the Man in the Woods

A month has passed since the pancake incident, and things were thankfully getting a little less tense around the household. A little.

Gamzee, who had spent the majority of his stay chained up in the basement, was now permitted to walk around the house during the day. It wasn't exactly easy, however. The first time Gamzee was brought upstairs without the handcuffs, the main attempted to break down the front door, before Dave subdued him and the wild man spent the next two days back where he started. There were multiple incidents like this, all of them boiling down to Gamzee stuck in the eyesore of the cellar. Finally, Gamzee learned, he figured out that he wasn't supposed to try and leave, and that was a huge milestone in Dave's opinion.

It was a satisfying moment, when Karkat took the wild child's hand, and lead him upstairs, Gamzee would squint at the change of lighting before his eyes grew used to it. Everyone would stand out of the way, not wanting to be run over by the Capricorn in his wild scramble to remove himself from these walls. Dave stood by, ready to tackle the walking twig if need be. Everyone stood back, held their breath, and waited for the inevitable freak out Gamzee would have...only for it to never come. Instead, to their surprise, Gamzee looked around, observing his surroundings, blew his bangs from his eyes, and then leaned down, to nuzzle Karkat's shoulder with his cheek.

That's when real progress started to be made.

Gamzee was allowed to walk around, but not unattended. No, not when he could hurt himself or somebody else so easily. Instead they made a system where everyone would take turn 'babysitting' Gamzee. They'd watch him out of the corner of their eyes, stop him if he attempted to eat something inedible (which he had a habit of doing, it seemed), make him 3 square meals throughout the day, and try and teach him something new and important.

It wasn't flawless, however. And for that reason, Dave kept in mind to punish the man when he did something wrong. There were very few incidents but they were there, such as the time Gamzee peed on their house plant, or when he nearly broke the window by hitting it with his fist just to see if he could break the mysterious force field.

When things like that happened, Dave would scoop Gamzee off his feet when he wasn't paying attention, and head towards the basement, handcuffs in tow.

He would hiss and snarl and squirm against the others hold, until he realized where they were headed. Then Gamzee's demeanor would do a complete 180. He would wither, and cry, and howl, and sob, and usually babble something frantically in his language.

Unfortunately it was all an act of gross noises and crocodile tears to try and throw Dave off guard. It worked, once. Dave was never falling for it again.

The times without incident, however, have proven to at least have the others grow more comfortable around Gamzee. He was somewhat endearing (if a bit pitiful) when he wasn't trying to scratch your eyes out.

They all had their own experiences while trying to watch over the wild man.

Feferi was already very bubbly and easy to get along with so she and Gamzee seemed to be the first to really start getting along with each other. Feferi would turn on the t.v. to some silent cartoons, which seemed to utterly fascinate and baffle Gamzee, and she would give him and hour or so of t.v. time which the wild man seemed to thoroughly enjoy. Once she took him into her room, and showed him her aquarium full of different types of fish she had adopted from the local pet store. Gamzee would tap the glass and lean in close to examine the fish. He would stare at them and repeat, 'Gppf.' over and over again, and nobody new what that meant until fish started to disappear. Gamzee isn't allowed in Feferi's room anymore.

Nepeta got along with Gamzee a lot easier as well after some time. The fear she held towards the wild man withered away, and when it was her turn to watch after him, she would comb out his tangled hair, Gamzee seemed to enjoy that, and even braid them against his head. But somehow, they always managed to come undone eventually. Nepeta talked to Gamzee the most, she would tell him about her ships, her overbearing friend in the military, he crushes, anything should wouldn't normally tell someone, and though it was very clear that he couldn't understand her, he seemed to like to pick up on some of the words that she would say. His favorite word so far seemed to be 'motherfucker'.

John spent the majority of time watching Gamzee making the guy something to eat. He was very concerned about the others weight. It looked as though he was about over to keel over from starvation any minute now. When he wasn't feeding Gamzee junk food, they were simply goofing off together. John would give Gamzee some crayons and paper, and though the dining room table was now significantly covered in the waxy substance, and Gamzee ate a few crayons, the wild man never seemed more at ease than when he was drawing. If it weren't so messy, he'd think about getting him some paint as well. At one point they had built a pillow fort together and spent the entire afternoon there.

Eridan was still bitter toward the whole thing and though he often was very vocal about how he wanted nothing to do with the man, the hipster was still roped into everything. He didn't talk to Gamzee much when he had to watch him, except to yell at him when he did something wrong, or to call him a name. Eridan had a tendency of calling him 'stupid' and Gamzee would always remind him, "Mp, Gamzee'. Gamzee had to correct him a lot. Eridan was quite bitter and harsh towards the man, but after Gamzee's attempt to flush his favorites scarf down the toilet, he began to make more of an effort to get in his good side.

The only one he had yet to grow remotely comfortable with was Dave. No matter how nice or cuddly the Strider attempted to be, Gamzee always greeted him with a glare and a hiss, and honestly it was starting to get on his nerves. If Gamzee should be appreciative and friendly towards anyone, it should be him! After all, he was the one who found him in the first place.

However, today was Rose's turn to watch Gamzee, and the two currently sat on the living room couch. The wild man and stretched across the couch, his legs dangling over the arm rest, and his head against Rose's lap. However, she didn't seem to mind, and in fact, encouraged it, threading his fingers through his hair, in her other hand a picture book. She read it out loud to him and the wild man got a clear view of the pictures, which he seemed to understand much better than the words.

"O aolr oy ejem upo trsf yp zr." He cooed, nuzzling her palm.

"Hmmm? Good?" Rose questioned with a gentle smile on her face.

"Good." Gamzee repeated.

"You're doing great, Gamzee." She spoke encouraging and the man smiled against her knee. Out of all the people there, Rose seemed to be doing the most when it came to reaching Gamzee English.

Karkat walked into the living room and plopped down into a chair not too far away, and Gamzee immediately perked up and greeted the other. "Karkat!" He chirped and Karkat responded by rolling his eyes yet sending a smile all the same.

Still, underneath that caring gaze, Karkat felt a suffocating wad of guilt growing inside of him. An entire month, and Gamzee was still here. He had tried to find places where he could take Gamzee. He googled similar cases, read one article where a girl behaved more like her pet dogs because of her neglecting parents leaving her in the dog house, watched a video documentary about children growing up behaving more like animals than human, but none of this gave him a solution, a place to go, he was at a loss as to what he should do, but he was pretty sure the answer was not to send Gamzee back into the woods where he can live out the rest of his life rolling around in dirt and eating squirrels.

So here Gamzee was, still not out of this place.

"Esmy yp drr ejsy o arstmrf, gtormf?" Gamzee asked, seeming to direct that towards Karkat, who arched a brow in return.

Gamzee straightened up. "Good." He repeated and then looked over at Rose who smiled and nodded in approval.

Karkat snorted and clapped his hands together sarcastically. "Congrats on learning a kindergarten level word."

Gamzee beamed.

That was, until Dave walked in.

"Hey. Lunch is ready." He told the three, gesturing to the kitchen with his thumb.

There was instantly a heavy, uncomfortable atmosphere in the room, and Gamzee's face twisted into a bitter scowl.

"...alright, thank you, Dave." Rose's smooth voice broke through the tense silence, and she then turned to Gamzee. "Hungry?" She asked him.

With a frown still on his face, Gamzee made a noise of approval, and stood from his spot, heading to the kitchen with Karkat and Rose.

The table was empty today except for the four, all the other housemates either not home or doing their own things, leaving for a small, rather tense meal.

Dave had fixed a meal of a simple chicken breast and the fries you get out of a bag and heat up in the oven. He fixed and placed a plate in front of Gamzee and stared at him for a moment.

" 'Thank you.' " he told him, expecting the other to repeat.

Of course, the wild man simply narrowed his eyes and grabbed the chicken from the plate in his hands and tore into it with his teeth.

There was a deep frown on Dave's face, and he reached over, taking hold of Gamzee's thin wrist, causing the other to jolt and nearly smack himself in the nose with the food he was holding. With a growl, Gamzee gave his wrist a sharp tug, but to his irritation, his arm was still caught in an iron grip.

" You heard me. Say 'thank you.' " Dave told the other in a voice that was noticeably growing lower, more intimidating.

"Dave-"

"No, Rose, I know he knows it! He can't keep spitting and growling at me, it's uncivilized!" He bite out, stunning his sister into silence.

Gamzee growled and tugged harder, the food that he had falling somewhere to the floor. "O jsye upi! O jsye upi! Sry hp upi dyiqof-"

Gamzee's blabbering was cut off when, with a swift and sudden movement, he was yanked out of his chair. His hip knocked against the table hard, silverware went clattering to the floor. Suddenly, Gamzee was yanked into Dave's arms and lifted off the ground by the others arms pinning his own to his sides. He as going back to the basement.

Gamzee's blue eyes widened in realization, and he instantly fought against the grip, squirming and kicking, and flailing. When that didn't work, he began to sob.

"No!" He cried. "No, no! Esoy, esoy! Oz dpttu, qarsdr! O fpzy esmy yp hp nsvl! Noo! No!" No was one of the first words he had picked up on, after hearing 'Gamzee, no!' so many times.

He withered and screamed, but Dave wasn't letting go, and the stumbling steps towards the basement continued.

"Wait! Dammit, Dave, leave him alone!" Karkat shot out of his seat and ran over, as if ready to push the two apart, but he never did.

Dave shot him an icy look from behind his shades and scowled. "I know you like him, I've seen him buddying up with him, but like hell I'm gonna let you baby him, or let the two of you team up against me." He tightened his grip around Gamzee. "Unless you want to join him, I'd suggest you back off." He quipped.

And he did. Karkat's gaze wavered and he went still, not making another move, or speaking another word. Convinced that there wasn't going to be anymore outbursts, Dave dragged the screaming and crying man to the basement.

Nobody had the appetite to finish their lunch. Except for Dave.