Oh hay, this chapter is completely un-revised and I'm sorry that it's kind of short x.x but I hope you enjoy, and I promise things will get more exciting soon!

Chapter 2

My eyes opened slowly to sunlight streaming in through the windows, blinds pulled back and allowing the sun to warm the air. It was warmer than the day before, a few birds chirping outside. A loud bang made me jump off of the couch, shrugging off a blanket I didn't remember having on me. In fact, I hardly remembered why I chose to sleep on the couch in the first place.

"Ugh, I give up!"

I hurried into the kitchen, panicky and still groggy with sleep. "What the-" Oh. That's right; Karkat had come back with me. So it hadn't been a dream. "Um… what are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm trying to cook in your stupid nutrition block and none of your shit is cooperating." He growled, a menacing glare directed at the oven.

"Karkat, you didn't have to cook." I said through a yawn, starting up a fresh brew of coffee.

"You were sleeping forever, and I got hungry."

"Well I'm pretty much out of everything right now, but there's bread in the cupboard to your right, and butter and jam in the fridge. Oh and if you want to toast it, that's the white thing on the counter." I said, heading to my room to get dressed. My mind was sidetracked, however, when I glanced at my bed, a cocoon looking nest of blankets sitting atop it. I smiled tiredly and climbed in, nuzzling into the warmth, and it didn't take long for me to fall into a comfortable sleep.

"-so adorable, isn't he?" a familiar voice giggled as I gradually slid back into consciousness.

"A pain in the ass, if you ask me." Karkat grumbled.

I opened my eyes slowly to find Jade and Karkat standing in the doorway. "What time is it?" I mumbled, poking my head just barely above the blanket pod.

"It's already one in the afternoon, silly." Jade grinned, waving.

"Oh jeez, I'm sorry Jade." I frowned, rubbing my eyes and attempting to sit up. Sadly I didn't really have much room to move inside the makeshift cocoon, so sitting wasn't really an option. "And sorry for ruining your blanket thingy Karkat."

"Whatever." He grumbled, turning to leave.

"How long have you been here?" I asked, struggling to climb out of the blankets and keep it as in tact as possible.

"An hour, but Karkat kept me company until you woke up." She smiled, but it was short lived. "Are you still overworking yourself?"

"No Jade, I'm fine." I said, trying to find a change of clothes. I was still wearing my things from yesterday.

"John."

"Jade."

Jade sighed, crossing her arms. "There's practically nothing in your fridge. Once you get dressed we should go to the store and get you some healthy food."

I rolled my eyes. "Jade I told you, I'm-"

"No arguing!" She hushed. "You're thin as a rail and those bags under your eyes are almost as bad as Karkat's."

"I fucking heard that!" A very angry troll yelled from the living room, making me laugh.

"But seriously, you're working way too hard to be healthy, and the others agree." She said. "Now get dressed and we'll leave when you're done."

"What about Karkat?" I asked, giving up trying to fight.

"He'll be fine. Put a hat on him and no one will even care to notice. If anything they'll think he has a skin disease." She waved a hand, leaving me to go to the living room.

I sighed, carrying a pair of jeans and a shirt into the bathroom so I could take a quick shower and get dressed. I brushed my teeth, staring into the mirror the entire time. Jade was right; I looked like crap. My hair was messed up more than usual and dark puffy circles stood out against my pale skin. With a frown I spit out the remainder of the toothpaste and splashed some cool water on my face, making sure to take a few breathes before going out to face the living.

"Are you ready to go?" Jade asked, interrupting her argument with Karkat about something or other when I appeared in the hallway.

"Yeah, we should hurry so Dave doesn't show up to find an empty room." I said, pulling on my shoes and the closest jacket I could find, which happened to be much thinner than my winter coat.

"Alright, Karkat are you coming?"

There was a pause, in which Karkat leaned his head back over the edge of the couch and stared at the ceiling for a second before pushing off and onto his feet. "Why the fuck not."

I grinned, linking arms with my sister and attempting to do the same with our newly reacquainted troll friend, only to have my hand slapped away immediately. The three of us made our way out of the apartment complex and into the chilly November air, found ourselves a taxi (I always say it's because Jade is too cute to turn down, because we always seem to get a taxi x10 faster when she's around) and started towards the nearest grocery store.

As was expected, the store was bustling and lively, people rushing around to find what they needed like their lives depended on it. Jade pulled me by my arm and over to the closest section we needed, holding a messy list in her free hand and a very determined look on her face. Karkat trudged along next to us, hands stuff deep in the pockets of one of my jackets, the hood pulled up over his hair and covering his horns, save for the slight bumps they made in the fabric. He was mumbling something about the cold as he looked around, and despite having been on Earth for a few years, seemed to be in slight awe at the things he saw around him.

In the middle of browsing through the fruits and vegetables, I nudged Jade in the arm. "Hey, later we should get Dave and Rose and we should all go walk around town for a while." I said quietly, Karkat preoccupied with all the different kinds of food in front of him. "I don't think Karkat's seen hardly anything despite being here for five years."

"You're right. Lets get this shopping done quickly, then." She smiled, placing a bag of different fruits into the cart before calling to Karkat that we were moving on. All together we spent two hours searching the store for the things that Jade insisted we needed. Aka: a whole bunch of food that could feed a family of twelve for months. But no matter how many times I told her I didn't need half of this stuff, the answer always pretty much the same.

"You're too skinny! In like, the really unhealthy way. You need meat on your bones, and don't worry about the money because I'll pay for it." She would say, sticking her nose in the air. "And Karkat is going to make sure you eat healthy."

Karkat snapped his head in our direction, glaring at her. "Like hell I will. Don't drag me into your stupid fights."

Jade huffed, crossing her arms. "Well I'll just have Dave check up on you every day then."

"Jade, I'm eighteen. I can take care of myself! I've been taking care of myself." I sighed, reluctantly pushing the cart towards the check out counter. "Besides, I can't let you pay for all my food. You don't have unlimited cash either, you know."

"I may not have a whole lot of extra money but I have enough to help out my brother. Plus it would be rude to force you to go out shopping for all of this without me paying. It was my idea after all. So shut up and start putting them on the register… conveyer belt thingy. Whatever it's called."

I didn't like it, but I knew there was no use. When Jade was set to do something, god damn it she was going to do it and lord help you if you got in her way. I glared at Karkat as I lined up the food on the register thingy, who was giving me a fang-filled grin that read 'she's totally got you whipped'. Darn it she was my older sister, what was I supposed to do? Reject her love and let her continue to worry?

So we paid for the mass of groceries, Jade paying 2/3 of it since I refused to let her pay for all of it. I grimaced at the receipt the entire taxi ride home, a whopping $164.32. Never before had I spent so much money on food.

Jade snatched the receipt out of my hand and crumpled it up. "Stop staring at it like it's the plague, Jesus. Now cheer up, we get to have a fun day out on the town!"

"What? No fuck that, I'm staying inside." Karkat growled, curled up next to me in my hoodie. "Your planet is freezing as… as… fuck I don't know, you get the point! I'm not going outside again until your warm season. Please for the love of god tell me you have a warm season here. The last place I was it was freezing for what felt like all year. Or at least that's what they told me."

I pat his shoulder sympathetically. "Don't worry, summer and spring are really warm. Uh… where were you last?"

"Like I fucking know. It was freezing and there was hardly any civilization. I left within days."

"Well you're going to have to wait a few more months. It's only November now. In fact, it's going to get colder soon. Sorry Karkat." Jade smiled, shuffling through her wallet and giving the correct amount of money to the taxi driver. Karkat let out a string of curses to the cold the entire way upstairs.

We set the bags of groceries on the counter, Jade helping me sort out what went in what shelf and what went in the fridge while Karkat retreated to the bedroom, probably to curl up in the numerous amounts of blankets piled atop my bed.

A knock on the door a few minutes later signaled Dave and Rose's arrival, the four – er, five – of us finally together again. Jade and Dave were off and talking right away, the two mingling in the open kitchen while Rose and I stood near the door. After the greetings and updates, I excused myself to try and lure Karkat out of the room to join us.

I rolled my eyes when I pushed on the door to find something blocking it. "Karkat, come on. Open the door."

"No."

"But it'll be fun! You'll get to see all the wonders of Boulder." I said, grinning. I pushed on the door, trying to nudge whatever he had blocking the door out of the way.

"Hell no! I already said I'm staying in here and you aren't getting me to come out." He hissed, voice muffled. He was probably curled up in all those blankets again.

"Karkat, you're acting like a baby. It wont be for that long, and once you're having fun you'll totally forget that it's cold outside! I promise. We're gonna go downtown, and get dinner at this really sweet restaurant, and you can see the college that Rose goes to, and so much more."

There was shuffling on the other side of the door, and something sliding out of the way before the door creaked open. "This better be fucking worth it." He said, inching out of the room.

"Don't worry, we'll all have fun. I promise." I grinned, leading him to the rest of the group. Once Rose and Karkat got through their quick greeting, we dawned our jackets and started for Rose's car. It was slightly cramped in the silver Nisan Versa, with Jade, Karkat, and I elbow to elbow in the back seat and Rose and Dave in the front, but it wasn't anything we couldn't handle. I was just glad to finally not have to ride in a smelly, nasty taxi and keep twenty dollars in my pocket.

It didn't take very long for us to get downtown from the apartment, but those fifteen minutes were extremely loud. Everyone was arguing about the music, Dave obviously wanting something that was ironic, Jade wanting techno, and of course Karkat wanted everyone to shut the hell up and turn it off. Rose and I were silent, though I could tell she was hoping they would turn it off, and I was leaning more towards alternative. After a few minutes Rose had enough of the fighting and turned off the radio. Karkat and I let out a simultaneous sigh a relief.

Once we had found a place to park we were out of the car, Karkat quickly wrapping a scarf around his neck and tugging the hat down over his ears with his gloved hands. I couldn't really blame him, Boulder got pretty bad sometimes. We've had snow as early as October before! And Alternia did have a very close sun, if I remembered correctly.

"Lead the way, John." Rose said, locking the car door. "It was your idea, after all."

"Okay." I nodded, looking around for a good place to go. There was always so much to do downtown, and it was still a bit too early to eat. "How about we just walk around for now? You know, go to any store that looks fun! Then at five or six we should go get food somewhere." I said, looking to the others for approval.

"Sounds good. Lets get walking." Dave said, turning in a random direction before motioning us to move forward. For the next hour and a half we walked up and down the few main streets of downtown, talking about anything and everything while stopping each other when one of us found a store that we wanted to check out. Karkat fit in nicely to our group, mostly arguing with Dave and thankfully taking Jade's attention away from me every time I refused to let her buy me something she caught me staring more than a few seconds at. It wasn't that I couldn't buy those things; I had brought a modest sum of money with me knowing that we would be shopping, but I had just grown so used to not spending it that it felt strange to buy anything that wasn't necessary for me to survive. I did, however, fully intend of paying for dinner. I wasn't about to invite my friends out and then make them pay for their food. My father had taught me to be a better gentleman than that, thank you very much.

It was at five fifty that we settled down at a local bar and grill, making sure to be as far from the bar as possible. Not to look suspicious, just that strange people sat around there sometimes. You can never be too cautious of drunken people watching a sports game. We talked amongst ourselves while we waited to be ordered and then some more while we waited for our food, the conversations becoming more of just small talk than important information once everything had been shared. Dave and I talked about a new game that was coming out, Jade and Karkat argued about something or other, occasionally pulling Rose into it as well.

Over all the night had been a blast. I couldn't remember the last time we had all gotten together as a group; there was always at least one person who couldn't make it, but we were finally all together, and now we even had Karkat with us. I smiled the entire ride home, all the way up to when everyone waved goodbye as we parted ways, save for Karkat and me.

"Did you have fun?" I asked, kicking my shoes and jacket off once we had finally gotten inside.

Karkat scoffed, but he wasn't frowning like he usually was. In fact I could have sworn there was a bit of a smile on his face. "I guess you aren't as intolerable as you were during the game."

"Gee, thanks." I grinned, going to the closet to pull out some extra blankets and a pillow to set up in the living room for myself. I had never thought to save the two twin beds we had gotten once Dave moved out, trading them in for a full instead. Now that Karkat was here I was going to have to reverse that deal, or sleep on the sofa for the rest of his time here.

With a sigh I fluffed out the pillow and took a seat over the folded blankets I had made into a makeshift sleeping bag, and although it wasn't as comfortable as Karkat's blanket-cocoon or my normal bed, I would be able to live with it. Not a word was said as he sat in the recliner and flipped through channels, and after dozing off for a few hours I was surprised to see him still awake despite the time.

"Where are you going?" he asked, glancing up as I pulled on my shoes and did my best to pat down my hair.

"Night job." I explained, giving him a toothy grin, but it felt much too forced to act so carefree while my mind was still foggy from sleep. "I'll be back at four, get some sleep." I called, closing the door behind me.

The store was much more empty than last time, only one other person working beside myself. I spent the time that there were no late customers to clean up a bit. Why were convenience stores so nasty all the time? I was no germ freak but places like Wallgreens and Target could get pretty disgusting.

An older man came into the store around three in the morning, bought a pack of chewing gum and some beer, and was out the door. I sighed, tapping my chewed off nails against the glass counter. Maybe they were right, maybe I was pushing myself too hard. Would it be that bad to drop my night job? It was mostly just to get extra money, and if I cut back on using the TV so much then maybe it wouldn't affect things too badly. But if my paycheck suddenly got docked again at the bookstore then I'd be in deep trouble without this to back me up.

I let out a huff before standing up straight as an older woman walked into the store, cigarette in hand and phone to her ear. Man I hated that. Couldn't people be more polite and put their cigarette out in front of the shop? That's what we had those little trashcan top things for. Well, sort of.

Talking into her cell phone the entire time and puffing smoke around the store, she bought a fresh pack of those horrible cancer sticks and some other random items like lip gloss and one of those double-shot espresso cans. She didn't even bother to get off the phone or put her cigarette down as she bought her things, instead blowing the smoke in my face when she handed me the correct amount of money.

I smiled, handed her the change, and said have a nice night. I could have sworn I heard her telling whoever was on the other line that 'the nerdy cashier was glaring at her like some sort of freak'.

At four thirty I slumped up the stairs of the apartment building and didn't even say hello to Karkat, who was still sitting curled up on the recliner with a blanket around his legs, before I fell face first into the pillow.

"John." I didn't answer. I wasn't even completely sure if it was a dream Karkat or the real thing speaking. "Egbert, get up." He let out a sigh, the sound seeming muffled and far away. The arms pulling me up and then dragging me down the hall didn't seem completely there, but the warmth was very inviting. I felt myself fall onto something soft and cushiony, but that warmth was going away. Without thinking I latched onto it, pulling the warmth of whatever it was, body or pillow or blanket, and for a while it struggled back, but eventually I felt that same soothing warmth wash over my forehead, moving over it in comforting strokes, and I managed to fall asleep quickly.

I have nothing really to say here besides winter break is over and I'm back to school, but hopefully it won't take out of my writing time. I'll do my best to update soon!