Last scrimmage chapter! XD seriously, this thing's gone on forever. It's like its own mini-story arc! XD haha sorry it took so long to post; but my school's intersession is almost over, one more week, and then i'm done with classes, yay! XD

Slight trigger of self-harm

Read, enjoy, and review! XD

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If the coaches knew any of what happened while they were gone, neither one of them said anything as they began setting up to hand out ribbons. Still, the overbearing tensions in the roon had Tavros keeping a wary eye on the team seated behind him, scooting just that much closer to Gamzee each time he did.

Eridan had been right: Meenah Peixes was so different from Feferi it was hard to believe they were related at all. It was subtle things that pointed it out, small stuff that Tavros noticed the longer he was there. They shared their fish puns, and their love for the fuschia color, but those were the only two obvious similarities. They both took pride in their hair ("Ow, Meenah!" "Cod dammit, English, can't you learn to kelp your hands away from my damn hair!" "Shucks, that hurt!"), though Feferi's was infinitely fluffier than Meenah's was. Meenah had the same shaped face as Feferi, though the older hid it with her glasses; Feferi was almost as tall as her sister, and they had a similar body structure: they were think and lanky, but curvy around their hips and chest. They held themselves with a sort of royal air, but where Feferi was friendly, Meenah acted as if she were a queen. She was treated that way, if the way her team reacted to her was any indication. She ruled over the Alpha team with a sort of iron will that Karkat didn't have, even with the inter-team fighting that happened in the Alpha team.

Cronus was so unlike Eridan, even if they were only cousins; Tavros remembered an Eridan from last year, a pompous one who hit on everyone and was a complete jerk. It was almost as if Cronus adopted Eridan's old personality and made it worse. Eridan was still a jerk; there were times Tavros caught him complaining to Feferi about the toils people like them have in common public schools, and some of the insults he aimed at Sollux were particularly biting for Tavros as well. But Eridan never made Tavros feel as trapped or as slimy as Cronus did with that one line. This year, Eridan seemed to have honed in on Sollux and stayed there, whether for better or for worse; Cronus blew kisses at Jane and flirted so poorly with Roxy the blonde girl made faces at him. Nothing he said seemed to have any effect on Bro Strider, but Jade would jump in to tell him to be sleezy somewhere else.

And Kankri…

Kankri Vantas was so much like Karkat Vantas that it was easy to tell they were related, even though they didn't look alike. Kankri was thin to Karkat's chubby, angles in the older where there was softness in the younger. His hair was white to Karkat's black, his skin shade far too pale when compared to his brother's healthy complexion, Kankri's eyes a few shades redder.

Yet they shared the same protectiveness of the ones around them. Karkat kept a hold of his brother, shooting furious glowers at the Alpha team. Kankri was giving his brother gentle shooshes, though he looked slightly pained to be touching someone else, and giving gentle assurances about Meenah that made the younger snort in derision. They had the same tendancy to go on rants, but Karkat's were furious ones that occurred when he was pissed and Kankri's were full of trigger warnings? Tavros wasn't sure, but they seemed long winded and occurred more often than Karkat's.

He was quiet now, though, and Tavros had to wonder how the day's events had taken toll on the older Vantas. From what it sounded like, the only new team member on Alpha team was Jade Harley, and she seemed to be taking everything in stride. Then again, it turned out she was Jake's younger cousin, so maybe he had given her an example of how the team ran before welcoming her to the fold. It also seemed that she was better-liked than Kankri was, which was a shame because Tavros didn't think he was too bad.

Then again, he'd only met the older boy today and it didn't look like even Karkat liked him, and Karkat was supposed to be his brother.

Parcel Mistress clapped twice, attracting the attentions of the two teams in front of her.

"So we scored all your tests, and you guys did so well!" She sounded excited as she spoke, while the Prospit coach handed his team their scantrons. Parcel Mistress did the same, though she had to keep checking her roster to make sure who was who. There was a bit of confusion because Kankri was still mourning the loss of his sweater next to Karkat, but it was easily fixed by Parcel Mistress handing him his scantrons with a warm and inviting smile the older Vantas didn't seem to notice.

Tavros's stomach sank as he looked over his answers; he'd given up on the book, so nearly every answer was wrong on his Language and Literature test. It was disappointing, sure, but such a low score had been expected given the circumstances. None of the others were much better, though, and Tavros felt his face scrunch up in confusion. He'd been studying! Days locked in a classroom, listening to Vriska and Karkat scream at each other with Sollux and Eridan and Feferi fighting in the background, then going home and doing his homework, reading over the material again only to go over it in the morning when he was barely awake enough to function. It was an arduous process, one that Tavros inadvertently signed up for and one that he was slowly getting used to. He'd spent the past two and a half months studying this way. Why weren't his tests showing that?

"Daaaaaamn." Sollux whistled as he compared a couple of his scantrons; he seemed to notice how down Tavros was getting just looking at his tests, and he leaned over Eridan in an attempt to simultaneously piss the Ampora off and cheer Tavros up. Eridan grumbled in annoyance, but slid his scantrons out from under Sollux, using his back as a makeshift table. Sollux grinned sharply at him momentarily, but went back to checking the differences between his scantron and Tavros's. Every once in a while his eyebrow would shoot up, but he made no comment other than "I really gotta step up. You're doing better than me, TV." Tavros sent him a weary look, not buying into his words.

"Shit, I gotta get my act together too." Karkat grumbled, leaning over Gamzee. He was picking up the scantrons Sollux put down, his brow furrowing as he looked two scantrons over at a time. "How the hell did you score higher than me on Social Science? Fuck!" Tavros looked down, wondering if they were joking, only to blink in surprise. Sollux's scantrons were completely red, save for his math scantron, each answer marked as incorrect. Several of Karkat's looked a bit more like Tavros's, like his Art scantron and the Science one, but there were still more red marks on his other ones.

"Language, Karkat." Kankri reprimanded absently, looking at his own scantrons with interest. Karkat rolled his eyes, leaning to see how his brother scored. Kankri angled himself so that his younger brother couldn't see, prompting an enraged growl from the Alternian team leader. The barest himt of a smile crossed Kankri's face as he cleared his throat, though he pretended to not realize what his younger brother was doing. He leveled him a raised eyebrow and slightly smirking face. "What are you doing, Karkat?"

"I'm trying to see how you did, fuckass." Karkat snapped irritably. He tried to crane around, but Kankri kept twisting around so that he couldn't see.

"Watch your language, Karkat, what you say can be very offensive." Kankri sniffed. His hands went under the table, hiding his scores even further from Karkat's view. Karkat rolled his eyes, leaning to see any other scantrons, but Kankri slammed his other arm on top of them, blocking even more. "I, for one- - -"

"Whoa, Karbro, check it out." Gamzee plucked one of Kankri's scantrons out from under his arm, making him squawk in surprise; he hadn't realized that someone was sitting on the floor between the two of them. "Motherfucker's got a near-perfect half of his motherfucking scantron." He ignored Kankri's shocked gasps, easily keeping his scantron out of reach. "Damn, bro, you are one smart ass motherfucker. I don't know, man, maybe it's just- - -oh, shit!" Gamzee attention had wandered, and Tavros squeaked in surprise as he was suddenly knocked askew. Makara slid to a stop by the door, where Jane had entered with a soda. She tensed in shock, eyes widening when Gamzee grabbed her shoulders. Kankri's scantron was still in his hand, the paper crumpling against Crocker's shoulder and making the older Vantas wince. "Is that a motherfucking Faygo?"

"Y-Yes?" She squeaked as an answer.

"Gamzee, sit down." Parcel Mistress snapped her fingers, and Gamzee immediately turned his head to look at her. She pointed at a vacated seat, one between Karkat and Tavros, and Gamzee obediently followed her orders. Releasing Jane with a slightly disappointed sigh, he began slinking over and dropping down beside the two Varsity students. Despite the chair, the Honors student sat back on the floor, glancing wistfully at Jane.

"We have ribbons to hand out for your tests." Parcel Mistress shot a weak glare at the Prospit coach, which showed how unhappy she was with what she was about to say next. He just shrugged, flipping through the same three papers stapled together over and over without actually reading them. "Ribbons will be handed out to the highest scores accordingly. We have first, second, and third-place ribbons for each subject and each team rank."

"So, for third place in Varsity for Art is Crocker." He stated, leaning against the librarian's desk. Parcel Mistress turned around, mouth opened as if she wanted to say something, but he plowed ahead. "Second place is Harley." He sounded bored as he spoke, flicking through his papers continually. "And first place is- - -"

"Karkat!" Parcel Mistress blurted out. She covered her mouth with a squeak, glancing apologetically at the Prospit coach for a moment before clearing her throat and turning around. Red faced, she handed the third place ribbon to Jane, who thanked her quickly and moved out of the way for her teammate.

"Right." The Prospit coach sniffed and looked down at the paper again. "Third place in Econ was Vantas." His eyes flickered to the brothers and he sneered in disdain. "The younger one. Second goes to Harley. And first is Nitram."

Tavros blinked in surprise, but stood up and walked forward. His coach still looked red in the face, though she held six ribbons in her hand. The red ribbon was in her other hand as she tried to hand it to Karkat. Karkat was talking to Parcel Mistress about something and wouldn't take his ribbon, which meant Tavros was stuck behind Jade.

"Hi, I'm Jade." She said stiffly. Her hand was outstretched, and she looked almost as if she regretted saying anything while they waited for Karkat to shut up and get his ribbon.

"Tavros." He took her hand and shook it. "I'm sorry about Karkat." Tavros wasn't sure why he said that, and Jade certainly looked as if she didn't expect it. He was about to try and backpedal when she threw her head back and laughed loudly, gaining attention from several Prospitian and Alternian teens that went largely ignored by the both of them. His stomach fluttered, and Tavros felt himself go just a bit red.

He'd never made a girl laugh before, not without doing something completely humiliating that made her laugh at him.

"Sorry about my team." She responded when her laughs calmed into giggles. Tavros smiled at her again, though it faltered when Karkat glowered at him around her. Jade noticed as well, and gave him a sound hit on his head. "Well, hurry up, mister, and maybe you wouldn't have to hear me right behind you, huh?" Karkat refused to answer her, but he did grab his ribbon more forcefully than needed.

As he passed, Tavros could hear his teeth grinding together.

He took his ribbon after Jade, following the other girl as she went to sit next to her cousin. Taking his seat again, Tavros yelped when Gamzee scooted over and wrapped his arms around the Varsity's legs. His face paint rubbed off onto Tavros's pants when he began rubbing his face against Nitram's jeans, but it didn't bother him; instead, Tavros reached down and rubbed his head in response.

"You're not supposed to be fraternizing with the enemy, fuckass!" Karkat hissed, ignoring his brother's continued admonishments. He waved away Kankri's half-heard protests about language, glowering darkly between Tavros and Jade; Harley noticed and stuck her tongue out at him. He snapped his teeth at her, but when he tried to do the same to Tavros, Gamzee reached up and papped the side of his arm; it was the highest Makara could reach from his position, but it wasn't as effective as he'd probably hoped because Vantas turned his snarl on him.

"You are!" Tavros shot back with a hiss. Jade didn't seem that bad, even though she was on the Alpha team; Tavros was beginning to wonder why she was even at the school.

"That's different!" Karkat's flush was barely visible, but it was there. He glanced out of the corner of his eye at his brother, who had given up trying to pacify him and was instead picking at the unraveled thread of his sweater. Several scars and scabs were still visible, and Karkat scowled fiercely.

"Just because he's your brother doesn't make it any different!" Tavros pointed out. He wasn't sure why exactly he was still arguing against Karkat; usually he would let the Vantas yell at him and follow his instructions afterwards. Kankri seemed to sense that Tavros said something he could talk about, because he perked up a bit and returned attention to Karkat.

"He has a point, Karkat, if you would just- - -"

"Shut the fuck up, Kankri." He snapped, closing his eyes and rubbing at his temples.

"Karkat!" Parcel Mistress's voice cut through their hissed argument; all four boys snapped their heads up guiltily, even though Gamzee hadn't been arguing. Jade snickered from behind them, prompting an icy glare as Karkat stomped up to the coach. She smiled, holding out a red ribbon that he snatched; his face crimson, he plopped down in his seat and didn't sat another word.

The ribbon handing out followed to the same effect. Sollux won the first place ribbon in Mathematics, having gotten a near perfect score that blew the whole Varsity competition, and Karkat got the second ribbon, which made Meenah's teeth grind because Jade only got third place. Jane got a first place ribbon in Music, her face flushing with pride as she shyly accepted the ribbon. Tavros got one for Social Science and one for Economics, which wasn't something he'd expected at all; Jade had gotten the second place ribbon and high-fived him as they walked past each other each time. Karkat took the Science test by a landslide, followed by Jane and Jade. Tavros was sure to give Jade a wide smile, which she responded to in kind and waved at him.

Scholastic and Honors passed much in the same way; it was the same ribbons handed out on the same subjects, but for different scores. He tried to focus, watching as Kankri accepted a ribbon and Equius followed, but the day resumed its toll on his mind and body. Tavros was so tired that he stopped noticing who got ribbons in those categories unless it was Gamzee or Kankri, and only the two of them because they were the closest to him.

He was starting to doze off when he felt himself get picked up again. Opening his eyes blearily, Tavros took a moment to take in the face of Gamzee once again holding him. He didn't comment, though the Makara smiled soothingly at him for a moment before his gaze was moved to Karkat. Tavros thought he heard conversation, but he coukdn't place who was talking and ended up closing his eyes again.

When he woke up again, it was to Nepeta's face right in front of his. Too tired to even squeak properly, Tavros just blinked a couple of times until her voice finally came through.

"Were the tests that hard?" She asked him. Yawning a bit behind his hand, Tavros nodded and pushed her away. Nepeta followed the movement of his hand, and Tavros used his gained distance to sit up properly. As he sat up, his back cracked, which made Karkat and Gamzee look over.

"You're up, motherfucker." It wasn't a question. Gamzee's gaze was lidded, though it wasn't an 'I'm high' like normal. His voice was rough and thick, and he looked more tired than Tavros felt; he was hunched down so low his head was almost level with Karkat's. He had his arms crossed, and he kept shifting around in his seat.

"Do us all a damn favor and just fucking take your damn medication already!" Karkat snapped, slamming his forehead against the window in irritation. Gamzee growled at him.

"I don't want to take that unmiraculousshit." His fingers flexed against his arms, where he was holding onto himself so hard he was leaving imprints. Kurloz, Tavros just noticed, was keeping an eye on his brother; his eyes kept darting between the road and the mirror, making sure Gamzee was keeping himself in check. The older Makara was imitating his brother's grip, though he was holding onto the steering wheel so hard his fingers were white.

"C'mon, Gam, just a couple?" Nepeta leaned forward again, making hypnotizing motions with her arm. Gamzee's pills rattled around, the younger Makara's eyes following the movement of the white bottle for a split second.

"No." Nepeta and Karkat slumped a bit more, sharing a despondant look with each other that Gamzee missed. Tavros, still groggy and unsure of the reason he was in the Makara car rather than the Serket's, reached out and placed a sleep-warm hand on Gamzee's shoulder. The younger Makara's head twisted around, and he stared at him with unblinking indigo-tinted eyes, but he was too tired to flinch or anything.

Dealing with the Alpha team was much more draining than he thought. He wasn't looking forward to competeing with them during competition season.

"Gamzee." Tavros's voice was heavy as well, though he didn't try to clear it. Gamzee growled a bit and turned his head again, staring resolutely out the front window. "Why won't you take your medication?" Gamzee's eyes slid to him, though his head didn't move and he didn't answer. Tavros cleared his throat a bit, becoming more aware the longer he was awake. He sat up a bit straighter. "What's wrong?" The Makara still didn't say anything. Tavros shifted a bit closer, his hand moving up Gamzee's arm and tangling his hand in the wild hair. Gamzee shifted a bit, turning his head so his gaze met Tavros's a bit more. The Varsity smiled. "At least one, ok?"

Gamzee growled again, but snatched his pill bottle from Nepeta. Without breaking his gaze, he downed a couple of pills and hunched back down in his seat. After a long ten minutes in which everyone kept a wary eye on Gamzee, the tension left his shoulders in an abrupt breath. His head dropped back against the seat, and he lazily reached up and downed a few more pills.

"Hey, Kurloz," Karkat turned his attention to the cars passing by, and though Kurloz did nothing to show he was listening, Karkat went on. "Can you drop me off at Porrim's? It's been a while since I've touched base with her." He smirked despondently, though he didn't seem to notice. "Besides, someone's gotta tell her that fuckass idiot's sweater got ripped."

"Papa will drop you off." Nepeta said a bit glumly. "What about you, Tavros?" He twisted around to look at her; Gamzee took this opportunity to lean over and place his head on Nitram's stomach. He was mumbling something, wrapping his arm awkwardly around the Varsity's waist. Tavros smiled and petted his hair, still facing Nepeta.

"What about me?"

"Do you wanna come ofur or do you want us to drop you off at your house?" Tavros sighed when Gamzee's arms tightened a bit.

"It couldn't hurt to come over for a few hours or so." He said, which made Nepeta light up. Reaching around Gamzee, he grabbed his phone and held it up to his face.

AdiosToreador sent a message to RufioNitram

AT: uH, hEY, rUFIO.

RN: hey, l1ttle bro… what's up?

AT: iS IT ALL RIGHT IF, uH, i STAYED OVER AT, uHH, gAMZEE'S HOUSE?

RN: 1 guess… for how long…

"How long, Nep?" Tavros asked.

"Til motherfucking Tuesday." Came the muffled response from Tavros's stomach. He sent Gamzee a soft smile, which made Karkat gag exaggeratedly, but that the three ignored.

"Til Sunday." He corrected a bit gently. Gamzee grumbled a bit, but Tavros felt him nod in agreement.

AT: uH, tIL sUNDAY, pLEASE?

RN: dad won't be too happy… th1s 1s really last m1nute Tav…

AT: i KNOW, lET HIM KNOW FOR ME?

AT: tHANKS, bRO.

"This is me guys." Karkat threw the door open and waved. Kurloz puelled up to a quaint-looking house and had stopped without Tavros noticing. It was a medium sized house, with jade windowshades and two floors. The door was held partly open by a chair, and a familiar figure was half-bent over in a small garden beneath the open kitchen window. She had stood up when she heard the car approaching, turning just slightly to the side.

"Ksrkat?" Kanaya questioned as the Varsity descended onto the asphalt. He said his goodbyes to the people in the car hastily, slamming the door with more farce than necessary and stomping up to Maryam. Tavros watched as her gaze softened from flat-out confusion to pure gentleness, pulling off her gardening gloves. She reached out to Karkat, but he stomped by her without a word; she waved at Kurloz only briefly before stepping firmly and quickly after him.

From the kitchen window, Tavros watched as Kanaya caught up with Karkat, pulling him into a comforting hug just as Kurloz started up the car again and drove off.