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"Fuck."
Karkat turns over on an extremely small and uncomfortable mattress. He crosses his arms in a futile attempt to keep himself warm, because the motel sheets currently covering him are too fucking thin to do the job they're supposed to. "Let's go on a road trip and sleep in crappy motels, she said. It'll be fun she said,"
Jade, who is resting five inches away from him on the same bed (Karkat's still surprised that such a bad motel had only 1 available room left), sighs into her pillow and softly punches the mattress. "To be fair, you're the one who agreed to come!"
"Only because I didn't know I would freeze to death!" And, as if on cue, a violent shiver runs down his spine. Karkat narrows his gray eyes and tries to glare into Jade's green ones, but he can't really see in the darkness of the room, so he opts for just glaring in Jade's general direction.
"Come on, it's only this one night. And as far as I can tell, you've really, really enjoyed the rest of the road trip! We spent almost an hour playing I Spy and making fun of songs on the radio and impersonating radio show hosts and... you're scowling at me, aren't you?"
"No." Actually, he is, but he won't admit that she's right.
"You are scowling."
"Your glasses are off, you can barely see without them, and it's pitch black in here. Tell me, how do you know if I'm scowling? Which, by the way, I'm not."
"I know your mannerisms well, fuckass," Jade says with a hum, "Now go back to sleep."
"I can't. Because -- surprise -- it's too cold!" Karkat clenches his teeth so they don't chatter and curls further into himself. "How are you not freezing?"
"...I hate you so much." Jade mutters with a tired yawn, any trace of malice absent in her voice.
"That's not even an answer, and I'm afraid I only have platonic feelings toward you."
"Ugh." Jade groans, throws her sheets over Karkat, and rolls over, closing the space between them. "I meant human hate."
"Well, that's-" Karkat stops in the middle of his sentence as Jade lazily wraps an arm around his chest, pulling him closer to the warmth of her body. It feels good. It feels really good. Karkat, shocked, makes an undignified noise at the back of his throat.
Jade giggles. "Did you just... purr?"
"No." Karkat says quickly. He's warmer already, but whether that's from the blood rushing to his cheeks or from Jade's proximity, he doesn't know. All he does know is that he can feel Jade's fingertips against his body; that he can hear Jade's slow, steady breath; that he can smell Jade's hair (it smells like earth and snow and gunpowder and hot metal).
...Karkat doesn't know exactly what quadrant he'd be in with Jade (if any), but he knows what he's feeling right now definitely isn't platonic.
"Of course not," Jade laughs. "Anyway, goodnight Karkat! Hopefully you can sleep now."
Karkat swallows nervously and closes his eyes. He doesn't respond. Fucking Jade being so fucking confusing with her cute buckteeth and her gunpowder scent and her warmth. Fucking Jade leaving him proverbially dizzy with her braveness and generosity and kindness and ferocity.
But he'll save his confusion for the morning, when they're back on the road and making fun of songs and badly impersonating radio show hosts.
For now, he'll drift off to sleep in the comfort of Jade's embrace.