Land Of THIS IS STUPID

Ugh, right, no. It’s fairly known what comes right afterwards. Nope. Nah. Abso-fucking-lutely not. Come on, asshole, pull yourself together and shake off this unwanted veil of sleep. You know perfectly well that its whispers that promise a nice and relaxing nap are a huge fat lie wrapped in even more lies. And that in reality only a bunch of gnarly shit awaits behind the shut lids like rivers of blood, piles of corpses (of your friends) and death-death-death…

- Dude, you’ve been staring at this page for a good half an hour without clicking away. I think it means only one thing – time to wrap up and finally go to bed, – dammit, just when he’d gathered his wits to give himself a good wake-up smack, a hand appeared in his sight and in a completely rude way started shutting the lid of his husktop. Nope, fat fucking chance.

- Egbert, I kinda understand you usually have a hard fucking time to not annoy the shit out of me, – grinding his teeth, Karkat firmly grasped the wrist of the offending limb, rubbing his eyes with his free hand, – but trust me – right now is absolutely not the fucking time for that. If you really want it that much – go on, fuck right off to the embrace of blanket and pillows. And leave me the fuck alone.

- But Karkat, – eurgh, shit, this dumbass stretched the vowels of his name again in such a manner that made it a bit hard to stay angry. And a cold, somewhat dear nowadays hand placed itself on his shoulder and squeezed it, – I can’t do something so selfish as to leave you here like that! What will you do without me? All alone, sad and cold...

- Okay, that last one is absolute bullshit, – here Vantas decided he’s had enough and turned away from the awfully bright monitor, facing the one who disturbed his peace. Ah, these mischevious blue eyes and no less mischevious grin. How he missed them (not) (well maybe a little). – I know your hidden agenda – you’re dying to lure me into this trap so that you’ll be able to leech off of my warmth, you damn icicle. Can you guess my response to this?

- Well… «Yes, John, you’re right – I just can’t refuse the sweet healing hugs before sleep so let’s go to bed»? – and that grin had the audacity to become wider. Fan-fucking-tastic.

There was a huge desire to just outright say everything he thought of all the other’s antics, but alas the godawful pounding in his head resumed, and his eyes felt like a bunch of sand has been thrown in them. Ugh, for fuck’s sake. Karkat rubbed his eyes again then pressed the heels of his palms against them.

- Seriously, John, now’s really not the best time… – he began, deciding to overstep himself and throw away all his idiocy and his own pride a little. But of course he was interrupted here, too – chilly fingers pried his hands away from his eyes and lightly squeezed them.

- You’ve got nothing to be scared of, Kar, – the playfulness on the other’s face changed to soft seriousness. – Last time you slept almost without nightmares. Remember?

Well, couldn’t argue with that – after all, matesprit’s closeness was calming even in sleep, so the nightmares usually instantly backed off. Still…

- I do. I just… can’t get used to it still. You know, after everything we’ve been through…

His palms were squeezed once more.

- But that’s all in the past now. You’re here and I’m here, too. And our friends – all of them are here with us, nearby. The game is long since over, – here John paused then laughed sadly. – Though, I get it – have a lot of my own… stuff to deal with at times.

Yeah. «Stuff». Each of them had a whole fuckton of this «stuff». Even the self-proclaimed therapist of their group – Lalonde kept all kinds of «skeletons» hidden in her closet. Luckily, she had Kanaya – her loving wife, always ready to support her if any of those «skeletal motherfuckers» dared to show their ugly bony mug.

And the two of them… had each other. A recipe for a pretty sweet disaster.

- Fine. Five more minutes – and I’ll crawl to bed to be your free personal heater, dumbass, – Vantas snorted in the end.

«And to keep your own nightmares at bay», – this was left unsaid. But could clearly be read in his look to the other’s eyes.

- Deal! – Egbert grinned as usual, then smooched him on the forehead (earning a chuckle in return) and finally let go of his hands. – Don’t take too long!

- Yeah, yeah, sure.