Sheltering Home: Strawberry Surprise Part 1

Sheltering Home (Karkat X Reader)
Strawberry Surprise
Part 1

Beth led you to the room that new animals waited in while they were checked for health and such. She quickly pulled you over to the exercise pen, and pointed at… something.

You couldn’t suppress a gasp at the things appearance. It sort of looked like a grub, but it had a human like head. The body was a vibrant red, while the head was grey. It had a mess of fluffy black hair, solid red eyes and little nubby horns that reminded you of candy corn.

“Beth, what the hell is that?” you breathed. Beside you, Beth shrugged.

“I honestly have no idea. He showed up in a padlocked picnic basket this morning. Padlocked! There was a note, but it doesn’t say much… Just that this little guy needs a home really badly. It also mentions that he’s a bit of a grumpy-pants. It just calls him ‘grub’ though, so I’m not sure what the heck he is.” She said.

You gave her an incredulous look. “Then why aren’t you handing him over to a scientist or something? He’s probably some sort of rare species or something!” you exclaimed. At your mention of scientist, the… grub… hissed a little.

With a snort, Beth nodded at the red creature. “That’s why! He doesn’t want to go with a scientist! Besides, they’d just treat him like an experiment, and the note stresses that he needs a lot of TLC! So please, at least until I can figure out a better place for him, could you take care of him? I mean, your folks are out, so they don’t even ever need to know if you don’t want them too!” Beth’s eyes were pleading, and you found yourself giving in.

You sighed, but headed towards the exercise pen anyway. When you entered the pen, the grub let out an angry shriek and scuttled to the other side of the pen. You calmly sat down and smiled a little at the angry grub. “Shh, it’s ok little guy, I won’t hurt you. I promise.” You said in the most soothing voice you could muster.

The grub glared at you and once again tried to run, but this time he just ended up falling onto his back. He began to squirm and shriek in irritation, and you quickly realized he couldn’t turn himself over. You couldn’t help but laugh at the pathetic sight.

You slowly scooted towards him and gently picked him up. He was about the size of a new born baby, but twice as wiggly. The grub let out an indignant shriek and tried to escape your grasp, but you held him against your chest as tightly as you dared.

Beth offered you a relieved smile. “I’ll go get his basket.” She said, before disappearing back into the main lobby. You sighed and began to rock your grub. After a minute of rocking, his shrieks were replaced by yawns. You glanced down at him in time to find him snuggle closer to your heart and fall asleep.

You had started out being a bit afraid of this thing, but now you were already falling in love with him. After all, he was pretty cute when he was asleep.

By the time Beth returned with the basket, the grub was softly snoring. Your friend’s eyes widened and she gave you a huge, goofy grin. “Wow, I can’t believe you did that. I couldn’t even pick him up without getting bit!” she whispered.

You rolled your eyes and carefully slipped the grub into the basket. “Don’t forget, I’m not keeping him forever. My parent’s are coming home for Christmas, remember?” you told her. She merely shrugged and shooed you out.