"Come on you two idiots, wake up." Karkat's loud voice startles you awake.

You flinch and go to sit up, but something pulls you back down. You look over to see that Eridan, instead of using his pillow like a sensible person, was resting his head on your arm. You look at him for a few moments before you shake him.

"C'mon Eridan, we have to get moving."

You almost laugh when he snuggles into your arm further. He was acting like Rose did when she was a kitten. You shake him once more and watch as his eyes blink open. He seems confused for a moment, that is until he looks up at you.

He lets out a loud screech as he jumps away from you; this causes you to burst out laughing.

"Oh my, that was great!" you shout as you hold your stomach.

You look back over at Eridan to see that his face had gone red, probably from the embarrassment. Eridan frowns and grab a hold of his boots, slipping them on.

"Wait, Eridan, I'm sorry!" you call out as he exits the tent.

Once you've calmed down you put your shoes on and begin to pack up.

"Hey (y/n), what'd you do to Eridan, he looks like he just got his face burnt!" Sollux calls out.

"Shut up, cleric!" Eridan snaps.

This causes you to giggle as you continue to pack up. You look inside the tent to see that Rose was no longer sleeping.

"Hey, is Rose over there?!"

"Yeah, just feeding her!" Karkat yells back.

You nod and continue on with packing up.

By the time you finish, Karkat had finished cooking. Karkat was kind of the temporary mum for the trip, which kind of amused you. You sit your bag and staff beside you and take a plate from Karkat.

"Thank you."

With that you dig in. You don't know why, but you were starving. You weren't sure if you would be able to stop for lunch, so you enjoyed as much food as you could.

"So, how far do you think we'll make it?" Eridan asks.

"Well, the Blood Kingdom definitely was the longest to trek through, so I grabbed a map while shopping and the previous calculations were wrong," you state, "it should only take a few days to pass through each kingdom."

"Oh thank fuck, I didn't want to be stuck travelling for that long. Karkat sighs in relief.

You laugh and finish off your food.

Once everyone has eaten and everything packed up, you all set off, hopefully you'll reach the end of the Doom Kingdom today. With staff gripped in hand and familiar on shoulder, you begin to make the sludgy trek across.

Luckily going to bed early was a good idea because you were wide awake and surprisingly the muck wasn't too hard to get through. Wow, you should really try sleeping early more!

"Oh my fucking god (y/n), slow your sorry ass down." You hear Karkat.

"Oh quite whining." You turn around and poke your tongue out.

You were ahead of the others, with Eridan trailing behind, then Sollux and Karkat in dead last.

"Man, my grandmother could move faster than you Karkat." You mock.

You hear him grumble some incoherent before the sloshing sound of his feet wading through the swamp becomes more frequent. You watch as Karkat storms ahead of you, a pissed off look on his face. You knew he would get tired and fall behind again soon enough so you let him burn himself out.

"Hey (y/n)." Sollux mumbles as he begins walking beside you.

"Hey Sollux," you smile, "glad you're keeping up."

You both continue to watch Karkat, who was still marching on ahead.

"You do know that he's probably going to collapse eventually."

"I give it 20 minutes." You hum.

"Nah, 10."

You both laugh as Karkat screeches that he can hear both of you. You glance behind you to see Eridan only a few metres back. When you meet eyes you smile at him, but he just looks down and keeps walking. You frown and look forward.

'What's the matter with him?'

You shake it off and continue to walk, not wanting to break your speed. Guess you'll ask him later, maybe when you both go to bed.

"So, Sollux," you start, "were you born in the Doom Kingdom?"

"Yeah, but I don't actually remember most of my childhood," Sollux shrugs, "but I do remember a girl."

"Oh, really?" you hum, 'was she your girlfriend or something?"

"I'm not sure, maybe," Sollux shrugs once again, "but it doesn't matter, the past is the past."

"I guess that is one way to look at it."

"So, what about you?" Sollux asks.

"Oh, well, I was born in the Hope Kingdom, but when I was young I was taken and kept in the Rage Kingdom." You give him the short explanation.

"Well, I guess we both have weird pasts."

"Yeah, I guess so."