Wordsworth (Karkat/Eridan)

When the human kids beat SBURB and returned Earth to normal, they invited the trolls to come share their world. It was unnecessarily kind of them, so of course they accepted. The guardians, made all the necessary arrangements to assimilate them into normal life there, and before long they were all accepted into the communities they wound up living in. They were capable enough of living alone, so they all got their own apartments. They all kept in touch for the most part, but one troll in particular just drifted further and further away until he off the radar almost entirely.

Eridan had a job at a coffee shop, and it paid really well and suited him perfectly; he made more than enough to buy his own groceries and pay his own rent, so he rarely if ever had to contact the guardians for any assistance. Months went by without him speaking to any of his old "friends," if they could even be called that, and he eventually started to make new ones. With the new societal rules he was learning there on Earth, he started to change. There was no pressure to find a mate, there was no real racial differences (and, really, he was the weird one and they accepted him anyway), so none of his old vices even mattered anymore. With all the positive influence and acceptance and friendship he was surrounded with at the cafe, he became a better person than he'd been before. All it really took was for someone to care enough to really be his friend and take an interest in him.

- - - - -

Eridan was leaning on the counter of the nearly-empty cafe, during that lull between breakfast and lunch, scribbling something on a piece of paper. He was writing little snatches of poetry, a thing he did almost constantly. When the bell on the coffee shop's door jingled, he looked up with a fanged smile, hooking the pen on the front of his purple apron. "Hi, wwelcome to Koffenya," he called cheerfully.

Karkat pulled his scarf tighter around his neck as he walked, a ridiculous fluffy red number that Jade had knitted him to fend off the winter chill; if you could really even call it a scarf with the way it was warped and misshapen. But, to give credit where credit was due, it was a warm Grubfucker.

Since he was walking back to his apartment from the movies, he saw no harm in stopping for some Coffee. He's never actually been in one of these places before and he was curious. And cold, and wanting something warm to drink. Hunching his shoulders, he redirected his path right into the cozy little coffee shop only to be greeted by the one person he thought he would never see again.


"...Eridan Ampora?"

Eridan looked a little stunned at first, then this big, derpy smile split his face. "Hiya, Kar! Wwoww, wwhat a surprise!" He walked around the counter, pulling his apron off and tossing it on the back of a chair, and went to go greet Karkat properly. A few of the people in the cafe, regulars, stopped talking and looked over with smiles on their faces.

"Friend of yours, Eri?" one of them asked. The other leaned over and waved at Karkat.

"Somethin' like that, yeah," he replied, chuckling a bit. "So, Kar, I'vve nevver seen you around here before. You livve around here? Haha, that wwould be kind of ironic."

"The Fuck do you care?" Karkat snapped, sharper than his normal fashion. "You fucking just up and dropped all of us like Strider and one of his self proclaimed sick fires. No one's heard from you in nearly 3 fucking years, and for most of us its been longer than that!" He glared at Eridan and turned on his heel, the worn rubber of his sneaker letting out a horrid squeak against the tile. "Fuck this shit, I'm going home. I'm too fucking cold to deal with this bull shit. Figures this happens to me the one fucking Wednesday I break my routine."

"H-hey, wwait, Kar!" Eridan reached out and grabbed Karkat's hand. "Don't go. Come in an' have some coffee, Kar. It's my treat, okay? Don't be mad. I mean, it's not like you guys missed me or anythin, right?" He laughed. "You guys nevver liked me, so I didn't think I wwas gonna be missed. I'vve been real busy wwith wwork, anywway, so I guess it nevver occurred to me to check in. But since you're here, wwhy don't you stay awwhile? I wwanna knoww wwhat you've been up to."

Karkat growled and practically ripped his hand out of Eridan's grasp. His other hand curled into a fist, which he swung at Eridan, thankfully not as hard as he could. "FUCK YOU YOU'RE NOT MY GUARDIAN!" he yelled.

"NOT ALL OF US FUCKING HATED YOU YOU SHIT STAIN, IF YOU WOULD GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS LONG ENOUGH TO NOTICE SOME OF US ACTUALLY TRIED TO STAY FRIENDS WITH YOU!"

Eridan dodged backwards to avoid the punch and fell on his ass, looking up at Karkat wide-eyed like he had no idea why Kar would want to do something like that. "Wwhoa, Kar! C-calm dowwn! I'm sorry, okay? Can't wwe talk about it?"

Eridan friends over at the table ran over to help, getting in between the two of them.
"Hey, hey, that's not necessary! We all just need to settle down here, okay?"

Karkat gnashed his teeth at them before turning on his heel once again and storming out. He just wanted to get away, to get out of there and away from him. He didn't want to go home, that would only remind him, considering he still talked to basically every one at least every other day. It would doubtlessly come up and Karkat really couldn't afford to buy another laptop so soon.

He ended up sitting on a bench outside his building, sniffling to himself in the cold as red ears gathered in his eyes. Fucking Eridan and always not noticing Karkat's obvious feelings. Karkat had never yelled at Eridan, and had even put up with him the longest, yet he had probably been the first to be dropped.

A while later, Eridan walked right past where Karkat was sitting, a girl in a pink scarf walking beside him. He didn't notice Karkat sitting there, because he had no reason to think that Kar would be anywhere nearby, and so the red-blooded troll got to hear a snippet of the conversation the two were having.

"-because, I mean, he wwas alwways the nicest to me. Him and Kan. I wwas so glad to see him, I just... I guess I deservved it, though."

"Oh, but you've been so busy, Eridan. If you see him again, just try and talk to him. I'm sure he'll understand."

"Maybe. I hope so. I really like Kar, and I think it'd be really nice to spend time wwith him again. I alwways kinda wwanted..."

Their voices faded as they headed inside the apartment building. The pink-scarf girl came back out a few minutes later with a box of something and walked on down the street.

Karkat only noticed them long enough to flip up the hood on his ratty jacket. Thinking they had just walked right on by, Karkat got up and walking into his building, only to be immediately surrounded by a handful of children, all wanting Kay-Kay's attention.

Karkat groaned, having hoped to avoid this after his shitty day.