Twelve years ago.
It's two years before you see Karkat again and he's barely left your thoughts since then. It drives you mad on several occasions as to why you can't stop thinking about that stupid kid - hell, in the shape you last saw him you would be amazed if he was still alive. But those red eyes haunt your dreams for reasons you can't understand.
You're walking in one of the parks by yourself - Mituna had had to go away on a mission for the high council, leaving Sollux to his own devices - when you see someone moving in the shade between the trees. You pull the hood of your cloak down over your eyes a little before drifting over to watch.
It's a boy, small in stature and size. He had his back to you, a red cloak billowing around him with each movement, raven hair flipping with his steps. It takes you a moment to realize what he's doing, but you notice the curved blades he's wielding with utter expertise, if not simply. He turns to you in one swift movement and the dark circles and pale skin tip you off before his eyes even flash open to revile crimson irises.
He freezes, mid-swing, and stares at you like a dear caught in the headlights (of course you don't know what 'headlights' are, but for the purpose of description you find it alright to modernize by about a hundred years and two universes) before he broke out of the state and launched himself at you, sending both of you to the ground with the momentum. A sickle tip sinks into the ground next to your neck, the rest hovering precariously over your throat and the handle clutched tightly by the other boy.
"Who the hell are you?" His voice is strong and clear, a growl rumbling through his tone.
You're an idiot. You laugh and pull your hood back, smirking at him. "Hey, KK. Long time no see." He groans and gets off you, giving the sickles a twirl before sheathing them again at his hips. He stands up and looks at you irately as you rise a few inches taller than him. "I bet you would make a lot more friends if you didn't try killing them," you point out, utterly smug.
"I bet you'd make a lot more friends too if you cut out the shit-eating grin. Wait, not even that can compensate for your personality." You take a moment to examine him to see he looks tired and worn out. He's certainly toughened up in the last two years, but you can't help noticing the small rasping that comes with every breath and the occasional, pained flinch he gives.
"Wow, isn't someone good with words?" Traditionally, you lost the fight - even if unofficial - so you should at least admit it, but that would be yielding and you would never give this guy that superiority.
You come by the park a few times a week after that, watching Karkat for a couple minutes at a time before he notices you. You start to spar together on the third week, arguing turns to banter on the fourth, and finally on the fifth you come out on top of the session and he admits defeat.
On the sixth, you see him up in the trees, balancing on the end of a branch.
"Hey, KK!" you call up, waving a little.
Apparently, that startled him because his concentration broke and he fell. You catch him before he hits the ground and both of you just stay there for a moment before you start pounding on each other. He's such an ungrateful shit, didn't even thank you for saving his ass and went off about how he 'had it covered. Somehow, in that awkward tangle of hate and pity and admiration for each other, you start off on some kind of friendship.
You tell him about Mituna and how he'd been slipping into visions more frequently, and he tells you about his executed father and how the council was out to get his family. You tell him that the council is out to get everyone in one way or another and he laughs, agreeing.
"So what happened between five and seven?" you ask, looking at him curiously.
"Nothing, I can just carry my weight a bit better." He tells you a little about the Crocker girl he was taken to and how she helped the connections in his life force, how he'd been training to be healthier since then. You guess that that's all reasonable, and that he's certainly good that he does.
When Mituna doesn't come home when expected, you start to stay with Karkat sometimes so things don't get too lonely. The Vantas family consisted of Karkat, his older brother Kankri, and a couple cousins you couldn't keep straight for the life of you but their were either a Myryam or a Leijon so the last names stuck at least.
They don't mind having you as long as you pull your weight, and you do. You're a good enough house-guest even if the routine of beating each other up and yelling a lot persists while you're out of the house.
When Mituna does come back, he'd different and it worried you. The Mind girl is over a lot and you stay back with Karkat again occasionally so you don't get in the way of trying to recover your cousin's memories and general personality.
Karkat feels more like family after a while and you prefer it there than your own home. No one objects to it, and no one argues when you practically start living there after Mituna was taken away to protect everyone from the oncoming insanity that was plaguing the poor Heir. You don't argue either, because sharing a room with Karkat and the two cousins that were your age was a hell of a lot safer than in your own empty home.
