Heeeere she iiiis~ the most be-la-ted faaan-girl in the woooorld~

Chapter 19: SHIT, LET'S NOT BE TROLL COPS.

"Explain. Yourselves." Karkat ground out furiously and slowly, like he was trying to explain something to a group of petulant wrigglers, "Before I rip your faulty common fucking senses out of your shit infested thinkpans and PISS OF THE WOUNDS."

"Iiiii, Um…Ahhhh. Well this is embarrassing!" John stammered, looking like the very picture of innocence as he stood before the volcano that was Karkat Vantas, "Oh! This is YOUR closet! Haha, man, imagine use missing a little thing that! Uhm, It's a funny story actually. You see, me and Vriska here were just looking for the thing we were trying to find, yeah, and along the way we found this really reaaaally-" John tapered off slowly as he lost inspiration in the lie, glancing over at Vriska when she took a solemn step forward and put her hand on Johns shoulder. With a meaningful glance between the two and a nod from Vriska, John turned back to Karkat again.

"Alright Karkat, I know how this looks and there's really no excuse. We both wanna tell you just how sorry we are and how we'll never EVER try to do ANYTHING like this ag-SCATTER!" John suddenly shouted, startling Karkat enough that he jumped and, seeing their moment of opportunity, Vriska and John, as John so elegantly put, scattered.

Swearing, Karkat took off after them, shouting down the hallways and threatening all kinds of disembowelment as he gave chase. In the rush and heat of the chase, he completely forgot about Tavros still standing in the corner of his room.

An uncomfortable silence was already filling the room.

Gamzee stared at Tavros with wide eyes, the situation sinking in fully the longer Tavros stood there. Tavros was trying not to stand too obviously in front of the doorway, as though he was denying his spying before.

Jesus, Tavros saw- He was motherfucking looking at the bandages and the dirty clothes- What the fuck must he be thinking. Gamzee was enough of a freak already without Tavros seeing him like that- Oh god, what if he'd seen his tail-

With a pounding heart, Gamzee turned to leave the room and find a hiding place until he could find Karkat and get a grip on himself again.

"Wait," Tavros held his hand out, as though he was going to reach out and stop Gamzee, "Please can we just… Can we please just talk? Just talk, without screaming or yelling at each other or one of us running off?"

Gamzee didn't reply, but he didn't run off either, so Tavros took that as a good sign. He would have to work with this because despite the momentous step forward they still stood in silence. Tavros avoided looking at the bandages wrapped around Gamzee's midsection and Gamzee avoided looking at Tavros, staring at the wall behind him instead.

After maybe more than a minute of this, Tavros sighed heavily, "What's with the bandages."

Gamzee ignored how blunt the question sounded and tried to school his emotions before answering, "Accident."

"What happened?"

Gamzee furrowed his brow, thinking desperately for a reason, "…Got stuck in a turndile?"

Tavros barked out a short laugh before he could stop himself. He could see Gamzee doing that so easily it was ridiculous. But he was certain that a freak turndile accident wouldn't need bandages or result in that much blood… Tavros quickly composed himself before continuing, "What really happened, Gamzee?"

Gamzee was silent, looking down at the floor and away from Tavros completely, as though he were ashamed and little did Tavros know, he truly was.

"Didn't we just say, we wouldn't do this?" Tavros said quietly after the silence became uncomfortable, "Didn't we just say we would talk?"

"Yes." Gamzee replied shortly, eyes shifting up quickly before dropping again.

"Then talk to me Gamzee! please…? If we can't even talk to each other, what can we do?"

Gamzee finally looked up at Tavros, unnamed emotions swimming in his eyes as Tavros faced him, "I don't know what to say." Gamzee finally whispered.

"Well. You just said something, so, let's start from there?" Tavros suggested as gently as he could.

Gamzee, for the first time around Tavros in a long while, smiled. Not a tiny lift of the corners of his mouth in acknowledgement, but a fully genuine silly loopy loony grin that, even though small, lit up his face even if it held an undercurrent of pain and tugged slightly on the freshly cleaved scars hidden under his face-paint. But he found himself not caring about the tiny things.

The brief silence after that wasn't as tense as before and was broken willingly by Gamzee, "Can I be the first to say I was a bit of an over reclusive bastard?" Gamzee tried, hoping to distract Tavros with humour.

Tavros threw a small but warm smile at Gamzee, "Took you, long enough."

Gamzee chuckled softly, eyes anywhere but on Tavros, "Well, I guess I kind of deserved that."

Tavros stopped smiling and leant back against the frame of the closet he'd previously been squashed in, "Well, yeah, a bit."

Gamzee rubbed the back of his head, grimacing again at the feel of the jaggedly cut locks at the base of his neck, "Would it help if I told you I was sorry?" he asked, his voice wobbling slightly in question.

"Not really, no" Tavros stated, bluntly.

Gamzee sighed, dropping his arm, "Well, I can't say that I expected anything different."

"No, no" Tavros shook his head, "There was nothing to forgive. Well, actually, yeah, there was a bit- but that doesn't matter, ok!" he slowly got out; he honestly didn't know what to say. After so little time not talking, it was almost like they were strangers clawing at thin air for small talk.

"It does. It matters a lot." Gamzee deadpanned, face dropping back into a stony expression that had become his new default as of late.

Tavros sighed, pushing off from the door, "Ok, it does, but I don't… I do care. Ok, I still care and I hate you but I don't and I just- "Tavros cut himself off with a hiss of annoyance at his flustered speech, "I mean, I guess I was angry at first but I forgave you, but then you had to go and just…avoid me without so much of an explanation. You don't just... DO that, ok. I didn't know what was wrong and you... and you never explained why. It hurt Gamzee, It still hurts that you won't stop to tell me why. And now you're hiding something and it's hurting you as well. You didn't, you wouldn't, even give me a chance to help-"

"It's not your problem." Gamzee deadpanned, hands clenching tightly by his sides.

"But WHY not!" Tavros threw his arms up in frustration, "WHY isn't it my problem as well! I don't know if you can see it, Gamzee, but you doing this, avoiding us, all of us, it hurts everyone! It hurts me!" Tavros stood there, vulnerable and stupidly exposed to Gamzee, but he couldn't stop even if he'd wanted to. Not now that he'd started, "And for what, Gamzee! For, for some stupid thing that you won't even tell anyone about? Do you think that if I knew I'd leave you?" Tavros stopped in realisation, understanding dawning on his features, "You do don't you. After everything, you think I'd just leave for s-something you won't even TRY letting me understand?!"

Anger flared within Gamzee's core, building up before Tavros had even finished, "You don't know anything!" Gamzee snarled harshly, "I don't need your help, I don't need anyone's help! I can handle this by myself." He finished in a shout.

The second it left his mouth he regretted it. Tavros took a step back away from him in confusion, hurt etched deep in his eyes over his outburst. Swearing out loud, Gamzee clutched his head and turned away from Tavros so he couldn't see his face. He needed to GET IT TOGETHER, for fucks sake; he wasn't some overgrown wriggler with temper tantrum issues.

Deep in his internal struggle to not lose his shit, he didn't notice Tavros making his way towards him. He only realized Tavros was right behind him when he felt Tavros's warm hand on his shoulder and, despite himself, flinched away from the touch, knocking Tavros's hand away sharply in the process. Disregarding the rejection, Tavros waited until the muscles in Gamzee's back relaxed before cautiously bringing his hand back up to Gamzee's shoulder and gently turned him to face him. Gamzee didn't want to open his eyes when his hands were tugged away from his face, didn't want to see the disappointment that would surely be in Tavros eyes.

Finally, after steeling himself, Gamzee opened his eyes.

The expression Tavros wore was one of deep sadness and regret for what they had lost and why it had been taken away from them. Gamzee couldn't find the strength in him to resist when Tavros pulled him down into a hug, though even if he'd had the strength he most probably would not have rejected Tavros. Pulled tight against Tavros, Gamzee could almost forget about everything wrong against him, pretend as if the world didn't matter because he had Tavros to protect him like a godamn shining knight on a magnificent fidu-steed. Like it always was between them and always should have been. Like the world wasn't full of whispered death threats and shrieks of delight that gravitated around in his head louder and louder as the moon swelled with it.

"..I'm sorry, I shouldn't have pried." Tavros's voice broke through Gamzee's morbid thoughts. Gamzee hummed despite himself. It was nice here, wrapped around Tavros. He wasn't sure on how he was supposed to respond to the question other than to voice the main concern that had been floating at the front of his mind almost the whole month.

"Missed you, Tav." Gamzee whispered, hoping Tavros had heard because he didn't think he could bring himself to say it again, though that was partially due to his aching ribs and sore tongue.

Tavros choked out a laugh that was already partly smothered in Gamzee's shoulder, "I never went anywhere, to begin with."

Gamzee huffed out a breathless laugh before wincing against Tavros. Concerned, Tavros shifted his weight and braced himself against Gamzee, supporting him as much as he could from his lower vantage point. Wordlessly, he led Gamzee over to Karkat's bed and lowered him onto the overly plush doona. Sinking into the bed with a sigh, Gamzee dragged Tavros down with him, breathing in the scent of smokey incense as it was forced from the mattress in a great puff of air that mingled with the newly introduced chocolate.

Tavros grunted softly when Gamzee pulled him down to his side and curled partially around him, dragging pillows down around then from the headboard to form a semi-conscious effort of a nest.

Tavros didn't so much mind the invasion to his space as he did crave it. Of course, if this had been any other troll it would have been different, but Gamzee was a special case and he looked so exhaustedthat Tavros didn't have the heart to try and wriggle away. Instead, he squirmed around on his side until he was comfortable enough against Gamzee that it didn't feel like he was laying on a pile of bones and overly sharp jutting corners or brushing against any of his wounds.

Breathing in slow and deep, Tavros settled down against Gamzee's side and listened as his breaths slowed down and evened out until Gamzee was softly snoring with rasping breaths. Closing his eyes when he was sure Gamzee was asleep, Tavros let himself drift off in the warmth of Gamzee's arms and their impromptu nest.

~ O-O ~

Technically this is Part 2 of 3…so still short, but better quantity quickly when the quality has basically always been barely pasted together pages edged with drool.

Next chapter just so happens to end with another backstory flashback.

Tiny Top-hats tip tipsily to terrifically thoughtful fans,

And revving reviewers revive results as requested!