Dave P.O.V.
The rest of the week went by smoothly enough. Tuesday and Wednesday I spent some very boring mornings at the radio station grabbing discs for my boss' setlist for the day. Then I had the afternoons of both days with Dirk since he also had some new jams he wanted to work with. We wound up with a whole new set in the end that we would be showcasing this weekend and were both pretty psyched about it. Speaking of this weekend, Jake would be coming to see that show instead since Dirk decided to be a baby and "forget" to invite Jake the night I won the bet at dinner. Fucking douche thinks he can pull a fast one on me. Nice try bro. Thursday I had an afternoon shift at the station so I decided to go to the gym in the morning. I don't make a scheduled habit of it, but I got a year membership as some sort of shitty christmas gift last year from Dirk and Jake (at the time they were just friends but went in together on this gift. Jake's idea). I wasn't about to waste their money by not going.
Karkat had messaged me a few times throughout the week, mostly just idle chitchat like how our days had been, how shitty some customers were, how annoying my boss was and his shit taste in music, things like that. Thursday night after getting home from work I noticed a text asking what time to meet up the following morning. I had to mentally facepalm for the fact that we'd never actually set a time. I told him 10:30am and he seemed fine enough with that.
Regardless of the time I'd told Karkat, I'd set my alarm for 9am so that there was no way in hell I could possibly be late. So when I woke up, I went through the usual routine of showering and shaving and everything. I spent a good ten minutes deciding which fucking shirt to wear because as much as I knew it wasn't a date, I had this urge to dress a little nicer. I settled on casual t-shirt and jeans though because I didn't want to send the wrong message and make Karkat think that I thought it was a date or something. Better just to play it cool and impress him with my personality instead.
I made the decision to walk there. A thing that I rarely did since I always had my skateboard. However, I didn't bother to check the time when I left and failed to realize just how early I'd left the house. So now here I was, 10:05am, chillin at Starbucks early as hell and waiting for him. I held off on getting my coffee so that it wasn't obvious I'd been sitting here for as long as I had. Also so that I could pay for both our drinks at the same time.
While waiting I occupied myself with planning out just what to order for Karkat. I figured he'd probably like frappuccinos, what with the fact that you could barely ever taste the coffee in them. Probably mocha or caramel for his sweet tooth. In all honesty it wasn't hard to plan out some stuff that he might like since a lot of the things here tasted great without tasting too strongly of coffee. That sought out, I looked around the place and realized that despite it being so early in the morning, the inside of the cafe was almost completely deserted right now. I also noticed one of the baristas staring at me from over the counter. I stared back for a minute because I could've swore I'd seen him somewhere before. I couldn't place where, but he seemed vaguely familiar. He seemed to have the same thought because he left his coworkers behind the counter and headed over to the table I was sitting at.
"You're Dave right?" He asked.
"Uh, yeah …. Have we met before? I mean you seem familiar but … "
"We met a few days ago …. You took my roommate home with you earlier this week …. Douche named Karkat ringing any bells?"
"Oh fuck. You're his roommate. Right. Right. My bad. Sorry. What's your name again?" That seemed to rub him the wrong way.
"Eridan." He quipped.
"Nice to see you again, Eridan."
"Yeah, I'm sure …. So you guys are havin your lil date thing here? Kar mentioned goin out with you for coffee but I didn't realize I'd be graced with the pleasure of watching it probably crash and burn. You know the guy hates coffee right?" Geeze this guy was a prick.
"Uh, yeah. I don't know if i'd call it a date per se … and what makes you think that it's gonna crash and burn just because he claims to hate coffee. I'm pretty sure he won't hate the drink I've got in mind for him and I doubt he's tried everything."
"Your loss if you fuck it up. Just don't say I didn't warn you." He examined his nails in the most flamboyant and annoying way possible.
"Why are you telling me this anyway? What do you have to gain here?"
"Oh nothing at all. I just really don't want to watch my roommate go on a shitty date that he won't enjoy with someone who's being selfish in their interests from the start. You picking a place that you like instead of asking him where he wants to go is being selfish as all hell, even if you claim it's not a date. Who knows what else you'd be selfish with when your first interaction with a person is somewhere you'd want to go? Because if he falls for you, as I'm sure he will, and later on realizes that you care more about yourself than him, then I'll have to pick up the pieces. Again. That's not something I enjoy doing and I'm sure he doesn't like being broken down either. So do us all a favor and take him somewhere else that he might actually enjoy." Something in me snapped right then. I didn't come here to be fucking attacked by this douche.
"Ok first of all, If he didn't want to come today then he wouldn't. He didn't have to agree to anything he didn't want to do and could have easily turned me down or suggested something else. I'm about 900% sure he'd have no problem doing so, in fact. And secondly, where the fuck do you get off trying to tell me what I care about and on what level. I just barely fucking met you a few days ago. You don't know a damn fucking thing about me. Nice try though, trying to pull this apart like you're trying to find the meaning in a book for your high school essay, you fucking child. I understand that he's your friend and that you're worried about him, but you don't need to worry. It's not a fucking date and I'm not going to break his goddamn heart." If anything he might just break mine by shit like this never being a date. I didn't say that last bit out loud but damn did I want to.
"Oh honey, that's cute. You think I don't know you. I know more about you than you probably do. Hoo, the things I've heard about you. You'd better believe word gets around amongst queens." I inhaled sharply at that comment. So that's why he fucking hated me. "That's right honey, I know your game. Play with his heart and it'll be the last time you even get so much as a half-assed hook-up in this town and anything within a hundred mile radius."
"I would try and explain to you what the fuck actually happened but I'm sure that dickhead has already painted me a villain in your mind for good. I doubt anything I say could change your mind. But for the love of all that is good, please don't fuck this up for me. I'm not playing anything here. I genuinely like this guy, ok. I'm not fucking around. Trust me, I wish it was a date. But since it's not, I'm going to do my damn best to impress him. I don't know if he told you, but we didn't fucking hook up. Nothing has happened so far. I'm glad it hasn't either. I want to do this right. And if I ever hurt him you have full permission to hunt me down and beat me to a pulp or whatever you want to do. I promise. Just please, don't fuck this up for me." He seemed to take a few moments to soak all that in. Meanwhile I internally winced at how fucking honest I had to be with Eridan. I normally wouldn't put all my cards on the table like that. But he knew the wrong side of a story from my past and I didn't want Karkat to get wind of that before I had the chance to explain. I wanted to tell him myself, if anything.
"Fine. I'll keep quiet for now. But you owe me your side of the story. Also I'm going to hold you to your word. You break his heart and I get to break your face."
"Agreed. We can talk about that later. Karkat's gonna be here any minute now. Can we please just pretend this didn't happen when he's around and try to get along?"
"I'm a performer. Of fucking course I can pretend I don't fucking hate you." He dismissed with a wave of his hand. "Ok so it's not so much that I hate you. It's more like if I were driving past you walking down the street and there was a huge puddle by the curb, I wouldn't even try to avoid the puddle."
"Gee thanks."
"No problem. And good luck with getting him to like coffee. You're honestly better off teaching a pig to fly, but whatever." He said while walking away and back behind the counter.
Not even two minutes later Karkat walked through the door apprehensively. To say that I was stunned into silence was an understatement. I immediately felt underdressed because he looked fucking perfect. Even in just a simple blue sweater, jeans, and black boots he looked amazing. Just absolutely adorable and attractive and just damn. He looked nice, ok. It looked nice on him.
After practically drooling the way I was, I returned to reality when I realized he hadn't spotted me in the corner yet but had waved at Eridan instead. The barista waved back, feigning surprise and then proceeded to flip Karkat off. Of course Karkat returned the gesture and then scanned the room, finally landing on me. I waved sort of sheepishly and he came over to my table.
"You look good today." I offered casually.
"Compared to my stuffy work shit or the visual of me throwing up, I'm sure it's an improvement." He laughed nervously and I couldn't help but smile and roll my eyes.
"Regardless of the comparison, it's a nice outfit dude. Genuine compliment there." He gave me a more relaxed smile and my stomach did that stupid butterflies flipping thing.
"Fine. So what experimental shit are we subjecting me to on this fine morning?" He asked, hopping into the seat across from mine.
"Before we make that decision I must ask. Which do you like more: regular chocolate, caramel, or mint chocolate?"
"I'll go with mint chocolate I guess."
"Cool, then I know exactly what to get you. You and your sweet tooth are gonna love this, I promise."
"Promises are serious fucking business, Dave. You'd better not let me down." He teased.
"I don't intend to. And if you completely hate it then you can pick somewhere else for us to go that you'd like more and I'll pay. Anywhere at all. Deal?" I moved to get up and get in line.
"You're really that confident that I'm going to like this drink?" Karkat pushed his chair in and followed me.
"I am. I really am. This is going to be the best coffee you've ever had. You won't even be able to tell that it's coffee. It's that good."
"Alright. If it's that fucking amazing then I'll trust you." He scooted closer to me in line as someone else came up behind us.
"Want anything else with it? Maybe a pastry or something?" Looking through the glass had me contemplating on getting a donut or a cookie or something.
"We'll see if I like the drink first. I'd rather not commit to crappy food here if there's a chance we might be leaving." He scoffed, still skeptical as all hell. Not like I expected anything different of him.
When it was finally my turn to order, I was thankful beyond all hell that Eridouche wasn't the one at the register. "I'll take a tall midnight mint mocha frappuccino and a venti java chip frappuccino." Easy enough. I paid, we waited, my name was called. Y'all know the drill for Starbucks. Then came the moment of truth.
Karkat picked up his drink and eyed it questioningly. "And you're sure this is going to taste fucking good? It looks really dark, Dave. Like almost black coffee dark. Like you ordered me black coffee with whipped cream and fucking charcoal dust on top."
"You can stop criticising and try it any time now." I chuckled, sipping my own drink and walking back towards our table.
"Can you tell me what's in it first?" Karkat asked, trailing behind me and then slipping back into the same seat he'd been in earlier.
"Mint, chocolate, whipped cream, ice, milk, more chocolate and a little bit of coffee. Also all the love of the barista who made it and possibly a splash of heaven."
"I'm seriously questioning some of those ingredients." He held the cup a little closer and sniffed the drink, causing some of the cocoa dust on top to flutter about. I couldn't help but laugh at that.
"Don't snort the damn thing, kitkat. Just drink it, damn. It's not a dime of coke."
"Ok first of all, fuck you for implying I do coke. Secondly, I don't want to hate the drink and waste your money though."
"Well whether you hate it or not, I've already bought it. So it's too late to get my money back. Remember we can always go somewhere else if you don't want your drink. Now would you please just try it and stop being an apprehensive baby."
"I am not a fucking baby." He hissed.
"No? Then try the coffee drink and join the world of adults who thrive on caffeine." I was only teasing him of course, but it was still fun as all hell to push his buttons.
"Fine, if it'll get you to shut the fuck up." He finally figured out how to use a straw and took a sip from his damn drink. No reaction at first so he was either trying to poker face that shit or he honestly didn't like it. He swallowed and raised an eyebrow at me. "What the fuck did you order me? This isn't coffee. It tastes like some kind of weird bittersweet european mint chocolate but it isn't fucking coffee."
"Uh, yeah. It is. Go ahead and ask your barista friend behind the counter there if you don't believe me." I smirked. Karkat looked like he was about to get up and do just that but then turned back to me.
"Ok, fine. I believe you. You wouldn't send me fucking all the way over there otherwise"
"Unless I wanted you to look like a dumbass asking a barista in a coffee shop if your coffee drink had coffee in it." I pointed out.
The boy looked perplexed about that before rolling his eyes at me and taking a lengthy sip from his drink this time. "Fucking douche." Pause. "You'll have to write the name of this down for me for next time."
"Next time? Are you implying there will be a second coffee outing friend-date thing? Whatever you wanna call it." I knew I was jumping the gun on the whole thing, but honestly I was eager. Maybe too eager. I also hoped he wouldn't dwell on the whole 'friend-date' phrasing.
"Technically, I was saying that I'm going to be coming back to Starbucks eventually and this would be the only thing I'd order so I need the name of it. But if you want to come with then sure, we can be coffee friends or some basic shit like that."
Shot down. Fatally wounded. Someone call 911. I've been friend-zoned already. Then again, who knows because he did say that he wanted to be friends first before trying to date. Fuck. I don't know what to make of this now. And I should probably stop over-thinking it because he's staring at me. Fuck, he looks kinda offended. I'm a dick.
"Huh? Oh, right. Coffee friends. Yea. Sounds cool." I scratched the back of my head nervously.
"No. It's fucking lame. Forget I said anything." He looked off to the side, avoiding eye contact. Shit, I definitely caused that.
"No no. It's cool. I'm glad you like the drink really. And I'm totally down for getting coffee together more often. I just sorta spaced out there at the wrong time." I tried.
"You sure? I still haven't messed shit up enough for you to give up?" My heart fucking died. This man was so fucking insecure it was insane. I wanted to fix that so badly. I just wanted to show him that someone gave a fuck and cared about him and that he didn't fuck everything up. I wanted to be that someone that gave a fuck, too. But that would have to wait until he was ready for that.
"Of course not. Do I need to rickroll you for you to figure out that I'm not gonna give you up that easily?" That made him smile some and he rolled his eyes at me again. His smile was too fucking cute.
"Please don't. I think I get the idea without hearing that shitty fucking song."
"Good. Otherwise I would've had to drop down and serenade it to you in front of this entire coffee shop."
"Thank fuck you're not doing that."
"I still could…." I teased, pausing for a moment. "But seriously, did you wanna go ahead and go somewhere else anyway? My treat still, even though you actually liked the coffee." Speaking of which, both of us were almost done with our drinks already.
"Hmmm …. Is there a distance limit?" Karkat inquired, stirring his straw in mild interest.
"Nothing out of country."
"Are you fucking kidding me? Can you just answer something seriously without being a sarcastic asshole?" His voice said irritation but his eyes said amusement.
"Fine. I guess our limit depends on whether or not you drove here. I walked."
"I drove. And I'm fine with driving us around. Though is it really your treat if I'm the driver?" He raised an eyebrow at me.
"I'll reimburse you for the gas, no worries karks. I've got you covered." I winked behind my shades and pointed a finger gun at him before realizing I'd been spending too much time with Dirk and Jake.
"Oh.I wasn't trying to get you to fucking pay for it. You really don't have to do that."
"But I want to. I promised to pay today and I'm going to stick to that. You won't have to shell out a single penny this time. Alright?"
"Ok but that means that I pay for shit on the next outing. It's only fair." He's such a goddamn saint, with a mouth like a sailor. How did I manage to get him to give me the time of day?
"Sure. Deal. And you can pick what we do, since I did kind of pick the coffee thing this time."
"We can cross that fucking bridge when we get there. For now I want to focus on where we're going to go next today."
"Alright, then pick something kitkat. It's all up to you today, remember?"
"What about ….. ngh nevermind it's fucking stupid." He ducked his head down again as if embarrassed he'd even started to say anything.
"No, no. It's probably far from stupid. What were you about to say?"
"Well, it's still not a fucking date, but if you wanted we could go to the mall or the movies or something over in that part of town."
"I dunno, that really does sound like a date. Coffee and a movie? Might wanna save that stuff for when we're ready to make a more serious commitment. Right now we're only at coffee friends tier. We need to be like ten tiers higher for public outings like that." I smirked. I only hoped he could tell I was giving him a hard time and not being fucking serious about all that.
He fucking deadpanned. "Are you really fucking mocking me right now?"
"Maybe. But you know it's just to get you smiling." As soon as the words came out of my mouth I fucking flushed red. I did not mean to say that last bit out loud. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. Why the hell?
It was quiet across the table. A little too quiet if you ask me. My mind started racing again with all the thoughts of how he'd probably never talk to me again because I was rushing things. I was so fucking worried about pushing too fast or saying something too soon here and I had just gone and ruined it all.
"So um. Did you actually wanna go to the mall though?" He cut in, shutting all my thoughts up instantly. Did he really just brush it off that easily? Maybe this wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. Alright. Ok. Time to get my fucking cool back.
"Yeah. Yes. Definitely. Let's go hang at the mall." I nodded.
He moved to get up and I followed instantly, both of us chucking our now empty coffee cups. I mentally chided myself and tried to keep reminding myself that I didn't need to flirt it the fuck up because this wasn't a date.
