Being Karkat Vantas: A DaveKat Fanfiction

Karkat ==> Chapter 1

You and Kanaya have been through a lot together. You love her with all of your heart and forever will be in her debt. However, that doesn't mean she has the right to drag you to the locally acclaimed 'gay bar' down the street from your cosmetology school.
Perhaps you should take a step back to get a few things straight. Firstly, you aren't going to school for cosmetology and neither is Kanaya. Beauty school would be a better term, you think. You're going to learn to be a hair dresser, though cosmetology was a close second, and Kanaya is going to school to be a fashion designer. She's really good at it, too. You have no doubt in your mind that she can make it.
You're getting a tad sidetracked, though. The point is, the two of you are sitting in a booth chatting while Kanaya scans over the selection. The place is fairly empty, a few guys at the bar and several groups of girls sitting at tables. Every once in a while, someone will walk over to someone else and try to make a move. It normally ends in one of two ways. One is that they do the walk of shame back to where they were sitting, feeling rejected. The other is that they end up walking out with the other with bedroom eyes and their wallets handy to pay for a motel room across the street.
"Can I ask what you're doing here and why I was told to join?" You ask exasperatedly, resting your chin in your hand as you give Kanaya a bored expression.
She checks her reflection in her phone, fixing her bangs and checking her teeth, "We're looking for our soul mates, Karkat."
You roll your eyes, crossing your arms over your chest and slouching back in your seat, "Oh please. You and I can do better than this place. Besides, I'm not looking."
With a sigh, she sets her phone aside and leans forward in her seat, looking you dead in the eye, "Karkat, ever since you and John broke up you've been a mess. I'm not saying I want you to hook up with someone for my sake. Just stay optimistic, alright?"
You physically flinch when she says his name. John was your boyfriend for a long time. You broke up a few months after your two year anniversary. You had told John that you were transgender and he'd accepted that with open arms, but you never told him that you never actually got your gender changed which was a huge problem and led to trust issues later on. You'd held off on sex as long as you could, but you'd left him waiting long enough. Needless to say, he found out the truth and felt betrayed that you'd never told him. Even now you don't hate him. He was never mean about it. John had said he ended it because if you couldn't even trust him with something like that after almost two and a half years that maybe it wasn't meant to be. He'd left with a small smile, a gentle goodbye kiss, and an "I love you, good luck." It wasn't messy by any means. You'd sat down with him and talked about it before deciding he had a point and, although you love him with all your heart and soul, you made a mistake and you couldn't get back that lost trust.
"For you, fine." You murmur in return, glancing around the room at the different faces. The problem is the fact that most of the guys in here are most likely gay. It wasn't that you couldn't be with another girl, it just wasn't something you'd ever tried.
You're beginning to contemplate it when the bell above the door dings, signifying the entrance of new arrivals. Your heads swivel to the door and you're greeted by two blondes. One of them is a short girl, maybe five foot four. Her hair is cut above her shoulders. She has beautiful purplish eyes. She must be an albino, you think. Sure she's pretty, but the guy with her is a much different story.
The guy is tall, lean, and muscular. He's just as pale as the girl beside him, if not more so. His face is speckled with some of the most adorable freckles you think you've ever seen. The only issue is the stupid shades restricting you from seeing his eyes. From the looks of it, the two blondes are siblings. You have four theories for them.
1.) They're both gay.
2.) She's gay and he came with her for support.
3.) He's gay and she came with him for support.
4.) They're both straight and they walked into the wrong place.
Personally, you're hoping for two or four. There is the dreaded fifth option, which is basically number four except they're not siblings and are actually a couple. Again, you're hoping for two or four.
The pair sit at a table and begin to talk. You try not to stare, but every time you glance over, you see the girl looking your way. You turn to ask Kanaya about them when you notice Kanaya's gaze is fixed on their table as well. Now you're starting to get it. She has those bedroom eyes, and they're directed at the blonde babe. No wonder she was staring. Luckily for you, that eliminates part of option three and all of option four. Thank god. The problem is that you still can't tell if the guy is gay or not.
Damn.
"Karkat dear, excuse me a moment, would you? I believe I have a nibble on the imaginary fishing line called love." She stands and walks over to their table and you stay put, observing. That didn't take long. Kanaya is a woman who takes what she wants and this blonde broad is no exception.
You watch as Kanaya says something to the girl, causing her to smile and motion for her to sit. The guy kindly stands and offers his seat, allowing her to sit before pushing in her chair. Then he turns his attention to you and your breath catches in your throat. You watch, petrified as time freezes, the only ones unaffected being the two of you. He calmly walks over with a hint of a smile on his face. Once he's standing he front of you, he speaks up in a beautiful deep voice, a bit of a southern accent toying at his words, "Is this seat taken?"
The world unfreezes and you release the breath you didn't know you'd been holding, "Yeah. Sure. Go ahead." You nod, trying to be as cool as you can.
You watch as he slides into the seat across from you, turning his gaze to Kanaya and the blonde and chuckling to himself, "Your friend seems to have taken a liking to Rose already, huh?"
"Who? Kanaya? Oh, yeah. I guess that's just how she is. She finds what she wants and takes it." You mutter in response, following his gaze.
"Am I making you uncomfortable?" he asks after a moment.
You stop and turn to look at him, finding that he was already focused on you. It made you flush as you tilted your head to the side curiously, "Why do you say that?"
"It's no secret that this is a gay bar and it's quite apparent that I'm not female. I mean I'm also not implying that I'm going to try to hit on you, but I guess it's only polite to ask ahead of time."
"Are you asking what my sexual orientation is?" You hiss in embarrassment.
He shrugs, "I guess you could say that."
"For your information 'guy I just met two minutes ago', no. I'm not gay. I came for support."
He smiles a little, a genuine smile, "You too, huh?" He holds his hand out to you, "Dave Strider."
That smile makes your heart melt. You hesitantly take his outstretched hand and shake it, "Karkat Vantas."
Dave grins, "Karkat? Very unique. Is the Vantas Spanish?" You nod a little. "You don't look it. I'm not sure what I would've guessed, but definitely not Mexican."
"My family came here from Mexico, yes. It was a few generations before me, so it's not very prominent..." You rub the back of your neck nervously.
He glances over at Kanaya and Rose flirting a few tables over and sighs to himself, looking at you with a small, mischievous grin, "It would seem as though we have some time to kill. Would you care to get to know each to each while we wait?"
You swallow thickly and force a small smile, "Of course." On the outside, you're as cool as you can be. On the inside, you're trying to figure out how to get through this without driving him away and falling on your face.
Dave leans forward, the playfulness obvious in his voice, "Let's get started then."