TITLE: Lovestruck (lame I know)

PAIRING: Gamzee/John

SUMMARY: Your name is JOHN EGBERT, and you don't like it when others aren't included in the fun and games. As such, you make it your goal to include one GAMZEE MAKARA...even if he is kind of scary looking.

A/N: So I stuck this up as my first fic on AO3 (I'm under the same name as I am here tee hee) and guess what? IT'S ANOTHER MULTICHAPTERED STORY WOOPY. I guess this first chapter can be read on its own though...

anyway, I don't own homestuck!

Your name is JOHN EGBERT, and you have finally, finally been reunited with one DAVE STRIDER and ROSE LALONDE. It might've taken three years, but it was worth it, to you at least.

Okay, scratch that, the first time you spoke with Dave and Rose upon their meteor, you were as intimidated as fuck. Not only were they both slightly taller than you (God fucking damnit!), but they also both had the same condesending drawl of someone who knew they were better than you. You'd expected that from Rose... but the fact that Dave was also doing it came as a complete surprise.

At least he was still the bro you'd always remembered. Nothing could change the fact that he was applejuice obsessed and had sucky raps, and he seriously, seriously rambled, all the time! It was great.

Another bonus that came to you through reuniting with your friends was meeting the ALTERNIAN TROLLS, and THANK THE LORD you were at least taller than KARKAT VANTAS and TEREZI PYROPE. You swear, everyone else were giants. Except your ECTO-TWIN, JADE HARLEY. Unfortunatly, you and her and still about the same height. Not that you cared... much (it was a punch right in your mangrit, but you don't admit that).

As soon as the mushy and more than slightly awkward first meeting was over, KANAYA MARYAM, Rose's 'girlfriend', had proposed the idea of a party in honour of being reunited, and the first thing that came out of your mouth then was 'Oh BOY, parties!' because honestly, you are the master of pranks and parties. Of course... Jade might've been slightly better than you at the 'party' department, seeing as she had organised countless events on their golden starship... but gosh darn, are you good!

So the party idea was a-go, and hosted in the main, most comfortable sitting room on the meteor... which you admit is pretty darn comfy. Not as much so as your house, but still... pretty darn comfy! Especially so with your cool god tier jimjams. Doing the windy thing had never been so comfortable!

Of course it might have been about halfway through the (admittedly awesome) party before you noticed everyone kind of tiptoeing or avoiding a certain crazy-haired troll. You'd never seen him as far as you could remember, but man, was he freaky looking! He had CLOWN PAINT smeared over his badly scarred face, and you could clearly see a few BICYCLE HORNS scattered about. It was the perfect set up for a prank, and this was an opportunity you weren't going to pass up.

It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that you hated seeing people alone and miserable.

Using your 'windy powers', you used it to squeeze one of the horns, creating a quiet 'honk'. You had to hold in your laughter as the troll jumped and glanced around. Once he was quieted and lazily staring at the wall once more, you extended your wind once more and this time honked TWO horns. The poor troll jumped again, but this time, there seemed to be a lazy smile on his face, like the obnoxious sound of bicycle horns... entertained him? He sure was strange.

Somewhere between holding in your laughter and honking the troll's horns quietly, Dave had sat down. The troll now had a horn in hand and you'd been honking back and forth for a little while now. It wasn't so much of a prank anymore as much as it was kind of... bonding? Could you use that word? You didn't even know the trolls name. You did, however, feel like you could be great friends with him.

When you finally noticed Dave, it was after he'd been sitting there for a while; probably watching you and what you were doing. You didn't mind, but you did feel your face heat up. You were kind of embarrassed to be caught doing something so childish.

"Dude, not that I'm not happy that you're having fun, but do you even know who that is?" Oops, he'd caught on to what you were doing. You supposed you hadn't been trying to hide it, but still! Pranksters weren't supposed to get caught in the act!

Embarrassedly, and maybe a little ashamed, you shook your head. You wondered if Dave would tell you so you could go and talk to him sometime. You didn't want to seem rude by not knowing his name. "Why? Is he someone important?" You doubted it, but it was better to ask your best bro that appear ignorant.

Dave made a clucking noise. You wondered if he was a chicken now, or maybe he'd been hanging out with Dave Sprite a little too much since they'd landed. "Oh my dear, dear John, whatever will I do with you?" he paused in his sentence to ironically stroke your face, not that you knew how that was ironic or anything. It was just Dave's weird ways showing through, you guessed, "That, my tempestuously windy friend, is Gamzee Makara. He's a bit broken in the head, and they say that he went on a murderous rampage way back. I'd steer clear, bro. You never know when he'll snap again."

You almost make a joke about SNAPPING IN A Z-FORMATION but think better of it and instead shrug. Dave's warning was kind of spooky, but as you watched the scratched troll sadly honk his horn you remember that you'd just been playfully honking back and forth, and you hadn't replied since you noticed Dave. How rude of you! Instead of honking one of the horns scattered about, you instead bop the troll on the nose, and you watched as his eyes widened and he leaned back.

"C'mon, Dave, look at him! He can't be that bad..." you almost say that it's rude to talk about someone behind their back, but you realized that would be hypocritical. You'd spoken about many people behind their backs plenty of times. You just wanted to prove Dave wrong though. You were sure the troll you were playfully poking and honking at wasn't so bad. He did have a look of innocent curiousity on his face, even if it was a bit lazy-looking. You supposed that was natural for this particular troll.

When you looked at Dave, you weren't sure if he was still looking at you or at GAMZEE MAKARA. Either way, you knew what was coming next. You weren't new to warnings, after all. "Still, be careful man. He might just flip his shit because you're toyin' with him. don't say I didn't warn your sorry ass." Dave was strangely serious, or at least he had been before Terezi pulled him away, chattering about chalk and drawings and wow you smell great. apparently Terezi liked the smell of Dave's red jammies. You were just curious about how much more advanced the troll-sense of smell was compared to yours. It must have been a lot different if they could smell and taste colours.

And with that, you were alone again, and playing with a troll who was half-way across the room. Everyone was still giving this Gamzee guy his space, so if you went over and sat with him, it would probably be really noticeable. Heck, you could see Karkat eying Gamzee from the corner of your left eye, and man did he look serious. They must have been moi-whatevers, you realized. If what Dave had said was true, then Karkat had probably been the one to calm the clown-troll down.

Not that you cared if Dave was telling the truth or just spreading rumours. You honestly liked getting impressions from people yourself. After all, you'd once been bullied, unfortunate as that was, and everyone had pretty much avoided you because you were a nerd dork fuck-up. You tried not to remember the beatings and names.

But yes, that was the reason you'd rather judge for yourself if this strange troll was as awesome as he looked or if he was just a major douche. As you thought that, you honked one of the horns once more.

This was also the moment you made up your mind, and got up from the chair you'd been slouching in. As you crossed the room in several quiet steps, you went unnoticed by most of the room. Karkat was eying you now too, but you ignored everything and let yourself drop to the floor in front of Gamzee. You didn't hit the floor hard or anything, in fact, you kind of just crossed your legs and floated down. A bonus to being the Heir of Breath, you supposed.

Now, several things happened after you had done this. One, was that the room had fallen almost completely silent, making you kind of nervous, because you knew they were all staring at you and the troll about an arms length away.

The second thing that happed, was Dave and Karkat both slamming their face into their hands, making Terezi and Jade (who'd been catching up with Karkat) both mumble out a 'times two combo'.

Which sent you into a fit of manly chuckles filled with magrity mangritness (they were NOT giggles!), which also made you hunch in on yourself and slam your hand on the ground.

Conveniently on a bicycle horn, much to your amusement. In all honesty it just made you laugh harder. Everything was suddenly funny, and before long, Gamzee made the horn in his hand honk a weazy kind of honk that was drawn out and squeaky and it just made you laugh harder why was it so funny.

You end up reaching over and bopping him on the nose, exactly as you had done a few moments before you'd sat down across from him. He made a muffled kind of noise that sounded suspiciously like the silver and black things that were scattered around you two. You thought it sounded strangely cute and cool, and in a moment of no laughter, you tried to imitate the sound... and you completely failed at it. It made Gamzee smile though, which was strangely worth it.

"Hi, I'm John Egbert!"

An introduction was never so abrupt.