"Karkat."

"What in name of the Dolorosa could you possibly want? You have been calling my name over and over, this being the hundredth time, and each time I ask what you need, you don't say anything!" Karkat ranted. "You just give a wistful fucking sigh that doesn't explain shit or anything else that I could possibly infer from. What is on your mind, Sollux?"

Sollux let his eyes flick over to his student and gave him a toothy grin before answering, "Just messing with you, KK."

"Don't call me that," Karkat bit back, fighting down the involuntary flush that was creeping up his neck. "It'll become a bad habit and it's going to get us into a huge ass clusterfuck of a mess one day."

"Alright, but seriously now, Karkat," Sollux said, his expression falling flat, "I have a staff meeting today, so we can't hang in my room while you wait for first period to start."

"That's fine," his student replied. "I'll just go sit with Tavros and talk about feelings like that broken hearted asshole always wants to."

"Is that who you spend your time with during school?"

"Yeah, and he's always talking about his matesprite problems. Looks like he's got a new one too, so I guess we'll be wasting a lot of time," Karkat said. "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine."

The yellow blood tossed a glance at his student before looking to the road again.

"If you insist…"

Sollux couldn't help but fidget slightly in his seat. He honestly hated staff meetings because he was forced to interact with all of the other instructors at Alternia High, and really, he had no desire to. All of the teachers were several sweeps older than he was, almost all of them even ten or fifteen sweeps older. The only ones even remotely close to his age were Aradia and a green-blooded art teacher who had been hired half a sweep ago.

The art teacher had just walked in with a light teal blooded teacher and she smiled at him, as did the other teacher.

"Captor," the teal blood said, nodding.

Sollux, for the life of him, could not remember his co-worker's name, and simply nodded in response, giving the green blood beside him an exasperated look. She only shrugged, and he inwardly sighed in frustration as the teal blood frowned in disapproval. At least, the psionic thought, he came off as arrogant, rather than ignorant.

The green-blooded art teacher took a seat beside him and joined the rest of the instructors who patiently waited for Aradia to enter, who couldn't come soon enough. But when she did, she walked in with a grace that Sollux bet the other teachers could have sworn made her look as if she was merely drifting. Only Sollux knew that it was partially because her psychic powers tended to leak and she subconsciously lifted herself off of the ground at times. He was relieved, because that meant that she was slightly impatient and that meant that the meeting would be at least a minute shorter…

"Alright, my fellow co-workers," Aradia said. "Let us begin this meeting."

"Karkat, you're so, uhh… lucky," Tavros commented, playing with a leaf that had fallen into his lap as his cheeks flushed dark brown. Karkat had learned long ago that it was just what happened when the orange blood gave someone a compliment, but it was Tavros' actual words that made him touchy.

It made him frown.

"Whoever told you that is a fucking liar and should burn in the baking heat of Alternia's sun rays for at least a good sweep or two. Why do you say that?" Karkat answered gruffly.

"Huh?" Tavros looked up quickly and began to wave his hands in defense, as if for fear of his safety, and immediately began to object. "N-no! I didn't mean it! No, I didn't mean, uhh, that. Like, it's not- uhh…"

"Calm down, bro," Karkat said quietly. "You're allowed to explain yourself."

"Sorry…" Tavros said. "It's just that I just realized you're always bundled up when you go to school. You must almost be, uhh… a noble blood. You must be living a good life."

How ironic… Karkat thought bitterly, running a hand over his stomach. Then he caught himself in the act and let his hand casually fall to the side.

"But it doesn't matter what color your blood is! You're always going to be my friend, but only if, uhh, you want me to be your friend that is…"

"Tavros, you've seen my hive, remember? I'm nowhere near to even being an atom's worth of close to high blood," Karkat cut in. "I live in a tiny, almost run down, piece of crap that doesn't even deserve mention."

"Oh, that's right, huh…" Tavros looked down and played with his leaf again. "Well, that's, uhh… that changes what I was going to say!" He laughed a little. "I was going to, uhh, kinda… say that I don't have anything against high bloods and, uhh… tie in with my new matesprite." Karkat watch his face light up at mentioning this new relation and he could feel some envy in his heart, though not enough to stop the smile that tugged at his lips. He was happy for Tavros.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah… and, uhh, that kinda why I thought you were close to a noble blood, cause he knew you, but uhh, you still go here… I forgot about your house," Tavros answered, laughing nervously. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it. Now who's the fuckass that claims to know me?" Karkat asked. He only knew two highbloods mutually, both of them made him want to cringe and neither of which Karkat had ever mentioned to Tavros, despite the orange blood having been a key player in his escape of a particular subjuggulator.

"Well, uhh, Karkat, he really did seem to know you," Tavros said. "I mean, he even told me to give you this note because he knew you so, uhh, well. He said he hasn't talked to you in a while and he thought it'd be a great way to get back in contact with you."

He shifted slightly in his wheelchair to pull a folded piece of paper out of his pocket, which Karkat took with a suspicious look on his face and a nervous feeling in his stomach.

"G-go ahead and read it," the orange blood encouraged. "It was, uhh, meant for you anyways."

Karkat nodded slowly and began to open it, anxiety and dread combining nauseatingly as he did so. The color made him want to choke. The words made him want to scream.

"HEY MOTHERFUCKER. "

"His name is, uhh, Gamzee Makara."

Sorry if you find any mistakes in here. I didn't have time to edit it all that much. Also, sorry for the delayed update, that was not an April Fool's joke. My internet crashed last night at midnight and then I just said "fuck it" and left it until now.