At last, it was rush hour in the theater. Neon lights blazed brightly as they ran the length of the walls decked with poster displays. Mass volumes of humanity flowed in and out of the doors in a seemingly endless current. The ages evened out, mostly young adults and juveniles with a taste for adventure and obnoxious group gatherings.
Karkat turned around, facing the group of four people at his register. A boy with rumpled dark-brown hair, square-frame glasses and irritatingly noticeable buck teeth stood in front, his wallet already in his hand. He had a goofy grin on his face that the cashier wanted to slap off his face.
"Welcome to cinema 15, can I help you?" If one listened closely, the restraint in his voice was almost tangible.
"Oh! Yeah, sure! One second…" He turned to face his companions. "What does everyone want?"
Karkat felt himself lose faith in humanity. Why don't people just figure out what to order before they get in the fucking line?
A kid with blond hair and round shades that immediately labeled him as an insufferable prick spoke up, "Just get me some orange soda. Large."
The girl next to him, probably the sister of the other guy, tilted her head as if the menu was sideways. "Hm…tough…Sour Patch Kids and Dave and I'll share a popcorn."
The blonde rolled his eyes. "Jade, I didn't ask for popcorn."
"You're going to steal mine anyway." She shot back. "Medium, please"
"I've already eaten." The final member of the group said, a mature youth with her pale blonde hair pulled back with a pink headband, wearing what looked like the casual collection for models. Thank god, one less thing to make.
"Um," the front glasses kid strained to look at the menu, "you don't have Fruit Gushers, do you?"
"They're not on the big lit-up board behind me, so no." Karkat was beginning to lose anything that even partially resembled patience.
"Okay, gee whiz, I'll have Rasinettes then."
"Coming up. Large orange!" The command reached Sollux, who decided to show off by spinning the cup around in a complicated movement before setting it down on the machine.
"Poser." Karkat muttered as he pushed fluffy yellow kernels into a striped bucket. Finishing off the pile with a final scoop, he set it down on the counter and pulled out two boxes of candy from underneath the counter. Tapping the keys, he pulled up the total in glowing blue numbers.
"Hi again idiot, 21.43 is your total." He waited expectantly for a debit card, cash, some form of payment. Naturally, it was the sight of the bespectacled boy digging around in his pockets of his bright cerulean hoodie for the last dollar and forty-three cents as a crumpled twenty lay on the discolored linoleum.
"Okay, 1.40, 1.41, 1.42, 1.43!" The annoyingly cheerful kid dug the remaining pennies out from the crevices of his tight denim pockets. "Perfect! And we're just in time to watch the anniversary showing of Con Air!"
One of the group members groaned. The insufferable prick. "Con Air? You've got to be kidding me."
His friend pouted. "But Dave! It's like the best movie ever! And that scene where he reunites with his loving wife and daughter? Man, I want to act that out in real life some time."
"Whatever man. I'll just go to the fro-yo place next door if that's the case. Pick up some chicks there by inquiring 'bout their favorite flavor and-ow, dammit Jade, maybe not."
"C'mon! It's fantastic, you should see it. Hey, er, you," the bucktoothed wonder turned back to the counter, where a completely underwhelmed employee stood, "what do you think about Con Air? Can you help me convince my bro?"
Karkat blinked. Customers rarely asked him about movies. "You want my professional opinion?"
He nodded quickly. "Yes please. Anything to make Strider watch this."
The worker gave him a warning look. "If you're sure…"
The kid's grin betrayed his naiveté. "Of course!"
"That movie is a sentimental trap made for underage role-players doomed to a life of puttering around in their mother's basement. No one under the impression that they are about to watch a halfway decent film should even venture into the awkward theater seats that the company installs."
The youth looked as if he'd received a stinging slap from a metal arm. "You've seen it then?"
Karkat shrugged apathetically. "I didn't have to. It's all in the title."
A new passion was kindled in the bright blue eyes of the fierce supporter. "No way man, you have to come and see it too then. Come on!"
Karkat held back a smirk. Who did this presumptuous idiot think he was? Just saying he had to go see a movie with him on a spur of the moment decision? "In case me taking your order and handing you food was not an obvious indicator, I'm currently on the job. I can't just take a break and go see a movie with a random patron."
The boy clasped his hands together in a begging position . "Aw, c'mon, please? I'll pay for stuff, but I need to spread the word about how awesome my favorite movie is!"
Now he was stuck. This kid looked bratty enough to complain to management if he didn't get his way. Karkat was already hanging by a thread here as it was. The kid was a total jackass, but a free ticket was a free ticket. And what the heck, he could bring a sweeper and look like he was doing work. Or not. He checked the clock. His shift was over in five minutes anyway. That clinched it.
"Sure, why the hell not?" He jumped over the counter in a practiced motion, drawing some looks from the staff and almost knocking into the fearless Con Air fanatic. "But you're buying."
The boy's face lit up instantly, a smile dimpling irritatingly on his cheek. "Sounds good. I'm John, by the way." He held out his hand, which Karkat shook.
"Karkat. And no comments on the name."
"Name? I thought you were choking."
"Very funny, wise guy. If you used those ridiculous lens-filled frames you call glasses, you might be able to see it taped onto my nametag with all the permanence of my position here. Now are we going to see a crappy Nic Cage movie or what?"
"You can use Dave's ticket, since it looks like he managed to get away." Sure enough, as John pointed it out, the insufferable prick had absconded while no one was looking. And he'd taken his soda.
Karkat, meanwhile, had undone the buttons on his scratchy uniform and tossed the fabric at Sollux, who deftly caught it and hung it next to similar ones on a rack. Underneath, he was wearing one of those free cancer-awareness shirts commonly seen at 5k walks, this one proudly reading "Race for the Cure" accompanied by a pink ribbon.
"Can't look like I work here if I'm sitting in seats and chewing popcorn, can I? You're acting like I just poured a cup of soda over my head." Karkat said, indicating the dropped jaw of one black-haired boy.
"Right. I just wasn't expecting that. Oh hey, Rose and Jade ran off while I wasn't looking!" He tugged at the Karkat's arm. "C'mon, it's in theater number four."
The brunette tried to jerk his wrist away as he was dragged to the ticket puncher's desk. The attendant looked up from the stream of tickets to look at her coworker. "Karkat? What-"
He gave her the abridged version. "Shift's over in five minutes, got an offer to see a movie, boss is always yelling at me to be friendlier."
She nodded. Thank god she wasn't one of the tightasses. "Can't argue with that. Have a good time." In one smooth action, she ripped the top halves of the tickets off and handed the stubs back to the two boys.
As they walked away, the blue-eyed wonder grinned. "Well that explained why you wanted to come see Con Air."
"Maybe it did. Oh, forgot, I'm off the clock, I can cuss everyone out now." He exhaled. "Thank god, I was getting so fucking tired of smiling at every goddamn person who wanted a bucket of popcorn."
"Heh, guess I saved the day, then. Karkat, right? You're not joking?"
"Nope. Whatever the hell possessed my mom to name me that, I've got no idea. I just go by Kar most of the time, people think its short for Carter or whatever the hell, makes my life easier."
John snickered. "Well, anything to make life easier, right?" He walked over to the door marked by a lit up overhang, pulled the stainless steel handle and stepped aside like a royal footman. "Forward, milord."
"Shut up, fuckass." Karkat said, but begrudgingly trod over the threshold. As he rounded the dark corner, he remembered why he signed up for this job in the first place. The cinematic atmosphere, loud, perfectly balanced sounds putting you into the life of another character entirely…
"C'mon, you look like you've never seen the inside of the theater before! And I bet you have since, well, you work here and all." John said, his face barely visible in the slight amount of reflected light from the screen currently displaying a fiery explosion from an action flick trailer
"Of course I have, dumbass, isn't a guy allowed to walk slowly around here?" Karkat grumbled, but it was half-hearted at best. Even though the odd, bespectacled boy was but a slender outline in the barely lit viewing area, he seemed full of excitement the minute he stepped into the room. Here was clearly someone who was truly devoted to the cinematic elements.
Moving swiftly through the empty rows of seats, they located the two girls who had craftily purloined the concessions while they were distracted. Jade begrudgingly handed over the now half-empty box of Raisinettes to a dismayed John. Rose passed the popcorn over and gave a vaguely satisfied smile, as if she had seen the future and knew a particularly interesting secret.
They sat down in the same row, John next to Jade and Karkat next to him. The chairs squeaked as the seats folded out, reminding Karkat that he had missed maintenance last week. Oh well. Time to worry about that later.
The lights dimmed before completely extinguishing. Murmurs from the audience filled the empty airspace as the screen brightened again, showing what was undoubtedly the start of the crappy piece of cinematography known as Con Air. Karkat sighed. He hoped he was wrong about this movie.
A/N: See, this is what happens when I read other AUs, I start mixing, picking and blending it with my headcanon and things like this emerge. The idea for Karkat's shirt came from Marchingstuck (not mine at all), a lot of the physical appearances were inspired by 4chords and Daycarestuck, neither of which have I had any part in and all belong to their original owners. You will, no doubt, see pieces and parts of different AUs here, if you think you spot a direct reference, tell me please since I don't want to accidentally infringe on intellectual property.
Lastly, it's not really DaveJade, it's more like they're really good friends and she keeps him on track. And he steals her popcorn. Everyone needs friends like that XD
And thank you to whoever that lovely guest reviewer is, you can most definitely have a hug. HookahBird, you can have a hug too XD Thanks to everyone who reviewed, Rae, derpofmind, princeoujimax. And all the followers. And all the favoriters. Have the feeling of satisfaction that comes from having an author flail from happiness when she checks her inbox and sees a string of emails from people who don't think their writing is total crap ^_^
Read and Review :3 Hugs are allowed, high-fives optional, fist bumps preferable, and criticism welcomed :) Until next time!