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Earth's sun isn't fierce enough to burn you the way Alternia's did. Hell, humans are mostly diurnal, and their skin is tissue-paper thin. Still, it doesn't feel right, going out into the radiant heat of midday on a goddamn tropical island. Jade can't get either of you to follow her out there when it's the middle of the day. (Either Sollux hasn't figured out that it bothers you, or he's more of a wuss about the sun than you are. Otherwise he'd be going out to swan around with her at noon just to see how much you hated keeping up.)
She's almost never in the house when you roll out of your pile in the late afternoon and start looking for her, though. She treats her island as a place to play, safe, and after a whole Earth-style perigee you're starting to get used to the idea. Today Sollux is already up and gone when you drag yourself into a standing position and go in search of him. You absently want to kick him in the glutes for running off without you, but you probably would have done the same thing if he'd been the one still drooling into his pile when you woke up.
You stuff yourself into enough clothes to be decent and tug your shoes on. You'll just have to go find them, and disrupt his stupid attempts to corner Jade for undivided attention. Like he could even compete once you're around.
The light has gone fiery orange outside, shadows stretching long across the ground. You stand still for a minute and get used to the sun at your back, listening for voices. When you hear something, it's from the direction of the cove—it was going to be either that or the garden, you figure.
Sandy soil crumbles under your feet as you follow the path down to the sheltered cove on the east side of the island. You remind yourself that you don't need your sickles. You're not on Alternia anymore. Not everything is just out to get you as a matter of course.
When you come around the last pile of volcanic rock and reach the cove, you don't even try to hold back a hoot of laughter. Sollux is standing at the water's edge, where the waves come up just to his ankles, his pants rolled up and his posture stiff and bristly as an affronted purrbeast's.
"Shut up, KK," he says without turning around; you barely catch the words over the sounds of the waves.
Jade surfaces further out in the water, long hair streaming down her back, brown skin gleaming in the fading light. A lot of brown skin, fuck, she's not wearing anything at all. You look down at your shoes in a hurry.
"Hi Karkat!" she calls as she wades in to shore. "Nice of you to join us!" She walks right up to you, until you can see her bare toes facing off against your sneakers.
"Harley for the love of fuck where are your clothes," you say, and you mean to sound demanding and outraged but your voice squeaks a little.
She giggles at you. Giggles, like she's in any way the normal one here. "I didn't want them to get wet!" she says. She grabs at your hand. "Come on, you should come swimming!"
Well, then you have to look up at her face, just to give her the full force of your what the fuck Harley expression. You've refined it special for her. "Harley, I don't swim."
"I've been trying to explain that," Sollux contributes. "We're landdwellers. Walking into the sea is not a thing we do."
The little part of your bloodpusher that lives to spite Sollux tempts you to argue with him just on principle. Jade grins. "Aaaw, and I hoped one of you wouldn't be too chicken to try it!"
Goddamnit, she's needling you on purpose and it's working. You still haven't figured out how to ask her whether this is just more gross human friendship at work or whether she has feelings for you—either of you, both of you, how would you even start the question, you don't know. You stomp your way out of your sneakers and pull your shirt off over your head, thinking about the fact that she annoys the shit out of you on a regular basis and still makes you feel stupidly tender and wobbly just as often. Sort of like Sollux does, to be honest. Karkat Vantas: the troll who can't ever sort his own fucking quadrants out.
You toss your shirt at the ground like it's a challenge and glare at Jade. "Never let it be said that Karkat Vantas was too cluckbeast to keep up with a human."
Jade just says, "Pants, too!" and the only thing that keeps you going is Sollux's dismayed grimace. God help you, you're going to show him up.
You still can't look at him as you drop trou. "All right, Harley, do your worst."
She grabs you by one hand and starts pulling you toward the water. "We won't go far!" she promises. "It's just so nice, and the water's warm, and you really need to learn to try new things sometimes."
That's not safe, you bite back. It's different on Earth. Not everything is trying to destroy you all the time. Maybe it's okay to get used to that. You can hear Sollux lisping curses behind you as Jade leads you into the water.
It isn't blood-warm, but it's warmer than you expected it to be, and the sand feels different underfoot when it's ocean-bottom instead of loose dunes. The waves push-pull at you as you wade in deeper, and it's slow going, pushing through the water's resistance. You're probably holding on too tight to Jade's hand. You can't help it.
"I'm probably going to have to teach you both to swim, huh?" Jade says, as Sollux catches up with you, chest deep in the water and being ever so slightly lifted by it each time a swell rolls toward the shore.
"Whenever you say you're going to have to do something, what you mean is you've already decided to do it no matter what anyone else thinks," you point out. "God, have the fucking decency to look sorry every once in a while."
"Nope!" she chirps. "Sollux, take Karkat's other hand, would you?"
"Ehehe, do I have to?" Sollux asks, but by the time you turn your glare on him he's already tangling his phalanges with yours, and the little squeeze he gives you is stupidly reassuring.
Jade puts a hand on your back, a little below your shoulderblades. "Now lean back," she says.
"I hate you," you say, and don't mean it at all. You lean back slowly into the water, and her hand under you keeps you near the surface. The water lapping at your ears is bizarre.
"Pick up your feet and straighten out," Jade says, which is ridiculous. She remains immune to your glaring. "Go on!"
You remain susceptible to her insistence. You do what you're told, and you're expecting to just sink like a stone but you don't. Instead you float there, not quite submerged, blue sky above you and the water rocking you back and forth. Sollux is holding one of your hands and Jade is holding the other: you're floating but you're not detached, not lost. They've got you, and you've got them, and just for now you're at peace.