The Loneliest Corner of the Meteor

Chapter 8

"Dave? Are you awake yet?" Dave sighed out quietly as his eyes slowly fluttered open, Karkat was peeking down at the Strider. Dave just closed his eyes once more and turned to lay on his side, shaking his head.

"Nope. I'm still asleep, can't you tell?"Dave stated flatly. He could practically hear Karkat rolling his eyes. The Knight of Time opened one of his eyes and glanced up at Karkat, who was still staring down at him. Dave sighed and propped himself up on his elbow, grabbing his shades and pushing them on face. "May I help you?"

"Nope. I've just been laying here, awake for a solid three hours. Bored out of my fucking mind." Dave let out a deep sighed and rubbed his eyes. He really did want to go back to sleep. "I was thinking and...we need to talk." Karkat mumbled, tugging a pillow underneath him.

"Oh no, are you breaking up with me?" Dave asked teasingly, a smile playing on his lips. Karkat simply rolled his eyes again.

"Yeah, no. I just wanted to ask...why you're doing all of this shit...for me. You know, all the late night drunken feels jams, letting me pass out on your bed, letting me unload the cluster fuck of a mess that are my feelings on you. Why? I clearly remember you near hating me what with me always bugging you about Terezi. And basically me being an all around, award winning fuck nugget." Dave shrugged and sat up, pushing his hair back.

"I dunno...guess I can kind of relate to the shit you have going on? I mean, we hardly saw you. At first we, or more Kanaya and TZ, weren't worried. Kanaya said that you needed some time to adjust to all this or some shit. And that even before us humans made our very fashionable appearance to your humble little rock floating around in paradox space you spent more of your time on your planet. But like...since your little temper tantrum we all kind of starting getting a bit of worry. Even your ex-boyfriend started to get worried--"

"Ex-boyfriend? You mean ex-moirail."

"Same thing. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that I feel what you're going through. I mean, from the shit you've told me so far you've lived a pretty...weird as fuck life honestly. And did you know you talk in your sleep? Because you do. And you've said some pretty freaky shit. But yeah, I get what you're going through with this whole loneliness deal. I was a pretty lonesome dude back before this game happened."

"Wanna talk about it?" Karkat asked, sitting upright. Dave shook his head.

"All there is to say on the matter for the time being is that even though my Bro was around, and I had my online friends, I was constantly lonely. I had no real life friends, my Bro was almost always out, the only ones that were there to "keep me company" were his creepy ass puppets." Dave felt a small shudder run up his spine at the memory of those puppets. He always hated the, but put up his puppet loving act for his Bro.

"Hey...maybe we can talk about your feelings for once instead of mine? You know, get the shit about your guardian off your chest. He sounds like an absolute asshole, If i ever got the wonderful offer to make the suggestion that he make an acrobatic pirouette off a fucking bridge leading down to some spiked rocks or some other horrible shit like that, I would gladly take such chance." Dave grinned slightly and shook his head.

"Wouldn't we all?" He stretched, his joints popping before letting out a long, content sigh. Karkat stood up as well, still holding the pillow to his chest. He felt like he had overstayed his welcome. Besides, he didn't need anyone getting any ideas.

"Yeah, well, I don't mean to cut this short but I'm gonna go back to my gloomy respiteblock. Maybe i'll stew in my own self hate some more before serving you up some fresh "Karkat hates himself" soup." Dave nodded, slightly relieved by this yet slightly hurt as well. Karkat handed the Knight of Time his pillow back before waving a small goodbye to him and exiting his room.

Walking down the halls, Karkat felt a slight smile tug on his lips. It was nice to finally have someone to dump all his feelings to. Though he did feel a bit bad about not giving Dave a chance to unload, he'd have to somehow convince him to open up.

As Karkat formulated a plan to get Dave to open up and spill his guts about his own feelings, his legs carried him down the string of transportalizers and down to the final one. Just as he was about to make his way towards the platform, he walked straight into none other than his former moirail.

Karkat landed flat on his rear with an "oof". He looked up to get a glimpse at what he bumped into and found the purple blooded troll, clad in a imitation Bard outfit. Karkat eyed the outfit in disgust, his eyes lingering on the protruding codpiece perhaps a second too long. A small bottle rolled to Karkat's feet, filled with a rich violet liquid. It kind of reminded him of Eridan. Gamzee quickly snatched the bottle up and put it out of Karkat's view.

"Gamzee what the fuck was--" Karkat started but the Bard of Rage crouched down, pressing a cool finger to Karkat's lips and shushing him. Karkat was taken aback by this action, but what Gamzee did next infuriated him. The capricorn troll had the nerve to pap his cheek, offering him an innocent smile. The mutant blooded troll froze, what the fuck was Gamzee doing?

But, just as soon as he began papping Karkat, he stopped. Gamzee waved a small goodbye to the surprised cancer troll before lumbering down the hall, in the opposite direction of Karkat and leaving the stunned troll alone and confused.