Work Text:
The weather had been warming up these past few weeks, with winter finally making its departure, people were free to return to the outdoors without having to bundle up in thick layers of clothing.
It didn't make much of a difference for Karkat, though. He was a shut-in year-round, and he enjoyed being such. It meant he usually got the place to himself when Dave was out for work, quality naptime for a troll such as himself.
Dave, however, knew that he couldn't just like the poor guy stay inside his whole life, even if Karkat insisted otherwise. It would do them both good to get some proper fresh air, and nature could actually be pretty cool sometimes.
With all of this in mind, Dave began to prepare an idea of sorts, a date with Karkat out in the nearby park, where it would still be quiet and mostly sheltered from other people. He didn't account for any other possibilities on said date.
Karkat, as expected, had originally been opposed to the idea, but after a bit of coaxing, and a smidge of Strider guilt-tripping, he accepted that it would be happening, and he would come along.
Exiting their shared hive-slash-house, the sun immediately started fucking with Karkat's eyes. He grumbled to himself about it being way too bright, with Dave unable to relate with his rad shades on.
Despite being a pissy wriggler the whole way there, Karkat thought that the park was nice, much to Dave's surprise. They found a nice spot beneath a semi-large tree, which was what Dave assumed was an oak. He wasn't quite sure, since all his knowledge of trees came from Minecraft.
"Told you this would be fun," Dave teased, ruffling Karkat's hair, to which Karkat slapped his hand away, but not hard enough to actually hurt.
The pair sat peacefully, chatting and whatnot fo a solid ten minutes.It wasn't until Dave noticed something out of the corner of his eye that things changed.
"Wait, hold on a second," Dave said, holding up his hand to signal Karkat to be quiet for a moment. He moved closer to the troll, specifically eyeing his shoulder.
Sure enough, atop Karkat was a little caterpillar! Dave had little to no knowledge on said insects, so he wasn't sure if these ones were venomous or not.
"What is it??" Karkat asked, unable to see the caterpillar in his peripheral.
"Dude, you got yourself a little friend here," Dave chuckled, gently moving the caterpillar to his hand so Karkat could look at it.
The reaction he recieved was a lot more drastic than he expected, as Karkat yelped at the sight of it. "What the hell??"
Dave realized pretty quickly that Karkat hadn't really seen one of these before, since their little planet was pretty new to be honest.
It was pretty amusing to watch his boyfriend freak out over something so simple. "It's just a caterpillar, they show up this time of year a lot." Dave's explanation did not seem to soothe Karkat.
"Why do they look like tiny, fucked up grubs?" Karkat's face scrunched up, almost in digust.
He had never thought about that before, but to Karkat these were basically the equivalent of an Alternian bug that looked like a weird human baby.
"I dunno, but they're harmless," Dave let the little creature climb up his arm, "For the most part, there are some that'll give you a nasty rash."
Karkat, still relatively astounded by all of this, tried to get a bit of a closer look at the one crawling up his matesprit's shoulder. He was quiet for a couple of minutes, trying his hardest to become adjusted to the sight of caterpillars.
At one point, Dave had the insect back on his hand, and lifted it onto Karkat's hand without much warning, just to see what he would do when in contact with the thing.
The feeling of little suction-cup-like feet on his skin caused him to jump, whilst trying to shake it off of his hand, to little success
"Dave!! Get it off!!" He squealed, making the blonde boy snicker to himself, before actually grabbing the thing and moving it away from Karkat.
"You're so dramatic," Dave teased, holding the caterpillar up to his own face.
"I just don't like them, okay? It feels like some kind of sinful amalgamation between--"
Karkat's words fell on deaf ears, as right now, all Dave could focus on was the fact that another one was crawling up Karkat, and the troll hadn't yet noticed.
In fact, quite a few were starting to attempt to make their way up Mt. Karkat, but with how strangely light they were, he was none the wiser.
"--Seriously, if you think these things are cute then that's a problem within itself, I don't get why you'd bother dealing with the stupid things clinging to you constantly--" Karkat was only now taking notice of Dave's snickering face. Confused and pissed off, Karkat glanced down at himself, not expecting to find a total of THIRTEEN caterpillars on his body.
"WHAT THE FUCK??" Karkat's surprise rang through the park, as he stood up and shook himself free of the insects. Or at least, he thought he shook them all off. The caterpillars, possessing suction-cup-like feet, clung to the troll's clothing with surprising amounts of force.
"C'mon, Karkles, you aren't getting all those fuckers off you, let's just go before more try and leech out your soul or something." Dave said, not particularly annoyed by Karkat's fear(?) but still not wanting to escalate things to any higher degree.
"Yeah, sure, whatever." Was the only response Karkat managed, still obviously upset. Maybe upset wasn't the best word, it was a mixture of curiosity, fear, and disgust, whatever that would be.
The couple headed back on their way to the hive, but this time, with a special guest neither had expected. Karkat was in for a surprise next time he messed with his hair, that was for sure.