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Whirring. Grinding. Clicking. He shot up, grabbing the blanket he was previously warm and safe in. He rattled the door of the closet opposite to his bed, panting as he slid to the floor and closed the door as quietly as he could. He heard a small voice from outside the door.
Who is that?
The closet creaked open as a groggy face looked down at him. The grumpy face looked at his wide eyes, frowning.
“Dude why’d you take the blanket?” He tugged at it a bit. “C’mon, I’m cold. Not cool, bro.”
Dave looked at the boy huddled in the blanket, his tired brain processing.
“Oh.”
Karkat looked up at him, slowly waking up as well.
“I heard a drone,” he whispered.
Dave peeled the blanket off of the troll in the closet, joining him in the tight space and replacing the blanket so it was wrapped around both of them.
“Hey, ’s fine. Do you still hear it?” Dave asked gently.
Karkat shook his head, picking at his rough orange nails.
“Do you feel okay to come out?” Dave asked. “I was about to make a joke, but I realized that you wouldn’t get it. It woulda been so funny too,” he lamented.
“Being gay doesn’t exist on Alternia, Dave. Be culturally sensitive,” Karkat whispered to him.
Dave looked at him, grinning.
“You’re pretty much awake now then, right?”
“Yeah.”
A pale hand extended to grasp a gray hand, manicured fingers wrapping around rough skin. They got up, Dave pulling Karkat up gently.
“Sorry,” Karkat added belatedly.
“Dude, no worries. Happens to me too, remember?”
“Yeah, you don’t take the blanket though. You just get out of bed and try to find where Lil’ Cal is.”
“Okay, but haven’t you ever seen him? He’s so creepy,” Dave hissed. “Fuckin’ hate puppets,” he added.
Karkat sat on the nightstand while Dave replaced the blanket on the bed.
“What time is it?” Karkat said, rubbing his eyes.
“Time for you to get a watch.”
Dave paused to high-five himself, then smoothed out the blanket. He grabbed his sunglasses, shoving them on his face.
“Okay, but seriously, it’s like 6 A.M.,” Dave said.
“Sorry,” Karkat muttered.
“Again, not your fault. Let’s go get something to eat, okay? There’s a reason we live near a 7/11. Wait, we should open a store and call it 6/12. Because that’s your birthday. Wiggly day, I meant. Wriggly. Whatever.”
Karkat rubbed his eyes, looking at the blond freckled boy mumbling to himself. Occasionally Dave would grin at his own joke (that nobody else had heard), showing off his dimples.
The walk to the 7/11 wasn’t a long one- According to John and Dave, a 7/11 was a symbol of a “prospering society”, so they had recreated the store chain on Earth C and put them everywhere in the human kingdom. The consort kingdom too. The trolls didn’t care, so they only had a couple. All the mixed areas were chock-full as well.
“Thanks,” Karkat repeated in a small voice.
Dave looked at him, distracted from his monologue.
“Oh, yeah, no worries man.”
“No, like—” Karkat paused to gesture vaguely with his hands, trying to articulate his point. “Thanks for being here,” he said finally.
Dave grinned at him, his sunglasses reflecting Karkat’s puffy eyes. He hadn’t realized he was crying before.
“Dude, I like helping you. Like I said, it‘s all good,” Dave said, smiling.
They strolled in, earning a glance from the consort at the counter. Dave rummaged around in the shelves, looking for an apple juice for him and a cherry soda for Karkat. Dave turned to look at him, holding out two cans.
“Ya want the aj or the soda?”
Karkat squinted at him, gears turning. Dave shrugged. “I know you like apple juice sometimes. There’s only one. Well, really it’s more like apple soda, but like I’m asking which one you want. It’s like the purest form of love, man,” he elaborated.
Karkat looked at him, studying his sunglasses and the tired eyes that he knew were behind them.
“You would give me your apple juice?” Karkat whispered. He knew it would be meaningless if it were literally anyone else, but Dave seemed to have a strange codependency with this specific fruit juice.
Dave’s face flushed red, realizing that something unexpected had slipped out during his rambling. His shoulders raised to his ears, his face now turned away.
“Man, fuck you. You want it or not? Make a choice, the crocodile is looking at us weird.” Dave glanced at the cashier, an ecto-descendant of one of the consorts from his Land. “I think it thinks we’re loitering,” he added in a whisper.
Karkat smiled and rolled his eyes at him, taking the cherry soda.
“I don’t think crocodiles know what loitering is,” Karkat said affectionately.
Dave shrugged, grabbing a pre-made sandwich.
“You never know, man.”
They walked to the register, looking at the yellow crocodile. Karkat dug around in his pockets, seeing if he had brought the money or Dave had. He quickly realized that he did not have pockets in these pants.
“Wow you’re real tired, aren’t you?” Dave said with a smirk.
“Don’t look at me, look at Lemonsnout over there!” Karkat deflected.
“Nak nak nak nak,” Lemonsnout said eloquently.
Dave gasped dramatically, covering his mouth with his fingertips. “Don’t listen to him, Senator Lemonsnout. I know its not your fault,” Dave said as he leaned over the counter to give the crocodile a pat on the tip of its snout. He reached into the pockets of his pajama pants, pulling out 7 dollars. Karkat raised an eyebrow at him.
“Calculated before we got here,” he explained quickly. “He can keep the change, right Lemonsnout?”
“Nak nak nak nak nak.”
“Yeah you get it Mr. Senator.”
Karkat rolled his eyes, smiling at Dave. This dork. He grabbed their food, waiting for Dave to stop debating with the crocodile about how much change to return to them. (“No ok see it’s called a tip, you just take the extra money. C’mon dude I know you know this.” “Nak nak.” “No it’s- oh my god.”) Eventually he gave up, accepting an odd amount of change from the cashier. The door whirred quietly behind them as they walked out, closing gently.