Triggered

But no, Kankri just couldn’t let things lie. Always had to get the last word in, because he was a jackass who thought he was always right. Karkat was a similar kind of jackass, but at least he didn’t do it passive-aggressively. He made it known that he didn’t want to drop the subject, didn’t try and placate people with “but sure, let’s drop it” after making some asinine remark.

He put his book down on the bed and stood up silently, walking until he was stood at the bottom of Karkat's bed. There was a huff of breath and when he spoke his voice was /alarmingly/ soft. "I didn't feel the need to have the last word. I was correcting you on a common and dangerous misconception about my illness that can /make/ it life threatening. Do you understand why I felt that was important?" 

Another measured breath from the older of the two. "Now, Karkat. I am /so/ sorry you are tired. And I am /so/ sorry you don't want to deal with this. You know what I didn't want to deal with today? Some two-faced, obnoxious, patronising, entitled freshman moving into my room and pretending that he is /so/ hard done by because of my mere presence. Oh, I know I'm a jerk, Karkat, but you... Look at you, you pretend to be nice and sweet and like you're always the poor victim of circumstance and everyone is so hard to deal with, but if you listened, if you understood that that wasn't me trying to be an asshole, I was actually fucking concerned about you, because you are my cousin, well then maybe you'd understand how relationships between people actually work."

His voice stayed quiet, but it was clearly angry. A quiet, measured rage with sharp, bitter consonants and hollow vowels. "Understand that I don't want to be treated like a nuisance in my own room. That I am /trying/ here. Or I was, I was trying to be quiet when you asked, I know I was rude at first but has anything else I've said been that bad? Actually, you know what I don't care. Fuck you not wanting to speak with me, Karkat, I want nothing more to do with you and you've only been here for less than one hour." Kankri scoffed and looked away, grabbing his keys from beside the door and slipping his shoes on. "Now I remember why I was surprised you managed to get in, I thought you needed to be more mature than this to seriously study anything."

The Latino knew that’s what he’d done as soon as Kankri opened his mouth. He groaned, pulling his pillow out from under his head and pressing it against his face. He’d known this would happen and he’d still let it fucking happen. Fuck his life. This was what his school year was going to be like.

He leant back in his bed, taking up the book again and opening it where he was, contentedly quiet for now. A nap would do Karkat some good and hopefully improve his mood a little bit. That attitude could simply be grating where it went on too long, Kankri had always found them to be complete opposites. Karkat swore to hide being nice, Kankri used soft, complicated words to hide insults. 

…Aaaaaand then Kankri had to ask if the school knew about the asthma thing. God. Dammit. Karkat sighed heavily, dragging his hands down his face. “Hijo de…No, Kankri, I haven’t, and I’m not going to. I didn’t have any accommodations growing up aside from being exempt from Phys Ed and my grades were plenty good enough for me to get accepted here. It only sounds disabling because I listed hypothetical worse-case scenarios. I don’t get sick that often because I stay the fuck on top of my health—I wash my hands all the time, I get my five a day, I don’t share food and beverages. Finals, I can’t do anything about, but I’ll do what I can to minimize the stress from them. The school doesn’t need to know.”

There was a soft huff from him, but his voice stayed soft and calm as he spoke. "I've had this since I was born, I manage it well, I take care of myself and I haven't had a serious attack in over two years, I /still/ told them, Karkat. Better safe than sorry, as they say. I'm quite sure you do manage it perfectly well and probably won't need the consideration, and of course if there was an unfortunate incident and you did, if you couldn't talk to them I'm sure something can be arranged where someone else could, but..." He shrugged, picking his book back up. 

He nodded once Kankri was done, returning to his bed and climbing onto it. “Alright,” Karkat answered, “got it. I think I can handle that.” He paused, considering his own directions and deciding whether or not it’d be a good idea to tell Kankri when he should keep an extra close eye on him.

…Yeah, definitely was.

"Finals week or when you have any form of virus that may compromise your respiratory system further. Got it." Kankri smiled over at him, this was going better than anticipated. If they were living together it was beneficial to them both to at least make some sort of attempt at civility, he supposed. "As for me, if I develop a fever suddenly or lose consciousness, assume I am bleeding into a joint and didn't notice any stiffness fast enough to do anything, just inject me and if you have the time, cool me down with a damp cloth. It should pass in a day or so." 

Karkat rolled his eyes at the suggested exception to leaving him be after class. No fucking duh, Kankri. The Latino had just promised he’d do his part to minimize the unpleasantness of the situation he’d been dumped into, else he would’ve said that particular thought out loud.

And then, at long last, something came out of Kankri’s mouth that was actually useful. His cousin was right; yes, when the attack was minor, Karkat had no trouble getting his inhaler out and self-administering, but the bad ones that had him dropping to his knees required outside help. The chance of Kankri being around when that happened was pretty low, considering that he was going to avoid him as much as possible, but Kankri might as well know.

"Yeah," Karkat replied to Kankri’s repeated offer to help him unpack, "I’m sure. I genuinely don’t feel comfortable with people touching my things. There’s not that much stuff to put away, anyway." That being said, Karkat had been moving around pretty aggressively when he was still pissed at Kankri. It was time for a break, and it was also a perfect time for showing Kankri how to administer his medication. Karkat was feeling short enough on breath to warrant it.

Karkat climbed onto his bed and leaned back against the wall, closing his eyes and taking a few breaths just to confirm that yes, it should be  easier than that, before reaching into his backpack for his inhaler.

"Okay," he began, "administering my medication. This shit’s pretty simple, since it was designed to be possible for someone struggling for air to do." Karkat shook the canister a little. "Shake it up a bit first to get the meds mixed up properly. Then it’s cap off, in mouth, press down on the canister twice…" The last step was a bit unintelligible since the one before had Karkat actually sticking the inhaler in his mouth, but Karkat trusted Kankri would get it when he demonstrated. Two puffs as he took a deep breath, then he lowered the inhaler and replaced the cap. "…and I’ll know I need to breathe in when you do that. I’ve had asthma for years, the procedure is nothing new to me."

He wasn't due to take it for another hour or so, but honestly it wouldn't hurt to take it a few hours early. Walking over to the fridge, he got everything out - a fresh needle, a vial of the liquid and from his cupboard he pulled a tourniquet. "I keep the tourniquet on the second shelf if I'm in the room, if not then it will always be in my bag. You take the vial like this and slip it it the needle like this." He kept his hands out of the way, showing what he was doing to his cousin carefully. 

"Check for air bubbles, but there shouldn't be any, see?" He held it up so Karkat could see, before putting the needle down on the side board and picking up the tourniquet. "This goes around my upper arm and needs to be pulled tight like this.... And then you just take the needle, line it up with this pin prick mark here, see?" He pointed the nick on his arm out before pressing the needle into it. "Then just press." He pressed down on it, injecting the fluid into his arm. 

"The bullshit isn’t the rules themselves, okay?" he responded, mentally cursing himself for not making that clear when he first objected. "The bullshit is in your timing. Literally the first thing out of your mouth was an insult to my family, then my intelligence. Then, after that, you went straight into the rules. It was fucking inconsiderate and it pissed me off.” Karkat huffed, dragging his hands through his hair. “…Granted, I wasn’t very nice when I first walked in, but I don’t think you can really blame me when my most recent memory of you is you talking my ear off about shit I didn’t care about at our last family reunion and blithely ignoring my obvious disinterest. But hey, you’re right, at nineteen years old I should be more mature. So I’m sorry.”

He couldn’t fucking believe he’d allowed Kankri to guilt him into apologizing, but there the fuck it was. Karkat had apologized even though his rudeness had been a knee-jerk reaction whereas Kankri’s was flat-out ignorance of what was socially acceptable.

"I'm sorry too, I never meant to offend you know I have that habit of phrasing things in an inconsiderate way, I'll attempt to do better in future." Curling one wispy strand of hair around a finger and tucking it out of the way, he smiled faintly. "I can work with those rules, though the not talking to you immediately after class rule may be broken if there is something pressing, such as a fire or you need to be warned of an impending RA inspection." 

"The only other thing we might need to consider is teaching one another how to administer our medication in case of an emergency where we can't do so ourselves... Honestly, I know we don't get on astoundingly well, but I'd rather have someone familiar do it if needs be than a total stranger." 

The thing that got to Karkat more than anything else were the jabs at his family’s financial standing and at his own intelligence. How anyone could fling insults like that and then expect the recipient to kowtow to any nonsense rules they imposed was fucking beyond him.

He shook his head, glancing off to the side. "I merely meant that you'd done well and I apologise if the way I phrased it was triggering, but you know what, it is more upsetting to me that you lack any and all compassion, that you consider that me requesting you be clean, respectful of sleeping times, my religion and my medications is such /bullshit/ to you, Karkat." 

Karkat was still in disbelief, to be honest. He couldn’t actually be enrolled at Skaia University, could he? Someone from a less-than-well-off family like his? Except he definitely was, and he was carrying his backpack and a small box of personal belongings to the dorm building. It had been a headache and a half to find, considering how many other buildings were littered across campus. Thing was practically its own town.

The small Latino boy dug into the pocket of his jeans, pulling out a small scrap of paper with his room number scrawled on it. 216. Okay. That meant going up one flight of stairs. Piece of cake. The tough part had definitely been finding the building itself.

He found the room without event and set his box on the floor so he could dig into his other pocket for the key. Karkat unlocked the door, opened it, and his eyes widened when he saw who was inside. He’d recognize that hair anywhere, even if he’d only seen it a handful of times in his life.

God. DAMMIT.

"…No," Karkat pleaded in a tone of disbelief as he shook his head, "no, this has to be some kind of sick joke. Freshman hazing, right? There’s no way the universe hates me enough to stick me with you, right?!”

Kankri was sat cross-legged on his bed, reading his book by lamplight and sipping at a green tea. His curly hair was pulled back just a tiny bit and held in place by a ribbon. Dark eyes glanced up as he heard the door open and close, a single eyebrow raising at both the face that crept into the dorm room and then at the tone of voice that followed.

“There is no need to be rude, Karkat. Please, I have to ask you not to turn the light on for another hour or so, but I can help you unpack. I have to say, I wasn’t expecting you either, I mean we always knew you wanted to try for college but I can’t exactly say we had a whole host of hope that you’d figure a way to fund it. Your grades must have been more inspiring than we believed, I suppose there is hope for everyone.” He cleared his throat, glancing back down at his book and noting the page number, before closing the book.

"I merely didn't realise you were /that/ sensitive, honestly. Human beings should be able to handle rejection, but perhaps the way I worded it could have been more cautious, I certainly wouldn't want to cause you any undue duress, though there is always going to be some disappointment and stress associated with being turned down in a romantic or sexual setting." 

Clearing his throat, he watched him backing everything up. "I offered to pay and the offer stands if you change or mind. Else I would prefer to pay for my own, if it is all the same to you, I don't wish to lead you on or give you any assumptions that this is something other than a friendly drink. But thank you so much for the offer, it is appreciated." 

"I apologise. I didn’t mean to upset, I just wished to make it completely clear what my position was on the—" He struggled for a word for a moment, a rare moment. "Invitation. I don’t think I was being harsh, I was simply stating my intentions so as not to ‘lead you on’ as they say." 

Again, Kankri paused, mulling something over. He was actually taking in the rest of what Cronus had said and suddenly, the Vantas was staring at the guitar player in the way one might stare at a piece of dog shit stuck to your shoe. 

"I have a terrible ear for music, in fact my father has assured me on several occasions that I am completely tone deaf. Furthermore, you don't know me so I fail to see how you can have even the vaguest concept of whether or not I am a 'swell guy' or not." Those quotation marks had the honour of being both clear in the tone of his voice and physically marked my his fingers.

Now, it wasn't so much that Kankri was against people playing music, he believed people should have the opportunity to express themselves creatively, of course he did. It also wasn't that the guy was bad at what he was doing. No, no. The problem here was the /choice/ of songs the guy was playing, filled with vulgarity and problematic terms. In fact after one or two songs, Kankri was just staring in abject horror. 

He had already been packing up to leave, offended and in a huff, when the guitar clutching monster finally stopped. His shoulders slumped, relieved and he decided now would be a good time for a little re-education, so crossed over to the man, dropping a coin into his guitar case. 

"/That/ is on the premise that next time you choose to force your music on the ears of the unsuspecting public, you take some time to consider that those you force to hear your music as they go about their day may be very upset by some of the lyrics you sing. Please, next time just... sing something with fewer words that can be deemed indecent? There may be children, let alone people of a sensitive disposition or people who have suffered crimes and violence against them associated with some of the slurs you have used in the past ten minutes." 

He finally paused for breath, just for a second.