Chapter Text
Dave beckons to you aside the minute Terezi gives you the go-ahead to leave her to her Seer-y things. Inwardly you are freaking the fuck out; outwardly you are surly and angry and really, really uncertain as to what to do next. It’s not really that different than any other day, but then again, it so totally is.
You follow him when he pushes himself off of his wall and takes a few steps away, admiring the smooth glide of his step, noting that he has healed quite nicely from the skirmish a few days ago. Then, he had been hobbling, just a barely detectable limp; now you can see the practiced motion, the way he walks silent by placing his weight on his heel first. He is a born fighter, and a very well-trained one.
“Unless we want everything to go to shit,” Dave says as soon as you both standing at the base of the giant fucking wizard statue, as it has been dubbed in your brain, “We’re gonna have to work together. Think you can handle it?”
“Sharing is fucking caring,” you reply, and then you add, “Terezi already told me. I’m assuming if we don’t, one of us is going to die.”
“Swing and a hit, bro. How’d you figure that out?”
“Gee, I don’t know, maybe because we’re both Knights and Knights like to go suicidal when loved ones are in danger?” You shrug. “It wasn’t much of a mental leap, believe me.”
Dave gives you a minute nod – probably didn’t even care about your answer, the fucker – and says casually, “You ever fight bladekind?”
“A few times.” Vriska and Terezi come to mind, both of whom are terrors with a blade. “Never to the death, though. First time for everything, I guess.”
“Cool. Looks like you and me are gonna strife, then.” Your automatic reaction is a loud, adamant fuck no followed by a more neutral why? “I fight like Dirk does,” Dave says, and there’s that easy smile on his face with the dimples again. You find yourself swallowing while simultaneously cursing hormones, and fuckif Sollux isn’t going to tease the shit out of you later. “It’s good practice for you, because he’s faster than I am.”
“Wow, are you using logic? I hate logic.” He snorts, and you sigh. “Fine, let’s get this ass-kicking business over with, then. You have a place in mind?”
“Well, I don’t want to do it outside,” Dave says with a shake of his head, and then he shudders. “I was born and raised in Texas, not prepared for this kind of bullshit. Snow and ice, really?”
“Boo hoo, princess Strider can’t handle a little cold.” To be honest, you hate it too, and you suggest inanely, “We could do it here. Not like one of us could knock over this big fucking statue and cause widespread calamity.”
“Wide open space, lots of cover and all that,” Dave agrees, giving the entire room a once-over. You can see his eyes flick and focus on certain places – already developing a strategy, it seems, which you are notorious for not doing unless Terezi is involved in some way. “Should we be allowed bullshit demon powers or no?”
“Ahahaha fuck no. I don’t want to deal with your time-traveling thing. Let your brother have the brunt of it, Jesus.”
“Same goes to your weird Blood powers, singularly the scariest thing I’ve seen in my life, okay,” Dave says, a glint in his eye, and then there’s a very real blade in his hand. You blink, and you realize that yes, you’re doing this. Holy shit, you’re fighting Dave Strider, in the flesh, widely feared in the demon community back in his hunting days for his speed and prowess and unpredictability, so you can fight Dirk Strider, a legend with a blade who was remembered for clearing out a hive with minimal backup from his siblings. You are so dumb sometimes, augh. “After you, good sir.”
“Fuck you,” you reply instinctively, popping two sickles into your hands. This isn’t your best pair, but it will have to do for now, as you shift into a more defensive position. “Like hell I’m taking the first step.”
A smirk curls Dave’s lip, and then he moves.
You had already anticipated this, though, and as soon as your eye detects movement you’re off like a shot, sensing him with your Blood powers and rushing right to where the sixty beats are pounding in your inner ear. He makes a sort of oof sound as you barrel him over, but he’s gone just like that, not even winded, and you’re back to whipping around and trying not to get slashed to ribbons.
You dodge his next blow and block the next, shoving his sword between your two blades so he can’t pull it free. He struggles with it for a bit, his grip on his sword so tight his knuckles become pronounced through his skin, and you go with the hope that he was taught never to drop his weapon as you yank. He gets pulled along it, and conveniently your knee drives hard into his stomach while you twist, wrenching his shoulder.
“Ow,” he deadpans, and then his sword slips out of your grasp with a smooth, metallic sound and the next thing you know he’s retreated some distance away, at the feet of the giant fucking wizard statue. You can feel him in the room as he ducks out of view, and you take the opportunity to catch your breath as he weaves around, darting through shadows, remaining invisible to the naked eye. You turn with his every move, tracing him through his heartbeat, crouching and staying low as you keep your sickles raised.
For a single instant, there’s two heartbeats – one behind you, one in front – and you have only a split-second to feel which one is closer before you turn and block it. He doesn’t fall for the same trick twice, parrying when you attempt to block, and you hiss, “I thought we agreed on no powers, Strider.”
“You’ve got your blood-sensing thing,” he responds, grinning toothily. His other presence is gone, at the moment. “I think I’m allowed at least some way to compensate.”
“Asshole,” you say through gritted teeth, and he laughs as he pulls away, slashing at you sideways. You hold the blade back with one of your sickles and snap a foot out to kick his leg, which he dodges and returns with a lightning-quick punch to the face, which you don’t dodge but move your head with the blow, absorbing the momentum. “I can’t just turn it off, you know.”
“Guess who doesn’t give a fuck? Oh, wait,” and you dodge a slice of his katana with a roll, on your feet in an instant as the two of you circle each other. You’re half-aware that you’ve gained an audience – John and Kanaya at the top of the stairs, peering down at the room below. “I gotta give it to you, you’re better than I thought.”
“Fuck you, and also fuck your shitty powers.”
“Flowers first.” Clang, and he’s gone again.
“Holy shit, shut up.” Two of him again, argh, in such close proximity it gets harder and harder to tell, and you duck down, block a blow, and then the Dave in front of you is gone, replaced by the one behind you. You hiss when the flat of his blade snaps out and hits your shoulder, a warning that he could have gotten you, and then snarl, “Literally the only reason I’m not down is because I can sense you coming.”
“Maybe, but you’ve got to use every advantage you can get,” Dave agrees, and then you spot his mistake as soon as he cuts down with his sword. You catch it in the exact same grip as before, but instead of pulling it out of his grasp, you wrench it upwards and snap his blade in half. He immediately ejects all of his whole swords from his syllabus, and they go flying, some pounding into walls, others clattering to the floor, and then he steps back, half-sword in hand.
“That was low,” he says, but there’s no accusing tone or venom in his voice.
“Your fucking mistake,” you snap back, crossing your arms, sickles popping back into your sylladex.
“I’m gonna have to get an entire new strife syllabus.”
“Tough luck.”
“Karkat, Dirk is going to be here in, like, two hours.”
Oh. Uh. Oops. “I thought he was going to go to Michigan!”
“He is in Michigan. But he’ll be coming here, because that’s the way it goes with his super scary computer skills. This is it, man,” Dave says, eyes gleaming, “The final showdown, and look at me, a fucking disgrace. I’ve got 1/2bladekind right now, you ass, any sword I captchalogue is going to snap.”
“It’s not my fault you’re fucking incompetent,” you retort, as he takes a card out of his pocket – and indeed, his syllabus reads 1/2bladekind. Wow, you feel kind of like a dick now. “We can pick one up in town, calm your tits.”
“Karkat, need I remind you that we are in the middle of fucking nowhere.”
“You also have a Sylph of Space,” Kanaya says from the top of the staircase. When you look, she’s examining her nails as if she doesn’t have a care in the world, and John is hiding a grin behind his hand. “My charge is currently locked in a room, so I can be in and out in a couple of minutes if you are so desperate, mister Strider.”
“Marry me,” Dave says in response. Kanaya snorts and disappears with a pop and a smell of ozone, and you tuck your blades back into your sylladex. John remains at the top of the stairs, though he turns and is soon out of sight, and then it’s just you and Dave staring at each other. You’re not quite sure what to do next.
“One of us might die if we don’t get all of this shit together,” Dave says at last. He rubs his forehead with his hand, and it looks somewhat childish yet entirely endearing. To hell with hormones, seriously. “I’m still trying to process that.”
“We’re Knights. It’s what we do.” You think of Latula and fuck, nope, you’re not thinking about Latula. “We protect. And we give our lives sometimes if that’s what it takes.”
“You seem surprisingly okay with this.”
“I’m not fucking okay with it, I’ve just been under the pressure of impending death for so long I just don’t give a shit anymore.” A sudden well of fear rises and falls, like a wave against the sand, and goddammit you want Sollux here. You take out your phone. “You’d know, you’ve been running from your brother ever since everything went down.”
“Yeah,” he concedes. You notice he’s gotten closer, and do your best to seem intent on your phone. “It’s just, I don’t. Want anyone to die. It’s my fault all of this is happening, so.”
“Idiot,” you respond, typing out a message to Sollux: I EXPECTED YOU TO BREAK DOWN THE DOOR AT THIS POINT BUT I AM SEEING A REMARKABLE LACK OF DOOR-BREAKING. WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU? “It’s not your fault that you’re where you are now.”
He doesn’t say anything. He’s even closer now, and you instinctively hunch over your phone so he can’t see the screen even if he tried. Sollux’s responded with a classy ii’m workiing on iit, ok, not all of u2 have car2 and heatiing and 2hiit, and you put your phone away and look at him. There’s something in his expression you can’t quite recognize, and you find that yes, your heartbeat is going kind of crazy right now. Fuck, this never happened when he used to visit, but then you’d always thought he was kind of an opaque asshole. To be fair, he still is kind of an asshole, but he’s not as opaque as you’d been led to believe.
This is what you get for being presumptuous, you reflect, as your hands settle on his chest and he leans down and kisses you.
It’s slow and languid and gentle and it warms you straight to the core; the fact he knows how to kiss like this implies he’s done it before, but you aren’t surprised, since he and John were definitely pale but were not without their red interludes (human romance is strange). Whatever, you don’t care, he smells like steel and sweat and he’s impossibly warm and his hand is on the small of your back and you arch upwards as he deepens the kiss. It’s really fucking pleasant, actually, and you make a small sound when his other hand goes to the back of your neck, his fingers lacing through your hair.
The two of you only break away when there’s another popping sound, a sudden scent of ozone that’s there and gone and as soon as it comes, and both of you look entirely presentable and innocent enough, his arms shoved into his pockets as he leans against the wall, yours crossed over your chest as you talk to each other, quietly, already arguing now that the moment is over. Kanaya says nothing of it, merely presents Dave with his new bladekind, and then you wonder how the fuck you managed to gain the affections of Dave douchebag Strider and simultaneously be completely okay with it when she leaves.
“She and Rose are totally going to bone,” Dave says suddenly, conveniently distracting you from your thoughts, and you sputter wordlessly as he adds, “Don’t tell me you didn’t notice. They’ve been sneaking glances at each other this whole trip.”
“Even in the fucking van?”
“Didn’t you see Kanaya adjust the mirror so she could see Rose’s face?”
“Holy hell, you aren’t even kidding. Jesus.”
John picks this moment to whoosh down the stairs with wind, and the two of you watch as he pulls out of the dive and flies upwards to settle himself on the giant fucking wizard statue’s head. He waves cheerfully at the two of you, and when he speaks, his voice resounds around the hall. “Think I’ll be safe up here from your brother, Dave?”
“Nope,” Dave answers. “Dirk is literally a ninja. That’s all I can say.” He turns to you and lowers his voice. “Your blood-sensing will come in handy for that, but don’t let your guard down.”
“As if I would,” you reply, eyebrows raised. “Have you forgotten about who I guard?”
Sollux busts through the door - well, he’s nice enough to keep the door on its hinges, but he busts through nonetheless - with a crackle of red and blue sparks, and he keeps his distance, floating in the air with his psionics as he observes the scene. Below him Dirk steps past the threshold, and for a moment, there is complete silence.
You wonder where Rose is, as Terezi caws from the top of the stairs, “Ah, Sollux! Just who I wanted to see. Let’s see who lasts longer, hm? I should warn you that justice always prevails!”
“Fuck you, Terezi,” Sollux snarls. It’s very convincing, but he sends you both a tiny smile that disappears as soon as it appears before he flings himself at her, narrowly dodging her unsheathed blade as his psionics push at her. She erects a teal-colored shield using her Mind powers and laughs maniacally as their supposed ‘battle’ begins, leaving you, John, Kanaya and Dave to face off against Dirk.
Predictably, no one says anything for a while. As far as you know, that’s how most showdowns start.
“You broke the deal, Dirk,” Dave eventually says, over the sparks and humming noises of the ensuing combat behind him. He hasn’t drawn his blade; neither has Dirk. Some sort of bullshit swordsman honor, maybe. “You were supposed to wait until I could go out to Michigan alone.”
“I thought to give you a fighting chance,” Dirk says. His words are distinct and precise, each syllable surgical in placement, sounding odd because they are pronounced perfectly. “You’ve got your friends with you. You might actually win.”
Dave looks like he might retort, but he doesn’t, and then he steps forward until the three of you are behind him, where he’s alone in facing off with his brother. He still hasn’t drawn his sword. “I said one-on-one, and that’s how it will be.”
“And if I attack your friends?”
“Deal’s off, then.”
“Perfect,” Dirk says, and you sense him flashstepping towards the three of you and charge him, locking his blade with your sickles before he can get close to John. Kanaya uncaps her lipstick with a violent whirring sound, and John’s hammer is out in an instant and he’s up and floating in the air, watching. You let Dirk pull his sword away and step back, crouching with a wordless snarl. Neither you nor Kanaya will succumb to his flashstep, because she can sense him in the spatial plane and you can do the same with his heartbeat alone, but John – John can’t, not as quickly as the two of you with his wind currents, and that’s why he’s in the air, to give him more time to dodge.
You planned this out before everything started, and so far, it’s going well enough, as Dirk turns to face Dave, who has finally taken out his blade, and then it’s like they disappear. Save for sudden contact, sudden clangs of metal against metal, it’s as if they aren’t even there, until Dirk suddenly comes for one of you, and you lunge to the left, Kanaya shifting her chainsaw exactly so it catches Dirk’s, the serrated edges chipping his sword before he shifts back, whirls on you with a slash that you parry, and jumps up to engage John, who merely flits out of the way before striking down with his hammer. Dirk blocks it even though it forces him to hit the ground hard, and he parries Dave’s slash as he rolls to his feet, hardly winded.
Terezi lets out another laugh, and then Sollux plummets to the ground, seemingly defeated, blood leeching from his mouth, his eyes, his nose. Overwhelming urgency almost makes you move to his side, but he knows that’s what you’re going to do, and he turns his head and gives a fractional shake of his head, I’m fine, and in your distraction Dirk slams into you blade-first, the sword digging deep into your left side, fuck that burns. You’d forgotten that he was rich enough to get blessed silver, the asshole, and you fight him off with a snarl, locking his blade in the same hold as you’d done to Dave before pulling it away from him.
Kanaya plucks it from your side and floats it away before shattering it, the fingers not holding the chainsaw moving in complex patterns akin to your Blood thing, and you retreat behind her, forcing your skin to stitch back together, healing from the inside out. He’d missed internal organs, by some stroke of luck, but it stills hurts like hell, and by the time you go back out with a vengeance, he’s already got another blade out and he and Dave are not flashstepping, going at each other like there’s no tomorrow.
They’re dancing, you think distantly, admiring Dave’s smooth movements despite the situation, and then you move forward at just the right moment to scrape a deep gash in Dirk’s back, jumping out of the way at his immediate counterattack. Dave was right, they do have similar fighting styles, as you immediately step over the leg sweep he attempts to trip you with, all while parrying and blocking Dave’s blows.
What you don’t expect is the horizontal slash, and you dodge your head back violently to avoid it cutting your head off, but then oh god your eye. Just one eye, but it’s still your eye, holy fuck you can’t see out of it, and you stumble back as Kanaya sweeps in, her stance solid, her chainsaw nicking Dirk in the sword arm. He switches the blade from his right to his left easily, stabs Kanaya in the stomach while she’s pulling away (she’s too slow, shit) and she goes down. But she’s a rainbow drinker, she’ll be fine, you think, you hope, and you slam your hand over your eye and stitch optic nerves back together as John cracks down with his hammer so hard the tiled flooring splinters, pulling away with a speed you have not witnessed before as Dirk attempts to strike back.
Wait, where’s Terezi? She’s still at the top of the stairs, you realize with sudden relief, unable to move, though, she overdid it with Sollux in order to make it convincing, and then Dave cries out and you turn and he’s down. Shit.
You feel for his heartbeat – still sixty, good, but it’s fluctuating here and there, not good, and you gesture at John with one hand as Dirk’s sword finds home in his brother’s shoulder, followed by Dave letting out a sharp exhale, teeth grinding. “Sorry about this, Dave,” you whisper, and then you reach out, feeling for his heart through your fingers and your inner ear, and once you have control of it you keep it steady at sixty. It’s all you can do, now, that and keep the blood from leaking out of his wounds, now it’s all up to John - but wait, John won’t dare strike when Dave is so close to Dirk, and Dirk knows it as he leans in closer, whispering something in Dave’s ear as his brother sucks in air wetly. You could try and move to take care of the guy yourself, but you might lose your concentration and then Dave might die and that is not allowed in any circumstance.
John lands and swings his ginormous hammer at Dirk because why not, right. Instead Dirk pulls out another sword, ducks under his swing, and neatly slashes John on the side of his shoulder. He yanks the blade sword out with a squelching sound, waves it in John's face, and then catches the other shoulder, just as painfully than the other one. John stumbles back, hammer disappearing into a syllabus, hissing, the wind whipping around him but no, he can’t do anything because Dave is right there and he knows it, and he shares a pained glance with you as his arms hang uselessly at his sides.
To make it a real party, there’s a heartbeat coming closer now – Lalonde, shit, she got out of the room. Terezi doesn’t engage her, though - a glance at the stairs reveals the Seer is leaning heavily on her cane, watching Lalonde go forward with hawk eyes. She knows something, you think as Lalonde makes her way down the stairs, taking in the situation, seeing you standing there completely vulnerable while you keep Dave alive, seeing John hunched over nearby, as Dave hisses at him to get out and Dirk goads him to come closer, and she walks over to her brothers, sedately, as if she has all the time in the world.
“Hey, Rose,” Dirk says with a nod and a flash of teeth when she stops next to him. “Fine time for you to join me.”
She nods back, looks down at her brother with her knitting needles popping into her hands. Abruptly her heel slams into Dave’s shoulder, right next to where Dirk’s sword is buried, and he lets out an agonized gasp as Dirk asks with a feral grin, “Would you like to do the honors?”
She considers this, one hand coming up to stroke her chin. “Rose,” Dave whispers, and he says nothing more. His pleading tone is enough.
“Your choice, Rosie,” Dirk says, and for the first time since the fight started, it is completely and utterly silent.
Dave watches her, eagle-spread, completely still, his expression unreadable but his eyes full of hurt and pain as her foot digs into his wound - and then you suddenly notice she’s placed her foot exactly so it prevents most of the blood from coming out, did Terezi see this? Dave turns to look at you and mouths ‘thank you,’ you swallow as your heart swells with sudden affection and misery, and Lalonde says coldly, “Gladly, brother dearest.”
There is a moment where time stills for you, your vision going hazily red at the edges, as her needles go up and Dirk pulls away. This is it, then, Terezi had been wrong; the end of Dave Strider, the reawakening of the Strilondes, the death of the only known Heir, the disappearance of the country’s only Seer. And you, a feeble Knight, had been unable to stop it, because of your own sheer incompetence, your own presumption that Dirk wouldn’t bypass your bullshit demon powers to win. Kanaya’s down, John’s down, Sollux and Terezi are down, hell, you’re down, too. It’s over.
It takes a moment for you to process what happens next.
Lalonde then proceeds to stab Dirk in the back of the neck, two needles on either side of his spine, and he’s so surprised that she even manages to twist hard enough that you can hear an audible crack, one that makes you shudder as Dirk falls lifelessly. You can do nothing but stare in shock, a part of you just remembering to keep your thumb moving.
Lalonde – Rose, no, Rose kicks him off of Dave, pulling her needles out in one smooth motion, and he stares at her, betrayed, as she pulls the sword out of Dave’s shoulder. And then the real kicker - while he's down there, twitching slightly, glaring at her with a myriad of emotions flipping across his stiff face, she jams the sword right through his chest, and you listen as his heartbeat jolts and then fades, slowly, until you can’t hear it at all. Somewhere you think someone whispers distantly that was hardcore and get the impression that it might be Kanaya.
Meanwhile, Rose doesn’t even look at Dirk’s body as she turns to you, points to Dave, and says harshly, “You can save him, right?”
You nod numbly. Your thumb twitches back and forth, sixty beats per second, as you marvel at the girl in front of you because she had just murdered her own human brother by breaking his neck. She is fearsome, even as she shakes in her lavender sweater, her dark pants stained with blood, her feet in white and purple kitty socks that have been dyed red, tears threatening to spill in her eyes, black lips so thin they were hardly visible.
“And Kanaya?”
Kanaya lets out a shuddering breath and says, “I’m fine, dear,” but does not get up, and she is fine, you can tell because her wound is already closing. Rose rushes to her instead as you carefully approach both Strider brothers, maintaining your hold on Dave’s heart. John’s stationed himself near Dirk now, peering at him, fully prepared to strike out if the man did anything, but of course he can’t, he’d been stabbed through the fucking heart and had his neck broken besides. And then there’s Dave, and you fall to your knees besides him, leaning over to check his shoulder. A clean exit and entry, and Dirk avoided the bone but cut nerves and muscle tissue. There’s blood everywhere, and the smell is overpowering to your nose.
You nibble your finger until it bleeds, and then you whisper, “Sorry,” lifting his good hand, popping a sickle out of your sylladex and slicing his thumb as lightly as possible, captchaloguing your weapon before letting your blood drip into his wound. You almost miss his grunt of acknowledgement and you dive in, immediately sensing where all of his wounds are and healing them while still maintaining your control over his heart. It gets harder and harder to multitask like this, keeping the heart from pumping the blood out of his body while you work on his shoulder, sewing tissue back together, reconnecting nerves, finally closing up the skin and leaving a rather impressive scar.
He sits up when you reel backwards, releasing your grip on him all at once, and pulls you to him so when you do fall over it’s into his lap. Yay soft landings, you think distantly, eyes closing, and then John’s saying something about he wants medical attention too, and Kanaya is scolding you from the floor for overdoing it again, and then you’re passed from Dave’s warm hands to bony ones you immediately recognize as Sollux's.
He kisses your forehead and holds you close, murmuring something in your ear as he carries you and then sits down somewhere, and you let out an uneasy purr before you just pass the fuck out.
You wake up to find Sollux spooning ferociously you on the couch, his arms curled tight around your middle, his face tucked into the neat groove of your shoulder and neck, breath warm against your skin. He’s cleaned up, at least, looking decidedly less bloody than before, and you listen to his heartbeat for a bit, eyes closed, comfortable and warm and a little dizzy as you crack your eyes open.
For once, Terezi isn’t in your face, ready to startle you in the morning. Instead, John and Dave are dozing, heads together as they flop against the other half of the L-shaped couch, and you can hear Rose and Kanaya quietly murmuring together somewhere as Terezi snores loudly in an armchair. From the looks of things, Kanaya had placed her there, because she’s covered in a jade blanket that the rainbow drinker had made for herself, and you are very glad to see she’s still alive.
You gingerly push yourself up to a seated position and have the immediate urge to retch. Sollux predicted this and placed one of those plastic buckets for cleaning shit nearby, and you make good use of it. What dribbles out is, predictably, blood, your blood, and you feel faintly disgusted as Sollux sits up afterwards, his arms still secure around your middle, his chin now resting in your hair.
“Overdid it again, KK,” he says, exasperated, but also fond, and you headbutt him lightly, causing him to swat your nose.
“He was going to die if I didn’t heal it,” you say, retaliating by checking him with your shoulder, not even close to hard enough to hurt him. “Shoulder wounds can be fatal because they’re so close to the heart and Dirk was an ass and hit the major veins and nerves and shit.”
Sollux hums noncommittally and kisses the tip of your ear, as you lace your fingers through his on your stomach. You don’t even care how pale the two of you are being; it’s been a while since you’ve last seen him, and after yesterday’s clusterfuck, you think you’re allowed a bit of a break.
Neither of you say anything for a while, instead listening to the conversation in what you’re pretty sure is in the kitchen and savoring each other’s warmth.
“DV told me he’s totally red for you, by the way,” Sollux says without warning, and you choke on nothing, causing him to snicker. “His exact words were that you are, and I quote, ‘the grouchiest asshole to grace the world who is too goddamn intent on the welfare of others for his own good, and also he’s hot as hell.’ Lucky you.”
“I don’t know how it happened,” you mutter, cheeks burning. “He visits one day half-dead, I kind of pitied him for that because he’s half-dead and bleeding and all that, and then it turns out he’s not actually terrible company.” Sollux breath hitches as he holds back a laugh, and you say miserably, “Sollux, I’m turning into a softhearted idiot, what do I do.”
“You were always a softhearted idiot,” he replies, and he laughs when you hiss traitor under your breath, even though you know completely and utterly that you love this stupid Halfling so, so dearly. Then he stands up, taking you with him, and stoops down to grab the bucket without looking inside. “C’mon, let’s dump this and see what the girls are up to.”
“I need to take care of John’s wounds,” you remember suddenly, glancing over. Sure enough, the wounds have stopped bleeding, but his arms are held limp, having been struck solidly in the shoulder – from the side, though, not a stab like Dave’s but a cut, the blade digging maybe an inch into the flesh before being pulled away. Sollux pulls at you insistently, but you hold your ground.
“KK, you’re already drained – ”
“There aren’t any demons versed in Life close by.”
“KK - ”
“It’ll only take me a second,” you insist, and Sollux sighs.
“DV was right, you are too intent on the welfare of others for your own good. Fine, then, I’m not stopping you.” He lets go of you, shooing you off. “And because I’m such a great guy, I’ll even take care of your bucket. Be grateful, asshole.”
“Love you too, pot,” you say with a roll of your eyes.
“Same to you, kettle.”
You let out a snort, flashing him a diamond with both hands, and then you turn your attention onto John, gently shaking his shoulder as Sollux ambles away. John awakens by violently pulling his hammer out and almost clubbing you in the face, and you’re too tired to even flinch as the steel stops just before your flesh, held there by Sollux’s blue and red sparks. You give your moirail a nod of thanks, one he returns before turning around and walking his merry way once more, as you greet flatly, “Morning, John.”
“It’s actually around noon,” Dave murmurs sleepily from nearby, as John flushes and puts his hammer away. Pity wells in your chest; you brush it aside as you poke at John’s shoulder wounds, causing him to hiss, and Dave’s scarlet eyes open with a few tired blinks. “Hey, Karkles.”
“Don’t call me that,” you snap, but there’s nothing behind it, and he smiles lazily as you tell John, “I’m going to cut your hand,” grabbing it before he can resist and using the nail on your thumb to slit his palm.
“Gross, Karkat,” John says as you nip the same finger from last night and let a single drop bead and fall onto the cut. You retaliate to his comment by stitching up the skin so quickly it has to burn, and when you withdraw you find yourself a little off-balance again. Dave reaches out to steady you as John tests his arms and grimaces. “Jerk.”
“Only the best for you, Heir,” you respond, as Dave’s hand slides down your forearm and interlaces with yours. You cast him a wry look, though you don’t let go or pull away, and say to John, “It could be worse, Dirk could have gone for the bone.”
John wrinkles his nose. “Could you even heal that?”
“Nope.”
Dave suddenly pulls you down next to him, his arm going around your waist, his face turning to bury itself in your hair. You fail to suppress a blush - Dave is just out of it at this point, he nearly died yesterday and slept maybe five hours - and flip John the bird when he giggles and informs you, “You two are hilarious together, holy shit.”
“Glad to see you’re not the peanut gallery for once,” Dave mumbles. His breath stirs the fine hairs by your ear.
John snorts and says nothing. Terezi’s snoring in the corner, Kanaya and Rose are talking in the kitchen, Dave’s body is warm against yours, and for the first time in a very long while, you feel like you’ve finally found a place akin to a home.