The delicious smell of baking bread wafted into Karkat's room as the sun greeted him. He wasted no time jumping out of bed. It was easier to wake up when you knew some good food was waiting for you in the kitchen. He opened his door, taking a step outside and immediately was confronted with Jade, her fist poised to knock. She sheepishly waved instead. "Hey, Karkat. I was just bringing you a change of clothes, since you've been wearing the same thing since you got here. Oh, hey, maybe you should go shower?"

Karkat frowned, and pulled his shirt close to his face. He took a whiff. He did smell kind of ripe. "Alright. I'll get right on that." He grumbled, disappointed he had to put his breakfast on hold.

"I didn't mean you stink or anything! Gosh, sorry. That must have come out kind of rude, now that I think about it. I just meant, well, you and Dave can be so similar. You both keep worrying so much about everything and everyone else that you forget to take care of yourselves. I'm right on the mark, right? Geez, I wonder how you guys even function. Maybe you just keep track of each other?"

Karkat fidgeted in his spot, uncomfortable with talking about his relationship with Dave to his boyfriend's ex. "Yeah, that actually sounds like how it usually is." It was scary how on the mark she was. Dave never seemed to notice how sleep deprived he got while he was spinning and coming up with new tracks, but Karkat always managed to find the right time to distract him enough that he could pull him into bed. And of course Karkat was even more obsessive when he worked on his articles. He recalled a specific moment in particular when he was suffering from intense writer's block. Dave, after calling his name out a few hundred times and not receiving any sign of him being heard, had scooped Karkat up into his arms before he had enough time to even comprehend that his hands were no longer perched above a keyboard. Dave had started undressing Karkat to get him ready for the bath he'd drawn. He wouldn't let him go back to work until he had soaked for at least half an hour. Dave had climbed in with him. No funny business. That would have tired him out. Just gentle neck and back rubs that coaxed Karkat's muscles into relaxing. He had leaned back into Dave, enjoying the warm body next to his.

He flushed at the memory and Jade looked confused. "Sorry! I didn't mean to embarrass you! You really don't smell that bad!"

"What? Oh, no. It's cool. I could use a shower."

"Well, there are towels hanging on the rack in the bathroom. Just grab one and toss it into the bin when you're done with it. Here." Jade handed him the change of clothes. She called out as she hurried down the stairs, "Better finish quickly or else I'll have already eaten your share of breakfast!"

Not one to take food eating threats lightly, Karkat scampered into the bathroom. He tried to place the clothes down on the sink counter top and stopped. Jade had handed him a pair of black sweats and… Yup. That was Dave's shirt. Why? Why was it Dave's shirt? What did that mean? What was she trying to say with that gesture? He looked at himself in the mirror. "Fuck." He hoped that wasn't the face he wore when he was around Jade.

He took his time in the shower, his appetite plummeting. It was the shirt he had seen in Jade's laundry basket the first day they met. Did she have more of Dave's clothes? Was this a passive aggressive jab at him? No. Jade was too straightforward for that. But she was also too smart to just hand him Dave's clothes and not expect him to draw some type of conclusion from that.

He toweled off and redressed in the new clothes. The shirt and sweats were baggy. He had to roll the pants up at his waist three times and there was absolutely nothing he could do about the shirt sleeves. They were longer than his arms but too short to roll back a fold and still look okay. And he couldn't just roll them up completely. It was getting colder and he needed the warmth. Plus, it wasn't as if he hadn't worn Dave's clothes before. He pulled the shirt up to his nose and tried to drink in the scent. He was disappointed to inhale detergent smell when he ached for something familiar. Something Dave. He gave himself the once over in the mirror and nodded to his reflection. "Don't look like that. Be confident. You're wearing his shirt. You're dating him. Not anyone else."

Karkat opened the door and walked out assertively, the leftover steam from his shower following close behind. As he got to the stairs his bravado wavered and he slinked more than strode down the steps and into the kitchen.

Jade was sitting at the table, stuffing her face with pancakes and reaching for a biscuit. He figured that was the smell he had caught wind of that morning. Jane walked in with bacon, catching Karkat in her line of sights. She slammed it down quickly, moving over to Jade and shaking her arm as she stared at Karkat. "Jade, look! He's adorable! Look at how his clothes barely fit! Oh my goodness, this is too much. I'm going to have a heart attack!" Karkat wanted to rant and object to the accusations of him being adorable but he didn't really feel like raising his voice, especially in Jane's kitchen.

Jade choked on her mouthful of food, dropping the biscuit she was clutching. "Ja-cough-hack-cough-ne! You're gonna give me a heart attack!"

Jane released her, raising her hands up and backed off. "Oopsie daisy! Hoo hoo! My bad."

Jade took a gulp of her orange juice and sighed. She gave Karkat a cursory glance. "Well, he is very cute. I bet my clothes would even look big on him." She raised the glass of juice to her mouth again but spoke once before she drank, "But I'm certain those suit him more than anything else we've got laying around here."

Karkat felt his face heat up. Jade's intent with the clothes was definitely not malicious. Could he take it as a bequeathing of sorts? The smell of bacon overpowered all of his deep contemplations. He was going to be at the shooting range with Jade all day anyway. He could just ask her straight out when they were alone. Grumpily, he took his seat at the table and waited for Jane to join them before he filled his plate and dug in.

"Goggles?" Jade dropped them into Karkat's open palms. "Check! Headphones?" She placed them on his head. "Check!"

"What?" Karkat watched her mouth move, confused.

Jade rolled her eyes and pulls one of the headphones off of his ear. "I said, 'check!'"

"Oh."

"And, finally," Jade passed him her pistol. "Your gun. I also found the holster but it's um sort of an upper thigh one, if that's okay with you."

"That's fine. Practicality first. Aesthetics second."

"I like the way you think!" Jade led him to the very last booth in the indoor firing range. "See the target there? You wanna aim for the head or the heart. They have them marked off with red dots so you can practice your aim. It'll be hard to hit moving targets so this isn't gonna be anything like going up against real mobsters, but it'll still help."

Karkat pulled back the slide and aimed with both hands.

"Stop!" Karkat brought the gun back and accidently managed to pull the trigger. A bullet embedded itself in the ceiling. Jade ignored the crack forming around the hole and continued to walk over to a stunned Karkat. Meanwhile, other patrons moved a little further away. "Your form is all wrong! Here," She directed his body and positioned his hands on the gun. "Now, that's how you hold a gun."

Karkat breathed out an exasperated sigh. He tried to take aim again and… He didn't shoot. He couldn't shoot. His vision swirled. He was seeing things. The face of his mother as she held her wound, fresh blood trickling out. Her angry, not sad, but angry, face as she fell to the floor, the last moments of life he saw in her. His father standing at the door, breathing heavily, staring at Karkat like he had just done the deed himself. No. He did. He was holding the gun. Shit! He's holding a gun. He's holding a-

"Karkat! Karkat!" Jade's hands were on either side of his face. He focused his eyes onto hers. He was still poised to shoot. "Jesus, are you alright? You didn't shoot. Why weren't you answering me?"

"I-" He let his arms fall down. "I don't think I can do this." He could feel the hysteria that had gripped him moments before lapping at his mind in small waves. Was he going to drown in it again?

"Breathe. Give me the gun." Jade carefully took it from his hands. Karkat watched, almost drunkenly, as she whipped around and shot, again and again and again, until the gun made only clicking sounds, emptied. She slammed her fist down on a red button on the side of their booth. The paper target moved towards them. Karkat felt that his heart, rather than slowed down, had stopped altogether with her sudden movements. The target stopped in front of them, all of the bullets had made their mark. A huge gaping hole pierced the target's head. Jade was a perfect shot.

"How-"

"It took a lot of time and practice to get this good. I was very scared the first time I held a gun. My granpa had given it to me. He was going to teach me to shoot, in case I needed to protect myself. His first lesson was how easily it was to take someone's life. The way he said it was so harsh. It felt like he was blaming me for something I didn't even do yet. I didn't touch a gun for another year after that. Then I was-" Jade paused, taking down the target and putting up a new one. "Being a part of a well-known family makes it kind of hard to be self-sufficient some times. I didn't want to move around with a bunch of guard dogs. And I mean hired security not actual dogs. I would have been okay with dogs." Jade pressed the button again, watching the target move back. She picked up a new magazine for the pistol, reloading the gun. "I had a bad experience and realized I wanted to learn how to be self-sufficient. I wanted to protect myself and the people around me." Jade turned around and looked at Karkat gently. "You understand what it means to hold a gun. It can do unrepairable damage. And you know that. That's how I know you'll be able to fire it well." Jade passed him the weapon. "Take it and aim like I showed you."

Karkat positioned himself as she had instructed him to.

"That target," She pointed at the paper hanging a distance away. "Is someone going to hurt Dave. He is going to hurt Dave and he is going to hurt you. He is going to take away everything you love and care about in this world. What are you going to do about it?"

Karkat's eyes stung with unreleased tears. He fired the gun. He fired it again and again and again.

When it was empty he dropped his arms and Jade hit the button. The target came forward. Most of the holes landed squarely in the target's designated 'heart'. One skirted just outside of the area.

Jade smiled at him. "You're a natural!"

Karkat and Jade sat on a bench in a members only locker room, eating the lunch Jane had packed them. Jane had cut off his sandwich crust but Jade's was still intact which meant she had paid extra attention to how his was prepared. How had she known he liked his cut off? Jane was more than a great chef. Jane was magical.

"Can I ask you something?" Karkat set down his sandwich.

"Lay it on me." Jade said in between chewing a bite of her apple.

"What was with the clothes thing this morning? I mean, this is obviously Dave's shirt. Why did you make me wear it?"

She grinned. "He left it where it didn't belong so I gave it to you."

"And it belongs… on me?"

"Well, duh, silly. You're his boyfriend."

Karkat felt a rush of pride hit him in the gut, followed by a swell of endearment for Jade. He took another bite of his sandwich before placing it down again. He swallowed. "Can I ask you another question? This one might be kind of personal but I kind of wanted to know…"

"You wanna know if I still like Dave?"

Karkat didn't say anything but his expression must have given him away.

"I don't, so you can stop worrying. You really shouldn't doubt yourself so much. Actually, you might be interested to know that I broke up with him."

"What?!"

She snorted, "Outlandish, I know. Handsome devil though he is, Dave Strider can still be dumped. He was kind of clingy when we were dating. Very overprotective. It was suffocating, being treated like almost every sign of danger might break me. I mean, wanting to protect someone you love is natural, but I didn't want to feel babied. Dave is way too doting when he loves someone."

"I thought you liked the idea of protecting your loved ones."

"Well, yeah. I like protecting them. When it's the other way around it doesn't sit as right with me. I want to be independent."

"Huh." Karkat rested back onto the bench. His phone buzzed in his pocket. He took it out and read the incoming message.

"Who is it?" Jade's interest was piqued.

"My friend. She's also, uh, a college friend of Dave's. She's worried because I haven't talked to her in a while and I left her a pretty scary voice message in her inbox last time I called."

"What did you say?"

"I told her my apartment blew up."

"Yeah, that'll do it."

"She wants me to stay the night with her to make sure I'm still intact and not, and here I will paraphrase this disgusting bit of vulgar language she's using, rotting tissue clumps stuck to my apartment walls."

Jade turned Karkat's phone to her and grimaced. "That is quite some interesting vernacular. I think your version was watered down by like ninety-eight percent. This is actually a linguistic masterpiece of disturbing proportions."

"I'm sure she'd thank you. Guess I'm sleepin at her place tonight then. Can't leave her in the dark like that." There's a good blind joke Terezi's probably never heard before. He can't wait to tell her. Karkat can already hear her cackling.

"Alright, but not before we send you to her with a full stomach. Jane's been so happy to have someone else eat her cooking for a change."