Chapter Text
Karkat is bleeding. He’s on the street as, in front of him, the hero Vigil backs up in horror. Karkat opens his mouth to say something, but finds that he can’t; his vocal cords are hoarse and silent, and he stays mum despite his attempts to scream.
Faintly, he sees the hero whispering something into their helmet. It’s probably a report back to the Committee, telling them that they finally managed to bring down Bloodshot, but Karkat doesn’t stay to give them the satisfaction of capturing him. He gets up, his legs screaming with the pain caused by the wounds from Vigil’s sword, grabs his mask, and turns to run. Behind him, he can hear Vigil yelling, and his word choice sounds eerily familiar. He stops, hiding behind a building, to listen, and then it’s his friend Dave yelling at him, cursing him out, calling him names, so he keeps running.
Normally, he’d know this neighborhood like the back of his hand — having spent so many sleepless nights on patrol, he can navigate it with his eyes closed, but streets are bending in places they shouldn’t be and the buildings are stretching and warping and the landscape just isn’t right and so he runs faster, needing no air, trying to make himself disappear because it’s not doing any good to run but he can’t stop, and then he opens his eyes with a yell.
——
Karkat sits bolt upright, panting, sweating. Across the room, Kankri is still awake, on his computer. Probably talking to his boyfriend again, Karkat thinks, scowling. He tosses the flimsy excuse for a bedsheet off of his legs and gets up, heading to the kitchen. Kankri barely looks up, and Karkat can hear the electronic music blasting through his brother’s headphones, but it’s fine. They’re both tired as shit, and Karkat has no reason to judge when he’s listening to sad love songs on repeat half the time and death metal the other half.
He starts up the coffee maker without turning on the light. Feet scuffling across the uneven tiles of the shitty apartment the brothers share in downtown Beforus, he moves to the couch as he powers up his off-brand holophone and checks his messages.
turntechGodhead [TG]: yo karkles you there
grimAuxiliatrix [GA]: Hello Karkat, How are you
arsenicCatnip [AC]: hey bloodshot!!! guesswhatguesswhatguesswhat :33
He sighs and answers Dave first.
CG: YEAH, I’M HERE. WHAT’S UP?
TG: caps lock still broken i see lmao
CG: Ah, shit, no, I just messed up. I’m on my phone now.
TG: anyway im kinda banged up right now
CG: Shit, what happened?
TG: got into a fight with some of the mc
CG: A fight? How?
TG: uh
TG: kinda embarrassing so promise you wont laugh
TG: walking around derse back to my house and they mugged me
TG: i look like shit right now but you should see the other guys
CG: How many were there?
TG: eight
CG: Holy shit, Dave, how are you not dead right now??!?
TG: i know right
TG: but my bros taught me well
CG: Bros?
turntechGodhead [TG] deleted a message!
TG: lets just say im built different and leave it at that
CG: Huh. Weird, but if you want to keep that a secret, feel free.
TG: thanks bro
CG: Why do you use that so often?
TG: just how i was raised i guess
TG: and you
CG: Huh?
TG: why do you use the word fuckface so often
TG: alternatively nooksucker bulgelick shitstain fuckass etc
CG: I plead the ninth.
TG: eh fair enough
CG: How’ve you been, other than getting mugged?
TG: dealing with shit at my job
CG: Classified?
TG: mostly but theres some stuff i can tell you if you really insist babe
CG: Don’t call me that.
Karkat blushes and gets up to go get his coffee, leaving his phone on the coffee table.
TG: awh why not
TG: youre so cute though
TG: but yeah
TG: i fought a vigilante earlier
TG: really didnt want to but you know the committee
TG: they made me
TG: for the greater good of skaia they said as they held the health and safety of my family and friends against me just because i hail from fucking beforus
TG: shit thats probably more than i shouldve said but you wont say anything right kitkat
turntechGodhead [TG] deleted 5 messages!
Karkat comes back to the couch, having heard his phone vibrating like crazy.
CG: “But yeah” what?
TG: you didnt see that
TG: right
CG: I was getting coffee. What happened?
TG: got into a fight and they targeted my family
CG: Shit, man. That fucking sucks.
CG: Especially with you coming from Beforus. That’s not fair.
CG: Like, my family is messed up, but Lord knows anyone who took a crack at my brother would be dealing with the full force of my rage.
TG: all four and a half feet of it
CG: Hey! I am five-two, thank you very much!
TG: we all know youre rounding up kit
CG: ):B
TG: but anyway how was your day
CG: It was… shitty. I tripped down a flight of stairs (don’t you dare say it) and skinned my knee and all that good shit. I heal up quickly though, so don’t worry.
TG: damn talk about a bad break
CG: Yeah.
TG: but also
CG: Oh no….
TG: i warned you about those stairs bro
CG: Did I or did I tell you to “not”?
TG: nope
TG: you said dont you dare say it
TG: that does not count as you telling me to not any more than rose telling me to stop rapping doesnt count as an attack on my very personality
TG: she really said that and expected me to listen lmao
TG: anyway
TG: ive got to go now
TG: duty calls
CG: Ah. Well, I’ll talk to you soon, Dave.
TG: hopefully
TG: love you kit
TG: platonically of course
CG: Same to you.
- - turntechGodhead [TG] is offline! - -
CG: But not of course.
- - carcinoGeneticist [CG] is offline! - -
Karkat puts his coffee down on the cardboard box that is the brothers’ shabby excuse for a coffee table and grins, red rising to his cheeks. He’s not sure what relationship he has with Dave, but his feelings aren’t nearly as platonic as Dave always claims, and he doesn’t know how to cope with that when Dave’s constantly in denial about being gay. If Karkat suspected he was actually straight, then he might take the proper steps to sever his feelings for Dave from his relationship with the man, but he doesn’t in the slightest, so he just keeps going through this cycle of hope and disappointment in the hopes that it might someday develop into more.
Either way, he’s got more messages to answer. He forces his blush down and opens his chat with Olive Arrow.
AC: bloodshot bloodshot bloodshot
AC: hellooooooooo :??
AC: bloodshot are you there??
CG: Shit, sorry, OA, yeah. I’m here.
AC: yay! :33
AC: wanna help me take out one of the felt’s weapons shipments?
AC: cavalier says that they’re apparently delivering weapons to the cc tomorrow night, and we should stop them!
CG: Sure. T/L/N?
AC: 21:20, the old baxter warehouse near the border between alternia and beforus on the beforan side, five to eight
CG: Got it. I’ll be there.
AC: yay!! :33 can’t wait! see you then.
AC: ac out! :33
- - arsenicCatnip [AC] is offline! - -
- - carcinoGeneticist [CG] is offline! - -
It’s getting light outside. Karkat checks the time on his phone — 6:43 A.M. He sighs. Kanaya’s message can wait for now. He needs to get to his shift — he grabs his coffee, stuffs his phone in his pocket, puts his jacket on and heads out the door without a second thought.
It’s quiet out here, on a back street in a more shady part of Beforus, and, as a vigilante like Karkat knows, quiet isn’t always good. So he’s on edge as he walks, taking note of every face, keeping watch for anything suspicious he might catch in his periphery. The only thing that really catches his eye is a teenager smoking, but that happens all the time in his neighborhood, and trying to stop it would just draw more attention to him and create vitriol towards him and his brother, which he can’t afford.
When he reaches the main road leading out of his neighborhood, he sits down on the bench at the bus stop and takes a moment to catch his breath and respond to Kanaya. A college kid, from the look of them, sits beside him and puts in their airpods, then pulls out their laptop and gets to work on an essay.
GA: I Need Your Assistance In Matters Of The Heart.
CG: Oh, who’s the lucky gal this time?
Karkat is in his fucking element with this conversation. He is the romance expert, and his few real friends know it.
GA: You Wouldn’t Know Her.
GA: And I Don’t Believe She Would Like Me Revealing Her Name.
GA: She Is
GA: Rather Private In That Manner.
CG: Alright, alright, I get it.
CG: But what do you need help with?
GA: I Need Help In Assuring Her That I Do In Fact Like Her But I Don’t Want To Shatter The Tenuous Balancing Act We Have Going On Right Now With Something As Trite As A Confession.
CG: So, let me get this straight: You want her to know you like her but you don’t want to tell her for fear that she won’t like you back?
CG: No offense, Kan, but that’s the dumbest fucking idea I’ve ever heard. And that’s saying something, coming from me.
GA: What Are You Suggesting I Do, Then?
CG: Just fucking tell her that you like her? Goddammit, Kan, I’m not trying to be the voice of reason here, but it seems I have to be!
GA: I’m Afraid I Can’t Do That Without Ruining Things, Though.
Karkat facepalms. Beside him, the college kid looks at him weirdly, but he ignores them, instead typing furiously on his phone.
CG: Well, then do it in an extravagant, overcomplicated, needlessly convoluted way if that’s what floats your boat.
CG: But — If you want to tell her you like her, just fucking do it.
GA: Alright, Point Heard.
GA: Thank You.
GA: I’m Sorry For Imposing On Your Morning So Early.
CG: Kan, you’re good.
The bus finally pulls up to the stop and Karkat lets out a breath he hadn’t even known he’d been holding.
CG: Seriously.
CG: I’ve got to go now, but. Tell me how it goes?
GA: Alright. Have Fun At Work, Karkat.
CG: As much fun as I ever do.
CG: <3
GA: <3
— — carcinoGeneticist [CG] is offline! — —
— — grimAuxiliatrix [GA] is offline! — —
Karkat looks up, stows his phone in his back pocket, and gets on the bus. He halfheartedly taps his card on the terminal, then heads to his normal seat in the back.
Scrolling through his phone for something to listen to, he selects a playlist called “the boredoms” and puts his earbuds in, then leans his head on the window and prays to just have a normal fucking day for once.
But of course the universe doesn’t listen.
Does it ever?