The wind, it felt so great! It was like he was free. Yet half of John's mind screamed that this wasn't possible, and that humans could not fly. After that realization, his heart sank. With this information, he could only confirm that all of this was just a dream, and tomorrow morning he would wake up to Casey glubbing at him with intense bubble action. And this Karkat guy, he was also just a dream, but despite that John still felt that he had to save the both of them.

Karkat tightened his grip on John's leg. "Hey Dumbass! Would you mind going somewhere? As in within the next couple of millisecond, instead of you gawking at your ability like it's the human equivalent of that guy that you stare at on the streets because he's showing off his weird human dance shit or whatever the hell your human street prefuckers do. Because if you don't MIND, I would like to live and not be beaten to death by clubs in one of your human leisure areas."

John grinned, deciding to follow what the disguised troll was saying, and to begin to fly. As he began to move, he could feel the breeze surround him. Oh man, this was BEYOND being cool. This was fantastic! The wind was slightly chilled, but it didn't bother him. He actually thought the chill felt nice.

His sneakers landed gently on his apartment's rooftop, where Karkat flung himself off of John's leg and onto its surface. "I forgot how much flying makes my stomach muscles want to hurl their contents onto the garbage pile that is this planet…"

John didn't hear him. He was too busy trying to take in that he had just flown, like a superhero in some of the comics he read in his spare time! All this time he thought he was just an ordinary human being, but yet all along he was a genuine air master!

After Karkat had gotten his grip on the land, he walked over to John, poking him with somewhat annoyance in his shoulder. "Hey dumbass, I know that you can't remember anything or some shit, but that other guy you saw in the woods is trying to kill you, so we need to hide somewhere safe."

John snapped out of his fantasy antics and turned his head towards Karkat with a confused look. "Kill me? I thought he was trying to kill you."

The troll shook his head biting his lip. "How was it not obvious that he didn't want you back on the meteor? He had to have followed me to this planet, and have been waiting for when I was going to take you back. It was such a fucking moronic move on my part. I…"

"But why me? I never did anything to him!" John pleaded. "I swear!" He rubbed his neck and frowned, white sneakers shuffling from side to side with a slight discomfort.

"Fuck. It…It's more my fault then yours. When we started dating…"

John sighed. "We're not…"

"Don't fucking start. We were, whether you realize it or not.." Karkat grimaced. "We were...and I didn't pay enough attention to Gamzee, so now he wants me to pay for my lack of acknowledgment by getting rid of my distraction. I know it sounds crazy, but it happened."

John choked. "You have to have the wrong person. I don't have any memory of this, and I think I would know if I dated someone. Especially if it was an alien!"

John's denial stung even more every time he brought it up. It was like the hole in Karkat's heart was getting pried open with construction tools, but there was no repair kit, only tools to break shit down.

Karkat chewed his lip in thought before looking up at John. "Whether you choose to accept the facts or not John Egbert, I refuse to let him destroy someone who I happen to love. And as I mentioned before we need a place to stay."

John looked down below him. "Well, we are on top of my apartment. We can enter through the roof door, and stay there? I have a deadbolt on my door, and if anything, with my super sweet flying powers, we can escape through the window!"

Karkat thought on this for a second, before giving in. "Fine. If that's the best idea your thinkpan can come up with then I have no choice but to go along with it."

They exited down into the apartment, locking the door with every lock they could find, and only then did Karkat also push the couch in front of it's wooden frame.

"Isn't that a bit much?" John giggled.

"It's only a bit much if you want to, oh I don't know, GET FUCKING KILLED!" Karkat scoffed, turning to face the older teen.

John shrugged, yawning and stretching his arms over his head. "Well, I'm really tired! So I'm going to sleep, and try and take everything in. Although I'll be kind of surprised if I wake up tomorrow and this isn't a dream. "

The black haired boy sauntered off to his bedroom, waving goodnight to his beloved fish and Karkat, and crawling under the covers.

His eyes began to droop, and time began to slowly fade away.

XX

It was early morning, and John slowly began to awaken. It all came back rather fast, the events that supposedly happened the night before. "Oh man, that had to have been the weirdest dream I have ever had…" He mumbled, and only then did he feel something shift on his covers.

"Uh…" John slowly turned his head to see what could possibly have made that feeing, only to stop himself from yelping in surprise.

On the foot of his bed, curled in a tight ball was Karkat, himself, passed out from exhaustion.

Not only did this confirm that last night actually happened, but also confirmed that he really didn't know that much about his own life. As much as he hated to admit it, all of the clues led up to the fact that he knew nothing about what was going on. This could only mean that he truly did lose his memories, and everything on this planet was a lie.

Karkat stirred slightly, burying his face in the covers. "Should I wake him?" John mused.

He sat up, crawling to the end of the bed, and looking at Karkat for a few seconds before poking his cheek lightly. "uh…dude?" He questioned, staring at the disguised troll with a decent sized curiosity.

Karkat continued to sleep, when his bracelet wearing wrist siding into the open as he shifted positions.

That's right. That bracelet was the thing that concealed the alien boy's true form. It was so tempting, to see what he looked like one more time. John cautiously glanced around him. Even though he lived alone, he wanted to make sure that Karkat's secret was safe with him.

Carefully he slid his hands onto the clasp, as he took a deep breath, careful to try and not wake Karkat. It would only take one more second to…

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Came a low growl, causing John to freeze.

The teenager gulped, blue eyes shifting over to see two reddish brown eyes glaring at him from the mattress's surface. "Oh. Uh…hi Karkat!"

"Don't you "Hi" me. I told you that revealing myself here was fucking dangerous, but your human brain OBVIOUSLY couldn't comprehend such a simple fact." Karkat huffed, sitting up. "Don't think that I enjoy being a human, okay? I would HIGHLY prefer to be in my own fucking body instead of this fake replacement built for me by this cloaking shit."

"Oh yeah! Now that you mention it you have horns, right? Where do they go when you put the bracelet on?"

Karkat wrinkled his forehead, looking at the bracelet with distaste. "It's some new bullshit that one of us discovered through alchemizing. The item you conceal yourself with changes your body shape to match the human species. All troll aspects are just fucking gone. I don't hate humans anymore, but I do hate being one. It's not who I am, and it makes my very soul want to curl up and curse the world for having ever invented such a piece of shit." The troll paused, gripping the sheets tightly. "But I can't complain. I found you after all." He closed his eyes, taking a quick breath.

John tilted his head, thinking about what Karkat had said. He knew that the troll had feelings for him, and he wanted to do something to help. For some reason, his mind kept screaming to help the troll, but how? What did he have to give? The only thing he could think of was to lean in and kiss him comfortingly on the cheek, so he did just that.

But Karkat couldn't take it at just that. He grabbed John's shirt, pulling him into a full-fledged kiss. John's eyes widened, but something was different this time. He could feel his heart somewhat flutter. Did this actually feel somewhat nice?

He decided to go along with it, just this once. Without really thinking about it, he somewhat leaned into the kiss, Karkat, in return, leaning in as well.

Only then did John's brain truly kick in and he snapped out of it, pulling back. "Woah, uh..I'm sorry! I didn't mean to kiss you back, I just sorta…did."

"I know." Karkat muttered, griping his arm with slight anxiety. "Fuck. I know that." The troll couldn't help but shake slightly. For a second the feelings of having his John back were there. He felt John kiss back, and it stung his heart ferociously to know that there were still slight feelings that this John couldn't even access. If that even WAS what was happening.

"Karkat, you're shaking." John frowned. "Seriously, are you okay?"

Karkat growled slightly, "I'm fine."

John smiled, pressing up the corners of Karkat's mouth. "Just relax. Things can't get that bad, you stutid fuckass. Hehe!"

Karkat froze. "It's not stutid, it's stupid."

(EB: maybe you got what you deserved, you stutid fuckass!

CG: STUTID?

CG: WOW, YOUR SPECIES REALLY IS BRAINDEAD.)

John had said that before! The first time that Karkat had talked to him, those words were used! Was it really a coincidence? Or could it be that John was subconsciously remembering an actual conversation. "Wow, your species really is braindead." He stated, hoping that it would trigger some sort of memory.

"It's an in-joke!" John automatically replied, but stopped himself, a puzzled expression crossing his face. "Wait…no, it isn't. Why would I say that?"

Karkat's eyes widened. "It's because you've said it before. John. That's a fucking memory!"

John looked at him, still just as confused. "But I don't…wait!" He closed his eyes, concentrating really hard on some form of thought. "…trolling backwards? Someone was going to troll me backwards?"

Karkat put a hand on John's shoulder. "No shit! That happened! Think Egbert. Try and remember more."

John nodded eagerly. This was his chance! He could recover what he had pretty obviously lost! He focused hard, trying to hold onto that memory and recover what he had lost. Only then did a searing pain drill its way into his skull. John let out a loud yelp, grabbing his head with both hands. "AUUGGH!" He screeched, curling into a tight ball.

"What the fuck did you do?" Karkat said, a worried expression taking over his face as he watched John shake violently, wrapping himself in the blanket.

"Karkat, it REALLY hurts!" John whimpered, pulling at his hair.

"What can I do to stop it? Do I look like a god damn medical expert?" Karkat stated quickly, though his eyes searched frantically around the room. Human medicine. Anything. Shit. Shit. Shit. This wasn't good.

John clenched his teeth. What was this strange pain. It was as if he couldn't even think. It was as if he couldn't even function. He wormed his way onto his pillow as the pain died down, but his body was shaking slightly. He wasn't a genius, but he came to realize something in that moment.

He didn't just lose his memory; someone or something didn't WANT him to remember. When he tried to remember it was if there was an artificial wall inside of his mind. That's why there was pain. Something was physically blocking him from almost all of his thoughts.

Lose his memory?

HA.

This was no accident.