"What?"

"You heard what she said! The fate of our people depends on this! Besides, it's just one fucking grub. How hard could it possibly be?" The shortest troll questioned, glancing up at Dave. "I...really don't know. Can I have some time to think about it?" The blonde asked nervously. "What is there to think about, Dave?" Karkat asked, squinting.

The Jade troll simply nodded, smiling calmly. "Of course. Parenting is a big responsibility. Take as much time as you need," she told him. "Cool. Thanks," Dave nodded.

Karkat followed after him, gently grabbing his arm. "What the hell was that for?" He asked. "I...just need some time to think about this decision, okay? I'm only sixteen, and—" the mutant troll cut him off. "Don't lie to me. I know why you're being so goddamn hesitant, Dave," he said. "Wh—I...okay, tell me then!" The blonde mumbled angrily. "It's because of Bro. You're scared that you'll be like him," the troll said softly, as if Dave would cry if he spoke of his brother too loudly.

The blonde's expression turned blank, and his face somehow got paler than it already was. Behind his tinted lenses, his red eyes watered a bit. Fuck. " 's not—!"

It was. He was mortified of ever being a parent due to the way that his brother had treated him growing up as a child. It made him sick to think that he might be like that. Even if he knew it was wrong, it was probably still engrained in his subconscious. Sort of a thing that wrote itself into his brain as an acceptable way to care for kids. Dave wasn't going to be sick in front of Karkat. Of course it wasn't right to randomly attack your kid, or use your refrigerator to store shitty swords instead of food, and it wasn't right to call the child mean things. It definitely wasn't fucking right to expose your child to creepy fucking puppet fetish porn when he was only eight years old.

"Dave. It's okay," Karkat told him. "Just—shut up! God! Shut up for once, please!" The blonde spat, turning around. The troll was silent, simply looking at his matesprit. "Sorry. I didn't mean to say that, I'm just...god. I hate that asshole so much! He ruined my fucking life, and my PTSD ass won't fucking let it go. Now I can't even do something simple, like raising a child," the albino growled, clenching his fists at his side.

"Dave. Raising a kid isn't easy at all. And you're nothing like that son of a bitch. Trust me. You'd be a great father. You're funny, and nice, and—Bro taught you what not to do. You'll do anything to not do what he did. You'll be just fine. Besides, you have me. It's not like you have to raise the grub yourself. And it takes time to recover from abuse. You're doing just fine," the mutant comforted, putting his arms around his taller boyfriend's waist. It physically pained him to see Dave like this, and he could feel the human's slim frame shaking in his arms.

"Don't cry, Dave. It's okay. You're not bro. You'll never be him. He would want you to be sad and scared. Show that motherfucker that you're the strongest and most badass bitch to walk the face of the goddamn planet. Give ol' Bro a big 'fuck you.' How about it?" The smaller one laughed, trying to cheer his matesprit up. He could feel the blonde laugh a little, and a slight smile came onto his face. At least the soft color had returned to his cheeks, and he didn't look like he'd just seen a ghost. Tears still stained his cheeks, however.

Karkat stopped hugging Dave for a second, stepping in front of him and gently removing his shades. "Don't cry." The troll stood on his toes and wiped the blonde's tears with one hand, whilst cupping his cheek with the other. The albino simply nodded resolutely and reached for his shades, squinting in the light. Karkat gave them to him, letting Dave put them back on. "Thanks. I'm mostly just crying now because it was bright as fuck for like .2 seconds, and now my eyes are doing the shitty teary thing like a bunch of whiny bratty spoiled child eyes who didn't get an iphone for Christmas," the taller one laughed a bit. A slight smile crept onto Karkat's face at that silly metaphor. "Wah wah, I saw light for three seconds! God damn genetics," the albino muttered.

"Ha. You can say that again," Karkat rolled his eyes. "God damn genetics," Dave repeated quietly.

Sarcastic little shit.

In a way, he and Dave were both mutants. His mutation just gave him abnormally red blood that he had to hide all the time. Not really anymore, thankfully. Dave's made him always have to wear his shades due to his photosensitivity, and he could wear only his god tier outfit outside, since he was easily sunburned.

"I wanna sleep on it," the taller one said, taking Karkat's smaller hand in his own. "That's fine," the troll sighed, a soft blush dusting his cheeks. "That's not the only thing I'm gonna sleep on," Dave laughed, raising an eyebrow. Karkat's face got very red, and his yellow eyes widened. "DAVE!" He hissed. "That wasn't even good, you smug fucking asshole. God. I can't fucking believe this," Karkat said angrily to himself, obviously flustered over his matesprit's comment. "You're getting flustered about it, so obviously it wasn't that shitty," the blonde laughed, looking down at his partner who was muttering angrily under his breath. "How the hell did I fall in love with you?" Karkat joked. "I mean, we kind of had three years on the meteor together, and we were already friends," the blonde shrugged.

"No. It's because you're cute as fuck. I love you, you fucking nerd," the troll laughed, resting his head against Dave's arm. "I love you too, Karks."

Day faded into night, and the blonde reflected on his choice as he laid in bed that night, a thick, suffocating void of nihilism and self-doubt stirring his mind and making his body numb. Even having won the game and being happy with his partner, who was snoring softly beside him, his depression still hung around like a bad aftertaste. He didn't understand why it didn't work like it did in movies or books. He was happy, so now it should go away, right?

Wasn't that how it worked?

He glanced over at Karkat, who he knew was haunted by the same suffocating plague. He could tell. Dave's red eyes glanced up at the ceiling. What would've made him feel better ten years ago now made him feel sick. He was immortal. Even if the disease decayed his brain to the point where all he could do was hope to make it until sunrise, he would live.

Why was he even thinking about this? He was supposed to be thinking about raising a child! But how could he possibly take care of it? On days when he woke up after sleeping for eight hours, exhausted and fatigued from the coldness seeping into the cracks of his mind, he'd have to get up and care for the child. Even if he loved it, and he wanted it to be happy, his mind would refuse, and his body would blindly follow along as it was written to do.

Maybe some other day. Maybe when he woke up and saw the angled light filtering through the curtains and his heart and mind were calm and content, unaltered by the seemingly incurable sickness. Hopefully soon. Maybe when the scars on his stomach and thighs were gone, or when he'd all but forgotten what his Brother's face looked like.

Dave shifted a bit as Karkat wrapped his arms around him in his sleep, mumbling something he couldn't understand. His life was just fine, so why was he still like this? He wasn't one to get hung up on the past either, so he didn't understand why things were still this way.

It was best to just try and stop thinking about this. All thinking about it did was make it worse. What the hell happened to being cool? Certainly, cool guys didn't cry or consider suicide.

When morning came, Dave had slept some and found himself in a better state of mind. Karkat was still sleeping, and his face was buried in Dave's shirt. The blonde looked down at his matesprit. "Did you make up your mind?" the troll asked groggily, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

The look on Karkat's face made him want to say yes. "Will it make you happy?" The albino questioned. The alien gave a slight nod, "Yeah. If you don't want to we don't have to, though. I just..." Karkat paused, "I want you to know you'll never be like that asshole."

"I know. I'm willing to do it," the blonde nodded, picking up his shades from the nightstand.

"You know what they say," a slight smile crept onto Dave's face. "Happy wife, happy life."

Karkat didn't protest; he merely rolled his eyes and tried to keep from smirking. "I'll tell Kanaya."