AN: This is a post-game AU where everyone suffers from nightmares, flashbacks ect, but Dave's are worse b/c time player and managing multiple timelines.
It's pretty much Karkat taking care of him after one of his flashbacks.
TW: For slight gore? IDRK, but there's mentions of Gamzee being creepy with his body collecting thing, so be warned.
You wake up to an empty bed and an abundance of sunlight, which makes you wince. You fumble your shades onto your face and sigh as you sink back into the mass of pillows that covers your bed. You lie like that for a bit, listening to the sounds of running water and your matesprit/boyfriend/whatever's singing.
When you can finally be bothered enough to get up, you stretch, groaning as you feel your back pop. With that done you pad your way down the hall towards the kitchen, stretching your arms and rolling your shoulders to release any left-over tension from your nightmares. Everyone got them, one of the side-effects of surviving the game, but yours always seemed worse since they covered every timeline, not just the alpha one.
You shake yourself free of your thoughts, it doesn't do anyone any good to dwell on the past, and begin to make coffee, knowing Karkat will want some when he finishes using all the hot water. While the coffee brews you pull out a bowl and spoon, grabbing the box of Froot Loops from the bench and filling your bowl with the disgustingly sweet cereal. You top it off with some milk from the fridge and dig in.
You only manage three mouthfuls before you get distracted by memories of some of the more… disturbing stains you'd found on the meteor. There are three sets of 'memories', two where the stains are dry, one where its just you walking down the hall and the other with Karkat by your side, the third one is worse. In the third one the faded olive and indigo stains are covered by much fresher jade, with a trail of red drips. Purple eyes appear suddenly from the darkness, the grin that leers at you, the incessant honking, the grating voice calling your name "Dave, Dave. Dave motherfucking Strider!"
You snap back to the present. The voice calling you was Karkat's, not the clown's, never had been the clown's. You look up at Karkat, watch how his face changed from angry to concerned in a millisecond, then back down to the sink you're sagging over, your white-knuckled grip the only thing keeping you upright. You briefly wonder what happened to your cereal, but Karkat speaks softly, drawing all of your attention to him.
"Dave, you back in the present?" He's dealt with this many times and you nod, gladly passing control of the situation into his capable hands. "Past or future?" he asks, still speaking softly. It wasn't often you saw things from the future, but there had been times that you'd seen futures where you'd never finished the game, those of you who'd god tiered being the only ones left.
You swallow several times, trying to get rid of the lump in your throat. "P-past." You manage eventually, looking at him and seeing his worry written all over his face.
He leads you over to the couch where you curl up as he piles cushions all around you. He steps back to admire his handiwork before he tosses a blanket over you. He glances at his wrist, to the watch you gave him. It was a cheap novelty watch with a cartoon crab background. You'd picked it up ironically but he adored it. You focus on that, the positive memories, in an attempt to drive away the left over fear, but it isn't long before even that is ruined, if you had've taken a different route home that night you would have been mugged, if you hadn't have stopped for the watch you wouldn't be together now, all these possibilities that you very narrowly missed.
"I'm gonna call in sick." He says, grabbing the phone from its cradle and dialling his work number from memory.
You know most people would protest, make him go to work, but right now you need him here, need him holding you to make the fear go away. Besides, Jade and Feferi run the veterinarian's office where he works and the four of you have a deal where he gets the day off when he needs it, and you two go in and help if either of them need it.
You hear bits and pieces of the conversation, mostly about your current state and how he found you. "He was doubled over the sink, milk and that disgusting cereal he insists on all over the floor." (Huh, so that's what happened to your cereal) He hangs up shortly after with a "thanks, Jade" and he pulls your blanket off, rearranging the pillows so he can fit beside you before pulling the blanket back over the both of you now. He pulls you against his side, rubbing your back soothingly until you're ready to talk.
You start by telling him that it might have been the Froot Loops that set you off and that maybe you should get rid of them. You'd already had to get rid of a lot of things that were triggering you, most notably anything the same shade of purple as the clown's god tier robes. You had too many 'memories' of him fucking up alternate yous.
Eventually Karkat makes you shut up about getting rid of things and wrangles you back on track. You start telling him about the flash back and the stains, first with the one where it was just you walking down the hall, then the one where it was the both of you. You tell him that in that timeline that was where you two first kissed and he blushes. Then you get to the last one, the one where you'd looked at your feet and found his lifeless body beside you, where you'd followed the trail of red to the clown's hands where he held his head, red blood still dripping from it, and he lifted it, kissing it, fucking with you.
You broke down, hiding your head against Karkat's shoulder as the tears ran down into the fabric of his shirt as he rubbed your back, whispering "it's okay now"s into your ear, even as you cried at the pain that the other you felt in that instant, the pain of losing Karkat.
After about half an hour you'd calmed down and Karkat lifted your face, pressing soft, reassuring, kisses all over it and wiping the tears away before he returned to holding you close in just the way you needed as a reminder that he was still there, that what you say had happened in a different timeline.
And he was there, the way he always was for you, and the way you knew you would be there for him when he needed it.