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He ran out when it happened.
It had started off as a normal day, you had both woken up like usual, had something to eat and then headed upstairs for some strifing. Even though he never practiced with you, he was always there to give you some tips. Sometimes Terezi would join you when she wasn't walking around with Vriska which wasn't often but often enough to help you improve your combat skills.
"That's good dude but you're puttin' too much weight on your left leg. Ya gotta keep it balanced" He tapped your leg with the stick he used to demonstrate and you tried to adjust your stance but you were too distracted by the fact that Dave had let his accent slip through. He always did that when he felt at ease which, to your secretive pleasure, always happened when it was just you the two of you.
"Yeah a little bit better. Remember to keep more pressure on your toes, that way when you need to move there's less time lost in your reaction. Karkat, are you listenin' to me?" He shook your shoulder and you snapped back to reality, a scowl returning to your face.
"Of course I'm listening to you, shit stick. Now just keep helping me." You could feel your cheeks heat up and out of the corner of your eye you saw a tiny smirk on his face but you dismissed it. This wasn't the time for these hoof beast matters.
You continues to practice, getting struck with a stick whenever you would commit a wrong move. The first time you ever practiced with him and he hit you with a stick you had almost screamed his ears off. Later you would learn that this was a thing to help you not poke fun at you. Begrudgingly, you had apologized for almost tearing him a new waste chute.
"Come on, dude! It's like you're not even tryin' today! What's up in your think saucer?" He pokes your side with the stick and you move out of the way.
"It's think pan not think saucer you hairless monkey. Stop poking at my sides!" You shove his shoulder and he gives a light chuckle. Again, something he only does when you two are alone.
"Maybe we should cancel practice today, seems like you have a lot on your think pan" he smirks and you roll your eyes.
"I'm just tired, that's all. But if you think we should end the lesson for today, fine" You drop your sickles to the ground and he capture logs his training stick.
"Yeah, let's just keep it simple today" he walks over to the edge of the roof. He sits at the edge and drapes a leg over the edge. You don't really like it when he does that. It makes your blood pusher clench and flip even though you know he won't fall over, it still makes you hold your breath.
"Fine. Simple, I can do simple" You walk over to sit next to him but in a bold move, you sit with your back against his and lean back to be sort of draped over his back. You wait for him to say he's uncomfortable but he never does. He simply tosses his head back and places it on your shoulder.
You are not blushing. That is for little grubs with tiny crushes on their best friend you tell yourself because deep down, you know you've got a thing for this asshole.
You look over at his face out of the corner of your eye, and to your immense pleasure, saw a tiny smile on his lips.
"Hey Vantas..."
"Hmm?"
"I need to tell you something..."
"What is it, Strider?"
"Ok but can we stop using our last names? We're bros right? We can be civil and use our names" You burrow your frow in confusement.
"Sure, we can do that. Is that what you wanted to tell me?"
"No, it's... Ok I'm just gonna go ahead and say it. Would it be too strange if I have feelings for a troll?" You feel him swallow hard and you clench your fist. Oh. He feels something for a troll. Not you. Why would it be you? You're just his bro after all. You lift yourself off of his back and curl in on yourself, pulling your legs under your chin.
"Karkat? Did you hear what I-"
"Yes!" You snap at him. Why are you snapping at him? That's such a childish reaction! It's not his fault you're an unattractive mutant blood, "I mean, it's fine unless your going to pursue a troll in a quadrant they have already claimed for another" you muttered. You felt your glander bulbs prickle so you clenched your tears from overflowing.
"Huh? Dude, you know I don't do quadrants. It just... Too complicated. And I'm pretty sure this trolls quadrant isn't claimed. We're both single and ready to mingle. We've mingled enough so naturally the next stage would be to ask this troll out. Don't you think?" He sounded... Excited? And why wouldn't he be? He's about to find someone to actually pass the time while you stay alone and... No. Be happy for him, it's a good thing
"Yeah, sure Dave. Whatever makes you happy. Go for it, make someone swoon with your obnoxious ironic words." Oh god, you needed to leave immediately.
"Karkat would you-"
"HELLO FELLOW METEOR DWELLERS!" Terezi burst through the door that led to the roof and crackled as she swung her walking stick all over the place. That's it, time for you to go.
"Goddamn, Terezi. I'm pretty sure your scream was so loud, you managed to wake up so creepy paradox monster of there. Gotta keep a lid on that bear trap you have for a mouth." And just like that, Dave put back on his ironic mask.
"Oh Dave, always talking about human things we have no desire to learn about" Vriska walked in behind Terezi and you rolled your eyes. Definitely time for you to leave.
"Aren't you supposed to be practicing with Karkles? I came to show Vriska what we do and I find you two lounging around instead of working! That will not do!" She smiles her pointy tooth smile and you roll your eyes.
"Practices is over, Terezi. Maybe you should go find something else to do with Vriska" you pick your sickles up and turn to Dave to ask him if he wants to follow but Vriska speaks up before.
"Maybe it's over for you, Karkat but I just got here. Maybe Strider might want to indulge me" She turns to Dave who shrugs
"Not really, Vriska. I kind have some things to do with the mayor so if you don't mind-"
"Actually I do mind. Come on, Strider. Just a friendly match" she pulls out her dice and throws them on the ground till they glow and turn into a blue sword. Guess she had a lucky roll...
"Vriska I really don't think-"
"Come on Terezi, I've strides before I think I can take on a human" she says it in a way that makes the word sound like some kind of disease.
"Suit yourself, Vriska but remember that I warned you. I've actually seen Dave's fighting skills" she smiles at the her. Vriska rolls her eyes.
You turn to Dave who has been silent all this time. He tilts his head towards you and you see his lips twitch downward for a second before he sighs and pulls his sword out.
"Fine. Let's get this over with so I can continue writing some sick jams with my be-ef-effsie the Mayor."
"Fine by me, Strider." She lunges at him and he barely moves before you hear the clatter of their swords. This is the reason he never strides with you. He's had years of training and been through hell to learn his techniques while all of you have simply practiced in your free time. He's quick and skilled on levels most of you have yet to achieve.
All though Vriska was quite good as well.
They spun around and moved all over the roof top. Dave was just a blur of red but Vriska could still know where he was going to appear.
At one point Dave spoke up.
"Let's just agree not to harm the material, got it Serket? I can't have cuts on my pretty face"
"Fine by me, Strider. Let's just see if you can even land a hit!" And they continued their deadly dance.
It was like this for several minutes. You and Terezi were frozen by the door watching as the two combatants moved around without being able to make contact until finally Dave muttered "Let's just get this over with," and did some fancy trick you hadn't ever seen him do.
Vriska found herself backed up against the wall with a sword pressed to her chest.
"I win. Now can I please go?" Dave sighed and turned around.
"Of course, Dave. What an incredible match. We must do that again some time"
"Sure, death matches are my absolute favorite"
"Well than you'll have a ton of fun with me," she grinned at him and extended her hand, "Let's shake in it, shall we?" Dave shrugged and extended his hand at the same time Vriska lifted her hand that held the sword but before you or Terezi could even open your mouth, she had slit open a gash on Dave's arm.
"Whoops. Silly me I lifted the long hand!" She place a palm over her mouth like if she had made a tiny mistake.
Dave was frozen in place, the line of red dripping to the floor as he held his arm as far away from his body as he could. You could see his arm shaking but even before you took two steps towards him, his sword clattered on the floor and in a blur of red, he ran out.
"Vriska, that was so not cool" Terezi murmured.
"I don't do cool, I do me." She shrugged as to say "oh well" and that's when you lost it. Your grip on your sickle tightened and in a moment you found yourself attacking Vriska till she was once again backed up into the wall, the curved side of one your sickles against her throat, the other one had the sharp edge against her cheek.
"You fucking bitch. He told you not to cut him but your idiotic need to be better than everybody made you do it anyway. Do you even know what you've done?" You sneered at her.
"So what? Strider has a cut on his arm. Big deal. He has a million others on his back and arms already. What's one more going to do? Now get the fuck off of me before I give you what you deserve, Karkat" she smiles at you in a way that made sick to your stomach.
"You are such an asshole. I'd plunge my sickle into your throat right now if I didn't know it would upset Terezi. But since it does and since I don't kill cowards, I rather just leave you alone" you bared your teeth at her.
"Haha kill cowards? You couldn't even kill jack when he plunged a sword in your gut. You expect me to think you could actually harm me? Hahaha don't make threats you can't accomplish, Karkat" she rolls her eyes and you get a brilliant idea.
You decide to give her a parting gift before you left to find Dave. Knowing she would deny this to anyone who asked because she would be too proud to say that you of all people managed to harm her, you let you sickle scrape her cheek.
"Fuck- get off you filthy freak!" You let go of her and push her till she gets knocked back into the wall. She touches her cheek and wipes off her blue blood. She looks at you with the most pissed off face you've ever seen on anyone but yourself, "Vantas you're gonna fucking pay for this you little-"
"I'm sure. I will when you tell everyone who was the one that did that to you? I'll bet they'll laugh so hard you hearing fronds will fall off." You gave her a smile filled with venom and had the satisfaction to see her ears twitch in displeasure.
"Nicely played, Karkat. I might have to reconsider your place in the strategy." She returned your smile and you rolled your eyes.
"You might" you turned your back on her and walked towards the door that led to the roof top. You passed next to Terezi and nodded at her. She patted your arm and gave you a sad smile.
As you walked back into the building, you started to run. You ran down states and into the common block but he wasn't there. Maybe the meal block? Not there either. You ran to your respite block, to his but nothing.
Godfucking dammit. Where was he?!
"Oof! What the- oh shit Kanaya!" You had bumped into her while you were panicking in your mind.
"I'm so sorry, Karkat. Why are you running in the corridors? Is something wrong?" She laid a hand on your shoulder and looked at your panicked expression.
"Yes, well uh, no I... Have you seen Dave? He not in the common block or his respiteblock and I can't seem to-"
"Karkat? Karkat breathe! Yes, I have indeed seen him, he went towards eh, can town. He seemed in a hurry. Karkat what's going-"
"Can town! Fuck why didn't I think of that sooner? Thank Kanaya, your great. I'll see you later" you ran out of there before she could ask you anything else.
When you finally arrived to the room designated for Can Town you walked in slowly. You saw the Mayor sitting next to a couple of boxes and walked over to him.
"Mayor, is Dave in here?" You whispered. Why were you whispering? He nodded and pointed to a corner that was full of more boxes and towers of cans.
"Thanks Mayor, I can always count on you" you have him a smile and he patted your face before getting up and leaving the room. Guess you were doing this alone...
You walked over to the boxes, unsure of what you were going to say or even do.
"Dave? Are you alright? Can we maybe talk?"
"There's nothing to talk about, Karkat. Please leave" his voice sounded broken and void. Strangely enough, the fact that he said “please” was what made you walk around the boxes to get a look at him.
Your ears twitched down when you saw him.
He was curled up against the wall, legs tucked under his chin, one arm wrapping around his legs and the other, the one with the wound, was extended outwards and still bleeding. His shades weren’t even on his face. You had seen him without his shades but only at night time or in a dark room. Never like this, never in such an exposed manner.
“Dave, you need to clean that up. You don’t know where that sword has been and, if we’re being completely sincere, Vriska does some weird things so maybe you should-”
“I know where that fucking sword has been, Karkat! I know where all swords have been! They’ve been in strifes all over the place, cutting people down like if they were fucking trees. Making people bleed to death or I don’t know, maybe causing a small four year old unnecessary pain while growing up with his fucked up the ass of a brother. Just making his life miserable by making him strife for food or anything really. “You need to be on your toes, Dave” “Brush it off, Dave” “It’s all part of the training, Dave” “Clean up that blood, Dave” “Learn to stitch your wounds, Dave.” Everything was Dave, Dave, Dave! When was it ever Bro? Did he ever fucking do anything to help me learn anything valuable? Fuck no, the dude only taught me how to kill, dismember and disarm a foe. A foe, because for him, that’s what everyone was. Just another enemy in his way” He leaned his head back against the wall with a thump.
You knew he was having this moment because of the cut on his arm so before you said anything, you addressed the wound.
“Give me your arm.” You said as you kneeled in front of him.
“What? No, Karkat I told you to-”
“Give me your goddamn arm, Dave” He blinked at you and moved his arm your way. You took some gauze, bandages and antiseptic spray out of your sylladex and started to clean the wound.
“You’re a little bag of mysteries aren’t ya? What else do you have in that sylladex of yours, your old house from your planet?” You ignored his pokings and continued to wipe up the blood.
“You’re going to need stitch. It’s deep. I think I can alchemize some numbing cream if you-”
“No. Just stitch it up, I don’t feel much on that arm anyway…” He turned his head to the side and remained quite. You shrugged and continued your task. In a way, it was very calming to do something you had been accustomed to do. No, you did not harm yourself but when practicing with your sickles, you had managed to get a few cuts. Your lusus, being a giant clawed creature, wasn’t much help when it came to fixing you up, so you decided to teach yourself the basics, occasionally pestering Feferi on troll chum so she could give you a few tips. It came in handy when one was trying to hide their blood color.
“I know you were talking about your human lusus. I know what he did to you,”he tensed but you continued your job, “I saw. Not that I was keeping tabs on you as a human, I saw how all of you grew up. It was just a way for me to learn about your culture but I… I know the things you went through” He opened his mouth to say something, probably along the line of “You don’t know what I lived through” but you raised a hand.You took out a thread and a needle and begin to stitch up the wound.
“No, you’re probably right. I don’t know what it’s like to live with an abusive guardian. My lusus was a giant mutant crab who couldn’t talk but he wasn’t that bad. I know that others, high bloods mostly, they had trouble with their lussi. Aggressive bastards that would swallow them whole if they turned their backs for too long” He hummed and you continued.
“My point is, you don’t need to dwell on that. Or well, maybe do. Think about everything you learned from him and learn from that bullshit. You don’t need to talk to me about it right now. Or ever if you don’t feel like telling me these things but maybe you should address it with someone. Rose maybe? She’s some sort of uh family member to you, right? Maybe tell that troll you have feelings for. Great relationships are based on trust or something like that.” You put the finishing touches on the bandaged wound and hummed in appreciation.
“There, that wasn’t too difficult. Just keep an eye on it and maybe, think about what I said? That is, if you want to. Who the fuck knows what goes on in that sponge of yours…” You lifted yourself off of the floor. You stepped back and noticed his shades on the floor so you picked them up and tossed them to him.
“Be careful with those. I don’t think you’d be Dave douchebag Strider without them” You give him the less grouchy look you can muster up and turn to leave when he pulls you by your wrist and you land ass first on top of him. Well, in his lap to be precise.
“What the hell asshole? Why did you do that? Fucking spongedead grubsucker, one tries to be nice to you and you go ahead and do this. Same reason why I never want to be civil with you, you don’t get the normativity of being able to have a conversation with someone before you go around and do something completely stupid like this! Have some fucking manner you fucking bulge scratcher! I could’ve been hurt or something, maybe next time-’
“God fucking… Karkat, shut the hell up” and then Dave Strider proceeds to kiss you.
You don’t move at first. You can’t! Your fucking frozen and completely surprised. Didn’t he say…? The most rational part of your brain wants to understand the situation. The less rational brain, the one who is about seven sweeps old, wants to see how fast you can shove your tongue down Dave’s throat. So that’s exactly the part of your brain you listen to.
You wrap your arms around his neck and are rewarded with Dave’s arms wrapping around your waist, pulling you in closer to his body. You lace your fingers in his soft white hair. Slowly, you press the tip of your tongue to his lips and that’s pretty much all you get to do before Dave opens your own lips and pushes his own tongue into your mouth. You don’t even feel like battling for dominance so you pretty much let him do what he wants. It isn’t until you give him a tiny little nibble on his lower lip that he loses his shit. He moans in your mouth and throws both of you forward, successfully crushing you into the ground.
Well great, this is going much better than you could ever imagine but there is one tiny problem that stops you. Dave has a fucking slit on his arm the size of Alternia.
“Dave.. Dave mmph! Dave stop, stop!” You push at his shoulders till he lets go of your waist and sits on his heels.
“Uh… sorry? Nah, I’m not even fucking sorry” he smirks and you feel your cheeks heat up, “That’s fucking adorable. Agh, I’ve wanted to say that for so long” He smiles.An authentic smile, not one of those stupid smirks.
“Is it safe to say I was the troll you were talking about?” You smile and lift yourself into a sitting position.
“No shit sherlock’
“Who the fuck is sher- No, never mind”
“So… Can I go back to making out with you?” He blushes and you kiss his cheek.
“No, you can’t”
“Why the hell not? No fair. I just kissed you and now you’re gonna act all high and mighty. I’m calling bullshit, dude”
“We can’t go back to kissing because you have a horrible wound and I don’t want it to open up!”
“Goddamit. My own body betrays me” He sighs and pulls himself onto his feet. He extends an arm and helps you up as well.
“You want to go to my respite block?”
“Hell fucking yes”
“No makeouts”
“Goddamn. Fine, okay. We can see one of your cheesy movies”
“Sure.”
You hold his hand as you go through the corridors, his face and ears tinted with pink. It’s really cute.
“Hey Dave” you chew your lip but decide to go on with this, “Want to be my matesprit?” He turns as red as can be and you smile.
“Wow, straight forward. I like that,” He wraps his arm around your waist and whispers in your ear, “I like you” you roll your eyes but peck his lips anyway.
“That was stupid”
“That’s how ya like me, babe”
“Sadly, that piece of information has turned out to be the truth” He smiles and nuzzles your neck.
You push at him until he let’s go of you and you continue to walk down to your block.
“Hey Dave?” you ask once you are both settled in your bed.
“Yeah?”
“You know you can talk to me, whenever about whatever, right?” He seems to tense up for a moment and you think you’ve fucked up when you feel his arms wrap around your waist.
“Yeah, dude. Someday, when I’m ready” he kisses the top of your head and you smile. You made progress today. Not much, but it’s something.
“Yeah, just don’t keep it all stored away. I hear that resentment is tough to control”
“I have a really tough exterior” you can practically hear the smirk in his voice.
“Look here, what is this? Can it be proof that Dave Strider has soft rippable skin? Why yes, yes it is!” You lift his arm up carefully and he bumps you with his forehead.
“Very funny”
“It is, actually. To bad you aren’t a troll. You could have strong and protective skin like mine”
“I don’t need your troll skin. I always have you” He kisses your nose and you swear you don’t even blush. Not at all.
(Yes you do.)