Your name is Kankri Vantas, and you will stop at nothing to protect your little brother.
His brother was angry at the moment because of this, he didn't understand. He didn't understand, and he never would. He only wanted what was best for him! Hell, he only wanted to do what would keep his brother ALIVE.
Kankri scrubbed fiercely at the tile floors of their kitchen. Clean… Clean… Everything had to be perfectly clean. If it wasn't, the germs would get in. If the germs got in, Karkat would get sick. And if Karkat got sick…
God, he didn't even want to think about it.
He paused only to blow a short lock of curly red hair out of his face before he continued to scrub at the cool tile flooring, though it surpassed ungodly clean what may have very well been hours ago. His pale freckled hands were thick with callouses, simply from so much cleaning. He was simply a college student, his oldest brother was the one that earned the money. He didn't work, but he still had the most in terms of bodily strength because of what seems like simple household chores to most.
To most being the key phrase.
To Kankri, cleaning wasn't a way of life, or even a phobia. It was an obsession and fear of something harming his younger brother. The uncontrollable, irrational fear of losing him. Despite the fact he was on more medications than should be fair, he was still terrified of the day that would eventually come. He feared that the only way to keep him safe was to protect Karkat from every unsanitary surface possible. It wouldn't prevent it, but… Maybe he would have his baby brother for just a little while longer.
Karkat had been born with HIV, but he wasn't diagnosed until he was two years old. They didn't even know his mother had it, and neither did she. It was apparently contracted when she had a rendezvous with a Frenchman that his father hadn't known about. Shortly thereafter, she contracted a cold right after she had given birth, and died.
She died. From the common cold.
This had rattled Kankri immensely. He was just a child when that happened, only a boy. Five years old, and he had no idea why his mother left him. All he knew at the time was that the thing that killed his mother was inside of Karkat as well, and he could lose him.
Since then he took every precaution he could.
Their father wasn't around often, and neither was their oldest brother. They were constantly working to try to pay the bills for Karkat's treatment, hoping that someday there might be a cure.
But as for now, there wasn't.
All the constant fear… The worrying… Wondering, "Is he alright?" "What if he's having an attack right now?" "What if he's somewhere he could become ill?"
These thoughts constantly ran through his mind. So, he tried his best. Supplying the hormonal teenager with more than enough sexual protection, constantly making sure that his house was clean, inspecting his friends and talking to him to make sure they met up to standards. And Karkat thought he was being unreasonable.
Tears burned at the back of Kankri's eyes and his scrubbing became more aggressive as he allowed himself to spend more and more time dwelling on the topic. It wasn't fair… His brother shouldn't have to suffer like this, and neither should he!
His breath hitched in his throat and he had to force himself to swallow heavily. No… He wasn't going to cry. There was no reason to cry. He got over that stage long ago, YEARS ago. He was twenty one years of age, god dammit, and he needed to act like it!
Kanrki sat up on his haunches and tossed the scrubbing brush across the room in favor of digging the heels of his palms into his eyes, squeezed shut, to stop the burning tears.