Chapter Five
~Homestuck is not mine!~
"Alright, Strider," Karkat scowled, crossing his arms over his narrow chest grumpily. He'd roped the group into gathering all of the seats in the house and now they'd formed a dysfunctional semi-circle around John and Dave. "let's have this fucking important piece of information that just couldn't wait!"
"Yeah!" Vriska agreed, shoving the shorter low-blood to one side. "I was in the middle of an important FLARP with Nep and her moirail! Let's get this over with!"
"Wwhat they said." Eridan agreed sourly, "Wwe all have moray important things to be doing!" He was only so cranky because Rose hadn't been answering his texts; currently, she was sitting in the far edge with Jade speaking to her softly. Every now and again, she might glance at the sea-dweller, but it only turned her lips into a thin line and made her look away again.
Dave stepped forward and caught Eridan's collar. it was hard to be intimidating when your opponent has three inches on you, but Dave tried his damnedest to be.
"None of you has anything more important than this." He told Eridan seriously as he let go and pulled away. "Now shut up and pay attention." He lifted a pale eyebrow, daring Eridan to open his mouth again, but luckily for the sea-dweller, he simply sneered and backed down. "Now," Dave raised his usually-low voice and threw his fisted hands into his pockets for later. "John has something to say and you're gonna listen to all of it. Or else."
"Or what?" Vriska challenged,
"Or I'll pull out your pancreas and serve it with crackers, you blue-haired bitch." Dave snarled, "Sit. The fuck. Down, Vriska."
"David," Kanaya piped up cordially, "are you feeling alright? Your behaviour seems quite different from your norm and your posture is very agitated..." She tried to be as calm as she could, succeeding, and Dave looked at her silently as his shoulders dropped. He seemed a little upset and, feeling his anger, she smiled faintly, "I must apologize, David. Please continue."
Dave looked at John, up into the wide blue of his eyes as they hid behind his lenses, but John remained deathly quiet so Dave had to step up to the plate.
"Alright!" Dave said loudly, his hands tucked into his pockets casually as he stood beside John, who was fidgeting more and more as everyone's attention turned to them. "We all know that Only Karkat, his blabber-mouth bro, and Egbert go to a different school that the rest of us. And that Karkat is an obnoxious fuck who won't hang out with anyone-"
"HEY!" Karkat cried, beginning to rise.
"-so that means Egbert's flying solo."
"GET TO THE POINT, DAVE!" "He's getting picked on." Dave said sourly, crossing his arms over his chest and lifting his chin defiantly at Karkat's scowl.
"Tho?" Sollux said, glancing up from his phone with one eyebrow cocked skeptically. "Egderp would thay thomething if he needed help. What'th the futh about?" Sollux waited, patiently for him, and before he could give Karkat a snarky comment, Dave had pulled down the zipper on John's sweater and whipped it off his scrawny shoulders.
Immediately, the bruises on his body were exposed and a hush fell over the lowly-chattering crowd as they drank in the sight of him. His scarred torso was no better in the well-lit room, the light casting odd shadows on his ribs and darkening the gruesome bruise to grotesque new depths. The toe marks from shoes were even more obvious now, as were a few burns near his belly button that were all obvious and circular.
"Need I say any more?"
"Motherfucker," Gamzee piped up from his seat, where he was lounging comfortably, and sat up straight. "why didn't you fucking tell us?"
And then it all came tumbling out; the pain, the sadness, everything John had been hiding inside himself fell into the air between them and hung there for all his friends to see. He sobbed, his knees quavering before they gave out, and Dave was there to catch him when they did.
Karkat came closer next, catching John's once-injured wrist in his small hands and holding it tightly. Sollux and Aradia followed, curling gently against his back, their heads against him, and Gamzee wrapped all of them in his long gangly arms. Eridan stood, right in front of the display, and put a hand on John's head as if he could cleanse the horrors from him.
And then, as if Eridan's final approval had opened the flood gate, all of them were piled onto John and Dave, their hands fawning over him and soft consoling sounds coming from every side until his tears were gone.
~Homestuck is not mine!~