Author's Note: It's finally fucking here, guys. I'm pretty sure that most of you have been anxiously awaiting this chapter. Not this chapter specifically, I mean the chapter in which this certain event takes place. *wonks 5eva*
Also, I'm getting real tired of your shit, Oklahoma. Namely, research. Bluh. Meanwhile, my laptop's still broken. Uuugh.
Minor spoiler warning for The Switch. For those of you who don't know what an MMORPG is, it's the common acronym for Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. Some popular ones are Minecraft (MC), World of Warcraft (WoW), League of Legends (LoL), Runescape (RS), Defense of the Ancients (DotA), etc...
I would just like to say, I was fangirling painfully because of this chapter, so if you guys don't like it, get the fuck out.
Chapter Nine, enjoy and review~!
I lay on my stomach on top of my bed, staring blankly as the wax in Jade's lava lamp rose and sank in the oil. Sollux was playing some MMORPG on his laptop, World of Warcraft I think, and cursing violently on occasion. I did nothing but study the lava lamp and listen to Dave's slightly-less-shitty-than-usual album on my PC. It had been around seven when everybody left, full of rich red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. Sollux had changed quickly into his PJs and gotten his slice of cake after they'd gone, which was now resting next to him on his bed. My war spoils were all put away for the most part; Dave's CD was currently in use, I'd plugged in Jade's lava lamp first thing, Nepeta's snowglobe was resting next to the alarm clock on the dresser across the room, and Kanaya's picture frame was facing up at me from the opposite side of the digital display. Gamzee's comforter was tucked away in a corner of the closet for the time being, and Feferi's games were laying by their respective consoles.
I felt very fortunate, which wasn't a feeling I got often. I had an incredible day swimming with my friends, and my rib didn't even cause me any trouble throughout. Then the greatest friends I could hope to have gave me incredible presents. Finally, I got a big slice of an incredible cake. I normally didn't do anything big for my birthdays; usually the days were spent just sitting at home playing video games with Sollux, or maybe my parents would clear their schedules and take me and Nep on vacation for a couple days. Nothing major, just time spent with family. Nothing like this.
Out of nowhere, I heard Sollux's laptop snap shut and his bed groan as he stood up. I assumed he was just going to take his now empty cake plate into the kitchen, but instead he said, "KK, get up and meet me in the kitchen."
"What?" I asked after him, pushing myself to my hands and knees. I crawled to the edge of the bed just as the door shut behind him. I muttered under my breath as I climbed down the ladder, "Brilliant fucking explanation." When I walked into the kitchen, I found him rummaging through the cabinet above the fridge. "What the hell are you looking for in there? Do we even keep anything in that cabinet?" I asked. I wasn't quite tall enough to reach it, so I didn't think either of us kept anything in there. My eyes widened when, rather than answering, he pulled down two bottles of booze; one half-empty bottle of Jack Daniel's rum and another of unopened Absolut vanilla vodka.
I glanced at him, my eyebrow shooting up. "What in the hell is this?"
"Come on, it'th' your twenty-firth't, did you really think you'd get through the whole day without taking your firth't legal th'ip of alcohol?" My face fell slack and I stared blankly at him.
"Are you shitting me?" He grinned and pulled out two glass cups from another cupboard.
"Abth'olutely not. I th'aid earlier I didn't have anything elth'e for you, but I really juth't didn't want you getting drunk off your ath' becauth'e you can't hold your liquor and making a fool out of yourth'elf in front of everybody elth'e. I mean, I could have done that, and it would have been fucking hilariouth'... but I deth'ided againth't it becauth'e I'm a good perth'on. You should be thanking me. Now, I think you should th'tart with rum and coke and then we can move on to vodka if you're feeling like it."
"Sollux, I don't really wanna..." I trailed off and decided to throw caution to the wind. "Fuck it. Pour me a fuckin' glass," I demanded, taking a seat across the counter at one of the barstools. His grin broadened and he poured two expert glasses of rum and coke on the rocks, getting a can of the latter out of the fridge. "You do that like you've done it before," I commented offhandedly.
"Who'th' to th'ay I haven't?" he shot back. I raised my eyebrows in grudging admiration and accepted the glass he pushed into my hand. Eyeing it dubiously, I glanced back up at Sollux, who nodded encouragingly as he took a sip of his own, and I tipped it gently back against my lips. The cool liquid was chased by a fiery burn as it slid down my throat. My eyes watered as I set down the glass.
"Holy motherfuck," I muttered, blinking. I'd had the occasional beer over the years, but never hard liquor like that. "That was... interesting."
Sollux smirked at me, downing about three-quarters of his glass. "You get uth'ed to it." I picked up my own, determined to not look completely incompetent, and forced down at least half of it. I tried with all my might to keep from coughing afterward, but I ended up slamming the glass onto the tile counter and spilling a bit as I spluttered and hacked. Somewhere in my coughing fit, Sollux had set down his drink and fallen back against the counter, laughing. I scowled darkly at him and looked away, snatching up my own and taking another tiny sip. It was stronger at the bottom, but that didn't deter me from finishing it. Sollux eventually contained himself and wiped tears of laughter from his eyes as he finished what was left in the glass. He got one of the water bottles from the fridge and tossed it to me; I almost dropped it, and I knew that was the fault of the alcohol. I could feel my coordination was off, nowhere near wasted-hobbling incoordination, but enough to make me waver in my seat.
Sollux drank the last sip of the coke and grabbed the bottles. He tossed the can in the trash and stowed the bottles back in the cabinet. "I think that'th' enough for you for now. How do you feel?" he asked, walking around the counter to me.
"A bit... light-headed, I guess." I took a few gulps of the water. "And uncoordinated. This isn't the first time I've drank, Sollux," I pointed out, screwing the lid on the bottle.
"Yeah, but it ith' the firth't time you've gotten buzzed on hard liquor."
"It really doesn't feel any different," I told him, scooting out of my seat and steadying myself on my feet. I was swaying a lot more than I had in the past, so I figured there might have been some truth to him having said hard liquor gives a different buzz. Sollux didn't seem to be swaying at all, which I found entirely unfair. Why can that asshole hold his liquor and I can't? Fuckface. I shook the thought and turned to go back into my room. My roommate followed and I let him pass me to get to his bed before I attempted to climb the ladder to mine. I got to the first rung before stepping back down.
"Well, that's not happening," I informed him quietly. He chuckled and patted the bed next to him. I took the seat, saying, "What am I supposed to do here, watch you play WoW or whatever the fuck it is you were playing earlier?"
"It wath' LoL, ath'wipe, how do you even fuck those up? They don't even look alike," he replied. "And yeah, that'th' exactly what I had in mind." I rolled my eyes at his sarcasm and he smirked. "Alright fine. I wath' juth' gonna tell my teammateth' how shit they are at thith' game then go back into the living room. You wanna watch a movie or th'omething? I'll let you watch a romcom th'inth'e it'th' your birthday, but thith' ith' one-time th'pecial treatment, th'o don't get uth'ed to it." I let a smile grace my features as I braced myself against the rail of the bed.
"Yeah, sure. How does The Switch sound?" I suggested, pulling myself to my feet again.
"Shitty. But whatever, it'th' up to you." I sighed and started towards the closet.
"You really need to get it into your head what good cinema is, Captor." It didn't take long to get Gamzee's comforter out of the casing.
"You firth't," he snarked. I started back towards the living room with the king-sized comforter around my shoulders, but tripped over the plastic it came in and fell hard against the carpet. Sollux burst out laughing and left the room, turning towards the kitchen. I growled and walked out of the bedroom, throwing the blanket on the couch and easily making a comfortable nest out of it. It was thick enough that we wouldn't even need pillows to sit on, so I moved to the rack and pulled out the movie I'd seen a hundred times before, popping it into the DVD player just as Sollux returned with a small bowl of popcorn. He settled himself on the couch and I grabbed the remote, skipping straight to the menu and playing the movie as I got comfortable beside him.
We had gotten to Wally's confession when our hands brushed in the popcorn bowl. Normally, it wouldn't have meant anything, but now the contact sent an electric shock up my arm strong enough to make me yank my hand back. Maybe it was the alcohol. Sollux glanced curiously at me out of the corner of his eye, but didn't say anything about my strange reaction. I leaned back and hoped the fold in the blanket would hide my flaming cheeks from him.
When the movie ended, I put the popcorn bowl in the kitchen and returned the DVD to its case while Sollux folded the blanket and put it back in the closet. The clock on the oven read 8:58. It's getting late, I noted. And I think my buzz is wearing off. Fuck, the last thing I feel like being right now is sober. Checking quickly to make sure Sollux was still in the bedroom, I climbed on top of the counter and opened the cabinet above the fridge, pulling out the rum. Shooting a glance once more at the door, I uncapped it and took a couple of huge swallows that left my throat burning.
I quickly returned the bottle to its home in the cabinet and jumped lightly off the counter, steadying myself against the sudden wave of dizziness. I shook my head lightly and walked back into the bedroom. Sollux was sitting on his bed again with computer in hand, playing Solitaire of all things. He didn't look up as I walked in, and I took a seat next to him again and watched him play the card game. He won within a couple minutes, a couple minutes I'd been using to steel myself for what I was about to do. He closed the laptop and arched his back in a stretch.
"Uh... Sollux?" He hm-ed at me and I swallowed before speaking. "You know, there's something I've, um, been thinking about lately." Off to an amazing start, keep it up, you fucking idiot, maybe he'll just be too busy laughing at you by the end to care what you have to say, I scolded myself. He quirked up an eyebrow and straightened himself. I continued. "And, it's really kind of been bothering me for a while, because it's something I know bothers you because I don't talk about it, and..." I trailed of, mentally kicking myself. Fuck, this is not going well at all. I wasn't even sure why I was saying this now. Once again, maybe it was the alcohol. Maybe it was because I couldn't take maintaining a lie to someone who just didn't deserve it. Maybe it was because I was straight fucking sick of lying. I was feeling bold, and though this wasn't in my original plan, the thought was in my mind and it was suddenly the only thing I could think about, the only thing I could focus on.
"KK, can you pleath'e th'tart making th'enth'e?"
"Look, Sollux, this is really fucking hard to say, and I don't want it to... you know what, fuck it, fuck it, fuck everything, just fuck it!" And with that, I brought my hands up to his head, thrust mine forward, and pressed my lips against his.
A few seconds passed when he did nothing, seconds that each felt like their own, individual eternity. A few seconds passed when he did nothing. And then he reacted.
I was expecting Sollux to shove me back like a car was headed straight for me. I was expecting him to recoil faster than a snake about to strike. I was expecting him to freeze until I pulled away then look at me like I was the filthiest piece of trash the world had to offer. I was expecting him to start throwing curses and punches like I was trying to kill him. What I hadn't expected was for him to kiss me back. I hadn't expected to feel his arms snaking around my waist and his lips working against mine. I hadn't expected to find myself pinned against the mattress within seconds of first contact while his tongue teased itself between my lips. I parted them more in pure astonishment than anything else, but he took that as permission to explore the inside of my mouth and plunged right in. I was surprised first to feel my hands find each other on the opposite side of his neck, and more surprised still to feel my tongue on the inside of his teeth.
Suddenly his hands were on either side of my head like mine had been on his hardly a minute before and he was pulling away. My eyes tore open, part in fear and part in hope, and I stared up at him, my mouth still slightly open and a thin trail of spit gleaming between our mouths. He stared back and murmured something so softly I could scarcely make it out; after a couple seconds, I realized he'd said, "Do you have any idea how long I'd been waiting for that?" I swallowed hard yet again as he flicked his tongue out to catch the saliva on the corner of his mouth. He cleared his throat and pushed himself up and off of me. I sat up much more slowly, still overwhelmingly stunned by his reaction. I could still smell the light alcohol on his breath.
"Well then," he began after a moment of silence between us. "Mind if I ath'k what prompted that?"
"Honestly, probably the alcohol," I admitted, unable to look at him. To my surprise, he chuckled.
"Remind me to get you drunk more often."
"Okay," I said, his words jogging my memory, "my turn; what the hell was that?"
"I'm pretty sure you can anth'wer that yourth'elf."
"No, I mean... why did you return the... you know... er, like, why didn't you... oh, fuck this, why did you kiss me back?" Dear sweet fuck, I actually kissed him, I realized with a jolt.
"Becauth'e I wanted to."
"Oh." Another awkward pause electrified the tension in the air. "What now?" I asked, shattering it.
"I don't know." He sighed.
"I'm bi, Sollux."
"Yeth', thank you, KK, I gathered that." Now it was my turn to let out a nervous laugh.
"Um. That doesn't mean... like, just because I'm bi doesn't mean I wanna be with you or anything."
"Ith' that th'o? Becauth'e I'm pretty sure the kith' you juth't gave me th'ayth' otherwith'e."
"You fucking idiot," I muttered. "I'm not going to automatically want to fuck you because I'm half-gay. If I want a relationship with you, it's gonna be because I care about you, not your gender."
He paused. "Do you want a relationship with me?"
"Again with the difficult fucking questions," I growled.
"I'm ath'king for a yeth' or no anth'wer, KK, there'th' nothing difficult about it at all."
I sighed heavily. "Yeah, maybe. I don't know. I'm not gonna pressure you into thinking that you have to or whatever, and I'll still be just your friend if you're okay with... this. Like, okay with me being... how I am."
"I never th'aid I thought I had to, dumbath'. That doeth'n't mean I'm not open to it." My heart did a backflip inside my chest before beginning to beat at my ribs like a starving gorilla trying to knock down bananas from a tree. Did he just say he's okay with getting into a relationship with me? Holy shitting motherfuck I'm gonna have a heart attack.
"You... wait... what?"
"You do want to be with me, don't you? That ith' what you juth't confirmed. You alth'o th'aid that you don't want to pressure me into anything. But if I'm offering, that'th' not really you pressuring me, ith' it? Th'o... I'll ath'k again." I lied, I realized. He paused, turned slightly on the bed to face me. I'm not going to have a heart attack. Slowly and quietly, he asked, "Karkat, will you be my boyfriend?" I'm gonna have a fucking aneurysm.
I think that, even if I could have talked right then, I wouldn't even have been able to think of anything to say. I settled for a nod, tugged my knees to my chest, and muttered some unintelligible gibberish before clearing my throat and trying again. "C-Can I sleep here tonight? I think my knees are shaking too much for me to even stand, let alone climb to the top bunk." He chuckled and stood up to snatch my pillow off the upper bed.
"Sure." Tossing it next to his, he teased, "Need me to get you changed, too, or can you manage that yourth'elf?" I sneered at him and tried to stand up for a total of three seconds before giving up and simply crawling over to the dresser. I tried not to wonder if he was watching me as I undressed and put on my pajamas same as I did every night since he'd first seen my scars. Then I crawled back to his bed and climbed in next to him, somewhere I hadn't expected to be but accepted when he'd pulled back the blanket. I rolled onto my right side and faced into the room because my rib no longer hurt and I was so fucking sick of sleeping on my left side, and it wasn't long until I felt Sollux's long arm sneak around my waist and hold me close against him. This is way too good to be happening. There is absolutely no fucking way this is happening, I decided, waiting for reality to kick back in. I realized it wasn't going to when my new boyfriend's warm breath ruffled the hair near my ear.
"Happy birthday, KK."
Review, my loves! Go forth and share your SolKat feels~ ^o^