I AM SO SORRY THIS IS SO LATE, YOU HAVE NO IDEA. IM ALSO SORRY BECAUSE I FEEL LIKE THIS CHAPTER IS INCREDIBLY SHITTY. GOMEN.
KARKAT'S POV:
I stared at the screen, eyes wide and mouth agape for what seemed like forever. Slowly, I caught Sollux's uninterested gaze. He stared back at me, emotionless. John stirred in my arms and I quickly looked down at this…this amazing, wonderful boy. How in the hell and all that is fucking holy did he get here? How did he manage? Did he have some kind of subconscious thoughts about Alternia that none of us had ever accounted for before?
"Jegus, Kk, stop gaping like a fish. An idiot could've figured this out." Sollux tsked at me and turned back to his coding. Growling in frustration, I snapped my teeth at the asshole, who did nothing but blatantly ignore me. He knew he was getting me riled up, and Gog DAMNIT did that make me fucking pissed as hell. I hated it when he pretended he was better than me, because I knew it was true. And I hated it when he was right.
"So what's so important about this guy anyways? The last time you saw him was what? When you were three sweeps old? Hardly old enough to fill any quadrants…he your matesprite?" and then he went and did shit that irritated the royal fuck out of me. Like surprise me with an absurdly embarrassing question. I desperately fought the blush rising in my cheeks, and decided to look from the computer troll's dichromatic eyes to John's closed lids.
"Pfft. No. and you should mind your own fucking business fuckass!" I growled out between clenched teeth. Sollux was silent for a moment, leaving an awkward silence to fall between us before he sighed and turned back around, away from me.
"No need to get defensive about it, Kk. I don't give two flying shits about your quadrants. Just thought I was entitled to a little information after giving all of my time to helping his cause." Sollux's voice led up in an innocent, light hearted banter; making the great and awful guilt rise into my throat like bile. I quickly through that idea out the flap chute and attempted to restrain myself from petting John's messy dark hair.
"Glad to hear it. And fuck you. You and I both know you could care less about my pink-fleshed companion here. Quadrant filler or not. Like I said before, you wouldn't be here if you were already getting something for it." I grumbled, adjusting my spot on the grey cement floor. I heard a devilish chuckle come from the troll above and looked in surprise to find the lispy-freaks' trademark grin spreading across his face. He looked at me over his shoulder, a dark expression in his blue-red eyes and jagged teeth.
"Oh Kk, if only you knew to the extent that being here is such a fucking pleasure. Ha. I can hardly fucking contain myself every time I see you walk through those dull, grey walls. You sick, sick little fuck!" okay. Just. Keep calm. Don't move. Don't fucking say anything.
Every time he spoke he made me want to plunge rusted daggers though my skull. Or his; both seemed gratifying outcomes. I wanted to just punch him in the fucking face and snap my teeth and scratch him with my claws and GOG. I fucking HATED that mother fucker! He made my mutant blood boil in my veins.
"I'm the sick little fuck?! You're the one creeping the fuck on every breathing organism on Alternia, you shitty pervert. All you ever do with your pathetic excuse of an existence is sit around these computers doing your shitty programming and annoying the FUCK out of every troll that has ever come into contact with you. At least I have a fucking CHANCE at red romance, unlike a certain lispy, four-eyed, yellow-blood we all know and fucking HATE." I growled out with menace and abhorrence dripping from my words. At the end of my rant, I was breathing heavier than usual, but upon looking into my hate-buddy's face for some sort of reaction, I found much, much more than I was looking for. Sollux's hands had stilled from the keyboard, but his fingers were trembling. The mustard-blood was staring down at his desk without seeing it; eyes wide and slightly…yellow? What? Was Sollux, the ice-king, lack of emotion, stoic-faced shit whole actually crying? Sollux clenched his hands into fists, turning so that his back was to me and I couldn't see his face at all.
"That was a low blow Kk, even for you." He said quieter than I'd ever heard him, voice void of emotion. It was then that I took into account what I'd said; and after looking into that, remembering what had transpired not half a sweep ago with a certain rust-blood and the mind-honey. I immediately regretted saying anything at all, and felt the repugnant guilt slide back up my burning throat.
"Shit Sollux. I…I didn't mean-" but he cut me off, standing up and chuckling bitterly.
"No Kk, I'm sure you didn't. Nobody ever does, but they do it anyway." He sighed and reached for the ceiling, stretching his back to the likeness of one of those human cat-creatures I'd seen.
"I'm going to go get something to eat. Have fun with your…human." He spat out before walking briskly out of the room. Running a hand over my face, I groaned. This was turning into one of the shittiest days ever. Why couldn't I keep my mouth fucking shut for once and not manage to royally fuckup literally everything?
The bundle of blue and grey in my lap stirred slightly before sitting up, blue eyes lidded and watery with drowsiness. I sighed, smiling gently to this perfect impossibility before me. John closed his eyes and shot me back a toothy grin. I chuckled and stood up, reaching out my disgusting grey hand for his own, beautiful one.
"Let's go home fuckass."
#O#
JOHN'S POV:
The world was spinning. At least, it felt like it was. There was a roar of wind and the fast-paced beating of my heart. I slowly came to a stop, just floating gently in the air. The pressure around my waist tightened considerably.
"J-John. Bring me the fuck downright the FUCK NOW!" I looked down to find a trembling grey mass clinging onto me for dear life. Chuckling, I wrapped my arms around the grumpy troll and pressed my nose into his unruly dark hair.
"I told you, I won't let you fall; you don't have to be afraid!" the boy just gripped me tighter, his claws digging into my skin.
"I don't give two flying shits, Egbert! Trolls are NOT meant to be floating around five million feet in the fucking air!" he looked down for a moment, his eyes widening before burying his face back in my tummy.
"Please take me back to the ground." His voice was muffled, but I could tell by the lack of volume that he really was scared. I smiled and gently patted his hair.
"Okay, if you insist." Wrapping my arms tighter around the candy-blooded matesprite of my dreams I dove for the ground, going as fast as I could possibly go.
"AHHHHHHHH! JOHN EGBERT WHAT THE FUCK SLOW DOWN SLOW DOWN OH JEGUS FUCK DON'T KILL ME FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!" I couldn't help but laugh; this was my favorite thing in the world. Being in the air, completely free, with the best person in the universe. Approaching the ground, I slowed and rooted my feet to the black dirt. My grey-skinned Knight-in-shinning-armor refused to let go.
"Hey. Hey we're back on Alternia! You can let go of me now!" There was a hesitation, and then a sigh of hot breath against my stomach.
"I know." When he kept his arms around me, I couldn't help but smile-my heart fluttering in my chest at a million miles a minute.
"Karkat…" I whispered into his hair, rubbing circles into his dark-clothed back. My grin widened as I heard his purr start up. Slowly, he unfolded his arms and stood up all the way, hands resting on my waist. Lifting his head, Karkat's blood-red eyes stared into my own. He didn't need to say any words. I knew what he was thinking. I felt my cheeks blush as I bent my head towards his, faces centimeters apart. His black lips twitch into a smirk.
"John." And as he pressed them to my own, I felt like my body was on fire. But not like when I'd been burning on Earth. This was completely different. The passion in my heart burned something fierce straight through me; a fire that could never, never be put out- as red and wonderful as the gleaming eyes of the boy I was kissing with all my might.
Karkat.
I awoke with a start, my breath caught in my throat and my lips feeling tingly. Smacking them together, I felt my cheeks heat. What was going on with my dreams lately? They'd all been so…vivid. I shuddered, looking around to gather where I was in the grogginess of sleep. Grey walls, pile of messy blankets and pillows, and the distinct sound of a sloppy, slushy splash to my left. I turned, spotting the giant recouperacon that housed my sleeping host. Karkat. I sighed, and remembering my dream, fell back into my collection of pillows.
It had been about a week since Karkat and I went to the lab. Seeing that again…it was like re-living it. Terrifying. I shivered, wrapping the blankets tighter around my person. And every day since then I'd had another dream. It was like my dream-self was punishing me for my utter disability to tell Karkat what I felt about him. Every dream was similar; they all involved the bright, red-eyed Karkat and some sort of lovey-dovey thing. It was infuriating. He, of course, was completely oblivious to my general charm and wooing- the whole knight-in-shining-armor-thing Kanaya told me about definitely wasn't working out.
"J-John…" I turned my head to find Karkat sitting up in his recouperacon, covered in slime and eyes groggy, but wide with fright. I quickly threw the blankets off me and strode over to his trembling mess. The grey-skinned boy's eyes were filled with blood-red tears as his arms reached out for me. I had to stand on my tippy-toes to reach him over the pod he slept in, but I managed to wrap my arms around his slippery torso. Did I forget to mention that Karkat had not failed once to wake up from some horrifying nightmare night in the past week as well? It was the strangest thing; he almost always woke up right after I did, though our reasons for wakefulness were quite different…
"You okay?" I asked, gently petting his slimy, black hair. There was a choked sob and he just shook his head into the nook of my shoulder. Karkat's red tears spilling over and falling onto my skin; it always made me feel helpless and heartbroken. He never told me what his dreams were about, and as soon as he would wake up again in the morning, acted as if the previous night's endeavors of comfort had never happened.
"Karkat, it was just a nightmare. You're fine now. Nothing's going to hurt you." My words did nothing if not make him cry harder. His sharp claws dug into the skin on my bare back making me wince, but I didn't dare pull away. Not for a second.
After a little while, his crying died down until he was silent. Neither of us pulled away from the slimy embrace, which honestly surprised me. We just stood there in silence for what seemed like forever. That is, until I felt my eyes begin to droop and my feet grow tired of stretching out for so long.
"Karkat, I have to go back to bed or I'm not going to be able to move in the morning." I said through a yawn. After the nubby-horned troll of my dreams remained quiescent for a period of time without response, I began to move out of the embrace. But just before I'd made it completely out of Karkat's grasp, I felt long, slippery fingers wrap around my wrist.
"Come sleep with me." I froze in my tracks. I knew that my mind must have been tired, because there was no way in hell I'd just heard that come out of his mouth. I cleared my throat, heart pounding in my chest so loud I was sure he'd be able to hear it.
"What?" I managed to squeak out. Karkat's grip on my wrist got tighter as he gently tugged at it, pulling me closer to him.
"Just...for tonight. I don't… I'm…I'm afraid." He whispered almost inaudibly. I took one look at his frightened expression, staring off into space as if reliving his dream, and broke. Karkat looked back up at me, eyes wide and red-rimmed once again. Oh Gog. Not the puppy dog eyes! That was MY move! Looking away, I found myself gnawing at my bottom lip in thought.
"But…how am I going to sleep in all that goo? And aren't you…" I gulped, my cheeks burning and for once I was so, so glad it was dark in his room. "naked?" I heard a sloshing and, upon looking up, was once again besieged by the sight of Karkat's round, grey ass in my face.
"Ah!" I squealed, slapping my hands over my eyes, cheeks on fire. Why did he keep on doing that?! The sloshing was heard again and a clearing of a throat.
"Jeez, you big baby. I'm fully clothed now." I cautiously lifted one hand from my eyes, and found that Karkat was, in fact, not "fully clothed", but he'd managed to put on a pair of dark green boxers with little red crabs sewn into them. I dropped my hands and stared at Karkat, who looked as tired as I felt. Jegus he is too adorable. I sighed, reaching my hands across to climb into the strange contraption.
I gasped as the surprisingly warm slime touched my feet, ankles, and then my knees. Slowly, I sat down in the green substance, knees pulled up to my chest. Karkat gave me a weird look as I adjusted to the strange feeling. Less than half my body was submerged in the liquid, but from what I could feel…it wasn't all that bad. The troll before me lifted his hands out of the slime, reaching towards me. I gingerly unfolded my legs and crawled over to the grey-skinned boy, allowing him to wrap his arms around me in a cocoon of warmth. The slime that sloshed over my body felt strangely soothing, and within seconds I was dosing off. But before I went under completely, I felt Karkat press a soft kiss to my forehead. And then I was out.
KARKAT'S POV:
I drowsily woke up to the feeling of another body moving around in my reacoupracon. I stiffened with fear in my groggy state before remembering the previous night's endeavors and the fact that it was only John. Slowly my eyes opened to see John, mouth hanging open and a slight dribble of drool trickling down his chin. I smiled to myself in his sleep-mounted state. Why was John so fucking precious? I lifted my hand out of the goo we were incased in to wipe the drool from his face, but succeeded only in smearing Sopor where the drool had been. I had to quickly cover my mouth to keep from laughing at his sorry state of sleep.
John slowly came to his senses, eyes moving behind closed lids and strange faces being made in reaction to whatever it was he was seeing with those ocean-blue orbs of his. I wrapped my arms around his pale body and nuzzled my face into his neck. I didn't care if he woke up and pushed me away out of disgust or shoved me in his "best bros" way; I just wanted to be close to him one more time in his oblivious mind where no words or weird looks could ever hurt me.
I felt him shift in my arms and his breath quicken into wakefulness. Then, to my great surprise, I felt equally slimy and warm limbs wrap around my own grey-skinned shell of horrid flesh and pull me closer to him. I gulped eyes wide open. Our bare chests were flush against each other, and I swore if my heart was beating any faster it would burst right out of my chest.
"Mmmmmmmmorning Karkat!" John's voice was chipper and smooth as his arms squeezed around my middle. I shook my head and growled as I sat up, removing myself from his firm grasp. I put on my best morning-grump face to hide the fact that I was still more than a little overwhelmed by John's response to my…cuddling with him. I shuddered and stretched my arms high above my head, arching my back into a much needed, drawn-out yawn.
"Yeah. I wish. Now get up I have to shower." I might've seen a flash of hurt cross his face for a moment, but I let it slide. It's better this way. John slowly sat up, putting his weight on his elbows and bringing his legs to his chest. He looked up at me from where I stood eyes wide and questioning.
"This enough room for ya?" I quickly looked away from his slime-covered body. It was strangely…attractive. I gulped and nodded my head before stepping out of my reacouperacon and heading to take a shower. This was getting to be too much to handle.
#O#
"Be my friend" I scrubbed the cleansing soap through my mass of goo-covered hair as I thought about the dream I'd had again last night.
"Hold me. Wrap me up~" Ever since I'd taken John to the lab, over a week ago, I'd had the same, reoccurring nightmare. It was always the same, always left me more terrified than I can think, and I always woke up to John, arms open wide.
"Unfoooold me~ I am small" When I was dreaming, it all felt so real. Every slash and cut bled and I felt pain. Every scream I made burned my throat. But when I woke up, all I could remember were the pain and the flames. And my wrists felt like they were cuffed together with burning iron. I don't know why I was always in so much pain in my dreams; I just remember being utterly terrified, with the worst kind of grief and sorrow burned deeply in the pit of my chest.
"And needy~" I closed my eyes as the hot, steamy water washed over my body, rinsing it clean of the goopy mess.
"Warm me up~" As the water relaxed my muscles I rolled my shoulders to relieve any tension in my back, letting my arms hang loose like limp noodles. Singing the haunting melody of Troll Sia helped to calm my inner turmoil and prevented me from thinking too much about last night's particularly terrifying ordeal.
"And breeeeeeathe me~" There was the sound of a door opening and I immediately froze in the shower, eyes wide.
"Uh…Karkat?" oh shit. Oh shit. He hadn't…heard me had he? Gog, I was terrible shower singing is the only singing and it's shitty and jesgus if he found out he'd cull me on the spot to rid his ears of the terrible noise.
"What the fuck do you want John! Can you not see I am under the abolution trap cleansing my body of the fowl liquid we both slept in?!" I cringed. My words didn't really help my situation at all. John was silent for a moment before I heard a scuffling on the tile floor.
"Yea, well, I'm covered in aforementioned goo as well. So I was wondering if I could hop in when you were done." He sounded agitated as he paced around my bathroom. Why did I always have to be such an asshole? Why couldn't this be easy like it is for everybody else?
"Yeah. Sure. I'm…almost done anyways." I sighed, rinsing off the rest of my body and turning off the water. I pulled back the shower curtain and peaked my head through to find John standing in the middle of my bathroom, arms folded over his bare, slime-covered chest clad in only his boxers and the glasses on his face. I fought to hide the heat creeping up my cheeks in reaction to his scantily clothed body and looked around for any kind of towel. And, of course, the only towel in sight was behind John on the other side of the room.
"Could you pass me the towel?" The goo covered boy reached behind him for the towel before throwing it in my direction. I just managed to catch it without letting go of the shower curtain and having John see me in all my naked glory. Not that there wasn't much he'd already seen… I thought bitterly to myself as I wrapped the towel around my waist and walked out. I showed John the ropes of the abolution trap and was about to walk out of the bathroom before he stopped me.
"Hey, could you stay in here? I want to talk." I gulped. He sounded serious. And John was almost never overly serious about anything without being happy or giddy about it.
"Only if you promise not check out this choice ass while I dry off and get changed." I heard john make a strangled noise and the dull thud of the soap bar falling to the ground and smirked in response.
"Wouldn't dream of it, Karkat." He said, voice slightly strained. I chuckled; at least I did one good thing to lighten the mood.
I started to dry off my body as John began to speak; "So I know that this is all, like, really impossible. And I don't know how I got here… but I'd like to try and become more…Alternian, I guess? I want to meet other people and make new friends and stuff. I mean, it's not like I ever got to do shit like that on Earth. I just had my best bro, Dave…" John trailed off after that, and I put on my pants in silence. So he wanted to make new friends? I frowned and pulled my arms through the sleeves of my favorite turtle neck sweater. Where would that leave me?
"Well I can't really say I'm all that much of a fucking social butterfly, I mean, I really don't hang out with people at all…I'm not really a people-person." I said quietly, hoping he secretly wouldn't hear me and just continue on his own conversation like he sometimes does. John didn't say anything for a little while, and I was afraid I'd made him angry until he turned off the water and poked his head out from behind the curtain.
"Could we go visit Terezi? Just like the good old days when the three of us would hang out together?" I was going to say no. no because Terezi would just end up telling John about a million embarrassing things about me and she'd lick him to oblivion, trying to guess his favorite color or some shit. But the look in John's eyes of hope and…renewal; like he had something again, a new life, a fresh start- it was something I'd always wish I could have and I envied him that he got this chance. So there I was, nodding my head and relishing in the buck-toothed grin of ecstatic glee that he gave me in response and I thought, hey. Maybe I don't fuck up as much as I thought.
"Hey Karkat…I need a towel."
ERM, YEAH. So I'm sorry again, I really don't like how I ended this but I needed to get it out AND. It was necessary for the next chapter which will actually have some kind of plot development eventhoughitprobablywontseem likeitgomengomengomen. Sorry again it's so late everybody! Please leave a review letting me know what ya thought.