Finnish it Where it Began

Is Just The Beginning

  "THAT'S A GOOD SWING, TRY AND DO THAT AGAIN." Karkat encouraged Katriana as she gave a few more practice swings with the red claw weapons that use to be his. She is not about three sweeps old and today he has decided to begin teaching her how to fight. Swinging at nothing it was clear when she changed from trying to mimic what she had just done to swinging madly in the air out of frustration.

  "WHEN DO I GET A TARGET, THIS ISN'T DOING ANYTHING." She asked

  "YOU HAVE TO GET USE TO THE SWING OF IT SO YOU KNOW HOW TO BALANCE THE WEIGHT. AND WITH AIM LIKE THAT YOU WOULDN'T HIT MUCH." She stopped for a moment and panted a little.     "SEE YOUR ALSO TIRED OUT. WANT TO SEE ME DO IT?" He asked and she nodded in curiosity. Goddamn that look she gave him, sweet and interested, like she gave a shit about what he said and she was too young to properly understand people. It was so nice and naive that it made his heart beat a little faster so he exaggerated when it came to his stance.

  Taking out his own pair her eyes immediately went big as he gave a few swings at a sorry tree so now had three deep scars. Katriana gasped in awe. "THAT WAS SO COOL BUT DO I HAVE TO USE THESE INSTEAD, THOSE ARE SO MUCH COOLER THAN THESE!!! CAN I DADDY CAN I???" Oh she was going to be the redeath of his.

  "NO YOU CANT, WHEN YOU CAN WEILD THOSE BETTER YOU CAN USE THESE BUT FOR NOW I DON'T WANT YOU TO ACCIDENTLY SLICE YOUR OWN THROAT. THEN I WOULDN'T HAVE A DAUGHTER ANY MORE AND WHO WOULD TAKE CARE OF ME IN MY OLD AGE THEN?" He joked in half seriousness.

"I WASN'T GOING TO TAKE CARE OF YOU ANYWAYS, YOU'RE ALREADY DEAD!!!" A wave washed over him, realizing she would never quite understand what death truely was. The pain, the peace, the change that it caused and she spoke about it like it was the norm. He supposed that would be the case since she is growing up with pretty much her entire family being dead ghosts. But that didn't stop his feelings from playing the song of sadness as they tugged on the cords of the heart.

Seeing his hesitation Katriana assumed that he thought she was being serious when she said she wasn't going to take care of him. After a pang of sadness her arms drooped from both being tired and from regret of opening her mouth. "SORRY."

She looked down at the ground.Kneeling Karkat put his hands on her shoulders and she looked up at him. "RELAX I KNOW THAT YOU WERE JOKING." They hugged and the butterflies returned to his stomach making his feel light headed.

Later after a bit more practice they had to strike up a deal. "BUT I DON'T WANT TO GO TO SLEEP I WANT TO SEE UNCLE JOHN AND AUNT JADE." The time on Alternia was synched so it was night when the humans were awake and day when they were asleep so she didn't see them that often unless she stayed awake. This of course wasn't allowed very often after Rose expressed some concern for her getting enough sleep for her young mind development.

"I HAVEN'T SEEN THEM IN AAAAAAAAGES," she whined. Fuck was she going to start doing that more often because that was totally weakness.

Sighing he agreed that she could stay up tonight but only if she behaved. Punching the air in joy she gave a 'yes' under her breath and made a mental note thank Aunt Vriska later for the acting lessons later. Speaking of her aunt she figured why not push her luck a little bit more. "CAN I BE TALL AGAIN?"

The first time she had felt tall was when Uncle Jake had lifted her up and put her on his shoulders so she could rest her head on top of his. Suddenly, if she sat up straight, she was taller than the majoirity of everybody else she knew. Doubtless to say she enjoyed the ride and always hoped to do it again. "REALLY? ALRIGHT ALRIGHT DON'T GIVE ME THAT LOOK. YOU KNOW I'M NOT GOING TO BE ABLE TO DO THIS FOREVER RIGHT?"

"THAT'S WHY I'M ENJOYING IT WHILE I CAN." She lifted her arms up to be lifted and promptly hugged his head once she was stable on his shoulders. Weakness thy name is hugs.

Making large strides so she had more fun with it pretty soon Jade and Jane had fallen asleep and they hugged her with joy. "AUNT JADE, AUNT JANE!!! GUESS WHAT I DID TODAY, DADDY IS TEACHING ME HOW TO FIGHT JUST LIKE HIM. I'M DOING REALLY GOOD!!! RIGHT DADDY?" Jade gave a concerned look.

"YEP, YOU'RE STARTING TO GET THE HANG ON IT FOR SURE. KEEP IT UP AND YOU'LL BE DOING GREAT." He lifted her up and put her back on the ground and she twirled in glee before hugging aunt Jane.

"Is she learning to fight already? How old is she? Four ... sweeps? Nine or ten years old?" Jade asked. Jane and Katriana twirled off together and falling into a pile of laughter.

"SHE IS ALMOST FOUR SWEEPS OLD YES, ALMOST NINE, I'VE BEEN PUTTING IT OFF FOR FAR TOO LONG. ITS GETTING TO THE POINT WHERE IT WOULD BE DANGEROUS TO DO OTHERWISE. CAUSE YOU KNOW ... I ACTUALLY LIKE SEEING HER ALIVE AND STUFF ..." Trailing off like it was slightly embarrassing to admit, totally ignoring the part where she could be in danger of dying.

She thought for a moment, "Does it have to do with trolls militaristic lifestyle? She could always stay here where she would be definitely more safe."

"WE BOTH KNOW THAT WOULD BE TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE. SHE HAS TO GO OUT AND MEET PEOPLE, MAKE FRIENDS BESIDES HER FAMILY. BUT BELIEVE ME IF I COULD I WOULD KEEP HER HERE FOREVER."

They were interrupted by Katriana herself. "SHIT! OW OW OW!" Karkat has never run so fast. She had tripped awkwardly over a tree root and practically slammed into the main trunk and getting scrapped up a bit.

"ARE YOU OKAY? WHATS WRONG?" he rushed to her as the red tears were threatening to fall. She shook her head and held her arm tightly and rocked a bit. Luckily nothing was broken but her arm was scrapped at the elbow and her leg was as well. His breath was caught in his throat again, seeing the red blood, and nobody was dieing. Weird, it was going to make him paranoid.

Blood swirled and the small cups sealed themselves up. Jane, surprised, looked at Karkat who only shrugged in response. Guess there was a bit of his powers that he didn't know about. "Now dear you really shouldn't swear that's not a very good habit to get into." Jane added as she stood up.

"BUT DAD DOES IT." At some point Karkat had started breathing again, he noticed because he stopped once more.

"FUCK THAT I SAY SHE CAN SWEAR, I DON'T GIVE A SHIT." Jane face-palmed and Jade laughed until she fell over. Attracted by the laughter Nepeta pounced out of no-where on Jane bringing her down. The lot of them laughed together, "Hey Karkitty, mind if I burrow our little niece?"

"HEY AUNT NEPETA."

"NO I DON'T MIND, GO ON AHEAD." Jane, Nepeta, and Katriana left together to engage in what one could only assume to be role-playing. When they left Karkat fell backwards and the laughing Jade finally stopped laughing to pause to see if he was alright.

"DID YOU FUCKING HEAR HER? 'BUT DAD DOES IT'. GODDAMN, JADE I AM A FATHER, A LUSUS. HOLYSHIT. I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS AT ALL. YOU NEED TO PINCH ME, MAKE SURE ITS NOT FAKE." Jade returned to laughing.