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His breath hitched as something forcefully hit the wall again, making the house shake.
Gamzee was snoring soundly next to him, not sharing the same kind of worry and paranoia as the other. It was silly, really. Karkat knew that a little storm wouldn’t be a problem. Sure there were some things blowing around outside thanks to nature’s forces, but nothing that would blast through one of their walls.
But that didn’t stop him from letting out a quiet whimper as the rain loudly pattered against the window, making him even more aware of the weather.
God he wished he could just sleep through it like Gamzee.
Gamzee would sleep through anything. Karkat was sure that if someone dropped a bomb right next to their apartment Gamzee would just sleep on as if nothing had ever happened. Fuck, Karkat still remembered the time the fire alarm had went off. It had taken him minutes to get Gamzee out of his deep state of sleep. After that he hardly dared to leave Gamzee alone in the apartment.
“Ignore it,” Karkat murmured to himself, trying to use the pillow to drown the sounds of the storm, “It’s just air. Just fucking air that will-oh shit!”
That was most likely another branch hitting the wall.
What if it would go through the window next time? What if it would happen to impale him or Gamzee? What if a whole fucking tree would fly right through the window and crush them both?
“Oh God stop it,” Karkat whined and curled up in fetal position. His head was full of ‘what if’-scenarios. And for every storm he experienced he’d come up with a few more of them. Which was just making his fear of storms even worse.
He rolled over in bed, facing the wall instead of Gamzee, but it was pretty much worse. He was so close to the wall that he could feel the vibrations the wind was sending through the building. If he didn’t know better he would say that the building was starting to sway, but that was his mind playing tricks.
They were living in a sturdy apartment, not a little cottage in the woods.
Karkat Vantas would never ever consider living under such conditions. No way.
“It’s just air, it’s just air, it’s just air…” he repeated in a whisper as a mantra, shutting his eyes tightly and once more rolling over, this time swallowing his pride as he curled up against his side.
It wasn’t like he would wake up anyway.
For a while it seemed like it would be alright. At least better. Karkat was still tense and didn’t dare to relax, because as soon as he did, another loud noise would make him tense up all over again and he’d have to force back tears.
He felt like such a wimp. Not anyone he knew got so scared of storms. Not even John. Oh God, John, the fool would probably have been out in the storm, embracing it. Karkat didn’t know why, but John did for sure really enjoy wind. Something about making him feel so much lighter.
Karkat just couldn’t enjoy it. The tiniest whooshing sound made his survival instincts kick in and he’d do whatever he could to find any kind of shelter.
In this case the best shelter was next to Gamzee. Well, except the closet. There was this one time he had crawled into the closet and turned on his iPod on max volume. He hadn’t gotten out until Gamzee had gotten home several hours later. The other had been forced to drag out a hysteric Karkat. But that had been a really bad thunder storm, this was just an ordinary storm.
Which was bad enough, really.
There was another slamming sound, resulting in another whimper escaping his lips. God, he hated how pathetic it made him sound.
“Karkat?”
Karkat bit his lip sharply. Fuck, he had woken him up. He didn’t think he had been making that loud noises.
“Hey, something motherfucking wrong?”
“N-no, everything is fucking fine and dand-oh fucking hell it just gets worse!” he pretty much shrieked as he heard thunder.
“Shit, you need to get your fuckin’ chill on,” Gamzee said, sounding a lot more alert than before.
Karkat had shut his eyes tightly, but he could feel Gamzee’s warm hand rub soothing circles on his back. It did help a bit. But not much.
“It’s just air, Karkat.” Gamzee softly murmured as he buried his face in Karkat’s hair.
“Air that can fucking kill us!”
The other chuckled lightly, “Of all fucking things that could kill us… you pick motherfucking air to freak out on.”
Karkat growled lightly but pressed tighter against Gamzee, “I can’t… just…”
Gamzee sighed and wrapped his arms around Karkat, pulling him as close as possible. He started humming under his breath, making imaginary patterns with his fingers across Karkat’s back.
“Relax. You need to get your motherfucking nap on, right now,” Gamzee whispered and then proceeded with the low humming.
It was just random melodies, whatever came to his mind. And it soothed Karkat. Even though he could hear the wind and rain violently lashing against the windows. Even though he could hear the thunder make loud threatening sounds.
But if he just… tried to focus on Gamzee. On the wordless melodies, his breathing and his heartbeat… It was better. He let all of Gamzee invade his mind, perhaps it wouldn’t leave much room left for the storm.
Gamzee smiled softly to himself, he could feel Karkat relax in his arms. Just letting out very quiet noises when there was a particularly loud sound caused by the storm. But the longer Gamzee hummed and gently stroke his back, the more he relaxed.
They both lost track of time. Eventually Karkat drifted off, leaving Gamzee awake. The storm was still raging outside, but Karkat was finally asleep, which was something that didn’t happen a lot when the weather was so horrible.
Gamzee sighed and pressed a gentle kiss against Karkat’s forehead. Perhaps they’d get to sleep through the rest of the night now.
And if not, then he’d just have to stay up with him again.
Because Gamzee would do anything to make Karkat feel safe.