Ok, I lied. No Dave encounter in this chapter. Instead, I decided to give you a cute, fluff filled chapter! All my hardcore Johnkat shippers, you're welcome :D
Read on~
"Listen, why don't we—we do something fun?" Karkat asked after a few minutes, trying to cheer the boy up. John looked up after a pause, wiping tears off his face slowly.
"Like what?" His round blue eyes stared up at the troll, who bit his lip, trying to think of something.
"We could go to the pier. They have games and rides, and we could get snacks…" He trailed off and had to smile at the excited look that crossed John's face.
"All right then. Why don't you go wash your face and change while I get ready?" Karkat helped the other to his feet and gave him a gentle push towards the stairs. John nodded and was gone quickly. The troll sighed and relaxed back against the couch once more, rubbing his temples. Maybe this would be good for both of them; John had been acting twitchy and strange around him when he wasn't crying, for some reason.
"Ready!" John bounded down the stairs, his hair messy and his eyes shining in excitement. He was wearing a fresh blue windbreaker. Karkat bit his lip to hide the smile that threatened to stretch over his face.
"Ok, let's go." Karkat grabbed the car keys and the two walked outside to the car, getting in. It took about half an hour to reach the pier, and the whole time John seemed to be in a much better mood. He was changing the radio station to play the most upbeat song, and he was smiling and looking out the window.
Once they got there, Karkat had to run after John. The younger teen had already spotted a cotton candy kiosk that was selling the sugary pink fluff in huge bundles, twice the size of his head. He shook his head with a slight grin and hurried after him. He ended up paying fifteen dollars for the sweet, and John ended up throwing half of it away, but he didn't mind, oddly.
"John, wait up!" He called as the ebony darted into the line for the Ferris wheel. They waited their turn, and upon climbing into the little compartment, sat across from each other.
At this point, the sun had started to set, and little wisps of pale orange and lavender were drifting among the large clouds. Pink streaked the sky near the horizon as the sun slowly began to descend. Karkat glanced at John to find him staring straight at him. The ebony quickly looked away, his cheeks turning pink, and, without thinking, Karkat blurted out, "You're adorable."
John froze up before looking up at the troll with wide eyes, shocked. Karkat mentally kicked himself for freaking out the boy, who was now blushing even harder as he looked out the window. After the ride was over, John excused himself to the bathroom. As soon as his mop of black hair bobbed out of sight, the troll began to curse himself out.
"Stupid f*cking idiot! What's wrong with you, Vantas? He's fragile, you can't go around saying stuff like that to him!" He ranted, kicking a trashcan as he crossed his arms and glared at anyone who looked at him strangely.
"Hi." John smiled a bit as he approached Karkat, who jumped a little at the sudden appearance of him.
"Hey. What do you want to do next?" The troll asked, deciding on playing it cool and pretending the whole awkward scene had never happened.
"Can we play some games?" John pointed to the section where all the booths were set up, most of them decorated in colorful lights to draw in customers. He nodded, and the two bought tickets before approaching the first game.
"Ok, all you have to do is knock the bottles over." The girl took John's tickets from him and gave him three balls, motioning to the bottles stacked up behind her.
John took aim and managed to knock over two thirds of them with all three balls. He pouted and gave her more tickets, desperate to win a prize. He still didn't knock over all the bottles though.
"Here, let me try." Karkat huffed impatiently and handed over the right amount of tickets. He chucked the balls as hard as he could, and all the bottles fell to the floor, clanging loudly. John clapped his hands, a wide smile lighting up his face as the girl handed him a huge stuffed crab.
"Yay! It kind of looks like you, Karkat!" He hugged it close and beamed at the troll, who allowed a smile to cross his face. "Thank you." He added, and as they began to walk again, Karkat felt something.
He looked down to see John's fingers slowly entwining with his. His eyes widened and he looked straight ahead, gently squeezing the human boy's hand. John squeezed back, and they walked in comfortable silence. Karkat inhaled slowly and breathed out, seeing how red John's face was, but also the happy smile that he was wearing.
That's all for now, lovelies. Review please!
~samx