Karkat entered his room and shut his door as quietly as he could manage, for once, though he wasn't really entirely certain why. And he didn't allow himself time to think about it, either, as he made his way over to the red husktop that sat atop his old wooden desk and plopped himself into the worn leather chair before it. With a flick of his fingers the husktop was opened and booted up, and he leaned back a bit in his chair while he waited for the thing to finish it's little powering-on routine. He needed a distraction... Anything to keep his mind off of the stupidity of his earlier words, as well as the actions that had followed them. He shouldn't have left so abruptly, have alerted Nepeta to precisely how strange the current situation was. Maybe she would have remained oblivious, then... She had to be at least a little hazy from the lack of blood in her body and brain at the moment, right? And she wasn't exactly the most intelligent troll to begin with... No, no, fuck that. Yes she was. Hunting took more than just physical strength, it took tactics and instinct and acute knowledge of the area, as well as of the behavior of the hunted... And even if she had gotten hurt this one time, she was still a brilliant hunter. A master, even.
No, he shouldn't have saved her in the first place if he hadn't wanted any of this to happen. And he didn't, he knew, but then could he really have let her die? Could he live with himself knowing he had had a chance to save her, and had given it up?Let the life slip from the body of one of his only friends? And regardless of his own moral compass, Equius wouldn't have let him live with himself. At least, that was what he thought.
Oh, fuck, Equius still didn't know, did he? His moirail was sitting helpless on a pile in Karkat's hive, injured and in pain, and he had no fucking idea. And as much as Karkat hated the blue-blooded pile of shit, the guy still deserved to know. He would figure it out soon enough, anyways... He would notice she was gone, and he would contact the others. Sure, Nepeta often spent days at a time on the hunt, but this was different. She wasn't going to return in a few days' time and hop back on her little tablet, and she wasn't going to be able to for quite a while now. At least, not by Karkat's uneducated estimation. And he was certainly due to start worrying soon enough, maybe a couple more days, but Karkat didn't want to wait until then. Telling Equius now would probably be better, anyways. He wouldn't seem so much the bad guy, that way.
Well, fuck his distraction from Nepeta, then.
Karkat sat up at his husktop, which had at last finished booting up, and dragged open the Trollian window. Equius was online already, so Karkat opened up his chat box and began a conversation. And after several long minutes of angry banter, Equius ended it was a somewhat obscure, "D- E%pect me there, in a little while."
Well, shit.


A knock sounded on the door of Karkat's hive and Nepeta perked up, then struggled to push herself into a sitting position so she might see the visitor when they entered. Karkat blocked her view, though, when he finished making his quick way down the stairs, and she gave up with an irritated little huff. She wasn't disappointed for long, however, as the figure that stood on the other side was quite a bit taller than Karkat, and rather distinguishable.
"Equihiss!" She exclaimed happily, again trying to push herself up to get a better view of the newcomer, who granted her a nervous and clearly worried little smile before turning his gaze back down and to Karkat's most likely angry face.
"Let me in." He demanded, though there was a kind of anxiousness in it, as if he was afraid Karkat wouldn't like it. He didn't know the Cancer's position on the hemospectrum, what if he accidentally offended a highblood?
"Why the fuck should I? You don't exactly own the place. I dictate who comes and goes, not you." Karkat retorted hotly, his anger already sparked by the commanding tone of the troll before him.
"Karkat, stop it." Nepeta objected from behind him. "Come on, purrlease? He didn't do anything, and he won't." Karkat turned his head to look at her and his gaze softened, just a little... She was hurt, trapped in one place with makeshift bandages covering the sloppy stitches he had tried to hold her wounds shut with. She certainly deserved to see her moirail, and Karkat was hardly any substitution. He couldn't provide the emotional support Equius could.
"Purrlease?" she repeated, her voice a little softer this time, her eyes round and pleading. Nepeta knew how worried Equius must be, and she wanted to see him, regardless of the mental strain it would no doubt cause her.
At last Karkat rolled his eyes and stepped aside, and Equius moved quickly past him. Nepeta grinned at him when he reached her side and crouched there, then the two began talking in hushed voices, Equius's stern and concerned, and Nepeta's chipper and bright. Karkat, feeling rather out-of-place, watched for only a moment longer before moving off into the protienblock to search for something that might be edible.