A/N

This story is a bit of a mess, I realize. I'll probably finish it anyway because other than the complete lack of planning I had for it it's gained a considerable amount of followers and I don't want to disappoint you guys! Also sorry this chapter is so late! School's horrible. Which is why this takes place in summer.

Disclaimer: I, once again, do not own anything presented here, other than the mere concept of this fan fiction.

Chapter 6

Your name is Tavros Nitram, you are sixteen-ish years old, and you are really not sure how you feel about the Fourth of July.

Last year you spent it with your uncle and watched the fireworks from your apartment roof. This year you're watching them from Dave's apartment roof, which is weird because it is literally the same building. He just lives on the top floor instead of the fifth floor.

However, you have a problem.

There are only stairs leading up to the roof and you are sort of stuck in a wheelchair at the moment.

Well, you aren't in a wheelchair right now, you're actually sitting on a couch, but the four-wheel device is close by. Your best friend, Gamzee Makara, is sitting next to you, and your girlfriend is nowhere to be found. This brings you a bit of comfort as you've been debating (more like planning) breaking up with her for a while now and you just get nervous whenever you're around her.

Gamzee is eating a Jell-O cup (without the use of a spoon), Dave is leaning against the back of the couch and occasionally yelling at his brother, Terezi is sitting on the couch, directly in front of him, and Sollux has somehow gained control over the TV and is now channel surfing. There's nothing particularly interesting on and he looks about ready to either throw the remote or just shut it off.

Dave's phone rings and a voice shouts from down the hallway. "Was that my phone!?"

"No that was not your fucking phone!" Dave exclaims back, reading something on the screen of his mobile device. "Why don't you have your phone with you?"

"I..." Dave's brother shut up as soon as he heard a knock on the door. "Tell me if it's Jake!"

"It's not Jake!" Dave yelled before even opening the door. "He said he wouldn't be here until after six. It's five-thirty."

He was right. It wasn't Jake (someone you have never met and at this point are not totally sure you want to). It was Karkat. Sollux finally gave up and turned the TV off.

"Hey," Sollux said. Karkat found a place to sit next to him, which happened to be right in front of your feet.

"Wassup, Karbro?" Gamzee says carelessly, getting off the couch to throw his now emptied Jell-O container away. You glance around the room. Dave appears to have gone down the hallway to look for his brother.

"Bad news guys John can't come," Dave yells from another room, somewhere. He gets basically ignored.

"When do the fireworks start?" Terezi directs her voice in the general direction of where Dave may possibly be.

"At ten, I think," Dave replies, emerging from a room somewhere down the hallway and returning to his place behind the couch. "Why do you care, though? You can't even see them. Why are you even here?"

"'Cuz you're here, duh," Terezi replies.

Dave's brother suddenly comes in and ruins the moment. He's not wearing a shirt or his hat. "Dude, where's my shirt?" He asks Dave.

"I don't fucking know!" Dave exclaims, clearly exasperated with the older family member. "This isn't my job!"

"So are we just sitting around for four hours?" Karkat says. "Because I would rather do something enjoyable."

"Well," Dave begins, "we had something planned for when everyone's here but Jake is still missing. So we just gotta wait a half hour."

"What do you have planned?" Sollux asks.

"I just found these stupid board games from a long time ago..." Dave says from the kitchen, where he is pouring some Chex mix into a large bowl. "Like, this version of giant fucking Jenga and a normal-sized version of Clue."

"Giant Jenga?" You say.

"Yeah," Dave says, returning to the group. "When it's all stacked up it's like as tall as Gamzee when he stands up straight. Maybe taller."

The hour or so goes painfully slowly, but you're not going to complain about it. It's filled with leisurely conversations about no particular subject, and goes from talking about cat videos on YouTube to Dave's gay sister that lives across town pretty quickly. Six o' clock rolls around and Jake still hasn't showed up. And he doesn't show up until almost six forty-five.

Dave's brother (now wearing a shirt, thankfully, though still no hat) seems elated to see Jake and is suddenly a lot more social than he was before. Dave and Terezi have taken to playing a weird trivia game on Dave's phone, which Terezi keeps licking, though her partner doesn't seem to mind. You and Gamzee have somehow switched places with Karkat and Sollux: you both are on the floor, where as Karkat is scrunched up in one corner of the couch and Sollux is laying down with his legs hanging off the edge.

"Tho," Sollux says, looking away from his phone. "How about giant Jenga, then?"

A few hilarious games of giant Jenga and Clue later, it's finally nine-thirty and time to head to the roof. Gamzee piggy-backs you up the stairs, much to absolutely no one's objections, despite how very badly it could have ended. Either way you all end up on the roof where multiple people from the building have gathered, all facing the same direction, ready for the fireworks.

Every so often, random crackles and booms will sound from other directions, and Karkat looks really uneasy. Sollux has taken to laughing at him, and Gamzee just looks really sleepy at this moment in time. Overall the feeling in the air is contempt and you'd do nothing to change it.

"Hey," you nudge Gamzee in the arm. "What time is it?"

He yawns and pulls out his phone. The light is rather bright and you find yourself squinting.

"Nine-forty," he answers.

"So, twenty minutes," you say, leaning back on your hands. He leans back a bit as well and oh god did he just get closer to you or are you imagining things.

"I'm probably gonna up and fall asleep before then," Gamzee says with another yawn. You yawn as well, despite not even being tired.

"You really should fix your sleeping schedule," you laugh.

"Nah, I have a motherfuckin' system all worked out," he says.

"Going to bed whenever you can't stay awake and then waking up whenever isn't a system."

"It works, bro," he replies sleepily.

"IT DOES NOT WORK!" Karkat shouts.

By the time the fireworks start, Gamzee has fallen asleep in the weirdest position clinging to your arm. You nudge him a bit, but what really wakes him up is the increasing volume of the fireworks. His hand lingers on your arm, though.

And, honestly, with your girlfriend gone, watching the fireworks with your best friend on this roof...

You wouldn't have it any other way.