Still own absolutely nothing in this fanfiction.

-3 weeks later-

Karkat continued to explain to John what his 'wet dream' was like. John rolled his eyes behind his glasses as he stacked some games on the shelves before sighing loudly. "I think you've told me enough about Eridan and you having a spy movie-esque romance in your dreamy and steamy moments." Karkat frowned and sighed, leaning on the counter where his register was. "Well, you said you could explain the whole point of this shit. What the hell was it again, a wet dream?" He inquired to the other and sighed as he thought about Eridan again.

John looked to the other from putting up games and shook his head. "Yes, a wet dream. And it just means you had a sexual dream about someone you really like to either a point of climax or at least heavy arousal." He was calm in talking about it despite Karkat's blushing cheeks. "Honestly though, I didn't think the hipster fish boy was your type." To this Karkat frowned and almost glared at John. "What the hell is that supposed to mean? And what's with that tone of voice?" He asked with an offended expression. John was actually in shock the other was so pissy with him, considering the good mood the other had been stuck in as of late. "What tone of voice?"

"Don't play fucking stupid with me John; you know exactly what I mean." John glared to the other and scoffed. "No, I actually fucking don't. I just didn't think he was your type, especially with how abusive all of you were to him!" Karkat straightened up, and with the red tinting the tips of his ears it was obvious he was rather mad. "I was not abusive to him! And who the hell are you to judge who I do and don't like?" John stormed over to Karkat and slammed his hands on the counter. "You can stop raising your voice at me for one thing, and for another I thought I was one of your best friends! And like hell you weren't! You all picked on him all the time. ALL THE FUCKING TIME! I'm surprised he even agreed to do this. I think he is just using you to fill his quadrant so he doesn't feel like such a failure and I think you are leading him on with some temporary romance that might not even be real!" The two of them began a practical screaming match at each other. Thankfully it was a slow day and no one was in. However, their manager came in and he was none too pleased. "VANTAS! EGBERT! Either break it up right now, or by the end of the day you'll find yourselves both jobless!" Both heads snapped in the direction of their manger.

"Yes, Mister Hussie….." Karkat spoke in a low voice, and John snickered before Karkat could feel the chuckling within him begin to surface. Their manager's face red, he simply ignored their inside joke about his last name and chose to stay blissfully ignorant as he walked away. The two of them busting out into laughter as the other left. The two of them looking at each other, they began laughing harder. "Did you see his face?" "Did YOU see his face? Oh man that was priceless!" They laughed together, Karkat smacking a hand on the counter. He and John calmed down together and he sighed. "Hey man, I'm sorry about that… I guess I'm just a bit defensive over him." "Nah, it's cool. Just don't become a douche and we're good." Karkat snickered. "When have I ever been a douche?" John looked at him and laughed. "Oh never, never ever!" sarcastically the boy joked.

"You still coming out with us tonight? Roxy and Rose are pretty hell bent on getting Kanaya, Nepeta, Equius, and you to come hang out. It's been forever since all of us got together." Karkat sighed and ran a hand through his black hair. "As far as I know I am. The only reason we really haven't was because our schedules don't match up these days. I rarely see Nepeta here at work, or even on campus at school, and Equius is always at the gym working out." John went back to his side of the store's game section and smiled. "Yeah, well, they should all be there tonight. I'll be expecting you to be there so don't you dare not show up." Karkat snickered. "Wouldn't dream of missing an opportunity to piss you and the others off and be an ass."

-Later that night-

John held Karkat close, considering the boy was rather tipsy and stumbling a bit. The troll had drunk quite a bit in a competition between Equius, Roxy, Dirk, Dave, and himself. He was grateful for John helping him back to his apartment. John had actually avoided the alcohol for the most part that night, considering he wasn't very tolerant. Still, as they got closer to Karkat's apartment, he felt one of the human's hands go further down his backside till he felt a grope and he squeaked and moved away from the other. "W-What the hell, Egbert!?" Karkat exclaimed as that quickly got him on his feet, or he had attempted it, however, against the wall of one of the apartments. He felt his wrists being grabbed and pinned on either side of his head. "John, let me go right the fuck no-mmmph!" His statement was cut off by the human boy pressing their lips together and Karkat tried to struggle against the boy's hands. When had John gotten so strong?

Grinding against the other, Karkat unintentionally moaned into the human's kisses as his body naturally reacted to the sexual attention. A tongue plunged into his mouth and Karkat still struggled until he bit the tongue in his mouth, not terribly hard or anything, but enough to get the point across, slamming hands against the male's chest to push the boy off of him. He ran, with a stumble and near fall, to his apartment door, thankful it wasn't too far. John could be heard cursing, though it didn't sound like he was pursuing but as soon as he opened his door, he slammed it shut and threw himself against it and slid down it. He reached a hand up to lock the door.

Disturbed by his actions and worried about what just happened, he called Eridan. "E-eridan? Are you busy?" His voice was shaky and Eridan's voice sounded even more worried than Karkat felt. "Of course not. Are you alright?" Karkat laughed lowly and sighed. "I don't know… maybe… C-could you… come over? I know it is really freakin' late, and I know I'm being an ass calling you at this hour, but… please?" He spoke in a shaky voice and his eyes began to water. Sure, nothing really bad had happened, but the point is, is that it could have, and well, it scared him. "Wwhat? Of course I can come ovver. I'll be there in like, ten minutes." Karkat simply nodded, a silent answer and he knew the older hung up the phone.

Sure enough, in ten minutes, almost exactly, he was opening is door to his matesprit, his boyfriend, the boy he had come to care for and he immediately hugged himself against the other and broke down, for once being the weak one. Eridan wasn't really sure what brought this upon the other, but he hugged his matesprit close with a soft smile, shooshing him and petting a hand through his hair before kissing the top of the boy's hair. "Shhhhh, it's okay, Karkat. I'm here…. Evverything's alright."

Eridan finally had his arm out of a sling, though he was advised to be very careful with himself until the doctors were completely sure it was healed. Moving to bring the other inside, he closed the boy's apartment door, Karkat not letting go of him. He had to manually pull the other off. "You are obvviously upset and a bit tipsy. Let's go lay you dowwn, and you can just cry there, okay?" he inquired to the youth who nodded as the other walked with him, glad to have just thrown on some shoes and his scarf and jacket over his pajamas. Considering the weather was getting nippy, he hadn't wanted to catch a cold. Letting the other change, he let the other lay down before he turned the lights off and went to the bed, crawling under the covers with the other and sighing softly.

Karkat hadn't ever really felt this venerable, and he figured perhaps some of his weakness came from the alcohol in his system. Still, he moved to cuddle against the other in the dark, the thought of what could have happened between him and John, and the argument from earlier causing him to cry. Low sobs escaped him, hands fisted at the fabric of Eridan's nightshirt as the male removed those thick framed glasses and then hands began to rub his back and sift fingers through his black hair, comforting him by touch. He was just glad the other was near him. "I'm sorry, Eridan… I'm so fucking sorry…. I n-never meant to…." Eridan perked a brow in the dark, but didn't push for explanation, just rubbing the boy's back more. "Shhhh, it's okay. Nothing to apologize for. Really, just let it all out if you want to." He encouraged the other to cry more, knowing, sometimes, it really helped to cry.

- 2 days later-

A whole day was spent by Karkat just cuddling with Eridan and practically spoiling his older lover rotten with love and kisses, though still they had yet to do anything too naughty. However, some oral had been performed, and Karkat had to say it had never seemed that appealing till it happened. But now it was time for him to go to work and as he approached the store, Eridan walked with him, hand and hand. When he saw John was already there he made sure to blatantly kiss his lover, though he left the older oblivious to what had actually made him upset that night, blaming the alcohol for that excess of feelings.

He walked into the store and John was cherry red, either from embarrassment, anger, or perhaps a combination of both which, for Karkat, was a good thing, because John couldn't do a damned thing at work. Most of the day was passed in silence before John clocked out first. Considering that John got there earlier it wasn't unusual for him to get off before the other. Though now he went to the register, checking out some games he wanted to purchase. Karkat scanned them without a word to the boy before the human spoke. "Look, Karkat, about the other night. I am so-" "Save your bullshit for someone who can't smell it from a fucking a mile away. You are not sorry and you were in the perfectly right mind to know exactly what you were doing." He snapped to the male who shrank back before frowning.

"Well, from that moan, it sounded to me like you would have enjoyed it had I gone further!" He retaliated. Karkat had a wide eyed look and he snapped. "No, John! That would have been the exact opposite of what I would have wanted or enjoyed! Besides, weren't you the one who said you weren't a 'homosexual' or whatever you humans call it?" John snickered with an angered smirk on his face. "I'm not. I said it because I didn't realize how troll anatomy worked, but let's just say, now that I do, I am much more open-minded to your kind, but mostly, just to you." Karkat swore if he could, he'd beat John's face in right now, but he was on the clock. "Take your shit and get the fuck out." After swiping the other's card and practically stabbing it back into the man's possession, he tossed the bag of stuff to the boy and pointed to the door. "And let the door hit you hard on the way out asshat!"

John left with another assholish comment as far as Karkat was concerned, which brought a worried Nepeta over. "H-hey? Karkat, is everything okay between you guys? That was a purrity nasty fight, nyah? You two are usually so close, your furiendship seemed to be unbreakable." She gave a very concerned look to the other, who sighed in annoyance and tugged on some of his black locks. "No, it's not okay, because he is just such an asshat and I'm getting sick of people judging me and Eridan, especially his ass. Who the hell is he to say that I would even like him that way? I was drunk and the kiss was forced, and damn it!" He actually had watery eyes and Nepeta frowned and went behind the register to hug her mutual friend. "Hey, stop that, Karkat. It's not your fault. But, you did tell Eridan right? I don't want this to be held against you, and you know, it's not good to keep secret from your matesprits. Trust me, I would know." Karkat forgot that Nepeta and the girl she thought was for sure her matesprit had just broken up, and he gave an apologetic look to her. "Stooooop~! You didn't do anything silly! Just make sure you let Ampurra know, okay?"

Karkat simply nodded and hugged the feline-like troll, whispering an apology. She simply smiled, shook her head, and walked off. The whole reason her break up happened was because of her pairing journal and her role-plays which she had hidden for a long time from her matespit, which when found, was misinterpreted and it ended badly on Nepeta's part by having her lover leave her. Nepeta was still recovering, but whenever she lacked comfort or happiness, Roxy came in and soothed the feline-like female and cuddled with her to no end. It made him happy that someone could at least attend to Nepeta's needs and he supposed him and Eridan were lucky to have each other, considering they were such opposites at times, and yet, they really worked well together.