Promise of a Sun

oOo

AN: What is context? -_- I'm just assuming this happens in a dream bubble. Bear with me.

oOo

"Look, it's coming up."

"I can see just fine, thanks", Karkat muttered, but with no real heat beneath his words; he stared determinedly at the orange disc making its way above the horizon, full and ripe like a summer fruit, flinging out storms of color in its wake as it rose.

Dave chuckled under his breath. "You've really never seen the sun rise?"

"Hey asshole, not everybody lives on a planet orbiting a sun that doesn't burn your fucking eyes out when you so much as step outdoors during the day."

"Right", Dave replied, his tone surprisingly conciliatory. "Human privilege, I guess." Karkat was still forcing his eyes to stay on the Earth sun, rather than darting away on reflex after so many years on Alternia, and did not catch the little ripple in the human's voice as he continued, "I guess it's better this way anyway."

"Of course it's better this way, you fucker—unless you're blinded by your moon or some shit, you've definitely got an advantage here. Way to rub it in." His reply had been automatic, unthinking, and he started visibly at the sensation of warm fingers tapping out a rhythm on the back of his hand.

"You don't get it", Dave said softly.

I do now, Karkat thought, hating himself and the birdlike beating of his heart.

What I don't get is why.

"I know what you're trying to do. Piss off."

"I'm not trying to do anything." Is that laughter I hear in your voice?

"I want to watch the sun rise like you said", Karkat snapped. "If you brought me out here only to distract me during the actual thing, I don't see why you couldn't just save yourself the trouble."

"Karkat."

"What?" he tore his eyes away from the sun at last—with a measure of relief that he was not prepared to admit—to find an infuriatingly impish face not three inches away from his own.

Ah...

Willing his face not to redden, he closed his eyes against the heat of Dave's gaze, thinking of what would follow, knowing what would follow. But there was no kiss, just a gentle pressure on his forehead as the other boy leaned against him, laughing quietly. "I didn't ask you to look at me, Karkat. Go on, go back to watching the sky. It's prettier than I am at this time."

Gog. Fucking. Dammit.

I fucking hate you. Karkat wrenched his eyes open, giving up his struggle with the blush spilling onto his face. They prickled with familiar frustration as he glared at the brightening sun. I hate you and your blazing eyes and your sun that doesn't blind you and your human teasing.

I hate the fact that I don't understand...

"I just wanted to say that, well... I'm glad you've never seen the sun rise before."

Don't look. Don't look don't look don't fucking look

"That's because you're a prick", he said levelly into the fiery skies.

"No." The warm on his hand was back, resting calmly over Karkat's fingers now, lacing their heartbeats together. "I get to watch you watch it this way, you see."

But why me?

They were on the roof of a nameless ten-story building, their legs dangling over the edge; Karkat thought of the drop to the ground, thought of the mortified red on his own cheeks—red like Dave's eyes—and thought he would jump for two boondollars.

"But you're not going to let me watch this in peace, are you?" he asked quietly, though the sun was well over the horizon now and the colors of the sky had begun to dissolve into a blameless, unrippled blue. I still don't remember anything.

Just the surprise that it didn't burn my eyes out...

And the red.

Not the sun, the red of your fucking eyes.

"We can do this again on any other day too", Dave murmured. "Dawns are cheaper than fucking socks in a garage sale." You'll never let me watch in peace though. You know it.

"Go back to watching the sky. It's prettier than I am at this time."

I'm not so sure of that.

The hand on his tightened slightly and he felt the liquid pulse of Dave's humming heartbeat flow through his arm all the way up to the roots of his hair. "I'll show you the rest of the morning", the human boy was saying meditatively, his voice barely more than a whisper. "The day is pretty enough, sunrise or no. But let's go inside for now, Karkat."

Karkat stole a sideways glance to find a smile playing on the pale lips, a smile that said Or we could just keep sitting here too, not like I care, but the thrum of their hearts in their clasped hands said Please.

I think I'd like to go inside too.

You shine brighter than the sun anyway. Inconsiderate asshole.

He pulled his hand away with a sigh. "Yeah. Let's."

oOo

Now significantly higher in the sky and climbing still, the sun bore down on them, and the heat was intense.

"I take it back", Karkat wheezed into Dave's pillow, very aware of the perspiration blossoming on his bare back and the laughing sun-red eyes that danced over his skin. "You people have the rawest fucking deal of all the universes. Shit's so raw a doctor could probably bring it back to life."

"Well, I won't deny that the heat is a bitch sometimes", Dave conceded; he was lying beside Karkat, propped up on his elbows and—though the troll could not see it—fighting back a grin. "Even if it's an excuse for the less experienced among us to get naked."

"I'm not naked", the young troll growled immediately. Had it been any cooler he would have yanked the blanket up to his neck, but all he could do was kick feebly against the bed, trying to draw attention to his pants. "I'm completely fucking decent. But you're not telling me that that fucking turtleneck is sane clothing for this temperature."

He felt the elbow-shaped depressions in the mattress beside him shift briefly in a shrug, then lift as Dave sat up with a creaking of bedsprings. His eyes rose blearily just in time to see a red and white shirt sail over his head to a far corner of the room.

"There." Dave was bare-chested and smirking and the rivulets of sweat on his skin glistened wetly in the sunlight streaming through the open window. Goddamn it, it's like having the sun right here. "If it makes you feel any better."

Karkat tried and failed to muster up some form of irritation; the heat was making his very emotions droop like wilting flowers. "It doesn't", he muttered, flopping onto his back. The ceiling, it's because I want to look at the ceiling. It has nothing to do with him. It's— "So much for you showing me the morning, huh."

"I can still show you something, though." And suddenly a hand was in his hair, turning his head to the side with gentle insistence until he was unable to look anywhere but into the blazing firestorm eyes that all suns would pale before. "Sit up for a moment, will you?"

Karkat obliged grudgingly; sweat rolled off him in streams as he did so and he bit back a groan of frustration. I can't handle this heat...

We're here because Dave wanted to show me the sun, but I can't even bear the feel of it...

"Close your eyes."

The order was so sudden, so unexpected, that Karkat obeyed without thinking, and this time a soft, unhurried pair of lips did press themselves to his for a trembling moment before pulling away. Something metal-edged and refreshingly cool was then put over his eyes.

"What—"

"Shh. Just open them."

"I'm just asking what you're doing to my face, assho—oh." His voice coiled in the back of his throat, then withered.

Dave, who was suddenly several tones darker and looking very tickled, actually winked. "Welcome to Coolkidsville, population: 2."

Karkat raised a hand to his face, feeling his eyes widen at the sight of his now tinted skin. Everything had grown dimmer; blacker, somehow, and yet he could see. "I'm wearing—"

"My shades, yeah", Dave finished. "How does it feel to be less of a dork than usual, Karkat?"

"Unusual", said Karkat with complete honesty. Is this how you see all of us, all the time? "It's fucking dark."

I'm looking through your eyes, aren't I?

"Correction: shades are the shit. Coolest thing you'll ever wear, for sure." And those infernal hands were back, resting on his shoulders, turning his heat-limp body towards the window before he could begin to process why.

"What are you trying to—" he had expected another interruption, another order, but none came and his sentence died away abruptly as his eyes fell on the view outside.

Oh...

"There you go", Dave whispered in his ear. "The morning. Lovely, isn't it?"

Karkat tried to look away from the rays that splashed, rain-like, in puddles of light and shadow among the tall buildings; he tried to look from one sun to another, found that he could not, and nodded numbly.

Is this what your eyes see?

"Wanna try looking straight up at the sun?"

A laugh rose up in him, unbreakable and overwhelming. "Thanks", he said shakily, "but I'm good." A pause. "This is good." A longer pause. "Thanks."

If I'm seeing what you see...

Can I see what you see when you look at me, I wonder?

"I probably look stupid with these on, though", he mumbled, his shyness having caught up to him. He thought he sensed a sudden movement on Dave's part as though the boy had made to take the shades off, but thought better of it.

A comfortable yet strained silence welled between them as Karkat trailed his eyes along every darkened, milk-white cloud in the morning sky, then Dave said, "It doesn't matter, does it? I'm the only one who can see you now."

But what is that you see?

Why me?

Why do you look so happy that you're the only one who can see me..?

The troll felt around on the mattress until he found a hand that, to his immense gratitude, was as sweaty as his; clinging to the little spark of smugness that flared up in him at Dave's twitch of surprise, he held on unthinkingly.

You're the only one.

"That's the point", he said to the whirling sun. "That's the entire fucking point, idiot."

He could finally look at the boy beside him. There was no trace of a smile on Dave's face as he leaned in, obscuring Karkat's view of completely, pulling him closer—pulling him into body heat and more discomfort and the clean, pure smell of human sweat, pulling him into shaking arms.

And he was kissed again, and again, and again until he forgot about the heat and forgot about the fire without, consumed by the fire within until there was nothing left.

Is that what you see?

"But you're right", Dave mumbled into Karkat's sweat-clumped hair at last. "That's why it shouldn't matter." The shades were slid off his face with practised precision and put aside to he knew not where; blinking at the sudden crashing back of colors, he closed his eyes.

"Motherfucker, you got way too serious all of a sudden." The chest pressed against his—with its strange human nipples that he knew were sensitive—rumbled with laughter and the arms around him only tightened. No point protesting about the heat now, is there?

Right on cue, Dave said, "The heat's a bitch, but it'll be better in the evening. You can see the sunset, that's really pretty too."

Oh, at this point I think I've seen everything.

"We can just stay inside until then, if it's too hot for you."

"Actually", Karkat heard himself say, "give me back those shades and we can walk around outside for a bit. I want to see this place."

You really do shine brighter than the sun anyway.

There were no questions, just a nod against his shoulder and a murmured yes; personally, he was not sure when he would want to let go of the human who held him so tightly, but he knew they had all the time in the world, and dawns were cheaper than fucking socks in a human garage sale, and it was okay because Dave was the only one.

"On second thought..." the words were mouthed against his damp skin with lazy impishness. "Let's stay inside for a while, Karkat."

Inconsiderate asshole...

I'll understand you eventually. I promise.

"Yeah, let's."