A/N Wow I thought this died! NOPE... My friend wrote me some john/kat for my birthday and inspired me to do another chapter. I'm going to try and do more when I get some more down time from my classes, but I don't know when that'll be. So look forward to more chapters eventually. :)

=== Karkat Return Home

"WELCOME HOME FUCKASS." You grumble at your matesprit as you push his wheelchair through the door of the hive. You managed to clean up a little between visiting hours; vacuumed, dusted, swept, waxed the floor, touched up the paint, re-shingle the roof…

You only cleaned a little? I really don't think that re-shingling the roof constitutes as only a little…

Shut your fucking vocal orifice. Visiting hours were only from 6 am to 8 pm. What else were you going to do with those 10 hours? Sleep? Fuck that noise. How on Alternia were you supposed to sleep knowing Egderp wasn't here with you. And yes that was only a little bit of cleaning… Word of advice; never underestimate the ability of an anxious insomniac troll to get shit done.

I just wanted to…

Save it. You, Karkat Vantas, do NOT have the patients for this side dialogue to continue any farther. There are more important things to attend to.

Fine, have it your way.

You return your train of thought back to the room before you, the 'living room' as John calls it. Ironically, this is where he will be living for the next few weeks till he can walk up stairs again... Not that you notice, irony is Dave's thing.

In the center of the room the 'hide-a-way' bed in the couch had been set up. John's old green pogo slime sheets fitted the mattress under a large lime green comforter. Against the far wall stood your entertainment center; complete with your prized 52 inch high definition LED flat screen and a surround sound speaker system that would have made Strider's car jealous. On the various shelves that stood beneath the TV sat John's terribly shitty movie collection. You had moved a majority of your movies up stairs to make room for ALL of John's favorites, which is to say ALL of his Nic Cage films. There were still a few of your movies on the shelf, the ones that John could understand and tolerate.

As you wheel John over to the bed he gawks at how you've set up his new sleeping arrangement.

"Wow Karkat… You didn't have to re-arrange the entire living room for me."

You mumble a few Alternian curses. You had re-arranged the entire HOUSE so he could get around more easily. Nothing the idiot said would have made you do anything different.

You deposit John next to the makeshift bed. You glare at John as he gapes at the room in wonder. He looks pathetic; his hair is disheveled (more so than normally) from having a lack of grooming supplies at the hospital, his arm hangs in one of those blue slings, and his white cast was covered in the signatures of all the other humans and trolls who had visited him. Casting another glance around the room you plant yourself on the bed and kick off your shoes, quickly captchaloging them.

John giggles and flinches at the pain in his side, which elicits a growl from you.

"WHAT'S SO FUNNY DIPSHIT?"

"Nothing…" he giggles again and your eyes narrow into a glare. His smile only widens. You can only assume that it's his stupid medication making him this way, but it could be that your matesprit is just a fucking moron. You sigh and decide to let it go. John is an enigma most of the time, a fact that you find endearing if not incredibly obnoxious.

You eye his mess of head of hair and decide it might be a good idea to deal with that now instead of later.

"COME ON EGBERT… YOU NEED A REAL BATH. NOT ONE OF THOSE SHITTY EXCUSE WIPEDOWNS THE HOSPITAL GAVE YOU."

"Oh Mr. Vantas! Could there perhaps be some ulterior motives behind your seemingly innocent question? Mmm?" John tried his best at a seductive eyebrow waggle.

Clenching your fists you fought the urge to blush and punch John in the face. You can't wait till they take him off the ridiculous drugs and he will stop acting like a bigger nookwhiff than usual.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP JOHN! YOU STINK AND YOUR HAIR IS A MESS. I'M TRING TO HELP YOU GAIN SOME NORMALACY HERE!"

"Mmmmhmmm. Suuuuure."

"FUCK OFF."

Apparently your response was hilarious because Egbert almost fell out of his wheel chair. This, of course, caused him to gasp in pain but regrettably didn't wipe the smirk off his face. You growl again at his stupidity.

"IDIOT."

=== Be John again

A few hours in the future, but not many… You are now John Egbert once again.

After having been forced to take a bath with Karkat, you will admit it was not a totally unpleasant experience; the two of you crawled into the makeshift bed to watch a movie. You are currently sitting between Karkat's legs leaning back against him. His chin is resting in your freshly washed hair with his arms draped loosely around your waist. The way he's been so careful when touching you, it's like he thinks he'll break you more than you already have been.

The credits of the film you had been watching begin to roll and you lean your head back to try and look at your boyfriend/matesprit. Karkat lightly presses his lips to your forehead and the cicada like vibrating emits from his chest. The noise buzzes like the annoying insects in the trees, but it is a much lower pitch and reminds you of the purring a mountain lion might make. Your whole body vibrates with him.

The two of you sit like that until the TV screen turns blue, something that doesn't happen with DVDs. You had Karkat drag up your old VHS player from the basement so you could enjoy some of your favorite movies that haven't been transferred to DVD yet. Besides VHS is the way to go if you really want to experience some nostalgia, and you have been feeling very nostalgic…

Funny how near death experiences will do that to a person.

Very carefully Karkat slides out from behind you and goes to hit the rewind button, the remote being long lost.

You hear him mutter something about primitive technology under his breath when he finally is able to eject the tape.

At this point you had managed to wriggle your way under the sheets and lie down. The TV clicked off and the room dropped into pitch black darkness. Your pulse quickens a little when the troll turns around, his bright yellow eyes shining in the dark. Previously they would have been comforting to you… now all you can see are the headlights of the dark car speeding towards your face.

Your brain quickly overcomes this particular vision once Karkat has a hand in your hair. Softly he kisses your forehead before moving to sleep upstairs.

"Karkat?"

"WHAT?"

He sorta sneers at you, but you know he doesn't mean it. Karkat actually hardly ever means the vitriolic things he says.

"… Would you mind sleeping down here tonight? I'm still having nightmares about… this."

With your good hand you gesture to your injured body. You've spent about a week at the hospital and tonight is your first night back at home. The nightmares were supposed to have gone away, you repressed them. At night they come sneaking back into your head… what's worse is that they're bringing some long lost friends with them. Memories about the game have begun to work their way into your dreams as well, but you don't want to tell Karkat that. He worries enough.

"FINE."

He makes a show of it, as if you're inconveniencing him greatly. Truth is that he nearly jumps into the bed he's so happy… well not about your circumstances, but he missed you a lot. He curls up next to you and places his head on your chest. The two of you settle in not long after Karkat starts vibrating, a slight rumble being emitted from his frame. You think again of how the noise is lost somewhere between the buzz of a cicada and the purr of a large cat; yet all the same, very comforting.