I walked away from my encounter with Strider with a literal bounce in my step.

"Someone's happy." Kanaya laughed a little.

"Who knew hating someone so much could make me so happy?"

"Well, when you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. Having someone like Dave around means you can take your stress and anger out on him in ways like," she coughed delicately, "that display there. Therefore," we stopped outside our classroom, "you are happier the rest of the time."

I had to admit, what she was saying made a lot of sense.

"Oh, and by the way, you might want to check the state of your lip." Kan offered me a little hand-held mirror.

I inspected the injury. A little swelling around a slight cut on the surface. I assessed the damage on the inside with my tongue and was surprised to note it extended further down than the external injury, and across my lip. I poked at it, trying to find out how deep it was, but could only wince at the sting of it. Gogdamned Strider.

"Is it okay?" Kanaya was looking very concerned, obviously having seen my multiple attempts, and failures, to fully evaluate the damage.

"Yeah, just a little more… stingy than I'd thought."

"Okay. Well, shall we begin class?"

I swung the door open, stepping back to let Kanaya enter first.

In one corner there was a kid with a Mohawk playing on a Gameboy, there was some guy with clown make-up hanging from the ceiling fan, and on the tables in the middle of the room sat Jade and Kanaya's blonde friend… what was her name? Ro.. something. Roxy? Maybe that was it.

"Hey Karkat!" Jade waved me over, and I walked towards her, not even giving a begrudging sigh.

I sat next to her.

"Hey, Jade."

"Jade. Rose." Kanaya nodded to the two girls.

Ah. Rose. That's her name.

"Late comers? What are your names?"

I looked at the teacher. Some guy wearing an over-sized red jumper with black hair that was surprisingly similar to mine…. Oh fuck. I'd completely forgotten that my uncle worked at this stupid school.

"Uncle Kankri… you know me."

"I'm sorry nephew. You'll have to call me 'Mr Vantas' during school hours."

I groaned, hiding my face in my hands. Great.

"Mr Vantas , I am Kanaya Maryam." Kanaya introduced herself appropriately and my dumbass uncle marked her on the roll.

"And you?" He turned his gaze to me.

"Oh come on. You know my Gogdamned name. You have since I was born, probably before that too."

"Now, now, you will have to watch your language. You might trigger someone in the class."

Oh perfect. Now he'll talk about triggers for three hours straight.

Luckily for us, though, the bell went then, signalling the end of the period.

I wondered about the length of the class –barely 10 minutes long – as I was ushered out of the room by Kan.

"What was with that? Aren't classes usually longer?" I asked as she led me to the next class.

"Of course. That was Roll call."

I stopped.

"You mean you stopped my hate make-outs for ROLL CALL?"

"Yes. Roll Call is important."

"But so are hate make-outs" I pouted.

Kanaya turned and walked back to me.

"If it will make it better, I can arrange for you and Dave to have some time together later, if you want." She looked at me steadily.

"Okay." I agreed.

She hugged me briefly, and then began pulling me towards class again.

"What class do we even have?" Our timetables were the same, except when I had IT she had textiles.

"Sport."

I groaned, trying to pull away and skip he class.

"Let me go! I hate sport!" I pulled at her fingers, trying to make her let go.

I stopped still as I heard an all too familiar chuckle.

"Karkitty giving you problems?" Strider pushed off the wall he'd been leaning on.

Strider walked towards us as the halls emptied, everyone in class.

He came up behind me, putting one arm around my waist, the other hand grabbing my wrist as Kan let go.

"Y'know Karkitty," he whispered in my ear, "you really should go to class."

I couldn't move, and not just because he was holding me there. I didn't want to move, other than to turn to face him, and I sure as hell didn't want to go to class.

"It's not like y-you're in class, asshole." I stammered slightly as he slid a cool hand under my shirt.

He laughed as he heard me stumble on words, and the feel of his breath against my neck made me whimper. I couldn't stand it. I turned to him and wrapped my arms around his waist, pressing my body to his.

I heard Kanaya cough behind me, but I ignored her. All that mattered was Strider.

He, however, met Kanaya's eyes and, after pressing a gentle kiss to my forehead, turned me and pushed me towards her.

"See ya babe." He said before continuing to his class.

I glared after him before turning back to Kanaya.

"I think we-" I stopped, my voice was shaking slightly. I cleared my throat and tried again. "I think we should go to class now."

My face was red, that much I could tell, also the fact that my erection was pressing uncomfortably against the front of my jeans.

Kanaya pressed a hand to her mouth and giggled delicately.