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Your name is Dave Strider and the first time you saw Karkat, he was arguing loud enough to get the attention of the whole school cafeteria. As usual. You were sitting with John and Jade, half-listening to their chatter as you scrolled through tweets, when Karkat's shouting cut through the noisy room.
"YOU CAN'T JUST IGNORE ME LIKE I DON'T EVEN EXIST, ASSHOLE. I'M TALKING TO YOU."
You glanced over and spotted a short, stocky troll with nubby horns jabbing his finger aggressively at some oblivious human guy. His grey skin was flushed dark, whether from anger or embarrassment you weren't sure. Karkat continued ranting as his friend, another troll (you think his name is Gamzee), tried in vain to tug him away. Their whole table of mismatched trolls looked tired of Karkat's antics but too used to it to intervene.
You returned your attention to your phone, uninterested. Fights between trolls and humans weren't uncommon at this integrated school, and Karkat seemed to find a new reason to blow up every week. At first it annoyed you.
Over the next few weeks you started to notice Karkat more. In class when he argued points passionately with teachers. At lunch when he raged to his troll friends with wild hand gestures. In the halls when other kids deliberately shoved past him or mocked his strained voice (likely an effect of all the screaming and hollering). Karkat never backed down from a confrontation, even when seriously outnumbered, and seemed oblivious to how much his loud anger alienated others. It was impressive.
You began to feel a grudging respect for his fearlessness. And maybe, a tiny bit, you found his constant scowl kinda cute.
That was junior year.
In senior year is when you braved up and spoke to him.
From then on you started chatting with Karkat more, carefully navigating his temper as you felt out common ground. You bonded over his shitty movies and your let’s face it—totally epic music. You started giving him a bunch of shitty nicknames and loved seeing how he’d react.
Something you noticed was when we got real upset he’d tackle you. At first it gave you bruises and you’d ghost each other for a day or two. Then it started turning into playful fights and it gave you this odd feeling in your chest and when you googled it—bad choice—you were told you were dying.
Yet, it wasn’t until two weeks before senior prom you realized it.
The two of you were at his house and you were playing some shitty song you found you that reminded you of him. He lit up at the song’s title and then cried a quarter through the song and then you found yourself playing Little Wonders almost everyday and night that you realized you had a crush on him.
After that, your friends expressed concern about your crush but you ignored them. You had very low hopes for the feelings being reciprocated. You told John about your plan to ask Karkat to prom, and John deterred the idea. Because of that, you didn’t attend prom. If you couldn’t go with Karkat you didn’t want to go at all.
One week before graduation, Karkat brought you to the park. At first, you were confused and tried to bail. But when you saw Karkat’s expression something in you decided to stay. And years later, you would go on to appreciate your change of mind. You spent the day there, pushing each other on the swings, falling down the too small for you slides, getting flung off the pogo sticks, and chasing each other around like lunatics.
Karkat walked you home, ranting animatedly with wild hand gestures as usual. But this time his hand found yours, slotting together comfortably like they were always meant to be. You squeezed back and Karkat fell blissfully silent, cheeks flushed a nice red. You’ve always loved the color red, and it never looked more beautiful than it did on Karat’s face.
One day before graduation, you were in your room, fans on high, shirts on the floor, dying of heat. South summers were hot and it sucked. Something about being burning hot made your mind all foggy and the both of you were acting drunken. Laughing at stupid shit, words slurring together, talking slowly. It wasn’t at all a romantic setting and yet you still had butterflies in your stomach and your face was bright red. Though, of course, you blamed that on the heat.
When Karkat left that afternoon is when it happened.
You don’t know what was going on in his head, you not think you ever will. But whatever was going on in his head drove him to kiss you and you couldn’t ever be happier for it.
You recall being frozen at first, but when his arms flew up and around your neck you melted completely in his arms. And it was the best feeling ever.
His dad was upset he was home late, even more upset when he saw the hickey’s but you couldn’t find yourself caring about the lecture. You felt high off of love and it felt amazing. You remember listening to Karkat’s favorite song on loop that night until you fell asleep. It was on full volume to drown out the collection of fans and all the collective noise ended up giving you a migraine the next morning. But you didn’t care. You never cared about a lot. But Karkat Vantas? You care about him a fucking lot.
And now, five years later, you’re here reminiscing on how it all started. It makes you smile and you look across the room to where Karkat sits tapping away at his computer, a crease of concentration between his brows. His grumpy curses at the screen filled you with fond warmth rather than annoyance now. This prickly, passionate troll had fought his way into your heart to stay, and you can't imagine life without him.
“Karkles?”
“Strider.”
“Love you.”
He looks away from the screen and at you, he’s not scowling now. He has an expression of gratitude written on his face before he looks away and back, genuinely smiling.
“I love you too.”