Woo conciliatory shenanigans.

First attempt at a Gamzee POV. Hmm.

Sleeping sitting up in his chair wasn't that great, though the way his face mashed against the keyboard was pretty nice, reminded him of an old pebbles-and-shells pile he used to have on his beach that Goatdad made him take down after he almost accidentally spent the day out on there. He probably could have kept dozing a little while longer before he had to move, even right through the furious whispering going on one husktop over, only then he heard his palebro's name.

"-shouldn't be in the database, you atthole, KK knows about it now, he'll find it, if he hasn't already!"

"Hey, they're the ones doin it in public, and also you're one ta talk, you filthy hypocrite, like you don't have a copy saved away on yer private mainframe!"

Gamzee cracked an eye open. His hair was all over his face, making it hard to see; he squinted a bit. Oh, that database. ... oh, that vid. He considered telling Sollux to chill, that he'd saved a copy on his husktop too. Even though he could see his palebro's adorable faces from any angle he wanted pretty much everyday. Was just for the memories. One day when they were old (when Karkat was old and Gamzee wasn't) he could whip it out and go, look at that, motherfucking adorable first-time public cuddles. You were so cute back then. Then again Gamzee was sure Karkat would stay cute until the day he oh hey look at that a blinking cursor. Magic. How'd those little fuckers know to keep the tempo? Where'd they go when they weren't on the screen? Teleportation? Maybe it was magnets.

"-broke through the thecurity on my personal mainframe?"

Oh hey Solbro was getting all bristly and hissy and fire-eyed. Eribro grinned back proud and toothy. Spades were in the air. Gamzee grinned behind his hair and considered closing his eye, letting them have some privacy. Even though apparently the lab was turning into some kind of flirting central. Awesome. Maybe it was matchmaking. Good lab, best buddy.

"Nah, you were goin ta the loadgaper an' I sneaked a look."

Sollux's fiery look turned all flat and then he went 'ch and "Neverfuckingmind" which was a pretty neat word, and he turned away, all spades fled off. Ouch.

"H-hey! Don't turn yer back on me!"

But yeah, Solbro's back was turned pretty firm there. All wall-like and bored-now, and being bored of something was always kind of harsh. Gamzee lifted his head from the keyboard, vaguely wondering if he should leave before Eridan tried to force it with pouncing, 'cause that never worked, apart from making dents in the walls when Sol threw him around and left without even a little toothy kiss.

The dents usually were pretty funny-shaped, though. One of them had somehow come out looking like a hopbeast. Gamzee was kinda sad he'd never seen how Eridan had landed there to make it, but at the same time the mystery was made that pattern so special, and oh man sea dwellers' voices could climb pretty high with the sharp notes, couldn't they.

That was when someone grabbed the back of Gamzee's chair and yanked it around. He almost fell right off.

The next second he had his tiny miracle brother climbing all over his lap, making sure he didn't fall anywhere on account of being kind of pinned down. He had the best palebro ever.

"Hi there." He grinned in Karkat's hair, wrapping his arms around him. Karkat only growled quietly and burrowed in deeper, didn't even nip his chin to tell him back the hell off, and oh man, miracles everywhere! That meant snuggles. He up and went right on to that.

Off to the side Sollux was crackling a bit red-blue, made funny lights on Karkat's ear, which was all Gamzee could see of him on account of the rest of his face being all hidden in his neck. It was all nice and warm with the brightest blush on any troll in the universe. Funny how he wasn't all shaking with rage or anything, though. Almost like he'd just really, really wanted a cuddle and just went ahead and grabbed the shit out of it.

Which wasn't really like his palebro, but any reason Karkat found to cuddle Gamzee was pretty chill with.

"T-that, uh. ... Seariously, Sol, you - you're such a-"

"Pet me," Karkat hissed in Gamzee's neck.

Gamzee petted.

Eridan's voice went gack and then quiet. Actually the whole lab was quiet. Magic. Gamzee didn't worry about it, just ran his hand through a mess of wiry hair, down the curve of a spine and then back up, scritched with his nails here and there a bit.

Karkat really wasn't overloading enough to need it so much. It kept on being the nicest motherfucking thing anyway, somehow.

Karkat nuzzled up behind his ear a bit. Gamzee tilted his head with a little chirp of encouragement.

"I am so sorry," Karkat whispered all quiet-like and ashamed in his ear.

"Hm?"

"I am stealth-auspisticizing between two assholes by making out with my moirail as a distraction. Holy fucking shit, this is the kinkiest thing I have ever done and I didn't even ask for your consent first before using-"

Gamzee started laughing in his hair and squeezed all the breath out of him before more self-hating could come out. "You're the sneakiest little motherfucker. Pale for you, bro."

The blush on Karkat's cheeks went even hotter against him. "... pale for you," he mumbled back, hands fisted on the back of Gamzee's shirt.

"Oh my gooooooood get a pile, guys!"

Karkat tried to bristle-squirm his way off Gamzee's lap, and for a bit it was kind of like cuddling a quillbeast. So many pointy bits on his palebro, it was a mystery where they hid rest of the time. "Shoosh, bro," he said, and delivered a pap right between nubby little horns. "Vris-sis ain't got a half-bad idea. Let's go and get our pile on, yeah? We can jam for a bit." The way Karkat couldn't meet his eyes, he figured his palebro might need a little more 'no, really, I didn't mind, anything that makes you feel less horribly self-conscious in public is straight up bitchtits miracles to me' action before he actually believed it.

Also Solbro and Eribro had drifted apart all dazed, and from the way Eridan fiddled with his glasses there'd be another video to download tonight once they were done. He grinned with all his teeth to his best fishbro and navigated his little miracle brother through the room with a hand pressed to the middle of his back. Even more of a miracle, Karkat went along with it.

"... I'm never going to be allowed to be angry around you ever again, am I?"

"Bad for your bloodpusher, bro," Gamzee replied, and gave in to the temptation to pick him up and sling him on his shoulders for a quicker getaway.