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When Sapnap and Quackity knocked on the door, he didn’t know what to expect.
Still, he knew that he and Quackity were leaving with their boyfriend, or they wouldn’t be leaving at all. At least, he wouldn’t be. He’d decided that since they got into the car. As he told Quackity this, fingers digging into the wheel, Sapnap had looked to him. Quackity had just stared out the window.
When the door opened, Sapnap found none other than Karl’s dad standing there. “Hello?” He asked, frowning slightly.
“Hi, I’m Karl’s boyfriend.” Quackity cleared his throat. “And this is our boyfriend Quackity. We’re here for Karl.”
“He’s been grounded. Sorry. You’ll have to come back another day.” Staring at him, Sapnap swallowed. For a moment, he did want to back down. Listen to authority and all that. But then, then, he remembered what Karl had to listen to. Even the one time that they had to deal with, it had been horrible sitting there listening to it all. Listening to that kind of abuse. And Sapnap wasn’t having it.
“Sir, I’m not asking. We’re going to see him.” Sapnap replied firmly.
Now, Karl’s dad was pretty intimidating. He was an ex-basketball player and an ex-water polo/swimmer person. So…even if he hadn’t been working out, Sapnap knew he was still a threatening person. No matter how nice the guy was. “You’re not taking him.” Karl’s dad ordered. And so, Sapnap did what a Sapnap’s gotta do.
He punched him in the face.
“Karl!” Sapnap screamed, shoving past Karl’s dad as Quackity yelled. In the hallway, Karl poked his head out of his room. “Come on, grab your bags! We’re going!”
“What?” Bustling past Karl, Sapnap yanked the bags on. Then, he grabbed Karl’s Pillow Pet, threw it to Karl, and grabbed his wrist. “Wait, where are we going?” He got a view of his dad on the ground. Horrified, he looked to Sapnap and Quackity as they shoved him towards Sapnap’s truck. “Did you punch my dad?”
“Had to, sorry. He’s abusing you!” Sapnap panted, half throwing Karl and his bags into the backseat. Slamming the door, he flipped Karl’s house off, ducked around and hopped into the driver’s seat. Good thing we left the engine on!
Leaning out of the car, Quackity yelled, “Sorry, but you’re abusive! You’re an abusive prick! You deserve it!” As they hurried out onto the main road, Sapnap pulled Quackity into the car by the back of his hoodie. Then, they hit the freeway and were driving. “And they can’t even get us for kidnapping.” Quackity said proudly as he rolled up the window with the handcrank.
Staring at them both, Karl busted out laughing for the first time in a long while, and they both exchanged grins.
+++
Suffice to say, they didn’t actually manage to expect to get to Los Angeles.
When they did, they found Sapnap’s cousin, asked if they could stay for a night. Obviously, they were going to drive to Dream. The guy had a ranch in Montana, had invited everyone there for as long as they needed as long as they were willing to help out with the summer horse-riding camps that the Taken family did. Tubbo, Purpled, and Punz were good people, just like their brother. Dream’s aunt and uncle, Puffy and Schlatt, were good people too. They’d understand.
Sitting on the balcony, Karl dangled his legs over the edge of it, looked down at the pool in his cousin’s backyard. The pale azure sky was sitting over their heads, painted with dusky rose and soft orange clouds. The setting sun cast a golden light over Karl’s form, shining light brown hair into a golden crown. Smiling, Quackity made his way over and sank down next to him.
Looking over, Karl smiled at him. Immediately, Quackity’s heart did a thing, melted. Like, full-on, Disney-style melting. “Hey. How are you doing?” Karl asked in a soft tone. Leaning over, Quackity rested his head on Karl’s shoulder and laced their fingers together. Karl immediately began kissing his hair.
“I’m good. What about you? We did kind of kidnap you after punching your dad in the face.” Quackity mused. Huffing out a laugh, Karl looked back to the pool where streetlights danced on the water. In the distance, there was a boom . Looking up, Quackity saw the fizzling out of a firework. Karl had gone tense and swallowed. “Do you want to go inside? I know you don’t like fireworks.”
“I don’t know. How’s Sapnap doing?”
“Just chatting with his cousin and her family. They haven’t seen each other in a while I guess.” Shrugging, Quackity turned and kissed Karl’s cheek. There was a soft smile, and Karl looked away. Taking a slow breath, he closed his eyes. Quackity squeezed his hand reassuringly.
“How are you doing? I know you were planning on seeing your family in Mexico over the holidays. This probably derails it.” Karl whispered. Shrugging again, Quackity nudged him. The door opened behind them, Sapnap emerging into the dusk.
“You’re worth it. You’re worth the work it takes to love, and you always will be to me. As a friend or a boyfriend or…more than that.” Quackity replied confidently.
“Jeeze, you’re stealing all my moves.” Sapnap said, dropping down on Karl’s other side. “Shit, my tailbone. Anyways,” he threw an arm over Karl’s shoulders. Under normal circumstances, he would have forced his way between them. Of course, this wasn’t normal circumstances. Not by any means. So Sapnap was content to be demoted to the role of side man. For the moment.
Snickering, Quackity hid his laugh behind his mouth. Tried to ignore his boyfriend being an idiot. Some more fireworks went off. Jolting, Karl looked up, fear flashing across his expression. Quackity and Sapnap’s grins immediately dropped.
“Hey.” Sapnap murmured. “Why don’t we go back inside? My cousin has some hot chocolate that we can make, and there’s dinosaur shaped marshmallows.”
“What are you, five?”
“No, I’m two. Two plus zero equals two,” Sapnap replied, placing his free hand on his chest. Looking over, he grinned and winked. Quackity rolled his eyes. “Why are you yelling at me, you’re ten. You’re supposed to be mature here.”
“And I’m four.” Karl joked. They obviously weren’t four, two, and ten. Karl was twenty-two, Quackity was nineteen, and Sapnap was twenty. Adding the digits together had been a joke they’d come up with a long time before. Chatting along with the others. With a long sigh, Quackity patted Karl’s shoulder and tried to clap Sapnap’s as well.
“Come on, let’s go get that hot chocolate.”