Chapter Three

You stop breathing. What? What is he? You yelp as he shifts to make eye contact with you. His eyes are yellow with black pupils. Shaking your leg a bit, you climb back out of the meteor. You wipe some sweat off your face with the back of both your hands before deciding to give up since you're drenched. You sit down to think things through. What the hell just happened? If it wasn't bad enough that you almost died from a falling space rock, now there was a person inside this thing. What were people supposed to do in these situations? Did someone else see it and inform the authorities? Would authorities even come to investigate stuff like this? You grow frustrated as you think more about it before realizing the things that were actually important at the moment. The guy trapped and dying inside this huge astronomical oven!

You clear your throat and lean you head over the opening. "Hello?" You croak out. Nothing else is heard besides a dull echo, and you worry that maybe he died. Without a second thought you slide your way back in and crouch down, feeling for the body. When your hands touch a head of thick hair, they travel down to armpits and hoist him up. "Hey buddy?" Your voice cracks but you have more important matters at hand. A molasses moment passes, your patience earning you a pained moan from the limp form. If the circumstances had been different, you know you would've smiled then, but you don't because your heart is still trying to fly out of your chest.

Placing him slightly over your shoulder, you tell him to hold on as best as he can. Thin arms wrap around your neck and arm, barely pulling up any of the weight. Not that you cared much, the boy couldn't have been over 5"2; you towered over him at 5"9. You find a comfortable position before extending your arms and pulling yourself up. After a few tries, you manage to get up and sprawl out on your stomach, taking a moment to catch your breath. The guy beneath you shoves your arm off of him. Well that sure was nice of him.

"Hehehe…that was quite an adventure, huh?" You say, breathing hard, still.

"Whatever." He says back to you. You laugh a little bit and look over at him. Then you stop laughing.

You swallow a small lump in your throat before speaking up. "Sooo…you're an…an alien?" Your eyes thirstily start drinking in the sight of him. His skin a light, flawless gray; no freckles (could he get freckles?), nothing that seemed to be alien acne (did aliens get pimples?). Well it was flawed if you considered the cuts, which has red blood like humans, and what you guess are bruises. And the darker gray below his eyes. Oh! And his eyes have dark, heavy eyelashes. They are yellow, but not bright yellow, with dilated black pupils. His nose is slightly pushed in and rounded at the bottom, but in a good way. His lips are also gray, though a shade in-between his regular skin and just under his eyes.

Oh and he is very humanoid. Two arms, two legs, torso, a head and distinctly human face structure. Each arm with elbows and hands, each leg with knees and feet, chest rising and falling to his breathing.

"No, dumbass, I'm a pink alien thing in disguise who wants to pull a prank on you, and it's working pretty fucking well, might I say." He disdainfully glances at you then looks at the sky.

Not missing a beat, you say back, "Well then I'll be on my merry way and leave you here." You giggle despite yourself and you look back over at him. "Awh, buddy, I was only kidding around." You try to calm him down because he has tears pricking up in the corners of his eyes. They are strangely a light red, not quite pink.

"Don't act like I actually gave two shits about what you said. Maybe I'm kind of fucking IN PAIN and oh yea there's also the chance that I'm, I don't know, fucking DYING." He sits up and you sit up too, gawking at him. This alien boy was really the charmer. "How do you know troll, anyway?"

You ignore his wincing. "Troll?"

"Yea, troll. Could you be anymore stupid? How we're talking. The fucking language we're speaking. Jegus how do you not know the name of your own tongue?" His brows crease and eyes close out of frustration. Something in the back of your mind tells you that he wasn't going to thank you for saving him.

"Well…it's called English here on Earth. That's the planet you're on, by the way. Earth. And the pink alien you're talking to is called a human. Humans usually thank the person who saves them from death."

"Well, Human, I'm not thanking you because I have the shittiest life anyway and you only prolonged it, which isn't a thing people should go around doing." You sit there in shock after that.

Did he want to die? Was he trying to kill himself when he was in the meteor? You stop thinking because he's trying to stand up, trying being the key word. He falls back down face first, and flips onto his side. "Hey…Human? Can you get me out of this fucking sunlight? Trolls have sensitive skin and it really hurts."

"My name is John. John Egbert. Humans are just the species in general. So your species is called a Troll, huh?" You say, picking up the boy bridal style. You walk over to the edge and take a breath before sitting down again. Carefully, you slide down and when you land on the ground, your knees buckle and you fall over. You make sure you turn yourself before you hit the ground so that you won't crush him.

"Sorry!" You grunt out, standing up. You continue over to the woods, only a minute's worth of walking. Once there, you set his small frame down, up against a tree, and sit down to join him. "Sooo…" You start.

"Yes." He blurts out. You give him a confused look, which earns you more of an answer. "Yes, my kind are called trolls. Humans, as long as you follow the norm, seem to look like us a hell of a lot." He looks up for a minute, thinking. "The shit hole planet I'm from is called Alternia, and it's only partly my fucking fault I'm here."

You don't press for more, not wanting to upset the already angry troll. "Hey, what's your name? I told you mine, so you tell me yours!" You give him your best grin, hoping you don't look like a complete idiot. Wait why do you care if you look stupid?

"Karkat." He says. "Karkat Vantas." He reached up to scratch his head and you see his nails are the same yellow of his eyes. You also see an adorable set of nubby horns that look like big candy corns, only a little bit curved.

"Ermigerd!" You literally squeal, reaching up and touching Karkat's horns. "They're so cute, Karkat!" You smile wide and look at him. He looks like he's about to get sick. "Umm…"

Your cut off with a quick shove backwards, landing you on your back. He puts his hand over his mouth and curls up his legs a little bit. "Don't you EVER. Fucking touch. My fucking horns." He hisses at you. The hiss is strangely catlike, and you laugh to yourself about it.

"Sorry, I didn't know they hurt you." You sigh, sitting up.

"They don't." He scowls and blushes some, but you decide you don't want to know (oh fuck it, you know you do, but you don't want to press the poor guy). So instead you change the topic to something better.

"So um. How are your…injuries?" Honestly, you don't know the first thing about the troll in front of you, but you'll take a stab in the dark and say he's similar to humans.

"Not too bad. From what I can feel, which is pretty much fucking everything; I'd say that if I was on Alternia, I would actually survive." He keeps going before you can say anything. "And when will the human authorities get here and sell my dead ass to science or whatever the fuck they want it for, anyway?"

You're mildly shocked by him bluntly stating his death so easily. "Wait why would you die here though?" You pause for a minute, thinking. "And to be completely honest, I don't think they will come. It pretty much daylight out now, so no one probably even noticed you. Hehehe."

"Troll skin is sensitive to sunlight. It's even burning the fuck out of my skin through the trees. And it's a lot colder here. Jegus fuck how do humans even live like this?! …and then how'd you find me?" He looks at you from the corner of his eye, and you feel shivers run down your spine. You ignore it.

"I was taking a walk…nap thing out here and I almost got killed by the meteor." You take off you jacket and try to give it to him. He looks at you like you went batshit insane, so you decide to speak up. "For the sunlight and cold problem...hehehe." You awkwardly rub the back of your neck. "It'll keep you warmer and block some sunlight…"

"No dip shit, Egderp." He grabs it out of your hands without a single word of thanks. "But why would you want me alive?"

You find amusement in him struggling to put on your jacket with his back up against a tree. For a brief moment you allow yourself to check him out. You mean check out his clothes. Kind of baggy black turtleneck sweater (with a gray cancer symbol), black jeans (or the troll equivalent to jeans), and generic black shoes. Man did this guy like black or was this troll fashion? You suddenly remember the previously asked question and answer it smoothly. "Because I think you're kind of cool? I don't know. I mean who wouldn't want to keep their newfound alien buddy alive?" You blush some and laugh nervously, looking at him.

"Fine, whatever." You two sit there for a few more minutes in comfortable silence before Karkat speaks up again. "Why didn't you flip out? Most people I know would be flipping their shit if they met an alien. Of course everyone I know is a lowlife asshole. That's probably why I talk to them; to cover up how big of an asshole I am."

You sigh inwardly and the term "Negative Nancy" comes to mind. Maybe you'd tell him that later. "Again, Karkat, I don't really think I have an answer. I've watched a lot of ghost movies so I know how keeping your cool is supposed to be done. And in all fairness you didn't flip out when you saw an alien, either." He shrugs his reply.

"Don't you have something better to be doing than spending your day with some alien whose meteor almost killed you?" You take a few seconds before you get what he's implying; leave him the hell alone.

"Yea I guess OH SHIT BREAKFAST." You practically jump up and look back down at him. Judging from the bored look of his face, you find it safe to assume he has a general idea of what breakfast is. "Are you going to be okay here? I'll bring you back some food later. DON'T LEAVE WHEN I DO." The last part sounded needy, and you don't mind too much.

He stares up at you with a dumbfounded, blushing expression for a minute before looking away and blushing harder. "I'll be fine. Just bring me some fucking food or I'll have to resort to eating this tree or some shit like that." You nod and say bye, starting to walk away. You still manage to hear him say "And okay… I won't fucking leave…" and you smile giddily to yourself and you start jogging away.


AN: woo hoo hoo. a day earlier than expected. thanks to the people whove followed, favorited, and reviewed so far :3 a special thanks to my friend double tap who has so generously agree to be my proofreading for now . i love you all so much for supporting me so far. ok so lets talk business. chapter 4 will probably be out of friday. BUT i dont have school wednesday so maybe if you guys are good you'll get more *wink* well thats all for now i think. be sure to review!