Healing Cartilage (A Davekat Fanfiction)

4 Languages - Chapter 2

"Nice to meet you," The man in the shades greeted while simultaneously extending a hand.

"Nice to meet you, too." Karkat replied un-extraordinarily before they both shook hands with one another. He immediately felt the urge to ask why the guy was wearing aviators indoors - to conceal a hangover? Just to be irritating? Why? Of course, he didn't bring it up. What if it was something strangely personal? He'd rather leave the party without a new person to hate him.

"Can I take that for you?" Dave questioned. He pointed towards the bottle of wine in Karkat's hand. This 'Dave's' face lightened into a smirk.

"Yeah.. yeah." Karkat absent-mindedly assured. "They're for you anyways." If irritancy and confusion could be focused specifically onto one face, Karkat could tell it was focused on Terezi's, probably at his blatantly failing attempt to seem sociable.

"I figured," A small laugh erupted from the host of the party.

Frown disappearing entirely, Terezi decided to try to save the dying social atmosphere herself. "Dave and I were talking about how weird it is when you first get to New York."

"Because it's like you decided to get a standing ticket to a popular, already overcrowded concert hall." Was the cynical reply, that even further seemed to aggravate Terezi.

Something that would remind someone of amusement suddenly ignited in Dave's eyes. "I don't know, it seems pretty amazing to me thus far."

"Trust me, you'll get that when you come to visit as a tourist, then a month passes and.." Karkat did a swiping action with his hand.

"Don't undersell it." Terezi said.

"That's what it's been like for me."

Dave shrugged. "I think I'd argue differently after coming from a small city in Texas. Everything is so much bigger? Yet everywhere you go is still jam packed with people."

"Where in Texas did you come from?" Karkat attempted to fuel a conversation for himself.

"It's this little -" It seemed as though whenever he spoke, Dave fitted in small, subtle laughs " -tiny, proud town closer to New Mexico than to Austin called Marfa."

"Marfa?" Terezi repeated.

"Marfa." Dave confirmed.

"I've heard it SOMEWHERE." Terezi said.

"Never heard of it." Karkat was able to confidently say.

"What do you work in again?" Dave turned to Terezi.

"I'm an Artist." Terezi replied.

"Psychology student." Karkat stated, confused as to what this had to do with anything.

"That explains it." The smirk on Dave's face grew even larger. "Marfa is famous for being a minimalist arts town. She's in the arts, so she's heard it, and I'm from there, so I've heard it." There was only one thing on Karkat's mind. I did not come to this house warming here to be a third wheel.

"And what do you work as?" Karkat turned the question back on its original poser.

"Documentarian." Well, it explained the nosiness.

"Really?" Subconsciously, Karkat decided he could play the game of the nosy conversation maker with some stranger. "What're you working on?"

"I want to create a film that manages to capture what makes individuality." The blonde explained. "And I thought - what place is better to explore for that than New York?"

Terezi saw Karkat's mouth open in preparation for some sarcastic report as to why New York was not the city for that, and immediately took control of the conversation. "That sounds really psychological."

"Well, I love psychology, and I love film making, and individuality is the only reason the world is interesting."

"You like psychology?" Though he didn't mean it, Karkat's words seemed to come out nearly as a scoff. It wasn't the interested inquiry he had been aiming for.

"Yeah, it's the whole reason I'm even here." Dave smugly replied. Puzzled looks that said 'explain' came from both Terezi and Karkat. "I met Sollux when I was working on drawing up an accurate movie about speech therapy, and he was like the most fucking hilarious lisp bomb I could have hoped to meet. We basically ended up completely swerving off the original path of character development and ended up in sarcastic characters-ville."

"Yep." Terezi decided. "That sounds like Sollux."

"How did the movie go?"

"It was the biggest hit in the shitty town. It was screened at the nearest blockbuster-equivalent like the Notebook."

"Wait, wait, wait. WAIT a minute - TWO questions." Karkat immediately was on the lookout for different slip ups he could find. He wasn't sure why. "You can compare it to the Notebook? And blockbuster aren't those de-?"

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNGGG. Vaguely techno sounds began to spew out amidst the conversations. Immediately, Karkat recognized it as the sound of Terezi's ringtone, if was not evident enough that Terezi had turned a dark shade of red.

"Oh - SORRY." Terezi looked down at the caller ID - which Karkat saw read as 'Unknown'. " You two keep talking." Walking through Dave and Karkat, Terezi proceeded to leave Karkat deserted and doomed to converse without help.

"Blockbuster is.. dead?" Dave questioned, continuing on exactly where the conversation had left off. "It is now, but it was pretty late to close in Marfa."

"And you can compare your film to the Notebook?"

"I can compare how many times the Notebook has been played to how many times '4 Languages' was played in that small town, yes. Was it as good as the Notebook? It comes in just about as close as a pack of jammed sardines would be under pressure." Karkat's nose twitched with the boast. "Notebook fan?"

"NO." Karkat immediately replied. A few seconds passed filled with Karkat knowing that the new acquaintance knew that he was lying. "...yes."

"Everyone is a fan of the Notebook." Was the reply, except suddenly Dave looked at the bottle that he was holding in his hand and a moment of loss overcame him. "Oh, fuck, man, I mean-" Freudian slips. "I haven't offered you any wine - do you want some? Or anything, we didn't set up the refreshments table for nothing." With that, Dave began to turn towards the kitchen counter that was covered with alcohol, appetizers, and apple juice.

"I'll have a glass of wine."

"White or red?"

"Not red." Except Karkat had his mind elsewhere when he replied. "Why was the movie called Four Languages?"

"You see, you ask me." Dave had his back turned to Karkat, beginning to twist a wipe opener into the cork of the bottle. "Yet I'm betting hard that I won't need to judge you for not knowing - especially if you're studying psychology."

Karkat wasn't liking where this conversation was going. It was veering back to seemingly talking to a pompous piece of assshit. "Well, there's Gary Chapman's 5 Love Languages theory." The smirk on Dave's face immediately made a reappearance. "But that's five languages, not four. There's Acts of Service, Receiving Gifts, Quality Time, Physical Touch, and Words of Affirmation."

"And only one of them is difficult for people with speech impediments." Karkat watched as Dave picked up the now filled glass of wine, handing it to the only other main character in the novel present. "Cheers."