Chapter Text
Your name is Karkat Vantas, you are 7 sweeps old and you have been talking to the same group of dumbasses since the age of 4 and a half. They tend to give you headaches, but you’d be lying if you said having them in your life didn’t make you a better person.
Yes, as annoying as some of your friends are you love them to pieces. Which is why when your dad announced you’d be moving to Texas, away from the assholes who bully you for your freakish blood color but closer to the Strilonde family, you were pumped!
Closer to Rose, Roxy, Dirk and most importantly, closer to Dave. His cool guy act used to piss you off, and that fact wasn’t helped by him purposefully angering you for his own amusement.
But over the past few years you’ve become incredibly close, you aren’t quite sure how that even happened. Dave would get you to argue with you about something stupid, you’d start going on rants, and end up on a video call with him to properly explain how dumb he was face to face.
The video calls became more and more frequent, to the point where you were getting used to falling asleep to the sound of his voice. Your arguments went from heated debates to friendly banter, making him smile or laugh was now your number 1 priority whenever you talked.
Nepeta has accused you of having a crush on the idiot but that’s clearly not the case! Sure he’s one of your best friends, but he still drives you up the wall sometimes with his stupid hair, ugly shades… his cute smile, the way his pale skin turns completely red when he’s embarrassed, his adorable laugh that gives you butterflies… Ok fine, you might have a crush on him.
But you know enough about human sexuality to understand one thing, with how often he says he’s “not gay”, more than any other human you’ve ever talked to, he is either incredibly confident in his sexuality, or incredibly insecure about it.
And because of that you have decided that confessing your feelings would be a terrible idea, you’d either get rejected or freak him out! So unless he tells you himself that he likes guys, you’ll pretend those feelings are purely platonic.
Just two bros hangin’ out. Yup. Best friends and nothing else. You’ve never wanted to kiss his dumb face or run your fingers through his hair, not at all!
…
God you’re desperate, it’s kind of sad actually.
But it’s not as if you were expecting to meet him as soon as you set foot in Texas anyway, that state is huge! You could end up in completely different places and have to travel hours to see him!
When you told Dave you were moving to Houston, his face lit up as he told you that’s where he lived. You were excited of course but being able to see him on a regular basis also meant that hiding your feelings would be much harder, this was bad news… You immediately asked your dad to sign you up for the same school as Dave.
At first he furrowed his brow, he already found an apartment for you to live in and there was a high school less than 10 minutes away from it, going to the one you requested would take almost 40, it was completely impractical.
Of course, Houston is one of the biggest cities in America, you weren’t naive enough to believe Dave would live right next to you. But still, you begged your father to let you go to that one, that’s where your best friend was!
His face seemed to soften as soon as you mentioned a friend, you’ve never had a friend in real life, your dad knows this, he knows how lonely you’ve been. And so with a sigh, he relented, he’s not the one who will have to be stuck in a bus for 40 minutes every morning after all.
Time goes by excruciatingly slow while you wait to move states, the Strilondes are excited to meet you and Dave is almost as impatient as you are. John has complained a thousand times about how lucky you are, suck it Egbert.
Nepeta seems to have recruited Kanaya in her attempts to make you admit to your crush on Dave but you keep denying everything. The teasing is relentless.
Kanaya is being surprisingly helpful about it though, calming you down when you worry too much and reassuring you that you won’t make a fool of yourself as soon as you see him. It’s nice… you might have pale feelings for the jadeblood but that’s getting off topic.
She says you and Dave might be soulmates, that you’re perfect for each other. While the thought of it gives you butterflies you know better than to hope for it. Even if you were, the mark that confirms your bond to your soulmate only appears when both people have realized their feelings for each other. As if Dave would ever like you back…
When the day finally comes you are so nervous you feel like your heart could stop beating any minute now. You and Dave have science together in second period, in the meantime you sit through what feels like the longest history class ever. As soon as it’s over you scramble to grab your stuff and run out to… uh… where are you going?
After wandering the school hallways aimlessly for a few minutes you decide to swallow your pride and ask for help, a student kindly steers you towards the science lab, you thank them and keep running.
The door is open when you get there, the teacher hasn’t arrived yet but people are inside, talking. Your eyes land on a tall guy with blonde hair so light it appears white, his back is mostly turned to you but you can see the side of his dumb shades, your heart flutters.
One of the people he’s talking to notices you standing there, he points towards you and says something to Dave who turns around to look at you, he smiles wider than you’ve ever seen him smile. “Karkat!” he exclaims
Dave immediately gets up from his seat and jogs towards you, you’re probably smiling like a dork and you couldn’t care less, he hugs you and your heart is beating way too fast. He pulls back after what felt way too short and you look up at his flushed face, he’s so pretty it might kill you. “Hey” you say dumbly
That’s when you notice a light coming from your wrist, when you look at it a mark has appeared… a small red heart. Dave is your soulmate, he is your soulmate and he likes you back! You feel like you’re dreaming, it’s too good to be true!
But as your face heats up, his drains of all color. Oh… right, human sexuality, it was too good to be true after all. With a terrified look on his face he runs past you and out of the classroom, leaving you behind.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - <3
Your name is Dave Strider, you’re 16, a sophomore in high school and you’re SO excited! One of your best friends is moving to Houston today, and tomorrow you’ll be going to the same school!
You and Karkat didn’t start off as besties, he was loud, angry and that made you want to mess with him. It was funny to piss him off enough for him to send paragraphs upon paragraphs of “this is why you’re wrong and a fucking moron”, it wasn’t hard to do either.
One day, Karkat was so bothered by some stupid shit you’d said he insisted on a video call because according to him, the magnitude of his anger couldn’t be properly understood through text.
Your heart skipped a beat when you first saw the young troll, he was just so damn cute, pouting and going on and on about how much of “dumbass nooklicker” you were. His face was so expressive, were all trolls’ teeth so sharp? You felt the need to keep the conversation going, you didn’t want Karkat to hang up. You were terrified of those feelings.
So you decided they meant nothing at all, you just REALLY wanted to be friends with him is all! He's very fun to talk to and you wanted to be buddies, can't a guy be straight and still appreciate another guy's pretty face?
No romantic feelings there. You're not gay. Not that there's anything wrong with that of course, your entire family is queer! It'd be stupid to think liking dudes is bad when Dirk, the coolest guy you know, is gay as hell.
You're the only straight person in this family, and no it's not "internalized homophobia" and "toxic masculinity" caused by "childhood trauma". Rose needs to stop psychoanalyzing you, she's always wrong anyway.
You totally don't spend the night thinking about your best bro instead of sleeping. That'd be weird.
When you wake up on Monday morning you've barely gotten any sleep, it's probably normal to be nervous about meeting an online friend. Nothing wrong with that.
You act like you're totally fine when you walk down the stairs to grab some breakfast in your way too big kitchen. You've been living with your sisters and mom for 3 years and you're still not used to it. The house is huge and there's actual food in the fridge, it's like Christmas up in here every damn morning.
Rose looks up at you from her pancakes "Didn't sleep well, brother dearest?" she says with a smug, knowing smile.
"Don't know what you're talking about, I'm fully rested, slept like a fucking baby. Which is a weird thing to say when you think about it because babies aren't really known to sleep well, those little shits are waking up every two hours and screaming at the top of their lungs-"
Your frantic rant is interrupted by Roxy giggling, “Aw Davey baby, are you nervous because of Karkat?” she asks, grinning
“What? No dude I’m cool, I’m chill, why would I be nervous about that? I’m the definition of cool right now, ice fucking cold.” you say, cringing at your own words. Why are you incapable of shutting up even when talking makes things worse?
“So you’re freaking the fuck out, huh?” Dirk says, making you jump a bit, you didn’t hear him walk in. You’re about to answer with another string of “chills” and cools”, but your older sister saves you by sliding a plate of pancakes in front of you.
“Just eat your breakfast, honey.” she says kindly. You thank her for the food and ignore Rose and Dirk staring at you like an animal at the zoo. It’s hard to tell when your brother is staring but having grown up with him, you just know he is.
You know your siblings care, you just wish they weren’t so nosy about it. They’ve both been trying to imply something about your feelings for Karkat being more than platonic, but you immediately change the subject every time. At least Dirk is being subtle about it, unlike your twin.
When you get off the school bus you’re a ball of nerves. Sure, you won’t be seeing Karkat until second period, but what if you run into him on your way to class? Your school is big but not THAT big.
Despite this, you keep your poker face on. No one can know Dave Strider has feelings. The whole cool guy persona was just you mimicking Bro at first, but the fucker’s dead and you don’t actually want to be like him anymore…
The truth is, you’re not that cool and very bad at having normal social interactions, so the easiest option was to act aloof and like you didn’t give a shit about anyone. Was there a better way to handle this? Probably, but you couldn’t think of any. At least people would leave you alone, right?
It backfired.
You’ve gotten weirdly popular and you’re not sure why, your cool guy persona isn’t that good, all of your close friends see right through it. Actually you’re not sure John does, but the point is people at your school believe that shit somehow. Teenagers are stupid, you included.
Later you’re sitting with some classmates in the science lab, waiting for class to begin. You’ve perfected the art of looking uninterested enough in their conversation to look cool but not enough to be rude.
But today you can’t quite manage it, your lips are curled up ever so slightly and you’re tapping your foot. Karkat could walk in any minute now! Someone points out your out of character attitude, and you try not to freak the fuck out when you mention a friend of yours changing schools to come here.
Your voice didn’t even waver, nailed it. They ask a question or two about said friend, you absolutely cannot start rambling about how cool and funny Karkat is so you keep it vague.
“His name’s Karkat.” “He’s a troll.” “He’s 15.” “We have science together actually.” “He’s cool.” you are once again, the definition of chill.
A few minutes later one of them points towards the door, “Is that him?” your head whips around, yep, it’s him.
You can’t help the smile that spreads on your face as you say his name, you rush towards him almost tripping on your own feet. You hug him and a thousand thoughts race through your head.
He’s so short you can tuck his head under your chin, his sweater is soft, he’s so warm! Is that a troll thing? You think you remember something about lowbloods running hot and the opposite being true for highbloods. He’s somehow even cuter in real life and woah- let’s stop that train of thought right there.
You finally pull back after what was probably way too long, your cool guy cred is definitely ruined after that display, you don’t want to make it worse by acting super gay too.
“Hey” he says, it’s one word but it makes your heart beat out of your chest. He smiles adorably at you and- oh.
Oh.
In that moment, you wanted to kiss him.
There’s a tickling sensation coming from your wrist, you look down to see a mark appear on it, a grey heart. Karkat is your soulmate. The part of you that is excited about this is drowned out by your overwhelming fear.
There’s no denying it now, you’re in love with him. You’re in love with a guy and now everyone knows.
You run out of the room and don’t look back.