Work Text:
Karkat's head snapped up from the romcom playing on his husktop as a knock sounded at his door. He scowled, pausing the movie and dragged himself to the door, prepared to yell at whoever it was who had the shameglobes to bother him right then.
His pan-to-chute connection seemed to fail, however, when he opened the door to see a familiar troll with too-big moo-beast horns and massive flutterbeast wings standing before him, grinning sheepishly. He fumbled for words as he stared into those almost-brown eyes, finally settling on a very intelligent "What the nooksucking fuck are you doing here?"
Tavros' grin grew and his cheeks dusted light bronze. It was an awkward grin, too many teeth showing. He reached up and played with a bit of hair that fell onto his forehead from his messy mohawk and his new-found wings fluttered nervously. "Uh, hey, Karkat."
Karkat's eyes narrowed. He hadn't seen Tavros in person since the game ended two sweeps ago and they were returned to Alternia. They all had kept in touch, though, better than before Sgrub, and he knew for a fact that Tavros had almost completely grown out of his awkward shy phase. "As nice as this reunion may be, I repeat my question: What in the nooksucking fuck are you doing here?"
Tavros shrugged and focused on a spot on the door frame near Karkat's head. “Maybe, we shouldn't talk about it, out here, at least."
Karkat glared at him. It was probably about his fucking blood. It was close to droning season, when the pails would be sent out for the near-adult trolls, before they would be seized, culled or separated into their "respective" blood castes and sent off-planet to do the empress's bidding and conquering.
Things hadn't changed. Feferi had yet to challenge her ancestor. And it wasn't looking well for her, so the group was planning out a rebellion, just as their ancestors had done. That plan wasn't doing so good either.
Karkat grudgingly stepped aside and ducked to avoid Tavros' horns before closing the door behind them and locking it up.
"Gamzee's worried about you," Tavros spoke, making his way into Karkat's entertainment block to the seating platform - couch, is what the humans had called it.
Karkat followed, briefly wondering how they were doing back home on good ole' planet Earth. Most definitely not about to be culled for being mutated freaks. He shook his head free of the thought, sitting beside his guest. "Gamzee, huh?" he responded quietly. "I'm not so sure how that makes me feel, Tavros."
Tavros averted his gaze. "Sorry."
Their moirallegiance hadn't survived, not even after Caliborne was destroyed and Gamzee seemed to return to his senses. Especially not after their dead friends had been resurrected and the purple was able to pursue his flushed feelings for the bronzeblood. He didn't really need Karkat anymore. Karkat wasn't so sure he ever did.
"He still cares about you, Karkat. It may not be pale, but - "
Karkat smiled. It was a strange look on his face. An unhappy look. "It's okay, Tavros. You don't have to defend him. I really don't want to hear it anyway."
Tavros looked around awkwardly, finally settling his gaze on the abandoned crabtop. "Still watching those romcoms, huh? Which one is this?"
Karkat hesitated, straining to answer. He took too long, apparently, for Tavros looked back at him.
"...you aren't sure, are you?"
Karkat's eyes widened and he felt a flare of annoyance. "I know which one it is! I just - "
"Haven't been paying attention to it?" Tavros stared at him sternly. "You've got so much on your mind, lately, that you can't even focus on a movie."
Karkat growled. "Are you so surprised, Nitram? What can you expect, when I'm going to fucking die, probably in just a few perigrees? I'm going to die, and there's nothing anyone can do about it."
"That's not true," Tavros argued. "Feferi could easily win, and the rebellion - "
"Don't fucking spoon-feed me that sugar-coated shit!" Karkat jumped up, snarling down at him. "Feferi doesn't have a fucking chance against her ancestor and we both know it! She's been ruler for thousands of sweeps, and it wasn't by sweet bulge humping chance! You met Meenah in the bubbles. She's the version who grew up on nice calm sweet Beforus. She was already pretty fucked up to begin with. I think her Alternian version's just a bit more brutal, don't you? And the rebellion?" He laughed suddenly. It was humorless, painful for Tavros to hear. "That's another rotted joke. Has Gamzee been feeding you his so-called 'miracle' pies? Don't you remember what happened the first time? Maybe I should jog your empty pan bubbles. My ancestor was chained to a fucking rock and executed by Zahhak's. What about yours?" He broke off suddenly, his voice too thick and his throat too pained to try going on. He was panting, and his eyes ached as much as his throat as he struggled to fight back his tears. His fists clenched and unclenched, his fingers twitching. They itched and ached, as if they needed to feel someone else's flesh grind beneath them.
Tavros stood up and took a step toward Karkat. "That's not true, Karkat. We're all going to do what we can to keep it from happening. You're still our leader, and more importantly, our friend! We're not going to let them cull - "
Karkat cut him off. "Cut the bulgekissing, Tav. I. Am going. To die." His lips were turned up, revealing dangerous canines in a clear threat and eyes were wild, pupils dilated. He suddenly snarled and spun around, the cracking and splintering of the wall breaking beneath his fist suddenly echoing around the room.
Tavros' eyes widened as things became alarmingly clear to him. This was the reason his and Gamzee's moirallegiance failed. Diamonds were meant for one troll to pacify the other, to calm the other down and keep him or her from being a danger to those around them. Karkat had become the troll who needed a moirail to pacify him, and for reasons that were painfully obvious, Gamzee wasn't that troll, and never could be.
He knew what he was about to do was too pale for trolls not quadranted together, but he didn't care. No one except Karkat really gave a damn about that all that anyway, and a diamond was probably the furthest thing from Karkat's mind right then.
So he stepped closer to Karkat and gripped him by the shoulder, a move that was definitely not very smart to pull with a troll who quite possibly seconds from going on a violent rampage, and turned him around. He kept his gaze on those red eyes, eyes that were still turning, could still pass for those of a lower rust-blood, a maroon like Aradia, and pulled him closer into a hug. Karkat stiffened, his body tensing up as if in preparation to pull away, until Tavros brought a hand to his head and stroked the bit of hair between his horns. Karkat relaxed into his body slowly, taking a deep shuddering breath. Tavros took it as invitation to lead him back to a corner of the room, carefully kicking and prodding objects into a makeshift pile, trying not to stumble on legs he still wasn't used to having, even after all this time since the game ended. His end result was a small pathetic thing, but still a pile, and he lowered Karkat into a sitting position beside him, continuing to pap him as they settled down.
To his surprise, Karkat leaned into him once sitting and held onto him tightly. Tavros shifted into a remotely more comfortable position, ignoring the way various items pressed uncomfortably into his back and side and legs. It was a strange situation, shooshpapping the one troll in existence who was probably the master at pale moments, but he did his best despite himself. He continued patting Karkat's hair, murmuring shooshes and assurances into his ear, assurances about how Feferi was going to kill her ancestor, how the rebellion was going to overthrow the blood order and there would no longer be any meaningless culling and Karkat wasn't going to die because they were all going to work together to help him survive.
Tavros closed his eyes, resting his head on top of Karkat's between his candy corn nubs, and did his best to believe what he was saying. It was such a wriggler thing to do, something he left behind back when Vriska took away his legs and he found out fairies weren't real and that he would have to make his own confidence, but he tried hard. After all, if you believed hard enough, it would come true.
Right?