Chapter Text
==> Karkat's Lonely Hearts Club Band: Earn enough money to save Karkat.
You are Sollux Captor and you have been unanimously elected to count the spoils of the 'Moneymaker Train', as Gamzee so elegantly phrases it. The bills don't feel tangible as you count, and it throws you off. It'd also help if you weren't fogging up your glasses with useless, worried tears.
You have nine hundred and fifteen.
"$915." You croak, smoothing out the crinkles in a few of the wadded dollars. Everything about your body feels weightless. Dead.
"$769." Rose's voice is prim as she orders the money in her hand into three neat stacks upon her lap. There's a knowing smile on her face, but you don't have anything left in you to trust her. Let Rose be the optimist.
"I have $67 in coins." Kanaya, the brave soul, speaks up from her lapful of (apparently) counted coins.
"I got the money from yesterday, plus another $600- that's... 'bout 'leven hundred." Gamzee draws, from what seems like nowhere, a jar, quarter filled with smooshed money. Everyone dumps the spoils into the jar. Gamzee kisses the glass.
It isn't enough and you're out of time.
Gamzee buries his head in Tavros's lap. Kanaya looks away. Rose's optimism falters. You hang your head.
"Guys! ... Guys?"
Holyfuckingshityouidiot! Jade!
You look at the bespectacled girl and you don't even know what to feel.
In her hand is a drug-dealer sized wad of hefty bills- twenties, fifties, hundreds!
"We've got $1,543! Right here!" She cries out, her smile blinding.
"No need to thank us~" A voice you recognize vaguely enters the excited din of your friends. From the corner of you eye you see Gamzee's entire face light up.
"Terezi! My miracle sister!"
You look to Jade. She's tearing up. It takes a moment for you to realize she isn't alone either. Gamzee's crying. Rose is crying. You're crying. Everybody's crying, but its going to be okay. You've enveloped the shorter girl in a hug or ...maybe she hugged you first? It doesn't matter, the instigator of the act is completely irrelevant because both you and Jade are clinging to each other like little Squiddles dolls (that's what they are called-right?)
"It's okay now." You're voice feels rough and jagged, like a beach of shattered glass.
"Everything will be okay now." Jade whispers back into the folds of your rapidly dampening shirt.
Karkat's going to be okay.
==> Karkat: SURVIVE.
Well what the fuck did you think would happen? Did you really think KARKAT VANTAS would just up and mother fuckin' DIE?
Ugh. Okay. You've been spending way too much time with Gamzee.
Wait.
It's quiet.
Too quiet.
Your suspicions have been raised higher than the stakes at Champion poker games. Mainly because it is nearing five o'clock and Sollux did not leave a note from his earlier let'th-vithit-KK-while-he'th-thtill-athleep visit. If he even visited.
Wow. Okay. You're going to take a step back now. And another for good measure. Maybe a third; to be extra cautious. That was a little too much for some loser who's only had a boyfriend for seven days. Six point seven of them spent mostly unconscious in the hospital.
The nurse swung by earlier. She told you that Gamzee got the money.
You can only pray he didn't rob a goddamn bank.
Then you hear the rumbling. Like a stampede- like that scene in the Lion King where the pebbles start jumping of the fucking ground in the middle of the gorge and little Simba has no fucking clue what's going on except you have a glass of rippling and dancing water instead of jumping pebbles, you are practically tied down to a hospital room with a frightening amount of thin clear tubes, and you have a fucking clue as to what the fuck is going on. There is a stampede coming. And they're coming for you.
You'd put money (let's pretend you have some) on it.
==> BRACE YOURSELVES FOR INPACT
Gentlemen, it has been a privilege.
NoWaitFuck you don't wanna die now! Not a virgin!
==> AND NOW, WE INTERUPT THIS BROADCAST TO BRING YOU COURAGE!
You are Equius again, and your wife is supremely upset at you. You are both sweating and shaking in your boots.
"It's obviously stolen!"
"Dear-"
"What on earth possessed you to appraise it?"
"Darling-"
"IT REEKS OF BLOOD EQUIUS."
"Sweetheart-"
"And you put it in the front window?! What were you even thinking? Were you even thinking? I mean, Equius-"
==> Passer-by Person: Stare at that GORGEOUS violin in the front window.
C'mon. Seriously? What's with this Pass-by-person-Hey-You! Thing?
It's Jade. Everybody has got to know this by now. Right? Right?
Riiiiiiiight?Ok. Too much time with Vriska.
Anyways, you were just about to do something. Something important... Oh! Right! Got it! You were just about to FREAK THE FUCK OUT BECAUSE THAT IS FUCKING ANNABEL RIGHT THERE! RIGHT FUCKING THERE!
You burst right through the door-
and into a family spat. Oooo- Awkward.
Heh. You laugh, nervously. "Um. Hey!" You greet. Non too intrusively. The wife there looks murderous, and she's armed with a frying pan. She's handy with it too, if her husband's expression of worried fear is anything to go by.
"Just. Dropping in. Yeah. Heh. That violin. Up front. It looks kinda like the one my little brother had. AndbykindaImeant100% andbyhadImeantitwasstolen." You take a breath.
"So. Yeah."
The wife looks to In-Big-Trouble Husband.
"I told you it was stolen!"
==> *Authoratative Narrator to a Sterotypical Comicbook-based Movie* MEANWHILE!
Strange. The stampede halts right outside your door. Like they're pausing for dramatic effect, or drawing straws to decide which lucky fuckass gets to suffer through Karkat Fucking Vantas first.
The door opens slowly, without even so much as a squeak (and you KNOW that douchecanoe of a door squeaks!) and in milliseconds your senses are engulfed by nothing else but Sollux. And, surprise, surprise, you're calm.
"Hey." He murmurs into your hospital bed-head.
"Hey yourself." You answer back into to his ugly stupid shirt that feels cool to your face and fills your nostrils with the overwhelming scent of honey tea, fresh banana bread, and Sollux.
"The nurthe thayth you can be dithcharged thoon. Not tomorrow, but maybe Tuethday."
You bark out a laugh.
"Yeah right. 'M going home tomorrow. Sooner." If you can manage it.
"Another thing. You're not going back to that dumpther. Not injured. You'll get an infection."
"Oh well, excuse me. I'll just go home to my six-story mansion in Scotland."
"KK"
"Yes Dear."
"Kanaya thayth you can thtay with her. Ith definitely cleaner."
The invitation is daunting. Really? She would- you've only really heard stories about this mysterious fashion queen. She's never met you.
"Really?"
Sollux nods before leaning down to ghost over your lips with his. You hiss at him and pull your boy closer for a proper kiss. One that doesn't lead to a vicious stabbing-and-robbery.
It's a good kiss.
Until Gamzee opens his big fucking makeup covered mouth.
"Aw yeah bro. Disney movie romance right up in this bitch. We gunna go now. You two get busy makin' happy sequel babies."
"GAMZEE!!!!" You screech, tearing yourself away from your kiss. Your cheeks are burning. They match your intense burning red desire to kick your idiotic juggalo of an adopted big brother in the fucking crotch. Sollux starts laughing, rolling off you to settle next to you. Others start to file in until the entire room is crowded with all the assholes you call friends.
"Jade had to go home. Th-he had thome little kidth to babythit. Th-he witheth you well." Sollux murmurs, burying his smile into your hair.
"We did it KK. You're gonna be okay. I love you."
You fail to suppress the urge to smile.
==> Thank you Karkat. Now lets go back to Jade
Mrs. Megido (that's Mrs. Scary Wife, for references!) frowns uneasily.
"It's not that I don't believe you-"
"But you don't believe me." You cut her off dryly. It's times like these that really get you. When you really hate being young because everyone thinks you're some punk ass kid who wants-wants-wants so they'll screw morality over just so they can take-take-take. Grrrraah!
"What if I bring Karkat over tomorrow? Fresh from the hospital?" You feel diplomacy will be best. After all, that's the sun setting, you're tired, and you really don't want this to end in you duking this out, frying pan vs guitar. Besides. You understand. They can't just give it away. They lost money for it.
Mrs. Megido gives you another forced smile that clearly reads 'I doubt it!' but she nods anyways.
You'll be back. Tomorrow.
==> There's no denying it
If Karkat's sheer willpower could be harnessed as an energy source, the entire world could have free energy.
He was right, naturally. The two of you fell asleep together on the small hospital bed, dare you say it, cuddling. You slept great, like the dead. Only the warmth of sunlight filtering through your window could wake you. You wake up with Karkat impossibly tangled with you, and all his delicate tubing too. A soft peeved sound falls from your lips. Karkat hisses in his sleep, burrowing even closer to you. A sigh. You give up. It doesn't matter anyways; you want more sleep too.
==> Enter: Kanaya
Sollux spent the night. How perfectly, wonderfully, sickeningly adorable. You manage to slap a hand across your mouth, but the cooing noise couldn't be muffled entirely by flesh. Oh no. The scene before you was too cute for a soft 'Awww!'
You, however, are now the fiend who dared to wake them up. Twin glares meet you.
"I was told you were being released today." You walk past the bed to the tiny window, peering downwards at the floors below. You glance over at the duo on the bed and chuckle at Karkat now hurriedly struggling to remove all his IVs and the like. Somehow Sollux is shoved to the floor. He lands on the tile with a loud thump and many curses.
==> Take that widdle bby home
Certainly. You are just waiting for the nurse's okay and the permission to borrow a wheelchair.
Which occurs ten minutes later, and then you're on the move with a rumpled Sollux trailing behind you.
It takes a long thirty minutes to walk to your house from the hospital, but right now you don't believe subways are a great idea. It's just a bit too soon for subways. So you walk in the silence of two people who'd much rather be asleep than walking.
But you reach your apartment and you wave Sollux off.
"You have work!" You chide and he grumbles, of course. But he kisses Karkat good bye.
Oh it's just too cute!
"I expect bed rest. I am going to return this to the hospital and I expect you to be resting in bed. Not doing anything that might pull your stitches." You tell your temporary housemate, warning tone in place.
"Yes mother." Karkat drawls, but you pick up the teasing in his voice. A small grin tugs at the corners of your mouth.
You laugh.
==> Jade: Wake
Okay! Yeah. Alright. You're awake.
==> Jade: Locate Karkat
...
Why? Isn't he at Kanaya's?
You'll be right there. But first you need to collect some ... necessary tools.
==>"Did you steal that from Tavros?"
"That's not important. What's important is that we gotta go. Now!" You hurriedly try to convince your orphanage-mate. He scowls at you. Big surprise.
"What's so important? Seriously Jade-"
You fail so very badly at holding back a very loud and childishly elongated groan.
"If you've been stealing from my brother's boyfriend you're going to be in some deep fucking shit-"
That's... touching. Really touching how Gamzee and Karkat call each other brothers. They really are that close.
"I mean: stealing from a paraplegic's some serious fucked up karma-"
"He had an extra, now lets go!" You twitch with impatience before the well-used wheelchair. Karkat looks at the metal contraption, skeptical, as if its booby-trapped. You, in your INFINATE MATURITY, blow a raspberry.
Wow. So mature.
"C'mon Karkat! Do you know how long it took to find you?" You pout, trying the obvious guilt-trip. He looks at you with that very familiar, very uncomfortable critical stare. You know he's taking your feelings into brief consideration, but it still feels like he's passing Final Judgement on your soul. "Karkat I promise it's important!" You give up your pride, toss it to the wind - good bye pride!- and whine. Karkat winces and makes one of his various 'ugh' faces.
But he concedes, shuffling over to the wheelchair and sitting down gingerly with a very resigned "Where to?"
You grin down at him. "I'll show you."
==> It's -
It's Annabel. You nearly start to cry as Jade works out getting you inside. (You attempted to get up out of the wheelchair, but regretted the action immediately. Nope. Not a good thing)
There's a tiny family in the shop, the father with a broom, the mother behind an antique register, and a young girl kicking her legs up on the counter.
"That's my violin." You choke out the words. There's wetness by your eye. It could be you crying. The mother behind the register looks uneasy.
"I can't buy her back." You're still talking- why are you still talking? You're going to completely break down at this point. No. No you need to stop. Stop now while you still have the ability to speak intelligibly! "But I'll trade." Your eyes flicker over to the little girl.
"I'll teach her how to play."
"Not to be rude, but-" The father speaks slow and cautious, but you know what he means.
"I'll show you."
==> Hey Karkat, show them
==> Aradia?
You look at little Nep's face as the violinist's friend whispers in her ear. You watch her eyes grow big and wide and excitement cross her face.
You gaze shifts to the young violinist boy and you don't doubt his story. You don't doubt his skill.
You smile demurely at the young boy, and answer as he finishes.
"Yes. I think that will be a good trade."
==>
Your name is Karkat Vantas and everything is okay. No. Better than okay. Fucking excellent.
You have Annabel.
You have a proper home, (Kanaya is never going to let you leave, who are you kidding?) and so does your brother (Tav finally convinced him. You believe it's because you got off the streets first).
You have a lispy asshole of a boyfriend who is completely and irrevocably perfect.
And you have a very fulfilling job. No it's not at the fucking symphony. Fuck no.
"Why'd you stop?"
Nepeta lowers her child-sized violin and bow, her lip trembling with sadness. Her eyes burn with frustration.
"I messed up." She hisses, more in anger at herself, with her gaze fixed upon the ground.
"You messed up?" You ask as the beginnings of a smile tug at you lips. A tiny face, glittering with stubbornly unshead tears, looks back up at you. "Uh-huh." Nepeta scowls.
"Well that's okay." You're grinning in full now, "Most people - at least ninety-nine percent don't have the music. As far as they know, it was meant to be that way."
Nepeta looks hopeful.
"As long as you carry on, they won't notice a thing.
==>
There's a show playing at the music center in the old town. The migratory ways of your current occupation aren't being to restrictive. You, for once, are allowed a night to yourself.
As you said before, the Skaia Symphony Orchestra is having a special concert, one starring what the posters claim a 'twenty-one-year-old master' kin to 'Mozart' and 'Paganini'. From what you gather by the excited and pleased chatter of the elderly regulars, this 'Young Mr. Captor' has played with this orchestra on a few treasured occasions. The ladies in their finest Sunday Bests trill and cluck about how handsome he is, how gorgeous his playing is.
"I went to his wedding!" The one in pale blue cries, bragging to her cohorts. They giggle as if they were young teenaged beauties again. "It was quite a beautiful affair!" She pauses to laugh, "His fiancé managed to get that pretty young thing in a pretty white dress!" Another laugh. "Imagine that?" Another chuckle. "That, ladies, is true love!"
"How romantic do you think it would have been if they met during a duet?"
"Oh that's hogwash! That only happens in movies..."
The doors open and the rest if the old ladies' gossip and guesses are swallowed up by the shuffling of feet.
You can't help but feel a tad disgruntled at this boy's apparent luck. Young, successful, and married? You tried for years to get into Skaia's.
If you had-
You inhale slowly, hand over your heart.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, Skaia Symphony Orchestra is proud to present our show for tonight. May we please ask you to silence or turn off your cellphones."
A generous pause.
"And now, without further ado- our star soloist for the night!"
From your seat (you're so lucky; it's so close!), you can see everything upon the stage. You don't believe what you see. When the soloist- Mr. Karkat Captor- places his bow on the strings, you don't believe what you hear. For the entirety of the three-hour concert you sit still, silent, and enraptured through every solo, every duet, every movement, and every ballad. And at the end you clap louder than anyone in the room because that's it.
That's your baby boy.