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Snow began to cake the windows of the dinghy apartment. Karkat leaned his face against his hand as he lazily stared out into the white street while he listened to Gamzee play some first-person shooter game. He wasn't sure which one. He also didn't particularly give a fuck. First-person shooters were a waste of his time; he was more of a third-person PC game kind of guy anyway. He never got the appeal of first-persons. He couldn't see a fucking thing and he always ended up getting too frustrated and almost broke something at one point or another. He wasn't even a big fan of gaming anyway. Too many douchebag cum-lickers for his tastes. He preferred comic books and jerking off. Very solitary.

Which is why he was dreading the dinner he was about to attend. Not a solitary event. At all. And it included John "Cock-Muffin" Egbert. Speaking of…

"So I'm going to Jade and John's place later for dinner," He finally piped up to his roommate. He decided that the last minute was the best time to mention this so he wouldn't have time to be interrogated on the damn subject. He already hated himself enough for agreeing. But he owed Jade, and this was the best way to make up that debt.

Karkat heard the game pause and Gamzee shift in his seat, "Are you motherfucking serious?"

He turned to see Gamzee giving him a look of surprise, concern and 'is this really a good idea?'

"Yes." Karkat stated firmly, "Jade invited me. Well…" he spun back to the window, "more like distracted me with her 'I want something' voice then tripped me with her guilt rope into the 'Sure I'll go' position."

"That didn't make any motherfucking sense," Gamzee pointed out, "But what motherfucking miracle convinced her to invite you?" Karkat had hoped his roommate would be too eager to play his game and would just drop it, but apparently he's too much of a curious fuck for that.

"'Cause her girlfriend was occupied tonight so she decided to invite me, alright?" he snapped, "Jegus, when did you become so fucking curious? While I'm at it, I might as well pour my while damn life fucking story." What the fuck was this asshole getting at?

Gamzee chuckled, "I already know most of that, best friend," he said shit like that just to piss him off, Karkat was sure of it, "But seriously, does that mean you and John are gonna stop being motherfucking pansies and just be friends again? Because that, my friend, would be one motherfucking miracle."

Karkat sighed heavily. Gamzee had been up in his face about the whole John thing for months now and he's about had enough of this clown's shit

He turned, "You know what, Gamzee, Fuck you. What about that shit with you and Tavros, huh? Let's just focus on that for a sucking second."

"Well-" Gamzee began, obviously more than willing to discuss the matter, which Karkat did not want to fucking do.

"Never mind, I don't fucking care. No more fucking matchmaker horseshit for you," he moved to the door and grabbed his jacket off the coat hanger," I'll see you later, fuckass."

"Careful in the-" the door slam cut him off. Karkat pulled on his jacket and walked out into the snow.

Fuck it was cold. And there was a lot more snow than he originally thought. And more wind. Fucking mother nature. Fucking December. Fucking Jade. Fucking John. Fuck. Fuck 'em all.

Damn it, he should have grabbed his hat and scarf. All he's wearing is his black turtleneck (Gamzee says it makes him look like a 'motherfucking tool' but Karkat happens to like it, so Gamzee can go fuck himself) and his poufy red jacket red jacket with faux fur lining the hood. It did little to repeal the cold, but it was better than nothing. He flipped up his hood, buried his hands in his pockets, and trekked through it. Sometimes, he wished he had a car.

The bus was the next best thing.

About three blocks away was the bus stop that would take him to Jade and John's. He waiting in the blizzard for what seemed like forever until the bus rolled up. He practically ran on when the doors opened. He brushed himself off, dropped coins into the receiver, and sat. When he checked his phone, he realized he was painfully on-time. The last thing he wanted was to roll into John "Dick-kicker" Egbert's little party on-time. It gave the impression that he cared.

But considering the circumstances, he had little choice.

Karkat jumped off the bus a few blocks from Jade and John's complex. The snow was already piled up past his damn ankles and had completely soaked through his good-for-nothing converse in a manner of minutes. He let out a groan. Never again, Jade. Never a-fucking-gain.

God, he felt like he barely made it to the complex without getting fucking frostbite. He swears, if anyone gives him a hard time, he'll kill 'em.

He checked his phone again. Dammit. Even with the slow going through that shitty blizzard, he's still on-time. Maybe he could have a quick smoke before he went in? Karkat stared at the complex for a while before deciding it wasn't the best idea. For one, it was cold as Satan's balls out here, and two, he had already promised Jade he would try to stop. But then again. He agreed to 'try.' And according to Yoda, there is no try.

Fuck. That's exactly some sort of shit John would say, the fucking fruity movie bastard. Fuck it, Karkat pulled out a cigarette just to spite him. Trying to light the damn thing was hard as fuck, though, with all the wind and shitty as fuck snow. After the fifth failed attempt, he gave up and decided to just hold it between his lips and nibble at the filter. He shoved his hands deep in his pockets and simply stood in the fucking cold developing frostbite just to avoid John for a few more minutes. It was immature. Karkat knew that as well as anybody. But fuck being the bigger person for now. It wasn't worth it.

"Karkat?"

He jerked his head in the direction of the familiar voice.

Kanaya stared back at him with concern. Rose stood closely next to her with that straight poker face she always has on. It annoyed Karkat to see her so in control of her emotions. He was always a bomb waiting to go off and wore his damn emotions on his sleeves for everyone to fucking see. He's sure that anyone on the street could just point at him and announce, 'Yeah, that fuckass is totally feeling sad as fuck right now.' It was the shittiest thing about his temper. No control. Whereas Rose seems to have snuck into his room at night, punched him in the dick, and took all of his emotional control just for the hell of it. To see him squirm. Fuck, now that's just paranoid and uncalled for. Rose was always decent to him. He needs to give her more slack than that.

"Karkat, are you feeling alright?" Kanaya continued when he didn't respond.

He jumped out of his thoughts, "Eh? Oh, yeah, fine as fuck…" he grabbed his cigarette out of his mouth and rolled his tongue over his lip ring, "You guys going to their fruity dinner party shit?" He gestured to the apartment complex.

"Yes, the invite was extended to us," Kanaya replied, "Though I do not believe the gathering will include the use of fruit. Or if it did, it was not revealed to us, nor was the intention of the use of the fruit, nor the-"

"Kanaya," Rose gave the smallest smile, "Ranting."

It was too fucking cute when they did shit like that. It made Karkat a little sick.

Rose turned her attention to him then, "Karkat, would you like to walk up with us?"

He was surprised by this. His response was equally flustered, "Oh. Uh. Gah. I'll just. I'll be up in a minute."

Rose nodded and without further discussion, the pair entered the complex and out of the blizzard.

Karkat sighed. He stuck his unlit cigarette back in his mouth. Shit, he was getting nervous. His stomach was starting to make flips and his heart was pounding in his ears. Fuck. This was it. He dropped his cigarette into the snow and turned to open the door to the apartment.

Oh, he had almost forgotten what it meant to be warm. He had been standing in that cluster-snow-fuck for so long; he had started to go numb. Why the fuck wasn't this gathering postponed due to the storm? It's the dumbest idea to travel across the fucking city in fucking blizzard shit. It's dangerous. What the fuck is John thinking? He's probably not thinking, actually, the asswipe.

Four floors up, left, second on the right. 407. Karkat remembered these directions from about a year or two ago. He and John would hang out a lot before their falling out. Karkat wasn't even sure exactly what fucking happened between the two of them. They had a little sexual experiment fun (on John's part. He was always sure that he wasn't gay when Karkat knew for a fact that the guy was as straight as a fucking rainbow. Karkat just had sexual fun that night) together after drinking once. The next morning, John started acting funny. Then they started seeing each other less and less, then one day, nothing. John wanted nothing to do with Karkat. This was the most hurtful thing anyone had done to him. He never got a proper fucking explanation from that dickwad and he would damn well like one.

But not tonight.

Tonight he had to behave for Jade.

He ran his hand through his dirty blonde hair and finally knocked at apartment 407.