Closure (Karkat X Reader)

Chapter 18

"You look like you just saw a ghost," I say to Karkat, who is now fully dressed and sitting on the edge of my bed. I feel both amused and scarred by the events of the last twenty minutes, but I try to make it more amusing, although the image of his privacy space is still burned into my mind like a brand on a cow.
"Shut the fuck up." He says, his blush deepening.
"Make me." I reply playfully, sitting up in bed. He glares daggers at me, but I just laugh, able to recognize that his rude gestures aren't genuine. It's probably the reason why I'm probably the only person in the school who tolerates him more than I should. Pulling forward, I wrap my arms around his tense frame, feeling him stiffen under my touch. "But don't worry, Karkat; just because you have interesting anatomy doesn't mean I'm going to break up with you." I add, thinking that he might be assuming I will do just that. I hesitantly wait for a reply until he gives a shaky breath of a laugh and attempts to relax his shoulders, but to no avail.
"I think this takes the whole 'size doesn't matter' phrase to a whole new goddamn level." He replies, trying to act more lighthearted.

"That's the spirit!" I giggle, squeezing him softly and letting go.
The door opens, revealing a groggy looking Kankri in the door frame.
"What is all of this noise about? You may trigger the neighbors." He says, rubbing his sleep ridden eyelids.
"Oh, nothing, Kankri." I say with a small smile, hoping not to give Karkat a free lecture on the importance of privacy.
"It sure did not sound like nothing, y/n. Are you two sure that you are not concealing anything from my frame of knowledge?" He inquires, suspiciously eyeing our expressions.
"Not really." I reply, letting myself do all the talking. Karkat seems temporarily incapable of all actions due to the embarassment of his brother now walking in. He sighs, grabbing the door handle.
"I'll just leave you two to it, then."

Eventually, I get Karkat to calm down, and I decide to have Kankri stay home and work while we go to get groceries. As we walk out the door, I flash him a smile and tell him that we can take care of it. He's worried about his job and both me and Karkat, and I can tell that the stress levels are higher than normal, so I try to take them down as much as I possibly can, which still isn't enough. The dark circles under his eyes get bigger each day.
We drive to Wal-Mart with a positive atmosphere in the car (well, I make it positive by blocking out his negative vibes), and by the time we get there, it seems that I calmed down my poor boyfriends nerves enough to have a decent conversation.
"So," I say as we enter the automated enterance "do you know what you need? I know we need cereal, and Kankri wanted some more nutrigrain bars... I was also thinking that we could make spaghetti for dinner together, so Kankri doesn't have to cook or anything. What do you think?" I ask, looking over to him. His eyes look around the door, distracted by his own thoughts. "Karkat? You there?" I press, waving my hand over his face. He blinks, looking over to me.
"Sorry, what did you say?" My eye twitches in annoyance. He's acting all weird just because I saw his tenta-whatever, but it's not very mature of him to be this distant over something like that.
"Is there any food you want? Like, chips or something?" He shrugs, making me roll my eyes and grab his arm, dragging him through various isles in search of his nutrient sources. "FINE. Then I guess we'll have to go on a scavenger hunt, huh?" I ask more to myself than to him. I stop at the cereals, grabbing a box of Captain Crunch. I look for the wagon and realize that I was too occupied to grab one. I sigh. "Shoot. I forgot to grab a wagon. Would you mind grabbing one for me, Karkat?" I ask, giving him my best puppy eyes.
"Whatever." He replies, stalking off to go get the wagon.
I stare at the air he was just occupying, bewildered at this new behavior of his.