Chapter 2: Elite Training: Karkat

Karkat was up bright and early the next morning, waking with the rising sun. His sleep schedule wasn't going away just like that, after all. Plus, he had to get John up for his first day of training, and had his own training to attend. The envelope on his bedside table had contained the basics of the training he'd be going through, and he'd read every word with care. He didn't want to be in any deeper trouble than he already was, with all that had happened.

The soldier shook John awake after washing his face and changing into suitable training clothes, scowling as he mumbled in his sleep and tried to roll over, slapping at Karkat's hand. "Wake the fuck up, shitstain! We're going to be really damn late if you don't get your ass up and ready right the fuck now!" John was up in a second at the loud voice, looking around in panic with wide eyes then fumbling for his glasses on the nightstand.

"Karkat!" He frowned as he looked up at him after shoving his glasses onto his face. "I was sleeping! What's the matter? Is the branch on fire?" At the possibility his eyes widened, and he scrambled to get out of bed, trying to hurry to the door. Karkat blocked his way, making an effective barricade with his trained and toned body, which John's weak arms couldn't match as he tried to push against him.

"Egbert!" Karkat barked out the name with a scowl, making John freeze and look up into his face. "The branch is not fucking on fire, oh my god! I'm getting you up early so you can get ready for your Gifted training, so I can drop you off and go to elite training myself. Oh, don't give me that damn surprised look, what, did you think they'd honestly let a fucking twenty-one year old soldier who's barely made his way up within his own fucking regiment pass as any kind of elite? No fucking way, Egbert, you're not the only one who has to go through an academy now, and you're just going to have to get used to it, aren't you?" Karkat's face was the picture of "talk back and I'll make your life hell on earth," so John wisely decided just to nod and go through his wardrobe for clothes. Karkat scowled and barked, "Don't waste your time on a shower, if they're training you to fight you'll need one a lot more by tonight anyway. I'll make us breakfast, hurry up, I'll be in the kitchen."

He trudged to the kitchen to cook an egg, or at least part of one, the rest of it put into a tub for later. He knew by now that these eggs were the ones that were infertile; they wouldn't have produced baby birds in any case. It wasn't anything fancy, something made just to get by, really, and it was a basic thing, something he'd done every day before patrol or scouting.

Crimson eyes peered upwards as sleepy, slow footsteps made their way across the threshold of the kitchen. "Took you long enough. Your hair's a fucking mess, Egbert, go run a brush through it. Breakfast is almost ready." The egg was finishing on the stove, and the bread popped up from the toaster as he spoke, showing perfectly-done, crisp golden-brown outsides that could only be managed by watching the time carefully. If you were a fairy with any kind of magic (for there were the unfortunate few completely without), that definitely helped too.

John grumbled in return to Karkat's command as he turned away. "Get off my back, gosh. You're not my dad, trust me when I say I wish he were here instead." He shuffled out of the room and towards the bathroom, obviously still groggy.

"Needs to get used to the schedule," Karkat mumbled to himself, dividing the egg evenly between two plates and plucking the toast from the toaster to put it alongside the eggs. "He's never gonna fucking survive this training if he doesn't. Idiot." He shook his head, a scowl growing on his lips. He was getting so caught up in John's training, but his own was coming up fast. Of course, he was more prepared- he'd been through it all before, this was only taking his training to a whole new level and delving deeper.

John walked back in seeming more refreshed after a few minutes, and Karkat guessed he'd splashed cold water on his face by the way his bangs were still wet. "Eat." The soldier pushed one of the plates towards the Gifted, already having eaten most of what was on his own plate.

John stared at the plate for a moment before looking back up at Karkat with a grin. "Thanks, Karkat!" he chirped. "It's like you're my housewife already." He wiggled his eyebrows, teasing, but Karkat didn't care if the scowl on his face was anything to go by.

"You're going to have to be serious about this training, dumbass," he barked, expression stormy, as always. "Don't even fucking joke. If it's half as fucking bad as mine was, you're going to have a really damn tough time with this shit. I'm just trying to get you mentally prepared so you don't even fucking think of trying to back out the first day. Trust me, I'm pretty fucking sure they're not going to let you back out, since you seem to be so damn important and all."

The Heir seemed to be taken aback by the foul language spewing forth from Karkat's mouth almost as often as the words of common decency. Then he began to laugh. "Aw, there's the Karkat I remember, haha! Beep beep meow! Remember that? You used to hate it when I did that when we were younger! Speaking of which, you used to be a a little shortstack, what happened? It was adorable!" He beamed, showing off his teeth, which Karkat was shocked to discover were now grown in perfectly straight. No more adorable buckteeth, which he found himself strangely disappointed by.

He shook his head to dislodge such thoughts from his mind. Ugh, kiddie crushes could be a real fucking pain to get rid of. Past him was an idiot for letting himself fall for John at all. And besides, this Present John had pretty much ruined his career and any chance of having a life outside of him. He was a real pain, and certainly nothing to fawn over.

"I'm waiting by the door when you decide you're ready," Karkat sighed after a minute of watching John eat at a painstakingly slow rate, at least for Karkat's taste. He was, after all, used to scarfing down his meals. He rose and walked to the door, grabbing the letter that waited on the little table by the door without another thought. It was obviously meant for him, with the elite academy symbol sealing the envelope.

Karkat had honestly planned to wait to drop John off at his Gifted training to open up his envelope and read whatever further instructions awaited him, but within seconds he was bored of just waiting for John. He gave it a few more seconds before digging his fingers into the space between envelope and fold to tear open the dark blue wax seal, shaped like a pair of "warrior wings," leaf-like, with the elite flare- a shield, to stand for their main job, protection of their colony and those in it, whereas a regular warrior seal would be dark green with a sword instead.

It told him a time and place for his training that day, along with his instructor's name- a one miss Meenah Peixes. His eyes widened at the last name. It couldn't be- no, not possibly- but only the former Head of Council, Her Imperious Condescension, and her family had that name! He knew her daughter, who had been in training to take over the position of Head of Council when her mother had been kicked out a few years ago, and was still in training to that day. But did Feferi have a sister? He thought about it and just vaguely got a glimpse at a memory of one. He'd hardly been able to stand Feferi, after all- but she was still his friend, of course.

He'd always been adept at surrounding himself with idiots. Speaking of which- here came one of the said idiots now, slipping his bag onto his shoulder, though it looked considerably less packed to the brim than the day before.

"Just food," John explained at Karkat's "you're such a dumbass for bringing that" look. "I figure we'll have lunch break sometime, so I did what I usually do and made myself lunch! Is that not acceptable, Mister Grump?"

"I'm pretty sure that if they have lunch for a bunch of fucking no-good expendable future-soldiers in the military training camp, then you're all going to be treated to a fucking feast in your Gifted training. You are, after all, the asswipes of the century that everyone thinks we need but that we do just fine without." Karkat was seething just at the sight of John. If he could just strangle him and be done, he probably would have.

"Wow, Karkat." John was giving him a genuinely wounded look. "That was really mean. You didn't used to be like this. I mean, you did, but it was always in good fun or something, and it was never really mean. When did you stop caring about other people's feelings?" By the look on his face, he wasn't bluffing with his words one bit. He was being completely serious.

"I don't have time to care about my life or anybody else's when I'm battling to save my colony," was Karkat's snappish response after a pause, baring his teeth at John. "Feelings don't matter when you're ambushed by a group of pixies or sprites and it's you or them, and all you can do is know that it has to be them if you want to save the people inside the colony barriers!"

John was silent for a few minutes, looking down at his feet, and Karkat pushed away a twinge of worry in his chest. Then a couple of droplets of water dripped from his chin to the floor, catching the morning light flooding in through the branch balcony doors on their way down, which was really the only reason Karkat saw them. He reached out to John hesitantly, putting a hand on his shoulder. "John, I didn't mean-"

"No," John said coldly, pushing away Karkat's hand. When he looked up, it was with a searing gaze, threatening, even. "I thought I was getting back a friend when I learned it was you. But boy was I wrong. Wasn't I, Karkat?"

"John, don't-"

"Don't tell me what I can and can't do. Just take me to this stupid Gifted training already."

Karkat fell silent, pursing his lips, before he nodded. This was his job, after all. It wasn't like he could say anything against John. Without another word, he pushed open the door to take John to the treetop, where he would be training. He pushed all the 'I'm-sorries' from his mind, figuring it was best if they didn't have any emotional attachment, especially John. Karkat would probably get caught up in his own emotions within the year and lay his life on the line for John, after all.

Meenah seemed a little full of herself, but it also seemed that she quickly took a liking to the mouthy soldier not even meant to be where he was in the world. He decided that this commander wasn't so bad herself. She introduced herself as the head of training in the most prestigious ranks of elites, those who were above even the rest of their kind. This now included Karkat because of this whole guardian fiasco and a simple mistake. Even though Karkat knew he was in trouble for it, he couldn't help but feel a little proud at that, that he'd made it this far. It caused a pang of guilt when he remembered it was all thanks to John, though, and he'd been so terrible to him earlier.

They went over the basics that first day, things Karkat already knew. They were in an open area, away from the rest of the colony, so that they could have complete privacy and solitude, not to be disturbed so Karkat, apparently deemed unreliable to be able to block out things on his own, wouldn't be distracted. Meenah managed to test him on every skill he'd learned within thirteen hours, and by the time they were through, it had become dark, and she'd had him light torches to continue training. The only times he'd been allowed a break were to eat lunch and dinner, and a pause once every two hours for water.

Though, according to Meenah, he didn't even know half the things she had to teach.

By the time the day was through, Meenah had definitely decided that she liked Karkat, and told him to meet her at the local elite-exclusive pub the next day at sundown if he wanted to meet the rest of her crew, and that she'd get him on the list. He didn't intend to go. After all, what use would he be drunk? He'd had experience with that before. He knew he'd be no use at all, and such a screw-up could get him executed for neglecting his duties to his kingdom, and now, John.

He went home bone-tired, a feeling he was used to. John was already asleep, apparently, nestled snugly into his bed. That disappointed Karkat a little bit, which was unexpected, especially when he realized it was because he'd wanted to apologize and see how John's day had gone. He shook away the thoughts and prepared for bed, showering down and downing another couple of glasses of water before he allowed himself to crawl into his own bed and sleep.

The winner of the contest was technically a one Megahit1324, a Wonderland GamTav AU, which will be posted shortly. However! I owe LordCat something in return for the amazing cover art for Lovestuck, so she will be receiving her Vantascest later, and the other two requests, GamJohn and DirkxCaliborn, sparked my interest, so technically, everyone that entered won. Whoop!

Hope you enjoyed this chapter, guys. Lots of fillers before the real action starts, sorry. VuV But this story is planned to be about 48 chapters long, counting the prologues and the epilogue! :3 Don't you look forward to it? X'D

-Silver