You start to spend so much time with Gamzee that you are tempted to start considering him your best friend. But you refrain from doing so, even after weeks of hanging out with him almost everyday, seeing as he constantly tells you Karkat is /his/ best friend. You try to not get bothered by that; he obviously isn't trying to make you feel bad on purpose. He never tries to consciously hurt your feelings, and you know it. You actually appreciate how nice he has been to you since you started talking, so you don't feel like you have the right to complain.

Right now he is being too nice.

"Bro, I don't got no idea why the fuck someone would go all up and drop such lies onto your motherfucking ears." Gamzee says with a surprisingly serious tone of voice that matches the frown on his face. "I bet your rapping is the most mother fucking miraculous thing that ever did take place in this world. I don't even need to listen to those ill beats to know you're one motherfucking dope ryda." He cracks a smile at you, probably to convince you that he is being honest. You really don't doubt he /is/ being 100% honest, even if he hasn't heard you rap in his life. You can't help but chuckle at that; his opinions on the matter are simply the nicest you have ever heard, not to mention absolutely sweet.

"That is, pretty much what I like to think, or at least, what I wish I could actually believe." You tell him with a shrug and a look to the side, your confidence wavering, and he responds by lifting a hand to your face to cup your cheek with it.

"Don't motherfucking doubt your own skills bro." He smiles lazily, his dopey half lidded eyes looking down at you as he rubs his thumb over your skin lightly. You are still not used to how touchy he is. You don't want to complain though, since the warm touch makes your skin tickle and feel very good, even if you tell yourself you're not interested in guys and the reaction is merely biological. You truly believe that. There's no doubt that can get through your head, regarding this issue.

You giggle and step away from his touch, and he simply lets his arm hang by his side again. "Aw man, now I got my craving going on for hearing some of those wicked rhymes of yours. Maybe you can check my own repertoire if we get any kind motherfucking chance." You lift your eyebrows, trying to pretend the thought doesn't make you /way/ too excited.

"That would be, uh, miraculous, as you would probably say..." You say with a chuckle, and bite down on your lips to stifle your smile. You are totally failing at feigning a normal amount of excitement. You briefly wonder how the topic of rapping hadn't been brought up earlier, seeing as apparently he loved it as much as you did.

"Honk!" He says obnoxiously loud, and you notice a few students turn their heads towards you and chuckle with what you guess is some kind of second hand embarrassment. "Bro, we can get our going to my place right the fuck now and get this shit done!" He doesn't wait for you to reply before picking up your backpack from the floor and starting to lead the way towards the exit of the school. You watch him walk away as you just stand there trying to think of a reason why you should decline the offer, but you realize you actually have nothing better to do, and it couldn't hurt to spend some time at a friend's house, especially since you haven't had the opportunity to hang out at his place under any pretext before. To be fair, he hasn't visited your house either. You think your dad probably wouldn't mind you spending a few hours away from home after school, so you let another smile creep on your face as you begin to actually follow him, trying to match his quick pace. He has really damn long legs, and you are tempted to tell him to please slow down.

You both go through the heavy doors that lead outside, and he stops by the metallic rail of the stairs before letting your backpack and his own fall to the ground carelessly.

"Hold on motherfucker, I gotta get my wait on for my brother. He's got the car that's gonna drive us home. Shit, this is gonna be all kind of wicked tits!" Brother. You had no idea he had a brother that went to the same school. You briefly wonder what he looks like, and wonder if he has the same thick, curly black hair that rules Gamzee's head. For some reason that's the part of his body you're usually caught up on when you think of him anyways. You then wonder if he also wears clown makeup, which you think is a possibility, but you aren't so sure.

Your questions are answered after only a few minutes of silently waiting.

Gamzee's face suddenly lights up, and he raises and arm in the air, looking behind you in the distance. "Whoop whoop!" He yells, and you make a funny face before fully turning around and seeing a tall, lanky guy approaching you two, a girl walking by his side and similarly strange makeup covering his long face. The girl strikes you as incredibly familiar for a reason you can't pin point yet. The other guy doesn't respond to Gamzee's greeting verbally, but instead raises both of his arms in the air with a smile, and points at Gamzee in a rather silly way.

"Hi Gamzee!" The girl, who is right in front of you now along with the guy, speaks in a voice so loud it seems as if Gamzee is several feet away instead of right in front of her. She then turns to look at you, and you quickly lift your hand to wave at her slightly, "Hi!".

"Uh, hi..." You frown a little and lick your lips over, quickly trying to make out who she reminds you of.

"What's up sister?" Gamzee asks the girl and she stares at him for a moment, concentrated, before replying.

"Not much! What's your name?" She looks at you again, and opens her eyes a little bit wider as she turns her attention to your lips. Your face suddenly lights up once you finally remember who she is. You had only seen her once, and Nepeta never really talks about her, but you are pretty sure this girl is her sister.

"I'm, Tavros." She frowns a little after you speak, and looks at who you are now certain is Gamzee's brother. The guy quickly raises his hands in front of himself and begins moving them along with his fingers, and you suddenly realize she is deaf. That explains why she speaks so loud. She probably can't regulate her voice's volume, and prefers to speak loudly instead of speaking too low for anyone to hear. You think about asking Gamzee how she manages to be in classes later on, or maybe even Nepeta, since you're not sure if that's a rude thing to ask her right now.

"What a purrfectly cool name!" She replies to you, "Mine is Meulin! You know Kurloz yet? Are you Gamzee's furrend? Wait... You haven't..." She frowns deeply for a moment before smiling quite creepily at Gamzee. "Did you finally get a boyfriend?! OMG. O. M. G. I can't believe this, hi!" You look at Gamzee straight away and see his eyes widen before he breaks out laughing, hitting Meulin's arm playfully. He looks at you then and smiles.

"That ain't playin' nice sister, don't wanna make my ninja here all uncomfortable and shit." You purse your lips, hoping the joke isn't actually on you seeing as you are the only one not laughing. Well, you and the guy who's name is apparently Kurloz, who actually just breathed out loudly through his nose and grinned. "He's just a bro." You see Meulin give him an sceptical look before nodding to herself. You do feel a little bit uncomfortable as Meulin looks at you with slightly squinted eyes, as if she is thinking hard about something. You are also unsure how you feel about the sentence 'finally get a boyfriend', since it had been directed at Gamzee, and he hadn't quite answered the way you had expected him to for a moment. He didn't complain that Meulin implied he was gay in the least of ways and had instead focused on denying you were his partner.

Kurloz waves a hand to call everyone's attention and begins to sign something that you obviously cannot understand, and Gamzee adds an "okay, okay" in reply before bending down and grabbing your backpack again, leading the way down the stairs and towards the almost now empty parking lot. "Come on bro, we gotta get our hurry on." You follow him, Kurloz and Meulin doing the same.

The ride towards Gamzee's house is loud, Meulin doing most of the talking (or yelling) as she showered you with questions since she has never met you before and seemed very interested in getting to know Gamzee's new 'furrend'. You take the chance to ask her about Nepeta and make sure your hypothesis is right, and she seemed to be extra excited that she was meeting one of her little sister's friends in the flesh.

You quickly learn to reply slower for her, modulating your words well and making sure she understood before beginning another sentence. You picked up that she is Kurloz's girlfriend, that they both met at the hospital -a topic that she didn't elaborate on- and that she has all her classes with Kurloz because he isn't deaf like her, just mute, and he helps her understand a lot of things she couldn't in any other situation, through sign language. You realize that Nepeta probably was well acquainted with Gamzee's brother, and that explained why she knew him even further.

Once you arrive to Gamzee's house you can't avoid the thought that it is the smallest house you have ever been in. Small, and... well, you could very well tell they don't really have a lot of money. You feel slightly ashamed when you suddenly feel pity for Gamzee, thinking that he wouldn't want that at all.

"Come on bro!" He drags you to his room as soon as you get inside, Kurloz and Meulin being left behind in the living room after Gamzee shut the door. He sits down on the floor of his room, leaving the bed all for you, and quickly sets up a radio that immediately starts to blast unbearably loud rap music before he lowers the volume down to something more acceptable. You grin widely and almost squeak before opening your mouth to speak.

"That's... my favorite band." You are sure your face looks very stupid right now, but you can't bring yourself to tone the excitement down. He grins and laughs at your words.

"Fuck yeah, they're the fucking best!" He raises his arms in the air to emphasize just how amazing they are. You see him lower his arms and take a deep breath before you hear him start to rap along with the song that is currently playing. You rapidly follow him into the fun, not missing a single word of the well memorized lyrics, and you both look at each other as if a miracle is taking place right this very second.

He turns the volume down after the song ends, hearing a knock on the door before it opens up. Meulin pops her head inside with flushed cheeks and a wide smile.

"We're going out to the movies, so see you later! It was awesome meeting you, Tavros!" You give her a polite smile and wave a hand at her. "Bye Gamzee! Have fun." She stares at Gamzee for longer than necessary before giggling at something she must have thought and closing the door to leave with Kuloz. You both hear her footsteps as she walks away, and once you hear the front door open and close, Gamzee leans his body forwards as he sits on the floor and speaks in a secretive tone.

"That's a total motherfucking lie, motherfuckers are gonna go and find themselves a nice little place to fuck like kinkiest of rabbits." A full second goes by before you break out laughing, a hand going up to your face to cover your mouth and the blush that is threatening to take over your face. You really didn't want to know that. He starts to laugh too, and you hope he isn't laughing at your childish reaction. "Now, now, my brother, I can't wait a single mother fucking minute more to hear your promised rhymes." He rubs his hands together as he waits for you to reply, and you hesitate for a moment before nodding, letting him know you are ready to go. He immediately begins to create a beat with his own mouth, and you wait a moment before coming up with the perfect opening sentence, and you begin to spill your heart out in the worst set of rhymes you could have ever come up with. And you somehow managed to provide enough bad lyrics to fill in for a minute or so.

The experience proves to be extremely satisfactory, and you end up laughing, your face burning red from excitement and pure happiness. You get ready to create a beat of your own for Gamzee, and watch him bite his lips in anticipation while you try to come up with the best one you could imagine. You cover your mouth with your hand like you have seen rappers do, and try to spit out a nice beat that sucked as much as your rhymes, but that Gamzee considered to be perfect.

He did a horrible job at the lyric spewing as well, but you don't consciously think that for even a single second. You are convinced of the exact opposite.

You both decide you are simply the best rappers out there, and promptly waste the next ten minutes praising one another, complaining that other people just didn't get what good rapping sounded like since they always told you you sucked, and he seems rather glad that you have left behind your insecurity towards the topic enough for you to be honestly bothered by the thought of being told your beats weren't ill enough.

After a while he gets off the floor and opens up his closet, revealing a huge mess of clothes, trash and his personal belongings, and takes out a pair of juggling clubs to entertain you. You notice there is a monocycle stuffed in the back of the coset, and you think to yourself that he takes this clown act very seriously. You wonder if you will ever get the chance to see him ride the thing.

You laugh at the first several attempts he makes of catching the clubs in the air, and then you hurriedly get off the bed to check on him when one of the things hits him in the head by accident. He laughs it off and grabs your hand to get it away from his bruised head. He holds on to your hand for longer than necessary, but lets you go after a moment.

"You should try it out, motherfucker." He says, and hands you one of the juggling clubs that rest on the floor beside him. He stands and helps you up to your feet, holding the other juggling club in his hand. "Alright bro... Now you be very careful with this shit, I'll walk you through it. Shit's as easy as kicking a freshly opened Faygo." You nod hesitantly, feeling the weight of the clubs. They were rather heavy, or at least heavy enough to leave a bruise if you were unlucky enough to hit your head like Gamzee did. But you decide to trust him on this, and offer him a smile that he quickly responds to with a poke on the tip of your nose and a loud "honk!" being exclaimed.

"Alright, I guess I can, give it a try, I mean, it shouldn't be too hard..." He nods rapidly and hands you the other club before cupping both of your busy hands with his, keeping them still before he started to move them, and help you through the basic motions before getting down to the real thing. His hands are cold and a little clammy, and they wrap around the back of yours way too perfectly. You only now notice his hands are not only thin and bony, but also rather big. Yours truly fit perfectly in them.

"You all fine bro?" He asks you then, and you realize you had spaced out while looking down at both of your hands.

"Uh, yes, I'm okay. How do I throw it, without hurting myself, or you?" he gifts you a sweet laugh that you are not sure it even has a reason to be, and he lets go of your hands. He then does his best attempt at teaching you how to throw it, mimicking the action, but ends up failing miserably at the job. Luckily enough, you both were not injured during the long, ridiculously fun session.

You lose track of time until you realize it is now dark outside, and you gasp as soon as you check your phone and see it is nearing 8 PM. You remember you don't really know where you're at, and only know that this place is pretty far from your own house. You don't even know if there are any buses that go towards the general area your house is located at, or where to take it if there is one. He had told you Kurloz wasn't going to be back home early, if he even decided to sleep in the house. You begin to freak out just a bit and worry sick.

"Hey bro, chill out, it's all kinds of cool. You can spend the night here just fine, I can even sleep on the couch if you don't wanna share the bed with this here motherfucker."

"Oh, I... That sounds like a very good idea, actually, if you really don't mind. I wouldn't want you to sleep on your couch, though, this is your house, after all... So I guess, I don't mind sharing." You consciously make the great effort to not associate sleeping together to any kind of possible romantic situation. It would be childish and stupid to do so, or so you think. He gives you this smile that makes you think he had probably thought you would actually take his offer and let him sleep on the couch. He looks glad you didn't do that.

"It's fine all over this bitch, don't you worry 'bout a damn thing. You're more than welcome if you ever wanna crash someplace else besides your own motherfucking bed in the future also."

"Thanks... I guess." You smile lightly and get your phone out of your pocket again, and begin to browse through your contacts to call you father. You step outside Gamzee's room to speak to your dad, and you let him know where you are at, that you won't go back home for the night, and to not worry. You can tell he is rather angry at you for not saying so sooner since he had been already worrying something bad had happened to you, but he soon hung up and let you enjoy your little sleepover.

"Hey dog, you wanna get your watch on to some fucking movie with me?" he says as soon as you enter his room again, seeing him already setting up a DVD player on top of his rather old tv. You nod anyways, despite knowing he was going to set it up either way. You take a seat on his bed with your legs pulled to your chest, your back against the wall, and watch him go about his room searching for something that turned out to be an old blanket that he made into a ball and threw at you. You stretch it out again and pull it over your shoulders, leaving enough fabric for Gamzee to cover his shoulders with it if he decided to sit next to you and share it. He soon turns off the lights, remote control in hand, and jumps on the bed to scoot really close to you, wrapping what he could of the blanket over his own back. "This fucking movie is so full of miracles, I doubt anything can compare to this fine ho-titty work of art." You chuckle at his choice of words and at how passionate he seems to feel towards it, and purse your lips as the menu screen comes on and announces a terrible looking horror movie. You aren't a fan of the genre, but you are sure you can handle it as long as you watch it with Gamzee so close to you. You honestly doubt you will freak out when you are already feeling so comfortable, warm, and safe.

You breathe in deeply as the movie begins and the opening credits start to roll, and you notice Gamzee's scent as it lifted to your nose, warm and so close. You wouldn't qualify the scent to be specifically good, but it wasn't bad either. It was just his scent. You can distinguish the smell of his hair, tangled strands holding on to fruity shampoo despite it needing a serious wash; the nice smell of what would be either cologne or deodorant (you guess it probably is the latter), and the scent of clothes that have been worn previously and were now being used again without a previous wash. And then there's the creamy, strange scent of his face paint. You find the combination to be comforting in some way, seeing as he always smelled like that. Or at least that's the scent you picked up from him during the few close encounters that you have had with him, all of them even happening thanks to Gamzee's lack of sense of personal space.

You watch the whole movie and end up liking it some, and Gamzee quickly removes himself from your side to pop in another CD. It is another horror movie. Another one with clowns being the main theme. You giggle when the menu comes up, and he giggles along, surely not even knowing what he was laughing at. Gamzee's commentary all through this movie was pretty entertaining this time, at least until he suddenly fell asleep. You couldn't help a smile when you noticed his silence was due to his lack of conscience. You looked up to the half way finished movie, and felt his head nuzzle into your shoulder and his hair tickle your face as he shifted even closer to you in his sleep. You decide against getting up now to turn off the television, and instead take the remote from his limp hand and turn it off with the power button. You lean your own head to the side and let it rest on his carefully, hearing him snore softly. You begin to fall asleep, the soothing sound of his rhythmic breathing filling your ears.