author's note: yo. It's been a million years since I posted stuff on here, and hopefully my writing has improved since my last fic. This story as based off an animatic by Rude-Rat on YouTube and requested by the comment section of YouTube. I'm trying to stick as close to the animatic as possible, but am gonna do my own spin on the concept later, which will also be posted here. Oh yeah, and also? I haven't actually finished the comic yet, I've got about 500 pages to go, but if I waited til I was finished, this thing would take forever. Also also, I haven't read the epilogues, hs2 or anything, so if this goes against canon, sorry.

" KK, where're we goin' again? " Gamzee asked his companion. The two walked hastily through the asteroid 's hallways.

The smaller troll didn't meet his moirail's gaze, but squeezed his hand a little tighter.

"We're gonna go play a game, " He simply said , "you're gonna have so much fun."

" Aww yeah. This is gonna be great. "

They found their way to the kitchen, where Dave, Vriska, and Terezi had already cleaned out the fridge and had it lying on its side. Karkat lead Gamzee to the fridge, and sat him down on the back wall.

"Now here's how the game works," Karkat said , voice starting to shake, "you just lie here in the fridge, and we'll see how long it takes the others to find you."

"Like hide and seek! "

"Y-yeah. Exactly like... Yeah."

Gamzee happily lied back in the fridge, not seeing his friend break into tears. The lid closed over him, and he thought about how great of a game this was. Of course it was a great game, Karkat designed it. Karkat was the best.

Outside, the short troll didn't bother hiding his tears anymore, and burst out crying, Dave pulled him into a hug, keeping him from watching as Terezi finished locking the refrigerator shut with heavy chains.

"Are you sure this is necessary?" Terezi said, more than a little disgusted by what she was doing. Yeah, she agreed he needed some sort of consequences for his brutal behaviour, but this wasn't a punishment she would wish on an enemy. And she was a judge, too. If anyone would know what the right consequences were, it'd be her. But Vriska had insisted.

"Just... Trust me on this. I've seen what not locking him up turns into."

Terezi sighed, and turned the key in the lock, sealing the highblood's fate.

Inside the fridge, Gamzee counted the first 24 hours, and scratched a tally mark for the first day he wasn't found. This was such a great idea, nobody would ever find him, then when Karkat took the lid off, everyone would be so surprised.

48 hours.

72 hours.

96 hours. It was getting a little stuffy, but it was ok. it was cozy.

120 hours window without being found.

Weeks.

A month, and Gamzee scratched something new on the roof. A diamond. He would have drawn KK, but he couldn't see too well, so he drew the quadrant instead.

Two month, and Gamzee was starting to get worried. Were they all still looking for him?even a fridge wasn't that good of a hiding place. Maybe they forgot about him?

Three months, and the voices he'd heard had subsided. Right outside his fridge, talking about him. He had honked to them, but they didn't respond. He thought he heard Karkat, but he couldn't be sure. He wondered what everybody was up to.

1 year, and he didn't think the others were looking for him anymore. He didn't know what was going on, but he knew that when he got out, Karkat would explain everything.

2 years and six months, and he spent most of his time in memory now. He hadn't thought about the real world for a long time, he was thinking about when he first learned to juggle. KK had been there. That was a good day. No, wait, that wasn't the very first time, there was a time before that, with his lusus. He had dropped the clubs, but still looked up at the great seagoat with glee, happy he had even managed it for a few minutes. But then... Dad had turned back to the ocean, leaving the young troll standing alone in the soft sand. He had only seen his lusus twice after that.

But Karkat was nothing like his lusus. Karkat was nice. Nice like Tavros. But... Tavros had stopped talking to him too. Gamzee noticed the pattern. Was... Did everybody eventually stop talking to him? But Karkat wasn't like them. He was better. He would never abandon his own moirail. That was silly.

Maybe Karkat had forgotten where the fridge was? He must have. Maybe this was still a game of hide and seek, but bigger than he'd thought before. Yeah, that must be it. Maybe he'd just open the fridge for a minute, give a big honk, and everybody would have a hint where he was. Hee pushed on the door. Nothing. He shoved it with all his might but it wouldn't budge.

Anxiety overtaking him, he cried to himself, and fell asleep.

A soft knock woke Gamzee, years later. How many years? Hard to say, he had been sleeping through a lot of it, the rest he had spent remembering things.

Something scraped the outside of the fridge, and heavy, metallic things fell to the ground around the outside. A bright, brilliant light filled the dark hole, flooding his now sensitive eyes. It faded to soft green in a couple minutes, and Gamzee sat up, laboring to raise himself above the edge of the fridge. He was outdoors, in a garden or something. But that wasn't as important as what was right in front of him. A young man with black hair stood before the fridge, looking horror-stricken.

"John...?" Gamzee said, voice raspy.

" You've been in there for fifteen years!? How the fuck are you still alive? " John said incredulously, " I mean, I don't know how you would've gotten out, but why did I never comprehend that you were still in there... "

"Is... Karkat 'round here somewhere? I wanna talk to him."

John looked at his feet.

"Karkat... Actually passed away a few years ago ..." John said . He continued to say that it might have been age, but even rustbloods normally lived at least fifty years, etc, but Gamzee didn't hear any of that. Tears formed in his eyes once again, and he climbed out of the fridge, and stumbled away into the edge of the forest. There was nothing left to think, except that Gamzee had been right. Karkat hadn't abandoned him. But now he was gone, and there was nothing left.

Eventually, someone found him. Gamzee lifted his head from where it has been resting on his knees, and stared at the small child. He had grayish-tan skin, short brown hair that was almost black, and stubby horns that looked like orange gumdrops on his head.

"I heard you weren't ok." The little boy said, stepping closer. He looked about two sweeps, and was clearly related to Gamzee's dead moirail.

Gamzee stood up, not sure what to do, almost afraid. But the little boy knew someone who needed a hug when he saw one.

He wrapped his arms around the big troll.