𝙇𝙀𝙈𝙊𝙉 𝘿𝙊𝙑𝙀 | karlnapity

Chapter Eighteen.

• three hundred and thirty seven years in the future •

Karl realised very quickly after leaving the club with cheers chasing him and a determination to get back his true loves, that he actually physically could not get back to his true loves. (He has no clue how to actually time travel. Ironic, truly.)

So, he resigned to awkwardly sidling back to the club to ask Quackity's lookalike if he had anywhere Karl could stay for a night.

The other had been confused, but then: "Oh right, the trains don't run on Sundays."

Karl isn't entirely sure who the Trains are, but if them deciding not to go for a run is giving him an excuse to stick around longer, he isn't going to complain.

Which leaves him with a broom and a tired-looking Sapnap lookalike in the middle of the empty club. Quackity had been as nice as his sort of personality would be to a guy he met yesterday, and had agreed to house Karl as long as the man earned his keep.

"You can stay until the trains get going again, and no later. I don't like freeloaders." Which means Karl can only hope that the Trains are really exhausted from their previous runs, and decide not to go for a run again tomorrow, and preferably the day after that.

Because the problem is, Karl understands the basic concept of his job: he gets sent to a timeline, he does what he likes to call "missions" as he single-handedly restores peace and/or brings unity, and then gets sent home again.

But now he's gotten to the day after he was supposed to complete the mission, having gotten distracted and then slept through the night, and he still hasn't been sent home.

So.. what? Has he just missed it and will be stuck in this timeline forever, or was this all part of the higher-ups' plan and actually the mission will be complete today?

Karl rolls his shoulders and begs silently that it's the second one, he loves it here, really, but he doesn't think he could live with the guilt of never going home. Leaving his Sapnap as the man begs him not to is hard enough, but he's only able to do that in the first place because usually he's too fucking tired to try and protest to the higher up's wishes.

Karl's brain hurts, and his back.

"You okay there?" Sapnap's lookalike has been tasked with the job of keeping an eye on Karl. ("Just for safety purposes, you understand") but Karl doubts its his own safety that Quackity cares much about.

Apparently, since Sapnap works night shifts, right now he should be asleep. But Quackity managed to tempt him into an all-nighter (or.. all-dayer?) to "look after Karl".

Karl smiles at him wryly, turning back to where he was previously trying to get a lemon skin from an annoying corner in the skirting board with his broom. "Fine, but I think sleeping on that sofa may have killed my back."

"Really?" Sapnap eyes him worriedly. 'You're sleeping there again tonight I believe. You sure you'll be okay?"

Karl pulls a face. "Oh." He doesn't love that idea, but puts it out of his mind. "Well.. I'll be fine, I should be grateful for the couch at all I suppose."

The lookalike laughs dryly. "Well.. I would offer my bed but it's barely big enough for just me."

Karl looks at him in confusion. The thought hadn't even occurred to him that these lookalike's have their own lives, usually he sees them as sort of mindless cretins used as helpers for his missions only, as bad at that sounds. "Do you live above the club too?"

He nods. "Yeah uh, Boss is a bit of a collector-of-strays. Have you met Wallace and Timmy, brothers? Probably not.. But he took them in off the streets too."