Thank you everyone who has been reviewing and alerting this! I would have stopped a long time ago if it weren't for you guys. A longer chapter this time to compensate for the really short one last time. Enjoy!

Karkat finished drying his hands and tossed away the damp paper towel into the trash bin. He could only see it because of the flashlight someone had left on the counter that he decided to turn on, stand up on its end and use as the conksuckiest lamp he'd ever seen. He figured why the hell not. It was probably left there for this fucking purpose anyway.

He reexamined the small stain on the bottom of his shirt and gave another frustrated sigh. Fucking great. He couldn't wear his favorite shirt anymore. Excellent, "So what the fuck do you want?" He asked, still staring at the stain. It really bothered him that he got cum on it. He didn't even have anyone to stick the blame to, really. He couldn't be mad at Kanaya. That would be unfair as fuck. She didn't mean to make you stain your shitty favorite shirt, and you didn't mean to jump four feet in the air and run sweater-first into cum. But maybe it didn't look that bad. Maybe it just looked like a bit of bleach got on it or something…

Oh, who was he kidding? It was so obviously a semen sweater. Dammit.

"I wanted to discuss with you what recently transpired in John and Jade's apartment," Kanaya began, also eyeing the stain. There was a tinge of guilt in her eyes, but she didn't apologize for the condition of the shirt.

Karkat looked at her finally, "Why? I thought it was pretty self explanatory."

She continued, "John seems rather upset about the whole thing-"

"He doesn't have any damn right to be upset!" Karkat blurted. He couldn't help it, he was furious. John was upset? He could suck it the fuck up. He had cut Karkat as deep as the fucking Grand Canyon, and 'he feels bad?' No. That was bullshit, "He brought this upon himself after he was a complete and utter asshole to me,"

"That's a little unfair-" Kanaya tried to say, but Karkat cut her off again.

"What's unfair his how he treated me, Kanaya. Or has everyone forgotten that?" he flung out his hands in some sort of grand gesture to imply emphasis, but he was pretty sure he just looked like a dumb-as-fuck bird.

Anger started to swell in her voice as she spoke again, "You are acting incredibly childish, Karkat."

"I'll act as childish as I fucking want!"

In through the door burst Jade. She immediately began shouting back, "Calm your fucking ass, Karkat, before I calm it for you!"

"What the hell are you doing in a dude's bathroom?" It was the only think he could think of to shout back. He isn't too quick on the draw.

"Who fucking cares? You need to stop taking out your anger on poor Kanaya and listen for a damned second!" Jade shut him up. Despite her mostly sweet as shit temper, she's especially talented at fighting fire with fire when it comes to Karkat. When he gets this angry, he only responds with a dominate show of forceful fuckery. And Jade had that down to a damned 't.'

Silence proceeded over the restroom. Jade's face relaxed, seemingly letting go of all the anger she just displayed and returned to her normal mild manner, "Now. Let's talk, shall we?" She turned her head to Kanaya, "Kanaya, would you like to say something? Without interruption?" she gave Karkat an intense side-eye upon her final words.

Kanaya recomposed herself as well, "I am just concerned about the current situation and I want to clarify Karkat's end of the story,"

Karkat opened his mouth to speak, but quickly closed it upon Jade's glare, "Would you like to say anything else Kanaya?"

"No," She said, "I would rather hear Karkat's explanation and brainstorm on ways to fix this."

"I shouldn't-" Karkat began, but was immediately met with Jade's forceful, "Shoosh, you," He grumbled at being treated like a fucking snot-nosed child, but then, he was acting like one, so it was only fair, he supposed.

"Now I would like to say something," Jade began, folding her hands around each other, "Karkat, I know John hurt you, but he didn't mean to. He won't say it because he's bad with talking, but he cares about you and he is sorry," Karkat couldn't help but try to interrupt, but was cut off, "And I know it doesn't mean anything coming from me, because you want to hear it from him. I want you two to talk and get this over with. I think I will be speaking for everyone when I say this is ridiculous and has gotten out of hand. So get the fuck over yourself."

Harsh. But Karkat no longer had words to say. Jade was completely right. He was being stupid. Everything about today, everything about this situation, was completely idiotic and incredibly childish. He was twenty-fucking-four, for heaven's fucking sake, he needed to stop holding stupid grudges. God, he hated himself now. He just wanted to crawl in a hole and die. But that's the only thing he ever did. Crawl in his hole and ignore the world and focus on his own petty problems that don't matter. Nothing about him mattered, really, and he doesn't really give a shit about himself. Yet Jade and Kanaya care about him. And John apparently cared. He didn't understand this. What was he worth? Headaches and arguments? That' all he's good for.

"Karkat?"

He realized he had been staring at his feet for a long time. He jossled himself from his thoughts and looked up. The two women before him watched with worried faces.

They cared.

That was good enough for him.

"I'll go talk to John,"

He moved past the pair and darted out of the bathroom as dramatic as all fucking get-go, only to stop in his tracks because it was fucking dark everywhere. Why does he keep forgetting that one needs light to fucking see?

The proceeded cautiously after that, but still at a quicker-than-a-grandma pace. He reached 407 without tripping over the dark and hesitated. What if John didn't want to talk to him anymore? What if he was happy about this whole thing? Oh God, that was stupid to think, too. Karkat was being a fucking idiot. Jade had just reassured him that everything would be fine. But it didn't stop the knots from forming in his stomach. Speaking of Jade, he was surprised that she and Kanaya were not following him. Or perhaps they were, and he just hadn't noticed.

Thunder struck. He heard a yelp from beyond the door and only assumed that had to be Terezi. That or John's dog. It was a little hard as shit to tell, actually.

He raised his fist to knock, but stopped again. He realized that the door was probably unlocked. He debated storming into the room and demanding to speak with John in private. But considering how rude he had been earlier, he decided that that wasn't the best course of action here. Maybe he should just wait for John to come to him?

So he just stood there like a fucking incapable asshole with his knuckled hovering inched from the surface of the door. He chewed on his lip ring as he stared at his shoes. His toes were cold, he realized. Fucking storm. Fucking snow. Fuck.

The door flew open and Karkat jumped back. Dave stood on the other side of the threshold. Without his sunglasses on. It was strange to see Dave without them, because he squints slightly at everything in order to try to put things into focus. Karkat guesses that it must have gotten too dark for him to see properly with them on.

"Sup." Dave gave him a nod.

Karkat just looked at him.

Dave leaned on the doorway as he continued, "You ready to stop being a dripping ass tampon? Because I am. No one likes shit drenched menstruation products."

"Shuttup, that's fucking gross, dude." Karkat pushed past Dave and into the living room, "And yes, I'm done being an assweed."

"Good," Dave closed the door, "because John's waiting for you in his room 'cause he's sulking in his room like a fucking baby. I mean what the fuck is this, elementary school? Jesus, you two need to sort out your buttsores like adults."

"I told you to shut the fuck up, Dave, I fucking get the damn point,"

"Just sayin'," He went to sit at the coffee table with Rose and Terezi, who had cards sprawled out between them. He wrapped his arm around Terezi, who was nestled in a blanket, and rubbed her back affectionately.

Karkat rolled his eyes and turned around to walk down a small hallway and knocked on the last door on the right before he could have second thoughts.

John opened the door. All that could be seen was a silhouette.

"CanIcomein?" Karkat asked quickly enough so that the phrase sounded like one word. He was nervous. Really nervous. What if he fucks this up again? He has a temper like the fires of hell itself and everyone knew that. What if he explodes again and John won't give him any more chances?

Fuck. He ran his teeth on his lip ring again.

"Yeah, sure," John's silhouette stepped back to let Karkat in.

He brushed past John. His heart jumped. They were so close to each other. But he didn't just want a graze of shoulders. He wanted touching. He wanted his hands on John's neck and hips and chest. He wanted to throw those dorky hipster shit glasses across the room and mess up that kid's hair.

Shit, he was getting hard. That was not the objective here.

John closed the door, "Take a seat, or something. Or stand. I guess it doesn't really matter, considering it's pitch fucking dark in here…" John scratched his neck anxiously, "I could…get a candle? Or whatever…" He trailed off again.

"That would be nice. Considering I can't fucking see." Karkat replied. It was a little more gruff than he had intended. And it seemed to scare John, considering be practically bounded out of the room to get a source of light.

When John returned with a flashlight, he did as Karkat had done earlier and made it function like a lamp, then turned to Karkat, who took a seat on the edge of the bed, "What did you want to talk about?"

Karkat took a brief glace around the familiar, rather untidy room. Posters of various movies covered the walls and random nerdy memorabilia was scattered about the place. It smelled nice, though. Clean. Like John always did.

"I wanted to say sorry," Karkat spit out without looking to John, "And I want to hear your side," He finally made eye contact, "What the hell happened? I'm really fucking confused about this whole stupid thing and I'd rather it be over."

John stood for a second, then sat beside Karkat, "I'm confused, too, dude. I didn't know what to do, you know?" He paused, wringing his hands in his lap, "You were always so sure about…your sexuality. And I've just learned that I might like the dick and I don't know how to deal with that."

"You don't really know how to deal with anything," Karkat blurted out. Fuck, he's too good at being accidentally mean.

"Thanks, asshole," John shot back, "Anyway, Vriska and I were dating for a long time, and then she just dropped this breakup on me, and I was emotional. Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming her. She did what she had to do, and I don't hold any grudges. She did what was best for her, and I can't be mad at her for that. I'm not really mad at anyone-"

"Holy shit, I didn't want to hear your ramblings about your whole life fucking story," Karkat interrupted. Damn, he'd done it again.

"It's important, okay? Now shut up. When we had our…thing…I didn't know how to respond, okay? I didn't realize I cared about you that much. And I've been struggling with what we are for a long time. And it's hard to figure out on my own," John put his head in his hands like he was ashamed, "I'm so sorry, dude. This is so stupid. I should have just talked to you,"

"Why didn't you?" Karkat asked softly. He hadn't known. He just thought John was being a dick. He should have known better. John wasn't a dick. Not on purpose, anyway. He looked out for people. He's just bad at doing that for himself.

"I didn't want you to be upset, or I was embarrassed, or I thought you wouldn't want anything to do with me, or whatever the fuck I was thinking," John removed his face from his palms and looked at Karkat, "I just wanted to try and fix it on my own and it didn't work. I just fucked it up. I fucked everything up. I'm not worth your time anymore, and I underst-"

Karkat grabbed John's face and kissed him. Their lips smashed together with a driving force that Karkat wanted to continue, because John felt good against him and he bet that his tongue would feel even better. But he pulled away quickly. He didn't want to scare John away again, "You talk too much."

John gave him a toothy smile, "I think I like you, dude."

Karkat's lip twitched up into the smallest of smiles, "I like you, too, fuckass."

John's eyes flickered downward, "Your hard on is showing. Want me to fix that?"

"Yes. Please."