Chapter Text
It's a sunny, fragrant Thursday morning. As usual, Karkat's made breakfast: today, it's over-easy eggs with sausage, bacon, and hash browns, with Dave's favorite blend of green tea (i.e. with tons of sugar and syrup). Karkat carries Dave's portion in on the oak breakfast tray they got for an anniversary some hundred years ago. Dave's already awake and fidgeting as his gaze darts everywhere but Karkat's direction. It makes Karkat's chest ache.
"Morning, sunshine." He sets the tray on the bit of bed at Dave's side, movements slow and careful. Dave held his hand a couple days ago, cuddled close to him on their couch last night, but Karkat doesn't want to push him. "I'm gonna check on the tomatoes in the garden, see if they're ready yet."
"Sure dude, you do you, go check on those round bitches, little pincushion-lookin' motherfuckers." Karkat can't help a fond smile at Dave's rambling, even as said rambling makes Dave himself flush red.
They live in this sort of hesitant camaraderie for years. Karkat doesn't mind (not to mention that to a creature whose lifespan is measured in centuries and not decades, a few years feels like nothing), he's just glad to have Dave with him. Does he miss being able to hug and kiss and cuddle with Dave? Gods yes, more than anything he's ever missed, but he can't force Dave. He couldn't do that to him. So he waits, offers affection gently, doesn't get mad when Dave can't reciprocate. He talks Dave down from nights filled with panic attacks and disassociation, and hides his own seas of tears and overwhelming fears under the cloak of a starry night sky.
But it finally happens. Karkat's baking, hands clad in mits and a soft red apron tied around his narrow waist, currently squinting at a recipe written just a touch too small for him to read clearly. Maybe he does need glasses. He looks up when he hears Dave enter the room, and smiles at the sight of him absolutely swimming in one of Karkat's sweaters. Gods, that won't ever stop being adorable. "Morning, sunshine," he hums, and then goes back to trying to read his cookbook.
He stills, however, when he feels arms wrap around his broad chest. He goes to speak, but Dave beats him to it. "How're you so nice to me, like damn, stealin' sweetness from the rest of the world and leaving it sour so you can pamper me more, huh?" A soft laugh echoes in Karkat's chest, but Dave's not done yet, it seems.
"I'm not the word god I gotta be to express what I'm trying to, but you... You're amazing, the brightest star in my sky, you're my universe, eolyui." Dave's pressed against his back, and Karkat can practically feel the nervousness, the fright radiating from him. "Dave, you don't have to-"
"Shut up, I'm tryin'a be a goddamn fraction as sweet as you are, you fucking bear." Karkat has to fight a laugh at that, but he manages.
"... I love you."
Karkat straightens, readies himself as he murmurs "Dave, don't-" Dave's arms tighten around him, and Karkat quiets. "I love you, eolyui. You've been, been so patient and kind and so fucking understanding, it's unbearable. I'm sorry. I love you."
"Don't apologize, dummy." Karkat turns and hugs Dave to his chest, kisses his hair gently. "I love you too. I love you so much."