youth ❀ karlnap

you can't do anything

cw: sad stuff, anxiety inducing stuff, a bad law that is not real, transphobia

stay safe : )

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"Karl, Karl!" George practically screamed, making Karl's gaming mouse stutter as he was trying to kill the enemies on his screen. He was so distracted that his digital character was thrown off the platform, and he couldn't help but laugh as George groaned and threw a mini fit.

"You suck, Karl!" He whined, the "game over" notification taking over their screens.

"You know I'm not that good, if you wanted to play with someone good you should've called Dream or something." Karl reasoned playfully.

"Maybe I will," George shot back, making Karl pout.

"You're so mean to me!"

"Maybe if you stopped being bad I'd be nicer," George taunted, sending them to another game. Karl couldn't help but smile; there wasn't many people he could act like this around. Usually his feelings were hurt too quickly and he'd have to tell them to stop, but with George he always knew that he didn't actually mean any of it. It was just banter, as his British friend would call it.

"I guess I'm just gonna have to find a new best friend." Karl stated, rolling his eyes.

"Awww, you're gonna make your new best friend Sappy Nappy, right?" George continued to tease, moving his Minecraft character in front of Karl's so they were staring at each other.

"Sapnap is already one of my best friends, but you're kicked out of the gang." Karl said.

"Fine! I only need my Dream." George replied sassily, which made Karl groan in annoyance this time.

"You're so obnoxious!"

"And you like that about me!" George retorted. Karl wished that he could see the smug look on his face.

"Nope!" Karl said quickly, acting like he didn't. While George struggled to defend himself, he noticed his phone light up, and he brought it closer to look at it. He pressed his lips together when he noticed that Sapnap was trying to FaceTime him, wondering why he was calling if he knew that he was with George right now.

"Hold on, Sapnap is calling me," Karl stammered, closing his tab on the game and pulling up Discord.

"Come on, why do you have to answer right now you can just-" George was interrupted by Karl deafening on Discord before he finally answered his phone.

Sapnap's face loaded on his screen, pink-faced and tearful. Karl's heart dropped in his chest, immediately realizing that something was wrong. He almost never saw his boyfriend cry.

"Sapnap?" He asked, nervous. "Are you okay?"

"No, Karl." Sapnap's voice sounded destroyed. The unevenness from testosterone and the hoarseness from crying was not a good mix. "I'm not okay."

"Why? What's wrong?" Karl frowned, pulling his phone closer to him. He couldn't stand the sight of his lover in pain but he couldn't take his eyes away, either.

"Karl, they just passed a law that's going to keep me from taking hormones." Sapnap said, which sent shivers crawling up Karl's spine. He felt frozen, unable to process what he had just said.

Memories of months ago flew through his mind; the visit to Sapnap's house, the s'mores, and the breaking news that flashed across the television screen. He remembered looking grim as he read the words, but he didn't expect it to ever come back around. Surely people had enough common sense to know that something like this would cause so many young people to lose all hope for the world, right?