AN: Well, I'm glad to see positive responses to this fic so far! I recently watched A Beautiful Mind in my health class, so I think I have a better grasp on the idea and signs of Schizophrenia, DID, medical treatments and family reactions, etc. Hopefully it will make the story more delightful for you all! Do continue to review, please, and if you know anything personally about any sort of mental health disorder, I would absolutely love to hear your stories and personal experience. Now! On with the second chapter!

Pairings/Character Interactions: Terezi/Karkat, Karkat/Eridan, Eridan/Feferi (One-sided), Feferi/Sollux, Karkat/Sollux

Rating: T

WARNINGS: Violence, Domestic Violence (?), Ideologically Sensitive Material

Disclaimer (Since I didn't put one before): I do not own, make money off of, or claim rights to Homestuck, its characters, or anything of the like. I only own the plot and my presentation of their personalities. So don't sue me.

As he's watching her eyelids close

In the T.V. glow, he can't help thinkin' that

She's a tightrope walker

And he's the streets below her…

"Ugh, God dammit…" Karkat grumbled to himself as he pulled away from the electronic microscope, rubbing his sore eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose as he eyed his lab partner with distaste, "You know, why don't you make yourself useful and look at the fucking microscope for once, instead of always sticking me with it. I'm gonna go blind that thing is so damn bright."

"And that's exactly w-why I stuck you w-with it. My eye-sight is bad enough as is, so quit your w-whinin' an' tell me w-what I should be w-writin' dow-wn." came the snarky and wavy-sounding reply as Karkat turned to examine his partner with a frustrated, tired look.

The boy stood up straight, with a rather snooty demeanor, at 5 feet and 11 inches. His brown hair was combed back and jelled into place neatly, with a vivid purple streak running from the middle-front of his hairline, to about the center of his head, tapering off to blend in near the end. He wore a thick set of square-framed, hipster-like glasses that were always being pushed up on his nose, as they were just slightly too big for his face. He has six, thick, gold rings on each of his hands, specially created for him (Or so people were told); a thick, black sweater with the Aquarius symbol stitched neatly onto the pocket of the left side; blue dress slacks with meticulous, inch-thick black lines running alone the seams, and a pair of purple and blue converse to complete his ensemble. Karkat grimaced at his particular clothing choice for that day, but kept his side-comments on the man's apparel quiet for now as he leaned on the counter, crossing his arms over his chest.

"No fucking way, you don't pull any of your own weight in this partnership, why the Hell should I give you the answers?" He complained, bitterly, and his friend looked up from the paper he had been writing on, in the middle of writing a name in neat, elegant cursive. The current portion read "Block 3; Biology 103; Karkat Vantas and Eridan Amp", and the boy's last name seemed to be unfinished as he frowned.

"W-well, Cod know-ws someone as to do all the w-writin', an' your chicken-scraw-wl is nearly illegible to anyone outside of a gov-vernment agency. Now-w quit your complainin' an' do w-what I glubbin' told you, already!" Eridan snapped back at him, staring at the paper before carefully finishing what he was writing, leaving the last name "Ampora" on the page with a satisfied grin.

"Excuse me? There's no fucking way I'm taking orders from a douchebag like you just because your father is famous for doing something no one actually gives a shit about! Being rich doesn't give you special privileges in my book, Eridan, so you better watch your mouth! I know for a fact you'd fail this class without me because no one else can put up with your obnoxious ass for more than ten seconds! Now come here and look through this fucking microsc—"

"Glub, glub, glub~! Do I hear something fishy going on between Karcrab and Erifin? What could you two porpiously be arguing about this time?" a sweet and bubbly voice interrupted Karkat as a young, smiling girl walked to their table. She wore fuchsia, oval-rimmed glasses that rested near the bottom of her nose, and a headband around the top of her head that pushed up her hair, giving it the effect of having extra volume, as small, angelfish-shaped earrings made a soft tinkling noise when she moved. A long, white lab-coat was buttoned at the middle, around her waist, as many necklaces in various colors adorned her neck, complimenting the many on her wrists as well. Beneath her jacket, she wore a plain, white button-up blouse and a pastel-pink skirt that stopped just below her knees, with sandals to complete her colorful-attire.

"Oh, hey, Fef… Um, no, w-we're not aruguin', Karkat's just bein' an undertow-w again!" Eridan was quick to pipe up, which earned him another unamused glare from Karkat as the girl chuckled.

"Oh, Karkat, you're so silly! Learn to lighten up, little guppy! I know Erifin can be tough as tortious shells to work with sometimes, but he's best suited to be your partner! You two reely oar the brightest in this school of fishes!" She clasped her hands together at her chest, still smiling brightly as Karkat carefully watched Eridan shuffle a little in place, obviously at a lack of words for what to say.

"Yeah, well, I think the microscope is brighter than he is." Karkat retorted as he rubbed the bridge of his nose with his fingers, "I'm just saying, maybe he should do something other than write, for once. It's pretty damn annoying when it feels like I'm doing 80% of the work in this partnership." He growled, and Eridan made a face at him as the woman giggled at the two of them, waving her hand a little to settle them.

"Oh, you two, come now—wrap this up! Class is almost over! Sollux and I were going to go out for coffee, you should come with us! Eridan, I remembered how much you like a good mocha! Glub, glub~" You would have sworn Eridan's face went violet and he was going to pass out on the floor as Karkat snickered quietly.

"W-Well, t-that w-would be lov-vely, Feferi! I'd reely like that, you know-w all the best places to go! But, does that freakin' nerd hav-ve to come w-with us? He's nothin' but a pest." Eridan requested with an annoyed tone, rubbing the side of his arm as he willed his blush away. It was painfully obvious to everyone but Feferi, who had always seen Eridan as her "closest glubbin' friend in the whole, wide ocean", that Eridan had fallen for Feferi's princess-like charms and appearance very hard. However, Sollux had been a constant block to him making other moves, as he and Feferi quickly became close friends and eventual lovers. Of course, from Feferi's view, their personalities simply clashed at times, but they were all the best of friends.

"No way! Sollux has just as many rights to spend time with me as you do, Eridan!" She puffed out her cheeks a little to show her disappointment, but Eridan insisted.

"But Fef! He's no glubbin' good for you, that low-w life! He's not fit for a w-woman of your preseagious caliber! He's not ev-ven fit to stand next to you! I don't get w-why he has to come along all the ti—"

"Eridan Ampora! I have had it up to my gills with you and your fishy "caliber" nonsense! You better straighten up about this and get used to Sollux being around, or I'm not gonna wanna be around you much longer, Mr. fussy gills!"

"Don't you take that tuna of v-voice w-with me, princess!—"

"No! I've had just about enough of this! For all that is salty in the sea, I should revoke your fish-pun license because you're so glubbin' mean to Sollux! Now what do you have to say for yourself?" She had a full-on frown now, puffing out her cheeks and hunching her shoulders as her brow furrowed in frustration.

"I don't hav-ve anythin' to say on the matter! I'm not hangin' out w-with that tw-wo eye-color freak, and that's final!" He snapped, and by now, the entire class had turned to see what all of the commotion was about as they packed the last of their bags and were delicately placing their experiments to the side so they wouldn't be touched and ruin days of work.

Feferi had a look of complete shock on her face, which quickly went from terror, to sadness, to rage in the span of a minute. With a cry of frustration as she pulled on the ends of her hair to show how angry she was, she turned to jab Eridan in the chest with a finger, "When you straighten up, come find me! Until then, I don't want to see a fin from you outside of class, got that?" and she glared at him for a moment as a tall, lanky boy appeared in the doorway with a low whistle.

"Well. What thort of trouble did you get yourthelf into thith time, Ed?" had the sarcastic tone come, followed by a snicker as Eridan seemed to seethe with hate and distaste.

"W-What the fuck do you w-want, Captor? You don't ev-ven hav-ve class on this side a' school. Get the fuck outta here, before I sock you." He growled and the boy held up his hands defensively, smirking.

"Hey, no need to be tho violent. I'm jutht here to get my girl, no troubleth." He sauntered in, towards Feferi, taking her hand and placing a kiss on the knuckles in a very gentlemanly-like manner as her manner seemed to instantly mellow out and return to its peppy demeanor.

"Sollux! I would have been outside to meet you in a few minutes! I just got a little caught up here with the boys, glub, glub, glub!" her smile was as bright as a summer morning, and anyone in the world could have seen the look of utter heart-break on Eridan's face as he made a noise of dismissal, turning away and beginning to clean up his and Karkat's experiment.

"Well, I wathn't buthy with anything, tho I figured I would come and get you. Good thing to, looked like Ed here wath about to blow a gathket. Ehehehe, did him and Karkat thart arguing over who'th turn it wath on thomething again?" Sollux guessed with accuracy, a raised eyebrow at the two boys as he settled an arm about her shoulders, a smug grin on his face, "Can I expect company on our little coffee trip? They already theem tho enthuthed, Fef."

"Oh, of course! If you don't mind, Sollux, I think it would be fun to have our friends along! So long as Mr. "grumpy-gills" Ampora can be nice to everyone!" She shot the male a look and he scoffed, shoving his papers into his bag.

"W-Well, I hope you all hav-ve a nice time out. I'v-ve got w-work to do, so don't w-wait up for me." He muttered bitterly, swinging his backpack over his shoulder and storming out of the room with the majority of the other students, who had decided the commotion was no longer worth watching, and that they should move on with their lives. Feferi sighed heavily, hanging her head a little as Sollux rubbed her shoulder reassuringly.

"Don't worry about him, Fef, he'th alwayth gonna be like that. Nothing you can do about it, unlesth you can work miracles." He noted and she nodded, appearing tired of the subject already, as Sollux glanced up to Karkat, "Tho, KK, you up for thome coffee? My treat, you look like you could uthe the caffine. You jutht might pasth out otherwithe, ehehehe."

"Yeah…" the male muttered, scrubbing his face with a hand, attempting to fend off an oncoming headache. He could practically hear his heartbeat in his ears, the whole time, and it all but drowned out Feferi and Eridan's argument. There had been so many people watching… couldn't these other college kids just mind their own business for once? Why did everyone have to watch everything that didn't end with sunshine and rainbows? Who knows what they thought of them now? Who knows what they thought of him, for not doing anything while they argued?

Of course, thoughts like that only made his heart beat faster, and his head throb in pain as he spoke to Sollux again, "Yeah, coffee sounds real fucking good right now. That goddamn bastard, gave me a headache with his yelling…" he blamed as he continued to kneed his forehead, though it didn't seem to aid him any. Sollux only grinned to himself, ruffling the younger male's hair affectionately and gesturing with a sharp jerk of his head to the side that they should get going. Karkat swore that he only needed to wash his hands first, before they left.

15 minutes later, they were still waiting for him to come out of the bathroom, the sound of running water quiet through the door.

The coffee-shop wasn't that far from campus, maybe only a 20 minute drive in heavy traffic, but that was rather rare and they had gotten there in 10, easily. The whole way, Feferi and Sollux had been chattering about classes, upcoming projects, and the promise of summer after a murky, rainy spring season in the city. Feferi had a beach house down in Florida, and she would be more than happy to invite all her friends to spend a week or two there, because "nothfin is more fun than playing the ocean!"

However, Karkat had been tuning the conversation out most of the time, and was barely aware of when he was being addressed, as he had been staring out the window, watching the light rain dampen the side-walk and chase people into their homes.

"…abby…? Karcrab….? Karcrabby? Karcrab!" he suddenly sat up a little straighter to show he was listening, turning to Feferi who had a concerned look upon her face, her lips pursed in worry, "Karkat, are you okay? You seem out of it! Is there something on your mind?"

"I'm not out of it! I'm completely fine, so just—" he cut himself off, taking a moment to cool his head and quiet his voice, taking on a more sincere tone, "I'm fine, Feferi, don't worry about it. I'm just a little worried about Terezi, since she doesn't like thunderstorms, and I'd hate to not be there if one starts."

"Oh! Well, do you need me to take you home? I would hate to keep you from her, if it's really important to you! I know you two are together a lot, so I figured it might be nice to spend time with your friends for a change, but if you're reely worried about it-!"

"It's not that big of a deal, okay? So just stop fucking talking about it!" he cut her off, snapping as she seemed startled by it, and he mentally hit himself for the comment, "Just… can we not talk about it? I said I'd come out for coffee, and I'm not gonna back out on that, so let's just move. On." Feferi looked like she wanted to say something, but before she could speak, Sollux set three coffees on the small, round table and took his seat, one eye-brow raised questioningly.

"And what were you two talking about?" he asked, and Karkat growled to show his disapproval, "Ehehehe, I'm only joking with you, KK, no need to be tho riled up about everything all the time." He spoke soothingly to the cancer, sliding a hot coffee towards him, handing another to Feferi, and taking one for himself, "But really, what'th the thundercloud face for? Did Nepeta get your number again or thomething?"

"Haha, fucking, ha, Captor. You're just such a fucking riot, I'm gonna burst from laughing!" the tone was dripping with sarcasm as he leaned forward on the table, taking a tentative sip of his coffee so that he wouldn't burn his tongue before continuing, "It's nothing about Nepeta, I haven't heard from her in months! And even if I did, I wouldn't tell you about it because you couldn't keep your damn mouth shut!" Sollux had, indeed, been responsible for Nepeta obtaining Karkat's number at one point, but it was only once and he was unaware of the girl's growing desire to spend time with Karkat, but of course, Karkat had never let him get away with it.

"I'm thorry, what wath that? I wath too buthy texting Jathperth to have him bring Nepeta down here for coffee." He said, making a gesture as if he was texting under the table, looking serious and concentrated.

"What? You wouldn't! You fuckass, I'll wreck your computers if you text—"

"Thould I call him inthted?"

"Sollux!"

"Ehehehe, I'm only kidding, KK. Relax, before you have a thtroke from thresth or thomething."

"Too fucking late! You're gonna have to call the damn ambulance to take me away, and when they ask me what happened, I'm gonna say my crazy ass-hole of a friend tried to psych me out by sicking some crazy, cat-girl teen on me for the Hell of it!" he retorted, a vein in his head throbbing as Sollux only snickered, and Feferi giggled happily. You see, Jaspers was Nepeta's older brother, who had taken care of her after their parents passed away in a house fire six years before. Nepeta had met Karkat when she moved into the neighborhood for middle school, while Karkat was attending the high school; he had begun taking after-school calculus lessons at her house with Jaspers was his tutor. Though he could admit the girl wasn't a problem at first, he quickly grew irritated with her constant bothering and questions. Maybe he was a little hard on her, but when he left for college and she got ahold of his phone number and called four times a week to check up on him, he got fed up with it.

"Oh, Karcrabby, you're so silly sometimes! She really only has the best at heart! Maybe you should try to talk to her sometime!" Feferi offered with a smile.

"No fucking way am I dealing with that shit all over again. I haven't seen her in months, and the only reason I would go see her was if Terezi asked for us to." He scoffed, sipping his coffee once more before seeing the saddened look on Feferi's face and making a noise of frustration, "Well, do you really think I wanna go and fucking see her again after what I did the last time? The last time I got fed up with her, I screamed my head off, and she started crying! You think I wanna do that to her again?"

Both of his friends were silent as he breathed a little heavier, in attempts to calm himself down before speaking, "She's only a fucking kid, and she doesn't even understand anything yet. She's—what, 13 now? 14? You think I need to fuck up her view of guys anymore? No." he leaned back in his chair, swirling his coffee in its cup, watching it intently, "Can we move onto something else now? This shit is giving me a headache."

The rest of their time in the coffee shop consisted of an uncomfortable silence, and the occasional small-talk, a bit of laughter, and Karkat vanishing for periods of time to wash his hands. In the hour and a half they had been at the shop, Karkat had only drank three-fifths of his coffee, and gotten up to wash his hands six times, for 8 minutes increments.

By the time they actually left, and had offered to drive Karkat to his apartment, Sollux had been poking at him for being a germaphobic.

By the time Karkat had returned to his apartment, the rain was falling heavily outside, and the roll of thunder was soft in the distance. He thanked Feferi and Sollux for the coffee and the ride, grabbing his bag from the back-seat and rushing inside, though it didn't stop his hoodie from being soaked any.

Throwing his wet jacket on the couch, along with his bag of books, he called out, "Terezi? I'm home!" and waited for the reply which never came, "…Rezi?"

Slipping off his shoes, he walked to the backroom, opening the door slowly as to not startle her if she was sleeping or involved in something. But sure enough, she was sitting on the bed, chewing on a twizzler and cuddling one of her "scalemates" as she listened to a show on television, he guessed, since she couldn't actually see it.

"Terezi, there you are." He muttered, wandering over to her, and sitting beside her on the bed, surprised to find she actually had headphones in. He sighed and laughed softly to himself—that explained why she didn't hear him! Tapping her shoulder and pulling out one of the headphones, he spoke softly, "Rezi, what are you—"

"Who the fuck is Rezi? I got a name, but that sure as hell isn't it, hehehe! Or did you forget already~?"

Karkat grit his teeth.

"Pyralsprite."

"Oh, so you didn't forget! Guess you're not as dumb as you play off to be, Karkles!" a grin creeper up onto its face, making the teeth appear sharp and menacing as it gnawed on the twizzler still. Karkat dared look down at the plushie in its lap, and found it was Terezi's favorite, "Senator Lemonsnout", but the red buttons that were normally its eyes had been plucked out, making it as blind as its owner, "And how can I help you today?"

"You can get the fuck out of her head, you son of a bitch." He growled, receiving only a laugh in return.

"Oh, Karkles! Hehehe~" the body of Terezi widened its grin and narrowed its eyes.

"You have no idea what you're getting into."