Karkat was being quiet. This of course, was the second bizarre phenomenon of the day, the first being he was at the library. Now don't get me wrong, Karkat was one to enjoy a good romance novel from time to time (Sarah Dessen preferably; that 'they're not even black but they're each other's downfall' Stephanie Meyer shit was not his cup of tea. Even Sarah Dessen wasn't that great, because one quadrant romance novels were weak as shit), but he was no Rose Lalonde. This time, actually, he was researching for a school assignment with his partner, John, who was nowhere to be found. Being stuck with the prankster and class clown was not a situation Karkat had agreed to willingly, but due to the will of asshat teachers, it was what had happened all the same. Karkat swore to himself that if he got them kicked out by putting a spider in the librarian's hair or something he would plant a foot up the kid's ass.

Moving through the shelves quietly, feeling quite awkward without his usual stomping gait, he began picking out some books that might be helpful to researching their topic. It was obvious to him he'd be pulling all the weight on this paper, which really got him steamed. He wasn't exactly a straight A student like his stuck up brother, or anything much more than a B average at all, but he would be damned if that goddamn Egbert kid leeched off of his slightly-above-average grade.

He took the books he had collected and began his search for Egbert. He wandered the sections one by one, and eventually found himself in the romance section. There was a stand full of new arrivals, and Karkat guessed he could spare a second to browse, since he was already there anyways.

Picking up one at random, he opened it up, and was surprised and angered to find a brief messaged scribbled on the inside cover.

"Hey babe," it proclaimed obnoxiously, "Call me for a good time." A phone number was scrawled beneath it, along with a suggestive winky face.

Karkat had half a mind just to put it back where he found it, and leave the responsibility, of reporting the vandalism to the library staff to someone else.

But at the same time there was this little nag of curiosity in the back of his mind. Who was this prick, and why the fuck had he—

"HEY KARKAT!" came an incredibly loud and annoying voice from down the shelves. Karkat started, his books flying everywhere, and in his hurry to pick them all up again he didn't even realize the romance book was in the stack, mainly because he had shuffled it to the bottom. John came running up to him, exclaiming, "Hey, what are you looking at?"

"Nothing of your concern!" he snapped loudly, before realizing again that they were in the library. Changing his volume to a whisper shout, he said, "And shut your fucking mouth, we are in a library!"

"Oh yeah!" John whispered back, laughing quietly as they started searching for a table, "Hey, why are you in the romance section anyways?"

Karkat stifled an eye roll. "I don't know John, why does anyone browse books?"

"Point taken. But isn't that stuff, ya know, girlie?"

"As if I really care."

They found a clear table, and set down their stuff to get to work.

"Here, try to find some information from this," Karkat said to John, handing him a heavy book on economics.

John groaned loudly, taking it from Karkat. "Do I have to?"

"If you want, I could shove your head up into your ass and you can work that way."

"Fine, but for your information, you are no fun."

Karkat rolled his eyes, and with that, got to work.

)0o0(

Karkat crept into his house, quietly shutting the door behind him. Kankri had his study group on Wednesdays, sometimes late into the night, and Karkat didn't have the time for an hour long lecture on the triggering qualities of loud noises.

But, as if by the will of troll Lucifer himself, Kankri walked into the living room anyways.

"What were you doing out at such a late hour? Not hanging out with those irresponsible friends of yours I hope?" Kankri said, in his most accusatory tone.

"For your information I was working on a partnered research paper for school, and I got it cleared with Crabdad anyways, so you can get off of my case." Karkat paused, for a moment. "Why the hell do you care anyways?"

Kankri closed his eyes and opened his mouth to speak, a surefire sign of a full blown lecture, but Karkat was already was already up the stairs and in his room by the time he spoke the first syllable.

After safely locking the door to his room, Karkat sat down at his desk and rummaged through his bag, pulling out the romantic novel he had picked up earlier. He opened it up and looked at the phone.

It was time to make a call.

)0o0(

A.N. DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUH! No but really, thank you so much for reading my first chapter! I've never really written much fanfiction, and I feel like there is such a lack of good Davekat fics, so I felt like hey, why don't I give it a shot? Stick around for more chapters to come!