「 ✶ JUNO'S ART STATION ✶ 」

You are now [Your Name] again.

“Auuughhhhhhh….”

Silence.

“AUUUUUGGGHHHHHHHHH”

Imagine, being in the most mopey and also pathetic state of moaning and groaning right now. There it is, you’re picturing yourself. Face down, flat on the probably-not-clean-and-also-itchy carpeting that covers half of the library-living-room.

“Sooooooo boreddddddd” you groan, muffled by the rug beneath you. There is no response, even though your two human friends are sitting only a few feet away from you. And you know they can both hear you.

“Daaaaaaave,” you glance over at him, and he stares at you through his shades. “I’m sooooooooooo booooooored.”

“yeah” he responds with a shrug. “me too i guess”

“Ugh. Such a boring response. It’s like a plague taking over everything! Even Dave’s witty little sense of humor!”

“what did you want me to say? shit youre bored you say???? let me pull a tech deck out of my god damned ass” he very flatteringly enacts what this gesture would look like. “oh look, how’d that get there?”

“Heheh… yeah thats more like it.” You say, feeling 1% more amused than you were a second ago.

“yeah well. honestly i feel like. fresh out of funny right now. feels like this meteor is sucking the witty little humor or whatever you called it out of me. i got nothin lately.” he leans his head over in rose’s direction. “rose are you sure you didnt take every ounce of this guys charisma and charm to fuel this fucked up fiery piece of rock?”

“Assuming there was anything to take in the first place-“

“hey.”

“-I’m pretty sure I’d remember doing such a thing, if it were even possible.” She responds, not looking up from her notebook she’s been writing in. “And I’m afraid thats not my classpect specialty.”

“yeah thats a pretty guilty response if you ask me.”

Rose ignores this, turning to look at you. “If it makes you feel any better, Y/N, we should be arriving soon.”

Your head perks up from the rug (and it’s kinda red, ouch.) “REALLY??” You say, interest suddenly peaked.

“Yes. It should only be a year and two months until we arrive at the new sessi-“

The last word is cut off as you slap your face back down and let out another groan.

“Well, that’s shorter than the preceding time we’ve spent on this rock so far.” She defends.

“Yeah… You’re right.” You say , defeated, as you slowly flip yourself over onto your back. You stare at the grey metal ceiling.

“i still cant believe its been so long.“ Dave says, and you nod in agreement.

“Yeah. It’s crazy. I’m surprised it’s been pretty tame between such a big group of diverse teens.” You respond, which regards a chuckle out of rose.

You lean your head back to glance at her, confused.

“I don’t know if I would use the word “tame” to describe it, really. I think you’re forgetting about how many times we had to break apart Dave and Karkat. Holding back Kanaya from going on clown hunts, and thus everything to do with said clown in general. Especially now with the suspicious acts taking place with him and a good friend of ours.” She rolls her eyes.

Dave leans back in his chair.

“dude, yeah. our lives are like a played out circus show at this point. do yall remember when i had to basically drag back terezi from licking that pipe leak down in the lab that one time? cus i guess the color was really fuckin delicious or something. fuck if i know anything about the hierarchy of color deliciousness. but seriously, she needs a leash or something.” Dave chimes in, slowly prompting you and rose to stare at him in confusion.

“what? were you guys not there for that?”

“I don’t remember this plight, no.” Rose responds.

“huh.” Its quiet for another moment. “she may have convinced me to try it. i dont remember a lot from that day.”

You sigh again. “Man I’d be willing to try mysterious pipe juice right now if it meant not being so fucking BORED.”

Before Dave can even concoct a response, someone transportalizes into the room!

“ALRIGHT, WHERES MY MOIRAIL?”

You know that voice. And it seems he’s looking for you.

You raise your hand up high, so he can see you on the floor, but you don’t bother looking.

“right over here bro. straight groaning up a storm. stagnant now but it could start up again at any moment.”

You humor him, and let out a groan. But this time, it’s obviously ironic. Obviously. He smiles at this.

Karkat, on the contrary, is looking very un-amused and rather pissed off.

“OH OKAY! GREAT! WELL, GOOD TO KNOW YOU WERE GROANING IT UP IN HERE WITHOUT ME, WHEN YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO MEET ME AT MY ROOM FOR MOVIE NIGHT LIKE A HUMAN HOUR AND A HALF AGO.”

Damnit. You forgot.

“dude you can just say hour and a half. you don’t have to put the word human in front of everything we invented”

“ILL DO WHAT I WANT. AND YOU DID NOT INVENT THE FUCKING CONCEPT OF TIME.”

Dave takes up a big ass shit-eating smirk at the comment. He leans back, very subtly, but also puffing his chest out, obviously to accentuate his red time boy pajamas. Karkat watches him with a disgusted face. It looks like Dave is about to make some kind of smart ass comeback, when Karkat cuts him off.

“OH JUST FUCK OFF STRIDER. I DONT EVEN WANT TO HEAR IT.”

“nah i like all my fuckin to be on honestly”

“WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?”

You decide to interject before this turns into a full blown Dave-Kat argument.

“Karkat, I’m sorry I missed our movie date. I totally forgot. I just keep losing track of time these days. I don’t even know what the hell today is.” You tell him as you sit up straight.

“wednesday.” Dave informs you almost immediately.

You smile and him and give him a finger gun in his direction.

Karkat seemed to get a tiny bit flustered that you referred to the movie.. hangout.. as a “date”, but of course you’re not looking. Then he gets pissed at your un-fazed finger gun towards Dave, since you’re clearly not understanding the intensity of his annoyance here.

“YEAH. OKAY. YKNOW I DONT REALLY SEE HOW ITS THAT HARD TO REMEMBER, WE JUST TALKED ABOUT IT YESTERDAY. YOU ALWAYS STOP BY MY ROOM ANYWAYS SO I THOUGHT MAYBE YOUD HAVE COME BY AT SOME POINT EVEN IF YOU WERE RUDE ENOUGH TO FORGET.”

“Kar. I’m sorry, okay? I’m just really feeling especially shitty today, I don’t know why.”

“OH NO TRUST ME. I FEEL THE SAME WAY.” he says sarcastically, crossing his arms.

“Alright, no need to get an attitude, sassy pants! I’m just so tired of this!!” You throw your hands up at the ceiling as you fall onto your back again, dramatically. “I just keep living the same thing on this rock everyday! It’s starting to feel like those shitty movies where the main characters are trapped in a timeloop. Except, the only way to escape, is to wait out three whole fucking years! Instead of like, solving some easy life lesson!”

“WELL THATS WHAT WEVE ALL BEEN FUCKING DOING BASICALLY.”

“hey, you never know. maybe that’s the key to making this thing move faster and you just cracked the case wide fucking open. anyone got any life lessons they wanna share? lets make this an group session.”

“FUCK NO. [Y/N], CAN WE JUST GO TO MY ROOM?”

“damn need a room? whats up with you two?” Dave asks.

“NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS, JACKASS.”

“sounds like some interesting business i wanna know about though. based on that totally obvious and embarrassing response. seriously man, i swear i could read you like a book without trying.”

“Leave him alone, Dave. You know there’s nothin going on between us. We’re moirals.” You say, starting to push yourself up again, all the way up this time so you’re finally standing.

“yeah, i still don’t really get what that is. isnt it just basically what a best friend is? but in some weird troll way? and i thought gamzee was your moiral.”

“OKAY. MOVING PAST YOUR INCREDIBLY INACCURATE AND ABHORRENTLY SHIT-OUT ASSUMPTION OF THE COMPLEX QUADRANT OF TROLL MOIRAILLEGIANCE. TO ANSWER YOUR SOME-WHAT QUESTION; YES HE WAS. BUT I BARELY EVER SEE THE GUY ANYMORE. I HAVENT ACTUALLY HAD A CONVERSATION WITH HIM IN LIKE A WHOLE HUMAN YEAR-“

“dude.”

“AND IT WAS POINTLESS ANYWAYS BECAUSE HIS LUNATIC ASS IS ALREADY WAY BEYOND HELP AT THIS POINT. WASNT ANYTHING MORE I COULD DO FOR THAT BACK STABBING CLOWN FREAK.”

You frown a little. You know that’s not really how he feels. You’ve talked about it a lot. He’s actually hurt about the way Gamzee left him in the dust. It’s basically like he ghosted him irl, but the betrayal runs deeps. You know Kar really tried with him and he wanted to help.

You give him a knowing look, but he doesn’t look at you purposely.

“BUT WHATEVER, I DIDNT COME HERE TO SPEW QUADRANT COMPLEXITIES TO AN AUDIENCE OF HUMANS. [Y/N] JUST COME TO MY ROOM AND WE CAN WATCH A MOVIE OR SOMETHING. ITLL MAKE YOU FEEL LESS SHITTY”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” You agree. Hanging out with Karkat pretty much always makes you feel better. It’s like a warm feeling whenever you’re around him. You assume thats what those “pale feelings” he talks about are.

“shit man, can I come? im bored as hell not gonna lie.” Dave chimes in unexpectedly.

This is pretty unsurprising, considering Dave has been crashing your hangouts with Karkat quite often lately. Ever since he and Terezi broke up, or at least you think they did. They were always pretty elusive about them dating or whatever, but it was pretty obvious. You haven’t seen them together in a long time, so you can only assume they broke up. You’re surprised Karkat hasn’t asked about it yet. You two have definitely gossiped about it.

Dave spends most of his time bugging Rose and Kanaya, or you and Karkat now. It feels like the position you were in around a year ago, before you and Karkat got super close. Oh how the tables have turned. The turntables … because Dave … and his time tool. The time tables. Damn that was good.

“NO. FUCK OFF. IM HANGING OUT WITH [Y/N] TODAY. ALONE.” Karkat snaps at him like a protective dog. This is also unsurprising, as he can be pretty selfish with you lately. The closer you get, the more it seems like he wants it to be only you and him around. But you know you need to keep him social with the others on the meteor.

“Oh come on Kar, let him hang. You know there’s like nothing to do in this place. And we hang out like literally everyday.” You plead. You also like hanging out with Dave, you’re never really opposed to it. It always seems to bother Karkat though, for some reason. You guess they’ve always fought but you thought it was usually because of Terezi.

If you’re being totally honest, you had some feelings for Dave since you first met him YEARS and YEARS ago online. But you kinda gave up on them upon climbing aboard this meteor, and seeing him head over heals for one of your alien friends. Kinda just naturally fell out of it. You’ve told Karkat this unfortunately, along with many other personal things and vise versa. Maybe he felt protective of you since Dave technically and unknowingly hurt you. But you really don’t need him to be like that, because you’re definitely 100% totally over it.

“I THINK ID RATHER PUKE IN MY OWN MOUTH AND SWALLOW IT AGAIN THAN INVITE THIS BULDGEBAG TO A HANGOUT THAT- LET ME REMIND YOU- WAS SUPPOSE TO BE EXCLUSIVELY ME AND YOU. SEVERAL FUCKING HOURS AGO.”

“its cool then. i dont want to like. force a pity invite. and you two clearly wanna be alone so you can get up to whatever sus shit yall be doing together.” Dave comments, and that last part gives off a weirdly bitter vibe.

“WHAT?!” Karkat shouts, face flushing a bit. “WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN BY THAT??”

“what do you think i mean?”

“I THINK YOURE IMPLYING SOMETHING YOU HAVE NOT ONE FUCKING CLUE ABOUT”

“and what would that be?”

“THAT- YOU- UGH YOU KNOW WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT STRIDER DONT ACT LIKE A BUMBLING IDIOT-OHWAIT I FORGOT YOU CANT HELP IT BECAUSE THATS WHAT YOU ARE.”

Wow. You should probably intervene. But you can’t lie it’s pretty entertaining. You’re more shocked with each comeback, but still stuck on what Dave said before. If you didn’t know any better you might’ve thought he sounded… jealous?

Maybe not.

You guess it was normal for your human friends to be suspicious of your relationship with Karkat, but you were just trying to fill the role of moirail as best you could with your understanding. You’re not embarrassed about being close with him. It can be difficult for humans to understand, as you know, being one.

“i seriously dont know what youre talking about at all. youre blushing by the way.” Dave says coolly, obviously just egging on Karkat’s frustration.

Karkat is trying so hard to not freak out and blow his lid right now. He knows how upset you get when he goes off the wall in an argument with Dave. But that just made him more annoyed. Why did you care so much about how he takes out his anger on Dave specifically? It’s not fair.

“URGH.. WHATEVER. JUST STAY THE FUCK OUT OF MY BUSINESS ASSHOLE.” He pushes out through gritted teeth.

“wow thats really ironic coming from the guy who wouldnt get his head out of my ass like a year ago about the same shit.” Dave scoffs as he sits up in his chair.

“THAT IS NOT THE SAME SHIT-“ Karkat starts to quip back, but Dave keeps going.

“and i dont mean ironic in a good way. more in like an annoying pest sort of way. you were like a fuckin fire ant in my boxer briefs last year about this shit man. all biting my dick every 5 seconds about your girl that didnt want you and i couldnt for the life of me shake you out. now you’re tryna be all mature and nonchalant about it like oh yeah bro dont worry about my shit just do you. nice try on that one dumbass, its your turn to be the man dragging his ass across a hill full of meddling little ants.”

“WHAT ARE YOU EVEN SAYING RIGHT NOW.”

“Are you implying you want to be in his pants, Dave? That’s quite bold.” Rose chimes in with a smirk from her place of sitting. Yeah, she would analyze that rant, huh? It was kind of suspect.

“what? no. rose stay out of this.”

“ANYWAYS THIS ISNT EVEN CLOSE TO WHAT WAS GOING ON BETWEEN US LAST SWEEP. IF YOU HAD EVEN LISTENED AT ALL TO WHAT I WAS SAYING BACK THEN, YOU WOULDVE COMPREHENDED WITH YOUR TINY BRAIN SOMEHOW THAT I WAS TRYING TO COINCIDE AND WORK WITH YOU. BUT YOURE ALWAYS TOO UP YOUR OWN NOOK TO TRY TO WORK WITH ANYONE ELSE.”

“whatever man”

“WHATEVER?!”

“yeah, you guys can go get up to shit. forget it.”

“JUST WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU THINK WE GET UP TO ALONE?” Karkat huffs as they continue.

Good god. Why are they still going?

Both you and Rose are watching in silence now.

“i dont know. i was just saying i mean no judgement. i guess there’s nothing else to get up to in this place. were all just a bunch of horny teenagers at the end of the day, human or troll. its no wonder our little pubescent asses jacked full of hormones like babies high off candy end up-“

“Dave.” Rose cuts in, giving him a look of distaste. He gets the vibe.

“ok backtracking. but im just saying i get it. you dont want me to come so you can have your alone time with (y/n) and get up to your weird personal biz. whatever. ill just stay here. no big.”

Funny of him to say ‘no big’ after just making the biggest fucking deal imaginable. What is up with him anyways? Karkat probably can’t really notice behind his rage right now, but this guy is not acting like himself. He definitely cares about this, a lot.

There’s a silence as Karkat holds back his anger.

“LETS GO, [Y/N].” He turns his back to leave, expecting you to follow. For once he was able to notice that he’s in a self-dooming cycle of the same argument back and forth, and actually choose to stop. Well, this is almost what happens at least.

“just maybe try to be quiet cus the hallways are pretty echoey-“

“OH CAN YOU JUST SHUT THE EVERLOVING FUCK UP ALREADY!!!” Karkat finally explodes after being choked up with embarrassment for a hot second at Dave’s DEFINITELY PREPOSTEROUS ASSUMPTION that he would even think about having that sort of relationship with you. Dave of course is purposely trying to bug him, which everyone but Karkat can see.

“YOU JUST NEVER STOP BARFING INCOMPREHENSIBLY MORONIC BULLSHIT OUT OF YOUR SHOUT SPHINCTER, DO YOU?” He starts as he makes his way back over to Dave. “ LETS GET ONE THING STRAIGHT: YOU DONT KNOW *ANYTHING* ABOUT [Y/N] AND I’S RELATIONSHIP IN OUR CURRENT QUADRANT. OH BUT HOW COULD YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT QUADRANTS AT ALL? WHEN YOU CONTINUOUSLY REFUSE TO GIVE A FUCK ABOUT OR RETAIN EVEN A SINGLE PIECE OF GIVEN INFORMATION EVER ABOUT OUR CULTURE. ISN’T THAT RIGHT?”

Karkat continues to get closer to Dave, way too close for him infact. You can see the discomfort building on Dave’s face in parallel to Karkats rising anger. You feel the need to get closer too in case things fly off the handle.

“OH AND LETS NOT FORGET THE FACT THAT YOU ACTUALLY HAD A RED RELATIONSHIP WITH MY SAME SPECIED FRIEND SO MAYBE *THATS* WHY YOUR HEAD IS FILLED WITH ALL YOUR PERVERTED FUCKED UP THOUGHTS THAT YOU CANT EVEN FATHOM A TROLL AND A HUMAN IN A RELATIONSHIP THAT ISNT SEXUAL-“

“woah okay terezi and i never-“

“I REALLY DONT WANT TO KNOW AND FRANKLY I DONT GIVE TWO SHITS ABOUT WHAT YOU TWO GOT UP TO IN YOUR ALONE TIME. BUT YOU DONT GET TO BUCK YOUR HEAD INTO MY QUADRANT BUSINESS JUST BECAUSE YOUR RED ROMANCE WENT TO THE SHIT BOWL. WHY DONT YOU JUST DO WHAT EVERYONE WANTS, AND MIND YOUR OWN FUCKING BUSINESS FOR ONCE!!!”

Silence.

You all stare at Karkat, and you’re surprised Dave actually has nothing to say back yet. Maybe he was sensitive about the Terezi topic? You have to say though, you wouldn’t have expected him to be. He mightve been cagey when it came to their thing together, but he never seemed touchy about it.

“woah…” Dave lets out, backing his face away from Karkat’s as an amused-smirk grows on his expression.

“i really hit a nerve with that one huh? i mean seriously holy shit” He almost laughs with his words.

Okay, nevermind.

Karkat is seething, so much you would think hed start foaming at the mouth soon. You put a hand on his shoulder, but he doesn’t budge.

“Geez. How about you two get a room?” Rose makes a quiet remark from where she sits, and you would laugh if you weren’t genuinely worried for Karkat’s mental stability right now.

“CAN IT ROSE! WE DIDNT ASK FOR YOUR OMINOUS INPUT!!” Karkat shouts at her without looking away.

“Ominous…” She echoes to herself.

“Um,” You finally decide to cut in, “Can we time out for a second?” You say can feel his tenseness let up a little after hearing you.

“Let’s chill out and talk like normal people maybe. This is giving me a headache, and seriously have we not learned that arguing in this place does us no fucking good? Right?” You say looking specifically at Karkat, giving him a look. He only glances at you quickly, letting out a huff and then looking away.

“Anyways. Dave, I want you to come.” You say, gently pushing Karkat back from him, giving him some personal space back. Karkat stares at you in disbelief. “And Karkat does too, despite being an ass and acting like he doesn’t.” you reassure him.

“I AM NOT ACTING-“

“So, how’s movie night sound? Just us three buddies?”

“its cool, (y/n) really. you guys go watch your movie. ill just sit here. twiddling my thumbs or whatever.” He’s looking off at Rose, who is still intentionally avoiding this conversation for the most part.

You shoot Karkat an upset look with your brows furrowed, crossing your arms.

He shakes his head, brows also furrowed at you, and crossing his arms, mimicking you. Very cute. But he’s standing his ground. Gotta try something different.

Instead you change your expression to give him a pout. Now it’s pleading, and you know he can’t keep resisting when you do that.

He tries, and you two stay this way for a few more seconds. It’s almost like a staring match.

“UUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! FINE. DAVE YOU CAN COME WATCH A MOVIE WITH US. I FUCKING GUESS.”

“nah man. i just said i dont want your pity vote.”

“GREAT! I TRIED. LETS GO [Y/N]!” He reaches over and grabs your hand, yanking you away from where you were standing. You let out a yelp as you unexpectedly get pulled along, not expecting him to be able to move you so easily.

“Man.” You frown, digging your heels in the carpet below you so Karkat can’t pull you any further. “You guys are both being big babies. Why can’t we all just hang out and not make it this big stupid deal?”

It’s quiet for a moment, the both of them staring at you without saying anything.

“Would you all just go already? This conversation is incrediblely painful to listen to, and I’m trying to focus.” Rose chimes in, not looking up from her notebook this time.

“OH ITS PAINFUL FOR Y-“ Karkat goes to start another, very unnecessary argument, but you cover his mouth with your free hand before he can. Karkat muffle-yells something into your hand.

“Alright boys, you heard the seer. Lets go!” You say calmly, now officially deciding that they’re both coming, no more fighting. You don’t want to annoy or bother Rose any longer. You retract your hand from Karkats face and drag him over with you to grab Dave’s hand. He almost retracts from the physical interaction, but you’re too fast, and once you grab on to it your grip is too strong to wriggle out of.

Now the both of them are looking very uncomfortable, and maybe slightly flustered. You march forward, bringing them both with you. Neither of them really bother saying anything to defy you. They both know they wanted to hang out with you as much as each other. Even if it’s hidden under angry denial or a cool facade.

Once you get to Karkats room, you let go of his hand to allow him to put in the code. Without thinking, you keep holding Dave’s hand, and he stands very stiff, much more aware of this than you obviously.

“I still don’t know why you keep your room locked, bro. There’s nothing in there any of us would wanna steal” he says, cool as ever, hiding his awkwardness very well.

“I DONT GIVE A FUCK IF NO ONES STEALING. I DONT WANT EVEN THE POSSIBILITY OF ANYONE GOING THROUGH MY SHIT.”

“yeah i don’t think anyone wants to do that either. what could you even be hiding in there? some weird alien sex t-“

You slap Dave’s arm and frown at him. He gives you a shrug.

“IM NOT *HIDING* ANYTHING. MY THINGS ARE MY PRIVATE PROPERTY AND ID LIKE TO KEEP IT THAT WAY.” Karkat answers as his door starts to open, clearly he didn’t hear that last sentence. “PLUS, WITH THE WHOLE DREAM BUBBLE BULLSHIT, I DONT KNOW WHAT WEIRDO STRANGERS MIGHT JUST RANDOMLY WALTZ IN HERE AND LOOK THROUGH MY SHIT OR SIT THEIR ASSES ALL OVER MY FURNITURE.”

“dont you have like. two pieces of furniture.”

“YEAH AND I STILL DONT WANT STRANGER ASS RUBBING UP ON IT, PREFERABLY.”

By now, the door is completely open and the three of you have walked in. Karkat clicks a button to close the door behind you.

“So!” You say, clasping your hands together happily, looking at the two boys. “What are we watching?”

Dave goes to say something, but Karkat cuts him off. “WELL. IT WAS YOUR TURN TO CHOOSE THE MOVIE. BUT SINCE YOU TOTALLY FUCKED OFF EARLIER AND STOOD ME UP, IM CHOOSING.”

“Fair enough.” You say, not bothering to argue about it.

Karkat moves over to a chest where he kept most of his belongings, mostly books and movies, and a pair of sickles buried all the way underneath them. Hasn’t been much reason for fighting lately.

Dave takes a seat on the right side of the couch. “Nice. Love consuming weird alien media. It’s probably my favorite passtime at this point.” You cant tell if he’s being sarcastic, but you giggle at it anyways. You move to turn on the tv, and then suddenly realize something.

“OH! I SHOULD MAKE POPCORN!” You shout, making the two boys look at you. “I’ll be right back.”

You move to the door, clicking the button to open it. Karkat steps in your direction, movie in hand “WAIT!”

You stop to look back at him, door still opening.

“DO YOU WANT ME TO COME WITH YOU?” He asks innocently. It’s a sweet gesture, because he knows how you always hated to be alone in the hallways. It might also be because he doesn’t want to be left in awkward silence with strider, but you want to believe it’s mostly the first reason.

However, as of recently, you really haven’t had a problem moving through the halls on your own. You’ve seen Gamzee maybe once or twice while being on this trip. Once was when you briefly saw him crawling into a vent. The two of you made the most uncomfortable and horrifying eye contact you think you’ve ever had in your life, before he left your sight. You shiver. So weird. But you haven’t seen him in probably a year now, and at this point the threat he poses seems so much less compared to when you started the trip.

“That’s sweet of you Kar, but I’m okay.” You say as you smile at him fondly “Plus, aren’t you worried about Dave rubbing his ass all over your furniture?”

Dave snorts from behind you two and Karkat blushes.

“OKAY, WHATEVER. JUST GO THEN.” He says, feeling a bit embarrassed for even offering now.

“I’ll be quick! You won’t even know I was gone.” You tell him, but he still seems kinda upset. Maybe that tease was a bit much after everything that happened.

You look over at Dave who’s picked up a movie from Kakart’s chest, not paying attention to you two. With quickness you quickly land a kiss on Karkat’s cheek, which surprises the hell out of him.

“([Y/N]!)” He whispers out, strained and clearly shocked because physical touch like that was not your thing when it came to moiraillegiance.

Karkat was the first one to ever kiss you, not long after you two became moirails. It was a comforting kiss— and granted only on the cheek— after you had confided in him during a panic attack. This of course resulted in you freaking out a bit and basically (in troll-norms) rejecting him. This was a whole thing that caused Karkat to be sad and confused for a few days until you two talked it out. It’s just that you hadn’t ever done something like that, being isolated practically your whole life, and for humans that type of stuff was typically more associated with “red feelings”. The two of you agreed to keep it simplified to only non-kissing physical affection. ie: hugs, cuddling, holding hands, general gestures of non-sexual affection via touch. Karkat didn’t really have an issue with this adjustment, considering he didn’t have a lot of hands-on experience with troll romance anyways. Stuff was pretty new to him too. He said he was pretty sure not all moirails do kissing, it’s just portrayed heavily that way in media.

So, imagine his surprise when you suddenly give him a kiss, in front of Dave of all people (despite him not paying attention anyways).

“I’m really sorry about forgetting today, by the way.” You tell him very quietly and a little sheepishly, trying to atone. You know you made him real upset, and being around Dave didn’t help. But you really appreciate him trying to be open about everything, and always being on your side.

He nods at you, sort of in a daze, still surprised at your gesture. And then just like that you dash out of the room and down the hall.

Dave looks over at Karkat as soon as you leave. Funny that you think he wouldn’t have noticed something like that, with how aware he always is of his surroundings. He watches the way Karkat stares in your direction, and how his hand slowly comes up to hold his cheek.

…

Dave’s stomach feels weird at having to witness this, but he chalks it up to being grossed out and uncomfortable at now possibly being the third wheel here. He thought you guys weren’t dating. Was he wrong?

As expected, It’s uncomfortably silent in your absence. After standing in slight shock for a moment, Karkat snaps out of it and moves to insert the DVD into his TV. Dave watches him, since there’s not much else to look at. At least that’s what he tells himself.

“sooooooo” Dave says, a word that always makes awkward situations 10x more awkward.

“WHAT DAVE.”

“… where is Y/N even getting popcorn from? does this meteor have a secret stache?”

“YES, DAVE. THIS METEOR THAT WAS TRANSPORTED DIRECTLY FROM AN “ALIEN”-DRIVEN SESSION OF SBURB IS JUST LOADED WITH YOUR HUMAN POPCORN. WE COULDNT FUCKING GET ENOUGH OF IT. WE WERE EATING THAT SHIT EVERYDAY LIKE A STARVED PACK OF WOLVES UPON A BLOODY DECEASED CENTAR.”

“holy shit really?”

“NO, DUMBASS. THEYRE ALCHEMIZING IT.”

“oh. yeah that figures.” Dave seems disappointed by this reveal of a boring ass reason for having popcorn. “howd she even figure out how?”

“ROSE DID. SHE FIGURED OUT THE CODE A WHILE AGO ON ACCIDENT.”

“huh.”

It’s quiet again. Kartkats now sitting all the way to the left side of the couch, comically as much distance as possible between them. Luckily for them, you keep your word and you’re pretty fast in returning to the room. They both internally sigh in relief.

“You miss me?” You’re holding two large bowls of beautiful buttery popcorn, and you set them down on the table in front of the couch before running back over to shut the door.

“YES. I MISSED YOU *SO* MUCH IN ALL THE FOUR SECONDS YOU WERE GONE FOR.”

You smile at his sarcastic show of endearment.

“Awww, I missed you too.”

Dave is reconsidering his decision to join. He couldnt deny it was fun hanging out with you two, but now sometimes it was even more awkward than being around Rose and Kanaya when they get all flirty. Better than doing literally nothing though. And at least you two weren’t actually dating, or thats what he thought anyways.

The three of you probably would have been really close friends honestly, if the relationships with you all plus Terezi weren’t so weird and mixed up for the past couple years. Oh well. It’s kinda too late to dwell on it. Not like you can go back and change the past without creating a doomed timeline. That’s probably impossible. Yep this is definitely the OG final timeline.

You shut off the lights as well while you’re up, so the only light illuminating the room is the one from the TV in front of your two friends. Then you plop yourself down in the center of the couch, pulling a blanket off the back side of it and putting it over your legs. Karkat got one as well, Dave is just now noticing. You make eye contact as he realizes this, noticing as well daves blanketless legs. Course he didnt really care much, but you adjust your blanket to be over him so that the two of you are sharing. It was a fairly sized blanket anyways, though you did give him a generous portion, your leg poking out a bit on the other side.

“heh. thanks.” He says giving you a smile and a nod, then reaching his hand in for some popped corn.

Karkat glares jealousy-ridden holes into the side of your head. You ignore it. Sharing your blanket was just the nice thing to do!

You then feel a second blanket layer on your lap, and look down to realize he also adjusted his blanket to be sharing with you. Now you have double blanket. Blanket 2x combo.

He didn’t need to do that.

… Cute.

You realize now that you’re blushing. Why are you blushing? You hardly blush with Kar these days. You look up at Karkat who still has his brows furrowed, but— and you could be imagining this— you think you notice him blushing too. He glances at you briefly as you both share a bit of awkward eye contact. Then a loud bang emits from the TV speakers, causing all of you to jump a bit and pull your attention to the tv.

You try to pay attention to the intro, but your mind is all jumbled with thoughts still. Today has been really weird. The whole thing with Dave and Karkat earlier felt different from how they usually fight. They haven’t really fought like that since Dave was (allegedly) still with Terezi. So what was all that? Not to mention your blushing and heart beating with Karkat just now?? And why did you kiss him earlier?! You just had the urge to out of nowhere. Seeing his upset face, you just had to comfort him. Was it normal to feel flushed about this sort of thing in a moiraillegiance?

You suppose you’re not the “normal” species to be in one anyways, but geez. Sometimes it really just felt like you were dating Karkat…

Were you? You’re gonna have to talk to him about this some other time. Or…

You subtly glance over at Dave to your right. Maybe you could even talk to Dave about this kind of thing? I mean, he’s the one who had something going on with another troll. He couldve had this same type of confusion and maybe thats why he’s so hesitant to say they were dating. Maybe he just straight up didn’t know.

You grab some popcorn as you consider this. Then you feel a warm hand slide into your left one under the blanket. You pause as you start to feel funny again.

You glance over at Karkat once again, and you don’t know why you’re surprised that he’s just focused on the movie in front of him, totally unfazed. Of course. Like you said, you guys do this all the time. You don’t know why you’re feeling so strange all of a sudden.

Eventually though you’re able to take your mind off it, and far enough into the movie you and Karkat start to have your usual movie banter. Discussing some things every now and then, vocalizing strong opinions you feel need sharing. Sometimes you need to pause the movie to do so. Dave just listens the first couple times, but eventually joins in himself. Karkat is of course a little hostile with him at first, until they have the same opinion, now they’re suddenly on the same side getting all excited about this one part of the plot line. You smile watching them finally get along today. It’s really nice when they do.

It’s basically around the end of the movie when you end up dozing off, head leaned back on the couch. Karkat is basically leaning into you as well now, head resting on the couch cushion behind him but body leaned in your direction. He makes a few movie comments and doesn’t notice that you dont respond, too engaged.

“GOD THIS GUY IS THE FUCKING WORST-“

“shhh” Dave shushes him, and Karkat lifts his head up to glare at him.

“DONT SHUSH ME ASSH-“

“dude theyre sleeping.” He informs him quickly which immediately shuts Karkat up. Your face is leaned in Dave’s direction, so Karkat leans over you a little to try and get a look at your face. And yep, you are in fact sound asleep. You were doing a lot of sleeping lately actually, it wasn’t usual for you. It subconsciously made Karkat worry if there was a reason.

While he stares at you, Dave’s eyes spot where the two of you have been holding hands, now uncovered. He raises a brow at this.

“hey, are you guys for real dating?” Dave finally asks the question that’s been on his mind since you guys got here.

“WHAT? WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?” He responds in as low of a voice as he can manage, finally looking away from you.

Dave points subtly at what he’d spotted, then giving a shrug when Karkat looks back at him confused.

“you just seem really close. like reaaaally close. im just curious. not like i can judge.”

“NO. FOR THE MILLIONTH TIME WE ARE MOIRAILS. WHICH IS NOT THE EQUIVALENT OF YOUR ‘DATING’ AS FAR AS I KNOW”

“hm.”

“WHAT?”

“nothing. nevermind. not my business.”

“YOU CLEARLY HAVE MORE TO SAY.”

“…do you want to?”

“WANT TO WHAT?”

“date them? or red romance them or whatever.”

Karkats cheeks heat up at this and his brows furrow, which tells Dave it’s definitely the opposite of whatever he’s about to say.

“OF COURSE NOT!! THAT WOULD BE-“ He must’ve raised his voice a bit much because he stops himself when he hears you groan and move slightly, but thankfully still sleeping. You had shifted around to be leaning toward Karkat now, facing him.

It’s silent for a while as Karkat stares at you to make sure you’re staying asleep, and Dave stares at Karkat.

“that would be…”

“HUH?” He snaps back to his conversation and Dave’s eye contact again.

“you said that would be…”

“… I DONT KNOW. IT WOULDNT WORK THAT WAY. IT JUST WOULDNT.” He looks away now, and Dave frowns a bit as he watches him.

He decides to not push further on that particular subject.

“well. its still pretty cool whatever you guys have.” He comments, turning to stare at you now. “seems like something a lot of people wish they had y’know.” Karkat glances at him, and then finally pauses the movie since theyd already missed a lot after this conversation.

It’s silent for a few more moments. Dave is about to change the subject at this point to be less awkward, but Karkat cuts him off.

“I GUESS I KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN. BUT YOU HAD TEREZI FOR A WHILE SO-“

“oh i wasnt talking about me i just meant. in general.”

“YEAH SURE WHATEVER. “He leans back into the couch again, bringing his arm to rest over the top and laying his head on top. “BUT YOURE RIGHT. ITS NICE TO JUST HAVE SOMEONE TO CONFIDE IN WHO CARES ABOUT YOU ON THIS NIGHTMARE RIDE. WHO ISNT AN INFURIATING FUCKING CLOWN MURDERER MANIAC.”

“yeah but also (y/n) is pretty fuckin rad. i basically grew up with them over the internet. theyve always been just. really cool.”

“WELL THEY SAY THE SAME ABOUT YOU.”

“really?”

“YEAH WHAT DO YOU MEAN ‘REALLY?’ I MEAN ITS OBVIOUS THEY REALLY LIKE YOU. ITS LIKE YOU SAID, YOUVE BEEN FRIENDS FOR YEARS.” He just stares at you sleeping now, watching you breathe peacefully. He wonders what kind of dream bubble youre experiencing right now. And for some reason, even though he fucking hates that stupid dream bubble shit, he kind of wants to join you.

“ohhhhhhhhh” Dave suddenly cuts the silence, at his seeming realization.

Karkat glances over at him in confusion. “WHAT?”

“ok. i get it now.”

“GET WHAT???”

“youre jealous. thats why youve been such an ass to me lately.”

“WHAT????” He basically shoots back to sitting straight again. “WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN?? WHAT WOULD I BE JEALOUS OF???”

“that they like me.. was that not the vibe you were trying to send me just now?”

Karkat stops suddenly. What does Dave mean by ‘like’? Did Karkat accidentally reveal the thing he promised you he’d never tell?

“WHAT? NO THEY DONT LIKE YOU LIKE *THAT* I MEANT THEY JUST LIKE YOU. LIKE A FRIEND.” He explains, a bit calmer now at realizing this was a misunderstanding. Of course you don’t like him like that, anymore. Unless you lied to him. But you wouldn’t do that. “THEY TELL ME EVERYTHING. TRUST ME YOURE JUST A GOOD FRIEND TO THEM DAVE, YOU’RE NOT SPECIAL.”

“dude. thats what i meant.”

Karkat stares at him for a moment.

“HUH?”

“i mean youre jealous cus weve been good friends for so long. we have history and you guys only met like 2 years ago or something, right? sorry. not trying to brag about it or something im just saying thats what i meant.”

Oh.

“RIGHT. SORRY. YEAH, THATS- THATS OF COURSE WHAT YOU MEANT. MY FAULT.. UH, DUDE.”

Real smooth.

Well, now dave feels especially awkward since Karkat didn’t really fall into rage at his earlier comment about being jealous, like Dave expected. Now it’s somehow spiraled into [Y/n]’s feelings about himself? Obviously he joked about you having the hots for him when you guys were younger, just like he did with Rose and Jade. But you never actually felt that way about him, right? Dave would never admit it, but he definitely did have a pathetic crush on you when you first met, but you were too good for him. He felt weird around you when you met in person. So nervous and awkward. He wasn’t used to it. But then you never tried to be around him much anyways or push him to talk, so you two naturally drifted. If you liked him, surely you would’ve been more active around him, right?

He doesn’t want to think about this anymore.

The silence has been way too long at this point, and Karkat looks just as uncomfortable. Gotta turn this around somehow.

“so, youre like, not jealous of me then?”

“HELL NO.”

“then what’s your problem with me, man?”

“WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?”

“you know what im talking about.”

“…” Karkat looks away into the darkness that is the rest of his room. For once his eyebrows aren’t furrowed. He doesn’t look angry, annoyed or uptight. He looks… kinda sad. Dave never noticed how round Karkats features are, all he could ever focus on were those bushy eyebrows and sharp teeth when he’d scream his head off at him for whatever reason.

His heart rate picks up a little.

“I CANT TELL YOU.”

“what are we, little girls in the schoolyard? why not?”

“OKAY, FUCK YOU. AND, I MEAN- I SORT OF CAN BUT-“ He glances at you sleeping, your breathing peaceful and unbothered. He thinks for a moment.

“YOU WANT TO GO FOR A WALK?” Karkat asks kind of out of nowhere.

“a walk? uh..”

“DO YOU WANT TO TALK THIS OUT OR NOT?”

“i…” Dave feels a little hesitant. Leaving to have a heart-to-heart talk with Karkat of all people, someone he’s mostly only loathed being around on this shitty rock for the entire duration up until recently. Wouldn’t that be super awkward? Plus Dave’s not really easy to open up to anyone. But he guesses he doesn’t really have to do much talking if it’s just about Karkats whole deal.

“uh. sure. okay.” He agrees awkwardly.

The two boys very carefully get up, so as not to wake you. This is kind of silly because the door is loud as fuck when they go to open it. They both wince and whip around to look at you, but you stay fast asleep, to their surprise.

“dude holy shit they could sleep through the fuckin nam battlefield.”

“YEAH, WHATEVER THAT MEANS. COME ON.” Karkat motions him to step out before he closes the door. “LETS JUST HOPE THERES NO DREAM BUBBLE BULLSHIT GOING ON TONIGHT.”

They walk down the hall, and the further they get from Karkats room, the darker it gets.

“SHIT. I FORGOT THERES BARELY LIGHTING IN THE HALLWAYS.” Karkat curses out loud. It would be super awkward to have to walk back to his room to get a flashlight or something.

“its chill. i got my phone.” Dave responds coolly and takes out the device, quickly clicking the flashlight on. “kinda creepy but it works. if we die out here its your fault by the way.

“OH, WHAT? ARE YOU SCARED?”

“what?? no, im just saying. you never know.”

“RELAX, COWARD. GAMZEE HASNT SHOWN HIMSELF IN AGES. AND THERES NOTHING ELSE IN THIS HUNK OF METAL AND ROCK THAT WOULD BE EVEN REMOTELY THREATENING. BESIDES MAYBE KANAYA IF SHE MISTOOK US FOR SAID TROLL.”

“yeah, we would be so fucked if that happened. hopefully she can like… smell that its us, or something. do trolls have heightened senses, like dogs?”

“ARE YOU EVER NOT XENOPHOBIC?”

“good point. nevermind.”

“ANYWAYS. ABOUT WHAT WE CAME OUT HERE TO TALK ABOUT…”

“oh did we come out here to talk? i thought we were just going for a nice stroll together.” Dave jokes and Karkat rolls his eyes, but he cracks a smile too.

“HA HA. SO FUNNY SMARTASS. BUT SERIOUSLY,” They walk in silence for a bit as Karkat tries to collect his thoughts before spilling them. He has to be careful in the way he explains this, since part of it involves you and something you’d rather not have Dave know.

“LISTEN, I DONT HATE YOU.”

“oh joy”

“ITS JUST THAT…” He groans a bit and cant believe what he’s about to say. “OKAY, I GUESS, REGARDING [Y/N]… I A- *WAS* KIND OF JEALOUS OF YOU.”

“i knew it.”

“YEAH WELL BEFORE YOU GO GETTING A BIGGER HEAD, ITS NOT ANYTHING TO ACTUALLY DO WITH YOU.” Karkat continues, “IT’S JUST YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THEM. THEY- I MEAN, PLATONICALLY THEYVE ALWAYS REALLY LIKED YOU. AND MAYBE I HAD SOME ISSUES WITH THAT WHEN WE FIRST BECAME MOIRAILS BECAUSE OF EVERYTHING WITH TEREZI. I ALREADY DIDNT LIKE YOU ETC ETC. THATS WHATEVER. IM OVER THAT. BUT I JUST CANT BELIEVE… EVEN AFTER WHAT YOU DID TO HURT THEM, THEY STILL HAVE SO MUCH CARE AND INTEREST IN YOU. I CANT REALLY UNDERSTAND IT. WELL, I CAN BECAUSE I PRETTY MUCH WENT THROUGH THE SAME THING BUT ITS NOT HEALTHY! AND ITS NOT THAT I DONT TRUST THEM, I FEEL STABLE IN OUR MOIRAILLIGANCE, BUT-“

“wait wh-“

“YEAH HOLD ON. JUST LET ME FINISH. I TRUST THEM COMPLETELY, BUT AS THEIR MOIRAIL OF COURSE I WANT TO PROTECT THEM AND HELP THEM. WELL IF THATS THE CASE, WHY WOULD I LET THEM GET INVOLVED WITH SOMEONE WHO ALREADY CAUSED THEM HURT? I DONT KNOW… I GUESS IM ALSO SCARED THEY MIGHT DEVELOP… OTHER FEELINGS FOR YOU AND THEN ITS TOTALLY OUT OF MY HANDS AT THAT POINT. I MEAN THEYRE FREE TO MAKE THAT CHOICE BUT I GUESS ID RATHER NOT-“

“woah woah woah. hold the phone.” Dave finally stands firm to cut him off.

“WHAT?”

“what do you mean ‘after what i did to to hurt them’? what did i do?”

“UHHHHHHHH”

They stop walking for a moment and Dave turns to look at Karkat, who looks more nervous than he did moments ago.

“and what are you talking about developing feelings or whatever? what feelings?”

“UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”

“am i missing something here?”

“UHH-“

“would you stop doing that”

“OKAY. OKAY. UM. WELL, TO ANSWER YOUR FIRST QUESTION…” Karkat buffers for a second, he really should not be saying anything for you. “YOU SHOULD TALK TO [Y/N] ABOUT THAT. ITS NOT MY PLACE TO SHARE.”

“i think we’re past that point dude.”

“SHIT. I SAID TOO MUCH ABOUT THEM. AAUGHHHH ITS SO HARD TO EXPLAIN OUT OF CONTEXT.”

“dude, just chill.” Dave puts his hand on Karkat’s shoulder, making him flinch.

At this point, Dave is beyond confused. But he actually wants to understand. Especially if he did something to hurt you, and didnt even realize it this whole time.

“what the hell is going on? i thought you just hated my ass. and the rest of me too for that matter.”

“UGH. OKAY. FIRSTLY, NO I DONT HATE YOU, I NEVER HATED YOU. DONT FLATTER YOURSELF. SECONDLY… [Y/N] WAS HURT THAT YOU GUYS STOPPED TALKING WHEN YOU GOT HERE. BASICALLY.”

“basically?”

“YEAH.”

Obviously that wasn’t the whole truth, but Karkat already fucked up at this point, he’d be stupid to say anything more damning. That’s enough for him to at least stop asking, right?

“but why would she be hurt? she stopped talking to me too. and its not like i-“

“YEAH IT WASNT TECHNICALLY YOUR FAULT, AND WE KNOW YOU DIDNT INTEND IT, BUT- I DONT KNOW. IM NOT GOING TO BE THE MESSENGER HERE. YOULL HAVE TO… TALK TO THEM ABOUT THAT STUFF YOURSELF.”

There were too many variables there that he would have to explain for it to make any sense. And he’ll be damned if he even TRIED to attempt that. Not after the way he just almost spilled the beans while dancing 5 feet away around it.

“okay…” Dave frowns. This is frustrating that he cant have his questions answered without going to you. He doesn’t know why, but he feels way more comfortable asking Karkat about it. Probably for the fact of it being less direct. But he cant exactly force the guy to talk about it, so he tries to let it go.

“alright well, what about the other thing?”

“WHAT OTHER THING?”

“cmon man. whatever you said about them having other feelings. that thing.”

“UM. I…” He stumbles a bit, looking away. “OKAY WELL, I GUESS THATS MORE ABOUT ME. ILL JUST BE TOTALLY HONESTLY HERE. JUST AIR IT ALL OUT.”

“im listening.”

They’re waking again, and Dave checks his phone screen just to see if you had woken up and noticed they were gone. But his screen is blank.

“SO… [Y/N] IS A PRETTY COMPLICATED PERSON.” He starts, “I GUESS HUMANS IN GENERAL ARE COMPLICATED, BUT IM OBVIOUSLY ONLY EXTREMELY WELL VERSED IN [Y/N]’S COMPLEXITIES AS A HUMAN. AS THEIR MOIRAIL I PITY THEM, AND I WANT TO LOOK OUT FOR THEM SO THEY CAN BE HAPPY. THIS IS BASIC STUFF.”

He’s rambling of course, but Dave tries to listen anyways and not be too impatient.

“I DONT WANT TO BE CONTROLLING. I WONT SAY THEY CAN OR CANT DO SOMETHING. THAT WOULD BE WRONG. BUT I CAN STILL HAVE MY OPINIONS ABOUT THEIR DECISIONS. AND I CAN ALSO RELAY THOSE OPINIONS. AND I CAN INTERNALLY STILL DWELL IN THOSE OPINIONS EVEN AFTER THEYVE BEEN COMUNICATED AND SHOT DOWN ESSENTIALLY. IM ALLOWED THAT AT LEAST.”

“is this going somewhere?”

“SO IM JUST SAYING THIS IS MY OPINION, OKAY?! THIS IS NOT ME FORBIDDING SOMETHING OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT!” He huffs, then continues “THEYRE FRIENDS WITH YOU AND THATS FINE. OBVIOUSLY. I REALLY DONT GIVE A DAMN ABOUT THAT. YOU GUYS HAVE A LONG PAST OF FRIENDSHIP, I GET IT. AND LIKE I SAID BEDORE, IM SECURE IN OUR RELATIONSHIP. I DONT THINK THAT THEYRE GONNA JUST BOOT ME OUT OF OUR QUADRANT FOR YOU. SO DONT GET THAT TWISTED EITHER.”

Dave nods, feeling like he’s mostly getting what’s being said now. Still waiting for a clear point though.

“BUT… WHAT I CANT RULE OUT— AND JUST TO BE CLEAR THEYVE NEVER EXPLICITLY STATED THAT THIS WOULD BE A POSSIBILITY BEFORE. OKAY? THIS IS JUST MY OWN PARANOIA. BUT WHAT I CANT RULE OUT IS THEM DEVELOPING CERTAIN FLUSHED FEELINGS FOR YOU. I DONT WANT THEM INVOLVED IN A RED QUADRANT WITH YOU. OR “DATING” YOU IN HUMAN TERMS. MAYBE IM SELFISH, I DONT KNOW. I JUST DONT THINK IT WOULD BE GOOD FOR THEM.”

“why not?” Dave’s words come out quick and almost like without permission. Because Dave is a little surprised at the question along with Karkat.

They stare at each other, coming to another stop.

“not that i was even considering that anyways. just wondering like… why? you said you dont dislike me right?”

“I DONT BUT-“

“so what would be the issue in this totally hypothetical situation?” Dave asks again. I mean honestly, what was so wrong with him? On the contrary he supposes he had a similar opinion when he convinced himself out of a crush on you when he was younger. But it’s kind of hurtful when someone that’s not his inner conscience thinks the same.

“BECAUSE- YOURE JUST-! YOU!” Karkat chokes out in a way that sounds much meaner than he intended. But he couldn’t come up with an answer, other that the whole ‘you hurt them before’ thing. He just had a feeling. A really strong one. It’s intuition, surely.

“wow. rude.” Dave says deadpan, without actually being that offended.

“IM SORRY I DONT KNOW WHAT ELSE TO TELL YOU. I GET A BAD FEELING WHEN I THINK ABOUT IT.” Karkat tells him and seems to want to let it rest there.

Dave raises a brow at him with that last statement. It is totally a possibility that Karkat could just actually want [Y/n] in that quad.. whatever. Instead of Dave. That would explain ‘bad feelings’ when he thinks about them with anyone else in that context. But he’ll spare Karkat the Rose-like analyzing and prying. He’s not like his sister.

“okay well i dont think thats gonna be a problem.” He says instead.

“WHY DO YOU SAY THAT?”

“because they obviously don’t like me man. they never have. what even makes you think they would be interested in me?”

“… YOU THINK?” Is all Karkat can think to say because obviously he knows this to be false. But he cant say that.

“i mean i could understand the stuff about terezi, at least. her and i had kind of a weird thing going on i guess. but you and them have like an unbreakable bond at this point. if anything they probably like you.”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN “LIKES ME”? YOURE SAYING YOU THINK THEY HAVE RED FEELINGS?”

“yeah, whatever the romantic one is.”

“… THEYRE ALL ROMANTIC.”

“you get what i mean.”

“YEAH BUT… I REALLY DONT THINK SO. IF THERES ANYONE THEY WOULD END UP BEING FLUSHED FOR ITS YOU.”

“what makes you say that though?”

“WHAT DO YOU THINK?” Karkat replies, kind of exasperated at this point.

“i dont know? thats why im asking”

“ARE YOU REALLY THAT MUCH OF AN IDIOT? “ He asks rhetorically, getting frustrated “LIKE IT REALLY NEVER, NOT ONCE OCCURRED TO YOU?!”

“what??? im so confused here”

“THAT THEY ALREADY LIKED YOU!!! AND THEY PROBABLY STILL DO!!!”

His words echo through the hallway, regrettably. You would think he just placed some sort of eldritch curse on them the way he quickly slaps his hand to his mouth and goes pale in the face. He’s obviously just made a grave mistake.

Dave’s flashlight is pointed at the floor now, which hides the way his cheeks and ears starts to turn a pink-ish hue. He doesn’t even know what to think or say at all. He needs to process this but it’s like none of the gears in his head are turning at all, they’re jammed.

Oh man. The silence is so deafening it would make someone think theyre actually going deaf.

Karkat slowly starts to panic inside, and Dave just stares at him in disbelief.

“what do you mean they-“

“WAIT. SHUT UP FOR A SEC.”

“huh?”

Karkat’s previously mortified expression almost immediately snaps into one of concentration. He looks up at the ceiling down the hall for a few moments. Dave just stares at him in disbelief.

“seriously? pretending to hear something? you cant think im that stu-

“IM SERIOUS. SHUT UP!!”

Karkat truthfully wasnt trying to come up with some phony excuse, he really did hear something. Something… in the vents.

The sound is incredibly faint. Karkat is the first to hear it, but Dave isn’t long at all to pick up on it afterwards. They both focus in, and before Karkat can even form a coherent thought about the situation, Dave pulls his sword out of his sylladex like a reflex. Karkat glances over at the sword in Dave’s hand and his heart drops to his stomach.

“ITS GAMZEE.” Karkat says in the quietest voice he can manage.

“no shit. be quiet.”

The thumping continues to get closer. To the boys dismay, it sounds like it’s coming right towards them.

“DAVE. WE SHOULD RUN.” Karkat tells him, but Dave stands there, like a dog on high alert. He doesn’t move a muscle.

The sound gets closer.

“DAVE. IM SERIOUS.”

And closer.

“DAVE…!”

“fuck.”

Karkat takes Dave’s hand in his and suddenly theyre running. You’d think theyd both know this place like the back of their hand at this point, but the fear is the halls feel like a maze. At least thats how Karkat feels as he mostly leads the way, trying to find environmental clues from the weak and shaky light emitting from Dave’s phone.

“stop!” Dave puts his arm in front of Karkat to cut him off.

“WHY ARE WE-“ Karkat is about to ask more, but he hears it too. Somehow the sound is coming towards them from the OTHER way now. The way theyre running TOWARDS.

“oh what the fuck man” Dave remarks and then takes Karkats hand this time to run back the way they came. Then takes a left down another hallway. They stop once theyre a little ways down that one to catch their breath and listen again. But they don’t hear anything.

“jesus fucking christ man. what the hell was that?” Dave heaves.

“I- I DONT KNOW.” Karkat responds, “YOU REALLY THINK THAT WAS GAMZ-“

Before he can finish, a loud bang explodes in front of them, making them jump out of their skin. Dave’s phone crashes to the ground and the flashlight turns off. In the blink of an eye a black figure drops down from a vent opening above.

Dave is in front of Karkat in an instant, his sword up in defense, glaring daggers as he stays on alert. Karkat hadn’t even realized that they were still hand-in-hand, but he’s reminded as soon as he feels Dave’s hand squeeze his with intensity. Karkat can feel him shaking too, yet he still didn’t even hesitate to jump in front.

Their eyes somewhat adjust to the dark, and a library area down the hall grants a faint, outlining a silhouette. It’s indistinguishable for a moment, the person hunched over with their back facing the pair. But as he starts to stand, his long sharp horns come into view. It’s undeniable, thats him.

Gamzee slowly turns to look at the two, red eyes somehow glowing in the dark. Dave lets go of Karkat to fully grasp the sword, white-knuckling the handle. He’s prepared for the worst, for a flashstep at any moment. He’s not sure why, but something about this guys demeanor reminds him of something. A threat he’s familiar with. Neither of them dare to say anything or move another muscle.

There’s a stand still for a few moments that felt more like hours. But then, to the boys absolute surprise, Gamzee turns away from them. He turns the corner down the hall, disappearing from sight.

“w..wha…” Dave can hardly speak from how anxious he is, and his stance still doesn’t waver a bit.

There’s stillness for a few seconds, until Karkat finally moves. He pushes out from behind Dave, and Dave can hardly make out his expression as he keeps walking.

“k…karkat? what are you..” He goes to ask, a little breathless. He ultimately follows him around the corner, where they both only catch a glimpse of Gamzee turning the next corner. They stare for a moment, then Karkat walks a little faster, following after him.

“are you serious??” Dave hiss-whispers at him, grabbing the back of his sweater. “what the hell are you doing?!”

“LET GO OF ME.” Karkat snaps back and pulls out of his grasp, continuing to follow after his ex-moirail.

Dave watches him go in disbelief, but then continues to follow him again with his sword in hand. He knows Karkat doesn’t have his weapon, he saw it in his chest earlier. He can’t leave him defenseless.

They keep following and following Gamzee from a distance until… somehow he’s just gone.

“DAMNIT.” Karkat hisses as he finally comes to a stop.

“dude why are we even trying to follow him? did you forget this guys a murder maniac??“

“HE WAS MY FRIEND AND MOIRAIL TOO.”

“yeah well he’s also a serial killer! people like that don’t think straight. having a relationship to him doesn’t grant you immunity dumbass!” Dave scolds him, clearly upset that he had to follow a dangerous killer while filled with piercing anxiety for the last however long.

“you don’t even have a weapon in your sylladex, do you?” He asks, kind of pissed off now that the threat seems much smaller. Karkat doesn’t answer, just frowns into the distance.

“seriously, you’d be the first to die in a horror movie.”

“Guys…?” Your familiar voice suddenly pops up from behind the boys, making them both jump a little. A flashlight is shined in their eyes as they squint, before you quickly drop the light lower.

“[Y/N]?!” “(y/n)..”

“What’s going on? I just woke up in Karat’s room and you were both gone, so I came looking for you.” You tell them, still blinking sleep out of your eyes.

“FUCK, WE GOTTA GET YOU OUT OF HERE [Y/N]. CMON. BACK TO MY ROOM.” Karkat says anxiously. If you heard who was roaming the halls he worries you might have a panic attack. Best to get you back to the room hopefully without you knowing, and he can explain later.

“What? Why? What happened?” You ask, confused at the way Karkat is panicking as he spins you around and starts pushing you back the way you came.

“oh NOW you wanna leave?” Dave adds in his helpful way.

“STRIDER SHUT UP. NOW IS NOT THE-“

Karkat’s quip is cut short as the group hears a loud honk followed by metal sounds echoing from another hallway. Everyone looks in that direction. Your heart stops beating for a moment.

“FUCK. YOU GUYS WAIT HERE.” Karkat says as he goes to follow the sound again.

“see this is what i mean. who the hell FOLLOWS the tracks of a murderer?” Dave says, still bewildered to this concept.

“Was that Gamzee?!” You sort of yell-whisper to them and they both nod at you. Your stomach drops. Fuck, you never wanted to come into contact with that guy again.

“YOURE GONNA BE OKAY [Y/N]. HE WONT COME NEAR YOU. DAVE WILL STAY WITH YOU JUST IN CASE.” Karkat tells you gently, turning to give you a quick hug and rubs your arm.

“Where are you going?” You ask as he starts to step away.

“karkat you’re not going after that fucking guy alone with NO defenses, fuck that.” Dave tells him firmly.

“JUST STAY WITH [Y/N]. PLEASE.”

“no. absolutely not i dont trust that guy.”

“ILL BE FINE. JUST GO BACK TO MY ROOM.”

“were both coming with you. even (y/n) keeps their weapon captchaloged right?”

“Uh. Well…” You trail off guiltily.

“oh my god. am i the only one prepared for shit to go down around here?!”

“OKAY FINE! SHUT UP AND FOLLOW ME.” Karkat finally gives, even though he still worries for you. This is the first time he’s seen Gamzee in ages, he has to follow him.

So you do, the three of you speed walk in the direction of the occasional noises. It seems like you’re getting closer and closer, meaning he’s not moving.

“Karkat, why are we-“ You start to ask why the hell we’re chasing after this clown guy. What was the plan? To kill him? For Karkat to get a chance to talk to him again? The latter was more likely here, but he could potentially get you both killed.

“SHH” He shushes you, and you can tell he’s strangely determined. You probably couldn’t stop him from following if you tried.

You guys finally reach where the metal noises are coming from. As soon as you turn the corner to see two dark figures, Dave grabs you both and yanks you behind the wall again. Only peaking around the wall this time, you watch as Gamzee crawls back into a vent after successfully prying the front off.

“he’s getting away. shit we shouldve grabbed kanaya” Dave comments mostly to himself.

“IS THAT…” Karkat trails off, but you already know exactly what he’s talking about.

The second figure with smaller horns, quickly follows behind Gamzee, fitting into the vent and disappearing from sight.

“was that terezi..?” Dave finishes for him.

Once theyre both gone, you all come out from behind the wall and quickly move to the open vent. Of course, there’s no trace of either troll, but you hear a few distant honks that make you shiver.

You all just stare in shock and confusion. Everyone had figured that Terezi might be involved with Gamzee, as she started behaving weirdly and disappearing lately. But dang, that was some concrete evidence. Dave of course, already knew this. It’s what made him and Terezi fall off in the first place, but that was his first time seeing the guy with his own eyes. It was a type of fear he had infact felt before, but still just as horrifying nonetheless. He’s still trying to put his finger on what exactly that fear was.

You glance over at Karkat, and even though it’s dark, you’re so close you can see his expression. It looks like a mixture of sadness and anger. You’re sure it must be painful, watching two trolls he loved in different ways destroy each other. Even if you couldn’t fully understand.

You’re about to take his hand, when suddenly he starts moving towards the vent. You already know he’s planning to go after them.

You quickly take hold of his arm, forcibly holding him back. He turns to look at you, his expression now only reflecting anger.

“Karkat… You cant.” You tell him, almost pleading.

“IM GOING.” He tells you firmly as he tries to pull away from your grasp, but you only tighten your grip and tug him harder your way.

“No. As your moirail, I’m drawing the line here. You know that wont end well.”

You both stare at each other firmly for a few moments, eyes furrowed and stances sure. But inevitably, Karkats stance starts to waver. The sad part of him starts to override. He knows you’re right. His pull loosens and then in turn so does your hold on him.

You don’t hesitate to pull him into a hug, which he immediately reciprocates. He squeezes you, burring his face into the side of your neck. You think you feel tears on your skin, so you rub his back to try to comfort him.

“I’m sorry, Kar.” You tell him genuinely and you hear a couple sniffles in response.

Remembering Dave is also with you guys, you look over at him. You’re expecting him to maybe look a little awkward and uncomfortable, considering the PDA. But to your surprise, he’s not even paying any mind to you two at all. It’s hard to read what he’s thinking or doing at first, but the longer you stare at him, you see. His eyes are carefully scanning the hall next to you, and he’s fully attentive. He hasn’t let his guard down, still in defense mode. You think about how this makes sense, knowing about his environment growing up, he must be hyper aware all the time. And when a threat pops up, it’s like heavy fight or flight.

Your heart feels warm at the fact that he seems to be protecting you guys even after the threat is seemingly gone. But you also realize that he’s shaking, his rapid breath, and the bead of sweat on his face. Just as you notice that last part, his eyes dart over to meet yours. You can actually see them a little, through the side of his sunglasses. But he quickly averts your gaze right after.

“Hey.” You say gently, taking Dave’s hand. Or at least attempting to, before he very quickly retracts from you.

“It’s okay. We’re fine now.”

“you dont know that.”

“Dave. He’s gone.”

“he was in the fucking VENTS (y/n) he could be anywhere”

“He was only here to get Terezi. They’re gone.”

“oh what are you the clown guy expert now”

“THEYRE RIGHT.” Karkat interjects, coming out of your embrace and pulling himself together again. “HE DIDNT EVEN WANT ANYTHING TO DO WITH US WHEN HE SAW US. HES NOT GONNA DO ANYTHING.”

Dave wants to keep arguing, but he’s realizing that any comeback he has will probably sound like he’s a paranoid conspiracy lunatic.

“LOOK, IM REALLY SORRY FOR PUTTING YOU GUYS IN DANGER BY FOLLOWING HIM… I JUST-“

“It’s alright Kar, I get it. You wanted to see him again.” You reassure him and he sighs. It was a little embarrassing for him to admit that fact himself, so he’s glad you said it.

“WHEN I SAW HE WASNT A DIRECT THREAT TO US I JUST COULDNT RESIST. I WANTED TO TALK TO HIM ONE MORE TIME.“

“yeah well, i for one never wanna see that freak again. something fucking weird going on with him.”

“YEAH, IM SORRY FOR EVEN BRINGING YOU OUT HERE DAVE.”

“Why did you guys even leave the room in the first place?” You chime in and they both buffer. They forgot for a second why they were out here to begin with, and what they had been talking about before everything went down. Karkat and Dave look at each other with unreadable expressions. You tilt your head, confused.

“Guys?-“

“we were gonna go alchamize drinks for ourselves. karkat was.. out of refreshments.” Dave gives his excuse, not missing a beat.

“Oh, really? But you always stay stocked for movie nights.” You say, looking over at Karkat who now looks very nervous. He hates having to lie to you. But how could he tell you that he just told Dave probably the one thing you never wanted him to tell him? Him and his big mouth just had to get frustrated and blurt that shit out. Goddamnit.

“YEAH. WELL. I UM. DROPPED THE SPHERE ON THAT ONE. HA HA.” He laughs awkwardly.

Weirdly nervous. He’s lying. You can tell. But, honestly you’re too tired to press the two of them right now. You’ll ask Karkat about it later.

“Okay, whatever. Let’s just go to bed.” You say, waving it off.

“fuck yeah. im beat. ready for some serious z’s. ill see yall tomorrow.” Dave tells you as he starts to leave.

“Where are you going?” You ask, making him stop.

“my room”

“Why? Come sleep with us.”

“[Y/N]!” Karkat snaps at you in protest. Why would you want Dave to sleep with you both? That’s something exclusively only you two do with each other.

“What? I thought we were gonna do a sleepover?” You say, confused. Like this was always the plan.

“uhhh…”

Normally it wouldn’t be an issue if you just wanted to have a normal sleepover, but now Dave knows some things he shouldn’t. He recalls how Karkat doesn’t have much furniture. Just the one bed. Was this an advancement towards him? And how awkward would that be with Karkat still bitter about him being there?

His cheeks start to heat up at he thinks about this.

“WE WERE JUST HAVING A MOVIE NIGHT.” Karkat corrects you.

“Uh yeah, which always end in sleepovers. Duh. Plus we just had a super traumatizing moment together. Especially you two. Let’s just spend the night together.” You offer, totally harmless.

“yeahh im not really the into that type of thing, on multiple levels. so im gonna have to pass.” Dave tells you a little mysteriously, implying intent to your offer.

“What? I didn’t mean-“ You frown as you somewhat realize what he means. “Okay. Wow. Firstly, get your mind out of the gutter weirdo. Secondly, we have an extra bed you can use.”

“WE DO?”

“Yes, the one i slept on when we first started having sleepovers.”

Dave thinks about this. You three would go back to the room, where Dave would sleep on something like an air mattress, while you two sleep… where?

“what about you?” Dave asks, looking right at you. You look puzzled for a moment.

“I sleep with Karkat.” You tell him easily.

Dave’s face darkens with pink some more as he pictures this. His stomach does weird knots like someone is trying to reshape it balloon animal style. His heart tugs and there’s a sudden annoyance too. Didnt you like Dave? If what Karkat said was true. Why are you sleeping with him then? Oh he’s gonna be so pissed if Karkat told him that just to fuck with him. Because it’s working.

“yeah no way. why would i want to watch you guys cuddle cuck-style? ill pass.” He says with regrettable wording.

“Cuck-style?” You repeat, sounding dumbfounded at his words. Doesn’t that imply you would be his wife or something? You blush at both that implication and the one that you might be doing other things with Karkat. You just cuddle! Though you suppose saying that wouldn’t make the image in his head much better.

“Dave I-“ You begin to try to explain yourself in a way that wouldn’t be digging yourself a deeper hole, but he cuts you there.

“i appreciate the thought (y/n) but seriously. im just gonna sleep in my own bed.” He tells you simply. He starts to turn to leave.

“But-“

“see ya.”

You watch him go, sadly. And you secretly wonder if he’s not scared of going himself. Of course, if you offered to go with him he would definitely be offended. He can definitely protect himself either way.

There’s something else you feel watching him go too. You really wanted him to sleepover, to spend more time with him. Maybe you’re not as over him as you thought.

Karkat does feel kind of weird to just let Dave sleep alone after being chased by a nightmare clown together, and with their unfinished conversation. He wonders what he’s going to do with the information he gave him. Did he just actually push him further in the wrong directing? He looks at you sidelong and his heart tugs to consider what you might be feeling looking at him right now.

Dave on the other hand, basically speed walks back to his room. He’s ultra aware of his surroundings even as his head races with thoughts. Being in his own room doesn’t provide him with as much relief as he thought it would. He doesn’t even bother to change or brush his teeth or anything as he drops into bed, feeling a hundred tons heavier with emotion than yesterday. What the fuck is his deal? He doesn’t like [Y/n] anymore, right? He stopped a long time ago. But his heart races as he conjures up mental images of you in his head, past memories each where he now has to wonder if you’ve had a crush on him this whole time.

But then what’s the deal with you and Karkat? Even if you’re just indulging him in this ‘moirail’ stuff, some of that affection is definitely crossing dating territory in human culture. Or at least hookup territory, friends with benefits maybe. Is that what he is to you? I mean, who sleeps with their friends?! What else could you guys be doing in your alone time? He’s pretty sure Terezi told him moirail stuff was non-sexual, but it sure does seem all lovey-dovey! Maybe trolls definition of sexual is different from humans. He regretfully starts to picture Karkat talking you into doing something explicit with him. He’s getting more hot and bothered by the second.

His face is already beet red when he pulls his pillow over it. Thinking about you two made him feel incredibly weird. It was even just you. As he pictures Karkat with you there’s a whole vat of other emotions. Definitely jealousy, but something else too. His heart thumps in his chest as he recalls earlier really taking in Karkat’s features on the couch. He never noticed but the guy… isn’t actually weird looking like he always tells himself. And he hates to admit it but trolls are actually really fascinating to him, biologically speaking. When Karkat was crying to you earlier, he noticed there were red tears coming out. There’s this burning desire to examine Karkat, to learn more about him. But this is a troubling thought too, because that sounds incredibly gay. Which he’s definitely not. He wonders if you two kiss and how thats even done with Karkat’s sharp-looking teeth. Just how exactly would you tongue kiss Karkat?

God damnit. He can’t stop this weird train of thought.

God, what the hell. He could never let you two see this side of him. Maybe he could try to avoid you both, but that would be challenging. Especially since you have like a whole year still left in this place. No, he just needs to shove these feelings down. Ignore them. Same way he does all the time.

He tries to slow his heavy breathing and pull himself together. He just needs to get some sleep.