A gift for someone fabulous
Disclaimer: Homestuck belongs to Andrew Hussie.
6:08AM. The clock ticks quietly as the coffee machine brews the daily morning drink. 6:10AM, a troll pours the coffee into two designated mugs, sits down to read the newspaper and eats breakfast. 6:12AM, a blonde human with disheveled hair walks in. Always at that time, every day, not a second earlier or later. His first action is to kiss the troll as a morning greeting before sitting across from him and digging in. It is the daily routine yet the troll still blushes not being used to the affectionate action even after living together for so long. They talk casually about events, friends, work, and soon time passes until their day begins. The troll dresses for school, now in his last year he soon hopes to find a job to support them instead of having the human take care of everything. The blonde dresses for work, at such a young age he is already a well-known and famous director and went as far as buying them a nice house for the two of them to live in. He knew the troll didn't want anything fancy so he stuck to something simple. The troll felt like he was relying on him too much. The human tells him not to worry about it.
"Have a nice day babe," the human gives him a farewell kiss and slips on his sunglasses. The troll thought he looked so much better without those dumb things covering those beautiful red eyes but the human society thought otherwise.
"You too," the troll responds and they part ways. He walks to the bus stop with his music blasted until someone taps him on the shoulder.
"Hey Karkat!" a blue eyed dark haired human gives him the usual smile, "How's it going? Dave leave to tell actors how to act already?"
"Hey," the troll greeted his fellow schoolmate, "Yeah he has to tell them what to do or all his films would be shit."
"Man best friends with a director how cool is that," John hopped on the spot, "We get to slip in with him for all the previews, go to all the coolest parties, and meet awesome actors."
"Don't faint at the Mcconaughey party now."
"Oh my god I'm so excited for that. Matthew Mcconaughey in the flesh!" John giggled like a little girl.
Usually Karkat would have mocked him but he had no right considering his embarrassing actions when he got to meet Will Smith. Yes knowing a director had its perks but that wasn't why Karkat was living with Dave. He remembered the blonde's confession like it was yesterday and since then his life had been so different. He had no idea he could feel this way towards anyone let alone a human. He couldn't describe it with any of the quadrants he grew up with. Dave just laughed at him and tried to explain to him the one human quadrant but told him they didn't need to put a label on it and they could be whatever he wanted as long as they were together.
The bus arrived and Karkat continued his friendly chat with John. They parted ways once they reached the university considering their different programs. Karkat only half paid attention to his lectures while the other half of his mind wandered back to his memories with Dave. The first date, the first kiss, the first fight, the movie nights, the cuddling, the tears, the sweet words, the surprises, the learning, the struggles, the hardships, the joy, the memoires, and the love. It was quite the adventure, but he wouldn't trade any minute of it for anything.
The day passed by quickly and soon be was on his way home. He looked forward to seeing Dave again, to talk about their day, to eat together, maybe watch a movie, etc. It was comforting.
"I'm home!" Karkat called at the door once he entered. He got no response.
Usually Dave got home before Karkat or he would have texted him otherwise. He checked his phone just in case but there was no message. The living room and kitchen were empty so he headed to Dave's room. The door was open and he could hear Dave's voice from the other side. The human was most likely on the phone. Peeking in Karkat could him with his shades looped onto his collar and looking a little stressed.
"What do you mean she just quit? She can't do that, she didn't even bother talking to me. No I am not going to take some half assed message through you. We have a fucking contract. If she wants to back out then she has to talk to me face to face. We are halfway done filming this thing and there should be no reason at all for her to leave like this. Set an appointment with her for the day after tomorrow. If she refuses then let her know I'm making a god damned house call," the frustrated director hung up and tossed his cell to the side before falling backwards onto his bed with a sigh. He put an arm over his eyes and mumbled, "Stupid diva actresses."
Karkat left and put his bag in his own room before grabbing one of his textbooks and returning to Dave's room. Without a world the troll just crawled onto Dave's bed and laid on his stomach on top of the human diagonally. Dave let out a small 'oof' but didn't say anything else with his arm still over his eyes. They spent the next half hour in silence with the only sounds being Dave's light breathing and Karkat's textbook page occasionally flipping. The human was the first to speak.
"What're you doin?" he half mumbled letting out a slight Texan drawl.
"Studying."
Dave lifted an arm a bit and peeked at Karkat who didn't look back, "You're heavy."
Karkat raised a brow at him before closing his book and shifting his body so that he was fully on top of Dave, hands and chin rested on Dave's chest and his face just looking at the one he loved. Dave moved his arms so that his hands went behind his head. The two just looked at each other, red eyes gazing into scarlet. The trance was broken once the human suddenly broke into little giggles causing the troll to frown.
"The hell is so funny?"
"You're so god damned cute."
Karkat could feel his face starting to flush as he pushed himself up, "And you're a big fat dork."
"You're just jealous of my six pack," Dave flexed his right arm.
The troll rolled his eyes and slapped the human's flat stomach. He couldn't help but smile a bit when the human gave him a fake sad face with his hand over his stomach trying to give the vibe of being hurt.
"Alright muscle head what do you want for dinner," Karkat asked as he got up and sat on the side of the bed.
"Hm," Dave began to ponder as he got up as well, wrapping his arms around the troll's waist and resting his chin arm his shoulder , "Mac n Cheese. I haven't had something bad for my health for too long. Yeah I want the KD crap none of your real noodles and real cheese stuff."
"What no way. We don't even have that shit," Karkat denied with a smile.
"Oh okay better idea. Let's go have a romantic candlelit dinner at McDicks," Dave grinned as he let go of the troll and hopped off the bed, "Let's go in our tuxes and everything."
"That is the most ridiculous plan I have ever heard in my fucking life. I am not going to a fast food restaurant in fancy clothes."
"You deny it but I know you want to try it. I see that smile you can't fool me. Don't worry about getting it dirty. I'm good friends with a dry cleaner."
"Yeah right not after that premier paint ball incident."
"We became good friends because of that paint ball incident."
"This is stupid."
"Exactly."
"Let's do it."
Karkat rarely wore anything fancy. Dave had bought him two suits for movie premiers or for fancy dinners with celebrities but that was it. Any sort of dates with each other were always in casual attire. This would be the first time the two would dress up together and go somewhere with just the two of them. But of course the human had to go along with his ironic antics and pick a place like McDonalds. But it was fine, the troll didn't mind at all. A date was a date and it didn't matter where or when as long as they were together.
Looking into the mirror the troll fixed his tie, smoothed down his jacket and checked his hair before a whistle came from behind him.
"Damn I should take you out to fancy dinners more often," Dave commented as he eyed the troll from head to toe.
Karkat couldn't help scoping the human either, especially with the slicked back hair and sunglasses off showing those ruby eyes, "If by fancy you mean more fast food restaurants then I think I'll pass. I can't believe I even said yes to this one."
"Maybe we should go dancing instead," Dave walked up to Karkat, grabbed his arm and pulled him into position.
"Wh- hey! What are you doing!? Let go!"
"Maybe learn some ballroom, the waltz," the human put a hand onto the troll's lower back, the other hand held Karkat's hand up and then he swung him around the room, "Or maybe the ever romantic tango."
Dave dipped the surprised troll, "Oh my god no dancing please. You know I have two left fucking feet. Okay okay we'll just stick to the shitty dinners."
The human raised a brow at him and Karkat put an arm over his forehead in a mock swoon, "Oh I'm so sorry Mister Director I meant 'fancy' dinners."
"Don't you eye roll at me," Dave smirked before pulling Karkat up into a quick kiss, "Alright let's get moving sweet heart."
"Do me a favour and take me to a real restaurant next time," Karkat stated as the two began to leave.
"Hm I'll see if I can pencil it in. I'm a busy man after all," Dave smirked. Karkat just returned it with a flat look. Dave always found time for Karkat no matter how busy he was.
McDonalds are an easy find. There was probably one at every corner all across the city so the two decided to walk to the one nearest to their home. They got a few looks for being so dressed up in that part of town, but then again it couldn't compare to that weird as raving clown bus that passed by. Dave swore he saw Gamzee on it but Karkat claimed that the clownish troll wasn't that weird. Then again it was Gamzee they were talking about.
Soon the fast food restaurant was in sight and they walked in. There were only about three tables occupied as they slipped into a booth. The cashiers whispered to each other as they watched the two boys.
"So what high class meal will we be having today?" Dave looked at Karkat expectantly with his hands flat under his chin and elbows resting on the table.
"I just remembered I hate everything here because one burger could practically kill you."
"Once in a while doesn't hurt. Not like you eat it every day or watched Super Size Me."
"Super what?"
"Never mind. This place has like fish burgers and salads too princess. So just whatever you want okay?"
"Shouldn't we go to the cashier to see what's on their menu? We have to get up there to order anyways."
"I thought you would have known what you wanted and planned to go order for the both of us like the gentleman I am."
"Oh how kind of you," Karkat said with a sarcastic tone and a slight laugh at the end.
"Hi there welcome to McDonalds!" a troll girl suddenly greeted startling the both of them. Seeing her uniform they saw she was obviously a worker there and found it strange when she placed some laminated menus in front of them, "Can I get you two anything to drink to start off with?"
"I'll take an apple juice," Dave casually went with it.
"Uh same . . ." Karkat responded unsure.
"Okay coming right up!" the girl left with a smile and a skip.
"What the fuck just happened?" Karkat asked in a whisper as he watched Dace try to suppress a fit of laughter, "When the hell did McDonalds have hand menus!?"
"Oh my god they must think we're celebrities or rich folk that have never been in a fast food restaurant before. Man this is hilarious," Dave let one laugh escape before composing himself and taking a look at the menu, "So you got the menu you wanted, get to deciding before she comes back."
"Right . . ."
Once the 'waitress' came back with their drinks they ordered and began to talk about their day. Karkat talked about seeing John and his boring day full of lectures. When their food came out they began talking about Dave's actress problem. The human suggested he should go to her house in doctor garments if she refused the appointment. The troll said him going the way he was, was good enough. Karkat loved nights like these where they would just talk the night away about anything and laughed together.
At the end of the meal Dave pulled a 'check please' and actually got a bill. He paid by credit card and when their waitress came back with the receipt she got a fifteen dollar tip from mister rich director cause hey she probably earned less within an hour, she was working at McDonalds of all places, and it wasn't her job to be their waitress but she did it anyways.
"Now that's what I call a fancy dinner," Dave chuckled as they left the restaurant.
"Different from what I expected but not as bad as I thought it would have been."
"Hey man we're talking about a date with me. Only the best for my man. Also we should experiment with all the fast food restaurants and see if we get the same service while wearing suits. Yo man I can start a blog on this stuff."
"How many blogs do you need? You have like 50 already you doofus. And don't you think we only got served that way because they recognized you?"
"No way directors don't get recognized by face, just by name. I'm not an actor even though I would be an amazing one."
"You're a special case with those dumb shades. I'm pretty sure they knew who you were."
"Curse this handsome face and good looks making me so noticeable."
"You're so full of it."
"Full of love for you."
"Dork."
"Excuse you I think you mean romantic dork," Dave wrapped an arm around Karkat's waist and the troll mimicked the action. The human began to whistle but stopped abruptly when he put his free hand into his pocket, "Ah shit."
"What is it?"
"I forgot my phone on the table. Wait right here I'll be right back," Dave ran back towards the restaurant as Karkat let out a small amused breath. The human gave him one last smile before he turned the corner and just as he disappeared a hand went over the troll's mouth and dragged him into the alley.
The sudden action surprised him and he was easily shoved to the wall. A curse almost escaped his lips but a sound of a clicking gun stopped him. The weapon pointed at the side of his head as the perpetrator held their other hand towards him, "Just hand over your wallet and I'll let you go. Easy stuff. No need to make this complicated."
Karkat's eyes narrowed at the masked fiend. He saw no horns so it was probably human. He could take him no problem. Within the second his left hand shoved the gun by his head up high and at the same time his right knee went up to hit the human hard in the groin. The thief keeled over at the attack which gave Karkat the opportunity to knee him in the stomach, push him over, and pull the gun out of his hand.
"Easy stuff right," Karkat twirled the gun before throwing it down and stepping on it hard enough to break, "Next time you might to check if you're taking on a troll first. I'll be nice. I'm in a good mood so I'll let you go. Get your sorry ass out of my sight and if I ever see you again you'll get something worse than just a hit to the stomach."
A sharp pain spread through the back of his head and Karkat soon found himself lying on the ground. He struggled to turn his head up to see who else was there and found him surrounded by four others.
"Hey man we gave you a chance. You want to do it the hard way? Then we'll do it the hard way," a foot kicked him in the stomach making him roll a bit. He let out a weak snarl as a few more clicks rang in the air indicating loaded guns. The one who Karkat knocked over earlier was helped up as the troll attempted to scoot backwards and sit up to see who he was up against. Three trolls and two humans.
"Yo we got a freak over here! Check out those bright red eyes. You shouldn't even exist so shouldn't you be watching how you to talk to others?"
"Blood caste doesn't matter I see when people decide to be dirt scraping thieving assholes," the troll glared at the glowing eyes of the midbloods looking down on him, "Guess what, mugging someone in an alley makes you worse than us lowbloods."
"Good thing you're not a lowblood. You're even lower than them."
"Still higher than you bulge lickers."
"You know what. I think I'm going to do the world a favour by doing this here," one of the trolls pointed his gun towards Karkat.
"Hey man we were just supposed to grab his stuff and run. You never said anything about actually killing dudes," a human spoke up.
"Fuck that just shoot the asshole," the human that Karkat beat before proclaimed.
"Yeah don't worry about it man you won't get in trouble. It'll be just a troll thing."
"Uh no I'm pretty sure everyone present at the scene of the crime is responsible," an all too familiar came from behind the group of thugs. They all quickly turned around and pointed their guns to an empty alley entrance.
"What the fuck?" one of the trolls moved a bit to peek around the corner with his gun ready.
Karkat had lived with Dave long enough to be able to catch the movements of the incredibly fast Strider. The human was right behind the group and when they turned the human jumped up, off the wall, and right in front of Karkat as the other troll checked the corner. Dave mouthed 'you okay?' as he helped the troll up and he nodded. Now the odds were even with the two together.
"There's nothing there," the scout claimed. This was the cue the two took to tackle down the thugs nearest to them. The others didn't have time to react as the pair instantly pushed their bodies up to kick the other two near them square in the jaws at the same time.
A gun shot from the scout was easily dodged as the two dashed towards him. The one who was tackled down by Dave grabbed the human's ankle to stop him. Karkat just went ahead to go knock the gun out of the scout's hand before doing a leg sweep to make him fall. A quick hit to his head knocked him out. One down four to go. Dave shook off his captor and ducked at a swipe from another as Karkat went for the other two before they could gang up on the human. The scuffle was fierce and continued for a short while with a gunshot every now and then. Some barely dodged. One bullet grazed the side of Dave's face and knocked off his sunglasses. His eyes burned with fury at the ones who tried to gang up on Karkat.
"This guy's a freak too! You weirdos stick together don't ya."
Something snapped inside Dave and Karkat could tell through the sudden rush and harshness of the next attack the human dished out at the insulter. It was a one hit knock out and the human quickly moved on to the next. The battle continued and Karkat soon knocked out another. Dave through his anger was not careful and fell backwards. A gun pointed at his head. The troll just finished incapacitating the second last thug before he saw Dave in a deadlock and he quickly tackled the enemy into the wall as hard as he could. If that didn't know him out he wasn't sure what would.
The thief's unconscious body slumped to the ground as Karkat backed away. He heard a curse from Dave and he turned around to see the human having trouble getting up. A click at the entrance of the alley prevented him from relaxing and going to help. Looking up he saw the scout he had knocked out earlier had regained consciousness and was about to pull the trigger pointed at Dave. The troll quickly ran up to the scout and grabbed at the gun to push it into another direction before he pulled the trigger. The scout fought back and aimed towards Karkat and shot.
The sound was deafening to Dave's ears compared to the other ones. He watched as Karkat took two steps back and fell to his knees. A hand tentatively went over his stomach and pulled away soon after revealing the red liquid shining off his hand in the moonlight. It felt as if everything went in slow motion as the human watched the troll fall over onto his side. The attacker let out a slight hysterical laugh as he immediately aimed back at Dave. There was no hesitation as he pulled the trigger. Time continued to move slowly as the human watched the bullet fly towards him. His eyes never left the projectile as it stopped in mid-air right before his forehead. The bullet dropped unceremoniously onto the ground in front of him as red and blue crackling light enveloped the attacker causing him to fly up, smash against the alley way walls a few times before flying into the nearest dumpster.
A troll with ram like horns appeared before him. He saw her mouth move probably trying to ask him something but he couldn't hear her. Her concerned words were muffled as the sound of a gunshot continued to echo in his mind. He gently moved her to the side as he attempted to stand. Before him he found a familiar troll with those ridiculous 3D glasses kneeled over the body of the troll he loved. Soon he found himself kneeled over the troll as well from the help of Aradia. She began calling the police as Sollux got up to make sure the thugs were all incapacitated long enough for the police to arrive and arrest them. Dave carefully put his arm under the head of the troll and rolled him so that he faced upwards and rested on the human's lap. In doing so the troll winced and let out a sharp breath but that meant he was breathing.
His eyes slowly opened revealing his beautiful red eyes. His breathing was a little irregular but it didn't seem too critical. Dave did not dare to look down at the wound so he kept his gazed trained on Karkat's face. A weak hand slowly raised and wiped at the tears he did not realize had begun to fall.
"Hey . . . don't worry. Just . . . a scratch. Trolls tougher than . . . humans," he attempted to speak.
"No no no shhh don't talk man. It's okay I get it. Just shh. Rest time now. Friends got our backs," Dave moved Karkat's hair out of his face as the troll leaned into the human's hold.
Red, blue and white lights soon flashed as figures ran past them to apprehend the criminals. A few in front of him tried to remove Karkat from his hold but he held him away from them in fear they would hurt him. Muffled voices spoke to him in a calm tone but he couldn't pick out what they were saying. Only Karkat's voice reached out to him telling him that everything would be okay but he just need to let go. He promised he would be okay.
"Alright so next time just talk to me alright? I'm not that intimidating. I will make sure that shit never happens again so I hope you'll stick with us till the end of this movie."
"Yes I'm so sorry for suddenly doing that Mr. Strider."
"Please call me Dave."
"Yes well thank you Dave and sorry for the misunderstanding. I will be sure to put in my best efforts for the rest of this movie."
"Thanks. Any other problems feel free to give me a call," the director shook hands with the actress. She left with a kind farewell and he sat back with a sigh. Glad that problem was over with he packed up his work and headed to the hospital.
The doctor gave reassurance that Karkat would be fine. Trolls we built differently than humans so he was just sleeping to heal and regain his energy. It had been over a day already. They were positive he wasn't in a coma and that just a gunshot wound to his side shouldn't cause him to sleep for so long. Still it didn't stop the human from worrying. He decided to stop by a convenience store to buy some snacks for Aradia and Sollux who took on the task of taking turns to watch Karkat while the human was at work. If they didn't happen to be in the area he could have been dead too.
He went to work because he knew that if Karkat knew he was skipping out on work because of the troll he would never let him live it down and work a million times harder than required just to try to make it up to him. The troll already had done enough for the human and he didn't need the guilt trip to worry him more.
Walking into the hospital he signed in, got a visitors pass and casually headed to the elevators when his phone let off a chime indicating a message.
hey you done work yet 2triider?
yeah whats up man
you on your way?
already here
kk woke up
"Like why would you even tell him that? He was on his way anyways so he would have found out. Now he's going to run up here like no tomorrow and-"
The door of the hospital room slammed open as a blonde human stood there catching his breath with his sunglasses askew.
"See what did I tell you," an irritated and tired looking troll on the hospital bed looked to Sollux with a frown.
Dave fixed his glasses as he walked over to the side of the bed and sat down in the empty chair that sat beside it. He scratched the back of his head at the embarrassing display, "Morning sunshine."
"Hey," Karkat moved his hand to the side and Dave took it in his, ". . . So, how long have I been out?"
"About a day in a half," Aradia responded, "The doctor says you won't be here long. The bullet didn't give you a critical wound so you should only be stuck here for about a week max."
"Good thing it'th not the car crath all over again."
"Sollux!" Aradia elbowed the skinny troll in the side as Karkat's grip tightened in Dave's hand.
"Ow what!?"
"That's not something you should bring up," she scolded him in an angry whisper, "Um well it seems you two will be fine for now so we'll be going now."
"What I do?" Sollux asked genuinely confused as Aradia pushed him out of the room.
"Hush you. Bye Dave and Karkat! Get well soon!"
"Hey thanks for helping us back there," Dave turned around to face them just before Aradia closed the door.
She smiled warmly at him, "Of course. What are friends for?"
Dave turned back around as the click of the door echoed through the room. Looking back at Karkat he saw the troll staring at their hands still entwined and his grip was still tight. The human brought it up to his lips and kissed it. The suddenly action made the troll loosen the grip of his hand and his face flushed at the affectionate action.
"I'm so glad it wasn't as bad as I thought it was. That was stupid of you. Running up to the guy like that and struggling over the gun."
"Oh excuse me for trying to save your sorry ass that was incapable of getting up at the moment. I saw you limp in here. Don't think I don't know you didn't get hurt from the last hit the guy gave you. I didn't expect that guy to be that strong since he just recovered from getting knocked out. Although it was probably because I was weakened from fighting for a while already," the troll continued to look downwards, "I wasn't going to just stand there and watch you get hurt again because of me . . . And anyways I wasn't being a total idiot. He aimed for the middle of my stomach and pushed it away so he hit my side instead."
"Still you didn't have to do that okay!" Dave voice raised a bit, "Asshole's shot was shaky so I would have been able to dodge it even if I couldn't get up I still had the ability to move to the side so you didn't have to do that!"
Silence hung in the air after Dave's sudden outburst. Karkat ran a thumb over the back of Dave's hand and sighed, "I'm sorry . . . Do you think we're cursed?"
"What do you mean?" Dave furrowed his brows at the strange question.
"Like I fucking swear the world has it in for us. Just when we think things are going fine life just decides to fuck things over. Are we not meant to be together?"
"Whoa hold up. Okay hey. Look at me," Dave took off his sunglasses but Karkat continued to look down. The human put his hand under the chin of the troll and made him look up. He looked as if he was on the verge of tears, "Look. The world can dish out whatever the fuck it wants but that's not going to separate us. We're still alive and as long as that is true there shouldn't be anything else to take us from each other."
"But what if one day one of us aren't here," tears openly began to fall down the troll's face as his hand began to shake in the human's, "I don't know if I can-"
"Shh don't. Don't think about that. It's not going to happen because we're going to protect each other. Through thick and thin. We're partners and we're going to stay through this forever. Like how we promised each other back when this whole us ordeal started," Dave put a hand at Karkat's cheek and wiped a tear away, "I love you and nothing is ever going to change that."
Karkat let out a small chuckle, "Come here you corny master of romance."
Their lips met with a smile. Dave was right. Nothing could separate them now especially with what they had been through already.
"Just. No more fast food night outs. Okay."
"Alright I can go with that. Candlelit dinners at home were always more romantic anyways."
"Agreed."