22. In Battle, Side-by-Side (No SGRUB)

The day the culling drones came was one Karkat had planned for. All the school-feeding lessons emphasized that the doomed troll was to accept their fate with dignity and poise, essentially allowing themselves to be taken from their homes and guardians without providing any fuss or defiance. Like hell Karkat would let himself be quietly just enslaved, turned into a pet or toy simply because his blood ran red and hot. He'd survived the brooding caverns, pupation and lusus adoption, a warrior both born and forged. When the drones came, and they would because he was a most rare and precious commodity, he would fight and die like the troll he was.

None of those plans and counter-plans and backup plans had ever included someone else fighting for him. Yet no sooner had his hive's roof been blown in than there was Sollux, hauling the damaged off of Karkat and burying the attacking drones with it. The psionic power crackled in a constant aura around him, leaving scorch marks and the smell of ozone in its wake. The light blazing from his eyes was bright enough to obscure most of his face save for the horror-show of his bared fangs. Anyone with a functioning think-pan would have turned around and left when faced with that display, but the drones just kept coming. Wave after increasing wave, they came, usually with just enough time in between rounds to deal with the worst of their injuries and regain some of their breath before the next strife came through.

It was in one of those lulls that Karkat found himself looking around and wondering if maybe the schoolfeeding had been right. His hive was little more than broken rubble now, all of his possessions either buried, broken, or similarly lost. His lusus wasn't going to survive long in the next altercation, if it even lived long enough to see that fight. Sollux's Biclopes had also shown up to fight and was now severely maimed, one eye lost and an arm messily missing. The hideous red colour that had started this entire mess was smeared everywhere, but the dark gold of his friend's blood was pooled in areas. His nose had been crusted with the stuff when he arrived. Now Sollux had it dripping from his ears and, most worryingly of all, leaking from his eyes beyond the cuts and abrasions he'd earned elsewhere. One death, Karkat's own, had been acceptable. Not three more. Maybe…maybe it was time to—

"Don't you dare give up on me," Sollux rasped, throat no doubt raw from the growling and screaming he'd been doing as he fought. "I didn't come out here to watch you throw your life away."

"Well I'm pretty sure I've already done that," Karkat snapped back, gesturing to the ruin around them.

"It's just stuff, KK. Things can be replaced, no matter how painful it can be to lose them in the first place." He coughed a bit, turning his head to spit more gold on the ground.

The act made something break inside the other. "You're not 'stuff that can be replaced!' "

"And neither are you." Sollux took a hold of Karkat's horns, shaking him slightly. "Every night, I hear the voices of those who don't survive. Every day, I dream about the ways they fell. So many have come and gone, I can't count how many there's been, but yours is not a voice I'm just going to ignore. What's the point of knowing when someone's about to die if I can't fucking change their circumstance?!"

In the distance, Karkat could hear the thrum of more advancing drones. He ignored it for the moment, trying to decide if it was pity in that rant or something else. "And what happens after you save me?"

The other seemed to catch the underlying question and released his hold, stepping back a respectable distance. He shrugged, expression pinched like he was trying to hide the fact that unasked question hurt. "Whatever you want to happen."

There wasn't enough time left to deal with this. Karkat surged forward, grabbing his friend's shirt and pulling him roughly in for a kiss. "Don't just protect me. You die before we finish this conversation, I will be so pissed at you."

Sollux gave him a lopsided grin. "Don't threaten me with a good time, Vantas."

There was just enough time for another mashing kiss before they fell back-to-back against each other, ready for the next round.

23. Arguing

With the way they tended to fight, some considered it scandalous that their relationship was red instead of black. Even among their friends, some were counted as "well-intentioned assholes" by pointing out that all the signs lead in the opposite direction. There was competition in their coding, their gaming, their creative insults, and their constant need to have it just that much worse than the other. On a couple of occasions, they'd been accused of quadrant hopping or smearing since they could go from spitting venom to laughing to that relentless teasing that made up so much of their conversations.

The truth, however, was that others only saw the symptoms and not the cause. Being paranoid for a multitude of reasons meant Karkat was aggressively defensive. Living in near constant pain, not to mention the hard emotional swings that came as a result, left Sollux surly and misanthropic. Those traits made them clash and snarl while the understanding allowed them to let it go just as quickly as it came up. They teased and competed as a way to bring out the confidence, strength and spark that had attracted them to each other. No one else was witness to the nights Sollux broke under the stress of having so much extra noise in his head. No one else was there to hold Karkat together when his self-loathing threatened to tear him apart. No one else would understand the way they understood each other, and thus no one else would ever know.

The arguing had them leaning towards the black, but the understanding would always lead them back around to the red. And all one had to do to prove it was start a fight with one while the other was close by.

24. Making up afterwards (Humanstuck)

"You're a real son of a bitch sometimes, you know that?"

"Yeah, I know," Sollux said calmly, sitting stiffly on the edge of the bed. "I'm an asshole on my best days, the Prince of Douches on my worst, and generally just an insufferable prick the rest of the time." He sighed as he ran his hands through his hair. There was no easy way to do this except to jump right in. "Do you at least understand why I'm pissed at you?"

"…because I fucked up the accounts…"

"No, KK. That was a mistake. I don't give a flying fuck about the money. What pisses me off is the fact you felt like you had to hide it from me. That you didn't feel like you could trust me with something as small as a couple bounced checks. If it's a problem now, when shit's not serious, what happens when it is?" He paused, trying to stifle the question he really wanted to ask. "…What did I do that caused you to have so little faith in me…?"

Karkat finally uncurled from the blankets he'd hidden under after their fight. His eyes had gone red from crying, the tear tracks still on his flushed cheeks. He looked miserable and a part of Sollux wanted to lean over and hug him, kiss him, take back all the awful things he'd said and beg for forgiveness. But he didn't move because his boyfriend had yet to say anything. The other knew that the reason his last relationship failed was because his girlfriend had fallen out of love with him and never said anything. At least, not until he'd caught her in bed with her new interest and had two years of apparent misery dumped on his otherwise oblivious head. Secret keeping wasn't something he reacted well to anymore.

"You didn't do anything," Karkat finally said, scrubbing at his face. "I was just…scared. I know you don't like Gamzee and I know didn't think any of this through very well, but I thought I could handle it alone. Your job's been stressing you out so badly recently you keep getting migraines and I—I didn't want to add to it. I thought I was being helpful. Shows what I get for doing my own thinking, huh?"

Now Sollux did reach over, pulling the other in for a kiss that was wet and sweet and one of the best kisses he'd ever had. They were both still really new to this relationship, still really hurt from a past the other only knew snippets of, and they were both awkward idiots on top of it all. But when Karkat kissed him back, none of those things seemed important. Their argument seemed less damning and the wounds it had aggravated scabbed over a bit more.

"I'm sorry," he breathed when the kiss ended. "Romcoms still suck, but everything else, I shouldn't have said."

Karkat smacked his shoulder, but a small smile had crept onto his face nonetheless. "Jerk. You can't even apologize right. It goes like this: I'm sorry for everything I said. And I am. Sorry, that is."

"I know you are. Just—you gotta talk to me, KK. I keep telling you I can't read minds. You have to say something."

"And I still call bullshit."

"You and bullshit seem to have a really close relationship. Should I be worried?" He snickered at the exasperated eye-roll he received before ducking in for another kiss. "I do love you," he said softly.

The smile and affection in it was real, but as usual, all Karkat replied with was, "I know."

25. Gazing into Each Others' Eyes

"Your eyes are starting to change colour."

Karkat blinked, drawn out of his fuzzy afterglow by the non sequitur. Sollux was lying next to him, his head propped up on a fist and an intent look on his face—the one that always made it seem like the psionic was looking through him rather than at him, made more cryptic and unnerving by the soft, unconscious smile accompanying it. Instinctively, Karkat ducked his head in embarrassment, turning so that their gazes broke completely.

A physical finger trailed across his chest and up his throat to curl around his chin and turn his head back. "Don't hide from me, KK," he said softly. "You never have to hide from me…"

"I'm not trying to hide," Karkat mumbled back, blush darkening as he tried, and failed, to escape his matepsrit's gaze. "I'm just embarrassed."

"Why?" It was an honest question. There was no mocking or teasing in Sollux's voice; he was genuinely curious. The problem was Karkat didn't have an answer. He didn't know why he found the attention embarrassing, only that he did. That answer was essentially a cop-out, so he struggled for a few minutes, trying to come up with something else.

"Because," he finally strung out, "you can see everything in me, but I can't see anything in you."

This time it was Sollux's turn to blink at him. Then his eyes slid closed and his head dropped. Karkat sat up a bit, ready to ask what the hell was wrong or apologize, whichever was appropriate, but the words died in his throat as Sollux slowly reopened his eyes, completely sans psionic glow.

Somehow, Karkat had always assumed the red and blue light seeped in from around the edges to fill the inner space and obfuscate the normal eye structure. It made sense because the less energy there was, the more of the iris and pupil line could be seen. The opposite was the truth, however. The light came from with the pupil itself, bleeding out from there into the rest of the eye. Each gray iris was also reaching its shifting point, flecks of the truest red and blue blending in with the immerging gold. The thing that truly caught his breath though was how unguarded those eyes truly were without their psionic shield. The love that shone through was overwhelming, bright enough to nearly drown out the threads of fear and anxiety also held within that gaze. He could practically see all the things running through Sollux's think-pan reflected through his gaze.

It was probably a good thing Sollux left his eyes clouded over most of the time. If he didn't, it was possible that Karkat would have spent thier entire matespritship blushing.

26. Getting Married (Humanstuck)

"I can't promise that I'll always make you happy, or that I won't make you mad, or that I'll ever stop being an insufferable prick, but I can promise to be honest with you, to help you when you need help, support you when you need support, and love you no matter what."

"I can't promise that I'll never get angry with you, or that I won't piss you off, or that I'll be much else besides an asshole, but I can promise to be there for you, let you feel what you need to feel, hold you together when you can't hold yourself, and love you no matter what."

Karkat managed to keep the tears in check until Sollux slipped the ring on his finger. Then he couldn't stop crying no matter what either of them tried. Somehow he got his ring onto Sollux's hand. For a long time after, they simply sat there, fingers entwined, heads resting together, murmuring love and commitment back and forth as the sun set. To so many other people, the band of metal would never be recognized as meaning anything more. To them, however, it meant they were finally whole.

27. On One of Their Birthdays

In general, Karkat preferred staying in and watching movies on his wiggling day. It never failed that something always went catastrophically wrong if he left his hive, so he purposefully planned on doing nothing more than seeing how much of his movie collection he could get through between waking and going back to sleep. If he was truthful with himself, his wiggling day was simply depressing; a reminder of too many things gone wrong in sweeps past. Sollux made a show of understand by leaving Karkat to his movies. The only thing that changed when they became matesprits was that a message would be left taped to the television, reading: "I'm glad you're here."

28. Doing Something Ridiculous (Humanstuck)

"Why am I doing this?" Karkat asked again.

"Because you pity the fuck out of me," Sollux replied, adjusting a strap that was digging into his ankle. "And because I promised you the best night of sex in your life after this."

"If we don't end up in traction first," Karkat grumbled back, wobbling unsteadily on the four inch heels he'd been given. Seriously, how did women stay upright in these things? And while he might have appreciated the things the fishnet stockings were doing to his boyfriend's legs in a different setting, four obvious men dressing in women's clothing about a size too small for any of them seemed like a stupid way to promote gender equality.

"It's all in the swish of your hips." Dave then demonstrated, strutting by like he'd been born in the stilettos he'd chosen.

"Just keep leanin' forward, Kar," Eridan explained, "and walk on the ball of yer foot. Gravity will take care of the rest."

"I'm not asking how you know that," was the flat reply as Karkat had his head turned so that Strider could attempt to put make-up on him. "Okay, I get the whole shoe thing, but why do I need to look like an 80's drag queen on top of that?"

"Anything worth doing should be overdone," Dave claimed airily, "especially being fabulous in a pair of heels."

29. Doing Something Sweet

Though he claimed to hate them, Karkat knew that Sollux paid at least some attention to the romcoms they watched. He knew this because whenever he was having a particularly bad day (week/month/sweep), Sollux would leave random flowers laying around with little notes attached to them, quoting some of his favorite lines.

30. Doing Something Hot

Sollux groaned. He was tired, covered in sweat, and his whole body ached in ways he didn't know was possible. And it would be hours still until he'd be finished for good. "KK…" he whined.

"If you ever want to get laid again, you will shut the fuck up and keep pumping those bellows," Karkat scolded, poking at the coals in the forge, trying to make an even bed to stick his half-finished blade back into. "You broke my sickle, so you can damn well help me make a new one."

"It was an accident…" Karkat just glared at him until Sollux started manhandling the large bellows again.

Thank you everyone who's been keeping up with this.