A/N: Still Dave's perspective. Next one is Karkat's. Thank you for all the likes, favorites and comments by the way! I really appreciate it. -ZK

CHAPTER 3

When Dave left that morning, Karkat was grouchy again and making himself a cup of much needed coffee. Still, the TA followed him to the door as he slid on his shoes and pulled his bag over his head, planting a sleepy kiss on him before he left. Dave hurried down the stairs, distancing himself from the place as quickly as possible.

When Dave was on the bus, he allowed himself to think about it. Usually… guys didn't pay for that. Sure, he'd heard of it happening but wasn't it usually a lot shorter? Like cuddling and making out for an hour… talking about their shitty day with their shitty kids and wife… it was just a temporary fantasy. Not paying for long, all-night dates like he was their live-in boyfriend.

He tapped his fingers against the windowsill, trying to figure out whether he minded or not. His primary sensation was "this is weird" and possibly a bit of "this is unprofessional" too, since the guy already knew his name and a few bits of personal information about him. Where he went to school. Something he wanted to do for a living. The rule was to keep your private life as separate from your professional life as possible, so there was no possibility for mix up. He would need to do better if he wanted to continue. That's what he'd have to be careful of.

xXx

He stuck the key in his apartment door, pushing it open. When he walked in, Rose and Kanaya were making out on the kitchen counter.

"Oh grooooss, isn't it too early for that?"

He ran a hand through his hair as he went to raid the refrigerator. He grabbed some AJ and some cereal. Then turned back around for the milk.

"You're one to talk. Look at that bed hair. And you certainly didn't sleep here last night."

Dave rolled his eyes as he poured his cereal. "Let's just not discuss it, okay?"

"Touché."

He put the milk back in the fridge then juggled the cereal and apple juice in his arms, kicking the door to his room open. John kept on snoring. He kicked the door shut behind him.

xXx

The morning was spent doing nothing. He updated his blog (which honestly wasn't really about anything but he always liked to pretend like he had an interesting and important life), surfed random sites on the internet (and most certainly didn't look up kittens doing things, because who cared how cute they were, that was like one of the lamest things on the planet—okay who was he fooling, anyone who didn't look at cat vids on the internet was like some fucking anomaly and should be tied to a stake) and put on some headphones to check out some new underground albums that had just been released on the web. Having some time to himself was great. He should do this more often.

He didn't stir until John tossed a pillow at him and told him he was going for Chinese. And then later Dave made good on his promise to play Mario Kart with him by beating him 6 times out of 10.

xXx

The next morning his test scores came in. A's on both of his exams. He wanted to celebrate. So he did. He woke up the crew and though they were a bit sluggish about it at first, they all rode out to the beach, where ice cream and food and rides on the boardwalk were on him.

xXx

The door opened. The guy was a lot younger than Dave had expected—in fact he was probably around his own age. He quickly pulled him into the penthouse suite, shutting the door.

Dave glanced around. Everything was shiny and new and clean. This guy was probably the type that had his own maids. He certainly looked the part. And that was the exact reason why he'd charged him about ten times what Dave had charged Karkat. Inflation rates.

Chris led him into a back room, which turned out to be a bedroom. Dave shrugged out of his jacket and dropped his bag. The guy handed him an envelope, and after a cursory count, it went into the bag as well.

They started to make out. It was sloppy and much more awkward than it was enjoyable. It was clear this guy hadn't had much of anyone to kiss before. Dave took the lead, putting a hand on the guy's jaw and slowing the pace so his lips weren't being gnawed at. He leaned over him, sliding forward so he could have a bit more control, but the guy immediately tensed beneath him. So Dave backed off, letting him take the reins again.

The guy was hesitant and awkward as he stripped off Dave's clothes, hands running over his body almost reverently. Dave kept up a light conversation, cracking jokes and trying to take the mood off. Chris finally relaxed, confirming a few of Dave's suspicions. That he was really inexperienced. That he'd never been with a guy before. That he wasn't even open about liking men to anyone in his personal life.

The kisses turned more natural as he finally picked up an appropriate rhythm and they grinded against one another as the mood finally picked up. Chris's lips were buried in his neck when Dave finally reached down to palm him. He groaned and moved against Dave, his own hand sliding down to return the favor. But it soon became evident that even though Dave was nearing orgasm, a handjob simply wasn't going to get this guy off.

So Dave stopped, halting the kid's motions in the process, and slid down. He took the guy's dick into his mouth and started to suck, twisting his hand around the base to pump him at the same time. It was apparently exactly what Chris' needed because soon his breaths were coming in gasps and he was all out moaning. Dave didn't let up until the guy was close to coming and then he pulled off, jerking him until he came all over the sheets, flushed and panting against him. Success.

xXx

Dave left the penthouse suite, richer than he'd ever been before, and automatically pulled out his work phone. One email from Steve. He closed his email and went to his contacts list, scrolling through until his fingers stopped on a name. He hovered over it. Then he shook his head, shoving his phone away. Nope, weird idea. He wasn't going to go there. Nope. Pretend that never existed.

xXx

The next few days were spent either in class, doing homework, or hanging with his friends and pretending he didn't have homework. He played more Mario Kart, updated his blog, wrote another paper, and set up appointments for work.

xXx

The leather paddle hit his ass with a sharp smack. Dave sucked in a breath and took a moment to recover before looking up at the hooded figure over him, raising the paddle again. "Oh yes… harder!"

The paddle came down again. "Unh…. you're so good!"

It'd been two weeks. Two weeks since Friday. And he still hadn't gotten a text to set anything else up from the TA. Why hadn't he called or texted yet? Why hadn't he even set something up for the future?

The paddle came down on him again and he let out a moan.

He didn't delude himself into thinking Karkat was rich. He was in grad school and he wanted to be a teacher—those two things canceled each other out immediately. And it wasn't even like he missed the guy. Or really needed him. But he just thought he'd be getting a new regular. It was kind of nice to spend time with someone who was around his age for once. And who was a relatively normal person who did relatively normal things with him. Not that sex wasn't a relatively normal thing but…

The paddle hit him again and he sucked in a surprised breath. Okay. Maybe he should focus on what he was doing right now and he could figure this quandary out later.

xXx

When he left the guy's apartment building he spat into the bushes, ridding himself of the taste of the guy's sweaty balls. Cock-worship wasn't best done after some guy was tired and sweaty from whipping you, that's for sure.

He pulled out his work phone, but there was no new email, text or call from him. It was kind of annoying. Kind of disappointing. Dave shook his head, trying to mentally shake the guy out of his mind. Sometimes this happened. People that you thought would become regulars didn't become regulars. People that you hoped really wouldn't become regulars wanted to become regulars… It was all very convoluted sometimes. And this wasn't the end of the world. He'd just have to deal with it. Just like he dealt with everything else.

This had happened before. It wasn't a big deal. Really.

xXx

Dave tapped his pen on the side of the table as he stared at his notes. Just staring. He was supposed to be memorizing them or something but apparently the words just wanted to swim on the page like some sort of floating buoy mirage. He tapped his pen more fervently.

"You look a little… I don't know."

Dave broke out of his reverie, glancing up. He locked eyes with Rose, who'd been watching TV beside him on the couch. "What does that mean?"

"Out of it?" Jade put in, leaning over the kitchen counter to insert herself into their conversation. John was out for the night, so it was just the three of them. And currently Jade had decided to bake cookies.

"Displaced? Disgruntled. Possibly both." Rose added, fixing him with the point-blank interrogation stare she was so good at.

"I'm not displaced. Or disgruntled. I'm just a little distracted, all right?"

"Were you waiting on something good to happen and it didn't follow through?"

"No."

"Is your homework too stressful?"

"Not really."

"Boyfriend problems?"

"I don't have a boyfriend— what?" Dave stared at Rose in confusion.

She shrugged. "You have been spending time away from home late at night lately. I thought you might've met someone."

"I haven't met anyone like that, no."

"Maybe you should."

"I don't even have time for one. Thanks."

"Maybe you should make time. It could be a way to take some stress off of your chest. Or just get laid more often."

Dave let out a snort of laughter. Yeah, that one wasn't ever a problem.

"Creativity can help!" Jade put in again, leaning over the counter once more. "It always helps me when I'm having issues."

"This is true," Rose agreed. "I write quite frequently and I always find it takes the edge off. Perhaps you should go back to your rapping."

"Last time I rapped, you guys tried to shut me up by wrapping me up in bubble wrap and rolling me down the hall. It didn't work, I might add."

"Well that was because you did it on our loud speakers at 2 am in the morning during the middle of finals week."

"I was just trying to take some stress off. Just like you said."

"We should go to karaoke again," Jade nodded at them.

"Yes! Perfect solution."

"Can we be any more cliché?"

"Maybe if we added more irony into it," Rose teased, picking up her cell to make the phone call.

xXx

Karaoke was as miserably terrible as he thought it would be. And he'd be lying if he said that he didn't love every minute of it. He, Rose and Jade crooned to every embarrassing pop song in existence, from the 80s to now. Well, until their money ran out that was. And then they walked home, dancing and singing in the streets.

Jade was actually good at dancing, whereas Rose and Dave just kind of slid around and moved and pretended like they knew more than the electric slide and the wave. But they didn't get arrested or chased down by cops for disturbing the very fragile peace. So that was always a good thing.

That night Dave dropped fast asleep, glad for good friends and ironic enjoyment of pop music.

xXx

Finals came. Dave cut down his work schedule to almost null. He spent his days studying and mainly cooped up in his room, working on final assignments and papers and studying for the overall test.

The text came a day before his first final, blinking annoyingly at him. He'd almost wanted to ignore it, since he wasn't taking work calls right now, but he looked at it out of habit anyway.

KARKAT: Can we meet up again? Friday night, my place?

Dave's face split into a grin as he fist-pumped into the air. Then he realized he was being a complete idiot in the fucking library and simmered down. He typed a response back almost immediately.

ME: Perfect. See you then.

He sat back with a huge grin on his face, leaning back in his chair. Yes. Yes. Yes! Life was good again.

xXx

His finals went fucking amazing, of course. Because he was Dave fucking Strider, what else would happen? He expected to maybe get out with As or Bs overall. No sweat.

On Friday evening, Dave rang Karkat's doorbell, bouncing on his toes while waiting. Come on… how long did it take to answer the freaking door?

Karkat answered, letting him in. "Glad you could make it."

"Glad you invited me. I was starting to think you'd chickened out again."

"As if. Some things came up."

Money? Personal? Professional? Religious? Dave didn't press.

"So I didn't make the mistake of getting you food this time. I can actually be brilliant sometimes. I know. It's amazing. Even I'm impressed."

Dave observed Karkat as he moved around, organizing free space on the tables that were once again covered in papers. He brought out a Scrabble box and set it down, before grabbing an envelope from the kitchen counter and placing it into Dave's hands.

The comment came out of Dave's mouth before he could rethink it. "You look tired." Then he internally grimaced. He didn't exactly want to get into the personal lives of clients unless they offered. It just made everything more complicated.

"Do I?" Karkat let out an amused huff of air. "Yeah. Probably."

"What happened?"

"Nothing that hasn't been happening. Everything in my life is completely ass over heels and life apparently has it especially out for me because it never wants to allow me to fix it."

"That sucks."

"You're telling me."

Karkat went over to the couch and sat down, putting his feet up. Dave went over and sat next to him. They were silent for a moment. Dave tapped his fingers against the back of the couch. Karkat looked sourly in front of him.

Dave looked over at him for a few moments, before asking another question that he technically wasn't supposed to ask. "… Why do you hire me? You don't seem like your main goal is… you know… physical."

Karkat frowned. "I don't know. I like you. I like spending time with you. Is that so weird? Is that a weird thing to like?"

"No. I was just curious. You could… technically go and grab a boyfriend for these things. Or a girlfriend. Or some other kind of friend."

"Couldn't anyone technically grab a boyfriend for these things?"

"True."

"Don't worry about it. I'm the idiot who's hiring you, right? You don't need to worry about why."

Dave stared at Karkat as he smiled at him. The other man's smile turned mischievous.

"Scrabble," Karkat said, shoving the board game closer to Dave. "You know how to play?"

"Do I ever."

xXx

They played three rounds. Karkat was better than him. He used random long words that were so obscure Dave had to check and double check to make sure they were still a part of the English dictionary. When Dave asked what video games he had to play—because he knew he could probably best him at that—Karkat said he didn't have any.

"Seriously? No video games?"

"Nope. Didn't bring any with me."

"Laaaame. I'll have to—" and then he stopped himself because he realized just how weird it would be to bring his own consoles and games to a client's house. He was obviously getting a little competition-heated right now. "Nevermind."

They decided to watch a movie again and curled up around each other. It was one of those bad B-horror films, so Dave and Karkat alternately shouted obscenities not only at the characters for their awful decisions, but also the producers, the director and the editing team and stage department, who'd apparently decided that this awful film was perfect and ready to hit viewing screens. There's a way to make a good movie on a small budget and then there's a way to just fuck everything up entirely. This movie was one that did the latter.

At some point, Dave found his hand creeping into Karkat's curls. Karkat's arm had already slid around his shoulders. They stared straight ahead at the TV screen, but Dave was pretty certain that their attention had long been lost from it. It wasn't a total surprise when they finally turned away, staring at one another instead. Dave found himself looking over the man in detail, his messy brown curls, bushy eyebrows, mahogany skin, slightly parted lips and the light stubble he had on his jaw from the probable few days he'd forgotten to shave. Karkat soaked him in as well, eyes trailing from his hair to the various ornamentation he had scattered across his face, to his facial features themselves. He felt the man's gaze lock onto the location of his lips.

Dave was surprised that he was the one who pressed his lips to Karkat's first, pulling him closer. Karkat took it in stride, immediately kissing him back and sliding against him.

They ignored the movie entirely, even when the terrible screams and noise from the chainsaws started filling the room, focusing on each other's lips and breaths and movements. The kiss deepened on its own, eliciting a deep-throated moan from Dave that for once he wasn't faking, and an answering one in return from the guy wrapped around his arms. Their tongues curled around one another. His tongue piercing hit the roof of the guy's mouth and caressed it. Karkat sucked on it, running his teeth over the tip of it and then nibbling on Dave's lower lip. Dave kissed him again, harder, more vigorously. Karkat returned it in full.

He somehow ended up flat on the couch with Karkat above him, making out fiercely with him some more. Their bodies pressed together, jeans rubbing together, feet entangled with one another. Dave's hand was in Karkat's hair and Karkat's hands were everywhere, running along his thighs, the sides of his waist, the biceps of Dave's arms. Dave's tongue slid along Karkat's, demanding attention, and Karkat sucked on it again, forcing Dave to groan. Okay, so what could he say? He liked it when guys sucked his tongue.

Dave's hand slid down, leaving Karkat's hair and blindly groping along him. He grazed over his chest, his stomach, his back. When his fingers finally reached the base of Karkat's shirt, he rolled it up, moving to take it off. Karkat rose up instead, pulling Dave up as well as he planted his arms under his butt. Then he carried him from the couch, still wrapped around him.

It took a few tries. They crashed into the arm of the couch. A lamp. The side of the wall. Each time they broke apart laughing, before they finally made it through to the doorway of the bedroom.

They took off their clothes in a hurry, never stopping their kissing, so it was full of awkward bumps and reluctant pulling back to yank off a piece of stubborn clothing or stumble out of a sock. Then they returned to one another again, pressed against each another, completely blind to the outside world.

They fell onto the bed more than anything. They were mostly naked and Karkat sat on top of him, straddling him, as he bent down and worked on Dave's neck. Sucking and nibbling and biting. Dave didn't even mind that at one point he was pretty certain he'd gotten a hickey.

Karkat went further down, kissing along his shoulders, his chest, his nipples. He pulled off Dave's remaining underwear and kissed along his happy trail until his brushed his lips against Dave's dick.

"Condom, yes, no?" Karkat looked up at him, shortly.

Dave shook his head. "It's fine."

Then Karkat's tongue was on him, licking a trail up the underside of his cock, circling around the head before he finally wrapped his lips around him. He jerked him as he sucked, teasing his head before swallowing all of him. And Jesus, he was good at it. Even Dave wasn't that good at deep-throating yet. Even though Karkat had had a girlfriend all that time he certainly wasn't rusty.

Then he came back up and kissed Dave's jawline and chin. Dave bent down to meet his lips.

"Do you want to fuck me?" Karkat asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Is that a trick question?"

Karkat laughed and they kissed more as Dave tried to grope for proper supplies and found that it wasn't working. He had to pull away to find a condom in his jean pocket again and by then Karkat was returning with lube.

Karkat was a bottom. Almost a strict bottom, apparently, and he enjoyed preparing himself. He was also a power bottom, evidently. Because as soon as he lowered himself onto Dave he controlled the show. How fast they went, how hard he rode him, what spots he wanted Dave to hit and the angle at which they were hit. He was also kind of good, once they'd gotten used to the feeling of one another.

Dave laid back onto the bed as Karkat rode him, closing his eyes and enjoying the feeling. And then Karkat leaned over, kissing him and pulling him back up. He told him to fuck him as hard as he could go and Dave was happy to oblige, pretty soon bringing himself to orgasm and Karkat to orgasm soon afterwards.

They collapsed on top of each other. Dave tossed his condom into the trash and Karkat pulled him back down, close to him. This time they faced one another. Karkat kissed his lips, his cheeks, and all over his face. Their lips met again and Karkat sucked on his piercings and then laughed and kissed his nose.

Karkat told him he was 'kind of gorgeous'. This time Dave didn't say a muted thanks. He poked Karkat in the gut and replied that he should tell it to himself because he was too. Their lips met again. They kissed slowly before pulling back and cuddling. They fell asleep wrapped in one another's arms.