Another present for my best friend, and this time it's finished~

This is the most platonic thing I've ever written...

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters.

A young boy stood alone in his bedroom. He had just heard on TV that there was going to be a meteor shower that night and he had his face glued to the window.

The sky was black as ink, tiny bright stars dotting it, but none of them were yet falling.

Tomorrow just so happened to be 13-th April, the boy's birthday and he was hoping to make a wish upon a star.

His father called him down for dinner and assured him that he would not miss the meteors. With a last scan of the sky the boy went down for dinner.

'Why are you so keen on seeing the meteors, John?' Dad asked as he filled their two plates.

'I want to make a wish! But don't ask or it won't come true...'

'I wasn't going to ask, of course. However, I am sure that you are going to make me proud, no matter what it is.'

Again going on about how proud he was of John. It was probably a dad thing, the boy had decided a while ago.

John was too excited to eat dinner, but his father persuaded him to eat at least a little of his vegetables.

John put his plate away and ran up to the balcony.

Dad washed the dishes and made him a cup of hot chocolate, then brought it to his son along with a sweater, as it was getting cold.

John thanked his father and started putting on the sweater. Suddenly, there was a faint light in the sky. The boy had barely managed to put on the clothing when his Dad pointed to the sky and asked, 'Isn't that a falling meteor?'

John yelped in surprise and was quick to look out the telescope. 'I can't see them!'

'Try a little to the left.'

He finally found them and the sight was spectacular, bright stripes crossing the inky sky.

John focused on the brightest and biggest meteor he could see and closed his eyes to make his wish.

The two Egberts continued gazing at the sky and talking until the shower ended and they went inside. John was too excited to go to sleep yet, so they kept talking until around midnight.

Not much later a loud crash made them run outside again: something seemed to had crashed near their house. John wanted to go investigate right away, but Dad persuaded him to wait until the morning, when it would be brighter and they would had had some sleep.

The boy barely slept during the night and could hardly wait for his father to wake up before they went to the meteor.

When the next day finally came for the Egbert family, John was eager to go investigate the meteor. Who knew what cool stuff could be there!

They had to be quick though: birthday or not, John had school and Dad had work.

The father and son were surprised to find not a meteor, but a silvery, steaming piece of metal. Most of it had cooled down during the night, albeit it still emitted heat as John climbed down the shallow crater. His Dad went down shortly after him.

'It looks like... some kind of a spaceship?' John exclaimed in awe. 'Dad! Look! The door is slightly open!'

The man went closer to the ship and peeked through the crack. 'John,' he turned to his son, 'please go look for the thickest longest stick you can find, okay?'

The boy did as he was requested as fast as possible and returned with a long strong-looking stick. Dad poked the door open and a limp hand hung down from it. It was weirdly gray and each of its five fingers ended with a sharp yellow nail.

'We have to get him out of there!' John yelled and went closer despite the heat from the surface. His father tried to stop him, saying, 'Son, let me do it. You might get burned.'

'I'll be careful.' But John was already in front of the gaping door. Inside there was a boy with gray skin. He was barely breathing and had some bright red bruises. The human boy remembered what the heroes in movies did in such situations and hesitantly put one hand under the alien's knees and another under his shoulders and lifted him, slightly staggering under his weight. Surprisingly, he wasn't too heavy, but John needed his father's help to take the body home.

Karkat woke up with a massive headache. Wait, when had he fallen asleep? He wanted to rub his head but felt some kind of cloth on his forehead. Then he tried sitting up, but he didn't have enough strength. He slowly opened his eyes. Everything was out of focus and he closed his eyes again because everything was actually white and hurt his head even more.

Karkat was confused. Had he run away? Had they caught him? Was he dead?

Everything hurts far too much for me to be dead. Death should be fucking relaxing and painless, he mused. Shit, where the fuck am I...

He needed to know his surroundings and he started groping around. He seemed to be lying on something soft and covered in cloth. He noticed that something covered him as well. It felt alien, though pleasantly soft and warm. Before Karkat could make any more observations though, the door creaked slightly open and he heard steps, muffled by something on the floor.

John walked in carefully, not wanting to wake up the injured alien. He had been asleep for three days now. The day when his Dad and he saved him John was almost late for school. He had insisted on missing the day, but his Dad had him go to school, promising to take care of the alien. They couldn't take him to a hospital, so they had to keep him at home.

John sat as quietly as possible on a chair near the door and fixed his eyes on the alien. He had jet black messy hair, much like the boy's own; almost hidden in it there were two protrusions that looked like nubby horns, their colour merging from red at the base to bright yellow at the tips; his skin was a cold cement gray color; his relaxed black lips revealed a row of short sharp upper teeth.

While he observed him, John noticed his eyes were slightly twitching and that he wasn't breathing evenly. Could he finally be awake? The boy held his breath and remained motionless.

The alien slightly opened one golden eye. John could barely contain his excitement and said, trying to sound calm as to not to scare him, 'Hey, you're finally awake!' So much for sounding calm. 'You've been out for three days! I was starting to think you weren't going to wake up...'

The boy stood up and made a tentative step towards the bed, asking slowly, 'Can you talk?'

John was too close for Karkat's comfort and he screeched as he pulled as far from the boy as the bed allowed him. Every single muscle in his body hurt immensely, but Karkat could take no chances. He tried to yell something, anything, but the only sound to escape his sore throat was more ear-splitting screeching.

John covered his ears. 'Woah, I take that as a no!' He accidentally lurched in Karkat's direction and the alien shrunk even more, giving out a guttural growl. They stood like that for a little while, Karkat's wounds not taking long to remind him of themselves and he had to sit like before.

John did not want to stress the injured alien even more. He didn't know if the gray-skinned boy understood him or not, but he told him anyway, 'If you need anything, just do that screechy thing. I think the whole neighbourhood heard that!'

The boy couldn't help a goofy smile as he said that before going to his room to do his homework.

Time passed and Karkat got better. He finally regained his ability to speak and released streams of curses that the Earth had not yet heard every time John entered the room to check how he was. However, Mr Egbert overheard him once and gave him a little speech on how it was proper to talk in his household. The troll was careful only around the adult, as John seemed to just ignore his cursing and insults.

The human was eager to learn all he could about the alien. Karkat was reluctant to share much, though from time to time he slipped little pieces of information. Over time he got calmer, more confident and less defensive, seeing that John meant no harm and only wanted to help him.

John found out what the Alternian preferred to eat - sweets and anything with meat, though it had to be heavily spiced and with a lot of herbs. Dad was especially pleased to find that their alien guest loved his baked pastries.

The troll started trying to walk. At first alone, as he couldn't keep himself on his legs for a long time and it was humiliating anyone to see him pathetically crawling on the floor like some stupid wriggler. One day John saw him on the floor and immediately crouched to help him back up, not letting him go even when Karkat shredded his shirt and scratched his skin painfully with those long yellow claws.

Something stunned the troll - the boy always had a smile when he visited him. At first he found it intimidating, all sorts of horrible things arising in his mind at what could the big-toothed human be hiding behind that wide smile; but after the scratch accident he found himself liking, even admiring that smile. He did not think he was able to make that expression at all.

There was another strange thing. The humans never seemed to lock his door. Surely they were able to understand that he could not walk, but once he started walking again, they still did not lock it.

He didn't use this opportunity much, he did not want to leave the place he felt somewhat secure in.

Once neither John nor his lusus came to give him food and he was getting hungry, so he dared to leave his room in search for something to eat.

He got distracted and was staring at the weird decorations when he heard two voices. He decided to follow them and managed to recognise the thinner one - it was John's, but he sounded different, as if he was crying.

Karkat got scared, who knew what was going on, and wanted to go back to his room, but curiosity got the better of him. He peeked from the slightly opened door and saw John's lusus looking very angry, but speaking soothingly to the boy, who was with his back against the door, so he couldn't see his face. The adult human looked at where Karkat was standing and the troll ran away to his room as fast as he could.

He closed the door and put the chair in front of it to block it. Something had happened with John and he didn't want it to happen to him too. He felt like a horrible coward for not trying to help the boy and spent the next few hours frozen in the edge of the bed, torn between his own safety and the boy who saved him.

His anxiety was interrupted when John opened the door and almost stumbled over the chair.

Karkat's skin prickled, his eyes fixing on the boy. His smile was not apparent, for perhaps the first time since he ever saw him; his left cheek was swollen and red; his right arm was in a bandage that hung from his neck; a crutch to support him was in the other.

'Hey... sorry I didn't come to bring you f-food...heh... C-could you remove the chair, p-please?' he asked, his voice quivering.

Karkat jumped to his feet to remove the chair and stared at him stagger to the bed and sit on it. 'You don't mind, r-right?' he asked. The troll didn't move or say anything.

'Fuck.' Karkat whispered, making John look at him confusedly. 'What the fuck happened to you?'

'It's...Don't worry about m-me, okay?' John tried to force a smile, but his lips barely twitched.

'You saved my miserable excuse of a life, I can't not fucking worry about you!'

The troll sat next to the other boy, still staring at him.

John was looking at his feet as he explained 'Two... two bullies were waiting for me after school. T-they took my phone and money. Dad's always told me to do that if something l-like this happened.'

'Then why the fuck did those fucking nooklickers do this to you?'

'They f-found a picture of m-me and Dad and... I tried to get it back, but they... they tore it and threw it in the mud... It was my favourite picture...' John fell silent for a little, then continued. 'While I was trying to get it back, I ac-accidentally hit one of them. They used that and started hitting and kicking me...' The boy looked at his bandaged arm. 'Now I'll stay at home till I get better. I shouldn't even be out of bed right now, but I wanted to see you, heh... Dad's at the school to... take care of things. I told him who the b-boys were.'

Karkat hesitantly moved closer to John. 'Hm? What are you-' he shut up when two arms wrapped around him. The boy put his good arm around the troll and rested his forehead on his shoulder, ignoring the slightly stinging pain in his body. The troll's chest started slightly vibrating and a soothing purring filled the silence. 'Hey, you're purring!' Karkat ignored that and kept holding him.

Neither knew how long they stood like that before Karkat whispered, 'I'll help you to your bed.'

'Oh no, you don't need to...'

Karkat just stood up and offered his hand. John thanked him as he took it and got on his wobbly legs. The troll put his arm behind the boy's back. John gently gripped his shoulder.

It was not the most comfortable position, but standing like that was certainly less painful. They limped across the corridor to John's bedroom. The troll helped him get into his bed and get comfortable.

'Do you want anything?' Karkat asked in an unnaturally gentle for him tone.

'Well, I'd really appreciate if you stay here for a while...'

'I thought that that was fucking obvious. Anything less predictable you might want?'

'Could you tell me more about your planet...? I know you have talking about that but-'

'Fine,' Karkat rolled his eyes.

'Really? You don't have to-'

'I said fucking fine! Ask.'

'Well, hmmm... How did you get here?'

'I've told you already, I stole a spaceship, fucked it up, and the next thing I knew I was in that weird slimeless recuperacoon you call a 'bed'.'

'Don't you miss it there?'

'That shithole? Not a fucking bit.'

'Why did you steal the spaceship?'

'It's a long and boring story.'

'I have time right now, heh.'

'You saw my disgusting red blood-'

'It's not disgusting! I have red blood too! In fact, every human has.'

'Well, for you it may be normal, but for my race I'm a fucking mutant. We have blood in every color of the rainbow, from maroon to magenta. Well, the fucking magenta is only of the biggest bitch in the universe, our fucking Empress. My bright red blood is out of the fucking hemospectrum.'

'So you ran away because you didn't fit in?'

Karkat snorted mockingly, 'I've had to keep my blood a fucking secret ever since I was hatched.' Then he continued. 'The fucking drones caught me while I was trying to run back to my hive after I had hurt my knee. They put me into a cave, because the Empress bitch apparently wanted to cull me publicly. Don't ask how I escaped, it was ridiculous. I don't really remember it that well anyway.

'It was like in those fucking bad movies where the main character somehow finds everything he needs right in the last second. It might as well had just been a trick or some shit, but I wasn't going to sit there like a fucking quackbeast and wait for them to make a show from me.

'I had no idea where I was even going to go, the fucking empire has taken over the whole fucking galaxy and every planet in it. You've either somehow escaped its disgusting gnarled claws or this is another galaxy.'

John wasn't sure what to say at that point. Could his wish had really saved Karkat?

A violent race from another galaxy sounded like a real threat. But in the movies the Earth always saves itself, right?

John wasn't sure what to think as well.

Karkat waved his hand in front of his face. 'Did your think pan freeze or something? John? Shit, what did I fuck up this time?'

The boy took his hand and removed it slowly. 'I'm fine. But...wow, you've been through a lot. What happened to your family...?'

'What the fuck is a family?'

John had to think for a little before answering that one. 'Uh well, it's pretty simple, really! A family is family no matter what. They help each other, you know, keep each other's secrets. But they don't have to be mother and father and a kid. Look at dad and me, we're one super family!' Then he added. 'Which reminds me, family can be a great pain in the butt.'

So family is something like a lusus, Karkat realised. 'C-Crabdad...? H-he...'

'Oh...' John watched helplessly as his alien friend turned his back on him to hide his face. 'Wait! Oh man, I'm so sorry! ...Karkat...?' The troll didn't move and a sniff came from his direction.

John sat up and reached out to touch him. Karkat instinctively twitched, but didn't try to move away. 'I'm really sorry about your Dad...'

'I don't even fucking know what happened to him.' Karkat said with a slightly shaky voice.

'Dad and I can be your family now,' John said, a smile making its way to his lips and reflecting in his voice. For the first time in perhaps his life, Karkat smiled. He smiled and turned around to hug the human again, letting his pale red tears soak the other's shoulder.

Karkat took care of John, the same way the boy had done while the alien was unable to move. They talked, joked, played games.

Karkat stayed during the nights to watch over the teen. He usually sat himself on the chair, leaning on the wall and covered himself with a blanket. Occasionally, he noticed John doing something strange.

His hands moved and his fingers twitched, as if he was pushing some strangely placed buttons, now and then he even hummed. The troll watched him when he did that, curious and puzzled at the same time. It didn't seem to disturb his sleep, so Karkat never mentioned it.

John was happily surprised when he found out that Karkat loved watching movies too, even if their preferences were different. The first one to watch was, of course, Con Air.

Despite Karkat's criticism of the humans' 'primitive movie making', John knew that the troll had liked his favorite movie too, he was just not showing it.

That was also the only movie during which Karkat kept his comments to himself, seeing how happy John was to have someone other than his father to watch it with. The only unwanted side-effect from the movie was that Karkat could not get 'How do I live without you' out of his head for about three weeks.

He was merciless about all other films however, and John sometimes had to even pause the movie to clear something in it up or argue with the troll.

Spring was quickly coming to an end and the fully recovered John had less time for Karkat - his finals were nearing and he had to study even more than usual. Karkat sometimes helped him if something was too difficutl or if the troll was just bored, which was quite often.

The alien often used John's computer, though he was scared to log on in Earth's version of Trollian, Pesterchum, in case he accidentally stumbled across a troll. He had no idea what had happened to anyone on Alternia, and the last thing he wanted was to bring any of his violent race on this much more peaceful planet.

With John's permission of course, Karkat entertained himself to read his pesterlogs with his online friends.

The green texted human called Jade thought it was really cool that John had saved an alien, but was worried if he wasn't missing his friends and family on his old planet. Karkat would not admit to even himself that he was terrified that his lusus and what he could call friends had been culled because of him and he could not face that very real possibility.

The red texted one called Dave, about which John sometimes blabbered, wondered in some lame Earth metaphors about just about the same and if Karkat was not some evil alien that was going to suck his nonexistent brain out. Yeah, trolls ate Nicolas Cage-infected thinkpans all the time.

The purple texted one, Rose, was Karkat's least favourite, not only because of the colour, but also because of the way that it talked. However, it sounded concerned about Karkat and wanted to try out some psychotherapy to help him overcome his post-traumatic stress, which wasn't really there anymore thanks to John himself. Karkat still had nightmares about having his blood colour discovered, but since he landed on this planet, they were less and less frequent. Interestingly, he no longer seemed to need the sopor slime to sleep and found the human bed as even more comfortable.

Maybe some day he was going to talk to them, but that was stupid for the time being.

The alien found new and unusual things in every one of Earth's four seasons. As he had arrived in the middle of April, and was able to walk by the end of May, he had missed most of spring's beauty.

Summer made Karkat very uneasy with the extremely high temperatures, as the troll never had to endure them on his planet. The alien had to get used to the bright Sun on Earth. He had been nocturnal all his life and now he had to be awake during the day. Luckily for him though, the sun wasn't nearly as strong as the Alternian sun, even if it was hotter.

John came up with a solution for Karkat's inconvenience. He and Dad bought a pair of sunglasses, much like Dave's, and gave them to the alien. At first not accepting them, the troll could not ignore them much longer, as all the light gave him regular headaches.

One day Karkat was laying in his bed, wishing that he had died on his planet so he would not be subjected to the ridiculous temperatures. As he was cursing his existence, he heard a strange sound coming from downstairs. It sounded like an alluring melody, and it made him want to go closer, to hear it better. He got off his bed and lazily headed downstairs. The music got louder and louder and led him to a gaping door where he could smell John's distinctive smell. Was the boy creating the sound?

Tiptoeing, Karkat went inside and behind John, who was sitting in front of some weirdly shaped piece of wood with a series of white and black stripes that resembled teeth.

John's fingers were gliding over the 'teeth', making them sink and creating the beautiful sounds forming the melody. Karkat wanted to ask him what that thing was, how he played so well, could he teach him too, all at the same time, but the boy looked so into the music, and it was so enchanting, that he could not even move.

He waited long enough for the boy to finish the current tune before he managed only a single 'Wow'. John slightly jumped and turned to him, blood rushing to his cheeks from embarrassment. 'Um... How long were you here...?'

'That was fucking beautiful.' Karkat had forgotten his usual rudeness.

'Hehe, thanks...'

'Can you teach me to do that?'

'Well, it's hard to learn, but I'll do it gladly! Take a chair and sit here!'

The rest of the day they spent playing simple tunes, but even though Karkat was very clumsy on the piano, he learnt one quite well. Playing on the piano became one of their favourite things to do together.

Autumn flew in on her cold winds and made the trees and ground golden. Rain and wind became frequent parts of the weather.

John was eager for some weird human holiday they called 'Halloween'. For the first time since he had arrived on Earth, Karkat could walk out of the house calmly and walk around.

When the day came, the plan was that Karkat was some distant cousin who was dressed up as some alien he had come up with. John had to warn people not to anger his 'cousin', as he had some anger issues.

Karkat thought that that was 'fucking stupid', but he was kind of eager to finally go outside and walk around, without fear of being spotted.

The only problem was how embarrassing John looked. He had put on a long brown wig, a tank top that had been white some time ago, he had a bandage on his left arm, even with some red paint to imitate blood. After a lot of thinking, he decided to take the original bunny from the movie that Dave had sent him about two years and a half before that. The only thing differing John from Cameron Poe was the fact that he was not Nicolas Cage, and that he was 15 years old.

'How the fuck can you walk around in this ridiculous disguise.'

'It's not a disguise, it's a costume, and it's not ridiculous, I'm Cameron Poe from the best movie ever!'

'Yeah, yeah, whatever,' Karkat snorted. 'Are we going or what?'

'You're calling my costume stupid!'

'Whatever.'

Despite the troll's apparent annoyance by John's appearance, he had to admit that he had fun.

They were quite the strange couple of trick-or-treaters while they circled the neighbourhood.

The first couple of houses John showed how trick-or-treating works while Karkat hid in nearby bushes.

'My, what nice costumes!' an elderly lady, the owner of the first house Karkat visited, exclaimed. 'Can I see a trick?'

'What the f... what does she mean by a trick?' Karkat whispered confusedly to John.

'Watch an' learn, son.' John said with an accent.

Then the boy pulled off such a good Cameron Poe impression that no words can do it justice.

The lady was delighted and gave them a lot of candy.

'Wow, I'd never think that old lady Perkinson liked Con Air too!'

Karkat couldn't believe that as well, but less and less things on this planet surprised him the longer he lived there.

With every next house the troll got better and better at this human thing. He even said some things in his lusus's tongue, though it was composed of clicks and screeches.

When they had gone over all the houses in the neighbourhood, and when it was getting late, the two boys headed back to home, barely carrying all the candy they had gathered.

The winter was as annoying with its temperatures as the summer. Karkat had to always wear at least two layers of clothes, when his 'family' were wearing their usual clothes for the season.

It was snowing heavily one morning, and John persuaded him to get dressed and go outside with him.

Karkat made John be the first to go out in the falling snow. The troll made a few steps after him, looking around.

The landscape however was spectacular. That particular Saturday morning was like a true winter fairytale.

The snow was falling in large flakes, the wind turned it in all directions, the air was fresh and crisp. Everything was pure white and as if the ground itself glowed.

John's neighbourhood had never been much of a noisy one, but the snow absorbed every sound, creating a soft, calm silence. The only sound that could be heard were the light, falling snowflakes.

Karkat, who had not been wearing his sunglasses as much in the winter, was now very thankful of them. Suddenly he realised that John was nowhere to be seen. Where the fuck had he gone? He looked around again and listened carefully. A hitched breath, snow crunching, steps behind him. Karkat turned on his heel and leapt on whoever was behind him.

'Woah, Karkat! What the hell?' John yelled, squirming under the growling troll.

'What the fuck were you thinking stalking me like that?' Karkat hissed at the boy.

'Now I'm all wet...' the boy huffed, but then his eyes glowed mischievously.

'What are you- Aaaaah!'

John rolled them over in the snow, both becoming as white as their surroundings. The boy was giggling uncontrollably and despite that Karkat rolled his eyes at first, he was also laughing full-heartedly.

Neither knew what was so funny that they could not stop laughing for a good 15 minutes, but Karkat was laughing and that was important.

John sometimes worried that the troll was not happy, that he had not done enough to make him comfortable on this new planet, which was a new type of prison on its own. But this sincere laugh, the way both of them could not catch their breaths afterwards, it all made him calmer about his alien friend's happiness.

They still had little fits of giggling as they ran back home to get dressed into warmer, dryer clothes and have some of the godly liquid the humans called 'hot chocolate'.

John's wish to make someone happy had come true.