As he searched his closet, Sollux was frustrated to find that he was having difficulty finding Karkat pants that would fit. Karkat was shorter, and seemed to be thin enough, but Sollux knew that with the wriggler in his abdomen, it would be any of his jeans on him uncomfortable fit. In the end, all he could really find was a white and black jacket and another sweater similar to what he had been wearing the previous day, with no change of pants for him. Sollux supposed that it was the best they could do at the moment. It would keep Karkat warm at the very least.
He took the two jackets and headed back to the bathroom to find that Karkat had not moved. He was sitting on the floor where Sollux left him, looking up wordlessly from his place amongst the tiles. Sollux looked into his eyes and felt the pressure of unspoken trust weigh on his shoulders. He really couldn't mess up now, now that Karkat's road back.
Kneeling down, Sollux put the close beside them and shifted so he could help Karkat take off his jacket, and Karkat let him, shivering when the article of clothing was tossed aside and his arms were left bare. The shirt that Karkat was wearing looked like it was once a long-sleeved shirt, once had a high neck collar, once was a regular shirt. Now the sleeves were torn off by the seams at his shoulders, the collar that had once been now strips of ragged cloth limply hanging about the base of his neck.
Sollux didn't say anything about the damage he saw on Karkat's exposed skin. Not a word of the bruises, the gashes, the punctures, the grid of scabs where skin broke in uniform from rough scrapeage, the ridged marks where claws had been dug into his wrists. It made his blood boil in anger and frustration, that he didn't notice before it happened. His student was just too good at hiding his pain.
But Karkat had already told him everything, and that was all he needed to know.
Sollux gave a light tug at the hem of Karkat's shirt, pulling it up a little, waiting for Karkat to comply before carefully pulling it off over his head when he raised his arms. He expected to see more signs of damage, and he did find more large bruises on his back, but to his surprise, the red blood's abdomen and chest were undamaged and untouched. Unchanged, except for the once-define lines of his muscles smoothing out into a light curvature, a growing sign of what was maturing beneath the surface. But Sollux didn't dwell on it, simply holding out the jacket for Karkat to put on.
Of course, his symbol was sewn onto it, right over the chest, and Karkat looked at it curiously.
"Yeah, you get to wear my symbol," Sollux said, with a false sigh, "just don't tell anybody about it, okay?"
He could've sworn he heard Karkat scoff.
"Don't worry, I won't," was his student's reply. "Don't flatter yourself," he added.
That got Sollux to smile, handing Karkat the black sweater to put over the jacket.
"Hurry up," he said lightly. "I'll have to show you how to get out of my house in case of emergency or something obscene like that."
"Whatever you see fit to do 'O Psychic One,'" came Karkat's muffled voice through the sweater's material.
Chuckling, Sollux exited the hygieneblock to change in his respite block, tossing the sopored clothing into a basket by the door and changing into fresh clothes, pulling his nightstand drawer open and tossing himself his keys telekinetically on his way out. He was careful to move all of the gaming grubs under his husktop desk and cover the "incident" with Karkat's blanket when he met the red-blood coming out of the hygiene block.
"Are we going to leave before the eternity ends?" Karkat asked.
"We'll have to see when we leave," Sollux said, giving him a shrug. "Eternity has the tendency to end whenever it pleases," he added with a smirk. Sollux led Karkat to the opening of his hive, holding his arms out of Karkat as he turned his back to the darkened sky just outside.
Karkat tentatively approached him like he did the other night, wrapping his arms around his shoulders again, careful not to endanger Sollux's throat in the process. "You really need to get a hive door," he commented.
"Don't feel like it," Sollux answered, holding Karkat around his waist. He gently lifted the two of them off the floor and out of the entrance, slowly descending to the car waiting below. "Hive doors are overrated. All they do is keep the breeze and supposed animals out. At the high rise of my hive, I don't believe that any type of disturbance has required me to shut or cover the gaping hole that is my entrance. Sure, maybe the stray dragon lusus would fly in and ask me for directions, but I think that's it."
Dragon lusus… Karkat thought. Sounds familiar…
"Besides, how would you feel if you knew I had to somehow open the door from fifty feet up while I'm still holding us?" Sollux continued.
"I would trust that you were competent enough not to drop us," Karkat scoffed. "I would be highly disappointed if that weren't within range of your inherent abilities."
"Really?" Sollux questioned, letting his embrace loosen slightly. Karkat gasped and his muscles tensed to hold tighter. Sollux held them steady against the breeze he had anticipated, keeping their path straight while the wind ran through their hair. "Don't worry, I have you– Because psychic powers do much to manipulate physical attributes, and there's only so much I can do with these abilities."
"Asshole," Karkat muttered.
"I still think that my gaping hole is better in any case," the psionic chuckled.
When they touched down on the floor at last, Karkat had a clear scowl on his face, something that Sollux was greatly relieved to see, and he didn't hesitate to cross over to the passenger side door.
"The eternity is waiting, Captor," Karkat mentioned with mock impatience. "I think that school's time is more relative to how much we're taking."
"I didn't think you knew how to wait," Sollux laughed.
Pray tell, who knew I'd make all of you wait until the very last minute?
I want to ask you, my attentive readers, are you alright or uncomfortable with a small time skip? Maybe just a week or two occasionally at most in the story.