Six years ago

In the years since living with the Vantas/Leijon/Myryam clusterfuck, Sollux haven't seen Mituna. They tell you that he blew out and died. Your thirteen now, and he tells you that he's been starting to feel a little different. Maybe it's the way he says hear people say your name that you can't locate, or maybe it's the pressure in eyes and head that cripple him for hours, or maybe it's the increasingly vivid dreams of death he wakes up babbling about. It's a combination of all of those, likely. It just means he's growing into the Captor name.

Today, you and Sollux are out fighting in the back yard. It had taken some arguing, but eventually Kankri had stepped in and told you that sickles would be an unacceptable advantage an unjust and blah, blah, blah... Sometimes you wish that you could stuff on of Kankri's speeches down his own throat, maybe that would shut him up for a few hours.

It had been a while since the last relapse in your health, so this wasn't entirely uncomfortable as you fight together. The two of you go at it like you're out to kill, blowing off steam of everything in life that went wrong. Something in the fight changes when you bring you nails to scratch down Sollux's face and a little blood stars to well up under his eye. Something about it pulls you in, makes you want more of it. Next time he's close, you press your palms flush to his chest before you understand, and energy surges through you.

Faster than you can blink, the energy is gone and you crumple, breath choked when you get a break in the hacking coughs that spatter blood into your sleeve. You don't know what happened, just that everything is painful and numb, burning and icy all at once.


Your name is Kankri Vantas and you're the Seer of the family. It isn't a pleasant position, nor is it one you enjoy, but better you than anyone else. What you don't see coming is the fight going on in the back yard. You're fairly certain that an off-handed comment about Mituna had gotten them at it, but that wasn't what worried you.

What worried you is the flash in Karkat's eyes before his hands are pressed into Sollux's chest. What worries you is when Karkat falls to the ground, wheezing and sputtering. What worries you is when Sollux starts choking on dry sobs, clutching his chest and under his eye. 'Tis the age...

You call for Dolorosa, who comes outside to handle Karkat quickly, while you tackle the issue of Sollux. You grab a roll of bandages out of your pocket - you never go anywhere without it - and start to wrap Sollux's wound. It hard started bleeding rather heavily after Karkat's contact to him. You'll have to speak with your brother later. For now, you just have to settle the Captor boy and calm down his twitching.


You take Sollux to see the doctor, check him over. It seems he had a small heart attack of sorts. By 'of sorts', you mean that it wasn't so much his heart stopping as his blood flow while his heart freaked out. He was fine after some rest and was back on his feet in a couple days.

On the other hand, it was a week before Karkat was able to even stand for ten minutes at a time. He'd lost blood, himself, and his energy use had taken a lot out of him both emotionally and physical. When the week is up, it's good that he isn't back to square one like when he was younger. Seven years of training every day certainly paid off.

You sit as his bedside while he eats, wording the next conversation in your head.

"Karkat, what do you know about Aspects?"

He looked up at you curiously, trying to analyze the conversation and where it was going. He looks so young, it's got to be the first time that shadows hadn't darkened the look of that bright red. "I know that a couple people have one and that it tends to run in families. Like, Doom runs in the Captor family."

You nod. "Yes. In its most basic form, it's just an ability. Sort of. It varies with the classes..." You sigh. "That isn't the point. Do you know what happened with Sollux the other day?"

"I..." He shook his head and his brows furrow, thinking about it. "No, I don't. It just happened..." He looks so distressed and bothered with it, and you could imagine why.

You explained a little about what having an affinity meant, about the precautions, abut the risks. You tell him a little history, a bit of explanation about classes. You tell him about the Blood aspect, how that's what he has to learn to handle. You tell him that it's powerful, hard to control, and that it's simmering presence was what made him so weak and ill.

By the end of it, he looks mildly horrified and you don't know if it's because of all the information of because of what he's housing. You remember that you didn't have it as strong as him, that your abilities were more psychological at first.

You ruffle his hair and smile softly, a glint of something else being the gentle expression. "It's alright, Karkat, I'll teach you."


A/N: Okay, so that felt like write something along the lines of 'Karkat now that you're getting older your body is going to start to change'. Not the point. The next couple chapters are hopefullforgoing to follow along a decent timeline from here on out. That being said, I'm not going to write how many years ago it is from the first chapter, but it is still at about age 13/14 for the boys.

Thanks for the follows and favourites, guys!

~Chesh