You wake the next morning, wondering if last night was a product of late coffee and overworking.

Your friends often tell you to take more breaks. You always tell them you are fine, you might be hard working, but your health hadn´t suffered so far.

Now you´re not so sure.

You get out of bed and perform your morning ritual of opening the window, straightening your covers and getting dressed. Today was the usual, long comfortable trousers and a red turtleneck sweater. You can´t explain why you love that old sweater so much. It had been a gift from your mother ages ago and yet it still seemed to fit perfectly.

Opening the door, you step out into the hallway and listen. The house was silent. You proceed, cautiously. You don´t want to say you were scared of the horned boy, though you can´t stop the instinctive discomfort of strange company welling up inside of you.

You suppose it came with the knowledge of responsibility, that however he came to this planet, he ended up with you. While you aren´t a barbarian or anything of that sort, you keep imagining worst case scenarios, accidently poisoning him with earthly food, baring him to triggering situations that he´d feel helpless to, soiling his opinion about humans and so on.

You aren´t sure what to say or how to act. Do you treat him like a guest or like a college dorm mate? What do people normally do in these situations?

You decide first things first, that you´ll wake him up and see how it goes from there.

When you enter the living room, you spot the minor changes immediately. All the curtains had been closed and secured by being weighed with your house plants. Karkat had moved the cushion pile into a corner next to the small television. It´s the only corner in the room where the sun couldn´t touch, if it were able to shine in at all.

The troll is curled up in his pile, a bundle of hair, horns, and your old shirt. You are aware how domestic it was to give him your shirt and though you had a fair reason for it, light pink starts to dust your cheeks.

You push the thoughts away and slowly approach your otherworldly visitor. He doesn´t move. You stand over him, wondering if you should shake him awake, would that be inacceptable, impolite or would it scare him, should you call his name?

Nothing moved for a few moments more, until you step back, as quiet as you´re capable of, and walk into the kitchen.

He´ll wake up when he´s ready. When it happens, he´ll probably be hungry. You don´t want to seem like a discourteous host, so you start on breakfast.

You´ve cooked two eggs, some bacon, toasted four slices of bread and made one of your personal favorite breakfast dish, yogurt with fresh, cut fruits when shuffling footsteps signal the awakening of Karkat.

You turn to greet him, but was met with a puzzling sight. He had taken one of your long, dark winter coats hanging in the hallstand and had draped it over his head, buttoning it up until the only thing that peeked out were his bright orange eyes.

"Good morning…" you say, unable to hide the confusion in your voice.

"Is your species braindead or something? What the actual fuck are you thinking?!"

"Excuse me?"

"The sunlight, nookstain! You´re going to sizzle like eggs in a frying pan!"

"The sunlight. It´s not-"

"Or maybe the skin of humans are resistant of the deadly rays? Like jade bloods…" His eyes slightly widen, but he´s going too fast for you.

"I´m sorry, you´ve completely lost me."

He rolls his eyes and suddenly you feel just as impatient with him.

"Sure, I´ll tell you all about the dangers of the sun. I´ll be your earth human lusus. Do you want me to warn you about the ocean as well?"

"What´s in the ocean?"

He huffs.

You cross your arms sternly. "Did it ever occur to you, that given the fact we´re two different species, our planets might not share similarities in natural threats? I can assure you our sun is in most cases harmless."

"Most cases."

"And I´d like you to take off my coat, you look utterly ridiculous."

He takes a several steps back. "Whoa, hold up there, you just said it yourself, we´re different species. Believe me, the last thing you want is a puddle of molten troll mutant goo on your floor."

You are about to argue, when the near burnt smell of meat alerts you. You turn back to the frying pan and rattle it to shove the bacon slices around. They hiss loudly and oil spits up onto your wrists.

Karkat lingers in the doorway, watching you. You look back at him.

"Take off the coat and join me for breakfast, then we can talk about cultural differences."

He hesitates, and you can see him battling with himself whether to trust you or not. Finally he walks over to the window and slips a hand out of the coat.

You pretend not to watch as he holds it warily out in the sun´s beam, preparing to yank it back if it gets too hot. Shoveling the bacon strips onto a plate, you see him hold up his hand in wonder, as if he couldn´t believe it didn´t explode into flames. Or whatever terrible fate he had expected.

Over breakfast you barely talk, much to your disappointment. You suppose it´s due to Karkat finding out how human food tastes like. He tries a bit of everything, you feel proud of him for giving a new culture a chance, and quickly singles out his likes and dislikes.

He seems to know what milk and meat is already. Fair enough, you think. You expected other planets to have some kind of equivalent. Cereal is new to him though. He munched on it separately until you told him that it goes with milk.

Karkat gave you a suspicious look before dumping it into his glass and proceeding to drink the cereal mix. Before you could protest, he had moved on to the fruits. He gave those the strangest look.

"Do you know what fruits are, Karkat?" You ask.

"Of course I know what fucking fruits are!" He responds indignantly. "We had different ones on Alternia. Like what the hell is this supposed to be? Some kind of bulge toy?" He waves a banana around.

"That is a banana. Botanically it´s a berry and it grows in clusters on trees, in tropical countries. The banana plant reaches its full height of 15 to 30 feet in about one year and is first recorded in human literature around the 6th century B.C. You eat them like this." You reach over and pluck it out of his hand before he could try to bite into the fruit. After peeling it from its yellow shell, you hand it back to him, continuing your lecture as he chews it thoughtfully.

"Banana plants are members of the genus Musa. The Banana evolved by natural hybridization from two species Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. It is believed that there are almost 1000 varieties of bananas in our world today. Isn´t this fascinating? They contain a generous amount of potassium, Vitamin C and dietary fiber-"

"Okay, I think I get it now." Karkat interrupts. "Geez who knew eating breakfast with humans is so informative?" You suspect he´s being insincere. After a moment you´re certain he´s being sarcastic. Well…

"I´m glad that I can be of help, young troll, seeing how education doesn´t seem like something you were used to on your planet, I´m simply delighted for the opportunity and assure you that I can give you all the lectures you desire."

You go back to your coffee and he gives you a hard stare before returning to his explorations of the human vitamins.

After breakfast, you express your desire of going out.

"There are a few things I have to do, including checking my library for any updates and meeting with my friends for a discussion round. I´d bring you along, but-"

"No, no," he interrupted. "I would much rather stay here."

"Yes, that is probably for the best. After all, a troll would not go unnoticed in public. Very well, should I give you a few books to entertain you while I´m gone? Perhaps history or science will interest you."

You expect him to scoff at you and make a remark about how humans are so primitive, but instead he seems to have an inner battle with himself before asking,

"Do you have any romance novels?"

You don´t and now you feel a bit embarrassed. "Actually, I don´t." You say apologetically. You make a mental note to search for any good novels in your library when you stop by.

Karkat looks disappointed, but shrugs. "Okay, whatever. I still have my husktop so you can go talk to your 'friends' and I´ll be here when you return, like a obedient little wriggler waiting for its lusus."

He disappeared back into his pile before you had a chance to ask him about any of those terms.