Title: Poisoned Butterflies

Series: Homestuck

Rating: PG-13 (For Karkat's characteristic foul mouth)

Word Count: 1,136

Notes: Modern AU. A bit o' Shounen-Ai tween Johnny boy and his totally not homosexual rival Karkat. Karkat's the new neighbor with a preference for dark things and going around wearing little horns and vampire teeth, whereas John prances around with a wind sock on his head chasing butterflies. Let's just say a little friendly neighbor rivalry never hurt anyone ^-^

The days were bright, sparkly even, not a cloud in the sky, with a bit of a breeze to shuffle the stacking warmth building up between the sun and earth. The grass glistened, pastel flowers bent softly, dancing to the chirps of the spring birds perching in the numerous trees gracing the street. Squirrels and little brown rabbits sniffled and pranced in the lawns between the closely spaced houses, hiding in the glossy-leafed bushes and nibbling on plentiful garden vegetation.

Comfy little houses, most only one story tall, sat comfortably close together, where one could easily tap on the neighbors window from ones own and give the neighbor a cheery hello and a polite query as to the welfare of the wife and kids. The houses were smartly painted similar colors, husky grays and natural brown edgings, giving a very homey, village in the forest sort of mood. The street was naturally a cul-de-sac, and seated at the head of the proverbial nature-loving, perfectly content table that was the street mysteriously named "Sburb", were two very different houses now belonging to two very different families.

The house on the left was anything but bright, fluffy, comfy, or even remotely homey. Custom-built and finished only a few weeks prior, it now housed a family of people the neighbors down the street would happily call "eccentric". It was stacked into multiple stories, in odd shapes and design, but retained the normalcy of being seated only a couple feet from its neighbors, with a generous back and front yard which were now filled with dark, poisonous-looking vines and bushes. The house itself, despite being oddly shaped, continued to deviate from the norm by being painted a deep black and violent shade of crimson. The few windows that were placed asymmetrically across the home had thick curtains drawn over folded blinds. The stretch of rough concrete connecting the rest of the street to the house's thick black door was not one frequently traveled. Unknowingly, there was another normalcy in that the only side window on the house was placed directly across from the neighbors.

And that brings us to the house on the right. The epitome of what the community could only dream to be, a perfectly happy home fit for raising armloads of bright, naive, and optimistic children. Of which it only raised one, and the family grown there could only be described as "Eccentric, but not like the other eccentric. Yes, much different." It was humbly stacked into three stories, nearly matching the height of its gloomy neighbor, and painted a different color on each side of the house. The front was a lovely shade of sky-blue, the left side facing the dark house was a passionate pink, the right side a virulent green, and the rear a glowing orange. Numerous large windows speckled the sides of the house, pouring light and the friendly gazes of the neighbors into its interior. The only average sized window sat on its left side, directly opposite the coincidental window of the gloom house. Its gracious lawns were a grand meadow of wildflowers and vegetation fit for quiet forests filled with peaceful wildlife. A single garden gnome surrounded by rainbow pinwheels sat happily to the side of the glass fitted front door on a small porch, bearing an armful of happy critters and wearing a hat the size and general shape of a pumpkin. Many cheery faces greeted this gnome, for the winding white path of cobbled stones that connected the stained glass door and small porch to the street was one taken frequently by the community.

One of the only similarities these two reigning houses held besides the inconsequential opposite windows, was that they both held families of three, the single child of each being an impressionable young boy the age of 7.

Karkat hated bright things. It seemed to be his goal in life to just simply loathe things that make people happy. This tendency, this outlook on life can easily be derived from the state of his home.

It was not filled with comfortable furniture, laughter, family photos, music, the smell of freshly baked cookies, or boxes of toys. It was filled with shelves upon shelves of books of the horror or mystery genre, giant paintings of brooding relatives, dimly lit lamps, dark plush rugs, hard cold tile, and silence. Karkat's room contained merely his small, yet surprisingly comfortable bed fitted with dark, thick blankets and a single pillow, and his desk, which was covered in books, small knick-knacks, and a laptop computer. Unfortunately, his bed was pushed up against the wall marred by the window facing the neighbors house, and it was too heavy for Karkat to move. It stayed there, for he would not lower himself to the prospect of asking for help in the transition of his bed either.

Karkat, besides having the career at the age of 7 of detesting life, enjoyed some aspects of happiness. He just found it in places the average person would rather not think about.

He enjoyed darkness, misery, a fake horn head-band he received from an old neighbor he used to live by named Sollux, reading the gloomy books scattered throughout the house, a crude vocabulary stuck to a short temper, and a morbid sense of optimism. Things could only get worse, and he happily expected that.

Karkat had just moved into the house on the left with his frequently absent parental units a few days ago, and tended to the dark house with only the companionship of his pet Siamese cat Lusus. The first few days were mercifully silent, allowing him the time to adjust to his new living arrangements and get in some valuable reading time. Unfortunately, it did not last forever.

Heehee, my first posted fanfic, and it's Homestuck . Sorry if things turn out a little OOC, but I'm building their personalities as they're younger, and I'm planning on making a sequel where they're older and whatnot, and things can get a little more romantisticky and stuff. ^-^