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The air went still.
Dave had just backed Karkat up against a wall, like some sort of shitty stereotype in human entertainment.
Everything would’ve been quiet, for the very first time since the two of them had first stepped foot in the same room, if it weren’t for the humming of the vents, and the buzzing of some unseen mechanism that seemed to live within the walls. The eternal soundtrack of the meteor.
Oh, and Dave. Dave and his audible, rapid breathing.
He was really breathing way too fucking loud, Karkat thought. Or maybe it was the fact that they were so damn close to each other. They looked as if they’d been about to embrace, but time itself had decided to stop, leaving them stuck in an uncomfortable and precarious position, unable to move. Dave’s fist was against the wall, his arm grazing Karkat’s head, his back hunched, his jaw set, his entire body tense and angled downwards as if he was about to fall, and his nose nearly touching Karkat’s.
Karkat, who was standing ramrod straight, had an uncharacteristically tranquil expression on his face. Yeah, he felt a bit anxious (he always did), but his mind was pretty clear. This was good. Perfect, even. This was what was meant to happen, Dave and him, colliding like this, they’ve been building up to this for weeks, or maybe months. In fact, the only thing that wasn’t good about this, was that it was taking so long to happen.
See, Karkat wasn’t stupid. He was a self-hating piece of shit, which is similar, and it did stop him from noticing the obvious for a good couple of weeks. At first he had brushed off Dave’s new tendency to put his arm around him as part of his fucked up human pale-adjacent friendship routine. Maybe they had just reached a new level in their “broship”, Karkat had thought. But then dave had started to blush pretty often, and, even more shockingly, grin. His ironic flirting had started to feel more and more genuine, and his stupid rants had taken a fond tone whenever it was Karkat he was mumbling about. He talked about him constantly, nowadays.
Karkat had noticed all of this, and understood what it implied, obviously. He hadn’t done anything about it, though, because he was scared. He was scared of making the same mistakes he had made with Terezi. Karkat had been impatient with her, jumping at the first chance at romance, flipping mercilessly between pitch and flush flirting. He’d thought they were going somewhere, but she lost interest in him as quickly as she had picked him up. Their little push and pull hadn’t yet escalated to anything important, but it still stung to have her drop him and go back to treating him like a buddy, as if nothing had happened between them.
Well, whatever. Karkat was totally over that debacle. Terezi and him didn’t hang out much lately, but they got along just fine, and his missteps towards her had been a good preparation for what was to come.
When he’d noticed Dave’s interest in him, Karkat had promised himself he wouldn’t make any advances until he had his quadrants sorted out. He would let Dave go at his own pace, and wouldn’t confuse him or actively seek any sort of quadrant-specific activities with him. He knew if he did, he would end up losing control, and blurring every single line in the quadrant system, in every possible way, forever.
Right now, though, Karkat couldn’t believe he’d been so foolish. He had never felt this flushed. Dave’s pretty red eyes were wide open behind his shades and his red cheeks were flushed and his red, red heart was beating deafeningly under his skin. How could he have ever thought this was anything else?
Dave clearly felt the same. After all, it had been him who, a few seconds ago (or minutes, neither of them knew) had crossed the distance between them and put them in this situation. Sure, he froze up at the last second, but the intent was there!
Karkat got the message loud and clear. His hand, which had up to now been floating uncertainly just inches off of Dave’s face, came to rest on his jaw.
At this, Dave tensed up even further.
Karkat felt the clench of his jaw, and frowned. That’s... That wasn’t what was supposed to happen. He must’ve miscalculated just how nervous Dave was.
His mood flipped abruptly. Karkat put his other hand on Dave’s face, and pushed him off just slightly, in order to look fully into his eyes.
“What the fuck, Dave, are you okay?” Whoops. That didn’t come out like he’d wanted it to.
“I mean, shit, listen. For once isn’t me being disgusted by you, alright? I’m,” he took a shaky breath “It’s the opposite of that, actually, if this is going where I think it’s going. Which, obviously it is, because what the fuck else would you be trying to achieve by orchestrating this pitiful state of affairs. Unless this is some sort of sick prank you’re pulling in order to stomp on my blood pusher, but I’d like to think you’re above that,”
Dave’s brow furrowed, and Karkat took it as encouragement to keep talking, “So I’m assuming you were attempting to kiss me just now, and failing miserably at it. But what the fuck ever! That can happen to the best of us! Or the worst of us, which is certainly where I would categorize myself, so really I’m not above this at all. Anyway, the point is, I’d honestly be really into that! Kissing you, I mean, embarrassingly so. If that is what we were about to do. But uh, only if you are too?” He finally broke eye contact, and bit his lip, “I know, reasonably, that if you were the one trying to do it then you probably want it as much as I do, but since when do you function under any sort of reason? Besides, you look really fucked up right now, no offense, and I don’t think it’s acceptable to kiss someone who seems to be going into catatonia, even if they’re the one who initiated it. So, are you okay? With me kissing you, but also in general, are you alright?”
At the end of his word vomit, Dave looked troubled. He breathed one huge sigh, the tension leaving his body, backed the rest of the way out of Karkat’s space, slid his shades into his hair, and let his head drop into his hands.
“Dave? Are you–?”
“Yeah, dude. I’m fine. It’s nice that you’re worried, but I’m totally ok. Perfectly fantastic. Everything’s lit,” He was finally speaking, his face hovering an inch away from his palms, “In fact, everything’s just so fucking awesome right now, it makes absolutely zero sense for me to be making an ass out of myself like this,”
“Oh,”
“Yeah, oh. I don’t know what the hell is wrong with me. I want to do this. I knew it was gonna be ok. I knew you were probably into me, and if you weren’t I knew you’d be cool about it because you’re such a great dude, but I still can’t bring myself to be chill about this,” his voice was growing more frustrated by the minute, and Karkat felt his feelings dangerously veer into pale territory.
“You don’t need to do anything you’re not ready for, Dave” He said, cupping Dave’s cheek softly.
God fucking damn it, there you go again, Vantas, time to shit on another perfectly good matespritship, He thought, right before Dave mashed their lips together.
As Karkat was struggling to assimilate the situation, Daves was kissing him fiercely, almost angrily, his hands reaching up to grasp at his hair. When Karkat parted his lips, he drew back.
“I know what I’m ready for, dude. Recently I’ve come to terms with some facts about myself that I never let myself think about before. And I know I still have some kinda gross society parasite living in my brain, all laying little homophobia eggs and stinking the place up with outdated ideals of masculinity. I’m trying to get rid of it. I haven’t managed to, yet, so it’s gonna keep being annoying and making me act like an idiot for a good while. Though hopefully i won’t freeze up like this again, cause that was really fuckin’ embarrassing,” he smiled, “But I really like you, and I think you like me too. So uh, if you’re willing to put up with my shit, then yeah, I’m alright. With you kissing me, I mean.”
So Karkat smiled back, and did just that.