Chapter Text
Dave could remember, as clear as fucking day, the night that he and Karkat met.
Now, many people would recall the night of meeting the love of their lives with fondness, perhaps telling stories about how the moment their eyes met they knew that they would be in love for the rest their days. Perhaps they would talk about lavish balls with a private dance away from the crowd, or perhaps of a ride through the air. If it were an especially naughty story, they would speak of fevered kisses, roving hands, hiding away from the families that hated each other, or in the occasional case, of how a human fell in love with a vampire or werewolf. Scandalous though their love may seem, one between a man with a little too much soul and one with none at all, there was no romantic first meeting between them.
In fact, the first meeting involved an incident with a hedgehog, a particular plateful of apple tart, and what was sure to be one very confused and put off werewolf.
Of course, when Dave had been turned around fifty, maybe sixty years ago, they knew he was an Alpha. Hell, he already knew he was an Alpha. He had barely even made a sound when the former Alpha of the pack sank his teeth into his neck and tore flesh. He had been prepared for it; when you were a claviger working with werewolves in the hopes of becoming one yourself, you learned all the nasty little things that went along with it. Nothing in life came for free; as a werewolf you were stronger and able to heal faster and were basically immortal, but at the same time you had to be chained up during the full moon so that you didn’t go batshit on any humans that you knew. Dave already remembered, quite uneasily at that, one particular instance of that. Thank God Karkat had been there.
But he was getting off topic, letting his mind drift away. Soon enough he would be rambling faster than an outlaw trying to smooth talk his way out of a bad situation, making himself seem like just the dandiest fucking fellow so that he wouldn’t be chained up and thrown to the wolves during moon madness. Now was not the time to be letting his head stay in the clouds.
Dave Strider, Alpha of the Strider pack, knew that he was hot shit. Unfortunately, all of high society knew that too, meaning that Rose was always stuffing him in itchy cravats and belts and sending him off to balls. He didn’t mind the suits; the suits made him look fucking fantastic, and everyone knew it, even those goddamn vamps. The extra little accessories were what annoyed him to no end, because of the off chance that a fight broke out or he had to do some impromptu sparring. They caught in fucking everything, and they always tore away whenever he changed into his wolf form. It was needless and stupid, but his Beta insisted. Not only did she insist, Rose always found some way to verbally outwit him and make him wear the damnable things.
Okay, he’s getting off topic. Fashion aside, it was at one of these balls when he met Karkat Vantas, in the middle of the outside garden enjoying a plate of apple tart. Dave had thought that the staff there were fucking cheapskates when it came to food, so to see that was a relief, because he was just about fucking starving and it really wasn’t all that desirable to have raw meat and blood at a human hosted party. As it turned out though, Dave fucking loved apples, especially when they were made into desserts, and he took that moment to sit by the seemingly human man to ask where he’d gotten it.
Now at this point in the story one of them would have noticed the other’s looks, or perhaps noticed a small quirk in their behavior, but this was, as mentioned before, not the typical romantic first meeting. Dave had to pause before even speaking to the man, because he noticed his scent.
Now it should be noted that while werewolves and vampires had been civilized into society, it was only just, and the bottom line is humans still oftentimes smelled like food. That wasn’t what this mystery man in the garden smelled liked. There was a whiff of something spicy and sweet, and something completely missing. It was so startling to Dave that he had to actually stop and stare, trying to figure out what the fuck could cause one human to smell different from the rest.
Then that human spoke, revealing that Dave had been staring a him for way too damn long. “Hey, shit for brains, any reason why you happen to be looking at me like I’m some piece of meat?”
“Hm?” Okay, fuck, he had to try and bounce back from this, make it seem like he hadn’t just been staring like a freak for no reason without ever mentioning the other’s scent, even though it was driving him up the fucking wall trying to figure out what it was, “What, no man, I’m not looking at you like that. I’m eyeing that fine ass dessert. I really have a hankering for some apple tart, you know, since they don’t got any beef here.” The guy looked at him for a moment before seeming to accept that.
“Well you’re shit out of luck. I had to order this from the stupidest goddamn staff in existence, and they only made five tarts. This is the fifth.” Dave wondered if that’s what he had smelled, all the desserts that the guy seemingly had consumed. The guy must have had the best metabolism a human could have, to be eating all of that and still maintaining the seemingly solid figure. That also presented the worst problem imaginable; he was going to have to go without food for the night.
There was no way in hell that he was letting that happen. He decided then and there to grab a bite of that tart, just to hold him over. After all, who would believe a human who said that the Alpha of one of the biggest packs in the city, the king Strider, ate some of their apple tart in the garden where no one else was at that moment? Maybe the gossip columns, but Dave really doubted it. Dave reached over and tried to snag a piece, lifting slightly off of his seat. In that moment, two things happened.
A hedgehog crawled into his seat, and a silver tipped cane collided with his head.
He yelped, sitting back because what kind of fucking lunatic brought a silver tipped wooden cane with him when he was so obviously able bodied? Apparently an asshole who seemed to always want to be prepared for a supernatural attack. He sat back down in his seat, and that’s when Dave Strider, Alpha werewolf, sat on the poor spiny creature. Said werewolf gave another yip before falling to the ground, right on his ass. It was an unflattering position, and he just about growled at the human who was right then yelling at him. “Okay, what the fuck?! We only just met and you’re stealing my food? What are you, some loner from the countryside? I would say rove, but hey, looks like you’d fucking hate that, huh?” Now Dave saw that the man was tapping his cane on the ground, glaring down at him.
“Well I’m hungry! Can you really blame me?” He got up, trying to loom over the other, a scowl playing at his lips. It was instinctive to show his canines, and that’s what he did. It was an intimidation tactic, one that he hadn’t been able to shed ever since turning. Then the human in front of him grabbed his wrist and he wasn’t doing much of anything. Though he was much taller than the other, he was still not looming so threateningly. That, and he had no canines. All that was there were blunt human teeth.
Human. That wasn’t something he had been in over half a century, and yet that’s what he was now.
That in itself was enough to shock Dave into silence, and that allowed the human to ramble on, uninterrupted.
"What the actual FUCK is wrong with you?! You don't just come up to some complete stranger, stare at them for no reason, and then expect to get away with trying to steal their food! That's the rudest fucking thing, and you're lucky that you're fucking doing this to me and not some stupid flighty broad inside. This would make it to the papers for sure, and I have a feeling that you really don’t want me to do anything for that pride of yours.”
Soon enough, Dave found his voice and took several steps back, tearing his wrist away. Immediately he felt more like himself. He practically snarled then, and god there was something so fucking infuriating about this guy. He had that weird fucking scent around him, one that already was distracting him and making him lose control on what he had once called word vomit, and he was already unsettled as is by being so suddenly changed. While Dave really couldn’t place the spicy-sweet smell, he at least knew what was missing. He just wasn’t about to let that cane come anywhere near him again.
“Hey man, I just wanted food! There’s no need to start all that shit. What are you trying to do, start a war between races? We really don’t need curse-breakers on our asses in addition to vamps. Those fucking bloodsuckers hate us enough already, and soon enough we’ll be having the tanks o-“
WHACK
Again with that fucking cane.
Before Dave could continue his previous agitated rambling, the human had taken up his plate of tart, tucked his cane under his arm, and started walking away without so much as another word. The werewolf was left baffled, and more than a little put off. He was honestly so offended from even meeting the guy that he left early, immediately going to find Rose and demand to get the list of names of all the soulless in the city. It took an hour of pacing around his own room, trying to forget the feel of the other's hand on his wrist and trying to nurse the ache in his head that had bloomed after being bludgeoned so many times with silver, but soon he had the disappointingly short list. There were only two names, and they seemed to be related; Karkat and Kankri Vantas. Dave knew of Kankri; the asshole was reviled throughout the supernatural set for his backhanded lectures on them, as if he knew of the struggles of the Dark Ages, when werewolves and vampires alike were often hunted down and killed with silver and wood. Now Dave understood why he always seemed to be so condescending.
While it made sense that Kankri would be a soulless bastard, it was a little bit baffling to see that ball of anger is the same. Then again, for all Dave knew, he could be just as condescending as Kankri. Thankfully, he would likely never have to see the guy again. Yeah. At least Dave could take solace in that little fact, even though he had to admit that it was a little fun to see the guy lose his shit and it would be a little disappointing to never see him again. Despite the little hiccups of that first meeting, and that stupid fucking cane, it was fun.
Then as if to fuck with him, life threw him into more chance meetings with Karkat Vantas.