Cronus refrained from invading anyone's personal space after that; he didn't want Kankri to see him and undo all his hard work. Actually, it was okay. He and Kankri hadn't had much physical contact before, so he wasn't missing anything, though the desire was there now and it felt like he was. Still, it wasn't like he didn't have time to wait. It'd be worth it. Kankri was so... Meulin had once offended him more deeply than usual by calling him "squishable", and Cronus couldn't think of a better word. He couldn't settle on a quadrant, but frankly any would do as long as he could just get Kankri to acknowledge that he was trying for one. Kankri seemed to be wilfully ignoring his efforts, not merely missing them. Was he that repulsive? He had thought they were friends...
"Cronus!" Kankri's voice interrupted his musings. Today (insofar as that word had meaning in the bubbles) they were inside Cronus' hive, watching a movie. Cronus had gone to more effort than he usually would have done in finding something he thought Kankri would like. He'd picked one with enough scandalous social commentary which had only just got past the censors to keep him happily offended throughout, and with plenty of racy content to keep himself happy and put the idea in Kankri's head. Evidently he'd been wrong, from the expression on Kankri's face. "Cronus, please, can we skip through this part? It's making me uncomfortable."
Cronus looked at the screen; the opening to an obvious bucket scene. Not too detailed, the participants looked happy enough... He couldn't see any problem at all. "Vwhy?"
"None of your business," Kankri said stiffly.
Cronus stared at him, shocked. "Okay, somefin's wrong. Normally you'd go on for hours about shit that offended you."
"Just turn it off!" Kankri snatched the remote and turned the TV off himself. "I don't understand why you're so desperate to make me uncomfortable!"
"Oh for fuck's sake..." Cronus slapped his forehead. "Vwhy are you so stuck-up? Are you seriously afraid of pailing?"
"I don't have to explain my triggers to you!"
"Svweet human Jesus, you need to get fucked! Vwhy don't you at least go make use of that stick up your nook and-"
Kankri interrupted him with an enraged scream rivalling any of Karkat's. "BECAUSE I CAN'T, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME, YOU MORON? I CAN'T!"
Before Cronus could react beyond blinking, Kankri leapt to his feet. He hiked up his sweater, kicked off his shoes, and started unbuttoning his ridiculous leggings. This process took quite a while, and by the time he reached the bottom button Cronus was on the edge of his seat wondering what the hell was going on. Kankri kicked off the leggings, holding up his sweater around his waist; he parted his legs and put one foot on the couch, and Cronus' fortunately-unlit cigarette dropped from his mouth.
"You see?" Kankri touched the neat line of scar tissue, marked by little dots where stitches had been long ago, which was all that was left of his nook. He was shaking now, his eyes sparkling with red. He pressed lightly and the useless barely-there stump of his bulge emerged. "There, now you've seen what you wanted."
"Kan... Kanny, kiddo, vwhen'd this happen?"
"I was five. I went for a routine checkup, they found I was maturing, and so I was detained while this was done. I was deemed physically and emotionally unfit to risk breeding, so everything was stripped out and sewn up. Porrim didn't find out until too late, and even if she had it was the law, she could do nothing. I was also deemed too weak to risk more than a local anaesthetic but I solved that problem by fainting, in case you're interested. But why would you be? Go on, make whatever jokes you want. Tell me how wonderful it is that I still have a mouth and a wastechute. Go and cry about how terrible it would be if this had happened to you." Kankri turned his back and picked up his leggings, and shook them out in preparation for putting them back on.
Cold wiry arms swept around him and scooped him up in a tight hug.
"Kankri, shit, I'm so sorry."