This is it. Stuff's gonna happen. This chapter will be one to remember.
Be prepared.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of this Homestuck stuff
Chapter 20
Man. I can't believe I got a 50 on that Algebra 2 test. That stuff was suppose to be easy! Or at least, that's what Mr. H said. Ugh I'm gonna have to explain this to Kankri aren't I. I'm going to be in so much trouble for this… Just another thing to add on the list of 'bad stuff that happened today' on top of the usual bullying, and the fact that I haven't seen Dave at all today. Where's a boyfriend when you need one…
Karkat thought about all of this as he walked home from school alone. It was the Thursday before Valentine's day, however getting something for Dave was the last thing on his mind. He knew he had to help Rose with her stuff the next day, and that he definitely has to do something with his boyfriend, but he was so anxious about what his older brother would say when he found this bad math grade.
He arrived at his apartment, opening the door and finding the surroundings quiet. "Oh thank God he's not home yet." He carefully set his stuff down, heading to his room and locking the door. The redhead slid his back down the door, putting his head in his hands. Tears began to streak his face. "I just don't know what to do anymore. This is all too much for me." He sobbed, alone in his room, thankful no one is around to hear him.
No more than five minutes later, he feels his phone buzz in his pocket. Great. It's probably Kankri saying he'll be home soon. He pulled out his phone to find Dave was the one who had sent the text. Karkat opened up the message.
Dave: hey dude come over to my apartment now.
The redhead rolled his eyes in frustration, then began to shoot a response.
Karkat: OH YEAH? WHY SHOULD I? YOU HAVEN'T BEEN THERE FOR ME ALL DAY AND I'M JUST SUPPOSE TO DROP EVERYTHING AND RUN TO YOU WHEN YOU CALL?
Dave: karks just come over here now believe me this is important
Karkat thought about this for a minute, then sighed, standing up and wiping his tears. Let's go see what the needy boy wants I suppose. I can wait until later to worry about my own problems, I guess. His clearly are more important.
The smaller boy made his way down a few floors to the Strider apartment. He pounded on the door a few times. "Strider! Hey Strider what do you want?" He waited a few minutes, but no answer came, and the door remained closed. I guess it's times like these that a key to his place is useful. He dug the key out of his pocket and shoved it in the lock, opened the door, and slammed it behind him. "Dave Strider! What could possibly be so important that-" He stopped himself once he noticed what laid out in front of him.
There was a paper on the floor, with a few words scrawled on it. Karkat picked it up and read it. "Romance is cheesy…" What the heck is going on? He looked on the floor and saw red rose petals leading in a line down the hallway. He followed them to another paper. "So I'll cut all the frill…" Karkat read. "Strider. What's this about?" As annoyed as he was, he decided to play along. He kept following the rose petals, and picked up a third note. "Do you just wanna…" The rose petal trail continued, ending in front of Dave's door. I should probably open it, but I don't get what's happening.
Reluctantly, Karkat put his hand on the doorknob slowly turning it, and staring in slight shock at the scene before him. In the room lay more rose petals, leading up to a heap of them on Dave's bed. Also on the bed was the blonde himself, laying on his side in a 'paint-me-like-one-of-your-french-girls' style, and next to him, an open box of pizza with the words 'Pizza and Chill?' written on the lid.
"Dave…" The redhead walked in, still utterly confused. "Will you please tell me what's going on?"
The taller boy sat up on his bed, careful not to disturb anything on it. "Well, I figured since tomorrow is Valentine's Day, and we will probably be busy helping out Rose, why not just celebrate a little early? I know you've had a rough week, so I thought a nice relaxing evening alone might be nice."
Karkat didn't know what to say. "This is…" Tears started to well up in his eyes again. "This is so nice of you, Dave." He buried his head in his hands. He heard a slight creak from the bed, then felt a pair of arms wrap around him.
"Shhhh. It's okay. Don't cry, dude. I was trying to make your week better, not make you cry more." Dave put his chin on Karkat's head, standing there for a minute until Karkat's body stopped shaking so much.
"Thanks." The redhead sniffed. "Sorry I'm such a mess. I don't know how you put up with me honestly."
"Karks, look at me." The blonde grabbed his boyfriend's face in his hands. "I don't 'put up' with you. I love you to the ends of the earth. I would travel great distances to make sure I could see you happy every day. Sure, things are gonna happen, but there isn't anything that can't be solved if we're together, alright?"
Karkat smiled, wrapping his arms around the taller boy's neck. "Thank you Dave. I love you too." He pulled Dave in for a kiss. It was soft, but passionate. Their lips fit perfectly together. Karkat smiled into the kiss, then pulled away. "So… About that pizza…"
Dave chuckled. "I knew that was on your mind still. Well, what's a pizza without a movie? How does the Princess Bride sound?"
"That sounds fantastic. Thanks, love." The two made their way to Dave's bed, where they cuddled up, played the movie, and ate pizza together.
It was Friday. It was also, as Dirk tried to forget, Valentine's Day. This will be the first year in a long time that I don't spend today with Jake… The older Strider tried to put that out of his mind as he sat in the empty apartment working on his laptop, Lil' Cal by his side. It was hard for him to get any work done, because he kept thinking of the New Year's Eve party and how he got to see Jake, even if only through crappy video chat.
He said no matter what happens, he loves me. What does he mean by that? That sounds like a freaking goodbye, like he will never see me again. I hope he isn't going to do something dangerous. God, I just want him home. I miss him so much. Dirk thought to himself. He turned to Lil' Cal. "Hey Cal, at least I have you, right?" The puppet did not respond, as Dirk expected.
A few more minutes of being unproductive passed, and suddenly Dirk heard the doorknob jiggle. Heart pounding, he slowly put his laptop down, and made his way to his bedroom, grabbing his katana. He creeped back to the living room, where the doorknob was still jiggling. He stood poised to attack as the door opened, then he froze, seeing what was in front of him.
A man, adorned with tennis shoes, tube socks, shorts that were, by any man's definition, too short, and a green shirt stood in the doorway, carrying two or three luggage bags. His skin was tanned, making his smile that much whiter and brighter. "Hey ol' chap." He spoke, british accent clear as day.
The Strider stood there in disbelief. He dropped his katana, which clanged against the wooden floor."J-Jake? This… this must be a dream."
Slowly, the british man walked forward, setting his bags down, closing the door behind him, and giving his boyfriend a hug. "This isn't a dream." He whispered. "It's really me, Dirk."
"How… are you here? You weren't suppose to be home for another few months. Did something happen? Oh no, were you fired?" Dirk asked, concern growing in his voice.
Jake laughed. "No, no nothing like that. I finally convinced the people back at the wildlife preservation to let me come visit you for two weeks. We have spent the last three Valentine's days together, I didn't think this one should be any different."
Dirk was overwhelmed. "This is fantastic!" He pulled his boyfriend in for a kiss, their lips practically crashing together. Their lips fit together perfectly, the kiss filled with longing and sweetness and desire. However, it ended too soon, at least in Dirk's opinion. The looked into each other's eyes and smiled. "Happy Valentine's Day Jake. I love you."
"Happy Valentine's Day. I love you too, Dirk." Jake responded, grinning ear to ear. "Well, I also have presents for you. I figured a trip home deserved some british candies, don't you think?"
The blonde chuckled. "Oh yeah? Do we get to sample them together?"
The brunette considered this for a moment. "Yes I suppose so, but only if we get to feed them to each other."
"Dude, that's cheesy and romantic." Dirk responded. "I love it. What have you brought this time?" He asked as they brought Jake's bags into their bedroom to unpack.
Thank goodness it's the end of the day. Kanaya thought as she made a beeline for Rose's last class. She was so sick of all the Valentine's Day bears and chocolates and flowers and kisses. There were too many things she didn't want to think about today and those were most of them.
She stood outside of Rose's class for about ten minutes before realizing Rose wasn't actually in said classroom. Kanaya took out her phone.
Kanaya: Hey Where Are You? I Am Outside Your Classroom, But You Aren't There. I'm Starting To Think You're Avoiding Me…
After another few minutes with no response, the raven gave up and began her trek home by herself. She didn't walk with me this morning, she didn't sit with me at lunch, and now she won't walk home with me? What have I done to deserve this? Did I offend her in any way? On her way through the hallway and down the stairs, she noticed maybe a dozen couples lingering about, kissing or cuddling or something of the like. Ugh. Gross. Don't people have any respect anymore?
Kanaya made her way to the main hallway that led out to the courtyard, and she saw John, smiling and holding a sign. "I'm usually bad with words…" She paused for a second. "John, what's this about?"
"Just keep walking, Kanaya. Trust me." John responded.
Taking a deep breath, the girl continued. She made her way to the doors leading to the courtyard, where Karkat was standing with another sign. "So instead, read this sign." Kanaya read out. "Alright then… I should probably keep going, huh?"
The short redhead nodded. "Yeah. It's totally worth it."
Kanaya opened the door to the courtyard and saw Dave standing there, holding a third sign. "I've loved you since day one…" The raven began to tear up. "If this is some kind of joke, it isn't funny anymore. Dave, what's going on?"
"Kanaya. I wouldn't lie to you. Just keep going. You'll be happy with this, I swear." Dave looked at her, and she felt like she had every reason to believe him. She didn't know why, but she fully trusted him.
The Maryam nodded, and kept walking, throwing her hands over her mouth as soon as she saw Rose standing in the middle of the courtyard, a sign propped up against her legs, a single red rose in her hands. Kanaya walked up to her, reading the sign as she did. "Will you please be my Valentine? Rose, will you please tell me what's going on?"
"Well, Kanaya Maryam." The blonde began. "There's this little thing called love. It is a thing that I have struggled to find for the majority of my life. I had, for some time, stopped believing love even existed. But you changed that. Not long after I met you, I discovered that love does exist, and it can exist in a form of kindness and purity instead of a form of abuse and feeling used. I brushed off the idea of romance for the longest time with you, only because I didn't want to admit that it could be possible that I could love anyone as much as I do you. I know that you have a history of moving a lot, but I want to give you a reason to stay. I want to be your reason to stay. You are my everything, and I want to be able to say that you're mine. So, as a token of my undying love, will you, Kanaya Maryam, take this rose and be mine?" Rose held the flower out to the raven. "I know it's only a single rose, but don't worry, it's the first rose of many."
Kanaya smiled, not exactly sure what she is feeling. Excited? Nervous? Confused? She looked down, taking the rose from the blonde's hands, then looked back up. "Well, thank you so much, but I do have to say, this unfortunately isn't my first rose."
The Lalonde's face immediately drained of color. "It- It's not? Did someone already ask you out? Oh I'm so stupid, someone else has already asked for your love haven't they. I'm so sorry, I'll just-"
"No silly." Kanaya reassured. "This isn't my first rose because you were my first Rose." Without stopping to hear the response, Kanaya grabbed Rose's waist and pulled her in for a kiss. Their lips meeting and immediately finding the familiarity in them. Whooping and hollering could be heard in the background, presumably from the three boys, but Kanaya didn't pay much attention to them. Instead, she pulled Rose even closer, smiling into the kiss as she felt tears streaming down both of their cheeks. She then pulled away. "To answer your question, if it wasn't obvious already, yes, Rose Lalonde, I will be your Valentine."
The blonde laced their fingers together. "Good, cause it would be really embarrassing if after all this you said no."
If you didn't get the full poems from this chapter, here they are:
Dave's Poem
Line One: Romance is cheesy,
Line Two: So I'll cut all the frill.
Line Three: Do you just wanna,
Line Four: Pizza and Chill?
Rose's Poem
Line One: I'm usually bad with words,
Line Two: So instead, read this sign.
Line Three: I've loved you since day one,
Line Four: Will you please be my Valentine?
That's that then isn't it? I told you it was going to be a chapter to remember, no? I hope it met all of your expectations, because being able to write this many chapters has far exceeded mine. I also hope this makes up for the chapter being *slightly* late
See you in a few weeks!
~Jane