Chapter Text
Somewhere along the lines things had changed, and Karkat wasn’t sure exactly when that had happened.
He’d fucking hated the douche at first and for a long time afterwards too, almost a whole sweep if he thought about it. It was hard to keep track of time on the meteor. It wasn’t like that kind of hate either, fuck no. They’d had enough arguments over the finer nuances of black romance to last a lifetime, and Karkat had to just give in to the fact that Strider was just never going to fucking get it.
He still hates him. At least he’s pretty sure he does, but it was in a friendly way because he supposed Dave wasn’t quite as much of a douche as he first thought him to be. Or well he was, but he could deal with it now. Fuck, he didn’t have much of a choice if he didn’t want to spend the rest of this trip completely alone after all. He was pretty sure Dave had the same sentiment too, or else things most likely would have gone in a much different direction.
If he thought about it hard enough, it was most likely the culmination of a perfect clusterfuck of events. Rose and Kanaya were each more and more wrapped up in each other as time went on. It wasn't long before it was to the point where hardly anyone would see either of them without the other, which just got awkward after a while. Gamzee and Terezi’s whole debacle had managed to rip the last of what they were each holding onto away simultaneously. The mess leaving them as two hopeless fuck ups with nothing left to distract them on this miserable rock.
Except for the Mayor, he was pretty awesome and a great listener.
Hell, they only started hanging out with each other without biting their respective heads off through the Mayor. It was harder to fight when there was a happy little guy clapping over a couple of dumb cans he stacked on top of each other.
It was also harder to fight when you couldn’t bring yourself to care anymore.
Seriously, what could they fight about at that point? They’d already argued about everything under the green sun. Karkat couldn’t work up the irritation over the little things anymore and Dave had run out of different ways to make black innuendos a long time ago.
Any of the recent happenings on the meteor were mutually understood to be off limits. God, he could just imagine how that fight would have gone down.
“Your clown boyfriend left you for your ex.”
“Your girlfriend left you for a clown.”
Yeah, they weren’t going to touch that one. It just wasn’t worth it.
Fucking hell though, when they started civilly hanging out with each other due to a complete lack of other available options, he didn’t think this would be the god damn result.
Karkat sure as fuck didn’t expect to find himself laying on top of him on some ratty old couch, lazily kissing up his neck as Dave combed his fingers through the troll’s hair.
He definitely had no idea how this all started. The first time it happened they’d been watching one of his movies and Dave was complaining less than usual. He figured he must have been tired or something. Then Karkat wasn’t sure what was happening but he had a lap full of Strider and they were making out and it honestly wasn’t as horrible as he’d thought it would be.
Once the movie finished and they stopped, the two didn’t talk about it or even acknowledge it and they still kind of haven’t. It was just kind of something they did now and it was pretty nice when he wasn't thinking about it.
“What are you doing?” Dave asked, which was a little weird because they didn’t talk when they were doing this kind of shit. Karkat rolled his eyes as he answered, not moving from his spot on the human’s neck.
“The fuck it look like?” he snapped back, one of Dave’s arm moving to wrap around his back while the other stayed messing with his hair.
“Yeah, I guess I can see what. Any particular reason though?” he asked, and Karkat frowned as he thought of what had led to this point this time.
Dave had been lying on the couch when he came into the room, not doing anything and Karkat had only woken up a little while ago and wasn’t hungry yet. Even if he was he didn’t want to chance running into Rose and Kanaya to get something to eat. He’d sat down on the human’s legs and soon enough he was stretched out on top of him because there wasn’t anything better to do honestly.
“Not really, was kind of bored,” he answered truthfully, moving up from his neck to his lips to get him to stop talking. Talking about this shit was weird, it was better to just do it and forget about it when they were done. The hand in his hair fell to cup his face and Karkat could feel the other boy practically sigh into the kiss. It wasn’t long before he was pulling away though and the troll frowned in irritation.
“What, you mean you don’t love me?” Dave asked, mock horror in his voice and Karkat sneered at the question.
“Fuck no,” he answered near instantaneously, not needing to think it over at all. No, he didn’t fucking love Dave, what kind of question even was that?
Karkat pressed his lips against Dave’s roughly, plunging his tongue into the other’s mouth because they were done talking about this. Dave didn’t seem to mind one bit. Instead kissing back without any hesitation and moving his hand underneath his shirt, trailing his fingers lightly up and down the troll’s back.
Karkat’s back arched at the light touches, the feeling just a hair away from tickling him and okay fuck Strider for that. Seriously, fuck him. Karkat moved his hands from where they were uselessly at his side up to Dave’s neck, pulling his claws along his collarbone. It wasn't hard enough to draw blood but instead just enough to make fine white lines on his skin.
Dave deepened the kiss as he started rubbing circles on and around his horns, the soft touches on his back pressing harder into him. A soft groan rumbled in Karkat’s throat as he moved to nip at Dave’s lips, careful not to bite too hard.
This wasn’t black. This wasn’t anything.
The door opened and they broke the kiss to see who was coming in, both surprised at the interruption. They didn’t see the others much anymore unless they went looking, which was happening less and less as time
stretched on.
The mayor was attempting to close the door behind him without dropping any of the chalk he had clutched in his small hands.
“Sup little dude? You bored or something?” Dave asked as he slipped his hands out of Karkat’s shirt and hair, pulling himself from under the troll as well. The mayor sat on the floor and started drawing with the chalk, and Karkat attempted to go back to what they were doing. Dave had his hands up, pushing him away before he was able to get close.
“What are you doing man? The mayors right there,” Dave said, motioning towards where he was drawing. Karkat groaned and rolled his eyes, because really now? He was seriously going to do this?
“So? He doesn’t care,” he said, moving in to kiss along Dave's jaw only to be pushed away again.
“Can’t do it in front of the mayor dude, ain’t right. I’m not gonna be the one to contaminate him like that, Rose can take the blame for the inevitability,” he argued.
“Fuck you.”
“I know you’d like to,” Dave joked back.
“You’re an ass,” Karkat said, this time being the one to push Dave away.
“Yeah, love you too.”
“No you don’t.” he shot down without thinking. He knew it was a joke but fuck he didn’t want them joking about that shit when he was confused as fuck himself. It wasn’t his feelings he didn’t understand, because there were no feelings. Dave was his friend yeah, but that was it and he could replace him in his mind with anyone else and it wouldn’t change anything.
It was just the fact that this was a thing at all. It was weird and he didn’t want to admit it because fuck he should have a better handle on himself by now.
“I know,” Dave said, and they were both quiet for a moment before he started again. “So, why are we doing this then?” he asked, and Karkat groaned, his head falling into his hands.
“You seriously want to do this now?” he snapped back.
“What, is it a bad time or something?” Dave asked and Karkat glared at him.
“A much better time would have been the first time we made out, dumbass” he growled. He wasn’t actually pissed about not talking about it, but if they were going to they had definitely missed the chance. Dave sighed, running a hand through his hair as he answered.
“Yeah okay, you’re probably right about that, but looks like I fucked up and we didn’t so now we’re going to,” Dave declared.
“No, we’re not,” the troll said, no room for argument in his voice, not that that would ever stop Dave from trying to anyway.
“Why? I don’t see what the big deal is.”
“There’s nothing to fucking talk about that’s why. If you don’t know what’s going on here, I’ll tell you. We’re a couple of fucked up horny teenagers who’ve been stuck on this rock with the same people for almost three of your human years and so sometimes we make out, it’s not hard!” he yelled. The mayor looked over at them due to the outburst, but soon went back to his drawing.
Dave didn’t say anything for a good while, not even looking at Karkat as he seemed to let what the troll said sink in.
“Want me to make it hard?” he finally asked, an overtly sexy tone to his voice and smirk on his face. Karkat didn’t hesitate before punching him in the shoulder strong enough so that it would definitely hurt. Dave’s yelp of pain confirmation of this fact, much to Karkat’s delight.
“I thought not in front of the fucking mayor,” he mocked, Dave snickering as he rubbed his arm.
“Yeah, yeah, I know, later,” he winked, and Karkat was about .3 seconds away from punching the douche once again. The stupid innuendo he made doesn’t even work with trolls.
The two were quiet for some time, Dave every so often making comments to the Mayor about what he was drawing. Karkat curled himself up on the other end of the couch, starting to get hungry but ignoring the feeling.
He didn’t notice Dave getting closer to him until the human was draped across his back, chin resting on his shoulder.
“You okay?” he asked, Karkat shrugging in an attempt to get him off and failing.
“I’m fucking fine, get off me,” he growled. Dave seemed to think the command over a bit before answering.
“Nope, no can do there,” he said, pulling Karkat closer to him and shifting his head to start pressing soft kisses behind his ear.
It was so sickeningly sweet fuck, it barely constituted as red. It was more pale than anything, god they were so fucked up. Karkat squirmed in his grip, trying to get away but Dave just pulled him tighter.
“The mayor's still here you fucking idiot,” he tried, but Dave didn’t seem to care about that anymore for some god damn reason.
“I know, I’m not doing anything,” he muttered into his skin. Karkat tried to crane his neck away, but only ended up giving him more of an area to kiss.
“Like hell you aren’t. Stop it,” he commanded. Dave hummed against him, and fuck it felt nice. Karkat felt himself ever so slightly lean back into his hold, feeling Dave’s lips twitch into a small smile at the motion.
“What were you saying again?” Dave asked, moving his arms down to interlace his finger’s with Karkat’s.
“You’re a quadrant hopping harlot and you need to fucking stop,” he snapped, a lot of the bite having left his voice though. Dave chuckled at him, rubbing calming circles into the troll’s hands with his thumbs.
Fuck, he wasn’t supposed to be able to placate him like this. It wasn’t a part of the things they’d been doing before and he wasn’t fucking pale for this asshat. He wasn't anything for him, it was confusing and difficult and fuck he didn’t want it to stop.
“I don’t do quadrants remember?” Dave remarked. Karkat rolled his eyes, because he most certainly did not forget. In fact that just added a whole other layer onto all this madness to make it even more nonsensical.
“Well, just so you know, this shit,” Karkat squeezed Dave’s hands for emphasis, “is pretty fucking pale,” he said, feeling the human shrug behind him.
“Whatever dude, not my problem,” he said, going back to kissing down and along his neck again.
“I don’t feel that way about you, you know,” Karkat said, Dave just humming an affirmative in response. “I mean it, I don’t,” he pressed.
“I know dude,” Dave reassured him, but it wasn’t enough for some reason. He didn’t fucking like Dave like that and fuck he didn’t want to give him the wrong idea or lead him on any.
“I’m fucking serious I don’t have any feelings for you Strider. You’re a good friend but that’s it,” he continued.
"I get it, it’s fine. Just relax for a second okay,” he commanded, shifting them around so that they were lying down once again, Karkat allowing him to. When he looked back to where the mayor was, he seemed to have left some time when they were messing with each other.
“I am relaxed, shut up,” Karkat mumbled, nuzzling his head into the human’s arm slightly. Dave kept one hand interlocked with his and moved the other back to his hair. He tended to mess with his hair a lot, it was nice.
“You don’t have feelings for me either,” he added after a moment, feeling Dave nod underneath him.
“Not a one, no need to worry about that,” he agreed, and Karkat sighed in relief.
Fuck, how could he be so tired already? He’d only woken up a little while ago, but he guessed he’d never been fully awake, so it was pretty easy to slip back into a sleepy state. Yeah, you know what, screw waking up, he was going to just sleep here for the moment.
“You promise?” he asked, needing to know before he went to fell asleep. Dave had wanted to talk about it and this was probably the last time they were going to, so he needed to be fucking certain.
“Promise what?” Dave asked back, sounding confused.
“That you don’t like me. I don’t want to use you like some douchebag,” Karkat clarified.
“I promise. You’re right about all of this, and once we’re off this fucking rock we can go on being normal god damn friends and not have to worry about all this emotion shit,” Dave declared.
“Good,” Karkat muttered, closing his eyes as he did so. He cared way too much about Dave to have any feelings for him, and he was all he had left and he couldn’t deal with the idea of losing him too because of fucking around like this.
“Goodnight dude,” Dave said, rubbing a thumb along his horn.
“It’s night?” Karkat asked, and Dave shrugged.
“Sure, why the fuck not,” he said, and yeah, Karkat could go with that. Why the fuck not seemed to be the reasoning behind most of what was going on this them.
The answer to that was that there was no reason not to. They would be messes either way, so why not be fucked up together.
At the very least, it was a lot less lonely.