Eridan/Karkat: Remember when Eridan found out about Karkat's blood color and nearly culled him, and then afterwards ignored/avoided Karkat for nearly a perigee before finally accepting it.
It was the sort of thing he'd been hatched for, culling the horrifyingly mutant. He'd been waiting for this day, hoping beyond hope that he would get this chance to uphold the empire he loved. Except instead of some winged low-blooded freak, or some three-eyed mid-blood kneeling in front of him bleeding their life out, it was Karkat.
His friend, his stupid friend with blood brighter than rubies, that apparently forgot not to fucking bleed in front of him.
"Cod-dammit Kar!" Eridan swore, bringing Ahab's Crosshairs to bear. All it would take was a twitch of his finger. All he had to do was slip, and a horrible mutant would be wiped off the face of the planet. That would be that. He might have daymares about it for perigrees of course, but he'd be a hero.
God, what a nightmare! What sort of fucked up hero kills his friends? (The kind that understands what to do for the greater good, a dark whisper in his mind soothes.) God, he couldn't do this, but he had to.
Eridan places the barrel against Karkat's forehead, and the moron looks straight at him with bright red irises. God dammit, Eridan thinks, because for this moron to come outside with eyes like that. He was begging to be culled.
The seadweller swears again and stomps backward until Karkat looks more like a black and grey lump than someone he knows, then re-aims at his – at Karkat's bloodpusher. And he doesn't notice that his barrel is shaking, because his eyes won't focus. So he throws Ahab's Crosshairs away, suddenly disgusted with himself.
"Get the fuck away from me, Kar." Eridan snarls, kicking at the dirt as he turns away, "Just get the fuck out of here." He hears scrambling behind him, and methodical thumps as Karkat runs. And the violet-blood stares up into the night sky with a mind blank, too full of anger and shame and regret to bother thinking about anything.
He cuts Karkat out of his life. He blocks him on Trollian, throws out his past wiggling day presents, locks Ahab away (the gun is a reminder now, too). And he still can't forget the look of shame and fear Karkat had on his face when he pushed the gun into the guy's forehead. And he's angry about it, so angry.
How dare he. How could Karkat do this to him!
There are a lot of dead lusus that get fed to Feferi's those next few weeks. He won't talk to anyone about it, because every time he thinks about going to his husktop he wonders if Karkat made it out okay. Wonders if he's been culled yet. Wonders, and wonders…so he avoids the thing completely, just to avoid the temptation to check.
He breaks his self-imposed isolation first. Thinks hard for a moment before logging in to Trollian. He types, "Kan, you heard from Kar?" He's flooded with foreboding immediately, but the little ellipses indicating typing keeps him from slamming the computer shut.
"Yes Actually, He's Fine Thank You." Kanaya replies, her prim typing style leaving most of the details he wanted out. He knows if he wants to know if the stupid landdweller is really okay, he'll have to troll Karkat himself. But Kanaya's words put him at ease.
He's not fucking dead, at least.
So he sucks it up, because he's royalty.
"Kar, you still alivve?"