Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

  It takes you a few seconds to process what the doctor told you.  

   The lights in the office feel especially bright, the sound of the AC rattling through your brain.  The distant conversations on the other side of the walls.  The doctor leans forward in his seat and continues to explain.  You hear what he's saying but the words aren't coming through.  Everything feels distant, nothing feels real.  You barely remember paying at the front desk, the ride home only felt like a few seconds long.  You don't even process walking up to the front door after pulling into your driveway.

    You hold the key up to the lock, debating if you should even go inside.  What are you even going to do next?  You know you went over options with the doctor, but none of them seem like good ones.  They didn't know what to do, this has never happened before.  Of course it had to be you, disgusting, freakish, mutant you. 

   You don't move but the door opens anyways.  Your lifelong partner stands behind it. He's been with you through life, death, injury and sickness.  But you'd doubt he'll stay much longer.  He looks down at you with worry, he can see the tears starting to pull in your eyes.  Neither of you say anything as you walk into the house.  You put your things away, kick off your shoes, and walk upstairs to your office.  You're not ready to talk yet.  You don't want to lose him.

    Dave doesn't follow you up stairs, he knows you need time.  You've been together for 13 years now, You've had plenty of time to learn each other's ques.  He doesn't know what's wrong though, and you do feel quite guilty for it.  You've always been open to him about your diseases and disabilities, he's been one of the only people you're willing to talk to about it.  But you started getting intense abdominal cramps last week, and started vomiting on a daily basis. You thought you might have just caught a stomach bug or something, that's what you told Dave.  But then you felt it, inside of you.  

  You scheduled a doctor's appointment immediately, knowing this isn't something normal.  You normally don't go to the doctor's, what with having grown up in an authoritarian regime that would have killed you on the spot if there was any official paper trail leading to you.  The first time you went to the doctor, it was because of Dave's extreme protests.  You weren't molting and had been overdue for one for two weeks.  Turns out your body just fucked up and forgot it had to produce the “its time to molt, shitass” hormone.  They hypothesized that you would have died in a week if you hadn't had come in.  

   …Maybe you should talk to Dave about it.  But... no.  You've both talked together multiple times about the prospect of, you know.   He's adamantly against it and so are you.  Neither of you are capable of managing something like that.  In addition, neither of you have a good relationship with the idea of it.  

  It's just,  he's always been accepting of you… he knows you wouldn't want it, he knows you'd be willing to get rid of it.  You just don't want him to feel like he's guilty, like he's the one in the wrong here.  This is your fault, this is your mutation.  He's done nothing wrong, but he always feels guilty about shit like this.  You think back to the first time he helped you through a molt.  He freaked out when he accidentally ripped your fresh skin.  He kept blaming himself for it, when you're the one who should have warned him your skin would be fragile afterwards.  It left a pretty noticeable scar on your shoulder.  Every so now and then he'll run his fingers across it and apologize to you.  

    Your thoughts are overwhelming.  There's too much going on, too much to think about.  You can feel yourself starting to get nauseous a little.  You shake it off, you've been nauseous all week.  Opening your computer and sitting down at your desk you decide to try and take your mind off of everything.  You open the movie streaming app on your pc and try to pick something.  You can't focus, you just sit there scrolling through the options for at least ten minutes.  Nothing seems appealing right now.  Suddenly the nausea comes back, stronger than before.  You can feel the acid bubbling in your stomach, fully determined to leave.  

   You rush to the bathroom down the hallway and barely make it to the toilet bowl in time.  You're hacking up the few things you had for breakfast this morning.  It must have been loud enough to get Dave's attention from the next room over.  He kneels down next to you and holds your hair up so it gets less vomit on it than it already has.  You finish off what's coming up right now, but there'll probably be more in a few minutes.  The world's spinning, you can feel the blood drain from your face.  A glass of water taps your cheek and you realize Dave's grabbed it for you.

   You take the glass and chug it, you haven't realized how little you've actually drunk today.  “Think you still got more?” Dave says as he flushes the puke down the toilet.  “Yeah, probably” you move to wipe the vomit off your mouth with your hands but Dave hands you a bundle of toilet paper to do so.  “Judging by the way you're acting, the doctor didn't have anything good to say?”   

  You don't really know what to tell him. He knows you went to the doctor's for what he thinks is only a stomach bug, but you don't know how to tell him you lied.  He's never liked white lies, but you know damn well he won't like the truth.  “It's…” You trail off, not knowing how to lead into this. “You don't have to tell me if you don't want.”   “No, you deserve to know”.    You re-adjust your position on the floor so you're not sitting on your leg.    

    “I-...”

    “I'm pregnant…”

Chapter Text

          “Wh-” you go to speak but realise there’s nothing to say.   You take a moment to gather your thoughts.  It’s… not what you expected.  You honestly thought he was going to tell you he had a hernia or something not… not that he’s pregnant.  How?  How does that even work?  He’s a bug isn’t he?  He couldn’t be pregnant to begin with.  Trolls have a queen bee, you know that, you’ve literally seen that said queen before.  You realize you’re just staring at Karkat.  He’s turned away from you now with a look of shame on his face. “H- Hey, I’m not mad at you babe, just.. wasn’t what I was expecting.”   He stares down into the toilet bowl, the color still hasn’t returned from his face since he puked.  “They don’t know what happened to cause it.  And they told me they won’t rid of it.”  Karkat puked into the toilet again, you pull back his hair for him as he leans in.  What does he mean they can’t get rid of it, all they’d need to do is just crack him open and pull it out.  “That’s bullshit, certainly they’d have some kind of idea of how to remove it.”  Karkat swallows thick, “They… They said they wanted to study it.  They said they wanted to study me .” 

   You think back to the years you’ve spent with Karkat, reassuring him that no one will ever try to hurt him again, that no one will ever see him as just a specimen to pickle and put in a jar.  A certain type of dread overcomes you.  You have authority here, you both do.  You’re creators of this entire fucking universe, how could they deny him the right to control his own body.   But if they denied him, then they likely won’t take an answer from you either.  You don’t know any doctors.  Kanaya’s the closest thing to a doctor, and even then she’s only a midwife.  Actually…

   “Are you going to tell Kan?”  “What?”  “Are you going to tell Kanaya?  She’s a midwife isn’t she?  Won’t she have some idea of what to do?”  Karkat seems to chew on the idea for a moment while taking another sip of water.  “I don’t know what she’d say about it.  I’d practically just be admitting to her about how much of a freak of nature I am.”  You sit there in silence for a moment before Karkat chimes back in “Besides, she wouldn’t know how to deal with it anyways.  Nothing like this has ever happened before.”  “But she might know where to start.”  You move in closer to Karkat. “Kat, listen.  I love you, I don’t want you to sit here and suffer.  If this last week is anything to go by, this is only going to get worse.  You don’t deserve to deny yourself help.”

    Karkat leans in to you, putting his head on your shoulder.  You wrap your arms around him and he prepositions himself to sit in your lap.  “I just don’t want to be seen as diseased.” He sounds completely defeated, no bark left in his voice.  “I know, but you’re in pain.  You can’t live like this.”  Karkat's grip on you tightens as he curls in on himself.  The two of you sit there in silence for a few minutes, processing the news.

    Karkat retreats back to his room,  you do the best you can to make an edible dinner for the two of you.  No matter how much time passes, the best you can manage will still be a hot pocket.  But you grab a bag of seasoned dried crickets out of the pantry for Karkat and head back upstairs.  You knock on the door of his office and he gives permission to come in.  He's wrapped himself in three blankets and is laying on the loveseat in there.  He's got something on the small tv in there but the audio's off and the captions aren't on.  You bring the pathetic excuse for dinner over to him, he has to free a hand from his ‘cocoon’ to take it.  “Thanks.”    He sounds completely drained.  You kiss him on the cheek and move to leave but he stops you.  “Wait….. can you.. can you stay with me? It… feels weird to be alone right now.”.   “Yeah, yeah sure babe.  Let me go grab my phone.”

   You've been sitting on the floor next to Karkat for about 2 hours now.  He fell asleep a hot minute ago, neither of you have said anything to each other in that time.  All you can think about is how you're somehow responsible for all of this.  You can't be pregnant without an accomplice, right?  You barely know anything about human pregnancies, but you know you would have had to have done something within the last month for this to have happened.  The last time the two of you fucked was pretty much a month ago.  

    God.  Fuck.  If you did this to him you don't know if you could ever forgive yourself.  You've always been adamant about wearing a condom but who knows if it broke or not.  You sigh and look up at the ceiling, the fan slowly turns and turns and turns and turns.  And you think you're going to be sick.

Chapter Text

      It's two in the morning when you wake up again.  You're nauseous again.  You wiggle yourself out of the throw blankets and find that Dave's stayed with you all night, fast asleep on the floor.  You're careful not to wake him as you make your way to the bathroom.  You're not quite ready to hurl yet, but you pull up the toilet lid in anticipation.  You look at yourself in the mirror, all the color is sapped out of your face, the eye bags deeper than usual.  You haven't gotten a good night's sleep for the past few days.  You'd normally sleep in the bedroom with Dave. You told him you weren't sure if it was contagious, but it was really because you didn't wanna wake him up with your restlessness.  

       You look like shit.  In the past 12 years of living on earth, and the 2 years prior of knowing about human culture, you've learnt a lot about human culture, but you're pretty sure pregnant people are supposed to look good.  You figure it might just be the lighting, you turn the bathroom light on.  It's worse.  You turn the light off.  

   Your eyes move down to the reflection of your stomach.  There's a parasite in there.  You don't know how many, you don't know how big, but you know one way or another it's going to kill you.  You don't even realize you've pulled out one of your sickles but you have.  You look out at it's razor sharp edge, rotating it in your hand.  You could cut your losses here and get it out.  So what if it kills you it's better than being captured by the drones.  They'd probably hold you in a cell, wait for it to come out of you, then dissect what's left of you.  

    You let go of the breath you don't remember holding.  No, you can't.  There's too many people here who would be heartbroken if you left now.  You put your sickle down on the counter.  You'll have to talk to Kanaya, she's the only one who might have even an inkling of an idea of what to do.  But she's your oldest friend, what would you do if she turns away in disgust?  Then again, you suppose she's also a mutant.  Maybe she'll understand, maybe she'll know you can't go anywhere else for help.  

     You don't remember going back to bed but you do remember being woken up.  Dave's brought you lunch, given that you've slept in until 12.  “Hey babe, any good dreams?”  “No, didn't dream at all” you say as you take a bite of the lunch meat sandwich he's brought “I'm honestly pretty thankful for that, it would have probably been a fucking nightmare, knowing me.”     You sit upright on your loveseat and Dave sits next to you.  “I thought about what you said last night… about calling up Kanaya.  It's… a good idea.”   “Do you wanna reach out or should I?” You ponder that for a few seconds while you chew on the shitty ass low quality ham and white bread.  

   You don't know if you really wanna have to confess again.  Maybe it would be better for Dave to do it.  You're closer to Kanaya than Dave is, but you know the two of them are still pretty tight.  After all, they have their “girls nights” every so now and then.  You figure she'd trust him enough to want to hear it from him.  Besides, you're not really in the mood for an emotionally draining conversation with the closest thing you have to a human sister.  “Yeah I think you should talk to her, it's far too early for me.”   That one gets a snicker out of Dave, his laughter is always contagious.

Chapter Text

TG: yeah but that's what I'm talking about I think 100 guys could easily kill a gorilla.  

TG: i mean have you even seen a gorilla? have you even been to the zoo yet?

GA: Yes David, I Have Been To The Zoo.

GA: But If I Were To Make A Conclusion, Based Purely Off Of The Human Men I Have Met, I Do Not Think They Would Be Able To Hold Their Grounds In A Battle.

TG: i get that, but it's not the guys you personally know, it's like 100 average dudes.

GA: Dave, Are We Going To Continue Procrastinating, Or Are You Actually Going To Tell Me What It Was You Started Texting Me Over.

GA: Before You Changed The subject.

TG: yeah i guess i was just trying to warm up the pool before jumping in i guess.

TG: god how do i say this

TG: so it's about Karkat

GA: If You Forgot His Favourite Birthday Cake Flavour For The Fourth Year In A Row, It's German Chocolate.

TG: no it's actually important.  and I've already got a pre-order for his cake for next week.  I'll be dammed if i forget again.

TG:  he wanted me to tell you because it's one if those things that's pretty hard to confess.  

TG: and not that he doesn't like you and he didn't care enough to tell you the truth himself

TG: it's just one of those kinds of things you know 

TG: like if you killed a guy and got Rose to tell me I wouldn't be offended 

TG: not that Karkat killed a guy

TG: well…

GA: If You're Asking Me For A Place To Lay Low, We've Already Established That You Can Come By Whenever You Need.

TG: well no we haven't killed any one 

TG: but we kind of need your help to kind of kill someone 

TG: i guess something would be more appropriate in this context

GA: I Can Refuel My Chainsaw In Ten Minutes, I'll Be At Your Place In Twenty.

TG: waitwaitwaitwait

TG: we don't need a chainsaw, in fact that's kind of the exact opposite thing we need right now 

TG: we need surgical precision here, and you're really the only guy we could think of

GA: Apologies If I Am Remembering Wrong, But I Do Believe You Were The One In Our Friend Group With Surgical Experience? 

TG: i have experience stitching surface wounds back together, not so much with organs

TG: that and it's Karkat, i haven't studied much on how to perform surgery on a troll

GA: David Are We Going To Kill Karkat? Because The Way That You're Phrasing This Makes It Seem Like You're Asking Me To Kill Karkat.

TG: no actually, i need you to keep Karkat alive.  I don't know jack shit about this and this whole thing's kind of your whole job 

GA: Dave I Don't Know What You're Talking About, Am I Missing Something?

GA: What Do You Mean This Is My Job?  I Work In The Brood Caverns, Not In A Hospital.

TG:  ….. ok you're not allowed to call an ambulance

TG: and you're not allowed to tell Rose, at least not until Karkat says so.

TG: and i don't know if it goes without saying but please don't tell anyone else either. 

TG: do you understand? like this is a maximum security conversion right now. locked up tighter than the CIA.  they could torture you for months and you still couldn't tell them about this

GA: You Have My Reassurance Of Complete Confidentiality.

TG: ok but just don't freak out alright?

TG: I need you to be level headed here because if I'm gonna be honest both me and Karkat are kind of freaking out.

TG: we need a professional here

GA: I Can Assure You That I Will Remain Level Headed

GA: Please Proceed, Dave.  You Have My Full Attention.

TG: ok that's alot of attention, i might get performance anxiety.

TG: ok here goes

TG: shit i don't really know how to phrase this

TG: yeah i guess i just gotta be straightforward don't i

TG: sheesh ok

TG: so we don't know how it happened 

TG: and we don't know what to do next 

TG: but

TG: Karkat's pregnant.

TG: 

TG: we thought you might have some idea of what to do, given that you work in the brood caverns and stuff

TG: neither of us want it, but we don't know how to get it out without killing him.

TG: he's refusing to go back to the doctor's because they wouldn't remove it for him.  all they wanted to do was study him.

GA:

GA: … Could You … Provide More Information?

GA: Particularly Regarding The Medical Aspects Of This.

TG: we don't know where exactly it is inside of him.  

TG:  he's been nauseous all week, has been having off and on cramps that keep getting worse. 

TG: he's barely gotten any sleep because he keeps getting up to puke at midnight.  And he's not eating much either because he says it's just going to come back up again.

TG: ive been trying to get something in his system but he's only nibbling at the few stuff I can convince him to eat.  

GA: Is He At Least Staying Hydrated?

TG: yes, he's been good about that

TG: but I'm scared that he's trying to starve himself in an effort to kill it

GA: Do You Have An Estimate On When It Started?

TG: that's another thing I'm not sure about.  I think I might have done this to him.  It started last Thursday, but we slept together about three weeks ago.

GA: No, It's Likely That You're Not At Fault.  Humans And Trolls Have Such Drastically Different Biology That It's Unreasonable To Say You Could Have Conceived It.

GA: And Having Known Karkat For The Majority Of My Life, I Can Say With Confidence That He Would Never Be Disloyal.

TG: Then how could this have even happened?  Are you saying he virgin mary-ed himself into pregnancy? 

GA: … Dave I'm Sorry, But I'm Going To Have To Take A Break To Research Up On This Topic.  Certainly Something Similar Has Happened Before.

TG: but Karkat's the only troll alive with this mutation, there wouldn't be any further info on it.

GA: He's The Only Troll Alive With This Mutation. There Have Been Others Before Him.  The Alternian Empire Destroyed Many Records Of Mutations And Diseases Trolls can develop.  They Did So In An Effort To Make Them Look Impenetrable And Immortal.

GA: But No Matter How Many You Kill And Erase, There Will Always Be More.

GA: During My Time On The Meteor I Had Found Many Ancient Texts Recounting Research On Rainbow Drinkers.  It Is For That Reason That I Have Managed To Survive.

GA: I Did Not Remember Seeing Anything About Karkat's Mutation.  But Now You Have Mentioned This New Development, I Do Recall Seeing A Study Titled Something Of The Lines Of “Gravid Male Trolls And Atypical Reproductive Processes”

GA: If You Wish, I Can Return To The Meteor In Search Of This Paper

GA: But I Don't Quite Remember Where It Was.  We Might Miss Our Window Of Opportunity To Assist Karkat.

TG: wait, I'll come with you, we can cover more ground together.

GA: My Apologies Dave, But I Think It Would Be Best For You To Remain By Karkat's Side At This Time.  

TG:

TG: alright.  I'll talk to him about all of this, we'll arrange plans for an expedition back into that labyrinth later.

TG: please don't go in there until we talk about this a bit more

TG: I still want to go with you

GA: Alright.  I'll Try Searching Online In The Meantime.  And I'll Brush Up On My Mother Grub Gestational Knowledge. 

TG: dope.  thank you so much Kanaya, i owe you big time 

GA: I Will Speak With You Later, David.  Please Send Karkat My Best Wishes And Tell Him I Want Him To Get Some Protein In His System.

GA: I Know You Don't Cook Much, But I Want You To Try Making Him Bacon Or An Omelette.

GA: I Know He Doesn't Care If It's Burnt Or Not.

TG: Alright will do, Kan

GA: And One More Thing.

GA: Ask Him If He Agrees With Me About The Gorilla.

grimAxiliarix [GA] ceased pestering turntechGodhead [TG]

Chapter Text

       Dave returns from down stairs after talking with Kanaya.  He has a smile on his face, a good sign that she took it well.  “So?” You ask him.  “She thinks she might have seen a paper or a book or something back on the meteor about it.  She's willing to go and search the place to find it.”  “Oh- ... Oh! That's great!  When are we going over there?  I’ll start packing my shit.”  You get up and leave to your bedroom, entering the closet and grabbing out warm clothes.  “Yeah but that’s the thing Kat, Kanaya doesn’t really think it would be best for you to come.”   You look back at Dave standing in the doorway of the closet.  “Well. She’s wrong.  That place is fucking massive, if we’re trying to find something in there we’ll need as many people as possible.”  You resume grabbing your clothes.  Dave sighs behind you “What if something happens while we’re in there and we can’t get you help.”  “I’m not going to the hospital anyways, It wouldn’t matter.”  “But I won’t know what to do, Kat.  Kanaya won’t know what to do either.”  You still for a moment and look back at Dave.  “We’ll figure it out as we go.”

      You’ve grabbed the camping supplies from the basement, and you’ve packed plenty of warm clothes.  You and Dave have only been camping a few times since moving to earth C, but the two of you used to camp a lot back on the meteor.  It’s different when it’s in a cavernous alien structure, but It’s still a similar experience.  You still have to cook, set up your tents, pull out the sleeping bags, ect.  You just don’t have to worry about being rained on in there.  Dave is worried about something bad happening while you’re out.  He’s packed the extra medical supplies in addition to your normal med kit.  He’s brought all of the anti-nausea drugs, and double triple checked that you have extra of all of your prescription meds.  In fact, he’s been so worried about your shit that he almost forgot his own damn meds. 

  You have to constantly reassure him that you’re completely capable of traversing the meteor, but there’s still a part of you that agrees with him.  You really don’t know what’s going to happen to you.  The progression could be slow or it could sky rocket in intensity over night.  Worse yet, you don't even know how long you have.  

   After Dave got off the phone with Kanaya, she called you a few hours later to go over what she found on the internet.  Mother Grubs don't hold their eggs inside of their body for very long.  After reaching maturity, she'll lay her first clutch a few days after her birthday.  Obviously since your birthday is in a week, and you're already pregnant, that's likely not going to happen.  The thing is though, that Mother Grubs lay unfertilised eggs.  And as a male troll, there's a very real possibility you've already fertilised your own eggs.  If that is true, then you might only have two weeks before those things break open.

   You don't even know if you'll lay them or not.  You're honestly not sure if there's even a direct hole from wherever they are in your abdomen to your nook, or god forbid your asshole, and you honestly don't wanna find out.  You don't know personally any humans who have given birth yet, but from the descriptions you've heard and read, it's deeply disturbing.  How they managed to last so long as a species is beyond you.  And to rub salt in the wound, apparently they've only been able to keep 50% of their offspring from dying within the last 100 years or so.  

   You'll admit, in the two days since finding out you're pregnant you've done a lot of research.  Maybe too much.  There's just so much fucking shit that can go wrong.  You knew housing your offspring within your own body was a shitty way to reproduce but you had no idea it was this disastrous.  It is honestly making you freak out a bit.  Considering you kinda maybe technically made the human race via timeline shenanigans, it isn't comforting to know that pregnancies don't go well for them.  After all, you do kind of blame yourself for the reason why they don't have horns and six limbs like a normal fucking troll.  If your pathetic excuse for horns and abysmal deformed second arms are any sign, then it's not a good one.

    You and Dave had talked it over and decided it's probably best if you celebrate your birthday early this year, seeing as you don't know how long you'll be in the meteor for.  But Dave does seem pretty disappointed that he'll miss the pick up date for your pre ordered birthday cake.  You and Kanaya decide it would be best to leave for your trip on the 6th.  And right now it's the 4th, so that gives you one day to call up all your friends and ask who'd be willing to celebrate your birthday early.

  Of course you get the usual RSVPs, Kanaya, Rose, Egbert, Jade, Mayor, Terezi, Sollux, surprisingly Roxy.  You don't hate Roxy, you just haven't talked much since Kanaya’s wedding.  You are after all technically in-laws now, but they just live pretty far away so you never really got to know them. Oh, wait hold on they're texting you now. … Oh that's why.  They're in town for work.  That makes sense.  Hold on … Egbert’s texting you what your favourite cake flavor is.  Oh wow yeah real subtle, shitass. 

Chapter Text

      Karkat’s made the smart choice to push forward his birthday party by a few days.  He says it’s because you don’t know how long you’ll be down there for, but you can’t help but think it’s because you don’t know what will happen to him.  He seems to be distracting himself nicely with getting supplies for the trip, but all you can think about is that thing inside of him.  You shouldn’t even be worrying that much, he seems to be perfectly fine.  But you notice when he stops for a moment in the hallway, straightening himself up after a sudden bout of nausea.  You notice when he pulls out the heating pad in early june.  You notice when he goes to the store to get food for the trip and there’s a bag full of anti-nausea meds.   

    You just can’t stop worrying for him.  You remember the first time you helped him molt, you had a basic run down beforehand, you kind of knew what was going to happen, but there was that uncertainty that made you sick.  You knew he would be ok, he had to be, It just irked you to not know for certain.  You guess it’s pretty normal to be freaked out by uncertainty.  Especially after what you went through as a kid.  It’s pretty hard to get comfortable when at any moment a bastard could break down your door and beat you senseless for no fucking reason.  You haven’t felt that kind of uncertainty in years, but the fear still remains.

  The party starts at 3PM but Kanaya and Rose show up extra early.  Kanaya and Karkat head down into the basement to talk in private, leaving you and your sister to set things up.  “Kanaya told me that the three of you will be leaving for an impromptu camping trip to the meteor.  I did not peg her for the camping type.”  Rose remarks as the two of you sit at the kitchen counter, blowing up balloons.  “Yeah I uh.. Managed to talk her into it.  Thought it would be a fun location for a girl’s night.”  You don’t know if Karkat would want you inviting Rose.  The two of them are on good terms with one another, but if he hasn’t already told her then you don’t know if he wants her to know.  Granted, she does act pretty weird with these kinds of things, so you don’t blame him.  

   “And yet you’re taking Karkat with you on your ‘Girl’s night’?” Rose asks.  You blow another balloon up and start tying it.  “Kanaya’s brought you to our girl’s nights before.” “Yes, But if you recall that was supposed to be a double date until Karkat got sick and insisted you go without him.”  Rose is giving you her stink eye now, you know she knows you’re not telling her something.  Why did god have to give you a psychologist for a twin sister.  “Listen, I can’t tell you why we’re going.  You’re going to have to ask Karkat if you want to come, it’s his decision to make.”  You say as you grab another balloon to blow.  

   Rose stills for a moment.  “Rose…” you sigh and look away from her pressing gaze. “I know neither of us like using our powers much.  And I don't wanna force you to do something you don't want to… but could you just give me a yes or no if everything works out?”  “About what?” Her analytic eyes are piercing through you.  “Is.. is Karkat going to be ok?”  “David, I can't read the future if you won't tell me what to look for.  If you don't trust me enough to know the secret you're keeping then I can't tell you what you want to hear.”

   Then tension is broken by June arriving early.  “Where's the birthday boy!?!” She's arrived with a quite large cake box and a tote full of party streamers and hats.  She realizes too late that she's barged in on a sensitive conversation.  “Uhh hey guys,, What's popping?”    “Hey Eg, we were just getting stuff set up.”  You get out of your seat to help her carry in her menagerie of party decor.  “Wow you really didn't have to bring all this shit, we already had some stuff.”  “Oh please!  I love Karkat, he's one of the best dudes around, he deserves a fun birthday!”   June doesn't know the situation at hand, but she's right.  Karkat is the best dude around.  He does deserve a fun birthday. 

Chapter Text

    The party went well.  No drama, no problems, no accidents.  You got to see all your good friends again, you got to hang out for a few hours.  June baked you a cake, which is always lovely of her.  You got to talk to Roxy again, you realise they're actually a pretty cool guy.  Apparently they're morials with Calliope, it always makes you happy to see humans partaking in troll romance.  You've long since grown out of your ‘matchmaker’ phase as a kid, but you're still extremely sappy for a good romance.

    Mayor even came, he dropped a meeting with the town council just to be here.  Most of your friends didn't bring gifts because the party was moved on such short notice, but Mayor brought you a new cardigan.  “(You always look so cold)” He signed to you as you opened it.  You're always happy to see him around.  He's been so busy these days that it's hard to hang out together like you used to back on the meteor.

  The meteor.   The trip was lingering in the back of your mind the entire party.  You can't help but thinking that … well, that this might be the last time you see everyone.  You don't know what's going to happen to you and you don't know if that book will even have a solution.  You slowly drifted away from the crowd as the night went on, the cramps in your abdomen were getting worse.  Dave came over to tell you they're going to do the cake.

   Sitting at the table surrounded by the handful of people you trust, knowing that this could very well be the last time you see them, You don't know what to feel.  You're smiling, of course you're smiling, your friends are here making jokes and laughing.  But your head is reeling, your body is aching, and you don't know if you're dying or not.  You blow out the candles, 28 human years, 14 troll sweeps, you make a wish to survive.

    Most of the party goers start to leave.  Roxy leaves first because they have a work conference in the morning.  Jade's on her way out when Dave stops her “wait Jade, I forgot to ask, can you feed Toyota?”.  “Yeah sure Dave, do you want me to do the same stuff as last time?”  “Hold up, hold up” Sollux pipes up, “do you guys feed your fucking car?”.   “No it's Karkat's pet cat, his name is Toyota Corolla.  He’s…. He's around here somewhere.” Dave searches the room with his eyes but doesn't bother to look around further.  “Yeah whatever, he's a piece of shit but Kat insists we keep him.”.  Terezi cackles from the couch “Like father, like son! HAHAHA” 

    The house is quieter now that most people have left, now it's just you, Dave, Kanaya, Rose, Egbert, and Sollux, who's only here because you asked for directions for the meteor.  “I mean you could just stay with me in my fort.  I'm not going to clean for you but I'm not gonna deny you the ability to stay there.”   “Thanks for the offer, sol, but we need to go deeper into the structure.” “What are you like on a quest, kk?”  “Yeah kinda.  It's complicated.”   The two of you are sitting outside on your back porch, everyone else is indoors playing some dumb party game.  

    “Sol?” “What.”  “Did you ever find any files on Alternia about mutants?”   “Nah.  The few files from the government that I was able to hack into only contained boring shit, like train routes and Drone charging stations.  Great for an aspiring terrorist, not great for a guy looking for state secrets.”  You sit back further in your seat.  Of course they would keep that shit locked up, they'd never risk letting that kind of info getting out.  Egbert opens the back door, “hey Karkat, I'm gonna headhout.  Thanks for having me.” She turns to leave but you stop her.  “Thanks.. thanks for coming Egbert” you hug her.  Not a deep hug, but you've never hugged her before.  “Oh my god, I thought this day would never come!” She tightly squeezes you back.  “I just… I don't know when I'll see you again.”

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    How do you always forget how fucking big this place is.  The meteor is huge, you can see it for miles and miles in every direction.  You practically have to go under the horizon to not see it.  It's essentially a small moon crashed into the side of the planet.  You've all gathered at the apex of the meteor, it's close to Sollux’s fort.  It's a nice day out, not too sunny, not too cloudy.  You did some bird watching while waiting for Kanaya to meet you here.  You knew Rose was going to have to drop her off here but she hasn't left yet.

      “Apologies for being late, something unexpected came up that delayed my arrival” Kanaya said as she landed on the roof with you, Karkat, and Sollux.  Kanaya has always been taller than Karkat, but if you didn't know them personally it would be hard to tell if they were the same age, or hell, even the same species.  She's easily got an extra two feet on him, three feet if you count the horns.  It's not like Karkat's a freakishly short guy either, she towers over you too.  It's not even a Kanaya thing either, adult trolls are just huge.  Sollux would be pretty tall too, if it wasn't for his permanent gnarly slouch.

    Kanaya puts down her bags and turns to face Rose, then turns black to you with a grimace.  You figure she wasn't able to talk Rose out of coming.  You don't blame her, It's not that Kanaya’s a doormat, Rose is just a very convincing person.  “Yes, uh… My efforts to talk down Rose were not um..” Kanaya looks very disappointed in herself.  Rose chimes in “I understand I was not invited, but I believe my skills will be needed, at least eventually.”  Karkat looks at Rose with skepticism. He turns his gaze to you.  You figure he wants you to solve this problem.

    “Uhhmm… yeah, uh hey Rose?  I know you're pretty good at a lot of things but this is kinda personal?  And it's not like I don't love you and all but-” Rose cuts you off mid sentence “I know about the book.” Both you and Karkat turn to Kanaya.  She's just as surprised as the two of you are.   “I've read it myself, during my own bout of boredom on the meteor.  Karkat, you're not very good at hiding symptoms, it's abundantly clear to anyone who understands obstetrics.  Luckily for you, I'm fairly certain no one else has noticed yet.” Karkat's face has immediately shifted into a deep blush.  “I know enough to be able to help.  Kanaya is knowledgeable, but two is better than one. This is a new case, we don't know what to expect.”.  Rose pulls off her own bag, packed with extra supplies.  “And besides, I foresaw that I would be needed.”

    Sollux has set up a makeshift house at the apex of the meteor, claiming a handful of the rooms as his own.  It's similar to what you all did back during the 3 year journey you made to Earth C.  Kanaya remembers seeing the book somewhere in the deep eastern side of the labyrinth, so your trip inside will be a minute.  The meteor was built with it's own gravity in mind.  Now that it's landed on Earth, the walls have become the floors, and the floors the walls.  The hallways have turned into downward shafts.  Luckily, there were never many wide open spaces on the meteor.  You can't go far without another platform to land on.

    You all spend the first day at Sollux's.  Preparing for the exposition and getting used to the darkness of the cold metal walls that surround you.  Despite the meteor having crashed hundreds of years ago by now, the animals that now call it home really only extend to the surface.  There's some plants farther down in, but once you get past the second story, it's mainly just mushrooms and mold down there.   You've only been back twice since you landed on Earth C.  Once to move all of your stuff out, the other to hang out with Sollux.  You have no idea about the state of things at the bottom of this place.  

    The party will leave tomorrow to venture into the bowls of the labyrinth.  Kanaya and Rose are sleeping in a side room, Sollux is off playing video games on the other side of his home.  You and Karkat settle in together in the guest room.  You play with his hair as he falls asleep on your chest.  He's warm, he always has been.  You remember the last time you slept on the meteor, almost 12 years ago by now.  You were scared shitless, not knowing what was going to happen once you landed.  You knew you had a battle to win, a war to fight.  It was your destiny, a quest you were put on upon birth.   You didn't know if you were going to die, you didn't know if everyone was going to die.  Worse yet, you didn't know if he was going to be there. 

   Karkat had cuddled you to sleep that night.  He'd stayed up assuring you that this timeline was different, that you were never going to be hurt by your father again.  Karkat was scared too, he didn't know if he was going to die either.  But he stayed with you, he continued to hold your hands and keep you close.  He was warm, a stark contrast to the cold steel surfaces the entire meteor was covered in.  Despite how scared the two of you were, you slept well that night.  You hope you'll be able to sleep well again tonight.

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     You've been walking for hours.  Stepping over sideways door frames, climbing up empty shelves to scale walls.  The group's been making small talk as you travel further into the maze of steel.  They're talking about feeding hummingbirds when you finish scaling the wall you were climbing.  You peer into the room ahead with your nocturnal eyes.  “Hey! There's some books in here, you guys wanna look at them?”   

    You settle into the small library you've found.  Luckily, the room was taller than it was wide, so you all have a bit of space between all of you to get comfortable.  There's a sizable pile of books haphazardly thrown onto the wall (now floor) from the crash landing the meteor took.  You all decide to set up camp here and search through this pile.  Kanaya and Rose don't remember what room exactly this article was in, but they estimate we should be entering the area of influence they would have been in during your three years aboard.  

   Now that you've put your bags down and take a moment to rest you can actually process how much your body aches.  Contrary to what your perfectly normal layer of what the humans call “baby fat” may make one believe, you are a very active person.  There's no way a day of climbing and logging stuff around would make you this drained.  But the sudden rush of nausea to your head reminds you why you're here, and why you're aching.  You guess the adrenaline’s worn off.

   You sit down in a comfortable enough spot on the floor and take a hearty drink of water.  Closing your eyes, you let the smell of aged paper and faint traces of mildew seep in.  You're roused by Dave plopping down beside you.  “Hey Kat, how are you holding up.  You did a lot today, like, physically.. not that you're not physically capable I mean I've seen you work out.  All sweaty n shit, coming in from the garage to refill your water, your thick ass in those tiny gym shor-” “Dave.  As much as I find your fuck ass word vomit endearing, we are currently in the presence of company.” 

    You really do love his shitty rants he'll go on about the dumbest things, but you're really not in the best headset right now.  Despite drinking half a bottle, your head is still pounding.  You can hear your heartbeat better than Kanaya, and she's barely even 12 feet away.  Actually, Dave's talking to you right now, you can't even hear what he's saying.  You just sit there and absently stare at him talking, your vision getting foggy and darker by the second.  You wish you could pull yourself to hear what he's talking about but thin-

      You wake up several minutes later, at least you think so.  Actually, upon looking around a bit it might be a few hours later.  Dave and your’s tent is set up, nd you're assuming Kanaya and Rose's have been too.  You've been moved into the inside of your tent, placed into your sleeping bag.  Ok. Yeah. You've been out for a hot minute.  Your body still feels like absolute shit, but less in a post workout way and more in a post molt way.  

    Everything feels distant; you can still think, but there's a disconnect between your body and your mind.  Dave isn't in the tent with you, he's probably outside sifting through that pile of books.  Fuck.  You came all the way out here for the express purpose of helping them and you can't even do that.  They put everything aside to save your life and this is how you repay them?  You motion to get up and leave the tent but at the slightest movement your whole body is seared in white hot pain.  When you stop moving everything goes back to the previous level of ‘fuck you’ pain.

   Yeah, guess you're staying here.  You honestly have no idea how something like this could be caused by a pregnancy.  Your best bet is you fell and got a concussion, but you were right next to Dave when you blacked out, plus you weren't even standing.  You try your hardest to think straight and consider all of the possibilities that could be happening right now.  Birth? Too early.  Morning sickness? You've been dealing with that for days.  Contractions?  You've also been dealing with thos- 

    Wait a second.  Now that you've had a moment to adjust to the pain you realize most of it is localized in your abdomen.  You try to focus harder on it, pushing through the pain to identify the strange sensation you can barely feel within you.  It's weird.  It's painful, but it feels extremely weird, like no other pain you've felt before.  A whole new kind of pain.  You can feel your stomach churn as you realize exactly what you're feeling.  Your organs are rearranging themselves.

   It's vile, it's disgusting, you don't even know what to do.  You still can't move, the pain cuts through any thought you have the moment you try to.  You think you're going to be sick.  Yes.  Now that you've thought about it that's exactly what it fucking is.  You can feel your intestines coil and slither, your kidneys pushed farther back, your liver being proded around.  You don't even process the fact that you're puking until you're already on your side, vomit pooling below your face.

   God it's painful, it's so painful, it's the worst pain you've ever felt.  You know this shit’s just going to get worse but Jesus Christ this is legitimately hell on earth.  Apparently the sound of you losing your lunch notified Dave that you're awake.  He's by your side in seconds, using a pair of pants as a towel to clean your face off.  “Holy shit dude are you fucking ok?”  He asks with a face of horror.  You muster everything thing you can to respond.  But even then the most you can get through is a meager “nm.. no ” yet again, more vomit proceeds.

Chapter Text

      Karkat's on the ground In front of you.  He's gone completely pale, cold sweat pouring down his face in large beads.  You shout for Rose and Kanaya, who come rushing in immediately.  You all try your hardest to wash off Karkat's face from the puke he's spewed out.  After the fourth hurl his body gives up and lets you finish cleaning him off.  You could have sworn you caught some blood in that last batch of vomit.  He's just sitting there with his eyes clamped shut, panting and sweating up a storm.  You try to get him out of his sleeping bag, hoping the cold air of the meteor might help him calm down.  

    It looks like it does.  After laying him on the ground of your tent his face relaxes a little, the rest of his body definitely hasn't.  All of his muscles are tense, his body twitching sporadically.  You theorise getting him cold might be the key then, and try getting his sweater off.  Once he's just in his undershirt you notice the twitching is more frequent around his abs.  God that has to be a gnarly fucking stomach ache.

   Rose vouches to go and get more water for him, leaving you and Kanaya to help Karkat.  “I will say, I've never seen anything like this before” Kanaya softly says over your shoulder.  You look down at Karkat, writhing in pain.  “You don't think it's a stroke, is it?” You ask her.  “No, I've seen Strokes before, this is something new.”  Kanaya places the back of her hand on Karkat's forehead.  “He's burning.  Do you have any spare fabric?” You grab an undershirt from your bag and hand it to her.  She soaks it in the few bits of water left in the water bottle nearby and places it over Karkat's head.  

   “He'll get brain damage from being that hot.  It'll cook his nerves.” Karkat's still unresponsive, but the grimace on his face softens a little after the shirt is applied.  You look down on him with deep concern.  He looks like he's in absolute agony.  “Is there like… something we can do to stop him from hurting?”  “We don't know what this is, and we didn't bring analgesics.”  “wait, I brought pain stuff” you say as you start sifting through your bag for the bottle of drugs. “Hold on Dave,” Kanaya gently grabs your arm “giving the wrong medication right now might jeopardize his life.  If he's internally bleeding, giving him a drug that might be an anticoagulant could kill him.  We don't know what's happening, we can't make brash decisions.”

    You glance back at Karkat, “but he's in pain, Kanaya.  Look at him!” You can't help but raise your voice a little.  “Do you just wanna sit here and let him fucking suffer!” Kanaya pins her long ears back against her head.  “Dave. I understand you're scared right now, so am I.  But as someone who has had extensive drug safety training I implore you to reconsider.” Kanaya places her hands on your shoulders.  Her voice is soft, there's tears collecting in her large black and green eyes.  

    “... Dave…. Karkat means the world to me.  He's been with me for my entire life, he's saved my life.  Do you not think that this hurts me too?” There's a choke in her voice “I don't want him to be in pain, I don't want any of this to happen to him.  But we have to continue being reasonable.” Her grip on you tightens a little, you can feel tears prickling at the corners of your eyes.  You glance at Karkat again, he's stilled, but he's still breathing heavily.  You can feel the tears start to run down your cheeks.  You look back up at Kanaya and see her staring at Karkat, desperately trying to hold back her tears.  

    The three of you sit there in silence while waiting for Rose to return.  Karkat keeps his eyes closed but his hand moves to yours.  You grasp it firmly and lean in for a gentle kiss on his forehead.  “He really loves you, you know.” Kanaya says.  She has a soft smile on her face, her eyes wet with tears.  “We're going to figure things out.” She briefly puts her hand on your back as she gets up to leave the tent.  As she goes you turn back to Karkat, flipping the soaked shirt on his forehead over to the other side.  You wipe off your tears with the back of your hand.