"Dave where are we going?"
"I don't fucking know Karkat just shut up and follow me, we have to get to higher ground."
You grumble in response, looking back over your shoulder nervously to see if any of them had followed the two of you. You follow Dave wordlessly up the steep hillside of his world, the heat from the lava rising up and warming you both considerably in your thick god-tier pyjamas. You daren't fly, for fear they would see you and persue, so you had to climb.
The walk is long and dangerous, the ground sliding out from under your feet as you stepped, much less gracefully than Dave, over the hot rocks. You slip at one point, and you're sure you're about to fall all the way back down before Dave has your arm in his hand, pulling you back up wordlessly, his damaged shades reflecting your weak image back at you. You look down in apology as he starts moving again, you trailing along behind him, pulling your brown hood up over your head. You're sick of this, being this tired, this useless.
But it's just the two of you now. He'd never tell you how much of a pain you were being, just as you'd never tell him how much of an aggravating douchecanoe he was being at times. Like right now.
You reach a steep incline in the hill, reaching up towards a small cave mouth. Dave looks back at you, nodding towards it. You just nod tiredly, offering a slight smile in thanks.
The two of you struggle up the incline, scratching your palms more than once on the hard, warm rock. Dave comes off worse than you do, his thin skin cutting and bruising easily. Once the two of you make it into the cave and out of sight you beckon him over. He comes wordlessly, offering his left palm to you.
You turn it over in your own hands, removing the debris and ash from the wounds before pulling fabric from your pocket - kept for these occasions, of course - and wrap a sliver of it around his hand carefully. He turns a little and presents you his other hand and you do the same, wrapping the binding tightly and holding his hand maybe a little too long after you're done. But who's counting seconds, right? Got all the time in the world right next to you.
"What are we doing, Karkat?" Dave asks, then, looking you right in the eyes. You look at him, an air of surrender surrounding him. You're going to have to fix that soon.
"You're asking me?" You ask incredulously, your voice rising in volume as you continue, "I've been nothing but a burden to you ever since the fight, Dave, don't pretend I hold any answers because I don't!"
"Shut the fuck up, you said we wouldn't talk about it." Dave says, standing up with you as you continue to argue, his hands balling into fists around the newly wrapped, improvised bandages.
"Will you just sit the fuck down and admit this isn't the fucking alpha timeline you absolute dipshit?!" You yell, "You've been so fucking cagey about your time knowledge, you know this is doomed don't you? You know we're absolutely fucked!"
"Yes!" Dave yells, closer to you, "I know! I know we're fucked and I've known we were fucked for a while, but what the fuck am I meant to do about it? Hop timelines like Davesprite did and leave you here to die?!"
You stop, then. This is the first time you've argued since you left the village at the bottom of the hill. You'd been a team back there, even if the villagers had tried to burn you both.
"This is stupid." You say, slumping down onto the floor against the wall, folding your arms like a wriggler not getting its way, and not caring one bit because Dave comes and sits next to you, pulling you towards him into a half-assed one-armed hug.
"We'll fix it." He says weakly.
"No we won't. Two knights are fucking useless by themselves and you know it." You mumble, turning your head into his shoulder.
"Not when they're as badass as us." Dave says, far too seriously, and you find yourself laughing. You laugh despite the ridiculousness of the sound in the otherwise empty cave, despite the fact the two of you were at eachothers throats not a minute before, and Dave smacks you upside the head before laughing a little too, pulling you towards him and bumping your heads together.
When you calm down you pull away, pushing up off the ground and heading to the mouth of the cave, Dave following you. The sky is dark, the only light coming from the pools of lava far below, and the village behind the trees.
"Your world is so much nicer than mine was." You say quietly, a warm breeze drifting up to the two of you, moving your hair infront of your eyes. It's grown alot since the game started, and you don't trust yourself to cut it. You were always awful with sharp instruments.
"Really? Rivers of blood sounds pretty cool, man." Dave says, stepping up beside you, nudging you lightly with his shoulder to let you know he was just messing with you - telling you not to take it to heart.
You nudge him back, smiling a little. You've been trying to do that more, recently, for Dave's sake. If he was gonna be stuck with any Karkat for the rest of his life he deserved to be stuck with a nice one.
You stand in silence once more as the loud yelling from the village below gets louder and closer. You look to Dave in panic and he just looks back, grasping your hand and pulling you back further into the cave. You were going to hide like animals until the villagers left. You were surprisingly okay with that.
You sat in the darkness with Dave for what seemed to be the longest time, remembering the awful faces of the imps on this world, of how Dave's consorts had transformed and morphed as the others had died, how they were awful, red, almost-but-not-quite-human monstrosities with large teeth and uneven eyes. They had been kind at first, remembering Dave as their hero, their knight, before realising he had failed to save them from the impending doom.
You barely realise you've started to panic when Dave's already calming you down, telling you to be quiet, that it'll be okay, that you're safe.
You remember how they'd turned on him, so suddenly. One minute you were wandering in that village, just looking for somewhere to stay, the next minute they've descended on him, biting, tearing, screaching in their horrible voices, no longer the soft and annoying "nak"s from before. You remember screaming, crying, killing tens of the things just trying to get them off him. You were surprised when he came back, hiding behind a tree off to the side of the village, beckoning you over. You remember walking past his torn body, the creatures feasting on it as you went to join him. You were still crying when you reached him, still screaming at the sight of the mangled form of the one thing you had left. You don't care about your safety. For all you know he won't come back this time.
You hear them approaching, yells and shouts and screams from below, the soft crackling of fire on their torches. They were hunting you. Hunting him.
The two of you stare into the darkness, your bloodpusher moving frantically against your ribs, and for one gut-wrenching minute it's silent, before the sound of creatures climbing a rock face is heard and Dave grabs for your arm, squeezing painfully, but you let him. As long as he can do that he's still there, still alive.
You close your eyes, bright red flashing in your vision as you do, a surge of energy, of anger, pulled forwards in your mind as you hear the creatures scaling the rock face as if it was nothing, as if Dave hadn't sliced his palm open trying to do the exact same thing.
You hear their claws on the cave floor, feel Dave loosen his grip in defeat, and you are so fucking done with this bullshit.
You stand up from behind the rock, eyes flaring bright red in the darkness as you feel your blood pulse more rapidly through your body. The creatures flare up at the sight of you, before directing their attention to Dave, now leaning up over the rock, begging you to come back.
"Shut. UP." You scream, a red haze pulsing out from your body and towards the monstrous villagers, "JUST STOP."
And they did. As soon as the flash of red hit them, they stopped in their tracks, directing their attention away from Dave, to you. Their jaws go slack as they grow silent, only the sound of your laboured breathing and the crackle of their fires audible in the small cave. Your skin prickles with heat and rage.
"Get the fuck out and leave him alone you sorry excuses for piles of shit." You order, stepping forwards once, twice, three times. Each time the crowd follows suit, stepping back towards the entrance, "You will get out, you will go home, you will stop coming after us and you will live out the rest of your awful fucking lives in peace."
They back up, then, crawling back down the rock face as you stare on in anger, watching each of them go, the red haze surrounding your body lowering but not fading, the glow in your eyes allowing you to see each of their faces, and your own reflection shown in every one of their eyes.
One of the creatures, one you weren't watching, makes a move to the right, trying to scoot around you and towards Dave who was now stood infront of the rock, eyeing you warily, you catch the creature halfway down the cave, staring him down.
"If you lay a single fucking hand on him I will tear you apart. Get out." You say, your tone even and teeth bared to the creature as it panicks and goes back to join the others in leaving.
They all left after an agonisingly long time, and as you heard them retreating down the hill, your energy was sapped from you entirely and you fell, crashing into the floor as Dave ran to you. You land on your hands and knees, Dave leaning over you, supporting your arm and opposite shoulder as you regulated your breathing again.
"Jesus fucking Christ, Karkat, how the fuck did you do that?" Dave asks quietly, letting you get your breath back before pulling you back to a sitting position. You're suddenly thankful your god tier didn't get wings.
"I have no fucking clue." You answer, not quite sure if you're lying or not, "Probably some god tier bullshit. You okay?"
Dave laughs, then, more shocked than anything else. After four years being stuck with you, you still manage to surprise him, apparently. "Yeah I'm fine man, but you just full on Derren Brown'd a whole village of monsters."
"What the fuck is a derren brown?" You ask, and Dave just smiles at you - that familiar, patronising smile he does when he makes a human reference you don't get.
"Just some guy." He says, standing up and heading back over to the mouth of the cave, "They're all gone now."
But you were already drifting off into an uneasy sleep, his words barely audible over the silence about to wash over you, the darkness behind your eyelids making them heavy, and soon, there was nothing.
~~~~x~~~~
When you wake, you're damp and cold, stiff from sleeping on the hard rock. You look around, used to being cautious not to move too much when first waking up incase anything nearby saw. When you're sure there's nothing else there you sit up, stretching dramatically and hearing your back click all the way down.
You look around for your companion, spotting him lying near the mouth of the cave, splayed out on his front in the dim midday light. He's taken to sleeping on guard these days, you're glad to see he hasn't changed that just because of last night, but you think he should probably stop before he gets himself killed. You make a mental note to remind him later.
For now, though, you move over and settle yourself next to him, sitting down and running your hand down his back, nudging him awake. He makes an unintelligible noise from the back of his throat.
"Dave," You say, letting a little bit of playful exasperation slip into your voice, "come the fuck on you've been asleep for days." You put the emphasis into the last word, just enough to annoy him a little.
"I have been asleep for seven hours and fifty-six minutes you little shit. Let me have this last four minutes." Dave grumbles, pushing himself backwards so he hits into you lightly.
"No you shitface, because if I have calculated correctly," You pause, "you should be able to correct me, but I think it's your wriggling day."
Dave pushes himself up, then, rubbing at his face before reaching for his damaged shades. "You're right. So what? Happens every year, I always ignore it."
"Well we're not going to this time." You watch him as he runs his hands through his hair, trying to style it a little before giving up.
Dave just sighs, looking at you like you're being a dumbass for the fifty-seventh time that 'year'. You roll your eyes.
"Come on Dave we both need to chill out a bit, where do you wanna go?" You ask, watching as he stands up, wandering over to the cave mouth to think. At least he's considering it, you say to yourself, and not just brushing it off like it's nothing.
"I want to go to their worlds." Dave says, turning around and looking at you evenly, challenging. You know what he means, and the thought scares you a little. You close your eyes. "You asked what I wanted. I want to go to their worlds again."
"Okay." You say, standing up and checking you have everything. You notice the bandages on Dave's hands loosening, and motion for him to come over so you can re-tie them. "We can go, okay? But if anything tries to attack us do not be a hero, don't try and save anything and don't try and harm anything innocent because you could die for real this time."
You finish with the bandages and Dave just looks at you, your reflection visible four times in his shades, once in the left side and three times in the shattered right side. "I promise."
You head off almost immediately, no longer scared to fly even in the light of the false day. Days really had no meaning here, but you would never say that to Dave. Days and time are his domain, and the only thing he's got to hold onto, just as he is for you. You sweep through the ring above Dave's collapsed communal hive, avoiding the wreckage and the eternal fire that seemed to erupt from it. The human barely glanced at it before pushing onwards, higher, until he found the ring that would lead to John's world.
~~~~x~~~~
It was a mess. You could see that plainly from above. The towering structure of John's abandoned hive was visible below, the imps having long since abandoned it, losing interest in the colours and toys, going to terrorise the villages instead.
The villages were all but destroyed. The two of you moved towards the crumbling, overgrown structures, seeing what looked like small statues of John in his god tier outfit everywhere. You can see Dave smiling at one of them, the most impressive within sight as the two of you land softly in the town market.
"They got this totally wrong." Dave laughs, "He looks so badass here, nothing like the little nerd I knew."
The face was serious, burdened and older than John would have been, the hood up and covering most of his eyes, which were sad and tired but angry, vengeful.
"Where are all his consorts?" You ask wonderingly, moving towards the small huts.
"Dead." Dave says, matter-of-factly. They all will be. They would have gone with John to the very end, and they did." He smiles sadly, running a hand over the statue of his dead friend, his hand slumping back down to his side. "Shall we go? I don't want to see his house."
You move on to Rose's world next, not staying there for long. It's the only planet you frequently visit, though you never go near her hive. Dave finds her sprite's amulet by the beach where the creature would always wait for Rose to return; he pockets it when he thinks you aren't looking, but you see him. The rain still falls heavily here, you notice, but it no longer soaks you. As if the planet itself has given up its effects, giving up on the programming itself out of sheer spite to the game being such a failure.
Jade's world is cold, but not nearly as cold as it once was, when she was alive. The forge has long since frozen over and the frogs are all dead. It's awful. You hate how light it is here, as if it's mocking your failure, how you couldn't save her, how you were the only one who was there when she died.
It shouldn't be so bright in a place that held so much darkness.
You excuse yourself as Dave takes a look around, going to sit on a log in the forest you briefly remember visiting before, possibly in another timeline, another life. You wonder if it went better in that one before shaking the thought away. It made you uneasy.
You see four dead pink hummingbirds on the ground on your way through the forest, and you can't help thinking of that stupid film John made you all watch back on LOWAS - some Nic Cage thing where he said "hummingbird" all wrong and John found it sickeningly adorable. You shake your head as you sit down on a log, folding your cape under you and pulling your hood down. You rub your hands through your hair and just sit, staring at the frost-covered ground, marvelling in the fact the snow stopped just for Jade. The worlds seemed to be protesting the loss of their owners. It was a little bit beautiful, but a bit disheartening. Dave's world hated him for failing and living through it.
"Karkat, you ready?" Dave calls out from nearby, "Where'd you go?"
"Over here." You call back, your voice's raspy quality accentuated when you raise the volume. You've been trying not to do that recently.
Dave comes up behind you, patting you on thr shoulders before walking back the way he came. You stand and follow, walking through the frost instead of skimming over it. You imagine how Jade must have felt walking through this cold in a dress while it was still snowing. You smile sadly, and continue to do so all the way back to LOHAC.
~~~~x~~~~
You're back at the cave, now, unsure why Dave's suddenly so fond of it. You'll admit it's nice, you can see right out over the world, and you're out of the way and under shelter, but it's still so uncomfortable sleeping on the stone floor, no matter how warm it is.
"Come here, sit down." Dave says, kneeling down by the back of the cave, ruffling through the small bag you'd brought with you to the village originally.
You go and sit down, Dave moving you as he wished. You didn't really know what he was doing but you were in no mindset to question him. There were no trust issues between the two of you. You heard the unmistakeable sound of scissors sliding together and you smile.
"Trying to tell me something, Strider?" You laugh, using his last name for the first time in a long time. You shrug off your cape, putting it on the floor beside you so it's out of the way.
"Just that you need a fucking haircut, Vantas, and seeing as you won't cut it yourself..." Dave trails off. You feel the first tug of hair, feel the first cut, the first lock of thick hair hitting the floor.
"Just don't make me look like you, I'll throw myself right out of this goddamn cave." You tease, tilting your head to the side as Dave pushes you, trying to get a better angle, starting around your horns.
You sit in comfortable silence, closing your eyes as Dave cuts, trying to make sense of the mess of hair on your head. You always like it when he does this, though you'll never ask him to. He cuts his own hair purely for the fact he doesn't trust you with scissors, and that probably explains why he's doing this, now.
"All done." Dave says, brushing a few stray strands from yuor shoulders. You don't need to check a reflection, you know he did it right. You turn around and smirk at him.
"Do I look attractive now?" You ask smugly, trying to wind him up.
"God no, I'm not that good." Dave laughs, getting up off the floor, kicking the locks of hair into the corner to clear up later. You leave your cape on the floor for now, standing up and following him, sitting together at the mouth of the cave.
You don't remember the last time you ate, but you know you're starving. You don't mention anything to Dave, though, knowing he's feeling the same, if not worse.
You sit out for about half an hour in absolute silence. If you'd asked Dave, he could have told you the exact time you'd spent sat there, you knew that, but you still didn't.
"Thanks." Dave says, then, smiling out at the expanse of land before you, the molten rivers casting a faint orange glow on everything.
"For what?" You ask, turning your head to face him.
He keeps facing forwards, lowing his head a little and smiling more. "For giving a shit how I spent my birthday you loadgaper."
"Did you just call me a loadgaper." You asked, then, not used to hearing Alternian phrases coming from the human beside him.
"Yeah, I did. But you're my favourite loadgaper, so it's fine." Dave laughs, pulling himself to his feet, "I'm going to sleep, see you in the morning."
You sit out on the ledge until you're sure Dave has fallen asleep, before sneaking back to throw your cape back on. Walking back to the mouth of the cave, you glance back to the sleeping figure of the human before lowering yourself down the ledge outside, walking slowly down the hill towards the village.
Time to make yourself useful.
~~~~x~~~~
The village was quiet, but not empty. You stand quietly behind a tree just out of view, surveying the area. You took note of where the food stalls were - luckily the creatures still had some sense of community.
You took a deep breath, manually controlling your heartbeat, speeding it up with thoughts you would never admit to out loud. Thinking back to that day. You move your eyes, seeing the stained dark patch on the ground where his body was. You're ready.
You step out into the market area, the creatures stopping instantly as you look at them.
"I've come for food, not to harm you." You announce, your raspy voice clogged with sleep and hidden rage. The creatures step backwards, allowing you room. You almost smile before remembering those teeth shredding him, his cries of pain and their lack of mercy. You can't forgive them, even under this spell.
You gather up as much food as you can carry before backing out of the village slowly, keeping your eyes on the villagers until you're out of sight, before turning and running the rest of the way back up the hill. Once at the ledge, you wrap the food in your cape, folding it over into a parcel-like carrier with each side between your teeth as you climb up the wall, tired arms dragging your almost spent body. Whatever this god tier power of yours is, it's too tiring to do often, too emotionally draining to be stable and useful.
You place the food, still wrapped in your cape, about a metre away from Dave, before curling up by the opposite wall and drifting into a deep sleep.
~~~~x~~~~
"Karkat?"
you turn over sleepily, finding yourself colder than usual and a pair of bright red eyes far too close to your face. You blink a couple times before moving backwards. He's knelt infront of you, his eyes wide.
"Yeah?" You reply when Dave doesn't continue.
"Do we have food fairies or did you go and get breakfast." He doesn't even word it as a question.
"Food fairies." You replied, turning back over and smiling as he hit you in the back.
"You fucking asshole!" Dave yelled, laughing as he pulled you over onto your back, "Why didn't you tell me you could've gotten yourself killed!"
"You don't seem that upset by it." You note, wincing as he hits you in the ribs again.
He just laughs and hugs you, then; crushing you into the floor. You're pretty sure this is the most content you've been since it happened, the first time you've been geniunely happy in four years. That thought terrifies you, and haunts you through the hug, through breakfast, through Dave talking about what they should do to make this cave look more like a place you can stay.
The thought haunts you to bed that night and through your dreams, and you realise that this is it, for the rest of your life in this timeline, and you couldn't have picked a better person to have survived with.
~~~~x~~~~
Three days pass with you sneaking out to the village every night, scavenging food and bringing it back "home". Dave's become used to it, now, but you can tell he's getting bored being holed up in the cave. You've never told him he has to stay, but he just seems reluctant to.
You return from your trip to the village that night to find Dave awake, staring into the darkness of the cave with wide eyes, his breathing irregular and panicked and his now-clean hair standing up at odd angles where it had dried against the ground. You practically drop the food as you rush over to him, asking if he's okay, asking him what happened, telling him to breathe and calm down.
He turns to you with wide eyes, fear crossing his features for the third time that week. "I saw them." Is all he says, before dropping himself heavily against your shoulder. He doesn't cry. He never cries. He just breathes out shakily against the fabric of your shirt and you just let him, arms not daring to move from your sides as you stare at the wall of the cave.
"Dave what did you see?" You ask warily, already knowing the answer.
"They were so fucking scared, Karkat, they were just kids. We were just kids."
It's times like these you're reminded that Dave is just as scared as you are of what's happened. This happens too often. Dave's bad dreams are hurting him and there is nothing you can do about it. In the morning you'll both carry on, pretending this didn't happen, pretending it never happens.
The next day you wake up, eat breakfast, and act as though nothing happened, just like the time before, and the time before that. Dave wants to go out again.
The two of you find yourselves wandering the Land of Light and Rain once more, it being the only place with running water where you can wash comfortably - choosing a river away from Rose's hive out of modesty. It's the only planet you ever frequently visited before Dave's wriggling day.
You're used to this, stripping off at the side of the river, ignoring the cold air that instantly engulfs you. The god tier outfits may clean themselves, but that doesn't stop your hair feeling disgusting or your body feeling weak and gross. You step into the river, Dave already having beaten you to the small waterfall over by the rocks on the far end. Usually the two of you would be shoving eachother over in the water, splashing and generally bullying eachother in the best way, but not today.
As you see Dave walking away from you in the waist-high water, you remember him laughing, holding your head just under the stream not a month beforehand, challenging you to make fun of his shorts one more time. You ended up pulling his ankles so he landed in the water next to you.
"Karkat you okay?" Dave calls out. You look up, seeing him casting a confused look at you. You're thankful for all the times he leaves his shades elsewhere, though you'll never admit they intimidate you. You smile.
"Yeah, just thinking." You call back. He shrugs, going back to splashing the water over his face and torso.
You sit down st the edge of the river, pulling yourself up onto one of the rocks and letting your legs dangle in the water. You lean back on the palms of your hands, closing your eyes. You're there for about 10 seconds before you feel a shove to your left side, tumbling to the right into the water. You stand up as fast as you can, spitting out the water that got in your mouth and brushing it out of your eyes as you look around.
Dave is stood to the left of where you were sat, grinning at you like an idiot.
"Hey there Ken doll, care to join me in the fucking water for once?" He says. He calls you that every time you come here, and refuses to explain what it means. You've learned to ignore it, for the most part.
"I always join you in the water, wastechute," You say, leaning on the rock you were sat on, "because you always push me in."
You make a point of reaching out and shoving him backwards before making a run for it, crossing the river and avoiding the places you know are deeper, the places the current runs faster. You can hear him behind you, the two of you silently refusing to cheat and fly upwards.
You make it to the other side, sitting on the rock just below the surface of the water, feeling the water wash over the tops of your thighs. You bare your teeth challengingly at the human as he approaches, knowing he won't think you're being serious.
"Put those away, Vantas, they can barely cut through bread." He laughs, sitting infront of you on a lower rock the two of you had placed there the first time you came here, "Not my fault I have to let you win every time or you cry into your cape the whole evening."
"Shut up." You laugh, leaning down to splash water over Dave's hair, totally not aiming for his face and totally not grinning when he glares at you for it. You run the water through his hair, taking care not to pull too hard on the strands that are so much more delicate than yours, washing away the soot and dust from the cave and your journey here and knowing it will only stay this clean for about five minutes before the human finds something interesting to do.
He closes his eyes and leans back, the two of you more than used to this. You take extra care not to dig your claws in too hard today - some days he really kinda deserves it, but it's been a tough week.
Dave leans forwards when you're done, switching places with you and doing the same to your hair, smoothing out the waves and curls, working out knots you swear have been there forever despite the fact Dave untangled the same ones just over a week ago and cut your hair just a few days previously. You sit fairly passively, only tensing up as he nears your horns, despite the fact he's learnt to skillfully avoid brushing over them purely as a courtesy to you.
You're sat out in the sunshine for almost an hour, drying off wearing just your god tier pants and talking about "complete bullshit", as Dave had called it when you asked what he wanted to discuss. You're talking about your old world, now long gone in another dead session, probably destroyed along with the moons. You hated it anyway. Dave seems to think it would have been an awesome platet to have.
"But like, how did you know it was rivers of blood? Did you taste it? Did it tell you?" He asks, rolling over onto his side to look at you, sat up on your cape with your legs crossed.
"I could smell it." You say honestly, laughing a little when he cringes, "It smelt awful, by the way. It was still pumping out of these fixtures in the rock, but that didn't stop it congealing around the riverbanks. The amount of times I got that boat stuck..."
"Dude no. Gross. Stop." Dave says, shuddering, "I'll take my rivers of lava over that shit any day."
You grin, laying back and misjudging the positioning of your cape, your back landing on the cold snow. You sigh in annoyance, sitting up and shuffling forwards on the cape before laying back down. Dave says nothing, but you can see his silent laughter from the edge of your vision.
You can never help comparing, when you're like this. Comparing your own build to that of the human beside you. You're not small - small for a troll, maybe, but not small in general; your muscles are just visible through your thick skin, a darker shade of grey than it once was. You're built as a default, how a troll should age. Dave isn't as muscled as you in terms of size, but he's far from weak - you know for a fact he can lift you up easily, despite his appearance not letting on his strength. His skin is pale, so much paler than it once was, and you can't help worrying about that. You recall Rose telling you about "healthy skin colours" once when you commented on how weird it was that humans had multiple races within their species. She had wanted to show off their spectrum, just as the other trolls had wanted to show off their blood.
Dave's skin was almost starlight-white these days, as opposed to the light tan he'd had when the game had started for him. You wish you had studied more about humans before this whole thing had happened. You wish you could fix it all.
You wish you could stop staring at him. You deny it every time, but you can't help it. Yes, Dave's all you have left to live for, but it's more than that - to you, anyway. He's been there through it all, he could have left just as his sprite-self had, he could have saved himself, but he didn't. He didn't want to just leave you here to die alone. He had pitied you.
And though he didn't know the gravity of what that meant to you, you wouldn't ever let that go.
You walk back through the snow, Dave's redressed fully, while you just have the longest of the two tops over your chest, cape and second shirt slung over your shoulder as you waste time before heading back.
You wish you could appreciate the beauty of this place, but the sun is so bright, catching on the falling non-rain and forming disturbing rainbows of colour around you. You shake away thoughts of splattered colour on cold floors. Dave's dream the night before had kept you up all night thinking, and thinking was never good for a troll like yourself.
That night, you're glad of the food left over from before, meaning you don't have to travel down to the village. You curl up against the wall opposite where Dave is settling himself once more, closing your tired eyes against the darkess.
You open them once more to a different landscape, unaffected by the sudden change. You barely notice there's anything wrong with you waking up in your old Cancer shirt and grey sweatpants, in the middle of the ground on the human session battlefield. You see the others fighting, shaking your head as you pick up your sickles, running to join them.
You look around and see a few of your friends standing back, but everyone here. All 12 trolls, most of them god tier by now, and all four humans, also wearing their respective god outfits. Jade backons you over to where she stands, but you simply smile slightly, shaking your head and moving into the battle. It's loud, it's bloody, but you're free and you're winning. The only deaths are that of monstrous imps, leaking into the battlefield from an unknown rift.
The 16 of you stand there, admiring eachothers' efforts, as a loud rumble tears through the chess-board floor. The ground begins to split open, splitting the group into five sections, as the human's Denizens, surrounded by horrible green light around their bodies and in their eyes, crawl out through the gaps. Everyone looks around, stunned. You feel your throat catch in a scream as the fight starts instantly, the largest Denizen grabbing Sollux from his place, stood staring, and throwing him down into the building green fire. You're with Jade as you run, as fast as the two of you can run, before she grabs hold of your arm and forces you both up into the air, circling around to view the scene from above, her dog ears lowered in thought and fear.
"Jade what the everloving fuck is going on?!" You scream over the sounds of fighting and the ground breaking. You can see your friends below. They're losing. They're dying.
You see Dave and Rose running towards John, splayed out in a puddle of red on the floor as Vriska shakes him frantically. You can hear her screams, her pathetic screams for him to wake up. He's gone, a heroic death his last sacrifice to the world.
Jade tightens her grip on your arm as she sees where you're looking, and she barely manages to choke out her ectobrother's name before you both feel a sharp slam in your ribs. You weren't looking, one of the Denizens had reached out and smacked you both, sending you tumbling through the air as Jade is forced to let go of you. You slam down face-first into the battlefield ground, thankfully alive, but badly hurt. You manage to raise your head just in time to see Jade smack into the edge of the island of floor you're on, spinning into the fire below. You can only stare, then, hopelessly mortal amongst your god tier counterparts, one of the only three who didn't reach it in your own game. You can see Gamzee fighting a Denizen alone, covered in his own blood as he forces the being away from-
oh god
no
"No no no no no." You breathe out, each word stabbing you as you look to the mess of teal and red behind Gamzee, lifeless on the floor.
You barely feel Dave pull you up off the floor, barely hear him telling you you had to get out of there. You couldn't move, you couldn't see. They were dying and it was all your fault. This was all your fault. It was your responsibility to be prepared for this kind of thing, and you killed them through your neglect, your arrogance, your naive idea that you could win in a universe you yourself poisoned.
You wake up, but not as Dave had. You wake up suddenly and still laid down, tears pooling on the floor under your face as you curl over onto your side.
You can see him asleep - the reason you're alive, the reason you ever reached god tier. He risked everything to get you your "rightful title", as he put it. He hacked an already broken game, killing you himself when you refused to do it. You'd have messed it up. You're lucky your dream self survived the battle, waking and finding yourself on the humans' Derse. Dave wouldn't tell you how he did it. Thanking him was never enough.
You sigh, sitting up and inspecting your outfit. You had your old one still, captchalogued away. You bring it out, changing into it as quickly and quietly as possible, slipping on your old canvas shoes. The fabric is rougher than you remember, and it still smells a little like dust and fire, but you have to wear it, just for now. Dave doesn't have to know you're wearing it...
"Karkat?"
You turn slowly from where you're stood, towards the quiet voice and away from the god tier outfit in your hands. You just look, raising your eyebrows slightly in question. He's propped up on his arms, turned slightly to face you. He pats the space next to him and you walk over slowly, sitting down beside him and folding your arms over your outfit, bundled in your lap.
You sit there for a while, both just regarding eachother calmly, before Dave removes the god tier clothing from your grasp, placing it off to the side. It takes you a moment to realise you're still crying, the small droplets falling and lightly colouring your grey sweatpants.
Dave reaches his arm back out, hooking it around your waist and pulling you down to lay next to him. He's shooshing you softly, his eyes sad and calm as he pulls you to his chest. He doesn't know what to do. You don't know what to do. You seem to both be realising that you're never going to be completely okay. One of your arms is trapped uncomfortably between the two of you; your free arm hooking around Dave's chest, claws grasping the thick material of his shirt as he just holds you awkwardly. He's never been good at dealing with you crying.
On the day it happened you were both crying. That was much different.
Dave never cries.
Nothing is ever worth crying about to him.
Nothing except losing everyone you ever cared about.
~~~~x~~~~
When you wake up, he's still holding you. You make no effort to move.
You feel it when he wakes up, though, his shifting and stretching mildly uncomfortable until he places his arms back around you loosely. This barely ever happens anymore. You used to sleep like this in the beginning, when both of you were scared and alone, having only just fled the battlefield in time to see the last of the trolls fall - it was Vriska, you remember with a pang of sickness at John's sacrifice - and Rose promising Dave that she would hold them off as long as she could.
You'd drifted apart after that, Dave helping you reach god tier had been the last thing you really teamed up on actively until the fight in the village. Now you were both scared again. Terrified of these worlds that wanted you dead, these creatures that held back only by you, now. You hated having that responsibility, this power of allegiance the only thing stopping them from tearing him apart again.
You spend the day close to eachother, neither of you entirely willing to let go of the other, even if it was sitting a bit too close while watching out from the mouth of the cave, to linking arms while sorting through how much food you had left. You managed to break away for a grand total of three seconds while you put your cape on over your Cancer shirt before Dave had hold of the end of it, laughing when you turned around to give him a look that screamed "really?" - You change your sweatpants for your god tier bottoms too, preferring the softer fabric and halfheartedly telling Dave to fuck off when he makes fun of you for admitting it.
He looks you over once your changed, nodding and taking off his cape, handing it to you as he retrieved his old record shirt from his captchalogue, swapping his god tier shirt for it before throwing his cape back on. You smile at him. He smiles back. He ruins it by linking your arms again.
You sleep the same that night, wrapped up together under a mess of capes and stupid conversations. You're feeling better already, even when Dave tries to tell you how wrong your entire race was about pretty much everything. You know he's trying to wind you up, you don't care. You smile against the record symbol on his shirt, knowing this would probably be the last time he let you do this.
You go to sleep sad but warm. Your rest is blissfully dreamless.
~~~~x~~~~
You're sat out on the edge of the cave mouth when Dave wakes up, having just got back from the village. You don't turn around, there's no need to. You know it's Dave back there and you know what he looks like in the mornings.
He settles himself beside you, nudging your arm lightly with his elbow. You turn to look at him, questioning what he wants. He sighs loudly at you and slips his arm under yours, linking them. You're about to zone out once more when you realise he's grasping your hand this time, too, linking your fingers and squeezing lightly before staring out at the horizon himself, his other hand supporting his chin as he leans on his leg. You squeeze his hand back, unsure.
You're all eachother have, and that's what worries you the most. You're not sure if these kinds of things are happening because Dave likes you, or because you're literally the only other thing even kind of like him in this universe that doesn't want him dead or even slightly maimed. You scrunch up your face, closing your eyes when you feel his thumb rubbing over the back of your hand. You want to scream and punch him all at once, just to make him stop, to make him tell you what he's doing and why.
He jut sits there, turning your hand over in his, unaware of the rollercoaster in your head. You squeeze his hand lightly, looking down at the mess of pinkish-white and dark grey sadly, running your yellow-orange claws lightly over the back of his hand through your linked fingers. You sit there for a while, both simply staring at your hands, so similar yet so, so different. Created and trained for different things, their properties so, so varied, and their abilities drastically unequal.
Dave sighs after a while, loosening his grip on your hand as he goes to push himself up, kneeling for a moment, pressing his opposite hand against your forehead as he bumps his face against your hair, skillfully avoiding your horn on that side. His hand runs across your face as he stands up the whole way, heading back into the cave to have breakfast.
You stay sat on the ledge, staring at your shoes that have suddenly become extremely interesting.
You sleep seperately that night, by your choice and not Dave's. He seems upset about it, but you can't allow yourself a luxury you don't deserve. You briefly remember some saying about how a leader must go down with his ship. Maybe it was a captain though. You think that makes more sense.
~~~~x~~~~
Four days pass with no interuption. Dave's continued his path of invading your personal space and you can't say you mind. You wish there was anything to do on your husktop other than create stupid codes that don't activate until you die, but you do it to pass the time anyway. You let Dave use it briefly when you see him watching you, letting him play some of your old games you had saved - you'd completed them all anyway, and it was more fun to see him get annoyed at the controls than being in that position yourself. You're thankful for the weird green power block Rose had given you back in the game.
Dave sits between your legs as he plays, his back resting against your chest as you watch him play. You rest your chin on his shoulder, telling him directly into his ear every time he does something wrong. He shoves backwards a little harder every time, pushing you back into the black rock wall of the cave. You laugh every time, admittedly wincing in pain the last few times.
It gets to a point where Dave just keeps dying aganst this one boss monster - one that Sollux had programmed specifically into your copy of the game during one of his hacks. You knew it was unbeatable, but Dave was just getting frustrated at it, leaning forwards and away from you to see the screen clearer.
"Maybe it'd help if you took off your shades?" You offer politely from behind, sitting up and instantly regretting your life choices as an elbow collides with your chest. You can't help laughing as you pull yourself up again, noticing Dave's shades now on the floor, unfolded and chucked down carelessly. You fold them up and return your chin to his shoulder, sat upright with him and watching his character die once more.
You laugh, then, because he's getting really, really angry at it and it's hilarious and perfect and reminds you so much of you playing the same game back on Alternia, and Sollux was on speaker chat laughing at you so hard because he could see your screen and how many times you were failing.
"Shut the fuck up Vantas why can't I win?!" Dave yells, the question clearly rhetorical, but you unable to continue the torture for any longer.
"Because that boss is unbeatable." You say casually, grinning just out of vision, chin still resting on the shoulder of his cape.
"What?" He asks, turning away from the screen to face you. You place your hands on his arms, ready to throw him when he turns to hit you.
"That boss is immortal. Sollux programmed it." You laugh, watching closely as Dave carefully places the husktop down before spinning and launching at you, strings of creative swearwords aimed directly towards you as you push him backwards. You barely manage to scramble to your feet before he trips you up again, pinning you face-first against the ground. You're still laughing when he pulls your arm back behind you, knowing it's meant to hurt and probably would be hurting a human, but barely affecting you, if only making you a little uncomfortable. You pull your arm out of his grasp, seeing a flicker of his playfully angry face as you turn onto your front, pushing at his chest to get him off you. "Dave come on that was hilarious!" You reason, "Your face was fucking priceless I swear!"
He growls at you, actually growls at you despite his smile being visible for the whole world to see. He grabs your hands as they move again, pinning them at your sides as you move to sit up again.
He folds forwards, then, his forehead colliding with the middle of your chest as he laughs, "Did I just actually fucking growl at you?"
You manage to laugh out a "yes you did" before you're both laughing harder than you have in a long time, Dave folding his arms on your chest and resting his head in them, his shoulders shaking with laughter and the force of your own chest refusing to take in enough air. You place your hands over Dave's shoulders, your legs bending slightly with the strain on your midsection.
You don't know how long it is until you calm down, but you're still holding Dave like that long after the laughter subsides, and he's made no effort to move more than shifting his legs to lay out between yours. In the comfortable silence, you look around, noticing that if you tilt your head back enough, you can see the mouth of the cave.
"What are you doing?" Dave asks you, causing you to tilt your head back forward to face his bemused gaze, chin propped up on his folded arms.
"Looking." You reply simply, and he just smiles, resting his head back down, facing off to the side of the cave. You hear your husktop turn itself off, knowing it only does that after three hours of being neglected. You've been laid there for three hours. You regret none of it.
You fall asleep where you are, in the same position, and wake in the same position. warm and comfortable with the weight of him on your chest, like a human safety blanket. You lean forwards when you wake completely, your hands on Dave's shoulders still as you fold forwards enough to press your face into his hair, closing your eyes. You don't question it when he wakes up and unfolds his arms, his hands cupping your shoulders lightly in what is literally the least co-ordinated hug in a million sweeps. You don't question it when you tell him this and he just tells you to shut up, moving his head up to look at you and pulling himself further up on your chest. You don't question it when he rests one of his hands on your jaw, pulling you forwards.
You don't question it when he kisses you. Anyone with eyes could have seen this coming a mile off.
He sits up, pulling you with him, dragging you backwards until you're sat in his lap, still kissing him a little awkwardly. You're both very, very out of practise, but you don't care. You don't care if this is down to circumstance, because so is everything else in thir timeline. That's the whole point. If the two of you can have eachother in this, as whatever the hell you were going to call this, if anything, you were fine with that. In this timeline, in the world where all your other friends are dead, Dave is the only thing worth living for, worth dying to protect.
Even as the world around you glitches, the scene flickering threateningly around your doomed selves, you couldn't give a shit if you tried.
In your mind, kissing Dave Strider - and not for the last time - you'd won every game worth winning.