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“What the hell did you just say to me, fucker?!” The voice was loud, familiar, yet distant. The face blurred out with a grey marker. Perhaps it was someone he once knew, someone close to him, but the exact identity of this person was long gone just like most of his other memories. “Say it again. I fucking dare you!” The person from his dream screamed as another person stepped forward. Black and red blurred together to form an identity he didn’t know. He felt like he should, but it was like that information had been deleted a long time ago.
“Oh fuck off! I’m tired of this back-and-forth bullshit, —! Why do you have to fight so god damn much? What do you get out of this?” The coloured blur yelled back, though their pitch hardly matched that of the grey blur. The name the coloured blur yelled was somehow just as blurry as the identity of these two people. He hadn’t a clue who this coloured blur of a person was talking to, just as he wasn’t sure if he heard the name and just didn’t recognize it or if he just hadn’t been allowed to know that information.
“I didn’t ask for you to stay, —! I don’t need you! Fucking — get out.” The grey blur dismissed, though he could really only see them moving back and forth. If they were making facial expressions or hand gestures he couldn’t see it. “You don’t. Do you? Fine, whatever.” The colourful blurb left the memory just like that, moments after being asked. For a moment things were quiet and restful, and then it was dark.
—
“Come on, Dave, you’ve slept enough.” Suddenly this voice felt so real as if it was right next to him. It was scratchy, yet soft. Nothing like the person in his dream. They must be two separate beings then. His limbs were heavy as if they hadn’t been used in quite some time and his mind was foggy as if it had just been rebooted. “Dave,” The soft yet scratchy voice chimed again, and then there was a weight on his head. Fingers combed through his hair as if trying to lull him awake. ‘My name must be Dave,’ he thought. For a moment he lay there in stark confusion. ‘You don’t know your own name?’ Come to think of it, he couldn’t really recall much about himself at the moment.
Suddenly, as if the fact that he had no idea who he was was too much for him, his — Dave’s — eyes shot open meeting a bright and blinding light that he had to shield his sensitive red eyes from. “What the fuck..?” He mumbled, words slurring slightly from underuse. Dave had little time to process what was going on before a large gasp to his side alerted him and the fingers pulled from his hair. Dave tilted his head to the right as a short person shot up from their seat. Their grey-painted skin pained him with familiarity but he just couldn’t recall who this person was. They certainly seemed excited to see him though.
“Shit, Dave, I — It’s about fucking time you woke up, dumbass.” The mystery person spoke, cupping his face with both of their hands and tilting his head to either side. Their thumbs rubbed against his cheeks gently, and the contact caused little butterflies to swarm in his stomach. He didn’t know this person, but surely he was lucky for getting the attention of someone so beautiful. Dave couldn’t help but allow a smile to spread across his face. The action earned a loud ‘tsk’ from the person above him. “Why are you smiling? You must be aching like hell.” The person asked, voice rough and stiff as if they had something to hide. It was different than the last time they spoke, though still filled with the same worry as before.
“Why wouldn’t I? I’ve got a hot dude fawning over me. Say — what’s your name?” Dave decided to shoot his shot. He hadn’t even stopped to wonder why this person was here in the first place, or why he was even in a hospital! Before Dave’s thoughts could wander any further he was forced to notice the sudden panicked look that crossed his company’s face. “What?” Dave asked, feeling panic rise in his chest as well. “You.. don’t know my name? What are you talking about? Of course you know who I am!” The person’s voice rose, as if fussing at Dave was going to suddenly jog his memory. Unsurprisingly it didn’t, and Dave was left sitting there in silence, eyebrows furrowed as he looked on at the person while waiting for them to say something else.
It took several moments for them to speak again, though their voice was much lower this time, slight hurt leaking into every word. “Oh god… I’m gonna go get a doctor.” The person left the room, leaving Dave to sit in silence and ponder the situation. A phone sat on the table next to his bed, the case red with a disk on it. Dave picked the item up and examined it for a few moments, soon finding the power button and turning it on. The lock screen was a picture of himself and the person from before and there were several notifications on the cracked screen. Dave stared at the phone as it asked for his password, trying to reach deep within his brain for something that he would never find. He just couldn’t remember. Why couldn’t he remember the person who stayed with him until he woke up? Why couldn’t he remember his phone password? And why the hell couldn’t he remember what even happened?
It would be several long moments before Dave got any of those answers. Exactly twenty-seven minutes later and only after the doctor came in with the concerned person from before and then proceeded to ask him several questions that Dave couldn’t answer and then looked him over and checked his injuries before announcing in a bout of brilliance: “It looks like he is suffering from a case of amnesia. His memories may return in time, but also they could not. The best thing you can do for him right now is to take him home and be patient.” The answer was hardly satisfying for anyone in the room really. Before Dave even thought to open his mouth to ask his questions the doctor turned on his heel and walked out the door, leaving the stranger and Dave to sit in silence until either one of them worked up the courage to say something.
The first one to speak after this bout of silence was the stranger. He spoke with a large amount of hesitance as if he was battling a decision that Dave may never know. He had a sneaking suspicion that it was about whether staying with him was worth it or not, but Dave wouldn’t dare ask. “My name is Karkat. We got into a fight two weeks ago and you left. You got into a car accident and have been asleep ever since.” The str– Karkat explained, eyes anywhere but on Dave. Maybe this was just awkward for him. Dave was trying his best to be understanding. “Right. Okay. Why were we arguing?” The question seemed to cause Karkat to tense up, almost as if was something he didn’t want to talk about. “Well, I guess it doesn’t matter anymore, huh? Where do I live then? Where is home?” Dave decided that he didn’t need the answer to his previous question. After all, it was something he couldn’t even remember and it seemed to bring a lot of pain to Karkat.
“We live in a one-bedroom apartment about fifteen minutes from here to walk. If you get to go home today we will be walking.” Just as Karkat finished his statement the door swung open, and another two people with grey skin and a girl that looked slightly similar to Dave walked in. One of them was short and had red glasses while walking with a walking stick. Dave could guess that she was blind. The other was dressed as if all that had ever mattered to her was being seen as a god of fashion, and she immediately addressed Karkat with warm words and pulled him in for a hug, quickly apologizing for… well… Dave wasn’t sure what she was apologizing for. The last girl had short blonde hair and a purple hairband that seemed to keep her bangs out of her eyes. All three of them seemed to know Dave well just like Karkat did, but they all felt so unfamiliar to him. Though, understanding what had happened helped things feel just a little bit less disorienting.
“Dave, hello! My name is Kanaya,” The fashionista introduced smoothly as if she had done this many times before. “And this is Rose, and that is Terezei. We’re your friends! Well, I suppose Rose is your sister.” This Rose girl being related to Dave didn’t surprise him in the least, but he did find himself wondering how he knew these other people. For Karkat it was pretty easy to guess that they had some kind of connection, based on the fact that he was here when he woke up and that they shared a one-bedroom apartment. If Dave had to guess, he would say that they were lovers at one point. Karkat was attractive and Dave would like to know him better, but where it stood now? He wasn’t sure where to go with them. And as far as Terezi and Kanaya were concerned he had no idea how he knew those two and had no feelings for them that even so much as hinted at who they were to him before.
Rose stepped forward, placing a hand on the railing of the bed as if to capture Dave’s attention. “We just wanted to check in on you. We heard that you’re… having a difficult time remembering some things–” Rose was cut off by Karkat, who had resigned himself to the corner until now, “Everything. A difficult time remembering everything.” His voice was a bit hoarse as if he were holding back his own emotions. Something about this person hinted to Dave that he wasn’t doing it to be considerate of the other people in the room, but rather to save himself the embarrassment. Rose shot him a look of pity before continuing her statement. “So we’re going to help you get home and settled in safely. You’re okay with staying with Karkat, right?” The question didn’t feel as open as Rose had intended to make it. It felt as if she was giving Dave the choice without actually doing so, or maybe if he didn’t go home with Karkat tonight then he would never see him again. The thought made some dim part of him sick. Perhaps their relationship was closer than just lovers. Dave decided that he was going to go home with Karkat, and once they were alone then he would do his best to get all the answers that he wanted. “Yeah, that’s chill,” Dave responded, his words echoing shades of his personality the group had already bid farewell to.
—
The walk was just as short as Karkat had claimed that it would be, but it was also very quiet. No one knew what to say. Terezei hadn’t really spoken a word this entire time and Kanaya and Rose were talking quietly amongst each other. Rose had, at one point, scolded Terezei for supposedly ‘mourning a man that wasn’t dead’ and Dave figured that was why she was so quiet. Either she was embarrassed for getting called out or she still insisted on mourning him. Some part of Dave thought that if this was how things were going to be forever then he sort of wished that he was still in that coma.
The apartment complex they arrived at had seemed familiar in a dull sense, almost like Dave had been there before but never lived there. When they got up to the actual apartment that both Dave and Karkat lived in, Dave was surprised to feel at home when he walked in. He didn’t outwardly recognize anything, but deep down he knew he was supposed to be here. “Well, now that we have helped you arrive home safely I believe we will be on our way.” Kanaya decided, eyes scanning the apartment. Whatever she was looking for she clearly didn’t find. Her eyes flickered between both Dave and Karkat before offering a soft smile. “Enjoy the rest of your night. I hope you settle in well, Dave.” The other two didn’t say much, though, at the same time, it looked like they had too much to say.
Once the door shut and Dave was sure the group of girls were long gone, he turned to Karkat, who had decided to make his way to the kitchen to prepare a somewhat healthy dinner. Dave considered, only for a moment, letting him go. The thought was quickly pushed away when his legs moved on their own, following after the troll. Dave glanced around the kitchen once he made it past the doorway, eyes landing on a pair of shades that he quickly scooped up and put over his eyes. He had been wearing them since he was a kid, he knew that much. Not that exact pair, he couldn’t quite remember how he got them, but he had been hiding his eyes for as long as he could remember. Dave had always told himself that it was for his safety, that when you had eyed this colour the sun could harm them greatly, but even he knew deep down that it was just because he was scared of what people would think.
“Karkat,” Dave stepped in front of the other, earning a small ‘tsk’ in response. Yellowish eyes looked up at Dave with false hatred, and some part of Dave could believe that he really did want to hate him, yet somehow couldn’t find the energy. “I saw the pictures. We were dating, right? Why didn’t you just tell me?” Karkat scoffed at the question, placing the dish he had been holding down on the counter in favour of folding his arms. “Engaged. We were engaged. Why would I tell you? If you can’t remember then it’s clearly over.” The troll took a step back, moving to go around his former partner so that he could continue what he was doing. Dave simply moved with him, stopping Karkat yet again.
“That’s huge, Kat! I may not remember us but I feel it. I feel how I felt for you and I still feel it! I know it seems like I just met you but to me, I feel like I’ve known you for a lifetime. Come on,” Dave reached out, grabbing Karkat’s hand both to hold him in place and also to plead with him. The desperation to be heard caused Dave’s voice to crack, and if he wasn’t wearing his shades then Karkat would be able to see the emotion welling in his eyes. He knew Karkat felt like he’d lost him, and in a way he did, but Dave wanted this back. He wanted him back. “Help me fall in love with you again. Please.”
Karkat felt a numb aching drip into his chest when Dave grabbed his hand. When he vocalised wanting to try again – to fall in love with him again, Karkat wanted to jump on the offer immediately. He wanted to say that nothing would make him happier than having him back, yet the words were caught in his throat. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of silence Karkat found his voice. His eyes turned to the floor once more and tugged his hand from Dave’s grasp, taking a step back for good measure.
“I.. don’t know.” The words felt final, like an end to a story that was far from over. Neither of the protagonists wanted this to be the end, but neither knew how to pick up the pen.