Kankri and Cronus lead us to Sollux's house, where Cronus grabs Roxy Tavros and Gamzee and leads them to his shiny black car and Kankri takes me and Sollux to his car. He shushes us before we have time to question and we decide to comply as he drives away, going slightly over the speed limit and watching behind us as Cronus is eventually tailing us.
"It'll be about a 20 minute drive, unless if we go a bit faster, then we'll get there in around ten," he explains, a small smile remaining on his face as he speeds up a bit. There is shockingly little traffic as he continues over the speed limit.
"Ok so where are we going?"
"Well everyone else is at this large park, where we're going now, it's rather like a campsite really, I think that we're going to set camp for the night, since we've begun setting up stuff. Orr that's what Latula texted me while we were picking you guys up, it's a rather good thing a majority of us have larger vehicles because we're able to carry alot of supplies," his phone pings and he tosses it over to me.
"Ok, Latula says that they're still unloading and could use some help," I read, already opening a reply message.
"Tell her five minutes."
Sollux speaks up from the backseat, "So are we jutht going to go and meet up with everyone?"
"Yep, and talk and stuff of course," Kankri answers, turning into a long paved road lined by tall trees. It opens into a wide park space with winding roads spread over the entirety of the grassy space. I can see a few people walking about, and the bright colours of tents and other vehicles peeking through the trees. Kankri drives through all of the open parts of the park and goes back further into the wooded section.
I spot Rufioh's truck and then a bunch of other vehicles come into view, then I recognize Latula and Mituna unloading the back of the trucks, while others are pulling stuff out of the back of car trunks.
"Uh, how many people are here exactly?" I ask nervously, tugging at the sleeve of my sweater. I saw Meulin and Kurloz walking from between two of the cars with armfuls of chips and food, with another girl in a red school uniform behind them.
"Hm, well, there's twelve of us, Dirk and them might head over later, then there's you guys, I'm thinking around 20-30 people to be honest."
I sit back in the seat, chewing at my lip as Kankri parks, allowing me and Sollux to jump out of the car, with Cronus and my three friends close behind them. Latula spots us and shouts something to the others as she drops the box she was holding to run over and hug me.
"Hi Karkles! Glad ta see ya made it!" She cackles, messing up my hair (not like it looked good anyway). She greets Sollux before grabbing Cronus and Kankri by the wrists and pulling them toward her truck, leaving us on our own.
We stand there watching for a few moments before Rufioh comes up behind us, requesting that we at least try to assist us in unloading everything. To which we just shrug at and follow him to where we are told to carry various items like food and tent boxes to the campsites they've rented out for a few days.
We end up meeting everyone while unloading and putting things together, I end up working on a tent with the girl in the red uniform, which I learn is named Damara, a foreign exchange student that travels back and forth between Europe and America, and has only recently returned here.
Then there's Aranea, who I organize food with. She speaks a majority of the time, and I find out that she's living with her girlfriend Meenah, who I don't really get to talk with as much while getting everything together, and they're both teachers. Although according to Aranea, Meenah's a surfer and lifeguard, while she teaches literature and history at a college.
Porrim is sitting near the back of the group, and I end up chatting with her when I stop to take a break. She's Kanaya's elder sister, and they work together in a fashion shop uptown. She also works part time as a nurse at local hospitals, most of the time at a hospital near our place. She has intricate tattoos that swirl up her arms; around her neck and collarbone, which I can see because she's wearing a low v-cut shirt that complements her caramel coloured skin. She's quite proud of the designs, and her emerald green eyes sparkle when I ask about them.
Once everything has been set up, we all sort of gather in the center of the campsite, and start talking to each other, Kankri's friends make sure to come over and introduce themselves to each of us, although they talk to Sollux about things that had happened before us. Which he often times smiles and jokes about back to them.
I meet Meenah personally soon after, and I'm almost shocked by her outgoing personality, compared to Aranea's quiet one. I assume they're one of those mix-match couples. Her black hair is plaited in braids that hang past her lower back. She's wearing a loose black tank top with the zodiac symbol for Pisces on it, how fitting since she's a surfer. I can tell she's wearing a similar coloured swimsuit underneath it, which fuchsia is a nice colour for her darker skin tone.
She seems eager to hold a conversation with me, which I don't totally mind since we have an entire day to waste with doing nothing, so she tells me about her life and I listen.
Throughout the early afternoon I can see Gamzee and Tavros also having conversations with various others; Roxy tagging along. Despite Sollux seeming like he didn't want to deal with them, he easily recounts occasions to which he interacted with the others and was having a fun time talking to Aranea (and when she wasn't talking to me) Meenah.
When it'as nearing 2 o'clock, two more cars drive up, and I'm slightly shell-shocked to see Dirk, Jane, and Jake climb out. Then John, Dave, Rose, and Jade hop out of the next one. They quickly merg with the group; greeted with smiles and 'hellos'.
I'm standing off to the side when I notice someone with Rufioh, his back is turned to me but he seems awfully familiar. When Sollux meanders his way back over to me, I ask him.
"Hey, who's that talking to Rufioh?"
He looks at me for a few seconds with an almost wary expression before turning back to look at him, "That'th Horuth, I'm kinda shocked he actually wath able to come, hith both maketh him work almotht all the time."
That sounds so horribly familiar, and once 'Horuss' turns, I realize why, he's practiacally the spitting image of Equius, only older and not as intimidating. He's smiling at Rufioh and laughing at something. He doesn't have any glasses on, displaying bright azure eyes covered partially by choppy bangs.
"Nice..." I mutter, feeling a bit bitter despite the fact that it isn't actually Equius and that being bitter won't help the situation in any way shape or form. I end up brushing away these thoughts once Jade pullsd Meenah and Aranea over to talk to me. Even though Jade is my teacher, it doesn't feel odd talking to her, in fact it felt more normal than most things.
When it's nearing four o' clock, Meenah calls all of us to attention. I notice that she had disappeared for about half an hour, but I slowly begin to realize why when I see the plastic handle to a water gun stuck into the waistband of her jeans.
"Alright y'all! So we're gonna have some fun here, it's nearin' 90 degrees right now, and I suggest, we do somefin' ta cool off, whaddya think?" She smirks and I can see the hand that's resting on her waist inching toward the water gun.
I glance around and notice large bins filled with water balloons hidden behind some trees, and lying on the food-packed picnic tables arre the fluorescent plastic of water guns. Since I'm already near the back of everyone, I tense up and prepare myself to run as Meenah pulls the water gun and begins aiming it at us, jumping off the chair she was standing on to run toward us.
Shriek filled laughter is heard and I smile broadly as I run for the picnic tables, twisting my jacket off my shoulders and tossing it under the table while simultaneously grabbing the red water gun. I spin around and see that Kankri is right in front of me, barefoot and with his jeans rolled up and a mischievous smile on his normally serious face. I don't have any time to duck as he tosses a water balloon at my chest.
In retaliation I sprint at him with a grin, squirting him with water before running past him and dodging Aranea who attempts to hit me in the face but misses, but ultimately makes me run into Meenah. We both have a brief battle which we both end up running away from practically soaked.
For a few minutes it's chaos of all of us sprinting around trying to hit each other, before we somehow separate into different sides, having an extreme Mexican stand-off. I'm facing Sollux, him armed with two water balloons, me with my water gun that's half empty. Beside him is Latula, who's staring down Mituna (who is on my right side), the both of them having water balloons.
I'm almost center of our side of the line; because of it I'm able to scan and see how well matched our unofficial teams were. We have Meenah, Rufioh, Rose, Mituna, Meulin, Porrim, Cronus, Tavros, Dave, and Dirk.
However, they have: Damara, Kankri, Latula, Aranea, Horuss, Kurloz, Sollux, Gamzee, Roxy, John, Jade, and Jake. They have us outnumbered by one, but it's difficult to tell who would come out victorious.
Meenah and Cronus are experts with the water guns they wield, deathly with precision and accuracy. Dirk and Dave can easily run among everyone and slam a water balloon onto whoever with direct contact then run off before they would even know what happened. Rose and Meulin are good with long distance balloon tossing, as is Porrim. Me and Tavros are just trying to survive while we run and shoot. Mituna and Rufioh are good with water guns, but I've still been able to avoid them.
But they have Jade and Jake, the two of them are known marksmen/markswomen, easily able to hit targets with whatever they can use. (I already know, Jade has nailed me twice in the back with water balloons). Latula is so random in her attacks you can't tell very well who or what she's trying to hit. Damara and Kankri make a cruel team, both wielding a water gun in one hand and water balloons in another. Kurloz and Gamzee aren't afraid to toss a water balloon with their full strength (I already have a bruise on my hip from where Gamzee got me). I didn't see much of Aranea or Horuss, and Roxy is able to avoid all of us somehow, but Sollux is stronger than he looks and actually got in some decent hits when we were running around frantically.
From beside me I see Meenah sneer at Aranea, who's standing across from her, and the other girl smirks in response. The matchups are pretty linear, from end to end we're all facing someone and unspoken through both of the teams is the fact that we're going to face off with that person.
A few various people from the park are standing in the road and sort of watching us, knowing not to get too near, a very wise choice. I see Sollux begin to bring his arm up just slightly, and in response I bring my water gun up to eye level. It's another unspoken command, and suddenly we're all tensed as everyone aims at each other.
Meenah gives a loud battle cry and takes a few steps back as she hits Aranea in the face with the water, and with that we all erupt into chaos once more. Sollux runs at me before I can react and slams the water balloon into my shoulder, making the hair on the side of my head stick up weird as the water slides down my back. I splutter before laughing and getting him in the face. He had taken off his glasses beforehand so I see the laughter in his eyes as he darts away to grab more ammo, and I find myself battling Jade, with Damara and Kankri performing a side attack against me.
We continue fighting until the last water balloon has hit the ground and the water guns have been abandoned. By then everyone is soaking wet, but none of us are really complaining. A few people fetch towels from the piles of supplies gathered and toss them around. I find myself grinning as I towel off my hair then giving it to Sollux for him to somewhat dry his hair as well.
The sun has sunken lower in the sky as we all retreat to the camp-like area, where a fire is being started and food is being distributed. I sit down cross legged on the ground next to Sollux, on top of a blanket that someone had spread out. Others are sitting on chairs; on the picnic tables that are inconveniently placed.
"See, this is better than sitting through school isn't it?" I smile, trying to squeeze a bit of water out of my shirt (and failing) before giving him a sort of shoulder hug.
"Yeah, you're right, I thought it wath going to be worthe but thith ith pretty cool," he chuckles, shaking his head and making little water droplets land on me. I brush them off and push his shoulder.
"Well we'll have to deal with damp clothes but oh well, that was fun, but Jesus Christ you're stronger than you look."
"Not really, theriouthly, I have terrible aim too, I'm shocked I even hit you thothe few timeth," to prove that fact he grabs a twig and tosses it towards the fire, and fails miserably.
"Oh well, all of this was still fun,"
"Yeah."
The sky has begun to darken and sitting by the fire helps dry out all of our clothes a bit, the others are recounting stories from when they were in highschool when I notice that Sollux has slipped away almost silently. The two of us are on the outskirts anyway so I get up quietly and follow him back to Latula's truck, where I watch him pull some blankets from the cab and spread them out on the tailgate before he sort of jumps up and leans back on his hands, gazing up at the purple night sky. After a few moments I walk quietly out and join him.
He points up at the sky and I follow his finger to see a star and I don't think he's going to say anything, so I jump when he does.
"Pollux Castor."
"Huh?"
"The star, it's Part of Pollux Castor, I think, it'th my namethake or thomething, my dad alwayth tellth me to look for it whenever I'm outthide, it might not even be the right thtar, but I think it ith."
I continue to stare at the sky, and I unconsciously lean toward Sollux, somehow placing my hand on top of his. I blush, especially when he doesn't make any sign of moving. I look at him out of the corner of my eye, and I smile at his concentrated, yet happy expression.
I can hear the laughter from the others, but it seems faint as I stare up at the stars, leaning against Sollux's shoulder. I feel him gently lean his head on top of mine, adjusting his arms to support the both of us.
"It's beautiful tonight," I murmur. Pollux Castor seems exceptionally bright against the blue-black backdrop of the night sky, and nearby I can see the Cancer constellation, I think of telling him about it, but I don't as he laces his fingers through mine.
I feel him hum in agreement; my face heats up more if that could even be possible. I feel a smile quirking the edge of my lips that widens when I nuzzle into his neck. The air is cool against my arms and I shiver slightly, which Sollux notices and wraps his free arm around me, keeping the other interlaced with my fingers.
We stare at the stars together until my vision starts to dim and blur, and a yawn makes me shudder and move to curl up on Sollux's side. I find him moving the two of us back in the truck bed, onto the blankets that he had spread out earlier. I smile at him in my half-sleep haze and hear him laugh quietly before he whispers.
"Good night Karkat."