Alright so here is the fic for the wonderful AraKar anon!
Yay! C:
1. Mud. I fucking hate mud.
2. Walking long distances. It's just so pointless.
"Hey! Slowpoke! You're going to get left behind at this rate!" A voice calls brightly from just ahead of you. You suck in a deep breath and jog to catch up to your date and guide, one Aradia Megido. Not that you mustered up the courage to ask her out. Oh no. After years of sighing and wishing and pretending not to look at her, she finally approached you. Hey, she said, smiling politely, care to go on an adventure with me?
Of coarse you cared to fucking go on an adventure with her. You're practically in love with her.
3. I hate how much of a nooksniffing wuss I am.
And then you're standing next to her, at the edge of a cliff somewhere in a jungle (it's not like you were paying close attention) and she's smiling, and oh god is she beautiful when she smiles, and the light hits her face just-
"You have a bug on your face." Wow. That just came out of your mouth.
4. I hate my inability to say suave, cool fucking things. 'Bugs' my ass.
Her eyes widen comically, and she yelps a little, swatting at her face. Once it's gone, she smiles again, regaining her composure.
"Those things are nasty! They bite sometimes!" She giggles, and you notice for the millionth time how pretty she looks when she laughs, her red painted lips drawn back into an expression of pure glee, and her nose wrinkled in just the right way. It takes all of your strength not to kiss her nose- right there where it wrinkes up. Lost in thought, you slowly become aware of her edging closer to you, her hand ever so slightly seeking yours.
"I like to come here, sometimes, just to think," she murmurs, looking out over the ravine.
"You sit here? Seems uncomfortable as shit to me."
"No, I sit-" She stretches out a long, graceful arm out to the cliff across from you- "over there. There's this moss bed... You look worried."
"Well I wouldn't say worried. I would say, maybe, concerned, or perhaps, terrified of falling and plummeting to my devastatingly premature death. Or you falling and plummeting to your premature death. I'm the man, Aren't I supposed to fucking take care you of you or some shit? Oh, sweet Mother Grub are you seriously going to swing across with that vine."
She is now holding a thick vine in one hand, grinning mischievously.
"I'll go first. Try not to die of fear in the mean time?" She giggles a little at her remark, takes a few steps back, grips the vine, and throws herself across the gap. A cry of wonder echoes around the ravine walls, and around the inside of your brain. You try not to die of fear in the mean time. It's not like you could explain to her Lusus why her broken body is now lying in the bottom of a ravine. Or why she's now missing an arm, or a leg, or-
5. Being a pessimistic worrywart.
"Hey! Karkat! I'm going to throw the vine back to you now!" Aradia calls from the other side. You secretly breathe a sigh of relief that she made it across in one piece.
"Are you ready?" She yells again, and without waiting for your reply, she hurls the vine back to your side of the ravine. It swings right past your head, and you grab onto it tight.
"Alright! Now run back, and jump! You'll be fine! Trust me!"
6. I fucking hate cliffs.
7. I also, for the record, hate vines.
8. A combination of the two, surprisingly, is not high on the list.
You nervously peek over the edge of the cliff, then back at Aradia.
"Well, there's obviously no other way to do it..." you mutter, staring at your muddy, dirty shoes.
"C'mon Karkat! Some time this sweep!"
You take a deep breath. Compose yourself. You step back, holding the vine, and in your best imitation of Aradia, you throw yourself across the gap, flailing and shouting curse words.
9. The sensation of flying. Who the fuck thought this is so great.
Aradia sits down on the moss bed and laughs. As soon as you're across, you drop the vine and roll across the dusty rock until you're lying spread-eagled next to her, panting. She leans over you, laughing. Her long, dark curls drop down into your face and form a curtain around the two of you. Her smile drops slowly, and her face transforms into a mirror image of the doofy, lovesick face you've been making at her ever since you can remember. Except, it doesn't look doofy on her, it looks-
"Beautiful," you finish out loud. That sounded alright.
"What?" she says softly, a smile gracing the corners of her lips.
"Nothing, just... ugh. Fuck. You're just... I mean the way you... Shit," You stammer, your face burning with embarrassment.
"I mean," You start again, "You ask me to come on an adventure with you. And then we walked all that long way and now we're here and I had to rick my life and yours and swing across a fucking ravine-"
It's a good thing she kissed you before you could continue to go nowhere with that train of thought.
Her lips meet yours, and suddenly you understand. You finally understand all the movies, the stories of love, you understand why you've been waiting so long for just the right person to come along. When you place a hand on her cheek, it is gingerly, as if she is made of smoke, and will vanish into the air at the slightest wave of your hand. Her skin is soft, her lips sweet, and when she pulls away dreamily (slowly, as if moving through jello), you feel as if a part of you has been torn away. She sits up, and looks across the ravine again, leaving you stunned on the dusty, dirty ground.
When #10 comes to you, it is a sad, longing hatred. So dull it is almost not a hatred at all, but a plead.
10. I hate being without her.
Your name is Karkat Vantas, and you are starting a list of things you love. So far, they are all her.
