Work Text:
It was a normal Saturday morning on the dream smp.
Well at least it began as one.
Karl got out of bed, got dressed and made himself some breakfast. A toast and a scrambled egg.
He used the last two eggs for it and made a mental note to go ask Sapnap, if he had, some later that day.
His own chicken had run away after a prank Tommy pulled on him earlier this week and he didn’t find the motivation to go catch them yet.
It would also give him an excuse to see the pretty blaze-hybrid again. And maybe Quackity would also be there.
The three of them hung out a lot lately. And maybe, just maybe, Karl had a tiny crush on both of them.
The first time he noticed he felt incredibly bad. If he loved two people did he even really love them?
He noticed Quackity and Sapnap getting closer and closer over time. And he hated it.
And he hated that he hated it.
He wasn’t mad that they spend time together, he loved seeing them have fun, he just wished that he could be with them, could also make Sapnap laugh like that or make Quackity blush in that certain way.
He wanted to be with them so badly that he used any excuse to get close to them in the last few months.
So without thinking too much about it he send Sapnap a text.
‘Morning Sapnap, do have any eggs to spare? My chickens are still gone and I just ran out.’
While waiting for a reply he did the dishes and put the leftovers from last night in the fridge.
He definitely could heat them up again and if he didn’t have to cook a new meal every night he gladly expected the space the boxes used up in the fridge.
When he was done, Karl took a quick glance at his communicator.
‘Morning handsome, Sapnap isn’t up yet but I looked in the fridge and he still got plenty. We will come over later to bring them to you. See ya -Q‘
Karl couldn’t help but smile. Firstly at Quackity calling him handsome, even if he felt like a teenager in love he still got butterflies in his stomach from this one word.
Secondly because of course Sapnap was still asleep and instead of wating for him to wake up, Quackity decided that Karl’s simple question needed an immediate answer and just decided that both of them would come over later.
It wasn’t the first time something like that happened but it still made Karl giggle a little, just thinking about Quackity waking Sapnap up with: ‘come on sleeping beauty we got to go deliver some eggs’ or something like that.
Quackity didn’t say what time them would come over abut Karl was sure he still got a few hours before the two would stand at his door.
He hummed a little while getting to work on making his bed and getting everything ready for his monthly bathroom cleaning. He always hated that but it had to be done.
While getting the cleaning supplies that were tucked away in the depths of a kitchen cabinet he noticed someone on his calendar.
“Wait..”
He took a step closer and saw the red circle on today’s date with a quick : ‘Mom and dad are visiting’ scribbled underneath.
“Shit that was today?!”
Starting to panic a little bit, Karl looked at the time. 9:15am.
He looked back at the calendar hopping past him had noted the time his parents were supposed to arrive.
9:30am.
‘I am gone die. I am literally going to die. The house is a mess, I don’t have any food except the leftover curry from yesterday and I haven’t done laundry in forever. This is gone be my last day on earth.’
He was half joking in his mind but he knew that this was bad. Really bad.
His parents already hated his teenage room with two T-Shirts on the ground and one white monster can on his desk. They were gone hate his house from the bottom of their souls.
But then again it had been a few years since he had seen them. Maybe they changed?
But then again they were his parents. His dad who drank his coffee the same way every morning and his mom who only excepts the dishes lined up in a specific way.
His parents who still said that homosexuality was a sin and that the new generation was changing to much and that stuff like that wasn’t necessary when day were young and bla bla bla.
Karl had learned to ignore it over the years. He always knew he wasn’t one hundred pro cent straight but he never told them because he didn’t want more drama than he already had with them.
Getting yelled at once a day for stuff he couldn’t control / didn’t do was already bad enough.
But we’ll… on the smp things just were … different.
He had a collection of mini pride flags from Eret on the shelf over his couch you could see very good when walking in.
Next to the flags he had stored the bracelets Tommy, Tubbo and Ranboo made for him as a ‘group project’ , how they called it, after finding out he was asexual.
It was all visibly on display and not to overlook no matter how hard you tried.
Yepp, he was gone die.
Looking at the time again -9:20 this time- Karl realised that he shouldn’t stand around doing nothing.
He ran back in the kitchen, cleaning supplies still in hand and stuffed them back into the cabinet. He didn’t have time to e for that now and his bathroom still looked acceptable so he probably didn’t have to worry about that.
He rushed into the living room and picked each of the items on the shelf up carefully and put them into a cardboard box he had stored some books in.
Closing said box, he got up and put it behind one of his plant so it wouldn’t be too obvious.
He then started picking up the dirty clothes he had left on the couch a few nights ago after coming back from an mining session with Quackity and Sapnap.
He then hurried upstairs, throwing them into his bedroom and closing the door.
Before he could do anything else, the doorbell rang.
“C-coming! “, he yelled takimg a shaky breath before going to open the door.
“Hi Mom,Da-“
“Why the hell did that take you so long?!”
His parents looked just like he remembered. Just a little bit greyer.
His mom’s hair was tied in a clean bun where every strand had its place. She looked annoyed and didn’t even wait for an answer before squeezing by and letting herself in.
Karl stepped aside to also let his dad in. The man sat down on the couch without a second thought and his wife took the place next to him, looking slightly disgusted at the stain a few inches away from her.
“So how have you to been?” , Karl asked trying to set a nicer mood.
“A lot better without having a third mouth to feed…” , his mother muttered under her breath while her husband said loudly: “Well we are not the ones living on a dangerous server where you could die anytime, with criminals living on every corner and some of those weird people everywhere you look. I have seen a guy wearing a dress and some kind of flag from that gay stuff. Like can he not do that in public?! There are kids around, I saw two of them. But they didn’t look trustworthy either. Everybody is crazy in this place!“
Before he could stopp it a mummelt:” If you knew what happened you would understand” escaped his mouth. Hopping his parents didn’t hear it he tried to move on from that topic.
Sadly his mother didn’t lose her good hearing over the years.
“What was that ?”, she asked sharply looking him in the eyes with a threatening expression.
“Nothing”, Karl said, still hoping she would believe him even if should know better by now.
“ Well don’t tell me you turned into one of those freaks while living here! I knew this was a bad idea. We should have never let you go!”
“Mom it’s complicated, I-“
“Oh so your mother is right?! You really are one of them now, huh?”
Karl and his father were now standing face to face while his mother was dramatically sobbing on the couch about ‘losing her son to satan’.
“Dad-“
“Do you see what you did ?! You made your mother cry! You are a disgrace to this family, do you understand?! No son of mine-“
“You never treated me like a son anyways! At least here I have people that care about me and and love me and-“
He didn’t come any further before feeling a sharp pain on his cheek and nose. He stumbled backwards, leaning against the wall behind him.
His vision began to clear from the dark spots but that didn’t make the pain in his head go away.
His hand reached up to his nose, flinching when it made contact. He looked down at his hand and saw blood all over his fingers.
Looking at his father again he saw the man with a smug grin. He couldn’t quit make out what he was saying though because the ringing in his head grew louder by the second.
But then he heard him.
“Hey Karl, Q and I here with the egg- What the fuck ?!”
He looked to the door, wich was fully opened and had two shocked man standing in it.
Before he could say anything his father also turned around to look at the newcomer’s.
“And who the fuck are you two?! Can’t you see we’re in the middle of something here!”
If Karl would have looked at his father in that moment, he would have seen his head turning completely red with anger. But he only had eyes for the two man in the doorway, looking at the whole situation with anger and worry.
Now Quackity was talking: “Well we are Karl’s friends visiting him, not that we own you an explanation or something I just want to clarify something. We are supposed to be here, because we don’t fucking hurt him! I don’t give a fuck who you are but if you’re hurting my friends we’re gone have some problems!”
“You heard him and now get out of here before things get dirty.”, Sapnap added in a voice that would sound calm for anyone who doesn’t know him but Karl knew better.
The blaze was being serious and if his parents weren’t gone leave they would get some real problems.
“You can’t just tell us to leave! Karl are you gone let these people talk to us like that?!”, his mother yelled suddenly on her feet and not crying anymore.
Sapnap locked eyes with Karl from across the room and looked at him questioning. Karl slightly shocked his head, instantly regretting it from the dizziness that followed after.
“Yes”, was all he managed to say.
He could hear his mother starting to scream something and his father angrily shouting but he didn’t care anymore.
He felt so dizzy he thought he might threw up right here and now.
Then he felt a gentle hand cupping his cheek and making him look up.
The background noise of his parents yelling wasn’t there anymore, instead two well known voices were talking quietly.
“Hey, can you hear me?”, Sapnap, the one cupping his cheek how Karl now noticed,
asked softly.
“Yes”
“Good. Do you think you can walk? You seem pretty shaken up.”
Karl tried to step forward but his legs had other plans. He fell forward before getting caught by two arms.
“Okay, screw that he is not walking.”, Quackity said before picking up Karl bridal style and walking towards the bedroom.
“I am gone get the first aid kit and then I’m right with you.“, Sapnap said before disappearing down the hallway.
Quackity opened the to Karl’s bedroom and set him on the bed, completely ignoring the dirty clothes lying around.
He was completely focused on the man in front of him. He set down next to him taking one of Karl’s hands in his own.
“How are you feeling?”
“Still slightly dizzy but better now. Sorry you guys had to see this, I completely forgot you were coming over.”
“Don’t apologise! It was good that we came, who knows what would have happened!”
Quackity sounded so worried that it only made Karl feel worse. He would have been fine. Stuff like that happened all the time back then. He would have survived it. Probably.
And even if he lost a canon life… no! He wasn’t going there with his thoughts.
“I got the healing potions and bandages.” , Sapnap announced entering the room with his arms full.
He put the stuff on the bed next to Karl and took one of the potions.
“Here drink this.”
Karl took it from his hands, opened the bottle and chucked it in one go. Healing potions weren’t exactly delicious do it was better to just get it over with.
Once he was finished Quackity took the empty bottle from his hand and put it on the nightstand.
Karl could feel his nose almost completely healing but Sapnap still wiped it clean carefully and put some bad smelling stuff on it of wich Karl didn’t really know what it was.
He was too tiered to care anyways.
_
“That was your father, right?”, Sapnap asked carefully after putting away the stuff he had gotten from the bathroom.
They were all sitting on Karl’s bed, Quackity leaned against the headpiece, Karl against his chest and Sapnap in front of them.
Karl nodded.
“ Asshole”, Quackity muttered behind him making Karl smile a little.
“Could you… tell us why he did that?”
“We just had an argument that got out of hand.” , Karl tried to shrug it off but he could literally feel the glances the tow other boys were giving each other. They weren’t believing him one bit.
“Okay.. if you say so” , Quackity said.
Karl staid silent for a while think about wether he should tell the truth or leave it at that.
“Karl… you know you can talk to us, right? That you can trust us?”, Sapnap said quietly looking directly at Karl.
“Of course, I… I do trust you guys. Very much. I don’t think I have ever trusted anyone more to be honest. I just … my parents and I have a lot of different views on some topics and .. they are more like .. the old fashioned way and stuff like that and … they said that everybody here was weird and I got mad and things just got out of hand. But that’s completely normal for dad so … yeah”
“Well if they ever want to pay you a visit again please let us know. We will happily take care of them.” , Quackity said with a threatening tone and if Karl wasn’t snugged up to this man’s chest right now he probably would have been afraid.
A few minutes were spend in comfortable silence. Then Sapnap spoke again.
“Karl … if I told you that Q and I were dating… would you be okay with that ?”
Karl froze. ‘What?’ They were dating? They were really dating?
And yet he laid there cuddled up to Quackity’s chest like he belonged there. Like it was his place, his right to be there.
He had intruded their relationship without even realising. Karl felt sick to the stomach.
He slowly backed away from Quackity’s embrace sitting up and looking at them.
They were perfect for each other. They’ve always been. He knew that they had gotten closer but he never thought it would really come to this.
Quackity grabbed Sapnap’s hand who started fidgeting with his fingers.
“Karl? You okay?” , he asked, worry visible on his face.
“Y-yeah! I am really happy for you guys! You’re perfect for each other.”, he said with the brightness smile he could manage right now.
He didn’t want them to feel like he didn’t approve of them. He in fact approved them very much. He just wanted to be a part of the relationship.
But that would never happen. They had each others, why would they need someone like him?
“Karl..” , Sapnap started reaching out his free hand to Karl.
“I really am happy for you! I am, really I promise, I-I “
A tear slipped from his eye and he quickly wiped it away hopping they didn’t see it.
But of course they did.
“Hey, are you-“ , Quackity said, now grabbing Karl’s hand with both of his own. “why are you crying?”
Sapnap had placed on of his hands on Karl’s back rubbing circles against his skin.
“What’s wrong?”
“I-I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I really am happy for you I” , a sob escaped his mouth before he could stopp it.
“Hey it’s okay. It’s okay, you’re okay.”
Sapnap’s pulled Karl closer to his chest, bringing his hands on up to stroke through Karl’s hair.
They stayed like this for a while before Karl calmed down a little bit.
“You with us again?” , Quackity asked, squeezing Karl’s hand slightly.
Karl nodded.
“Good. I have another question for you. Look at me? ”
Karl looked over to Quackity who had moved closer to Sapnap’s and Karl while they tried to calm Karl down.
There faces were just a few inches away from each other.
“Can I … ?” , Quickity asked looking directly into Karl’s eyes.
“What..?”
“Can I kiss you? Please?”
“But.. aren’t you too?” , Jarl looked back at Sapnap who just grinned back at him.
“As long as I get one too when you’re finished I don’t care”
Karl looked back at Quackity still slightly confused.
“So you two?”
“Yes we like you. Now can I please kiss you?” , Quackity said almost sounding desperate at this point.
Without further hesitation Karl leaned in and got greeted by warm lips on his.