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You’ve been on this meteor for almost a sweep. An entire sweep on a meteor, that’s busy hurtling through space, with absolutely no one worth talking to except in the occasional dream bubble which is infuriating, and you’re starting to get angrier with every passing bubble. Sure, you were angry before but that was a completely different issue. You were in complete and utter mortal fucking peril back then.
Now you’re just bored fucking shitless.
Dave’s bored, too. You can tell. He’s been spending more and more time hanging around in the common room with you than in Can Town. At one point he started sleeping in there, on a pile of blankets he’d alchemized for that purpose. You’d tried to get in one wake cycle and all the doors were locked from the inside, and the transportalizer was powered down. He hadn’t unlocked anything for nearly 15 of his earth hours, and you’d been stupidly angry by then. You’d been so angry, because there was nothing else to do that day and everything remotely interesting was in the common room, that when he finally opened the door you’d taken a sickle to his throat.
He got better.
Then, as far as you can tell, he got worse again. Not in the dead sense, he got better from that pretty quickly. It had taken a few hours and he wasn’t happy about the blood all over his god cape, but he was as alive as a human gets. As it stands, you’re fairly sure he’s only left the common room to go to the kitchen next door, as well as a couple of trips to the load gaper. Even then, you’re not sure because there was one time when you picked up a bottle, and he’d raised an eyebrow. You’d put it down quickly enough but he never did say exactly what was in there. You do know that it’s been at least an earth week since he’s been to the ablution chamber.
He’s still sitting in the blanket pile between the couch and the television screen, so you ask him about it. He turns his head, slightly, but between the hood he’s got pulled up and the shades, you can’t really tell if he’s looking at you or the kitchen door.
You feel sorry for him though, and you realise that is the worst possible thing to feel. You’ve got too much on your nutrition plateau as it is. It only gets worse as he drags himself up and off the floor, and he’s literally dragging himself onto the couch without really using his legs.
DAVE: these god pajamas never really start to smell
DAVE: im good
This time he’s definitely looking at the kitchen door.
DAVE: we got any doritos left
DAVE: or do i need to make someone alchemize more
KARKAT: I DON’T KNOW.
Your response is indignant, and you don’t know why but you’re fairly sure it was the wrong inflection choice. It doesn’t look like he needs more conversations filled with shout poles right now. You don’t know what he needs but it’s not that, even you can see that much on your own. You wonder if there’s an acceptable way to tell a human that despite his god pajamas, he is starting to smell.
KARKAT: DAVE YOU’RE STARTING TO FUCKING SMELL LIKE A FUCKING LOAD GAPER. ONE THAT HASN’T BEEN CLEANED IN SWEEPS.
DAVE: you mean the one down the end of the third floor hall
KARKAT: YES. EXACTLY LIKE THAT.
DAVE: i can dig it
DAVE: thats not the worst one
KARKAT: IS IT NORMAL FOR HUMANS TO GO THIS LONG WITHOUT VISITING THE ABLUTION CHAMBER BLOCK?
DAVE: yes
DAVE: ask rose
DAVE: teenage boys suck
DAVE: so bad
DAVE: were the worst humans
DAVE: fucking mistake making us
He reaches down to the floor and pulls two of the blankets from his pile, and wraps one around his shoulders and drapes the other over his head, sinking further down into the corner of the couch. He looks pathetic, absolutely fucking pathetic but you’re sure that you’re not supposed to say that to a human when they’re looking pathetic. You said it to Rose once and Kanaya had given you filthy glares for days.
Instead, you lean over a little, because Dave’s sunk himself so far into the couch cushions that he might as well be on the floor again, and hold out a fist. He raises one eyebrow at the gesture, but he gives a kind of twisted half-smile, and reaches one hand out from under the blankets and bumps his pasty human knuckles against your own. He seems satisfied with that.
As his hand retreats back under the blanket, you reach forward a little more and give him a slap to the face. It’s not hard, you can see he’s not really prepared to deal with your shit today, you’re not completely retarded. It was meant to be motivational, it’s worked in the past. You plan to follow it up with an order for him to hit the ablution chamber before the next sleep cycle.
He wasn’t prepared though, on account of being so fucking pathetic, and because he’s tried to move his face out of the way, instead of hitting back. And because of that, because he’s fucking useless and pathetic and he’s not even making it look like he’s trying to fight back, you’ve knocked his shades, which is bad enough in itself. But the shades have slipped down his nose and all you can see is his eyes, bright fucking red like the colour of your own blood.
KARKAT: WHAT THE FUCK?
DAVE: get out
KARKAT: I DIDN’T THINK HUMANS SHOWED BLOOD COLOURS LIKE THAT.
DAVE: they dont
DAVE: get out
It doesn’t take him long to readjust the shades, and he’s pulled the god hood down even further.
KARKAT: DAVE?
DAVE: get the fuck out vantas
DAVE: and dont fucking tell anyone
DAVE: anyone
DAVE: you hear me
KARKAT: YEAH, I HEAR YOU, BUT WHAT THE FUCK?
DAVE: its none of your fucking business
DAVE: we clear
DAVE: my eyes my business
DAVE: fuck off
KARKAT: THAT’S NOT NORMAL FOR A HUMAN, IS IT?
DAVE: no
DAVE: its very fucking abnormal
KARKAT: WHY?
DAVE: because whats normal
DAVE: is for a human to actually have some fucking pigment in their eyes
DAVE: shit sucks
KARKAT: SO YOU’RE AN ABNORMALITY OF YOUR SPECIES?
DAVE: complete fucking minority
KARKAT: SHIT.
DAVE: yeah shit
DAVE: now you get the shades
KARKAT: BUT WHY DO YOU NEED TO HIDE IT? BLOOD COLOUR MEANS NOTHING TO HUMANS SINCE YOU ALL HAVE THE SAME BLOOD.
DAVE: fuck man
DAVE: its not the colour okay
DAVE: its the lack of it
DAVE: without the colour
DAVE: the earth sun fucks them up
DAVE: human eyes need colour to stop the earth sun shrivelling them up in our skulls
or something like that
DAVE: i never researched it
DAVE: but its not normal
KARKAT: WHY WOULD ANYONE LIVE ON A FUCKING PLANET WHERE THE NEAREST STAR IS CAPABLE OF SHRIVELLING EYES STILL IN THEIR SKULLS?
DAVE: hey our planet was your mistake
DAVE: thats on you
DAVE: i dont really want to talk about this bs though
DAVE: you feel me
KARKAT: WHAT?
DAVE: we clear
KARKAT: YEAH, I GUESS SO.
DAVE: look are you leaving or do i have to
DAVE: actually
DAVE: fuck it
DAVE: ill leave
He gets up from the couch, still wrapped in his blankets, and he looks even more pathetic than before. You’re aware that you’ve mentally called him pathetic more than enough but you can’t think of another word to describe how fucking terrible he looks.
DAVE: karkat
KARKAT: YEAH?
DAVE: rose knows
DAVE: terezi knows
DAVE: my Bro knew
DAVE: and now you know
DAVE: you fucking add anyone else to that list
DAVE: living or dead
DAVE: and ill kill you while you sleep
DAVE: and you wont come back
KARKAT: I FUCKING GET IT, OKAY?
KARKAT: AND SORRY, I GUESS.
DAVE: fuck it
DAVE: see you round
And then he leaves the common room for what you guess is the first time in almost a full wake cycle. You stay on your end of the couch and wait, but he doesn’t come back. You’re still there hours later, and it’s close to halfway through the sleep cycle that you figure he’s not coming back.
You pass his respiteblock on the way to your own, and see that he’s changed the sign on the door. No one’s allowed in now, not even Rose. So you made a mistake, he’ll get over it. He got over all those times you killed him.
As you walk away though, you think that maybe, just maybe, you somehow crossed a line that you weren’t even fully aware existed.