Dave glanced around in the bathroom again. It was the middle of the night and he was hoping no one caught him as he removed his shirt. The lock on the door had broken about a week ago now, but none of them could quite figure out how to fix it, so now he took his showers in the dead of night to make sure no one walked in on him.
He turned on the water before taking off his pants letting it get warm before finally removing the binder he was wearing around his chest. It felt a little like a breath of fresh air and a wave of uncomfortable sadness washed over him every time he did it. His breasts weren't very large, but at the least they marked him as female to others so he didn't really get along with them. However, releasing the binder felt pretty nice to him. He swept off his boxers adding them to the pile of clothes on the floor and sat his shades on the counter top.
The water felt nice as soon as he stepped in. He hated having to wait all day to shower, he didn't like being dirty. He figured it was because his bro never liked it either, always taking freakishly long showers. Thinking back on it, it definitely was a habit learned from him. He smiled a little at the thought of his brother as he scrubbed himself down with the strange Alternian soap they had on the meteor. He didn't even care if it looked like a brick of shit it smelled nice. Nicer than his sweat at least.
Leaning on the wall a little for support, he let his hand slip down to his groin and, trying to pretend he was stroking instead of just rubbing, quickly took care of his personal urges. He tried to focus on the idea of some faceless person, but wound up thinking about Karkat anyway. His gay was showing, but he'd hit a point of not caring since no one was awake anyway. He washed his hair after, opening the door to the shower freezing as the door to the bathroom opened simultaneously.
"What the?" Dave was frozen like a dear in the headlights as Karkat stumbled over his little pile of clothes near the door. "Dave are you—." Karkat stopped himself as he looked up at Dave. There was a long moment where they were both just staring at each other before Dave closed the door to the shower hoping the fog on the glass would completely cover him.
"Please get out," Dave said.
"Dave I—" Dave cut him off quickly.
"Please leave," he said. He stood quietly in front of the shower door until he heard the other door close. He opened the door again his heart pounding, everything he'd managed to hide this whole time was now thrown off the stupid meteor. Even worse now his crush new his little secret. He stepped out of the shower glancing at the mirror, but quickly feeling sick at the sight of his own body looked away. Karkat probably didn't want to deal with anyone so weird.
He wrapped a towel around his chest picking up his clothes before walking out of the bathroom. Normally, he wouldn't dare leaving the bathroom without his clothes on, but at this point he didn't give a fuck. Dave stomped out of the bathroom only to have Karkat on his heels.
"Hey Dave," he said. Dave jumped and took off like a shot towards his room.
"What the hell why are you still here?" he asked. He ran into his little room with Karkat not far behind. Karkat stopped in front of his door knowing it didn't lock either, but he didn't enter after Dave.
"I just wanted to make sure you were okay alright? You don't have to fucking run from me." Dave stood with his back against the door not really wanting to say anything. "Come on we can at least talk about it fuck." He sighed and banged his head back against the door.
"Can I put my clothes on first?" Dave asked. Karkat stared at the door for a second.
"Y-yeah." Karkat sputtered. The situation was probably a little unusual for him, Dave had the feeling this was going to end their little bro pact they'd had, but he stood and started putting his clothes on anyway. He went slowly making sure the binder was in the right place before putting his boxers, pants, and shirt back on. He didn't open the door right away; rather, he sat down on his bed taking a few deep breaths before turning himself away from the door.
"Okay you can come in." He said it quietly hoping Karkat wouldn't hear, but Dave knew he still would. Karkat opened the door carefully glancing at Dave from behind it before entering. He walked over to the bed sitting kiddie corner to Dave so he wouldn't have to look directly at him. He didn't want this to go poorly, so he was thinking about every move he made.
"So, um. You probably don't know this, but all the trolls have the same, uh shit. Well, we have all the same damned genitals so those don't define gender in our society and I don't think it's any different for humans…" Karkat continued babbling incessantly for a while longer. Dave wasn't listening particularly carefully hearing little words here or there. He was still a little distraught over everything, but he jumped back into Karkat's rant eventually, "… and so I guess I'm just trying to get across that I don't really care what the fuck is in your pants you're still my best bro. I won't tell anyone either, unless you say it's okay for me to tell them. Fuck, if you want I'll tell you something secret about me for blackmail."
Dave perked up a little. He wasn't getting flat out rejected entirely, not that he wasn't expect Karkat to be entirely uncomfortable with him from then forward, but at least maybe they could work out being friends eventually. He glanced at Karkat quickly who'd finally stopped rambling. The room was getting kind of quiet and Dave was trying to search his head for something, anything, to say.
"So what's you're secret?" He asked, "The one I can use to blackmail you with." He watched Karkat's face grow a little red as he glanced in Dave's general direction. Karkat took his time trying to put it into words, but it seemed to Dave that he was having a lot of trouble until finally he turned to face him directly, planted a little kiss on his lips, and promptly stood so he could leave the room.
Dave sat perfectly still until he was out the door. He rubbed his mouth with his hand lightly for a long time while staring at the ground. Letting himself flop on the bed he realized he needed to take his binder off before he fell asleep, but all he could think about was Karkat. There was still a lot for them to learn about each other.