A/N: wowie kazowie guys, the last chapter. so sorry it took me so long to finish this aughuag but here it is!

"I'm home!" You call out into your house, closing the front door while simultaneously slipping off your shoes. You hear the sound of video games emitting from your living room. You're typically greeted by this sound as Mituna's middle school lets out half an hour earlier than your high school, and Mituna usually makes a beeline for the Xbox as soon as he gets home.

"Tulip'th here!" Mituna calls back.

"I thought her name wath Latula." You yell, walking to the kitchen and getting a soda from the fridge.

"Thame thing!"

"I'm gonna go do homework, don't make out with your little girlfriend on the couch." You call out, walking up the stairs.

"But you and Karkat do!"

"That'th becauthe I can becauthe I wath born firtht! I have birth right!" You hear Mituna laugh as Latula complains that he ruined her killstreak or some shit as you walk into your room and close the door.

You toss your backpack on the floor and plop into your computer chair, opening the lid to your laptop, tapping the blinking power button to unsleep it. You have to start working on a new for your Computer Science class that you know will take you about twelve years to finish. You've already taken a look at it the one your teacher assigned you is riddled with errors. You type in your password of "letmethefuckiin" and your computer logs on as you dig the flash drive that holds your code out of your jeans pocket.

But before you stick the thing at the end of your flash drive into your computer, you take a moment to admire your desktop background. It's of you and KK on your first "official" date when he came over on Halloween for a scary movie marathon. You had stopped to take a pee break and pop another bag of popcorn, and you suppose you had taken too long as KK found the video cam app on your laptop and started taking selfies. He took seven pictures, the seventh being the one that is now your background. Karkat is lying on his stomach, his eyes wide with surprise, as a slightly burry you flops on his back with a bowl of popcorn. It's a great picture. The other six pictures are him making stupid faces, and they're all saved in a file on your desktop titled "Me❤KK" along with a bunch of other stupid pictures of the two of you. You really do love KK. You wonder what he's up to right now. He's probably busy as he hasn't texted you like he normally would. Oh, well, maybe he's actually starting his homework early for once.

You plug your flash drive into your laptop and open the file that contains your code. You start looking it through, fixing errors and changing things that will make the code work better. You're twenty minutes or so into your work, completely in the zone when a huge clap of thunder startles you, and you jump in your seat as the power in your house fluctuates. You catch your breath as you hear all the electronic devices in your room spring back to life. "FUCK!" you yell. "I DIDN'T FUCKING THAVE IT GODDAMN IT SHIT! SHIT!" Downstairs, Mituna screeches the same thing about his video game.

"Pleathe auto-thave, pleathe auto-thave, pleathe have fucking auto-thaved." You chant to yourself as you type your password back into your laptop and wait for everything to reload. You hear rain pounding against the walls of your house.

The window that holds your code springs back up and you hold your breath waiting for an ad that says your project was saved.

You wait ten seconds. Nothing. "FUCK!"

You slam your laptop lid back down in frustration and shove yourself away from your desk. You take your phone out of your pocket and see that it's 4:01 and you have no new texts. You angrily take a swig of your soda, only to regret it. You look at the can and discover that you got diet instead of regular. You groan. There's another clap of thunder and the rain picks up, pounding even harder on your walls. You decide to go get some tea.

You walk downstairs to the kitchen, fill a mug with water, and stick it in the microwave for two minutes. While your water is heating, you get your green and white tea mix from the cabinet along with a bottle of honey. With forty-nine seconds left on the timer, your doorbell rings.

Strange. "I got it!" you call out, fast-walking to the front door.

You open the door and for half a second you don't see anything until your gaze falls downward. What you see leaves you at a loss for words.

It's Karkat. He's on his knees on your doorstep, soaking wet and sobbing, blood dripping down his face. You don't know what to say or what to think or what to do. You're stuck holding your door open, mouth opened slightly, with your boyfriend bleeding and crying in front of you.

Your senses start to come back and you're able to say "Karkat?" although it comes our raspy and barely audible.

"Karkat!" You say again, crouching down in front of him, senses now back completely. "What-what happened? How did you get like thith- no, no, we have to get you inthide, can-can you thtand up?"

Karkat slowly nods, hiccupping, and takes your hands. You help him stand, wrapping your arm around his waist to help him stand, leading him carefully into your house to the downstairs bathroom.

"Mituna!" you call, "Get me thome towelth!"

"Why?"

"Karkat'th hurt!" You yell, voice cracking. You help Karkat sit down on the toilet, and go through your cabinets, looking for a first-aid kit.

"What?!" Mituna asks. "What happened?"

"I don't know!" You call back. "Jutht get me thome damn towelth!"

You find a first aide kid in the back of the cabinet, and pop it open and take out some bandages and antiseptic. You crouch in front of Karkat begin cleaning his wounds.

"Here'th the towelth- oh my god!" Mituna plops a pile of towels next to you.

"Thankth, but please get out. I need you to call mom and either take Latula home or keep her in the living room." You say. Mituna nods, obviously concerned, and walks back to the living room.

You take one of the towels from the pile and place it around your boyfriend. "KK, I need you to tell me what happened." You say calmly, taking a washcloth and dampening it before wiping some of the blood from his face. You notice his nose is bleeding, so you give him another towel, and tell him to pinch his nose and tilt his head back.

His face scrunches up, and he starts hiccupping again. You cup his face with your hand and shush him, "It'th okay, it'th okay, calm down, I'm here." Deciding to drop the subject for the time being, and begin cleaning the deep gashes on his forehead and cheek. You bandage them, and kiss each one.

"I don't know if I can do anything for thothe brutheth, I can give you an ithe pack. Do you hurt anywhere elthe?" He hiccups and nods slowly, pointing to his stomach with his free hand.

You unzip his soggy sweatshirt, pushing it from his shoulders and lift up his damp sweater.

His chest and stomach are riddled with bruises and scrapes; yellow, green, purple red. Some are large, others small. Some fresh, and some in the process of healing.

"Karkat," you whisper, ghosting your fingers over a large bruise. "Who did thith?"

You look up at Karkat. His eyes are brimming with tears, and he takes a deep breath before he mumbles, "…My dad…"

"Your dad?" you ask in disbelief. You knew the two didn't have a very good relationship, but you would never had guessed that his dad would hit him.

"Karkat, if he did thith, I have to call the copth. There ith no way that he can get away with thith. He hurt you, and that ith not okay... Ith thith the firtht time he'th hit you?"

Karkat shakes his head 'no', and mutters, "Since I was about twelve."

It's ten pm, and Sollux is still downstairs giving a report to the police about what happened earlier that evening. You're laying on his bed, as the medic that came wrapped your chest due to a broken rib. You're still in a lot of pain, both physically and emotionally. Thankfully Sollux knew how to take care of you.

There's a quiet knock and the door and Sollux walks in.

"Hey." He whispers

"Hey."

He crawls up next to you on his bed, wrapping an arm around your shoulders. "I'm so sorry." You whisper, holding back tears.

"Don't you dare think thith i'tth your fault, KK. You had no say in what happened, it wath all your father. It was him."

"I know it was that drunk asshole's fault, but I should've told you." You choke out, tears slipping down your face. Sollux hushes you again, holding you as tightly as he can without hurting you.

"It'th not your fault."

You're quiet, holding each other until you break the silence,"I just want away. I want to be away from the pain, away from him and his fucking self-loathing, I just want to be safe."

"I promithe you, love, I'm the thafer plathe."

Your eyes meet, and in that moment, in the look he gives you, and the way the broken light in your chest begins to flutter back to life, you believe him.

"I love you." You kiss him tenderly, and you know that from here on, life will be different.

-THE END-

When I close my eyes,

Know that I'm dreaming with you.

Though my heart is cold and heavy,

I know I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you.

When I close my eyes,

And my tears run in bliss from the view;

Though the road is wet from the rain,

I know I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you.

-Sonny Moore; Moss

A/N: thank each and every one of you for liking, following and reviewing this fic, you have no idea how much it means to me! this is going to be my last fic for a very long time, as i am going to be starting my own webcomic. you can follow me on tumblr at .com if you're interested and want to know when i'll be starting it (i feel so awkward for self promoting, i am just so excited about it heh)

thank you guys so much, i love all of you! *mega huggu*

-smc