Things were still tense. Dave tried to avoid John and Karkat as best he could, and John was lucky if he could even get Dave to look at him. John became more and more depressed, not being able to talk to his best friend really got to him. Karkat tried to keep his spirits up, but most days weren't too good.

John sat down on his bed, sighing as he listened to the voice on the other end of the line.

"So how is the situation with you and Dave going?"

"It's the same. It's been almost 3 weeks! Why won't he talk to me? And to make things worse, now Karkat is mad at me for trying to get Dave to talk to me! I just don't get it, doesn't he understand that he's my friend?"

There's a pause, and then Rose's voice comes over the phone suddenly. "John, can I tell you something?"

"Uhm... Sure, Rose, what?" You hear the phone get set down, followed by people talking. You can't hear what they're saying, but you figure it might be important, so you wait. You hear shuffling around, and Rose returns to the phone.

"Sorry, Kanaya was looking for something. Anyways, as I was saying, if both of you want this relationship to work, then you both need to understand each other's space. He's a troll, he doesn't understand the bond between you and Dave, who are obviously more than moirails, you're brothers. Also, you need to understand that Karkat's instinct is to do anything to keep his matesprit. Trolls can be possessive and he might see Dave as a threat now that your time is so consumed by him."

John tries to digest what Rose is saying. He supposes he should talk to Karkat. "Thanks, Rose."

"Any time, John." And with that, Rose hangs up. John shuts his cell phone, setting it next to him on the bed. He pulls out the scissors, studying the blades when he hears a knock on the door, and he doesn't even need to look up to know it's Karkat. "Come in." Karkat slowly opens the door and John quickly shoves the scissors under his pillow. Karkat stands at the door for a moment before walking over to John and sitting next to him on the bed. He sits with his elbows on his knees, staring at his lap. John waits a minute, watching Karkat to see if he will say something.

"Karkat? What is it?"

Karkat blushes slightly and looks at John seriously. "I uhm... You want to go out to the movies? I figure since Dave is trying to avoid company it would do him good for us to leave the fucking house. Plus, we should spend some time together, I mean jesus, you're my matesprit but we haven't been on a date in weeks."

John smiles, "That sounds great Karkat. Let's go."

~Raaaaaaeeeeeeeeeeee

They finally get to the movies and after several minutes of Karkat complaining "there aren't any fucking movies, these are trash" they decide on a romance. After they get their popcorn and sodas, they make their way to the theatre, choosing seats in the very back. Once the movie starts, Karkat puts his arm around John and John put his head on Karkat's shoulder.

They stayed like that the whole movie, moving once in a while to share a kiss. It eventually turned into a full-blown make out, and they were only interrupted when the credits began rolling and the audience clapped, making the boys jump and blush at each other.

They exit the movie theatre and John suggests going to lunch. They spend nearly two hours talking and kissing in a booth, annoying anyone nearby. When they get home, Dave's car is gone, but they don't care. They go to Karkat's room, laying down on his bed and just enjoying each other's company. Karkat snakes his arm around John's waist and John turns around to face him, taking his lips in a kiss.

Karkat moves his other hand to the back of John's neck, pulling him closer. John works fast, already taking off Karkat's shirt. "You have no idea how much I've wanted to do this all day." John pants, eyes filled with lust. John gets Karkat's shirt off and starts working at his jeans. Karkat snaps out of it and pulls John's shirt off him, throwing it across the room.

Karkat rolls over so he is on top of John, biting and sucking at his collar bone. John moans and Karkat palms him through his boxers, making him arch into Karkat. Karkat purrs and sucks on a red mark he left on John's shoulder. He peels off his boxers, taking John's length into his hand and pumping fast. John squirms under him and Karkat takes him in another kiss, shoving his tongue into John's mouth. John feels something hot slide against his entrance and realizes it's Karkat's bulge. It ghosts over his hole teasingly, making John whine.

Karkat smirks and pumps John faster. He takes his other hand and puts his fingers in John's mouth. "Suck fuckass." John sucks on the digits and before he knows it one is already inside of him. He gasps and Karkat enters another one, scissoring them inside of him. When he slides in the third, John keens, arching his back so far for a fleeting moment he thinks it might break. Suddenly the fingers are gone, and John's entrance is left feeling hollow. Karkat's bulge runs over John's entrance and he whimpers. "Use your words John. Beg me for it."

"P-please, Karkat... fuck me!" Just as his bulge begins to enter John, flashes of his recent nightmares come back to him and he panics. He can feel Karkat inside him and tries to get out from under Karkat, flailing and swinging his arms around.

"G-get away! Stop it! Please stop! Get away from me!" John's eyes are shut tight and he's punching Karkat. Karkat gets off of him, shocked. John curls up in a ball, shaking. Karkat tries to comfort him but he is pushed away. Karkat just watches as his matesprit tightens in on himself, shaking uncontrollably with sobs, screaming at him to leave, get away from him, stop. Karkat feels a tightness in his chest watching John so scared.

He decides to just go for it and hugs John. At first he fights back, trying to pry out of Karkat's grip, but eventually he gives up and lets Karkat comfort him. Karkat pets his hair, shooshing him. It seemed as though he'd been doing this a lot lately, but it didn't matter. He just wanted John to be happy. "John..." John's eyes got wide and he started thrashing. "John!" Tears fell from his face as he kicked and screamed at Karkat. Karkat lost his grip and John jumped up, stumbling on his first step and falling to the ground in front of his shirt. Still sobbing, he grabbed his shirt and boxers and ran out of Karkat's room.

Karkat sat staring at his door, worried about John but too afraid to go after him. He finally decided he needed to talk to his matesprit and got up to go to his room.

When Karkat knocked on John's door, he heard a yelp. It made him cringe to think that he could scare his matesprit this much just from- wait, why was he scared of Karkat? When he received no answer from his knock, he tried the door. Locked. He stepped back and braced himself, running his shoulder into the door with a loud bang. John jumped, letting out a panicked shriek. Karkat finally got the door open and walked slowly inside. John was curled up on his bed, hiding his face in his hands and shaking like a leaf.

"John?" At the mention of his name, the boy flinches. Karkat takes another step forward and tries again. "John? What is it?" John peeked out from behind his hands, looking at Karkat. "Just-" John's voice was weak, and he cleared his throat. "Just... memories..." Karkat looked at the ground. "Oh," He walked over to the bed slowly, sitting down next to John. "You remember when I told you about that nightmare where you...raped me..?" Karkat nodded, and John laid his head in Karkat's lap, letting him pet his messy black hair. "Yeah..."

"I was... remembering that..." Karkat's heart sank. "John, I would never do anything to hurt you, and if you didn't want this, then I would understand." John shook his head, getting up and turning around to kiss Karkat. Karkat closed his eyes, his hands still in the other boy's hair. Karkat fell back on the bed, John on top of him. John ran one of his hands down Karkat's chest, making him purr.

They heard the door slam shut followed by frustrated mumbling. John and Karkat scrambled to get the rest of their clothes on, since they were only in their boxers. Karkat walked out to the living room, telling John to stay in bed for a few minutes so he could talk to Dave.

John could hear them talking, but didn't know what they were saying. From the sound of it though, Karkat was pretty annoyed. John opened his door, hoping Karkat wouldn't care if he was listening in.

"Jesus Dave, how do you expect me to act when you keep coming home drunk?"

"Like it's none of your fuching busness." Dave slurs, and Karkat sighs.

"You can't be around John if you're going to be drunk all of the time. The last thing he needs right now is to deal with your drunk ass problems."

"I can deal with myshelf thank you."

"Sure you can. God dammit Dave, just go to bed. I'll bring you some asprins in a few hours okay?"

"Whatever."

He heard footsteps approaching and shut his door. Seconds later, Dave doesn't even bother to knock as he enters John's room. As Dave approaches him, John could smell the alcohol on his breath and wonder with a sickening gag just how drunk he is. "Hey Egderp. Can I sit?" John nods and Dave stumbles over to the bed, plopping down next to him and putting an arm around him.

"You little fucker." Wait, what?

"W-what...?"

"You heard me, you little fucker." Dave giggles and John can't believe what he's hearing.

"Dave..."

"Shut up. You know, this is all your fault," He gestures around the room, "We're stuck here because of you. The trolls were only fucked over because of you. You just had to play that game. I only played it for you, you know. And what did it get me? I lost my fucking brother. Rose lost her mom. It's all your fault, you're just a huge fuck up, you get it yet? Or are you more stupid than I thought?"

John just sits there in stunned silence. He feels like crying, but no tears come. It feels as though his very soul is screaming and crying in torment.

Dave gets up, smirking down at John as he leaves, disappearing behind his door with a laugh. Karkat shows up not 2 minutes later. "Hey John, what's up? I heard you talking to someone. Was it Da-"

He can't look at Karkat. John just stares straight ahead, Dave's words ringing in his head.

"John? John what's wrong?"

Nothing.

"John!"

John sits on his bed, unresponsive, unblinking. Karkat looks close to tears as he sits on the bed next to his matesprit and hugs him close. John doesn't even notice.