Hey y'all. So the takes place in the UFUT verse by Coldhope. It's over on ao3 if you wanna read it, you'll understand this a lot better if you do. It explains whats going on in the story if you wanna try and get away with it though.

Dave Strider was suppose to be getting only a few things from the store. It consists of only the usual: eggs, cheese, apple juice, milk, soda, cereal, apple juice, bread and some apple juice. Of course, that was the original plan. No biggie, get into the store, buy the needed material and leave. Cronus was accompanying him as the official list checker, a very important job in the need for shopping.

He had been betrayed by his brother, Dirk, into going and doing this. He didn't want to. No, he was in the middle of replying to the emails that had filled his entire box. Bro had been guilt tripping him that he had gone the last two times and how he had to just give Sollux and Karkat a bath- it was his turn for a chore.

See, Dave lived with Bro in their apartment in a distinguished location. Wasn't that bad of a place, nice people. But about a year or so ago, Dave had rescued a small troll from a box on the side of unwanted. The mutant troll turned out to be sick, so they took him to the vet- Dr. Z. Then after that, he found Sollux, a yellow blood from an abused home. Eventually they gained his trust and the two trolls lived with them. Then, just to add to their cake, he had found Cronus. More or less…anyway, the three lived with him and Bro and they started an organization that saved trolls. After all, they're people too.

Now, teamed up with other troll defenders, Dave and his friends help out trolls as much as they can. They even have their own network going. Including a facebook page with cute ass pictures of the trolls.

So, grudgingly, he and Cronus had to go to the store to get list of goods. They took the car and left the other three back at home. Everything was cool so far; wasn't hard to find a parking spot, people were actually bearable, not too long of lines, they made it out in a shocking short amount of time. Cronus didn't even get smacked when he had hit on a pair of girls from the local college. All in all, so far, so good.

It was the way home when came the trouble. They were just cruisin', no biggie, radio was jammin', everything was great. Cronus had started a couple conversations, and they were going well until he stopped talking and leaned out the window. Literally, half his body was out the window. Dave cursed and was about to scream at him to get his ass back into the car, but then Dave saw what made Cronus haywire.

On the side of the road was an small oval, green egg. It was lying in some watery leaves in the gutter. Jeez, it was really small. Actually, it wouldn't have even caught Dave's attention, but with Cronus in the car, it was hard to miss. Dave pulled over to the side with the egg and watched as Cronus had gotten back into the car and struggled to get off the seatbelt.

The car had barely even stopped and Cronus had already shot out and began running to the egg. Dave watched him rip off his shirt and bend down over the egg. He picked the green egg and wrapped it in his shirt. He got up gently and carried it over to the car, got in, and demanded they go see Dr. Z immediately. When Dave asked why, Cronus gave the best excuse he possibly could've. "It's a troll egg."

From what Dave knew, troll eggs are suppose to be very well cared for. There's a specific and precise temperature they need to be kept in. They have to be in a safe place too, somewhere they wouldn't move around too much. Otherwise it might just slowly kill them. Then once they actually hatch, they have to be taken more care of. Grubs aren't easy to be taken care of-not in the long run. Watching them, feeding them, the works. It's like a pet. But, if you know a vet who loves trolls...it might be a little easier.

However, after a while they'll go into the stage of actually turning into a troll. It takes roughly six weeks and once they're out it'll be exactly like taking care of a baby. Their grub legs go into their side (for whatever reason, Dave didn't know) and are suppose to be sensitive. Now they're like a human toddler with a tail and horns, sometimes with gills, sometimes with powers, sometimes with fangs, it all just depends.

They're going to imprint however, so it's important for the first few months that they're in a good, safe, happy, environment. Especially with somebody with the same qualities and are able to take care of them for a good while. Then after the first couple of months, they'll be able to go around other people. Some will be shy, others will bound over to new people to explore them. Again, it all depends. They won't know any better- after all they're only a few months old. No matter what their reaction, it's important to be careful with them.

To sum it all up: troll babies are hella ton of work.

Finally, after it seemed forever with Cronus fussing over the egg, Dave pulled up to the infamous clinic. Cronus immediately got out of the car and sprinted up the steps. Strider slowly got out of the car-amazed at how intense he was about the egg. He understood that trolls were hella important- they were people after all- but he never imagined Cronus could be this worked up after something like this.

After parking the car and locking it, he soon jogged up the steps too and opened the door. He was confused, but it seemed that Cronus was already on it. He was talking to Feferi about all of this and she was just nodding, expecting the egg as well. See, Feferi and Jade worked for Equius Zahhak at the vet clinic. They all were a huge help with everything.

Dave stepped up and tried to understand what all they were trying to say.

"...don't know how long it wvas out. I just saw it and went after it." Cronus was shooting out words faster than Dave had imagined a gun shooting bullets.

"I know, it's okay-" Feferi tried to consult him, she too, was examining the egg carefully. Yet, something caught Dave's eye that the other two might not have seen.

"There's a crack in it."

Near one of the ends of the egg, there was a crack. It was barely noticeable and probably didn't have much effect on the troll inside. It wasn't even that big, just an inch or so. It seemed to be important though because Cronus and Feferi shared a worried glance.

He soon began to feel worried himself. He was starting to feel the same way about Karkat, Sollux, and even Cronus. In other words, the young Strider wasn't about to let anything happen to it.

Dr. Z must've been with a patient because Feferi carefully took the little egg from Cronus and cooed at it. "Poor little trolly…" She nervously bit her lip, bouncing on her feet. "Stay right here, I'll get a blanket."

She handed the egg delicately back to Cronus and he nervously inspected the crack. "Shit," he cursed. "That'll hurt the little guy for sure."

"It's just a crack, man. I think it happens all the time with chicks and stuff, what's so bad about it?"

Cronus shook his head and groaned. "You don't get it Dave," he snapped his head to him and shook it slowly. "Troll egg shells are really thin. It might've caused the little guy to be scratched before it even got the chance to come out into the world."

Dave now saw why Cronus was so upset about all of this. Before he could fully talk to Cronus about this, Feferi and Dr. Z came out. A patient followed him with a small chihuahua in her arms. She was one of those women where you could tell she was handed everything on a gold plate with no question. Fake boobs, fake lips, fake nose, even fake jewelry. Yeesh."You're kidding me, right? A stupid egg over my precious Bittzy?! What's the matter with you?!" Ah. Doc must've ditched her when he heard about what they had instead.

Feferi handed the blanket over to Cronus, who wasted no time in wrapping the egg up. But Dr. Z didn't look too thrilled. His jaw muscles tightened and he turned and glared at the woman. "Ms. I can assure you, I can surely check up on Bitty when I get a chance, if-"

"Let me get this straight. I wait in here for ten minutes with my poor darling, Bittzy, and now you want to reschedule for a troll?!" The lady bitched at him.

Zahhak snapped his head towards the lady and shook his head. "I will get to you as soon as I can, miss, but until then I have a bigger emergency than just Bittzy's shots."

The bitch seethed and literally stomped her foot. "For-get it! I'm taking my baby elsewhere." She stormed out of there with the sound of her heels clicking following her out.

The four of them stood their with shocked and puzzled expressions on their faces. "She seemed like a bitch anyw-" Dave started, but the expression on his face made him reconsider his choice of words for the woman. "She wasn't cool."
Dr. Zahhak rolled his eyes and looked at the troll egg. "Where was it precisely?"

"Found it on the side of the road."

"It was in wet leaves, I thought it was gonna go into the gutter." Cronus muttered, shaking his head. "Do you think it's still alive?"

He handed the bundle over to Zahhak and he carefully examined it. "The olive blood might've taken damage from the crack. We should probably examine it closer to be sure though."

"How can you tell the blood color?" Dave asked. All he saw was a gree- oh.

Feferi smiled and giggled while Zahhak adopted a small smirk. "The same pigments in the troll's blood and tissue systems are somewhat expressed into the shell color. It helps identifying what the troll will need later in life."

"And tells which one if more valuable," Cronus rubbed his fingers together. "Olive bloods are okay, but not very much on the scale. Still lowbloods."

Zahhak shook his head. "It'll still be higher than Sollux and Karkat. Besides, every troll is valuable, no matter the blood color, Cronus."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, I know." He leaned back on the wall and ran his hand through his greasy hair. "So is it going to be okay?"

Dave watched Zahhak shrug his muscle bound shoulders and look at the egg in concern. "I have no idea. I want to keep it close though, keep an eye on it. Ms. Peixes, would you mind getting me an electric blanket? We need to keep it warm."

Feferi nodded and jogged to the other room while Dr. Z continued to examine it. His stone face was on, meaning that he was deep into thought. Dave and Cronus had both seen it numerous times, especially when the latter was one sick. The man could hide his feelings and thoughts pretty damn well and it was even harder to read him when he was wearing his shades.

"I'll have to make a call about this to an associate of mine," he muttered. "I don't think we'd be able to provide it the care that it requires." He glanced up to the other two standing there as if he just noticed them. "Thank you for bringing it here. Later I'll call you and let you know how it's doing."

Dave nodded and turned to Cronus. "Hey, man. I'd think we'd better get home. Dr. Z and Fef got this."

Cronus watched the egg for a couple more seconds before nodding."Yeah, I guess."

Dave nodded at the vet and practically shoved Cronus out of there. Once they were actually on the way home, Dave spoke up for the first time since they got back into the car. "Dude, what's your deal? You're rarely like this."

Cronus just shrugged and continued to stare out the window. It was pretty rainy today, and the forecasts say that it's not going to let up anytime soon. It was unsaid but agreed that they were both glad they had found it before the rain started. The egg was already pretty cold when they had found it.

Dave sighed and decided not to push the troll anymore and had left the car in an awkward silence. When he finally parked the car he got out and took ahold of most of the bags. He had always thought of more than one trips being for the weak (most of the time he made three). He turned to Cronus, who was still sitting in the car, and sighed.

He shut the door and started to walk up to the elevator. He pushed the up button and waited with the groceries in hand. They weren't really heavy, but the damn plastic was starting to irritate his skin. Why they made the bags with the handles the thinnest, nobody knew, but it sure was stupid.

"Do you think it'll be okay?"

Dave jumped a bit and turned his head to see Cronus right behind him. He was almost as quiet as Bro usually was and it was starting to creep him out. But, after a quick second of regaining his cool, he nodded. "Of course, man. Dr. Z has it, there is no way he'd let anything happen to it."

The pair once again was emerged in silence as the elevator dinged and opened their doors. "Dude, if you're seriously worried about it, we can go back and see it whenever you want. Maybe we can even take Karkat and Sollux."

Shrug.

Dave sighed, and walked out of the elevator on their floor. "Dude, you gotta work with me a little bit, okay?" He put down the bags of groceries on the floor and dug out his keys. "I know you're worried, I am too," he put the key into the lock and turned, "but it'll be okay."

As soon as he pushed the door in, Karkat came running around the corner and jumped onto the couch, smiling at them. "Did you get the cookies?"

Shit. Dave nearly facepalmed. He knew he was forgetting something.

"Sorry, little man, I didn't. But we can get some later, okay?"

Karkat seemed to pout a little but lightened up at the idea of going later. "Okay!"

"Where's Bro?"

"With Sollux." Karkat dismissed him and flopped down on the couch.

"Well, where's Sollux?"

"He's in his room," Karkat looked over at Ampora and waved. Cronus waved back and surprisingly went to sit with him.

With a grunt, Dave set the groceries down in the kitchen and set out to find him. "Yo, bro! We need to tell you something."

"What's up?"

For the second time in the past five minutes, Dave nearly jumped out of his skin. He sharply turned around and found his brother right behind him. "Don't do that!"

Bro smirked and ruffed up Dave's hair. "Don't know what you're talking about, man."

Dave grabbed his arms and threw them back to their owner. "We have some serious troll business, Bro."

All play was immediately set aside and Bro practically came to attention. Whenever it came to troll business, or any subject about it, Bro was always serious. He, or anybody else in their circle of friends, didn't mess around when it came to that subject. "What's up?"

"We found a troll's egg."

Bro's eyebrows shot up and he gaped for a second from shock. "Seriously? Did you keep it or-"

Dave gave him a look and shook his head. "We gave it to Dr. Z to look at."

"Tell me everything that happened."

After explaining everything to him, the parts he didn't really get coming from Cronus, and relaying what Dr. Z had said, Bro, Dave, Cronus, and Karkat were sitting at the table trying to be patient and wait for the phone call from Dr. Z.
"Can we see the egg?" Karkat spoke up.

Dave and Bro looked at each other and shrugged. "Sure, Karkles. We can go see it if Dr. Z says it's okay."

"Sollux and Mister Purple come too?"

"Sure, little man, just wait for Dr. Z to call."

As if on cue, the phone rang and Bro immediately reached out and grabbed it. "Hey, Doc." A long pause. "What? Why?" Another pause, this one shorter. "But you don't have the equipment for it." Bro took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. You almost gape at the sight, he rarely ever did that, if rare covered never.

"Well, then who's going to take care of it?"

At this, everybody's attention spiked and all ears, minus the small ones, strained to hear the other line.

"We can talk about it. Can the kids come see it? Karkat wants to see it and Cronus is-" The shortest pause. "Yeah, that's fine. Alright. Talk to you soon." He hung up and looked at Dave with exhausted eyes. "You wanna go see the egg now or wait until the morning?"