Archive of Our Own ^beta

The sun rose into the Alternian horizon. Slowly and steadily, the ember burned, washing the dark blue sky and its surrounding beach with fiery pink. If anyone else witnessed this picturesque sunrise, they would see two silhouettes belonging to an unlikely pair of trolls (one formerly-Violet mutant, one royal) - their hair whipped in the seafaring wind, which was a cooling balm to the sunheat evaporating the remnants of seawater on their skin into salt.

Only half-submerged in the shallow water, Karkat Ampora gently wiped the salt off the fins on the sides of his head, striving not to provoke an itch.

His friend and soon-to-be former Imperial heiress, Aradia Peixes, climbed onto the half-broken bridge of the abandoned pier, shaking off salt like a furred creature trying to dry itself. Thankfully, even age hadn’t eroded the walkway completely - it still had a(n admittedly holey) roof over it, protecting the two recently-matured trolls from the scorching sunlight.

"By the spirits!" Aradia cried, running her hands through her hair, now short-cropped in celebration of this new, upcoming chapter of her - their! - lives, “I can’t believe this day’s finally coming!”

Karkat climbed to the pier and was greeted by salt falling from Aradia’s hair like winter snow. Laughter, free and light and rare but getting more frequent these days, escaped his lips. “Me neither!”

“Just a few minutes more,” Aradia giggled, pulling Karkat closer to her side. He stiffened in her grip, but didn’t pull away. He simply grunted a noise of agreement.

“What does the ship look like?” the soon-to-be former princess asked him, looking up into his eyes. Karkat lov- like- no, tolerated - the way she looked at him. She wasn’t… intense, she wasn’t condescending, boring into his eyes digging for his lies like those towering (figuratively) adults in his own caste - maybe she wasn’t even making eye contact at all. Maybe she was looking at his prominent nose or his stupid dyed bangs, courtesy of Eridan’s spray pigment from the previous week.

That fucking lunatic, he grumbled fondly- no, just grumbled. Stop it, brain.

“Eridan said it’s a normal transport starliner,” Karkat replied, finding himself smiling at Aradia despite his errant thoughts. “No more luxury starliners for you, Your Highness!”

Aradia laughed as he said it with a mean right hook in the air, imitating the stupid (pre-)Navy chanting rituals he was supposed to memorize. “We’re gonna be normal citizens from now on.”

“Normal citizens…" Aradia's eyes sparkled like the sun-kissed sea extended before them. “I like the sound of that. You’re gonna be as normal as Eridan Vantas himself!" She snickered, hiding her mouth with her hands so as to not attract unwanted attention.

Karkat scoffed. The huff of air blew his violet fringe away from his face for a moment, eliciting louder laughter from Aradia. "Eridan, normal?" he repeated. "If that gunslinging maniac is normal, what does crazy look like?"

"Hmm," Aradia put a hand on her chin and scooted back to squint at him. "Crazy looks like… you?"

Karkat groaned, throwing his hands up. "I knew you were going to say that!"

"Oh, don't deny it," Aradia grinned, giving him a teasing glance, "You two are clearly flushed for each other."

Heat crept up to Karkat's center. "I am not."

"Maybe pitch?"

"No! I just hate him - not romantically!"

"Oh, come on!" Aradia laughed, pushing him playfully on his arms. "You must feel some care for him, right, Kar?"

For all his grumbling, for all the banters he and Eridan had had in the past two sweeps, Karkat honestly had no idea. He… didn't hate Eridan terribly , he guessed. Pitied him enough to agree to mate with him that one time (and it ended with… mixed feelings). Just as he liked Aradia… though it was less of an equal arrangement like he had with her, and more of him constantly trying to get the reckless Lime-blood out of trouble.

Captor - Kanaya - also did that for Eridan, she apparently had been his first friend, and they seemed to be moirails? Matesprits? Perhaps Karkat's feelings for Eridan, too, were conciliatory in nature? But the Gold-blood was always trying to protect Eridan from him. What gives? Was Captor detecting concupiscent feelings from him? Was she simply possessive? Monogamous?

He looked at Aradia, and how she was now looking at the distance, hopeful of their future in the Signless Revolution. He wanted to have her idealism. He wanted to be with her all the way, whatever she decided to do in that organization. Be useful. Be somebody with her, save Alternia from itself, use his Violet caste upbringing to good use.

Does it matter if he didn't want to mate with Aradia? Didn't want to do it with Eridan again? Must all his feelings be confined in quadrants? Captor may have Eridan's moirallegiance, but Karkat could, with him, bond through their status as pariahs to Alternian society.

Karkat's eyes fell on his knees - as if those goddamn caps hated being stared at, they sharply reminded him of it with a stabbing ache. Adding to the tightness of the braces under his dress pants. The steadying force of wrist-braces and finger guards under his gloves. How was he supposed to pass the selection to the Navy with this, and the back brace, and the dizzy spells too?

You don't need to care about that anymore, Ampora, his brain said encouragingly, fuck the Navy! Eridan and his rebellion are going to get you out of that life.

Yeah… he is. They are! Fuck the Navy!

In a few minutes, he'd be free of Orphaner Dualscar's shadow. He'd be free to show off his body braces! His blood ! And speak his treasonous thoughts! Maybe he could have Aradia's idealism. Maybe he could let himself hold her hand, and walk together as equals, their caste difference be damned… And maybe he could get new legs like Tavros!

A smile began to quirk his lips upwards.

"Hey, Kar," Aradia called, looking at him again, "What time is it?"

Karkat looked at his pocket watch. "Six."

"Starliner comes at?"

"Six thirty."

Aradia's legs swung back and forth down the bridge, splashing them both with water. "Thirty minutes left!"

Karkat imagined the sun a little higher, the sedate waves aggravated by a ship touching down.

"Thirty minutes left until we never see this stupid place again," he agreed. Then, frowning a little to see the seas surrounding them… he hadn't lived here for long, having to move here due to pollution in his hometown a few sweeps ago, and yet, so many things had happened here, not least his outings with Aradia. "But maybe I'll miss the Western Ocean quite a bit."

"Maybe," Aradia said, squeezing his wrist. "I think I'll miss my home, too."

He pictured himself returning Aradia's hand-hold, settling into the warmth of her palm, fingers intertwining between hers and resting on the fin-webs.

"Only one way to find out," he replied, scooting closer so that their shoulders touched. Aradia, of course, leaned closer.

With that, the two friends waited for their transport to freedom in friendly silence, their only companion the soft waves rolling to the shore.