Saturday morning, I wake up still pretty happy. Then I realize why I woke up.
"Karkitty! Wake up wake up wake up!" Nepeta squeals as she jumps on my bed, her elbow hitting my ribs and knee colliding with my stomach.
"Ow, Nep, calm down," I gasp, sitting up to grab her around the middle and set her to the side, wincing as I re-gain my breath.
"Sorry! But wake up! I need you to take me somewhere!" She grins, pulling at my arm in a weak attempt to get me out of bed.
"Ugh, where exactly?" I groan, continuing to stay sitting in my bed, actually falling back and allowing my head to hit the pillow. Nepeta huffs in annoyance at this and moves to sit on my chest.
"You're taking me, Eridan, Feferi, and Terezi to the park!" She shouts gleefully, grabbing at my shoulders.
"I won't be doing any of that if you suffocate me!" I protest, sitting up to throw her off. She just giggles and skips off to the side of my bed.
"Yay! Get dressed Karkitty! I want to leave soon!" She yells at me as she runs out, shutting the door behind her. I heave myself out of bed, knowing that if I wasn't dressed in about five minutes Nepeta would come running back in demanding that I get dressed. I check my phone, seeing no new messages I just grab some random clothes and set it up to charge for a few minutes until I left.
As predicted, I've just slid my shirt over my shoulders when Nepeta slams open my door, her expression annoyed until she realizes that I'm almost ready, then she smiles and nods, leaving once more.
Nepeta is skipping beside me as I walk with her to Eridan's house, since he lives the closest to us. The fall wind was chill enough that I've zipped up my jacket and I'm contemplating drawing the hood over my head, but decide against it since it will probably make me seem like a creeper or something. I'm glad for the fall weather though, I would much rather be cool than warm. Coldness is good.
Eridan's house is huge, as an understatement. I kind of understand why he's such a spoiled prick, I mean, you can probably fit ten families in the mini-mansion without any trouble.
Nepeta runs to the front door to ring the doorbell with a large grin on her face, getting a bit distracted by a floating leaf but focus returning on the purple door once it opens.
"Eridan!" She squeals happily, hugging the young boy close. From my vantage point I can see him smile slightly before hugging her back hesitantly then pulling away quickly to glare at me. He doesn't say anything and I realize why when Feferi pushes him out of the way to hug Nepeta, the two girls giggling at each other.
"Terezi couldn't make it, her mom is taking her to an art museum," Feferi says in a clear, bubbly voice to the girl.
"Aw, That's too bad Feferi! But we will try to have as much fan as we can anyway!" Nepeta frowns, but takes ahold of Feferi's wrist to pull her out to me.
"Hallo Karcrab! I'm glad you're ok with taking us to the park," Feferi says somewhat shyly, giving me a quick hug (that almost knocks me off-balance) before pulling back to grin at me.
She looks back at Eridan, who was slipping a key into his pocket. A silent conversation seems to ensue between the two of them, and after a few moments it seems as if Eridan loses, since he comes up to me with his gaze on the ground.
"Thanks...peasant," he mutters, shuffling his feet a bit.
I snort and ruffle his hair, which earns me a shouted protest. "It's fine, not like I have anything better to do."
He attempts to re-position his hair in the way it was before (and failing) before beginning to walk ahead of me, Feferi and Nepeta falling into step beside him. The three quickly begin conversing in poorly whispered tones, and I can tell that they've begun roleplaying.
The conversation consists largely as "glubs" "paws" "wwhatevvers" and "Whales", and I basically can't follow it at all and I barely bother trying.
Once we get to the park, they run to the field with shrieks of laughter and 'glubs!', since they're still in my sight I just let them go, and retreat to a bench, sitting cross-legged and watching them run around for before my thoughts begin to wander. After awhile I begin to feel pins and needles in my legs so I stand and begin walking around a bit, keeping the children in sight.
The park was pretty empty despite it being a pleasant day, there's the occasional jogger and a few teens running around, a few of them going into the surrounding woods, but otherwise there isn't much else.
I'm distracted from the scenery by a buzzing in my pocket, and I slide out my phone to see the text message.
TA: ii 2ee you~
CG: WHAT
I look up and glance around, not seeing anyone in immediate sight, so I look down at my phone screen, trying to squint past the sunlight's glare.
TA: exactly what ii 2aiid
TA: ii 2ee you~
CG: WHERE ARE YOU THOUGH
CG: I CAN'T SEE YOU
TA: maybe ii don't want you two 2ee me kk
TA: maybe ii'm hiidiing on purpo2e
CG: BULLSHIT
I've found refuge from the sun under a large oak tree that's been growing in this park for years, it's roots poking up from the ground in ways that you can easily find a nice place to sit, which I do.
TA: 2o you're watchiing nepeta feferii and the miinii priick eriidan riight
CG: FUCKING HELL YOU ARE HERE
CG: STOP FUCKING AROUND SOLLUX
TA: iit2 fun tea2iing you though kk
I scowl at my screen and try to look around the park again, but there's literally no one there, only three young 3rd graders running around in the field. Minus that one jogger that looks like she's been running for hours. Deciding I really don't want to try and find Sollux myself, I call him.
"You're a mess
Tangled in your confidence
You think you haven't sin-"
I glance around, hearing the audio recording of our cover of the song, but it's...
Standing up, I gaze through the leaves of the old oak tree and yelp when I see Sollux smiling down at me, his paper glasses barely on the tip of his nose as he looks down at me from a low branch.
"OH MY FUCKING GOD SOLLUX!" I yell, earning an amused chuckle from him.
"I wish I'd turned my phone on thilent but oh well," He sighs with a smile and swings off backwards, keeping his legs hooked onto the branch for balance. He smiles at me from his upside-down position, shirt beginning to inch towards his shoulders.
"How long have you been there?" I ask, trying to focus on him, which is hard with him being upside down and all.
"Thinthe before you got here, I thaw you walking here tho I climbed the tree!"
"Speaking of which, that's distracting, get down," I say with a small scowl.
"But thith ith fun!" He grins, swinging a bit and ruffling my hair.
"If you fall I'm not carrying your unconscious body to the hospital," I huff, not even attempting to fix my hair.
"I won't KK! You should join me, theriouthly thith ith fun," he chirps, pausing in his upside-down swinging to grab at my arms, although it seems like a challenging task for him with his position.
"Hahah yeah no, I can't climb trees," I say, moving back out of his reach. He pouts before swinging himself to the ground, doing a sort of half flip to land in front of me. I gape at him for a few seconds before shaking my head.
"I have no idea how you can do that," I sigh, glancing around him to see that the three kids are still playing happily.
"I took thome martial art'th clath'eth when I wath younger, it didn't do much but now I can do flipth and thtuff," As if to prove his point he takes a few steps away from me and does a back-bend, flipping onto his feet once more. Facing me, he looks up to see a branch and I see a smile on his face as he leaps up to grab it, pulling himself up to stand on the thin wood.
I just stand there and watch him weave between interlacing branches to climb a bit higher before looking back down at me. He seems a bit exasperated as he returns to the lowest branch possible, sitting down and reaching a hand out to me.
"Come on," he coaxes. I stare at his hand before hesitantly grasping it. We 're close enough to the base of tree that I can somewhat place my foot on a root and use Sollux's hand to pull myself up onto the branch beside him.
"See it wathn't that hard!"
I punch his shoulder, but smile as I stand, him quickly doing the same. He seems to know exactly where to place his feet, whereas I have to scramble for footholds. By the time we make it almost to the top, I have a scratch along my forearm and probably some leaves in my hair but I ignore those as he stops on one of the thicker branches.
"You've never been here before right? This is your first time climbing this tree?" I pant, regaining my breath from the tedious climb (for me anyway, Sollux barely seems winded).
"Yeah, I'm uthed to climbing treeth though, we uthed to have a really big one in the backyard of our third houthe, it wath really fun, it wath pretty thimilar to thith tree actually," he pats the branch and smiles, and I notice he has put his paper specs into his jacket pocket.
"Hm, I've lived in an apartment the entirety of my life, so never had much skill for climbing," I shrug and lean against the trunk of the tree.
"God, yeah I can't really even imagine that, to be completely honetht," Sollux looks up through the branches and a patch of sunlight splashes onto his face, giving it an unreal look. His eyes seem more brilliant at this angle and I find myself staring at him even as he glances over at me. He has a very light splash of freckles over his nose, something I've really noticed before.
He stares back at me until a text tone distracts us both and he pulls out his phone. A scowl stretches across his face as he reads the message and I see his jaw clench as he answers, beginning to pocket his phone before someone tries to call him, and I realize he still has me singing as his call alert.
"Hey why do you have me singing as your call alert?" I inquire, making him pause his phone-pocketing and look over at me. A blush spreads across his face before he answers.
"I like your singing, you're really good," he mutters in embarrassment, making me chuckle. He hadn't lisped...hm.
"It's ok, I was just wondering," I grab his phone from him, not having to unlock it. I see that he's texting Mituna.
"Did you guys get into a fight?" I'm only able to read a few sentences before he regains possession of his phone from me.
"Yeah...basically," he mutters, typing a bit more before locking it once more.
"What about?" I realize that I'm being a bit nosy but Mituna seems either worried or pissed, I didn't have enough time to attempt to decipher the text message since it was 7YP3ED L1K3 7H1S or somewhere near that.
"Jutht thtupid thtuff, we are brotherth tho we're kind of obligated to fight you know."
"True, sorry for being nosy, but wait do you have the entire cover of the song on your phone?" I question, snatching the phone back and unlocking it (having seen him do it before) and I exit out of the text chat to go to the media player or whatever it was called. He now tries to get it back, so to avoid his arm I one handedly swing from the branch we're on to the one below us, then hearing him following I repeat that process (almost falling or dropping the phone multiple times) until I reach the ground, where I take off sprinting, hearing him shout from behind me.
"Nepeta!" Feferi squeals, "Tell us more about Karkat and Sollux!"
Eridan seems to be interested as well, especially since the boys the conversation was about aren't within hearing distance.
Nepeta giggles as she sits on the ground, folding her legs and motioning the others to follow suit.
"Well, they obviously like each other, Sollux probably a little more obvious about it. Karkat's more of in a halfway stage of denial," the girl smiles at her perceptiveness.
"Isn't Sol older than Kar?"
"Yes! By only two years though, that isn't terribly bad!"
"How romantic," Feferi sighs, smiling dreamily. Eridan blushes lightly at her sigh and keeps his gaze focused on the ground. Nepeta covers her smile with her hand at her two friends likeness for each other. Although, at the moment it seems to be a little one-sided, but she's definitely going to make it better.
A shout reaches her ears and twisting her head to the side she sees Karkat sprinting away from Sollux, who's chasing after him. Karkat is grinning as he has something clutched in his hands, Sollux seems more annoyed than angry at the actions. The two of them sprint past the three kids and laughter from Karkat reaches Nepeta's ears. She's happy to hear him laugh like that, he's always so bitter.
Even her young mind knows the difference between a real and a fake laugh.
The two teens run all the way to the edge of the field they were playing in before Sollux tackles Karkat to the ground, but it was clearly not meant to really harm the teen, and she could still hear the laughter.
"Ok ok I give!" I laugh, giving him back to mobile device.
"Now wath that tho much trouble?" he asks mockingly.
"Yes," I joke, pushing against his shoulders to sit up. I see Nepeta running across the field to reach me, with Feferi and Eridan close at her heels. I look around and I notice how late its gotten, it's nearing late afternoon, with the sun high in the sky.
"Hi Pawllux!" She squeals, hugging him before stepping back.
"Eridan and Feferi needs to be taken home soon I assume," I say with a raised brow, looking at the two of them. Feferi nods shyly, grinning at me, Eridan just shrugs. I take that as a yes and stand, looking over at Sollux.
"See you tomorrow," I say with a smirk, before turning away, hearing Feferi and Nepeta shout goodbyes at him as they follow me, Eridan seemingly stays silent.
As we walk back to Eridan's, I can hear them conversing in giggled tones behind me (excluding Eridan...maybe) but I can't tell what they're saying.
Behind Karkat's back Nepeta giggles as she whispers:
"Told ya so."
AN:
Yes, two updates daily is now a thing, there's thirty five chapters (that're completely typed up) so to get back to that number I'm posting two a day
I'm pretty sure that there was only two chapters left before I started the re-upload...
Also I noticed that the chapters gradually get shorter as they continue on, so if that's the case then I might just upload three a day if they don't get over the twothousand word mark.