I wake up once again pressed against someones chest. With a short gasp and a growl I push Sollux away roughly and sit up, looking at the clock. It's around six a.m., shockingly. I barely remember when I fell asleep. Sollux's still sleeping, although in the darkness of his room I can barely tell. I rub my hand over my face with a small sigh, it's honestly been awhile since I slept so long, I must've fallen asleep around seven last night.
Looking around the darkness of his room, I wonder why Sollux is sleeping on the bed again, because I can just barely make out the form of blankets on the floor, along with a pillow. I guess I'll ask him once he wakes up.
A sudden loud beeping sound makes me jump with a high pitched yelp. It takes me a moment before I realize it's just Sollux's alarm clock going off, and now the lispy teen is tiredly moving his arm to slam on the snooze. He mumbles something into his pillow before turning on the lamp. I squint at the sudden brightness, but then look closely at Sollux, who was now sitting up and rubbing at his face, searching for his glasses on the table.
"Mornin' KK," He slurs, conscious enough to see that I'm sitting up and glaring at him.
"Yes, morning, may I ask why I found you sleeping next to me for the second night in a row?" I ask in a questioning, but quite pissed off, tone. He looks at me, confused, before it clicks and his eyes widen, holding his shades in his hand.
"You were having a nightmare, and th'in'the you wouldn't wake up the only way that would calm you down wa'th to...yeah," He trails off, rubbing the back of his neck and keeping his gaze on the bedsheets.
"Oh..." Is all I can say as I think back to my dreams. I had been having a nightmare...it was about my dad.
"...What wa'th it about?"
I jerk my gaze up to meet his, bi-colored eyes meeting red ones.
"My dad...but it's not exactly that, don't worry yourself over it alright? It's not that big of a deal," I let out a nervous chuckle and avert my gaze, pointedly looking anywhere but him. Before he can respond though, there's a knock on his door before it's opened.
"I hope your ass is out of bed-" his dad begins to say before he realizes that Sollux and I are sitting on top the bed, "Ok, nice to see you both awake, are you going to school today?" He asks me, eyebrow raised.
I nod, I did say that I would pick up Nepeta and what's the point of picking her up without going to my own hellhole of a school. Sollux's dad nods before leaving, keeping the door open.
"You really want to go to th'cool?" Sollux asks incredulously, climbing off the bed and motioning for me to follow him out to the kitchen. I shrug in response and follow, watching as he grabs some cereal and milk. He hands me the bowls and makes me fetch the spoons.
"Well, I promised Nepeta that I'd take and pick her up from school, so I might as well go to school anyway since it's so close," I reply with a shrug, pouring my cereal and taking a bite. He contemplates the situation before deciding that it 's quite smart.
"Alright then, what time do we need to leave," He mumbles through a mouthful of cereal.
"Eight something," I reply instantaneously, putting my dishes in the sink before retreating to Sollux's bedroom once more. I frown when I realize I don't have my bag or phone that I usually grab, so that sort of messes with my mind; I awkwardly sit on the edge of the bed.
He follows me in, then looks over slightly. "Are you really ok with going to school with your face bruised like that?"
I frown when I realize my face probably is pretty badly bruised, but it isn't like I haven't done it before. I shrug slightly and look down at my splinted wrist. It doesn't hurt as much, just a bit sore, so I undo the splint and lay it next to me .
Sollux is changing into fresh clothes across the room so I keep my gaze on my hands, pretending to be fascinated with the way my wrist rotates. When he finishes he walks over to me.
"Are you ju'tht going to wear that?" He asks, his tone obviously indicates that he doesn't cared whether I did or not. I shrug, looking up at him. He opens his mouth to say something before someone interrupts him.
His door is slammed open and I turn to see what I assume is Sollux's brother walk in (more like barge in) although it seems like he's just really enthusiastic about something.
"Hey Sollux! Kurloz, Latula, and Meulin are coming over to visit!-" He yells exuberantly. He's going going to yell more before he looks over at me, although I can't really tell if he's actually looking at me because the top half of his face is covered with a mess of caramel brown hair.
"Vantas?" He asks in a shocked tone. He looks at Sollux then back at me. I stare wide-eyed at him before he frowns.
"No...you're not him, why d'you look like him though?" He asks me curiously, as if I would know.
"Uh, my name's Vantas, but I have no idea who you're talking about," I state, watching him carefully. His head tilts to the side before he exits the room , going into the his own. I turn to Sollux, but he looks just as confused as I feel.
When he returns, he shoves a picture at me, which I take and examine.
It must've been at an outing, because there are quite a few people in the photo. The first figure I notice is someone wearing clown makeup, making my thoughts flick to Gamzee, his stepbrother maybe? Before continuing to pick out the characters. There are two girls who reminde me of Vriska and Aradia, plus the two of them seem to be yelling at each other quite intensely. Then holy shit is that Tavros's uncle? Some others look vaguely familiar. I swear I see two people looking suspiciously like Roxy and Dirk in the background, along with my English teacher Mr. Jake English.
My eyes finally flick to Mituna, and my eyebrows creased in curiosity as I see a teenager (at the time) that had the exact same features as me, the only exception is that he's an albino, his white hair a stark difference to the more darker shades around him. His expression is one of indifference to everything, but at the same time ready to give you a lecture about the exact same subject at a moments notice. His eyes are the same color as mine, although only one was open, the other was closed, almost like a wink but I felt like it was more a default expression. He looks so familiar...
"What's his name?" I ask, glancing up at Mituna.
"Kankri!" He shouts enthusiastically, smiling widely, showing off strangely sharp teeth. The name sounds familiar, I just can't quite place it .
"I think he's a cousin, maybe... I might've talked to him once or twice," I confirm, handing the photo back. Mituna looks almost sad before nodding and retreating to his room once more. Now he was gone I turn to Sollux.
"What the FUCK?" I exclaim, my voice going ridiculously high pitched at the end. He awkwardly looks at the ground before replying.
"Th'orry about that KK, my brother can be a bit impul'th'ive at time'th," He mutters quietly. I quirk an eyebrow at this, but decide not to question it as I put on my shoes. Looking at the time, we should probably start heading out.
"You ready to go?" I ask, breaking the silence that has inadvertently built up between us. He glances up and nods with a slight smile.
"Bye dad! We're going to pick up KK'th cou'th'in!" He shouts as we walk out the door. We hear a yell in response, so we take that as an ok and continue out the door. "Wait, KK how i'th thi'th going to work, i'th Nepeta going to meet u'th out'thide the building or what?" Sollux asks. I frown as I realize I haven't really thought about it. So I formulated a plan on the spot.
"Well, my mom will most likely send her downstairs, if not outside, so you can go up to the building and get her while I wait about block away," I decider, tapping my fingers in the air to reinforce my argument. Sollux holds back laughter at this motion and I turn to glare at him. I tell him exactly what he should do once we get a block away. We both fall silent again as we walked nearer and nearer to my home. I feel myself begin to subconsciously tense up, but that's an instinctual reflex. I always feel uneasy when I go home. How ironic.
Once we get a block away, I stop and let Sollux continue, we've already discussed that he shouldn't look back to me, it would seem suspicious. I probably put way to much thought into this but I don't want to take any chances. I sit waiting in intense silence for what seems like half an hour, but must've been a few minutes. By the time he comes walking back I'm prepared to bolt in the opposite direction if a leaf blows in front of my face.
The moment Nepeta sees me, she lets out a high pitched squeal and sprints forward, "tackle pouncing" me as she likes to call it. Holding back a wince I laugh and hug her back, beginning to walk in the direction of school with her latched to my chest like a monkey.
"Hi Catnep," I greet, smiling at her. She giggles and pulls back to look me in the eye.
"Karkitty I was so worried!" Is the first thing she says, before she notices the dark bruises littering my face and she begins fussing over those. "Karkitty are you alright? Do they hurt? I'm sorry if I'm hurting you! Let me walk on my own," she says quickly, scrambling to the ground before I can protest. Although I'm glad to have her not gripping my bruised chest, sadly the bruises on my torso were healing slower than what they usually do.
"I'm fine Nep, don't worry so much," I reassure over and over, but she just continues walking next to me. I seem to 'remember' Sollux is there too, but when I look over, he just adverts his gaze and I can visibly see him fighting down a blush. I glance at Nepeta and see her walking along as happy as can be. They were alone for a bit...
Connecting the dots, I begin to laugh, seeing Sollux look over and glare at me, Nepeta just giggles as well. We make it to her school rather quickly and I walk her up to the doors, hearing some kids calling her over. She giggles and waves at them before hugging me and whispering "I ship the two of you so much" before scurrying off to her friends. I stare at her back in shock for a few moments before I spin around and walk slowly back to Sollux.
The two of us are now in mutual awkward silence until we get to our school, where I'm immediately tackled by Gamzee.
"Bro! I'm so motherfuckin' glad you're here today! Me and Tavbro all up and missed you," The Juggalo exclaims, mock sobbing into my shoulder. I stumble under Gamzee's weight, but just end up taking a short step back and shoving him away. Tavros chuckles from his position behind Gamzee, earning a small glare from me.
"Jeez Gamz it's not like I fucking died then came back to life you shitstain," I growl at the clown. Gamzee just chuckles and steps away, not even fazed by the rather creative insult.
"Did the two of uth mith much," Sollux asks from behind me, walking forward and smiling at Tavros. He shakes his head.
"No, we didn't get any homework other than to work on our "creativity", so you virtually didn't miss out," He reports, gesturing at the building.
"Oh yeah, but me an' Tavbro worked on the song, the two of us sound awesome together," Gamzee says with a sideways grin. Tavros blushes slightly at this, but tries to hide it by saying, " We should probably head to our lockers, first bell is going to ring soon."
"Oh motherfuck', it is," Gamzee says, turning to grab my wrist and dragging me into the building.
"I can walk without you dragging me Gamzee!" I protest, jerking my wrist out of his grip and walking on my own beside him. I can feel him looking at me silently, but he never says anything about my face, he's gotten used to the bruises and learned not to ask about them.
Sollux and Tavros are walking behind us, and a sudden thought came to mind. The two of them are like Sidekicks to Gamzee and I. Unknowingly, I chuckle aloud, earning a sideways glance from Gamzee and a few strange looks from the people around us. Of course, I'm already getting strange looks from my appearance, but I don't particularly care about them.
Grabbing my belongings for Geometry, I tell Tavros I'd see him later and head to the classroom. Gamzee follows me, like I know he would, and we meet up with Sollux along the way. The three of us discuss the song, and I tell Gamzee how much the two of us can play, which is basically the whole thing.
When we walk into the classroom we fall silent because Mrs. Lalonde is giving us a pointed look, saying without words that we're almost late. Quickly the three of us dodge muffled laughter and move to our seats in the back of the room.
"Today class, we will be working on conjoining equations, which I'm sure you all already know how to do, but this shall just be a warm-up," She says, beginning to pass out papers, the ring on her finger catching my attention once more. Once I get the paper, I snort at how easy it looks. Yeah, we'd done this last year and it was one of the only things I'm actually able to remember.
"If you don't finish the assignments they will be appointed as homework, otherwise you won't have any. We will go over these two papers tomorrow and your grade will be taken by correctness as well ascompletion," she reports, handing back a second stack of papers.
Needless to say, that class goes by rather quickly. She allows us to work together if need be, so the three of us work to complete the two papers quickly then we basically talk for the rest of the class.
Biology is pretty mediocre too, just John talking about frogs. He tells us an interesting myth about how our universe is a frog and was made by breeding special frogs or some shit (I zoned out halfway through) but it is interesting. John seems concerned for me though, he asked if I was alright, especially after looking at my face. I just shrug, I don't hurt (thanks to a few Ibuprofen offered by Deithelm during breakfast) so alright is a pretty good description.
Gym is ok too, Dave doesn't care what we do all day and ends up texting on his phone. Me and Tavros discuss our project, Josh doesn't bother us so everything is all good. Although there's an odd moment when Dave asks if I'm alright as well, to which I nod and gave him a strange look.
I go to lunch even though I don't have money, but Gamzee ends up making me eat half of his sandwich, so I'm not completely starving.
Once we get to Arts class though, I'm enthusiastically greeted by Jade.
"Karkat glad to see you today! You know everyone missed you yesterday," she says with a large grin. I smile slightly at her, trying not to scowl at her overly happiness. I'm saved form her asking me questions by her having to start class, so I go over to our table, where Sollux nods at me and Roxy ignores reality, and Gamzee wants to hug me but can't because then he would interrupt Jade.
"'K guys! Today I'll let you work in your groups on the project, I'm expecting alot from you all! One group has already submitted their idea sheet," she glances over to us and winks, smiling broadly, "And I'll tell you right now that I hope you aren't planning to play a totally awesome song for us, 'cause that idea's taken!" Some audible groans and thunks of heads hitting tables is heard, but Jade just laughs and continues talking, "Ok, you guys can start planning now!"
Roxy seems to snap back to reality for a moment and turns to look at us.
"Hi guys, so how are we doing on our project?" She asks, leaning her chin on her hands and looking at us. Sollux is the first to reply.
"Well me and KK have got the guitar part figured out, tho we're good," He turns to Tavros who continues.
"Me and Gamzee have the first half of it figured out," He states quietly, turning back to Roxy.
"Well, I got a good majority of it figured out. So what are we supposed to do now?" She asks, turning to me. The others turn to look at me as well, making me slouch slightly in my chair.
"What're you looking at me for!" I shout indignantly, looking at their questioning glances.
"Cause you're our motherfuckin' leader Karbro!" Gamzee exclaims proudly, giving me a lopsided grin.
"Yeah, you made the de'th'i'th'ion for the song th'o you should lead u'th and th'tuff," Sollux says, backing up Gamzee's proclamation.
I groan and rub at my face for a moment before replying, "Fine want to hear what I think we should do? We should probably play what we can together and figure out if we sound like absolute shit, or if we might have it playable in a few weeks," I say, glaring at them slightly.
"Sounds good," Roxy says, smiling at me. I just growl at her.
"So where should we meet up to play together," Tavros asks, nervously looking down at the table.
"Your house, duh, your drums are there," I reply instantly, "Sollux and I can just carry his guitar there, and Gamzee's bass is already there, Roxy is just going to be singing so that's the only logical plan of action."
"Th'ound'th good, that will actually work out th'in'the Mituna i'th bringing hi'th cra'thy friend'th over to my hou'the," Sollux says with a lopsided smile and a shudder.
"Oh, ok then , I'll have to tell my uncle though, but he most likely won't mind," Tavros says with a small smile. Now that we've figure out what we're doing, we just sit there in silence and listen to the other teams argue about what they want to do.
After Arts, English and World History are equally boring, although I have small assignments from each of them , I complete them quickly. Once school ends I met up with Sollux at the front once more, and the two of us head to pick up Nepeta.
I'm early this time; when I walk up to her, she gives me a slightly disapproving look.
"Karkitty you're three minutes early! I'm still playing with my friends!" She exclaims with a pout. I chuckle and back off, keeping my hands in the air in a 'don't shoot me' manner.
"Sorry Catnep, continue to play with your friends," I laugh, beginning to walk away. Before I can though, she grabs my hand.
"Wait wait! I want to introduce you!" She exclaims, pulling me toward her. "This is my older brother Karkat! Karkat this is Feferi," she points to a tall girl with really poofy dark brown hair. Her skin is rather dark as well, almost like she spends every living moment in the sun. Her chocolatey brown eyes sparkles as she grins at me, dark brown freckles are sprinkled across her nose. Atop her head are a pair of fuchsia goggles.
"Hi! It's EXITING to meet you!" She says happily, reaching out my hand for me to shake it. I'm sort of shocked by her mix of maturity and non maturity, but I smile and shaker her hand.
"Nice to meet you to Feferi."
"This is Terezi!"
A girl with extremely light gray eyes without pupils grins at me. Her fiery red hair is cut short and choppy. Red seems like her favorite color by assumption because there's a piece of it in every part of her outfit.
She grabs my hand and licks it, then grins at me wider. "I'm going to call you Karkles!" She proclaims. I stare at her for a few moments before Nepeta explains.
"She's blind and likes to lick people, she says it's how she identifies who you are, but now she'll never forget you!" Without skipping a beat she points to a pouting but fashionably dressed boy. "That's Eridan."
The boy just glares at me lightly so I glare back.
"Hi," he growls.
"Hi to you too," I retort. Before he can say much else, Mrs. Aradia walks out to the front and claps her hands, silencing us.
"School is now dismissed, please wait for your guardians to pick you up here at the front," she announces pleasantly, then moves to the side so that she can let the other teachers out and still watch the kids.
"Alright Catnep, time to go, it was nice to meet your friends," I say with a smile at her friends. They all smile back at me (excluding Eridan) and Nepeta allows me to grab her hand and guide her over to where Sollux is waiting.
I sigh and begin walking, Nepeta begins to relay all of her happenings at school that day, and I just smile at her, Sollux is the one who mostly keeps up the conversation. I'm lost in my own thoughts, But the one thing I continue to think is:
At least we're all ok.