum eyes glanced over every once in a while from his bright screen, as if checking upon them. They produced so much honey, he swore that he would wake up from his sopor pod one day and have his bi-colored shoes step in a large puddle of sticky yellow honey. He avoided it though at all costs. Consequences were given to anyone who ate the mind honey, and the psionic troll had encountered that only once. And he learned his lesson. Although it was on accident, he vowed to never get his mouth near that stuff again. It was times like these that the bees were so loud, that he tempted on snapping his fingers to put them asleep. He was usually able to deal with the buzzing. Sometimes.
His visions included many different trolls dying in horrid ways, hearing their screams deep within his mind. It nearly drove him crazy, which he had to suppress those feelings, and it was often that thought that made him so good at hiding his emotions well when it came down to a bad situation. His external shell showed little emotion, but deep inside, he cared for his friends. With his psychic abilities, he was able to warn them of their impending doom, and the doom of their timeline. He had visions that he'd go blind, and eventually he'd come to accept that fact no matter how scared he was on the inside. Often enough, he'd blame himself for things. Things that weren't his fault. Things like his friends dying. Since he had the ability to warn others, even though it was their fate to die, he felt awful to know that they could do almost nothing to change their fate. He would sit there at his computer, wondering why he couldn't change things. His thoughts ran rampant in his mind, and he would often troll the humans or others of his kind to distract himself from said thoughts.
And yet.. today felt different. He wasn't in the mood to troll anyone, and for some reason when he glanced at who was online, no names appeared to be. John ended up signing on, but there was no way he'd troll him at the moment. That human was such a derp to Sollux and made him internally chuckle from time to time. Humans could be so stupid, and yet, trolls could be too. Humans interested him. They were a lovely subject to study upon, and he found much similarities between their species. Very little things tended to be different but the most noticeable thing of all was how humans loved each other. They only had one lover, which seemed impossible. It was almost unable to be understood by the trolls since they had four quadrants of different 'lovers'.
The psionic inhaled deeply before letting out a loud sigh, the buzzing easily coming over the sound of his frustrated sigh. The bright light from his husktop brightened his image in the room, which made the rest of the room impossible to see in the darkness. Light reflecting off of his bi-colored glasses, his dual spectrum eyes studied the screen contently before he decided to go ahead and log off of the messenger, closing his husktop until he heard the familiar click of it closing. His tongue slowly slid out of his mouth, sticking out between his rather noticeable fangs that were an easy excuse for his speech impediment. His teeth had caused his lisp, and it was difficult to pronounce anything with 'S's. Whether or not he didn't talk much because of his lisp, or because his mind was running rampant with visions and the screams of others - that was unknown over half the time. He wasn't a troll of many words, yet chit chatted his life away when trolling others on the internet.
Sliding his chair away from his computer, he slowly stood up and ran a hand through his ebony colored hair. Another sigh was elicited, thinking of what he could possibly do. It was one of those rare times where he felt like being active away from the husktop, which was something trolls didn't normally do. Sometimes he would take walks throughout his hive and check upon his lusus, but other than that he spent most of his time on the internet coding new things. Strolling over to the large window in his room, he pressed his forehead against the cold glass. Exhaling, it created a small cloud of precipitation on the surface, in which he wiped away with his forearm to stare out with wondrous eyes at the horizon. The psionic tilted his head, eyes catching something interesting to his thoughts out along the vast land of their world. Another troll was out strolling along the beach it seemed like. Curiosity had killed the cat, and a small smirk tugged at his lips. He knew to stay away from the surface of the sea as well, but he need not worry since he didn't live in a hive near it. Pushing away from the window, he decided to head down the many halls that made the structure of his hive and see just who decided to stay away from their husktop as well for the day.
As the Cancer scuttled down the path he let out a sigh and paused for a moment to look around. There was long grass on either side of the path that swayed from side to side in the gentle wind. Fluffy white clouds rolled overhead, tumbling across the sky in a majestic manor. It was quiet here. Soft rustle of the leaves on the trees, the whistle of the wind as it pushed his hair back, he might have actually smiled then. Finally some peace. Something he seldom had anymore. He felt like life was always so loud. It was loud in the quiet way. The silence was so loud. It was like every day that he heard nothing but the whirring of the husktop fan and the beeping of Trollian telling him he had a new message. He couldn't stand just that anymore. If he had to, Karkat swore he would go insane. So instead he listened to the soothing sounds of the outdoors. The sights, the smells, Karkat had forgotten what this was like. It was a glorious feeling right now.
After a while he decided to move on towards Alternia's own 'hive city'. He shoved his hands in his pockets after brushing a wisp of hair from his eyes. Slumping his forwards in his meek manor that he did, he trudged forward slowly. Karkat wasn't the most social of trolls. He talked to people all the time but when it came to being in person he wasn't all that good at not being the most awkward troll alive. He certainly had a bold personality but didn't at all look it when you first met him. Dark circles were under his eyes almost permanently and in contrast with his pale grey skin, it was a lot to take in. Additionally, he was always slumped over a little unless he was fighting. He fought a lot, not so much a fight but rather an argument, he certainly had his opinions and he was going to make sure to protect them.
Reaching the large hives he looked at them for a moment before shaking his head. They were too big for his liking. He himself didn't live in a particularly large hive but it wasn't small. Like most hives on Alternia, these were abstract with black walls and windows of various sizes all rimmed with red. It sounded like it would make for a boring place but it was quite the contrary. Still, Karkat wasn't really interested in all that. He wasn't interested in this sight-seeing type shit. It wasn't his thing or what he came here for. Then again, he had no idea why he was here. Just a simple walk. And so far, it had served his purpose. He was finally away from Krabdad. Gog, he couldn't stand that lusus anymore. They could barely coexist on the same planet but the same hive? Forget about it.
What to do… He fiddled with the hem of his shirt a little as a cool breeze swept through the area. His eyes cast over the area picking out the most familiar hive, Sollux's. Stopping once more he stared at it, debating whether or not to go over there. He and Sollux had a complicated relationship. They certainly didn't love each other. That was no doubt. But they didn't hate each other either. Sollux had never done anything that upset him more than the regular. They mostly just had petty fights and such. Sometimes Karkat felt like they could be considered friends, but then the Gemini had to fuck it up and make fun of his programming skills, or something like that. It was no secret that Sollux was smart, no that wasn't true, he was a genius. If it was asked, Sollux could do it. Most trolls spent their time being secretly jealous of that.
Additionally, Sollux was nice to people. Sometimes he lost his cool when he was having one of his bi-polar moments that few understood but he usually was nice, that was at least his default setting. Everyone got along with him quite well, Karkat was maybe a little jealous of that. No one ever seemed to understand how much Karkat cared about everyone it was hard to live like that. To spend his time worrying about trolls and not have anyone to care in return. He wished somebody would sometimes. Mostly he pushed that off to the side, disregarding the thoughts.
He turned his attention back to the hive, again debating whether or not to go up to the door. It couldn't hurt right? What was the point though? He had nothing to say to Sollux. It wasn't like the Gemini would be happy to see him. They would probably just end up arguing about something stupid instead. He nibbled on his lip with razor sharp teeth looking at the hive as if he was judging its value or something of that sort. His fingers continued to fiddle awkwardly with the hem of his black long-sleeved shirt.
Why was it suddenly so odd that many trolls were leaving their husktops today to venture about? To Sollux, it was odd anyways. He had remembered being on moments prior and barely anyone was online. Like they actually had something busy to do in their life that kept them away from the computer. Odd. Sollux sometimes didn't responded, but only because he was working on some coding or working with getting his legs untangled from the many wires that hung off the desk.
His dual colored hues glanced around every now and then at the walls of his hive, making sure everything was in order and nothing was out of place. At times his lusus would shake the hive from above, which sometimes made a wall or a room collapse and the Gemini would have to fix it. Easily of course, but it was still a waste of time when he could be doing better things with his life like trolling or coding. But today, the hive seemed perfectly fine in aspect. Sollux didn't feel like checking every single room in the giant hive, however. Nope. Not today.
It was odd that laziness had taken him over. There was rarely a time where he even took a break from coding except when sleeping and other various needs. Craning his head to once again look out another window, the light of the sky above reflected off of his glasses and created an eerie combination of red and blue upon the back wall from the glass lenses. "Hm?" He murmured something inaudible to himself, eyes catching sight of the Cancer once again. Was he aiming to head over here for a visit? Since when the fuck did other trolls leave their hive to visit others? In a way, if this was true, Sollux felt a little flattered.
He thought over half the time that most of the trolls hated him with his bipolar attitude. One minute he was depressed, the next he was happy. It was a reason he hid his emotions so well and replaced it with smartass comments and rude gestures. Inhaling slowly through his teeth, it was heard a loud and ricochet off the walls in the silence of the hall.
Making his way to the main room, he slid his hands into his grey jean pockets, slowly striding over to his hive door. The ability of being a psychic was easy as shit. He could sense the presence of the Cancer near his door, which made the dual horned troll reach forward and slowly swing his door open with an unamused look on his face.
He stared directly at the nubby horned troll, a small smirk tugging at his lips. "Well, well, if it ithn't Karkat." Stupid lisp. "Why are you here? I would have expected you to be at Gamzee's or thomeone elthes hive." Sollux honestly had no idea why Karkat decided to visit him instead of his moirail, or anyone else. He wasn't used to it. The psionic wasn't usually the first choice of anyone's attention.
Karkat was pretty much sure he had a mini vascular pump attack when the door swung open startling him. Immediately though, any surprise that might have been there before vanished as he looked at the troll. He himself looked tired while Sollux just looked… peppy. Happy wasn't the right word but peppy or upbeat or at the least /awake/ would have described him. "Don't act so flattered. I didn't come here to see you-" he stopped himself before he finished. It was strange, he hadn't come here for anything but actually now that they were talking to each other. Seeing Sollux didn't really seem like all that bad of an idea right about now.
"I mean. Um. I was just walking around and I came by here. And why the HELL would I ever be at Gamzee's hive? Have you ever been in that place? I would more enjoy having my fingers individually bitten off than set foot in that cesspool of a hive. It's horrific. Gamzee is great and all, but he literally has no sense of cleanliness whatsoever." Karkat could rant all day about such things but something told him Sollux didn't really care. He never seemed to. He never seemed to be entertained or impressed with anything Karkat said. It was pretty much always pushed to the side and disregarded, if not, berated or insulted. That wasn't just Sollux, trolls in general. It was one among many reasons why Karkat was such a bitter troll.
He scratched the back of his head with sharp yellow nails which caused his jet black hair to poof up a little in the back giving it an uneven, lopsided look which he ended up smoothing back down with his fingers. "I don't have to be here if you don't want me here. I wasn't exactly looking to come up to your door or anything. You're the one who decided to open it so this isn't exactly my problem." Honestly? HONESTLY? He asked himself. He was pretty sure he was just babbling at Sollux. He only ever babbled when he was nervous and had nothing to say but felt like he had to say something. That was strange for Karkat. Especially since this was Sollux and he was /never/ nervous around him. Why was he now? Probably because the troll didn't seem too irritated to see him right about now. In a way, that made Karkat a little bit… happy. But additionally, he felt like he needed to say something. Like if he didn't, he would just get a door closed in his face and he would be roaming alone again. At first that was enjoyable but talking to someone in person was even better. Not that he would admit any of this to the Gemini. It was more of a self-assessment.
Sollux leaned against the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest, a cocky smile present upon his lips. Bi-colored hues closing half-way, he only stared at the Cancer from under his glass lenses with an amused look. Karkat always seemed like one to scare easily, and just now, his actions had confirmed the psionic's suspicion. Then again, the red blooded troll knew how to regain his composure quite fast. And to that, Sollux gave props to him silently. Upon hearing the others words, the Gemini pushed himself gently off of the doorway, making a small clicking sound with his tongue before sighing slightly. "Oh, KK, I knew you'd thay thomething like that." Which he did. Karkat never seemed like one to just up and visit someone unless it for a reason. This wasn't exactly a reason to visit, but they just happened to cross paths and it was actually rather awkward in his opinion. It wasn't often that he got company nor was it often that he came into actual talking contact with another troll besides instant messaging upon his husktop. It was quite a nice change to just talk one on one, but then again SolluX Captor was not one to say his emotions at that moment. He only held it in with a slight smirk.
Upon the Cancer's silence, the psionic tilted his head and raised an eyebrow. Silence was actually not of Karkat's normal stature. Was something possibly so wrong he was rendered silent in a sentence or was it just that he was that gog damn bored? "Tch," With a slight chuckle, the psionic found himself sliding his hands in his jean pockets. It was funny to hear that Karkat wouldn't even visit his own moirail despite how close they were all because of Gamzee's messy sense of cleanliness. He understood how it would bother Karkat though since he was one to care about what his hive looked like a lot of the time. When he wasn't focused on coding, anyways. "That'th funny. You won't thpend time with your own moirail yet you'll thtand here and talk to thomeone like me." He wanted to mutter something rather rude along with that sentence, but he figured he'd hold his tongue on that one for just a short time. If anything, he'd being up how stupid he thought it was later.
With another chuckle, Sollux couldn't help but almost invite Karkat in. He seemed amused by the Cancer's reactions today and although he would NEVER admit it, a shy Karkat was honestly kind of cute. However, he kept that thought shoved into the back of his mind, and hopefully he'd forget about it later. That was not something he would ever say aloud. Nope. Definitely not. "Hm," He brought a hand up and gently bit the tip of his thumb in slight thought, eyeing the red-blooded troll with little interest. It was just how Sollux was. No matter how bored he looked on the outside, the psionic's mind was actually running over various thoughts at the same time. Finally speaking after an ungodly amount of silence, he tilted his head and replied back with, "I don't mind having you around thith time. It'th quite nice to actually thpeak with a troll every once in a while," The Gemini stuck his tongue out between his fangs, another smirk tugging at his lips. This would be amusing if Karkat actually decided to stay.
Karkat sort of just stood there awkwardly as the other troll spoke. He was never good with all of this face to face talking. That was why it was avoided most of the time. But then again, he didn't /have/ to be here. He just was. The whole conversation concept was sort of lost on Karkat which explained why he was so goddamn quiet. There was no fighting so it was intimidating to have to talk to someone as they stood there in front of you, reading your facial expressions, listening to your voice, and of course, the aspect of them looking down at you. So instead he listened to the other, examining him closely not even noticing that he too was being scrutinized in the other's eye.
The long expanses of silence didn't register in the smaller troll's head. When Sollux spoke, he listened and when he was quiet, Karkat's mind raced making up for the silence. Finally the Gemini said something that really got Karkat's attention and his eyes refocused on him. "What do you mean you don't mind having me around this time? Like all the other times- all what? Three of them? –weren't okay?" Okay so that wasn't the best thing he could have said just then. Despite what other trolls may think of him, Karkat knew how to be nice to others and he knew when someone was trying to genuinely be kind to him. It was just really hard to find the right words to say. After all, he had spent so much time being insulted that it was a default setting to just know that he was. "I mean. That's not what I meant." He was mentally face palming himself now. Why was he being so weird? This whole afternoon was just plain weird.
With a heavy sigh he cleared his throat. "Okay, let me start over. What I /meant/ to say was that are you offering me to stay or what are you even asking me? I just don't understand. That is if you are asking me anything. Otherwise you are literally standing there watching me babble like an absolute moron as you silently make fun of my moronic behavior in which case fuck you. But if you are in fact asking me anything then if…" He was doing it again, he was babbling and he didn't know why. And why was Sollux looking at him like that? With that stupid little smirk and those bi colored eyes that were near impossible to read? What was he thinking?
At that moment in time, Sollux could read how blank the other troll seemed to be. In a way, it was kind of funny how Karkat was acting in front of him. His personality behind the husktop screen was considerably different than being actually face to face and attempting to hold a conversation with him. In a way, the psionic could see that they had similar problems with themselves and other trolls. Karkat was highly misunderstood and secretly cared about his friends - and Sollux the same. They both were treated like shit sometimes by the other trolls, except Karkat seemed to let everything out in anger. Sollux would just keep it all in and shrug off the situation until it became too much to handle. Tilting his head to the other side, he almost wondered what the fuck was wrong with the red-blooded troll today. It was unlike him. Then again, they never really had come face to face for a rather long time until now. It was making the psionic rather baffled.
Lifting an arm and leaning it against the doorway, his sharp claws gently tapped an unrecognizable rhythm on the wooden material, as if he was beginning to grow impatient with Karkat's silence. Was he going to take his offer or not? Another cocky smirk tugged at his lips - did he just silence the troll with one sentence? It boosted his ego, that was for sure. With a sudden chuckle, he inhaled sharply to reply to the hard headed troll. "Whoa, whoa. Chill the fuck out, KK." He was not offended or hurt by what he had said, anyways. It was actually rather… funny. Karkat seemed baffled and confused, not knowing what to say. It was weird, really. Sollux knew how to read people. It was a simple fact - their eyes. People held their true emotions in their eyes, regardless if they were lying or not. The Gemini could tell that the Cancer was only saying that out of defense of preciously being treated badly, hence not taking it in an offensive manner. And yet, it was hard to read the psionic because of his eyes.
"I'm offering you to thtay, thilly. Are you going to take the offer or not?" Sollux was a rather impatient person at times, but he was surprised he even gave Karkat this long to make a decision. A sudden change on the look of his face said everything. He was babbling. Fucking babbling. On and on and on and on. "Holy thit, KK. Jutht thut up. It'th either a yeth or a no." He hadn't meant for it to sound rather mean, but he wouldn't shut up and it was beginning to irritate his already present headache. He raised his hand to rub his temples in frustration, eyes closing behind his dual colored glasses.
Karkat ceased babbling upon hearing the other troll's irritated troll and just looked down at his feet for a moment in an embarrassingly shy manor. As soon as his eyes were focused on the tops of his worn black sneakers, smudged with reddish dust and dirt did he realize how pitiful acting in such a way made him look. Were you really going to let Sollux make you feel all shy and nervous and shit? What is this? He looked up at the other with narrowed eyes, like two thin golden slits that seemed to glow ever so softly. "No need to be a fucking douchebagel about it Sollux. You could just make the shit you say a little more clear and we wouldn't have to turn all of this into a national fucking crisis for gog's sake." He caught himself before he could say anything further, closing his mouth on a particularly touchy insult. There were many things he could have said just then. He could have mentioned everything he hated about the other troll, every time he had fucked up, everything. He was in a bad mood, irritated, pissy. Insults could simply spew from him like water from a faucet that was about to burst. But he held it all in. That was unusual and usually meant any outburst that happened prior would be worse than usual. That wasn't like Karkat to hold anything back and it was a moment that he didn't know why he felt as though he needed to. Nevertheless, he moved onto a different thought process.
"And sure, whatever. I'll fucking stay and shit if you want me to. I don't have anything that I really need to do today so yeah…" Well that sounded stupid. But in order to risk babbling anymore and further pissing off Sollux, Karkat simply left it like that, shifting his weight awkwardly onto his other foot as he slowly crossed his arms over his thin frame. Karkat was almost obsessively thin from the hours that he had spent in front of the computer talking to other trolls and the humans. Eating was not on his top priorities, nor was any other real form of personal health care. Why? Simply because he had bigger problems to deal with.
Finally, that babbling has ceased. The Cancer had shut the fuck up, and the psionic lifted an arm to lean it against his doorway, his index finger and thumb pushing his glasses down his nose to rub the bridge a bit. To be honest, if Karkat had kept talking, Sollux would have most likely felt another headache come along, and he had no plans whatsoever to allow the red blooded troll to see him like that. It was always different, really. His reactions to his headaches varied along with the amount of pain he would feel. Endless voices of people dying was not something someone ever wanted to hear. Aradia heard the dead people. He heard their screams and pleas before passing. Depending on the amount of pain, his eyes would sometime crackle with electricity and he would actually begin crying because he couldn't take it. Other times, he would be staring at his husktop screen, but avoid as much light as possible due to severe migraines. However, pushing that thought aside, he couldn't help but put on another smartass smirk towards the Cancer. How could he have been anymore clearer? Was Karkat just that idiotic and not understanding today? "You're the only one making thith into a national crithith, KK. Calm the fuck down. You thould be happy I even want your company right now." There it was. The appearance of a headache. But perhaps distraction from the Cancer being there could help him from the pain. Never before had he thought that being near someone could easily distract you from certain things.
There was something about Karkat that Sollux found rather unique. The arm leaning against the doorway went up as he ran his fingers through his own ebony hair, watching the others actions with a keen eye. Maybe it was his height? His horns? His personality? The way he- thoughts were getting way out of hand. Quickly shaking his head back and forth to push those thoughts back as well, chest heaving slightly with a loud sigh. "Come on in, then." Turning his body, he dropped his hand back down to his side before reentering his hive, glancing over his shoulder to motion the Cancer in.
(A/N) Chaper One is COMPLETE~!
I hope you all enjoyed it because we had one heck of a time writing it. Make sure you review and let me know what you think and if you would like this to continue.
Critizism is always welcome as long as you are nice about it.
So be a dear and review this shit!
Chapter Two is going to get a little saucy. -motions to title of fanfic-
THANKS SO MUCH!
-VialCreatures