Chapter Text
“Karkat! Get your ass to customer service! There’s a guy who is seriously pissed about the cake he received from our bakery for some kid’s party.” Your manger shouts at you as she walks into the break room.
“Alright, I’m on it.” You respond, sighing almost inaudibly as you swallow your iron pill with a drink of water.
You take a deep breath as you haul ass out to the customer service desk and then you freeze. It’s Dave. Strider. Dave Narcissistic God Complex Fuckass Strider.
“Son of a bitch.” You moan under your breath.
You walk up and pretend like you’re not you. You’re just some random employee working at the customer service desk in Walmart. Dave does not know you.
“Hello, sir, what can I do for you today?” You ask, an expectant look on your face.
“Karkat, cut the shit. We know each other.” Dave snaps.
“I’m at work though. So is there anything I can do for you?” You prompt, maintaining your façade.
“Yeah, how about you get the shithead fired who sent this cake for your god son’s birthday party.” He says, shifting the cake towards you.
“Oh goddammit.” You face-palm as you see an image from a rather sexually tense scene from one of the latest failing films.
“No shit!” Dave says.
“Those are against policy! I don’t even… fuck.” You respond.
You realize who made the cake. It was Gamzee. You had recommended him for working in the bakery since he was a pretty good baker, though his earlier pastries were technically illegal. You were trying to keep him from getting into trouble, but you just screwed both of you over. Smooth move, Vantas.
“It was Gamzee. He wasn’t supposed to be working today, but the little shit came in anyway.” You explain in a low voice to Dave.
“Well, now you can right this injustice by getting him fired.” Dave says bluntly.
“Once Jane finds out it was Gamzee who made this cake, he’ll be fired for sure.” You shake your head as you reassure him.
You show the cake to Jane, your manager, and she immediately calls Gamzee to customer service, forces him to apologize, and then takes him to the break room. Not long after, Gamzee walks out in his regular attire and strolls out of the store like nothing happened. You send for another cake that has characters from Alpha and Omega, since wolves are your god son, Danny’s favorite animals. Dave takes off with the cake awhile after and you rush to finish your shift so you can make it to the party in time.
Driving home in your beat up Ford Exploder (it’s proper name is explorer, but the piece of shit breaks down all too often and the only places it explores are different auto shops), you sigh heavily thinking about the past week. Last week was Halloween, which was a total disaster. You left the costumes to John, engaged in a fiery showdown with your ex, got proposed to, had a panic attack, and then took your god son to the hospital for stitches the next day because you are the worst to say the least.
This week isn’t much better. You’ve been putting off your talk with John, you have feelings for Dave, your god son still has stitches in his forehead, and a very unpleasant day is coming all too soon. The day is a death anniversary, one you’d rather not think about, but John doesn’t know and your brother and father are planning a remembrance ceremony of some sort.
You pull into the alley behind your house and park next to the shed. Hiking up the hill in front of the car, you haul yourself up to the house and sneak in through the side to slip up stairs unnoticed. You change out of your work uniform and into a Flaming Lips tee of John’s and a pair of jeans.
“Kit Kat! Hurry up!” John playfully calls up the stairs.
“I’m coming!” You shout and then add under your breath, “Jesus Christ, Egbert.”
You head downstairs and into the dining room. The cake is illuminated with candles, the lights are out adding to the already dark night, and everyone is faintly illuminated in the candles. You all sing happy birthday to Danny, then let him rip open presents and go play with his sister. You help carry wrapping paper to the trash and then attempt to help wash up the dishes.
“Ah, outta here, kitten!” Kanaya says, snapping your side with the hand towel. “We’ve got it covered. Go watch Alpha and Omega with the kids and keep them out of trouble.”
“Alright. I’m going.” You say, putting your hands up in surrender.
“Karkat, can we talk later?” John asks, stopping you in the dining room while he grabs more dishes to take to the kitchen.
“Um, yeah, sure, why?” You ask, stopping mid-stride.
“You just seem a little off and I wanna help if I can.” John admits as he stacks plates.
“Oh god, John, please don’t turn into a therapist on me.” You sigh.
“I’m not, but I wanna make sure you know you can talk to me. I know you’re messed up about everything after last week and all.” He says a bit defensively.
“I know that I can. I’m not that messed up.”
You are definitely defensive in your response here. You hate being called messed up or anything of the sort since you know that it’s true in multiple ways and that it’s not temporary.
“Kisses, Kitty?” John asks with his puppy dog face. “I’m sorry for being pushy.”
You look around, everyone is preoccupied, and you walk over to John. You slowly wrap your arms around his waist as you lean in and kiss him, sweetly and slowly. You let your eyelashes tease his cheek before giving him another short, but passionate kiss. You pull back and he kisses your neck before you release him to continue cleaning up. You practically melt at the feel of his lips on your neck and he can tell what an effect it had on you.
“Go relax, Kitty Kat.” He chuckles as he walks off to the kitchen.
You frown and walk into the living room. You sit down on the couch next to Lily and Danny climbs out of the recliner on the other side of the couch. He toddles over and reaches out to you. You pick him up and let him situate himself in your lap. You start to drift off during the movie after re-situating into a lounging position with Danny lying on top of you.
You worked from 10 pm last night until the party tonight since an alarmingly large amount of the staff was missing at Walmart. You eventually discovered that most were starting their vacation time for early Thanksgivings with their families and to escape some of the embarrassing things they did while drunk on Halloween. Apparently, one of your co workers is really good at throwing parties and the missing staff members were at it and completely intoxicated.