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Your name is KARKAT VANTAS and you just woke up at some terribly early hour. You exit your respiteblock and shuffle your way to the mealblock and notice the lights on the ceilings are already on. Around when the humans arrived, Dave and Rose, Rose had explained they weren't exactly built for being nocturnal. Weird, right? Anyway, she had set up a system where the lights on the meteor would shut off at a certain time to mark both day/night cycles and to your dismay, curfew. Even after being on this giant rock hurling through paradox space for… 0.5 sweeps at this point? It still annoys you. The humans call them ‘years’ and to them it's been one ‘year.’ You're saying these in heavy air quotes because the years are stupid and don't plan on going out of your way to learn them, unlike Maryam. She's probably just trying to get Rose to talk to her more.
Anyway, you enter the mealblock to find only two lights on- one small warm light in the corner and the light above the table. Rose is huddled near the coffee gadget pouring herself a drink. She eyes you without moving her head before nodding you a greeting and sitting down. She might be a little hungover. Ok, she probably is hungover. It's not new these days. You grab some food and sit across from her in the silence of the room. She takes a sip from her mug before finally addressing you verbally.
“Good morning, Karkat.” You grunt in response considering you have food in your mouth. She notices this and hums back. “Did you happen to, I don't know, get into a fight with Dave yesterday?” You pause. You saw him yesterday, sure, but you didn't have an argument or anything. You eye her skeptically. “..No, why?” Her gaze locks to yours in that odd, distinctive Lalonde way. Sometimes Dave gets that look too, but it's harder to tell considering he wears sunglasses. “So you mean to tell me you two did not get into a fist fight yesterday-?” You nearly choke. “What? Why would we get into a fucking fight?” You push down your defensiveness when a thought comes to mind that maybe Dave had gotten injured and that's why Rose was asking- oh my god why did she immediately jump to you hurting him? Does she think you actually hate Dave that much to point he'd-
You're too busy spiraling to realize Rose had been talking to you. For the past few minutes it seemed she'd been trying to get your attention by saying your name, but it didn't work until she snapped loudly in front of your face a few times and raised her voice a tiny bit. “Karkat! I was just wondering if something had happened because I know you two have your homoerotic wrestling on the ground and I wondered if he'd gotten injured from it. You two seem close from my perspective.” She sits back down from where she'd been leaning over the table. You compose yourself as she continues. “I went to check on him this morning and he was out like a light, but it looked like he may have a black eye of some kind.” Your stomach twisted in a way you'd rather not unpack right now, because you have completely neutral feelings surrounding Dave Strider that at best could lean… Yeah, not now. Conversation for another time. You stand up from your chair, taking your nutrition plateau with you to drop it off near the growing pile of them.
“We didn't really see each other yesterday, and our… Moments aren't something to be relayed back to us as if we were cluckbeasts running around with our heads cut off.” You tried to pick your words carefully but you're really just spewing shit based off of the tired smirk Rose sends you. “Your ‘moments’?” You feel flush creep up your neck and scowl. “Whatever, Lalonde. And no, I'm not going to visit him for you. Do it yourself.” You made your way out of the mealblock, turning left down the hallway. Rose is smirking at you. Because she knows. And you know too, that this is obviously the wrong way down to your room.
You would've had to turn right down the hallway. Because if you go left the only room someone currently occupied was Dave's, two doors from Rose's, five from Kanaya’s, and a very obvious distance from your own.
The hallways seem particularly cold, even at this hour. It seemed that nobody was awake- not even Gamzee (considering you didn't hear anything in the vents right now)- which thankfully left the meteor in a calm silence. Although, you didn't really like that silence right now. When you reached Dave's door you didn't knock. You didn't enter, either. What if something had happened? What if this was your fault? Maybe you had invertedly caused a chain reaction into Dave getting a black-eye and being bed ridden for days, weeks, maybe even forever, because of something you could have easily just not have done? Ok holy shit calm down. Chill. Deep breaths. Oh whatever that is a stupid coping mechanism, why would controlled breathing stop someone from having a panic attack it just makes it harder to breath?
The sound of somebody mumbling to themselves and shuffling around in the room pulls you from your thoughts. Hesitantly, you knock on the metal door rather quietly. There's some kind of noise inside but it falters quickly. You knock again, slightly more irritated at the fact the door hadn't opened yet. For fucks sake, you are in sleeping attire at a god awful hour in the morning knocking on Dave Strider of all peoples door! And you know he's awake! You're about to knock louder before you hear somebody say “come in” quietly from inside.
You take a deep breath before cracking the door open a little and peeking in. Dave's curled in a fetus position on his bed facing away from you and he's in shorts with his godtier shirt. It's riding up his back giving you a shot of the bottom of his spine which sticks out a tiny bit from under his skin. Dave was a lot more skinny at the start of the meteor journey but he does seem a lot, for one, happier, and also that he's been able to actually eat for once. He's grown like 4 inches singularly because he's able to grow into his height. You quietly go into his room and shut the door silently.
“If that's you Rose, I don't want any breakfast. I ain't hungry.” He sounds tired. His bed is a mess of sheets and blankets, though he does have a real comforter now. Although it is discarded to the side at the moment. He looks like he's been trying to get comfortable for hours. “It's Karkat, not Rose.” He mumbles something, shifting to look over his shoulder at you standing awkwardly next to his bed. His sunglasses are on the side table but he doesn't bother reaching for them, just curling back into his former position. “Why’re you here?” His accent slips the tiniest bit and you push down however sappy it makes you feel. “Just uh, checking on you.” He grumbles something in return, “did Rose send you?” You look at the posters he'd alchemized on his walls. “...No, she's.. not awake right now.” Just one white lie. He mumbles again into his pillow. “Strider, you've got to speak up. I can't hear you if you're going to talk to the pillow like a hallucinating war veteran and not me.” He, again, grumbles and rolls over. Rose wasn't kidding though, it's a bad bruise. Your brain does helpfully remind you she thought you did that.
It's a dark mix of purples and blues. He looks a little pale, too. Fuck, lock in Karkat.
You, unfortunately, don't lock in. You unconsciously caress the side of his face that's bruised and he makes a slightly pained sound that pulls your hand back to your side in a heartbeat. “Sorry, I didn't mean..” he sits up and shakes his head “s’ fine…” He looks really bad. You look around his room before spotting an unopened water bottle and cracking it open for him. He frowns when you hold it out to him. “Oh come on, don't be a fucking wriggler, Dave. Drink up.” He mutters some more and pouts his bottom lip out. It's pitiful, really, but it only makes you want to coddle him more. You sit next to him on his bed. “Dude, you look terrible. Just drink some.” He looks between you and the bottle and hesitantly drinks a little. Then a little more.
The room is quiet and you don't realize how much Dave is leaning into your side until his head rests on your shoulder. His left hand (aka, the one not holding the water bottle,) is resting simultaneously on both yours and his own thighs. You brush your fingers along his hand gingerly before he hums in response. You rub your fingers along his knuckles, examining them. “What happened to get that nasty bruise?” He takes another slow drink. You can hear him swallow and your eyes flicker over briefly to watch his Adam's apple bob before focusing back on his hand. He giggles slightly, it’s an odd sound coming from Dave but it's somehow one of the sweetest you've heard. It's one of those things you have to pull from him when he's tired. “So I was in the like… common area. And I wanted to find out if it was faster to jump off the couch and do a tuck n’ roll out or to go over the table by slidin’ and shit, y’know?” You hum as if you know what he's talking about while you memorize each scar on his left hand. He leans more into you. “...so when I jumped off I had misaligned and ran fully into the concrete like… fuckin’.. fuckin’, beam, right? And it hurt really bad so I just went to my room.” Well that explains the bruise and why he was so pale. He hadn't come down for dinner last night either. “Why didn't you come eat?” He shrugged and basically nuzzled into your shoulder. You ignore how your stomach flipped. “I stayed up all night and hadn't slept so I was already tired.” Wait. When did Dave injure himself? You sit up quickly and it startles him for a second so you relax and let him lean into your chest, hand moving up and down his arm soothingly.
“Bout’ what time did you go back to your room? Had you already eaten?” He shook his head against you and you ignore again how it makes you feel, realizing you're letting it happen. It's not right. “I was gonna make breakfast but I got sidetracked and then my head was hurtin’ so much I lost my appetite-” you shift up again, reaching around until you find a tiny flashlight you'd taken from Kanaya. He mumbled something intelligible. “Sit up for a second.” He sits back and you turn it on with a click. He sprinted and whined when you shined into his eyes.
Fuck.
Sure enough, he is definitely, 100%, concussed. Can't deny it when one pupil is huge and the other could barely even be seen. Admittedly, you did keep the light on a little longer than necessary just so you could look at his eyes thoroughly. It was a dark red around the edges and a few darker flecks near his pupil. He whined again and you turned it off quickly, watching him rub his eyes and move to slump into your chest yet again.
This isn't fair. Dave's concussed and dehydrated and hungry and sleep deprived and he is just about drooling on you. You have to pull yourself together and not let whatever… This is to get the best of you. But he tucks his face into the junction between your shoulder and neck and hoo boy it feels like you might pass out here. Shit, wait.
You fish through your pockets yet again and find a small package of saltine crackers that Rose had alchemized at some point. Dave had mentioned he liked them for not having a strong flavour and keeping a consistent texture. Rose had called him something for that but you don't remember right now. Everytime he breathes out his nose it goes down the back of your neck and you once again suppress a shiver. Shifting him so his back was to your chest, you gave him a cracker and he slowly nibbled on it. Corner by corner. Your arms instinctively find their way around his waist in which you realize he is sitting on your lap. And you're holding him. And he's fine with it. And you're more than fine with it.
The room falls into the silence again and your brain supplies you with many things. How quiet it is. How warm Dave feels. How he kind of looks like one of those… What are they called, rabbits? Whatever, he looks cute just nibbling on his food. Your brain also gifts you thoughts that make you want to physically bash your head into a wall until you don't remember what it was you were thinking of. Many you'd rather not name, but having Dave in your lap doesn't help these thoughts. The more you think about how much you hate them the more they come.
You feel someone squeezing the hand on Dave's hip. “Can I have another one, please?” He's got the sleepiest puppy dog eyes ever and you'd fold over instantly if not sitting down. Dave shifts so he is lying next to you (sadly) but you two could still be considered cuddling. He finishes off the saltines and wraps his arms around you, burying his face in your neck and throwing a leg over yours. “Could we watch a movie… or somethin’?” Holy shit you are going to die tonight. Rest in peace Karkat Vantas, never reached 7 sweeps. Died of being flushed and pale and pitch all at the same time for a human who was also a huge loser.
You turned on a movie and Dave was almost out before you got to the forty minute mark. He'd eaten all of the snacks (good) and finished his water (better) and you had persuaded him to put at least ice on his bruise. He's curled into your side and you feel him smile against your skin occasionally during the movie. At some point your hand had started combing through his hair and he hummed appreciatively. You got him a second bottle of water at the one hour mark and he sat up next to you. It was at least breakfast by now but you really didn't want to leave Dave. You mean get up, you didn't want to get up. He muttered something against your shirt and you hushed him. “Go to sleep.” He curled into you and muttered again.
A few minutes go until you realize he's finally asleep. At least in the light of Terezi's laptop you could see how peaceful he looked. Even though he normally attempts to look ‘stoic’ it's gotten asked to see through his facade. In fact you've started being able to read his mini expressions; the way his eyebrows slightly knit if he's focused or irritated, the small frown he gets when he's trying to act like he's not upset over something. But then there's also his actual expressions, which, surprisingly, he does have. You remember watching videos with him, specifically one with a car driving down a hill. Dave knew what he was doing. You flinched so hard at the jumpscare that you almost fell off the couch. You were about to curse him out but he was laughing, seriously laughing. He laughed so hard he was holding his sides and hiccuped while he tried to catch his breath. You could see the indents in each side of his face being deeper than he would normally let them go. You didn't laugh. You didn't even smile, purely because you were so caught up by this.
And maybe that was when you fell in love with Dave Strider.
Dave squinted at you from where he was cuddled into you, faces so close you feel his breath. You watch his eyes trace your features closely before falling to your lips. You two were close, so close. Just another inch.
His breath hitched and you pushed yourself away from him quickly. “Go back to sleep, Dave.”
Admittedly, it was hard to fall asleep. It was a lot colder on this side of the bed, especially without that familiar warmth on your side.
A light flicked on before quickly being shut off again. You grumbled something and nestled back into the warm mass you were cuddling. You could hear quiet footsteps, presumably of two people? There were two people whispering to each other and they stood at the foot of the bed.
“... So this is where they were all day.”
“Oh hush, I think it's very sweet.”
“... Should we wake them?”
“Are you serious? Look at them, Rose. Like two.. What did you call them?”
A quiet laugh. “Kanaya, I appreciate that you're trying to use human terms, but you can still say troll phases. Though what I think you're looking for is ‘two peas in a pod’?”
You open your eyes blearily and squint at the figures, who seem to be leaning on each other slightly. They hush their conversation when they see you looking at them. Soon enough, they turn to leave. One, taller and seemingly glowing a bit, turns around to tuck the blanket over you and Dave. You nuzzled back under Dave's chin and chirred slightly. The figure cooed and closed the door behind her silently.