Disclaimer: I don't own Homestuck, guys.

Lovestuck

Karkat: Resign to the fact that you agreed to this pet thing.

Karkat had technically agreed to get a pet. But he'd said something small. The cat currently purring on his chest was far from it. It was fat and lazy, and always did this whenever he made himself a nice pile of blankets to sleep in, invading his personal space, and only John was allowed to do that. Because of this, he usually resorted to locking the cat out of the bedroom at night, and John had learned to stop unlocking it soon enough when Karkat got angry at the cat and threw him out of the room again.

"That cat is called Nic!" John would often protest, frowning, whenever Karkat came grumbling to him about the animal. "And he's not fat! For a Maine Coon, Nic is very lean. When he curls up with you, it means he likes you! See?" At that moment, as if one cue, the cat Karkat so despised had padded in and jumped onto John's lap. "Look at it this way! At least he's mostly an outside cat, right?" John had beamed at that, as if he'd made a winning point. Karkat almost wished that the meowbeast-like-creature would die on one of its excursions, but then he'd picture John's horrified, positively bawling face at finding out his beloved pet had died.

So, slowly, the troll learned to get along with the cat and treat it as one of the family, almost as if it were the grub of himself and John, but it still annoyed him to no end. Again, like a grub- he'd had plenty of experience with those on the meteor, and it hadn't been especially pleasant. Past Karkat really had been a pain, even as a grub. Wait, there he was, thinking in past and future hims again- he needed to stop that. Rose figured it was just another way of degrading himself, and John didn't like that, even did his best to bring his morale up whenever he could. Sometimes it even worked, but if the relationship between John and Karkat ever came to an end within their lifetime, Karkat was seriously going to blame himself.

Back to the matter at hand- Karkat shoved Nic from his chest and yelled down the hallway, "John, your fucking cat is bothering me while I try to sleep again! I can't live with this shit!" It seriously bothered him, and he didn't want to tell John, but he was seriously starting to believe he was allergic to all the fur the "Maine Coon" left behind. He had no wish to upset his matesprit, and after two weeks with the cat, he'd learned to just live with it, so no use in giving up his hard work now. If he really needed to, he'd just go to the doctor and get some allergy medication, or go to Kanaya, either would work (but Kanaya would actually probably be the better canidate).

John appeared in the room and grabbed Nic from Karkat's chest in one fell swoop, cuddling with the cat and holding it close as he grinned at Karkat. On the inside, the gray-skinned boy felt furiously jealous, but the only thing that showed in his eyes was his usual anger. "I try to take a nap after a few long hours spent in the garden, and that thing fucking wakes me up! John, I seriously don't see how you live with that gogdamned meowbeast, or whatever you want to call it. It's obnoxious, does nothing but eat and sleep, and it's positively vain, not to mention it has no damn perception of personal space! What kind of lusus do you even call that?" Catching his breath, Karkat realized he'd just gone on quite the tirade, as usual, but this one had more emotion behind it. This was proved by his last statement- as a troll, whatever kind of "pet" they had was immediately registered as a lusus, whether or not it was a good one. Perhaps that was the main fuel behind his fury. Nic was nothing as a lusus compared to Crabdad, and he felt that his instincts were almost making him replace Crabdad with that sorry excuse for a creature. He could never do that, though- just couldn't, but sometimes it got hard to fight his instincts, though it made it easier that it was an Earth animal and not an actual lusus.

John seemed to understand right away, and with that single sentence, he'd thrown Nic carelessly out of the room (the cat made no objection and padded down the hall as if nothing had ever happened) and closed the door behind him, even going so far as to lock it. He gathered Karkat into his arms and quietly asked, "Do you want me to get Gamzee over Trollian or Skype for you?"

Karkat could hear the restrained pain in John's voice. He'd known for a long time that John wanted to be there for him sometimes as well, even if Gamzee was doing a damn well job compared to his performance as a moirail on the meteor. It was his stupid human culture with only one quadrant- and Karkat didn't want to admit that sometimes he found the idea appealing, like now for instance, when he needed a moirail physically and immediately. He didn't think he could wait the minute or so, probably even less, it would take Gamzee to get to their hive from his, only a few hives down, if he was called over on Trollian though. So he leaned into John's arms, listening to his soft "shhh's" and "hush, it's going to be fine," and other things like it, things the Heir was saying almost unconciously.

"It's my instincts," Karkat finally said, frowning. "I'm really old enough to be without a lusus now... But lususes are something a troll is supposed to have for the span of their lives, until one of them dies. If another lusus were to move in to their hive, even unexpectedly, then their instincts kick in and immediately tell them they have a new lusus. It's not nearly as bad since it's an Earth creature, otherwise I probably would've mostly forgotten Crabdad by now, but it's still an almost irresistable urge. Why do you think Nepeta only adopts strays that stay outside all the time, and Equius never brings all those horses inside? Because it's mostly the damned smell of them all over a hive that triggers it. I don't really expect a human to get it, with your fucking tiny thinkpans, but that's how it is." He shrugged it off like it was nothing and tried to get away from John.

To his surprise, he was dragged back into an embrace and settled into John's lap with his back to the taller's chest. "Look, you've only talked about Crabdad to me a few times, and I really hardly know anything about him. Maybe it will be better if you tell me more about him? Think that might take some of this off of your chest? It's okay, I won't interrupt."

Karkat couldn't deny that, when he began in a shaky voice completely unlike him, he felt a bit guilty that this wasn't Gamzee helping to talk out his feelings, but he knew the juggalo didn't mind any more. He knew that John doubled as a moirail for Karkat when he himself wasn't there, and said that he'd actually know since probably about the time it started, but didn't care as long as Karkat wasn't hurting any more, and would still be his official moirail, talking to him about things that he couldn't talk about with John, whatever that may be (usually something about troll culture he didn't understand or something that would upset him), and Gamzee's own problems, of course (when he had them).

But as he continued, the cancer began to feel his heart lift a little. It felt good to reminisce about when he was small, when Crabdad was there, and share it with someone else. It made him feel as though, for a moment, Crabdad was actually there again, and that he was right there and he had just gotten out of the trials, that he was going to his lawnring for the first time, that he was growing up all over again. He only wished that his lusus could've been there to see the amazing matesprit he'd gotten. He would've been happy for him- just like in one of his romcoms.

The next day, Nic was nowhere to be found, nor could he be found any amount of days after that, but John didn't seem particularly worried. In fact, the next time they visted Nepeta, Karkat could've sworn that one of the cats that wandered into the backyard looked just like him.

This was just a little more on Crabdad and a little theory on lususes. Since trolls are definitely more instinctual than humans, I thought, why not?

Just two more chapters to go, guys.

Next one is smut, lots of it, so beware.

-Silver