If Karkat said that he wasn't annoyed at times by Sollux, he'd only be partially lying. Because the truth was, Sollux didn't just annoy him, he pissed him off. They were horrible moirails, not that Karkat would ever admit that out loud. It was hard sometimes. Moirailegiance wasn't meant to work like this. They were supposed to be able to help each other, but often, he felt like they just created more issues. Moirailegiance was like a dance, both partners had to work at it, and often times, Karkat was the only one moving his feet, while Sollux stayed stubbornly sitting down in the corner. Secretly, Karkat sometimes found it downright stressful and depressing on top of just annoying. It was hard, sometimes, to not just take a second to 'dance' with someone else, even if it was behind someone's back. He tried not to, but it was hard, it was hard and no one understood.

Long story laid out not quite so damn wordy and windless, Sollux had gotten unbearably clingy the entire last week. And he'd completely ignored or talked over Karkat's requests to go places alone. And Karkat was starting to feel suffocated. It was like suddenly Sollux had stood up, he was trying, but the tune was wrong. He was doing the fucking tango while Karkat was trying to slow dance and it was working just about as well as not dancing at all. Not to mention the number of randomly flying objects had seemed to increase, Karkat noticed it here and there. And Sollux seemed... apprehensive, as if he kept expecting something to happen. Karkat had learned to read his moods like a book, every tiny action, every shift of those strangely colored eyes.

On top of that, Karkat wasn't stupid, he'd figured it out after the third day of watching objects ram into that clown faced guy's head every time he so much as came in the same room as them. Every single time Karkat saw him, Sollux made some excuse to leave. Karkat could only assume it was maybe an old, bitter kismetic crush that had ended badly. He didn't really care, because, hey, not his quadrants, Sollux could solve that shit on his own and stop using Karkat as a fucking excuse to not talk to people. Besides, clown guy seemed to REALLY wanna talk to Sollux, the way he kept appearing here and there. And after that little show down some days ago, Karkat had no intention of getting between them again.

He decided he'd take away Sollux's choice to just claim to be busy with his moirail. Besides, he needed some goddamn room because he could only stand so much clinginess. He'd called up an old friend of sorts, not nearly as old as Sollux, but someone he could turn to for company and someone who, luckily enough, lived somewhat nearby. What a twist. He set up a small meeting. Apparently Tavros, the one he was meeting with, a really nice brown blood who could stand to grow a bit of a spine, knew a good place nearby. Some nerdy bullshit that had to do with fiduspawn, but karkat could care less. It was away from Sollux, that was the point. And that's why he was currently sitting in the grass near the curb, keeping his eyes peeled for one large-horned bull-troll.

It wouldn't take long, hell, said bull-troll could really get around when he wanted. All that flarping was surprisingly good exercise.

Tavros Nitram walked carefully across the school lawn, eyeing the buildings and students wearily, until their gazes met and his head would drop sheepishly. After a few moments of looking at his feet, he would perk back up to chance a glance around again. After all, it would be kind of hard to find Karkat if he was staring at the ground. The young Taurus hadn't changed all that much. His Mohawk had grown a bit longer, when it wasn't gelled back, part of it would dangle right between his eyes. He was about average height, a slight slouch to his back, and had a habit where his fingers would twitch or fiddle with whatever was close by when he was nervous, or had something he wished to say but thought better of it.

Yeah, he was kind of fiddling with the sleeves of his dark brown, worn out, leather jacket now. Wide chocolate eyes flickered this way and that, seeking out a certain smaller troll. He caught a glimpse of what might of been Karkat, and smiled a bit, turning sharply and parting his lips to shout out, before his face collided right into a surprisingly solid chest.

The lowblood faltered back, one arm flailing a bit and feet shuffling as he tried to regain his balance, face warming up with an embarrassed flush and lips moving before he even could realize they were, "O-o-oh no. I'm sorry. Please forgive, me. I uh, didn't see you there, not that I was paying much attention, so yeah. But it was purely accidental and, I mean, sorry."

The troll that he had ran into, had taken a step back himself. At least, from what Tavros could see with his eyes locked onto a pair of... polka-dot sneakers? Yeah, that was a little strange. Still, the fact that the other hadn't said anything, was beginning to make him worry. He swallowed, eyes slowly rising up over the black sweat pants, the white, indigo, and black striped coat, and the male's collar. Until they peaked over a kind of familiar painted jaw?

Wait.

No way.

"Tavbro?"

Lowblood and highblood eyes locked into place.

Silence permeated the air between the two, both of their expressions equally pulled back in shock.

Then a fist flew through the air and Gamzee Makara was nearly floored. He barely managed to catch himself, his feet stumbling about before he could fall. It was all really, quite dramatic. Then Tavros was straightening, and words were flooding from his lips.

"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN? DO YOU REALIZE HOW GOD DAMN WORRIED I WAS! YOUR HIVE WAS A-A-A FUCKING WRECK! NO ONE COULD FIND YOU AND EVERYONE ELSE WAS WORRIED TOO! Well some weren't but, bUT SOME OF THE OTHERS WERE! AND, AND THERE WAS SO MUCH BLOOD AND YOUR COON WAS BROKEN AND... uh," Tavros kind of just paused there, as he realized that there was a good number of eyes staring at them and Gamzee was looking at him as if he had grown a pair of wings or something. He swallowed, shoving his hands into his coat, his head nearly shrinking down between his shoulders in an effort to make himself a little smaller. Though he continued to speak, albeit a bit more quietly, "How could you just LEAVE everyone? I don't want to be rude... well, actually I kind of do, but, didn't any of us matter to you? Didn't you, uh, care that you were leaving us behind? Or any shit like that? I-I thought you died, or was taken by other highbloods, or something. And now you're just... HERE! And your fine, at least you look fine... are you fine? I mean, not like i really care now or whatever. But are you?"

Gamzee slowly straightened. At one point during the mini-explosion, his hand had reached up to rest lightly over the sore bit of skin where he had been socked. It wasn't hurting, the Capricorn didn't exactly feel pain in that sort of way, but it was more the surprise of being punched by an old friend that caused the eclipse of fingers over the blow. It took him a moment to really process all that was said, before he realized he had been asked a question. The likes of which, he didn't answer immediately even then, and thus, a short and painfully awkward silence passed between them. Gamzee drew his tongue over his lips, took a deep breath, and reached out a tentative hand to lightly rest on the Taurus' shoulder.

"Tav, i'm all kinds of mirthful apologies of getting upset things flowing into you. I wasn't in any sort's of intentions to hurt no motherfuckers and get their worry bubbling. There was just some harsh shit I had to wander towards, and I wasn't in any inclination about dragging my best bro into it."

Another brief silence ensued, as Tavros chewed over that for a moment. "You uh, avoided my question."

"Yeah."

"..."

"..."

"I'm still really-really fucking mad at you."

"Yeah."

"..."

"..."

"Are you, i mean, will you explain yourself? At some point? Obviously not right now what with all the, people staring."

"If you're wanting to bond with a motherfucker a second round, then yeah bro."

"... I might, want to. Or rather, be willing to give you a second chance. Maybe."

Then came another round of silence, as the two old friends just kind of stood there, Gamzee's hand slowly dropping from Tavros' shoulder to dangle loosely at his side.

And then the silence was broken, shattered like a fragile mirror as a sort of raspy grunt came from the side. Karkat stood there looking entirely unpleased, glaring directly at Tavros, and then switching his gaze to the clown guy, who he was sure was now stalking his friends. After all. Both Tavros and Sollux obviously knew him, and he acted like he knew them. Must be some past shit, like with that blue blood, vriskie or veriska or something like that, Karkat didn't fucking know nor did he care. The point was, asshole better step off. He could already feel a familiar pain starting to form just behind his eyeballs, a growing migraine that coiled and rolled in his mind like some kind of poisonous weed.

As soon as he had seen Tavros hit the guy, he'd come rushing over, but the clown didn't seem to fight back, so he hovered, too far away to hear. And when the two started going quiet, he came over, frowning hard and crossing his arms as that pain grew and grew. "Yeah, I don't mean to interrupt whatever ass-aching festival of bullshit you have going on, but Tavros, I didn't call you up so you could get in fights with this asshole," He growled, waving one hand at Gamzee, and then turning to him, scowling, "And who the hell are you even?! Stop fucking following me and my friends, I know you are! And it's not fun trying to fucking worry about what sort of bullshit my dumb ass bipolar moirail has gotten his mentally deficient wired butt into ON TOP OF getting ready for a new school year!"

Tavros and Gamzee exchanged a silent glance, before looking back to Karkat.

"Th-this is Gamzee, and well... we weren't necessarily fighting. Not uh, not really. It's really kind of complicated..." The bull troll seemed to be having trouble formulating a proper response. Shit! Shit, he really didn't want to say the wrong thing and have Sollux bitch at him later for it. Hold on, what did Karkat say about the highblood following them? Brown eyes turned back to the Capricorn, "You're stalking Karkat and Sollux?"

Both brows on the indigo blood's face did a fantastic arch over his oculars, practically reaching the top point of the dark, somewhat-triangle painted over them. Eyes that had been previously widened at the shock of literally running into his old slam poetry companion and general bro, had returned to a lazy half-salute, and it wouldn't be too far to say they looked somewhat hazed and unfocused. "Shiiiiit, is that what I all been up to and motherfucking doing? Damn bro, that would spew fucking explanations why life whimzies have got unmirthful flings at a motherfucker. Electro-pan-wave brother has the harsh vindication of my focused self." Both large, limp hands came up in a combo shrug with his shoulders then, emphasized by the ridiculously tall troll's slouch, "The universal flows have been dopin' my skeletal bearings brother."

Tavros took that moment to just stare at Gamzee. Okay, this would be trickier than he thought. Trying to be friends again he meant... IF he decided to be friends with the highblood of course! But, yeah. He was, a little rusty at the subjuggulator's lingo and... wasn't entirely sure what was just said. Gamzee was stalking the Cancer and Gemini without realizing he was?

Karkat wasn't so nearly accepting of that answer as Tavros happened to be. "NO! Just shut up! I am sick of always seeing you just a corner or two behind me and Sollux and if you think for even a second that I have been fucking blind to the whole charade of flying objects and enough clown idiocy to last me a lifetime, think again! We don't want you around us. We aren't doing anything wrong or against the law. We've done NOTHING! So just get your smarmy, filth spewing noise away from us. The last thing me or him needs is some uppity subjugglator cunt fucking around in our business and shoving his head clear up our asses and out of our mouths in his oh so terribly disguised efforts to stalk. I don't care who you are, I don't care what your problem is. But fucking drop it! Because I for one have wasted enough nights in my coon, emptying my bowels in reprehensible fear that a bunch of abasing self degenerate BULGE BITING highbloods are going to defenestrate themselves into my block and use my flesh as a fucking skirt."

Tavros had just been about to open his mouth to defend the Capricorn, when he faltered, and just looked at Gamzee, the likes of which, took the verbal jackhammer with a plastered smile and uneven stare. The Taurus... really didn't know if the troll that had been his best friend was still... him. What had happened while they were apart and, what had even caused him to leave in the first place? After the anger had passed following the troll's disappearance, questions of 'Why' had replaced disappointment and loss. What problem could have been so large that made him think that not even his moirail could have helped? Then it wasn't long before Karkat vanished too, with almost the same story, except the Cancer had memory loss whenever he was found at Sollux's hive. Still, as far as Tavros was aware, there was no explanation for the mutant blood's state then and there either... and Gamzee still hadn't said anything.

"Uh... Karkat? Maybe we should just, go to the flarp shop now?"

"Why would a motherfucker get the slaughter on of a wicked brother? That shit ain't all in the icy pigments. Solbro is laying with paranoia fuckers all snugged and in placements. I mean, fuuuck, no worries abounded in this location. I wouldn't be in allowance of my brethren mirth butchering fuckers for giggle factions in this place." When he did speak, his voice was uneven and completely at ease. It... wasn't the same way he had spoken to Sollux, and it was as if the Cancer's rage just soaked into the highblood and settled. There was no spark, no kindling, no form of ignition to start wildfire anger.

Tavros felt himself grow a bit more confused, "Gamzee, maybe... I think we need to leave before all the new fiduspawn cards are, you know, taken. So maybe you and I can chat, later?"

And Karkat still wasn't settling, "Because that's all you highbloods do! Is chase lowbloods around and fuck with them for no goddamn reasons and I'm sick of having to move around constantly! I just want somewhere to finish school, is that too much to ask?! Is that too much to want a proper education in my terribly short life?" He demanded, stomping one foot down, before he turned, scowling, and he reached over, grabbing Tavros' wrist, and pulling him off in a rage towards the goddamn flarp shop.

The Taurus was about to say something again. But off they went! He craned his head around, mindful to not KO the Ragekat express with his horns, barely managing to see Gamzee over his shoulder, "My-My account's still the same! Uh, spew with you later?!"

Gamzee stared silently after them, until they were almost out of hearing, before he seemed to recall that a response would probably be good, "Later Tavbro."

Tavros just caught the confirmation, before he stumbled and refocused on the main reason he had even come here. The one that was practically freight training him off the campus. "Uh, Karkat? Not to interrupt, but my fingers are kind of, sort of, growing numb. Not to complain, but they are starting to, tingle."

"I don't fucking care!" Karkat responded back venomously, his voice seething with rage and his mouth damn near effervescent from his rage. Like an animal infected with rabies. He wanted away from that troll, away from him as far as he could get. The ache in his head only happened when he was in danger, he'd learned to trust it. He did not pause for even a moment in his actions, just proceeded to drag the brown blood behind him.

Toot Toot.

The lowblood just sort of, put up with it. Karkat was nearly impossible to deal with when he went into a ragefit, and being around Sollux so much kind of, exorcised the troll's anger endurance muscles to a new tier. Or at least, that's what Tavros thought. So he did his best to keep up as the Cancer's newly acquired caboose, and really hoped that the troll wouldn't stay steamed for the entire 4 block walk to the flarp shop.