Work Text:
Karkat was about one chapter into his book when Dave first started complaining from his spot on the other side of the couch.
“Karkat, I’m cold.”
“Cry me a river, bulgemunch.”
“Wow, that was helpful.”
“Well, what am I supposed to do?”
“I’unno.” Well, that was that. They settled back into their practiced but still not-quite-comfortable silence, with Karkat reading and Dave playing Pokémon. Karkat managed to read two more chapters before Dave piped up again.
“Karkat, I’m still cold. How the fuck are you not?”
“It’s just trolls being vastly superior, as always.” Karkat glanced up from his book. Was it his imagination, or had Dave gotten closer? He just mentally shrugged it off and tried to go back to his reading. Dave wasn’t having any of that, though, apparently.
“Oh, dude, no. We both know humans are way cooler.”
“Seems to me you’re colder.”
“Fuck off, dude.”
“Go to hell.”
“Well, at least it’d be warmer.”
“Weirdo.”
They fell silent again, but this time Karkat only got through half a chapter before Dave resumed his complaints.
“Dude, I’m seriously freezing my ass off here.” Karkat looked up again. Dave was definitely a bit closer, but he was shivering visibly. He didn’t say anything about the closeness because he actually felt a little bad for the human.
Truth was, he felt a slight chill even through the sweater and t-shirt he had on, he was just good at hiding it. Trolls as low on the hemospectrum as Karkat, or technically as far below it, were much more sensitive to the cold, but he was used to hiding things like this. Anything he thought was a sign of weakness, actually.
“Look, Dave, I’m sorry, but I. Can’t. Fucking. Help. Just deal with it. Rose can, therefore, you can.”
“Not fair, she grew up with, like, snow and shit.”
“That just proves that humans can deal. Now shut up unless you know a way for me to help you.” He knew he was technically offering help, but he promised himself it was just for the sake of his reading and sanity.
They fell into silence again, but this time it was much more awkward. Finally, Dave spoke up. “So, um, if I just, like, sat closer to you and your weirdly high body heat, would that be okay? Like, not in a gay way. Just for the body heat and all that. That’s it.”
“You’re a fucking nooksniffer, I don’t understand the gay thing at all.” Dave wilted a little bit. Karkat grinned. “But get the fuck over here, ya dork.”
Dave smiled a bit. It was crooked, and kind of… Endearing? Karkat had to remind himself that this was Dave, not someone that was usually, well, tolerable. For lack of a better word. Said “intolerable” (but not really) human had managed to scoot over to a spot about five inches away from Karkat while he mentally berated the squishy parts of his feelings. The troll shook his head and put an arm around Dave, pulling him against his side and mumbling something about body heat being “conducted, not radiated”. It felt odd being so close to someone, but in a nice way, somehow.
And he had to admit, he felt warmer.