The Peacekeeper

==> Karkat: Wallow

It was seven in the morning and Dave was awake making a breakfast so fucking delicious (and nutritious) that Gordon Ramsey himself would be bawling on the floor and clutching the leg of the table over how delectable Dave's meal was. Okay it was just some oatmeal and a smoothie but Dave tried, he really did try. Was it anything fancy? No but Dave used the super special secret ingredient of love to make it better than it was.

Dave finished making breakfast and gave his work a quick once over. It was the perfect meal for Karkat's newly fixed teeth and sensitive stomach and Dave managed to fit in more fruits than the troll has probably eaten in the past few years. He gave himself one last quick pat on the back before knocking on the bedroom door. A minute passed and absolute silence was Dave's only response. He knocked again and this time he could hear Karkat's muffled footsteps as he shuffled over to the door. The lock clicked and the door opened. Karkat greeted Dave with a small nod, his iron tight grip on his blood stained sickle loosened slightly.

"Come on out, I made you a pretty great breakfast. Not to toot my own horn but it's probably the best thing I've made since moving into this apartment."

"I'm not hungry." Karkat replied curtly and shut the door. Dave blinked and stood still in front of the door for a second before knocking again. This time when Karkat answered he put his foot on the door to stop it from closing.

"What do you mean you're 'not hungry'? I made you some bomb ass oatmeal with a nice lil' smoothie." There was a slight hint of hurt in Dave's voice but he tried his best to hide it. "Is your stomach hurting? Is it the medication? Do you need me to take you to the doctor?" Karkat shook his head. "Then what is it? Want me to make you something else? I'll make you like, waffles or something if you want. You name it and I'll look up some how-to video."

"No thank you, I'm just not hungry." The troll tried to gently nudge Dave's foot away but he refused to budge.

"Dude, please. Throw me a line. What's up? How can I help you?"

"Dave, just leave me alone right now. It's not a good time." Again, Karkat tried to push Dave's foot away. This time it worked. The door clicked shut right in Dave's face as he was left alone again.

~

A small pile of bloody horns, a tattered book with some pages too large for the binding sticking out, a blue and red visor, and a beat up metal sign with even more beat up looking Gemini, Sagittarius, and Cancer symbols bolted onto it. These were some of the things Karkat had taken out of his sylladex. Some of the things he had kept after a certain series of unfortunate events and was reluctant to let go. He needed these since they were reminders and reassurance of what Karkat thought were happier times. For a bit Karkat's pan had convinced him that maybe he had made everything up. Maybe he was insane, maybe he just came out of a coma with an incredibly intense and realistic and long dream. That theory was quickly shut down when the troll's eyes landed on the horns he had so gruesomely removed and kept. In hindsight, ripping the horns off the heads of his dead quadrantmates was kind of a psychopathic move but in his defense he wasn't thinking straight. His emotions were overwhelming and he had little to no time with his friends and needed something. Obviously later on he remembered that he literally lived with these two and had access to everything they owned but what's done is done, Karkat was allowed to be crazy with emotions after what had just happened.

Another knock on the door. Dave was trying to get Karkat to come out again. He ignored the door and returned his attention to his fucked up memory pile.

It was all still there. Now what? He has all these terribly sad reminders littered around him, now what? Was going through his stuff help him come to terms with what happened or was it another reason for Karkat to wallow in his own emotions? Honestly this internal turmoil was starting to feel repetitive. Did he or did he not want to believe that everything was real and that everything right now is real? Karkat didn't know, he hadn't the foggiest clue. Karkat was running purely on no thoughts and all impulse.