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Karkat never knew how to comfort someone without screwing it up (in his mind)
But sometimes, he had to.
Karkat was in the middle of, well, nothing actually, but he made sure that he looked somewhat busy by drawing out little grids and plans of nothing in particular. He was so good at it that he didn’t notice Rose approaching him.
“Karkat? Have you seen (Y/N) around at all?” Rose asked, voice laced with worry.
“No, I haven’t. Why would I care anyway?” He replied not looking up from his work.
“It’s just that… she hasn’t been herself lately. She’s been closing people off a lot and that’s not like her at all.” Rose said.
Karkat stayed silent.
“Well, if you see her, could you tell me? I want to talk to her.”
“Yeah, whatever.” He said, waving her away.
Rose sighed, nodded and walked away.
Karkat looked away from his ‘work’ and his eyes trailed to the map of the meteor on the wall that he and everyone else had made. Everything was marked to show where was where and what was what. His eyes scanned the map and landed on (Y/N)'s room. He knew it was hers by the little doodle she had made of herself right in the middle of the space. He shook his head and looked away. She would be fine.
Finally deciding to leave his space, he walked to the kitchen, feeling as though some food would do him some good. There in one of the chairs was Dave, eating some cereal. Karkat ignored him and went to one of the cupboards to look for something to eat. Dave paused eating.
“Hey Karkat?”
“What?” Karkat grunted.
“Have you seen (Y/N)? I haven’t seen her in like, fucking hours.” Dave asked, setting his spoon down.
Karkat rolled his eyes.
“Everyone keeps asking me that. No, I haven’t. She should be fine. She’s not a fucking idiot.”
Dave stood up and looked over at him.
“Dude, I’m serious. She’s been gone for like a really long time and I have no idea where she is. I’m actually kinda worried about her.”
“She’s probably sleeping or something.” Karkat said offhandedly.
Dave shook his head.
“Whatever man, I’m going to go look for her.”
“Jegus, what am I, her fucking keeper? She can take care of herself.” Karkat muttered, shoving some leftover pizza in his mouth.
Satisfied with the pizza, he left the kitchen to wander the meteor. Nothing really seemed appealing to him at the moment. As he was passing an old storage room, he heard muffled noises. He furrowed his eyebrows. No one should be in that room, there isn’t anything in there. Slowly he approached the door and pressed his ear against it. Soft sobs and hiccups could be heard through the door. Karkat paused for a moment. Who the hell was in there? Gently he turned the knob and entered the room. It was dark and smelt dingy and gross.
“Hey, who the hell’s in here?” He called.
The sobs stopped for a moment, but the hiccuping continued, as if someone was forcing themselves to stop crying.
“I know someone’s here.” He snapped.
“G-go away, Karkat.” A voice croaked.
Karkat narrowed his eyes.
“(Y/N)?”
“I said go away!” You sobbed.
“Where the fuck are you?” He asked, stepping farther into the room.
“Just leave, okay?” You pleaded.
Finally, he noticed you, curled up into a ball in the corner of the room. He slowly approached you.
You looked a bit worse for wear. You hair was tangled and messy and your face was puffy and tear stained. You looked like you had been there for quite awhile.
“Hey, what the hell are you doing in here?”
“Nothing, just go away.” You sniffed.
Karkat sighed and crouched down to your level.
“What’s wrong?”
You shook her head.
“Was it Vriska?”
You shook her head again.
“What was it?”
You looked up at him with a trembling lip.
“Me.” You hiccuped.
Karkat cocked an eyebrow.
“You?”
“I made myself upset okay! I don’t know what the hell is wrong and I hate it!”
Karkat sat down next to your sobbing form and hesitantly put his hand on your back.
“What do you mean?” He asked.
“I just, I feel like shit. I hate how I look, I hate how I draw, I hate how I am, Why am I even telling you this? You don’t-.”
“Hey, shut up for a second.” Karkat sighed.
“Why do you hate how you look? You look fine to me.”
You laughed bitterly.
“How can you say that with a straight face? I’m fat and ugly. No questions.”
“As much as it pains me to say it, you’re not ugly” He said.
“Well-”
“Shut up, I’m not done. You’re not ugly, you’re really pretty. You’d have to be fucking blind to not see that.”
“Karkat, you don’t have to-”
“(Y/N), seriously, you’re really good at what you do. Your art is fucking really good. Dave claims he’s the real artist around here, but we all know it’s you.”
“But-”
“And don’t fucking tell me that you don’t like your personality. That’s like the best thing about you. You’re like the only person I can fucking tolerate around here. Everyone else are blathering idiots.”
“But didn’t you say-”
“Yes, I know I say I fucking hate you or whatever, and I say how annoying you are. But that’s because I thought you were annoying, I thought I hated you. I don’t. Not anymore at least. Yeah, I thought you were annoying when we chatted with each other, but you’re actually really fucking clever and smart.”
“I-”
“I get it. I feel like fucking garbage all the time and I don’t know why. But that doesn’t mean any of the things you think you are are true. People like you. Rose and Dave kept fucking asking me where the hell you were. Why? Because they care about you.”
“...”
“Not going to try to interrupt me now?”
“...Do you really think that?” You whispered.
Karkat rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, I do.”
You both sat in silence for a moment.
Without warning, You clung to Karkat, giving him a hug.
“...Thanks Karkat. You aren’t as big of a jerk everyone thinks you are.”
“Yeah, yeah, let’s get out of here, it smells like ass in this room.”
Karkat never knew how to comfort someone without screwing it up (in his mind)
But sometimes, he had to.
And sometimes, it was all they really needed.