Seasons Greetings [Karkat x Reader]

            Ah Christmas, it’s that time of the year again. The time of gift giving, snow, and those cheesy cartoons invading TV.

            You are [First Name] [Last Name] and you absolutely love this time of the year, not because of the presents like most people, but for its sentimentality. And all you wished for year after year was for it to snow in your small town in December.

Normally when it snowed in your town it was in January, and December was actually a warm month seeing as you lived more to the south. Snow was magical to you, even when it was cold enough for water to freeze you were still toasty enough to run around like a hyperactive five year old who had a sugary energy drink.

            It’s currently December 24, Christmas Eve. You were waiting for your friend Karkat Vantas, you’ve known him for about two years now, and as always you dragged him away from his comfy couch watching romcoms. Why have you done this? You wanted to go to your towns local Festival of Lights, and you didn’t want to go alone.

The Festival of Lights, is this lovely festive event that occurs around this time where the local park is decorated in lights, they sell all sorts of neat homemade gifts, and they have fire pits to roast marshmallows. You really find the lights to be beautiful. Most of the time they take the shape of Santa Claus and Christmas related things along with a big menorah for the Jewish people who live in the town, to be respectful to all religions.

            So here you were standing at the entrance of said festival waiting on your grumpy troll of a friend. You were dressed in you [f/c] sweater with some wool tights and some matching boots, your digital camera strapped to your wrist to record this momentous moment. You were so excited to see the new lights and crafts that you were literally bouncing in your boots, getting strange looks from people passing you entering the park.

“You seem way too excited for this dipshit.”

You looked to see Karkat approaching you with his hands in his black and red letterman jacket pockets. That permanent frown etched on his face, as if he would rather be anywhere but here.

A wide smile spread across your face as you waved him over to you. Once he stood in front of you, you wrapped an arm around his shoulder. It helped that you guys were practically the same height, Karkat may be 1cm taller than you. You pulled out your camera and took a quick picture of you two.

“Jegus fuck [Name] what was that for?” he rubbed his eyes that were blinded by the flash

“To commemorate your first Light Festival Karkat.” You giggled.

            Before he could react you grabbed his arm and pulled him into the park, the beginning of the park was decorated with a makeshift sign that read “WELCOME TO THE FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS”. After that you started passing small lights in the shape of Santa’s elves making Christmas gifts in a light workshop. You stopped walking and took a closer look at one of the elves.

“Oh my god…Karkat look!” you pointed excitedly to the elf.

“What?” he grumbled grumpily.

            You let go of his arm and walked off the path to stand beside the elf.

“Doesn’t this face look kinda familiar?” you giggled and wrapped an arm around the 2D elf.

            Karkat’s eyes widened a bit as he walked over to you.

“No way…”

“Yes way! It looks just like your big brother!” you started laughing, and Karkat’s permanent frown softened to an almost smile.

You tossed your camera at him and he caught it clumsily.

“Take a picture!” you said excitedly.

Karkat complied with a small smile on his face.

            After you two had looked at all the Christmas lights you decided to take Karkat to roast some marshmallows. He actually seemed to be having a good time, he was showing a rare half smile and went along with you without a single complaint. You thought it was somewhat strange but you brushed the thought aside so you could focus on having fun.

            You handed Karkat a long stick with four marshmallows on it that you had bought from a fender nearby the fire pits.

“Here you go.”

He took it out of your hand and looked at it with an eyebrow raised.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” He looked over at you.

You laughed and pulled him over to the nearest pit and put your stick over the fire.

“You roast it of course, it’s really yummy.”

    Karkat followed suit and put his over the fire. You waited till yours were cooked just the way you wanted them and then pulled them out of the hot flame and began to eat the gooey white puffs. You relished in their sweet smooth texture.

    When Karkat saw you eating yours he pulled his out of the fire which were almost burnt and took a careful bite out of one. After some thoughtful chewing he smiled and began to devour them. You saw this and burst into a fit of laugher.

“You seem to really like marshmallows Karkat.” You poked him in the side.

He looked over at you a small candy red blush dusting his grey skin. He swallowed the remaining sticky treat and cleared his throat.

“They’re alright…” he pretended to not care, which you could see through immediately.

            You guys were deep into the park way on the other side from where you came in fact. So you decided to ride the hayride back to the other side of the park. You stand at the waiting area nearby the fire pits waiting for the next tractor to come along to carry passengers.

            You yawned, walking around had really zapped you of your energy.

“You tired [Name]?” Karkat looked down at you.

You nodded.

            Just then your ride came and you two found a seat in the back of the trailer on a nice barrel of hay. Once seated you couldn’t keep your eyes from closing, you felt a warm arm wrap around your shoulder.

“Go to sleep, I’ll wake you up when we get there.”

And then sleep enveloped you as you listened to the sounds of the park passing you by.

            You awoke to a soft embrace and a subtle bouncing motion. You cracked open your sleepy eyes and looked around to see you were in someone’s arms. Looking up you saw it was Karkat, he was carrying you.

“Karkat where are we?”

He looked down at you, surprised to see you awake.

“At your door step. You wouldn’t wake up when we came to the end of the ride so I carried you home.” His voice seemed to carry a hint of anger, and you blushed from embarrassment.

“Oh, I see. You can put me down now…” and he did just that.

            Once on your feet Karkat swung your camera by the strap in your face.

“I’m going to borrow this as payment for having to carry your stupid ass home.”

            Too embarrassed to disagree you just nodded and said your goodbyes before you absconded to your house and up the stairs to your room. You couldn’t believe that Karkat had to carry you all the way home, when you were the one who invited him out in the first place.

At least it was Christmas Eve.

    The next morning you rushed downstairs to your Christmas tree. There were a few gifts under the tree for you, mostly from your friends. But one was from your Mom who due to an unfortunate circumstance had to go away for Christmas. After opening your gifts you went to your front door and flung it open to find the most beautiful sight you had ever seen.

    It was snowing, on Christmas! Not only that, but there was an envelope stuck in your screen door with your name. You quickly snatched it up and looked at the envelope, there wasn’t a senders name on the card. You opened it up curiously and saw that there was a picture inside.

    Carefully pulling the picture out so it didn’t snag on the envelope the sight that awaited you made your whole face heat up.

    It was of you sleeping on Karkat’s shoulder, not only that but Karkat was pressing his grey lips to your cheek. And written under it in bold red letters was “FLUSHED FOR YOU”. It was Karkat’s handwriting, and you couldn’t help the goofy grin that spread across your face as you hugged the picture to your chest jumping up and down with joy.

    This really was the best Christmas ever.