The next morning Karkat woke up in a position he didn't remember falling asleep in, from a sleep that he didn't remember falling into. He groaned and rolled over. Check cellphone. Well fuck that's kind of late. I hope I didn't have a morning class. He vaguely remembered falling asleep around halfway through the second movie in. Sollux had surprisingly sat through most of the mini marathon, only getting up once or twice to stare at his computer and type something. Just as Karkat thought, the movies killed his brain enough to ensure a dreamless sleep. The room was empty- it was about nine in the morning, and Sollux probably had a morning class. Karkat almost felt bad for keeping him up that late…almost. It's fucking college. He sat up, rubbing his face and swinging his legs over the edge of the bed. A growl cut the silence, and Karkat decided some breakfast was in order. After quickly checking his schedule- good, just afternoon classes- he began to get ready.
Karkat was busy eating a gigantic muffin near the library when a hand clapped on his shoulder. He jumped, and turned to see Vriska grinning widely at him.
"Well hello, Karkat. How are you doing this fine morning?" She steered him with her, arm reaching behind his back to simultaneously trap him and have a vice grip on his upper arm. Fuck.
"Hey, Vriska. I'm not doing too well this morning. Some things are pissing me off, and I can only punch one of them. Isn't it kind of early for huge bitches to be awake?" Karkat eyed her warily as he spoke. He half-expected her to chloroform him or something. Does a sociopath care if their victim dies now or later? 'Oh darn, this is all terribly off-schedule. I do fucking apologize but could we resume this whole murder thing in about five hours from now'?
"Oh Karkat. It's actually kind of refreshing to be hated this much. I just wanted to say hi to my favorite little crabcake," Vriska said, sighing dramatically. What the fuck is wrong with this chick. Her face got contemplative. "Actually. I wanted to have a little chat with you." She suddenly steered him into a space between the buildings and manhandled him up against a wall.
"What the fu-" Her face was very close.
"You're the curious type, huh Karkat?" She hissed, teeth still showing in a mad grin. Karkat swallowed.
"What, does it bother you, Vriska?" Vriska wasn't touching him apart from a hand on his shoulder, but she leaned over him in an unnerving way that reminded him of a spider with its prey. A huge, crazy spider.
"You're asking an awful lot of questions. I'm just saying, don't ruin the surprise for yourself. I'm actually pretty curious myself- who told you. Tavros? Not Kanaya. Maybe Nepeta?" Karkat's heart was pounding away.
"Told me what?"
"…Nevermind. You know what? That's the difference between you and me, besides the obvious 'I'm not a idiotic trash baby'- I don't ruin the surprise. And the other thing I know, Karkles? You don't have shit on me." She drew out her words with a widening smile. Then she took her hand back. "See you, Karbaby!" Karkat watched as she flounced away. Karkat had an unnerving feeling that his wallet was missing. More pronounced was the feeling that Vriska knew that he had been asking around. And if Vriska and Gamzee were working together…Gamzee knew too. He shuddered and tossed the other half of his muffin in a garbage can. Vriska had ruined his appetite.
His attempt to find a place to brood alone failed when he ran into Nepeta. For a second, she looked like she wasn't sure what expression should be on her face. Karkat didn't even care. I'm so sick of everyone looking at me like I'm some kind of walking terminal illness. In the meantime,Nepeta had settled on 'ecstatic'.
"Well hey there, Karki-"
"No. Fuck that, Nepeta. You and I both know I'm not in the mood," he snapped, pinching the bridge of his nose. Nepeta pouted. Karkat felt a headache coming on.
"I just wanted to chat- you seem a little stressed lately!"
"Really? How do you figure that? I'm not stressed, I'm feeling goddamn great. I'm just waiting on some buddies of ours to mug me and throw my body in the ocean with the damned shark. I'M FEELING FUCKING FABULOUS."
"Uh…what? Shark? Kitkat, what are you talking about?" Nepeta gasped a little. "Oh…is this about Equius' party?" Karkat rounded on her.
"What the- what do you know about it? You know what, I shouldn't even be surprised that you know. Equius is your little boyfriend or whatever." Nepeta shook her head, flustered.
"We aren't a couple! No…but I overheard something while I walked by the kitchen one night. He was hanging out with Vriska again…I know I shouldn't eavesdrop, but it's not my fault I'm so darn stealthy!" She fidgeted. "Want to uh, go to the garden and I can tell you?" Karkat grit his teeth. At least she's not telling me to go talk to someone else.
"You can tell me right now, and I won't be as pissed off." Nepeta smiled.
"Deal! Ok, so," her voice dropped conspiratorially, "Vriskers said…she said she was trying to make sure someone didn't squeal about something...I think she meant Sopor." Okay fuck. It's a drug thing. Gamzee's after me because I know what he's doing, and Vriska's probably in on it or getting a cut or something. His thoughts were interrupted by Nepeta's concerned voice. "Um, Karkitty?" He turned to her, holding up a hand.
"I'm good. No. Thanks, Nepeta. For once you've actually been kind of helpful," he said. Nepeta squealed. Creepyyyy…"Okay, I need to go do some stuff. See you later." Nepeta pouted, but nodded her head.
"Bye bye, Karkitty!" Karkat rolled his eyes and started walking away. Well well well. This stupid little mystery game is getting really, really old. He was also getting a little worried. The presence of Sopor changed everything. He had heard stories of the effects of the drugon those who got addicted- after the brain melting shit got into their head, it was basically over. Their world narrowed to getting more Sopor through any means necessary. If Gamzee was selling- like I know he is -, it made sense that he would be very protective of his stock. If Gamzee was addicted- like I know he is as well-, Karkat was shit out of luck, 'cause that kind of crazy would be all over the fucking walls. Karkat brooded all the way back to his dorm, and began to get ready for his next class, some bullshit comp. sci. history class.
That night found him sitting on his bed, hugging his knees to his chest and biting his nails absentmindedly. A romcom played on his laptop in front of him. Sollux had come in a while before, and was typing rapidly on both his laptop and desktop computers, probably doing homework. If Karkat wasn't preoccupied with the thought of a drug lord obsessed with physically harming him, he'd think to himself that maybe Sollux looked the tiniest bit cool as he worked, calm gaze checking the code over his glasses as his fingers clacked away. Karkat stared at him.
"What else did John tell you. About my old roommate," he suddenly blurted out. WHAT THE FUCK did I tell you to say that? Sollux was silent for a second, then turned in his chair to face him.
"Not much, honestly. I know he used to be okay when you first met, but then he got really fucked up," he said, leaning back in his chair. Karkat nodded.
"Yeah." It was hard to figure out where he wanted to go with that sentence, so he gave up, going back to his movie. Sollux watched him briefly, then returned to his coding. After a while, Sollux came over and sat on the bed next to Karkat, his laptop in his lap. Of course the guy obsessed with twos would have two computers. They watched the last half of the movie together, Sollux looking up between strings of code. It was still early evening, so Karkat popped another disc in. As the opening credits rolled, Karkat decided to tell Sollux the story. At the very least, he'll understand why Feferi can't report me. And why everything's going to get really fucked up. And why I'll be dead soon.
"Once, when I was a lot younger and stupider, I made a lot of stupid decisions. All of the decisions I made were stupid- choice of major, choice of housing, roommate- well, that was the school's goddamn fault, not mine. Gamzee was actually not that bad when we first met. My past self will insist that he was terrible, but I know there is no way in hell his old self was any worse than how he got later. Annoying, yes; worse than a sadistic psychopath, no. Gamzee was constantly high. That was fucking annoying, but I could care less. He got really attached to me- always calling me 'best friend', 'best motherfucker', 'my brother'," Karkat said each of these in a low drawl, imitating Gamzee. "Probably because I was the only one who called his bullshit. Anyways, he started getting very deep into whatever he was on. He started getting creepier than I thought possible. I'm talking batshit crazy. Weird people started knocking on our door at like 4 AM, Gamzee himself started going to a shit-ton of real shady parties. I started getting weird looks from complete fucking strangers. It was incredibly hard to focus when you have crazy druggies clawing at your shirt thinking you're your roommate, but what the fuck ever. So he was selling, obviously."
"And probably getting more fucked up as time went on," Sollux murmured. Karkat nodded.
"The real problem- God I wish I had fucking seen this, I was so stupid- I should have just fucking left him alone to rot. But no, I had to fucking try to help him. Get involved. It just made everything worse. The last night I stayed at school…" Karkat felt his pulse race at the memory. "The motherfucker used that shit on me. After everything I did for his sorry ass… I woke up tied to a chair, hallucinating crazy shit and burning up. I was there for like ten hours, before Terezi busted in and threatened to call the cops. I had to go to the hospital and get my fucking stomach pumped, and Gamzee got off scot-fucking-free. We got a slap on the wrist for 'drug abuse'. I just fucking got out of that room as soon as possible." Sollux's eyes were wide for the last part.
"He tied you to a chair and drugged you? KK, why the fuck did you not call the cops?" Karkat scowled.
"Okay, listen, I have a fucking reason or several alright?"
"Yeah? Give me a good reason not to call the cops myself. I'm listening," Sollux said, flatly. Karkat snarled.
"What the fuck. Sollux. Please. Do not. Tell anyone. Tell Fef not to tell anyone, cause I know she's already all up in this. I am asking nicely. So nicely." Sollux crossed his arms.
"I just don't get why you have to be such an incredible fuckhead about this."
"I just don't get why you have to be such an incredible fuckhead about me being an incredible fuckhead." The two glared at each other for a while. Karkat sighed. "Can we just watch the goddamn movie?" Sollux settled back against the wall, obviously still annoyed from the way he was chewing on a corner of his lips. They spent the next hour or so in relative silence, Karkat watching as Heath Ledger danced around the screen with Julia Stiles and Sollux tapping away on his keyboard.
At some point, Karkat felt his eyelids get heavy, and after two blinks, they didn't open again. He vaguely felt himself slump over onto something kind of hard and uncomfortable, but he didn't feel like prying his eyes open to see what it was. In any case, it moved to accommodate him, and everything was comfortable. Karkat Vantas drifted into a troubled sleep.