"Please, no, don't do this, I'm sorry..." Karkat could hear the desperation in his voice, the horror at what his friend was about to do.

Fingers trembled on the trigger of a pistol held to the head of his best friend. Karkat watched as the greatest, most wonderful person he had ever known had their greatest moment of weakness, seconds from ending their own life.

"Isn't there anything I can do at all? Please? Oh god, please, just put the gun down..." Karkat was in tears now, not even thinking of how he was a blubbering mess, not realizing that the person about to end their own life was more calm and collected than he was. He couldn't believe his eyes.

"Karkat... There's nothing you can do. It's over for me. He's going to kill you if I don't kill myself. Those were the terms of my agreement with him." Pale, bloodless fingers began to tremble even more on the trigger, threatening to cut even shorter the life of Karkat's best and only friend. The voice grew more agitated. "Karkat, you know who we're dealing with here. I can't do anything about it and neither can you! I know what I'm doing is horrible and I don't want to do it, but in order to keep you safe I've got to do as he says!"

"Please, for the love of FUCK, just don't! Let him kill me! I don't care!" The alleyway in which the two of them stood was lit only by a streetlight, which began to flicker and grow considerably dimmer. Karkat was sobbing, watching his friend in horror, knowing he was powerless to do anything. He had never felt so vulnerable.

"Goodbye, Karkat."

"NO, PLEASE, FOR FUCK'S SAKES-"

Bang.

Karkat woke in a cold sweat to see Sollux shaking him. His eyes met those of his annoying as fuck roommate, and he couldn't help but notice that Sollux wasn't wearing those fucking annoying multicolored glasses. Jesus, if he's lost the stupid specs, it must really be late. Despite the fact that he was practically fucking hyperventilating from horror, he managed to shoot what he thought was an adequately rude glare at him.

"Sollux, get the fuck off my bed, I don't need your sympathy. I just... had a bad dream." Karkat inwardly cringed. He sounded like a wimp.

"Jeez, KK, you sure? You were crying and now you're hyperventilating. A "bad dream" sounds like an understatement, to be honest." Sollux raised his eyebrows at him, a trait that Karkat found really fucking annoying despite the fact that he had only known Sollux for a couple of days. It was like Sollux was always skeptical of everything he said. Karkat supposed that in this particular circumstance Sollux's skepticism would have been justified, but he wasn't about to talk about his dream with the idiot.

Karkat sighed and tried to relax, though with his heart going a million fucking beats per minute, he found that less than easy. He ran a head through his sweaty hair - great, I've gotta shower again in the morning - and shot yet another glare at his obnoxious roomate. His dark vision adjusting, he noticed that Sollux had dual colored eyes as well, and had to resist the urge to smirk. Sollux was the weirdest guy he had ever met, easily. With that stupid lisp and the ugly glasses, he reminded Karkat of some sort of weird flamboyant nerd. Sollux's appearance was almost laughable.

"Sollux, I'm not kidding, get the fuck off my bed and go the fuck to sleep. And I thought I told you to stop calling me KK. It's pretty fucking annoying."

"KK, do you ever stop swearing? It's 4 AM and I'm already kind of disgusted with you."

Yeah, I'm pretty disgusted with me too. I kind of always am.

"Sollux, just go to sleep. I'm in no mood to talk to you. In fact, I never am. You're fucking obnoxious." Karkat flopped back against his rock hard pillow and felt the bed rise a little. He heard Sollux walk across the room and get into his own bed. Soon enough, he heard his roommate's breathing slow, but despite his exhaustion Karkat himself couldn't sleep.

He had arrived at college five days ago. It was his second year; in his first one he had had a dorm all to himself, which was actually pretty fucking nice. But this year, his family had decided to be a bunch of fucking cheapskates and he wound up sharing a dorm with none other than Sollux Captor, supergeek extraordinaire. Though Karkat admittedly didn't know him very well, Sollux was decidedly on his "hate list". The number of people he actually liked could be counted on one hand, and Sollux was definitely not among them. He had gathered a few things about his strange new roommate in the few days that he had known him.

Sollux often got into "computing trances" as Karkat liked to call them, where he was literally unresponsive to anything around him. Majoring in computer engineering, Sollux spent most of his time sitting in front of a screen, and sometimes he would get completely absorbed in whatever he was doing and spend hours upon hours just sitting there, typing lines of code. Karkat liked him best that way.

Sollux also had a lot of weird little habits and quirks; he would almost never be found without his strange dual-colored glasses, and while Karkat wasn't sure if they were actually used to aid Sollux's vision, they were fucking weird. Sollux also had that godawful lisp, and he had a habit of cracking his knuckles. And he was tall and skinny. Sollux was your stereotypical nerd.

He also would not stop calling Karkat "KK", much to Karkat's annoyance. Karkat had decided that Sollux was quite possibly the worst roommate ever and perhaps one of the more annoying people on the planet.

Karkat tried not to think about his dream, which was less of a nightmare than it was a flashback. A horrible flashback to a troubled past. That moment had eaten him alive for the past five years of his life. He had only been fourteen years old when he had watched someone die for the first time.

Sometimes he heard the screams out of nowhere. They were his own; distant memories of the worst day of his life that refused to leave him alone. He was frequently struck by these vivid memories, and no matter how many times he tried to put them out of his mind he couldn't escape them.

"You were crying and now you're hyperventilating." Karkat slapped a hand to his forehead. Jeez, Sollux, way to make me sound like a whiny idiot. Fuck you, Sollux Captor. Die in a fucking fire. Note to self: Punch Sollux in the face next time he decides to take an interest in your fucking business.

Karkat eventually fell into a troubled sleep filled with thoughts of annoying roommates, the past, and what was to come.

Karkat woke, as usual, to the sound of a computer booting up. He groaned as he sat up in bed, his back sore from a rough sleep. College dorms didn't exactly have the nicest furniture.

"Fuck, Sollux, couldn't you at least wear some headphones?" He rubbed his tired eyes, but Karkat's vision was still blurred from his grogginess. Fuck, I bet I'll look really fantastic today.

"Wow, good morning, sunshine. Sorry, KK, but it's time you got up anyway. Don't you have an 8:30 class? Better hurry, it's 8 right now." Sollux didn't even bother to look up from his computer, which was still loudly making all sorts of startup noises. Karkat rolled his eyes and had the urge to throw his pillow at the back of Sollux's head, but decided that a blow from the rock hard pillow was enough to possibly be fatal. He managed to drag himself out of bed and have a shower. Karkat looked in the mirror, still absolutely exhausted. There were dark circles under his eyes.

Well, I look like absolute shit. Thanks, Sollux.

Of course, it wasn't really Sollux's fault, but Karkat felt better having someone to blame for his tiredness other than himself. As he made his way out the door, Sollux called to him, "Seeya, KK, maybe I'll catch you around today!"

Karkat made an effort to slam the door as hard as he could.

After leaving, Karkat realized that he had no idea what class he had; how was it that Sollux knew his timetable better than he did? The guy was obviously a complete fucking creep. Karkat pulled up his timetable on his iPod. Great, some computer science class. I'm sure that won't be really fucking boring.

The class dragged on as expected, and nothing was really accomplished; the professor went on for a long time introducing himself and talking about his own personal interests instead of actually outlining the details of the course. Karkat decided that he could care less, and just as he was packing up to go to the cafeteria, he was joined by his friend Terezi.

"Hey, Karkles, heading to eat? I'll come with you, I skipped breakfast."

For a blind girl, Terezi was oddly observant; she often picked up on little things that Karkat missed, and if he hadn't known that she was blind he might have even commented on her keen eyesight.

"Yeah, I've decided that I'd rather not eat some cheap shit in my dorm. I'd rather pay the extra money for cafeteria food if it means I'm staying away from Sollux." Karkat said the name of his roommate with disdain, mocking his lisp and pushing an imaginary pair of glasses up onto his nose. Despite the fact that Terezi obviously couldn't see that, she still laughed, and they headed to the cafeteria together.

Terezi was one of those few people that Karkat liked. They had an odd relationship; Karkat was often sullen and cynical and Terezi was bright and happy, but he supposed she brought out the best in him. It was easy to be himself around her because she was so accepting. And she was one of the few people who knew about the event from the nightmare, and she assured him that she didn't blame him for it. Karkat wasn't sure the fact that she thought he wasn't at fault was a good thing, and sometimes he felt angry at her for it, but overall he felt comforted by the fact that he had at least one friend who knew about it. Someone to talk to. He wasn't exactly good at opening up to people about his feelings, but Terezi was somehow different. He could talk to her easily.

They had a long and peaceful chat about schedules. Terezi shared multiple classes with Karkat, and he unfortunately had a couple with Sollux that she wasn't in. Karkat could admit that his timetable really fucking sucked, but the classes with Terezi helped make up for it. He enjoyed the burger that he had ordered, despite the fact that the meat was a little dry, and he decided to go back to his dorm for a little bit to lie down, hoping that Sollux wasn't there. Karkat didn't have a class for hours yet, so he hoped he could get some much-needed shuteye. He said goodbye to Terezi and, feeling pretty good for once, opened the door to his small dorm.

His high spirits were immediately crushed when he saw Sollux sitting at his desk hunched over his computer, typing lines of code with music blaring from the speakers. He wasn't in one of his "computing trances", though, as he looked up and turned down the music to grin and say "Hey, KK. You feeling like any less of a colossal asshole this morning?"

Karkat glared at him and went to sit on the edge of his bed, examining the disaster area that was Sollux's desk. Papers, cords, and wrappers sat everywhere, and just as Karkat was about to look away in disgust, he noticed something sitting right next to Sollux's keyboard.

Karkat's phone.

He got up from the bed and rushed to Sollux's desk, snatching the phone.

"Sollux, what the fuck? Why the fuck were you using my phone, you sick creep? Trying to find out more shit about my timetable or something so you can stalk me between classes?"

Sollux frowned at Karkat and let out an exasperated sigh. Karkat couldn't believe that Sollux was frustrated with him - shouldn't it have been the other way around?

"KK, jeez. You must have left your phone behind, and it started ringing. I answered it, and I'm sorry, but it didn't even occur to me at the time, and this weird ass guy was on the other end..."

Karkat ran a hand through his hair and put the other hand on his hip, still thoroughly annoyed with Sollux. "And?"

"And... He realized it wasn't you, so he asked if I could take a message. I said sure. He said to tell you "Hey Karkat, it's Eridan. Deal's off. It's you next." I don't know what he meant. He just hung up afterwards."

The effect that Sollux's words had on Karkat were instantaneous. He froze in horror, staring with his mouth slightly agape at Sollux, who was peering over his glasses at his roommate in concern.

"...KK? Is something wrong?"

Karkat wanted to scream in horror.

He had not heard Eridan's name in five years.