Work Text:
DAVE: why dont you just go to sleep
It’s a dumb question, you know it before it leaves your mouth, and Karkat’s glare only confirms it. That is, before his eyelids start to droop again. He snaps back up before he can actually fall this time.
KARKAT: I HEARD HIM! I HEARD A HONK!
KARKAT: IF I DON'T KEEP WATCH, HE’S GOING TO KILL YOU! AND THE REST OF THE SHIP!
For someone half asleep, he really can yell.
KARKAT: IF HE DOES EMERGE, AT LEAST I CAN PACIFY HIM. I KNOW WHAT’LL CALM HIM DOWN.
KARKAT: I HAVE TO HANDLE THIS MYSELF. *ALONE.*
DAVE: do you
KARKAT: YES!!! I *HAVE* TO!
As he’s rambled on about for a few hours now, Karkat heard some kind of noise from around the vents of the meteor a while ago. How long ago, exactly, he won’t say, but he’s refused to sleep since.
You aren’t sure he’s right about what he heard. You’re not calling him a liar by any means, you just know (from experience) how much fear can change your perception of things. Maybe it was the footsteps of Rose down the hall that he heard, or the clacking of Terezi’s cane. You don’t want to doubt him, and especially not where his fear is coming from, but you really think he’s blowing this out of proportion.
The two of you sit in your bedroom now. You’d planned on watching something, as usual, but pretty much immediately, he’d started dozing off and forcing himself back awake. You’re sitting on opposite sides of your bed now, his hands messing with your blanket in frustration.
DAVE: why
KARKAT: BECAUSE! NEPETA AND EQUIUS DIED BECAUSE OF *ME!* BECAUSE I FAILED AS A FUCKING LEADER AND I *FAILED* THEM!
DAVE: look i know youre exhausted but can we cool it on the self loathing
DAVE: how else can you phrase your fears in a way that isnt so
DAVE: miserable
KARKAT: …I DUNNO.
KARKAT: IT *IS* MY FAULT. THERE’S NO POINT IN FLAVORPOWDERCOATING IT.
Karkat curls further into himself.
KARKAT: AND PRETENDING IT ISN’T DOESN’T MAKE IT GO AWAY. IT JUST MEANS I’M RUNNING AWAY FROM ACCOUNTABILITY.
KARKAT: THIS IS MY CHANCE AT REDEMPTION.
DAVE: and what
DAVE: what if he does come out of the vents and attacks you
DAVE: you can barely keep your head up how are you going to fight back
DAVE: the odds are stacked against your favor anyway
KARKAT: THANKS A LOT, ASSHOLE! THAT’S REALLY FUCKING HELPING!
DAVE: i didnt mean it like that!
DAVE: if you did want to fight him or even just confront him youd have way better luck off a good nights sleep and a light meal
DAVE: i get hes spontaneous in his actions and you dont know when or if hes going to attack but this way of going about it sucks
DAVE: trust me
KARKAT: …
KARKAT: I WOULDN’T BE ABLE TO SLEEP COMFORTABLY ANYWAY, KNOWING HE’S AROUND AT ALL.
DAVE: what if i watch
Your fists ball up right after you ask. You just sound like a creep now. Great. As if you wouldn’t be freaked out yourself if someone offered to watch you sleep.
KARKAT: WHAT??
DAVE: like just to make sure nothing happens to you
DAVE: if that fuckin clown tries to come in here ill kick his ass for you
DAVE: or uh gently lull him to sleep if you dont want me to hurt him
You’re speaking faster than you’re thinking to get yourself out of this hole. Because you don’t want Karkat to think you’re a weirdo who likes to watch people sleep.
DAVE: ill make sure youre safe i swear i wont leave your side i wont let anyone in here
KARKAT: WHAT IF YOU FALL ASLEEP? AND LEAVE US BOTH DEFENSELESS? WHAT IF HE ATTACKS AND KILLS YOU?? YOU’D DIE TRYING TO PROTECT ME, THAT SOUNDS PRETTY FUCKIN HEROIC TO ME.
DAVE: ok first of all i wouldnt lose against a clown
KARKAT: THAT’S WHAT THEY ALL SAY.
DAVE: second of all
DAVE: if i do fall asleep
DAVE: when i wake up ill send a time clone back to when i fell asleep
DAVE: thereby leaving a dave always on guard while also staying rested myself
DAVE: practice what you preach or whatever
KARKAT: …
KARKAT: FUCK. FINE.
KARKAT: BUT IF ANYBODY DIES, THIS TIME IT’S *YOUR* FAULT!
DAVE: sure
Karkat shuffles around a bit to settle himself under your covers. For someone so enthusiastic about those goopy troll beds, he’s really taken a liking to your regular human one. Within a couple minutes, he’s asleep. He isn’t quite snoring, but he’s taking really heavy breaths in his sleep. You kind of like the noise. It’s better than the stifled silence the rest of the meteor has.
You grab your laptop, sit on the floor in front of the bed, and fuck around with making a new beat, keeping one ear free from your headphones— more as a symbol to Karkat that you're alert if he happened to wake up than anything. You peer back at him periodically, just to make sure he’s still asleep and still breathing.
He’s really curled up into your blanket. It’s a pretty similar blanket to the one you’d had on Earth, with a card suit pattern, but you needed to alchemize a new one when you got here. It worked out well, though, because the new blanket looks pretty much the same and is far more comfortable.
Karkat has bitched a bit about this blanket, and how the card patterns were too indicative of quadrants for his tastes, or that it was something troll-specific that you didn’t actually care about. He seems to like it way more than he lets on, though, if his immediate relaxation into it means anything.
He barely moves in his sleep, aside from a couple occasional twitches. You get worried that he isn’t breathing a few times and have to hold your finger under his nose to be sure that air is coming out.
He looks relaxed. The tension usually in his face has left— his brows aren’t furrowed for once, and his mouth hangs only slightly open. His round cheeks have a reddish tint to them. You wonder if he’s too hot under your blanket, and think about taking it off him, but he’s too nestled up with it to even loosen.
After a few hours of fitting as many cartoon boing sound effects as you can in a beat— you're going to tell Karkat they’re real sampled sounds of your boner when you show it to him— you’re feeling pretty tired yourself. You shut your laptop and lean back against your mattresses.
A couple minutes later, another Dave pops in front of you.
(DAVE): hey
DAVE: hey
He sits down next to you
DAVE: what did you just wake up
He brushes his hair down with his hand and readjusts his shades.
(DAVE): is it obvious
DAVE: shrug
DAVE: i mean i told karkat this idea so i had a feeling itd happen
(DAVE): oh
(DAVE): well
(DAVE): you can sleep now
DAVE: cool
You bring your knees against your chest. (Dave) shuffles around a bit as well.
DAVE: what are you gonna do
(DAVE): dunno
(DAVE): wait for either of you to wake up
DAVE: seems boring
(DAVE): well youll be here in five hours and you can see how you like it then
DAVE: right right
You tug at your god pajama pants around the knees. There aren’t loose threads— which is good, because you absolutely would’ve unraveled them by now. You don’t have any expertise in sewing fabric, but the whole get-up seems less like interweaving threads and more like a solid mass. You make a mental note to ask Kanaya to examine your cape or something.
(DAVE): thinkin about your pants huh
DAVE: yea i guess
(DAVE): dude
(DAVE): five hours
(DAVE): not to sound creepy but i know what youre thinking about
DAVE: right
You push yourself further into the side of your mattress. Maybe it’d be more comfortable to get in the bed also, but you don’t want to get up in Karkat’s business or risk waking him up. (Dave) watches as you reposition. You can’t see his eyes under the shades, but you can tell he’s trying not to stare. You’re not actually very good at staying stoic.
(DAVE): karkat wont be awake by the time you wake up
(DAVE): just letting you know
(DAVE): and your dream is gonna be weird sorry
DAVE: isnt it always
DAVE: night
(DAVE): night
You fall asleep. You dream of glass eyes and spiky shades and the beating sun. It’s not a nightmare, really. It’s one of the most normal dreams you’ve had in a while, excluding the dream bubbles.
You wake up slumped against (Dave)’s shoulder, your shades folded next to him. He sets down one of Karkat’s books, using a headphone cord to mark his spot.
(DAVE): mornin
You blink a couple times, not awake enough to respond, and lift your head up.
(DAVE): your uh
(DAVE): your shades were pressing against your face so i took them off
(DAVE): since i didnt have a shade dent when i woke up
He slides them over to you and you put them back on.
DAVE: thanks
(DAVE): yep
DAVE: should i go back now
DAVE: ya know to close the loop
(DAVE): good idea you should
You push yourself up to your feet.
DAVE: see you around
DAVE: or i guess ill become you in a bit
(DAVE): yep
(DAVE): good luck
You go back around five hours, since that’s the number (Dave) gave you to work with. A new Dave sits in front of you, leaning back against his bed.
DAVE: hey
(DAVE): hey
It plays out the same. Why wouldn’t it? It’s always uncanny going back and watching the same thing happen. Deja vu, in a sense, except you’re watching whatever happens repeat in third person. You get conscious that sleeping on your own shoulder messes up your hair and you try to brush it out. You watch him play with his pants and wonder about the threads. He falls asleep, and his head slumps against your shoulder. You take his shades off and set them next to you.
You start reading one of the books Karkat gave you, because it’s one of the only things in reach and you’re bored. You pick the one Future Dave was reading when you woke up.
You hate to think about it that way. The idea to read the book came from seeing another Dave reading it, but he only got the idea from seeing another Dave as well. It came from nowhere. It perpetuates itself within the loop. You’ve only actually used time travel on the scale of a couple hours, but you’ve thought about how it would work on a larger scale. Years, even decades of things happening because you saw it happen before, with no real origin point.
It makes you dizzy. You have too much power. You risked dooming the timeline so Karkat could sleep a bit more comfortably.
You aren’t paying that much attention to the book, but you pick up the basic premise. It’s about quadrant vacillation involving no less than 12 different trolls. You have trouble keeping their names straight, and they keep making jokes that you don’t get. You aren’t very invested, but it’s a fine way to pass time.
The Dave on your shoulder wakes up, so you set down your book and give him back his shades. He goes back in time. There’s just one Dave again.
You’re not too interested in picking the book back up after only half-following the story. You consider teasing Karkat about it later so he can actually explain what happened to you.
You pick your laptop back up and click through a few of your open tabs, but nothing is catching your attention. You’ve got to start picking up new hobbies sometime soon. You decide on scribbling on MSPaint until Karkat finally wakes up.
The shit you made happen on Paint was downright preposterous. By which you mean you made a couple messy scribbles that kind of resemble you and Karkat before getting bored and giving up.
You start on another doodle, making sure to use your trackpad for the perfect shitty quality drawings. You hear rustling behind you, followed by little chirping noises.
DAVE: oh shit
You set your laptop onto the ground and peer behind you. Karkat seems to be waking up. He mumbles something in Alternian that you don’t understand.
You stand up and flop down on the edge of the bed, waiting for him to wake up more. He sits up and rubs his eyes.
DAVE: morning
DAVE: how do you feel
KARKAT: MMGHM.
DAVE: better?
KARKAT: MHM.
DAVE: ok ok good
DAVE: so i was right
KARKAT: MMMMMM.
He smacks his lips together a couple times.
KARKAT: TOO MANY QUESTIONS RIGHT NOW. SHUT THE FUCK UP FOR A SECOND
DAVE: ok
You drum your hands a bit against the bed. Karkat scratches at his hair, which is extra messy already.
KARKAT: OKAY.
KARKAT: HOW’D IT GO?
DAVE: uneventful
DAVE: like i said itd be
KARKAT: HAR HAR. OKAY.
KARKAT: I’M RESTED NOW. AND I CAN GO BACK TO BEING ON ALERT IF GAMZEE SHOWS HIS FACE AGAIN.
DAVE: look he probably wont
DAVE: what does he get from it
KARKAT: I DON’T KNOW!
KARKAT: WHAT DID HE GET THE FIRST TIME HE ACTUALLY KILLED PEOPLE?
KARKAT: NOTHING!
DAVE: what im going to say might sound crazy and impossible but
DAVE: can you relax
DAVE: like are you even capable of it
KARKAT: THERE’S SHIT TO WORRY ABOUT! I’M NOT ON EDGE FOR NO FUCKING REASON.
DAVE: yeah but
KARKAT: YOU’RE ONE TO TALK, ANYWAY.
KARKAT: I DON’T NEEDLE YOU ABOUT YOUR BRO SHIT. HE ISN’T EVEN HERE.
DAVE: you kind of do but whatever
KARKAT: MY *POINT:*
KARKAT: I HAVE TO STAY WORKED UP ABOUT THIS, BECAUSE THE SECOND I *DO* LET MY GUARD DOWN, I KNOW THAT’S WHEN SOMETHING WILL HAPPEN.
KARKAT: I KNOW IT SOUNDS CRAZY, OKAY? I FEEL CRAZY.
KARKAT: BUT I CAN’T RISK IT!
DAVE: …
DAVE: im here for you
DAVE: for protection or whatever
DAVE: i dunno how much that helps
DAVE: but maybe having someone else in your corner will make you feel better
DAVE: and that you dont have to be afraid alone
DAVE: or something
KARKAT: YEAH?
DAVE: yeah
DAVE: i want you to be okay
KARKAT: I WANT YOU TO BE OKAY TOO.
KARKAT: BUT I DON’T THINK YOU GETTING INVOLVED IN THIS SHIT IS GOING TO HELP YOU AT ALL.
DAVE: so what
DAVE: knowing youre safe and ok is more important to me than that
KARKAT: IT SHOULDN’T BE.
DAVE: just let me do something for you okay
DAVE: i want to help you more than anything this will make me happy
You sound gay. You sound really gay for Karkat. You sound like the next sentence out of your mouth will be asking him to pull his sweatpants down.
He looks down, fiddling with your blanket.
KARKAT: …I STAINED IT.
DAVE: what
KARKAT: I STAINED YOUR BLANKET. YOU CAN SEE THESE RED SPLOTCHES FROM MY SWEAT.
DAVE: its not a big deal
DAVE: ill wash it and if it doesnt come out then who cares
KARKAT: YEAH, BUT…
DAVE: or i can alchemize a new one that looks the exact same if im so annoyed by some barely visible pink stains
KARKAT: I GUESS.
KARKAT: YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE LET ME SLEEP IN YOUR BED.
DAVE: over some sweat?
DAVE: you should see how bad i do in my sleep
KARKAT: NO! NOT JUST THAT.
KARKAT: I DON’T KNOW WHY YOU KEEP OFFERING NICE GESTURES LIKE THIS. TO *ME.*
DAVE: cuz i care about you
Gay. You sound gay.
DAVE: they really arent big deals to me i swear
KARKAT: PROMISE?
DAVE: i promise
KARKAT: THIS ISN’T SOME LONG, DRAWN-OUT BIT TO MOCK ME? SOME FUCKED UP EXTENSION OF YOUR OBSESSION WITH IRONY AT THE COST OF YOURSELF AND ME?
DAVE: no!
DAVE: im sure
DAVE: im not being ironic or funny or satirical or any shit like that
DAVE: dont get all in your head about if our broship is real next
DAVE: it sure fucking is its the realest shit on this meteor
A smile starts to form on the ends of Karkat’s mouth.
KARKAT: YOU MEAN IT?
DAVE: yeah
DAVE: really
DAVE: ive hit a dave sincerity limit for today do you wanna find the worst movie in your collection to watch
DAVE: i can keep an eye out for whats going on around us if it helps you feel better
DAVE: tell rose and everyone else to stay out of our movie viewing spots so we know what to expect if we hear anything
DAVE: would that make you feel better
KARKAT: MAYBE. WORTH A SHOT?
DAVE: cool
KARKAT: THANKS.
DAVE: anytime
DAVE: really