SOY: hello, sorry for the long hiatus but I have been busy with this year's HSWC, and then with editing other fandom fics.

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Rating: Mature for themes and later content.

Warnings: none.

Disclaimer: I don't own HomeStuck.

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Higher than Hope

Chapter 03

When Karkat got to the alchemizer's room, he was almost startled to find the block not as empty as he'd hoped.

Nobody was actually using the alchemizer, but there was a pile in a corner, and inside it there was Dave.

Sleeping.

Karkat blinked in surprise, unsure what to think about the situation, and when the door slid close behind his back he froze, waiting for the human to wake.

He didn't.

He had absolutely no idea why Dave was even there on his own instead of being around Terezi, like always, but he wouldn't be deterred just because someone else was in the room.

In fact, it was almost ok. The guy was asleep anyway, he wouldn't bother Karkat at all.

With a grunt, he moved over to the alchemizer, checking on the virtual monitor as he punched each code in, hoping to find the one he wanted.

After a while, he stopped glancing over at Dave and immersed himself into his work, soon forgetting he was even there in the first place, and when he finally managed to punch the right code, after numerous useless attempts, he emitted a loud thrill, his throat vibrating to echo his satisfaction.

That was enough to rouse Dave from his sleep.

"Hey, what're you doing in here?"

Startled away from his furious typing, Karkat looked over at Dave, who was rubbing his eyes with one hand, shades pushed up on top of his head.

"Alchemizing, of course," Karkat muttered, shrugging slightly and moving to the side to spend the grist needed for the object.

"Been seein' you less around, lately," Dave continued, breaking the silence and making Karkat groan. "Where have you been? Cuddling your juggalo?"

Karkat's hands froze around the lever, and he busied himself with the machine, pressing the right button. A DGD (Digital Grub Disc) materialized in front of him.

Dave went silent for a moment, correctly interpreting his reaction. "He's gone again? Where the fuck could he even go? Half the meteor's empty barren land!"

Growling despite himself, Karkat grabbed the small object and turned to look at the human.

"The fucking mass of uncaring asshole's probably lost waggling somewhere on the meteor, God only knows where he's dragging his bony carcass, and of course everybody's expecting me to know shit about his whereabouts, as if he's actually telling me that stuff!"

"Oi, oi, Karkat, chill, wasn't trying to ask anything out of you, am not Kanaya, ok?" lifting both arms to placate Karkat's sudden anger, Dave eyed the DGD cover. "Is that a movie?"

Eyes narrowed suspiciously, Karkat nodded. "One of my favourite romcoms. I've been wanting to watch it for a while, now".

For a moment, Dave remained silent. "Let's watch it together, man".

"What the fuck," Karkat, shoulders hunched a bit, stepped away from the human. "Are you planning something underhanded, Strider? I won't play your stupid games, I'm not in the mood".

Thin lips turned into a displeased line, and dark red orbs narrowed in mock hurt –though Karkat had to admit he looked honesty hurt. "Karkat, hear me up, this ain't irony, ok? I listen to your book stories without complaining, movie's just faster and won't make you sound like Christopher Lloyd afterwards".

Karkat's cheeks turned darker, about to deny the accusation, then he thought better of it and paused.

"C'mon, don't you want to educate me further?" Dave's eyebrows wiggled as he said that, a smirk on his lips, and Karkat snorted.

Watching things with Strider would –maybe– be better than just watch them on his own, since Kanaya was oftentimes busy with Rose and his fucking moirail was off who knew where.

"Let me catch the Mayor, I'm sure he would like to be into this too," Dave stood up, cracking his shoulders, looking like a man on a mission. "He's been missing in on the fun for too long".

A bit startled by the sudden mention of the carapace, Karkat blinked, but had nothing to say against it.

"Don't waste time or I'll start the movie without you two," he groused.

"Don't nag or I won't bring any snacks," Dave retorted.

Despite himself, Karkat smiled a bit as he watched the human vacate the block.

Ten minutes later they were all sitting in Karkat's respiteblock, with plenty of snacks and the Mayor nested between them, a look of wonder on his face.

As Karkat played his favourite romcom movie and settled back into the makeshift pile, he had to admit that while this wasn't how Karkat had expected it to go, it wasn't actually all that bad.

Glancing over at Dave, the human's face focused on the movie, he wrinkled his nose and smiled a bit.

"Seriously, I'm going to die here, no ifs or buts, and you'll drown in guilt, I tell you".

Rufioh turned slightly towards the human, observing him with a small, patient smile, and Dave rolled his eyes at him.

No matter the lengths Dave went to convince the troll, no matter how much time he spent drawling on and on, ranting and, at one point, even rapping, Rufioh never gave in, his slightly apologetic, cheerful smile unwavering.

Dave, to put it simply, was really bored.

"You just broke out of your fever, man, stuff is serious, can't let you out so easily, you know?" Rufioh made a small wave with one arm, encompassing the room. "Better stay here, don't you agree?"

"No, man, Rufioh, pal, no, I can't agree, shit's boring, like you wouldn't believe, I'm growing cobwebs, dust all over my aged body, until I'll be just a relic of the past, and you–"

"Ya know that won't actually help," Rufioh interrupted him, the grin turning slightly cheeky. "You're talking to someone who's been dead for more time than you, little time player, can imagine. Besides," he added, toothy grin widening, "I don't even think you can stand on your own, wound's not close for good, and I'm not going to be risking your sh… your health by conceding ya some tour 'round the hive!"

Dave groaned, looking away from Rufioh to stare at the empty, boring wall on the side.

The fever had marginally compromised his recovering, he was aware of that –he'd wasted another day by sleeping on and off, barely eating, and could almost feel the way his body was weakening without his usual training regime.

Rufioh was nice enough to spend quite some time at his bedside, as the troll had no trouble talking Dave's ears off and offer him more water whenever Dave needed it.

"Things here are sort of enticing, feels right like being back on Beforus, ya know? Man, those were such rowdy days, ya can't understand, I swear, livin' in the forest, hunting food, building hives… thrilling life, and 'round here it's been the same crazy shi… yeah, anyway!"

With a good dose of cheer, Rufioh had described him how the hive looked, or at least how the hive he'd built on Beforus had looked –Dave wasn't exactly sure, sometimes Rufioh seemed to confuse things on his own– and had been rather unhelpful on most other accounts, like explaining what animals the meat he cooked for Dave came from, or how far he'd travelled to check for other people.

By the way he seemed to avoid those things, growing slightly nervous and abruptly changing subject, Dave had quickly understood that Rufioh, surprisingly, liked his solitary status.

He didn't seem to mind having Dave around, though, or the other troll Eridan –who had yet to make an appearance since the fever had gone away– and it made things even more complicated.

Dave didn't care enough to ask him if he missed his friends, or at least he didn't have enough strength to pursue the subject yet.

Still, the troll couldn't be around to entertain Dave all the time, even if he disliked staying put. Trying to stand on his own was a no-no, because the wound wasn't just a scratch.

The bandages had been changed only once while he'd been awake, and the sight had left him pale and worried.

The gash was long, and diagonal due to the way Bec Noir had plunged in, and when Dave had fallen backwards the sword had slid up, ripping through more of his flesh. The skin surrounding the wound was red and infected due to the nature of the blade, but further away it simply itched, covered with rash.

Eridan had made a good job with the sewing, though –the thread was thin, and it kept the wound close, and the lower and upper corners had already started to scar, which was a good thing.

If he had been stingy on details regarding their exact position in the new world, Rufioh had been overly helpful about what Eridan had done, punctuating everything with comments on how he disliked blood in general, and that he could totally fight, but putting together stuff, and humans, 'that was actually different crap, no offense!'.

He'd also happily commented that the bandages used on Dave's wound were coming from Eridan's purple cape, because Dave's own one had been bloody and dirty, and as such unusable.

"Just wait some more, will ya? 'nother week or so and you'll be fine, probably, if you don't try anything crazy!" Rufioh patted Dave's shoulder, and Dave groaned, pouting slightly.

"You say that, but how would you like it if you were the one supposed to keep still?"

"Have been in a similar situation when I pupated, man," Rufioh's sympathetic smirk faltered when Dave looked at him in confusion. "Didn't ya know that? I thought you've been staying with trolls for a while?"

"Wasn't a subject to talk about over tea," the human shrugged slowly, testing his muscles and relaxing when the movement didn't make him hurt.

"Well, when I first pupated I got those beauties here," Rufioh pointed to his carefully folded wings, poking from behind him in their relaxed state. "Don't look like much, but you won't believe how strong they are. I tell ya what, when you're feeling better I'm bringing you out for a grand tour, what'd ya say?"

Considering he wasn't even sure if his post-game body would let him fly, the idea was appealing enough to make Dave nod.

"Sure thing, but if you drop me I'm going to go ballistic on your ass".

Rufioh, seemingly started, glanced around frantically before catching himself, then blinked and looked chagrined, then sheepish. "Always forget he ain't 'round to check on us, jeez, that guy seemed to have auricular sponge clots everywhere, popping up whenever he thought we'd used triggering words".

Dave snorted. "Wait, you mean Vantas senior? The red jumper asshole?"

Rufioh winced again, but as nothing happened for the second time, he looked mighty relieved.

"Uhm, yeah, Kankri had a, penchant, for knowing how to butt in on us, whoa," shaking his head, Rufioh smiled a bit. "Good pal, of course, but a tad bit focused on the wrong stuff, you get?"

"Totally," Dave nodded sagely.

Thinking of the way Kankri had chased Karkat around, just for the sake of ranting his 'auricular sponge clots' off, Dave almost snickered before being reminded that Karkat, just like everybody else, was not around.

Instantly his mirth evaporated.

Rufioh didn't seem to notice Dave's abrupt change of mood, or maybe he did, because he stood up from the makeshift chair and licked his lips.

"I'm off to gather some more wood, I'll be back in a couple hours, ya gonna be ok?"

"Yeah, I'll just engage some dust to a mighty battle of intellect," he shrugged, slumping down the bed again.

Rufioh grinned at him, patting his arm gently in a reassuring way, and Dave found himself relaxing slightly. It could have been way worse, but Rufioh really managed to dispel a bad mood with his strong attitude.

"Don't let the dust beat ya into a pulp again, Mr Strider," the troll teased him good naturedly, "Your pride wouldn't survive".

"Ooh, sassy," he replied with a smirk.

He watched Rufioh go, and his smirk wavered and disappeared. With another sigh, he contented himself with running his fingers down his side, testing where the skin still hurt, even though the layers of bandages, and where it didn't anymore.

He absently checked the time, faltering for a second when the dissonance still jarred him, then quickly steered himself away, and counted slowly up to five, aligning himself to the new flow.

The new planet's stirring and turning in the background was helping Dave, smoothing the transition to the new ticking, but it would still take some time to adjust, since he didn't know much of this world.

It wasn't hard to see that there was a different way to count time, but he was too used to his own to be able to accept the new one yet.

He shuffled a bit on the bed, then strengthened his resolve and started shifting around, using his elbows to slowly hoist himself up to a sitting position.

There was no way he could get up on his own, not without the help of someone else, no matter how much he disliked the lack of independency, but the idea of being alone again in the room was getting to be too much.

The weight shifted as he balanced himself, and his side gave a warning jolt, making him tense; slowly, he pushed himself up until he was sitting, and with some satisfaction, Dave took a deep breath, keeping his back straight so he wouldn't put weight where it hurt.

Ok, he could work with this.

Small metaphorical steps.

They would get to be less metaphorical if he could stand up, but…

"He's been gone for ten minutes an you're already disobeyin', wwhat an annoyin' guy".

Startled out of his satisfied trance, Dave looked up, deer caught in the streetlight, eyes wide, and stared at Eridan. The troll was peeking into the room, only his head visible from behind the corner of the door until he stepped to the side, revealing himself whole.

Dave inhaled sharply, forcing his heart to calm down, and grimaced at him.

"Way to make a guy lose a couple years of his life, shit," he wheezed. "What are you, my personal guard?"

Eridan snorted slightly, though he didn't move from the door. "Seems I mighta be that, else you'll just try ta run 'round reopenin' your wwounds".

"I wasn't going to," he replied a bit too quickly, caught guilty but not wishing to admit it. "I'm just bored as fuck, I could as well try to stand or something, give a guy some leeway will you. You're not the one stuck on this shitty bed".

Eridan regarded him for a moment, making Dave wonder what he saw in him –what kind of pathetic mess he had to be– then he finally slid inside the room, moving carefully towards him.

"It doesn't seem to be reopenin'," the troll carefully admitted, watching Dave's side for a moment. "Does it itch?"

Dave nodded, swallowing, and Eridan seemed somewhat relieved.

"You're healin' quickly," he stated. "I guess you can stay sittin' for a wwhile".

Dave considered his options carefully, then threw caution to the wind. "Help me get up," he ordered.

"Wwhat?" the troll looked befuddled and sort of affronted.

Dave restrained a snort.

"C'mon, I've been coped up enough here," he coaxed him. "Get me out of this room for a second, I promise I'll be a little obedient pet, you won't even have to scold me to come back. I can't stand on my own, Rufioh's right, but I really wanna out. The same four walls all the time, I can tell you exactly how many cracks there are," he pointed at the ceiling. "Fifty-three, not to mention I counted the wooden boards you used for the walls, there's twenty three on this side and twenty on that one, and the one under the window is slightly smaller so–"

"Ok, I get it, I get it, you're bored as fuck!" Eridan lifted both hands to make him stop, but Dave was on a roll.

"Oh, and there's a nice nest of spiders on that side, there are four of them, mommy's been pretty busy round here. I named them all, they've been the highlights of my day," Dave motioned up, where there was a visible cobweb spreading from one side of the ceiling to the other.

He paused, looking back at Eridan.

"That one's called Bill, by the way," he pointed at his shoulder.

Eridan's eyes zeroed on his shoulder, and they went slightly wide in surprise as he noticed a small spider dangling from a single, translucent thread.

"Wwhat the–"

He lifted his hand and tried to grab the spider in reflex, but caught the web instead, scrunching up his nose at the feeling of stickiness under his finger.

The little spider dangled from his hands for a moment before the thread snapped and it fell on the ground, small enough to disappear between the boards.

"Eww," he groaned, wiping his hand on his shirt.

"Aw, that's so much fun, I'll be entertained for hours now that I know there's a spider unaccounted for running around in my room," Dave rolled his eyes.

Eridan pouted, still busy wiping his fingers, but seemed to consider the request, eyes moving from the empty room to the human. "If… an I'm sayin' if," he cautiously started, watching as Dave's eyes focused on him again, sharp and hopeful, "if I'm gettin' you up an all, but you can't stand evven wwith my help, wwill you shut the fuck up an be good?"

Dave hastily nodded. He didn't care shit if he looked so hopeful his Bro would cringe at his puppy behaviour. He was so done with all this shit.

"Anything you say, cap," he reassured the troll, smirking. "Offer me your shoulder and we can see, c'mon, Eridan, pal, that's all I ask you, I will be quiet and nice and I won't be straining myself, just a walk around…"

"You're a wweird alien," Eridan moved even closer, still looking slightly harried and still definitely suspicious, but he did place himself next to the bed, looking down at Dave with the same expectant face as before.

"Man, I know I said I would be quiet like a fish, but you'd better get down here and offer more than just an expectant stare, I can't very much stand as it is, not if you don't want to spend the next hour sewing me up like a coat".

Eridan made a small sound, a soft click followed by a very low, bubbling noise, and Dave blinked at him –it wasn't anything he'd ever heard any of the other trolls do, so it was something peculiar to this guy. Like the weird gills on his face.

Fishy, and a part of his mind snorted at his own badly placed pun. If John had been around, he would have laughed.

Much to Dave's surprise, Eridan was stronger than he looked –instead of letting Dave hoist his weight up by leaning on his shoulder, he actually tugged him up easily, fast enough that Dave's vision went blurry for a moment, and he had to gasp, grabbing the troll's chest to steady himself, knuckles white.

When he focused again, he was standing, and the pain shooting from his midsection was actually bearable enough, as long as the troll continued holding most of his weight.

"Ok…" he cleared his throat, trying to swallow the knot he felt. "I think we can work this out".

Eridan looked at him, perplexed and slightly confused, but remained silent.

"Man, you're cold," Dave commented, straightening his back and trying to take a step.

He watched as the hand holding his shoulder tightened up, and when he glanced over at the troll's face, he could see Eridan's gills flutter madly against his cheeks, his eyes wide behind those hipster glasses and his cheeks slightly darker.

"What," he asked, surprised at the reaction.

"Wwhat the fuck do you mean, cold. I'vve been nice an helpin' you, an you tell me I'm cold?!"

Dave snorted at the indignant way the troll was acting, blubbering and clicking at him, and still holding him up in a steady grip. Without thinking about it, he patted the troll's chest with his free hand.

"Shoosh man, I meant to say your skin's cold. Jeez, don't get your gills in a twist," focusing down on his feet, Dave moved his weight forwards, and Eridan, though still totally baffled, followed him.

His side sent him a warning twinge, but his legs didn't give out on him, which was totally a point in his favour.

Hell yes.

"Hell, yes," he muttered under his breath, though aware that the troll was holding most of his weight.

"Don't rush it," Eridan warned him, but didn't stop him as Dave took another step. "Easy there, or I swwear I'll drop you".

Feeling a rush of satisfaction at being on his feet, Dave barely heard Eridan's threat, and instead pushed himself forwards. His legs were sort of weak (it felt like he hadn't used them in a long time, and the leg on the same side as the wound hurt like a bitch when he shifted his balance on it), but he could walk.

That was good enough.

Together with the sudden rush of adrenaline, he was also hit by a wave of claustrophobia, and his fingers itched as he tried to spur Eridan forwards, closer and closer to the door.

When he got there, Eridan stopped and refused to move, and it took Dave a while to realise that he was breathing hard, panting and holding onto the troll's arm and shoulder with a vice-like grip.

"Should wwe go back?"

"No, fuck, no, I'm ok, just… let me breathe a sec and then I'm good to go again".

Grateful when Eridan didn't turn them around, Dave forced himself to calm down and waited until his heart had slowed back down to a normal pace, then nodded.

"Lead the way, cap," he stated.

Eridan's throat rumbled a bit, and Dave sighed, hit by a wave of familiarity. For a moment, closing his eyes, he could almost believe he was back on the meteor.

Then the illusion dissipated and Eridan stepped onwards, and Dave had to concentrate on walking and not falling to his painful demise.

Much to Dave's disappointment, the corridor outside of his room was just equally bland, with a long row of wooden panels, but his spirit lifted when he noticed a nearby window.

It was more of an open square, without anything to cover it up, unlike the one in his room, but it was a window and that was enough.

Eridan noticed where Dave was looking, and nodded, then chewed on his lower lip. "You sure you wwanna sea?"

Dave almost snorted at the pun, about to make fun of the troll's sudden obvious worry, then realised that the troll expected him to act up again, and cursed at his previous idiocy. He hadn't thought it would hit him that hard, but the panic was gone now, was it? He was totally ok.

Cool as ice.

Fucking chilly.

"Move your fishy ass over there".

"You'd better treat me as fuckin' royalty or I'm droppin' you here an leavvin'," Eridan threatened, his throat rumbling. "Ain't your fuckin' servvant".

"Yeah, sorry about that, I just–" Dave stretched forwards, trying to calm down but at the same time wanting to reach that window. "I…"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it, you wwanna see," though slightly exasperated, the troll moved again, and Dave breathed in relief.

When he got one step away from the window, Dave dropped any sort of caution and at the same time also let go of Eridan, and propelled himself forwards, grabbing the edge of the window and leaning heavily on it.

He heard Eridan curse at his side, the troll's hands following him down to hold him up, but he ignored it He also ignored the sparkle of pain coming from his side and the strong one coming from his left foot as he put his weight on it again; the window wasn't a good substitute to Eridan's support, but it would have to do.

Dave looked out of the window, and his mind was wiped clean of everything, eyes wide in shock at the sight greeting him.

Everywhere he could see, there were trees. It was an endless sea of vegetation spread under him until the eye could see.

Most of them were roughly the same height, but here and there the blanket of trees was interrupted by a plant higher than the rest, few solitary giants reaching out for the sky, and as he looked down, unable to see the ground from where he was standing, Dave realised Rufioh had strategically built his hive on one of those taller trees.

Much to his surprise, not all of the trees he could see were even green; right under the window there was a group of trees in faded out blues, and he could see that one of the trees taller than the rest had the bark of a healthy maroon fading into a pale orange towards the top.

The outer walls of Rufioh's hive were covered with what looked like ivy, but thicker and with pointy leaves, peppered here and there with small, round balls of various brown hues that Dave thought could be either berries or growing blossoms.

The hive itself wasn't fully visible from where he was standing –just wooden walls continuing on each side of the window, and by looking down he realised there was probably another row or floor underneath, possibly disconnected from the one he was into.

He had no idea how tall the trees were, since there were walls of leaves between him and the ground, but he had a vague suspicion that they were really high.

Another thing he noticed, this time at a second glance in the distance, was that there were no mountains at all anywhere. All he could see were trees, only trees. No ground, no water, no hills or mountains.

By the daylight and the hue of the sky, Dave could infer it was late in the afternoon, and he tried to synch this idea to the sense of Time ticking inside his head. His eyes were hurting a bit due to the amount of light, but he ignored it, wanting to keep looking as long as he could.

He didn't even notice how tightly he was clutching the edge of the window until his fingers started hurting, and even then he was unable to relax his grip, far too busy squinting at the weird, unfamiliar world in front of him to care about anything else.

He felt Eridan's body pressed against his side, gently prodding him, and he almost protested until he realised the troll wasn't pulling him away from the window but merely moving him to the side so that he could look out as well.

"Dunno if your useless human alien sight can see till there, but," Eridan's free hand pointed towards the horizon, "nature's cheatin' you out like this, it ain't endless, wwe're in a basin vvalley".

Dave squinted hard, trying to see what Eridan was showing him, but it was still difficult.

"From the other side of the hivve you see the mountains, but this side only has trees," Eridan continued in a bored tone. "Havven't been up ta the edge at all, but Ruf has, says the forest turns into meadowws after that".

Dave was still trying to process what Eridan was saying (he had a hard time picturing what a basin valley looked like) when something attracted his attention at the edge of his vision, and he zeroed on it. A mile away, right in front of him, something was rising from beneath the surface of the trees.

He watched as a long, sinuous creature rose into the air, flapping its wings incessantly. It was too far to distinguish any detail, but it was completely white, almost translucent, and the distance and the lack of points of reference made it impossible to gauge its actual size.

What he could see was that it looked like a bird, but with bat-like wings and an elongated beak not unlike that of a hummingbird.

"What–"

"Ah, that's one of those predators that wwould eat ya wwhole," Eridan explained, sounding almost cheerful. "Lusus," he added when Dave didn't seem to recognise the animal. "Or at least on Alternia it wwoulda been a lusus".

Dave shook his head slowly, unsure how to take this new information. So of course there were animals, but he'd expected they would be Earth animals, not… not troll ones.

He'd seen Lusii in dreambubbles, but… but this was different.

This was reality.

This new world obviously worked differently, and it unsettled him deeply, in a way he couldn't explain. There wasn't anything familiar, no hope for things to get more understandable, no chance that he would wake up in his bed, or even on the meteor, that he'd found almost homey after three years straight of living on it.

At the same time he knew the new world couldn't just cater to humanity. It had to be home for the trolls too. He just hadn't expected to actually share a planet.

"C'mon Davve, back to ya room before Ruf comes back and skins both a us alivve".

Nodding slowly, Dave didn't protest when Eridan pulled him away from the window, having noticed his slightly laboured breathing.

Somehow, walking back to his bed took more energy out of Dave than he'd anticipated. His mind was still swirling with what he'd seen outside of the window, the alien view, the flying beast… even the now constant pain from his leg and side wasn't enough to snap him out of it.

He'd always worked fine with things belonging to the game, operating with the knowledge that once everything ended, once they won, things would make sense again in a way that he could understand.

That didn't happen.

With a soft sigh, Dave welcomed the cool, stuffy darkness of his room almost with relief. There were a lot of things he had to think about, and his short trip out had only given him more questions instead of answers.

Eridan, ever the model troll, helped him back down, and Dave let out a soft gasp when he lifted both legs onto the bed, crumbling down on its surface and feeling the ache worm its way up his chest, leaving him breathless.

He'd exhausted himself, but he didn't regret it.

"Thanks," he murmured, eyes finding the figure of the troll at his side, lifting up his fist for him to bump.

He should have known better –Eridan looked at him for a moment, obviously confused and with a wrinkle above his nose, before retreating from his bed.

"I don't feel pale for you," he stated, almost accusingly.

Dave blinked in surprise. The subject was sprung on him so suddenly he wondered for a moment if he'd somehow missed something.

"Uh, well, that's actually good, I don't want any of your romantic shit, man," he replied, letting his tongue run free as usual. "Quadrants… not for me," and not even Dave could hide the soft, bitter edge in his tone.

Eridan looked tense and on the edge, shifting from one foot to the other, and he looked confused and ready to burst –almost like Karkat would do whenever Dave pushed the right button at the right time.

It made him smirk.

"Then don't shoosh me," the troll hissed out, throat emitting a soft series of low, annoyed clicking sounds.

"I didn't…" Dave blinked, his smirk vanishing. "Oh, I did, did I?" he groaned softly, pressing the back of his head against the pillow. "Shit, three years around your kind haven't taught me a single fucking useful thing about you people, but I didn't mean to make it look weird. I don't… look you could be the best fucking troll ever at playing pale, but I'm not interested. You're cool, but…" he shrugged.

"D… don't make it look like I wwas comin' onto you!" Eridan growled, the sound low and dangerous, and Dave felt the hair on his arms rise. "I wwasn't, wwho'd wwant to be wweavvin' pale for the likes a you?"

"Jeez, calm down, I wasn't sayin' anything, I was just–" no, nope. Not. "Uncool," he muttered. "Shit, Eridan buddy, I don't even know you, why would I be trying to put my moves on you, no, ain't how it works, not at all. If you're up for some cool bros being bros, then I'm in, let's get those rhymes out and slamming them down hard, but nay, troll romance isn't for me".

Eridan narrowed his eyes, looking down at him with a frightening intense expression.

For a moment, they remained in silence, and Dave idly wondered what the fuck was going on through the troll's brain. That was once again a face he couldn't decipher, but he wasn't sure he wanted to.

Then, the troll shook himself from whatever train of thought he'd gotten lost into and backed away from the bed.

"Keep dowwn your seahorses, I'm goin' to get ya somethin' to drink," Eridan muttered when Dave hastily opened his mouth, ready to spout some more reassurances over his lack of quadrant desires.

Then he left the room, and Dave blinked, relaxing again on the bed.

He had no idea what to think about the troll, but at least he hadn't started a tantrum fit like Karkat had back when they'd met for the first time.

He idly wondered how long Rufioh would be gone, and massaged the edge of his wound with a finger, trying to calm the pain.

The room was empty, but Dave's thoughts were loud enough to cover the silence.