You guys! Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed/alerted this story. You guys seriously make my day! You make me want to keep going. Now the point of view changes a couple of times in this chapter, but I tried to make it as fluid as possible. Let me know.

To Karkat's dismay, it was John who opened the door.

Fuck, he looked good. Like, really fucking good. Karkat had always thought John was attractive, but damn, he had forgotten just how flustered John Egbert could make him. He had boyish charm about him and had about three inches on Karkat's meager as fuck five foot eight. He wore some hipster-influenced bullshit: a fucking grey v-neck with a green cardigan. Seriously? What the fuck was he thinking when he dressed himself? But, strangely, it seemed to suit him, especially with those thick black rimmed glasses of his. And plus, it showed off the tip of his chest tattoo, which was starting to turn Karkat on a bit.

Fuck. No. Absolutely not, Karkat. You will not fucking fall for that tool again, he had to remind himself firmly.

"Oh, hey," John said awkwardly with a painfully false smile.

Karkat didn't really say anything. He just sort of stared. Like a fucking moron. Only the sound of Jade from within the apartment tore him from his thoughts, "Karkat! I'm so glad you made it!" She practically shoved past John (to Karkat's amusement) and was about to go in for a hug when she stopped, "Jeez, you're completely soaked! Come in and shed some of those wet things so I can throw them in the dryer for you."

She practically dragged Karkat in giving him no fucking choice on the matter, shoving John out of the way again. Jade forcibly removed his jacket and opened a cabinet that revealed a washer and dryer stacked on top of each other. Karkat always thought that was the weirdest fucking place to put the laundry room, but there was really no other place to keep that sort of stuff. He was so glad his place had an actual damn room for those appliances, even if it didn't have bedrooms. She opened the bottom machine and tossed in his jacket, "Come on, take off those shoes. And socks while you're at it," she demanded as she fumbled in the closet for what he could only guess was a dryer sheet.

"I'm gonna, ya know, check on the food," John announced before moving past Karkat. He had almost forgotten the fucker was standing there. Right next to him. It was the closest they had been in…he don't even remember how damn long. Either way, he was glad John was on the other side of the apartment, even if it was only a small distance.

"Come on," Jade urged again, "I can even get you some change of clothes if you want."

"What? No!" Karkat immediately protested, "I am not stripping to my fucking boxers in the middle of your living room. What do you think this is, a peep show? Am I the entertainment now?"

"Calm down, jeez," she laughed, "I was just offering. Now hurry and give me your shoes and socks."

She had become very good at brushing off his bullshit. It was comforting in a way, he guessed, even if outwardly he demonstrated frustration instead of gratitude. 'Cause he's just fucking better at being frustrated. It's familiar.

So Karkat bent and untied his shoes and kicked them off in Jade's general direction. As she gathered them, he hopped on first one foot then another to remove his socks. He looked like a damned fool while doing this, but he tried not to give a shit. It wouldn't be the first time he looked like a fucking dipshit and it sure as hell wasn't going to be the last.

Oh. Christ. Jade had just invited Karkat to undress in their living room.

With him looking all scruffy and good.

In that turtleneck that he loved.

With a new piercing that he found himself wanting to roll his tongue over.

Wait. No. Damn. This is Karkat we're talking about here. No thoughts like that, John. Stop that. This instant, he tried to remind himself.

But the more he tried to push out those very thoughts, the more he actually thought about it. God, this was going to be a long night.

"I'm gonna, ya know, check on the food," John dismissed himself awkwardly. He scurried into the kitchen as fast as possible.

Damn it, he shouldn't have answered the door. He totally thought it was going to be Dave and Terezi, not Karkat Vantas. He wasn't sure if he could do this. Karkat revives thoughts and feelings that confuse John's poor mind. This is why they stopped communicating a long time ago. John didn't know how to deal with this sort of stuff. He's bad at feelings. He's even worse with talking about them. He'd rather just ignore the problem than confront it. It's terrifying, and people could easily get hurt. But he thought maybe that mindset is what made this so complicated in the first place.

No, 'maybe' is the wrong word. He meant 'sure as damn sunshine.'

He opened the oven to pretend he was actually doing what he excused himself for. Then closed it again without really looking at the ziti. Then tossed the salad for the fifth time. All while listening to Jade and Karkat talk in the other room.

"Troubles?" came a much close voice.

John turned. Rose stood in the eating area just next to the kitchen, looking a little concerned. She doesn't often reveal her emotions like that, so John knew that she knew that this was kind of def con red.

But instead of admitting that, he put on a smile, "Yeah, I'm fine. I'll be fine."

"'I am fine' and 'I will be fine' are two separate things," Rose pointed out. "Which one is it?" Damn, she's too good at that reading-people-therapy thing. He should know he couldn't hide anything from Rose no matter how hard he tried. But that didn't seem to stop him.

He let out a rather long sigh, "I am. And will continue to be. Fine, that is."

Rose eyed him. "Right. Whatever you say. I just want you to know that I can see right through that guise, sir, and I know that you are far from fine," She then said more softly and less motherly, "I'm here for you, alright?"

John was taken aback. Rose rarely gets sentimental like that. "Well, thanks," was the only reply John could think of.

With that, Rose left him to his kitchen. And his thoughts.

Oh no, he did not want to be alone with those. He abandoned the salad back in the refrigerator and moved back into the living room. Even if it occupied Karkat, it was better than sitting alone confusing himself.

The three guests and the other host were commencing in idle chit-chat mostly fueled by Jade and Kanaya. Once the pair of them starts something like that, there's no stopping them. They could keep a conversation going to hours, and while sometimes it was nice in awkward situations such as these, it has the potential to get annoying pretty fast.

In this particular case, John was thankful.

Jade almost immediately acknowledged him when he entered, "So when's dinner served, cook?"

"Oh, it's almost done," John reported, "But I would rather wait until Dave and Terezi get here. Did they send a text to you about not coming or being late or something?"

"John, it's only five after. You know Dave likes to be 'ironically late,' whatever that means," she waved away his concern. But the snow was getting really bad outside. What if they were stuck or hurt?

But John didn't mention this. He instead swallowed these concerns and agreed with Jade that he was being paranoid.

Jade then turned back to the company and asked Rose about school, and the conversation went off from there. John didn't follow it, instead he spaced off at the snow, or the wall, or anything other than Karkat, who seemed to also be doing the same thing. But he found himself wanting to look. Wanting to stare, actually. Karkat appeared to be less well kept than John remembered him, but that 'I don't give a fuck' look worked for him.

This went on for about five minutes longer, probably more. It definitely felt like more. At one point, he and Karkat caught each other's eye then quickly looked away. What was this, middle school? Seriously, this was getting ridiculous, but he certainly didn't want to be the one to break the ice. Confrontation. Still an issue.

John was so relieved when a knock finally came at the door. He jumped up and walked to the door a little too fast and ended up startling the group. He threw open the door to Terezi and Dave. Thank the Lord.

"Sorry we're late," Dave greeted, inviting himself in with Terezi's arm slung around his, "Genius here decided to get her tongue frozen to a light post," He gestured to Terezi.

"Hey, screw you. It seemed like a great life experience that everyone should have," Terezi defended. Her argument was weak as hell, but everyone seemed to ignore it, "So, we got the usual crew here today?" she asked. She asked these types of questions frequently. She likes to know who's around and such considering her vision is impaired. Her predicament was strange. She's not completely blind, but she has intense blurry tunnel vision that would take lens the sizes of fists to repair. Not like Dave doesn't have his own vision problems being albino and all. He just covers it up with apathy and sunglasses.

"Close," Jade replied, standing, "Except Karkat replaced Feferi tonight. She had unavoidable work. Can I take coats? I'm already drying Karkat's things, I can throw yours in, too,"

"Ooh, Karkat? I haven't seen that kid in forever. Show yourself, ya tricky hobbit," Terezi demanded, taking off her coat and holding it in front of her. Jade took it as well as Dave's and began fumbling with the dryer again.

"I'm not a hobbit! You're just tall, okay?" Karkat shouted from his place on the couch.

Terezi turned, "Aah, there you are. How've you been, buddy?" As she spoke to him, Dave guided her to a seat and whispered for her to sit, then began to remove her shoes for her.

Dave was always sweet to her. He never treated anyone else that way, not that John ever saw. They weren't even officially dating and he treated her like a queen. Sure he could still be is dry and sarcastic self to her and she always responded with something spicy, but at the end of the day, they adore each other. It was almost painful to watch because John wanted that.

Karkat and Terezi proceeded to have their catch up conversation, he complaining about working at the university and Terezi mentioning not knowing what to do with her life. He watched as Dave walked up to Rose and asked, "Wassup, sistah?" and they did their sibling fist-pound thing. When Jade had finished with the laundry, she continued speaking with Kanaya about whatever subject they had left off on.

And John simply sat. He didn't want to interrupt the other conversations, though he was pretty curious about what Dave had been up to recently. Instead he discreetly stood and walked back to the kitchen. He pulled out the ziti and the salad and began to set up the table while the others conversed. He tried not to think as he did this. But it failed. He was just feeling kind of alone. He usually didn't mind being the only one not paired up, but today it was hitting him really hard. Mostly because Karkat was here. And John knew that things between them were messy because of him. Maybe it was guilt that was settling in his stomach. But he didn't really know exactly what part to feel sorry for.

"Hey. Fuckass."

John jumped. Karkat was leaning in the doorway to the kitchen with his arms crossed. He wasn't looking at John and seemed to be blushing ever so slightly. He brushed his tongue over his lip ring nervously before asking, "Do you need help?"