Unlikely Heroes

Chapter 14

Later in the day Rufioh was writing in the small journal with names in it. He was writing down Latula and terezi's names. He also wrote down Cronus, Eridan, Kankri, Karkat, Silas. He wasn't too sure of who Silas was, but he assumed he was Karkat's dad. Karkat wandered over and looked over Rufioh's shoulder. "Read?" He asked.

"Oh, I'm writing names down." Rufioh explained, showing Karkat.

"Name?" Karkat asked, wanting to know the names that Rufioh had written.

"Oh well, I've written your name. Uh... I'll just read them..." Rufioh paused. He looked at the book and read off the names Karkat would know. "Latula, Terezi, Cronus, Eridan, Kankri, Karkat, Silas."

"Silas...?" Karkat repeated. He didn't think Rufioh knew that name.

"Your dad right?" Rufioh asked, assuming that was correct.

Karkat nodded. "My dad, right." He repeated. "Oh." Karkat pointed to Cronus and Eridan, he had noticed that all the other names had two words. They only had one. "Ampora." Then he pointed to himself, Kankri, and Silas. "Vantas."

"Your last names?" Rufioh asked, Karkat assumed what he meant and nodded. Rufioh smiled and wrote down "ampora" and "Vantas".

"Names?" Karkat said pointing to other names on the list.

Rufioh smiled and read off names like "Bruno" and "shmuel". Karkat didn't know any of the names he was reading off. That is until he read three names. "Sollux, Mituna, and psiya captor. They came as-"

Karkat grabbed the book and pointed at the names. "Sollux!!! Uh! Um! Sollux!" He frantically said, pointing at the names. His face lit up when he pointed at them. "Um??? France??" Karkat said, trying to ask where they went.

"France..." Rufioh tried his best understand. "...they were in France. They came here, but now I don't know where they are." Karkat gave him a blank stare. "Uh...Sollux left here." Rufioh explained with hand gestures. "I don't know where they went."

Karkat gave the book back sadly. He sighed and slumped down.

"Are you friends?" Rufioh asked, hoping Karkat would understand the question.

"Ich war mit ihnen befreundet. Ich verlor sie, und sie waren die einzige Hoffnung für mich jemanden zu finden, der noch am leben war. (I was friends with them. I lost them and they were the last hope I had to finding someone that was still alive.)" Karkat mumbled in German, but Rufioh had no idea what he said.

"If you knew them, I'm sorry..." Rufioh put his arm around Karkat and hugged him close. "I'm sure you'll find them again. And they were in France! So they're pretty safe already. I know they have to be alive..."

"Mm..." Karkat muttered. "...alive..." He said randomly.

"Yeah, alive..." Rufioh said again, looking down at Karkat, who was crying silently. "Hey, what's wrong?" He asked, pulling Karkat into his lap. "What's the matter?"

Karkat rubbed at his eye and up under the eye patch. He sniffed and wiped his tears. "...ich vermisse meine Familie...(I miss my family)" he mumbled, crying harder and harder.

"Your family? ...you miss them don't you..." Rufioh hugged the child to his chest and rocked him.

After about an hour, Karkat was so emotionally drained that he fell asleep. He pressed all his weight against Rufioh, his cheek was squished against the soldier's shoulder. Rufioh soon got tired as well and kept Karkat on his chest as he laid down in the cot. The two were fast asleep, breathing normally and calmly. They were finally safe, at least for the time being. 

Karkat woke Rufioh up in the middle of the night. He was crying and sitting up beside Rufioh.

"Hey...what's wrong?" Rufioh sat up and pulled Karkat into his lap. "Did you have a bad dream?"

Karkat pointed to Rufioh's chest, which was bleeding. He did have a nightmare, but when he woke up Rufioh was bleeding

Rufioh looked down at his chest. "Oh, I'm Okay." He lied to make Karkat feel better.

"No okay!" Karkat whined. "Hurt!" He pointed at Rufioh again.

"No, I'm okay! Really!" Rufioh put his hand on Karkat's head.

Karkat wouldn't take this answer. He hopped off the cot and grabbed Rufioh's hand. He dragged the soldier to the medical tent and pointed at the supplies.

"No ones in here, Karkat." Rufioh sighed. He tried to pick up the child, but he pushed him away. "We have to go back to the tent..."

"No!! Hurt!" Karkat kept pointing at the bloody spot on Rufioh's shirt. "Hurt! Hurt!" He pushed Rufioh farther into the tent.

"Karkat! Be quiet! People are sleeping!" Rufioh said quietly, trying to pick Karkat up again.

"No!!" Karkat said loudly. "Hurt!!" He pulled on Rufioh, looking for bandages. All of the rummaging woke the doctors up.

"Who?" They said groggily, sitting up and coming over to Rufioh and Karkat. "What are you doing?"

"Sorry, Karkat woke up and ran inside here..." Rufioh covered his chest with his jacket. He wanted to get help in the morning.

Karkat would not have that. He grabbed Rufioh's hands and pulled them away. He pushed the jacket off and pointed at Rufioh's chest. "Rufioh hurt!" He said, crossing his arms.

"We can deal with it later. I'm fi-"

"What are you talking about?" The doctor crossed his arms. "You needed a child to get you help! Why didn't you deal with this earlier??" He groaned, giving the tent a small light and telling Rufioh to come over. "I can deal with it a bit now, but you shouldn't have let this happen. If it hadn't have bled it could go infected and get you sick." The doctor told Rufioh to take his shirt off, he obliged. The doctor grabbed some bandages and properly wrapped the wound and stopped the bleeding for the most part. "Now, go back to sleep."

Rufioh nodded, picking up Karkat and taking him back to the tent. It was freezing out and Karkat didn't have a jacket, he clung to Rufioh and shivered. "...lets get you warmed up..." Rufioh said, putting the blanket around Karkat. "Better?"

Karkat nodded, feeling warmer but not understanding the words. "No hurt?" He pointed to Rufioh's chest.

"Oh...no. I'm okay. Let's just get some sleep..." Rufioh said, laying down with Karkat wrapped in a blanket. The two fell back asleep without waking anyone else up.