Talking it Out

by Amarthame

Dave and Karkat's blossoming moirallegiance and the conversations that got them there. / In Which Two Knights (One Mutantblood and One Alien), Finding Themselves In Varying States of Stress During a Long Voyage Through Paradox Space, Negotiate a Moirallegiance.

PROGRESS TO NEW SESSION: 2.8%

Knights: Find ways to cope with the panwarping trauma of it all.

It started with movie night.

It was about a month into their new lives aboard the dusty meteor through the starless void, and they were finally beginning to wind down. The high-stakes energy of the game had followed them into their new home at first, driving them to prepare for what was to come with mad compulsion. Vriska, Karkat, and Rose dove into the challenges of preparing for the next session with vigor. This had turned out to be a short-lived dream. Soon, Kanaya joined Rose's research and Terezi joined Vriska's scheming, and what began as a group effort became a loose collection of personal projects. Karkat dubbed the whole thing an unfathomably deep well of moobeast shit and novel stupidity and loudly excused himself from the whole endeavor. In reality, he hadn't been able to bring himself to focus on the next session, or much of anything else, in weeks.

Dave had been the only one to keep his hands clean of the whole project from the start. He'd been spending some of his time in the common room, watching movies with Rose and not talking about their recent shared suicide attempt. The rest of the time, he'd spent off in a secret corner of the meteor. When Rose pressed him on it, it had turned out to be Can Town. That at least explained where the Mayor had gotten to, not that anyone but Dave had been paying attention.

Movie night was a human activity that was a thing for a while. That means that it was something Dave and Rose had started doing, who had enticed Terezi and Kanaya to briefly join in. At first, it happened every night. Soon this broke down into unscheduled movie viewings at various times(of day? Whatever that was?), curated mainly by Dave Strider while the others worked, explored, and coped in their own ways. Vriska and Terezi spent a week in their ridiculous roleplay outfits. Rose and Kanaya covered the bloodstains in the lab with a large rug and Karkat yelled about wasting grist for ten seconds before disappearing into his block for days. Everyone else had too much other stuff in their pans to worry about it. The grey walls of the meteor were terribly oppressive, the vents echoing the dry hum of moving air. No honking in the night. Since the original big reunion, everyone had turned quiet and grim. Nobody had touched or even looked at a weapon in weeks.

And so, as the aura of numb shock settled in firmly over the cold base the last of the trolls had made their home, Karkat found himself finally coming out of his respiteblock.

Somehow, sleeping had only made Karkat more tired. Without sopor slime, the day terrors could assault him in crisp, full-color glory. He had a bruise forming on his wrist where he'd hit in on a corner thrashing awake, and another where a horn in his pile had dug into his side all day. He tugged on his sleeve self-consciously to reassure himself that he was all covered up. This was miserable. He was miserable. Which would have been fine, if he could have just stayed in his block, miserable and alone, for the next two perigees. Unfortunately, he was hungry.

When he arrived at the common room on his way to the kitchen, there was someone there. It turned out to only be Dave Strider, watching some kind of movie about humans. Something was crashing and burning on screen, some kind of airborne travelhull, but that didn't do much to identify the film for Karkat. He had been hoping the common room would be empty, but this was probably the most preferable runner-up option. He hadn't spent any real time with Dave before retreating into his pit of despair, seeing as he seemed like such a tool in the bits Karkat had seen of his session. Of everyone he could humiliate himself in front of in his unwashed, uncaring state, he gave the fewest fucks if it was Dave.

"What are you doing?" Karkat ground out when Dave looked up from the couch to look at him.

"Movie night," Dave said. "You want in?"

Karkat rolled his ganderbulbs at him. "Don't just say that like it's a thing."

"It is too! Movie night is so a thing. Tonight's film is the worst Die Hard movie. At least, out of the ones we still have." He adjusted so he was kneeling on the couch, face Karkat on the other end of the room. His expression didn't change the entire time, which was definitely his worst feature as far as Karkat was concerned.

"It's just you watching some human trash, Strider. That's not a 'movie night.'"

"Not if you come watch with me… Karkat. Damn it, I don't know your last name, so I can't be all cool about it." Dave waggled his eyebrows, folding his arms on the top of the back of the couch.. "So what do you say?"

Karkat scowled, stomping off toward the kitchen. "I'm not joining your failed team bonding activity, Strider. I'm just here for some fucking sustenance."

Dave shrugged. "Your loss, man. But, uh, I'll basically be here all week if you change your mind."

"Hah!" Karkat barked from the pantry, all misdirected spite. "God forbid you find somewhere else to fuck off to, Strider. Aren't you just the bright red fucking cherry on the hot shit-coated vomit fucking sundae." He could feel his head starting to hurt again, tension building around the base of his horns. He wasn't sure how to make that go away, anymore, and the more time he spent in that gogforsaken pile, the worse it was getting.

("Dude," Dave replied, way too quiet for Karkat to pick up from the next room. "How can you eat after saying something like that?")

"I guess since there's nothing the fuck else to do other than shove my head up my own nook, I might as well just attend your 'movie night!' Is that what you want me to say?" Karkat hated the hysterical edge to his own voice, but he was used to hating the sound of his own voice by this point in his life.

("This is a lot of extra fucking intensity from being asked to watch a movie. Did I miss the part where I besmirched your maidenly honor or?")

Karkat emerged back into the common room, several bags of sugared and salted troll snacks in his arms. He lurched to the couch in the heavy miasma of his own bad mood and dropped all the bags to the floor but one. He tore open the remaining bag like he had a grudge and started shoveling what looked like crickets into his face.

Dave watched for a moment, half-entertained and half-nauseous.

"Just start it," Karkat grunted as if by way of response, mouth half-full. "I'll pick up the plot as we go."

Dave did as Karkat said, half-expecting him to take off after he finished inhaling his...food. Instead, he stuck around till the end, then demanded Dave start the movie over so he could better appreciate what was going on. When Dave wouldn't do that, he argued with him about what movie to watch next, finally letting Dave talk him into Rush Hour.

"Fine, nookface," Karkat had said, "But I get to pick what we watch next time."

Dave was surprised by how much Karkat's spirits could be raised with a movie he'd somehow never seen before. Now that he was seeing Karkat's face, alert and engaged, he realized how much shit he had looked like when he walked in. Not that that was a big shocker or anything. Everyone was kind of looking like shit those days.

Dave: Consider Bruce Willis's ruggedly handsome face.

"I guess I have to admit that Human Bruce Willis is objectively rather attractive," Karkat said at one point halfway through the best Die Hard movie they had left, as though responding to a conversation in progress. "Though his handling of his quadrants in this version leaves a lot to be desired."

"Uh, what?"

"You don't think so?" Karkat asked casually, reaching down for another bag of grubsnacks. "Just fucking look at him, and I'm not even the same species."

"Dude, that's pretty gay," Dave said, stonefaced.

"Oh please, like you wouldn't take him in two of two concupiscent quadrants." Karkat waved his bag of snacks at the television to emphasize his point.

"Like, ironically, or…?"

"Shoosh, he's talking."

Dave just stared at him. In the dude's defense, he did seem pretty tired, but this was still pretty hilarious. He tried to reconcile this lanky poofy-haired grump gay crushin' on Bruce Willis with the shouty troll that had terrorized him and his friends. To his surprise, this was making a lot of sense, personality-wise.

Karkat: Meet the Mayor.

A few movie nights in, Dave decided it was time for Karkat to meet a 'special someone,' though by the tone of his voice, Karkat was sure that something was supposed to be ironic about the phrasing. He seemed sincere enough about the introduction itself, floating and gushing on their way over to a part of their home base that he hadn't spent much time in. Dave was given to rants and rambles, but most of the time they were meaningless. Karkat didn't understand the references, and Dave never wanted to explain. This was strange because, as far as Karkat could tell, he was being completely sincere.

"The Mayor is seriously the best, I can't believe you haven't been logging any bro time with him yet. No wonder you're such a total Grinch, dude. All hum-bugging it and it's not even anywhere near Christmas time. Or was that a Scrooge thing? Whatever. My point is, if there was a Christmas spirit, it would be the pure delightful adorableness in the Mayor's precious heart."

Karkat couldn't help but be put off. What was he supposed to say to that? "I have no fucking idea what any of that means"

What even was a "grinch?" Should Karkat be insulted? And why was Dave waxing poetic about some smelly little carapacian, anyway? Was this a human friendship thing? There was no way Dave was in some kind of quadrant with the little guy. That would be completely inexcusable. Not that any of them had much choice in the way of quadrant partners for the next three years, Karkat thought with a pang of misery.

"Can you put your feet on the fucking floor, you condescending cape-wearing asshole?" Karkat went with instead. Sometimes it was easier to just be angry about something simple.

"Don't be like that, dude. We're here."

They entered into a large, empty rectangle of a room, occupied only by a set of industrial tanks and pipes along the far wall, and filled with web upon web of methodical, colorful scribbling. Upon further observation, the scribbling gave order to the myriad of assorted cans that Karkat's eyes had initially dismissed as trash. A banner hung from the pipes, proclaiming this land to be "Can Town." From the look of it, there was room for growth.

The little carapacian, dressed in his "MayoR" sash, trotted over to Dave and greeted him with a friendly pat on the arm and a smile in his eyes. Karkat had a hard time getting over how dirty he always looked.

"There you are, dude! How's things in town today?" Dave pulled the Mayor in close with one arm, giving the top of his head an affectionate pat. The Mayor relaxed into the touch. Karkat found himself looking away on instinct.

"Dude, Karkat, come here. Let's get you all formally introduced."

When he looked back, Dave was behind the Mayor with both hands on his narrow shoulders. He was half again the carapacian's height, and in that position the little guy was looking a little put-upon. Karkat didn't blame him, with Dave's vaguely inappropriate displays. Were humans really so depraved as to go around making their pale overtures in public around others? As if hearing Karkat's thoughts, Dave leaned forward to put his chin down on the Mayor's head. Was he actually nuzzling him?

"I'm still in the room, Strider," Karkat reminded him uncomfortably. "Are you seriously just gonna…?"

"What?" Dave asked obliviously, standing up straight again. His grasp of the Mayor's shoulders looked secure, almost possessive. Some distant, spiteful part of his mind wondered if this was how he and Gamzee had looked together. Dave started patting the Mayor's head again and Karkat felt his bloodpusher siezing.

"What do you mean-" Karkat stopped himself. He doesn't even have that quadrant, you idiot. Take your stupid feelings and put them the motherfuck away, you sad chute licker. "Nothing. It's fucking nothing, you ignorant bulgehumper." He took a step towards Dave and his Mayor 'friend.' "Uh… hello?"

Karkat was surprised at how the Mayor's face lit up at that, suddenly cheerful in a way that unmistakably meant "Pleased to meet you" in the most literal and honest way.

"This is Karkat," Dave said helpfully, an anxious edge to his voice. "Karkat, this is the Mayor. Obviously. He's the best, he's like my best friend ever since shit went down. Nobody else will hang with him, but you'll see, he's the best."

Karkat couldn't help but be entertained by the way Dave stumbled over his words when it came to the Mayor. He looked 'the Mayor' in the eyes. "It's nice to meet you?" he ventured, raising an eyebrow at the whole situation.

The Mayor nodded a little, and it was objectively rather adorable. He pulled away from Dave a little, taking one of Dave's hands and gesturing a little with the other hand, pointing.

"What is he saying?" Karkat asked before he realized he knew the Mayor was saying anything.

"He says we're gonna do a tour," Dave said. His face was settled into a small, casual smile. If Karkat had known him longer, he might have recognized how strange it was for Dave to smile this naturally for this long.

The Mayor pulled Dave towards Can Town proper, looking back and forth between him and Karkat as though to make sure they're both following. He points to an arrangement of cans stacked into narrow towers a little taller than the Mayor himself. Nearby, a few wider, shorter stacks line what appear to be purple roads.

"This is Downtown Can Town in all its under-construction glory! I helped with the stacking. Don't touch, we still gotta alchemize some glue to stabilize the whole thing. Oh, that's Can Town City Hall! It was one of the first municipal buildings the Mayor planned…"

Dave narrated as the Mayor took them through the budding arts district, a suburban neighborhood, and a strangely familiar 'military training ground' that the Mayor seemed particularly excited to show him.

"Aww, yeah, you made that all by yourself. That's right, dude! Who's the best Mayor? You are!" Dave patted the Mayor's head and gave him a hug to punctuate his point, and Karkat just watched in a combination of amusement and nausea.

The tour took longer than Karkat expected, despite being a relatively small area. Dave kept lapsing into construction stories or starting up again on praising the Mayor. Karkat couldn't help but marvel how silly it was for a god tier time player to waste his… well, time on something so incredibly wigglerish. But then, they had all the time in the world to waste now. Karkat supposed that he didn't strictly need to be an asshole about it.

"Dude, isn't it rad that the Mayor made that banner basically all by himself? I mean, I wrote the letters, but he made the lines dark and he even saved some green chalk to write it in even though he's always eating it for some reason." Dave squeezes the Mayor's hand when he says that, and the Mayor looks at him with innocent eyes. "I keep trying to stop him."

"This is what you've been doing?" Karkat finally asked. "Just chilling with the Mayor, making a fake wiggler town?" So much for not being an asshole.

Dave looked at him like it was a stupid question. "Yeah."

Karkat looked Dave in his stupid, garishly red god tier pajamas. He looked at his stupid shades and his dumb stoice face. He looked at the way he held the Mayor's hand like a lifeline, standing among the cans of this testament to regression. He felt something squeeze in his thorax.

Dave: Try to appreciate foreign films.

"Uhhh, Karkat?"

"What?"

"Did you seriously pick a gay troll movie for our cool bros movie night?"

Karkat rolled his eyes and paused the movie on a rare unflattering shot of Troll Matthew McConaughey. He was in the middle of a particularly intense conversation with his shorter, scrawnier troll co-star when Dave had felt the need to speak up. They were in the common room, for god's sake, someone could see.

"I seriously picked a troll move for our movie night, and that was all the words I understood out of that mess your deficient pan decided was a sentence."

"Yeah, but like… where's the busty love interest? Isn't this a chick flick?"

"If you're just going to be obnoxious, I'm pressing play."

Dave tried to give Karkat a miserable look at the prospect, but Karkat wasn't picking up what he was putting down. The movie played for another fifteen minutes, until a particularly charged scene in what appeared to be some sort of space-age locker room full of armor and helmets. Space gladiators? Seriously?

"Okay, now this is practically a setup for gay porn."

"I wouldn't be watching it with you if it was porn, you idiot. And I don't get whatever reference you're making." Karkat wasn't even looking at him, just watching the love story unfold on screen.

"What reference?"

"That word you keep using to describe this cultural enrichment experience I am oh-so-graciously curating for you."

There's a moment when Dave finds himself quiet, and Karkat takes that moment to refocus on the film. Some pieces clicked into place for Dave, and he found himself staring at his alien friend again. He looked so fucking weird, with his uncanny valley eyes and his too-small ears. Did trolls seriously just not care about whether they liked guys or girls? Did they all just like… both? Like that was something normal? The notion was pushing something off-kilter in his brain, but it didn't push quite far enough to get through to the next logical step in his train of thought.

Then, Dave finally responded: "You really don't know what 'gay' means?"

"Dave, please, this is one of the best pitch meet-cutes in cinema, you could at least pretend to pay attention. I don't care about whatever stupid earth shit you're going on about right now."

"...Yeah okay. That's fine."

As he settled back to keep watching the film, Dave found himself hoping Karkat wasn't going to ask for clarification later on this one.

Karkat: Find a new way to cope.

Despite himself and despite how ridiculous it was, Karkat found himself returning to Can Town a few times in the coming weeks. He had spent so much time in his respiteblock already, and his pile was starting to scatter and spread to the corners of the room. He just hadn't had the motivation to pick everything up off the floor and fix it up dense and cozy again. He hadn't had the motivation for much of anything, but the Mayor didn't have to know it, and neither did Dave.

In Can Town, he felt like he was at his coolest and most collected. He hated himself a little for only being able to find his calm around these wigglers and their immature games. But at least nobody was giving him shit for yelling, so it was still preferable to socializing with Terezi or Vriska. And Kanaya, he was sort of avoiding, since he kept bogging her down with his stupid feelings over Trollian. That needed to stop. It was getting beyond inappropriate.

When he arrived at Can Town one day for is usual shift drawing and stacking, Dave was already there. He usually was. He was on his knees near Downtown Can Town, the Mayor hunched over near him, apparently trying to manipulate some cardstock and tape.

"Hey," Karkat greeted as he walked in. This earned a distracted "'sup" from Dave, but the Mayor perked up. He peeled away from Dave and took Karkat by the hand, and before he knew it he was being led to a neighborhood in progress on the other side of the room.

The Mayor put Karkat to work drawing a new road, communicating the goals of the project by pointing and emoting. He could gesture and blink his way to "Draw grey here" and "That line should be straighter" and an exasperated "Do better please." When Karkat had started working with the Mayor, he had felt like he was waiting for the punchline of some elaborate joke. As he got to know the Mayor and his vision, however, Karkat found he didn't want to let him down. Meeting his standards proved more difficult than initially expected, because the Mayor kept having to stop him and show him how to do things correctly.

Karkat grew absorbed in his task, and time seemed to pass with the Mayor by his side, assisting and correcting. There was something soothing about being bad at something stupid. Eventually, Dave appeared as if out of nowhere.

"I finished the Hella Jeff Memorial Pizza Hut," he shared with his specific brand of subdued excitement. "Come check it out!" He grabbed the Mayor's hand and pulled him to his feet with a little too much energy, and then the Mayor was jogging to keep up with Dave across the room. Something about the image rubbed Karkat the wrong way. Like an overzealous highblood with no regard for his lowblood quadrantmate's feelings. Remind you of anyone? He shook his head to rid himself of the thought. He was definitely reading too many romance novels, and that was all there was to say on the subject.

"Dude, Karkat, you too. You're gonna love this."

He took careful steps down the streets of Can Town toward Dave. Karkat watched him, still clutching the Mayor's hand, carefully standing in an empty spot in the densest part of the miniature city. He opened his mouth to say something, but the look on the Mayor's face shut him up. If he didn't know any better, he'd guess that the carapacian had some kind of telepathic psionic ability. He tilted his head and pinched together his eyebrows, glancing from Dave to Karkat, and without a shred of doubt Karkat could tell he meant "He means well."

Karkat's eyes slid from the Mayor down to where Dave had crouched down to fiddle with paper and tape. There was a paper drawing partly stuck to a can of Tab, and Dave was pressing the tape down over and over when it kept coming loose. There was something a little unhinged about the gesture. That was when it first struck Karkat that Dave might have actually had an even looser grip on his own pan than Karkat had on his.

Dave: Take part in the troll disease called friendship.

Dave was floating back from third-wheel time on the Lalonde and Maryam Show and planning a pit stop in the kitchen on the way to his room when he saw a troll in the common room. It was weird that the meteor was basically a city, and everyone still ended up back at this common room. Or maybe it wasn't, since it was so close to the only working kitchen he knew about. So far. He glided through the common room, glancing from behind his shades at the tuft of troll hair and horns visible over the couch.

Of course it was Karkat.

He was hunched over, drawn in on himself, and apparently shaking. He clearly hadn't noticed Dave. What's more, he was muttering to himself rather loudly through gritted pointy teeth.

("...YOU ...EGOMANIACAL...TYRANT. TAKE YOUR... NARCISSISTIC SCHTICK AND…")

He shook as he angrily typed out every capital letter of his tirade, scowl twisting his face so deeply Dave found himself staring as he floated past. If he'd known what to look for, he might have noticed that Karkat had been crying. His shout-whispers only paused to await what were surely responses.

("I DON'T CARE WHAT HE TELLS YOU, YOU SADISTIC BITCH! I NEED TO TALK TO HIM!")

Karkat's words devolved into a sort of rumbling snarl whose source Dave, briefly, could not identify. Feeling awkward but not knowing how to proceed, Dave busied himself looking through the pantry.

"No NO SERKET DON'T YOU DARE!" Karkat yelled at an audible, rage-rant volume,springing to his feet. "MY QUADRANTS ARE NOT ANY BULGEKNOTTING BUSINESS OF YOURS YOU SANCTIMONIOUS EARFUCKER!" He punctuated himself by throwing his palmhusk into the far corner of the couch, where it bounced off and clattered to the floor.

The increase in volume was enough to get Dave out to investigate. He wasn't about to horn in on a private shitstorm between trolls (especially anything to do with their troll quadrants), but Karkat's voice sounded off from his usual energy. And he was just yelling at himself alone in the common room, for all he knew, although Dave had no way of knowing if that was normal for him.

In any case, they were friends now. Friends help friends deal with Vriska Serket.

Dave let himself audibly drop the two inches to the floor as he re-entered the common room, earning himself the pleasure of a spectacular startle response from Karkat. Karkat jumped and froze in an off-balance defensive position, eyes wide, claws flexed, lips baring teeth. The four seconds Dave stared off with him before Karkat seemed to understand who he was were admittedly pretty scary.

"You okay, bro?" Dave asked as nonchalantly as he could.

"SHE BLOCKED ME, DAVE!" Karkat yelled at him, voice whiny yet rumbling on its edges. "SHE ORDERED GAMZEE TO STOP TROLLING ME, AND THAT TYRANNICAL HOMUNCULUS OF SADISM AND BILE IS ACTING LIKE SHE'S DOING ME SOME KIND OF FAVOR!" His fists clenched and unclenched as he gesticulated erratically, face settling into a toothy scowl as his chest heaved with angry breath. With the horns poking out of his hair, Karkat looked like a cartoon bull preparing to charge.

Dave's eyebrows were going up. He took a breath, finding his chill in the face of this fresh chaos. He stared at Karkat. The irate and dangerous troll on the other side of the couch from him was seething, and he didn't seem like he was done yelling. Dave wasn't sure what he was supposed to say in this type of situation, honestly.

"I'm gonna go ahead and say, I don't think spidertroll has ever done anyone any favors."

Karkat's scowl deepened and for a moment, Dave thought he'd said the wrong thing. Suddenly, unexpectedly, Karkat brought his clenched fists to his forehead in a shaky fit of frustration. He let out a loud, wordless grunt and collapsed into a seated position on the couch, head in his hands. This was something Dave could work with. He walked over to the couch and seated himself on the opposite end of the couch, face blank as a river stone. He looked at Karkat, inscrutable.

Karkat glanced up from his hands, and there was definitely moisture there. "You can go now, Strider."

"Nope."

"Why the fuck not?"

"It's in the bro code, dude. I think? It should be. 'Bros don't let bros throw huge self-destructive shitfits over spidertroll.'"

Karkat brought his knees in. "I don't know what you're talking about, but I don't need a new moirail."

"I do not know what that is," Dave returned coolly. "This is just a human friend thing."

There was silence for a moment as Karkat stared from under his bristly mop of hair at Dave's tinted glasses. Dave stared back, hoping that Karkat wouldn't notice the pink he could feel tingeing his ears in response to the emotional vulnerability of the moment. It was like some sort of game of friendship chicken, wherein they both had to be all-in for neither of them to lose face.

"She's just such a spectacular bitch," Karkat finally ground out, sounding simultaneously infuriated and defeated. "I don't know what the fuck I'm supposed to do about her. I'm supposed to be the fucking leader, and she's not even letting me be the leader of my own fucking quadrants. I know I fucked up with Gamzee, but that's my fuck-up to fix. I'm supposed to clean up my own fucking mess. If I can't… What if he just fucking... " Karkat doubled over. He was shaking again.

Dave looked on helplessly. He couldn't even save Karkat the embarrassment by looking away as he broke down right there on the couch. He'd insisted he'd stay, but in actual fact, he had no idea what he was doing there. He didn't know Gamzee beyond his murder record, and he didn't even know Vriska as well as that. Karkat had this whole history that Dave definitely had no part of.

"Sounds rough, buddy," Dave finally said to fill the awkward silence.

When Karkat raised his head to shoot him a familiar glare for his flippant bullshit, he was almost glad.

"Dude, sorry I don't get your troll shit," Dave said. "But I get that you're flipping your shit harder than usual, and Serket sucks, so like."

"I just wish she would fuck off to the other end of the meteor and leave me the fuck alone," Karkat interjected. "I don't even fucking care if she takes Gamzee with her, our whole thing is done, but I still-" he cut himself off. "I just want to talk to him. Over Trollian is fine. Is that such a big fucking deal?"

"Honestly?"

"It wasn't an actual question, you bulgehumping assclown," Karkat snapped at him. "None of this is an actual fucking question! I wouldn't know the first fucking thing I'm supposed to do about Serket! She's a fucking universal constant of aggravation and personal sabotage."

Dave nodded, letting Karkat get it out. He went on for a while, mostly talking about Vriska. He talked a little about Gamzee, and Dave didn't like the haunted look that crossed Karkat's face when he did. To be fair, Dave couldn't imagine what it must have felt like to have one of your good friends go murderclown on you.

They sat for a while in a tense, vulnerable silence that Dave could neither understand nor appreciate. It seemed to help Karkat, though. His eyes were looking dryer and his face was starting to take on that hungover vibe that came after too many emotions spewed out of it. He looked so much smaller than he had earlier, claws ready and snarling. Dave found himself watching Karkat's pointy, carnivorous teeth when he opened his mouth.

"I just want to go back to my block," Karkat said miserably. "Can we please just pretend this didn't happen the next time we talk?"

"Uh, if that's what you want," Dave agreed, a little too fast. He kicked himself. It wasn't like he didn't want to give emotional support. "Do you, like, want to watch a movie?"

Karkat shook his head gently, standing up from the couch. "I'm getting a headache and I need to bury it in my pile."

"Sure, bro. I'll see you in Can Town tomorrow?"

"Yeah." Karkat hesitated. "Strider?"

Something about the way Karkat said it made Dave's stomach do a nervous flip. "Yeah?"

"Thanks, but we're not doing anything like this ever again."

Dave opened his mouth to ask what that meant, but Karkat was already leaving the room and walking briskly down the hall.

PROGRESS TO NEW SESSION: 5.8%