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Meeting the trolls in person was quite the eye-opening experience for Dave and Rose once they arrived on the meteor. The humans had been warned about physical differences such as the thick, gray skin and candy-corn-colored horns, but the humans were not prepared for the way that the trolls acted. Sure, their individual personalities and habits matched well with their online personas for the most part, but they as a species (one that’s now composed of only a handful of them) had a surprising amount of similarities to other creatures that the humans could recognize.
They had lots of bug-like qualities, for one. Such qualities include grub scars across their ribs as a souvenir from the days when they had 6 insect-ish appendages instead of two arms and two legs (give or take), subvocal clicking noises when they spoke Alternian, and the terms they use like “wrigglers” and “hives”. They weren’t very alien, the humans thought, but similar to the bugs from Earth. Dave often made comments about living in a live-action remake of A Bug’s Life.
But the trolls had many qualities that resemble various other Earth critters as well, these ones being generally softer and cuter (only because of humans’ nature to see fluffy creatures as adorable and spindly insects as creepy). And this is how Dave Strider found out that his not-yet-boyfriend Karkat was more of a Karkitten.
It started very soon into the journey, with Karkat hissing and growling at Dave with growing frequency as the human learned more and more ways to push his buttons. Dave figured that the noises were a normal alien thing, and he couldn’t really chalk it up to a particular animal, since lots make those noises. He simply assumed that warning sounds like that are pretty universal.
But as year one dissolved into year two, the boys soften up to each other. The process was very slow, as both of them have many insecurities and many walls built up to keep said insecurities hidden away. What chips away at their walls most effectively, it seems, is hanging out in Can Town with the Mayor. He acts as a buffer, a silent third party who can keep the boys distracted and prevent them from boiling over and bothering each other too harshly. The times are so treasured by them both, they start to associate the other with pleasant times, and begin to loosen up around each other. This is when Dave sees another, absolutely adorable, side of Karkat.
The first time such an occasion occurs, the boys had been watching a movie on Karkat’s husktop, sitting beside each other on the couch. A foot of space separated them, as the troll was afraid of the cute boy who confused his oh-so-holy quadrants, and the human was afraid of the cute boy who was, well, a boy . So when Karkat’s eyelids got too heavy, he opted for leaning to his right rather than his left, and taking a gentle rest on the arm of the sofa. Dave was both disappointed and relieved by that decision, but just built the wall around those feelings higher and higher. The movie inevitably ended, leaving the two in mostly darkness as the credits rolled and soft music played over them. While he didn’t want to admit it, Dave knew that they could both use a good sleep, and so he turned to the sleeping troll to try to figure out how to wake him. Karkat looked so peaceful like this, Dave thought. No furrowed eyebrows or lips curled up into a snarl. His loud shouting rants were replaced by gentle snoring which Dave couldn’t help but pull a half-smile at. He had considered various douchey ways to act as a human alarm clock, but he told himself that just this once he’d cut the guy a break. He stopped fidgeting with his hands, not even aware that he had been, and softly shook Karkat’s shoulder. He opened his mouth to tell him to get his ass into a real cocoon-thing, but-
“Mrrr?”
Oh.
Well.
There went all of Dave’s thoughts, words, coolness.
Karkat had gently startled awake from the touch with a small trill, blinking his bright yellow eyes open at Dave and lifting his head slightly. The cute little sound replayed in Dave’s head, sending him into a fit of giggles he couldn’t even think about suppressing. The troll’s soft and sleepy expression turned into his familiar scowl.
“What the fuck are you laughing at!” he tried to shout but it came out as a more of a grumble. He could guess that it was the noise he had just made, since he’d learned that humans don’t seem to make a lot of noises like trolls do, and the humiliation makes his cheeks darken. Dave just started to ramble in between hiccups of laughter.
“Oh my god, dude, did you just trill? Like a goddamn cat? Here I am thinking I have a loud shouty troll sleeping beside me, but no, I apparently have a motherfucking kitten nestled into the couch like it’s your mama. Holy shit that was absolutely the cutest thing I’ve ever heard, can you do it again? Is it like an on-command thing or no?”
Through Dave’s ramble, Karkat’s blush of shame turned to that of a different kind of embarrassment, and upon being called cute he quickly pulled his hands up to cover his face.
“Stop!! Do not refer to me as a fucking meowbeast, Strider!” he interrupted.
After some more teasing from Dave, Karkat declared with just a bit of sarcasm that Dave is simply jealous that he cannot do something that’s done by trolls and meowbeasts - both of which, he reminded him, rule over his species entirely. He then stormed off into his respiteblock to sulk and become furious with himself for not being able to rid the mental image of Dave giving him a large and genuine smile for the first time.
Time passes. Enough time that the trilling incident is forgotten (as in, not at all forgotten, but no longer talked about), and that the boys are finally comfortable with being physically affectionate. You’d think that with how touch-starved they are, they’d be all over each other, but it takes well over a year for them to even let their legs touch on the couch.
On this night in particular, Karkat grows tired again, as the boring human romance films make him yawn dramatically so frequently that it actually tricks his body into making him tired. Plus, though he’s not yet ready to admit it, sleeping near Dave makes him feel safe and comfortable. He still has the occasional night terror, but it’s nothing Dave is unfamiliar with, or unhelpful with, for that matter. Surprisingly enough, the guy can be pretty genuine and caring if you’re in a vulnerable enough state around him.
The troll rests his head in the human’s lap, which isn’t the first time it’s happened. The first time it did, it was filled with awkwardness, which certainly wasn’t helped by Dave stringing together metaphors about what treasures lie in that area of his lap, leading to Karkat threatening to leave and Dave finally shutting his mouth. Each time since then, Dave has been relatively quiet and extremely still when Karkat decides to use him as a pillow. It’s like when a cat chooses to nap in your lap and you don’t want to even twitch a muscle in fear that you’ll scare the precious creature away.
Speaking of cats…
This time is made different by Dave becoming World’s Most Courageous Man (it’s in the Guinness Book of World Records, look it up) and resting his hand on Karkat’s head. He makes sure to avoid the horns, since he doesn’t know what touching them does and isn’t ready to find that out just yet. He softly starts to pet Karkat’s hair. It’s thick and coarse, not soft or silky like his own, but has a nice fluff to it and sticks out in all directions in an endearing way. This action makes the troll even more relaxed, until oh sweet heavens he’s purring .
Karkat doesn’t notice it right away - of course he wouldn’t, it’s perfectly normal for him - until Dave’s chest bounces in a short laugh. Nothing in the movie was funny, so Karkat narrows his eyes and deadpans “What.” while keeping his gaze on the screen.
There’s a pause while Dave prepares some more word vomit, but instead gets a turn on the communal meteor brain cell and decides to swallow it down and try again.
“You purr,” he says softly, amazement lining his words.
“Do not even START-!” Karkat begins, moving up and away. Dave softly catches him and holds him in place in his lap.
“Woah woah, wait. I’m not trying to bust your balls about it. It’s cute, I promise.”
“Cute?” he asks mockingly.
“Yeah,” Dave swallows, not wanting to elaborate.
Karkat, unsatisfied with the answer but not pressing the subject (see now HE has the brain cell!), settles back in. The hair petting resumes, and soon the purrs do too. Dave sits with a lazy smile plastered on his face. He can feel the walls around his feelings for Karkat start to crack and crumble. The little construction worker in his head, whose name tag reads “internalized homophobia”, is putting down layers of bricks and concrete as fast as he can, but it’s no match for this little kitten who simply sits on the wall and swats the bricks off.
It’s minutes later, when Karkat begins to knead Dave’s leg in rhythm with his purrs, that Dave realizes that Karkat’s cuteness is going to be the death of him.