AN: Hello! It seems the next chapter will take a while to get to, considering how the updates are going, but here have some Dave&Karkat being pals! This is a sort of long chapter and it just sort of ends, but hey, there will be more. I pinky promise! Also, you should totally review it and tell me if there's any suggestions you have to make this shit better! :33


As Dave tried to shift back into his old routine, he found that in the past month Terezi had started a Kismesis with Gamzee. When he asked her about it, she tried to skirt around the topic. He knew it wasn't any of his business and that he had no place to tell what and what not to do. When he told her that, she admitted to everything and said she wasn't guilty about it so much as that she didn't want to hurt Karkat.

Dave understood that, but he made sure she knew he wouldn't be any part of it. From then on, she spent most of her time with Gamzee, and Dave had to find a new way of entertainment, which came from Karkat. In the past years, their relationship had gone from antagonistic on Dave's part to a mutual semi-friendship, and in the next month and a half they started spending more and more time with each other. Karkat had even come up with the absolutely brilliant idea of personalized walkie-talkie type instruments to attach to their wrists.

Rose and Kanaya had become matesprites, but the former had also succumbed to alcoholism. Terezi was rarely ever around unless one considered passed out on the floor or nursing a sugar-induced hangover. Dave had only seen Gamzee once, and it had only been a glimpse in a dark hallway. It was fair to assume that even Karkat had seen little more of either of the other trolls, since Gamzee and Terezi had long since ended their moirailegiance with Karkat.

Dave and Karkat quickly found they had a lot more in common than they originally thought. They had such similar interests, fears, and even their thought processes matched. They'd spend hours together each day just talking and laughing. Sometimes they'd go on adventures through the belly of the meteor, using their walkie-talkies to communicate their finds, which seemed to change even if nobody had touched it. It was almost spooky, but it was eventually just accepted as one of the many oddities that were considered usual.

They would sometimes stay the night in different places together, building stupid-looking forts out of whatever was handy then talking and laughing until they fell asleep. Dave's nightmares returned one such night, but Karkat didn't question it. He just woke Dave up and told him it was okay until it actually was.

The biggest difference between them was that Karkat vocalized his fears and worries, while Dave would just play it cool. Even so, the troll understood that Dave felt the same. Karkat talked about his own nightmares, based mostly around the time he'd fallen asleep while his old session was still active but his dream-self was dead, or the night that Gamzee had killed everyone. He talked about how much he missed his friends and his lusus, and how he felt bad that they were all dead. He blamed himself, too. He talked about how he was scared that he'd mess up the new session and, now that it was in sight, he was bitterly aware of how unprepared they were. He talked about how he was sad that Terezi had changed so much and that Gamzee had broken of their moirailegiance and that Kanaya was never around anymore and that Aradia had to be left behind.

Dave would listen and reply when he saw fit, never confirming nor denying that he felt the same. Karkat understood that he did, though, and didn't press it. He had become so familiar with the way Dave's mind worked that a lot of things between them didn't even need saying.

They even talked about their lives back on Alternia and Earth, respectively. Although Karkat had seen bits of Dave's life through his husktop, he'd mostly been wrapped up in John due to Egbert's apparent leadership. Karkat told Dave about being a lowblood in such a violently judgmental society, which Dave found oddly fascinating. The human asked questions about the other trolls and their lives, which Karkat answered to his best knowledge. In turn, Dave would answer Karkat's questions about life as a human on planet Earth.

Dave could relate to Karkat's concerns for Terezi's sudden interest in Faygo consumption, because Rose had taken up heavy alcohol consumption and was in no shape to be facing Lord English, as they planned to in a few months time. Frankly, only Karkat and Dave were prepared for the encounter out of the meteorstuck crew because they spent so much of their time fighting. Sometimes it was an impromptu brawl spawned by a stray home-hitting insult, but mostly it was for training. They took to fighting for two hours every day (or what they estimated was a day) to perfect their weapon-use and their game-given powers.

Even with Karkat's friendship, Dave felt lonely sometimes. He missed John and Jade, who were both been out of contact for almost three years, and Rose and Terezi who had fallen into the bottle. And he missed his bro. Even though he didn't say anything about it, he knew Karkat could sense this. Every so often, when Dave was off by himself and his mind began to wander to memories he'd rather not touch, Karkat would appear out of seemingly nowhere. Dave suspected it might have something to do with his status as Prince of Blood, but Karkat had a way of sensing when and where someone who needed comfort would be and he would sit with Dave. They would be perfectly silent, but just the presence of a friend was enough for Dave.

Among the extensive list of things Karkat hated, up there with human romance and himself, was how Dave repressed his emotions. The troll often likened it to his troll RomComs, (though Dave would tune out when the particular films were being named) and said that in the end Dave would have to face 'his true feelings' whether he wanted to or not. Dave would reply with his usual sarcasm, but he knew Karkat was at least partially right; he just figured he would put it off until the situation was more appropriate.