Archive of Our Own ^beta

Karkat flips on the bathroom light switch. The buzz of yellow-tinted lights instantly attacks his ears  — an all too familiar sound. Staring into the mirror, a fake attempt at a smile appeared on his face. He leaned slightly towards the mirror, baring his teeth once again to observe the way his braces hugged his crooked teeth. With a sigh, he notices how acne-ridden his skin has become. He picked at his face, each imperfection seeming to add to the list of his frustrations. 

“Goddamn zits always have to pop up when I have places to be.” He rants to himself, a patch of skin breaking, causing a thin trickle of blood down his cheek, “so fucking embarrassing.” 

Using his thumb, Karkat wipes the red substance from his jawline, wincing at the feel of his finger against the open wound. He shakily lowered his hand to stare at the red liquid, examining the way it seeped into the etched ridges of his fingertip. Without warning, a harsh knock on the door startles the boy, causing him to let out a sharp gasp. 

“Hurry, Karkat, we have to leave in 5.” A snappy voice calls through the wooden frame. “I'm not in the mood to wait around for you today.”

“Sorry Mom!” Karkat promptly responds, his voice trembling just ever so slightly. “Just washing my hands.” 

He hurriedly turns on the faucet, running his hands under the cool water. He watches the blood sour the water a slight shade of orange before disappearing altogether. After drying his hands, he pushed the bathroom door open, seeing his mom already packing the car through the front windows. Karkat rushes to the shoe rack, not bothering to tie his worn-out sneakers once they're on his feet  — a regular habit. 

Soon, he finds himself sitting in the passenger seat of his mom’s truck, staring out the window at the passing scenery of his town. He slouched against the back of the seat with his fingers tapping against his thighs anxiously, trying to make himself appear smaller than he was by shrinking in on himself. The air was stale and silent except for the sound of the engine and his mom’s frustrated mumbling, which Karkat had trained himself to tune out years ago. Suddenly, his phone buzzed insistently in his pocket, begging to be answered. After fumbling to pull the device from his pocket, the screen lit, revealing the call to be from his friend; Kanaya. 

Karkat bit his lip, glancing over at his mother, then back towards his phone. He debated his choices: pick up his phone and risk his mom getting pissed, or ignore Kanaya with no actual downside besides the risk of hurting some feelings. Karkat sighs, fingernails now digging into the skin of his thighs, leaving crescent moon shaped indents in their path. With another peek at his mom, he mumbles quickly, “I’m gonna grab this”, and answers his phone. 

“Hello, Karkat,” Kanaya sounded over the other end of the phone, “are you ready for camp?” 

“Hell no, what kind of question is that?” Karkat grimaced, his voice dripping with contempt,  

“For one, I look like shit, I'm also terribly under-packed, just to name a few.” 

“Aw, come on Karkat, you need to turn your overbite into an under bite! It won't be that bad, trust me. You know I wouldn't lie to you.”

“Turn my what into what…?” Karkat questioned suspiciously, his tone now unnaturally hushed, “Are you seriously… stoned... right now?” 

“Maybe. Maybe not.” 

“Whatever.”

“You really do just have to look on the bright side. Once you loosen up a bit I promise you will feel much better, maybe you’ll even find yourself a girlfriend. I know how touch-starved you are.”

Instinctively, Karkat rolls his eyes at his friend's attempt to push a positive narrative on the situation, "Yeah, right. Just because you have a camp girlfriend doesn't mean I’m all too enthusiastic at the prospect of getting one.” 

“Oh right, I forgot you weren’t into girls. No shame in that, even if I can't personally relate.” 

“No. Nuh uh. No. Don't even. I just don't really care to cross ‘get a girlfriend’ off my summer camp bucket list” 

“Like I said Karkat, there’s really no shame in it. You know I don’t consider you any less for your attraction to men.”

“Just.. shut up. Please.” Karkat pleaded, pinching the bridge of his nose in his frustration, “Do you just live to torture me with nonsense accusations about my preferences?” 

“I’m more inclined to say I live to make you realize your full potential, wouldn’t you agree?.” 

“No, but hey, look at the time Kanaya! I forgot I have a 5 course lunch date with a drill press,” Karkat snarked, frowning, “hopefully it’ll erase this conversation from my mind so that I don’t have to remember your baseless assaults on my precious neurotransmitters. Bye Kanaya.” 

With his last words, Karkat cuts off the call in an attempt to control his temper, shoving his phone back into his pocket. He steals another glance at his mother, noticing how her demeanor shows she's not too happy with him answering the call. Karkat ends up giving her a sheepish smile before turning his attention back to the scenery outside. After a while, he leans his head against the window and closes his eyes. In his mind, he’s just telling himself, ‘I’m just resting my eyes’, but he’s out cold within a few minutes. 

Karkat is startled awake by Kanaya jostling his shoulders, giving him a grin. He looks up at the taller girl with sleepy, half-lidded eyes, letting out a huge yawn. He mumbles something about “5 more minutes” before any state of spacial-awareness could kick in. A moment later his eyes widened in a sudden onset of shock seeing the face of his friend staring at him. It wasn’t the fact that Kanaya was in his presence, it was something that was already anticipated, but rather by just how high energy she was.

From the shock, Karkat leaned and fell onto his right side and out the car door. The only thing stopping his head from hitting the dirt parking lot below was his seat belt, instead keeping him dangling nearly upside down. 

“Fuck dude,” Karkat sleepily grumbled, his hair falling over his face, “You scared the shit outta me, thanks for that.” 

“Well, no one else was gonna wake you up from your comatose slumber. Really, it's the least I could do to help you out.” 

“Thanks, I guess. So, uh, your dumb camp girlfriend hasn't shown up yet?.” 

“No, she has, I just took the responsibility and time out of my day to make sure you’re on time. You’re welcome.”

“Wow, what would I do without you Kanaya?” Karkat snickered before trailing off, pushing the hair from his face and turning his glance to the empty driver's seat, his mind shifting, “Hey, where the hell did my mom go?”

“She’s signing your gay ass in.” 

“I’m just gonna ignore that.” 

Karkat playfully yet forcefully pushes Kanaya away from him, using the leverage to boost himself back into a sitting position and then unbuckling himself. He hops from the car and onto the gravel, kicking up dust. Karkat scans his surroundings, consequentially letting out a loud groan when he notices just how far his mom is away. He was in no way enthusiastic to walk all the way towards the sign-in terminal, which was just a glorified gazebo. He made his way to the back of the car, yanking his duffel bag from the trunk and hoisting it over his shoulders. A part of the bag's zipper gets stuck in his already messy hair, prompting him to struggle a bit before surveying the area for Kanaya, but by then the girl had already disappeared. 

“Thanks a lot Kanaya,” Karkat mutters to himself, straining his neck backwards to free his hair, “Always pulling this cryptic disappearing act when I need her.”

“Hey, you need help?” A voice sounds from behind him, “You look like you're having some trouble man.” 

Karkat lets out a startled chirp before whipping himself around to face the voice's owner. It was just another kid around Karkat's age, maybe 16. Karkat couldn't help but survey him a million times over before thinking to respond. The things he noticed were rather superficial, but the bullets he took in his head went as followed:

• He appeared to be covered in scars, although karkat couldn't tell if he was just an edgy depressed teen and/or some attack victim. Despite his curiosity, he couldn’t care enough to be bothered to ask (or so he told himself). 
• He was wearing shades, obscuring any sight of his eyes. 
• He was wearing a shitty sticker name tag, labeled “Dave”. Karkat prays he wouldn't have to wear one too once he was signed in. 
• He looked like a blond fake hipster douche, but possibly tolerable. 
• His shoes were also untied, just like Karkat’s. 
• He was pasty enough that Karkat could tell his ass was gonna burn all summer.  

Karkat gives him a rather harsh side eye, biting his lip for a moment and responding with a harsh, “no, fuck off”, but then quickly following that demand with a more quiet, “sorry, yes please”. 

Dave bounces over to him, chuckling a bit at the other boy's indecisiveness and unzips part of the bag, freeing Karkat's hair and then aiding him in getting the bag back comfortably over his shoulders. While doing so, Dave strikes up a conversation with the more reserved boy, attempting to break down some of his walls. 

“So, uh, this your first time at camp?” Dave asks, his intentions unclear to Karkat, “My Bro makes me come here every summer and I’ve never seen you around.” 

“Um, yeah. First time.” Karkat chuckles awkwardly, working his way to grab a smaller first aid bag from the trunk, “My friend’s been coming here a few summers in a row so my mom thought I should tag along with him, I guess. Said I needed to get out of the house.” 

“What’s the first aid for?” 

“I have allergies.” Karkat admits, shifting uncomfortably. He then locks eyes on a fresh gash on Dave's arm, furrowing his brow, “Looks like you need some first aid yourself.” 

“Oh haha yeah, caught me,” Dave says, giving him a tight-lipped smile while crossing his arms, “Not sure how I got that one.” 

“It’s bleeding.” 

“I get that a lot.” 

Karkat narrows his eyes suspiciously, “I see. So, do you need a band aid or not? I don’t have all day.” 

“Nah, I don't need one. Trust, I’m chill as one of those fuckin mammoths they find in the serbian permafrost every once in a while. Minus the part where it gets eaten by scientists, of course.” 

“What.” 

“Nevermind, uhm… Whatever your name is, I gotta get going and finish grabbing my own shit but I’ll see you around, maybe?” 

“Oh, ok.” Karkat's voice became full of poorly masked disappointment, although he couldn't quite decide if it was from the loss of interaction with Dave himself, or if he just didn’t wanna go back to only talking with Kanaya, “It’s Karkat, by the way.” 

Before he can finish his sentence, Dave is gone, having sprinted over to his own respective vehicle, leaving Karkat utterly alone once again. Gathering all of his belongings, he finally wanders towards the terminal, meeting up with his mother. She had already finished signing him in, clearly eager to just drop him off and go. Karkat gives his mother a quick hug, saying his “I love you”’s, and watching her disappear back to her car. He keeps his eyes glued to her until the car starts, begins rolling to back out, and then disappears the way it came. Suddenly, a sense of unplaced dread washed over him, hitting him like a freight train . Knowing he’d be stuck in the woods with complete strangers (minus Kanaya) for 7 weeks was almost as terrifying as it was just straight up uncomfortable. 

Kanaya was sitting at a picnic table about 20 feet away from the terminal, and Karkat eagerly began to speedwalk towards her, happy for some hint of familiarity. A hand snags him on the shoulder, stopping him in his tracks, Karkat tilts his head at the disturbance, looking behind to see a counselor reaching out towards him with a name tag in his hand. It was already filled out, with Karkat's name sprawled out in all caps. All Karkat can do is let a scowl fall over his face and take the sticker, sticking it to his chest while cursing out the counselor in his head. 

Karkat reaches Kanaya, plopping down next to her on the wooden seat, observing the chipping red paint all along it. He attempts to get her attention, but notices she’s deep in conversation, and he really doesn’t want to interject himself into her conversation. His gaze travels to the opposite side of the table, noticing the culprit of the crime that was hogging Kanaya’s attention. She seemed just as engrossed in her exchange with Kanaya as Kanaya was with her. She seemed just as engrossed in her exchange with Kanaya as Kanaya was with her. Their body language towards each other was clearly obvious, that was Kanaya's (camp) girlfriend, Rose. With the lack of even acknowledgement from Kanaya, Karkat lets himself wander off into the grass nearby, sinking down into it and laying down.

He begins to stare off into space, replaying the day's events in an attempt to reassess and create a solution to his situation of many problems. He could tell he was gonna have no consistent companionship from Kanaya just from how she was so far, which was already a huge disappointment, even if he would never outright admit it. Karkat begins yet another bullet point list in his head, this time it consists of everything that was and could go wrong. Although, almost every point could easily be solved by the simple solution of: 

Just make friends.