Inside of a messy bed, a hangover officer pulls himself out of bed. Karkat Vantas is in his room and he had forgotten once again to close the fucking blinds, so the fucking sunlight is waking him up again. Groaning, the officer stretches himself in his bed and gets up. Only in his boxers, Karkat drags himself into his bathroom where he turns the hot water on, and then he strips his remaining garment.
The officer stands inside of the shower with hot water smacking his back without even cleaning himself. With a hangover, Karkat believes that the best way to get over it for him is by a hot shower, please notice that this is false and Karkat realizes that it is later, but he has a hangover so he's not thinking clearly. He stays in there for ten minutes before the shitty shower runs out of hot water and quickly switches to ice cold. Freaking out, Karkat jumps out and grabs a towel to wrap himself around. Below him, Karkat can hear his troll landlords yelling at each other, again. He really should consider reporting them, but they pay him cheap for a half-decent apartment.
The troll looks at himself in the mirror, through his bloodshot eyes he can see himself through a little bit of steam. He has never thought of himself as strong or attractive really, he relies on his brain more, but he can admit that he looks somewhat handsome. Karkat gives credit to his ex-wife; before asking her out he tried working out more but he doesn't have the body structure to get real abs. The best he had was a tone belly, but now he's let himself go a little so he has a little bit of a stomach popping out. He figures if he didn't smoke so much then he could work out more, but you have to choose your priorities.
Sighing Karkat brushes his hair; which is useless because no matter what it sticks out in different directions. Nonetheless, he runs his fingers through the rough strands to calm his headache. Karkat grabs his toothbrush and brushes his sharp uneven teeth without toothpaste. He spits and looks once more at his reflection.
His eyes are the biggest worry Karkat ever had about his appearance. When maturing, a pure-blood troll will have their eye's change color to their blood type. When Karkat noticed his, he realized that his own blood would be exposed for everyone to see. With this in mind, Karkat looked up several ways to darken his eyes to a normal maroon color. The best and easiest way was to take up smoking, but this was supposed to be a rumor started to keep trolls from smoking. The fear worked especially for the high bloods who were the worst smokers. However Karkat started despite it being a rumor at a young age in hopes that he could avoid any type of detection; the only people who did know Karkat's blood color at the time were the people who ran the care house that Karkat stayed at. White Alpha humans easily accepted Karkat into the family.
Karkat spent a decent portion of his time getting money to pay for a pack of cigarettes with the slight hope that they'll change his eye color. Surprisingly enough, they did change his eye color. No one knew that Karkat had bright red blood; except for the owners of the care house, but they would lie about it for Karkat's sake. With maroon eyes, Karkat was able to join the police force academy and leave his home to join Skaia. True, sometimes Karkat misses his home at the Capital, but really he doesn't. It's easier for him to sneak around here.
The young troll officer was worried about his secret being found out; even more so once he found out the Chief of Skaia is a prestigious blue blood. Karkat thought he could hide it, but once during training practice when Officer Pyrope was sparing with him, she broke his nose and caused a nose bleed. She saw his blood and went wide eyed. The male troll had to beg to his chief to keep him on the force saying that he wasn't a half-blood. The Chief didn't like it, but due to law suits about blood discrimination, he had no choice but to keep Officer Vantas.
Chief Zahhak tested Officer Vantas with a series of cases that went from boring to impressive. Karkat was able to prove himself to the Chief and became ranked high in the department. Everyone in the department knew about Karkat's blood color, but promised to keep it a secret out of sheer respect for the mutant troll.
The Chief allows Karkat to smoke to keep his secret around civilians, but wishes he wouldn't do it so much inside the department. The issue with Karkat smoking is how addicted he's gotten, and the worst part is Karkat didn't know if it's because of the nicotine, or because he wants to keep his blood hidden.
Karkat still doesn't know to this day which is which.
Whatever the reason is, Karkat grabs his cigarette pack and heads outside with his wet hair freezing in the air. He walks to the shitty café across the street to get his over-priced, shitty cup of coffee. Fuck off to anyone who thinks he'll get through the rest of the day without it. Walking towards the department, he keeps his arms close to him with his hands in his jacket and a cigarette sticking out of his mouth smoking. Technically he should have a briefcase to hold all of his stuff, but he doesn't have the money and he leaves his stuff in the department and has Sollux do the paper work.
The officer pushes passed the doors with his cigarette and coffee cup and tries to get passed the receptionist, but fails like he always does. Kanaya directs a short "Ahem," towards him.
Karkat turns around and smashes the cigarette in the ash tray. He starts to leave again, but stops to look at Kanaya, "Are you still fucking pissed?"
Kanaya picks up the ash tray and dumps the ashes in her small trash can, "No, I know you were only thinking what the best was for me, Officer Vantas." The receptionist sighs and fiddles with her pen, "But I wish you wouldn't."
Karkat leans closer to the receptionist confused, "What are you talking about? I give the best advice concerning romance! You fucking know that."
"Does that explain your marriage?" Karkat growls at the receptionist's personal insult. "I'm sorry Officer Vantas, I spoke out of turn. But try to understand what I'm going through, I'm almost sixteen sweeps old just like you, but I haven't gone through one successful flushed romance. So when I see a beautiful troll my age that is in a red relationship with a human that in a coma, not to mention troll-human marriages are hard to accomplish because of how unpopular they are . . . Can you really blame me for trying?"
Officer Vantas sighs rubbing his face, "She's dangerous Kanaya."
"I don't care Officer Vantas," the receptionists blurts out, "I want something for myself." Sighing, Kanaya pulls out a cheesy romance novel featuring a human and rainbow drinker falling in love. "Why can't life be like this for me?"
Rolling his eyes, Karkat walks away from the day dreaming jade blood. "I always knew those books could damage the brain cells," he mutters entering his workplace.
Officers Harley and Sollux, along with Vriska are sitting at their desk watching Karkat. "Bad night, Karkat?" Vriska snickers. Karkat sits in his chair and rests the half-drunk cup of coffee on his desk.
Jade leans over her desk to look closer to Karkat's eyes, "You have a hangover! Karkat this is not appropriate for the workplace!"
Karkat glares at her through his tired eyes "Shut the fuck up Harley. You don't know the night I went through."
"But-"
"Officer Harley," Sollux interrupts, "Let it go." The officer turns to Karkat, "The Chief wants to see you immediately."
Groaning Karkat gets up, "I figured as such." And he walks to the Chief's office.
Leaving he can hear Jade whispering in disbelief, "What's with him? He's acting so strange. He used to try anything to get out of a meeting with Chief Zahhak."
Karkat lightly knock on the doors and hears a short "Come in," from his boss. Officer Vantas walks in and sits in the chair facing Chief Zahhak across his desk. "What's the damage?" the Chief asks immediately.
"They're restless. The Felt is making a comeback. They want us to pay double tonight to keep them happy."
Chief Zahhak shakes his head tired, "Alright, I'll dig through our budget and see what comes up. You can leave early and carry out the deed. Understood Officer Vantas?"
Karkat looks through his tired eyes, "Yes sir."
"Good." The Chief lowers his sunglasses a little to look closer at Karkat, "I allow you to smoke on the job, but please don't drink before a making a big deal with the Midnight Crew. You may go now."
"Understood sir," Karkat gets up from his seat and heads toward the door.
"Karkat . . . " the Chief quietly calls. Karkat stops walking immediately surprised because his Chief has never before called him his first name. "Thank you for doing this. You are and always will be a valuable member of the Skaia Police Force."
"Thank you sir."
The rest of the day is spent with Officer Harley constantly pestering her partner over what happened last night and with the Chief; with the assistance of Ms. Serket. Officers Captor and Vantas spent their time doing paper work in nervous silence.
When the time arrived, Karkat gets up from his seat and heads to the exit where Chief Zahhak hands the officer a suitcase in silence. Jade curiously watches from behind.
Karkat exits the department and heads toward the worst part of town again. He also does not have a gun, again. He ignores everyone around him and strokes his tie nervously. Officer Vantas eventually comes up to a small dark alley when the sun is setting.
Breathing deeply in and out he awaits the Midnight Crew who only arrived once the sun was fully set. "Hello Officer Vantas, it is a pleasure to see you again," Spades Slick welcomes in front of his crew; which is three other Blacks that vary greatly in size, but all sport similar attire that only differs with symbols. "Do you have the money?"
"Of course Slick. Exactly five hundred thousand dollars in untraceable cash," Karkat holds out the briefcase when the shortest Midnight Crew member, Clubs Deuce waddles across to grab the money.
"I enjoy doing this business with you Officer Vantas. You make it a lot less fucking painful to earn respect," Slick grins when Deuce is close to retrieving the bribe.
"Freeze!" A female voice shouts from behind Officer Vantas, "You are all under arrest!"
Karkat turns around quickly and sees Officer Harley holding her pistol ready towards the gathering. The Midnight Crew all withdraw their own weapons quickly and aim and Jade. She gulps surprised.
"Oh fuck Jade," Karkat breathes out quietly.