AN: Ahhh, I got busy suddenly and couldn't post the works (I did write them on the right days, though.) So today you'll get them all up, so keep an eye out for the other parts.
So this one is an alterniearth AU (again) but with no Sburb.
And a heads-up because I think my metaphors got away from me a little.
You and your friends are walking down the street towards the cinema when you feel it, just a slight brushing sensation against the back of your hand.
You glance down, expecting to see some sort of bug that's landed on you, but you see nothing, just your familiar pale skin.
You shrug it off as a weird occurrence, like the times you'd swear you can feel a spider or something crawling up your leg, only to find nothing when you check.
You turn to Rose on your left, hoping to engage her in some form of conversation. It only takes two minutes of talking at her about your comic and blog to realise she's too busy staring at Kanaya's, admittedly fine, ass to be paying proper attention to what you're saying.
"I could be pouring my heart out to you about my raging boner for Karkat and how he makes my kokoro go doki doki and you'd prolly just go 'mhm, that's nice Dave' like it was no big."
"That's nice Dave." she comments absently, not even a small up-twist to her lips to show she actually had been listening.
"Okay, thanks Rose. A+ job on keeping my mind occupied while we walk down this ridiculously lo-" you cut yourself off as you feel something brush against your hand again, with more pressure this time. After verifying that it still wasn't a bug, you glance around your small group, trying to work out who the culprit is.
You're all pretty much walking side-by-side, Kanaya and Vriska walking ahead of you as the only ones who wouldn't fit on the path otherwise, so there's no-one you know behind you which rules that option out. On one side of you is Rose, but that's the wrong side. On your other side is John and Karkat heatedly discussing with is better; National Treasure or Con Air. John's too far away, being on the far side of Karkat, but Karkat's using both hands to gesture animatedly, and if it was him it would have been an accident and he would have made sure it didn't happen again.
You're about to dismiss both instances as accidents when Karkat finishes speaking, passing it over to John to make his point, and lowers his hands, hesitating momentarily before very deliberately reaching out to brush his knuckles against the back of your hand.
You glance up at his face and see he's looking at your hand from the corner of his eye, chewing his lower lip in a way that literally has your kokoro going doki doki. Bro would be proud.
You look back down at your hands and watch as Karkat's fingers stretch out, hesitantly searching for something, then they snap back into a tight fist. This happens a few more times before you remember that Karkat's a romantic at heart and you work out he's trying to work up the courage to grab your hand.
You take pity on him, extending your arm to grab his hand, but just as you do it he starts talking again, using his hands passionately.
"Fuck." You swear softly to yourself, settling in for a lengthy wait as the troll rants.
The next two minutes are spent with him ranting about how National Treasure is better, and then your groups arrival at the cinema, and his rant smoothly segues into a rant about the length of lines and the overpriced popcorn that goes for five minutes, only stopping when he reaches the front of the lines and has to pay for his stuff. You spend the whole time wishing he wouldn't speak with his hands so much so you could grab one of them, tangling your pale fingers with his grey ones and wow, that would make for a great photo…
"Hey!" a pair of grey fingers snap in front of your face, jolting you out of your thoughts. "Earth to Strider, were you paying any attention at all just now?" You look at Karkat, who's glaring at you in irritation, then at the oliveblood behind the counter who looks utterly bored.
"Sorry man, zoned out tryna figure out whether I wanted skittles or m&ms. What were you saying?" You shrug a little, sliding your hands into your pockets so he can't see the way they're twitching towards his.
His sigh is heave and long-suffering, like it'll physically harm him to repeat himself. "I said were you going to buy your own junk? 'Cause I'm happy to share if you pay for half of it."
"Sure bro. Sounds good." You pass him some cash from you pocket, enjoying the momentary contact that follows too much.
When the jumbo-sized popcorn arrives you grab it and lead Karkat back to the group. You file into the theatre, Vriska leading you to the back row and taking the eighth seat in. John sits immediately next to her, using the next seat for their coats. Rose and Kanaya do the same with the next three seats, leaving you and Karkat to fight over the end seat.
"You first, madame." You say, bowing only half-mockingly.
"Fuck you Strider." He growls, taking the seat anyway.
You take your seat and lift the dividing armrest, placing the popcorn bucket in the gap when he shoots you a questioning and suspicious look.
The previews begin and you tune them out, planning how you're gonna get yours and Vantas' fingers tangled together like a pair of Jade's tangle buddies. It's a shame you're not seeing a horror movie, you can't play the 'I'm scared' card, not that he'd buy it if you did. You could try the age-old 'hand's brush in the popcorn' thing, or ignore ht popcorn and just grab his hand from where it's resting on his thigh. Regardless of what you choose, you hope he can at least appreciate how unironically you'll be using these moves, especially since you'd normally only use them for the sake of irony.
By the time you've settled on a method, the previews are well and truly over, and you've missed the start of the movie.
You try and get into the movie, you really do, but it's a romance/action one, and while that combo usually works, this movie comes across more like a Con Air and Titanic got drunk and had a baby, but during the pregnancy everything that could go wrong did go wrong and the kid came out with so many problems it'd take at least three books to list them all.
Basically it sucks and the only reason you're here is because of Karkat.
You wait for the climax of the movie to make your move, Watching Karkat's reactions rather than the actual movie.
You can tell when the climax/plot twist comes up by Karkat's gasp and the way he actually leans forwards in his seat. After a moment he settles back, reaching his left hand across his body into the half-empty popcorn bucket, and you make your move, reaching your right hand into the popcorn and stretching your left arm across the back of his seat before sliding it off to rest on his shoulders. When your arm makes contact with his body you tangle your fingers with his and he jumps, letting out a little squeak.
You smirk a little, that was way too adorable, and pull him closer to you, grabbing the popcorn before it gets squeezed off the edge.
"Strider. What the fuck do you think you're doing?" he hisses aggressively, but his fingers tighten around yours, his body betraying what he really wants.
"I'm proving to the world that the fearsome Karkat Vantas can be swooned." You whisper deadpan. "Now shush, you're missing the movie."
"I'm not swooning." He grumbles, turning back to the movie.
As the last hour of the movie passes Karkat slowly shifts closer to you, changing your position until, by the end of it, he was leaning back against you, your arms around his waist being held in place by his hands which were entwined with your own, tighter than Jade's tangle buddies, and the popcorn, what little there was left, had been relocated into his lap.
When the lights in the theatre came up he jumped away from you, blushing a little and looking at you in a way that implied a painful death if you told anyone about that.
As soon as you got outside and were heading back to John's place, though, he grabbed your hand, blushing angrily.
"No need to be so mad about it, babe." You breathed in his ear, squeezing his hand gently.
"Shut up, Strider." He snarled as you laughed at his scowl.